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Discounts: I'd really recommend getting your tickets online through the Six Flags website. They are $36.99 going that route (plus $5 S&H...the $5 fee applies for the whole order, however, so if you get more than one ticket, add parking, add the Flash Pass, etc. then it's still $5 total for the whole order). Link is below: http://www.sixflags....kets/index.aspx Also, do you have a Discover card? There are two immediate benefits at Magic Mountain: (1) If you've already got one you'll get 5% off of any Six Flags related purchases either online or in-park. Also, if you do purchase online there's an opportunity for up to an additional 10% cash back if you go through ShopDiscover. (2) You'll get in approximately five minutes early through the Discover card gate at the front entrance. This will save you a ton of time, as you'll beat most everyone to X2 and have a huge head start in getting out in front of the crowds. If this is a one-day trip: Given when you're going I'd probably get a Flash Pass. You'll need to get at least a Gold Flash Pass to get the X2 and Green Lantern add-ons ($15 each). If your goal is to ride all of the coasters there then you'll definitely need at least the Gold FP to do it. You can probably get away with getting one add-on, but if you go that route I'd recommend getting the Green Lantern add-on and still stick with Rustbelt's plan (X2 ->Tatsu -> Terminator). I'd modify that plan to say hit Deja Vu between Tatsu and Terminator. Deja Vu, Terminator and Green Lantern are all low capacity coasters (well, Terminator is with one-train ops like it's been so far this year) so it's extremely wise to hit those early in the day. If you don't get the Flash Pass then I'd go this route for the coasters: X2 -> Tatsu -> Deja Vu -> Terminator -> Riddlers Revenge -> Green Lantern -> Superman. Everything else should be higher capacity and shouldn't pose too much of a problem. The only place in the park I'd attempt to eat would be Mooseburger Lodge. If you get a chance, however, I'd recommend going outside the park and going to an In-N-Out. There are two locations within a five minute drive of the park.

I'd also agree with the "go to Great America" sentiment here. Just keep the following in mind: You'll want to make sure that you're there at least half an hour before opening. The time it takes to get into the parking lot ranges from "that was easy" to "this looks like Chicago traffic during rush hour". We've waited anywhere from two cars to 45 minutes just to get in to the parking lot. The advice stands either way. Get there early. As recommended elsewhere I'd STRONGLY encourage you to start your day off with Superman and then work your way around the park clockwise from there. The last time we were at the park (two months ago) they allowed you to walk to the left side of the park and queue up for Superman before opening. If they still have this option then take full advantage of this! You may want to think about getting (or using) a Discover card. You'll get an automatic 5% discount on all purchases made through Six Flags (either online or at any of their parks), and right now they're offering a promotion where you'll get 5% cash back on theme park purchases as well as gas (up to $300 in spending). If you are thinking about purchasing your tickets through the Six Flags website then you can use ShopDiscover to get a 5% bonus on that as well. You'll need to log in to the Discover card website, go to the ShopDiscover page and click the "start shopping" on the Six Flags page there. If you go that route you'll get cash back two ways (the 5% cash back for the online order as well as 5% cash back through the summer promotion) as well as get 5% off of your purchase immediately. You'll pay a $5 fee to place the online order, but you'd recoup that pretty quickly. Also, keep in mind that if anyone in your party ops to get a season pass that the season pass discounts in the park and the Discover card discounts can be used together (which often amounts to a 20% total discount). Some quick ride suggestions: Ride Iron Wolf as defensively as possible, keeping your head as away from those OTSRs as possible. I'd really try and save this for my last ride of the day if possible. American Eagle (both sides) is best ridden in seat 1-2. Airtime galore and it'll offer the smoothest ride in that row. Try and get a really weight imbalanced ride on Ragin' Cajun (i.e., three riders with the two heaviest riders on one side). You'll thank me later!

Really nice and thorough TR! Busch Gardens Tampa is definitely my favorite park from a "it's just nice to be here amongst all of this cool scenery" standpoint. I love their lineup of coasters, and you captured all of them really well in your report. Two quick comments: Montu is definitely a back row ride. The difference between the front and back on Montu is pretty large, and that is especially evident on the zero-g roll and batwing. It's too bad you didn't get a ride back there. On a lighter note, thank you for posting a picture of their 3-Point Challenge. That picture has more value to me than it does to most others on here, but I appreciate you including it in your report!

I think there are several key points here: (1) The pass is only good from 12-7. Isn't this time when most people are in the waterpark? Attendance on the dry side of the park is going to be down during these hours (especially with as warm as it has been), thus, there will be less people affected during this time. (2) The pass only runs through Labor Day as it stands right now, and this coincides with the calendar for Boomerang Bay. See point #1. (3) Kings Island has a rather large season pass base. Most people who have season passes (who live locally and who come regularly) won't pony up for this. MarketingExpress put it best in terms of who Kings Island is targeting with this promotion; people who are only coming for a day or two each year and are likely doing so on days when a lot of other people will be at the parks (i.e., weekends). This is also the time when a lot of people who have season passes are not at the park because of the larger crowds. I'd imagine that Saturdays at the park will be much more interesting now. --------------------------------------------------------- I don't really care for the system, but I also realize that my perspective is a bit biased because I go to the park quite a bit and will likely see slightly longer wait times for everything, particularly when the crowd is moderate or higher. I'll just simply laugh at the people who get Fast Lane passes those last two weeks of weekday operation in August and Sundays in October. I would give KI the following points of advice: * Utilize merge points. Most of the ride lines are already equipped to do this, so I'm less concerned about this at KI than at parks like Busch that utilize the exit and rope off specific rows of seats just for the skip-the-line passers * DO NOT USE THE EXIT RAMP TO LOAD Fast Lane GUESTS UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES. I've yet to see a circumstance at any park that does this where it doesn't negatively impact load times and capacity * Keep operations running at maximum capacity to minimize impact (see note above) * Don't sell too many of the passes * Do not allow immediate re-rides. If you can't re-ride immediately on a (more expensive) VIP tour then you shouldn't be allowed to do it on a cheaper version either I really don't think Fast Lane will be too big of an issue at KI on anything but the busiest of days. Having said that, if Cedar Point ever offers a version of this for anywhere near $50 I would absolutely stay away from that park on all but the lightest of light days. I'm actually more curious to see what they'll do at Cedar Point than at KI.

This latest round of deals has sold out. I hope we'll get another round before the year ends, but we'll keep you posted!

Another Holiday World ticket offer has shown up...see the link below for details: Holiday World Ticket Offer

The Qbots (labeled Q2Q at Dollywood) have a screen that allow you to select your ride of choice. Once you select your ride the device will give you a time that you can ride. You can go ride at the time provided or anytime after that point. When it's your time to ride you'll simply go up the Q2Q designated line at each ride. There will be a representative at the end of the Q2Q entrance, and they will take your device and check to see if your device says that you're ready to ride. They'll then free up your unit so that you can queue up for the next ride. You'll want to make sure that you queue up for your next ride as soon as they clear your unit. Rinse, lather, repeat. If you'd like a quick tutorial before you go down then check it out here: QBot Tutorial You'll want to reserve your shows at the start of the day inside the Q2Q building. After you pay for your Q2Q device there'll be a series of computers on the wall. You'll simply use the touch screens to select your shows and times there. You can always come back and change the reservations later, but you'll have to do it back at the Q2Q building. Make sure that you arrive at the Q2Q entrance at least five minutes prior to each show, as they'll be a dedicated section for Q2Q holders. Sounds like your options are: Two Day Tickets - the lowest price I've seen for Dollywood tickets is around $53 through AAA, so that would put you at $106 for the two days...with parking ($8/day) you're looking at $122 total. If you get the tickets at regular price ($57/day) then that would bring you up to $114 (w/o parking) and $130 (w/parking). I don't believe that there is a two-day ticket option available. Regular Season Pass - $91...keep in mind that this does not include parking ($8/day), so for two days you're looking at $107 total. Gold Season Pass - $124...this does include the parking so that's a total cost figure. If you think that you'll spend more than $85 in the park over your visit then you're better off getting the Gold Pass. This calculation is based on the 20% in-park savings you get with the pass. The difference between the regular season pass ($107 if you include parking) and the Gold Pass ($124) is $17. Therefore, you'd have to spend $85 or more ($85 x 20% = $17) in order to recover the $17 difference between the two passes. Hope that helps! **Quick Edit** You'll only want to buy one Gold Pass per group. Also, keep in mind that the Gold Pass holder must pay for the transaction in order to get the 20% off discount.

It looks like another Indiana Beach ticket offer has surfaced. This one is through Groupon and last until Sunday. See the link below for details: http://www.groupon.com/indianapolis/

It look as though this latest deal has sold out. As always I'll keep this space open for any future offers!

Beech Bend is offering a ticket deal. The deal starts June 1, and see the link for details... Beech Bend Ticket Offer

Holiday World will be offering another ticket deal. The deal starts on June 1. I'll actually be out of town when the deal starts, so I thought I'd post this for anyone interested: Holiday World Offer

It's funny because the first thing that I thought about when I saw this topic was the prizes they offered at quarter pitch back in the mid-1990s. They offered some nice appliances including toasters and coffee makers (and even a blanket I still have to this day). Interestingly enough my dad still has the toaster I won back in 1996 and it continues to work perfectly. Shaggy, just out of curiosity, did you use the "bounce it off the ceiling" technique when you were playing quarter pitch? I still play Bowler Roller, Bank-a-Ball and Three Point Challenge. I'm with Shaggy about the challenge of the game overriding the desire for most of the prizes. It's a link to my childhood that I'd like to hold on to a little longer.

Overview: Last year at this time we headed down for Season Pass Day at Dollywood and Carowinds opening day. I'm fortunate enough to be able to go to a lot of parks, so I figured that I would try and cut down on some of my trip costs by using Groupons to various restaurants near many of the places I'm likely to visit. I had been accumulating Groupons for the Knoxville and Atlanta areas in preparation for any trips I'd make down to Dollywood and Six Flags Over Georgia. I looked at the calendar and noticed that the first day that both parks would be open together was the weekend of the 26th and 27th. Dollywood had their Season Pass Day on the 25th (Friday), and SFOG is usually much more crowded on Saturdays than Sundays so I figured that we could spend two days in Atlanta to maximize our park time. I convinced (more like coaxed!) my friend Dave to tag along. The weather forecast (which is usually the most important component of any trips we take) looked OK, but we would end up getting duped. More on this later. I've done trip reports for both of these parks in the past, so I'll hit just the highlights. I'll also throw in some info about some of the more noteworthy restaurants we visited using our Groupons. The Trip: Mel's Diner - Pigeon Forge: We stopped here Friday morning just before going to Dollywood. It's a 50s/60s style diner off of Wears Valley Rd. (near Calhouns) and is about five minutes away from Dollywood. It's a pretty no frills menu in typical diner style. The food here was quite tasty, but the thing that impressed us the most was how fast the food came out. It took no more than five minutes from the time we placed our order to the time the food was delivered to our table. We were in and out of the restaurant in about a half hour. I'd certainly recommend this diner to those of you looking for good food that's priced reasonably and extremely quick service. Grade: B+ http://www.melsdinerpf.com/ Dollywood: We got to the parking lot around 9:45 and noticed that they were parking everyone in Lot C. They weren't parking anyone in Lot B (the closer of the two lots) yet so we were thinking that perhaps they weren't expecting it to be that busy. We got to the entrance about 10:05, and we knew from our experience last year to get a Q2Q early, schedule your shows while in the Q2Q building and then plan your day based on when you were going to see the shows. We headed to the right, crossed the bridge to get to the Q2Q building and were promptly greeted by a line. Not just any line, mind you, but a line that must have been at least 150 people deep. Yikes. Last year the only lines that existed were for the two big shows Drum! and Imagine, so we got out of the Q2Q line knowing that we needed to probably head to one of the big shows first. Drum! has returned for a second season but Imagine did not return, and in its place is Samaia - Legend of the Caucasus. Samaia's first performance was at 11:15 and Drum! didn't start until 12:45, so we decided to head to queue up for Samaia. Samaia is very much in line with the Festival of Nations theme. The show features a lot of "traditional" dancing from the republic of Georgia of the former Soviet Union. The costumes were very neat and to me were probably the lasting image I'll take from the show. The only real knock I have is that I think it lacked that little bit of cohesiveness that really brings the story together. I think the overall show is good but not truly memorable like the Imagine shows. Had we viewed Samaia before seeing the two Imagine shows we would have been impressed, but the Imagine shows were two of the best shows I've ever seen and set the bar almost unrealistically high for everything else. Grade: B We headed to Barnstormer right after Samaia. The ride itself looks great in its location and was a nice addition to an area of the park that needed some more foot traffic. The line was a good ways out of the queue, however, so we opted against it. Screamin' Swings are fun but not "wait for an hour on opening day when it'll be a 15 minute wait later on the season" fun. We'll pick this up on a later visit. Tennessee Tornado is still a lot of fun. It's Arrow's best looping effort and it's too bad that they got it right just in time for every other park in America to already have one! Thunderhead is running well early in the season. It's already in mid-season form and those super comfy Millennium Flyer trains really make this ride a standout. It's still very much a top 5 wooden coaster. Mystery Mine is getting pretty nasty in spots. The combination of tight turns and those OTSRs forces you to ride very defensively in many spots. I love the ending, but we continually find ourselves only wanting to get the cursory single ride on it and then move on. IMO it's just not a very re-rideable coaster. The crowds weren't too bad. They were parking people all the way in Lot F (and that lot was more than halfway full) but it never felt as though the crowds were bad at all. Most of our wait times for the rides were 10 minutes or less. The shows here, particularly on opening day, seem to command the most attention so the Q2Q wasn't really necessary unless you wanted to ride Barnstormer or see the two more popular shows. I really hope that 2012 will bring another coaster addition, but it should be a nice rest of the season there with Barnstormer and Sha-Kon-O-Hey! returning for its third season. The park is already looking very nice but should look fantastic here in two to three weeks with Spring finally arriving. M&M Barbecue - west side of Knoxville: Dave and I are big barbecue fans, so we found ourselves at a couple of BBQ joints over the weekend. The first one we stopped at M&M Barbecue off of I-40 on the west side of Knoxville. Their portion sizes were absolutely gigantic. I'm guessing that on a regular size sandwich (they offer regular and jumbo sizes) that they put a good half pound of brisket on the sandwich. Their chicken was pretty average, but they had two standout items - the sauce and the ribs. We sampled their regular (medium) sauce and a sweet & hot sauce and both were very savory and complimented the meat nicely. The ribs were Fred Flintstone size. In most circumstances that isn't good because the meat loses a lot of tenderness and flavor but these were quite good on both counts. It's one of the few ribs on which I could actually taste some of the seasoning on the meat so they picked up extra points there. We only had one side - green beans - and those were very good. It's only open Wednesday through Saturday, so if you do stop by make sure you pay attention to that. Grade: B http://www.m-mcatering.com/ Six Flags Over Georgia - Saturday The weather forecast on the Thursday before the trip called for a 40% chance of showers and thunderstorms both Saturday and Sunday. By the time we woke up on Saturday morning the rain chances climbed up to 80% on Saturday, 100% on Saturday night and 60% on Sunday. We looked at the radar and there was a nice size line of thunderstorms about 30 miles to the north. The storms were moving the east, however, so we decided that we'd head to the park and take our chances and hope the rain would hold off for a little while. We did luck out and have the rain hold off until 2:30, at which point in time the skies opened up and washed out most of the rest of the day. We had read several trip reports from their opening Saturday the previous weekend and they were all less than complimentary. There were reports of all coasters with one train operations and hour long and up waits for all of their major coasters seemed to be the theme of the day. We were at the park opening weekend last year and that wasn't much better, in fact, we only rode Goliath one time (with an hour wait) and then left to head back to Cincinnati. I was hoping that management would take some of those complaints seriously and try and make things run much smoother. I'm happy to report that operations were much better, and even though most of the coasters (except Goliath which ran two) only ran one train the ride ops were on the ball. The park staff deserves major kudos. Crowds were very manageable on Saturday. There were a lot of busses there (senior class trips and the like seemed to be the norm), but the only waits that looked bad were the Mindbender and Batman lines. Each of those lines were at least half an hour each, so we passed on those because (1) we knew we'd be back the next day and (2) Goliath at noon was about a five minute wait, so our decision to spend most of our time there was made pretty easy. Philips Arena: Philips Arena is right next to the Georgia Dome in downtown Atlanta. We decided to go to an Atlanta Hawks basketball game while we were in town. They were playing the New Jersey Nets, one of the worst teams in the league so we knew that getting tickets wouldn't exactly be problematic. Philips Arena is a terrific arena to watch a game. The seating areas are all pretty close to the court (or ice if you happen to be there for a Thrashers NHL game) so there aren't any bad seats. The concourses are the nicest concources in any arena or stadium I've been to, and that includes Staples Center (which is overrated, by the way) and Conseco Fieldhouse. They're full of character, color, space, and have every single amenity and concession you could possibly ask for. It is hands down the nicest arena I've been to thus far. It's just too bad the Hawks can't draw the crowds because they deserve better crowds than they're getting. Six Flags Over Georgia - Sunday: Crowds on Sunday were the stuff of enthusiasts dreams. The line of thunderstorms that made news around the country had passed to the south but the skies remained very gloomy. The temperature was around 55 so it was a bit on the cool side but it was still very doable. We knew that we would have a pretty good day when there were only about a hundred people waiting for the rope to drop. We headed to Goliath and managed to the third and fourth people on the first train out. The longest wait we would encounter would be three trains waiting for the front seats of Superman and Mindbender. We stayed at the park til just shy of 2:30, and our ride count just on Sunday looked like this: Superman - 1 Mindbender - 1 Batman - 1 Great American Scream Machine - 1 Dahlonega Mine Train - 1 Georgia Scorcher -1 Goliath - 20 That's right, dear friends; 20 total laps on Goliath on Sunday alone in four hours time. They made an announcement early that if your row was empty you could stay on the train or move to a different row with empty seats, so that made marathoning pretty easy. Speaking of Goliath...WOW. My first rides on Goliath back in 2008 were just a little above average. We had heard the airtime was just fabulous but it just wasn't there for us. Well, all that's changed. Goliath has grown on me over the last few years and now it's firmly in my top 5 steel. There's not a dull moment on the coaster (thanks to no MCBR), the pacing through the entire ride is perfect and the airtime is in abundance on every single hill and in every single row of the train. The only thing that keeps this from potentially being my #1 steel is the fact that the trains shook noticeably (for a B&M coaster, anyway) in spots. The trains simply look like they needed new wheels. Nonetheless, I had more fun on this coaster than I've had on any coaster before, and that includes Bizarro (SFNE), Millennium Force and Diamondback. Bizarro is still my #1 for now but Goliath was just spectacular this weekend. Bub-Ba-Q - Woodstock, GA: This is one of the finest barbeque establishments at which I've had the pleasure to eat. They've won a number of awards and it's very easy to see why after eating there. The chicken and the ribs were both grade "A" stuff, and it's one of the few places I've been to that have done both well. They have fabulous onion rings and a side called fried mac and cheese that was just spectacular. It's basically a jalapeno popper but filled with mac and cheese instead. The only things we had there that weren't outstanding were the brisket and the sauces but even those were still good. I still like Oklahoma Joe's in Kansas City more (because they have perhaps the finest barbecue sauce anywhere) but this is one of the few restaurants now that I'd gladly pay full price for. I just can't give it a solid A or A+ because the sauce just was merely good and not outstanding. Grade: A- This trip report turned out a lot longer than I was anticipating, but thanks for reading!

It's been since 2006 since I rode Manhattan Express (or whatever they're calling it these days), and perhaps it's changed since but this picture should give you a clear idea as to what you're dealing with: http://www.rcdb.com/139.htm?p=6196 I'd much rather ride Vortex over and over than ever step foot on Manhattan Express again. Do you know how you can anticipate those not-so-nice transition areas on Vortex and brace accordingly? You simply can't do that on Manhattan Express. As I mentioned the first and second drops are no problem, but as soon as you start coming into that loop everything goes downhill. You absolutely need to ride as defensively as possible from that point of the ride forward. There are two things that will prevent you from trying to ride defensively, however...(1) the over-the-shoulder part of the restraint comes very close to your face and (2) that portion of the restraint is quite hard. My advice would be to find a seat in the middle of the train in the first row of a car (should be row 5 if I remember correctly), keep your head relaxed and make sure that you try and keep it centered between the restraints as best you can.

Everything that you've heard about the roughness and shakiness is true. Once you get past the first drop and top of the second hill do your best and ride as defensively as possible. You may want to see if there are any deals out there because if I recall correctly one ride was north of $10. I was thinking back to my plans back in 2010 and I got done everything that I wanted to get done except Universal and IOA, Lake Compounce (due to weather) and Lake Winnie. I'd really like to hit those parks this year. The remaining hit list (new parks only) would probably look something like this: Six Flags Over Texas Six Flags Fiesta Texas Sea World San Antonio The Bay Area parks (Six Flags Discovery Kingdom, California's Great America and Gilroy Gardens) Michigan's Adventure Darien Lake

If you like Tatsu then you'll like Manta. Tatsu and Manta are in their own class as far as the flyers go, and they both have the same feel when you're on them. There's one thing about Manta that Tatsu doesn't have...airtime. You only get it in the very front of the train (first two rows), but when you're coming in to the pretzel loop you get a very noticeable burst of airtime. It's quite a sensation!

Great report Dave! I also want to thank you for posting this trip report, because now I don't have to post one of my own for this park! Magic Mountain is probably my favorite "ride" park in the country. There are so many fun rides there, and they have just about everything under the sun. It's amazing to think that they'll be adding three more coasters to that park. Throw in the absolutely sensational views from around the park and I'd say that I probably enjoy a day of riding coasters here more than anywhere else in the country including Cedar Point. X2 is a really hard coaster to rate. It's so unlike most every other coaster so I'm not sure that you can really compare it to anything else. I will say that the front row is WAY better than the other rows because the visuals really do accentuate the ride there more than in the other seats. I'm not really sure what it is with the outer seats, but they definitely aren't as smooth as those on the inside. An inside seat in the front row is absolutely sensational. Tatsu is still my favorite flyer in the country. Manta and Tatsu are pretty comparable as far as just the ride itself, but the views that Tatsu offers and feeling like you're actually flying over the valley are both unmatched. The backseat on this ride delivers in spades and that pretzel loop is delicious. I'm glad to see that you enjoyed this ride as well. Apocalypse was interesting. I'm not sure what you thought about the differences between the front of the train to the back but I thought it was much better in the back. I absolutely LOVED the first half of the ride, but the second half (after the station fly-through) was a little anti-climatic. It's a fun ride but I'm not sure it's in the Prowler or Thunderhead class. An interesting tidbit for those of you who are thinking about heading out here and who have a Discover card. Like most Six Flags parks they have a dedicated entrance for Discover card holders. If you get to the park before opening and queue up in the Discover card entrance line they will let you in five minutes early. This will be a HUGE advantage to you because you will get to X2 before the general public is even let in, which will allow you to get on X2 and off quickly and beat the crowds for an hour or two. I'd imagine that this will be an even better deal when the Green Lantern opens later this year.

My inverted rankings are as follows: Montu (big gap) Afterburn Alpengeist Raptor Dueling Dragons Ice Batman Clones Dueling Dragons Fire (can't rate this one higher because it has no zero-g roll) Great Bear Patriot Talon Montu is the best of the bunch because of: (1) the batwing...I love it when everyone in the back row yells "whoa" after the first part of that element (2) the trenches...they do add a nice thematic touch to the ride and enhance the sense of speed (3) the smoothness...I've yet to get any headbanging on that ride Has there been a "front seat vs. back seat" poll for inverted coasters too? It seems as though most people prefer the front, but IMO the back rows consistently deliver the better rides.

Classic! You're absolutely right, however. I'm guessing that you're looking at a maximum capacity of 500 - 600 pph on this ride which will be absolutely abyssmal. I would imagine that most enthusiasts going to the park after the ride is built will head immediately for that ride instead of X2. I do wonder why they didn't decide to put a ZacSpin in a smaller Six Flags park (i.e., St. Louis, New England, etc.) where crowds wouldn't be as big of an issue. The ride itself looks interesting, but I'm curious about the transitions. I would imagine that with OTSRs and the funky transitions that there may be some male-bashing. I really hope that's not the case, but if my experience with the holding brake on Steel Venom at Valleyfair is any indication that'll be something worth watching.

Best Amusement Park - Cedar Point Best Theme Park - Busch Gardens Williamsburg Best Wood Coaster - Voyage Best Steel Coaster - Bizarro at SFNE Best Flatride - flyers at Knoebels Best "New" Ride - if new for 2010 only, Intimidator at Carowinds. New overall to me is Bizarro at SFNE. Best (outside of an amusement park) Food - Oklahoma Joe's BBQ in Kansas City. Honorable mention to Big Shanty Smokehouse and Shane's Rib Shack just outside Atlanta Most Beautiful Park - Busch Gardens Williamsburg Best Water Ride (Includes river rapids, splash rides, and waterslides etc etc) - Wildebeest Best Waterpark - Splashin' Safari Best Park Staff - tough choices here...I'd probably say Holiday World just over Dollywood and Great Adventure (yes, this is not a misprint) Best Kids Area - N/A Best Park Show - Sha-Kon-O-Hey at Dollywood Cleanest Park - Busch Gardens Williamsburg Best "OMG" moment on any coaster - the last hill on Cyclops at Mt. Olympus. Honorable mention to the double down on Jack Rabbit at Kennywood Best Ride Operations - Cedar Point, just by a nose over Great Adventure Best Single Coaster Ride - Voyage on Saturday at Holiwood Nights

It looks like this ride could very well be Intamin's finest version to date. I was really excited when Maverick was first announced and I'm beginning to feel even more excited about this effort! It looks as though Intamin learned how to go back to less aggressive transitions into some of their elements on this ride, and I'm really hoping that the animation gives us an accurate representation as to how the trains will traverse the course. I would imagine there will be a few trim brakes that will cut down the speed in places to accomplish this, but with as many launches as we're seeing the train is back up to speed in no time. My only concern is with the trains. I REALLY hope that Intamin and Busch find a way to keep the unforgiving, hard OTSRs off of this ride. I'm holding out (a very slim) hope that they'll go to a Blue Fire style lap bar like this: http://www.rcdb.com/4074.htm?p=23202 IF the trains are good and the animation is accurate I'm guessing this will be at the very least a top-5 ride for me (replacing Maverick), especially if the renditions regarding the theming and surroundings come to fruition. This looks absolutely fabulous.

Nice report, and it sounds like you had an enjoyable day there! I'm surprised that you didn't like Renegade more. I thought it was a very fun ride, but I will agree with your assessment that it's not one of GCI's top shelf efforts ala Thunderhead, Evel Knievel or Prowler. I'm looking forward to seeing what you think of Hades and Hellcat/Avalanche/whatever they're calling it now

I'm not sure if this has been posted elsewhere on the board. Direct from the Cedar Point website: 2011 Cedar Fair Platinum Pass Valid for admission* and FREE parking to Cedar Point, Soak City and all other Cedar Fair parks and outdoor waterparks. Children 2 & under are free. *Platinum Passes are not valid at any seasonal events at which an additional admission fee is charged. See the link below for additional details. http://www.cedarpoin...asses/index.cfm

I've only ridden this twice, once in the first row of the last car and the other time in the second row of the first car. I thought that the ride in the last car was much shakier, but it wasn't exactly smooth in the second row either. We just didn't want to wait the extra 30 minutes for the front row, but we may have to next time if what you're saying about the front rows of cars being better is true. By the way, any theories as to why they removed the very last row of seats from each of the trains? Without question. You know you're in for a treat when you see the trains going over the hills that fast. The only real problem with having ridden this now is that it's all probably downhill from here! You've ridden the best...now what do you do?!

Overview: My brother and I decided to head east and do an end of summer blowout trip. The ultimate schedule we decided upon ended up looking like this: 8/21 - Dorney Park and Great Adventure 8/22 - Basketball Hall of Fame (Springfield, MA) and evening trip to SFNE 8/23 - morning trip to SFNE and evening trip to Great Adventure 8/24 - New York City and Mets game 8/25 - Great Adventure and Phillies game 8/26 - Kings Dominion and evening trip to Busch Gardens Williamsburg The rain on Sunday and Monday forced us to miss Lake Compounce entirely, which was a small downer because Boulder Dash is one of the few upper echelon coasters in the country I still haven't made it on. I've commented on most of these parks already in other reports so I'll try and keep the rest of the commentary limited to the highlights. Dorney Park: We got to the park Saturday around 5 and the parking lot was full. There were also people parking in grass lots adjacent to the park. Yikes. It seemed as though most folks were there for the waterpark, but even the dry side of the park was crazy busy. We did a quick scan of some of the lines...half an hour and up for the major stuff. Uh, yeah, there's not anything that outstanding at the park, so we decided to take a detour to Great Adventure. Great Adventure (three visits total): We got into the park around 8:30 on Saturday and quickly realized that we made a very wise decision. The park was open til 10 and tons of people were pouring out like there was a fire drill. Awesome! Short lines were really the theme here for each of our three visits. I think the longest wait for any ride was ten minutes for Kingda Ka. I'm sure the so-so weather was largely responsible for that, but it was good to be able to get major riding in. Speaking of the coasters... Kingda Ka...hum, at least now I have a definitive answer to the Kingda Ka vs. TTD debate. TTD wins HANDS DOWN. TTD is definitely much smoother, and Intamin lap bars are better than their horrid OTSRs. Let me make this clear, however; I don't think either ride is worth more than a half hour wait (unless you're riding for the first time). Just out of curiosity, has anyone ever gotten airtime on the "airtime" hill? El Toro...this ride continues to impress. My brother liked this better than Bizarro at SFNE, and I think that the two do feel very similar in many respects. I will say that El Toro was delivering world-class rides, and we got 10 total rides during our visits. Back seat continues to be the way to go here. Nitro...I never really thought that this was in the same league as the newer B&M hypers (Goliath @ SFOG and newer). Part of that may have been the fact that I've only ridden it on cooler days or very early or late in the season. Every Nitro ride this time around was nothing but airtime-filled fun. I finally got appreciable air on both the second and third hills, and I love the layout on this coaster. It's certainly in my top 10 steel now. Basketball Hall of Fame: I've never been to a professional hall of fame before, but this stop was a great initiation into that world. The building itself was a little smaller than I thought it would be, but it still boasted many impressive exhibits that really did a nice job of covering everything about the evolution of the game. My favorite exhibit there was a Michael Jordan exhibit that featured all of the Air Jordan shoes that Nike has produced in the line. If you happen to be making a trip to Six Flags New England I'd highly recommend a stop here as well. Six Flags New England: It was my first time to this park, and I thought the park was quite charming. The only thing I couldn't go for was the layout of the park. Getting from ride to ride was very confusing and was like driving on the streets of Boston! Bizarro...not much to say about this ride that hasn't been said. I knew that this would probably be my #1 steel and it most definitely is! The airtime you get in the first two cars of this coaster is simply unlike anything I've ridden to this point. I only have two points of contention: First, the coaster is WAY better in the front than it is in the back. If there's one knock on the Intamin hypers/gigas is that they only give you the great air in the front of the trains. The front is mind-blowing but the back is merely "very good". Second, the restraints on this coaster keep this from being a perfect ride. If this coaster had the MF/TTD restraints it would be unquestionably perfect, but the restraints just dig in so much to your thighs that it makes it uncomfortable for power riding. A small complaint admittedly, but now I know why people who rode this in its original configuration always glow when they talk about it. New York City: My first time to the Big Apple in more than 20 years. I must say that I was very pleasantly surprised with the city. The city is very clean by big city standards, has so much to do and sports a very diverse population. You can clearly tell that it's a very fast-paced city as soon as you arrive, but there's nothing like the energy that flows out of that city. Times Square was awesome, the Empire State building is just huge and Wall Street was just like it looks in pictures. It was a little chilling walk by the World Trade Center site, but judging by the pictures of what's coming in there in the future I'd say they've found a worthy replacement for the site. It looks like it's going to be absolutely fabulous. Citi Field, home of the Mets, is an absolute can't miss stop if you're into baseball. I've been to roughly half of the major league parks and this park ranks way up there. The stadium is absolutely gorgeous and evokes a very old-time feel. What a great place to watch a game. Kings Dominion: I've now ridden Intimidator 305 in its pre- and post-trim configurations, and I'll just say this...the ride now is MUCH more re-rideable for the GP. The ride is MUCH worse now for the enthusiasts out there. Some quick comparisons: First drop: way better before the trim installation than after. The trim grabs very hard and gives you that "WTF?" feeling, especially if you're riding in the back. You fall for a second or two and then BAM, you're slowing down. The funny thing is that many folks, including yours truly, still grayed out! What a disgrace. Airtime: the ride before never had copious amounts of airtime, but what airtime it did has essentially been nullified. There is ZERO airtime on the first airtime hill where before it had a very nice sustained float. There used to be a little airtime during the twisty sections, which is now gone. The second big airtime hill has a VERY small float, but interestingly enough the next little hump actually does have a bit of float now. Ride experience: as I mentioned, the ride now is much better for the GP, but for the enthusiast crowd it lost a lot of punch. There is a definite decrease in speed, so that's made the twisty sections much less (but still very) aggressive. The last twisty part banged my head even though I anticipated the turn. WTH? I wasn't a big fan of the layout when it first came out, and I'm still not a big fan of the layout now. The new OTSRs do help slightly, but again, if you're having to worry about banging your head on a non-inverting steel coaster that should tell you something. Busch Gardens: We visited on a very light day, and our longest wait was three trains for Alpengeist. Power riding rules! Apollo's Chariot was WAY better than my first rides earlier this season. Our second row ride offered three nice pops of air in places that offered none last time. Our back seat rides were a lot of fun and did have some very nice pull-you-out-of-your-seat moments. It's still not a top 10 coaster for me but it was a lot of fun. It was certainly a great week, and it was nice to visit all but one of these parks with very low crowds. Thanks for reading!