OT: Amusement Park Discussion

[dragonoffrost]

When the Six Flags Cedar Fair merger went down I may have mentioned there is much more than amusement parks that the federal government looks at in that space for a monopoly.

Things like this news are why:

Herschend to Acquire Palace Entertainment

Herschend and Parques Reunidos have signed a definitive agreement under which Herschend will acquire all of Palace Entertainment’s U.S. entertainment properties from Parques Reunidos. This agreement represents a significant milestone for both organizations—supporting Herschend’s strategic...

www.hfecorp.com

As for my views on this news. HELL YEAH! Herschend knows what they are doing running attractions. And I say attractions as the Adventure Aquarium in Camden NJ is one of their locations. Adding Kennywood (Pittsburgh) and Lake Compounce (Bristol CT) can only make the chain stronger and improve those smaller parks.

 

[dragonoffrost]

With the season about to start on the 29th at Great Adventure I think I'll do a look at my favorite 10 parks. In NO real order until we get to the top 5.

Today I need to highlight our Canadian friends and Canada's Wonderland. Now a Six Flags park that was under the Cedar Fair umbrella previously.

This park has some great coasters and has built 2 since my last visit so it's on the need to go back list.

Probably my favorite coaster there is Leviathan a coaster with a tiny first drop of over 300 feet. For those who don't like to go through inversions this guy is for you. It's all about the speed, hills and zero gravity.



But really why this park hits the list is the flat rides or as I call them spin and puke rides for those who can't deal well with those forces.



Sledge Hammer and Shockwave being two of my favorites

It was definitely worth the trip across the border to visit and as I said I'll be getting back there again due to the new coasters.

 

[dragonoffrost]

Was a little busy yesterday so you get a two for today. One of these I know is going to be controversial that it's not top 10 but I didn't get the since 2010 when I did both of these.

So first up will be the less controversial, Busch Gardens Tampa.
(the videos are not done by me but they are ones that I hope don't have too much comentary)

Great park with a lot to do and some awesome coasters, two of which are Montu and Sheikra.




But the park is also known for this nightmare fuel



This park is good for the rides and the animal exhibits. They also have a safari truck that will take you out and let you get closer to some of the animals and feed giraffes.

I have to get back for Iron Gwazi which many rank somewhere in their top 3 overall.

Now to get controversial....

Universal Studios Islands of Adventure is also on todays post. I know I know Velocicoaster, Hagrids, Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey... etc..

Well I got there before Hagrid and Velocicoaster (so they can't be included in my view)

But the park was still very solid back then Hulk, Spiderman, Doctor Doom, Jurasic Park, Forbidden Journey all made it a solid park along with the Seuss area.





But this park also shines for two water rides in the Cartoon area.

Dudley Do Right Ripsaw Falls


and the ride that probably soaked me more than any other ride when I didn't hit the waterfall element.

Popeye and Bluto's Bilge Rat Barges.



The theming on most rides blow everywhere but Disney away.

 

[Strawberry Fields]

I say this genuinely and honestly- I admire that Universal has opted to keep a ride themed to Dudley Do-Right despite the fact that there's a zero percent chance any kid today knows who he is. Same with Popeye, to a lesser extent? Cool to see a more "obscure" franchise get some recognition in a major park

 

[dragonoffrost]

I say this genuinely and honestly- I admire that Universal has opted to keep a ride themed to Dudley Do-Right despite the fact that there's a zero percent chance any kid today knows who he is. Same with Popeye, to a lesser extent? Cool to see a more "obscure" franchise get some recognition in a major park

The whole cartoon area is a flashback which is amazing.

 

[dragonoffrost]

Next up on the favorite places is one that is about to merge into another chain which I expect bigger and better for this park once that occurs.

It's a park that is known for their old wooden coasters, Potato Patch fries and the currently being repaired Steel Curtain roller coaster themed to the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Yes I am trying to not vomit mentioning that NFL franchise. But it is part of the fabric of that area so it gets mentioned.

But I'll stay away from showing that ride since I have yet to experience it.

easiest thing to start this post with is the Potato Patch fries which are amazing

They have many toppings including brown gravy which is how I get mine. Brown gravy and bacon... YUM. excuse me while I need an AED device though.

In the back of that picture is Noah's Ark which is a walk through funhouse that shouldn't be missed.

As for the coasters this is where I will post 3 videos of Classics
Jack Rabbit is a wooden coaster built in 1920 and is known for it's insane airtime on the double downs.


Then you add next Thunderbolt from 1924 which is known for the drop right out of the station which is plain amazing and not something that normally is done but this ride knocks it out of the park with the element since it was built on a hill.


Then we hit Racer from 1927 which is a racing coaster that is built in what is described as a mobius loop.

a mobius loop is a rare coaster that you need to ride 2 times to get the full circuit in you ride starting one station and end that ride on the other side of the station. then you get back in line and go into the station you exited and get on and ride which then ends in your first station. The video attached shows both sides.

Add in some rare old rides and you get a classic park that is a great day.

 

[dragonoffrost]

Carowinds is a cool park on the North Carolina/South Carolina border. We get to have southern foods and ride all day.

Odd fact they also have a Chickie and Pete's in the park.

The main draw to this park is Fury 325. A monster of a coaster that crosses state lines during the path of the ride. Get ready to dive into the hive and feel the sting.


Another fun coaster in the park is Copperhead Strike which actually inverts shortly out of the station and then rolls around to the first of two launch tracks. It's not a fast ride speed wise but it's just pure fun



This park used to be one of the two parks that had coasters themed to Dale Earnhardt but when the licensing expired Dale's widow wanted more money and more restrictions on the merchandise so the chain decided to rename the coasters at Carowinds and Kings Dominion. Intimidator has become Thunder Striker same fun ride just different name.



One cool thing they just did was retheme an area to a cyberpunk airport and one of the fun rides is Gear Spin

 

[dragonoffrost]

5 days until we hit Park Season for the ones I will be frequenting this season minus Dorney which opens in May. With that we will now move to the actually top 5 rankings....One of the two aforementioned didn't make the list which is Kings Dominion but it would definitely fall in the 11-15 range. But enough blabbing and lets get on to......

#5 - Six Flags Great Adventure.

Yes yes I know how can this park not be higher when it's the biggest, best park closest to Philly. Well simply put, they don't handle the lines and the people who go there properly.



I know that's an explosive take.

Well the crowd control and the above video also affected it's rating.

But this park still has a serious punch in the ride package.

We have El Toro. The bull has been worked on per reports and we are hoping it won't tear itself apart again.



This beast is one of the best wooden coasters in the world. The speed, the height, the lateral and negative G forces. It has the entire package people looks for in a ride. That first drop in the back row feels like you are about to be yeeted from the ride. Then you get halfway through and another hill tries to yeet you again after it turns left. Such a fun and amazing coaster that shows tall wooden coasters still have a place in park lineups if you can maintain them.

Then we come to another airtime machine in Nitro. For years before riding it I hated coasters, I couldn't wrap my head around how they were safe but a teacher taught us the physics of coasters and the safety mechanisms and I was better on them. But it took years for a ride to be built that totally snapped me of the fears. This was it. My hands went up on that first drop at the urging of friends and they never came down until the end. Which during a ride when it really is flying through the circuit is a bad idea for any male, LOL. If this bad boy is flying the day you ride it get your hands down and brace yourself before those final brakes or you will be speaking funny for a bit.



Get the popcorn, get a beer.... get me an ice pack!

Then we walk around the corner and there stand Batman The Ride. This ride exists in most Six Flags Legacy parks and it's a twisty inverted delight. The positive G forces it gives are nothing short of astounding.



With the DC Comics licensing the parks have you can't have Batman and not have Superman. And boy did they do Superman justice. They make you feel like you are flying and when the ride hits the bottom of the pretzel loop, yes it's shaped like a pretzel, you get crushed into your seat so hard some riders grey out.



After these great rides I would be remiss if I didn't mention Great Adventure was the park that got the very first floorless roller coaster. Medusa....a set of twisted steel to look like Medusa's snake hair. There goes the floor and you're out the door!



The food in the park has been typical park food until this year as they have hired an executive chef. So it will be interesting to see what changes come in that area this season and going forward. This was a Cedar Fair initiative that has been moved over to Six Flags legacy parks and I can only hope they do as well as Cedar Fair did when they added this role.

One thing Six Flags needs to do is bring back shows for the people who aren't ride junkies as if you aren't riding or eating there isn't much to do.

 

[dragonoffrost]

We are at #4 and this one is going to be one not many know.

We are going to Santa Claus, Indiana (yes that is a real town) and Holiday World.

You enter the park into an area themed to Christmas with shops, food and of course a place to meet the Jolly man himself Santa at set times each day.

Then depending on which path you take out of that area you can head to Fourth of July or Halloween.

Fourth of July has flat rides like a drop tower, bumper bison instead of cars, a train ride through sets about fairy tales, and a set of Flyers themed to eagles.

Halloween on the other hand is where the coasters start with Raven. Themed to Poe's work it's a great ride that serves as the breakfast of the three wooden coasters in the park. Raven is definitely not your normal wooden coaster and it annually ranks in the top 25 wooden coasters. The turnaround by the lake is just a great visual as you fly along the track.



Nearby is a dive show during the summer months and a few flat rides and games sprinkled in along the midway as you wind around to The Legend. Yep you guessed it we are now visiting the headless horseman from the Legend of Sleepy Hallow. And of course we also are adding to the aggressiveness of the ride. We get another yearly top 25 coaster checked off as we plummet down the first drop with a wolf howl behind is and then a breakneck ride over hills and turns that only gets faster as the day goes on. This becomes the lunch in the coaster meal.


Once you leave that area you pass by the included waterpark... We will get back to that in a bit because it's definitely worth a day in itself. Past that we find the last themed area Thanksgiving and you will be full when you hit the Dinner of the wooden coaster lineup, The Voyage. This is a true voyage of g forces be it positive or negative forces. It also throw the train perpendicular to the ground 3 times during it's sail. This was a new feat when the ride was built. Most also rave about the triple down element in a tunnel that just drops your seat from under you and lets you float back into it. It's a long ride with lots of out of the seat moments and ranks #1 for wooden coasters to me. (El Toro takes a sad second place.)


You also can get yourself a turkey dinner here to rival your annual feast and ride a dark ride where you catch (shoot) turkeys. They like to keep it family friendly as the park is family owned.

Now fun the fun of Splashing Safari, the waterpark, where you can get free... yes that's right I said FREE, sunscreen. This water park has all the normal amenities, tube slides, speed slides, racing slides, wave pools and instead of a lazy river an action river with waves. But the two rides that draw people here are Wildebeast and Mammoth two water coasters.





This is a park where you won't be shocked to see management walking around picking up trash (in the rare case someone did drop something) or stopping guests to see how their day is going and if anything can be done to make it better. Believe me it's hard for them to make things better when you park for free, pay one price for entry to the amusements and water park, get reasonably priced food and snacks and then FREE unlimited water, tea, soda or sports drink.

 

[dragonoffrost]

It is fitting that on the day that the baseball season opens in CIncinnati the park at #3 is local to that city. We are going to Kings Island in Mason, OH. We get a ride package on par with Great Adventure but we lose the crowd issues.

You can't start anywhere else when speaking of this park than will the longest wooden coaster. The fact that this ride has held that distinction since 1979 says a ton. We are talking about the one and only Beast.


This truly is an amazing feat as it was designed and built in house not by any company that makes other coasters. 7300 feet of track length that just about rattles your brain free from your skull but you smile all the way. It's roller coaster royalty and rightfully leads this park to high levels on most park enthusiast lists,

Then you start to hit the more modern rides that were built when this park was owned by Paramount (yes the TV/Movie company I will add the names for that era in parenthesis after the current name) and then Cedar Fair (yes that is a clue to a soon to be on this list park). I'll bring up the just pure fun Backlot Stunt Coaster (aka Italian Job) This cute little ride is a great way to get kids into riding coasters with the cars being made to look like Mini Coopers and the quick launch through twists and turns between police cars then a helicopter shooting at you while you sit in a gas station. Only to be shot into a tunnel and then out through a splashdown effect. Just a fun little ride.



Another staple of the Paramount days is The Bat (Top Gun) a suspended coaster that swings under the track as you soar above a valley. Most will remember this style for Big Bad Wolf at Busch Gardens Williamsburg but The Bat is one of a handful of these still in existence and it may not last much longer if rumors are true for the future of most of this style ride.



The final coaster I'll mention from the Paramount days is Flight of Fear (Outer Limits). Again we get a launch via magnets to get to a speed and then normally a disorienting ride in darkness through a spaghetti bowl of steel track. The video is lights on but the ride is not



If you want more wood coasters we have the classic racing coaster The Racer with two mirrored tracks that brings the old school wooden coaster vibes most love.



Or if you want a more modern twisty wooden coaster there is Mystic Timbers. Don't go in the Shed.... Don't go.. in....static....
Built by Pennsylvania's Great Coasters this is one fun ride from the curved drop to the low twists and turns through trees then a field of the turns and into a tunnel. The ride never really slows down until you reach the shed. The video won't show the shed which is perfect as that would ruin the fun and the full reason to not go in the shed.


If you were wondering what was the ride right as you leave Mystic Timbers station that would be the snake known as Diamondback. We get a 200' drop and then loads of airtime and speed and a fun splash element at the end.


We will finish with Banshee which happens to be my favorite inverted coaster. This perfectly used the terrain it was placed on and at night they can fog the area so well you have no clue where this is heading along with added sound effects you truly get the feeling a Banshee is chasing you