ryder

To be fair, I found the app confusing at first, but it becomes more intuitive if you leave on the location tracking. Basically, the games in the app are a treasure hunt, and it tracks you as you move through the park and rewards you the more of the park you see. When the location tracking is left off, you'll get automatic notices to your phone when you've found stuff, and it'll start to make a bit more sense. I think it's something that would add repeat value to the park, because it's clearly a small park, but on subsequent visits, you could devote more time to the games in the app and still be entertained. And the cupcakes are amazing. It's a flight, so they are NOT full sized, but bite sized. But they're high quality, as you can see. Pricey, but worth it IMO. I'll add that while the cupcakes are sold in both main eating locations (at room temperature), they are also sold in refrigerated form in the gift shop at the front of the park.

I visited earlier this summer and was super impressed. Yeah, it's small, but it's so amazingly well themed, there was still a lot to do. You can interact with the park via the app, earning badges by visiting as many locations as possible, which will reveal additional stories. They partnered with a local bakery to create a flight of cupcakes that represent each land (some of the flavors are blue berry, blood orange, and hazelnut). There's a specially made children's book in the gift shop that has one of the characters going through the park. And they even sell a dictionary that translates the language they created. It was really impressive, and the staff was super nice. I do really hope this park makes it, though. There were maybe only about 35 cars in the parking lot the whole day. They seem to be under the umbrella of the waterpark and casino... not really sure why there isn't a shuttle going between those areas to increase more visits. Another problem is location... unless you're local to the area, it's a huge headache to get there. The closest major town with an airport is Des Moines, but it's a regional airport, so flights can be expensive, and it would still be about another 1.5 hour drive. Next closest would be either Omaha or Minneapolis, both at about a 3.5 hour drive. And Chicago is about a 4.5 hour drive.

That said, Lagoon is partially hosting an event in early October of this year, and Primordial was promoted as part of it... so they at least expected to have it open this year (the event was promoted just a month or two ago). Could always change, of course, but wondering if I should get my hopes up at all.

On a side note, I was also wondering if there was any sort of Primordial update. Seems like news on the front has gone pretty quiet, and we're in the summer season now... weren't they hoping to have it open by now?

Fair enough, I was thinking of my home park (Knotts). They'll really need to sort that out, it's already causing confusion

Knott's is also doing it for $100 extra. And Gold Passes, as far as I know, have never included parking. Only Platinum did. So it remains to be seen if parking will be included with this new add on.

Log Ride has been closed for, oh, about 2 decades now, being ripped out for FT. I assume you meant Jet Stream? SFMM has turned into a slot machine lately. I've had really good days where virtually everything was open, and terrible days where a crapload was closed. I have noticed lately that Superman backwards and JL have been closed for a long, long time (maybe 4-6 months?). That said, all the other rides you list have been open lately, so I guess you just had bad timing. That includes Jet Stream, which had been closed for at least year, but recently returned freshly refurbished and looking surprisingly nice (and no more leaky boats, they were refurbished too!). Honestly, I suspect most of it may be related to staffing issues more than the rides themselves. EDIT: It appears Ninja is closed because they are installing new fencing around the area.

Yeah, I basically liked the entire ride until the bunny hops at the end. They're a bit *too* intense, especially in the back seat. I actually found the middle seats to be the best in terms of intensity, but even that pushes it. The entire rest of the ride is a blast, especially the two heartline rolls. As for the Miler... I generally enjoy their craziness, and after the first turns and drops, I was thinking, "hey, this isn't too bad!" Then the second half hit, and I was thrown like a rag doll (not in a good way, IMO). There was one insane air time that was to the point that I seriously wondered if I'd be ejected from the car, and maybe a seatbelt would be a good idea. And the remaining turns were right angles. It was bad, IMO. And I was in the middle seat, FWIW. The park does have a very quirky, carnival like charm to it. But I was also disappointed they didn't seem to be able to staff their own rides. I'd say 75% of their rides had no ops at all 45 min into park opening. The ones that were there were friendly, but if a crap load of rides aren't open, it doesn't help much. And the ops on Aero were pretty slow.

I wouldn't expect the wait times for Mario Kart to drop by then.

Well, they just added an upcharge early entry this year, which is new, so not sure how or if that will change anything, but in the past--Hollywood does NOT do holding pens at all. That's just an Orlando thing. If you are doing a regular daytime ticket, about an hour or two before HHN starts, you can head back to the park entrance to a podium (but it is still inside the park, no need to exit) where they will give you a wristband that is good for HHN admission. Be careful, once you put it on, you will no longer be allowed to ride the regular USH park attractions until HHN begins at 7pm (unless you get the HHN early entry). Toadstool reservations tend to go very, very fast first thing in the morning. If SNW is important to you, you may want to purchase the early entry ticket for that... it's really the only practical way to do the games, food reservation, and ride. Do the games first, save ride for just before the park opens to the public. Once it does open, it'll be SLAMMED for the rest of the day. It has SR, but it's often just as long as the full queue.

Seems that Roaring Rapids finally opened back up later today.

That place is great too! I usually eat at the one in Burbank... didn't know they had one in Valencia!

There's a lot of options near the Valencia Town Center mall. I personally enjoy Pei Wei, Pick Up Sticks, Islands, Presto Pasta, Stonefire Grill, Topper's Pizza, Chop Shop (custom salads), Cafe Rio (a Chipotle-style place), and Zanku Chicken (an local LA fave). There's also a Crumbl, and if you're willing to spend a bit more money and time, Gyu-Kaku is really good grill it yourself Japanese BBQ. Behind the park in the other direction (more to the north) is Jimmy Dean, a fast food greasy spoon with a little bit of everything (burgers, chicken, salads, Mexican). Next to that is Tommy's known for really good, greasy chili burgers that are also an LA fave. And if you're looking for unique local history, can't go wrong with Saugus Cafe, which is the oldest restaurant in Los Angeles--130+ years! It's said that President Benjamin Harris dined there is 1890, and Theodore Roservelt in 1903. It's a classic coffee shop diner. On a side note, SFMM (and others have also reported) that Goliath is now back open.

I don't know if I'd consider Riddler and Golaith closed for "off season". They've been closed for multiple months. Although at least Goliath has been testing, and is rumored to open in time for Scream Break. But no real updates on Riddler. But it does kill me that SF wonders why revenue is down when so many rides have been closed for so long.

They do have a fair number of Spotify play lists. But it's usually more the atmospheric music, not park specific music.

I agree on that... I've been on Desperado before, but I've never had a chance to ride the shooting log flume

According to Vital Vegas, Buffalo Bill's will be soft opening Dec 23 with renovated flooring, rooms, and games. Most food opening within a month, and official grand reopening mid-January. However, no word on rides. I figured this place for dead... crazy they're bringing it back.

It'll also be bad because the few rides that will be open will be doing single train ops (exceptions for WW and TC)

I wouldn't count on it. And at the rate they're going, unless there's a drastic change with the current CEO, I wouldn't even expect half the rides to be open.

Obviously I'm real late to the party here, but I do remember seeing this ride at the Los Angeles county fair when I was a young child, but it was called Calypso for some reason. That same fair also had a Chance Turbo. I seem to even remember riding the Calypso/Meter... I have a memory of it generally being very, very mild, but if you were in the wrong place at the wrong time, you'd really get slammed to the side quite hard. Sadly, I was too young to ride the Turbo... one of my biggest regrets now. There's reportedly a company in California restoring a Turbo, but I don't think it's yet been taken on the road.

Not as extreme as Knott's bag policy, where the bags have to be less than half that size (6.5 x 4.5 x 2).

I was at the park today, and even though the park was open at 10:30, by 11:30, there were 23 rides still closed on the app, and only 15 rides (5 of which were kiddie rides) were open. It was one of the worst ops I've ever experienced at SFMM. Closed rides included: Goliath, Drop of Doom, Buccaneer, Swashbuckler, Full Throttle, X2, Viper, Jet Stream, Scream (which the entire pathway to it was blocked off, implying it wasn't going to open at all), Wonder Woman, JL, Crazanity, WCR, Apocalypse, Ninja, and Superman. The last three were going to be closed all day, the entire top of the mountain was closed. Crazanity had a crane on site and a motor seemed to be on the ground. To their very small credit, by the time I left around noon, a few of those rides finally managed to open (as far as I could tell: Goliath, Ninja, FT, Viper, Buccaneer, and JL). If you're going on a weekday, you shouldn't need Flashpass. But expect many closed rides, particularly: Superman, Ninja, and Apocalypse, which now only seem to operate on weekends.

It's a day off for most schools in the area (Rosh Hashanah)

There's also a Goth on the Mountain (private after hours) event coming up, which is kinda cool IMO

If it's anything like the restraints on SFMM's Wonder Woman (where the comfort collars are attached to the restraint), there's no slow down at all. They're easy to get into, lock, and check super fast, as anyone who's been on the ride can attest. In a way, it could actually speed up operations, as they now wouldn't have to check a lap bar and seat belt separately, and take all that extra time locking seat belts for empty seats.