pvcoasterguy

Just saw this topic, and I changed my Photo TR and added seven photos to the server, but I kept the larger ones at Photo Bucket (I didn't want to size them down too much.)

^^ You're lucky... both of my closest parks are over three hours away. But, they're awesome and very fun parks (Adventureland and Six Flags Great America.)

Busch Gardens Tampa Bay Photo TR June 26-30, 2005 Some pictures at the bottom of this post. -Day One, In-Transit- We journeyed down to Tampa on American/American Eagle, from Moline, IL. All went smoothly, but we had a very tight connection (28 minutes) in O’Hare, which is a huge airport. However, after a nice sprint through the airport, we got to the gate on time. Both flights were pleasant, with nothing very notable on either one. However, the American MD-80 seems to have more legroom than average, even with “More Room throughout Coach” removed. Got our rental car (an awful Lincoln Towncar) that couldn’t be parked in a ton of spots because it’s so long. We then got to our hotel (on St. Pete’s Beach,) and relaxed. -Day Two, Busch Gardens Tampa- Hopped back into the Towncar, and drove to Busch Gardens. Then we went on a huge bridge across the Gulf, which had a ton of signs that said “Fog Smoke.” What the hell is Fog Smoke? (Unfortunately, I couldn’t get a good picture.) Got to Busch Gardens, and took our spot at about 9:45. Then we went to guest relations to get our tickets. The line was huge for guest relations, and was the longest line we experienced the entire time in Florida. We got into the park and were immediately amazed. What a good looking park! We headed for Gwazi Tiger first. We were in the middle of the train for this ride. The crew wasn’t too slow, yet they weren’t too fast, either. We all enjoyed Gwazi Tiger. It was a fun wooden coaster, with a ton of twists. The ride wasn’t very rough at all. It had a bobsled-type feel to it. The overbanked hill was amazing, with floater airtime, and was just overall a cool element. Very fun coaster, reminded me of Outlaw at Adventureland. (I think Mike Boodley designed both; but the Outlaw when he was at CCI.) We rode Gwazi Lion also, which had a better sense of speed throughout the ride. Both were a lot of fun and pretty smooth. Then we just kept walking forward, and came upon ShieKra. The line was about 30-40 minutes, but the line just kept moving because of the huge capacity of the ride. We were all excited about this amazing looking coaster. We got assigned to the back row, which was cool. We got into our recliners, and we were off. Going up the hill, I was actually a little nervous. On the lift, you’re basically laying down because of the angle of the seats and lift. You finally get to the top, and turnaround to the drop. The holding brake wasn’t very effective in the back, but was still neat. Then it released. We were all floating out of our seats, totally amazed. Then we went up into the immelman, which is so graceful and cool. Then we turned around, and hit the mid-course brakes. Then we dove off them, into the tunnel, with a ton of airtime again. We did an overbanked turn, and hit the water. We got a little wet, but not very bad. Then we went up another hill, did a slow turn, and hit the silent magnetic brakes. Amazing. Awesome. We were going to hit it tomorrow again. We continued on our way, reaching Python. We were greeted with a sign that said the wait was 100 minutes. We walked up the queue, and found that there was no line. We headed towards the middle of the train for our ride. My brother and I were in the first row of the car, which meant I had no place to put my legs or my size 13 feet, so I had to cross my feet, which wasn’t very comfortable. I had a nice smooth ride, with no headbanging, but that was only because I was so tall, I was above the harness. My brother got banged around pretty bad. Pretty good ride. Then it was off to Kumba. I was looking forward to this ride. We walked right into the station and had a two train wait for row two. We pulled down our harnesses, and started up the lift. We dove down the first drop into an intense vertical loop and awesome dive loop. The we went through the forceful barrel roll. Did a small dip and headed for the fast cobra roll, then hit the midcourse brakes. We dove down again, into the cool interlocking corkscrews. Then we dropped into the tunnel, and did a tight helix, which ended our ride. Wow. Kumba was a very forceful B&M, but was still smooth, and a fun ride. I was really looking forward to riding Scorpion, because I love Schwarzkopf’s. This one did not let me down. It was my first looping coaster with a lap bar, and it was very cool. We were in the back car. The loop was very forceful, as was the very tight helix at the end. Nice ride. Cheetah Chase was broken down, so we headed to the other side of the park via the Skyride. The Skyride was a very relaxing, nice, long ride. We saw a ton of animals from it. Next we went on Montu, which had a fairly long line. (About thirty minutes.) It broke down while we were in line, but it only lasted about 10 or 15 minutes. Now it was our turn to ride, in the middle. Montu was a blur to me, but was still fun. I really liked the trenches and the Batwing. However, I still prefer Batman or Dueling Dragons to it. Now it was lunch time, and we ate at Crown Colony. There was a huge line for it, being the second longest line of the trip. However, the food was good, so we were happy. Then it started to pour and thunderstorm. We waited it our, but it was still raining when we went outside to visit the Edge of Africa walk-through. After that, we left, because the rain wasn’t going to let up for awhile. -Day Three, Busch Gardens Tampa- Today was mostly a day of repeat rides. Only a few notes for this day. - We went on ShieKra two more times today, as it only had a ten minute line. We went on the back once more, and then got the front once. I preferred the front because you still got the airtime, but the holding brake was better, and so was the tunnel. - We went on Congo River Rapids, because it had a five minute line. Enjoyable, and we got soaked. The rapids were fairly big on this ride. It was neat how they got the boats to the correct side of the station, with the high pressure hose. - We got on Cheetah Chase, which was pretty fun. There were no brakes on the first part of the ride (switchbacks), but the ones on the dips were on hard. Okay ride. - We went over to Rhino Rally, which had a slow-moving 45 minute line. However, we discovered the single rider line that no one was using, and got on in five minutes. Our driver was really good, and did a lot of her own jokes. She even made fun of the ride, by saying “And now we’ve all got to pretend we’re going over a waterfall when we’re not!” And pointed at some people taking pictures of the ride, very close (my parents,) and said, “Look, there are some native cannibals!” But you can’t forget about the “African Killer Ducks!” But, we actually had to help her get of the pontoon bridge that Vekoma made, because we were stuck. We helped her by shaking forwards and back, which let us get off. Then she had us cheer really loud for her at the end, because “I’m the cutest and best driver at Busch Gardens Tampa.” - We ate at the Desert Grill, that I think used to be some German name. There are two lines that you can go in, so obviously we went in the shorter one. The lady in the other line comes up to my dad and I and says, “I hope you enjoy your lunch now that you cut in front of us.” Man, I was ready to yell at her, but we let her pass us. What a bitch. - The lines were very short today, and we had a great time at the park. - We also went through a couple animal exhibits (you’ll see the pictures below.) -Day Four, Adventure Island Waterpark- - We only had a few hours here, because we wanted to go back and swim at the beach. - We hit quite a few things in two hours. - First we went on an enclosed tube slide, the Aruba Tuba. It was pretty fun. But it was more fun to see all the people go from sliding really fast to going to a complete stop on the final dip, by getting stuck on it. I have no idea why people were getting stuck in that one spot; I didn’t. - Next we went on the Everglides, a water sled type slide thingy. First you put your really heavy sled on this platform, and you get on. Then the platform goes to an angle and releases the stopper at the end of the platform which lets you go down the steep slide, and hydroplane across the water. Cool, but weird. Robb has some photos of Adventure Island on this site, under photo galleries. - Next we went on Key West Rapids, which was the hit of the day. It’s ultra-wide tube slide, so you spin around during the ride, with three separate parts to it. You splash down after each part. Very cool. - Next we went to the Splash Attack, which is one of those big water tree houses. There were some pretty fun slides in there. But, it wasn’t as good as Cedar Point’s, because you couldn’t dump buckets of water on people going down the slide. - Now we went of the Caribbean Corkscrew, which is the slide that intertwines with the other slide, next to it. This was crazy. You couldn’t see anything, and you were going side to side, up and down, with a ton of water in your face, very fast. - We also went on Runaway Rapids, which is a bunch of body slides in a mountain-type structure. The slides were really weird, because they didn’t feel like the newer type slides- they were a lot softer. Still a lot of fun, with some good turns. -Day Five, We got O’Hared!- O’Hare is a death trap. That’s all you can say about it. First, our flight was delayed from Tampa to Chicago by two hours, due to “Air Traffic Control.” We were going to miss our connection, so we went up to the gate agent, whom was very helpful. He booked us on another flight, the 7:00 one, but we’d have to get our boarding passes there, by showing these cards. Okay, fine with us. He was a great guy, and without him, we wouldn’t have gotten on the “Fifty-passenger regional jet overbooked by twelve people” flight. Got to O’Hare, and got a bite to eat. Then we noticed our 7:00 flight was delayed to 7:30, then that was changed to 8:00, which kept going in 30 minute increments until 9:30. Almost every American Eagle flight was delayed. And they were playing musical gates, the always fun game to try and lose passengers for the overbooked passengers, so the blame could then go on the people who got lost, so the airline wouldn’t take any responsibility. Whew! They changed our gate seven or eight times in the time we were at O’Hare. You had to be on your toes. We finally got to board the EMB-145, our tiny regional jet that I can’t stand up straight in. We got O’Hared. We had an awesome time a Busch Gardens and everywhere else we went. (Except O’Hare.) The larger photos of ShieKra and other rides/animals are located here: http://photobucket.com/albums/y150/pvcoasterguy/Busch%20Gardens%20Tampa/?start=all A cool view of ShieKra! Runaway Rapids... What are these turtles doing? He wants a toothpick. Awww... Gwazi! The "Flamango Stance."

Those TR's were awesome! Thanks for posting them! The boat jump thing of doom looks really fun, and so do those Intamin Plug-n-Plays. I'm going to be heading across the pond to England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland on Saturday (Jul. 9) and coming back the 28th. But, I'm not visiting any parks, just doing some of the other attractions. I'll be sure and post a TR for it!

I had to do it... the original ACE Buffet Fanatic!

I *think* I got 3.8 last year, because of a really hard math class. (The entire class was in agreement that the textbook was really difficult.) And I got a 4.0 this year. I don't study very much, except for grammar/language arts and Spanish. This year didn't seem very hard.

Here's what I do when I go to the park. It works well. I avoid the high capaicty coasters until they are needed (when the crowds get bad.) Superman: Ultimate Flight -> Rajun Cajun (if you'd like) -> Batman: The Ride -> V2: Vertical Velocity -> Iron Wolf -> Deja Vu -> Whizzer -> Viper The following rides have fast moving lines and three or more trains: -Whizzer -Raging Bull -American Eagle Whizzer runs three sometimes (actually suprisingly often!) Raging Bull runs three consistenly (almost every day.) American Eagle runs two trains on both sides of the track.

Taking a family trip down to Tampa, and we're going to Busch Gardents and the waterpark there. Anyone have any tips? We're going June 26-30. How should we attack the park? What are the lines like? How are the coasters? Any info would be helpful.

There have been no accidents at Adventureland in Altoona, Iowa. Even though all of the coasters have manual brakes, there have been no accidents. It's probably due to the awesomely trained employees, and the attentive elderly employees (they're so nice!)

It's not a coaster, but it's really funny! I only used Microsoft Paint for this! I need to give credit to Ioacentral.com for this picture, which may be found here: http://www.ioacentral.com/live_the_adventure/desktops/universal_studios_florida_desktops.htm EDIT: I just made another one... of Kong. But, can someone resize the Kong one for me? I can't seem to be able to do it. Picture from: http://espanol.orangevacations.com/classifieds/display.html?id=300 Coming in 2006 at Universal Studios Florida- Men In Black: Rattums Attack A mutated rattums replaced Kong in his attraction.

I don't think that Six Flags is very bad. At all. Actually, I think they're great! I always have an awesome time at Six Flags Great America, better than the time I had at Cedar Point, and I had a lot of fun at Six Flags New England. I think the manufactuers do need some extra time. Robb hit the nail on the head in his post. All people do is complain; they never look at what good has happened. "Ooh... Kingda Ka broke! I want to kill Six Flags." "Six Flags sucks and Kingda Ka is a piece of crap." But you never hear: "Top Thrill Dragster is a piece of crap. So is Cedar Point." People are so biased these days. For once, Six Flags builds something better than Cedar Point. Taller, faster, with a better theme and design. Yet people still complain for some truly unknown reason. Technology is advanced these days, yes. But people need to realize that it can only go so far right now, until our knowledge is expanded.

Sorry, there are no photos. I couldn't fit anything else in my carry-on. First, I have a funny airport story. I'm going through security at the Spokane airport, take my shoes off, take my belt off, take my watch off, and shove everything into the x-ray machine. I go through the metal detector... an alarm goes off, but not on the metal detector, on the x-ray machine. So, they have to take everything out of my suitcase and examine it through this "special" machine that they have, my shoes have to be tested with this "bomb" powder. So, they find my bathroom stuff (comb, hair gel, shaving cream, razor, etc.) they found two things that set off the alarm, and they thought they were plastic explosives: my bottle of shampoo and my shaving cream. It took them thirty minutes to go through my entire bag... awesome. Great job TSA! Anyways, on to the park. Only had about 4-4 1/2 hours at the mall, but it was still a ton of fun. To get to the mall, we took the light rail system that they have connecting a ton of places in Minneapolis, including the airport and the mall. It took about ten mintues to get from the airport to the mall. It was $1.75 going to the mall (rush hour) and $1.25 coming back. Pretty good deal. First, we went to the Timberland Twister, a Gerstlauer spinning coaster, I think exactly the same model as the one at Worlds of Fun. It was a lot of fun... the spinning wasn't too fast, but it was enought to make it more disorienting. It was a little rough in a few spots, but it's nothing to complain about. I liked it a lot more than Rajun Cajun at Six Flags Great America, just a standard Zamperla/Reverchon model. 8/10. Tip: Here's what the ride operator said to do to make the cars spin faster: "If you have two people, have both of them sit on the same side of the car (to offset the weight). Also, lean to the side to make your car spin a little faster." This principle worked a little... it was evident that we spun faster. Then we headed over to Ghost Blasters, a Sally dark ride. For my first ride, my gun didn't work at all. But for my second ride, it did. It was a nice little ride, there were some nice effects in it, but it seemed more fit for a carnival. Here's how I see it. Mardi Gras Madness < Ghost Blasters < Men In Black. 6/10. Then we went on the Pepsi Ripsaw coaster. It wasn't too terribly intense, but it was very, very smooth. We got a little bit of airtime on one hill in the front seat. Nice relaxing coaster. 6/10. The Falling Star (Screamin' Yellow Eagle) was next. I was suprised as they ran it so it gave you airtime at the top. Most major parks don't do that. It was nice to see that they were doing that... best ride for airtime outside of coasters. But, go to Adventureland in Iowa if you want a real Falling Star ride... ours is run insanely, with a ton of positive and negative G's. 7/10. We went on Paul Bunyan's Log Ride next. The theming was pretty good, especially for Cedar Fair. We didn't get wet at all, other than a few drops of water. They had the water level very low in the splashdown areas, so you didn't get very wet. The drop in the dark was a nice touch, a little like Dudley. The final drop was surpsingly big. 7.5/10. We then went on the Tampico Tumbler, a suprisingly fun ride. The cars get very close! The ride motion is hard to describe, other than fun! 7.5/10 Our last ride, other than repeats was the Kite-Eating Tree, a Zamperla Wave Swinger. I like these rides... very relaxing and fun. 7/10. Camp Snoopy was a nice little stop, and we were glad that we went. Thanks to all who gave their advice. The park was dead; no lines other than a very short one for Timberland Twister. The op's were mainly efficient. Overall: 7.5/10.

^ Sorry. Rating things is very opinionated, and people are bound to have different thoughts on different things. So, just keep Storm Runner out of your top ten if you don't like it.

1) Superman: Ride of Steel, Six Flags New England 2) Revenge of the Mummy: The Ride, Universal Studios Florida (You just can't be the entire experience that it provides.) 3) Viper, Six Flags Great America 4) Millennium Force, Cedar Point 5) Top Thrill Dragster, Cedar Point 6) Superman: Ultimate Flight, Six Flags Great America 7) Dueling Dragons Fire, Universal's Islands of Adventure 8) Dueling Dragons Ice, Universal's Islands of Adventure 9) Raging Bull, Six Flags Great America 10) Magnum XL-200, Cedar Point

While you've already gone, I'll still post my way, and hopefully someone will read this and use it. Arrive park at 9:30. Superman: Ultimate Flight -> Ragin' Cajun -> Batman: The Ride -> V2: Vertical Velocity -> Iron Wolf -> Deja Vu -> Demon -> Viper -> Raging Bull -> Whizzer -> American Eagle This way you save the three highest capacity coasters for last, when they're needed for a short line.

However, coasterdude5, you may be putting yourself in a risky situation that could endanger your life and future health. I don't think a credit is really worth your life or a seizure. It is truly your choice, however, if I were in that position, I would not ride.

We've got a Hopkins coaster up here in Iowa, and let me just say that its less than enjoyable. Unfortunately, we've got the Hopkins coaster with Hopkins trains and OSTR's. Not a fun ride. The loops are okay. They're pretty fun. Then you go into this twisted section at the end, with two helixes, and you bounce your head so many times that its unreal.

^ I'm going Wednesday, June 1st. I don't think it'll be too busy. The rides we want to ride are: - Timberland Twister - Ripsaw - Paul Bunyan's Log Ride - Ghost Blasters Given our time and the rides we want to ride, would it be a better deal just to get two wristbands or buy tickets individually?

I'm flying Northwest to Spokane, Washington for my cousin's graduation. However, we have about a five hour layover. We're planning to use the light rail system to get to the Mall of America and Camp Snoopy. However, we're only going to have about 2 to 2 1/2 hours at the mall and Camp Snoopy. So, I have a few questions. - What should we do at the mall? - How are the rides at Camp Snoopy? - What rides should I hit considering our limited time? All comments are welcome- you don't have to answer the questions! I'm just looking for information!

Dueling Dragons sometimes doesn't duel; I've been on it when it hasn't. But, they were running three trains, so I give them credit- it was their only non-duel when I was there. American Eagle races most of the time nowadays. It never used to, however. But, the backwards side always has more brakes on and is on the outside of the huge helix. Jeez Intamin... what a bad idea. (Just kidding... maybe.)

Whizzer's drop is quite long despite being a mere 60-70 feet. Very shallow, but then you do that amazing drop-turn, and it's awesome.

Quoted from: http://www.northjersey.com/page.php?qstr=eXJpcnk3ZjczN2Y3dnFlZUVFeXkzJmZnYmVsN2Y3dnFlZUVFeXk2Njk2MzQ2JnlyaXJ5N2Y3MTdmN3ZxZWVFRXl5Mg== "These 12-year-olds have been making up stuff on the Internet," said Steve Urbanowicz, coaster historian and author ("The Roller Coaster Lover's Companion") who was there Thursday morning for the media unveiling. "I've heard every rumor," said Six Flags spokeswoman Kristin Siebeneicher. "None of it is true. To make things up like that is very malicious." I think the twelve-year-olds that they're talking about are probably a) Actually fourty-year-olds from Coaster/Point Buzz or Cedar Point fanboys. [/url]

My mom just went on it during Spring Break. She liked it, for the most part, but keep in mind that she hasn't ridden a roller coaster in seven years, so she was kind of in shock after it, but then said she liked it. Tell her that it's the most amazing coaster she'll ever go on, because of the awesome theming on the ride. The ride has many great features, including: smoothness, story, soundtrack, employees (they're creepy!), and a ton of other things. It's something totally different and totally original, and it's not a huge coaster. In fact, it's probably as tall and dark as Space Mountain (which isn't very tall) but a ton better!

-Make sure you describe everything that is not common knowledge. It is very important to do this, especially in research papers. -All papers should have a thesis statment. I couldn't find one in this paper. The thesis should be in an introduction. It should also be the driving force of your paper, a roadmap for your paper. -As said previously, check grammar. Make sure there is agreement, proper pronoun usage (regarding Nominative/Objective forms) and everything else that goes with a paper.

Coke: Awesome Coke w/ Cherry: Great. Coke w/ Lime: Pretty good. Coke w/ Vanilla: Eh... it's okay. Coke w/ Raspberry: WTF? Raspberry Coke just sounds gross; it'll probably be as bad as Sprite ReMix. Has anyone tried the new Diet Coke w/ Splenda? It's a ton better than regular Diet Coke. The new Splenda version tastes like a combination between regular Coke and TaB. (But, TaB is still the best version of any diet drink ever! I'm lucky because they sell it where I live.)