PHOTO TR: Holiday World, SF Great America, Indiana Beach

[ParkTrips]

TR time though according to Elissa no one reads mine anyways. Not much to really add other than some photos and comments here and there. Join me now on the way up to IN and at Holiday World.

Edited April 18, 2017 by ParkTrips

[SharkTums]

Die.

 

We had fun, hope you did too!

[larrygator]

Joe - when does this so called job start, sounds like an elaborate excuse to bail out of being my roomie.

 

nice start to your TR - although I'm not a Steak n Shake fan

[BeemerBoy]

Joe, how did you ever survive without a $12.00 slice of pizza?

[ParkTrips]

^ Yeah, that's what Elissa said. I was actually supposed to start Monday but took 3 days off.. I figured if they wouldn't give me 2 weeks they chould at least concede a few days so I don't get shut out completely this summer. Too bad I'm done now 'till at least August

 

$9 pizza combo = reliable, so deal with it

[pkdcoaster]

WOW! Elissa you have really nice Teeth!

 

JEFF

[ParkTrips]

Day 2 - May 16, 2006

Six Flags Great America

Gurnee, IL

 

OK, so I had to sad and pathetic this one. I originally planned on doing just the two Indiana parks, but I added in Great America because of poor weather forecasts for IB on Tuesday. Not bad, it looked like a good park and it totally blew me away!

 

Welcome to Great America, by far my favorite Six Flags park.

 

 

Construction shot awesomeness.

 

 

I <3 Tornado's

 

OK, off into the park right around opening since I was able to get there with little traffic problems. I decided to circle the park even though I knew practically nothing about the park's layout prior to Tuesday. So what's first? Whizzer, of course, after all, I'm a Schwarzkopf fan!

 

 

I rode in the back the first time and was let down. I wouldn't have minded calling it my first coaster, but I just didnt see anything special about it. Oh well, I eneded up trying it again later in the day, still not getting it, but that would pretty much be the extent of an disappointment on this day, so at least I got it out of the way!

 

I ended up over at Viper next, the park's homemade woodie. I loved the three bench choice, and the ride DELIVERED. Huge suprise to me, I really liked it a lot. Reminded me of our Cyclone without the roughness. Oh, how sweet this hill was in the back:

 

 

I got in about 5-6 rides on the day, it just kicked ass! Anywho, off to Raging Bull, the only B&M hyper in the US I haven't ridden yet. I didn't expect much simply because I don't dig the whole speed and twister stuff (re: MM's Goliath) but man, it was weaker than I had imagined! The trim KILLS any chane of air on that hill, leaving you with an awesome first drop (best on the stateside B&M's, at least IMO) and just one or two more nice moments. Darn, what a shame.

 

 

Exclusivity is my middle name. Alas, but I needed a sign to guide me to my next stop.

 

 

What's that, Papa Johns?

 

 

$14 well spent on a slice, breadsticks and a drink

 

 

After taking this photo, I got yelled at by a security officer. I wouldn't have minded it so much if he woul dhave answered my question as to why I can't take photos of Deja vu instead of walking away like an asshole. Perhaps the park doesn't like to acknowledge its existence.. So, what did I do?

 

Anywho... off to ride Demon, which for an Arrow looper was kinda cool! Funky themeing that was pulled off well, decnet ride except for the painfully castrating mid course.

 

 

From there, back to American Eagle, which was rather dull to me sadly. Only one track so only one credit, and this is the only photo I have of the ride:

 

 

Continuing in my circle, I hit Iron Wolf next, the original B&M. It wasn't that bad, it kinda reminded me of Scorcher without the edge that Scorcher has that makes it kick. Still kinda rough though, but not as bad IMO as most make it out to be

 

 

::insert typical "this ones for you Derek" comment::

 

I continued walking towards the other Inverts that aren't green and blue, and noticed something...

 

 

A roller skater, yay another credit!!!! After taking my lap, I ended up at V2. PRetty lame, I just don't find these rides exciting, and the holding brake clunk SUCKED but that's ok.

 

 

 

I then got in line for the original Batman, which had a great setting with well-incorporated water and foliage. Typical BTR, GREAT location.

 

 

BTR through the trees!!!

 

 

Sticking around over there, I also hit up Ragin Cajun, my pathetic 4th Zamperla spinning model but the best to date in my mind, great spinning!

 

 

I like the attempt at theming, much better than an ordinary station.

 

 

At this point, its a credit and nothing more. Very bummed.

 

I think that was all of the credits! Wow, I did them all in less than 3 hours. This thanks in large part to Great America's awesome operations. Multiple trains on everything when most SF parks would shut it down to minimum. they seemed to have staffing issues but took care of that with what appeared to be lifeguards manning some rides. Way to go guys, this is the main reason it jumped so high up my list of parks. also, they kept their theme well unlike many SF parks. OK, for the rest of the day, I rerode Viper, Raging Bull and then did a lot of flats, including...

 

well, Comcast went dead on me, so I will post this for now and finish up tomorrow.

 

- Joe

Edited April 18, 2017 by ParkTrips

[SharkTums]

^Yeah, shame you didn't get on Tatsu...although you do have that wristband!

 

Thanks for showing off your sad and pathetic side! Bummed we couldn't be up there with you but some of us actually work!

[robbalvey]

Dude, I share your same feelings about Whizzer. I just don't "get it."

 

That ride never did anything for me and as much as I like Schwarzkopf's it's one of the ones I wouldn't miss if it were gone.

 

--Robb

[JamesMC]

To me the philosophy of The Whizzer is this:

 

It's like Vanilla- it's not the most exciting flavor, but you would be sad if it were truly gone for good.

 

In coaster terms it's SFGA's version of a mine train- not that spectacular, but the kids like it and it's not a bad pause between the trip from Superman to Viper and Raging Bull. Having said this, (and even with this being my "home" park ((though still 75 miles away)) I would not wait more than 20-30 min at the absolute most for this ride.

[Reon]

Are you serious about Bull? When I used to w atch it on one of those 'worlds greatest coaster videos', I thought it was the greatest thing ever. They need to kill those trims and clone it IMO

[CoasterCrazy]

Great pictures, I love the picture of Elissa!

 

It sucks that Dejavu wasn't open during your visit. I need to visit Great American someday so that I can finally get my final Dejavu credit.

[larrygator]

WOW! Elissa you have really nice Teeth!

 

JEFF

 

I didn't even see any teeth in the picture and I know Joe didn't mean to frame them in his photo.

 

I've got to agree wth you on Whizzer and Raging Bull. I still can't believe in my one visit each to SFGAm, SFMM and SFoG I got on all 3 DejaVu's

[Meteornotes]

Good job taking all those Deja Vu pics! Are there not some line jumpers for that security guard to be yelling at? Seems like some priorities are screwed up there.

 

SFGAm is a great park. I don't get Wizzer either, so don't feel bad. Derek and I did have a good time on it making R. Kelly jokes the entire time, though. Bull is also pretty weak, and probably my least favorite B&M hyper. Viper kicks much ass, and I'd love to be at the park on a dead day to get lots of rides on it.

 

dt

[ParkTrips]

It sucks that Dejavu wasn't open during your visit.

meh, I don't care. I have one down here, it's fun and all but it wasn't the reason I went to the park. I'm not all that bummed that I missed out on the credit...

 

It's like Vanilla- it's not the most exciting flavor, but you would be sad if it were truly gone for good.

Hey, I like Vanilla! Why does it get a bad rep? I'd take Starberry and Vanilla over Chocolate any day

 

Anywho...

 

Ok, continuing with the flats I hit at Great America, first was Orbit, the park's sweet Schwarzkopf Enteprise that was run pretty damn well, kind of like a glimpse of how my park used to run their's.

 

 

After my second Raging Bull ride, I took a ride on Ricochet, an old-school Huss Swing Around that was pretty fun with a nice blend of forces, one of my favorite flats in the park.

 

 

Later in the day, I made the grave mistake of riding the park's Calypso (another Schwarzkopf ). I had never been on one, so I was curious as to the ride and Oh my God!! How sickening, and that doesn't happen to me often

 

 

Continuing around, I did the Wave Swinger in faux-Gotham, which was ran fairly well and had some nice placement of trees. I love swings, so no complaints here.

 

 

Making my way back the the Southwest part of the park, I rode the Columbia Carousel, a disappointment in some ways. The machine was well-kept and pretty damn nice looking, but they ran it WAAAYY too slow.

 

 

For all you carousel geeks out there...

 

 

Still on my way to Viper again, I caught their parade in the afternoon. Again, much better than my homepark's interpretation of the term "parade".

 

 

heh.. wonder where that idea came from?

 

I was going to try the bumper cars, but passed on these:

 

laaaaame

 

 

Those are NOT Joe-approved bumper cars (*take note of Tatsu wristband that took 3 days to get off... THANK YOU Missez TUMZ )

 

I also ended up riding their Joker (I don't remember what they called it) and it was pretty sweet as I expected, I really dig those sort of rides.

 

Overall, I still can't get over the quality of the park. A nice set of coasters, I can't think of anything they NEED right now, and a good set of flats that they ran well. Again, they had the best operations of any SF park I have been to, which was refreshing coming from someone who's homepark has procedures that just boggle the mind at times. The park was clean (albeit fairly quiet), the staff was friendly apart from the one dude with his sooper-trooper attitude, and I can't think of anything to really bicker about. Hurricane Harobr looked sweet, that's still, IMO, the best money Six Flags has EVER spent. The park was well-landscaped and the themes in the sections were well-maintained, which is something I appreciate. Even rides with Batman and Superman themes were fit into their respective areas nicely. Everything was just so clean, so nice... I can't praise it enough. With that said, I anticipate my return to check out more of the flats, do HH, ride Viper more and more, and hopefully I will be able to "get" Whizzer one of these days.

 

Indiana Beach stuff to come tonight or tomorrow, hopefully...

 

- Joe

Edited April 18, 2017 by ParkTrips

[BeemerBoy]

Good pics, Joe. I never get to see much of that park, so it was a change of pace. Quite a shame Raging Bull let you down, though. It's the only stateside B&M hyper I've yet to ride, but your report doesn't make me wanna rush out to it anytime soon.

 

By the way, that was the park Mr. PR moved to, right? If so, then indeed that was a promotion.

[mike541x]

After taking this photo, I got yelled at by a security officer. I wouldn't have minded it so much if he woul dhave answered my question as to why I can't take photos of Deja vu instead of walking away like an asshole. Perhaps the park doesn't like to acknowledge its existence.. So, what did I do?

 

WTF You got yelled at for taking a picture.

[pvcoasterguy]

A couple of comments about Great America (it's one of my home parks...)

 

1) Whizzer... I think it's about the novelty. The ride suffers from "MCS (mid-course syndrome) in which the ride totally dies after the midcourse. Sure, the twist-dive thing off the midcourse is fun, but the helix is slow. However, the first part of the ride is fun, with the first drop craziness (dive into the trees) and the amazingly high-banked turn after the first twist-dive thingy. It's a fun ride, not an intense one. It's one of the most enjoyable, not-intense rides in my opinion.

 

2) Orbit... we are blessed to have a well-run enterprise. It is an amazingly fun ride.

 

3) Richochet... fun ride, but it induces ten trillion protein spills every day.

 

4) Raging Bull... yes, the third-hill trim sucks. But, it doesn't kill the air there. The air is very bad in the front, one little float, then wait for the rest of the train to catch up. However, the back still has a nice long light float over it. The other hills are better, though. But, the first drop in the back does kick ass.

 

5) Rue Le Dodge... these bumper cars are actually some of the better ones around these days. They're really heavy (from the Mariott days), and you can get some good collisions on them. In addition, they're relatively fast.

 

6) American Eagle... it's tempermental. Last season, it was great in the summer. If you rode in the front of the forwards side, it has a ton of great air, with minimal braking. Backwards was also pretty good last season. AE gets better in the summer, after it has warmed up a bit.

 

7) Iron Wolf... is very intense. Rough? Sometimes. Occassionally, you can get a nice, smooth ride on it, which allows you to see how insane this ride actually is. You go through the loop incredibly fast, as with the corkscrew and the entire last section. Crazy.

 

SFGAm is probably the greatest Six Flags park around. Staff are usually great, as with operations. We also have a good variety of rides and a nice atmosphere.

 

(The original Batman is still the most badass.)

[larrygator]

That yellow bumper cars in the bottom right hand corner looks like it had an accident

[M_Force_4_ever]

That yellow bumper cars in the bottom right hand corner looks like it had an accident

haha that stain is always there, I don't know how it got there though sounds like a fun trip

[ParkTrips]

Day 3 - May 17, 2006

Indiana Beach

Monticello, IN

 

 

Welcome to Indiana Beach... or should I say, The Glorified Dock of Lake Shafer?

 

 

Yes, IB Crow, there IS more than corn in Indiana, like a kickass park with some nice wood.

 

 

Walking in, I really dig the location on top of the water. Just killer looking, I can't wait for the ride session to begin.

 

 

After buying my $10 wristband (sweet deal) I proceeded towards Cornball. It wasn't quite open yet, but the flyers began cycling first so I rode them to start the day. Excellent set of flyers, though the location most definately plays a huge role in the quality of the ride. Very fun, I ended up rising about 5 times that day, and the no snapping rule was not enforced.

 

 

Yay, time for Cornball which was effin' insane! Great ejector all over the place, especially on the first drop, the one pictured above and the one coming out of the helix. Just incredible stuff...

 

 

If Six Flags added ads to their trains, people would s*** bricks, but it's ok for IB to do it :: (for the record, I don't care either way)

 

 

I take note of this sign for a reason. Sadly, the park had either a serious injury or maybe even a fatality last season when an employee got hit by a train. Presumably, this sign came in the aftermath. I just point this out because the two young ladies operating the ride on Wednesday were actually playing a game that consisted of laughing and jumping across the rails while the ride was operating. Just hard to watch, even harder to believe. I mean, I wish I would have got the camera out... not quite Visionland stroller bad, but that was just WOW!

 

Anyway, sorry about that rant against the stupidity of some.. back to good stuff

 

 

I did the Hurricane next, which was a pleasant ride but fairly tame by most standards. A little bit of air, a mild layout... nothing too special but far from bad. I would have liked to ride the Schwarzkopf, but it was closed (booo!!!!)

 

 

I then rode the Double Shot, and good lord, that air is incredible!! Great tower, but I still stand by my "tower's are lame" mindset

 

 

Next, I rode the Galaxi, which I enjoyed for what it is.

 

 

Soon there after, I took a S&P ride on the Den of Lost Theives, an old school dark ride retrofitted with a shooter system, if I am correct. It was a good dark ride and the system worked excellently, so I was pleased that I didn't totally suck.

 

Next up was lunch, for $11 I got a large Coke, typical nachos, typical hot dog and a nice grilled cheese on wheat. I didn't love the meal, but didn't hate it either, it was food!!

 

 

Another set of mild bumper cars, I was forced to weat a belt on those also (it just feels weird to me now)

 

 

heh, at least there are more riders than when Elissa rode...

 

 

I took a ride on the scrambler, built over the water like many of their rides, and it was perhaps the best-run scrambler in a park I have been to. Great RPM's and a nice cycle. They run their flats well at IB.

 

 

Hydraulic Paratrooper, another ride I enjoyed with a nice cycle.

 

 

Splash Battle construction? June 1, eh?

 

 

Speaking of running flats well, I like a Raibow-style of ride to begin with, but OMG (!!!) they ran their Falling Star INCREDIBLY! Tons of forces all over the place, it was wilder than I had ever imagined such a ride can get. Totally blew me away, and I expected it to be good after reading a lot of positive stuff about it over the years...

 

Finally, the last ride of the day...

 

 

The Lost Coaster of Superstition Mountain... aride you either hate or love, or so it seems. Me? I don't get it. Is it a dark ride? If so, the themeing was farily weak apart from the exterior (I did ride backwards, so I may have missed a lot). A woodie? Well, it's definately a coaster, just really weird, kinda rough (but not as bad as people say, IMO) and it just left me saying "huh?" Not too bad or good, just "meh" - the single train operation made this the longest line of the day though, and it was the only negative thing I can say about the park's operations. Nonetheless, I enjoyed myself A LOT and did A LOT in 3 hours. I only left to try to get back home at a reasonable time since I had to wake up the next day, and I was very impressed by the park. It's up there with the likes of Knoebels, IMO.

 

 

Don't worry IB Crow, I'll be back. Several times too 8)

 

- Joe

Edited April 18, 2017 by ParkTrips

[pvcoasterguy]

When the Falling Star/Rainbow rides are run well, they are amazing rides with a crapload of airtime. It's nice to see that at least two parks run theirs to their potential. (IB and Adventureland in Iowa)

[larrygator]

Did you skip Frankenstein's Castle??????

 

Also, I told you to get the tacos when at IB.

[Hercules]

^ Seems like he will be back a lot, so I'm sure a lot of tacos will be consumed

 

A park that didn't remove it's Chaos.... nice.

[SharkTums]

I do not approve of the grilled cheese.

 

Wheat bread!?!?! EWWWW!!!!