Photo TR's - East Coaster Trip

[BRTeller]

This is the big East Coaster trip, that will include VB, Kings Dominion, Hard Rock Park, Carowinds, Dollywood, Nascar Speed Park, Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom, Beech Bend Park, Holiday World, and Kings Island. The trip will start Monday, with Kings Dominion. But part one is now up, so stay tuned. I hope you enjoy it!

 

To start off the mega trip. Also known as the East Coaster Trip. I'm going to combine this into two parts. Virginia Beach, then part two with all the parks, and myrtle beach. Virginia beach was a week before, but the two trips are so close together, might as well combine them. Alright time to start off with Virginia Beach, and the aquarium.

 

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To start off the mega trip, lets start with Virginia Beach. I went with Tyler, to VB and went and did some things, like the aquarium, stuff like that. (Warning, no coaster pictures). Yeah don't waist your time if you want coasters. But you can see some fishes, and cool stuff like that.

 

Here's the first thing we saw when we got to the aquarium. Wow its huge!

Hey look, fishys!

Another fishy!

This one just chilled out at the bottom.

Yeah, I touched it! Wow, that picture of me is ugly!

From the balcony of the aquarium. Kind of neat.

Random picture of me through the vortex.

Dun, Dun!

Something tells me that I should touch it.

I like the turtles.

Yo!

This one is alive!

Fishah!

No caption needed.

Uhhh.

Here was the beautiful view we had all weekend. We all had fun, stay tuned in a few days for Kings Dominion, and the start of the East Coaster Trip! I thought I had more of VB, but no, not really. So it was all the aquarium, hope you enjoyed the small report.

 

-Brandon

[Reon]

Do you have a planned schedule of when you plan on hitting each park?

[BRTeller]

Yes I do, a pretty strict one to tell the truth, I will post exact dates today. It starts Monday, and will be updated daily. I will do it after I'm done with laundry and pack a bit.

[sixflagsguy5]

You're covering a lot of area with that trip. It's more like an east coast/ south/ midwest trip all in one. Sounds like fun though. Do you think you'll be squeezing in any smaller parks last minute?

[SFAfan#1]

^ Like Adventure Park USA or Six Flags America and did you go to the Virginia Beach Amusment Park? I was going to ride the Skyscraper, but it was $20. Way out of my price range lol.

[BRTeller]

^

I have already done all them, we passed it at VB, but didn't feel like spending the extra money. We did it all the year before, so figured we would just enjoy the beach. We didn't have a camera, due to the sand. We stayed at my friends relatives house, so we weren't at a hotel close by.

 

Adventure Park USA, is pretty much a home park, and SFA, well haven't gotten any new coasters since I went last. The park also is kind of dumpy, In my opinion at least.

[BRTeller]

It has started with Kings Dominion!

 

The first park of the trip is Kings Dominion! The park is great, and the wooden coasters are rough, but we thought they were really fun. We had a good day, only had to stay for half the day since the park was empty. We also had to wake up early for the next day, and the long drive to Myrtle Beach. But it was fun, and Dominator was great. Again, great park, and go on a Monday. We walked on to everything pretty much. Now on to the photos.

 

Dominator, really Dominates the view of the front. Can't miss it, first thing you see before you go in.

Kings Dominion, Yay!

First up, of course, Dominator.

Yeah, it's awesome.

It's kind of just slapped down, but still a great ride.

DOMINATOR!

Vertical loop goodness.

Yeah, go to Kings Dominion and ride it!

Oh yeah, hi Scooby Doo!

Another great coaster, Volcano.

Intamin needs to make more of these. It's still great and was the only real wait all day.

One more for now of Volcano.

Hi, Firefall, I mean "Crypt".

Next up, Italian Job, I mean Backlot: Stunt Coaster. I prefer the old names more, but that may just be me. Also this ride lacked a lot of the special effects, little things like the Police Sirens. Cedar Fair, it makes it much better when there on, take the advice.

The real cars aren't much bigger, funny little Mini Coopers.

Hello Anaconda, first looping coaster for me. I was about 6, I think. Real coaster enthusiasts are born!

Enough said.

Outer limits, I mean Flight of Fear, or is it now Flightdeck? God, this is confusing, I honestly don't know the name.

Then it was for the Togo, not so bad machine.

Then we rode Ricochet, this mouse is quite enjoyable.

Flyer's, yay.

Now, a little bit of sad, Hypersonic's old location.

Just think, it used to tower over you, right here.

Here's a ariel view of it. The track is located behind grizzly's turn around. All of it is still on the grounds, you can only see it if you look off to the side on grizzly, its hard to see even on any of the towers. It was just chance that I noticed it. Tyler didn't see any of it. I got a small picture of it just a little bit, but its hard to noticed.

There's were its at.

Here's some pictures from the Eifel Tower.

Pretty.

Drop Zone!

Some more of Dominator.

See, the park was empty.

This is a cool picture, and the last. Hope you enjoyed the update, stay tuned for Hard Rock, and two side trips. South of the Border, and Family Kingdom!

 

-Brandon

[Kingbooba]

Where'd you get the pic of Crypt?

[DBru]

Great update!

 

Glad you all had fun at KD. Dominator looks a lot better than I thought it would...

[the ghost]

I almost went there a few years ago on a trip to DC/Williamsburg but decided to do Busch instead. While I am pretty sure we made the right decision yo do Busch if Im ever over in that part of the country again i want to go to KD

 

Do Volcanoes fire effects still work, it used to have fire right?

[Guest]

I really hope that XLC's station area will only be replaced by trees. In my opinion Grizzly is the best ride in the park and more trees would only make it better. It was amazing at night but there was this total void when rounding the fan turn, where you could see XLC's flood lights and the rest of the stuff that's lit up in that area. Unfortunately, I have a feeling that won't happen with the current management. I can wish though.

 

Nice TR so far, looking forward to seeing the rest.

[RenegadeFan]

Great TR!

 

Drop Zo--Tower looks incredibly screwed up to me. Why do they need those arms on the car?

[Kingbooba]

I really hope that XLC's station area will only be replaced by trees. In my opinion Grizzly is the best ride in the park and more trees would only make it better. It was amazing at night but there was this total void when rounding the fan turn, where you could see XLC's flood lights and the rest of the stuff that's lit up in that area. Unfortunately, I have a feeling that won't happen with the current management. I can wish though.

 

Nice TR so far, looking forward to seeing the rest.

 

Hypersonic is supposed to be replaced with a new Halloween Haunt maze this year.

[BRTeller]

Now it's time for Hard Rock Park. It was a nice park, and themed well. But it was so much smaller then I thought, and what everyone else thought with me. Only real thrill was Zeppelin, Maximum RPM was fun, but the wait was about two hours. They were nice enough to warn you that it was a soft opening type of thing, and its not fully operational, and it will be a long wait due to that. The park just needs a bit more, it has potential, but could be better. From what I was told, they are already expanding it, so that's a plus.

 

Now this park had some of the best guest services, and employees that I have "ever" seen at a park. Every last employee seemed to love there job, and all of them were friendly and talkative. We got stuck on the White Knight Satin thing or whatever, it was screwed up, put it that way. But after we got off, they picked us out for some reason for a VIP trip on Zeppelin, or any other ride of our choice. (We should have rode Maximum RPM, but we all liked zeppelin more, but zeppelin had no wait at all. Are fault though). Anyways, I don't know if it was due to the brake down, or just chance. I'm wondering this, as it was only one person, and a lot of people didn't get this. But we got escorted throughout the park, showed us some of the cool little effects you might not notice. But I was amazed, by far some of the best staff. Also we were all shocked about this, it was not expected what so ever. We weren't at all aggravated from the brake down either. It was only 10 minutes or so.

 

Another great thing, was the theming, Karaoke lines, wow. Everything was very well themed, and all themed to Rock. This park with the theming, and staff, amazed me. The whole park was great, the experience was awesome, just need some more rides. I hope to go back in a few years when its more expanded, but defiantly worth the stop.

 

Welcome to Hard Rock Park!

Theming, top notch of course.

First up of Course, Led Zeppelin the Ride.

Great ride, basic but I liked it a lot.

Two vertical loops, equals awesome.

Mini Vertical Loop.

One more.

Now time for Maximum RPM!

It broke down, but everyone in the line, I mean everyone that waited two hours for it left right away. So we just got front seat for a 10 minute break down. Still waited a hour and a half though.

Testing it.

Empty.

I found that kind of cool looking.

Track.

There's people on that one.

See, told you.

White night castle or whatever, this is just a sample on how messed up it was in every way.

Um, yeah.

As we got stuck on it we took this picture. I'm still kind of in shock with what everything I just witnessed.

Kiddie Credit!

One more.

Um, meh.

Hi Maximum RPM.

Time for Eagles Life In the Fast Lane, we kind of enjoyed it but still not that great. I hope they get a better selection of rides soon.

Yeah, that's about it.

Mhm.

Just one more after this.

Now I leave you with the coolest picture of the day. Those kites were flown all day, btw.

 

Stay tuned for more, I'm getting these reports up as fast as I can. I'm swamped with parks, thats a good thing, lol. I am behind with the reports, as I went to SFKK today, and tomorrow is Beech Bend. We were going to also do SFKK tomorrow, but it kind of stunk, we'll you'll find out why.

[tnguy]

Cool. I pretty much agree with you on HRP. They definitely need more rides. I was also suprised by the staff. Most of them were really great. There were a few exceptions, but overall really good. Also its been weeks, and I still can't decide if that dark ride was the coolest thing ever or the worst thing ever.

[DBru]

Once again, great photos!

 

I was at SFKK all day today, and looked ALL OVER for you! lol

 

Did you leave early?

 

I guess I'll have to wait to see why you didn't like the park. We bought a couple Flashpasses, and ended up having the best trip there of our lives!

 

Have fun at Beech Bend!

[BRTeller]

We actually got there around 4 and left around 7. Also thanks guys I will have plenty more. Beech Bend today!

 

We also bought flash passes, thank god. It just seemed run down, graffiti, and the the people at the go karts had some problems. I really don't want to get into that right now, becuase I need to explain. But the barbed wire, the complex next to the park looked great though. I am keeping in mind that we did get spoiled at Dollywood, and Hard Rock Park. Since those to parks were some of the best parks I have ever been to. The staff got better at Dollywood which I was surprised in.

[BRTeller]

After Hard Rock, on our way to Dollywood we went to Carowinds. Carowinds is a nice park, but just average. I don't really have to much to say negative, or to positive about it. It was a nice park to stop off at, but there wasn't anything to special except After burn. Also the park was empty all day, and we rode everything with no wait at all. So it was a fun little park.

 

We really enjoyed After burn, and Nighthawk. After burn was amazing, we both loved it. I had no clue that it had that many inversions, that was a hidden thrill in the park. Nighthawk was just a flying Dutchman model, but still fun.

 

Welcome to Carowinds!

First up, Nighthawk!

Vertical loop goodness.

Great ride, except your eyeballs might get burned out!

Pretty.

More Vertical loop goodness.

Pretty.

Me and Tyler understood why this was a SLC in training, it hurt just as bad!

Bang, shmack, ow!

Tyler said Koma, in Vekoma stood for coma. He said that's an appropriate name for the coaster company, lol. I found it kind of funny.

Next up After Burn! This coaster surprised both of us, it was awesome!

Plane.

Yeah, its awesome!

So many inversions, we love it!

One more.

First and Second missed credit of trip.

It looks like an average racer to me.

A little better then Roller Soaker, but not great. Roller soaker is much more interactive though.

Time for this. Average mine train.

The half tunnel things were a neat affect.

What park would be complete without a little ouch.

Pretty, ouch.

Ricochet, yay.

Meh.

Yeah....

You stand up, and blood rushes to your feet. Average stand up.

Yep, vertical loop, best part. Yum, Vertical loop goodness.

I leave you with this one last picture, next up, Dollywood. One of the best parks ever!

 

-Brandon

[kraken613]

Of course Dollywood is one of the best parks!

 

Nice TR!

[BRTeller]

Next up, Dollywood! Wow this has to be the best parks of the trip. We thought the park was flawless. We all thought Hard Rock Parks staff was nice, but wow Dolly put them to shame. Dollywood had excellent theming, and Mystery Mine and Thunderhead are both some of the best coasters in the world. They both rank in my top 10, also in Tylers. Thunderhead is tied as my favorite woodie. I wonder how a park could get any better. We didn't even expect it to be that great. We thought it would be basic, and a nice little park. But this is a world class park, and it was great. This was the most enjoyable park of the trip, everyone needs to visit Dollywood now!

 

Now let me tell you specifically about the two great coasters. First up Thunderhead. Thunderhead was a non stop wooden coaster, it never let up, and it was long. The whole ride was very wild, still smooth, and was great. There wasn't a single flaw with it. Now onto Mystery Mine, this ride was done very well. The beginning was great, you felt like you were on an old abandoned mine, as you rocked and creeped along the track. The rest of the ride was a non stop thrill, as you go up two vertical lifts. This ride put Fahrenheit to shame, I thought Fahrenheit was awesome, but nothing compared to this ride. Oh yeah, Mystery Mine has a few surprises up its sleeve!

 

Looks like we know which way were heading.

I had a tragic accident, I thought of an SLC, and then I died. Hey the corny captions are back! I've been slacking on them.

We see you Thunderhead, you thought two dinky trees could hide you?

We're about to experience one of the best wooden coasters ever!

It deserved all the golden tickets in the world!

Sexy....

Yeah, what else can I say, its awesome. If you haven't got the point yet.

One last picture.

Here we come Mystery Mine, you have a lot to do to beat Thunderhead.

Closer.

Birdy.

Wow, this is going to be awesome. But once your inside, this part just doesn't come close. Theming top notch!

This car likes to go on the turny thingy.

Yes! Oh Yes!

Bird!!!

Just a few more of Mystery Mine, it deserves it.

Go to Dollywood now!

Veggie Tales, yay!

Now time for Tennessee Tornado!

Yeah, its gonna hurt most likely.

Yeah, that looks to be painful.

Surprisingly it only hurt a little tiny bit. Dollywood is so awesome.

Pretty.

I leave you this picture of such an awesome wooden coaster taken from such an awesome steel coaster.

 

Again go to Dollywood now, the park is amazing. It's also in such a great location, and is so pretty. I wish I got much more pictures, but I was enjoying all the parks. I could have gotten so many more of each park, which I regret I didn't. Next up is Kentucky Kingdom, the least enjoyable park of the trip. Ironically it comes after such a great park.

[DBru]

Great updates! I agree about everything you said about Dollywood. The park is truly top notch (unless you catch it on a bad day, which has happened to me...)!

 

Even though Thunderhead is an amazing coaster, I still find it somewhat over-hyped. Mystery Mine is amazing, and would be even better without some of the head-banging, but that's standable. I'm still in shock of how great Tennessee Tornado. If only Arrow had gotten a clue a few years earlier...

 

Can't wait for more!

[kraken613]

Dollywood is my home park and its one of my favorites!

 

Thunderhead is amazing and my #1 woodie tied with Kentucky Rumbler.

Mystery Mine isn't my favorite though I still love it though!

Now Tennessee Tornado is the best Arrow ever and is an amazing ride that is very intense!

 

Glad you enjoyed it!

[tnguy]

Dollywood has always been awesome, but if you told me a few years ago what it would be like today I would have never believed it. It just gets better every year.

[BRTeller]

Yep. Time for the least favorite park of the trip. We were all very surprised on how bad it was, not completely the parks fault, but most of it was. The park had an "ok" selection of rides, but everything around the rides was overgrown, or just plain gross looking. Like over by Chang, they had grass growing everywhere, and little pools filled with I don't know what. I would think they'd at least try to mow, or make some kind of attempt. Some areas of the park weren't to bad looking though, which was nice. We all knew though when we drove up, that it wasn't going to be the nicest looking. We drove up, and they had Razor wire, that has to be the first or one of the first I've seen at a park. It felt like driving up to a prison in some ways. Also we noticed that there was graffiti on the rides, so obviously people got in. I understand that some of its just bad location. But much of it was the parks fault. I wish Six Flags would take notice to some of these types of parks. It has potential, for one it has an awesome complex building across the way. Which really makes the area look nice.

 

The staff there went both ways. Some of them were great, and very friendly, or average. But there were a few people that didn't even want to lift a finger. For instance, and the worst occurrence of this was at the Go Karts. The guy selling tickets got irritated because we wanted to buy two tickets. Then when we went to ride them, we soon realized that the operators treated the ride like a normal attraction. They never checked our tickets, or anyone else's. We were the only ones that bought them. We wouldn't have minded if they didn't just load it by who wanted to drive with who. They let these kids ride separate courses because they wanted to ride by themselves (They also did not pay). We were going to complain, but we really thought that it wouldn't make the slightest difference, and it was better to go to the hotel.

 

I've been to a good bit of Six Flags parks, but this one was the worst. The master blaster looked great. But in my opinion, I enjoyed Six Flags America way more then this park. The area around the park looks nice, so Six Flags, I hope you take attention to this, before its just gone. They've had enough troubles with it after the Drop Tower incident, and they have a rotting, racing woodie at the back of it. So I fear it may be to late, but it still may have hope. I hope the best for it though.

 

First up, Greezed Lightnin.

Yep, Me and Tyler's first shuttle loop. It was pretty fun, but a bit slower then expected.

Loop was pretty forceful though.

Now its time for, Chang.

We're not a big fans of stand ups, except Shockwave at KD. But this one was decent.

We still think it would be so much better as a floorless, or a normal sit down. But that's just our crazy opinions.

Pretty.

I had to edit this picture to get it to look right. But the end result isn't to bad. Is it?

Eeek.

Surprisingly, this one was smoother then some others. But still rough as hell. Oh and this is Tyler's first SLC! He's in for a unpleasant surprise.

These things are so photogenic though. I hope they all end up getting those awesome new trains.

I almost forgot, Tyler hated it! He's just lucky it was one of the better ones.

Notice the faded paint, but the picture is still plenty awesome.

This was the best coaster in the park. It was really enjoyable. Fast passes are great, they were only running one train, with a huge wait. So saved us a ton of time.

It was hard to get photograph's of it. We tried using our passes on the Ferris Wheel for pictures, but they didn't let us. So we just went to the hotel instead. So sorry for the kind of poor pictures.

It's a great coaster though. Had good plops of air.

Yeah, I made Tyler whore with me. He refused on some coasters, but I got him on this one!

We did use our fast passes on this. It was pretty good. The trims weren't to bad on it.

I leave you with this one very last picture. Why in the world is this thing just rotting in the back of the park. I was going to drive by it, but we were worn out. So we went straight to the hotel.

 

Next up, Beech Bend. With a hidden treasure, Kentucky Rumbler of course.

 

-Brandon

[DBru]

Another great TR!

 

Sadly, everything you pointed out was pretty much right. The park has so much potential, yet SF just doesn't use it! But I'm glad you enjoyed Thunder Run, I've always found it to be the park's hidden gem...

 

Can't wait for BB!