Cedar Fair Parks Trip (with a few other stops mixed in)

[johnjniehaus]

So my week long amusement park trip for 2023 has come to a close. I visited 7 different parks across numerous states and Ontario, CA. Here's my mini novel on how it went! 

6/12/23: Carowinds - let's just say that this park was smaller than k thought but it still has a very diverse coaster collection. Fury was amazing and I really enjoyed intimidator as well. Nighthawk I thought was a lot rougher than Firehawk ever was at KI. I also got to experience our flying eagles (now mountain gliders) and they definitely lived up to the hype seeing as I was 2 when they were removed from KI I only have the stories of my dad and uncle to go off of. Now I can say yes they are absolutely one of the best flats out there. Ricochet, Carolina Gold Rusher, and Cyclone coasters weren't the best of their models but still enjoyable. I was happy to see a Schwarzkopf enterprise (scream Weaver) still in operation as well and got 2 rides on it. Vortex was closed still for whatever controls work they are doing on it (got that info from emailing the park about a week before my trip). Copperhead Strike was a great coaster and I could see something like that at KI one day. Also I found Hurler to be fun and not that rough if I wasn't in a wheel seat...rode it multiple times 

 

6/13/23: Kings Dominion - Ok this was my favorite park of the trip! I was surprised how much I loved this park. First impressions were terrible so I'm glad that isn't everything. After waiting an excruciating 30 minutes to get through security at the front gate I finally got into the park. First ride of the day as Flight of Fear and their version is running much smoother than ours and also doesn't stop on the break at the top. Overall, theirs was running better than ours and the line was super short every time I rode it. Next was Intimidator 305 which I think is the child of Maverick and Millennium Force making it my new #1 coaster of all time. I rode it so many times that morning and I also ended the day with numerous rides on it. Anaconda is not as rough as people act like it is and in fact I enjoyed the ride quite a bit. Reptilian was a cool bobsled coaster that I rode a few times. Dominator was pretty smooth and forceful. Only got 1 ride on it seeing as it wasn't close to other coasters (had to walk through Planet Snoopy to get over there) it's really the only coaster at the park that looks like it was just plopped in there. All the others have alot of trees or terrain around them I think. The Woodstock Express here had an extra little hill at the end. Anyone know why that is? Did others have the additional hill right before the break run and it got removed or is KD version just different? Twisted Timbers was good but anyone saying it was a top tier RMC is wrong. There's numerous ones I've ridden better than that one. Sure it was probably way better than hurler but it's not the best ride in the park like some have claimed it to be. Apple Zapple was a good wild Mouse and Racer 75 was super smooth and running great. The red side won every single time though and it wasn't very close so for actual close racing ours is better. Ride/speed wise KD is probably better. Grizzly was a coaster I wanted to like because of all the hype about the re-tracking and sure those parts were great but you could immediately tell when you were back on the old stuff...those parts hurt! Idk who was riding this before they did re-tracking on the parts they did do. Overall I didn't hate it but it ranked middle to bottom of the lineup. Someone has told me that KI is the only park that has the stunt cars effects turned on however, KD had the fire working and some sound effects working. They also had water in the trough at the end under the bridge. So while I'm still not a fan of stunt cars, at least some stuff was working. KD flying eagles was pretty good as was the blue ridge parkway car ride. One other thing I'm questioning is why the Eiffel Tower was closed and when I say closed like que line fenced up with a privacy fence. It was like they boarded it up type of closed? Anyone got any info on how long it's been that way, why it's boarded up/closed, how long they plan to keep it that way? 

 

6/14/23: Six Flags America - This was not a great park. I didn't stay all day and my biggest take away was the Marvin Martian t-shirt I bought in the gift shop. First, superman ride of Steel is pretty good (rode a couple of times) however the one train ops makes this one have a unnecessary long line. Batwing broke down right after I got off the first train of the day. Thankfully it ran smoother than Nighthawk at Carowinds. Jokers Jinx was a good ride as well but once again one train ops made that line crawl. Also, the operators weren't good on it. They checked the back half of the train before the lap bars actually locked and went on like nothing was wrong. I mean I could have pushed it up if I wanted to. Anyway of course the main operator activated the lock and everyone in the back pulled down but the checker op never did come back and check the lap bars after they locked. That's just not good operations if u ask me. The Firebird was probably one of the roughest b&m coasters I've ridden and Roar wasn't much better. Both of those were one and done. Ragin Cajun was a little too much spin after standing around for 45min in the blazing sun. Kinda felt a little icky after that one. The one coaster that exceeded expectations here was Wild One. For a coaster that's 100+ years old it's surprisingly tall and fast! Great layout and airtime and while it's not super smooth it wasn't painful rough either. It really did maintain its classic feel really well. 

 

6/15/23: Dorney Park - this park blew expectations away! Why doesn't anyone really talk about Dorney? Sure it's small but all the rides I rode here were really good! Steel Force is a mini Magnum hyper that runs smoothly. Thunderhawk was running really smooth and is a classic. Hydra is unconventional but a fun floorless. Talon is a great invert that runs smoother than some newer ones (less rattle). Possessed was a lot of fun and the ops were killing it one that one too so wait time was minimal. The wild Mouse was well just a typical wild mouse but at least it was smooth! The demon drop was really amazing and I'm so glad Cedar Fair moved it to Dorney instead of scraping it after CP was done with it. Dorney also had a great collection of other rides like the huss enterprise, the unconventional log flume, and the zephyr railroad just to name a few. 

 

6/16/23: Canada's Wonderland - alright this was the park I was most excited about and it delivered! Rode Leviathan first thing in the morning and I actually thought it was better than Orion meaning that Orion is my least favorite giga? (Still a great ride but I'm not a fan of wave turn or helix sections and leviathan had more airtime hills). Behemoth was a good hyper (in the back rows but unfortunately unlike Dback they wouldn't let you pick your row so half of my rides were towards the front with the weird acceleration as you get held over the drops waiting for the rest of the train to catch up) Yukon Striker was definitely better than Valravn and the vest restraints didn't bother me that much on this one. Vortex is an absolute beauty and rode well too. I prefer the back seat on The Bat (extra car gives it just a little more whip around the turns) but Vortex was still a great ride. Wilde Beast was the one I got the most rides on and I thought it rode extremely well (not smooth but just the perfect amount of rough to where it had some bite but wasn't uncomfortable in any way). Mighty Canadian Minebuster was a great layout (a few spots such as the helix were a little rough to me). Wonder Mountain Guardian is a great dark ride coaster (wish it was little longer). Thunder Run was really cool family ride and The Bat was the smoothest boomerang I've ridden yet. Dragon Fyre was good fun I just didn't get anything out of it's layout that I couldn't have gotten from another arrow looper. The stunt cars coaster is definitely the worst of the 3 installations as no effects worked and it doesn't even have all the signage anymore it appears. The Fly was a great wild mouse (just like apple Zapple) and of course I rode ghoster Coaster just for the credit. Now Flight Deck and Time Warp are two of the worst coasters ever! Both are extremely rough and both need to make way for something better. One ride and done on those. As for the flats, I rode Skyhawk, Wilde knightmares, and sledge Hammer. (I wasn't feeling adventurous enough for some of the other ones) sledge Hammer is my new favorite flat and I got 3 rides on it. So glad it was open during my visit. 

 

6/17/23: Marineland - Ok so I had read some mixed reviews of this place some saying it should be closed for animal abuse and others praising it for its laid back atmosphere and good operations. So I drove there and after making sure Dragon Mountain was operating I bought a ticket and hiked back to that Coaster. The man made cavern that the station is in was way too cool to exist at that park. The ride itself was similar to Loch Ness Monster at Busch gardens in my opinion. Long Helix section through a tunnel and one of a kind inversion element (bowtie element on dragon mountain, interlocking loops on loch Ness) I rode this 10x and it made the trip to the park worth it. After DM I decided to explore the rest of the park and that's where things went south. The ladybug coaster was fine and the magic carpet ride was something I'd never experienced but the animal exhibits were disappointing. The penguin aquarium looked like it was 10,000 years old and the floor hadn't been mopped since 1980. The whale tank was smaller than sea world Orlando and had more whales in it. I don't profess to be a wildlife expert but the exhibits seemed super outdated and unlike sea world there was nothing about conservation at this park that I saw. So I know some people would say they wouldn't support this park because of the animal situation and I wouldn't blame anyone for that. Me personally, I figured I'd see for myself and I'm just telling myself that my $45 went towards the preservation of a wonderful arrow coaster. I really hope this park gets some new owners that either give the animal exhibits the upgrades/space they need or just revamp the park altogether and phase out the animals for more rides. 

 

6/17/23: Six Flags Darien Lake - Ok so just like it's cousin at SFA ride of steel was fantastic. Prowler was also really good and I enjoyed the smooth ride in the metal track they put in places. Boomerang was typical, moto - coaster was closed for some reason, viper was fine, mind Eraser was the smoothest SLC I've been on yet, Tantrum was really fun but way too short of a ride (and running only one train with 8 seats on a euro fighter on a Saturday is terrible operations) overall not really impressed with Darien Lake but I still enjoyed the couple of hrs I spent there. 

 

Well that sums it up! 

[Stoan]

How in the world did you manage to visit each of these parks a day after each other with travel, and still have time in the park to actually ride things?

[IndyGuy4KI]

Loved your TR. Thanks for sharing!

[DoomPlague]

Man, I've heard a lot of things about SFA but that part about the restraints on Joker's Jinx is kind of disturbing.

[johnjniehaus]

11 hours ago, Stoan said:

How in the world did you manage to visit each of these parks a day after each other with travel, and still have time in the park to actually ride things?

So I drove 8hrs on Sunday to Charlotte to have all day at Carowinds on Monday, then drove most of the night to get to Kings Dominion Tues. Stayed till ten and got a hotel. Dominion and Six Flags America are probably only 2hr or so apart so I got there easy Wed. Left SFA around 5pm and drove 3hrs and got room in Hershey PA. Drove an hour to Dorney Park Thur and left around 6 to get to my room in Ithaca NY. Got up at 5am of Fri and drove 5 hrs to Toronto for Wonderland and stayed till 10. Got a room right by park. Sat morning drove about 1hr 30min to marineland stayed for 3 hrs and drove to Darien Lake and stayed from 3-7 and rode all coasters and moose on the loose. Then I stayed in Jamestown NY. I actually hit Cedar Point for 3 hrs on the return journey Sunday...

[IndyGuy4KI]

That is some journey.

[johnjniehaus]

On 6/27/2023 at 10:18 PM, IndyGuy4KI said:

That is some journey.

Yeah makes you realize how big our country actually is! Figured I had to do this stuff while I'm young and free.  Got to have something to tell any future kids and grandkids about some day...like "hey guys back in my day I went on rollercoaster road trips and I know that it's 2074 and you can sit in your VR home simulator and ride any rollercoaster on the planet but back in my day I actually rode the real things!"