Photo TR: Divv's U.S. (and U.K.) Adventure...

Man I probably would have given up and crashed somewhere! Most congratulate you on surviving that journey and still making it on the trip on time! Kudos!

So THAT'S why you got to Coney Island late! Wow, I don't think I'd be able to handle a journey quite like that. Wandering the streets of New York at 2am? You're a brave soul!

I'm loving your trip report so far! More Hooters Crew coverage! The Pegasus room was indeed awesome (I liked the conference room a bit more though ) made the perfect place to hang out and work on my updates!

I can't wait to see the rest of your stuff!

PART SEVEN: HOLIDAY WORLD

Having got at least a few hours sleep in I was feeling surprisingly well rested this morning. Maybe it was the excitement of visiting Holiday World or just being on the TPR trip, something was keeping me going anyway.

This was one of the best days at a park I've ever had! There was quite a group of us making our way around the park on this day and we all had plenty fun on all the different rides. We started with Voyage, which was a coaster I had been looking forward to riding just to form an opinion on since I'd read so many mixed reports. The first ride in the morning was brutal, sure there were a couple of good moments of airtime but the aggression of the course really took away a lot of the enjoyment.

After Voyage we headed to Legend. A fun ride but it focused a bit too much on laterals for my liking. Unlike Raven which we hit next which was just pure fun! Such a great ride that kept giving better rides as the day went on. Naturally we did a kiddie coaster takeover too, which is always amusing. It was also a really hot day in Indiana, well definitely hot by a Scotsman's standards. The heat forced us into the waterpark in the afternoon which was really cool. Although a few of us didn't bother doing any of the slides and just checked out the pools and lazy river. We figured we'd have plenty of time to check out slides at Kentucky Kingdom the next morning!

We also had awesome food provided for us so thanks TPR and Holiday World for that! The free soft drinks all day really makes an unbelievable difference to your day at the park. I think I tried everything they offered.

Oh and we had a walkback at the Voyage too! Which was really cool, we got lots of great views of the Voyage and of other people taking photos of the Voyage.

Speaking of the Voyage, that's like a different ride at night! The rides I had in the back seat right at the end of the day were amazing, seriously among the best coaster rides I've ever had. I didn't notice the brutality at all for some reason and the sustained air on those hills is fantastic. Someone mentioned that the ride had been trimmed somewhere but I never even noticed! It's such a shame that The Voyage doesn't perform like that all day and in every seat - if it did it may have come closer to being my number one. Balder managed to survive Holiday World as my favourite coaster.

But still, I really liked Holiday World, it really is my kind of park. Hope I manage to make it back there someday soon.

This was seriously one of the best days I've ever had at a park! It wasn't just the rides, it was more the people that made this such a fun day!

The Hooters Crew prepare for another amazing Voyage night ride!

At night this thing really comes alive! It's like a different ride!

After looking at it from many different angles, we decided to give Voyage a few more rides.

We got some great views of the Voyage and of people taking pictures.

Some nice "through the trees" photo opportunities here.

Time to head on a walkback!

This was our view while eating lunch. Pretty cool.

The Hooter's Crew enjoyed the rapids!

The Dutch are excited about the kiddie coaster!

Here's another nice pic for ya, Drew!

Everyone really loved Raven!

Some people enjoyed Legend more than others!

After ride on Voyage we headed over to Legend.

It was quite a brutal ride in the morning. Fun, but i still found that first ride a bit too much.

The masses of TPRers make their way to Voyage...

Woo! We're special!

Today's park - Holiday World!

^Totally agreed on the first Voyage ride. It was too much too soon.

Glad you had a great day to help forget about the trip from hell!

PART EIGHT: SIX FLAGS KENTUCKY KINGDOM

This was my first Six Flags park and I was actually more impressed than I thought I'd be! Maybe it's because the park really rolled out the red carpet for us! The staff were all great to us and we even got a really good lunch too.

The coasters weren't really up to much but that doesn't matter when you've got Deluge in the park! What an amazing waterslide! I really hope more of those types of slide to start to spring up! The Tornado in Hurricane Harbor was also really good.

Two credits were closed but kudos to the staff who really worked hard on getting them open for us! I also managed to check out the Funtastic World of Hanna Barbera here which was a nice surprise - I loved that ride at Universal Studios so it was fun to get on it again, even if it was a "bares bones" version.

So thanks to SFKK for a great time and for the super cheap season pass! I got my Six Flags season pass for $34.99 which definitely helped out later in my trip.

We had a great time at SFKK, I was really impressed with how this park was run!

Matt Damon loves it when I flex my muscles for him. But it's not reciprocated. What's that pink thing on your arm by the way, Matt?

Nadia's found herself a few more suitors...

We also took some time out to mess with the characters.

What's with the hand gesture, Mr Damon?

Deluge was fantastic. My favourite ride in the park.

After hitting the coasters we headed for the water park.

Oh yeah we got Rollerskater ERT too...

It was really good!

Time for my first Schwarzkopf shuttle loop!

At least we got to enjoy the healthy Twin.

Sadly one of the Twins was ill, although I hear a couple of the TPR people managed to get a ride in.

We then decided to face our fears head on and check out Twisted Twins.

Some TPRers enjoy Chang!

Gratuitous vertical loop shot for anyone who might appreciate it.

I'm not a fan of stand ups but Chang was actually quite good!

Matt Damon's got it right. I don't know what Erik's thinking here.

This was one of the early SLCs. And you felt it.

Nothing like starting your day with an SLC!

Today's first park - Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom

Great TR so far Divv.

I have to say I remember having quite a long chat with you at Coney Island and when you told us of your journey, I was pretty dumbfounded. Seriously, I mean I'd be useless if that happened to me in abroad at that time of night. Maybe it was the Celtic top, thats why those guys in the bus tube station took pity on you.............

Have to agree with you on Voyage though - that night ride in the back was so so good. It pretty much blew the jetlag away and had me buzzing.

And finally get to see the Pegasus room - after hearing so much about it...

Ahhh, so many pictures, so many comments to make!

First off, I love the updates as usual! Your pics rock!

Secondly, Voyage is amazing evening during the day! I was brought up on rough @$$ woodies at Wonderland, so Voyage felt butter smooth to me! I can honestly say I have no recollection of jackhammering on this ride. Maybe I hadn't been ruined by the smoothness that was Kentucky Rumbler yet. I loved it during the day, and even more at night! It easily stands as my favourite woodie, and even as my favourite coaster overall!

And yes, T2 was a BRUTAL ride! Canadas Wonderland has an SLC (Top Gun) but it's alot smoother than T2 was! Normally the front seat on those aren't too bad, but I don't think there was a single "smooth" spot on those trains!

That hand gesture was the Carmen "C"...or also "C" for Canada/Canaba!

And lastly I would like to point out that my tattoo is not permanently pink (I'm still peeved at how it turned out) and will be getting fixed within the next couple of weeks! Also, I do have a permit to carry those guns around with me! HAHA!

Divv, those captions are fabulous, pink thing on Matt Damons arm, bless hehe!!! and remember

Erik luuuurves Vekoma aint that right Erik!!!

I'm loving these Divv, bringing back so many memories every time fab

This is bringing back soo many memories!

I have to agree with Erik though. T2 wasn't that bad, at least it was fine in the back.

^^ It's Pink, sorry Shawn

Looking forward to the rest!

Well done mate for finding the worst pic of me ever. lol.

I did actually really like Legend. I dig laterals. Maybe it comes from all the Karting I try to do.

T2 was awful in the front seat. I didnt ride the back, but heard it wasnt as bad back there.

Awesome report, but whats with all the "Im constipated" posing?

Cheers for the comments guys!

Totally forgot about the Carmen "C", Shawn!

-----

PART NINE: BEECH BEND

Our second park of the day was Beech Bend. I was quite excited about this park for a couple of reasons. One obviously being Kentucky Rumbler and the other being I was going to get to ride my 100th coaster! Yeah, I came into Beech bend with 96 credits and there are four at Beech Bend so i could have easily worked things out so Kentucky Rumbler took its place as my landmark 100th. But I figured it would be much funnier if I made it kiddie coaster. Drew was also about to hit his 50th so he made his 50th the kiddie coaster too!

Beech Bend is almost a fun fair in many ways but its still got a charm that makes it a great place. The staff here were excellent and always making sure the guests were having fun.

The Pinfari Looping Star was evil, although not the worst Pinfari I've rode. The spinning mouse really spun a lot when we rode, which is never good for me.

Oh yeah, there's a woodie there too. Kentucky Rumbler was amazing! Especially during night time ERT! The coaster is just pure fun in every seat. I really love this coaster!

Sadly it was at the end of this day that the screen of my camera broke, so these might be the last decent photos for a while.

What a day we had! Kentucky Rumbler was rockin!

I think he enjoyed it.

My camera managed to survive long enough to see Nadia give Drew a lap dance.

Not a great photo, but it's all I've got with my camera on the verge of breaking.

Such a fun coaster.

Ok enough beating about the bush, let's ride the Rumbler!

Coasterforce members unite! (Homer, Sky, Divv and Nadia) It was great to meet you here Allison!

I find this photo amusing even though I can't remember exactly what the joke was supposed to be.

Nadia would ask Matt Damon this very question over the next few days!

Seems that Matt Damon's a little ashamed to be whoring the kiddie coaster.

My 100th! (insert invisible sign here)

Hey, it's the monumental kiddie coaster!

AJ and Anthony enjoy their ride!

Spot the hidden Mickey.

There's also a spinning mouse.

To be honest I've rode worse Pinfaris.

And home to the evil contraption that is Looping Star!

Home to the Kentucky Rumbler. But we'll get to that later.

Today's second park - Beech Bend!

 

The Pinfari Looping Star was evil, although not the worst Pinfari I've rode. quote]

 

Yeah nobody has ridden a rough coaster until they have rode "Tornado!"

Nice updates so far Divv....

Can't believe that trip report about the journey from hell, talk about complicated, hopefully it was all worth it in the end. Lucky you got a bit of help in New York, I wouldn't fancy been stranded overnight there too.

Yay another funny as hell report Divv!! Those captions!! and when you whacked your camera out when we were sat down to find that it was well and truly dead!! Even started doing some random beeping to make sure you knew it was very injured! Also love your trademark photo of you at the end of the reports, classic!

kentucky Rumbler was amazing, such a fab coaster!! Shame about the rest of the park imo, I really didn't get any good vibes from that place, I usually love little parks but for me the only good bit was Kentucky Rumbler and the area around it.

I think this photo summarizes your experience on the looping star of death.

Pain?

^ Nadia's passed out - bit too intense......

Wicked TR Divv!

Sorry to hear about your rubbish delays! Were you flying out with delta?? My parents had a pretty bad time with their staff not doing their jobs properly either!!

Looking forward to more!

Haha nooo that is such an appauling piccie of me though that face sums up that ride so well!! I really didn't think it would be as bad at The Gauntlet but no this was definitely worse, it was horrible!!!

Wicked TR Divv!

 

Sorry to hear about your rubbish delays! Were you flying out with delta?? My parents had a pretty bad time with their staff not doing their jobs properly either!!

- Thanks Chrissie! My onward flight was indeed with Delta, although despite their delays I do kinda blame myself more for not booking a direct flight in the first place!

- Yeah Nadia, that was ALMOST as bad as M&Ds Tornado! As cobra_roll06 says, Tornado is as bad as it gets for steel coasters!

- Andrew, thanks for posting that pic! I remember seeing photos of my pain after getting off the ride and wondered who took them! It was a bad coaster, although not quite as bad as Tornado at M&Ds which still stands as the worse steel coaster I've ridden.

- Cheers EmBy and all the other non-Midwest trippers reading this report. Glad to know that other people are enjoying it.

-----

PART TEN: INDIANA BEACH

Before I go on I should say that the next nine installments of this trip report might not include many photos. Due to my camera now having no screen I didn't take many photos and any that I did take were taken "blind". But in order to get to the "post-Midwest" part of my tour I feel that I have to talk about the rest of the Midwest trip first! Plus I figure that even if no one else is interested in reading my report at least the Hooters Crew will! Right?

Indiana beach was a funky place. When we first got there we just worked our way around the coasters and didn't think much about the place. The coasters hadn't run that great and we were pretty much ready to go.

Then night fell. A few of us rode the woodies again and they were GREAT! Cornball Express had some amazing airtime moments in the back and Hoosier Hurricane was also a lot of fun!

Lost Coaster of Superstition Mountain is just one of those rides that has to be experienced! Facing both directions! it's such a random ride that it provides plenty of laughs for everyone aboard.

After not really impressing much at first Indiana Beach became one of my favourite parks of the trip. Those damned "Blackpool style" parks sucker me in every time!

And just for the people who were there... Here's a little memory from the successor to the Pegasus Room - The Conference Room! I think Matt Damon in particular enjoyed this night!

I feel like I'm repeating myself at the end of every update, but we had another great day at this park!

Here's a "blind" look out over Indiana Beach from the Ferris Wheel.

Thankfully after this photo the pictures started to come out a little better.

This is Indiana Beach, and despite what this photo might have you believe, its actually quite a nice day!

This'll give you a good idea of how badly frakked up my camera was at this point!

^ Why do you continually go out to make me seem like some sort of bad person!?

And wow, your camera really did get messed up. I thought it was more or less just your lcd screen, not the actual photo sensitive parts of it as well!

Haha check me out on that couch, haha!!! Conference room was brilliant and that couch, yes I did like indeedy!!! "Divvvv sit over there, you'll see up my skirt" lolol!!! So glad I nipped to the loo though for a few mins

Bless your camera too Divv, didn't think it'd be all misty and stuff, that's bad!

Its looking a bit 'silent hill' in some of those photos.

Why is it, on all the rides that are meant to hurt me (and believe me, they do) that Im still smiling on the photos?

Its good that some of your blind shots came out alright.

^ Why do you continually go out to make me seem like some sort of bad person!?

Because it's fun!

Sorry about the delay in continuing the updates. I've just moved house down to England so I've been trying to get settled in and stuff over the last few days.

-----

PART ELEVEN: LITTLE AMERRICKA & WISCONSIN DELLS

OK, I'll start by quickly mentioning Little Amerricka seeing as we were at the park for about an hour but sadly I didn't bother taking any photos.

This was the second of our "bonus parks" on the trip. We also got the extra bonus of getting a "sneak preview" ride on the park's new junior wooden coaster -Meteor! It was actually good fun, and really smooth too!

This park also allowed me to ride my first Toboggan. What a contraption of pure evil that thing is! But it was amusing to watch everyone else squeeze on and watch their reactions to the ride!

The park also has another couple of credits. One being the "graveyard kiddie coaster" and the other being some kind of restraintless wild mouse. It was quite cool.

Needless to say it was only really a credit run since we weren't there that long but special thanks to the park for our sneak preview ride!

-----

After that we headed onto Wisconsin Dells. Home to a few parks including Mt. Olympus which is where we would be staying that night.

Mt. Olympus is a strange place. In a cool way. It's basically a waterpark, a load of go kart tracks and a load of woodies.

We didn't ride Hades as soon as we got there due the long queue and the fact that we had ERT scheduled on it later that night. We checked out a few of the other coasters. Like Cyclops, which was insane in the back row! It really is quite scary airtime on there! Zeus is a fun out and back woodie which does it's job well enough. There's also a junior woodie and an indoor spinning mouse (I hate those darned spinning mice!).

I also broke off from my group and checked out the waterpark which was really a nice way to chill out. Did a few slides and then checked out the new wave pool. That wave pool was like nothing I'd ever seen before. The waves were huge! I also quickly checked out the indoor waterpark, which was small but fun.

After this I met back up with the Hooters Crew where we attempted to ride some go karts. Sadly just as we were about to get going the rain started. The rain was really bad. The go kart fun was over before it even began sadly. We were kicked out the cars. Just as we got off we heard that our night time ERT on Hades had been rained off too. That was a real shame. I had been looking forward to Hades at night after those night rides on Voyage! Oh well, no ones fault. These things happen.

Luckily we had more ERT on Hades the next morning and the storm had now passed. Sadly, for me, Hades was a real let down. It was way more brutal than Voyage ever was. I really didn't enjoy those early rides what with the brutality and jackhammering. I did ride a few more times throughout the day and my front row rides were a lot better later in the day but I still didn't think the ride was much to write home about. Maybe I caught it on a bad day. I'll definitely give it another chance some day.

We also visited Riverview park this day which was really nothing more than a fun credit run before heading over to Timber Falls to ride their S&S woodie - Avalanche. For a while it was looking like we weren't going to get to ride Avalanche since it had been hit with lightning during the previous night's storm. Thankfully the Timber Falls staff did a stellar job at "hot wiring" the coaster into operation for us at the last minute! Words can't describe how grateful we were for that! Especially since Avalanche was amazing! It pretty much wiped away any disappoint I was feeling from Hades that day. It was a little rough in the rear rows on the turns but in the front row Avalanche is excellent. It just flies round the track, especially for a coaster so small looking!

OK, that's enough of me talking, here's some photos (with some kindly donated by Andrew Janes to beef up my dwindling numbers of decent photos of the next few parks)...

Or maybe it was just me!

Even with all the rain on that first night we still had a great time in Wisconsin Dells!

I think everyone had had enough of spinning mice by this point!

The TPR paparazzi do their stuff.

Mt. Olympus also has some really cool Go Kart tracks.

This is a Log Flume therefore it's NOT a credit!

Cyclops was insane! You HAVE to ride this thing in the back!

(Photo by Andrew Janes)

The kiddie coaster that no one was allowed on. Nadia got really close but kicked off at the last second.

See how they're all weaved around each other.

(Photo by Andrew Janes)

This is Mt. Olympus. It's really cool that you see all these woodies all alongside each other.

Hey, it's a credit!

(Photo by Andrew Janes)

Can you believe we actually queued up to ride this death machine?

(Photo by Andrew Janes)

The people at Little Amerricka were good enough to give us a "sneak preview" of their new junior woodie.

(Photo by Andrew Janes)

Yay they're back!!

I wasn't too impressed with any of the rides at Mt Olympus (esp Hades *cries*) at all really though the go karts kicked ass, especially the time when I beat sooo many people at once and especially Matt Damon in the last few seconds, get in !! Though my luck took a turn on the final ones where I got the slowest car possible and I just couldn't overtake anyone!! Aww man, trying to get on the kiddy ride too, I so thought I'd made it and she even saw me getting on and didn't stop me! I got so excited and then bang!! The thunderstorm was so fab too, being stuck in the Opa building trying to escape and walking back to the hotel barefoot, the film night and so many more memories!!

I had such a fab time at Riverview and Timber Falls too, really glad we went to those parks! Avalanche wow I loved it!

Also Mt Olympus was Scad tower time which was awesome!!! So glad I did it, I defo woulda regretted not doin it!!

Woo hooo more updates!

I had soo many "battle wounds" after those two days. Sliced elbow on the Toboggan coaster of death, and all the bruises from Hades.

Mt. Olympus wasn't anything special in my books. The go karts certainly were the best, unless you had a slow car or, you cant find the brakes...

The thunderstorm was amazing when it knocked out the power for a second causing Opa to stall, and the wonderful walk back to the hotel through the rivers on the paths and parking lot.

Can't remember much about Grindhouse. Just the "this is soo violent how the heck can you guys watch this" moment, and two people falling asleep on the couch

^ I have to agree with you on the SCAD tower Nadia! and the Skyscraper at Timber Falls was insane.