violakat03

Whoops. That looks like it's going to suck. They've only got 8 days before the beginning of quite possibly their largest annual event, and a lot of people aren't going to be happy (and may not even show up, since it's on-site registration) if Millie is still down. I would still attend because I appreciate CP's complete collection, but I will be very, very sad if it's not running by then.

.... WANT! What sort of conditions have to be in place for that to happen?

Which, according to Jeff Gramke, have zero effect on the speed of the train.

I forgot to add Millennium in there, but all the rest of them I named have separators too. Millie sometimes pulses and sometimes assigns.

Poor Tom, we're never going to let him live that down!! We'll see how he does on Woodstock Express at CP next weekend.

I don't see an issue with schedule this event for a weekend in June, like the weekend after Coastermania, if there's an issue with Music in the Parks overlap. This is when Kings Dominion is having their enthusiast event. I didn't really enjoy the middle of the day Saturday and didn't mind that a group of us left for a couple hours to do things like fool around in Wal-Mart because I can't stand it when the park is so crowded you can't walk down the midways without being shoved around or having to wiggle between people. I actually went to the park in junior high for Music in the Parks day and I remember that I didn't ride anything but Racer because all the rides had such long waits and my group would have missed our check in times waiting for just one ride. This was in 98 so there were a lot fewer coasters and flats to choose from. Even King Cobra was running up to a 2 hour wait!

If she is under 36" inches, there is very little she'll be able to do. Mostly just the train and as a lap-sitter on the carousel. And the blue train is La Adventura de Azul.

This from the person who said that there are two coasters that use tunnels correctly... Voyage and Beast! Beast's first and third tunnels are still highly effective. And I've added Grizzly to that list as well. The tunnels on Magnum and Millie are still completely pointless.

There are many older rides that still have a separator. Flight of Fear and BLSC at Kings Dominion still assigns seats. Magnum at CP pulses the line (though they could definitely do a better job of this, it's still normally a madhouse), and Maverick usually either pulses the line or assigns seats. BLSC at KI still assigns seats on busy days.

Row 16 and row 2 on Diamondback. The back gives a totally different experience (one that I'm highly addicted to!) than the front, and if you want a 'front seat' ride, ask for row 2. Same experience as row 1 without the extra wait. Most people access DB through Nick U as it's the shortest course. That's how I get there. Boomerang Bay generally closes a couple hours before the park does. On 10 pm nights it closes at 7.

You've had more than one incident. Remember the little kid who tried to jump us on Diamondback that I firmly put a stop to? that's actually the only line jumper that actually listened to me this year too, probably because I intimidated the heck out of him! Posted from the backless BlackBerry mobile device.

^ That's how I ride it! Drop Tower gets my vote as well. I've never been enthralled by Delirium (especially as it took the place of one of my favorite KI coasters) and am spoiled by having ridden MaXair multiple times. Slingshot I found very underwhelming. Skyflyer was cool but after the initial drop it isn't as interesting as I'd thought it'd be - I'm still too wimpy to do it by myself though, there's something about pulling my own ripcord that unnerves me, the only way I rode it this year was because giga pulled it! I want to hit up Skyscraper, I haven't ridden it yet, and I'm all about making things flip or spin as much and as fast as humanly possibly. Put me on a monster, spider, tilt-a-whirl, or tea cups ride and I guarantee I can make even someone with an iron stomach feel the need to yak! I try to get as many inversions as possible out of Chaos and the last time I rode a zipper, the ride op was like "I don't think I've ever seen someone flip it that many times."

Reptar is rough, but then what do you expect out of a Vekoma? Beastie (it will not ever be FOC in my world) is an awesome coaster for both kids and adults. Little Bill's is barely a coaster, and Avatar is definitely NOT a coaster, no matter how much the park tries to say otherwise, because it is power throughout the entire ride.

My vote is for Saturday Sunday because I liked the two full days, whereas Coastermania!, Holiwood Nights and many other big enthusiast events only have activities on the evening on Friday. The biggest thing that I think should be changed was there should NOT be any other events that weekend! It was a bit insane and a bit ridiculous to have all these coaster enthusiasts having to deal with the always-heavy crowds from Music in the Parks and the Mother's Day bring-a-friend. Cedar Point doesn't have any of those things overlapping with Coastermania on Saturday (though there is a grade school event on Friday - they'll all clear out of the park by the time many of the enthusiasts are arriving that afternoon though) and that's the way it should be. A lot of enthusiasts that will travel many hours to get to Coastermania or other events are likely to skip out on RWCW if they have to fight with the huge crowds brought in by overlapping events. I noticed that a lot of the enthusiasts left and didn't come back after the tours on Saturday, and I'm betting a lot of that had to do with how crowded the park was.

I still enjoy Flight of Fear with the MCBR active. Just not as much as I did when it wasn't. I find the magnetic trims and what seems to be more abundant use of them (I've heard it explained as 'sections' of magnets within each trim location can be activated and deactivated by maintenance as deemed necessary) to incredibly decrease my enjoyment of Beast. I believe without trims or with reduced trimming (such as when it had skid brakes) would keep it above Voyage as my number one wood coaster, but I wouldn't be surprised if it even fell out of the number 2 spot it currently holds as I ride more coasters and realize just how much this ride has been tamed.

Glad to know you enjoyed it. I always wonder if people actually watch my videos. I was amazed at how completely empty the park was today, I'm hoping it's the same tomorrow! I also was disappointed by the lack of effects on BLSC. I find that the police cars and fire and all that actually do add to the ride and I notice them missing when they aren't on. The ride itself was NOT in better shape than KI's - I've been noticing that a lot of the rides seem to be rougher than their equivalent at KI. Flight of Fear was noticeably rougher and hit the brakes so hard at the end that the trains shift upward and slammed you forward and then back into the seat. Not fun. Backlot was also rougher, and I thought Rebel Yell, for being 3 years newer than Racer, was much rougher and in horribly, horribly bad need of a new paint job. Worse than even Flight Deck! It looked like it hadn't been been painted since 1975! I just have to add something funny that I forgot to mention in any of my videos (but did Twitter about for those who follow me on Twitter) - on the Space Surfer, it has a direction control like the Flying Eagles do, but on a smaller scale. Instead of cables, it has poles that hold each car on that are hinged at the top and bottom. I actually got a little scared because I was snapping the poles!! I stopped trying after that, but I was amazed that not only did I snap the Eagles, I snapped the Space Surfer! Image courtesy of ThrillNetwork.com

I'm guessing you mean the wait times are better now than last year. Because the ride itself is NOT better with the MCBR activated. Wait times, however, are indeed much better. I think the shiny newness has worn off Firehawk a bit with the addition of Diamondback, and therefore the crowds are not attracted back there in such droves as they did in the past 2 years, meaning Flight of Fear has gone back to almost pre-Firehawk wait levels.

The second tunnel is horrendously boring this year. I don't remember it being such a leisurely enclosed stroll in the past. I have actually said this year that it might have been better when the tunnel was split into two tunnels because right now it just drags on and on and on and doesn't add anything to the ride.

As was pointed out, rules have changed. Under Paramount, employees had to enter through the employee gate, regardless of whether or not they were working that day. Under Cedar Fair, employees enter and exit through the main gate when not working. lance - the best words of advice I can give you is this: if your question involves ANYTHING that includes the words "as an employee" it should be directed to your supervisor. We here on this board are, for the large majority, members of the general public and cannot answer questions involving policies, rules, recommendations, availability, or anything else relating to being an employee.

This one will be easy, because I did a very comprehensive video set today. So much, in fact, that I practically have nothing to add! Some pictures as I walked. Their Eiffel Tower looks like it's growing right out of the trees. The path behind the Eiffel Tower is one of the shadiest in the park. The car ride is completely in the trees. That's a lot of benches!

She's going to have a hard time finding a job at most places with dreadlocks. While I personally have no qualms against the style, a lot of people do and assume that dreadlocks are a hotbed of lice and disease (though in most cases this is far from true), so the park doesn't want to spread the impression that they have unkempt employees. Many, many jobs have grooming standards that include length or style of hair, including facial hair, tattoos, and piercings. Cedar Fair's are stricter than most, pretty much on par with a police department (the men's grooming standards are pretty much the same except CF does allow longer hair - my husband must keep his cropped to no longer than an inch and a half), but they are well within their rights to have them. When I worked there in the early 2000's, Paramount had the same rules. I had to remove a lot of my jewelry when I got there because I habitually wore more than one bracelet and more than one necklace. Now, to conform to standards I'd have to remove one ring from my left hand (I wear a thumb ring in addition to my wedding set, you are only allowed one per hand), and remove my cartilage earring, which is not allowed at all. If I do get a job there, I will do both because that is their rules. It's that simple. Grooming standards are no different than being required to wear certain clothing or dress in a certain way, it is all about the company's image.

Since I randomly can't sleep, time for another TR! When my brother (Brian) invited me to come down a few days earlier than I'd planned for my coaster trip, he sweetened the deal by saying that he and his wife (Stacey) were planning on going to the aquarium and zoo on their long weekend, and my sister-in-law really wanted me to come along also. I got down there on Saturday night and we got up bright and early Sunday to make the slightly over an hour drive to Baltimore from my brother's place in Alexandria VA. Memorial Day brings Rolling Thunder to the D.C. area, meaning there were motorcycles. LOTS of motorcycles. The entire left lane was motorcycles for easily two miles. They also filled the carpool lanes, which were shut down to all traffic except motorcycles. After an hour or so of driving... Hey look, it's Baltimore! This bus stop ad made me do a double take. Then I had to take a picture of it because it was just that bizarre! Once we got parked ($20 for the garage - ouch!), we walked through the harbor area. The water stunk, very very badly. It was also a nasty brown. They had peddle boats available as well as harbor boat tours but we all decided that none of us wanted to come that close to that nasty water, especially considering Stacey is 23 weeks pregnant and who knows what kind of contaminates were in there. However, there were some upsides to the harbor, such as getting to see this: This Coast Guard ship is the last remaining Pearl Harbor surviving ship. The rest have either been sunk or scrapped throughout the years, but this one is safely (or as safely as is possible in that nasty water) resting in an enclosed area of the harbor and open for tours. The aquarium did timed entrances, so you couldn't get in before your assigned time. We knew our time was at 12:00 and we got to the will-call booth a little before 11:30, so we decided to kill some time by browsing the Barnes & Noble and the Hard Rock Cafe gift shop. The Barnes & Noble is inside an old power plant, which still maintains it's interior brick walls, some of the old steam pipes and a lot of other internal structures, which made it very cool. Finally it was time for us to get in line to enter the aquarium. I've never seen an aquarium so absolutely packed, but, it was Memorial Day weekend and most likely a lot of families had the same idea we did. Unfortunately, the National Aquarium is not cheap! It was around $40 each for our admission, which included the dolphin show and 4D immersion theater, plus the $20 for parking. We skipped the gift shop for this reason, even though the merchandise prices were way more reasonable - an average of $15 for a t-shirt, with many on sale for less than that. One of these days I want to go back to the aquarium with some more money and on a less crowded day, because I really want to do the guest diver program. Back to the trip report. The aquarium is laid out so that there is a specific flow of traffic. Your first stop is the shark tank, where sharks and manta rays play and coexist peacefully. I've always found rays to be spectacularly beautiful, and was absolutely stoked to have seen one in the wild on my first ocean dive. I took a lot of pictures of these guys. I believe the larger ones are skates and the smaller ones are rays. I may have that backwards though. Then we wandered through the rest of the exhibits. Due to the sheer size of crowds, it was difficult to do more than just press in, get a quick glance at everything in the tanks, and be shuffled past, so I didn't get a whole lot of pictures of the smaller exhibits, though there were definitely some cool ones, such as this shy turtle: The neon tetras (just like you'd find in a pet store!) and another turtle: And this lionfish: The escalators took you ever increasingly upwards, and just as we reached the top, we found one display with a lot of life, and more than just fish. The frogs didn't seem to mind the observers. Somewhere in this picture is a green snake! It took me a minute or two of staring into the tank to finally find it, it blended in so well. After going all the way up, the path led into a large glass-topped rainforest environment. You walked through it and interacted with animals with no glass or cages between you. Of course, due to the crowds and noise, they were hiding for the most part. I have a slight fear of these walk-through exhibits because it never seems to fail, I always seem to end up getting pooped on by a bird. Luckily, we survived this trip without that misfortune! The vegetation and waterways were very well done, as showcased by this fantastic waterfall. The only wildlife we really saw up close. There was such a huge crowd around it that I had to stand on tiptoes and shoot this over someone's head before we were shuffled on by the crowd. Look carefully and you'll see a furry monkey butt. He was sleeping, or at least trying to. After exiting the rain forest, you take a winding ramp back down the 4 floors you ascended, going right through the middle of a coral reef exhibit. The exhibit surrounds you as you go down and is filled with all kinds of great fish swimming in a circle. Most of them were moving like it was the Indy 500 and in the low light my camera just could not catch them. Some, however, were moving at a more leisurely pace, such as this barracuda: This one was having a staring contest with my brother. Reef fish are usually quite colorful, like this guy. I liked this one. It looked funny. Look, more rays! Swarming school of fish. There's actually a whole bunch of fish in this picture, but the orange one is the only one you can see really well. Also in the coral reef exhibit were several kinds of sharks. I like sharks too, not quite as much as dolphins or rays, but I think they've got an unfortunately bad rep and are really quite amazing animals. There was one in the tank with us at Epcot's DiveQuest and his attitude was sort of "eh. You're there. Don't bug me too much and we're cool." The giant sea turtle was more interested in us than the shark was. After leaving the coral reef cylinder, you entered the underwater viewing area for the shark and ray exhibit that we earlier saw from the top. I think they were showing off for visitors. I'm not a hundred percent certain, but I believe that's a baby hammerhead! After we left the main part of the aquarium, it was time for our dolphin show. I absolutely adore dolphins and am still trying to figure out how to make a career out of that love without working with them in captivity. While I love watching dolphin shows, I'd rather work with them in the wild. Sandals in the Bahamas does wild dolphin encounters and that sounds just about right up my alley! We decided to sit in the splash zone because Stacey and I wanted to see if we'd actually get wet, not to mention there were more seats available there than anywhere else in the auditorium. Apparently most people want to stay dry. So boring. I bet you were wondering if there were going to be any videos. We had a ton of fun at the dolphin show and actually did get pretty wet! About the same as you get on a mild water ride, like Wild Thornberry's without the elephant. From there it was time to move to the 4D immersion theater. None of us actually enjoyed it. It was basically an episode of the BBC series Planet Earth, with 3D glasses and effects such as spraying in the face with water or air, a 'snake' (piece of soft plastic tubing) slapping the backs of your legs which I defeated by grabbing it and holding on through the show, and a 'punch' in the back from an air powered mechanism in the seat that managed to nail me right in the tender spot in my back from a car accident. That muscle was tight and painful for the next several hours and I spent most of the movie sitting on the edge of my chair to avoid it. When we got home, my brother pulled out his Planet Earth Blu-Ray discs and we watched it in a more enjoyable setting. After the theater show, we decided we were pretty much done for the day. We poked around in the gift shop a bit but didn't see anything we absolutely had to have (I want a Dive the National Aquarium shirt, which they had prominently displayed with other dive flag merchandise, but I'll wait until I've actually done it!) so we headed out. We were all hungry (and Stacey said the baby was violently proclaiming such) so we decided we'd make a day of it and go to the Hard Rock Cafe. At least we were expecting it to be expensive. The food was actually pretty good - not the best hamburger I've had (Five Guys is better), but above average for sure. Brian had a pulled pork sandwich and Stacey had fajitas. Ouch. And that's before tip! They had a lot of cool stuff on the walls, such as a guitar from the Butthole Surfers. Brian and I were really surprised to see that beacuse it seems like we're the only two who have ever heard of them and both like them. I still think they win the award for best (or worst?) band name ever. We're also both big Pink Floyd fans, so we enjoyed seeing that they had some of their stuff too. Gold Record for The Wall. And to close the day out, we decided that hey, since we're in Baltimore, and my other sister-in-law (husband's sister) is a cake decorator and absolutely loves the show Ace of Cakes, we needed to drive past a certain bakery! It looks just like it does on TV, but you don't realize that it's plopped at the end of a residential neighborhood. It's also almost at the end of a dead-end street. Still, it was really cool to see the building. I was hoping we might see them loading up a cake or something, but no such luck! So with that, we headed back to D.C. After a quick stop at Six Flags America to purchase and process my season pass, we were home.

Rides just have more problems in the rain. Rather than cause maintenance issues and breakdown, they shut them. Somehow rain delays are less annoying to the GP than breakdowns are. Six Flags does not have the same rain policy as Cedar Fair. They were running everything that was working today at SFA, as long as there was no lightning. As a result, rides were breaking constantly. Batwing broke three times in an hour, Superman was down most of the day, Roar had a couple issues early on and even Wild One got stuck.

My husband asked me when we were there on Friday if it had ever moved. Anyone know when the last time it worked was? He went with me to the park in 2004 but we didn't really spend any time in Oktoberfest so he doesn't remember them, whether they were working or not. But hey, at least he got to ride Son of Beast with the loop while he was there!

I think he was talking about the pictures of the highly themed top spin posted earlier, not our Giant Top Spin.