Photo TR of our 14 days of rollercoasters in the Usa

Together with HansRubens, we're on a coastertrip in the Usa.

Yesterday our tour started at Holiday World.

We'll try to keep you updated of our trip by posting some pics on a daily basis.

5/17 : HW (both our pics on page 1)

5/17 : SFKK (Hans' : page 1, mine page 2)

5/18 : KI (both our pics on page 2)

5/19 : Cedar Point day 1 (both our pics on page 3)

5/20 : Cedar Point day 2 (both our pics on page 4)

5/21 : Canada's Wonderland (Hans : page 4, mine page 5)

5/22 : Kennywood (both our pics on page 5)

5/23 : Hershey Park (Hans' : page 5, mine : page 6)

5/24 : Hershey Park (both : page 6)

5/24 : Knoebels : (both : page 6)

5/25 : Dorney Park : (both : page 6)

5/26 : SFGAdv : (both : page 7)

5/27 : SFGAdv : (Hans : page 8)

5/28 : KD : (both : page 8)

5/29 : BGE (Hans' : page 9, mine page 11)

5/30 : SFA (Hans' : page 9, mine page 11)

I liked HW very much : great coasters, friendly people, free parking, free soda. We had a great time.

Voyage

Voyage

Raven

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Legend

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More Voyage

Great thing in HW is the free soda (and parking).

This is their new dark ride if I'm not mistaken.

The speed is amazing.

After opening, we went to the Voyage.

We were there 30 minutes before opening so we we parked near the entrance.

The Raven can be seen from the parking lot.

Entrance

The picture right under Raven is not Raven again, it's The Voyage

Anyway, I loved this park when I went in 07' on the midwest trip. Favorite park of the trip.

Glad you enjoyed it, too

Alright! How nice that you guys are doing a trip together! I will check this thread every day to see how my compatriots and northern neighbours are doing over there!

Cool pics so far! The Voyage looks really sweet and so high! Yikes! I thought Troy was high...

Keep up the good work and I'm really looking forward to the rest!

I love TRs from those visiting another country, especially another continent/another part of the world. Keep up the good work! Prettige vakantie & goede reis!

My part of the pictures of Holiday World.

I thought Raven was a bit short but it's a great coaster anyway.

Load/unload chaos

Train entering the station

Station pic

The Raven

^

Some random theming

Swing

First drop

Great coaster

The legend.

But we didn't ride it.

Ah another credit.

Random ride

Getting some air.

Lift hill

It was a walk on for most of the morning.

Station pic

The Voyage looming through the trees

There is Santa

Entrance

The Dark ride was new for 2006, fyi.

Nice pics. I agree Raven is short, but that is what I like, short and sweet.

Next stop was Six flags Kentucky Kingdom.

Our first US Six flags experience on the trip. Bad operations all day.

Pictures !!!!

Seasonpass processing with an 1 hour wait.

and the last one

Loop

First drop

and it was a great ride

It was my very first standup coaster

Chang

Restaurant

2 out of the three time we were standing in line it broke down.

Deluge was very cool and wet.

They were running only three trains and most of the time they were in the station.

Roadrunner Express

Oversized clothing??

Ferris wheel

Station pic.

but fun

It was a bit rough

Thunder run entrance

Flying dutchman swing was actually standing in the belgian village ?!?!

Arms up.

Launch

Greezed lightning

But it was really rough

It sounded like it was kinda smouth

T2: SLC time

I'm sorry your first SF experience was Kentucky Kingdom, it gets much better (though admittedly I had a pretty good day there a while back)

Nice pics guys, Holiday World is definitely one of my favorite parks too. Hope you have a great trip.

The picture right under Raven is not Raven again, it's The Voyage

Indeed, sorry about that. I was uploading those pics this morning in a rush as KI was waiting for us

I love TRs from those visiting another country, especially another continent/another part of the world. Keep up the good work! Prettige vakantie & goede reis!

Thanks for the comment (thanks for everybody who commented btw). Do you know dutch ?

TR of SFKK & KI should be up still this evening.

Saturday 5/17 PM : Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom

After staying till about 1 pm at HW, we drove to SFKK where we arrived 1.5 hours later. I was pretty excited to be there. However that feeling went away very quickly :

- all flash passes were sold out already, while we hardly saw people using them in the park

- we had to stand in line for about 1 hour to get our season pass processed

- ride ops were working sloooooooooooowly. Definitely the worst rides ops I have ever seen in a park.

- the wild mouse had 3 cars on the track. Yes 3. Other parks run the same mouses with 6 or more cars. At a certain point the ride op had all 3 cars in the station. LMAO.

- Chang was running with 2 trains but all the time the 2nd train was already long time back in the station while the ops were still checking the train in the station. Same with T2

I already started to think that making a coastertrip to the Usa wasn't such a good idea after all

On to the pics.

Those mini burgers were so cute I couldn't resist to post it here for all you non-Americans.

No 2 more : next to our hotel, there was a White Castle.

^

To end this part, 2 more of Chang.

Ok but a bit rough.

Thunder run

One more of Deluge

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The waterpark has some other great rides as well.

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Deluge : apart from the fact that we were only able to ride it the 3rd time we got in line because it broke down the first 2 times, this was a fun but wet ride. It's cool though that SF is opening this ride to guests while their waterpark was still closed.

^

T2. Like Hans said, it sounded smooth but it wasn't.

My favorite element

Chang again.

The ride op checking the first part of the train..... while the other train is already back for a while.

Great coaster although I expected it to be better. I don't know why.

Chang and the closed waterpark in the front.

This was an ok ride.

Entrance

EDIT : one more pic (I uploaded the wrong pic before)

The mouse with all 3 (!) cars in the station.

Unfortunately Dorney's mouse is run worse. It's the same model and they frequently only run 4 cars and 2 are usually in the station with 1 waiting to go into the station. Plus with the added seatbelts and the rule of no more than 2 adults per car, it makes the line crawl.

Hmm, that's strange. SFKK's ops are usually great!

Sunday 5/18 : Kings Island

Having the waiting line for the seasonpass at SFKK fresh in mind, we arrived at KI 1 hour before opening. I was amazed about the park as from the first minute :

- almost all the booths where you have to pay were already open, while there was nobody yet.

- the complete seasonpass processing center was already in full operation. I didn't see one desk empty while we were the only ones at that moment in the processing center (at SFKK only half of the desk were working).

- while the mainstreet area opened at 0930 h, the turnstyle and security ops were already present at 9 h.

- all coasters were running at full capicity as from the beginning and ops were doing everything possible to get the train out before the next ones arrived. We got our 13 credits in 4 to 5 hours time.

I very much liked KI and to be honest I liked Son of Beast It's probably because I expected the very worst but I thought SoB was quite fun.

The pics.

That's all for KI.

I'm going to sleep now because we have to get up early tomorrow for our drive to CP.

^

I liked this coaster, sorry for that

Racers.

In the back, Beast. The second drop is AMAZING.

In the front, Vortex. By far the worst coaster in KI.

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I even didn't like the way you get in the fly position.

If I would have had wings, I think I would fly smoothly.

Firehawk.

So far, Air was my only fly credit.

Air remains my favorite. Nuff said.

The trains are beautiful of course. I like it so much that the doors actually open.

Stunt Coaster : I was looking forward to this one for some reason. Effects were not working and didn't really like the coaster either. The tunnel was a surprise though.

^

Racers. These were very good coasters, especially frontrow. I didn't like it backrow that much.

Delirium

Flight Deck. It's a good ride. Btw, has that waiting row ever been filled completely ? FD was a walk on but we lost 10 minutes walking to and back the station.

I couldn't resist to already take a pic of one of the most impressive coasters I've ever seen, although I was nearly crapping my pants for riding it.

Although very powerful in the loop going backwards (so we were then on the backrow), it was a good ride.

As soon as the park opened we rode Invertigo where we got front row on the second train of the day.

Entrance

^^^

That's something to look forward to for next Sunday Btw, you mention Dorney has 4 cars on their mouse, SFKK only had 3 on the track ! I've seen the same model in other parks where the cars move slowly through the station while you have to get in. At the end of the station the cars just go up without further halting. Of course the added seatbelt at SFKK has an effect on that but the way how they manage to have all cars in the station regularly, I couldn't believe my eyes. There were in fact running the mouse with 1 to max 2 cars if you know what I mean.

^^

The ops at Deluge were great once we managed to get in the station.

All others probably had a bad day.

^

Additional pictures

Last pic of the day.

Rugrats runaway reptar

Scoobie the ride. A fun shooting darkride. Those thing seems really be popping out in the last few years.

Loop

Firehawk

Random flatride

The part of the ride that was in the forest was more like coastering down than floating.

Log flume

Launch

Great ride

Waiting area of Flight of fear

Poppin out

It was fun but no more than that.

Launch

Backlot stunt coaster

Lifthill shot

Racing

Overview

and a blue side.

There is a red....

The best coaster of the park.

A great coaster maybe a bit rough but hey it's 29 years old.

But that couldn't stop me from riding it

First the train had to be repaired

The Beast

I only got the sign from Adventure Express.

Going up

Lifthill

Batwing

When youre going through this corkscrew it really starts to hurt.

But it was disappointing

I expected something from Vortex

Drop zone. It feeled like it was going endlessly up.

Monster

Good fun especially in front seat

Helix

I found it a great coaster

Son of Beast

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Project 2009

Close up

We had to walk a while before we entered the station

Next stop Flight Deck

But it was quite good and forcefull

I expected that it would be rough

First off to Invertigo

Front view of the park

Those mini burgers were so cute I couldn't resist to post it here for all you non-Americans.

Some of us Americans too, because White Castle is a regional chain. There are no locations here in California or in the western United States at all. And no, I don't speak Dutch, I had to look up something to say.

Nice pictures, guys! I hope you *are* having fun over there, in spite of the sloooooow ops at SFKK Good thing those at KI were better!

I love the pictures of Son of Beast, that coaster and especially the helices look beautiful!

Btw, those White Castle burgers may look cute but they also look a bit disgusting... Were they any good?!

Keep up the good work and have fun!

Vortex the worst? Aw man! Sorry I couldn't make it, man...exam week and need to study! Glad to hear you liked the park and rides! Though I really don't know what was up with Vortex

^I was gonna say. I had a fun time on my front row ride. Maybe you need to learn how to ride it correctly.

I've got a good riding strategy:

Lean into the sharp transitions, and your ride will be MUCH more comfortable. Oh yeah, ride in the back, too. Vortex has the best first drop of all the coasters in the park in the back!

^ & ¨^^

We rode Vortex in the backrow. That might be the reason why we didn't like it. We almost got whiplashed in the loops.

Btw, those White Castle burgers may look cute but they also look a bit disgusting... Were they any good?!

The burgers were quite greasy and indeed didn't taste that well. But 5 burgers, french fries and unlimited soda was a steal so I'm not complaining.

Monday 5/19 : Cedar Point day 1

Wow ! CP is big, has coasters every where you look, and has 3 coasters that I give a 10/10 rating : Maverick, Millie and Dragster.

It's been a very long time that I was nervous for riding a coaster. Well I was nervous for TTD but I loved it.

The first drop on Millennium Force is so long

And Maverick has so many different cool elements.

Crowds were ok and we got in early with our platinum pass and were able to ride MF and Maverick before 10 am. TTD had 1 hour row most of the day but just before closing time, it was a walk on. We had the very last launch of the day. Raptor and Mantis had 30 minute waits. All other coasters were walk ons.

We briefly talked to Michael, also a member on Tpr and working at CP.

Gyro-drop tree.

Last train of the day. This is how an empty TTD station looks like.

Through the trees

^

Also nearly diving

Diving Mantis

Mantis and MF

Overview

Maxair

Drop tower

^

Raptor : very powerful helixes in the end.

Blue Streak : lots of airtime.

Put your 3D glasses on. Don't ask me why. I in any case didn't see anything in 3D during the ride.

This was surprisingly good.

^

Mantis : I got headbanged in the second part.

This ride was quite ok.

^

Iron Dragon : great misting.

Mean Streak : ^

Magnum : I didn't like this coaster. Too painful to be honest.

Gemini : good ride. Only didn't like the last helix.

1 hour waiting line.

Finish

Great fun.

You hardly see the train.

It got me nervous in the waiting row.

It's huge.

Another great ride in the back.

This was a great ride.

Surprise

^

Maverick

On to our second ride before park opening.

^

What a coaster.

Our first ride of the day.

Entrance

We parked our car on the first row of the empty parking.

Coaster heaven.

nice report. SFKK looks awfully small. Is that the only woodie they have there?

Additional Cedarpoint pictures.

What a rush. Trying to take another few rides tomorrow.

Zoomed

Launch

TTD

Spiral up

Launch

Wicked Twister

Mantis

Not better than Chang though

Mantis was quite Ok

Comming back

Great drop

Only the red side was in use.

It was only running one side.

Gemini

Demon Drop was my first ride on a first gen drop tower and I really liked it.

Some great moments of air. I almost lost my camera on one of those hills.

Blue Streak was great

Blue Streak

I didn't take any pictures of that part of the track.

Drop and first hill were just fine. But then the horror started.

SO with the good experience on Corkscrew I thought I could ride Magnum

And it worked out just fine. It didn't hurt me at all.

With the "how to ride an arrow coaster" manual fresh in mind I got on Corscrew.

Skyhawk was short but sweet

Random

But it was really a nice ride.

Just like Son of Beast I expected a really rough ride.

Next stop was Mean Streak.

^

Random Theming

Bit of overview.

Rode it two times today.

Well there is some air on this hill.

Maybe it lacked on airtime

What to say about such a great ride.

Millennium Force was first on the list.

It was great with good ride operations all day.

Entrance

nice report. SFKK looks awfully small. Is that the only woodie they have there?

They also had the racing Twisting Twins woodies. Unfortunately, they are both out of order but still standing.