coneyislandchris

Kinda disappointing since that was one of the kiddette's favorites to ride at the park, but on the plus side, at least she hit 48" now so she can work her way up to even bigger thrills. Good chance that Twisted Timbers may end up being her first RMC, unless we hit SFNE sometime before July.

I've been in the same boat, recently trying to restart my own weight management. I really packed on the pounds during the pandemic, and right around Christmastime, I was up to 290 -- the heaviest I've ever been. Since the beginning of the year, I've been on a keto diet, purchased a spinning bike for the garage, have been doing daily walks between 3 to 5 miles, and been using a Nintendo Switch game called "Fitness Boxing 2" to get additional movement in. I've also been using my Apple Watch's activity mode to track and keep myself honest; it's just a little thing but I don't want to lose my streaks. In the first four months of the year, I have dropped from 290 to 248. I'm still shooting to get under 200 by the end of the year (and hopefully in the 220-225 range by August, assuming the California theme parks are open to out-of-state visitors by then).

Not sure how KD seems pitiful and "not a ton of stuff there" when, even with Avalanche potentially being SBNO this season, it has 11 coasters to Busch's 9. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

For what it's worth, I visited the park this past Wednesday with my daughter. After our inaugural visit back in 2019, where she just missed being tall enough to even ride the Shredder, we made the decision to not return until she hit at least 48" so she could ride way more stuff. Well, she finally hit her mark back in April, so we ended up picking up the low-price mid-week tickets that gave us free reign of the park from 12 PM to 7 PM. We didn't end up actually getting there until 2:00 PM (had to wait for her virtual school to end before we left), but once we did, it was a pretty painless process. We picked up our wristbands at the counter after they scanned the QR code from our online purchase. Unlike in the past where they were embedded with RFID chips and they would be scanned at every ride entrance, these are now just your average paper wristbands that we showed upon entry to the park and then never got checked again the rest of the day. Crowd levels were pretty light, as to be expected mid-week. In the span of the five hours that we were there, we rode everything we wanted to ride multiple times. None of the rides had more than a station wait, with the exception of Jimmy Neutron, which was closed earlier in the day but opened back up around 4 PM. For whatever reason they were only loading about four or five cars at a time on that ride, so it took us about three cycles to get on. The first coaster she wanted to ride was her nemesis from last time, The Shredder. This is without a doubt my favorite spinning coaster I've ridden so far (might change whenever I make it out to SDC, but for now, this slaps). The sheer length of it gives a lot of bang for your buck, and with only the two of us in the car, we got some absolutely insane spinning. Both times we rode it, they allowed us to stay on for re-rides thanks to no one else being in the station, so we ended up getting a total of four rides. It's just a great smiles-on-faces ride, and easily a big favorite here. Shellraiser was up next, and it was also a walk-on for us. Sadly, this one ended up being a one-and-done. Although the layout is great, I remembered half of the rides with my son being super rattly back in 2019, and unfortunately, it's only gotten worse since then. I don't know what they can do to fix this ride, but it's shaky to the point of the car feeling like it's going to tear itself apart mid-ride. We noticed at many points throughout our time there they were just sending empty cars throughout the course. Here's hoping they find something to do with this ride that makes it more enjoyable for everyone, because as it stands, this record-breaker is definitely the biggest flop in the park. Slime Streak was listed on the website as being down for maintenance from the 4th through the 20th, but for whatever reason, it was open that Wednesday! I was a bit apprehensive about riding as I had heard it was not particularly friendly towards larger body types and I'm still trying to shed those extra lockdown pounds, but I'm happy to say that although the trains were on the small side, the restraints were not overly restrictive. We did this one twice throughout the day. It's your average family coaster, nothing too special or thrilling but gives a nice view of the park. Timmy's Half-Pipe Havoc was open for the first time for us, originally being closed back during our 2019 visit. This was my second Intamin halfpipe coaster and my daughter's first experience. More ridiculous fun, with the back and forth launches and the rapid-fire spinning. We only did it once but wouldn't mind riding it again. Sandy's Blasting Bronco was also operating, but due to the height requirement being 52" and my daughter being short by 4 inches, we skipped it. It looks hecka fun, though, and hopefully the next time we go back and my son is along for the ride, we'll get a chance to give it a spin! Other rides of note: Kraang's Pandemonium is an absolutely bonkers mini-pendulum that picks up speed super fast, and the interaction with the ceiling (and ceiling fans!) is sure to thrill. Skyline Scream was operating as well, and this S&S tower runs a combo program; it shoots you up to the top and then bounces several times before pulling you the rest of the way up for a beautiful panorama of NYC and New Jersey. You are greeted up at the top by Spongebob and Patrick figures before you plummet back down. While it apparently can rotate, it wasn't rotating during any of our three rides on Wednesday, but it was still a lot of fun. Last but not least, while the Reptar carousel is cool to look at, it's a total pain to ride. Not sure whose idea it was to have the spikes on the tail poking your butt if you slide even slightly backwards. There were a number of new Zamperla kiddie rides scattered throughout the park, including a Crazy Bus themed to the Loud House, a Happy Swing themed to Dora The Explorer's monkey Boots, some cupcake looking teacups themed to Butterbean (whatever that is), and a mini-whip themed to Paw Patrol, but the only one that was currently operational was a Bubble Guppies themed spinning balloon tower. Here's some photos of the ones currently under construction: Foodwise, they're still only operating a single food stand located near the Half-Pipe coaster, with primarily pre-packaged sandwiches, hot dogs, popcorn, snacks, and the like. However, we noticed they were bringing more structures into the building as we were leaving Slime Streak for the second time, one of which said "Burger Bar" on it. Hopefully there'll be a little bit more options for food in the near future, especially considering that they aren't offering re-entry to the park currently. If you want to check out any of the other food options in the mall, you'll forfeit the remainder of your ticket. I'm definitely happy we visited on a slow day with the cheaper tickets and smaller crowds. I wouldn't want to visit on a weekend, where you're limited to timed entry and exit periods and the crowds are heavier, as I feel like you simply wouldn't be able to get through everything here (and it's not even as if there's a whole lot for that matter). Last but not least, the parking fee. It's free under two hours, and $2 for any length of time over 2 hours. This is ridiculous... and by ridiculous, I mean ridiculous to complain about. Literally go anywhere else in New York City and try to find parking anywhere near as cheap as that. Or for that matter, any other amusement park that isn't named Knoebels. Hell, the Queens Center Mall charges $3 for an hour of parking and all they have is a damn Target and Red Lobster. I get that people are looking for something to whine about, but this ain't it, chief.

Sources online who claim to work at the park are saying that Avalanche will be closed this season but not removed due to the ongoing construction in Safari Village for their new free spin. Take it with a grain of salt because obviously anyone can say anything they want to on the internet, but that's what's going around.

Haven't been up for HITP, so I'm not sure if it's the same as what you're referring to, but yes, it's the lot that's nestled between the main road and the park: No tram necessary.

I haven't been down to Wildwood since August of 2019, but even then, I don't remember those go-karts being open. I remember it looking exactly the same as the photo above. Glad to hear Randy's arcade is up and running. I know he's had trouble with his leases in the past and it's nice to see that he's managed to hold onto that location even through the pandemic.

If it's anything like the other SF parks throughout the chain, yeah, they're honoring them. In fact, they're probably still selling them and issuing them to people that buy the plan.

I remember when Invadr opened, initially it was not included on any of the multi-ride Quick Queue plans, but you could purchase it individually. It was something ridiculous like $20 per ride though. We ended up just waiting it out after all.

I just don't see it happening, honestly.

Bumping this thread from the dead! Earlier today on Facebook, Casino Pier announced that they are adding a new coaster this season. It's a custom SBF Visa Big Air spinner & hamster-wheel combo model they're calling "Xolo Loca". Here's the promo video they put up with the announcement: According to comment they responded to on Facebook, this will be located between Pirate's Hideaway and Moby Dick; they have retired their Air Race to make room for it.

This is going to be the first day since they started Power Hours that the park was actually open earlier in the day, so it's really anyone's guess. I'm no help here either since I didn't use my meal plan last time, so I couldn't even say whether they gave us 1 meal + 1 snack or 2 meal + 1 snack during that time period. Wind sounds like it might be a factor for Ka, but yeah, everything else should be golden.

My son and I checked out Coaster Power Hours this past Friday night. I'm not sure why more people aren't talking about this! Yes, it's an upcharge ticket, but if you're already a season passholder or member, it's literally $5 per person for basically five hours worth of non-stop uninterrupted coaster rides. Weather was cooperative this week and it was a beautiful spring evening in the high 60's, so all twelve of their coasters were open at one point or another. Aside from Kingda Ka and Bizarro, both of which had their own issues, we never ended up more than a station wait for a train, and the majority of the time we walked right on with a good chunk of those being front-row rides. Another nice factor was that for the first hour of the event, they were doing automatic re-rides; so if you were already on and you wanted to go again, you didn't even have to get out of your seat. Of course, thanks to the turnout, this basically was in effect all night long if you so desired because very rarely would you end up with a full train anywhere. Other than the coasters, no other rides were open. Only a handful of restaurants and snack booths were open, primarily around the Main Street area (also notably the Skybar next to SkyScreamer). Most of these locations had special items for sale that you can't usually get, like the pulled pork topped hot dog and chicken alfredo pizza. Other than a water refill though we skipped out on food while we were there in order to maximize our rides. They also had some of the carnival games in the Boardwalk section open, but other than that, it was really a barebones crew. In the span of the first four hours of the event, we managed to ride all 12 of the coasters, and that's even with doing two or sometimes three rides in a row. The last hour of the night we just spent backtracking our way to our favorites and getting extra rides in. All told, the final count ended up being: Superman x2 Green Lantern x2 Kingda Ka x1 (due to it dispatching three trains then going down, then coming back up ten minutes later, dispatching another three, and going down again) El Toro x4 (and yes, the locker rule is still in effect even at this low capacity event) Bizarro x1 (due to the one-two punch of someone horking on the front seat before our ride then getting triple stacked after our ride) Runaway Mine Train x1 Joker x1 Harley Quinn x1 Skull Mountain Remix x3 (the "remix" consists of a couple of colored disco lights strategically placed throughout the building to turn it into a rave-in-a-box, plus switching out the usual soundtrack to some electro house and dubstep. Volume was way too low to notice that anywhere but the brake run, though.) The Dark Knight x1 (no preshow) Batman: The Ride x1 Nitro x2 Seriously, I can't remember the last time I was at Great Adventure and got that many coaster rides in on a single day, even with a Flash Pass, short of maybe Holiday in the Park several seasons back before it blew up in popularity. The amount of people that showed up was way below your average Saturday and Sunday crowds. For the most part, the park well and truly felt deserted. It really felt like something special and to be honest I'm not sure how they're making money on this event, but as long as they're going to be offering it, I highly recommend that you try to sneak away to Jackson for a few hours on Thursday or Friday nights to take advantage of this. It was easily the best $10 we have ever spent at the park.

Hersheypark posted a preview video of their new upscale eatery on the park grounds, The Chocolatier. One thing jumped out at me... and that's this veritable ferris wheel of appetizers.

Huh, interesting. Yeah, clearly things have changed since first they announced their reopening. If you're heading over next weekend keep us updated as to what they end up doing for that.

I mean, there's no reason to be arguing with customer service. Luna Park has made it pretty clear on their website that they are not doing individual rides this season, you can only purchase wristbands for timed access. I'm not personally a fan of it and probably won't be visiting this season because of it, but I get why they are doing so.

So looks like my daughter is right on that line of the 48" height requirement, which means we're gonna be hitting up a lot of the East Coast parks this year to get some new coasters under her belt. Hersheypark will more than likely be a stop since they have Sidewinder, Lightning Racer, Wild Mouse, and Wildcat all in that range. I'll be blunt; my son and I have never had a good experience on Wildcat. So when I take my daughter out there, what do you guys recommend as the best possible seat on that coaster for avoiding the usual car crash sort of ride we get out of it? Thanks in advance.

Wow, so it was basically an impromptu TPR meet-up, just without any of the actual, y'know, meeting up. Very nice to hear everyone's opinions and experiences! Wait, Firebird was supposed to have an actual fire effect? I get it for Bizarro at Great Adventure because it's so isolated off in its own corner, but it seems like for Firebird due to its proximity to everything else it would just be super awkward. Where do they put it? I'm also really surprised at the number of people both here and on FB who are saying "Mind Eraser isn't that bad". I'm gonna take you at your word, JG, that the stapling trick works because honestly I don't see myself being brave enough to try it on a return visit.

It was running earlier in the day. We saw riders when we crossed over into Gotham City, and again when we left to go ride Firebird. Sadly the kiddo had wanted to do it first, but I suggested that we do the Gotham City stuff first to knock them off our checklist. Cue the failhorns when we finally cycled around to give it some love. It wasn't a complete loss, since we've rode it on both prior visits, and in fact it was the kiddo's 100th credit (during its 100th anniversary year no less!). I saw that on FB after we got home! I wasn't really checking my phone much while we were in the park, aside from taking a handful of photos and videos and sending them intermittently to my wife. Truth be told I'm so out of the loop on Six Flags after not doing anything but the drive-thru stuff last year. I didn't even realize you could check into rides while you were in the park and earn points. I'm a bad enthusiast, apparently. Looks like you guys had a fun time and an equally "pretty good" day!

So, the kiddo and I ended up taking a drive down to SFA yesterday to kick off our 2021 season after a limp 2020. This was our first time actually riding stuff at an amusement park since last September and October, when we took brief day trips to Dorney and Knoebels. I didn't have super high hopes for the park, given two previous bad experiences down here, but my son and I both left with pretty big smiles on our faces, all things considered. We got there about 15 minutes before their scheduled 11:00 AM opening. The entrance procedure was pretty similar to what we experienced at Dorney last year, with a touchless thermometer screening that we just walked right through. Thumbs up and we continued on. They moved the metal detectors in front of the main gates since our last visit, and they have one of the new ones where you don't need to take anything off, you just walk right through with all your bags and items in your pockets, etc. Well, that's the theory, anyway, as it ended up flagging me and I had to give them my backpack for X-raying, then I ended up getting wanded. Still, many other patrons were just walking through without any hassle at all, so I think it's a win for them even if it wasn't for me personally. While we were waiting in line, I noticed that everyone was masked up and giving each other space. I had heard stories about this kind of being overlooked at other Six Flags parks during the 2020 season and was very happy to see everyone going along with it down here. Since our last visit, my kid ended up reaching that all-important 54" height requirement, so our number one goal was to hit all the coasters that we hadn't previously ridden here. That includes the three back in Gotham City, Firebird, and Mind Eraser. We started off by beelining it back to Gotham, and walking into an empty station for Joker's Jinx. As we queued up for the front row, they were sending off their final test train of the day. The employees made it back safe and sound in one piece, and so off we went. The kiddo has been on the KD Flight of Fear, and he was excited to try this outdoor version. Needless to say, we both loved it! While the indoor's version of disorientation is cool and all with the low lighting, it was like a wholly different experience to be able to see just how much you flip around during those first few elements. The ring tube halfway through the layout is also a cool visual trick. And it's just a solid coaster from launch to finish. We ended up riding this three times in a row; once in the front row, once in the third row, and once in the very back. The ride ops were great about letting us switch rows or stay in the same row without having to walk around, and this was something that was true for all of the rides we went on throughout the day. No matter where we sat, it was all great and it was my son's favorite of the day. 5* out of 5. From there, we made our way a little bit further back in Gotham, taking a detour through the eerily deserted Whistlestop Park kids section. This section is just plain weird, I don't have any other words for it. The Bugs Bunny kids section up front is much more successful it seems. I can't remember ever seeing any kids doing anything back here, to be honest. We rounded the corner and saw Superman: Ride of Steel in front of us. We wanted to save this for later, so we tried to walk down towards Batwing, but there was a rope up blocking the path, and so Superman ended up being our second new coaster of the day. Overall, we both really liked it. It's not the best hyper out there, but it was plenty entertaining. We started off with a pair of rides in the third row. As we were getting off of our second ride, we noticed that the front row was now empty, and we asked if we could move up. As it stands, they decided to take the train out of active service and give it a sanitization cycle. So we went off to Batwing and did that, then came back to Superman for a second pair of rides. This time around we ended up in the front row, which is super thrilling, and then moved all the way to the last row which just cranked up the intensity to a whole new level, especially going over that first drop and through the airtime hill after the first helix. For whatever reason, though, no matter where we rode on the train, we got zero airtime on that first hill. My son was waffling all day long over which one he liked better between Jinx and Superman, and although Jinx eventually won out in his heart and mind, we're still giving Superman a very respectable 4* out of 5. (I personally prefer the Superman hyper up at New England, and hope to get back up there this year with him so he can get his first rides on it.) So, yeah, Batwing! For him, this was his second Vekoma flyer after Nighthawk down at Carowinds, and for me, it was my third behind Nighthawk and the now defunct Firehawk at Kings Island. I'm not particularly a fan of these coasters, but he had an okay experience on Nighthawk and was looking forward to trying it. It ended up being the worst out of the ones we've ridden. Staring directly into the sun as you're going up the lifthill and trying your best to avert your gaze or block out the sun is always a bad time and just a bad design in general. Overall, it was hecka rattly, shaky, and just left us both feeling dazed as we got off. We both agreed that this would be a one and done, with him stating "glad I never have to ride this again!". I'm probably not so lucky, as I'm sure I'll be riding it once more when my daughter gets up to 54"... unless they scrap it before then. 1 out of 5. After our last ride on Superman for the day, we took a brief break from rides to grab some souvenirs and some lunch. We used the iPhone app to do their mobile ordering. This was my first experience with this part of the app. It was easy and painless to navigate, it linked directly to our passes to calculate how many meal credits we got from our season dining plans, and gave us a number to pick up our food from the window. We ended up grabbing some food from the Gotham City Food Court; he got a cheeseburger and fries, and I got a chicken caesar salad. They had some socially distanced tables with umbrellas set up in between the food court and the arena. Unfortunately, it was kind of a windy day, and this section was one of the worst for being hit with wind gusts. All I have to say is if you have a container filled with food that doesn't weigh a lot, such as french fries, you might want to hold onto it with one hand... The food itself was fine. It's your average park food, nothing to write home about but not blatantly offensive. It's... fine. Just fine. After getting in a quick ride on their Riddler-themed Round-Up named Riddle Me This, we left the Gotham City section behind to check out the rest of the park. Next up on our list was Firebird. I had never experienced this ride in its original stand-up form and honestly from the sounds of things, I hadn't missed much. We walked through the queue, passed the remnants of what appeared to be a Skull Mountain structure, climbed up the stairs and got to the station. This was probably our longest wait of the day, with about 10 minutes of waiting all told. They were loading all rows on the train; there was one empty row as we made it up to the top, and so we filed into row 6. They had big plastic plexiglass barriers between each row's queue, and the groupers were good about making sure only one party ended up in each row. Ridewise, it reminded me a lot of Rougarou at Cedar Point, just a whole lot smaller and more compact. This one definitely felt like it was twisting in and over itself to make the most of a small footprint. I got a little bit of headbanging thanks to the OTSRs at some points, but overall it was pretty manageable. Definitely not high on my list of favorite floorless coasters, but I'd give it 3* out of 5, and a passing grade overall. We killed a little bit of time on High Tide, their pirate ship which ran a really short cycle. It didn't even feel like a whole minute from start to finish. After that, we did a ride on Roar. We had both been on this twice before and couldn't remember whether we liked it or not. After thinking about it, our first ride was during a rainstorm where we were desperately trying to hide inside our hoodies to prevent getting soaked, and our second ride was at night during their Holiday in the Park event in 2019. We had never ridden this during a beautiful sunny day. We walked into the station and got right onto the front row. It was a little bit rough, but a whole lot of fun! The layout was excellent and kept us guessing. I was hanging onto the grab bar for dear life though. Asked the kiddo what he thought of it, and his response was "It was pretty good! It definitely wasn't as bad as Wildcat or Thunderhead. I'd ride it again!" (For the record, he's had some pretty bad experiences at both Hersheypark and Dollywood on those two specific wooden coasters, so those are his bottom of the barrel woodies that he refuses to give any more chances to.) We didn't end up riding it again, but definitely will do so the next time we come back. And while it might be a good candidate for the RMC treatment at some point in the future, based off how it was running yesterday, I'd say it's definitely got at least a few more years of life in it for now. 4* out of 5. Our final new coaster of the day was Mind Eraser, and we took our time getting over there. First, we made a stop to pick up some fruit snacks from the shop in Coyote Creek. Then, we did a couple rides on Rodeo. Neither of us had ever been on this kind of flat ride before, and we ended up really enjoying it! It felt like a scrambler mixed with teacups, or maybe a Tilt-A-Whirl multiplied by three and all spinning around each other. Whatever it was, it was fun enough for us to ask to stay on for a second ride. Afterwards, we walked over to the Crazy Cars, where we got our bumping action in. Between the wild west theme and the sounds of Dolly Parton's "Jolene" wafting through the ride's speakers, it almost made me think I was back in Pigeon Forge for a second. Well, just a second, because then I got jolted back to my senses from my son gleefully ramming his car into mine. Always a fun time. We also briefly checked out their arcade, or what passes for an arcade right now. Between it being comprised mostly of claw machines, and the fact that their change machines gave you 12 "tokens" for $5 (even my son could figure out that that math didn't add up), we wisely decided to pass. I say wisely, but then we walked over to Mind Eraser, so I don't know who had the wisdom in this scenario. It certainly wasn't us. I'm not going to make this a long paragraph. We've been on a number of SLCs before, but this was the worst one we've rode to date. The literal worst. It was just non stop headbanging and elbowbanging from start to finish. Straight up, f*ck this ride. Unless they pull a SFNE or a Morey's and commit to replacing track and/or trains, I'm not going to be riding this one again, not even with my daughter when she gets tall enough. 5 out of 5. After a ride on their actual scrambler, we found ourselves back at the beginning of the park. We decided to try and fill in some of the remaining rides we missed on our first loop through. The kiddo took a ride on their Wave Swinger (I sat it out). We walked over to Ragin' Cajun to find them only running two cars and a full switchback; we decided to skip it. We went up to the Zydeco Zinger and got a ride in on that. They only were loading about 1/3 of the actual ride capacity, with empty benches left in every direction between any occupied benches. As such, this was our second longest wait of the day, but we still only had to wait one cycle. We were going to hop on Wild One next, but the chain was up for unspecified reasons, and so with limited time left in our day we decided to skip it as well. The kiddo was going to do Voodoo Drop by himself as well, but then just as he was about to get on it went down for maintenance as well. Some bad luck to round out the day. At this point, we had factored in a 5:00 PM leave to make it back home, but at 3:30, we were running out of things to do due to all these closures, so we decided just to call it after a ride on their antique cars. Since I was gonna be making the drive back up 95, I let him take the wheel for a few minutes. It was a good way to round out the day, and with a pretzel and bag of popcorn for the road, we left as two satisfied parkgoers. Yeah, it wasn't a perfect day, but in the scheme of things, we both felt that it was a much better experience than we had previously had, and so we'll probably be back at some point in the future. Maybe just as a pit stop on the way to Kings Dominion or Busch Gardens, probably not a whole destination like today, but it's definitely not being completely written off by us anymore! All in all, a great start to the 2021 season and a more than welcome return to something resembling normalcy for our family.

^ Hmm. No dates listed past September 6th. Wonder if that means they aren't planning on operating Haunt again this season. Good to see Wildwater actually reopening this year.

If I can't drive my own car through a big, bright, orange plastic loop at 80 MPH then no sale.

The Beast is literally the longest wooden coaster in the world, so not sure what you mean by that. You mean in your personal ride rankings?

Or, even more so, wind. When I was down there two years ago in February, there were "high" winds (like I want to say in the 15 MPH range) and they literally shut down all the coasters in the park until they died down. I ended up sticking it out and eventually got rides on all of them, but it was pretty miserable between them clearing out the queues, then letting people back in, then sending a test train, then clearing the queues out again. None of the other Texas parks I visited had such a restrictive wind policy.

That makes one of us!