ryder

On the Sunday of President's Day weekend, we got group #130. But the ride was having a pretty good day... they were up to the 50's by 10:30am. It seemed to have a hiccup around 11 or noon as it stayed in the 50's for about 90 minutes, but after that, it flew. It was up to 80 by 1:30, 110 by 5:30, our our group 130 was called in at 6:30. Appears groups went as high at 156 by 8:30pm, then seemed to stop, so I figure that's how high it went that day. But to get to 156 by 8:30pm seemed pretty good, especially with a mid-day breakdown (park was open until midnight).

Everything this^. If it didn't duel, people wouldn't complained. Now it does duel every time, and people still complain because they have to wait. Really? I also agree that in general, the Pit Stop waits have been pretty short. Occasionally you may have a long delays, but it's more because of a guest delay more than the crew itself. After multiple rides, while this isn't the most intense in the park by far, more of a family+ ride as someone else put it, the back seat does have some nice pops in the first part of each track. The helixes are pretty lackluster in terms of forces, but it's also the most fun in terms of visuals/racing. And I don't know what some people are talking about when they say they don't really notice the racing. It's totally obvious to me, and adds a lot to the fun. Is it the most intense ride in the park? Not by a long shot, I'd rank it just above Ninja in that respect. But is it more fun that most are giving it credit for? I think so.

RMC's don't just have a lap bar... they have a seat belt as well, and their tucked away location is a pain in the butt for operators to check, and it takes forever... hence the slower dispatches. The advantage of the collars is they can be checked much more quickly. The comfort of the rider is likely a secondary concern.

I would take that more as "the lifespan of the components won't last more than a few years". They are used, after all. Thought if parts become cost prohibitive, that could make the long term future of the ride uncertain.

They only have seven, total.

For the anniversary, Knott's has created a special 100 year Annual Pass card. I was able to exchange my old Platinum AP for the new one for free. Makes for a great memento!

I assume "skip the line" is referring to the upper tier Memberships benefits? In that regard, there's no membership skip the line for: X2 (most days), Crazanity, and the aforementioned Superman, which has been off the Fastlane for years. And now WCR? To be honest, that's fair, as it's the new attraction. But it'd be nice if they gave Crazanity back, though with it's still high levels of popularity and relatively low throughput, that's unlikely as well.

Superman is essentially off the flashpass list altogether, from what I was told.

Chalk me up as someone else’s who enjoyed Flashback and Freefall. I rode the Freefall at Dorney park this past summer, and found it was more intimidating that other drop towers.

^That's the entrance to the old ride queue, which I don't believe has a door. ^^I mean, I'm sure people would be complaining about how bad it would look if the lights were totally off, so it's kind of a no-win here. I don't mind them on as a matter of theming and safety, if nothing else.

This isn't surprising. I had to call out a survey sent to me by SFMM, because one of the questions was checking off your favorite rides at the park... and Terminator: Salvation was listed. This was a while ago, but it had still been closed for at least a year at the time. In the "What else would you like to comment on?" question at the end of the survey, I told them it was difficult to take the survey seriously when they don't even seem to know their own rides.

And definitely check their twitter as you get closer. They are generally surprisingly good about tweeting when they are closed or closing early due to inclement weather.... so if it is open and starts to rain, check their twitter for updates.

I may have mentioned it already here, but the big Winter Break starts on Dec 21 for most schools, so I suspected if it were to open this year, it'd be around then. Little did I know I was right on the nose!

The race is on: which will open first--this, or WCR?

I was in the park over the weekend and asked about that with the Apocalypse staff/manager while riding it (so yes, it's still open). It was just an error, and they further clarified that Apocalypse will be open on weekends only until WCR is up.

Why exactly did you dislike it so much? Genuinely curious. Everything. Literally everything -The theme and back story was awful. The execution of both was even worse. -The graphics were bad. Bad bad. Ecco the Dolphin bad. Okay, maybe not quite Ecco the Dolphin, but PlayStation 1 bad. The Kraken was so underwhelming and got even worse when it became the sea witch. -I’m not a big fan of shooting rides to begin with, but calling this one in particular a dark ride feels like an insult to dark rides. It’s just a video game. You shoot badly animated mechanical fish and then the ride is done. It’s not about comparing it to Disney...it’s just really bad. I was pretty floored when I read that you liked this ride and was very curious myself what you liked about it. Mind telling me what you do like?? Coming from someone who's not a fan of video games or shooter games--if I have to ride a shooter game, this one is probably my favorite. While I admit I'm not a fan of the theme/graphic design, they're more convincing to me than, say, the graphics on Justice League. I also like how each gun has a different color, so you can clearly see which one is yours (also lacking on JL). Biggest difference to me is that the screens are long and continuous, and the overall flow from screen to screen is pretty smooth. It doesn't feel like I'm playing 10 separate screens (which is something I dislike greatly about Midway Mania), but basically one continuous game. I don't consider this a dark ride. It's a shooter ride, which, to me, is a separate genre (though certainly there are some rides that combine elements of both--JL does do better in this department). As a dark ride, it would be a total disappointment... I take "dark ride" to mean mostly physical sets. That's very lacking. But as a shooter ride, it's not terrible to me.

I never quite got the hate either... it terms of shooting games, it's probably one of my favorites in execution of the actual game play itself... when it worked. Though I didn't love the theme, I didn't hate it, and the Easter eggs made it fun. I'm guessing the complaints came more for: serious game players found it amateur (I am not a serious game player, so I wouldn't know), could've been more physical sets, the loading procedure is/was slow, and I never liked that it didn't have SR when so many empty seats go by. But I don't see it as "giving up" on Iron Reef. It appears to be identical concept and technology, just a new story and design. And I'm thrilled they're bringing back this theme... I think it could be great as a updated version of the past, and in the same location to boot! Based on the concept art, I'm hoping they'll be repainting/designing the current vehicles to look more like the old trolleys. The music could also be pretty great; it was a very catchy theme.

^I know what you mean about going all the way around for Klownz, but that pathway access is very, very narrow. It nearly jams up with just one way traffic. With two way traffic, it'd literally be gridlock most of the time (remember, it's a backstage area not normally used for park guests, so it wasn't designed to be super wide). So between the two options, I'd rather walk all the way around that be stuck in the equivalent of "Disneyland after the fireworks" traffic for hours at a time.

Seconding the fact there's a slew of fast food options not only upstairs, but also a few in the main corridor: Ludobird and Crepe Place. The early entry was a mess this year, and changed multiple times before settling in a very confusing schedule: ST and GB at 5:30, Frank vs. Wolf at 6:05, Creepshow at 6:15, Us at 6:00, Pandora's Box at 6:15, and Holidayz at 6:30. The mobile page at ushwaittimes.com has it all listed. I think you're the only person I know who liked Stranger Things. Despite the long lines, it was pretty hated by everyone else. If you know the show, they left out a LOT of iconic imagery which left many fans unsatisfied. Pandora's Box was very decisive in the haunt community... people either loved it--mainly because the scareactors were so aggressive and strategically placed--or hated it as a one-trick pony with all bright neon. I didn't really think of it being similar to Klownz. It's a fair point now that you bring it up, but such a different mood (and pretty dang true to the movie--I think it was actually better than Orlando's take on the same movie--and it's not often Hollywood's HHN is better than Orlando), it didn't bother me too much.

FWIW, Apocalypse has been retracked, and is currently riding quite well. Oddly, the first drop is the roughest part. But after that, it's actually pretty good.

Don't forget the 'VR Showdown in Ghost Town attraction closed recently. I did see that some sort of VR attaction is set up in the games area at the base of the SkyTower. Is that perhaps the VR showdown being re-utilized? It wasn't open, and I never did the VR attraction, so I don't really know for sure, but it certainly seems to be a VR attraction.

I was in the park six days ago, and as of that day, it was barely going up--it had maybe the skeletal outline of beams at best. So that's a lot of progress in six days. Makes me think a December opening could be possible... it would be in time for the big Winter Break/Holiday in the Park, which (relatively) wouldn't be terrible timing.

^^The Magnum seat belt trick...? I know not to sit on a wheel seat for an Arrow Hyper, but don't know the seat belt trick.

Since no one's mentioned it, track is complete and the station is starting to go up for WCR.

I just visited HOS for my first time this past weekend. It was a nice haunt! The design reminds me of a lower budget Knott's, but that's not a bad thing. The bungee scares really got me. Did Fright Feast, and didn't know there was entertainment there! But I had to say, the food wasn't that great. But it was nice to have FOL for the first hour... we got all 6 mazes done! Only other complaint (aside from the not-so-great food at Fright Feast) was the the lines for the rides were actually pretty long. Fury said it was 15 min and the queue was barely half full, but it took 45 minutes due to extremely slow ops. They'd let people exit and have the ride sit there empty for literally 2 minutes for no visible reason before letting on the next group. I don't understand why they don't have a single rider line for that. The line for Cheetah was 60, and Cobra was 70. We got on a lot faster, and we realized after the fact that we had honestly, completely accidentally, gotten into the Express line and no one told us we were in the wrong queue. Kinda felt bad, but even the express line took 20 minutes. This was on a Saturday night, so I guess I should have expected longer lines, but based on what everyone else was saying, I thought the lines would be a lot less.