"Shuckin' Escapade" | USA CF-Live | Trip Reports
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Can anyone remember which night was the night with the ridiculously hot jacuzzi? I can't really remember which parks we did before or after it!
I seem to think it was the night between Silver Dollar City and Six Flags St. Louis, but I honestly don't remember!
I seem to think it was the night between Silver Dollar City and Six Flags St. Louis, but I honestly don't remember!
Time for the first of the two parts of my Live trip reports. You bitches better be ready!
Part 2 – “Shuckin’ Escapade” USA-Live (1)
Day 4 – Wednesday 28 July (Live Day 1)
Finally the first day of the Live was upon us, and we’d be spending it at Kings Island. We got up and left the hotel very early, after all we did have a four hour drive! We got to the park nice and early, ready for our ERT before the rest of the guests arrived. Marc and Athena arrived shortly after us, so it was great seeing them for the first time, even though I couldn’t talk much because of Taylor! We headed straight for this:
Now I loved Diamondback! I thought it was fantastic. I really like Nitro, but this was just so much better for me. Jerry and I headed for the back-row first, and I thought the airtime was brilliant. I was out of my seat for the whole crest and most of the way down the drop on every hill. It was nothing like El Toro’s airtime, but it was really really fun. I know Brad really disliked it, but I have no idea why!
It’s curves are almost as sexy as Marc’s:
It’s inside itself:
We rode it several times during the ERT and then met up with Kevin, Ben, Laurel and Matt. We headed over to Beast next, with Taylor managing to make an arse of herself asking me to ride with her! Beast was fun just because of its size. It feels like you’re on the coaster for ages (that’s not helped by the slow lift hill) but it’s nothing special in terms of forces. It was the night riding that made it.
Next we wandered over to Firehawk:
Yeah, Vekoma aren’t very good at making flyers. The layout was ok, and it wasn’t that rough, but the large spines in the back of the seat were just pointlessly uncomfortable. They should leave it to B&M. Oh, and it also stole Marc’s wallet!
I love this sign:
We then headed round and rode Adventure Express, which was brilliant. Definitely one of the oddest and most poorly thought through coasters of the trip, making it epic! I won’t ruin it for anyone who doesn’t know, just go ride it! I forget the order of the rides next, but we rode Invertigo, Delirium and Drop Tower. Again, they were all fairly average I thought. We then did Flight Deck, which was far too short, and another ride probably. It was around this point in the day when I finally revealed to Taylor that I wasn’t actually deaf and it was a big prank on her. She was not impressed, but she was a little bit happy that she could finally talk to me! It was great seeing the look on her face as I told her I wasn’t deaf in front of the whole group!
We ate lunch at Panda Express at some point. The food was ok, but I found it all a bit too sweet and sickly for my liking, but it was nice enough. Also at some point Taylor, Brad and Marcus headed back to the cars for a sleep! I can’t remember exactly what we did while they were sleeping, but we didn’t do any new credits. However we did head to the Eiffel Tower:
It does give some very nice views of the park:
I’ve got a bit muddled with the day now, but I know we rode the Racer(s) at some point with the Blue side being my 100th coaster. They’re actually surprisingly fun, but it is a shame how the outcome of the race is almost always the same. We tidied up all the credits, including this for Brad:
We re-rode Diamondback a couple of times waiting for darkness, then headed over to Beast for the night rides:
It’s incredible how much better this ride gets at night. I’m not exaggerating when I say that most of the time you cannot see more than 10ft in front of you. It was so exhilarating, even more so because I still had no real idea of the layout. It was so much fun.
Overall I really liked Kings Island, it had a nice selection of rides, a nice atmosphere and I generally had a really nice day there. At the end of the day we said our goodbyes to Kevin, Ben and Laurel and luckily picked up Marc’s wallet from ‘Lost and Found’. We said our goodbyes to Matt and went on our way to the first hotel of the Live. We arrived around midnight, inspected a Praying Mantis and then went to bed. Sadly all of the nights in the hotels have merged into one, so I can’t remember anything special from any of the nights (except maybe the swimming pool night).
Day 5 – Thursday 29 July (Live Day 2)
Today was Holiday World and the world famous, Voyage! We arrived at the park at a reasonable time and headed straight for Voyage.
We opted for the back row and soon we were on our way. Now I thought the first three hills were quite average, there was a bit of airtime, but nothing special. It was the turnaround and the return trip that made it so good. It’s got a turnaround and return trip that a steel coaster should have, not a woodie (I guess technically it’s a hybrid, but blah!).
The first time I think I had it in my top 15, but after another re-ride later in the day it made it to #4. I loved the triple down after the MCBR and all the twisting, fast and airtime filled corners. It was very impressive.
Next up was Legend:
I think the designers of this ride just forgot about banking halfway through some of the corners. The first drop reminded me a lot of Megafobia, but after that it was nothing like it! It had a couple of fun little bits of airtime and one fairly large pop, but the corners and bowls were just ridiculous!
Next we went over to Raven. This coaster was good, just too short.
It felt like it picked up the speed and the pacing, did an amazing little turn over the water, then just ran out of track. It was fun though. After Raven we got the kiddie credit with the most ridiculous name ever, Howler. Then it was a quick ride on the swings, with no snapping
, and back towards Voyage. We decided have a go on Gobbler Getaway. At least it was different! Next up was:
This was just a very large, fairly fast, eight person waterslide. We did have fun though, as we filled the train, so could cause havoc with the splashing! We all got off it fairly wet, so headed for lunch. The food was good, but the nicest thing was just sitting in the sun, chilling out and drying off. We got one last re-ride on Voyage before heading off to the hotel.
Overall I really liked Holiday World. The concept was very nice, and different, but it felt slightly that bits of the park just didn’t fit together well. This is probably just because I don’t know all that much about American holidays and their histories, but the park was nice. The free soda was also a very nice perk at the park, and gave it the more personal feel in the sense of being able to suit yourself.
Day 6 – Friday 30 July (Live Day 3)
World’s of Fun was the first new park for everyone on the trip. A lot of the guys that were on the previous Live were worried this park was going to like the now infamous Carowinds. Thankfully I think there were pleasantly surprised! We arrived and met Tom whilst we were waiting to go in. I thought it was great of him to show up, not really knowing any of us, on his own, to enjoy the day at the park. He was our ‘guide’ round the park, and even showed us where to eat later on in the day (more of that later). Overall, a real good egg!
First up was Prowler:
Obviously, this early in the day the park’s premiere attraction was very busy:
Prowler was great! It was my first GCI coaster and I enjoyed it a lot. I thought the pacing was fantastic and the airtime was surprisingly good too. Personally I preferred it in the front. I preferred having the airtime through the transitions instead of after. The four last pops of airtime were great too, especially when we perfected giving ourselves plenty of room in the restraints.
Next up was Spinning Dragons. Another first for me, however it was let down by the queue with no shade. It was ridiculously hot and everyone was sweating streams and was extremely uncomfortable. Anyway, the ride was ok, but I think I prefer facing outwards like on the Maurer Sohne spinners.
Finally it was time for Patriot!
Without question the most photogenic coaster of the trip:
It was also a massive surprise. I’d heard nothing but below average reviews of it, people saying it was forceless and boring. I disagreed with this, I thought the ride was very good. The first drop and loop were ok, but the zero-g-roll… oh my god that was good!
This was the only zero-g-roll I’ve ever done that actually was completely weightless and completely smooth all the way though. It was incredible. There wasn’t the feeling of being slammed through the inversion or anything, it was fantastic. Did I mention how sexy it looks?
Oh please, just let us have more:
I could have taken pictures of Patriot all day long:
The best views were from the Ferris Wheel:
Anyway, enough of that. Patriot was brilliant, but we did ride some other stuff as well! It was around this point that Gavin’s friend, her name escapes me, arrived. She was very chatty and actually quite funny too! Again, it was nice to just have other people tagging along, even if they weren’t enthusiasts. I seem to remember we rode the woodie next, which was highly average, and then we went over to Mamba:
It wasn’t quite as good as Steel Force at Dorney. I think this was mainly due to the turnaround. Even though Mamba has some sweet supports on the helix, it just didn’t feel as fast and as fun as the turnaround on Steel Force. The ride was fun though, so much so that Gavin and I (and maybe Marc as well, I can’t remember) went for a re-ride in the back row. We finally got all the credits on the Boomerang, then went for re-rides on Patriot and Prowler.
Tom also found a kinky looking Gorilla:
Overall World’s of Fun was a big surprise. I wasn’t expecting much, from the park or the coasters, but I was pleasantly surprised. They had a good line up of good coasters and the atmosphere of the park felt nice and overall it was fun. Even if the heat was incredible!
So when we were done at the park, Tom recommended ‘Jack Stacks BBQ’ as a good place to go and eat. Oh lord it was good! I ordered pork, sausage and beef I think, all smothered in the most amazing BBQ sauce. We all sat round a massive table, ate some amazing food and generally had a great time. We couldn’t thank Tom enough! After eating we said our goodbyes to Tom, and headed on to our hotel and the Jacuzzi!
We arrived at the hotel to find it overrun with hyperactive little kiddies. We wanted to go in the pool, but not with all the kiddies, so the hotel kept the pool open for another hour, only for us. Our first ERT of the trip! That Jacuzzi was stupidly hot. It took us at least five minutes to lower ourselves into it, and we couldn’t stay in it for too long. I’m fairly sure it was only bubbling because the water was actually boiling. At least the main pool was freezing! We had a great time just chilling in the pool(s) and splashing and being daft. It was surprisingly refreshing. Finally, it was off bed.
Day 7 – Saturday 31 July (Live Day 4)
Time for another new park, Silver Dollar City:
We went in and headed straight for the kiddie credit. It was fairly standard, but at least Jerry enjoyed it!
Next up was Thunderation, which was great. It reminded me slightly of Adventure Express at Kings Island, with the drop straight out of the station. The backwards cars were cool and the layout wasn’t bad actually, with plenty of speed, a bit of airtime and some nice helices. Overall one of the better mine trains I thought and it really used the terrain well.
I think we rode Wildfire next:
Again, another interesting ride. It used the terrain well, and it felt like it was something different. It didn’t seem to be just inversion after inversion, and the trains were also quite cool, being more like B&M’s hyper-coaster trains. I also really liked the low level turns:
Sadly there was a harsh trim before the Cobra Roll, but it didn’t feel like it ruined the ride.
So overall I think we were quite impressed by Wildfire. We decided to have a break by this really nice waterfall. See Taylor, some of the pictures did work out!
Next was Powder Keg, another fairly unique coaster.
It had a cool little bit of transfer track, a fairly nice launch and a decent enough layout. The lift hill towards the end did feel like it killed the flow a bit, but again, this ride used the hilly terrain well.
It also had this sign, which entertained me:
We ate lunch at some point, which was a mistake in itself! The restaurant was seriously vile. The food was average, the atmosphere was awful and it generally felt horrible. Gavin was the least impressed, so at least he kept our spirits up with funny little comments. Anyway, after lunch I think we went to ride Fire in the Hole, which was extremely bizarre, but quite fun. Brad was not impressed when he found out it had a water splash! So we’d got all the credits, re-rode Thunderation, Wildfire and Powder Keg, tried out the dark shooter, and headed on to the next hotel.
Overall Silver Dollar City gets a mixed opinion from me. The park layout was awful and very difficult to navigate round and find rides etc, however the rides were quite good and the park felt quite nice. The food was dreadful, but the park maps were cool too. It was ok, but I wouldn’t be in any rush to go back!
So here endeth the lesson. Part 3 coming very soon!
Part 2 – “Shuckin’ Escapade” USA-Live (1)
Day 4 – Wednesday 28 July (Live Day 1)
Finally the first day of the Live was upon us, and we’d be spending it at Kings Island. We got up and left the hotel very early, after all we did have a four hour drive! We got to the park nice and early, ready for our ERT before the rest of the guests arrived. Marc and Athena arrived shortly after us, so it was great seeing them for the first time, even though I couldn’t talk much because of Taylor! We headed straight for this:
Now I loved Diamondback! I thought it was fantastic. I really like Nitro, but this was just so much better for me. Jerry and I headed for the back-row first, and I thought the airtime was brilliant. I was out of my seat for the whole crest and most of the way down the drop on every hill. It was nothing like El Toro’s airtime, but it was really really fun. I know Brad really disliked it, but I have no idea why!
It’s curves are almost as sexy as Marc’s:
It’s inside itself:
We rode it several times during the ERT and then met up with Kevin, Ben, Laurel and Matt. We headed over to Beast next, with Taylor managing to make an arse of herself asking me to ride with her! Beast was fun just because of its size. It feels like you’re on the coaster for ages (that’s not helped by the slow lift hill) but it’s nothing special in terms of forces. It was the night riding that made it.
Next we wandered over to Firehawk:
Yeah, Vekoma aren’t very good at making flyers. The layout was ok, and it wasn’t that rough, but the large spines in the back of the seat were just pointlessly uncomfortable. They should leave it to B&M. Oh, and it also stole Marc’s wallet!
I love this sign:
We then headed round and rode Adventure Express, which was brilliant. Definitely one of the oddest and most poorly thought through coasters of the trip, making it epic! I won’t ruin it for anyone who doesn’t know, just go ride it! I forget the order of the rides next, but we rode Invertigo, Delirium and Drop Tower. Again, they were all fairly average I thought. We then did Flight Deck, which was far too short, and another ride probably. It was around this point in the day when I finally revealed to Taylor that I wasn’t actually deaf and it was a big prank on her. She was not impressed, but she was a little bit happy that she could finally talk to me! It was great seeing the look on her face as I told her I wasn’t deaf in front of the whole group!
We ate lunch at Panda Express at some point. The food was ok, but I found it all a bit too sweet and sickly for my liking, but it was nice enough. Also at some point Taylor, Brad and Marcus headed back to the cars for a sleep! I can’t remember exactly what we did while they were sleeping, but we didn’t do any new credits. However we did head to the Eiffel Tower:
It does give some very nice views of the park:
I’ve got a bit muddled with the day now, but I know we rode the Racer(s) at some point with the Blue side being my 100th coaster. They’re actually surprisingly fun, but it is a shame how the outcome of the race is almost always the same. We tidied up all the credits, including this for Brad:
We re-rode Diamondback a couple of times waiting for darkness, then headed over to Beast for the night rides:
It’s incredible how much better this ride gets at night. I’m not exaggerating when I say that most of the time you cannot see more than 10ft in front of you. It was so exhilarating, even more so because I still had no real idea of the layout. It was so much fun.
Overall I really liked Kings Island, it had a nice selection of rides, a nice atmosphere and I generally had a really nice day there. At the end of the day we said our goodbyes to Kevin, Ben and Laurel and luckily picked up Marc’s wallet from ‘Lost and Found’. We said our goodbyes to Matt and went on our way to the first hotel of the Live. We arrived around midnight, inspected a Praying Mantis and then went to bed. Sadly all of the nights in the hotels have merged into one, so I can’t remember anything special from any of the nights (except maybe the swimming pool night).
Day 5 – Thursday 29 July (Live Day 2)
Today was Holiday World and the world famous, Voyage! We arrived at the park at a reasonable time and headed straight for Voyage.
We opted for the back row and soon we were on our way. Now I thought the first three hills were quite average, there was a bit of airtime, but nothing special. It was the turnaround and the return trip that made it so good. It’s got a turnaround and return trip that a steel coaster should have, not a woodie (I guess technically it’s a hybrid, but blah!).
The first time I think I had it in my top 15, but after another re-ride later in the day it made it to #4. I loved the triple down after the MCBR and all the twisting, fast and airtime filled corners. It was very impressive.
Next up was Legend:
I think the designers of this ride just forgot about banking halfway through some of the corners. The first drop reminded me a lot of Megafobia, but after that it was nothing like it! It had a couple of fun little bits of airtime and one fairly large pop, but the corners and bowls were just ridiculous!
Next we went over to Raven. This coaster was good, just too short.
It felt like it picked up the speed and the pacing, did an amazing little turn over the water, then just ran out of track. It was fun though. After Raven we got the kiddie credit with the most ridiculous name ever, Howler. Then it was a quick ride on the swings, with no snapping
, and back towards Voyage. We decided have a go on Gobbler Getaway. At least it was different! Next up was:
This was just a very large, fairly fast, eight person waterslide. We did have fun though, as we filled the train, so could cause havoc with the splashing! We all got off it fairly wet, so headed for lunch. The food was good, but the nicest thing was just sitting in the sun, chilling out and drying off. We got one last re-ride on Voyage before heading off to the hotel.
Overall I really liked Holiday World. The concept was very nice, and different, but it felt slightly that bits of the park just didn’t fit together well. This is probably just because I don’t know all that much about American holidays and their histories, but the park was nice. The free soda was also a very nice perk at the park, and gave it the more personal feel in the sense of being able to suit yourself.
Day 6 – Friday 30 July (Live Day 3)
World’s of Fun was the first new park for everyone on the trip. A lot of the guys that were on the previous Live were worried this park was going to like the now infamous Carowinds. Thankfully I think there were pleasantly surprised! We arrived and met Tom whilst we were waiting to go in. I thought it was great of him to show up, not really knowing any of us, on his own, to enjoy the day at the park. He was our ‘guide’ round the park, and even showed us where to eat later on in the day (more of that later). Overall, a real good egg!
First up was Prowler:
Obviously, this early in the day the park’s premiere attraction was very busy:
Prowler was great! It was my first GCI coaster and I enjoyed it a lot. I thought the pacing was fantastic and the airtime was surprisingly good too. Personally I preferred it in the front. I preferred having the airtime through the transitions instead of after. The four last pops of airtime were great too, especially when we perfected giving ourselves plenty of room in the restraints.
Next up was Spinning Dragons. Another first for me, however it was let down by the queue with no shade. It was ridiculously hot and everyone was sweating streams and was extremely uncomfortable. Anyway, the ride was ok, but I think I prefer facing outwards like on the Maurer Sohne spinners.
Finally it was time for Patriot!
Without question the most photogenic coaster of the trip:
It was also a massive surprise. I’d heard nothing but below average reviews of it, people saying it was forceless and boring. I disagreed with this, I thought the ride was very good. The first drop and loop were ok, but the zero-g-roll… oh my god that was good!
This was the only zero-g-roll I’ve ever done that actually was completely weightless and completely smooth all the way though. It was incredible. There wasn’t the feeling of being slammed through the inversion or anything, it was fantastic. Did I mention how sexy it looks?
Oh please, just let us have more:
I could have taken pictures of Patriot all day long:
The best views were from the Ferris Wheel:
Anyway, enough of that. Patriot was brilliant, but we did ride some other stuff as well! It was around this point that Gavin’s friend, her name escapes me, arrived. She was very chatty and actually quite funny too! Again, it was nice to just have other people tagging along, even if they weren’t enthusiasts. I seem to remember we rode the woodie next, which was highly average, and then we went over to Mamba:
It wasn’t quite as good as Steel Force at Dorney. I think this was mainly due to the turnaround. Even though Mamba has some sweet supports on the helix, it just didn’t feel as fast and as fun as the turnaround on Steel Force. The ride was fun though, so much so that Gavin and I (and maybe Marc as well, I can’t remember) went for a re-ride in the back row. We finally got all the credits on the Boomerang, then went for re-rides on Patriot and Prowler.
Tom also found a kinky looking Gorilla:
Overall World’s of Fun was a big surprise. I wasn’t expecting much, from the park or the coasters, but I was pleasantly surprised. They had a good line up of good coasters and the atmosphere of the park felt nice and overall it was fun. Even if the heat was incredible!
So when we were done at the park, Tom recommended ‘Jack Stacks BBQ’ as a good place to go and eat. Oh lord it was good! I ordered pork, sausage and beef I think, all smothered in the most amazing BBQ sauce. We all sat round a massive table, ate some amazing food and generally had a great time. We couldn’t thank Tom enough! After eating we said our goodbyes to Tom, and headed on to our hotel and the Jacuzzi!
We arrived at the hotel to find it overrun with hyperactive little kiddies. We wanted to go in the pool, but not with all the kiddies, so the hotel kept the pool open for another hour, only for us. Our first ERT of the trip! That Jacuzzi was stupidly hot. It took us at least five minutes to lower ourselves into it, and we couldn’t stay in it for too long. I’m fairly sure it was only bubbling because the water was actually boiling. At least the main pool was freezing! We had a great time just chilling in the pool(s) and splashing and being daft. It was surprisingly refreshing. Finally, it was off bed.
Day 7 – Saturday 31 July (Live Day 4)
Time for another new park, Silver Dollar City:
We went in and headed straight for the kiddie credit. It was fairly standard, but at least Jerry enjoyed it!
Next up was Thunderation, which was great. It reminded me slightly of Adventure Express at Kings Island, with the drop straight out of the station. The backwards cars were cool and the layout wasn’t bad actually, with plenty of speed, a bit of airtime and some nice helices. Overall one of the better mine trains I thought and it really used the terrain well.
I think we rode Wildfire next:
Again, another interesting ride. It used the terrain well, and it felt like it was something different. It didn’t seem to be just inversion after inversion, and the trains were also quite cool, being more like B&M’s hyper-coaster trains. I also really liked the low level turns:
Sadly there was a harsh trim before the Cobra Roll, but it didn’t feel like it ruined the ride.
So overall I think we were quite impressed by Wildfire. We decided to have a break by this really nice waterfall. See Taylor, some of the pictures did work out!
Next was Powder Keg, another fairly unique coaster.
It had a cool little bit of transfer track, a fairly nice launch and a decent enough layout. The lift hill towards the end did feel like it killed the flow a bit, but again, this ride used the hilly terrain well.
It also had this sign, which entertained me:
We ate lunch at some point, which was a mistake in itself! The restaurant was seriously vile. The food was average, the atmosphere was awful and it generally felt horrible. Gavin was the least impressed, so at least he kept our spirits up with funny little comments. Anyway, after lunch I think we went to ride Fire in the Hole, which was extremely bizarre, but quite fun. Brad was not impressed when he found out it had a water splash! So we’d got all the credits, re-rode Thunderation, Wildfire and Powder Keg, tried out the dark shooter, and headed on to the next hotel.
Overall Silver Dollar City gets a mixed opinion from me. The park layout was awful and very difficult to navigate round and find rides etc, however the rides were quite good and the park felt quite nice. The food was dreadful, but the park maps were cool too. It was ok, but I wouldn’t be in any rush to go back!
So here endeth the lesson. Part 3 coming very soon!
LiveForTheLaunch
CF Legend
Holy crap, Hix, that was an awesome report!
I was so upset as I thought my motioning and sign language skills were stunning! When you revealed to me that you actually weren't deaf, I definitely wasn't mad, I just felt like a retard, though I was happy as you weren't actually.. Hearing impaired .
I think I am the only one who didn't think Jack Stack's was the best park food on the trip. I liked Holiday World's best.
Tom with the gorilla <3
The boiling hot hot tub </3 If we had stayed in for more than five minutes we probably would have died.
Hix, your photos are fantastic by the way, I just wish you had gotten more of people!
I was so upset as I thought my motioning and sign language skills were stunning! When you revealed to me that you actually weren't deaf, I definitely wasn't mad, I just felt like a retard, though I was happy as you weren't actually.. Hearing impaired
.I think I am the only one who didn't think Jack Stack's was the best park food on the trip. I liked Holiday World's best.
Tom with the gorilla <3
The boiling hot hot tub </3 If we had stayed in for more than five minutes we probably would have died.
Hix, your photos are fantastic by the way, I just wish you had gotten more of people!
Why thank you.LiveForTheLaunch said:
I think it's because you're retarded.LiveForTheLaunch said:
I just wish you lot were as easy to photograph as coasters. You break the camera, Marc's orange was too bright, Marcus was too dark, Brad well... :roll:LiveForTheLaunch said:Hix, your photos are fantastic by the way, I just wish you had gotten more of people!
I just never find photos with people ever turn out naturally when you point a big SLR in their face.
LiveForTheLaunch
CF Legend
I guess that probably could be the reason. But, my taste buds know best. Dunno though, maybe it was what I ordered.. It was good, just nothing spectacular.
Thanks.. That made us all feel like a very good lookin group
. I think my self confidence has gone down about twenty three percent </3 Thanks Hix.
LiveForTheLaunch
CF Legend
Oh my god.. Matt.. I am going to kill you. : <
LiveForTheLaunch
CF Legend
RUGBY TACKLES.