tykunkel1031

We’ll be spending almost all day Sunday there. In total, it’ll be more than one full day of operating hours. Saturday is just like our preview evening haha. That’s why I was planning for possible FL+ on Sunday. I’m leaning towards just going for it on the FL+ for Sunday though. This will probably be our last time getting to visit the park for a couple years because we’re moving soon. I definitely want the last trip to be a good one. One more question - we both work at another theme park which gets us into CP for free. We were considering Breaker’s Express for a hotel just for the early entry. Do we need to have the tickets through the hotel to get in early for that? Also, do they run with FL+ during early entry?

I’ll be going just for Saturday evening, but our main day at the park will be Sunday. Think it’ll be worth it then?

Sounds good then. Anyone know if they’re still having the situation of FL/FL+ being sold out for in park purchase? I was gonna hold off on getting it until I knew for sure it would be needed, but maybe not if I can’t get it on the day I go.

Thinking about making a trip up to CP this weekend. For those that have been recently, will I hate myself with how busy it is? Also with that, will I need Fastlane? I came last year on one of the very last weekends, and it was so busy, we only rode Steel Vengeance, Val, Maverick, Millenium, and a couple of flat rides. We were there open to close. I’d like to avoid that if possible, and I’m willing to pay for one day of FL/FL+ if needed. The drive is about 6.5 hours, so I was thinking drive up for Saturday afternoon/evening in the park, then spend most of Sunday there as well. Thanks for any help!

I’m for sure in the minority here, but I understand this policy completely. I was at KI a few days ago, and I can’t even tell you how many phones I saw out on coasters.It was at least four I’d say, and I rode every coaster once except Mystic Timbers twice. Operators didn’t even try to take loose items at all (hats, cross body bags, flip flops on rides without a floor, etc.) Trains left the station while guests had phones out in their hands. Now imagine this being the case on a ride as intense as SV. They would be completely gone. And yes, you can argue that you have your cargo shorts, however explaining that logic to a guest is impossible. They won’t understand that it isn’t secure if it’s in a regular/back pocket. A blanket policy is always the easiest way to go. On Voyage at HW, I see at least one phone disappear from a pocket every day. Part of it is also that guests will absolutely pull phones out of their pocket once the train leaves the station/clears the lift. The sad thing is, people will lie. Keep in mind that this policy didn’t come around until mid-season. This means that they had issues with it, so they had to react to fix the problem. It’s 110% a safety issue, and I’ll argue that until the day I die. I’m happy a CF park is finally strictly enforcing loose items, and I don’t mind to pay the $2 if it means the safety of my phone, and the safety of others around me.

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Only 28. I will say though, I really love seeing rides like Wild Eagle on there, but no Thunderbird/Banshee. I also think I saw one RMC. Interesting list to say the least

Arrow - I guess regular loopers because of Tennessee Tornado? B&M - Don't kill me but wing coasters Intamin - Blitz (Maverick/Cheetah Hunt) S&S - Screamin Swing Vekoma - Flying Dutchman RMC - Launched wooden coasters (when they're open) Premier - Full Throttle!!!! HUSS - Giant Frisbee! I love these things Gravity Group - I guess since they don't technically have anything other than wood coasters - Voyage Mondial - Windseeker (these things scare the pee out of me) CCI - Same story as GG but Legend reborn GCI - Millenium Flyer trains (I'll take these things over PTC any day) Chance - Hyper GTX Sally - Who doesn't love a good turkey calling experience?

^ yeahhhhhh about that... Voyage filled up all of its basement queues in the morning, making for an hour wait this past Saturday. The line did go down later on, but I'm pretty sure it still stayed down in the basement all day. It'll be absolutely slammed most likely. However, the park will most likely have a bit more staff to keep the lines moving, as we did this weekend (at Voyage at least). It shouldn't ever really end up feeling like you just flat out aren't moving because of this, hopefully. If you aren't doing the waterpark, you should still have plenty of time to get around to everything still.

What he said. Way above my head

Not quite sunset, but I'm still a big fan of this pic of Voyage the other day. EDIT: Woah well it's super blurry now for whatever reason. I promise it's a cool pic in my camera roll

Awesome report! There's always at least one point in your reports where I audibly laugh, which is rare on the internet . Anyway, hopefully you'll be at HW a day that I'm working (ride op in the lower Thanksgiving area). Hope to see ya there!

Just wanted to drop in with an interesting fact I learned today. I work at Holiday World, and at Voyage today, one of the people I was working with used to work at CP. He said that on Magnum, once the train cleared the lift, you had 35 seconds to clear the next one and send it, before it would cause some sort of fault. So they're literally forced to be fast there, or else the ride will shut down. I just thought it was funny because for us, on Voyage, it'll take some effort to get one train out in 2.5 minutes. Given, we do have about 4+ less operators on most days, and we deal with a bit more (loose items, etc.), but still, I just found that insane. So there's your ride op insider for the day, from a ride op who doesn't even work at that park

It is in fact a Calypso - named Firecracker. It's a nice, interesting addition that will hopefully restore/bring back crowds and life in the 4th of July section. I mean I'm still waiting for a Screamin' Swing or HUSS Firsbee but yanno it's whatever PS - In case you couldn't tell, I'm 110% kidding. I love Holiday World, and the fact that a small park like this can add a first-of-its-kind B&M, then two more relatively large additions still amazes me. Here's the link to the news release: http://www.holidayworld.com/holiblog/2016/11/30/mannequin-video-reveals-2017-plans/

Holiday World - this list probably won't match anyone else's. 1: Thunderbird 2: Legend 3: Voyage 4: Raven I just really think that all the improvements to Legend paid off. It's infinitely smoother than Voyage, which was a huge factor in the ranking here. I also really do like the small airtime pops after the helix.

This is the exact situation that we had last year (minus Valravn of course) with my little sister. This was also nice for Banshee at KI. She was about 53" when we went to both of these parks. Thanks to the new style of restraints she's found her second favorite wing and favorite invert And yes, I fully support the Gen 2.2 version of B&M restraints. I say 2.2 because they don't lock once the ride starts I went on Wild Eagle, after having been on the updated updated version of the restraints on Thunderbird, Banshee, and Gatekeeper. While it didn't really take away from the ride THAT much, it could've been a much improved experience overall. During the ride, it isn't bad, but whenever you stack on the brakes it's hard to take deep breaths. I have 0 problem with the newest version, thankfully! I just happen to be the perfect body shape and height, apparently. I also prefer the way that it's a lot less claustrophobic for your head. On the old version, while sitting on the brakes, your head felt locked in a position. On these, the brake problem is it being slightly snug if the train stacks. For me, personally, I think that the latter is the lesser of the two evils.

Thank you! The video is in rows 2-7. It's very cool. I can't find a picture online of it, and I didn't take any, but it's mounted on the actual "wing" of the train, in between the two seats. I had no idea what it was the first time I saw it . It just looks like a security camera painted to the train's colors. I didn't really want to get one, because on the preview in the gift shop, I wasn't all that excited . Sorry, I'm not totally sure about the price, but I want to say $19. I could very easily be wrong. A local would be better off, but that's just my closest memory. Lol I notice your top 10 now has LR at number 1. Definitely my number 1 woodie, Fury and MF are ahead overall. To each his own! Well I've only been on MF, not Fury. It actually just got shifted out of my top 10 when LR came in. I have a feeling Fury would be my #1, as I absolutely love B&M, especially Diamondback, and that looks somewhat similar to Fury as far as hypers go. Carowinds is probably at the top of my list now for parks that I need to get out to.

Thank you! The video is in rows 2-7. It's very cool. I can't find a picture online of it, and I didn't take any, but it's mounted on the actual "wing" of the train, in between the two seats. I had no idea what it was the first time I saw it . It just looks like a security camera painted to the train's colors. I didn't really want to get one, because on the preview in the gift shop, I wasn't all that excited . Sorry, I'm not totally sure about the price, but I want to say $19. I could very easily be wrong. A local would be better off, but that's just my closest memory.

DOLLYWOOD TRIP REPORT 10-6/7-2016 I visited the park this past Friday and Saturday (10/6 and 7). I loved every second of it! This park is just so different from every other park out there. It's not just slabs of concrete with a coaster plopped down on it. There's just so much to see and take in. There's some very nice theming everywhere as well. Everything about this park was impressive, honestly. So here's my story of how it all went. After I tell what we did will be my ride reviews, so skip down there if you would like. We stayed at the DreamMore Resort, which is awesome, by the way. It was the most homey feeling hotel I've ever been in. Sadly it was booked for the weekend, so we were only able to get it for Thursday night, which worked just fine, as we went to another hotel (Wilderness at the Smokies) with a fun indoor waterpark later. Plus we got our two day ticket/timesavers from that, which was awesome. Day 1: We caught the second bus out of the hotel with our complimentary timesavers. We got to the park and did Thunderhead with a 0 minute wait, as the park just opened. Afterwards, we went over to Wild Eagle, as we knew it would close for wasps later. We rode right wing-row 1, and left wing-row 7. After this, we headed over to Mystery Mine and waited about 5 minutes, but they didn't have the Timesaver line open, so we just did standby. Afterwards, we got the notification that we could book Firechaser, so we did just that. As you may have seen earlier, on Friday, the timesaver never had any waits. So we could book it, and one minute after we booked, we got the notification that we could ride. This was for every ride. This was odd, as on Saturday, they mostly lined up with their real wait times. Anyway, afterwards we were in line for TN Tornado when it went down, so we left, since we were hungry. We went to go get some cinnamon bread (which is absolutely incredible; it deserves every positive review it gets). After, we booked Barnstormer. This was a very fun flat to be reviewed later along with the coasters. After this, we trekked back over to TN Tornado, as we saw that it had reopened via the Dollywood app. From here on out, we wandered around, riding things at our leisure, since all of the Timesaver waits were always 1 minute. I won't bore you with the rest of the details of this day. Day 2: Today, we went over from our hotel to DreamMore to get our Timesavers again. We took the bus again. We arrived at the park a lot later today (around 11:30). The first thing I noticed was that LR was open, unlike yesterday. We headed straight there to be hit with a wait sign of 120 minutes. The real wait was only about 75. We got assigned the front too! This thing was a life changing experience , but more about that later. While in line, we reserved Mystery Mine, and headed there next. Afterwards, we went to Wild Eagle, only after my dad bringing the rest of us some more cinnamon bread . We rode left wing-row 6. We didn't want to wait much more. The operations here were by far the worst, which of course isn't all that bad. I think part of it is the process of it all, as the ops themselves weren't that slow. I think it was in how the two in the front would stand against the silver gate whenever they were done checking, even though their dispatch button is around row 3/4. Then, the gates take forever to open, it feels like as well. Along with a few other things, all of these start to add up and result in slow dispatches. They would be about 3.5-4 minutes each. It was a 25 minute wait (since Timesaver merges pretty early), that could've been 15. Oh well, it didn't ruin my day or anything. From here, we took a more leisurely pace, riding random things. This included TN Tornado and Mystery Mine. We got on LR one more time after a breakdown and waited around an hour, and rode in row 12. After this, we went to the Dolly area and took her bus tour and did the museum. After this, we left, so we clearly ended on a high note. Again, I won't bore you with any more details from what everything else. RIDE REVIEWS Thunderhead - the first time I rode in the back and I wasn't blown away, honestly. It was a very fun woodie, but nothing out of this world or anything. As we were leaving the park on the first day, everyone had left after a little drizzle that had just ended. We decided to take one final lap. When picking my seat, I remembered that weird airtime that Legend gives in the front back at home. The kind right before a turn, that you can't see in the track shape (if you've ridden the updated Legend, or probably most GCI's, you know what I'm talking about). I decided to go with the front seat, and boy was it worth it. I totally felt that air, and it was awesome. This thing has surprising speed to it and is just fun. It was for sure the roughest GCI I've been on. Then again, I only have Lightning Racer and Legend, if you count that, under my belt, which are two of the smoothest out there as of now, from what I hear. It was still far from unbearable. It didn't shuffle really, like a PTC-train woodie would. It was just kind of rough. I can't even imagine how smooth Voyage would be with some of these. RATING: 6.5/10 Wild Eagle - I'm a huge wing coaster fan, and this one lived up to my expectations, which weren't all too high. Another case of how the seat matters: the airtime in the back on the drop. I liked it much better in the back. It still was my least favorite wing, but was still just plain fun. I did, however, prefer its Zero G Roll to Thunderbird. I could feel 0 G's vs that lateral force on TB. The corkscrew was also nice. I might have liked it as much, if not more than the TB in-line twist. However, Thunderbird is just a little less swooping and graceful, and snappier. They really fit their names. I picture an eagle flying high and swift, and Thunderbird making quick, jumpy movements. Anyway, enough comparison. It was of course super smooth. However, now I can see what everyone complained about with the locking restraints. That is very uncomfortable on the brakes, whenever you sit out there for a while. The loop was nice and forceful. I found it really neat how they had the cameras to record videos. I didn't know about that until I rode. Of course I didn't get a video, but it was a very neat concept that I'd like to see on other rides. For example, if there was a video of me on LR for the first, I would've bought it in a heartbeat (LAUGH). RATING: 8/10 Mystery Mine This ride is kind of selective with when it wants to be rough. I rode 3 times. 2 of these rides were nice and rough of course, but not as bad as my last ride. Ouch. That thing killed me. I couldn't ride anything for an hour after, as it gave me a headache. I still did love the layout and theming. I didn't watch a POV or anything before I rode, so that fire scared the crap out of me! It was a pretty fun ride, with arguably one of the best finales ever. The hangtime is crazy. RATING - 6/10 Firechaser Express - Wow! This is a fun little coaster! I wasn't expecting much going in to it; just another family coaster with little force or excitement. Boy was I wrong! That launch scared me! The backwards section made me a bit nauseas, so I'm glad it was kind of short. This was just another fun ride. The ops were arguably the best here. A lot of times, they would be cleared and holding the button before the previous train cleared the block. I was a big fan of this ride. I'd love to see one of these back at HW, like people were mentioning a while back in that thread. It's just plain fun. RATING - 7/10 Tennessee Tornado - I knew that this ride was going to be pretty good going into it, but it still blew those expectations away! Even though there was a bit of that arrow shuffling thing, it was incredibly still incredibly smooth. It made me wish Arrow was still around to make more of these things! It had that awesome Arrow-back-row airtime and everything. That drop is surprising. It picks up so much speed so fast. The inversions are all so quick and forceful too. I've never felt a weirder vertical loop, though. I seriously wonder how that got shaped like that. And that pop of air into the brakes was a nice ending touch. RATING - 9/10 Lightning Rod - Orgasmic airtime. That's all. Ok but really, the launch is everything I was expecting and more. Someone said it was like Maverick's hill launch. Whoever said that is a liar. That thing was awesome and had plenty of force and speed behind it. The air in both of those Dolly humps was just giggly fun in the front. In the back, I've never felt closer to death. That jolt in the drop was there, as I said earlier. I think some part of the wood is just misshapen or something, because it really did hurt in the back. It for sure beat me up a bit there on that part. I also have never felt sideways airtime, but wow that might be some of the best. I know many people consider this the part that it "lets up", but I'd say the opposite. It was probably one of my favorite parts of the ride. Those turns following had a nice snap to them as well. Here comes the thigh bruising airtime. I've never been legitimately scared for my life once a coaster started, or wanted my lapbar tighter, but boy this one did it for me. You just fly down this hill. That ending also has some nice snap to it, but honestly, that part felt weaker than the the wave turn, which makes sense, as it's literally 20 feet from the brakes. When we hit the brakes, everyone in my family just stared at each other for a second, then busted out laughing in that "Did that really just happen?" kind of laugh. You can tell you've got THE winner on your hands when every single person on the train comes back clapping, screaming, and laughing hysterically. There aren't enough good words for this ride. RATING - 10/10 If you couldn't already tell, I had a perfect couple of days. If this is your home park, I'm jealous . Now picture time! You know it's gonna be a good day when you wake up and this is the first thing you see! Thunderhead teasing you at the resort drop off entrance. I'm in love with this shot. I just wish there was a train in it. Nature shot 1/3. I put these pictures in just to show, if you haven't been, how secluded this area is. It really doesn't have an "amusement park" feeling to it at all. It's an awesome step away from the rides and intensity of other parks/areas. Nature shot 2/3 Alright, I'll quit. This was from day one. The skies definitely weren't the only ones crying about LR being closed all day. This ride is so hard to get pictures of! It has a very nice color scheme, but only because it's in this park. If it were on a concrete slab at Six Flags, it'd be hideous, but since it's with all of the trees, it looks excellent. I didn't ever find out why they did it, but both days the ops tied a bandana to the back of the TN Tornado trains. I thought it was neat. This was one awesome Arrow. Day two: there she goes! You really don't realize how massive this thing is until you see it/ride it in person. I think I might like this one better than the other. The lighting was absolutely perfect here. I'm a huge fan of how high and perched (pun intended) Wild Eagle is on the mountain. That's just another kind of thing I thought was neat about the ride. The clouds had to show now and ruin the lighting. Either way, I like that this one has a train in it. Let's play spot the train in this shot. Ending this TR with this work of art called Lightning Rod!

Sorry it took so long to get to writing this, but that ride blew my mind. I just might be the luckiest person ever too. First, the wait was only 1 hour and 15 minutes, and as far as I know, didn't have a single breakdown while in line. However, I think there was one shortly after Amazing luck part two: the first time we rode, we got row one! Munich first opinion was that it was incredibly fun, with some awesome airtime, but I still liked Storm Chaser better. I'll go more in depth with my review whenever I get around to writing a real, full TR. Later on, I checked the app and it was only 45 minutes! We sprinted across the park from Mystery Mine to LR We ended up waiting for about an hour, which was no big deal. Well this time around, we got row 12! What amazing luck. I knew this ride was going to be lightyears better in the back when the launch started. Everything was just balls to the walls insane. This instantly launched it above SC (pun shamelessly intended). However, as the wise Hannah Montana once said, "nobody's perfect"; it was significantly rougher in the back. I really felt that jolt in the second drop. Of course, it was still the smoothest woodie I've ever ridden, but it's noticeably rougher in wheel seats. This definitely didn't impact the ride experience, but I did notice that the entire back car was making that weird grinding sound that SC was making earlier in the season and everyone threw a fit about. This is definitely a life changing ride. I know that was super in depth anyway, but I'll try to do even more in a TR

LR is open today! With a 2+ hour wait! They also only have one train running. The other is just sitting in the shed, and from what I can see, it's not being worked on. I might be dead before I finally get on, but I'll report back if not

As said above, it is indeed closed. However, we've gotten on every other coaster except for TN Tornado. It broke down while we were in line. Lines aren't bad at all, since we have timesaver. I'm not sure if it's supposed to be like this, but every single ride has been 0 on the timesaver system, but the actual lines are much longer. Of course I'm not complaining, as we get to walk right on. I also just lost my cinnamon bread virginity. Best decision ever. Now I see what everyone raves about. I'll be having another 30 loaves to myself later on today. I'm hopeful for LR to open tomorrow. I'll be writing a full TR some time soon. This really is a great park! Even without LR, the coasters are pretty darn good. Yeah I'm bummed about LR, but everything else certainly does pick up the slack of it being closed.

Oh just great. Hopefully not many people show up tomorrow then We have timesaver either way though, since we're staying at DreamMore (which is incredible by the way. I've been here for a matter of hours and love it.). So either way, we shouldn't have a problem with lines I don't think. Saturday can just be a day for shows, since they give you two day tickets and lines will be out of this world

Truest thing I've seen all week. It was literally 110 outside and we sat there baking alive for 10 minutes while they all sat at the booth talking. Worst coaster experience ever. And I've been stuck on the Skyrush and T3 brake run for more than 30 seconds I don't get how you can have a crew like Toro (or any other ride in the park at that) literally a matter of feet away and this hot mess just down the road

^^ What he said. Holiday World is Central Time Zone. Your best bet is to go as close as you can to the end of the season, that way it gets darker earlier. You might end up with more dusk rides than night rides if you go earlier in the season. Just make sure that it's the dead last thing that you do, and you should be fine to get a (very close to) dark ride. Have fun! It's a blast at night, especially if you get lucky and the tunnel lights aren't on.