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The Skittles 2018 USA Trip Thread!


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Hi everyone!

 

This is the first trip report I have ever done, so it might not be up to the standards you'd expect, but I hope you still enjoy it!

I'm not big on photo taking, so you won't see many photos, but I'll try to sneak one in here and there.

 

Anyways, this is my 2018 USA trip! I'd rather not write it all out, so I'll just copy and paste the schedule below.

Day 0 - Flying out to Cleveland and trip introduction

Day 1 - Kennywood and Adventure Park USA

Day 2 - Six Flags America

Day 3 - Kings Dominion

Day 4 - Busch Gardens Williamsburg

Day 5 - Carowinds

Day 6 - Driving day

Day 7 - Kings Island

Day 8 - Coney Island Cincinnati

Day 9 - Kentucky Kingdom and Holiday World

Day 10 - Indiana Beach

Day 11 - Chicago Culture

Day 12 - Six Flags Great America

Day 13 - Michigan's Adventure

Day 14 - Cedar Point Day 1

Day 15 - Cedar Point Day 2

 

As of right now, I'm waiting at Salt Lake City airport briefly before flying out to Cleveland. (the Salt Lake City bit was just a quick hour long layover)

 

I don't feel much of a need to take any photos at an airport, so I won't do so for now. But I look forward to updating this thread!

 

Thanks!

-Skittles

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Here it is everyone! My first ever trip report. This is actually from Kennywood and Adventure Park USA, because I got to the park within the last 45 minutes or so of closing time, after leaving Kennywood a bit earlier than I intended because a thunderstorm was coming in to Pittsburgh.

 

So how was Kennywood? It's a decent park. It doesn't have very good operations, but it has a lot of charm and a good coaster collection. Phantom's Revenge is awesome and better than any coaster in NorCal (sorry RMCs and Gold Striker); great airtime, second drop, and location. I really enjoyed it. Jack Rabbit was my second favorite for sure. That double down really did it for me; it actually did so much for me that I now call Jack Rabbit my favorite wooden coaster! (Sorry again, Gold Striker) Racer was my third favorite, as it was just full of nice classic fun, then Thunderbolt at fourth because while it was still very good, it just didn't impress me as much as the other three mentioned. Exterminator was just okay, and Sky Rocket was down.

 

Adventure Park USA was a nice little credit whoring stop. Sure, it's not a place you can spend more than about 45 minutes at, but they keep all three coasters in good shape. I thought Wild West Express was pretty good and Wildcat was ok. And yes, I did ride Tumbleweed. No shame!

 

Here are the photos! Please note they aren't in 100% chronological order because I wanted to keep it in order of which coasters I rode. So a couple coaster photos were taken at different times than others.

 

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It's finally time for my first coaster trip! Starting at Kennywood; which is actually my first park outside of California.

 

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This was my first coaster of the day. It was my first Spinning Mouse, and I thought it was okay. The theming was good, but I didn't find the coaster very comfortable.

 

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After the low capacity coaster, it was time to get one of my most anticipated coasters of the trip out of the way! PHANTOM'S REVENGE!!

 

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At first, I thought Phantom's Revenge was great but a bit overrated because I rode in Row 4, but my next ride was in the back and WOW it delivered!

 

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I don't think I've experienced true ejector airtime until now! All over the ride, you get ejected into the loose restraints. There's just nothing like this in California. Beyond that, it has great terrain usage, one of the best drops in existence, and makes you want to jump back in line and ride 10 more times when you slam into the brake run.

 

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Oh yeah, and I love how Kennywood is on the side of a hill that overlooks urban Pittsburgh. (The background looks different from the past few photos because storms were rolling in and this was in the queue line for my last ride)

 

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Just across from Phantom's Revenge was the first wooden coaster of the day.

 

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It was a very unique ride. It was full of brutal laterals which aren't always my cup of tea, but I thought the drops were great. Really good ride nonetheless!

 

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I wasn't expecting too much from Racer, but ended up seriously enjoying it! It's so much fun to race, (I've never done this before; I live in NorCal) and there was a lot of good floater airtime. Very impressed with this classic!

 

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Jack Rabbit was such a joy to ride! Even beyond the double down, which I can now say the stories I've heard about it are NOT exaggerated, I couldn't help but smile whenever we dipped into the Kennywood terrain. Because of the double down and short(ish) lines, I ended up calling this my new favorite wooden coaster! (That'll probably change soon)

 

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Here's the last photo of the park before I left. I started the drive to D.C. a bit early because there wasn't a whole lot else to do, and a thunderstorm was coming. Despite the operations, I hope to return soon.

 

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Next stop, after a three hour drive down into the Mid-Atlantic, Adventure Park USA! First up was Wild West Express. It was a fun ride for sure. Was a bit shaky, but it's a traveler, so that's okay. I loved the little dips and turns!

Unfortunately, I realized now that I have no photos of anything else at Adventure Park USA. But that's alright, I guess.

 

That's all from this update! Six Flags America tomorrow!

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Nice first trip report. If I could make a couple of "newbie suggestions" that will help improve your photos...

 

1. Wait for a train. Coaster photos with a train in the shot IMO will always look so much better than empty track and really helps sell the excitement (or maybe lack of) of whatever ride you're showing off.

 

2. Check your pics on your phone. Zoom in on them, etc, to make sure they are clear. Sometimes what looks good on a phone doesn't always look good when you see it on a larger screen (I'm on my desktop) and for example your Thunderbolt photo looks a little blurry. If you zoom in on a photo a bit on your phone you can see if the pixels are clear or not.

 

3. Adjust your framing. Try to keep your object more in frame and less random people or heads in the picture. Again your Thunderbolt pic could have been much better if it was taken a bit closer to the ride, a train on the track, and few people in the shot.

 

Hope that helps!

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Nice first trip report. If I could make a couple of "newbie suggestions" that will help improve your photos...

 

1. Wait for a train. Coaster photos with a train in the shot IMO will always look so much better than empty track and really helps sell the excitement (or maybe lack of) of whatever ride you're showing off.

 

2. Check your pics on your phone. Zoom in on them, etc, to make sure they are clear. Sometimes what looks good on a phone doesn't always look good when you see it on a larger screen (I'm on my desktop) and for example your Thunderbolt photo looks a little blurry. If you zoom in on a photo a bit on your phone you can see if the pixels are clear or not.

 

3. Adjust your framing. Try to keep your object more in frame and less random people or heads in the picture. Again your Thunderbolt pic could have been much better if it was taken a bit closer to the ride, a train on the track, and few people in the shot.

 

Hope that helps!

Thanks a million Robb! Nice to hear from a professional trip report writer

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Nice report so far. Kennywood is slowly climbing my "new parks to visit" list, especially with their big new 2019 project. Can't wait for more!

Thanks! Hopefully with their 2019 addition they can keep a lot of their charm.

 

The first half of the day was actually spent in Washington D.C. at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum and the National Mall to see the memorials, which was my favorite part of the day, though I'm low on space on my phone so I wanted to save space for Six Flags America photos. I'm working on it; don't worry. Anyways, onto Six Flags America.

 

I'm not going to lie; I didn't have a very good time here. It was really hot, and the security guy that checked my backpack didn't let me bring in my Ibuprofen, so I wasted 10 minutes walking back to my car and put it back and come back to get it checked again. I really didn't understand that at all; I had just entered the park and already had a sour taste in my mouth. Beyond that, a lot of the operations were actually a good bit slower than those at Kennywood, and a few of the ops yelled at me because I had buckled my seatbelt. Something I thought that was very bizarre is that at some rides, I could buckle my seatbelt on my own, and on others I got yelled at for ops to do it for me. Finally, the park didn't look very great, and with minimal shade, I had an increasing headache, so combine that with the slower operations, that limits any re-rides at all. For that reason, I only got one ride on every coaster (except Batwing, because that was closed all day) but I would have liked to re-ride Superman and Wild One. Hopefully Six Flags America will clean up their act a bit, but I've been hearing these reports from years back until now, so who knows?

 

Talking about the coasters, they have a promising collection. Wild One was actually my favorite coaster at the park; it's a classic woodie, and it packs a ton of airtime all the way through. I was very surprised by it. Superman was a very close second, I just prefer rides that pack the airtime through the entire ride, whereas Superman didn't pack a lot of airtime until the second half. My third favorite was Joker's Jinx; that was a great ride, but it made me pretty dizzy. Beyond those three, the rest of the coasters were okay. Roar was actually a really good ride, Ragin' Cajun was fun, and Great Chase was another credit for my count. Though I most point out Apocalypse and Mind Eraser for being exceptionally bad. Apocalypse was rougher than Vortex at CGA ever was, and Mind Eraser was arguably worse than Kong because of how hot it was at the park, which gave me a bigger headache.

 

I'm going to try something, and see how it compares to others. I'm going to rank the big coasters of the trip so far.

 

1. Phantom's Revenge

2. Jack Rabbit

3. Racer (am I crazy? Probably. It just really blew me away)

4. Wild One

5. Superman - Ride of Steel

6. Joker's Jinx

7. Thunderbolt

8. Roar

9. Wild West Express

10. Ragin' Cajun

11. Wildcat

12. Exterminator

13. Apocalypse

14. Mind Eraser

 

Anyways, enough ranting. Here are the photos I took. I didn't take as many pictures, purely because I wanted to keep moving due to my headache.

 

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First Six Flags park of the trip! Hopefully I can have a decent time!

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My first Intamin Mega Coaster! Will it be the star attraction?

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It was definitely a great ride. I wish it had more airtime in the first half, but the second half is packed with great ejector! (I'm not sure why this photo looks like it was taken at sunset)

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If anything, I wish I got more rides on it, but Six Flags America doesn't have a great park layout, and I wasn't enthused with staying at the park any longer than I needed.

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It's hard to get photos from most areas in the park; I didn't really feel like venturing out to Batwing to get more photos as I had open credits to get. But despite that, it's still a very pretty ride for sure.

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Joker's Jinx was next. It was great; surprisingly intense and smooth for the most part, but it made me pretty dizzy so I wouldn't re-ride it even if I was able to re-ride the coasters.

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Something I have to give it credit for, however, is that it has one of my favorite coaster signs. It's awesome!

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After this, I can now say that I've ridden B&M's first two coasters. It was really bad though; it definitely looks better than Vortex ever was and better than Patriot is now, but the ride is rougher than either ever was.

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Speaking of terrible rides... this was actually worse than Kong. I called it my new least favorite steel coaster after I got off the ride, and I still believe that to be true. It's not quite as bad as Grizzly at CGA (my current bottom ranked coaster), but it's very close as my #2 bottom ranked coaster.

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My personal favorite coaster in the park. Airtime over every hill, all the way through. I've had amazing luck with classic woodies so far this trip!

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After the few hours and having gotten every credit, I just decided to leave for Doswell early. Hopefully the park can clean up their act a bit in the future, because it wasn't a very good park today.

Thanks for reading! Stay tuned for Kings Dominion tomorrow!

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I pretty much share your same opinions about this park and all of its coasters. I also thought Roar and Wild One were quite good (the latter being better), but Superman was also not bad at all. It just doesn't compare to other Intamin Megas/Hypers out there that do much more than helices.

 

Bummer you didn't get on Batwing. It's not an *amazing* ride by any means, but I actually rather like it and Firehawk. They are pretty fun and intense coasters.

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Great reports!

 

Phantom's Revenge really is amazing. Having air that strong and lap bars that far off your lap truly is a special combination.

 

It also seems like you really like classic woodies. Kennywood really shines there and Wild One is a sneaky good wooden coaster.

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I pretty much share your same opinions about this park and all of its coasters. I also thought Roar and Wild One were quite good (the latter being better), but Superman was also not bad at all. It just doesn't compare to other Intamin Megas/Hypers out there that do much more than helices.

 

Bummer you didn't get on Batwing. It's not an *amazing* ride by any means, but I actually rather like it and Firehawk. They are pretty fun and intense coasters.

Interesting! I have ridden a Vekoma Flying Dutchman, but that was Stealth way back before it was moved to Carowinds. At least I get to reunite with an old friend in a couple days!

 

Great reports!

 

Phantom's Revenge really is amazing. Having air that strong and lap bars that far off your lap truly is a special combination.

 

It also seems like you really like classic woodies. Kennywood really shines there and Wild One is a sneaky good wooden coaster.

Thank you! I think that since I'm traveling more, I'm learning more about myself as a coaster enthusiast, and classic woodies might be one of my favorite types of coasters now.

 

Looks like a pretty good start. Will keep an eye on this report for sure.

Thanks! You won't be disappointed!

 

Today was the third day of the trip, and at what was arguably the first truly great park. Kings Dominion.

 

I like to talk about the park as a whole, but I have to get this out of the way...

 

Twisted Timbers and Intimidator 305!!!

 

The first coaster I rode that day was Twisted Timbers, and as we slid into the brake run, I proclaimed it better than any RMC and arguably my new favorite coaster! I was absolutely blown away! Then my next coaster was i305? I've never been so blown away by a coaster!! Holy sh t those two coasters are possibly my new Top 2 favorites! Kings Dominion SERIOUSLY has to have one of the best one-two punches in the world!

 

Anyways, how about the rest of the park? I think it's a great place to spend a day! Beyond it's great coaster collection, it has a nice collection of rides for the whole family, I was surprised by how pretty the scenery looked and how it blended in with the whole park, and I haven't been used to fast operations on this trip, (cough Kennywood cough Six Flags America) but Kings Dominion's ride ops did very well while I was here. The longest I waited might've only been 10 minutes and that was for Twisted Timbers.

 

The place is run great and I'd say among the best Cedar Fair parks.

 

Let's talk about the coaster collection beyond the top 2. Volcano was unfortunately closed, making for one large steel coaster missed at every park I've visited so far. First Sky Rocket at Kennywood, then Batwing, and Volcano today. While that was a loss, Dominator was my third favorite coaster in the park. It's a long, powerful B&M that always kept the pace. It roars like an old school B&M too, and I'd call it my second favorite B&M coaster just behind Flight Deck at CGA. Racer 75 would be my 4th favorite, keeping a streak of classic wooden coasters running nicely, full of airtime and a smooth, out-and-back layout. My fifth favorite was Flight of Fear, and while a good ride, I wasn't a fan of the coaster being indoors. It made me dizzy enough outside yesterday at Six Flags America, I felt almost nauseous here. I might think twice before riding the one at Kings Island in a few days. After that, it's all pretty standard fare. Apple Zapple was a Wild Mouse, but I can easily have fun on any of them. Backlot Stunt Coaster was a well-themed family coaster, but it's getting pretty rough. Avalanche was an ok family coaster, but a good one for all audiences. I was disappointed by Grizzly; I was hoping for a massive improvement over the sorry CGA version, and while it's actually got some airtime and is in a better location, I'd argue it was running just as rough. However, speaking of CGA's Grizzly, that seemed pretty light compared to Anaconda. I said yesterday that my #1 least favorite coaster was Grizzly at CGA, but it's now #2. Anaconda was truly terrible. Even in the sections that it shouldn't have done so, I was getting kicked around a lot, and I'm a bit of a taller guy, so it got my knees pretty bad too. It was awful, and I don't understand how Demon, another Arrow Looper, can run just fine at another Cedar Fair park but this one doesn't. Demon is a lot smaller, however...

 

Enough talking. I know everyone's been looking forward to seeing my photos!

 

Please note that some of the pictures are filtered, because the original picture didn't look as great with the weather today. Also, some photos have a lot of clouds, some don't, because it was pretty cloudy in the morning.

 

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One of my most anticipated parks on the trip! Let's see what kind of day we'll have!

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YAY! New RMC time!! How will it stack up against the California RMCs?

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Holy sh*t!! It might have a lap bar that actually touches your body, but there's airtime EVERYWHERE and it feels exactly like Phantom's Revenge! Just WOW! What an insane design with some of the strongest airtime over every little bump!

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And what a first drop! The front has a slow rollover which is awesome, but the whip of the back seriously gets you yelling! It's a great way to start off a nearly perfectly paced ride.

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What happens after you ride what might be your new #1? Go to the next ride that becomes your new #1! Oh... my... gosh... this was my first giga, and my heart was pumping from the first moment I saw it's colossal lift hill over the trees, but I didn't think this could possibly blow me away more than Twisted Timbers did. But it did! Words cannot describe all the mindf*cks that i305 throws at you, other than they made i305 my all-time favorite coaster!!!

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One of the best B&M Floorless coasters. Very forceful, smooth, and full of fun through every inversion!

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Even though i305 was my new favorite coaster, (and still is) after I got all the credits I possibly could have, Twisted Timbers is the coaster I ran right back to for re-rides. By the end of the day, I had a total of 6 laps on this monster because the line was always so bearable thanks to Kings Dominion's fast operations!

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Although I was walking on air most of the day, this was a definite disappointment. Hopefully it can get back up and running soon.

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I can't complete this trip report without mentioning this wonder of an Intamin Drop Tower. I'm pretty used to the 2nd Gen drop tower back home at CGA, but this one has a way better sensation of speed. Intamin might be my new favorite manufacturer for how well they do everything!

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Remember how I said I got 6 rides on Twisted Timbers? Despite running right back to Twisted Timbers for more before i305, I got the most rides on my favorite coaster, totalling out at 8. I just couldn't to more; during the evening, I tried to marathon it, but after just 3 laps back to back, my throat was already sore from how intense this coaster is. Probably the best sore throat one can possibly get!

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I can't get over how incredibly awesome i305 is. The first drop, the Gs, the direction changes, the speed, the smoothness... everything. Everyone needs to get out to Kings Dominion to get their fill on i305 and TwiT. (damn support got in the way, haha)

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Between i305 and TwiT, I had one of the greatest nights of my life. Goodbye Kings Dominion; I look forward to returning ASAP!

Do you share my crazy Kings Dominion praise? Leave your comment below and look forward to Busch Gardens Williamsburg tomorrow!

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Really great report with some excellent photos. Your thoughts about each park is similar to mine.

 

Intamin might be my new favorite manufacturer for how well they do everything!

Welcome to the dark side.

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Really great report with some excellent photos. Your thoughts about each park is similar to mine.

 

Intamin might be my new favorite manufacturer for how well they do everything!

Welcome to the dark side.

and thanks!

 

Good update! Yeah the 1-2 punch at Kings Dominion is incredibly good.

 

Sorry to hear Grizzly didn't give you a good ride. I thought it was running well in April.

Thank you! It really is! I might've just caught Grizzly on a bad day. It is a traditional woodie, after all.

 

I'm sorry about this being a couple days late, but I made a bad choice on my hotel in Charlotte; I stayed in a Country Inn near the Charlotte Airport, and it was hard for me to fall asleep both nights there, and so I was pretty tired and not in the mood to write up reports.

 

Anyways, Busch Gardens Williamsburg!!

 

Even though I only stayed for half a day in order to get down to Charlotte, I really had a great time here. It really is an incredibly beautiful and "put together" park. The lunch food was amazing (I had a burger at because I was getting hungry and didn't want to decide on some special meal), and the operations were fast, and that just added to visiting on a Wednesday. SeaWorld knows what they're doing.

 

On to the coasters, I'm not gonna lie. I was kinda disappointed with their collection. I started out with Griffon (my first B&M Dive Coaster) and I thought it was pretty good at best. The drop wasn't as intense as some made it out to be, but still was a ton of fun. It was also possibly the smoothest coaster I've ever ridden, just with kind of a repetitive layout. This is an unpopular opinion, but InvadR was my favorite coaster at the park. It had real nice theming, and it was smooth and full of airtime, especially for having a smaller layout. I was seriously surprised with how much I enjoyed it. Alpengeist was disappointing; not a fan. It could have been an amazing Invert if it wasn't for an awfully consistent rattle which almost gave me a headache, when you combine that with inversion whip. Verbolten was a good family coaster with amazing theming, not much else to say. Apollo was my first B&M Hyper, and yeah, not gonna lie. It felt lacking, especially compared to the Intamin monsters of the past couple days and Phantom's Revenge. The airtime wasn't anything to shout at, and the layout seemed to be more designed with caution. It wasn't disappointing per se, but I'm in the club that doesn't prefer B&M Hypers to most other coaster types. Tempesto was fun; I really didn't think the comfort collars were that bad. I thought it ran just fine like Superman. Then finally I rode Loch Ness Monster, which is a nice classic Arrow Looper and way better than the horrible Arrow trash from Kings Dominion the day before. Busch Gardens doesn't have any bad coasters, but nothing that blows away the competition either.

 

Onward to the photos! I'm not going to lie; I forgot to take some photos from inside the park because of how immersed I was.

 

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The most beautiful park in the world! Does it live up to the awards?

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First coaster of the day! First B&M Dive!

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What a fun ride! Nothing amazing, but extremely smooth and good hangtime.

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Unfortunately, I realize this is the only photo I took of InvadR. But I was very surprised by how great of a ride it was! Lots of airtime and a great pace like all GCIs!

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Again, unfortunately the only photo I took of a coaster, but Alpengeist was a disappointment. So, so rattly. Gave me a huge headache. Not quite my least favorite Invert because it actually has a really good layout, but wasn't something that I'd ride a second time. Don't get me wrong; I liked it, a LOT despite the roughness because it is a very intense ride, but I wish it was smoother.

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One of my favorite photos I've ever taken of a really good ride. I seriously enjoyed Verbolten for it's great theming and final drop!

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A lot of people complain about the comfort collars... I really didn't notice any difference in ride quality between this and Superman back home at SFDK.

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I didn't really like how any of my photos from inside the park turned out, so here's the only decent photo I got of Apollo. It was my first B&M Hyper, and while it was a very good ride, I can see why some people aren't huge fans of them. The airtime was slightly disappointing, and the layout didn't really do anything for me. But it was extremely comfortable and I loved the sensation of speed in the ravine drops!

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Time to ride a true classic!

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By far the smoothest Arrow I've ridden. Very fun too!

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Now that we've gone through all the big coasters, let's take a look at the world's most beautiful park.

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I don't think I've ever felt more relaxed at a theme park.

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Here's one last photo of the Mach Tower before finishing the update.

 

Up next - Carowinds! Where I hit my 100th coaster! (My signature isn't my current count because I want to keep up with the updates. The count currently in my signature was my count after BGW)

 

EDIT - Some of the photos are out of order. Sorry about that.

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Oh yeah, and Griffon has to have one of my all time favorite color schemes. It's BEAUTIFUL!!

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Glad your trip to KW was fun. We were there that day for our first and only visit and we fcked out hard. We spent the morning extremely leisurely. We rode a few rides and went to the car early for our healthy cooler lunch. Being exhaust from our trip so far, we passed out in the car for about an hour. By the time we got back into the pack and rode a couple more of the coasters the storm started to roll in. We wanted to beat the storm, since I checked the weather and it was going to clear up around six or so. We left the park and came back around six and the weather was turning out to be beautiful. We walked back toward the park to find out that it closed four hours early for weather, despite the beautiful evening... They were giving out rain checks, which didn't do us any good.

 

We really sucked. With tickets and VIP passes we paid around $250 and ended up riding seven rides at about $35 each... We planned on having a few beers and really hitting the rides at night, like we usually do. I didn't predict such an early weather closure, so I take a lot of the blame. Still seemed a bit early to shut down, though. Maybe they were having power issues.

 

Either way, nice Kennywood TR and good call on getting your riding in early and leaving ahead of the weather...

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  • 1 month later...
Glad your trip to KW was fun. We were there that day for our first and only visit and we fcked out hard. We spent the morning extremely leisurely. We rode a few rides and went to the car early for our healthy cooler lunch. Being exhaust from our trip so far, we passed out in the car for about an hour. By the time we got back into the pack and rode a couple more of the coasters the storm started to roll in. We wanted to beat the storm, since I checked the weather and it was going to clear up around six or so. We left the park and came back around six and the weather was turning out to be beautiful. We walked back toward the park to find out that it closed four hours early for weather, despite the beautiful evening... They were giving out rain checks, which didn't do us any good.

 

We really sucked. With tickets and VIP passes we paid around $250 and ended up riding seven rides at about $35 each... We planned on having a few beers and really hitting the rides at night, like we usually do. I didn't predict such an early weather closure, so I take a lot of the blame. Still seemed a bit early to shut down, though. Maybe they were having power issues.

 

Either way, nice Kennywood TR and good call on getting your riding in early and leaving ahead of the weather...

Thanks!

 

Oh jeez, I'm really backed up on this.

 

Carowinds!!

 

I thought this was a really pleasant and laid-back theme park. It has a lot of charm, something I wasn't expecting, and everyone is very nice. All the coasters and rides are well run, with fast ride operations, so it was no problem to get every credit in a day.

 

Fury 325 was my second giga coaster, and while I didn't quite like it as much as Intimidator 305, I still found it to be an awesome coaster and my favorite at the park. From the first drop to the final brake run, it goes strong. It has one of the greatest coaster paces ever, the turns provide some real nice laterals and are really fun (not quite i305 laterals obviously, but still) that treble clef dive is a surprisingly good drop even though the first drop is incredible as well, and the second half while trimmed, still has some pretty good floater air. After Carowinds, it was my #9 on my Top 10, but I need to update that with all the new coasters since Carowinds.

 

Afterburn was definitely my second favorite at the park. While I prefer Fury because it's more fun, I think that Afterburn is the more intense coaster. Wow, these inversions have some snap to them! It's smaller, yes, but because of how forceful and fast all the inversions are taken, I really don't care. It's also got one of my favorite coaster finishes ever. That final corkscrew into a Flight Deck-esque powerful helix? AMAZING!

 

Intimidator was my second B&M Hyper, (not counting Fury) and to be honest, I thought Apollo's Chariot kind of disappointing, but Intimidator wasn't even as good as that. Not sure if the trims were on extra hard or not, but I didn't get a whole lot of airtime over any of the hills, and after the ride was over, I kind of said, "that was fun, but do I have to ride that again?" I'm sure when the trims are off it's a lot better, but my rides were fun, nothing more.

 

Beyond that, most of the collection was made up of standard credits. Ricochet was a wild mouse, but I always enjoy those coasters so I got a kick out of it. Woodstock Express was a surprisingly fun family woodie, but it still is a family woodie. I thought it was more fun than the one at Kings Dominion, however! Carolina Goldrusher was a very fun Arrow Mine Train indeed, and after my Carowinds visit I called it my favorite Arrow Mine Train, but that doesn't say much since at the time, the only other Arrow Mine Train I had ridden was Gold Rusher at SFMM Flying Cobras was smoother than the other Boomerangs I've ridden because of the new restraints, as one could guess, but it still has the original brake mechanisms so the braking still felt the same as the others with the original OTSRs, unfortunately. I wish it had the magnetic brakes from Sidewinder at Hershey. Carolina Cyclone proved that the smaller Arrow Loopers are smoother than the bigger ones at Cedar Fair parks, for me at least. This and Demon were okay, but Anaconda is much larger and much, much worse. (in my opinion) Hurler was kind of the same deal as Grizzly at Kings Dominion; it was an ok woodie, but it didn't have much to offer at all. Both seemed pretty lackluster. And yes, I did get the other two kiddie credits, Kiddy Hawk and Wilderness Run.

 

Getting on to the bad rides, I haven't talked about Nighthawk or Vortex yet. Nighthawk wasn't new to me, as I had ridden Stealth way back at CGA, and it's fallen far. What was once a pretty fun ride a decade and a half ago in California is now rattly and uncomfortable and gave me a terrible headache, making me wonder what torture Batwing could have been a few days back. With Vortex I can now say that I've ridden the three oldest B&Ms in existence. (as of now, I've also ridden Batman at SFGAm, so I can say I've ridden the three oldest B&Ms in existence) Vortex showed it's age just as much as Apocalypse. While it didn't look as good, it ran as bad, so I unfortunately can say that I really don't like stand-up coasters at all. Riddler's was still being re-painted the time I went to SFMM, so I have yet to ride a good stand-up coaster.

 

Anyways, I'm not going to make this a photo report anymore. I just want these reports to get out.

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