PTR: Wood Coaster Weekend

So with a friday off of work and the next day being a family reunion in St. Louis I found myself planning a wooden coaster weekend with my first trips to both Waldameer, to try out the highly rated Ravine Flyer 2, and Six Flags St. Louis to ride another wooden coaster thats been on my to-do list; Evel Knievel.

 

I must say that both coasters were absolutely everything I expected and more. Both now reside in my top 10 with Evel getting the slight edge as I'm a sucker for the Millenium Flyers and the 2nd half of Ravine Flyer just seeming to crawl along compared to the insanly intense first half.

 

We made the 2 trips to new parks just for these 2 coasters so I hope no one is offended by my lack of credit whoring, I consider myself more of a quality over quantity coaster enthusiast and I am drawn to wood coasters. So enjoy the pictures and feel free to disagree with my opinions.

We'll start with Waldameer and the only reason why anyone would ever read a Waldameer TR, RAVINE FLYER part deux!

With our car, two others, and a bus in the parking lot upon arival we pretty much had the place to ourselves

Those are some sexy PTC's, kinda make me think Voyage

Hmmm...Voyage?

The empty Q's even smelled like Voyage Q's, but no this ride makes a name for itself right off the bat

The first drop in the 2nd to back seat may be the greatest first drop on any coaster as it spirals into the ravine leaving your butt off the seat the entire time

After the breathtaking first drop you fly over the bridge into this flippy floppy turnaround thing

The first 24 seconds of this ride really blow you away and show you where these rave reviews have come from

As you leave the turn around you cross over the bridge again and into my personal favorite portion of the ride, 3 straight pops of air that make you go weeee

The 2nd half of the ride is fun with the 90 bla bla bla and all, but we just wern't fans of how it kinda crawls into the brakes for being such an intense coaster out the gate

As you come around that last turn into the slow little bunny hops I couldn't help but feel like it was one of my roller coaster tycoon rides where I got the Excitment rating to a 9.1 but I had to add that extra couple slow turns to the ride to reach the 10,000ft. track length so the people would clap on October year 4

Now don't get me wrong this is a top 10 coaster, but I just feel like it should have gone a little more Raven and kept that intensity for a shorter ride, rather than crawling into the brakes just to get that one extra dive into the ravine.

In case you wanted to know what coaster enthusiasts in 2007 felt like

The steel dragon was a spinning coaster and spinning was not on our agenda so we passed

The Whacky Shack was strangely corny, borderline terrifying, and absolutely a hit!

The deal or no deal game was a hit and should be installed in all amusement park arcades if it hasn't already

Xscream was the love child of power tower and some cheesy fair drop ride so we had alot of fun but were just unsure enough about our safety to be scared

We didn't make it to the water park, but it looked to be themed to bird shit

We loved Waldameer, and loved Ravine Flyer 2 so now it was off to ride another top wooden coaster 9 hours away

You know your in St. Louis when you spot Kingda Ka West..(much more reliable than it's counter-part

You know where we were heading first...Evel Knievel!

I can't say enough about how awesome this coaster is

It never lets up, from beginning to end, with pacing like only the GCI guys can do

The Millennium Flyers were in top form as these acrobatic turns were as smooth as glass

It's not worth the time trying to describe the layout as it's simply smooth turn-airtime-smooth turn in the opposite direction-repeat

This tiny layout gets more airtime than that stupid "aliando" song by lady gaga

I can't say enough about how awesome this ride is... oh wait I already said that.. well its good

Go ride it...now

They look like they're having fun, because they are

You actually remain blurred like this for about 8min. after riding because the course is takin at such great speeds

And for a behind the scenes look at Evel, ride the antique cars

On to The Boss.. the "looks like it's gonna be awesome, let down" of the trip

The Boss fits so beautifully in the hilly wooded setting

But could it be?

Yes those gerstlauer trains slammed into the brake run with everyone yelling "we want prenup!"

Ok, that was a bad Kanye song joke but you get the idea..Boss looks amazing, but it'll just leave you dissapointed

They had a "Tony Hawks's big steel dragon vs. Mr Six" spinning death machine here that we skipped

On a side note, Millennium Force was moved to Six Flags St. Louis.. I feel like it will be a solid addition

I felt like these stairs deserved a picture, don't you agree?

I don't know why Six Flags hides Screamin Eagle in the back of the park behind all those board walk games, but we found it and it was fun

It's very old school-photogenic and just makes me think of that show "Step by Step Day by Day"

The mine ride was very painful, but it had 3 lift hills so I guess that's cool

Now we have never ridden a Batman Clone, but when we heard that this one wasn't the first, nor the tallest, nor the longest most inverted bestest...our time management skills led us to skip it for more rides on Evel

Sara approves Evel Knievel and this trip report

We had a great weekend of coasters and said goodbye to st. louis heading back to the o-h-i-o (can you spot it?)

Were you at Six Flags on Sunday? I was there Sunday evening. I didn't get there till late, so I didn't shoot near as many pictures as I normally would, but if you liked EK watch for my trip report as I am gonna post a bunch of pictures of it in the next day or two.

 

I loved EK and thought it was amazing. Super smooth with great pops of air. I especially liked the three quick pops on the final stretch of track.

I don't know why, but I like Boss more than I do EK...

^^Yes I was, but we left around 2 so we wern't there long. EK was amazing and well worth the trip, I just loved how the air time, like Thunderhead, was found throughout the entire ride even when your not expecting it.

 

^And I guess The Boss wasn't as bad as I made it sound, the double down first drop was a nice suprise. But in my humble opinion it wasn't in the same league as EK.

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Edited December 29, 2010 by rcg19

Having gone to both parks, I think I should chime in. First of all, RF2. I have to agree with you for the most part on this one. Its pretty fun, but the intensity definately wares off midway through the ride. I thought the 90 degree downward turn gave the ride a second wind, but it doesnt really last that long. As for EK...I dont really know how to rate it. True its smooth, filled with air, and good transitions, but being raised on rides like the Beast and Voyage, I actually prefer my wood a bit rough. Im not dismissing it as a top 10, but it would probabbly be on the lower end of that list for me, just because of all the wood I've hit over the years.

 

Did you hit Mr. Freeze? I'd say its probabbly one of the most fun steel coasters I've ever been on....

-rcg19- I have only been on Thunderhead, Ek, and the two Gwazi's but it seems to me like GCI just keeps getting better and better with every coaster they make.

 

^And no we didn't get to Mr. Freeze, with only a few hours in the park and my sister not being a great fan of going upside down we stuck to EK and the wooden coasters, which was fine with me. It did look like alot of fun though without the over the shoulder restraints.

It is a pretty fun ride. The forward half is nice, but the thrills really kick in once you start going down the spike....Being pulled backwards and ejected out of your seat while going straight down backwards+almost falling out of the ride as you float upsidedown on the tophat=pure insanity.

I agree with you wholeheartedly about the awesomeness of EK. Definitely one of the better wooden coasters I've been on--the pacing is terrific, the airtime is decent and who doesn't love a Millennium Flyer? I'm so glad it's practically in my back yard. The blue skies made for some beautiful, clear pictures, too!

 

I'm sorry you found River King painful. I have the advantage of being short, so there's plenty of room between my knees and the lap bar, which provides a pretty decent pop of air in the tunnel following the third lift. And I agree with you about the Boss--looks awesome, rides terribly. It feels like your brain has rattled around in your skull a little while riding.

 

Glad you got to experience some good rides this weekend, and thanks for sharing your report. I like how you focus on what you like and that you realize that a good photo TR need not cover every credit. You provide excellent shots and commentary on the rides that matter to you, and that keeps things varied and interesting.

 

Oh, and Lady Gaga's song is called "Alejandro," not "Aliando." Stupid? Absolutely. Catchy? Yes, unfortunately.

I can attempt to shed some light on the GCI discussion. I have only ridden two, but I tend to think I got the best and the worst of GCI, which really is not that bad. Prowler being the best, and Terminator being the worst. Terminator truly has nothing compared to Prowler. I got off Terminator more disappointed than any other coaster I have ever ridden, because all I had heard was how awesome it was, and I was expecting Prowler epicness. Didn't happen.