rcoaster10 Posted June 19, 2014 Share Posted June 19, 2014 Spring 2014 Coaster Tour In Spring 2014, I didn’t know I would be experiencing the largest coaster tour of my life (so far). For some reason, all the factors happened to occur at this time and let me go to all these parks and I’m so happy and grateful that I got to experience so many more coasters. During this span of about two months, I visited Six Flags Magic Mountain, Knott’s Berry Farm, Kings Island (Twice), Dollywood, Cedar Point (Twice), and Michigan’s Adventure. For those of who don't feel like reading the whole thing, there are summaries at the end of each park. At the beginning of 2014, I had a coaster count of 36. _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Six Flags Magic Mountain During the week of April 6th, I took my first trip out to California. While I was obviously really looking forward to the amusement parks, I also went and did some other stuff. Monday morning we woke up, printed off tickets, and headed on our way at 10:00. They opened at 10:30. We got there right after 10:30 and quickly got into the park. It was so exciting seeing all the coasters. It was my mom and cousin who don’t like coasters, my sister, who is less than 54”, and then me, who loves coasters. We were debating on getting FlashPass for my sister and I. We decided on getting gold FlashPass since I thought that the park might get a lot more packed throughout the day. Turns out it didn’t and FlashPass was pretty useless. Right away coming into the park I was surprised. From some of the stuff I’ve read about Magic Mountain I came in expecting the worst. I loved the giant waterfall that greets you when you walk in. It was a cool entry with Tatsu and Revolution right there. I wanted to ride Tatsu the most so right away I reserved Tatsu with the FlashPass. It was 20 minutes past the time then so it would have been a 40 minute line normally. I figured, not too bad. By the time we got back to Tatsu, It was almost my time to ride. I directed my mom, cousin, and sister to Gold Rusher since they wanted something tamer. I waited probably 5 minutes from the merge point, to the front seat. This was my first flying coaster. I got in the seat and lowered the restraint. I didn’t realize that B&M flyers use the ratcheting system. I thought they had the hydraulics like GateKeeper. The seats folded back, and it was a little freaky at first just lying on the restraint, especially because there was no safety seatbelt. The beginning was pretty fun, not the most forceful but still pretty fun. Then the pretzel loop came. Wow. It was a really weird feeling. It was kind of like being launched in a way but different. I loved it though. The entire ride was tons of fun and I’d rank it up pretty high in my coaster list. After Tatsu I met up with my family and my sister and I went on Superman twice, a decent ride. It was short but fun. I was surprised how forceful the curved section was. Also how loud it is. It sounds like a jet taking off. There was no line either time on this. They were only running one side. Then I rode Ninja, which was by far a lot more forceful than Iron Dragon, the only other Arrow suspended coaster I’ve ridden (at that time). Probably a 10 minute wait, but only 3 train wait. The ride ops seemed like they didn't really care and they were all messing around, which resulted in slow dispatches. After these, we were getting hungry so we took Orient Express down to the front gate and headed over towards Food Etc. After my ordering process of trying to explain to this girl that didn’t know English what lettuce was, I had some steak tacos. These were by far the worst steak tacos I’ve ever had. After eating, we headed into the kids area while our stomachs settled. I got a credit on Road Runner Express which actually was kind of fun. No line. Then after that I took off on my own and was going to ride Full Throttle. I got in line, looked around, realized that only one train was running, and left the line. I figured I’d come back later since it would easily be over an hour. I reserved a spot for Tatsu since it was so fun the first time. I was waiting for Tatsu so I took a ride on Viper which I actually really enjoyed. I had no head banging at all since my head was easily above the restraint. I loved how the loops didn’t curve until the very top and there was awesome hangtime in the corkscrews. No line on Viper as well. By the time I got off, I got on Tatsu, this time in the very back. It took probably 5 minutes again from merge to ride. So the beginning of the ride was the same, but then the pretzel loop happened and my day changed. Right at the very top of the pretzel loop I was immediately pinned into my seat. And it didn’t end. It felt like forever and it got me really really disoriented and dizzy for some reason unlike the first time where it was just fun. By the time I got into the brake run, I didn’t feel right at all. It also didn’t help that something happened in the station and I was sitting on the brake run for almost 5 minutes. Finally I got brought back into the station and got let out. I could barely walk when I got off since I was so dizzy. At this time I was feeling really nauseous. The weird thing is that I’ve never gotten sick from an amusement ride before. I got off and started walking back to meet up with my family. I just kept feeling worse and worse. I took some Dramamine but it didn’t help. After a while, I made the unfortunate decision of leaving early. It was around 3:30 when we finally ended up leaving. It was sad not being able to get on much, but oh well. I’ll get back someday. Now, I know I didn’t get on much so I can’t judge the park completely, but I think it was a lot nicer than people said. The food was very gross, but overall the park wasn’t too bad. The employees seemed friendly, dispatches were fairly quick, and there was barely anyone there. It was a fun beginning of the day, I just hope I can finish the park someday soon. Now, for the awards: Pleasant Surprise: Viper. This coaster was a lot smoother than I thought it would be and is actually really fun. Unpleasant Surprise: I didn't really ride much, but I guess Superman. I love super fast and tall coasters; TTD is my favorite, but this launch seemed kind of weak and the ride was too short. Best Employee: First aid employee. When I went to get some Dramamine, she was very friendly and hoped I felt better soon. Summary: I loved Tatsu the first time, got me sick the second time. We left early because of that and I didn't ride that much. Viper is fun. Nobody was there, but we wasted our money on Flashpass before we knew that. The food is terrible. The employees aren't that bad. Superman is short. Ride Count: Tatsu x2 Superman x2 Ninja Viper Road Runner Express Coaster Count: 41 We're here! I love their entrance. Tatsu Getting credits _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Knott’s Berry Farm Wednesday is when we went to Knott’s. The morning we went there we had a bit of a late start. Between leaving late, traffic, and having to activate our Platinum Passes, it was 12:00 by the time we got into the park. The first ride that we (my sister and I) went on was Pony Express. This was probably the longest wait of the day with a wait of 15 minutes, due to one train operation. It was a pretty fun family coaster with a launch that was a lot more intense than I thought it would be. The only part I didn’t like about it was the position that you sit in. Coming into the brakes was painful since I didn’t know how to brace myself and it felt like I got punched in the stomach. After Pony Express, we headed off to Timber Mountain Log Ride and my mom and cousin decided to join us. This was an equal wait of 15 minutes. I must say, this is by far my favorite water ride ever, and even though it's technically not a dark ride, it's my perfectly ideal dark ride. The theming was absolutely amazing. Cedar Fair has no excuse to why they can’t do theming after I’ve seen this ride. The entire ride was awesome. It moved along pretty quickly, there’s 2 awesome drops, an awesome dark section, there’s a super low height restriction, just everything about it is awesome. After this, we went to Xcelerator. I was surprised to see it barely had a wait. We only waited 2 trains. We rode in the 4th row. The launch was amazing, as expected. One thing that I didn’t expect was the awesome airtime over the top hat. After the top hat I started to grey out on the first overbank. The 2 overbanks don’t do much for the ride experience for me. It could be without and I would like it just as much. After that, we went on Supreme Scream. No wait as well. I was expecting a drop like Power Tower but it was lacking it seemed. It had that initial “woah!” but you kind of just glided down then and bounced up and down for a little. Power Tower seems like the freefall feeling lasts longer. We were hungry and weren’t going to settle for another crappy amusement park lunch so we left the park and went to the TGI Fridays. I got some really good ribs and potatoes. It was good to sit down and just relax. After that, we went back into the park. We went to the train station as we were going to take a ride on the train but it was going to be 45 minutes since it had maintenance being done on it. By this time, it was 91 degrees and the heat was really starting to get to us so we all headed off to Bigfoot Rapids. I’m not a fan of being soaked in my clothes but everyone getting off seemed to be just a little splashed on and there’s a plastic cover in the middle of the raft for valuables so all 4 of us decided to ride it. That was a wait of about 15 minutes as well and was a pretty decent raft ride. What I liked about it is that there were no waterfalls in it. You’d get the occasional splash from the raft hitting the water but you never would get completely drenched. I didn’t get too wet on it and it was a nice cool off. We continued to walk around the park. There were some cowboy entertainers walking around. What I liked about Knott’s is that everyone had a costume and it wasn’t the boring generic Cedar Fair uniform. The next thing we went on was Jaguar. I liked the queue. The ride itself wasn’t too bad, except for a few rough transitions. It’s a good family ride and it makes a really cool noise. The wait was about 5-10 minutes. After this we walked towards Montezooma’s Revenge but unfortunately it was closed. We walked through Camp Snoopy which was in shambles when I was there. I got a ride on Timberline Twister despite thinking I was too tall. The ride op didn’t even check. I was very surprised by this ride. I sat in the very back with my sister and the airtime was fantastic. I never would have expected it out of a kid’s coaster. No wait for this as well. After this we got on Sierra Sidewinder with no wait. It was a lot more intense than I thought it would be. It was a little disorienting not going forwards but it was still pretty fun. I was kind of dizzy by the end and I don’t think I could do it more than once in a row. After this it was about 4:30. We walked back over to Timber Mountain and took another ride on that. That time was only about a 10 minute wait. Then over to Supreme Scream for another ride on that. No wait again, but this time I went on a different tower. It seemed like this one was freefalling for longer than the first one. It felt right about on par with Power Tower. Then another ride on Xcelerator but this time I didn’t grey out. After that I took a ride on Coast Rider. It was okay. It wasn’t as intense as I thought it would be. There were only 2 turns that really gave you some good lateral force. It’s a good family ride, but I don’t think it’s as intense as Mad Mouse at Michigan’s Adventure. Maybe I just got a slow ride. I headed off to GhostRider by myself. That was the shortest wait of the day. As soon as I got into the station the gates opened and I jumped right into a car. The station was pretty much empty. I’ve heard lots of bad things about it so I was kind of worried at first. The first drop was really fun and it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. It could definitely use some work but it wasn’t absolutely horrible. I’d ride it again. After GhostRider, I was off to Silver Bullet. I got right into the station and went into the second row. The ride op said “You wanna ride in the front?” since there was an extra spot so I took it. The ride itself was okay. It always had a little dragging feeling to it. Obviously that’s due to the seat in the front, but coming out of every element you’d start to slip into your restraint waiting for the rest of the train to catch up. It was really smooth except for a weird bump coming out of the curve on the drop. The helix is super forceful. My legs started hurting from all the blood rushing to them and I started to grey out. I got off and everyone else was ready to leave. I could have stayed until closing but I had a successful day at Knott’s. We left around 6:00. So at the end of my California amusement park tours, I was left with a coaster count of 49. Pleasant Surprise: This is a hard one since there were a lot of things that were better than I thought they would be, but I'd have to go with GhostRider. GhostRider wasn't nearly as rough as I thought it would be and had an awesome first drop and awesome drop out of the MCBR. Unpleasant Surprise: Coast Rider. It was super tame and really didn't pack a punch at all. There were trim brakes galore, the turns were slow, and the drops had no airtime. I get that it's a family ride, but the Arrow and Schwarzkopf mouse style coasters are a lot better. Best Employee: The Dippin Dots guy. This lady ahead of us wanted 3 water bottles and he informed her that she would save money if she got 4 instead. It was a nice thing to do since usually employees don't care about you saving money and will just give you whatever you order. Summary: Stayed for 6 hours, no lines. Rode every coaster except for Boomerang and Montezooma's since it was down. Timber Mountain is amazing. Ate at TGI Fridays and it was good. Pony Express was more intense than expected. Coast Rider was boring. Xcelerator was amazing as expected. Timberline Twister has airtime! Ghost Rider wasn't too bad. Ride Count: Xcelerator x2 Supreme Scream x2 Timber Mountain x2 GhostRider Coast Rider Pony Express Timberline Twister Sierra Sidewinder Jaguar Silver Bullet Bigfoot Rapids Coaster Count: 49 At the second park of my California trip Timber Mountain, my second favorite ride at Knott's... ...right behind this! No line! Good ride, but I've been on better drop towers. Silver Bullet's supports are scattered throughout I've heard a lot about this overbank but it was a very forgetable element Closed I love the look of wooden coasters Goodbye Knott's! _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Kings Island (Trip 1)/Banshee Media Day We returned back on Friday, and in less than one week later, I was off for Kings Island for Banshee’s media day with my grandpa. Media Day On Wednesday, April 16th, we got to Mason late and got to bed for Banshee the next day. This was my first time ever at Kings Island. We got to the park around 5:30 am and waited for a long, long time to get into the park, in the freezing cold. When we checked in, we got a t-shirt, a paper weight, and a coupon for a free on ride photo. Once we finally got in, we waited for probably 45 minutes to get on Banshee, which was the longest of the whole day.. It was supposedly 33 degrees that morning and I believe it! Everyone was shivering in line. By the time we got on, it was 7:30. This was my 50th coaster! I rode it in row 4, and it was amazing. It was a lot better than I expected to be. Way, way more forceful than GateKeeper. I wasn’t expecting a rattle, though, which there was on Media Day. After the ride, I talked to Rob Decker which was awesome since it’s my dream job to be in Planning and Design someday. We got some breakfast after that. They had a variety of bagels, donuts, and drinks.The breakfast was pretty good. It was still so, so cold though. I got a few more laps on it before going to the ceremony. It was cool hearing the excitement of everyone involved. It would be such a great feeling to have a dream and then turn it into a reality for many people to enjoy. I was kind of surprised that Matt Ouimet wasn’t there though. A few more laps before we had lunch. The meal was from the Chicken Shack and was really good. It reminded me of Chick Fil-A. The head chef at KI talked to us a little bit. That was cool. By this time, it had warmed up, so we brought our jackets out to the car. We got a ride on the Bat which was a walk on. It was my first time on that as well and I thought it was really fun. We went back over to Banshee and ran into Greg Scheid, the VP/GM of Kings Island. I talked to him for a little bit but he had to go for an interview. We got in one final ride on Banshee, in the front row. It was great. I ended up getting on it 6 times. I rode in the very front, very back, and a bunch of seats in the middle. My favorite row is either the very back or very front. Banshee took the spot of my favorite invert. Once Media Day was done, I eagerly awaited opening day so I could check out the rest of the park. A big thanks to Kings Island for this event. It's so cool that Cedar Fair has been inviting members of coaster clubs to Media Days. The park was very generous to give us so many gifts and the first opportunity to ride Banshee. Thanks Kings Island. Summary: Long line for registration It was VERY cold. Got 6 rides on Banshee, one on the Bat. Banshee is a great ride. Met Rob Decker and Greg Scheid. So much free stuff, the park is very generous. Ride Count: Banshee x6 The Bat Coaster Count: 51 Hello Banshee! Anyone that was at Media Day knows how crazy the fog was that morning. Such a photogenic coaster Rob Decker speaking at the ceremony A pic of the Eiffel Tower and sign with nobody in it! It's a miracle! Opening Day On Opening day, April 17th, we left at 11:00 so we could get there with plenty of time for park opening at 12:00. We were way too late. As I’m sure most have seen, Opening Day was PACKED. We waited an hour just to get into the park. It was about 12:30 by the time we got in, and we went straight to Diamondback. Walking back there, I noticed the line for Banshee at the base of the Eiffel Tower. Crazy. Once we got to Diamondback, the line was spilling out of the queue. I waited anyway since I was really looking forward to riding it. It only ended up being about an hour wait though. I got my ride on Diamondback in the very back, which was pretty fun. I expected more, but it was still a great ride. After that, we went through the park looking around at lines and stuff. It was just so packed. We decided to go on the Racer since the line wasn’t TOO bad compared to the others. It was a fun ride. Not too bumpy and was just really fun. We waited a half hour for that. After the Racer we went up into the Eiffel Tower and looked around for a little bit. After this, we met up with some friends that happened to be there too. So the 4 of us went on Vortex, which was about a 45 minute wait. I definitely enjoyed Viper a lot more than Vortex. I would go on Vortex again, but it’s so bumpy. After this, we went to X-base to do either Flight of Fear or Firehawk and both lines were just giant. We ate, then we decided to go to the Beast instead since I’ve never been on it and as I was told, “you can’t go to Kings Island without riding the Beast”. The line for the Beast was about an hour and a half. I rode in the center seat, last car. I was blown away by this ride. I had very low expectations, since from the POVs it doesn’t look very thrilling, almost like a fast mine train. It was really smooth, and just a bunch of fun. It became my number 1 wooden coaster. (I still haven’t ridden El Toro or the Voyage). After this, we headed back towards X-base. The line for Firehawk was still long and Flight of Fear was down, so we went to the Bat. It was about a half hour wait. It’s a fun ride and is my favorite Arrow Suspended Coaster out of the 3 I’ve ridden. (The Bat, Ninja, Iron Dragon). We were going to do Invertigo, but again, crazy line. By this time, it was sunset. We walked back to Diamondback for another ride on that before our night ride on the Beast. It was 8:30 and the line *said* an hour long. The line was significantly shorter than the previous ride so we figured it would easily be an hour or less. We got in line, and we noticed dispatches were slower than before. It was 9:50 and we were in the station. We sat in the second to front, so still with a front row view. The ride was amazing at night and I thought the airtime was better in the front. We ended up stacking on the last set of brakes, and even more on the second set of brakes. By the time we were back in the station, it was 9:59. We all took off for the Beast, hoping we could get there in time. Unfortunately, we didn’t. It was 10:02 and the ride attendant wouldn’t let us in. We walked through the park, looking at some stuff, before leaving. Overall it was still a really fun day, despite the insanely long lines. Pleasant Surprise: Beast. This coaster really exceeded my expectations. It was fast, smooth, intense, and just fun. Unpleasant Surprise: Nothing really disappointed me, but if I had to choose something, it would be Diamondback. It was still an awesome ride, but the airtime isn't really that intense at all and it's a little rattly at the bottom of the hills. Best Employee: Everyone on Media Day was very friendly and helpful. So I guess I'd say everyone on Media Day. Summary: LONG lines. Diamondback is fun. Beast is amazing. Vortex is bumpy. I missed the Beast at night by 2 minutes. Ride Count: Diamondback x2 Racer Beast Bat Vortex Coaster Count: 55 Here's the line for Diamondback once we got there. It only took about an hour though. Banshee's line was insane This is pretty much all you can see of the Beast unless you're riding it. Vortex definitely isn't my favorite, but I'd ride it again. The Bat, my favorite Arrow suspended coaster Kings Island has amazing sunsets Diamondback is a great night ride Goodbye Kings Island! See you next time! _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Cedar Point (Trip 1) Day 1 After a few short weeks, I was off to Cedar Point. On Saturday, May 17th, we (my dad, sister, and I) couldn’t leave right away so we didn’t get there until 4:30 pm. Driving up the causeway is still one of the most exciting times ever. I never get as excited going to other parks as I do at Cedar Point driving up the causeway. We got on GateKeeper with about a 10 minute wait. After riding Banshee, this ride is pretty tame. It’s still a little bouncy too which is kind of disappointing, but the unlocked vests are very nice, since the last time I was at CP (August 2013), they were still locked. After that, I got a ride on Blue Streak with a 15 min wait. It was awesome as usual. It’s one of my favorite rides there. We went back to the petting farm and checked that out. It’s a great expansion and everyone seemed to like it. I got a ride on Skyhawk, 10 min wait, then checked Maverick, but it was down. I got a ride on Wilderness Run since I’ve only ridden it as Jr. Gemini before. I was going to try to get on Pipe Scream but it was down the whole weekend. I got on CCMR and it started to rain. There was an awesome double rainbow once I got off. We were all hungry so we went to Hotel Breakers (where we were staying) and ate at TGI Fridays which was great as usual. We tried getting in line for TTD after but rain started again and shut the ride down. We noticed Power Tower was still running so we got on that, launch side. Power Tower is a great ride as well. It’s one of my favorites for sure at CP. It was sunset at this time, and we headed back towards the front of the park. I got an awesome sunset ride on Windseeker and Wicked Twister. (Both no wait) I got in line then for GK again and waited 30 minutes due to 1 train operations. I got my first night ride on GK and it was pretty fun. After this we went to TTD and got in the nonexistent line. We got right into the station. I got a great night ride on TTD as usual. TTD is still my all time favorite. After this, I headed off to the Platinum Pass ERT on Maverick and Millennium Force. Both of the rides were down unfortunately and I had to wait an hour until Millennium finally started up. It was 11:00 and was announced that ERT would last until 11:30. I got 2 of the best rides I ever had on Millennium and then there was word that Maverick was now running. I took off for Maverick to receive word that it’s down again, and that it only ran a few cycles until it broke. So at this point it was 11:20 so I just headed back to the hotel. So for being at the park for 7 hours, I got in: GateKeeper x2 Wicked Twister Blue Streak TTD Millennium Force x2 CCMR Skyhawk Wilderness Run Windseeker Power Tower Antique Cars Day 2 I got up early for the Millennium Walkback at 8:50. I got another fantastic ride on Millennium. After this, there was early entry so we got 2 rides on Maverick with no wait, and a ride on Skyhawk. We also went on the Antique cars, which I think are the best of the 3. I got on TTD with a 30 minute wait, great as usual. I got 2 rides on Power Tower, one launch, one drop. No wait for either. I think I like the drop side more. We went towards the front of the park and I got another ride on Blue Streak and went on the turnpike cars. No wait for either. After this we went towards Millennium to realize that it was down so we went on Iron Dragon. No wait. We figured we’d head over to TTD, but it was down as well. Instead, I got 3 more rides on Power Tower, 2 drop, 1 launch. No wait as well. TTD opened then and was a 30 minute wait. We went and checked out Dinosaurs Alive since it’s included in the Platinum Passes. When the Dinos Alive attendant scanned my pass, a different face came up. She told me to go to the season pass center and sort it out there once we left. But back to the Dinos, I was not impressed at all. I expected a lot more of them to move. I got some awesome views of Millennium though. It would be cool if there was a log ride that followed the path, instead of the path, and was included in admission. Like Dinosaurs Alive: The Ride. We went on Magnum which was a lot better than I remember it being and I got really great airtime that actually wasn’t painful. 10 minute wait. Millennium was running again so we went back there and got a ride on that. It was about a 20 minute wait. By this time, we needed to get going, so we headed towards the front of the park and I got one last ride on GateKeeper. We went to the new Starbucks and didn’t realize until I had to pay that I couldn’t use a gift card. I had my gift card in my hand the whole time and they didn’t say anything until I went to pay. Despite that, it was a nice treat to end the day. We went to the season pass center and nobody could figure out why there was a different face coming up, and the accepted cause ended up being that at Knott's they mixed up the papers and nobody noticed there was a different face until now. It took an hour of 2 employees at the season pass center trying to get it to work until they finally called in the head manager and it was finally resolved. In the end, they voided my orignial one and just had me register a whole new pass. We finally left around 5:30. Pleasant Surprise: Millennium Force and Magnum. Millennium seemed to be running really good. It seemed smoother, more forceful, and faster than ever before. Magnum was surprisingly smooth and had amazing airtime. Unpleasant Surprise: Dinosaurs Alive. This was really disappointing and I really expected it to be better. Best Employee: The head manager that came in to help with resolving the pass issue was very kind and helpful and acted like it was no big deal and gave me a new registration form right away. Summary: I rode a bunch of rides. It rained for a while, but we went to eat at TGI Fridays anyway. The night ERT was delayed by an hour since Millennium and Maverick were both broken. Millennium is running better than ever. My season pass showed the wrong face. I did the Millennium Walkback. Ride Count: TTD x2 Maverick x2 Millennium Force x2 Skyhawk Blue Streak GateKeeper Power Tower x5 (3 drop, 2 launch) Magnum Iron Dragon Turnpike Cars Hello Cedar Point! You really have the best front gate of any park I enjoyed my rides on Millennium Force a lot more this year than previous years Goat! I love the new petting farm addition this year. It seems like it's been really successful so far. Maverick, my second favorite coaster at CP I have now ridden Intamin's first coaster in both forms. The double rainbow Top Thrill Dragster, my all time favorite Cedar Point has amazing sunsets too Dinosaurs Alive was disappointing but you get some awesome shots of Millennium Force. See you later Cedar Point! _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Dollywood The following Tuesday, May 20, we (my grandpa, sister, and me) left for Tennessee. We didn’t go to Dollywood until Friday though. So on Friday, May 23, we got to Dollywood at 9:45, and it opened at 10:00. Most parks I’ve done a bunch of research on and usually have watched all the coaster POVs several times, walked through the park on Google Maps… but with Dollywood, I barely did any research on it. Yeah, I knew what rides they had and what they were like, but I didn’t have the layouts memorized. What surprised me is that so much of it is in the mountains. You can’t see any of the rides driving up except for Wild Eagle for just a little bit. We got to the gate around 9:55 and they still let us in anyway. We walked back to the coasters which is a lot longer from the front gate than I thought they were. I didn’t really realize that they were all in one section as well. Walking through the park is just beautiful. It’s so mountainous and has just a great atmosphere to it. We went to Firechaser Express since we thought it would have a long line all day, but unfortunately it was closed. So we went right across the midway to Wild Eagle. There was absolutely no line at all and my grandpa, sister, and I were the only ones on our side of the train. The ride itself is quite tame. The first drop was pretty good, as I sat in the very back. Unfortunately, the vests are still locked on Wild Eagle so it was kind of bad going back to the locked vests vs the unlocked vests on GK and Banshee. The whole ride is just kind of eh, and after the 4 inversions, you just bounce around through some turns. Once we got off, we noticed Firechaser Express was running so we went over to that and there was about a 5 minute line. It was a great family ride, and the 39” height requirement makes it a perfect candidate for parks that lack a coaster that a whole family can do together. (Cedar Point). One thing kind of strange was that it was a little bumpy. I was expecting it to be perfectly smooth considering its brand new, but still not bad at all. After this, we went over to Mystery Mine which ended up being my favorite coaster of the park and made my top 10 list. (10 minute wait). I don’t understand why this coaster isn’t mentioned more. The awesome indoor section, the 2 vertical lifts, the insane ejector air, the 2 awesome heartlines followed by awesome hang time. It’s just a great ride. Unfortunately the fire wasn’t working, but it was still such a great ride.We got our picture and the employee at the photo store asked if we would like everyone else cropped out besides us, so we did. I thought it was really cool how they did that. I've never had another park do that and it would be nice if they would so you don't have strangers in your on ride pic. After this, we did the Lumberjack Lifts which were kind of neat. Then we did Thunderhead, which was about a 20 minute wait. It was rougher than I thought it would be. It was still really fun though. The weird thing is that it would have airtime where you would never expect airtime to be. Everyone was getting hungry so we ate at Red’s which is their 50’s diner. We probably could have found a better place to eat but everyone was getting hungry so we just ate there. After lunch we did the family drop tower (Shooting Star), merry go round, and then waited for the train. The train was a great ride through the park. It was very long (20 minutes) which was nice. Once we finished that, we headed back over to get in the 2 we didn’t ride yet: Tennessee Tornado and Blazing Fury. We did Blazing Fury first and there was about a 15 minute wait. The theming was okay, not nearly as good as Timber Mountain though. The drops caught me by surprise. I only thought there was one. It was another good family ride. Then we did Tennesee Tornado which was a walk on. I rode towards the front so I could get some airtime coming into the brakes. I also didn’t know that it was the fastest ride at Dollywood. I thought Wild Eagle would have been. Tennesee Tornado was really fun as well. It’s definitely one of the best Arrow loopers. The whole predrop/drop is awesome and the weird banking on the loop is kind of cool. I wish the ride was longer though. After this we did Mystery Mine and Thunderhead again. Mystery Mine had about a 20 minute wait and Thunderhead was a walk on. After this, we went to Barnstormer and waited about 20 minutes. It was better than Skyhawk, I thought, and the airtime was excellent. After this we tried Mountain Slidewinder which was the longest wait of the day, around 40 minutes. This was also the worst ride of the day. It felt like you were going to topple over and my neck got jerked around. It’s also very short. We went over to get another ride on Wild Eagle but it was down, so we went to Mystery Mine, but there was a car stopped on the MCBR with people walking down the stairs. So then we went to Tennessee Tornado and waited 10 minutes. This time I rode towards the back. This was our last ride of the day. We got some cinnamon bread and left around 6:30. Dollywood was a bunch of fun and is one of my favorite parks. Pleasant Surprise: Mystery Mine. It looked like an awesome ride from videos, but wow, its a REALLY awesome ride. Unpleasant Surprise: Thunderhead. It was quite rattly and gave me a slight headache. It was still a fun ride, but a lot more rough than I expected it to be. Best Employee: I always hear about how the employees at Dollywood are super nice, and they were all friendly, but none really stood out. If I had to choose just one, it would be a ride op on Tennessee Tornado. I don't remember her name, but she just started a conversation with us. It was nice since usually ride ops are always rushing around and never even acknowledge you. Summary: Mystery Mine is underrated and is an amazing ride. This park is very mountainous and has lots of trees. Such a beautiful park. Thunderhead is rattly. Employees are nice. Cinnamon Bread is very good. Lines weren't bad at all. Tennessee Tornado has a weirdly banked loop, and an awesome first drop. Firechaser Express is a great family ride. They crop strangers out of your on ride pics. Ride Count: Mystery Mine x2 Tennessee Tornado x2 Thunderhead x2 Wild Eagle Barnstormer Firechaser Express Blazing Fury Mountain Slidewinder Shooting Star Train Merry Go Round Coaster Count: 61 Hello Dollywood! Nice to finally be here Dollywood has trees. Everywhere. Mystery Mine, the most insane coaster at Dollywood Thunderhead, a little rough but still fun Wild Eagle is pretty forceless after the first few inversions Mystery Mine, in my opinion, has the best theming of any ride at Dollywood Firechaser Express, a fantastic family ride _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Kings Island (Trip 2) On our way back from Tennessee, we stopped at Kings Island on Sunday, May 25. We weren’t originally planning on going but since we would literally drive by it on our way back, and I needed to get my night ride on the Beast I should have got last time, so we decided to stop for a night. I still hadn’t ridden 7 coasters there (Flight of Fear, Firehawk, Invertigo, BLSC, Adventure Express, Flying Ace, Woodstock Express), so I wanted to get on some of those as well. Unfortunately, my sister is still just under 54” so FOF, Firehawk, and Invertigo were out. I’m hoping I can go again this summer and finish off the rest of the coasters. We didn’t get there until 4:00 pm and I noticed it was pretty packed again. We went to Banshee right away. There was only about a 45 minute wait. We rode in the middle, and I was in an inside seat. It was a lot smoother than on Media Day. After this, we went to the Bat and waited about 20 minutes. It was fun as usual. I did notice that there are Bat decals on the trains now that weren’t there on Media Day/Opening Day, and that all the shipping containers that were once sitting there are now gone. After this, I wanted to get in some new credits so we went to Adventure Express. Waited 20 minutes for this. It was a pretty good mine train with some unexpected lateral moments. The last lift is a little disappointing but at least I knew there wasn’t anything after it. After this we debated going on the Racer, but decided not to, debated Vortex, but decided not to. They both has pretty long lines and I already knew what they were like. We went over to Backlot Stunt Coaster and noticed the line wasn’t too bad. We waited 20 minutes and ended up getting front seat. I ended up really liking it. I wasn’t expecting too much but the launch is awesome, the helix is forceful, and there’s some decent airtime. I liked it more than Firechaser Express. We were getting hungry so we stopped at the sports bar and got some food. After this we walked by Diamondback and noticed the queue was all the way full. If the line moved at the same speed it did opening day, it would have been an hour+. We didn’t ride, due to both the length of the line, and my sister couldn’t ride. We went over to Planet Snoopy since I didn’t even walk through there on Opening Day. The line for both Flying Ace and Woodstock Express were super long and I knew the line would be painfully slow, so we skipped those and tried Boo Blasters. There was about a 30 minute wait for this, but all of us always wondered what it was like so we tried it. It was pretty fun, a good family ride. My “blaster” didn’t work but I wasn’t even planning on using it anyway. I’d much prefer a dark ride where I could just sit back and enjoy, so thats what I did. After Boo Blasters, we went over to Banshee and the line was about 30 minutes. We rode once in towards the back, and the sun was just starting to set. Since the line was decent, and we all love the ride so much, we decided to go on it again. Another 30 minute wait, but this time we got the front row. By this time, the sun just set so the sky was awesome looking. That was one of my favorite rides on Banshee. By this time it was around 9:00 so I had plenty of time to get to the Beast for my night ride. We took it slow walking back there, and took a look at the giant noodle. It’s such a strange sculpture. By the time we got to the Beast, it was 9:30 and the line said a 90 minute wait. We waited and got in the back car, middle seat. It was BY FAR the best night ride of my life. The whole ride feels so much faster, out of control, just fun. The pitch black of flying through the forest is so much fun, as well as flying into the final helix at what feels like so much faster than at during the day. Its such a great experience during the day, but during the night it’s just AMAZING. It’s such a great ride. We got our on ride pic since it was so funny and then walked back to our car and left. I’m so glad I finally got my night ride on the Beast. Pleasant Surprise: The Beast at night! I thought this ride during the day was amazing. It's 10000x better at night. Unpleasant Surprise: Not the fault of the park, but the graphitti in the Banshee line. Granted, its still not bad, but theres carvings in the paint on the shade structure supports and writing on the queue. It's sad how people can be so disrespectful to a $24 million project that was JUST built. Best Employee: Ride op on the Bat. I don't know what his name is, he was very enthusiastic. Summary: The park was packed again. I went to go get my ride on the Beast at night. I got 2 additional credits. Adventure Express is a decent mine train. BLSC is better than Firechaser Express. The Beast at night is so so so amazing. Boo Blasters was neat. I got 3 more rides on Banshee. Ride Count: Banshee x3 Adventure Express BLSC Beast (At night!) Boo Blasters Coaster Count: 63 I'm back! Son of Beast lives on New credit! Another new credit! I love this view in the park What I came here for.. the Beast at night! _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Michigan’s Adventure Michigan’s Adventure is my home park so I’ve been here many times. My dad, my sister, and I got here around 1:00 and there was nobody there. Everything was a walk on. For those of you not familiar with the park, it’s a very small park. They don’t have any thrilling flats, and their only good coaster is Shivering Timbers, which is still just eh. The first thing we did was Zach’s Zoomer, which is an almost identical clone of Woodstock Express at KI and KD. It’s a pretty fun family ride. We had the train all to ourselves. We went to Corkscrew after this, train to ourselves again. Corkscrew is a traditional Arrow corkscrew coaster. It has a little head banging but not too bad. Then we did Mad Mouse, an Arrow wild mouse, which was running empty cars. It’s a fun ride, better than Coast Rider. Another good family ride. We did Shivering Timbers next which was running actually pretty smooth. I sat in the middle and just got ‘eh’ airtime. We did Logger’s Run, the Arrow log ride, twice. Another decent family ride. We did Wolverine Wildcat, Dinn wood coaster, and it was a decent woodie. Pretty smooth, as long as you don’t sit on a wheel seat. It’s just not very thrilling. Another family ride. We did Sea Dragon, their swinging ship ride. Family ride. We did Thunderhawk, a Vekoma SLC, and it was running horrible. Horrible headbanging and just rough in general. I got 2 more rides on Shivering Timbers in, one in the front, one in the back. Both were better than the middle. We left around 5:00 and got in everything we wanted to. I really wish the park had better rides. Shivering Timbers could become one of the best coasters ever if it had RMC do something with it. Whether it be I-box or Topper Track, a modified layout, and some new trains, it could seriously become one of the best. The ride is just airtime hill after airtime hill but unfortunately they don’t really provide much airtime. Imagine what RMC could do with them. I hope Cedar Fair considers this coaster as a candidate for RMC treatment. Pleasant Surprise: Shivering Timbers. This ride is a lot smoother than it was last year. The airtime is still minimal though. Unpleasant Surprise: A guy smoking in line for Logger's Run. He was right up to the boarding platform and the ride ops did nothing about it. He threw his lit cigarette right onto the boarding platform and it sat there still smoking. The employees didn't do anything. I couldn't believe it. Best Employee: There really was no employee that stood out. They all seemed bored. Summary: Michigan's Adventure has pretty much all family rides. They have a decent woodie, Shivering Timbers which is running good this year. There was barely anyone there. A guy was smoking in the station and the ride ops did nothing about it. Their SLC, Thunderhawk, is has really bad headbanging. Ride Count: Shivering Timbers x3 Thunderhawk Zach’s Zoomer Corkscrew Mad Mouse Logger’s Run x2 This front gate is a little bland compared to Cedar Point's Here you can see Thunderhawk and Wolverine Wildcat, and if you look hard enough, Shivering Timbers and Corkscrew. You can also see how dead it was. Some parts for Thunderhawk. At first I thought the brakes were RMC topper track pieces. Shivering Timbers, a decent coaster _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Cedar Point (Trip 2)- CoasterMania I was never originally planning on going to CoasterMania but last minute plans fell into place and I figured I’d add it on to my trip report since it was supposed to end at Michigan’s Adventure. On this trip, it was only my grandpa and I. We got to the park around 6:00 AM and waited in line to get our registration. We got a cruise ticket, but never ended up using it so we gave it to a couple that didn't get one. We got into the park and got some juice from the free donut and juice stand. Then we got in line at Millennium Force and got 4 consecutive rides on that in. The waits got longer each time I rode. Then we decided to do GateKeeper, still unfortunately bumpy and forceless. It was a total walk on though. There were empty seats. We were then going to do Raptor but it was closed, so we went back for another ride on Millennium. This was about a 30 minute wait. After this, I met up with another TPR member, Ride On_17, whom I never met before this. It was so cool to finally meet up. So at this time it was Ride On_17, his mom, my grandpa, and me. We were together for the rest of the day. We went to the front of the park and did Blue Streak, which had great airtime, then we did Wicked Twister which was awesome as usual. After going back to the car, we went to Power Tower, both sides. The drop side had probably a 20 minute wait due to only running one tower and the launch side was a walk on. Since we were right there, we got a ride on Magnum, and we decided to try out the “ejector seat”. It was horribly bumpy and my thighs were in pain but you got airtime. By this time, it was close to noon and we had the 1st lunch so we headed back to the front of the park via the Sky Ride to get lunch. The line was insanely long, but once they let people in, it moved very quickly. I was surprised on the amount of food they had available. There was an awesome Blue Streak 50th anniversary sculpture as well as Blue Streak cookies and cupcakes. I love how much they’re celebrating the anniversary of this awesome coaster. I hope it will stick around for 50 more. The park also gave us these amazing “survival kits”. They contained a jacket, t shirt, cup, a glasses strap, and sun glasses. I was not expecting to get so much so it was a great surprise. I was sad to hear that TTD was going to remain closed, but happy that Millennium was taking its place for the night ERT. After bringing the stuff back to the cars, we got a quick ride on Blue Streak, this time a wheel seat, and it was really rough. After this we went to the back of the park and rode Cedar Creek Mine Ride, Mean Streak, and Skyhawk. None of them had a wait. Then we headed over to Gemini and took a race on that. Ride On_17 and I won. We went on Magnum again, this time sitting in car 4, row 2, which I think is the best seat on the whole ride. This ride, unlike the previous one, was much better. Still great airtime, but much smoother. We waited around 5 minutes. Since we were walking right by it, we took another ride on Power Tower drop side. No wait for this either. We went to Raptor after this and rode in the very front. I forgot how snappy this ride is. It was a great ride. After riding Banshee, however, I can confirm that Banshee is indeed my favorite invert. Not only is Banshee my favorite invert, but it’s my favorite looping coaster. This was about a 15 minute wait. We went across the midway and took a ride on GateKeeper and it was bumpy as usual. I don’t know what happened but last May it was probably the smoothest coaster I had ever ridden. We took another ride on Blue Streak, and we went over to Millennium Force. It said it only had a 30 minute wait so we rode it. After this we got a ride on Iron Dragon which was decent. It had no wait. We got another ride on Power Tower drop, no wait as well. It was around dinner time by now so we ate some chicken fingers at the Dragon Inn and listened to Mantis roar. The sun was just starting to set and we wanted to ride Millennium again so we got in line. The line itself wasn’t too bad, but due to a train stopped on the lift, and us wanting the front seat, it ended up being almost an hour and a half. It was such a great ride and we had an awesome on ride pic so we ended up buying it. It was getting cool so we went back to the car to get our jackets. We got a semi-dark ride on Raptor in the very back and it was an absolutely insane coaster experience. It’s so disorienting and crazy. It feels like you’re going way too fast and it’s so awesome. This was a walk on, there were even empty rows. We headed over to Power Tower for another ride on the drop side since none of us had ridden it at night before. We got on just in time since they closed it for the Luminosity fireworks shortly after we got in line. We ended up facing towards the front of the park and it was so cool seeing all the lights and Luminosity going on. It’s a great night ride. It was very close to 10 by the time we got off this and went over to Magnum for a night ride on that. My “golden seat” was roped off so we sat towards the front, not on a wheel seat. It wasn’t too bad. No wait. By this time, the park was closed, but we knew our crazy fun was about to begin. We walked back towards Maverick and sat down while waiting for it to open. It was so nice to sit for a while. Maverick opened and we got 6 consecutive rides in. It was almost a walk on every time. One of the ride ops there (his name is Noah) is the best ride op I’ve ever seen. He was so enthusiastic and he got everyone so excited. He sang 3 songs, featuring If You’re Ready to Ride Maverick Clap Your Hands, The Maverick Song Song, and best of all, The Maverick Runs Tonight. He had everyone clap along and it was so great. More ride ops should be like that. We wanted some time on Millennium too so we gave ourselves an hour over there as well. Unfortunately, it was much longer than Maverick’s line. After our second ride, we rushed back into the entrance and we made it just in time. We decided to wait for the front, and we got on the second to last train of the day. We would have gotten the last, but these girls made us go ahead of them. We were fine with that, since we got the blue train, and out of the 9 previous rides on Millennium that day, we hadn’t gotten the blue train once. We got hit by a few bugs but it wasn’t too bad. We had a perfect ending to a perfect day. By the time we were out of the park, it was 1:00 AM and we were all exhausted. I want to give a HUGE thank you to Cedar Point for such an amazing day. I was amazed by how much the park gave us, all for FREE. There was breakfast, lunch, the gifts, and best of all: so much ERT! I never expected to get so much, and I really appreciate what they did. Thank you Cedar Point. Pleasant Surprise: This whole event! Like I said, the park gave us so much for free. I never expected to recieve all those gifts. Unpleasant Surprise: Top Thrill Dragster was closed. It's my favorite coaster so it was a little disappointing that it wasn't open, but I loved that the park replaced it's ERT with Millennium. It really didn't put that much of a damper on the already perfect day. Best Employee: Definitely Noah, the ride op on Maverick. I've never seen such an enthusiastic ride op, especially at midnight. Summary: I rode pretty much everything, some several times. The ERT was awesome. Top Thrill Dragster was closed, but Millennium replaced its ERT. The best seat on Magnum is 4-2. The worst is 1-3. I met up with another TPR member, Ride On_17. The park gave us so many gifts. Ride Count: Millennium Force x10 Maverick x6 Power Tower (Drop) x4 Magnum x3 Blue Streak x3 Raptor x2 GateKeeper x2 Mean Streak Power Tower (Launch) Cedar Creek Mine Ride Sky Hawk Wicked Twister Gemini Iron Dragon Sky Ride We're here! 6:12 AM Front gate dino says 'good morning!' Some markings around the Raptor restrooms More markings. There were also a bunch throughout the Point Pavilion GateKeeper is an awesome looking coaster Power Tower at night is a must ride Midnight rides on Maverick are the best. See you soon Cedar Point! I finished the tour with a coaster count of 63. I got 102 coaster rides in total this spring. This concludes my Spring 2014 Coaster Tour! I hope you enjoyed my giant trip report. Hopefully there will be more to come throughout the summer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rcjp Posted June 19, 2014 Share Posted June 19, 2014 Nice shots! That was quite an increase in your coaster count! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ride On_17 Posted June 19, 2014 Share Posted June 19, 2014 You really did have some amazing trips this spring. It will be hard to top! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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