teacherkim

Yeah we got a really great price on it and I know we can just walk next door to Sapphire Falls to catch the boat to CW so that's actually what we were hoping for on this trip and sounds like it will suit us well. I always thought RP was worth it for that express and I'll probably miss it, but now that we are in a situation where sharing a room isn't ideal double the price isn't always an option. Particularly since I rented some DVC points and we're spending a couple of nights at AK Lodge before we hit Universal, I just always wanted to stay in a savanna view room and something had to give financially on this trip.

Thanks for the review. Since we don't have to work on a school schedule anymore we are going the first week in October for the bonus of hitting HHN and the vain hope that the worst of the kinks will be worked out and hopefully lower crowds that time of year. How did you like Aventura? We have always only stayed at Royal Pacific but since the express won't work at Epic and I have to pay for two rooms I opted to try one of the more affordable options. Of course then they go and add express to Hagrids, lol.

JL was kind of funny actually. It was like it was in little old lady mode, just trolling along verrrry sloooow so no one got jostled or scared. Hopefully, a computer reboot got it up and working properly again. Bert and I had a fun few hours at the park though and the new menu at Fowl Ball was nice. The chicken tenders aren't new, although they were quite good, but they now have cheddar biscuits, peach cobbler, and coleslaw (which actually was more like a kale salad) all recommended. On another note, I realize Tsunami Soaker is probably not reopening ever but it sure is going to look kind of sad sitting there dead all summer. Too bad it didn't work out and let's hope the body isn't there as long as the dead Hannabarrels were

Yeah, we rode front but noticed a definite "rattle", and several other attendees talked about it. Nothing terrible but noticeable for such a new coaster. I could see how it was worse in the back.

We were at the park all day 4/16 and part of the day 4/17. The Friday was the park's 50th birthday and my son's 22nd birthday so it was fun to have the fireworks and special atmosphere. Had not been to there for about 3 years so first time on Darkoaster and Nessie with the enhancements. Darkoaster is kitschy in a fun way and the theming is well done. The retracking on Nessie was noticeable and appreciated, I liked the added screens in the tunnel but I'm guessing some purists will view it as an unwelcome alteration. The giant Nessie is a bit over the top and was definitely bigger than I was expecting. The new BBW was available for passholders but we did get ert on it Sat morning before park open. Just like most of the other new gen family inverts it's butter smooth with a nice layout. Just as fun it has a creative story line, fun trains, and very well done theming throughout the ride. I never rode the original so not sure how the people that have apparently never forgiven the park for taking it out feel, but I thought the new coaster to be a great addition to the park and will probably take some crowd pressure off of Invadr for all those looking for a slightly tamer experience. Verbolten very very dead. I mean cobwebs growing over the entrance dead. Everything else open without any noticeable downtime. The log flume was out of action both days but there were employees on site messing with it. Griffon, Appollo's Chariot, and Pantheon still probably my favorites and was able to get night ride's on AC and Pantheon which we had never had before so that was fun. The food festival was great! We tried several booths, everything was pretty good and there was a good variety. To honor the 50th they were selling 75 cent beers on Friday and while it doesn't affect me because I don't like beer, it was obviously very popular with the masses. Sorry I didn't partake so I cannot tell you if there was a limit or the size of each, etc

We were at the park last weekend and got a couple rides in on Rapterra. While it's not a blow me away top ten coaster, it is a solid addition to the lineup. Well themed and creative that they got it packed into a relatively small footprint. In my opinion worth a wait if you are already at the park, not necessarily worth a trip for it alone. Still no action at Pantherian. Timbers running well but of course only if you appreciate the typical ejector air of an RMC. I actually thought the star was Grizzly. That thing is running really really great after all the retracking. I was actually quite surprised at how smooth it is right now.

Agree Citywalk is generally better for food, although when we do eat in the parks we tend to find the HP themed restaurants the best choice for quick serve. I agree the crepe stand is pretty good too. Florean Fortescues in Diagon Alley is fun for ice cream but almost always has a healthy line. In agree with the other recommended restaurants in CW, if you want something very funky try Cowfish, if you want a fancier sit down try Bigfire; it's pricy but very good. Adults can only ride Pteranodon Flyers if they ride with a kid. Even the after hours events are not a guarantee, they do a lottery and some adults get to ride. If you are a HP fan I would definitely do the train both ways. If you're a lukewarm fan US to IOA is probably the best choice due to King's Cross. They will charge you nightly for the parking at Hard Rock and just add it to your hotel bill. Since you will have express you really don't need a "plan" as you can ride almost anything at your leisure. Single rider will not be any faster than express. The only exception to all of that is Hagrids of course. Your best bets are generally do the rope drop run first thing and/or get in line at the end of the day since wait times are usually exaggerated a bit then. Good news is spending some time waiting for it won't be such a big deal when you have express for everything else. We find that the single rider line on Hagrids is generally faster but never a walk on, there will still be a wait and you miss most of the queue (although they seldom run the pre-show) and you will almost certainly get the sidecar seat instead of the motorbike seat (if that matters to you)

We were there once for a day and a half in 2018. For some weird reason my strongest memory is watching a guy get a hamburger at a stand, pulling the tomatoes out and just throwing them on the ground next to the food stand. Those tomatoes lay there all day, every time we walked by, getting increasingly more gross. I guess that kind of sums up the park. Not sure if they will relocate Wild One, maybe its historic nature will save it. Superman probably has a chance since several parks could use a hyper but are not likely to get the investment of a new one. Not sure much else is worth saving.

Too bad we didn't know ahead of time we were both there! Anyway, I basically agree with all of this. My son and I specifically noted your # 2 and #3. Didn't talk about putting bumper cars in the GoFresh spot but I could totally get behind that idea. We did talk about how much room would open up if they got rid of Ninja, Tsunami Soakers (which appear to be dead anyway), Slaughterhouse (that could go somewhere else) and the empty building where the old time photos used to be. I mean you would have to take out the gift shop and snack stand but big whoop; with Ninja backing up to the old paint ball field that's a lot of room. Only really important thing in the way is the RR track.

I'm with you on the age thing. I too rode it opening year, with my Dad who used to slide over and squish me against the side of the car. Yes kids, the buzz bars and no seat dividers were glorious. Sorry about your rough ride. Were you maybe on a wheel seat? I notice the difference, but maybe it's just a perception issue. I confess a big soft spot for that coaster since it factors into my family history so maybe I am just blind to any roughness. Yep, agreed about the Boss. If they would just titan track each valley it would be such a great ride! I mean, paint would be a pretty cheap and easy "enhancement" to highlight a fairly historic coaster!

Can't wait to hear feedback from those of you going soon. I'm super glad I bucked up and secured two days at Epic for our fall trip. Early reports are indicating there is just no way to do the park justice in one day.

So we were at the park yesterday. Grounds looked pretty good, they've put in some spring flowers but probably won't go whole hog on the landscaping until mid-late May, which I totally understand. Clearly not fully staffed yet which is normal, that should improve in May once college and high school workers start finishing up school for the semester. Boss was on one train ops which is probably staffing and Eagle started with two trains and went down to one.....not sure why. Freeze was operating both sides thought which was nice. Freeze and Batman both had some down time but it was fairly short lived. Justice League was down and completely shut, no workers, nada all day; same for Spinsanity, Supergirl, and Fireball. No water rides open yet this early in the season. Also, some stores and restaurants not open, but enough were to not be a huge problem. Again they are likely to get all of that going as the staffing builds up over the next month. Crowds were moderate but not too bad considering some capacity was lost with the closed rides. Characters were out and about. Shows all look to be opening Memorial Day weekend which is par for the course. Now for titan track on the Boss...................they only replaced one section, but it was probably the roughest most headache inducing section. It's right after the double down as the track turns to the right and goes back up hill. And for that few amazing seconds it was glorious and then right back to normal roughness. I will say though that we rode it first thing when the temps were still in the 50's and the whole thing seemed much smoother. Went back later in the day to get a second ride and with temps about 10 degrees warmer it was definitely rougher than the morning ride. I know purists don't like the idea of titan track but I think if they did a few more sections it would be overall well received. Joker was open but the funhouse portion of the queue was not. Hopefully, that too will get corrected when they are more staffed up. There were prominent signs at the entrances to both Eagle and Mine Train notifying guests of the height requirement change. Although I do agree they absolutely should have sent an email to passholders that this was happening and perhaps some basic explanation of why. Eagle was running as smooth as ever! I really love that old girl. If anyone from the park sees this......PLEASE give her a paint job and any other sprucing up you can (like maybe new chaser lights) for her 50th birthday next year.

Man, I wish I didn't live 900 miles away or I totally would come hang out with you at stuff like this Glad you had fun, tell Russell hello!!

My son, who as you all know is a former ride op, agrees with Danrarbc and also thinks it has more to do with the IROC standards. Apparently SF was one of the only major chains worldwide that did not use IROC training and after the merger all the legacy SF parks have switched to it to align with the legacy CF parks that were already using it. Not claiming he is any sort of expert since he was never trained under IROC but he is aware of some of the differences and knew that SF was vastly in the minority in not using it. I believe it is more about that than insurance issues.

Yeah we were originally planning on going yesterday but then the rain out and had something else going on today. We plan on being there this coming Saturday so hopefully I can give a report on the Titan track issue on Boss. Unless someone on here was on it today? Website said it was open but I thought the operating temp was more like 52. There was already an angry FB post from a Dad that had a kid the was able to ride Eagle and MT last year and then couldn't this year and so of course tears and frustration. His main issue was that there was no notification to passholders and such. Frankly, he has a point. It would have helped immensely if he knew ahead of time. I feel bad for the ride ops on those rides too because they are going to take the brunt of the anger. My son said that CF always went above the manufacturer's recommended height so he's speculating that they are bringing the heights up to match the rest of the chain. He did say that SF ops are now doing IROC training which basically every other park does and previously they were they only major chain that did not. But, yeah the sudden height change is going to cause some issues.

We should have time to swing by and I'm really hoping it will be ready!!

I agree it is silly to keep arguing over the carousel. Point taken. But I'm sorry I must briefly address the "talking about other people's kids" issue as it implies I am speaking in a derogatory manner to or about an individual child and as someone who has been in education for over 30 years I cannot let that stand in a public forum. I was not giving any opinion on an individual child, I was simply stating factual information about child development to counter the poster's arguments. Also, if one does not want their child to be part of the conversation then they themselves should not use their child by name as the basis of their argument. That's it. I'll abide by the request. I hope this post doesn't get me banned because I like HEALTHY debate but I really feel I had no choice. Moving on now.

Yes, a nice memory for you but she won't remember it. And again there are other carousels closer to where you live that you could have used. You are never going to convince me that despite claiming for a number of years now that you are mostly not that into this hobby anymore and disparaging theme park enthusiasts on a regular basis, the obsession you have with a carousel refurbishment is anything but hilarious.

We were there exactly 3 years ago and got stuck on the brake run of I305/Pantherian for about a half hour on the last ride of the night. There were only 4 of us on the train and the park was well closed and totally emptied out when they finally got us off. The music and atmosphere of Jungle X going out, in the dark was quite effective theming! I don't suppose they gave a date for Pantherian as opposed to just a generic "summer" opening? Curious because right now we are supposed to get ert on it for SpringCon on May 17, so thinking that may not happen. Of course those sorts of plans are always a crapshoot and there is no way in hell I can marathon Pantherian anyway, lol.

So in other words, perfect timing, because she's old enough to remember riding with you at age 5 and will form a core memory! Unlike riding at age 2 or 3 and having no memory of it and then rolling her eyes at you when she's 13 and you show her a picture of the too young to remember ride trying to remind her of how cute she was then. Congratulations on the timing.

Ditto for me! My concise trip reports are much more about laziness on my part than aversion to a more detailed report, lol.

I can tell you that ert on the new BBW is now on the schedule for the ACE Spring Con starting on May 16. Sooooo, maybe you will get lucky and they will have it going a few weeks earlier at the end of April. Of course that's no guarantee, but it does mean they are planning on having it ready to go by then.

Yeah, the Aventura seemed like a good compromise if we ever decided not to spend the bucks for the Royal Pacific. We're spending a couple nights at a Disney hotel first (I got a really good deal on renting dvc points for savannah view rooms at AK, something I always wanted to do) hence my decision to be a bit more frugal on my Universal hotel choice. Plus, we can just walk next door to Sapphire Falls if we still want to utilize the boats to city walk or there is a walking path too.

Thanks for the preview. We'll be there in May, so really looking forward to it now!

Dunno, but I'm not sure spending on that will be a priority since they do have RR. However, it will be super annoying for the parents that have kids briefly in the range of "they rode it last year and can't this year". I foresee some screaming Moms and crying kids. I feel bad for the ride ops because they'll take the brunt of that.