FLIPDUDE's Midwest PTR

[FLIPDUDE]

It's nice to see things from a regular persons point of view.

 

I'm confused, do you work there or something?

 

Anyhow...

 

 

 

Part 3: Holiday World Itself!

 

Well, we continued our walk in our walkback to The Voyage. Me and Max kept pushing ahead and staying in front of the group. We were being total geeks but at the time it was so much fun.

 

Over the hills and through the woods, to The Voyage we go...

 

Oh signature shot happyness.

 

We got some good views of Raven, definately, but it pretty much goes AROUND the trees rather than through them.

 

Only part of Raven that really goes through the trees. Also the most fun part.

 

 

I really liked Raven. While it didn't meet expectaitons it was still awsome because it had a very unique layout. The drops didn't always go all the way down to the ground. Which, while not being the recipe for speed, sure makes for an interesting layout.

 

We continued walking on this path on the edge of Lake Rudolph(I'm sensing a theme here, are you?). It went out and back. While, in retrospect, it seems kinda pointless, it did make for some good views of our own group.

 

My cartoonist sense is tingling.

 

There was a camp... trailer... type... thing... on the other side of the lake.

 

This shot includes a counter to show just how many times a similar shot has been posted somewhere.

 

At some point Legend reared it's impressive, yet disturbing head.(I dont recall any of the coasters in the park having this peice of track but the no banking implies this is part of legend) I think this might be a part of the HIGH SPEED helix. Yes. That sort of banking on high speed. Very "ow".

 

Helixy... Goodness?

 

It doesnt really show in the pictures but the Legend really did seem HUGE! Way more than I had expected! I figure wood coasters always seem taller than they do in pictures and steel coasters are the other way around.

 

The high dive show from BEHIND! Wooooo!

 

I liked that the log flume interacted with Legend

 

I want to give Will a caption on this photo but I can't think of one.

 

Hark! Tharr she blows! Voyage mi amore!

 

The top of the drop is one of the few enjoyable parts of the ride... sorta(explanation later on)

 

We kinda snuck up ont he water park. came in from the back.

 

This tiny fence was the only thing keeping us from being IN the waterpark. And later on would be the only thing to keep GP from going where they're not supposed to go. I found that odd and intriguing.

 

The log flume seemed to be lacking something.

 

Anyhow, then Robb had everyone squeeze together for a group photo. He always counts down from 3 and asks us to do a craaazy face!

 

This is the picture form the official TR. I'm at the front in the red shirt doing the "Booyah!" pose, apparantly taking the crazy face thing too seriously and looking like a total retard. Not to mention it ended up looking like I don't have an arm. Just a hand.

 

 

We then snuck up a path and entered the park through an oddly low gate located across from Hallow's swing. I guess the restricted areas aren't so restricted after all. All along the walkback the PR lady from Holiday World was explaining stuff about the park and the area. It was very nice.

Seeing as the part still hasn't officialy opened yet everything was empty and it was pretty darn cool.

 

We then headed over past the waterpark entrance over to...

 

The Voyage!

Pictures don't do it justice. It looked so amazingly impressive.

This picture makes my pants feel funny.

 

I guess they ran out of room in the Halloween section of the park. Makes me wonder, though, what was in the Thanksgiving section before The Voyage opened? Just the two rides? As cool as it is, seems like an awful long walk to get to Turkey Whirl.

 

Toto, I don't think we're near Legend anymore.

 

Ooooh yeeahh...

 

Low-to-the-ground-about-to-go-in-a-tunnel goodness.

 

Well, there I was, thinking a walkback meant strictly going to places where the public isnt allowed, but next I knew it, Max and I were standing at the front of the line for Legend as it was about to open just for us! Surprise ERT! We were the first riders in the first train in the first row!!! It was such an awsome surprise. It also explained why we have two walkbacks in the same day.

 

But let's not get ahead of ourselves. We got up to the station and they ran a couple empty rains. once they got back to the station they put in the morning testers to go through the course. When they came back I was looking to see their reaction to see if the ride was good or bad, they seemed kinda neutral. I figured "Eh, they do this every morning. cant expect a decent reaction from them" and got in the trai as soon as the air gates opened.

 

We were off.

 

------------------------------

RIDING THE VOYAGE

 

We climbed up the lfit hill, extremely excited for our first mgagor coaster of the trip. It kept oging up and up, and as we looked behind us the view of the waterpark was unbeleivable! We got to the park and I said "Here we go!"

 

We kinda hung over the edge a little bit and then the train plummeted. Everybody was scremaing hteir heads off, the ride was AMAZING! We got ejector airtime every single hill! And then we emerged from the tnnel into the turnaround area and the train pretty much lost any sort of control it may have had! If it weren't for the lapbars we would've been thrown halfway to Minessota on the double dip that followed!(most extreme airtime pop on the ride, I think) Then came the inside-out banekd turn, which was such a bizzare sensation! So much fun! The entire turnaround area was really rough, but not the bad kind of rough, the kind of rough that a coaster should have!(I'm not a B&M fan) Then came the 90 degree turns, which were, shockingly enough, the most boring, forceless parts of the ride, even though they were awsome! I didn't even really notice it the first time around.

 

The train then dipped into the tunnel once again and emerged into the brake run. I saw the videos, but what came next was still completely weird to me. The brake run is pretty much at ground level. It's about 8ft off the gorund at best. And even though I knew we were on a hill, it absolutely did not seem like the train had potential to do what it did next.

 

It dove back underground and started ejecting us back out of our seats on airtime drops like we were going 90mph. The train flew back out of the ground and twisted through the support layout, going so fast it leaves you confused as to where it got all it's speed. It then flies into a not very banked turn, which leads into a 90 degree turn, wich drops you into a dip(in which the onride photo is taken). You then fly up in a turn and twist to a dropping turn to the other way around, like on certain intamin hypers.

 

It dove under the queue and next to the station into a tunnel and sprung rihgt back out again. It twisted it's way into another tunnel, which lead into an airtime pop. The train showing no sign of slowing down.

We helixed our way up and hit the brakes.

 

That was one spectacular ride. It was truly unbeleivable.

 

Later while buying the onride photo I found out that not only is The Voyage tall, fun, fast, and smooth, it's also... SLIMMING!

 

Is this coaster the best or what?!

 

Me and Max quickly rushed back into the line to ride again. This time in the back.

 

For a long time I beleived that riding in the back cannot possibly be better than riding in the front. untill I rode Voyage in the back. You have not ridden Voyage untill you've ridden it in the back car. The feeling of being pulled over the lift hill is sensational, not to mention the layout is built in a way that back car would get alot more airtime than the front.

We came back intot he station and got out as the park was starting to fill in as it opened.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

 

From there Max and I decided to move towards Legend, which was the closest coaster, but on the way we took the wrong path and ended up being closer to Raven so we figured we'd go hit it first.

 

 

We did get a couple good shots of Legend from where we were though.

 

The line was already pretty long(all the lines were at their worst seeing as everyone wanted to get the credits out of the way first) but we waited the 30 minutes or however long it was. We rode in the front. Like I said earlier, the ride was surprisingly smooth(possibly 2nd smoothest wooden coaster on the trip), and had a good layout, but was not what I expected it to be, being formerly the #1 wood coaster and having aseen a TV show segment about it and whatnot... But then again it had a very big name to live up to.

 

Apologize for not having any pics of Raven's layout but like I said, you don't really see it from inside the park.

 

After riding it we took the pathway out. Hurray for elevated, RCT-esque pathways!

 

But then it was time to head over to the dive show!

 

..No, not really, I mean the little greenish-brown thing behind it.(Did I mention how green Legend was up close considering its supposed to be brown?)

 

Lines were pretty unforgiving as they stacked the cars up pretty bad.

 

Spot the coaster nerds.

 

 

More coming up later, because I jsut realized it took me 3 hours to write this thing.

[spaceace12]

Voyage/Thanksgiving Area. Before Voyage, Thanksgiving was nothing, not even a section. When they added Voyage, they added Thanksgiving. The first year it was just Voyage and Gobbler Getaway. Then they added the game in the center of the walkway, Turkey Whirl, and Plymouth Rock Cafe This year. As for the gates, I have seen people open them and go that way, but only once. Back seat on Voyage is my favorite too. Will's vision is to make Thanksgiving the center of the park.

 

There was a camp... trailer... type... thing... on the other side of the lake.

 

This is actually Lake Rudolph. IT is pretty nice for a campground. I camped there during HWN this last may in the section you had a pic of. Waking up and Going to Bed with the sound of coasters running is nice. I also stayed in one of thier rental rv's, I learned from that if I ever get a RV don't go cheap on mattresses because the ones they had were hard as a brick. They also cabin's for rent. A couple pools also. Plus if you stay there it is a short walking distance to the park or the free shuttle provided.

 

 

EDIT: This is what Thanksgiving looked like before Voyage.

 

[odene497]

It's nice to see things from a regular persons point of view.

I'm confused, do you work there or something?

 

I'm pretty sure he means regular person as a non-American.

 

The train then dipped into the tunnel once again and emerged into the brake run. I saw the videos, but what came next was still completely weird to me. The brake run is pretty much at ground level. It's about 8ft off the gorund at best. And even though I knew we were on a hill, it absolutely did not seem like the train had potential to do what it did next.

 

It dove back underground and started ejecting us back out of our seats on airtime drops like we were going 90mph. The train flew back out of the ground and twisted through the support layout, going so fast it leaves you confused as to where it got all it's speed.

I know what you mean. I've never ridden it, but in videos I always wondered how it slows down, goes into a tunnel, and then comes flying out like it got launched.

 

Great pictures Tomi.

 

-Nick

[FLIPDUDE]

^Thanks

 

The videos kinda show it, but it's nothing compared to feeling it.

 

After the brake run, when the train dives into the tunnel there's a double dip. It's not very big but it has UNBELEIVABLE airtime. Kinda like Jack Rabbit in the back, only you're moreso fastened in.

[thecoasterkid]

^ It was actually a triple down!

 

Nice trip report! I really really loved Voyage. The "roughness" on it didn't bother me one bit, and it's just an all out ride with lots of airtime and twists.

[FLIPDUDE]

Part 3 - still Holiday World

 

When we last left our heroes they were standing in line for The Legend!

While waiting around an occasional distant howl could be heard.

 

I expected some extreme latreals because I heard the coaster doesn't have enough banking, which was clearly visible. Visually speaking, Legend is a very impressive coaster. Seems so big.

 

We finally got to the station, which was themed to a claustrophobic panic attack.

 

Boop beep boop

 

 

To skip ride review skip to next dotted line

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RIDING LEGEND - daytime

I decided to ride in the 2nd to last row with Max. How foolish of me. I'm just glad I alwayss ride on the right side.

 

The train goes up the lift hill. It gives a nice view if I'm not mistaken. When ou reach the top a speaker plays a recorded howl, which is where the howls I heard in the queu line came from.

 

The train turns and dives. Where we sat we got some REALLY good fun airtime, and not really knwoing what was ahead I was also kind of scared. It's good to be scared on a ride(Assuming it's not because your seatbelt came undone... But that's not untill Indiana Beach). The beginning of the drop was one of the only enjoyable parts of the ride. I have no idea what's the ride like airtime-wise because my body just went into survival mode. The ride was so unbeleivably rough and the latreals were killer. I vaguely remember diving under one of the water slides in the waterpark(again, visually its an awsome coaster, intertwining with the slides), and hanging on for dear life. Max did not sound like he was enjoying himself either. The ride had one good airtime hill and then all heck broke loose.

Now, I heard before that the ride didnt have ENOUGH banking. I was not prepared for what happened next. The turn had NO banking, at very high speed. I was crushing Max. Then came the helix. 25 seconds of pure squishing-the-person-next-to-you-pain. Unluckily for max I have very bad grip and weigh 80kg.

 

Then comes this part which I think I may have blocked out. I honestly have no clue how the people are enjoying themselves so much in this picture.

 

This is pretty much as banked as the track gets. Then you turn and hit the brakes. It felt so nice to hit the brakes

 

As we rolle dinto the station I exclaimed ot the people wiating in line "DO NOT!!! RIDE IN THE BACK! WE WARNED YOU!" We left the ride aching, as I was thinking I would never ride it again.

 

I told Max they shoiuld've switched Legend and Raven's names because Raven is named after the poem, and in a show I saw the engineer said that he wanted peopple to ge off the ride and say "nevermore shall I ride the Raven". And I ahd no intention of riding Legend again.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

I dont remember exactly what was the chronological order in which we did things but I think after that we went to the Thanksgiving zone, and gave many thanks for the free drinks the park ahd to offer. I never loved PEPSI as much as I did that day. Though I think I mostly drank Mountain Dew.

 

Gobble gobble.

 

We only rode this way later in the day but Turkey Whirl was a very fun ride!

 

We rode the park's very unique Turkey themed dark ride(go figure, right?)

in which you have to find escaped Turkeys and... uuh... shoot the thing they're hiding behind with lasers that make gobble sounds. Yes, Turkeys, lasers, and free drinks. Starting to get why everyone liked HW so much? It was a fun ride. I kicked Max's ass but we were both kicked by the guy who sat behind us who got double my score.

 

Voyage is so huge you didn't even notice Max is standing in front of it.

 

It was then time for lunch. I think this may have been a typo but I'm starting to think foul play was at hand. Food was really good. They had delicious cookies, too. With green... stuff... on them. I spent the lunch with Casey's harem.

 

The view from the picnic grove was awe-inspiring. I wonder if they had it there before Voyage was built? sure turned out nicely.

 

 

 

After lunch it was time to credit whore in the 4th of July section of the park.

 

I hate coasters where they stop the train, ask the kids if they wanna go again every single time, and let the train go again, instead of just making the thing go on 2 consecutive laps. Kiddie coasters had hte longest waits on the trip.

 

On the way off Howler I saw anotehr trademark Holiday World butterfly that wasn't afraid of humans. I really didn't get it. I kept trying to take picture of it but someone would keep getting like REALLY close to it and it'd fly off. Max eventually spotted it in the kiddie playground.

 

He actualy managed to get it to go on his hand.

 

Max looks all calm and stuf fbecause he doesn't want to scare the butterfly but through the enitire day he kept saying his greatest acheivment of the day was holding that butterfly in his hand.

It was pretty friggen cool though.

 

The huge playground with heide-park-like slides that hurt Max and made me laugh at him.

 

The creepy old lady who lives in a shoe.

 

I don't know what but somehting about this show amuses me. I suspect it's the phrase "hot diggity dogs".

 

It was then time for our photo walkback of Voyage, two walkbacks for the same ride the same day. Way too cool. Good job Holiday World.

Also, NINETY DEGREES.

 

Shiny.

 

Airtimy goodness. Voyage really did rule.

Second time I rode it that day, having not ridden a good coaster in a long time I was so overwhelmed from the first go that I coudlnt scream, my hands were limp(and yet the airtime hills still pulled them up) and it even brought tears to my eyes(or it couldve been the fast wind blowing straight at my wid eopen eyes for two rides in a row, go figure). At firsTI htought aht was weird, but then I heard that rides brought tears to people's eyes for various reasons alot during the trip.

 

Michael's head finds it's way into another one of my pics.

 

This is the definition of the word 'curvacious'

 

Not just hte staff at Holiday World weref riendly. people were waving to us from the ride.

 

Mmmmmmmm

 

Half this hill is underground. It is full of airtimy goodness.

 

You know what I want to say.

 

A bad picture of me.

 

... EGGCORNS! ... No, that's not the caption I was thinking of.

 

It was funny seeing everyone point their cameras at hte same place at the same time.

 

 

The Voyage really goes out back! It ends up int he middle of nowhere forest! But the inside-out banked turn was as far as we were allowed to go.

 

And so it was time to head back. I nearly split my head running down that gravel path.

 

It was thent ime to ride the Spider ride which I have only seen before in the movie "Grease". It was nice.

 

They had red and blue soft ice cream. Take a wild guess what part of the park this was in.

 

It was really weird for me to see it though, in Israel we only have chocolate and vanilla soft ice cream(Didjano? In Israel soft ice cream is called American ice cream)

 

People ramming each other with ramming rams.

 

I dont care what Freddie says, this ride was fun!

 

Didn't ride these but had I had more time I probably would have.

 

Me and Holidog go way back to training school.

 

When we came back we saw the sign has been fixed.

 

We then hit the waterpark which had rediculously long lines. The few rides we did get on were pretty good though, and the view of Legend from the line to the waterslides is pretty awsome! It was funny seeing people get knocked around in their seats.

 

Their purple family raft slide was GIGANTIC though. I think it might be the tallest in the world 'cus it's certainly the tallest I've ever seen. Correct me if I'm wrong.

 

Quote from Bakuli(the fmaily raft space bowl slide) while the raft is spinning through the part before the steep drop:

Max: Wait, so am I going backwards(through the drop)?

Me: No I aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaammmmmm!!!

 

 

After that we went and rode the river rapids, got a whole lot of free drinks and waited in line for a night ride on Voyage. But then it got stuck and we had to wait. On one hand it sucked, 'cus, you know, wait. But on the other hand it was awsome because I wanted a REAL night time rid eon it and it wasnt really night when we started waiting, but by the time they got the ride running it was pitch dark.

 

While waiting, I think, I tlaked to Freddie and he told me that he really love Legend(I figured he would, he's a latreal G enthusiast), but then he said it was smooth. I didnt know what the heck he was talking about.

I told him I rode in the back and it was terrible. He said he rode in the front and it was great. Despite me and Max's plans to night-ride Raven, I had to see what Legend is like smooth, or if Freddie is full of it.

 

We rode Voyage, it was, again, amazing, and I quickly scurried off to Legend while everyone went to ride Raven.

 

As opposed to the morning, this time Legend had zero line. I got in the front and the train took off. We went up the hill, through the howl and went through the drop.

 

 

The ride. Was. Amazing.

 

Like, REALLY amazing.

 

As in "How-the-heck-could-riding-in-a-different-car-make-such-an-unbeleivable-difference" amazing.

 

The ride was WILD but it was not rough. It felt like it was BUILT for night rides. Things were flying past the train, and it felt unbeleivable. Even the unbanked turns were fantastic. You could almost say it gave Voyage a run for it's money.

 

As I got off the ride it was 5 to 10, the park closes at 10. I quickly ran over to Raven to try and get a night ride, the gates were already closed so I jumped to Hallow's swing, rode it, then ran to the park entrance, where I met Casey and Harem. We all went to grab a free drink and were off to the buses.

 

It was a truly amazing day.

 

 

Legend = Total WTF ride.

[methos]

how i miss holiday world, what a great park.

 

Tomi great photos, gotta love that overlook. everyone liked my zoom up on voyage lift spot lol. I hope i make the ptr sometime.

[FLIPDUDE]

^Thanks Methos! Didnt even ntoice anmyone else tok a pic there let alone a zoom in

[spaceace12]

HW's coaster in pitch black are the most amazing thing I have ever done. Voyage is just awesome. When I wast here at Holliwood Nights, it was hardly any, if any moon. So it was pitch black. The tripple down is my favorite nite ride spot. Nice pics btw.

 

BTW, Voyage at night with no trim is a monster.

[FLIPDUDE]

^Oh yeah, the triple down was most definately one of the scariest awsomest parts of the ride, doubly so in night time

[man]

lol I remember that butterfly and how we were like gathering around it trying to get a good picture of it

[FLIPDUDE]

^Well I sure got it! And a video, too!

[FLIPDUDE]

Next up was Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom, which was a full 5 hour ride from our hotel.

 

Wait, did I say hour? I meant minutes. It was practically within walking distance, I was suprprised you couldn't see it from our hotel. It took logner to get on the bus than it did to get there.

 

We passed Twisted Twins a couple times. Fred was lost or something.

 

I never saw a proper layout picture of Twisted Twins so I figured it's a hard coaster to get pics of, so I tried to snap several ont he bus, because you could see it pretty well. Good thing, too, even though it surrounds you at some point in the park, it's still hard tot kae a good picture of it's layout.

 

On the way there we saw ALOT of hotrods.

 

No, I mean ALOT of hotrods.

 

I mean like A WHOLE FRIGGEN LOT of hotrods.

 

I'm talking 'bout a "Someone get me out of this Hot Wheels set!" amount of hotrods!!! And these are just the few of which I took pictures of and decided to upload! The place was CRAWLING with them!

 

Much like Coney Island, we had to go in thorugh the back entrance. I guess Kentucky Kingdom didn't want anyone to see us. We were either respected VIPs or unwanted guests. Assuming I didn't see no Papparazzi I assume it was the latter.

 

We were asked on the bus not to make any jokes about feet getting cut off. This became difficult when thinking of T2.

 

Did I mention we saw alot of hotrods?

 

Apparantly the convention center where they were ahving the hotrod convention was right next door! As we got off the bus we saw a HUGE parking lot FULL of hotrods! And all this conveniently placed under the watchful eye of Greez'd Lightning!

This worked in our favour because the parks aid that because of that convention the park would probably not be full.

 

Another "nobody else has this shot" shot.

 

This view was pretty much from the same place as the picture before, but looking the other way. jsut to show you how close the two are.

 

Chang... In all it's pseudo-cinese glory.

 

 

Now, all joking aside about us being unwanted guests, SFKK was EXTREMELY nice and awsome to us. We were supposed to have ERT on Chang, Twisted Twins, Thunder Run AND Deluge, SIMULTANIOUSLY!!! We were greeted by the PR lady, who then told us that Thunder Run was broken down and that they are trying to get it back up(it never did go back up), and a consentual feeling of "awwwww" swooped our group. But then she announced that to make up for it they would open up Greezd Lightning and T2 for us! How awsome are they?!

 

As we ran in they handed us maps(I had to keep asking Robb about maps before we went into every park and then he would go "Oh! Right! I should take care of that!", but now I have all sorts of nice souvernier maps)

Before we got in we bunched together for a group photo.

 

This photo stolen from the official TR: http://www.themeparkreview.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=435680#435680

I was on the far right end of this pic together with the PR lady. I guess we didn't make the cut... Get it? Cut? I crack myself up.

 

Eenyhoo... After the picture we started walking towards Chang, which was the nearest ride as well as the most attractive one on our ERT(considering Deluge didn't open for us untill later). I was walking at the front together with some people when we all started picking up the pace, then someone said the phrase "running of the bulls" and that was my cue, we all raced towards Chang.

I went waaaaay past everyone. I have no idea how, I always come in last in Gym. Then again, I was in agroup of people who hadn't come last in gym since they were... well, in school.

But just goes to show ya what alittle incentive does.

 

Though apparantly Robb said he wanted to be first on Chang to get a video, but I didn't hear it, so I later found out that when I ran to chang alot of people found it obnoxious, so, apologies, didn't know.

 

A "nobody has this shot" shot.

 

 

Long story short, I got there first and rode in the front row.

 

We climbed up the lift hill, and as we crested it... Guess what I saw?

 

THE BIGGEST SEA OF HOTRODS I HAVE EVER SEEN!

 

There were hundreds of them sprawled down across the entire parking lot of the convention center, I had just enough time to be dazzled by it before the train whipped to the left and dropped down.

 

Chang... Much to my disappointment... Was pretty much just a headache with visuals. I could get pretty much the same thing from ODing on Tylenol.

 

The only enjoyable part was the corkscrews. Corkscrews are extra fun on standup coasters.

 

Chang was really a "love it or hate it" coaster. Some people were AMAZED by it, but a handful of us rode it once and didn't look back walking away.

 

It was pretty visually pleasing though.

 

It had almost no latreals, and the more vertical Gs it pulled the bigger headache I had at the moment. That's why I don't like B&Ms(with the exception of Hypers, which is also to be changed later in the trip with Raging Bull.)

 

As I go off the ride I snapped the pictures shown above and headed over to...

 

T2! I heard my fair share of horror stories about this ride... And that's just on the way TO it! Hard to see from the shrunken picture but the track had alot of places where it had red blotches on it. Which may have seen like the coat of paint had peeled off, but it was actually blood of poor innocent riders.(see what I meant earlier with the no jokes comment?)

 

AS you can see, despite ERT, the park was FULL of people.

 

Deluge was right next to us so I snapped a pic of it, however to get to it you have to make amagor detour 'cus it's in the park... I'll get to it later.

Is it just me or is it kinda creepy how unsupported it looks?

 

 

T2 from the station with the awsome vines climbing the 1st support(too bad its jsut that one, it looks pretty) and the... uhm... *cough* peeled paint...

 

Deluge through T2's station. Was probably taken while I was pondering what does T2 mean, anyway.

 

 

Okay, so this was my first time riding an SLC that is not the one at my home park, which was built in 2001, so I knew it was kinda smooth. And having heard lots of bad things of SLCs and T2 in praticular, I, naturally, couldn't wait to ride it.

 

I got on, and was really scared going up the lift, only then was m credit whore gene supressed and I started thinking "why am I doing this?!".

 

As I rode it I realized something.

 

This ride was designed to kick you in the nuts.

 

 

I am not joking. The train kept stopping and accelerating for NO APPARANT REASON, in a really sudden way that would thrust you against the seatbelt coming down from the OSTRs.

The ride was really one long kick in the nuts.

 

Take a wild guess why the girl is the only one looking happy in this pic.

 

It was one of those things you're glad you did once just for the sake of doing them but don't ever plan on doing them again.

 

As you can see the ride was so bad even people who ARENT riding it are giving it thumbs down.

 

The park was kind of a one-way road... Once you enter you have no choice where to go but on one single road. Kinda like Canada.

 

Delly sexing it up for us. For suc a pretty ride it sure is hard to take good photos of it!

 

We got our 2nd credit in and still not a soul in the park... A guy could get used to that!

 

On another note, though, what is with the theming for the river rapids? It was so rusty, and kind of odd. The rapids went on a twisty watery track through rusty ice capped mountains and into a big old new england type building? I don't get it... I didnt ride it, I'm just pointing out the stuff visible from the path.

 

Next we headed over under Thunder Run towards Twisted Twins.

Spot batman in this pic.

 

This was right next to the Roller Skater. Whoever designed this place has a magor shoe fetish.

 

TPR's two meanest gangstas, Luke and Shirley. Better step back or they'll bust a cap in yo' ass.

 

Mile high falls looked awsome but it wasn't operating today.

 

Yay! You can see some of Twisted Twins' layout here!

 

Entering the TT plaza.

 

Once you enter the Twisted Twins plaza it surrounds you, so no matter where you look you cant grab a picture that shows more than just a tiny bit of track.

 

Only the blue side was running when we first got there.

 

It was fun watching the train come in though.

 

The blue side really was fun. It had a very original and unpredictable layout. It wasn't crazy or painful but it's definately enjoyable and re-ridable. In fact I rode it twice, I think.

 

Coming out of the plaza. Thundy looking closed and sad

 

Next up it was time to enter the waterpark

 

...for a little funtime on Deluge!

 

So I left my stuff with Wanda and went for a ride on Deluge. I didn't expect TOO much of it having heard Robb and Elissa's thoughts about Schlitterbahn, but the ride was really really GREAT! One of, if not the best ride in the park!

 

Going up the hill you slow down normally but all of a sudden you feel as though someone kicked the boat and you go up faster! then theres a waterfall that gets you all confused and next hting you know youre twisting and turning.

A real top notch ride! However, despite being a credit whore, I could not allow myself ot count it as a credit.

 

The ride's exit is a great place to take photos from

 

I can't tell if the white girl in the middle is a martial arts fighter, a robot, or both.

 

Crap, more people discovered my super secret awsome spot for pictures.

 

Fred's Fun Fact: SFKK is RIGHT next to the airport

 

Planes were passing all the time, really close too. It would someitmes look like a plane would crash into a ride.

 

The first drop is really hard to grab pictures of. This would become more magor of a problem than you'd htink later in the TR.

 

Anyhow, I rode again and Robb and Elissa, who had just ridden it themselves suggested I ride it with them. Naturally I jumped on the opportunity, plus, Knowing I weigh 80kg and knowing Robb weighs his fair share too I knew we were in for one interesting ride!

 

While waiting for the boat it appeared as though my superpower accidently triggered itself on and I once again made a ride get stuck right before I'm about to go on it. It ALWAYS happens, yet I have not gotten stuck while ON a ride!(except pirates of the carribean when I was small)

Some people actually VALLIED, it was really cool, but thanks to it being a waterslide, instead of having to wait an hour plus untill they get the trains back to position, they just removed the boat by hand and let the ride go!

 

The ride was so crazy the 2nd time around! We got magor airtime and severly wet!

 

 

It was time for the park to open so I rushed over to the Tornado bowl before hte guests came in. I really didn't expect much because I figured it's gonna be like a pirate ship only milder and shorter. I have never been on a Tornado bowl before.

 

Joke's on me! The ride was FANTASTIC! It was completely wild and the angle of the enitre place gave for a relaly dizzy distorted feel ofthe ride that kept making it look like we're gonna crash!

 

Just as we got off the GP started entering the park. Though it did not in any way shape or form fill up. Today was a beautifully lineless day. I was really glad I didn't wait the hour wait for the Tornado bowl at Holiday World.

 

Me and Max then went and hit the waterslide tower. Only one slide of which was a body slide, which kinda sliced my back. The rest were very very fun though. Especially going backwards on the yellow one!

 

The lazy river seemed like so much fun and so relaxing but I was too worried about time so I didn't ride it.

 

At some point I went and played for a suspiciously long time in the kiddy area, trying to figure out the waterworks. Half of them didn't really waterwork. Erik Johnson was there too, yet there were no kids in sight.

 

The Deluge tower really ddi make for some nice shots of the park

 

See?

 

Eeeevil

 

This picture is the definition of good and evil. Ying and Yang.

 

SFKK's ferris wheel loomed over the entire park the whole day.

 

Superman was closed, for obvious reasons.

 

The park had this beautiful little spot for food. It was really nice and pretty.

 

Chang from waterpark exit, I think.

 

more coming right up!

[dandaman]

I guess Kentucky Kingdom didn't want anyone to see us. We were either respected VIPs or unwanted guests. Assuming I didn't see no Papparazzi I assume it was the latter.

 

You're only respected VIPs if you get your name in lights, like for those picnic pavillion buffet areas.

 

Muy awesome pics.

[spaceace12]

I probably would have skipped the park and went to the car show....lol.

[FLIPDUDE]

^^Well on the picnic grove signs we were stuck at the back?

[FLIPDUDE]

Kentucky Kingdom - Concluded!

 

Well after I exited the waterpark it was time to head over to the picnic area. Everyone said int hir TRs it was the best meal but I honestly don't rememebr it. Only meals I remember were Coney Isalnd(and that's just the cookies) and Kennywood(Mostly 'cus of the Sundae bar). I remember they gave us awsome park map posters, though.

 

Crossing the bridge to the other side of the park.

 

Remember that scenario in RCT where the park is on two sides of a highway? It's based on this park, only the highway is a little side road.

 

At first I was real exceted to see an antique car ride thinking they're rare. There ended up being one on practically every park in the trip.

 

This I had never seen before, thoguh. Circular bumper cars.

 

Despite ERT having been long over now I went and rode Greez'd. Which didn't have any wait so I rode in the front. I was interested in seeing hwo it compares to Montezuma's Revenge having hear alot of things about how weight drop coasters don't compare to flywheel.

 

It actually ended up being very awsome! The launchw asn't as intense as I had hope dbut the loop was more than what I expected and pulled some really strong Gs. I was soaking in the Schwartzkopfy goodness.

 

Seeing as we entered the park from the back it was only now, about 4-5 hours into our day at the park that I finally got to the front gate.

 

I went around and walked into a big old store that sold lots of candy and got some Nerds ropes, which I have spent too long of a time without. They were yummy.

 

Earlier the line for Roadrunner was moving so slowly I decided to skip it and wiat for later but I saw the line aint getting any shorter so I figured I'd wait it out.(It doesn't look like much of a wait but ont his trip I learned that Wild Mouse coasters have a rediculously low capacity, this 10ft line ended up taking about 40 minutes)

 

I don't remember who I rode with. I think Max and Methos and someone else? My memory is lame.

 

 

It actually turned out to be a pretty cool ride! Quite forceful, not tame like Ricochet at KD.

 

Everyone waited to get a picture of Casey going down this drop. I rathered jsut snap a picture of some other car and go get me some Ben and Jerry's. By the time I came back they were nowehre in sight and Casey was just getting off the ride.

 

It was then time to come back to Shoe Fetish Land!

 

Hurray for shoe-themed rides!

 

It was quite amusing, after I sat down the ride op noticed my nametag or shirt or whatever and asked me about the trip and theme park review. He held up the entire train for like 10 minutes jsut to talk to me. I thinka t some point hte people behind me got interested too. I may have recruited 3 pepole for future trips right then and there.

 

Time to head back to TT and try to get that illusive pink side credit!

 

Blue was running, okay... But what about pink?

 

Pink was running! Yay!!! I ran over to the station just in time to watch it E-stop on the brakes. Bah.

 

-------------------------------------------------------------------

The Pink Side Campout:

I then decided to wait in line untill it reopened, seeing as I got all my credits in except for Thunder Run, which showed no sign of opening. There were two TPR members waiting in line as well as two children. After 20 minutes the children left and after that the TPR members left. I just kept hanging around the station, determined to get that credit.

TPRers that went by told me I'd be late for the bus.

 

View of the blue side from the empty pink side.

 

 

I waited around for an hour and a half or so. The ride ops were kinda clueless.

 

At some point I decided to go ride the blue line and come back to the pink side's line. So I did just that, and as we dispatched I saw they were running the pink side on emptey, too. Yay!

 

Well after the ride Ir an over to the station and the people who were just waiting in line with me came back too. I felt exemely smug thinking I'm gonna be one of the only people to get that credit, but then pretty much half the group showed up.

 

The ride finally opened and as I was leaving the station those of us who were waiting for an hour or so shouted to the rest of hte group waiting in the station that they're gonna be late for the bus and they can't ride.

 

 

The pink side ended up being a whole lot better than the blue side but I'm still not sure if that's got anything to do with what I went through to ride it or not.

 

After riding it it was time to make my way back tot he buses. I had just enough time, especially seeing as everyone else(including Robb) were still on TT.

--------------------------------------------------------------

 

 

Shoe Fetish Land had some nice theming

 

Hurray for shoes!

 

I only uploaded this because going over my pics I saw this and went "WTF is that? I don't remember taking a picture of that!"

 

 

Delly and Chang. I had no idea what was about to happen.

 

Sexy back.

 

 

Now, as some of you may remember, I said that Deluge's first drop is something that's VERY hard to get a good picture of. So I climbed a planter to take a good pic of it, knowing I ahve ltitle time to get to the buses.

 

All of a sudden Ryan runs past me telling me to hurry up.

 

I snap the photo and in my hurry... This happens.

 

I WALK OFF THE PLANTER.

I don't step down. I just walk as though I forgot I'm on a 3ft planter.

 

Next thing I know I'm face down on the tarmac and my brand new, state of the art, present from my dad for the trip, Nikon camera is at the end of some skidmarks on the ohter side of the midway.

 

I get up and some woman asks me "Are you okay?" and I answer "At this point I'm more concirned about the camera."

I start dashing for the bus, trying to turn the camera back on and all I get is "Lens Error."

 

My camera was broken. Stay tuned to see how I continue this TR without any photos untill we get to Wisconsin!

 

 

The picture I was taking right before the camera's demise:

[dandaman]

I love how you post the "artist's interpretation" in the face of dismay.

 

I've definitely done that more than once, though it was with an ice cream cake... tastier but far less valuable.

 

Hoping you can continue the TR!

[FLIPDUDE]

Beech Bend

 

PLEASE NOTE: Seeing as I broke my camera I will use pictures from other TRs here, I will credit each and every one of them though and link back to it's origin. If this is not okay please let me know and I will remove them immidiatly!

 

So on the bus ride from Kentucky Kingdom I went all upset about my camera, by the time we got to Beech Bend I had decided that I was going to at least TRY and have some fun. At first I was still upset but by the end of the day I was having a blast.

 

I was surprised at how long of a dirt road we had to drive through to get to the park. I figured "If its an amusement park, wont more people be going there?". The dirt road ended up being pretty common around midwest parks.

 

When wegot to the park they handed out wristbands and these low-budget park maps that were basically made out of pictures of the rides. in little squares.(Awww, I lost the map )

 

I don't recall being in a very enthusiastic, running-to-rides-y mood but somehow I sitll ended up getting to the Wild Mouse miles before everyone else.

 

The park wasn't much to look at but it offered some fun rides.

 

Taken from WillMontu's TR: http://www.themeparkreview.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=38161&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=30

 

As you can see here I was positively extatic to get my riding on after breaking my new camera. Sitting in the car(left to right): Max, me, Chris and Anthony. I hung out with Max and Anothony %70 of the day.

 

The ride starts, keep in mind this is my first spinning mouse and 2nd mouse ever. It ende dup being extremely fun and crazy. It didn't spin like crazy because there were 4 of us in the car but it spun just enough to be crazy without making me sick. The entire ride was nice but the last airtime bump at the end made everyone go "WTF!!?!".

 

We seriously had no idea where that came from.

 

Well I think next we kept walking around the park(the entire park surrounded a small waterparky area) and hit the dragon wagon. Max was nice enought o let me ride in the front, but only after sitting down I realized there's zero view there because of the dragonhead.

You knew this ride screamed "quality" once the ride op had to manually attach a compressed air hose to the car just to open the restraints.

 

The ride was pretty fun(considering it was a weird little dragon wagon), and the lift made you feel like you're about to fall off.

 

Taken from the official TR at http://www.themeparkreview.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=436135#436135 (I would imagine more direct credit goes to Jahan)

 

During this part of the track the trains would go at about 1mph. Kinda like Mean Streak.

 

 

Also taken from the official TR at http://www.themeparkreview.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=436135#436135

 

Next we decided to hit the pinafari looper. There is one at one of my home parks so I wondered how this will measure up.

 

While waiting in line(which was short length-wise, but took FOREVER because of one-train operations and the back car not being operational), we talked to an EXTREMELY nice ride op lady who said she loves this ride and even had a name for it. I think it was Betsy or something like that. Or maybe that was the ride op's name?

It was also getting really hot outside.

Well after 20 minutes of waiting lin line and talking to the ride op. It was finally our turn to ride. The best place to ride these thigns is in the back car becuase it gets crazy airtime but since that was closed we sat somewhere else and the ride went on it's way.

 

It really didn't measure up to the ride at my home park, and they really went crazy on trimming it at every possible point, but I didn't have the heart to tell that to the ride op. (Then again, this ride is 25 years old, the one at my home park is less). It was still a nice ride though.

 

We continued to walk around the park, and the only credit we hadn't gotten yet was Kentucky Rumbler, but for some reason I don't remember we decided not to ride it just yet.(Or did we? My memory is kinda vague) I think maybe it was due to lack of time int he park and knowing we have ERT on it later anyway.

 

Well, I decided to go on the log flume, but everyone else wanted to ride the power surge and didn't feel like wiating in line for the flume, so I went ahead and rode alone.

 

In the line I noiced the water for the ride is blue.

Now, keep in mind, this isn't the ocean we're talking about here. It's not blue because of the sky. It also wasn't transparent, so it wasn't the color of the track. It was this dark, creepy, I've-seen-less-colorful-sodas water.

 

 

This has nothing to do wiht my art style, it is the actual color of the water, though the water were actually darker and a bit greener.

Did I mention this was one of those portable log flumes? The two facts added together made me rethink riding this.

 

I ende dup riding anyway. But some mixup(mostly at fault due to the conveyor belt at the station moving so fast) made it so I accidently rode with a small child while his dad rode in the boat bnehind us.

 

Well the ride ende dup beign pretty fun, depsite the fact that the btotom of the big drop had these extremely... (uuuuh, what's a less inconsiderate word for Ghetto?) splash guards.

 

Well the wait and ride ended up beign so short I actually managed to catch up with my friends at the power surge before they even went on.

Chris was afraid to ride, and Freddie,who was already there, said he loved it!

 

Picture taken from old TR by Robb: http://www.themeparkreview.com/rumbler/rumbler3.htm

 

We got Chris to ride(he rode with me) and we all loved it. Power surges rock! I think we may have actually ridden twice but I don't remember.

For the rest of the day Max and Freddie would talk my ear off about wanting to ride the Power Surge again.

 

Well we kept walking and came across this little playground thing that was screaming "trailer mounted". In fact I think the truck itself was still there.

 

It was obviously for little kids but it looked so cool and it had this big old slide at the end so we had to all go in and play.

We made sure we weren't too old and started crawling and climbing and sliding through that thing.

 

Image taken form www.beechbend.com

 

It was a tight squeeze (Especially for Anthony and Chris) but we all made it to the slide. Max went down the slide and had toruble getting it to, well, slide, so when I slide down I just lifted my legs and slid on my ass so I'd slide down more easily.

 

Then came Chris or Anthony's turn, I don't remember which one of them. But either way the slide was so small they got stuck on it. It was too friggen funny. Does anybody have a picture of that ride?

 

After that we raced a little in the sack slide and grabbed a bite at the gorup lunch.

 

When we came back I wanted to ride the drop tower but Max and Freddie wanted to ride the Power Surge again. So I rode the drop tower by myself.

 

Taken from www.beechbend.com

 

It was so creepy.

 

As it starts to go up it starts creaking.

And the furhter up you go the louder it creaks.

At some point it creaks so hard you're sure something is going to break, and then, without the car stopping or anything... SNAP!!!

 

There is a sound of a cable snapping and te car plummets down.

 

For a second or two I HONESTLY didn't know if the ride is supposed to do that or did the cable snap.(It didn't really help that we just came back from Kentucky Kingdom, either... *cough*). I screamed my ass off.

But then the brakes kicked in and all was good. That was one awsome ride. However I thought something of mine flew away so I kept looking for it. I think it was some money. I ende dup letting it go.

 

At some point I came across Shawn and we played Mini Golf, and after that rode the UFO. This was my first time on a UFO so I didn't know what to expect.

 

Taken from www.beechbend.com

 

Well the entire ride was enclosed(as in, the inside of it. No tthe ride itself), and there was music playing.

 

Some stereotypical, tough-looking african american teens walked in too. I have no idea how but somehow Shawn, the pudgy, glass wearing white dude, got into a DANCE BATTLE with them right there on the UFO, and WON!!! It was hillarious!!! I have never seen a spontaneous dance battle before, let alone one like that, and on an amusement park ride.

 

Well, the ride starts. Next thing I know I'm stuck to the wall. Shawn managed to turn himself upside down somehow.

 

Becase the ride is enclosed and all you can hear is the music and not the ride, it feels as though somehting's wrong wiht gravity, and not like you're on a spinning ride. It was pretty awsome, though it was a little too storng for me, I couldn't lift my head. (Shawn, however, was walking around on the walls).

 

Next thing I know The walls move and I'm off the ground. The ride was so cool we rode it twice. (I actually htink the dance battle happened on the 2nd go)

 

I think Shawn then went to do whatever and I decided to ride the wild mouse again but the park was closing so I quickly got a ride in on the ghost train ride.

 

Taken from Will's TR: http://www.themeparkreview.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=38161&start=30

 

It looked very

 

image from beechbend.com

It actually ended up being really good and really scary. I was actually scared not knowing what's gonna pop up next and where.

 

Taken from Will's TR

 

Taken from Will's TR

 

It was then time to head over to ERT on RUMBLAH!

 

I waited in line for the front row and talked to Wanda, Shawn's grandma.

She seemed like a sweet old lady with stories to tell. And indeed she had a very nice story about a pot party she attended 10 years ago. And I'm not talking about no picnic. I was extremely amused by that.

 

The entire time trains were flying past the station from every possible direction. The station is actually in the MIDDLE of the layout.

 

Well it came time to ride, I got in and rode. The ride was excellent! I really did enjoy it! It wasn't as good in my opinion as some of the pepole ont he trip say it was(some people consider it the #1 wooden coaster they've ever been on. For me it was maybe #3 on the trip alone.) But it was still spectacular.

As I got off the ride I entered the souvenier shop the exit path goes through(kinda like the Alton Towers rides).

 

In that souvenier shop I saw something I have not seen in a long long long time, and sorely missed.

 

 

FUDGE!

 

Many differnet types of fudge(I never realized there's more than one) were on sale at the store. I tried some, but I didn't like it so much so I threw it away. I didn't touch fudge for the rest of the trip out of fear for being dispapointed again. I don't like being disappointed by chocolate. Throwing it away makes me feel guilty.

 

I headed back to Rumbler. At some point(maybe it was earlier that day, or last night, seeing as me and Ryan shared our room with him) GCI Joe, as I called him(Based on ACEr Joe, but then other people started calling him GCI Joe too and it lost it's meaning) told us only 6 people work for GCI. That kinda too me and Ryan by surprise.

 

Well I kept riding Rumbler over and over and over, and relaxed on the rocking chairs outside the shop untill it was time to head back to the buses.

 

Overall it was a very awosme day and I got to ride many cool rides and hang out with awsome people

By the end of the day I was happy and almost forgot about my camera.

 

Thanks Beech Bend!

 

Next up... Possibly my favourite park of the trip... INDIANA BEACH!

[Erik Johnson]

This is a good way to finish your Photo: TR, keep it up! Anyways, I can help you with your memory involving riding the Rumbler earlier in the day. Yes you did, as you are in the Beech Bend video I made. You are sitting on the front row.

[FLIPDUDE]

^Ah, okay, cool! That must explain why I remembered seeing the fudges earlier than the ERT session.

 

And whats a good way to finish my TR? I'm only at Beech Bend O_o

[PKI Jizzman]

Tomi, the same thing happened to my Nikon camera....except it was in my bag on Flight f Fear. The ops told me to hold onto the bag....and this is what happens! Awesome Frankenstien Midwest TR!

 

 

-J "It will take more money to fix the camera than buy a new one..." Z

[FLIPDUDE]

^Did you talk to people in the park? I found their "hold on" policy to be rather bizzare.

[RIP Psyclone]

Jiggity Erik Johnson thought it would be good if you finished this TR by using other peoples' pics and your own drawings. There will be more of your own pics, though, as I understand it.

[FLIPDUDE]

^Oh yes, after Indiana Beach I started buying disposable cameras by the truckload. (excluding the very expensive PKI where a $7.99 camera ost twenty bucks.)