TBpony414

That aquarium sounds fantastic!!! We are planning on going to Ripley's Aquarium near Dollywood next month as unfortunately we won't be driving towards/by Chattanooga. Maybe some day we'll get to the Tennessee Aquarium. I bet we could easily spend 3/4 of the day there!

Thank you, exactly!! The BMX show is awesome. It's not just bikes, scooters, and roller bladers... they have incredible trampoline artists, tumbling, and aerial acts too. Bert if you know what's good for you, next year you're coming with us to watch it! If for no other reason than to stop me pestering you about it haha! It's only 20 minutes long anyway and is in a nice shady arena with Wicked Twister's back spike directly over the middle of the stage. Pretty cool setting. Gotta run, will comment more on this latest installment later.

I love your idea to keep your 2017 trips in one spot! Looking forward to reading about the rest of your trips. I've never been to SFOT so excuse my ignorance, but is Superman Tower of Power like Power Tower at Cedar Point?

I'm absolutely loving this TR. Every update has something new and the attention to detail in your writing and the thorough pictures really explain the experience to those of us behind a computer screen! Thanks for that, Robb! I'm curious to know how loud it is inside IMG with all the rides running. Do they have things separated and sound proofed enough where it's not too bad, or does it sound like Cedar Point's midway at all times? That ropes course looks absolutely incredible.

Considering the significant amount of downtime LR has had in its year of life, only a small percentage of people have actually ridden it at all and at "normal" speed. Let's pretend they did slow the lift down. The majority of people who will ride it from here on out will never know the difference since only a small amount of those folks will have ridden it before now. I'm making my first trip down to DW in 6 weeks solely for LR. We cancelled our trip last year due to it being down and if they did/do not get it working somewhat reliably before this trip we'll cancel again. However, if they have to modify the lift speed and make it go freaking 5mph to get it working consistently then HELL YES I'll be down there riding it! I'd rather have it functioning "slowly" than not at all. Who knows, if they did slow it for the rest of the year then maybe in the off season with the rumored modifications they'll be making they'd be able to increase the launch speed again too. All I know is I am excited as heck to get down there and ride it no matter how fast or slow it goes! I just want to ride the dang thing and it seems a fairly safe bet to me that 95% of people visiting Dollywood would feel the same. ^ Sweet!! Are they still assigning rows?

I like GateKeeper a lot, but I'm glad my woman is definitely a Maverick, if we're comparing to coasters here! (Which is also a beautiful coaster to look at, but additionally is... well... you know...) You two are killing me!! Holy heck that newest animation posted looks amazing.

Yep, I just rode it and I am about to ride it again. AWESOME!!

It was running extremely well last month when I was there. We almost rode it a second time... and that's saying a lot! We did follow the coasterbill MS method of riding though since the last time a couple years ago we got beat up pretty badly.

Hot damn! Is anyone there today to confirm it's actually working as it should?

That looks great! I've never ridden a Justice League ride. Do you have to be familiar with the characters in order to follow the ride or not really? Looking forward riding this later in the year and during HITP. Is this a dark ride with guns and you shoot stuff or is it like Spiderman/Transformers?

Big scary teeth lol!! Splinters from Blue Streak's structure sticking out from your gums, no doubt! I kid, I kid! We are lucky that Famous Dave's is a chain that has many locations in my area. Unfortunately none have as location even remotely as beautiful as the FD at CP! There's one about 15 minutes away that the manager and one of the servers know us so well that when we walk in they bring out our orders without us even saying anything, LOL! I actually don't eat BBQ but my boyfriend looooooves it. Bonus is they're fast and consistent with very good chicken too (and then I sub the fries for onion strings, which the broad at FD's refused to allow this last time - uhh, ok) so I order that and it's a win/win. Glad you guys enjoyed it!!

It always seemed really short to me but 1/4 mile each way is a decent amount when you're schlepping around CP for several days. I'll definitely be using this information to insist that SO and I ride it more than once next visit. Thx!

That's a fun little tattoo!

I'll never forget your late night text saying that some drunk dude told drunk Bill that he's older than Blue Streak!! I was chuckling for the next 30 minutes about it. You should have told me about not knowing how to set an alarm and I would have shown you how on your phone! Now that you can Air Drop photos and videos you should know about working the alarm LOL. No app required, either. Next year I'll give you a tutorial. I visit Famous Dave's quite often and most of the servers at the various locations do the initials in the sauce thing.

I think Cedar Downs is a unique experience that offers a fun competitive element when your horse pulls ahead of your friends. It's also historic, which I think adds to its appeal. I still vividly remember my first spin on Cedar Downs over 20 years ago, and the laughs we all had. I can't say the same for S&S swings or Huss frisbees. I'm torn between agreeing with Boldikus and agreeing with Duff. I guess the way I have to think of it is when I think about my next trip to CP, what flat ride am I most excited about? My instant answer is Skyhawk, with Cedar Downs a close second. They both have extremely different ride experiences. One scares the ever living sh!t out of me and is a rush, which I guess gets me more excited. The other ride is great fun and the more friends you have riding the better it is. The fact that there are only a couple of the derby rides left is neat but even if there were a whole bunch of them it'd still be hilarious and dangerous. Anyone know how fast Cedar Downs or the one at Rye runs?

Big trips need TRs so that's great news! I'll look for the Memorial Day trip to appear on the forum around October or November, then. LOL

Huge aquarium fan here and the Georgia Aquarium looks fantastic! I've added that to my list of things to check out. Many years ago there was a Body Wars exhibit or something similar that came to DC and I loved it so much I went twice. It was fascinating and the Sea Monsters Revealed exhibit looks outstanding! WOW! I've always talked about how someone ought to have an animal dissection exhibit and to hear it exists is awesome. Now I absolutely need to find out if it's a traveling thing or a permanent installation of sorts. What kind of camera were you using at the aquarium? Some of your pics turned out great, animals in tanks are often hard to capture.

Nice end to your TR! That pirate coaster is something else... I definitely wasted 1 minute and 34 seconds watching the POV of that POS and feel sad that you paid actual money and wasted significantly more time riding it. Now, how long until we get something from your whirlwind FL trip?? Your fans are eagerly awaiting!

I most definitely did not see that sign. It's surely there - but it was ungodly hot outside and KW was slammed with people so it was probably easily missed.

OK well now we are going to make this a thing. From this point forward, anytime you come across some rankass enthusiasts, refer to them as pirates. Ok, everyone? We're gonna make this a thing. LOL that's incredible and I'm absolutely on the pirate bandwagon. Wait, that sounds like I'm a pirate. What I mean is, I am 100% committed to calling smelly people pirates. Regarding Blue Streak: this past visit it was absolutely running a bit unruly. Normally I ride it several times but it was a once and done for us as there were track areas that were in great need of assistance. It didn't feel like my train had square wheels but it definitely wasn't running as it has in the past which was a shame since normally it's a fun little thing. Nrthwind - great avatar, buddy.

Great TR so far! I love the chapter titles. How long is the tram/bus ride from DreamMore to DW? Do you have to pay for a separate ticket to get into the waterpark? That black snake was HUGE!! I can't imagine how many times the snake wranglers have sprung into action - clearly this is a common occurrence. Your story of it had me in stitches! Snakes are the only creature that scare the bejesus out of me and it's because they don't have ears or legs so I have no idea what their expression is, where they're listening, or thinking about going. They always look like they're really mad and they're so strong that they could spring right up and wrap around my jugular in the blink of an eye. On my recent visit to Cedar Point we had an almost identical experience regarding park tickets and season passes. Nobody seemed to know anything and those who thought they knew really didn't. I have a platinum pass and the person with me did not have a pass so needed a 2 day park ticket. It took a while to get through to the clueless receptionist that season pass holders get discounts but we weren't sure where to get them. Eventually got more people involved and sorted out that on property hotel tickets are already discounted from gate prices, therefore season pass discounts are not applicable. If we wanted to use the season pass discount we'd have to go to a park entrance ticket window... but it would only be $4 difference from the hotel price. However, in the middle of proving to the original receptionist that pass holders do indeed get discounts (she insisted they didn't and didn't seem to realize that my Platinum pass from Carowinds is indeed valid at any CF park) I figured out a way to save $16 online. I thanked her for her time, told her it was a learning experience for us both and to forget the whole transaction. I bought the extra ticket on my phone while walking out of the hotel and they scanned my phone right there at the gate 3 minutes later. It was a frustrating way to start the day and wasted a good 15 minutes of everyone's time though. I really wish when people aren't sure they would say something along the lines of, "I don't know, let me check or get someone else who may be able to help" rather than talk in circles. This applies to anyone, anywhere in life, but especially those working in a customer service capacity!

^Ha! Couldn't have said it better myself! Something tells me this guy is related to the redneck a-hole tailgating and swerving behind Andrew's car in his ongoing Dollywood TR. Too bad none of us got a pic of the guy with kids in CP at the front of the park on Friday with the Trump shirt on. We weren't the only ones making faces, that's for sure. Comments on Day 3: I’m really thankful for both of the Breakers entrances into the park. Usually I’m in the wing closer to Magnum and we always start at the back of the park working our way front, so never use the Beach entrance in the AM. The metal detectors took all of 14 seconds at the Resort entrance as well. I remember hearing something about season pass holders getting a free FL+ upgrade… I’ll have to look into that for my trip in July when we usually need FL+ both days. I'll text you a picture of Gatekeeper's packed queue at that point and then you can see how much of a benefit FL+ putting you at the bottom of the steps is! Millennium Force, row 17, bay (left) side is where it’s at! Especially at night… We are not buffet fans so have never been inside the Midway Market. It’s too bad CP doesn’t ditch that and copy Harmony Hall at Carowinds, which is hands down some of the best park food I’ve ever had. They blast the AC and have probably 5 or 6 different food stations to queue in where they make the food fresh such as bbq, pizza, salad, chicken, etc. They also have a stage and from time to time a really good band plays cover songs. It’s nice and dark and about the size of BGW’s Festhaus so plenty of room for lots of people but never gets super loud. Your toilet overflowed?! Good grief! Next time turn the shutoff valve behind the tank off and it'll at least stop the water flowing in. What a mess. We had no issues with our room - which actually overlooked the patio where you guys sat in the morning before heading into the park. About how long was the Luminosity rehearsal? Mom and I caught the last few minutes of it Friday night when they were finishing rehearsing. The only thing I know about it is the past few years they have a few fireworks and some bizarre, loud AF dance party with a really crappy DJ up in the air on a scissor lift dropping beats on a MacBook Air. People seem really into it though and kids go crazy dancing around on stage. Guess there's only one singing and acrobatic performance earlier in the evening that precedes the party...? Who knows.

You never know what the weather's going to be like on the peninsula so don't sweat it. Thursday is still a ways away. Plus, you could get lucky and have storms in the morning (or even afternoon) and then the park is dead for the rest of the day! That'd sure be nice. I love Iron Dragon. Is it as good as The Big Bad Wolf or The Bat? Absolutely not, but it's a fun coaster with quick dispatch times and I enjoy riding it multiple times on every visit. The last or second to last car is my fav spot. Bonus: They let you take a water bottle on the actual ride with you so I never have to risk someone yanking it from my hidden eco friendly plant storage unit... right Bert and Bill?

Cool. Anyone who has ridden Escape from Pompeii at Busch Gardens Williamsburg immediately learns to pick their feet up at the top of any flume lift! The whole nose of the boat intentionally goes underwater on that, ugh. Thanks for chiming in as well jonskinny - will sit somewhere not in the front and enjoy the ride!

How wet do you get on Daredevil Falls? I like a little sprinkle/mild amount of wetness. Shoes get sopping wet and it becomes a bad day. (Bert if you thought I got upset about my missing water bottle, wait till you see what happens when I get unexpectedly soaked!!) They did something to Great Adventure's log flume last year and it was absolutely drenching people no matter if you were 2 to a boat or packed in like sardines. Not fun. Hoping DW's flume is a nice way to cool off without needing a change of clothes!