mschisano

^ I second that! You can never go wrong with a dedicated beer fridge.

That is very true, but at the same time, if it's just test track, why bother going through the process of painting the track a separate color from the supports? Why not just slap a coat of a single color for environmental protection and call it good?

Has anyone else noticed that both Railblazer and Wonder Woman have different color schemes than the test track at RMC? I wonder if we will be seeing a 3rd Raptor this year.

Excellent report as ever Bill! Reading these last few entries reminds me even more so how I need to get myself to the East Coast to hit up some parks!

This pet peeve is not limited to parks but rather any public location: People who stop in the middle of a walkway / path to figure something out or look something up on their phone. Its like, just move off to the side, figure your sh*t out then continue on. Don't block a path because you do know what the heck you are doing.

Thank you for the toll advice! That was a major unknown for me and figured it would take some researching on my end.

Hi All, To answer some of the questions/suggestions please see my current tentative itinerary. It still needs to be approved by the gf as she want to do a lot of non-park stuff: Day 1: Holiday World Day 2: Kentucky Kingdom Day 3: Kings Island Day 4: Cedar Point Day 5: Cedar Point Day 6: Kennywood Day 7: Knoebels Day 8: Dorney Park Day 9: Six Flags Great Adventure Day 10: Hershey Park Day 11: Hershey Park Day 12: Kings Dominion Day 13: Busch Gardens Williamsburg Day 14: Carowinds Day 15: Dollywood Day 16: Dollywood In terms of traveling I was planning on driving to the next park when finished with the previous. I know this can be exhausting however the longest drive is about 5 hours, there will be 2 of us, and there is always the option to get a hotel room half way between the parks to sleep overnight.

I did think about adding SFGAdv, and the expense is not too bad given it would allow me access to SFDK and SFMM. The biggest concern right now is time. I am pretty sure I will be able to take up to 3 weeks off of work however I don't know about my gf. I had figured my next big east coast trip would hit SFGAdv and some of the smaller parks in the area.

First off, thank you for all of your responses! I knew I would hear something about Knoebels. To be honest I did not want to leave it out but the trip was already getting to be on the long side. The reason I had 2 days at KD and Carowinds was based on the coaster count however if we are able to do both of these parks in 1 day, I will definitely add Knoebels. There will only be 2 of us on the trip and fast lane passes are not out of the picture, we were just going to wait on those until we had the dates finalized and purchase accordingly.

Hi Henry, Thank you for your comments. My girlfriend is already looking for non-coaster things to do. We might add another day to CP however that is the one park that we have already been to so we figured 2 days would be enough given not too much will have changed since we were there last (2015). -Matt

Hi Robb, First off, thank you for such a wonderful site! I have been a lurker for years but finally decided to start posting not too long ago. I am in the process of planning a sizable road trip for early next season (early June 2017) and have the preliminary itinerary as follows: Day 0: Fly from west coast to Nashville (red eye) Day 1: Holiday World Day 2: Kentucky Kingdom Day 3: Kings Island Day 4: Kings Island Day 5: Cedar Point Day 6: Cedar Point Day 7: Kennywood Day 8: Dorney park Day 9: Hershey Park Day 10: Hershey Park Day 11: Kings Dominion Day 12: Kings Dominion Day 13: Carowinds Day 14: Carowinds Day 15: Dollywood Day 16: Dollywood With the exception of Cedar Point, all of these will be new parks with new credits for me. My first question is, does the distribution of days relative to the associated park look reasonable? I know it is impossible to predict crowds, and there will always be the option to get a fast lane pass, however if this spread works, I would rather save the money. My next question is, is this plan doable? I am confident that I will not get burned out however, although my girlfriend loves theme parks, I would not say she is at the same level as most of us on this site. Finally, is there anything in close proximity to these parks that would be considered a must visit should we want a break from the parks? Thank you again, and I hope the rest of your European trip goes smoothly. -Matt

I voted "other" as well. For me it is a toss up between Maverick and Takabisha.

Are my eyes playing tricks on me or did they leave one of the trains at the base of the lift hill?

Damn! I though spring break was over the weekend of April 1st... Oh well I just have to be smart with the fast passes. Thanks for the heads up! Edit: Any chance that the opening of Harry Potter World up the road might take away some of the crowds?

Hi All, I am going to be down in SoCal the weekend of April 9th and plan on taking my girlfriend to the park on Sunday the 10th. Any thoughts on the expected crowds? Thanks in advance.

The coaster is in one of the harshest environments in the world, and this guy wants trees. In all seriousness, I agree anything other than a concrete slab out there would look nice, but it would be a nightmare to either keep alive or keep looking fresh hence both exterior coasters being painted white.

It will be interesting to see how fast the rest of the coaster goes up. It seems like the supports for the remaining portion of the ride are pretty vanilla (i.e. self supporting, not requiring a crane to hold the support while the new piece is lifted).

Maybe it is just me, but does anyone else find it weird the way they assembled the MCBR underneath the supports that the MCBR will be above? It just seems to me like it would have been easier to assemble the MCBR close to it's location, but not underneath supports. Now when they go to raise it in place they will have to go around, and over the support above where the MCBR is sitting. Not trying to "be an engineer" here, or say that "they don't know what they are doing" when obviously they do know what they are doing, and there is a reason for the way they do everything that they do... I just find it odd the placement of the MCBR right now. That is all. I agree, it does look like an interesting spot for the MCBR to be assembled and staged. It will be interesting to see how it goes up in the coming days.

That makes a helluva lot more sense than the convoluted method I was thinking. Thanks!

Any thoughts on how they are going to bridge the gap between the new support and the existing track? It looks like the two pieces that they assembled previously are not long enough to bridge the gap. I am guessing the following sequence: 1) Use orange/yellow crane located under the new immelmann support to lift a new piece of track and attach it to the new support. 2) Use the same crane and rigging to support he unstable support and track assembly 3) Disconnect current yellow crane supporting the immelmann support and use it the lift the 2 piece assembly to bridge the gap. I know B&M has very detailed assembly sequences and that they know what they are doing, I am just trying to figure it out on my lunch break.

^ I was thinking it was our crappy internet at work, but I guess the stream is down at the moment.

The 9th is a Thursday so hopefully the lines aren't too bad. That sounds like a solid plan, I have always found a good coaster to be better than any cup of coffee in the mornings. Thank you again for all of the tips everyone!

Thanks for all of the tips! I am definitely looking forward to this conference now!

Hi All, I just realized that I will be in Maryland for work June 6th-8th and I could extend the trip and go to King's Dominion. If I were to visit the park on the 9th, would I be able to hit all the rides in one day or would I need two days to do the job? I will be by myself and have no problem running from ride to ride, hurdling small children if required. I figure, the lines should be fairly short since it will be a weekday and early in the season. Also, do any of the rides have single rider lines? Thanks in advance ~Matt

It looks like there is a staircase and a bridge leading towards the left of the picture below from the mid course brake run. rcdb.com/92.htm#p=161 (just in case the picture does not show up above) However since I have neither ridden Anaconda nor been to Kings Dominion yet, please correct me if I am wrong.