I Like Theme Parks.

Obviously most people at least like Grizzly at Kings Dominion, but I absolutely love it! I'd actually put it as the second best ride in the park, right behind I305. And it's definitely a back-row ride for sure. It can get pretty rough with repeated rides, but there's both really good ejector and floater airtime moments spread throughout the ride, and the laterals are outstanding. And that's not even getting into the great setting, awesome tunnel and pitch-black night rides. Now onto some actual bad rides. I hate Vekoma boomerangs (except for the few that are smooth) and SLCs obviously. Also Wildcat at Hershey is also pretty awful. The roughness would be at least tolerable if it had some better elements.

Due to the re-tracking, I've actually found Roar at Six Flags America to actually be a really fun ride! The turns have some laterals, the twistiness is a lot of fun and there's a few airtime hills that really deliver. It would be better as an RMC, but it really doesn't have to become one, and it seems like Six Flags is trying to preserve it. And if El Toro gets the RMC treatment, I would die. People say that it's getting rougher, but there's barely even a rattle. It still feels like what it was meant to be: a really smooth wooden coaster that still has a wooden feel to it. I wouldn't even give it re-tracking for at least a few more years.

I'm going to go with the DC-themed kiddie area re-theme and/or a Sky Screamer. And I think they'll "celebrate" Wild One's anniversary with a banner outside the ride or something, but nothing involving work.

Yeah, I was actually pretty impressed and surprised by the landscaping and atmosphere! And the operations are really good, too. Afterburn alone is enough of a reason to travel a long way to the park, and Fury is even better, so people definitely have to go here.

1. I would wait until you get into the park and ride some things to get a feel for how the crowds will be. If you are able to go for more than one day or just an extra partial day then you don't need the pass. If you only have one day, I'd start with the left side of the park since it has lower-capacity rides and Kingda Ka always gets crowded. 2. The absolute must-ride coasters are El Toro, Nitro, Bizarro, The Joker and Kingda Ka. The other important coasters are Batman: The Ride and Superman: Ultimate Flight because you have them at Great America, and also Runaway Mine Train and Skull Mountain (sit in the back row on that one!) are nice rides, too. The other coasters are pretty much credit whore coasters. 3. The Safari is wonderful, and you just wait for it like any other ride. It gets a long line later in the day, but that area opens a half hour later I think, along with Bizzaro and the mine train. So I would get onto a few other rides on the left side of the park, then get to it when it opens. It's around an hour, so it will take up a lot of time. 4. The other attraction you must do is Zumanjaro, obviously. Swashbuckler, Sky Screamer, Twister and El Diablo are fun flat rides and Houdini is really cool. But I would only wait a short time for those.

I think it opens a half hour later.

^^Definitely ride Flying Turns as early as possible, then do the Flyer and anything else you want to do in that area. From there I usually go to the front of the park around Impulse, then over to the section with Satellite. But there isn't much of a ride order to go by, since the layout is a bit random, the operations are great, and there are so many flat rides that the crowds get spread out so they don't get lines.

Ride order at Dorney Park? The park is legendary for its lack of crowds, even on really "crowded" days, so you can pretty much go wherever you want. But I would start with early entry on Talon, then after the rest of the park opens go to the left side of the park with the two shuttle inverted coasters which obviously have lower capacities. Then just loop around.

Actually at this event the people weren't that bad and there weren't as many people as I thought there would be.

Some of my favorites that aren't listed in my signature: Zumanjaro Zipper Kangaroo Downdraft Sky Scraper Larson/ARM towers Air Race Intamin 1st generation drop rides Anything made by Eyerly is also really cool.

If you're a single rider, they let you use any row as long as there are three people or less in the row you want. And I believe you can wait extra for the front, since they actually set up a line divider as a makeshift front queue in the station. I'm not sure how it works with fast lane.

I just finished the rest of the ERT for the event, so here's what I got on since the Surfside ERT. Saturday night: Screamin' Swing Grand Prix Raceway - I like the new track much better. There were so many terrible drivers, that it felt more like high-speed bumper cars. There were some people who had to get kicked off, but some drivers still kept crashing. Saturday night ERT: Great White x 15 - This was awesome! It was running really well, and they turned all the lights off, so it was really dark. For the first six rides, I was in a middle row without getting off. Then I walked around twice to go in the front, then for the final seven rides I was in the second-to-last row (my favorite row on this one) without getting up until the last train of the night! The crew for the ride was great and enthusiastic, and they were loading the trains quickly. I've been riding this coaster for years, and it's great to see it getting even better! Sunday ERT: Moby Dick Wave Swinger Flying Galleon Rollie's Coaster Music Express Sea Serpent - It's a smoother boomerang, and this was one of my smoothest rides on it. Super Scooters Carousel - This is one of the nicest carousels I've seen. There's a huge variety in the horses/seats. Kite Flyer Spring Shot - The airtime at the beginning is great. I usually don't do upcharge rides, but we got free unlimited upcharge rides, and had ERT on them! Great White - Obviously not as great as last night, but it's still really good in the morning. Sky Coaster x 2 - This was my first sky coaster, and it was awesome! It's actually not that scary or intense, just really fast and fun. Screamin' Swing x 4 - We were able to keep riding without getting off! Sky Scraper - Amazing ride like always. So Morey's Piers has an awesome flat ride lineup, but with the free upcharge rides it's on a whole new level! This was an incredible event, and I'm definitely going to all the Wildwood events in the future.

I'm here with my whole family for Coastin' by the Ocean. I've only been in ACE for a little less than a year, but this is the best event I've been to so far! And we're not even done with the first of two days! So far we got the ERT on Surfside Pier, along with lights-on walkthrough tours of Dante's Dungeon and Ghost Ship. The tours were really cool, and they really give you a great appreciation for all of the details in those rides and how they always keep them working. And apparently the scene with the animatronic bear with the skeleton in the glowing black light cave was completely from the Golden Nugget. (None of the original animatronics went to Knoebels, they used new ones and replicated some of them.) Here are the rides done so far: Atmosfear x 5 - Excellent. Kong x 2 - There was a really decent breeze all morning, so there was actually some snapping! Obviously not that much, but it was surprising. They actually played a recording to go easier on the sails, so I just put my hands up and didn't touch the sail, and it was able to do one more snap by itself. We thought that was hilarious! So yeah, not insane but it was about the level of snapping on Kings Dominion's flyers. It x 5 - It's IT! Flitzer - Great family coaster Rockin' Tug - SCARIEST RIDE EVER!!!!! Tilt-a-Whirl - This is still one of the most consistent and strong tilt-a-whirls out there. Doo Wopper - Kind of lame. Zoom Phloom x 5 - Three of the rides in a row were a marathon without getting off, and then the two were also in a row. This is seriously the highlight so far! It's really a great long flume with an awesome location and cool scenery. I must have accidentally had the same crack that coasterbill is on, because between this, Shenandoah Lumber Co. and especially Coal Cracker, I've been really loving all the fumes I've ridden this week! Dante's Dungeon - I did the tour, and knowing how everything works actually made it more interesting. I'll either add to this post later or make separate ones where I talk about the midnight ERT on Great White we're going to have and the ERT on Mariner's and Adventure piers tomorrow. And also, the staff is excellent! The operations are solid for a smaller park that's not crowded, and everyone was really energetic and nice. They really care about the guests, and a great example is how the Dante's Dungeon tour was completely unplanned and they decided to do it because it's cool.

My friend's dad thought El Toro was being removed. There was a pass holder ERT advertisement saying that you could be the last riders on it. It meant for the night, but he thought they meant forever. I would die if that happened!

It looks kind of like the teacups ride at Knoebels, but I'm not sure if it's that actual model or some sort of copy.

Alright. There's tons of really stupid things being spread in the media due to some of the recent amusement park accidents. The Smiler guy is funny, but some of these news sites are just outright throwing out biased, unedited articles about serious ride accidents like they have never done before. Hold on tight, folks, we're about to head into a long, boring rant about some of the most idiotic statements that the news outlets have been spewing out. First I'm going to discuss the inaccurate or biased things in the media, then the illogical reactions from the general public. So the first thing I have to mention is what happened with the Schlitterbahn death reporting. Reports were coming out saying that the kid was 12, and people were sticking with that for a few hours, when suddenly it turned out that he was 10. Really, the age is a bit irrelevant, but how do you get such simple information wrong?! And here's the icing on the vomit cake: my parents had Fox News on (wow, amazing source I know) I overheard a "teaser" of sorts about how they were going to cover the story. And they guy said that a 10-year-old GIRL was killed! That was a wtf moment for sure. The other main thing that I wanted to cover was the media's reaction to the Rollo Coaster accident that happened literally a few hours ago. Most articles were discussing the other recent accidents, and then went on to list some statistics on amusement ride accidents. Now this would be okay, except the way they worded everything and didn't give the full story, discarding facts that are vital to explaining many of these accidents. In this article, they started a paragraph by simply saying that thousands of children are injured in amusement ride accidents. Although this is technically true, they listed such detailed facts, even down to the percentage of the accidents that resulted in neck injuries, except they completely left out the fact that so many stories come out saying that the actually nearly unavoidable due to rider error. They also went on to show clips of parks like Six Flags Great Adventure and Busch Gardens Tampa while they were discussing the "lack of restrictions" put on amusement parks. But the truth is you can make any amount of laws you want, but that doesn't mean that human error, dangerous behavior and below-standard inspections/operations will suddenly magically disappear! And them showing professionally-built roller coasters in well-developed parks is pretty misleading, seeing as how large portions of accidents happen in travelling fairs and water parks. I just caught another strange thing, and it's that at the end of the video, they state that there is "not one standard" for ride safety. While literally SECONDS before, they said that it's handled at the state and local levels. There are a few articles that just get the story out, such as the local Pittsburgh news report, but unfortunately tons of them are extremely biased and misleading. Now onto the reactions from the general public. If there's one thing about humans I know, it's that it seems like way too many of them can't comprehend the concept of someone being "innocent until proven guilty." These investigations are still in process, and everyone is jumping to conclusions about what happened. For example, so many concerned parents on Facebook (I may leave that site forever soon) were going on about how they would never let their kids on "dangerous" rides at Disney, Six Flags, Cedar Fair, etc. parks. These people will tend to talk about how "evil and corrupt" the parks are, and they seem to always blame the parks for these accidents, when like I said before, so many of them are caused by rider error. Until these investigations go on, there will be no definitive answer to what really happened. It could be the rider's fault, the operator's fault, the park's fault, the manufacturer's fault (in extremely rare cases), or it may remain a mystery for many years. Automatically being overly-strict to your children because you think the big bad amusement parks are out to kill them is absolutely ridiculous, just like how blaming the victim is also completely illogical.

The Great Escape. I could put this here for The Comet alone, but they also have a very solid flat ride collection. And what really surprised me was the theming and scenery. It has a really nice location and everything was clean and well-decorated when I visited the park, and it doesn't even feel like a Six Flags park! As an overall experience, it's probably my favorite Six Flags park I've been to, just beating out SFGAd, and blowing away SFNE and SFA.

I really want to go to Waldameer so badly. But I've never been able to get there due to the distance so it's the only major Pennsylvania park I want to get to but haven't.

But the Bucket of Blood and weird indoor iceberg teacup things sounded like pretty silly but charming and fun rides. And also if Dorney stayed independent (or at least with a company like Palace), Thunderhawk may have never been trimmed and it would have been re-tracked more often. If Dorney Park went the Knoebels/Kennywood route by being an old-school park that also has new modern rides, that alternate timeline may have still had Talon being built.

Knoebels may not be for fans of modern corporate parks, so I can see how those people wouldn't be impressed.

This park is extremely tiny, but I actually think Clementon Park should be mentioned. A few years ago it was beyond sketchy, but the park has made a decent recovery since then. It has a carnival-type atmosphere, but there's actually some nice scenery, and the lake looks great! It has a good nighttime atmosphere in particular. They have a portable 90 ft. A.R.M. tower, but it's still better than most drop towers! They also have a Larson Loop, a really good log flume that's completely over water, and of course there's Hellcat. It's a really rough and beats you up, but it's really short so it's not that painful. It has some a$$-kicking airtime moments and great laterals. And the pacing is excellent. So while it has a bad reputation, the park has made a bit of a comeback and I can't wait to see how it is in a few years. I'm 20 minutes away from it, so it's convenient for me so I've been able to "learn" how to ride Hellcat.

I'd go with Busch Gardens Williamsburg. It's a bit of a close call, but I enjoy BGW a tiny bit more, and it's more of a complete overall experience because it's a perfect combination between a Disney park and a coaster park. If you like dark rides, Curse of DarKastle is a really fun dark ride, and Escape From Pompeii is a great water ride with an outstanding dark ride section. Again, the theme is so immersive and detailed so if theming is your thing BGW is the way to go. Also, the last drop on Apollo's Chariot and Griffon's two drops are probably the strongest B&M airtime moments (that aren't on Fury 325, obviously). Alpengeist is one of the greatest masterpieces known to mankind, Tempesto is a short but fun ride, Verbolten is a bit tame but very unique, and Loch Ness Monster is very underrated and it's a classic.

The workers I experienced weren't as terrible as the ones mentioned before, but they were just so impressively consistent at being miserable and slow. I'd easily put Jolly Roger's ride ops above them. They were slow as hell and b*tchy, but at least that's a tiny park where the operations don't matter that much.

Well I still have no reason to go back since we have The Joker at SFGAd, but it's going to be one of the best rides for SFNE!

If there was enough time, stopping at Six Flags America for a couple hours for Wild One, Roar (there was even more re-tracking so there's no excuses), Superman, Batwing and Joker's Jinx would be a good idea. But the rest of the coasters aren't interesting and their flat rides are pretty generic. Also, it would only be genuinely enjoyable if it was before the Summer season.