arrowfanman

Scott!!! Excellent PTR! I've been following along and have enjoyed every bit of it! It was awesome meeting up with you guys! Definitely was an amazing coincidence! I'm actually very surprised to hear your experience of Fiesta Texas--especially since it's sort of regarded as one of the new "flagship" parks for the Six Flags chain. Oh well. Glad you enjoyed SFMM and the Disney parks. Hope to see you guys again soon! -Jahan

Wow, that looks great! I don't forgive them for obliterating Python, but I cant deny that it looks nice. Thanks for posting Eric! Looks like just the kind of internal improvement that more parks should be focusing on. I think everything looks beautiful except for the rather unflattering Jungla Flyers loading platform. -Jahan

^ Potato?! We're already shortening it down?! Cant we call him "Mr. Potato head" for a few months before we get tired of it?! Thanks for posting the video! Very neat! Cant wait to see it in person. -Jahan

Alright, I steam-cleaned everything and now I'm back! The Matterhorn is still my favorite Arrow coaster. Really is the most unique thing ever! I remember Lou and I getting pulled from the main line last August and getting a reride. Such a fun little bout of chance! Thanks for posting. -Jahan

Nice report Sean! The Giant Dipper must have been so smooth because it was just retracked. I know this because it was still closed when I went down a month ago. I'm loving the progress on F***in Mania. -Jahan

What's up with the Batman music during the POV?! I almost miss Psyclone! Thanks for posting. -Jahan

Hey everybody! Ok, so here we are. The final installment of my super awesome Midwest trip report! Hope you enjoy it! Day 11: Kings Island (and Stricker’s Grove) Today, we were off to Kings Island. We stayed at a hotel across the street and were there within five minutes. On the way, Elissa gave a warning about Kings Island—telling about the long lines, ride downtime, and numerous visits it took for her to get all of her credits. So going into this park, we were all bracing ourselves for the worst! There was a bonus park as well (Strickers Grove), but at this point, many people budgeted all of their time at Kings Island, finding it necessary to make time for one more ride. That would change. So we were in the park before opening and went to a “hold point”. As do several parks I’ve been in, they open the gates before “park opening” and “hold” the guests at a certain point within the gate so that they can instantly rush to the ride of their choice. I’ve never really seen the appeal unless there’s a pre-show to the operating day, of which there was not. I swear I’m not taking pictures of little girls! After much debate, the decision was made that after the rope-drop, we would rush back to Firehawk. And we did. I remember running and running and running, thinking “Where the hell is this thing?!” Ladies and Gentlemen, Jahan is NOT a natural-born runner! But I held myself well enough, and finally we were there. Firehawk < Flight Deck As much as you couldn’t get around the fact that Firehawk was just a relocated Vekoma Flying Dutchman, I was actually really excited for it! It was my first Vekoma flyer! Way back when Stealth opened in Great America, we went up there only to find a 3.5 hour line and we decided not to wait. Ever since that moment, being a kid and seeing a flyer but not being able to ride it, I’ve always wanted to get my chance. Two B&M flyers later, I finally had my chance at a Vekoma one. As “less cool” it is to begin the lie position and then convert to fly after the lift, the effect was actually pretty cool. Pretzel loop > vertical loop Firehawk was actually really fun! Now granted, I’m saying this having only had to wait about 5 minutes for it and don’t know how I would have felt had I been stuck in a switchback in the sun! But as a ride itself, I had no complaints. It was still smooth and had some really neat transitions. I still like Tatsu better, but would probably put Firehawk before S:UF on my amazingly short list of flying credits. *rolls eyes* The next coaster was the one adjacent to Firehawk—Flight of Fear. I think the coolest part of this ride would have to be the queue and station! This is for two reasons. One, the queue and station were rather well themed. A story is almost established as you progress from a military base to a UFO storage room, to the UFO itself. The alien bodies in the station was a neat idea. Oh—and I got the Laura boob credit, as well. (I’m pretty sure there’s a photo of a petrified Jahan getting the credit somewhere out there). Two, the ride itself wasn’t all that great! I seem to recall getting thrashed around, a block brake that completely stopped the ride (not unlike Goliath), and overall unexcited ness. Apparently the ride used to be really good back in the day, but now it was just “meh”. After FOF, we headed over to the Italian Job: Stunt Track. I was actually very intrigued to see what kind of ride IJ:ST was like, as there’s like a million of them these days! I was told by some that they were lackluster, I was told by others that they were a great family ride, so I was ready to get an impression for myself. You have never seen this image before! Confused by IJ:ST’s blatant dismissal of DaCOC. Italian Job had a short line when we got there. We waited less than five minutes, and honestly, could have waited longer because our group was so into singing along to “Zombie Nation”, which was playing in the station for whatever random reason! Italian Job was a “meh” ride to me. I can see how it is an enjoyable family attraction. But for me, it didn’t do much. After the ride, we headed over to…. *cues drumroll* The Son of Beast was one of those rides that everybody was talking about the entire trip, like Voyage, Maverick, so on and so forth. Except in SOB’s case, for all of the wrong reasons! SOB was clearly one of those rides that just was a bad idea. The idea was apparently to make a hypercoaster woodie. And why not throw in a loop. Literally. Well, a year ago some beam apparently snapped and injured a whole train of passengers. So they closed down the ride, removed the loop, restructured some stuff, and reopened it with modified Gerstlauer trains. It’s notorious for being one of the more painful coaster experiences. I know! Sounds like an great ride! Very few rides actually look scary from the outside, as this one does! Son of Beast wasn’t quite as painful as it was pointless. Don’t get me wrong—it wasn’t comfortable! But being battle-hardened by Psyclone, it wasn’t anything out of the ordinary for me. I fact, I would consider it to be like Psyclone’s bigger brother. Pointless and painful. What I mean by pointless is that it sort of meandered around. I never really found it terribly exciting. Just goes over here. Then over there. A huge waste of space and lumber. I’m not much of a tree-hugger, but I say Save a Tree—Destroy a SOB. After SOB, I had to wake up and reenergize with some Arrow love. For some reason this is my only photo “of” Top Gun! Top Gun was an Arrow suspended coaster, and thus, was actually lots of fun. I’d probably say that Ninja is better, but that being said, it was probably one of my favorite coasters at Kings Island. Oh, and one lift hill is a plus as well! It took this picture with a thumbs up because they were setting out free water, due to the heat. I should have taken it with a thumbs down, for not having Frozen Coke! At this point in the day, we realized that we were progressing through the park VERY quickly. At least much more quickly than I had ever imagined! So we were able to take it a bit more easily, as we had the whole day ahead of us. We changed our minds and decided to go to Stricker’s Grove, if nothing but for the air conditioner on the bus, so I figured why not! But not before getting one more credit on the way out. …we had NO idea. Ok, so I got in line for Adventure Express not knowing what it was at all. I’m marching up this covered deck and all of a sudden hear a tune that is very familiar to me. “Wait…what is that?! Is that?....the Indiana Jones theme?!?! Yeah, so for whatever reason, they were playing the Indy music. The ride itself would prove to be a very unique Arrow mine train. It was actually pretty neat! You dispatch into a lush area with jungle noises, only to emerge into an open grassy area. You ride around for a bit, going through a few tunnels, and finish with this amazingly anticlimactic finale! LOL. You enter this final tunnel and begin to proceed up the lift hill. There are like, tiki-drummers on both sides of the train as you travel up towards a giant idol, with red eyes. Anticipation grows with the beat of the drums and curiosity grows as to what is beyond the idol. It feels like there’s going to be something big after such a scene, such as with Splash Mountain’s last lift. You get to the top, turn to the right, and hit the brakes. The ride is over. With the amazing Adventure Express under our belts, we were ready to head out and go check out Stricker’s Grove. And trust me, that bus A/C was sooooooooo nice! For those who are unfamiliar with Stricker’s Grove, it’s a small park whose sole purpose is to rent out to private parties and events. In fact, it’s only open to the public two days out of the year, one of which was this very particular day. Talk about great timing! Awwwww…that ride has to be like, 200 feet shorter than SOB. …and sure enough, it was 200 times better! Casey and Chris decided to hug Ryan and well…..Ryan is no more. Poor little bugger squished to death. (Editor’s Note: For the rest of the PTR, Ryan’s part will in fact be played by his twin brother, Bryan. Killing off one of the main characters at the end of the show—never saw that, did you?!) When we got in the park, the first thing we did was head over to the Tornado, the bigger, red and white woodie that you saw in photo 334. TJ made such good friends with the ride op, that his new black-eyed, one-armed friend rode with him! You see that little drop, on the on the middle-left? That = amazing. You think I’m joking too! I’m NOT. So here we are, getting on a really small woodie, next to a woodie called the “Teddy Bear”. We go down the first few drops and turns, just sort of joking around, shouting “Weeeeee” and whatnot. All of a sudden, we drop down after that little dip and get this bout of airtime out of nowhere! WTF?!?! I mean, we’re not talking Cyclops status, but still enough to write home about. I was totally amazed. To be honest, in my opinion, I’d probably rate it one of the top 10 wood coasters on the trip! A neat little pocket coaster. Well, probably too big to be a pocket coaster. It’s more like a cargo-pocket coaster. After Tornado, we headed over to the only other credit in Stricker’s Grove, the one….the only….the Teddy Bear. Yeah. Not the most exciting first drop. The Teddy Bear wasn’t all that amazing, but it wasn’t supposed to be, so that’s alright. I’m sure when I was a kid, I would have loved it. Bryan seems to be a little *too* excited, considering. At that point, we were pretty much done with Stricker’s Grove. We rode the train ride, got a free root beer, and then headed out. The bus ride back was, well…interesting. I was inducted into the Midwest sect of the Back Of The Bus crew, but that’s a story for another time. When we arrived back at Kings Island, we jumped right back into rounding up our credits. We first headed towards the back to get a ride on the Racer. The Racer was alright. Fun at times, a bit painful at times. It just all and all was meh. At this point, Kings Island had pretty much solidified itself as the greatest theme park evar to Wes. We made a quick stop-by Firehawk to get some more video and photos. As much as it was some whatever relocated Vekoma, I liked the ride. The ride looked really nice, even just plopped down. This photo is sooooooooooo unnecessary. Up next was Vortex, the Arrow multi-looping coaster. Mmmmmmm….Arrow. I’ve always seen pictures of Vortex and was actually rather excited to ride it. I have to be honest, you can tell that the ride has seen better days. It really just seemed to shuffle a bit more than a ride like Viper, which was disappointing for an Arrow-fan-man like myself. That being said, it was enjoyable enough. I just wasn’t jumping back in line to ride again. That’s an AWESOME Arrow transition for you. With Vortex done, it was late enough to head over to our last group meal. Awwww…Robb gave one of his last trip speeches. *no comment* After our meal, it was time to prove ourselves as the real whores that we were—we made our kiddie-credit round. Bryan and Joe doing their best Reptar impressions. The kid-inverted Vekoma ride was a Vekoma ride—it shuffled back and forth and wasn’t too special. We rode this. I’ve decided that I’m not all crazy about shooting dark rides (much too lazy…prefer a more passive experience), but this one was decent. After we spent a little too much time hanging around the children’s area, we ventured back to the other side of the park to finish up our credits and ride a few other rides. And by, “a few other rides”, I meant Drop Zone, the Intamin gyro drop. *shiver* Again, I’m not too keen on drop towers and one with a giant target painted on the ground wasn’t much different! That being said, the ride was very cool! Almost a more social experience than a typical drop tower as everybody rides together in a circle. So that was cool. Finally was Face Off, the Vekoma inverted boomerang with the coaches where passengers face each other. It was pretty much the same as any other Vekoma boomerang. This one even kept overshooting the station and breaking down! Right after we rode, it overshot stranding several TPR members on the ride! Casey broke the ride!!! As a matter of fact, once Face Off broke down after we rode it, it never reopened! Some trip-goers never got their ride on it! With our ride on Face Off, the sun had set. We decided to take some time to check out the observation tower, which was pretty cool to see the park glimmering at night. Ooooh…pretty.! So I’m sure you may be wondering, “Wait Jahan—how come you havn’t even mentioned Kings Island’s one real signature attraction?!” Well that, dear reader, is because we decided to save it for last (actually, I did ride it during the day, but shhh! Go along with me). The only photo I have of “The Beast” The Beast is a ride that I had heard of for quite some time. I even remember being in the fifth grade, years before I could call myself a “coaster enthusiast”, and reading a fictional children’s novel based on the ride! But other than that, I knew nothing of the ride. I was told that it was best at night, so we waited for the fireworks to finish and then had the go-ahead to board. The ride was pretty cool at night! As I said, I did take a gander at it during the day and didn’t think all too much of it. It was fun, at times, but was primarily a “whatever” ride for me. But those night time rides; I think it was just the energy involved with the whole thing. It was the last ride of the entire trip. Everybody would be departing the next day. To take up all three of the Beast trains and just marathon the crazy ride for about 2-3 times was just a lot of fun! When it was time to get off the train, I think it was bittersweet for everybody. The trip was over, and we knew it. Fin. And that’s all folks. The Midwest Trip was over. The next day we were dropped off at the airport. I want to personally thank Robb and Elissa Alvey for putting on such a great trip for us! This was seriously the biggest thing I’ve ever done…ever! I cant say I’ve ever had more fun in my life. So much so that I was like a different person coming back and therefore by definition, the trip was “life changing”. If you guys want to get a more in-depth view at the energy and excitement that was the Midwest Trip, be sure to check out TPR’s Coaster Expedition Volume 10, coming out soon. I’ve already seen a preview of the DVD at West Coast Bash and have to say that it REALLY captured the trip for me. Finally, I’d like to thank all of you for actually reading this! It took forever to type, spanning exactly 70 pages in MS Word before being copied to the boards. That’s A LOT of Jahan! So THANK YOU for reading! Until this year’s trip report…. -Jahan

^ Thomas Town now has foundations dug for the structures and gravel laid out for the tracks themselves. I don't know the progress on X2. -Jahan

I believe this has been the cause of most of Tatsu's downtime from day 1. Over/Undershoots are inconsistent so they're hard to fix, and Tatsu's trains have a lot going on with them. It's not really anything you can fix, I mean, unless you wanna replace an already working sensor with a brand new one. So it's a design flaw? I wouldn't say that either. Tatsu's downtime issues are complicated and multifaucted. You cant point your finger at one thing and say, "Hey, if we just change that, the we'll fix it." It is still a new ride, and as much as I would love to say that you can purchase a brand new mulit-million dollar toy and it will work instantly, it doesn't work that way. Rides traditionally get more reliable as they age, as the park learns new ways of troubleshooting problems. It's all a matter of putting out fires. "Oh, we have a problem with heat in the station" ....then we install a brand new venting system to maintain a calmer temperature. "Oh, we have a problem with one of the trains 224 sensors." ....then we fix that one and see if we can keep it from happening in the other 674 sensors between the three trains. So it's with that thought that I can assure you that downtime will be reduced. -Jahan

Day 10: Kennywood Hey everybody! Ok, so the following morning we woke up bright and early (the sun wasn’t even fully up yet) and made our way back down the peninsula, leaving the silhouettes of the Cedar Point coasters behind us. We were off to our next destination—Kennywood. This reminds me of the “Circle of Life”—if you ignore all of the dead bugs on the windshield. Now, some may be wondering, “Why Kennywood?—It’s not even in the Midwest?!”, which is true and became ever more apparent with the drive as the geography changed quite a bit. This particular day was originally planned to be spent at Geauga Lake. The issue with Geauga Lake was that two coasters and a series of other random rides had already begun to be removed from the park. When Kennywood offered ERT and promised that all of their rides would be open (which Cedar Fair definitely couldn’t offer either of that), a vote was held and the decision was made to instead go to Kennywood. Anyway, the drive was interesting as we headed further and further into a wooded region and the hills grew steeper and steeper. Eventually, we were driving on the side of large hills and crossing expanse ravines on classic steel bridges. We knew that we were getting close when the classic yellow Kennywood arrows began to appear. Finally, we were there. We unloaded the busses and waited patiently outside of the gates as we were organized for our ERT session. “Give me some candy!!!” After some metal detectors, we were in the park. Interestingly enough, the entrance was on the other side of a street from the park and involved walking down some ramps, through a tunnel under the street, and into the park. The park is located on the top of a hill overlooking a river. This was cool because a lot of their rides were built into the terrain, rather than simply plopped down on flat land. Anyway, after passing through the tunnel, we arrived at our first ride for ERT, the Racer. Unfortunately the only picture I have of Racer—this photo was taken AFTER ERT, once the park had opened. ….which proves how awesome it is to have ERT. What else was awesome about ERT is that Racer is one of those racing coasters that isn’t dual-tracked. Meaning there is technically only one track, that feeds directly into the other—if you were dispatched from the left station, you will return on the right, and visa versa. As a result, the Kennywood team let us ride the entire Racer credit in one sitting. When we came back from our rides, we were allowed to stay and ride the other side as well! Racer, as a coaster, was ok. Yet again, unique because of the racing aspect and obviously a historic ride. It wasn’t crazy or anything. Just fun. After Racer, we headed over to the other side of the park to get the other coaster with ERT, Thunderbolt. A really neat entrance marquee that you see as you’re approaching the ride. Thunderbolt was an interesting ride. I totally didn’t realize that it was going to do what it was going to, until it did it. If you can get that. The ride is essentially split into two halves. There’s the dips off of the side of the hill half, and the lets make a bunch of right turns/crazy laterals half. One of the many “dips off of the side of the hill”. The setting of this half of the park was pretty neat as well, perched high above the river-valley, with some creepy, old, Scooby-dooesque factory across the way! Thunderbolt wasn’t quite as smooth as the Racer, but it did do more. I can’t say that I really cared for the “lets make a bunch of right turns and crush our passengers with insane laterals” part, but the “dips” half of the ride was fun. When we got off of Thunderbolt, Phantom’s Revenge began it’s test-runs. What was cool was, Thunderbolt was practically next to the entrance for Phantom’s Revenge, so once we were done with our rides, we quickly scurried over there and waited for the ride to open, so we could get on without a wait. Jahan v. the Phantom. Guess who won? …for the time being, Phantom won because the park opening came and went and yet, Phantom’s Revenge did not. Boo. Still, we held out, hoping that would change. Held up at the entrance of the ride, the group began to go crazy. I included this photo because Casey is awesome. Hearing a smashing collection of ‘hit music’ from the nearby flat ride, Wes and Ryan got down. Right after this was taken, they turned their dancing attention to me. …Yes, I was assaulted. About 20-25 minutes into our wait, we were informed that some sort of component was broken and that they were working as quickly as possible to get the ride open for us. That being said, it would be better for us to try some other attractions. Which is how we found our way to… “How can we make a twist on the bland and generic mouse coaster?” “Well—we can just kill the mice. No one’s done that yet.” “Me likey.” The Exterminator was the FOURTH Zamperala spinning mouse coaster we encountered on the trip (the others being at Beech Bend, Mount Olympus, SFGAm)—all the same model. But of all of them, this one stood out, because the ride was enclosed in a building, and themed. Not just themed, might I add, but themed to extermination, which makes it awesome. The ride itself was the same as the others. But everything else about it is what set it apart and made it one of the wackiest coasters of the trip. After the Exterminator, we ride The Whip, which was my first and only Whip attraction. It was neat. Definitely a fun little novelty ride. I wish more of these still existed. After we were done with our ride, we noticed that Phantom’s Revenge was open, so we hurried over there to spare ourselves a longer wait. Yay!! There’s people on the train! Phantom’s Revenge was probably one of my favorite coasters of the trip. I mean, I don’t typically advocate the maiming of an Arrow product to create a different ride entirely, but this ride was just pure cool. Sparring the passengers a typical line up of Arrow inversions, they have instead turned the ride into a great experience, diving riders down the hillside! The sensation of dropping with the terrain and through Thunderbolt was pretty neat! It may not seem like much, but this was sooooooooooooo neat. After the dive, the ride then helices around a bit and then runs you through a series of decent airtime hills before finishing where you started. It was pretty fun! I rode multiple times, in both the front and back, always enjoying it. When we were done riding Phantom’s Revenge, we sort of just hung out for a bit. I think more people are inclined to use the button if you ask them not to. At least dumb people like me! We made our way to get some of the “famous Kennywood fries”, which were a bit overrated if you ask me. I mean, most things fried, covered in cheese, and bacon taste good! That’s no “secret”! Not feeling like exactly jumping onto another coaster after eating those things, we made our way up to the Noah’s Ark funhouse. And I gotta tell you—it was really fun! I think the floor that bounced up and down was definitely the highlight! After the funhouse, we were finally ready for the final credits. Best. Logo. Ever. We had to queue a bit for the Jack Rabbit, but that was ok. The ride is actually very small—two laps around an area a little bit smaller than the Racer. What was the highlight of such a short ride, was this double-down of extreme awesomeness! The airtime was VERY cool! I didn’t get the back row, because everybody naturally jumped for it. But still, I could enjoy what I got! After Jack Rabbit, I reluctantly queued for Lil’ Phantom, the small kiddie coaster and we then just chilled, visiting some of the more charming and vintage attractions. I remember us riding this funny little car ride where once you boarded, you literally took off and just sort of sped around this course, circling around a bit before returning to the station. We also rode the big Phantom again! LOL…I loved that thing. Anyway, after a bit Robb asked if I could help him with a quick photo walkback of Thunderbolt and Phantom’s Revenge, to help him get some photos while he took video. I gladly obliged. Behind the scenes of the next TPR DVD!!! You can also note how dumb those lateral forces are by how the riders are squished in the car. I look like such a DORK! What’s funny is I work around coaster track. Every night, I climb under and around it. But it’s different when I’m there and have a camera and full permission to geek-out! I also love capturing peoples faces on rides! After the photo walk back, I met back up with friends and we continued to walk the park. We met for a group dinner and then got ready to leave. Oh! And I found this on the way out… The History buff (and major) in me totally went giddy when I read this. Very interesting! (Wikipedia “George Washington” or “Edward Braddock” if you don’t know what I’m talking about.) Anyway, I really enjoyed Kennywood! It was a charming, old-style park with both new and old style rides. The location was actually very cool. It was a different flavor park from what we had been experiencing in the Midwest and personally, I enjoyed the break. Anyway, that evening we took off from Pennsylvania and headed back to Ohio for the last park of the trip. Thank you all for reading the PTR so far! Just ONE MORE installment to go! -Jahan

^^ It's just not one of the rides that I really think of when I think "Cedar Point". At least that's just me. Thanks for all of the comments guys! And yes Kyle. I think I like Raptor best. -Jahan

Wow. Sometimes I think that it's the dumb people you can find in a theme park that makes the park as exciting as the rides inside of it. A very merry unbirthday to Mrs. Walker. -Jahan

Hey Everybody! Thanks for all of the comments! Glad that some of you are enjoying this thing! So now let’s continue! (BTW, unlike the Dells, I’m not splitting our two days at Cedar Point into two PTRs, but rather keeping them as one. Hope everybody’s ok with that. Sorry for more photo load times! ) So—we arrived at Hotel Breakers at about one in the morning, with everything pitch black due to the most ill-timed blackout ever! I don’t even remember there being any moonlight. It was that dark. Cedar Point employees came onto our bus with a giant box of flashlights and distributed our keys. We were then escorted to the entrance of the hotel, but then let loose on our own. This was seriously one of the creepiest experiences ever! First of all, Hotel Breakers is like a 100 year old hotel! And here we were, let loose inside of the aging building with a modest flashlight! I don’t believe in ghosts (sorry Jon!), but still—it was pretty creepy! VERY Scooby Doo! Secondly, this is the Midwest. It’s HUMID! And with power off, there is NO air conditioning in the rooms. There was one small conference center that happened to be running on generator power, so once we were done finding our rooms and depositing our luggage, the majority of us headed for shelter (and a/c!) in the conference room. After an hour or so, it was announced that power was finally back on, so we retreated to our rooms. There would be a big day ahead of us. Day 8 and 9: Cedar Point The park opened at 10:00, but we were let in early at 9:00 due to the hotel ERT. Unfortunately I slept in (LOL), but still made it to the Maverick queue by 9:30. Wait…I’m in the line, but the line is outside of the entrance. And hey!—there’s no trains cycling! As it would be, the ride was actually closed due to weather, so it wasn’t a big deal that I was late! But where is this bad weather?! It looks fine outside to me! Until we saw it. There it was, on the horizon, moving in very quickly! OMG…It looks like a scene from Independence Day! Again, I’m from California! I’ve never seen clouds that literally look like the sky ends! Uh….I don’t think clouds are supposed to look like that! At this point, were all starting to get worried! Chuck! How can you possibly joke around at a time like this! And then it happened. As if the sky literally opened up and dropped an ocean on top of us. The rain started. I mean, REAL rain. And it didn’t stop. Looks like no one’s getting on Maverick any time soon! Sensing defeat, we decided to retreat back into the hotel and dry off for a moment. After changing, we all met at Fridays for some “breakfast” and to re-plan our day at the park. You can sort of tell that this is one of those photos where nobody wanted to pose for the photo, but I sort of made them! So after Fridays, we were ready to head back into the park. The weather seemed a little bit more cooperative, so we figured we’d try to start rounding up some of the credits. Informed that Maverick was still down, we decided to head south instead. The first ride we encountered was Corkscrew. The ride had just opened, so we were able to get to the station without any wait. Yay for some Arrow love! This entire line filled up in the few minutes that we were on the ride. Corkscrew didn’t really have all that much to it, but I really liked it! It was definitely a fun ride! I think it’s because I don’t expect very much from these rides that I like them so much. When we all collected after Corkscrew, many people decided to continue heading south, as we’ve technically had better luck with rides in the lower half of the park rather than the upper. But still, ever-wanting to ride Maverick, the majority of us headed back to the top of the park to check out the status on the ride. There were sooooooooooooooooo many people! As you can see, the line for Maverick hadn’t gotten any shorter, but there was still no sign of the ride reopening. All the forecasts we were getting in warned of a second wave of rain dumping through the park within an hour or so. Instead of waiting for Maverick, we decided to just chill and the Alveys used the time to introduce me to the elephant ear. OMG…these are like the greatest things ever! I honestly had never even heard of or SEEN an elephant ear (unless you count the piece of plastic on X!) let alone eaten one. It was amazing. A party in my mouth. I thoroughly enjoyed it! As I was downing one of those suckers, we realized that the Cedar Creek Mine Ride was cycling some trains as a part of their block check, so we decided to line up for that, praying that it would open. Please, please, please, please, PLEASE open. We just want to ride SOMETHING! Sure enough after about 10-15 minutes, the ride actually opened! Unfortunately, they were only running one train but eventually, our whole group got on the ride! I’ve only been on two Arrow Mine Trains—this and Goldrusher—and of the two, Goldrusher was definitely superior. This ride was pretty, but really did just sort of meander around and take up space! That being said, we really carpe decoaster on that one, because as soon as we got off it began drizzling again, thus shutting down all of the coasters once again! *sigh* Hoping to pass the storm, we decided to chill under the shelter of a shooting gallery and just hang out. All of the rain makes Chris ANGRY! LOL...it’s tubgirl in the shooting gallery. …just not. Thank God! Our hopes for clear skys were soon rained on when it, well—began to rain even more! I think at this point we were all really unimpressed with Cedar Point. Don’t worry Cedar Point fanboys! That will change! But for right now, you can fault us for being pretty pissed! I was soooooooo not pleased. And I love how the flash makes me look soooooooooooo tan! Eventually, the rain would subside, yet again. And this time for good. That being said, Maverick was still not open. Apparently, they have to wait 2 hours after a rain in order for the track to dry or something like that, so they wouldn’t open. It really is a beautiful ride. Do you know what would make this shot even more beautiful? A TRAIN! Much better. With Maverick closed, we decided to head back into the depths of the park and find ourselves another major ride. After all—we’re now officially 25% of the way through our Cedar Point visit and only have two minor credits under our belts! And sure enough, we stumbled across just the type of ride we were looking for! …and yes, it was open. Millennium Force is one of those coasters that I’ve been ogling at ever since I “took up” coaster enthusiasm. If Cedar Point is a crown amusement park, Millennium Force has to be the crown jewel. It’s certainly one of the most amazing coasters in the world, considering its size, shape, and the ride it offers. I remember looking at pictures like this on the internet and drooling. Just imagine how I reacted when I actually TOOK this picture. The line took about 45 minutes, but was constantly moving. I had always heard about the awesome Cedar Point operations and was very pleased to see that the stereotype stood true. That crew could crank out trains so quickly, you would question if they actually checked them! Though we had always been told that the back was better, TJ and I had to ride in the front. You see, a Cedar Point trip was something that he and I have been dreaming of since Jr. High school, and that trip included a front-row ride on Millennium Force. So it was sort of in spirit of that by which we followed through and queued for Row 1. I’m pretty sure this is what I’ll look like after sex. Pleased, speechless, and a bit mortified. Millennium Force wasn’t the best coaster I’ve ever been on, but it was certainly one of them! It has to be one of the most unique coaster experiences ever, that’s for sure. After Millennium, we decided to ride the coaster that was across the way, Mantis. We were lucky in that there was no queue. I do seem to recall the ride operator harassing one of the guys in my row because he didn’t have the proper posture for a stand up. I mean, this chick was rude! She contorted us into the most uncomfortable position, which was really off-putting for me. I’ve been on stand ups all my life! I've operated one! I don’t need to be coached on how to stand on one! Comfort is just as important to safety as posture is. Bitch. Anyway, Mantis was nice, but coming from the Riddler’s Revenge, it really wasn’t all that exciting to me. Whoever picked these colors needs to be shot. After the ride, the group naturally wanted to head back to Maverick and check that out. And sure enough, the ride was open! We even started queuing for it! But about 10 minutes into our wait, with a fair chunk of the queue in front of us, a few of us decided we didn’t really want to wait on account of our hunger. So we left to get food. I know what you’re thinking. “Whaaaaaaaaaaaa?!?!...You’ve waited ALL DAY for this, and now that you have it, you’re leaving!?!?” The answer is “Yes”. Jahan turns into another creature when he goes long bouts without food. As several other were hungry and unwilling to wait, the decision was made to bail. Funny side story, when we went to get food, Joey had trouble dealing with the cashier (who was an international employee) and before long, Joey’s meal turned into a feast for the entire park!— Joey began to suck his thumb and cry when this figure popped up on the cash register! …luckily for him, we had the purchase voided. Alright guys, you’re going to hate me for this, especially since the point of these narrative-style PTRs is to share the sequence of events—but I honestly don’t remember the order which we attacked the park over the two days we were there! So we’re just going to have to follow along with the photos as they come! Well, I DO remember that we concluded the first day with Maverick. The plan was to hop in line before the park closed, thus giving us a 30 minute wait, which wasn’t bad as the line was constantly moving! Dane-downed a burger quickly in line for Maverick. For some reason, this photo is so much more dramatic sideways! What was funny about the line, was that there had to of been like, 50 trip participants in line all at once! We kept passing each other back and forth! That made me giggle. Oh, and I do seem to remember seeing Ryan and Tomi about 10 minutes ahead of us and guess what?—they had totally picked up some hotties with them and were flirting all throughout the line! How do they do it?! Anyway, back on topic. Maverick was insane. I’ve never been on a coaster that was literally engineered to feel as out of control as that ride was! It really threw away the rules in that it didn’t feel designed around ride-elements as much as it was around ride-sensations. Transitions were dramatic. Inversions were unexpected. The ride just really seemed to do what it wanted! It did sort of remind me of California Screamin’. Not just because it has a lift and a launch (that’s right a lift AND a launch), but the way that the ride felt. California Screamin’ is much more graceful, with sweeping turns and smooth transitions. Maverick felt untamed, with sudden turns and abrupt transitions. It was essentially California Screamin’ on drugs. I still cant decide which of the two I like more. I just know that I really like both. Money shot. I win. Excited with Maverick under our belts, we were ready to turn in for the night. I think that it’s safe to say that we were all exhausted. Cedar Point had also almost redeemed itself, after the storms. The next day would continue that trend. The next day began with a quick stroll along the beach before we turned onto the midway and headed to the south end of the park. As we spent most of yesterday around the top of the park, we decided to start at the bottom and work our way up. Again with the colors!—who gave the permission to paint this sign pink?! Raptor was an awesome ride! Probably my favorite B&M invert! I thought it had a great drop and a great placement of elements. It did have a few confusing straight-aways, but still proved to be a great ride! You can just tell from this picture that this is an awesome drop! This was almost the most amazing shot of your lives! Not quite—but almost! For the record, all of these gorgeous shots are provided in part by the bucket ride that is spread along the entrance-midway of the park. …although I’m traditionally afraid of those rides. I don’t know why, I just always picture my bucket being plucked from its wire by gravity. Oh, and one more of Raptor since it was so photogenic!... Later in the day I saw Hanno take this EXACT photo……naturally his turned out better. Next up was Blue Streak, which was really just a filler ride to me. I’m sure it comes from some great wooden coaster heritage but it really just sort of went up and down, back and forth. Hehehe….Chris seems to rather be enjoying that! Apparently purple-nurples were one of the underground negatives to the Midwest trip. I don’t know, I stayed away from the nipple wars! Now we’ll hop over to the other side of the park. I don’t have any photos of Wicked Twister for some reason, but I recall us riding that first. I really find these Intamin impulses to be fun! I mean, I wouldn’t queue too long for them, but when I can get on without a long wait, I love them! Wicked Twister was a really good one too…probably my second favorite, behind SFDK’s V2, which is unconventional and amazing! After Wicked Twister, we went to the only ride that made sense to go to: Disaster Transport! Only—it didn’t make sense at all! OMG It wishes it were a Starspeeder 3000! This is SO where they’re hiding the Arc of the Lost Covenant! Disaster Transport was dumb. Some people found that this dumbness is what gave it its charm. I just thought it was dumb. Although it was my first bobsled-type coaster, so that was kind of neat. Now we’re ready to finish the Arrow run at the park! Why is this my only photo of Magnum?! That’s stupid! Magnum XL200 was a more exciting version of Blue Streak, IMO. It was up. Down. Up. Down. Which would have been cool if there were lots of airtime, but there wasn’t. The only really great part was at the end, when the train rapidly took those triangle-hills. Now don’t get me wrong. I don’t want to sound like I’m hating on an Arrow, which I’m certainly not! I wouldn’t ever do that! I can appreciate the ride for what it represents and what it did for the coaster world. It’s the first hyper and that’s pretty darn cool. But as far as judging the ride as it stands as a ride, it was sort of weak. Oh! And unfortunately I don’t have any photos, but we rode Iron Dragon, or Dragon Iron, or whatever it was called. It was lame. Ninja owns it! Wow, two lame ones in a row! To keep with the Arrows, we’ll finish of Gemeni. In tradition with the “70’s/80’s themeing! You know, I actually enjoyed Gemeni! I mean, it was less “intense” than Magnum, sure, but it was much more “fun”. They were cycling trains really quickly and racing every cycle! Racing coasters are still a new concept to me (I’ve only been on racing-Colossus a few times) and the interactivity of a dueling train is neat! Gemini was smooth, swift, and fun. Oh! And the name escapes me, but we rode the kiddie. How come it looks like it’s in a swamp of bubbling feces? Dear God! There’s so many coasters that the only way to share them is to bullet them out like this! Are we finished with them already?! Oh—and this. Mean Streak was ok. Now I know you’re saying, “ok?!?!?! How can you say that?! Mean Streak blows!!!” Yes, it did blow. But people had built it up to be so terrible that it was surprisingly bearable! The trim brake on the first was pretty much what saved the ride, IMO! At this point, we were pretty much finished with the park. I had been on every coaster that I could, except for Jr. Gemini and another little one named Top Thrill Dragster, but the plan was to queue for that at the end of the night when the park closed. So we decided to try some other things and do some re-rides. Throughout our visit, I had a chance to ride a few flats here and there. MaxAir was pretty fun. And the Derby Racer was one of the most unique and fun ride experiences ever! Unlike some old-rides that shouldn’t be brought back (*cough* Golden Zephyr *cough* …. Love you Chuck and Dane!), this was one ride that I wish we could see more of! Finally, we rode SkyHawk. Yay for S&S Swings! I personally am a big fan of the S&S swings, provided I don’t have to queue very long for them (we only waited 15 minutes for it). The problem is that the ride cycles are to short! I believe that there are three full swings before the ride ends. Now, I’d hate to see what the lines would be like if I had to wait with a longer ride cycle, but still! My point still stands. Figure it out, S&S. We also went for one more ride on Millennium Force, because that ride is just freakin awesome! One can never have too many Millennium Force photos! Regrettably, all good things must come to an end and sure enough, the sun set on our second night at Cedar Point. Our trip was coming to an end. *giggle* We made our way through the park, hitting up the last attractions that we could before the night was out. Our timing worked perfectly. There was only one ride left. *cues background music* Top Thrill Dragster wasn’t necessarily an “omg-I HAVE to do this” attraction for me, hence it was saved for last so that our time queuing for it wouldn’t get in the way of any other park time. The downside to that is that we were crossing our fingers the entire time in line, hoping that the ride wouldn’t break down! We made it through the line in less than 45 minutes and were seated, ready to go. Oh! Story! We were literally about two or three trains for boarding when randomly out of the night, this butterfly comes flying out of the sky and lands on Dane’s hand. Everybody was all, “awwwww” and even a ride operator stopped what they were doing to make conversation about the butterfly. So then, Dane bids the bug farewell and it goes flying off. It makes a lap or two around the station and then lands AGAIN on Dane’s hand! That butterfly really liked Dane! Anyway, I forgot what happened to the butterfly. What happened Dane? Did you take it on the ride with you? So anyway, we finally got to ride. Yes, 45 minutes it’s probably a disproportionate wait for the ride experience offered, but still—it was a totally fun ride! I don’t have any real complaints. And that would draw the night to a close! Cedar Point was a great park! I can’t deny the fact that they have a HORRIBLE rain policy. I mean, I can understand not cycling in torrential downpour, but waiting for tracks to dry?—c’mon. That’s just stupid. We had a good few Nazi ride operators that hassled us as if we’ve never been on a ride before. But other than that, I found the park to be very impressive! I know some of our veteran Cedar Point ride operators claim that ride operations have gone down-hill in recent seasons, but I was still very impressed by the level of synchronism and speed of ride operation. What’s funny is the park reminded me a lot of the current Knott’s Berry Farm. The only exception is that, whatever formula that the two parks operate under seems to work at Cedar Point. It doesn’t at Knott’s! Anyway, that should about do it for this installment! Yes, it was LONG. And yes, I apologize for it being scattered and out of order. But it took me forever to type, so LIKE IT! Thanks for reading! -Jahan

Wow! That was a very interesting update, Tomi! I thought the water slide/wave pool pictures were kind of neat! Thanks for posting! -Jahan

^ I don't know. I guess not being the biggest fan of go karts, I don't really "feel" different on different versions. Sure, there may be a tunnel, a bridge, an upward spiral, or a Trojan horse--but that isn't a big enough difference to get away from the fact that they're all just some pavement and some karts. Maybe if there was a fire-chamber or something, I'd feel differently. Anyway, moving right along........ Hey Everybody! Ok, so after a decent time on the road, we arrived at Gurnee and checked into the hotel. The plan was to go to the White Castle across the street, but the location was unexpectedly closed, despite their web site saying the location was open 24-hours! WTF?! This being the case, and most of us still being hungry, a lot of us decided to settle for Steak N’ Shake instead. This poor restaurant! Lord knows they were understaffed, and to be bombarded with the number of TPR members as they did!—ouch! I had Steak N’ Shake once a few years back and found it rather mediocre, but this was really just unimpressive! Sorry Lou! Anyway, with half-eaten meals in our stomachs, it was time for bed. We had a big day tomorrow! And here it is!— Day 7: Six Flags Great America Ok, so I was really looking forward to this day. I had consistently been told by many people that Great America was one of the better run Six Flags parks. The previous night we had stayed at a hotel that was literally like, a walking distance from the park. It was pretty awesome. We showed up nice and early and made our way to the park for some ERT. Just as a quick warning, for whatever reason I don’t have all that many photos from this park! So get ready for an update full of queue entrance signs! Rolling up to the park, we’re there before the parking lot opened. I just included this photo because it’s my only S:UF photo. Welcome to Six Flags Geico Great America Comcast! They cycled us through some metal detectors and then escorted us to the back of the park where our ERT was to begin. The group had ERT on Raging Bull, Viper, and as a bonus, ERT on the adjacent Intamin drop tower. First up for me, Raging Bull! Everybody loves photos of the signs in front of a queue! Here’s number one! Raging Bull was a fun coaster. That’s about it. Yes, I’m sure it ran pretty awesomely before they trimmed it as much as they do, but as far as the ride that I got is concerned, the ride sort of just meandered around. It was smooth and fast, but still felt somewhat lackluster. I would never go as far as to say that it was a bad ride, but definitely after two or three rides, I didn’t feel the need to ride anymore! You have to admit, the ride is absolutely gorgeous! I know I’m severely biased, but I personally think Goliath (SFMM) is a better ride than Raging Bull was. Goliath has two great paced halves, split by a pathetic trimming block break. Bull just never seems to have any pacing whatsoever. Look at the back row—if that’s not ERT, I don’t know what is! After our few rides, it was time for a ride on Viper. Wait a second—I thought Viper was red, white, and Arrow?! This cant possibly be as good as THAT Viper! …I was wrong. Ok, so Viper. It’s a modified cyclone-clone. I cant say I was entirely expecting to much of the ride. But it was amazing! Like, seriously! Some of the best wood on the whole of the Midwest Trip! It was well paced, exciting, and smooth! If that’s how all cyclones were, I would totally understand why they’re cloned so freakin much! I love Viper! Again, look how awesome this ERT is! “I would be scary, but I’m ssssssssssssssssssssssssssstatic!” After several rides on Viper, we lined up to get our Gold Q-Bot Flash Passes. I never did get a chance to ride the Intamin drop ride, but I was somewhat ok with that (drop towers are the few rides that sort of scare me). Elissa giving the spiel on how to use the Gold Q-Bots. These were seriously what kept us sane this day. By the time Elissa’s speech was done, the park was open. It was decided that despite having our Flash Passes, it would be wisest to scurry over to Déjà vu before the Illinois-crowds began to filter in and clog the low-capacity ride’s line. Geico Sign Dejavu Déjà vu was, well…Déjà vu. What is there to say about it? I mean, it’s gone now! So let’s not dwell on it anymore and move onto a real ride! Next we went on Demon, which was actually really awesome. I love when I don’t have to just *pretend* to like a particular Arrow ride, but I can come off actually liking it! Afterwards, we wanted to continue rounding up the “low capacity” rides, and that wound us up at, well— Stare at this image for 45 minutes and you’ll know how I felt. The Ragin’ Cajun line was pretty killer. We’re talking all of the switchbacks were open when we got there, with an attendant setting up even more! WTF?! This is a freakin’ spinning wild mouse! And just a crappy Zamperela portable model! Where did all of these people come from! The park has seriously been open for like, 30 minutes! What gives?! I would honestly rather queue for something stupid like Peter Pan than this, because at least that has air conditioning! Yes, I may look stupid, but this photo is just pure emotion for me. Taken at about minute 34. You know, I may complain, but I did have a pretty bitchin’ ride on Ragin’ Cajun, thanks in whole to Matt, my “riding buddy”. If I remember correctly, we had just the right amount of combined momentum to spin like mad! I will never look at a spinning wild mouse the same. Thank you Matt—I am a changed man. With the Cajun under our belts, we were finally ready to use our Gold Q-Bots. *cue John Williams’ score* Superman: Ultimate Flight was an interesting experience for me, to say the least. Was the ride awesome? No. Tatsu is a million times better than this. The ride sort of meandered around and then returned you to the station. So what was awesome about it? One, I got to see exactly how practical the Q-Bot system really is. You really notice how much wait you’re getting to bypass thanks to that little capsule. Second, the operations. I was very impressed by how well the crew was able to crank out trains at S:UF. The trains blocked, yes, just by the nature of the ride. Oh! And the little “be sure to check your legflap” stickers around the dispatch buttons were very cool. I really hope someone can bring the Tatsu dispatches up to that standard! But I digress. After S:UF, I was getting very hungry. To the point I where I was starting to shut down—stop functioning! LOL. But, the goal was to go as long as possible without food in order to beat as many crowds as we could. So we next headed to the American Eagle. It’s the giant racing woodie in the back of the park. It was enjoyable, but nothing special. You guys don’t seem all that very excited! …that’s more like it! After Screamin’ Eagle, I couldn’t go ANY longer without food. I was about to hurl, and I didn’t even have anything in my stomach! I hate that feeling! But the park was infested with people EVERYWHERE! I mean, it was insane! So a group of us just decided to dig in at a crowded Papa Johns and eat. We waited a good 20 minutes for food, but it was so worth it. I purchased what equated to something like 30 bucks worth of food I was so hungry! It was also here that we learned the source of the crowds—today was the very last day to use the free ticket that comes with the local-area’s reading program. We had the same thing: in elementary school, read a certain number of minutes (300 or 600, I don’t remember), log it, turn it in, and you could earn a free ticket to Magic Mountain. Well, Great America had the same program and all of their free tickets expired the very day we were there! Ugh! After Papa Johns, we sort of walked the park at our own pace on the way to the next credit. OMG…how is their train so awesome! That’s like, 3 time the size of SFMMs! We rode Iron Wolf, which was utter crap. I figured it would be rough as it is the oldest B&M, but I didn’t think it would be as crappy as it actually was! It was also weird how they have a track segment poised to be a mid course or trim—but it’s not. Just a geeky observation of mine. Uh. Yeah. Awkward. Lets move on. V2! V2 was only my second impulse coaster ever, after V2 in Discovery Kingdom! Although it was neat to finally ride a proper V2, I preferred the tweaked, diagonally inclined V2 in Discovery Kingdom to this one. Tex and Chris. Such great model poses! The vertical spike was cool, but definitely not as cool as the diagonal one. After V2, we were beginning to run out of time but for some reason decided to spend that time at Batman. This is Batman. Only, it’s yellow. The Flashpass queue merged into the sewage tunnel, meaning we still had a decent wait to go. While we were queuing, the crew spieled that due to the weather worsening, there was a chance that they’d have to cease operation. We weren’t really worrying about getting on Batman or not, but rather if we would make it to our final ride—Whizzer. While riding, we could tell that it was sprinkling a little bit, so once exiting, we hurried over as fast as we could. As you can see, as we dashed across the park it was beginning to get wetter. Regrettably, when we arrived at the Whizzer, the ride shut down. And once it was down, we knew it was for a good while. We met up with the group back where we got our Q-Bot spiel and were ready to leave. Six Flags Great America was a fun park. It's unfortunate that it was soooooooooo crowded, but the Gold QBot was able to help us get around most of that. I think for that reason, combined with the fact that I wasn't really feeling well this day, I need to get back and do the park again, because I think the park is more exciting than the experience I had led me to believe. Bye bye SFGAm! After leaving, we were on the road again. Feeling pretty good about the trip thus far. Had Cedar Point (what was sort of the climax) ahead of us. All was well. Until… Phew! Traffic! Thank God! As a Californian, I was beginning to have withdrawals! Once the traffic started, it didn’t stop. In fact, this was probably one of our longest, if not our longest drive! It was REALLY brutal. When we arrived at Cedar Point, we were faced with an interesting dilemma. We couldn’t see anything. ALL power was out. We carefully made our way to the back of the peninsula and arrived at Hotel Breakers. Our night was not over. To be continued…. Anyway, I’m going to stop it at that and pick it up in the next installment! Thanks for reading guys! -Jahan

You also have to remember, as with all Disney parks, that attendance does not equal single day park tickets. DCAs attendance is highly inflated by annual pass holders, the current TwoFer promotion (3 months out of the year, if a SoCal resident buys a Disneyland ticket, they get a free DCA ticket), Single-day park hopper tickets (only $20 more than a non-park hopper) and other mulitple park hopping days. There are FAR fewer than 5,680,000 people buying admission to DCA. I probably have 15 visits in that number and have never purchased admission to the park. -Jahan

Happy Birthday Elissa! Love you dear! -Jahan

Day Six: Mount Olympus, Riverview, and Timber Falls Hey everybody! Ok, so for those unfamiliar with Wisconsin Dells and who are lame and haven’t been reading this PTR, the town is a collection of roadside attractions strewn together, which has grown into a tourism hot-spot. Here one could find shows, extreme sports, themed experiences, and of course, amusement parks. Though Mount Olympus is the most talked-about destination, there are also a few smaller stops in town with credits—Riverview and Timber Falls. This day, the tour was spent whoring around to all three parks. As a result, a lot was going on! Best of luck trying to follow me on this one! In the morning, we awoke to much better weather and were on our feet by 9am for ERT on Hades and Zeus. The group journeying from the hotel entrance to the opposite side of the park, where the coasters were. I think it’s safe to say that Hades puts all other “parking lot coasters” to shame! Ok—so we arrived at Hades and they dispatched the first train (and on par with all of Mount Olympus’s coasters, the only train). When it returned to the final brake run, behind the station, the ride broke down with a train full of TPR members. How did we know? Because we’re freakin’ coaster enthusiasts and we can figure out that when a train stops half way through a brake zone and doesn’t keep moving—it’s down. Did we get any of this information from the ride operators? NO! Upon seeing the ride break down, the ride operators called the ride in to maintenance and then simply turned around so that they wouldn’t have to deal with us! I recall them instead shouting to the operators in the Zeus station. They may be hot and Greek, but they’re not necessarily the most polished ride operators! After a few minutes, a maintenance dude was there and reset the ride. We were back in operation and I finally got my ride on Hades. The ride was intense! Those tunnels are pretty wicked! That being said, there was a certain “roughness” to the ride in the morning. As they day went on and the ride warmed up, it was much better! But there was definitely a level of discomfort for me. I don’t know if I’m just a wimp or what but after two or three rides, I was done. Hades gets people excited. Elissa totally appreciates getting to ride with Chuck on Hades! After Hades, we rode Zeus, which was a lackluster out-and-back woodie. That’s the Zeus station in the front, with the MUCH more impressive Hades in the back. A lot of the group rode Zeus the day before and said it wasn’t anything to write home about. As a result, I sort of wanted to like it! Be the minority or whatever, but I just couldn’t bring myself to! It was really sort of lame. When our one needed ride on Zeus was up, we decided that we would take a break from credit whoring to ride some Go Karts! After all, for those who don’t know, Mount Olympus is just as renowned for their go karts as they are for their wood. In typical Jahan-fashion, I picked one of the slowest kart, and despite my expert driving skills, was left in the dust. I was really digging the “dual-loading stations” for the Go Karts. Definitely the only impressive thing about Mount Olympus’s operations. The track we were on wasn’t anything exciting. I forget the name, but it was one of the ones that never left the ground or did anything “gimmicky”. So with a crappy kart, I left feeling all and all rather “meh”. With that, it was time to head back to the credits. Mind you, I still needed to get the ever-hyped Cyclops! Chuck seems to still be gathering himself after that ejector airtime! Cyclops is the woodie with the infamous “You must be 18 or older to ride in the back car” sign. The ride sort of meanders about shortly before EJECTING you down a drop in one of the most dramatic ride transitions I have ever been on! Literally, I have never felt airtime like this before! It wasn’t so much “negative g-forces” as much as it was “positive g-forces in the opposite direction”, if you can get that! The infamous airtime-inducing hill. Mind you, that’s not the top of the lift, but half way through the ride, so you hit that drop with some speed already! Despite the ever-intense airtime, I didn’t really buy into the Cyclops-hype all to much. Just as the one-eyed mythological giant for whom the ride was named, the ride seemed to have ONE trick. It was really fun! Don't get me wrong! You just literally meandered about for a few seconds before bracing yourself for airtime so intense, it almost is too intense. Only to turn around a bit and return to the station. Wasn’t really what I would call a well-balanced ride, by any means. Hades still took the crown at the park. Could the final wooden coaster break that? LOL at getting Casey and Robb on the junior woodie, Pegasus. Pegasus was a “cute” coaster. It wasn’t nearly as small as the Meteor, but rather actually quite expanse for what it was! That being said, I would still consider the ride to be a “kiddie coaster”. Just one of the best I have been on. It just wasn’t much beyond that. So Hades wins. Because we couldn’t con the ride op to let us onto Little Titans and Dive isn’t a credit. With all of the credits under our belt, we were able to breath a sigh of relief and simply enjoy the park for what it was. Like I said, the park was actually very beautiful and had some beautiful people running it. We tried our luck on the indoor Disc-O, but the ride broke down on us before our cycle could even begin! Lame! After a bit more time at the park, it was time to depart for the other two stops at the Dells—Riverview and Timber Falls! This is a shot of everyone’s butts as they scurry to the busses. Now, the plan concerning these two small stops was that one bus would go to Timber Falls while the other bus would go to Riverview. After some time at each park, the two busses would “switch parks”. This was to ensure short waits for relatively low-capacity parks. But there was a problem— Remember the storm from the previous night? (If not, go back and read my last installment!) Well, just as it would happen, a lightning bolt from that very storm struck the Avalanche coaster, the steel-supported wooden coaster at Timber Falls, completely FRYING the rides electrical operation systems! I know! Robb and Elissa had been in contact with the park all day as a team of 4-6 electricians hurried to get the electric system repaired and have the ride open for us, as they had been since the wee hours of the morning! By the time the busses departed for the first park-stops, the ride still had not reopened, so both busses ended up going to Riverview, where there was something like three credits. Riverview was really sort of a “meh” park to me. It really just seemed like a permanent fair and the ride collection was weak. At least Little A-Merick-A had a certain charm. This place had only Dragon Spinners. That being said, TPR always finds a way to milk enjoyment out of a park! …I was so busy getting photos of the stupid Dragon Wagon, that everyone rode without me! In order for me to get my credit, I had to look sad and pathetic and ride all by myself! Ryan being Ryan. LOL at that bag making his ass look huge. (In all fairness, I told him to pose like that.) After rounding up the credits, our time ran out at Riverview, it was time for Timber Falls. Unfortunately, Avalanche still was not running, but we were told that they were almost done, so we gave the park a chance! Timber Falls was a much more charming park than Riverview. The park was literally a small, square plot of land with a small woodie circling around the perimeter of the grounds. Inside the woodie was a well landscaped and well themed log flume and mini-golf course. That’s about it! But it was still a charming little place. Unfortunately, we wouldn’t get to ride the log flume as parts were gutted from it for installation onto Avalanche, to ensure at least that was up and running for us. When we entered the park, we headed straight to Avalanche. Despite it still being down, the park had it “fixed” within minutes! Talk about GREAT timing! It was my understanding that the park essentially bypassed the electrical system traditionally in place for the ride and essentially ran the ride primitively in a manual fashion so that we could ride it! The train would literally cycle, and then come to a dead stop on the ride’s brake run. A maintenance personnel would then go manually open the brakes and advance the train into station, where the process would restart. But it was totally worth it. Avalanche was a totally insane little pocket-coaster! (Yes, I just said “pocket-coaster”.) Avalanche doing what it does best! Look how small it is! Despite its size, it still totally packed a punch with loads of airtime! Proves you don’t have to be large to be amazing. Not unlike Disneyland’s castle, might I add. One more shot, only because you know you love them! What was funny about the ride was that it was amazing only so as long as you were traveling straight. As soon as the ride rounded a curve, it was totally brutal! But once you were heading straight again, it would be great! Listening to a train full of riders, you literally heard: “Yaaaaaaaaaaaay!.... Oww, oww, oww, oww!… Yaaaaaaaaaaay! Yaaaaaaaaaaaaa!.... Oww, oww, oww, oww!…” After a good amount of rides on Avalanche (once the initial crowd cycled through, the ride was a walk-on), we decided to take our best shot at a game of Montezuma’s Revenge mini-golf. As I recall, we had about ten people in our group…and it was CRAZY! Robb, giggling like a school girl, upon something stupid happening. I don’t remember what, as many stupid things happened! Finally, the peak of an already amazing stay at Timber Falls was when Bryan began talking to him mom on his cell phone. You see, Bryan’s mom posted as Bryan the night before, saying that Robb needed to post more photos of people other than the “same ten people”! If I remember correctly, after having a little chat with Robb (or perhaps it was through Bryan), Terrance grabbed the phone and began informing Bryan’s mom that today, it would be all-about-Bryan. “I want you to say, ‘It’s all about my son.’” At that moment, Terrance pretty much proved himself as the most amazing person ever. I’m pretty sure most people would agree. With that, our stay at Timber Falls had concluded. Most of us returned to the busses (some opted to walk back to Mount Olympus, seeing exactly how short of a distance it was—pretty much the walk Wes and I did the day before). In no time, we were back at Mount Olympus. With all the credits under our belt, the day was pretty much spent relaxing. We re-rode the coasters. Drove lots of Go Karts (my favorite being the one that “went underwater”). Paid TEN freaking bucks to ride the giant Screamin’ Swing. Oh! And the best part was our dinner experience! We got gyros—some of the best damn gyros I have ever tasted! AND, to top it all of, we were served by a crew of gorgeous Greek beauties. Hot Chicks + Fried Meats = Heaven It’s a simple formula. It’s Greek to me! At the end of our stay, I have to say that I found Mount Olympus to be somewhat overrated. If Holiday World was “painted plywood” to me, Mount Olympus would be “fantastic façades”—and that’s it. The park was very beautiful, but had a cheap feeling behind a lot of that beauty (such as the amazing rockwork in front of the “indoor park”, only for the inside to just be a giant tent). Or much to infinitethrill’s dismay, the park didn’t have “open gates” due to there just flat out being no fences! I remember walking and seeing two buildings, not connected. In-between them was just nothing—just open dirt leading tens of yards into the backstage area. The ride selections were weak. I mean, once you've been on one go kart attraction, you've been on them all. I'm no go kart enthusiast, so perhaps my opinion is skewed. But still. And of the three woodies, Hades was great, Cyclops was good, and the rest were just "Yeah, whatever". And to top it all off, the park had some of the worst operations I have ever seen at a park as nice as this. Despite being very beautiful, these young men and women just didn’t seem all that enthusiastic to be doing what they were doing. I’m sure they much rather be back at their dorms partying or something. I don’t know if I’m just being picky or not. And I don’t want to come off as if I didn’t enjoy the park! I very much did! All I know is that the park was a very “meh” park to me when I was expecting so much more. Perhaps if I ever make it back, I’ll feel differently. Anyway, we left before sunset to make our way south, for the next stop on our trip—Six Flags Great America. It would be a long drive, but most of us were beaten up and exhausted, so we didn’t mind the drive for a little nap. OMG! Elissa’s mom fell asleep and now she’s headless! Well, that’s about it for this installment! I hope you enjoyed it and that you’ll come back for our next installment! Thanks again! -Jahan

^ Most of the work is done. Just some polishing and stuff, which is being done right now. It was still totally nice enough to give WCB participants a preview. Winds cooperative, the ride will open to the public this Saturday. -Jahan

Yes, GREAT PTR! With the exception of the one photo of me in the Psyclone boneyard, the photos were great! It was a pleasure to have you in my group. Thanks for all of the nice words! Hope to see you there next year! -Jahan

COLIN!!! Again, more great PTR! I love it! Thank you for the nice words. You've been out here twice in three months and I still want to hang out more. Come again and again and again (like on S&S rides!)!!! -Jahan

^ Agreed. Never was it advertised that souvineer cups were re-usable beyond each season. That was an un-written policy that sort of just fell into place. They now finally realized, "Wait a sec--what are we doing?!" -Jahan

I'd also personally add Sierra Sidewinder to that list. The ride literally went up without a peep from the park. The only advertising I saw was two billboards with a scary little girl on them! Just building a boring coaster and not letting anybody know about it--yeah, pretty pointless. -Jahan

As much as people like to do it, you CANT compare Cedar Point to Magic Mountain. They are different parks, run differently. If Magic Mountain had the capacity to run their park the way Cedar Point does, they would! But the truth is, they don't. That argument is as simple as saying "Disney can better implement a line cutting system--why can't Magic Mountain?", when Disney has the capacity to staff 3-4 positions solely on FastPass and Magic only has the ability to have one of the actual ride operators collecting tickets. I'm not trying to get you to purchase lockers. You don't want to do that, cool deal. I would never purchase a locker, personally. I also never go to a park with anything but a pocket-sized camera, but still. All I'm trying to say is there's a reason this system is implemented. It's the park attempting to fix a MAJOR problem with the resources that they have. I'm not looking for agreement, just understanding. -Jahan

-Not having to wait for loose articles to be stored will shave 15-30 seconds off of each dispatch, simply for the time it takes for 32 people to dump their items off. -No longer will operators have to stop their operation to deal with a guest complaint of articles stolen, which unfortunately does happen. -No longer will operators have to signal the panel operator to unlock certain restraints so that a guest can struggle to unravel a backpack that was wrapped around their legs, carry to the side of the station, receive a "if this isn't here when I'll get back, I'll kill you" threat and then recheck the particular restrain. -No longer will operators have to deal with relentless guest pleads to store their articles behind the panel or backstage to assure the safety of the items. -At a ride like Tatsu, a station stop would be used on a busy day every 15 minutes because a guest would hop over the railing to grab an article on the other station side (by nature of running 3-trains, 2-stations, you return opposite from where you dispatched). Not always would the ride be able to recover from the stop without a breakdown on the crews' hands. -Not every ride has this in place right now. Only select major rides where this was an immense problem, such as Tatsu, the Riddler's Revenge, Scream, and when it reopens, X2. All of the loose article problems that I just listed (and there are more) all result in holding dispatch for 5-60 seconds. And what's even worse is that the frequency of these problems increase with the crowds in the park. So at a time when you need to be cycling as quickly as possible due to a 2 hour line, you end up receiving this most hindrances to operation. I'm very happy that some of you were responsible with your loose articles. That you quickly were able to dump them on the unload side of the station and quickly take your seat. That you had the understanding that if anything were to happen to your articles, the park was not responsible and you wouldn't hassle an operator. But frankly, the majority of guests aren't like that. And just because I think people should be able to walk around naked (I honestly wouldn't mind!), the majority want to see everyone's bits and pieces covered up, meaning I have to be subjected to that rule, unfortunately. That's the way that society works. Would it be nice if the lockers were free for the first hour like at Universal in Florida? Yes. But this is the agreement the park now has with SmartCarte, the lockers company, and this is what we all have in place to work with. While it will take a bit for a precedent to be set, it is my belief that the ultimate result of the lockers-rule will decrease wait times, increase rides experienced per day, which would increase guest satisfaction and park value. -Jahan