teacherkim

I think Rocky Top is one of the best of the alpine coasters and it's right on the way in and out of Dollywood, quick and easy. Going up to Anakeesta is probably worth it, along with the soon to be two mountain coasters they have a canopy walk, zipline, restaurant and awesome views. Ober Gatlinburg also has several activities including a mt coaster and is a pretty spectacular cable car ride to the top. As far as go karts/putt putt/etc they abound all over Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg and I don't think there is a particular standout. The Old Mill in Pigeon Forge and Pancake Pantry in Gatlinburg are both great places to eat. If you want to souvenir shop I suggest Gatlinburg, it's the older more sophisticated cousin of Pigeon Forge. If you have never been to the area I highly suggest spending a day or at least half a day in Smoky Mt National Park. The Sugarlands Ranger Station is just a minute or two outside Gatlinburg and the park rangers there have lots of info on the trails. There are several that you can do in just a couple hours or a half day that do not require any special equipment, just fun short hikes, and they have them all rated on how strenuous they are. Several places in Gatlinburg make sandwiches/box lunches specifically to take on day hikes, just google it and you will find a list. And if you really have the time you can also go whitewater rafting in the area.

Oh we've ridden it! Only credit in the park we don't have is the new coaster. So certainly not the end of the world if we miss it all together but was just hoping that it would behave for Con and especially for ert

Nice!!

Ugh, of course it's having issues since CoasterCon is only 2 weeks away. Although, they wisely are only offering it on one of the four ert sessions in the main park and that's a morning ert. I suspect they were very wary of over promising. This way if we get lucky and it's having a good day they can always add it in and everyone will be thrilled but if they don't no one can really complain.

Bert I can't wait to check out the lounge and Joel can't wait to check out the E-sports room when we come down in Dec!! We gotta try to talk Danielle into joining us.

I am POSITIVE he would be/is happy that you have pushed on and are going on another adventure. Have a blast my friend!!

Oh for f**cks it's a common slang expression, I find it hard to believe you are on this forum and have never heard it before.........but whatever that wasn't the point of the post. Sigh. Let's just let it go. Again.

I think you misread that into meaning the SFSTL carousel will not be done until 2026 but it's the Smithsonian one that won't be done until 2026. SFSTL at last update is planned for re opening this year, hopefully in time for National Carousel Day on July 25 but obviously that's not been announced as a for sure yet.

So if SFSTL is so awful and you don't give a shit about it; why do you keep coming on here to talk about it? I think I asked you once before when you were criticizing "thoosies" why you kept engaging them if you didn't like them. Don't think I got an answer but maybe I missed it. Guess what? If you picked any 3 year period we've all had a lot of stuff happen. So what? What's the point? It will take as long as it takes to do it properly as has been stated a million times before. It isn't a competition to be done faster than events in your life. You think it's too long? Cool. Don't worry about it. Don't come to the park for the carousel. Want to ride one with your daughter then how about the one at the zoo, or Faust Park, or city museum, or the mall, or any of a hundred other places. It can be a crappy one, you already said it doesn't matter.

Really. You had to open up this can of worms. Again. Shame on you And 2026 for this carousel is 3 years from now, unless it actually went down in 2020?

That is very interesting about FL. I checked on the website and it doesn't seem the price has really increased or if it did not by a noticeable amount. Hmmm wonder why and if that is chain wide or an experiment or what?

Maybe, maybe not; BUT I can tell you whenever we talk to non enthusiasts about belonging to a "roller coaster club" the layman's term I usually use and traveling around to numerous theme parks, they almost always say something like "oh, have you ever heard of a place called CedarPoint", lol. I mean it's become a family inside joke. CP is definitely on the radar of the gp.

I have to agree with everyone here that you can't really judge if you haven't tried it in however many years, and if Prozach and I are agreeing you are probably on the wrong side of opinion here The homemade cooler lunch will be cheaper sure, but is it a better value in terms of quality and/or time? Leaving the park to eat is a time consuming hassle. I would say no, the new Farmhouse restaurant back by SV has some legit good stuff to eat and I don't mean just compared to other theme park food; but the point is you need to try it before you make a judgement or you're just assuming and you know what they say about that. For many families no specific ride matters more than another. Mom/Dad/Grandma/Grandpa may or may not want to or be able to ride much BUT if there are other things to do.......like a beach, bars, live music, cool places to eat and hang out, an old style beach pavilion with several of those things, etc, etc. then yes, it will attract families. You need to look at the boardwalk area as a whole not just how attractive one particular ride is. Families pay the high price for the Breakers not just for the convenience but also because some family members can enjoy the day doing things other than rides while other family members can stay at the park all day and no one is "stuck" waiting somewhere they don't want to be.

But.......aren't you doing the same when you generalize people that live in "shithole" neighborhoods? (Your words in another thread) And before you say I don't know what I'm talking about I taught public school for 28 years in one of those types of neighborhoods.

Almost certainly nowhere, the park could not get it operational. After the extensive refurb they did, they intended to keep it running as long as possible and I know the maintenance staff was very disheartened that it went down so soon after said refurb.

Thanks for the report, haven't taken the time to drive across the state to WOF in a number of years, but we will be at SDC sometime this summer to use a couple of free tickets we got at the mostly snowed out Coaster Christmas event and are definitely planning on swinging up to WOF at that time to celebrate the 50th and catch ZZ.

I'm sure there are some that do, and I believe there is an official log flume appreciation group. However, I wasn't really thinking of that when I posted, it's just that the left side is not open nearly as often as the right and it is a slightly different track/experience. Plus you are out of range of the pay to blast people soakers on the left.

I'm almost certain we bought FL+ at the main check-in counter at the Breakers. Did I dream that up? Or is it maybe not done anymore?

The bridges are temporary. Usually, both sides are only open on really busy days, plus there has to be enough staff to do it. When only one side is open they usually use the right (as you descend the stairs to get on) because of ADA access BUT that side is currently down for a mechanical issue; hence the bridges for ADA access to the left side. Take advantage of the left being open when you are at the park, it's a lot harder to get rides on that side, lol.

To echo the others, SV lockers aren't complicated just kind of annoying, you hit lockers first then the metal detector. Do NOT leave the peninsula once you get parked. One of the great perks of staying there is not having to drive back and forth across that damn causeway. In addition to Perkins for a sit down breakfast they also have a take away counter at the front of the restaurant where you can get a few things like muffins and pastries plus there is Starbucks for a light breakfast. Sometimes with FL+ we just grab a muffin/scone/whatever go grab early entry stuff, (now that they've taken anything of interest off of it I would just use early entry to line up for something really good) and then eat an early lunch when a lot of people are running around trying to get as much in the first few hours as they can. You should be able to buy your FL+ at the Breakers check in counter in the lobby. Like Bert said there will be a specific lane when you drive in for people staying at the hotel with a check in toll booth and then another check point right before the parking lot, although that one is not always staffed if you get there very late. Sometimes they do ask for a reservation # so you might want to have that handy. Even if you go right to Gatekeeper for early entry I don't know that walking to the Windseeker gate will be any faster, unless you just prefer the lake view in the morning. Everyone that gets early entry as a pass perk that is not at the hotel will be going in there and the SV people will all go immediately to the right upon entering at the Magnum gate and they usually hold everyone up a bit at a rope drop just past Gemini so the running happens after that.

I hope so, lol, that water coaster has never been open on any of the visits I've ever made to the park. So they might as well use the space for something.

IF it makes you feel any better, not that it necessarily will, it took my son 3 trips to finally get LR. First try was a guy's trip with Grandpa in June of 2018 when he was 15, it taunted him by testing all day but never opening. Second try was an ACE Christmas event in Dec of 2020, masks still in play and a "temporarily lost car key while 500 miles from home" event that has become family legend, no signs of life the entire day. Finally, we went back in May 2021 on his 18th birthday and he got it. We did other things on those trips but still, we logged over 3000 miles on my car going back and forth because it is one of those locations that would take us almost as long to fly as to drive. I mean, it's an awesome coaster and I really love it but it for sure became somewhat of a bogey that we felt compelled to conquer, lol.

While I am fine with it, although I do commiserate with those that still have underage kids that are no problem, I think enforcement will be an issue. There is absolutely no doubt in my mind there will be shenanigans of the "over 21" person coming in with the kids and then leaving half an hour later or just parking themselves on a bench somewhere and having no idea what the kids are doing. Not necessarily all nefarious in nature, I mean think of Grandma coming in and sitting at the water park or in the shade reading while the kids run around and do their thing. The only way I can see this working is if the parks are prepared to unequivocally ban any disruptive teens AND their chaperones if a problem occurs or they are caught violating the policy. They have to be willing to put in the effort to check and be ruthless when people are caught breaking the rule. Plus it only applies after 4 pm, I can hear it now when a bunch of kids are caught at 5 without their chaperone. The Mom on the phone crying that they were on their way, stuck at work, stuck in traffic, Grandma died, etc, etc. Will they still enact a punishment or give a first time warning? What will the "punishment" be? I mean I applaud the parks for making some attempt to get the behaviors under control, and plenty of people will follow the new rules, however I worked in a school for 28 years and I've heard every excuse story in existence and have seen how people back up their kids even when serious rules are broken.

I've always loved the theming of Lost Continent and hope they find a way to keep the unique vibe that it is. Apparently there are some rumors (totally unsubstantiated, I just read a couple online articles) that even after the refurb the plumbing inside the attraction was still an issue. Hopefully they can find a way to put in new attractions that utilize the outside since they just spruced it all up and won't have to bulldoze the buildings and start over. I could see Zelda going in there, I know that has been an on again, off again rumor for a while.

Since they just spent all that time to refurb the façade I wonder if they will use it for whatever the replacement is or if something unexpected happened that caused them to close it earlier than planned.