That's just a part of growing up. It feels like its lost its "magic" to you these past 4 years, but to me its pretty much identical to how it appeared in 2008. To me it lost its "magic" somewhere back in the 90's when I was becoming a teenager. Its just different to every generation. I'm probably a minority in this viewpoint, but I actually miss those days in the fall before HOS when the park was near empty. That was the period of time that sticks in my youthful memories the most. But, they gotta make money to build and maintain those coasters, so I understand why they put so much effort into HOS every year.