FLIPDUDE's Midwest PTR

[FLIPDUDE]

^Lol, that's why I said it's no big deal... But we're totally veering off topic here.

[Zen Coaster]

I loved that toboggan ride so much. Would have loved to get a couple more goes on it.

 

I agree that our sneak preview of Meteor was also excellent and I managed to get both POV and off-ride of Elissa's parents on the thing.

[FLIPDUDE]

MIDWEST VIDEO POSTED

 

http://www.themeparkreview.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=39011

[slither37]

Great video, I love the animations. AND you got video of coasters, THROUGH THE TREES.OMFG!

[dandaman]

OMG!

 

It's literally impossible to stop laughing at the animations.

 

Love how you so subtly added in Terrance for like a quarter of a second.

[FLIPDUDE]

^Yeah, there's a couple "blink and miss" jokes in the animation.

[coaster_dude2002]

Great job Tomi. Loved the video and the animations you threw in. Glad to see the Hooters crew made it in!

[FLIPDUDE]

^ Lol, of course it would!

 

 

 

Dang, I jsut realized I didn't make an "Ozzy ozzy ozzy, OY OY OY" refference like I wanted to

[man]

I then went and rode the... Uuh... Test pilot thing... I don't remember what you call the kind of ride... not loop-o-planes, something similar, only it spins.

 

 

I didn't know what to expect, I had never so much as seen one of them before. I figured it would be a reallly fun ride.

 

I sat backwards, as the rid eop recommended.

 

 

THAT RIDE IS INSANE

 

I honestly have no idea what a ride like that is doing at a kiddy park.

 

It was one of the weirdest, widest, most fun, thrilling rides I've been on the entire trip! You honestly can't tell how crazy it is by looking at it!

 

Also, I rode alone, and apparantly, if you ride alone, you get tossed around the gondola a LOT, I actually had to keep breaking my own fall onto the walls or I would of gotten seriously hurt! Safety regulations anyone?

 

Despite the fact it's really not a hard ride to get hurt on, I came out safe and sound and exhillirated. That ride rocked.

 

Ahh yes.. The Roll-O-Plane. At Knoebels it's called the Satellite. Here's a link to a picture of the ride (courtesy of JoyRides): http://www.joyrides.com/kennywood/roll_o_plane.htm This is located at Kennywood, Knoebels is the same kind of ride, including the tilt mechanism. Did Little A-Merrick-a 's version tilt? Meaning it went from vertical to horizontal where you would roll side to side? Knoebel's has the best visuals when the system tilts to horizontal. When the tub rolls so that the door is pointing down, you are over the canal for the Motor Boats.

Ya the arm went to horizantal then started spinning the other way and went back up

[FLIPDUDE]

Time for what may be the last update for a long, long time.

 

From the very first moment we got to Wisconsin Dells you could tell this was going to be one awsome town.

 

Everything we saw was weird, awsome, and unique in it's own way. Every hotel had a waterpark(one even had an outdoor enclosed Tornado slide, go figure), there were three amusement parks ont he same street, every building was crooked, upside down, or odd in it's own unique way, and let's not forget signs everywhere advertising the "Ducks".

 

Our buses then pass Mt. Olympus and then we pass by this giant collosseum wall reading "Mt. Olympus Resort".

 

We enter the parking lot, and the view is breathtaking.

 

It honestly looked a whole lot better in real life, it honestly took my breath away. I was super excited.

 

This was our hotel. It was HUGE! Inside, outside, even the rooms! It was GORGEOUS, too! I think ti possibly had the biggest rooms ont he trip(My roomie didn't like it so much though, he said the room could've been better spent, I didn't care.)

 

Next to the entrance there was this huge army-colored boat that had written on it, in big white letters: "DUCKS". It was like seeing a TR coming to life.

 

The lobby had a gigantic arcade and snack bar. We all waited for a while for Robb and Elissa to check all 100 of us in, we were handed park maps, and we went up to our rooms. Not only was the room gorgeous but this was the view from our room:

 

I just about lost it. I quickly got ready, teame dup with Max, and headed for the park. I was extatic.

 

During the trip Max kept talking about the SCAD tower. So I showed it to him out the window and he was all "meh." That kinda bummed me out.

 

Our hotel was connected by bridge to the indoor waterpark!

 

I grabbed a HUGE amount of pictures of the indoor waterpark, only to find out after coming back that I possibly should've used flash.

 

Considering we weren't going in the direction of mini golf, and the body slides were not the first thing on our mind, we went in direction of the big rides.

 

What?! Are you KIDDING me?! Great, looks like I'm still a RoboVirgin.

 

This was the view that greeted us. Considering this was supposed to be a THEME park, it sure did lack alot of theming. See the grassy lawn on the right? %50 of the park was like that.

 

Then we encountered the indoor theme park. I went in and sure enough, there was Opa!

 

Silly Tomi, flash is for people who know what they are doing!

 

Me and Max deicded to ride it later, but since my timeline is so mixed up I'll just review it now anyway.

 

It was a very fun ride, very crazy. Spun alot. And it was fun going within such close proximity to... Basically everything.

 

After riding Opa! I went and rode my fisr disko ever. I gotta say, these rides are a WHOLE lot more fun than they look! It really looks mediocre but riding it was quite sensational.

 

 

 

Back to our story...

 

Me and Max headed over to the ride area.

 

This was right next to the indoor park. This is where the "Ride the ducks" army boats load.

 

On the way there we passed the one segment of the park that was gorgeously themed.

 

We then passed Titans. We were warned about this ride on the bus. Sometimes they let adults ride, sometimes they don't.

 

Sadly, today they did not. Which really ticked me off since SFMM runs an exact copy of the coaster and it does not crumble under the weigh tof adults, not to mention the ride was empty ALL DAY LONG. It was the most illusive credit of the trip and I think nobody but Luke got it, and I'm not even sure about that.

 

The "big 3" off in the distance.

 

We then went towards Cyclops. I was super excited to ride it. Notice how in every single picture of this drop, you can actually see the people in the back row getting sucked out of their seats.

 

Swoosh! This turn had some very nice latreals.

 

See? They're not even in the airtime part, and the people in the back row look like they're about to be midway decorations.

 

We scurried off to ride Cyclops. since we were practically the first TPR people in the park, there was no line, and the ride was practically a walk on. Though once we rode it the line filled right up.

 

I saw there was a loading spot for another car that was chaine doff, and I was like "Awww... They removed a car? Dang... Now it wont have crazy airtime..."

 

We were later informed that there never was another car, and that the people who designed the stations for the coasters at Mt. O were just stupid.

 

Anyhow, we rode it... And the rumors are all true. Cyclops has enough airtime to make you hold on to dear life. Not jsut on the crazy drop, either. The entire ride is laced with it. Though its a pretty short ride.

I loved that hte crazy drop isn't right away, there's alot of build up for it. The entire first half of hte ride can be considered the pre-drop area.

Max actually flew out of his seat and landed on it's edge.

 

Cyclops. Rules. It was the most airtime I ever felt... I thought it was the extremest example of airitme on any coaster out there. Little did I know I would be proven wrong a couple days later... At Stricker's Grove of all places!

 

"Hey, Max, how was it?"

 

more coming right up.

[FLIPDUDE]

The view from Cyclops' station.

 

After Cyclops we decided to go over to Poseidon, the awsome go kart track.

 

Spiraly, high above the ground tracky goodness.

 

More of the big 3.

 

So we all got into the go karts, I grabbed the front kart, but our group got a lil' split up.

 

Help! The blob! It's gonna eat meeee!

 

And they're off!

 

Yeah, well, you try taking a better shot while driving a car, and still getting 2nd place.

 

Vroooommmm...

 

Putt putt putt...

 

Airtime!

 

 

Well, actually, no, they apparantly replaced the triple-drop, airtime go karts with the new Triton slide tower, but this track was still crazy and unlike any track I have ever seen before.

 

There is more to come but Id on't see it happening tonight, so here is a quick overview of Mt. Olympus:

 

 

-The rides are GREAT, but sadly, what yous ee is what you get. The park has only the rides which everyone knows of and NOTHING more. No obscure flats, no nothing. Just the coasters, go karts, mini golf, Disko, and their prototype screamin' swing(which was fun but it was hard to tell the difference, if ya ask me).

-The park is severely lacking in theming. If you look at the indoor theme park section youll see it doesn't look themed, it looks like tent with columns outside.

-Their coasters all rocked. Hades, funnily enough, was actually the wrost one. It was great in my opinion but it had one turn that could make your head explode.

-After riding over 100 coasters, I got stuck on one for the very first time on Hades, sitting next to Robb! Yay!

-I probably experienced the worst of the HORRENDOUS storm that attacked us. More on that on the next update.

 

 

Stay tuned for "When go karts overflow".

[Sunfire]

Ooh, I can't wait for the next update. You do such awesome jobs on these Photo TR's. Sounds like you had tons of fun.

 

EDIT: YAY! 100th Post!!!!

[FLIPDUDE]

D'oh, forgot to update the thing where it says the Mt. Olympus update's been posted, bu that's fixe dnow.

[WillMontu]

Since you're not in the Army anymore, are you going to post your "When Go-Karts Overflow' section?

[FLIPDUDE]

^Lol, soon enough

[Team Thriller]

I love the way you show what the mid-ways looks like. Then people know what to suspect about size.

 

Great pictures

[FLIPDUDE]

When Go-Karts overflow

 

NOTE: This TR has less photos than usual because I took most of the photos the following day, so Imad eup for that with drawings.

Keep in mind almost nobody form TPR rode Hades yet because the line was long and we knew we had ERT that night.

 

I think at some point htat day I rode Zeus. Zeus was a LOT of fun. It was the least fun of the big 3, but it was still very very fun. It had alot of floater airtime, which I used to consider amazing, but after having ridden so many coasters ina row, was nothing new to me. But hill after hill after hill it had floater airtime and all of asudden it surprises you with ejector airtime. That was a very nice surprise.

 

...Once darkness fell me and Anothony decided to go ride Apollo's swing(this is actually a picture from the next day because for some reason I didn't take too many pics at the time), which I heard a warm recommendation of on the bus. It's also fun when it goes through Hades.

 

It is really big! and while I like the name and colors, much like everything else in the aprk, it suffers from lack of theming.

Also, it is one of the attractions the park is known for, but the problem is, the attractions the park is known for are the ONLY ONES in the park. Only ride in the park you might go to the park and say "Hey, I didn't know they have that!" about is the mini golf.

 

When we got on Sean pissed me off so I gave him the finger. I would later find out that that's EXACTLY where the onride video camera started taping. Figures. Eveyrone cracked up when they saw that.

 

Anyhow, when we got off the ride(which was satisfactory, but not as incredible as it was cracked up to be, but then again I generally find screaming swings to be disappointing), it started trickling rain.

 

We really didn't think too much of it and I decided that I am severely undercredited(up to that point I still had only ridden Cyclops, Zeus and Opa. Menaing I sitll had Hades, Dive to Atlantis, Little Titans(which I ended up not getting), and Pegasus.

 

I decided to go to Pegasus since it was right next to me, and seeing how every other ride closed down due to rain. Don't know why it stayed open.

I tucked my fannypack and TPR bag under my shirt and made a dash for it, shouting out random cusswords as I do.(Something I would end up doing alot that night)

 

Pegasus is a wooden fmaily coaster. I rode it and was very pleasantly surprised. It was very fun, had alot of airtime and forces, and my only complaint was the pain caused by riding in the rain.

 

After that came time for ERT. The rain kept getting stronger so we ran to the station. They made us wait in the rain abit and then let us in. I ran in quickly. But as I got halfway up the long long long stairs to the station, we were told to turn back and that the ride will be shut down. We were all very dispapointed.

 

We decided to wait under the Hades arch sign for the rain to go away. It was hardly good enough to keep our huge group from getting wet.

At some point people saw the rain wasn't stopping and Elissa declared it's time to go back to the hotel.

 

I, partly because I didn't want to walk in the rain and thinking it would at the very least get weaker, partly because I still had hope the ride would reopen, and partly just because I felt like sitting around for a bit, stayed behind and sat under the arch.

 

 

For a while I sat there and enjoyed the quiet and the rain. The sight of an abandoned amusement park. There was something very fascinating about it. My bag and fannypack still tucked under my shirt. The arch doing surprisingly little to protect from the rain.

 

Very soon a chain of approx. a hundred or more park guests passed in the distance, apparantly heading for the park gate, which, seeing as we were staying at the park hotel, I still didn't get the chance to see.

 

After a very long time I realized that the rain isn't getting any weaker, if anything it is just getting stronger. I decided it was time to dash back.

 

I grabbed my stuff. And dashed out of the arch yelling a random battle cry.

 

I ran amok looking for somewhere to take cover, this was one fierce rainstorm, the likes of which I have seen maybe onlyon Israel's harshest winter nights.

 

I temporarily took cover under the umbrella of a closed cart stall of some sort. Despite only running a couple yards my brand new sandals(did I mention I was wearing sandals?) and basically all of me were entirely soaked.

 

I looked around and saw a picnic pavillion. I ran out of the canopy, screaming thins at random again, as I faced the unplesant downpour.

 

I took cover under the roof of hte pavillion, where apparantly a couple other park guests have become trapped. However at least they were still next to thier destiantion, I sitll had the entire park to go through.

 

As I saw thunder strike behind the rollercoaster I realized what a gorgeous place it was for a photo, but seeing as all I had was a disposable camera, I ahd to tiem it perfectly. I tried many times but all I ended up getting is this:

 

 

And this:

 

 

I have about 16 more of these from the night of the storm. The only outdoor picture that came out even slightly visible is this picture I tried to take of Apollo's swing and the go kart track which started collecting water.

It was a storm at nighttime. Thank goodness for the heavy stadium type lighting in the park because if something wasn't lit, you couldn't see it.

 

Well, a park employee passed by in a rain poncho on a little cart. I thought he might be able tog ive me aride but he ended up giving a ride to the otherpeople who were stuck there with me. The storm was only getting stronger too.

 

If I remember correctl yhtough(and tha'ts abig if) seeing him in his poncho reminded me that I still have a poncho in my bag! I put it on and after looking hard through the cart that was there and the abandoned booth for something to protect myself from the rain(because nothing but a giant metal roof could protect you from this weirdass storm) and not finding anything, I ran away, yelling more random cusswords and random exclamations.

 

My feet got pretty much submerged in some of the puddles I ran through, and as I reached the food court, which had many people hiding under canopies, I realized I can't really stop so I jsut ran right through yelling "THESE ARE BRAND NEW SANDALS!!!" so I can at the very least give some people a chuckle. It worked, I cracked a few smiles.

 

I ran past the pizzeria and came up on the indoor amsuement park. Undoubtly many people were taking cover there(I hate to make the comparison(though I'm not the first one) but that was like the Super Dome of the Mt. Olympus storm). I went to take cover there, but the entrance was surrounded by a gigantic, veyr deep pool. I tiptoed and jumped my way through it and entered the big structure, taking a sigh of soaked relief.

 

To my surprise there were many TPRers still there. I don't remember many names but I remember Erik Johnson was there, looking like a drenched cat. But to Erik's defence, so did everyone else there, including me(depsite the poncho).

 

Despite the park closing hours having passed, and the tent being very eerily lit, I was surprised to find Opa still up and running, as well as the Disko ride.

 

I tried to get in line but apparantly they JUST closed it. There were still a couple people left in line though.

 

I decided to ride the storm out for a while and at least get alittle dry, when all of a sudden a huge "BANG!" slices though the air and the lights in the tent go out.

 

The only things that still had light were the vending machiens and Opa's sign, which mysteriously stayed on.

 

As the lights turned back on we realize Opa has gotten stuck!

I took a photo of it when someone who was there brought to my attention that I need to turn on flash. I then though to myself "Well, there go all my storm photos."

 

 

People were stuck on the coaster for quite some time. a father and a daughter were swinging from side to side on the lift hill, as two other cars were stuck somwehre along the track. Ride ops quickly started climbing on the lift hill to get the father and daughter on.

 

After they did, the ride suddenly came back to life, and one car started moving again. But then a scream shot through the tend "STOP THE RIDE! STOP THE RIDE! THEY'RE GONNA CRASH!!!"

 

As it turns out two cars were about one or two brake segments away from crashing into each other(which in wild mouse terms is not awhole lot).

The car stopped right int he next brake segement. As ride ops climbed to get hte people down from that car, I went and told the lady who screamed, who was apparantly related to the people in the car, that she had nothing to worry about, and that the ride is designed to prevent crashes and that the ride ops knew what they were doing, and basically a whole lot of other stuff I didn't really believe to calm her down and prevent the park from getting a lawsuit.

 

Soon enough everyone was off the ride.

 

 

And then,s eeing as the rain and thunder showed no sign of letting up, we figured we all need to run back to the hotel.

 

Someone got a very McGuyvery, creative idea, which, if I remembered who though it up, I would totally applaud them for...

 

They suggested we take the garbage bags from the toilet trash cans, turn them inside out, and put all our electronics in, that way we can take them to the hotel.

 

We all put our cameras, bags,a nd whatnot in the bag.

 

I see they're taking their time talking to someone so I get my bag, who had my camera in it, back out of the trash bag so I can buy a soda pop fromt he machine. I go for one minute, buy it, and when I turn abck around they're gone. Almsot everyone already made a dash back to the hotel.

 

After a while a staff memebr comes to assist the few of us left.

I stuff the bag back under my shirt and we all take off. I am left to drag behind a bit, but I eventually catch up.

 

We dash through the pouring rain and deep puddles, and find out the indoor water park which hodls hte gate to the hotel is closed. We run towards the hotel main entrance and finally get there, compeltely drenched. Meanwhile we see everyone sitting in the lobby drying off and surfing the web.

 

I go to my room and change.

 

The very next day I bought a waterproof camera.

[socalMAN123]

Wow, that was one crazy storm! Sounds like a lot of fun. Nice TR and some good drawings too. Overall, this is one of my favorite Photo TRs from the Midwest trip. Thanks Tomi!

---Brent

[FLIPDUDE]

Aww, thank you that is very nice to hear.

[Guest]

Here are a few pics and a video of the Mt Olympus rain.

MTOrain2.wmv

Rain

The Hades ERT that never happened

[FLIPDUDE]

Ooh! Thanks for posting those, Freddie! The pics don't really show the rain, and you can't see it all too well in the video either, but how frequently the lightning strikes shows it really well.

[Homer]

God that night was very drenchy. All I did that night was catch up on sleep. But the lightning was insane.

 

Although I do remember having a stupid convo with Wes fakely interested going "Thunderstorms... IN FLORIDA?" or something like that. Eh, storm night was fun in a way.

[WillMontu]

I took a handful of shots in the rain too. Keeping mind that the flash has a limited range (and that it didn't work either) and I didn't want to get my camera wet, so they are a little blurry

 

From my Photo TR:

Hotel on the left, park on the right, parking lot in the center, pouring rain everywhere.

Taken from the skyway connecting the hotel to the indoor waterpark.

The ERT that never came

[FLIPDUDE]

^Wow, some of those turne dout really really pretty. I espeicall y like the outside shot of the indoor waterpark

[Roy56]

The best part of that night was Casey's Makeshift Bar!

 

I got me first beer credit there. And all was right with the world.