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Joe gets his Virginia Swag on: Full PTR

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Strata Poster
Headed to Virginia for a few days, hanging out with Joey's boyfriend, who is a cool bro.

Anywho, let's get to the PTR:

I got stayed up all night to make sure I could leave for the airport at 5:30am for my flight at 10, since I nearly missed it last time.

Always remember where you parked:
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Weird tunnel between concourses...
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No one's there 3 hours ahead of your flight:
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Tiny plane:
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Finally, got to Virginia about noon, waiting for Kyle to get me:
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And I looked like a mess:
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In case you forgot:
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Serious Kyle is driving:
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Hung out with his friend the first day, ate at some restaurant (I didn't like the food...). But she had the coolest neighborhood:
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Afterwards, we got back to his house and watched cops till we slept.

Day 1: Busch Gardens

We got up about 8 or so, and headed out for Busch:
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I must mention...
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...there is...
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...so many...
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...god damn trees.
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Good morning Busch!
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I love how you get to see Apollo as you drive in:
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Soon...soon...
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It just screams "Ride me!"
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Kyle's friends who came along. They're awesome and swag:
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So nice and clean...and I'm not even in the park yet!
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Entrance Plaza, and I'm amazed.
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First ride here? Loch Ness Monster:
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But might as well take a picture of 3 of the 4 awesome coasters there.
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Anywho, right to the ratings! First time in a long time I did something brand new:
Loch Ness Monster
Standard for me is to hate any arrow I touch, with extremely few exceptions. This will make the list of exceptions, as it wasn't extremely rough. Sat in the very last row, so I got some nice pops of airtime from the drops right off the bat. The only rough bits were after the loops, and the loops themselves were very forceful. The whole loops interlocking is weird, but doesn't change how it rides. It does make for a stunning coaster.

Overall, very fun classic. I could ride again if I had a chance, which is more then I can say about any arrow:
7/10

Pictures (Since I won't caption them all):
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Since Mach Tower just opened, we headed that way next:
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...and up these staircases of DOOM:
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And now: Mach Tower
...it's terrible. Likely one of the worst, next to Power Tower. The brakes start halfway down, so the air you do get is short lived.
5/10
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Good loading system though: colored sections over numbers:
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Next up was DarKastle:
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Which was quite awesome, I didn't get many pictures, sadly. It was nice ride.
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Then on to the next coaster: Alpengeist
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This coaster was straight up awesome, mostly due to my first ride being front row. From the first drop to the brakes, it's nothing but intense forces and flips. The layout uses the terrain quite well, even though the cobra roll uses the same area as 2 other coasters. Speaking of, holy hell that cobra was intense. Everything about the coaster was done smooth and excellent. Possibly my favorite invert:
9/10

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Next on the list was one on my "I have to ride this" list: Griffon
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I came on the ride with very high expectations. And it filled all of them. Riding Front row and second on the left on the outside, I got to face straight down with only my harness holding me from going down. And only 2 words I could say, and loudly: Holy ****. I've down straight up, down, and beyond vertical. But this tops them all by far. Nothing has scared me as much as this. And once that holding brake let go, I was taken on a forceful flip, another vertical drop, another flip, and got a bit of airtime. Nothing about this coaster was bad, and made it somewhere on my top ten list:
10/10

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We ventured through Ireland (more on that in a bit):
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And rode Europe in the Air. Or, as they like to call it: Screensaver the ride. I couldn't agree more. It wasn't fun at all, and nothing was good about it. It actually hurt.
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Across the tacky bridge:
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...really tacky...
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We got to Escape from Pompeii.
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This was by no means bad. Just not my cup of cream. I really don't like water rides, and hate walking around wet. It was well themed at the very least.
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One walk later, we find ourselves crossing a bridge...
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...onto Apollo's Chariot
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This is definitely one of the best hypers I've been on in a long while, made better by NO WAIT. Bringing up the rear, each crest of every hill got a lovely whip on ejection. The helix was fun as hell and got some kick to it. Lots of fun, even if you accidentally staple yourself...

Overall, excellent coaster. If not Top Ten, somewhere in the top 15.
10/10

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The lot of us head more into Italy:
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Which had these cool statue...things...
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And had some of the best food in a long time:
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And had a fun show to boot!
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We passed over a bridge:
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And saw the remains of Big Bad Wolf, which was sad:
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Had a venture on the river cruise thing (I can't spell the river), which was very nice and relaxing, giving us a break from the coasters, and gave me the shots of Apollo:
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And Deer. There were deer.
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Still wanting to relax, we saw a Celtic show...that was actually kick ass:
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Yeah, we're men and such.
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And then, Kyle and them wanted to get a beer sampler. I passed on it, knowing what alcohol does to me. Beer-glass-ception:
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Took another ride on Griffon, this time in the back with airtime galore!
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Another walk over to Apollo's Chariot:
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We started heading home:
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In summary, Busch is now my favorite park in terms of general appearance. Everything was clean and beautiful, and the rides were either good or excellent. I'll have to come back sometime and ride their new coaster (which better be amazing!)

Ride count:
Alpengeist: 2
Apollo's Chariot: 2
Griffon: 2
Loch Ness Monster: 1
DarKastle: 1
Europe in the air: 1
River Cruise: 1

Kings Dominion tomorrow!
 

tomahawk

Strata Poster
Re: Joe gets his Virginia Swag on (Day 0 and 1)

I thought Mach Tower was supposed to be partially enclosed...or did I just completely misunderstand the ride? Regardless Busch is probably top 5 park I wanna go to before I die, and those pictures fuel that desire even more. Looks absolutely beautiful there.
 

bizarrofan10

Hyper Poster
Re: Joe gets his Virginia Swag on (Day 0 and 1)

Great trip report Joe!

Correct me if I'm wrong, but GBE has more than four coasters correct?
 

Error

Strata Poster
Re: Joe gets his Virginia Swag on (Day 0 and 1)

bizarrofan10 said:
Correct me if I'm wrong, but GBE has more than four coasters correct?

5, there's Grover too, but I skipped it.

Had a great day at Kings Dominion, I'll do the photos tomorrow since I'm tired.
 

Snoo

The Legend
Re: Joe gets his Virginia Swag on (Day 0 and 1)

If you missed 305.. I'm disowning you as a friend.
 

Error

Strata Poster
Re: Joe gets his Virginia Swag on (Day 0 and 1)

My brother, what's my favorite coaster?
 

Jer

Strata Poster
Re: Joe gets his Virginia Swag on (Day 0 and 1)

Excellent TR Joe, good to see there was no wait for Apollo's Chariot, but how were the waits in the rest of the park just out of curiosity.
 

Error

Strata Poster
Re: Joe gets his Virginia Swag on (Day 0 and 1)

Jer said:
Excellent TR Joe, good to see there was no wait for Apollo's Chariot, but how were the waits in the rest of the park just out of curiosity.

Minus waiting for front on Alpengeist and Griffon, the longest I had was the second time on Alpengeist, which was 15-20 minutes.

Day 2: Kings Dominion

Unlike yesterday, where we got at the park about 10:30, we got up to leave at about 11.

Kyle has a very nice house:
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...MORE TREES.
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...and a giant part of a bridge?
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We stopped for Lunch at this arby's...or as he called it: the church of arby's
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Christ died for you ham sandwich:
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One short drive later (I use short very loosey, seeing as all parks are 2+ hours from me), we got to Kings Dominion:
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Parking lot pictures!
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Flags at half mast...wonder why:
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The only things similar with Kings Dominion and Kings island are the towers and a similar plaza. Nothing else:
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I SWEAR THEY'RE EVERYWHERE
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We were waiting for some friends to show up, so we headed up to the eiffel tower so I could get some pictures:
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Heading back down, and still no friend to be found, we headed over to the closest coaster:
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Dominator!
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This was my first true floorless coaster, and apparently I got the best first. Back of the train, I got to feel a lot of the heavy forces for every inversion and turn. For some reason, the wind on this one mind my eyes water a lot. Even so, it was a great layout with lots of surprises and turns!
9/10

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Always support that which supports what you love:
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Kings Dominion had more scenery to it than Kings Island, like this waterfall:
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We headed for White Water Canyon, which closed as we sat down (I'm actually glad, I hate being soaked):
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Venturing a bit further down, we found this old, rare gem:
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Oh god it was fun!
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Next was Grizzly, right across the way. I couldn't get any good pictures of it. It was rough but had airtime, so about a 6/10 or so:
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After one pain with pleasure, was followed quickly by one that was just pain:
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All it did was just shake, and we got front row, supposedly the best seats! Barely any airtime, not doing it again.
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No me guesta:
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And right next to that was the last wooden coaster: Rebel Yell:
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It wasn't anything to write home about, I'd much rather do racer, so about a 5/10. Did get a nice picture:
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Next was...oh god...
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Shockwave, or as I'd like to call it: Regret: the ride!
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My very carefully selected choice words for my first togo: Ow, Ow, Ow, **** OW. The loading and unloading took ages, the seats hurt when I WASN'T moving, and it just got worse. Lift hill was slow so they could delay the pain to come, every hill and turn SNAPPED, and even the loop hurt me so much. Never again, bottom coaster.
1/10

Did get nice pictures of it so I'd never have to again:
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Clever system. Still didn't work.
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We headed down the way over to the volcano area:
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...which had two signs...
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And in the same area as volcano...for some reason...was avalanche. It was a fun family coaster. Nothing bad or rough, just simple fun:
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Then onto Volcano:
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We waited for the front row seat, which broke down as we sat down to ride. Eventally we left to ride Timmy and Flight of Fear, but more on that soon. We did come back to ride it again, getting second row. It was a blast, with the launches being intense and forceful. The rolls were slower than I thought they'd be, but that just made them have some serious airtime. My biggest complaint, and why it didn't rank higher on my list, was that it was short. You get a 75 ft drop right into brakes. It would have been awesome to use that potential energy for a nice cobra roll or loop hidden there, but I digress. In short, it was a great ride for the park, and would have been my favorite there.
9/10

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Since Volcano broke down, we left the line to ride Intimadator 305:
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I've heard some horror stories about this ride. Blacking out, painful twists, even no airtime. That likely explains how they could get away with running a giga coaster with just one train and still have a 15 minute wait. We opted for the last row, and I got to enjoy the new style of harness. I honestly hope they use it more, since it is extremely comfy. It's like having a fat guy hug you from behind! Onto the ride:

Holy **** it was amazing. It booked up the first hill about twice as fast as Millennium Force, cresting over the top and throwing me up into my harness as it dived down into the turn. That first turn was extremely forceful, even after being modified. I didn't black out, but did get a little grayed. The train soared on up over the first hill, throwing me back up into my seat. And that's pretty much how it went: forceful turn, airtime, repeat. Even the places I didn't expect airtime, like the s turns, I got ejection. There was no slowing down from drop to brakes. As with Volcano, I wish it was longer. But what it does have is enough to kick maverick out of it's 4 year thorn.
10/10, and new #1.

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Next door was Flight of Fear (no pictures), which was on par with Kings Island. I didn't consider it any worse or better, though a little rough, but likely due to being in the back.

After finally getting Volcano, we headed towards the exit, me getting a solo ride on Dominator in the middle.

Overall, Kings Dominion is a nice park, with a good selection of rides and some lovely appear. It's not as beautiful as Busch Gardens, and it's areas aren't well thought out (Backlot, Flight of Fear, Anaconda, and Intimadator 305 in the same area? No connection!).

Ride count:
Dominator: 2
Intimadator 305: 1
Flight of Fear: 1
Volcano: 1
Grizzly: 1
Hurler: 1
Rebel Yell: 1
Flying Eagles: 1
Avalanche: 1
Shockwave: 1 regret.

Top 20:
1: Intimadator 305
2: Maverick
3: Diamondback
4: Ravine Flyer II
5: Griffon
6: Beast
7: Apollo's Chariot
8: Shivering Timbers
9: Alpengeist
10: Dominator

11: Goliath
12: Magnum XL 200
13: Millennium Force
14: Batman: The Ride
15: Great American Scream Machine:
16: Georgi Scorcher
17: Volcano
18: Expedition Everest
19: Raptor
20: Flight of Fear
 

tomahawk

Strata Poster
I find it so funny people when people are shocked about how many trees are different places, even if your reaction isn't shock so to say, but I mean when I lived in Cali, and every tree hugger acted as if trimming a tree back was worthy of the death penalty, they didn't realize, or didn't care to notice, that the entire east coast is one giant **** forest. I absolutely love it.

Again, you make me want to go to Virginia to go to epic parks. I'm still convinced I-305 is meh as well as Boulderdash, because I don't want to get Millennium Force goggles and think it was enjoyable, but meh.
 

Snoo

The Legend
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FOREST of trees.. tell ya what. :p

Also.. it's spelled 'Boulder Dash'. You shall RESPECT it's greatness.
 

Hixee

Flojector
Staff member
Administrator
Moderator
Social Media Team
I can't stop reading this as "Joe gets his Vagina Shag on" :lol:

Looks like you're having a good trip though, but you're giving me park-visit envy! :D
 
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