TR: Middle America Road Trip

[andybarnes84]

Hi all,

 

Just back from a couple of weeks driving 2700 miles from Chicago all the way down to Atlanta and back visiting many of the best parks on offer in the middle states. Unfortunately my camcorder packed up on day 1 of the trip and I felt little inspiration to photograph the trip via phone so i'll just summarise what we did and observations as to not bore you all. I'd just like to thank all those on here for inspiring us to do another road trip after reading all your excellent trip reports and constant discussion. I'm not sure when we'll next feel the need to do so much driving, perhaps Florida is calling next for some downtime...

 

May 12th - 13th: Chicago

Had a couple days of "culture", highlight definitely the Wendella boat cruise which although slightly pricey was more than worth it. Found the city to have a very different vibe to NYC and very walkable.

 

May 14th: Six Flags Great America 7/10

Really not sure what to make of this park, didn't seem as impressive as Great Adventure or Magic Mountain and also lacked any sort of character like SFOG, very generic with some good attractions but not enough to impress for such a major location near Chicago. What does work for the park is the intensity of the coasters on offer. I have never had what I would consider an "intense" ride on a wing coaster but X-Flight was incredible. I'm not quite sure how this is possible but it ran like the Batman of wing coasters, very heavy G's throughout until the final brake run, couple of grey-outs, hugely impressed! It's just a shame it's other variants are so tame. Raging Bull was fun, with pops of airtime on the drops out of the turns but this is certainly more of a twister type hyper rather than pure airtime. Another highlight was Whizzer, some really decent G's and nostalgia made for an impressive slice of history and a better than expected experience. Everything else was kinda "meh", American Eagle was fun too though. Thankfully I was mentally prepared for having to stare at Goliath *almost complete* prior to arriving as to avoid any negative feelings.

 

May 15th: Holiday World 8/10

Very greatful for the free entry event held by Paula and everyone at Holiday World, it was a fantastic chilled out day despite my g/f and I feeling not too great after a couple nights of broken sleep and struggling to adjust to the time difference. Sorry to all on here for not saying hi, I think I recognised a few of you but my typically British reserved nature got the better of me. What a fantastic little park, not that "little" is any way intended to undermine the quality of attractions on offer, but with the water park closed I can see half a day being sufficient. For us, we preferred Raven over Legend (which has crazy laterals and is amazing if you're really into that), but obviously the Voyage is just an incredible stand out ride, and surprisingly for a U.S. park, completely untamed and very, very wild. This coaster has left an overwhelmingly positive impression, it has to be the ultimate wooden coaster in the World and has made me re-evaluate just how seriously I can consider RMC and even Intamin (versions such as El Toro) to be the same type of coaster. I couldn't believe how the Voyage seems to get faster and more vicious towards the end, i'm just beeming as I type this thinking back to my rides on it. The new ride tease was fun and it's always positive to see such effort put into these campaigns from smaller independent parks. Once again huge thanks to Paula and all, especially for free buffet dinner too.

 

May 16th: Nashville

Cool small feel city, was impressed by the Broadway and the general friendliness and cleanliness of the place, 3 hours was ok for us as a brief stop but obviously there is so much to do. We also stopped by the Jack Daniels Distillery Tour in Lynchburg which was really great, couldn't believe it was free and yet run as professionally as it was with so much to see, one of the trip highlights!

 

May 17th: Atlanta

World of Coca Cola was great, well worth the $16 entry. Very well done, obviously just a giant advert for a drink that we all know we should cut down on but what the heck, you roll with it. Managed to taste all 60 (?) flavours at the end with the obligatory Beverly of course. CNN centre was nice to just pop in and have something in the food court, then we headed over to the Martin Luther King historic site and stumbled upon a talk in the basement of the Ebenezer Church which was pretty special. Very interesting city indeed and one I'd like to return to for more.

 

May 18th: Six Flags Over Georgia 9/10

Very nice park, as scenic as it gets with SF I suppose, all the positive reviews are true. Again, once you've been to the biggest parks it's easy to feel a little short changed with the range of attractions after taking the obligatory clones out of the mix, but there are some gems here, Goliath has most certainly become my favourite B&M Hyper. It was running fantastically with just the right amount of intensity and airtime. Dare Devil Dive was great too but the line went painfully slowly especially as Flash Pass was in full swing. Mind Bender was running well and I hope they continue to keep it going as long as possible. It was also the first time I've been on a Batman clone in quite a while and they are still as good as ever, great compact design and G's throughout which continues to exceed the quality of most recent inverts. Strangely perhaps, the GASM was probably my second favourite at the park, just a great old woodie with a stunning location over the water and nicely hidden at the back of the park.

 

May 19th: Dollywood 9.5/10

What a place, believe the reviews! This park left a great impression and one we'll certainly make every effort to return to. It helps that it's in such a beautiful location, although i'm happy to have stayed in Gatlinburg rather than the strip in Pigeon Forge, not that it's bad or anything, just "very I-Drive". I couldn't really fault any of the coasters, Thunderhead was relentless although not quite in my all time top favourites, Tennessee Tornado was probably the best Arrow looper I've ridden with great forces and a unique layout although a bit short. Firechaser Express was better than expected after reading indifferent reviews, certainly not a kiddie coaster and yet just the right amount of forces and pops of airtime as to not scare anyone from riding again, great location, theme and layout, well done Dollywood! Frustrating to hear many say it wasn't as exciting as expected despite it's age appropriate marketing but you'll always get that with any new family coaster. Wild Eagle had an AMAZING crew, great station, again great location but perhaps not quite as intense as they could run it, but much better than Gatekeeper. Mystery Mine was very unique, not nearly as intense as Saw at Thorpe but still fun and really loved the effects for the second drop. Blazing Fury was a great "older" attraction which has been well kept and the finale was very entertaining. Contraversially I didn't think the cinnamon bread was *that* amazing when you can go to Cinnabon and have something even more intense but I would obviously have it again. Great buffet lunch at Mrs Lillian's, was chased around by Mrs Lillian herself with the banjo when getting some soft drinks which I won't forget in a hurry.

 

May 20th: Kings Island 6/10

As much as I appreciate the cleanliness of Cedar Fair parks, the blandness of this park cannot be ignored. Very open, lots of tarmac and generic buildings, not a fan to be honest. However two reasons for coming here, Diamondback and Banshee. My expectations of Diamondback were slightly exceeded, perhaps not the most intense B&M Hyper but certainly not the least. I just don't like the trains. Banshee however was a dissapointment I'm afraid, having read alot of positive buzz, I was confronted with a station made out of Duplo, a rattling train with tight restraints (just like the newer hyper train design, I'm also not a fan of these wing rider style restaints) and a generally gracious ride but certainly not what I could call forceful or intense other than the interesting final helix and a good zero-g roll. Such a shame, but maybe it just deserves more of my attention in the future to get a different opinion. I'll stick with the Dragons and Montu for now. What did exceed my hopes however was The Beast. The clue is in the name I suppose but I never expect a wooden coaster "of age" to provide an intense ride. This thing is truly untamed, nuts, and fast. I won't forget the left turn in the tunnel after the second lift hill any time soon! It's just not right for such a coaster to go as fast as it does, if you like your fair share of laterals get on this thing if you haven't already. Positively surprised and slightly whiplashed, quite a "random" gem of a coaster.

 

May 21st and 22nd: Cedar Point 9/10

Not going to state the obvious about this World leading park, but our visit was as great as ever, other than a bird depositing a generally large amount of recycled food upon my Dollywood Tee, is this place ever quiet though? I couldn't bring myself to pay the $80 for fastlane plus, I'm originally Scottish you see. Maverick warrants it's queue length, what a crazy crazy wicked thing it is, the Voyage of steel coasters. Millenium Force didn't impress me as much as before which was a shame, however TTD once it got over it's morning strop didn't dissapoint. Gemini always sticks a smile on my face as does Magnum, and I have no idea if I'd lost my mind but I actually kind of enjoyed my ride on the Streak. The park is Disney clean which is fantastic and long may it continue. Gatekeeper, sorry but this thing doesn't live up to it's impressive stature, we tried our best to enjoy it but alas no such luck.

 

May 23rd: Detroit

Had to see this city, and found it to be predictably sad and fascinating at the same time. You get a real sense that huge efforts are being made to turn it around, was very surreal and sombering driving through Grosse Pointe and then 5 mins later through the area where the Heidelberg Project is. Ren Cen cool, Detroit People Mover had an 80's Epcot vibe, Henry Ford Museum pretty good but the Rouge Tour was fantastic. Buddy's Pizza so good we had it twice.

 

May 24th: Indiana Beach 8/10

Please support this park, we both loved it's rugged charm and only hope to visit again soon. Oddly not hugely impressed with Cornball Express but I don't believe it was running nearly as fast as it could. Lost Coaster of ...etc was shut too. Other than that, great "oldskool" place with a reasonably priced entry fee and warm feel. You can tell that so many employees are happy to be there and I only hope that the park has a great season and it's fortunes are turned around.

 

That's pretty much all we acheived, it's fair to say we're a little exhausted. I'll summarise:

 

Top 3 woodies of the trip: 3. GASM 2. Thunderhead 1. The Voyage

Top 3 steel coasters of the trip: 3. Diamondback 2. TTD 1. Goliath

Biggest dissapointments: 3. Cornball Express 2. Gatekeeper 1. Banshee

Biggest surprise: 3. Firechaser Express 2. The Beast 1. X-Flight

Park to re-visit sooner than later: Dollywood

Park to re-visit later than sooner: Kings Island

 

I hope I haven't bored you all and thanks again for making this trip possible with all the discussion and advice that makes this site what it is.

Edited May 29, 2014 by andybarnes84

[Superbatboy]

Glad someone has similar thoughts regarding Kings Island, it's like you feel the Cedar Fair influence at KI but in a bad way. The whole time I was there I felt like the park probably had a much different feel while under the Paramount umbrella. And yes the Beast is WILD!! I could only handle it once

[PKI Jizzman]

A nice read! I would have loved to meet a TPR member at Holiday World, there seemed to have been many "ex" TPR members and only a few of us active members there. It was a fantastic day. Completely agree with you about Banshee, although I really enjoyed the ride. Didn't really think it was a disappointment. Although I never thought about Kings Island being a bland park, the Rivertown area has slowly faded away and so has the Oktoberfest section. Meh.