Utah State Fair: A few notes (and updated coaster count)


I'm still behind on my theme park blog, but I don't care if there's crossover. I'm just gonna do a quick dump of my impressions here. 

 - Typhoon (as seen above) is pretty awesome. Be a lot cooler if it inverted though. 

- Make sure you check what time the carnival opens, not just the fair itself. For example, today the fair opened at 10:00 AM but the carnival did not open until 1:00 PM for some stupid reason. 

- Speed and Black Out are always extra, wristband or not -- $10 each. So is the giant yellow slide, which is $3. I didn't bother with the yellow slide, though it did look cool, but I do ride Speed and Black Out every year. 

- They let you ride alone on Vertigo, the mini star flyer. City of Fun does not, which is annoying. It feels kind of freaky though because you tilt quite a bit to the side. 

- I didn't try riding the Zipper alone, because the sign said no single riders and there was no one looking for a riding partner, so I still haven't been on a Zipper yet. 

- They let you ride on the kiddie coaster, the Wacky Cowboy Coaster. It's actually pretty fun for its size. You go around like 5 times. This brought up my coaster count to 89. 

- Car 4 on the tilt-a-whirl gave amazing spins this year. Like 20x better than all the tilt-a-whirl rides I've had at Lagoon this year. Car 3 was also looking pretty good, despite no one being in it. I still feel like I'm spinning a little bit from it. 

- Getting there at 1:30 PM on Friday meant very reasonable crowds. Not too crowded, not too sparse (except for the Barnyard, which I ended up skipping because there was no one else in line, and lining up for that by myself felt odd). I did all the rides I wanted to in 90 minutes, and then I left to do homework. 

- State Fair sweatshirts are $25 in the official store. I got one! 

- The Himalaya did hurt my arm, but Lagoon's Music Express is still significantly more painful. It was also blazing hot with zero shade throughout the entire fair...except for on the Himalaya. Just saying. 

- I got some awesome views of the fair from Vertigo and Speed. It's ridiculous how small it is compared to the Ventura County Fair. 

- You can get your hand stamped to leave and re-enter. However, your parking pass is invalid the moment you leave the lot, which is dumb. The hand stamp says STEER, which is kinda fun fitting in with the farm theme. Also, ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

- Don't pay with credit or debit for Speed/Black Out because it will charge you a service fee. But paying with card is preferred in the official fair store. 

- Parking is $10. You can pay with card. 

- Buy your tickets and wristbands in advance. For me, $9.06 admission + $17 matinee wristband + $25 hoodie + $10 Speed + $10 Black Out + $10 parking = $81.06. Yeah, carnivals are NOT a cheap hobby to have, despite the stereotypes. 

- The time it says on the Etix for the wristbands is NOT accurate. Google "Utah State Fair carnival hours" and you should find the actual link for when the carnival itself opens. 

- Matinee wristband is all you need. This isn't the Ventura County Fair with 50 rides. But the crowds get positively ridiculous later in the evening. Glad I left around 3. 

- The carnival is staffed by the Mighty Thomas Carnival and Armco Thrill Zone (Speed, Black Out). I'm not sure who runs the giant yellow slide. Thomas Carnival's website says that there is a Ring of Fire. There is no Ring of Fire. That said, both companies are the best ones in Utah. They don't kick you off kiddie coasters, and they're just nicer in general than the other traveling establishments in the state. 





















Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Unleashing my inner Disney Princess ✩₊˚.⋆☾⋆⁺₊✧ at the 2024 Disney Princesses Half Marathon

Image
TL;DR it was amazing and perfect  and we are going to make this an annual tradition. I may edit this with photos later, but I'm probably going to forget.  Recently, I spent 5 wonderful days donating my dollarbucks and soul to the evil mouse in Orlando. I did it for the Disney Princess Half Marathon.  Just look at that happy little alligator musician. He's so CHONKY. It's adorable. I love him. How could you NOT run a half marathon for him when he's cheering you on?  (My dad says it's weird to say the word "adorable" as a man, which makes zero logical sense and obviously means I need to use that word as often as possible. I will also continue to wear my rings and maybe I'll start flashing my pink protein shaker. Just to cause a little discomfort, because it's funny.)  I haven't seen the movie yet actually so idk if the gator is a major character or not. But JUST LOOK AT HIM.  My cousin and I had been planning a Disney trip, specifically centered
Read more

The 20-something types of Computer Science majors

Image
I've been way too distracted with this blog lately, and I need to hurry up and start getting crap done. But...I've been dying to write this lol.  The advanced neckbeard A rare variety. When a neckbeard is forced out of his mom's basement and into college, he becomes an Advanced Neckbeard. You can always tell when he's coming, because you can smell him from half a mile away. He is very overweight, and wears shirts that are either plain or adorned with anime/gaming graphics. These shirts are either stained with sweat, Hot Cheetos, or something a little bit more, ah, suspicious . He is so socially unskilled that he makes everyone else in the major look normal. Age 30+, GPA at a 2.0 or just barely above it. Will never drop the major despite his lack of effort, because he simply doesn't care if he gets bad grades. In fact, he is probably highly intelligent, but his grades will never reflect that. Nevertheless, he will get a much higher paying job than a regular neckbeard
Read more

The Evenstar

I've never liked this world much.  Ever since I was a little kid, I always dreamed of going somewhere else. I created this alternate version of Earth that had everything and everyone that I loved, but with all these improvements to it. Magic was real. So were dragons. Dinosaurs hadn't gone extinct. Technology allowed people to fly. A network of glass corridors provided transport between this world and mine, snaking through streams of stars, galaxies, and lightyears of blackness.  And more than anything, I wasn't alone. I don't remember why I spent so much time alone as a kid. I really wish I did. All I know is that when I was in my  world, I always had someone by my side.  The feeling of being out of place here was overwhelming. It still is. That sense of not belonging, of longing for somewhere else, it has never gone away.  When I was in middle school, being bullied daily, I escaped to that world. The boys who tripped me and spit on me disappeared, replaced by tropical
Read more