abovethesink

I mean you're right, but in a kind of pointless way. People aren't going to stop engaging with their passions and hobbies. So we will just bitch and continue to give them money.

There is a lot of confidence in various theme park nerd communities that Kingda Ka and Green Lantern are gone at the end of the year. Not only that, but that the park isn't going to announce it either. I can't say I would be shocked about either of their removals, but to do both together quietly is eye brow raising. Green Lantern could be snuck off from a lineup as big as SFGA's, but Kingda Ka? This leads me to believe that they are waiting on good news to annouce in the pairing. The rides do butt up against one another and run along the parking lot. All I am saying is that there is going to be a lot of backlash for sneaking Kingda Ka off in the middle of the night, if they are, and from a PR perspective, Fury Northeast would do a lot of good to undo that damage.

Purely from the fit perspective, there are a number of parks in the new chain that would benefit from a relatively largescale floorless being moved in. I don't know about the future of Green Lantern though if it is removed. The ride is almost 30 and it has already been relocated. This puts it around the point where we have seen B&Ms need serious track work, if not straight up an entirely new track. Green Lantern has over 4,000 feet of track, so this would be a sizable investment for a Michigan's Adventure-Darien Lake level park despite it being a relocation.

In 2008, give or take a year, I road Canyon Blaster at Great Escape with a friend. His restraint popped right back up after the first drop and was up the whole ride. This was hilarious to me as I had ridden the ride a bunch of times before and knew it was foreceless. He was in no danger. But he was panicking and I was dying laughing the whole time.

Flashback is closing for a month for a paint job and then is receiving further refurbishment for the 2025 season. When asked if it is getting a new train, the park's social media responded with the emoji with its mouth zipped closed. Pretty wild that this park is suddenly getting investment.

We took a spontaneous visit up to La Ronde yesterday. It is actually the closest park to me as I live pretty near the NY-Quebec border, but I had never taken my coaster buddy, my 14 year old son, up there because... well... La Ronde. This was my first time in nearly 15 years too since no coasters had been built. The last time I went in was the year the SLC was moved there. This means that this was also my first time with Google Maps to lead the way. I remember being somewhat stressed out driving through the city and trying to navigate routes in French on a paper map, but this time it was a breeze. The only thing I found even a little confusing on the day was parking, but we figured that out fairly quickly and were in for rope drop on Sunday forecasted to be dry and in the mid 60s. Vampire - One of my strongest memories of La Ronde was how fast their Batman clone was running the last time we were there. I figured this wouldn't be the case when we hit it cold. We should have had the front seat, but as we went to kick off our crocs on the other side, a few others filtered in behind us and stole our spots. No one's fault, really. The station was empty other than us and we were on the other side of the train. They didn't come up until we had crossed over to kick our loose shoes off and couldn't have had any idea what row we had taken. Oh well. We moved to the back and HOLY BATMAN it was already hauling. I've ridden a bunch of these and never experienced one that moves like this one. We hadn't experienced anything yet, either. The very last thing we did before leaving at the end of the day was circling back to get our front row ride now that the thing was warmed up. After just waiting for a couple trains thanks to the light crowds and four wide, two train ops on this one, we did just that. Wow. Wow, wow, wow. That was one of the most aggressive rides on anything I have ever experienced. It was an absolute blast, but it was also incredibly painful! I have never had blood run to my feet with that intensity. I kept having to rub them together and move them around because they felt like they were going to straight up explode. Incredibly forceful. I do not know what La Ronde does or, maybe more likely given the rest of the place, doesn't do to their common Batman, but that thing is nuts. I couldn't have possibly gotten back on immediately. Just crazy. Toboggan Nordique - This Zamperla wild mouse had a pretty short line that we end up waiting 50 minutes in due to its horrendous capacity made a thousand times worse by the sleepwalking, low effort operations. It is a bad ride too. We had just ridden the same model earlier this summer at Morey's Piers and I am almost falling asleep trying to even write about it. I should have just waited on a bench and let my son go get the credit. These aren't painful or anything, just incredibly... nothing. Boring, I guess. Monstre - Oh boy. I actually had fond memories of this one. It was just so darn weird that I thought it was funny. Kind of like how a bad movie can be so bad that it becomes good, Monstre does so little with its enormous, two track frame that I remembered being entertained by the weirdness. That was a long time ago now, though, so I was curious to say the least. I let my son just the "parcours" (side), and he chose Parcours 2 while I got to make terrible dad jokes about how the line being a parkour course seemed a little unnecessary. A word that I would equally attach to my ride. It isn't that this thing is consistently rough, and yes the bizarre layout is still kind of amusing and still very dumb, but there are now a few serious lateral jolts that are hard to predict and don't agree with my back to say the least. We got off the ride and as I was about to send him to ride the other side by himself (both were operating with one train, but the lines were short), he announced it wasn't worth the credit and that he didn't want anything to do with it. Okay then. Goliath - This is why I finally came back. For all the faults of La Ronde, I have extremely great memories of this B&M not quite hyper. I truly loved this thing. It holds up too. After a marathon walk through the long, empty queue, we got a station wait accompanied by the "entertainment" of watching a trio of young, teenage boys keep trying to sneak back onto empty seats of each train while we waited. Two of them succeeded twice, but the third grabbed the seat of someone who was just off putting their stuff in the bin on accident, caused a scene, and got tossed. His buddies bailed with him when he couldn't try anymore after their last ride. Anyway, Goliath lived up to my memory. We ended up dubbing this thing "The Phoenix of Floater". It is a simple layout. Airtime hill, airtime hill, airtime hill, airtime hill, etc, with a turnaround in there in the middle. They all hit too. From our backseat, with me on the outside, I floated up and over every single hill, often for extended sequences too. Really great. If you like floater, you will love this B&M. If you want something more to your layout, you might be bored. I love floater and in fact really only ride for airtime at all, so this is in my sweetspot. Great ride. After our first ride, we grabbed some poutine next door, which was better than I would expect from Six Flags, and jumped right back into the backseat after. I was in the middle this time and did notice I got a little less sustained floater, while my son said the ride was much better on the outside too, but I still thought it was great. I could marathon Goliath forever. Dragon - I got a little lucky here, navigationally speaking. While my son was still eating, before we got back on Goliath, I decided to go check some nearby signs to see where Dragon was. It wasn't on the sign, so I figured somewhere else, but I did see a sign for some restrooms which I needed. I went back to my son, told him I would be a few minutes in the bathroom, and went to use them. I quickly found them attached to Dragon. Okay then. As for Dragon, my first takeway is maybe take a broom to all the immense cobwebs in the queue. Jeez. Second. after maybe a twenty minute wait, we lucked into the front seat by being the last ones held out of the station from the previous train. I didn't really remember this one and now I know why, but it is kind of cute, I guess. It is a powered coaster that drives you through a few indoor helixes and turns around a couple light up dragon statues, through a dragon's mouth, and back to the station accompanied by loud audio of dragons roaring and shooting fire. It is dated, but I often find that charming. I wouldn't wait very long for this, but with a short queue and my son needing the credit, I am glad we did. Also worth noting, the roaring is very loud even out in the queue. My two youngest, at least until my wife gives birth, are two year old twins. Not that they are tall enough anyway, but I could never get them on this thing as they stand now because they would be scared of the noise. It is a pretty aggressive sound for what ultimately is a kiddie coaster, which is interesting. Le Boomerang - I told my son I would not be riding the SLC after Monstre bothered my back a bit and tried to get him to just go get the credit, but he hates those things and refused without me. We weren't going to bother with the kiddie coaster and had already written off Monstre side one, so the Boomerang was all that remained. After another short wait that wasn't as short as it should have been due to slow operations, we boarded. This is one of the weirder ones for me. First, it barely even has a station. What is that thing? Second, I was scared of headbanging due to it still having the old, original, and terrible Vekoma boomerang trains. Put the vests on all of them, please. I am happy to report my fears were unfounded and I did not bang my head once. Unfortunately, they put on the goold old triangle wheels on this thing. It tracked terribly and was downright rough. I'll take that over the headbanging anyday and the ride wasn't absolutely awful or anything, but it was definitely the roughest Boomerang I have ridden from a wheels bouncing on the track perspective. Still fun though and as intense as always. After Le Boomerang, we circled back for our aforementioned front row Vampire ride and then exited the park for the slightly under two hour ride home. All in all, La Ronde wasn't too bad and we only needed about five hours to do what we wanted. Goliath and Vampire are great. Nothing else is really remarkable, but the crowds were light and the food we had was good. I don't speak French, but I generally find it easy now to navigate places not in a language I understand as I have done it a lot over the years many times now. Plus, even though they often seem to lack confidence and try to avoid using English, most everyone in the Montreal does speak it well enough if you need to address someone in English. I did have some issues staying connected to the GPS satellites on the way home for some reason, but we were lucky in the sense that it kept happening in long stretches of staying on the same road. Plus, once we crossed back into NY, we were literally on the road we live on anyway. 45 minutes down it through a few towns with a bunch of turns, but you can just follow the road number signs at that point. I recommend a visit to La Ronde if you have never been, but you probably won't want to go back just to go back. I'll be back when they finally break their drought someday (RMC MONSTRE PLEASE), or if/when my younger kids start credit whoring like us and need them. Until then, even though we go to Montreal from time to time, au revoir La Ronde. You might not be a very good park, but you're also not as bad as many make you out to be. One final caveat: My two previous trips, again over a decade ago, were full of the worst crowd behaviour I had ever seen at a park. It was more amusing than offensive to me as someone largely unbothered by what other people do, but if people cutting in line or in general being rude bothers you, you would not have enjoyed those trips to say the least. I don't think much as changed, sadly, based on other reports I have read or watched on Youtube over the years since then, but we had such surprisingly light Sunday crowds that we had no problems and only saw the things mentioned above.

Damn, this came from left of left field. Did the new Six Flags redirect the tilt from Mexico to Cedar Point in order to wash the bad PR taste of TT2, I wonder?

On that topic, I'd be interested to hear in what everyone else does in terms of "hands up" or not on rides. For me, I put my hands up for negative Gs to float. Sometimes I will do it more than that because why not, I guess, but it doesn't really do anything for me other than during airtime and hangtime.

I was at Knoebel's a little over a month ago on Friday, August 2nd. It was a surprise stop that we didn't tell my son and his friend about before their day at Hershey the next day for my son's 14th birthday. Despite noticing the signs and knowing we must have been close to the park, they didn't put two and two together until we pulled into to park which was pretty funny. I won't do a full trip report like I have been because I didn't do much. I got the two credits I didn't get on our first visit due to covid closures in Flying Turns and Black Diamond. I also got a couple rides on Phoenix, but otherwise we were only there a few hours in the on and off rain and I wandered around seeing the sights with my pregnant wife. We wanted to do the gondola, but it understandably never opened due to the weather. We found a museum, got some reasonably priced food and later a milkshake to split, did some shopping, and watched an abbreviated kids' costume show that was adorable before a downpour abruptly ended it. As for the coasters, the two new ones both exceeded my expectations. Flying Turns isn't super thrilling or anything, but a couple moments of banking high on those walls are pretty wild in a unique way. I think this is my favorite of the bobsled style coasters I have done now. Black Diamond is dated and campy as hell, but I love that and a few of the effects like the spinning tunnel really still worked on me despite their age. It is also barely a coaster. My (first trimester) pregnant wife could have easily ridden it safely, but she didn't want to when I mentioned it. I also didn't realize until I was boarding that I didn't even know what the ride was in there and I am glad that was the case. As for Phoenix, it wasn't running as insanely as it was on our first visit which was a hot, hot summer day versus this cooler, rainy one. I still loved it. I just laugh hysterically the entire ride on that thing. What a classic. I had enough tickets for three rides, catching two in the magic third row and one in the front. All were great. I am at 273 credits and still have Phoenix in my top ten favorites.

We were at Hershey Park a month ago now, August 3rd. Rain was forecast and it came. Basically we had from 10-2 and then from 8-10 with the middle of the day being a complete washout. Oh well, we did with it what we could. Wildcat's Revenge - We followed the running of the bulls, so to speak, to gate drop the new RMC for our first rides. My son and the friend we brought for his birthday weekend rode together in the back row and I waited for the same row in the train after them. This was an amazing ride, even cold right at open. It is violent in all the best RMC ways. I hit it again later after the rain finally ended at dark and got two more amazing rides. The best ride of the three was my first night ride in the front, so maybe this is a front row RMC? Storm Runner - This was my third trip to Hershey. The first was when Storm Runner was new and the second was during its extended Covid breakdown, so it had been a minute to say the least. The launch was just as punchy as I remembered. The ride was also just as short as I remembered. Forceful, fun, and brief. It is probably shakier than it was way back then, but it isn't bad and otherwise was as I remembered. We tried to hit the rethemed Boomerang right after, but it broke down while we were next in line and we never came back. Sky Rush - At this point, the boys ditched me. My son needed Lightning Racer, I did not, and we knew our window to ride would be short. They went off to the back of the park while I hit up Sky Rush to try the new restraints. The line looked long, but it moved quickly and I got in in probably a half hour. The new restraints improve my experience and I moved it up into the 30s in my top 50, but I am still left confused as to why people love or hate this so much. It is intense and short, I guess, but after that amazing drop it doesn't do a lot with the little track it has to work with. Good ride, but not one I get the passion about. I ended up getting another ride at the end of the night in the front which was good too. From here, I went and found my pregnant wife who had wandered to ZooAmerica and then caught a sea lion show. We met at the monorail and took a ride before walking to Chocolate World to get lunch and beat the rain. We had tacos which were good, did the free Chocolate Tour ride which is cute, and then decided to kill some more time waiting for the teenagers by doing the train 4D movie that I can't remember the name of. That was fun and well done, though not worth the steep price probably. While we were doing the movie, the skies opened up to a torrential downpour with no signs of letting up for hours according to the forecast. Chocolate World filled up to the point that it was difficult to take a step in any direction. Not wanting to brave the rain for the car, we decided to wait in the epic Chocolate Tour line that was flowing out chaotically into the general area so the boys, who ran through the epic downpour and had found us, could do it. What else was there to do at that point? It took a while, but we made it through. By then, it was after 3 and the rain had slowed to a drizzle. We had 6 PM Chocolatier reservations. The boys decided to go brave the park and see what they could ride. My wife and I opted for car naps. When it was time, we met in the restaurant and ate. I had the salmon and it was really good, much better than I expected from what I had read. After, we all ordered one of the ridiculous milkshakes, ending up with a photo op with all four flavors on the table. Stuffed, we wandered back into the park. Candymonium - While walking to Candymonium, a woman leaving handed my son and his friend two flash passes that they didn't need anymore. They didn't end up working, for some reason, but the ride op at Candymonium took it as a glitch and they got to skip one line out of them at least. We were separated again by that and the two of them rode quickly. I waited in a line that would have been 20 minutes probably, but right before my train the weather struck again. I ended up sitting in the station for almost an hour. I was at least rewarded with two rides, however, as there was a weird delay between restarting the ride and reopening the queue. When we got back from our first ride, people were just trickling into the station and they sent us on a second lap. I really like Candymonium. I really like all B&M hypers and I think Candymonium is a good one. The ending is a little subpar and one of the two rides had the trims hit hard, but I get tons of floater and the trims almost completely ignored us on the second ride which made for a wilder ending. From there, I ran to the back for those night rides on Wildcat's Revenge (where I saw some of ElToroRyan's crew if you guys watch any coaster Youtube stuff) before deciding that I wanted to try to get on Great Bear and SuperDooperLooper with the under an hour I had left. There was basically no one left in the park, so it was just a matter of closing the distance power walking. But then, an opportunity presented itself... Cocoa Cruiser - In the dark alone, I took a wrong turn and there it was. The one credit I did not have at Hershey Park by this point. The kiddy coaster. I sheepishly walked up to the empty station and asked the ops if I could ride without a kid. They said yes, so I had a zen ride in the dark on the kiddy coaster. I am approaching 300 and this is my most shameless credit, I think. One lap would have been fine, but it does three and I rode them. SuperDooperLooper - What a fun ride in the dark! I remembered the old Schwarzkopf as a really fun inversion followed by aimless meandering and this is exactly what it was, but the wandering is more fun in the dark, unsurprisingly. Unfortunately, while I remembered that much correctly, I did not remember where Great Bear's station was. With minutes to go before the park closed, I did not have time to get over there and instead jumped in the front row line for the previously mentioned front row ride of SkyRush. I did not have to wait long as a trio boarded and they yelled for a single rider. That's all I got in, but it was everything that I made a priority at least. It would have been nice to get in things like Fahrenheit, Comet, Laff Trak, etc, but the day was what it was with the miserable weather. We all still enjoyed our day. It ended with sitting in the parking lot listening to the blaringly loud New Kids on the Block concert while we waited for the boys to find us. Their music isn't for me, but it was still fun to eavesdrop while waiting. All in all, it was a good day despite the weather.

The ride was run recklessly at its old home south of the border. My undestanding, and someone correct me if I am wrong, was that it was being run trimless 100% of the time in a way it was never meant to be. It is a sad history, but I don't think it is super relevant in considering the safety of the ride going forward.

Live in the mountains. The 40 degree nights never go away for long. We have them on and off all summer still.

I don't think anyone has ever bought a Maserati because of thoughts on depreciation.

They forgot the world record of the tallest B&M Dive Coaster ever announced on the date August 15th, 2024 at precisely 10 AM.

I am very pleased with this. While the nerd in me will always want the next great thrill coaster, this fills a nice gap for SFNE in terms of having a launch. I think this will be a pretty popular attraction in the park for sure.