Oldiesmann

Searching for info on Facebook, I found this post in an Erie group. https://www.facebook.com/groups/668392443222569/?multi_permalinks=8213398108721927

https://www.erienewsnow.com/story/51230101/waldameer-investigating-incident-on-amusement-ride There was an accident on the Flying Swings ride at Waldameer in Erie, PA last night that resulted in three people being sent to the hospital. Nothing official yet other than a statement from the park saying they're investigating. According to a screenshot of a Facebook post from someone involved that my sister found, an operator attempted to stop the ride after a guest kept trying to open his restraint, but the ride continued rotating at full speed as it lowered, finally slowing down once swings started hitting an umbrella at the operator stand. The ride is similar to Zephyr, though I don't know if it's the same model.

Intamin dual-launch straddle coaster coming to Six Flags New England next year. https://www.boston.com/travel/travel/2024/08/15/six-flags-new-england-new-roller-coaster-quantum-accelerator/

I've seen it open more this season than previous seasons.

I rarely go to the water park but I'll definitely be checking this out at least. It's about time they got a water coaster.

I wonder if Carowinds will have the "no adults without a kid" restriction that Canada's Wonderland has (or had? I can't find anything on the park's site about that). I probably won't make it to Carowinds next year anyway (even though I love that park and haven't been in 3 years), but I am curious about that.

I really like Carowinds' Snoopy area. Great to see them adding to the area. I'm sure the new attractions and the splash area they also announced will be a big hit with families.

I saw the first article earlier, but given that they don't cite a source for their info I didn't really believe it. When I was there last month there was a sign up saying they were refurbishing it for their 50th anniversary season. I didn't see any work being done on it, but I was all over the park as well so I might have just missed it. Wikipedia says the sky ride was made by Von Roll, a company that's still in business, so I wouldn't think finding parts would be that difficult.

I was at Cedar Point for a couple of days in late July last year and the ride wasn't open at all the entire time I was there. It's sad to see it go but as others have said that's prime real estate, so it will be interesting to see what they do with the land.

The building is still there. The hotel is now a "Delta Hotels Marriott", but the water slide complex outside the portion of the building that housed Coco Key has been demolished. I don't know if that portion of the building is used for anything or not.

I'll have 4 as I haven't been since 2019. Might have even more if I decide to add SFA to the itinerary.

8½ years between posts. Holy topic bump, Batman! I believe The Beach's main problem was they never really expanded/updated anything, and then KI kept expanding/updating the water park (which actually opened 5 years after The Beach). The location probably didn't help since you had to drive right past KI to get there, but it was a cool place nonetheless, and they had things that you didn't find at KI (dive-in movies before KI did it, plus a teen dance night every Tuesday during the summer among other things). I think Coco Key's main problem is they weren't much more than an indoor water park attached to a random hotel in the middle of the suburbs. I attempted to go there once only to find out that that was the one day of the week they were closed, and never made it back before they closed for good. I'm not sure a different location would have helped them much, unless they had been near the aquarium/Newport on the Levee (since there isn't much else in northern Kentucky to draw people from north of the river down there - unless you live down that way, know someone who does or are passing through on the way back east, there isn't much to draw people outside of Devou Park and the Levee).

It's great to see CF starting to focus on some of its more minor parks now (I realize KD isn't a minor park compared to something like Dorney or Michigan's Adventure, but it still isn't one of the company's biggest parks in terms of fame, especially with Busch Gardens Williamsburg being just an hour away). A major coaster addition just in time for the park's 50th anniversary season is an excellent choice in my opinion, especially one that they can say is "record breaking" to appeal to the general public. It'll be interesting to see what else the park has in store for their 50th anniversary as well.

I really need to remind myself to slow down and see things other than amusement parks while on vacation. My recent trip was fun but I regret not having time to see other things. I haven't done the trolley tour in Hershey nor have I seen the museum there. I found a few things I'd like to check out in the Pittsburgh area that I didn't have time to do when I went to Kennywood (fortunately Pittsburgh is a relatively easy drive from CIncinnati - unlike Hershey, which is 7+ hours not counting stops). I am definitely going to take that into account when planning next year's trip. I definitely want to hit KD and BGW, but at least plan on splitting the drive up over two days this time around (last time I was at KD I drove up from Carowinds so I didn't realize how far the drive is from there to Cincinnati until I headed home at the end of the trip), and hopefully throw a day of exploring Williamsburg in there as well.

I'm already planning to visit Kings Dominion and Busch Gardens Williamsburg next year. With this announcement I might have to throw Six Flags America in there as well (only two hours from KD). I'll have to see how much vacation time/floating holiday hours I end up with by next summer.

Quite an adventure at Dollywood today apparently. Even parts of the parking lot were flooded.v

Nights of Lights is moving to a new location this year - the Clermont County Fairgrounds in Owensville. A bit of a hike from Cincinnati... https://www.citybeat.com/arts/coney-islands-nights-of-lights-holiday-show-to-live-on-in-new-location-17865347

Two other legacy SIX parks have also implemented this policy - Six Flags America (about 35 miles south of Baltimore) and Six Flags Discovery Kingdom (about 29 miles north of Oakland, CA). It will be interesting to see if the rest of the SIX parks implement a similar policy. I can't really picture Great Adventure doing this as it's so far from any major cities to begin with (Philadelphia is the nearest big city; Trenton, NJ is closer but has less than 100,000 people), but some of the other suburban parks like Great America might.

Six Flags Over Georgia is implementing a chaperone policy.

I posted that in the other topic about said surcharges. Of course this would happen a couple of days after I visit Great Adventure. Would have saved me some money.

Reports are now coming out saying that the $1.30 surcharge is being dropped from all parks.

This should not come as a surprise to anyone. IT stuff takes a lot of work in situations like this - they have to work with Accesso and/or other vendors to migrate data from one system to another, figure out what software/hardware updates are required at each park, figure out how to pay for all the necessary technology changes... As I recall it took a couple of years for CF to get all that straightened out after they bought the former Parmount parks. They'll also need to figure out how they're going to do mobile apps. I actually prefer having a separate app for each park, but developing/maintaining 43 apps for each platform (Android, iOS and any other platforms they may support) could be hard to do.

An interesting program developed by Hersheypark. https://www.hersheypark.com/hpgo.php From what I could tell by looking at the options at one of the kiosks when I was there on Saturday, you can also add your dining plan to the band (at least the all day one - I assume passholders would just scan their pass for that like usual). It certainly simplifies things.

Having visited Hershey and Great Adventure the past few days, I've been spoiled by good interactive dark rides. Resses Cupfusion at Hershey in particular was good, but I also enjoyed Battle For Metropolis as well. Technology has changed so much since Boo Blasters and the park really needs to do something with it. I'm sure they could even develop a Peanuts themed dark ride to put in there if they tried hard enough.

Looks like an interesting event, and I'd assume the cost covers the staff needed, but it's too much, even for members (my sister and her husband are members and it would cost them over $50 to go with their two kids). If it gets you access to all the standard zoo exhibits (like what you can do during Festival of Lights), it might be worth it to some, but I don't see this being very popular at those prices.