coneyislandchris

Somehow I doubt New Jersey has a monopoly on frivolous lawsuits.

Sesame Place is a stand-alone theme park located in Pennsylvania. I assume from what you wrote, you're thinking of the Sesame Street themed kiddie section at Busch Gardens Tampa?

I received this variant of the teaser in my e-mail yesterday; Wacky Worm confirmed, lol.

Holy damn, Robb. Those metrics are INSANE. Is this your top FB post ever? I work for a company that has FB followers of 1.7 mil, and we'd KILL for the reach you're getting on that. Pretty much the only time we ever get anything like those numbers is, sadly, when we mention that a popular music artist has passed away.

Only ride in the front row and you won't have to dodge anything.

When I was there a few weeks ago with my son, I was fully prepared to splash out for Fast Lane Plus, but when I found out that Millie was on the regular and the only rides that were on the Plus version were all 52"+ rides, there was absolutely no need for me to spend the extra money. Still ended up being a great deal because with the exception of the Flyers and the water rides, and even though the park was slammed, we hit up every single coaster and flat ride in the park in one day. Now, once he makes it up to 52", then I'm gonna have to shell out those extra bucks. (Or if SteVen ends up on the Plus of course.)

LMAO, that's hilarious to me, since... A) My two-year-old daughter is currently wearing her bright orange "Just Wait Til I'm Taller!" shirt for Fury 325 B) She just got a new set of maracas as a present from her grandparents and is annoying the crap out of all of us with them For what it's worth, when I rode it on opening day 16 times, I didn't feel any "rattle" any of the times. One of the smoothest coasters I've ever been on in my life.

Fixed that for you, Boldy. On a related note, we're visiting this weekend, and I noticed online it says they changed the Sweet Start early entry access to include Kissing Tower Hill. Can anyone confirm if that means ALL the rides in that section or just select ones? I haven't been on Great Bear in about ten years at this point, and I definitely wanna change that.

^ Was also there yesterday and have to agree re: the lines. It was definitely crowded by Dorney standards, which meant that for most rides you had to wait one to two cycles as opposed to walking right on. Since I had both the kids and their granddad with me, we spent a lot more time doing flat rides over coasters. Around 3:30 when the big kid wanted to do Steel Force, we ended up in the far set of switchbacks, but that still ended up being only about a ten minute wait to get in the station, because they were pushing out trains like crazy with both black and red running. Front row ended up only being five minutes from there. Front row is still best row on this ride, no doubt. I don't understand the physics behind it but we were getting tons of butts-off-seats airtime over every single one of the hills. From the top of Steel Force, we spotted no visible queues at Thunderhawk so we bounced over there afterwards, walked up to the station and had about three groups waiting in front of us at the front row. Even though they were also running two trains, average dispatch time was about five to six minutes per train and it ended up being a longer wait than Steel Force. Seriously, these were like third tier Bizarro operations over here. My best guess is that no one working Thunderhawk knows what to do when there's more than ten people on a train. With that being said, I swear last time I rode this with the new trains, they had retractable belts that would constantly lock up at the slightest amount of slack. This time around, they appeared to be switched back to the old adjustable strap style. Not that it changes much, because the trims of disappointment are still active throughout the course. What I wouldn't give for an actual untrimmed ride on this someday. Other than that, a couple other miscellaneous thoughts in lieu of an actual trip report; - My daughter's first time on a Musik Express and Flyers. Of course she loved them both. Can't wait to get her back to Knoebels though and get her on a real set of Flyers. - Longest line I saw all day was at the Road Rally. Full queue spilling out into the midway. No idea what that translated to in terms of wait, and wasn't about to find out. - Managed to sneak away at one point for my first ride on Possessed since May 2016. Still love this, but a little sad they don't utilize that holding brake anymore. - Got lunch at the Chickies & Pete's by Sea Dragon. Once again, the kiosks wouldn't cooperate with the meal plan on my pass; it would issue me one credit, but then tell me no options were available. We ended up just paying via a card, then having the cashiers fix it after the fact. This is when we discovered that there's two different types of meals. Since my father and I both got cheesesteaks, we were surprised to discover that after they changed one to the meal plan version, that one ended up being a half cheesesteak + fries while the other one was just a full cheesesteak, no fries. Not sure I get the reasoning behind this but whatever. The side of fries that came with it was more than enough to share between the four of us anyway. - Speaking of Sea Dragon, still my favorite pirate ship anywhere. Same with Thunder Creek Mountain for log flumes, and that one surprisingly was running in rare form today, getting us soaked from head to toe as opposed to its usual light splashes. Was definitely more than welcome on a hot scorcher with no clouds like yesterday was. - Final tip; if you're putting sunscreen on your kids, don't forget to put some on yourself too, otherwise you run the risk of getting called a tomato by your wife when you get back home.

Well, that was certainly easy as 1-2-3.

This. When I went for my maiden visit last month, upon arriving I said to myself "This is the place everyone goes crazy for?" Fast forward a few hours, and I was grinning like a kid in a candy store, trying to think of how I can get back ASAP. For real. I was there on Tuesday and I'm already scheming on how to get back there one more time before Phunfest. God, I love that place.

You can actually still see V2 in this screenshot. What on Earth are you talking about?

^^ ^^^ Not gonna name any names, but another fairly popular coaster forum today is filled with nothing but bitching about this. "OMG this is the shortest one yet." "OMG it's all the same elements." "RMC is donezo. They're tired and busted now." "Pathetic." "Blah blah blah." Seriously can't take the entitlement and delusions these people whip themselves into. I've been on 5 RMCs so far. Each one of them has been a completely different experience each time, even if they have some similar elements. IMO, RMC haven't made a "bad" ride yet, and from looking at this POV, it doesn't look like they're starting to with this one. I cannot WAIT to get down there to Georgia and ride the ever-loving F out of Twisted Cyclone when it opens.

After riding Goliath out at Great America this summer, I have to say even a "short" RMC is still a friggin' awesome RMC. This POV looks like the ride will not disappoint in the slightest. I hope I can finally make it down to Georgia next season, I've been kicking myself that I haven't yet gotten down there.

I'm glad to hear that it will indeed have the "dazzling night-time display" according to the press release. It didn't really come through in the rendering, but from what I've seen of the one that was in Hong Kong, these things look like they're going to be a total spectacle to watch at night. Can't wait to give this a try!

Yesterday morning, I had an appointment in Allentown to get my car inspected and serviced. I bought a car over there last year, and it's coming up on its yearly inspection at the end of this month, plus there was some other miscellanous work needed. The dealership is literally less than a mile from Dorney Park, so my original plan was to drop off the car in the morning, walk over to the park, get a few rides in, head back out. Two things interfered with that plan. 1) It was absolutely bone-soaking pouring in Allentown as of 9 AM, and the forecast showed no signs of it slowing down any time before 6 PM. 2) The dealership gave me a loaner car. With the caveat to bring it back filled up. They also gave me an estimate of the car being ready for pick-up around 3:30 PM. Hm. *quick calculations* 9 AM... 3:30 PM... about 90 minutes to drive to and from Elysburg... only light drizzle predicted... f*ck it, I'm going to Knoebels today! As I made my way through the winding hills of middle Pennsylvania, the weather continued to get worse, but the rain load sure enough lightened up by the time I pulled into the grassy fields of the Knoebels parking lot. The light drizzle was a little bit more regular and steady, but nothing too terrible. What I wasn't expecting was the significantly cooler weather, with it only being 59 degrees and breezy (plus the aforementioned rain). So my first order of business after getting my wristband and handstamp secured was getting a hoodie to stay warm and (mostly) dry with. The kind folks at the Chalet Gift Shop were more than happy to hook me up with a black hooded pullover with neon green accents in exchange for nothing more than a swipe of the ol' credit card. I threw it on, checked the time... oh gee, would you look at that? 11:00 on the dot. Let's get to riding! The first stop was Flying Turns, since I usually skip this one during my visits due to the lengthy lines. Since it had just opened, I was greeted with my wait position taking place at the very top of the station's steps. Unfortunately, due to the inclement weather, they were running two trains but only loading one, while keeping the other one empty and cycling through. So even that top-of-the-steps wait still ended up being about 15 or 20 minutes. Even on a slow, dead, rainy day, I can't escape a wait on this ride! They ended up loading me in the front of the train for the first time, which was a different experience for me. Definitely like the back more, but the front feels way out of control when you're swinging so far up the sides. Cool indeed, but I wouldn't do this more than once today, because with the hampered operations and limited time, I had bigger fish to fry. Fish? Phish? Nah, I'm talking about Phoenix. What a beautiful sight! After I got off the Turns, I immediately bounced over to the Phoenix station to be faced with... zero lines at 10 out of the 12 gates. Yessss! That's what I'm talking about! I hopped in line for row 10 and a few seconds later, the single train pulled back into the station. As usual, the Phoenix ops were absolutely flying, even with only single train operations. Hopped in, pulled down the buzz bar, and got ready for that sweet, sweet airtime. The ride itself wasn't all it could be this time around, but that's to be expected with the wet tracks and light loads. Even still, a "bad" Phoenix ride is better than 80% of "good" other rides, so I'm not complaining at all! I had a huge smile on my face, and when we pulled back in the station, I saw... no one waiting at the gates anywhere. I asked the ride ops if, since I had the bracelet and handstamp, I could just move to a different seat instead of walking all the way around. They must have been in a good mood, because not only did they let me do just that, I got to do that five times before there were enough people to have me make the walk around! I ended up walking around 2 times and got a total of ten rides in, once in every row except for 4 and 6. Love love love love LOVE this ride and glad I got to do a rapid fire marathon of it. By the time I was done with my mini-overdose, I checked the clock, and it was only 12:03. More than enough time to get a lot more in! One solitary dude admiring the Twister structure. From here, I walked around the outside edge of the park, getting in rides on their awesome little frisbee Fandango and their equally awesome drop tower Stratosfear. Both these rides are smaller than their counterparts you can find elsewhere, yet they never fail to pack a punch and always leave me grinning like a loon when I get off of them. After Stratosfear, I found myself near the bridge to cross the creek and come face to face with Twister. I saw a few trains running over there with minimal loads, so I hustled across and headed up the long, winding ramp to be greeted with a completely. Empty. Station. Word. The train's just sitting there, all the ratchet bars down, and I'm told "hey just sit wherever you want, push down and pull up if you need to". Okay! Front row it is! I take my seat, they wait another couple of minutes for anyone else to join and yet no one does. So I've got my first Twister ride of the day all to myself. I've said it before and I'll say it again, Twister is an absolutely worthy companion piece to Phoenix. They're both great rides for completely different reasons, and on a day where Twister is running at the top of its game, it's really hard to pick a favorite. Unfortunately, getting back to the station, although once again there was no one waiting, I asked if I could please stay on because of the bracelet like at Phoenix, and was greeted with a hardline Cedar Fair-esque "no, sorry, you have to walk all the way around". I wouldn't mind so much if that were the case at Phoenix, but dang, it takes as long to walk around Twister as it does to get a ride in, what with the slowly sloping entrance and exit ramps folding in upon themselves. Oh well. I sucked it up, got some extra exercise, and ended up doing another three laps on it before I decided to move on. But man, when the station looked like this, I really would have loved to stick it out over here even longer! After leaving the Twister peninsula, I came face to face with another no-line situation at the Flyers. There were about three or four kids already on, the ride op was about to close the gate, but he saw me waving and held it for an extra moment for me to hustle on over there. Unfortunately for this first ride, I must have picked a dud flyer, because I was getting no snapping whatsoever while the others on the ride were going buck crazy. As we slowed to a stop and we disembarked, I again tried asking if I could stay on for another ride because of the bracelet (even though once again, there was no one in line). He looked at me... looked at the rest of the kids who were almost at the exit... says, "Hey, guys, do you ALL wanna ride again?". The kids let out a unanimous "YEAHHHHHH!". A moment's hesitation on his part, and then... "AWRIGHT, get on back in here! Have fun you guys!" I don't know whether or not the kids had their own bracelets, but as we all scrambled for flyers, I made sure to pick a different one... ANY different one... and I was rewarded handsomely this time by a completely batsh*t, out of control snapfest. Yowza. I know there's always some consternation around these parts whenever they get "that" ride op on the Flyers who seems to make it his life's mission to prevent people from having fun... with this ride op? Definitely not the case. He was fine with it, kept running it at a full speed, and even when we stopped at the end of the cycle, came over to the kids who were arguing amongst themselves and declared one of them the official "winner" at snapping. Awesome! I made my way back towards the main midway to hopefully get a ride or two in on Impulse, and I walked under the covered bridge. I ended up coming out next to the grand carousel which was in the process of loading. I hadn't been on it in a hot minute, so I ran in, took a seat near the edge, and got ready to grab some rings. They cranked it up, started that classic organ music, then before you know it... there's that ringing bell, the klaxon announcing the arrival of the ring arm! I leaned slightly off my horse to the right and prepared to catch. Final tally; 11! Still no brass ring. One of these days... one of these days, I swear. The most beautiful carousel in the USA, bar none. At this time, it was about 1:00 PM and my belly was craving. I have one go-to every time I hit Knoebels for some must-eat food, and I was a bit worried that they might not be open on such a low throughput day, but never fear... the potato cake stand was up, running, and slinging them out so fast it was unexpected. Four potato cakes for four bucks = a nice full tummy for yours truly. I scarfed them down as quick as possible with an eye on the clock. From my seat near the potato cake stand, I saw that Downdraft was up and running today (which is always a pleasant surprise, since it has a reputation for being finicky and living up to the first half of its name), so I popped on over after finishing off the last swig of my drink and ended up with another ride all to myself. I always forget just how quickly this ride hurls you from a stopped position into full motion. No gentle easing or anything, it's just "press button and go like a bat out of hell". While it's fun, I do prefer the similar style like Apollo at Dorney to this one, mainly because that one doesn't have any of those weird upper body restraints like Downdraft does. While I was riding the 'Draft, I could hear raucous screaming, and it appeared to be coming from the Power Surge area. So after I got off Downdraft, I bounced over there and ended up being one of three people on this ride. This flat is another fun one, I always have to liken it to a Tilt-a-Whirl in three dimensions because you never know exactly which way you're going to be swinging. The feeling in my stomach told me that maybe this wasn't the BEST choice of flat ride so soon after consuming four potato cakes, but I held it together and walked off with the contents of my guts still steadfastly inside me. Yay for these small victories! It always looks out of place at Knoebels, but it's slowly growing into a piece of the skyline that I appreciate. Finally, it was time for the final major coaster of the day. I walked over to Impulse and the wait point was, much like Flying Turns, at the top of the steps and running a solitary train. Since I was a single rider, I got pulled to fill in a group of three in the back row on the first train out. It was a family with a mother, father, and young daughter who needed the booster seat. Once again, I have to give props to Knoebels for their booster seat procedure. It could have been easy enough for them to say "You know what, this coaster is only for our tallest guests and kids are going to have to wait until they hit that 54" mark to ride" like so many others, but by designating one of the seats to get a booster seat snapped in to let kids that are 48" tall ride it with their families? It definitely cements Knoebels as one of the most family-friendly parks out there, and they will forever get props from me for doing so. I do like this ride quite a bit, and going over the top on that first drop can give you an insane amount of ejector if those restraints are even the slightest bit loose. With that being said, they don't give you much opportunity to keep them loose because they're constantly tightening unless you're actively pushing them away from you. And you know what? I much prefer riding Impulse hands up than I do constantly fighting the restraints. It's a short ride but super effective for what it does. And on a day like today, where the lines were practically non-existent, I'm happy to ride it as frequently as I can. I only ended up getting three rides in this time around before I checked the clock, saw it was getting close to the 2:00 PM cutoff, and decided against a fourth spin. Walked back to the loaner car, and was back on the road to Allentown right at 2:00. I made it back to the dealership at 3:30 where my trusty vehicle was freshly inspected and ready to go. Mission accomplished! Another dead station. God, I love days like this and the wonderful job they do keeping away crowds. All in all, it was a great way to kill a few hours of downtime in Pennsylvania while waiting for the car mechanics to do their thing, and definitely tided me over until Phunfest rolls around on my birthday weekend this year! Hopefully I can finally make it out. We'll see. Final scorecard: Phoenix x10 Twister x4 Potato cakes x4 ;d Impulse x3 Flyers x2 Downdraft x1 Fandango x1 Grand carousel x1 Power Surge x1 Stratosfear x1

You know, there aren't really any rides on the dry side of things that I explicitly won't ride. I always say I'm never riding Green Lantern again and yet somehow I end up on it on a yearly basis. For the most part, I'll skip shoot-the-chutes style rides because most of the time I just don't want to get soaked from head to toe. Same thing goes with river rapids style rides. But you can catch me on both of them every now and again, especially in the late summer when it's disgustingly hot. That being said, I usually steer clear of the waterpark side of things. I literally haven't been to a standalone waterpark or set foot in an included waterpark since I was in high school and ended up at Wildwater Kingdom. Just isn't my thing, nothing against them, but if I really wanna get other people's pee all over me... you know what, better not finish that sentence.

^^ Nice trip report! Can't wait to get back there next Saturday and Sunday. I was thinking it was a bubble tea place, but what Boldikus posted above looks... uh... IDK. Yikes. Last time I was there, I found a green shirt with the Storm Runner logo on it at Hersheypark Outfitters, right by the main entrance. Super comfy too. Don't think I've ever seen anything Great Bear related though.

Hey now. Not that I disagree with you because "Fire on High" is amazing, especially with the projections, but when I hit both parks a few months back, I got Darude's "Sandstorm" on both the Funtown thunderbolt and the Canobie scrambler in the same day. Epic both times. (If you're into that sort of thing, anyway.)

Unless plans drastically change, it's looking like the family and I will be at Hersheypark on the 9th and 10th for the big kiddo's sixth birthday, and then the weekend after that we all MAY also be going to Kennywood. Emphasis on may. It depends on a lot of factors. Namely whether or not our two-year-old can survive a road trip more than double the length of the Hershey one.

FWIW, did not have this issue when I was down there at the end of last month.

Same, but Brit hates it. The hate is totally understandable for shorter people whose ears are getting boxed by the restraints. Strangely enough, on the most recent road trip, my kiddo rode a number of Arrow Loopers. He liked Vortex but wasn't willing to ride it more than once. He HATED Corkscrew and said "I'm never ever ever never ever riding that coaster EVER AGAIN. Well maybe when I'm 50 years old.". Tennessee Tornado was okay at the beginning but it got him in the ears a couple of times, and he stopped after three. But Anaconda? He loved it in the front row and the back row and has now ridden it about 6 times. Go figure.

I'm still trying to understand what that sentence is supposed to mean. Can you elaborate?

Hey Bill, I know this post was a few pages back and most of your questions have been answered by now, but since I was just there a week ago and went through the whole rigamarole, I figured I'd chip in. When my kid and I went to the park, we ended up going to the height measurement center first things first, which just happened to be right next to Joker. We then swung back to the Flash Pass center which is directly across from Whizzer on the opposite side of the park from Joker, and by this time about a half hour had passed since opening due to the walk. We didn't pre purchase or anything in advance; I was hoping that on a Wednesday in the middle of the week it would be on the dead side, but the park was actually surprisingly packed that day. I blame "National Roller Coaster Day" or something. When we finally got to the building, the entrance to the non-prepaid lines was blocked by a few employees outside of the door that needed to explain how they worked and the pricing schemes to you. After about three minutes of that, they finally let us go into the building. We did not need to stand inside and watch a video like at many other Six Flags parks. Once we entered, the Flash Pass line was minimal -- there were maybe about three groups in front of us, but there were five employees manning registers and helping others. We were in and out within ten minutes. The left-hand side of the building had a completely separate entrance for pre-paid purchasers who just want to get in, pick them up, and get out; I assume this is what you'd be doing and you'd definitely be saving even more time. The one thing I do want to note is their messaging was completely inconsistent with each other. The digital screens and magnet boards listed completely different rides for what was included on each pass, and the limits for each. On Platinum, the ONLY limit they currently have in effect is a maximum of two reservations on Joker. Everything else is unlimited. No limits on Goliath or Justice League, no matter what the boards actually say. Hope that info helps. I thought Great America was an awesome park, but we definitely wouldn't have been able to do it all in one crowded day without that Flash Pass. I hope to have a full trip report up at some point later this week.

^^ How have I been going to Wildwood for years and never noticed those damn seals hanging out all over the Zoom Phloom sign? Oblivious...