Jonathan

I was on the Screamin' Eagle marathon with Dave, although I didn't do as many laps as him because I took more breaks.

Deja vu anyone? Click HERE for the full gallery of 97 photos from this day including wallpaper sized versions. 8/8/06 I needed to get my Goliath on before moving back to Raleigh, so I headed down to Six Flags Over Georgia Tuesday with Wes (no, not THAT Wes, the other Wes). Our trip started out as so many do with a greasy breakfast at McDonalds. Our drive into Atlanta began as so many do with bad traffic. I really despise driving to this city. Here's my "artsy" Goliath shot. I went to the park on nearly this exact day last year, and operations were absolutely TERRIBLE, so it was time to see if things had really changed around here. First impressions were no, not at all, as they only had one parking attendant at park opening! Thankfully, this was the exception, and not the rule. Operations were for the most part very good, and every coaster was running to full capacity (last year every coaster was running one train). Good to see the trams back in action. Hooray Mind Bender. And there it is. The main reason for this excursion. You definitely get some great views of Goliath as it crosses the driveway outside the park. Weeeeeeeee My airtime senses are tingling. Another artsy shot. Looks fun. Enough picture taking, though, I'm ready to ride! Into the park we go, and straight to Goliath. Here's one of the return bunny hills where the coaster comes swooping back into the park. Wes informed me that the ride has a 50's time travel theme. The last turn and hop is pretty cool. I wasn't prepared for it on the first ride and faceplanted the lap bar. Needless to say I hung on for each ride after that. There I am with Wes in the back seat on my first ride on Goliath. One seat was broken. The line was not too bad, and we figured it would get worse later in the day, so we went again, riding in the second row this time. Foghorn hitching a ride to work. Yep Deja Vu is working. I've had a good bit of success with this ride being open when I go. We got lucky as thunder started rumbling while we were getting strapped in, and they shut down the ride for weather the moment we finished our ride. It was pretty darn rough. Deja Vu... through the tree. Surprise, surprise, Ninja is a walk-on. This coaster is cool because you get a bonus ride when you hit the brake run as the whole track starts shaking and bucking from side to side. Exclusive shot. Great American Scream Machine was jackhammering all over the track and beating the hell out of everyone. One ride was enough. The queue for Superman was completely filled, so we said to hell with that and went to find a better ride. Instead of Superman we rode the bumper cars, which are quite good. Neither of us had done the Raging River, so we decided to wait for it. It's short, but as you can see, you get absolutely drenched. I was still wet even when I got home 10 hours later. Yeah... that waterfall back there is what we went under. I was excited when I suddenly remembered Monster Plantation. Join the monsters at the mansion... You're invited... to a picnic... etc etc Goliath... through the plantation. We even had time to do their wave swinger. I was absolutely thrilled to find that Mind Bender was a walk-on. We were actually able to get multiple rides in. We decided to skip Batman and return to the big orange thing. Here I be in front of the entrance. Three more rides on Goliath ought to do (the lines were shorter than they were in the morning). I liked Goliath more and more with each ride, and after riding all of the B&M hypers in the United States, I like Goliath the best. In fact, I would probably put it at #2 on my steel list behind Superman at New England. Georgia Cyclone... through the trees. The Georgia Cyclone still has some sick airtime moments, and I still like the ride, but GOOD GOD has it gotten rough. It's always been a rough coaster, but now it is shuffling in the turns worse than Son of Beast. Plz to take care of your woodies Six Flags kthx bai. You can bet I'll be back again to ride Goliath. See you later Goliath. And now I leave you with this shot. There was plenty of time to take pictures like this because we spent another hour stuck in traffic trying to get out of Atlanta. There's just no way to avoid it. It turned out to be a great day at the park. The crowds were not as bad as I expected, and the operations were good, which I certainly didn't expect. It was pretty hot outside, but after being at Worlds of Fun when it's 104 degrees, it didn't feel that bad to me. Goliath is definitely worth the trip. HERE for the full gallery of 97 photos from this day including wallpaper sized versions.

I realize this response is a year late, but do yourself a favor and get one at the NC State Fair this year. They are pretty damn tasty.

Good times And may I ask why not?

How were the crowds? I know you didn't really wait in lines because of the FlashPass, but maybe you noticed what they looked like?

Exactly what I was about to post haha

I'm not sure what J.K. Rowling has to do with this in anyway whatsoever, but I will go ahead and say that she probably isn't pissed off, being that she is the richest woman in Europe. She can build a dive machine in her backyard if she wants.

Here is one that I HAVE heard. "Folks just to let you know it is lightning out there, but if anyone wants to go ahead and ride, step on in."

I've always wanted to ride one of these, but I really wasn't aware they had made it over to the States yet. Where are the other two?

With the exception of hypercoasters, I get bored with steel coasters rather quickly. A good woodie on the other hand, I never get bored of. Jumboshrimp, I hope you will forgive me for quoting your post, but I just could not help myself. I'm not trying to call you out or anything; I just found it really interesting how different our opinions are. Many of the reasons you do not like wooden coasters are the reasons I love them! To me, a lot of steel coasters seem the same, and I quickly tire of the same inversions and sensations. I would probably put those two things on my list of reasons why I love woodies (reworded of course). To me, the wooden coaster is like an artform. I can appreciate a great wooden coaster that much more knowing how much care goes into it. Wooden coasters come in many styles, including twisters, out and backs, terrain, and racing. I have been on many steel coasters, and none have ever been able to duplicate the experience of a great wooden coaster. Again, I am not trying to start an argument with you, but I read your post realized it was a perfect setup to what I was already going to write. Oh yeah, if you couldn't tell, my vote is wood.

This event was a lot of fun last year. If anyone is thinking about making a trip to Dollywood this year, I would suggest trying to go to this.

Well, Family Kingdom will only have one season with that title, with Hard Rock Park opening in 2008.

Drachen Fire was melted down. Hope you aren't too heart broken.

Click HERE to see the full gallery of photos from this day (115 photos), including high-res versions. 7/22/06 According to Myrtle, we are driving through the middle of a field. That can only mean one thing... We are in Iowa. Yes, despite our long night on the Eagle, and our many bumps and bruises, we decided to make the 6 hour drive north to Des Moines, and a park neither of us had been to: Adventureland. The parking lot was completely jammed. The entry plaza is nice, although a blatant Disneyland ripoff. We found that there were quite a few Disney imitations in this park (not necessarily a bad thing). Spelling please? Here is one of the park's new rides for 2006: a top spin ripoff. The park had basically every classic flat ride you can think of, but we didn't ride any. There were two reasons for this: the crowds, and our physical condition after 30 hours on the Eagle. My biggest regret will probably be missing the park's old school PTC tea cups. Adventureland is a very nice looking park. They even had a street band. The first ride of the day was The Underground. If this thing wasn't wooden and made by CCI, I highly doubt many people would consider it a coaster. It does have two lift hills, and is powered by gravity, but then again a lot of old school dark rides are the same way. Short, and cheesy, but still pretty fun. There are some very picturesque views of The Dragon and Tornado from across the water. Yay another light triggered shooting gallery. Time for The Outlaw, one of the first CCI woodies. This coaster was smooth as glass, but uneventful. I could do a 30 hour marathon on this with no problems. The first drop is pretty good. The operators on this ride were really good. Despite it having one train (like all the coasters in the park), they were moving people through fast by getting the train in and out of the station in a hurry. The operations in this park as a whole were fantastic. Saw Mill Splash was the first of the spinning raft rides. Unfortunately, the line was huge. Oh god this kettle corn smelled so good. I ended up opting to get a coke float, though (which was fantastic). Along with the tea cups, I also regret not getting to ride Sidewinder. It looked like a great flat. Fabulous. Am I really waiting in this line for a Hopkins looper? The lines did give us time to admire our fellow park patrons. Unfortunately, I did not get a picture of the group in line for Outlaw smoking cigarettes and sporting a "F*** me I'm white trash" hat. There was this guy, though, who we only could assume had just won the John Deere tractor race. On the way to the park we passed local cops at three roads directing traffic, and then we passed four tractors. We figured it must be a race. One of the drivers was wearing a Caterpillar hat and a bright hawaiian shirt. Very similar to this gentleman, in fact. This was a frequent sight at Adventureland. Dave and I both agreed that we are glad that we don't live in Iowa, and we also agreed that Tommy and James would have an absolute field day at this park. This little run to the lift hill is the roughest part of The Dragon. The rest really isn't bad at all. We were bracing ourselves for the most painful ride ever, but it was actually a pretty good ride. Had the ride sucked, they put some fun house mirrors at the exit to cheer you up. Here is Tornado, a Bill Cobb woodie. Surprisingly, it was pretty smooth and a decent ride. Some of the park's patrons looked like they walked in straight from a hard day of work on the farm. Giant pigs are always a good thing. So are rotors and water fans. So are ducks. Here is the park's other new for 2006 attraction: a frog hopper. I didn't look, but something tells me you can't play any games for a penny. Nothin' wrong with having bingo in your park. Hell yes I've always wanted a Hopkins looper shirt. Tackiest shirt ever. Perfect for Iowans! That's what you call them, right? Iowans? I don't think many people read this sign. This was the running of the bulls for the train. Basically, you push forward as much as you can, then when they open the gate, everyone sprints to try and get a seat. Enjoy your ride on the Redneck Railway at Redneck Disneyland. Oh wow a tunnel. Hmmm I wonder where they got the idea for this? Outlaw and kettle corn. The perfect combination. Late in the day, the Outlaw crew was still having a good time. Usually my opinion of a park with guests as obnoxious as the ones at Adventureland would be bad, but the park was really so nice that it made up for all of that. Even with what I assume is a limited budget, they have made the park look extremely nice, and all day long I saw employees sweeping the pathways. There's lots of flowers, trees, and fountains. The coasters are very re-rideable, but none are that great. I wouldn't mind going back on a less crowded day when I could do all the flat rides and the water rides. Terrible's Casino. The name really makes you want to visit, doesn't it? We drove out of Iowa as fast as we could, opting to spend the night in Kansas City. Goodbye Kansas City. Pretty. It was a fun trip, with a couple of great new parks. Adventureland and Worlds of Fun were similar I thought in the fact that they were both very nice parks with no real standout coasters. I had a great time at both, but probably won't go again until they install a ride worth making the trip for. They are definitely worth the visit, though, if you are in the area and have never been before.

Some people think so, but I don't really have any problems with it. Then again, I've never had a problem with the Gerstlauer trains, unlike 99% of people.

Click HERE for the trip report from the previous day (Worlds of Fun). Click HERE to see the full gallery of photos from this day (41 photos), including high-res versions. Here is another shot of the lightning from the previous evening. Now it's time for the real reason behind this trip. No, not The Boss... The group gathers near the park offices. Judy wasn't doing the marathon, but they let her drive us back to the Screamin' Eagle. There it is, getting warmed up and ready to go. Time to get started. The coaster was running well, but I found that I had to use the grab bar to keep my back off of the seat on every ride. Here is Dave enjoying himself. He took only a couple of his breaks. As for myself, it was a very rough morning. I was feeling sick for the first few hours, but I was determined not to be the first to lose it. Luckily, I was not. The first person to exit the marathon departed after losing his breakfast in the train on the brake run. Somewhere around the fifth hour, I did the same, although I made it off the coaster and to the exit ramp. It was the first time I've ever gotten sick like that on a coaster. I think the heat had a lot to do with it, as it was well over 100 degrees during the day. Did I come back? Of course. I didn't come all the way out here for nothin'. After receiving a round of applause from the entire train, I got back on. My stomach was just fine from then on. Here are Dave and Judy at lunch. This was the first time Dave had gotten off of the coaster, aside from when they had to clean the vomit out of it. It was time for our dinner break in the evening. The general public got to use our train while we were gone. Yes, this is an exhausted bunch. But, there are still 18 hours to go. Note the towel Casey has around his neck. The park gave these to us in the middle of the afternoon soaked in ice cold water. It was heavenly. Dinner was down the walkway at the Moose Lodge (or something like that). I ate my dinner pretty quickly. Where could I be going? Yes, that's right. I have decided to use part of my dinner break to get my missing credit from Six Flags St. Louis: Batman. Yep, I also took a quick ride on The Boss. I am in fact an idiot. Here is the sign that was at the entrance to the queue to try and inform people of what was going on so they wouldn't get pissed off. It's the middle of the night, and the coaster rolls on. I did manage to grab a brief nap on a bench during one of my breaks. Some people (such as Dave) actually were able to sleep on the ride! I slept on the brake run, in the station, and going up the lift, but I have no idea how they were able to sleep during the course. One guy was out cold for hours! We made it through the night! Maintanence had to do their morning check of the coaster, so we got to have breakfast. This ended up being the second worst part of the marathon for me (after the vomit incident). Apparently, when we took the extended break, all of my bruises softened, because the first ride after the break was the most painful coaster ride I have ever experienced. We got an unexpected break in the morning when a storm rolled through the area, and the ride had to be shut down. Waiting around for the ride to re-open. Some people took the opportunity to get some rest. Here I am in the rain delay. We did it! 30 hours later, 14 of the 20 completed the marathon. I am still surprised that I was able to make it, especially after throwing up in the early hours, but I stuck it out, and it really was a lot of fun. I am told that the train smelled absolutely horrid when we got off. Afterwards, I was so sore I could barely sit down. The park was incredible. They provided us with snacks and drinks throughout the 30 hours, and all of the employees were incredibly enthusiastic and helpful. We also made out like bandits with prizes. I came away with a season pass for this year and next year, a piece of Eagle track, a pack of souvenir maps from every Six Flags park, and an Eagle goodie bag! It was unbelievable. The 14 people who finished had their names put in a drawing, and one person won $1,000, while three others won $100! Unfortunately, I didn't win any of the money. A photographer from the St. Louis newspaper came out on Thursday, and a cameraman from one of the local television stations came out on Friday. We also had a few people from local radio stations join us for a 30 lap mini-marathon. Unfortunately, I don't think the park got quite the coverage they wanted because everyone was covering the devestating storms that came through. We got in vehicles, and it was time to be shuttled out of the park. After passing out at the hotel for a bit, I came back with Chris, who was at the park for the day. I needed to get my season pass processed, and I didn't want to ride any coasters (especially not the Eagle!), but Scooby Doo would do. Awesome dark ride. We also rode the Mine Train, which nearly killed me. I had aches and pains in places I didn't even know existed. Someone on the train in front of us threw up, which brought back bad memories from the day before (which seemed so long ago). After that, it was time to go pass out at the hotel again. For whatever reason, Dave and I had decided that it would be a wonderful idea to do Adventureland in Des Moines the very next day. The marathon was tough, but also a lot of fun, and I got to meet some cool people. Would I do it again? Maybe. But not for a while, though. And I probably won't be riding the Screamin' Eagle for a while, either!

For the love of god are you reading anyone's posts? You will not find out September 16th! The part on the flyer about a hyper is A JOKE. Max Cannon wrote the flyer; he is MontuMax on Carowinds Connection. If you don't believe me, you can message him yourself and ask him. If a hyper were to be announced for next year, it would be a coincidence, and sad to say it probably would not go under the bridge.

I'm not mocking you, I am trying to prevent this from snowballing into a bunch of people preparing themselves for a hyper coaster for next year, then getting massively disappointed and becoming furious at the park. There are a lot of people who want a new coaster so badly that they're willing to believe anything.

JamminJ once posted some photos of a disassembled crane near his house on a message board and had people believing that it was track pieces for a Mack hyper for Camden Park. No joke.

There is a very long process behind installing a new coaster, especially one as large as a hyper. Cedar Fair just purchased the park what a month ago? Somehow I doubt Dick Kinzel called Intamin up on the phone and said "Hay guyz I'd like a new hyper here go ahead and start putting that thing up next month thx". If you end up being right then I will very happily eat all the crow in the world, but I'd say the chances are about the same as John Miller returning from the dead to build an 8,000 foot long mountain coaster for Ghost Town in the Sky.

It absolutely blows my mind that people have taken that line in the C3 flyer seriously. I don't think Max saw that coming when he wrote the flyer. The 'hyper under the bridge' thing has been a long running joke that dates back to the first regional ACE event at the park in 2002. Even the PR staff at the park will throw it out there every now and then. If you are preparing for a hyper to be installed next year, then you are just setting yourself up for massive disappointment.

See 5 posts down for the TR from the marathon on the Screamin' Eagle See page 2 for the TR from Adventureland To see the full gallery of photos from this day (93 photos) including high-res versions, go HERE. Wednesday morning Dave and I flew out of Charlotte and into Kansas City. The reason behind the trip was the 30 hour marathon on the Screamin' Eagle at Six Flags St. Louis, but neither of us had been to Worlds of Fun, so we couldn't resist a trip. Our rental car ended up being a Jeep Liberty. Here is Dave and Myrtle, the third member of our party. She didn't like coasters, but was pretty good at helping us get places. Yay Morgan hyper. Yay B&M inverted. Here is the entrance to the parking lot. It was 104 degrees outside with a heat index of even higher. Thankfully, the park was fairly empty. Our first ride of the day was Spinning Dragons, the Gerstlauer mouse. Our car really didn't spin very much at all. Patriot was next. It was the park's new attraction for this year. For some reason they weren't allowing anyone to ride in the front car of either train. Patriot is essentially a Talon clone, and it's a pretty fun ride. Hooray for being cheap. We were amazed at how nice looking this park was. And even more amazing was the fact that there was very little concrete to be seen! Here is Dave after our ride on ThunderHawk, which is an awesome top spin. Along with having a great program, the water jets get you absolutely DRENCHED. Sadly (I think?), Timber Wolf was closed for the entire day. When we saw the entrance to 'Cyclone Sam's Cloudpoofer 2000', we had absolutely no clue what it was. Luckily, we gave it a try, and it turned out to be the best ride in the park. It's an awesome indoor Wipeout. Basically, it's like the one Six Flags New England had, except instead of doing everything wrong, it does everything right. Exclusive shot. We were too tall to ride the Wacky Worm. Oh well. Detonator was probably the most intense of the 'tall' S&S towers that I've been on. This portion of the park has clearly been Cedar Fair-ized. Mamba is fun, but there was very little airtime aside from the first two drops. The turnaround is really cool, though. Yay Morgan. For some reason I had totally forgotten the park had a Boomerang. My heart sank when I saw it sticking out above the trees, but then I jumped for joy when we saw that the train had valleyed between the loop and the second lift. Deja Vu was open, and had no wait. 25 cent cotton candy is incredible. I really hope Cedar Fair rolls this out to the Paramount parks next year (I'll be really fat, then). More Worlds of Fun prettiness. Hooray for Rotors. They had a shooting gallery that used the light sensors. You can probably guess what I'm doing here. Back to the Cloudpoofer! You can pay $12.39 for an all you can eat buffet... Or, you can go on the park's website and pay $29.95 for the buffet AND admission to the park. That's $7 less than the regular admission price, plus you get the meal! The only requirement is that you must have 2 or more people. Back to Patriot. I've heard this coaster is pretty terrible, but I really do hate to miss any wooden coaster. Exclusive shot 2.0 Here's the dog show. Or girl show. Not sure which. We finally escaped the insane heat of what was the hottest day I have ever spent at a park, and hit the road toward St. Louis. Now, Missourians, I must ask the question: What is the deal with your roads? We got a kick out of passing road signs like "DD" and "PP". We could only assume that people from Missouri must be illiterate, so they have to make the roads only a letter or two. It was a good thing we didn't leave Kansas City any earlier than we did, because we were right behind this storm, which as you've probably heard, absolutely ravaged St. Louis. The area was a real mess when we got in. Overall, Worlds of Fun is a very nice park; stunningly nice for a Cedar Fair park. The downside is that it doesn't have a standout coaster. It does have the Cloudpoofer 2000, though, and that's good enough for me. To see the full gallery of photos from this day (93 photos) including high-res versions, go HERE.

I've only been to 3 of them, but of those: Kings Dominion Carowinds Kings Island

Sorry you didn't have a good time at Holiday World, but what was more surprising to me than that was your thoughts on the bumper cars at Beech Bend! When I was there for Rumblefest we thought those things were insane. You could get some great sliding in the turns and at one point a guy hit his own son so violently that it injured him and they had to stop the ride. One of the wildest sets of bumper cars I've ever been on, and yes, I have been to Knoebels (which are the best, of course)!