Photo TR: Divv's U.S. (and U.K.) Adventure...

[Divv3k]

PART TWELVE: SIX FLAGS GREAT AMERICA

 

The next stop on our trip was Six Flags Great America. A lot of people were quite excited about this park as it signalled the start of the "steel portion" of our trip. Today was also the day where we got to have a lot of fun with the Gold Q-Bot - a real godsend on this day because the park was PACKED! I don't think I've ever been to a park on a day as busy as this!

 

We started out with ERT on Viper, Raging Bull and the drop tower which was really cool because when there's a hundred of you split between two coasters running multiple trains and a drop tower everything is pretty much a walk on for any row!

 

Viper was fun albeit a little rough first thing in the day. Raging Bull was the opposite. Probably the smoothest coaster I've ever rode, but the problem is it doesn't really do anything. It just meanders round the course with no real feeling of speed or force. I'm sure it'd have been much better before it was trimmed.

 

Once the park opened to the public we headed straight to Deja Vu which wasn't on the Q-Bot. A real good idea due to the unreliability and poor capacity of Deja Vu. I didn't find it too rough for some reason. After that we made an unintentional mistake - we queued up Superman and enjoyed skipping past the whole queue but we somehow ended up in the queue for the front row. I really enjoyed that first ride on Superman, especially the pretzel loop. Although due to ending up in the front row queue we ended up waiting about half an hour more than we should have which caused us to get caught in a huge line for the spinning mouse (another non-Q-Bot ride). After the 75 minute wait for the spinning mouse (I'm really hating those things by this point!) we starting working our way through the rest of the coasters quickly utilising the Q-Bot:

 

- Batman: The Ride was excellent, probably my second favourite invert (behind Nemesis).

- V2 was fun. My first Intamin Impulse too.

- Iron Wolf was painful. Thankfully B&M have gotten a lot better since this.

- We got on the blue side of American Eagle. Sadly the red side died whilst we were on the blue side. It was an ok ride.

- Whizzer was good fun too. Those old Schwarzkopfs really hold up well.

 

Sadly time was catching up with us by this point and the weather took a turn for the worse. We met up with the rest of the group and the majority of us decided we should just leave now at 4pm and get a head start on our journey to Cedar Point. I was a little annoyed that I was missing three credits but then I realised that I had a free day in Chicago on my schedule the next week which meant I'd be able to come back and hit the kiddie coaster, Demon and the red side of American Eagle. At that point I was all for getting out that packed and wet park!

 

Our group was kinda split up into fours today for the Q-Bots so there aren't too many antics photos in this update.

This doesn't look too bad for a "blind" photo.

More Hooters people enjoy the front row of Superman!

(Photo by Andrew Janes)

These guys were thankful for the gold Q-Bot too!

(Photo by Andrew Janes)

This is the line for Superman not long after the park opened! Good thing we had the gold Q-Bot!

This is what ERT really should be!

Our day started out with ERT on Raging Bull and Viper. Raging Bull didn't really do anything.

And of course the token constipated photo of me that means "we had a great day" at Six Flags Great America! I'll be back real soon!

Thanks Gold Q-Bot, couldn't have done this day without you!

I didn't take many more photos today so make do with this "blind" photo of Batman.

Batman was excellent! Far more forceful than the other B&Ms we rode today!

[bpbbabe99]

Haha I just love the token constipated piccy Divv!! I'd be so shocked if you had a report without your trademark pose now!!

 

Aww man deja vu was soooo painful!! I was expecting nice Stunt Fall goodness but omg was I in for a shock!!

 

The Q bots were awesome apart from our group gettin a dodgy one!!

 

A vivid memory for me though and I'm sure the others, we spent ages gettin from 1 end of the park to other to try find me some vegi food to find an Italian place that appeared to be close at 12 with a deaf employee in the back!! So she finally clocked that she was wanted out and insisted on saying "we closed we closed" way too many times whilst slapping the pepperoni from 1 had to another!! The best bit though was Chris saying "so you're closed?" at the end of her little performance!! Her face was brilliant!!

[Captain Jack]

In that shot of Batman through the zero-g roll, is it me or is the first car missing a wheel cover?

[lond]

Superman stole my cellphone

 

Now I'm back with my old one

 

 

// Marcus

[Divv3k]

^^ Yeah the car was missing a wheel cover.

 

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PART THIRTEEN: CEDAR POINT

 

This is a long one. I apologise in advance if you hate reading lots of text. Just scroll down if that's you.

 

If you read the last instalment you'll know that we left Six Flags great America not long after4pm in an effort to beat the traffic and get to Cedar Point a little earlier. Good thing we did leave early or we probably wouldn't have gotten the experience we all had upon getting to Cedar Point. Now on the long bus journeys on this trip I slept most of the way on pretty much every one of them (which is great as the time just flies by and you're catching up on sleep too!), sometime after 1am I awake on the bus and we're still travelling. Although everything outside looks odd. It's strangely dark, even for night time. Turns out there was a power cut in Sandusky! We got to the hotel and the power was out too but luckily our key cards had been made up before the power cut and the locks were battery powered. It was quite a sight seeing 100 TPRers walking about the halls of Hotel Breakers with torches, it was like something out of The Shining. Once we got into our room I looked out my window and could make out a darkened Magnum XL-200 and Top Thrill Dragster - quite a view! I got to see them again not long after as sometime before 4am the power came back on, including the lights in our room! I looked out the window and saw the lights come on on the coasters. That was pretty cool.

 

The insanity continued the next day. We got up bright and early and got in line to enter Cedar point with the rest of the hotel guests and a few of us even ran all the way to Maverick once the rope dropped. Sadly the rain had started to fall and Maverick was sitting doing nothing as a result. But seeing as we had such a great position in the queue and nothing else was open due to the rain we decided we'd wait it out. We ended up waiting quite a while...

 

It ended up eight and a half hours of waiting through hellacious rain and umpteen aborted test cycles before we finally got on! Obviously if we had known it was going to be that long we wouldn't have waited. But seeing as there was nothing else open at the time and we had already waited so long we continuously figured we were as well waiting it out. Besides, that time in the queue may actually be one of the high points of the trip. Those of us who waited it out actually had a lot of fun, somehow! Mainly due to listening to the entire Maverick soundtrack loop and predicting when Dallas would come on again! Dallas became the unofficial soundtrack of the trip for many of us after that wait. To better grasp how much Dallas meant to us you should check out fudgey's video if you haven't already done so: http://www.themeparkreview.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=38094&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0

 

Maverick was a very good ride. It really was a lot of fun, although I did have one problem with it and that was the restraints. They dug right into my legs to the point that it hurt which kinda took away some of the enjoyment of the ride. But I won't dwell on that too much, I still liked the ride it's not a world beater or anything though.

 

After the Maverick wait we headed back to the Hotel got changed then went for dinner and a beer at TGIs. That was much needed and went down very well! After dinner we headed back into the park and managed to actually get quite a few rides done and I think it was in this order:

 

- Magnum XL-200: A LOT better than I expected. Some decent airtime on the hills and generally good fun. If only The Big One rode more like this.

- Gemini: Fun ride but nothing spectacular.

- Mean Streak: Better than expected but that's not to say it was good because it wasn't. But it wasn't too rough either. It just didn't really do anything.

- Cedar Creek Mine Ride: Lame mine train ride.

- Skyhawk: short cycle but great fun while it lasted.

 

We decided to finish the day with TTD, the great thing about Cedar Point is that as long as you get into line before the park closes you'll get onto the ride. We waited on front row on Dragster which was worth it. Although, two trains before I was due to get on it rolled back which made me think we might not get on but the ops at Cedar point were excellent and got the ride up and running quickly. I enjoyed Dragster for what it was. Better than Stealth, mainly due to the lack of OTSRs and obviously it feels a little faster. It's not a top ten coaster for me by any means, but it does its job well.

 

After Dragster a few of us headed back to TGIs for a few more beers which is always good.

 

The next day our group set out with a "plan of attack" to make sure we got the other credits we needed in quick time. Luckily the rain stayed away today and we managed to utilise hotel ERT to our advantage. Here's what we did on day 2:

 

- Millennium Force: Great first drop which is followed up with nothing. I was really let down with MF it had no real airtime and wasn't really much fun for me in general after that drop.

- Raptor: Not the best B&M invert but I still enjoyed it. Some decent forces and all that. Although it really hurts you when it hits the brakes.

- Wicked Twister: Another fun ride, especially sitting near the back on the right hand side - when it reverses up that spike you see nothing but beach below you.

- Blue Streak: An old woodie. Nothing special.

- Disaster Transport: Another one of those "WTF" rides. I still don't know what to make of it!

- Wildcat: An enjoyable little Schwarzkopf. I think Nadia put it best when she said Wildcat was better than Millennium Force!

- Mantis: A crappy standup. Not as bad as Iron Wolf but nowhere near as good as Chang.

- Iron Dragon: My second Arrow suspended and a crappy one at that. Feels very slow and boring.

- Corkscrew: another one of those crappy Arrow things.

- Power Tower: Fun S&S towers that give some amazing views of the park.

- Woodstock Express: Kiddie coaster, rode it for the credit.

 

Amazingly we conquered all the coasters before our meal at 2:30pm. I couldn't bring myself to steal a child to get the Jr. Gemini credit so that one will have to stay off my list.

 

Having did all the coasters and the flats that we wanted to we were able to hit the rapids ride where we got soaked and also the Soak City waterpark which had a really cool lazy river and some fun slides.

 

We were able to relax, look in the shops and enjoy a few rerides in our remaining hours in Cedar Point. We did Magnum then Dragster in the back row and finished the night by going for Maverick again. Although we were only in the queue for an hour we managed to get in a "Dallas dance" which satisfied me at least! Maverick was fun at night but I still had the same problem with the restraints - and I made sure the ops didn't staple me in this time. But once we went down the drop it seemed to tighten and dug into my legs again. But apart from that it's a fun ride and probably the best in the park. But that's not much of a feat.

 

Afterwards we headed to TGIs for some food and beers which was a nice way to round out two crazy days at Cedar Point.

 

Again sorry about the length of this one, Cedar Point's a big park and a lot happened over those two days. Which brings me onto Cedar Point itself. It's an impressive looking park form some points and it does have a kind of "destination park" atmosphere which is good but I tend to agree with the point of view that it's the world's largest collection of mediocre rides. Nothing really stood out for me that much and the concreted and unimaginative midways left me thinking there should be more to Cedar Point if it was really was to be the "greatest amusement park in the world". That said I still had a great time there and I'm sure I'll be back some day!

...but so as not to disappoint Nadia - here's the token "signature shot" that must finish off every one of my updates!

Cedar Point was one of the craziest park visits I've had, for a number of reasons too!

I thought this would be a suitable photo to end the update on...

(Photo by Andrew Janes)

Dragster towers over the whole park. Quite intimidating for some I'm sure.

Gemini was fun, especially when they raced.

Mantis was crap. But I don't expect much from stand ups.

Raptor was pretty good too. No Nemesis or Batman, but still good.

But it really is a good drop!

Millennium Force - - looks impressive but really isn't much more than a fist drop.

Just in case you forgot where we were spending these two days...

We also had a real fun front row night ride on TTD.

(Photo by Andrew Janes)

After the epic wait we were able to hit a few more rides. Like Magnum, which crapped all over The Big One.

But thankfully it brightened up and after eight and a half hours we were on!

(Photo by Andrew Janes)

By this point we were here for the long haul. I think we accepted that we might end up just standing there all day and maybe not even get to ride. Except Beth who kept running away and hiding at any sign of rain!

(Photo by Andrew Janes)

But it appeared to be another false call as the rain set back in.

(Photo by Andrew Janes)

The ride finally starts testing again and we start to get hopeful!

(Photo by Andrew Janes)

Four hours into the wait and us Scots are ready to do it all over again!

(Photo by Andrew Janes)

I think these people took the "one size fits all" direction the wrong way.

(Photo by Andrew Janes)

The old west was never this wet!

(Photo by Andrew Janes)

Then the storm of death starts to come in.

(Photo by Andrew Janes)

The early morning line for Maverick builds. We're right at the front!

(Photo by Andrew Janes)

Well except for the horrible wetness!

This was the view from our room. Pretty cool.

[coaster_dude2002]

O what a day that was. 8 hours in line and we only moved 10ft. glad we split that meal part way through. Dallas Dance! we certainly go some strange looks the next day in line. When it comes to our ride on Thunder Canyon well I think soaked was an understatement.

[Divv3k]

^ Oh yeah Andrew, thanks for splitting that meal ticket with me! I've still got mine here!

 

Yeah, it was pretty funny standing in line for the rapids and gradually removing more items of clothing as we see more people coming off wetter and wetter!

[bpbbabe99]

Hahaha Divv, that last piccy of ya looks as if you've maybe relieved yourself there with that wee smile and the sun is out for ya too!!

 

Cedar Point Cedar Point oh my!! Power cuts, lotsa rain, losin the Hooters crew with the lack of lightage, fab sexy glam lookin lobby, balloon ducky, the beach at 4am or sommat, TGI fridays, Maverick, TTD, lovely sandwich lunch, waiting for the non existent taxi to the mall!!

[fudgey]

Like you said, memorable for so many reasons. Think you summed up the CP days excellently Divv.

 

^^ Thunder Canyon - thank god for $1 bags to keep stuff in, otherwise you wouldn't have been the only one with a dodgy camera. It really was the queue line strip

 

I have to say doing Dragster for the very first time, in the front seat, at night was amazzzing. Bugs and all..... Major major adrenaline kick. Shame we weren't on the roll back train - Robb and Elissa were on the train behind the rollback train...

 

Really liked Maverick, although neck chopper restraints are not good. And yes, Magnum really does kick the Pepsi Max Big One in the ass.

 

Oh and Divv, signature constipation shot all good - your loving that one a little too much though - clearly the follow through happened......

[Divv3k]

Oh and Divv, signature constipation shot all good - your loving that one a little too much though - clearly the follow through happened......

 

LOL! Well it was a good thing that was right before we went to the waterpark then!

 

Kennywood will be up real soon!

[Divv3k]

PART FOURTEEN: KENNYWOOD

 

Time for the update on what was by far my favourite park of the entire trip - Kennywood!

 

Words cannot described how much I loved this place. It reminded me of the Blackpool I grew up with when I visited as a youngster, it was really weird getting nostalgic in a place I'd never been before! Every coaster in the park is good and it's filled with loads of classic attractions you don't get many places these days. The place just has such a great atmosphere, I was literally walking around in awe all day. The park was really crowded, which is to be expected for a sunny Saturday in August but luckily we had morning ERT on Racer and Thunderbolt to make our visit more enjoyable. The Kennywood staff were great with us too all day and on Racer they sent us round the circuit twice without us getting up so that we could get the "whole" credit. Racer was fun, maybe not quite as good as Grand National but still, riding moebius woodies with two trains of TPRers slapping hands was a great experience. Jackrabbit and Thunderbolt were both good fun too each with their great airtime moments.

 

I had been excited about Phantom's Revenge before the trip but I was still completely blown away by it! Great air, really smooth and two amazing drops. This was my favourite steel coaster of the whole trip. I wish it wasn't so busy so I could have rode more! I even liked the spinning wild mouse at Kennywood! Exterminator was really cool with its dark ride elements and for some reason I didn't feel ill at all after riding.

 

We also did a few of the other attractions like Noah's Ark which is completely different from the one in Blackpool and great in its own way. The Garfield dark ride was probably the only let down in the park. But we still managed to have a laugh on that so it was all good.

 

I also tried deep fried Oreos at Kennywood which were surprisingly very tasty. I'd definitely eat them again.

 

I can't reiterate enough how much I loved Kennywood, it really is an amazing place!

I might look more constipated than happy here but words really can't describe how much I loved Kennywood!

I'll definitely be back one day!

Deep fried Oreos. Surprisingly tasty!

Little did we know at the time but this would be the only chance any of us would get to ride Gold Rusher.

And Noah's Ark. It's in much better condition than Blackpool's and VERY different inside.

We also got to check out some of the other "old school" rides - like the cars.

A credit's a credit!

Of course we did have to track down the Kiddie section too.

Kennywood is just such a great park to visit. I could have spent forever just soaking up the place.

It also wins for having the best ride logo of all time too.

Jack Rabbit was really good too.

I even liked the spinning mouse at Kennywood! Who'd have thought that?

More happy Phantom riders enjoy themselves.

If only Morgan could reprofile every Arrow looper.

Mmmm... Phantom...

Let's just enjoy a few photos of Phantom's Revenge in action...

Ah Phantom! Best steel coaster of the trip!

Thunderbolt is a lot of fun. Just make sure you like the person you're sitting next to!

Followed right up by ERT on Thunderbolt! The Kennywood staff were really great to us.

First up - Racer ERT!

(Photo by Andrew Janes)

Time for my favourite park of the whole trip - Kennywood!

[bpbbabe99]

Maaaan I missed a Noah's Ark!!! Arghh I love the 1 at Blackpool, such a shame I missed it, bet it was fab!! Also missed the deep fried Oreos too I was disappointed with Kennywood though, I was expecting to get a good vibe from it, but it didn't do a lot unfortunately and maybe the fact I was in agony with my feet all day added to it a bit too. Exterminator was defo the best spinning mouse I've been on, it was awesome!! Lotsa spinny goodness there and the whip was great too, Erik loved that too!! Haha also the day did start off awesome with harassing trp on that spinny ride, haha mint!!

[coaster_dude2002]

^ Ten more times. Whats that? the ride op won't let you ride? Sorry thats only 9!

 

I enjoyed kennywood and the Phantoms revenge was great in the front. In the back, well... slamming your face into the front of the car is not my definition of fun. Great airtime on it, right Nadia!

 

- Andrew

Maaattt Daaamonnn and LBB get some major "Hair time"

[bpbbabe99]

^ Lmaooo that picture is just crazy!! Really does show just how much airtime you get!! I was outta my seat so much it was unreal!!

 

Haha yeah "I did 10 rides" "No you didnt ya only did 9" no kiss for you haha!!

[thecoasterkid]

The bet with TRP Shawn! That was awesome! Divv, I love all your updates, and I definitely agree with you that Kennywood is an awesome park. I can't wait to go back to the park one day (most likely next summer as an East Coast trip add-on) and try out some more of their amazing food!

 

Kennywood had the best food on the trip, and finished in the top 3 for my favourite park on the trip.

[Divv3k]

Cheers guys!

 

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PART FIFTEEN: KINGS ISLAND & STRICKER'S GROVE

 

This the final update from the TPR portion of the trip, but don't worry there's still a few updates to come from me after this one!

 

Today was a real bittersweet day, we obviously had lots of fun but were also pretty sad at the same time since it was the last park we were all visiting together. Still the park was a lot quieter than we expected and we were able to not only get in all the Kings Island credits we were also able to head over to Stricker's Grove and nab the two super rare credits there.

 

Kings Island is a nice looking park but there isn't really much there that's worth re-riding. here's what we rode in the morning:

 

- Firehawk: Better than I expected but the seats are really uncomfortable on the back which took away a bit of the fun.

- Flight of Fear: Was fun for what it was. No Rock'n'Rollercoaster though.

- Racer: Poor woodie that jackhammered a lot. backwards was probably better than forwards.

- Adventure Express: Mine train type ride which was pretty crap except for the fact that it gave birth to the "Lift Hill Dance!". We did the dance on every lift hill for the rest of the day.

- Son of a Bitch: SoB really was an SoB. The thing just about killed me. I shudder to think what this thing must have been like with OTSRs. Possibly the worst coaster I've ever ridden. It was M&Ds Tornado bad!

 

We then headed over to Stricker's Grove which is a nice little place with two small woodies. Being that the park is only open to the public two days a year and might not be around much longer I'm delighted I got to visit. The rides weren't anything special but it's a place that's well kept and has a good atmosphere. Oh and they had free soft drinks too, always a big plus in my book.

 

We then headed back to Kings Island where we dusted off the rest of the credits and generally got up to the usual Hooters Crew shennanigans. here's the afternoon menu:

 

- Italian Job Stunk Track: Fun ride, although I'm told there were a few effects missing.

- Vortex: Awful, awful coaster. I just about black out on this and my head got a right doing as well.

- Runaway Reptar: Junior SLC that was ok I suppose.

- Fairly Odd Coaster: Junior woodie that didn't really do anything.

- Scooby Doo: Fun shooting dark ride that was made more fun by the daft messing about by us.

- Face/Off: Erik broke the ride! OK, maybe it wasn't his fault it but we blamed Erik as he works for Vekoma. Basically instead of hitting the brake run after doing it's thing the ride went back up towards the cobra roll and almost valleyed there, thankfully we weren't stuck for too long. Sorry we ruined your credit Nadia and Shawn!

- Top Gun: I really liked this suspended coaster. Yeah it's a little short but what's there is really good!

- Drop Zone: This was the first time I'd rode one of these drop towers. Probably the best unthemed drop ride I've rode.

- The Beast: Wasn't a fan. I expected good things from riding The Beast in the pitch black but it didn't deliver. I don't get the hype over this rickety thing at all. Although since it was all TPRers on the train I managed to get the whole train to do the lift hill dance on the way up! That was quite a sight!

 

And that pretty much concludes the TPR portion of the trip. I'd just like to say thanks to Robb and Elissa for all the amazing work they put into organising it. To anyone who's thinking of doing any kind of coaster trip I really recommend doing it with TPR, I guarantee you'll have the time of your life.

 

I also gotta thank the whole extended Hooters Crew: Scott, Shawn, Andrew, Nadia, AJ, Anthony, Beth, Nathan, Brad, Dave, Mike, Drew, Erik, Lara, Thomas and everyone else I've forgot to mention here (there were quite a few of us!). That goes for everyone else on the trip too, it was great to meet you all, I hope to see some of you again in Europe next year!

 

After the park loads of us stayed up late talking and just generally having more fun which was great. We really didn't want the trip to end. I should also say thanks to those of you who pulled the all-nighter with me - really appreciated it!

 

So that's it for the TPR portion of the trip, but fret not because there's still quite a few updates to come from me as I embarked upon my crazy solo Post-Midwest-Tour Tour...

 

Here's some Kings Island and Strickers Grove photos. Again, thanks to Andrew for letting me use a few of his pictures.

Sadly that brings to a close the TPR portion of the trip. It was amazing! I made some fantastic new friends and had some great fun!

Thanks to everyone who was there!

We finished the trip with night rides on The Beast. Even if it wasn't a great ride it was still a memorable experience and a great way to cap off the trip!

See what I mean?

(Photo by Andrew Janes)

The Hooters Crew turned up the insanity even more for the last few hours of the trip.

(Photo by Andrew Janes)

Top Gun was probably my favourite coaster in the park!

Meet the Face/Off killing crew!

(Photo by Andrew Janes)

At least I got the credit! Sorry Shawn & Nadia!

Face/Off - right before we killed it!

The new TPR lovers share a moment. Aww...

Cha-Ching is right!

The credit whores whore up the junior woodie!

AJ got a new friend courtesy of Shawn's throwing skills.

The TPR pole dancers put on a great show for us.

Matt Damon gets all the girls.

Time for the X-rated portion of the update.

Tomb Raider was closed but that didn't stop these two enjoying it!

Exclusive never before seen photo of Italian Job.

Vortex was pure death. One of the worst coasters I've ever been on.

Matt Damon tries to confuse the paparazzi by taking photos of everything himself.

We headed back over to King's Island for the remaining hours of the trip...

Free soft drinks are amazing. I wish more parks did this!

Stricker's Grove was a real good laugh!

Everybody was pretty happy to be getting these rare credits!

But everyone else enjoyed it.

Over at Stricker's Grove Shawn was a little short for this coaster...

(Photo by Andrew Janes)

Ouch, SoB really is as bad as they say!

(Photo by Andrew Janes)

Anyone know who's drivers license this is?

It's a big Son of a Bitch that's for sure!

Time to see if Son of a Bitch really is as bad as they say...

Adventure Express. A real lame ride but it did give us the gift of the Lift Hill Dance!

We're ready to take on the impossible task of getting all the Kings Island credits in one day!

Time for the final day of the TPR trip.

[bpbbabe99]

DIVVVV!!! aww that was a fab end to the TPR part of the updates!! Aww well brought back memories of the last day!!

 

It was such a sad moment gettin off the beast, was awful knowing it was out last ride and the end of the trip luckily yeah we all congregated in the lobby again for our last night, lotsa Hooters crew antics as usual and pizza mmm!! Was sad just looking through those last day photos!!

 

Can't wait to see the other updates though of the other parks you went to!!!

 

Bring the next chapter on!!

[fudgey]

Great way to finish it off.... doing the lift hill dance on the Beast at night was very surreal. Turning round to find everyone else doing it - priceless! The ride ops were like 'why were you doing that?' - because of the crazy totem pole arm bashing statues on the mine ride you idiots... To be fair it was very good of them to give us the Beast for a short while at park close, even though the park had a quiet day.

 

Great TPR trip report, looking forward to seeing the rest of your trip - a kind of taster for East Coast next year!!

[Divv3k]

^ Yeah I was thinking my TR would be a good taster for you guys doing the East Coast trip next year. But before that let me show you what you missed in the Midwest...

 

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PART SIXTEEN: VALLEYFAIR

 

With TPRs Midwest Trip over it was time to start my own crazy solo portion of the tour. Sadly with the coasts incurred with my travel woes at the start of the trip I knew I'd have to make some changes to my schedule. Luckily I only had to incur the loss of Michigan's Adventure from my schedule. The other price was four consecutive nights on spent on buses awaited me soon. Luckily they were mostly on Megabus - a far better service than Greyhound.

 

So I left Cincinnatti on the Monday morning and took a Megabus to Chicago then another to Minneapolis that night. I got to Valleyfair for opening on the Tuesday morning. To be honest I wasn't that impressed with Valleyfair the place isn't very visually appealing and the rides aren't that great except Renegade of course!

 

Renegade was fantastic! That's me two for two with awesome GCI woodies. It's not quite as good as Kentucky Rumbler in my view but then again I didn't ride Renegade at night.

 

The rest of the coasters at Valleyfair were pretty average. Wild Thing is the lamest hyper I've ever rode, The Big One is better than it! There isn't really much else saying about the rest of the park. But I'm still glad I got to visit and got to ride Renegade multiple times. I left the park in the afternoon after getting all the credits with the intention of returning for a few Renegade night rides but tiredness got the better of me and I decided just to make the most of my hotel room seeing as I'd be sleeping on buses the next four nights.

And here endeth the "blind" photo updates! Pics from my new camera will occupy the next update!

I don't know about the "See you soon" part but Renegade was still lots of fun!

Of course you can't do a Cedar Fair update without showcasing the bins...

Not-so-Wild Thing does it stuff. Surely this wasn't made by the same folks who did Phantom's Revenge?

The corkscrew had its standard moments of pain.

Cedar Fair sure know how to make their parks beautiful.

Luckily the park was quiet in the morning so I could snag all the credits with relative ease.

Excalibur wasn't really up to much. Just like the rest of the non-Renegade coasters at Valleyfair.

So you'll just have to make do with this one.

A real kickass woodie. Sadly there's not many opportunities to get photos of it in action.

First stop of course has to be Renegade!

The Intamin Impulse welcomes you as you enter. Although I have to say that Wicked Twister kinda ruined the other impulses for me.

Yep, I'm at Valleyfair!

A big green coaster by the side of the road can only mean one thing.

After a day of traveling I finally spy this...

I'm now by myself and I'm pretty tired here in Cincinatti after pulling an all nighter.

[hemmy]

Raptor > Batman by a mile

[RIP Psyclone]

Wow, a big TPR Midwest trip sandwich between two slices of bonus US and UK parks. Order me one of those! I need the credits! This has been the best "pure" TR, so thanks for that, Divv.

[Team Thriller]

Great Pics. Made my day!!!

[PKI Jizzman]

No love for Vortex? Aww....

 

 

Awesome Midwest TR, I had a lot of fun reading it!

 

-JZ

[cobra_roll06]

Man how many Celtic shirts do you have!!! RFC! Great TR as always man! Renegade looks awesome. Can't wait for the rest of the TR.

 

Oh yeah, Vortex was seriously as bad as Tornado! That just can't be possible!!!!!

[bpbbabe99]

Not so Wild thing lol!!! Must be lame if the PMBO's better lol!!! Aww ya did look tired in that first piccy too!! Blessage lol!!

 

Wooot keep em comin tho!!