FeelTheFORCE

Thanks. I only rode it four times that morning, but I could have ridden more if I wanted to. They were letting me, the contest finalists, and the media and their kids just keep going around and ride it as many times as we wanted. My third or fourth time, though, I was starting to get a headache because it was hot, then they let the public in and the line got really long, very quickly.

Thanks. Yeah, from what I have heard, it has been running great so far.

Awesome Dragster pictures! One of my favorite rides.

As the winner of the naming contest, I was able to go to Silverwood for Aftershock's opening day and ride the first public ride. The ride is very smooth, and the operators did a great job at dispatching. I wish them the best of luck with the ride in the future. Silverwood has a real quality coaster on their hands that will surely bring in the crowds. Silverwood really treated my mom and I well while we were there everything was great, they are such nice people, and it is such a great park. On to the pictures. Silverwood's Skyline from the parking lot across the street. The path that goes under the road that leads to the entrance gate area. Silverwood's entrance gate area. Corkscrew. Twisty sections of both wooden coasters with scenic mountains in the background. Getting closer. Entering "Roller Coaster Alley." Timber Terror. Tremors. What you have been waiting for, Aftershock. I'll let the pictures do the talking. Aftershock's courtyard. Lastly, my winner's lanyard. Hope you enjoyed, and thanks for reading!

1) Drop Zone/Tower at Kings Island Tied for 2 & 3) The drop towers at Waldameer and Silverwood. They are the same, I just don't know the make and model. 4) Big Shot on top of the Stratosphere. 5) Pitt Fall at Kennywood.

May: May 12th and 13th - Cedar Point June: June 6th - Six Flags Great Adventure June 7th - Morey's Piers June 9th - Six Flags Great Adventure June 10th - Dorney Park June 11th - Six Flags Great Adventure June 16th - Boomerang Bay at Kings Island June 17th - Kings Island June 25th - Cedar Point July: July 10th - Waldameer July 19th-21st - Silverwood Have yet to go to: -Kennywood -Possibly Cedar Point once more for Halloweekends. -Possibly Darien Lake

I'll second that, Xcelerator is awesome! Since I have only been to Knott's out of those parks, I can only comment on that. I say do Xcelerator first, in case it breaks down. It went down frequently throughout the day when I was there. Same goes for Montezooma's Revenge. When I went two summers ago, Silver Bullet was a kid magnet. Lot's of screaming and loudness, lol. Have fun!

Yes, that was their objective. It is the first thing you see coming down the road to the park (assuming the park in on your left). Probably about 95% of the people there have only been to Silverwood and have never seen anything like this. A ride like this looks so monstrous and cool to them. They don't have any plans to change the colors right now. All of the signs and whatnot are colored in it's current color scheme, so they'd have to change all of them also. Yeah, there were only 3 other finalists there, so the majority of them couldn't make it on such short notice. There were some communication problems. It was supposed to originally open on Sunday, but I didn't get word that it was pushed back to Monday until Sunday morning at about 11:00 am. You could tell that this was there first time doing this, lol. They still did an excellent job, though. Lastly, yes, it did cost them $3 million just to move it, but Silverwood did the electrical work themselves.

Being the contest winner, I was there. The opening on Monday was a success. I got four rides in before the public was let on. As soon as I get the pictures uploaded to my computer, which will be this evening when my dad get's home because it's his camera, not mine, I'll post a photo trip report, my thoughts, opinions, etc. Let me just say that they did a great job re-habbing the trains, as the ride was super-smooth.

If you do choose Great Adventure and Hershey, I'd suggest trying to fit Dorney Park in there also. It's a nice park with a fun collection of coasters and rides.

Sony is in 20 minutes! I wonder what they have in store for us.

Looking great! They seem like they're getting pretty close!

They were running low capacity because of the rain. This time of the year, whether it's a weekend or a weekday, Cedar Point is always crowded and never has "low crowds." I went the last week in June and rides like MF, TTD, Maverick, Raptor, Mantis, etc. all had lines that were at least an hour and a half long, all day long. And that's with using the maximum number of trains, except on TTD, because it has a better capacity with 5 instead of 6.

I don't blame those girls for saying that. The Steel Phantom was the tallest and fastest coaster in the world once, and they've probably never been to any other park besides Kennywood. Plus, they aren't fact machines like us enthusiasts, that can spit out heights, speeds, lengths, etc. at will. You can probably thank 1991 Kennywood marketing and advertising for their comments. The other comments you posted, however...

Dragster staying open after closing is a fairly regular occurrence. It's happened to me many times. Kudos to Cedar Point and the TTD crew for doing so!

Ravine Flyer II at Waldameer on July 10, 2008.

Awesome trip report! Glad to hear you had a good time at my home park, Kennywood! Can't wait to go there, myself.

Steel - Hydra at Dorney Park Wood - Thunderbolt at Kennywood

I went three times this year, all weekdays in the beginning of June, and all three days were relatively crowded. My guess is that it's going to be packed.

Fixed, thanks for pointing that out. That section is based on Dominator's ending as sort of a tribute. Picture from RCDB. Here is also another picture to add. Today I built the mechanism that is next to a break run so the track can slide over and be put onto the transfer track...whatever that's called. I am still debating on whether to build a storage shed or not. Since I don't do 3DSs, I would have to build it from scratch out of wood and steel beams, which would consume a LOT of time and probably significantly delay the release of the download.

The transfer track is long enough for two trains.

I have never "trembled" before I got on a coaster or after I got off.

Awesome pictures! I'm hoping to get out to both KD and BGE next summer!

I was there Wednesday the 25th and they closed down Dragster about a half hour before it started raining. They said they saw something on the radar. It did eventually rain, but not for that long, and not that hard. I thought that policy was a little ridiculous, but Power Tower ran constantly throughout that rain. As for the one train operations, yeah the same thing happened on Magnum when I was there in May. It's so if the train would happen to over-shoot the brakes, or MCBR in Mean Streak's case, it wouldn't matter because there is only one train on the track to begin with. It also makes guests a lot happier.

A new picture, as promised.