medford

Valleyfair, less than 2 years ago installed new Antique Cars/track. I have no idea what powered them, but they made a sound that would imply they are not electric (could be fake I know), so it is certainly possible to install them in some form or fashion within the chain. The physical layout wasn't that big, not as big as what I remember from KI's old course, but memory is a bit faulty at times, I think a layout could work in that area. There is much less elevation change than I realized where that stage is at.

^^^ would you have noticed it? Hard to tell how big it is from the skycam, or should I say how tall it is.

Don't know what they are, but it would surprise me if it was something for the food truck festival, it seems rather far removed for something that would be used for a short term advertisement, certainly its not a parking spot for a food truck as it would require guests to walk across grass to get to the food truck. Hard to tell from the Webcam, but IIRC that is a pretty steep drop off in that area, doesn't feel like it would be a good place for an announcement of any kind, plus you've got a bunch of trees out in front of it on the path, which would cut down on visibility from several angles. There appear to be 3 additional "white objects" a bit closer to the path. Whatever they are, it seems like a poor place to stage an announcement or advertisement, at least as it appears now, which of course begs the question, when did that appear? Has it been there a while and nobody noticed, or did it just recently crop up. If it just recently cropped up, then there is a reason.

It has thankfully never been my experience, but I presume that outside of cases where a ride closurer/removal has been announced it is more than likely preferrable to be in line while watching the last train of a ride dispatch than to actually be on said train. I can only imagine the last train dispatched under such a circumstance provides an experience not intended.

I wonder if/when Dinosaurs Alive moves on if they would use that area for their next coaster, and in light of recent installs at other parks in the chain, it would be a good spot to include some sort of interaction with the main gate (may require the main entrance to be shifted/adjusted due to the location of Wild Thing in that area)

I don't typically read or write trip reports about KI, other than early in the season, there's not much to learn, though a few are entertaining. However, I figure someone, at some point, may find themselves in the Twin Cities and wondering if Valleyfair is worth the time. so anyways: here it is: We had originally talked about visiting Valleyfair while up in the twin cities, but with the wife pregnant, we ultimately decided to skip any parks (The Dells were also in discussion) as a whole day at the park hanging out with the 3 year old, mainly on rides she couldn't ride wouldn't be very fun. However, when we got to Wisconsin to visit with her cousins, we found out one of her cousins was going to be at Valleyfair! the same time we were in Minneapolis. My wife decided some extra time with family sounded great, and I wasn't going to complain about riding coasters with our 7 year old, so we made the short trip over. For quick refence, from our hotel next to Mall of America, it was about a 20 minute drive out to Valleyfair. Leaving the hotel around 9:30, it was a brisk 59 degrees early in the day, but warmed up to around 72. With near full sunshine, it was a picture perfect day for an amusement park. First thing I noticed, we got to the park right around opening, probably a shade before 10:00 and there wasn't much of a line to get in like you would expect at KI. The 2nd thing I noticed, if you think KI's parking lot is in need of repaving, you haven't been to Valleyfair. Parking lot is in rough shape, its also a lot less organized than KI's park. I know Valleyfair doesn't see the attendance that KI sees, but it was pretty obvious from the parking lot that they don't typically get large crowds, much smaller than KI's parking lot. We got into the park, and first thing we looked for was a restroom. While there is one right outside the park (similar to KI) there were none right inside the park, something that could be improved as a good chunk of your attendance is probably coming from an hour or so away, and if they've never been, they may not think it use the restrooms prior to entering the park. My wife's cousin and his family/friends were still in route, so my wife and kids got on the carausel adjacent to the front gate while I went over to use the restrooms. After I hit the restroom, my wife took our daughter to the restrooms while my son and I stood outside of the Dino exhibit. We never entered their dino area, but I liked the way its right by the front gate and kind of calls out to the park patrons to take a look inside. KI's has always felt more tucked into the back. I think Valleyfair's exhibit is smaller, but w/o going in, I can't say if its better or worse overall. While standing outside one of the exhibit dinos out front, my son spotted a "rare" item, a dino tooth sitting on the grund below the dino. I thought for a minute or two about letting my son keep it as a souvenior, but figured the right thing to do was turn into an employee so they have the option of "fixing it". While waiting for my wife, we spotted a suit with a name tag walking by, so we called him over and gave him the tooth. Sadly, I have my doubts that the tooth ever gets replaced (or at least glued back in), but my conscious can breath a little better. Still waiting for my wife's cousin, my son and I hoped on Corkscrew. Its been about 20 years since I've been on Cedarpointe's version, so I'm not sure how similar they are, but you do get the proper head banging you'd expect on an Arrow looper. Short ride, not all that great in my opinion, but 1 ride checked off the list. After getting off, my wife's cousin and his family/friends showed up, with Corkscrew being the closest roller coaster or major attraction for that matter to the front gates, it was the first thing they planned on hitting. My son wasn't thrilled (apparently something about the 6 loops on Vortex being ok, but the 3 inversions on Corkscrew were the exact number he couldn't do), but I forced him to ride it again, telling him to imagine he was a fighter jet making manuevers to get the bad guys. That tricked seemed to work a bit, as he enjoyed it a bit more, but I don't think he was ready to get on it again anytime soon. No problems, I didn't have much desire to ride it again either. From there, my wife's cousin's kids wanted to get on Wild Thing. At 200+ foot tall, its easily Valleyfair's talllest coaster, and from what I gathered, one of its more popular coasters. Though built by a different manufacturer, it has some similaries to Magnum at Cedarpoint. Its been 10 years since I've been to Cedarpointe, so my memory is a bit fuzzy, but that was the feel I got just looking at the coaster. The first drop is solid, which leads into an awesome floating air time hill. The end of the ride is a series of ejector air time humps through a tunnel similar to Magnum, however the middle of the ride leaves a lot to be desired. Its a slow (relatively speaking) series of turns that keeps Wild Thing from being great. Kind of like a crap sandwhich on arisan bread. A great begining and end, but a very mediocre middle part of the ride. Overall, its definently a solid ride, and very re-ridable; just wish middle portion of the ride from floating air time hill to the mid-course break run was a little better. From there, we meet up with my wife in their version of Planet Snoopy. My daughter wanted to ride their kiddie coaster and needed me to get on with her. Cosmic Coaster, relocated from Dorney Park offers a nice set of laterals; what The Great Pumpkin coaster at KI offers in "air time" (relaively speaking) on a kiddie coaster, Cosmic Coaster offers in laterals. It was pretty fun, you get 3 rotations on each ride. I don't believe there is the need, but should KI ever decide it wants another kiddie coaster for the 36" crowd, something like this would compliment The Great Pumpkin Coaster. From there, I took my daughter on their version of the Whip-it. Where KI's version only allows small children, Valleyfair's version requires adults to ride with kids under 42". I always thought the one at KI looked like fun, my daughter has a blast, so it was a nice surprise to get on something similar while there. A fun ride going around the turns. After that, my wife took the kids and one of her cousin's kids around Planet Snoopy. Overall, their Planet Snoopy offers a little more for the 40" and above crowd that wants to ride with mom or dad, while KI offers much more for the 36" and above crowd that is willing to ride alone (or with other kids). I think each park could benefit from getting similar rides at each of their kid's areas. After that, my wife's cousin meet back up with us, leaving the older kids to themselves. My son and I headed over to High Roller with my wife's cousin and his youngest son. The ride is original to Valleyfair (1976), painted a similar white as The Racers, and in similar need of a paint job (Leed issues? Likely). My wife said she heard several people commenting that they would never ride that thing, its "going to fall down anytime now". However, I'm sure it was perfectly safe. You don't see a ton of the layout from the park, it offers a bunch of air time hills. While rough, as expected, it was pretty fun. After a break for lunch, my wife's cousin and his family/friends headed over to the water park, while we decided to skip that part and keep on the dry side. We headed over to their recently installed (2014?) antique cars. My wife was going to ride, and we were planning to let my 7 year old drive us around, however there was a warning about pregnant women on the ride, so she skipped out. That left my 3 year old and I in the back seat, and our son in front on his own to drive us around. Truth be told, I was a bit nervous, would he let up on the gas if a car was ahead of us? They leave pretty good spacing b/w cars, and he did an excellant job, was overly cautious is anything but was sure to stop at the stop signs near the end. Wheel looked a little tough to turn, but I'm sure part of it was being his first experience and being scared that he cold actually drive off the road. We walked past Steel Venom, but decided to skip it. Its similar to Wikid Twister at Cedarpoint, not as high, only one side twists. We then hopped on the train near the front of the park that takes you to the middle of Planet Snoopy in the middle of the park. Relaxing ride, a little smaller than KI's. Not much to look at, at least on that portion of their train loop. From there, my wife and I broke off, she with our daughter, I with my son. My son and I headed over to their wild mouse ride, Mad Mouse. I had never been on a wild mouse before, and was looking forward to this. It lived up to my expectations. Lots of sharp turns and sudden drops. A ton of fun. I don't recall the height requirement, but if one could be made that could fit the 44" crowd (think FAAC at KI) it would be an awesom add to Kings Island. I've felt for several years that KI needs an additional coaster that would be accessable in the 44" range. My won was riding Woodstock express when he was two, he was nearly 5 before he could get on The Beast, Vortex, Racers, etc.... FAAC was the only additional coaster added in those 2 years. I'd love to see KI add 1 more. If it could fit into the big box in the middle of the park, even better. Next we decided to head towards the back of the park and hit Renegade. I didn't know much of anything about this park prior to showing up, and looking at the map, it looked ok, but I wasn't expecting much. There was a neat pass by near the station that looked solid, but you can't see much of the ride from the entry. I could not have been more surprised with the ride experience. From the first drop to the break run, it was awesome, never let up, just a ton of fun. I would love to see KI get something like this. While its a bit short, and under 100 feet, it instantly became one of my favorite coasters. Now, I'll admit, I haven't ridden a ton outside of KI and Cedar Point, but this GCI building 2007 was great. I see now that its been constantly ranked around the 20th slot in the Mitch Hawker poll. If it were at a larger park, I think it would likely rate higher, but you could probably say the same thing with other rides in that poll. At any rate, it was awesome. From there, we headed to the very back of the park to get on Excalibur, a wooden support, tubular steel track hybrid similar to that found on Gemini at Cedar Point. Built in 1989, it features some decent twists a solid 1st drop, but its farily rough. It was time to meet up with the wife and head back to our hotel as we had a big drive ahead of us, but despite the station wait, there was no feeling that I needed to get on it again. Overall, I couldn't have asked for better weather. The park's layout leaves something to be desired, it feels like a number of rides are a decent walk at the end of a dead end. It doesn't have the open flow that I'm used to at KI. As mentioned, Renegade was awesome and worth the trip alone, and Wild Thing was pretty darn good as well. If I found myself in the twin cities again, I'd definently make a return trip just to ride those 2 rides. Being the only large seasonal park in the area, I'm surprised the park isn't visited more often. Aside from Renegade, most everything was staion wait or near station wait. Renegade was only running 1 train, had it been running both trains, it would have been near a station wait as well. Renegade was their last major coaster addition, back in 2007. Seems like its time for something, a B&M invert or wing coaster would fit in well the the current lineup. I don't know how much room they have, like most parks, they probably have more room that it appears to the untrained eye; don't know if they could justify the capital expenditure on something like that for a park with smaller attendance.

saw the show for the first time this past week. Excellant as expected.

A couple of instances regarding this over the past week on vacation. I've been attempting to get my son to go off the high dive (10m) at our pool for the last year +. First, he said he'd do it when he turned 6. Then he said he'd do later in the summer, then it was "next summer" then this summer came and it was "I don't want to". I tried offering him small bribes, but nothing would hit his trigger. He'd get about half way up the ladder, get scared and come back down. I knew once he jumped, he'd love it, but couldn't talk him into it. Flash forward to last week, at a community pool in Wisconsin and the promise of $10, which combined with some birthday money would be enough to get him the $30 remote conrolled helicopter that he'd been wanting for several months, sealed the deal. Once he jumped once, he jumped about 2 dozen times. Got back home, it took a little convincing that the high dive at that pool was the exact same height as the high dive at our pool, once he went, he went probably 50 more times over the last 2 days. Sometimes I'd be going off the low dive next to him, sometimes I'd be going after him on the high dive and other times he was just down there by himself or with other kids from the pool jumping in. 2nd instance happened at KI. He had ridden Banshee earlier in the season, never quite made it to 52" last season, went on the 1st trip this year. He enjoyed it, but something along the way convinced him that he didn't want to try go again. I never pushed the issue too much, asked him a couple of times when we were over by The Bat, but never prodded him to try it again. His grandma likes the ride as well, but after having hand surgery earlier this year, she was a no go on coasters for a while. She joined us last week at KI, hand all healed and ready to ride. With my wife pregnant and unable to ride, her husband unwilling to ride any coasters beyond the most tame and our son not quite at 54", she figured Diamondback wasn't going to happen on this trip, but wanted to get on Banshee again. I was more than happy to go with her, but we were dragging my son along as well, give him a chance to ride with grandma, a 70+ year old, 30+ year old and 7 year old all in the same row; 3 generations having fun together. He kept saying he didn't want to ride it; did not like it. I kept reminding him that he loved his first and only ride on Banshee. He kept tagging along, never putting up too much of a protest, but not exactly thrilled. After going thru the ride, he kept complaining that he had to pee, and wanted to get off; didn't sound like he enjoyed it much, had me thinking it may have been our last ride this year until mom could get back on coasters next year and would "force" him to try it again. Then something funny happened b/w the getting off the ride, eating dinner and getting on Viking Fury, he couldn't stop talking about Banshee and decided he loved the ride. He even expressed regret that he forgot to wear his Banshee shirt that he got after his first ride. I told him that was ok, his cousing was coming down from CBus this week and she was going to want to ride it, so he could wear it then. Kids, like people, are "funny" sometimes they just need a little pushing and time to make them realize an experience is worth living.

So a bit of an update, with the wife preganent, we were going to skip out on either Valleyfair! and the Dells, figuring she wouldn't be able to ride anything and would have to spend most of her time in kiddie land with our now 3 year old daughter. Its what she does on all of our trips to KI this year, but those are mostly 4-5 hour trips in the evevnings, broken up by dinner, just enough time to enjoy Planet Snoopy with our daughter while I take our older son to the rest of the park, and I figured a whole day of it would be a bit boring for her, so we'll find something else to do. Anyways, unknown to us, one of her Cousins that we were going to see in Wisconsin had plans for Valleyfair! while we were going to be in Minneapolis. My wife decided she'd rather join them there and alter our plans in Minneapolis, so we made the short venture over from the Mall of America Area on tuesday. Fun park, a bit smaller than KI, a handful of great rides and some OK ones as well. I'd definently recommend it if you were in the area. Other than that, Mall of America is neat, but not worthy of a trip alone. We didn't get to hit the aquarium, and skipped out on the Nick area and rides since we were heading to Valleyfair! the next day. Some "unique" stores, but many identical or similar to what you can find at most large urban malls in America. Took the lite rail from MoA to Target Field (route starts at MoA and ends right outside Target Field, making the trip a breeze) and would recommend a similar route for anyone thinking of heading up the area as well. Target Field is nice, good food offerings, expensive like every other major league park. Didn't get to experience anything else in the area with the late addition of Valleyfair! but enjoyed the short sidetrip to Minneapolis.

Congo Falls.

But...speaking of Jimmy Johns, I wonder if they would be willing to deliver to the "drop off area" on the west end of the parking lot. Could order it ahead of time, have 1 or 2 people meet them out there, then do a picnic style lunch in the parking lot. Food would be a little fresher than if it was packed, obviously a little more expensive, but probably cheaper than inside. check the deliver fee if one decides to go that route, IIRC it was $1 per sandwich when we have delivered up to our neighborhood pool. If you are talking about a large group, the convenience of not having to leave your parking spot could get awfully pricy.

Disclaimer: I haven't been to The Beach since I was a kid, and all observations come from driving 71N every workday past the park. I can't see a bunch of the park as I drive by, but I can see a handful of rides and lines. There is what I believe to be their water coaster as well a The Cliff and adjoining slide platforms right by the interstate that are clearly visible when driving home on 71 north each work day. Rarely do I look at those lines and think: man the park is packed. Even last Friday, with the temperatures heading to around or above 90, the lines for those areas looked rather sparce. The platform for The Cliff and associated slides looked to be completely empty. The platform for the water coaster appeared to have a few people on it, plus extending another 10 patrons (max) down the stairs. This is obviously no indication of the rest of the park and perhaps those rides are just not enjoyable, but based upon my daily commute, I wouldn't anticipate huge crowds. Would love to read a trip report sometime, I know JC has posted a couple in the past. This is around 5:30-6:30 depending on when I leave the office, crowds could be vastly different at that time than during the middle of the day.

Ever is a long time, and if you assume that both parties continue to exist in more or less their similar state for "ever" then naturally the two sides will come together again. A change in leadership in either party could ultimately lead to a melting of the minds and a happy collaboration. Mr. O will not lead CF forever, neither will the people currently running Intamin AG. Many changes in leadership often comes with prior relationships formed that carry thru to the next company. However, it is likely that neither business continues to operate in more or less a similar state for "ever" much less the next couple of decades. There is always a possibility that Cedar Fair is bought our or merges with another operator. Perhaps Disney or Universal decides that they want to expand into the seasonal markets (perhaps they do and I'm not aware of it). On the Intamin side, I'd be concerned about having any presence in the US given the past 4 years. Obviously things can change, and perhaps there are things in the works that I'm not aware of, but since 2011 and the debut of Skyhawk at Hershey park, there have been no coaster installations in the US (according to wikie & RCDB anyways). Outside of coasters, there has been an observation tower built at the Texas State Fair, and 3 Drop Towers, Falcon's Fury as listed above, the big droppy thing at NJFTP and Lex Luther: Drop of Doom at SFMM. There were multiple delays with Falcon's Fury and while perhaps not their fault, Zumanjaro runs at less capacity than I'm sure was originally planned. I'm certainly no insider; perhaps Intamin AG makes significant amounts of money consulting parks on installations or design, while receiving little to no credit and does a wonderful job at. However, based on a quick, short scan of Wiki & RCDB (obviously not a in depth search) it appears that after a period of great involvement in the US in the mid 90s thru mid 2000s, that their work load in the US has been minimal at best. They appear to still be involved pretty well in Europe and Asia, and those markets may well offer more bang for the buck, especially the Asia market which is seemingly building large amusement parks out of nothing, so as a company, they may be doing as well or better than they ever have, but their US presence has certainly been on the decline. Then again, ever certainly is a long time to consider.

While your point is valid, and for most parks, it makes sense to look forward while your still waiting for the latest model to be unveiled, however in this case, the park is already 2, going on 3 weeks behind deliver and 2 months into their operating schedule and T3 still hasn't been opened to the public. Doesn't exactly give me good vibes about refurbishing other rides in a timely manner.

some would say getting T3 up and running should be first priority.

how many, if any, of the countries in the World Showcase still sponsor their "area"? Safe to assume this will be a hit, could it lead to more renovations from different areas being less about the country and more about the franchise or movie that Disney/Pixar created? Pinocchio in Italy, perhaps Peter Pan starts out in England and takes you to Neverland? Beauty & The Beast in France, Mulan in China, Jungle Book in India (not sure if that is a county or not in the showcase, but could be changed), same with Finding Nemo and Australia or Aladdin and Persia? Snow White or Cinderella in Germany, etc.. Many of the films are set in generic European locations, so it would be fairly easy to say one belongs to one world, while another belongs to another. How popular is The World Showcase? Obviously, based upon the comments in the link above, some hold the educational value of it in high regard, I would assume the general public would look at it as a place for Maelstrom and now the Frozen Ride, as well as a great place to grab a bit to eat. The last time I was there, which was almost 6 years ago with a then just turned 1 year old, Epcot felt kind of stale compared to the other parks. Part of that was my wife & I were on are own at that park, so we couldn't easily jump over to Soarin' or Test Track or any of the bigger rides like we could at Animal Kingdom or Magic Kingdom where we had other members of our family who could look after our son while we jumped on the big rides that he couldn't ride. For the Disney experts on here, and I way off base in undervaluing what the World Showcase means to the Epcot, and to an extent the park itself?

I've never been to KI's waterpark, and haven't been to any waterpark since The Beach back in the late 80s, perhaps early 90s. By I'd assume a good plan would be similar to a good plan for the coaster side. My approach, ask your child what they want to ride first, they just may surprise you. When my niece grew to 48", she rode The Beast and Vortex before she ever set foot on Adventure Express or The Racers simply because when walking off The Beast, she looked at Vortex and told me that is what she wanted to do next. My son, rode Drop Zone before riding any of the 48" coasters, because its easily spotted from the parking lot where we regularly park and my wife was willing. On that note, to sympathize with Gator, my son would ride Drop Zone when he hit 48" right around his 5th birthday, he wouldn't ride it when he was 6, nor now that he's almost 7.

While the complaints of cameras on rides are legit, and sadly it seems like KI is not taking a strong enough approach to deal with the problem before it becomes a real problem, I thought I'd take a minute to switch gears and post something a park employee did that was above and beyond. last evening, after a bite to eat at the Reds HOF Grille, we headed to Planet Snoopy. Our 2 kids decided to get on the bumper cars, however, the car that our 3 year old daughter choose wasn't working. After the first round, our son jumped off his, and our daughter, looking quite sad wasn't sure what to do, we told her she could go again (the crowd was light, so there wouldn't have even been a wait) At that point, the operated came over, she had seen what had happened, and thought that perhaps the car had just come to rest in a "dead" zone and moved it over a few feet and let our daughter remain in the car before opening up the gates and allowing a few more kids to join. When she started the next round, she immediately noticed that our daughter's car wasn't just in a "dead zone" but was not working, so she immediately hit an e-stop and had the 8 or so kids jump off the ride and get back in line. She then opened up the side panel where they load cars and moved the car off the track, then when re-opening the ride, she made sure our daughter got back in first so she could have her pick of car. Once everyone was back on the ride, she fired it up and our daughter could not have been happier. The young lady operating the ride went above and beyond the call of duty to help ensure that our daughter had "the best day possible" And yes, in addition to thanking her several times, my wife was sure to report her good work to guest services when we left the park.

Somebody (assuming independent) says you are one of the 10 parks to visit this summer, then I say "run with it" and squeeze every once of promotional possibilities out of it. No matter how the list was ordered, I probably wouldn't have posters that said #6, I'd have my posters say "one of the top 10 amusement parks for 2015". Sure its a bit misleading, but so is the original article.

There is a POV for The Beast; saw while in line for Boo Blasters. My son liked watching the Firehawk POV while we were in line for The Bat.

2nd time to the park this season last night, though the first time to several areas. I'm sure many of these observations have been made, but I haven't read the whole thing... Boo Blasters, I sincerely hope this is the last season. I do enjoy the ride, even if the guns are trash, and my son loves, even if he spends most of his time watching the ride, rather than shooting (last night was his all time high score of...210), however so much is not working like it did 3-4 seasons ago. I hope a full revamp of the ride is in the works this offseason, either refurbish it, or put something else in there. Coney Mall sign, I still can't believe its gone. I have no completed my KI coaster lineup having taken my first ever ride on The Great Pumpkin coaster with my daughter (she rode earlier with her aunt for her first ever roller coaster ride). I was actually surprised just how much bounce or kick that ride had. I expected it to be a bit smoother. Happy to say she loved it; I can now say I've been on every roller coaster currently in operation at KI (plus some no longer in operation). I'm looking forward to taking a seat next to her as she progresses her roller coaster journey. It was fun watching my son go from a 2 year old on Great Pumpkin and Woodstock Express, up to a 4 year old on FAAC, then The Beast, Vortex, Racers, etc... right after his 5th, to now taking on Banshee and hoping for that last inch before he hits 7 later this summer to get on Diamondback. The only question is how often I'll need to sneak past mom to get on the coaster with her I liked the 2 Coca-Cola free style stations and fresh markets, I wish the one back by the train were open past 8. Another new first, took a ride on the very last train of the evening; didn't realize they stopped it earlier than close, but it does make sense now that I think about it. A third new first, got to take in fireworks while riding Woodstock Express with my son

As Terp said, Flying Ace Arial Chase and Woodstock Express (and I'll add Surf Dog) are all fun little rides. If FAAC didn't have such slow loading times, I'd jump on it every trip no matter if I had my son with me or not. Is there a park with more suspended/inverted coasters than KI? FAAC, Invertigo, The Bat, Banshee, pretty good and diverse lineup there, plus throw in Firehawk for another varied experience with a lot of time spend below the tracks.

I can't remember which ones, but I've always felt like one of the two rows has a bit more leg room; could just be perception, we don't always ride this now that my son has hit 52" and my daughter has yet to reach 40". I don't have to, but since I'm riding with my son I often turn my legs towards him to give even a bit more leg room.

another thought, I would presume, if one intended to open something to the public on Saturday, that it would be prudent to have the mandatory inspections wrapped sooner than the day before. I mean, what if the inspector finds something relatively small, but a required fix that could be re-inspected a day or two later? I don't know how inspections run in the roller coaster industry, but in my line of work, there always almost "something" that the inspector finds that he'd like to see changed or added. Having an inspection on Friday leaves little time to correct any issues that could arise. Oh, and throwing them under the bus publically, even if truthfully (and I'm not going to just assume the park is telling the whole truth), is a **** poor way to handle things. At most, say there was an issue with inspection and you are working to get everything in order as soon as possible. Even better, would be to simply apologize and say you are still testing and completing the final phase of the ride; hope to have it open soon.

It makes me think back to the pictures you see of amusement parks from the early to mid 1900s where everyone is dressed up in their Sunday best.