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VGplay

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Everything posted by VGplay

  1. Is it safe to assume the worst for visiting LaRonde on Thanksgiving? Or is it surprisingly not busy? Wanted to hit up the park while I have a Six Flags pass this year and getting there on a Monday is easier to make happen than a Friday or Sunday.
  2. East Harbor State Park is about a half hour from the park and has a large campground. Ohio has a nice state park system with well-maintained facilities so if you are cool with tent camping it could be a good option. http://parks.ohiodnr.gov/eastharbor
  3. The park was quite dead today. By the late afternoon Steel Vengeance's line was only down the straightaway to the station, about 30-45 minutes with the one train.
  4. The year White Lightning opened I stopped by Fun Spot. At the time they offered what I think they called a "trial pack" that gave four rides on anything. Worked well to grab the credits and get an extra ride on White Lightning. It was a slight discount off of buying the same number of individual rides. Does the Kissimmee park offer something similar?
  5. Close to the park but not on-Point I like to recommend the Maples Motel. It is on the rural end of Sandusky, right next to the back entrance to the park. Very retro but clean and run by a friendly family. The motel was mothballed and on hiatus last year, but it looks to be open once again this year. Only problem is that it is across the street from a busy railroad crossing, so if train horns wake you up that might be an issue.
  6. First, a big thank you to Cedar Point for inviting TPR out to their Valravn announcement event. There was a bit more going on than just a press conference, so let's take a look at what took place! For details, renderings, and video, check out the Cedar Point Discussion Thread! What could there possibly be a media event for today? Teasing a bit. "2016 Announcement"? Here we go! Time to learn about the park's foray into being the world's largest logistics consulting firm! After a video timeline of the park's coasters. Valravn is officially revealed! The tallest, fastest, and longest dive coaster in the world! That view will be pretty impressive come spring. Tony Clark introduces the ride. Cedar Fair Vice President of Planning and Design Rob Decker highlights more details. Valravn will have the world's tallest immelmann. It is also B&M's 100th design. Cedar Point Vice President and General Manager Jason McClure then took the mic. "We're doing something that's never been done before at an amusement park. You can ride Valravn in virtual reality before it is built!" After concluding the announcement, these VR view boxes were passed out. Start the Cedar Point VR app and slip your smartphone in. You're then riding a virtual Valravn that you can look around 360 degrees on! Keep your eye on the Valravn site, the press release mentions the viewers will be available for sale. If you happen to have a Google Cardboard, that will work too! Can't get your hands on a viewer? Hold your phone nearly up against your nose and let your eyes relax. This will let you experience Valravn as a person who is not wearing their glasses (I'm kinda serious about this!). We were then taken to the ride's location. First stop, the construction site! Where they had fancy Valravn shovels. Those shovels were used to help break ground on the ride. And I actually mean break ground for the first time. Where we dug is the only footer marked so far. Construction is starting today. Valravn is scheduled to open with the park in May. Let's check out the rest of what's here. A giant Valravn throne. Valravn breaks 10 records! This is what the park called a "Social Vending Machine". You tweet about Valravn and get a prize. I got Fast Lane for two on Valravn! The vending machine will be available to the public to use. If you haven't seen dive coaster track, it is huge. Over 6 feet wide! There was a station to try the VR ride using an Oculus Gear VR. This offers a more immersive ride on Valravn than the viewer box. It is my understanding the park will have these available for guests to experience at times this Fall. The Marina entrance will be getting a makeover with the construction of Valravn. The park is in the middle of the Halloweekends transition. Back at Breakers Express, they were unloading track. The field will be getting full very soon! And here's what it will look like when it's all done: For more details, renderings, and video, check out the Cedar Point Discussion Thread! Once again thank you Cedar Point for putting on a great event. I'm thoroughly excited for Valravn. It looks to be a great addition to the park's coaster lineup!
  7. I have never ridden Lynx to Disney, but have taken the I-Drive route and rode it to and from the airport on separate trips. They were fine. Don't expect them to operate on a strict schedule, buses can get caught in traffic and backed up very easily. One time I watched three go down the road in the opposite direction before one came heading where I needed. But they are clean and offer decent coverage of Orlando. Once you're on Disney property they have their own free bus system to get between the parks, which I imagine are more timely than the Lynx buses.
  8. If you're looking for a cheap hotel off the peninsula, I highly recommend the Maples Motel. Its an old-fashioned roadside motel run by a nice family who take good care of it. It is on the more rural side of town, but is just as close to the park as anything on 250. The "back entrance" to the park is right next door which allows for a bit easier drive over in the morning. http://maplesmotel.com/
  9. I got to know Matt a bit on the TPR Midwest Tour a few years ago. He is certainly qualified to run the park and is more than familiar with what kind of park Holiday World is and how things operate. He was head of the business side of things for over ten years, with the official title of "General Manager", and was basically Will's right hand man. He stepped away just last year, though I can't speculate why that may have been. Though I would agree that Dan was doing a nice job and it would be best for the park to settle the legal drama.
  10. It's a fine ride. A couple if nice moments but overall if you've ridden a B&M built in the past 10 years you know what to expect.
  11. I'm a big fan of B&M inverts, but one thing I've noticed on many is that there's a point where seems like B&M simply "connected the dots" to complete the course. On Raptor it's going from one corkscrew to the other. Pyrenees has a long shallow ramp after the corkscrews. Even Montu had a boring turn that made you scratch your head.
  12. ^ Opened the thread for the first time to say exactly this. You just kept falling. When it felt like you fell long enough to be hitting the brakes, you fell some more.
  13. Darn, I was just at the I-X Center last week for the Beer Fest! Looks like you had a good time.
  14. Funny you say that. I was just about to post that I really like SkyRush's station, ornate while staying on the understated side of the line. You can say that about all of Hersheypark. There is no general theme, but everything just looks good and has extra touches that most parks wouldn't do. I agree with Tanks in that I consider Hershey to be the benchmark for unthemed parks. And about the bathrooms, they are a good use of space but what I like really about them is that it looks like they have always been there, and they just built the loading platform on top. It adds character to what would've been an otherwise unused space. The whole Hollow renovation looks really well done. Looking forward to seeing it all in person (and of course riding the coaster) in June.
  15. From the bottom of my heart, it just didn't dawn on me what a ride named "Journey to the Center of the Earth" could possibly be about. If I had to pick just one day as the highlight of the entire trip, it'd either be Nagashima or this third day at Disney. Any chance you could post a full resolution version of that group shot in front of the lagoon? And I still don't know why you guys didn't want to ride StormRiders more, we got the lame ending. I mean there's one where you get shot in the face!
  16. ^And the best part is that it worked! I still don't know if we were laughing because with it we realized what was said was a joke, or if just the hand motion itself made us laugh.
  17. Not to derail this lively conversation about the Timberliners, but here is a video I shot during Holiwood Nights 2010 and only recently edited. It's mostly Raven and Voyage with a little sprinkling of Legend (Maybe we could get a bit more access to Legend this year, Paula? ). Enjoy and hopefully it gets you in as much of a mood to visit the park as it did for me, just over two months until Holiwood Nights!
  18. Ahaha! So glad to see that you got an action shot of the Teacups of Death! It seriously felt like we were going to fly out from spinning so fast! I'm loving the report so far, Divv. Really looking forward to the rest!
  19. They're heavier than the newer-generation trains and don't follow turns at all. The weight tears up the bottoms of hills and once a just little shuffle in the turns begin they continuously wear down the track. The design dates back to the 40s and 50s and although it was fine through the 80s, once CCI and GCI started making more modern wooden coasters new trains were definitely needed.
  20. My favorite launch is easily Dodonpa. 0-100mph in two seconds is absolutely insane. And I thought Dragster had a strong launch, ha! The hill has some epic airtime, but there's not a lot to the rest of the ride. As far as my favorite launched coaster as a whole, it'd probably be Maverick, edging out Storm Runner and Powder Keg.
  21. ^I think the most interesting part of that update is that apparently the coaster will still have another curve up and over comet before hitting the brakes. For some reason I was under the impression the turn after the straight bunny hill was into the brake run. I'm getting really excited for this. Hershey's one of my favorite parks and Skyrush is looking to be another great addition.
  22. Anyone else find it amusing that it has been warm enough in January that they apparently have already been testing Gemini's trains on the ride? It's kinda funny that the park seriously could've been open through the winter this year. And about the trains, why not? They've had Gemini's extra trains sitting inside Mean Streak for the past few years, not a bad idea to put them to use and replace Mine Ride's old trains with something more accommodating. Hopefully they paint them brown or something, though. I'm a little surprised they're still in operating condition, I would've thought they'd have been picked apart for parts by now. I guess they can still get Arrow mine train parts from S&S?
  23. For me, of those four it'd come down to Yomiuriland and Tobu Zoo. Yomiuriland is the more complete park of the two and a good example of a typical Japanese amusement park. Its pretty big and has some good rides, not to mention the neat setting on top of the hill with the gondola and everything. Bandit is notable for serving as the inspiration for Magnum and sparking the hyper wars. Don't miss the laser mazes, they were the highlight of the park. Tobu Zoo obviously has Kawasemi, but Regina was a pleasant surprise. Other than those two, there's also an Intamin drop tower and a 3D theater that I'm told shouldn't be missed (Sadly I missed it, but it got rave reviews). With Tobu you can also tie-in Hanayashiki in Asakusa pretty easily. That's a wacky little park that I think would be worth the time and expense to add on. It might be worth mentioning that Kawasemi got noticeably better over the course of the morning, going from "Well that was fun..." to "OMFG!". So I would plan on not visiting right at opening and give it a chance to warm up. Cosmoworld was a nice park that may be worth considering if they're operating their night hours, I can certainly see it being beautiful with the neon everywhere (They weren't open late on our visit). Sea Paradise was very pretty and right on the ocean. Blue Fall is just ridiculous and Surf Coaster might have been the best Togo of the trip. Other than those two rides there's the boat chute and the animal exhibits, I liked the park but probably wouldn't suggest it if you only have time to visit one. Hopefully this helps. Enjoy your trip! I already want to go back, Northern Japan 2013 anyone?
  24. Finally done. Here's how things worked out: 1. Boulder Dash 2. Ravine Flyer II 3. (Millennium Force) 4. The Legend 5. El Toro 6. Shivering Timbers 7. The Voyage 8. GhostRider 9. Prowler 10. Renegade 11. Thunderhead ... 79. Little Dipper (SFGAm) 80. Mean Streak 81. Lil' Dipper (Camden Park) 82. Son of Beast 83. Hurler (Kings Dominion) Yes that is Legend at #4, I really love the ride. Fantastic first drop, enough airtime that I can't complain about a lack-of, relentless speed, and quality pain-free laterals. And it isn't a coincidence that three GCIs finish off the group in a row. They're all quite good and very similar, but since I enjoy a more rough around the edges wooden coaster I'm not sure I can rank a GCI higher without them changing their designs. The last ride that worked out to be considered a "coaster I generally like" was Lake Winnie's Cannonball at #61. The first ride that's a "coaster I don't care for" is Hershey's Comet, #62. Out of 82, I'm not quite sure what that means. Glad I'm not the only one who does it this way. Though I do add some historical weight to my ranking. For example, on my last time to Indiana Beach (2010) Cornball wasn't running the best I've seen it. Based off those rides it'd probably go somewhere around #25-30. But on my two visits to the park before that (08, 09) it was fantastic with crazy ejector air on every crest. So I figured that in and the ride ended up at #12, a ranking that better reflects my opinion of the ride.
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