Woodie Warrior

It's a bit late, but I finally got around to my 2014 CoasterMania trip report. Click here! Anyways, can't wait to visit again this weekend!

Continuing our Cedar Point trip report.... The main reason we made our pilgrimage to Cedar Point was for their coaster enthusiasts event, CoasterMania. With ERT from 7am to past midnight, and an excellent lunch (not to mention an awesome cruise around the peninsula), Cedar Point really does pull out all the stops for this event. Anyway, here was our scorecard for the day: -Iron Dragon 3x -Millennium Force 2x -GateKeeper 2x -Wicked Twister 2x -WindSeeker 1x -maXair 1x -Blue Streak 2x -Maverick 1x -Cedar Point and Lake Erie Railroad 1.5x -Mantis 1x -Sky Ride 1x -Magnum XL-200 1x -Cadillac Cars 1x -Raptor 2x -GateKeeper 3x -Sky Ride 1x -Millennium Force 1x -Maverick 2x -SkyHawk 1x -Gemini- Red 2x -Magnum XL-200 6x TOTAL= 37.5 rides (the ".5" is from a ride around half the course of the Railroad) Not too bad of a day, and the weather was gorgeous. Onto the photos and the report! So we arrived early in the morning, around 5-6am, and the line for registration was hundreds of people long. Nevertheless, we got through the line fairly quickly and entered the park. CP gave us a nice breakfast with donuts, orange juice, and a few other options. Then it was time to ride! Our first stop was Iron Dragon. Being a rather tame coaster, it had no wait at all and we scored three rides. Next, we headed to Millennium Force, which had about a 10 minute wait, so we rode twice. We rode in the second row one of the times, and man, it was incredible. This next year I hope to be able to ride in the front seat. That'll be insane. We tried to visit Raptor next, but it was down for some reason, so we hopped right over to GateKeeper, which is one of my favorites. It's smooth, fun, and always enjoyable. After that, we went straight to Wicked Twister. As you can see, it's very photogenic. It's also very fun to ride. And it may be fun, but when compared to other attractions at the park its sort of boring. We still rode it twice. Then it was time for Windseeker. For some reason, this ride scared the crap out of me. I mean, I felt more secure on SkyScreamer at SFSTL, which seems strange. Maybe it's because of WindSeeker's habit of breaking down? I don't know what it is, but I was genuinely terrified, which has really never happened to me on a ride before. Our next stop more than made up for it. MaXair is probably my favorite flat ride ever. It's like a Screamin' Swing knocked up a notch. My sister was nauseous afterwards, so I didn't ride again, but it was an extremely fun ride. I can't wait to ride it again this year! Finishing up our morning ERT was Blue Streak. I heard so many things about this ride, and it did not live up to the hype. The ride felt very bumpy and I really didn't get that much airtime. For a ride from the 60s, it's not that bad, but it's certainly not the amazing ride everybody makes it out to be. After our first ride on BS, it was getting close to the time for them to open the gates to the public, so we were planning on heading to Maverick to be the first in line. However, I wanted to take a second ride to try and see if maybe I'd like BS better if I rode it again (I didn't), so we ended up behind the crowd. We still ended up waiting only 20-30 minutes, which is pretty good for Maverick, which has relatively low capacity. It's sort of rough IMO, but still a fun ride with lots of twists and airtime hills. We then took a trip on Cedar Point's railroad. There are plenty of interesting characters along the way, like this horse. And the picklers. And this fireman... who doesn't seem to know where to point his hose. We got off the ride near Mantis and took that for a spin.... yeah, Rougarou should be a much improved ride when I experience it this year. We then took the SkyRide to lunch, which had a decent line. The food was more fancy than I was expecting from a theme park, with lots of meats and other dishes. Everybody in attendance got a "Survival Kit" with a CoasterMania sweatshirt, a CP tshirt, an eyeglasses holder, sunglasses, and a CoasterMania pint glass. CP really went above and beyond with the event. After that we went to check in at Hotel Breakers and took a nice nap. Our room had a nice view of Magnum and Soak City. We awoke from our nap and then headed back in, stopping at Magnum for a quick ride. Are the airtime hills that painful? No. But the ride itself is pretty boring. Just like with Blue Streak and Raptor, I don't get the hype. Then we headed over to the Marina for the cruise. CP actually hired a boating company to take us on a photo tour around the peninsula. I'll just let the photos do the talking from this point. As you can see, CP really is gorgeous, and it's awesome they let us get photos that would be very hard to get. This was especially great for my mom, who can't ride hardly anything, but loves photography. After the cruise, we took a trip on the Cadillac Cars, and got another ride on Raptor (I still got plenty of headbanging). Lines died down at that point, so we got another 3 rides in on GateKeeper, which really looks awesome at night. We took the Sky Ride back into the center of the park right in time to grab some seats for Luminosity. The set looks like absolute crap during the day, but it's very cool at night with all its lights and screens turned on. The singers and dancers were very talented. It was a great show, much better than anything I'd expect from a non Disney, Universal, or SeaWorld park. They even flew out over the audience! After that, night ERT began! We started out with a single ride on Millennium Force, which replaced TTD in the line-up. Sadly, TTD was down our entire visit. Hopefully that isn't the case this weekend! Millennium is incredible at night, and really blew me away. Then it was on to Maverick, which is also awesome at night. SkyHawk was next, and it is another awesome flat ride. It didn't seem much different than the Barn Swing at Silver Dollar City even though its supposedly bigger and faster, but it was still very fun. We then closed out the night with 2 rides on Gemini and 6 on Magnum. Gemini really is a hidden gem, with lots of airtime and the fun racing element, and even though Magnum may be over-hyped, it's still a nice and enjoyable coaster. We then left the park, eager to come back the next day. But we never got to. But I'll save that for the next report

The fountain you mentioned is the Applause Award given out by Liseberg amusement park. It's given out to parks whose "management, operations and creative accomplishments have inspired the industry with their foresight, originality and sound business development". Holiday World recieved it in 2004. Nice trip report!

Just a few: -Thunderbird (Blew me away. Most people thought it was good but not amazing, but it is in my personal top 5.) -Powder Keg (Never hear much talk about this one, but it is fantastic.) -Incredible Hulk (One of my favorite B&Ms. Most people think it's rough, but I really enjoyed it.) -Mr. Freeze (Not talked about very much, but it's my favorite shuttle coaster.) -Cyclops (One word: airtime! It's an extremely short ride but packs quite a punch.)

It's being used for a Looney Tunes show during the regular season and a hypnotist show for Fright Fest (the hypnotist show has been there for years). I don't think we will be seeing it leaving anytime soon.

Or better yet... DUELING LARSON LOOPS!!!!!

Personally, I thought what you wrote came across as pedantic. Everyone that's not hot about the change knows they did it to cut down on maintenance costs. They said that publicly what, 30 times, give or take a couple pronouncements? I don't care if it is "good for business" or not. It isn't as good a ride now. Sorry if hearing that bothers you? Okay, once again: I wasn't responding to you. I was simply saying that I do think that it's a slightly better ride with the MCBR off, but that I'm fine with them leaving it off. That's my opinion, I never once said anything about your original post. And I never once said that anybody was "confused" by HW's decision. Anyways..... I really hope they do something with Pilgrim's Plunge spot in 2016. I doubt they'd go with another Shoot-the-Chutes attraction, but it would be a nice addition.

I don't think anyone is confused as to why it is now permanently on. They can save money and I can rank it lower. It isn't the end of the world. It's a roller coaster. Um... yeah, that was the entire point of my post: "It isn't the end of the world." My post wasn't even a direct response to yours....

The triple down was my favorite element of the ride and, even with the first two "downs" not having airtime anymore, the Voyage is still my #2 wooden coaster. The rest of the second half after the triple down is just as insane and the first half is much improved. Yes, I like the ride better with the MCBR off. But I'm not the one paying millions each year for track work to be done, so I'm completely fine with HW's decision to leave it on this year.

Um..... American Thunder is flipping amazing. Is the first comment a joke? I rode it opening day, and I rode it this past week, and AT is pretty much still the smoothest "traditional" woodie I've been on. Prowler was almost as smooth when I rode it last season. GCI isn't to blame for some of their rides becoming rough. That's up to the park. Gravity Groups rides can be way rougher, so are they going to go out of business soon? GCI isn't done for. They will have to start doing some different things with their rides in the future, like maybe some inversions, but I'm sure they're good for now.

I feel the need to elaborate more on how awesome Thunderbird is. I've been waiting since the announcement for this ride. Even before the ride had opened, I owned a Thunderbird blueprint, a Thunderbird shirt, and a Thunderbird sports bottle. Even with all my excitement, I was simply hoping for a fun ride, slightly better than GateKeeper, but still not an OMFG amazing ride. And, at least for me, it turned out to be an OMFG amazing ride. It's everything the park needed: smooth, steel, full of inversions, and extremely forceful. I really don't get the dislike for B&M these days. Thunderbird's launch, loop, and various other elements have plenty of positive Gs, and the two rolls have plenty of hangtime (not to mention the airtime on the top of the Immelmann and S curve for the right side). The loop is one of the most intense out there. I was expecting the ride to be in my top 10, but I have to say it is a top 5 ride for me. Also, the woodies are all running awesome this year. At the end of the day, Voyage is still my favorite coaster in the park, but Thunderbird is pretty damn close.

Anybody happen to be on the train that got stuck on Voyage for like an hour? That seemed to clear out the park. Thunderbird has no real wait at all.

Glad to see you guys are having a good time! You guys came a long ways to get here!

Yeah, HW does not got light on the food at these events. If I remember correctly from last year, the meal tonight is a buffet with burgers, hot dogs, baked beans, and a bunch of other stuff. The amount of food they serve you at Holiwood Nights is ridiculously awesome. Well worth the $55 admission price.

That's because roller coaster enthusiasts are ENTITLED to have The Voyage run the way THEY want it to, and if that doesn't happen then they BOO the park then, of course! This is why I don't go to events filled with obnoxious coaster nerds anymore. For the most part it was fine tonight. Every single person I talked to was super nice. You can spot the odd balls 100 feet away and just ignore them. To be honest the 3 seconds your on mid course provides a most welcomed break and doesn't affect voyage being #1 woodie on my list. Yeah, I'm not saying that the majority of the people there were the "entitled enthusiast" type, and we met lots of kind, genuine people, but the few who do think they're entitled to everything are far more noticeable and louder. The event itself is absolutely fantastic.

That's because roller coaster enthusiasts are ENTITLED to have The Voyage run the way THEY want it to, and if that doesn't happen then they BOO the park then, of course! This is why I don't go to events filled with obnoxious coaster nerds anymore. Yeah, as great as the event is, it's really hard to ignore the attitudes of some of the enthusiasts. Another example: An older lady went up to the fudge buffet and asked where the plates for the fudge were. The employee pulled out a plate and the lady goes, "Oh, I see you were just hiding them from me!" in an obnoxious voice. Like seriously, how full of yourself can you be?

Oh poo-poo, you got me! WICKED BURRRRRNNNN!! Thank you for the very enthralling and informative post. Really, a quality contribution. Says the person who complained about the lack of trees at a park that is practically built in the woods. Post of the month.

Just got back to resort after a great night 1 of Holiwood Nights. Here's a few notes: -Thunderbird is INCREDIBLE. Easily a top 10, if not top 5, ride for me. I love the zero G roll and S curve combo. Right has some nice pops of airtime, left has more head choppers. The loop is one of the most intense I've been on, which is something I wasn't expecting. This ride surpassed all my expectations. At night, the launch effects are a lot more effective, and I love how all the lights in the station flicker with the thunder sound effect. When it comes to Thunderbird, everything is AWESOME! (Although I still like Voyage better.....) -Speaking of Voyage, it's running a bit better than last year. The MCBR is still stopping the train completely, which really only effects the first two "downs" of the triple down. But still, half the train was booing loudly. Like sorry, can you please STFU?!?! The ride still kicks ass, and two pops of airtime being taken away from a ride that probably has 20 is not the end of the world. -Crowds are not that bad, which is a nice surprise. Legend and Raven could be easily marathoned because most people are in line for Voyage or Thunderbird, which still only had station waits (1-2 train waits). -The stereotype of the "entitled enthusiast" is true for a lots of people I saw (for example, the booing of Voyage's MCBR). However, there are lots of nice, talkative people as well. And most of the obnoxious people weren't Club TPR peeps, which is nice. -It's cool seeing so many Club TPR people, BTW. My family rode with one guy on Mammoth from Pennsylvania, I believe, and we had a nice convo about lots of things, like the City Museum. Lots of kind people here this weekend, even with a few of those obnoxious ones sprinkled in the bunch. -To wrap things up: Holiwood Nights is an amazing time, and every enthusiast should come out and experience it. There's nothing better than walk-ons on 4 incredible coasters when it's pitch black outside. Thanks so much to everybody at Holiday World. I never got a chance to meet Will, but I can tell he would be proud of what the park has become. A family-owned park that is rapidly expanding, yet is still holding true to its values. I mean, all the employees have such an obvious love for the park, which is really what makes HW what it is. Kay, I'm going to bed.

A guy with Outlaw Run in his avatar wasn't going to miss that one. Congrats! $30 on the way. Thanks! Yeah, SDC is one of my home parks, so it was a bit easy for me.

Thunderation at Silver Dollar City

Like TNT said, there isn't any room near the ride that could fit trees except for where they are already planted. Also, this plaza and Studio Backlot are the only areas in the park that lack shade. The rest of the park has decent amounts of it.

Six Flags app confirms ride will open June 5. I've seen reports from media day saying that the ride is awesome but is still working out little glitches, so I'm glad they're taking extra time to work on them.

I mean, it's exciting, but it doesn't really look different from many other water parks, including Typhoon Lagoon. It would've been nice to see them go with a more unique theme, but the park should still look pretty awesome.

I sure am! Can't wait to finally ride Thunderbird.

Ummmm..... what is that tatoo on his chest supposed to be?