joelwee

1. Don’t park at the mall. Security will tow your car if they see you park there and walk over to Knott’s. 2. Ghostrider typically has the longest wait out of all the coasters, so hit it first. Other than that, since you’re visiting on a Monday, the park shouldn’t be too crowded. I don’t think you really need a strategy for the rest of the park. Looking at the list of scheduled ride closures, everything should be open except Mystery Lodge, which is down for refurbishment. Have fun! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

What gets me is when people wear flip flops on X2. On a couple occasions, I've seen flip flops fly off of people's feet as the cars flip over on the first drop.

One thing to consider is that both of those parks tend to be insanely packed around New Year's. Magic Mountain even reached capacity on Dec. 30 last year. Personally, I'm avoiding those parks like the plague around that time, but if you still decide to go, definitely budget for Fast Lane and Flash Pass.

It ran really well after its last major retrack and was still running well when they closed it for West Coast Racers construction. I’m stoked that they opened it for Fright Fest. It’s one of my favorite night rides, especially during Fright Fest. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Just noticed this. Portola in Plumas County? My parents work in that area! It's rare that I hear people actually trying to visit that area (vs. get tf out, as I did). No, it was actually Portola Redwood State Park. I didn’t realize there was a town called Portola until I googled it just now. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I hope so, too. Apocalypse has been testing lately, so it is possible. But Six Flags’ marketing team has a history of not having a clue what actually is going on in the parks, so it may not be happening either. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Corkscrew. What is the worst meal you've had at a theme park?

I recently rode my 5th B&M Invert. Here is my ranking: 1. Raptor - far and away, my favorite invert. It combines everything I like about the other inverts on this list: great first drop; long, fun layout; and old-school B&M intensity. 2. Banshee - this one has the best first drop out of the inverts I've ridden, mainly due to the lack of a pre-drop. I rode it several times last summer, and the drop caught me by surprise each time. The layout is fun, but it lacks intensity. 3. Batman the Ride - so far, I've only ridden SFMM's Batman clone, and it's definitely an under-rated ride. It has a short layout, but it does a lot with the small footprint. It's one of the few rides that causes me to gray out. 4. Flight Deck (CGA) - another under-rated ride. It's another old-school B&M with a short but intense layout. I give the edge to the Batman clones because they do a little bit more with their short layout than Flight Deck does. 5. Silver Bullet - while this is my least favorite invert, I do not dislike it. The layout is fun, but its lack of intensity makes it feel like a family coaster. I usually take a spin on it whenever I visit Knott's, but I don't stay on for multiple re-rides like I would with the others on this list.

^Weekdays, basically anytime between the end of HITP (early January) through Spring Break, are usually dead. Weekends are slightly more crowded, but are still not bad. One-train ops (and 2-train ops on TC) are typical during this time, but wait times usually aren’t more than a 2-train wait. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

It does slow down and wait until a certain point. If the train in the station dispatched before the second is halfway up the lift hill, it will stay slow so the other train catches up. Otherwise, it speeds up to normal. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

And what makes you think they'll do any better of a job timing the dispatches on this one? WCR is being programmed to dispatch both trains at the same time. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Agreed. The best part of the ride was the queue. Maybe they can re-purpose it somehow. I agree. For such a crappy ride, it had one of the best queues in the park. I’m curious to see if the park installs another ride in that spot with the Green Lantern theme. It wouldn’t be unprecedented, since SFOT’s new Aquaman ride is replacing another Aquaman ride. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I’ve been to Knott’s 3 different times since they changed the log ride seats and I still haven’t ridden it, as it consistently has one of the longest lines in the park. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

So, I finally got myself married a few weeks ago and we took our honeymoon in NorCal the following week. After camping at Portola for a few days, my wife (who likes coasters, but isn't a die-hard enthusiast like I am) let me bring her to CGA before heading home. This was a first visit here for both of us, but an easy one to make since we both have Platinum Passes and go to Knott's several times a year. Crowds were fairly light that day, since most parkgoers were at the water park. Our first impression was that CGA is a small park that has its own charm. Walking into the park, you're greeted with a fountain, decorative flower bed, a two-story carousel, and a monstrous wooden coaster. The monstrous wooden coaster - Gold Striker - was our first ride of the day. I had heard great things about it, with some even preferring it to Ghostrider (my favorite woodie). I asked the grouper for back row, but he instead filled both the front and back rows with Fast Lane riders and placed us in the 3rd row. While Gold Striker had decent speed and a fun layout, it had a rattle that detracted from the ride experience. I still really enjoyed it; my wife hated it. We both agreed that Ghostrider is still #1. I wanted to ride again in hopes of sitting in the back, but my wife commented something about needing to have my head examined for wanting to ride again. So we decided to come back later if we had time (spoiler alert: we didn't). 7/10 Next up was the carousel. Sitting high up on a carousel was definitely a neat experience. Per the "weight limit" sign at the entrance, my fat @$$ was too heavy for the horses, so we rode a chariot instead. Next up was Flight Deck - which was temporarily renamed Hurler, as a kid lost his lunch after exiting the train ahead of us. I love old-school B&Ms, and this one did not disappoint. The first drop delivered a surprising amount of airtime, and the inversions had that classic B&M intensity. It reminded me of the Batman clones - short and sweet. But I still slightly prefer the Batman clones, simply because they do more with their short layout. Flight Deck had several sections between inversions where nothing really happened. 7/10 I was pleasantly surprised to see this park had a sky ride. The one at Cedar Point gave great views of the park, but only went about halfway across the park. Since CGA is way smaller, it spanned the whole park and made for some great photo ops. New water slides are here! Next, we hit Psycho Mouse. It had one of the longest lines in the park, and I couldn't help but think I could be standing in line for Railblazer right now instead of credit whoring the wild mouse. Still, we stuck it out and rode it. We ended up sitting with two little kids who were comforting each other the whole time - while my wife watched them and kept saying, "Aaawwww." As for the ride itself, there's not much to say about it... it's a wild mouse. They're always fun, and the restraints are definitely more comfortable than Coast Rider. 5/10 Next stop was the world's worst wooden coaster - Grizzly. This one had a 20-minute wait and I began to again think about skipping this and going to Railblazer, but curiosity got the best of me. I had to find out how bad this coaster was. And hoenstly, it wasn't that bad. It was completely devoid of any airtime or lateral forces, but it was butter smooth - probably because it was devoid of any forces. My wife enjoyed it. My only complaint was the Morgan trains - in which the tight lap bar and lack of leg room left me sitting in an awkward position and gave me a backache. 5/10 Finally, we headed over toward Railblazer before I noticed the familiar clickety-clack of an Arrow looper emanating from the trees near the midway. I'm a sucker for Arrow loopers, but just thinking about an Arrow looper gave my wife (who is a foot shorter than me) a headache, so she sat this one out. Demon definitely felt like an Arrow - two intense vertical loops, followed by two corkscrews - but this is the first one I've ridden that takes the corkscrews faster than a crawl. It was a nice change. That being said, it was definitely the roughest Arrow looper I've ridden. While most of them shuffle from side to side, Demon also lurches forward and backward through the loops. While I usually avoid headbanging, Demon smacked the back of my head into the headrest a couple of times. That being said, I must be a glutton for punishment because I enjoyed it. 6/10 Finally, I had made it to Railblazer. Ho-ly cow, this thing is bonkers! It's non-stop intensity from the first drop to the final brakes. It packs quite a punch for a ride with such a small footprint. My only complaint is I wish it was longer. Hopefully we'll see one of these at one of the SoCal parks in a few years! 9/10 After grabbing some dinner, I then grabbed the last credit of the night - Patriot. I went in with low expectations, due to reviews by other enthusiasts, and I was pleasantly surprised. It was surprisingly smooth, and the inversions had the old-school B&M intensity, but the layout was "meh". But that's not too surprising, given it was, what... the 2nd coaster that B&M ever built...? I did really enjoy the theming, though. The rock work was well done, and the patriotic marches playing in the queue line were fun. 6/10 That's a wrap for this park. While it had a decent ride collection, it could definitely benefit from the rumored 2021 hyper coaster. The ride ops (save for Railblazer) were some of the slowest I'd ever seen, as well. I mean, really... they made Knott's and SFMM ops seem like Cedar Point. CGA is probably my least favorite Cedar Fair park thus far, but it is by no means a bad park. The other parks were just that much better. Thanks for reading!

Honestly, I can't think of any legitimate teaser campaign the park has done. I think there might have been a few teasers or hints prior to Superman and Joker, but nothing on the level of what some of these other parks have done. I'm not sure why that is. Maybe they don't think their clientele would be interested? Magic Mountain doesn't do much teasing either. Maybe it's a California thing. CraZanity came completely out of left field with zero hints. For WCR, the park posted there would be a major ride announcement, but offered no hints on what it was.

Updated, as of last weekend: 1. Steel Vengeance 2. Twisted Colossus 3. Railblazer 4. Joker

I'm not sure if it's just because my home park isn't getting anything next year... but I'm actually really excited for this addition. A spinning wild mouse above a reptile enclosure sounds like a blast. I also find it funny that other parks - like Fiesta Texas - ran major teaser campaigns for flat rides, while this is the second year in a row that SFDK has added a coaster with almost no teasing. In fact, I don't recall seeing ANY teasers for Batman last year.

Adding a scarezone and more Christmas lights isn’t a huge improvement to the holiday events. Would be more impressive if they announced significant additions to the event instead of just dressing up a new area of the park that was likely already going to happen anyways. The press release was very obviously “oh crap, let’s announce something” and not very well thought out. That was my thought, as well. Whatever plans they had for a new ride this year obviously got cancelled and they had to scramble to find something to announce. It sucks, but I understand why they had to do it. Their construction crew has a lot on their plate, between Magic Mountain’s 2019 coaster AND La Ronde’s 2020 coaster. (Credit: Our Mountain Thrill Park on Facebook) Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Does anyone know if SFMM is selling 2020 Gold Season Passes yet? Discovery Kingdom is running a flash sale on 2020 passes, but I can only find 2019 passes on SFMM’s website. EDIT: Never mind, just noticed the park emailed me about their flash sale about a week ago and it got buried in my emails. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

https://www.themeparkreview.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=76997 Some people are probably still wondering... That’s a bummer. I had a great time last year. Looking forward to it next year, though. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

As Chris mentioned, Knott's have never done their announcements in line with other Cedar Fair parks. Haunt has always rightfully been the main focus of all their marketing from August-November. Hangtime was announced simultaneously with the other 2018 additions, IIRC. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

From the park’s Instagram... Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I actually really enjoy them. I'm tall enough not to get any headbanging, and I love the feeling of going backward through the inversions. I spent an evening marathonning the one at Knott's when they announced it was closing.

The park just announced a water park expansion for next year on their Instagram. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Outside of Magic Mountain (my home park), I've only visited Discovery Kingdom. Aesthetics are not a priority at either park. Burnt out light bulbs, faded paint on the coasters, dead plants, ads everywhere, etc. Judging by people's comments on the other parks, this seems to be chain-wide.