"Shuckin' Escapade" | USA CF-Live | Trip Reports
- Thread starter Snoo
- Start date
LiveForTheLaunch
CF Legend
Voyage was the best coaster but RFII at night was the best ride with all of us!
Right, so it’s finally time for me to post my trip reports. I’m going to post them in four posts. The first one will have everything up to Kings Island, the first day of the Live, the second and third will cover the Live itself and the last one will cover everything we did after the Live. Hopefully this’ll make things a little easier for me and you when writing and reading this respectively. All the photos have been selected from my Facebook albums (don’t worry about there almost 400, I’m not using all of them). I’m also going to try and keep them short, I’m not very good at writing these things, I just feel like I should. So, without further ado, I happily present “There and back Again, A Tale by Hixee - USA 2010”.
Part 1 – Pre-Live Add-On
Day 1 – Sunday 25 July
I arrived at Heathrow T5 after a fairly painless drive from Bristol. Shortly after arriving I got a call from Brad and we met each other, Brad said his goodbyes and we realised were too early for check-in. After grabbing some food and a drink we checked in, Brad went berserk on the duty free and I read a bit of my book. This was all quite boring really, but then we noticed the assortment of vehicles going past the window. This easily killed the remaining hour and soon we were on our flight. At opposite ends of the plane with both had different luxuries. I had the leg-room, Brad had the reclining. The flight was good, but nothing special and we arrived in the evening at Newark. Jerry met us at arrivals, thanks to a perfect piece of timing from Gavin’s late flight, and we headed to Jerry’s. We drank a couple of beers, ate some cheese and chatted for a while, then went to bed.
Day 2 – Monday 26 July
Our first day of coasters! We got up early and made our way to Six Flags Great Adventure. Brad and I got our Play Passes sorted whilst Jerry went to get a Flashpass. It turns out that this clever little gizmo saved the day! Due to the retarded policy that Six Flags have, with not placing any bins on any of the rides, and me being a stingy bugger, I didn’t bother with my camera this day. So you’ve just got some paragraphs to ready through!
We eagerly headed for El Toro and didn’t have to queue that long, even though the ride did break down once. What can I say about this ride? After the first ride alone it was straight to my #1. I knew it was going to be forceful, but my god it was intense! It also contains my second favourite element of the trip (see Worlds of Fun for the first), the Insane Ejector Hill. After this, we headed over to Kingda Ka. Brad and I boarded first, in the second train, and it would be fair to say we were ****ting ourselves. This first ride on Kingda Ka was only ride on the whole trip where I was genuinely uncomfortable sitting on the ride. And then it launched.
I’ve never said as many swear words in ten seconds. It was great. We re-rode straight away (thanks to the Flashpass), however the magic of it had worn off slightly. Kingda Ka is very much a ‘one-trick-pony’. Still, it’s a bloody good trick! After that I’ve forgotten slightly the order of things, but we rode Nitro a few times, which I was impressed with, Batman and Bizzaro as well as tidying off all the other coasters around the park. After dark we whored up El Toro for a bit more, again utilising the Flashpass, until the park shut at 10pm. On the way home we stopped at a quirky little Mexican restaurant on the side of the road and had a fairly good meal. We headed home and straight to bed, we were shattered! Overall it was a great day and it was fair to say we’d started the trip in style!
Day 3 – Tuesday 27 July
Today was Dorney Park & Wildwater Kingdom and Knoebels Amusement Park and Resort.
We got up bright and early and packed up all our stuff because we wouldn’t be back at Jerry’s for a while! We arrived at Dorney Park, Brad and I got our Platinum Passes, and we headed straight for the Wild Mouse. I don’t really need to describe much about this ride, you guys all know what they do! Next up was Talon:
I really liked it! The layout was fun, it was forceful and the little pops of airtime were a rare treat on an invert. It’s also a nice colour!
Next up was Possessed (well, that’s not strictly true. We did Woodstock Express, the kiddie ride, on the way):
Whilst it was fun, I wasn’t a huge fan. The launch was cool, felt more like a car's acceleration than a coaster's, but I didn’t really like the holding brake on the second spike. It just stopped the flow of the ride too much.
Next up was:
It was basically a walk-on. I was expecting a Pepsi Max Big One, thankfully it wasn’t. I liked the hills, the turnaround was fun and overall it was a good coaster.
We did the woodie next, which was nothing special, then went on to Demon Drop. I was dreading this. It looked like some contraption out of Saw, and felt like one too. I was dreading the drop, but worst of all the mechanism to get the cars back upright. Overall the whole thing was vile.
Next up was Hydra:
For some reason this ride had always interested me. It just looked really fun. Nothing intense, nothing super thrilling, but a good fun ride. It was.
Brad didn’t rate Hydra very highly at all, but I really enjoyed it. Gavin and I went to try out the back row too. The first drop was better, but the rest of the ride wasn’t significantly better in the back and didn’t make up for the loss in view. After this, we headed back to Talon for another re-ride and headed out of the park towards Knoebels.
We arrived in the sweltering heat at Knoebels. I liked the old, quirky feel of Knoebels from the second we walked in.
We headed for Twister first, past Flying Turns
. My god does it look sexy though! I cannot wait to see this ride up and running. Anyway, onto Twister:
It was an extremely strange ride, with a really annoying lift hill set-up and no feeling of planning at all. It was a bit rough, but it was manageable and overall the ride was fine.
Next up was Phoenix! This ride was such a shock. Jerry was extremely excited about the airtime and personally I thought he was losing the plot slightly, however as soon as the front of the train crested the first hill I could see why he loved it so much! The airtime was fantastic! It’s one of the very few rides that would actually throw you from it if it weren’t for the restraints.
After getting the kiddie credit, the haunted house and re-riding Phoenix we were ready to leave. We drove all the way up towards Marcus’ house and met Taylor and Marcus for the first time! This was great and it was made so much better by Taylor freaking out at me ‘being’ deaf. I got to chat to Marcus a bit before he went back home, and we all went off to bed, knowing that we had a very early start the next morning.
So that was the end to our pre-Live add-on, we’d already ridden some fantastic coasters, I’d met some great people and none of us could wait to meet the others for the start of the Live.
Part 2 – Coming soon!
Part 1 – Pre-Live Add-On
Day 1 – Sunday 25 July
I arrived at Heathrow T5 after a fairly painless drive from Bristol. Shortly after arriving I got a call from Brad and we met each other, Brad said his goodbyes and we realised were too early for check-in. After grabbing some food and a drink we checked in, Brad went berserk on the duty free and I read a bit of my book. This was all quite boring really, but then we noticed the assortment of vehicles going past the window. This easily killed the remaining hour and soon we were on our flight. At opposite ends of the plane with both had different luxuries. I had the leg-room, Brad had the reclining. The flight was good, but nothing special and we arrived in the evening at Newark. Jerry met us at arrivals, thanks to a perfect piece of timing from Gavin’s late flight, and we headed to Jerry’s. We drank a couple of beers, ate some cheese and chatted for a while, then went to bed.
Day 2 – Monday 26 July
Our first day of coasters! We got up early and made our way to Six Flags Great Adventure. Brad and I got our Play Passes sorted whilst Jerry went to get a Flashpass. It turns out that this clever little gizmo saved the day! Due to the retarded policy that Six Flags have, with not placing any bins on any of the rides, and me being a stingy bugger, I didn’t bother with my camera this day. So you’ve just got some paragraphs to ready through!
We eagerly headed for El Toro and didn’t have to queue that long, even though the ride did break down once. What can I say about this ride? After the first ride alone it was straight to my #1. I knew it was going to be forceful, but my god it was intense! It also contains my second favourite element of the trip (see Worlds of Fun for the first), the Insane Ejector Hill. After this, we headed over to Kingda Ka. Brad and I boarded first, in the second train, and it would be fair to say we were ****ting ourselves. This first ride on Kingda Ka was only ride on the whole trip where I was genuinely uncomfortable sitting on the ride. And then it launched.
I’ve never said as many swear words in ten seconds. It was great. We re-rode straight away (thanks to the Flashpass), however the magic of it had worn off slightly. Kingda Ka is very much a ‘one-trick-pony’. Still, it’s a bloody good trick! After that I’ve forgotten slightly the order of things, but we rode Nitro a few times, which I was impressed with, Batman and Bizzaro as well as tidying off all the other coasters around the park. After dark we whored up El Toro for a bit more, again utilising the Flashpass, until the park shut at 10pm. On the way home we stopped at a quirky little Mexican restaurant on the side of the road and had a fairly good meal. We headed home and straight to bed, we were shattered! Overall it was a great day and it was fair to say we’d started the trip in style!
Day 3 – Tuesday 27 July
Today was Dorney Park & Wildwater Kingdom and Knoebels Amusement Park and Resort.
We got up bright and early and packed up all our stuff because we wouldn’t be back at Jerry’s for a while! We arrived at Dorney Park, Brad and I got our Platinum Passes, and we headed straight for the Wild Mouse. I don’t really need to describe much about this ride, you guys all know what they do! Next up was Talon:
I really liked it! The layout was fun, it was forceful and the little pops of airtime were a rare treat on an invert. It’s also a nice colour!
Next up was Possessed (well, that’s not strictly true. We did Woodstock Express, the kiddie ride, on the way):
Whilst it was fun, I wasn’t a huge fan. The launch was cool, felt more like a car's acceleration than a coaster's, but I didn’t really like the holding brake on the second spike. It just stopped the flow of the ride too much.
Next up was:
It was basically a walk-on. I was expecting a Pepsi Max Big One, thankfully it wasn’t. I liked the hills, the turnaround was fun and overall it was a good coaster.
We did the woodie next, which was nothing special, then went on to Demon Drop. I was dreading this. It looked like some contraption out of Saw, and felt like one too. I was dreading the drop, but worst of all the mechanism to get the cars back upright. Overall the whole thing was vile.
Next up was Hydra:
For some reason this ride had always interested me. It just looked really fun. Nothing intense, nothing super thrilling, but a good fun ride. It was.
Brad didn’t rate Hydra very highly at all, but I really enjoyed it. Gavin and I went to try out the back row too. The first drop was better, but the rest of the ride wasn’t significantly better in the back and didn’t make up for the loss in view. After this, we headed back to Talon for another re-ride and headed out of the park towards Knoebels.
We arrived in the sweltering heat at Knoebels. I liked the old, quirky feel of Knoebels from the second we walked in.
We headed for Twister first, past Flying Turns
. My god does it look sexy though! I cannot wait to see this ride up and running. Anyway, onto Twister:
It was an extremely strange ride, with a really annoying lift hill set-up and no feeling of planning at all. It was a bit rough, but it was manageable and overall the ride was fine.
Next up was Phoenix! This ride was such a shock. Jerry was extremely excited about the airtime and personally I thought he was losing the plot slightly, however as soon as the front of the train crested the first hill I could see why he loved it so much! The airtime was fantastic! It’s one of the very few rides that would actually throw you from it if it weren’t for the restraints.
After getting the kiddie credit, the haunted house and re-riding Phoenix we were ready to leave. We drove all the way up towards Marcus’ house and met Taylor and Marcus for the first time! This was great and it was made so much better by Taylor freaking out at me ‘being’ deaf. I got to chat to Marcus a bit before he went back home, and we all went off to bed, knowing that we had a very early start the next morning.
So that was the end to our pre-Live add-on, we’d already ridden some fantastic coasters, I’d met some great people and none of us could wait to meet the others for the start of the Live.
Part 2 – Coming soon!
LiveForTheLaunch
CF Legend
Yay, I love the report and you actually have good pictures, unlike SOME people, not naming names . Your report is fab too and I like seeing your insight as to which coasters you thought were good and whatnot. Surprised you liked Hydra, since everyone else pretty much hates it, but Demon Drop, although scary, is a fab ride!
PS- Yah, the initial meet was made AWESOME by the fact that I thought you were deaf. Talk about stressing out. You weren't even in my room that night, so you couldn't see how much I was like, freaking over the fact that I didn't know how to interact with you.
. Your report is fab too and I like seeing your insight as to which coasters you thought were good and whatnot. Surprised you liked Hydra, since everyone else pretty much hates it, but Demon Drop, although scary, is a fab ride!PS- Yah, the initial meet was made AWESOME by the fact that I thought you were deaf. Talk about stressing out. You weren't even in my room that night, so you couldn't see how much I was like, freaking over the fact that I didn't know how to interact with you.
LiveForTheLaunch
CF Legend
Haha ohh you sly dogs
. I would not shut up about it like, all night </3 Or at least til like 1:30 in the morning or so.I'd probably agree with you about Hydra because well, Brad's opinions.. </3
LiveForTheLaunch
CF Legend
^ Haha, at the rate that Flying Turns is going, I wouldn't be surprised .
.
tomahawk
Strata Poster
Water Fountain POV was probably best part. Did I hear a call out to me? I am convinced I will be partaking in live next summer, and I think I have convinced my girlfriend to come along as well, depending on where and when it is. Still waiting to see pictures of me plowing the backside of that gorilla like a champ. If someone can photo shop me with a 70's porno mustache that probably would make it even better!
LiveForTheLaunch
CF Legend
^ Haha! Yes, Jerry gave you a personal shoutout, as we spent the whole day crying that you weren't there, obviously .
.
LiveForTheLaunch
CF Legend
Yah but I am amazing. Tom is not
.Aw jk, you're fab Tom!