sirspud

I managed to get my wife on the Thunderbolt without her realizing that it dropped straight out of the station and into a ravine.

How does one get to be a part of these polls?

I'd say anytime a loop is thrown on a wooden rollercoaster. Wooden coasters are such things of beauty, why cheapen them by adding a bland vertical loop whose feel goes against the nature of wooden rollercoasters either predicated on negative G's or on crazy lateral G's.

The Starliner from Miracle Strip/Cypress Gardens is no more, but the ride had a very small hill after its first drop which provided the most dramatic and ridiculous ejector air that I have ever experienced.

For Sheikra, definitely try both the back row and the front. They both experience the major parts differently and its worth having both experiences. It's rare that the ride has a line that makes doing this in quick succession difficult. I don't think there is anything about Montu or Kumba that makes them any different from any other looper in terms of seats, obviously the back has a bit more G in a lot of elements. For Cheetah Hunt, I find the back is dramatically better, but since the ride is designed by Intamin its made with terrible capacity, so to try and keep the line somewhat manageable they assign seats.

I worked as a lifeguard/slide attendant in Cypress Gardens' water park in the summer of 2008, also working a week in rides when my hand was injured. I also worked Halloween events as an actor, once at Busch Gardens Tampa and three times at Halloween Horror Nights. As a seasonal performer we certainly weren't afforded the same experience of working at a park as a regular employee would be, we saw very little of the standard operations. I was afforded free admission to the parks though which of course was outstanding.

Over so quick it barely even counts and the twist on the way down spoils the fun of falling that far.

I love Sheikra but describing it as forceful isn't correct. I think its more accurate that its distinct lack of force, or extended weightlessness on the first drop, is truly exceptional and one of my favorite coaster experiences.

I'm taking a wait and see approach to whether or not the skyplex coaster will be anything more than a gimmick. While some of the video showing an extended coaster layout look promising, at the end of the day it has to conform to a tower structure and that may prevent it from utilizing its 500 feet like a normal coaster would.

The tallest rollercoaster I've ridden is Millennium Force, but the tallest abomination I rode is Top Thrill Dragster.

I'm totally with you on this. I've visited enough Six Flags/Paramount megaparks to realize that quantity is not quality. Honestly the thought of going to a park with one class ride is more appealing to me that going to a park with two class rides and a dozen mediocre ones, because I'll feel obligated to ride all the bad ones I haven't been on and I know that a park with that many coasters is likely to be packed and with a fair percentage being unsavory patrons as well. My last big trip I visited CP, Kennywood, Knoebel's, and Hersheypark, and I far more enjoyed the small two parks with less rides (but a high standard of quality and a friendly atmosphere) than I did the ones with massive coasters left and right. I'd rather ride the Phoenix all day than ride 8 completely different coasters that don't match up. I also don't think attractions, even non-coaster dark rides, need to be expensive to be enjoyable. Some parks make low-budget attractions with character that's a selling point, while a chain park could spend ten times the money on something that's sterile and lifeless. To further clarify what I was saying in that quote (which you accidentally misquoted) is that I'm directing the mega thrillz label to more of Six Flags than Cedar Point. I love Cedar Point, as it's still my all time favorite park, because customer service is great, operations are superb, and 5 or 6 of the coasters are fantastic. At Holiday World, you, for the most part, get the great coaster collection with equally great operations and customer service to creste a welcoming atmosphere, whereas with Six Flags, it's clearly a corporate-based park focused on the rides alone which really aren't too special except for American Thunder (still a clone). I don't hate Six Flags St Louis as it stands pretty well by itself, but it ranks near the bottom of the parks I've been to. I wasn't trying to imply that CP had bad customer service or deserved to be lumped in with SF in terms of commitment to quality. But in the end, CP having its endless coaster list doesn't mean I'd chose it over a smaller park that didn't have a ton of coasters but what it did have were amongst the top rides out there, like Holiday World. Also, the "fun" factor is sometimes more present at a smaller, relaxed park than it is at a park where there are so many people you feel herded like cattle.

I'm totally with you on this. I've visited enough Six Flags/Paramount megaparks to realize that quantity is not quality. Honestly the thought of going to a park with one class ride is more appealing to me that going to a park with two class rides and a dozen mediocre ones, because I'll feel obligated to ride all the bad ones I haven't been on and I know that a park with that many coasters is likely to be packed and with a fair percentage being unsavory patrons as well. My last big trip I visited CP, Kennywood, Knoebel's, and Hersheypark, and I far more enjoyed the small two parks with less rides (but a high standard of quality and a friendly atmosphere) than I did the ones with massive coasters left and right. I'd rather ride the Phoenix all day than ride 8 completely different coasters that don't match up. I also don't think attractions, even non-coaster dark rides, need to be expensive to be enjoyable. Some parks make low-budget attractions with character that's a selling point, while a chain park could spend ten times the money on something that's sterile and lifeless.

I don't agree with closing out your park on a summer day. Not everyone's summer planning is entirely flexible and one plans summer plans with the assumption that summer parks are going to be open in the summer on a weekend day. I've got Carowinds on my itinerary for July but I feel lucky that I'm not getting caught in this silly mess because I easily could have been in Charlotte on the day the park was rented out.

When I went I parked in the free lot, but I enjoyed the park so much I wouldn't have minded just paying for parking.

This is not an easy decision at all. I love between them and choose Busch Gardens to visit regularly (my wife and I have passes that cover it and Sea World). It's relaxed atmosphere and variety of types of attraction makes it more fun to visit regularly. Islands of Adventure, being part of a megacomplex of attractions, is more of a hassle to visit, so much so that when I had a pass I still rarely visited. But the sheer amount of top notch attractions means that for a one day trip this one wins. BGT has a great collection of coasters, easily topping IOA's, but in non-coaster attractions there is no comparison at all. I'd rank Kumba and Montu ahead of the Dragons and Hulk, but the level of quality is very comparable. Either way, you won't go wrong. They are both great parks but aside from having impeccable quality they are 180 degrees different.

I may have an opportunity to visit Beech Bend or Lake Winnie on Sunday July 19th. Now the catch is that my wife and I will be at the Tennessee Aquarium in Chattanooga in the morning and likely eating lunch. I don't want to rush her because this is her thing on our day of the vacation. With Beech Bend closing at 7 (central) that day I'd have at most 3 hours if I am lucky, but potentially even less. Since the drive from Lake Winnie to our hotel would be about 4 hours, I'd probably have most of the afternoon there and not have to worry about ditching too early since Holiday World doesn't open till 10 central, basically 11 for me since I'm coming from Eastern Time. It's obvious that Lake Winnie is much more of a full park while Beech Bend is pretty much Kentucky Rambler. The Rambler seems better than the Cannonball, though I would give the latter bonus points for history, but is the Rambler good enough that I should ignore Lake Winnie and a less stressful trip timewise to do it?

I agree with both of you on Hershey's Wildcat, a lot of people on this site bash it, I can't see why since it's a pretty solid woodie... That being said Gwazi (A coaster with a similar history in a different climate) and Hurler are the roughest and worst woodies I've ever ridden. Vortex or Anaconda take the cake for the roughest steel coasters even though they aren't that rough, it's those transitions that really kill ya. I'm with you on Wildcat, I didn't find it that bad of a ride. I didn't love it, but that's because I went to Kennywood & Knoebel's and also rode its buddy Lightning Racer in the same trip. I guess its because I've ridden Psyclone and Gwazi in its last days, so I can attest that there are some wooden rollercoasters that make you genuinely fear for your ability to have children afterwards. I didn't even find Mean Streak to be that bad, its roughness wasn't horrible from a pain perspective, unfortunately it was just enough to ruin the fun of the ride's plentiful drops.

I'm with you on this one. I originally envisioned my vacation this year having 5 parks. After realizing that spending much of it penned up in summer heat like an animal, all while shaking off motion sickness that accumulates and makes me feel SO tired at the end of a riding day, I realized that I needed more freedom. I want to have ridden everything everywhere, but you've got to space them out to really enjoy them.

The perfect coaster is a well maintained GCI in my backyard.

My wife and I will be at the park on a saturday in late July. We're coaster buffs but not really needing to do any of the non-coaster things. Does anyone have any good general strategy for the park? I was there around 99/2000 so the rides I'm most interested in hitting heavily are Fury 325 and Intimidator.

I'm gonna be spending a day at Holiday World on Monday July 20. My wife and I are gonna do the waterpark but only after we've taken in the coasters. Does anyone have a good recommendation for what order I should do the coasters in and some other general strategy tips? I plan on showing up right at opening. General idea is ride all the rides we want first, hit the waterpark in entirety, then hit the coasters for second round. As the last post indicated, I could probably avoid some bad lines if I got the waterpark done pretty quick, but I'm there for the coasters so I'm gonna ride them first. FYI neither of us care for flat rides.

Boardwalk & Baseball/Circus World, just because I grew up practically down the road and remember what it was like when an area that now contains a shopping mall had an amusement park. I DID actually visit the park before it closed, but I was 4 or younger and could experience very little and remember even less. Other than local factors, I'd love to see old Coney Island, or perhaps Riverview Park in Chicago.

Knoebel's is a great park and certainly a lot of the rides are historic, but still, how on Earth can it be more historic than Kennywood? Three wooden rollercoasters that originate in the 1920's, one of which regardless of history is one of the best in its class. Even the newer rides maintain a unique charm and character that make them feel historic. I LOVE Knoebel's, and you can't really go wrong with them either, but a park that still operates three 1920's era coasters and maintains historical relevance elsewhere simply cannot be beat.

I too am looking for a good hotel idea near HW. I'm coming from the south so I am considering just staying in Owensboro, KY and driving the 40 minute drive in the morning.

Although it seems like you rode some pretty great coasters and were still not feeling it, I think its natural to not be as impressed by things not as good. While I love to take a minute to enjoy a simple roller coaster, I find mediocre ones to not be worth going out of my way for just for the same of a coaster count. I faced a decision this summer with my vacation where I decided that seeing Kings Island and Carowinds in the same trip was spending a lot of time on something kind of redundant. The only ride I was really excited about was The Beast at Kings Island, and I decided rather than spend a day of vacation driving and another at the park, I'd rather do some exciting non-coaster things that I don't get to see in day to day life. I'm seeing Holiday World, Dollywood, and Carowinds this summer, all three because they offer rides that seem like they are at the top of their class, or multiple unique track designs. I'm very excited about doing these. I did CP, Kennywood, Knoebels, and Hersheypark during my honeymoon in 2011. I didn't really enjoy Hersheypark all that much, mostly because Lightning Racer was the only ride that really stood out as being on par with what I had already experienced. I probably would have enjoyed it more otherwise. Also, there's a lot about the rides there I can't even remember, while some other parks I can remember each parts of the ride very vividly.