Magenta Lizard

I'm quoting this because I think it is a good guess from Don's recent hints (and the destruction area is right across from Reds Hall of Fame Grille, even). I worry it got a little lost in the shuffle there.

To follow up what chugh43 said above, about not probably seeing much during the train tour... Last year it's not just that we walked to the engine house, heard stories, and walked back. We walked through the /backstage areas/ at the front of the park (if you make a right and keep going past the restrooms just after entering the front gates), not getting to really see any of the areas where work is currently being done at all. It was cool to see that area, but it would give less insight to current construction and destruction than either riding the train or DB.

Yippie KI yay!https://images.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.joyrides.com%2Fbpb%2Fphotos%2Fsteeplechase2.jpg&f=1

Something I noticed was cool on my last visit: the lights inside Flight of Fear's UFO seem to be linked up with what is happening in the plot video. I walked into it as the "trip" was happening at the end of the video, and the lights inside were rapidly changing colors and flashing to go along with the action of traversing the galaxy.

I usually go by row number even though I understand the car/seat numbering as well. It's just easier on the coasters that have row numbers painted right there to use that numbering.

Man, I don't want them to rip out all those trees to put in a baseball diamond! What are they thinking?! (For humor-challenged, that's a joke)

I've been on a half-dozen Beast tours, and no two have been exactly the same. So it wouldn't really be a spoiler to explain the group walks back with Don as he talks about The Beast: history, trivia, asks and responds to questions. The group follows some of the maintenance roads around Beast and there are some great opportunities for photos. It is quite enjoyable.

I wonder if DonKIPR will be offering a Twitter Beast tour earlier in the week before Coasterstock like he did last year, as a bit of warmup.

Eventually? Sure. Soon? No. I saw what made some people start talking about this possibility, and I don't think the image was even meant to tease us, much less warn us. People totally misconstrued something and ran with it.

Waiting for Banshee I overheard some young people in front of me discussing Son of Beast after noticing its monument. Apparently it was taken out because people kept dying from it. One asked "head injuries and stuff?" To which the explainer said "I dunno, loose bolts and aggressive turns I guess."

I think somebody made a typo or something with that 2 min Beast time Friday night. We saw it too, and knew without looking no way it was that short after 9PM

Last year, I know the funnel cakes were one price regardless of how many different toppings you got. Well, one price plain, a second for everything you wanted on it other than ice cream, and a third for a "sundae" which was ice cream plus all the toppings you wanted. That's how I was ultimately charged this year as well. You may want to visit guest services and see if you can be refunded a few beagle bucks.

I don't think I got an email confirm for registering either.

There is a forum timing issue

The games /only/ use the game cards now (including Bowler Roller and things like Goblet Toss). You cannot stick money into a game machine*. They no longer use tokens either. You need to go to a game card kiosk and either "buy" a game card (the card itself is free when you load money on one) or reload one, using cash or credit/debit card. The game cards are plastic cards not unlike a season pass or credit card. I had a handful of tokens left over at the end of last season and I'm glad, because I like them as souvenirs and can't get any more now. *the only exception I've seen is Zoltar, the fortune telling machine, which isn't strictly a game. It only takes cash, not game cards.

Hey, Stashua, I couldn't tell from your pictures for sure, but it appears the fencing piles are set up in approximately the same staging area for WWC's new entrance path they're working on. Is the big pile of gravel (like in my bobcat pic) still there undisturbed too, or have they started using that to make the new path?

Here we see the solitary bobcat silently stalking a workman, from its shaded hiding place among the trees... I actually saw the same bobcat carrying a whole (small) tree alongside Diamondback on one of my rides. Of course, I couldn't take a picture then.

Don just tweeted: https://twitter.com/donhelbig/status/729028003594944513 "Planning a trip to Batavia. Hear there are some good photo ops there." Edit: (as indicated below by DiamondBanshee, significant for http://www.clermontsteel.com/)

I'm sure they are working during the week, I've seen the progress with my own eyes between last Sunday and yesterday (more tree clearing, and all of the white survey markers were new). I find it very significant, however, that they are /also/ working weekends.

That picture below DB seems to be stacked fencing from the old WWC queue. None of that was there yet last night when we rode the last train. They've been very busy beavers today!* That blows my prediction that we wouldn't see much happening on days we can be at the park until weekday operations start. If they are paying crews to work weekends even when they have all week to work in obscurity, it suggests a certain amount of... urgency... to me. I am positively salivating for Coasterstock at this point. If they don't at least tease us then, I'm going to be fully grey by the end of summer! Edit: * new name idea: Beaverhawk. I need to start making a list

She is. Yeah, presumably.

I think that was one of the things that bothered me most. Other than opening weekend, I've had some fairly good experiences with food services so far this year, that have seemed to show that management in those areas are much improved versus last season. So this kind of blindsided me.

If anyone else wants to use the 50% off funnel cake coupon from the app, and you don't want to have trouble using it, I'd suggest going between the hours of 2 and 5. The difficulty I had last night, the time it took to finally get the coupon honored, and the specific things I was told in the process were ridiculous. Nowhere on the coupon does it say hours or any other restrictions (except that it needs to be the Rivertown location). This is the /third weekend/ it has shown in my app, although the first I personally tried to use it. If there were problems or intended restrictions to the coupon, there has been plenty of time to put measures in place to deal with it, it shouldn't come as a surprise. I understand there can be miscommunications between departments, but as a customer, I can't say I really care, especially when I only find out about it at the register. There was no signage up, like "sorry, we can only honor the app coupon between 2 and 5", just a scared employee at the register telling us they were only good before 5, and she had been told by her supervisor not to even scan the coupons after 5. After waiting an interminable time for her supervisor (who the employee at the register didn't want to go get because "she can't do anything either" and only even tried to contact after I asked if she could get a park ambassador then... I know those can make things right) we got a long line of explanation why we couldn't use the coupon even though there was nothing in the coupon that suggested we shouldn't be able to. I got a long description of interdepartmental strife and the inability for even managers to actually do anything to make things right.... And, when it was clear I wasn't just going to give up and either walk away or pay full price, finally an offer: "well I'll scan it but if it doesn't work there's nothing I can do." Miraculously, that worked, who could have imagined /trying/ it sometime before my funnel cake got cold? It brought back to mind one of the first things the young employee told us: "my supervisor won't let us even scan them after 5!" Clearly, the coupons work, the location doesn't want to honor them for whatever reason, and the manager is trying everything to get people to simply give up rather than push the issue. I certainly didn't feel like a valued customer. It's not like I was trying to "get away" with anything, that coupon has been popping up in my app for weeks. If I hadn't just waited in a line and had my funnel cake in front of me - if I had instead encountered a sign at the beginning of the line or been told by an employee - I would have been slightly miffed but walked away. Maybe visited guest services later, but probably not. Instead, I got my half price funnel cake, but I'm still steamed about it the next day, and I will definitely be visiting guest services to complain first thing when I go to the park again Sunday. There were so many ways this could have been handled in a more positive manner, instead, it was handled so badly that even though I ultimately got what I wanted, I'm angry. That takes a surprising degree of poor service.

It was up again yesterday, so I was happy to get to hear it some more.

The bell is there now. I saw it when I rode the carousel but didn't have my phone. I'll post a pic soon. Edit: best I could do, with WEBN in the way Ok, they moved