boldikus
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Posts
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Joined
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Days Won
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Posts posted by boldikus
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Well that went up fast.
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Thanks for the updates Robb, been following along all day. Apparently I am late to the party but I had no idea that Seaworld San Antonio coaster was an Intamin. That's cause for celebration, people! The U.S. Intamin drought has ended!
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Awesome report, glad you enjoyed the park and welcome to The Cult.
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Can't wait for this ride!
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Old woodie in Wildwood, NJ, across from Mariner's Landing. It had the longest track from station to lift hill that I've ever experienced.
I have that credit. I don't remember it but my mom has a photo of me on it.
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Great Adventure for HITP in two weeks.
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Gotta say it looks great.
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If people dont mind can someone explain this huge appeal of coasters like Adventure Express at KI and Whizzer?? They seem to be ranked so high in this thread but to me...."flat" coasters just dont do it for me.....and by flat i mean no real drops or/and inversions. Its just most twisty track. I noticed they get praised a lot by coaster enthusiasts and i dont know why. To me these type of coasters are like over sized Dragon Wagons....so please if its ok can someone explain the big appeal to "flat"/lack of element coasters...
It's called personal preference.
Height speed and steepness do not make *always* = great ride. Many people would think I'm crazy that I rank Runaway Mine Train and Skull Mountain over Kingda Ka at my home park but its simply because I enjoy them more. It's not that I don't like big and fast - look at my top 10.
I, and I feel like many people in this community are open minded enough about all rides big and small, especially classics that have aged well, and can appreciate a ride regardless of its speed and height.
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5 lap mini marathon on Toro Saturday night before closing.
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^ no Toro? Zum?
Also, welcome to the Cult.
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(people from Philly get so pissed when you say they're from Jersey even though you could throw a rock and hit NJ, lol)
When you're right, you're right.
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The story of 3 guys named, Joe, Joey and Vinny going to Great Adventure by a convoluted series of connecting trains and Ubers from Trenton may just be the single most "Jersey" thing ever written.
LOL none of us are from Jersey!!!
To be fair I did deserve all of this, but did you park in a VIP parking spot for free? No. Well screw you then.
We didn't have to park! Uber!
Row 5, WTF? Was this Joey's doing? I need to have a talk with that guy. F*ck row 5.LMAO It was me actually. I wanted to wait for the front but they only had two trains on and like 20 people waiting for the front so we just jumped in where we could. Honestly it was easily the best ride I've had on it so I'm glad we sat where we did.
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This is not a trip report. This is me getting revenge on Coasterbill for texting me pics all day of an empty park two weekends ago.
If you thought about going to the park this weekend but decided against it you missed out big time. I haven't seen it so dead since the Coasters After Dark nights when the place was a complete ghosttown. Managed to drink a bunch of beer, eat twice, ride every operating coaster in the park (except the two kiddie coasters and GL), a bunch of flats, and marathoned the living shit out of El Toro... all in less than 7 hours.
I had friends heading to the park Sunday (who informed me it was also dead) but I had plans that day so I figured I'd head up solo Saturday via the train from Philly to Trenton and get an Uber for the 25 minute drive over to the park. Late Friday night my buddy Joey hit me up saying he and his friend Vinny could borrow his roommates car and go up early Saturday with me. I was up and out early in the morning, and on my way to his place in NE Philly when he texted me they couldn't get the car. Back to Plan A I responded I was getting the train to Trenton and they could meet me on it if they wanted to tag along. So with all the back and forth we didn't wind up meeting, traveling and arriving at the park until after 1. Bummed we didn't get there early for a morning Toro marathon, my fears quickly went out the window when the Uber driver pulled into the lot. I should really have taken a picture but there were less than 100 cars.
We got in the front gate in seconds and headed right to El Toro. Walked right into an empty station and boarded the next train. One train ops but no wait at all. It was windy so it felt sluggish after the turnaround but still a blast. Just took one lap and decided we wanted to see how the line at Ka was since Vinny had never ridden it and we made it our mission of the day to get him over his fear of heights.
Stopping over at Superman to see how dead it was (another Vinny never rode) we walked right up and had a two train wait (one trains ops) for Row 2. Again felt very slow but worth a ride with no wait.
Deadsville
Back into Golden Kingdom Kingda Ka was a station wait we went for rows 4/5 and I have to say I had quite possibly my favorite ride on it yet. Not sure if it was the chilly temps but it felt incredibly smooth to me on the launch and I got a really great sense of airtime down the drop.
Even though we told Vinny he didn't have to ride Zum if he did Ka, we still goaded him onto Zum and great ride as always. Walked right on.
Getting a hankering for a beer we walked around the Boardwalk back to Macho Nacho and had some beer and nachos! I almost got a burrito but decided on nachos at the last second. It was fairly busy but my food came right out and had no problem getting a beer quickly and wound up sitting for a while at the bar hanging out.
Lunch
After we were done we took another lap on Toro, still a walkon. Some pictures I took from Zumi's mile long queue.
Ole!
Vinny had never done Houdini so obviously without telling him what happens we took him on. No wait at all. A few people filled in behind us while waiting for them to open the doors. There was maybe 10 people tops on the ride with us. It actually "got me" a bit more than it usually does but barely any of the effects were working in the preshow. Lame. You'd think for Fright Fest they'd give it a little love. In any case it could use it.
With the sun setting and temperature plummeting we checked the scene at Joker and went for the purple side. 5 minute wait.
Ive only ridden once during my visit in September on the green and this time I tightened the restraint and didn't feel like I was gonna die. I also flipped a good 3 times. I enjoyed it but Joey and Vinny both said they thought it was lame. I think its a nice addition.
Big moon over Switlick Lake
Brrrrrrrr
Obviously with these crowds we didn't have to be strategic and continued hitting rides as we came to them. We stopped and had a quick but freezing ride on Skyscreamer. Made me feel a little dizzy and we went to Skybar next door for the first time to get some beer. Cool little spot to grab a beer or wine. Surely it gets busy on crowded days but nice to have a little bar to compliment Liberty Pub on the other side of Main Street.
Of course we had to hit Skull Mountain, literally walked into an empty station and right onto the next train. Back row, duh. Had a handful of people sitting in front of the train and we got an "I love Skull Mountain" chant going as we dispatched. Love it.
Cult of Skull in the building
In the spirit of sticking with indoor (read: warm) rides we popped over at Dark Knight. As we walked up they were letting a few people into the preshow so basically another walkon. Skull Mountain was a tad warm but Dark Knight was toasty as an oven. We didn't ask for it or anything but we got a completely trimless ride. Probably the best ride Ive ever had on DK - airtime and all. Glad we stopped by.
Vinny was bothered by the cold so he decided to stay at Dark Knight and keep re-riding, the other two of us popped over to Batman and had a one train wait for the front row. Smooth as butter and the only ride that felt faster than usual - all the other coasters all day (save for maybe Ka) felt sluggish with the wind+cold.
Around to Nitro we climbed in the back row and had a very sluggish ride in the moonlight. Slow but awesome. Longest wait of the day probably (almost 15 mins?) because as we walked up they were transferring the 2nd train off. Wait wasn't bad since we got to watch them do that. I've seen it before, but its better than standing there while they clean up puke.
You mean its not summer anymore? Better tell Grannys cause they still got the shandys
On the way out of here we stopped at Grannys for fries and chicken fingers and more beer of course. Summer Shandy in fact! I never go in Grannys cause anytime I pass there looks to be an hour wait for food with no available tables but we waited 5 minutes today and the place was deserted. At this point it was almost 7pm and I wanted to get a few more Bull rides in and we wanted to stop and get waffles so we headed there first but like most of the food places at this point, they were closed! Doh! All good, I understand, I'll save my indulgence for HITP.
PDC
Back into the dark and barren Plaza Del Carnival we hit a completely empty El Toro (Vinny would not ride - too cold) but Joey and I took a lap and Joey couldn't take the cold so I rode it 4 more times until I couldn't take it anymore. We were fine when the sun was out, but after dark we were not dressed for the cold. In fact Joey bought gloves and a hat outside Dark Knight but he still couldn't handle it. The night marathon on Toro was glorious. I had to play musical chairs a little but most of my rides were in the back car.
After the hellish week I had I needed a day like that. Again, if you thought about going but decided not to you missed out. Nothing like having one of the worlds best amusement parks all to yourself for a whole day. Mostly one train ops except Ka and Nitro but it didn't matter in the slightest. Sorry I didn't take a ton of pics - regulars to this thread have seen it all already, the photos I took were pics I was texting to Bill all day.
See you all at HITP!
Final tally:
El Toro
Superman
Kingda ka
Zumanjaro
Macho Nacho
El Toro
Houdini
Joker
Skyscreamer
Sky Bar
Skull Mountain
Batman
Dark Knight
Nitro
Granny's
El Toro X5
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I didn't say the track looked bad just surprised they are using a red-ish hue.
Also, I don't see these bumps in the pre-lift you guys are talking about. It looks like a straight curve with maybe one little hump. And you're definitely not any kind of airtime going around that curve at 5 mph so who cares.
I see the same thing. F**king Nitro has a better pre-lift than this ride, but who cares if after the lift it does a bunch of insane bullsh*t?
Here's a better view of it if you're interested. It will be two small humps, also. This is definitely what that wonky banked track was for. TC's pre-lift does nothing for me, but I suppose it's better than simply straight track?
That video was posted yesterday (see one page back), and that's what I was referring to. I looked again still don't see it but whatever I really don't care about one (possibly two if you're somehow seeing something I'm not) little bunnyhops the train will take at 5mph.
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There's like a 95% chance I'm heading over tomorrow at least for a bit. Might be solo Ubering from Trenton. Anyone else going?
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I didn't say the track looked bad just surprised they are using a red-ish hue.
Also, I don't see these bumps in the pre-lift you guys are talking about. It looks like a straight curve with maybe one little hump. And you're definitely not any kind of airtime going around that curve at 5 mph so who cares.
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LA traffic isnt THAT bad if you leave at the right times and stay off the 91, 405, 110, 10, and 101 freeways. The 5 usually isnt too bad provided you're not on it weekdays during rush hour.
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^^ That track looks more red than brown. Is it just me?
It's so weird that they would use a color so close to what SF has used on so many of their RMCs. Nonetheless this is exciting stuff.
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^
But I'd swap Apollo and Alpengeist and we didn't ride Grover though I should have just cause its Grover.
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Why didn't I hear the banshee cry
I'm sorry but this gave me the biggest laugh I've had in the last two days. Granted I haven't been laughing that much and I'm not sure why this in particular tickled me but thank you sir.
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Its valleyed right before the brake run in 40 degree weather.
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Radiohead non-stop the last two days. The paranoia and hopelessness is strong this week.
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^Psychotic Meth Fueled Reindeer Flight" would be more apt - don't you think?
Has a nice ring to it but you forgot the "sponsored by Snickers" part.
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Cool report. Interesting to check out all these random places that are mostly off my radar. Thanks for sharing!
Dutch Wonderland 2017
in Theme Parks, Roller Coasters, & Donkeys!
Posted
LOL how on earth will the skyride get passed the coaster support?