BigDipper 80

So Far: Cedar Point Kennywood Kings Island Potentially: Waldameer Conneaut Lake Park Kings Dominoion

Congrats, beatle11!

I'd really like to say Steel Dragon 2000 since it has two lifts (technically), but the other clues don't line up too well.

Zach's Zoomer, MiA? Another CF park...

Blue Streak? It used to be an ACE coaster classic, and it was "smokin'" when it caught on fire once! Just shots in the dark...

It could have "Steel" in its name, perhaps. Steel Force?

^Thanks for the thanks, and thanks to all those who have expresses enjoyment! Everyone else, please feel free to comment if you stumble across this little TR! Feedback is always welcome. Now for a quick Part 3, if you will, where I ramble about some things that I may not have covered well in the rest of the TR. First, some bad things: Ghostwood Estate was something that I had been looking forward to checking out, but I must say that it was quite the letdown. Yes, the ride's vehicles were pretty neat, but they moved too slowly and linearly for the tracklessness to really be effective. And although the props looked nice, the ride was just too bright and it was too easy to attempt to figure out how to accurately aim the blasters to actually look at any of the effects. Shame, as it could have been a cool ride. Garfield's Nightmare was even worse that it was my last visit. Hardly any of the larger effects were working. I can't wait for this to be rethemed. I don't think I will ever understand the load procedure for the flats. Yes, many of them have crazy-long cycles, but it seemed to take forever for crews to get the ride loaded after the ride ended, and not until every single last person had walked through the exit gate and all the way down the exit ramp. Perhaps I'm just really impatient . Although the prerecorded load spiels were always nice and sounded very clear over the PA system, it seemed to lead to the milling about of the ride ops. I suppose I like the live mics because it gives the crew a chance to interact a little with the guests, as well as keeping them from standing around. I'm sort of on the fence and see the good and bad of this, but if it works for the park (it seems to) than it's not a huge deal. And of course, the good: I don't know why, but I always feel that this park really is incredibly "charming". I really do love how homey it is. I just hope that in the future they keep up this "local park" image and not push too hard toward the "corporate" end of things. Unlike the flats, the operations for the coasters were stellar, even though there were a few wonky moments what with the late opening of Phantom's Revenge and the one-train operation of Thunderbolt. No matter, though, as the park did a nice job of pumping guests onto the coasters. As nauseous as it made me, I actually liked Noah's Ark. I do wish that there were a few more effects besides black walls, and it's a shame I missed out on the big finale, but it was still a unique attraction nonetheless. Swing Shot was running FANTASTICALLY. Although it's smaller that CP's, it definitely has a nice positive-g pull at the bottom at the arc that Skyhawk lacks. Of course, all of the old flats are wonderful. Whip was fun, Kangaroo provided some of the "weirdest" airtime pops anywhere, and Bayern Curve took me for surprise at how fast it was. Good old Schwarzkopf! The loud horn blast was a bit unnecessary, though. My ears are still ringing over a week later . Now, a couple more photos I have dug up, in no particular order and just for fun! Jack Rabbit and its other, ever-so-slightly-less-photographed logo. A dark interior shot of Exterminator. Not the best photo, but I like the very 1920's Art Deco decal there. I couldn't resist. Please don't hurt me. And I'll leave it with Turtle and PR.

None that I know of, no. I'm not even sure if CF owns the KI Resort up the road anymore. I'll admit that it's a bit weird, given that CP has the hotels and campground but KI, which pulls in more people, I believe, only has Great Wolf Lodge as an "affiliate hotel" or something along those lines.

http://cedarbrookcampground.com/default.aspx Just Googled this now- it's something like 8 miles away from the park, and the rates are $42 for full hook up.

I'm really getting tired of the US' lack of an efficient and effective long-distance public transportation system. An Amtrak train from Cleveland to Fredericksburg is $119, and it leaves at 1:08 AM. Which is unacceptable.

Great TR, as always! Tofts is so fantastic. I don't remember if they give as much ice cream at the park, but I know that at their factory store up the road, a "small" is probably a good 8 inches of ice cream balanced precariously on top of a tiny cone! And I think it's clear given your and Real's photos that Windseeker has the coolest lighting package out there. I don't know if it was just me, but I found Magnum to be giving some extra kick-butt rides this along with Blue Streak. I used to only be able to ride on non-wheel seats, but this year it has been incredibly un-painful and even more crazy airtime than usual on the triangle hills!

I'm sure some of the lackluster reviews have come from the fact that a number of the new additions have been less than "charming" and keeping with the old-fashioned feel of the park. As fun as Skyrocket feels, it is the first thing guests see upon entering, and it does clash a bit with other parts of the park. But I understand that every park needs to modernize, and especially nowadays it's even harder for a park to market itself as "local" and still survive as parks did all the way back in the 1920's and 30's. I personally like the place for its change of pace from Cedar Point! And perhaps it has something to do with its possible removal, but for most of the day Pitt Fall was slowly moving up and down the tower. It did eventually open, I believe, but I had never seen a drop tower run like that before. Who knows, it's not a big deal! P.S. If it wasn't evidenced by the photos, I'm a bit of a PR fanboy! Great airtime all around, though the double dip does hurt a bit if you are sitting in the back row.

I was there on Monday (the 27th). It was a beautiful week to be at the park! And I'll agree that Skyrocket's queue is a bit strange in how it was squeezed right above the entrance tunnel and next to the road. Doesn't take away from the great airtime over that first hill, though!

Part 2: Jack Rabbit side shot. Kangaroo is actually pretty fun. I'll apologize now for the disproportionate flat ride:coaster ratio. Something about this park makes one forget to take good photos of the flats until you are standing right next to it a second before boarding. Turtle and PR, together forever. Into the ravine! PR plays peek-a-boo. At this angle, Noah's Ark looks quite pretty. It's impossible to tell that it could make you throw up! My last TR had a beaver in it. The caption read "bbbbbbbbbBEAVER!". This is a groundhog. It is almost a beaver, so I included him. His caption shall read, "gggggggggGROUNDHOG!" This ride is, in fact, turtley enough for the Turtle Club. Also, it is very very old. Here comes T-Bolt! I sprinted over from Turtle to get the picture everyone has, and I even managed to screw up that photo. Auto Race is also very, very old. It's fun to squeeze two 5'7" guys into one of these puppies. Carousel shot. Paratrooper and its nearly endless cycle. T-Bolt's station. Sorry for the lack of entertaining conversation. I was tired by this point of the day, and my captions seem to be reflecting that. Darn you, Phantom, you snuck in again! Does this count as "through the trees" as well? Log Jammer sure is perty. So is Racer. Well, Appalachia is about ten miles away from here... Yes the architecture is pretty, but the woman in the right hand corner is MAGNIFICENT. Never seen this photo before... Yep, still sucks. I will forever be in the man with the camcorder's video memories. A look down a midway. This matches that other building, except that it is on the other end of the park. Goodnight (almost)! The famous Kennywood sign! Why I didn't take this until we left, I don't know. Only one more Phantom shot after this one- I PROMISE. And that's it. I like how shiny it looks against the slightly gloomy sky. I hope you enjoyed the photos and weren't too fed up with my incessant rambling! Thanks for looking!

It had been four years since my last trip out to Kennywood, and with a longing desire to hit up Phantom's Revenge again, I managed to convince a few friends to come along for the ride in from Cleveland. Before I get to the pictures, though, I'd like to mention one of the coolest stretches of road anywhere- the Fort Pitt tunnel. Now normally, when I head to Pittsburgh, I take I-76 and I-279, but to avoid the overpriced tolls on the PA Turnpike, we decided to drive in on I-376. It is extremely cool to approach the tunnel surrounded by the rolling hills and forests and rusty railroad bridges of Appalachia, only to drive through the tunnel and burst out of Mount Washington to find the entire city sprawled out in front of you. It's "cinematic" in the way Disney parks could only dream of, and it's the most fantastic "entrance" into a city that I've ever experienced. But! Enough of my rambling. On to some pictures! Good morning Kennywood! The entrance. I love how you have to go under Kennywood Boulevard to enter the park. We booked it right to Phantom's Revenge. It was about 10:45 at this point. Rides were supposed to open at 11. Minor rant-ish thing to come shortly. Looking up at PR. Why is this ride so photogenic? So- here's that minor rant-ish thing I mentioned two photos ago. Skip it if you don't like pointless venting about strange operations. Perhaps it's just that I'm used to parks opening all of their rides at the same time, but the "gradual opening of rides" seemed very strange here. We waited around for Phantom's Revenge to open up until about 11:30, when we just called it quits. Two trains were sent around at 11, but then nothing happened after that, save for a number of crew members who arrived at 11:15. We figured they were just getting late starting things up, but when no more trains were sent around, we were a bit baffled, and the crew member at the entrance seemed equally as clueless, until she *finally* decided to call up to the station to try and see what the hold up was about. In retrospect, it was a minor thing and PR was up and running with both trains later on, but at the time it was a bit frustrating.I guess I just figured that they would have warmed up the rides before the scheduled opening time so that if something was in fact not working there wouldn't be a bunch of people cramming in front of a closed ride. But other than that, operations were fairly good! Back to some more photos. ADMIN EDIT: I went ahead and added "Photo TR:" to your thread's title. Thanks for sharing this with us! After the Phantom Phiasco, we headed over to Lost Kennywood to see if Swing Shot and Exterminator were up and running. They were. Sorry about the terrible pun on the word "fiasco" back there. I will attempt to stop myself from making more bad jokes. Thunderbolt was the next logical choice of ride. Only one train was run all day, but at least the crew was dispatching trains in 12 milliseconds or some other infinitesimally tiny span of time. Phantom's still not running at this point. I think this picture would have been better if I had caught the train, but alas. I do love me some Century Flyers! Next up was Aero 360, which is always an outstanding flat, even if it makes my brain feel like exploding while hanging upside down. We weren't very efficient in our ride-conquering tactics, sprinting up and down the length of the park all day. At least is isn't as massive as a park as Cedar Point, or we probably would have all dropped dead. Hooray! Phantom's Revenge is open! Almost there... And over the top! A wider shot from the parking lot. If you're wondering why on earth we walked all the way back up to our car, no, we aren't masochists as some would believe. I'm just really cheap and packed a big cooler of food, which we proceeded to eat while sitting at the top of the hill. That last caption was probably the single most unrelated thing I have ever placed under a photograph. Anyway, here is a photo of Skyrocket blasting off. Those women in the front row look like they had a blast and a half. I'll bet their heads are still reeling from the intensity of the surf curves. The surf curves were so intense that I actually forgot to take a picture of them. Seriously though, Skyrocket is a pretty sold, and very fun, ride. Here comes the first in a long line of Phantom Photographs. Crap! There I go again with bad "ph" alliterations! I will punish myself by uploading even more photos of the coaster. This ride really is too photogenic. No matter how hard you try, it's nearly impossible to get a bad photo. Does this count as "through the trees"? Phantom's Revenge: Love Never Dies. Now sponsored by Andrew Lloyd Webber. Whee! This is the last Phantom photo for the moment, I swear! Noah's Ark did a fantastic job at making me seasick. A group in front of me was complaining that the "final scene of the ride" wasn't working- anyone know what they were talking about? I was pleasantly surprised to see that Kennywood was one of the few remaining parks in the country to run their carousel in warpseed mode. If you guess which coaster this is, you win a cookie. Do you know yet? This thing's double dip is the reason why it sits on top of my (admittedly short) list of wooden coasters. A photo you have never, ever seen. I guarantee it.

T-Bolt at Kennywood last Monday.

^Yep, with the exception of the ride vehicles themselves (Revolutionary Rides MM Jeep), it's all NCS. I've just personally never been a fan of CS because I never felt that it had the right "texture", which prevented it from looking like it "belonged" in the game. Plus, the lack of collision detection or wall thickness with CS always annoyed me.

I didn't feel the need to start a whole new thread over this, but I thought perhaps it might still be of interest.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mNaVWNbPvPQ ...And two quick screen grabs lying around in the Pictures folder. Interior shot, with the "lights on". It's NCS, in case you were wondering. If you watch the video, you'll notice the roof of the temple entrance is a little taller. I ended up adding a top piece later on to make it look more "complete", but this was the only screen I had.

^^ People definitely need to take deep breaths when it comes to new technology, especially complex stuff like rides. I'm hoping that part of the reason that there is very minimal "Mondial Hate" this time around is that people took the time to look back upon STR last season and realize that this stuff happens and that the best course of action is to take it in stride and not blow up over something that was out of the park's, or even the manufacturer's, control. ^I still need to hit up STR soon. Hopefully I'll get to very soon, what with all this unseasonably hot weather we've been having!

In case anyone missed it or doesn't have a Facebook, Kings Island posted this test run of Windseeker (albeit not operating at its max height).

This is a very bizarre and obscure question, but hopefully there's someone nerdy enough out there to know the answer. I noticed that Mantis has the "old style" air gates where the bar that opens the gates extends to the ceiling as opposed to the mechanicals being located under the floor. Raptor (and every other coaster), however, has that newer style, despite opening two years earlier. Does this imply that Mantis was the first coaster at the park to open with air gates and the rest had them added some time after, or am I spewing utter nonsense? I couldn't find any pictures of Mantis' station, but I know Double Loop at GL had a similar setup, just for reference. And speaking of Raptor, it was running great on Friday (and it was especially forceful in the last row!), and it's always-speedy crew was pumping out trains regularly at or just under the one-minute mark.

Today, someone waiting in line for the Witches Wheel at Cedar Point turned to his friend and asked, "Which ride is this?" To which the friend replied "This is the Raptor."

I'm really getting sick of every time that something goes wrong with a computer in our house, it's my fault.

Today was supposed to be the last day of my senior year of high school, but thanks to a power outage, I'm done a day early!

Random question- Has Shoot the Rapids finally started allowing riders in the back row without the boats sinking?