natatomic

Joining the Mob might be a good first step. They're quite, uh, "friendly" with the casinos, right? At the very least, they seem to have an uncanny knack for Getting What They Want. Thanks for your comments, though. Now I'm blushing like crazy and saying things like, "Aww, shucks..." and that's just something I don't do. Ever. Anyway, here are some of my photos from the rest of the park. I don't have much of a formal Trip Report for this part, but I can sum it up for you in three words: It was busy. It wasn't horrible. Lightning Racer was only about a 15 minute wait, but we rode that pretty early in the day. Everything else was definitely holding steady around the 45-minute- to an hour- wait mark. Still, friendly staff, decent operations, and beautiful landscaping. For a holiday weekend, there really wasn't much to complain about. Ahh, and so ends another wonderful trip to Hersheypark. Thanks Nantimi for getting me up there this year! And let's take one last look at F-heit (I really got tired of typing the whole thing out after awhile, though I guess typing out this explanation didn't exactly save me any time or effort). Still, I got a few decent shots. And Lightning Racer, one of my favorite coasters, but one of the hardest to get good photos of. Yeah, I just ended a sentence with a preposition. What are you gonna do about it? The obligatory mine train coaster So much better since they got the Millennium Flyers. Sorry that I'm really dropping the ball on these captions. Wildcat. Let's go back to the coasters, though. But here's a wipe-out, at least. It's no buttock, but it was the best I could do. This was fun just to watch, especially since I got to see a handful of fannies. Including this guy's. (word of advice boys: consider wearing suspenders with your trunks.) I didn't get a picture though, but I assure you, I'm more upset by this fact than you are. If I had a change of clothes, I'd have gone in there and toughed it out. Maybe. I gotta admit, this looked fun though. Besides, it's not like these rides just give you a light misting and pat on the back. It's more like a bath in an igloo and a punch in the face. One credit I still don't have. I made it through the queue that day, though. But when I was hit with about 5 droplets of water from a passing car while waiting in line, I felt the beginning stages of hypothermia setting in, and I decided to use the good sense God gave me and get out of line. Boat full o' crazies. It was only about 65 degrees that day, with a constant breeze. Not that that's cold, exactly, but it was only 40 degrees the night before - that water had to be freezing. I got a headache just taking a picture of this thing. The Claw. And as I'm typing this, I just realized that I never took any pictures of the new flat this year (Howler). Sorry about that, folks. Nothing like a picture of everyone's backside. Soopahdoopahloopah. Must have been a lot of New Yorkers visiting that day, because that's how everyone was pronouncing it. I like it, at least. Now, I didn't care for the colors in any of my Great Bear shots, so I played around with them a bit... Great bear goes roaring by ...but these are kind of cool, anyway. I never got a decent full shot of Comet... A demonized horse is the mascot for this ride. Side view SR through one really pretty tree! I LOVE this picture, if only for the perfect placement of the guy's arm between the supports. A slew of Storm Runner photos await you. But on to the park. There I am in the front row, mid-launch. And I swear that is not a cloud of B.O. around my armpit. What an unfortunate placement for a lens flare. But look at me - only one brave enough to do the arms up thing. And when I found this guy sitting in the store, I decided to put him in the traditional roller coaster riding position as an homage to my HP trip. On the way to PA, we stopped at IKEA outside of D.C. I'd never been before, and let me just say my MIND WAS BLOWN. Such an awesome place. Plus, since I'm a 1/4 Svenska Flicka, I found myself feeling oddly at home around all the Yagenplutz and Fjärding. (P.S. Anyone see me in the picture?)

I didn't notice them at all. If they were even used during my ride (maybe they weren't), they at least weren't abused.

^Well, I won't be there to jinx it, so it should run fine. *knocks on wood* And thanks again, everyone, for all the comments and compliments.

Awesome TR! It was nice to finally meet you and all the other Nantimi people. Finally we can put faces to the names, eh? Props to Hershey for getting Fahrenheit opened THAT DAY so we could at least get a ride. I'm still blown away by their speedy recovery time.

Thank you! It was great to finally meet you and everyone too. But dang, why didn't I think to ask about the hyper either? If HP built one of those, I'd move there in a heartbeat and never look back. As for the shopping, it was fine and all, but it was largely a case of "look but do not touch" for me, since my funds are low and I'm trying to save money right now. But that no sales tax thing? Oh, so jealous.

Here you go, folks. All the photos are either from test runs the day before or the stalled train the day of the opening since I did not bring my camera when I went in to ride later that day. Still, just imagine arms and coloring on those dummies, and it's basically the same thing, right? To read my full report click HERE Look at me - all hopeful and dewy-eyed over the prospect of the next day. Little did I know of the metaphorical brick that was going to crash through the window of my dreams. I like that they threw in a bunny hill just for good measure. Shall I do a "through the trees" photo? Am I cool enough for that yet? I guess it's just through *A* tree, but still...you get the idea. But even with its compactness, this coaster just GLIDES through the elements. But this train is on a mission and doesn't hang around long. Bottom of the N-loop Going by this picture, who'd have ever guessed that it would be the heartbreak of millions? Oh, Cobra, you devil. Now let's go in for some close ups... And those extra 7 degrees really do make quite a difference. But let's go back to the beginning of the ride for a moment. And if you were to lift up the Norwegian Loop's skirt, this is what you would see. This is a fantastic element I like to think that my heart is shaped something like a Norwegian Loop. Right before the fun begins For once in my life, I'm jealous of a bunch of dummies. Still, despite the set back, I was still able to ride later in the day - and was it ever AWESOME - so no complaints, really. I'll have a photo TR of the rest of the park later this week. Poor trains waiting so patiently for their brother to return so that they can run around as well. I think it did this just to spite me. Doesn't it look like it's mocking me in this picture? Think about it, if the elements of this coaster were somehow represented by the fingers on a hand, the train would probably be resting right on the middle finger. And there it is. I had half a mind to jump the fence, shimmy up the track, and hop in the train anyway, but unfortunately for me, the other half of my brain is actually pretty rational and rule-abiding. Stupid maturity.

Until I get my photos up, here's something to tide you over till then. Jason Brown printed these out for us - I don't think he'll mind if I share it with you - and it's basically a time line for how the whole Nantimi project developed. He kept emphasizing how the direction of the whole campaign was so heavily determined by the players' actions and discoveries rather than the other way around. I believe items in red were the things that the Nantimi creators weren't expecting to happen, which then caused them to rethink/add to/cover up/go into freak-out mode over their plans. As you can see, TPR dominated after a while.

Aww, thanks everyone! Such nice comments. Anyway, I'm still working on my photos right now. It's pretty slow goins since I have over 600 to sift through, but I'll get them posted ASAP. Hmm, I'm actually in between majors right now. I was a clarinet performance major for a while, then I switched to communications (ew) when I transfered schools. Now I'm thinking of either graphic design, engineering, or creative writing. Good thing all my interests are completely related to one another and all have overlapping skill sets, eh?

They used to have one on the carousel at Dollywood (it was my home park back then), only the dispenser was shaped like a fish. The last time I remember it being there, I think I was only 6 or 7 years old. I tried so hard to get just ONE ring (the "big kids" in front of me got one just about every time they went around), but I was too small to reach. I had a growth spurt later that year, but by our next trip, the brass rings were gone. Thanks Dollywood. Thanks for crushing my hopes and dreams.

Oh, I know! I'm such a terrible friend! But I had to have my own thread so I could actually label it as a trip report. Plus, I get all a-fluster when I see my name in a title. Or, at least, I did this once since that's the only time it's ever happened. I'm about 10 different kinds of shy

Let me begin by saying that it is TOTALLY MY FAULT that Fahrenheit valleyed. You all can blame Intamin, physics, and God all you want, but I promise you, the blame is entirely for me to shoulder. But I’ll get to that in a minute. Firstly, I drove up to PA with my mother and aunt in tow. I know, I know – I’m such a dork. I find it best to just accept this and move on. We arrived Thursday and spent most of the day at the park on Friday. We wanted to do two days at HP, and we just figured with the holiday weekend and brand new coaster that Friday would be less crowded than Sunday. Still, I spent a good portion of that first day standing at the bottom of Fahrenheit and watching it take its many, many successful test runs. Indeed, I said successful. The coaster ran practically non-stop for the entire day, and, as crazy as this may seem, the trains RETURNED TO THE STATION EVERY SINGLE TIME. My heart was all a pitter-patter, and things were looking good for the Nantimi 11. Day 2. We finally got to meet the infamous Jason and Martin from the whole Nantimi drama that took over the boards last fall. Or summer. Whenever it was – it just seems like forever ago at this point. 7 of the 11 were able venture to Hershey, though I think I was the only one from out of state to make it. Given that fact, I have to admit that I felt a bit overly dedicated to the whole thing to come from so far away, but since I was the only girl in the 11, I’m sure the effort was appreciated by all. As we were all standing around chatting to 2 of the 3 Nantimi creators (Luke was in Texas for a family reunion. Apparently, his priorities were all out of whack), we noticed one of the empty trains begin its ascent on the lift (the only visible part of the ride from where we were standing) for a seemingly uneventful test run. And my initial thought? Awww, how cute! Remember, I’m a girl - I think all things are cute. Anyway, we just resumed our talking as we waited for everyone to show up, though I did note that there weren’t anymore test runs after a while, not that I thought much of it. But it was then that Jason got a phone call. And then that I broke Fahrenheit. While Jason was on the phone, we were all small talking it up like people do in a group of complete strangers, and I figured I’d mention the dream I had the night before since it was Fahrenheit-related. It went something like this: We Nantimi 11 were getting ready to ride the coaster, but the trains were still on the ground. Apparently that was the plan, though, because we had to board them then and there and have a crane lift the loaded trains onto the track in order to ride. But by the time they had gotten the trains attached to the track, they told us that it was time to open the ride to the public, that our ERT was up, and that we’d just have to get in line with everyone else, the end. Annnnnnd you know what happened next. If you ever hear me begin a sentence with the words, “So, I had this dream last night…” feel free to hit me in the head with a giant, heavy brick. Apparently, I’m pretty prophetic. But yes, the train valleyed in the cobra roll, and despite there being subtle differences between my dream and reality, the similarities were eerie. A crane would be needed to move the train, there’d be no ERT on Fahrenheit, and we wouldn’t be the first riders. Can’t deny my disappointment, but the Nantimi guys still treated us well. The complimentary tickets we were given to enter the park that day weren’t torn, so we could use them for a future day (that’s the equivalent of TWO free tickets per person – a very nice gesture, eh?), and we got a few rides on Storm Runner before the park opened. After the ERT, we had the chance have a Q&A session with of the head maintenance guys, Gary Chubb (this was already planned) (and I think that was his name). Obviously, we asked questions about the then-current situation with the valleyed train, but we also covered a few technical aspects of the ride. For instance, both the chains are used to lift the train, though they operate independently of each other, and should one break, one can still successfully lift the train the remainder of the way up. I’ll let someone else cover the other technical questions asked, though, because I am totally blanking right now. We also got some hints about 2009. When asked if there were any rides that we “should ride while we can,” Gary said, “Hmm…, maybe something in Pioneer Frontier. Or maybe Pioneer Frontier.” When asked specifics, he hinted “Possibly one wet and one dry ride.” I’ll let the rumor mill take it from there. Afterwards, we all broke off to ride some rides. I left pretty early during the day since I had done the park the day before and lines were INSANE, but I got my hand stamped so I could return later in the afternoon should Fahrenheit start running (I think I switched tenses there or something, so pardon my poor grammar). I don’t know what time it was up and running exactly (I think I heard 4:15, and can I just say GOOD JOB, HERSHEY. That has GOT to be some sort of record), but I was back by 6 or 7 to get my ride. I’ll let you know up front that I was just so thrilled at that point to be riding that I really didn’t even think to pay attention to the details of the whole experience, but I’ll tell you what I can. I think the best way I can explain the ride is to compare it to Maverick. Maverick, to me, is fun, but a bit jarring. Not in terms of roughness exactly, but it changes directions and elements so suddenly that I dare say that the level of head banging is ALMOST as bad as your average Vekoma. While I’m sure that many of you will think I’m crazy for saying that, please do note that I said “almost.” And given Fahrenheit’s compact layout, I was expecting a similar amount of head banging, but - OH MY GOSH – I could not have been more wrong. The elements flowed so seamlessly from one to the other that I was able to keep my arms up the entire time (something I was not able to do on Maverick since they were too busy trying to stabilize my body in spite of some pesky thing called inertia). And though the two valleyed trains thus far would seem to suggest otherwise, I never noticed any lagging or poor pacing. It was actually quite exhilarating. Again, I wasn’t concentrating on taking note of all this stuff while I rode, but this is what I remember from my one ride. Also, that vertical life and beyond vertical drop: WON. DER. FUL. I think there’s a small faction of people out there who cry “GIMMICK!” at the mention of the two elements, but even if that’s the case, they are certainly two of my favorite gimmicks out there. There’s nothing like climbing the hill on your back and not being able to see anything around you but ALL THAT SKY. People always say, “Don’t look down,” but this is one coaster that simply won’t let you. And as for that 97 degrees? You definitely feel it. You and your stomach will both come out of your seat. Bottom line? Fahrenheit: my new favorite coaster with inversions. (I’m still a hyper girl at heart, so I have to make the distinction). Okay, did anyone actually read that whole thing? Props to you, man. Props to you. Anyway, I’ll have some photos tomorrow hopefully. Maybe you’ll be done reading this one-coaster TR by then.

Aw, I LOVE my new title! You know me so well!

^Thanks! I haven't had a chance to get to SFNE, mainly due to it being over 11 hours away from me. I guess I could fly, but man, is it ever expensive. Plus, you'd need someone to tie me down in my seat and sedate me. Yeah...not the biggest fan of flying.

^Actually, it's supposed to be mud.

^My experience with SFA wasn't what I would call "horrible" per se. It was fine, but that fine-ness was mostly due to low crowds, not necessarily on-the-ball staff. If it had been a busy day, I think I would have ended up curled up in a fetal position in a corner somewhere soaking in a puddle of my own tears.

Sunday was Kings Dominion, and the weather was not looking good. There were predictions of scattered showers all day, and for once, the weather men DID NOT LIE. It was clear, for the first couple of hours at least, so we headed straight for Volcano. Even though we arrived when the park opened, we still had about a 20 minute wait due to a one train operation, which was the case all day for this coaster. About half the coasters were only running one train, but Volcano seemed to be the only one with a wait longer than 20 minutes. Avalanche was scheduled to open around noon, but when we got over there at 12:30, a greeter told us that it might not open at all during the day. She ended up being right, but since I already had the credit, I wasn't too heartbroken, even if I do enjoy a good bobsled. It started raining around 1pm, and then the rain came and went about every hour or so. Still, it caused a lot of people to leave the park, which meant shorter lines for us. If wet, frizzy hair was the price I'd have to pay for shorter wait times, then I certainly got off easy. Rebel Yell was operating both sides for the first part of the day (both sides going forward, as I'm sure you already know), though by mid-afternoon it just ran the once-backwards side. Dominator, of course, wasn't open, but we did find out that the VP, a few other Important People, and maintenance had ridden it early in the day. I have the credit from when it was at Geauga Lake, so there was no need for me to offer my future first born child for a chance to ride. Still, it was an option I considered... That's pretty much all I have to say about this park, though I will admit that it was a breath of fresh air after SFA. Better operations, better theming, friendlier staff. Just so you know, though, the cloudiness and grayness of the day did not make for the best photos, especially since I'm still trying to work my talent up to the level of my camera (if the sun isn't absolutely PERFECT, my photos suffer). Still, I worked with what I had. Also, I'll be heading up to PA tomorrow for the Fahrenheit opening this weekend. I'll try to have that TR up here by either Monday or Tuesday, since that's the soonest I'll be back to my internet connection. Ahh, goodnight Kings Dominion. You were even better than I remembered. I asked why they kept the vertical loop yellow, and they said, "To make it look more dramatic." True. No color says drama better than yellow. ??? They began testing later in the evening. Not much to say here, but it is a nice addition to the park. About time they got themselves a B&M. And now some Dominator Are they sure they have the right park? Something tells me that this shirt is from last year. Between the low crowds and the falling temperatures, this wasn't exactly a packed ride. I'd actually never been on one of these before, but it was pretty fun. I've witnessed kids have conniptions over seeing this van in real life. I'm a sucker for any dark ride that involves shooting things, scoring points, and beating every guy in the car. I finally was able to steal a child and get a Taxi Jam credit. Again, just a rough sketch of what my view was while on the coaster. Ther perfect coaster for my backyard. If I ever become a millionaire, this is what I'm buying. At the bottom of the weird Eiffel Tower thing Scenery! You don't find stuff like this at most Six Flags. KD really is a nice park. If it were legal, I think I'd marry a flyer. Shockwave. An appropriate name. I don't know what the general consensus is, but I much prefer Grizzly over Hurler. Still, I only have a photo of the station here. This is the only picture I have of Hurler, and the quality of this photo is an excellent representation of how I feel about this woodie. It's a fine mouse, but I forget about the sudden stop at the end. It QUITE LITERALLY knocked the breath out of me. Richochet Robb recently let me know that on-ride photos aren't exactly allowed by many park chains. And I'm not saying that I took a photo while ON Rebel Yell. But if I did (key word 'IF'), I think it would look something like this. And the shot that everyone takes of this... I gotta be honest here. I really don't like this ride. *headbang* Anaconda. It's in the Congo section of the park, so I guess no one thought to research what continent anacondas are actually native to. Or, well, maybe not ALL things that launch. KD seems to have a soft spot for things that launch. Yay! A new credit! This one was closed when I was here last. Except for this one. I realize a lot of these photos are out of chronological order, but I'm just going to group these by ride this time around. I never could tell if the water actually hit the riders or not. I've still never ridden one of these. I'm not usually prone to motion sickness, but this just does not look appealing to my stomach. Or any of my other organs for that matter. No Avalanche this time. I have to admit, I'm mildly impressed with the theming in this section. It's no Disney, but the effort is obviously there. I hope Cedar Fair keeps it up. You can tell it's in the middle of the launch by the angle of everyone's legs. These photos were actually taken toward the end of the day because the lighting was better, but man, does that coaster look neon or what? Does anyone know how they came up with the name for this ride? I've got no idea. First things first... I cannot even BEGIN to explain how much the lack of centering of the sign drove me CRAZY. Well, at least we know the source, eh?

Aw, thanks. As for S:ROS, I don't really have much to compare it to. I haven't been on the other two versions, and the only other Intamin hyper I've been on is Millennium Force, which I don't really consider a fair comparison. It's not as smooth as MF (again, I assume this is due mainly to poor maintenance at SFA rather than the quality of the ride overall), nor as thrilling, but that extra 100ft on MF's much steeper drop kind of give it the advantage. Still, there's PLENTY of airtime to be had, and 73 mph is nothing to scoff at, so I would probably put it somewhere in my top 10, probably even top 5, but only because I prefer hyper/mega/giga/whatever coasters full of height and speed over the more common multi-inversion coasters. Thank you! I have a Canon Rebel XT, though I occasionally use my 6 year old Canon point&shoot as a back up. Also, I have these pictures at full resolution. If anyone would like any, just let me know!

This past weekend, I drove up to Virginia and Maryland to meet a friend and get a few more credits under my belt. My friend, Dan, and I know each other from being ride ops in the Disney College Program together last year (Splash Trash, baby) (as in Splash Mountain); but since he lives in Maine, and I live in NC, we hadn't seen each other since we left. So as he went to visit family in VA, I jumped on the opportunity to 1) see my friend 2) have a theme park partner for once and 3) have a place to stay that isn't a hotel (i.e. a place that is FREE!) Needless to say, we spent both days constantly pointing out instances of Bad Show (pointing with TWO fingers, mind you), peering over any and all control panels that we came near, and asking every water ride op some variation of, "So, uh, do you get wet on this ride?" We went to Six Flags America on Saturday, which was a first for both of us. I had pretty low expectations for this park, especially after occasionally scanning the "Worst Park Operations" thread here. This was a good thing, though, because I, at least, wasn't disappointed. There were a lot of one train operations (S:RoS, Batwing, Roar, Mind Eraser), which did not surprise me given the earliness of the season and the low crowds, but that certainly did not excuse the 5-10 minute wait between dispatches. Don't they care about OHRC at all? :\ Batwing did not open up right away, so we first rode Superman twice. We only waited one train for the front row, and we walked on the second time for the last car. We got in line for it once toward the end of the day when the wait was an hour, but it broke down which caused more than half the people in line to leave immediately (why people do this, I don't know). Luckily it was only down for about 10 minutes, which meant that our previously hour-long wait was shaved down to about 20 minutes. And to all those poor suckers who got out of line? Two words: Ha. Ha. We rode Batwing next, which we nearly walked on given that it had opened only a few minutes previous. Joker's Jinx had about a 20 minute wait (it later went up to an hour, I think), which was not helped at all by the two cars they had roped off. I asked a ride op what the deal was, and apparently the locks weren't working on one of the trains for those seats. I guess repairing the mechanisms that keep guests safe and secure isn't really a priority. All the other coasters had less than a 10-15 minute wait, except for Mind Eraser which was roughly 30-40 minutes. It treated my head pretty roughly as well, but having been on one other SLC before, I was all too surprised. I was half-way looking forward to Two-Face, though, since I'd never been on an inverted boomerang before, but it was unfortunately not scheduled to open until the end of the month. Still, I probably avoided a splitting headache, so I'll just hold on to that silver lining, thank you very much. All in all, it was an okay trip to an okay park. I don't think I ever need to do it again, but at least I have most of the current credits now. I'll have the Kings Dominion TR sometime tomorrow night. All right, folks, Kings Dominion photos to come tomorrow. It's definitely not "rough," but I have a feeling it's not maintained all too well. And let's finish the day with a bit more Superman. Yes, I'm a credit whore, but this one BEAT. ME. UP. It kept slamming me into the side of my lap bar. A couple more of Wild One - I really enjoyed this coaster, actually. I don't know how everyone else feels about this woodie, but I found it to be rough. And Dan couldn't look to the left for the rest of the day. Yeah, sorry I haven't been able to think of any captions for the past few photos. Can't you hear them screaming in - OH - such agony? Vekoma specializes in the Kidney Bean inversion. Sorry, Dan. Right ride, but wrong park. Have you noticed that almost all amusement parks have a "western" section? I always imagined it's because there's no upkeep. The more decrepit and worn away it looks, the more authentic. Man, even the bridge is too wet for me. "Ma'am, where do you sit to get the *least* wet?" or "Do you have any free ponchos to wear on this?" or my personal favorite: "Is this a water ride?" Time for a nice, relaxing swing. A side of cobra, please. Yeah, it's closed, but I got a few nice photos out of it. Or maybe not. Now for some Two-Face Five Flags! Less fun! Bad Show, Six Flags. Bad Show. ...the coaster that believes that banking is a cardinal sin. Wild One... On to Joker's Jinx OHHH! Batman! Now I get where the name comes from! I would have gotten some pictures with the train actually running on the track, but I don't have the patience to wait 15 minutes in between dispatches. Now back to Batwing Let's ride some steel. B _ W I N G. Hmmm, it looks like it might have been a U, maybe? Butwing? Yeah, Butwing, that must be it. Not quite yet open. But what's the name of it again? Gotham City is our first destination - mainly for that big ol' ride you see there in the distance Welcome to the armpit of the Six Flags chain!

Awww, I opened up this thread thinking there was going to be some sort of update for Kidtums' next "coaster" (you know, "Baby Tatsu" style). Instead it's an actual Coaster. For. Babies. Man, what a let down.

I'm sure there are a few people who commit suicide out of spite (the kind of people the hate the world), but I would think that most of the time the people - in their own minds - think they're doing the world a favor. Like, "The world would be a better place if I weren't in it," or "No one would miss me if I were gone," sort of thing. They usually don't realize how many people truly love them. Their minds have a warped perception of themselves and the feelings of the people around them, likely due to some sort of psychological disorder.

^^Well, I guess if you can't be happy there, you can't be happy anywhere. :\

^True, but those suspended water coaster rides (whatever the office term for them is, I don't know it) aren't exactly known for their amazing hourly capacity. I'd imagine any park with those will have long lines on a hot days for it.

I agree. That's what I thought when I saw it. Whatever it is, though, it's probably not a big deal. This coming from the girl who spent every spare minute of her life for a month following the original Nantimi puzzles last year. Haha.

If you get a chance, I'd love to have a custom title. I'm not all that picky (or creative), so if you have any ideas for me, I'll take whatever you got. Thanks!

Like a Dippin' Dots vendor?