gci2011 Posted July 19, 2010 Posted July 19, 2010 Yesterday was a fun, laid back trip to Cedar Point. It was a very hot, busy day, but I still managed to get on some of my favorites. We left early once it started to storm. Thunder and lightning kept us trapped in a candy store somewhere along the Frontier Trail. Most people left because of the storm, so we got in a few more quick rides and then headed out. To start, I got two great rides on Wicked Twister in the back row, Disaster Transport was fun but nothing to write home about. Power Tower (Shot) was fun and had no wait, so we did it twice. Corkscrew was still rough, but not as bad as I had remembered. I was pleasantly surprised by Magnum, as it was notably smoother this visit as I made sure to sit in a non-wheel seat. I was also surprised at how smooth Gemini seemed, but again, I was in a non-wheel seat. Skyhawk was fun, as always, and was practically a walk on. Then we went to Shoot the Rapids. Part of our group didn't want to wait the posted 1 1/2 hour wait time for it, but I needed to ride it and form my own opinions. We waited, and waited, and it was actually only about 45 minutes until we were just about to the station. Then it went down mechanical, which was a bummer but not much of a shock. I ended up waiting another 20-30 minutes, as they were testing it, and the maintenance guy had been working on it for a while. Thankfully, it did reopen and I was on very quickly. I was actually quite happy with the ride. The tunnel out of the station was terrific, thoroughly misted and you couldn't see a thing. The first hill is deceptively tall, and the splash the first drop made was impressive, though it did not get us very wet. The slowly meandering ride was still fun, with impressive theming. The waterfall was nice, though it only got us wet enough to cool us off. The second hill got us much wetter, and though we came off the ride wet, we were not as soaked as I had been expecting. Overall, I liked this ride. I would definitely ride it again, but would probably not wait more than 30-45 minutes for it. So, while we were doing that, the rest of our group went and did Millennium Force, but they left the Parent Swap there so I could go ride it. The backseat ride was quite fun, I came out of my seat quite a bit on the first drop, and had some good sustained floater on the 3rd and 4th hills (not the banked turnarounds). After that, we were heading back to Maverick when it started to pour. They shut down everything, there was lightning everywhere and happening frequently. We took refuge in a candy store just past StR, I think. It let up pretty quickly, and most people had left the park. We worked our way over to maXair because that usually opens up pretty quickly, and we snagged walk-ons on maXair and Wicked Twister. One last crazy ride on Chaos, then we called it quits. It was a fun and exciting day at Cedar Point. Rides: Wicked Twister x2 Disaster Transport x1 Power Tower (Space Shot) x2 Corkscrew x1 Magnum XL 200 x1 Gemini x1 Skyhawk x1 Shoot the Rapids x1 Millennium Force x1 maXair x1 Chaos x1 I didn't take a ton of pictures on this trip, only a few on my new Droid X. Quite happy with the quality : Such a huge park! There goes Raptor. Eww Mean Streak. At least it looks cool. Yay Millennium. But yeah, I305 is better... sorry... No idea why I took this shot. Skyhawk was good, practically no wait! NOTED! No Dragster rides for me, it was too windy. Yay! StR is finally open! I quite like this shot, its a cool sign. They look wet. Good! See, the new boats can make it over the lift Raptor after the rainstorm. A surprisingly smooth ride! Wicked Twister opened back up pretty quickly after the rain. Signature shot, sadly no rides on Raptor for me today Stupid pole got in the way. Hersheypark and Kings Dominion to come soon, more later or tomorrow.
gci2011 Posted July 20, 2010 Author Posted July 20, 2010 Now, on to Hersheypark! I was really happy with Hersheypark. I had been there once before many years ago, but couldn't remember much about it so I was eager to go back. Overall, I thought it was a lovely park. The rides were all unique and fun, I particularly enjoyed Lightning Racer, Storm Runner, and Fahrenheit. I managed to get all eleven credits, and a few flats. I would love to go back, the atmosphere and the surroundings make it one of the most beautiful parks I have been to, in my opinion. My only complaint is that some areas of the park can be confusing, such as between Trailblazer and Great Bear. It took us 45 minutes to get from one to the other because the map wasn't much help and we got turned around several times. Regardless, it was a great day! Pictures: Note- Sorry about the quality of these, they were taken on my old camcorder. Ooooh! We're here! Oh boy o boy o boy! Sign..... This ride surprised me, it felt quite smooth! Better than Wildcat, but not Lightning Racer, IMO. Through the Immelman! Great Bear's Zero-G Roll from Comet's queue. Weird shot... I felt very obligated to take this picture. Wildcat was fun, I did like it overall. Better than Gwazi, IMO. There it goes! Oooh, Millennium Flyers! And I'm done with Wildcat. Wild Mouse was, well, my first Wild Mouse. I think, that I can remember anyway. Quite fun! Now off to Lightening Racer. Not as bad as I was expecting, a fun ride. Through the trees. Close-up shot through the trees. Blurry shot through the trees. I spy a rolley-coaster! Twisty!!! Random Sign for a random credit. The sky totally fits the "Storm" part of Storm Runner Another random boomerang pic. I waited quite a while to get this shot. It looks kinda eerie like that.... :/ Now some nighttime shots. Oh yeah, the Boardwalk was fun too. Well done, Hershey. Cobra roll all lit up at night. One more, the first drop. Quite a fun first hill overall. Oooooh lets go there! Except they were closed... One last parting shot of the carousel. Kings Dominion coming soon!
Intimidator305 Posted July 20, 2010 Posted July 20, 2010 Great so far. Excited to read your review of Kings Dominion!
gci2011 Posted July 21, 2010 Author Posted July 21, 2010 And now, Kings Dominion. This was a beautiful park. I absolutely loved Kings Dominion. It had a great atmosphere, Hersheypark's was arguably better, but this was still a terrific park. I was greatly looking forward to KD and Intimidator, and we got there just after park opening. First thing we did was the Eiffel Tower, and it was a great view. So much better than the Space Spiral at Cedar Point, which I'm used to. I loved being able to move around and take pictures, it was great. After that, we headed to Dominator. Dominator was our first credit of the day, and one I sadly skipped during a trip to Geauga Lake a few years back. It was a fun ride, smooth, and one of the best floorless coasters I've been on. After that, I did Berserker, which was fun but painful. We stopped at a Chick-Fil-A, and then headed toward Shockwave. I was sad to see that it was down, so I went and did Drop Tower. After that, Shockwave opened back up and we got right on. Overall, I did not think it was a bad coaster, I only felt roughness in the turnarounds. I actually didn't learn it was a Togo until a few days ago, which is good because otherwise I feel that my initial opinions would be much more negatively biased. We did Ghoster Coaster, which was not the smoothest but not terribly rough either, IMO. Then we headed to Volcano, which was also temporarily down. We did Avalanche for the credit, and got on Volcano as soon as it opened. We ended up waiting about an hour for this, and I do think it was worth it. It is one of my favorite rides in the park, behind only Dominator and I305. I did The Crypt, which was fun and quite nerve-wracking. We did Backlot Stunt Coaster next. It was fun, the cars were cute, but the trains were all one color . Anaconda was a walk-on and not that bad. The best part was looking over at Intimidator from the lift and seeing that there was NO LINE!!!!!!! So obviously, we ran to Intimidator next. We got on twice in the 2nd row, never waited more than 5 minutes. It was a great ride! Just sitting down in the seat felt epic after all the great things I had been reading about the ride. The lift goes so fast that the wind blows in your face. It offers a terrific view of the rest of the park and was nice to be able to see the parts of the park that we hadn't been through yet. The drop is amazing too. Fast and steep, I wish I had gotten a backseat ride to try for some floater like on Millennium Force. The turnaround was super intense, I grayed out towards the pullout of the turn, and regained full vision near the top of the second hill. Not much airtime here, but the following tight twisty segments and turns were very fun. I was really happy that they had just installed the new straps, because otherwise this would be a headbanger like Maverick. Everything here was fun, fast-paced and comfortable. The smaller hill gave some good airtime, and a little on the hill after that. Just another turn or two, and it was into the break run. Overall, I'd rate Intimidator 305 higher than Millennium Force. I was slightly hesitant to do so because Cedar Point is my home park, but decided that dropping MF to #2 isn't that bad. Intimidator was smoother than Millennium, it seemed faster and had a more interesting layout. I wouldn't say it had more or better airtime than Millennium, but I did like that it incorporated the best of both MF and Maverick. It is definitely a must-ride for any coaster enthusiast. After that, we headed over to Waterworks. I didn't like this water park very much. It had some good slides, but I prefer Hersheypark's "Boardwalk" for the atmosphere and theme. I actually didn't learn until later that there was a whole other wave pool and slide complex farther back, but I got cold quickly and we headed back for more coasters. Next we hit Rebel Yell. It was honestly not as rough as I was expecting. I quite enjoyed the ride, enough that I insisted on riding the other side only in case that Facebook's Coaster Counter Application counts each side as its own credit. We did Ricochet next, though it was not as good as Hersheypark's Wild Mouse, IMO. I survived Hurler. I think that's all that really needs to be said. Same goes for Grizzly. I will NOT be doing those again if you paid me. Well, maybe if you paid me, but it would have to be a lot. We did the go-carts, which were surprisingly fun. I hadn't driven any in a while, and it was fun to do something I don't normally do for a change. I did the "Shenandoah Lumber Company" Log Flume, which was fun but not as much as the late White Water Landing. When we realized that we had somehow made it back to the Eiffel Tower, we decided to hit Dominator again. After that, I borrowed a kid and conquered the Taxi Jam. That only left Flight of Fear. I was not impressed with Flight of Fear. The line was painstakingly slow and the indoors portion of the queue was very stuffy. Everything felt grimy and dirty, and I felt slightly claustrophobic inside the UFO or whatever that was. The ride itself was ok, I enjoyed launching out of the station. It felt a little jerky, some shuffling, and overall I was quite happy to get off. We were going to see about another ride on Intimidator that night, but the line had completely filled up and we decided that we had gotten our share of I305 rides for the day. We headed back to WaterWorks to get our stuff out of a locker, and then headed towards Drop Tower to watch the fireworks (this was July 3). I got in one more ride on Drop Tower, then ran to claim the other side of Rebel Yell, and made it back just in time to see the start of the fireworks. The fireworks were quite a show, after which it was late and my feet were starting to feel sore. We made it through the crowds to the gift shops at the front of the park, as I wanted to see if they sell souvenir maps like Cedar Point. They didn't, but I got to see the CoasterDynamix Intimidator model, which was cool. It had valleyed in the first turn after the drop . All in all, it was a terrific day at Kings Dominion. I am happy to know that I will be back there for East Coast Bash, to get in plenty more rides on Intimidator 305. My only complaint is that I did not like how all of the ride exit paths dragged on forever. It seemed quite pointless, but at least Intimidator's led me to buy the souvenir shirt I am wearing now. Enjoy the pics! We're finally here! I spy a rolley-coaster, through the trees! Dominator's backside, through the loop! OOOOOOOHHHHHH! AAAAAHHHHH! The whole layout, from above. A terrific ride, I just wish the line weren't so long. Signature shot! Doesn't even deserve a caption. Signature shot #2! Now THAT was fun! WARNING - Tons of Dominator photos ahead! Curvy More curvy Quite a smooth ride. I think floorless coasters are underrated. Upside-down I305, here I come! LOOP-DE-LOOP! Me freaking out on Drop Tower. The panic is setting in... We're up high!!!! And getting higher..... Weeeeee! Random sign... I spy a rolley-coaster, through the trees! Stupid supports getting in the way. A slightly more fun Intamin... sorry, Volcano Twisty! Cresting the lift! This was a really good ride though. That launch comes out of nowhere! Signature shot... a bit too soon though, the car is hardly visible... They're all the same color Anaconda, THROUGH THE TREES! Now THAT is what we came for! Cool-lookin' entrance to a cool-lookin' ride. Ooooh there it goes! Instead of airtime, you get your sight back here! NOTED! There's the airtime! Ok, I'm not taking random pictures of people. Just wanted to show the awesome new straps! What an intense turn! Going DOWNNNNNN! Lift hill shot, with a train... The light beam is attacking! Lift hill shot! More twisty Volcano Mmmmmm! Twisty!!! Intamin cable shot. Another random Anaconda pic. Intimidator peeking THROUGH THE TREES! Drop Tower all lit up at night Some fireworks, it was a great display. The model was nice too, well done CoasterDynamix! Ooops, it valleyed... I'll leave with this. As for this thread, I may revive it later if I hit some other parks. Looking at Kennywood this weekend, more Cedar Point next week, and Kings Island, Dollywood, and East Coast Bash @ KD at the end of August. Thanks!
Intimidator305 Posted July 21, 2010 Posted July 21, 2010 Overall, I'd rate Intimidator 305 higher than Millennium Force. I was slightly hesitant to do so because Cedar Point is my home park, but decided that dropping MF to #2 isn't that bad. Intimidator was smoother than Millennium, it seemed faster and had a more interesting layout. I wouldn't say it had more or better airtime than Millennium, but I did like that it incorporated the best of both MF and Maverick. It is definitely a must-ride for any coaster enthusiast. This is what I love to hear! But anyways, I'm glad you enjoyed Kings Dominion! I have to agree with you... Volcano's line is way too long, but its definitely worth it every once in a while. I just can't stand to wait 2 hours for it when there is a giga coaster just a couple hundred feet away with a line that takes 1/8 of the time to get through!
braztaz Posted July 22, 2010 Posted July 22, 2010 I've only experienced a Volcano walk-on once in my life. Which was just pure awesomeness. Nice photo TR!
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