After 2 days celebrating the holidays at holi-dog world, it was off to kings island for carnavale and the point of the cedar.

We had a 2 hour drive from louis-ville to Mason arriving around 2 pm.

Kings island, yet again sets the standard for ride operations. The ops at banshee were running keeping the line cleared out. Mystic ride ops sniped a phone off someone on the lift and had security meet them after the ride. It's always great to see employees who care. They were calling out how many trains per hour they had. Calling out times and goals. Made everything just move quick and smooth.

We have managed to miss the carnavale parade every year since 23? Since we started going regularly. So I made it a point we would go watch it. We just watched a few shows at holiday world and we're wanting to see some at kings island as well. We started with the carnavale grand opening show, watched the parade, and finished off with the celebration and fireworks at the main stage. You could watch shows from ~5 pm till close none stop it looks like if you wanted. They were all fun and the kids had a blast.

Now to the coasters/rides

Since we arrived a little after 2, and we were just here a month ago, we took it chill and just rode what ever. I'll put the wait times for those who are wondering what a Monday is like

Banshee.

This or raptor is my favorite invert. We had the last row and the drop kinda slaps. I feel like this is the one invert that has it all. The slow roll at the end is the chefs kiss. 5 minute wait or less

The bat.

I was distracted by a halloween building you can see easily since the sky coaster is gone. Then we hiked out of the park to go ride it. It's.....a ride. It's neat. I'd hate to see it go but I prefer iron dragon. The bat just seems too short. Wait was less than the walk.

Adventure express.

My favorite mind train. The best theming. Always fun. Walk on

Orion.

For not being a giga, the drop slaps. Great ride. Would be the #1 at any other park but kings island has a stacked lineup. 10 minute or less wait.

At some point we took like an hour break for food and to go chill at the festhaus. The AC was not cranking in there and it was... A thing

We then meandered to the stage for the carnavale opening ceremony.

Next was some phantom theater. Gotta love it. The new theming throughout including the queue is awesome. Less than 5 minute wait.

Wood stock compressed

Basically Phoenix junior. Walk on

Mystic timbers.

It's one of the goats. What more can be said

Less than 5 .minute wait

Then the rest of the night went to carnavale. Parade and show

Somewhere in the we also rode the monster (5 minute wait), bumper cars (walk on), delirium (5 minute walk) and I think that's it? We went pretty slow and just hung out as apposed to running ride to ride.

Next was driving up to cedar point !!! The last few years we have done 3 days here. We skip the water park for a day at the beach.

We lucked out big time. Storms rolled thru early in the day and we arrived around 330 to a chill crowd. We rode and rode and rode coasters. It was glorious. Best single day for hitting rides we have ever had. Ride ops somehow topped kings island. A first for us. They were cheering. Counting trains per hour. Hustling and going nuts. Gatekeeper was dispatching before the train on the course hit the brakes most the time. Aluminum forks was dispatching as quick as it could. It was amazing.

I'll list wait times again for anyone curious about a Tuesday crowd

Raptor.

Less than 5 minutes. Can't decide between this and banshee but this thing is just intensity the whole way thru. Soon as you catch your breath, bam it's back cranking.

Gatecreeper

10 minute wait for guest illness. This thing is great. The near misses, the hang time. Honestly, I don't get why it catches strays . yes the ending is weird where the just clicked auto complete and needed a block section but still.

Wild mouse.

Less than 5 minute. Fyi, if your legs don't bend, this can be rough to squeeze into. Good ride. Better than a pandamonium clone

Sirens curse

Less than 5 minute. Took longer to deal with the lockers. Probably my number 2 at the park. The drop hits like a drop tower. Butter smooth. Only improvement would be changing the music to Into the Earth by Lorna shore.

Millinium force

10 minute wait maybe. Ride ops killing. 3 trains. It's milli. What more to say

Magnum XL-200

Walk on. I think we had a square wheel on our car. The air time hills on the return are crazy. Love it.

Gemeni

Walk on. We are yet to ride it with both sides operating. This was our first time on blue side so new credit. I love this ride. One of the best hybrids in the country. It's like a wooden racer layout but with steel rails. And the family loves it.

Derby dog horse race ride.

This ride is the goat. We rode it one time figuring it was like a carasouel. Yea, it's nuts. We always ride this a ton when we come. Some you tube-ist does the voice for the ride.

Value-raven

5 minute wait. The drop is great. Can't imagine tormented bull at over Texas. I wouldn't wait no hour or 2 for it but it's cool

Milli again.

Basically walk on

Rugrat cat the ride

Walk on. Front row. Tracked surprisingly well. Normally I'm scared of some banging on these old floorless but this ride was good. I prefer it to dominator but not over hydra at dorney

Corkscrew

Why. Oh why did I do this to myself. Why. Please Patrick. Help me. Walk on. It's a ride. It's historic I guess.

Magnum xl-200

Why not. Walk on

Super him-a-lay-uh

Walk on. Not super fast or super long cycle. The lights are memorizing tho. Like a bug to a bug zapper

Gemeni again.

Because why not. Walk on

Cedar creek mind ride.

Walk on. The worst trains of all the mind trains. At night it's kind of fun.

The kids rode the Magnum again while leaving because walk on

This just leaves us

Blue streak :(

Revenge of the steel.

Maverick

Top thrill 2

To ride in the next 2 days. Plus more dog derby horse race ride!

It's always funny to me that we come in the middle of July and it's freezing here and we need jacks. Forcast for our beach day today is 72 -_-

I'm sick of typing.

Now that many parks serve alcohol, how do parks account for guests who’ve had a few drinks if a lift-hill evacuation becomes necessary? Has anyone in ride ops ever had to evacuate someone who’d been drinking, and were there any special procedures?

It changed from Catwomen’s Whip to Catwomen Whip in sometime in 2026 or before. Does anyone have and idea why they dropped the ‘s

I never thought a park would surpass Six Flags America (horrific ops and disregard for safety galore) as absolute worst, but here we are.

I visited SWSD this past Sunday to do some credit clean-up. I first visited in 2024, but wasn't able to ride all the coasters. Electric Eel was down alongside all other Sky Rocket 2s, and Arctic Rescue was brand new and even more temperamental than it is now.

Fairly simple task, just two coasters to ride. Perhaps the revamped Journey to Atlantis for good measure. Except riding three coasters (two new credits + Manta) took our entire five hour visit, after which I decided I wanted to leave and never visit this park again.

I cannot believe that United Parks considers the current state of this park to be acceptable by any measure. I have a laundry list of grievances:

1. The app wait times never match the physical ride sign wait times (usually to extremes — for example, 10 minutes for Arctic Rescue in the app vs. 90 and then 120 on the sign). Neither wait time was ever accurate, with everything taking longer than even the physical sign suggested.
2. The ops are the most terrible and slow I've ever encountered. It's obvious that the park intends to push Quick Queue onto as many customers as possible. I had such an unpleasant experience that I refused to give United any more of my money. So I had the joy of waiting two hours for Arctic Rescue, during which about a dozen trains cycled total.
3. The multi-step dispatch procedures are asinine. This is especially awful on Electric Eel, where attendants walk down the length of the train with loose article bins, THEN check everyone's seatbelts, THEN lower and check restraints. Where is the logic in this?
4. No ride stations had an attendant to mind row distribution, which resulted in chaos for every ride. It seemed like every unruly park guest wanted to attend SWSD on this day, which exacerbated the issue.
5. Ride downtime was constant. Which would be sort of okay, if the attendants were ever forthcoming about this. We asked, point blank, if Arctic Rescue was down when we first got in line, and were told no. 20 minutes later, with no trains spotted on the ride, we suddenly got the downtime announcement. The same happened on Journey to Atlantis (which had the audacity to display a 5 minute wait on the physical sign when the wait was obviously well over an hour). The app also never reported when rides were closed.
6. Line cutting is the worst I've ever seen at this park. We had to deal with at least 20 people passing us in every line, most often in multiples to join family members and friends much closer to the front. We challenged some folks on this and stopped the cutting, but it's hard to fight such a ridiculous tide when the line attendants can't manage to give a shit.
7. Speaking of, I would describe every attendant and op as apathetic at best and unpleasant at worst. I would also be miserable if I had to work at such a shit park, but it really made a bad day worse.
8. This came to a head when, after waiting two hours for Arctic Rescue, a couple who came through the exit on a disability pass (so, not having waited at all) decided to record the entire ride — and me, directly behind them, spent the entire time panicking that the phone would fall out of their hands and smack me in the face instead of paying any mind to the ride I had just waited an obscene amount of time for. When we returned to the station, we reported this to the attendant, who waved us off and said she already knew. She then barely finger wagged at them and said "as a reminder, you cannot bring out your phone on rides". Wow, amazing effort to get the magnitude of the safety issue this presents across. Bravo. I only mention the exit row entrance to drive home that these people (who were seemingly able-bodied, but who am I to know what's going on there) didn't have to wait for the ride, eschewed all semblance of rules and regulations, and then pranced off into the sunset to continue to be an inconvenience to the rest of the park's clientele for the rest of the day. Which really makes me, a regular ol' guest, feel great. Shoutout to Kennywood, where we got e-stopped on the lift hill of Phantom's Revenge a couple weeks ago for someone who took out their phone — after which he was promptly kicked out.
9. Attendants never cared enough to tell children to stop running and roughhousing, as SeaWorld's rules espouse. Of course, it would be even better if parents parented their children, but in absence of that, it's their job to intervene. Two kids ran into me during our visit, and every ride line was accompanied by the constant jingle-jangle of children messing with the stanchions and climbing on anything in their sights. I've never seen a park be so freely treated as a jungle gym.
10. Least important, but still worth mentioning: this is a really ugly park. I cannot believe BGW is also in this chain (though United has very little to do with its aesthetic outside of maintenance). Arctic Rescue's "theming" is laughable, let alone any of the other coasters, and what we saw of the aquarium exhibits was worse for wear. It's clear United doesn't give a shit about this park — which is a lost opportunity on their part with the unique experience it offers vs. other parks in the San Diego and LA area.

My first visit wasn't great from an ops perspective, but the park has gotten so much worse by every metric in so little time.

I visited SWO well over a decade ago, and have never been to SWSA — are they all like this? I see that other folks have grievances with SWSD this season, but is it usually this bad these days? I feel like I won't ever have an experience this bad again, unless I make the unfortunate choice of visiting Mt. Olympus one day.

I had the opportunity to visit fun spot atlanta this week and got 5 rides in an hour with Aerie Force One. Wow, what an incredible ride especially at night! Many enthusiasts were there and ran it on a few ACE members too! Nothing but smiles and roller coaster talk the entire time I was in line.

I can totally see and feel why this is a top 10 for people now. Those elements are so different when you compare it to iron gwazi or steel vengeance. It's not short and not super long, I'd say that the mix is about right which makes for an easy re-ride over and over again.

My fav elements are going to be that banked overturn into the drop following the double up and corkscrew right. That Zero g stall is out of this world too!

I hope this ride is saved because it's too tier!

Currently at #291 and heading to Carowinds for the first time on Friday. Now that Fury has reopened, my wife is begging me to ride it first thing when I arrive, and not wait till later in the day to make it #300. She's afraid the ride might unexpectedly close for day if I wait. Should I listen to the wife?

My first SLC. Really jerky and that pothole on the rollover was atrocious in the front. The rest of the layout was tolerable though.

Hoping for a soft opening this evening!!

Just another show for the audience to watch while clenching their teeth! I love how the park continues to add new and different acts to the already amazing lineup of daredevils entertaining us during Boardwalk Nights! What is your favorite show?

Had my daughter work her ass of threatening she wouldn’t get the credit if she didn’t (that of course is a joke)

First time visiting from PA, where my home park is Dorney. Entry was easy, they gave us comp tickets and a drink wristband at Guest Services after showing our Six Flags passes. Inside the park, discounts worked as promised as well.

The park is overall very well maintained and clean. The park feels very "Cedar Fair" so it felt weird being here knowing it is no longer part of that family. The Fair of Cedar Fair :(

After visiting, here are my rankings of the OG CF parks...please note that I don't think any of these parks are bad and enjoyed my visit to all of them.

1. CP

2. CW

3. KI

4. KD

5. Knotts

6. Carowinds

7. Dorney

8. Worlds of Fun

9. Valleyfair

10. CGA

(Only missing Michigan's Adventure)

The overall atmosphere was very beautiful and the park had good vibes with nice landscaping and lots of water features.

My only complaint about the park presentation is that the whole left side of the park feels very empty and missing rides that may have used to be there. It's just restaurants and games and not many rides.

Coaster reviews:

Mad Mouse 2.5/5 (X1)- just an arrow wild mouse, nothing special

Renegade 4/5 (x1)- I like GCIs and this was a very good one. Very non stop the whole time and probably my fav coaster at the park... closely followed by:

Xcaliber 4/5 (x2) - this is a good kind of janky ride and you get some surprising pops of air at times. Probably underrated overall.

Wild Thing 3.5/5 (x2) - we kept calling it Green Steel Force. First drop and 2nd hill were great. After that the ride is kind of boring / tame. The mid course break run was on full blast and the ride really struggled on the bunny hills. I rode twice bc I wanted to like it more than I did but not much airtime compared to Red Steel Force.

Steel Venom 3.75/5 (x1) - just Possessed from Dorney but the holding break works!!! I forgot how much it really adds to the ride.

Corkscrew 2.5/5 (x1)- the only upside-down coaster in the park!!! Not too rough for an Arrow looper. Nothing special but adds good kinetic energy / vibes.

High Roller 2/5 (x1) - the oldest coaster in the park and it was def a once and done kind of ride. Despite riding in the front row, no air time and it was kind of rough.

Cosmic Coaster 2.5/5 (x1) - the dragon from Dorney!!! So it was awesome riding again for sentimental purposes with my 4 year old daughter!

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Also rode the River rapids which was through the woods and good. Reminded me of the one from Kings Dominion but with less theming.

The train functions as a real train and actually takes you to the other side of the park which I love.

Water Park was small but presented well. The guests seemed to love it and the new kiddie slides area was great for my daughter.

All employees were nice and the ride ops were efficient in making sure trains were full when lines formed, something I haven't seen much at the smaller chain parks.

If you are an amusement park enthuisist, then you should put Valleyfair on your bucket list. It's a great locals park and I hope that Enchanted can breathe new light on the park so it can shine even brighter like it deserves. We really enjoyed our day here.

Went to Atlanta for my final rides on ArieForce One. While AF1 stole the show, I’m so happy I decided to spend 3 hours are SFOG because Goliath is just incredible.

This is my 2nd time at SFOG and on my first visit I only got 1 ride on Goliath due to its 90min wait. This time around, I was able to get 4 near walk on rides.

WOW

Solidified as my favorite B&M hyper. The ejector on this thing?! Didn’t know this ride model could go that hard!

Things are really starting to take shape…

Thats a big inversion

So per policy the park does not have a size limit on recording devices as long as you do not use any of the footage you plan to shoot for professional/commercial use so I decided to lug around my huge 400ft load 16mm camera and shot some scenes around the park. Security did confront me a few times but after I explained what I was doing they left me be. Overall I think I got what I wanted from the trip!

This Sunkid alpine coaster uses a ski lift to get its trains up to the top instead of a traditional chain or cable lift. Genuinely such a cool system

I made the cross-country trip to Atlanta this past week to ride ArieForce One before it closed. I was there for four days:

- Fun Spot Atlanta: Wednesday, July 15 (all day) & Saturday, July 18 (1 hour)

- Six Flags Over Georgia: Thursday, July 16, Friday, July 17 (all day), & Saturday, July 18 (3 hours)

Stats

- 85 rides

- 14 new credits

- 3 non-coaster rides

- 30 hours in the parks over 4 days

- 93,057 steps & 43 miles walked (inside & outside the parks)

Fun Spot Atlanta

Like many of you already know, this feels like a more permanent version of a traveling carnival. The old parking lot lines are still visible throughout the park. There is some greenery, but not nearly as much as you'd expect from a traditional amusement park. Walking around on all that concrete in the Georgia heat can be rough, so be prepared and stay hydrated.

The food prices were interesting. Some things were surprisingly cheap (hot coffee for $2 or fresh cookies for $3), while others felt expensive (iced coffee for $6, Dippin' Dots for $11). Overall, though, it was still inexpensive compared to Six Flags. I had the chicken tenders and fries, and they were better than expected. Whatever they're doing in that fryer, it's working.

The Other Rides

The only other rides I rode were the kiddie coaster Sea Serpent and Hurricane Coaster. Sea Serpent was actually more interesting than most kiddie coasters, and Hurricane had a layout I hadn't experienced before. It was definitely on the janky side, though, and could use a little more banking on the turns. Both were enjoyable enough for a single ride, but I didn't feel the need to go back.

ArieForce One (21 rides)

I managed 20 rides on Wednesday (all on the blue train) and one ride on Saturday (red train). AF1 is now my most-ridden coaster.

On Wednesday they were running one train, with either a walk-on or a 1–3 train wait, even for the front or back. Saturday they were running both trains, and the wait was around 20 minutes with the line extending outside the station.

Did it live up to the hype? Absolutely.

If anyone ever wants to know the secret to my heart, it's a great zero-g stall. ArieForce One has one of the best. Morning rides are fantastic if you're looking for something a little smoother, but by the afternoon the train is absolutely hauling. Almost too intense.

The biggest strength of ArieForce One is that there really aren't any filler elements. Even the back half is relentless. The turnaround near the end pulls some serious forces, and I consistently greyed out on the final barrel roll.

After enough laps, the final six bunny hops started to lose their novelty for me. They're still fun, but the thigh bruising starts to take over. Also...brace yourself for the brake run.

Overall, I completely understand why this coaster has developed such a devoted following. It's an incredible ride, and I'm glad I made the trip before it was gone.

Also, shout out to all the new thoosie friends I met at AF1.

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Six Flags Over Georgia

First visit

This might surprise a few of you, but this was my first visit to a Six Flags park since 2011.

Overall, I would say the park has a good, but not great, coaster lineup. It feels like it's missing that one standout, destination coaster. If only there were another fantastic coaster in need of a new home somewhere down the street... 🤔

I spoke with a woman who is the daughter of the park manager. She said they assessed moving AF1, and it's not happening.

In general, I found most of the rides here to be rougher than their counterparts elsewhere.

Rankings

Twisted Cyclone (20 rides) – While AF1 is the better single ride, TC is far more pleasant for marathoning and packs a lot of action into such a short layout and footprint. I even managed about 10 consecutive rerides without leaving the station.

Goliath (20 rides) – My third B&M hyper. I've ridden a very similar layout at Silver Star in Europa-Park. Goliath had better airtime but was noticeably rougher. I greyed out significantly every time on the downward spiral. I did get to marathon it Thurs evening.

Superman: Ultimate Flight (9 rides) – My fifth flyer and fourth B&M flyer. I'm generally not the biggest fan of B&M flyers, but this one ranks high in the park thanks to how smooth it is. It definitely feels short. I marathoned this Friday morning (8 rides before noon)

Dare Devil Dive (4 rides) – Gerstlauer Euro-Fighters are usually the coaster type most likely to give me headaches. I've ridden two famous ones (Saw and Takabisha), and both rank among my worst ride experiences. This one, on the other hand, I really enjoyed. It was still intense, but not overwhelmingly so.

Riddler Mindbender (1 ride) – Great ride...right up until the brakes. This is the coaster I most wish I'd gotten a second ride on.

Georgia Scorcher (2 rides) – My third stand-up coaster and second B&M stand-up. Great first half, but the second half starts to deliver a bit too much headbanging.

Blue Hawk (2 rides) – I enjoyed this more than Goudurix. Still fairly rough, but the setting over the water is quite nice.

Batman: The Ride (1 ride) – I rode in the back row, which turned out to be a mistake. It wasn't terrible, but the headbanging near the end made it a one-and-done. I usually enjoy Batman clones, but this was my least favorite.

Dahlonega Mine Train (1 ride) – A fairly standard mine train with just the right amount of classic Arrow jank.

Great American Scream Machine (2 rides) – Quite rough and bumpy. Yet, for some reason, I still felt compelled to ride it twice.

Joker Funhouse Coaster (1 ride) – A fun little family coaster.

Non-coasters

Pandemonium – Standard, with some pretty good airtime.

Monster Mansion – A great dark ride, especially for a Six Flags park.

Thunder River – It's been a long time since I've ridden a rapids ride, but this one was good. I only got slightly wet toward the end.

Firsts

- Two RMC hybrids in one day (technically AF1 is all steel).

- E&F Miler coaster.

Other Recommendation

City View Sports Bar (about a mile from SFOG) has an awesome Thursday karaoke night, though the frozen margaritas were a little weak.

And for those of you who saw my missed connections post...yes, we ran into each other again and exchanged numbers. 😀

The CBC has some additional photos of the transport process. Four belugas are going to the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago and two are headed to SeaWorld San Antonio - all on board the same plane. Other belugas are destined for SeaWorld San Diego, the Georgia Aquarium, and Oceanografic Valencia in Spain.

This is much welcome news as there were fears the whales would be euthanized unless the Canadian government could come to an agreement about their sale. (They did not want the whales going to parks with captive breeding programs.)

Of special interest in this sub is the final paragraph of the article:

For Niagara Falls, Canada Mayor Jim Diodati, the positives are twofold.

"Number one, it’s great for the animals. Number two, it’s going to be great for the potential of redeveloping Marineland," Diodati said. "We see this as win-win. There's a lot of great theme park developers around the world that have expressed interest [in buying Marineland], and now that the whales will have been moved, I think it’s going to open the doors for opportunity."

On a whim, I decided to go to Gröna Lund whilst visiting Stockholm. I have never really done anything akin to adrenaline junkie activities, and I thought that I'd have a blast! And that I'd be terrified. I'm not trying to sound like a big man, I'm just genuinely confused why I didn't feel any kind of rush. I went on the Ikaros the face-down drop tower, Insane, and Monster rides multiple times, but I had no gut reaction to any of them. There was certainly some anticipation before the ride, but very little during it.

As a disclaimer, I'm a rather ordinary university student, I have never been a paratrooper or anything crazy like that. Why don't I get the rush or adrenaline fix? Do I just need to go on scarier rides? I'm hoping to hear back from more experienced riders!

A while ago I posted some 3D prints I made of Cedar Point signs. Currently recovering from surgery and decided to make some more for Steel Vengeance and Magnum XL-200. Goes very well with my Cedar Point themed shelf. For those that 3D print and are interested I have posted all the models for free on makerworld if you’re able to find it (don’t know if I can post a link)