DerekRx

"Foxy Foxy"- Rob Zombie

They hand them out when you pay your parking. Though I'd say some booths don't carry them, as I got shafted when I was out at Marine World a few weeks ago, whereas Wally got one. I hope I get one at SFOG, even though I'm not parking there because my hotel is too close!

Had another Old Dominion brew tonight while enjoying the warm weather and getting prepped for a trip, this time the Tupper's Hop Pocket Pils. ...Why the pubs of London, of course! ...While I do some reading up on London for the TPR UK trip. What exactly am I reading about?... I may as well enjoy this one outside on the patio... "Would you like a Hop Pocket?"

^Speaking of slow Virginia people, what the heck is up with everyone from Virginia driving in the left hand lane but not actually passing? That really got annoying on I-95 and I-64. I just think a park like PKD who KNEW how many people were supposed to be there this weekend would have been better prepared, with more trains on coasters and more staffing at critical areas. Its not like it was a weekend where they were only expecting 1,000 guests in the park because there were no groups and then the weather was gorgeous and so 10,000 people showed up when they were staffed for 1/10th of that. They arranged the cheerleading weekend, and should have been better prepared to handle them as well as the usuals. Maybe I will end up there later in the year, but its pretty much the same thing as my last visit in April, 4 years ago. Really disappointing, considering how much I loved PKD back when I got into this hobby.

Eleanor's house is located at about 10:00 from Wild One's helix. Its the blue roofed house with the woods around it.

Awww, I'm so happy you guys took photos of the vertical loops for me (or as they say in espanol "los loopos verticos") Looks like a great park, despite the RCCA woodie. I can't believe you managed to get on the Deja Vu!

Nice photos (especially the vertical loops. Too bad it's not interlocking.) I always liked IOA at night. Shame that it (and a few other Florida parks) are hardly ever opened after dark.

"Animal that I've become"- 3 Days Grace

Tonight I decided to start trying some of the Old Dominion beers I picked up this weekend. First off, the Spring Brew. Very nice bouquet, a nice mix of ale and lager. Easy to drink and very refreshing. Not bad at all, very much a Springtime refreshment. Spring is in the air, and its also in my beer

When Heath and Kim were done at Busch, and I was done at Kings Dominion, we met up to caravan to Old Dominion. Its definitely the best "Dominion" in Virginia! And Heath had the Victory Amber Lager, which is not brewed by Victory, its brewed by Old Dominion. So I guess it should be called Old Dominion Amber Lager to keep the confusion level down With dinner I tried the New River Pale Ale. Very aromatic hoppy, but not tasting very hoppy For dinner I had Elissa friendly Tomato and Mozzarella salad And Heath had the Dominion Lager to start because they were out of the Aviation Lager I started out with the Tupper's Hop Pocket Ale But they've got plenty of their brews on tap This is the most plain exterior to a brew pub ever

More photos from the day: LOL! Dumb Fries and Man Asses. If the ACE Coaster Museum isn't being built here, someone needs to seriously consider relocating before ground is broken! At least Hanna Barbera survived after getting the boot from Universal Studios. Sadly, Meteor Attack is gone :''( This will become go-carts, because no other park in the world has go-carts Hooray, this ride is actually running 2 trains now! Tim and Greg don't have to wait more than 10 minutes for the front seat FINALLY PKD bigwig: "Grizzly isn't hard enough to find, lets remove the ride entrance sign. Another brilliant idea, I'm giving myself a raise!" Give us a beer and the park may have redeemed itself with this new VIP seating area Best thing at PKD, the closed Ham on Rye. Makes for a great waiting area while your friends are still in line for something running only 1 train "Congratulations, you've just been line-jumped by 15 Jamaicans, you're next to ride, and the ride is broken. What are you going to do now?!" Me: "I'm going anywhere NOT operated by Paramount!" This guy is enjoying a nap while the ops take forever checking the restraints Oooh, Drop Zone, Intamin goodness... Random Paramount bigwig says "lets get some outside vendors. How about one that's closed 50% of the time during our early and late operating season. That sounds brilliant!" Stupid Chick-Fil-A Everyone enjoys the wacky ending to the Treasure Cave, as well as the rest of the cute little walk thru Luckily the Treasure Cave still exists and has no line! (probably the ONLY thing at PKD that doesn't!) Scooby had too long of a wait, leaving my new since 2002 at PKD count remaining at zero Except they can't touch the bricks! While in line for Avalanche, everyone looks normal... Its not the best Mack bobsled, but its still lots of fun, and even the little ones can ride it Avalanche, the only Mack bobsled in North America, and one of the funnest rides at the park!

I haven't been to Kings Dominion since they got their last new coaster, which I guess was 2002 so since I was in Virginia and the rest of the team was heading there on Sunday I thought I would join them. I noticed a few days before that it was cheerleading weekend, which I think is pretty much EVERY weekend at a Paramount park since my visit to Canada next month will also be a cheerleader weekend. With that little tidbit and the fact that Italian Job wasn't going to be opened until later next month (even though commercials in the area say "now showing" which is TOTAL false advertising!) I figured I'd pick up a season pass, since I knew I'd need a few days this season at the parks. Well, Greg (Glutenfree) drove up with me since we were going to both buy passes and use the 2 for 69.99 each special. We got there just before opening at 10:30 to find a huge crowd to get into the park. Not a problem though, as we still needed to get our passes and then process them. Well, only 2 out of 12 of the season pass sales windows were opened, and each had a line of about 10 people. 10 minutes later we were 3 people away from getting our tickets when the computer went down. 10 minutes later it was still down, yet no one came over to help us, open another window etc. Then someone mentioned how long the line was to process the pass. Since it was already 11:00 and Greg and I were already frustrated (as was everyone else in the line) we said screw it and used our ACE discount to just get in for the day. When you're having a bad day before you even get INTO the park, you really don't want to give them more money than you have to. You would think that at the beginning of the season a park who keeps advertising sales on season passes would actually have more staff working the sales windows and processing stations, instead of 13 people there to take your picture when you get inside the park. Things like that and their metal detector set up really make me dislike that park (along with their operations as of late). I think of all the parks I've been to, Magic Mountain of all parks has a great set up for metal detectors, you go thru them BEFORE you go thru the turnstile, thus not slowing the lines into the park. Luckily we had plenty of friends to hang out with and keep things fun once we got inside. It was a pretty poor day though, we managed to ride 5 coasters in 5 hours. Italian Job is NOWHERE near complete (it may compete with El Toro for which takes longer, and El Toro may lose that battle!). Hypersonic, Rebel Yell, and Grizzly were all running only 1 train until around 3pm; Rebel still only ran 1 train, but at least they attempted to race. Drop Zone broke when we were next in line to ride, and we got linejumped right in front of the op by about 15 "island folk". The op didn't care though, he was too concerned with people sitting on the handrails. So, that concludes my PKD visit for the year, I'll stop by next year on my way home from Busch for a quick (LOL!) ride on IT. I think I'll spend more time at Busch though, the beer may not be the greatest in the universe, but the park is much better than anything Paramount can attempt to throw at us. Enjoy the photos from the day! Lunch was at Bubba Gumps, because it was one of the only *safe* places that was opened This IS an acceptable level of water, but it is NOT an acceptable level of nutcracking Here's Tomb Raider, it sits by Volcano, shoots fire, sprays water, and attempts to destroy scrotums. Tim is pumped, but I'm not sure if its because he's going to ride Volcano in the front seat or because he likes the cheerleading going on in the station Oh yeah, it was cheerleading weekend, I almost forgot. Here are some chicks ready to lose all their curlers on Volcano It has no vertical loop, but I still like it, probably because it has fire, 2 launches, and a really hot sister This is Volcano, its the reason I came here, and it actually opened with the park, unlike its cousin in Spain I guess you'll enter over by Volcano and Tomb Raider by the Grille Yeah, this is the Italian Job Turbo Stunt Track Something or Other Coaster: The Ride, but it ain't gonna be ready for a while. Rebel Yell was running both sides after 12, but only 1 train on each. At least they attempted to race them Because its got a vertical loop! However it does not have 2, and therefore not interlocking. If you want interlocking loops, you'll have to go to Busch Gardens in Williamsburg This is Shock Wave, its a Togo death standup. We chose to skip it. But I took a picture of it, why? Hurler was closed because its too difficult to get rides operational by opening day. If you look closely, some toolbox lost their hat on the ride Oh, there's the wait, that's right they're running only 1 train Cool, no wait in the station. Janna finds a way to keep both herself and Borg entertained while in line And then you go SLAM! into your super-heavy-keeps-falling-down-on-you restraint Very powerful launch, very rough turnaround. Why are Adam and Tim so happy? Why, its because they're waiting for 1 train operational Hypersuckit! Yey! We're inside the park, we're having fun! Here's that Tower thing thats a replica of the one in Cincinnati Here we stood for around 15 minutes without moving. Part was because the "Southern Belle" (cheerleader mom) wanted 5 passes, but said she only wanted 1. The rest was because its Kings Dominion, and waiting in line is Paramount!

5 consecutive rides on Alpengeist in mid-40 degree weather and cold, wet rain. Snap!

"Photograph"- Def Leppard

Had several free AB beers today, such as Bud Light, Budweiser, Budweiser Select, Amber Bock, and Bare Knuckle Stout. Then I had another Sam Adams Looks like the Brewmaster's Club has converted Adam. Here he actually ordered an Amber Bock instead of a Sam Adams! I'm still surprised they sell this stuff here, AND that it was still in date! Another fine choice! The Beer and Coaster Team says "Hi Wally, thanks for the beer!" Derek drinks a Budweiser

And now, sit down, hold on tight, and remember you saw it here first....SIGNS OF CONSTRUCTION!!! (and then some more random photos from the day) At dinner, this hammerhead shark made no sound, probably because its bones were made of cartilage Adam shows where the best beer in Busch Gardens is located....in the parking lot! These two toys were trying to make a new breed, the Tigerdactyl Why are you still reading this? Go ride these INTERLOCKING Vertical loops! Its the only ride IN THE WORLD with them! There goes the train, tooting its tooter back at Corky Ellen "Stop looking at me, Swan!" Ellen was *special* and got to toot the tooter Which is the ONLY way you can ever see this drop of Big Bad Wolf! And then we had the BACT only Rhine cruise It was still raining, so we decided to ride one of the only indoor rides, DarKastle The unofficial beer thread meeting was over Amber Bock, in honor of Wally Everyone enjoys the free beer, fruit, cheese, chocolate, and not getting wet Here's Heath with a Bud Light. How awesome is that!? Because they had FREE chocolate and fruit When the rain came down, we took in the Brewmasters Club. This is another TPR exclusive signature shot! Yes, the park is really pretty with flowers and shrubs and stuff These wolves were hoping someone would drop their annoying whiny child down to them. No one did though, because they were all too busy riding Loch Ness Monster and its 2 interlocking loops (for this season only!) So back to the day. Busch has managed to create the X Eagle! There's a bunch of them near the queue building of the antique cars, and some more over in New France by the Trappers Smokehouse. If anything, I'd say the LeMans will go before the Le Scoot Log Flume Over by the LeMans are some markings on the ground, for other footers? On the same hillside a bit closer to Alpengeist are some orange flags, could it be for the exit of the Immelmann? Next to Loch Ness Monster were several pink markers. One even comes really close to the station of LNM, possibly a footer for an Immelmann?

"Prepare for the worst, hope for the best" That was the motto for the day. We saw ahead of time that the weather looked less than promising for today. Fortunately it turned out better than we thought. Just 1 thunderstorm that shut down the rides, and only light drizzle on and off again for about 30 minutes at a time. It was fairly warm most of the day and we managed to ride everything mulitple times. It got cold later on (started out the day at 69 degrees, ended up at 47 when we left), but we had our warm clothes in the cars, which were nicely parked in the first row of the preferred lot. Here's the pictures from today! Alpengeist's cobra roll, as seen thru the Springtime trees But Josh was there, trying to stay dry Jake was out, probably golfing or drinking with Tom And what TPR photo report would ever be complete without a donkey? Here's Zipper, he's bored This is Chip the Clydesdale. Get it, CHIP, ClydesDALE. Seriously, that was his name, how awesome is that Adam and Ellen think about whether or not to count the skyride as a roller coaster. They will seek Jeff Johnson's expertise for an answer Just in case you missed it before, this year only, Busch purchased a SECOND VERTICAL LOOP for Loch Ness Monster, and MADE THEM INTERLOCK!!! So go ride it, but hurry, before its back to only 1 loop in 2007 I rode the Sad and Pathetic carousel The park looked really pretty with the tulips Like this anti-Miller message And in the bathroom, I entertained myself with propaganda We managed to catch the Oktoberfest show too. BACT gets ready for some sausage fest! Of course, we had to eat lunch at the Fest Haus Yaaarrr, I'm not too happy about this thunderstorm, especially when Alpengeist is running across the way Erin is excited about her first suspended coaster During the thunderstorm, we entertained ourselves while waiting for Big Bad Wolf And the Pittsborg crew enjoyed their back row ride Adam and Ellen enjoyed their front seat wake-up Before the rain came, we all decided to ride Apollo's Chariot

"Just got wicked"- Cold

OK, I lied. I did bring some beer with me for the weekend, just in case. So when I was hanging out with some friends from college, I let them see what beers the North could muster up. And I couldn't wear the HopDevil shirt without drinking a HopDevil that evening Erin stuck with water Brian tried the Alpha King, but he wasn't experienced enough to enjoy the hops

Today we went to Busch Gardens. So of course, we had to drink Sam Adams when we found out a local restaurant carried it! OK, I did end up getting good beer this weekend! Sam Adams was a patriot, I guess that's why he was allowed to be in Williamsburg

Sorry you didn't have such a great time, but at least you finally got on Tornado! And you really can't expect too much, it is Spain after all! Can't wait to see where you end up next.

Day 1: Crappy traffic, happy weather. The weather for the weekend looks less than promising for the area, so a few of us decided to head down early, since Friday looked to be the most promising day at Busch Gardens. It definitely was a perfect day, the weather was warm (in the 80s!), the sun was shining, and the crowds were almost nonexistant. Apparently though everyone was on I-95, as it took us about an extra hour to get here from our origins. I don't know what is up with traffic in Virginia, but people really don't know how to drive. I guess you go in the left lane if you don't want to move, because no one in the left lane was actually passing, just enjoying the weather. Every so often someone would stick a foot out the window or an arm out of the moonroof. I was annoyed. Luckily I planned for stupidity and managed to still arrive at Busch with plenty of time to enjoy the park. In the 2 hours I was there, I managed to run into all my friends who were supposed to be there that day, ride all the coasters, and even hit DarKastle twice. DarKastle was kinda off on both rides, the first time a few rooms 3D didn't work, the second time there was no audio. But we figured we'd ride it again when the rest of BACT arrives tomorrow. In short, it was a great time, and even if the rest of the weekend stinks, today was worth the trip! And now, the photos: Yes, it was hot enough that people were actually riding Pompei, will there be riders tomorrow? In case you didn't see it, Loch Ness Monster now has TWO (2!) vertical loops, and they interlock, but only for the 2006 season! So go there and ride it while you can!!! Adam proudly shows where his increased membership funds go Stairs are bad! I am a happy man! mmmmm, interlocking vertical loops! Here's another never before seen exclusive TPR photo of Alpengeist I met the Gordon's fisherman! Adam is quite happy with the weather and lack of crowds Sideboob! *Never before seen!* This coaster is Alpengeist, but I bet you haven't seen it with a naked chick fountain, a nice sunset, and some random roof Adam tried to cool me off with the help of a turtle fountain I was baffled at the lack of line at DarKastle or that there was no audio on the ride Adam does his Big Bad Wolf impression since there was no line and we had plenty of time to kill And then I ran into Adam and Ellen eating in Italy Not even 2 minutes into the park, I ran into Bret and family as they were leaving Big shocker, its beautiful out, but because its a Friday, no one is here!! I finally made it to Busch Gardens for the year!

From a word of mouth standing, I'd say either Matterhorn or Big Thunder Mountain. (but since Big Thunder is also at almost every other Disney park, I'll leave that out). From a seeing it on tv or movies, I'd go with either Viper, West Coaster, or Coaster at Playland. A bunch of people know about X, but can never remember the name of it or the park its at, just "the one that does the flips the whole time in Los Angeles". I still remember when Beverly Hills 90210 went to Magic Mountain and Donna rode Viper and someone got their purse stolen!

Looks purty and new, but its still the same evil ride! Now the ninja will lurn you in with his beauty before delivering a good swift kick to the head. Tricky ninja, tricky indeed!

^Looks great so far, thanks for sharing the pictures. I still can't believe Knoebels is rebuilding this classic style coaster. Looks like a heck of a lot of work, especially compared to the typical wood coaster, but if anyone can do it, its Knoebels. I'm looking forward to seeing more progress, and can't wait to ride this thing.