Schrecken
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Posts posted by Schrecken
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I am planning on going to Kennywood mid-August. This isn't a "how crowded will it be" question (though I would imagine Wednesdays would tend to not be too bad) but rather I was wondering does anyone local know where I might be able to find any discount admission coupons?
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I'd say the rarest coaster I've ever ridden (simply based on the fact that it was removed a long time ago and it isn't even listed on RCDB, though I have talked to at least a few people my age and older who do remember it) was the old steel wild mouse that was located at what is now Jolly Rogers on the Pier at Ocean City, Maryland. I must have been around 9 or 10 when I rode it, and the cars reminded me for all the world of a bathtub - just a big oblong tub with a padded seat where one or two people could sit and a hand-hold. It had the typical switch-back layout of classic mice, and even though I was a kid (much better able to handle rough rides) I remember it being quite jerky and jarring. someone I had talked to who had ridden it thought it might have been an old Schiff mouse.
So not really rare in the sense that few people had ridden it, but rare in that it isn't on RCDB and very few people remember it.
Sure it isn't this? http://rcdb.com/4294.htm
No, because I rode it in 1979 or 1980, and the above coaster wasn't put there until the late 80's. The mouse I rode had very little themeing, though I think the cars might have had a mouse face on the front. I have no idea why it isn't listed on RCDB. I guess that they may not have any info on it.
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I'd say the rarest coaster I've ever ridden (simply based on the fact that it was removed a long time ago and it isn't even listed on RCDB, though I have talked to at least a few people my age and older who do remember it) was the old steel wild mouse that was located at what is now Jolly Rogers on the Pier at Ocean City, Maryland. I must have been around 9 or 10 when I rode it, and the cars reminded me for all the world of a bathtub - just a big oblong tub with a padded seat where one or two people could sit and a hand-hold. It had the typical switch-back layout of classic mice, and even though I was a kid (much better able to handle rough rides) I remember it being quite jerky and jarring. someone I had talked to who had ridden it thought it might have been an old Schiff mouse.
So not really rare in the sense that few people had ridden it, but rare in that it isn't on RCDB and very few people remember it.
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Sky Rocket was super uncomfortable for me. Good luck riding this if you're over 6 feet tall. The placement of the shin guard left zero room for my feet, and I had to contort my legs in a weird way and turn my feet sideways so the lapbar would close, just like Tempesto
The shooting dark ride at this park is amazing, and the Noah's Ark walkthrough attraction was ridiculously fun; I went through it 3 times. It felt so much like a haunted house, I half expected scare actors to be hiding in the corners. lol
Also, those staircases inside the boat freaked me out a little bit. I've never felt like an amusement park attraction was trying so hard to make me fall and twist my ankle. Good thing I have good balance
My ranking for the coasters in the park:
Thunderbolt > Phantom > Jackrabbit > Racer > Sky Rocket
I actually forgot that Exterminator existed, and I forgot to ride it. whoops
I didn't look at the map and just assumed there was nothing else behind the (very nicely themed) Pittsburg Plunge.
Also, I think I prefer Black Widow to any of the Huss Giant Frisbees I've ridden.
It's funny you mention that Noah's Ark was like a haunted house - a couple of months ago I had a dream that they turned it into a haunted dark ride (which I posted in the rollercoaster dreams thread)! I'm glad to hear it is open but I've not been up to KW this year. I worked on parts of the ride offsite over the winter and I am anxious to see it for myself. About how long were the lines?
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Not a coaster dream but still park-related....not long ago I dreamed about Kennywood's re-building of the Noah's Ark ride. I was there for the opening day (media day, I suppose...) and for some odd reason the ride was actually at Hershey instead of Kennywood. (either that, or HP and KW somehow switched places magically) Skyrush wasn't far from the Ark at this weird park mash-up. Being that it was a media day, I was allowed to go thru the ride before the public, and so there was no line to speak of. But as I entered, I was terribly disappointed - for some strange reason Kennywood had decided to re-make the Ark into a haunted house! They put in all new animatronic animals and they were all scary with huge fangs and mouths dripping with blood, and some of them jumped out at me as I walked thru. The whole interior was dark and spooky, with strobe lights and fog. So in effect, Noah's Ark became Noah's Haunted Ark!
Then, after I had gone thru the ride, the public was allowed in and the line grew to well over an hour long, winding around almost all the way over to Skyrush. I'm guessing that the Ark would have been about where SDL is at HP, or maybe where the Comet's station is.....in the dream it was on an incline like that.
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I like waterparks because I like to swim and be in the water. However, I rarely ever set foot in one for a few reasons. First, if I am traveling to visit a park (this pertains to those parks that also have a waterpark) I seldom have time to visit both parks. Especially if it's a park I've never been to before I am all about getting to ride all of the coasters before the day's end.
Second, it seems that nearly everyone I have traveled with in the past few years has little interest in waterparks, and always a reason or excuse that they can't or won't go. I can think of at least a few trips where I've been in the dry park with a friend or two on a hellishly hot day and I've got the sudden urge to hit the water park. But said friend(s) come up with all kinds of reasons why they don't want to go. It's too much trouble - what if my glasses get chlorine on them - I can't see w/o my glasses - I forgot my towel - I don't feel like changing, and on and on...
And finally, there's the issue of waterparks with their own separate admission. I was with a non-waterpark friend at CP one year and we agreed to part ways for a couple of hours during the day so I could hit the waterpark. However, I found it to be not worth it to pay the full admission for just two or three hours of time and so I just suffered out the heat of the day and continued to ride coasters and flats with my friend. I would have no problem paying the full admission (or a combined admission for both parks) if I was able to plan on spending a couple of days there. But that wasn't the case.
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Anything that amounts to nothing more than a centrifuge - i.e, rotors, round-ups, and anything where the ride is little more than circular spinning. Those kind of things were fun when I was 10 years old (and not prone to motion sickness and not minding wasting time on less than exciting rides) but not these days. If I'm going to be going 'round and 'round on a flat, I will want at least some other motion along with it to provide some variety and possibly some mild airtime, like a Trabant or a Himalaya.
I am also not too fond of drop towers either simply because I have no interest in being taken up and dropped. Again, when I want to be dropped I want some other sensations and motions to accompany it. Griffon at BGE is a great example - it does take riders up and drop them, but then it does at least a few other things after that point. However, I will sometimes ride "double shot" drop towers, because they offer more than just an ascent and a drop.
Finally, I also don't care for any ride that hangs me upside down for too long. Again, it was fun to play "skin the cat" on the playground equipment when I was a child, but at my age, hanging upside down with the blood rushing to my head is not my cup of tea.
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For a coaster to make it into my top ten, first off, it has to be (from my own perspective, of course) thrilling - basically a blast to ride, for whatever reason. I have a preference for heavy-duty airtime, high speed (or at least the feeling of) and aggressive pacing, but those aren't the only criteria.
Second, it cannot have any major rideability issues, like painful headbanging, or severe roughness/rattling, or uncomfortable restraints. If I have to work hard to defend myself against these kinds of issues, the coaster won't be worth it to me, no matter how great it could be without them. However, the coaster doesn't have to be so mild that I could ride over and over dozens of times in order to make rank. For instance, Skyrush is my #1, even though I may only be good for 3-6 rides consecutively, without a decent break, especially if I sit in the back wing seats.
Those are pretty much my main two considerations when it comes to ranking coasters.
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Speaking of throwing up, I would have to wonder if these VR coaster experiences would make a rider more likely to get sick... Some coaster layouts are more or less likely to make me ill (even if I use anti-motion sickness meds) and I am wondering if the VR might exacerbate that (for instance, by giving the rider of a non-inverting coaster the illusion that they are going upside down and/or backwards). Otherwise, it sounds like it might be fun to try.
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Let's see.....I hope I don't miss any:
SFA
KD
BGW
BGE
Hershey Park
Trimper's at Ocean City, MD
Dorney
Kennywood
SF Great Adventure
BGA
WDW (Magic Kingdom & Epcot)
Universal IOA
Circus World
Cypress Gardens
Dollywood
KI
Cedar Point
Waldameer
Knoebles
Geauga Lake
SFMM
Knotts Berry Farm
DL (both parks)
Universal Hollywood
CGA
SF Discovery Kingdom
Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk
I believe that is it. Not bad for someone who got a late start in coastering.
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My first was Alpengeist, as that was really the only B&M in the Baltimore/DC/VA area at the time. As for my second, I want to say it was Great Bear (which opened about a year later), but being that it opened only a month before I moved to California, I rather doubt I had time to go and ride it as I was busy with moving preparations. So, that would make my second B&M Batman TR at SFMM, and then probably Riddler's Revenge after that. Then I moved onto Northern CA where I rode Vortex at CGA (which I found surprisingly head-bang-y, especially since I had heard of how super-smooth B&Ms usually are).
Funny thing is it took me a real long time to ever get to ride a plain old sit-down B&M, having had two stand-ups and two suspended B&Ms under my belt. I didn't accomplish that until I moved back east and rode Apollo's Chariot in 02' or 03'.
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I can think of at least a couple of incidents. Many years ago I was visiting a friend who lives near Cincinnati, and we had planned on hitting KI. Well, the evening I arrived we had some time to kill and so we (we meaning my friend and some of her friends) all went over to a nearby mall where there was a small indoor amusement park (which is no longer there from what I am told) to get the credit on the kiddie coaster. I'm not a huge credit-grabber, but I thought, what the heck, why not? So all of us (I think there was maybe 5 or 6 people, including myself, and there were some men in the group) piled into one train and, well, you can probably guess - the motor didn't have the power to pull that many adults to the top of the lift! For a moment we were afraid we had broken the lift motor, but thankfully that didn't happen. Yes, that was a bit embarrassing, especially since there were other non-coaster people hanging around and probably wondering why on earth all these adults were piling into this little dinky kiddie coaster. Well, we were finally able to ride when we split up our group.
Second was when I was with some other friends and we went to HP one day. I think there was maybe 4 or 5 of us, and we all decided we would ride the claw ride (sorry I don't remember the exact name of it). Well, HP's claw is not unlike a carny ride, at least with regards to its smaller stature. Well, as we all took our seats and pulled down our restraints, at least three of us didn't get the green light. One of the guys was just too tall (I think he was 6'4"), and he had to take the walk of shame for that. One of the women was just too big all over, and sadly, she also had to take the walk of shame, which was after she had tried another, supposedly larger seat the ride op had suggested. My problem was that my chest was just too big for the restraint to come down and lock, and so I moved over to the seat that my larger friend had been unable to stay in, and while it did save me from the walk of shame, it was a very tight, rather uncomfortable ride. So out of our group of five, two had to take the walk of shame and and I almost ended up joining them. And to make matters worse, all of our seat-shifting caused the line to get really long and I'm sure there were people who were waiting who were none too pleased with us.
And finally, I must admit that back in the day when I was "new" to riding coasters, I would actually marathon on the Mind Eraser at SFA (which was before it was called SFA).
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It's hard for me to think of any Intamin I totally disliked and found no redeeming value for, but if I had to pick one, I'd have to agree about Flashback. But even then, that coaster could have been greatly improved (no, I don't think it would have ever been a great coaster due to its repetitive design) with different trains and restraints. I always felt like I was sitting in a big tub I could barely see out of while getting my ears bashed in when riding it.
There are a few other Intamins that I find underwhelming and not up to "standard" as it were. Those include KK - the restraints and rattling totally kill any re-rideablity it might have had (IMO TTD is quite re-rideable) and Maverick, which was pretty much killed for me because of the restraints. I have always sensed that there is a really fun coaster hiding there somewhere, but I've never been able to experience that because every time I have ridden it I have had to struggle to avoid having my ears bashed. I am hoping to get to CP this year and I look forward to riding it with the new restraints so I can finally enjoy and appreciate it without the head-bashing.
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^ Not much. It's nothing like Haunt or Fright Fest. No scare actors, only one "trick or treat" trail essentially for little kids, they change the names on the coasters (Scarerush, Fearenheit, etc) and put up some lighting displays and decorations. I was a little let down when we went last year until I realized soon after we got in that its basically an event for parents w/ small children therefore lines for the coasters were 0-20 minute waits. Oh they also turn off the running lights on the woodies (and I believe Laff Trakk now) for the last hour of the night.
Their Halloween even is indeed lame if you're expecting haunted houses or something like what many other parks do, but it is a great time to get lots of rides on your favorite coasters without much crowding and no blistering heat/humidity. I rode Skyrush 35 times in one day when I went a couple years ago.
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^They closed for the summer season. Hersheypark in the Dark starts next weekend. Hershey's weather policy is that it must be 45 degrees to start running most coasters
I could have sworn that a couple of years ago I went quite early in October and that they were open every weekend in October (but were closed most of September), so apparently they have changed the schedule since then.
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Hey, does anyone know if the coasters will still be running on November the 1st? I had planned on going this weekend but I noticed that the park is closed tomorrow (was also closed today for some reason, maybe something to do with all the rain last weekend?), and I may not get another chance to go until the last weekend of this month (Sunday the 1st). That day looks to still be part of the fall season (when all the rides are open) but I just wanted to be sure as that may be my only chance before the end of this season. Later in November I'm guessing that this will be the time period when most or all of the coasters are closed, so trying to go then would be out.
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Based upon the coasters I would have a decent chance of actually getting to ride in the next year or two, I'd include the following:
The 4-D at SF Great Adventure
Lightning Rod at Dollywood
Storm Chaser at KK also sounds kind of interesting too.
I have no experience with any RMC coasters (either new or re-dos) and so I hope to be able to ride at least one of the above mentioned next year.
CP's new dive machine should be fun, but I've already been on the two existing ones in this country, so although I intend to hit CP, not as much anticipation about that one.
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Oh well, I didn't really think that hell would freeze over this year...I was hoping, but, you know, how likely is it that hell will really freeze over? Actually, I'd bet on that happening long before SFA ever gets a new coaster (a real coaster, not a glorified carny ride or another SF park's low grade hand-me-down). As for the water park, SFA has a decent water park, but lots of other parks do as well, and I'm not that into water parks anyway.
IMO the water park is SFA's main attraction, as all of the times I had been there in the summer time the water park side was packed and the dry side was seldom crowded at all. Hence the reason they are spending money on it. However, maybe the dry side might also attract more people if they actually had something ground breaking to draw both the GP and enthusiasts, and the park wouldn't be in the Geauga lake-like situation where the water park carries the day.
So, as I make my plans for next year's travels, yet again SFA will not be among my list of destinations.
Oh, one more thing I just thought about - a couple of years ago SFA asked for a variance in their height restriction, but sadly it seems nothing has come out of that.
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One that I have forgotten during more than one visit to the park is Wicked Twister at CP. I know at least a few times I'd be there at CP with some friends, and suddenly someone would say "hey, let's ride Wicked Twister", and then I was thinking "yeah, that's right - there IS an Intamin impulse coaster in this park!". I haven't been back since Disaster Transport was removed, and back then WT kind of got lost in the background clutter with DT looming there in that big building by the beach. I'm guessing it may be harder to overlook now that DT is gone.
And despite my local familiarity with SFA, I know at least a couple of times I forgot about Batwing being way back there in the dead end of the park.
When I went to Valleyfair a few years ago, I might well have not noticed Excalibur had my friend and I not been given a tour by a local coaster fan who made sure we got back there to ride it.
At KD I often forget about Backlot Stunt Coaster being there due to its location and it being on the way to the star of the coaster show, I-305. Same thing with grizzly - it is quite literally hidden away.
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For mileage alone, my longest coaster trip would have to have been last fall, when I drove from near Baltimore, Maryland to Orlando and hit the Magic Kingdom at Disney and then BGA. However, this was only a partial coaster trip in that I had someone else traveling with me who had no interest in coasters (but did accompany me to both parks) and so during my week in Orlando I only had time to hit those two parks. As for my longest dedicated coaster trip, where that was the sole purpose of the trip, I'd say it would my last road trip out west. I drove from Maryland to Cincinnati, OH, to meet up with a friend, and then we drove to Wisconsin and Minnesota and hit Mt. Olympus, Valley Fair and Nick Universe. Total travel time was 7 days (for me), and we spent one day at each park.
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I had probably the saddest, worst coaster dream (or nightmare) I've ever had the other night. I dreamed that I went to HP and to my dismay Skyrush was not running. So I left the park that day hoping that it would be running the next time I visited, but I came on this site to try to see why it might be down and I found to my horror that Hershey had plans to get rid of Skyrush, as they considered it to be too intense. Worse yet, I discovered that they had plans to sell it to Silverwood, of all places, and I was crushed, since I didn't know if I'd ever go out west and I'd never be able to ride it again. So (and obviously I was Donald Trump wealthy in this dream) I contacted HP and offered them more for Skyrush than Silverwood had offered them, and I bought the coaster. I had it dismantled and stored on one of my properties (clearly I had much more than the one acre I currently live on!), and I was walking around looking at the pieces of track waiting for the day I would be able to ride it again.
So then I set about trying desperately to find a park here on the east coast (preferably within driving distance from me) that would buy and install Skyrush. I tried to sell it to SFA, KD and even BGE. For some reason I had to find a place for it soon, and I was getting all the more desperate trying to keep it close by. I woke up as I was still trying to find Skyrush a home close to me.
But the irony is of course (as obviously dreams make no sense) if I had enough money to buy Skyrush, I would have been able to climb aboard my private jet and go to Silverwood and ride it as often as I pleased!
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Santa Cruz? Wow! No wonder I was confused, especially since this pic was in with a whole bunch of pics of Cape May NJ and none of California's coast.
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Back in the early 90's (I'm guessing it was about 92' or 93') I went to Cape May, NJ with my family and while I was there I took a photo of a seaside park not far from where we were staying in Cape May. I wasn't into coasters back then and so all I did was to take a photo of it from my walk along the beach. The park had a steel Zyklon type non-looping coaster and a small white woodie. I looked thru the RCDB and could not find any mention of a park near Cape May that had a woodie. I really do not know how far this was from the town center of Cape May or if I drove a little ways up or down the coast and then hit the beach to take this photo. Does anyone know what park this is/was? I put the photo in a link because of the high resolution needed to see the details in the distance.
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This one's a tough vote for me, for two reasons. One, other than being made by Intamin, both coasters are quite unlike each other in many ways. IMO it would be like comparing Volcano to I-305. Second, the only times I ever rode Maverick was when it had those ear-bashing OTSRs, and I was never really able to appreciate the ride as I was working so hard to defend myself from the blows. I would really have to wait until the next time I get to CP and ride Maverick again and see how I like it without the head battering. But for now, I voted for Millennium Force.
Kennywood (KW) Discussion Thread
in Theme Parks, Roller Coasters, & Donkeys!
Posted
Thanks!