Pseybert

I'm kind of wanting to jump on the $75 pass but thinking it may be wise to hold out for another possible Black Friday deal that would be good through the end of 2018. Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

From my (in progress) road trip TR http://www.themeparkreview.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=74952

Part 1: Carowinds Part 2 (New!): BGW and KD Part 3: (Coming Soon!): KD and SFGADV Part 4: Dorney and Hershey Part 5: Hershey Part 6: Cedar Point Part 7: Kings Island and Holiday World Part 8: Louisville and Kentucky Kingdom When I was young, I was fascinated with theme parks and coasters. I often envisioned that as an adult, I would want to do nothing else with my free time except travel and seek out new parks. As soon as I had the means, I left my family and home in Philadelphia, and moved to Orlando to work for Disney. That was 11 years ago. Throughout the years, I have unfortunately become somewhat jaded with parks. I no longer have the patience I once had to wait in long lines, or to endure the high temperatures. I stopped counting credits, and suddenly it seemed that I had become desensitized to coasters altogether. These rides that once brought my so much joy began to offer little in the way of thrill, and more in the way of discomfort and headaches. But still - the idea of a road trip centered around riding roller coasters felt like a bucket list item for me, so I began to plan. Perhaps somewhere out there, I could rediscover the feelings I had when I was younger, or at the very least, I could make child-me proud. I get a kick out of trip planning. I used Google Sheets to ensure my plans were doable. My friend Dan (who currently lives in Nevada) agreed to do the trip with me. Dan and I met on the Disney College Program many years back and have been good friends ever since. He is a casual fan of parks and coasters with some knowledge, but nothing crazy. As I had been to some of the parks on the list before and I knew a lot about the others, I thought it would be fun to see these places through the eyes of someone who doesn't know what to expect. My wife, Anouk, doesn't get as much vacation time as me and had no interest in doing such a trip, but gave me the green light to go without her. Happily Ever After Dan arrived in Orlando on 5/25, and him, my wife, and I spent the evening at Magic Kingdom. We rode some rides and saw the phenomenal new night time show, "Happily Ever After." This show is worth the trip to MK by itself. It is a fantastic predecessor to "Wishes," and a must-see if you're in the area. The plan was to get up early the next day and get to DAK to see if they had a Pandora soft opening. I had already visited during a Cast preview, but I was still excited to see it again. However, we ended up sleeping in and deciding it was better to get the road trip underway. I knew that I wanted a night ride on Fury, and so the adventure was about to begin. Time to go explore the world and ride coasters, like normal adults! Our rental car was a 2017 Chevy Impala. This is from the "premium" section at Alamo. The cost: $5/day. After taxes and fees, $135 for the duration of the trip, 12 nights, one way from Orlando to Louisville. At the start of summer, rental car companies in Florida offer this deal to move car inventory up North. It works out well if you want to do a trip like this without putting wear and tear on your own car, as long as you're OK with flying back home. Are we there yet? This was actually the longest drive of the trip (though not the hardest), clocking in at almost 8 hours. I was the only driver listed on the rental agreement, so it was my responsibility to not kill us. Goodbye, diet! Our original goal was to try to not duplicate food places we ate at throughout the journey. We would later break that rule (damn it, Wawa!). Zaxby's is home to some of the best fast food fried chicken you can find, and I wish they were in more places. Welcome to Carowinds! At around 6:30PM on Friday, 5/26, we arrived to a park I had never been too, Carowinds! Reconsidering my life choices and wondering why I didn't use my vacation time to sit in my apartment and play video games for 2 weeks. Responsible decisions: Buying an annual pass good for a bunch of parks that are located nowhere near my home. Standing in this position, my entire body is located in a state that I have no interest in returning too. You have to start somewhere. "Let's paint the ride multiple bright colors, and make the station look like a place where you might get serial killed!" -Park Management, probably OK man calm down, we're going there next! One of three great coasters in the park. The ops at Intimidator were great at keeping people energized while they waited. Is it time yet? First time - night ride/front row! Last ride of the night - I have always wanted to go on one, and now I wonder "why?" The first day of the trip was a successful one. Crowds were light throughout the park, so we were able to get most everything done with a few re-rides on Fury. Most of the trip would be spent staying at Hyatt Places, thanks to my wife's employee discount. I highly recommend Hyatt Place if you can get a good price - look at all of the room! We were staying just a few minutes from the park, so we got out of bed early to get there for the AP ert. Good morning Carowinds! Morning ert is the way to go. If you have an annual pass, do not miss the early entry. We were able to get 5 rides on Fury, 3 of them without leaving the train. Awesome! I wish I had paid more attention to what the banners said in the background and how they tied into the story-line of being thrown around on a giant robotic arm. It's like Flight of Passage, but with guns! Their idea of in-park entertainment is to awkwardly disturb people that are resting. I'm generally not a fan of B&M inverts, but this one felt unique. What a great parking spot. Chicken Tender Subs for the road. BGW is next! By 1PM, we had done what we had come for and more. The coasters we "missed" were Flying Ace Aerial Chase (line too long with 1 train), and Lucy's Crabbie Cabbie (don't even remember seeing this?). We decided to get on the road to our next hotel in Richmond so we could get some rest before BGW the next day. Carowinds was a bit underwhelming from what I had pictured. The park was smaller than I had expected. The ride ops, while mostly friendly, were slow and unprofessional in many cases. (3 ops argued over who was getting a promotion at Drop Zone instead of paying any attention to guests). During my time at the park, I got worried that this road trip may have been a bad idea. Would we get bored? Were we "too old" for this? Could my body handle it? (my head was already feeling it!) While Fury was great, it certainly didn't rekindle my love for all-things coasters. On the other hand - 10 parks remained, and my hopes were high that there would be a place out there that would make it all worth while.

12/10? Found the CEO of Kentucky Kingdom. Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

When I ride MF, I like to grab the front of the car and learn my head forward. I feels like I'm racing on the back of a rocket ship. It's such a great ride with a sense of speed that a B&M - even Fury, will never capture for me.

Loving the tr so far - makes me excited to post my own. Does anyone know if the 800x600 image rule is strict? Is there a limit?

I didn't get to ride the smallest tower, but it appears to be an average Double Shot. Compared to Power Tower at Cedar Point, the other two are quite intense. Rode all 3 last week. The larger two provide a fun ride experience, with Reese's feeling more intense. Kisses tower felt like a tame version of Reese's, so I don't see the point in building it as I don't think many will ride that over the other two if they're afraid of heights. Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

Wait... so as a kid you thought Hershey's chocolate was made by 3 cows wearing hats named Gabby, Harmony and Olympia who spent the entire day singing a song about milk chocolate over and over to pass the time before they could finally clock out? I mean, I won't judge. Everyone believes stupid sh*t when they're little but... really? [emoji38] I actually don't remember the cows or know if they were there. I believed the chocolate making parts were real, obviously. Either way, the bright video screen is not needed on a dark ride.

Spoiler alert: if you haven't done Angry Birds: The Ride and are curious as to why it's labeled a "5D" attraction, the 5th dimension is apparently wind. Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

I still wanted to experience it so I could know. Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

I don't count credits at all. I just was interested in the response to that question, as a complete re-track is essentially a clone of itself. Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

The changes to the Chocolate Tour includes an inexplicable on-board screen that distracts from the ride. It also has footage of how the real factory works. As a kid, I assumed the dark ride was the actual factory. This change completes the destruction of that illusion for small children. Awful in every way. Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

I don't see how this place gets the least bit of praise. First time here. One train operation on Storm Chaser. Most clueless and unprofessional ride ops I've ever encountered. Just a pretty miserable place overall, even if a few coasters are OK. Edit: T3 is down all day. Yay. Edit: Also Thunder Run one train. About a 30 minute wait so far and line was barely outside of the station.

By logic of counting clones, isn't new Hulk just a clone of old Hulk? If new Hulk was built in a different park, would you have counted it? Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

Going to Holiday World and Kentucky Kingdom for my first ever trips and staying at the same Hyatt! Very excited! Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

First time at the park tomorrow! To Fast Lane or not to Fast Lane? Hoping I make the right decision. Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

Everything is a walk on right now due to weather in the area, if anyone is wondering! Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

I'm here for the first time in 22 years. Phoenix is amazing and may be my new favorite coaster. How did I not fly out of that when I was 9? How are they allowed to run that without seatbelts? It's amazing... Love it. I rode the sky slide thing with the twist stairs. Always wanted to do one since playing RCT as a child. It was a bit embarrassing going up there as an adult with no kid but still very fun. Satellite - I remember riding this as a kid and I have a bad memory of being thrown around the cagenuncontrollably. I can't believe it's still here. Scared me to ride it but I'm glad I did. Black Diamond? I rode this as Golden Nugget (?) At Dinosaur Beach! Great so see it's been ressurected. Loving the park so far! Any food recommendations? Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

One train on Storm Runner all day. Pretty infuriating. Also, at 11AM, they had the last 4 rows chained off. With a full station. Upon exiting, I asked the reason for it. The response was "when the line is this short, it makes it more efficient." Eek. Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

Haha yeah, that's what it ended up meaning. Still painful as the ops seem to wait until every person has exited the station before even opening the gates. Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

Heading here today since the first time since 2002! Edit: Park is crawling with school kids. Miserable. One train on Hydra. Very hot. Blah.

Just had another amazing day at this park. The ride ops here are industry professionals compared to Carowinds and Kings Dominion in prior days. And both nights they sent an extra dispatch on El Toro and Nitro to close the night. Love this park. Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

Hard to follow that report above, so I'll just say today I was in a position to open Kings Dominion and close SFGADV. I got to Six Flags at 7pm tonight (Memorial Day) and the park was empty. Walked right onto Joker, Batman, Dark Knight, Kingda Ka, then did 6x El Toro without leaving the train up to the last train of the night. It was only running one train. Pretty incredible night. I have a full day planned there tomorrow, hence the absence of Nitro tonight. Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

We just did all coasters at BGW and 9 at King's Dominion in one day. (yesterday), Sunday 5/30. Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

First visit here coming up in a little more than a week. Does anyone think that Fast Lane+ will allow me a night ride on The Beast and MT on a Monday (10PM close). Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk