Joe21498

1. Name 3 of your favorite roller coasters, but not your top 3. Hades (1st Year), Montu, & Ravine Flyer II 2. About how many different parks did you visit in 2018? 8 3. Which 2018 park visit was your favorite? Magic Kingdom 4. Your favorite 2018 park addition (ride, food, show, etc)? Toy Story Land - Hollywood Studios 5. What ride exceeded your expectations the most in 2018? Steel Vengeance 6. Best meal/food at a park in 2018? 50's Prime Time Cafe - Hollywood Studios 7. What was your favorite new coaster of 2018 NOT made by RMC or Larson? Still Steel Vengeance, i can't follow directions. 8. Name one park you will definitely visit in 2019. Cedar Point 9. Best ride themed to a bird? Soaring 10. Lamest ride/coaster you rode in 2018? The spinning coaster at IAAPA, it was terrible 11. What roller coaster currently sits at the top of your bucketlist? (degree of difficulty: NOT a new-for-2019 ride) Formula Rosa 12. What new-for-2019 ride or coaster are you most looking forward to? Yukon Striker 13. Name the first totally middle-of-the-road (not bad/not great) park that comes to mind. Mt. Olympus Water & Theme Park 14. You're in Orlando and magically have a 1-hour ERT session on 1 coaster of your choice at any park in the city. You choose... Mako, if I also had a time machine Dueling Dragons 15. Holiday In The Park vs. Winterfest. Who reigns supreme? Holiday i guess 16. Mystic Timbers mystery shed or Wicker Man fire infusion? Fire 17. Which Six Flags have you been to most recently? I don't remember, that's how awesome the experience was. 18. Intamin or Schwarzkopf? You may only choose one. Intamin 19. Battle of Kings Coasters: Island or Dominion? Pick one. Dominion, haven't been in like 15 years 20. What was the longest you waited for a ride/coaster in 2018? 2 hours 21. What roller coaster have you ridden more than any other? Magnum at Cedar Point 22. Best drop tower under 150 feet? No clue 23. Maverick or Millennium Force? (If you haven't been to CP, pick what you want to ride more) Maverick (only if they would ever get rid of the stop in the tunnel and launch it out into the second half a hair slower so they could get rid of the brakes on the next hill. That whole sequence just makes the ride pacing bad.) 24. Log flumes or sky rides? You can only choose one. Log Flumes 25. What are 3 things you enjoying doing at your home park other than riding rides? Drinking alcohol, hanging in the pool and people watching. 26. What is your second favorite Cedar Fair park and why? Canadas' Wonderland, it is close to home and near a cool metropolitan city. 27. What is your home park and give us two good reasons why we should pay it a visit. Cedar Point. Steel Vengeance is awesome and the park has a unrivaled location with epic views. 28. Launch or Lift? Lift 29. Did you buy fast pass at all in 2018? Yes, got them as part of a 2019 season pass buyer promo. 30. What is your least favorite wooden coaster? Hurler and PKD (RIP) 31. Disney fanboys: cool or cult? Cult but fun for a change of pace from the coaster parks 32. Best Batman themed ride? None, the original B&M inverts are awesome rides but theming was not great. 33. Name something that tend to take home from parks that you didn't bring with you. Park Map 34. Best wooden coaster over 110 feet tall? (rcdb will help you) Voyage (1st year) 35. Have you ever been hit with something (loose change/a tree/vomit/etc) while riding something? Yes, numerous times, change, glasses, hats, caught a phone out of mid air once. 36. Skywarps: credits or no? State your case. Don't know what this is 37. Turkey legs: nah or yaaaaassssss? Never tried one, need to do that in 2019. 38. What is the most recent B&M that you rode? Manta 39. You can eat nothing but corn dogs, churros or funnel cake for the next 48 hours, which do you choose? Corn dogs 40. Post a great on-ride shot of you from 2018. (DO IT!) Never buy those

I took all those pictures with my new Samsung Galaxy S3 cell phone including the Panoramas. All of the ones I put online are compressed for the internet and since I am not a TPR Photo Trip reporting expert I don't know a ton about how to get awesome quality photos on this site. Overall I am quite impressed with the photo ability of this phone, although I am sure Robb wouldn't approve as he seems to be a Android hater for some reason. Leviathan is a good coaster. I would rate it slightly better than Millennium Force, although I did have an afternoon warm ride on Behemoth that was really good and seemed better to me than my early morning rides on Leviathan.

I think that Canada's Wonderland and its staff were extremely accommodating on this day. The amount of information they were willing to share was very surprizing to me especially for a Cedar Fair park as they seem to be usually be more tight lipped about everything. I was actually surprized that some of the questions that were asked by patrons of the event were answered and not just given a no comment response. I specifically liked hearing the managements view of Ouimet, it still gives me the feeling that he has really changed the tone of the company. Canada's Wonderland management mentioned having freedom to run their own park basically, which gave me the idea they are not being micro-managed and that seems like a good thing to me. Also the discussion of his plan to invest largely in one of the big 4 on a rotational basis sounds like a great idea. So it make me wonder if Knott's or Kings Island is going to get the next big investment. Overall again this was a really well organized and fun event. I plan on going to more TPR events in the future for sure.

Headed out to Leviathan Bash for my first TPR trip experience with my friend Matt a few weeks ago. Overall had an awesome time, major thanks goes out to Robb and everyone else involved who made this happen, it was all well worth the cost and travel. If you have never been to a TPR event I highly recommend it. Overall Notes: - ERT on Leviathan was awesome - We were feed like pigs, every 2 hours I was stuffing my face with some kind of food during this event - TPR Quest is hilarious - Canada's Wonderland staff was great and slightly unaware of what they were in for with a TPR group Arriving in the early AM for check in. Leviathan dominates the new skyline at Canada's Wonderland! Early morning test runs while Robb and the crew passed out credentials Leviathan The Bat, this was our replacement ERT for Wild Beast Vortex, this coaster has a very scenic atmosphere Headed toward the out of control swinging brake run Sky Rider, which during park managment interviews during the day has no plans of being removed in the near future. It was mentioned that it is reliable and cot effective still. This was also mentioned about Vortex as well as the fact they replaced a 40' section of Vortex this past off-season. Matt wearing a Miller Lite cardboard box hat for the scavenger hunt. We did our best but the winning team got a perfect score. How many men (and 4 ladies maybe) can fit inside Leviathan at once???? This is the winter maintenance area as well Normal people waiting in line....how silly! Nerd gathering in the infield of Wild Beast Artsy shadows It looks so much cooler than it actually is Wild Beast storage and maintenance area Leviathan's first drop from the infield of Dragon Fire How close you can get on a TPR trip to an active rollercoaster, we were told to not walk under the tracks while a train was passing after i took this. Me by the main drop support of Leviathan, it is so huge you can't get the whole thing in the picture. The main footer was a popular photo spot for everyone. Dragon Fire Helix Up-wheel shot of Leviathan Wild Beast and a TPR crew of people

Here is the article with the quotes from a Matt's email: http://www.sanduskyregister.com/sandusky/news/cedar-fair/memo-cedar-point-build-coaster-2013 If I have learned one thing about Matt thus far it is that tradition and the legacy of his former boss Richard are not going to stop him from putting his mark on this company. He seems to make quick, educated decisions with a new set of eyes for the company that seem positive and shows progress rather than a stagnant attitude of living in the past. Obviously he may not have been involved with this project since day one as it usually is a 2 or 3 year process but he seems to grasp general concepts to run a company correctly. I like how employee moral seems to be improved greatly since his takeover as well as the changes he has made thus far seem to be all positive.

I would love to go but I am a un-employed auto worker from Mi right now, so if anyone would like to donate to pay for my trip then sign me up.

Friday: My girlfriend, her step sister, and I headed to the park for an Opening Day weekend traditional visit. We arrived at the Season Pass Center at around 4:30 PM on Friday afternoon. Since we already had our vouchers we easily completed processing our passes within 15 minutes. This new system operates much faster and more efficiently than the old one, although I’m not a huge fan of not having the picture printed on the card even though it shows up when scanned. Also the card material seems thinner and less durable than previous seasons. After processing we headed around the Peninsula to Hotel Breakers. We did the package deal so at check inn we got our coupon book. We then headed to our outdated, semi-clean room. We were in the Bon-Air wing of Breakers which in my opinion is in rough shape. I have come to the conclusion that the only benefit of Breakers is its walking distance to the park and that is where the connivances end. Our room was somewhat small and had been used enough to show visible signs of wear that are not normally seen at most hotels. For the amount of money these rooms bring in, they need to be remodeled. Our room didn’t have any garbage cans in it but this was the first night the Hotel was open for the year so I’ll let it slide that they forgot. We got the garbage cans on Saturday afternoon. After check inn we went to Downtown Sandusky for a bit of a different experience than we normally go for. We normally go to chain restaurant on 250 but I decided to try a local establishment. We went to some Irish looking Pub downtown. The food was decent especially for the price and the experience with the locals was interesting to say the least. We got the standard you don’t belong here look when we walked in (The same look you give to newbie’s at your local bar) because we obviously didn’t fit the normal demographic of the locals. We all had burgers and some chicken fingers for appetizers and it was decent. After dinner we headed back to Breakers. We decided to try our hand at some golf since we had free coupons with our package. My girlfriend won the 18 hole round with a 47 on the blue course and I had a 49. She was quite excited since she had never beaten me before. Her sister didn’t do very well and shot somewhere in the high 50’s. After golf we watched some TV and went to bed. Saturday: Saturday morning we headed into the park early. We entered at the beach gate since the Magnum gate line was huge at around 8:30 so I decided to see if the beach gate was shorter. It was very short right up till a few minutes before 9:00 so we got in fast. We headed to MF and easily rode 2 times without waiting. The crew was fast and energetic but some members were confused and nervous on their first day. I remember one girl checked my seat about 6 times literally the second time we rode because she seemed very nervous about making sure everyone was strapped in properly. MF rode very smooth and slightly slower like a usual early morning early season ride. Next was Iron Dragon. The first drop on this ride always gets my stomach for some reason even though it is small it is still fun. Then we headed to Raptor for two quick spins before our ERT hour ended. Raptor is a great ride especially in the last row in the far right seat. The drop in over the Midway is just great from this seat. We then rode Blue Streak after about a 10 minute wait. The park was getting slightly busy in the front of the park at this point already. Blue Streak is a great classic wooden coaster. It was running very good and gave us a nice smooth airtime filled ride. I did have to sit next to a very annoying teen that kept making strange noises over and over during the trip. Next we went over to the new Planet Snoopy to check out how it looked. We all got our pictures taken with some plastic characters and some live characters. It was fun and the new area did look nice for children. We then rode the Corkscrew, which in my opinion has the longest sustained ejector airtime in the park. If you haven’t ever sat in the last row of this machine and felt the first bunny hop before the loop you really need to give it a try. The rest of the ride is somewhat painful though from this seat. Next we rode Magnum with no trim or very light trim. This was an excellent laugh filled ride as usual. No matter how many times I ride it I always find myself laughing at the end. Yes it can be painful but for some reason it is a funny painful experience. I was surprised to see all 3 trains operating on Magnum since the night before the Fiberglass shell was removed from the front car of one train when we went to bed. Nice work by the maintenance department to get this put back together in time for opening day. We then headed toward the back of the park skipping Gemini, Maverick, and Mean Streak. The Maverick line was almost to capacity when we walked by at around 10:30. We did ride the CCMR and tried to ride Skyhawk but it had just gone down. We also had my girlfriends step sister practice driving us around on the Cadillac cars in the back of the park. After the Cadillac cars we walked all the way back up to the main midway sky ride and took that to the front of the park. It was about lunch time now so we headed over to the Game Day Grill. We used our Platinum passes and received 3 free appetizers (One for each Platinum Pass, which I’m not sure if this was the way the promotions is actually supposed to work or not) with our meals. This is a really valuable Platinum pass benefit because this saved us approximately 30 dollars. We also used our Breakers package munch money for this meal so it cost us less than 20 bucks including a healthy 10 dollar tip for our excellent waitress. The food was delicious and very filling. I would say this is some of the best food in the park since they closed Chuck – o – Wagon’s Chicken. We then meet up with some friends that were staying with us on Saturday night. After we got them all settled in we tried to go see the new Country Show. We got there at 2:35 and we couldn’t find any good seats so we went for a MF ride instead. The line was to the pop machines and it took us 1 hour to ride from this point in line. This ride was a bit faster than the morning ride due to the fairly warm day we had. We then rode the Wildcat after waiting about one half hour in line. We had a person in the group who had never ridden the Wildcat so we had to give it a spin. For the overall size of this ride it is still very cool. After the Wildcat we headed down 250 to Buffalo Wild Wings for dinner. We also watched the Pistons beat the Orlando Magic by 1 point. Since I’m a huge Pistons fan this was obviously awesome. This Buffalo Wild Wings can be hit or miss when it comes to service. Once we actually got a waitress she wasn’t exactly thrilled to be doing her job. It seems the staff at this location is always arguing with each other while in front of the customers. One time last year I even witnessed a near fist fight between staff members. The food was excellent though and the outcome of the game was as well. After a few drinks we headed back to the park (The minor in the group who didn’t drink drove us back). We then went to TGIF in Breakers to do a shot before going back into the park. 4 shots, 1 for each person, were 41 bucks. It was a large shot but that was a bit ridiculous. Lets’ just say we won’t be going back to the CP TGIF for drinks anymore, outrageous prices. Once we were in the park we wanted to try the new privilege of drinking alcohol in line that is being allowed this year but we couldn’t find a close enough place to buy alcohol in the park. Now I’m not a drinker usually but I was on vacation so I was having a tiny bit of fun and this was a major buzz kill. The park needs to adapt some universal traits and have drinks available right on the midway from carts. We then got in line for TTD and rode right around closing time. Very normal ride on TTD, we cleared the top with no signs of slowing. We then left the park for the night. While in line for TTD we had called for our TGIF survey to earn a free appetizer. We went back to TGIF to get the appetizer and then headed to bed for the night. Sunday: Sunday morning we entered the park at 9 and rode MF in the rain 2 times, which was painful, and then headed home. When we left the main parking lot only the very first full row had cars in it. The park was empty but I’m sure the rain made for a terrible day for those who went. Overall it was an average trip to the park. They seemed to be prepared in some areas and not in others. Also I was somewhat disappointed that the new ride in Challenge Park was not assembled yet.

So you are not sure if the rides are open on this Friday evening? I have been to the website and also tried calling the park but haven't had any success.

What is the coaster lineup for Carowinds on this coming Friday (Oct. 19) night? Are only some of the 12 coasters open on Friday nights or are all rides open? I am going to be in the area on Friday night and want to know if it is worth hitting up the park. Hopefully Carowinds isn't like Cedar Point on a Friday and not every coaster is open. Also I am a Cedar Point Season pass holder, does this get me into Carowinds on a Friday night? From my understanding it does and then if I want to go into the Sacarowinds portion of the park that will be extra. Is this correct?

Thank you!

What is the more common language spoken at this park? Is it a mixture of both French and English?

La Ronde? I can't seem to find the park operating days and hours for this park. I am planning a trip and need to know when they are open, someone please link me to a schedule or tell me when and if they are open tomorrow (I happen to be in the area).

Photo trip reports from Busch Gardens and Las Vegas can be found by following the link. Please give me some feedback about the reports. Thanks. http://home.comcast.net/~joe21498/index.htm

Has anyone used on of these recently and found it to be a good value. I'm wondering if this is a good idea to keep busy for a a few days on a 4 day trip.