Danrarbc

I noticed more food places open early in the season than the last couple years too. Heck the drink refill station by the front entrance was open on a Sunday in early April. I definitely think something improved in staffing.

Had my first visit of 2022 today, Sunday. The changes this season begin in the parking lot. There are at least 5 security camera masts throughout the lot now. Approaching the entrance the canopy over the ticket takers has been repainted and it's blue and white now. Which if memory serves is more like it was a couple decades ago with the old structure. Catwoman is coming along, though a fair amount is still framing. There are still stairs from Bugs Bunny National Park to the upper bit of Illinois but they're all-new. As for Eagle. The entrance is improved but they aren't done with it. Looks like it'll have full ADA-compliance with a new ramp still going in. It leads to the entrance side of the platform though. Also got a couple shots of the changes to the Palace area. That's about it for my short stop. Never got to see the DC comics and Log Flume/American Thunder loop. Mooseburger being converted to 100% mobile ordering only is pretty nice and the menu has been expanded. But there are still some omissions from this menu (no loaded nacho option, nothing with a hot dog in it). Macho Nacho and World's Fair Hot Dogs are both back this year. I'll leave you with the rest of my Catwoman photos.

It's the corn maze. You can see other Fright Fest items in place around the park. Google's had these images up for at least a few weeks.

Well, mostly. Little bit of faded red poking though.

That's a total of 6 inversions!!!

Actually that part of Gotham sits on land that park didn't originally own. Flashback was closer to where their Skyflyer is.

Flashback opened in 1989. It's nearly Ninja's age.

New trains aren't cheap. The track and support work isn't either.

I mean, yeah but I don't think it's a coincidence the decision came with a year or two of the Hulk rebuild.

You're not wrong but the cycles are going to count for something. A year-round park is going to have far more run time than a park that is seasonal - SFMM's BTR has more cycles on it than any other and I'd expect it to need action taken before the rest. Universal rebuilt Hulk after only 16 years and Dueling Dragons didn't last any longer there. But Iron Wolf's track still lives on even with floorless trains. Though Nemesis is also being retracked and that isn't a year round park. So I guess service life is a fluid thing and it really depends on how comfortable a park is with ongoing maintenance and refurbishment costs. I mean our Mine Train is running on 50 year old rails, and SFOT's is running on 55 year old rails.

Hey if Hersheypark can have two

I mean if want to talk 'complete' Sorry, not sorry. I'm excited for what 2022 will bring though. Now that we've heard a bit more from the new management structure it sounds like effort is being made to elevate the chain - even food.

I don't know what goes in to selecting the cycle but if it's something really simple it'd be really fun to run it (and other flats when possible) on a higher intensity cycle for special events. Kinda like how Kentucky Kingdom does supercharged waves in the wave pool for Keys to the Kingdom. And Holiday World disables trims for some events on Voyage.

Overall the single seaters seem to just make me slightly less queasy - the Gs are pulled on-axis to your center of gravity as opposed to being offset to the left or right. Certainly nothing unique though, I didn't find it that different than SFOT. Outlaw is in fact the same 16 rider model. And I'm trying not to use the word glacial to describe the pace of the line but frankly that's what it is. Even with a short cycle it takes a long time to lock the arm in place, get the seats in the correct position, the lift raised and the restraints unlocked and locked. Unfortunately even if they could run it with twice the riders it'll still be an annoying pace because it's just a long load/unload process no matter what. The ride looks great I'm just not sure it'll ever be truly viable for real amusement parks. I'll still ride it, probably have a blast and maybe even consider it my favorite flat in the park. None of that will change that in operation these don't seem too practical

Actually Great Escape has Adirondack Outlaw. It's the same model as Catwoman. Edit: Also Supergirl isn't unique in the chain.

Still better than Pantheon's theming.

Comes from the Supergirl school of theming.

Real shame that they couldn't have at least done a 6-wide configuration. Videos demonstrate the capacity of the one at Great Escape is atrocious. Six Flags should have never considered this ride model.

If the design is the same as Adirondack with no theming added between the seats there won't be much of anything higher than eye level. A couple inches of the seat itself over your head.

If the ride is going vertical right now that puts it well ahead of any sort of flat ride schedule in recent memory. At this point if it is still a May open it'll be due to the new area that needs constructed and whatever the new Eagle queue ends up being.

All I want to say is a removal of HITP is really hard to reconcile with season passes getting more expensive than Cedar Fair. Those new prices are insane for what Six Flags is (currently) as a chain. Reducing the number of operating days and removing a premium holiday event reduce the value for money proposition - to add higher prices to that is to put it mildly a questionable strategy. Removing park presidents that have been making the kind of capital improvements that'd justify price increases is also worrying.

It was indeed the correct call and kept the most people safe. Active rotation didn't pass too far north of the park either.

I guess they figure 3 hours of normal operation isn't worth it.

Only a couple rides closed now that were open previous seasons. Nice to see.

Wanted to get out there this weekend but the warden said no.