therealcu2010

Shame Bobsled is closing since it was one of the better rides in the park and I've always enjoyed it, but it was beyond time. Hopefully they'll replace it with something good, but considering how little Six Flags cares about the place and NIMBYism, I doubt it.

Bobsled was not open; no surprise, it snowed and rained the night before. Never made it to Comet unfortunately; hopefully next time (we had young children with us so we couldn't use my usual strategy of "run to Bobsled, see if its open and get on it, then go to Comet right away" because they wanted to ride the small rides).

Managed to snag reservations and go with the family to opening day; here's my report. -Entry processes have changed; you fill out a paperwork with your information for COVID contract tracing purposes; they give this to you at the tollbooth and you fill it out at your vehicle and hand it in at the ticket booth. -Security is far more efficient now; you walk through a camera which can see inside any bags being brought in, and security can selectively choose who to search based on what the camera shows. Most people now just pass right through. Temperature checks are done as well. Masks are required but a lot of people had them on improperly and not much seemed to be done to enforce the rules. As for the day itself: the park was pretty crowded for opening day; mostly locals, people were pretty excited to get to the park for the first time in 18 months. Six Flags seems to be desperate to get people to the park... season passes are being sold for just $49.99, and the all season drink sports bottles are being sold for just $28 (they were nearly $60 in 2019). Granted they say "2020" on them; clearly last year's stock they never got to use that they're trying to get rid of! While the entry procedures and COVID protocols seemed to run pretty smoothly, staffing and most ride ops were anything but. You could tell it was the first day on the job for many people, some probably having literally just been hired with in the past week... one of the guys running the pizza stand, for example, was particularly incompetent and didn't understand the concept of how the meal plan works. Finally had to get the manager over to take care of it. With one exception which I'll get to, the ride ops were generally pretty slow... sending trains and rides half full really slowed down the lines, especially on rides which were capacity nightmares to begin with. We waited over an hour to get on the Storytown Train, a combination of only filling every other car and the pitifully slow operator... and having to stop and sanitize the entire train in between cycles. At one point the train sat still while full of people, almost as if it was waiting for something... more than likely it was because Flashback broke down and needed to have the line mass exit (more on this soon). My sister and niece were literally about to get on Flashback when the ride broke down. It looks like the cable lift that pulls the train backwards up the first lift hill broke at first, but it was some pin loose or something. They had to exit the entire line as soon as they closed the ride; it was down for about an hour or so. Ghost Town is a mess. The only portion accessible is the pathway between the bumper cars and Canyon Blaster... everything else is tarped off. Construction is underway for Adirondack Outlaw and the new entrance for Steamin' Demon, which is down until Outlaw opens. Condor was still standing, but its cars have been removed and were laying on the ground... it looks like some work may have been done to them. Canyon Blaster was the usual one train ops, but the ladies operating the ride were by far the single most competent and fastest pair going in the entire park... they were enthusiastic, and cycling those trains efficiently so the line moved extremely quickly. I didn't time them but I'd guess the dispatches were around a minute or less. All in all, not a bad day at the park.

Re: Great Escape, my home park: A charming small park that's kind of the bottom of the Six Flags priority list, here's a few tips. -If it's open, rush straight to Alpine Bobsled at rope drop. This ride rarely opens since it needs the perfect conditions (it was closed all day today), but when it does it fills up fast since its a capacity nightmare. If you get there right away you should be able to get on with not much wait. Bobsled is one of the better coasters at the park, but with its unreliability really should be considered for replacement... -Move to Comet next, it's nearby. You may need to navigate through part of Hurricane Harbor to find it; it's in a weird location at the back of the park. Lines shouldn't be too bad, especially if its early... you may be able to get one or two rides on it. Comet is a great classic woodie but can be rough. -There are a few other flats in the area and a decent river rapids ride if those interest you, if not you can swing your way around the park towards Flashback (the park's Vekoma Boomerang, it's actually a halfway decent boomerang, but the operations suck... this is a theme through this park a lot sadly), then head over to Ghost Town for the Arrow looper Steamin' Demon and the mine train Canyon Blaster. Hopefully Steamin' Demon will be open by the time you get there; it's currently closed while the entrance is relocated to make room for Adirondack Outlaw. The park's log flume is in the Ghost Town area as well. If all you're going to is the coasters, you should only need about 2-3 hours at the park.

Yeah, at this point I think pretty much every park in NY isn't opening this year. With only a month left in the summer season it'd probably be less financially devastating to just not open as opposed to hire staff and spend money on added safety measures for such a short season. Plus, King Andy already cancelled the state fair, so yeah, I think I wasted money on a season pass I cannot use. Lol

Forgot about that federal law... fair enough.

Not trying to start a debate at all, but as a resident of New York, I should probably inform you that, thanks to my state's ridiculous gun laws, your concealed carry permit will not be recognized. Even leaving it in the car unloaded could result in serious penalties. As such, I would strongly recommend finding a secure place to leave it for a few days in, say, Pennsylvania, before even entering NY.

I was on the blue train. It flew right along, but it was still rough. Doesn't help that I couldn't fit in the restraints too well... Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

Just got back from a visit to Great Escape- the first time I'd been there in years. Park was crowded for opening weekend of Fright Fest. Went straight for Bobsled, it was open with about a 5 minute wait; the ride broke down while I was on the lift hill thanks to fog from a nearby machine tripping a sensor. Ride was running about 10 minutes later; the one ride was pretty enjoyable. Comet was about a two train wait and extremely rough. Barely fit in the seat as it is; it's not big people friendly at all. Had some decent airtime, but between the roughness and the forceful turns it was quite painful. I don't remember the ride being that rough... it desperately needs a retracking. Left shortly after; we were hungry and the lines at just about every food place were ridiculous, plus the park was so crowded getting around was difficult.