Electerik

Sad and pathetic style...so I had lots of time to take pictures. I leave you with this bit of artistry. Toodles! Mystery Mine's indoor/outdoor gift shop. And, now, this downer. Timber Canyon from the upper section of Mystery Mine's queue. That one's not quite as blurry. (I'm surprised it didn't roll back. ) And whizzing around the turn! (Okay, so I need a new camera.) Coming off the horseshoe turn. (Look how fast!) This year's other new attraction didn't quite get the same fanfare for some reason. A pretty good overview of the first half's outdoor section (if I do say so myself). Mystery Mine from Lumberjack Lifts. Wrong Way Joe's sold potatoes last year. But I guess it's more manly to sell wieners. ...so I just sort of shot around it. Yes, Timber Tower was down all day (again). Thunderhead, through the broken Huss ride. More GCI-style turny goodness. Are you happy now? Fine. Here's Thunderhead. ...and a fountain. What, are you in a hurry or something? Just another random Dollywood path.... Glass blowing. No "glory hole" jokes, please; I'm very sensitive. ...as diabolical a water ride as you are likely to find. Fun, though. The Mountain SlideWinder.... Now this one, I would never, ever go on with regular shoes. Part splash, part water-jet fakery. And, thanks to my he-man sandals, I was able to sit in the front without fear of watery reprisal. This is actually one of my favorite rides in the park. Hmm, something odd about that birdhouse.... Time for another water ride. Proving once again that anything fits tornadic theming. Plus, this business. It's fun...for an Arrow multi-looper. The Tennessee Tornado. And a tree. Blazing Fury's exit and exterior theming. Blazing Fury. Well, the station anyway. I wonder if this Tennessee Tornado sign (which sort of signifies that there's nothing else up there) will come down next year...? So I, of course, bought food. Here's what $12.03 will get you. ...or something forged. You can buy a carriage at Dollywood.... Despite all the material this photo provides, I just can't think of a caption. One of Dollywood's many random "stores in the middle of the midway." ...which, I'm guessing, require vast amounts of water from this contraption. Ooh, pretty flowers! This one's for the ladies. (Because, as I mentioned earlier, I'm totally straight.) One more shot of the vegetable coaster. It was so uncrowded, in fact, that I was able to get on the Sky Rider. My camera took pity on this ride, and decided to make it look really fast. I waited forever to get this shot. So pretend to like it. The park wasn't too busy today. The Country Fair section. Yes, Dollywood has a magic shop. I just like this picture. What, you wanna fight about it? The big train does not give a hoot. (Obscure?) ...in my straight, straight sandals. (Not pictured, but very manly.) ...so that I could ride the water rides.... ...so I wore sandals (not gay).... Like most of the south...Tennessee has been hotter than six hells for the last two weeks.... ...what's their excuse? I took public transportation here.... I have never been in this store, due to fear of catching "teh ghey." Somewhat breaking with tradition, I kept to the right upon entering the park. ...which is really just the exit...which is really just a gift shop. ...so I took the season passholders entrance.... The main entrance looked a little congested.... Well, okay, it's really just a bus. ...and took the trolley to the park. Walked over to the Dollywood Welcome Center....

^^ What's interesting about that to me is that the GP love it. I mean, I've heard enthusiasts refer to Raptor's snap onto the brake run as an engineering error, but it's been my experience that most of the GP consider it the cherry on top of the sundae, as it were. I've ever heard CP brass refer to it as a very successful feature of the ride, and as something to be imitated conceptually on other projects!

Superman: The Escape! Photo from this very site.

Shiekra, short as it is. Verticle drop into tunnel, fan turn, splash down, ascent, helix.

Nice trip report. And let me just say that you've reminded me of a saying from my Cedar Point days.... "Buck Fill Spehn" You had to be there.

The hints do make it sound rather Valentine's Day-ish. Didn't I read somewhere that Will envisioned Thanksgiving as the center of the park? (Or am I just making that up?) I say it's a Tunnel Of Love!

Dude, what the hell?! You can't keep talking about all the hot girls and then not even include one picture of one!

Actually, I really wanted to include that in the TR, just because it was so funky, but I didn't have a good picture of it. That's where we had lunch.

The wife is really anti-zoo. Which doesn't really bother me--except when she doesn't want to go to SeaWorld(s). We tend to move to a new area of the country every few years. Portland is now definately on the list. I think we need to see it in winter-time first, though.

A few pictures of non-amusement park stuff (gasp) in Oregon. I'll end with my favorite picture from the entire trip. Thanks for reading. (A small section of) The Columbia River Gorge. Looking down the falls. The viewing platform at the top. Like peanut butter and chocolate. We had to hike it. Multnomah Falls. This is not a lake; it's the Columbia River. I really wanted to see some of the Columbia River Gorge. Here's a view of Mount Hood on the way. Another nickname is "Bridge Town." Another view from Washington Park. One of it's nicknames is "Rose City." Portland was awesome. The wedding was a vineyard. I took, like, 20 pictures of this bridge in Newport. How about a little lighthouse action? The beach. The road to the coast. Our hotel.

We went to Oregon for a friend's wedding. We'd never been before. It was very pretty. I especially liked Portland. It was sort of like New York crossed with San Fransisco (except smaller, obviously). The only park we visited was Enchanted Forest. There's not much to it, but what there is is heavy on charm. We spent about three hours there, and that was plenty--but it was a very good three hours. Just how close is Thrill-ville to Enchanted Forest? It's pretty close. However, The Ripper was closed, so we passed. My wife pretty much wore this for the rest of the trip. The exit gift shop. This area reminds me of Holiday World. Sort of like the Tiki Room, but with pie. One of the may concrete tunnels. Wear long pants. Can you spot the ghost? It's just sort of built it over existing stuff. ...the trackless shooting dark ride. The third of the park's three major attractions... Enclosed cars, bad transistions, and no restraints. What more could you ask for? This ride is super-funky, but fun. A view from the parking lot. Much of which is not very icy. The Ice Mountain Bobsleds. The approach to the park's only true coaster. One more of the log flume. My lovely wife models a free-use poncho. Most of it is rather difficult to photograph. The Big Timber Log Flume was really good. The park was not busy. When you push a button in each car, it makes an animal noise of some kind and then launches into "Old MacDonald." This train was probably the best of them. There are a few kiddie rides at the top of a hill. Towards the end of the haunted house, you'll find these guys. The walk-through haunted house. It's not bad. Shooting gallery. Meet Lincoln! This is not part of the crooked house. Well, that's it for the fairy tale section of the park. Now on to their Old West section. ...a really cool slide. This giant shoe contains... I live in fruit. Little Red Riding Hood. I'm not sure what this is about. It's in the crooked house, though. Anyone? The Crooked Man's house. No real "tricks" inside, but it is a crooked house, which is always a plus in my book. Enchanted Forest must be the slide capital of the world. Here's the first one, inside the witch's head. I never understood the moral of Goldilocks and the Three Bears, but here's the house. The Enchanted Forest Dwarfs are a little bit different than the Disney ones. (Dingy?) Moving right along. You can go into the Gingerbread house if you're a sick freak who wants to see a little boy in a cage. Little Bo Peep. Little Miss Muffett and Spider-Dude. Humpty Dumpty holding it down. There's a sign that says "start with the castle." So we did. There are some dioramas and super-basic animatronics in there, which is cool. It's worth noting that this sign is inside the park, once you've already paid to get in. The (only) ticket booth. That's my friend Jason, the (then) groom-to-be. The front entrance and exit gift shop.

Okay, filled it out. I have to admit, I was really hoping for a combined Scandinavia/Germany type trip, but most of these sound pretty cool, too.

Well, CP did once have a reputation for getting all their rides open on time, but that was before they decided to go with four Intamin coasters in a row. (I'm just saying....) As for Disaster Transport...they don't run it in the rain because the building leaks--badly. Too bad they can't blame that one on Intamin, too. CP has its good points, of course. But it's just not my kind of park.

Sadly, I had to drop out of the mid-west trip. However, I should be able to make it to this (since I live, like, two miles away. ).

I've seen a few posts hoping that Dueling Dragons won't be much affected. And I'm sure that it won't. However, for me personally, as someone who's worked at nearly every ride in the park, Dragons is the first thing I would take out. Or, at the very least, seriously rework. Why? Because, no matter how I arrange my visit, my positive guest experience and "park exploration ease" always comes to a screeching halt there. Also, the park's big coaster experiences are far too similar to one another. So, I say, TAER IT DOWN! And put in a hypercoaster instead. Yes, I am serious. No, I'm not trolling. Yes, I will be flamed. No, they won't actually do it. But, yes, I would really like for them to.

So I'm going to Albany, Oregon in late June for a friend's wedding. I know I want to go to Enchanted Forest, but from what I can tell, neither Thrill-ville nor Oaks look like they have much in the way of unique attractions. Since I'm not at all a credit whore, I'm inclined to skip them both. But then the thought occurs to me that my research could be incomplete. So.... To those familiar with the area: Is there anything at either of those parks (or any place else in the general area) that I'm overlooking?

Stark Raven Mad! Oh, wait, they don't have that anymore. Well, in that case, Knott's Scary Farm/Halloween Haunt.

Unless you really like the animal aspect, I say Europe, by a long shot. SheiKra was the best thing Africa had going for it, but that seems a bit mitigated now. BGE is a beautiful, well put-together park with lots of variety. BGA is a weird, disjointed park that isn't quite sure what it wants to be.

So I was your intrepid Mystery Mine construction photographer over most of the winter. And then...well, other things just sort of came up. Strange to think of how many others have posted Dollywood/Mystery Mine trip reports ahead of me, considering that I live 2 miles from the park. Oh well, such is life.... And now, I leave you with what you've all been waiting for: the official first construction shot of whatever they end up building next up there. And the second half, while much better, is too short and over much too-abruptly. Still the vertical drops are fun and the theming is pretty cool. The first half is made up of small, tight elements that really don't work well on a ride with over-the-shoulder restraints. So what did I think of Mystery Mine? Well, honestly, it was kind of mediocre. The other new attraction this year: pan for gold. Seems like a natural. Lumberjack Lifts. But wait, what's that in the background? Could it be...? Thunderhead has added a Q2Q line, so now you get to hear the Control Booth Operator struggle in vain to police it the entire time you're in line. Once you start down the dark path, forever will it dominate your destiny. The somewhat-difficult-to-photograph Tennessee Tornado. There will be Mystery Mine photos eventually, I swear. The, um, falls of Daredevil Falls. The lift of Daredevil Falls. The beginning of Daredevil Falls. Craftsman's Valley midway, with a slight Irish overly in honor of the annual Festival of Nations event. The church and the wagon shop. The Geode gift shop is open again this year. That's kind of exciting. I'm not a games person, but this one seemed strange to me; Like a mutant combination of skeeball and a race game. Well, that was fun. Who wants to see the shooting gallery?! Look, a rollercoaster! Wandering around near the train station. People sitting quietly under a tree. Another rapids pic to anger you more. Smoky Mountain River Rampage's staging area. Rockin' Roadway. Rumored to be in danger at one point, but they decided to keep it so that I could keep taking pictures of it. Because, really, wouldn't you rather see this anyway? I'm going to make you wait for the Mystery Mine photos while I take pictures of cars. The transition into the 1950's area. The seldom photographed "Adventures in Imagination" area of the park. The main entrance. The best picture of me ever. (Which is sort of sad, when you think about it.)

Ooh, time to beat my favorite dead horse: Revolution & Colossus at SFMM.

Thanks, everyone, for the kind comments. It's not that Gwazi is too rough to ride, it's that the operations are so bad that you'll never get on the thing. How often do they run both sides? I have no idea; I've never seen it done. As for SheiKra....

Though I'd been to the park several times, this was my first visit to Busch Gardens Africa with camera in hand. As usual, I took a bazillion pictures, but most of them sucked. Here are the few that didn't (so much). Gwazi was only running one side. Hardly surprising. I do like this ride, but I was afraid that trying to ride it would ruin an otherwise great day. ;o) I just like this building. That's Gwazi in the background. The splashdown, with the second vertical drop behind. Here's a shot of the queue and approach to the lift from the station house. SheiKra is a Top Ten coaster in my book. Here you can see how well it interacts with the midway and its surroundings. Tanganyika Tidal Wave had way more theming than I thought it would. Stanley Falls, with SheiKra in the background. Scorpion, with Stanley Falls (log flume) behind. Congo River Rapids. The blue-green track in the background is Kumba. Yay, now I have this picture of Kumba, too! BGA has a great Sky Ride. Coming up is the "turn station." We skipped Rhino Rally since the river section wasn't working. The same thing from the Sky Ride. My favorite "animal thing" at the park, this half-aquarium type habitat. Assorted animals. I think these ones are from Scandinavia. Here's the inside. Note the view of the "Serengeti Plain." The Crown Colony House is the park's full service restaurant. Another shot of Montu, this time from the train. And it has a very well-themed gift shop! Tut's Tomb is a walk-though. A minor attraction, but nice. I like Montu. Just not as much as I like Top Gun: The Jet Coaster over at Carowinds. Akbar's Adventure Tours Simulator was, of course, not operating. Nor was this Dippin' Dots stand. I'm not really a show kinda guy, but I gave this one a try--and it was pretty darned good! The park's train ride. Definitely above average, since there are animals to look at along the way.

My understanding is that GhostRider was already in the works when Cedar Fair came in. And they wanted to cancel the project and build a hypercoaster instead. But they couldn't get out of the contract without paying for it anyway. Otherwise, I concur with your statements.

Hey, I worked at Cedar Point in 2000. Mostly on Millennium Force, but I also spent a week over at Chaos/Troika/Super Himalaya when they were short handed. Hmmm....

^^^ Well, I'm glad you enjoyed it...but, actually, it's "Wears Valley Road." ^^ Jurassic Jungle Boat Ride is a stand-alone dark ride, and a business unto itself. I actually posted a fairly detailed review of it a while back: http://www.themeparkreview.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=26903&highlight= ^ Well, the Library is in the background of the final photo. It didn't help that they were closed by the time I got there. If only I hadn't spent so much time taking pictures!