CedarFlags

FX as a company gives zero f**ks. Even though Scary Farm is billed as PG 13, Cedar Fair is, at its heart, a family entertainment company.

Ghostrider has been opening late this week. And a little birdie told me to expect some pe-Haunt maintenance again this year.

I agree 100% but they dont care about that...they took Deja Vu and set it up right next to a boomerang That was definitely a "wtf?" moment when I went to SFNE.

^^ That's one GP thing that I really will never understand. ^^ Why do people think that parks would be allowed to operate rides that have a significant safety risk? Especially in the United States.

I HIGHLY doubt that Six Flags corporate would even have allowed MM (one of it's flagship parks) to just completely sit out this year.

Yeah, but don't trains and seats have sensors that will prevent the train from dispatching if the restraint / harness isn't lowered far enough? Let me tell you what, I hate it when someone lowers the restraint for me. I'm a very small guy and I've been stapled on several occasions, it's not fun and it doesn't make me any more safe than if I would have lowered it myself. Some rides have that kind of sensor, but definitely not all. Plus, that sensor is designed to indicate that someone is too large to ride, not whether a restraint is fitted properly.. A smaller framed rider could lower the restraint low enough for the ride computer to call it safe, but still leave themselves enough room to not be secure.

That policy is so weird to me, as a former ride operator. We were trained to push and then pull to make sure that the restraint is close enough to the person's body to keep them securely inside. With the policy you mentioned, it's possible for a guest to not lower their restrain far enough, have the R.O. check just by tugging upward, and then have the guest get ejected from the ride. Specifically on coasters with really intense negative Gs (aka, every RMC coaster). Which seems like the opposite of what the response should have been to the incident on NTG. Lowering a bar too much will cause some discomfort (it's happened to me), but not lowering it enough can cause death.

I really wish they would sell Skeleton Key without FrightLane. I would much rather just go on a Thursday when the lines are slow anyways, and get to see the 4 extras.

It's kind of sad that nearly half of the coasters at my home park, which is a world class thrill ride park, are "skip it". Skip always: Viper, X, Revolution Skip usually: Riddler, Scream (new addition after my last visit), Apocalypse, YOLO (it's a fine ride, but not worth the line) =(

Exactly. More revenue, more budget, more awesomeness! The key rooms have been lots of trial and error. Before, when they were integrated into the maze layout, it really took you out of the maze's element. You would have to find the employee, show your key, then wait for your turn. Then they started to put the rooms in the beginning of the maze to help tell the mazes story. Was it better? Sure. Did it help with crowd control and lines? Not really... With the rooms separated from the mazes all together, it should assist with line backup, and general maze traffic. I hope it streamlines the experience, and adds to the overall haunt. Let's hope the escape rooms are better than the 2nd year of Trapped. Exactly. One of the most frequent operational complaints during Haunt was wait times for the Key Rooms. Because they were designed for small groups, to feel more intimate, the capacity for the rooms was pretty low. This would very frequently cause the guests who bought the Skeleton Key pass (which comes w/ Frightlane) to wait longer in line than guests who hadn't paid for the up charge. Now that the key rooms are standalone, those guests can better take advantage of the decrease wait times at the mazes that they paid a considerable sum for.

I was scoping out some of the props from the lift hill of Ghost Rider a couple of days ago and saw all the Paranormal Activity stuff getting loaded in. Glad that one's back as it was last year's highlight along with Tooth Fairy. Sad to see Forevermore gone though although I guess it overstayed its welcome. Is it me or do they have fewer mazes this year? Well, the new key rooms are kind of mini mazes. From a guest perspective, it will be interesting to see if it feels lacking, but from a production standpoint: each one of them requires sets, costumes, props, lights, audio, talent... it's actually a lot more work to make them standalone experiences than to have them attached to mazes.

Report for a couple days ago.... Didn't stay long cuz it was hot and busier than I expected. Superman, Batman, TC, Scream, Lex, Goliath Superman is still fantastic. Actually felt the skin on my face flapping when we came back down the tower. I miss the forward launch, but the ride experience is so much better being able to see how high off the ground you really are. Batman. Oh my GOD, I saw an employee do something super sketch and dangerous, and its hard to explain without visual reference for those who don't already know what I'm talking about... On B&M inverts, there are long metal bars in the station that lower hydraulically to unlock the restraints by applying pressure to a lever arm, and each bar unlocks two rows. Cut to the train returning to the station and unloading. Rows 1 &2 wont unlock, so the RO goes over to investigate. She jiggles harnesses a little and then looks up at the track, where the bar is. Then... as though it's a totally normal thing for her... REACHES UP AND YANKS DOWN ON THE BAR. It unsticks itself with a very loud pop, restraints come up, and then everyone proceeds to continue loading the train as if nothing happened. Nobody called Maintenance, it didn't take her longer than 3 or 4 seconds to figure out what the problem was a fix it herself. Apparently, this is just how things roll on Batman. I mean.... I rode and came back alive, so maybe she knows what's up, but still. That bar lowers with enough force to easily break bones, she could have seriously injured herself, and that's on top of the whole "what else does maintenance not care about on this ride?" aspect. TC. Still great, but still have NEVER raced on green side. The blue side managed to totally catch up with us on the lift, but it slowed to crawl speed at the top and green side disengaged from the lift about a second before blue did, so blue spent the whole course about 10 feet behind green's last car. Seriously, the timing on this is so infuriating. The crew was hustling to make the trains race, but the ride itself can't tell when the trains are actually lined up. There needs to be some extra sensors or something, cuz it's ridiculous. In the 14 times I've been on TC, I've never had a race on Green track, and have only had two on Blue track. Scream. Jesus, what happened to this ride? I actually had a headache when I got off. Used to be glass smooth, now it's like riding on gravel. Lex. Always a blast and a half. Single rider line is the best. Got some good tower sway from Superman when we were at the top. Goliath. Still super smooth, but the more coasters I go on, the more disappointed I am in Goliath. 255 foot drop that's a total snooze, and basically one moment of airtime on the whole ride. Helix still packs a hell of a punch.

Agreed. It's kind of an odd ball that doesn't really belong in GhostTown or Fiesta, though it goes through both. But the cobra roll at the main gate is spectacular.

The justice league characters will never be irrelevant (Batman and Superman are American icons), and the interactive aspect of the ride will help keep people coming back. I would love to see a solid dark ride at SFMM. My biggest dream is a terrain giga through the hills in back, but I know it's just a dream.

In the past, Ghostider has gotten some maintenance time in the weeks leading up to haunt, but it's hard to say how it's going to run now post-renovation. But, GhostTown Alive continues through Sept 5th, so I doubt GR would be down until after then.

Imo, that Day/Night combo pass is a pretty good deal. If you go on Thursday, Friday, or Sunday, the park will be pretty slow during the day and you'll still be able to do pretty much everything worth doing. Also, I imagine that the process for re-entering will be much quicker than for those showing up just for HHN.

...huh? Meaning that instead of experiencing zero-g's at the peak of a hill, riders experience negative-g's, practically throwing them out of their seat. Being the result of going over a hill at higher speeds, instead of floating in your seat, you are thrown against the lapbar. Many RMC coasters implement it, as well as B&M hyper and giga coasters. It is most noticeable during the latter half of GhostRider, after the former MCBR. We all know what ejector air is, it's just that you're literally the only person to use that phrase to describe GhostRider's renovation. I'm assuming that you're comparing new GR's airtime to post-2010 GR (when they started actually using the midcourse brakes), because the airtime on 2016 GR is extremely gentle compared to what it once was. In my opinion, the ride has no ejector air anymore (with the exception of the drop after the midcourse, but only if you're in the last 4 or 5 rows).

It's available any time of the year, why would you invest your time at FJ instead of trying to hit all the mazes?

Yeah... I'm aware. Worlds of Fun is doing 7 Skeleton Key rooms (each one new for 2016), so why is the industry leader doing 4? Since they're not just additional rooms added to existing mazes, there's significantly more work that goes into each one. WoF is doing 7 mazes, and giving each one an extra room. Knott's is doing (best guess) 7 or 8 mazes, PLUS 4 additional add-on experiences that each need their own unique costumes, props, lighting, audio, etc... plus they have to create space for them as well.

Tbh, I feel you. I can ride coasters all day long, but Universal style rides make me SO NAUSEOUS. After getting off Forbidden Journey, I was so woozy that I could barely walk down the stairs off the exit platform.

Several RMC refurbs have been announced in two stages, I have a pretty strong feeling that this is going to be the newest. Closing day announcement and big event, then the announcement of what's happening to it comes a month or two later. There's a chance it could be a GCI re-track, but based on how new Ghostrider turned out, I don't think it would be exciting enough to fit in at Cedar Point. it would be pretty fitting for Cedar Fair to finally get on board the RMC train at its flagship park first.

No, that's Key Club Day a.k.a. Fall Rally South. (11/12 this year - http://www.cnhkeyclub.org/events/fall-rally) But how busy this day is shouldn't matter to us at all, because between morning ERT and evening Buyout/ERT, we should have plenty of time to ourselves. Omg... I made the horrific mistake of going on Key Club Day last year. I'm still scarred.

Did anyone else catch The Killing Joke? Having only a very cursory knowledge of the source material, I thought the movie was okay, but the story telling wasn't great. The first 30 minutes of the movie exists only to establish Bruce Wayne and Barbara Gordon's complicated relationship/feelings for each other... which could have been effectively established in about 10 minutes. Seriously, it takes over half an hour for the actual story of The Killing Joke to start. The overall pacing was very odd. Some relatively minor scenes (from a plot moving perspective) went on for longer than they needed to, and some really major moments happened way too quickly for my taste. The actual moment of Joker's psychotic breakdown, that the whole thing has really been building up to, happens in the blink of an eye and has basically no weight to it. He just appears and is crazy and that's it. The ending is really anti climactic, but (I think) for a purpose. It seems, in their reverence for the comic, the film makers forgot that they had the opportunity to fill in the gaps between the panels and make a real MOVIE. Kevin Conroy is still great, and I think this is Mark Hamill's best Joker voice work, but Mask of the Phantasm was a WAY better movie overall.

Just got home from Ghostbusters. What a DELIGHT!

Also: Pony is back open again as of yesterday.