PTR: Knoebels, KD & Busch Gardens

So, um yea....(you'd think it was a Canobiefan TR with that beginning) James and I wanted to hit up Griffion's opening before the Spain trip and since I had this weekend off, we decided to go to BGE along with King's Dominion (his favorite) and Knoebels (my first time). On to the pics....

Being Memorial Day and all, I will leave you with this last picture. I never really knew how big an eagle was. Thanks to all the TPRers for such a good time.

Here's my Apollos Chariot pic. In case you need help seeing it, Larry is pointing to it. Still love that ride.

Talk about polar opposites. James looks sooo intense while Chuck looks like he could care less.

Photoshop contest?

Makes you wish the queue went through the splash zone.

There is a special viewing area that is sort of out of the way unless you are stuck in the overflow 1 hour queue in the blazing hot sun.

Sheikra's water spout area is set up better in my opinion.

Never before seen shot. Maybe someone will use it as a background.

Hi Elissa, how's it going?

I liked it better than Sheikra, but only marginally. I loved the feeling of sitting on the end in the front row and the crazy floater airtime in the back.

"Just look at it!"

James and I then ditched Kings Dominion and raced to Busch Gardens. James is shocked at the size of Griffon. Or was it the length of the queue line? Dunno for sure, but when the hell did I get 3 chins?

So this is what five usually sad and pathetic coaster enthusiasts look like together.

Exclusive shot.....more like homage to the best ride in the park.

Chuck won the snapping race by far. See who's the dork now Larry!

Wait, I think it was actually Larry's manpurse. He has a collection in case you didn't know. He likes purple ones the best.

JamminJ is all wootah about flying but got upset when the ride op told him he couldn't take his manpurse on the ride.

I passed this time on the Flyers at KD. James is patting it like its his baby.

So of course someone has to be different than the group and be the only one to ride the backwards side of Rebel Yell while the rest of us ride frontwards.

Zoinks! Anyone see a remarkable resemblance?

Watching Tomb Raider just made me wanna dance dance. No we didn't ride.

Though James wanted to ride this 300 times, he settled for two.

New credit for me and a whole train of TPRers. Blue car: Derek, Heath, Kim and James. Red car backseat: Jammin whootah J and his bro Matt.

Best quote of the day comes from Larry. Larry, "Who's the dork in the TPR shirt?" Me, "Hey, that's Chuck!"

We only planned to stay a half day and hit BGE during the evening and Sunday morning since I had to work on Monday. God, I hate Mondays!

So after a 13 hour nap, day two (Saturday) brings us to Kings Island. Word on the street is they have a lot of garbage recepticles at Cedar Fair parks.

Hey Elissa, you reading this??? This one is for you. Can you figure out why?

Um, not quite. Balder still owns for me, though it did have a few great pops of airtime.

Nowadays it seems no TR is complete without a picture of a garbage barrel. Mmmm, pepsi.

I have become a mid level credit whore.

Couldn't agree more.

Big forehead, signature move and the first ever picture of emo smiling! Oh wait, of course he is smiling. He's on a ride that is rough and most people don't like.

2) The view of the ride on the exit ramp. Everything else about this ride was junk.

I liked two things about this ride. 1) the sign.

See what I mean?

Should be pretty cool. Though they still have a ways to go before finishing it.

Flying Turns is still a work in progress.

This was my first Flyers ride since this is supposed to be one of the best ones around. Wasn't a big fan of it

See poll question.

Not really, but they have Pepsi here!!!!

James is all "Yeah Hi, we're at Knoebels...you're gonna hate it here."

Departure time in 35 mins....and in case you can't tell from the look on my face, that's 3 AM.

Cool trip report! Good to have yet another comparison of Sheikra and Griffon. I agree, Sheikra's splash does look like it fits in better with the area. Although I won't get to rid either of them for a while, they do look awesome!

Glad you had a good time....but why did you have to work on Memorial Day???

I know I'm going to sound like a huge idiot, but what is drop Zone? Is it like....Supreme Scream at Knotts? or that other dropping one at Great Americas in Santa Clarita?

^ Drop Zone is a 300 foot drop tower. It brings you up to the top, pauses for a few seconds then drops to the bottom. Single yet exhilarating.

^^As to why I had to work on Memorial Day, check out this PTR!

http://www.themeparkreview.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=27352&highlight=

That Griffon coaster looks totally amazing! How many times did you get to ride it when you went?

Nice work, Rich--I never realized that I had my flying scooter at such a steep angle (perhaps I too petrified with fear to notice).

Great TR you have there!! Griffon is a great ride, I thought it was worth the wait. So you guys were there at Busch Gardens this past sunday? I was there with Melissa on Sunday and never spotted any of you guys, but then agian it was pretty crowded at the park sunday. but we still had a good day!

Great photos and captions.

Pepsi is still the Official Soft Drink Of Satan, though.

dt

Great pics and trip report! Were they actually letting you snap the flyers at KD? I was there a couple of weeks ago and got yelled at by three differents ops for snapping.

Exclusive shot.....more like homage to the best ride in the park.

No love for Grizzly?

Anyway Griffon looks cool, looking forward to it at the end of this year. And lol at the log flume & Lost Coaster pics....

Nice TR.

Hmmm. I didn't see a demolished Psyclone picture ! Every TR needs to have a demolished Psyclone picture!

Dear the 33 people who said my hat was brown.... You fail.. My hat is BLACK!

1 - It's not a purple manpurse, it is a blue backpack from Alton Towers

2 - James' hat is BROWN! It might have been black at one time, but it is brown now.

3 - they were not yelling at those who could snap the flyers.

4 - no love for the Grizzly.

5 - James' also smiled on Drop Zone

That Griffon coaster looks totally amazing! How many times did you get to ride it when you went?

Total of 8. On Sat night we got on 3 (waited once in the queue and two in the single rider) and 5 on Sun morning (most in single rider).

No love for Grizzly or Hurler as I hate them both. Not that its the reason for no photos though. When I scanned through I found I only had one and it was crap, so rather than quantity.....

Exclusive shot.....more like homage to the best ride in the park.

 

No love for Grizzly?

 

Nice TR.

No kidding, I was there over the long weekend, I rode the back seat of Grizz from about 9 to close each night (night is the best time to ride it), best ride in the park… it beats the hell out of you but its great.

^I actually like the Grizzly, but it wasn't standing tall that day (seemed better earlier in the spring). Hurler was acting more like it's usual, crappy self.

It's tough to get decent pictures of the Griz.

In the day time I didn't think much of Griz, but then i got a 1.5 hour marathon in the back seat after the sun started to set and it was just amazing. While early in the day it felt laggy (not just the infamous slow turnaround, it seemed to be hanging up everywhere), at night it just flew. Air everywhere, very out of control, and while it was bumpy (definitely in a good way), I can't call it rough because the trains seemed to track amazingly (there was no shuffling/searching/hunting/whatever you call it).

Earlier in the day i would have thought Volcano was the best coaster in the park, but those night rides on Grizzly are just incredible.

Night rides on Grizzly were a lot better about 15 years ago before Paramount knocked out a rain forest to put up Hurler. I still like Volcano the best in the park though.

I still need to get my damn Maxx Pass processed.

Anyone want to meet up tomorrow?

I will defiantly say rough in a good way, it's a whole different story at night the tunnel is insanely loud and the lateral out of the tunnel is crazy. I don't know how this thing keeps it self together when you stop you can hear the up stop wheels still spinning.

I have some pictures from this weekend from the Eifel Tower that show it's layout in some places, I'll try to post them.

Side note from my own curiosity, I’m planning a trip out to Kings Island/Cedar Point this summer, mainly just for The Beast, is it’s tunnels as loud as the Grizzly’s at night?

Just a few more photos....and a couple of Grizsuckazzly for the Grizzly lovers.

Onride of the 4 Horsemen.

Lift hill enthusiasts rejoice!

Darkastle had a bit of a line as well....over an hour. Boy, what a let down. Without an audible pre-show - I had no idea of the story. The effects were blah and one of the screens was messed up. Spiderman > Darkastle.

A new angle of Alpengeist for me since we found the log flume entrance thanks to Sensai Chuck.

Through the leaves.

Back at BGE, Saturday night this place was packed! Waited 45 mins for Alpengeist.

Hypersonic > Coke

Wood have been better with a train I know. But its stripped down for those lift hill enthusiasts.

I kinda like this photo....but this ride is crap. Just like the Beast in my opinion.

I knew there was a reason why I didn't ride this on my first visit to KD.

One of the many "did not ride" coasters. James gave some lame excuse of a new ear piercing as to why he didn't ride. Sounds like a cop out to me.

Despite the look, KD wasn't too busy, thanks to the open water park.

LOL!!!

Awesome TR!!!

I can see now why it made the Front Page!

BTW, Pepsi SUCKS!!!!

DarKastle originally did have an "audible preshow." It was pretty cool--guests watched an animated "tapestry" of the story of Ludwig, and the lighting would turn blue on the words "frozen in time." But Busch, in an effort to speed up the queue, put up stanchions in the preshow room, and guests just file pass the preshow video, hardly giving it a second look.

I guess this shortened the waits a little bit--but it did hurt the ride experience.

As ever Rich, thoroughly enjoyed your report and you need to do more!

Now let me see.....

'Wasn't a big fan'

'Everything else about this ride was junk'

'No love for Grizzly or Hurler as I hate them both'

'I kinda like this photo....but this ride is crap, just like the Beast'

'Darkastle....what a let down'

And yet everyone thinks it is CanobieFan who is the hater-??

Looking forward to hearing and seeing you hating some more in Spain keep rolling it out....

Corky

DarKastle originally did have an "audible preshow." It was pretty cool--guests watched an animated "tapestry" of the story of Ludwig, and the lighting would turn blue on the words "frozen in time." But Busch, in an effort to speed up the queue, put up stanchions in the preshow room, and guests just file pass the preshow video, hardly giving it a second look.

 

I guess this shortened the waits a little bit--but it did hurt the ride experience.

While we rode DarKastle in its 2nd year of operation, we did have to wait a little while in the preshow area so we were able to watch all the backstory. I can see how the ride would make little sense without seeing it. I am glad that Griffon is as good, if not better, than SheiKra. I am looking foward to riding it sometime.

Now let me see.....

 

'Wasn't a big fan'

'Everything else about this ride was junk'

'No love for Grizzly or Hurler as I hate them both'

'I kinda like this photo....but this ride is crap, just like the Beast'

'Darkastle....what a let down'

 

And yet everyone thinks it is CanobieFan who is the hater-??

OOOOH!!! PWNT!

Canobie "I like Knoebels.. KD.. AND BGE!" Fan