CedarFlags

I'm trying to visit with a friend next week, and the earliest reservation time available for a season pass is 12:45pm. But when I looked under single day ticket, the earliest is 10:30a. If the reservations are to promote distancing and spread out crowds by limiting the number of people who are in one place, why does it matter what kind of ticket you have?

I was at Taste of Boysenberry this weekend and caught a rare sight.... the unique under-the-station storage track on Sierra Sidewinder was in the up position. Snapped a quick pic as I was walking by.

Hey Squirrel Friends I had to idea to create a theme park for Rupaul's Drag Race and I jotted down some ideas, but I'm looking for more. Ideally, I would end up making something in Planet Coaster. RIDES/ATTRACTIONS: Bob's Suspiciously Large Coaster (hyper/giga) Hurricane Bianca (spinning flat ride) Death Drop (drop tower) Sharon's House of Haunt (dark ride) Willam's Boatdown (shoot the chute) Jinx's Monsoon (rapids) Trixie's Dollhouse (walk thru funhouse) She Done Already Had Horses (carousel) Shut Up and Drive (Alyssa / Tati go karts) Cynthia Lee's Chair Lift (pronounced shair, obviously) Roxxxy Bus (parking lot tram) FOOD / SHOPS Meat & Greet BBQ (waiters are the Pit Crew) Jesus is a Biscuit (southern food) Tea, Shade, Pink Lemonade (patio with drinks) Dela's Delights (candy store) Raja's Beauty School (drag makeovers) Shady Lady (hats & sunglasses) Purse First (backpacks, purses, etc) Read U, Wrote U (books)

Great news, LA and OC will both be moving down into Orange Tier next week. And since it looks like vaccinations are going to be kicking into high gear during the month of April, hopefully we'll see Yellow tier during the early summer.

It kind of makes sense for Six Flags to open up first... The park's physical capacity is massive, so even with the capacity restriction, that could still be quite a few guests. This time of year is traditionally slow for the park anyways, so that 15% capacity isn't far off from a standard springtime weekday. The Six Flags business model has pretty consistently relied more on in-park spending vs admissions as a revenue source. I'm sure that reduced ride capacities due to physical distancing will drive up FlashPass spending. Everything is outdoors and nobody goes to the park expecting anything but coasters. Disney and Universal have to figure out indoor attractions plus characters / entertainment. Also, just generic good news: LA County is just barely outside of qualifying for Orange Tier (4.1 case rate, needs to be 3.9). So I expect we'll probably get there in a few weeks.

In the USA, I'd say.... SF Magic Mountain, Cedar Point, SF Great Adventure are going to be your top 3 heavy hitters. Very low on wood coasters is the only thing (though you do get El Toro, which is one of the very best).. However: if you wanted to do one trip with multiple parks, there are a few double / triple headers that will give you a lot of bang for your buck... King's Island / Cedar Point / Kennywood (fly into Cincinnati, fly home from Pittsburgh) Holiday World / Kentucky Kingdom / King's Island (fly into Louisville, fly home from Cincinnati) Dorney Park, / Knobels / Hersheypark (fly into/out of Philly) SF Great Adventure / Hersheypark (fly into/out of Philly) SF Magic Mountain / Knott's Berry Farm (take your pick of airports, honestly) Universal Orlando / Sea World / Busch Gardens Tampa (technically a quad)

Another Kennywood Thunderbolt post... It's so weird and I definitely did not experience the kind of forces that made it feel necessary. The laterals on the helix of Ghostrider felt stronger.

In my experience, $25 does not buy you that much food in a theme park... lol.

Seventy Five dollars...

I missed out on getting a night ride on The Beast because it started raining. I was driving up to Cedar Point the next day, so I didn't want to stay another full day at KI and do a 4 hour drive in the middle of the night just for one single ride. (small regret) When I visited IOA for the one and only time, I almost walked back to Dragon Challenge for another ride before I left, but I decided to give my body a break. I still rode it 3 or 4 times that day, but if I had known it would be gone forever, I definitely would have done one more on the red side.

I'll admit, I was not much of an entertainment park guest until the last couple years, but I've come to believe it's important to the overall park experience. People need something to do besides wait in line and some way to form memories with other people instead of just machines. But you're right though. That's just not something that current era Six Flags is interested in. Which is such a shame, because they've got really quality IP available in both D.C. and Looney Tunes that could make for a gold mine of entertainment. And Magic Mountain is capable of it.... the Batman shows were cheesy but exciting, and had great production value.

And then Desperado opened at Buffalo Bill's and was recognized by Guinness World Records as the tallest even though it was 4 feet shorter than Big One and tied with Steel Phantom for drop height. So much drama.... Although, by Blackpool's measuring standards, Desperado is actually about 2,800 ft tall.

I wish they could bring back the Batman stunt shows. They were so cheesy but SO FUN. Plus, the park is desperately low on live entertainment and things to do beside wait in line for coasters.

So we've all seen how creative parks sometimes get with their marketing of new attractions, especially when it comes to milking incredibly niche World Records. What are some of your favorite weird records that parks have advertised, or what are some records you can think of on your own? Fury 325 as the World's Tallest Giga is what really sent me... Also, I'm pretty sure that Six Flags Magic Mountain is the only theme park in the world with two different mobius loop coasters. That could be something.

Shut down the week of Boysenberry Festival last year, so I'm glad to finally get back to it! $45 seems a little steep compared to the prices we've seen before ($35 for Halloween was a great deal, considering how much there was to see). But hey... they gotta find a way to make some money.

Oh my gosh, this is fabulous. I don't usually have the patience for such involved theming. Haha

A lot of rides have great first drops and then lose their speed / forces after the midcourse. What are your favorite coasters that you think get more intense / exciting toward the end?

Considering that the OC Sheriff has publicly stated multiple times that he will not be directing his department to enforce any COVID related regulations, and the head of the OC Health Department refused to issue a mask mandate until being superseded by the state, I'm gonna go ahead and call BS on that idea that they're even close to the toughest.

Water World at Universal, hands down. In only about 20 minutes, this show accomplishes so much and it's always a thrill. Tied for 2nd place are: Mystery Lodge at KBF, and Poseidon's Fury at IOA.

Seen a couple of nights so far.... Overall, there's a lot of good stuff happening. I definitely noticed a difference from first weekend to second weekend, like maybe they weren't quite done by Opening Day. Lots of stuff seemed more finished/polished on week 2. I think this is a great year to get the season pass, because there is so much to see if you have time to wander and explore. Lots of Easter Egg moments scattered around the park, and finally the return of more live shows! MAZES: Depths - Incredible design and construction, but the staffing was terrible the two times I went through. There were like two people in the whole front half of the maze. Also, the cast was very hit and miss on scares. There was a lot of just standing around and posturing, but the laser fog room is super cool and I got a good scare in there. I kind of missed the idea of how we went from surface to depths... we walked through a tunnel I guess? The Kraken room and the tilting ship were also spectacular. A very big time special effect for Knott's to put in a maze. Dark Entities - Really fabulous, I'd say best maze of the year for me. The story was very clearly told going from room to room and there was a good mix of talent who were acting out the story and talent who were scaring. I got a couple good jumps in here, even on my second trip through. It's hard to compare the build to Depths, because the story line is more disastrous... things are supposed to be looking worse for wear. Not as many big visual moments, but once again... in a space ship, things are naturally going to be more confined. Shadowlands - For being an older maze now, I was really impressed with the energy level of the cast. They were really on their game in just about every room and I had a great time walking through. The suicide forest scene has always rubbed me the wrong way, and it's even more explicit this year, so I'm not stoked about that. Pumpkin Eater - Still very visceral and gross feeling, which isn't totally my favorite, but I fully respect. There's gotta be a gross / gory maze. Some decent scares, especially among the cornstalks. Paranormal - The new finale area was interesting, but I didn't quite follow the story of how we got there. The staffing was really bad when I walked through, I didn't see a single actor on the entire right side track, until the two halves joined back together. All that being said, I still think this maze is an absolute masterpiece. Dark Ride - still an impressive build, but also really lacking on staffing. There were 5 or 6 people in the last room, and yet we walked through the whole first half of the maze seeing only 2 or 3 actors total. I know that not every position is interchangeable with rooms, but they can do better. SHOWS: Hacks in the Schulz Theater is a noble experiment in improv comedy. However, I think it relies too heavily on the audience volunteers. When I saw the show, a couple sketches were hilarious, but a couple sketches bombed really hard because the audience members were duds. Also, very weird to see them go from a huge production like last year's Elvira show to something so scaled down. But, if it means that we finally get more than two live Entertainment options for the night, then I'll still take it. The Hanging - I know it sounds cliche to say "the Hanging is so bad this year", but like... it is. From the central theme of the story, it sounds like last year's show got the park into some trouble and they are very overtly thumbing their nose at it. I love that rebellious spirit, but... nothing is funny. They don't make fun of anything this year, just reference things. The fighting was really sloppy on opening weekend, but seems to have tightened up after a few days. Also **spoiler alert** I find it astounding (dare I say, hypocritical) of Knott's to choose Logan Paul as this year's Hanging victim. His downfall was using the image of hanging bodies in the Aokigahara suicide forest as content for his entertainment business, which is exactly what Knott's has been doing in Shadowlands since 2016. And that scene in the maze got re-designed this year and is even more graphic than it used to be. Conjurers - I gotta say, I am LOVING this renaissance of the Birdcage Theater. First the introduction of the Boysenberry melodrama, then the beautiful clean up that was done for the Peanuts Sketch School, and now a Haunt show. And this kind of production is the perfect fit for the theater. Having different acts during the run is a neat idea, but it seems like Chipper Lowell is their main guy. Dana Daniels was hysterical during the first weekend, and Taylor Hughes has got some cool moments in his show this weekend as well. A very welcome chance to sit down for a while, and really a lot of fun. Awaken The Dead - Dance parties aren't really my thing, but I saw a lot of other folks really enjoying themselves. I like that they gave the DJ some dancers this year. Makes it seem like more of a production. EXTRAS: Wicker Man is back in Camp Snoopy. This was a highlight for me last year, and I'm so glad it's returning. There are (i think) 5 different scenes that play out during the night inside The Hollow zone, and the big finale happens at midnight where they burn the Wicker Man looming over the waterfall. It's very cool that they incorporated this story and show into the zone's existing characters and story. Saloon Balcony Show - Tbh, this was one of the highlights of the night. There's isn't a published name for it, but there's a bitchin little show that happens outside the balcony of the Saloon with 4 dancers doing a routine. Once again, it's an Easter Egg, so there are no times in the map... but I definitely saw it happening after first and last Hanging shows, and they were different songs each time. Definitely check this one out. Forsaken Funeral - This got teased in announcements, but also isn't in the map. It seems like their goal was to bring the promo video to life for Forsaken Lake. There isn't a whole lot there story-wise (they walk in with a coffin, but then they raise someone from the dead??), but it's still another clever way of creating a moment out of the zone's existing characters and lore.

Had a really fun time visiting this year, after taking a couple years off. Was so glad to see them finally get rid of that Toy maze, it was not great. Sewer of Souls was fabulous. Very clever and well built. Willoughby's remains a favorite, and the talent was working hard at scaring. Would like to see them update a couple of the rooms going forward. Red's still looks great, but the cast was not really in it to win it. Condemned was an interesting concept, and I liked parts of it, but there was no audio when I went through. Not sure if it was a glitch or they just didn't have a soundtrack, but it was weird. I wasn't super impressed with Hellfest, since it was just a re purposing of Vault 666. However, my friend who had never seen Vault said that it was his favorite of the night. The room with the hooded figure dummies & actor was effective though... heckin spooky.

I've never heard fright lane or fast lane selling out

I know it's not realistic, but... I would love to see Green Lantern go away and get replaced by a S&S Freefly instead.... if only the park had waited like 3 more years. Flashback was an extremely weird coaster that I think I only rode one time. It was an awkward, but necessary transitional step in the design history of Intamin/B&M

GhostRider's capacity got destroyed with the renovation. The trains lost some seats, and the final brake run adds literally 20 seconds to the end of the ride. I can't believe it's been running for a whole year and they haven't fixed the programming on that section. Other factors... removing the block brake above the station means that they can't dispatch until the train on the course gets to the helix. The cubbies are also really small, so the are constantly guests getting in each other's way to try and get stuff / put it away. The cubbie situation probably adds a solid 20-30 seconds to the dispatch times. Just wait till you experience actual 1 train... it is HELL.

Forgot to mention it (since I didn't ride), but TC was not doing great either. They were only running 2 trains, even with a line in the station. I waited for a little bit, then realized it was going to be about 30 minutes and decided to bail. I thought TC was always supposed to run 3 trains? Especially surprising on a weekend day during the summer.