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There's no need for me to write a full trip report because it'll just turn into me gushing about Knoebels again and making everyone want to puke but hats off to them for pulling off another outstanding PPP!

Please, go on. It's much appreciated by those who COULDN'T MAKE IT BECAUSE THEY'RE STUCK ON THE SOUTHERN END OF THE COUNTRY.

 

Seriously though. Georgia in 2013, Florida in 2014, and now Georgia this year and next. Graduate school is important but not being able to go to Phunfest for four years straight after going for three years straight is really disappointing.

 

Also, is it safe to assume that coasterbill and I are the two biggest Knoebels fans around here?

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The guys running the Flyers today are awful too. They're slowing down every single ride even with minimal snapping. It's much better to ride them when it's not PPP and they don't freak out about it so much. Riding them now is a complete waste of money.

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There's no need for me to write a full trip report because it'll just turn into me gushing about Knoebels again and making everyone want to puke but hats off to them for pulling off another outstanding PPP!

Please, go on. It's much appreciated by those who COULDN'T MAKE IT BECAUSE THEY'RE STUCK ON THE SOUTHERN END OF THE COUNTRY.

 

Seriously though. Georgia in 2013, Florida in 2014, and now Georgia this year and next. Graduate school is important but not being able to go to Phunfest for four years straight after going for three years straight is really disappointing.

 

Also, is it safe to assume that coasterbill and I are the two biggest Knoebels fans around here?

Can I get in on the knoebels fan club gushing too. Had probably the best park day I have ever had there last year and really want to make the seven hour commute to get to ppp next year.

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The guys running the Flyers today are awful too. They're slowing down every single ride even with minimal snapping. It's much better to ride them when it's not PPP and they don't freak out about it so much. Riding them now is a complete waste of money.

 

Such a shame. I've never been to PPP but when I have been to Knoebel's the Flyers are completely insane! If they get dumbed down you can always rest easy knowing that the flyers at Lagoon are still run with balls.

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The guys running the Flyers today are awful too. They're slowing down every single ride even with minimal snapping. It's much better to ride them when it's not PPP and they don't freak out about it so much. Riding them now is a complete waste of money.

 

On Saturday there were 4 ops that I saw, only one of them was awesome. The dude had longish grey hair, sometimes a hat, and glasses. He was the cool one that a bunch of ACE dudes and myself got for our last few rides. I had my best flyers ride ever with him operating.

 

Then there's who we were referring to as the Snap Nazi. Large dude, bowling pin shaped, bald, with a hat. He was a real jerk. Turning down every single cycle even without snapping, the one ride I had, I really ticked him off. He turned 'em down after about 20 seconds, and I continued to snap them for a solid minute. Eventually he turned it all the way off, and while it was freewheeling around, pointed at me and yelled "YOU! LET GO OF YOUR RUDDER."

 

Once I did he proceeded to run it at about a quarter speed the rest of the time. The excuse he gave me and a few other people, "I let you guys snap 'em but I slow it down if you're getting out of control." What a bunch of bull, if you can snap 'em you're not out of control.

 

rant>

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There's no need for me to write a full trip report because it'll just turn into me gushing about Knoebels again and making everyone want to puke but hats off to them for pulling off another outstanding PPP!

Please, go on.

 

Oh okay if you insist...

 

As always we drove to the park Saturday morning and spent the entire day riding the rides, then got a hotel and checked out the covered bridge festival in the morning before riding a few more rides Sunday afternoon. As always with my trip reports I like to get into the negatives first and then go to the positives so I end things on a positive note.

 

So first, a comprehensive list of all of the negative things we encountered on our 2 day visit to the park...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

... okay awesome. So onto the positives.

 

The Rides

 

- If I ever win the lottery I'm buying a ride exactly like Downdraft and putting it in my back yard. I'm pretty sure the secret to unlocking world peace is a few thousand strategically placed Downdrafts throughout the world, this will make everyone way happier and much less hostile. I called Obama to suggest this but he hasn't returned my calls... it's possible I have a wrong number.

 

You probably didn't think I'd open up by talking about Downdraft did you? Well think again... I like to keep everyone on their toes.

 

- While I don't generally enjoy standup coasters I absolutely love the Phoenix. I love how unlike the other standup coasters this one doesn't have one of those uncomfortable bicycle seats. Seriously though... I don't even know why this ride has a seat, you really don't use it all that much thanks to the relentless ejector airtime. This ride is flat out amazing. Everything after the first turnaround is insane.

 

- We had our best rides ever on Flying Turns and Twister this weekend. Both rides were completely out of control. It's almost a shame they're both so overshadowed by Phoenix because Flying Turns is a great little ride and Twister is a world class coaster. Phoenix completely steals it's thunder but in many parks Twister would be the star attraction. It's extreme laterals compliment the Phoenix perfectly.

 

- I think it was great that the wristband now includes everything but the Mansion. I was very happy to see Black Diamond, Flying Turns, Impulse and Skyway included. Don't worry though, we ponied up the tickets for the Mansion on Sunday. I would never pass up an opportunity to get yelled at by some Voodoo animatronic immediately after almost being hit by a semi truck.

 

- The Scooters are so good that they've ruined every other bumper car ride for me.

 

The Food

 

- Knoebels really outdid themselves this year. Usually they don't have ice cream waffle sandwiches available at PPP but because Knoebels loves us and wants us to be happy they did this year along with some apple thing (also with ice cream) that was just so delicious that I'm pretty sure it's illegal in the other 49 states.

 

- Living just an hour from New York City I'm a complete pizza snob. I don't mean to be but I can't help it. Luckily Knoebels has flat out amazing pizza. I don't know how they manage to make pizza so delicious since every pizza place that makes terrible pizza blames it on the fact that they don't have access to NYC water or something stupid like that but it's clearly not bothering Knoebels because this stuff is heavenly. We probably ate the equivalent of 2 entire pies over the course of 2 days. Then we washed it down with Monkey Bread... because Murrica.

 

- Those Pierogies are ridiculous. I have no words.

 

- I know... I know, but this is the first time I ever tried the Birch Beer. This stuff is amazing. The only way it could be better is if it had actual beer in it. I feel the same way about Butterbeer at Universal but Birch Beer is way better.

 

 

 

All in all we had an amazing weekend. Knoebels remains my favorite park anywhere, period and every time we go there we love it more and more. This place is an absolute gem.

 

Also, is it safe to assume that coasterbill and I are the two biggest Knoebels fans around here?

 

I'll proudly share that title.

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It was very awesome, though there was only 1 out of 4 operators on the flyers that would let us snap. At the very end of the night, we had a bit of a snapping contest, and I guess it was loud enough to get the people in the office to come out.

 

To be fair to the operators, you do have to enforce some very basic safety rules.

 

Considering there are signs that prohibit snapping (or "whipping"), a responsible op probably isn't going to let a full group of people do it. They might let it slide on a quiet day when only 1 or 2 people snap, but considering it was their biggest event of the year and you made enough noise for people working in the office to come out, you really can't blame them. Isn't it enough to be able to steer your flyer up so high it feels like you'll smash into a tree?!

 

Anyway, PPP was an amazing experience. My only complaints were that the line for Flying Turns spilt out the queue all day (took about 50 minutes) and Gasoline Alley's line was too long for me to wait in.

 

My favorite part was the Halloween decorations. It's truly impressive how much both the park and guests get into the holiday spirit. Almost every campsite was beautifully decorated with spiderwebs, tombstones, skeletons, and pumpkins, have no idea how some people packed so many props or how many hours it took to set up. The park itself has a better Halloween experience than the Cedar Fair Haunts or Six Flags fright fest. Rather than just putting spider webs they added tons of interactive props to the queues of each major ride, tons of seasonal landscaping (hay, pumpkin, and flower arrangements), new special effects on Black Diamond as well as some surprises on Phoenix and Twister, and the completely revamped Antique Cars and train ride. There was even a working carousel with Skeletons riding. It was all so charming, and felt truer to the spirit of the holiday as opposed to the big budget events at corporate parks.

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It was very awesome, though there was only 1 out of 4 operators on the flyers that would let us snap. At the very end of the night, we had a bit of a snapping contest, and I guess it was loud enough to get the people in the office to come out.

 

To be fair to the operators, you do have to enforce some very basic safety rules.

 

Considering there are signs that prohibit snapping (or "whipping"), a responsible op probably isn't going to let a full group of people do it. They might let it slide on a quiet day when only 1 or 2 people snap, but considering it was their biggest event of the year and you made enough noise for people working in the office to come out, you really can't blame them. Isn't it enough to be able to steer your flyer up so high it feels like you'll smash into a tree?!

 

It was once explained to me that "whipping" is the action of violently swinging the sail back and forth with causes stress (and potential tears) to the sails. Snapping does not involve violent movement of the sail. Whipping the sails and snapping are two different actions.

 

No, it is not enough to steer the flyer high.

Edited by larrygator
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It was once explained to me that "whipping" is the action of violently swinging the sail back and forth with causes stress (and potential tears) to the sails. Snapping does not involve violent movement of the sail. Whipping the sails and snapping are two different actions.

 

The op that was letting us snap 'em told us this as well.

 

No, it is not enough to steer the flyer high.

 

This. So much this. The first time you figure out how to snap them, it's instant addiction. You can't just not snap them. There's a tipping point, once you realize you aren't going to die, and that super violent snaps are actually extremely fun, there's just no going back to riding flyers in a "regular" manner ever again.

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Planning on heading to the park tomorrow afternoon around opening, and I've checked the weather and see the high is only 50ª. How is Knoebel's with their temperature procedures? The low for tomorrow night is 30º and I bet as soon as the sun goes down in the evening it's going to drop into the low 40º's/high 30ºs rather quickly. Can I expect all coasters to close under a certain threshold?

 

Thanks!

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^Yes! It's totally worth $10. A group of us did it last Friday night, it's fun and a great deal. It takes quite a while to get through, a good thing! That type of haunt around here (Chicago) would be over $30.

 

That's great to hear! Yeah most haunted attractions around here are $30-$40 + but they also all have more than one walk-through and/or hayride. For a little local type place it's awesome they're able to put on a that good a show. Hopefully I'll get to stop by tomorrow night.

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Two years ago I went when it was really cold and asked them about their temperature policy through Facebook and they said as long as it's not snowing Phoenix and Twister stay open. Not sure about Flying Turns or Implulse though. It got down to 31 when I was there and Phoenix was running, albeit slow and VERY cold. Still a really fun time!

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Two years ago I went when it was really cold and asked them about their temperature policy through Facebook and they said as long as it's not snowing Phoenix and Twister stay open. Not sure about Flying Turns or Implulse though. It got down to 31 when I was there and Phoenix was running, albeit slow and VERY cold. Still a really fun time!

 

That's music to my ears, thanks! Should be chilly but still looking forward to it.

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Two years ago I went when it was really cold and asked them about their temperature policy through Facebook and they said as long as it's not snowing Phoenix and Twister stay open. Not sure about Flying Turns or Implulse though. It got down to 31 when I was there and Phoenix was running, albeit slow and VERY cold. Still a really fun time!
For Flying Turns they do go down to one train operation for cold temperatures I believe.
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I would think Flying Turns could run in the cold. They have heaters on the wheels while the ride is parked in the station. They were on during PPP.

To my understanding, Flying Turns has a kind of threshold of how slow or fast it should be going. If it goes out of that threshold at any point it's a no-go.

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Impulse crushed my hip bones. I really wanted to like it, it's a fun, zippy ride with a great first drop. But those restraints hurt me bad. It did to my hips what Skyrush does to your thighs and Gatekeeper does (did) to your chest. I really hate this new style of restraint that just gets tighter and tighter as the ride goes. Maybe it's the way my body is shaped because my brother had no problems at all, but everything after the pullout of the first drop was very hard to enjoy.

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^Keep one hand on the lap bar and push forward. I did that starting with my first ride, as I heard they get tighter; I'm what they call "restraint sensitive." Annoying to have to do that, but it's still a fun ride.

 

The one time I didn't push forward, that bar got tighter right away. Let the park know how you feel (politely). I wouldn't be surprised if they make some sort of an adjustment.

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Does anybody know if everything is open for the Hallofun Weekends? I would assume nothing is closed because the website doesn't say anything about limited rides. I just want to make sure before I decide on what park I'm making my final trip of the season to.

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