The big one. Furie's trip with ECG across the East Coast!
- Thread starter furie
- Start date
LiveForTheLaunch
CF Legend
Haha FINALLY! We share opinions about most everything at the park, well, I guess in that I mean mostly Toro and Nitro. I don't get why everyone hates Nitro, it's a decent coaster all in all. To be honest, for some reason I had a feeling you weren't gonna like Toro, or think it was overrated, so I'm glad you did. REALLY sucks about Ka, the launch is just as impressive as the structure looks.
Great report
Great report
LiveForTheLaunch
CF Legend
^ Goooood! I honestly don't get why people like, praise Behemoth as much as they do, yet slam Nitro, when to me they were almost the exact same, quality-wise, with Behemoth just edging Nitro out.
Sorry for paraphrasing, but you get the point. Some of us just know what a B&M floater is all about & now the furies do as well.furie said:
It's a shame that there's no special way to make a pretzel loop better. I guess you either like them or hate them. I'm just glad I'm not in the latter category.
I have all my photos & vids at home, so you'll have to wait a couple of hours until I get off work for my update.
Until then...
^What was the weather like at SFGAdv for you on Tuesday zcl?
So time for the home park at last.
The day started off with some fog hanging about, but burst into bright sunshine before midday. With the way our luck had been going with queuelines, I should have known that getting the flash pass was a waste of money. Superman was the only ride with any type of wait, but with Ka down I was expecting all rides to have a longer than usual waiting time. Man was I mistaken.
We found this queue awaiting us at El Toro right off the bat.
You can just see the apprehension written all over their faces as they await their first ride on the Wild Bull.
At least their expressions changed a bit once we got going.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hkrw1kA0JE4[/youtube]
After a double ride of ejector fun it was on to the renewed floorless - Bizarro!
The new paint job looks great as far as the station is concerned, unlike the Bizarro station in New England we saw a few days ago.
I don't know about about Bizarro being my hero, but at least the "improvements" here don't distract from the ride as much as it's namesake does.
Look at the new queue. I guess they're expecting a lot from the coaster's makeover, but at least it's walk-on today & that's only five days after the ride opened.
I completely agree with what furie says about the coaster's makeover. No zcl, the soundtrack isn't "tied to each element and effect". It's a generic soundtrack that's exactly the same on both Bizarro coasters. We actually found the one on SRoS to be better, but still rubbish & it's only better because you could hear it more clearly on the other one since the speakers on the former Medusa aren't positioned as well.
The fire effects on S:RoS are also clearly better, but I do like the second fog machine on this Bizarro better than any of the others & the tacky building facades don't disrupt the flow of the ride as much as they do in New England.
We passed this rare classic ride on the way over to Superman & it immediately became clear that I wasn't going to get furie on this classic today. It is, after all, the tallest of it's kind still in operation.
After our flight on the parking lot coaster it was time for a nice stroll across the park for one of the kiddie coasters. No adults are allowed on the other.
After some lunch (at Panda Express) it was on to neighboring Skull Mountain. Neither the skull nor the jack-o-lantern were lit up,
but at least the dark coaster's strobe lights worked this time.
Some of Nitro's B&M floater goodness followed, back row of course. Please tell me why I bought the flash pass again.
We had to take an immediate re-ride so I could show furie haw to ride a hyper coaster, before heading on to the Batman invert.
It's a good thing that we had to wait for the crew to clean up the two trains as we waited for the front row seats, as it gave minor_furie a chance to let his lunch settle. The youngster had a tough time handling the ride's very intense, tight layout, so a relaxing time on the Dark Knight was on order. The cool pre-ride show also helped out, I'm sure.
After the dark mouse I tried to persuade furie to ride the Ferris Wheel, but I didn't stand a chance.
So we headed out of the park for some ice cold refreshments from the cooler in my car. Thank God furie likes Snapple lemonade, as I bought a case of the stuff just for his visit.
After the short break it was back to the floaty goodness & a chance for furie to practice his hyper coaster riding technique.
Still two more creds to go, so back across the park for some classic Rolling Thunder wood. Wonder what they sell in there?
The Wild Bull sits right next to the racer, so you can't just pass up another opportunity for some insane ejector action, now can you?
After minor_fuie & I took a front row ride on Bizarro (so I could get a nice POV in the bright sunshine), it was time for the unique mine train.
furie sat out the ride on Bizarro as he wasn't feeling the best, but he couldn't pass up that last credit of the day.
Nor could he miss out on a last chance to ride the Wild Bull some more.
So yeah, missing out on Ka was a bummer, but once again we managed to get the most out of the day & had a great time doing so. Still I couldn't help but wonder what the hell's up with furie & launch coasters? We have three of them to do tomorrow at Kings Dominion & I'd hate for him to miss out on Volcano as well.
So time for the home park at last.
The day started off with some fog hanging about, but burst into bright sunshine before midday. With the way our luck had been going with queuelines, I should have known that getting the flash pass was a waste of money. Superman was the only ride with any type of wait, but with Ka down I was expecting all rides to have a longer than usual waiting time. Man was I mistaken.
We found this queue awaiting us at El Toro right off the bat.
You can just see the apprehension written all over their faces as they await their first ride on the Wild Bull.
At least their expressions changed a bit once we got going.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hkrw1kA0JE4[/youtube]
After a double ride of ejector fun it was on to the renewed floorless - Bizarro!
The new paint job looks great as far as the station is concerned, unlike the Bizarro station in New England we saw a few days ago.
I don't know about about Bizarro being my hero, but at least the "improvements" here don't distract from the ride as much as it's namesake does.
Look at the new queue. I guess they're expecting a lot from the coaster's makeover, but at least it's walk-on today & that's only five days after the ride opened.
I completely agree with what furie says about the coaster's makeover. No zcl, the soundtrack isn't "tied to each element and effect". It's a generic soundtrack that's exactly the same on both Bizarro coasters. We actually found the one on SRoS to be better, but still rubbish & it's only better because you could hear it more clearly on the other one since the speakers on the former Medusa aren't positioned as well.
The fire effects on S:RoS are also clearly better, but I do like the second fog machine on this Bizarro better than any of the others & the tacky building facades don't disrupt the flow of the ride as much as they do in New England.
We passed this rare classic ride on the way over to Superman & it immediately became clear that I wasn't going to get furie on this classic today. It is, after all, the tallest of it's kind still in operation.
After our flight on the parking lot coaster it was time for a nice stroll across the park for one of the kiddie coasters. No adults are allowed on the other.
After some lunch (at Panda Express) it was on to neighboring Skull Mountain. Neither the skull nor the jack-o-lantern were lit up,
but at least the dark coaster's strobe lights worked this time.
Some of Nitro's B&M floater goodness followed, back row of course. Please tell me why I bought the flash pass again.
We had to take an immediate re-ride so I could show furie haw to ride a hyper coaster, before heading on to the Batman invert.
It's a good thing that we had to wait for the crew to clean up the two trains as we waited for the front row seats, as it gave minor_furie a chance to let his lunch settle. The youngster had a tough time handling the ride's very intense, tight layout, so a relaxing time on the Dark Knight was on order. The cool pre-ride show also helped out, I'm sure.
After the dark mouse I tried to persuade furie to ride the Ferris Wheel, but I didn't stand a chance.
So we headed out of the park for some ice cold refreshments from the cooler in my car. Thank God furie likes Snapple lemonade, as I bought a case of the stuff just for his visit.
After the short break it was back to the floaty goodness & a chance for furie to practice his hyper coaster riding technique.
Still two more creds to go, so back across the park for some classic Rolling Thunder wood. Wonder what they sell in there?
The Wild Bull sits right next to the racer, so you can't just pass up another opportunity for some insane ejector action, now can you?
After minor_fuie & I took a front row ride on Bizarro (so I could get a nice POV in the bright sunshine), it was time for the unique mine train.
furie sat out the ride on Bizarro as he wasn't feeling the best, but he couldn't pass up that last credit of the day.
Nor could he miss out on a last chance to ride the Wild Bull some more.
So yeah, missing out on Ka was a bummer, but once again we managed to get the most out of the day & had a great time doing so. Still I couldn't help but wonder what the hell's up with furie & launch coasters? We have three of them to do tomorrow at Kings Dominion & I'd hate for him to miss out on Volcano as well.
LiveForTheLaunch
CF Legend
I like the POV of Furie and Minor_Furie riding Toro, you can see them pop out of their seats a few times . Medusa's new colours also look really nice, so though the theming may not be up to par, the colours are still sweetness.
I can't believe the queues you guys got. WHY couldn't they be like that for me when I went there .
. Medusa's new colours also look really nice, so though the theming may not be up to par, the colours are still sweetness.I can't believe the queues you guys got. WHY couldn't they be like that for me when I went there
.
I don't know if it changed or not - we just didn't bother looking. We did three (real) kiddie coasters I think while over there. The one at Dorney, one at Kings Dominion and the new one at Busch. I'm really not going to waste time riding something good on something rubbish "just for the credit". Certainly with the way our luck ran - we could have missed something good by faffing for a Zamperla or Zierer bit of crap.
Yeah, Toro is superb for the first 3/4's maybe? All that air time. You can see it die off though through the snake bends. It's fast and fun through there, but it means it loses it's oomph by petering out a bit. The fist section more than makes up for it, but unlike Boulder Dash, it doesn't keep on giving to the very last second.
Yeah, Toro is superb for the first 3/4's maybe? All that air time. You can see it die off though through the snake bends. It's fast and fun through there, but it means it loses it's oomph by petering out a bit. The fist section more than makes up for it, but unlike Boulder Dash, it doesn't keep on giving to the very last second.
LiveForTheLaunch
CF Legend
^ I thought the turns were really intense for some reason, I dunno why though, because a lot of people complain it dies there, but I didn't. I thought it was a nice contrast to the airtime hills.
spicy
Giga Poster
Enjoyed reading all this, you visited some awesome parks looks like you had a great time.
El Toro looks amazing the closest thing I have ridden is Colossos, I wonder how the two compare, anyone ridden both?
Also Furie would you rate Air higher than S:UF? I know alot of people do..
Shame about Ka and Storm runner though, I would have been annoyed to miss out on those although you can't really complain when you look at the coasters that you did get on!
Looking forward to reading more!
El Toro looks amazing the closest thing I have ridden is Colossos, I wonder how the two compare, anyone ridden both?
Also Furie would you rate Air higher than S:UF? I know alot of people do..
Shame about Ka and Storm runner though, I would have been annoyed to miss out on those although you can't really complain when you look at the coasters that you did get on!
Looking forward to reading more!
I'm going to look at the coaster ratings in my final conclusions in closer detail. The problem is, which is the higher quality coaster, which is more fun, which is better?
S:UF had the chest crushing pretzel loop which I hated. However, it makes the ride stand out as actually having something. The rest of the layout was a bit bland, but no more so than air. air kind of wins a little because it's so spread out and stuff. air just doesn't have any stand outness about it though, I find it really dull and will avoid at all costs. I'd also avoid S:UF, but just because of the loop. So really, they're both as bad as each other - but I think S:UF should be rated higher, just because if the loop doesn't crush you, it's a much more stand out ride than air. I'd rate them both pretty much the same though, and I'd probably put air in the slot above S:UF in my top 200... Somewhere just above the Intamin rocket coasters
S:UF had the chest crushing pretzel loop which I hated. However, it makes the ride stand out as actually having something. The rest of the layout was a bit bland, but no more so than air. air kind of wins a little because it's so spread out and stuff. air just doesn't have any stand outness about it though, I find it really dull and will avoid at all costs. I'd also avoid S:UF, but just because of the loop. So really, they're both as bad as each other - but I think S:UF should be rated higher, just because if the loop doesn't crush you, it's a much more stand out ride than air. I'd rate them both pretty much the same though, and I'd probably put air in the slot above S:UF in my top 200... Somewhere just above the Intamin rocket coasters
Day 6
There was discussion about nipping in to Six Flags America on the way down to Kings Dominion today. A look at finances and weather though put me off. It was going to be over $50 for the two of us to go in – so a bit of a high cost to really just ride a Vekoma flyer. There are a few other rides there too, but nothing outstanding or worth it. The weather looked very hit and miss too, with potential storms – so I’d rather just tackle the one park with lots – so we stood a chance of doing it all if the weather took a turn for the worst.
Kings Dominion
This is a long way from New York, over four hours and close to half way to Busch Gardens Williamsburg (tomorrow).
Expected Highlights
Park I didn’t really know a great about really. I’d seen Volcano before (LIM launched Intamin Invert – if it would work) and the Intamin Gyro-Drop tower too. Other than that, the place was pretty much a mystery to me. Last year Cedar Fair moved in the world’s largest Floorless coaster – Dominator, so that should be interesting too. Other than that, four more woodies – but I really don’t know what to make of the place. It’s an exciting surprise!
The day itself
Very early start for this one. We needed to leave by six to try and get us there for opening at 10:30. We managed it no worries, thanks to a decent rest the night before.
Sadly, my cold and throat were getting worse and Jerry and his wife haven’t heard of paracetamol (generally the best thing for a cold I find). They were good enough to dose me with asprin and decongestant though.
The drive was long, but good – taking in Washington on the way. We stopped for coffee and donuts and an embarrassing attempt at me trying to find some cough sweets (sorry, “throat lozenges”) from the gas station (with the medicine? What kind of mad world is this? :lol: ).
We finally arrive and the park looks relatively empty. There are a few school trips there, but it’s looking pretty good really.
We sneak Minor_Furie in again on The Kids pass (I bought my ticket last night). So not too expensive, but it was still $48 for me.
Dominator still hasn’t got a huge queue, so we head there first. Wait for the front row and we grab the world’s largest floorless! Woo!
The day is a bit of a mess in my mind, but Jerry went back for a few things we’d forgotten while Minor_Furie and I rode Scooby Doo’s Ghoster Coaster.
As we were riding kiddy coasters, we took in the tiny Zierer “cab” coaster next door. Whores indeed…
I’m really enjoying the park by now. The kids section around Ghoster Coaster is really pleasant and the theming is actually really good.
You should have seen the one little kid’s face when he spotted this statue of Scooby – it was pure awe!
Heading for Volcano, we passed the awesome looking Crypt
Jerry wanted to do the coaster first though, so Volcano it was. My first launch of the trip (third time lucky?) and my first Intamin Invert.
Don’t worry Minor_Furie, I’m sure we’ll manage to get at least ONE launch today!
It was open! Hurray! Waited a fair while to grab the front seat, but we managed it. At last! I have to say the coaster bit is really ugly, but I love the actual volcano they’ve built. It even has fire!!!
I think we hit up Avalanche next – I was quite looking forward to this as I love Avalanche at Blackpool. It was longer, but nowhere near as fun. Real shame.
Definitely did Crypt next, and it was fantastic. The ride didn’t get you wet, so you could just enjoy the Top Spin. Lots of flips and the flame effects really made it excellent. Sorry, bit of a review there, but I’m not going to review it later I really enjoyed the ride though, the fact it looks excellent just helps.
I suspect we headed to the slightly odd bit of the park next for Flight of Fear. I noticed at Dorney, SFNE and Hershey that these parks with water parks attached go very concrete/tarmac around those areas. I guess it’s to make sure the guests stay clean and the park does too when you have people travelling between the water area and main park. It looks a real contrast to the rest of the park though – specially with Anaconda sitting poised over a nice lake.
From Anaconda, we headed towards the grey expanse – it looked dreadful, like it was in the middle of construction, then it hit me: Back Lot Stunt Coaster! The theme of the ride is a warehouse and road area, so that’s why it looked so out of place. Once you get to the coaster, it looks… Erm, it doesn’t look good as such, but it fits in with the ride theme.
As Flight of Fear was open, Back Lot Stunt Coaster became our third launch of the day (and trip). Lunch called and we had a mediocre chicken thing, about Drayton Manor Park standard, but with a better class of milk shake
Time to head for my first Togo (this wasn’t an expected highlight :lol: ), the stand up – Shockwave (funny to link DMP twice so soon).
Got on this without much waiting, but the operations are very slow and poor. It took (not long as I said) about five minutes, but that was with nobody in front of us :lol: .
As the ride ended, we made our way to Grizzly, but could see the sky darkening. Just as we got to the entrance, this happened:
Serious amounts of rain came down along with thunder and lightning and all the rides stopped. This was not looking good at all. After about thirty minutes, the paths were like streams
Good weather for ducks.
Eventually, the rain eased and stopped and we headed from our temporary shelter in the face painting tent to Grizzly.
There, we waited
The staff kept themselves busy cleaning the platform and trains. They were waiting for a “go” call from the management. People came and went… We stayed.
We got bored and left.
The flying boat things (like Southport used to have and Oakwood now have) were running, so we had a quick play.
Then I spotted Rebel Yell running, so we rushed over for that.
While on Rebel Yell, Hurler opened, so we hobbled over there.
On Hurler, the Gyro drop opened, so we crawled over to that.
On the Gyro Drop… Erm, it was fun but nothing else seemed to open (though the girl running one of the games started shouting quotes from Monty Python and the Holy Grail at me :lol: We tried the Wild Mouse, but it was still shut… Badgers…
Ah! I see Grizzly running! This is all we need, so we dashed onto it. With all the rain and the faff, we’ve only about 45 minutes before the park closes. So we head back then to Dominator which we’ve seen running (via some flying things Jerry thought would terrify me).
Arrived and found the queue line leaving via the entrance to Dominator – closed for the day
Only one thing left for it!
Sally ride fun!
Ghastly Manor and Ghastly Manners!
This was pretty much identical to the ride at Lake Compounce we enjoyed earlier in the week. The only difference was some decent 3D Scooby Doo models and a Scooby Doo soundtrack. About 3/4’s of the way through, the ride stopped. We sat for ten minutes (until just about park close) waiting for an evac.
We left then buying some presents in the shops on our way out (and having the obligatory group shot in front of the fake tower).
Not a great way to end the day, but we managed to get pretty much everything done at least.
Reviews
Dominator
The best of the floorless rides we rode all week certainly, but not by a particularly clear margin. You could see it wanting to be a decent multi-looper but failing miserably. As with the others, it’s not a bad ride, but just nothing at all really special.
Volcano – The blast coaster
Ride of the park I think… The launch was really good fun. I think it’s the inverted position makes it interesting, and the way it’s out of a tunnel. The
is also good fun. I wasn’t too keen on the hang time on the in-line twist (I’m not keen on hang time), but the res tof the layout was really good fun actually. I’d love to ride it a few more times to really cement it, but first impressions were of a very nice, fun, enjoyable coaster. 8/10
Avalanche
Such a shame. These rides should be fast and fun, but the pacing with the brakes and lift hills ruined this. The disappointment may have brought my score down a bit, but I wasn’t impressed really. 5/10
Ghoster Coaster
Solid, fun kids woodie. Nothing to rave about, nothing to complain about. 6/10
Flight of Fear
Really liked this – kind of. The outside and announcements are really amusing “there will be a meeting of the time travel committee last Wednesday at eight o’clock”. The inside is a bit dingy and the theming just “not quite as good as it could have been”. It was enough effort to make it look like an effort had been made, but not enough to actually be good. Bit of a shame really as it only needed a bit more work and it could have been excellent.
Jerry models his Flight of Fear face.
The ride itself was fine. The launch into the dark is a blast and the initial part of the layout is excellent. The inversions and twists are really disorientating. Oddly, I blast R’nR and Space Mountain at DLP for having inversions in the dark. Neither did anything for me and I found them bland and a waste. This seemed to be tight enough and fast enough to pull it off though.
Then the ride dies. It hits some brakes and just casually wanders through some turns. Such a shame… 7/10
Anaconda
The ride looks lovely laid out right across the lake above the water. Though my eyes must have been deceiving me as Amanda Thompson clearly stated Infusion was the world’s only coaster completely over water. Ah, there’s a dive under the lake, so it’s not 100% over water… I see – Sorry Ms Thompson.
The dive is good, and most of the layout – then the inevitable pain kicks in and it drags it down to a 6/10.
Still, looks lovely eh?
Shockwave
Meh. I was expecting a skull crushing, spine shattering experience. I was also expecting something a bit bigger and more impressive (like DMP’s Shockwave). However, it was a tight, compact ride, and was actually pretty good fun for what it was. No massive amounts of pain, and it was only mildly uncomfortable. 7/10.
Smaller than it looks.
Rebel Yell
Oh good, the painful woodies are back! Ouch! 5/10!
Hurler
I’m going to upset people here, I enjoyed Hurler. I liked what they tried to do (even if it failed). The fact there’s no real “big second hill” is a braver attempt at something new and different. The ride is fast and really hammers (hurls) around the track. Pity that nobody quite did the maths enough to work out you needed to angle the track more on the bends. Still, it was fast and it was fun. WTF is going on with the theming in the station though? Seriously, it makes no sense at all!
Back Lot Stunt (cough) Coaster
Where to start with this dog’s dinner? I’ll go back to Dark Knight at SFGA. I like a ride to be something. If it’s a dark ride, then be a dark ride. A coaster, then a coaster.
BLSC failed. I thought the idea behind it all was actually good. The chase through the city on the roof tops with the chopper, through the sewers, etc. As a trolly ride like they have at studio tours, it would have been good, and the money they spent on the coaster could have gone into making it good. Sadly, they skimped on the scenes, and put in a bad coaster. What’s with the poor up helix after the launch? Why? I’ve never had anything like that happen in a car, or seen anything like it in a film. Going up a multi-story car park perhaps? Then put the ****ing multi storey car park scenery around it then.
The ride was full of this where it stepped from “show” to “bad coaster”. Bad coaster I can deal with. Bad show I can deal with. Both together mish mashed? Eugh!
The cars are lush though and I wanted to take one home with me.
4/10 being generous.
Grizzly
Well, it wasn’t painful… It was also completely uneventful. All the parks seem to either have fantastically painful, fantastically dull or fantastic woodies. The only ones that are fun to ride are the kiddie ones (other than the fantastic ones obviously).
5/10
Conclusions
Real shame rain stopped play. I actually enjoyed the park, even if most of the coasters aren’t really up to much. The theming is very hit and miss, as is the park itself at times, but generally I really liked it. Like Hershey, it seemed a bit split in two between the lovely bit and the not so lovely bit (but still all “good”).
It’s the kind of park I’d happily go to regularly just to visit and not really do a great deal (a bit like I treat Alton, or A-Kid treats Thorpe).
Went for a “Southern Dinner” afterwards which was a real bargain and good stuff (but not the dumplings really) and then down to Williamsburg to the hotel to get ready for the big day! Busch tomorrow. Once again though, the weather forecast looked bad, very much like it had been today. With that, there’s a very good chance we’d struggle to get on some of the rides, and Busch would certainly be a downer without time to wander and soak up the atmosphere. It’s Griffon too tomorrow – next major highlight of the trip… Come on weather, hold out for us…
There was discussion about nipping in to Six Flags America on the way down to Kings Dominion today. A look at finances and weather though put me off. It was going to be over $50 for the two of us to go in – so a bit of a high cost to really just ride a Vekoma flyer. There are a few other rides there too, but nothing outstanding or worth it. The weather looked very hit and miss too, with potential storms – so I’d rather just tackle the one park with lots – so we stood a chance of doing it all if the weather took a turn for the worst.
Kings Dominion
This is a long way from New York, over four hours and close to half way to Busch Gardens Williamsburg (tomorrow).
Expected Highlights
Park I didn’t really know a great about really. I’d seen Volcano before (LIM launched Intamin Invert – if it would work) and the Intamin Gyro-Drop tower too. Other than that, the place was pretty much a mystery to me. Last year Cedar Fair moved in the world’s largest Floorless coaster – Dominator, so that should be interesting too. Other than that, four more woodies – but I really don’t know what to make of the place. It’s an exciting surprise!
The day itself
Very early start for this one. We needed to leave by six to try and get us there for opening at 10:30. We managed it no worries, thanks to a decent rest the night before.
Sadly, my cold and throat were getting worse and Jerry and his wife haven’t heard of paracetamol (generally the best thing for a cold I find). They were good enough to dose me with asprin and decongestant though.
The drive was long, but good – taking in Washington on the way. We stopped for coffee and donuts and an embarrassing attempt at me trying to find some cough sweets (sorry, “throat lozenges”) from the gas station (with the medicine? What kind of mad world is this? :lol: ).
We finally arrive and the park looks relatively empty. There are a few school trips there, but it’s looking pretty good really.
We sneak Minor_Furie in again on The Kids pass (I bought my ticket last night). So not too expensive, but it was still $48 for me.
Dominator still hasn’t got a huge queue, so we head there first. Wait for the front row and we grab the world’s largest floorless! Woo!
The day is a bit of a mess in my mind, but Jerry went back for a few things we’d forgotten while Minor_Furie and I rode Scooby Doo’s Ghoster Coaster.
As we were riding kiddy coasters, we took in the tiny Zierer “cab” coaster next door. Whores indeed…
I’m really enjoying the park by now. The kids section around Ghoster Coaster is really pleasant and the theming is actually really good.
You should have seen the one little kid’s face when he spotted this statue of Scooby – it was pure awe!
Heading for Volcano, we passed the awesome looking Crypt
Jerry wanted to do the coaster first though, so Volcano it was. My first launch of the trip (third time lucky?) and my first Intamin Invert.
Don’t worry Minor_Furie, I’m sure we’ll manage to get at least ONE launch today!
It was open! Hurray! Waited a fair while to grab the front seat, but we managed it. At last! I have to say the coaster bit is really ugly, but I love the actual volcano they’ve built. It even has fire!!!
I think we hit up Avalanche next – I was quite looking forward to this as I love Avalanche at Blackpool. It was longer, but nowhere near as fun. Real shame.
Definitely did Crypt next, and it was fantastic. The ride didn’t get you wet, so you could just enjoy the Top Spin. Lots of flips and the flame effects really made it excellent. Sorry, bit of a review there, but I’m not going to review it later
I really enjoyed the ride though, the fact it looks excellent just helps.I suspect we headed to the slightly odd bit of the park next for Flight of Fear. I noticed at Dorney, SFNE and Hershey that these parks with water parks attached go very concrete/tarmac around those areas. I guess it’s to make sure the guests stay clean and the park does too when you have people travelling between the water area and main park. It looks a real contrast to the rest of the park though – specially with Anaconda sitting poised over a nice lake.
From Anaconda, we headed towards the grey expanse – it looked dreadful, like it was in the middle of construction, then it hit me: Back Lot Stunt Coaster! The theme of the ride is a warehouse and road area, so that’s why it looked so out of place. Once you get to the coaster, it looks… Erm, it doesn’t look good as such, but it fits in with the ride theme.
As Flight of Fear was open, Back Lot Stunt Coaster became our third launch of the day (and trip). Lunch called and we had a mediocre chicken thing, about Drayton Manor Park standard, but with a better class of milk shake
Time to head for my first Togo (this wasn’t an expected highlight :lol: ), the stand up – Shockwave (funny to link DMP twice so soon).
Got on this without much waiting, but the operations are very slow and poor. It took (not long as I said) about five minutes, but that was with nobody in front of us :lol: .
As the ride ended, we made our way to Grizzly, but could see the sky darkening. Just as we got to the entrance, this happened:
Serious amounts of rain came down along with thunder and lightning and all the rides stopped. This was not looking good at all. After about thirty minutes, the paths were like streams
Good weather for ducks.
Eventually, the rain eased and stopped and we headed from our temporary shelter in the face painting tent to Grizzly.
There, we waited
The staff kept themselves busy cleaning the platform and trains. They were waiting for a “go” call from the management. People came and went… We stayed.
We got bored and left.
The flying boat things (like Southport used to have and Oakwood now have) were running, so we had a quick play.
Then I spotted Rebel Yell running, so we rushed over for that.
While on Rebel Yell, Hurler opened, so we hobbled over there.
On Hurler, the Gyro drop opened, so we crawled over to that.
On the Gyro Drop… Erm, it was fun but nothing else seemed to open (though the girl running one of the games started shouting quotes from Monty Python and the Holy Grail at me :lol: We tried the Wild Mouse, but it was still shut… Badgers…
Ah! I see Grizzly running! This is all we need, so we dashed onto it. With all the rain and the faff, we’ve only about 45 minutes before the park closes. So we head back then to Dominator which we’ve seen running (via some flying things Jerry thought would terrify me).
Arrived and found the queue line leaving via the entrance to Dominator – closed for the day
Only one thing left for it!
Sally ride fun!
Ghastly Manor and Ghastly Manners!
This was pretty much identical to the ride at Lake Compounce we enjoyed earlier in the week. The only difference was some decent 3D Scooby Doo models and a Scooby Doo soundtrack. About 3/4’s of the way through, the ride stopped. We sat for ten minutes (until just about park close) waiting for an evac.
We left then buying some presents in the shops on our way out (and having the obligatory group shot in front of the fake tower).
Not a great way to end the day, but we managed to get pretty much everything done at least.
Reviews
Dominator
The best of the floorless rides we rode all week certainly, but not by a particularly clear margin. You could see it wanting to be a decent multi-looper but failing miserably. As with the others, it’s not a bad ride, but just nothing at all really special.
Volcano – The blast coaster
Ride of the park I think… The launch was really good fun. I think it’s the inverted position makes it interesting, and the way it’s out of a tunnel. The
second launch out of the volcano
Avalanche
Such a shame. These rides should be fast and fun, but the pacing with the brakes and lift hills ruined this. The disappointment may have brought my score down a bit, but I wasn’t impressed really. 5/10
Ghoster Coaster
Solid, fun kids woodie. Nothing to rave about, nothing to complain about. 6/10
Flight of Fear
Really liked this – kind of. The outside and announcements are really amusing “there will be a meeting of the time travel committee last Wednesday at eight o’clock”. The inside is a bit dingy and the theming just “not quite as good as it could have been”. It was enough effort to make it look like an effort had been made, but not enough to actually be good. Bit of a shame really as it only needed a bit more work and it could have been excellent.
Jerry models his Flight of Fear face.
The ride itself was fine. The launch into the dark is a blast and the initial part of the layout is excellent. The inversions and twists are really disorientating. Oddly, I blast R’nR and Space Mountain at DLP for having inversions in the dark. Neither did anything for me and I found them bland and a waste. This seemed to be tight enough and fast enough to pull it off though.
Then the ride dies. It hits some brakes and just casually wanders through some turns. Such a shame… 7/10
Anaconda
The ride looks lovely laid out right across the lake above the water. Though my eyes must have been deceiving me as Amanda Thompson clearly stated Infusion was the world’s only coaster completely over water. Ah, there’s a dive under the lake, so it’s not 100% over water… I see – Sorry Ms Thompson.
The dive is good, and most of the layout – then the inevitable pain kicks in and it drags it down to a 6/10.
Still, looks lovely eh?
Shockwave
Meh. I was expecting a skull crushing, spine shattering experience. I was also expecting something a bit bigger and more impressive (like DMP’s Shockwave). However, it was a tight, compact ride, and was actually pretty good fun for what it was. No massive amounts of pain, and it was only mildly uncomfortable. 7/10.
Smaller than it looks.
Rebel Yell
Oh good, the painful woodies are back! Ouch! 5/10!
Hurler
I’m going to upset people here, I enjoyed Hurler. I liked what they tried to do (even if it failed). The fact there’s no real “big second hill” is a braver attempt at something new and different. The ride is fast and really hammers (hurls) around the track. Pity that nobody quite did the maths enough to work out you needed to angle the track more on the bends. Still, it was fast and it was fun. WTF is going on with the theming in the station though? Seriously, it makes no sense at all!
Back Lot Stunt (cough) Coaster
Where to start with this dog’s dinner? I’ll go back to Dark Knight at SFGA. I like a ride to be something. If it’s a dark ride, then be a dark ride. A coaster, then a coaster.
BLSC failed. I thought the idea behind it all was actually good. The chase through the city on the roof tops with the chopper, through the sewers, etc. As a trolly ride like they have at studio tours, it would have been good, and the money they spent on the coaster could have gone into making it good. Sadly, they skimped on the scenes, and put in a bad coaster. What’s with the poor up helix after the launch? Why? I’ve never had anything like that happen in a car, or seen anything like it in a film. Going up a multi-story car park perhaps? Then put the ****ing multi storey car park scenery around it then.
The ride was full of this where it stepped from “show” to “bad coaster”. Bad coaster I can deal with. Bad show I can deal with. Both together mish mashed? Eugh!
The cars are lush though and I wanted to take one home with me.
4/10 being generous.
Grizzly
Well, it wasn’t painful… It was also completely uneventful. All the parks seem to either have fantastically painful, fantastically dull or fantastic woodies. The only ones that are fun to ride are the kiddie ones (other than the fantastic ones obviously).
5/10
Conclusions
Real shame rain stopped play. I actually enjoyed the park, even if most of the coasters aren’t really up to much. The theming is very hit and miss, as is the park itself at times, but generally I really liked it. Like Hershey, it seemed a bit split in two between the lovely bit and the not so lovely bit (but still all “good”).
It’s the kind of park I’d happily go to regularly just to visit and not really do a great deal (a bit like I treat Alton, or A-Kid treats Thorpe).
Went for a “Southern Dinner” afterwards which was a real bargain and good stuff (but not the dumplings really) and then down to Williamsburg to the hotel to get ready for the big day! Busch tomorrow. Once again though, the weather forecast looked bad, very much like it had been today. With that, there’s a very good chance we’d struggle to get on some of the rides, and Busch would certainly be a downer without time to wander and soak up the atmosphere. It’s Griffon too tomorrow – next major highlight of the trip… Come on weather, hold out for us…
Kings Dominion is such a hole.
I agree that Dominator is great... for a Floorless.
The woodies just... no. Should never be talked about again.
On the over the water subject, I believe Amanda said it's the only inverted coaster entirely over water
And Back Lot SUCKS, but, was my 300th <3
I agree that Dominator is great... for a Floorless.
The woodies just... no. Should never be talked about again.
On the over the water subject, I believe Amanda said it's the only inverted coaster entirely over water
And Back Lot SUCKS, but, was my 300th <3
Gazza
Giga Poster
What you wanted was 'Tylenol', or any other brand with 'acetaminophen' as the active ingredientl Acetaminophen is what they call Paracetamol there, and Tylenol is their Panadol equivalent. Damn American English :lol: .
What is funny is that I learnt the word Tylenol from a Weird Al song.