themeparkman25 Posted October 8, 2010 Share Posted October 8, 2010 (edited) This summer, I was privileged enough to travel to some of the world's best parks and ride some of the best coasters. I had an unforgettable experience, one that I will cherish the rest of my life. First, I would like to send a huge thank you to all those who I got to experience these travels with. I also would like to send a huge thank you to Robb and Elissa for our great experiences in Europe, and all they did to make the trip a success. Without doubt, this was one of the highlights of my life, and I definitely look forward to joining in on China in 2012. Since the middle of May, I have traveled over 18,000 miles to 6 different countries, visited 17 parks and rode 90 new coasters. All that can be said is that it was a very successful summer, one I hope to duplicate in the coming years of my life. I hope you follow with me on this great journey and can share in on the experiences as I relive them. May 24, 2010- Kings Island in Ohio May 25, 2010- Holiday World in Indiana May 26, 2010- Indianapolis Zoo in Indiana June 25, 2010 - Chessington World of Adventures in England June 26, 2010 - Alton Towers in England June 27, 2010 - Thorpe Park in England June 28, 2010 - Gardaland in Italy June 29, 2010 - Mirabilandia in Italy June 30, 2010 - Movie Studios in Italy and the drive through Switzerland! July 1, 2010 - Europa Park in Germany July 2, 2010 - Wurzburg Fair in Germany July 3, 2010 - Phantasialand in Germany July 4, 2010 - Efteling in Holland July 5, 2010 - Walibi World in Holland and Amsterdam! August 8, 2010 - Busch Gardens Williamsburg in Virginia August 9-10, 2010 - Kings Dominion in Doswell, Virigina. November 12-19, 2010 - IAAPA Convention in Florida November 20, 2010 - Universal Orlando Resort in Florida November 21, 2010 - Busch Gardens Tampa in Florida November 22, 2010 - Disney (job??) and SeaWorld Orlando in Florida I will start with Kings Island and move sequentially until we reach the end of my travels. Likely, my Europe trip will not be posted until the end of the month, as I have yet to start many of the reviews. But bare with me, all trip reports will be posted and the best of the near 3,000 pictures I took will be as well. I hope you enjoy and can share this experience with me! As always, extensive (and otherwise very truthful) reviews are posted over on my site, The Theme Park Experience. Without further adue, Diamondback and Kings Island! Edited February 19, 2011 by themeparkman25 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
themeparkman25 Posted October 8, 2010 Author Share Posted October 8, 2010 (edited) Kings Island - May 24, 2010 in Kings Mill, Ohio First, I want to thank the park for a great day and a very fun time. This was my first experience at the former Paramount parks, and I have to say, I did enjoy my time thoroughly. Kings Island! The first park of many on my agenda for summer 2010. I was on this trip with a friend from IAAPA, also known as, rcg19! First up, Firehawk. We had been warned that this ride got busy, and even as we got there, it was already packed. The 30 min break down didn't help the cause either. With this coaster, I have now ridden B&M, Zamperla and Vekoma flyers. My thoughts on Vekoma flyers? Not bad! I really enjoyed this ride, actually, and thought it was very different in comparison to their B&M counterparts. This would be the underside of the trains. Looks a little complex, right? In all honesty, I did not find the ride rough, and rather enjoyed the loop and rolls. I definitely recommend. nevermind Behold, Son of Beast in all its glory. Truth be told, I really would like to ride this ride. In fact, it is one of those coasters I have always had my eye on. Maybe someday I will get the chance. I've been to Cedar Point, but this is my first Huss Frisbee. I have good things to say about this ride! Definitely one of my favorite flat rides now. These rides, though, take the cake for my favorite flat ride. I absolutely love any kind of Intamin drop tower. The added height of this one (as opposed to the one I am used to) definitely improved the experience. They make cool sounds too. Of all the suspended coasters I have ridden (Iron Dragon, Ninja, BBW), this one was pretty fun. I thought it was a little short and lacked a good layout, but had some good turns and speed. So, average arrow suspended it is! For real, I want to ride it. We are now arriving at Diamondback! I really like this picture! It also has two trains in it, if you look closely (lift and pond). Review of DB comign! nevermind The best part you ask? The corkscrews way off the ground! And the batwing, of course. Fun ride, I recommend it. My first encounter with a Backlot Stunt Coaster. This one (as I would later find out), is one of the better ones. I enjoyed the bonus features like the helicopter seen and the shuffle going down the stairs. Definitely recommend this ride! It is a great mid range coaster for those not quite ready for the big stuff. nevermind nevermind As you can see, we didn't have the best weather during our stay. This is not a reason to get down on the day, though, when we have a ride like DB to marathon. We took the train as a breather from the airtime. Of course, it also had some great pictures of DB! This picture was taken for linerinduction (be ready for lots more). This too was another coaster I watched them build from start to finish. Maybe it is just me, but it is kind of rewarding riding a ride that you've seen built from the ground. What a great idea! I don't know how often I have to close rides to go get lost phones because some tweener's boyfriend was texting them and their life is now over because they lost their phone. Gah! I want one. Diamondback- my number 3 favorite coaster. Truth be told, I have never had a more "magical" experience on a coaster than I did on DB, row 10. For the duration of the hills, it was pure floater air, on every hill. Absolutely astonishing. I occasionally thought I was going to fly from my restraint! I very much liked this ride, its layout, its interaction, etc. For this reason, it is rated so highly on my list. Thank you for reading! Hope you enjoyed! Look for Holiday World in the coming days! Edited January 20, 2011 by themeparkman25 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DBru Posted October 8, 2010 Share Posted October 8, 2010 Awesome start on this (what I assume will be) monster of a trip report, Jordan! The pictures are beautiful---especially those taken from the Eiffel Tower. I hope your descriptions of each park are as detailed as the one above, because this first part was great! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Looty Posted October 8, 2010 Share Posted October 8, 2010 Good stuff!...can't wait to see more! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tiger01 Posted October 8, 2010 Share Posted October 8, 2010 Love the Last Photo! Cool Stuff! Can't Wait For Holiday World! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jray21 Posted October 8, 2010 Share Posted October 8, 2010 Great pictures! I've never been to King's Island, and am hoping to next year. Now I'm getting more excited! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
STR8FXXXINEDGE Posted October 9, 2010 Share Posted October 9, 2010 This is awesome, Jordan! I can't wait till you get to the Europe portion. P.S. You wouldn't happen to be doing the North East US trip next year, would you? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rcg19 Posted October 9, 2010 Share Posted October 9, 2010 (edited) Deleted by user Edited December 29, 2010 by rcg19 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ParkTrips Posted October 9, 2010 Share Posted October 9, 2010 ^ The fact that you're a female who's not overweight puts you ahead of about 80% of coaster girls - if you're strait as well, you automatically shoot to the top 5 percentile. Don't worry! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KI Kidd Posted October 9, 2010 Share Posted October 9, 2010 Awesome PTR! I can't wait to see the rest! I'm glad you enjoyed my home park. The airtime on DB really is something else. Did you get a chance to ride Flight of Fear? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Goliath513 Posted October 9, 2010 Share Posted October 9, 2010 Great pictures man! Nice to see you finally found some time to get this started. I'll be following this closely. I'm looking forward to your reports of our days at Busch Gardens Williamsburg and Kings Dominion especially! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
themeparkman25 Posted October 10, 2010 Author Share Posted October 10, 2010 Thanks for the replies! Look for Holiday World coming up tomorrow! Daniel-This definitely will turn in to a monster of a report, especially considering the sheer amount of pictures I took in Europe. But I plan on having each of the reviews to that depth, which shockingly is just a summary of the reviews on my site haha. Joey-Kings Island is definitely a lot of fun and you have a lot to look forward to. Like I said, I thought they had a good balance of rides. Of course, it isn't like any of the parks we went to this summer, though. Brian-I am very excited too! I have a lot of work before Europe though, as I need to prep some pictures and finish reviews. Should be soon(ish) though! Anyways, no I am not going on the NE trip. I wanted to but the timing doesn't work all that well with my move to Orlando. So, sadly, I will be doing the ACE Scandi trip instead. What are your thoughts on China in 2012? Parktrips- HAHAHA! That was great. Thank you for that. KT Kidd- Yes, sir! Flight of fear was a lot of fun! I thought it was better than its brother at KD too. The only reason I didn't like the ride was its semi-ridiculous wait time. Sam- Isn't it funny we are all looking forward to something different in this report? Some Europe, some IAAPA, some KD/BGW. To each his own right? Rebecca- Is this one better? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
STR8FXXXINEDGE Posted October 10, 2010 Share Posted October 10, 2010 Brian-I am very excited too! I have a lot of work before Europe though, as I need to prep some pictures and finish reviews. Should be soon(ish) though! Anyways, no I am not going on the NE trip. I wanted to but the timing doesn't work all that well with my move to Orlando. So, sadly, I will be doing the ACE Scandi trip instead. What are your thoughts on China in 2012? I really, really, really want to do the China trip in 2012, but I've got a feeling that it will be a bit out of my budget. I'm hoping and keeping my fingers crossed though. There are some killer coasters that I want to ride there, plus that monster GCI that is being built right now! EDIT: Just wanted to ask what your thoughts are on the 2012 China trip? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vuurvogel Posted October 10, 2010 Share Posted October 10, 2010 I will be following your 2010 adventures. Maybe I'm in it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
linearinduction Posted October 12, 2010 Share Posted October 12, 2010 Jordan, Thanks for the Photo of Locomotive No. 12 on the Kings Island and Miami Valley Railroad, however, my 20 pics are from a better angle. So which Junior Hang N Bang was better Jordan, Lagoon's or Kings Island's? rcg19, when did you visit Lagoon this Summer and why didn't Jordan put you in touch with me? - linearinduction Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hansrubens Posted October 12, 2010 Share Posted October 12, 2010 Looking forward to future updates. Great review on Kings Island. I have a feeling I might be in you Europe update. ----Hans Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
themeparkman25 Posted October 12, 2010 Author Share Posted October 12, 2010 (edited) May 25th, 2010 - Holiday World - Santa Claus, IN As always, I want to thank Holiday World for a very hospitable and enjoyable experience during my stay. Like Kings Island, I have had my eyes on this park for quite a while and it was very great to finally visit this renowned park. Lastly, I would like to thank my friend, Lori, for the tickets, and also to Matt, for sharing Lunch with us. Thanks again to Holiday World for a great day, and to all those that made the day even more enjoyable. Also, thank you for reading this review! It is longer due to the fact that I do not have as many pictures as I do for a normal review. As always, a much more extensive review can be found at my site, The Theme Park Experience. Next up, a quick review of the Indianapolis Zoo, and then, EUROPE!! Stay tuned. Jordan We have arrived at Holiday World! We were both very excited to be here and get our Voyage on. Walk on Wildebeest=great rides! I think we rode about 5 times without getting off. As you will see later, the weather was dismal, so we stopped after 5X to warm up a little. We all know wet jeans suck. nevermind The Raven is one of the better wooden coasters I have ridden. I enjoyed its speed, low turns and pond fly by! I think they should put Timberliners on all of their coasters, though. Halloswings! What a great name and great ride. I thought it fit in perfectly with the theme. The only steel coaster of the day! Alright! You bet we rode it too. A cool thing about the kids area is that it only has one entrance, allowing parents to watch their kids a lot better. Wassup Holidog! Thanks again to Lori for the tickets, and Brittany for hanging out with us. You two made the day even more fun! The real reason we came to Holiday World, The Voyage! What a great ride. Its sheer speed, size and elements make it (almost) my favorite coaster. Happy Jordan! New for 2011- Voyage with Timberliners. =[. It is a bummer there weren't ready for the visit, but such is life. Turkey Whirl! I liked this spin (pun intended) on the typical tilt-a-whirl. Great job! Menacing clouds can't ruin your day when you have Raven, Legend and Voyage all as walk ons! nevermind I spy with my eye, a 90 degree turn. Alright! Almost snapped them... Legend through Legend! Does that make you a superhero? To conclude, a picture everyone has of Voyage. Sorry for the lack of pictures this day, I was having too much fun with friends. Thanks again for reading and stay tuned for almost Europe! Edited January 20, 2011 by themeparkman25 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
STR8FXXXINEDGE Posted October 13, 2010 Share Posted October 13, 2010 Another great TR, Jordan! I think the lack of "spunk" that you speak of back in the Thanksgiving section is just cause it is new. It has already improved since it has been expanded back there, and I know they said that they were adding some more back there for next season. I would imagine that they plan to expand the park back there (I feel like I've heard talk of it already), which would make that section not seem so out of the way. I personally feel like it works well now that they have connected it to Splashin Safari. My explanation for the awesomeness that is Holiday World is, People work for people. When you have amazing people with great values that own, run, and operate the park, you get amazing people with great values to work there too. That's what I think anyway. That Europe update is getting closer. I can't wait! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rcg19 Posted October 13, 2010 Share Posted October 13, 2010 (edited) Deleted by user Edited December 29, 2010 by rcg19 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Goliath513 Posted October 14, 2010 Share Posted October 14, 2010 Once again, great pictures. I would have liked to see more of Wildebeest and the other major rides though. Too bad the Timberliners were not on yet. I haven't been following them, but are they on now, or are the PTC's still in service? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DBru Posted October 14, 2010 Share Posted October 14, 2010 Darn. I didn't get to be the first person to respond to this update...so I hope it doesn't sound to repetitive when I add, "Great photos and trip report, Jordan!" I think my favorite part about your reviews is the amount of honesty you put into them. People often put aside the fact that Holiday World has a lack of thrilling flats, due to the fact that almost every other aspect of the park is nearly flawless. Of course, being the parks #1...uh, excuse me, I guess I can't say that any more...#2 fan, I do my best to appreciate all of its positives, but I definitely agree with all of your thoughts on Holiday World, good and bad. (Shocked?) Have you decided whether or not you will be coming back through these parts again next year? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
macca_boy69 Posted October 16, 2010 Share Posted October 16, 2010 Great TRs! Keep em coming, I'm enjoying reading them. Roberto Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
themeparkman25 Posted January 4, 2011 Author Share Posted January 4, 2011 May 26th, 2010 - Indianapolis Zoo After my little hiatus, I am back! Since my friend Hans is currently doing a Europe Tour trip report, I will skip over mine temporarily, and finish up my Kings Island/Holiday World trip and move to Busch Gardens Europe/King's Dominion. So, after we finished our great day at Holiday World, we started driving north with the expectation to hit up Indiana Beach the next day. However, after looking at their website, we realized it was closed! Dag nabbit. So, looking for an alternative (and another credit), we settled on the Indianapolis Zoo! Given its size, we didn't spend an extended period of time at this (park), though we definitely tried to fit as much in as possible. If I recall right, the day we were there was rather cold and rainy, but that didn't stop us from having a good time. We rode the only coaster, Kombo, a couple times, and then enjoyed the rest of the zoo. They had mantas and rhinos and other exciting animals! Unfortunately, I do think we only had a total of 2-3 hours at the park, so we didn't have a ton of time. Without much adieu (and a lack of stuff to say about a park that has like 3 rides), pictures! Kombo! Credit 175 range, I think. Wasn't a bad credit either! One thing I definitely remember was that she was an expensive credit. Between admission and the ride ticket, I remember dropping a pretty penny. And that is it, folks! Quite the credit for you. Hmm, could these be the best coaster trains in the history of ever? I think so. What's up carousel I did not ride... I tried feeding them, but it was a fail... He was fat and sinking in the mud. Um, not a credit so I don't know why I am posting these pictures...So...stay tuned! Busch gardens williamsburg will be up shortly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Goliath513 Posted January 4, 2011 Share Posted January 4, 2011 Looking forward to seeing the BGW and KD pictures man! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
themeparkman25 Posted January 15, 2011 Author Share Posted January 15, 2011 August 8, 2010- Busch Gardens Williamsburg! In order to celebrate another year of life, and a great summer with a couple of my employees, I traveled out to Virginia to visit, arguably, my favorite park in the country, Busch Gardens Williamsburg! I had been to the park previously, back in 2007 I believe, and had a tremendous time, and had to go back for the B&Ms. From what I remember, all three of their "big three" were all on top of my favorite coasters, and the others were great too! Also, with the addition of Sesame Street, I had a new credit to get! All in all, I had a great day at the park but really wish we had longer to check everything out. This was my first park in the States since getting back from the Europe trip, so I was excited to revisit the American way of things, and experience the nation's best. And I absolutely can say that Busch Gardens Williamsburg is my favorite park in the country, and up their for the world. The food is really good, the theming impeccable and the rides were incredible. I honestly have nothing poor to say about this park, other than the fact is a hundred million miles away from me, which sucks. Regardless, I hope you enjoy the update! The first part will have pictures from Go Karts Plus, a little park we happened to stumble upon when trying to find gas. King's Dominion and Intimidator205 to follow! Also, I would like to share a funny story with everyone. Since everyone I was with was under 21, myself included, we were unable to rent a car. Well, the Richmond airport is in the middle of the two parks, but not within a reasonable distance to not rent a car. I consider trains and busses, but it was difficult to work given our schedules. So then the question became, how do we get to all the parks? So, given the fact you have to be 21 to rent a car, I thought about the next best thing. Just previously, I had rented a Uhaul to move to my apartment for college, and I had remembered that you only have to be 18 to rent one of those. So my solution to getting to the parks? Rent a Uhaul! What a brilliant idea. Prolly one of my top ideas ever. ENJOY! At 20.00 a day, and 0.50 per mile. A Uhaul is almost cheaper than an actual rental car. And its way cooler to pull up into the parking lot. Literally driving down the street and remembered the other Williamsburg credits! Bonus! And that's the credit. I think we went around 6 times...which was about 5 times too many. Busch Gardens Williamsburg! My favorite park in the country. The english section of the park. For being American, the theming is pretty good! I think more parks should learn about theming. It truly does make the experiences magical. So, one of my friends had never been on a B&M. Actually, he had never ridden a coaster outside of Colorado. So to bring him into the world of B&M love, we went right to Griffon. Though I like SheiKra more, I still really like Griffon. Actually, I just really like the dive machine. Unfortunately, I had killed my camera pretty early in the day, so I didn't get many pictures of LNM. One of my favorite arrows, though. The day we visited was, I think, two days after one of these Family Guy tube men blew into Griffon. Good thing it was nothing serious! The Italian section? I can't really recall. It's the one with the flying over something ride. Not many parks in Ameirca, outside of Disney, have this level of theming. Actually, come to think of it, not many parks in the country have statues. Interesting... More griffon. She is definitely a picturesque coaster! THis is what we ski back in Colorado. It made me feel at home. I'm not sure which I like better....this picture....orrrrrr.... This picture! You decide. What I like most about Alpengeist, is her size. Every element is larger than life. I dunno, between Katun, Alpengeist and Nemesis, I had quite the decision on which B&M invert is my favorite. Just as a fun fact, they had frames on the wall of the top performering operating crews. One of them dispatched something like 100 trains in an hour, and another did 14,000 throughput on one day. Talk about great operations haha More examples of incredible theming. You knew it was coming...I did get the opportunity to ride Big Bad Wolf on my prior visit. Without going into too much detail, she was a great coaster, but what's coming will be better. Apollo's Chariot is one of the best hypers of ridden. Which of the B&M sort, I have no been on 5, I think. Absolute insane airtime towards the back part of the coaster. It doesn't quite have that magical airtime of Goliath or Diamondback, but still has pretty good floater air. This section in particular always gets me. pretty lift hill! These rapids got me absolutely soaked. One of the better ones in the nation, too, in my opinion. Can someone please tell me what this support is for? I'm literally baffled over it's purpose. Escape from Pompeii. For whatever reason, last time I was here I didn't ride it. Really glad I did this time because it was fun! The new sesame street area. It was packed when we went to get the credit. So clearly it was welcomed by the families! New credits are always fun. Cobra roll getting eaten by Immelmann. Ain't nothing better! First drop...going dowwnnnnnnnnn Looks a little beyond 90 degrees, doesn't it. A nice little pop of floater airtime headed into the splashdown. Mmmmm. Favorite element ever. Especially fifth row on an inside seat. And to conclude, a picture for Hans of some German cake! And it was delicious! Stay tuned for Intimidator305 and Kings Dominion! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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