Jakizle Posted July 16, 2012 Share Posted July 16, 2012 (edited) So back a little before Memorial Day Weekend, Andrew and I had the brilliant idea of hitting up Hersheypark for the opening of SkyRush, and decided to throw in BGW for Verbolten and KD for i305 on the days before and after SkyRush's opening. With a little magic we also decided to hit up Dutch Wonderland on Saturday in what turned out to be one of the most epic coaster days ever! First we start with BGW though! All of these were taken with an iPhone so excuse the quality! The trip began with the drive up from Orlando to Williamsburg...and a must stop at South of the Border! (just kidding, this place will kill you) 840 miles later (from Gainesville, where I picked up Andrew) we made it Williamsburg! And the next morning we found ourselves at BGW! So true!!! Before the park actually opens, the Sesame Area is already open! We both gladly got our kiddie credit in before the mad rush to Verbolten. ..and then this was the crowd waiting for Verbolten at 10am! love love love the details Busch put into this attraction! And after only about 15 minutes we were boarding our ride into the Black Forest! After one ride I was a little unsure about Verbolten...but it is definitely an amazing all around attraction. Curse of DarKastle was down at first, so we moved on to... Alpengeist! I was anxious to give this a try after my last visit in 2008 when I didn't care for it too much I forget how giant Alpengeist is! And I really liked the ride this time around. For how big it is, it has some really snappy parts and a batsh*t crazy cobra roll! Next stop was Griffin, which was new for Andrew Doesn't look like there's a line here I can get used to waits like this! DarKastle was back open, and I was surprised to see them using the preshow! Heading back to the front of the park Time for Apollo's Chariot! Not much of a line here also I forget that the back row of Apollo is one of the best coaster experiences anywhere. Another spin on Verbolten. The line was about here all day, but only 45 minutes We rode Alpengeist 3-4 times as well Can't forget about Lochness Monster! And its incredibly long helix! There's also a new attraction for us over here! Europe in the Air! Ok seriously what the hell was this ride??? I miss Corkscrew Hill We decided to take a break mid day at the sit down full service place in the France section The food was very good and well priced! It was under 10 bucks for a sit down meal at a theme park Alpengeist is still a 3-4 train wait! The river cruise also offers a nice break during the day Verbolten doing it's thing And this would be my favorite part of Apollo! And we kept on visiting the Black Forest for more. We did experience some break downs, but nothing major! After 4 rides Verbolten really grew on me as I realized what a great family attraction it was. And it still has some cool tricks up its sleeve like the drop track and 2nd launch! ..And then Andrew had the great idea of riding Escape from Pompeii This doesn't look good... Andrew, I hate you. We also finally got on Lochness as the wait dwindled at the end of the day. It had the longest queue for a while! A great view of Griffon from Lochness' exit How's it going Drachen Fire? One more ride on Verbolten before we head out I can see this ride really coming to life at night, too bad the park closed early! We did have time to hit up Apollo one more time on the way back! Still running 3 trains without stacking really Thanks BGW for a great day! Low crowds, beautiful weather, great ops, and a working Verbolten! Oh yeah, we made one more stop on our way out of town Python Pit! This credit has eluded me for years haha Cha ching! 3 new credits today and 1 amazing park visit KD, DW, and Hershey next!!! Edited July 24, 2012 by Jakizle Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SharkTums Posted July 16, 2012 Share Posted July 16, 2012 You are such a coaster dork! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
QueerRudie Posted July 16, 2012 Share Posted July 16, 2012 Great pictures, Jake... and may I be the first to say it: WHORE! Nessie still looks amazing after all these years, too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jakizle Posted July 16, 2012 Author Share Posted July 16, 2012 You are such a coaster dork! You're welcome! Great pictures, Jake... and may I be the first to say it: WHORE! Nessie still looks amazing after all these years, too. And Proud! And Nessie was smooth as hell too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xVicesAndVirtues Posted July 17, 2012 Share Posted July 17, 2012 I love that you have a Mazda3 Great TR, I've really got to get out to BGW to check out Verbolten! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nyteowl Posted July 17, 2012 Share Posted July 17, 2012 Great PTR Garbels! Looking forward to meeting you on Leviathon . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cfc Posted July 17, 2012 Share Posted July 17, 2012 Did Mach Tower ever run while you two were there? (I can't remember.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The49er Posted July 17, 2012 Share Posted July 17, 2012 BGW looks fun and all, but seriously: Disneyland is prettier Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Swimace Posted July 17, 2012 Share Posted July 17, 2012 Did Mach Tower ever run while you two were there? (I can't remember.) Yep, it was running; Jake rode it while I went and ate snacks. Great TR! Less coasters and more pictures of me please! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jakizle Posted July 17, 2012 Author Share Posted July 17, 2012 How could I forget about Mach Tower??? It was terrifying as the entire ride vehicle circle thing shook like crazy the entire way down haha. I'll try to update tomorrow!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rollin_n_coastin Posted July 17, 2012 Share Posted July 17, 2012 Such a great place to be! How was Griffin riding? I think it's my favorite ride there Nessie is just a ton of classic in one spot..so much fun. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cal1br3tto Posted July 17, 2012 Share Posted July 17, 2012 I didn't realize South of the Border looked quite so terrifying. BGW does look amazing, though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
esvadj Posted July 17, 2012 Share Posted July 17, 2012 Great trip report. Looking forward to the rest. We have been to Dutch Wonderland every year for the past 4, but I am going to miss it this year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jakizle Posted July 18, 2012 Author Share Posted July 18, 2012 Our original plan was to spend all day Saturday at Hershey, but decided to move it to Sunday for lesser crowds and hit KD on Saturday with fast lane. This would also allow us to hit up Dutch Wonderland Saturday night, and in addition...close out the night at Hersheypark! They said it couldn't be done, but....we did it! Will post in 2 parts. Our morning started with breakfast at Burger King across from KD, which had a Freestyle machine! Great start to the day First time back to KD since my first visit in 08. I hated the park back then and had MUCH better expectations this time around Of course getting Fast Lane helps out with your day a lot. I recommend stopping here first! Ride List for Fast Lane Even though I wad dieing to ride i305, we decided to stop here first Fast Land has it's own secret backdoor entrance. They say you can only ride twice but they didn't mark our wristband or anything! I guess it depends on the employee/time of day? Fast lane is amazing! They let you board in the unload area and you ride up to the load area by yourselves (NERD moment). The ride was pretty good too but the same as I remembered. Finally it was time for I305! I have been waiting to ride this for years Ride entrance Fast Lane is so amazing a guy dressed like he is important walks you to the loading station. One train waits for fast lane First ride = back seat! This would end up to be by far the best spot to ride this bad boy. It also helped they were running 2 trains on this BEAUTIFUL day! My first (and every ride for that matter) blew me away!!! Insane pos g's, airtime, transitions, speed, etc. AMAZING! These transitions are engineered beautifully. So smooth and fast and filled with forces! Took a break to ride FoF. Full queue? No problem! This was a nice break from the balls out insanity of I305...and it was much better than the KI crap I rode last month. More I305 please. Time to try the front. Still a one train wait for us! The front had great views and offered a nice variation of forces compared to the back, but was a bit inferior. Such a massive lift hill...but climbed so fast. My favorite photo of the day. Way to go iphone! After a mini marathon of like 8 rides or so, we checked out a bit of the park that was new from last time. This would be my first Windseeker experience, as KI's was still under construction a few weeks prior Going up 300' in this little thing was sort of terrifying! But it was relaxing once you got up there. Thumbs up for Windseeker! Since Fast Lane would allow me to skip this line...why not??? Still one of the, if not the best drop around. Shockwave was closed my last and only visit, and didn't open until about 1pm this time around but I decided to wait it out for my credit. This is an interesting system While the ride basically sucked, at least they tried hard to get it open (it kept breaking down like crazy, even once they tried to open it) and it looked nice with all the touch ups ...and lets finish our time here with more i305! Me and my new #1 coaster out of 450! Still can't get over how insanely good this was. It was hard to say goodbye to i305, but after like 10 rides we had more to conquer today. We decided to hit up Dominator on the way out I really do hate how they placed this in the park :/ The queue was all the way back to the entrance. Thanks fast lane!!! Yeah, no thanks. Dominator was much more enjoyable this time around than last. No headbanging and I was actually able to have fun with the weird layout. Love this fast turn after the loop! Time to head out from KD but we had a GREAT visit. In 3.5 hours we rode all the majors, got our missing credits (Andrew got his other Rebel yell while I got Shockwave) and we had a mini marathon on I305! I also got a new favorite coaster. How would SkyRush compare??? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A.J. Posted July 18, 2012 Share Posted July 18, 2012 Fast lane is amazing! They let you board in the unload area and you ride up to the load area by yourselves (NERD moment). The ride was pretty good too but the same as I remembered. I'm curious as to how the system works, on Volcano in particular - I personally love the front seat especially on inverted coasters, and I'd get kind of peeved if I waited really long and every train that stopped in front of me had Fast Lane users sitting in the front row. Were there a lot of Fast Lane users that day? Also, were Fast Lane users just worked into the regular queues on the other attractions? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jakizle Posted July 18, 2012 Author Share Posted July 18, 2012 Fast lane is amazing! They let you board in the unload area and you ride up to the load area by yourselves (NERD moment). The ride was pretty good too but the same as I remembered. I'm curious as to how the system works, on Volcano in particular - I personally love the front seat especially on inverted coasters, and I'd get kind of peeved if I waited really long and every train that stopped in front of me had Fast Lane users sitting in the front row. Were there a lot of Fast Lane users that day? Also, were Fast Lane users just worked into the regular queues on the other attractions? On Volcano they told us to sit in the "3rd or 4th row." As for the other coasters, you were allowed to enter the station and go right to choosing your row while the regular queue was held back from entering the station. On Drop Tower and Wind Seeker you were priority over any other rider and guaranteed a spot in the next cycle! We didn't see too many other Fast Lane users but keep in mind we left at 2pm as the Memorial Day Weekend crowds rolled in. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cfc Posted July 18, 2012 Share Posted July 18, 2012 Shockwave is a pain--in more ways than one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jakizle Posted July 18, 2012 Author Share Posted July 18, 2012 So after leaving KD we made the trek up to Dutch Wonderland and made great time! The park closed at 8pm so we were nervous but ended up making it sometime between 5-6. We only hit like 15 minutes of Washington DC traffic! And with Hershey being only 40 minutes away, we realized we could totally pick up our tickets and use the preview option to ride SkyRush at night on opening day! Hooray for I305 and SkyRush in one day Arriving at Dutch Wonderland! I nominate this for having the weirdest location and parking lot ever. What? The park is closed??? Obviously the park wasn't closed, as the castle was open for business. Once you pass through, the park actually has a nice "real" entry plaza The far end of Kingdom Coaster greets you, but it's quite the walk to find the entrance to this thing! We were sort of lost at this point. After wandering for 10 minutes (srs) we found it! Kingdom Coaster was very cute! Our first ride was in the back seat. It has some nice pops and was pretty fun for it's size! Uber smooth too Right next door was the park's kiddie coaster. I was nervous because it was missing from the website! Overview Longest line in the park! haha. Anyways, cha ching! Time for another spin on walk-on Kingdom Coaster Just incase you didn't know, this was the first ever CCI. Lift hill porn. View from the top First drop fun...and you can see the first half of the layout. Take the tunnel!?! This ride actually has airtime hills!?! The drop under the monorail was very surprising in the back! It was then time to explore the rest of the park Random boat ride to nowhere ...and random paths with no fences haha I like the random farm behind the park, even though the park is located on a very busy street in a shopping center. We were looking for this, a truly hidden gem in this park! Homemade mad house!!! It really was disorienting! The park is also home to an original simulator ride! There she is in all her glory And this would be the inside. Love the tv screen mounted to the wall that just plays a dvd!!! Last but not least we wanted to check out the boat dark ride that wasn't a dark ride. these would be the boats And this would be most of the ride. The end of the ride is terrifying. Why? Because of this mysterious egg in the cave. Thanks for a fun quirky (yet expensive) experience Dutch Wonderland! 45 minutes later we arrived at the land of chocolate The preview option for tickets is an amazing thing. We thank you Hershey ooh, what is this new Intamin thing right at the front??? SkyRush! I immediately fell in love with the ride's location. First drop lookin' juicy One more look before we ride We were pleased to find the wait to be only 45 minutes on opening day! First impression from the queue = world's fastest lift hill! AND we rode I305 this morning haha The station was packed with excitement hearing reports of insanity from earlier in the day led us to the back seat These things are a crazy failure. And boy were they right! SkyRush is absolutely insane. The airtime is so ridiculous and probably the strongest in the world. I prefer I305 overall but the airtime is ludicrous. Oh yeah, the first drop ejection halfway down is the craziest thing ever We also had time to run over for a night ride on Storm Runner! Can't go wrong with a 2 train wait...unless the ride ops are as slow as death:/ The front is the way to go on Storm Runner. The tophat, loop, and final element are a lot of fun but the flying snake dive is one of the coolest elements out there. Love it! Heading back into the Hollow to end the night. We will see you tomorrow Great Bear! Hershey's woodies look incredible at night, but... We are here to ride SkyRush! We ended the night with another back row ride on one of the day's last trains. What a great way to end SkyRush's opening day and one of the best days for coasters ever! The flying train is in there somewhere! Finished the day with a new #1 and #2 steel coaster, which I never thought would happen. Can't wait for a full park day tomorrow! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paiging_jen Posted July 18, 2012 Share Posted July 18, 2012 Astroliner may be the greatest simulator ever! That rocking back and forth is intense when coupled with the amazing graphics on the tv. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The49er Posted July 18, 2012 Share Posted July 18, 2012 All in one day? Yeesh! Ever heard of the guy who rode 15-20 rides at one American main Disneyland park before flying to the other and riding the same rides? That's the extreme version of what you did... Nice TR overall! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chadster Posted July 18, 2012 Share Posted July 18, 2012 I will admit I am impressed with how CF operates fastlane, just no so impressed that it's a flat fee across the chain with the exception of CP. Hopefully they fine tune that next year. Oh, and damn you for visiting Dutch Wonderland. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Meteornotes Posted July 18, 2012 Share Posted July 18, 2012 I cannot believe this thing is still operating! dt Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SharkTums Posted July 18, 2012 Share Posted July 18, 2012 Did the Astroliner still have the burned in 'DVD' Image on the TV? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sir Clinksalot Posted July 18, 2012 Share Posted July 18, 2012 Awesome stuff Jake. Hopefully our experiences at these parks will be just as awesome in a few weeks!!! Ever heard of the guy who rode 15-20 rides at one American main Disneyland park before flying to the other and riding the same rides? That's the extreme version of what you did... There have been quite a few people who have done this, it's not really that hard. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jakizle Posted July 18, 2012 Author Share Posted July 18, 2012 Yeah, as they spend just as much time flying as we did driving for something like this...it was a really fun day if you don't mind just spending a few hours at each park like we did KD and DW, it just depends on what goals you have in mind (like we just wanted to ride i305 really). I'm going to be really busy the next few days with school, work, and moving, but I will try to post the full Hershey day ASAP! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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