Antinos' 2018 Thread (2018 Wrap-up: Six Flags Over Georgia)
- Thread starter Antinos
- Start date
Snoo
The Legend
The lemonade was better tbh.
Snoo
The Legend
I came twice from the indoor Herpes I contracted.
Antinos
Slut for Spinners
Alright, @tomahawk recently messaged me about how he wanted to take his wife on vacation and that he had found some cheap last minute deals to Orlando, so we managed a quick Disney trip over the US's Labor Day weekend. I brought the lady with me as well so now she won't keep asking me to take her to Disney for a bit 
I'm planning on writing one park per post and then including an overall Walt Disney World thoughts into the final post. Hopefully I don't stretch out the write up too much.
First up was Disney's Animal Kingdom. My last trip to Disney was in 2002 - Expedition Everest wasn't built yet, Mission Space had just been announced, and not much else had been happening at the other parks either. Although I enjoyed the parks as a nine year old, Disney's 2002 "status" stuck with me until my visit to Disneyland California last summer - I was beginning to realize that Disney has been investing and adding to their parks and that I was mature enough to appreciate what they already had. This trip continued to re-mold my opinion of the Disney franchise...and my goodness, has Animal Kingdom changed.
Pandora's Flight of Passage - First, I'll start by saying that the entire Pandora section is visually stunning. The whole area is extremely colorful and the large rock arch is quite eye catching. Flight of Passage's queue was extremely immersive and actually made the wait less painful. The pre-show and avatar link took too long, in my opinion, but the ride itself, which showcases riding around the jungle on a banshee, was great. The seats are hard to describe, but it's like they took a bunch of Vekoma or Zamperla motorbike seats and put them in a vertical theater. The attention to detail is well worth noting - the ride's knee bolsters swell and retract to simulate the banshee's breathing. When something dangerous appears on the screen, the pulsing of the knee bolsters increases to a faster rate. But as impressive as this ride is, at the end of the day, it's just a 3D motion simulator.
Kilimanjaro Safari - This is a pretty long ride through various animal habitats in none other than the Harambe Wildlife Reserve. That's right: #DicksOut! Each habitat and the road are designed such that riders can easily see plenty of animals while keeping each habitat realistic. It's very well done.
Dinosaur - The ride is showing its age - many of the animatronics, lights, and other effects were broken. It was difficult to follow what was happening...plus who even remembers the movie? At the very least, the ride could use a good refurbishment to get everything in proper working order.
Primeval Whirl - Spinning mice!...except they're Reverchons and Disney trimmed them beyond all belief. We didn't get much spinning at all, unfortunately. Besides that, I'm just so surprised that Disney actually went out and bought two of these things to put in the park. I know California Adventure has a mouse, but it fits in with the rest of the pier - it feels at home there. These just feel out of place. +2.
Expedition Everest - I had been thinking about Everest all day prior to riding. The ride is located in a spot where one can catch a few glimpses of it from various sections of the park and it looks impressive from across the pond in front of it. The queue is excellently themed. The trains have a fitting look and just feel right when they roll into the station as you're waiting to board. The ride is 12(?) years old but it still rides nicely - it's still very smooth. The "train ride" feeling of the first portion escalated into a wild, intense moment through the backwards helix inside the mountain. The big drop was thrilling and the resulting bayern curves were intense and left me with a huge smile on my face. I completely loved it.
Navi Boat Ride - It was described to us as "James Cameron eye porn" and that description is fairly accurate. The lights and dancing creatures were visually stunning, but I was most impressed with the Navi animatronic. It is by far the most advanced, lifelike animatronic that we saw. The character made some swift, complex hand and arm movements and certainly had dozens of motors and bladders controlling various facial expressions as it sang the song during that portion of the ride. It's worth the wait JUST to see that animatronic.
Overall thoughts - 16 years ago, it was my least favorite park. With Pandora and Expedition Everest, as well as just simply being at a different point in life, my opinion of Disney's Animal Kindom is much more favorable. As expected, the park is gorgeous. There was plenty of space to walk around such that it didn't feel crowded either - something that differed with the other parks. I really look forward to seeing what else Disney has in store for this park. (also, please note "James Cameron's giant jungle penis vagina thing" in one of the photos. It has a "moist" spot on the side and if one rubs it, it'll eventually shoot a jet of mist out of the tip.)
We hopped over to Disney's Hollywood Studios for the evening. I'll post about that (hopefully) tomorrow!
I'm planning on writing one park per post and then including an overall Walt Disney World thoughts into the final post. Hopefully I don't stretch out the write up too much.
First up was Disney's Animal Kingdom. My last trip to Disney was in 2002 - Expedition Everest wasn't built yet, Mission Space had just been announced, and not much else had been happening at the other parks either. Although I enjoyed the parks as a nine year old, Disney's 2002 "status" stuck with me until my visit to Disneyland California last summer - I was beginning to realize that Disney has been investing and adding to their parks and that I was mature enough to appreciate what they already had. This trip continued to re-mold my opinion of the Disney franchise...and my goodness, has Animal Kingdom changed.
Pandora's Flight of Passage - First, I'll start by saying that the entire Pandora section is visually stunning. The whole area is extremely colorful and the large rock arch is quite eye catching. Flight of Passage's queue was extremely immersive and actually made the wait less painful. The pre-show and avatar link took too long, in my opinion, but the ride itself, which showcases riding around the jungle on a banshee, was great. The seats are hard to describe, but it's like they took a bunch of Vekoma or Zamperla motorbike seats and put them in a vertical theater. The attention to detail is well worth noting - the ride's knee bolsters swell and retract to simulate the banshee's breathing. When something dangerous appears on the screen, the pulsing of the knee bolsters increases to a faster rate. But as impressive as this ride is, at the end of the day, it's just a 3D motion simulator.
Kilimanjaro Safari - This is a pretty long ride through various animal habitats in none other than the Harambe Wildlife Reserve. That's right: #DicksOut! Each habitat and the road are designed such that riders can easily see plenty of animals while keeping each habitat realistic. It's very well done.
Dinosaur - The ride is showing its age - many of the animatronics, lights, and other effects were broken. It was difficult to follow what was happening...plus who even remembers the movie? At the very least, the ride could use a good refurbishment to get everything in proper working order.
Primeval Whirl - Spinning mice!...except they're Reverchons and Disney trimmed them beyond all belief. We didn't get much spinning at all, unfortunately. Besides that, I'm just so surprised that Disney actually went out and bought two of these things to put in the park. I know California Adventure has a mouse, but it fits in with the rest of the pier - it feels at home there. These just feel out of place. +2.
Expedition Everest - I had been thinking about Everest all day prior to riding. The ride is located in a spot where one can catch a few glimpses of it from various sections of the park and it looks impressive from across the pond in front of it. The queue is excellently themed. The trains have a fitting look and just feel right when they roll into the station as you're waiting to board. The ride is 12(?) years old but it still rides nicely - it's still very smooth. The "train ride" feeling of the first portion escalated into a wild, intense moment through the backwards helix inside the mountain. The big drop was thrilling and the resulting bayern curves were intense and left me with a huge smile on my face. I completely loved it.
Navi Boat Ride - It was described to us as "James Cameron eye porn" and that description is fairly accurate. The lights and dancing creatures were visually stunning, but I was most impressed with the Navi animatronic. It is by far the most advanced, lifelike animatronic that we saw. The character made some swift, complex hand and arm movements and certainly had dozens of motors and bladders controlling various facial expressions as it sang the song during that portion of the ride. It's worth the wait JUST to see that animatronic.
Overall thoughts - 16 years ago, it was my least favorite park. With Pandora and Expedition Everest, as well as just simply being at a different point in life, my opinion of Disney's Animal Kindom is much more favorable. As expected, the park is gorgeous. There was plenty of space to walk around such that it didn't feel crowded either - something that differed with the other parks. I really look forward to seeing what else Disney has in store for this park. (also, please note "James Cameron's giant jungle penis vagina thing" in one of the photos. It has a "moist" spot on the side and if one rubs it, it'll eventually shoot a jet of mist out of the tip.)
We hopped over to Disney's Hollywood Studios for the evening. I'll post about that (hopefully) tomorrow!
Antinos
Slut for Spinners
After getting our fill of Animal Kingdom, we headed over to Disney's Hollywood Studios to finish the day. Of course, we headed straight for Toy Story Land.
Slinky Dog Dash - It's the centerpiece of this park's new section and it fits in nicely with the oversized blocks, toys, and Christmas lights that decorate the entire area. The whole ride is adorable. How can one not absolutely fall in love with the trains and all the theming surrounding the ride? As for the ride itself...it's a bit short and it is quite tame. The launch pushes the trains just enough to clear the next hill, the turns are just kinda there for the train to meander through, and there is no airtime. The chassis itself feels cheap, but that can slide since the ride is so mellow. And once again, how can one not love the ride?
Rock n' Roller Coaster - Well, after all these years, it's still a pretty thrilling ride. I do prefer the one in Paris - the steel trusses and show lighting is much more impressive than the quirky neon painted plywood billboards throughout the Florida version. Still, that sea serpent packs a punch!
Tower of Terror - The ride portion is short compared to how much pre-show and anticipation build up is present. Despite this, the meat of the ride is thrilling with some great drops and tons of airtime.
Star Tours - It was cool to see the modernized version of this ride with scenes from Episodes I-III. I have to take away points for the pod racing scene though. Too much pod racing...
Toy Story Mania - It's essentially the same as the California version, which is perfectly fine. It's a great dark ride shooter, consisting of about five mini games for you to jerk off the pull-string on your launcher to its content. Obviously, @tomahawk won because he's a slut.
Overall thoughts - Fortunately, Disney's Hollywood Studios is receiving investments because I honestly thought the park was kind of dumpy. Certain portions of the park, like the main entrance, were nearly identical to California Adventure, but they just did not look like they were in as good of shape. It looked like sections of the park hadn't been touched up or given any TLC in years. Also, some of the clientele was getting awfully ratchet at the end of the day. Yes, it was a long day in the sun walking around amusement parks, but there's no need to be getting into arguments with your group in the middle of the midway. But Toy Story Land is a great addition. It really livens up that area of the park with a ton of color and excitement. Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge will open next year and it's sure to be a massive success. The land will probably take up 1/3 of the park when it's complete and even though there's scaffolding and work happening everywhere, it already looks impressive enough to get me excited to see the final product.
The next day, we decided to break up our Disney run through, recover from our 15 mile day, and stop by Sea World for a bit. Although I had visited earlier this year (first page of this report), it was well worth a revisit. More tomorrow.
Slinky Dog Dash - It's the centerpiece of this park's new section and it fits in nicely with the oversized blocks, toys, and Christmas lights that decorate the entire area. The whole ride is adorable. How can one not absolutely fall in love with the trains and all the theming surrounding the ride? As for the ride itself...it's a bit short and it is quite tame. The launch pushes the trains just enough to clear the next hill, the turns are just kinda there for the train to meander through, and there is no airtime. The chassis itself feels cheap, but that can slide since the ride is so mellow. And once again, how can one not love the ride?
Rock n' Roller Coaster - Well, after all these years, it's still a pretty thrilling ride. I do prefer the one in Paris - the steel trusses and show lighting is much more impressive than the quirky neon painted plywood billboards throughout the Florida version. Still, that sea serpent packs a punch!
Tower of Terror - The ride portion is short compared to how much pre-show and anticipation build up is present. Despite this, the meat of the ride is thrilling with some great drops and tons of airtime.
Star Tours - It was cool to see the modernized version of this ride with scenes from Episodes I-III. I have to take away points for the pod racing scene though. Too much pod racing...
Toy Story Mania - It's essentially the same as the California version, which is perfectly fine. It's a great dark ride shooter, consisting of about five mini games for you to jerk off the pull-string on your launcher to its content. Obviously, @tomahawk won because he's a slut.
Overall thoughts - Fortunately, Disney's Hollywood Studios is receiving investments because I honestly thought the park was kind of dumpy. Certain portions of the park, like the main entrance, were nearly identical to California Adventure, but they just did not look like they were in as good of shape. It looked like sections of the park hadn't been touched up or given any TLC in years. Also, some of the clientele was getting awfully ratchet at the end of the day. Yes, it was a long day in the sun walking around amusement parks, but there's no need to be getting into arguments with your group in the middle of the midway. But Toy Story Land is a great addition. It really livens up that area of the park with a ton of color and excitement. Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge will open next year and it's sure to be a massive success. The land will probably take up 1/3 of the park when it's complete and even though there's scaffolding and work happening everywhere, it already looks impressive enough to get me excited to see the final product.
The next day, we decided to break up our Disney run through, recover from our 15 mile day, and stop by Sea World for a bit. Although I had visited earlier this year (first page of this report), it was well worth a revisit. More tomorrow.
tomahawk
Strata Poster
I won because I'm a ****ing champion. And you know...knowing bonuses and ****.
Will add DHS is trash outside Toy Story Land. I have no desire to visit once Star Wars opens because it was packed as is without that area existing. The thought of adding that area and all the extra crowds is revolting. Then again, once it is open, they should have the **** show of parking lot construction completed and be easier to navigate.
Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk
Will add DHS is trash outside Toy Story Land. I have no desire to visit once Star Wars opens because it was packed as is without that area existing. The thought of adding that area and all the extra crowds is revolting. Then again, once it is open, they should have the **** show of parking lot construction completed and be easier to navigate.
Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk
I'm enjoying reading this, thanks for writing it up. It is making me think I should treat the better half to a trip to Disney. Maybe I'll start with DLP though, haha!
Good to hear you guys had a good time, I bet it was a blast!
Good to hear you guys had a good time, I bet it was a blast!
tomahawk
Strata Poster
This trip was strictly WDW and Sea World. We didnt want to do Universal until new Potter attraction opened and Antinos has the Fun Spot creds, and I wasn't willing to drop that much for the creds because I'm cheap/lack of time. Everywhere was packed so it was difficult to get things done.
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Antinos
Slut for Spinners
As @tomahawk said, we did all four WDW parks and Sea World. I could have written a novel of a report with all five parks condensed into one post, but I think the brief, spark-note style gets a bit more engagement from readers. Plus, by spreading out the reports, the thread ends up being more active, unlike how it was for essentially the first half of the operating season. And also as Tom said, we crammed a lot into a small amount of time. With how much investment is happening at all of the parks down in that area, we'll surely be back in the near future - hopefully with a bigger group.
I can always count on you to read my write-ups the same way you can count on me to write them! I'll touch on this more later but this trip has continued to mold my opinion of Disney for the better. DLP is a pretty easy trek for you and from what I can remember it's doable in a day, even with their more recent additions.
Alright, Sea World! Like I said at the end of my last post, I did visit six months ago so this will be a quick one. The most important part about this visit is that Tom was able to ride everything.
Journey to Atlantis - It's still a pretty fun ride that doesn't get you absolutely soaked. The Tempesto theme music makes it quirky as well.
Kraken - Still running phenomenally despite a slight rattle. We did learn that they are in the process of refurbing the ride. Apparently they're unbolting one section of track each night, inspecting every inch of the piece, re-welding, and reassembling before the park opens. Kraken is getting fairly old and the park is doing what it can to avoid an Incredible Hulk situation. Good for them.
Mako - Still not sure how it has so much airtime. Wonderful.
Manta - Seemed a bit more intense this time around, but maybe because it was hot and we rode it last this time.
Overall thoughts - Same as before: I enjoyed another visit and really look forward to their continued shift towards a thrill park.
Next up is Magic Kingdom.
Antinos
Slut for Spinners
After a relatively restful day, we were ready to grind out our last day, which was split between Magic Kingdom and EPCOT. But before we headed to the park, we made a breakfast reservation at the Grand Floridian Cafe such that @tomahawk's wife could get some gluten free waffles. The breakfast was fantastic, but we were all completely stunned by how ornate and beautiful the Grand Floridian Hotel is. This place is actually a great incentive for career advancement: get enough promotions and earn a salary that would allow a group to stay at this place without feeling guilty about how much money I'd be throwing at the trip.
Barnstormer - Tom didn't have the cred yet so we headed there first. It was a bit shameful but at least we got some good views of the construction site for Tron.
Little Mermaid - Well, it's a ride. I'm not head over heels for The Little Mermaid like Tom is, but I can appreciate it as a good, cute filler ride.
Seven Dwarfs Mine Train - Time to ride Orphan Rocker 2.0! It was an interesting concept with the swinging cars. It's certainly not what Big Bad Wolf was - it was fairly tame, but that's ok. In my opinion, the coaster portions needed two or three more turns each as they felt a little short.
Haunted Mansion - Interesting ride. Having ridden the California version just last year, which I also rode with Tom, we compared both rides from what we could remember. The Florida one is a bit darker with regard to the tone of the ride and was more serious. Definitely not the whimsical tour we received on the California ride.
Pirates of the Caribbean - there were some neat show scenes throughout the ride. The animatronics and effects were pretty good, although it felt like there was so much going on which made it hard to follow the story.
Overall Thoughts - At this point, we were nearing 3:00pm and the park was a total clown fiesta. We decided to forego riding Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, Space Mountain, and a couple other rides (we had the creds already) to get away from the throngs of families and ankle bashing strollers and head to EPCOT. Honestly, Magic Kingdom is too basic. It has all the standard rides and most of the characters. All of the children want to go there the most. I would have liked to have spent more time there on a less crowded day, but it is what it is. But if Tron is anything like what I've heard about the one in China, I'll be back in a heartbeat.
Housekeeping note: I'm headed to Michigan's Adventure on Saturday so I do not think I will be able to get the final installment in tomorrow. I'll finish off this trip with an EPCOT write up on Sunday followed by a Michigan's Adventure review on Monday.
Roadmap:
Barnstormer - Tom didn't have the cred yet so we headed there first. It was a bit shameful but at least we got some good views of the construction site for Tron.
Little Mermaid - Well, it's a ride. I'm not head over heels for The Little Mermaid like Tom is, but I can appreciate it as a good, cute filler ride.
Seven Dwarfs Mine Train - Time to ride Orphan Rocker 2.0! It was an interesting concept with the swinging cars. It's certainly not what Big Bad Wolf was - it was fairly tame, but that's ok. In my opinion, the coaster portions needed two or three more turns each as they felt a little short.
Haunted Mansion - Interesting ride. Having ridden the California version just last year, which I also rode with Tom, we compared both rides from what we could remember. The Florida one is a bit darker with regard to the tone of the ride and was more serious. Definitely not the whimsical tour we received on the California ride.
Pirates of the Caribbean - there were some neat show scenes throughout the ride. The animatronics and effects were pretty good, although it felt like there was so much going on which made it hard to follow the story.
Overall Thoughts - At this point, we were nearing 3:00pm and the park was a total clown fiesta. We decided to forego riding Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, Space Mountain, and a couple other rides (we had the creds already) to get away from the throngs of families and ankle bashing strollers and head to EPCOT. Honestly, Magic Kingdom is too basic. It has all the standard rides and most of the characters. All of the children want to go there the most. I would have liked to have spent more time there on a less crowded day, but it is what it is. But if Tron is anything like what I've heard about the one in China, I'll be back in a heartbeat.
Housekeeping note: I'm headed to Michigan's Adventure on Saturday so I do not think I will be able to get the final installment in tomorrow. I'll finish off this trip with an EPCOT write up on Sunday followed by a Michigan's Adventure review on Monday.
Roadmap:
- Michigan's Adventure (September 8th)
- Kings Island (late-October)
- Holiday World (late-October)
- Dollywood (mid-November)
- Kokomo's Family Fun Center (maybe this year, maybe next year)
Matt N
CF Legend
Really enjoyed that, Antinos! Great report!
I'm taking some tips from these Disney reports for when my family heads there in April 2019, so thanks for how useful your reports are!
Also, glad to hear Mako is still running amazingly! As you can probably see, it is still my number 1 coaster, but I last rode it in August 2016 when it was still shiny and new, so I would be interested to see how it would compare if I were to reride it now!
I'm taking some tips from these Disney reports for when my family heads there in April 2019, so thanks for how useful your reports are!
Also, glad to hear Mako is still running amazingly! As you can probably see, it is still my number 1 coaster, but I last rode it in August 2016 when it was still shiny and new, so I would be interested to see how it would compare if I were to reride it now!
Antinos
Slut for Spinners
Alright, I said I wouldn't get another review out before Sunday but I LIED. Off we go to EPCOT!
After stopping for a snack and then dealing with a monorail suffering from technical difficulties, we arrived at EPCOT. Priority number one was to head to the China area such that the lady could meet Mulan, her favorite Disney character. Due to some rain showers, we had to wait until the later meet and greet, but we DID get to meet Mulan. Although we did decide to use our time wisely and took a ride on Mission Space while we waited for the next meeting.
Mission Space - While recording the next episode for The Drunk Riders last night, I mentioned that Mission Space was freshly announced during my previous visit to Walt Disney World. Being the space nut that I am, I was EXTREMELY pumped to finally ride. We elected to ride the more intense experience - they recently redid one of the simulators to be a less intense version, but we could handle the main one. For those that aren't familiar with the mechanics of the ride: imagine an overbuilt KMG Afterburner that doesn't swing. Each arm has a pod with four seats and simulates the spacecraft throughout the ride. Disney implemented a sort of team building thing during the ride where each rider in the pod is assigned a role. Although each rider had to press two buttons, I am not sure if the ride would "crash" or stop if one didn't play along. Anyway...it was an incredible experience. Disney worked with NASA to achieve a somewhat realistic experience and, in fairness, they did a decent job at it. The feeling of getting shoved into the seat during the launch segment was unbelievable, a feeling that continued as the ride simulated a second stage burn and a lunar slingshot. At this point, the ride began to shed its realism: after awaking from cryo-sleep, your crew finds itself in an asteroid field that requires Star Wars-like evasive maneuvers - definitely not a proper representation of orbital mechanics. The ride then simulated an atmosphere entry at Mars at waaaaayyyyyyyy too steep of an insertion angle and without a retro burn. But at this point, I'm being a bit pedantic. Like I said earlier - it was still an incredible experience.
Frozen Ever After - We sucked it up and waited way too long for this, but luckily it wasn't a bad ride at all. It was a bit short, but it was pretty interesting. Our group thought that they did a fantastic job with Olaf's and Sven's animatronics, but the rest utilized projections for their faces and were kind of creepy (they appeared almost like a porcelain doll). I also was completely unaware of the reverse levers and reverse portion of the flume - definitely a surprise that enhanced the ride experience.
Illuminations - To be honest, I was over fireworks shows years ago...they just don't really wow me anymore. EPCOT's fireworks display was fairly mediocre to me, but they did have a lot of other lighting effects that I could appreciate. Bottom line: I have the utmost respect for whatever imagineer approached an executive to pitch the show idea. I noticed just how much was involved as far as lighting was concerned - I'm sure they had to redo the entire park's electrical infrastructure such that they could control the majority of the lights around the lagoon, the fire cauldrons representing each country, and the back half of Spaceship Earth. I can't even fathom looking at that electrical schematic, nor designing the system, nor testing the entire show and working out all of the bugs. Big hat tip to the people that made it happen and make it happen every single night.
Overall thoughts - Unfortunately, due to our faffing between parks, walking back and forth for Mulan, looking for cheap dinner, and waiting for Frozen, we simply ran out of time. We missed out on Soarin', Living with the Land, Spaceship Earth (water leak), and Test Track (rain), and we didn't have much time to see the countries either. I loved the retro way everything was presented in the future section of the park and each country looked moderately authentic from what I could tell. EPCOT is a really cool park and I'd love to spend more time there and really immerse myself in each country and get on all of the rides. I'll be sure to do that when Guardians of the Galaxy opens!
Roadmap:
After stopping for a snack and then dealing with a monorail suffering from technical difficulties, we arrived at EPCOT. Priority number one was to head to the China area such that the lady could meet Mulan, her favorite Disney character. Due to some rain showers, we had to wait until the later meet and greet, but we DID get to meet Mulan. Although we did decide to use our time wisely and took a ride on Mission Space while we waited for the next meeting.
Mission Space - While recording the next episode for The Drunk Riders last night, I mentioned that Mission Space was freshly announced during my previous visit to Walt Disney World. Being the space nut that I am, I was EXTREMELY pumped to finally ride. We elected to ride the more intense experience - they recently redid one of the simulators to be a less intense version, but we could handle the main one. For those that aren't familiar with the mechanics of the ride: imagine an overbuilt KMG Afterburner that doesn't swing. Each arm has a pod with four seats and simulates the spacecraft throughout the ride. Disney implemented a sort of team building thing during the ride where each rider in the pod is assigned a role. Although each rider had to press two buttons, I am not sure if the ride would "crash" or stop if one didn't play along. Anyway...it was an incredible experience. Disney worked with NASA to achieve a somewhat realistic experience and, in fairness, they did a decent job at it. The feeling of getting shoved into the seat during the launch segment was unbelievable, a feeling that continued as the ride simulated a second stage burn and a lunar slingshot. At this point, the ride began to shed its realism: after awaking from cryo-sleep, your crew finds itself in an asteroid field that requires Star Wars-like evasive maneuvers - definitely not a proper representation of orbital mechanics. The ride then simulated an atmosphere entry at Mars at waaaaayyyyyyyy too steep of an insertion angle and without a retro burn. But at this point, I'm being a bit pedantic. Like I said earlier - it was still an incredible experience.
Frozen Ever After - We sucked it up and waited way too long for this, but luckily it wasn't a bad ride at all. It was a bit short, but it was pretty interesting. Our group thought that they did a fantastic job with Olaf's and Sven's animatronics, but the rest utilized projections for their faces and were kind of creepy (they appeared almost like a porcelain doll). I also was completely unaware of the reverse levers and reverse portion of the flume - definitely a surprise that enhanced the ride experience.
Illuminations - To be honest, I was over fireworks shows years ago...they just don't really wow me anymore. EPCOT's fireworks display was fairly mediocre to me, but they did have a lot of other lighting effects that I could appreciate. Bottom line: I have the utmost respect for whatever imagineer approached an executive to pitch the show idea. I noticed just how much was involved as far as lighting was concerned - I'm sure they had to redo the entire park's electrical infrastructure such that they could control the majority of the lights around the lagoon, the fire cauldrons representing each country, and the back half of Spaceship Earth. I can't even fathom looking at that electrical schematic, nor designing the system, nor testing the entire show and working out all of the bugs. Big hat tip to the people that made it happen and make it happen every single night.
Overall thoughts - Unfortunately, due to our faffing between parks, walking back and forth for Mulan, looking for cheap dinner, and waiting for Frozen, we simply ran out of time. We missed out on Soarin', Living with the Land, Spaceship Earth (water leak), and Test Track (rain), and we didn't have much time to see the countries either. I loved the retro way everything was presented in the future section of the park and each country looked moderately authentic from what I could tell. EPCOT is a really cool park and I'd love to spend more time there and really immerse myself in each country and get on all of the rides. I'll be sure to do that when Guardians of the Galaxy opens!
Roadmap:
- Michigan's Adventure (September 8th)
- Kings Island (late-October)
- Holiday World (late-October)
- Dollywood (mid-November)
- Kokomo's Family Fun Center (maybe this year, maybe next year)
Antinos
Slut for Spinners
MIIIIIIIIICHIGANNNNNNNNN'S ADVEEEEENTUUUUURRRREEEEEEEEEE - A WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOLE...
...SUMMER OF FUN!
So I FINALLY got @Youngster Joey and @Snoo up to Detroit for the first time since I've known them and it was to take a quick trip over to the west side of Michigan's Lower Peninsula. For Joey, it was a cred run. For Snoo and myself, it was our first visit in eight years and would provide a good (and by that, I mean bad) refresher.
Luckily, Michigan's Adventure is fairly close to Grand Rapids, which is also known as Beer City. We almost certainly would not have done this trip without spending some time drinking in Grand Rapids. But EVEN BEFORE drinking, we actually stopped by Craig's Cruisers for a cred!
Cruiser Coaster - I actually mentioned the possibility of stopping by in the car on the way over to Grand Rapids thinking it'd take some convincing, but I should have known that my fellow goon sluts would be DTF without hesitation. We were fairly unbalanced on this Visa spinner so we got some surprisingly good spinning. I've said this before a few times already, but at least these barely-coasters are moderately interesting. +1 in addition to a lap on each of their go-kart tracks.
Time to head downtown! We spend the rest of the evening sampling the delicious beers of Grand Rapids. We started off at Founders Brewing Company, which is Michigan's largest and most popular, then headed to the original HopCat, which is a fun, quirky bar and grill that's expanded throughout the midwest. After another couple beers and munching on some crack fries, we moseyed over to Grand Rapids Brewing Company for our last few drinks before calling it a night.
HopCat:
We woke up the next day feeling slightly hungover, which MIGHT have affected some of our opinions of the park...nevertheless, we arrived at Michigan's Adventure, met @Error, his fiance, and some other pals. (these two photos shamelessly stolen from Snoo)
Big Dipper - got the cred years ago, but snapped a quick photo while Joey was riding. As far as kiddie coasters go, it actually looks pretty legit.
Zach's Zoomer - It's a tiny wooden coaster that is very similar to the old Paramount parks kiddie woodies. It wasn't rough but it also wasn't exciting.
Corkscrew - I'm starting to sound like @Hixee, but I'm getting real sick of the garbage Arrow/Vekoma clones, whether it's a loop screw like this, or a boomerang, or an SLC...just replace all the **** with Sky Rocket II's, Raptors, ****ing Kanonen...hell, put a Visa spinner over its grave for all I care. To be fair, this is one of the better loop screws...up until the restraint clocked me in the jaw as we transitioned out of the last corkscrew. ****.
Wolverine Wildcat - What in the actual **** happened. Wolverine Wildcat was never particularly exciting, but it apparently became one of the roughest wooden coasters in existence. Every single valley was filled with an awful jackhammering. There's a ton of issues with this park, and if Michigan's Adventure or Cedar Fair actually wanted to put some investment into the place, fixing Wolverine Wildcat should probably be at the top of the list ahead of any new addition. I bet GCI could work some wonders on the track with regard to its roughness.
Timbertown Railway - we took the train over to Thunderhawk because why not. There are really only two notable things about this train. Apparently photography while on the ride is prohibited...what?! The thing goes less than five miles per hour...how...why? The other noteworthy item is that all of the foliage has grown tremendously over the past eight years. I have photos from 2010 of Shivering Timbers taken from the back station, but today it's impossible to see Shivering Timbers as the trees and bushes have grown to the part where all of this undeveloped land is looking more like a forest than anything else.
Thunderhawk - eight years ago, the track was red. As you can see in the photos, it is no longer red and it's 100% due to sun load. Despite that, it IS still the best SLC that I've been on. That's not saying a whole lot because it's still an SLC, but at least you're not going to get off with your skull bashed in.
Mad Mouse - Now HERE is the hidden gem. This is one of three operating Arrow mice in the world. A fourth is in storage in South Carolina, and the other two operating are located at California's Great America and Valleyfair. These mice are the best mice - they're very smooth and proportioned such that they aren't super jerky in the turns. Mad Mouse actually gave some legit airtime in the second half, plus it keeps things unique by throwing in a trick track at the end of the ride. If the park does close, I would hope this ride finds a new home, but I'd guess it'd end up at a park outside of Cedar Fair as the only parks without a mouse (or spinner) are Cedar Point and Kings Island. But yeah...it's a legitimately good ride, especially for a mouse.
Shivering Timbers - This is the whole reason to come to Michigan's Adventure...the only reason. I was actually a bit nervous to ride as I was fully expecting a disappointing ride after riding 200+ new coasters since my last lap. Surprisingly, our ride was my best I've ever had on it. There was one small pothole in the first valley, but the rest of the ride was smoother than I remember. The first drop has become quite lame over the past 20 years - it's just a straight 60 degree drop...a standard profile around the time it was built. We're just spoiled with the more modern, parabolic, here's a metric **** ton of airtime drops. The entire run out has shades of Voyage as the hills provide some solid flojector airtime. The return run provided more airtime than I remember, but don't expect shades of Boulder Dash. They recently replaced the trick track with a small bunny hop which bolstered the amount of airtime on the ride. Now if only the park will do something about the odd downward sloped straight portions of track that are present on two of the drops (watch a POV and you'll understand). Finally, the helix. The ride seemed slower paced as it entered the helix despite running at a decent clip through the return run. I remember the helix finale being almost violent due to its speed and roughness, but that is not the case anymore. It was a fairly gentle mixing bowl before hitting the brakes. It's not The Voyage, nor is it Boulder Dash...but it's good.
Overall Thoughts - Well...they've really let this place go over the past eight years. I noticed one new addition since my last visit...ONE new thing in eight years. The overgrowth in the undeveloped land by the railway is understandable and accepted to a point, but this appeared to be the case throughout the park. I noticed a few close calls with vegetation on both Corkscrew and Thunderhawk, but these weren't cases isolated to those two rides. All throughout the park were signs of general neglect with regard to landscaping...almost as if the park doesn't even have a landscaping department anymore. The park was pretty dead, especially for the Saturday of closing weekend. Despite that, operations were fairly bad. We only had to wait two or three trains for Thunderhawk and Corkscrew, but dispatch times were upwards of five minutes. Each major ride had about half the staff it probably should have had. To be honest, they didn't really NEED more staff nor did they NEED to get trains out faster - we're just spoiled with better dispatch times.
I've recently heard rumors that the park will permanently close soon. While I still think they're a bit baseless, I completely understand why there's talk on the street about it. I've heard that the park's general manager has stated that Michigan's Adventure will not add thrill rides or operate later in the season as a means of avoiding competition with Cedar Point. For the longest time, I've thought that the park was a cash cow because it caters to families in Michigan's northern lower peninsula and the state's entire western shoreline, although apparently this (in my opinion, unreasonable) fear of competing with Cedar Point and just not investing in the park has caused a significant decline in attendance even for locals. We chatted with one employee who stated that he wouldn't be surprised if corporate did away with the park.
The park has a ton of potential to play the small ball game, sort of like what Kentucky Kingdom has been doing, and I wish Cedar Fair would see that. In a perfect world, I could see a free spin or even a sky rocket II or raptor as a good major addition. I can see the park being a good home for a midi-discovery, skywarp...hell, even a Larson Loop. Just add SOMETHING to make the park mildly interesting. But at the very least, the park just needs some TLC and the experience would be drastically better. Get landscaping to clean up the plants, edge the grass, tend to the gardens, and the like. Hire a team to paint the steel coasters because all three need a fresh coat of paint (actually, Corkscrew's track has two different colors on the track, depending on where you look). Finally, contract GCI to take care of the wooden coasters. Wolverine Wildcat really needs some work done to it. Shivering Timbers and Zach's Zoomer don't really NEED any work done to either ride, but they might as well shoot for some constant improvement. I know the park wasn't much even back in the day, but it is sad to see it decline so much in only a few years. If Cedar Fair can successfully keep Kings Island and Cedar Point operating at their capacity, I think they could do the same with Cedar Point and Michigan's Adventure. Let's hope they start soon.
Roadmap:
...SUMMER OF FUN!
So I FINALLY got @Youngster Joey and @Snoo up to Detroit for the first time since I've known them and it was to take a quick trip over to the west side of Michigan's Lower Peninsula. For Joey, it was a cred run. For Snoo and myself, it was our first visit in eight years and would provide a good (and by that, I mean bad) refresher.
Luckily, Michigan's Adventure is fairly close to Grand Rapids, which is also known as Beer City. We almost certainly would not have done this trip without spending some time drinking in Grand Rapids. But EVEN BEFORE drinking, we actually stopped by Craig's Cruisers for a cred!
Cruiser Coaster - I actually mentioned the possibility of stopping by in the car on the way over to Grand Rapids thinking it'd take some convincing, but I should have known that my fellow goon sluts would be DTF without hesitation. We were fairly unbalanced on this Visa spinner so we got some surprisingly good spinning. I've said this before a few times already, but at least these barely-coasters are moderately interesting. +1 in addition to a lap on each of their go-kart tracks.
Time to head downtown! We spend the rest of the evening sampling the delicious beers of Grand Rapids. We started off at Founders Brewing Company, which is Michigan's largest and most popular, then headed to the original HopCat, which is a fun, quirky bar and grill that's expanded throughout the midwest. After another couple beers and munching on some crack fries, we moseyed over to Grand Rapids Brewing Company for our last few drinks before calling it a night.
HopCat:
We woke up the next day feeling slightly hungover, which MIGHT have affected some of our opinions of the park...nevertheless, we arrived at Michigan's Adventure, met @Error, his fiance, and some other pals. (these two photos shamelessly stolen from Snoo)
Big Dipper - got the cred years ago, but snapped a quick photo while Joey was riding. As far as kiddie coasters go, it actually looks pretty legit.
Zach's Zoomer - It's a tiny wooden coaster that is very similar to the old Paramount parks kiddie woodies. It wasn't rough but it also wasn't exciting.
Corkscrew - I'm starting to sound like @Hixee, but I'm getting real sick of the garbage Arrow/Vekoma clones, whether it's a loop screw like this, or a boomerang, or an SLC...just replace all the **** with Sky Rocket II's, Raptors, ****ing Kanonen...hell, put a Visa spinner over its grave for all I care. To be fair, this is one of the better loop screws...up until the restraint clocked me in the jaw as we transitioned out of the last corkscrew. ****.
Wolverine Wildcat - What in the actual **** happened. Wolverine Wildcat was never particularly exciting, but it apparently became one of the roughest wooden coasters in existence. Every single valley was filled with an awful jackhammering. There's a ton of issues with this park, and if Michigan's Adventure or Cedar Fair actually wanted to put some investment into the place, fixing Wolverine Wildcat should probably be at the top of the list ahead of any new addition. I bet GCI could work some wonders on the track with regard to its roughness.
Timbertown Railway - we took the train over to Thunderhawk because why not. There are really only two notable things about this train. Apparently photography while on the ride is prohibited...what?! The thing goes less than five miles per hour...how...why? The other noteworthy item is that all of the foliage has grown tremendously over the past eight years. I have photos from 2010 of Shivering Timbers taken from the back station, but today it's impossible to see Shivering Timbers as the trees and bushes have grown to the part where all of this undeveloped land is looking more like a forest than anything else.
Thunderhawk - eight years ago, the track was red. As you can see in the photos, it is no longer red and it's 100% due to sun load. Despite that, it IS still the best SLC that I've been on. That's not saying a whole lot because it's still an SLC, but at least you're not going to get off with your skull bashed in.
Mad Mouse - Now HERE is the hidden gem. This is one of three operating Arrow mice in the world. A fourth is in storage in South Carolina, and the other two operating are located at California's Great America and Valleyfair. These mice are the best mice - they're very smooth and proportioned such that they aren't super jerky in the turns. Mad Mouse actually gave some legit airtime in the second half, plus it keeps things unique by throwing in a trick track at the end of the ride. If the park does close, I would hope this ride finds a new home, but I'd guess it'd end up at a park outside of Cedar Fair as the only parks without a mouse (or spinner) are Cedar Point and Kings Island. But yeah...it's a legitimately good ride, especially for a mouse.
Shivering Timbers - This is the whole reason to come to Michigan's Adventure...the only reason. I was actually a bit nervous to ride as I was fully expecting a disappointing ride after riding 200+ new coasters since my last lap. Surprisingly, our ride was my best I've ever had on it. There was one small pothole in the first valley, but the rest of the ride was smoother than I remember. The first drop has become quite lame over the past 20 years - it's just a straight 60 degree drop...a standard profile around the time it was built. We're just spoiled with the more modern, parabolic, here's a metric **** ton of airtime drops. The entire run out has shades of Voyage as the hills provide some solid flojector airtime. The return run provided more airtime than I remember, but don't expect shades of Boulder Dash. They recently replaced the trick track with a small bunny hop which bolstered the amount of airtime on the ride. Now if only the park will do something about the odd downward sloped straight portions of track that are present on two of the drops (watch a POV and you'll understand). Finally, the helix. The ride seemed slower paced as it entered the helix despite running at a decent clip through the return run. I remember the helix finale being almost violent due to its speed and roughness, but that is not the case anymore. It was a fairly gentle mixing bowl before hitting the brakes. It's not The Voyage, nor is it Boulder Dash...but it's good.
Overall Thoughts - Well...they've really let this place go over the past eight years. I noticed one new addition since my last visit...ONE new thing in eight years. The overgrowth in the undeveloped land by the railway is understandable and accepted to a point, but this appeared to be the case throughout the park. I noticed a few close calls with vegetation on both Corkscrew and Thunderhawk, but these weren't cases isolated to those two rides. All throughout the park were signs of general neglect with regard to landscaping...almost as if the park doesn't even have a landscaping department anymore. The park was pretty dead, especially for the Saturday of closing weekend. Despite that, operations were fairly bad. We only had to wait two or three trains for Thunderhawk and Corkscrew, but dispatch times were upwards of five minutes. Each major ride had about half the staff it probably should have had. To be honest, they didn't really NEED more staff nor did they NEED to get trains out faster - we're just spoiled with better dispatch times.
I've recently heard rumors that the park will permanently close soon. While I still think they're a bit baseless, I completely understand why there's talk on the street about it. I've heard that the park's general manager has stated that Michigan's Adventure will not add thrill rides or operate later in the season as a means of avoiding competition with Cedar Point. For the longest time, I've thought that the park was a cash cow because it caters to families in Michigan's northern lower peninsula and the state's entire western shoreline, although apparently this (in my opinion, unreasonable) fear of competing with Cedar Point and just not investing in the park has caused a significant decline in attendance even for locals. We chatted with one employee who stated that he wouldn't be surprised if corporate did away with the park.
The park has a ton of potential to play the small ball game, sort of like what Kentucky Kingdom has been doing, and I wish Cedar Fair would see that. In a perfect world, I could see a free spin or even a sky rocket II or raptor as a good major addition. I can see the park being a good home for a midi-discovery, skywarp...hell, even a Larson Loop. Just add SOMETHING to make the park mildly interesting. But at the very least, the park just needs some TLC and the experience would be drastically better. Get landscaping to clean up the plants, edge the grass, tend to the gardens, and the like. Hire a team to paint the steel coasters because all three need a fresh coat of paint (actually, Corkscrew's track has two different colors on the track, depending on where you look). Finally, contract GCI to take care of the wooden coasters. Wolverine Wildcat really needs some work done to it. Shivering Timbers and Zach's Zoomer don't really NEED any work done to either ride, but they might as well shoot for some constant improvement. I know the park wasn't much even back in the day, but it is sad to see it decline so much in only a few years. If Cedar Fair can successfully keep Kings Island and Cedar Point operating at their capacity, I think they could do the same with Cedar Point and Michigan's Adventure. Let's hope they start soon.
Roadmap:
- Kings Island (late-October)
- Holiday World (late-October)
- Dollywood (mid-November)
- Kokomo's Family Fun Center (maybe this year, maybe next year)
Matt N
CF Legend
Great report, Antinos!
It's a shame that you didn't seem too enamoured with Michigan's Adventure, but I hope you still had a nice day!
I really hope Michigan's Adventure doesn't close, as Shivering Timbers looks like a ride I'd really like to try some day! It kind of looks like a scaled up Megafobia with a touch of Mako thrown in there (due to the out and back layout and apparent abundance of airtime hills), so I reckon I'd really like it! Good to hear it's not too rough, also!
It's a shame that you didn't seem too enamoured with Michigan's Adventure, but I hope you still had a nice day!
I really hope Michigan's Adventure doesn't close, as Shivering Timbers looks like a ride I'd really like to try some day! It kind of looks like a scaled up Megafobia with a touch of Mako thrown in there (due to the out and back layout and apparent abundance of airtime hills), so I reckon I'd really like it! Good to hear it's not too rough, also!
Snoo
The Legend
Matt N
CF Legend
That's great!We had fun alright.
Zek_Teh_Kek
Hyper Poster
Mad Mouse is the best mouse I've been on. The turns get to me and one of the airtime hills is on par with Magnum's airtime hills! Also I didn't really find Wolverine Wildcat that rough, even though I tend to be a bit sensitive to roughness.