n1ch0las

Airgates at Phoenix? What's next, a PLC for the Flyers? Kidding of course. The carousel organs are honestly one of my favorite parts about Knoebels! They had 6 on displays (all functional, of course) on my visit last year and were all in really impressive shape. Glad you had a good time!

^This. The only ever proven and reliable way to lose weight and keep it off is to track your calories ingested vs. calories burned. When you are walking around a park all day long you burn way more calories than a normal day at the office, thus a cheeseburger and fries (while not good for you) will likely be offset by the additional calories burned walking all day. More importantly, 3500 calories=1lb of weight. Even if you go all out eating in a theme park one day a month all summer you'd likely not even overeat enough to gain one pound by the end of the season. The trenches of weight loss come on the mundane Monday-Fridays of our lives when we generally sit all day long and still go home too tired to take an evening walk. Enjoy your trip to the theme park and eat what you feel is right, but don't allow that one day to trick your body into craving all those fried foods again once you're back home.

Other than the Grand Expo - I'd say yes. So a Screamin' Swing and S&S Shot Tower aren't "normal" rides you can't get anywhere else? SDC Themes the heck out of these things and makes them special, the same would go for a Starflyer if they built one.

For dealing mainly with wooden coasters, RMC sure knows how to set things on fire...

There is a lot of space around the Timber Wolf area, especially since the Topspin was taken out last year. They would need to change the access road, but you could easily fit a coaster and a half back there. That being said, I think we'd see more action by now if that were actually happening, like demo of the old Topspin station and a few marking flags. Looks like they might be saving the Condor and Troika for 2017 additions?

Man, reading these lists really makes me want to visit Knoebels again! Don't forget to bring a solid $20 cash to play Fascination!

WOF is just 15 minutes away from my house which is ideal. I can pop in right at opening or two hours before close and grab a few rides without things getting old. I imagine I'll get there at least 10 times this season. SDC is a really great park, but 3.5 hours away. Got a season pass though so hopefully between 4-5 times by Christmas.

Went to the park yesterday morning and only lasted 2 hours before deciding the heat was just not worth it! Good news was that in those two hours I got to marathon Prowler for 10 rides, and also snagged rides on Mamba and the Flyers. Everything was only operating one train (I've been to the park 4 times this year and haven't seen a second train operate on any roller coaster yet) but Prowler was so dead I didn't even have to get off. The op at Flyers thought I was crazy for wanting to ride a "kids ride" and then smiled as he realized that I knew how to ride them! At risk of continuing drama - I agree that the park just looked sad yesterday. That section where Moulin Rouge is located and also the area from Viking all the way to Prowler is in desperate need of a refresh of pavement and landscaping. I will say that the section near Steelhawk and the fountain looks really nice. Hope they keep up that improvement.

You have just made me yearn for a night ride on the Beast. I honestly had the same reaction when I got a few night rides on it back in 2010. Front row at night is just one of the best coaster experiences you can get, and it's more than just the ride - it's the energy that comes with it! Glad you enjoyed Day 1. Looking forward to reading the rest.

It really was a ghost town last night, but it looks like WOF was prepared for it. All rides were running one train, but it was still an average of a one train wait for everything. Was happy to see all rides operational and none shut down despite the low crowd levels. I might head back another night this week and snag some more rides on Prowler. That thing was hauling last night.

Heading to the park tonight to hopefully get a few rides in. Was surprised to see WOF open until 10PM despite is still being early June - will I be pleasantly surprised with low crowds after dinner? We shall see!

I'd believe it. I sound like a grumpy old man but operations at SFGAm just ain't what they used to be. Don't forget to budget a solid hour to stand in line for your slice of pizza as you battle all the dining pass holders as well!

Could just be a few more tweaks and they didn't want to run limited tech rehearsals during one of the busiest operating weekends of the year - they would have had to turn away thousands of people from riding...

^Hades will beat you to crap, sorry. Zeus will too, but it *may* be bearable in the front seat. Cyclops still rides pretty good, backseat or bust on that one though. Don't forget to stop at Timberfalls and ride their coaster (Hellcat, or Avalanche...or something?) which is one of the few S&S designs out there.

1. Nemesis 2. Dragons Ice (when they used to duel) 3. Batman (any park really, but SFGAm is always fun with water and trees) 4. Alpengiest 5. Afterburn Then it all sort of clumps together from there. Wasn't a huge fan of Raptor though, one ride and done usually for me.

Random question - planning on a visit on Memorial Day and wanted to make sure to do the cave tour in the afternoon to give us a break from the heat. With all the rain the region has had over the past week, do cave tours ever get cancelled? Also, should we show up well before the tour time to actually get on one, or are they not too popular even on busy days? Edit - anyone see the season long Trailblazer pass? $150 for unlimited skip the line until the end of the season. When you add that to a $95 season pass that's got to be one of the best deals in the theme park industry.

The whining is strong with this thread.

I think the biggest takeaway is how many more people traveled to theme parks last year. 5% boost for the top parks around the world is an impressive number, and shows how much more disposal income people have in general. Most of the parks that experienced a decrease were explainable - Sea World in California from Blackfish (and Sea World Florida only a 2% bump while other central Florida parks here 5% up) and Tokyo was an effect of more people visiting Universal after Potter's debut. China's growth is still exponential and will be for a few years, although I'd direct you to this interesting article from a few days ago examining all the building in China right now. 21 new parks last year, and 20 more under construction. http://www.scmp.com/property/hong-kong-china/article/1952256/china-building-too-many-theme-parks

Twisted Colossus at Magic Mountain, with a second half duel. That ride was way better than I was expecting, an absolute blast.

I wonder if it could be possible that Six Flags has increased its attendance, sold more dining passes, and not increased staffing appropriately in their F&B outlets which is causing long waits in plenty of parks?

Did that just get announced today? Asking since its still not available online and I'll be heading there on Saturday.

Personally, I'd skip Knott's this time since two of the best rides (Xcelerator and GhostRider) will be closed. Got here late, when's Xcelerator scheduled to reopen? Gonna be in SoCal this weekend but might skip Knotts if that's the case.

^Yeah I definitely noticed that. Chuckled to myself when I thought about how long it take SFGAm to get a train out, but they also had a pretty horrible station config with the tiny old Iron Wolf exit also serving as a wheelchair entrance, it's definitely a bit of a mess.

Sit. In. The. Back. It's similar to it's sister in Dollywood, but I remember the Dollywood version as being very tame. SDC's version will make you think you're going to die in the backseat. Yeah, this ended up being true. Also hit my elbow pretty hard at the bottom of that big hill, think I'll hang on next time. Sharing some photos of my day below. I had a great time and upgraded to a season pass at the end of the visit since this one day was totally worth the 7 hours of driving. (side note, I'm exhausted). Ended up riding everything but the kiddie coaster with minimal waits around the park, the longest being Fire in the Hole at about 15 minutes - not bad! I caught a cave tour as well which I was really impressed with, our guide was awesome. Can confirm I put down about 2000 calories at lunch between Cinnamon Bread and a skillet meal, but it was worth it in the end. Already planning the next trip with my wife as I know she's gonna love this place as much as I did. By a happy coincidence I walked by Powder Keg as it started testing for the day. Front row was a bit shaky, but fun. All of the yes. Wildfire was standard B&M. Enjoyed Kumba and Hulk better but this one has better scenery. Most parks discourage knives inside their premises... "We swear to god this isn't Dumbo": The Ride So many shows, this was a magic show that was mildly funny. The cave tour was awesome. It's difficult to describe the scale of the first room you descend down, but the tiny staircase in the corner was actually about 60 feet tall. Plus the cave was beautiful. Scariest ride of the day was packing 60 people on this old tiny train that's just pulled by a steel cable up a very steep hillside. Anyone know if these rides (also Orient Express at SFMM) have redundant brakes? Is this a good score? Only rode it the once, but felt proud of my efforts. Hello, gorgeous. This ride is crazy.

Currently at the park for the first time. Rode Outlaw Run 5x to start the day, hit a few more rides and now I'm enjoying a ridiculous skillet near a waterfall. How awesome is this park?