Erik Johnson Posted June 12, 2006 Share Posted June 12, 2006 Leanne, Darlene, and I just returned from a whirlwind of a trip visiting several parks along the east coast of the United States. We have been planning this trip for the past 9 months or so, and we had a really good time. We finally got to ride a bunch of great coasters we have never experienced before. Well, you know I just let the pictures tell the story so here we go... I wonder what we can do in Virginia... Whew, we finally made it. Even though we were in North Carolina, we still could not escape these places. Thanks for the wonderful time Pedro! Well, they did have one ride/attraction open. "What are you looking at, human?" This place looked interesting. They even have the shark pancake hat for sale. They have the coolest hat store here. The SOB Bladder Buster. Even vintage New Year 2000 sparklers. You can buy all kinds of cool fireworks at this place. Oh yeah, the totally random, giant-sized gorilla. Well onto all of those crazy S.O.B. stores. How many hippos can be found in Mexico? Any idea? There even is a track for the Pedroland Express. ..... This guy told me that the roller coaster would not be running today. Look at all the great attractions. Pedroland rules! Too bad not a single ride was open even though it was a busy Saturday. See, there is a sign for a ride, right there. They have a bunch of rides in the area know as Pedroland. They are just a little late opening it this year. This store was closed for some reason. We could not find a donkey, so a zebra had to do. Pedro gets kicked for not running his coaster for several years. South of the Border, on I-95 between North and South Carolina. Yeah....right. Even Joey and Wes are invited to South of the Border. See, Pedro loves Donkeys! Wario Ware for the Nintendo DS. You know you are in South Carolina when you start seeing these. Day 2 of our travels (Day 1 was just a bunch of boring driving after work). Darlene's (Dar) suitcase took up a little bit of space. We received our PKD discount tickets the night before we left. Our cat Libby, off to visit Leanne's folks for the week. I remembered to mow the grass this year before we left. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coasterdude5 Posted June 12, 2006 Share Posted June 12, 2006 Cool TR! I've never even heard of that place. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blue0ctane Posted June 12, 2006 Share Posted June 12, 2006 Whoa, we haven't even see any real coasters yet and I'm extremely excited! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Erik Johnson Posted June 12, 2006 Author Share Posted June 12, 2006 Ok, after several more hours of driving we made it to our second park of the trip, Busch Gardens Europe. We arrived there a little after 5 which meant we had 5 solid hours to explore the park before it closed at 10. I only have a few pictures in this section, but there will be plenty more after this, because we spent quite a bit of time at the park the next day. We earned all four credits right before dinner. I am not sure how this guy's hat stayed on during the ride. Onto Apollo's Chariot. I really loved our nightime Big Bad Wolf ride. Mmmmmm, Big Bad Wolf. We thought BGE was a very nice park, theming galore. Alpengeist through the trees. Line jumpers are cool. Alpengeist was our second credit, though operations were just terrible for this ride both days we rode it. One credit down for the park, three more to go. Darlene and Leanne ready for the first credit of the trip. While there are a lot of people here, the line moved very fast. Awesome coaster crew! They had some theming in the queue line. See, that is the name of this coaster. First credit of the trip, Loch Ness Monster..aka Nessie. Cool, I have never seen a Clydesdale pony before. Well, even though Darlene had to buy a ticket here, she is still "preferred". Ha ha, those who are not "preferred" have to ride this thing to the main gate. Dang it! How come France is considered "preferred"? We love our Busch platnium passes. Busch Gardens Europe, Williamsburg, Virginia. You drive right by Apollo's Chariot as you enter the park. Oh we are so close now! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YoshiFan Posted June 12, 2006 Share Posted June 12, 2006 I stopped at South of the Border once a few years ago and the place screamed "Tourist Trap." a 5 minute stop was enough and even if the park and coaster ever opens again (doubt it as it has been SBNO for years), I wouldn't even be comfortable about riding it (safety). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blue0ctane Posted June 12, 2006 Share Posted June 12, 2006 I've always wanted to ride Apollo's Chariot, thanks for teasing me some more. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stingrock23 Posted June 12, 2006 Share Posted June 12, 2006 Pedroland = Best Park Ever! The pics are great, can't wait to see the rest. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SLUSHIE Posted June 12, 2006 Share Posted June 12, 2006 I want to go to BGW again. BGW is the first coaster park I went to after loosing my fear of inversions in Las Vegas. I'm glad I went when I did though because I got to ride Drachen Fire. Apollo's Chariot is the only one I haven't ridden. Infact I've never ridden a B&M hyper at all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smallish Posted June 12, 2006 Share Posted June 12, 2006 Ha ha! I got my BGE credits a few months before you! And it was less crowded the day I went! Ha ha! Anyways, I love BGE! Did you catch some cool back seat first drop air on Loch Ness Monster? That is teh best! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ECZenith Posted June 12, 2006 Share Posted June 12, 2006 Cool photos! And nice taste in video game hardware... I just happened to pick up a DS lite today, awesome system. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Erik Johnson Posted June 12, 2006 Author Share Posted June 12, 2006 Ok, onto Day 3: We really got to explore Busch Gardens Europe on this day. I think its a very nice park. They have really spent a lot of time and money on its theming and atmosphere. While BGE may only have 4 roller coasters at the moment, we thought that all 4 of them were pretty solid rides. The highlight for us was our night ride of The Big Bad Wolf. If you get the chance make sure you stick around and try that out yourselves. Anyways, onto a bunch of pictures. Why do McDonalds near Busch Parks have such a hard time with customer service? If you are into getting thrown all around, Corkscrew Hill is a must. If you are into shows, the new Emerald Beat is a must. Donkeys may be replaced by Rodents soon. Skyrides are cool. Please don't ram into us Dar. These things are kinda fun. Will this bird be displaced if they decide to build a dive coaster on this location? Ok, onto the Le Mans car ride. It does have a great first drop. And themed video games as well. It also features all kinds of theming as well. Alpengeist just towers over Germany. Its the infamous zero-car. The queue line in filling up? Let's remove a train off the track. Pathetic crew. Alpengeist continued to have abysmal operations today as well. Kinda like someone else's avatar. See....Get it now? Yeah, Dar was happy that they named a ride after her. Yeah, very similiar to Spiderman, but with half the budget. Ok, here is a better angle. I think it would be cool to have one of these in my front yard. Curse of the DarKastle warehouse. Dar forgot we were in Germany, not Italy. Entertainment, while you eat. Soren? Land of Dragons makes more sense in this park, instead of Busch Gardens Africa/Tampa. Another park with a hill of doom. Whew! Ok, I still see a coaster. You practically leave the park on this ride. We took the nice, relaxing boat ride down the Rhine River. You also see Alpengeist's Cobra roll in this area as well. And another one, just to make sure. Ok, its required to include this picture in every BGE Photo TR. This ride had a lot of fire and water. Not a bad ride, especially since there was no wait in line. We took a spin on the Roman Rapids. Here we are, waiting for the front row. More walking through the queue building. Onward to the front row. See, its a Hyper coaster, and a pretty good one as well. Horray we are on our way to Apollo's Chariot again. As well as play with the map. So we looked at show times. Oh that's right, its not ten o'clock yet. We have to wait. I tried to call NGT to let him know I earned four credits the previous night. Ones that he does not have. Though there are not too many people here on a Sunday morning. Hey, its kinda like being on the TPR UK trip. Oh there it is. I do not think its down that way. Where is the actual gate to this place? More flowers. Just in case you already forgot where we are....and its the Europe one...located in Virginia. Even before you get to the ticket counter, you encounter all kinds of nice atmosphere. Here we are again in France. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gtaylor Posted June 12, 2006 Share Posted June 12, 2006 I have always thought night time rides on BBW are a definite must if you visit BGE. Emerald Beat is my hands down favorite show, but I do miss Irish Thunder. It was one of the few shows I actually enjoyed seeing more than once. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Erik Johnson Posted June 12, 2006 Author Share Posted June 12, 2006 OK, onto Day 4. Paramount's King's Dominion. This was our second Paramount Park we have been to. Last year we visited Carowinds in which we found to be a very nice park with decent operations. We have heard all kinds of horror stories about how poor operations have been so far this year at PKD. Either the new ownership has been making changes or we hit it on a strange day, the park's operations were quite good the day we were there. It probably also helped that the park, overall, was not very crowded. We were able to earn all the credits (no Taxi or Flight of Fear for obvious reasons). While PKD was not our favorite park on the trip, it still exceeded our expectations. This is what the coaster train looks like. I thought it was neat how they incorporated the track into the mountain. While the line was long, they at least had both trains going. It did have about a 40 minute wait for our first ride. It was really the only real wait we had. I liked it more than either Leanne or Dar. Volcano: The Blast Coaster was our next credit. The ride has quite a bit to it. More than I expected. Zoooooooooom! We are all excited to ride this one. The coaster trains are very well detailed, plus they have onboard speakers as well. Plus the coaster crew was well trained. For a recent opening, the line was not very long. It proved to be a very fun family coaster. Its a great addition to the park. Yeah, they have a brand new ride. The Italian Job. While it did not seem as bad as the one at Carowinds, I am still not a fan of these. Our 2nd, and final Hurler credit to earn. Oh yeah, the mouse with the drop at the start of the ride. After Hypersonic, we hit Rebel Yell. This part of the ride was not very smooth. So we decided to have her start with this one, lol! By the way, this is going to be Dar's very first launched coaster. I do not think any of the rides at Carowinds goes above a "4". See, it has a level "5", the highest level for a thrill ride. Most intense launched coaster in the United States. Oh yes. Right before park opening, you know where we were headed. This park has one of those "Frenchy" towers. We though we were in trouble when we saw all these kids, but the crowds were light that day. Ok, we made it to Paramount's King's Dominion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Worm Posted June 12, 2006 Share Posted June 12, 2006 More pics of Italian Job and Volcano please! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slacking Posted June 12, 2006 Share Posted June 12, 2006 Wow, I had no idea BGW (re)added Pirates 4D. Seems kinda weird to me....... IMO, the not to miss show at BGW is that cheesy leprachaun castle show. Totally forget the name, but it was fantastically cheesetastic, which is right up my alley. Oooh, Its always weird seeing Mice rides with a first drop. The first and only one I've ridden like that was up at PCW. Nice pics Erik! I know I'm getting ahead of myself, but you visited HP, right? Did you ride their Extreme Peannut Butter Cup ride? I've been wanting to see a review on that ride. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Erik Johnson Posted June 12, 2006 Author Share Posted June 12, 2006 More PKD. Thanks for the great time PKD. Lucky for me that I was short enough. Yeah, Leanne and Dar were tall enough to ride all the rides. We all mastered the Scooby-Doo ride. There he is. Oh yeah, they have one of those Scooby shooting dark rides. Yeah, the park really was not very crowded that day. We went back to Hypersonic for a couple more rides, since the line was very short. You now have proof that God loves Intamin. How high did this thing go? It certainly was up there. Oh yeah, I forgot they had this ride at PKD. As well as an observation tower. They have swings at PKD. While all the rides were pretty much open. It was difficult to find a place to eat. I was able to very slightly snap them. Nothing like the flyers at Carowinds though. Though these flyers were pretty difficult to snap. Yeah they got Flyers here. I guess they removed a bunch of trees for this one. AS well as the new Go-Kart track right next door. Its Grizzly. I now know what it means when people say, "Togo Death Machine." This one was our first Togo coaster. It is also a Togo standup coaster as well. Oh dear, it is Shockwave. It was kinda cool that we went under water on this one. We liked it more than some of the bigger ones in the park. It was a fun Junior wooden coaster. But there is always Scooby Doo's coaster. Yeah, we did get denied for this one. At least she was polite. Oh look, it is another credit. Ready for the Top Spin? Waiting in line for Tomb Raider. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Erik Johnson Posted June 12, 2006 Author Share Posted June 12, 2006 Wow, I had no idea BGW (re)added Pirates 4D. Seems kinda weird to me....... IMO, the not to miss show at BGW is that cheesy leprachaun castle show. Totally forget the name, but it was fantastically cheesetastic, which is right up my alley. Oooh, Its always weird seeing Mice rides with a first drop. The first and only one I've ridden like that was up at PCW. Nice pics Erik! I know I'm getting ahead of myself, but you visited HP, right? Did you ride their Extreme Peannut Butter Cup ride? I've been wanting to see a review on that ride. Yeah we rode it. It was fun. I will add pictures of that one later. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pkdcoaster Posted June 12, 2006 Share Posted June 12, 2006 Great pics Erik, Glad you had fun in VA. I See you disobeyed EVERYBODY on this board and went to the most perfect park that is BGW first, therefore your trip to PKD was total crap and a waste of time. It always blew my mind how the operations on Alpengeist get Worse every year, and Apollo is one of the easiest coasters to load and dispatch and they Stack 3 trains constantly! IMO PKD's ops are not bad, it is the fact that they run 1 train on all of the wood now except weekends (they used to always run max. trains on everything) Good to see that PKD was empty on Monday,they usually are during the first weeks in June, Kids still have a week of school left here. If you gave me a pm before the trip you could have borrowed my kid for Taxi Jam to get that awesome credit Oh Erik, Tell me you rode Scooby in the back seat!!!!!! (insane air on the second drop) Looking forward to the rest of your pics. JEFF 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mike541x Posted June 12, 2006 Share Posted June 12, 2006 I have always thought night time rides on BBW are a definite must if you visit BGE. Emerald Beat is my hands down favorite show, but I do miss Irish Thunder. It was one of the few shows I actually enjoyed seeing more than once. Agreed! When you go throught the village on the ride at night, there are lights in the houses and its amazing. Anyway cool Photo TR Erik. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pkdcoaster Posted June 12, 2006 Share Posted June 12, 2006 Hey Erik could you give a brief opinion on each coaster when you are done with the photos? Thanks, JEFF 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coaster Palooza Posted June 12, 2006 Share Posted June 12, 2006 Erik, Great report! We are hoping to get to PKD and BGE later this year. I heard about the Italian Job having the speakers working at PKD, but they don't work at PKI. What is said over the speakers? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Erik Johnson Posted June 12, 2006 Author Share Posted June 12, 2006 Yeah I will give a more in depth report of all the credits earned after I post all my photos. Yeah we did ride Scooby twice, once near the front, the other in the very back. There is mostly music that comes out of the speakers of the Italian Job. I think there was a little bit of talking at the start and end of the ride, but mostly music. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pkdcoaster Posted June 12, 2006 Share Posted June 12, 2006 Also on IJ they have sound effects (engine,tires,police cars) through the ride in addition to the director and music and instuctions etc. JEFF Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Erik Johnson Posted June 12, 2006 Author Share Posted June 12, 2006 OK Day 5: Six Flags America. While there are a few decent coasters in the park, The Wild One was really awesome, SFA was hands down our least favorite park on the trip. Ride operations were lackluster (except for the Wild One), many of the employees were very rude or unresponsive, and all the water rides were closed. Lucky for us the park was not very crowded and we were able to get all the credits, minus Joker's Jinx, in about 4 1/2 hours. We also did not have to spend money on Flash Passes as well. What an unusal McDonalds. OK there is our car. Ok we got all we can, lets get out while we can. But they made up, and we got a nice picture with him. Bugs scared Dar quite a bit. They only had one train running, because the red one was still causing all sorts of problems. Ok, I am smiling because we did finally got our Superman credit. It still was a good ride. We got the kiddie credit! Worst coaster on the trip. This was really bad, even for a Vekoma SLC. Dang it, I really wanted to ride this one. They had a bunch of problems with the red train today, we ended up leaving the station without the credit. We decided to go try Superman again only to be greeted by a stuck train. We then hit Two Face, which was our first invertigo boomerang coaster. See how it brought smiles to our faces. Mmmmmmm...Wild One. My 2nd favorite wooden coaster. Awesome operations as well. Yeah it is true, Ultra Twister is located right here. The coaster was fun, lucky for us we were on the 2nd train of the day, they had a dispatch about every 10 minutes or so. So we continued around to the back where Batwing awaits. Too bad we encountered a closed ride with a clueless park employee sitting in front. We headed right for Gotham where the Intamin awaits us. As you can see, there was not many people in the park at opening. The front entrance area seemed kind of nice. Just in case you forgot which park we were at. No Joker's Jinx for us on this visit, but we got all the rest. We got to park right next to the entrance. Our next park, Six Flags America. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WildMouse Posted June 12, 2006 Share Posted June 12, 2006 Excellent BGE photos. That park has been on my must do list for a long, long time. I'll get out that way one day... PKD looks rather funky too. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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