snorkymn

Hey, post that OPA POV from Mt. Olympus.. that was insane! Was definitely the most fun spinning mouse ride I had on the trip. Great pics! Though I already knew your views on Legend, having heard them at least 100 times. I don't know why everyone is giving you crap though... everyone is entitled to their opinion about coasters, parks, etc. Different strokes for different folks. Some like air, some like violent shaking, some like laterals, some like smooth, etc.. It would seem some people are real homers when it comes to their favorite parks though. It makes me wonder if I'm a homer after thinking that Valleyfair isn't such a bad park compared to many we visited on the Midwest trip. Especially now that they have Renegade! Woot!

Hanno, more great pics as always! It was funny,in the pics of Avalance I could see that I started in the back car, then moved to the middle car when I thought the back was a bit too rough.. then found out the middle was slightly less rough, then moved to the front because it was pretty smooth and incredibly fun.. And I kept riding and riding, though most other TPR types didn't come back for too many more rides.. I think I got 12 rides in.. To those that didn't have a great time on it, I think you should try the front if you hadn't done so.. definitely more smooth and just great fun. Avalanche was my favorite coaster in the Dells. Hades was close, but that jackhammering was just too much towards the end.

I must be one of the few that liked Vortex and actually went back for a re-ride. The back was pretty fun, and didn't beat me up much, if at all. I didn't think Mean Strike was violent at all.. it was way too slow and trimmed to have anything but mild bewilderment when riding it, wondering why they cut off it's nuts.

Erik, I think for me many of the coasters blended together.. we had 3 or 4 spinning mice, many woodies that just don't stand out, many kiddies, etc.. Since I didn't take pics or keep a journal, very few coasters stood out. I'd say Rumbler stood out the most/best, and probably how painful Voyage, Legend, Son of Beast, and the back part of Hades was. (Those were in a bad way of standing out!) And I'll never forget the 8+ hour line for Maverick. When you do 90 coasters in 10 days, the average ones just tend to blend together.

Hanno, I think what I like best about your photos is that there aren't many of "hey people, I'm taking your picture, act stupid/crazy now" posed photos in them. You mostly are just capturing the real moments. Way too many peopl that do TRs think a good TR is capturing people with stupid forced-spontenaity poses, or posting hundreds of garbage can photos. With many people actually replying how they are thodr are the most awesome TR ever posted! You'd think according to many TR's we do nothing but run around making faces, yelling, screaming, and acting like idiots. Looking forward to seeing more pics! Keep up the Great work!

I guess I'm one of the few that got off the ride and wondered what the big deal was. There was a slight buckling on that little dip, else the ride wasn't bad and/or painful, or even much to talk about. It was vaguely how I remembered a Toboggan ride from when I was a kid. Though I think it was much more fun as a kid.

Nice TR.. And I'd have to agree about the Kentucky Rumbler.. it made the whole park worth a stop on the Midwest Trip.. it was like you said, FUN, FUN, FUN, and more fun. I rode it appx 25 times the day we were there.. It reminded me a lot of Renegade at VF.. actually, both are worth a trip just to ride them. Rumbler was definitely my favorite woodie on the whole Midwest trip. I also agree about Avalanche, that it was a really fun coaster. But many on the Midwest trip didn't seem to think so. They did one ride and were done. I actually thought the back seat was really rough, then tried the middle car and it was a bit less rough, then found the front row to be the smoothest and most fun, and ended up riding it 12 times, mostly in the front. It's another must-ride coaster if you just want to have fun! Not nearly as good as Renegade or Rumbler, but still very fun. And if you don't want the pain/shaking, sit in the front. I thought Hades was fun and very intense, but there was SERIOUS, SERIOUS jackhammering on a curve near the end of the ride that was horrible. It made the ride difficult to re-ride. (Though I did manage a handful over the 2 days we were there.) Have your Advils handy! But it's greatto see what other's think when they're riding. p.s. Valleyfair is my home park, and I have to agree about Excalibur and Wild Thing as well! Excalibur is intense, but not really re-rideable, and Wild thing gets boring after a ride or two.. they need to speed it up a bit.

Great pics as always.. But what I'm really waiting for is the Ski Show and ski practice photos! I hope they turned out as great as they looked on your camera!

Yup, the bugs really were that bad.. I rode MF at night and came back with bugs stuck to my glasses after the ride. It's just any ride that goes fast that you have to worry about..

^^^ Well, they did seem to enforce the no adults rule on he kiddie coaster there.. No kiddie credit for most of us. Let the peeps know about the "trick" at Holiday World to avoid the coaster lines.. go on the coasters after 1pm in order to do basically walk-ons for the 3 big coasters. Most people seem to line up for the coasters in the morning, then go to the waterpark all afternoon, leaving the coaster lines free. Nice pics Erik.. it's nice TR's like this that make it so I didn't have to take my own camera or PC on the trip!

Robb, you stated very well what I was really trying to say about the nametags, thank you! People should wear them.. I only stated that about ERT or dinner functions so that would force them to wear them more.

Robb and Elissa, thanks for all your hard work putting the trip together. It was definitely a fun experience, and one I won't soon forget. I was on the 5:30am shuttle to the airport, so didn't get a chance to say goodbye. Thanks to everyone I met, and I would have enjoyed meeting more of you if you had kept your nametags on! (Nametags should be mandatory for getting ERT or in to fuctions, instead of the wristbands.) I'm one of the few that didn't take a camera and/or computer, but I might type up a trip report later. So just a few humble opinions of mine about the trip. Best Woodie on the Trip: Kentucky Rumbler (No pain, only fun and excitement!) Most Overrated Woodie on the Trip: Voyage (WAY too much pain) Most Painful on the trip: Voyage, followed closely by Legend and Son of Beast Most friendly park, both employees and customers: Holiday World Best Park with Perks (Free drinks and Sunscreen): Holiday World Best Park for overall atmosphere: Indiana Beach Best ERT time: Kentucky Rumbler, followed VERY closely by the Bumper cars at Indiana Beech.) Best place to Ride The Beast: 2nd to Last row of the Train. Best running of the Bulls moment: Everyone running to Maverick for Hotel ERT. Not as good running of the Bulls moment: Firehawke (Dang you pesky sprinters!!!) Best tip on the trip: Go as a single rider on Firehawke and avoid the hour long line. Hardest working Coaster Rider award: Brent.. he was first at nearly every single coaster, and first to complete all his credits at KI. Most fun to watch ride a coaster: Matteo I love the passion and kid-like enthusiasm and enchantment that you show on the coasters!!!! Wow, he really does make sounds like that: Robb.. yes, he does make the same sounds on the videos as in real life when you ride with him, no matter how big or small the coaster! Woot! He's still having fun after so many credits! Biggest Disappointment: Mean Streak has been trimmed so much, you practically stop on the way down the first hill. The ride has been turned in to Mild Streak.. or just Mild.. there wasn't a streak to it. It used to kick butt! Longest Moment: Waiting over 8 hours in line to ride Maverick. OMFG, please stop!: Listening for the 1000th time on the bus how great Tatsu or El Toro was compared to anything we were riding on the trip.

It really was quite an experience standing in line for those 8.whatever hours.. It was an experience in human emotions and patience.. and every 2 hours wanting to kill the ride ops for not opening the ride.. And being told they were "waiting" for the rain to come, which took half an hour or more, after the ride seemed to check out and they had tested it. (3 or 4 times that day they said the same thing) Then to find out they had a mechanical problem that they waited until the 7th hour to fix, when they could have been working on it all the time it wasn't raining!!! It really had rained only a total of about 1 hour during that whole 8 hour wait. The alternative to not waiting in line wasn't much different.. waiting in some other line, or waiting it out at the hotel... Maverick was not worth 8 hours in line, but it was really fun.. and my 2nd ride on it took less than an hour in line. Props go out to Brent for being first on almost every coaster we rode on the trip.. another of the group that was at Maverick for over 8 hours.

I had just gotten off The Hulk at Islands of Adventure and my brother asked me how it was? After it being so hyped by everyone, and being slightly disappointed after finally riding it, all I could think was... "It wasn't as good as Kraken." (I had been on Kraken the previous year and rode it many times with my niece and it had become my favorite coaster.) Five minutes later, my 12 year old niece comes out the exit for The Hulk. I asked her, how was it? (We had not discussed the ride in any way.) She has the same look that I had when I got off and says to me, "It wasn't as good as Kraken." I looked at my brother and started laughing.

Great TR of my home park! I agree that Renegade can be 2 different rides at times.. I've found if you ride it in the heat, it isn't that great.. (it shimmies and shakes after the first big turn, which slows it down the whole ride) but ride it when it's cooler, and it kicks major butt.. Seems the rains definitely kept the people away.. which is too bad.. We were hoping for big attendance numbers this year.. the better chance to get a B&M. And also think High Roller could be burned down.. (more room for the B&M). At least if they're going to let it stay so trimmed like that. It's so slow now, I think next year it will not even make it over the 2nd hill, and the only hill there is any actual air time seems to be one hill at the end of the ride. I can't believe you thought Excalibur was ok.. there's a reason it is a walk-on, even generally on peak attendance days.. nobody here likes it. But everyone is entitled to their opinion. Interesting to hear about the drizzle policy of going to 1 train.. But it looks like here it didn't matter.. nobody seemed to be riding anyway. Keep up the TR's!

Timberwolf at WoF.

Great TR! You're driving maniacs! Definitely great credit whoring going on!

Very witty TR, great job!!

Hey, cool photos, that Silver Star looks really fun. Did you do many flat rides?

Good TR.. though not sure any 14 year old needs to be calling anything "Sexy". Good to see someone else enjoying Boomerang. Too many people seem to think it's crap. I thought it was fun when I was on it. And Patriot is fun... I'm not sure it gets the credit it deserves. Sure, there are bigger and better, but for a medium-sized park in the Midwest, it's pretty nice! And you can't fault a ride OP for doing her job.. I know it's a pain for people that just miss the height requirement, but them's the breaks. Oh, there is one small way around it.. Most measuring is "in shoes", so your sister just needs to get a slightly thicker shoe! Then it's all legal like.

Ok RObb, I think it's time to see the non POV video now! To those that haven't made your trip to ride Renegade yet, get out here! This coaster is a blast, and the air time seems to have increased quite a bit from when it first opened. You won't regret the trip!

Well, I've actually been on Renegade, more than 40 times, and can honestly say it's a great ride, in literally every seat on the train. Definitely the most fun I'd had on a wooden coaster in a LONG time.. It's just fun, intense, smooth, has great twists and turns, and seems to be getting even better in the month that it's been open. (And definitely more air time now than when it first opened, so it's wearing in nicely.) You cannot help but have a smile on your face when riding it, and will probably find yourself yelling and hollering in joy and excitement. And you have to love a woodie that doesn't beat the crap out of you to give you a fun ride. And I'm more typically a steel coaster fan than a woodie fan, so it's almost hard for me to say such good things about a woodie. I was actually disappointed when a woodie was announced at VF and not an Invert, (and even wrote Cedar Fair and told them SO!) but am VERY, VERY, pleasantly surprised at how good Renegade is. It would definitely be fun to try this new coaster when it opens to compare. It's possible that it's better than Renegade, but Renegade is a pretty darn nice coaster. Give it the props it deserves. (Especially if you haven't ridden it.) I guess I'll have to make one of the coaster trips there next year if there is one.

After going through all the pics, this coaster looks a LOT like Renegade to me. (including the cars, the station, and the queues) If it rides anything like Renegade, they'll definitely have a hit on their hands!

Old news about BTTF going away.. It was a fun ride though. Hopefully the new ride will be at least as much fun, if not more so.

Other than the formatting, I feel for ya man.. Unfortunately, it seems to be a trend at other Cedar Fair parks as well.. rude or uncaring ride attendants that cannot get a job done. I've recently had problems at VF and WoF... Seems it's spreading.. Though at least none of them followed me around for possibly smoking pot.