ParkTrips

Joe/Bob got his copy today 8)

I was suprised by this but our trip to the Lake yielded some pretty bad patrons, worse than what I encountered at Great Adventure and Magic Mountain! :shock: (note that I hit both of those parks while school was in session locally ) Astroworld was probably the worst though, it had everything mentioned above from trailer trash to the hoodlums and on.

Oh no I didnt miss Cafe Risque but I drove past both at night and nighttime + 80 mph does not translate to a clear photo Me, miss something to do with sex? Never!! Oh yea I don't find Gwazi to be bad at all. The right side gives a good jolt but nothing really unbearable, though we both agreed that its not a ride we could marathong. (I noticed that typo but determined it was too funny to edit out ) Thanks for all the comments and compliements guys

I had planned on visiting Busch Gardens Tampa sometime this year to ride SheiKra and of course the other fine rides in the park. So, on Thursday afternoon I packed up and headed towards the park, but since y'all like random crap (bear with me I'll try to cater to the TPR style) here how about some photos of Goliath's construction that I saw on the way! So yea anyone who's been down I-75 between Atlanta and Central Florida knows of the multitude of billboards. There were a lot of these ones: haha me go to Wild Adventures? I'll pass on vekomaland. I love the ambiguity of "The most rides" OK, nother random photo. Seeing that I did this trip alone, here is my travel partner: More sweet billboards: .. and we might have some printed after 1950!! Anyways whenever I go to Florida I have to stop in Gainesville for something I can't get in Atlanta.. Whataburger!!! Aah, the promised land I do get a kick out of their slogan "there's one near you". No there's not, that's the problem!! I arrived in Tampa somewhere around 9:30-10 pm, which was better than expected. Off to bed went young Joseph for he had a big day coming! At 9 I was in the parking lot and headed towards the gate. I was meeting up with Larry(gator) who was coming down for a softball torunament. He wasnt going to arrive for a while longer so I went and rode Montu first. I haven't ridden Montu in quite a while and I remembered it being much stronger than it was this time. Still a fun ride but I prefer Top Gun myself Coaster pics time! (what, did you expect to elude them here?) Waiting for Larry I explored the market area a bit. Is it just me, or does a park "dedicated to preservation" really need a leather shop? Well, that was fine I guess. I just couldn't wait to ride Sheikra, now sponsored by stereotypical radio figures from the 1960s! One thing from last trip to this trip.. I forgot about the band!! Larry arrived, managed to pick the slowest moving line coming in, and by 10:30 or so he was in the park and we were off to SheiKra. We first rode in the front row thinking it would provide the best view for a coaster that seemed to play off of visuals only. Wow.. kinda disapointing up front. Then we sat in the second row and got some pretty good air (especially for a B&M!) so we then decided we had to try the third row, which we did. It was pretty good, but I think our best air came in the 2nd row. OK now for the pics! That's one big f'in splash! From there we headed back and rode Kumba in the back and it was solid as old. I hear people complain because it is rough quite often but I found it to be pretty good. Bet you haven't seen a photo like that before! Only one ride for Kumba though.. we had to get to Scorpion!! says Joe, the self-proclaimed Schwarzkopf disciple. It was typical Schwarzkopf: tight radii, a pretty smooth ride and G's. I need to have some digital love for Anton: Larry already had the Cheetah Chase credit but I wanted to try to get it. The line was way too long for a mouse credit for me, so we rode the inverting ship. Meh, ok, I dont care for those damn things too much. I'm pretty sure at that point we headed towards Montu and rode it two more times, both near the back. On my first ride the trip before the batwing was off so we still managed to get some nice snapping forces through the inversions but this time they were on pretty hard (and that damn midcourse was still there ) ... at least their puppets are anatomically correct We were both hungry and Larry has this thing going with compiling info about park food, so we had to try some of BGT's finest, and we went over to the Zambia Smokehouse. When up in Williamsburg I loved the Trapper's Smokehouse and I hoped that this lived up to that standard. Well, it was about the same and my brisket kicked ass! This, from a brisket kind of guy What better way to kill the thoughts of yummy b-b-q than THAT?!? After lunch (this was now about 2:30-3PM and the park closed at 5) we went and rode Gwazi a few times, two on the one side and one on the other (Lary will remember since I dont). The side we rode once was agreed to be better. (I want to say Tiger but Larry will confirm) Ive found guest service to be hit or miss at Busch parks, so here's my post-the-photo-of-the-rude-employee of the day: Her name was She.. something and she worked the stand near the Kumba bridge. I really should have used the "I'd love to stay and chat but you're a totaly bitch" line, it fit this well!! At that time Larry took off and I went and took some photos and caught one more ride on SheiKra right before closing because I saw there was no line whatsoever. Drop 1: 200 ft doesnt look that bad from that perspective! Drop 2: Overall, it was a productive day. I made it back to Atlanta by 1 AM, roghly 35 hours from start to finish for the trip that spanned 980 miles. We got to ride a good assortment of coasters that were all pretty good (I couldn't say that if we rode Python!). SheiKra was actually my 75th new coaster for the year which is awesome because that's the goal I set at the beginning of the year, and I still have a couple more trips to come so I may end up around 80. What another great year 8) You were not worth my time or well-being you POS That is the best way to end a TR!

Walker told me I have AIDS.

I had heard something about Dick wanting to buy Olympia Looping but with the dollar being so weak he wanted to hold off. This was before the Flying Turns thing came about though, so that may be off the table If Knoebels got a Schwarzkopf I would definately trek back up there. Heck, even a shuttle loop like Robb said would be great!! - Joe, who was sad that Taz's Texas Tornado was closed on his trip to Astroworld

Shake Rattle n Roll in the dome in front of FreeFall in the USA Section: - Joe, who's last ride on SR&R was ultra lame and timed out at 51 seconds from start to stop and had no music or lights

That's because Roar is an older GCI. All of the new ones come with the Millennium Flyers. That first drop is definately Twister and the helix is reminiscent as well, and its funny that its a coincidence.

Just as an FYI his avatar is of Xcelerator Nice coaster! It looks very Six Flags-ish

1. Cyclone 2. Trash

... because not enough people own guns in America

It lools pretty good but more like a CCI than a GCI. You should probably use the one-bench articulated trains if you want it to be a GCI!

LMAO!!!!! Thanks for the votes guys 8)

I would normally say its good for a park except they already have three other launches. I dont mind it being a family ride but c'mon, get some diversity!!! The thing I disliked most about the ride is that 80%+ of the effects were'nt working when I rode, so the only thing I could really enjoy was the coaster part, and it wasn't all that good.

They still have Viper shot glasses and even shirts I do believe About the Cyclone, its hit or miss. It can range from kick ass to kinda crappy, so you got it on a good day. Blair is a pretty cool dude. Nice report! - Joe, who takes having Carrabas nearby for granted

I actually had to think about that - Joe, who says it can't be good if you aren't sure if a Roller Skater is better

I dont mind them taking pictures. For the employees, its their job and often they dont get to pick what they do, so I try to be very polite. I also see it as a good way for the park to pick up some extra cash

Nice save, I was worried it had died "Oh yea, would a mentally retarded guy hire a drunk driver to level half of his house in celebration of his fantastic test results?"

wow.. the point of this thread flew over the heads of everyone. Might as well delete it

This comes after reading Token Yankee Guy's Trip Report from dorney, and I got a kick out of the trash cans pic. I looked through my photos and was able to spot 31 (31!!!) trash cans in one photo: (Click the image for the full-size version to see them more closely) My challenge is to find more trash cans in one photo.. so Go!

I love seeing the huge percentage of people who started out with Schwarzkopf's - Joe, who had the unfortunate experience of a crappy Vekoma for looper #2 after a sweet Schwarzkopf way back when

What's so scary about Steak and Shake?

Still my favorite looper and 4th favorite steel out of more than 100 steel coasters

Have you seen how much space is being cleared? That would be one pretty damn big family coaster Do you see where they are putting it? There's some nice terrain in there. Whether or not they use it to its potential, only time will tell. Um, I can tell you for sure that it won't be, but what do I know? Why would you believe me? This is the interent and I understand that, so... Nonetheless, if you look at the terrain of the land they are going to build it on... it would take a ton of excavations to fit a cookie-cutter ride in there and I dont think they have done enough to make that a possibility. I'm looking forward to Goliath most since its in my home park and I love hypercoasters

If you are serious here's the full-size one so you can scale it down rather than blow it up: