teacherkim

And I see they are doing BFF, that's unusual for FF isn't it? I guess maybe they are just trying to pump up this first weekend since it's not even Oct yet and get the crowds in and the word of mouth out.

All three of our woodies are great night rides. The ride op that lives in my house left for his shift about 35 min ago. Now I have to be a nervous Mom and sweat out him driving home at 12:30 am, or whenever he finally gets off. BUT, he's making money and enjoying his job....so!

Good to know! And I have another question for the regular HHN visitors. Is the secret entrance near Blue Man Group open during HHN and if so how early does it open and how late does it stay open?

Not sure how many will head out there for just the 4 hours. The park is being "rented out" for the day by Edward Jones so there will probably be some leftover when it opens to the public.

Canobie, please let us know how it goes with the line. We will be there less than a week after you and while the main purpose of our trip is to do HHN for the first time, we certainly do want to get on Hagrid's as long as we are there. Trying to decide if we need to get up early which is not attractive with the late HHN nights or just get there when we get there and take our chances.

.......And I have taught 7th grade for 27 years, I know how to root out important info from people when I need to.

Sorry about the double post, not sure what happened there. As an add on to my previous post. At the end of the night during ert I spoke to one of the security guards who happens to be friends with a co-worker of mine and he confirmed that the queue for Boss will not be altered in anyway, that the new flat will have the lighting package, and that they are discussing the possibility of moving the moon cars to what will then be the unused portion of the go kart track. That's it, that's all my sleuthing uncovered on this trip. Do what you will with the info!

I know who that “maintenance guy” was! Not me though. I was there for the Pandemonium unloading though. Hope I didn't get anyone in trouble for talking. We were questioning him pretty hard and I wasn't surprised at anything he told us.

I know who that “maintenance guy” was! Not me though. I was there for the Pandemonium unloading though. Hope I didn't get anyone in trouble! We were all questioning him pretty hard.

So we are at the park today. (An event with the "other"club) Had a bit of a discussion with a maintenance guy who was leading us on a train track walk, as a kind of behind the scene tour, which was pretty funny to see the look on people's faces as we were strolling the track. We made train noises at the crossing which left them looking really dumbfounded. Anyway, we talked about how the park spends the money they are given. He wanted to make it clear that they would love big new rides too, BUT they have had to fix a lot of unseen infrastructure that would have caused the park to close if not taken care of. Think of 50 year old pipes and plumbing, etc etc. Also, we have many older rides which cost more to maintain He did assure us that Excalibur is coming back but acknowledged it may not be this year. As far as Tidal Wave goes he just said "no decision has been made yet" Meanwhile, it's pretty crowded for one of the weekends between summer and FF. Boomerang vallied and there was an evacuation. Pandemonium had a car stuck on every block section and that also had to have an evacuation. But the park looks pretty good and the staff is working well. I did talk to a first year to the park and they thought it is quite a beautiful park. Looking forward to some night rides on Eagle for evening ert.

Thanks guys, that's pretty much what I figured. Figured the cost of express passes both nights would be worth the freedom it brings. My son watched Zombieland for the first time last night and totally loved it!

Ok, now that I've gotten over crabbing about the ticketing structure and the reports are going out....I'm getting pretty excited about our trip in a few weeks. So, seeking input from those of you that are veteran HHN attendees: We have tickets for both a Sat and Sun night with express passes for both. I understand the stay and scream option but cannot say I'm thrilled about being stuck in one area when we could go out to city walk and/or back to the hotel for a little break. Also, would rather wait until it's full dark. My experience at Halloween events is that they kind of take on a silly, less than scary vibe in the daylight. Not a criticism to those that like it, just my opinion. We spent the money for two nights just so we wouldn't have to run around frantically to get all the mazes in and could relax and enjoy the atmosphere, have time for the shows, shop a little, do a few rides, etc etc. Are we ok on getting it all in over two nights if we wait and show up an hour or so into the event or are we just shooting ourselves in the foot? I get that the express passes at this won't be 5 minute walk ups. I was kind of thinking we might do that on the first night and then depending on how much we got in, utilize stay and scream the second night. Any opinions? Or am I just overthinking the whole thing?

So we finally are making a trip down for HHN this year. Being a teacher and my son being in high school we cannot do middle of the week, but I was prepared for the expense of a weekend trip. Going the first weekend of Oct. In the end decided to do two nights with express passes versus one night of VIP. About the same money and that way get to enjoy it two nights, a Sat and Sun. I'm sure it will be worth it in the end but Holy Hell, Universal has got to simplify the ticketing for HHN. I mean I'm not exactly a novice at buying theme park tickets and special events at theme parks. But I swear I've done less research planning a trip to Europe for my whole family. There are just way too many ticketing options, and passes that aren't good on Sat nights and yada, yada, yada.........I utterly failed at all attempts to explain the choices to friends who are coming with us and not so used to doing this sort of thing and finally just bought theirs and had her pay me back. We love Halloween events and I've wanted to do HHN for a long time, hope it's worth it in the end! Meanwhile on another note, what are the wait times like for Hagrid's now? Obviously want to get that one in while we are there.

We were at the park yesterday and it was also very light crowds. Every coaster just running one train. However the only thing that was down that I really wanted to do was the water coaster, too bad. This was our first time at KK, any other time we were nearby we just didn't have the time to stop for an extra day. Overall we enjoyed the park and I totally respect the owner's efforts to bring it back to life and I think they are succeeding. Too bad that they really don't have the ability to expand coupled with the height restrictions. But everything looked clean and well maintained. Landscaping was lovely, I always notice. The employees were mostly friendly although we thought it was kind of weird that one of the ride ops at Storm Chaser was publicly stating how she never had ridden the very coaster she worked on and she hated roller coasters because she had only ridden T3 and assumed all coasters were just like that......weird. It was no big deal to us just thought it was kind of strange. One other kind of funny thing that happened. We went into grab a quick bite to eat around 2:30 at the pizza place near the entrance. It was a low crowd day and an odd time so not surprised that there was only one other group in there. After I ordered and was attempting to pay they could not get the cash register to work. So they told me just don't worry about it, free food congratulations. Ok. Then while we were halfway through our food they came over and told me they had it working and I could pay now. Ok. Of course I didn't argue we did owe them for the food but the guy was kind of cheeky about come pay right now, like I was gonna escape without paying. I mean it was their idea in the first place to let us have the food. I think it was a case of inexperienced teens trying to handle a problem, I didn't see anyone over maybe 20 working in there at all. One other thing I noticed that I thought was pretty funny. During the last hour before close they switched the classic rock and hip country songs over to American standards with lots of Sinatra, Dean Martin, Bobby Darin etc. Trying to mellow everyone out and get them to quietly make their way home I guess. lol. Not sure this is a yearly visit for us, we always try to get to HW once a year and of course KK is just a little further down the road. But I will go back when the opportunity presents itself and we have time.

I'm thrilled about the new ride. I love water coasters and can't wait to try this out next year. We were actually at the park on Mon and still very high crowds and still under the boil order. I was actually quite impressed at how efficiently they kept the bottled water and canned soda coming all day long with those crowds. Unfortunately we were only able to get one ride each on Wildebeest and Mammoth and that was using the single rider line. We did the coasters first and that took longer than normal due to the crowds so didn't get over to the waterpark til late afternoon and even with single rider it took us about an hour and a half to get through those two and then the lines were shut down about 4:30, with a 5 pm waterpark closing. We were able to go back an do re rides on Voyage and Thunderbird but it was for sure a day where you had to prioritize rides because there was no way to get on all of them. We also ran into a huge mess getting out of the parking lot. We were going on to Louisville to do KK the next day and it took us almost as long to get back up to 64 as it did to get the rest of the way to KK. A good 45 min or so just to get out of the lot.

You know........maybe that's where I heard it. From Bert when we hung out at SFSTl, we were talking about Zach's Boss trick and now I'm kinda thinking that was all part of the same conversation. Bert did I get that from you? I can't remember now. Sucks to get old.

Haha. Glad you liked it. That's Bill's tip, though. It worked good for Emily and I also! I'm the front row/middle car/butt back/lean forward on The Boss advice guy! (I hate myself for thinking that much into it.) Oh my bad! Thank you to Bill in that case! The Boss never actually bothered me and I miss the helix, but Magnum gave me bruises on my thighs until I tried the "trick".

Zach..... I totally forgot to tell you that I tried your tight seatbelt, loose lap bar trick for Magnum and we rode in the second to last car so we weren't over the wheel. It worked really well, no bruised thighs this time around and we went back and did a night ride on Magnum which was really nice since it goes down by the beach. Closest thing CP really has to a coaster that goes out into the deep dark woods.

We don't have any kids, but actually we're going to start trying for our one-and-done child next month. There's no better time to start than while we're in Hawaii! We talk about how fun it will be to take our kid to parks and watch the transition from kiddie rides to riding a first big coaster. We're ready to move on to the next chapter. It will also feel a little less awkward in parks when we have a child with us... Hey Zach, there is great joy in spending time with your kid in a theme park and if it helps you feel more comfortable indulging that's even better. I'll share with you that I always loved theme parks as a kid, didn't really get to go to too many outside SFSTl (other than once in a while on vacation) When I got to my early 20's and was married and started a career, yada, yada, yada.......I didn't visit much. Fast forward to my late 30's when my son became a toddler and I started taking him to SF. He began a real love affair with coasters and parks and I kind of rediscovered my enjoyment of it. We then discovered organizations like ACE and TPR that I never knew existed. So now here we are, I'm 51 and he's 16 and we go to lots of events and little side coaster trips and have spent so many fun summers together! My husband comes and hangs with us once in a while but isn't quite as into it as us.....no problem we still do regular family vacations, or combine the two. On the other hand do what you enjoy, kids in tow or not, life's too short!!

SV definitely pulls almost all the early entry crowd. My Dad and I dubbed it the "running of the the SV bulls", lol. If you aren't that interested in it you can for sure take advantage to walk on the other early entry rides.

I can assure you it didn't stay that light of a crowd on Sunday. All afternoon most big coasters were running 45 min + waits and SV was over an hour. Not sure at what point during early entry you checked on SV but my son and I were in line before the early entry people (we were in at 8 for an ACE event) and by the time they opened the line at 9 there was quite a crowd behind the 60 or so people that were let in at 8. I do agree with you on FF. Definitely needs way more explanation.

If you have not already, you might want to consider joining a recognized coaster club. Besides Club TPR there are several others. I kind of get the impression that when you say "group" you mean an informal group of friends that just went together. If you go to planned events you can often find others to drive with or at the very least have someone to meet up with when you get there. I do realize how lucky I am. Being a teacher I have the summer to go on one or two coaster trips with my son! Just a perk of my job. Or if southern IL is dragging you down and denying you a lifestyle, why not consider a move. You could get a job in a big park and then get perks to go to other parks in the area or owned by the same chain. Several employees told me how hard a time CP was having staffing the park.

...then does exactly that lol. Lol, see your point, but I meant one of those 5 parters with pictures and such!

Oh and I totally forgot to say.....zipper pouch for phone on the ride. Brillant! Why hasn't anyone thought of this before?

Got back last night from a few days at CP & Hotel Breakers. Not going to take the time to do detailed trip review but a few notes and observations on things that have been discussed lately: Rides - everything was running very well Sat night, Sun, and Monday. Any shutdowns I observed were minimal and there was nothing down for an extended period of time that I know of. Other than Gemini which went down twice while we were in line, it seemed to be our cursed ride of the trip and was frequently only running one train. Valravn ran the whole time with two trains. TTD had a brief shutdown on Monday evening but we are talking maybe 30-45 min. And SV had a few very brief shutdowns due to "guest illness" in fact lots of protein spills on SV while we were there, including two rows behind us while on the break run waiting to come in....and that was the first train of the day on Sunday morning! Yuk. Lines - about as crowded as I've ever seen it on Sat when we got in about 4:30. So we took our time checking in and then had some dinner and since it was a midnight close caught some rides late night. Sun we had FL+ and worth every penny, seriously. Monday was lighter, not quiet by any means but lighter and manageable. Food - after all the discussion here and my extreme anticipation of Melt I was a little disappointed by my meal there BUT upon retrospect, I really ordered the wrong thing. Got a sandwich that was fried (I was thinking in a pan, like a panini) but it had been coated with funnel cake batter and deep fried, so rich I could only eat about a quarter of it and I'm no slouch eater. My bad, should have read the menu more carefully. However, my son and dad both got much simpler grilled cheese sandwiches and they were delicious (yes I tasted them) and fries and salad were tasty. Will go again and be much more careful about what I order. We also had a meal at Famous Dave's and despite my usual "meh" reaction to bbq it was admittedly pretty tasty. Did not get a chance to try the new Backbeat bbq, Johnny Rockets and Pinks were exactly what we expected. Water park - since we had a little extra time this visit we spent a few hours Mon afternoon at the water park. Not the most unique or exciting water park I've ever been to but certainly respectable considering the minimal number of days it is actually warm enough to use it! It was a relaxing break and a nice way to cool off. There is also a nice little 21+ pool that is fenced off from the rest of the park. If I had to pay a large amount extra for a ticket I don't think it would have been worth it but we were able to add on the water park to our 3 day tickets for a very minimal amount. Forbidden Frontier - hmmmmm, well, ummmm....how to say this. I like the concept but frankly it was kind of boring. The entry with the bouncy walkway or raft was cute, but not sure it's something most people would be interested in more than once. The kids playground is nice and that whole area is well shaded with lots of comfy chairs and hammocks. A good place for a break if you have little kids for sure. But overall I just didn't feel they explained the interactive concept clearly enough. I saw some people walking around but not really participating in the find the treasure map thing because I'm just not sure they got that there was something to find. Seems they needed to advertise/explain the idea a bit better. We did see some "characters" but there was minimal interaction. Now we were there late afternoon and maybe being between shows for back there it was just a quiet time, but there just wasn't much going on. Curious to see if they do the same interactive activity next season or if they change it from year to year. I agree with whomever said it would benefit from a ride, particularly a log flume, back there. Although I realize they just took a log flume out of that area. It just needs "something". Hotel Breakers - I know it's expensive and I know if you are just looking at the room, it doesn't seem worth the price....BUT if you can swing it is so super damned convenient to be right there, particularly if you have people in your group that might need a break in the afternoon. Will never stay off property. Also, as hotel guests I was able to get a 3 day park to park ticket for $86, I did not see this option on line, they had a two day for $80 but that's it so worth asking about. Weather - while I realize this is completely out of everyone's control. I must say that this is the first time it has ever been what I consider warm at CP. I was there once in June with highs in the 70's (nice but not warm) and once in May where it was in the 40's and raining; I had so many layers on I almost had to take the walk of shame. So despite the forecast I did not trust the wind from Canada and still threw hoodies and raincoats in the car. We did not need them, it was all summer this time around. Overall a fun trip, my Dad tagged along and was flabbergasted by the size of the whole complex, he really had no idea having only experienced our local park, SFSTl, he particularly enjoyed the "running of the Steel Vengeance bulls" as I call the early entry horde that races to SV. One funny note, now that he is a ride ops himself, my son was suddenly noticing things he never noticed before about the differences between operations at SF and CP. He was most affronted when he realized that every attendant at a line entrance got a stool AND a phone, lol.