clem2754

Demon at SFGA.

I would check back on the site. Being platnum myself I signed up in early April and I have received like one e-mail from them.

But now it feels like Cedar Fair is putting more money into it's prime parks: Steel Vengeance at Cedar Point, Mystic Timbers at Kings Island, Twisted Timbers at Kings Dominion, Mack Launch Coaster at Carowinds, Rail Blazer at CGA. These seems like big adds. Six Flags hasn't done much with their California, NJ, and IL parks over the past few years unless something is in the works this year. It seems like Cedar Point opening a new coaster generates more buzz than other parks. I am really interested to see what the lines are like in May for this ride. I really think it is going to be tough to top. Hoping it doesn't turn into Flight of Passage with 4-5 hour wait times. I am sure MF would have generated the same buzz back in the day as I am sure that Magnum XL-200 would have as well as that was the first coaster over 200 feet.

I would be there for opening and hit Full Throttle first, followed by Goliath once, and ride TC until it builds a line. Full Throttle's line never recovers through out the day. Avoid starting at X2. Everyone goes to that ride first. The queue can be empty in the afternoon especially if it breaks down briefly. I try to get to that ride between 2:30-5. It will be busier later once everyone has made a full circle around the park. Look out for when it breaks down because you can get a few rides in once they open it back up. Superman can be bad if they run only one side. If they run both sides it is hit or miss. TC and Tatsu will always have a reasonable line. If the queue is completely full for either ride then you will have a lengthy wait.

For those that go to Cedar Point a lot, what would you expect he lines to be like on Sunday, May 20th, Monday May 21st, and Tuesday May 22nd. I figure we will see reports leading up to those days. I figure that weekdays in May have to be the best time to visit this year.

I think Carowinds is beyond just Fury 325 and Afterburn. Intimidator is a very good coaster. It is one of the better hypers out there. I don't have a problem with Hurler or Nighthawk. Neither are an elite coaster but I will ride them. They also have quite a few options for family coasters. The park is clean and with the rumor of them getting a launch coaster in 2019, they are a wooden roller coaster away from having a line-up that could match up to most parks.

To be honest the Demon serves the purpose of the next step for kids as long as they get past the inversions. That ride is better suited for kids to enjoy it, while it may be a little rough for audits from a comfort perspective. My niece and nephew loved the Demon at SFGA last year. My problem with Grizzly is that it offered nothing. I would rather ride a wooden roller coaster that offers something entertaining even if it is a little rough. For example I prefer Apocalypse at SFMM any day of the week. It gives some air time despite being a little rougher. Also the restraints were a big problem for Grizzly to be honest. It slowed operations to a crawl. They are poorly designed. I just didn't enjoy the coaster. I enjoyed the Little Dipper at SFGA more because it offered up the opportunity to ride a historic coaster I did perfer Grizzly to Kong at SFDK. I felt that coaster was the worse one that I rode during the trip .

Sometimes when it is hot, the lines are shorter. Also the temp can really vary quite a bit. I am a gold member so I go in 10 minutes early. I always start with Full Throttle. I find that the line becomes too long later in the day, so it is best to hit it first thing. That ride's capacity is not good and they have run one train on some Sundays in the Winter/Spring. I always go away from X2 at the start of the day. I find most people go to X2 to start. After Full Throttle, I ride Goliath once and then hit up TC a few times until it generates a line. I try to be at X2 between 2:30-5. I find the lines are normally the shortest around these times and start to get longer later. Another tip is to go to X2 when it is down. The line can go down to next to nothing and you can get a few rides in once they open it. I go a lot on Sunday's and prefer them over Saturdays. Crowds are much better on Sundays. I have not gone during the week at all, I heard it has been very reasonable. I would suggest coming before Freight Fest starts as that draws a crowd. 2nd week of September, you should be able to avoid that. If you go during Freight Fest, Holiday Weekends, or a busy Saturday and came from out of state, you may want a pass. Since I'm local I just avoid the busy days.

Here are the ones I will hit in May: Steel Vengeance The Voyage Storm Chaser Maverick Millennium Force Here are the ones I will hit up later this year: Lightning Rod Iron Rattler Here are the future ones: El Toro Twisted Timbers (May get to this park this year) Wicked Cyclone I-305 (Same as TT) Cannibal

Big Trip planned in May - Cedar Point for 3 days (Sunday, Monday, Tuesday) (Staying at Hotel Breakers) (Will be there for the exclusive ride night for Steel Vengeance on the 22nd) Kings Island Holiday World Kentucky Kingdom All will be first time visits. To prepare will goto my home parks of Six Flags Magic Mountain and Knotts....

Gold Striker, yesterday at CGA.

I was in the Bay area over the weekend and spent about 7 hours at SFDK on Saturday. Here are my takeaways from the park. They let us in at 10am. hey were suppose to open at 10:30am but rope drop didn't occur until 10:45am. It was a bit strange. Have not experience a delay like that before. Not sure if that is common or the norm for this park. Joker was my favorite ride. I found that the ride was better in the back seat. The drop was much better as is the case with most RMC. I got 7 rides on it. The first 2-3 I was able to pick my seat. Then they placed a staff member who assigned seats. I believe I asked for the back row twice and was my request was granted, so the staff was pretty good about. One member actually tanked me for asking instead of just trying to take the seat. I liked the inversions and some of the air time, but I see why this is regarded as the weakest RMC. It seems to lose a little bit of the pacing as the ride goes on. Still it is the best ride at the park. Superman was a fun ride. I rode it twice. It was a little rougher than what I am used to with Full Throttle. But overall I enjoyed it. Even with capacity of 12 riders the line was only 30 minutes tops. The staff did a great job to make sure that no seats were empty. Medusa was also a fun ride. I think I found it more enjoyable than Scream at SFMM. The third inversion really seem to stick out. Line was never more 10 minutes. My second favorite ride ended up being V2. I really enjoyed the hang time you got. I rode it 4 times and got great side air time twice and had rows 4 & 5 and it just hung me upside down. This is a much better ride than V2 at SFGA. Great design especially for this park with their height restriction. The Boomerang. Cobra, and the Super Looper were as expected. The ride which was not good was Kong. I'm not looking forward to T3 at Kentucky Kingdom next month and if this one is better than that one, ouch. It is a poorly designed ride. The worst part is they only ran one train and the wait was about 30 minutes. They did try to make sure all the rows were taken but the ride was just plain horrible. I also took a quick look at some the animal exhibits. I have been to the San Diego Zoo numerous times and maybe I'm used to that level, but this felt like a step down. It was OK. I think I liked the Penguins and Sting Rays the best since they were so close to you. The Harley Quinn Coaster was no where close to being ready. Even though the folders showed the crane putting on the top part of the track, it was removed when I was their on Saturday. Overall the park was a good one to visit for a day. You can get everything done in 6-8 hours. It will allow you to ride Joker, V2, Superman, and Medusa more than once. I think my next trip to the Bay area I will hit up CGA for a day and goto Santa Cruz Boardwalk instead of SFDK on the second day.

Just returned home from a trip to the Bay Area. Was at CGA for last 2 hours on Saturday and a little over 4 hours on Sunday. The park was dead. Everything was a walk on today with the exception of Gold Striker and psycho mouse which each had 10 minutes waits. First time for me at the park. I really enjoyed Gold Striker. I got 17 rides in between the 2 days. Great coaster! I really enjoyed the pacing of the ride. Even when they had to stop it at the top of the lift hill to tell someone to put there phone away the ride still just took off. I will also say that the operations on this ride were great. Much faster than Knott's and Ghost Rider. Also operations would accommodate The other ride I really enjoyed was Flight Deck. I got 4 rides on that one. Afterburn is still my favorite invert but this layout really packed a lot into that ride. After those 2 I was not really impressed with the remaining coasters. I rode Medusa at SFDK earlier on Saturday, and Patriot was average at best after that ride. I guess it is what it is and I should judge it for that. I did ride it twice to be objective. Demon brought back memories of growing up in IL and going to SFGA. The roller coaster provides a nice starting point for those jumping into inversions, but the coaster is showing it's age a little bit. I found Grizzly to be the worst wooden roller coaster I have been on. The restraints are horrible. You get no air time what so ever. Not sure if this is something that the park could get RMC to convert. Ride it once for the credit but I would avoid it after that. Rail Blazer looks awesome. Will have to make a trip back later in the year to ride this one. It is really amazing to look at. This is clearly a bucket list coaster for me. My take away from the park is it has a lot of potential. If Cedar Fair is going to pump money into this place over the next 5 years it really has the making of a solid park. It looks to have a nice top 3 if Rail Blazer lives up to the hype. IF over the next 5 years, they could RMC Grizzly and I am not sure what they are legally able to do but I know a Hyper has been talked about for this park. I am not a big flat ride guy, but I think that is another area that they will have to address.

Going in 2018: Six Flags Magic Mountain (Home Park) Knott's Berry Farm Disneyland California's Great America Six Flags Discovery Kingdom Cedar Point Kings Island Holiday World Kentucky Kingdom Carowinds Dollywood Six Flags Fiesta Texas Sea World San Diego Parks I possibly will attend in 2018: Six Flags Over Texas Six Flags Over Georgia Kings Dominion Lagoon ZDT Amusement Park