Nozzy

I went on it, my Trip Report is here. There's a short description and pics in the first post, and more in depth at the bottom. The Air Race was fun, but my favorite flats are Frisbees (pretty much any size and manufacturer) and I loved Skyhawk at Cedar Point and paid for the Screamin Swing at Dorney once, but I don't generally do upcharge rides.

I would call to make sure about the hotel. We stayed at the Super 8 Motel down the road and were fine, but hotels in Kentucky and Indiana required someone to be 21in the room (I was a month away, but luckily we had one person who was). As long as you call and ask them specifically you can be sure not to find yourself without a room.

I also have a glasses strap from Cedar Point, and I know King's Island had good quality ones as well. My glasses are already tight on my face, and with the strap pulled tight the glasses get supported from the top by my forehead, so no drop can remove them. I have bad nearsightedness, and couldn't bear to not see on rides, but with my strap I've done El Toro, Voyage (extreme uplift forces on both), Superman and Firehawk (both Flying position) and had no problem.

While it may not seem like a lot, the cost of employees adds up. Figuring a minimum of 3 on the ride at all times (though since its a Cedar Fair park it would likely have more) working at $8 an hour makes $24 an hour, for 14 hours (12 hour operating day+start-up and clean-up) means $288 each summer day. Assume 3 months of summer and that's $26,000 just on ride ops. Son of Beast also might require additional mechanics or carpenters since it required so many repairs. I don't know any specifics about how much it costs to run rides, but I would assume that rides vary a lot depending on what they do. For example, a launched coaster requires a lot of energy, while most lift hills will idle when a train is not on it.

Glad you guys enjoyed it, I was happy to do a report for a more out of the way place. My cousin apparently always takes the subway over to it, so if I go again (I do have 7 credits left) I think that will be our method of transportation. Like you said, no problem with parking then, and probably cheaper too! If I ride Cyclone again I'll make sure to try the back instead. I guess all the padding comes in handy back there. $8 is a bit steep, but if I'm with someone else who wants to ride I'd do it again. Also, I did get to ride Air Race, it was the first ride I did at Luna Park. Visually, it's an amazing ride to watch and is a great centerpiece for the park. I wound up in the second row of the blue plane, which still had good vision due to the stadium seating (being 6'2" doesn't hurt either). It was lots of fun, with the many directions it went in and it gave a good bit of hang time. Like I said, the motions were controlled, but had no logic, so I couldn't anticipate any movements. About 3/4 through the ride my plane stopped swinging for a bit so it seemed to be winding down but then we started flipping again and continued until the end. I did notice that the green plane always started the cycle by flipping before the other planes, so I would assume each plane has the same motion every cycle, but can't say for certain. I'd like to see it more places, but the capacity didn't seem that good so I'm not holding my breath. I'd spend $5 on it again to try and get in a front row, and as long as it isn't anywhere else. I went to Morey's Pier for the first time today and the difference in atmosphere between the two, while understandable, was amazing. We had so much fun that my family is already planning to go back and maybe stay in Wildwood. Maybe I'll post pics of that too once I sort through them.

I'm back home in NJ from college in PA, and my dad thought it would be cool to bring me to the Cyclone while my sisters did other stuff. So, it was off to Coney Island for the first time! The car ride took about 2 hours, with about 45 minutes in traffic jams and 30 minutes searching for parking. We eventually parked in the aquarium lot, which requires purchase of a $26 aquarium ticket. A bit pricey, but it beat trying to not hit all the jaywalkers and getting back out. This put us right next to the Cyclone. Coney Island is an area of the city rather than an actual park, with a few different parks operating along with a menagerie of other offerings. It was amazing to see such a huge mass of people in such a small space. Prices were kind of high since it was the city. The "Brooklyn Eiffel Tower", and most visible part of the complex. After a stop in the restroom, me and my dad started out with the Wonder Wheel. Tickets were $6 a person. It was pretty awesome to be swinging and rolling around the wheel. It was exciting to ride such an iconic ride. The rest of the adult rides at Deno's were Spook-a-Rama (I don't do scary), Bumper Cars (no way I'm paying 5-6$ for crappy looking bumper cars when I'm used to Knoebel's for $1.25), a Matterhorn flat ride and Drop Tower. The Red and Blue cars are designated the FUN cars! NERD SHOT! We proceeded to Luna Park, which opened this year on the former site of Astroworld. The place was PACKED! Wristbands were available ($30 for 4 hours, $34 for 6) but lines looked very long so I doubted I could get my money's worth. Instead we paid $30 for 35 credits, so that my parents could ride with me if desired. These credits are loaded onto a card that is scanned by the ride attendants to deduct the money. Adult rides were $5, kiddy rides were 3 or 4. First up was a crazy flat called the Air Race that I'd never seen before. It took about 20-30 minutes to get on, but it was well worth it. The ride spins while planes on giant arms move perpendicular to the ride, flinging riders upside down. I could not figure out any logic to the motions, which added to the excitement. Green plane was always the first upside down. Some people ride for the extreme motions. Others ride for the cute planes. In a failed attempt to let crowds subside, we went across the street to the Cyclone. $8 a ride, and $5 for a reride paid to the ride attendants. After buying tickets we walked right up to the station, which had no queue system of any kind- just wait for the train to pull up and grab a row. Tons of manual brake levers all around, and once the train pulled up my dad and I grabbed the third row. I'm pretty thin, but even I felt like it was tough to get in with all the padding on the seats and lap bar. A sign informed everyone that money will be "gladly refunded" if you don't fit, though everyone seems to be fine once in the row. The ride itself was alright, though I expected it to be a bit wilder. The seats absorbed all impacts, and the train seemed to barely make it around curves. I was happy to ride such an icon, but it didn't quite deliver what I expected. We passed up the reride option, but took the onride photo. We wandered around the corner and looked at the small Coney Island history exhibit. There were some interesting photos and memorabilia, along with memories of riding the parachute tower, which were amusing to read. I can understand why it no longer operates, but it would be nice if they could somehow get some form of parachute ride on the structure. There's a roller coaster on a street corner. Much better than a pretzel stand. Back over to Luna Park, the ticket lines are down but the rides are no less crowded. The Brooklyn Flyer, my first Star Flyer, was very enjoyable. I would have liked a taller ride though- do they come in a larger size anywhere? My dad joined me for a ride on the Tickler, a spinning wild mouse that was nothing special, though the cars have nice art. I got my mom to join me for the final ride I did, Coney Island Sound, was one that reminded me of the "Bouncy Bouncy" I had seen here. Themed to beating a drum, arms bounced up and down around a center drum, with one extreme bounce every time around. It was a lot of fun, and would be nice to see at more parks. Brooklyn Flyer contained no snapping nor Brooklyn Rage, but was very fun. His relentless urge to tickle children may be why Asbury Park forced Tillie to Coney Island. I WILL TICKLE YOU! The rest of the park had tons of Zamperla rides, many of which I'd never seen. I took pictures of the most interesting. There was a second credit, the Circus Coaster, but the line was too long for me to wait for it, so it will elude me for now. The "Happy Swing" is a much better version of the "Sad Swing". Also, DOLPHIN! The Wacky Shack is a known hangout of "The Tickler". Stay away The kiddie flume is a Mini Mermaid Parade. Coney Island loves mermaids even more than freaks! Everybody Disko! After making sure our car was alright to stay in the lot after the lot closed we headed down the boardwalk to the original Nathan's, which had a mobbed counter and little table space. I had a cheese dog and we shared bacon cheese fries. It was very good, and didn't seem overly expensive, especially compared to everything else. Beyond hot dogs, Nathans had burgers, sea food sandwiches, and even frog legs! It seems I wasn't the only coaster enthusiast there... Sunset and the Wonder Wheel made a nice sight. NOTED! Hot dog enthusiast's destination. On the way back to the car we looked at Eldorado Arcade, which had the flashiest bumper cars I'd ever seen. Strobes, sirens, and disco lights in an otherwise dark room with thumping bass pounding while ride ops jump from car to car, helping inexperienced drivers. It looked cool, but the cars didn't appear to hit harder than normal cars, so I just enjoyed watching. A single ride ran $6, with $3 rerides. In the arcade itself the only old game to be found was Ms. Pac Man, which was well worn and only cost a quarter! I managed to earn an extra life and impress my parents, so I walked away happy. Over at DDR I attempted to play to my old standard, but wound up failing the second song. An onlooking kid gave me some some applause for my first song which felt nice, but I really need to hit my pads at home again . We then caught some fireworks from the baseball stadium, went down the street where the freakshow is (though we were much too late for it), and headed for home. Our final verdict was that it was a fun experience, but one that won't be repeated with the whole family. I may try to return to use the rest of my credits and see what else there is with friends, but as a family outing its just too much. All lit up AHHH! Night has revealed the Tickler's true form! Thanks for reading!

While I understand that Beast is no longer what it once was, I feel like it still deserves mention in something like this. I only rode it this year for the first time, but it was if nothing else a very unique ride. I've never been on a coaster so engulfed by forest (I know there are others), and I found my night ride to be one of the best coaster experiences I've had. There was definitely no airtime, but I felt like it had enough other stuff to make it worthwhile.

Gold reduces your wait by 75%, so in most cases you can ride by the time you walk to the ride. Flashpass should have the actual length of the queue. If it were me and I were definitely spending the money, I'd go for regular both days and wait in other queues while using the flashpass. I don't think I've ever been waiting around waiting for the pass to get to the time since I'm eating, in another line (Especially since you can reserve your next ride while in the station of whatever you just used the pass for), or walking across the park. If you want a day where you know you won't need to wait in line, then get the gold, and hope you pick the right day for it.

Currently, all 6 of Great Adventure's flats are at least 10 years old (this excludes kiddie rides). Fantasy Fling has been in operation much longer than it should have been (it doesn't go anywhere near as high as other Round-ups anymore). Twister, a Top-Spin, is the only "adult" flat left, and it usually runs rather lame programs. The Bucaneer, Jolly Roger, Carousel, and Tea Cups are enjoyable, but not enough and nothing too special. Quality flats would be some new rides that can be enjoyed by kids who are getting bored by the kiddie sections but not 54", and some for adults too to take away from coaster lines. We used to have a Frisbee, I would love to see a Giant Frisbee. A Screamin Swing would also be amazing. Both of them would attract adults. I like seeing Troika! at Cedar Point, and don't know whether it is still made, but that would be a nice one too. These are my hopes, but with only 6 to start with, the park needs pretty much anything.

^I put some pictures in the park index thread of the ride running, at the bottom of the page here: themeparkreview.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=44372&start=310 Here's a pic that kinda shows the queue as well, it was taken from the station entrance A very simple queue I rarely ever see lines at Dorney, and the ride isn't in a very central location, but this does seem to be rather tiny.

I rode it on Saturday afternoon. It had been closed earlier in the day with a car sloooowly moving up the shaft, and opened up between 2 and 3 probably. We rode with around a 5 minute wait. It did not live up to my memories of Stuntman's Freefall at Great Adventure, though perhaps it had to do with my harness being rather tight and our car (6) seemed to be making more noise than any other when transferring down. The ride up seemed slow and the cars were only dispatched once all the third car from the last set was dropping. It broke down a little after we rode too. I'll try it again next time to see if it seems better, but my ride was really boring.

Some shots of Demon Drop at Dorney Park. I've included what I think might be helpful, but know you might not need them all. Full shot Sign Alternate of sign Station Car returning Dropping Regulation sign Vehicle

This is really ambitious, should be fun though. As stated earlier, Dorney and Knoebel's in one day is easily doable, during the day the waterpark is mobbed which means no lines in the park. (Seriously, a Saturday with cars parking on the grass had Possessed as a walk-on). Knoebel's takes less than 2 hours to get to, but I've heard weekends can get crowded. With the already recommended flats I'd suggest doing the Looper, it's insane. If you can make it on a weekday I'd recommend that instead so you could get a Twilight Plan for around 25$. I usually wind up riding the Phoenix alone enough to cover the price of the wristband, but they aren't available on weekends so those Phoenix rides would start adding up...

I had a trip to these two parks earlier this season, and disagree with some of your analyses, but to each their own. One thing bothered me enough to ask though.... What would it take to get less than a 3 from you? Did you give Mean Streak points for being photogenic or something? If I'm hoping the ride will stop midway through, I'd expect a one. Me and my friends didn't even bother riding it on our trip since I hated it the one time I went on. Otherwise, nice read, I wish I had gotten that many rides on Vortex, it really took me by surprise

I was there yesterday and Scream Machine was running better than it has in years. I never minded the roughness, but my friend who was riding once since it was leaving enjoyed the first ride so much that he rode three more times. The park was pretty empty all day though, we rode every coaster, all of which had station waits, with repeats of anything we wanted to without having to get a flashpass or anything. Ka had some downtime early in the day, but was running with four trains most of the day. Everything had max units/both sides except Scream Machine with 2 trains, and things being pulled due to low attendance later at night. El Toro's colorful train actually started growing on me during the day, as the festive color's go with Plaza del Carnavale pretty well.

I've never had a fried chocolate bar, but would imagine they are similar to fried oreos. They are good, but I'm not a huge chocolate fan. On the other hand, I have eaten the hot dog described (or something very close to it). It was a corn dog (fried hot dog) on a bun with bacon, chili, and cheese. It was extremely messy, but very tasty. I'm gonna go with the hot dog.

Scream Machine was my first looping coaster (what a horrible experience that was ^_^), and I'd be very sad to see it go. I have a thing for Arrow loopers since I'm tall enough that head-banging doesn't happen, and love the ride now, for the final corkscrew if nothing else. That being said, I can never get friends to ride this more than once and that is a nice chunk of land. I can accept the fact that it's leaving, I would like one last ride on it, which won't happen if it closes midseason. From an operational standpoint, I don't know what Six Flags is thinking by closing it midseason. The ride doesn't get lines some days, but on crowded days it can get a queue back to the switchbacks and has the throughput to be able to meet high demand. It won't look good having a huge coaster highly visible from the parking lot just sitting there, especially if Superman is still down. Finally, I know its had the hairspray ad for a year now, and doesn't it have a trainwrap now? I'm sure the advertiser wouldn't like the ride shutting down, and there really isn't another good ride to advertise on, unless they start doubling up.

I just took a road trip with friends to King's Island, Holiday World, and Cedar Point over 1 week. It was a total blast!!!! We did end up with about 24 hours of driving, which I didn't mind doing most of, though my friends were always ready to take over as well. We spent at least two days at each park so we had plenty of time to see everything and split the driving up by staying at hotels midway between parks. It did put a good two or three thousand miles on my car, but it handled it well and gas came out to less than $40 per person. We stayed at the cheapest hotels with good satisfaction ratings from priceline, and they only totaled $120 per person. The total for the trip for hotels, tickets, and gas was about $400 (note this doesn't include food), of which $150 was for a CF Platinum Pass that I'm continuing to use. This was in May so hotel rates were probably cheaper than the summer, but if you stay farther from parks you might find comparable. In terms of road tripness, we didn't explore too much but immensely enjoyed what we did see. There were lots of beautiful roads, and we still joke about the awesome rest stop we found and our new favorite convenience store, United Dairy Farmers (it's in SW Ohio)! We would also just hang out and recover in the hotel rooms a lot, playing Pokemon and such. The one thing I would have done differently was just that we made hotel reservations and were not 21, which turned out to be an age requirement to rent a room some places. So, definitely call the hotels if you are less than 24 (we were told that was the age some places). I also got tripped up in time zones a bit. Other than the hotel thing, I don't think I would have done anything different. Your trip is much grander in scope than mine was, so it really depends how much road-trip you want. I notice the majority of the parks on your list are on the East Coast, so I would either find a way to add more stops along the way, or figure out how to fly to the East Coast and focus on them. I also noticed some close parks that yo skip, like if you'd be in Florida why not get to Busch Gardens Africa as well? I'd also recommend a stop at Knoebel's while around Dorney and Hershey. -If you really wanna drive that long though, its either a great bonding experience if you have have the right people. I also personally enjoyed the act of planning my trip, so that wasn't a deterrent to me at all. A TPR trip would let you get the coasters and take away all the hassle, but I liked having a last hurrah with just my college friends, none of whom are enthusiasts (but understood that they would be expected to be at parks open to close).Of course, there's also the option of incorporating a TPR trip into your roadtrip, if they worked well together. Good luck in your planning!

The phrasing confuses me, and I couldn't pinpoint an answer at their sites. It's go to Wal-mart Wednesday/Thursday, Buy Online until Friday and go to park that week? Or can tickets be bought that week and used any time before the end of the season?

79.5 No better way to gain people's confidence in a number than by giving making up more precision than necessary. Riding for the first time this weekend, it was a great ride. I was in the back and did not feel any slowing down on the drop, and still blacked out. If I hadn't known there were trims before going into the park I would not have realized there were any. After opening late with one train, the ride was down for a good 3 or 4 hours while they made repairs to both trains in the middle of the day, so it definitely is still taking a toll on the trains. It still was an amazing ride. Still, watching the queue video made me think, all this ride really needs is a NASCAR pit crew to change the wheels every 50 laps or so, smack the hood and keep melting wheels! With how upset some people are about this, I'm sure they'd be willing to donate the money for KD to do this .

Thanks for posting all the pictures. While I am still miffed about Dueling Dragons, it looks like a ton of work went into making the land look amazing and the new ride should make up for it. I'm curious, though, about what's offered in the shops. There's been lots of talk about the butterbeer and wands all over, but do Honeydukes Candy and Zonko's Jokes have any real Harry Potter themed items, or are they just highly themed shops selling the same as every other joke and candy shop?

I'm gonna agree with Jim- the beginning/end has been noticeably repainted for at least two years, which just makes the rusty lift hill look worse. Steel Force has been running better this year than I remember, but I'd still probably take Magnum. The lap bars can be painful, but I love coastin along the beach. I was in the park that night, after Wildwater Kingdom closed the lines all moved over to the amusement park, for about a 20 minute wait for anything except Talon.

That's strange, I could have sworn the Midway Market was $15 when I went for lunch (and it was the middle of the week...) It seems like the "no photo taking" rule happens everywhere, despite it not actually existing anywhere. I think it's usually employees who missed some key words in training about no pictures of rides for commercial purposes or reporting suspicious behavior (i.e. pictures of backstage or children who are not their own). It seems to always be settled out in the end, but is still annoying.

And Finally, Cedar Point: We left Dry Ridge around 9 or 10 for a 4 and a half hour drive to Sandusky. It had some nasty weather when going through a city, and the last hour was on backroads but we still made pretty good time. We stayed at the Super 8 Milan, which is about 20 minutes from CP but less expensive. We went over around 3:30 on Tuesday May 18, driving along a back access road thanks to my GPS. The weather was very stormy so Lake Erie was pretty agitated looking as we drove along a long residential road to the park. Upon arrival I saw that the rides were running, but someone forgot their Platinum Pass so I accompanied them back to the hotel and back. This at least let me figure out that our hotel was on the road to get to the main causeway, so I knew how to drive the rest of our time there. The roadways around Cedar Point greatly amuse me, with lanes that change direction depending on the time of day. Once in to the windy park we found the girls, who were on line for Raptor, which had broken down. We waited another 10 minutes after a train went before bailing over to Wicked Twister, which was walk on. We sat near the back of the train, and while it was fun I still prefer Possessed for the holding brake. Since we were cold we went to Disaster Transport for about a 20 minute warm wait. Not too much to say about it.... Going further into the park we went on Wildcat, which was the last "big" credit I needed. We couldn't fit into one car so we went around in two. Fun, but nothing special. Mantis was next, which was running 2 trains with no wait. I thought it was fun, with my ankles feeling the forces, but my friends all had ill-adjusted seats that made for painful rides. Mantis against a dark sky Next up was Millennium Force, with two trains and about a 10 minute wait for your choice of row (though the line for the front was MUCH longer than anything else). Going up the lift there were portions of a sunset orange peeking through clouds, and the ride delivered a ride better than I remembered from my last trip. A trainful of happy riders in sweatshirts to combat the windy conditions. We continued walking down the park to get to Maverick, which had a line just down the stairs, much nicer than the 90 minutes I waited at opening last time. We all really liked it's many twists and turns, although we got smacked into the restraints a bit during some rides. It was most of our's favorite coaster at the park. The sun fighting to overtake the clouds. It would come out for the rest of the trip. We thought it would be a good idea to get Dragster out of the way early, so we headed in its direction, but not seeing any trains launching up. Since it wouldn't make sense to wait when everything else was walkon we just stayed in the area, hitting Magnum first. We grabbed the front row and almost had a Fabio incident when a Seagull hanging out on the pretzel track waited until we were about a foot away before flying off. Magnum is still a great ride, with some nice airtime and a location along the coast that beats any other coaster I've been on. We followed up with the front row on Corkscrew, the Red Side of Power Tower, and front and back on Iron Dragon, all walk ons. Corkscrew was alright, Power Tower was boring, and Iron Dragon was completely overshadowed by Flight Deck at King's Island. We grabbed Sonic on the way back to the hotel and got some rest for the full day to come. We started out the second day by arriving around 9:30 to get some early rides. We had two rounds on Raptor and two on Millennium Force before opening. We then worked our way over to Dragster to try to get on at opening, stopping along the way to ride Skyhawk. I had done the normal Screamin' Swing at Dorney and enjoyed it, but I LOVE the giant model. I love even more that it was free! Bright blue skies to make the Skyhawk ride excellent! We arrived at Dragster just as an employee tested it and joined the line, which was back to the station from the entrance. I figured it wouldn't be that bad once we were in the queue area, but I didn't realize that the ride has to be warmed up row-by-row. We wound up in the second set of switchbacks, but a combination of loading a fraction of the train each time, rollbacks whenever a row was added, and only 3 trains running meant the wait was about an hour. When we got on they still were only running 7 of 9 rows. I can understand from seeing the rollbacks that they need to do this, but it still was annoying. As someone used to Ka's opening with full trains and rare rollbacks, watching the opening of Dragster was interesting, but took too long. Oh no more than half the train fell out!!! We came off of Dragster pretty hungry, so we went to the all-you-can-eat buffet near Raptor, which had a variety of food for $15. This wasn't that bad and beat getting off of the causeway to get cheaper food. We followed up with walk on rides to the Observation Tower, MaxAir, and Ferris Wheel. Twister along the coast. Great view for the line, but not enjoyed onride like Magnum. Magnum trucks on, determined to kill the seagulls that mock it We rode Troika (not as good as Shake, Rattle & Roll) and the Viking Ship before moseying over to Blue Streak. It was fun, but in my still weakened state from Holiday World it was slightly painful. Fun rides all around We continued to tour the flats with Calypso, which was a new experience. It was alright, but nothing that great. I was excited to ride the Matterhorn, one of my favorite flats. This one featured restraints that don't lock and a 30-second cycle time.... I think I'll pass next time. Continuing with the coasters was another go-round on Magnum, followed by Gemini, where only Blue was running. We were amazed by it's ability to silently meander. It actually was a pretty fun ride as well, and we were able to stay in our seats to reride. We continued along the path towards the Minetrain, but the rest of the group was stopped in their tracks by the cuteness.... Roller coasters are no match for goslings The Mine Ride was broken so we enjoyed Skyhawk again, followed by a round of Skee-Ball, fish-feeding, and then the Minetrain opened. We then waited about 30 minutes for Maverick, front row. Front row had no bumping against restraints and was awesome. Short hill before the brakes. I like the pony-tails flying up in Maverick Pics. While we got plenty of "painful" credits, and more than a few "meandering" credits, no one wanted to ride the ultimate "painful meandering" credit. Even though we had all you could eat for lunch, people got hungry so we all split a delicious Elephant Ear with free tap water! It was amazingly good, and not that overpriced at 5$ for a huge piece of fried dough covered in 5 lbs of cinnamon sugar (not actually 5 lbs, but I think that's what the worker was trying to get on it). We stopped at Gemini again, followed by Woodstock Express (my final new credit), and then settled on another Dragster ride since we didn't want to go through the opening nonsense again. After about 45 minutes we were in the station when back to back trains rollbacked, so the ride shut down for technical difficulties and only about 15 minutes til closing. Rather than wait for nothing we beelined for Millennium Force. The Mechanics got up to spank the Intamin Launch Cable, even though the REAL difficulties causing rollbacks were temporary increases in gravity localized around Dragster. Probably a better way to end anyway. At least some Intamin cables know how to behave... The sunset ride was an AMAZING way to end the day with all the sights. We left the park very happy, and (after narrowly avoiding everyone passing out on beds) had a late dinner at our hotel's restaurant. For our final day we were packed up and at the park for around 9:20 again, planning to marathon Maverick with a stop at Millie. Of course, it didn't think it was fair that Dragster got two nights off in a row so it took the yellow train up and let it sit there all morning. This meant we got to take the Maverick Fitness Challenge! Everyone made it to Maverick straight from the front gate without collapsing to find the line down the stairs. It gradually decreased as we approached opening and people went to other rides, and we got 4 rides in before the majority of people came around 10:15. Coming out of the launch A trainful of happy riders Due to a strict law limiting outlaw horses to 2-inversions, Maverick can only legally tilt riders that far. We followed with another Skyhawk trip, the Red side of Gemini, and Magnum (which actually had other people in the station this time!) with minimal waits. We could tell it was getting more crowded though, and we looked over to Mille to see it still hadn't opened, but got on Mantis again after 30 minutes. Millie had opened by that point but looked to have a lengthy line, so after a final ride on Maxair and my friends being denied Sir Rub-a-Dub's Tubs, we hit the road to get back to PA. Before this trip I posted in another thread that I was used to being solo or with only one other person, and that I was a bit nervous going with more friends on this one. I have to say that I had a great time, including one of the best days I ever spent at a park at King's Island. There were lines, I didn't reride things like crazy, and we even left the park for a stretch, but being with close friends really made things better. By having 4 there usually was at least one other person willing to ride anything, and we weren't insulted when 3 did something but 1 wanted to sit out. This dynamic isn't always true I know, but if you have people you trust and who make a good time outside of the parks, try going with them. I know it definitely made my trip great, and I look forward to King's Dominion later this summer with them! This draws my trip to a close for now, but I'll be making trips to Dorney and KD with my platinum pass. Any comments or questions are welcome. Thanks!

Holiday World After a quick night's sleep, I had everyone up and in the car at 7:00 to make the hour and a half ride to Holiday World so we'd arrive at the park for opening at 9:30 central time. Behold the result of my awesome planning! First car in the lot. Time: 7:30 Central Time (aka 2 hours before opening X_X) Nozzy's travel lesson number 2: Traveling west=sun rises later=back in time= leave LATER, not EARLIER! Fortunately, my friends were understanding, and we occupied ourselves by playing Apples to Apples travel edition. A little later a -parking attendant showed up and the first other car came after an hour. After talking to a former parking employee later in the day, this is a common occurrence, but can be bad when it happens to an entire family reunion. We walked to the entrance at quarter to nine and were there for the opening of the gates at 9. The weather was fairly cold and wet, and I was again nervous about getting on Voyage, which was the ride of the trip I was most looking forward to. We occupied the half hour until the rope drop by poking around the glass shop. El Toro would not be welcome here. The pieces here were beautiful and people were very friendly, just like everyone we talked to in Santa Claus. I wound up purchasing Christmas ornaments and Barometer Swans as souvenirs for my family, and they were packed very well for the car ride home. At around 9:25 we went back out and were in the front of the pack to arrive at Voyage. However, it wasn't quite ready for us, and hadn't started testing yet. Since I didn't feel like waiting if testing didn't even start yet, and the park wasn't that crowded, we proceeded to Gobbler Getaway and were the first riders of the day. It was cute, and I achieved the rank of Master Turkey Caller due to my finesse at shooting the same three target repeatedly when stopped one of the final rooms. Also, a most excellent animatronic: Grandma's got a Gun! Coming out, a train was ascending Voyage's lift, and my group was second in line. The one kid in front of us went for the back, so we got the front rows of the first train. WOW The ride that had such rave reviews delivered on every account, giving great air and a wild ride from the first drop all the way to the brake run. The PTCs were a bit rough, but I didn't let that stop me from enjoying such an awesome ride. The first ride we had no idea where we were going as we dived through tunnels, swerving through the forest. Even when making banked turns there are pops of airtime! And of course who doesn't love going NINETY DEGREES! I wish I could have gotten better photos, but since the ride takes place mainly in the forest it wasn't possible. After riding we went on again immediately, this time going towards the back. So much more rough, but SOOOO much better than the front! My friends started bowing out, since the ride does take an extreme toll on your body, but I probably rode about 10 times that day, with 4 or 5 rides in the last row. There were rides where I felt like I was in complete freefall on the first drop, and I did hurt my back on one ride, but in my opinion it was well worth it! Voyage on its way over the top. After Voyage, we decided to not care about the drizzle since Pilgrim's Plunge looked so amazing. The elevator ride up is really exciting, especially when the platform starts to tilt. I got about half wet on it, well worth it. After a quick ride on the Turkey Whirl, we decided to continue the madness and ride the rapids ride. It was fun, and we didn't get too much more wet. Next up were the Halloswings as we worked back towards the other coasters. It was nice to see everything so well themed! Next up was Legend, which provided a LOT of lateral G's. Riding in the back gave some pretty good airtime on a few hills, but the ride definitely focuses on the laterals and tunnels. The first drop is twisted in a way that makes it amazing to travel down as well, and a cool wolf howl plays when cresting the lift, warning you to not look back. A few riders running from the Headless Horseman. More CivE nerd talk was had about the numerous vertical supports at the center of the curve at the top of the lift. We finished the trifecta by riding the Raven twice, first in the front, then in the back. Again, back completely changed the ride, going from a nice ride through the woods into a massive airtime machine. I still am not sure how mu thighs were not bruised from all the airtime that threw me into the lapbars, but I loved it. We then walked over to Kringle Kafe, which was one of the only places open to eat, and shared a pizza. The pizza was incredibly hard to cut since the cheese was so hot and gooey, but the first bite was one of the most glorious food moments of my life. I then watched my friends expressions as they sampled it, all showing amazement at the cheesy goodness. Best Pizza Ever (Sorry Knoebel's). We followed up by making the long walk to Wildebeest. We were in street clothes but really wanted to ride, so we left our valubles with the water hater and hopped into a raft after about a 10 minute wait. The ride up the lift takes a little bit, and cresting it water poured into the boat, letting me know that there was no way I was getting off anywhere near dry. The ride had a decent amount of air, but going on a waterslide for so long was tons of fun. We rode again in the single rider line, and I got paired into a much lighter boat, which gave me a lot more air in the back. Definitely a great ride, my 2 friends' favorite ride of the trip. After getting so soaked we went over to check into Santa's Lodge where two of my friends remained for the day while I returned with my girlfriend. We went around the park and rode pretty much everything, including Howler which was empty. As Knoebel's regulars, the FLyers and Bumper Cars weren't exciting ride-wise, but their theming was great, especially the Rough Riders. We left about an hour before opening when I couldn't take anymore Voyage abuse. We ate at St. Nick's restaurant at Santa's Lodge, which was good and had lots more Santa pictures for us to view. After checking out the next morning we once again got to Holiday World before the rope drop, planning to spend more time in Splashin Safari since it looked so fun when walking to Wildebeest the previous day. I told everyone to leave anything not coming on slides in the car, and that we'd return after finishing with water for the day. Monday actually wound up being a bit more crowded than Sunday thanks to the better weather and school trips, but this just meant that Voyage had about a 15 minute wait along with Wildebeest. We were on the first train of Raven of the day and my head was already pounding (though that didn't stop me from reriding). We visited the Scrambler and then Frightful Falls, which was a fun flume ride. The music from Halloween was playing as we boarded, which really made it creepier. I'm sure the flume used to look big... We then went over to SPlashin Safari to wait fro it to open, applying our free sunscreen while waiting. We were among the first on Wildebeest, this time with all four of us. It was a great ride, followed by two more before any line formed. The ride programmers were still set up with their laptops connected to the control panel, which really showed the ride's newness. Holiday World definitely has a(nother) gem with this ride, though I hope its extremeness coupled with freeness doesn't cause any accidents (if you don't hang on in the back, you're toast). Wildebeest was unaware that waterslides don't have hills. Best waterslide ever! While the girls enjoyed the wavepool, me and my work partner went to the other slides. It was my first time on a giant bowl slide, which was not as exciting as I had hoped, but still fun. The racing speed slides were awesome, though it was hard to push off of them. The funnel was our favorite waterslide not named Wildebeest. We then went on the small black slide "Go" which I thought looked like might have a good double down (not really). At this point we start going back to the wavepool when I realize my bathing suit is a lot lighter, and see the snap my keys were on had opened! We split up to tell the girls and ask the guards at every ride we went on about the keys, but turned up empty. I filed a report with Lost and Found. Summing up the situation, we were 4 people with minimal clothing, no cash, no credit cards, no cell phones and pretty wet- everything was in the car! Nozzy's Travel Rule #3: Make sure keys are secure on waterslides (i.e. in a locker or with a non-rider) We decided to stop water rides in case a thunderstorm came, but told everyone to keep riding things in the park since the only thing to do was wait. After watching the girls on Paul Revere's Ride, I returned back to Lost and Found while the others continued in 4th of July. Nothing yet, but when I went to Go's pool the guard said he had just turned keys over to the head guard. Almost a watery grave for my keys After waiting at lost and found for 20 minutes I had my keys back! We returned to the car to re-equip ourselves and then went back to Kringle's Kafe for more pizza. On the way out I saw a very personal Santa's Storytime. Seeing Santa with the kids was one of the greatest aspects of the park. We continued to reride various things and peruse the gift shops. I got two more rides on Voyage, and during a final round on the coasters met a fellow Club TPR member at Legend, Brandon. It was nice to finally talk to someone, and looking through pictures later I think I found one of him on Voyage. I found Brandon (saginawhxc) in this picture after meeting him on Monday. While there was about an hour until closing, we decided to set out for the next park. I had plenty of rides on all the coasters, which took a greater toll on my body than rides have ever placed before. It was well worth it in the end, and I would love to return for the Timberliners. Leaving the park it was 2 and a half hours too the Microtel Dry Ridge, which had none of the rules found at the Louisville location. Tomorrow would have a drive up to the final park, Cedar Point.