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Ron Toomer

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About Ron Toomer

  • Birthday 11/30/1987

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  1. Yeah but Dollywood could of done a better job with what they were telling guests. I don't know why it was necessary for the woman when I was there saying the ride manufacturer shut down 11 of their rides and naming other parks some of which don't even have RMCs. I was at Dollywood to ride LR. I don't care what was going on at other parks or with other rides. I also felt like she was talking down to me like I didn't know anything when in fact she obviously knew nothing. Assuming what she said about them closing @ 2PM on Thursday after RMC made the call about the recalled part is true then the park could of done a much better job letting us know as guests. I rode the tram into the park well after 2PM on Thursday and the driver told the whole tram to "Make sure you go ride Lightning Rod" before we got off. When A. the ride was closed and B. they apparently already knew it had no chance of opening for a few days. In the end I went to guest services and they gave me a rain check ticket to return although since I live on the west coast it is not that easy for me to come back. It's just really disappointing. I get that stuff happens and obviously every park puts safety first. But it's June and parks are getting busy with schools out, etc. If they need to change a part I think RMC should be working 24/7 in their factory getting the new one's out and the respective parks, Dollywood in this case should be working 24/7 installing the new ones and doing whatever testing they need to so the ride is open during park hours.
  2. I was there yesterday and today and told the same thing. They said that all the RMCs went down @ 2pm Thursday according to the employee at the rides entrance. Although I had a hard time believing her because she said "the ride manufacturer shut down 11 of it's rides including the ones at Silver Dollar City and Kings Island". Her words not mine. And obviously there isn't one at Kings. I flew across the country to ride it and am really upset don't understand what they could possibly be doing.
  3. haha no I skipped the mazes cause I just assumed that seeing a kid crabwalking is like seeing a unicorn and it will pretty much never happen again... And yeah thanks again for the help. I guess that this is becoming the new standard for riding GeForce if you haven't before: Step 1: Route your trip through Frankfurt Step 2: Make your layover super long Step 3: Take train from Frankfurt Main to Hassloch Step 4: Pray a taxi will randomly show up at Hassloch train station Step 5: Arrive at Holiday Park and ride GeForce Step 6: Somehow make it back to Frankfurt without missing your flight It's pretty much fail safe!
  4. Yeah I wasn't really thinking about it at the time but it was cool I got to ride them both so close to one another to compare them. Goliath has the “Stengel Dive” which is really cool and the tight turn into the station but GeForce's is just on another level and to me Intamin pretty much got all of their features perfect on GeForce. I know a lot of people rate Goliath high but it's way higher on my list then I thought it would be before riding it. GeForce is far and away the best but like I said in my TR I thought Goliath was much better than S:ROS/Bizarro. Goliath isn't nearly the tallest or fastest mega but although it's really small it's pretty crazy how much punch it packs!
  5. Made some last minute adjustment to my vacation to Europe so I could fit these 3 parks in with main goal of finally riding GeForce. All of the parks were on either their last day of operation before the winter break or day before last so I was really worried about some of the rides being closed etc but luckily I got all the credits from the 3 parks minus Xpress Platform 13. Started off by landing in Amsterdam, renting a car and driving an hour to Walibi. This ended up being an absolute disaster. I added the GPS even though I had printed out directions, however, I got COMPLETELY lost. The GPS was in Dutch and I couldn’t figure out how to change the language. It took me 45 minutes to get more than 5 miles away from the Amsterdam airport because I kept missing turns and driving in circles. I was determined and finally found the highway and was on my way and successfully made my way to Walibi Holland. Middle of nowhere Netherlands on my way to Walibi Since their “Fright Nights” was still going on their were signs that directed everyone to a huge grass field that they were using for parking. Here’s a panoramic shot of the parking area which gives you a good idea of how empty the park was. Also I thought it was very strange how none of the ticketing windows are open for Fright Nights and you HAVE to buy your tickets online or you have no way of entering the park. Luckily I knew this ahead of time. Walibi Holland! When I got to the entrance they scanned my ticket and had a security screening which was more intense than HHN at USO minus the metal detectors. A Dutch lady literally searched everything in my wallet and through all of my stuff thoroughly followed by a ridiculously thorough frisking (Guess the sexual harassment laws are different in the Netherlands then back home where has to be guy frisking guy and women women). Regardless it was awesome! Fright Nights! I made my way straight to the back of the park to ride Goliath. Rode it twice with the plan of getting the rest of the credits and coming back to Goliath for more. It was absolutely amazing and I definitely thought it was significantly better than S:ROS/Bizarro which I have ridden a ton because I used to live in MA. The “Stengel Dive” is freaking awesome, both helixes are great, bunny hills at the end great, and the super tight turn into the break run is unlike anything I have ridden before and I loved it. They were running 1 train and it was a 3 train wait the whole time I was there until right before I left when it was getting to 5 or 6 train wait I am assuming because the Fright Nights crowd was rolling in. Goliath! Awesome shot of the lift hill Goliath's station Bunny hills at the end Next I headed to Robin Hood. It was a walk on with 1 train. It was pretty rough but it was ok and I enjoyed it. Robin Hood! Next up: El Condor not looking forward to this…Vekoma's first SLC prototype and should of been it's last! Dear El Condor: please have mercy on me. It was so awful and my head and ears hurt from slamming against the restraint for the next hour haha. Really cool though these hydraulic storage bins for loose articles which go up and down for each train and close once the train leaves the station until it returns. I have never seen this before. I've seen like the old ones on Sheikra that slide back and forth for each train but never automated like this one. On my way to get the Drako credit I passed the rapids ride which somehow was both open and had people riding it despite the 40 degree weather! **Special shot out to my friend Brad from the forums who I guarantee would have been on this no matter how cold it was had he been there! Brad LOVES the rapids. Also passed one of the haunted houses Translation: “This haunted house will hurt exactly 1/1000th as much as El Condor!" Cool double down log ride…also open despite it being so cold. Drako was a walk on with no one in line and the ride op looked shocked when I made my way through the queue and hopped in the front seat to ride it by myself Next was Speed of Sound. I don’t particular care for boomerangs but of all the one’s I have ridden this was the coolest with the enclosed tunnel on the way back and the blasting music inside. Have no idea what this is supposed to be but it’s in the station and looks awesome! Made my way to Xpress: Platform 13 and found it to be “down for mechanical problems”. Figured it would re-open so made my way back to Goliath and rode it 5 more times before heading back to front of the park to ride Xpress. Unfortanetly, it was still down and I was short on time needing to drive to Toverland so I couldn’t wait. Was really pissed because I wanted the last credit and don’t think I will be back any time soon Crushed a Doner Kabob before leaving. Love these! Used to eat them all the time when I was studying abroad in Barcelona. They are soooo good. On the way out I passed “The Pee Fountain”. No idea why the water is yellow or what this is supposed to be but it was hilarious. That’s a lot of pee! Headed to parking lot and got a hand stamp just because they looked cool even though I was leaving for good. Next up Toverland! It was about 2.5 hours away plus some traffic that I hit so ended up being a little over 3 hours. Welcome to Toverland! There she is! First up Boomerang. I actually really enjoyed this! Next headed to Troy… The line was much longer than I expected and was about a 7-8 train wait. I waited for the back which happened to be a little shorter. The station fly through. Troy was freakin’ awesome. Except for El Toro and Boulder Dash it’s the best woody I’ve ridden although admittedly I haven’t ridden most of the really good ones outside the US. Next up – Booster Bike. This was my first Vekoma motor bike so didn’t know what to expect. It was ok. Also line was kind of long because all the kids apparently love this one and the crowd was basically all families with young kids. Cool shot of the “launch” Then it was on to Dwervelwind for the last credit. This was the longest line of the day and on top of that I ran into them adding another train right before I boarded which made it even longer. Took about 45 minutes in total. Fortunately I had a bunch of time to admire the awesome station. Pretty amazing for a spinning coaster… So cool. One of my favorite stations ever. Even has fog that drifts into the queue All sorts of leafs and trees on the ceiling inside the station. While I have ridden Mystery Mine I have never seen them add additional cars so got to see the floor rise and the 2nd train come up which was really neat. Here are some shots of it in action: Station floor starting to lift up and you can see second train below Close to eye level now All the way up now and ready to back the second train onto the track Dwervelwind was fun as expected and I enjoyed it. By now I was really short on time and had to get to back to the airport so couldn’t go back to Troy and had to head to the car. One last shot of Troy. Had a pretty interesting experience exiting the parking lot as I didn’t know I needed a parking coin to make the gate open. I hit the help button and the women who answered told me I needed to back up and come back to pay. However, there was about 10 cars behind me so a couple seconds later she just opened the gate and I drove through. Foreigner parking discount obviously… I drove back to the Amsterdam airport which was supposed to take about 1.5 hours but ran into more traffic and barely made it back in time to return the rental car and catch my plane to Frankfurt. Spent the night in Frankfurt and headed to Holiday Park in the morning. Got no sleep I was so excited. Finally GeForce!! I took the train from Frankurt Main to Mannheim and then onto Hassloch. ***Shot out to Jakizle for the help navigating the German railroads from his trip a few months ago. I was planning on taking the Holiday Park express bus from Hassloch but missed Hassloch my first go around and by the time I got back from the next train stop it was already gone. Had no chance of finding a taxi as the Hassloch station is literally in the middle of nowhere. So did some walking and found a German Gym. Went inside to try and call a cab and no one spoke English except for one guy named “Claude”. He called a taxi for me and literally saved the day. Thanks Claude! It was about a 10 minute cab ride and I was there. First sight of GeForce in person! Basically sprinted to GeForce and ran through the queue. Cool shot of the first drop with sun in the back. Airtime! Can’t really put it into words how good it was. Simply amazing and by far the best roller coaster I have ever been on. I thought it was so crazy how at the top of the lift hill you look around and it’s farmland and woods for as far as you can see. Middle of nowhere and such an amazing ride. And also how unassuming it is. Station so simple, not covered and the 2nd train basically in a tent behind the station. Really cool imo. Also liked how the ride ops walk back and forth stepping on the station at their leisure even when the cable lift is coming back down and how they give a simple “OK” and off you go. Geforce was a 2 train wait. Rode it twice with the plan of getting the other two credits and marathoning it with as many rides as I could before I had to leave. Next up, Sky Scream. Had pretty low expectations honestly but it was better than I thought it would be. Basically a walk on as well. And finally Holly's Wilde Autofahrt which hurt like hell. The breaks are insane and there is about 3 of them that crush you! Rode it with a 10 year old German kid and we were both stunned getting off at how bad we were hurting. Then headed back to Geforce for more… Waited for the front for my picture and then was running from getting off the ride back through the queue so I could get on every other train that was dispatched. It worked out well and except for getting unlucky a few times and missing the 1 or 2 empty seats per train. Ended up getting 14 rides in total before I had to leave. Headed to the exit to pick up my backpack from the lockers. It’s an automated machine, which has you enter your birthday to identify you. Apparently you also choose a color with your birthday so it’s unique. I missed this and frantically was entering my birthday and picking colors hoping to find a match. Green, Cyan, Blue….etc it was ridiculous and I was freaking out because my passport, money and all my stuff was in there. Finally got the right color and it opened thank god. Timing was bad for taking the express bus back to Hassloch so had them call me a cab at the information desk and headed back to the train to Frankfurt. The train ride back was much less eventful then the one there. Train station in Mannheim Made it back to the airport and it was on to the rest of my vacation. Had so much fun and hope I will be back to all of these parks sometime soon!
  6. Brad and I on Escape from Gringotts. Last week. Row 4. First ride of the day after it opened late and was down all morning. And also El Toro also with Brad 2 years ago very back row multiple times. It was torrential downpouring and we literally stood there for 2 hours hoping by some miracle it would open. It did. And we rode it over and over again. Rain hurt so bad. But I would ride El Toro in a hail storm with no hesitation so rain was no problem.
  7. Hey Robb, I'm planning on visiting all three of these parks over 2 days next week. It is either the 2nd to last or the last day that they are open for the season at all of them. I am concerned that they may not run Goliath, GeForce, and Troy given that it is their last day of operation for the season. Just wondering if you could give me your thoughts on if they probably will run them? (Obviously no guarantees) And lastly - do you think any of them will be busy or will they be dead so late in season. Thanks a lot in advance.
  8. HHN trip report from Sunday: We had stay and scream so we went into the holding area near finnegan's. They were lining up all stay and scream guests using the transformers queue, scanning tickets and feeding us into the gated holding area. They were allowing you to go to the bathroom area by issuing a small ticket so you could re enter the holding area without waiting in line first. The lines for beer both at Finnegan's and the one cart in the holding area were ridiculous. They released us by opening the fence on the far left side of the holding area by Finnegan's and the herd was off! We went straight for AVP then ran over to Halloween in back of park. Then did Roanoke exiting right by dollhouse of the dammed and did that one too. We were able to do those 4 without using our express passes. We then went back and completed the other 4 houses (now using express) as well as the ones we did first a second time now with express. Lines were super long as expected by the time we did our first four houses. But doing houses in this order seems to be the best way to get as many in as possible. Even if you don't have express like we did. Lines for Halloween and AVP were 120 all night. Halloween looked even longer than that when we passed regular line with express. The line went on forever. Great event this year. My rankings are as follows; 1. Halloween - one of the best houses ever. Just amazing. 2. AVP - hit or miss on many of the scares but scenery and alien puppets are great. Crawl at end only disappointment. 3. Dollhouse of the dammed - super creepy. Baby In crib so weird 4. Roanoke - after reading all the negative reviews had low expectations. I admit the first half is boring but wow the second half has some great scares. Really depends on timing as I switched the order with Brad who I went with (he now walked behind me) on our second time through and I got all the scares both times. 5. Walking dead - way past it's time to go but can't ignore great layout and scenery here. Didn't feel as long as it is...I guess? 6. Giggles and Gore - it's ok but nothing special 7. Dusk till dawn - missed all the scares. Hoping for better run through tomorrow. Lots of T&A (thumbs up) 8. Dracula - so bad. Repeat so bad. An embarrassing house for universal HHN standards. Really impressed with HHN 24. Had amazing time and going weds and thurs of this week again. Can't wait. Side note: during the day Gringotts broke down all morning. It opened around 1pm finally. But before it opened they were letting people stand in line even though it was down. Brad and I headed into single rider and sat at bottom of stairs below loading station by ourself's. They stopped the regular line before the last hallway of the queue where you get to the stairs so we were literally by ourself. A couple employees walked up and down the stairs while we were waiting and saw us but did not say anything. Finally, they came down to open the regular line and signaled that we could go up. We went up and rode in row 4 by ourself's. No one else on train or in station. It was amazing and certainly rare given how new and popular it is. Line was 90 minutes by the time we got to the exit. We hopped right back into single rider hoping it would be short. Nope - even single rider was 25.
  9. Thanks Dave. Yep that is it. There were some ridiculous wipe outs at the bottom - especially because you could ride it with all your normal clothes on. I remember seeing people in jeans and sneakers just getting absolutely soaked if they did not skim just right. If you could find the footage that would be awesome!! I have never seen anything else like it and the only memory of it I have is in my head from when I was there as a young kid.
  10. Thanks Larry. That is actually one of the slides to the left of the one I am talking about. Those were enclosed and you rode 2 to a raft. For those who have been there and ridden them the slide in Larry's video is on the left of the collection, with the 2 farthest right being the ones I am trying to get pictures of.
  11. Thank you that is very similar - but the one at Riverside I believe you had to kneel on it not sit like in this video. Really hoping someone has pics/video of the exact one.
  12. Hi All! Really hoping someone can help me with this as I am driving myself crazy researching and trying to find the answer to my question. I grew up going to Riverside park in the early-mid 90s before it was SFNE. I was young but i distinctly remember a certain ride that I am desperately trying to find more information or a picture of. Riverside used to have a collection of water slides all the way on the left hand side of the park essentially where Blizzard River is now. There were a few enclosed raft slides but the one in particular that I am after was 2 slides on the far right side of this water slide section. They were near vertical slides where you knelt/sat on a small plastic thing. There was a flap at the top of the slide with a happy face on it, it dropped down and when it dropped so did you traveling down the slide and skimming across the water at the bottom. I have searched everywhere but I still cannot find a good picture of it. Someone please help!!! I have attached a park map I found which shows "Wild River Falls" on the far left but it is too blurry to read the names of each slide. I also found this quote : " in 1989 to make way for Wild River Falls, a waterslide complex consisting of three sets of slides: Riptide, Blue Lightning, and Pipeline. A popular attraction, Wild River Falls remained in operation until the opening of the Island Kingdom Waterpark in 1997." I believe the name of the attraction I am after might be "RIPTIDE" but I am not 100% certain. Thank you in advance for the help! Old Map - Look all the way to left side
  13. Just got done with day 2 of HHN. We'll be going a third time tomorrow night. Thursday - Did all 7 houses once, Pen & Teller twice, plus Bill & Teds. Friday - Did all 7 houses once and 20 Penny Circus Overall Thoughts: The lack of scarezones has really impacted the overall atmosphere of the events. The roaming hoards were too spread out and I did not like the fact that there was not much stationary sets in the streets. Gothic and Dead End are on another level compared to the rest of the houses - both were spectacular. It looks like the best order to get everything in is to do Gothic and Silent Hill first, then do Dead End because it has been opening later at 6:30PM. Then head straight to Walking Dead as this line has been getting really long as the house in Disaster queue always does. Penn & Teller, Alice Cooper, and House of Horrors all have the shortest lines so do them last. House By House Review: 1. Gothic 5/5 Hands down one of the best houses in terms of scenery ever. The facade is absolutely incredible and pretty much every scene inside is incredibly detailed and well done. They also brought back one of my favorite effects ever where it appears you are walking on a bridge over a room below you. They also have several scare actors on ropes hanging above the maze (reminiscent of the scare zone they had at the front of the park a while back where they would jump over the crowds walking next to Shrek). Overall my favorite house. 2. Dead End 5/5 This was the best house for scares. The scareactors in here seemed to have all of the scares nailed down really well and were doing a great job. The theming in this house is pretty amazing as well but its hard to rank it above Gothic just because Gothic was just THAT GOOD. As I said before, this one has been opening later at 6:30PM and the line really got long later into the night. 3. Silent Hill 3/5 I was really disappointed with this house. Having seen the movie, I had really high expectations but for whatever reason it just did not work. As soon as you enter the soundstage the maze starts and you are walking up the street that leads to Silent Hill from the movie. The falling ash was very cool and the details were great I just felt that there were not enough scareactors inside. The pyramid head was also really disappointing, there is two spots where he can come out and he walks back and forth to both of them so it is really hit or miss. Huge disappointment for me. 4. Penn and Teller, Newkd Vegas 2/5 I generally don't like the 3D houses but being from Vegas this one was better than some of the others they have done in the last few years. At the end of the day there is just only so much they can do with the 3D houses and they will never be in the same category as some of other houses. **Note - I saw a kid crabcrawling in one of the rooms after falling over from being drunk - only reason I did not give it 1/5. 5. Alice Cooper 3/5 I don't think this theme worked as well as Universal was hoping for. The house is super loud and too dark I thought. There is also one section where you have to do this awkward duck/squatting motion because the ceiling is low. I kept missing one of the scares during this part because I was trying to avoid hitting my head instead of looking to the sides where the scareactors were. There is a couple of repetitive scenes with Alice shooting an iv into a patient that were almost identical. 6. House of Horrors 3/5 They did something completely different with the queue for this house and the Parade building this year. You walk all the way down behind the Parade building and actually enter it from the rear instead of the front of the building as usual. There is a couple of really cool rooms in this house especially Frankenstein but overall I was not that impressed. 7. Walking Dead 3/5 As a fan of the show, I was disappointed with this house as well. They did a great job of recreating some of the best scenes from the show (Hospital, Department Store, Dale's RV), however, the last 1/4 of the maze is basically all outside and it is awful. There is one section with a fence where you can literally see the regular Disaster Queue even when it is dark out. The first time we did the house it was still light out and it was literally like taking a lights on tour at the end. Definitely try to wait until it is dark to do this one. This house also had the longest line of the night. Shows Bill & Teds Really disappointed with this year's show. It was absolutely awful. The basic theme is that Bill and Ted are competing against each other in an election and they try to get all of the other characters to vote for them. The crowd barely got into the show as much as they have in years past. Bonus points for them including Open Gangham Style in the show though! 20 Penny Circus The show was pretty short but entertaining. They take 8 volunteers at the start of the show (4 men, 4 women) and it was very interactive. They did a lot of old tricks that I've seen many times but there was some really funny parts. The Naked Mentalist was great.
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