BDD27

Here's a little report from this Friday. I got to the park around 11:00am for my first trip to the park since 2016. Started the day with the good ol' Loch Ness Monster. I mean HOW CAN YOU NOT LOVE AN ARROW? No,lie I've said it a million times, but I love arrows with all my heart and Loch Ness is one of the best the drops in the back row give some classic out of your seat floater airtime. Not gonna lie though, I miss the color scheme of the old trains. Next on the list was the shiny new Finnegan's Flyer! This was my first screamin swing type ride, and honestly I really enjoyed it. The ride is in a really nice area and provides a very relaxing yet fun and floaty ride. From there, I ate over near the big bridge, as usual Busch Gardens food is much better than Six Flags/Cedar Fair butt burgers. The next ride of the day was Apollo's Chariot. As the original B&M hyper I have to say it has held up very well and the new paint job is looking great. I'd put it a bit under Nitro as my favorite B&M hyper, but it is an outstanding ride (plus it has an interesting history thanks to Fabio ). At this point I made my way to Verboten which is an incredible ride. Verboten definitely has a touch of everything and as much as I will always miss the Big Bad Wolf it is definitely a worthy successor. Invadr was next, and provided a pleasant ride. Certainly not my favorite GCI, but it is still a good ride and the park needed a good woodie. Invadr is more of a family coaster in my opinion and I'd place it lower than say Mystic Timbers or Lightning Racer. Horse colla.... I mean Comfort Collar the ride was next. I do enjoy this ride, but it would be better off with just the lap bar and the ride is getting a bit over cookie cluttered. The last two coasters Griffon and Alpengeist did there usual thing and were amazing! Thankfully Alpengeist seems to have let off on the mcbr again a bit. Once the coasters were done I had to go pin trading because as if it wasn't fun enough in Disney now I can do it with roller coaster pins, Welp there goes my money. Now for some pictures Required Picture, although if you stand here in person it's understandable why Oh how I miss wolfie, but you too are a very enjoyable ride (my girlfriend didn't know about the drop track) I hope you can hear this image like I do Le Scoot has company nowadays in the form of a little GCI Apollo's Chariot hasn't looked this pretty since a bird met Fabio's face I braved Griffon's splash zone for this picture I'm glad Griffon still has the classic B&M restrains This is my favorite ride in the park, yes I have a problem I know 2 thumbs up from me on this one! Finnegan's is a great addition to the park Ah the legendary zero car All in all a great day at the park I mean how can you not have a great day at a park that sells swords? And finally MY PIN ADDICTION GROWS!

This was every ride in the park all day. The only ride that had even a minor wait was Thunderhawk because of 1 train ops, but hey I'm not gonna complain about how dead Dorney is. I enjoy front row walk ons

Went to the park today for opening day, it ended up being a nice day. The park was completely dead, but then again I feel like Dorney normally is. All the coasters were running well, although it felt a bit bittersweet riding possessed after the death of volcano. I will say I enjoy visiting Dorney as I don't have to rush around the park to hit every ride, but I can take my time and enjoy rerides and experience everything including a great collection of flats. While not the best hyper, I do genuinely enjoy steel force and find it to be the best of the Morgan hypers that I have experienced Thunderhawk in the back row is actually a really fun ride and I love the newer sleek trains on it I hope to never see this ride leave, first gen drop towers are amazeballs, sadly I only got one ride as it was down for most of the day Hydra is a pretty good ride, not as good as Talon, but definitely a unique fun floorless coaster The jo-jo roll is definitely a unique element Talon is a great ride, my third favorite invert behind Banshee and Alpengeist Possessed is a super fun ride and now the only way I can get a volcano like taste, but alas great launches Love the sound of the LIM's The trout pond is a nifty little spot in Dorney worth a look, you can find it next to Demon Drop At the end of a nice opening day, no lines and no rain makes for a great day!

Looks like X-Base is about to get a little more exciting!

Went to the park today for a nice little trip and to pick up my season pass. Got to see wonder woman testing up close. I have to admit it is pretty impressive in action and it looks to be a great addition to the park. I actually had an enjoyable ride on green lantern in the back row so that was pretty cool. The new pant job on superman is looking pretty good, but I hope this attention gets paid to all the coasters in the park eventually. From what it looked like where the park welded the coasters in the off season, they did not touch up the areas they welded. It was especially visible on Green Lantern and Batman, which is understandable considering they are pretty old. Wonder Woman doing a bit of testing today Here you can see what appears to be off-season welding done on Batman where the track is grey. It was visible all over the ride A little nod to my first coaster, still a pretty good mine train even today! Bizarro was running really well with all the effects working. I have a love hate relationship with this ride, I like the layout, but it loses points for being a stand up and killing my beloved scream machine. Regardless gave a good ride today! Didn't get to ride Toro today, although I'm interested how the track work in the twister section feels. I do wish they would use pouches like on some of the rmc coasters so I could use my phone in line. Nitro doing its thing, never giving a bad ride And that's a wrap for the day! I'm glad the weather held out and made for a nice day at my home park.

Might be heading to the park tomorrow depending on the weather which isn't looking too good right now, but then again it will probably be dead and a good day just to pick up my season pass In other news I'm really looking forward to 2020 for Great Adventure and praying we finally get a new big non cookie cutter coaster, while I can see why the park might stray away from an RMC woodie since we have El Toro, I'd really like to see either a new launched coaster perhaps like Maxx Force. All said and done though what I really want to see though is the newer gci woodie we saw at IAAPA this past year. I would be really interested in what they can do with the new technology. Considering GCI is now saying they are going to make wooden coaster that invert and can possibly even launch. Something like that would be perfect for great adventure it wouldn't detract from El Toro much, but it would still be an awesome unique addition and I think we are in dire need of another wooden coaster.

Definitely looks like a nice well paced family coaster, looks great too. It certainly looks like a winner.

^Maybe rough is the wrong word to use, but I find that some B&M coasters develope a rattle/vibration over time. By no means is Dominator a bad ride to me, it definitely adds quality and variety to Kings Dominion considering it is there only B&M coaster and is a top notch attraction. Compared to the many other B&M inverts and floorless coasters I've been on I just find Dominantor to have a strange rattle that the others don't. I'll just stay in my own little world and enjoy getting thrown around by old arrow loopers while they are still around

^Cedar fair will go out of their way to keep some charm in the parks, hence the beast prints being brought back, whereas at six flags you don't even know what your riding anymore the roller coasters have just become giant speeding ads I'm actually amazed the walkways in the parks haven't been plastered yet, but regardless I'll take charm over ads any day in the long run to me it will bring in more people and make up for not having ads

I can totally understand that, when I was younger and first started riding coasters the aspect of a lap bar being the only thing holding you in was terrifying, but once I got over that fear it was all about comfort, and I don't think you can get much more comfortable than B&M hype/giga trains

At least we are starting to see a trend away from over the shoulder and collar type restraints. A few years ago I could have never imagined an RMC style ride with the lap bar restraints they have, so at least we can look forward to the future where the industry seems to be pushing for more comfortable, less restrictive restraints. Along with that the idea that lap bars are "less safe" or whatever issue parks have with them will be a thing of the past.

So here's a trip report from last weekend. It was meant to be a KD/BG trip but we ended up just relaxing and staying at Kings Dominion all weekend. Friday was a cool rainy day and the park ended up closing early at 5pm, regardless it was completely dead so we walked right on to everything. I have to say after years of anticipation I finally got on my first rmc and twisted timbers did not disappoint. The fact that a park can turn a terrible wooden coaster into a masterpiece still blows my mind. Intimidator is still a top 10 for me and I really wish more parks would buy intamin gigas. Anaconda was running rather well and I thoroughly enjoy it, but that might just be because i have a disorder where arrow loopers are my favorite coasters. All in all it was a fun trip with short waits the whole time. I will say though I'm really really gonna miss Volcano. I've had a special place in my heart for that ride since I was a kid and the park really just doesn't feel the same without it. I really hope it has a worthy successor. At least now avalanche might be a little bit more dead Rebel Yell ehhhh I mean Racer 75 was running well it seems like the park has been doing a good amount of track work the past few years I might be in the small minority, but Dominator is not my favorite floorless coaster and I actually find it quite rough compared to the other floorless coasters I'd actually take Anaconda over Dominator any day, but I'd still like to know what they were thinking when they designed the part before the corkscrews This beast really is the star of the show the park has a really good 1 2 punch now with timbers and intimidator Losing this beauty does hurt the lineup a bit though It never stops looking good does it? Apple Zapple is actually a really fun ride I find it to be way more fun than the average wild mouse style ride I was a little sad that Anaconda's splash effect wasn't working I'm not sure if it wasn't ready for the season yet or they just don't use it anymore, but I always thought it was a neat effect I think I might have to go ride the rest of the rmc coasters now!!! And the trains look really nice too! Can't forget about this little classic either I was really surprised to find out kings dominion has fried oreos, BUT I LOVE THEM One more just because this ride is so good My only shot of grizzly, I used to really love this ride, but it really needs work it's gotten unbearably rough and I really hope the park notices and does some track work Hey that ride isn't on the map And it really breaks my heart to know it never will be again... RIP Volcano, you will be missed I'll be back again soon!

Taking a weekend trip down to Kings Dominion and possibly Busch Gardens. Started out at the Dominion today. Finally after waiting years I managed to get on my first RMC! I gotta admit twisted timbers does not disappoint. The park ended up closing early at 5 due to rain but I will be back tomorrow. It looked like demo on Volcano continues and the covered shed at the end of the first launch is now completely gone, definitely gonna miss that ride. Not a bad day all in all, rainy but it was completely dead every ride was a walk on

Hopefully this means a Nitro repaint comes along pretty soon too!

Iron Dragon, but it's still the same layout just 799 ft off the ground.

This one really hits home. I never really even considered that volcano might be near the end of its life. I was always worried about Anaconda and Shockwave, at least when Shockwave was around. I'll say whatever replaces it has big shoes to fill. Volcano was a special ride and it will definitely be missed. I will say I must have been lucky because in my five trips to Kings Dominion I have never actually seen Volcano break down, so I am very thankful for all the rides I got on it.

Cyborg always seems to break on me when I am there is it comparable to Twister at all? I've heard mixed things on Cyborg and I'm still waiting for my opportunity to ride

A bit late on the report, but here are a few pictures and a small trip report from my stop at Great Adventure on November 25th. We arrived at the park at around 1pm and stayed until right at close. With temperatures in the high 50's and low 60's and crowds low, it was certainly a good day. Everything was running well although Green Lantern still stinks and to this day I am still mad at the park losing the Scream Machine. Batman had this rather strange very prominent rattle I noticed that I had never heard before. Not sure if it had something to do with being so late in the season or possibly something else, but it was still running smooth and efficiently. During my trip I also decided to take my first lap on Cyborg cyber spin, but as soon as I was next in line it decided to go down for an extended period of time By the end of the night crowds had thinned and basically everything was a walk on. The night was finished out with 8 rides on Nitro in a row without getting off! Although I will say by the end of that marathon the cold was most certainly starting to get to me. A few other things I noticed around the park included the beautiful displays of lights which really illuminated the park for the holidays. I also noticed how within the past year loose items are now must all be put in lockers on the Joker. While, I understand this policy I find it rather frustrating for many reasons and bringing bins back to all coasters would make the process much less frustrating for everyone. With the policy spreading to the Joker it makes me wonder if it will eventually spread to all coasters. All in all I had a good day and certainly enjoyed some late season coaster riding If I have any takeaways from great adventure, it is that they need a new major coaster soon. The Joker was a solid addition, and Green Lantern was meh, so really it has been almost 13 years since a true new major coaster that isn't a smaller cookie cutter or relocation and I am really hoping for an RMC or other newer coaster for 2020! Nitro always looking fine, and riding better. I will say after almost 20 years it needs a repaint! Batman still runs great for being over 25 years old. I would love to know what the rattling noise was that it was making The holiday lights were really cool! The lit up trails through the trees were my favorite part of the displays I thought the walk through ornament was a really cool display I still hate this ride, although if converted to a floorless I think it might just be better than Bizzaro The park was so dead even superman was a walk on The marshmallow pits were a great idea and really come in handy when you need to warm up The tree made a nice Centerpiece to the park I really liked the addition of candy cane trees The joker was definitely a nice addition my ride on it lacked much flipping that night, but nonetheless a fun ride and in my opinion a must do And that was a wrap on a wonderful HITP event, thanks for reading!

I will be making my first Holiday in the Park trip today! I am really excited for this as I have never actually been to a Christmas time event at any park, so I'm not entirely sure what to expect crowd wise especially on a clear skied warm Sunday, but I will definitely try to provide some pictures!

Arrow stands by far as my favorite coaster company. My top 3 roller coasters I have been on are all arrows. GADV's GASM, Kings Islands Vortex, and Busch Gardens Loch Ness Monster. Since losing my favorite, the Scream Machine, I have made it a goal to get out and ride as many as I can. Between the great drops, awesome loops, and other features such as beauty, rollback noise, layouts, etc. Arrows will always be my favorites. They gave me my obsession with coasters, and without them I do not know where I would be. Call me crazy, but I do not find them rough at all. The only rough spot I found on any of them is the bottom of LNM's first loop. TBH, I actually find some B&M's like the batman clones and Dominator to actually be more rough then arrows. I can only hope the remaining arrows live on. There is no other experience like them, and while some may hate them and others love them. Once that ever so familiar lift hill and rollback noise stops, there is going to be an emptiness. It will never be filled again and will only remain in our memories. I lost my favorite roller coaster to soon. There is an emptiness in Great Adventure now, my home park. It cannot be filled by any B&M. I just wish they could last forever.

1920: Thunderhawk @Dorney 1930: N/A 1940: Comet @Hershey 1950: Matterhorn @ Disney 1960: Blue Streak @Cedar Point 1970: Loch Ness Monster @Busch Gardens 1980: Vortex @kings Island 1990: Viper @Magic Mountain 2000: Storm Runner @Hershey 2010: I305 @kings dominion

Went to the park today. It wasn't the worst opening day, it was actually pretty good amazing weather. I do have to say though I watched a guy get hit in the face on El Toro with a phone an inch closer and it would have been his eye I was sitting directly behind him too. Other than that though it was a great day

Well I must say is am impressed with the drop tower, but on the other hand rolling thunder makes me sad. I mean yeah it wasn't the best wooden coaster but it holds value. People share so many memories of the ride from its heyday, as a first coaster for the racing factor, the year it went backwards and how the park grew around it. Gadv doesn't have many rides like this left it wasn't the best but for anyone who really knows gadv this ride is special and I'm sure gonna miss it.

In my opinion arrow coasters are amazing they are my favorite coasters my favorites being vortex and the great american scream machine. Then I love the suspended coasters too I don't get the hate I find them comfortable and fun, but sadly they are a dying breed.

So, I thought I would post my first trip report. It is from 2011, but nonetheless it was right when green lantern opened. Here is my first gl photo It was about an hour wait with a breakdown, but It was my first standup I hope this ride stays around for awhile longer I have to say Bizzaro is boring to me it has nothing to offer Arrow Coasters are becoming rare...Sad its my favorite coaster company Required shot All I can say is this ride was done right Lift shot Batman, still great after almost 20 years And ill leave you with my favorite shot of the day another gl That was a great day got on everything, but best of all was el toro during the fireworks. Hope you enjoyed my first photo trip report!