gad198

Thanks for posting this. There are a couple of interesting things I see on here: It looks like rider counts were down across the board with the exception of Backlot Stunt Coaster. I'm guessing the wet weather we had this Summer a lot to do with this Diamondback's rider count was down again by a small margin. Banshee was down too - and by a more significant number - but Banshee's queue times are always very manageable. Diamondback's rider count drop also coincides with it being back on ERT in 2015. The Diamondback crew was less than stellar most of the season until the last two months. The Diamondback crew after Labor Day was really good, and I really hope that operations remain at that high level next year Vortex rider counts continue to drop in a big way. I do wonder how much the faster and much smoother B&Ms have to do with the declining rider counts there

I can second this. It's on Brook Rd. (US Route 1) and I've stayed at this facility at least once every year since 2010. If you avoid NASCAR race weekends the rates are more than reasonable - around $55-60 per night on average with an additional 10% off if you belong to AAA. Breakfast options away from the hotel include a Waffle House right across from the parking lot and a McDonalds just a short walk away.

I agree entirely. Both parks have been very fortunate that the economy has been kind to their financing strategies for nearly a decade now. Gas prices have come down and interest rates are still at rock bottom. It's not going to be pretty when things revert back to more normal levels on both ends. Then again, I highly doubt we'll be worrying too much about amusement park stocks if the economy does an about face since there will be much bigger things to deal with! Regarding the other 3 points: I am familiar with the $20-$25 parking fees at each park. I'd be curious as to how many of their patrons actually pay that charge compared to patrons at the Cedar Fair parks. I do question how much higher SIX thinks they can raise prices before they run into pushback. It doesn't seem to have been an issue thus far so it'll be interesting to see how this trends. The food. I've only eaten at a few different locations inside any Six Flags park in the last few years. I've intentionally tried to stick to places I know are good, like JB's Smokehouse, as my experiences with other things at SIX parks haven't been good (burgers, pizza, chicken strips, etc.). Having said that, I much prefer the food offerings at Cedar Fair parks by and large. I can name different places at each Cedar Fair park I can eat at and enjoy, whereas outside of the aforementioned JB's Smokehouse I can't think of anything - perhaps outside of the offerings at Great Adventure - that appeal to me. My experience with both chains regarding the speed of service has generally been - let's say - less than good. Both chains have a lot of room for improvement in that area. I think one area we both agree is that dining plans ultimately have a negative impact on the food experience because there's very little incentive to try and improve either the food quality or service. They already have your money, so where's the incentive to improve? SIX has been more proactive about putting things in each park for sure. I also believe that they've been more creative with some of their additions (the RMCs, Justice League rides and the S&S 4D coasters). They also won the Starflyer vs. WindSeeker battle. The flip side is that SIX has decided to go with a lot of low-capacity additions that you have to run to first thing in the morning or be faced with an hour wait. The Six Flags RMCs all have low capacity (New Texas Giant can move people with a good crew and maximum trains but they simply choose not to run 3 trains). Justice League is an hour wait even on slow days at SF St. Louis. Can you think of the last ride that Six Flags installed in the last five years that had even a decent ability to move people through its line? X-Flight maybe? Take a look at the reviews on Yelp or TripAdvisor and see how many SIX parks have negative reviews because of either crappy operations or long lines versus those at Cedar Fair parks. I'm not saying I trust every single review but my experience at parks in both chains leans towards the average of all the reviews most of the time. All of this without mentioning some of the other "smaller" items. It consistently takes me longer on average to get into a SIX park than it does a Cedar Fair park, either when I'm parking or at the front gate. Pass benefits, especially regarding gold pass early entry. Each SIX park does something different and it seemingly changes on a day-to-day basis. I've yet to go to a Cedar Fair park and them not do ERT if they claim it's offered as part of the pass. I could go on. Perhaps the way that SIX is conducting business will work out for them long-term, but I wouldn't count on it until they fix their core issues.

I'm a little late to this discussion but I wanted to comment on this. I work in the financial services industry. I've read a lot of reports on both Six Flags (SIX) and Cedar Fair (FUN). All of those reports focus are focusing mainly on balance sheet items and cash flow. They're financial reports and they should indeed do that! Having said that, I've yet to see one of these reports answer the one question I always ask myself after reading these reports: Have any of these analysts actually been to the parks to see what life is like inside the gates? A lot of what's driving the SIX and FUN stock price up recently have been positive developments as far as attendance, earnings, and the increases in the dividend yield. All of these financial reports mention these items. What many of them also tell you is that most of their attendance growth is due to a large uptick in season passes and memberships. Season pass/memberships account for half of the attendance at SIX parks. I'll post a link to the season pass numbers chart at the end of this paragraph. Cedar Fair is around 40%. Six Flags season pass/membership chart link: http://marketrealist.com/analysis/stock-analysis/consumer/theme-parks/charts/?featured_post=272568&featured_chart=272569 Why is this important? Six Flags has said in their investor presentations that they're pulling back large discounts on admission. Oh really? So then the $60 all-park, parking-included season pass I purchased back in September was clearly an aberration. One-day admission offers are available all over the place (granted, these discounts are coming off of a higher regular general admission price). SIX still offers some bring-a-friend free days for passholders. It's pretty easy to see why attendance is going up, because it costs relatively little to get in to a SIX park. SIX is clearly using their low-cost season passes and memberships to drive attendance. Let's examine this in a bit more detail. THE GOOD: "The company’s Active Pass Base, which represents the total number of guests who have purchased a season pass or who are enrolled in the company’s membership program, increased 25 percent from September 30, 2014 to September 30, 2015. The significant increase in the Active Pass Base is in line with the company’s overall strategy to upsell guests to multi-visit passes. Season pass holders and members are the company’s most valuable guests since they generate higher revenue and cash flow for the company than a single day guest, and also provide an excellent hedge against inclement weather throughout the season." This is directly from the earnings release that the Interpreter posted in the initial post. I don't disagree with anything here. Let's see the other side of the coin here. THE BAD: "Total guest spending per capita for the third quarter was $42.87, which was down $0.92 or 2 percent as compared to the third quarter of 2014, over half of which related to changes in foreign currency rates and the balance to a substantially higher mix of season pass holder and member attendance as compared to the same period last year. Admissions per capita decreased 2 percent to $25.22 and in-park spending per capita decreased 2 percent to $17.65, also primarily due to adverse foreign exchange rates and a higher mix of season pass and membership attendance. For the first nine months of 2015, guest spending per capita declined 3 percent. On a constant currency basis, third quarter and year-to-date guest spending per capita decreased $0.30 or 1 percent and $0.73 or 2 percent, respectively." This is also directly from the earnings release posted earlier. So essentially what they're saying here is that the 9% bump in attendance is almost exclusively driven by additonal pass sales. Unfortunately per caps were down. This isn't newsworthy since most of us know that season pass holders spend less than one-time guests. Here's where I would worry if I was a SIX stockholder (which I'm not). The current trend right now is unsustainable. A key reason why the pass numbers are so high right now is due to the relatively low cost of the passes. What is SIX going to do when they want to raise the cost of the passes? They're clearly trying to keep their attendance numbers up, because as it stands right now their attendance gains are outweighing the downward trend in their per caps. That's not going to last forever. I truly believe their current capital expenditures strategy is going to come back to bite them in the tail. Just as a basis for comparison, despite having fewer properties 7 fewer properties (18 for Six Flags and 11 for Cedar Fair) Cedar Fair spent nearly $30 million dollars more in capital expenditures in the last year. Cedar Fair has said that they're going to bring their capital expenditures down in the future, but wow, that is a huge difference. They've been skating by on a lot of very inexpensive additions across all of their parks just to claim something "new" each year, but doing something just for the sake of doing something isn't good long-term strategy. SIX has said that they're going to continue to follow the same pattern for the foreseeable future. They're also trying to continue to cut costs, which means that while SIX parks are much more pleasant-looking than they were five years ago the operations, food service and guest experience haven't improved. It reminds me a lot of the end of the Paramount days at Kings Island. I doubt many would argue that Cedar Fair parks by and large are much better places to visit now than when Cedar Fair initially acquired the Paramount parks, but I'm not sure I can say the same thing about most SIX parks. SIX to me right now is putting lipstick on a pig. Cedar Fair does everything better than SIX except for two things - their Flash Pass system and their easier-to-use season pass system. A friend of mine said it best earlier this season after visiting a SIX park: "I never really completely enjoy a visit after coming here. There's always something goofy that you have to deal with at a SIX park." I truly wonder if any of the investment analysts would feel the same way if they personally visited any SIX park during a normal operating day.

I think that Carowinds has the potential to get to this level with the moves Cedar Fair has made and will make in the near future. Carowinds has some rather large advantages working in their favor: a large metropolitan area from which to draw - and more importantly - a growing population no real competition anywhere within a 3 hour radius. Dollywood, Six Flags Over Georgia and Kings Dominion are all more than 3 hours drive from the park. 3 top-shelf B&M coasters (more on this in a minute) a really large waterpark coming next year Investors in amusement operator stocks use attendance numbers and trends in those numbers as a leading indicator of how the company is doing. Waterparks now are key attendance drivers, and I'd imagine that would be even more true in Southern climates where the heat and humidity is more persistent through the Summer months. Universal Florida, SFOG, Dollywood, KI, Canada's Wonderland, Kings Dominion, and now Carowinds have put or are putting large amounts of capital into waterparks. There's no way that Holiday World would have ever been able to build Thunderbird had it not been for their waterpark attendance. Waterpark investments are - dollar for dollar - more effective ways to get people through the gates than the vast majority of dry-side rides simply because they appeal to much larger audiences. Not everyone wants to hop on Fury 325, but most everyone can find something to do in a waterpark. Good waterpark additions these days are really no-brainer decisions. If you're living in or near Charlotte right now and want to go to a waterpark your options seem to be a Great Wolf Lodge, Ray's Splash Planet or driving 3 hours to Charleston or Myrtle Beach. Waterpark attendance will continue to grow for the foreseeable future, and Carowinds has decided to - rightly so - invest in their waterpark to help continue to drive growth there. Expanding the size of the waterpark now also allows them to avoid what Holiday World went through with their waterpark; i.e., seeing attendance grow faster than their infrastructure could support. Carowinds wants to make sure that their waterpark can support the attendance growth they're projecting which is really smart. Carowinds is doing a lot to improve the guest experience. The new tollboth, parking lot, front entrance and gate are all much better equipped to handle large crowds than before. The new food hall is large, air-conditioned and has really good food. The live entertainment is trending back up. The new waterpark will be able to handle crowds better and give people more to do. Carowinds has three really good B&Ms that are not only fun rides - but more importantly - can move a lot of people through lines quickly. Large regional parks are best served by having their most popular rides have high capacity. I'd argue that that's even more important now that Fast Lane (and the like) are in effect now. All parks want to make their guests feel like they got their money's worth out of the day and Cedar Fair is making sure that Carowinds leaves people feeling like they did. Is there work to do? Sure - but compare the Yelp and TripAdvisor reviews from two or three years ago to the ones today. There's a noticeable trend towards more favorable reviews. I really enjoyed my visits to Carowinds this year. Carowinds is in good shape. More importantly, they're being backed by Cedar Fair who will give them the opportunity to continue to make the park better. It wouldn't surprise me at all to see Carowinds catch up on attendance in the very near future if they continue on their current trajectory.

In line for Diamondback right now. Line is about 15 minutes. The crew tonight is really good so the line is moving quickly!

Sorry for the double post. I did end up going to the park yesterday for Dividend Day, and it was a great day to visit. Lines were no more than 5-10 minutes on just about everything, and after 7 PM everything was a walk-on. I wanted to give special praise to the Diamondback crew yesterday. They were absolutely hauling and were the best crew that I've seen there in a couple of years. There were several dispatches where they had the recently dispatched train to the top of the lift hill as the preceeding train was hitting the final brakes. I even heard several comments from others saying how quickly they were moving. I couldn't do it because of time issues yesterday, so I'm going to fill out my first ever comment card at Guest Relations on Friday night to let KI know how great they are. If this same crew is working the rest of the season I guarantee that everyone will be happy!

P&G Sundays are almost always less crowded on Sunday than Saturday. There are a lot of people who go to the park only to get the goodies and then bail. Those folks almost always go Saturday so as to avoid getting shut out from anything cool that might be distributed that year. A friend of mine has a Dividend Day collection of buttons that runs back through the mid-80s, and he always goes early to ensure that he gets his button to add to his collection. Dividend Day Sundays are probably my favorite Kings Island day of the year to visit.

We've been going to P&G Dividend Days for a long time and absolutely love going on those days. Lines are never an issue and the crowds are always really well behaved those days, even with the lines for the goodies. I usually get to satisfy my Diamondback fix on these days, as the line usually isn't more than 15 minutes and there are no Fast Laners getting in the way. Thanks for posting!

My categories are: Best Park - Busch Gardens Tampa. I like the Williamsburg version but BGT has a lot more fun non-coaster activities. Honorable mention to Cedar Point. Best "Wow, I totally didn't see that coming!" Park - Sea Breeze in Rochester, NY. It's a nice small park anyway, and the views of Lake Ontario add an excellent dimension. Honorable mention to Story Land. Best "Wow, I totally didn't see that coming!" Ride - Roar-o-Saurus at Story Land. It's the best coaster under 75' tall in the US. Best Park Food - the poutine at Canada's Wonderland. Honorable mention to the cinnamon bread at Dollywood. Nicest Park Employees - Six Flags Great Adventure. Yes, you're reading that right. I've had nothing but great experiences with everyone there the last few years. Dollywood and Holiday World's employees are good but the atmosphere at both of those parks is becoming more corporate each year. Best Random Moment (amusement park edition) - Fury 325 ride ops granting a re-ride on the last train at the end of the night. Great way to end the day. Best New Ride - Fury 325. I had a chance to ride this, Wicked Cyclone and Thunderbird. The "if all they did was clone this ride at Kings Island I'd be thrilled" Ride - Fury 325. Most Memorable Coaster Ride in 2015 - Front row rides on Fury 325. Most fun I've had on a coaster in a long time. Best Steel Coaster - Fury 325. B&M really outdid themselves with this one. Best Wood Coaster - Boulder Dash. Ride I'm Looking Forward to Most in 2016 - Mako at Sea World. Sea World has been in the news recently for all the wrong reasons (Blackfish, CEO being released, layoffs, general apathy about their Antarctica project). The fact that they decided to build a coaster of this magnitude at this particular time tells you all you need to know about what parks think about B&M coasters - and particularly their mega coasters - and their impact on parks that install them. I think that Lightning Rod at Dollywood will probably be a better ride, but the Mako story as a whole is more compelling to me.

Great post. I think what many are seeing when we see comments like "it's OK", "I'm underwhelmed", or "I wish they would have pushed the envelope" are comments that are coming from a very vocal minority. That minority is only impressed when a coaster announcement is: a new RMC a new Intamin anything other than a B&M There's a reason that Cedar Fair continues to order from B&M. The park representatives I've had a chance to talk to all LOVE B&M coasters. Park maintenance personnel LOVE B&M coasters. The general public LOVE B&M coasters, and Valravn is going to be no different. Parks know exactly what they're getting when they order a B&M coaster - a reliable, high-capacity ride that the public will like. That "we know what we're getting with a B&M coaster" mentality frustrates certain enthusiasts to no end. This is exactly the reason why parks don't listen to the vocal minority - and rightly so - because some folks are just not in tune with reality.

I agree with this. Having said that, if the assumption is that the Six Flags capital outlay strategy has led directly larger attendance gains then I disagree on several levels. 1. I strongly believe that the Six Flags admission pricing strategy is a large driver of attendance right now. I remember buying my first Six Flags pass back in 2008 (for the 2009 season) for $65. That price did not include the chain-wide parking which was an additional $45, so that's $110 all in. Gold passes right now can be had for as low as $50 right now, and at the park where I bought my original Six Flags pass (SFOG) a single Gold pass can be had for $67 right now (and even less if you buy in bulk). I'm certainly not complaining about spending LESS money for the same product, but I'd imagine that's also true for all of Six Flags patrons right now! The fact that you can have a family of four outlay as little as $200 for season-long entertainment is really hard to pass up. A quick Google search shows that the same family of four - on average - would probably spend that same amount to go see one MLB game. It's pretty easy to see where if a family had to choose between those two options on price alone that the Six Flags option is pretty enticing. On a related note, about 50% of the guests who walk through a Six Flags gate own a season pass, a number that has climbed steadily in the past 4-5 years. Season pass guests come in at around 40% at a Cedar Fair park. Combine higher season pass numbers with lower pass prices and it's fairly easy to see why SIX attendance continues to climb. 2. Six Flags parks are MUCH nicer now than when I first started visiting. If you take a look at a lot of the reviews for Six Flags parks on Yelp, TripAdvisor, etc. that there are a lot of very mediocre reviews for many of those Six Flags parks. Most Six Flags parks currently have an average 3-star rating on Yelp. A few have an average 3.5 star rating on Yelp (Great Adventure, Over Texas, St. Louis), but there are several Six Flags parks that have an average 2.5-star rating there. For reference, NO Cedar Fair park has a 2.5-star rating. Only a couple have 3-star ratings (Dorney, Great America in CA), the vast majority are 3.5-stars, and there are even two parks with 4-star average ratings (Canada's Wonderland and Cedar Point). My point here is that Cedar Fair parks are already perceived as better parks by the general public (which I agree with). Six Flags has greatly improved the in-park aesthetics the last few years. I can't tell you how many patrons I've talked to at Six Flags that were there making their first visits in years. Six Flags parks had a perception problem to overcome that many of the Cedar Fair parks did not, and the word is slowly trickling out that Six Flags parks are nicer places to visit. There are two areas about Six Flags recent capital investments I have agreed with: They're attempting to bring some semblance of balance back to the parks. The best parks have something for everyone, which really wasn't true of many Six Flags parks five years ago. They've decided to add some good family-friendly rides (the Skyscreamers, flyers and other kiddie flats, Justice League rides, etc.) in addition to their coaster installs. Six Flags Great America even saved the Little Dipper! They've started to take a much broader view as to what each park really needs, whether that's general spruce-up or any ride installations. They've invested more in their waterparks. Some of the waterparks they had up until recently were just sad, but they're spending money to try and improve them to bring them up to respectable levels. It's not an accident that Great Adventure, Great America, St. Louis and Over Georgia have spent lots of money on their waterparks recently. I would make an argument that a lot of the attendance gains at Six Flags parks are due to more people being drawn to their waterparks. I think where some people worry about Six Flags moving forward is that they may allow the balance they're trying to achieve in the family-friendly direction to go too far. I don't think we can reasonably debate that "adding a large steel/wood/RMC coaster" is making the park less family-friendly. I think in many cases those large installs are actually adding some much needed balance. The vast majority of people I've either talked to in person or seen online reviews for mention Diamondback and Banshee (in that order, along with The Beast) as their favorite rides at Kings Island. Think about what Magnum, Raptor and Millennium Force did for Cedar Point's profile. Come next season Dollywood will have added 3 new coasters in four years. Carowinds didn't add two coasters - each north of $20 million in the past five years - just for kicks. Does anyone believe that Holiday World is displeased with the addition of the $20 million Thunderbird? I would argue that an excellent coaster additon at the right time has a far more reaching impact than anything else the park can do because the return on the right kind of investment can allow the park to address other areas of need. Kings Island is going to get a B&M gigacoaster in the near future, not because the park "needs" it to fill some mythical hole in their lineup, but because it's a good business decision. It's also just as likely that we're going to see rides on the other side of the balance beam - a dark ride, more waterpark additions, better live entertainment - to help keep the balance. Six Flags right now is really teetering on a fine line right now. RMC plopped into their lives at just the right time, as it gave them a way to re-brand crappy coasters into really nice attractions. More importantly to Six Flags RMC helped them to do all of that at a much lower cost than a B&M or Intamin coaster install. From a business standpoint it's great, but at some point the RMC well is going to dry up. I'm VERY interested to see what post-RMC additions are made because it's going to tell you a lot about their strategy moving forward.

Part IV - Six Flags New England and Six Flags Great Adventure I've written trip reports for both of these parks in the past, so I'm going to skip right to the good stuff! Six Flags New England You can tell that management here is really trying to make their park better each season. My first visit was here in 2010 and I've enjoyed the park more with each subsequent visit. There's still work to do here but they're heading in the right direction. The Rides: Bizarro (soon to be Superman again) - this has been my #1 steel ever since I rode it five years ago. I absolutely love the layout of this coaster, as it has a little bit of everything and is nice and long. Unfortunately, this ride for some reason has lost a little bit of its luster over time because of the really uncomfortable trains and restraints. The restraint hits you at a really awkward angle on your legs, and as such the should-be-glorious airtime is not always enjoyable. I still really enjoy this ride, but after the rides I've had over the last few years it's no longer my #1 coaster. I really hope that they can do something to make this ride more comfortable when they re-brand it back to Superman. Grade: A- Batman: the Dark Knight - a B&M floorless. The layout packs a lot of action in a pretty small footprint. It's 10 years old but still rides very nicely. The general rule with B&M floorless coasters is the bigger it is the better, so this being one of the smaller ones makes it one of my least favorite floorless. Having said that, it's a fun coaster and it's the third best coaster at the park. Grade: B Goliath - the Vekoma giant inverted boomerang. This was closed during our visit with pieces of the train on the ground just outside of the station. Dave and I were here two years ago we got a ride on the "old" train and both enjoyed it. Unfortunately, I keep seeing reports that the "new" train is way worse so I'm not really disappointed that we didn't get a lap in. Wicked Cyclone - the new RMC coaster. We were able to get three rides on this coaster - row 2, row 3, and the second-to-last row. There is a ton of action in this layout and the coaster is as smooth as glass. We thought the rides toward the front are good, and the inversions are definitely better riding towards the front. The second-to-last row ride we had really shows why this ride has gotten a lot of praise. The airtime is much more pronounced towards the back and it turned a good ride into a really good ride. One note about this ride for anyone visiting - they are assigning rows. They load the train front to back, in sequence, and only keep one train worth of people in the station at a time. They are EXTREMELY strict on this. DO NOT go in expecting to get a front or back row on this ride unless you get extremely lucky. We were the third and fourth people in line for the day and they made us go in row 2 instead of allowing us to wait for the front row on the second train. The last time in line we actually had to intentionally let a few groups go ahead of us just before we got to the station so we could get a ride near the back of the train. The ride itself is a ton of fun. The airtime is plentiful and strong and the ride up through the second inversion is excellent. The ride does fizzle out at the end and the third inversion wasn't really necessary, but those are the only real misgivings. It's top-10 steel material, and had it not been for Fury 325 I'm fairly confident this would have been the best new-for-2015 ride. It's definitely the best of the RMCs thus far in my opinion. Grade: A Six Flags Great Adventure I really like Great Adventure. Lots of good coasters and the best operations at any Six Flags park in the country. We both already have all the coaster credits here so we decided to hit up the only big ride we hadn't yet experience (Zumanjaro) and what we feel are the parks best coasters. The Rides: Zumanjaro - the drop ride attached to Kingda Ka. Kingda Ka and Zumanjaro can't run at the same time due to New Jersey state law, so they typically dispatch two Kingda Ka trains while Zumanjaro is loading, run a Zumanjaro cycle, then rinse, lather and repeat. The ride is a long way up there and you get a really nice look at the entire park while up there. The drop goes on for what feels like forever although it's not quite as thrilling as I was expecting. It's still a nice ride and I'd definitely get on it again on future visits. Grade: B namtaB - their Batman: the Ride invert is currently running backwards. I had already done this at Six Flags Great America and didn't really enjoy the experience, but Dave hadn't done it so I tagged along as any good coaster buddy would do! I enjoyed the ride more this time but I would still much rather ride it going forward. Grade: B- Bizarro - a B&M floorless. This is probably the second- or third-best B&M floorless in the US. This would be a top-tier ride at just about every other park in the country but it's overshadowed by a lot of other things at Great Adventure due to its location in the park. It has one of the best zero-g rolls anywhere, and some recent train maintenance has really smoothed it out. This is a really nice ride. Grade: B+ Nitro - a B&M hyper. I really like Nitro. The ride operators here were the best I've seen working any B&M hyper/giga this year. They also allowed re-rides in empty rows (which is always welcome), and as a result we got four rides in very quick succession first thing in the day before the lines built up. The only knock against Nitro is that the airtime isn't nearly as strong on the first two large hills as it is on the newer B&M hypers, but it's still a very enjoyable ride with an excellent first drop. Grade: A- El Toro - an Intamin pre-fab wooden coaster. El Toro is a top-3 wooden coaster. Having said that - the ride is getting a little rough around the edges and we were done after two back seat rides on day 1. The rides were intense enough that we didn't even ride them early in the day on day 2 with a short queue. I mentioned earlier that El Toro "got" my phone; i.e., that El Toro "got" my phone to stop working after the second ride we had on it! I had my phone secured in my back pocket like I do on every other coaster I ride. Unfortunately El Toro takes secured loose articles personally and decided to run the phone through the ringer. This is actually the second time that El Toro has done this to one of my phones, as I had an iPhone that it also sent to the morgue three years ago. Note to self: don't let there be a third time! Grade: A- This concludes the trip report. Thanks for reading!

There's some interesting stuff in here. The highlights to me are: The Joker at SFDK. I've enjoyed the RMCs I've ridden thus far, and I'm looking forward to my first trip there next year. Redesigned trains on Revolution at SFMM. I've had a chance to ride this on multiple occasions and passed every time because I've heard how much the current trains suck. It'll be nice to finally get this credit. The conversion of Bizarro back to Superman at SFNE. The announcement wasn't clear on this - are they redesigning the trains as well? I certainly hope so because the current train configuration is, uh, less than comfortable. Justice League is coming to SFGAm. Of all of the Six Flags announcements I think this addition best fits a ride with a distinct need at its particular park. The addition of the Gold Season Dining Plan which is now good at all parks. There's a current "Flash Sale" which runs through Labor Day, and it looks like the price on the dining option at the park in St. Louis is $85. At the same park the current season pass sale sets you back $62 per pass with a free Gold upgrade ($52 per pass if you buy 2 or more). $147 all in? Definitely intriguing. Not much else on the list really does anything for me. The best Six Flags additions recently have been the RMCs but they're going to start running out of coasters to re-do, so then what? They're trying to spread capital so thin across all their parks that it ends up where very few parks get anything of real substance. They've installed one (!!) new B&M coaster across all their parks since 2007. Poor Six Flags St. Louis can't catch a break as they go yet another year without a decent steel coaster addition. The announcement overall is....eh. At least we know now.

Part III - Story Land, Funtown Splashtown & Canobie Lake Park: Story Land: Story Land is a small park near the New Hampshire/Maine border. As its name might imply it is a fairy tale-themed park that caters to families with smaller kids. We were even greeted by Cinderella and Tinkerbell at the entrance! The park was larger than I was anticipating, but is still small enough to keep its really nice charm. The Rides: Polar Coaster - a cute little family coaster. It's like a very lite Adventure Express. A nice little starter coaster. Grade: C Flyers - the gliders moved along at an OK clip but there's very little chance of anyone snapping this particular set. Another family-friendly attraction. Grade: C Roar-o-Saurus - the new Gravity Group family coaster. It may be a family coaster in description but this ride will satisfy both families and enthusiasts! The coaster itself is exactly 40 feet high, but make no mistake, this thing rides like a coaster 3 times its size. Great first drop, 8 or 9 pops of really good airtime, and it is aggressive enough for the seasoned rider and yet rideable enough for the smaller set. Gravity Group did an amazing job with this coaster and I really hope that more of these pop up around the country. I wish it were a little bit longer but It's top-10 wood material. Grade: A- Story Land is a really nice small park. The first thing I thought about after seeing the main portion of the park is "this looks a little bit like Lake Compounce", and soon after I said that I saw an ad for Lake Compounce along their antique car ride! There's also a nice looking river raft ride there. I was very impressed with this park - it's clean, it's got a lot to do for families and it's in a beautiful location. Park Grade: B+ [ Funtown Splashtown: Thie park is just south of Portland, Maine along US Route 1. Think Coney Island in Cincinnati for a comparison. There are only two coasters here and a decent flat ride package. Astrosphere - an indoor scrambler with a nice lighting package. The ride also features glow-in-the-dark paint on the actual cars, music, and a nice long ride cycle. The scrambler itself wasn't moving all that fast but the package as a whole made up for it. Grade: B Wild Mouse - eh. This one wasn't as bad as the one at Martin's Fantasy Island but it wasn't far behind either! Grade: D+ Excalibur - a CCI coaster. It's Raven in the first half of the ride - a nice first drop and a few decent pops of airtime. It's Legend in the second half with more laterals. Overall it's a decent coaster, but I really wish that it featured a little bit more speed and airtime during the second half. It rides a little rough but for a park with only one wooden coaster it's not too bad. Grade: B- Lexie's Joint: This is a burger joint in Portsmouth, NH; about halfway between Funtown Splashtown and Canobie Lake Park. For those of you who have been to Terry's Turf Club and thought "wow, this is pretty small" - this place is even smaller! Having said that, this place is an absolutely must stop if you happen to be in the area. It has good cheeseburgers, great milkshakes, and FANTASTIC french fries. The fries in the picture below are the Bistro Fries - fries with bacon, parmesan, and chives. It's one of the best things I've eaten in a long time. It's reasonably priced (the burger and fry combo you'll see in the picture ran $8.75) and the service is really good. They have a niche and they fill it really well. Grade: A- Canobie Lake Park: Canobie Lake is less than an hour away from Boston on the New Hampshire side of the border. Where Story Land was a lot bigger than I was anticipating, Canobie Lake was much smaller. The park sits on a decent sized lake and is very clean. The ride operators there win the award for most enthusiastic staff. They were really good. There are only four coasters there which includes one kiddie. The Rides: Yankee Cannonball - an old-school out-and-back. The ride iike a smaller version of The Racer but with much less airtime and speed. We rode in the back car and it was fun but nothing I'd go out of the way for. It did track OK so that always helps. Grade: C+ Untamed - a Gerstlauer Eurofighter. I'm not a huge fan of Eurofighters and this one was...OK. The layout is OK, it tracks OK, and the rides shorter layout is OK. It's an OK coaster! Grade: C+ Corkscrew Coaster - an old Arrow corkscrew coaster. Um, yeah, so there's that. Grade: D+ Kiddie Dragon coaster - the parks kiddie coaster. Adults are allowed to ride and I see why now. The laterals on this thing are crazy! It rides like a Music Express on wheels. I was pleasantly surprised with this one! Grade: C+ Flyers - these guys had an interesting shape and story (see the picture of these below). The ride moves at a pretty quick pace, but there are chains on the sails that prevent you from swinging side-to-side with any kind of pace. Ergo, there is a virtual nil chance you'll get these to snap. The tubs are cool though! Grade: C Canobie is a nice, albeit it small, park with a nice setting. Having said that, I'd be hard pressed to come back here until they add another coaster. Park Grade: C+ The fourth and final part is coming tomorrow. Thanks for reading!

Part II - La Ronde, Vermont & New Hampshire La Ronde: La Ronde is on an island just outside of downtown Montreal. The island is reminiscent of Eden Park in Cincinnati - lots of trees and plenty of cool things to do around the island. Getting to the parking lot here was a real adventure as the signs aren't very clear! We did however find our way, and these are some of the views that await you: 2 The rides: Le Monstre - the parks dueling wooden coaster. I had been forewarned that it was unlikely that we were going to get both sides unless we came on a busy day. We visited on only a moderate day, however, and did indeed only get one side (Track 2). Eh, it's not bad. It's got a little Mean Streak-y feel to it with a more more interesting layout. The racing element would have helped notch it up in the rankings, but I'm actually not too upset we didn't get to ride the other side. Grade: C Super Manege - the parks Vekoma corkscrew coaster. Vekoma + early 1980s + OTSR = hurts just thinking about it! Grade: D Toboggan Nordique - a bobsled. This one has a more wild mouse feel than the bobsleds at Seabreeze. We did however get the Jamaica slide again for the rare double Cool Runnings award! Grade: C Dragon - an Intamin family indoor coaster. Let's just agree to move on, shall we? Grade: D+ Ednor - the Vekoma SLC. This one isn't as rough as some of the others I've ridden. Having said that, there's a B&M invert on the other side of the park that does the same things but does them much better. These rides are all one-and-done for me. Grade: C+ Batman the Ri....er, Le Vampire - the ubiquitous Six Flags B&M invert. This is the last of the Batmen I needed to ride in North America, so it was nice to complete the collection. I couldn't tell one from the other if asked, but some are maintained much better than others. This one rides well I'm happy to report which is always nice. Grade: B+ Le Cobra - an Intamin standup. This has B&M track with trains that are a cross of the B&M & Togo standups. Yeah, it's all a bit odd and it also rides a bit rough. This is another one-and-done coaster IMO. Grade: D+ Goliath - a B&M hyper. I've now ridden all but four of the B&Ms in North America. Unfortunately it would remain that way after our visit as Goliath was down all day. "Why?" you may ask. In typical Six Flags form - they simply decided they were going to not run it that day. What???!!!! Ugh! I wouldn't mind going back here to pick up this credit if it didn't take a 14-hour car trip and a border crossing to get there. Grade: 1 Flag, just because I'm feeling nice. Overview: La Ronde is OK. The park has a lot of potential, but the way it's run from an operational standpoint is always going to keep it from being anything more than a decent regional park. We would have been content to never go back had Goliath simply been open, but I have a feeling that I will have to go back to pick up that one ride. C'est la vie! Park Grade: C- Driving from Montreal to and through Vermont & New Hampshire I thought this deserves its own portion. Vermont and New Hampshire are absolutely BEAUTIFUL. We stayed in a hotel about an hour south of the US/Canada border in St. Johnsbury, Vermont. When we would step outside it smelled like a a bag of freshly opened mulch because of all of the trees around you. I can absolutely see why that area of the country is popular during the Fall. I'll let the pictures do more of the talking. I did want to mention one restaurant we visited. We stopped in a little town in Quebec called Granby. We ate at a place called Cafe de la Brulerie which looked like it would have fit right in a ski town in Colorado. It was set just above a little river and had a really nice outdoor patio. Many residents in Quebec are bilingual and speak both French and English. The farther away from Montreal you get the ratio definitely swings way more to the French side! As such, communication can be very interesting at times! Our waitress did speak just enough English to help us sort out the menu and even gave us a brief French lesson! She recommended the "Club" burger which had bacon, cheese, a slightly spicy mayonnaise, lettuce, tomato and roasted vegetables which included...wait for it...zucchini! I'm happy to report that the zucchini on the burger is very good! Dave had their version of poutine - potato chips with gravy, cheese curds and some roasted peppers. A picture of our dinner is below: Part III will be coming up later tonight. Thanks for reading!

malem: Thank you for the advice about trying to retrieve my lost cell phone photos via USB. I plugged the phone into the computer, and thankfully it recognized the device. A notification came up to install a Samsung/Verizon driver, I installed it, and it after everything was installed I was able to view all of the items on the phone via Windows files. I copied and pasted all of the photos on the phone to my hard drive and downloaded them to Flickr. Assuming this works, I'm going to post the photos from Seabreeze, Martin's Fantasy Island and Canada's Wonderland below. The remaining photos I'll integrate into the report as we go. Thanks again for the tip! Seabreeze Photos: Martin's Fantasy Island Photos: Canada's Wonderland Photos:

Part I - Seabreeze, Martin's Fantasy Island and Canada's Wonderland Seabreeze: Seabreeze is a smaller park right on the doorstep of Lake Ontario just outside of Rochester, NY. You can see the lake from most areas of the park, and the views from the tops of the rides are some of the best in the country. We visited on a beautiful Saturday and you could see a long way out over the lake, which included a lot of sailboats enjoying the late Summer weather. The park itself only has a couple of coasters, but it has a nice flat rides package and a lot of charm. In many ways it reminds me of a much nicer Waldameer. The rides: Jack Rabbit - this is a shorter out-and-back coaster that dates back to 1920, so it's one of the oldest continuously operating coasters in the US. The trains look like they were built by Morgan but I can't say for sure. Either way, this is a nice "starter" coaster - one that isn't too thrilling but still fun. The ride actually tracks pretty well so it's clear that the park takes care of the ride. Grade: C Bobsleds - not a whole lot to say about these. We got the "Jamaica" sled on our run. These actually ride on a steel track all the way around so it's a little bumpy. Grade: C- Whirlwind - the park's spinning coaster. We did not spin a lot on our trip around the course, but what the ride lacked in spinning it made up for in aggressiveness. It is perhaps the most forceful run we've ever had on a spinner! Grade: B- Flyers - these are very similar to KI's current set. I did get these to snap twice on my two runs so that was satisfying. They do not drop as low as the ones at KI during the ride so it makes it more challenging to get them sideways. Still fun though! Grade: B- Summary: Seabreeze is a really nice small park - one of the best ones we've visited on our travels thus far. The views are great, everything looks like it's in nice shape and the employees are all very nice. It's a little out of the way but if you happen to be in the area it's absolutely worth a stop. Overall Grade: B+ Martin's Fantasy Island: Martin's Fantasy Island is just off the highway as you approach Niagara Falls from Buffalo. It's a little bit of a modern day Americana in that it looks a little run down and the park has seen better days. It does has a cool looking canoe ride that you can load up in and paddle your way around the moat. It also has a Starflyer swing ride as well as a ride called Devil's Hole - essentially an indoor centrifuge that made me sick just looking at it running! Due to time, however, we only rode the two coasters. The rides: Crazy Mouse - ugh. This may be the worst wild mouse in the US. I was extremely thrilled when this ride was over! Grade: D- Silver Comet - a CCI wooden coaster with an absolutely wicked first drop. Unfortunately though the rest of the ride has an identity crisis - it just can't figure out what kind of coaster it is. It does have some airtime, it has some laterals, but it never really does anything well past the first drop. It tracks very similar to Raven - that is, a little shaky in spots but not enough to be rough. I really wanted to like this but it was just OK. Grade: C+ Canada's Wonderland: We visited for a couple of hours on Saturday evening and for a couple of hours on Sunday morning. We already had all of the credits here except Wonder Mountain Guardian (Dave also needed Leviathan), so we decided to hit those two coasters on Saturday. Every coaster on Saturday had a full queue which made things very interesting. Sunday morning included Behemoth ERT during which we got five rides. The rides: Wonder Mountain Guardian - the Triotech dark ride that debuted last year. I had never seen a POV of the ride so I went in with no expectations. The ride itself is actually quite fun. The motion of the ride - even with the 3D glasses - flows quite well. The guns work with no problems and I love the interactive nature. There are two downsides. (1) The story isn't really cohesive or immersive. You get an idea as to what the plot is while in the queue, but many of the scenes just feel random without any real sense of place. (2) The capacity stinks. Thankfully this is not on Fast Lane so the line did move - albeit pretty slowly. If KI ever sees one of these I really hope that the capacity problem gets addressed. All that being said it is a fun ride and I'm glad we tried it. Grade: B Vortex - I believe this is a near-clone of The Bat at KI. For some reason though Vortex always seems to be the faster of the two rides. I think the setting over the water has something to do with that but I've always preferred Vortex to The Bat. Grade: B+ Behemoth - a B&M hyper. Dave and I have always gone back and forth as whether we like this or Diamondback better. We ended up with 7 rides on this on Sunday morning, and after those rides I think I like Behemoth just a tad more than Diamondback. Behemoth has evidently had some train maintenance on it that Diamondback has not, as Behemoth was running smoother than Diamondback on every train we tried - particularly on the back seat rides. Leviathan being at the park now has really changed the crowd patterns, as Behemoth was a walk-on for the first hour and a half the park was open (which was also true when I visited the park two years ago). I really like Behemoth and it's still in my top 10 overall coasters. Grade: A Leviathan - a B&M giga. Leviathan is absolutely the most popular ride in the park now. I LOVE the B&M gigacoasters. We had a chance to ride both front and back rows over the two days, and I still prefer the front as the sense of speed is much better up there. There are four nice pops of airtime - the first drop, the speed hill and the two larger airtime hills. Fury 325 is a better ride overall, but I really like Leviathan and it's still a top-10 steel coaster IMO. Grade: A Closing Notes on Wonderland: Canada's Wonderland is a really nice park. The park has retained a lot of the charm and has a really cool vibe. Having said that, there is one thing we encountered here which warrants its own discussion. While waiting for Leviathan on Saturday evening we ran into a rather annoying issue. The queue was full when we got in line at 7:30. I told Dave that the last time I visited back in 2013 my girlfriend and I also waited in a full queue. The line took 50 minutes to get through in 2013. The line took us 90 minutes to get through this year. It took us nearly 20 minutes to move from the bottom of the steps into the station. So what gives? Two things were at play here: Dispatch times were up. Each dispatch took roughly 20 more seconds this year compared to 2013. The newly installed seatbelts forced a change in operations so that the lap bars needed to be left up on all of the seats so that they could be checked. This had to be done because the operators couldn't check to see if the seatbelts were fastened in the middle seats if the lap bar was already down. The seat belts were not responsible for all of the extra 20 seconds, but it certainly doesn't speed things up. Fast Lane. The line for the Fast Laners was all the way down past the bottom of the stairs, so I'm guessing there were around 100 people in the Fast Lane line the whole time while we were in line. The line was actually moving along OK for the first hour, and then just before we got to the stairs everything came to a virtual halt. The attendants controlling the Fast Lane line at the top of the stairs were apparently given the command to get people through the Fast Lane line quicker, so what did they do? They started taking 3 Fast Lane guests for every 1 standby! That statement is not hyperbole. Imagine being in Diamondback's standby queue in front of the cell phone box and waiting 20 minutes just to get into the station because of the endless parade of Fast Laners being let through. In 2013 they were taking one Fast Laner for every 3 standby. Cedar Fair really needs to take a look at how Fast Lane is being managed, because it's bordering on comical right now on their major attractions. Part II is coming tomorrow. Stay tuned!

My amusement park traveling companion Dave and I decided to do an end of Summer blowout trip. We decided on northern New England due to the fact that neither of us had been to Vermont, New Hampshire or Maine. We also wanted to hit up the new RMC coaster Wicked Cyclone at Six Flags New England to compare to the four other RMC coasters we've ridden this year. I actually took a lot of photos to include in this report, but unfortunately my phone broke while I had it in my pocket on El Toro (more on this later!) and I lost everything on my phone as a result - including the pictures. With all that out of the way, I'm going to write this up in three or four segments. We visited nine parks in total and ate at a lot of good restaurants that I'll include brief summaries for. The park list: Seabreeze - Rochester, NY Martin's Fantasy Island - Buffalo, NY Canada's Wonderland La Ronde - Montreal, QC Story Land - Glen, NH Funtown Splashtown - Saco, ME Canobie Lake - Salem, NH Six Flags New England Six Flags Great Adventure Please stay tuned!

Funny you should mention this. We just came back from a trip that included a visit to Canada's Wonderland. While there we saw the renewal posters for the $189 price and decided to go ahead and renew up there. A couple of quick notes for anyone who decides to go this route: I just got my credit card statement. Two Platinum Pass renewals cost me $323 in US currency on my card, so it nets out to about $162 per pass with the exchange rate. I actually thought it would be less, but there's an approximately 11% amusement tax added on. Still, you're still better off to the tune of about $27 per pass as of the time of this writing. They didn't actually "renew" my pass. Apparently their comnputer system cannot do renewals for other Cedar Fair passes, and as such they had to issue us brand new 2016 passes which we then had to process. Because it is a "new" pass, you do NOT get the renewal benefits while at Canada's Wonderland (which is advertised as a free Fast Lane Plus band that you could use from now until the end of the season). If you do not have a 2015 Platinum Pass, you CAN use the free one-time admission to enter the park in 2015.

Has GCI been confirmed as the group responsible for this project? If so, I'm actually a lot less excited than I would have been if RMC had come in to simply add Topper Track. GCI coming in - even if it means adding Millennium Flyer trains and major trackwork - is simply a patch. Don't get me wrong; I'm happy that the coaster will be rideable again, but I'm really hoping that this fix will help the ride be awesome for more than a few years.

Just wanted to give some love to the Diamondback crew working yesterday. We had to wait through the last two switchbacks in the upper portion of the queue and only waited 15 minutes. In the 10 dispatches I timed there was a stretch of five straight under 95 second dispatches. The only slow dispatches were not their fault (2 guests of exceptional size and 1 person who tried to take off their flip flops shortly after the train dispatched). They were easily the best crew I've seen there in weeks and it was a fun reminder as to how fast that line can move. Great work!

**double post** Sorry!

Yeah, I believe that this point was made when malem posted the 2014 Kings Island ride count spreadsheet he created. It would be helpful to formulate an apples-to-apples comparison, so here goes: KI typically has around 150 public operating days each season. We do have to make a couple of assumptions, however. We'll assume that: ERT was offered all 150 public operating days ERT was a 30 minutes in length (this was the case in both 2013 and 2014) Diamondback could move an average of 500 people in 30 minutes during ERT These are best-case scenarios, as none of these assumptions account for inclement weather, days where ERT is not offered (i.e., Friday nights in September & October), etc. We need to start somewhere, though, and this is a good baseline. Our best-case scenario yields 75,000 riders during ERT (150 days X 500 ERT riders per day). So we've accounted for 75,000 riders of the 250,000 missing riders, or about 30%. As I mentioned in a previous post, there have been a couple of days where the crew has been terrific. The issue is that the vast majority of the time the crew simply hasn't been efficient. From the moment the train is dispatched to the time the train behind it is parked in the station takes about 35 seconds. Trains "stack" at 95 seconds. That leaves a full minute to load, clear the station and dispatch. On average only about 1 in 7 dispatches I've timed this year has come in under 95 seconds, which is only that low because of the efforts of the couple of efficient crews I've seen. I do want to make this clear. I - nor anyone else on this forum who has commented about Diamondback's operations this year and last - are doing so with malicious intent. We simply want to see the ride run more efficiently. KICentral members are very quick to praise crews that are really good, and I have no doubt that the community will respond accordingly if and when the operations improve.

I have a trip planned that way in a couple of weeks, and I'm hoping that they'll get it up by then. A ride on this coaster in the front seat - late in the day or at night - is IMO the best coaster experience in the US outside of my rides on Fury 325.