coneyislandchris

More coverage of the fight between Skyplex and Universal from the Orlando Sentinel here: http://www.orlandosentinel.com/business/tourism/os-skyplex-dark-skies-complaints-20151026-story.html

RIP Purplecoaster ;_;

Long may the water... fall.

So far with my track record, it's any sort of stand-up coaster. They just end up being more painful for me than enjoyable.

In a similar vein, Blackbeard's Lost Treasure Train with my 4-year-old son. A kiddie coaster that I don't totally hate

As did I. My 4-year-old had a super week at pre-K, so for a reward, he got a day at the park. Since it was just the two of us today, it was almost entirely flat rides, plus the three 42" coasters. No luck getting him on Runaway Mine Train or Skull Mountain this time. We did the sky ride as well, and I remembered to snap a photo while passing by;

Whenever I can manage to get away! Been to Coney Island 4 times this season (twice solo, once with my son, and once with the whole family). Now that I've got a Six Flags membership, trying to make the time to get to SFGAdv & SFNE more frequently, but as they're 1.5 and 2.5 hours away respectively compared to 20 minutes for Coney, it's still fewer. Maybe that'll change next operating season.

From the "what a friggin' moron" file: http://www.masslive.com/news/index.ssf/2015/10/chicopee_man_accused_of_breaki_1.html Also, the wordfilter makes this story even better.

I haven't been there since I lived in the area back in the 90's, and out of curiosity I watched one of the trip vlogs that Kevin from TPM (RIP) posted a while back... and yeah, the park looks completely unfamiliar to me. I remember the entrance being on the complete opposite side of the park, near Thunderhawk, and I remember being sad when they completely changed that entrance as well (taking down the giant clown head and getting rid of the bumper cars in the middle of the station). Out of the attractions I saw on the video, the only ones I remembered were the Wave Swinger and White Water Landing. But even the layout looked a lot different, and it seems that the only coasters that have survived since the last time I was there are Thunderhawk and Steel Force. I'll have to try and make a trip back at some point next year and check out everything that's changed since the last time I've been there, but I've been avoiding it until my oldest kid hits 48". Hopefully he'll hit that threshold next summer since he's a total beansprout already

Kingda Cubs is looking less and less likely.

Came across this post via Consumerist: http://www.13newsnow.com/story/features/2015/10/19/chesapeake-man-denied-entrance-to-busch-gardens-for-attire/74211046/ There's also a video on the click-through.

Good ol' Coney Island Cyclone.

Definitely hoping that Skyplex manages to push through all the red tape and bureaucracy, and gets this thing built. Fingers crossed.

Yeah, my kids will probably love this. Clearly I'm not the target market for it. :/

Sure thing. Made a brief trip down to the boardwalk today to try and check out Endeavor, but alas, I only found a finished slab of concrete behind a closed & locked gate. Apparently, from talking to some of the Thunderbolt ride ops, it's already been disassembled and is on its way to SFOT. It just ran here for a couple weekends for a test, and will be replaced next season with a (supposedly) larger model. Other than that, not much goings on to report. One of the last three weekends Luna Park will be open for the season, was pretty bitterly cold out there in the early afternoon, so I did one lap on Thunderbolt and one on Cyclone, grabbed a couple corn dogs from Nathan's, and called it a day. Thunderbolt was actually running pretty well and wasn't that uncomfortable today, and they were actually in the process of blasting & repainting the Cyclone. Crowds were extremely minimal and seemed to be primarily European tourists. Underneath the Cyclone, tarped off & blasted.

According to their press release posted on their website, there will be "nearly 30" rides open during HITP, and they have confirmed at least six coasters to be open, weather permitting: - Nitro - Batman: The Ride - The Dark Knight Coaster - Skull Mountain - Superman: Ultimate Flight - Green Lantern They haven't yet posted a full list of exactly which rides will be open all in all, but you can read the press release here: https://www.sixflags.com/greatadventure/special-events/holiday-in-the-park/news-release

Can we lobby Six Flags for a "Valentine's At The Park" experience to change that empty calendar month?

Looks as if this has since been installed. I'll have to take another swing by and check it out, but in the meantime, here's some photos & video I found: Credit: David Tan via Flickr Credit: John Hunt via Youtube

Come to think of it... there are an AWFUL lot of coasters at this park where choosing your own seat is forbidden. - Batman: The Dark Knight - Flashback - Goliath - Thunderbolt - Wicked Cyclone Pretty much the only ones where you actually do get to pick a seat are Mind Eraser and Bizarro, considering that Pandemonium and Gotham City Gauntlet are both single-car affairs. Not sure about the kiddie coasters. Very strange, I can't remember such a high percentage of assigned seating at any other parks off the top of my head.

Aw man, you were there too, Larry? Maybe we bumped shoulders at some point on Monday. My mini-TR (okay, maybe not so mini after all); --- Decided to take my floating personal day from work Monday to make the trip up to SFNE, under the assumption that hey, not THAT many people have off for Columbus Day, how bad could it be? Well... Just from seeing the mass of people all lined up at the gates in advance of opening, I quickly realized that if I didn't want to waste the 3-hour drive time, I'd have to invest in a Flash Pass to get on anything major. Seems as if it was a good purchase (and the fact that it's CONSIDERABLY cheaper than at GAdv helps ease the sticker shock a lot as well). So after grabbing the Platinum pass and wristband, I hightail it over to Goliath just in time for the first ride of the day. I missed out on it during my first trip due to maintenance downtime, and wanted to make damn sure I got on it while it was running. Ended up in the very front seat, and WOW. What an experience! I didn't seem to have the same troubles that others have described with this ride; the seats and restraints were very comfortable and I didn't have any ear-bashing going on. That view from being pulled straight up 90 degrees face down definitely gets the adrenaline pumping. Even though the layout is familiar from the regular boomerang, the sheer size of it makes it way forceful. Used the Platinum reride and got a second ride in immediately. Long story short; I like it a lot, and it's easily my favorite Vekoma to date. 8.5/10 From there, swung over to Wicked Cyclone to get my first ride in. I love everything about this coaster, from the drastic drop to all the random ejector airtime hills to those crazy inversions. I need to get more RMCs under my belt, but for now, this is a very strong 9.5/10. Rather than do an immediate reride on WC, I jumped over to the Sky Screamer to get that in before it got too late in the day. I'd been on this last time, and the wait without Flash Pass was unbearable due to its low capacity, but even with Flash Pass I felt like I ended up waiting longer than expected due to the ride ops miscounting the capacity. *shrug* Once it started running, I realized it was going backwards instead of forwards. This was really disconcerting and I didn't particularly enjoy it, mainly because I felt like I was going to fall out the back of my seat the entire time. Meh. Probably won't be doing this again the next time they decide to run it in reverse. After that experience, I jumped back to Wicked Cyclone for another four rides in a row. Apparently within the span of the 20 or so minutes I spent on Sky Screamer, the WC trains had developed that howl and vibration that others have previously mentioned. It definitely wasn't there on the first ride of the day, but all of the rest had it, on both the blue and orange trains. It didn't really bother me much, but I can see how it can be mega annoying to some. In the span of these five rides, I had front row twice, last car twice, and once in the middle. DEFINITELY the best in the back, not even a question to me. Since you don't really get to pick your own seat you don't get much of a choice where you end up, but depending on how the guy at the gate feels, you can try to request certain rows and get lucky. After I got my five in on WC, I started heading back in the opposite direction. Passed by Flashback, and it looked as if they were just starting a cycle, so I ran back over to Goliath and got in another pair of rides -- and again, ended up in the front row! Not complaining! Would like to try it in the back of the train next time for sure though. Then, once I got off that, I swung by Flashback again and saw it was a walk-on, so I hopped on for a couple of classic boomerang rides. It is what it is. A solid coaster but nothing mega exciting, and the old restraints mean it's not as comfortable as some others (ie Sidewinder at Hershey). Giving it a 6/10. After those rides, I realized I had committed a cardinal sin in the morning, and it was coming back to bite me in the ass. Yep, I'm talking about too much coffee. Since I had miscalculated the opening time (my Six Flags app was still set on GAdv time, and they opened at 11 AM, whereas SFNE didn't open officially until noon), I ended up killing some time at a local Dunkin' Donuts, and had my second large iced coffee of the day. Oof. My stomach was starting to turn, so I made a beeline to grab a soft pretzel and bottled water. That seemed to do the trick for the time being. But lesson learned, body! I'll stick to one coffee from now on! While I was "recuperating", I took in a bit of their Fright Fest entertainment with a brief street/stage show where they were going to, um, behead a witch. The performance lasted about 10 minutes and was about what you'd expect out of this type of entertainment; nothing too over the top, somewhat amusing, a decent diversion but nothing to really go out of your way to catch unless you're in the area. When that performance wrapped up, I headed over to Thunderbolt. I do like my classic woodies, but compared to some of my favorite woodies like the Coney Island Cyclone or Phoenix, this one feels underwhelming. I don't consider it to be nearly as rough as others do, but at the same time, I don't really get any pops of air on any of the hills at all. It just... kinda does its thing and that's it. I can't help but feel the completely unnecessary seatbelt is to blame here for that, since it's way tight especially on larger guests. I managed to just get it latched after about a minute of fiddling with it, but on both rides, I noticed some folks weren't quite as lucky and had to take the walk of shame. I really feel that doing away with the belt would help a lot. I give this one a 5/10 with room for improvement. Next up was a pair of rides on their S&S drop tower (named just "Scream", which is a little confusing when browsing the Tamagotchi looking for Sky Screamer... "Wait, is it this?"). You know what to expect out of these. Great views, and the sudden drop always provokes a yelp or laugh! But enough about the drop tower. By this time, it was close to 3 PM, and I wanted to get in as many rides on Bizarro as possible -- aside from hitting WC again and doing Goliath for the first time, hitting Bizarro again before the changeover to Superman was top of my list. As for Bizarro itself? No major changes to report. Yes, the locker & test seat area received a subtle coat of paint, but aside from that, the only real progress so far has been 1) turning off all the on-ride music and 2) removing the giant Bizarro figure from the top of the first tunnel. (You can still see the outline of where they ripped him off. Wasn't about to attempt to get a picture of this though!) Otherwise, the ride is still the same as expected; one of the best hypers in existence. Only a slight bit of vibration on the final set of airtime hills, otherwise, no issues. I ended up doing ten rides in a row (well, five groups of two). 9.5/10 as well. I had been keeping an eye on Batman: The Dark Knight all day, since repeated buzzing on the Tamagotchi kept reminding me that the ride was closed. No, wait, open. No, it's closed again. Nope, open. For real this time? Okay... made a reservation and started heading over, only to see an empty train stalled in the brake run and people wandering out of the queue. Finally, keeping a close eye on it, I saw them sending out another train full of people, and quick hopped in through the Flash Pass entrance to get on the next one. Ended up taking two in a row on the last row. I do love B&M floorless coasters, but this is the weakest of the three I've been on so far (compared to Dominator at KD and Bizarro at GAdv), mainly due to the more compact layout and quicker ride experience. Even still, it's got some great moments on it. That first loop is killer, and those rolls had me giggling like a little kid. Riding it twice in a row definitely helps, but like I said, it's my least favorite of the floorless coasters I've been on so far. Probably a 7/10. By this time, I was getting ready to pack up and make the long drive back home, but I kept eyeing Mind Eraser, which I had a horrible experience with on my previous visit. I was determined to not let it beat me, so I hopped on (completely unnecessarily using the Flash Pass in this case, as it was a literal walk-on), and as soon as I pulled those OTSRs down I remembered how horribly my body fit inside them. Oof. But by tensing every single muscle in my body, keeping my head firmly pressed against the back of the headrest, and holding on for dear life, I managed to actually make it to the brake run without getting my head smacked around. So yay for that, huh? Still, I'd love to ride an SLC that actually has the new style of restraints, and maybe if I get a chance at Morey's next year I'll do so. For the time being, still my least favorite coaster to ride here, and I'm going to upgrade it from a 0/10 to a more generous 3/10. (Even still, I rode it twice, because dammit, I'm getting my money's worth out of that Platinum pass!) I capped off the night with another pair of rides on Batman before making my way back to the front gates, walking through all the Fright Fest stuff that had been set up in the meanwhile and dodging costumed actors doing their best to frighten the teens (usually pretty successfully). I have to hand it to them, their actors are usually on point with the costumes and makeup, very impressive stuff. All in all, a pretty solid day and I definitely feel like I got a lot of use out of the Flash Pass. Here's a few random photos from the phone to round out the TR: One, two, three, four, five... yep, six flags accounted for. Wacky waving inflatable flailing arm ghost men at the entrance! Goliath in a test run! Good to see it running. Bizarro is always impressive from this angle. Creepy Fright Fest displays are a great place to park your baby's stroller. I... I guess this Fright Fest area is themed as a 90's rave? Oh, wait, alien abduction? Same thing.

I wouldn't get my hopes up for it running again this season. Even if it was running, the trains absolutely ruin the ride. It was running all summer and I didn't even ride it because of the horror that ensued with the horrible trains. I guess SFNE just likes adding bad trains to good rides like they did with Bizarro. Well, I did get up there today, AND it was running (well, for most of the day)... So, yes, please allow me to revise my previous answer to now be Goliath. I didn't have any problems with the trains or restraints personally. And DAMN, is it forceful! Love it!

Yes, all the coasters should still be open on November 1st, weather permitting: http://www.hersheypark.com/seasons/halloween.php

More hype and BS, this time claiming a Summer 2017 opening date, plus the world's steepest roller coaster. We'll see. Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/03/nyregion/dream-of-a-mall-starts-to-rise-out-of-a-meadowlands-nightmare.html

I could be mistaken, but I remember hearing that FoF is closed for Haunt (they're using that building for one of the Haunt attractions).

Well, the city's at it again: http://nypost.com/2015/09/28/city-to-seize-and-rebuild-coney-island-property-through-eminent-domain/