Under (and over) the Weather – US Trip May/June 2017

[witchfinder]

Firstly, an apology for the often terrible photos in this trip report. The reasons for them in most cases will become clear, but in some cases there’s no excuse! I did shoot some video at most parks which I’ll get on YouTube at some point.

This trip report has a title with dual meaning – there were a number of creds with weather-related names during the trip, but also the weather played a pretty big part in our holiday and some of the park trips.

That started right at the beginning, when our flight to the US was cancelled, supposedly due to a storm in Philadelphia. As a result we ended up flying to Frankfurt, then Chicago, then staying overnight there (which had grim weather btw) before finally flying to Philly and our eventual destination of Burlington, Vermont almost a day late.

As a result of all that, our planned activities in Lake George were cut down and our first park trip went from a full day that should’ve included the waterpark to a pretty hectic afternoon cred-run. So let’s get started!


The Great Escape – Sunday 28th May

This was Memorial Day weekend and we expected the park to be reasonably busy, and so it came to be. Any plan to still get a couple of hours in the waterpark vanished almost as soon as we arrived, though in retrospect it wasn’t as bad as it looked and I easily picked up all the creds and a bit more besides.



First job was to register our Six Flags season passes, which was an incredibly easy process that took less than a minute, then grab a red sports bottle that gives free refills on the first day of use, and 99c refills any other days. This geared us up nicely for visits to the other Six Flags parks on our trip. Then it was off to the back of the park for the most important cred – The Comet.



After a couple of wrong turns, we got there and my wife sat in the shade while I joined the queue, only to find that the ride was temporarily closed! After 5 minutes of inactivity I decided to head elsewhere, only for the ride to start operating again as I walked away from it. So back in the queue I got. The Comet does seem to have a single rider line, but it wasn’t in use, which is annoying when you can see the train dispatching with odd empty seats. As it turned out, the regular queue does split into front and back half of the train, and the back half was way shorter, which suited me fine, as I was aiming for a back row ride anyway.

First impressions, pretty decent. It’s no world-beater and has some rough moments as most old woodies do, but some recent retracking on the drops helped a lot I think, and the long layout offered some reasonable airtime moments and thrills. I came back at the end of the day for three more rides, including another back row and the front, and overall really enjoyed it. I guess there’s something special about riding a coaster with lots of history, which allows you to forgive some of its shortcomings. 7/10







With The Comet done, we headed back towards the front of the park, where most of the other creds are, and the log flume, which was our next stop on this fairly hot day. This was one of several rides in the GhostTown western-themed area, which was reasonably well done.





Desperado Plunge, the log flume, is really nothing special but has one particularly amusing moment which I couldn’t take a photo of, where there’s an animatronic lumberjack that, from behind, appears to be masturbating his giant log. The other notable thing is that this ride gets you absolutely soaked! There is one small drop of no more than about 5 foot where you get drenched, followed by a bigger drop at the end that finished the job. You probably can’t tell from the photo but I am soaked head to foot here...


Next up were the two coasters in this area. Firstly Canyon Blaster, the Arrow mine train. It’s pretty forgettable, but did differ from other Arrow mine trains I’ve ridden in that it went up quite high, and had quite an intense helix at the end which helped dry me out. 5/10





After that was Steamin’ Demon, the park’s Arrow looper (a loop and two corkscrews to be precise). I was expecting the worst here, but with reasonable bracing it actually wasn't as rough as I expected. The whole thing is barely a ride by modern standards though, and was over in less than a minute, with nothing after the two corkscrews. I did like the colour scheme and at least there was no queue! 5/10


(Pic from outside the park)





Since I was on a roll with things being less rough than expected, my next stop was Flashback, the Boomerang. I haven't ridden one of these since the 80s (which was the one at West Midland Safari Park) and to be honest it wasn't that bad. The worst thing about it was the operations, which were painfully slow for a ride like this. At one point the ride op stopped to have a chat with some guys in the queue, which didn’t help. 5/10





That just left one coaster (the kiddie cred doesn’t allow adults) but before that we went on the Raging River rapids, and if we thought the log flume got us wet, this was even worse. I have no issue with getting randomly splashed on water rides but I hate it when they put unavoidable features on the ride that get you soaked with no chance of dodging them, and this was full of them. So once again we were drenched!

The final cred was the Alpine Bobsled. Apparently this ride is closed more than it is open, and we hadn’t realised it but they close the gate at 6pm so we just got on, and were on the last car of the day, so that was doubly lucky! Compared to Avalanche at BPB it was a poor relation, as it clangs into the sides a lot on the brake sections, but it’s something a bit different and the second best cred of an admittedly poor selection. 6/10


(Only half decent pic I got!)

As I mentioned, after that I went back for more rides on The Comet, and that was that. It would have been nice to have spent more time at the park and take the atmosphere in a bit more rather than running around. I would’ve liked to ride the drop tower and go into the waterpark, which looked far better quality than the amusement park side of things. The ride line-up is mostly crap, but it seems like quite a nice, small park with a bit more character than most Six Flags parks (based on my experience) and the surrounding area is very pretty. They’re in desperate need of a new coaster though – I think something like a Vekoma SFC or a Gertslauer Family launched coaster would fit this park well. The park layout is a bit odd though and there are several dead ends – getting to The Comet is certainly more difficult than it first appeared!

If I was ever in the area again I would go back to check out the stuff I missed, and I think this place does have the cheapest season passes of any Six Flags park, so that opens lots of other opportunities, which we took advantage of almost immediately... But that's a story for another day

Random park pics I got on my way out:

 

[witchfinder]

Six Flags New England – Monday 29th May

Our plan for Memorial Day was to spend the morning in Lake George (maybe even returning to The Great Escape for the waterpark) and then head down to Connecticut in the afternoon, possibly stopping off at either Quassy or Lake Compounce, depending on how much time we had, before reaching our motel for the night. Well, the weather literally p*ssed on that idea!

A pretty torrential downpour all morning meant any outdoor fun was off the cards, so after an hour looking round the shops in town we decided to hit the road, with the hope that the weather might improve in the afternoon. Unfortunately everyone else spending the weekend in Lake George had the same idea so the traffic was pretty slow for a while. The weather did improve, but both Quassy and Lake Compounce had closed for the day, so the best option was to grab a few hours at SFNE, which was originally planned to be Tuesday’s destination. By getting some creds out of the way, it might give the opportunity to go to their waterpark the next day if the weather perked up.

We got to SFNE around 5:30pm, and unsurprisingly the park was dead. Sadly, after 4 hours of driving I wasn’t really in the right mood to make the most of the situation, but decided to grab some of the lesser creds to leave more time for re-riding the good stuff the next day.

First up was Goliath. I’d heard the stories about the restraints being painful and they were true. It was bloody horrible. Maybe it was partly down to my mood, but this was one of the worst coasters I rode during my trip, and I never got the chance to ride it again the next day so my opinion hasn’t changed. 3/10





I believe this photo adequately sums up my opinion!


From bad to almost as bad, I then rode Flashback. I’d found the boomerang at TGE fairly reasonable, but this was much rougher and ridden so soon after Goliath, it made me feel a bit unwell. 4/10

After these two stinkers I thought I better ride something decent, and next along this ‘arm’ of the park is Wicked Cyclone. Like almost all the rides it was a walk-on, so I just grabbed a seat about halfway down the train, and away we went… And to be honest I wasn’t too impressed. I could tell there were some great elements, tons of airtime and it really rips around the track, but I just wasn’t feeling it. It was at this point I realised I just wasn’t in the mood that evening, so any other coasters that were Top Ten candidates were ignored. RATING TBC





As I wasn’t feeling top notch, the park’s spinner Pandemonium seemed like a bad idea so I skipped that and the kiddie cred and tried Thunderbolt, the old woodie. I was expecting this to be pretty rough but actually it wasn’t too bad. It didn’t do a lot, was pretty slow and had virtually no airtime, but at least it didn’t beat me up. I did ride it again the following day with a full train (there were only 4 people on it the first time) and it was a bit more feisty, but overall it was better than I expected and another vintage Woodie to add to my count. 6/10


(Nerdy coaster stats)


(Best picture I managed - yes, it's ****)

I was about ready to give up at that point, but thought I should give the newly-opened ride The Joker a try since it had no queue and I suspected it might be busier the next day (I was right). This was my first 4D coaster and I was fully expecting it to make me vomit, but actually it didn’t affect me in that way at all. That said, I didn’t particularly enjoy it – it was a different experience and I got spun end over end a few times, but the ride is very short and doesn’t really do a lot, so I was distinctly underwhelmed. It feels like the spinning isn’t free at all, as it seems to stop sometime and then reverse in an artificial way. So, nice idea and it does look cool, but does nothing for me. 6/10




(Yep, more lucklustre pictures - you can tell I wasn't in the right frame of mind!)

And that was it for that day. We were only in the park just over an hour and at least I got a couple of the crappy +1s out of the way. We headed to our motel and after a nice Mexican meal I hoped the next day would be a big improvement...

 

[witchfinder]

Six Flags New England – Tuesday 30th May

So, a fresh day and one with better weather (although not good enough to consider the waterpark) and we were headed back to SFNE, but not before a stop off at one of the more unusual State Parks that was near our motel – Dinosaur State Park!

This is a site where literally hundreds of fossilised dinosaur footprints were discovered about 50 years ago. They’ve enclosed part of the site in a cool dome with lots of complementary exhibits, and there’s also a nice park to walk around. We only stayed 45 minutes but it was pretty cool.







We also paid a visit to Walmart to grab a few bits and pieces, which is an adventure in itself, but ultimately we got back to SFNE about an hour after opening. Disappointingly it was not as quiet as we’d hoped due to a number of school parties in attendance, but generally the queues were under ten minutes for all but the most popular rides.


(Cheesy welcome photo!)

Having done most of the northern end of the park the previous day, this visit started off with the southern end and Batman: The Dark Knight, my first B&M floorless.



This was one of the only creds at all the Six Flags parks I visited that had some attempt at batching by the ride ops. Not that they were doing an amazing job, as I somehow ended up on a row in the middle of the train with three empty seats next to me. Let’s just blame the large school groups for that eh?





Anyway, I enjoyed The Dark Knight. Nice layout, a satisfying B&M roar and a pretty smooth ride apart from a jolty bit half way through. I got a front row ride later in the day which was much more fun and really shows the benefits of the floorless trains. It’s not top ten material but a good, solid B&M nonetheless. 8/10

I’d picked up a digital photo pass for my day here as there are four coasters that have ORPs, so $15 for unlimited photos seemed a good deal. Here’s my front row ORP for The Dark Knight:


And here’s the unedited version – those kids weren’t having half as much fun as I was!


Next I planned to ride Mind Eraser, but the queue was around 30 minutes and nobody wants to wait that long for an SLC, even with new trains. So we headed down to the DC Superheroes area and grabbed the two creds that my wife Anna was willing to ride (she was very patient at this park and got a lot of use out of her Kindle!)

First up was Catwoman’s Whip, a completely unremarkable Tivoli. It had no queue and I can barely remember it, but I’m pretty sure it only did one lap, which under the circumstances was pathetic. The best thing about it was the (completely unused) queue line which is the only thing I took a photo of. 4/10



Next we rode Gotham City Gauntlet: Escape From Arkham Asylum, probably the most elaborately-named generic wild mouse in existence! To be fair it had a bit of theming, although the smoke effects weren’t running, and I liked that each car was named after a different Batman villain, but when all’s said and done it’s just another wild mouse. 5/10



Next, it was on to the big daddy of coasters at SFNE – Superman: The Ride. This was definitely one of the most anticipated rides of my trip and having watched it in action over the preceding half hour, I was excited. The queue was around 15 minutes into the station, then probably another 15 for the front row, but for something like this, the first ride has to be on the front I think...



And yes, it was awesome! Going down that huge drop on my own and blasting through the tunnel was exhilarating, and the following hills had plenty of airtime, and the twisting mass of track in the latter half was great. Undoubtedly one of the best layouts of any coaster I’ve ridden to date, and I love how it maintains its speed until you’re virtually back in the station, with some of the sharpest brakes I’ve experienced. I know people say the restraints have ruined this ride somewhat, but to be honest they didn’t bother me much, and certainly not enough to prevent making this the first coaster on this trip to break into my Top Ten. 10/10







With Superman providing the perfect end to the morning, it was time for lunch, and in what was to become something of a tradition, we had chicken tenders and fries. They were pretty bad – everything was way too salty (somebody had been playing too much Theme Park) and the sauces were quite revoltingly sweet. We followed these up with some deep fried Oreos, which were similarly sweet but in a good way!

Back to the coasters then, and I returned to Mind Eraser. The queue was shorter, but just as I approached the station it broke down, so I still ended up waiting half an hour for an SLC. When I finally got into the station I headed for the back row, only to find that one of the trains had the back row taped off, so I had to wait just a bit longer.

My experience of SLCs up to this point consisted of Infusion, which I didn’t think was too bad, and Kumali, which was very rough when I rode it last year. So the thought of riding an SLC with the new vest restraints seemed vaguely appealing, and I was also hoping to try the augmented reality VR later in the day if I had time (a ride op was testing the headsets while I was queuing).



So does the addition of these more comfortable trains make a difference to the Vekoma SLC? Does it f**k! This was by far the roughest of the three I’ve ridden, and although there’s no headbanging, the restraints are still pretty uncomfortable and the train’s seeming intention to derail itself throughout its journey neutralises any benefit. Vile. Needless to say, I didn’t bother with the VR! 3/10


(Same ****, different trains!)

With the creds at the south end of the park all done, it was back to the north end and time to find out if my disappointment with my first RMC the previous evening was down to my bad mood or not...

Thankfully the queue was under 15 minutes and I went straight for the back row. As I was pulled up the lift hill I already felt more positive, and sure enough, Wicked Cyclone did not disappoint this time. It’s absolutely insane as it throws you around just as its name suggests, with ejector airtime throwing you into the air over almost every hill and those ridiculous inversions – the zero-G stall is just phenomenal.





Not sure the chap sat next to me was as impressed on what was his first ride, although at the end he did say he enjoyed it!


So I came off Wicked Cyclone a lot happier and grabbed a ride on the Blizzard River rapids, which is now the only water ride at the park. They weren’t too wet compared to the ones at The Great Escape although I can barely remember anything about them now.

After that, my intention was to ride Pandemonium but it seemed to have quite a long queue so I headed back to Wicked Cyclone for a front row ride. By now the school trips were starting to head home so the queues were getting smaller, and WC was almost walk-on. While the back of the ride definitely has the best airtime, I felt the front row was much more fun as you can see all the elements coming up more quickly and the first drop is amazing. As soon as I came off I ran back round for one more lap, and this cemented the ride as my favourite at the park. I think it’s one of those rides that needs to be experienced multiple times before you get the best out of it, and there are a couple of minor things I’m not a fan of (which I’ll mention later in this TR) but there’s no doubt it is top quality. 10/10




(Thumbs up for Wicked Cyclone!)

That left me with two creds left – Pandemonium and The Great Chase – plus a reride of Thunderbolt (with the ‘feeling braver’ wife this time) and as many rides on Superman as I could fit into our remaining time. With that time limited, I made the decision to skip the two +1s in favour of rides on Superman.

As it turned out, despite there not being too much of a queue, I only managed one more ride on Superman, but that was on the back row and in an amazing twist of fate, the ride op didn’t push the lap bar down when she checked it, so I had plenty of room for some amazing airtime. When we returned to the station, the ops had sent the other train out empty having cleaned it after somebody had thrown up, and I could see I wasn’t going to manage another ride for at least 15 minutes, so I decided that was as good as it was going to get and called it a day. But what a way to end the day!







In retrospect I’m annoyed for not grabbing more of the crappy creds on the Monday night when the park was dead, especially as I ended up skipping two of them, but I don’t regret missing those two in favour of more rides on WC and Superman. Quality over quantity - @Howie would be proud!

As for the park, it’s a weird place. It has tons of rides but seems quite small, and is really lacking stuff like water rides for less adventurous visitors. It all seems a bit fake and concrete, with not a lot of greenery too. They have two amazing coasters, one very good, and the rest are all a bit ‘meh’, or plain dreadful in the case of the three Vekomas. I would visit again to ride the three good ones, pick up the two I missed and check out some of the flats, but overall it was my least favourite big park of the trip, despite having two of my new favourite coasters.

Random end-of-the-day murky park photos:

 

[Howie]

^You're right, I'm very proud
Will this level of pride continue as the trip report unfolds? We'll see

Great fun so far, next installments please

 

[Mack]

SFNE is all about lapping WC and Superman! I hear cool people work at the next park.

(Sidebar, no relation to the Mack on CanobieFan.net, I've never met him.)

 

[witchfinder]

Will this level of pride continue as the trip report unfolds? We'll see

Yes and no.... Well, No and Yes actually but you'll see soon enough!

(Sidebar, no relation to the Mack on CanobieFan.net, I've never met him.)

Yeah, that did confuse me a bit at first - what are the odds?! I was trying to arrange a meet with that Mack too but it didn't work out...

Next instalment coming tomorrow or the weekend

 

[Coaster Hipster]

Lovely report @witchfinder! Been to SFNE last summer (which was my first park in the US too) and has a fun time riding WC and Superman. I'm so glad to read another raving review on the old Intamin Mega <3

Can't believe I haven't commented on that thread before, I really enjoy reading your comments!

 

[witchfinder]

Canobie Lake Park - Thursday 1st June

Third park of the trip, and the night before this we went to see the annual John Williams Film Night at Boston Symphony Hall. To see the composer of some of the greatest movie themes in history conducting his local orchestra playing his own music was something very special indeed. Photos weren’t officially allowed so this is the best I could get of the maestro himself, along with the set list for the evening. Marvellous!





Anyway, on to the park and it opened at 9am so we got there pretty around 10 with the intention of getting everything done in about 4 hours and heading on our way to our next destination in New Hampshire.



This was the first day of our trip with glorious weather, and the park is in a lovely suburban location, unsurprisingly by Canobie Lake. There’s a strict height limit on rides here so no huge coasters, but you will see one of them as soon as you arrive...



The 1936 Yankee Cannonball was our first stop as the most notable coaster at the park. Amazingly as this information board says, it is a relocation!



The park was perhaps slightly busier than expected for a Thursday, again due to school groups (seemingly nobody actually goes into school in the US this time of year) but it was actually just right, as everything had a small queue to fill the ride up but nothing was longer than a 5-10 minute wait. Anna surprisingly joined me for this ride and we got the back row.



It’s not the biggest or best coaster in the world, obviously, but it was a lot of fun. Quite a few little pops of airtime on the back row, and it was a pretty smooth ride for an old woodie. I love the way you can see nothing of the coaster other than the lift hill and brake run from within the park, although obviously we’d seen it from the car park. The banked turnaround was pretty good too, so it was a decent start to the day. 7/10



Starting on an anticlockwise walk around the park, the next stop was the cute little launch tower, Starblaster. Anna was proving to be braver than usual and joined me on this too, her first adult launch/drop tower, though probably one of the smallest out there. Despite its stature, the pop of airtime at the top was just as fun as any launch tower.



Next we came to Big Bear Plaza and the park’s most recent coaster Untamed, which is the same Euro-fighter model as Rage at Adventure Island. This is the best themed area of the park, with a lovely wood-carved station and other natural elements. We especially liked the cute little carved bears all over the place.





I rode this one alone, and sadly the ride is a typical Euro-fighter, being quite rough after the initial drop and loop, and having already ridden Rage a few times last year, one ride on this was enough for me. 6/10





We continued around the park, taking a look at the lake and then a ride on the Boston Tea Party, the park’s Shoot the Chute, which certainly makes a big splash! Despite the hot weather, there was no queue for this and we actually discovered that everything at the back of the park from this point on was walk-on.



Up next was the kiddie cred, The Dragon, an ageing Zamperla powered coaster. Nothing more to say on that one! 3/10



The final cred at the park was the Canobie Corkscrew, which is one of the original four Arrow corkscrew models constructed in 1975, although it didn’t arrive here until over a decade later. Once again Anna surprised me by taking not one but two rides on this with me, which given the reputation of old Arrow loopers and her general dislike of inversions was kind of shocking! Obviously this thing is rough and very dated by today’s standards, but it was still fun to ride one of the originators of the modern steel looping coaster. 5/10



I also briefly met fellow CF forum member @Mack here, as he was operating the Corkscrew. He was certainly enthusiastic, as were most of the park’s staff to be fair! We didn’t get chance to talk much but he did recommend a good place to eat lunch in the park, which we’ll get to soon enough.

We finished our loop of the park with a ride on the log flume (which was pretty average) and the dark ride, Mine of Lost Souls. That was interesting to say the least, starting off as a typical haunted mine but then bizarrely transporting us to ancient Egypt for the finale!



That brought us to lunch and, as recommended, we ate at the Chicken Coop, which meant chicken tenders and fries again. These were far superior to those served at Six Flags, being better tasting, cheaper and with much nicer sauces. The fact that most of the park staff seemed to be grabbing lunch here too tells you all you need to know.



After lunch, and a humongous ice cream that I only ate half of, we headed back for a second ride on the Yankee Cannonball, this time grabbing seats near to the front. The airtime was different on this part of the train, being more floater than the ejector of the back row. Definitely an enjoyable ride, wherever you sit.

And that was it, we left the park at about 2pm and headed north, stopping off briefly in Maine (just to say we’d been to that State) before driving to our next stop in Weir’s Beach, NH, home of Funspot, the world’s largest arcade, where we stayed for a couple of nights.

So, thoughts about the park – obviously it can’t compete with the big parks in terms of ride quality, but it had a much nicer atmosphere, better and cheaper food and reminded me of classic amusement parks of days gone by. I didn’t try any of them but there is an interesting selection of flat rides including some rarities. The creds are not the best, and much like The Great Escape they could really do with something new for the family market that they are clearly aiming at – replacing the Corkscrew with a Vekoma or Gerst family coaster would probably be the best they could do with their budget I imagine.

My original plan was to visit one evening as entry is cheaper after 5pm, and I think walking round this park on a warm summer night would’ve been really good. So maybe if they added a new cred I would go back if I was in the area and get some night rides. Either way, this was my favourite park of the trip up to this point.

Random park pics:

(This mascot, Patches, has to be one of the cutest I've seen - he's tiny!)






Fun World - Saturday 3rd June

To round off the North East part of this trip report, we popped into this three storey amusement arcade in Nashua, NH on our way back to Boston. It was quite hard to get to due to a crap road system and looks horrendous from the outside...



And it wasn’t any better inside, filled to the brim with horrible families playing noisy ticket redemption games. But it has a cred on the second floor, the Orient Express, so I got my ticket and shamefully got the +1 (Anna skipped this one, saving us $4!) The ride was exactly as I expected it to be. 3/10





They also have a quite extravagant two-storey carousel and a small Himalaya, but we didn’t bother with those. Anna couldn’t resist a go on the gigantic version of Sega’s 18 Wheeler game though!





So that’s the North done. Coming next week, reports on Dollywood, Kentucky Kingdom, another Six Flags park and more!

 

[Mack]

Delighted that Canobie proved to be such a sleeper hit! :emoji_smile: And that the Chicken Coop hit the spot! :emoji_relieved:

[And freaking yes, the Corkscrew has seriously overstayed its welcome! AFAIK it's not on the chopping block anytime soon though. I think a toned-down Mack Gmbh launch a la Seaworld San Diego's Manta would go perfectly there or a Premier launch like Skyrocket at Kennywood. Especially since Canobie and Kennywood are almost kindred spirits.]

 

[witchfinder]

^ I'm sure both of those would be good options too. I was basing my suggestions on the park's likely budget. I'm sure they'll get something eventually!

 

[witchfinder]

On to the southern part of this trip then. We flew from Boston to Greenville, South Carolina on Sunday 4th (with more delays due to storms) and then drove up to Tennessee through South and North Carolina for two more ‘State creds’

We arrived in Pigeon Forge around 7pm and drove along the Parkway to get to our hotel. For those that aren’t aware, Pigeon Forge can best be described as Blackpool on Crack, with a selection of attractions that blur the lines between crass and amazing. Also, how many go-kart tracks can one place have!?











At the end of a long day of travelling, we checked into our hotel and decided on an early night to prepare for the next few days.


Dollywood and Goats! – Monday 5th June

We had kind of assumed by the time we got to the Southern States at the beginning of June, the weather would be nice and sunny. But no, the weather was once again against us as we were greeted with a forecast of storms all day for our first day at Dollywood.

We had 3-day passes for the park anyway, and as the rain hadn’t started yet we decided to head up and try and get as much done as possible. Even if all the major creds were closed due to the weather, we could do the indoor Blazing Fury and maybe catch a couple of shows or whatever, and clear as much stuff as possible to maximise our time the following day.

Time for a Dollywood travel tip – if you’re thinking of parking at the park, don’t! It costs like $20 to park there, but instead you can park for free in Pigeon Forge and get the Trolley for 50 cents each way per person. The trolley only takes about ten minutes to get to the park, drops you right at the entrance and drives in through the employee entry which means you get to drive under Lightning Rod!

Speaking of Lightning Rod, I already knew it had been closed most days recently so was expecting the worst, and this sign confirmed it. Closed for the day, and that’s how it would stay for the duration of our trip.



As we arrived at the park, a light shower of rain was falling, so we assumed the outdoor rides may not be operating and headed up to the only indoor ride at the park, Blazing Fury. And it was closed! I’m not sure what the problem was but it ended up being closed all day. Rather ironic, given the weather.

Continuing up the hill towards the area where most of the creds are, finally we got a break when the rain stopped. Not knowing how long it would last, we headed straight for Wild Eagle, which was the ride Anna inexplicably really wanted to go on, even though big coasters with inversions are not her thing. As you’d expect on a day like this, it was a walk-on, and in fact I think we were the first people to ride it that day, and grabbed the front row of course (right side).



The first ride was most interesting to me to see how Anna reacted. As we crested the lift hill and saw the amazing view across the park, she said “holy sh*t” and closed her eyes for the drop, and she spent most of the ride giggling nervously. As we sat on the brake run I asked what she thought. Her response “Can we go on again?” said it all! She’d found a thrill coaster that she truly loved, and we ended up riding it 11 times over the next 3 days.


(Somebody liked the Wild Eagle!)

As for me, I really enjoyed it too. Much like The Swarm, it’s almost too smooth a ride, and lacks any serious forces, but the view from the top of the hill is incredible and the first loop is great. My favourite elements though were the Immelman and the hill just before the run into the brakes, which gave some airtime on occasion. Best seat was the front left outside, which added some near misses with the trees, while the worst seat I rode on was on the rear left side - on two occasions the vest restraints tightened during the ride and damn near crushed the air out of me for some reason. Overall though this was a really nice ride, and far superior to The Swarm. 8/10





We grabbed a second front row ride straight away, this time with Anna riding the outside seat on the left, and while I think she’d have been happy riding it for the rest of the day, we decided to take advantage of the park being empty (and without rain, for now) and grab as many other creds as possible. Next up was Firechaser Express, which is one of the most photogenic coasters I’ve seen, especially when three cars are running.



We grabbed a front row ride, and it was enjoyable enough, although I have to say that for a modern junior coaster it was a kind of uncomfortable ride and had a few hair-raising moments perched up in the air. The launches are fun, especially the backwards one, and the theming is great, but I must admit to being a bit disappointed by it overall, and only did one more ride during our trip. 7/10


(Pic taken later in the day when it was tipping down with rain)


(Check out those queue times!)

Next I jogged back down the hill a little bit for Tennessee Tornado, which Anna didn’t fancy. This of course is one of the last Arrow loopers and the oldest thrill coaster at the park. It’s aged pretty well and is far less rough than most of its siblings, and offers quote an intense experience too. The drop into the tunnel is particularly good, but the ride is rather short. It does make you wonder what Arrow might’ve done had they not gone bust. 7/10


(Just me riding this time then eh?)


(Nerdy coaster stats)


(Only pic I seem to have taken of the ride itself!)

The weather was still behaving so we then headed down the other side of the hill, and walked on to Mystery Mine. Although they can be quite rough, I’m actually a big fan of Euro-fighters and was looking forward to riding one with all the theming that Dollywood has given this one. Anna even joined me for this ride, which was amazing as she’d always said she’d never ride anything with a vertical lift hill and this one has two. Her Wild Eagle experience had obviously given her new courage!



Sadly, I’ve got to say Mystery Mine was quite poor. The theming is great, making it more of a dark ride than a coaster for the most part, but the slow pace through the indoor sections means the ride never builds up any momentum, and the coaster elements were probably the roughest of any Euro-fighter I’ve ridden. Really disappointing. 6/10







We then made our way to the two newest additions to the park. First up was Drop Line, the 230ft gyro drop tower. The views are fabulous and the rotation of the gondola certainly allows a good view across the whole of the park and beyond, but the drop itself was a bit dull. There’s no sense of anticipation because the gondola rises an extra few feet before the drop, so you know exactly when it’s coming, and it also slows down quite early. Worth it for the views but nothing more.

Following that was the new cred, Whistle Punk Chaser, a bog-standard Zamperla with some half-decent theming. +1 collected! 3/10



That just left one operating coaster to ride, Thunderhead. This was my first GCI Woodie and the first high quality modern wood coaster I’d got the chance to ride, and it didn’t disappoint. I heard a lot of people come off it saying it was rough, but I didn’t think that at all. It was wild, almost out of control and threw you around for sure, but at no point did I think that was anything other than intentional, and not due to ride quality. The layout is just packed with thrills and airtime and the station fly-through is a fantastic element. Anna rode with me the first time, but once was enough for her, so I went straight on again for a solo back row ride, which was even more wild and wonderful. With the park’s other woodie out of action (sob) this was as good as it got for me at Dollywood. 9/10







So that was all the major creds (bar the obvious) done in under 3 hours and in contract to the forecast, the sun was out. Time for lunch, and we’d done a circuit of most of the park and ended up back near the entrance, so we grabbed something tasty from that area (steak sandwich for me, hot dog for the missus) and then headed off for dessert. You know what’s coming next, right?







Yes, it was amazing. The smell, the taste, the warm gooeyness of it all. Believe the hype!

As we polished off our Cinnamon Bread, it started to rain a little, so we decided a ride on the Dollywood Express seemed a good idea while our food went down. As we approached the train, it started to rain a lot! So we ditched that plan and headed indoors to watch one of the shows – Heartsong. This is a story about Dolly growing up in the Smoky Mountains, accompanied by some of her songs. It was pure cheese, as this picture of a little girl accompanied by animated butterflies shows:



It also featured some unexpected rain effects, which was slightly annoying as that’s what we’d gone in there to escape. Upon leaving, we realised we hadn’t managed to escape.



The next ten minutes were spent in the nearest gift shop as the downpour continued, but when it eased off a little we headed over to another indoor attraction, Dolly’s “Chasing Rainbows” museum. I should mention that Anna is a big fan of country music so this was of interest to her. Not so much for me, though I do appreciate Dolly’s legendary status and the museum was very nicely done. The most amusing thing to me were the items related to the film she did with Sylvester Stallone in the mid-80’s, Rhinestone. That film is diabolical.





By the time we left the museum, the rain had gone, so I went to take a look at Lightning Rod while I was nearby. So near but yet so far





The weather was still looking a bit iffy but we headed back up towards the area with all the other big coasters. I have to say, while I’m gutted L-Rod wasn’t open, it would have been annoying to have to walk from one end of the park to the other to move between the major creds – it’s a good 15 minute walk and there’s very little else of interest at L-Rod’s end of the park.

On the way back up the hill we stopped to watch the Wings of America birds of prey show, which was interesting and fun. The Americans sure do love that bald eagle!





Speaking of eagles, we were heading back to ride Wild Eagle again, this time on the back row. The first ride was OK, but during the second ride, the heavens opened as we ascended the lift hill and we were subjected to the “piercing pins of death” treatment that anyone who has ridden a fast coaster in the pouring rain will be familiar with. We still came off laughing, and it was a memorable experience, but it looked like the storm was staying put this time and we were already soaked, so decided to bring our first day at Dollywood to an end.

That day surpassed all expectations really. To have been able to walk on every coaster at the park in a matter of hours had been a bigger bonus than we’d have imagined, so we were more than happy with the day, even if we were completely drenched by the time we got back to the trolley. In fact, it took almost a day for my trainers to dry out back at the hotel!

But that wasn’t the end, as surprisingly the storm didn’t stick around and by 7pm it was a warm and dry night. So after a nice Pizza we headed down the road to Goats on the Roof for our first experience of an alpine coaster. They say if you can’t see goats on the roof, you’re not there, so I guess we found it.



We chose this over the nearby Smoky Mountain Alpine Coaster simply because we had a voucher with a larger discount. Not sure if there’s much to choose between them as they seem to career down the side of the same hill, but this was decent enough fun. Obviously I tried to go full pelt all the way down but I must admit there were moments where it felt quite out of control and I eased on the brakes. This place does re-rides for $5 so I had another go once it had gone properly dark, which was more hair-raising and more fun. Now I’ve ridden one I think they definitely count as creds, obviously, but probably won’t ride too many more. 6/10





So that was Day 1 in Pigeon Forge. Wow, that was a lot of text I just wrote!

 

[Mack]

Sounds like you had a great time. We have those Alpine coasters up here in the Green Mountains and I found the experience rather brutal, too, haha.

Sucks about Lightning Rod, but at least they've been pretty upfront that it may not be open.

And yes. We do love bald eagles.

 

[Jarrett]

How on earth do you get at all excited for these outdated #RMCitorWreckit wooden coasters??? How do you do it???

Bashing obsolete technology aside, great report! Sucks to hear you got spited on Lightning Rod but those Dollywood photos are gorgeous! The new kiddie cred looks great where it is, too! Can't wait to see more!

 

[Mack]

How on earth do you get at all excited for these outdated #RMCitorWreckit wooden coasters??? How do you do it???

Yankee Cannonball actually has an almost RMC-esque attitude to it with its impish primarily speed hills if that's one of the ones you're referring to. Not everything old is bad. You'd be surprised how much air it punches into such an unassuming package.

 

[witchfinder]

Sounds like you had a great time. We have those Alpine coasters up here in the Green Mountains and I found the experience rather brutal, too, haha.

Yeah, I was hoping to ride the one at Okemo or Gunstock but things didn't work out as planned. Maybe next time!

How on earth do you get at all excited for these outdated #RMCitorWreckit wooden coasters??? How do you do it???

Here in the UK we only have about ten wooden coasters, most of which are pretty bad, so any woodies are exciting, bone-shaking or not!

 

[witchfinder]

Dollywood and Splash Country – Tuesday 6th June

I’ll try and keep this as brief as possible since the first day’s report went on so long!

The weather was nice and sunny from this point on, so we headed back up to Dollywood and could immediately see the difference the improvement in weather had made, as the trolley was standing room only that morning.



The first bit of good news was that Blazing Fury was open, so I wasn’t going to get spited by two coasters at the park. With it already approaching 25 degrees, first order of the day was to do all the water rides, starting with the Smoky Mountain River Rampage.

I complained earlier in this report about rapids rides that soak you with cheap, inescapable tricks. That criticism can’t be levelled at these rapids – they get you soaked the old fashioned way, with massive waves of water coming over the boat. It wasn’t a particularly amazing ride, but they’d got the water producing consistently choppy waves, for sure. Sadly it seems we didn’t take any photos so you’ll have to take my word for it.

Next up was the Mountain Slidewinder, a weird sort of half water slide, half log flume. This has the most convoluted loading system, where you have to have at least 4 riders per boat and they must reach a certain weight limit, so you get the ride ops trying to mix and match groups of people, splitting up families to get the right balance. Loading on to the boat itself is laborious too, and I can imagine the queues for this are awful on busy days. As it happened I think we may have ridden the first boat of the day (along with half of a bigger group that was split up) and it wasn’t worth the hassle for a fairly tame water slide.

The last of the three water rides we rode was Daredevil Falls, which is half log flume, half shoot the chutes. The big drop certainly looks impressive but there’s not a lot else to the ride, as it just bobs along a boring channel until it climbs the hill for the big drop. What really gets you soaked though is a little drop in the building that precedes the large drop, which manages to send a wave of water through the gap in the side of the boat and all over your legs. Not good.



I must say all the water rides at Dollywood were very average, despite being themed quite nicely, so that was a tad disappointing. Speaking of water, the increase in temperature made the presence of these babies all the more welcome:


Misters!

Next up was the only coaster we hadn’t ridden the previous day, Blazing Fury. What can you say? It’s an old dark ride with a couple of coaster drops and lots of cheesy 70’s animatronic characters. I don’t even remember there being any fire! The drops were quite fun though to be fair. 4/10



The park was far busier that day, and although the majority of queues for coasters were under 25 minutes, the fact we’d walked on them all the previous day meant it felt annoying to have to queue at all, so we didn’t! We spent the rest of the morning grabbing more rides on Wild Eagle, simply because it was the only cred that had virtually no queue the whole time we were there. We decided to get an on-ride photo that day too.


(Actually a photo of a printed on-ride photo in this case!)


(Inspirational queue-line theming)

I also managed a front row ride on Thunderhead, which was great, although I had to wait a while for the front row as the elderly lady doing the batching just kept asking fast track people if they wanted the front, to which they obviously said yes, and so she’d let them go before letting me join the line, even though I’d been there 5 minutes. She was getting right on my tits to be honest, and was the only member of staff I encountered in the whole park over 3 days that seemed to have a bad attitude.



Sticking with tradition, we grabbed lunch from the fried chicken van that is on the midway between Lightning Rod and the Chasing Rainbows museum. Not strictly chicken tenders this time but it was still chicken and fries, and it was delicious of course. There was also no queue for this place as it’s a bit out of the way, while every other food outlet probably had a 5-10 minute wait at least, so if you’re looking for a quick, tasty bite then I’d recommend this.

For the afternoon we headed over to Dollywood’s Splash Country, the waterpark, which meant taking the trolley back to town and then getting another one up to that park (although I think there may be a shuttle from the theme park to the waterpark).



We were only at the waterpark a few hours but had a good time. It was pretty busy but we got on some of the better rides, including the water coaster and a variety of tube slides. It certainly has an impressive selection of rides but I was surprised by the lack of any serious theming, and there was quite a lot of concrete. So it wasn’t quite as good as I’d have expected based on the standard of the theme park, but was still decent. A nice bonus is that if you buy a refillable drinks bottle from one park, it’s valid at the other one too.






(Hastily-taken pics taken at the end of the day with some clouds coming in)


More Dollywood – Wednesday 6th June

We were heading off to Nashville in the afternoon so the plan for the final day was to get to the park at opening time, I’d grab at least one ride on each of the main creds, a few re-rides on Wild Eagle for the missus and then we’d finish with a ride on the Dollywood Express. The weather was glorious again and the queue for the trolley was already pretty big when we got there, so our plan to rip round the creds as soon as we got in was a good one.



I missed out on Thunderhead as it was closed early in the day, but got another ride on each of Mystery Mine, Firechaser Express and Tennessee Tornado, none of which changed my opinions about them much. All three were walk-on at that point in the morning, and Wild Eagle continued to be that way for the next hour or so, giving us enough time for three more rides. We ended with a front row left side, which as I mentioned previously was the best spot on the train, and then headed down for a ride on the Dollywood Express, as planned.



The queue for it was massive, and we wondered if we’d get on, but it obviously accommodates more people than it appears as everyone got on fine. The ride was fun, helped by an entertaining commentary from a guy that sounded about 60 but turned out to be more like 25. I was a little disappointed that the views from the train aren’t that great. It goes though some nice woodland, but you don’t really get to see any great views of the mountains or much of the park, which was a shame. You also get plenty of soot on you from the train, so don’t wear your favourite white shirt if you go on it!



So that was it for Dollywood. After a great 3 days we grabbed a few goodies from the gift shop and made our way back to town before heading off to Nashville. All in all it’s a fantastic park. The setting is beautiful, the theming is great, though it lacks variety for the most part, the food is awesome and the staff are lovely, except for the old bag on Thunderhead! Despite being hilly, it’s pretty easy to navigate the park and having all but one of the major creds so close together is great.

The line-up of coasters is really good, with everything of a high standard. For me there were no world beaters there, simply because the one that almost certainly would’ve been was closed. That’s obviously disappointing but there was plenty of other stuff to keep me interested, and I was thrilled that Anna found a coaster that she really enjoyed. Riding with her and her actually enjoying Wild Eagle rather than just suffering it was one of the highlights of our trip. We barely even scratched the surface of the crazy stuff to do in Pigeon Forge, so I’m certain we will return one day and hopefully by then Lightning Rod will be over its technical issues for good.

I’m not sure what the park could add in terms of coasters to improve its line-up; maybe a hyper or an invert, though I suspect their next cred will be more family-oriented. What I think they really need is a modern interactive dark ride, and I fully expect that will be their next investment as it fills a gap more than any coaster would and also gives another alternative for those rainy days.

Random Park Pics:



















(Perfect gift for any young Southern gal!)

 

[Mack]

Yeah, I was hoping to ride the one at Okemo or Gunstock but things didn't work out as planned. Maybe next time!

I've been a lifty at Gunstock and I tore my ACL skiing at Okemo! You are all up in my grille! Hahaha

 

[Coaster Hipster]

What an amazing trip you have! Glad to read non-goon overcoming their fear of coasters and then enjoying it so much These moments make me feel less of an annoying weirdo haha

Dollywood looks gorgeous and its selection of rides is purely outstanding. Sorry about the spite on LR though...

 

[witchfinder]

A slight delay while I jetted off to Belgium and France for more creds, but let’s continue this report!

Kentucky Kingdom and Beech Bend Park – Friday 9th June

We stayed in Nashville from 7-11th June for the CMA Fest, but I left Anna overdosing on Country Music for one day and took this solo trip to two parks in Kentucky. First up was the 2 and a half hour drive to Louisville, except due to the time difference I left at 8am and didn’t arrive until nearly midday!



Trip tip for Kentucky Kingdom – make sure you take advantage of their out of state special offer, which gives you entry to the park for two consecutive days and a wristband for free drinks all day for $30. Bargain! (This assumes you don’t live in Kentucky of course)

It wasn’t too busy, and most people were in the water park due to the scorching weather. Queues were generally in the 10-15 minutes range. Probably a bit longer than I’d hoped for but again it was bloody kids who should’ve been in school!

This park has a weird location, stuck in the middle of the convention centre with car parks all around it, and also a weird layout as a road runs straight through the middle of the park, so you have to access the back of the park via a bridge. With this in mind, I started at the front with Lightning Run, taking a back row ride.



It was pretty fun. A lot of people have raved about this Hyper GTX coaster and it certainly offers tons of airtime. Although most of the ride is smooth, I did find a couple of transitions a bit jerky and with the track looking rather Vekoma-esque, I do think this might get rougher as it ages. I grabbed a front row ride later in the day and again it was good fun, and I’m surprised more parks haven’t invested in one of these as I’d guess they don’t cost too much. 7/10







With nothing else much of interest at the front of the park, I headed over the bridge to the back, through the water park and ended up at the kiddie cred, Roller Skater.



Typical Vekoma junior coaster, and rather a small one at that. 3/10

+1 obtained, I headed to the very back of the park to the big draw of Kentucky Kingdom – Storm Chaser.



I was relieved to find that the queue was nice and short for this RMC. In fact, it was the shortest queue of the day for a big ride, possibly because a lot of people don’t get right to the back of the park for a while? Whatever the reason, I jumped straight in the queue and went for a back row ride.



Unlike my first ride on Wicked Cyclone, this RMC certainly didn’t disappoint. The barrel roll drop is one of the best and most unique inversions I’ve experienced to date, and the rest of the ride flew by in a flash of airtime hills, overbanked turns and two more inversions. I barely had time to take it all in before it was over, and so I reserved full judgement until I could grab more rides later on.


(Hair time!)

My plan was to try and get all the creds done once and then grab lunch, so I headed towards Thunder Run next. On my way however, I noticed the queue for the new Larson loop, Eye of the Storm, was virtually non-existent. I’d been wanting to try one of these at some point on the trip so this seemed like the perfect time. I was expecting this to make me feel ill, which was another reason for trying it before lunch, but it didn’t have that effect at all. In fact, I found it quite enjoyable which is unusual for flat rides these days. They’re obviously fairly basic but still give a bit of a thrill and some unnerving hangtime.

I then grabbed Thunder Run before lunch. This Dinn Corp. woodie had a brand new train and I think some retracking had been done, but it was still pretty rough and the layout was fairly boring. One ride was enough! 5/10





For lunch I just grabbed something from the nearest open food outlet, which meant chicken tenders and fries again. They weren’t too bad – better than Six Flags’ offering at least. I ate them on a bench beneath Thunder Run’s first drop, which was one of the more entertaining dining spots.




After this I topped up on sun cream (another freebie at the park) and headed towards the rapids, as I thought a more relaxing ride straight after lunch would make sense. At this point you might be thinking I’d missed a cred. Well, that’s true...



Slightly disappointing to not get the +1 but I wasn’t too bothered to miss out on an SLC. On to the rapids then, and this was the biggest mistake of my visit. The queue was no more than 15 feet outside the station but due to the laborious loading and unloading process I was waiting more than half an hour. And they were pretty crap, in all honesty. The only benefit was a light splashing on a hot day, but I should’ve skipped it.

With just over an hour left before I needed to head south, I headed back to Storm Chaser to get as many rides as possible, which due to the increased queue length was two. Firstly a front row, which was awesome, and then just anywhere on the train to get it done as quickly as possible. Every ride offered something new or different, and the drop was even cooler on the front row. Having now ridden two RMCs I do feel that you have to ride them a few times before you fully appreciate them. In the case of Storm Chaser, I ultimately didn’t like it as much as Wicked Cyclone, even though that drop is one of my favourite coaster moments so far. I felt like the ride was a little too short and although it packs a lot in, it would be better if it lasted a bit longer. 9/10





I also mentioned back in my SFNE write-up that there are a couple of niggles I had with RMCs. Firstly, why are the lift hills so jerky? For a coaster that is otherwise smooth as silk, this seems bizarre. Secondly, I found the restraints quite uncomfortable. I understand they are designed to keep you in the train whilst giving you lots of airtime, but you do get thrown around a lot on RMCs and I think I’d have pretty bruised thighs and shins if I rode them too many times. Neither of these issues stop the rides from being amazing, of course!

With time running out, I headed back to the front of the park, grabbed my second ride on Lightning Run and also the completely unremarkable drop tower (just because it had no queue and was on my way out) and made my way back to my car, whose steering wheel was too hot to touch for a few minutes due to the afternoon heat.

So, to sum up Kentucky Kingdom, I enjoyed my visit but it’s an odd park. The layout is very confusing and I think it is still developing after being closed by Six Flags. There is plenty of greenery there, which was nice, and the out of state offer makes a trip there good value. In terms of coasters they’ve got one great one, one decent and the rest are pretty much garbage. The water and flat ride selection is pretty poor too, though I didn't get time to ride most of them. The height restriction means they’re going to have to be really innovative with any future coaster designs, and I think a dark ride would also be a good addition, if only for a means to get out of the scorching Kentucky sun. The waterpark looked decent, so maybe if I ever returned I’d focus on that.

But this day wasn’t over! Heading back to Nashville, I stopped off in Bowling Green for a quick cred run at Beech Bend Park. They have an offer on this year for $15 entry after 5pm on Fridays, and to be honest if it had been any more I wouldn’t have bothered.


(Most underwhelming entrance ever?)

Due to traffic and SatNav issues I got there a bit later than intended, and it looked like their star attraction, Kentucky Rumbler, wasn’t operating. A quick check with the girl at the entrance confirmed it was, so I paid my $15 and headed straight over, passing this pirate ship on the way.



Just a generic pirate ship? Yes, but this used to be situated at Michael Jackson’s Neverland ranch. Whether that makes it more or less appealing, I’m not sure!

Up to that point I still hadn’t seen the Rumbler running, but I finally saw a near-empty train roaring round the track, which encouraged me to quicken my pace. I made my way into the station and grabbed a seat somewhere in the middle for my first ride. Having loved Thunderhead a few days ago, I was excited to ride another GCI Woodie.



Good grief, it was rough! I usually ride a coaster with my arms in the air, but shortly after the first drop I was holding on to the lap bar for dear life as the train shook around and slammed into the tracks. I made my way off, looked back at it and seriously considered calling it a day right there, but I was determined to have a ride on the back, so nervously made my way back in for another go.

By the way, the reason I hadn’t seen the thing running much when I got there was because the operations are ridiculously slow. The girl in the station was getting every rider to fasten their seatbelt, then walking down the train to check them, then getting the lap bars lowered and walking down the train to check those. Awful!

Anyway, I set off on my second ride and braced for impact... but it was much smoother on the back row. I certainly didn’t feel like I could be thrown from the train at any time, and mid-way through the circuit I had my arms in the air. That first run had no airtime whatsoever, but there was quite a bit on the back row. It was still rather wild at times but way more enjoyable, so I went around for one last ride on the front row.





Another aside here – what is with this burdenous exit? You have to come out of the station, walk back and forth through this, then along a path and through the gift shop which comes out about 100 yards from the entrance to the ride. Not what you need when the actual ride is a walk-on!



So back to the ride. The front row was also pretty good. Not quite as much airtime but certainly not as rough as the first time. Overall the coaster is pretty decent. The layout is fun, especially the station flyovers, and there’s plenty of twists and turns. It could certainly benefit from some retracking but was better than the first impression gave. 7/10



With the major cred done, I just needed 15 minutes to mop up the two remaining creds. First up, Spinning Out, a SBV Visa spinner installed last year. Bog standard spinning kiddie cred, basically. 3/10



Finally, Wild Mouse, a Zamperla spinning mouse. Yes, this park has three creds and two of them are spinners! It wasn’t too spinny to be fair, so not as nauseating as many of these. 3/10



After that I made my way out of the park, taking a few snaps along the way. Cred run completed! The park is pretty much a bunch of crappy fairground rides around a lake, other than Kentucky Rumbler. It’s pretty grim in general but the waterpark looked OK. Chances of a revisit? Absolute zero unless they put another major cred in.





So after that hot and sweaty run around the park, I jumped in the car and headed back to Nashville, arriving an hour later than planned, but just in time for dinner. It was a very tiring day, with almost 6 hours of solo driving, and in retrospect I would’ve probably stayed at KK an extra half hour for more rides on Storm Chaser, and skipped Beech Bend. But those three extra creds were too much to resist!

 

[Coaster Hipster]

That hairtime shot tells how powerful this camelback is. Makes me wanna go there!

Agree with you on the RMC restraints, they're not on the same standard as their wonderful layouts x)