pashacar

On 2/12/2024 at 2:30 PM, GAcoaster said:

This seems to be a contractor building and running it, so the risk for the park is minimal. 

What contractor? Looks from the booking experience like a homespun operation.

^ Not entirely. The Blood Drums and Sideshow were playing when I went, and it was a nice surprise to stumble upon both. I was disappointed to miss DMP and Unleashed, though.

All that said, if it's a $30-40 upcharge for haunts on a typical night, and $10 for admission including haunts on a power hours night (not to mention 95% walk-ons), I'll choose the latter and be glad it exists. It's ultimately way more in line with the value of the haunts.

On 11/2/2023 at 11:50 PM, The Master said:

I wasn't too happy about weekday Fright Fests being upcharges this year. With the new merger I expect Fright Fest becoming an upcharge admission event. 

I get that the principle is annoying, but I have to say it was easily worth the $10. Walk-ons for every ride, nearly every haunt, and surprisingly full staffing in the haunts and even a couple of the scare zones. Would do it again in a heartbeat.

Saturday looked bad, but not quite as bad as some I've seen in the past.

Harry, what's the history of the park putting out a "We're at capacity!" notice like they did this weekend?

On 9/4/2023 at 2:48 PM, GAcoaster said:

As much as I love the Bobsled, it was problematic (and Knoebel's is as well). Between low capacity and the fact the track has to be bone dry to run it's not a particularly practical ride. Cedar Point solved one issue by enclosing it, but it still lacked capacity which is why they removed theirs. 

Capacity is why they removed Disaster Transport? In my experience it always had one of the fastest moving lines and little downtime.

Does anyone else know if Columbus Day has any Fright Fest activities this year?

Historically it has had a limited amount, but this year it looks like zero are planned.

I'm excited for the SAW X house. I love the franchise, and the fact that it's being done by an outside company suggests it may be better than the amateurish, bare-bones houses we're used to. Glad to see they're featuring it so prominently – although it is funny that the Conjuring one isn't getting similar treatment.

Glad they've given the wave pool facade some attention. It's horribly cheap looking compared to what it once was, but far better than it was a year or two ago.

On 9/1/2023 at 11:46 PM, 29yrswithaGApass said:

 

I believe cars will no longer be touring the Safari and revert back to the SORA trucks.  The difference this time seems to be that those that only want to do the Safari and not the theme park can access the trucks from the Safari entrance plaza.

 

The glamping tents in the rendering look very close to the catering tents in Camp Aventura.  I would expect the new area to take over those facilities.  

 

With the return to SORA, I hope they keep the rest of Camp Aventura. I love the feel of getting off there, exploring a bit, and getting on with a new guide. Makes the attraction feel so much longer and more immersive.

Are they really going to go through with this? Nitro is an iconic coaster, and it'd be a shame to lose the name and (being generous here) theme. I'd argue even more so than Ka.

3 hours ago, The Master said:

Water rides also require large amounts of water which in turn requires some treatment and replenishment. Restraints can be a drowning hazard if the ride vehicle somehow capsizes. 

I never thought of that. Any idea how it is that some water rides do have restraints?

What a fail. Not much better on a hot summer day than a trip through the flume.

I mean, I totally agree that it's not needed in theory, but there's clearly a reason that so many parks have put them up –– most likely just to cover their butts legally.

I'm not sure what you mean when you say "If these places would actually fight" things like this, because parks' legal teams have definitely fought, and won, when they've had frivolous suits thrown their way for things like people jumping fences and getting hurt.

On 6/29/2023 at 11:23 AM, BillyG said:

Plus, maybe throwing in a bit of their neighbor in the fall, the Big E.

Wait, what is the big E?

Impressed that this is the best food you've had at a SF park. I know Selim has been talking a lot about improving the food. I would love to see this level of quality more evenly distributed, and not just available from certain stands, and only on weekends.

Every time I see those 10-foot fences with the big red signs at parks I think of the idiots who made them necessary. I visited Kings Island earlier this month and was shocked that in a lot of spots, they just had standard six-foot fences. What a concept, that that should be enough to stop people from jumping over!

On 5/24/2023 at 10:43 AM, 29yrswithaGApass said:

I have never been on a Zamperla Volare flying coaster (or Playland).  The ride always seems to look jerky and the cars seem to be very rigid.  Doesn't really look like fun.

Jerky and rigid is exactly right. Not a fun one.

IIRC, Chris Gethard (a comedian you may know from Class Action Park) talks a lot about GA in a Weird NJ podcast episode. It's been a while but I think he discusses the Safari, teen culture at the park, and rides that were perceived as unsafe (even if they weren't...). Not really "weird" to us who are close to it, but perhaps to GP.

I've been impressed by what people have been saying about their experiences running into Brian around the park. It sounds like he knows the place, cares about the business, and has a passion for making the experience better. I hope that comes to fruition, as it has at Fiesta Texas!

On the labor side, the park spent so much on loss prevention alone, sending undercover employees out to check for theft by games and other staff. There are drawbacks to cashless but unless they legally can’t do it it makes total sense for them.

^ That is funny, I didn't put two and two together that they'd killed both queue fountains within a few weeks of one another. I wonder if it's just cost-cutting.

Love the Wildwood tram car! Thanks for sharing this.

^Glad to hear that, for sure. I was getting ready to have to wait for ‘24.

$43 for parking is really something.

Also, credit where it's due, the Quick6 store looks better than I expected.

Thanks as always for the great report.

Nice report, Yoshi. Are you saying they need to physically lock each restraint?

Thanks for the insight. Would love to see that, since Sky Ride gets long, slow lines. At the very least, they ought to consolidate the queues into one so it moves twice as fast when both sides are open.