DoomPlague

I tried the street taco fries. They were decent but I'm not a big fan of the large cut fries they use at Potato Works, to be honest. Also tried the cheesy mettwurst. That was pretty good. Lots of bacon and cheese. The "saratoga chips" were decent. Nice spicing on the chips but the larger chips were soft rather than crispy. The smaller chips were crunchy at least. So far, I'm actually pretty happy with the 3 new items that I've tried this season.

I got my first ride today. Coming in, I was concerned about the ride's capacity for this first season but when I got there around maybe 2 PM, I got on within 3 or 4 trains. It was no longer than the wait on the major adult coasters today (which hovered in the 15-30 minute range). Got back row and there was a very noticeable vibration to the ride. Not enough to be a problem but fairly consistent. Otherwise the ride packs a little more punch than I expected, at least on the turns.

Either way I hope the guy is alright. I was on Banshee around 6 PM maybe, Guessing it happened after that.

Apologies for my poor photography. The weather didn't help either.

A day after my trip to Plopsaland, I hit up Phantasialand, one of the two German parks that I really wanted to check out. This park is impressively beautiful, as many of you know. It's not just the famous Rookburgh (where F.L.Y. is) but it seems like every inch of the park is themed. It was overcast and a little rainy that day but that didn't ruin our fun at all. We started off at Taron, with its beautiful, gray rock walls. Honestly, the theming/scenery really did add to the ride. In terms of the ride experience, this Intamin multilaunch would be considered an elite ride at any US park but I guess some it a middle-of-the-pack Intamin LSM. It has those snappy turns and good air time though. Also, it might be the first ride where I noticed they have horizontal shaped bins for each train, stacked on top of each other. They open automatically for each train and are double-sided for the exit. It's a good system. In that area of the park we also rode Colorado Adventure, a newer Vekoma mine train. This is probably the best mine train we rode on the trip and possibly ever. Fairly smooth and it has those nice fake cross-ties made of wood to sell the theme. Chiapas is a Mexican themed log flume that we rode despite the rain. It has great scenery, the steepest drop of any log flume, a backwards descent at one part and even an IMA score. Probably the best log flume I've been on. We checked out a chinese themed dark ride Geister Rikscha. Decent scenery and sufficiently creepy but the animatronics and figures are pretty outdated and often low quality. Nearby was a China themed madhouse, Feng Ju Palace. It had a cheesy preshow but it was my first Vekoma madhouse, so it was still kind of neat to experience. Mystery Castle is an indoor Intamin Drop Tower ride. There are 4 sides facing each other inside what looks like a castle tower on the outside. What was odd was that the ride started, the lights go out and we launched into the air initially and came back down but the staff indicated that the ride wasn't done. They apparently stopped it part way to let someone off or something, so it was like we got a bonus ride. The full ride goes up and down multiple times and there is some sort of mad scientist theme or something? We headed down to the African section where Black Mamba is. I wasn't expected much from the B&M invert but it's probably the best one I've been on (above even Montu). The scenery just adds so much to it. Rock work, waterfalls, etc. Just all so impressive. Nearby was a walkthrough attraction, essentially an obstacle course. I'll add some pictures but what I was saying about Plopsaland and how much these parks trust their guests applies here. The obstacle course is something you would never seen in the US. Tight space, climbing on narrow objects 6 feet above concrete, etc etc. There are attendants when you enter these walk through areas but that's about it. Maybe kids have to be with an adult to enter? We navigated our way to the other side of the park. My only gripe is how hard it is to navigate, in part with how vertical the whole thing is. It's easy to go down the wrong path. Anyways, we made it to an indoor area which has a flat ride and the dual track Maurer spinning coaster, Winjas Fear & Force. Since the two sides have different names, we tried both but disappointingly they are basically the same ride except for one of the unique elements. On one, the car stops and the track flips forward to proceed and other it stops and the track banks to proceed. There's a part where the track drops for a second and there's an elevator lift. These elements made for an interesting ride. Much of the ride goes over the earlier mentioned flat ride and make it kind of feel like being on a ride in a mall. There's an old Vekoma with VR nearby that I opted to skip. I don't get the trend is to add VR to bad coasters. Finally we made our way to F.L.Y. with its remarkable steampunk scenery. The map makes it look like the area connects two areas but its actually a dead end and you have to enter near the park entrance. The queue is almost completely indoors and they have a video in three languages explaining their locker system. Everyone is given a rubber RFID wrist band that will lock the double-sided lockers. Fortunately, these German parks understand that glass straps will hold on to your glasses. The sideways loading system is pretty efficient too. For the ride itself, I found the restraint puts a lot of pressure on my mid-section but that's probably because I'm heavier than I used to be. Still a lot of fun and it confirmed to me that this is how flying coasters should be designed: few inversions with a focus on keeping you in the flying position. The scenery adds a lot to the experience. We headed out of Rookburgh and his a newer dark ride, Maus au Chocolat. An interact projections screen ride where you shoot mice with chocolate by pulling a string. It was decently fun and the scenery between screens was nice. There's one part where you enter a cake-making area and you actually smell cake. We did a couple more rides and Taron and FLY before leaving and walked through a hotel themed funhouse. I wanted to check out some merch and was surprised that they only seem to have one merch store which covers all of the areas, instead of having every ride exit into one. Sort of refreshing. European parks also seem to keep their food places open after closing time (though the fact that they all close so early is probably part of that). Lastly, while drinks were priced as you would expect food was decently cheap. We bought some rather large bratwurst for 4.60 euros each. Those things are easily the size of two typical store bought brats in the US. In all, Phantasialand really impressed me. Many of their rides are at the top or near the top for their respective ride types and the scenery is amazing. Operations were good (though not Parc Asterix good),

During my Europe trip I had a chance to make a short visit to this charming little family park near the Belgian coast. Of course, the park is only known for one thing to coaster/park enthusiasts: Ride to Happiness. One of the only two Mack Extreme Spinning coasters as of the moment and often considered a top tier ride. I entered the park and noticed that it has a large entry plaza with your typical nice European building fronts. Even smaller parks in Europe go big on scenery. I made my way to Ride of Happiness which opened a bit after the park. I made my way to Ride of Happiness which opened a bit after the park. Nice theming but not quite as elaborate as some of these other parks. Unfortunately, just like in France, they didn't care that my glasses had a strap and made me put them away. It's like glass straps aren't a thing in France and Belgium. RtH is a quality ride for sure but I think I expected too much. It didn't spin a lot on any of my rides. It's wild for sure and I still think the model would be a great fit for KI. I got 5 total rides in because it was a walk in before I left the park. I moved on to Heidi the Ride, a family GCI woodie. It's not bad. I imagine its close to Invadr at BGW but nothing like Mystic Timbers. This whole area is themed to famous fictional girl Heidi (my family always liked the animated versions of Heidi). It's a bit odd but the park itself is odd. They often had kid-friendly Euro-pop music playing in various areas sometimes sang by strange characters. One of the areas was a farm with live farm animals and instead of a classic car ride, there was a tractor ride. Being from the American countryside, I found that humorous. I also rode Anubis, a 2009 Gerstlauer launch coaster. It has single cars, but its not a euro fighter. The OTSR's were at least bearable and it was fun but its nothing to write home about except that the model is uncommon. Once again, I had to take off my glasses but other than that I noticed on this whole trip that these parks trust their guests wayyyy more than in the US. Stepping out of the car and exiting, there's a very narrow exit platform and where you turn to go down there stairs you are right next to the track with nothing there to stop you from falling. The park train wasn't running but where the train crosses the midway, there are no gates or anything to stop guests from walking where they want. I'll probably talk about this subject in my Phantasialand post. I rode their dinosaur themed log flume, which was nicely themed. Also rode Super Splash which is a Mack...super splash. In Belgian and France, water rides seem to be made to avoid getting anyone wet. Lastly, I rode a dark ride called Bos van Plop. It's a boat ride with weird gnome sized people living and working in their forest homes, some of which are made of mushrooms. To be honest, its the closest thing I've ever ridden to the Smurfs Enchanted Voyage. I suspect the fact that the Smurfs were created in Belgium has something to do with it. Plopsaland is definitely more of a family park and RtH seems to be an attempt to bring in an older (teen and adult) crowd. It's seemingly the opposite problem that some of our seasonal parks like KI are facing. Some people think the one ride makes visiting this park worth going out of the way to see but I'm not sure. It's probably in my top 5 of the trip but only just barely. I will say, the small town of De Panne is great. These European towns always seem bigger than they are, by population, because they are more densely packed with a ton of local businesses and restaurants, beautiful town plazas, etc. De Panne also has a nice beachfront and boardwalk area.

Some family encouraged me to check out Disneyland Paris during my Europe trip and a couple of us ended up going. I only have vague memories of going to Disney World in the 80s, so perhaps it was time but making my first trip in that time at a park where everything is in French...felt a bit strange. I had heard Walt Disney Studios is the weakest of the Disney parks, so I decided to get 1 park tickets, especially since Disney Paris pulls in around 10 million guests a year and would likely be crowded. Well...it turns out that students in much of France and Germany are still in school until late June or later... Disneyland Paris We get to the park and make our way to the Frontier area and check out Phantom Manor. It's Haunted Mansion but with a more frontier setting. Frankly, I loved it. Top tier dark ride...and the wait was only 5 minutes. -Big Thunder Mountain. Maybe 15 minute wait. Decently smooth Vekoma mine train with great scenery and decently smooth. I barely remember BTMR at Magic Kingdom and can't really compare. -POTC was closed but we rode Indiana Jones and the Temple of Peril. An old Intamin looper. It has annoying OTSRs and little leg room and its a bit rough. Not a great ride. The next time someone trashes the choice of going with Zamperla for TT2, I'm going to remind them that this is the kind of ride Intamin made before they made their first 400+ foot LSM coaster. -Hyperspace Mountain: I had low expectations and it failed to meet them. The OTSR was uncomfortable and the ride was rougher than expected. On the outside it still looks like a Jules Verne ride, so the tacked on Star Wars theme just feels, well, tacky. -As far as the non-coasters. Star Tours was all in French (most other attractions have English and French. I guess you can sometimes get it in English instead? I've never done the US version so it was kind of fun. -Dark rides: We did the Snow White, Peter Pan, and Pinocchio rides. I felt some memories come back to me on Peter Pan. But were these rides always so fast? The vehicles blew through the attractions. Also checked out It's a Small World. I felt some nostalgia for that awful, repeating song. Buzz Lightyear Laserblast was decent but I mostly prefer non-interactive dark rides. -We also checked out the walk through attractions like Alice in Wonderland's hedge maze (probably more fun with kids), the Swiss Family Robinson one (alright), Aladdin (not worth your time), the Nautilus (cool) and the dragon sleeping under Sleeping Beauty's Castle (cool). We did everything I wanted to check out and all of the major rides other than flat rides (like Dumbo) by 4:30 (without fast pass or "Premier Access" as its called there). I ended up asking to upgrade my ticket to do Walt Disney Studios and the cost of doing that turned out to be cheaper than if I got the 2-park ticket to begin with. Walt Disney Studios: -We headed towards Twilight Zone Tower of Terror which had the longest line of the day and the time on the app was pretty far off. Probably waited an hour but it was fun. I've heard its a bit different than the other versions and its in both English and French. -Avengers Assemble Flight Force. This is Rock n Rollercoaster converted into an avengers ride. Not sure which I dislike more between this and Hyperspace. I can't believe people trash Flight of Fear when these rough old-Vekoma's exist with their bad restraints. -Spiderman Web Adventure. An interactive projection ride. Honestly, this was more fun than I was expecting. Reminds me of some of the motion VR games I've played. -Crush's Coaster. Got this barely before Walt Disney Studios closes (it closed at 9 where Disneyland closed at 11). Fun little Maurer spinner. It might be my favorite coaster in the 2 parks. -RC Racer. An Intamin surf coaster. It was okay. Feels more like a flat ride than a coaster. -Cars Road Trip. It became immediately obvious that this was a studio tour tram ride, complete with a scene with a semi, earthquake, fire and a flood of water. Still, it wasn't bad. -Ratatouille: Heard many things about this ride but wasn't sure what to expect. It was definitely one of the more fun experiences. In all, I was glad that we got to do both parks and all the attractions that I wanted to hit (sans Pirates). The studios park honestly isn't horrible. It just needs...more. Seems like they're doing some major work as there were construction walls everywhere.

Millie and Orion are so similar but hard to compare. Orion definitely is a more consistent airtime machine. You're always guaranteed to get a decent amount but like you said Millie has that great sense of speed with those low sections. The Corkscrew part is funny as its kind of how I felt the first time I rode it after Vortex's demise. Yeah, its not great but its the only arrow looper we have in the state.

I just got back to my BnB from a bucket list park: Phantasialand. Only 7 coasters (I rode 5) but its an incredible park. Got another bucket list park coming in a couple days (Europa). I was thinking of doing Japan later this year but then the opportunity for this trip came up and I took it. I'll have 6 new parks under my belt after Europa and it feels strange because I hadn't been to a park outside of KI and CP in probably 20 years or more.

Just got back from my first overseas park visit. This whole trip was a bit last minute but I opted to add Parc Asterix and I'm glad I did. First off, Toutatis is legit. Scratch that, Toutatis is amazing. It's a wild, out of control ride with a triple launch section and some fun, new elements. It even has strong ejector airtime but with restraint that don't make you regret your life decisions. It's probably my number 1 now (not that that says much). Got 3 rides on it on a somewhat mild weekday. Or maybe it just seemed mild because of how absurdly fast the ops are. Every dispatch is under 30 seconds. Part of that is certainly the lack of seatbelts and frankly the lack over overweight and other problematic riders. My only gripe: the staff wouldn't let me keep my glasses on even with a strap. Tonner 2 Zeus. It's weird that despite living relatively close, this was my first Gravity Group ride (depressingly, I haven't even been on Voyage). It too is an impressive ride. Wild elements. Good airtime. Great pacing and its long enough to feel like a complete ride. Honestly, if it wasn't so rough, I would rank it above any wood coaster. It's not unbearably rough but its enough to hurt the experience. The restraints on the timberliners are pretty nice though. Got 2 rides in and the second was about a 5 minute wait. Oziris. The resemblance to Montu is still funny but this a decent invert that doesn't try to kill you with vertical G's. Decent. Pegase Express. I completely forgot about this thing having a reverse launch so it was a fun surprise. It's considered a family thrill coaster which is pretty accurate but it packs a decent punch. It is a tad rough. Got 2 rides. Goudarix. Yeah. I rode an old Vekoma but not because I care about credits. I've never been on one of these models. Honestly, it wasn't that bad. Instead of headbanging the restraint sat awkwardly and painfully on my chest. New restraints would significantly improve it. Trace du Hourra. One of the remaining Mack bobsleds. I've always liked them and this was my first ride on one in a while. Fun ride. Also Vol D'lcare, a small zierer ride. It wasn't horrible but it has a bunch of block brakes that automatically hit, like on a wild mouse and it hurts the ride. I completely forgot to ride the last coaster at the park, a tivoli family coaster but I suspect I didn't miss much. The park itself was beautiful. As we all know, these European parks put the US to shame outside of Disney and Universal. I wouldn't put the park quite on their level but maybe just one tier down. It was wonderfully atmospheric. They also do a number of good operational things. For example, on rides that need a place for bags, they wheel out carts and then securely make the cart available at the exit only after that train has returned. Another example, in longer lines, random security guards walk through the line. In the morning, at least 5 passed us in line and it appears to be just part of their rounds. Definitely would like to see that at KI and other American parks. After closing time, I noticed food stalls were still open which is nice, though they don't have dining plans so that's certainly part of it. One complaint about the park is the short hours. 6pm close on weekdays and 7 pm close on weekends. Also, I don't speak French but I suppose that is my fault....

Yeah, I'm kind of hoping Carowinds gets that Super Flume in their passholder survey. Though I think that would be a good replacement for Congo Falls And heck, CP could use one too but Carowinds most of all. Not having a water ride there is criminal.

ElToroRyan has another update and suggests its possible that it may reopen soon. It was seen testing this week. This goes back to his earlier implication that it's the wheels wearing too quickly. I had been wondering why they would shutdown the ride for a long period for wheels when those are (relatively) easily replaced. Sure, it may cost them a lot to constantly replace them but that's preferable to an unexpected, extended downtime that deals a major blow to the park's and manufacturer's reputations and disappoints a lot of guests. Guess we'll see but it would be great if it does reopen quickly.

Glad I rode it Friday now (5/10) We did standby line just after 10 and waited 2 hours (we did get to skip ahead of the people going to the lockers at least). Surprised at how well the line moved. Later in the day we waited 90 minutes. Seemed like the Fast Lane line was in the 5-15 minutes range. There was one short delay Friday that I noticed but otherwise it seemed to run all day. Was closed Thursday because of wind/rain. Honestly, aside from whatever technical issue they are dealing with, I think Zamperla pulled it off. I miss the powerful launch but it makes up for it with everything else. On my second ride, the train really flew over the top hat and you feel that airtime as soon as you make it to the top. There is shaking but its not some headache inducing vibration nor is it FoF level of of being tossed left and right. It's perfectly reasonable.

That's the site that caused me to find the "Don't show content from..." feature in my news feed.

Many of us have been saying for years that an extreme spinner would be perfect but also figured it would never happen due to their cost. What they're showing here is...not that great looking and would have terrible capacity. The dive coaster seems uninteresting. Orion already gives us a near vertical, 300 foot drop. If it came with an amazing layout I would be all for it but those things aren't known for their layouts. Honestly, a completely or mostly indoor coaster would be nice to have for Winterfest and all the rainy days that the park gets. The family thrill coaster is the worst fit here. The park is about to open a family shuttle coaster and in terms of "family thrill coasters" I would say AE and Backlot cover that category well. I don't think CP or KI should be considering any shuttle coasters or other low capacity rides outside of their kids areas.

The ICEE straw thing is funny to me. It tells you how seldom ICEEs were purchased before the new drink plan plus. Today was my first visit of the year: Was happy to get some Burnt Ends again and I think they were better than they were in the past because of the smaller pieces with bits of fat mixed in. Went for the mac&cheese with it because I wasn't sure about the fries on offer. In the evening, I wasn't very hungry so couldn't eat all of my food at G&G but I was impressed with the honey soy glazed beef. I was expecting a small portion but the girl was carefully counting the pieces and kept adding more. As much as I liked it, I just had no appetite and took most of the food home. The rice was better than what I had in October too. Disappointed that they didn't keep the meatballs that they had back then though. I didn't try the skewers on offer but is it fair to say that G&G is the best asian-styled cuisine in the park? I got a drink at Jukebox. The new setup seems like it will be good for moving people through on busy days...but not so great at getting you fresh items especially on lighter days.

Had a good first day of the season for me. Morning and afternoon crowds were light. Rode every coaster that I normally care to ride, most of them multiple times. -Saw Soap Boxer Racers testing. Obviously no one was on but it was so quiet and looked to be smooth. The cars look great too. -The camp snoopy theming in general is nothing amazing but pleasant enough. -Someone mentioned Backlot being down but it opened up in the evening. No fire effect though. -Ride ops were mostly good with some slowness from people being trained. -All statues in AE were working fully. -There were lights on in the FoF hangar. Probably for the best, safety-wise. Question: were the signs about what constitutes line jumping a new addition? I can't remember seeing them.

How would they make the rides more loose article friendly outside of making the rides tamer?

Ads are messing up the "Posts" section on the main page of the forums. Running Chrome on Windows 10. 1920x1080. When I shrink the window down to a phone size, it shows the posts but with the same Wonka ad repeated in weird spots.

Looks great. But I have questions about what that coaster is doing...

Ah, you're right. My bad. The age old problem of reading tweets too quickly. Considering the things capacity, that seems like a lot for a season but I've never seen how packed it can get on weekends.

What's the math on its profitability? It looks like it had 50k riders in...15 years? Seems like with the cost of staffing it and maintaining it, it can't be bringing in much. And considering that number of riders, it doesn't have much value attracting people to the park.

Same here. But not only that, any time I walk back there I decide to get at least 3 or 4 rides, to make the walk seem worth it. So that's probably my number one. If we go just by the past few years, Orion might be number one. I think there was one day where I hit it 8 times because the line moves so fast and on light days you can repeat it easily.

Paramount Global is currently in talks to merge with Warner Bros Discovery. There may be an alternate universe where park fans are currently sweating over Six Flags and Paramount Parks being combined.

This year I went on one of those 8PM-close/midweek days that they cut from next year and was surprised (disappointed) at the crowds. Lines were noticeably longer than previous years for that week. And they were far from the "why are they even open?" level that I remember back when they had a weekdays operating in late August in the 90s.