Photo TR: TPR Midwest trip, Geauga Lake, and Dollywood

Sections:

Geauga Lake 1

Geauga Lake 2

Geauga Lake video

Dollywood

Coney Island

Holiday World

Kentucky Kingdom

Beech Bend

TPR rides T2 Video

White Castle Takeover

Indiana Beach

Little America

Mount Olympus part 1

Riverview Park

Timber Falls

Great America

Great America continued

Cedar Point (parts 1 and 2) - Arrival and first rides

Cedar Point (parts 3 and 4) - More rides

Cedar Point (parts 5 and 6) - The second day, along with Ryan riding Jr. Gemini

Cedar Point (parts 7 and 8) - Lunch and Trash Can Randomness, Maverick, Night shots

Kennywood (Racer ERT)

Kennywood (Thunderbolt ERT)

Kennywood (Noah's Ark, Phantom)

Kennywood (Laughing Sal, Casey fits into Lil' Phantom)

Kennywood (Jackrabbit, misc rides)

Kennywood (Photo Walkbacks)

Kennywood (Lunch and pictures of Bryan)

Stricker's Grove (part 1)

Stricker's Grove (part 2)

Panoramic shots

I will not be posting Kings Island due to lack of interest.

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Geauga Lake (part 1)

I met two days before the start of the trip to hit a few parks with Evan (What Now) and Dave (methos). Since Dave wasn't flying in until late, Evan and I hit up what was left of Geauga Lake. Geauga Lake was my first experience with a Cedar Fair park

More GL pictures on the way...

Sideloop!

Conveniently located near the Boomerang

The park also had a standard Boomerang, this one with Arrow trains

The log flume. Maybe if it was Diet Pepsi, it might be Dan Friendly

SLC through the trees!

There wasn't much special about it, besides like a lot of other SLC's, it was partly over water (I can't figure out what Blackpool Pleasure Beach is going on about)

Do we really want to see ourselves in pain?

Dorney has a Thunderhawk, being a good woodie. GL's is an SLC, and is now banging heads at Michigan's Adventure

It's a standard B&M floorless. Now its at Kings Dominion

Another shot of Dominator Knight Flight

One of the trains de-railed, closing the ride for the rest of the season

Raging Wolf Bobs was one of the park's three woodies

Some of the quality merchandise offered for sale in the gift stores

The queue for Dominator (Batman)

Probably the only picture I got of Double Loop

I can understand one or two, but isn't this a little overboard?

Crowds were light

Cedar Fair even themed the parking lot

This picture shows the effects of both Six Flags and Cedar Fair on the park

Villain was a CCI woodie after G-trains tear it up

The park wasn't very crowded. Most of the rides were walk-on

Upon approaching, we are greeted with a Boomerang!

It isn't a proper rental car without a fancy dash mounted GPS.

What a good start, I can't wait to see all the rest.

Thanks for the GL pictures. I was happy that we (as a group) decided on Kennywood, but I don't know much about this one.

Glad you got to go.

David

If....when I win the lottery, I will give you my current dslr when I get my d200. Nice pictures so far.

Geauga Lake continued. Dollywood coming soon

In short, Kennywood > Geauga Lake

This Sky Tower was on the GL side, though it doesn't look like it had operated recently.

Back onto the bridge to return to the Geauga Lake side

They also have a water play structure with some small slides, similar to Splash Attack at Adventure Island here in Florida.

Another shot of the slide tower

This was probably the old SeaWorld gate.

This play structure is identical to Shamu's Happy Harbor at other SeaWorld parks

Leftover Key-West theming. SeaWorld Orlando also has a Key West themed area

Looks like some leftover SeaWorld theming (with some Cedar Fair theming as well)

There are several spin-n-pukes, a pirate ship, and some others.

There are also several flat rides on the SeaWorld/waterpark side

They also have this slide tower. Other than this and the Tornado, the water-park has little to offer

The Tornado slide was probably the main attraction at the water park

Another remnant of SeaWorld. SeaWorld Orlando has a stadium like this formerly used for water-ski shows. Now it's used for a Sesame Street show. This one appears to be dormant

Does anyone know what these riverboats were used for?

A floating walkway connects the Geauga Lake section to the former SeaWorld section

If you look closely, you can see that the train is mostly empty

Back to Dominator for a signature vertical loop shot

It still operates with NAD Century Flyer trains. I'm surprised Cedar Fair didn't replace them with used G-trains

Big Dipper is one of those "classic" woodies. It is very violent in the back row

All this recent talk about Dominator heading to CW has me worried! That and the 'Dipper are the only two real reasons I have to go to GL

This whole thing with Cedar Fair buying the park and then shipping all of the good rides away makes me think back to the summer when Fantasy Island was called Two Flags Over Niagara as the person who owned Great Escape (prior to Premier/Six Flags) bought the park primarily because that is where the Comet was being stored. Once he removed it he re-sold the park.

Thanks for the pics. It is interesting to see this park getting piecemealed. I remember going to SW Ohio as a kid. It was a nice park, but odd in the cooler weather. God, I'm old...

The boats were used during the Six flags years for shuttles from one side to the other. I think CF may have used them for the their first year. They stopped using them because they were not efficient at all. Took like 20 mins to load and 20 more to unload. It was faster walking.

good pics.

Great TR Will, it is still kinda sad to see Geauga Lake being kinda abysmal with attendance.

Hey nice TR! Is Dominator any good?

^Oh my god yes! I know you were probably asking the originator of the post but it is one of my Top 10 Steel coasters- the fact that 'Dipper is in my Top 10 Woodens is why I hate to see what is happening to that park!

Day -1 - Dollywood

We also did the Sidewinder waterslide, but I didn't get any pictures (got some video though)

No caption

They did have some fast Go-Karts though

Unfortunately it wasn't open

Because they have a credit!

After Dollywood, we went to check out Nascar Zone...

Back for another ride on Thunderhead

I though Disney was the main company in the pin trading business.

Any drinking fountain enthusiasts out there?

It is sort of a dark ride-coaster-log-flume all rolled into one.

Blazing Furry!

Dollywood does a nice job at theming. Take a hint Cedar Fair

Another sign

Not bad for an Arrow

Through the trees!

Tornado has some elements that belong on a B&M coaster, such as this large vertical loop

Despite being designed by a company known for coathanger transitions, the ride was fairly smooth

Tennessee Tornado was the last Arrow multi-looper. It also uses the older style "boxy" cars (compared to the ones on Drachen Fire or Canyon Blaster)

Dollywood caters to the ACEr in everyone

We couldn't find you Derek. We saw your notice, but no beer, no vertical loop, and no sign of Nicole.

Mystery Mine is the park's new Euro-Fighter, and the first in the US

That's not an acceptable level of wetness. Turn up the pressure!

Topple Tower is a unique spinning tower ride. We did not get wet at all on it.

Twisted GCI first drop

The station fly-through is on of the ride's unique features

Thunderhead is the park's GCI woodie

Looks like a "he" in the "hers" stall

The Timber Canyon themed area contains three of the parks main thrill rides

Dollywood's Qbot system works well. It's like the new system they have at SFGAm where you can queue up a ride as soon as you get on another.

A nice touch, though they are made out of plastic

Although the parking lot is not very big compared to other parks, it is long and narrow, facilitating the need for trams

This looks like the right way

The whole area around Dollywood is a tourist trap with go-kart tracks, SkyCoaster/Slingshot/Bungee towers, and other attractions

Why is that they're only doing plus signs? How about integrals or subtraction? We couldn't find the porn shop near this one

This appears to be a Wonderworks, like the one in Orlando

We saw a couple of these "As seen on TV" stores. Do we get an extra bonus if we stop by within the next 15 minutes?

Nearly there...

This reminds us of Tommy and James at Flamingo Land

"Adult World"

It's one of those giant plus signs I've heard so much. This one was conveniently located right next to...

The drive to Pigeon Forge was somewhat scenic

Nice pictures! I have a D-SLR and I've found it to somewhat of a pain to carry around the parks. I probably just haven’t gotten used to a camera that doesn't fit in my pocket!

Anyways, Geauga Lake was a really weird park to visit. It's strange seeing a park that looks like it's been closed down, operating!

^Oh my god yes! I know you were probably asking the originator of the post but it is one of my Top 10 Steel coasters- the fact that 'Dipper is in my Top 10 Woodens is why I hate to see what is happening to that park!

You really think so? I found it to be very 'meh'. The pre-lift was pretty cool though, I hadn't seen anything like that before. All the coasters at GL are rough in one way or another, including Dominator.

Nice pics so far. I'm really looking forward to seeing the shots from the extra PKI day though

Dont ever accuse Tennessee Tornado of having coat hanger transitions. You probably noticed that it rides as smooth or smoother than most B&M's!

Im fairly certain this was NOT a Toomer design and was definatly using Schilke's newer mathematical formulas. Its evident by the perfect heartlining and the ridiculous flow of the ride. If that thing were only twice as long it would be SUCH a great design. Infact, its a great design as is - just too darn short.

Nice photos Will, thanks for posting these.

Nice Dollywood pics! love that park.

T-Tornado is the smoothest Arrow I've ever been on.

Coney Island

And I finish this off with a picture of KidTums. Does this make my thread Barry-proof?

"Beep boop beep"

Is this your car Casey?

The lake

A good place to be on a hot day

CI had one of those mini town areas.

"Aren't you the guy who does those comic strips?"

I did not get on this ride. I didn't feel like getting puked on

The park has a lot of spin-n-puke rides, including a Round-Up, Scrambler, Tilt-a-Whirl, and this one

Duuuuuude!

Python is one of those Pinfari Death Machines. It wasn't too bad, partly due to only having lapbars

My group did not hit the coaster until later, and for good reason. When the group first arrived, this line was full

Coney Island has these "Coney Bucks", which we could redeem for food and drink

ACEr mirrors!

One of the more recent ones was in 1997

Coney Island only has one coaster now. Before PKI was built, it had several woodies, but flooding caused them to close

We did not hit the waterpark that day

Score for Arrow Bus!

I wonder what the secret bonus park will be

Arrow Bus!

Group photo

Robb just being himself at the airport

There were three meetup times. 90% of us went for the earliest one for more time at the "bonus park"

Great photos!

I agree.....I will be back at hw on labor day sunday.

Holiday World. Kentucky Kingdom is on the way

Long exposure Arrow Bus POV shot

Some of the "authentic" theming

Raven station long exposure

The Wave Swinger all lit up

Back to Raven for some more rides. I took this at a long exposure

We can do better than that

Wes at the water cannon

The Holidog joined us for dinner

"Coaster enthusiast in training"

Holiday World was nice enough to give us TWO all-you-can-eat buffets, but there were a lot of leftovers

They fixed the sign

Cedar Fair theming seems a little out of place at Holiday World

I can't remember what happened for this one. Did Robb wet himself, or did he ride the log flume one too many times

Another signature shot of Raven

This was one of the lamest lazy rivers out there. You could only go around once, and you could only enter and exit at one point

Uh, no comment

We did not have time to watch the Men in Speedos show

I angled this in a way that it looks like the dog is relieving himself

Duuuuuuude!

Sorry, Robb, you can't eat him

These two look relatively normal

Best coaster at the park by a long shot!

Now for some REAL fun

I'm assuming that the peeps in the back are part of the Hooters crew (I haven't figured out the appeal of Hooters yet, but that's my problem)

There's even water, Gatorade, and lemonade

One of the best things about HW was the free soft drinks. Sure they are watered down Pepsi products, but they are ideal for the hot weather that day

All together now: NINETY DEGREES!

No sheep poo to walk in for this one

After lunch we had the photo walkback

This made for some uber-exclusive shots

The lunch pavilion had a nice view of Voyage's lift

Doesn't Jahan realize that Raven isn't an Arrow

Yuck! Maybe they should take a cue from Thorpe Park, and allow guests to use gum to vote for their favorite coaster at the park

Those pesky ACErs and their vandalism

The ride originally operated with a single train. The addition of the second train and a transfer track was done several years ago.

My favorite of HW's woodies

Even the new PTC trains are capable of producing some harm though

Holiday World sought the opinion of ACErs when designing and building this ride. When it first opened, it operated with a single G-train

#7 woodie? Then again, it's the Golden Ticket Awards

After Voyage, my group headed over to Legend

Gobbler Getaway is the park's new shooting dark ride

Not as good a Balder, but still a decent ride

Ready to dispatch

I thought this was a cool shot

The group

I'm sure everyone has this shot!

The "walk-back" through Raven and Legend

We get to enter through the secret side entrance

The trees - through Raven

We're "Special"! (does that mean we ride the short coaster?)

It's not often that there is a line for the Men's bathroom

The empty parking lot

This park has lots of good wood

Holiday World has two water towers. This is probably the newer one

Rising out of nowhere is Voyage

Nearly there...

...like this one here

I hope this bridge doesn't collapse on us

Onboard the Arrow Bus

The day started off with loading the buses with goodies. I wonder how Ryan is able to txt with his hands full

The water tower is the new tower.

I kind of figured that

The "old" water tower

Nice pix!

Yeah I never understood the whole lazy river thing, especially since it seems like a lot of lazy rivers are like that nowadays. None in Florida though, which I guess is why I was always taken aback by the once around and only in a tube policy!

After three weeks you can still see it too. I really like PTC trains, as you can see!

Awesome pics Will, can't wait to see more, I know you've taken quite the motherload!