rjr19
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Posts posted by rjr19
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^^ The only rides at Cedar Fair this year where my seating requests weren't honored were Copperhead Strike (2nd weekend), Valravn, or Yukon Striker.
Last year I had a few Steel Vengeance rides where I wasn't allowed to pick, but usually the groupers honor my request. I usually phrase it like, "Could I please wait extra for seat X?"
This pst weekend there was only one coaster where my request wasn’t honored, Maverick. Valravn, SV, Raptor, and any others I may be forgetting all allowed me to wait extra for front or back.
I’ve never understood the row assignments. I’m sure there wouldn’t be empty trains if they just let everyone pick a gate to go to. I mean look at Millie, GK, Magnum, TTD for example....totally full trains and people enjoy the open station much better. At Darien Lake it’s all open station, nobody even stopping everyone from getting into the station. Everyone can still figure it out and still fill the trains. Forcing rows on people really doesn’t do much good from what i’ve seen.
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^ I used my diamond elite skip the line passes at Ride of Steel and it's worth noting that if you skip the line, you cannot pick your seat on that ride. They load you through the exit and put you in the middle of the train.
Yeah they started doing that because on opening weekend they allowed line skippers to pick a seat and it basically made waiting in line for the front seat useless because you’d never actually be able to get on. So now they pick middle seats and alternate which ones each time.
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Is Shipwreck Falls open?
Yes and there is finally water flowing down the hill again!
Also another thing to note, Moto was down all day Seems to be having that annual few weeks out of service with launch system issues thing again.
......and of course Pirate was closed
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Looks like Blast Off should be opening soon!
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A ride op from Vipers 3 train operational phase says that only a few teams of ops cpuld handle 3 trains. But now Viper has a permanent crew so they might be able to do it.
Are you high right now?
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Also worth noting Six Flags is treating Viper like the flagship
What do you mean by this? I’ve seen the park post multiple photos and videos of RoS on their social media accounts like crazy recently but have seen literally nothing about Viper.
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^ I basically only ride Millennium Force in the front, but I thought it was riding as great as ever last month.
Same here, rode front row on the Blue train yesterday and it was running amazing as ever!
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Also, something i’ve experienced these last 2 days in the park is that literally every single line takes significantly longer than the posted wait times at the entrance. Are they just ridiculously bad at estimating or is the time usually accurate?
I’m currently in-line for Raptor, which was posted as 45 minutes. It’s been 50 minutes already and I still have half the switchbacks. What gives??
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Gemini has been closed all day, appears to be some issues relating to dispatching and block sections. Red and Blue have been testing but never together, and for a while, blue was stuck on the MCBR.
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^ I love the Magic Gate! And I don't think it was the same day since Millennium Force was closed until the last hour of operation that day.
A few weeks ago on a Friday night (May 17th I believe), Millie’s magic gate was open....such a beautiful sight!
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I think the only coaster in this park where I could see having a second train would be Ride of Steel. The lines they get don't really justify an expense for Predator, Viper, or Motocoaster in all honesty, even on a busy day I can't see those lines ever over 45 minutes.
Except...they would probably have to upgrade to a newer restraint system and buy two trains if they did upgrade for Ride of Steel, for consistency. So I am all for this park not having two trains for anything and spending that money on new attractions instead.
Honestly in my experiences, Viper is the one that needs it the most. Almost always a long wait when I’m there, even if the line is in the station. It just has such a long ride duration to the point where the line barely moves.
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Unfortunately, still one train ops on every single coaster besides Tantrum. On the plus side, it appears 2 train ops could possibly be coming back to Mind Eraser for this season, but the second train is still in pieces in the ground.Will Six Flags Darien Lake begin running second trains on the rollercoasters now that they repurchased the park? The single train coasters were a big downside of going there on days when the park was packed. -
I plan on going back for this Friday and Saturday, really hoping the rain that was in the forecast most of this week will scare people away!
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Um......am I reading this correctly?? There’s no way SV is only a 5 minute wait.
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Sounds like a good trip overall. Agreed on Valravn; I've never understood the hate for that ride. It's really fun.
I found the bartenders at Melt and Chickie's and Pete's to be better than the ones in the park's own bars. The food there tends to be more reasonable in price, if not in size.
A few weeks ago when I was there, the park was flat-out mobbed. Lines for the food stands were AT LEAST an hour long to get lousy food with poor service. Went to the Famous Dave’s by Valravn, nobody in there, air conditioned, friendly and quick staff, and most importantly, fantastic food! Walk a few seconds to Famous Dave’s or something else just outside of the park. Worth it 100 percent!
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Having a team in the Cup Final is one of the most stressful things I've ever dealt with in my life, lol. Especially in an overtime situation when you can go from elation to utter depression in a split second. I know their are plenty of non-sports fans here who think I'm being over dramatic (and to be fair I probably am) but in the moment... oh Lord, it's a lot to handle.
I wish I could feel your stress but since I live in Buffalo, I’m just happy if the Sabres win a game lol
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There was some screen the ops had to "clear" and it seemed to really hold things up.
The seat turns green on the screen when the lap bar hits a fixed distance in the computer system. You may fit the seat belt, and you may be able to push the bar down some, but every lap bar need to be pushed down a minimum distance for the train to be able to dispatch. If a seat isn't green, they will need to push down the lap bar harder and snausage you in. If still no green, then you take the dreaded walk of shame. Because guests can't push down their own restraints, the ops are constantly checking larger guests on the screen to make sure they are good before moving on. Rather than doing all the lap bars first and later finding out they aren't pushed down enough, going back, etc.
I always thought it would make more sense to put a green light indication on the train/seat itself that's in clear view while pushing down the restraint, but alas that is not how it works.
B&M recently (well, 7-8 years ago? lol) retrofitted all of their trains and older rides with sensors to not allow dispatch unless all restraints are down far enough. Fun fact: rides like Kraken (I know with 100% certainty as I operated it both before and after the modifications) and I'm assuming the Batman invert clones, at one point in time, could be dispatched with the restraints completely open. This is no longer the case. (unless you use the bypass key in the safety system).
I wish all tricky rides when it comes to rider size would have those screens. Ride of Steel at Darien Lake just got a new train a few years ago with a much stricter minimum angle for the lap bars but no way for the ops to know which seat it is. Basically they sometimes spend up to 5 minutes of just wandering the platform trying to figure out who it is that isn’t fitting. Holds up the line like crazy, especially with one train ops.
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One of the trains was having something repaired recently. Just a few days ago, there was fiberglass missing from a single car. That could’ve been it.
OR I’m thinking most likely short staffing. It could’ve changed in the past few years but I recall that they needed 6 ride ops checking seats to run 3 trains. Staffing hasn’t been too good this year so it wouldn’t surprise me if they only had 4 ops checking seats, thus 2 trains. I could be wrong though.
With only 4 ride ops checking restraints, they wouldn’t be able to be quick enough to hit interval, I assume?
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Just wondering with Magnum, a few weeks ago when i was at the park, Magnum had a pretty large line compared to the norm for it, yet it was only running 2 trains with the 3rd parked. Why??
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For anybody still for some reason curious about the music situation, no music whatsoever today in the park.
Mind Eraser train 2 in the same state as seen last week in the photos posted.
Blast off car fully on the track with power running to the ride again.
Shipwreck bridge has posts installed now, can’t be too much longer.
Other than that, nothing really noteable going on at the park.
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I’m seeing antique cars, especially look at the far left of the wrap in the photo (circled in red). You can see the fake soft top roof and a tire.
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Yeah SV is epic but I don't think I can do more than a few rides. I will but I do feel my body already saying I'll regret it tomm. Also Skyhawk is a great night ride. The breeze is glorious and I just love it, simple ride but so good.
I rode it 4 times in a day last time I was there, oh trust me, my legs felt is BAD the next day, especially since 2 of those rides were in the back row!
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Hey Zach - one thing to note when you’re setting up your bunny is the passcode. They’ll ask you twice in a row for a 4 digit code to use for the day. The number keypad flashed on the screen may be different from a typical number pad at first. Then when they then ask you to confirm your chosen code, the number order will be scrambled on screen. This really trips up a lot of people. Have a great time and don’t forget to ride Cedar Downs!
It tripped me up a few weeks ago when Ii was there too lol, overall a great locker system. I don’t have any shorts with zipper pockets and i’m an overprotective freak about my phone so I just got a locker for all the coasters that didn’t have bins. The all-day locker is fantastic, and not badly priced at all. My only issue was that the Rougarou lockers were totally broken when i tried to ride it. Oh well, saved me from the headbanging
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Was at the park yesterday for the first time in a long time. The last time I was there Moto Coaster was still a swimming pool. A lot has changed since then but there is still a lot thats the same. What did surprise me was how quiet the park was. Everything was a walk on yesterday. I found Ride of Steel not as smooth as it used to be. Tantrum is my favorite coaster at the park now. Got to ride it 3 times. Ignite the Night was a fantastic show and I am glad I stayed to watch it.
Overall I had a great day at the park. One thing that I noticed is the park really needs a paint job on a lot of things and the park needs more lighting at night. All in all its still a good park. Just needs some TLC.
RoS has gotten rougher, but it was actually worse in 2015. 2016 was when the new train was purchased and it certainly helped with the shakiness, but yeah, it’s gotten rough. Tantrum is a great ride for what it’s worth. Not a long ride, but fun, intense and smooth as butter, and typically a walk-on!
As for paint and lighting, yes-it’s the glaring issue with the place, along with the terribly uneven blacktop. My friend twisted his ankle in a giant pothole there last time we went to the park. A bit ridiculous that they can’t even pave a path, but hopefully Six Flags will at least work on making the blacktop more flat.
Like you said, it’s certainly a good park full of potential, it just needs somebody to be willing to invest in the place.
Six Flags Darien Lake (SFDL) Discussion Thread
in Theme Parks, Roller Coasters, & Donkeys!
Posted
I noticed it too, i’m sort of surprised, given it has water on the drop this year. I noticed for people standing on the bridge, the water got the bottom of their legs and that’s about it. I wonder what’s going on with it.