xVicesAndVirtues

Wow, thanks for all the comments and the front page love! You guys are awesome! About two weekends after the BGW/KD trip, I continued making good use out of my 2019 Cedar Fair pass renewal, with a quick day trip to: Carowinds Literally, day trip. My friend and I scored crazy-cheap AM flights from MCO to CLT, and also-crazy-cheap return flights that same night. The timing was even perfect; we'd land early enough to get to the park just after opening, and we'd have about 6-7 hours in the park before we had to head back out. We were a little nervous, as about two days before the trip, The Weather Channel started calling for rain/thunderstorms all day, and the night before, it was sitting at an 80% chance for the entire afternoon/evening. We did end up losing about 3ish hours of park time due to a massive storm system that rolled through. It ended up being a net positive, though, as the longer the storms went on, the more the park bled guests. By the time it ended, we still had about 2 hours of ride time with virtually zero waits. The park also did a fantastic job of getting every single ride and coaster back up and running very quickly after the storms passed. Carowinds as a park is quickly cementing their status as one of the top in the Cedar Fair chain. I'm sure this has all been said before (even by me in last year's report), but it went from being a somewhat forgettable park for me just 10 years ago to a park I very much enjoy visiting. It's more than the addition of Fury- the park has greatly improved almost every area. Re-themes have added atmosphere, the entire park looks fresh and new, the new entrance looks just like Cedar Point's, and operations and customer service are consistently strong. Copperhead Strike is a brilliant addition. It's not crazy intense or anything, but it's fun and weird, has hangtime all over the place, an airtime hill in the middle of a launch, and would make a perfect "first coaster with inversions". We rode it a bunch of times. I would consider this to be more of a mini-trip, since in total we only had about 4 hours of time to do rides and attractions, so it was mostly marathoning the things we love. Welcome to Carowinds! Don't mind the ominous clouds, everything's open for now! Fury running with riders was a good sign, but we wanted to hurry up just in case this didn't last long But before we could go ride Fury, we had to go get bit by a snake in the back of the park. Look ma, a vertical loop! As I said above, while it's not super intense, Copperhead Strike is just plain *fun*. They did a nice job theming and landscaping, the launch shed is a cool spot, and the ride goes upside down quite a few times. It's also WAY longer than it looks A shot of the station area before we had to give up our stuff and a couple of our dollars to Cedar Fair, as this coaster requires a you-know-what if you have a bag or loose articles on you. Nothing goes into the station. One thing I really wish Carowinds and other Cedar Fair parks would do- offer a "Rent a Multi-Use L*cker" like Six Flags and other parks do. I'd much rather pay $6-8 all at once and re-locate than have to get a fraud alert from Wells Fargo because I got 5 separate $2 charges from the park. With threatening weather quickly approaching, we hurried over and got about 5-6 rides in a row on Fury. On one of the last rides before it went down for weather, we could actually see a few flashes of lightning in the distance. This was kind of freaky, as when you're on top of Fury and look around you, it's the tallest structure for miles. The only thing in the distance that's as tall or comes close is the air traffic control tower at CLT airport, which is visible from the lift. I think I took this photo out of order, but I never realized that this turn on Fury is kind of like an elongated hammerhead turn-around. Oh, I should probably talk about the ride. Fury is pretty darn awesome. It's not i305, but there are actually moments, particularly the HUGE drop, this turnaround, the low-ground turn, and treble clef, where this B&M is...dare I say...scary? Riding in the outer left seat in the back row is particularly out-of-control feeling, as you really get flung to the side in the turns. I'm a big Intamin fan, so naturally I also love Millennium Force. Fury is probably a better coaster than Millennium Force, but I like Millennium Force more, if that makes any sense at all. Mama Ru decided we'd been lucky enough, so she abruptly ended our riding streak with some flashes of lightning. Or maybe it was Mother Nature? Maybe both? As it started to sprinkle, we just barely made it under the awning of the restaurant at the end of the main entrance plaza, and it poured. like. hell. Fast forward a few hours and we lost the rain and about 10-15 degrees in temperature, but gained some sunlight. We headed back to Afterburn immediately. I don't know if this is me lamenting what's now nearly 2 years since Universal cruelly ripped Dueling Dragons from our hearts like a lover abruptly packing their bags and telling you it's over without explanation, but Afterburn has skyrocketed up my list of B&M Inverts the past few years. It seems to be more intense every time I ride it, and honestly, I think I like it more than Montu. We got several rides on the back row and the forces were just spectacular. Extreme positive Gs, crazy quick snaps in the batwing and flat spin. We then proceeded to get about 8-10 rides on Copperhead Strike with zero line, which normally is just about impossible on a brand-new ride on a weekend. We rode in almost every row, having a blast as we did so. Once you let the snake bite you, it's hard to get it to stop. This corkscrewy bullsh*t is still here, I guess. It makes for a good midway ornament and photo op. How far down the RMC waiting list is this thing? I just want to say that if and when Carowinds chose to RMC Hurler, they'd deserve a standing ovation. Still, it would be cool to see them do a unique layout and not just clone Twisted Timbers, but also they can totally clone Twisted Timbers and I'd be happy. After a few more marathon rides on Fury, it was time to dip. Carowinds- where the Carolinas are next to each other! One last look at Fury and it's awesome "treble clef" element. I hope the Kings Island giga coaster has one of these Oops...when we got back to the car, we realized we'd completely forgotten to ride InTRIMidator on this trip. Oh well. Thanks for reading!

I sure hope so. To be honest, I'm not holding out too much hope that it'll be as intense as we'd all like it to be, or even as intense as Dueling Dragons was. While I'd LOVE it if they built something on the level of Maverick and made up for the lack of Dragons, I see them targeting the family audience once again and making something on the level of Cheetah Hunt. I wouldn't be surprised if that's the new high bar of "thrill" Universal is willing to approach but not exceed. But again, I hope I'm wrong. That's a tough question. If Dueling Dragons were truly "at the end of their life cycle", as was Universal's talking point, I wish they'd just done the same thing as Hulk; torn down and re-built. Maybe if they'd plopped down a clone of i305 and themed it to Hagrid, I'd have been more forgiving. But what's done is done at this point. Again, I'll love it if the Jurassic Park coaster truly amazes us and rights all wrongs, but I'm just not holding my breath. At least it's from Intamin.

Nice! I went to this park and rode Ravine Flyer II back in like 2008 when I was living in upstate New York. I've been meaning to re-visit as part of a Cedar Point trip the past like 3 seasons, as it's not too far from Cleveland, but it hasn't happened yet. Hopefully this year, combined with Kennywood. Glad to hear it's still running awesome, I really loved it back then!

I'm sure any of you could've guessed where we went next on this weekend trip, as we weren't that far away from: Kings Dominion While it's not as well-themed as Busch Gardens Williamsburg, nor has it gotten some of the newer, festive, atmosphere-heavy areas Cedar Fair has been doing lately like the Boardwalk at Knott's or the more polished new areas of Carowinds or Cedar Point, this is still an undeniably nice park that has a unique setting of it's own. I actually like KD quite a lot. Oh, and you may have heard, but their two best coasters both made the top ten list that you messy hoes voted for on here recently, and this park and Cedar Point are the only two parks to have done that. We know we're really spoiled when we can type away all off-season about "what park has the best one-two punch?", since Cedar Point has Steel Vengeance, Maverick, and Millennium Force. Kings Dominion has i305 and Twisted Timbers. Six Flags New England has Superman and Wicked Cyclone. Fiesta Texas has Iron Rattler and Wonder Woman. Great Adventure has El Toro and then you can ride El Toro again. See? I just made you appreciate something for a second. Our rental car for this trip included a New York license plate, which immediately armed me with the power to drive like a total d*ck. But I'm actually from New York, so I do it properly. Cedar Fair consistently does a good job making sure the little things are taken care of, like signs, paint, landscaping, etc. You're always greeted to a fresh entrance, and that was the case here at KD They also conveniently have a Starbucks in the main entrance, which most major Cedar Fair parks do nowadays. See, Six Flags, if you could just give us Starbucks and a little bit of paint and landscaping, we'd like you so much more. I would pay Miss Vanjie like $1,000 to just make a recording screaming "APPLE ZAPPE B*TCH!" and use it as my phone's message/ring tone Twisted Timbers was running super hardcore the day we visited. The airtime was violent and the transitions were jerking us around like a dom we'd just mouthed off to. Translation: this sh*t is awesome I don't know what was more aggressive; these little airtime hills on Twisted Timbers or me cutting off the Virginians on I-95, all who seemed to left lane hog at 60mph in the 70mph zone! Category is: unpopular opinion. The way they were managing the metal detectors/hand stamp/zippered pouch nonsense, I'd rather just be forced to leave my phone in a you-know-what. It was seriously a hot mess and took forever. The trains would be parked in the station so long that the second train would stack and a third could have made it's way around if there was one. It made our morning walk-ons take 15 minutes and the afternoon line take 40 when it should have been 5. The sunglasses rule was f*cking idiotic. I have fairly snug-fitting sunglasses and can wear them on i305 but not this without a strap on the back of them? Come on. I'm glad to hear reports that Steel Vengeance is doing this outside the station instead of inside, because the metal detector nonsense would cause rows on the train to be empty while they figured out what the f*ck to do, further exacerbating the issues in the afternoon when there was more of a line. If only Americans weren't such idiots, we wouldn't have to deal with things like this. AND WHERE THE F*CK ARE MY BALLS?!? Don't worry, we'll get to you soon Nah, man. Good to see that construction on the new Impulse Coaster is going well. ...ladies and...gentlemen, start your engines! This, this right here. I seriously believe that this is the best steel coaster in the United States. It's everything we don't deserve in a modern coaster. Speed, forces, amazing transitions. Yet, the line is always short and even people who claim to like coasters say its too this or too that. I just don't get it. If anything, as it ages, i305 becomes more and more re-rideable. I get that if you ride The Voyage too many times in a row you might actually have a stroke, or that Skyrush too many times may cause an embolism in your legs from pinching you so damn hard. But this is just sheer forces. You're held in properly with the vest restraint, it's smooth, deliberate, it's just excellence. All you candy a$$ses can have your gentle B&M hyper rides. This is where its at. Thanks for coming to my TED Talk. I always ride this when I visit the park. It's the only Mack Bobsled in the US and I love how the cars awkwardly flex underneath you as you go along the track. The minimal restraints combined with the flat, open vehicles just make this so different. Maybe not as picturesque as it was with Geauga Lake behind it (if thats what the actual lake was called), but Dominator is the hyper-floorless. It dishes out real forces, especially in the low-ground turns Big yellow loop? Yes ma'am The twisty first drop is a disorienting way to start a coaster! Like I said prior, Twisted Timbers was running really extreme this visit, moreso than last year when I rode the 2nd or 3rd weekend it was open. I love good, forceful coasters, and this and i305 in the same park is just great Artsy fence photo. We had a great visit to KD and I honestly can't wait to go back. Hopefully they'll fill in the Volcano space sooner rather than later. Thanks for reading!

Oh my god you aren't lying about Texas drivers. They're in Orlando a lot and they're always either in a Sierra 2500 with 18 additional wheels cutting you off on the highway, then slowing down to 10 below the speed limit, or they're in an extended-length Tahoe making a right turn out of the left lane and nearly ending your life. Or, worse, they're a rental Tahoe with a Texas plate, which is even more unpredictable. I f*cking love Boardwalk Bullet and the entire Kemah Boardwalk, too. I'm actually a big back-row fan of that coaster, the laterals are so crazy and aggressive but I would never accuse it of being rough, either. If you have "Thunderhead Derangement Syndrome", where you're a p*ssy and can't take Thunderhead, then you won't like Bullet, either. Awesome reports, really loving it!

Getting my 2019 season off to a great start, on the last weekend in April, I scored a pretty good flight deal to/from Richmond, Virginia. That meant that I could spend my Saturday at, Busch Gardens Williamsburg This was my first visit to this park in quite a long time, I believe my last visit was in 2012. Since then, there's been some major changes and shake-ups to SEAS management, in addition to two new coasters. Back then, Mach Tower was either new or new-ish, and still experiencing growing pains. How was the park holding up after all these years? In one word: mostly great. I was happy to see that the BGW I remembered and loved is still going strong. It was pretty busy on this day, so we opted for Quick Queue, which got us on everything we wanted to ride multiple times. Also, the chain recently started selling Platinum passes for a great price, so we were able to upgrade our Florida parks passes to this new level and get the entire chain included. However, there were still some slightly hot-mess, Six Flagsy things we encountered that could easily be remedied with better staff training. Upon arrival around noon, it was clear that this was going to be a busy day. The parking lot lanes were all open and about 6-8 cars deep in every lane. After careful investigation, it has been determined that fun does, indeed, begin here. Upon entering the front gates, you go through the England section of the park, which is one of the most beautiful front entry areas of any park. As you can see, it was pretty darn busy this day. Before we even get into talking about the rides and coasters here, let this blurry photo remind us of how beautiful Busch Gardens Williamsburg is Moving on and across the bridge, in front of you is what may be the best coaster at BGW, Verbolten! Warning: A classic Porsche 911 Targa was harmed in the making of this ride "We're glad you've escaped zee forest!" Early in the day, Verbolten was running only one station. Merging Quick Queue and the main queue was kind of a hot mess, as people grudgingly didn't want Quick Queue people to get in front of them. This could have easily been solved by the attendant just holding the line. The ride, however, is really awesome. I rode it when it was relatively new years ago, but we got probably 6-8 rides this visit, all of which were totally awesome and I forgot how good this coaster was. The launches are great, there's some good forces, and the drop track in the dark is genuinely terrifying! An example of how this park's setting and theming just make it top-notch. The only parks I've seen that compare in terms of "park" quality of flowers, shrubbery, trees, etc are in Europe. We decided to eat inside the FestHaus, where we'd find another hot mess in terms of employee training quality. Both sides were open for this food area, but guests weren't being directed, so one side was completely full, the other completely empty. Then, despite being fully staffed, the employees seemed more concerned with having conversations and chilling out, and it took like 3-4 employees to decide who was going to actually help us. The food, however, was of great quality. Unfortunately, I didn't get a photo On my last visit, Curse of DarKastle was still a thing. I knew it was gone, but seeing the empty building made me wish it were still around. Next up was the huge classic B&M invert, Alpengeist. The area around this coaster is so pretty, I wish I had taken a theming photo I know we're spoiled in our world of Jojo rolls, outward-banked hills, and crazy enlongated, hangtime-filled elements nowadays, but I really love a good vertical loop, and Alpengeist's loop is just f*cking massive So Alpengeist starts with that enormous drop, giant vertical loop, an immelman, and then a cobra roll that kicks you in the face so hard it nearly slaps you silly. The first half of this coaster is hard to beat. However, I've always felt that the MCBR just saps too much speed and keeps this otherwise great invert in the middle of the pack. Can we petition to replace the MCBR with a small launch or something?! If it went through the final elements the way it does the first half, this would be my favorite invert. Next, we walked over to ride Griffon, the only B&M Dive Machine to feature the crazy wide 10-across trains (I think). When you ride an edge on this coaster, you're wayyy out there. To the point where, honestly, I was a total pussy b*tch and let my friend have the edge every time. No ma'am! Also, this may not be the most popular opinion and I haven't been on Yukon Striker yet, but I think Griffon is the best Dive Machine. Griffon and Sheikra seem to throw you into the drop in the back row that none of the others seem to. Next, I'd finally get to ride InvadR for the first time. I went into this coaster with zero expectations, since it seemed to be universally panned on here. I loved it! We rode in the back row and it hauled ass through the entire course, kind of the way White Lightning at Fun Spot seems to. Really fun small woodie, plus the benefit of riding Gwazi trains on something you can actually enjoy! So, unfortunately, this is another spot I have to report a bit negatively on. See, here's the Quick Queue entrance sign for InvadR. We had Quick Queue, so we entered here. However, when we got up to the exit, which is where the ramp sends you, the employee there told us that "there's no Quick Queue for this ride". I pointed her to where the sign was, and she basically gave me a dismissive, tough sh*t answer of, "Well, it's not ready yet, come back next week and maybe it'll be ready then", and then told us we had to use the main queue. We honestly didn't really care and it didn't bother us, despite the main queue being about 30-40 minutes, which we ultimately waited in. But...just in terms of customer service, they should've either accommodated us or this sign should have been covered up or not installed in the first place. We weren't the only ones that this happened to. At least the no-quick-queue-for-you situation had us walk underneath this cool monster statue cannon entrance thingy. This photo doesn't even need a caption. So, going into this trip, we knew we'd be there a week prior to Finnegan's Flyer officially opening. We saw it running with riders, so we excitedly made our way over to it, thinking we'd just scored a soft-open However, when we got over there, we found it to still be walled-off and they apparently were doing some kind of employees-only preview. This was another example of questionable choices the park made. We rode Barnstormer at Dollywood a few weeks prior and there will be other Screamin Swings in my summer travels, but this ride is right in guests' faces where the bridge/platform viewing area is, and guests were confused trying to find the entrance, and I literally laughed out loud by a kid asking his father, "Can we ride that?", and the father replying, "No, son, they're just making us watch them ride it to tease us right now" I mean, yeah, test the new ride, but maybe offer it to employees as a cast party after hours? On one side of this bridge, pretty scenery On the other side, loops We then made our way over to Loch Ness Monster. It's still running well despite being an older Arrow, when many Arrow loopers of the period are unbearable. However, that may be more due to the relatively simple, straightforward layout without much opportunity for coat hangers, sidewinders, and corkscrews. I've always been fascinated by this ride, ever since I was a kid looking at roller coasters on the internet. Even today, the sight of Loch Ness' interlocking loops is awesome We finally saw that the Skyride was open, after it had been closed down all day. At Busch Gardens Tampa, we mostly ride the Skyride to avoid the third-degree sunburn walk over to Kumba. At Busch Gardens Williamsburg, it's an don't-miss for the great views. I wish Busch Gardens Williamsburg let you bring drinks on the Skyride. Hell, they should have a beer cart where you make your selections as you're getting loaded in. The Skyride here is so relaxing and you just go across half this beautiful park, unable to stop taking photos as you take in the scenery Approaching sunset, this was the best time to enjoy the surroundings Again, no caption needed I'll leave it at this view of Griffon from the Skyride. I think the only coaster I forgot to mention here is Apollo's Chariot, which I didn't get any good photos of. It's still running great and I'd still consider it one of the superior B&M hypers. The pre-drop is still amazing, the surprise drop at the end still surprising. All in all, with Quick Queue and about 6-7 hours in the park, we got to ride everything we wanted 5+ times and still had enough time to eat, take in scenery, and watch some of the shows. This is a park I could visit all the time and you Virginia people are seriously lucky to have it. I can't wait to go back next year and ride the new 2020 hotness. Oh, and one last thing: jizz.

Mine ended up looking like this: Steel Top 20: 1. Expedition GeForce 2. Intimidator 305 3. Iron Rattler 3. Wicked Cyclone 4. Steel Vengeance 4. Maverick 5. Superman SFNE 6. Twisted Timbers 6. Skyrush 7. Storm Chaser 8. Storm Runner 9. Kumba 10. Fury 325 11. New Texas Giant 12. Millennium Force 13. Twisted Cyclone 14. Raptor 15. Twisted Colossus 16. Talon 17. Incredible Hulk 18. Banshee 19. Superman SFA 19. Ride of Steel 20. Joker SFDK Wood Top 10: 1. El Toro 1. Lightning Rod 2. Outlaw Run 3. Goliath Great America 4. Thunderhead 4. Renegade Valleyfair 5. Boardwalk Bullet 6. Boulder Dash 7. Comet Great Escape 8. Mystic Timbers 9. Screamin Eagle 10. Raven A lot of my lower top 10 and beyond wood coasters I hadn't ridden in quite some time, so I went to a group ranking beyond there.

Love the list and agreed with everyone that's said that the newer coasters seem to rank higher. I can completely see how this is possible, however, especially with the RMCs. Sometimes I can have a great ride on one and then think, "Wait, is this the best RMC?". Storm Chaser is a good example, as I haven't been on it since 2017, and while I remember the airtime being violent and super intense, I can't remember much else to try and compare it to something like Twisted Timbers, which I know is also insane and has crazy abrupt airtime. I honestly took like a month to submit my ballot, working on it a few minutes at a time when it would come to mind, as I don't normally spend a whole lot of time thinking about ranking/comparing coasters. Trying to compare some of these, like "is Maverick better than an upper-middle-tier RMC?", or "is Lightning Rod better than El Toro?", made my head feel like it was going to explode, and in the end I had a lot of same-place rankings in my top 20. The only RMC I was genuinely surprised to NOT see on the "top 25 steel" list was Wicked Cyclone. I personally find it to be miles better than Twisted Colossus, Twisted Cyclone, etc. But that's just my opinion. And same to people who were surprised to see Twisted Timbers so high. I ranked it in my top ten, but having had walk-ons for it and i305 all day this past weekend, i305 still totally destroys it. Also, let's not kid ourselves, Expedition GeForce is still the best coaster in the world

^^I rode it about a month or so before it went down for all this a couple years ago and it was an incredibly brutal ride. Like, brain stem slam at the bottom of every hill brutal. An amazing ride and all the airtime was there, but I could only bear to ride it 2 or 3 times. I’ll also take smooth Colossos.

^^I think Gold Striker and Invadr are the only two US GCI coasters I'm missing. I'm glad to hear that Gold Striker rides that well! I really like Mystic Timbers, too, but it's more about fun airtime than the total insanity of changing direction every .2 seconds. ^The prison museum is awesome, they have a lot of legitimately-sourced artifacts from real prisons and crime scenes. I will say it gets very "text heavy" as the tour goes on (theres tons of walls with stories), but still very interesting stuff. Also, not trying to pick a fight with you. I wasn't putting a disclaimer to the censored profanity, I was referring to the fact that those photos are of real instruments-of-torture and/or punishment and execution that have been used on real prisoners in the past.

So, as I said before, we were in Pigeon Forge for the entire weekend. Saturday night, a massive cold front came across with a line of rain and storms, then the temperature absolutely plummeted for Sunday. Like, high in the 40s, low in the 20s with freeze warning plummeted. Being Central Floridians, we decided to take it easy on Sunday and then make Monday our second day at Dollywood, when the high would be a more bearable 50 degrees. Here's some of the other stuff we did in Pigeon Forge that weekend, plus more Dollywood: Saturday evening, as the winds picked up but before the temperature fell off a cliff, we decided to partake in some Mini Golf. This course also featured a cute train ride around the perimeter of the property. We had the place mostly to ourselves. We had less than 2 hours before the weather was going to report 100% chance of rain, so I think everybody retreated to the warmth and shelter of their hotel rooms. A look inside the train ride's tunnel Unfortunately, some of the holes that I expected to have better theming, such as inside the mountain, had none. But hey, we still had a great time As the wind was beginning to pick up and the threat of rain could be felt in the air, we decided to hit up Smoky Mountain Brewery. If you're in the area, I highly recommend this place or Calhoun's, which is also owned by the same people. Both are open late, offer reasonably-priced eats, and also have house brews with a good variety. Everything from a light lager to an amber to a piss ale for you vinyl record enthusiasts. No sooner did we sit down and get our first drinks, the metal roof revealed the sound of a downpour outside. Our table came with a nice view of where the magic happens! Fast forward to the next day, with the deep freeze in the air, we were feeling festive, so we checked out the huge Christmas store Good thing I'm already on the naughty list. One thing I was honestly impressed with was the amount of little village models etc, and the details these had. There's even a wave swinger! Whoville was included! Despite the temperature, I was determined to get to at least one of the area's alpine coasters on this visit. Last year, my friends and I attempted to ride Smoky Mountain Alpine Coaster on a Saturday night in July, only to find this entire queue full and overflowing into the parking lot. Today, however, it was cold af. With about a 2-3 cart wait, we were out and up the mountain! One hundred sixty feet and climbing! This would be the last photo I'd take on the alpine coaster. Funny thing about altitude...as you go up, the temperature sure goes down! The ride was great, but boy was it cold up there on this day. There were some great laterals and it was a decent-length ride, definitely worth the price, plus there was a re-ride special at a discount Word got out that I was on the naughty list, next stop was straight to prison. *Disclaimer* If anything said in my previous report was too much for you, the following photos and commentary may be. That said, this place does advertise as being "for the entire family"! The first area at Alcatraz East Crime Museum is all about medieval f*cked up things people did to other people. Oh, just some leg irons, a whip, and a branding iron! A little history, plus the various infractions that could earn you an appointment with Dr. Pain back in Early America Some various items used in actual prisons in the past, including the infamous "Prison Strap", some shackles, badges, and cuffs And the ultimate in crime and punishment. This was the actual "Old Smokey", the electric chair used to execute prisoners in the Tennessee State Penitentiary. Monday morning would reveal snow-capped mountains, which was a nice sight to look at It was in the mid 40s when we arrived at Dollywood, yet some totally insane people were riding the river rapids ride. Dollywood is such a stunning park. The natural scenery in the mountains, in addition to pretty wood structures just brings it all together. Here's the famous Grist Mill where the legendary cinnamon bread is made. Unfortunately, as I'm working on the summer body, I had to skip that this visit. What a difference a day makes! This would be the longest Thunderhead's queue would get all day. I hate to say something as cliche as "they don't make them like this anymore", but Thunderhead is truly the superior GCI and feels far more "out of control" than the newer ones. A bored photo guy next to the Dollywood theatre Now this is a great sight to see. Anybody in this room? No? How about on this floor? Anyone? Wow. It doesn't get any better than a 1-2 train wait all day for one of the best coasters in the entire world. While a lot of the regional parks stick to weekend-only operations during the pre and post season, Dollywood is open weekdays! This creates a great opportunity to visit an awesome park in the spring with minimal waits. And that's a wrap for Dollywood! I'm SO happy to report that Lightning Rod was consistently running 2 trains with absolutely zero downtime that I observed during the two days there. Hopefully the days of unreliability are behind them and we can all visit knowing this spectacular RMC will be there for us to ride. I'm already looking forward to my next visit to this extraordinary park. If you've never been here, what are you waiting for?

^Yasss I'm going next weekend and I can't wait. This will be my first visit since about 2012 or 2013. A few questions for you guys- I'm still kicking myself for not reserving Time Saver at Dollywood and they ran out. Does BGW ever really run out of Quick Queue? I've never seen this happen at the Tampa park, but you never know. Of course the website says "limited quantities", but just wanted to be sure. Also, their sales website does not list Tempesto or Invadr as being available with Quick Queue, is this accurate? I'm kind of thinking Tempesto is the most likely candidate for a long wait given the capacity, is this the only "Laff Trak" of the park to worry about? Thanks!

I personally love Cedar Fair's system of FastLane and I hope they don't change a thing. It's extremely convenient and simple. I too have used it at multiple CF parks and waited virtually zero for everything. I get that it can get a little crazy at Cedar Point, during a busy Saturday last year we waited maybe 15 minutes for Top Thrill Dragster with it, and anywhere from the stairs to about 30 minutes for Steel Vengeance, but that's a brand-new coaster. One time in early 2017, most things in the park were down and Raptor had a 60-minute fast lane line, but that was more of a fluke. We went to the bar at Chickie's and Pete's instead.

Thanks! I had no idea they stated how many TimeSavers are left. Do you know what the daily limit usually is? Probably won't be back until next year, but that's really good to know, especially as I'm trying to hopefully book an SDC trip within the next few months.

Hey all, time for a new year, new Photo TR thread. Looks like Canobie Coaster beat me to the punch, so now you'll have two reports for your viewing pleasure from: Dollywood I live in Central Florida, but I realized on this trip that this is my 4th year in a row going to this park. That's a testament to how great this park is, and honestly in a lot of ways it reminds me a lot of the way Disney does things, in terms of creating an atmosphere that makes you forget about everything else and just relax, enjoy the place, and have a good time. The entire Pigeon Forge/Gatilinburg/Sevierville area is sort of a Bizarro world version of Orlando's International Drive in a way. There's the same TGI Fridays and Applebees, a line of Marriotts and Days Inns, a Titanic replica and a Ripley's, but instead of being in the packed, hurry-up-or-you'll-miss-it atmosphere filled with people driving extended-length rented Tahoes on a Fiat 500 driving record that is Orlando, you're treated to country air, laid back attitudes, serene surroundings, and a 35mph speed limit. Which...I suggest you don't exceed, as on my second night in town, Pigeon Forge P.D. didn't let me pass go before slapping yours truly with an $83.50 ticket for doing 55mph in said 35mph zone. Oops. But hey, $83.50 for 20 over ain't bad by today's standards. There are parks with 15-20 coasters that don't have as good a line-up as Dollywood's 8 coasters, all of which are outstanding. The food is amazing, the people watching is entertaining, there's shopping and shows to watch. So, our first day at the park took place on Saturday, March 30th. I was nervously checking the Weather Channel app the days prior to my visit, and the way things shook out, Saturday was 75 degrees, followed by a massive rain and cold front Saturday night, in which there would be a freeze warning and a 40-degree temperature drop. I literally turn the heat on in my house if it's 60 degrees out, so I knew this would be the day to make the absolute most out of... ...As did everybody else. Hoooooooly sh*t. I've been to busy days at Dollywood before, or so I had thought. In a total of about 8-9 visits to the park in the past several years, I've had days where Fast Lane was necessary. Never have I ever seen it like this. Traffic to get to the parking toll booths was backed up about 1/4 mile on Veterans Blvd. In all, it took us 90 minutes from the time we joined the traffic jam, paid, parked, and walked to the park, foregoing what was at least a 15-tram line-up rivaling the Monorail line queue going out of Magic Kingdom at night. I have to call the park out on this to be fair: they do not have a good system in place to handle this. They had all the parking toll booths open, but immediately after, it was the New Jersey turnpike at rush hour. 6 lanes going into one. Southern drivers, who adorn their massive vehicles with Trump stickers, stick figure families, and Salt Life, also can't drive or merge for sh*t. But this wasn't the end of it. When we finally wound up a few hills to lots I've never seen before, the park employees were standing there but not actively guiding guests where to park. Guests were parking and then walking in front of vehicles, cars were diverting down rows and then coming back out, creating more merge jams. The tram queue was spilling out to where cars were driving in to park. We ended up parking in some random gravel lot that I believe was the employee lot for Splash Country. Since our legs work, we made the trek to the main entrance, which was about a 15-20 minute walk. Getting into the park took only seconds. However, minutes later, an absolutely heart-crushing discovery would be made. Time Saver and Time Saver Unlimited, had sold out. I *almost* bought Time Saver Unlimited online a few days prior, and I wanted to boil my face in one of the skillets in Craftsmen's Valley for my terrible lapse of judgement. See, last year, a few friends and I visited on a Saturday around the same time of year in the same weather conditions, and we had Time Saver Unlimited but didn't really need it, as even Lightning Rod was a walk-on by 6pm or so. My "wait and see" approach had failed. A day like this, I might add, would also be a good opportunity for Dollywood to cash in and serve. f*cking. alcohol. I mean, I get it, y'all are good Christians up here in these Smoky Mountains and Prohibition and The South and yada yada, but you could at least make an exception and install a few taps or buy a few bottles of vodka for us card-carrying gays. Mercifully, Dollywood decided to stay open an hour later, and I think a lot of people got fed up with the lines by about 5:00, so waits became reasonable later in the day. The shortest Lightning Rod's line would ever be was a posted 75 minutes, which was about 65 minutes in reality. Anyway, this is probably the longest summary I've ever written so I'm going to let the photos do the talking now. Absolutely stunning scenery up here in the Smokies I honestly did not realize when I took the photo of the giant eagle, that the girl in the foreground had a tank top on with a giant eagle on it, too. Heyyy sis! Is this sign new? I don't even know. I've never waited for Thunderhead any longer than the top 3-4 steps. Today, the entire queue house would be full (of people and also wasps), and spilling outside of the entrance. Thunderhead's station fly-through feature is something I wish GCI still did. Always ride in the back row! I love the crap out of Thunderhead, by the way. It's a totally "out of control" feeling woodie and theres not an inch of straight track. It's insane laterals, perfect pacing, and twisted airtime all over the place. It's a very aggressive wood coaster, but easily re-rideable. I wouldn't call it "smooth", because it isn't, but it isn't rough nor does it ever cause any kind of jackhammering or unpleasant sensations at all. It's perfect and one of my favorite wood coasters. Mystery Mine seems to have no rhyme or reason to either getting a smooth, enjoyable ride or having your fillings shook loose and minor skull damage. How would it ride today? Neither! It was closed throughout the entirety of our visit, but according to the Dollywood thread it has since re-opened. Did you think I was f*cking lying to you up there? It's cool, you didn't read the narrative anyway. Pros of Wild Eagle: Some good forces, great views, good first drop, one of the oldest yet somehow still the smoothest B&M Wing Coaster Cons of Wild Eagle: B&M inversion layout that's been done 100 times over, kind of slow in some spots My photos aren't in chronological order, by the way, I took them at random so this PTR is kind of a "loop around the park" Pros of Tennessee Tornado: absolutely everything because it's perfect I wish Sh*t Flags Magic Mountain had gone into bankruptcy after X instead of Arrow. This last Arrow Custom Looping Coaster is absolutely their best. A true treat of a ride, the mountainside mine shaft drop is one of the best drop sensations on any coaster. In the back row, you really get ripped down into it. The huge loops are great and you can't believe that you're in a classic Arrow train that you'd normally be doing "brace position" in. This photo can instantly cure any hint of erectile dysfunction in our older enthusiast friends. Just kidding, that's definitely a medical problem you should talk to a doctor about, silly. When walking through the entrance, a few guests were walking back out and I almost had a heart attack. I've been there, man, and I'm pretty sure I have PTSD from trips to the park with Lightning Rod c*ck teasing up on it's hill but closed, and those were dark days. Fortunately, today would not be one of those days. Walking past the "Lightning Rod", and into the main queue. It was a 75 minute posted wait at this time, down from 120 minutes earlier. Hey, remember when people thought this was going to be called "Shot Rod"? Not only was it up and running, but it was two train operations all day long and I don't think it went down a single time. How do I feel about Lightning Rod? Lightning Rod can jizz all over my face and I'd be sticking my tongue out. In case any of you pervs wanna know what Lightning Rod's ass is made out of. The "quad down" sequence everyone always talks about is just amazing. It feels like the train is going to go flying off the track on every single hill, but it's never uncomfortable like something Skyrush would deliver. Lightning Rod just feels absolutely nuts in the most amazing way. Like Tennessee Tornado, the end into the brakes is taken at high speed. I'm jealous of anyone who has gotten to take pictures on the other side of the mountain, because this ride is just pure bliss. Is it my favorite coaster? Yes. I'm sort of indecisive, so it took me about a month to complete and submit my TPR coaster poll. Not because it's in ANY way complicated, but once you've ridden hundreds of coasters, settling on even a "top ten", resulted in me having like 15 coasters in my "top ten". But what never changed was Lightning Rod, El Toro, and Expedition GeForce all being tied in my #1 spot. If you were in a polyamorous relationship with these 3 coasters, Expedition GeForce is the attractive, steady, consistent partner with a good job and El Toro is the fun partier who rocks your world in bed. Lightning Rod is the manic attention-seeker who takes you out drinking all night, then sets your car on fire at 4 in the morning. We should all modify the front of our cars to be like this! More to come, you crazy kids!

Awesome report! I was there the day before you and the day after you! The 75-degree day (Saturday) you were referring to was absolute madness. I didn't know Dollywood ever got so busy. It took us 90 minutes from the time we got into the pre-toll both traffic jam into parking to the time we parked, walked (instead of waiting in the insane shuttle line) and got into the park. Blazing fury's line was 80 minutes at one point. For Blazing Fury. I agree with you about Lightning Rod pretty much decimating all and it was running great when I rode it on both the warmer day (with 120 minute queue and fast lane sold out) and the cooler following day with no line.

It's really intense, but not in a cool way... it's sort of like "gravitron intense" where it makes you feel like you're going to die but not by doing anything interesting, it just spins you around in circles so there's no payoff. I don't mind grey-out inducing elements if they're fun and do cool sh*t like I305 but that first helix is brutal and you don't recover from it by the second one so it's basically like you can't see straight for 45 seconds or so but all you're doing is going around in circles. Then again, it was 105 degrees when we rode it so it's likely that it's not always running that fast and we were probably really dehydrated. I love intensity but not when it's just endless helixes for no reason. With I305 and Maverick the ride is also doing amazing sh*t while performing super intense maneuvers which is great. Titan is not doing that. Goliath pulls out of the helix at the perfect time. It's actually a really cool element on that ride. I'm sure some people love Titan and I get why. It's just not for me. Second that. I thought the exact same thing on Titan, and it was also about 100 degrees out and my brain was sticking to the inside of my skull from dehydration and seemed to be permanently stuck to one side while I couldn't see, which hurt. Also, Titan seemed to have an odd wheel vibration that was just generally unpleasant. I think Goliath is really boring but at least generally smoother/more pleasant. It also wastes that huge drop's worth of speed on an element and a half then (thankfully) crawls through the rest after the brake run.

I really loved Green Lantern when I rode it, but I'm not sure if that was pre-modifications or not. It was early 2012 at WCB that year. It absolutely delivered the super intense ride that only Intamin can provide. I get that Magic Mountain wants to perpetually fight the "coaster wars" or whatever, but I really wish they'd focus on running/repairing/painting what they've got. When I visited on a weekend this past September, on a Saturday, Viper, Green Lantern, Apocalypse, and Superman were all down, then Superman eventually opened. When we got there about 2 hours after opening on Sunday, the same coasters were down, plus X2, Full Throttle, and Twisted Colossus all weren't ready to open yet, though these all eventually would open by about 2 PM. I believe Goliath and Twisted Colossus were the only coasters running more than one train the entire weekend. The coasters all had either peeling/fading paint and almost every coaster had seats and restraints with trim pieces that looked like crap. It was pretty slow, so most queues didn't exceed 20 minutes with 1-2 train waits on everything, but it just really felt unacceptable for a park that is always pretending to be the biggest and baddest to be operated this way.

Maybe they can just put up a sign a la Dragons that instead says "choose thy position: sitting or bending over" Looking forward to riding this at some point, and undoubtedly Universal is going to be f*cking slammed and is going to make tons of money this summer, per usual. I actually appreciate the fact that they've planted 1,200 trees. Universal is single-handedly doing more to fight climate change than the idiot in the white house.

Eh don't put too much stock into that until you ride it again... people have been bitching about Thunderhead getting rough since the beginning of time. I always see tons of posts about roughness between visits, go there expecting the worst and get off of the ride wishing they would put the crack pipe down. The ride is great. THANK YOU. I can completely understand why people think a coaster such as Voyage can be rough, when you can feel the tip of your spine f*cking the lower bit of your brain going over the bumps, but Thunderhead does not do this. It's a little bumpy and definitely feels out of control...but it's a wood coaster.

So I lied. I did end up doing another 2018 trip. This year more than ever, there were endless opportunities to visit parks outside Florida all the way through the first week of the new year. My original plan was to calm down, not spend money on park trips, and save up and maybe do some home improvement projects over the winter. But every now and again, my mind wanders to price out some flights on the internet, and ultimately I ended up getting a good deal to Atlanta to visit my best friend who moved up there, as well as making a mid-December visit to, Six Flags over Georgia Cause there's no way in helllllll you're going to catch me at New England or Great Adventure riding coasters in -20 degree weather like you crazies up there. Nah, I'll save those for June or July. Still, while it might be a little hard to distinguish Orlando and Atlanta in the summer in terms of temperatures, our winter climate differences are glaring. When we arrived and had brunch in Midtown early in the morning, it was doing this annoying cold mist rain sh*t and it was in the low 40s. This may not sound so bad to you arctic-dwellers, but put a Floridian anywhere that's less than 75 degrees and our blood freezes instantly. Anyway, our short visit was excellent. The park was only open from 2PM to 8PM, but we dipped by 5:45 or so because, yeah, we can't take the cold. The park looked stunning. It was sort of a different crowd, being mostly families. The scenic area in the back of the park had trees covered in lights, they had fire pits, and best of all, all the rides/coasters you'd want to ride were open. We didn't try any of the food, as we had a pretty big brunch right before going to the park, but they also had special holiday eats in addition to usual options. Blue Hawk and GASM were closed, but who really cares? The sign was covered witha HITP sign, and as you can see, it actually was pretty crowded, which I wasn't expecting. It was only in the mid-40s, so we decided to warm up a little by putting our feet to the fire. Some of you pussy b*tches can't take a good Georgia Scorchin'. The coaster was running glass smooth with zero headbanging. The crew wasn't really telling people how to ride properly, so people were still sitting and willingly crushing their own balls. Oh well. There were s'mores pits, but they weren't quite ready yet at this point. We took 2 rides on Goliath and absolutely froze our a$$es off. It was running really fast and smooth, giving the highest degree of gentle floater air that B&M hypers are capable of. That helix, tho Lol, he was breaking the sticks that the actual marshmellows were supposed to go on and using them to burn, in order to get the fires going. This is Six Flags, are you really surprised? I got this cool pic of this sweet RMC, but without the train cause I took a snapchat video when the train was going by. Twisted Cyclone seemed to be running a little bit slow compared to the summer, but still delivered a great ride for us. They made a genuinely good effort to decorate all the trees and cover everything in lights Monster Mansion was "Mistletoe Mansion" for the holidays, and had a full queue all day Leaves covering the ground and the evergreens lit up, this already stunning area of the park really looked awesome. Nothing like flying in 40-degree weather Superman had the longest wait of the day, at about 20 minutes, Everything else was pretty much between a walk-on or 10 minutes. We didn't bother with Flash Passes This Superman is unique in that it's *the* Superman. Designed for this park's hillside, the Superman layout really does work better here. As dusk was approaching, the park lights really shined and added to the atmosphere. It got busier around this time, too, and people were really enjoying themselves. The entire look and atmosphere was honestly nothing like I've ever experienced at a Six Flags park before. I was impressed. Some smaller lights in the trees up by Goliath and Dare Devil Dive They made the tunnel look totally awesome. This tunnel is already pretty, but the color-changing lights really made it They had a "tree lighting ceremony" that hadn't yet started, but at this point, we were headed out because as the sun went down, we couldn't bear freezing our a$$es off any longer. They also did this array of lights over the main entrance area, again adding atmosphere to an already beautiful park Okay, Goliath, we'll see you when your face doesn't freeze off going 70mph and until next time, Scorcher. Thanks for reading!

I really wonder what the deal is with Joker. I visited the park in June and it was pretty much the same story; down at opening for the first 40 minutes or so, then when it finally did open, it was one-train operations the rest of the day. And I honestly think you’re being as nice as anyone could possibly be about this sh*tstain of a Six Flags park. Customer service was so horrible when I visited, from me being flat-out denied the diamond member ticket discount to food service employees having no clue and taking their sweet a$$ time with only a handful of people in line, I said something to this effect in my PTR: it had been 10 years since my prior visit and I hope it’s at least 10 more before I go back. Your girlfriend is correct, SFNE blows this park away every day of the week.

Xtreme at Blue Bayou Dixie Landin' was apparently removed in 2017, according to RCDB https://rcdb.com/3762.htm

Just take a trip to Disney and relax.

Nice report! I used to love GASM, too. With the old trains, you could middle-row the back car and get treated to Phoenix levels of airtime on every hill, especially on that return leg. Twisted Cyclone is such an incredible ride. While I'd give the edge to Twisted Timbers, it's really hard for me to compare the top-tier RMCs, they're all just so good