shesaidboom Posted June 22, 2006 Author Share Posted June 22, 2006 Nice pics btw....okay, except for the dive show one....I'll just try to imgaine you were on a moving sidewalk or something. But yeah, I'm in the market for a new camera...just curious what you use? I couldn't get a non-blurry picture of the dive show but I had to include it because of the Canada love I use a Sony Cybershot, which isn't the greatest camera ever but it's alright. Judging by these pictures I really need to clean the lense..lots of smudges in these. And one more thing: upon further review, I believe the refs in the box may overrule, and ultimately give you the 3 train picture credit.....of course I could be wrong, but is that not a car from "that other coaster"? (sorry, too lazy to look up the name) Yep, there are three but we barely caught the Hurricane in it so we left it as an 'almost'. Scott, thats Tigrr, a Schwarzkopf Jet Star! A Schawarzkopf that was closed when I was there I enjoyed this 2nd batch as well, and I'm glad I wasn't the only one to get denied park maps. You didn't miss much, although maybe I'm not the best judge. I smacked my arm on the car near the beginning of the ride and was in too much pain to concentrate We thought the park map thing was really weird since we could clearly see a pile of maps sitting right there. Strange. Thanks for all the feedback. We'll have a few more parks done in a few days Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shesaidboom Posted June 22, 2006 Author Share Posted June 22, 2006 I also agree with you on the chair swings. They're neat, but the chair in front of me kept coming all the way back and hit me! I actually had to put my hands out to stop it from hitting me. We also rode the Lost Coaster backwards and I agree, don't do it! Jer really liked the chair swings, but I thought they were terrifying. Like you, I had the swing infront of me hitting me also. They were neat because of the 'over the water' thing, but I wouldn't ride them again. Maybe I'm just a wuss though I liked our backwards ride on Lost Coaster, but I didn't turn my head around to see where we were going so while I got thrown around a lot more than the frontwards ride, I didn't get the crooked spine pain that Jer got. You're right about the Chicago traffic. Yuck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
307 Posted June 23, 2006 Share Posted June 23, 2006 Nice jobs guys. Glad to see Holiday World wasn't a total bust for ya. I was also really surprised how short Raven was after my first ride following years of anticipation for it. Nevertheless, I still thought it was great for what is was. I thought Raven was a lot of fun. I figured it was short, judging by the length it's listed as [just over 2,300 feet I think], but for all the hype and the "#1 Coaster from 2000 -> 2003" things that were spouted about it, I was just expecting a bit more than a "lot of fun". However I did really like it, and there were a couple of moments of crazy air. I just didn't think it was top-10 worthy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BeemerBoy Posted June 23, 2006 Share Posted June 23, 2006 ^ Yeah, it's strange that I had wanted to ride it for years, but had never really paid close attention to the stats. I kinda felt like an idiot for not realizing its length before my first ride, but hey, it still ended up being a top 10 woodie on my list. I will admit, the night rides really do add something to it though. Anyway, anxious for more pics. The "bidet" line was great. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shesaidboom Posted June 25, 2006 Author Share Posted June 25, 2006 shesaidboom and 307 do the parks that are kinda the mid-west but some are more easterly but I guess a few can be considered mid-west but maybe "central" is a better term for them - PART FIVE of something outrageous So when we last left you, we had just finished a less-than-stellar day at Holiday World, leaving us both frustrated and annoyed. Kay, I go pee now. Okay back. So our next stop was the not-so-highly-anticipated Kentucky Kingdom. We hadn't heard much good things about this park, and thus were not expecting much from it. To be quite honest, I was mainly looking forward to my first Schwartzkopf shuttle loop, while Nikki had her sights set on the roller skater and the flying shoes. We got there shortly after 10AM, and departed just before 1PM, having exhausted our enjoyment levels at the park. This place was not only empty, but really had nothing that interested us outside of the credits. The drop tower wasn't running and the rest of their flat rides were a generic bunch that aren't ones that we cared to ride. The park's policy on checking seat belts before checking lap bars was extremely weird and caused delays with dispatch times and also was annoying and kind of stupid and didn't help anything and also run-on sentences are fun. So with that said, I will also add on our mini-trip to PKI the following day. We basically just wanted to go to PKI because it was directly on our way to Pittsburgh and we couldn't see ourselves driving by a park which we could get into for free. So alas, we spent about two hours at PKI, and were there for one reason, and one reason only: ADVENTURE F'N EXPRESS. The Beast was less painful than last year, however without pain to distract us it becomes obvious how boring and overbraked this ride is. These people are not having a good time. No Arrow pain today. Top Gum. They would not let Nikki ride Blue's Clues, even though she cried. We did not brave the two hour line for Avatar. It's not a real coaster anyway. We were pissed to find the rock 'em sock 'em robots had been tamed and only two were still duking it out. Damn you PKI, damn you! The best ride in the park. We'd been meaning to visit Aunt Gerald's corn hole since we heard she was opening it to the public. We were here for three hours and got rides on Top Gun, Adventure Express x3, Outer Limits, and a very disappointing Beast. After "hitting up" a new memory card, we "hit up" a very crowded PKI. Apparently we weren't the only ones who wanted to "hit up" this park. We ran out of memory space so this is all you get of Kentucky Kingdom. It's not like you're missing much anyway. Failed exclusive shot. We could only survive three rides before our already tired and sore legs gave out. Chang was very intense, especially in the back on the left side. Chang was the only good coaster at this park. Okay, well the roller skater was good too. OMG SHOES!!!!! Jer in a shoe. Jer is the only one stupid enough to wait in line for T2. Note the ride op posing for the camera. This ride was very disappointing, however we did get the chance to "GET CRUNK," according to the rideop. Save us from the wee queue lines! Hey maw, we're in Kentucky! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stitch Posted June 25, 2006 Share Posted June 25, 2006 While I disagree with your comments on SFKK, I do agree with your PKI ones Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shesaidboom Posted June 25, 2006 Author Share Posted June 25, 2006 shesaidboom and 307 do the parks that are kinda the mid-west but some are more easterly but I guess a few can be considered mid-west but maybe "central" is a better term for them - PART SIX OF SIX SIX Our next stop was Pittsburgh, and Kennywood. First of all, the round-about way that MapQuest asked us to go to Kennywood was completely confusing and resulted in a big argument and lots of frustration and me hating MapQuest even more for being unreliable and not giving detailed directions. Die MapQuest. Next time, a different map provider will be used! We took a few pictures at our hotel which we will bombard you with before getting to the beefy Kennywood shots. Kennywood itself was a very nice park, well-kept with some excellent rides and a good atmosphere. Unfortunately for us, the rest of the damn State showed up today and it was packed as hell, full of long-ass lines and loud and obnoxious people. We had just about had enough of these kinds of people and I nearly busted out my l33t ninja skills to dispose of some unworthy scum. I did manage to keep my temper and the day turned out to be quite enjoyable. Besides those pesky line jumpers. Kennywood advertises Garfield's Nightmare as a 3D experience. However, the only thing that makes this ride 3D are the cut-outs of the characters that adorn the ride. The 3D glasses serve no purpose, other than to create a blur effect. Someone needs to explain to Kennywood what "three dimensional" entails. It also was really just a terrible ride. BUT DO WE HAVE PICTURES? Oh boy, do we ever have PICTURES. Kennywood had to settle for Garfield endorsements as they apparently jumped on the cartoon bandwagon a little late to get anything worthwhile. The mobius effect on Racer was interesting, but otherwise it was a lackluster coaster. It was hard to take pictures of Racer and Jack Rabbit as they're mostly hidden from view. All the lines poured out of the queues. It didn't help that these miscreants jumped the line and then let their ten friends in front of them. Okay Mr. Monkey! We didn't get a picture of the corpses, but parts of this attraction could be considered terrifying, especially for young kids. People insisted on bringing their toddlers inside, despite the warnings of 'scary scenes'. Noah's Ark is one of the stranger attractions we've been on at a park. Why is the ostrich bigger than the elephant? That's some crazy steroids ostrich. We went to the Potato Patch for lunch, but all they gave us was leopard skin. Exclusive shot, because those never get old. Though we knew it was coming, Thunderbolt's drop into the ravine was a lot of fun and still surprising. We have a new addition to the top ten. The chick in row three is enjoying herself a little too much. The Tortoise and the Hare, starring the Tumble Bug and Phantom's Revenge. Only this time the Hare kicks the crap out of the damn Tortoise. OMG!! Back to back double credit photos!! If you look closely, this counts as a two credit photo. Someone mentioned they had installed new brakes on this drop, however we didn't see or feel them. Dingleberry. It was a little short and the lift was painfully slow, but those were the only real faults we found with the ride. Phantom's Revenge was awesome. It had lots of air and speed, and a great second drop. You can tell Nikki took this picture. We had to contend with long lines for everything, especially Phantom. The Thunderbolt balloon was happy! The trains on Thunderbolt look like boxes. Kennywood has some nice views. Jack Rabbit was short, painless, had one great moment of air, but was otherwise forgettable. Greatest coaster logo ever. This picture sucks, but this was our first screaming swing. We needed to document this great occasion. We both enjoyed. Jer enjoys the Litter Gitter a little too much. This mouse looked like it had just "GOT CRUNK". Here are knobs, here are switches. When you get lice, your head itches. [PS this is in the queue for Exterminator] The Exterminator was the best of the spinning mice we went on over the course of our trip. The themeing was good and added a lot to the ride. Thunderbolt had a neat layout, but wasn't particularily thrilling which could be said for the other woodies in the park. I wish real gas only cost FUN. Hello Kennywood. KISSY KISSY. OMG CHOLESTEROL! Pikachu rides in style, while the other Pokemon are hoarded into this truck every day. We shared our hotel with Pikachu. I told you this was review 666. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BeemerBoy Posted June 26, 2006 Share Posted June 26, 2006 Wow, somehow your latest update eluded me until now. Nice pics of Kennywood. I swear that Phantom's has always been somewhat of an enigma for me. I keep hearing good things about it, but yet any pictures I ever see of it make me wonder what could be so great? Maybe it's those funky looking trains? Heck, who knows.....maybe I should just shut up and ride it (insert ParkTrips insult here;)) Anyway, good job as always, guys. The photo: TR is truly an art form, and you two are definitely on the short list of all-stars out there, IMHO. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Erik Johnson Posted June 26, 2006 Share Posted June 26, 2006 Hey that was great. I guess whenever I make it out to those parks, I will make sure to do so early in the season. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CoasterFanatic Posted June 26, 2006 Share Posted June 26, 2006 Greatest coaster logo ever. I kind of like it, but only wished that they used a "real" font instead. Phantom's has always been somewhat of an enigma for me. I keep hearing good things about it, but yet any pictures I ever see of it make me wonder what could be so great? You have been looking at the wrong pictures. You need only see one. Let me demonstrate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BeemerBoy Posted June 26, 2006 Share Posted June 26, 2006 Ah yes, that does clear things up a bit. Thanks for the illustration, Ted. I guess it's time to stop procrastinating, call up my friend in Pittsburgh, tell him to clean up the guest room, and finally make my way to Kennywood. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reon Posted June 26, 2006 Share Posted June 26, 2006 Dissing Vortex and not riding Avatar? I should stab you with death. And no, I don't mean "stab you to death." I'm actually gonna stab you with the grim reaper. I mean, Vortex has some sweet air if you ride it in the right place, and Avatar is a nice forceful ride. /end PKI rant Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
307 Posted June 26, 2006 Share Posted June 26, 2006 Dissing Vortex and not riding Avatar? I should stab you with death. And no, I don't mean "stab you to death." I'm actually gonna stab you with the grim reaper. I mean, Vortex has some sweet air if you ride it in the right place, and Avatar is a nice forceful ride. /end PKI rant Well we both wanted to ride Avatar, but the line was really long and we were on a limited timeframe. I enjoyed Vortex enough last time, but again, line was really long and it wasn't on our to-do list. I also really messed up my knee last time I was on it [i smacked it on the front of the car when I popped out of my seat heading up the second hill]. It was fun but DAAAAAAAAAAMN was it painful. Kinda ruined the rest of the ride and soured me on re-rides. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shockwave Posted June 27, 2006 Share Posted June 27, 2006 Looks like you had a great trip! Hopefully I'll be going to those parks this time next year. And Misery Signals plus the shades are excellent! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
307 Posted June 29, 2006 Share Posted June 29, 2006 And Misery Signals plus the shades are excellent! Yes, Misery Signals plus anything is excellent! Well I mean maybe not mass genocide, but you get the picture. PS. This is a semi-shameless bump But I didn't get a chance to respond to this post beforehand so... shhhhhhhhhh. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shesaidboom Posted June 29, 2006 Author Share Posted June 29, 2006 ^You giving your Misery Signals shirt to me is excellent. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shesaidboom Posted July 3, 2006 Author Share Posted July 3, 2006 shesaidboom and 307 do the parks that are kinda the mid-west but some are more easterly but I guess a few can be considered mid-west but maybe "central" is a better term for them - PART SEVEN OF THIS IS THE LAST ONE So this turned out to be our final day of riding coasters, even though it wasn't supposed to be. We had originally planned on going to Idlewild for the first half of the day, and hauling ass to Lakemont Park for the second half. Little did we know the trailer trash horrors that would await us in Altoona. We were able to fit in DelGrosso's with time to spare and concentrate solely on heading home the next day. Idlewild was weird, in that the front half of the park was jampacked full, but the back half was almost completely empty. Fortunately, Rollo Coaster and Wild Mouse were in that back half, and even though Wild Mouse had big lines [i mean a serious wait here, people, due mainly to - well, you'll find out in a bit], we still managed to ride it three times. Lakemont Park - oh boy. That place was, wow. We have nothing against restoring old rides or keeping old coasters up and running, but to be quite blunt, this place needs to go away. The operations were terrible, there was almost no attention to safety, and there were NO PEOPLE. You'll find out more about this shoddy park later. One thing I did find amusing was the location of it - right past the outfield wall of the Altoona Curve AA baseball stadium. GO CURVE! DelGrosso's park was kind of like a carnival grounds. No theming or anything. It was nice enough, and there were a lot of people there, though no one seemed to be going on any rides. We managed to get both credits plus a few flats done in under an hour, so it fit nicely into the 6PM -> 7PM block, aka: The Hour Before the Stanley Cup Finals Game Three came on. Now, for the final installment of PICTUREZZZZZZZZZZ Rodents + pasta = happy ending. Thanks for reading y'all!!!!!!!!!!! ...but you better watch out for the elephant! This worm seems happy enough... Oh yeah, it also has credits. We are at Del Grosso's, home of yummy pasta sauce. You can really feel the train leaving the tracks, and let me tell you, it's not the greatest feeling in the world. We finally coerced people into riding with us so in celebration we took this "exclusive" onride photo. We couldn't get any pictures with the car in them since nobody was riding. They wouldn't run the train without at least four people riding, despite Jer's best efforts. If there were ever a long enough home run it could conceivably ping a coaster rider in the head. Nikki's back to the crooked lift hill pictures. GO CURVE! The strategic location outside of a baseball stadium made cross promotion inevitable as you can see here. Skyliner was surprisingly smooth considering the age of it. Outside of the pop of air coming off the lift, it wasn't really a great ride. I had been dreading riding the Toboggan since we had planned the trip. At least I didn't smash my head like Jer. Are these cars ever used? The park was empty and if the lack of people wasn't a tell tale sign, the fact that it took us half an hour to find someone to ride Leap the Dips with us proved it. Leap the Dips is apparently the oldest running coaster in the United States. It's too bad it's stuck at such a dump. It took us until the second last day of the trip, but we finally found 'y'all' written in a public setting. This kid enjoys Fanny's Fudgery. Nikki enjoyed the hand-pedal cars, Jer was too scared to ride. CHOO-CHOO! "Watching this fat broad attempt to get out of the train was a lot more fun than riding," says Jer. Howler was one of the best flat rides on the trip. You sit in these funny circles and make yourself spin. A shout out to the kids who thought the cars spun automatically. Here Wild Mouse undergoes one of its scheduled hourly maintenance checks. This caused a lot of pissed off park goers. We thought it was more 'through the trees' than it actually was. Large mess of track. Lots of head-choppy goodness. We took like 300 pictures of this coaster. This was one of them. It wasn't the greatest ride ever, but we enjoyed. Wild Mouse was an amusing ride with two crazy spots of air. We enjoyed very much [PS we're gross] Caterpillar, aka the molest your friends ride. Idlewild doesn't have to hire employees, their shops give birth to them. Two mice for the price of one. Nikki doesn't have turn her camera sideways to get a crooked picture of this lift hill. This was the extent of the pictures you could take of Rollo Coaster. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
USRoadTripper Posted July 3, 2006 Share Posted July 3, 2006 What??? No Mr. Rodgers Neighborhood Trolley ride??? TELL ME you rode that!!! Great TR otherwise! -Julie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MollyG Posted July 3, 2006 Share Posted July 3, 2006 Great TR Nikki and Jer! Very enjoyable. MollyG Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shockwave Posted July 4, 2006 Share Posted July 4, 2006 Great report N&J! I'll be sure to ask your opinion and everyone else who knows the parks well for tips for next year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shesaidboom Posted July 4, 2006 Author Share Posted July 4, 2006 Thanks for all the comments and feedback, we're glad our TR was enjoyed by some What??? No Mr. Rodgers Neighborhood Trolley ride??? TELL ME you rode that!!! Too scary! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DenDen Posted July 4, 2006 Share Posted July 4, 2006 I only have one thing to say.... OMG CHOLESTEROL! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
imbordisux Posted July 9, 2006 Share Posted July 9, 2006 Hey guys, Didn't want to seem rude by not responding to your post - we've been having a ton of net-related problems, so we really weren't able to respond. Anyway, really nice meeting you two - I had no idea we had been waiting for TWO HOURS for The Raven to reopen, time flies when you're having fun. Great TR, and great photos - I myself am a pretty bad photographer, I try to make everything look nice and artsy, but when we get our photos back, they're always kinda bland. I'm jealous. Take care, - Stu Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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