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Koasterking48

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  1. Imagine a car wreck multiplied by 10. The harnesses bash your head multiple times. I only rode in the back and that was a terrible mistake. It was honestly worse than Mind Eraser and Flashback and is way at the bottom of coasters I've ridden. (Sorry for being so negative, but it's all true)
  2. Had the chance to visit Knotts for the first time this week and I really loved the park. It really felt more family-owned park than other Cedar Fair parks. The dark rides were great, Ghost Town looked fantastic, and the well-balanced coaster collection meant there's something for everyone in the family. It quickly became one of my favorite Cedar Fair parks! Xcelerator was a lot of fun and is a great Intamin launcher (a nice "in-between" from Storm Runner and Dragster). GhostRider was running like a new GCI and had some good pops of airtime, though operations were pretty slow. Sierra Sidewinder and Montezuma's Revenge were a real blast, and just stupidly fun coasters! I wasn't blown away by Silver Bullet, but it still delivered an enjoyable ride and had a unique layout going for it. The rest of the collection was mostly forgettable clones, though Jaguar had a cool, weaving layout and was a good family coaster. Overall, I really had a great time at Knotts, and with low crowds, was able to reride man god the coasters over and over (I believe we rode Xcelerator over 15 times!). I can't wait to visit again! Arriving to Knotts, it was strange to not have a "Main Street" area inside the gates, and instead, being outside for non-guests to use as well. What a great entrance! Our first stop was GhostRider, which already had a 20 minute wait right at park opening due to slow ops. :/ Pony Express was okay, but obviously suffers from a short layout. I really liked how the boardwalk area looked, with a subtle, yet classic look. Anyone who says you can't snap new Larsons flyers is lying. Definitely doable. Probably the worst/most boring mouse in existence. Waayyy too many magnetic trims. We hit up Xcelerator quickly thinking that it was going to gather a long line. However, that was never the case as it was a station wait all day! Also it ran two trains for some reason this day, which apparently is a very rare occurrence! I am apparently impatient and never waited for a train to show up in these pictures ¯_(ツ)_/¯ Timber Mountain was really good! The ride had a nice classic, nostalgic feel to it. Calico Mine Ride was a neat dark ride that was something unique to the park. The show scenes were very large and detailed! A wild Silver Bullet appears. Lower end B&M, but still a fun ride Of course, we had stopped for some famous fried chicken. Delicious as expected! Sierra Sidewinder was a surprise hit for me. Makes me wonder why Cedar Fair didn't purchase more of these. Montezuma was another underdog in the park. Really hope the rumors of it's removal stay as rumors... Knotts has a nice skyline. Also, we visited after the Sky Cabin incident. I do agree with those who say Silver Bullet feels out of place. It definitely is just shoehorned into a small space. Calico at night is a sight to behold. We finished the day with a lap on GhostRider and then marathoned Xcelerator until closing. Knotts is definitely one of my favorite parks, and I really hope I'll get to revisit in the near future! As is Timber Mountain...
  3. Holiday World will make their 2017 announcement later today. The preview image from Facebook suggests a 4th of July addition. Credit: HW Facebook
  4. Thanks! It's absolutely one of my favorite parks I've been to. I figured with Lightning Rod sorta open, it was finally time for a visit. Same day re-rides are cheaper though. Just show your ticket from earlier. You can even rotate the ticket between people. TH could use a renovation, and with LR running it might happen. Still not as as rough as many woodies I've been on. We had thought about doing the same day reride (I think it was like $8 or something), but ultimately decided against it. And yes, Thunderhead is nowhere near being the worst or roughest coaster I've ridden. It just felt like it could've been better
  5. I had the pleasure of visiting Dollywood for the first time last week and, as I said before, it is a phenomenal theme park. The fall colors wereout in full swing, which meant that the scenery was very beautiful. The staff was, for the most part, pretty friendly and operations were fine. We went on Sunday evening and Monday, both days having very short waits for the coasters. Fortunately, we were able to ride Lightning Rod on Sunday evening before it closed for the rest of the week the next day. I found myself drawing comparisons to Silver Dollar City often as the two are very similar. I found Dollywood to be easier to navigate and overall had slightly better coaster collection (only because of Lightning Rod now), though the food options at SDC, in my opinion, had a little more variety. Overall, they both are among my favorite parks, so you can't go wrong either way! As I stated above, Lightning Rod was open on Sunday, though we were only in the park for 3 hours and failed to get a second ride before closing. A rider came back into the station two cycles before we were about to load holding her head as if she were hit by something on the ride. The ops were forced to shut down the ride for the night, angering a lot of guests line. However I had still managed to get the back seat ride the first time and was absolutely blown away. It quickly became my favorite RMC and second favorite wood coaster behind El Toro. I had doubts that this ride would be better than Outlaw Run, but it just was more intense and fun overall! The quad down is the best RMC element they've created, with just relentless airtime. I can't say enough good things about Lightning Rod, except maybe it's poor reliability Many of the other coasters exceeded expectations. Wild Eagle was a lot of fun, and was the last American wing coaster for me to ride. I liked it more than Gatekeeper and X-Flight, but Thunderbird is still a large step above those three. Tennessee Tornado was really smooth and weird, but I still enjoyed it! Mystery Mine was decent as I found the drops to be surprising every time. Thunderhead, unfortunately, was just not good and I found it to be very overrated. It was rough and had little airtime in comparison to other GCi's, which was disappointing considering it had won many awards in the past. To each their own, it's seen better days. On the other hand, Firechaser Express was really good! The launch out of the station caught me off guard, and the backwards launch was fun. Plus the effects were a nice touch. Overall, the coasters (minus one) were great, and rerideable! I found myself constantly being wowed by this park. They do so many things right here, and have set the bar for regional theme parks. I already plan on returning next summer when Lightning Rod is (hopefully) open again. We also did the Smoky Mountain Alpine Coaster as well. I liked it, although, thanks to the trims, it wasn't as "out-of-control" feeling as I was expecting. Still fun, but the $15 price tag is a bit steep. Onto the pics; some are out of order. Top priority the first day was riding this. Had we not rode on Sunday, I would've never gotten to ride on this trip. So thank god we did. The queue provided some great views of the ride's finale. It turns out that this ride looks as fast in real life as it does in videos. The launch wasn't as intense as I had hoped, but it still provided airtime over the crest of the hill. Yes, it's even more ridiculous than it looks We rode a couple more of the coasters Sunday, tried and failed for a second lap on LR, and then left to try out one of the local alpine coasters. I liked it, but it just felt overpriced. Back to Dollywood. It's parts of the park like this that you completely forget this is actually a theme park. The craftsman valley area was by far my favorite section of the park. Firechaser Express was the surprise hit of the trip. Very good family coaster (though I still think it could've been a little more like PowderKeg). Wild Eagle ran into more wasp problems for most of the day. It was closed from around noon until an hour before closing both days. Tennessee Tornado, sans train. The first loop was bizarre. Wild Eagle's plaza area looks fantastic. The eagle sculpture was very impressive. I feel as though it's the modern day equivalent of mine train It's funky, but I liked it. Definitely on the short side though. Turns out taking pictures of this ride is vey difficult. Wild Eagle doing its thing. The view from the top is spectacular and the loop was surprisingly forceful. This thing needs some major TLC. Yes we actually rode Daredevil Falls and enjoyed it. Wild Eagle reopened and we did a few more laps before closing. I loved the view from the station. Again, this park is ridiculously photogenic. Obviously the most important part of the trip was the stopping at the Grist Mill. The sun had finally made an appearance later in the day, as did the pesky wasps. With Wild Eagle and Lightning Rod down, pretty much all we had was Mystery Mine, Firechaser Express, and Tennessee Tornado to ride for 5 hours. Mystery Mine's finale is one of the best of any coaster. The final drop into the inversions ends this ride with a bang! I had SDC's version before and knew what to expect here. Still just as delicious! A couple more laps on WE and the park then closed for the day. What a wonderful park! I will definitely be back. We have arrived to the holy land
  6. First timer to Dollywood and wow, what a phenomenal park so far! Lightning Rod has rocketed its way to being my favorite RMC yet (out of Outlaw Run, Wicked Cyclone, Storm Chaser, and Goliath) and is the best wooden coaster not named El Toro. This ride is fast with some pretty spectacular airtime. We also rode Firechaser Express, Tennesse Tornado, Mystery Mine, and Thunderhead. All were very solid coasters. Wild Eagle was closed for wasps, but we plan to hit that and Blazing Fury tomorrow. So far, this park is pretty spectacular! Yes, it's open! (With one train so lines were pretty long...) LR takes this turn at a ridiculous amount of speed. The launch was okay, though I expected it to be more intense than it actually was. At least it provided airtime at the peak! The quad down is the best element RMC has ever created hands down! It's ridiculous in all the right ways.
  7. One thing to keep in mind that many aren't considering with the newer restraints is the lower height restriction. 52" may not seem that much lower than 54". However, it could be the difference between a child making the height requirement on Valravn and Gatekeeper, but not Raptor and Rougarou.
  8. Thanks, how does now work for ya? DAY 3: SIX FLAGS GREAT ADVENTURE After spending the night next to Dorney Park (literally right across the street), we packed our bags and made the 1hr 30min trek to Jackson, New Jersey. I never fully realized how far "off the grid" Six Flags was until I realized the closest hotel we could find was nearly 30 minutes away. It just seemed odd for a park of this massive size to not have more than a couple gas stations and fast food restaurants close to it. Anyways, our day at Great Adventure was fantastic! The park was nearly dead, with every ride except Kingda Ka and Dark Knight being a walk on. And even then it was only a 15 minute wait for both. Unfortunately, Joker was closed for the visit, which was a bummer. However, the closure was a pretty serious issue that has required weeks to fix, so it was understandable. The food was typical amusement park food. so once again, there was nothing special to the park. One thing I noticed at the park was how well-behaved the guests were compared to my experiences with other Six Flags parks. So it was a nice change to see (maybe it was just isolated to that day?). Theming was here and there/inconsistent. On one hand, I was actually impressed with the Golden Kingdom and Plaza del Carnival with their nice theming spread across the area. On the other hand, the Boardwalk is U-G-L-Y. It is so gawdy and commercialized, plus it does not help that there is no shade and all the pathways are asphalt. Movie Town looked okay, mostly reminding me of similar lands of other parks, and the Frontier area is pretty neat with the large fort still in tact. The layout of this park is both interesting and frustrating. It really is an enormous park and very spread out. I came into the park knowing about the annoying route from Kingda Ka/Zumanjaro to El Toro, but it still bothers me knowing that there is a shortcut that is blocked off for no reason. Also, you pretty much have to plan to stay over in a certain section of the park for a while since it can be a mile-ish walk from Zumanjaro to Nitro. It was nice, on the other hand, to come across the "lesser known" pathways that don't get as much traffic, giving a break from the towering coasters. Operations were okay, though I would say they were fantastic for a Six Flags park. Toro and Batman's crews were rolling through, while Ka, Bizarro, and Nitro were realllyy slow. Luckily, when we came back to Bizarro, they removed the third train. Overall, I couldn't have asked for a better day than the one we had! Being able to walk on some of the world's best coaster is ridiculously awesome. By the end of the day, there was no one in the park. This meant we were able to night ride marathon El Toro for nearly 2 hours which may have been the overall highlight of the trip for me. This Six Flags is in a league of its own compared to the others, and I can't wait to go back again! Reviews: El Toro: Holy mother of airtime, this ride is unbelievable! El Toro was the number 1 most anticipated ride of this trip for me and it still blew me away. Every aspect of this ride is phenomonal! The first drop is, without a doubt, the best I've ever ridden hands down. It just rips you out of your seat and feels like you'll be ejected across the park. The following hills are wonderful sustained ejector hills that are crazy, but still comfortable (unlike Skyrush's airtime unholiness lol). The middle of the ride provided a nice break from the intensity with a solid turn-around and a couple of floater airtime hills. However the break is short-lived as the Rolling Thunder hill launches you sky high, reminding me more of Skyrush's airtime. This part of the ride is the climax as it is the last mega airtime hill, and it delievers so well! After the RT hill, you are pushed into the slaloms (or whatever the official term is for the "twisties") and whipped back and forth. Finally, a couple floater airtime hills bring you into a coasting stop. I had a big stupid grin on my face after every lap, all 35 of them. El Toro is easily, the best wooden coaster for me. Previously, Voyage and Outlaw Run tied for that spot, but Toro just blows them both away with the nonstop intense ejector airtime. What an amazing ride! Nitro: Another airtime machine, though of strictly floater. Nitro was a blast, and became my favorite B&M hyper! While I did not get a front row seat, I did ride in 2 and 9 multiple times and it was still great! I can see why the ride is compared to Diamondback so much, as they both are similar layout-wise. I do think Nitro gets the edge with it having a forceful helix before the midcourse. The last few airtime hills were the best section of the ride, giving some wonderful floaty time of air. Nitro is one of my favorite B&M's overall and I loved that it is still running great after 15 years! Kingda Ka: More like Kinda Krap. Ka was a huge mixed bag for me. On one hand, the front row ride was very solid and a good adrenaline rush. On the other hand, every other row is god-awful. We made the mistake of riding the 2nd row and last row before riding the front. The second row was pretty rough, but the back row was ridiculously terrible and shaky. Never before had I been on an Intamin that rough. Maybe the ride is poorly maintained, but I do not know how it is really that terrible in every other seat besides the front. Top Thrill Dragster is far superior in every way. Bizarro: Besides its slight head bashing, I actually really liked this ride! While not nearly as forceful as Kumba, it still kicks butt! Definitely an underrated ride and fire always makes a coaster awesome. Skull Mountain: what is this ride?!? I took the advice of back row only and oh my god its ridiculous! I still can't figure out exactly what happened when I rode. Skull Mountain cult ride or die. Green Lantern: good GOD IT SUCKS. I don't remember much riding it as Chang but this ride is trash! It's a shame they took out a classic Arrow for this steaming pile of crap. Kill it with fire. Superman: just as mediocre as its Great America counterpart. The pretzel loop is still my favorite inversion however. Batman: the same awesome old school inverts you can find at your local Six Flags park. Dark Knight: Mouse-in-a-box cred #2 for me. This one had working effects unlike Great America's when I went. Runaway Mine Train: It was odd riding a mine train with tubular steel track, but it gave a solid family ride. The single airtime hill was surprisingly good! Harley Quinn: I did the clone at SFNE last year and this one pretty much rode the same. Zumanjaro: definitely terrifying, though the drop was not intense. Also, holy crap this ride takes forever to get to from the entrance. Log Flume: This one was probably the best log flume of the trip. It's a really long flume and it gets you soaked! Houdini: Since I had done the one at SFNE also, I knew what to expect this time around. It seems that Six Flags actually wants to keep this ride around for a little longer since it was still well-maintained. Houdini is definitely a hidden gem. We also did Skyscreamer, Parachute Drop, and the Skyway. All provided nice views of the park from above. Pictures We rolled up to the parking lot about a half an hour before it opened. The lot was nearly empty was this time. It was definitely another surreal moment for me when I finally got to see these monsters in person. First stop was Ka, I hesitated to even give it a second chance in the front row considering how bad it was in the second. El Toro is as beautiful to look at as it is to ride <3 Best First Drop. Period. Can you guess which ride is all-around enjoyable and which one isn't? Yeah, its bad. Real bad. At least Superman was fun. There is never a bad time to ride El Toro. I could marathon it all day and still not get tired of it. It's just that good. Truth be told, I was too impatient to wait for a train for this shot. We took the Skyway to Nitro. It is a very relaxing break. Also it was much higher than I thought and gave some great views of the park. Obligatory Six Flags Great Adventure shot. This was probably the only time we saw blue skies for the day, though it never rained. The lines were unbearable today. As the sun started to go down. it was time to head back to other side of the park. One of my favorite pictures from the trip. I just love how the Larson Loop looked here Intamin, please build more of these. You'll do the world a huge favor. And one final picture of Bizarro (even though we still stayed for another 5 hours till closing). Again. we really could not picked a better day to visit. This is easily my favorite Six Flags I have been to. I am counting down the days until I will be reunited with El Toro.
  9. Hydra is very fun, it is just not a world-class B&M like Talon. I do agree about it being a little underrated (IMO Bizarro is far superior and more criminally underrated however). There just needs to be more pictures period, though I took a lot at Great Adventure to make up for it. Damn iPhone storage. And I do think Thunder Creek Mountain is one of the better flumes I've been on!
  10. Don't get me wrong, Knoebels overall had great operations. It was just frustrating with the few hours we had that Impulse was running one train along with the park being pretty busy. Day 2, Part 2: DORNEY PARK Another short but sweet report of good ol' Dorney. The second half of the second day was spent at Dorney Park. Just getting to Allentown from Elysburg was an adventure in itself (involving us making several wrong turns thanks to a confused GPS). However, I was relieved and still excited to visit this park as it is only my third Cedar Fair park I've been to. Dorney was all-around and unexpectedly really good! Maybe being a first time visitor lets me see past its flaws at first, but I generally enjoyed this park. I do understand its short-comings with the coaster line-up and overall "generic-ness" of the park, but it is pleasant for what it is. The lines were exactly as everyone on this site said they would be, so getting all the credits was easy (except the Wild Mouse having a 30 minute wait). After being spoiled with Knoebels' amazing food quality, we were not too impressed with the options for dinner here, so we just ate at Chickie and Pete's, which is just as good as it is at CP. Operations overall were okay, with Steel Force's crew absolutely being the standout of the park. Overall, Dorney may not be one of my favorites, but it certainly is far better than some other parks with weak coaster lineups I've been to (looking at you SFSTL). REVIEWS Steel Force: As my friend described it best, "it's a fun, giant mine train!" I liked this hyper coaster a lot! Steel Force towers over the west side of the park and feels much higher than it actually is. The airtime, while nothing too spectacular, was full of nice floaty moments. The helix took me by surprise, being more forceful than I was expecting. Overall, it is one of the most re-rideable coasters I have ever ridden and would be very easy/fun to marathon. Hydra: What a weird B&M. Everything about this ride is strange, from the messed-up inversions to the literal lack of forces on this ride. It isn't bad, but it also isn't great either. Definitely a "middle of the road" B&M for me, as I generally thought it was alright. The back seat is by far the best one on this. At least the ride was running very smooth, and the jojo roll was the best element of the ride. Talon: The real star of Dorney is Talon. Talon is a very solid invert for me as I loved it! It was much more forceful than I had anticipated and is an absolute blast to ride. The back seat, once again, is the best seat for this ride since it whips you through the first loop very quickly. The second half of the ride is fantastic, with the snappy corkscrew and intense, low-to-the-ground turns. Overall, Talon is one of the best B&M inverts I've ever ridden. Possessed: Eh. It certainly is better than V2 at Great America, but those two still pale in comparison to Wicked Twister. The holding break on this is just unnecessary and uncomfortable. Side note, the seat belts do seem to be more accommodating than Wicked Twister, which is nice. Stinger: Yes, it was open! And it didn't suck that much either! I thought Stinger ran smoother than Invertigo and Kings Island. I also still say that Invertigo's are better than regular boomerangs, which are all better than Goliath at SFNE. Thunderhawk: Wow, this ran terribly. It's a shame that the trims are so harsh on this ride, as it could have much more potential to actually have airtime. Either way, it's just plain bad. At least it's pretty to look at in its new paint I guess? Wild Mouse: Mouse #2 of the trip. Still just a mouse. Woodstock Exp-ha ha just kidding we aren't that desperate for credits. Thunder Creek Mountain: Log Flume 3/5 on this trip and one of the better ones. Probably the most unique of them all with the odd "ramp" drop it has. We also did Dominator and Demon Drop. Both were really fun! It was nice to revisit Demon Drop after having last been on it in 2009 at CP. Dominator was great as well, being one of the better S&S towers out there. PICTURES: We have arrived at the holy land of Allentown. Obligatory front entrance picture Talon dominates the front of the park. And it should because it's a hell of a good-looking coaster. I loved how close the track gets to the midway. It really is a great ride! The other B&M in this park. The entrance to this ride might be one of my favorites. Cedar Fair really knows how to make a ride entrance. Despite the lack of forces, it is still a good ride. Plus, the jojo roll is weirdly awesome! The renovation for Thunderhawk was basically putting lipstick on a pig. It seems like they spent no money on actually making the ride good. The two latest and greatest (not really) coasters Dorney has to offer. I also just now struck me that Wicked Twister and Possessed have the exact same color scheme (besides the trains) We finished out our evening in Dorney with some last rides on Steel Force, Hydra, and of course, this beaut. Dorney overall was very fun, and I liked it more than I thought I would. It may have not been the best park of the trip, but it still surprised me in more ways than one.
  11. Maybe if I hadn't ridden Phoenix 10 minutes before or had another ride on it, iI might have appreciated Twister more. However, it just wasn't quite as good as I had hoped it would be. Twister is not a bad coaster, it's just not really that great.
  12. Thanks guys! Before I get into my next day, I do have to explain that I did not get to experience a full day at Knoebels or Dorney. Unfortunately, the short time frame + the amount of driving meant I had to split 5 hours between each park. This may have skewed my opinions of the parks slightly, but that's just I felt about them. DAY 2, PART 1: KNOEBELS After my fantastic visit to Hersheypark, we barreled it up to Pine Grove, PA to spend the night at the nearest hotel from Knoebels. Distance-wise it was about 45 minutes from the park, so it wasn't too terrible. However, Knoebels opened at 11 instead of 10 or 10:30 like the other parks on the trip. This meant that there was even more of a time crunch to get all of the credits and must-do's of Knoebels in before having to leave for Dorney in the afternoon. Sadly, this meant we did not have the opportunity to spend a full day at the park and I did not get to ride some of the rides I wanted to do. Besides the fact, let's get into more details: Knoebels is an interesting park in itself as well as among the other parks on the trip. Prior to visiting, I was used to the typical amusement park atmosphere. Yet, Knoebels almost felt more like a local park with rides than an actual amusement park, which is not a bad thing. Locals would come in and walk their dogs, talk to their friends working some of the rides, or just sit on a bench and take in the scenery. It definitely felt odd at first, but I ended up loving it overall. Due to the unconventional approach of Knoebels, the park had a very strange layout. As a first-timer, it took a lot of getting used to for me. The large amount of rides in between each coaster was really nice, as most of the rides here are very family-friendly. Since I only ate lunch and a quick snack here, I did not have a full appreciation of their selection here, but there seems to be lots of options. Overall, the park was well-kept, clean, and had a welcoming atmosphere. With every park, there are some negatives. For whatever reason, as I had not heard anything on here or elsewhere, Impulse only had one train running (as did the other coasters, but it was definitely the worst for this ride). This caused what could have been a ten minute wait for us to be nearly 45 minutes. It might have not been as annoying had I had more time at Knoebels, but it definitely made me irritated. All of the other coasters, besides Flying Turns, were also running one train. The park was pretty busy on a week day, so maybe they were not anticipating this many guests, but it felt like they just didn't care to transfer on an extra train at Phoenix or Twister. Overall, I mostly loved the park. Knoebels is filled with charm and quirkiness. Despite its flaws in operations, Knoebels was a great park that runs in my top 10 that I have been to. I'd love to go back again to experience a park with a little less chaos of trying to fit everything in! REVIEWS Impulse: Impulse, overall, was a "okay" coaster. The first drop was great and provided a nice pop of airtime. The cobra roll and loop were full of hangtime and unexpectedly rattly, I did like the slow inline roll, but the helix that followed was not great. I definitely would not wait as long as I did again for Impulse, however. The coaster honestly feels out of place at this park. When mixing in a bright neon yellow and blue coaster with an old-fashioned amusement park, it sticks out like a sore thumb. Maybe if it had a different, more toned-down color scheme and theme like Untamed an Canobie? I just think it doesn't quite fit in with the line up, or the overall look of the park. Phoenix: Without a doubt, Phoenix is the gem of the park. Phoenix was another bucket-list coaster of mine that I had always wanted to get out and ride. When I finally got off my first ride, I was laughing hysterically. On paper, this figure-8 woodie should just ride like every other one. Luckily, Knoebels lets it run at 110% and creates a beautiful monster. It is such a fun coaster with a ridiculous amount of airtime. While not nearly as intense as Skyrush's, it still felt like I was basically going to be flung out of my seat over almost every hill. The last few hills on this ride are a phenomenal finale to the layout. Phoenix is one of my all-time favorite wooden coasters now and I really hope to get back to ride it more. Twister: Twister was another "okay" coaster for me. It certainly prides itself in the amount of laterals there are. However, I did not really come off the ride feeling impressed. I liked the mixes of airtime here and there as well as the double helix, but the rest of the ride was pretty forgettable. If I were to compare it to another coaster, it reflected my opinions of the Legend back at Holiday World. It might be a good wooden coaster by itself, but it lives in the shadow of another better coaster or two. Flying Turns: Flying Turns was the biggest surprise of the day. I did not expect to like this coaster as much as I did! We were rocketing back and forth, turn to turn. At one point, we definitely felt the back left wheel briefly come off the trough. Like Phoenix, the ride as just pure fun. The only downside is the painfully slow loading the ride had, though the wait was less than 30 minutes. Another unique ride at Knoebels that you cannot find anywhere else! Black Diamond: being the "it's barely even a credit" coaster, I viewed it much more as a dark ride. I didn't really understand what was going on most of the time other than something about mining, but it was still weirdly fun. Kozmo's Kurves: The only kiddie coaster of the trip we rode, but it had some good amounts of airtime. I liked the interaction with the boat ride below. Haunted Mansion: I can appreciate the amount of effort it took to keep an old-school dark ride like this running, but I hate jump scares. I can certainly see why it gets praised so often, though. Skooters: As my friend told me, it's the equivalent of 100 car accidents in a row, but I loved it! It is certainly the best bumper cars I have ridden by far! Whip: This was the only whip we rode this week. It was a fun old-school ride. Stratosfear: How does Larson make the most horrifying drop tower ever? I had ridden the one at Kentucky Kingdom before, and this was equally as fun/scary. Log Flume: #2 of 5 for the trip. This one had the best drop of all of them and a neat little tunnel. Sadly, we did not have time for Downdraft or the Flying Scooters due to the size of their lines, but I've only heard great things about both and will do them next time I am there. Pictures: Again, sorry for the severe lack of pictures. We were in a big hurry this day. We have arrived! Seeing this sign was a special moment. *Sigh* maybe next time. Also, hi there Flying Turns. Impulse was the first ride of the day. Running one train on an already low capacity ride was pretty bad. Honestly, I could just stay at this part of the park and never leave for the rest of the day. The line started here for the ride. It ended up being about 30 minutes, despite what the sign posted. Up the lift they go At this moment, is when you realize this ride is actually terrifying/fun The plane theme of the ride was pretty well done. Before we left the park in the afternoon, we took another last ride on Phoenix. Hands down, the highlight of Knoebels. Up next, Dorney!
  13. I had figured it was the same situation as Maverick before the vests. Both of which are phenomenal coasters even without the regardless of the restraint system. It's sad that I didn't enjoy Fahrenheit more than I wanted to, it just didn't "wow" me as much as the other two Intamins.
  14. 8/7-8/12 For a little background to this trip, months ago, I found the opportunity to visit Six Flags Great Adventure with a friend of mine. Little did I know it would eventually turn into a full-on road trip to the major parks across Pennsylvania. I decided to also visit the top bucket parks that were on (sorta) on the way to Jackson, NJ: Hersheypark, Knoebels, Kennywood, and yes, even Dorney Park. All of these parks, I had never been to before and they also had coasters I had dreamed for years of riding. Most of the coasters ended up exceeding expectations. The trip overall wound up being my absolute favorite I have ever done. Minus a couple snags along the way and the way-too-short 5 day time frame, it turned out to be a fantastic week to visit the parks and I wouldn't hesitate to do it all again. HERSHEYPARK I visited Hersheypark Sunday evening and Monday all day. It was pretty crowded both days, but remained manageable with some careful planning. In fact, we did not require any Fast Lane-type system this week thanks to the relatively low crowds the rest of the week. If the Fast Track system didn't suck, we might have considered it. I absolutely loved everything about this park (it even wound up being my second favorite park closely following Cedar Point). Hersheypark maintains much of its charm that many corporate parks of similar size can't imitate. There is a nice combination of local and destination park feelings within the park that makes it feel welcoming and not overwhelming. The park, though not large by acreage, is very hilly and feels bigger than it actually is. While some parts of the park have a typical amusement park feel (Midway America), others actually felt like a nature park (Pioneer Frontier). Another aspect I loved about the park was how well-rounded and thought out their ride collection is. The idea of spreading out kiddie rides all across the park instead of shoving them into one area is brilliant, and it needs to be implemented in more parks! Many of the flat rides were a mix of classic and new, with some more rare ones hard to find at other parks. We even gave our final salute to Condor as it makes way for the Triple Tower coming in 2017. As for the negatives of this park, there are only a few. One is that I HATE the way they implement Fast Track. We did not use it since crowds weren't awful, but the system of closing off an entire car on all the major coasters is frustrating and unnecessarily decreases capacity. Another downside was that operations for the park were wildly variable. While rides like Storm Runner and Wildcat were good at dispatch intervals, others like Skyrush and Lightning Racer were very slow. However, they did not detract much from the fantastic day we had. Overall, this is the only park, to me, that gives Cedar Point a run for it's money. I absolutely am anticipating the next time I get to visit this wonderful park. Reviews: SkyRush: I had very high expectations for this Intamin hyper from the first time I watched a POV of this back in 2012. While I had thought I was ready for the intensity, I wasn't. My first ride was a night ride on the back row left wing and everything about it was surreal. The ride never lets up and has the most ridiculous airtime I've ever experienced. I absolutely fell in love with every thing it offered, from the crazy first drop to the snappy Stengel dive. Every airtime hill felt like I was going to be ejected across the park. The lap bars weren't great by any means, but they made the ride feel open air and terrifying. It is, without a doubt, the most intense coaster I have ever been on and quickly rocketed itself to being my #1 favorite coaster. Seriously, it is everything you could possibly need in a coaster and more. I can't say enough good things about this monstrosity and need to get back to Hershey just to ride it again, as 7 times was not enough. We need more coasters like this, Intamin! Storm Runner: While SkyRush became my #1, my close #2 is now Storm Runner. My only prior experience with accelerators was with Dragster, so I didn't have much to expect. Storm Runner blew me away in every way. The launch was really good and every element of that ride is amazing. My new favorite element of any coaster is the flying snake dive, especially in the back row with how wickedly fast it flies through it. To me, it beat Maverick in the fact that it never lets up or has an awkward pacing problem. It was a surprise how much I ended up loving this fantastic coaster. Fahrenheit: I was expecting more out of it, yet it didn't deliver as much as I had hoped, leaving me underwhelmed. The first drop in the back row was good as well as the fun Norwegian loop. The corkscrews were also very snappy and forceful, but the cobra roll was rough and not pleasant. I did appreciate the one pop of airtime at the end! Overall, it wasn't a bad coaster, but is not nearly as good as the other two Intamins in this park. Great Bear: I loved this invert way more than I probably should have. It's very quirky and forceful. Great Bear uses the surrounding area and terrain very well and interacts with the other rides in a unique way. The first drop/helix was a highlight for me as was the final corkscrew. It's very underrated for the inverts but exceeded expectations for me. I wound up liking it more than the Batman clones. Lightning Racer: LR was a lot of fun! This is my favorite GCI I've been on, although that isn't saying a whole lot. The racing/dueling is what makes the coaster. However, Thunder's lift seemed to be running slightly faster, as it would almost always win. The night ride on this felt very nostalgic and classic. Sooperdooperlooper: an okay Schwarzkopf although way too short. The loop was forceful in the front as was the final helix. The trims, on the other hand, kill this ride and are way too harsh. It has the potential to be better, but falls a little flat sadly. Trailblazer: A weak Arrow mine train, although still fun. The final turn had an unexpected lateral moment. Wildcat: I went into this ride expecting it to be crap and came off of it thinking it was crap. One and done. Sidewinder: First time on a Boomerang that has vest trains and the ride still sucks. No need to ride this ever again. Laff Trakk: It's an off-the-shelf spinner in a box with black lights. Some of the fun house effects were fun, but most of the black light cardboard cutouts were nothing impressive. At least it was air-conditioned. Wild Mouse: Another off-the-shelf ride, though it was the best wild mouse I believe I have ever ridden. It's crazy fast. Comet: Nothing very memorable either, although it has a very nice location and interaction with Skyrush. Reese's Xtreme Cup Challenge: I honestly have no idea how to describe this shooter other than weird and awesome. I was definitely not expecting the "coaster section." I wish more Sally rides were like this! Coal Cracker: One of the better log flumes I have been on. The "airtime hill" at the bottom of the drop was taken surprisingly fast. Also, Coal Cracker's interaction with Comet was a neat feature. Chocolate World: The dark ride was nice, but the projection mapping was not overly-impressive in my opinion. The rest of chocolate world felt more like a giant gift shop/food court and was nothing of my particular taste. Pictures: As a side note, I do not take a lot of pictures as I was under a bit of a time crunch at a lot of the parks. So, sorry for the lack of visual stuff. Also, the iPhone camera quality varies so apologies for that as well. We ate at Chipotle across the street. This was the view from the table. My excitement for the park was at dangerously high levels at this point Chocolate World was a little bit too gimmicky and commercialized for my taste We did the preview the day before and this is the first path we took. Needless to say it was breathtaking coming face to face with the number 1 coaster on my U.S. bucket list. Our actual first ride (due to the longer lines) was SooperDooperLooper. It was a good way to kick off a long week of coastering. We rode Great Bear shortly after and loved it. It may look beautiful at night, but that is the only positive about this ride. Only did the front seat and that was enough for me. The first official day at Hershey has arrived! We actually did Laff Trakk and Fahrenheit first, but I didn't take any pictures of them beforehand ¯_(ツ)_/¯ Sidewinder does not belong in this park. Seriously, Hershey, time to get rid of it. Storm Runner is fast. So fast that I did not take a picture of how fast the ride is. Let me just say one thing about the ride, it's fast. The launch was also incredible! I seriously cannot say enough good things about it, it personally beats Maverick for me! Right about here is when you realize how terrifyingly awesome this ride actually can be. We ate lunch at the Outlook Cafe and our table's view. once again, did not disappoint. Took another ride on this in the front and appreciated it more the second time around. The monorail queue provides a wonderful view of a wonderful Intamin... ... as does the ride itself The best element ever on this planet. We need more of these, please. Not sure how this ride was pre-vests, but it was very enjoyable. This part reminded me a bit of Maverick's snappy transitions. I am very good at having poor timing for pictures with actual trains in them. Trailblazer could be much better with a second lift and an actual second half. You want more pictures of trainless Storm Runner? If you say so... The airtime in the back on the top hat is top notch. *Sigh* so sad that it didn't live up to my expectations. At least the color scheme is nice. Why couldn't Gwazi have been this good? The Comet queue provides a nice view of the Intamin goodness above. Great Bear is very great, would rate 8/8 Skyrush feels much taller than 200ft to me. Also the drop itself is horrifying (in a good way). The Kissing Tower provides great pictures of views you have never seen in any other trip report ever. The area around Storm Runner is my personally part of the park. It has a very natural park feel to it. Great Bear doing great things. Seriously, how does this ride not get more love from enthusiasts? It is incredible! This park is actually crammed with coasters, yet none of the pathways felt tight or overcrowded. The loop produces the typical B&M forces you'd expect We went back for a ride in the very back of Fahrenheit and I liked it a little more. There is a solid amount of forces, positive and negative, on here. However, it was a relatively under-performing Intamin in my honest opinion. Sunset pictures of the Hollow are a necessity... ...as well as a night ride on Skyrush. Seriously, there needs to be more rides like this. Visiting Hersheypark was a actual dream come true for me. I am so glad I finally got to experience this park and walked awaywith a new #1 and #2 steel coaster. Next stop, Knoebels!
  15. It was used last Saturday, but not filled completely. It is used more often than you'd think. The main room has filled up in the morning most days this month, with the wagon room occasionally filled on busier days.
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