joelwee

Dying. What's worse than one-train operations on a crowded day?

Jaguar - Knott's Berry Farm

My 6-month, post-jaw-surgery coaster hiatus has finally come to an end, so I stopped by the park for a few hours on Saturday. It wasn't too crowded, and most everything went pretty smoothly in terms of ride ops. Apocalypse, Green Lantern, Lex Luthor, and Full Throttle were closed. Viper and Goliath both seemed faster than I remember. Viper flew through the loops like crazy, and I actually got a decent amount of floater airtime on Goliath. They were both excellent rides! My one disappointment was the ops on Twisted Colossus. The ride was only running 2 trains, and the ride ops weren't even trying to race. This is one crew that normally hustles, but they were dragging their feet last Saturday night. Most trains were making it all the way back to the station before the next train would dispatch. With TC having a 4:00 ride time, those were some pathetically slow dispatches. Despite not racing, I was able to sit in the back, which made for a fantastic ride with tons of ejector airtime. It's still my favorite ride at SFMM.

Xcelerator is being dismantled. (I saw a YouTube comment a few weeks ago that said part of the brake run had been removed, and the station was in the middle of demolition.)

I actually miss Boomerang, but I'm super excited for Hangtime.

My 5.5-month, post-jaw-surgery coaster hiatus is finally over. Today, my surgeon gave me permission to start riding coasters again. Good thing my home parks are year-round parks.

Not always. Knott's Berry Farm's operations are pretty abysmal; I'd even venture to say they're as bad as SFMM's, for example. Disney has stellar operations. I haven't visited Universal in forever, so I can't vouch for them. You make a good point. The X2 crew once offered to hold my drink cup when I was there by myself, so I wouldn't have to buy a locker, so they could've made an exception for the last train of the night. Both parties were in the wrong here. The ride attendants should've offered to hold his bag, but he also shouldn't have thrown a tantrum over having to spend $1 on a locker.

Sounds good to me! This'll give me something to look forward to as soon as I finish next semester. Yikes! I'm definitely renting a car, then. This'll give me more flexibility, anyway, in terms of when I want to leave/arrive. I just turned 25, so that won't be an issue. Thanks for that advice. I'll start researching car rental companies. Maybe this way, I can throw in one more park - Kentucky Kingdom. I've seen others post about the ridiculously good deal they have for out-of-towners, and it looks like a nice park. It's only a 2-2.5 hour drive from Kings Island. I already bought a Platinum Pass for next year, with this trip in mind. I'm planning on spending a decent amount of time at Knott's next year, anyway. My backup plan, if my Ohio trip falls through, is to drive up north to SFDK and CGA, so my Platinum Pass definitely won't go to waste. And I'm definitely riding Beast at night. Thanks, Bill! I'm not picky on hotels; I'd rather save a few bucks than pay for unnecessary luxury, but I'll check out Comfort Suites. I saw your post in another thread about Frontier's cheap flights, so I've been keeping an eye on them. I definitely wouldn't mind driving over to NV or AZ to get a cheaper flight. I'll keep that in mind. Is this to keep myself from being disappointed in KI if I go there after CP? I do have AAA, but I'm 25 now, so that won't be an issue. Thanks for the CP game plan and the pro tip on crowds. I'll see how they are before I buy Fast Lane. Thank you all for the advice. I'm looking forward to next year.

or it's becoming the new normal. TC always runs 2 trains when school is in session. They did the same thing late last year/early this year.

I'm planning on visiting Cedar Point and Kings Island for the first time next season. When is the best time to go to avoid crowds? I'm a uni student, so my trip will have to be sometime between late May and late August. I'm not a "credit whore" and want to take my time to enjoy both parks, but I want to ride each of the non-kiddie coasters at least once, and check out any notable flat rides; are 2 days enough to cover everything at CP? What about Kings Island? Are there relatively good, cheap places to stay near these parks? I signed up for the Choice Hotels Visa earlier this year and have racked up some free hotel nights, so I'd prefer their places. Since I'm halfway across the country, I figured on either: (1) flying into Cleveland/Sandusky Airport, visiting Cedar Point, taking the Greyhound/Amtrak to Mason, visiting Kings Island, and then flying home from Cincinatti, or (2) the reverse - depending on which is cheaper. Is there anything else within a reasonable distance where y'all would recommend going while I'm up there? Any other advice that frequent park-goers can offer is much appreciated.

Yes. Is there an Arrow in your Top 10?

Granted, but it's packed, and all the coasters are down to single-train ops. I wish SFMM would get a giga coaster.

My brother is a ride op at SFMM; he has some stories, too. I have yet to visit parks in other states, but California park-goers are definitely a stupid breed. About a week ago, he was a ride attendant on X2 - which is a ride that requires a l0cker purchase. A guy came in right before closing and began arguing with my bro about why he had to buy a locker for his backpack. During his 10-minute tantrum, the crew dispatched the last train of the night - which sparked another tantrum. He flipped off each of the ride attendants as he was leaving.

I was curious about that, too. I found a blog post about it by a local coaster nerd. The statue blew down during a heavy wind storm. Since the park had secret plans to revamp the ride into Superman: Escape from Krypton (in which having the statue would be pointless, because the cars were to run backwards), they never reinstalled the statue. The park sold it to a local businessman, who refurbished the statue and keeps it at his shop. Read all about it here: Edit: Looks like the coaster nerd's website is blocked on TPR.

Ninja and Riddler's Revenge @ SFMM. Riddler has a fun layout, but is too dang painful. The first loop around the lift hill is fun, but it's followed by a minute or so of headbanging and leg cramps. I actually prefer Scream for this reason. I get the nostalgia surrounding Ninja, with it being one of the few Arrow suspended swinging coasters left, but the seats are cramped and the layout is boring. I wouldn't be disappointed if the park decided to tear this down and replace it with a better family coaster.

Good thing my home park is a year-round park.

Fixed. I haven't seen them send off two trains at the same time, in a long, long time. My bad timing, I guess. When I was there in Sept.'16 it "almost" happened, when I rode it a second time, on the left side. But the right side train was "just behind us" by a few seconds. I remember racing the other train at least twice - the last time being in 2008, I believe. When I went late last year, I never even saw the other train during the course of the ride.

Granted, but every news website now requires a paid subscription. I wish Arrow Dynamics was still around.

When I caught the coaster bug last summer and visited SFMM for the first time, I rode TC and Apocalypse before Goliath and was honestly bored with Goliath's drop. Depending on where you sit, you may slightly lift up out of your seat. The head-chopper tunnel at the bottom is fun, though.

I Googled that coaster and found this interesting tidbit on Wikipedia: D'oh!

My first Arrow was Matterhorn Bobsleds at DLP. My first Arrow looper was Viper @ SFMM. As rough as it is, Matterhorn is still loads of fun, especially when it races.

To make it worse, your favorite coaster is removed to make room for a new stand-up coaster. Michigan's Adventure builds a new hyper-coaster.

Call me crazy, but Scream's rattle honestly bothers me more than X2's and Viper's jerkiness. X2 is rough, but I still consider it one of the best rides in the park. The way it throws and flips you around, especially on the last raven turn, is insanely fun. There's also nothing quite like the mini-heart attack you get when going backwards down the pre-drop and flipping over for the first drop.

Ride roughness on X2 also depends on which side you ride. For some reason, the right side (the side closest to Viper when you load the train) quickly rock back and forth at various points during the ride. The rocking starts at the front row and works its way toward the back as each row passes certain points, which leads me to think it's caused by manufacturing errors/wear and tear in the secondary track (the one that controls rotation). The left side doesn't have this problem.

Do-Dodonpa at Fuji-Q Next one: - A wooden coaster, based on the popular "Cyclone" design - Damaged by an earthquake in its 3rd year of operation, which ruined the ride experience and caused various mechanical problems. Regardless, it operated for 13 more years. - Was replaced by another wooden coaster, which is also plagued with mechanical problems.