8 Days, 90 Roller Coasters!

Day 1 - Six Flags America

 

Arrived around 11am. Park seems like every other Six Flags, nice up front, and then you walk down the main road and see 100 ads and a lack of theming... We noticed a pattern that I think explains the one train system. If you have to wait longer, you'll stay longer, and then want to eat something...if the park was runny two trains on everything, we would have been done with al the major coasters within 2-3 hours. In that case, there is no need to pay for food in the park! Anyway, on to the rides:

 

Apocalypse- closed for the day... Standard six flags theming "if we make it look like a disaster, people messing with it will just make it look more like a disaster.

 

Roar - Really not as bad as everyone makes it seem. Not the smoothest ride on the planet, and I'm sure RMC will do wonders in California. SFA could only hope to be as lucky in the future.

 

Jokers Jinx - such a great ride!! I was taken back at how much fun it was. Very smooth, great with just the lap bars, and a nice launch. Freaking loud, but that's half the fun. Turned out to be one of our favorite launched rides on the trip

 

Superman: Ride of Steel - I have ridden RoS at Darien Lake back in college, so I knew what to expect. It's a nice ride, good forces, but the straight always get boring.

 

Batwing - This was my first Vekoma Flying Dutchman. Might be my last... I really did not like the experience, the flip at the top was good, but about everything after the loop was just uncomfortable and disorienting. Had to sit down for a few min before we moved on... Some other guy lost his cookies at the first garbage can...

 

Wild One - nice strong old school woodie. I liked the double down on the return, and the helix had great laterals... Nothing else to really report, but it is nice to see a solid old school woodie at a six flags park.

 

Mind Eraser - saw it... That was enough for me

 

The Entrance Building is quite nice and patriotic

A View from the entrance of the park

Walking to Roar, our first ride of the trip!

Love the sign for this ride

Mist, love mist.

Looking at the the S:RoS structure

look at all that thumbing... sigh

look at all that thumbing... sigh

my least favorite ride of the whole trip

Batwings first turn

The Helix of death

Mr. Jelly Belly and the trip crew

One of the unexpected pleasant surprises of the trip!

Jokers Jinx really is a great ride. I feel like its at the wrong park its so good!

More Superman

Day 1-2 Kings Dominion

 

Showed up around 5pm to the Kings Quarters, checked in, calmed down from the drive and went over to the park for a few hours. Started with a trip to the top of the Eiffel Tower to get our bearings and show everyone the park. Then we hit some of the coasters.

 

Grizzly - solid woodie, I'm happy to keep it as a woodie without a RMC conversion... Fun time through the woods, nice air time.

 

Avalanche - I've never been on a bobsled ride, other than flying turns at Knoble's, and that's not really fair as a comparison. Fun ride, nothing crazy, but I liked it... I did like the location of the helix over the exit midway, but if I built it I would have made that the queue

 

Intimidator 305 - god I love this thing... Solid kick-ass ride...today we rode it third car. Tomorrow morning well do more. No gray out for me, but everyone else did! So good, so twisty, and so intense in all the right places.

 

Woodstock Express - they always blow me away how good these little rides are. It's not a huge ride, it's not intense, but there is still a little thrill in these rides and I love them!

 

Boo Blasters - great ride! Lots of fun, I do wish that parks would realize that these are "cool off from the heat" rides. So I wish they were like ice boxes inside, but it was a fun ride in the dark... The skeleton scene I didn't like... That's going to cost some children some good nights sleep!

 

Dominator - great way to end the night. Solid B&M. I love the over banked turns between the vertical loop and the cobra roll. Wonderful addition to the park and definitely filled a hole in their line up

 

Went back in the morning to finish up the park. Beautiful weather, not too hot, nice cloud coverage. Took advantage of the early entry for platinum members and rode Volcano.

 

Volcano - such a great ride, solid, strong, fun. What more could you want? I've ridden in the front before. Today was about middle of the train and then back row. I have to admit I really enjoyed the back row! Not usually a favorite of mine on inverted coasters, but this one surprised me.

 

Anaconda - solid Arrow Dynamics. They will never be as good as more modern steel coasters, but I love these old school looping coasters.

 

Intimidator - rode second row and for the first time (of my 4 times) on this ride, I finally grayed out on the first turn. Solid ride, so much fun. Strong and intense. Sadly it was closed very soon after our ride and didn't open again before we left.

 

Flight of Fear - second premier spaghetti bowl, jokers jinks was the first the day before. I do have to say that I liked the inside sort of dark light show design of this ride. But Jokers Jinx seemed smoother and more fun.

 

Shockwave - My 100th coaster!!! Fun ride, but the length on the break run wait was not my favorite... That's ok, I took an illegal selfie on the break run of the group since it was 100th, shoot me

 

Rebel Yell - solid racing coaster, since it was nice and quiet in the park, we did a race between our group. My team won.

 

Hurler - ouch. Not terrible, I do love a good rough ride in the back (that's what she said) but something needs to be done in the future if they don't plan on trashing it.

 

Grizzly - rode again, same as before, but it was much better at night, and makes me look forward to a night ride on the beast.

 

At this point we walked back over to Intimidator and it was closed, so we left. As suggested before, we went to Jake's Place for brisket sandwiches. SO FREAKING GOOD! Drove to Greensboro, NC to sleep before tomorrow at Carowinds!

 

A view from Kings Quarters

Google Images doing some cool things!

Views from the Eiffel Tower

Anaconda looking great in the afternoon sun

Welcome!

Grizzly is really a great ride, and almost never has a line because people can't find the entrance!

Hello there sexy

Currently one of my favorite park pictures.

Hey, lets all point at something!

It really is a beautiful park. I hope they don't take down all these trees when they build whatever is coming in next.

another of my favorites from the trip

My 100th coaster!

Google, rocking it out again

I'm sorry did you say something? I dino what you said...

There I am, hamming it up in front of #100

Day 3 Carowinds

 

Showed up to the park to a slightly cloudy sky. Park was relatively quiet.

 

Fury 325 - oh man. By far the best coaster on the trip. Not the most intense, clearly intimidator does take that cake, but I think this is my all time favorite ride. Rerides galore, solid g's nothing too extreme but definitely there. The air time was perfect, strong but not too intense. Rode it once in the front, once in the back, once in row 5. All great rides. We ended with another ride in row 4 at the end of the day, and clearly the ride warmed up and was running stronger in the afternoon sun.

 

Thunder Road - ran over to get our commemorative medallion. Ummm it's a button... I was picturing a Cedar Point tweet up medallion. Oh well. Nice racer but I think Rebel Yell at KD is a better ride.

 

Afterburn - solid B&M invented. The ride had no line so when we rerode it the ride op joined us. Love it when the employees are having as much fun as we are. Solid ride, possibly my favorite invert to date.

 

Flying Ace Arial Race - one and done. Why can't Vekoma get their act together. Not every ride should be a head banger! Especially a family ride.

 

Intimidator - second B&M hyper for me with these trains, I don't like them... No rattle though, so that's nice. Good floaters g's.

 

At this point we left for some Bojangles. Nice little break from the park and very convenient.

 

Carolina Goldrusher - fun mine train. Nothing more to it than that. Nice break from the big boys for some digestion time.

 

Carolina Cyclone - solid Arrow multi looper. I like rides that loop over the midway. I don't understand Cedar Fairs decision to paint coasters with different colors on parts (I.e this ride and dominator at KD).

 

Vortex - solid stand up not a huge fan of them, but they do have their good parts. I wouldn't be against a floorless retrofit.

 

After another reride of Intimidator Afterburn we hit up planet snoopy

 

Woodstock express - I love these little guys. So much fun!

 

Lucy's Crabbie Cabbie - painful credit.

 

Hurler - much better than at KD. not to say it was great. Just better.

 

Fury 325 one more time and then hit the road for beers and live music in Ashville, NC.

 

What a great night! We ended up at Highland Brewery where they had two local food trucks stationed outside. Grabbed the towels we brought in the car with us. A few rain clouds past but we were in such a Nirvana we didn't care. Great food, great locals and great fun.

 

Welcome!

Clearly we were hungry. Not a scrap was left! Love Bojangles!

love these little woodies

Coaster Porn

Look at that beautiful lift!

These girls wanted us to take their picture, but they asked "can you take a picture with us?" clearly I had to joke around a bit!

Day 4 - Dollywood

 

After a great night sleep in a creepy hotel (not my best pick but it was fine) we showed up with about 20 min before opening. Took some picture and then the rope dropped. Headed straight to Fire Chaser Express

 

Fire Chaser Express - great ride. I chose not to tell my group about the ride and we didn't see any trains running as we were first on line. They were take by surprise by most of it. What a great mid sized ride. And it looks great up on the hill.

 

Wild Eagle - my first wing coaster and I must say it was quite fun but after riding Fury yesterday I was a little less enthusiastic. Smooth beautiful location on the hill. Needed some stronger G forces, but this is Dollywood so I'm

Not surprised it wasn't an ass kicking ride

 

Mystery Mine - loved it. Solid ride. Great theming and quite a fun coaster. Full of surprises and unexpected twists. More parks need these rides, especially with this idea of theming involved in the ride.

 

At this point we stopped for lunch and had steak sandwiches and sausage and peppers. One of my companions was finished and I sent him to get a loaf of cinnamon bread. I think I tasted it. I think I loved it. I inhaled it so quickly it was gone before we even noticed there was frosting... Omg. So good.

 

Took a spin on Barnstormer. I wanted to ride it here so that if the lines at cedar point are crazy were not bummed about not riding. Fun ride but for a Saturday I feel like both sides should have been running.

 

We hit the train ride which was a nice break for the thrills.

 

Thunderhead - what a surprise! Tons of fun, never let up!! A bit bumpy in the middle, but it was a really great ride all around! I wish more woodies were built like this and have the love given to them that they need.

 

Tennessee Tornado - a few switchbacks were filled but the line moved quickly. I was surprised by this ride. Nice g's didn't let up but I do feel like it could have been a little longer. Knowing that this was one of the first major rides for Dollywood I understand it's shortness, but I feel like another helix at the end or another inversion would have filled it out nicely.

 

After that we grabbed Kettle Korn and frozen lemonade and hit to road to Smokey Mountain Coaster.

 

Smokey Mountain Coaster - great ride. Really liked the lonely ride up to the top. The ride down was intense and fun. Wanted to break some times but I didn't want to hand in my man card so I kept the breaks up. Tons of fun.

 

Drove to Louisville. Nothing to really report on that trip.

 

Welcome to the longest Parking Lot ever!

Really liked this ride, great medium sized family ride.

so pretty.. so dirty...

Google Effects

Im at Dollywood!

The Eagle is amazing to see in person

omg. omg. omg. so good.

the cinnamon bread's home

great ride!

choo choo!

just an amazingly beautiful park

Holiday World

 

Showed up to the park around 9:30, walked into the gates and took the advice to put our stuff in a locker. Let's start off by saying that their system is AMAZING! Simple to get started and easy to get to for the rest of the day. Especially with its central location. I personally would open the park up TO the lockers so you can take care of that and the drop the ropes from there, but I understand why physically.

 

Legend - great way to start the day! Solid woodie, lots of fun. Really enjoyed the layout and its length. If it wasn't a busy Sunday we would have had a reride.

 

Raven - fun ride, and as the first ride for the park I can see why it did put the park on the map. Loved the helix on the water, and it had a great forested section.

 

Splashin' Safari

 

ZOOMbabwe - such a fun ride. I liked the holes in the side and the sudden drops. Lots of fun.

 

Jungle Racer - Holy airtime!!!

 

Wildebeest - so much fun!! We rode single rider and still got to ride together

 

Mammoth - we were going to ride, but a thunderstorm came through that closed the park for about 45 min.

 

Voyage - amazing! Such a great ride. Loved the far end of the ride and the return journey was great! I just wished the first few hills had better airtime. If they did this would out due El Toro in my book.

 

Thunderbird - What a pleasant surprise! I was hoping this would be a new level of B&M intensity and it was! It wasn't G force intense, but the relentless direction changes were great fun! Loved the theming as well.

 

At this point it was about 4 pm EST and we wanted to get to Kings Island for night rides on Beast and Banshee so we hit the road and grabbed food near Kings Island.

Such a great gesture.

Elephant Butts!

very nice tribute in the front of the park

when you all need water shoes, you all buy matching pink water shoes.

Day 5-6 Kings Island

 

Showed up around 8pm. There were rain storms for a few hours beforehand so the park was empty.

 

Banshee - back row! Such a great ride. Super fun, intense, long ride with great flow. Loved the design of it going down the hill. The in line twist was great fun as well!

 

Adventure Express - nice mine train. Wtf is up with the last lift hill, all of a sudden your at a universal/Disney park! Other than that, nothing really to report.

 

Bat - fun ride. One and done, but this one was better than at CW. Was it designed here and then copied there?

 

Stunt Coaster - I rode this at CW a few years ago during the day. SO MUCH BETTER AT NIGHT! If you get the ability to do so, do it! So much fun!

 

Beast - what a great way to end the night! Two rides, one front one back on the legendary beast. Had a blast!!

 

Tomorrow we will finish up KI then head to Cedar Point!!!

 

Woke up to rain. Not like that would stop us! ERT on Diamondback.

 

Diamondback - solid B&M hyper, but the rattle was so rough I could see it in the wheel assembly ahead of us! Got three rides, all in the rain which was a blast!

 

Beast - daytime is not nearly as fun as at night, but a rain ride is still a blast!

 

Flight of Fear - just like KD. I liked the lights inside better here. Plus getting out of the rain was nice. Totally taken back by the length of the video on the queue.

 

Nighthawk - I liked this much better than Batwing at SFA. Fun ride, but a one and done. Nothing too special. They where running two stations though so that kept things moving.

 

Racer - again, another great racer. I really love these rides. Lots of airtime and just all around American coaster fun!

 

At this point we needed a break and grabbed French fries and ice cream. My cousin Nick failed at eating the ice cream successfully and wore most of it on his hand....

 

Vortex was closed, Invertigo had a 40 min wait so we rode Banshee one more time and then hit the road up to Cedar Point. Stopped off at Schmidt's in Columbus for a late lunch.

love this nighttime shot of Beast in the fog!

we rode one of the last trains of the night, great shot of the station empty

THEY SELL SELFIE STICKS?!?!!

Day 6-7 Cedar Point

 

Showed up to Cedar Point around 5pm. Checked into Hotel Breakers and was upgraded to the 9th floor tower room facing the park. As a coaster geek, I loved every minute of it!!! Since I reserved the room back in January, we all received 2 front of the line passes.

 

Top Thrill Dragster - first ride of the day, first use of the cut the line passes and we slipped right into the front row. Amazing ride, great sense of speed and rode much nicer than Kingda Ka. Fun conversation with the ride ops about how TTD is better than Ka as well.

 

Power Tower - shot up side - great view of the park. Such a great way to see the park from above and really have a moment to really see that I'm really here at the Point.

 

Blue Streak - station wait. Nice ride, rarely in my seat which made my happy.

 

Rougaru - great ride. I love twisty B&Ms and this did not disappoint. I do wish I could have ridden Mantis, but I found this a great ride. Are the trains higher than regular Floorless coasters? I felt like I needed to jump up into the seat more than other floorless rides.

 

Millennium Force - the ride was down and we waited for about 15 min while they tested. Got on the last row for a sunset ride. What a great experience. Smooth, strong, fun forces. Such a great time!

 

Maverick - used our second cut the line pass. Got right on the middle car. What an amazing first ride. Loved the out of control feeling. I now understand why some people feel like this and El Toro are siblings. This ride was full of unexpected forces and direction changes. Loved every second of it!

 

Ran back to MF to hit a night ride before closing. It was a great way to end the night. Although I will say Beast at night is a better end of the day ride in the dark Starting tomorrow with some Perkins and then heading into the park for my first experience with a Fast Pass system!

 

Work up and was at Perkins downstairs by 7:45. I assumed since the park would open in an hour or so to hotel guests that it would be a disaster, but the restaurant was pretty empty. Filled up quickly as we got up to leave. Finished breakfast, packed the car and headed to the Beach Entrance for morning ERT.

 

Gatekeeper - solid B&M with some nice g's on the first drop, but other than that and the keyholes it was kind of forgetful... Rode back row on the right side.

 

Raptor - I was quite excited to ride an old school B&M invert. This did not disappoint! Solid forces, great snappy cobra roll, I loved it although I think Afterburn was a better ride overall.

 

Magnum XL-200 - I got a serious kick out of the bunny hops. My group didn't love it, but maybe because of the history of the ride I really enjoyed it. I was surprised by how uncomfortably hot the tunnels were.

 

Woodstock Express - credit.

 

Maverick - rode it last night, but today didn't disappoint at all! The launch last night took a moment, but today it was instant. Such a great ride, I can only hope Intamin makes more of these little devils!

 

Mean Streak - I was riding this and actually yawned half way through. I did start thinking how great a RMC conversion could be. The layout and structure has some serious potential, and I'm sure RMC has ideas on what they would do to it already. Maybe we can get Tony Clark to get the rest of the admins to realize how great it would be to revitalize this ride!

 

Lunch - ate at coasters Drive In. Needed some AC from the relentless sun (not a cloud in the sky all day)

 

Top Thrill Dragster - rerode in the back row. Honestly like this better than Kingda Ka. I also liked how much closer you get to the structure. To watch the track climbing up to the tower sway after a train went by was really cool.

 

Wicked Twister - we rode the back since I've ridden Possessed at Dorney Park and wanted to experience the twisted back tower. Solid ride, nice smooth launches. I also loved the fact that it literally is built on the beach, very unique location for such a ride. My group also enjoyed watching the trampoline guys warm up in the stadium next to the back tower.

 

Gatekeeper - rerode this time on the right hand side. Liked it significantly more.

 

We walked to the front of the park to take pictures with the front sign and video of gatekeeper doing its thing.

 

Corkscrew - nice smaller Arrow Loop Screw. I like these rides. You have to accept them for what they are, but they are most of the time smooth and some weird shaping and forces.

 

Mine train - this turned out to be my 150th coaster! I kind of love the fact that it happened on a row this. Odd, off beat, and uselessly fun in an odd way!

 

Millennium Force - great way to end my first visit to Cedar Point with a back row ride to this ride. I love it and it is definitely one of my favorite rides so far!

 

We hit the road and got to our hotel about 2 hours later on the other side of Ohio. Woke up and drove 1.5 hours to Kennywood before the long ride back to reality.

The view from our hotel window!

another view

The Fast Passhole wristbands!

that is a long neck...

me and my #150!

Day 8 - Kennywood

 

Phantoms Revenge - what a surprise. I had a feeling from videos that this ride would be fun, but for the first time I think I can say a hyper coaster had me out of my seat more than in it! Between that and the serious lack of restraints (which I love) it was a bit frightening and great!

 

Thunderbolt - great ride. Love the shaping of every drop and the laterals were great strong but not too much. The ride was much smoother than I was expecting.

 

Racer - another fun ride. Nothing crazy but I liked the forces and its quirky layout. I also felt that the hills were a little steeper than I was expecting which was a nice thrill.

 

Jack Rabbit - another fun woodie. Loved the double dip after the lift hill and the lack of restraints definitely added to the thrill.

 

Sky Rocket - another pleasant surprise coaster from this park! I think it rounded out their coaster line up beautifully. Nice smooth launch, fun layout with some fun elements like the swizzle maneuver towards the end.

 

Kennywood overall was a nice park, but a little too far for me to visit again unless I'm planning a trip in that direction and they add something worth visiting. The fries are great, but not as amazing as I was expecting.

 

Overall it has been a great trip full of fun laughs amazing g forces memorable events and a lot of car rides! I look forward to visiting all these parks again in the future, as well as expanding to new areas of the country.

 

Final Stats

Days: 8

States: 12

Miles: 2421.3

Final coaster count: 71

Current personal coaster count: 156

Just remember that holiday World is on Central time. It threw us off last year.

Same happened to me during HoliWood Nights earlier this year.

 

We knew the park was Central time. What we didn't know was that our hotel 20 minutes north wasn't Central time. We got in from the park and next thing we knew it was 3am then in the morning we were early getting back to the park. We seriously didn't figure it out until we stopped for breakfast on the way in that second day.

I just spent way too much time reading through all of these trip reports and enjoyed it immensely. Great pictures. It sounds like you had a blast.

This was awesome. Some great photos in there, sounds like you guys had a killer time. Very envious you got to do so many awesome rides in a such a short period of time. But was very nice to live vicariously through you for the last hour or so...

I just read the entire report and it was great! Thanks for posting!

 

It's too bad you missed out on Vortex at KI (I believe I read you never were able to ride it). Since you like older Arrow coasters, you would've really liked Vortex. I always enjoy old Arrow coasters but I thought Vortex was in another league above rides like Anaconda and smaller ones like Carolina Cyclone. You'll just have to go back!

Ugh, I really want to do a large trip like this now. That looked like a lot of fun.

 

Great TR!

Thanks for all the comments everyone!

 

It really was an amazing trip. It took over a year to put together, so don't take a big trip lightly! Also, it took years to find the right group of people to do it. There were four competent drivers who split the whole trip, there is no way any one of us could handle the whole trip!

 

I'm going to take another nap now....