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THE Trip: East Coast Parks and Sights

Day two at King's Dominion was swell. We got to the park at around 10:15 and got in early with our passes. We got on Dominator quickly and headed to Volcano. After a 20 minute wait, we were riding in the front row again. Once again, it was a fantastic ride. The Crypt was next.

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I only waited one cycle, and Pat sat it out. This ride was great. It was suspenseful, intense, and actually made me gray out a bit. I walked off the ride dizzy. It's definitely better than it's big sister at King's Island.

We walked over to Shockwave, but it wasn't open yet, so I went over to Drop Tower to get a ride. I got on in five minutes and ascended to the heavens. Down we went, and while the freefall was good, I remember Drop Tower at King's Island having more airtime.

Shockwave was next. After a 15 minute wait, due to slow loading, we were on. The ride wasn't very good. It was a bit rough and had minimal airtime. Skyrider at Canada's Wonderland was better.

We walked over to Rebel Yell, only to find out that they were running only one side. When we got to the station, we then found out that they were only running one train. This ride's operation was a failure, and fortunately we found a short row to wait in. Overall, the ride wasn't terrible, but it wasn't as fun as Racer at King's Island.

Ricochet was right around the corner, so we hopped on that and didn't have to wait too long. They actually cleared the line after us. There's nothing special to say about this ride other than there's a ton of lateral Gs.

Across the midway was Hurler. We hopped on that and were rattled around the turns, but the hills had some decent airtime.

We got some food next and headed to Grizzly. I never realized that this was a clone of Wild Beast at Canada's Wonderland. This was all around smoother, but Wild Beast had a better second half to it.

We headed up the Eiffel Tower to get some pictures. After snagging a bunch, we headed to Flight of Fear to get a reride on that. This was our longest wait today, which was about 25 minutes. The air conditioning was comfortable though.

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To end the day, we headed to Dominator for three consecutive rides. We then left around 4:00 and started driving to Washington DC. We arrived at 6:00. We instantly looked up some restaurants and found a steakhouse around the block from the hotel. I got a 14 oz. Delmonico Bison ribeye topped with lemon butter and a side baked potato. It was delicious...with a capital D!

Tomorrow is Six Flags America.
 
Have fun at SFA. I heard it was a ghetto. Looks like it has some fun rides though. Shoot I lived in VA for 6.5 years and I never went to SFA. Weird huh?
 
Sounds like another great day! Is the atmosphere at Kings Dominion as nice as the atmosphere at Kings Island, or are they about par? Anyways, I just have to say I hate the new location Dommy is in.. It fit so much nicer where it was at Geauga Lake :( .

Have fun at Six Flags America; hopefully it's better than it's made out to be!
 
Taylor; The atmosphere is about on the same level, and some areas seem almost identical. While King's Island has a bit of a better line up in my opinion, I think King's Dominion is a bit cleaner looking. Also, Dommy looks so much nicer in it's location now than at Geauga. Yes, it is on the edge of the park, but King's Dominion added pathways underneath the ride, which give you views which you've never seen before. The whole area just blends together nicely, but I guess you have to be there to know what I mean.
 
^ Hmm, oh. Well, I liked how it was on the water at Geauga Lake, that's what I meant. I don't like the way coasters look when they're on the edge of the park, but I think you're right about me having to be there to get a true feel of it.
 
Well I woke up late today, but Pat didn't even try to wake me up, so we ended up hoofing it to the DC Metro at around 8:30. We got on the train and had a short delay due to a malfunction on a different train. Once we got going again, the ride got scarier and scarier. Finally we got to the end of the line, and hopped on the bus. After a short bus ride, we walked to the season pass center and got our passes.

This was a special day, since I was nearing 200 and Pat was nearing 100. Unfortunately, we've heard that this wasn't a very good park, and that bummed us a bit. We entered and decided to get the pain over with and went to Mind Eraser.

This is the worst SLC out of the four I've been on. It was very rough, and the train shook a lot. Even the Vekoma brace position didn't solve the problem.

Roar was nearby, so we headed there next. We were surprised. Pat had only ridden Gwazi, which is probably the worst GCI out there, and I'm not a fan of PTC trains at all. The ride was actually great though. The pacing wasn't the best, but the turns, drops and hills were fun and smooth for the most part. The second half had some pops of airtime and the turns were very fun in the back. Overall, it wasn't anything special, but it wasn't bad at all. Plus one for SFA.

We headed over to Wild One next. After a 15 minute wait for the front, we were heading up the lift. I heard good things about this ride, and it was true. The ride was quick, had good airtime, and was just a good ride all around. It was smooth as well. Plus one more for SFA.

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I was at 199, and Pat was at 98, so we decided to hit a milestone together and he rode Joker's Jinx. We headed over to Superman for two milestones. After waiting one train, we were on. Up the lift we went and down the first drop. The first turn was rough, and that was about it. Up the second hill we went. There was some decent floater at the top and the little rise into the helix of death had floater. The helix had very strong forces and I couldn't see for the last 270 degrees. After the straight away, we flew over the third hill and experienced insane ejector air. Around the second helix and over the buckel we went, and into the final two hills, all having awesome airtime. It was a great ride.

We decided to go to Batwing since we were on that side of the park. It was the longest wait, due to the one train operation. We waited around 25 minutes, and the ride wasn't too good. Firehawk was smoother and gave a better ride all around.

I went back to Joker's Jinx to get the credit. After 15 minutes, I was launching through the spaghetti bowl. The first half seemed slower than Flight of Fear, but the second half was awesome. The brakes weren't on, so the ride flew through the next few turns and the last corkscrew. It was super intense and made me gray out a few times.

We decided to leave after this. We did all the rides, and we wanted to see some of the Nation's Capitol. We headed to the bus stop, and waited. It started sprinkling, and probably an hour later, the bus finally came. We made it back to the metro stop and got on back to the city.

Refer to this map to see what we did next:

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We got off at the Smithsonian. Pat never got to see any of the monuments, so we walked past the Washington Monument. We saw the WWII Memorial before seeing the Vietnam War Memorial. The Lincoln Monument was right next door, so we saw that and then walked by the Korea memorial. We walked around the Tidal Basin to see the FDR Memorial and Jefferson Monument before walking back up to the White House. After seeing the snipers on the roof(yep), we got some dinner, and then headed over to the National Archives, but it was closed, so we just came back. We're about to pass out from an exhausting day.

Tomorrow, we'll be traveling through Maryland. On either Sunday or Monday, we'll be at SFGAdv to end the trip with a bang. The other day, we'll be in New York City, the capital of New York State according to Taylor ;)
 
CONGRATSIES ON GETTING YOUR MILESTONES! I'm glad Six Flags America wasn't as bad as you thought it was going to be, and at least they had a few decent rides whether the operations are poor or not. Joker's Jinx is actually one of my favourite coaster names <3

P.S.- PAT I'M STILL BEATING YOUR CC FOR NOW, HA!

P.S.S.- NYC is soooo the capital of New York.
 
Glad to hear about your milestones, and that I kind of regret not going to SFA. Sounds better than what I heard. I also think NYC is the capital of NY.
 
It really isn't anything special. It is just a couple credits, but the wooden coasters are decent.

Also, the capitol of New York state is Albany.

Today wasn't anything too exciting. We drove to Baltimore and saw Fort McHenry, where the Star Spangled Banner was written. It was a pretty neat place. We then went into downtown to get some lunch. Unfortunately, there was a baseball game, so everything was packed. It was still cool to see the harbor though. We then drove to our hotel in Princeton, NJ, which is about a half hour from SFGAdv.

Tomorrow, we're going to Manhattan and maybe even Coney Island. Our last day, Monday, will be spent at SFGAdv.
 
^ Hehe yay, go me.

Sounds like a decent day, Marc, but tomorrow sounds like it will be even better. I love Manhattan, and I regret not going to Coney Island, ugh!

Have fun and enjoy Toro on Monday!
 
Today, we drove to Staten Island and took the ferry to Manhattan:

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We walked through Battery Park to Ground Zero, and we also saw Wall Street, the bull, South Street Seaport, and Brooklyn Bridge. We then took the subway up to Times Square and into a bunch of stores to stay out of the rain. Once it stopped, we walked north to Rockefeller Center, the library, and the Empire State Building. The wait wasn't long, so we went to the top, where you could surprisingly see Coney Island.

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We then headed back to the south end of the island to catch the ferry back. Now we're resting for an epic day tomorrow.

It is about to come: THE Day of THE Trip!
 
Sounds fun. Hope you have a good time. I loved NYC when I went. Didn't get to see the Statue of Liberty though.
 
Nice Marc! Sucks that it was raining, but the same thing happened to me while I was in NYC. It actually happened while I was in Central Park, so that kinda sucked because that's one of my favourite parts of the city (go figure, I don't like nature, and I love big cities, but my favourite part of this big city is a nature-y place.. haha). Empire State Building was pretty scary, but the scariest thing about New York I think is walking across the Brooklyn Bridge, eugh. Times Square though <3 And Ground Zero was a very amazing thing to see..

I heard El Toro cracked your #1 today, I'm eager to hear more!
 
Yesterday was it: THE Day of THE Trip. We woke up to sunny skies and after getting ready, hit the road for the half hour drive to the park. We arrived just after 10:00.

As soon as we got in and the chains were dropped, we decided to get Superman: Ultimate Flight out of the way. We were on the third train of the day. Overall, the ride is fun, but it isn't anything outstanding. I thought the one in Chicago was more intense though.

Since GASM was next door, we decided to get the pain done next. We got on quickly and I didn't the ride was as bad as people make it out to be. The drop was awesome and the loops were super intense. The batwing was the most painful part of the ride, but if you brace yourself, it's no problem at all. The entrance to the corkscrews was horrible as well, but it's to be expected on any Arrow looper.

We headed over to El Toro next, but to our dismay, a yellow chain blocked the entrance. Pissed off, we did both sides of Rolling Thunder. We did the right side first and the turnaround was extremely painful. We hoped the left side was better. Luckily, it was. The flat turn taken at a lower speed didn't slam us into the side of the train as much as the sloped turnaround with no lead-ins or outs.

El Toro was still closed, so we went to Bizarro for a walk on. We waited for front row and enjoyed the ride. I thought that Scream! was better, but the ride was still fun, and some of the effects were pretty sweet, such as the fire and augur. Other than that, it was all pointless, including the background 'noise'.

Since we were right by Runaway Mine Train, we hopped on it for a spin. This was the longest wait so far because as soon as we entered the station, somebody threw up. It was a three train wait, and when we were next, some Flash Passers stole our row. Balls. The ride was alright, but I've been on better.

El Toro was testing hardcore at this point, so we headed over to Nathan's for lunch. My parents got crepes, and when we finished eating, we headed back to El Toro. We were just in time. There was a small crowd of 15 or so milling around the entrance. A worker was walking away with the chain. We knew our ride was moments away. Ten minutes later, they let us in. We walked through the empty queue and into the station for the second train of the day.





















HOLY ****ING TESTICLES! EL ****ING TORO!!!!!!1 I have never, in all 207 coasters previous to it, experienced airtime like this. The lifthill was insanely quick, and the slow turnaround built the suspense so well. The drop was pure ecstasy; insane ejector even in the front. The glass smooth ride headed over the first two hills and I felt like my head was going to fly off of my neck. The turnaround threw you into submission with some nice positive Gs, but it was back out of your seat for the three hills following. We suddenly made a left hand turn, and headed skyward over Rolling Thunder, but only for a brief second, because the short hill drops quickly and your brain is being pummeled in your skull. It is THE BEST moment on any roller coaster I have been on. Around a few turns to knock your brain back into position, and a few more pops of air, and your wild rodeo ride is over.

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El Toro is the only ride that I have ridden recently that has left me dizzy when I was getting out of the train and walking away. That alone makes the ride so much better. I see what all the fuss is about. Maverick has been dethroned.

We took the skyride across the park(good thing, because I probably wouldn't have made it walking) and got in line for Nitro. Six Flags really needs new wait signs, because the queue was back to where it said 90 minutes, and our wait was around 20. At least B&M megacoasters can really haul people through the line. We rode in the eighth row. Personally, I thought the ride was fun. It was a quality coaster, and not terrible like many say. On the other hand, it also wasn't outstanding like Diamondback and didn't blow us away like Apollo's Chariot. The ride is good, but there's better. The helix was excellent though.

We needed some shade, so Skull Mountain came next. A half hour later, we were sitting in the front row thinking 'wtf is going on?' This ride was weird, but pretty fun nonetheless. I loved how they played metal music during the ride and had the strobe light at the end.

We sucked it up and waited for Batman: The Ride, and even though the line was almost back to the sign that said 120 minutes, we waited only 45 total. We got in line for the third row and enjoyed the ride. I remember Le Vampire and B:TR at SFGAm being more intense. It's still a great ride, even though it's a short ride.

The Dark Knight was one of the last coasters, so we got in line. The line moved fairly quickly, and we were watching the pre-show, which was well done in my opinion, soon enough. A few minutes later, we were on the ride. This was just as much of a 'wtf is going on?' as Skull Mountain. There were some cool parts to the ride, like where you're almost at the bunny hops and a machine gun starts firing and you drop into one of the valleys.

We headed to the ferris wheel to get some pics, and then got on our last credit, Blackbeard's Lost Treasure Train. Nothing to say about it. It was retarded.

My parents were ready to go, so we headed back to El Toro for one more ride, this time in the back. We got in line, a full queue, and were on the train in 45 minutes. I didn't notice much of a difference, but I was tired. The ride still kicked ass the entire ride.

That was it. We walked out of the park tired and satisfied. We had just experienced four new parks and 36 coasters, only one that I have been on before. Our top tens were permanently changed, and it was time to go home.

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Now that I'm at home, I'll start posting photos. I won't post them all at once though, since that would probably be close to 75 photos(I took around 500 on the entire trip). I'll also be working on transferring everything from this computer to my new one which is now ready to be picked up, so this might delay the photos a bit more.
 
Haha I'm glad you and Patty Watty both enjoyed Toro! I didn't think Toro was as fantastic in the front as it looks in the back, and it looks like you didn't take my advice about riding the back first, but as long as you liked it then it doesn't matter :p . Other than Toro it still sounds like you had a great time, but you should have done Skull Mountain in the back; it actually has an unexpected pop of air going over the first hill.

Can't wait for piccies!
 
Ok, I can do Busch Gardens pictures today, since I haven't gone to pick up the computer yet, but idk if I'll be able to do King's Dominion tonight.

I could've used a lot more photos, but I chose not to because my camera is getting old, and the digital zoom(I have 4x optical, and even at 7x total, this happens) is leaving glares and streaks on the images. These are the really good ones though:

Griffon:

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Alpengeist:

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Pat and I in line for DarKastle:

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Apollo's Chariot:

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Just for you, Taylor, AC on it's transfer track:

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Loch Ness Monster:

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And last, but most certainly not least, Big Bad Wolf:

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Enjoy!
 
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