Homeboy's 2010 Cross-Country Adventure

Hey all,

I have finally got my finances straight enough to plan my trips for this summer and figured I would just post all my pictures in one thread.

This year I will make my first ever flight to California in June, yes I have been 25 years of life without flying. I am looking forward to finally doing so. From June 19 to leaving first thing in the morning on the 27th, I will be in California experiencing as many of the parks I can. My plan doesn't end there as I took two weeks off from work, but I will keep my second week plans until later.

Up until June I will be updating this thread with local park visits and hopefully some others kind of close to me.

Park list:

1. Busch Gardens Europe Season Pass Preview Day - Page 1

2. Kings Dominion/Intimidator 305 Opening Day - Page 2

3. Carowinds/Charlotte Bobcats Play Off Game - Page 2

4. Six Flags America - Page 3

5. Universal Studios Hollywood - Page 4

6. Sea World San Diego, Belmont Park & Legoland - Page 4

March 20, 2010 Busch Gardens Europe's Season Pass Preview Day

This was my first ever trip to BGE on the preview day and had no idea what to expect for crowds. I soon found out

that it was going to be a somewhat busy day.

My plan was to hit Apollos first at opening but when I walked by Escape from Pompei was told that the section of the

park was not going to open until 10:30 (Park was open from 10AM to 7PM). Instead of waiting there I decided to hit

the other side of the park. At this time Griffon, Alpengeist and Darkastle all had 5-10 minute waits.

After walking around a little bit and doing other things I walked towards Apollos. Going over the bridge I overheard many comments about the Big Bad Wolf. Mostly everyone seeing the footers and kept saying "Wasn't there a roller coaster there?"

Going up the lift of Apollos I looked at the parking booths and noticed the big line of cars waiting to enter. The

line was backed up all the way to the entrance ramps off of I64. I am pretty sure the line was further back than I

could see. The preferred lot was halfway full and one of the regular lots was full at this time. But even with this

only Darkastle and Griffon had long waits throughout the day.

Jack Hanna was doing three shows during the day and was also hanging around in the park between shows. On my way to

the 2:30 show I saw him hanging around next to the eagles with pictures and a marker in his hand ready to sign autographs. Everyone except for a couple of people walked right by him not knowing who he was. Kind of felt bad for him standing there with no one around him. His shows were all full though. I arrived 40 minutes early and got one of the last seats. They were using the Globe Theatre.

After the show I got a couple more rides on Apollos and Alpengeist, ate at Trappers Smokehouse and left. On to the pictures.

New park map with no Big Bad Wolf

With it still being in the 50s early in the morning this group had to ride causing the women to get off shivering.

Heading through Ireland...

But I didn't stay long.

Alpeng.. Why did I not step to the left?

This sign glows... Has it always been this bright?

You know where I am heading...

Big Bad Uh-Oh. I understand the parks decision but it is still sad to see.

I took this picture while walking to the ride, I am surprised it didn't come out blurry.

One of the most boring boat rides ever. Although the old guys working it tried their best to be funny.

Had to join everybody with this picture.

Heading into my favorite parts of the ride

Knowing that I am a coaster geek, the ride operators sent this train at the exact time that it would go through the loop while I am on the Sky ride.

Does this queue ever get used anymore? It looks lonely

Not as lonely as this dude.

Packed full Globe Theatre

Bear cubs, who can't love them?

Sheep

This wolf would not stop walking back and forth in a straight line.

I can not get enough of this food!

Great TR! Is it just me or does it look like all the coasters have had a new paint job??? (aka loch ness monster)

I've had to wait in that Loch Ness que before. It's pretty much only used when the park is really, really busy. It is just a bunch of old, dusty themeing that probably hasn't been replaced since the ride opened! LOL!

Excuse my ignorance, but what was the official reason of removal for BBW? Was there ever one? I don't remember BGW responding much beyond "it's going away".

^ I don't know but they had to have their reasons.

^^ The only time I have seen that queue used before was back in May 2002 during a school trip. Every ride had at least an hour wait that day.

Great TR! Is it just me or does it look like all the coasters have had a new paint job??? (aka loch ness monster)

Yeah Nessie got repainted during the off season. In fact, when I visited during Christmas Town, the rails had Primer on them.

Nice TR. I can't wait to visit Busch Gardens this summer. Maybe even in May on my way back from VA Beach.

Excuse my ignorance, but what was the official reason of removal for BBW? Was there ever one? I don't remember BGW responding much beyond "it's going away".

This is just my dreamy opinion, of course, but I think that BGE is going to be getting a terrain-hugging B&M flyer in the future...

I could see it being called "Drachen".

Excuse my ignorance, but what was the official reason of removal for BBW? Was there ever one? I don't remember BGW responding much beyond "it's going away".

 

This is just my dreamy opinion, of course, but I think that BGE is going to be getting a terrain-hugging B&M flyer in the future...

 

I could see it being called "Drachen".

wouldn't it be cool to have a flyer utilize the same drop into the lake BBW had.

Excuse my ignorance, but what was the official reason of removal for BBW? Was there ever one? I don't remember BGW responding much beyond "it's going away".

The reason they gave was that it had "reached the end of its service life." BBW was a pretty tough ride to maintain.

Thanks for sharing the photos. This is the first preview day I've missed in five or six years, but West Coast Bash was great, so all is well.

^ I was actually walking around thinking I would see you or any other members of this site there, but then I remembered it was the same weekend as West Coast Bash.

Nice photos, thanks for sharing them! The more and more I see of this park, the more and more excited I get for our visit there in July! The place looks awesome!

April 2, 2010

This was a hot April day here in Virginia. So what can we do to celebrate that fact? Intimidator 305 Opening day of course. I will just say that I am still up in the air if this is better than Millennium Force, but it is already even in my book. The lines for this ride can go extremely fast with a good crew working it. It does have a single rider line but in the afternoon that line was being used by groups and nothing was being done about it.

For the ride, the lift hill doesn't even seem to be there as fast as you go up there. The first drop is amazing and the first turn like everyone else I grayed out on. I only got neck chopped once on the crazy transitions but that was because I was looking at something and wasn't paying attention. If this ride didn't have OTSR, you would probably head butt the rider next to you unless you were grabbing the restraint as hard you can.

The park was extremely crowded; Volcano, FoF and Dominator's queues were full. The Grizzly had an hour wait. The only other coaster I rode other than Intimidator 305 was Rebel Yell.

Enough of talking on to the pictures.

View from the parking lot

Over Dodgems

Entrance Plaza

This is where I stood at the end of the line for my first ride.

Entrance sign

Stupid stick... Trains are trains. It is the ride that matters!

The man this ride is themed for.

I would love to drive one of these

I walked over this two times before I noticed it.

About to endure the gray outs

You can see this ride from anywhere, this shows how big it is compared to any other ride in the park

Going around on the turn around on Rebel Yell is priceless

Zoomed in shot from the tower

Overview

Freshly painted Volcano

You're good, but not that good to wait for a full queue.

Look who I found and we're both sporting our wonderful Club TPR shirts! Met two other TPR members also.

So this is what snow does

Were these here last year? I thought it was all pavement

This is how packed it was, when was the last time you saw this queue full?

^FoF has the queue filled pretty often on days I'm there, but that is likely due to them closing part of the inside queue for Haloween events. I felt yesterday, as was the case with Hershey's opening, the park was NOT prepared for the heavy crowds that appeared! Good TR. Is snow the really the reason why the tunnel thing near the sky coaster didn't have it's tunnel on?

^ That is what I heard from a few people that caused the vines to collapse.

hey man it was nice to see you on opening day again, even though it seems like all we did was wait in line for food.

Does anybody else thinks this looks like a 90 mph roller skater? I'm totally down.

Interesting to read about Flight of Fear never having a full queue...Kings Island's has a full queue nearly every weekend. Thanks to Diamondback coming in last year crowds got a bit heavier...get ready Kings Dominion!

^^^ Yeah that was one crazy day with lines. Maybe we can meet up again sometime this summer.

^^ Works for me

^ That is in my experience. I usually don't spend all day there so my times are a little off. But I have been there in the afternoon on numerous Saturdays where the line wasn't even outside the building. If the line was outside it was usually only around 10-20 people. And there is a big difference between the lines of KI and KD. Kings Dominion has a direct line into the main queue, no switchbacks inside like Kings Island.

4/24/10 - Carowinds

Today I was heading down to Charlotte, North Carolina mainly for the Charlotte Bobcats first ever home playoff game.

But if I am in the city already why not go to Carowinds and check out their Intimidator.

The plan was to be at Carowinds at 9:45 and leave at 11:45 to go to the game. Then come back after the game around

5:30. Well first off I didn't arrive until 10:15 and as I walked outside after the game it was raining outside and

no signs of letting up so I decided not to go back to the park. So overall my day started out well then went

downhill when the Bobcats lost and went down 3-0 in the series which means the series is 99.9% over.

In the hour and a half I was there I only got to ride five rides, three of which were new credits for me. I don't

know how I missed the kiddie wooden and kiddie SLC in my visits during the last two years. But anyway it worked out

alright since I was able to make Intimidator my 150th credit.

Now on to Intimidator. I only rode it once in row 8 on the left side but I was not blown away. It seemed to crawl through the course and it felt like I would never get back to the station. I did get one or two spots of air but not that much. Out of the five B&M Hypers I have been I would put it 4th. Maybe when the temperature warms up and I can make it back down there this summer and get more rides in I will have a better opinion of it. But before bashing me, I did enjoy it since it is a B&M Hyper and I always like them.

I didn't take too many pictures other than mainly ride signs and a few Intimidator ones.

I for some reason like the colors of signs at this park.

Notice the line of people on the other side of the sign walking the straight line

The reason I made the quick stop

But this was my first ride so I didn't have to wait in line long, I waited maybe 15 minutes for it.

I prefer going up the lift facing the ground...

Meh.. Credit 149

Already dirty.. Although I prefer this version with the black surrounding the circle to KD's version with no black.

About to drop..

I did like this turn

I was in two places at once, the train is the same spot as the other picture

After riding this again I may have to re-rank my B&M Inverts.

I like the attempt of theming

Credit 151

That we are

The reason I was in town, taken from my parking spot

Take the tunnel

Tip Off

Next up: SFA May 8, 2010

Saturday May 8, 2010

I had to get my Six Flags season pass processed so I decided to go up to Upper Marlboro Maryland to Six Flags America for their cheap as dirt price. (If that offends any Six Flags lover, sorry) Crowds were non existent through out the time I was there, from opening until 11:45 and from 4 to 6. I was at the Washington Nationals against Florida Marlins game in between, left the game at 3:30.

Every ride except the two woodies were running train though so it made the lines a little slower than they should have been, especially Batwing which had the only wait over 15 minutes in the afternoon, which from the look of it would have been an hour wait. While I was there in the morning everything was a walk-on so I rode everything except Wild One before I left for the game including front and back on Superman and one ride on Batwing.

I must say that Batwing is my least favorite of the Vekoma Flyers just because of the restraints, I have rode it a total of 5 times and each time it feels like the restraints are coming loose. That I have never felt on Firehawk or Nighthawk or any of the B&M's. It may just be me as I have never heard anyone else say it.

As for the park atmosphere I had the best experience ever in my 4 times of visiting the park. Even though the ride ops were moving on the slow side even though they only had one train they all had a smile on their face and seemed to be enjoying working. I didn't run into any employee talking bad to any guest like in previous visits or any employee talking on their cell phone instead of checking restraints.

Thomas Town is still a bunch of dirt except for two buildings and the start of the entrance sign. On to the pictures...

One of the better entrance plazas I must say

First stop of the day

Notice the train and empty queues

Even though the trains are a tight fit and I was stapled in I still got some airtime

Flying through

This picture is missing something

I found it!

One time is enough

Under rated, but still not a top woodie.

And to my surprise I didn't hurt my head

Why are you running slow now?

I almost fell asleep

Thomas Town building getting bricked up.

The only other building in Thomas Town so far

And a bonus picture from my seat at the Nationals game

great TR! Been seeing a lot of Carowinds and Kings Dominion (thanks for those) but SFA hasn't a lot lately. I feel pretty bad for that park, Two Face gets taken out and they havent received any new coaster since Batwing, so hopefully SF does them a nice favor and gets them a good coaster next season for the anniversary

Basketball, baseball and rollercoasters, what a great combo!!! Sounds like a great trip

...Fort kinzel...

I also found a kinzel sighting at knotts a few years ago. Look closely at the picture in the center of the swing ride. Sorry about the quality of this picture, it is a scan because I can't find the disk right now.

A picture of kinzel.