azza29

Timber Mountain Log Ride is my #1. Grizzly River Run is another favourite. In terms of non-themed water rides, I love the way the log flumes at Lake Compounce and Knoebels wind through the trees, and the double-down drop on Hersheypark's Coal Cracker is a great ending.

I forgot to add that I actually thought it was on OK ride, despite seeming quite rickety! One of the only downsides to taking a trip like this was that because we experienced so many new coasters in such a short space of time there are some unfair comparisons made. If I hadn't experienced Flight of Fear a week earlier at KI then I'm sure Joker would have seemed more exciting, and sandwiching SFA in between Hersheypark and BGW probably made for some unflattering contrasts.

Part Thirteen: Washington D.C. After a week straight of theme parks, it was time to experience some culture, and a visit to the national capital was in store. We had a fairly standard tourist itinerary, visiting the major sites in DC, a baseball game, and of course Six Flags America. A highlight of this visit was seeing the Udvar-Hazy Center at the National Air & Space Museum. We only went because our planning Kings Dominion day had been washed out and this was plan B. It was very, very cool to see a Concorde and a Space Shuttle in person. Both represent a pinnacle of human ingenuity and achievement, and are impressive feats of engineering. The baseball game (Nationals v Mets) was a lot of fun. The Nationals got creamed but still a great atmosphere, and a new stadium credit (it was awesome that you can see the Capitol from the stadium!). Like Canberra, Washington's meticulously planned design gives it a an attractive yet slightly sterile aesthetic. DC's subway system has some stunning stations - the one at L'Enfant Plaza looks like something out of a James Bond film. Six Flags America. It wasn't terrible (I'd heard bad things about their regular crowd) but did seem like the bare minimum of what you need to have a theme park. It started pouring just after we'd done our credit run so I didn't get many photos, but to be honest there wasn't much to get excited about. Coaster clones and other parks' sloppy seconds, with Superman being the only ride that I'd go back for. Apocalypse was OK for a standup coaster, and at least the park had gone to some effort of theming it. Mind Eraser was the roughest SLC of the trip, and reminded me of the bad old days of Lethal Weapon at Movie World. Batwing was closed during our visit, and Joker's Jinx was not as exciting as it's enclosed cousins. Wild One was decent enough but Roar gave some very, very rough rides. Washington! Unfortunately the monument was still under repair after the 2011 earthquake. I wouldn't mind checking it out once it reopens. There seemed to be a lot of construction works happening when we visited, I assume this is because a lot of work had been put off until after the inauguration in February. First stop - the Air & Space Museum. This might look like a prop from a middle-school musical, but it's actually a lunar module! Lots of planes. Lower right is the outside of a 747 cockpit you can go inside. The Wright Flyer. Not quite an Airbus A380, but you've got to start somewhere. Why did we not build these?! Rockets! The one on the left is reminiscent of the rocket featured in the Destination Moon Tintin comic. One of the cooler sights was the Sculpture Garden. An eclectic mix of things to look at, like this. It's a pyramid made of cubes... I don't know what that means. Flat house. I'd love to have one of these in my yard. National Museum of American History. Lots of patriotism on display here. They had some really awesome exhibits, like Kermit! Some less awesome, like this display of electricity meters. I guess there are coffee cup lid enthusiasts somewhere... This train looks a lot like the one from Back to the Future III. Bravo. Nobody has ever taken this photo before. Quote from my brother: "it looks much bigger in Independence Day!" The scene at the White House viewing fence. The Lincoln Memorial. As made famous by the film "National Treasure 2". The man himself. I don't have a particularly comprehensive knowledge of American history but had watched Lincoln on the flight over. Ending slavery and a civil war: not a bad set of achievements! Another angle that I'm sure nobody has found before... That evening we headed to Nationals Park for our first MLB baseball game! There's a semi-professional league in Australia but baseball sits somewhere between ice hockey and women's cricket here. Managed to get OK seats without spending too much. We were pretty lucky with warm weather making for a pleasant night, but the final score was about 10-1 in favour of the Mets. I was impressed by how many people had made it out to the game on a Wednesday night! The next day started with a visit to the Capitol building. We took the tour, which was pretty impressive. It's definitely a grander building than Australia's Parliament House, and every detail has some meaning behind it. Six Flags America might not be the flagship of the chain, but it probably has the best entrance. Mandatory fountain photo. Unfortunately once you get past the entry plaza the park isn't much to look at. Apocalypse! I am told the wrecked car is definitely theming and wasn't just left there by the previous owners. The fire effects were fun. There's a coaster train in this photo somewhere. I though Apocalyse was a serviceable B&M standup, better than Vortex and Mantis but not quite as good as Riddler's Revenge. More like "Gotham long walkway to because the park layout is terrible". The Wild One. Just about as rickety as they come, this might have been one of the few rides that made me nervous. Slow slow slow slow slow loading. The whole 'spaghetti bowl' design works really well in the Flight of Fear coasters, but out in the daylight it's kind of boring. This is what the world looks like after you ride Mind Eraser twice in a row. Note the trendy Gatekeeper t-shirt. Rain day meant we were not at Kings Dominion as planned, but instead at the Steven F Udvar-Hazy Center. Despite being in the middle of nowhere they still charge for parking, just like Kings Dominion! This place is huge. They fit an entire Concorde and a Boeing 707, just in one wing of the museum. The Airbus A380 might be huge, but I don't think any plane has matched the elegance of the Concorde. The Clipper Flying Cloud - from another era of aviation entirely. Stealth plane. Space Shuttle Discovery. It was thrilling to see one of these in person. This thing made 39 trips into space in its lifetime. In some ways, the Space Shuttle program and the Concorde represent an era when ambition didn't play second fiddle to economics, and imagination became reality. This was also on display. No doubt there will be people who think Transformers is real because a piece of the all-spark was on show at the Smithsonian. The line between pop culture and reality continues to blur... That's all from Washington DC. Next up - Busch Gardens! (and more coaster pictures this time, I promise!)

Montezooma's Revenge was my first. Great coaster!

Local media are reporting the cost of the new ride was $20m. A bit higher than I would have expected, but I guess theming doesn't come cheap! Sea World have added a lot in the last 12 months - Seal Harbour, new Polar Bear enclosure, and now Storm Coaster. I really hope this pays off and they'll be able to keep investing in the park.

So the basketball thing - this is something I didn't encounter in the entire six weeks I spent traveling to US parks earlier this year. Is it more prevalent at certain parks? Or at certain times of the season?

I'd rank the coasters as follows: 1. Maverick 2. Raptor 3. Millennium Force 4. Magnum 5. Gemini 6. Gatekeeper 7. Blue Streak 8. Mean Streak 9. Corkscrew 10. Woodstock Express 11. Mantis 12. Iron Dragon 13. Cedar Creek Mine Ride No ranking for Wicked Twister or TTD, missed out as they were closed due to wind when I visited.

Superman Escape and Scooby Doo at Movie World both have great dark ride sections before the lift/launch. For coasters without a dark ride component, Hydra's jojo roll is very cool.

Dreamworld has a Kung-Fu Panda themed Air Race. Best flat ride at the park!

^Is that a leg lamp ornament I see? Awesome.

I'd be pretty keen on a China tour in 2016 as well. 2015 might be a hard choice if both Europe and Japan trips are on offer!

Part Twelve: Hersheypark I'm going to cut to the chase here: Skyrush is amazing! I had a blast on this coaster - it looks great, is an incredible ride and has huge airtime on some of the hills. The "outside" seats near the back were definitely the best place to ride. And the restraints were fine - no idea what people are complaining about there! Hersheypark is a serious "family" park - there is so much to do even if you're not into rides, like Chocolate World, the zoo, or the waterpark. I could have happily spent a couple of days here just re-riding the coasters, let alone everything else! Apart from Skyrush, Fahrenheit and Lightning Racer were the standouts. Fahrenheit just has that out-of-control, disorienting sensation that a lot of new coasters seem to lack these days. A lot of racing coasters tend towards the tame side, but not Lightning Racer - it was the first woodie of the trip that made both of us say "damn, we have to ride that again right now!". We also checked out Chocolate World - initially the plan was to just take the tour dark ride, but we quickly got sidetracked by all the other activities. The idea of making your own chocolate bar seemed kind of cheesy (pun intended) but it was actually really fun! After Hersheypark, the coaster count for the trip was sitting at 97, with 22 wood and 75 steel. The log flume count was at 11, with the "double-drop" on Hersheypark's Coal Cracker making it an instant favourite! The day begins at Chocolate World! There is a stunning amount of candy in the gift shop. This is only a third of the Reese's Pieces display! The Chocolate Tour dark ride was really well done! It's a hard heart that doesn't love an attraction with singing cows. Time to "make" some chocolate of our own! First up you spend some time designing your bar, including the flavours, filling and packaging. It's sort of like Test Track, except on Test Track you don't get a car at the end! I settled on chocolate chips and berry bits. High-tech dot-matrix displays announce the artist's name at each station. This reminds me of the opening credits of the Willy Wonka movie! The Gene Wilder version, not the weird one with Johnny Depp. "The Sprinkler", a.k.a. what we used to call my high school math teacher (he had a tendency to spit...) It does exactly what you think. Adds sprinkles. Chocolate bar is almost ready. About to be packaged! And we're done! There was a great sense of achievement, despite the fact that all I'd done was push some buttons on a screen. Next stop - Chocolate University. Unlike pizza's three steps, there are four stages to tasting chocolate. One must not only look, smell and taste, but also listen for the sound it makes when broken. Or you could just shovel down candy by the handful like a normal person. The taste test. The caramel chocolate kiss was pretty good. Eventually it was time for some rides! Customary fountain photo. Hersheypark is a really beautiful theme park, it looked great the day we went! "There's money in the banana stand!" For the duck enthusiasts. Great Bear was fairly disappointing - it had the longest wait of any ride (mostly due to fat people not knowing about the bigger seats) and was overall a bit "meh". But Skyrush was amazinggggg! Zoom zoom! There is so much experience built into the design of this coaster - it's definitely one of Intamin's best. Beautiful! Lens flare, half a fountain and a coaster train. If it was 2003 this would be the best coaster photo all time. There is some epic airtime on the hills. I can sort of get why some people think the restraints are uncomfortable, but honestly thought the trains were pretty good! Sitting on the outer seats is definitely the best spot to ride. We were lucky and had a couple of rides with people who were too scared and just wanted to sit in the middle. Sweet! One more glamour shot of Skyrush's first drop. The whole day was worth it just for this ride. Storm Runner was an interesting one. Huge launch with a high inversion, but apart from the first drop it never seems to do much with the height or speed. The rolls are very fun though. And like most Intamins it looks very cool! If you line up the shot just right, you can make it look like the coaster goes into the elk's butt. Not that this was intentional... Next up we checked out the zoo. It was small but had some interesting animals. I think this is some sort of road runner? A sleeping bobcat. Bear. Also sleeping. The prairie dogs were pretty active though. And a resting elk. It was very exciting to see a bald eagle up close. The zoo is big on conservation, and I think this guy had been rescued after an accident in the wild. The real chocolate factory. Where the oompa loompas work, I presume. Rare mine train/monorail double! Whoever planted that tree has a wicked sense of humour. Wildcat was running pretty rough. Millennium Flyers are good, but they don't really help if the track is wearing out. Fahrenheit! I love vertical lifts - they add so much to the anticipation. Norwegian loop is brilliant! And a barrel roll to round out the TR. That's all from Hersheypark, next up we take on the suits in Washington!

Gift received! Thanks to my Secret Santa - I did read the card but will wait to open my presents (one does feel suspiciously like a big bag of candy though! ) And my parcel has been sent today too - had to wait for some cooler weather to give certain food items a fighting chance of arriving in a decent shape. My giftee should get it right in time for Christmas!

I watched the "extended edition" of The Hobbit recently, only about 12 minutes longer but for some reason it works a lot better than the theatrical version, and the CGI looks like it might have been cleaned up in spots too. So I'm optimistic for the next film - after all, Fellowship was the weakest of the first trilogy so it might be the same case again this time around.

As a patriot, I choose Funtime.

^Hasn't it already started? The ride is indoors, so I don't think we're likely to see many photos before it opens.

Got a little card in my mailbox today telling me an 'international' package is waiting at the post office.

Great TR! Kings Dominion is an awesome park - even when i305 isn't running.

^The cynic in me does wonder if parks theme rides to disasters because it means they can get away with less maintenance on the themeing - i.e. Apocalypse at either SFA or SFMM.

There were some fire effects in the CGI POV, and I've seen some marketing copy which mentions fire, but they don't appear to have been turned on yet.

I had a great year - clocked up over 120 new coasters in 2013! Movie World Sea World Wet 'n Wild Dreamworld Disneyland DCA Knotts SFDK CGA Luna Park NYC SFNE Lake Compounce Quassy Waldameer Cedar Point Kings Island Kennywood Knoebels Dorney Park Hersheypark SFA BGW Kings Dominion SFGAdv SFMM Universal Hollywood

I think for me it would depend a lot on the upfront cost. If it was more than 4x the cost of annual pass I'd probably give it a miss - mainly due to "future value of money" and all that. Don't those Golden Oak houses at WDW come with some sort of lifetime pass?

I've only been on B&Ms and one Togo, and the Togo was laughably bad so I'll have to go with B&M on this one. Riddler's Revenge and Green Lantern are both pretty good, although I wasn't a big fan of Mantis, Vortex (CGA) or Apocalypse.

Cedar Fair: Intimidator 305 Six Flags: Bizarro (SFNE) SeaWorld Entertainment: Alpengeist Universal: Revenge of the Mummy (default, have only been to USH) Disney Parks: Big Thunder Mountain (DLR) Palace Entertainment: Phantom's Revenge Village Roadshow Theme Parks: Superman Escape

Thanks for the update! Happy they got this open before Christmas. I'm heading up there with my wet-ride hating brother next weekend, might have to trick him into riding... "no, the water is just for braking - like Diamondback!"