robbalvey Posted April 30, 2005 Author Posted April 30, 2005 ^ Like I said in the TR, I think we actually prefer Wildcat over Thunderhead. They are both very similar, but Wildcat seemed to have more 'pops' of airtime. When we rode Thunderhead, it didn't seem to deliver much air at all. Now we've been told we must have caught it on a bad day and it delivers much more, but just not for us. That being said, I think they are both VERY good rides. Here's a few more pics from SDC: Oh, yeah! Can't forget about Wildfire! It's funny how when we rode Wildfire in early 2002, we thought it was kind of forceless...now it seems SO INTENSE especially after riding Talon, Air, and Silver Bullet! Awww....Poor Buzzsaw Falls, you can see the old flume part and they still keep the water running in it! The "uphill transfer track to the launch area" lift thingy was really cool! "Prepare to be blasted! No, not from the ride, but from Robb!" Here comes the train into the splasdown element....although the splash wasn't turned on because of the cold weather. I'm still amazed that Powder Keg only has a 42" height restriction. It's good that they have built a ride that a whole family can ride together. If this ride were at Knott's, you'd have to be like six feet tall!!! "Those wishing to be blaster..." LOL! I don't know why, but we found this sign really funny! "Hello...I am Robb Alvey and I give you....POWDER KEG!!!!"
Bubba Z Posted April 30, 2005 Posted April 30, 2005 All those shots of empty trains, reminds me of the trip I took to ride DBH last weeek.Nice TR, makes me want to get to the mid-west sooner.
Shavethewhales Posted May 1, 2005 Posted May 1, 2005 what exactly is the splash element after the drop from the lift?
Coasterkid20 Posted May 1, 2005 Posted May 1, 2005 Robb, When I saw what you had said about Wildfire in another post I thought to myself "Has he ridden the same Wildfire?" I love EVERYTHING in Branson, even being sick out of my mind I still have an amazing time! Wildfire is spectaculare, Ozark Wildcat is amazing, thos 2 parks and Holiday is what every other park should model after. Everyone is so nice, it is so beautiful and the rides are kick ass. Also I agree with your Thunderhead statement, when I rode it in late July it just seemed really fast and smooth, but had little airtime. I too was just confused by it...... When I first rode it my initial reaction was MUCH like yours and Elissa's to Thunder Dolphin at La Qua.
robbalvey Posted May 1, 2005 Author Posted May 1, 2005 The weather was a bit better for us today, not that it was "bad" yesterday, but today we at least had blue skies, a beautiful backdrop for taking photos and video! We got to SDC right before opening, and remembered that it was "Boy Scout Day." There goes the theory of all the old people who go watch the shows, and no one would be in line for rides! Luckily, Boy Scouts must be just as lazy as the next person, because the park didn't become really PACKED until after noon, which meant we'd get at least one ride in on all the coasters, which is exactly what we did. We went straight down to Powder Keg and saw that they had the ride open with the park, although only running one train at opening, they did get the second train on shortly after the park opened. Everything else opened with two trains, and Fire In The Hole must have had like 5! Powder Keg was fun, yet again, Wildfire was still cool, Fire In The Hole is STILL one of the most fun rides anywhere (as is it's cousin at Dollywood), we did a backwards and forwards ride on Thunderation, and then we did a food lap, then a shopping lap, and then a photo lap! SDC is one of those parks where you can just have a good time walking around the place. The atmosphere is VERY deep and reminds me a lot of Knott's before Cedar Fair screwed up the place. We went in probably just about every shop there is, and we ate until I gained another 10lbs (I didn't want to eat this week anyway!) And yes, Elissa found stuff to eat too! :shock: After our day at SDC, we went over to Celebration City and got there just before opening. We went right down to woodie and was able to get some more video and photos in the nice weather. The park was busier than yesterday, but there wasn't more than 1 train full of people in the station the whole time we were there, which meant plenty of re-rides, but on a full train, so Wildcat was rally running at higher potential. It was even better today. I think it's funny how both of my favorite GCI's are called Wildcat! We didn't do much else at Celebtration City today since we needed to head out to get back to Kansas City, but we were having such a good time on the woodie, we didn't need much else. On our way back to Kansas City, all is fairly quiet, and then out of the blue Elissa screams "CREDIT!!!!!!" Apparently, there was a parking lot carnival off the freeway and YES, they did have a coaster. So off the interstate we go to check it out. Much to Elissa's dissapointment...it was powered. No bonus credit this trip! So now we're back in Kansas City and going to spend a couple of hours at Worlds of Fun tomorrow before our flight. Here are a few more photos from today... And we end the Branson part of this update with the most "Well Hung" statue we've ever seen!!! That horse must be proud! :O Poor Elissa...that 'bonus credit' ended up being powered. =( This stretch of track produces three strong pops of "GCI Airtime" in a row! From the ferris wheel you can see how seriously twisted the coaster is. Over at Celebration City we get a few more good rides on Wildcat. ...by wearing her "I LOVE CARBS" T-Shirt! Elissa protests the "Low Carb" menu options... So there were just a FEW more people here today than yesterday! Elissa is NOT amused to be riding the backwards car on Thunderation! Nice blue skies mean good looking photos! Some interesting faces on the launch. Check out that woman in the 3rd row!!! Some of the fire effects that go off every time Powder Keg launches.
Angry_Gumball Posted May 1, 2005 Posted May 1, 2005 LOL @ the horse! Anyway, Powder Keg looks awesome and it looks like you guys had fun there. Great pics.
Token Yankee Guy Posted May 1, 2005 Posted May 1, 2005 ^^ I remember when Mark got Elissa that T-Shirt at the King of Prussias mall back in July. Keep up the good updates Robb!
robbalvey Posted May 1, 2005 Author Posted May 1, 2005 Here's our trip report from "Worlds of not-so-Fun..." We got to the park about 15 minutes before opening, and even getting into the parking lot we could just tell we were at a Cedar Fair park. Upon arrival we went to Guest Relations to show our Knott's pass so we could get our ticket for the day. That went pretty smooth and they gave us a yellow ticket to give to the front gate. The front gate was an interesting experience because there was some kind of music event going on where it seemed as though they were randomly letting some people in, and others not. We watched as the insanity went on for a little while and they finally closed the gates and let people line up. There weren't too many people there, but enough to make a few lines that were about 30-40 people deep. The nice operations at Worlds of not-so-Fun, however, failed to tell anyone in our line, that they weren't opening the turnstile we were in. They just figured it would be good customer service to allow everyone to line up there, and just let people figure it out for themselves. No person to come out and say "Sorry folks you need to stand in another line...." So then when we finally got in a line that had a person at the turnstile, we handed them our yellow ticket and she just stared at us like we handed her foreign currency. She nearly told us to go back to the ticket booths, but we pointed on the ticket where it says "Hand this part to the front gate." So she stared at it again, probably trying to translate the text into whatever language she spoke (I'm assuming moron) and she finally let us through. It's so nice to go to a park where you have to tell the employees how to do their job. That incident reminded me EXACTLY of when I had to tell the girl at Knott's where the backspace key on her computer was to change her mistake in my season pass name. Typical of our Cedar Fair experiences of late. Anyway, so onto the park.... We went up to Spinning Dragons first, of which, there is only ONE dragon, so I have no idea why it's plural. Maybe it's because when they totlly ripped off the Dueling Dragons font and logo they didn't realize that it was two coasters and not just one. It was nice to see that this ride which had a dual loading station was only loading ONE CAR AT A TIME. Ugh....they were running like 4 cars, but only loading and unloading ONE AT A TIME. There were only about 20 people in front of us, but it took us like 15 minutes to get on the stupid ride! The ride was 'ok'....kind of like a mildly spinning Roller Skater. It doesn't spin nearly as much as a Reverchon mouse, and the layout isn't very thrilling. Still, it was actually decent fun...even for being at Worlds of not-so-Fun. Next up we decied to head over to Timber Wolf only to find it....CLOSED! But of course it would be! I mean, it wouldn't be an experience at a Cedar Fair park without some of their major rides NOT opening with the park. And Worlds of not-so-fun is no exception. Oh, this park follows suit with our most recent visits to Knott's, Dorney, and Valleyfair! They finally managed to get the ride open about 15 minutes later. Running only one train of course. It was 'ok.' The trims weren't on, but it rattles and shakes you to death. There was slightly more airtime than during our last visit with the trims, but it still felt sluggish....meh.... Then over to Mamba, also only running one train with a full station. I mean, I shouldn't complain. It's what I should be expecting from a Cedar Fair park....which IMO, other than Cedar Point, have operated their parks WORSE than most of our recent Six Flags experiences. So Mamba was again just 'ok'...I don't remember if it really WAS much better opening year, or if all the Intamin hypers since then are just so much better. The trims were on HARD so there was virtually no airtime other than the floater on the first drop, and the 2nd half of the ride was just pathetic. We did a lap getting some photos and stuff and we realized "Are there any other major parks in the country where there are these VAST areas with NOTHING to do???" Seriously, there are HUGE areas in the park where you walk from like Dominator to Mamba where there is NOTHING. And then Boomerang to the Log Flume...NOTHING. For a park that's called "Worlds of Fun" we ask "Where's the FUN?!?!?" We gave the park a little over a hour and we were totally bored out of our mind. "What the hell do kids do that live in the area who are stuck spending a WHOLE DAY at this park?" I'd just die if I had to spend more than a couple hours there. So then we left to do something even more entertaining....DRIVE TO KANSAS!!!! Yes, we are that big of credit whores that we drove to the Jeepers in Kanasas about 30 miles away. It's located in an outlet mall where they have an internet cafe (here I am now!) and I can tell you that the Jeepers, the outlet mall, and this internet cafe is a HELL of a lot more 'fun' than Worlds of not-so-Fun. I'll post photos tonight when we get back to CA. --Robb "Oh, and Cal, there were PLENTY of PSP's to be found in Kanas City!" Alvey
Scaparri Posted May 1, 2005 Posted May 1, 2005 That sucks you guys had such a bad experience at the park. I'm a bit surprised that Spinning Dragons was so disappointing. I was personally very impressed with Timberland Twister at Camp Snoopy last summer. Oh well, one man's feather is another man's knife. I look forward to seeing the pictures.
robbalvey Posted May 1, 2005 Author Posted May 1, 2005 ^ I never said the ride was dissapointing, I said it was... The ride was 'ok'....kind of like a mildly spinning Roller Skater. It doesn't spin nearly as much as a Reverchon mouse, and the layout isn't very thrilling. Still, it was actually decent fun...even for being at Worlds of not-so-Fun. --Robb "It was ok, it was fun...never said it was dissapointing..." Alvey
Rugged One Posted May 2, 2005 Posted May 2, 2005 Great trip reports guys! I wholeheartedly agree about The Ozark Wildcat. I also enjoyed it more than Thunderhead. Great pops of air and that finale is a blast. Just curious. Did you guys find or use any discounts to get into SDC and CC? We went last year but had Dollywood passes that got us discounts but not this year. We are heading back in early June and were wondering what kind of discounts might be out there. Also, your spot on about WOF. Definitely my least favorite Cedar Fair park. It just seems like there is so little to do compared to the other parks. Hopefully the addition of the new Beemer next year will help change that.
robbalvey Posted May 2, 2005 Author Posted May 2, 2005 ^ We didn't need any discounts since we were there shooting video, the park walked us back before they both opened, so our only payment was contribuing the footage we shot to their PR department! --Robb
Scaparri Posted May 2, 2005 Posted May 2, 2005 ^ I never said the ride was dissapointing, I said it was... Yeah, my fault Robb. It probably would have been better if I had said that it sucks that it wasn't very impressive. Sorry about that.
socalMAN123 Posted May 2, 2005 Posted May 2, 2005 Nice TRs and pics! Of course, like the modern middle-class 11 year old that lives in Socal, I haven't been to ANY of the parks you just went to. They sound like a lot of fun though, I somehow need to save up enough money to go on a cross-country trip hitting theme parks. I have a question, how much do these trips usually cost you guys? ---Brent 8)
Neuski Posted May 2, 2005 Posted May 2, 2005 "Those wishing to be blaster..." LOL! I don't know why, but we found this sign really funny! You found that funny? You should have seen the sign on opening day.
Jeezus Juice Posted May 2, 2005 Posted May 2, 2005 For our Branson trip in june in order to go to WOnsF I'd have to take a late flight and get home at around 11pm. The only other flight that day is at 10am. Needless to say I took the early flight! Really, the park is fun I guess but what the hell would I do there all day?! I'm dead serious about checking out that Jeepers instead. Because really, what is the point of a hyper coaster with 6 bunnyhills in a row if your only going to crawl over them? That's cool that you got the SDC hook-up. My POVs are going to have to be stealth ninja style! -Jeezus "Yes thats a camera in my pocket and yes I'm happy to see you" Juice
robbalvey Posted May 2, 2005 Author Posted May 2, 2005 Now that we are back home in California (boo!!!) we can post our photos from today's visit to WonsF and our credit whore run into Kansas! Here goes.... And it's sure as hell better than being at Worlds of not-so-Fun!!! This is credit whoring at it's best... To add a little excitment to our day, we decided to drive to Kansas!!! NOW Elissa is having fun...for two reasons: 1. We're NOT at Worlds of not-so-fun; 2. We're STILL not at Worlds of not-so-fun! Elissa looks like she's having fun...she's not! Oh, joy...a Boomerang...does it GET any more "FUN" than this? Mamba...floater air on the first hill...fall asleep the rest of the ride. Worlds of not-so-fun is so pathetic, they couldn't even get a kids playhouse done for opening day! Timber Wolf....no trims today, but Elissa STILL has a headache from our ride! Not only did they steal the font and logo from IOA's Dueling Dragons, but they left the "pluralazation" too! Spinning Dragons...fun ride...not too thrilling...and there is only one of them!
Real Posted May 2, 2005 Posted May 2, 2005 Cant wait till I can drag my future wife on trips like this. Spontaneously picking someplace to go and hit it up as a side trip. Those are usually the best. Great TR, as always. BTW the real Dueling Dragons logo is quite different, but I agree, the resemblence is a bit scary. I guess since theres more than one train, thats what makes it plural
robbalvey Posted May 2, 2005 Author Posted May 2, 2005 ^ See, that's what we were joking about today too. "Must be because they have more than one car on the ride and each one of them must be a dragon...." "But if that's the case, why isn't it called Mambas, or Timber Wolves, etc, etc...." Trying to think in "Worlds of not-so-Fun" logic made our head hurt! --Robb
robbeal Posted May 2, 2005 Posted May 2, 2005 ^Are there many 'worlds' there, or should it just be 'World of not-so-Fun' also? Maybe the pluralisation is just to fit in with the pluralisation of the park's name? Who knows... Powderkeg looks smaller on some of those pictures than it has done before. I know it's not that big anyway, but it's always had that illusion if seeming quite large. Good to hear it's fun though, we may have a new competitor in the launch market.
disneygurlz2s Posted May 2, 2005 Posted May 2, 2005 Most entertaining as always!!! You guys are hillarious. I love Elissa's shirt with the food pyramid. I would love one of those for Sammi as that is all she's talked about for the past couple of months. LOL I'm not sure if we'll make it up to Cedar Point this summer or not, but I am curious to compare their park to your "Cedar Fair" comments, as I have had nothing but positive to say about CP on previous visits. Shari
CoasterFanatic Posted May 2, 2005 Posted May 2, 2005 ^ Robb stated that Cedar Point is the "exception", and it really is. It stands out above the other Cedar Fair parks.
pgathriller Posted May 3, 2005 Posted May 3, 2005 Nice trip report and photos Robb! I'm glad you had a good time. I have been wanting to ride Powder Keg since it opened. Would you recomend it?
SharkTums Posted May 3, 2005 Posted May 3, 2005 YES! I loved it! I am still shocked by how good it was! Elissa "usually a lot more negative!" Alvey
coaster1 Posted May 5, 2005 Posted May 5, 2005 It was a very suprising ride, the airtime is simply great .... good start for S&S Arrow newer launched rides.
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