teacherkim

I travel a lot and have been asked about Ferguson many times. Sadly, it's become a thing St Louis is known for. An attraction like the Arch tends to be something people stop at as they drive through. Maybe instead of expecting/depending on Six Flags to draw int tourists the city should be engaging in a little more overall self promotion as a place to spend some vacation time. Unfortunately, I think our proximity to Chicago hurts us greatly as people will choose that if given the option.

Exactly. And most people don't make their travel plans based on the amusement park nearby. They go to the amusement park nearby to where they want to travel. The exception probably being Orlando.

Yeah, but that is a bit of a misnomer. It is actually a day trip from St. Louis, Indianapolis, Louisville, Lexington, Paducah, Nashville and a few other places that I haven't thought of off the top of my head. All relatively small markets but together ....... In fact the whole discussion about "markets" is way more complicated than just the size of the city the park is located in. Dollywood's actual location doesn't have a huge population but obviously because of Smoky MT NP it is a big vacation draw, same with SDC. Unfortunately, St Louis isn't a huge vacation draw or quite the crossroads that Holiday World is.

Yes, been to several other Cedar Fair parks but not Carowinds. It was a reward offered to the boy for raising his grades and then he went and did it so I had to follow through, lol. We both have Fri 10/26 off school so, fly down Fri morning, Scarowinds Fri night, regular park Sat day, Scarowinds Sat night, utilize fastlane/frightlane, ride everything, go through all the mazes, eat junk food til we puke, and fly home Sun morning.

Thanks guys! The tip about walking to dinner and leaving the car is welcome for sure. I was kinda wondering about that down time. Prozach you know I am firmly in the get the fastpasses camp if you aren't there on a regular basis. Because we need to fit it in a quick weekend we are just flying down so I'm not going to skimp on fastpasses if I'm already spending money on plane tickets and a rental car. I was able to get two free night at the Hampton Inn near the park with Hilton points, so that helps. I figure with fastlane plus and two night of haunts with the fright lane passes we should get to see everything. Now that I'm hearing tales about the backup to get in we will be sure to allow plenty of time.

My son and I will be making a quick trip down from St Louis the last weekend in October. We will hit Scarowinds on the Fri and Sat night and do the regular park hours during the day on Sat. Will be our first trip to Carowinds but not our first to a Cedar Fair park. We are park traveling veterans but anything we should know about Scarowinds? Or the park in general?

While I personally prefer to travel as light as possible and also sometimes wonder why people need the enormous backpacks: A) You just cannot always do that if you have young kids and B) No park is going to restrict people on the amount of stuff they bring in, they just aren't and C) If you are doing the waterpark there just usually isn't a way to avoid towels and sunscreen and such; although I suppose they could do separate bag check security for the water park. They do have an entrance outside the main gate that could be utilized.

I have never understood the horrible waste of water that is the giant hose. Still don't like the castrated Boss, but then I've never had an issue with roughness or pain; just have to battle some motion sickness. Batman is one of the worst rides in the park for me on that issue. (Other than spinny things like Fling or Excalibur, don't even try those anymore) Usually have to wear a patch to ride that one! Based on my observations of entrance procedures at many other parks; I think it would be much more efficient if they had a bag checker assigned to each metal detector instead of the separate table and/or they just need more people at rush times.

I seem to remember very clearly (I was 15 or 16 so not a little kid) that it was closed down immediately after the accident and while one side reverted back to Mine Train the other side closed down and Ninja went in like 4 or 5 years later. I looked it up on rcdb and it only shows it operating during the 1984 season and I seem to remember the accident was pretty early on in the season. I know we wanted to ride it but never were able to. But it was a long time ago so maybe I'm mixed up. Were you around at that time? Anyone else remember the details? P.S. - I do remember the news interviewing her family at the time and thinking they didn't sound all that upset.....it was kind of weird. The Railblazer did close for a bit after the accident, but reopened with additional seatbelts (unlocked with a special key) and staffed with about a dozen crew members it seemed. I rode it after the accident, and due to the slow, extra careful loading the capacity was terrible. I’m sure this was the real reason that it only lasted for the 1984 season. I was in college when it happened, and a guy in my dorm worked first aid and was there that day. He couldn’t say much, but the circumstances were suspicious. The other mine train operated as a sit down ride until it was removed. The year that we had The Condor here (ride rotation program - one year only in 1987) it sat where the Ninja is, and that side of the mine train was SBNO with a chunk of track removed. It left in 1988 I believe. FYI, Jet Scream was removed at the end of the 1988 season, and Ninja opened in 1989. Ok I guess I just didn't remember the reopen but that's a little closer to what I thought. I knew it was gone at the end of it's first season. I also remember the suspicious nature of the accident and seem to remember info coming out later in the news about a large life insurance policy and suspicion on the husband. Too bad. I remember that commercial!! It looks hilarious now, lol!

I seem to remember very clearly (I was 15 or 16 so not a little kid) that it was closed down immediately after the accident and while one side reverted back to Mine Train the other side closed down and Ninja went in like 4 or 5 years later. I looked it up on rcdb and it only shows it operating during the 1984 season and I seem to remember the accident was pretty early on in the season. I know we wanted to ride it but never were able to. But it was a long time ago so maybe I'm mixed up. Were you around at that time? Anyone else remember the details? P.S. - I do remember the news interviewing her family at the time and thinking they didn't sound all that upset.....it was kind of weird.

It was my first looper too. Though it was fun, I always thought it was a bit short. I suppose you remember Railblazer too. I rode it once or twice (after the accident). It was rather lame. I remember $5 tix after 5 promotions. Ahh, those were the days when you didn't need a whole bunch of cash to visit the park for a few hours. I do remember Railblazer but never got a chance to ride it before they shut it down. It didn't even make it through one season due to the fatality. Oddly, I don't even have any memory of what it cost to go when I was kid, guess I wasn't paying!

And.........finally the web site is working again and I was able to renew the passes (whoops sorry we have MEMBERSHIPS now) Wonder what the next marketing scheme will be

Jet Scream was the first upside down coaster I ever rode. I didn't think it was even that long, don't remember that much after the loop but it was a long time ago, lol. That was back in the days when they used to do "double rides after 5 Friday nights".....everyone got to go twice on every ride from 5 pm til close.

Yes, Sunday should be near walk ons for everything. The weekends between Labor Day and FF are traditionally pretty dead and Sundays are the slowest of the two days. If you get there right at opening you will most likely have the lowest crowds.

I waited too Prozach.......but we have been given a reprieve. I just checked during lunch and they have now extended the flash sale deadline til midnight on Sunday the 9th. I assume this means the web site is near death at the moment.

Yep.....and just went to try again and they have now extended it by 24 hours. Apparently, so much volume that it crashed. It was doing some crazy stuff. I will try later tonight and if that is still a no go, I'll try tomorrow morning during a break at work. Anyway, so much for the non-coaster new ride keeping any significant number of people from renewing passes or memberships....

Has anyone tried to buy/renew passes/memberships this weekend? I've been trying off and on all day and the web site is NOT being friendly and allowing you to make the purchase. The sale ends at midnight, hoping it will be extended if it is down all day and evening.

I don't know if it will happen but I think 2021 is the best shot. That will be the 50th anniv. of the park which would be easily played up in a big way through the local media. And I agree while the enthusiasts are obviously not thrilled with a flat, at least it is a new ride and not a hand me down. This isn't the end of the world people.

Lol, sorry, I was not giving advice from a beer oriented position. I don't really like beer, I'm a whiskey girl. My bad.

Prozach - I have found in the past that the weekends, particularly Sundays, between Labor Day and FF are very nice and quiet. It's a good time to go if you want things low key. The downside is that a lot of the food and some shopping venues will be closed. But the crowds are usually light and quiet.

So we made an impromptu, it sucks that school is starting next week, trip to the park today. I was going to go to the neighborhood pool for a few hours of sun and relaxation since I have to go back to work on Monday but the boy convinced me that since we already have the passes and the dining plan it would actually make more sense to go to the wp instead. Right. But, ok, I thought I will finally get to ride that damn slide that I have been trying to ride all summer. So, we strolled into the wp at about 12:20 (open 12-5) today, claimed a chair, got my sunscreen on, put sunscreen on squirming 15 year old that is taller than me while holding him down, rushed over to Typhoon Twister and........closed for the day. Seriously. That's the 3rd time we've been shut out. I'm giving up on it til next summer. The boy was so disgusted that he submitted to sunscreen for a closed slide that he promptly announced he was going to ride some coasters. I said ok, I will be laying out by the pool, come back when you're done. Got a relaxing hour and half of cooling off in the pool, sunbathing, reading....til the clouds rolled in. Then thunder so everything gets shut down for weather. So, as it starts to drizzle we vacate the wp which was the first time I waited in line to exit something but of course we all had to go through the turnstile. We stowed our stuff in a ride locker and did a lap around the park in the drizzle waiting for something to open. It never really did more than a light rain with just a bit of thunder, the weather closure lasted about an hour and a half. Prozach- I can report good news during the downtime. There was no trash in the park, in fact it was quite clean and the only boorish behavior I noticed was some middle schoolers that were sitting on one of the benches hassling people by loudly pointing out things about their wardrobe and then clapping in mock appreciation. In other words acting like annoying little twerps. So, I marched right over to the bench and gave them all my best teacher death stare. They stopped abruptly and went on to minding their own business. Yes, I still have it and I'm ready for a new batch of 7th graders next week! Between 3:30 and 5:30 we rode some rides then had a quick meal and then the real storm moved in closing everything for the day since the park was only open til 6 anyway. This one was a cold gullywasher with some serious wind. Rode it out in the fudge shop then made for the car. Since we have all been a bit debby downer on the park lately I will end with some good news: the park was nice and clean, landscaping looked good, I noticed several nicely planted beds, pots and hanging baskets. (I mean they had dragon wing begonias over by Mine Train when they should clearly be planted by Dragon's Wing because of their name but I realize this might be extreme nitpicking of an amatuer gardner) Most rides were up and running today, not counting the weather closure and TT (sigh). Shazam was running with it's new cars. Fireball and Boomerang both running as were all the water rides. Only things down were Colossus and Excaliber still down on refurb and Freeze which looked like it was getting some short term track maintenance done. So, overall, can't blame them for storms and everything looked pretty good today. Only negatives were I still don't like the emasculated Boss and there was a fight in the parking lot over a pretzel. But the combatants were geese so I'll assume they don't know any better manners.

Prozach - Sorry you hit on such an off day. I think a lot of the trash buildup and drunken behavior was the result of the very end of a busy day in an understaffed park. If you get there at opening you beat a lot of the boorish behavior. I HOPE the peeing girl was extremely drunk; otherwise.....I don't know what to say! Agree with you on the Screaming Eagle, I remember when that ride opened and all the hype at the time, it still delivers. But have to say I don't agree with you on the Boss. I hate the now super exaggerated mcbr and how much they slowed it down for the back half and I miss the helix! I have mixed feelings on Mr Freeze, don't really love the backwards launch but do like looking down on the vertical. bbchml - Thanks for the report on the new slide. We may have to try to get out there one more time before the wp closes and give it a go. We just got back from the new Universal wp, Volcano Bay, and they weigh everyone on just about every slide. I'm sure insurance is to blame and that is probably a requirement for the new slide at SFSTl to re-open. I know the Great America tickets are a lot more but you will notice a difference in ride ops and the park as a whole when you get there. Actually, I really try to give SFSTl a break most of the time. As we have all noted it is in a regional market, ignored to some degree by corporate, and has noticeable staffing issues. And I think everyone inevitably gets a bit bored with their home park after years of some of the same rides. However, I will admit, after visiting some stellar parks this year (Kings Dominion, Busch Gardens Williamsburg & Tampa, Seaworld, 2nd time at Cedarpoint and a return trip to Universal which is in a whole nother stratosphere) it is hard not to be a bit jealous and a little bitter about our park. Ironically, of the other parks we visited the only one I was not impressed with was another Six Flags, SFAmerica in Maryland.

Quick tr from yesterday. We had a great day at the park, all the coasters up and running. With quick queue we got through all the major rides within 4or 5 hours, then could relax and enjoy seconds at our leisure. Only major ride down was Falcons Fury, it did have a wall across the entrance and looks to be under refurb. The giraffe experience was fantastic! Worth every penny and it wasn't really all that expensive. Ate at Dragonfire, good for a family because there were so many options. Thankfully we did not encounter any stray bullets Thanks for everyone's advice.

Yeah, I saw on youtube that they basically just have the landscaping and testing left.....and that testing had started. But announcing the date in the coming weeks doesn't sound like there will be much chance we will get on it on the 28th. Probably worst possible scenario, we can watch it test but not ride. Boo. I thought for sure when it said open summer of 2018 a few months ago that we would be safe by the last Saturday in July.

Hmmmm......that will be very close to our date. Guess we will just have to keep our fingers crossed that it is ready. We are getting off a short cruise to Cuba that morning in Tampa and have a car for the day to get to Orlando so that will for sure be the easiest day for us to stop at Seaworld. Hope it's ready!