Ccron10

It's fun reading those comments. A Drop Tower seems logical. If so, I wonder where it's going to go? Where ever it will be, just picture climbing 148 feet up and being above the forest of trees that cover the park. I have a feeling it would create one hell of a view. I doubt it's a coaster (unless they're supersizing Flying Turns).

It's being recycled and isn't going to another park. Got on it a couple of times this past summer when the wait would be only around 15 minutes (which the line would be on the otherside of the turnstyles). For my last ride, about 3 days before Labor Day, I waited 45 minutes (3/4ths of the way through the switchback area in the station).

In other news, the airtime hill is almost done. I can't wait until they add the Immelman turn-around since you don't see many B&Ms entering them from the top and the train seems to flow beautifully through it.

Positive: Intimidator 305. When you grayout for a few seconds going into the first hill, yeah, that's quite a few g-forces. Negative: Skyrush. So much airtime. I think I read awhile back it pulls -2.00g forces during the ride. Lateral: Cyclone in Coney Island: The turn at the top of the first hill was brutal and the rest of the ride was so rough that it slammed you around a couple of times.

Not that I want to ruin the story or anything, but there are quite a few holes in it. It wasn't until 1970 or 71 that the park announced that it wanted to transform itself into the Disneyland of the East Coast. In 1969 and the years before, the original park was in a terrible shape with little to no theming for the rides, the paths were cleaned once a week, and the rebelling teens during that time didn't help either. What I see is really good, but it looks too good to be owned by Hersheypark at that time.

Holy crap, that's incredible! I've never seen so much detail on a ride. Excellent job!

Eh... I was honestly looking forward to what ideas you would come up with the Pixar Park idea, but it's your park. The Ultra Twister ride looks good though.

Currently drinking Cherry Mellow Yellow Zero that I got from the Freestyle machine from down the street.

Here's a teaser photo for a brand new story park that I am currently working on. It kind of ties into a movie that I recently seen. I still have quite a bit more to build, but so it's coming together nicely. EDIT: Turns out the game crashes everytime I try to load the park now. The Project is still on, but I'm going to need to restart everything from scratch.

This was posted 4 years ago back on page 16 taken of Coastline Plunge. Thought I'd bring them to the surface:

More on the 2013 Boardwalk Expansion/Roller Soaker removal: http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2012/12/roller_soaker.html#incart_river_default The key points: -A 5,000 sq. ft Sprayground area in Roller Soaker's footprint. -More seating area. -2 New Slides in Coastline Plunge -More shade (according to the earlier Facebook post).

The Hershey Company announced in the newspaper today that Hershey's Chocolate World is going to be expanding: http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2012/12/chocolate_world.html#incart_river_default Nothing is said about new attractions yet, but I personally wouldn't be suprised, given the amount of space. The relocated entrance does seem interesting, but I have no clue where they could move it since it wouldn't make sense moving it in front of the building entrance. But parking is much-needed since it fills up very easily on Saturdays.

Wait, our visit in August was the "improved" park? That's a SCARY thought. No, do believe it. It's not hype, it's acknowledgement that the place is much better than before. I still don't spend time there, it's disappointing when compared to everywhere else I can go in a three-hour drive from home. But it's absolutely impossible to deny that this place has made improvements all around. Yes, the park you went to was the improved park. Yes, it's nothing special, and yes, the clientele isn't favorable at all. But saying (or implying) that the place isn't any better than before is BS. I could not agree with you more. I am happy with how the park has turned itself around actually. Is is the best in the area? No. However, they are trying and it shows. IMO, trying would be getting some weed-killer and taking care of the stuff around the train and going in there with some garbage bags and picking up the trash in that area. Trying would also be repairing the train that they had sitting abandoned there for sometime and it would be repairing some of the cracked concrete walkways in the western area and cleaning out the dirty concrete pond that they have in the southwestern area. So my question is how could it have been worse?

^Yes you felt irritated because you expected Verbolten to be open come hell or high water even though the Facebook page said it would be closed. When it wasn't, you decided to dwell on it throughout the rest of your visit and not just shrug it off. That is one of the worst things you can do when you go to a park. NEVER expect the ride that you love to be open on your visit. Somewhat of an example is if Verbolten would be closed the Saturday that went. Would I be disappointed and complaining to Guest Relations about it being closed? Not at all because stuff like ride breakdowns, and weather happens and can be unexpected! Parks aren't going to get on Facebook ever 5 or so minutes and say, "Oh, Verbolten is closed", then halfway through the day say, "Oh, it's open again!". Usually when a park does that, it means it's down for the day, so with all due respect I have to chuckle that you drove to the park an hour and a half expecting it to be running. I drove five hours to the event and I probably would've still had an awesome time if it was closed.

I think one of the biggest things that I'd like to see in a theme park game is realism. It really irks me when I see some games out there with incredibly fake rides with cheesy theming and the lack of catwalks and trees that look like fake blobs. It would be a must-have for me if the roller coasters looked like ones from B&M, GCI, and Gerstlauer and the flat rides looked like designs from Zamperla and Huss. Let's also not forget the ability for the designer to be able to re-create and create their own awesome parks.

I may not have been to BGT before, but with all due respect, you should've known that Saturdays are usually the busiest days at a theme park. If you would've gone Friday or Sunday, I would be willing to bet if you went those days, you would see a MAJOR difference. Not to mention that you decided to go in the evening, which is right around the time most parks with Christmas events start getting full. Next time please plan ahead before going. I do this whenever I go to a new park. For example, I went to BGW's Christmastown event last week on a Saturday and knew that it was going to be packed so me and a few friends got there early, got on Verbolten when it only had a 5 to 10 minute wait and got most of our rides done way before the park got packed and had an awesome time. I can't stress this anymore, plan before you head to a park.

*COUGH* Avatar *COUGH* That's probably why the flying dragon thing sounds familiar to me. Wasn't there a rumor a few months ago talking about some flying creature that could be seen in the new Avatar area? It amazes at how something like that is possible today.

I'm betting I'm going to get stuck in one of these or a slide: Might need to get a torch out to get me out of one!

Finished and submitted. This was my first park in awhile that I was able to finish. Time for a novice question: where do I find the screenshots after I take them inside the game? I checked just about all the RCT2 files and can't seem to find them.

I love TPR because it was my first theme park website that I became a member of, most of the members here have a realistic way at looking at the theme park community, as well as the best theme par events and trips. Seriously, I went to Phall Phun Phest last year and had a decent time. This year I went to East Coast Bash and had a blast! Everyone was really friendly, kind, and curtious. It was easy to start a conversation and hang out with people. When I went back to PPP this year, it was really different. Mostly everyone seemed to keep to themselves, the memorabillia swap-meet looked like it was a group of people who didn't not want to be found out to be buying that stuff, and it seemed to be less enjoyable. Because of this, I would much rather be a Club TPR member (which I just recently signed up for) than an ACE member.

Happy Thanksgiving! Following lunch, we next took advantage of our bonus Quick Queue for one ride on Verbolten, then headed over to DarKastle. I REALLY wanted to like this ride. The detail to the queue and building was astounding with something realistic everywhere you looked and it had a great storyline. When it came to the ride itself, it kind of ruined my expectations. Half of the screens didn't work and the chimney section failed to give me the feeling of climbing one since you can see the opening on where you entered (felt like being twisted down a dark hallway instead). We told one of the attendents about it and she nicely let us go again to hopefully experience the ride completely, but it was pretty much the same problem. 6/10 Following this, we got in line for Le Scoot, which had about a 45 minute wait. We did have Quick Queue, but we waited with a friend who didn't have it. It was a decent Arrow flume, but nothing really stood out compared to the others I've ridden. From here, I broke off from Matt, went over to New France to find lockers, failed, then hopped on the Skyride to Germany. My goal was to ride it all the way over to Scotland, but they had to close it because of the wind (which was strange becuase there was none). So instead I walked on the path along the river, dropped my stuff off at a locker near the Scotland train station, got my Alpine Express credit, then went over to Italy to ride Pompeii and Roman Rapids. 7/10 Roman Rapids had about a 1/2 hr to 45 minute wait and I really should've used my Quick Queue for it, but I decided to keep it in the locker from getting wet (big mistake). The ride got me decently wet, but not drenched and it brought back memories of riding Kennywood's and Hersheypark's Intamin rapids rides. I was riding with a family who decided to bring their stuff penguin on the ride and it went overboard. At least they can swim! 8/10 From here, I got in line for Pompeii, which just opened and again waited about 15 minutes for the front row (now I know why it's called an Intamin Spillwater because the nose of the boat just about went below the waterline for a second or two). Nice ride with cool effects and better than a common Hopkins ride. 8/10 My last ride before dinner was Nessie. Overall I thought it was one of the worst coasters at Busch Gardens, but it still wasn't too bad. It still produced an intense ride, but it suffered from a little roughness and headbanging of what a typical Arrow coaster would have. The wait was only 20 minutes. 6/10 By this time, it was almost time for dinner, which we planned to eat at the FestHaus in Germany so I went back to the locker, got some stuff, and hopped on the train at Scotland to travel over to New France and walk the rest of the way to Germany. Having been used to just walking to a place in a park, I knew that if I did this, I would more than likely be extremely exahusted by the time I got over there, so using a transportation ride was something new for me. By the time all was said and done, it took me close to a half-hour getting to the FestHaus. Let me just say that I was never so much amazed by park food until now. There was so much awesome-looking stuff to eat and it all fit the theming of the area! I settled for a turkey and munster cheese sandwich with homemade potato chips (which tasted epic), and a mile-high slice of chocolate cake (I've never seen a cake this tall). The detail in the building was awesome, but the show kind of killed the atmosphere. You don't put a children's show in an Oktoberfest beer hall! Between this show and the one that they had out in front of the building with the Chicken Dance song, I really wanted to band my head against the table to try to make it stop. Following a nice, but annoying dinner, we used a Quick Queue for DarKastle, which still had the show effects problem, and then went on Verbolten again to see the pre-show, which had a 25 minute wait.Just like the ride, they played close attention to detail and the queue was constantly moving. Food: 10/10 Show: 3/10 I broke off from Matt again until ERT and decided to use the last of my Quick Queues, so I stopped at Alpengiest first. All I have to say is...wow. Before this coaster and Griffon, I didn't really ride that many solid B&Ms, but this one truely blew me away. It was intense (especially in the cobra roll and near the MCBR), whipped me around in every direction, and could possibly be placed as my #1 B&M coaster (especially if I didn't ride Griffon, which I would shortly). 10/10 Next was Griffon, which was my first Dive Machine. While it's not as intense as Aplengiest, it took the top spot on my B&M list. I loved the pause on the first drop, the way the trains are set up and the splashdown. My favorite seats have to be the one of the edge considering you are several feet from any track below you. 10/10 It was around 9:20 right now, which only left me 40 minutes to get to the other side of the park to get my last credit, Apollo's Chariot, so I hustled my way without using the train or skyride and made it over there just in time for Illuminights fireworks show to begin. From the lift hill, it was an awesome way to finish the day watching the show from the lift. Apollo delivered quite a good ride and it was all in the dark. Still not as good as Nitro, but it was up there. I need to ride it in the daytime to compare it. 8/10 I still had a few minutes so I stopped in England and bought a few souvenirs, then got one of the last rides of the night and hopped on the Skyride to France for some awesome Griffon and Alpengiest ERT. Interestingly, everyone seemed to go for Griffon than Alpie, so I took a few laps on Griffon, went over to the other and took some nearly solo rides on it and finished back at Griffon. By this time East Coast Bash was over, but the Fahrting still continued. Stopped at Wendy's on the way back to the hotel and got ready for the journey home with a stop at Six Flags America. It was a stop that made it unique experience for all the wrong reasons. Six Flags America is coming up next. Thanks for reading! The queue was beautiful, but I wish the ride was as well. They had this random sink in line. A B&M coaster and boobs...not a bad picture. New France seemed to remind me a lot of Knoebels for some reason. ...so is Le Scoot a person? France was a smaller area than the others in the park. But it's home to a great coaster so it makes up for it. Time for some nerdy Skyride shots. Who knew that skyrides have control panels? Much more high-tech compared to the one at Six Flags Great Adventure where you dispatch it by pulling on a rope. Here are some more Griffon shots. I am quite fond of this shot. Sounds like my ex-roommate. Station shot. Time for the train. Pompeii was a pretty good themed ride and it's a water ride too, wish was a first for me. Picturesque. The last time I was at this park, there was a coaster here. Strangely, I don't remember seeing Drachen Fire the last time, but then again I don't remember much from that trip. Again, I am amazed at all the detail in the buildings. I had to chicken dance my way into the FestHaus. Wasn't too bad at this point... yeah... so much for that classical German band. Time to go Fahrting through the Forest. Noted. I think this was the best ERT out of the whole trip. There was almost no line for Griffon, but there was even less of one at Alpengeist. So thus ends my first TPR event. I had an epic time and can hardly wait for Midwest Trip next year! Busch Gardens Williamsburg has to be my #1 park right now. I wish I can return soon... which will be next weekend for Christmas Town! Here is that awesome dinner that I had.

Lets continue on... Following the backstage tour of Verbolten (and an encounter with a salamander that scared much of the group), we went up to the ride's control booth. As a ride operator, I was in my glory in that booth (well, it was more like a room).It featured a decent-sized control booth, but after looking at it for at least two minutes, the ride seemed pretty easy to operate. There were also several flat-screen screens set up for a series of cameras positioned around the ride and to top it off, all the attendants and operators communicated with their own walkie-talkie system. Very impressive. Next ride we checked out was Escape from Pompeii. The ride was closed when we checked it out and didn't open until later. After entering the ride building, we climbed a 4 or 5-story flight of stairs. To start, it was already pretty hot and humid outside to begin with but it was *slighty* cooler inside. Safe to say that I got a lot of exercise climbing up the stairs, but this was pretty much the toughest part of the tour, but worth it. While up there, we got to check out the special effects control room and the room that monitors the final drop. The last stop on the tour was into the service center under Loch Ness Monster. While there, we learned when the correct time on when to change an Arrow coaster's wheels, what a chain dog looks like, and where BGT's Python's surplus of parts went to. We next went to stuff our faces at our catered lunch in the Black Forest where BBQ ribs and mac & cheese were on the menu, which made it an epic meal (can't forget about the unlimited Coke refills here as well!). That's it for the Behind-the Scenes tour portion of BGW. Coming up is the rest of the day, then the thrilling conclusion with a few hours at Six Flags America. Brakes... probably the midcourse. Pretty much the freefall and this launch are always suprising for me. Then up to the bridge for a little more suspense. There is even sound to the creaking and flimsy-looking bridge. Here's the entire show building. LSM's. After thinking about it, I think this was my first LSM coaster. Next, they got to show us the control room. Since it was so small, they broke our group in half to take us in. Basically the ones under the touchscreen are the main buttons and the others are maintenance functions. To make sure that the riders are safe, they have a fleet of cameras around the ride. The top left is looking at the first launch, the top right is looking at the drop onto the second launch after the freefall, the bottom left is the second launch, and the bottom right is looking at riders on the bridge. The station is even covered as well. Top left is looking from the front to the back of the station, top right is looking from the back to the front of the station, bottom left is looking at the block section outside the station, and the bottom right is looking at the transfer track block area behind the station. My favorite cameras are the ones inside the building. The appear to be some type of thermal or nightvision camera. The bottom two are looking at the freefall portion. On the panel, there's a touchscreen with the ride layout on it. This controls Pompeii's scenery effects. Youv are up there basically isolated with the drop person on the other side of the building. You turn the corner here and head down the drop. Kind of reminds me of a Hopkins ride a little, but it's actually an Intamin. We next get to go into Arrow's...I mean, Nessie's lair. This is what it would look like if you were an Arrow wheel. The tranfer tracks are actually under the station. A hoist lowers the trains down here from the top. There are two sides (the other one has a bunch of Python parts on it). This is an Arrow wheel that was made when it was still in business. Just like Intamin's wheels. This, my friends, is an Arrow chain dog. And this, my friends, is a dark ride enthusiast holding a chain dog. When that thingy can fit between the wheels, that is when you know when to change the wheels. Arrow Facepalm: Able to cause facepalms even when you're able to touch the track. This is an Arrow brake. The flexible black strip inflates with air causing it to move. Time to head back to the catering area for some grub. Here is some Nessie theming. One of the rides pictured is what caused me to become interested in theme parks. And one of these coasters is what turned me into a B&M fanboy. While the ride was meh, the interlocking loops make it an iconic coaster. Here is something that I wanted to do. My family took a photo similar to this back in 1995 when I last visited. Here is that photo. Here is another one that I tried recreating. We took a shortcut through the FestHaus. It looked completely different from the last time I was here. Much different... More to come.

The Hershey Company does not own Hersheypark. It's owned by Hershey Entertainment and Resorts Co. Milton Hershey back in the 1930's made the chocolate company and many of the divisions of what is in the town seprate from each other. But the Hershey Company does own Chocolate World. As for Busch Gardens, I'm pretty sure they might be in the same situation. Liking the trip report, by the way. As for the restraints, I want to say the orange T-bar is a CGI Millenium Flyer labar, the orange thing is a Schwartzkopf lapbar, the one above is for a PTC 4-person grabbar, B&M restraint (an easy one), a lapbar for an X-Coaster, and I have no clue about the white and blue objects.

That came out of nowhere. The first part of the press release sounds like it will do a vertical loop kind of like SOB, but it sounds like it will do a zero-g-roll similar to what Outlaw Run and Iron Rattler will be doing. 2013 does look like its panning out to be the year of the inverting wooden coaster.

^Yep! Spot-on. Keep up the good work!