DavidB

^^Well said. I have a couple friends who are willing to go with me to parks out of town, but almost always as part of a trip where theres at least something else going on. I'll often package a park and a concert together. People in their 30s, for the most part, aren't interested in driving 3 hours or more just to ride coasters. CP is the one exception I've gotten people to make just for a park. If I try and get someone to just go to Kentucky Kingdom or something...it probably just isnt going to happen. Fortunately one if my good childhood friends married a girl with a 12 year old daughter and 6 year old son and they have gotten into going to parks, so I've hit a couple parks with them. But as an adult, it can be an uphill battle, and you have to play to your audience if you're going to expect someone to drive for hours to go to a park. At least include other stuff in the trip, and if you can find a significant other that doesnt mind going with you to parks, that's the best option...you do their stuff and they do yours. It doesnt have to be their favorite thing in the world, but if they are happy to share it with you, that's enough for them to go out of their way with you to have a good time together. -a single 36 year old semi enthusiast

That "mosaic sand art" area actually used to be filled with different colored gravel instead of permanent epoxied pebbles. It was much nicer as the gravel but people would mess it up and little plants would grow in it eventually, so I'm sure they changed it to cut down on maintenance

Maxx Force on Friday is my newest credit. Very cool ride! Also new for me were Goliath, Dark Knight, Joker, Superman, Xflight, vertical velocity. Didn't feel whorish enough to try the kids coasters...

Hello all, It's time for me to ask the questions everyone loves... I'm going to be going to the Summerfest music festival in Milwaukee this holiday weekend and wanted to get the opinions of some SFGAm regulars! The typical stuff: I was planning on going on the 4th as I figured it may be less busy and there's not anyone I specifically want to see at the festival that day. The possibilities would be the 4th, 6th, or 7th. I guess part of the day on the 5th is a possibility too, but would prefer not to go that day unless you guys think it will be the best day to go. What rides should I hit early to avoid lines? Any favorite or least favorite seat recommendations would be welcome as well. I think it's been like 20 years since I've been to this park, so I'm excited to say the least. Raging Bull was the new hotness last time I was here, so I'm excited to check all the new stuff out! Thanks in advance for any guidance you guys can provide! Dave

Do you mind pointing the direction where we can see or read something about this? I'd be interested to check it out.

There are more and more and more web pages and youtube channels popping up hoping to be the next TPR or Coaster Studios, and they are both protecting ownership of the photos they do the work to get, and trying to drive traffic to their page or channel. If I was going to go through the effort to take the pictures and videos and everything for my page it would bother me if someone used it without crediting me, or even worse, cropped my photo credit off the bottom of the image or something.

Neat, but they cancelled Woodstock lol

Jesus...all around

I would be surprised if you couldnt get to all the coasters. Everything has decent capacity except Spinning Dragons, so I would check it's line first, as it is right inside the gate anyway. I would recommend trying both near the front and back of the train on mamba if the line is short.

Can I ask what you don't like about Cedar Fair's system? I don't have a ton of experience with line skip systems at different parks as I don't get to nearly as many parks as many of you do, but I like Cedar Fair's system. You're dumped in with everyone else before boarding so you don't have to steal someone's seat on the next train or have your seat stolen on the next train. I have had line skip passes in my pocket at my home six flags that i've just not used because I would rather wait an extra 10 or 15 minutes than feel like an ass. There's no signing in for your next ride or anything, just go in the dedicated entrance and then queue in the station or get bundled into the line with everyone else. Wish it was that way everywhere.

If Tidal Wave is on the outs I won't be sad to see it go. These were fun every now and then when i was a kid but haven't had any desire to ride one in at least 20 years. Definitley not holding my breath, but if they remove Tidal Wave it frees up a corridor into the eastern part of the park they have been using for little else than storage...in fact, Highland Fling is sitting over there on google maps.

That looks fantastic, both aesthetically and in terms of ride quality.

This is interesting news I had never heard before as these parks aren't usually on my regular visit radar. I am strongly considering hitting BGW and BGT this year though. I got the companion pass from Southwest and intend to make good use of it and if I can buy a platinum pass at Sea World San Antonio for 190 vs one at BGW for 348 and get a similar result, this sounds like an awesome idea...Is it really that cut and dry? I don't care one bit about preferred parking. I could see some value in the bring a guest tickets at BGW vs SWSA, but I don't see making up the 150 dollar difference on discounts for in park purchases or anything. Is there anyone who can provide better insight on this, because I am extremely interested!

I don't normally get in on the anniversary discussion but here's my thought. They specifically said this would be a 2 year celebration, right? So I think kenban is correct. The 150th will be more sprucing up, retro stuff. I could see a replacement of some old management type facilities on the point at the cedars location; an older building in a prime location being replaced with a new, off the beaten path building (i dont know well enough what would fit the bill). 151st would be more likely to be the new a new coaster(if at all). Why else would you mention a 2 year celebration, say you're doing the retro stuff, AND install a new coaster? Then what happens for 151? Something extremely minor compared to 150? Why even mention the 2 years?

I know there's a good deals thread around here somewhere, but since frugality and stuff is the topic of the day and this is a highly frequented thread, I thought I'd throw this out. Just saw it yesterday. Sounds like a good deal on flights if you travel in pairs. Southwest has what seems to be a good credit card deal to get a companion pass for the rest of 2019 without having to do much. https://points.theinventory.com/southwest-just-launched-one-of-the-best-credit-card-bon-1831615926?ks=curation Maybe someone with more experience in this area could look at it and see how legit it sounds...

Six Flags did the Six Flags thing even 35 years ago and installed Thunder River at their other parks after the first one was a success.

Fortunately I decided not to take the chance figuring it may be really crowded, and I wasn't feeling too great in the first place. Good for the park that they are doing booming business though!

Well that would suck if they've given up on Excalibur. That is a prime location for a big new flat like a giant discovery though.

The best kind of question....does anyone with experience with the park have a prediction on crowd levels today? Im thinking of making a spontaneous trip with how nice the weather is. If this is historically a busy day due to thd holiday, coupling that with the nice weather may not make it worth the 3.5 hour drive though?

I've been strongly considering hitting this event and it sounds like I missed the prime weekend for it. After hitting KI and CP the last 2 weekends I didn't want to make it 3 in a row heading out of town to visit a park. Glad everyone who made it seems to have had a good time. Maybe if the forecast temperatures for next weekend trend upwards I'll make it to the park, otherwise it may just have to wait until next year.

MT also seems more family friendly since it's not as bumpy.

Steel Vengeance!

I spent the closing weekend at the park and I wanted to do a bit of a trip report and echo the sentiments I've seen here. The weather sucked all weekend. Friday and Saturday it was constant very light rain and mist, and Sunday there were some rain free periods but mostly rain. I was thoroughly impressed with the dedication from everyone involved to keep the park, and specifically the rides, running as much as possible all weekend long. Huge thumbs up to CP for running the rides all weekend in the rain as much as possible!!! I was in the park 9 to close Friday, Early entry to close Saturday except for an hour where I went to my cabin to sit down for a few minutes and put on some dry clothes, and basically all day Sunday. Never once did everything shut down, and if there was a shut down, it was addressed as quickly as possible. At one point on Sunday maybe 4 pm Valravn went down and there was a train stuck right before the drop for probably almost an hour. I left the line early in that break down and assumed I wouldn't get on it again this trip, but after circling the park for some other rides, it was back up. Excellent work this weekend from everyone. Food didn't seem to be a problem either. There were lines at Panda Express and Chik fil a, but nothing too bad. I ate at the various food trucks and had a couple Auntie Anne's pretzels and stayed away from standard park stuff for the most part. I tried an Italian panini sandwich, chicken and waffle taco, pulled pork sandwich, Philly steakburger wrap, Korean bbq chicken cup, and funnel cake and fried oreos, all from food trucks and all delicious. This is obviously a great solution to help out with the low staffing levels. I got my first ride on Steel Vengeance Friday night one of the last few trains before closing. I know it's all been said, but that was my first RMC and it's the most ridiculous thing I've ever ridden. I rode 8x in all through the weekend in different seats, daytime, nighttime, doesn't matter...nuts! I only noticed the midcourse trimming one time on my rides, and it made a little difference, but not much. As for the recent discussion, I'm not necessarily in the group that prefers other rides better due to the excessive nature of SV, but I don't put it heads and shoulders over some of the others. I really don't rank rides, but as wild and insane as SV is, I would group it with MF, Maverick as my favorites. That intensity doesn't put it above my other favorites, it's just a different flavor. I managed to get on all the adult coasters except for Gemini on the weekend. I was a bit bummed out as Magnum didn't do as much for me as it usually does. I rode near the front on Blue Streak in a middle row and had a much better experience than I did last time a couple of years ago. I won't belabor this with the same pictures and reviews of the same rides we have all seen and heard before. I did try to pay more attention to the collection of rides as relates to families, and there is a good progression of rides from the smallest to the largest, wildest stuff in the world. I don't have kids and never really paid attention from that perspective, so I've tried to be more mindful of some of the other aspects of the park experience the last couple of years. As has been discussed many times, CP could use another coaster or two on the mild to medium end of the spectrum, but it would really be helpful to have slightly lower height requirements for CCMR and Iron Dragon. Here are a couple pictures I took that may be of some interest: Sandcastle Suites site I didn't remember seeing any pics of the Sandcastle Suites site and how much of it the new deluxe RV campsites covered. There is a ton of space back here. My guess would be for this area to get a hotel, but I guess we'll just have to wait and see. Nightmare! These poor people sat up there in the rain for like an hour before they got the trains moving again. Sounds absolutely awful! As an aside, I think I hit every available penny smasher as well. Sorry for the lengthy post. Just wanted to note some things I made a point of paying attention to and give the park props for doing everything to make it a good weekend for everyone who showed up despite the weather. It would have been just as easy to pack it in but they stood tall! Had an excellent weekend overall and glad to have followed through coming from St. Louis even though the forecast sucked.

I sat in the back lot for over 3 1/2 hours 4 or 5 years ago on Columbus Day Saturday when it was busy enough they sold out of fastlane. They cleared the whole front lot first before letting us leave. I can't imagine it would ever take 7 hours to get out in the worst case scenario. It can be awful though.