JimParker85

The achilles heel of the B&M flyer is definitely sitting on the brake run when the double station is not in use and they stack. One of our runs on Tatsu in 2019 we waited over 5 minutes behind the other train and it was extraordinarily uncomfortable. I'm sure a large park like Kings Island would have and use the double station at first, but it's nasty when you have to wait to unload.

They did actually set May 14 as the open date, but I'd be shocked if they open in May now. Ontario's minister of tourism and culture tweeted out some cold water about the park's ability to open the day after they sent out the reopening info to passholders, so I've been skeptical throughout. It just sucks. We're hoping to visit our first parks this year in late April, but I'm very worried for my home park.

Ontario is going into a full lockdown for 28 days. Wonderland had an amazing, beyond- expectations-great 2019. Yukon a huge hit, WinterFest PACKED even with challenging weather. Hotel on the way (now cancelled). Now the real possibility of losing 2 full years at North America's highest attendance seasonal park. Awful. My home park, I miss it very much. I know it's still early in the year, but it's gotten pretty bad in Canada. I'm getting my second vaccine shot on Friday. For many in Ontario, there is no chance to get one anytime soon.

If I set the sell out time as 10:03 am would you take the over or under? I'm going under.

Under pre Covid operations, Hershey mostly closed at 9 or 10pm after Springtime in the Park. Even last season they opened with a 10am to 9pm schedule, we were there the week after July 4. However, demand at the start of last season was low, even with Candymonium opening. So they reduced hours to the 7pm close by mid July. CP and KI found similar soft demand last July and ended up with much smaller August calendars, in the case of CP about half the operating days as normal. A lot of these parks are being very conservative with the calendar. In CF's situation it's clearly a money saving measure (by their own admission) so I'm skeptical that we'll see operating hours increase even if the demand is high.

That Hersheypark calendar is rough. We've got 2020 season passes that are good until June 30 of this year. If they get Storm Runner open we will make one trip back before they expire. Such a fun vibe there at night, the 7pm close is a downer. Kennywood I'm staying away until I see Steel Curtain actually operate. I wonder if we'll see any other parks add hours as SDC has.

CF parks, ALL opening way late and with short weekend only hours are going to be nightmare busy if they get good weather. Think about Carowinds. Opening 2 months late, all other Southern parks are slammed right now. Silver Dollar City has been begging people on social media to show up early or stay away until evening and increasing hours. Crazy pent up demand. And if Cedar Fair decides to keep the half full trains and 30 minute cleaning cycles... Look out. (SF and Herschend are filling trains) We are planning for our first KI trip of the season to be over Memorial Day. Even with our all season Fast Lane, I'm preparing for it to be about as busy as I've ever seen the park in a non-Haunt setting.

Operations have always been a mixed bag for me at BGW. On our most recent trip it was very busy both days, but Apollo, Tempesto and Griffon had crews that really were on top of things. Meanwhile, we stacked like crazy on Verbolten for all 3 of our rides, and it's queue was by far the longest. Alpengeist and Invadr also had us waiting on the brake run with 2 train ops. Pantheon only having 2 trains plus the pent-up demand is going to equal some nasty wait times. Not every crew can be Fury 325, but I hope they're ready to be efficient.

With 2022 being the 50th anniversary, I think they'll play it as a celebration season. Pre-Covid, maybe a new ride as CP and Knotts were planning to introduce for their anniversary seasons. Now, I don't see it. A themed parade or mid summer anniversary spectacular, MAYBE a re-theme of an existing ride. The easy thing would be to go backwards Racer for 1 year, but I don't see Cedar Fair allowing that.

It is my great hope that Cedar Fair loads full trains this year, at least in states where they aren't prohibited by law. Six Flags and Herschend are back to full trains.

Ticket sell out is going to be insanely fast, even faster than Chill Out did this year, I bet.

FastLane lines did also close when the standby line closed last season. Valravn had the longest standby lines in 2020 since the big 4 were on access passes. Of course very few people had FL in 2020, at CP it was just all season and those that had bought single day ones before they stopped selling them in March. We were very fortunate/privileged to have all season. Without it, it was very difficult to ride a lot of the major attractions last year, particularly once the park got busy in early August.

On busy days at CP they'll need to close the Maverick and SV lines 90-120 minutes early to get all guests on by 8pm or 10pm (the two closing times this season). Imagine the park brings back daily fastlane ($150 on many Friday/Saturdays, $850 for all season) and then you find the lines to the top 2 attractions in the park closed for the final 2 hours of park operation. It's a noticeable drop in the value of the fastlane pass. Likely 30-60 minutes early for other major coasters. For standby line guests, you'll need to correctly time your last ride of the night so that you enter the desired line early enough and dont get caught walking up to the line a few minutes after they close it, then scrambling to walk to another attraction that's not closed. This was us last season on 3 or our 4 CP visits, as the app was not really set up to be this specific on early line closure. I'm sure many guests did not see this new procedure in action last season or read until the end of one specific blog post, so it will come as an unpleasant surprise to those unaware. I understand that it saves money and allows( on 10pm closure nights) to get the employees more rest before the 8am/9am open the next day, but it's also unquestionably a reduction in value... and a significant one on busy days.

And early line closures, used on non access pass rides last season, is now back in full for 2021. I said my piece about it on pointbuzz, but it just sucks. Another shot to in park experience. I hope KI does not join in.

I just watched Coaster Studios vlog from last weekend at Over Georgia. Holy crap it looked packed. Basically looked like pre 2020 operations plus masks. Full trains and queues, lots of closed food and drink locations made for long lines for anything.

Looks like full trains at Dollywood today, from footage I've been seeing.

SF Over Georgia is loading full trains.

Very excited for this! Pre order is in.

So many great ones here. Excellent choice for the winner!

I'd love to see B&M build a brand new sit down model for a park. They just did for Universal, a clone of Hulk for their upcoming park in China. Other than that, however, that model has been dead ever since the Floorless came out. I prefer the traditional Kumba/Hulk/Wildfire/Dragon Khan style.

The 2019 season at Wonderland was a huge success for the park and CF. It's our home park and it was packed all year, up to and including the rollout of WinterFest, despite a lot of bad weather and no major rides open. The park had a huge hit on its hands with Yukon... Now a totally lost 2020 after 2 attempts to open that featured ride testing and hiring. Now 2021 is in doubt, Ontario has moved to their strictest lockdown measures so far. What a disaster for the highest attendance seasonal park in North America. Add in Knott's, and it's easy to be very worried about the future of the chain. The location of the chain's major parks, other than Ohio, was REALLY bad luck in this situation.

IMO, The BIG question for this season is if trains will be filled, as they are being again at some of the southern parks. It's even more critical for operations at Cedar Point, but also KI to a slightly lesser extent. Without full trains, CP will almost certainly have to use access passes once again for the big 4 and not sell any daily Fast Lane.

May for both, LATE May for Dominion. Almost two months late for both.

Yes thank you. I just read that one compared to my Wonderland one and there are things in the Wonderland one that do not appear to be included for KI. One of them is seat skipping, which is mentioned for Wonderland but not KI, unless I missed it. That would be huge. (And for CP with access passes)

Still skipping seats, that was my big question. Ugh. (At least on the email I received, but my PP is through Wonderland)