coneyislandchris

The kids have been eagerly watching the footage that's been popping up on Youtube and wherever, and they're both very excited to go, but given the state of things we aren't buying any tickets just yet. The earliest I see us getting out there is sometime in December, and even that's questionable depending on whether or not the water park is up and running, all the rides at Nickelodeon Universe are up and running, and we can get some solid, concrete information on what rides are available at what height restrictions.

Those "one ride per" rides that are listed are only specifically for the version of Timesaver that gives you ten rides in total. The unlimited has always been fully unlimited every single time I've visited.

I'm not so sure that would happen, given that in San Antonio, the two parks are side by side, while the Aquatica in San Diego is about twenty miles from their SeaWorld. But it's a possibility.

Not gonna lie, the quality of those photos has got me looking into upgrading my phone to one of those. Damn, they're beautiful.

^ "Hmm, we could stay open past 4 in the afternoon... ooh looks like sorry, computer says no."

Yeah, as long as you go in with that kind of positive mindset, I'm sure you'll have a better time than most. Have fun! Oh, one thing I forgot to mention. A couple of the haunts were open during the daytime, just without the monsters roaming about. My youngest one loved "Zombie Jr. High School" as they called it. It's definitely something different to do and those walkthroughs never really pulled any sort of a line, so if you're looking for something to do, might wanna check those out!

We were there on the 28th and 29th of last month. We knew Saturday was going to be slammed so we pretty much decided that, since it was my wife & daughter's first time visiting Cedar Point, that would be the day to just walk around, take in the park, get food, check out the attractions, do some walking on the boardwalk, and once night dropped grab some Fright Lanes and hit the haunts. We got there around 11 AM, the drive in wasn't absolutely horrible at that point and we parked within 10 minutes of hitting the causeway. Our gameplan worked out well and we had a great day even with the crowds. Literally the only coaster we did all day was one night ride on Wicked Twister, which by 11 PM was a walk-on. Sunday, we had planned to pick up our free Fast Lane Plus wristbands for renewing our platinum passes, and hit up as many of the coasters and rides as possible. We got there just in time for early entry, and while my wife and daughter made their way over to Camp Snoopy, immediately my son and I beelined to the back to try and hit up Steel Vengeance before they started letting in the gold pass holders. By the time we made it from the front gate all the way back (maybe about 25 minutes after), the line was stretching out into the middle of Frontiertown. Turns out that not only was SV not open yet, they hadn't even sent any test trains. We walked over to Maverick, which was cycling trains but not opening the line. The line for early entry was around the corner nearly back to the Fast Lane entrance. By the time they opened it, it was 10:45 and the line was slow moving. We decided to just wait it out until 11 at the Fast Lane entrance. Well, about five minutes into them sending trains, they announced Maverick was going down, and people started pouring out the Fast Lane entrance grumbling. We hightailed it over to Skyhawk which were the only two rides we got in during early entry. That's just the way it goes with this park sometimes. Eventually, later in the day, both Mav & SV came back up and we were able to get rides on them. The Fast Lanes were definitely lifesavers. The longest we ended up waiting all day (for a ride that was actually up) was a half hour for Steel Vengeance (the posted FL wait was at an hour, but it went by much faster than that). It would have probably been quicker than that if the lady in front of us didn't pitch a shit fit about having to take off her fanny pack which she had turned around and tried to hide on her back through the metal detectors, Hunchback of Notre Dame style. I can't even. Other than that, Millennium Force was about 15 minutes, Maverick about 20 minutes, Valravn and Gemini were walk-ons, Top Thrill was a whopping five minute wait, Rougarou was maybe 10 minutes. Raptor... Raptor went down for technical issues around 6:00, but it was the last ride that my son had yet to do, so we decided to wait it out. They cycled off trains and brought the one from storage out onto the track, and about a half hour later, the crew opened up the gates for us and the other dozen or so people that decided to wait it out. Spoiler alert: my son loved it, just like he does all B&M inverts so far. Gatekeeper was down for most of the day and we never ended up getting on it this visit. It looked like one train was stopped on the midcourse, and the other was stopped at the top of the lift. Overall we had a great pair of days, but judging from the looks on all the people trapped in the non-FL lines (and they were extensive), if you didn't have a Fast Lane pass, you weren't having a good time at all. It was definitely much more crowded than last year's last Sunday of September, that's for sure. I can't imagine it's going to get any less crowded the closer you get to Halloween.

I think you underestimate the market and how many people there are in the area that would be willing to pay that price. I wouldn't be surprised if it ends up being even more than that once they transition out of previews. I wouldn't take that as a hard fact of what and what will not be open. I still find it amazing that they don't have a legit website for the park set up as of yet. "Over 35 rides" -- yeah, but what are they? And what are the height requirements for said rides? With one of my kids clocking in at 44", until I can find that out, I'm a little hesitant to pull the trigger on any tickets for the place. More than likely I won't even be in town on opening weekend so it's kind of a moot point, but if my plans for that weekend look like they're going to get rained out, I might pop over with the family and check it out. I'm really waiting for the waterpark to open up as well and make it a two-fer if I'm going to drive through that mess.

Shame. I hope they manage to get the issues ironed out and get it back up and running quickly. Just watched Robb's video the other night and it looks like a fantastic sky ride.

Took the words right out of my mouth. I don't think Great White is that rough of a woodie but if they're looking into making it even better who am I to complain? And if there's even more coming like they're alluding to, I can't wait!

I was noticing that yesterday. I think something must be wrong with their website right now because a lot of rides that are currently on Fast Lane don't have those symbols. Avalanche, Dominator, Delirium, Bad Apple, Blue Ridge Tollway, Dodgem, Flying Eagles, and Wave Swinger are all missing the logo, but you can see that they're still included on the Fast Lane page. I wouldn't worry about it too much. As Mike said, the shop page where you can buy the Winterfest Fast Lane clearly lists the 8 attractions that it'd be valid for. I was at last year's event and literally no rides held any sort of lines. Most people were doing the shows or the special attractions like ice skating. I can't imagine that the line for Twisted Timbers would get so bad during this event that you'd need a Fast Lane, but, at the same time, it IS only $35. Might be worth it just for peace of mind.

Wow, a B&M hyper being a smash hit with parkgoers? Don't make too bold of a prediction there or anything.

Agreed, great report Taylor! Echoes a lot of our own experiences from the weekend. My only complaint is even with the whole weekend from Friday night onward it still felt like there just wasn't enough time to experience everything that we wanted to do. We never got a chance to spend some time in the Fascination parlor, for example, and we didn't get a chance to check out the Scenic Skyway or train rides either. Guess this just means we need to go back again real soon!

Wife update! (For anyone still following this saga of my wife who's afraid of coasters/heights, that is.) This past weekend at this year's Phunfest, she finally bucked up and went for her first ride on Phoenix (or, as my daughter has taken to calling it as of late, "the trampoline coaster"). Managed to talk her into it by telling her the drop was only 2 feet higher than Jack Rabbit's at Kennywood, which she did last weekend. Super happy to finally get all four of us on at the same time! She denies making any noise whatsoever, but she let out yelps over every last hump in that airtime buffet. It was a great weekend, and I'm sure everyone else who was there will put up full reports with pics at some point. But honestly, it's Knoebels. What more needs to be said?

I'll be there this weekend with my family; I'll be sure to let you know. We're going on both Saturday and Sunday. Planning on taking it easy on Saturday during the daytime, doing the haunts on Saturday evening, then using Sunday to pick up our free Fast Lane Plus bracelets for renewing our platinum passes and cranking out the rides. Fingers crossed.

Sorry to quote a months-old post in this thread, but you might be interested to hear that the day you're dreaming of is today.

^ Just to confirm, Theme Park Review is listed as one of the approved enthusiast groups on the drop-down menu when you go to register for the Phunfest event on their website.

^ I don't recall any knee-smashing taking place, but it definitely felt to be the roughest of the bobsled coasters I've ridden (the others being at Kings Dominion, Knoebels, and Great Escape).

Goddamn those are some great shots! I'll be sure to pass the news about the relaxed camera policy along to my wife. She's one of the ones that got turned away with her DSLR during a previous Holiday In The Park due to overenthusiastic security.

You absolutely catch back up to the seat. It's when your ass slams back down on the seat with the fury of a thousand suns as soon as reach the ground. This thing has bruised my tailbone more than once. Funny thing is, I never seem to learn my lesson! Mental note: next time I visit Knoebels, bring a bag of Chex Mix for the Flyer op. Great photos and writeup as always, Canobie! Making me more and more anxious to get out there again soon.

Iron Gwazi looks fantastic, haters complaining about the name are dumb, and I can't wait to get back to BGT to ride this beast (and take the kids, this time!). Asking the question since it seems to have been glossed over... the new waterslide? Solar Vortex? What exactly is a "dual tailspin" waterslide? Anyone know? Even the official site doesn't seem to have much info.

If anything I'll just end up going on a Sunday anyway. Yes, they're not open as late, but when we went the last Sunday of September, the park was pretty much dead all day. We cashed in our free Fast Lane Plus wristbands from renewing but on everything except SV and MF they were completely unnecessary. Hoping we end up with the same sort of luck this year when/if we end up making the trip back out.

I believe it's the same one as at Kennywood, which is basically just a short edit of the 2009 remake plus some extra effects.

Don't do it, Zach. You already get exposed to enough of the worst of humanity with your job. Don't go actively looking for it on Twitter. It's a cesspool.

With the new log flume coming next year, Luna Park has announced today that the last day of operation for their current flume, Wild River, will be on Sunday, September 8th. Not surprised to see this happen, absolutely no need for multiple flumes at the park, and to be quite honest, the existing one wasn't all that great anyway.