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!

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 don't believe I've ever seen a picture of this poster in the subreddit before, so figured I'd share! It's located on the backside of the lockers, facing a bush, making it pretty difficult to spot unless by accident. Love that even eight years after the ride opened there are still new details to discover! Just wonder what Mr. Schilke thinks about it...

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!

Thats a big inversion

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.

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?

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)

Things are really starting to take shape…

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

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.

Hoping for a soft opening this evening!!

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

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."

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?

I found it while trying to find the Chaos ride that is allegedly in Costa Rica. I have not found who owns this inverter yet, but still a pretty big discovery. This showman also seems to own a pinfari ZL42. Any ideas? https://youtu.be/8dc2KZluL18?si=fnQykoGqzQNdbCbD