DoomPlague

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.

Honestly, the more I think about it the more open I am to a retheme to Gotham City or especially Arkham Asylum. The Bat: half the villains in Arkham call Batman "The Bat" Banshee: doesn't completely fit but its close enough Delirium: fits already with Arkham Invertigo: Honestly, I always kind of liked Two-Face: the Flip Side as a name and its no longer in use. Is anyone actually attached to the name Invertigo? Its not even the original name. Two-Face certainly beats theming it to a movie no one saw. Drop Tower: Not sure but pretty much any name is better than "Drop Tower." Congo Falls: eh...don't really care what happens to that one

I'm having trouble seeing any park treated like Geauga Lake. Knott is too profitable as it is. SFMM is too big (probably) and does well enough. CGA is already closing. Dorney is a different kind of park from SFGAdv and does well enough from what I hear. SFA is probably far enough away from KD. Geauga Lake was a unique case in many ways. First SF stripped away its old identity and dumped too much money into the park, then depending who you ask CF either gave up trying to win back the local market or they never intended to in the first place. Consider who was running Cedar Fair at the time and his attitude regarding Cedar Point's place in the chain.

I haven't been there but I've heard people compare Fiesta Texas to CF parks, though maybe just because they're impressed with Siebert's running of the park.

You're definitely right about kids IPs. These days you have so many streaming options, many with exclusive IPs. But "back in the day" everyone was exposed to Disney, Looney Tunes, HB, and even Nickelodeon because they dominated the airwaves/cable. Too bad Universal has Nintendo wrapped up because that's pretty universal and enduring.

The idea that this somehow means The Beast is getting removed or RMCd is just irrational hysterics. Even if Six Flags were taking over the park (they aren't), that would be super unlikely. Anyways, I would prefer Hanna Barbara back in the kids area but I would be okay with Looney Tunes. Is anyone particularly attached to Peanuts? I know kids aren't. I don't want to see DC theming at KI but it might be preferable to Action Zone just staying the generic area it is now (as long as Banshee isn't rethemed).

I'm sort of hoping they are going with the Six Flags name just to throw a bone to the SF board/investors. Otherwise it seems like CF is taking the lead here. Then again, there seems to be this idea in the corporate world that brand "recognition" is all that matters regardless of reputation. Reminds me of when SBC decided to take on the name AT&T which people had little love for.

Good news everyone, Cedar Fair is getting a brand new Intamin next year. Definitely a lot of concern with this news. A lot of potential downsides and few if any real upsides. But I'll try to stay positive: 1. Cedar Fair is the majority holder here. The HQ will be at CF's property in Charlotte and it seems that they are intent with keeping a lot of CF strategies (for better or for worse...but compare that to the the how Six has been ran recently...) 2. Maybe we potentially get Hanna Barbara back? 3. That all parks pass (or whatever might replace it...) may eventually get you into a ton of parks Plus none of us actually know how this will play out. We aren't prophets. Also keep in mind that neither chain, from my understanding, dictates everything about each park. Parks get some level of autonomy at both. Other parks, like Dorney, have been discussed but am I the only one that thinks major changes might come to Magic Mountain? That park continually underperforms for its size, location and continual investments.

If its an option, removing or cutting back on trim brakes on certain rides would be my first choice, particularly The Beast. Retheming Backlot would be my next choice. After that, any general theming improvements to other rides (and how bout some station/queue music?). Or maybe a tunnel or two on Orion. Based on my most recent rides on Raptor, I would much rather keep the vests. It would be nice to see B&M just put some modern lapbars on some of their inverting rides.