ryder

The Orlando and Hollywood HHN are very different. Even when they share properties, each coast does their own version of it, and they'll have very little in common. In a nutshell, Orlando has much, much better sets. I'm sure you're aware of the joke that HHN is a lot of black walls, and there's truth to that (though it is improving). But the trade off is I feel the Hollywood scareactors are on point and are the best in the biz. Very consistent, aggressive, and very in your face. I've found the Orlando scareactos can be hit and miss. That's also a flaw of Knott's... they also have some great, and very original and unique themes and set design... but aside from the Ghosttown scareactors, the maze scareactors are really, really inconsistent. There's been many times I've walked through a Knott's maze and see a scareactor every 20 feet... and then, doing the same maze 30 minutes later, have only 1-2 scareactors for the entire maze. (It tends to happens more towards the end of the evening.) If you go to Knott's, I definitely recommend a FOL... the lines are well managed, and you can often get to every maze more than once, which is something you'll want to do, because you'll get a very different experience even in the same maze. Boofet would be a good idea, because food lines during the event are nightmare (and not the good kind for a haunt). Oh, and you mentioned going on a Haunted Log ride... lately, they haven't been making it haunted. It'll be open, but aside from a few minor Halloween decorations, that'll be it. No scareactors. To be honest, even when they did, it was fairly underwhelming, so you're not really missing that much.

I do have to give SFMM credit for really stepping up their operations. Everybody thought for sure that once the park went 365 days a year, half the rides would be down. But that largely hasn't been the case. All the rides are fully staffed, and most food locations are open. Sure it may be only 1 train ops, but on the light week days, that's all they need. Add to that the new wait times monitors now up throughout the park, improved Flass Pass/FOL pass on the phone, and mobile food ordering, it's moved up a great deal as a better park to visit. Meantime at Knott's, which I could argue is a better park experience, is often so overcrowded nowadays, ops only so-so, and food lines that stretch forever and move glacially (with no mobile food ordering option available), I'd argue that I have a better time at SFMM than Knott's. Knott's has become a victim of its own success, with little being done to improve their infrastructure. SFMM is currently the exact opposite.

I was looking at the app today for SFOT (as I'm planning a trip out there later this summer), and it claimed Mr. Freeze was open with a hour wait. Can anyone at the park actually confirm if it reopened? I feel like if had reopened, someone would've already posted about it here.

Interesting. Is the one at SFGA still running? It's still listed on their website. I liked the ride when I rode it there, but didn't love it. It's sort of dull. Looks way more impressive than it actually rides.

I feel you, we're visiting from Los Angeles in July. However, we've also been to SFOT a fair number of times, so while disappointing if things don't return by then (and they already announced the summer closure of Casa Magnetica, which I was already bummed about), I'm just keeping my expectations in check. Really, we're more going for SFFT, which seems to be much better in terms of operations.

FYI, the first piece of track for Wonder Woman is now up. Saw it in the park just today.

I'm going again this summer as well, and it'll be my first trip there since 2001. Last time I was there, Joker's Revenge (the backwards Arrow) was still a thing. Do they still have that cliff/fireworks show?

I was at the park Sunday, and Superman had both forwards and backwards sides open.

I'm not sure if anyone here has mentioned it so far, but Tidal Twister has actually reopened! Got a ride on it today. Journey to Atlantis is currently closed for refurbishment.

SFGAd just announced a Single Rider line for Jersey Devil... do we think WW:FOC will now have one?

Anyone have any idea of Wonder Woman will offer a Single Rider line? Does Jersey Devil?

^Was in the park today... no noticeable movement on Lex. Tatsu is getting there, but not sure when it'll be completely finished. Superman was up today, but only forwards side. And FYI, at the very moment, the walkway between Tatsu and WCR/Apocalypse is closed due to painting. The new bathrooms going up behind the Flashpass office already have walls up.

Journey to Atlantis doesn't have a covered station either, and it's been that way since 2004. Not sure why every one's suddenly so upset about an uncovered station now.

Can verify Superman is open, was at the park today. However, only the backwards side. Employee claimed it'd be a long time before the forward side would be open again.

SFMM seems to be ending its Membership program. It appears current members will still keep all their benefits, it will just be a name change to "Legacy Members". But no further memberships will be sold, it will only be season passes.

I"d imagine that reopening Montezuma again is mostly because not only did they only give a three day notice, but one of those three days (the last Saturday!) the ride went down all day, so it turned out to be only a two day notice.

I accidentally stumbled onto this small sign placed on the wall of a picnic area in Lagoon. Most random thing ever, and I've been told by locals that's there tons of these nonsensical signs scattered around the park. Would love to know about more of them.

^I'm pretty sure it's been closed even before we got our rains. And we may be headed to nearly a month closed, so it seems like it'd be more than the rain.

I think Superman hasn't been open for weeks. Not sure what's going on with it, but I've gone at least 3 different times in the last few weeks, and it's never opened once, and heard lots of other people reporting it closed recently. I just figured it was refurbishment (possibly unplanned?).

^There was, it's the building by Superman. You can actually see the "The Laughing Dragon" name still painted in the pic on this post. One unique piece of trivia about the Sol Spin (Mondial Space Roller) at Knott's... it's the only one to have 6 across seating. They normally only have 5. This is because it sits on the footprint originally used for Windseeker, which got really bad press when it stalled out for like 3 hours at a high spot. It was removed and sent to I believe Worlds of Fun, and Mondial offered to put in the space roller using the old Windseeker footer, but the standard model was too small for the space... so they customized it just for Knotts.

Nope, you're thinking of the Four Winds/The Laughing Dragon, which was behind it. That particular building was originally a dual station as a terminal point for two different skyway systems (Eagle's Flight) that met there. The building is now used as a haunt space for FF, but they have to build around the enormous concrete footer that's right in the middle of it.

It was recently in the news Delta and United airlines had to cancel a ton of flights due to not having enough staff because they're all calling out due to Covid. I can totally imagine the same thing happening for theme parks... in fact, an inside source told me that an attraction at Knott's had over half it's staff call out for Covid. I think all parks (and possible malls and grocery stores) are going to be finding themselves short staffed in the coming weeks.... bring your patience

Small update: they've torn down the old bathrooms by the Flash Pass center towards the front of the park. Hopefully they'll construct some updated ones?

Yeah, I was there this past Wednesday, and Tatsu, Superman, X2, TC, and Apocalypse (in addition to Batman, Flash, Wonder Woman [flat ride], and Drop of Doom) were all down.

Yes, it's the magic flyer. For a brief time, they built a wooden facade on either side of the tracks to give the illusion it looked like a mini Colossus.