Imhotep

The drop is I believe 272 ft and its very intense. Its a very intimidating tower!

These people making these movies about losing wait eating only McDs must not have watched Spurlocks movie. And if they did they must not have paid attention. I thought it was pretty clear that he came up with the idea to do this because of the lawsuit the two girls made against McDs making them extra chubby. McDs came back and said something along the lines of there is no evidence that exists that eating McDs for breakfast, lunch and dinner can cause any major health issues. So, in what appeared to me like he answered a challenge instead of making one, he set out to see if McDs was right about that claim. You cant do that by eating salads and drinking water because thats not what those girls or the average 'heavy user' ate. In the mean time it was only expected he would point out the obesity epidemic and what kind of impact fast food has on it. In the end he was able to prove McDs claim was wrong, and paid a hefty price for it. The reasons behind the movie to me seem pretty cut and dry. So if people want to prove Spurlock is wrong, they are missing the point Spurlock was trying to make IMO. Im sure he could have gone the other way and tried to prove those girls wrong and claim you could go to McDs and lose weight, but he decided to seek out if the girls could in fact be right. At the same time, that doesnt justify the girls presenting a lawsuit to McDs, because it is after all your choice to use common sense to decide what you put in your body. I think that people that are plan on suing someone else for not making the right choices in their eating habits should be shipped off to a good old fashion fat camp for a wake up call!

The idea for the prelift inversion came from a park employee, and the element was named after him. thats the story behind JoJo. I wasnt a big fan of Hydra. I only got to ride it once, but it was really bumpy the time I rode. Not your typical B&M.

^ I know it seems like people are trying to bust your beanbag, but Implying ACERs could be kidnappers, I dont get it. I understand that its sarcasm, but it just doesnt fit. Imhotep

Where does Fromunda Cheese come from?

Great TR. Man I loved Hershey!!!!! Ill definately keep the Hershey Pantry in mind next time we make it up to HP

We had an incident like that, and it was pretty freaky. I was sitting at the kitchen table when all the sudden I heard a motorcycle roar up, and I hear someone shout "get on the ground, now!!" I peeked between the blinds to see a bike cop pointing a pistol at a man standing in the yard across the street from my house... and the owner of the house standing in his driveway totally confused.. Next thing I know, 3 other bike cops rolled up.. then 2 unmarked crown vics.. there were about 5 guys now with guns pointing at the suspect and one on his radio. About 5 min go by and 2 ford Expeditions pull up, and unmarked and a sherriff. By now the street is completely blocked off with law enforcement people. I finally got a good look at the suspect, and it was a kid, probably about 15. They got him on the ground, and took him away in the sherriffs Expedition. Then everyone dispursed , and the owner of the house got back to work on his lawn like nothing happened. I asked him about it later, appearently the the 15 year old beat up his girlfriend pretty bad, left her, and threatened to come back with a weapon of some sort. I guess he was fleeing from the cops and happened to jump my neighbors fence right as a bike cop drove by. Its great for his girlfriend that he had such bad luck. Kinda freaked me out a bit, but I realized Im in a pretty good neighborhood and that kind of stuff could happen anywhere. -Imhotep

I love cheese, even some that needs cutting.

I will only visit the park if they base it exclusively off of MKII . It would be cool to have a park that could potentially be a year round HHN. As far as coasters what kind of coasters they should have, they should get a bunch of older arrow and vekoma coasters and name them all 'Fatality.' eh, someone had to say it.

Im addicted to Full Throttle. I think I need rehab.

Favorite band currently: Soilwork (sweedish metal!!!! \m/. (-_-) .\m/ ) Favorite band of all time: Sevendust, tied with Sepultura (pre 'Against' era). small list of other bands I LOVE and listen to frequently: Shadows Fall, Dillenger Escape Plan, Coldplay, DMB, Drain S.T.H., Machinehead, Rancid, Chimaira.

Ah gotcha.. Makes more sense now.. Maybe they could have made it more ovious?

Hello everyone, My name is Don, Im 25 from Orlando Florida. Ive been a coaster fanatic for probably about 2 years now. Im not only into coasters, but the technology behind them. I guess that certifies me for geek status. Anyway, In the past 2 years weve been to the Fl parks countless times, SFOG, Cedar Point, Some parks in Pa, Va and Nj (Trip report currently being written here. Luckily, I have a love of my life who is also into coasters . A little more about me. I guess you can say Im a drumming fanatic as well! Im in a band called Holotype, a 'heavy metal' band (our songs have singing as well as screaming) based here in Orlando. Ill post more info for those that may be interested. You can hear some of our songs on our site (highest quality), but we also have a MySpace where you can stream songs. If you want to see what some people have to say about us, check out some reviews on our Garageband page. Wish us luck, we are working our butts off to become national! Id also like to say thank you TPR!! If it wasnt for this site, I wouldnt have even thought about going on one of the most fun vacations Ive ever had a few weeks ago. Its evident that the work Robb and Elissa have done over the years to make this site what it is has been anything BUT easy. I appriciate it! hoping to make some new friends, -Imhotep

Pictures are coming soon I promise! Fair warning: Im no photographer, and I dont think I got any original angles. But its better than just reading a bunch of text, right? Alright, On to the next report. Wednesday the 27th- Dorney Park We arrived in Allentown about 11, and had a quick stop to eat at the Rock 'n Roll McDonalds (actually it was nascar themed, left turn 4 LIFE!) across from Dorney. What a nice view! You can really scope out the park while you eat. Dorney didnt appear that big, but it was packed full of stuff. Talon Wasnt the most forceful invert, but I enjoyed it. It had quite a few foot choppers, and it was smooth and enjoyable. I know my GF enjoyed it alot, I believe it was her favorite in the park. Hydra I couldnt believe the short line for this! actually, so far this whole trip we havent really waited in long lines. On this one though, we walked right on the front row The jo jo roll is hard to explain. I guess you could compare it to the heartlines on volcano, but much slower. They take your picture twice on this ride, and one of those times is while you are upside down in the jo jo, which is a nice touch. We were excited, arms up making a face for the camera. Its a cool way to kick off the ride, and I hope B&M does this more often. The rest of the ride let me down which I hate to say about a beemer. It was so bumpy! not rough like it was hunting for the track but bumpy like the track was made out of gravel. It caused this odd bounce in the train. I tried to keep my head back but I kept hitting my head against the head rest. The second picture is me just trying to get through the ride. We decided to ride the other rides and then ride this again to get a second opinion, but it started to rain and we couldnt so it sucks I had to base my opinion on one ride. Overall , the layout was cool and original, just I found it to be one of their bigger letdowns. I hope the odd bounce is in just that one train. Steel Force I totally forgot Dorney had a 'hyper'. I was pleasantly suprised to see this thing as we pulled up to dorney , This monster towers over the whole park! We boarded our first ever ride on a Morgan hyper. It was nice! the drop wasnt as intense as I imagined, but it was great and we got some good POVs of it, hopefully it wont be a problem for the site if I post them. We got this weird section of airtime before entering the helix, and then the train basically just slammed back down onto the track which was actually kind of fun . The helix was intense and the camel backs were smooth. I definately do not think this coaster was as great as Magnum, Millenium Force or Apollos Chariot, but it was pretty damn good. Thunderhawk My first Stand-Up Woodie!! Ok ok, Im not that much of a n00b, seriously. But I got so much airtime on this ride I felt like I was standing up. This coaster was such a plesant suprise, by far my favorite coaster in the park! and so far my number 1 woodie! Im itching to ride it again. Anyone else like this one? Laser Yay, scorpion with 2 loops!! at least thats what it felt like. Scorpion is such a good ride and so is this. I found it very strange how they made you bring everything you had on the ride with you. Being the credit whores we arent (no offense to those who are ) We decided to skip the little laser and the wild mouse. It started drizzling by this time anyways. Man I wish I would have had more time at Dorney, its such a nice little park! If we ever plan a trip to PA again Dorney is definately on the must visit list. The next day was supposed to be our 'break.' So you know what we did? We drove to NJ and took a ferry into Manhattan! We were there from probably noon until 9, and we walked the whole time. No taxis, didnt even take a subway which we should have. We didnt get to do a whole lot.. but some things we did get to do were: we walked through Time Square, went up to the observation deck in the Empire State Building (longest queue the whole trip so far!), and went to the worlds largest Toys R Us and Macys. The main thing I couldnt get over was Time square, how parts of the buildings themselves were huge tv screens. We wanted to see a bunch of other things, but we decided to save it for a hopeful trip back sometime in the future. It was crazy how we walked so much, but covered so little distance. Later, our last park on our trip.. Or is it? More on Six Flags Great Adventure a little later! -Imhotep

I went and looked for an older picture of the Hulks 0g roll and you are right, it has always been there. Stupid me should have checked the interweb first for a picture. Goes to show you can visit a place hundereds of times and you will always see something new!

Ahh its funny you mention that!!! I went to IOA yesterday. Unfortunately I didnt ride hulk because it started raining by the time I got around to riding it, but I did notice something different. As you walk over the bridge heading toward MSI, Look up at the track. On the 0 g roll right out of the tunnel, I noticed what looked like a black cable running along the 0 g roll next to the box sectoin of track , and it stopped just right after the 0 g roll levelled out. Ive been to IOA plenty of times and I could swear I never saw this. It probably doesnt have anything directly to do with the launch , and Im not sure what it does. maybe a sensor or something. Anyone else see this? Or has it has always been there and Im just crazy.

I dont remember a doll factory in the movies.. But I do remember as I left the ride I saw the emergency glass case with the cups and the first thing I thought of was Waynes World... " If you are going to speeeeeeeew, spew in this!" Well, its cool that it turned out to be themed to WW , but at the same time its weird.. Im glad you are enjoying it SharkTums, I was worried I wasnt keeping it interesting!! I got to give credit where credit is due though, I got cash and prizes from Dane Cook, possibly the best comedian ever

Thanks for the warm welcome coasterdude5 and coasters 4 ever! As far as Anaconda was concerned, It looked cool. But thats about it. Maybe if they did some maintenance on it or something.. On with my report! Tuesday the 26th- Hershey Park We got our tickets at a local Giant supermarket ($10 off admission!) and got to the park around noon. I was expecting good things with this park, I just wasnt sure how good. Man this park looked very nice! And its really cool to see the rides on top of eachother, I havent really seen that before. One thing that was great about this park was that there was misters and showers EVERYWHERE! and a really good amount of shade. We definately didnt have a hard time beating the 100+ degree heat. Great Bear Ive been looking forward to riding this one, mainly because of the helix before the drop. I was hoping the helix would push you into your seat and then the drop would throw you out for some unexpected airtime during the drop, but it didnt happen. The helix and drop were too spread out. It wasnt a bad ride, but definately not the best invert Ive ever ridden. I got to see the funky support work over the stream, which I thought was cool. I guess you know you are an enthusiast when you are like "the rides ok, but look at those supports!" Sooperdooperlooper Pretty fun ride. Crazy to see that there is a coaster build practically on top and around it! Had this odd vibration though that felt really good. We decided to ride this one twice because of the short lines. Comet Pretty good woodie! I think I remember the lift hill being weird, like one of the sides appearing to 'sag' a little. I thought that meant the ride was going to be rough, but it wasnt that bad. Storm Runner I was really looking forward to riding my first Intamin rocket coaster. dragsters big cable snap incident happened the day before I went to CP last year . The launch was nice!! I felt IMO it wasnt as good as hypersonic, which kind of let me down. I could tell it took more time to accellerate to the top speed, but good launch nonetheless. The unique inversions were a breath of fresh air. The OSTRs hurt my arms pretty bad when I had them up, so on our rerides I had my arms down. I really like the smooth magnetic brake run, S&S should steal this! Definately my favorite ride in the park! Sidewinder This is my first Vekoma boomerang. Ive always wanted to ride one. The good thing about this ride: riding front seat. The bad thing: riding anywhere else. The front was a smooth ride, but the other places we sat really banged my head into the head rest, especially backwards. I wouldnt ride this again unless it was in the front seat. Lightning Racer I believe this was made by the same people that made Gwazi. I had alot of fun on this ride , especially because we won!! We totally stomped Thunders a$$es!!! Anyway, It felt a little bumpy to me, but nothing I would call rough. Wildcat My favorite woodie in the park! I had alot of fun on this one. The drop was interesting, and I was getting some good airtime. We rode some flat rides (the claw was awesome, I can only imagine what MaxAir is like now!) , saw a show called Trash Time which was pretty good, ate at the Wok and Roll, which was probably the coolest name for an asian resturaunt ever, and took off towards Dorney. More about Dorney to come!! And hopefully soon some pics! -Imhotep

Sounds like fun! I havent been to CG and would like to go. Im always up for BGT! Ill wont know if I will have the days off from work until about 2 weeks beforehand. If I do, count me in. I think Im going to stay away from the waterparks though, not my thing.

First of all, Hello everybody! Ive been a long time 'lurker' of these boards, which is definately my favorite coaster forum to lurk because it seems like everyone has alot of fun on here . Hope to make some new friends!! For our vacation which was the last week of july, my girlfriend Dyneshia and I decided to head to Virginia to visit BGW and take advantage of our Platinum Passports. I figured, why drive 11 hrs and visit one park weve never been to! So after some planning, we decided to hit a total of 5 parks weve never been to, starting with BGW and PKD in Va, Hershey and Dorney Park in Pa and then end it all with SFGAdv in Nj. I will try not to be long winded with my TR, and I plan on adding photos as soon as they are developed, which will be in the next few days. Sunday July 24th- BGW We got there right when it opened. Very beautiful park!! One thing I loved about it is that it is set in the hills and trees, not smack in the middle of a run down part of town like BGT. That means fortunately I was not able to see one liquor store or hair salon from the lift hills of the coasters ! Dont get me wrong, BGT is my favorite park here in florida, but thats always one thing thats bothered me. Anyways, moving along.. DarKastle Pretty good ride!! Although it seems to be basically a clone of Spiderman with almost as good theming. It seemed like the sleds travelled the same route, moved the same way, and the 3d stuff was set up similar to Spidermans. At least thats what I felt. The 3d quality is top notch, probably the highest resolution Ive ever seen in a ride. It was worth the wait, but we decided it wasnt worth waiting an hour plus for a re-ride. Alpengeist This ride looks about twice the height of Montu, although its only 45ft taller. The first drop seemed to last forever and the ride was very forceful. the ride seemed much longer than your average coaster. I can say as far as inverts go, this is my new favorite. Loch Ness The loops looked much smaller than I imagined they would be and I was expecting to feel a little whiplash going through them, but they were quite nice. Infact, the whole ride overall was nice. A little jerky but that to be expected of a 25+ year old coaster. Apollos Chariot This was my first B&M Mega coaster. Riding in the front was intense, but the back is the place to be on this ride!! Other than that we rode Escape from Pompeii a well themed but extremely short ride, and flat rides. I really liked Davincis Cradle, it wasnt as tame as it looked. We had to skip BBW because we were pressed for time. Ive been on an arrow suspended and didnt like it at all, so i didnt mind skipping it. We got 2 back row rides in on AC at night before the park closed, and we headed back to the hotel. Mon July 25th- PKD The complete antithesis to BGW when it comes to theming. The park was a little on the ghetto side! There were so many great things about PKD that helped the park make up for its ghettoness. Drop Zone I HATE drop towers because Im scared to death of heights. So I figured lets get this one out of the way first. It wasnt bad! The trip up was quick, and the view was nice. The drop was pretty intense, I thought my body was going to force the restraint open!! Well, I think I semi-conqured my fear of heights, because now I love drop towers! We rode this one twice more. Hypersonic I really wasnt expecting the launch to be so intense! The best launch in the park by far IMO. It just seemed like the second we launched we were at top speed, no hint of accelleration. I really liked this ride, and Im eagerly awaiting the 2nd generation of the air compressed launcher. Maybe they can work on building a quieter brake run? Volcano The queue was HORRIBLE for this ride. For those of you who are clausterphobic, you may want to wait for a short wait time to ride. Not to mention it was very hot, no ventilation. And I felt like I was in a chicken coop with all the chicken wire around me.. The launch was good, but the rest of the ride was alright. I really looked forward to this one, and it let me down a little. Ah, so Im somewhat a complainer, no ones perfect. Tomb Raider Nice ride! didnt really look intimidating, but it blew me away!! we rode this one about 4 times. The restraints were only uncomfortable on my 'cash and prizes' right at the beginning, when the op decided the restraints werent tight enough and stapled me into the seat, surely rendering me incable of creating little Imhoteps for at least a few months.. Once the ride started going, it was fine. Flight of Fear I dislike premier trains (mummy excluded). Im only 5'8", but I had ZERO legroom. The ride was nice though, good launch, smooth track. Alot better than I expected. The queue was pretty creative. Didnt get to watch the movie they had playing though. Anaconda Its a shame they had to go and ruin a perfectly good lake by building a ride like this over it. No further comment. Rebel Yell we only rode backwards, and man I wish they could do this to all woodies!! It was fun not knowing when we were going to drop or turn. Track wasnt rough either. The Hurler I didnt get the theme.. a conveyer belt with doll legs hanging from it? Maybe someone can catch me up to speed. Anyway, I didnt get the ride either. It was pretty jerky to me. Grizzly It seemed a little hard to find, almost like they didnt want you to ride it And I also saw that someone stuck a cigarette in the bears mouth, which I wish I would have got a picture of. Anyway, It was fun to ride a wooden coaster that was intertwined in the woods. My GF thought it was rough but I loved it. I also did my first SKYCOASTER here!! Man, Im kicking myself for not doing the Kissimmee one first! The Skycoaster is a must-do ride. I will be doing the Kissimmee one soon. We rode some flat rides and Shockwave before we left, which was not a very comfortable ride. I will post what I thought of Hershey, Dorney and Six Flags and I will be adding pictures later. Hope you guys like the report! [EDIT] Here are some pics of us on the drive up, BGW and KD!! More to come! Goodbye PKD!! We had a blast. BTW, Whats up with this kid? Here is a shot of Tomb Raider and Volcano, 2 great rides! The only thing fun about this painful-as-sin ride was watching it. Unfortunately this is the only pic we had of Hypersonic. This ride had the best initial launch of all the coasters in the park, hands down! The Eiffel Tower provides an eye level view of Drop Zone, and a great view of all the other rides. Here we are on the Eiffel Tower. Here we are at PKD! The park was not as beautiful as BGW, but that didnt matter. We had more fun here than any park on our trip. Not a good picture, but here we are after our final ride on AC. What an awesome way to say good bye to BGW. This picture isnt from BGW, How did it get on here? Seriously! Heres Alpengeist, man I miss this ride already.. Us in the DK Queue. DarKastles theming was VERY nice. Hello BGW!! Heres Dyneshia infront of the Welcome center. We made it! In one piece and everything! We stopped at South Of the Border for a bit. It took all I had to keep Dyneshia from blowing all our trip money on fireworks . Here I am, at 'El Cheapo,' paying out the a$$ for gas. I guess the donkey cannot fix all high price problems just by kicking them. Look! OMG! a Donkey!!!