gatorchomp83

Keep the PMs coming if you're interested.

I spoke with Elissa and she gave me the 'ok' to post this on the forum. I have a couple of Islands of Adventure blueprints and memorabilia that I am trying to get rid of. If anyone is interested, please shoot me a PM with an offer and we can discuss. 1 Islands of Adventure Grand Opening 1999 Original Poster-Print I am not sure if the Grand Opening posters are still available for purchase at the park, but I do know that you will NOT find the blueprints anywhere else. Truly unique and definitely a collector's dream. PM me, shoot me an e-mail, or get ahold of me on AIM if you're interested and I will provide photos of whichever item you are interested in.[/b]

This Photo TR is seriously tempting me to plan a 3-4 day trip that area of the country. It looks incredible!

Well yeah, but they were running one train on everything and we still sat on every ride, including Cornball.

Wow, people actually GO to Indiana Beach!? We walked onto/sat on every ride there 3 weeks ago! Granted, it was a Tuesday, but I didn't imagine that park ever having longer than 5-10 minute waits.

Lost Coaster of Superstition Mountain at Indiana Beach

That HAS to be Photoshopped....

Lost Continent has always been my favorite island at IOA. The fact that it's not based off of anything, that it is strictly imaginative is what's so great about it. The building facades of Poseidon, Mythos, Dragons and even all the shops and restaurants is AMAZING and timeless. There was so much thought and planning put into making that island what it was, it's a complete shame that they're (apparently) going to bulldoze parts of it. I won't even get into the fact that this move completely trumps the whole concept of the park, that being each themed section is divided by one common: the lake. Hence, "Islands." That being said, I've never been a fan of Harry Potter. I watched maybe 30 minutes of one of the movies and thought it was hogwash (if you will...). I can see why the younger crowd will LOVE this, and it's probably a good move for Universal, RIGHT NOW. But unlike the Lost Continent in it's current form, it's not timeless. And God-forbid if they touch Dueling Dragons or re-theme it to HP... As more information comes to light, maybe I will embrace the move, even with my disinterest in the whole Harry Potter theme. Throw in a good, technologically advanced dark ride and maybe even a themed coaster like Mystery Mine (now THAT would be cool!) and maybe me and others who also could give two licks about HP would be more inclined to go forward with an open mind. But right now, I just fear that they're going to diminish the glory that is the Lost Continent. Good luck, Universal.

That's SO weak. Missed it by 5 days...No idea when I'll be back to CP, either. Oh well.

SEPTEMBER! Oh and dude, the best part of the snow picture is if you look closely, it's alllll over my left side. Hilarious.

Oh it was a GREAT time. I've got my buddy hooked now. He wants to do a 2-3 week east coast trip next year. It's hilarious!

Trip Report: May 17, 2007 thru May 23, 2007 Holiday World HoliWood Nights Cedar Point Indiana Beach Last year in May, I made my way back to Santa Claus, Indiana. I had planned a 4-day trip to Holiday World and Beech Bend the week of HoliWood Nights, although I had not planned on attending. By week’s end, I did not want to leave so I opted to stay with some friends at Santa’s Lodge for two extra days and the enthusiast event at HW. When all was said and done, I vowed to be back this year for HWN again. It truly is a not-to-be-missed affair. Plans were finalized back in March for the trip, and me and my good friend Chris booked our airfare to Chicago where Corey and Scott were to pick us up for a 6-day trip that included 2 days at Holiday World; 2 days at Cedar Point; and a day at Indiana Beach. This was also the first coaster trip Chris would have ever taken, so it was exciting to bring a long a good friend who had never experienced anything out of Orlando and Tampa. We arrived in Chicago on Thursday night and spent the night touring the city. We spent a few hours out at night at The Ivy Bar near Wrigley Field. Had a great, late night and met some cool people. Friday morning we ended up leaving Chicago around 12:30pm and arrived in Santa Claus right after ERT began. We checked in at Lake Rudolph and headed straight to the park. RAVEN The ride was running INCREDIBLE the whole weekend. I think I was getting the best rides on her as I’ve ever had. Raven was FLYING. Chris had only been on Gwazi as far as wooden coasters go, and judging by his reaction on Raven, it was going to be awesome watching him on all the coasters, especially Voyage. Total rides: ~10 LEGEND Legend was flying, as well! The double-up was giving GREAT air, and the Four Corners of Death was actually slamming you to the side again. The laterals out of the helix were very pressing, as well. Total rides: ~10 VOYAGE I didn’t think it was possible. I did not think that this ride could ever get faster than it was last year. I was wrong. Voyage was running absolutely out of this world. Chris told me he gets bored easily re-riding the same rides, but with Voyage, he could not get enough. It was running absolutely ferocious, and by the second night of ERT, it was downright scary. The ride is just so incredible, that it exhausts you, beats you up and throws you around, but you can’t help but laugh your way throughout the whole layout. By the end of each night, we were so burnt out from Voyage that final couple of rides were spent, as we coined it, ‘defensive riding. Total rides: ~20 The crowds at HWN were pretty much non-existent. The longest we waited was about 25min for the front row on Voyage. Other than that, everything was essentially a walk-on. My friend, whose only previous wooden coaster was Gwazi, came away absolutely blown away by Holiday World. He told me that he was worried it wouldn’t live up the hype I gave it, but that it blew his expectations out of the water. Sunday was spent driving to Sandusky, and Monday we hit Cedar Point for the whole day. I had only been to CP once, and that was opening week of Millennium Force. I hated the park and didn’t have any intention of ever going back but I’m SO glad I did. Once you sit back and take the park in and realize just what it is, you understand it. If you try to run around and get everything done without relaxing and enjoying your time, you’re going to hate it. I still think CP is more quantity over quality as far as coasters go, but I have a newfound appreciation for the park. We ended up getting two rides on Millennium, 2 on Raptor, 1 on Mean Streak, 1 on Mantis, 1 on Corkscrew, 1 on Wicked Twister, 1 on Transport, and 1 on Gemini. I sat out the Mean Streak and Gemini rides to just relax, but everyone other than me and Corey rode. Chris and Scott also rode MaxAir but I didn’t feel like yacking so I passed. Oh yeah, and 2 on Dragster. I’m terrified of heights so I was scared to death about riding. I absolutely LOVED it. The launch is just ridiculous and the top hat is downright stupid. Cedar Point ended up keeping Dragster open an hour after the park closed and we finished the night on it. Monday we spent about 2 hours at Indiana Beach and got everything in that we wanted to. I loved the park! The setting was awesome, Cornball was incredible. Superstition Mountain was SO MUCH FUN, and Frankenstein’s haunted house scared the bejeebus out of me. The false/fake/tilting floor FREAKED me out cause I was first. Overall, the trip was a GREAT success! So many good rides, a ton of good times, a lot of new friends and a great reprieve from Florida. Onto the pictures! And we bid you adieu!!! Back-row on Millennium! But Corey got it the worst! And Chris got Sac Tapped! Annnnd I got Sac Tapped! Scott got Sac Tapped! Gotcha! Randomness at Cedar Point Don't look so excited, fellas My best new friend from the trip And the park was PACKED It was amazing how much they fit in such a tiny area Me and Corey, burnt, on Tig'rrrrrrrrr Cornball had some GREAT air in the back! Cornball over Hurricane...I agree! Scott agrees Superstition Mountain was AWESOME Hoosier Daddy? I LOVED Indiana Beach! Gotta represent everywhere we go Kinda reminds you of Bates Motel, no? I left my camera in the car for Cedar Point because the weather sucked in the morning, so I didn't get too many pics...Oh well. Dragster is such a rush! Speaking of sick... Actually seeing this ride up close, you really appreciate just how SIIIICK it's going to be. So depressing We got one front and one back row ride and they were both incredible. Millennium Force-y goodness Blue Streak is such a fun ride! Raven at closing on the second night "It's just SO STUPID!!" Scott took a quick nap in the middle of the day and didn't wipe. We didn't tell More mmmmmmm Mmmmmmm Santa loves us even if you don't Raven!! Running SO incredible. Giving Santa some love. Firewood was at a premium so we opted to go for this branch... "I believe I can fall..."(and get stuck) "I believe I can fly..." Me and Scott boxed Chris into the bathroom in our RV at Lake Rudolph right when we got there with a couple mattresses. More nighttime Voyage-y goodness "It's so STUPID!" at night Chris and Corey "enjoying" Legend. Chris, yes. Corey, not so much. Me laughing at Corey, who had broken ribs the whole trip and still decided to ride most of everything. It provided mucho hilarity throughout the whole week. Possum Junction, baby! Outside of a gas station in Indiana My first experience with snow! Corey saved a cooler full of snow from a few months before and we had a nice little snowball fight in his living room. Wrigley Field...We partied on the first night right down the road. Downtown Chicago...They were filming the new Batman movie somewhere around here...

So how was Voyage running compared to last year? Nice TR.

Yeah, Ripsaw looked really good. Either they just gave it some good refurbishment, or it's aging really well.

Me and a couple friends were in Orlando for the Billy Joel concert at the Arena (now the Amway Center or whatever, ) and decided to make a side trip to CityWalk/Islands of Adventure before heading back to Tallahassee. We had actually not initially planned to go to IOA at all, but just meet up at CityWalk around noon for some beers, lunch and just hanging out. About 3pm we decided to head into the park and paid our $65 for 3hr of riding. I had not been to the park in nearly 4 years so I was pretty excited to get back and see how things had changed. Overall, the longest we waited was 20min for Ice Dragon because it had temporary downtime. In the 3 hours we were there, we got in about 6 rides on Hulk, 1 on FearFall, 3 on Fire and 2 on Ice. We also spent some time just exploring the park and having drinks. It was pretty much a relaxing day after a long night before at the concert. The park, in my opinion from the short time we spent there, seemed to be in pretty good shape. The operations were decent, and the crowds were light. Onto the pictures! (As an aside, coming from someone who has never read or seen anything of Harry Potter, I reallllly hope that Universal NEVER turns Lost Continent into a HarryLand. I think that would be a terrible idea...) Hard Rock still looks great NBA City. We did not stop in for a shot Still the 'Most Technologically Advanced Theme Park in the World'? The Lone Palms Airport bar. They made some money off of us... Jimmy Buffett even stopped by in his personal plane to have a drink with us The Double Towers of Torment we did not ride Ripsaw, but it looked GREAT. Patrick and Natalie at one of the many beer stops we made throughout the day. Ice was running a lot better than it used to, IMO... But Fire is still #1 in my heart Me and Patrick...Poseidon was either closed or we missed the last showing this day...Either way, it was a bit of a letdown. Money Shot Zoom Zoom Zoom Me, Natalie, Patrick and some random dude on our last Hulk ride Going on nighttime at Universal My lonely beer at the Lone Palm Airport bar CityWalk at night

I made two separate trips to Holiday World last year and spent, overall, about 6 days at the park. Voyage to me was just absolutely incredible. It's relentless, intense, throws you around, never lets up, and seriously just picks up speed throughout. The first half of the ride is built on an upward slope that I believe, from station to turnaround, is an elevation change of about 100ft or so. So the whole return run, the train is constantly picking up speed. After going through the 3rd 90* turn, the train feels like it was shot from a slingshot. I didn't find, through my 40 or so rides last year, it to be rough at all. But it is incredibly long and just absolutely does not care about you. It will throw you around but it won't hurt you. You will be drained, however, after every ride.

HANDS DOWN the roughest, worst AND scariest coaster I've ever been on. I'd heard about them plenty of times, but I had to get the credit while at Beech Bend. I've never been more afraid for my safety than on that coaster, and it was also just downright painful.

Mailed off today! Last year was amazing, wouldn't miss it for the world.

I stayed til the end. Actually was one of the last out of the stadium. We wait 8 months a year for football, I'm gonna make every minute I can in a stadium count! And wow, can't believe you gave up tickets to the SCar game... You should have used the extra tickets to run across Univeristy at haftime to get more drinks in you and come back. That's what we did. Spent $70 in Sloppy Gator in about 10 minutes and headed back!

If you read my trip report from my trip to Holiday World for 5 days in May, you’d know how strong my feelings were for the park and for Voyage. I had initially planned to only spend 2 days at Holiday World during the week and head back to Florida with stops at Beech Bend and VisionLand. I ended up spending 5 days at the park, and both nights of HoliWood Nights. Knowing that I wouldn’t get another chance to get back up to Holiday World before May 2007, I had to make room for another trip before the 2006 season was over. Problem was, I have tickets to 85% of the Florida Gators football games this year, so working a trip up to Indiana was gonna be tricky. I opted to make the trip September 15 through September 17. So off I was again, driving my way 11 hours North to Indiana, on Friday, September 15. But trouble struck two and a half hours out of Tallahassee. My passenger side window motor went out while down in Dothan, AL. I had to stop at Honda to have them look at it, and $40 later, they told me it would be $250 to fix, but they didn’t have the part and I’d have to get it done when I got back home. It was decision time. I didn’t want to cancel the trip, but I couldn’t afford to go and also pay for the window to get fixed when I got back, and I wasn’t about to leave the window just sitting open for 3 days. I called Corey in Chicago to tell him the problems that were happening, and as I was talking to him, miraculously, the window went back up with some fumbling around. I put it in locked position, and was on my way to Santa Claus. The weather on the drive up, and for the whole weekend, was perfect. Not too hot, not a sign of inclement weather, and it was nice and cool at night. Hell, I could even see my breath! I won’t be able to see my breath in Florida until about….January. I arrived in Santa Claus around 8:30pm and waited at the bar at Santa’s Lodge until about 9pm for Corey, Scott, Andrew, Nicole and Steve to arrive. We spent the rest of the night catching up, having some drinks and hanging out around the bon fire, before calling it a night in our King Size RV at Lake Rudolph Campground. Speaking of Lake Rudolph, I don’t know if it’s just because I’m terrible with location and orientation, but that place seemed absolutely HUGE. Luckily, Corey found his way around easily, but I was completely and utterly lost every time I set foot in that place. Our RV was nice, though, aside from the fact that my head went about 3 inches about the shower head; and Andrew promised WiFi, which there was none of to be found. Aside from those minor complaints, I had a great time for both nights in the RV. The following morning we awoke a little later than planned, and once everyone was ready, headed to Holiday World around 11am. Andrew and Nicole had gone ahead and left before me, Scott, Andrew and Steve got up, so we met them later in the day. The parking lot was buzzing a lot more than I was expecting, so we headed over to the Legend Lot instead of the main lot for quicker access through the tunnel. After purchasing our tickets, we headed in and went straight for Kringle’s to get food. As we were sitting there eating, a familiar, but long-lost friend popped in out of nowhere. SEAN!! Sean Flaharty has been one of my best ‘coaster friends’ for YEARS, and I hadn’t seen him since 2001 or 2002. It’d been forever and I was so glad that he made the trip. He came with his buddy Josh and Josh’s girlfriend., and they were supposed to get to the park later than us but our debauchery the night before got us going late for the day. After eating we had planned to do Raven and Legend before hitting Voyage since we had a HW Virgin in the group. But Raven’s line was out to the switchbacks and was only running one train, so we instead headed to Legend where we had about a 10 minute wait for the front row. I love Legend. It was running pretty sluggish in May, and that disappointed me. But today it was FLYING. I only got one ride on it, just because of how the day went, but it was a great ride. The air on the double up was intense, and the run before the helix was out of control. The Four Corners of Death aren’t what they were in 2001, but it was definitely performing better than it was in May. After Legend we headed to Voyage, where we ran into a 20min wait. The whole Thanksgiving area has progressed very nicely in the few months that it’s been since I was there last. The trees around Voyage seem to have filled in pretty good, Plymouth Rock Café is looking great, and the umbrellas that were put up in the resting area were a nice touch and a great addition for getting away from the heat. My only complaint was that instead of having the underground portion of Voyage’s queue open where the tunnel fly-by is, they had the outside switchbacks open, and that as pretty brutal in the sun, even though it wasn’t THAT hot out. As for Voyage, it’s just unbelievable. I was asked a couple of times throughout the trip if it was worth making the drive from Florida for. My answer was basically, if it wasn’t worth it, would I do it twice in one year? As good as I thought it was in May, it was even better now. I personally thought it was running more out of control during the day than it was running at night during HoliWood Nights. All of the first three hills had GREAT air in them, and I also noticed a lot more positive G’s at the bottoms of the hills. It was hard to keep my head upright at the base of them, and I don’t remember the forces being that strong 4 months ago. The turnaround….What can be said? I think my favorite part of the turnaround is the reverse banked hill right before the first 90. It’s just so stupid. And the two little quick combo turns/hills before the dive into the tunnel before the brakes, was just tossing and throwing me around like it had no remorse whatsoever. And it doesn’t. In fact, Voyage doesn’t care about you. It rides like it wants you out of it’s train and it wants you out NOW. After the brake run is just….a blur. It just gets faster and faster and faster. It’s relentless. There’s a little, almost trick-track portion of track right after the hill that runs right next to the second drop. On the way down the hill, the train rotates to the left before throwing you back to the right and ducking under the second hill to the other side of the outrun. It’s little moments like this and that reverse banked hill in the turnaround the really add something special to this ride. And once you hit that third 90, the train takes off like it got shot out of a slingshot. Imagine strapping fifty 100 shots of nitrous to the back of the train, and triggering them at the same time. The train is already hauling ass, and that 90, for whatever reason, seems to just throw the train into the rest of the ride. You hear a lot of people say they can’t rank Voyage ‘that high’ because it is lacking a ‘signature moment’. I beg to differ. The whole ride is a signature moment. That’s what makes it absolutely incredible. It doesn’t let up, it doesn’t care about you. You have to fight it to enjoy it, but once you do, I can’t imagine anything else coming close to topping it. All in all, I rode Voyage six times throughout the day, which I was very content with. Most of the day was spent in Thanksgiving, with a side trip to Raven when the crowds died down a little bit. Raven was running alright, but I wasn’t too impressed with it. I enjoyed it a lot more in May. Later in the day, we met up with Mike Graham of TGG, and spent about two hours with him. Paul Drabek joined the group later in the day as well, and we had a nice little group of about 12 for most of the second half of the day. Around 4:45, Voyage went down with some problems, and once it opened back up, it was only running one train. I guess they were having issues with the blocks, but after our one more ride, we decided the wait with only one train running was too much. We decided to call it a day, and headed out of the park around 5:15pm, when the closing time was 6pm. After the park we headed to the grocery store to pick up dinner, and ran into Will Koch. Had a few words with him before we took off and headed back to the campsite to eat and have some drinks. The rest of the night was spent at the Santa’s Lodge bar where we consumed a good portion of the Santa Claus alcohol stash while watching and rooting on the Gators against Tennessee. The next day, I woke up at 9 and was back on the road by 10:30am. I was going to skip out on Beech Bend, but by the time I got to Bowling Green, KY, I was hungry, needed gas and as starting to get tired. So I opted to pull off at that exit and make a stop to get my Rumbler credit that I missed in May. I was warned not to go, but in the end I’m glad I stopped! Rumbler was a great ride! Actually, I really loved it. It was my first experience with the Millennium Flyers and, aside from the lap bar that crushed me on it’s initial descent, I thought the trains were very comfortable. I rode Rumbler 7 times in 45 minutes with a stop at Looping Star (hands down the worst ride I have ever been on…) before heading out and making my way back to Florida. Rumbler was definitely a front seat ride, and had nice spots of air, and a great layout. The rest of the park was dismal, at best, but I’m really glad I stopped to ride Rumbler! The rest of the drive back to Florida was long and boring, and I passed right out when I got home. Thank you to Corey, Scott, Andrew, Nicole, and Scott for making it such an AWESOME trip! And Sean, it was GREAT seeing you again! It had been way to long since he hung out, and I definitely need to get up to Ohio next year. Also, thanks to Josh, his girlfriend and Paul for making the trip even more enjoyable, and to Mike it was nice to meet you. You’ve built a monster and I can’t decide whether I hate you or love you for that! Haha. Until HoliWood Nights….

If you watch that teaser video, you can tell it's not a clone. The brake run is on the compete opposite side than Sheikra.

I live in Florida and haven't been to Orlando (where I'm from) in almost four years.... I really need to get back there before BTTF closes.

That's happened to me several times as well, and when you ask them about it or offer to show your photos, I've never had a guard actually look or even address my comments/questions... seems to me like they are just trying to be tough guys or feel like they are being productive, I dunno... Nice TR, I agree with the "thats it?" assessment of the Voyage. I just don't understand...

Do explain! During my four days there before and during HoliWood Nights, there were a couple attractive female ops working.

Kumba is hands down the best coaster in that park. I'd give Montu the nod for #2, followed by Gwazi (I LOVE Gwazi...Always have, its just a FUN wooden coaster!) and then Skeikra. The more I think about it, the more I realize how good of a lineup BGT really has!