coneyislandchris

Endeavors are awesome rides. This will be another great addition to the park. From the renderings it appears it's going to take the spot formerly occupied by Kryptonite Kollider / Joker's Wildcard. Not too surprised that's going away, I mean, it makes sense now that Cyborg's opened up... there isn't really a need for two Trabant-like rides. (Well, I guess there isn't a need for two boomerangs or two pendulums either, but let's take one step at a time.)

Great addition to this park for sure.

I can't tell from those renderings, and my vague memory of the layout of this park... Is this ride replacing anything they currently have? Looks super cool, either way!

^^^ I'm all about them potato cakes. Must-eat for me every time I'm there. They moved the stand this year so now you can get them right on the main midway section.

This is even better than I expected or could have hoped for. Looks like I'm gonna be hitting up Great Adventure a lot more next season than I have this year. Boldy, the press release on the website says it will be four trains. I can't wait to ride this thing in the last row.

Was very happy to see that Copperhead Strike was back up and running in quick order over the weekend. It ended up being my son's 200th coaster, and his brand new favorite coaster of all time, dethroning Twisted Timbers. (Yes, he rode Fury. Yes, he still ranked CS higher. I'm not gonna argue with his subjective logic!) Hair-raisingly fun! I might write up a whole trip report at some point in the future, but suffice it to say, it was a great weekend down in Virginia and the Carolinas. Even though the rain never really let up on Saturday, we made up for it by spending the majority of the day at a nearby Great Wolf Lodge and splashing the day away, then getting some hibachi Japanese for dinner. Sunday, the weather was perfect, and we managed to hit every single thing in the park, most multiple times. Shout out to the Fury 325 crew that was cranking out trains all day long and let us have a three-ride re-ride at the end of the night. Last thing to note: the Mountain Gliders? LEGIT. Easiest snapping I've had at any park not located in the woody hills of Elysburg, PA. My son was getting huge swings by himself, and my daughter and I managed to get some massive bounces out of it. I didn't get a chance to do them on my first trip down there, but we're gonna make a point to hit them every time we visit from now on, and strongly urge all y'all to do the same.

I am honestly completely lost with all the clues and I have no idea what it could or couldn't be. All I know is I'm looking forward to the announcements this year!

^After several years of riding 305, I had my first grey-out on it this weekend as well. The major difference between the past and now is for the first time I'm taking blood pressure medication. I'm guessing that probably had something to do with it. Still a great ride though!

Fury 325, three times in a row with my son, just as the park was closing on Sunday night. I love this coaster more and more with each ride.

Just want to wish them all good luck in succeeding with this project. It's insanely ambitious.

^ Yeah, that's not gonna happen. Changing topics quickly because that doesn't really require further discussion, does anyone know when Dollywood's 2020 season passes will go on sale? We skipped picking them up last year, but are probably going to do so this season so we can visit this Christmas and next, and since everyone in the family is into waterparks, we'll probably shell out extra for the super passes so we can come down in the summertime as well.

Yeah, these photos are not doing a great job of making me ANY less excited to get back to Carowinds this weekend for the first time in two and a half years. Great shots, especially that rainbow pic! Amazing. The forecast is looking a little rainy this weekend, scattered showers throughout the two days we'll be there. How are they on closures down there? We're staying at the Comfort Inn right next door so I mean, worst case scenario, we can always hide out in our room for a while and come back to the park if they open up again later on... just wanna make sure they don't pull a Six Flags Great Adventure on us and close at 3 if there's rain going on earlier in the day.

They just opened the second round of naming (this time for the new log flume), and the rendering makes it appear that the log flume and new coaster will be intertwined. It looks like it's going to be a mild family-friendly coaster, no great surprise there. Renderings from the Luna Park FB page

^^^^ Oh look it's that guy who has an unreasonable amount of hatred for everything B&M again. Glad I'm not that guy. Glad I'm not so jaded that I can't enjoy a 300 foot tall coaster because it's made by the "wrong" company. ^ I personally think it's pointless to rank stuff before you've even had a chance to ride it but you do you, man. Can't wait for Orion!

Tickets for their Phantom Fright Nights event were $30 last year. They haven't yet announced pricing for this year. Most of the major rides will be open for Phantom Fright Nights, with a few exceptions for areas that are closed because they've turned them into scare zones. This is what was open last year (from their website and *memory): Aero 360 Black Widow Bayern Kurve Cosmic Chaos Exterminator Ghostwood Estate Gran Prix Jack Rabbit Kangaroo Musik Express Noah's Ark Paratrooper Phantom's Revenge Pirate Racer Skycoaster Swing Shot Thunderbolt* Volcano Wave Swinger* I would expect Steel Curtain to be open for the event as well, barring any more technical difficulties cropping up. Same for Sky Rocket, which was down for a good chunk of the year last season -- if it can avoid blowing itself up again, you should be good.

We were down in Wildwood this past weekend and got to ride the new addition a couple of times. It still has that new coaster smell. Crazy smooth and comfortable. My daughter got on Flitzer for the first and only time last year, and she loved it back then, so I had to ask her, "which one do you like more, Flitzer or Runaway Tram?" She didn't even hesitate and screamed "RUNAWAY TRAAAAAMMMMM." It's definitely a different experience but IMO it fits that good family coaster void left behind perfectly. Oh yeah, and we talked her into doing her first Skycoaster. That was ridiculously easy. "Hey sweetie, do you want to FLY?" "YEAH I WANNA FLY!!!" Zero fear from her throughout the entire process. Now she wants to do it every single time she sees one. I may have inadvertently created a four-year-old monster. Other than that, we spent the majority of our time down at the shore at Morey's two awesome water parks. They're both fantastic, they cram a lot of stuff into not a huge amount of space, they're very family friendly and let the kids do almost everything that the grownups could (as long as there were lifejackets involved, of course). We're definitely going to be spending some time here as much as we can. On the other hand, we had got discount Splash Zone tickets... that's the budget waterpark across from Mariner's. Less said about that one the better. Probably won't ever set foot in there again. Last thing... if you're hungry, go to Joe's Fish Co on Surfside, and get a table upstairs with a view of the pier. Damn good food and a chill atmosphere makes it a great place to relax and recharge. Can't believe it took me this long to do that but it's another must-do for us every time we come down from now on. Missing those Wildwood vibes already. Plenty of people queueing up for the Tram late on a Sunday night. They've got a winner on their hands for sure.

We finally made our first trip of the season to the park yesterday on our way back from an awesome weekend down in Wildwood. Was way more crowded for a Monday than I had expected, but manageable. The kiddo finally measured* up at 54" and he managed to get all the remaining major coasters here under his belt. He actually enjoyed Green Lantern. I may have to disown him. The actual shocker though was that out of all the six 54" rides, his favorite was Superman: Ultimate Flight. He loved the sensation of flying (and it was a huge upgrade from the only other flying coaster he's done, that shitty Volare death trap that's at Rye Playland). He said the pretzel loop made him sick. "Like, you need to throw up sick?" No, just making his stomach feel funny. "Yeah, it'll do that to ya, buddy." High point of the day? The literal high point of the park, top of Kingda Ka with the kiddo, as we got buzzed by a low flying commercial airliner. Getting launched up and seeing that thing pass over you super close was probably the coolest experience I've ever had on Ka and definitely made one hell of a memory for him. Next best thing? Wonder Woman. I've rode a bunch of these Zamperla pendulums at this point but this might just be my favorite. The height and speed this thing gets is absolutely insane. It's gonna be a must-ride every single time for me. Meanwhile, as we were getting thrown back and forth on that, we unfortunately saw riders stopped in mid-air on Cyborg Cyber Spin. Yeah, we skipped that one. We were in a hurry and didn't want to wait in line at ride access to get him measured up for a wristband, and that came back to bite us in the ass at both Twister and Nitro, where the height measurement sticks didn't match up with anything else throughout the day. Literally zero problems at any of the other major coasters, yet at Twister and Nitro, instead of bonking him on the head, it swished through his hair. We skipped Twister. Fought for Nitro, and got a good measurement using the stick at the ride exit instead of at the airgates, and thankfully a supervisor saw reason and let us on. Too bad we got the shaky train, he didn't end up liking it nearly as much as I had hyped it up for him. Oh well. Overall though, with it being our first trip of the year, I'm not really in any hurry to get back. Honestly at this point the entire Six Flags experience is just kind of sour after going to more Cedar Fair parks and independent places like Knoebels and Morey's Piers. I'm sure I'll be back for Holiday in the Park, even though half of the park is closed it still feels like it's got more magic left in it, as opposed to a humid 90 degree day where we're just sweating around from ride to ride.

I have noticed too that SFOG is the only park (I am aware of) that goes to such great lengths to require riders to make arrangements for loose articles other than drink bottles. Ride ops will hold up the entire train dispatch to wait for a rider to claim a ball cap left harmlessly on top of their drink cup. Of course loose articles can be left with a non-rider but the money grab hope is you will pay for "personal storage" - and the park is willing to foster bad will to achieve that extra revenue. Again, this seems unique to this park. When I travel with my friends to other SF parks, this is a non-issue. Great Adventure is worse, trust me. Looking for any sort of consistency in their implementation of rules and procedures, either throughout the chain, or from park to park, or even from ride to ride... it's a lost cause. Case in point, from my visit to Great Adventure yesterday, most rides now have the "no loose articles of any sort" signs posted up. It's completely up to the employees' discretion though on whether or not they let you through with anything. Obviously at the big ones like El Toro and Kingda Ka, you won't get past the entrance without practically turning your pockets inside out. Meanwhile, at the Dark Knight coaster, even though they have the same signage and spiel, and there's a bay of lockers right outside the entrance, it makes no difference and they'll pretty much just wave you through. Then people end up leaving all their bags, stuffed animals, and drinks on the tiny platform next to the exit. Don't even get me started on the height measurement sticks which vary from stick to stick. My son is right on the 54" mark, and most rides he got measured at, he got bonked in the top of the head. Two of them, he whiffed it by a quarter to a half of an inch. At Nitro? Two different sticks, two completely different measurements. Go figure. Thankfully they came to their senses and let him on. I'd love there to be more consistency within the chain for their policies but honestly at this point it's just a fool's game.

^ Yes, last year they were loading four. It was apparently changed sometime prior to the start of the 2019 summer season, my wife and kids were planning on all riding together in one raft this year but we had to split into two separate rafts. I had heard an explanation as to why it changed from asking one of the ride operators, but I won't repeat it as I can't remember the exact wording and don't want to put any false or misleading information out there.

Or a ride getting stopped on the lift hill, can't forget that classic time-filler on slow news days.

...maybe they're getting their own version of the Venus Slydetrap from Aquatopia?

Is this just the "plans fucking change" thread at this point? We originally planned to go back to Dorney & Wildwater two weekends ago, but it got postponed because of illness. Then we were going this weekend, but forecast called for rain, so we cancelled it on Thursday, and then the supposed rain never apparently materialized. *shrug* Whatever. We're definitely heading down to Morey's Piers rain or shine this weekend for three nights in Wildwood, and if it rains, so be it. There's plenty more stuff to do out there that we aren't dependent upon rides operating or not. Monday on our way back, we might actually make our first stop at Great Adventure of the year. We'll see.

Great reports from my backyard! The El Dorado actually did get turned into a nightclub, in a manner of speaking; that was the home base of operations for "fsociety" in the TV series Mr. Robot. Those new go-karts & pirate ship have been there since at least last season, but I haven't been able to justify dropping any cash there. 12th St has been on the chopping block for a while and I guess they finally pulled the trigger. Most likely for another Luna Park expansion (I thought there was supposed to be a ropes course coming this year? IDK). Oh yeah, and fuck Soarin' Eagle forever.

This looks to be absolutely fantastic and yet another amazing addition to an already stacked lineup. Can't wait to check it out next season!

^ The Boardwalk has queue lines to enter every attraction, not just the wave pool. Even the kiddie splash areas. And when we visited at the end of June, they were being heavily enforced on a Friday afternoon. Also, granted this is an outlier and I'm not taking it as representative of everyone's experience or the park as a whole, the kiddie splash zone at Hersheypark is the only place at a theme park I've ever been threatened to have my ass kicked. By another damn grownup. Not because of anything I did, but because of my kids. Because they were on the splash structure. Splashing other kids. With the built in hoses and buckets. Like every other kid on that same splash structure was doing while waiting in line for the slides at the top. JFC...