USA Summer 2016 PTR - Part 12: Six Flags America
- Thread starter gavin
- Start date
Re: USA Summer 2016 PTR - Part 6: Timber Falls
The next day at Wisconsin Dells was obviously the main reason for being there.
Mt Olympus
For ages, I’d had a bit of a fascination for this park, but more recently had been losing interest since it seems to basically get slated all the time and I didn’t think I’d realistically get there anytime soon. I never for a second thought that a small place like the Dells would be so easy to get to without a car. Admittedly, the train only comes through once a day in each direction, but it’s an easy connection from Chicago/Milwaukee to the east and Minneapolis to the west.
Again, I just walked from the hotel, which took around 15 minutes. The stretch that the park sits on has a bunch of other random crap which I didn’t bother with.
First view of the park:
I’d booked a ticket online for the ridiculous price of $10, which also included the water park. However, the on-the-gate price was the same anyway. There were quite a few very permanent-looking “$10 Today Only!!!!” signs around.
The entrance takes you through a mass of supports for three of the woodies, which I thought was quite fab; I hadn’t realised that the three main coasters were basically sitting on top of each other.
I went straight for Zeus, which had about a 10-minute queue at that point. Rather worrying sign…
I thought it was great though. The first drop and following hills have got loads of airtime, though it definitely tries to kill you after those. I rerode it as I was leaving the park later, and it was even better.
The park has about 250 different go cart tracks. They were all really busy though, and I’m not really a fan of them, so I didn’t try any.
Right next to the exit to Zeus is the entrance to Hades, or Hades 360 now.
The queue for this was quite a bit longer. I think I ended up waiting between 30-45 minutes for each of the three rides I did on it. All of the coasters here run single trains. This isn’t a case of the park just not running the second train; none of them even have one. They don’t even have any transfer track/shed to hold a second train.
Hades has a fairly substantial pre-lift section, which I wasn’t expecting, and was actually pretty good.
I’ve heard little praise for the ride, especially since the addition of the inversion, but, again, I really enjoyed this coaster. The first drop – well, after the lift anyway – is ridiculous, the tunnel is fantastic in both directions and the inversion wasn’t a problem in the slightest.
It’s not a smooth coaster by any stretch, but I’d call it physically demanding rather than rough if that makes sense? If any ride was going to trigger one of those “pre-existing heart condition” cred deaths, this would be it. It’s hard work to ride since it’s ludicrously aggressive, but that to me was part of why I liked it. It’s definitely NOT something you could whore though, so the longer waiting times were more than fine.
The smallest of the three main coasters is Cyclops. I was expecting something pretty small, but it was actually a lot more of a major ride than I was expecting.
There are two decent drops with very good airtime in the back, though not as strong as Hades or Zeus.
The three coasters together:
You enter the park at the top of a hill, which the three main coasters are built on/around. After those rides, the park flattens out at the bottom and has a couple more coasters, a few flat rides and the water park.
The “kiddy” woodie, Pegasus, was again more substantial than I thought, but was a pretty unpleasant ride.
No joy on the only steel coaster in the park unfortunately. This was the only spite of the trip though; I was expecting more to be honest, especially with the kiddy +1s.
Pegasus in the background:
I’m not one to judge people’s lifestyle choices (much), but I found it quite funny to see a bunch of Amish people (possibly Mennonites I guess; I’m not an expert on this ridiculous f**kwiterry) - who spend their lives shunning technology, the modern world and all us regular heathens in it - having a crafty go on a Screaming Swing.
Add in the fact that they’re in a park which celebrates Greek gods, and they’ve clearly just sent themselves to hell.
Apart from some shops which opened up onto the main park, the indoor section next the waterpark was closed. From what I gather, there’s nothing in there anyway now that they’ve got rid of the spinner which chucked someone out. Hopefully, they’ll do something with it though.
Have some more of the fab three woodies all crammed together:
I grabbed a few more pictures of Hades from the car park as I was leaving; You can basically see f**k all of it from inside the park.
Overall thoughts then? It’s a weird one.
I can absolutely see why people wouldn’t like it - it is a bit of a dump if we’re being honest – but for some reason I really enjoyed the place. It could be down to the fact that I’d had every semblance of a decent expectation destroyed over the last few years. I went in expecting the worst, and it didn’t happen. $10 tickets probably helped as well. When you consider that the coaster just up the road costs $6 a pop, getting the whole park plus the water park for $10 is pretty ridiculous.
I also really liked the three bigger coasters, despite them being pretty violent. I’ve come to the conclusion that, with wooden coasters, I’ll forgive some roughness as long as they actually offer something else, which these three did.
Operations are poor though. My first ride on Cyclops, giving just one example, only had one girl doing everything: letting people into the station, checking restraints on both sides of the train, making announcements and dispatching the ride. That particular individual was doing a great job considering, but many of them weren’t.
Obviously, things aren’t going to be particularly fast with single trains, but the staff are sooooooooooooooo f**king slow on top of that, moving at the pace of paralyzed slugs. Luckily, it wasn’t too busy, and a lot of people were there more for the water park, so I couldn’t really complain, but it’s still frustrating to get to the front of a 40-minute queue (Hades) and realise that you would have waited half that if the staff pulled their thumbs out of their arses.
After the park, I walked back and tried the Timber Falls coaster again since after I’d moaned about it the previous day, people on Facebook had said it was better at the front. It wasn’t as rough; but it was still s**t and didn’t do anything.
Realistically, I could have got the train out that evening – it left around 5:30 – but I’d booked it for the next day since I didn’t really know how much time I’d need at Mt Olympus, and hadn’t expected to polish off Timber Falls on that first evening. Anyway, I had that evening and another full day the next day to kill.
There was path next to the river which I had a quick walk up. The area is really nice.
The downtown area is basically one street which is full of tacky, touristy s**te.
Apart from driving through Pigeon Forge, I hadn’t seen this kind of place in the US before. I imagine Branson is very similar. Clifton Hill on the Canadian side of Niagara Falls is like this as well; an area of natural beauty filled with gross s**t.
It’s no different to what we do in the UK with some of our seaside towns really.
It’s vile, but I strangely didn’t hate it though. I’ve got a bit of a soft spot for tacky s**t like this, even if I’ve got no intention of throwing my money at it.
Walking back to the hotel, I grabbed enough food at Taco Bell to give a small African nation diabetes. This was the first/only place of the trip that reminded me of the kind of places we’d stayed on the US Lives a few years ago: out-of-town, cheap motels surrounded by every chain restaurant you could throw at them. It was fab.
Since I had a day to kill, I did a boat tour the next afternoon, which I might throw in here in the next part.
The next day at Wisconsin Dells was obviously the main reason for being there.
Mt Olympus
For ages, I’d had a bit of a fascination for this park, but more recently had been losing interest since it seems to basically get slated all the time and I didn’t think I’d realistically get there anytime soon. I never for a second thought that a small place like the Dells would be so easy to get to without a car. Admittedly, the train only comes through once a day in each direction, but it’s an easy connection from Chicago/Milwaukee to the east and Minneapolis to the west.
Again, I just walked from the hotel, which took around 15 minutes. The stretch that the park sits on has a bunch of other random crap which I didn’t bother with.
First view of the park:
I’d booked a ticket online for the ridiculous price of $10, which also included the water park. However, the on-the-gate price was the same anyway. There were quite a few very permanent-looking “$10 Today Only!!!!” signs around.
The entrance takes you through a mass of supports for three of the woodies, which I thought was quite fab; I hadn’t realised that the three main coasters were basically sitting on top of each other.
I went straight for Zeus, which had about a 10-minute queue at that point. Rather worrying sign…
I thought it was great though. The first drop and following hills have got loads of airtime, though it definitely tries to kill you after those. I rerode it as I was leaving the park later, and it was even better.
The park has about 250 different go cart tracks. They were all really busy though, and I’m not really a fan of them, so I didn’t try any.
Right next to the exit to Zeus is the entrance to Hades, or Hades 360 now.
The queue for this was quite a bit longer. I think I ended up waiting between 30-45 minutes for each of the three rides I did on it. All of the coasters here run single trains. This isn’t a case of the park just not running the second train; none of them even have one. They don’t even have any transfer track/shed to hold a second train.
Hades has a fairly substantial pre-lift section, which I wasn’t expecting, and was actually pretty good.
I’ve heard little praise for the ride, especially since the addition of the inversion, but, again, I really enjoyed this coaster. The first drop – well, after the lift anyway – is ridiculous, the tunnel is fantastic in both directions and the inversion wasn’t a problem in the slightest.
It’s not a smooth coaster by any stretch, but I’d call it physically demanding rather than rough if that makes sense? If any ride was going to trigger one of those “pre-existing heart condition” cred deaths, this would be it. It’s hard work to ride since it’s ludicrously aggressive, but that to me was part of why I liked it. It’s definitely NOT something you could whore though, so the longer waiting times were more than fine.
The smallest of the three main coasters is Cyclops. I was expecting something pretty small, but it was actually a lot more of a major ride than I was expecting.
There are two decent drops with very good airtime in the back, though not as strong as Hades or Zeus.
The three coasters together:
You enter the park at the top of a hill, which the three main coasters are built on/around. After those rides, the park flattens out at the bottom and has a couple more coasters, a few flat rides and the water park.
The “kiddy” woodie, Pegasus, was again more substantial than I thought, but was a pretty unpleasant ride.
No joy on the only steel coaster in the park unfortunately. This was the only spite of the trip though; I was expecting more to be honest, especially with the kiddy +1s.
Pegasus in the background:
I’m not one to judge people’s lifestyle choices (much), but I found it quite funny to see a bunch of Amish people (possibly Mennonites I guess; I’m not an expert on this ridiculous f**kwiterry) - who spend their lives shunning technology, the modern world and all us regular heathens in it - having a crafty go on a Screaming Swing.
Add in the fact that they’re in a park which celebrates Greek gods, and they’ve clearly just sent themselves to hell.
Apart from some shops which opened up onto the main park, the indoor section next the waterpark was closed. From what I gather, there’s nothing in there anyway now that they’ve got rid of the spinner which chucked someone out. Hopefully, they’ll do something with it though.
Have some more of the fab three woodies all crammed together:
I grabbed a few more pictures of Hades from the car park as I was leaving; You can basically see f**k all of it from inside the park.
Overall thoughts then? It’s a weird one.
I can absolutely see why people wouldn’t like it - it is a bit of a dump if we’re being honest – but for some reason I really enjoyed the place. It could be down to the fact that I’d had every semblance of a decent expectation destroyed over the last few years. I went in expecting the worst, and it didn’t happen. $10 tickets probably helped as well. When you consider that the coaster just up the road costs $6 a pop, getting the whole park plus the water park for $10 is pretty ridiculous.
I also really liked the three bigger coasters, despite them being pretty violent. I’ve come to the conclusion that, with wooden coasters, I’ll forgive some roughness as long as they actually offer something else, which these three did.
Operations are poor though. My first ride on Cyclops, giving just one example, only had one girl doing everything: letting people into the station, checking restraints on both sides of the train, making announcements and dispatching the ride. That particular individual was doing a great job considering, but many of them weren’t.
Obviously, things aren’t going to be particularly fast with single trains, but the staff are sooooooooooooooo f**king slow on top of that, moving at the pace of paralyzed slugs. Luckily, it wasn’t too busy, and a lot of people were there more for the water park, so I couldn’t really complain, but it’s still frustrating to get to the front of a 40-minute queue (Hades) and realise that you would have waited half that if the staff pulled their thumbs out of their arses.
After the park, I walked back and tried the Timber Falls coaster again since after I’d moaned about it the previous day, people on Facebook had said it was better at the front. It wasn’t as rough; but it was still s**t and didn’t do anything.
Realistically, I could have got the train out that evening – it left around 5:30 – but I’d booked it for the next day since I didn’t really know how much time I’d need at Mt Olympus, and hadn’t expected to polish off Timber Falls on that first evening. Anyway, I had that evening and another full day the next day to kill.
There was path next to the river which I had a quick walk up. The area is really nice.
The downtown area is basically one street which is full of tacky, touristy s**te.
Apart from driving through Pigeon Forge, I hadn’t seen this kind of place in the US before. I imagine Branson is very similar. Clifton Hill on the Canadian side of Niagara Falls is like this as well; an area of natural beauty filled with gross s**t.
It’s no different to what we do in the UK with some of our seaside towns really.
It’s vile, but I strangely didn’t hate it though. I’ve got a bit of a soft spot for tacky s**t like this, even if I’ve got no intention of throwing my money at it.
Walking back to the hotel, I grabbed enough food at Taco Bell to give a small African nation diabetes. This was the first/only place of the trip that reminded me of the kind of places we’d stayed on the US Lives a few years ago: out-of-town, cheap motels surrounded by every chain restaurant you could throw at them. It was fab.
Since I had a day to kill, I did a boat tour the next afternoon, which I might throw in here in the next part.
Re: USA Summer 2016 PTR - Part 7: Mt Olympus
Quite surprised by your Timber Falls report! I always thought Avalanche was considered to be a bit of a sleeper hit coaster by many enthusiasts, sort of like Tremors at Silverwood! Maybe it's gone downhill in recent years due to piss poor maintenance! Also surprised by how Hades isn't actually as bad as some people say, is that likely to be more unwarranted TPR hate for the ride?
I love it how in some US parks you see random Amish people. Do you think they were probably on their Rumspringa year out as I saw a large group at Hershey a few years back.
I'm amazed you're able to get around so freely, particularly in rural areas in America. I always thought America (bar the major cities like LA and NYC) was basically impossible without the use of a car!
Quite surprised by your Timber Falls report! I always thought Avalanche was considered to be a bit of a sleeper hit coaster by many enthusiasts, sort of like Tremors at Silverwood! Maybe it's gone downhill in recent years due to piss poor maintenance! Also surprised by how Hades isn't actually as bad as some people say, is that likely to be more unwarranted TPR hate for the ride?
I love it how in some US parks you see random Amish people. Do you think they were probably on their Rumspringa year out as I saw a large group at Hershey a few years back.
I'm amazed you're able to get around so freely, particularly in rural areas in America. I always thought America (bar the major cities like LA and NYC) was basically impossible without the use of a car!
Re: USA Summer 2016 PTR - Part 7: Mt Olympus
^ I've always been a great believer that everyone experiences rides differently and nobody is "wrong" necessarily. Coasters, especially woodies, change. There's that whole "bad day" thing that can happen etc.
I would clearly not agree with people who enjoyed Avalanche or disliked Hades, but wouldn't bother to argue the point unless maybe we'd ridden them together and had different opinions from the same experience.
It annoys the s**t out of me when people are so set in their opinion, usually based on one ride or visit, that they can't accept that it wasn't the same experience for everyone else.
Public transport in the USA isn't as non-existent as everyone seems to believe. I swear we all think it mostly because Americans themselves don't know it's even available since they drive everywhere and have had no reason to look into it.
It's total s**t when compared to anywhere in Europe or Asia, but it's definitely not a deal breaker. It just needs careful planning, since a train/bus might only run a couple of times a day; you can't just rock up at a train station or bus stop and wing it like you can pretty much anywhere else.
It also means that you're forced to spend time in places that you wouldn't necessarily have chosen to spend time in, but on this trip I actually found it to be a positive and more enjoyable than driving park to park and staying in roadside motels in between. That was great to do as a group, sure, but I wouldn't enjoy doing it alone.
^ I've always been a great believer that everyone experiences rides differently and nobody is "wrong" necessarily. Coasters, especially woodies, change. There's that whole "bad day" thing that can happen etc.
I would clearly not agree with people who enjoyed Avalanche or disliked Hades, but wouldn't bother to argue the point unless maybe we'd ridden them together and had different opinions from the same experience.
It annoys the s**t out of me when people are so set in their opinion, usually based on one ride or visit, that they can't accept that it wasn't the same experience for everyone else.
Public transport in the USA isn't as non-existent as everyone seems to believe. I swear we all think it mostly because Americans themselves don't know it's even available since they drive everywhere and have had no reason to look into it.
It's total s**t when compared to anywhere in Europe or Asia, but it's definitely not a deal breaker. It just needs careful planning, since a train/bus might only run a couple of times a day; you can't just rock up at a train station or bus stop and wing it like you can pretty much anywhere else.
It also means that you're forced to spend time in places that you wouldn't necessarily have chosen to spend time in, but on this trip I actually found it to be a positive and more enjoyable than driving park to park and staying in roadside motels in between. That was great to do as a group, sure, but I wouldn't enjoy doing it alone.
GuyWithAStick
Captain Basic
Re: USA Summer 2016 PTR - Part 7: Mt Olympus
I will tell you right now, Downtown Dells is just like Branson and Pigeon Forge. Dells is probably the 'best' of the 3 though; Branson has an outdoor mall and is on a hill, the rest is a bunch of tourist-y ****. Pigeon Forge is nothing but tourist traps on a single road. Awful place Pigeon Forge(aside from Dollywood tho).
I have yet to go to the dry park for Mt. Olympus, even after like 5 visits. I have gone into the indoor place(it's only available to hotel guests as far as I know), and it really is nothing. They brought in like 3 rides from the outside park for the winter, including the coaster(in which I got spited as well), and had not much else aside from a really crappy laser tag and rock wall.
I will tell you right now, Downtown Dells is just like Branson and Pigeon Forge. Dells is probably the 'best' of the 3 though; Branson has an outdoor mall and is on a hill, the rest is a bunch of tourist-y ****. Pigeon Forge is nothing but tourist traps on a single road. Awful place Pigeon Forge(aside from Dollywood tho).
I have yet to go to the dry park for Mt. Olympus, even after like 5 visits. I have gone into the indoor place(it's only available to hotel guests as far as I know), and it really is nothing. They brought in like 3 rides from the outside park for the winter, including the coaster(in which I got spited as well), and had not much else aside from a really crappy laser tag and rock wall.
S
SimonSays99
Guest
Re: USA Summer 2016 PTR - Part 7: Mt Olympus
I skipped Mt. Olympus on my last trip but the area looks crazy - and I thought Blackpool was weird :--D
I will add it next time as a day trip from Chicago.
At Cedar Point there were also a group of Hutterers/Mennonites and in queue for Millennium Force I had this amazing conversation:
Me: I thought you are not allowed to ride modern transportation
A: Yes
Me: But this IS a train
A: But it is not powered
I gave up after that answer... :redhotevil:
More dangerous IMO that it is allowed to go on US routes with a 50 mph limit in horse-drawn carriages - last year and in 2008 - after a curve I had to emergency brake as one suddenly showed up in front of my car. You do not really expect this kind of thing to happen. I wonder how many bad accidents happen because of this.
Visiting Dollywood I had my hotel in Hartford and came in on US 411 so never had the "pleasure" of seeing Pigeon Forge other stuff.
I skipped Mt. Olympus on my last trip but the area looks crazy - and I thought Blackpool was weird :--D
I will add it next time as a day trip from Chicago.
At Cedar Point there were also a group of Hutterers/Mennonites and in queue for Millennium Force I had this amazing conversation:
Me: I thought you are not allowed to ride modern transportation
A: Yes
Me: But this IS a train
A: But it is not powered
I gave up after that answer... :redhotevil:
More dangerous IMO that it is allowed to go on US routes with a 50 mph limit in horse-drawn carriages - last year and in 2008 - after a curve I had to emergency brake as one suddenly showed up in front of my car. You do not really expect this kind of thing to happen. I wonder how many bad accidents happen because of this.
Visiting Dollywood I had my hotel in Hartford and came in on US 411 so never had the "pleasure" of seeing Pigeon Forge other stuff.
Re: USA Summer 2016 PTR - Part 7: Mt Olympus
^ I'd guess that it would be at least a 3-hour drive from Chicago. For me, that makes it a bit much for a day trip; it would definitely be worth spending a night there I'd say.
How?!
I can’t be arsed to properly write up the next day at Wisconsin Dells. I had pretty much a full day left, so took a boat trip for a couple of hours in the afternoon which was nice enough. There were a couple of stop-off points where we were warned about some walking. I expected a bit of a hike, but it was literally 10 minutes on a flat surface. Needless to say, half the fat f**ks on the boat stayed on it rather than risk burning a calorie or two.
The one train a day out of there somehow managed to be 45 minutes late. It was a four-hour ride to Minneapolis. Or I thought it was. Turns out that the station was in Saint Paul – not far since the cities are connected – so I got a tram from there to downtown Minneapolis, arriving at my hotel at around 11pm I think.
Minneapolis
I’d planned to head to Valleyfair on the first day, but it was raining in the morning. It cleared up fairly quickly, so I would have been fine, but by that point there were no decent transport options to get to the park – there’s basically one bus in the morning which works.
Instead, I used this as my tourist day.
The whole downtown area has this fab, pedestrian Skyway thing which pretty much connects everything together and means that you don’t actually have to go outside. I didn’t really use it since I wanted to see more, but I imagine it’s a great option in the winter.
I was staying at the W. I’m not a massive fan of their hotels since I find them a bit pretentious, and charging for WiFi pisses me off at high-end hotels when any old roadside motel will include it. I got them to drop the charge by lying that the booking site I’d used said it was included and hoping that they wouldn’t check, which they didn’t.
I’d basically chosen it since the location was perfect being right in the middle of the city and literally a 20 second walk to the bus stop I needed for Valleyfair. I didn’t know when I booked, but it’s actually in this fab 1920s Art Deco tower.
There’s a museum and observation deck at the top which is free for hotel guests. No idea what this cred is/was:
Despite other, newer buildings being taller, it still has the only observation deck in the city apparently.
From there it was bit more wandering around.
Another museum/art gallery, which I knew nothing about, but was actually huge, fantastic and free.
Breastfeeding in public. Discuss.
There were decent views back over to the city as well.
Rupaul’s Drag Race, 18th Century edition:
Salvador Dali Lobster Phone:
This Magritte painting was fab.
I think I’d done about three hours in there. It was massive and full of really excellent stuff. From there I walked back up through the downtown area to the Mississippi River.
This was an old mill area, and they’ve turned into a park/museum area now.
I popped into this theatre to see what was on and ended up buying a ticket for a show, South Pacific, a couple of hours later.
There were, surprisingly, a lot of theatres in the downtown area considering how small it actually is. Apparently, after New York and Chicago, Minneapolis has the biggest theatre scene in the US. This one, The Guthrie Theatre, on the river had a viewing deck outside which was nice.
The show turned out to be excellent, and I just headed back to the hotel after that.
I had a couple more days here, but they were for parks, so I’ll quickly sum up the place now. I thought it was a great little city. It’s fairly compact, so it’s easy to get around on foot and had plenty to see and do considering the size. I wish I’d given myself an extra day or two really, since I didn’t get to see anything of Saint Paul, which is easily accessible via a new tram system, and there’s apparently a really nice area full of parks and lakes just outside Minneapolis to the west. Anyway, it was all a very pleasant surprise.
Parks in the next two bits…
^ I'd guess that it would be at least a 3-hour drive from Chicago. For me, that makes it a bit much for a day trip; it would definitely be worth spending a night there I'd say.
GuyWithAStick said:
How?!
I can’t be arsed to properly write up the next day at Wisconsin Dells. I had pretty much a full day left, so took a boat trip for a couple of hours in the afternoon which was nice enough. There were a couple of stop-off points where we were warned about some walking. I expected a bit of a hike, but it was literally 10 minutes on a flat surface. Needless to say, half the fat f**ks on the boat stayed on it rather than risk burning a calorie or two.
The one train a day out of there somehow managed to be 45 minutes late. It was a four-hour ride to Minneapolis. Or I thought it was. Turns out that the station was in Saint Paul – not far since the cities are connected – so I got a tram from there to downtown Minneapolis, arriving at my hotel at around 11pm I think.
Minneapolis
I’d planned to head to Valleyfair on the first day, but it was raining in the morning. It cleared up fairly quickly, so I would have been fine, but by that point there were no decent transport options to get to the park – there’s basically one bus in the morning which works.
Instead, I used this as my tourist day.
The whole downtown area has this fab, pedestrian Skyway thing which pretty much connects everything together and means that you don’t actually have to go outside. I didn’t really use it since I wanted to see more, but I imagine it’s a great option in the winter.
I was staying at the W. I’m not a massive fan of their hotels since I find them a bit pretentious, and charging for WiFi pisses me off at high-end hotels when any old roadside motel will include it. I got them to drop the charge by lying that the booking site I’d used said it was included and hoping that they wouldn’t check, which they didn’t.
I’d basically chosen it since the location was perfect being right in the middle of the city and literally a 20 second walk to the bus stop I needed for Valleyfair. I didn’t know when I booked, but it’s actually in this fab 1920s Art Deco tower.
There’s a museum and observation deck at the top which is free for hotel guests. No idea what this cred is/was:
Despite other, newer buildings being taller, it still has the only observation deck in the city apparently.
From there it was bit more wandering around.
Another museum/art gallery, which I knew nothing about, but was actually huge, fantastic and free.
Breastfeeding in public. Discuss.
There were decent views back over to the city as well.
Rupaul’s Drag Race, 18th Century edition:
Salvador Dali Lobster Phone:
This Magritte painting was fab.
I think I’d done about three hours in there. It was massive and full of really excellent stuff. From there I walked back up through the downtown area to the Mississippi River.
This was an old mill area, and they’ve turned into a park/museum area now.
I popped into this theatre to see what was on and ended up buying a ticket for a show, South Pacific, a couple of hours later.
There were, surprisingly, a lot of theatres in the downtown area considering how small it actually is. Apparently, after New York and Chicago, Minneapolis has the biggest theatre scene in the US. This one, The Guthrie Theatre, on the river had a viewing deck outside which was nice.
The show turned out to be excellent, and I just headed back to the hotel after that.
I had a couple more days here, but they were for parks, so I’ll quickly sum up the place now. I thought it was a great little city. It’s fairly compact, so it’s easy to get around on foot and had plenty to see and do considering the size. I wish I’d given myself an extra day or two really, since I didn’t get to see anything of Saint Paul, which is easily accessible via a new tram system, and there’s apparently a really nice area full of parks and lakes just outside Minneapolis to the west. Anyway, it was all a very pleasant surprise.
Parks in the next two bits…
Re: USA Summer 2016 PTR - Part 8: Minneapolis
Glad to see you enjoyed Minneapolis! I had a nice time when I was there a few years ago, however I was there in the winter, so I definitely made the most of the Skyway network!
I did spend a few days in St Paul, which was also relatively nice with the capitol building, but the two did feel very similar (and in fact for the most part I couldn't tell them apart).
Glad to see you enjoyed Minneapolis! I had a nice time when I was there a few years ago, however I was there in the winter, so I definitely made the most of the Skyway network!
I did spend a few days in St Paul, which was also relatively nice with the capitol building, but the two did feel very similar (and in fact for the most part I couldn't tell them apart).
Re: USA Summer 2016 PTR - Part 8: Minneapolis
Next day then…
Valleyfair
There was an express bus from right across the street from my hotel which went non-stop to a transport centre outside the city for a connection to the park. This express bus only ran in that direction once in the morning – hence not being able to get there the previous day after holding out for the rain to stop - but more often in the evening. I’m guessing it’s to get people from the city to the suburbs after work. I was literally the only person on it in the morning.
The connecting bus served the industrial estate near Valleyfair, rather than the park itself, so there was a bit of a walk from the bus stop. First views of the park:
I got there right around opening. It wasn’t too busy at that time, but more cars were coming in and the queues got quite a lot longer in the afternoon.
I headed straight for Wild Thing, the Morgan Hyper, which had a walk-on queue at this point. I did three quick back-to-back rides before moving on.
It was ok, but nothing special. The first drop had a weird jolt to it as it was hitting the bottom, and the MCBR bringing the train to pretty much a complete stop was annoying. The following bunny hills did have decent enough airtime though. I think I’d put it above Steel Force and Mamba, but there’s not much between the three.
I did the corkscrew later in the day. Definitely just a plus one, but not the worst I’ve ridden, especially given its age. Weird that this is still the only coaster in the park with inversions. It’s very photogenic though.
Kiddy +1. No issues getting on despite it being one of the smallest ones on the trip.
Didn’t do the S&S towers; they were much taller than most though.
I did the Screaming Swing as I was leaving the park at the end of the day, skipping the queue with an exit pass. I hadn’t done one for ages, and this one seemed bigger than the others I’d done. The cycle was realy short though.
High Roller was closed when I first got to it, but opened shortly after. It was a whole s**tload of meh.
I was offended to see my name used for such tat.
Mad Mouse was another coaster that I left until later. They’re pretty dull, but I’ve now got the set of three Arrow wild mouse coasters.
The best coaster here, by far, was Renegade.
You can’t see any of it from inside the park really, which also means it’s impossible to get decent pictures of. It was excellent though. I think I’d go as far as to say it was my favourite GCI after Python in Bamboo Forest and Wood Coaster/Mountain Flyer.
I did three back-to-back rides on it and came back later for a couple more.
It was around this time that I met up with one of the rides managers there – he used to be on these forums quite a bit – who gave me a handful of exit passes. Yay! I’d pretty much done most things by this point, but used them for Mad Mouse (long queue because of s**t capacity), Steel Venom, the Screaming Swing and rerides on Renegade and Wild Thing.
I didn’t do the rapids, though they seemed to be quite quiet.
They were kind off of by themselves, along with a coaster I didn’t even know existed, Excalibur.
Thanks to being so out of the way, this was walk-on for pretty much the whole day from what I could tell. It’s an Arrow hybrid with a couple of semi-decent airtime moments, but nothing else going for it. It’s pretty short as well. As with Renegade, most of it is built away from any pathways, so you can’t see it.
I still had Steel Venom to polish off, so headed there. You can get some decent views of Wild Thing from the same area.
Steel Venom was fine. It was the last one of these I needed to complete the Intamin Impulse set. The holding brake, which I’m sure was switched off on the last one of these I’d done at Great America, made it slightly better.
I basically had two options with the bus, but opted for the earlier one since I’d done everything, with plenty of rerides, and it would allow a bit of leeway if there was any f**k up. I started to get a bit worried when it didn’t show up at first, arriving ten minutes late. I thought this would mean that I’d miss the connection back to Minneapolis – meaning being stuck for a couple of hours - but because there are so few buses, they coordinate pretty well and wait for each other since it’s obvious that people need those connections.
A couple more pictures of Wild Thing that I grabbed on the way out:
I know this report has come across as bit “blah, whatever”, but that’s more down to me getting bored of writing the f**king thing. I actually quite liked Valleyfair. As with some of the other parks on this trip – Michigan’s Adventure and Mt Olympus – I basically had non-existent expectations, so ended up being pleasantly surprised.
Renegade is the only real standout coaster, but Wild Thing was decent enough, and Excalibur was quite unique really, even if it wasn’t great. The park had a pleasant atmosphere and operations were good from what I saw. I’m not a massive fan of Cedar Fair parks in general, but this one, despite being lower on rides than a lot of them, was one of the more pleasant ones.
Next up: Nickelodeon Universe
Next day then…
Valleyfair
There was an express bus from right across the street from my hotel which went non-stop to a transport centre outside the city for a connection to the park. This express bus only ran in that direction once in the morning – hence not being able to get there the previous day after holding out for the rain to stop - but more often in the evening. I’m guessing it’s to get people from the city to the suburbs after work. I was literally the only person on it in the morning.
The connecting bus served the industrial estate near Valleyfair, rather than the park itself, so there was a bit of a walk from the bus stop. First views of the park:
I got there right around opening. It wasn’t too busy at that time, but more cars were coming in and the queues got quite a lot longer in the afternoon.
I headed straight for Wild Thing, the Morgan Hyper, which had a walk-on queue at this point. I did three quick back-to-back rides before moving on.
It was ok, but nothing special. The first drop had a weird jolt to it as it was hitting the bottom, and the MCBR bringing the train to pretty much a complete stop was annoying. The following bunny hills did have decent enough airtime though. I think I’d put it above Steel Force and Mamba, but there’s not much between the three.
I did the corkscrew later in the day. Definitely just a plus one, but not the worst I’ve ridden, especially given its age. Weird that this is still the only coaster in the park with inversions. It’s very photogenic though.
Kiddy +1. No issues getting on despite it being one of the smallest ones on the trip.
Didn’t do the S&S towers; they were much taller than most though.
I did the Screaming Swing as I was leaving the park at the end of the day, skipping the queue with an exit pass. I hadn’t done one for ages, and this one seemed bigger than the others I’d done. The cycle was realy short though.
High Roller was closed when I first got to it, but opened shortly after. It was a whole s**tload of meh.
I was offended to see my name used for such tat.
Mad Mouse was another coaster that I left until later. They’re pretty dull, but I’ve now got the set of three Arrow wild mouse coasters.
The best coaster here, by far, was Renegade.
You can’t see any of it from inside the park really, which also means it’s impossible to get decent pictures of. It was excellent though. I think I’d go as far as to say it was my favourite GCI after Python in Bamboo Forest and Wood Coaster/Mountain Flyer.
I did three back-to-back rides on it and came back later for a couple more.
It was around this time that I met up with one of the rides managers there – he used to be on these forums quite a bit – who gave me a handful of exit passes. Yay! I’d pretty much done most things by this point, but used them for Mad Mouse (long queue because of s**t capacity), Steel Venom, the Screaming Swing and rerides on Renegade and Wild Thing.
I didn’t do the rapids, though they seemed to be quite quiet.
They were kind off of by themselves, along with a coaster I didn’t even know existed, Excalibur.
Thanks to being so out of the way, this was walk-on for pretty much the whole day from what I could tell. It’s an Arrow hybrid with a couple of semi-decent airtime moments, but nothing else going for it. It’s pretty short as well. As with Renegade, most of it is built away from any pathways, so you can’t see it.
I still had Steel Venom to polish off, so headed there. You can get some decent views of Wild Thing from the same area.
Steel Venom was fine. It was the last one of these I needed to complete the Intamin Impulse set. The holding brake, which I’m sure was switched off on the last one of these I’d done at Great America, made it slightly better.
I basically had two options with the bus, but opted for the earlier one since I’d done everything, with plenty of rerides, and it would allow a bit of leeway if there was any f**k up. I started to get a bit worried when it didn’t show up at first, arriving ten minutes late. I thought this would mean that I’d miss the connection back to Minneapolis – meaning being stuck for a couple of hours - but because there are so few buses, they coordinate pretty well and wait for each other since it’s obvious that people need those connections.
A couple more pictures of Wild Thing that I grabbed on the way out:
I know this report has come across as bit “blah, whatever”, but that’s more down to me getting bored of writing the f**king thing. I actually quite liked Valleyfair. As with some of the other parks on this trip – Michigan’s Adventure and Mt Olympus – I basically had non-existent expectations, so ended up being pleasantly surprised.
Renegade is the only real standout coaster, but Wild Thing was decent enough, and Excalibur was quite unique really, even if it wasn’t great. The park had a pleasant atmosphere and operations were good from what I saw. I’m not a massive fan of Cedar Fair parks in general, but this one, despite being lower on rides than a lot of them, was one of the more pleasant ones.
Next up: Nickelodeon Universe
Re: USA Summer 2016 PTR - Part 9: Valleyfair
This is mostly going to be a bit of a photo dump; I’m sick of writing this thing now.
I had a flight out of Minneapolis in the evening, and Mall of America is just a couple of tram stops away from the airport, so I headed there before flying out, leaving my bags in a locker there. Hint: there are jumbo lockers near the ferris wheel.
Nickelodeon Universe
I got the wristband, but it was pretty busy, so I only ended up getting the creds, taking a few photos and not doing anything else.
The spinner was ok, but obviously nothing special.
Spongebob was my 1,200th cred. It was fine for a Eurofighter. Indoor coasters always tend to look a bit more imposing than they actually are.
Half Pipe. Meh.
Pepsi Orange Streak was massive for a Zierer Tivoli. It wasn’t a great ride, but was a great way to see the park since it went around the whole thing.
The most embarrassing cred of the trip, but no issues getting on.
I’m just going to throw photos in now. The whole place it nuts really; there’s just so much stuff crammed into a really small space.
A quick summary.
The whole thing is really impressive. The coasters aren’t anything special, but the fact that they’ve got five of them squeezed in there makes it worth a visit. There are also a crapload of flat rides – mostly very new - some zip wires and other stuff crammed in. There’s a pretty fab atmosphere and it’s also surprisingly attractive thanks to a few trees scattered around.
In terms of shopping mall parks, it craps all over any others that I’ve been to. Most of them are merely a temporary distraction from the shopping mall, but this place is easily an attraction in its own right. There are more rides there than at a lot of regular parks, so you could easily spend a decent amount of time there if you wanted to do everything.
So yeah, pretty impressed really.
This is mostly going to be a bit of a photo dump; I’m sick of writing this thing now.
I had a flight out of Minneapolis in the evening, and Mall of America is just a couple of tram stops away from the airport, so I headed there before flying out, leaving my bags in a locker there. Hint: there are jumbo lockers near the ferris wheel.
Nickelodeon Universe
I got the wristband, but it was pretty busy, so I only ended up getting the creds, taking a few photos and not doing anything else.
The spinner was ok, but obviously nothing special.
Spongebob was my 1,200th cred. It was fine for a Eurofighter. Indoor coasters always tend to look a bit more imposing than they actually are.
Half Pipe. Meh.
Pepsi Orange Streak was massive for a Zierer Tivoli. It wasn’t a great ride, but was a great way to see the park since it went around the whole thing.
The most embarrassing cred of the trip, but no issues getting on.
I’m just going to throw photos in now. The whole place it nuts really; there’s just so much stuff crammed into a really small space.
A quick summary.
The whole thing is really impressive. The coasters aren’t anything special, but the fact that they’ve got five of them squeezed in there makes it worth a visit. There are also a crapload of flat rides – mostly very new - some zip wires and other stuff crammed in. There’s a pretty fab atmosphere and it’s also surprisingly attractive thanks to a few trees scattered around.
In terms of shopping mall parks, it craps all over any others that I’ve been to. Most of them are merely a temporary distraction from the shopping mall, but this place is easily an attraction in its own right. There are more rides there than at a lot of regular parks, so you could easily spend a decent amount of time there if you wanted to do everything.
So yeah, pretty impressed really.
GuyWithAStick
Captain Basic
Re: USA Summer 2016 PTR - Part 10: Nickelodeon Universe
MOA was a pretty nice park, glad you enjoyed it.
Sucks you didn't do any flats. The Gerst. Sky Fly and Brain Drain were especially fab.
Sent from my VS820 using Tapatalk
MOA was a pretty nice park, glad you enjoyed it.
Sucks you didn't do any flats. The Gerst. Sky Fly and Brain Drain were especially fab.
Sent from my VS820 using Tapatalk
Tomatron
Giga Poster
Re: USA Summer 2016 PTR - Part 10: Nickelodeon Universe
Doesn't look like much has changed at Valleyfair in the 9 years since Ian and I went up there. It's not a bad park per se, but it could do with another really good cred to compliment Renegade, which I'm happy to hear from you is still really good.
Mall of America has totally changed since I went. None of the Nickelodeon stuff was there, so I wouldn't mind popping in for an hour and sweeping up Spongebob Credpants and that halfpipe when I next visit that part of the world.
Been nice to read your report as there's not a great deal of people who've done those two Cedar Fair parks on CF. So I'll go through and catch up on what I've been lazy to comment on until now.
Goliath at SFGAm is great and vies with Iron Rattler as my favourite RMC, and therefore my favourite cred. Even though I wish it was another 300 yards longer, everything it does is amazing. Viper is amazing and I'm gutted it was closed last time I went. Raging Bull is the worst B&M hyper I've done.
I love Shivering Timbers, apart from that trick-track bollocks on the run back. Muskegon looks very pretty and I'm gutted I didn't see any of it. Like you said, I wouldn't rush back anytime soon, but I'm glad I made the effort to head out that way.
The Dells still look as tacky as hell, which isn't gonna change anytime soon, but there are far worse tourist traps, and there is some fabness to the place for right or wrong. Shame about Avalanche, cos I really loved it. But I rode it not long after it opened so I'm not surprised it's gone to **** considering where it is.
Doesn't look like much has changed at Valleyfair in the 9 years since Ian and I went up there. It's not a bad park per se, but it could do with another really good cred to compliment Renegade, which I'm happy to hear from you is still really good.
Mall of America has totally changed since I went. None of the Nickelodeon stuff was there, so I wouldn't mind popping in for an hour and sweeping up Spongebob Credpants and that halfpipe when I next visit that part of the world.
Been nice to read your report as there's not a great deal of people who've done those two Cedar Fair parks on CF. So I'll go through and catch up on what I've been lazy to comment on until now.
Goliath at SFGAm is great and vies with Iron Rattler as my favourite RMC, and therefore my favourite cred. Even though I wish it was another 300 yards longer, everything it does is amazing. Viper is amazing and I'm gutted it was closed last time I went. Raging Bull is the worst B&M hyper I've done.
I love Shivering Timbers, apart from that trick-track bollocks on the run back. Muskegon looks very pretty and I'm gutted I didn't see any of it. Like you said, I wouldn't rush back anytime soon, but I'm glad I made the effort to head out that way.
The Dells still look as tacky as hell, which isn't gonna change anytime soon, but there are far worse tourist traps, and there is some fabness to the place for right or wrong. Shame about Avalanche, cos I really loved it. But I rode it not long after it opened so I'm not surprised it's gone to **** considering where it is.
Re: USA Summer 2016 PTR - Part 10: Nickelodeon Universe
^ Seems that we have mostly the same views on pretty much everything. I'd forgotte to mention the trick-track in Shivering Timbers; yeah, that was weird and unnecessary.
Since I hate leaving things unfinished, I’ll have to hammer the rest of this out before I can get to another report. There’s only park left, and it was crap, but still. This will be a culture section though, so feel free to wait until i can be arsed to get back to this.
After Nickelodeon Universe, I got back on the tram to the airport and got a flight to Washington DC. This was never originally on the cards, but as I was planning things out, I had a few days left once I’d done Minneapolis and there was nothing of any note if I’d continued heading west, so decided on DC for a few days.
Washington DC
The first day was a sightseeing day, trying to cram a bunch of stuff in. My hotel was a 10-minute walk north of the White House, so I headed there first and then onto the other stuff.
I’d heard that it was difficult to get tickets to go to the top of the Washington Monument. They’re free, but you need to book a time slot. There was no issue. They had loads of slots left, so I grabbed one for late that afternoon, though I could have gone earlier.
Then it was onto some museums. They’re all basically next to each other, running from the Washington Monument up to the Capitol Building. First up was the American History Museum.
The original star-spangled banner was in a room behind here, but you can’t take photos. It’s actually huge, but basically just a tatty old flag. Meh.
There was a room full of the dresses that the first ladies wore during the presidents’ inaugurations. By Christmas they’ll have either added a g-string and stripper pole or a spunk-stained suit.
The hat Abraham Lincoln was wearing when he was shot. I love morbid s**t like this.
Go, British soldiers!
The Vietnam War section had very little in the way of Jane Fonda memorabilia, which was disappointing.
It was interesting enough I guess, considering how little “History” there actually is to cover.
Some building:
Next up was the Natural History Museum, which is supposedly one of the best in the world.
It was s**te. Considering it’s the national collection, it was really poor. Admittedly, the dinosaur hall is closed for a long-term renovation, but I knew that already. Taking that out of the equation, it’s still not up to much. The ones in New York and Chicago are loads better.
The gems and minerals collection was the strongest part, including the Hope Diamond and the Star of India.
The Egyptian section was piss-poor. There’s better in small, provincial collections.
A cast of what they will have in a few years’ time. The actual fossil is still sitting in storage.
So yeah, waste of time and effort. Luckily, it’s free.
The sculpture garden nearby was nice though.
I had no idea what this building was until I stuck my head in. It’s the National Archives.
I must’ve got lucky because it was very quiet. Apparently it can get rammed, with long lines, but I walked straight in. You can’t take pictures, but there’s an impressive main hall which houses the original American Constitution, Bill of Rights and Declaration of Independence. I get the significance of them, but still found it bizarre to see people crying at the sight of them. They also have one of the copies of the Magna Carter, from 1225, but try as I might, I couldn’t muster any patriotic tears over it.
Next up was the National Gallery of Art. There are two wings: one for classic stuff and one for modern. I intended to do the modern wing separately later, but then never got around to it. The wing with the old s**t was impressive though.
Van Eyck:
Vermeer:
Lautrec:
Van Gogh:
The only DaVinci in the US:
Lord Farquaad:
A Renaissance kid who can’t even:
Cant. Even:
“I moved on her like a bitch, but I couldn’t get there. She’s got these big phony tits and everything”:
I spent a good couple of hours in there. I found it a lot more interesting than the previous few places anyway.
I booked online for a tour (no actual need) of the Capitol a couple of days later, so didn’t bother getting too close on that first day.
I had a quick look in the main hall of the Air and Space Museum, intending to go back and do it properly later, but never did.
The main hall is where the cool stuff is anyway. The original Wright Brothers’ plane is in a room just off it.
They also have the planes used by Charles Lindberg and Amelia Earhart to fly solo across the Atlantic, amongst other stuff.
I would’ve spent more time having a proper look, but my booking for the Washington Monument was coming up, so I walked back down there.
I’ll just throw in some pictures of the view, which was fab. They only take a few people up at a time, but I was first in the queue for my timeslot, so got up quickly with about 5 other people and we had the place to ourselves for a while before the next batch got up. Considering I’d heard of people waiting hours, it all went very smoothly.
From there I walked to a few of the memorials, starting with the Jefferson Memorial.
It was very impressive, with hillbillies commenting on what a great man he was.
These same people would no doubt ignore what he actually had to say.
The Roosevelt Memorial was a bit further around the lake. I had no idea he was actually a very intelligent dog.
Some more inspirational quotes about helping the poor and people being equal and s**t.
I don’t think they could’ve found a whiter shade of granite for the Martin Luther King Memorial if they tried.
Can’t remember if this was for the Vietnam or Korean War. Again, no Jane Fonda, so probably the Korean.
I finally made it round to the Lincoln Memorial, with the famous view over the reflecting pool to the monument.
I was originally going to call it a day here, but decided to grab a taxi to the Marine Corps War Memorial (Iwo Jima Memorial) since it wasn’t too far. Technically, it’s not even in DC. It’s in Virginia. I already had the state cred though.
From there, it was a walk to a metro station and back to the hotel.
Park day next: Six Flags America
^ Seems that we have mostly the same views on pretty much everything. I'd forgotte to mention the trick-track in Shivering Timbers; yeah, that was weird and unnecessary.
Since I hate leaving things unfinished, I’ll have to hammer the rest of this out before I can get to another report. There’s only park left, and it was crap, but still. This will be a culture section though, so feel free to wait until i can be arsed to get back to this.
After Nickelodeon Universe, I got back on the tram to the airport and got a flight to Washington DC. This was never originally on the cards, but as I was planning things out, I had a few days left once I’d done Minneapolis and there was nothing of any note if I’d continued heading west, so decided on DC for a few days.
Washington DC
The first day was a sightseeing day, trying to cram a bunch of stuff in. My hotel was a 10-minute walk north of the White House, so I headed there first and then onto the other stuff.
I’d heard that it was difficult to get tickets to go to the top of the Washington Monument. They’re free, but you need to book a time slot. There was no issue. They had loads of slots left, so I grabbed one for late that afternoon, though I could have gone earlier.
Then it was onto some museums. They’re all basically next to each other, running from the Washington Monument up to the Capitol Building. First up was the American History Museum.
The original star-spangled banner was in a room behind here, but you can’t take photos. It’s actually huge, but basically just a tatty old flag. Meh.
There was a room full of the dresses that the first ladies wore during the presidents’ inaugurations. By Christmas they’ll have either added a g-string and stripper pole or a spunk-stained suit.
The hat Abraham Lincoln was wearing when he was shot. I love morbid s**t like this.
Go, British soldiers!
The Vietnam War section had very little in the way of Jane Fonda memorabilia, which was disappointing.
It was interesting enough I guess, considering how little “History” there actually is to cover.
Some building:
Next up was the Natural History Museum, which is supposedly one of the best in the world.
It was s**te. Considering it’s the national collection, it was really poor. Admittedly, the dinosaur hall is closed for a long-term renovation, but I knew that already. Taking that out of the equation, it’s still not up to much. The ones in New York and Chicago are loads better.
The gems and minerals collection was the strongest part, including the Hope Diamond and the Star of India.
The Egyptian section was piss-poor. There’s better in small, provincial collections.
A cast of what they will have in a few years’ time. The actual fossil is still sitting in storage.
So yeah, waste of time and effort. Luckily, it’s free.
The sculpture garden nearby was nice though.
I had no idea what this building was until I stuck my head in. It’s the National Archives.
I must’ve got lucky because it was very quiet. Apparently it can get rammed, with long lines, but I walked straight in. You can’t take pictures, but there’s an impressive main hall which houses the original American Constitution, Bill of Rights and Declaration of Independence. I get the significance of them, but still found it bizarre to see people crying at the sight of them. They also have one of the copies of the Magna Carter, from 1225, but try as I might, I couldn’t muster any patriotic tears over it.
Next up was the National Gallery of Art. There are two wings: one for classic stuff and one for modern. I intended to do the modern wing separately later, but then never got around to it. The wing with the old s**t was impressive though.
Van Eyck:
Vermeer:
Lautrec:
Van Gogh:
The only DaVinci in the US:
Lord Farquaad:
A Renaissance kid who can’t even:
Cant. Even:
“I moved on her like a bitch, but I couldn’t get there. She’s got these big phony tits and everything”:
I spent a good couple of hours in there. I found it a lot more interesting than the previous few places anyway.
I booked online for a tour (no actual need) of the Capitol a couple of days later, so didn’t bother getting too close on that first day.
I had a quick look in the main hall of the Air and Space Museum, intending to go back and do it properly later, but never did.
The main hall is where the cool stuff is anyway. The original Wright Brothers’ plane is in a room just off it.
They also have the planes used by Charles Lindberg and Amelia Earhart to fly solo across the Atlantic, amongst other stuff.
I would’ve spent more time having a proper look, but my booking for the Washington Monument was coming up, so I walked back down there.
I’ll just throw in some pictures of the view, which was fab. They only take a few people up at a time, but I was first in the queue for my timeslot, so got up quickly with about 5 other people and we had the place to ourselves for a while before the next batch got up. Considering I’d heard of people waiting hours, it all went very smoothly.
From there I walked to a few of the memorials, starting with the Jefferson Memorial.
It was very impressive, with hillbillies commenting on what a great man he was.
These same people would no doubt ignore what he actually had to say.
The Roosevelt Memorial was a bit further around the lake. I had no idea he was actually a very intelligent dog.
Some more inspirational quotes about helping the poor and people being equal and s**t.
I don’t think they could’ve found a whiter shade of granite for the Martin Luther King Memorial if they tried.
Can’t remember if this was for the Vietnam or Korean War. Again, no Jane Fonda, so probably the Korean.
I finally made it round to the Lincoln Memorial, with the famous view over the reflecting pool to the monument.
I was originally going to call it a day here, but decided to grab a taxi to the Marine Corps War Memorial (Iwo Jima Memorial) since it wasn’t too far. Technically, it’s not even in DC. It’s in Virginia. I already had the state cred though.
From there, it was a walk to a metro station and back to the hotel.
Park day next: Six Flags America
Re: USA Summer 2016 PTR - Part 11: Washington DC
The final park for this trip then:
Six Flags America
Getting here was simple enough: just a metro ride and a bus from right outside the station. I arrived just before opening.
I’d bought a fastpass online a few days before, which was stupid unnecessary since the place was dead. They’ve got a really s**t system as well, where you scan some bacteria-infested RFID wristband at some touchscreens which are almost impossible to see in daylight, and choose which ride to go to.
Apart from the first coaster, these aren’t in any particular order. I actually did Superman right after Roar, but took photos later.
Anyway, I did Roar first. I’d quite liked the one at Discovery Kingdom, but this one did nothing for me. If they’ve got any sense, they’ll RMC this like they did the other one. These are literally the only pictures I have; you can see hardly anything of it from off-ride.
Apocalypse:
F**king s**te.
Every time we go on about how amazing and smooth B&M are, we should remind ourselves of these early stand-up human rights atrocities. This, along with the Vortex coasters at Carowinds and California’s Great America are some of the worst coasters on the planet.
Other than the fact that I didn’t know it was there, I don’t remember much about the other woodie, Wild One, now, which means it must’ve been a bit s**t.
It’s a lot easier to take pictures of than Roar though, so it has something going for it I guess.
Joker’s Jinx broke down as I was sitting waiting for it to launch, so had to go back later. I was mildly excited to ride it since I haven’t done one of these outdoor ones before.
They definitely benefit from being shoved inside sheds. It was really dull.
They do look very cool though, it has to be said.
Did this because it was here and I had plenty of time:
Superman then, which is inexplicably running s**ty VR:
I used the fastpass for this, which got me right to the airgates, and the park was pretty much empty, but still had to wait around 20 minutes to get on. One train had been sent in that time. One.
I decided to ride without VR first, and I actually quite liked the ride. It’s one of the weaker of the Intamin hypers, with some weird design choices, but there was decent airtime and it was pretty forceful.
I did an “immediate” reride (30 minutes this time – with the fastpass – since I had to wait for two dispatches), using the VR on the second go. I’ve gone into detail elsewhere on here, so won’t repeat myself other than to say it’s a f**king disaster on every conceivable level and I really should have lost my s**t at guest services, but decided instead to just finish off and get the f**k out of that place.
A decent coaster totally ruined when any other piece of crap at that park would have been a better VR option.
+1 kiddy coaster:
Reverchon Spinner can f**k off:
Theming. Amazing.
Didn’t do.
I think the SLC was pretty bad(?), but can’t really remember now. Turd though obviously.
Batwing. This was the 3rd of Vekoma’s Flying Dutchman coasters that I’ve done. I remember quite liking the other two, but really didn’t enjoy this at all.
I don’t think I really need to sum up this place; it’s more than clear that I really didn’t like it. Yeah, there’s a +9 here, but they’re all a load of s**t apart from Superman, which has been turned into a load of s**t thanks to VR literally destroying the operations. I guess they didn’t want it to feel left out.
I’ve always placed Six Flags above Cedar Fair, and I still do, but this place made me question it. It’s the worst Six Flags Park I’ve done by a long way, but it still doesn’t come too close to the abject misery of Cedar Fair’s Great America.
There’s a tiny bit left which I’ll chuck in now.
I met up for a “couple of drinks” with a couple of old friends that evening who are now living in DC. One of them left quite early, but the other two of us ended up going out to a club until about 3am. Luckily it was near my hotel, so I could walk back in about 5 minutes, but the next day, my last day, was a bit of a write-off.
I’d booked myself onto a tour of the Capitol Building in the afternoon, and had intended to polish off a couple of museums before that, but those didn’t happen. I just went straight to the Capitol at around 3pm.
The dome/rotunda was closed for renovations, which I knew about, but without that, there’s f**k all to see. Absolute waste of time. Even the tour guides seemed to be embarrassed at how s**t it was.
She can f*k off an’ all:
There’s an underground passageway that connect to the Library of Congress, so I had a quick look. Much more impressive than the previous waste of an hour.
And that’s it. I had to fly back to Chicago the next morning to get my flights back to the UK, so that was a bit of a faff considering it’s in the complete opposite direction.
I might not seem like it from this last section, but I did actually like Washington DC. It’s all quite open, green and clean. It never felt overly busy or crowded and it was all quite laid back really. I just found the majority of the main tourist attractions a bit dull to be honest. I’m sure Americans might find it all a bit more interesting, considering all the FREEDOM, which only their country has - and it’s not like I didn’t know what I was looking at - I just really struggled to find a s**t to give.
The trip on the whole was great though. I think I mentioned much earlier in the report that I’d started to have reservations after getting a few things booked, but I really liked all the places I went to, even if a lot of the parks were really nothing special. I ended up going to a few cities that I’d never had any intention of visiting before, and ended up really liking them. I loved Chicago – probably my favourite US city now – and Minneapolis was a big surprise in how fab it was.
I finally managed to stop being so basic and get on an RMC, and got to add 48 to the count – with no spite apart from the kiddy thing at Mount Olympus - so all-in-all it was a fab trip.
Back to Chinese s**t for the next reports…
The final park for this trip then:
Six Flags America
Getting here was simple enough: just a metro ride and a bus from right outside the station. I arrived just before opening.
I’d bought a fastpass online a few days before, which was stupid unnecessary since the place was dead. They’ve got a really s**t system as well, where you scan some bacteria-infested RFID wristband at some touchscreens which are almost impossible to see in daylight, and choose which ride to go to.
Apart from the first coaster, these aren’t in any particular order. I actually did Superman right after Roar, but took photos later.
Anyway, I did Roar first. I’d quite liked the one at Discovery Kingdom, but this one did nothing for me. If they’ve got any sense, they’ll RMC this like they did the other one. These are literally the only pictures I have; you can see hardly anything of it from off-ride.
Apocalypse:
F**king s**te.
Every time we go on about how amazing and smooth B&M are, we should remind ourselves of these early stand-up human rights atrocities. This, along with the Vortex coasters at Carowinds and California’s Great America are some of the worst coasters on the planet.
Other than the fact that I didn’t know it was there, I don’t remember much about the other woodie, Wild One, now, which means it must’ve been a bit s**t.
It’s a lot easier to take pictures of than Roar though, so it has something going for it I guess.
Joker’s Jinx broke down as I was sitting waiting for it to launch, so had to go back later. I was mildly excited to ride it since I haven’t done one of these outdoor ones before.
They definitely benefit from being shoved inside sheds. It was really dull.
They do look very cool though, it has to be said.
Did this because it was here and I had plenty of time:
Superman then, which is inexplicably running s**ty VR:
I used the fastpass for this, which got me right to the airgates, and the park was pretty much empty, but still had to wait around 20 minutes to get on. One train had been sent in that time. One.
I decided to ride without VR first, and I actually quite liked the ride. It’s one of the weaker of the Intamin hypers, with some weird design choices, but there was decent airtime and it was pretty forceful.
I did an “immediate” reride (30 minutes this time – with the fastpass – since I had to wait for two dispatches), using the VR on the second go. I’ve gone into detail elsewhere on here, so won’t repeat myself other than to say it’s a f**king disaster on every conceivable level and I really should have lost my s**t at guest services, but decided instead to just finish off and get the f**k out of that place.
A decent coaster totally ruined when any other piece of crap at that park would have been a better VR option.
+1 kiddy coaster:
Reverchon Spinner can f**k off:
Theming. Amazing.
Didn’t do.
I think the SLC was pretty bad(?), but can’t really remember now. Turd though obviously.
Batwing. This was the 3rd of Vekoma’s Flying Dutchman coasters that I’ve done. I remember quite liking the other two, but really didn’t enjoy this at all.
I don’t think I really need to sum up this place; it’s more than clear that I really didn’t like it. Yeah, there’s a +9 here, but they’re all a load of s**t apart from Superman, which has been turned into a load of s**t thanks to VR literally destroying the operations. I guess they didn’t want it to feel left out.
I’ve always placed Six Flags above Cedar Fair, and I still do, but this place made me question it. It’s the worst Six Flags Park I’ve done by a long way, but it still doesn’t come too close to the abject misery of Cedar Fair’s Great America.
There’s a tiny bit left which I’ll chuck in now.
I met up for a “couple of drinks” with a couple of old friends that evening who are now living in DC. One of them left quite early, but the other two of us ended up going out to a club until about 3am. Luckily it was near my hotel, so I could walk back in about 5 minutes, but the next day, my last day, was a bit of a write-off.
I’d booked myself onto a tour of the Capitol Building in the afternoon, and had intended to polish off a couple of museums before that, but those didn’t happen. I just went straight to the Capitol at around 3pm.
The dome/rotunda was closed for renovations, which I knew about, but without that, there’s f**k all to see. Absolute waste of time. Even the tour guides seemed to be embarrassed at how s**t it was.
She can f*k off an’ all:
There’s an underground passageway that connect to the Library of Congress, so I had a quick look. Much more impressive than the previous waste of an hour.
And that’s it. I had to fly back to Chicago the next morning to get my flights back to the UK, so that was a bit of a faff considering it’s in the complete opposite direction.
I might not seem like it from this last section, but I did actually like Washington DC. It’s all quite open, green and clean. It never felt overly busy or crowded and it was all quite laid back really. I just found the majority of the main tourist attractions a bit dull to be honest. I’m sure Americans might find it all a bit more interesting, considering all the FREEDOM, which only their country has - and it’s not like I didn’t know what I was looking at - I just really struggled to find a s**t to give.
The trip on the whole was great though. I think I mentioned much earlier in the report that I’d started to have reservations after getting a few things booked, but I really liked all the places I went to, even if a lot of the parks were really nothing special. I ended up going to a few cities that I’d never had any intention of visiting before, and ended up really liking them. I loved Chicago – probably my favourite US city now – and Minneapolis was a big surprise in how fab it was.
I finally managed to stop being so basic and get on an RMC, and got to add 48 to the count – with no spite apart from the kiddy thing at Mount Olympus - so all-in-all it was a fab trip.
Back to Chinese s**t for the next reports…
Bat Fastard
Hyper Poster
Awesome report! Washington DC looks fab, I need to get to the Air and Space museum ASAP.
Nickelodeon Universe is an awesome place.
And yeah, **** VR. I had a terrible experience with it on Superman at SFFT and I have nothing good to say about the ****.
Nickelodeon Universe is an awesome place.
And yeah, **** VR. I had a terrible experience with it on Superman at SFFT and I have nothing good to say about the ****.
Mysterious Sue
Strata Poster
Great report as always Gavin. My enduring memory of SF America is of AJ being told to return his bandana to the car (in case he was mistaken for being part of a gang)! It was OK as a park I suppose, there's just not much there in terms of decent rides.
Also thought Washington was really clean and nice. I'd heard so many horror stories and apparently the outskirts are very dodgy, but the tourist areas were really good. Still can't believe we just turned up and randomly parked in the next road to the White House though. Can you imagine in London?! Haha.
Really interested in all your museum reviews. We only had time for the memorial walk and a walk up Capitol Hill. Looks like there's so much there we missed. The Library of Congress looks particularly fab. I think the architecture is probably more interesting than the museums inside tbh. That copy of the Pantheon though haha!
Also thought Washington was really clean and nice. I'd heard so many horror stories and apparently the outskirts are very dodgy, but the tourist areas were really good. Still can't believe we just turned up and randomly parked in the next road to the White House though. Can you imagine in London?! Haha.
Really interested in all your museum reviews. We only had time for the memorial walk and a walk up Capitol Hill. Looks like there's so much there we missed. The Library of Congress looks particularly fab. I think the architecture is probably more interesting than the museums inside tbh. That copy of the Pantheon though haha!
Pink Cadillac
Giga Poster
It's been a fun and very interesting report as they are familiar but you don't hear a lot of about these parks. Also I once looked in to visiting the US parks using public transport and was surprised how doable it was. I think only Dollywood and Silver Dollar City looked impossible (well technically not, but the taxi price will be enough to rule it out)