LiftThrill
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Posts posted by LiftThrill
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They probably don't want it catching on fire like it did that one time
Side note: We're working on adding one or two parks to our short Thanksgiving road trip. I didn't realize it at first, but Dollywood is a similar distance from my getaway from a few of the other parks I was considering. It looks like they're doing their Christmas event through all of Thanksgiving week (lol) which I've heard is phenomenal in its own right, but I can't find consistent information on what parts of the park will be open and what rides will be open. Main focus would be food, shows and Lightning Rod, and it looks like Friday after Thanksgiving is gonna be our park day. If anyone has experience with the Christmas event, crowds, what rides are open and if they have specific temperature limits, that'd be really good to know in deciding what park to tack on to our Thanksgiving getaway! thanks in advance
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Interesting to see your thoughts on Dominator, as I've had the exact experience with Superman: Krypton Coaster having absolutely no consistency in smoothness between rides.
As for Twisted Timbers running better as the day went on, all two ( ) of the I-box RMCs I've been on have the biggest difference of any coaster ever between early rides and late rides in terms of pacing. I don't know what it is about I-box track, but they run probably a good 5-10mph faster by the end of the day compared to rope drop. I didn't notice the same thing with Goliath @ SFGAm, Outlaw Run, or Wonder Woman: GLC, with the different track types, but the I-box coasters really do shine later in the day.
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Hey everyone! I just finished writing up a report for my latest trip. While this one wasn't coaster-focused like my 2016 trip, it did have some parks. I'm not going to report on much else besides the parks because I didn't really take pictures of much else, though I do have a few pictures here or there of some other notable things we did during the trip.
I'd also like to apologize for how low quality my pictures are. My phone camera is actually terrible and I definitely have no clue about anything photography-related.
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We began the trip by getting bottlenecked by "construction" which is actually just some closed off lanes and a sign because construction may or may not eventually happen here so let's slow down traffic in case we decide to actually start constructing anything anytime soon. I-35 is what locals call Satan's small intestine, where the average speed reaches zero to five miles per hour on a good day. Legends say that sometimes, if you close your eyes, it feels just like Cedar Creek Mine Ride, only slightly more intense.
Eventually, slow gives way to not-slow and you escape I-35. Slowly the land of guns, grub, and gold becomes the land of... well actually it's just guns, grub, and gold again except with bigger hills. The drive was fairly uneventful, besides some cutting-off douchebag in front of us getting pulled over in Oklahoma, which was pretty satisfying even though getting pulled over in Oklahoma sucks because the whole state is a speed trap, but still, kinda satisfying. We grabbed some pancakes at the Comic Sans Napkin McDonald's with Silver Dollar City coupons (score!) and eventually, around noon, made it to Silver Dollar City. It was a Friday, so we weren't expecting the crowds to be SUPER awful (last time we went it was a Saturday, the first day of Star Spangled Summer, and the Harlem Globetrotters were in town, yet the park seemed very empty and we only used 4/8 of the Trailblazer punches) but budgeted for Trailblazer just in case. Upon arrival, the ticket line spilled out of the queue over to the tram loading/unloading area, so Trailblazer was a must. After about 25 minutes in the ticket line, we had our tickets and Trailblazers so we entered the park.
Not even lying. Comic Sans Napkins
The original plan was to head to Time Traveler, use the one TT punch so we didn't get Lightning Rodded, then do whatever because we had 6 and a half hours and 7 punches. On the way to Time Traveler, we heard people talking about how it was broken down. New hotness is always a bit temperamental, so we headed there anyway in case it was temporary, but it looked like it was gonna be a while. Luckily, there's a damn good mine train next door. This is where we discovered how good of a decision Trailblazers were that day. They were running one train and the queue was almost out to the entrance. This would go on to become a theme throughout the day, but due to the sheer awesomeness of Trailblazers (and by extension, SDC in general) it didn't matter. As usual, Thunderation is a seriously awesome mine train, and with Road Runner Express taking an extended siesta it's fun to get a spin on an upper tier mine train. The trees around the ride are mostly intact post-Time Traveler, but a few of the denser forest moments over by TT felt a little thinner. Still a super fun mine train and comparable in quality to only the best of family coasters. It felt a little smoother this season vs. 2016, but it's not exactly butter smooth. If this is the weakest link in SDC's coaster lineup then SDC pretty much has the most rock solid coaster lineup this side of that one place that starts with Kn and ends with oebels (disclaimer: much to my dismay I'm getting this information secondhand and am still a Knoebels (and by extension Pennsylvania) virgin).
Thanks to Time Traveler being down and Thunderation running one train with a huge queue, we figured it'd be good to check on the other coasters. Like Thunderation, Outlaw Run was only running one train and had a queue that (at the time) was almost spilling out onto the midway, though it posted a 20 minute wait for some reason (lol). Punched in on the Trailblazer and jumped into the second to last row after being dumped into the station. Something to note is that Outlaw Run near the back is something you want to be careful of. It's still smoother than most woodies at its worst, but the back row of any car is definitely gonna jostle you around a bit more (dare I say rough?). Still the king of the park and it's amazing what kind of elements give airtime on this ride that in no right mind would you expect to give any sort of airtime. Due to its ridiculous intensity, its short length really is perfect and it feels complete.
Every ride has an incredibly themed station.
kinda artsy for being taken with a piece of sh*t camera, lol
On the way out from two Outlaw Run rides (both Trailblazed) I remembered that someone recommended the Giant Barn Swing. Looking at the line it didn't look too bad so decided why not. The line was about 20 minutes but it moved fast due to shorter cycles. Very fun flat ride with some airtime and fun theming, and worth a 20 minute line. I'd complain about a short cycle like the enthusiast I am, except who cares because it's still a giant f*cking swing and who cares if you only get to fly way up high in the air two times on the giant f*cking swing instead of flying way up high in the air three times on the giant f*cking swing, plus the line would have been longer and moved slower so it was kinda necessary.
Seriously awesome flat ride
Following that we began the SDC ritual of eating some of the most glorious food ever made in the form of a Tater Twist. It's basically a hot dog on a stick wrapped in a spiral potato and covered in pure happiness. During this time we stopped to check out the glassblowing show and the pottery shop, while also looking out for news of Time Traveler opening. It seemed to still be closed so we headed for Wildfire. The line was only to the station so we skipped out on Trailblazing this time and headed for the front row line, where we encountered literally the only less-than-perfect anything ever to be encountered at Silver Dollar City ever, employees not communicating about who should get the front row seats on each cycle between the Trailblazer line and the normal line. That would've been fine except with one train ops and slow dispatches it was probably 30 minutes before we were on the ride. I know what you're thinking - why would anyone with Trailblazer be dumb enough to wait 30 minutes in a non-moving line? Honestly I don't remember why, but I'm glad we did because we ended up using all the punches by the end, so it would've been one less reride or something, and we ended up filling the day pretty perfectly, so who cares? After that we walked around and Trailblazed a back seat ride. Wildfire is a seriously solid B&M looper. It doesn't have the snappiness of Raptor or the gracefulness of a wing coaster, but the view in the front seat at the top of the lift hill is breathtaking, and the back row provides ridiculous ejector air down the first drop plus a hilariously fun yank through every inversion and turn. Just like literally everything at Silver Dollar City, Wildfire is a grand slam attraction.
The whole park is so green. There's shade and trees everywhere!
The place to be on Wildfire
This cobra roll on Wildfire may not be as forceful as Raptor's, but it's like twice as big.
They're not gonna be sitting still for much longer...
We were originally planning on doing the cave tour next, but in line for Wildfire, we heard that Time Traveler had opened back up, so that was naturally the next destination. Like Wildfire, Outlaw Run, and Thunderation, Time Traveler was running one train and had a super long line that was probably an hour plus (but at least it was operating! I was starting to think we'd get the Lightning Rod treatment, but unlike Dollywood, SDC can do no wrong - as long as you budget for Trailblazer). The Trailblazer passes only allowed one punch on TT, so this was our shot. This was one of the most anticipated coasters of the trip because of how unique it is, but I wasn't exactly expecting anything super amazing. (Spoiler alert: wow)
I didn't actually get any pictures of Time Traveler, so here's a picture of it from the SDC park map/newspaper thing.
Following the awesomeness of Time Traveler, we stopped to ride the real star attraction of Silver Dollar City.
Oh, did I say ride? I meant eat. Did you really think this trip report wasn't going to include some raving about cinnamon bread? Ha! The new Time Traveler cinnamon bread with caramel and chocolate sprinkled on top was calling so that's what we got. I remember taking a high school health class where we were discussing dopamine or endorphins or seratonin or whatever tf the happiness stuff in your brain is. They told us that eating two cheeseburgers is equal to having sex on the scale of release of happiness brain stuff, which doesn't really seem accurate unless you're eating some really good cheeseburgers but hey, science! On this scale, the cinnamon bread at Silver Dollar City is equal to approximately seven thousand three hundred and forty eight cheeseburgers, which I'll let you do the math and convert to sex if you want to for some reason. This is a low estimate according to actual proven science, trust me.
Next we went to the entrance to do the Marvel Cave tour, which was one of the overall two must-do things we missed on the last big trip, the other being going to Dollywood on a day when Lightning Rod was open (not included in the Great Weird Trip 2018: Dollywood). This is one of those iconic SDC things that's really unique to the park and really cool. I've done a few cave tours before, like Natural Bridge Caverns and Carlsbad Caverns, but this one had the SDC charm and some park history involved which is always a bonus. The cave tour is about an hour and fifteen minutes from starting the tour to returning to the actual park midways, so at this point we had about two hours left before the 7:00 closing (side note: closing at 7:00?? who does that??).
The only coaster we had yet to ride was Powder Keg, the seriously underrated launch coaster of SDC. With three Trailblazer usages left, front and back row rides seemed like a good idea. Fortunately for everyone involved, Powder Keg was running two trains, a real breath of fresh air from the rest of the coasters that were doing their best Poltergeist impression (seriously, what's up with Poltergeist running one train lately? I haven't seen it run two all season). One front row and one back row ride proved once again that every Silver Dollar City coaster here whose name doesn't start with the letter T and have an entrance ten feet from another coaster whose name starts with the letter T absolutely has to be ridden once in front and once in back (Outlaw Run second to back) because the front has awesome views and the back has crazy ride experiences. Powder Keg fits this and really has one of the most complete ride experiences ever. It has a launch, a lift hill, some crazy airtime, bat-out-of-hell-or-maybe-just-Marvel-cave sensation of speed, an amazing location, and wraps it all up by being really smooth all the way through. If I were a typical enthusiast I could nitpick the S&S restraints or the seats or something dumb but really there's nothing truly negative to say about this ride.
The legendary Powder Keg rollback spike that doesn't actually do anything
Sorry guys, the ride exploded. Go ride Time Traveler instead.
Powder Keg has too many signs
not even kidding
there are 3 of them!
Wildfire has one or two signs, but not as many as Powder Keg.
Two awesome rides on Powder Keg later, we did something related to food and then got way too lost because Silver Dollar City has the most hilariously wonky layout of any park ever. Checked out woodworking around this time as well because woodworking is cool just like all the other SDC artisan stuff. One non-Trailblazed back row ride on Wildfire and one Trailblazed front row ride on Outlaw Run later, the park closed, so we headed out with empty Trailblazers, forgot which parking lot we parked in, took three tram rides, and finally got to the car.
Off we were to the esteemed (not really, but it was pretty good for what we paid for it) Baldknobbers Motor Inn on the Branson strip, and in proper road trip fashion we got some Andy's Frozen Custard at night also on the Branson strip. Did you know there are some extra coaster credits on the Branson strip @ America's Fun Park? I didn't until the morning after, but I don't care about credits besides milestones anyway so not a big loss.
The Branson strip ferris wheel has a really cool light package.
-- quick rave review of silver dollar city ahead --
I can't emphasize how amazing Silver Dollar City is. Between stellar food and a rock solid coaster lineup there's seriously nothing bad to say about this park. Even on a day where 4/5 of the major coasters were running one train and the operations were kinda slow, the park still managed to deliver a ridiculously fun time. I know it's easy to say that when you skipped the line 8 times, but seriously, stuff like that at Cedar Point or SFOT would completely trash the mood of the day (and has for a lot of people at SFOT). This is a park where you can completely disregard rides and have a super awesome and full day, but also a park where you can completely disregard everything but rides and have a super awesome and full day. This is something I personally think no other major park does nearly as well, at least any park not named Knoebels (again disclaimer my knoebels knowledge is all secondhand and I have a knoebels shaped hole in my heart waiting to be filled one day hopefully soon). The food, rides, atmosphere, location, artisan crafts, shows (which we didn't do this time but did plenty of last time), and just overall park experience are on a whole new level compared to your typical corporate park and even most traditional family owned parks. The park is absolutely phenomenal in every way imagineable. I was a little skeptical that it wouldn't live up to the expectation I set for myself from last time, but if it's even possible to, I like it even more than I did after last time.
The whole park is so organic and everything feels like it should be there.
Stagecoach!
Aw shucks! Thanks for havin' me!
One thing SDC does flawlessly - food.
Another thing SDC does flawlessly - atmosphere
Technically outside the park, but SDC also has amazing landscaping.
Tiny bird hiding in the flowers
The bag that your merch comes in is awesome even on its own.
-- rave review done --
Time Traveler: I don't know what I was expecting, but whatever it was, Time Traveler blew it away in every aspect. I came off laughing so hard I had to stop walking and take a second on the side of the midway to figure out what kind of nitrous oxide laughing gas shenanigans the ride had injected into me. One of the most blatantly fun coasters ever made that really makes you question if any other coasters out there are really quite as fun as it. It's hard to say if one ride is really enough to truly rank something but screw it, Time Traveler is absolutely a top ten roller coaster for me. It has some hilariously fun moments of airtime, hangtime, inversions taken facing a direction that somehow makes them 50 times better, and it generally gives an experience you can't get on any other roller coaster out there. I'm sure that if it spun more or less than it does/did/has done/will do/something, it would be a lesser ride, but the amount of spinning makes it feel not like a spinning coaster, but a rotating coaster, where the ride does a statistical check for what seat position makes the next element the most laugh-out-loud fun and rotates you to that position, lather rinse repeat until you're basically straight outta the dentist and so high on laughing gas that you might even find an Adam Sandler movie kinda funny. Maybe.
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SDC Ride Scorecard:
Thunderation x1
Outlaw Run x3
The Giant Barn Swing x1
Wildfire x3
Time Traveler x1
Powder Keg x2
SDC Diabetes Scorecard:
Tater Twist x1
Time Traveler Cinnamon Bread x1
Some Skillets x2
SDC Miscellaneous Scorecard:
Cave Tour x1
Steps x12.5k
Artisan Craft Watching x3
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Top 10 Before SDC 2018:
1. Millennium Force @ Cedar Point
2. New Texas Giant @ Six Flags Over Texas
3. Outlaw Run @ Silver Dollar City
4. Maverick @ Cedar Point
5. Iron Rattler @ Six Flags Fiesta Texas
6. The Voyage @ Holiday World
7. Diamondback @ Kings Island
8. ShockWave @ Six Flags Over Texas
9. Wonder Woman: Golden Lasso Coaster @ Six Flags Fiesta Texas
10. Raptor @ Cedar Point
Top 10 After SDC 2018:
1. Millennium Force @ Cedar Point
2. New Texas Giant @ Six Flags Over Texas
3. Outlaw Run @ Silver Dollar City
4. Maverick @ Cedar Point
5. Iron Rattler @ Six Flags Fiesta Texas
6. The Voyage @ Holiday World
7. Time Traveler @ Silver Dollar City
8. Diamondback @ Kings Island
9. ShockWave @ Six Flags Over Texas
10. Wonder Woman: Golden Lasso Coaster @ Six Flags Fiesta Texas
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Stay tuned for the next update, which (assuming I don't split it in half) is the 21k step day in Chicago + SFGAm!
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I haven't been but I can tell you that Kennywood definitely has some non-coasters worth riding. The flats that come to mind are Kangaroo and Turtle, but people who know the park better can definitely tell you some more, including dark rides and probably some more flats that slipped my mind.
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Cannibal during sunset. Very fun ride with a great view of the sunset.
Heading home from The Great Weird™ 2018 Road Trip now of which I'll be posting a Photo TR of quite low quality at some point soon.
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Ah, that's the problem. SV needs to be reprofiled to hit 88mph.
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It came back on shortly afterwards. The only rides I saw operating during the outage were the flyers and some other small flats.
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Jet Star II at Lagoon. Great times though we went through hell trying to actually get on it because of random reasons
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At the park right now. Power just went out but so far I've managed to ride Cannibal, Roller Coaster, Colossus the Fire Dragon (twice), Wicked, and Wild Mouse.
Hopefully power gets back on soon so we can hit Jet Star and maybe some flats (plus maybe more rides on Cannibal depending on line).
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Better @ Night
The Beast - the original. adventure through the woods
Millennium Force - energy in the station + being super warmed up + already being #1 material during the day = perfection
Iron Rattler - this ride has delevoped a culture around it similar to The Beast or Millennium Force for night rides, at least with locals. the terrain + darkness + seeing the park lights/fireworks sometimes up the lift hill = great times
Whizzer - sensation of speed is this ride's forte and night rides make it better
Titan - not only are there pretty lights to entertain you during the parts of the ride that do nothing (everything but the helices), but the sensation of the life slowly being drained from your body in an endless helix becomes more realistic when there's no light at the end of the tunnel vision
Better @ Day
The only thing that comes to mind is Pandemonium clones and I don't even really know why lol
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Outlaw Run is a second-to-back or very front seat ride. The back row of any car can definitely throw you around.
I dunno how Wildfire or Powder Keg come anywhere near painful in the back unless you're in the headbanging height range for Wildfire, but I found both of those to be vastly superior in the back (unless you want the best damn views in the world, then front is best). Thunderation isn't a ride that seems to vary too much by seat, I'd just avoid the back row of any car if you care about smoothness.
I only got to experience Time Traveler in the front due to assigned seating but I can imagine the back is the place to be. The ride was absolutely fantastic either way
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The Dark Knight Coaster @ SFGAm on Tuesday, right before a giant rainstorm that closed the park (lol)
Not an overly pleasant experience but still fun
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When I was in St Louis a couple of years ago there were billboards advertising Holiday World and even Kentucky Kingdom. I'd say there's probably a decent-sized market, but the park isn't really in shape to cater to it.
The park's location and backdrop is absolutely beautiful. I'd go back to get the remainder of the credits and ride the woodies some more (Screamin Eagle has the realest floater airtime to ever exist and I never got to try AT in the back), but I've always passed through on a tight schedule and it's not a good enough park to make any extra time for in my mind.
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Rerides, on the other hand, are a messy policy across every park in the chain except Great America from what I've seen
Great Adventure's is pretty awesome too. Me, Brit and Boldikus rode Nitro for at least an hour and a half without getting up at night in January a few years ago. They allow unlimited re-rides on every ride plus seat jumping to empty rows. Hell, they straight up beg people to re-ride on El Toro and Kingda Ka to keep the trains from valleying on Toro and to keep the weight consistent on Kingda Ka so it doesn't roll back.
Maybe that's where the "Great" comes from.
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On one hand, I'm really overdue for a Carowinds trip and should've gone a while ago, but on the other hand I'm glad because I'll get to go when they have the 4-punch instead of just the 3.
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That's like saying Johnny Rockets food is better than Coasters food. It's technically true but both are so bad it doesn't really matter.
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RMC Boss could absolutely destroy Steel Vengeance in terms of ride experience and give a night ride that'd make Beast and Voyage tremble in awe. You heard it here first. If any other ride has a more perfect location and scale for a world-class ride I have yet to behold its glory.
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The Boss is ridiculously rough but I still love it, which is weird because I've had much smoother woodies ruined for me by being "rough." I got off Boss with some pain in my hands from whiteknuckling but not much else. Thunderhead and Raven gave me some pretty gnarly headaches which dampened the experience quite a bit for me, but I came off of Boss laughing way too hard because of how insanely rough it was.
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That coaster would have placed quite high on the TPR poll had it had more riders - a clone or similar ride at Kennywood would be pretty cool and would give the park a great 1-2 with Phantom's Revenge. Feels like KW is trying to become more like Hershey with the old-school vibe but new-school thrills and I can't say that's a bad plan.
Can't wait to get over to Kennywood at some point.
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Lived in Austin for 4 years, still go pretty often. If I want music I go to Austin, if I want food I'll go somewhere in SA or New Braunfels (tho the food scene in Austin is pretty good too).
With I-35 traffic it's probably more like an hour and a half, but yeah I love the whole area. In 15-20 years it'll be one giant metro akin to DFW, and it'll be awesome.
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Batman Clones - 3
Other Inverts - 2 (Raptor, Banshee)
Wing - All 4 NA
Floorless - 2 (SKC, Rougarou)
Sit-Down - 1 (Wildfire)
Dive - 1 (Valravn)
Flying - 1 (SUF @ SFGAm)
Hyper - 2 (Raging Bull, Diamondback)
Total should be 16 I think
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Powder Leg's launch is quite intense and feels almost instantaneous. Time Traveler's launches are more gradual but when you hit the end of each launch you get a really cool sensation of speed going whatever direction the ride feels like throwing you.
Photo TR: The Great Weird™ 2018 Road Trip
in Theme Parks, Roller Coasters, & Donkeys!
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Part of me is kind of glad I only got one ride on TT - while I'd loved to have ridden it quite a few more times, I don't know if the second or third time could have done it justice. Some rides get better with each ride, and some do the opposite. I'd definitely have wanted to try the back, though.
As for CCMR, yeah. If you have seen a pool of water and occasionally walk around sometimes, you probably already have the credit.