I Like Theme Parks.

Quassy Amusement Park is very close to Lake Compounce, and it's a tiny park but it's wonderful. It's next to a nice lake in the woods, and it has a nice charm to it. Wooden Warrior is epic, and their newest flat rides, Frantic and Reverse Time are great. Their water park seems nice for a small park, and there are so many family flat rides in such a small space. Edit: I forgot to mention that there are like 7 or something mountain coasters around the New England area. Mountain Coasters are awesome!

2 days ago it was hauling a$$! It was the normal speed over the lift hill, and the airtime was mental as always.

I was at the park on Sunday and it went down a few times, but they were literally able to get it back up in 5 minutes. It was running both trains, so they might be just putting up with the breakdowns since it's easy for them to fix.

^^It's disappointing to hear about the operations that day. When I went the ride operators weren't anything too special, but they were decently fast and there were multiple trains and multiple ride operators on most things.

It's been a few days since I've been on the thread because of my trip, so I didn't get to talk about my second day. It basically consisted of 4x Volcano during early entry, Avalanche, 2x I305, 2x Anaconda, and we finished with Shenandoah Lumber Co. since there wasn't enough time on the first day. It was a huge surprise in the trip, because it's an excellent flume that doesn't get mentioned that much.

So I took my first visit to Kings Dominion today from 2:30 until closing at 10. Even though it was just 2/3 of a day, it was enough time to do almost everything. The only lines were the long lines on Volcano and short lines for Intimidator 305. I305 was down for most of the day and the staff said they probably won't be able to get it ready, but they managed to open it during the evening. The workers were pretty friendly, and the operations were decent. A lot of the park had some nice charm to it that I wasn't expecting. I met up with Coaster Studios and Coaster Fanatic multiple times during the day, so that was cool. Also earlier we stopped at Central Park Funland and we met Clint Novak. I was there to ride their Rock-O-Plane, which was a really cool ride. But back to the actual park. I had a really great first impression from the park, and I'm going tomorrow. Here's the ride list: Dominator x 3 - back, front, middle rows - This is a really great coaster! It has great hang-time, and it's very forceful. I love how it focused less on inversions, and more on the turns. It's a smooth and addictive ride. Woodstock Express - back row - This is a nice little ride, and the second drop had insane airtime! The first drop also had some floater air. The rest of the coaster was very mild. Volcano - front row - The theming was much more interesting than I was expecting. The actual ride is great and smooth, and the turn at the beginning is really awesome! Avalanche - back row - It's no Flying Turns, but it's a really good family ride. The Crypt - 8 inversions! Great Adventure's only has 4! And the flips are really forceful, too. Wonderful flat ride. Backlot Stunt Coaster - back row - It's a little jerky, but it's fun. Nothing to really rave about, but it's fantastic for kids. Anaconda x 3 - front, middle rows - This was a huge surprise! It's pretty rough, but it's a fun coaster with an excellent drop and great inversions. It think it's in the top 5 coasters in the park. Flight of Fear - front row - It's a bit rougher than Joker's Jinx, but because of the theme they're about equal. Drop Tower - Pretty good drop tower. It's better than the 2nd generation Intamin towers, but not as good as the other ones. It's really fast, so that's great! Delirium - Easily the best flat ride in the park! It's not quite as good as MaxAir and Black Widow, mostly because of the short ride cycle. Rebel Yell - row 2 - This was another pleasant surprise. It was really smooth, and there was some nice moments of long-sustained floater airtime. I was on the red side and lost the race. It has a great old-school feel. Intimidator 305 x 3 - back, front, middle rows - One of the best roller coasters of all time! It had tons of ejector air which I didn't expect, and the turns were simply mind-blowing. It may be the most intense coaster I've been on. Best ride in the park by far! 2 of these rides were night rides, which only made it better. Wind Seeker - I rode this at night, and it was tame but wonderful. It has some amazing views. Flying Eagles x 2 - A pretty nice set of flyers. There's some snapping, but not that much. But it's one of the better flyers. Nice family ride. Grizzly x 5 - front, back, mostly back row - WOW! What an incredible night ride! I rode with Taylor and Coaster Fanatic, and we had a great marathon. You are really in the woods and you can't see the track in front of you. It's a little rough, but not painful. The laterals are amazing, and there was some great airtime in the back! This is easily the 2nd best ride in the park. One of the most underrated coasters of all time.

I'm pretty excited about this, actually. The Reese's tower is kind of stupid, but the Double Shot-sized tower and Hershey bar towers are cool. It seems like they're all running the combo tower program on all of them if you read the description, and that's easily the best S&S tower type.

What rides have shorter lines around the afternoon/evening? I'd guess that would be the rides near the front of the park like a lot of places. Also, the next day we're getting on Volcano and Flight of Fear for early entry. Should I complete the whole left side of the park, and if so, what areas/rides should I go to next? I'm pretty sure the flat rides in the back-middle next would be the best strategy, but I'm just checking to see if there could be improvements.

There are quite a few very solid flat rides at Lakemont Park, and Skyliner is great and Leap the Dips (which I didn't get to ride) is unique because it's the oldest operating coaster. The way the park is run is just horrible, though! This year Leap the Dips, which is their main attraction, was shut down for almost half the season. And so many of their rides are always closed. Leap the Dips and Skyliner, along with some flat rides should be sold off (maybe to Delgrosso's!) and the park should just be put down.

I think it's good that they're working on Roar more. It's actually one of my 2nd favorite ride in the park and I enjoyed it a lot! I think it would be a bit of a waste to RMC it because it's a great ride when it's smooth, while there are plenty of worse wooden coasters in the chain that need the treatment more. And while an RMC would be a good fit for Six Flags America, I can't see them ever getting one.

Which plan would be the best for going on rides in what order? I'm going onto Fury 325 first for early entry, but I don't know what to do after that. Obviously Nighthawk and Carolina Cobra should be ridden early due to low capacity, but I'd like to figure out a more specific plan. So here are the rides I want to go on (keep in mind I have 1 full day and 1 morning/early afternoon): Highest-priority rides (things I must ride): Fury 325, Intimidator, Nighthawk, Afterburn, Carolina Cyclone, Woodstock Gliders. Medium-priority rides (things I really want to ride): Carolina Cobra, Carolina Goldrusher, WindSeeker, Drop Tower, Scream Weaver, Woodstock Express. Low-priority rides (things I'd ride with a short line): Hurler, Ricochet, Plants vs. Zombies. Whatever rides (things I'd ride with no line): Vortex, smaller rides.

When I went on my second trip there it was absolutely pouring for a part of the day. When it rains very hard, they still run most of the flat rides, the water rides and their dark ride. Most of the coasters run in the rain, as long as it's not a downpour. I'm not sure what weather Phobia can handle.

I like Wild One on wheel seats. Even in the completely last row is tolerable enough. And in the non-wheel seats it's almost as smooth as a Knoebels or Kennywood woodie! Even if it was horrifically rough, the amazing airtime alone would make it worth it.

I think it's for the better that Kings Dominion is just focusing on atmosphere, flat rides and family rides. Their coaster and thrill ride collections seem very well-rounded, and parks like Carowinds (even with Fury) need their turns to get more major attractions.

^^Sounds like an average day at Six Flags.

NONONONONO!!!!!

Comet isn't that exciting, but it's small and isn't really supposed to be. But with the nice scenery and even a couple small pops of air, it makes for a perfect old-school family woodie. It's also my first larger coaster, so I love it because of that, too.

As long as the Intamins, Great Bear, and Lightning Racer are open you can get the best ones. Wildcat honestly is like Lightning Racer (in terms of layout and air time) if you remove the racing and add bumpiness. Lightning Racer is a far superior wooden coaster, you really aren't missing anything with Wildcat. My family and I even prefer Comet over Wildcat. I agree. Comet is an excellent family coaster, and much better than Wildcrap. Even if Lightning Racer became rough, it would still be great because it has tons of quickly-paced floater airtime moments, more forceful and lateral-filled turns and the dueling adds so much to the experience. And the pacing and layout are nice.

I think Wildcat sucks, just not as much as some people hate it. It's a bit too rough for me, but that wouldn't be as much as an issue if it had a more enjoyable layout. The layout is alright I guess, but it's not that special. The turns could use some more laterals and forcefulness, the pacing is a bit slow, and there's a few moments of floater air, but nothing that makes up for the roughness in my opinion.

The end of Roar is rougher, but nothing too noticeable for a wooden coaster. And near the end there are some of the more intense moments, so that makes up for the roughness and distracts me from it.

On the first page you can just download it and watch it on Windows media player or something simple like that. I just watched it and it is a genuinely beautiful and emotional documentary, and an inspirational piece of art.

I was at the park today from about 10:10-12:10. It must have been some kind of world record for the most crowded day at Dorney Park ever, since there were quite a few summer camps. I actually skipped Hydra because the line seemed to be at least 30 minutes long. But everything else was about a 10-minute wait or less. I also didn't ride Thunder Creek Mountain or Meteor because I decided to take extra rides on Talon instead. The staff was pretty hit-or-miss, with some really great, fast, nice, hard-working operators and workers, but an equal amount of slow, lazy operators who must have been competing in a contest to see who could look the most miserable. There wasn't much in-between, which was a bit odd. Overall, the operations were pretty slow, but it really only affected Hydra, with the line for Thunderhawk growing quite a bit by the time we rode it. But we got a lot done in just 2 hours, since even a packed day at Dorney Park is equal to below-average crowds for most parks. Here's the rides: Enterprise: I got a ride on this by myself, and the operator was very nice and friendly. It's running like an Enterprise normally does, which means it's awesome! Dominator: Once again, the ride operators for the Dominator towers were really nice and polite. Launched drop towers are nice, but it's wimpy compared to: Dominator: This was my dad's first ride on a drop tower despite him also being a park enthusiast, and he actually thought it wasn't that bad! The airtime was great as always. Whip: Man, I always forget how much I love this whip! It's not close to Kennywood's, but it has the fast whipping that the Hershey and Knoebels ones lack, even though those are great, too. Possessed - front row: This ride felt a little bit more fun than my first ride on it earlier in the season. I was just really in the mood for a simple impulse coaster today. Stinger - row 6: This blows away even the smoothest traditional boomerang, and some of the transitions are a little rough, but still smooth enough. This is such an underrated ride. Runaway Steel Train - row 3: This was my best ride on Steel Forceless yet. This is definitely the best row, and the floater airtime is nice, and I love the helix. Nothing is intense on this ride, but I just find it to be tons of fun. One of Morgan's best mine trains! Revolution: Still way too short, but I can't say no to a frisbee! Thunderhawk - row 5: The middle row of the second car is actually a little smoother than the front row! It's not that rough rattling-wise, but the way the transitions between the turns were built were quite sloppy. There's some good floater airtime and laterals, but those trims keep the ride from being really great. The operations were noticeably awful here. One train and 5-minute dispatches aren't a good combination. Demon Drop: It's Demon Drop!!! Talon x 3 - back row, left seat each time: Talon was running like a monster today! It was even more forceful than it was in the spring! It has such great forces and whip on the inversions, and the over-banked turns and helix are seriously awesome. That airtime drop is always a fun little element in the back. It's great to have a mini Raptor so close by! So I plan riding Thunder Creek Mountain, Hydra and Meteor first next time, especially Thunder Creek since I need my log flume fix!

^That color scheme works really well! And something like that would fit well in the park, since there's not that many outdoor coasters at Great Adventure that are mostly black or gray. A repainting with the same colors as Magic Mountain's Batman would be my second choice.

^I think the "extra surprise" would probably be renovated infrastructure and some more landscaping to some areas. Kind of like what Kings Dominion did to candy apple grove, or something less extensive like Cedar Point's Gemini midway. I think the predicted areas for the flat ride additions will be accurate, but I'm not sure if they will upgrade Vortex.

Does anybody know what rides are available for early entry? I think I remember that Talon is, but I forget the others.