Photo TR: Condor's Continuing Showcase of the Amusements!

[Condor]

Islands of Adventure

Thursday September 29 and Sunday October 2, 2016

 

After riding Gringotts and Mummy over at Studios, we disembarked the Hogwarts Express into IOA shortly after opening. First up was Skull Island: Reign of Kong with a five minute wait that meant I had to bypass the by now famous queue line that some say might be better than the ride. Well that had to be some queue because I thought the ride was actually pretty good! Sure Kong is the quintessential example of the “park you in front of a giant movie screen and rock the vehicle a bit” dark ride I just finished criticizing and I won’t attempt to defend it. It’s both a case of entering with modest expectations and the fact that I’m a person who chose to adorn my living room wall with a six foot high, framed poster of the original 1933 King Kong film.

 

Next up was a couple rides on new Hulk. The old Hulk was always an afterthought in B&M’s portfolio to me, but for a number of reasons the rebuilt version really impressed me. Speaking of impressive, this was also my first time to experience The Amazing Adventures of Spider Man with the improved HD projections. I think this is still the best dark ride Universal has and now it’s even better.

 

I am not and never have been a water ride person. If I want to get wet, I’ll go to a water park. I’ve been on all three of IOA’s water rides in the past and they’re some of the best of their type. But I prefer the Knott’s Timber Mountain Log Ride variety that doesn’t soak you, so ones like Dudley Do-Right’s Ripsaw Falls or especially Popeye & Bluto Bilge Rat Barges are usually no goes for me on all but the hottest summer days. And Jurassic Park is fun, but it couldn’t overcome the magnetism of a pair of excellent B&M inverted coasters pulling me around the next corner.

 

Dueling Dragons have been my favorite Orlando attraction for years and we rode them twice each the first day and four times each the second. The transition to Dragon Challenge has never bothered me the way it does others. Of course I’d rather Universal let up on their chronically risk averse policies and let them duel again, but the dueling aspect only really made a difference in the front row and I almost always ride in back. I feel similarly about Twisted Colossus. I read some reviews where people are just beside themselves over how much less fun they supposedly have when it doesn’t duel. It’s not a big issue to me. The RMC airtime and everything else is unchanged, dueling or not. The same applies to Dragon Challenge.

 

After a round of butter beer we hit the single rider line for Forbidden Journey, my pick for the second best dark ride on Universal property. By then it was time to head back to Studios to prepare for night one of HHN, so we rode Hulk once more on the way out and called it a day. Our second day at IOA was much the same as the first so a play-by-play isn’t necessary.

 

As someone who enjoys ranking all my favorite parks and coasters and their various sub-types, it’s a little irritating that I have a hard time figuring out how to place Islands of Adventure. I want to look at the sum of its parts and declare it the strongest all-around park in Florida. It has the best of everything from great coasters to elite dark rides, plenty to do for younger kids, and mostly good theming. But I always have this weird feeling when I’m in the park that this image is a façade and not its true reality. I have a few theories as to why:

 

(1) Disney’s shadow looms large over Marvel Super Hero Island. Despite the agreement in place over Universal’s rights to usage and the fact that they just REBUILT The Hulk, something feels like it’s screaming, “This won’t last!” This is obviously purely psychological and in reality nothing is likely to change, but it exists in a more tangible sense elsewhere in the park. Such as… (2) Seuss Landing. It probably won’t ever be in store for new attractions and The Cat in the Hat dark ride is not up to Universal’s standards. It feels cheap and rushed and could use an overhaul. Plus I wonder about the relevance of the Seuss characters today outside of the Grinch. Dr. Seuss only has one book left in the top 30 best-selling kids’ books for 2015 and it’s a coloring book. Universal doesn’t utilize them as park mascots the same way that Disney does either. (3) Much of what was said about Seuss Landing could also apply to Toon Lagoon. Disney gets away with letting themed areas go largely untouched for years and even decades because the themes are often timeless, unlike Universal which tends to rely instead on the “timeliness” of its IPs to create compelling attractions. Who honestly has an attachment to any of the characters used in this land, even Dudley Do-Right or Popeye? I bet the number is very small. But then again I’m quite sure most people have even less of a connection to characters like Br’er Rabbit and that hasn’t harmed Splash Mountain’s ridership, so maybe this isn’t even a problem. (4) Jurassic Park might as well be called “Temperate Rainforest Island” because the presence of anything dinosaurian is so hidden. The amount if greenery is great, but there’s so much of it that it can at times feel like a placeholder for new exhibits or attractions we’re still waiting on. (5) The specter of Dragon Challenge’s rumored demise. Above all else at IOA, for me these two coasters have always been the anchors. I would liken it to Disney Parks removing any of their Space Mountains. Sure your enjoyment of the remaining attractions would theoretically be unchanged, but a key piece would be missing and its loss might dampen enthusiasm about the rest of the park for many people. Hopefully it doesn’t go anywhere and all this sentimentalizing is for nothing. (6) The remainder of the Lost Continent is like IOA’s vestigial organ. As much as I like the theme, with no major rides remaining or likely coming, all it does is serve as a reminder that the park is still in a great state of flux.

 

I don’t know which of these two perspectives is more accurate, if either. It just feels weird to find myself constantly going back and forth between them on my way around the park.

 

Reviews:

 

The Incredible Hulk (x5)

I always thought the old Hulk was the weakest B&M in Florida and it drove me crazy to see it ranked #1 by Discovery Channel voters and other polls a decade ago. It often rode rougher than its contemporaries and I felt the layout was all style with no forces to give it substance. I couldn’t feel more differently about the new one. Maybe what’s changed is me, after all the layout/track profile is exactly the same. I’ve tripled my credit count since last riding Hulk in 2011 so it might be that I’ve learned to appreciate things in coasters that I didn’t before. I can only state my observations and unlike the old Hulk, the new one had me graying out in the cobra roll and not recovering vision until after the first vertical loop. I found it smooth and intense all the way to the end. The post MCBR section still isn’t great, but like the first half, the maneuvers felt packed with g-forces I didn’t remember. I love that I love this coaster now. (8/10)

 

Fire Dragon (x6)

Long my second favorite inverted coaster and still my favorite coaster in Orlando (only Kumba tops it if we include Tampa). It’s the perfect B&M looper in so many ways, only lacking a zero-g-roll to make it complete, but I suppose they had to leave something for Ice. The pacing and flow from one element to the next is perfect and without the formulaic repetition seen in other inverts. The wraparound Immelmann is in my all-time pantheon of great inversions with Tatsu’s pretzel loop, Montu’s batwing, Storm Runner’s flying snake dive, Iron Rattler’s zero-g-roll, and Montezooma’s vertical loop. The snap at the top is great and it just piles on the positive g’s from there. (9/10)

 

Ice Dragon (x6)

I used to rank Ice well below Fire in the middle tier of inverts like Great Bear, Talon, and (for me) Banshee. But like Hulk, I found more to like about it this time. The first drop has more of a kick to it than Fire’s does and it has one of those ultra-fast zero-g-rolls where the rate of rotation alone feels like it wants to throw you from the train and the cobra roll is one of the few that I really enjoy. Ice suffers in comparison to Fire with its ending. It kind of meanders back to the station through a pair of banked turns where Fire dives low to the ground to finish with a second snappy corkscrew. (8/10)

 

Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey (x2)

As I alluded to earlier, I think this is by far the superior Potter ride. Where Gringott’s feels like riding a hovercraft to a series of mini-movies, Forbidden Journey is a complete experience that expertly blends a thrilling motion ride with screen projections and a whole host of animatronics and other physical props. It’s a tough call between this and Spider Man for me, even though I know next to nothing about the Potterverse. (9/10)

 

Skull Island: Reign of Kong (x2)

Here’s where I contradict myself because all Kong is, is a giant wrap-around mini-movie. However, it’s a “giant mini-movie” uniquely suited to me because I grew up with giant monster films. Godzilla and King Kong are like my Star Wars and Batman and I pray to the amusement park gods every day that Universal finds a way to replace T2:3D with a Godzilla dark ride (Who would the amusement park gods actually be anyway? Walt Disney for sure. LaMarcus Thompson? Fred Church? Ed Morgan? Angus Wynne? Anton Schwarzkopf?). The wraparound projection screen is more immersive than anything on Gringott’s and the digital Kong looks even better than he did in Peter Jackson’s film that is somehow already eleven years old. The animatronic Kong is great too, but feels more like a Kongfrontation homage than a natural part of the new ride. I wish they could have incorporated it into the action somehow. (7/10 + 1 for my Kong fanboyism)

 

The Amazing Adventures of Spider Man (x2)

I risk getting too repetitive with all my talk of blending screen projections with physical environments and the motion of ride vehicles, so I’ll just say that Spider Man does all of it better than any other. It’s still the blueprint the rest are trying to follow. (10/10)

Have I been wrong about Hulk all along or is the new one actually better?

All I care is that this one is awesome!

Hulk’s New for 2016 Gray-Out Zone.

“I can’t see anythiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiing!”

I really dig the new zero car design.

This coaster was the worst choice to fill with sand. The B&M roar is just so… hulky.

Not exactly a HHN costume, is it?

Still the best dark ride I’ve been on.

It’s so nice to be able to count Hulk among my favorite steel coasters now.

No B&M looper starts stronger.

I don’t usually like cobra rolls much. For all their visual pomp, the rider experience doesn’t live up. IOA happens to have two of the good ones.

No lie, I honestly forgot Dr. Doom was even in the park until looking at this picture. I didn’t think about it once the whole time I was there.

I hear there are VOLUMES written about this place.

They make a great backdrop for Hogsmeade.

One of the most intense inversions ever built. Look at that snap at the top. Nowadays they’d design it so that you already bank 25 degrees before even reaching the peak.

Some angles remind you of just how much open space IOA still has.

Foliage has grown up nicely around the back of the castle. It used to be that from Jurassic Park you could easily see the plain white show building hanging out in the open above the tree line. Now it’s much more hidden.

I’m a regular, non-frozen butter beer purist.

No dueling? No problem. They’re still great on their own.

Like all the 1990s B&Ms, both of them absolutely haul through the entire course.

But Fire feels like it hauls just a little bit more.

Some of the old photo ops from the Dueling Dragons days are now gone, obstructed by buildings or trees. There are plenty of new ones from the train station and some classics like this still remain.

Lots of near-empty trains to be found at all of the parks I visited this week.

B&M invert trains are so much more interesting to photograph than sitdown or floorless ones.

I forgot how much of these coasters are over water.

Two of the all-time great coaster straightaways. If there are any all-time great coaster straightaways.

[Condor]

Busch Gardens Tampa

Friday September 30, 2016

 

I remember one of my visits to BGT back during my time in the WDW college program in 2009. One guy in the group I visited with was a drama queen who spent all day railing on how terrible he thought the park was. He was full-on Disney cast member intoxicated in the worst way and was just beside himself how unlike Disney, he could see buildings from the outside world while in the park, that there were no ride operators assigning rows, and that employees weren't going out of their way to socialize and interact with guests enough, and how there was no equivalent to Disney's pin trading. I bring this up because as much as I hated the guy’s harping on the employees, there was perhaps a grain of truth to it. In my experience the BGT staff have never been generic Six Flags lazy, but always lagged behind their colleagues at Disney and Universal. However, on this visit in 2016 I found them to be pretty good! The park was not busy at all, but the ride ops always ran at least two trains on everything and pumped them out as fast as possible despite rarely having a line. All of the staff I dealt with were great.

 

Wait. Except for the Howl-O-Scream bartender that had apparently never served a drink before. I asked for a rum and coke and the guy poured the coke in first with no ice then simply dumped the shot of Captain on top and handed it to me like nothing was wrong. He sucked.

 

We arrived just before opening after the drive from Orlando and went straight to Cobra’s Curse which immediately broke down. Okay, good, we’ll just go next door to Montu then. Wait, no, it’s not open yet either. Still testing. So things didn’t start out great, but Cheetah Hunt was close and we got right on with a one train wait and the day was pretty great from that point on.

 

I had forgotten how much I liked Cheetah Hunt. Over time I let myself believe it was less thrilling than it actually is and it slipped from my top 50 steel coasters for a while (I keep track of steel up to 50 and wood up to 20). It instantly reminded me of how Intamins don’t all need to be intensity monsters to be world class rides and Cheetah Hunt now resides comfortably in my #33 spot. In the Blackpool thread someone brought up how their 2018 Mack launcher has definite Cheetah Hunt vibes. After riding it again and comparing the video, I think this is exactly right.

 

Then it was time for Cobra’s Curse. Busch did an excellent job with the presentation of this one. It’s the equal of Sheikra and Cheetah Hunt in this regard. Spinners of any kind aren’t my preferred type of family coaster (except Raton Loco in Mexico City—that one is awesome) because the spinning element is rarely used to its full benefit and that is again the case here. But it’s a popular idea and people love them, so in Cobra’s Curse BGT has a people pleaser that looks fantastic and is worth at least one ride per visit when I go. Great addition even if it’s not my kind of thing.

 

Next up was Montu, a ride I always struggle to make up my mind about. On paper it should probably be in my top ten because it’s supposed to have everything I look for in a steel coaster, but there's something about it that's hard to place and keeps it just outside my close circle of favorites. I haven’t seen Montu with a line in years and we rode three times before moving on to Pantopia to ride the hugely impressive Falcon’s Fury. First of all, this area of the park looks great. An impressive new ride and a flashy coat of paint can do wonders for a stale, old section. As for Falcon’s Fury, once this thing tilted it became the first time since my first ride on Top Thrill Dragster in 2004 that I was actually alarmed on a ride. It was genuinely scary and then genuinely euphoric once it dropped. A fantastic drop tower and exactly what BGT needed.

 

Kumba was calling. Even though it’s the oldest non-Disney major coaster in Central Florida, it’s still the king. It’s crazy to think how two decades of B&M loopers can trace their DNA to Kumba, yet in the opinions of many enthusiasts, none have topped it. Like Montu, it was a walk-on all day, so we rode it three times to start. I was impressed that the Busch staff let us stay on for consecutive rides when empty seats were available. In 2011 they didn’t allow this.

 

Continuing our circle of the park we arrived at Sheikra for three rides of its own with single train waits. I haven’t been on Valravn yet, so I can’t make everyone’s favorite comparison of the year. I have been on Griffon though, and I maintain that Sheikra is better. Griffon’s second immelmann doesn’t do anything for me and Sheikra just creates this impression of being a natural part of the landscape, like it sprouted out the ground organically one day.

 

Storm clouds were brewing so we walked back to Kumba to ensure at least a few more rides on our park favorite in case the weather turned for the worse. We ended up getting four consecutive, three of them in the rain. There are few things better than riding great coasters in the rain, especially when there’s no wait involved. It can sometimes be an endurance test depending on the severity of the raindrops and speed of the coaster. A few frigid-cold rides with a soaked through t-shirt and no jacket on Millennium Force, and getting pelted in the face with humongous Idaho raindrops on Tremors come to mind. That wasn’t the case this time. Rainy Kumba was just a blast.

 

We also got one ride on Cheetah Hunt in the rain, an almost magical “Rainy-Magic-Hour-Sheikra” experience, and one more lap on Cobra’s Curse before we had to head back to Pantopia to pick up our Howl-O-Scream wristbands that allow you to remain in the park until the event begins. Busch’s wristband system works well for a separate ticketed event. After regular park hours they simply do not let you on any attractions without the wristband. No need to close the park down and re-enter or use holding areas.

 

We hadn’t ridden Scorpion yet and it took us longer still because the whole park shut down due to lightning as soon as we got in line. So we simply sat down and waited it out in the station, chatting with the ride ops. One of them gave me a questionable reason for why Gwazi has not been torn down despite Busch’s initial proclamation that they would do so. He says the wood is soaked in arsenic, which means they cannot legally burn it. Okay. But why would they burn it at all? Scorpion was not among the rides scheduled to stay open during Howl-O-Scream, so we got a little nervous as it grew closer to event time and Scorpion was soon to close without giving us a ride. But they got clearance to reopen with under five minutes to go before closing and we were on one of only two trains dispatched for the rest of the day.

 

I don’t remember the flow of things once HOS started, just that we hit all of the houses except for the shoot-em’-up Zombie Containment Unit 15. It was the only house with a line and that just would not do when there were night rides on Kumba, Montu, and Cheetah Hunt to be had. Oh, and Sand Serpent. It’s a decent night mouse. We rode it.

 

 

Reviews:

 

Kumba (x10)

One thing that makes Kumba so great is how it doesn’t waste a single foot of track. Let’s compare it to Kraken. Both have seven inversions and fairly similar layouts. Kraken is 14 feet taller and 200 feet longer, yet actually does less with its greater track length. Kumba manages to squeeze in an upward helix to cap off the ride where Kraken wastes valuable track with a long, sweeping 180 degree curve from the cobra roll to the MCBR, a slow, drawn-out hill with no airtime, and a long, shallow ramp from the corkscrew to the brakes. Kumba does none of that. Transitions between elements are quick and tight. Every inversion is packed with positive g’s and a few unique features of the layout lend Kumba a personality that began to disappear from B&M designs around 2000. This ride is obviously getting older and there was one rough spot on the pullout from the drop off the MCBR. Otherwise Kumba is still just about perfect. (9.5/10)

 

Montu (x6)

Can some of the BGT regulars help me out here? Is it just me or is Montu not trimmed as heavily as it used to be? I remember trains routinely coming to a near stop on the MCBR and barely crawling through the rest of the course on my 2002-2009 visits. Then in 2011 I noticed the brakes seemed a little more forgiving and the train lost only around half its speed instead of almost all of it. Thankfully it still apparently runs like that today, which means a more intense second half. Some of this may have to do with slightly cooler October weather and the occasional half-empty train. I’ve always really liked Montu, but found it less dynamic than Kumba and my favorite B&M invert, Raptor. Montu is revered for its intensity, though at least to me that’s mostly due to the super forceful batwing. The rest of its inversions lack the snappy character I like that is found all over the place on Kumba, Raptor, and the Fire Dragon. This all probably sounds harsher than how I really feel about Montu. It’s still one of the best B&Ms. (9/10)

 

Cheetah Hunt (x5)

When did this ride lose the flags surrounding the elevated figure-eight? Doesn’t matter. Anyway, Cheetah Hunt walks the fine line between thrill coaster and family coaster better than any other (probably because the balance is weighted about 60/40 in favor of thrill coaster!). As much as I would like it to barrel out of the station and plow through everything like Storm Runner, it just wouldn’t be the right type of experience for this park. Cheetah Hunt is part Maverick-lite and part safari-scenic railway. It’s the ultimate “have fun without straining yourself” coaster. (8/10)

 

Sheikra (x5)

Since I prefer long layouts with real pacing and flow, dive coasters are not my favorite type of B&M. That doesn’t mean they can’t be amazing rides and Sheikra certainly is, just that no dive coaster sits near my top 10 like they do for so many others. If you look at Sheikra element by element, it does a lot of things very well. The first drop just might be my favorite. The view + suspense + ejector airtime is tough to beat. The immelmann is smooth and graceful and the second drop through a tunnel is almost as good as the first. The turnaround leading into the splash pool is nice because it gives you time to reflect and enjoy yourself in the moment before connecting with the water. (8/10)

 

Scorpion (x1)

I really want to be able to rate this one higher as I don’t want to give any Schwarzkopf a middling score. Scorpion is just too limited compared to coasters like Mind Bender or Triple Loop in Mexico. Even the usually awesome Anton vertical loop on this one doesn’t give the gut-wrenching sensation of the loop on Montezooma. But Scorpion’s awkward intensity still has charm. (6/10)

 

Sand Serpent (x1)

An old school mouse that isn’t ruined by trims. That’ll do. Some great lats and even a little sudden airtime to be had. (6/10)

 

Falcon’s Fury (x2)

A near-perfect ride except that you don’t get any airtime once it drops, but that was never the point of this design. This is almost strictly a visual experience and I can’t think of anything that does it better. The only drop rides I like as much are the little ARM-Larson Super Shots and they’re the complete opposite of Falcon’s Fury in every way. (9/10)

 

Cobra’s Curse (x2)

I don’t have much else to add about this one, except that I think it would have been more effective if the cars spun for the whole ride and they didn’t break it up into three sections (forwards, backwards, and spinning). Each segment is over before you really get the chance to enjoy it. (6/10)

 

Houses:

 

Unearthed (x1)

Nice use of Gwazi’s station and queue. A few of the scare actors really got me and I remember it had some nice large-scale, moving props. (8/10)

 

Deathwater Bayou (x2)

I thought this was the best house out of both HOS and HHN. Great, creepy atmosphere, impressive set design, and I got jump-scared more times than any other house this year. Reminds me a lot of the excellent Voodoo house Knott’s has used the last three years, only Deathwater Bayou was darker and more ominous. (9/10)

 

Motel SHellburn (x1)

Another impressive house. I didn’t get startled by anything in this one, but there was more of a story at work and the attention to detail was great even if the scares were just okay. (8/10)

 

Circus of Superstition (x1)

3D clown house. Like I said before, these things are great if you dig all that clown hysteria stuff and actually find it creepy, but it does nothing for me. (4/10)

 

The Black Spot (x1)

I was a little let down with this one. The theme and storyline sounded great, but the sets were weaker than Bayou, Unearthed, or Motel and I thought the scare actors were just going through the motions. (6/10)

 

Zombie Mortuary (x1)

A great concept that I thought could benefit from a little more money and attention. I thought it felt a little more sparse than some of the others. Certain parts of it were evocative of scenes in “The Further” from the first Insidious film. (7/10)

Montu always builds anticipation from the parking lot.

Egypt is much livelier now that it has a second major attraction.

I've never noticed how the two-across Intamin trains have staggered seating. The forward seats of each car are closer together than the rear seats.

Cobra’s Curse is BGT’s most highly themed coaster to date and it looks great.

I don’t know why they had to get so complex with an elevator lift. So many parks/manufacturers insist on complicating ride systems more than necessary and all it leads to is more downtime when a simpler solution would have sufficed. A ride op said the elevator is the number one cause of Cobra downtime.

Decent spinning through here.

Great color scheme too. It blends the Egypt and Edge of Africa areas nicely.

It’s hard to tell unless you view it in profile, but Montu has the most elliptical loop I’ve ever seen.

I love the slight bank to the left in the tunnel following the loop.

The immelmann is huge but not as intense as either of the two on Fire Dragon.

Montu carried nice speed all the way through to the end this year.

One of 4 nice moments of airtime on Cheetah Hunt.

The interaction with bridges, trenches, rivers, and paths is fantastic.

The strongest spot of air is this hill on the return run.

The sneaky barrel roll I always forget about.

This area looks so much nicer as Pantopia than it did as Timbuktu.

After a Google search it looks like Pantopia is a word BGT created. Maybe it's supposed to mean “Pan-African Utopia?”

Loading procedure for Falcon’s Fury was relatively quick.

North America’s tallest and best looking “freestanding” drop tower.

Anton was doing the pre-drop thing waaaaaay before Walter and Claude.

The bulk of the tower blends almost perfectly with the sky.

“As you can see, following the 90 degree drop, immelmann, and MCBR, the large orange and blue coaster proceeds through the tree line into a tight web of helixes and a small vertical loop.”

The polar opposite of Montu’s loop in size and shape.

You don’t see a true, triple-helix very often.

It’s interesting how the tops of the supports actually bisect the spine.

As usual when I come here, Kumba took a giant dump as soon as I got in line.

Dive loop paradise.

Like Sheikra, the way Busch landscaped Kumba makes it feel like an organic part of the landscape.

I love the slight "speed bump" leading into the cobra roll.

The only first drops that equal Sheikra for me are Skyrush, El Toro, Intimidator 305, Millennium Force, and Fury.

This park needs a better beer selection. Sam Oktoberfest is always decent and I tried Florida Brewing True Blonde as well. Not bad.

One of my favorite coaster stations.

Kumba feels like it hardly slows down at all through its inversions.

I decided against taking the ubiquitous “head on interlocking corkscrews” photo this time.

The train loses more speed in the MCBR than I’d like, but the second half is still so intense it barely matters.

One of the scare zones before HOS kicked off. It worked pretty well at night with the fog machines.

Just after our “Rainy Magic Hour Sheikra” experience.

Great airtime up front entering the figure-eight, and in back exiting it.

My favorite haunted house in Florida of 2016. Very impressed with the quality of HOS, this house in particular. The event is not on HHN’s level as a whole, but it is in parts.

Entrance to Deathwater Bayou.

The ghost of Gwazi lives on as a HOS house.

Entrance to The Black Spot.

Nabbed a quick ride near the end of the night on Sand Serpent after Zombie Mortuary.

No better way to finish a day at BGT than a trio of Kumba night rides.

[coasterbill]

Great report! I love everything about this park and completely agree that Death Water Bayou is the best house in the bunch. That playground Merry-Go-Round... what... the... f**k.