Up The 'Merica : SFoG/DW/KK/KI/MAdv/SFGAm/Dells/NickU/VFair!

[davidm]

Re: Up The 'Merica : Now with actual "report" starting!

Tuesday 27/5: Dollywood

So having driven up to Pigeon Forge yesterday afternoon, it was only a short trip out
to Dollywood this morning (more on Pigeon Forge itself tomorrow).

Rather amusingly just as I parked the car, one of my mates from back home just phoned me
up for a chat - "where are you" he joked, "tennessee" being the answer rather took him aback
and I had to explain to him that the Dollywood theme park was not a park where everything
was themed to Dolly Parton, just one owned by her (not 100% sure he believed me though).

This was a new park for me, so I was all-goony excited for today - the park itself (once
you get out of Pigeon Forge itself) is set amongst rather nice scenery - rolling hills
and the Smoky mountains in the background.

I knew what all the rides looked like, but not really how the park was put together, so
I found myself wandering up the "craftman's valley" bit of the park

in search of the coasters

The park layout is kinda a big triangle then - the older part at the park entrance, then
a long trek down this "craftman's valley" full of craft stalls and then a newer valley
that takes you back to the start (and along the newer valley is where the big new stuff
lives). Quite spread out then, the vibe obviously very similar to the original sister park
Silver Dollar City in Missouri (but SDC is more compact I think).

At the end of that first valley I find the first coaster, the old Blazing Fury

its more dark-ride than coaster though I thought - interesting enough and I preferred it
to its cousin at SDC I think, but nothing to get too excited about.

Fortunately a little further on around the park is what thought I was really here for...

the rather impressive looking Wild Eagle that sits atop of the hill that fills
the middle of that park "triangle" I was whittering on about earlier...

The place is empty today (apparently it was rammed over the weekend before so I feel
quite smug with my planning)

I'm actually a bit disappointed with this though - I've ridden Stealth and GateKeeper and
enjoyed both (Stealth because it was my first wing-coaster I guess and GK because it was
so much bigger and better) and I was expecting a lot from this ride, and it was a bit "meh"
I felt - didn't live up to the (my!) expectation or perhaps how good it looks from afar?

Not that its bad - its fun enough and a good ride, just not as great as I'd hoped.

Opposite Wild Eagle is the new-for-2014 ride FireChaser Express ; supposedly "only"
a family coaster but built up on the side of a hill and all looking very nice and
impressive to me!

Theres a short Q, but immediately they have to stop the ride as someone has lot their
breakfast on the train - oops. Its takes them a while to do the clean-up and they joke
that this is not an uncommon occurrence; hmmm maybe not so family then?

Eventually I get on and the ride is a lot of fun - certainly a very good ride, launched
out of the station well, big lift hill, lots of sweeping around up high on the hill, silly
show-building (silly:fun rather than silly:silly) and a fun backwards launch. Win all round
I think!

(was a bit concerned from the POVs that stacking would be an issue with this - that the
incoming train seemed to spend a long time on the brake run before the new train is
set off. But I saw no sign of this at all that day, quite often the crew were waiting around
after despatch for the incoming train. Good work.)

Next up was the Arrow looper Tennessee Tornado, which I thought might cause more pain
than it did. And "looper" is the right description for this since it doesn't really do much
else. After a long lift up into the trees, the train circles back on itself before it
starts the drop into a tunnel and the first loop...

(thought I took more pics of this to be honest, seems not!)

After that big first loop, it swoops around a bit then does another two back to back loops
and then its done. Fast, short, not too bad, over very quick though.

I head down the rest of the newer section of the park towards the remaining big coasters,
past a big splash battle thing

Next up for me is Mystery Mine, something else I was quite looking forward to - I
didn't know too much about it apart from it being a messed up euro-fighter so most of what
it did was a surprise to me.

It was good - I didn't even realise it had two indoor vertical lifts (and you don't see either
from the outside - obv. the big one is in the themed building in that pic ^^ but that had
just not occurred to me before I rode it!

So "just" a euro-fighter and suffers from the same things most normal euro-fighters do;
uncomfortable restraints / head-banging a bit / very tight restraints even on me so not
sure how larger people (lots were being denied as they boarded) or 'healthy' women cope
with them! But the indoor-nature of parts of the ride and the surprise (to me) sections
made it all pretty good I thought.

Last big coaster is down the hill a little from the mine and nestled in a little valley
all of its own; Thunderhead

and its rather splendid - nice big hill, zooming down one side of the valley it sits
in and banking around to zoom up and around the next, lot of fast direction changes
and pops of G forces - great stuff.

even if it does have a silly station fly-through

Had to Q a while for my first ride on it tho' - the Q had built up while they dealt with some
incident (whether biological or mechanical I don't know) and it takes may 30mins to get
on the thing... but by the time I've ridden, the Q has vanished and its walk-on - so of
course I do that for a while.

Great stuff.

I've barely seen the front of the park yet so complete the park-circuit and head on there.

The train ride was departing just as I got near it so I hop on that. And this is a proper
train ride not like the pretend stuff in many-a-park;

it does a huge loop outside the park boundaries and takes a fair while of time to do it (think
the train only runs hourly in fact).

After the very pleasant train experience I have a wander around the front bit of the park.
Its a bit rubbish compared to the newer back section though - lots more things in the front
than the back, but of dubious quality. There are a couple of distinct themed areas, a
country fair area with quite a few flat rides

which I don't often bother with, so I didn't, and the parks remaining coaster Sideshow Spin
which I may have ridden, but you can't prove that.

Another section is kinda-50s themed, kinda-Dolly themed and there was barely anyone in there
at all. I didn't do the (any) shows you'll not be surprised to hear.

Some cause-and-effect here?

I spend the afternoon wandering around the park again grabbing some re-rides and some of the
other stuff I'd wandered past in the morning.

I rerode Firechaser at one point and had another delay on it, this time not because of
any vomit-based-issues but rather than someone had seen a snake in the show-building,
so they had to clear him out before they sent anyone round. Was only a little snake they
reckoned.

There is a rather dull birds of prey presentation I sat through most of;

and a nice big Screamin' Swing ride (aka "Barnstormer") up on a hill

As you can see, only half of that was running for some reason.

Next door to that Barnstormer thing was this 'Mountain Sidewinder' thing - where people
were riding these boat-type things down a tube on some water;

Looked interesting so had a go - you had to trek up the hill a way to get to the station
and then you are put into a group of riders and you are all weighed (!!!!) before they
let you on the boat thing. Its rather 'intimate' on the boat sat between, around the
person next to you - there are no restraints at but you are told to not let go of the
grab handles and to not rock the boat... then they set you off downhill in this tube
flowing with water and you pick up a lot of speed, hurtling around bends at angles that
make you think you are going to capsize (not kidding!) until you splash out at the end
(which is the only bit I have a photo of). Madness and very "old-school"

Didn't ride the rapids - they looked a bit dull (and wet).

So all in all, a nice park, some great bits, some less-than-great though, but a fine day out!

(don't see "Dolly" on the mugs at other parks do you!)

--

One processed pic from today that I have done;

 

[davidm]

Re: Up The 'Merica : Now with actual "report"!! SFoG/Dollyw

Wednesday 28/5: Pigeon Forge

Pigeon Forge itself was a bit odd - on one hand it was this horrible long strip of ugly
family-entertainment places (dinner-shows, carny rides, family restaurants, go-kart tracks
(honestly _thousands_ of go-kart tracks)) all in the same vein as a few other places in
the US (Branson, US192 near Disney World, Wisconsin Dells), on the other hand it had all
these splendid mountain ranges in the background and was not that un-attractive.

So I actually quite liked the place, a lot more than Branson/US192 - perhaps that was
just down to the mood I was in though rather than anything else though?

I solved my mystery of what the funny yellow thing I had seen from the hotel car park
the other evening was; turned out it was this weird sky-coaster thingy, the rotating
arm being the mechanism that the riders were hoisted into the arm by - never seen one
of these like that before;

So I had deliberately not rushed away from the area after visiting Dollywood, mostly since
it was a 4 hour drive to the next park and I didn't want to rush Dollywood or drive tired
late at night, but also so I could have a little look around the area and do some of the
other tat...

Theres a couple of kiddy-casters in the area (at a couple of those dubious family entertainment
zones / go-kart track places), BUT I wasn't planning to lower myself to that sort of sad
behaviour, rather the first activity of the morning was the rather splendid alpine coaster
that sat about a mile off the main parkway through the area.

http://www.smokymountainalpinecoaster.com/

I was the first punter of the day, so after hanging around for them to open up for a little
while I was soon strapped in and off on the lift hill up the mountain...

Was a rather huge and long hill, so I did take a couple of pics as I made my way up

But at the top it was full-speed all the way back down

I'd never done one of these sort of things before (ridden the similar vehicle powered
bobkart things a couple of times) so was pretty interested in this. Good fun then,
lots of sweeping down the mountain, a few helixes thrown in here and there and quite
a long ride all told. Definitely worth a go (over a few kiddy coasters) if you are
in the area.

Next bunch of punters on their way;

Next up on my tacky tour was the large ferris wheel that you can see from most of the
area;

I do like big wheels, so quite enjoyed my ride on this as well - so good views up and
down the 'strip' from it.

The wheel was actually in a somewhat more up-scale area called 'The Island' - a bit off
the main drag and with a slightly nicer quality of dining places - however it was still
mostly under-construction, so that kinda spoiled the area for now - be nice enough
when its finished I guess.

Theres that yellow sky-coaster thing from another angle then

Oh, and King Kong (the place is still hugely tacky of course)

Speaking of tacky;

Seen one of these in Branson a few years back, but having a few hours to kill I thought
I'd have a closer look - and it wasn't that bad to be honest - a lot less tacky than
I'd thought it was going to be, albeit still very out of place in the middle of
Tennessee (or Missouri for that matter).

(can't take photos inside so you'll just have to use your imagination)

Last up on my little tacky-tour was one of these;

Like they have at Disney etc.

Went up a bit higher than the big wheel does - was a nice enough trip up and down.

Think the wheel was better located though, not a lot in the immediate area of this to
look at (can just see the wheel in the next pic)

And Titanic looks a bit more stunted from this angle;

--

Than was it then, drove 3 hours (not quite the full way to the next park) and stopped
off at a random hotel in Lexington, KY. Went to see Godzilla at the flicks (meh) and
that was the day done.

 

[davidm]

Re: Up The 'Merica : Now with actual "report"!! SFoG/Dollyw

Thursday 29/5: Kentucky Kingdom

I'd been here before (twice). I'd really not liked it (either time) - the first time
was in 2003 and the whole park was running (apart from one side of Twisted Twins), the
second time I came was in the final SixFlags season and the park was falling apart (I
had not really planned to go there that day, I was passing and had done HW and BB the
day before so a spare day had opened up).

So the fact that the place had re-emerged from abandonment was not filling me with
optimism about my day ahead, but a curiosity about what the place would look like after
its re-animation and the promise of the recently opened new coaster was enough to get
my attention. (In truth, KK is just very conveniently located on the road-trip route -
a couple of hours from Holiday World, Beach Bend, Dollywood, Kings Island so it would
just have been rude to not pop in).

Doesn't look too busy (or too inspiring!) from the outside;

First new ride (and first ride of the day) is the drop tower 'Fearfall' - its ok, but
its not very big and we've done all that before (interestingly there was still some
confusion amongst the peeps I overhead talking about the place regarding this drop ride
and the one that had the accident back in the 6F days) - the new ride is still near
the front of the park, but off to the side unlike the old one that sat right at the front
gate.

The new coaster isn't running yet, so I have a wander around the place instead; its still
got the stupid road running through the middle of it with the stupid narrow bridge connecting
the two halves of the park

(Ok, they can't do much with the road, but over the years you'd have thought someone would
have put in another (wider) bridge somewhere so you could at least create a circuit
of the park or something - well apparently not)

The water park looked _really_ good though - top notch in fact (its still early when I
took this pic so not many punters), the "new-for-2015" SLC lurking un-subtley in the
background there;

The BIG wheel that they have has been painted in some ugly colour-scheme

and it still offers great views over the park

Chang? (or rather the water park expansion that is in its place)

One of the older coasters that they have got running is the imaginatively named Vekoma
roller skater Roller Skater, I take a quick ride for old times sake.

Hiding behind the skater, at the end of the park before they have put up the fences
preventing you getting to the back of the park, is their splash ride (which I don't
ride)

But the main attraction at the back of the park is the big woody (the one that they
are still running anyway) Thunder Run.

On my previous visits this has been bad. Painful, rattling ride, really unpleasant to
ride at all.

But to my great surprise, its really rather good.

There is actual airtime on the thing (something I don't remember at all from previous
visits or from its sister rides the Paramount (now CedarFair) Hurlers)!

And its almost a smooth ride. Clearly whatever re-tracking that they (RMC I think) have
done to it has paid off in spades - its actually really really good. Amazing!

The park itself is trying very hard - they have done a great job getting it cleaned
up and operational (albeit operating as half-a-park), there are still quite a few of
these signs around the place though

By now, the new shiny coaster has started running, so I make my way back over the
(stupid) bridge to the front section of the park and get in line for Lightning Run

And its very good indeed.

Its not very tall, but what it does with that height is great. Its been compared to the
Intamin mega-lites, but its a bit different I think - the mega-lite has a similar
height drop, then a fast turn, then wanders back and forth with loads of airtime - this
has a drop then an airtime hill then a much more twisty-layout (still loaded with airtime
though). Its very good, I think I prefer the Intamin, but its certainly in a similar
league.

Landscaping still a bit work-in-progress though;

There was a bit of a Q for the ride when I first rode it (20 mins) - ops were slowish
but that was understandable, it had only been open a few days at that point. As I rerode
it a few times the Q dwindled until it was almost walk-on.

I rode it back row first - and the airtime was huge, not 'Skyrush huge' but you
realised why they need those restraints. Somewhat duller in the front seat, still fun
though, but definitely a back-row "must" ride.

The restraints look a bit evil, but were OK for me (I'm tall, not fat tho') you do get
quite stapled at the lap (but you need it) the shin-restraints I didn't really notice;
they seemed there to stop you waving your legs about rather than clamping your legs in.

Spend a while wandering the park, taking pics of Lightning Run, but there isn't a lot
else for me to do here (I did the cinema thing, which was rubbish the last time I was
here but has got a new-for-2014 movie and it seems projection system and so that was
actually OK - struggling to remember what the film was about though, a movie-tie-in of
some sort? Rio maybe?)

Don't think I rode anything else (3 coasters, 1 drop ride, wheel and movie), there are
a few flats dotted around that seemed to be in good condition though so you could
spend a while here I think.

The water-park section is clearly where the money (apart from Lightning Run ) has
gone though - the older section was looking really good and the expansion section also
looked good (although closed while I was there since it was a quiet day)

Overall - its probably a bit harsh to call it half-a-park, looks like a lot of money
has been spent and they do appear to be trying very hard. The staff were good considering
it was the first week of operation and they generally looked happy and friendly, quite
a few "ambassador" staff wandering around as well which you don't see often.

I had a much happier time here than my previous visits (possibly because of my previous
visits though) - there probably isn't enough yet on a quiet day to occupy yourself
fully in the ride-park, the water-park is big and well done though so I hope that that
pulls the punters in and they can expand the rides as planned (the SLC next year and
the other hybrid-woody for 2016 apparently).


Some legacy of the former owners remains;

 

[Snoo]

Re: Up The 'Merica : Now with actual "report"! SFoG/Dollywoo

Sad to see Changs former footprint.

 

[tomahawk]

Re: Up The 'Merica : Now with actual "report"! SFoG/Dollywoo

Pigeon Forge is so trashy with the million go kart tracks and **** pancake/waffle houses. Still mad I didn't get Dollywood when I was there...

 

[Rachel]

Re: Up The 'Merica : Now with actual "report"! SFoG/Dollywoo

Great report, so many fantastic photos!

 

[Serena]

Re: Up The 'Merica : Now with actual "report"!! SFoG/Dollyw

there are still quite a few of these signs around the place though

I'm disappointed this sign doesn't say: 'Funder Construction'. They've missed a trick there.

Great report though!

 

[davidm]

Re: Up The 'Merica : Now with actual "report"! SFoG/Dollywoo

^ fools that they are... at least they didn't say "pardon our dust" which never gets tiring.

--

Friday 30/5: Kings Island

Kings Island is a great park ; been here an a couple of trips before (2003 & 2009) so the
place didn't exactly hold any mystery for me, but the lure of a nice shiny new B&M invert
was just too strong for me.

I get into the place a little before opening and its not silly busy, but there are quite
a few peeps about, so I immediately grab a FastLane+ thingy and remove the having to Q for
any rides today issue.

And since I'm all FastLane-ed up, I then don't need to rush to the new coaster in a goon-like
haste, so head off in the other direction instead.

First coaster of the day is the junior woody then Woodstock Express (which was called
Beastie on my first visit, Fairly Odd Coaster on my second visit and now another name). Fun
enough, if fairly un-exciting - so unexciting that I don't appear to have taken any photos
of it whatsoever.

Next door to the junior woody is a variant of the larger disko variants, never done one quite
like this so I have a go (I actually like the larger disko ones and don't like the smaller
bump-less ones). This one falls into the "like" group - good little ride then.

Another junior version of a proper ride is next, Flying ACE Aerial Chase (formerly
known as something to do with Rugrats) - ridden a few of these, they look quite good, but
are again not very exciting (even for a junior-person I would imagine).

Incongruously sat right on the edge of the kiddy area that all the previous rides live in, is
the previous reason I felt the need to visit Kings Island, the rather large and wonderful
Diamondback. Last time I was here I abused the single-rider-queue, this time the
FastLane served me well (I didn't see a SRQ, has the FastLane replaced it?). Avoided a
~20/30 min Q each time I rode it - the FastLane investment starting to pay off...

I was amused by the "things that have fallen off the ride" display in the Q line, first time
I'd seen one of these (but saw a few more later in the trip).

Diamondback was great then, enjoyed it much more that when I came in 2009 for some reason.
The new seatbelts didn't cause any issues in loading and you could still leave yourself some
room in the lovely clamshell restraints to get some lovely floating airtime on the big hills.
Could ride this all day (and I came back to it a few times later of course).

I headed across the park, in the general direction of the new ride, but headed past it to
another ride with a series of names; The Bat (formerly Top Gun / Flight Deck) one of
the few Arrow suspended coaster (with original trains) left (4?).

Annoyingly no FastLane at The Bat, so I have to Q with the hoi-polloi for a while

Get some nice views of the outfield of the new ride on the way out to The Bat's station

Unable to contain my gooniness any more, I head for Banshee next

FastLane gets me me past a rather large Q (smugly) and I wander onto the back row for my
first ride. Re-ride it a couple of times straight away, front row and in the middle - I
wasn't paying attention to which train I was on but didn't feel that I was overly rattled
about.

So I really liked most of this ride; really good first drop, the zero-G and batwing things
are great too, actively did not like the final inversion / inline roll though - thought it
spoiled what was up to then a smooth sweeping experience with an element that just felt
out of place and wrong.

Liked the restraints a lot - a lot more arm-room than the OTSR of other inverts, and the
view through the train is much better. Are the trains wider - they must be I guess, what
about the gauge of the track - is that the same? Questions questions questions...

The stuff around the ride was good too, from the video screens in the shop

To the themeing in the Q and the nod to Son of Beast

The drop tower was down all day, which was shame as this is a big one

But all the coasters were running, so next up was Invertigo, a factory model
Vekoma invertigo (no kidding), FastLane save me another 30m Q I think, for a ride that
doesn't really warrant a long Q!

Rode the big Delirium at some point (later in the day though I think) - that was new the
first time I came here 11 years ago and was still popular and pulling in the punters

I must have ridden Adventure Express and the red side of Racer next as I worked myself
up that side of the park (blue side wasn't running until later in the day for some reason).

but clearly forgot to take any pics until I got upto NightHawk and Flight of Fear which both
sit a little off the side of the park behind Racer.

FoF was actually not running at that point, but opened up later in the day

Nighthawk gave me some grief last time I was here; the restraints got stuck when we got back
to the station and the whole train were sat lying on our backs for 20mins or so - not nice.

This time, no problems - and FastLane meant I didn't have to Q an hour for it like I did
last time. (I'd ridden the same ride at Six Flags Worlds of Adventure back in 2003 so
really shouldn't even have bothered Q-ing for it in 2009 like I did!)

Kings Island had gained a Windseeker since last time I was here, so had a go on that (in
fact did it a couple of times) - I find these quite pleasant actually - not at all scary/exciting
; more like an observation tower with a restraint and silly no-photo rules.

Anyway, they are quite photogenic too

One observation tower cred leads to another, so head up the big tower for a while, I do
like big towers and I can spend quite a while just staring at the view from these (and taking
some holiday snaps while I'm at it of course)

Must have ridden Vortex next, I had strong memories of this being a really painful
ride, but happily (possibly die to some defensive riding) it wasn't too bad at all to me
today - I still wasn't up for re-rides though (I'm not that daft!)

And again its very nice looking thing,

Beast then next. I really liked the Beast the previous times I'd been here, but I
was conscious that I'd only rode it during the day - and you know what they say about needing
to ride the Beast at night...

Its also hard to photograph, being all out in the woods and stuff, so I have a quick ride
on it now, and its riding really well... to be continued I think...

Spend the rest of the day wandering the park, taking some pics, having some rerides, just
having a good day at the park - but mainly waiting until it gets dark.

These were in a few parks too (like we saw in that indoor park on the Finland Live)

--

Ok, so by the time it starts to get darkish I reactivate my gooniness and start paying
attention to what I'm doing... night (or at least darkish) rides on Banshee, a couple
on Diamondback are great as well and I head to the Beast around 9:15 - dark enough.

(and the camera battery had run out by now, so no night pics ; they'd be rubbish anyway
as it was only a compact camera on this trip not the proper one)

And its awesome. A great ride (IMHO) during the day has become this great ride that suddenly
acts like an indoor dark-coaster - its great stuff out in the woods with only the ambient
light to see by, but then you enter the helixes and all bets are off - you have no idea where
you are, where the walls are, its like screaming down a tunnel at a hundred miles an hour
with no points of reference. Loved it.

Head straight back around for another go; only its about 9:40 by now (park closes at 10 so
I think I'm good for a couple more FastLane rides (normal Q is pretty long by now) - but hang
on whats this; they announce that die to the end of day firework display they have to shut
the ride down at 9:45, wait until the fireworks finish and they get an all-clear then open
the ride up again to clear the Q. What the? A ride famous for night-rides, they shut down
at night - makes no sense.

So I'm in the FastLane Q (its not walk-on for FastLane, there is a bit of a Q) and they shut
it down. 15mins later the fireworks start off - seemingly right above our heads, but because
I'm in a roller coaster station I can't see any of them, only hear them. After a while the
noise stops, but they take an age (well probably another 15mins) to get the all clear and
start running again (so thats 10:20ish).

Fortunately its still great and I laugh away to myself afterwards as I wander back through
the empty park in the dark.

A great day out then = a happy Dave!

--

One processed pic from the day;

 

[davidm]

Re: Up The 'Merica : SFoG/Dollywood/KentuckyKingdom/Kings Is

Saturday 31/5

Woke up near Cincinnati, went to sleep near Grand Rapids, MI.

In between drove for quite a while to get from A to B (~6 hours). Clearly the driving was
taking up the day, so nothing else to say really...

Sunday 1/6: Michigan's Adventure

So this place had always intrigued me a little bit, I'd thought about coming here on other trips
but the logistics just didn't work, so had made a point of getting here this time (which
necessitated the silly waste-of-a-day-drive yesterday).

Odd place then, really out in the middle of a forest area, just a few little towns nearby,
but easy enough to get to if you start out at Grand Rapids (<1hr). Pain to get to from any
where else though since its so remote.

Got there a little before opening, and the car park was very empty - I hadn't expected
it to be busy today, but thought it would be significantly busier than it was - very sparse
crowds all day.

Headed to the Mad Mouse first up, just in case operations were sluggish (they were - lots of
ops being trained that day so quite a few dispatches were delayed, not that it mattered).

Meh - mices, rode loads of them, better than their spinning variants, but still common - been
there seen that sort of things. Only this wasn't the same as all the other mice I've been on,
turns out it was the very first Arrow mouse that I've been on - wow! Was basically the same
as all the others though, just the car is a bit wider.

Next up was the imaginatively named Corkscrew - clearly the park's signature ride back
in the day, its plonked right in the middle of the park centre stage.

and it doesn't really do much, little drop, two corkscrews, return to station.

Off to the side of Corkscrew, somewhat better placed alongside the park's boundary than the
last ride, is the next coaster Zach's Zoomer; a junior woody

Like most of these small woodies, fun enough, but doesn't do much; exciting if you are a
kiddy I guess, +1 for the rest of us...

Rather dominating the park is a large lake - I'd assumed that the park and rides would
encircle the lake, making a nice circuit you could walk - but no; some the rides gather around
the lake edges in a rather scenic manner, but you can't walk all around it, only 3 sides -
missed a bit of basic park-layout there I think?

One of the rides to take advantage of the lake as a bit of scenery is the SLC Thunderhawk
which I'd previously ridden also on a lake edge as Serial Thriller at Worlds of Adventure.

Rode it again of course, just because it was there.

Not a lot to say about SLCs - mostly horrible rides but usually pretty scenic - I seem to
have taken lots of photos of this one...

After the SLC is when I discovered that the lake-circuit wasn't so much a circuit as a dead
end, but there is a small train station there, so hop aboard.

Train is not very busy as you can tell, and not the most inspiring park-train ride I've been on.

But it does deposit me at the other side of the dead-end and I can next hit up the other big
ride that utilises the lake for scenery, the first larger woody of the day Wolverine Wildcat

Its OK - quite fun actually, not very big or twisty, lots of up and down though.

Before I venture onto the big coasters seen from the train ride above, I realise that I've
missed a coaster somewhere (which is hard as the park ain't that big!). I failed to pick
up a map as I walked in and I can't for the life of me work out where I missed it. Refusing
to resort to a map, I wander back towards the entrance along some paths I haven't walked
down before and still don't find it. Starting to feel a bit foolish I stop for a drink
and spot the missing coaster tucked right up the corner of the park near the entrance -
phew!

Ride op laughs at me a bit for riding this most misleadingly named Big Dipper - its
a bit more interesting than the normal kiddy-rides as its got a little bit more track to
make your way around slowly.

Right, the real reason I'm here is of course the park's major ride, the rather monstrous
looking Shivering Timbers.

You can't avoid this thing as you enter the park, the road into the car park runs the length
of the ride, and its seemingly over-engineered support structure (what make it look so
monstrous) is all rather intimidating.

Not many riders about though, and it is the middle of the day by now so I was expecting
the peeps to have started turning up...

Its a bit hard to get pics of from within the park, since most of the ride is outside
the park (and I didn't go wandering around the car park afterwards just to take pics).

But its rather good - not as tall as it looks from photos I think and a rather simple out
and back layout, but its FULL of hills, maintains its speed really well (helped by not
having many turns in it I suspect) and great fun. Only bit I didn't like was a spot of
trick-track that caught me painfully by surprise on my first ride, subsequent rides I
know it was coming and could ride it out. Great stuff then - worth the trip up here I
think.

Given the size of the park and the lack of crowds, was struggling for enthusiasm after about
2pm, wandered round for a while taking some pics but headed out fairly early.

Didn't have a hotel booked for that night so was playing it by ear where I would stop (was
planning to go into Chicago for some sight-seeing the next day and how I was going to do
that was going to depend on where I ended up that night / when I wanted to stop driving).

So drove to Chicago (3.5 hours) and stopped off at a service-station thingy in the South
of the city-sprawl. Looked at a map, looked at the train lines and because I recognised
the Arlington Heights area (for reasons I'll explain in a moment) headed there (another
hours drive across Chicago) armed with a discount-coupon for a random hotel in the area.

Now I'd stopped in Arlington Heights before, entirely unintentionally - in 2005 I was flying
back from Dallas via Chicago and the airline messed up my flight so I missed the connection
in Chicago and had to stop over at their expense in a random hotel near the airport (i.e.
in Arlington Heights) - and it turned out that the hotel I was heading for with my discount
coupon was the very same hotel the airline had put me up in years before - something I
genuinely did not realise until I drew into the car park and then confirmed when I recognised
the lobby area. Made me laugh anyway.

 

[Intricks]

Re: Up The 'Merica : SFoG/Dollywood/KK/KI/MichigansAdventure

How has Thunderhawk held up? It was by far the smoothest SLC that I had ridden, and am just curious if it still maintained most of its smoothness, or it went down the path of the Mind Erasers.

 

[LiveForTheLaunch]

Re: Up The 'Merica : SFoG/Dollywood/KK/KI/MichigansAdventure

^ Bomb Banshee photo right there! All your photos are good obviously, but I really like that one!

Dare Devil Dive Coaster - must admit I always though that this was called
"Dare Devil Dive", but its more "Dare Devil" "Dive Coaster" (if that makes any sense?).

I know exactly what you mean. I always thought it was Dare Devil Dive as well, not Dare Devil: Dive Coaster.

Really enjoying the trip report! I hate those gross tacky strip things, but I think it's more of a love-hate thing. They can be somewhat enjoyable, but SUCH a tourist trap and everything tends to be so pricey. Never spent a significant amount of time in Pigeon Forge other than going to Dollywood, but Clifton Hill in Niagara Falls is essentially the same thing.

 

[davidm]

Re: Up The 'Merica : SFoG/Dollywood/KK/KI/MichigansAdventure

^^ I tend not to notice too much about SLCs; Thunderhawk wasn't especially painful so it just sits with all
the rest of the average-ness that is that model.

--

Monday 2/6: Chicago

Today was a bit of a non-park, tourist, sight seeing job. I'd spent a couple of days in
Chicago 10+ years ago and liked it, so I felt felt that having a day wandering around the
downtown would be a reasonable use of my time.

My cunning locating myself in Arlington heights the night before meant that I could park the
hire car at the train station and then get one of the local 'Metra' trains into the city
itself - I'd kinda assumed that the trains would be the standard commuter way into the
city but they didn't really run often enough to make that work I think - they were about
hourly, which is not use to workers trying to get around the city-sprawl.

Double-decker trains anyway, with a very odd upper deck with a big hole in it;

Anyway, train deposited me in the city and off I went for a walk about.

Wasn't this Batman's office;

Made my way to the Hancock tower, since it was the big observation deck that I hadn't been up
last time I was here (went up the then Sears tower before), and this one is pretty spectacular too;

Quick selfie in the shiny ceiling

Took lots of snaps up here, then noticed on the horizon that a monster storm was coming so
watched that roll in an envelope the city centre - rather cool experience actually

Oncoming storm;

They had recently installed a "thing" (loathed to call it a ride, "experience" perhaps)
here ; "Tilt" which was a $5 upcharge and involves standing at a window looking out at the
view, said window and the floor that you are stood on then tilts forward a bit, then a little
later tilts forward a bit more. Amusing rather than scary - expect if you have problems
with heights you might find it scary but I just found it a bit silly really.

Ripped off the 'on-ride' photo from their website;

So spent quite a long time up the observatory, afterwards walked over to Navy Pier.

Some well-named school in the area participating in some street-art thingy

Looking back to the Hancock from Navy Pier, can tell the storm had completely gone by now

I remembered there being a couple of rides and stuff out here, but they were all shut down
today - strange as the place was packed with schoolkids on some field trip things

The pier was a lot less pleasant than I remembered it being, so didn't dwell long and headed
back towards the city centre.

Chicago appears to have "Boris bikes" too;

Some great looking buildings around the downtown, one of the older ones;

...next door to one of the newer ones - there was some local outcry on the news the next
day about the ugly "TRUMP" sign going up on this one - it just said "TRU" when I was there
though;

The next thing I was keen to see was the big statue thing "Cloud Gate" - commonly known as the bean - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_Bean
in the park in the city centre.

And it was rather splendid - really messes with the optics of the area and gave fantastic
reflections of the people and buildings all around - really cool

The optics especially weird underneath it;

Some bean-selfies;

Heading back to the train station mid afternoon, I stopped off in the train station next
door to the one I wanted, Union Station.

Mostly a really ugly station, it has one rather large redeeming feature that is it's
"Grand Hall" - which doesn't appear to be used for anything related to the railway any more
apart from a bit of a waiting room

and was notable for the grand staircases contain therein (which a famous scene in the movie
"Untouchables" was shot on)

So nice enough tourist-day ; the only day on the trip that I missed not having my good
camera with me though (the convenience of a compact camera on all the other days outweighing
the desire to take some proper pics of Chicago - the compact is OK, but I just know the
DSLR would have been much better)

Got train back to Arlington Heights, picked up the car and headed up to Gurnee - normal
coaster related service will resume tomorrow.

--

Couple of processed pics from today then;

 

[davidm]

Re: Up The 'Merica : SFoG/Dollywood/KK/KI/MichigansAdventure

Tuesday 3/6: Six Flags Great America

So I'd been to Great America a couple of times before (2003,2009) and really liked the place,
one of the better Six Flags - clearly the fact that they had a very interesting new woody
opening this year was a draw and the road trip route was intended to be here a week or so
after that opened. Only of course everything got delayed with regard to it opening and
pushed back (something they did not care to mention until I was actually over in the US)
so that was all a little annoying.

Anyway we'll say no more about that.

For some reason they rank them selves especially "clean" - something I remarked upon on my
last visit if I remember correctly - very strange, can't say I saw anything to support this
theory

New at this park since my last trip was X-Flight - was looking forward to this so
made the goony brisk-walk at rope drop straight to this and hopped on the second train
of the day (only because I had to wait one train for the back row).

In truth I felt it was little bit small ; not as disappointing as Wild Eagle was but not
quite upto my expectation - the end bit of the ride with the near-misses is very good but
not a lot in the first half that is terribly different / better than Swarm for example.

(actually "disappointing" is a bit harsh there, just perhaps a difference in expectation
and reality )

Still very much enjoyed it, great fun - thats 4 of these I've been on and this is a strong
second to GateKeeper (which I still think is substantially better than the rest).

Its quite photogenic too, and plonked in the park such that you can walk around most
of it to take some snaps

After a few rides on X-Flight I carry on around the park a bit and ride their junior
coaster Spacely's Sprocket Rockets which I had not been on before (seem to recall
a large Q for it last time I was here, must have been a much busier day than today then!)

Shortly afterwards I find myself near Vertical Velocity which is fun - I wait for
the front row for this, just to get the extra "straight into the sky" moment at the top
of the spike.

trying to be clever with reflections later in the day here;

So I complete my set of "+1"s for the day by riding the newish-yet-oldish junior woody
Little Dipper, notable as being relocated from a defunct Chicagoland park a few
years ago - was nice enough.

The junior woody sits in the shadow of an old-legend - the original B&M invert after which
many will be modelled over the next 20 years Batman the RIde. Remembering my
queeziness after Georgia's version the week before I was a little concerned about this but
I fine - must have been a passing fad in Georgia! Great ride of course, proper old-school
invert and still running great after 20-odd years of service.

Rode the Dark Knight mouse-in-a-box next - no pics of it 'cos its in a box of
course. Was very disappointed with this the first time I rode it in 2009, but enjoyed
GAdv's version last year a bit more - still, they are all very "meh", wonder how long
the license is for and what they'll do with it when it runs out?

Superman (next to the mouse-in-a-box) was closed at that point, thought about trying to
take pics of it from the Condor, but didn't

Now the other times I'd been here, I'd really like Viper, the cyclone-esque woody,
so it was to my great surprise that it was a bit rubbish today - rattling around, no
airtime - painful bits and all. Such a shame...

Superman - Ultimate Flight was a walk-on once it had opened up, so had a couple of
rides on that - still don't like the pretzel loop at all, but the rest of the ride is nice
enough in a not-too-stressful way. The way the ride is tucked away behind some shops means
you can only really take pics in the Q line or from the observation tower though.

Rode American Eagle at some point, only one side was running (red) and it was good
fun - better than I remembered - only pic I have is of its massive structure from the
exit path of Raging Bull though

and Whizzer I only seem to have photographed its sign - poor effort Dave.

At least I took the oh-so-original pick of Demon going through its corkscrew...

So spent a lot of the day just wandering around having a nice time in the park.

Don't 'do' waterparks, but theirs does look like one of the better ones (this was all
car park the first time I came here)

Huh?

The last big ride, I was saving for later in the day; this was the first big B&M I ever rode
(the first time I came here I didn't even know what these were) and it remains one of
my favourites. Raging Bull is a great huge ride, with a fantastic first drop and
a really twisty layout. Its often derided as being "trimmed to hell" - there is a evil
trim brake at the top of the first big airtime-hill, but ignore that and the rest of the
thing is just great. Easily my favourite ride in the park (now Viper has 'gone off').

I rode it a couple of times in the afternoon with a 20m Q, but came back to it in the last
hour of the day as the light and the Q dwindled and rode it again and again - lovely.

As the park closed, I managed to get from Raging Bull, back to X-Flight and got on the
last train of the day on that too - nice way to round off a good day at one of the USA's
best regional parks.

 

[Darren B]

Re: Up The 'Merica : SFoG/DW/KK/KI/MichigansAdventure/SFGAme

Loving the report so far, Dave. And seeing as you knocked off a few of the parks I did a couple of weeks later it was interesting to get your take on the parks.

I'm glad you enjoyed KI as for me it was one of the worst parks I visited over the 2 weeks; I found it very meh and lacking in good rides. Banshee & Diamondback are obviously fantastic and Beast at night is one of the best coaster experiences EVER, but, I just didn't enjoy my 2 days there.

As for SFGAm; I'm pretty much on par with you there. It's a pretty good park with some decent coasters, and I'm glad someone else enjoyed Raging Bull. Shame you didn't get a good ride on Viper though, I thought it was going to be a simple +1 and had no idea it was a Cyclone clone and I actually loved it! Me and Jerry got a fantastic ride on it and the airtime was incredible.

Oh, and as for Goliath spiting you, I feel for you. It's AMAZING.

 

[davidm]

Re: Up The 'Merica : SFoG/DW/KK/KI/MichigansAdventure/SFGAme

^ not so much 'spite' since it hadn't opened by then - glad you lot got there for the media day though as it
did look pretty impressive (even if it does look like a steel coaster build on top of a wooden one!). Gives
me a reason to go back there in a couple of years, perhaps after they open another big coaster tho'

--

Wednesday 4/6: Wisconsin Dells

Bit of an odd day today - needed to get from Gurnee last night to Minneapolis the next day and its about
a 6 hour drive , could have done it all today but I didn't think Minneapolis itself was going to
be that exciting so thought I'd stop off half way since there is stuff there.

I'd looked the night before on t'internet and found a cheapo deal for essentially the "top class"
hotel that MtOlympus itself ran "Hotel Rome", which included entry to the park for ~$85 - since the park itself
would have cost $45 this seemed like a good plan so booked that and headed off there this morning.

Of course "top class" in the context of an operation that runs multiple cheap low-end motels with
basic facilities and bundles their theme park into the "resort-package" is pushing it a bit -
but the room was OK, certainly not a $200 room that it was discounted from.

Looks ok I guess, kinda like the posh roman hotel at Europa park, but all that roman themeing is
a bit painted on - just wallpaper rather than Europa's actual decorations.

Stupid long corridors too - and when I checked in and asked the clerk how to get to the room she
just vaguely said "go down there and find it" - lovely!

Anyway, wander into the park itself, have a look in the "indoor theme park" where there is a
big obvious lack of anything now that they have removed that Opa coaster;

and then have a walk-on ride on the first coaster of the day Cyclops, a bit short, but
the last drop is pretty good

and strangely park operations seemed a little better than my previous visit here in 2009, not
that that is saying operations were good, but at least today each coaster had 2 unhappy looking
teenagers operating them (a 100% increase on 5 years ago).

The smaller woody Pegasus doesn't do much, its a bit larger than you'd describe as a
kiddy-coaster, but not a _lot_ bigger - I notice that it ends with quite a nasty jolt into
the station so prepare for that when I ride

The much bigger woody Zeus is much more worthy than the previous two, but is suffering
from some painful jolting as it builds up speed - ouch.

Last up, and given the pain I'd received on Zeus, I approached Hades360 with some caution.
When I rode it as Hades 5 years ago it had caused me a lot of pain, especially on my last ride
on it when I ended up with huge bruising on my rib cage.

Had to Q about 30mins for it today as well, the only thing in the park with any Q it seemed and
of course they only have one train - but the ops were working reasonably well, certainly
better than my previous visit.

Not only had the coaster gained an inversion, but it had different trains than my last visit
and I did feel that the new Timberliner trains made for a much better ride than the old PTCs.

In fact I actually enjoyed the ride, the inversion was good and a great improvement on the
hill that it replaced - the dive underneath the car park and the confusing scream through the
tunnels were also great.

It still has some nasty moments and if you aren't preparing for them can cause lots of pain,
but it was all quick a pleasant surprise to find that it was a much better experience than
before.

Since I had to wander out into the car park to take pics of Hades, I took another of the rather
cool Trojan horse themeing that sits around one of their go-kart tracks. A version of the same
shot taken on my previous visit with a proper camera still pops up on the page banner on CF from
time-to-time

After a couple of rides on Hades I was done though, was not bothered to do anything else (I'd
ridden all the go-kart tracks before and don't remember being impressed) and there is little
else here to be honest.

The water-park was also included in my hotel, but that didn't interest me either (and it smelled
funny - at least the indoor part did that I had to walk through between hotel and park)

--

Later on when I went out for some food, I ended up near the local FEC "Knuckleheads" - I hadn't
really intended to do this (since I'd seen it before and not ridden it then) but I found
myself Q-ing to buy a $3 ticket for their kiddy-coaster Miner Mike.

Not very proud of that then.

 

[davidm]

Re: Up The 'Merica : SFoG/DW/KK/KI/MA/SFGAmerica/WDells

Thursday 5/6: Nickelodeon Universe

Another of those "3-hour drives" (this time through a large amount of rainy nasty weather) got
me to my final destination, and the first of the two parks here, the conveniently (given the
nasty weather) indoor park at Minnesota's vast Mall of America shopping thing.

Not hard to find, the mall surrounds the park on all sides, not sure that if I were a mall-goer
that I'd appreciate that, not sure that as a park-goer I liked being surrounded by a mall though
either. Hmmm.

But the park itself it pretty nice. Compact of course but not small or too crowded-feeling
(there were a bunch of school parties there when I got there around noon which was a bit
chaotic, but they vanished after an hour or so and the place was pretty quiet by mid-afternoon.

After getting my wristband (bought one bundled with the local SeaLife centre, more of that
later) I made myself ride the kiddy-cred next to the ticket booth Back at the Barnyard Hayride.
It was possibly the most unworthy kiddie-cred ever as it almost did nothing - just a simple flat oval.
And it is powered, what was I thinking...

Just behind that awesome first ride, was the tivoli Pepsi Orange Streak - to be honest
I had held little hope for this, tivolis being fairly dull experiences in the main, but at
least this one snaked around all over the inside of the park.

But to my great surprise, it was really good. OK, its still a tivoli but the custom layout was
interesting and it got up to a fair bit of speed and was a pretty long ride (two lift hills).
Easily the best tivoli I've been on (ok, so thats not saying much, but definitely a
worth-while ride.

Sat right in the middle of the park, and reaching up as high as the ceiling above, is the
Intamin half-pipe; Avatar Airbender. I'd only been on the one in Finland before and this
is obviously pretty much the same, Finland's one benefited by being up high on a hill, this one
was interesting since it was squeezed into a tight space.

Next up was the Gerstlauer spinner Fairly Odd Coaster - again I'd expected this to be a
bit compromised due to space, but again I was pleasantly surprised that it was as big/good
as the outdoor varieties of these things.

The last coaster that they have (and prior to my visit the only one I had expected to be
any good) is their euro-fighter, the marvellously named SpongeBob SquarePants Rock Bottom Plunge.

First time I rode this (when the schoolkids were still around there was a bit of a Q) but later
on it was walk-on - somewhat odd loading procedure where one op would let the Q into a pre-board
area - then there was a bit of ops crossing tracks and sorting out one train then loading the
second train (while the first one sat before the lift) before being happy then dispatching
both trains before sorting out the passengers again. I guess they did this so that they could
run the ride with just 2 ops (rather than trying to have a constant throughput).

Ride was OK for what it was, one of the smaller euro-fighters - does the loop and a roll, wobbles
around the rest of the course a bit. Quite cool on the lift being right up at the ceiling level
with the vertical drop afterwards.

The stand-out ride for me at this place was a flat-ride though, the rather impressive looking
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Shell Shock.

This was great; basically a big arm that swings around top-scan like, but the ride vehicles
you can control yourself whether they just swoop around with the arm or whether they spin
360 degrees as they do it.

Fairly easy to get the things spinning (there is even a pre-ride video that tells you the
not-very-hard technique) and once you do then the thing is insane. I must be a wuss these days
though as once I got it spinning I didn't want it to keep spinning for too long (check out ECG's
videos though for some proper hard-core spinning - urghhhhh). And it hurt me, monster bruise
on my arm from rattling around whilst upside down.

Small Q on my second ride, and as I was boarding two guys (not kids, in their 20s I'd say) got
off the ride going all "that was awesome man" - fair enough I thought - and then decided to
ride again - also fair enough I thought. They ended up sitting in the row behind me on the next
cycle. So up it starts, swinging away and I get my shell spinning properly. "Wow" shout the
guys behind me - "how are you doing that?". Rather confused by this I yell at them how to do it
(not sure if they managed it though) - honestly what were they doing on the ride before if they
thought it was "awesome" and did they just miss all the signs telling you how to do it. Silly
Americans.

Best ride-op control panel ever too, themed like a pizza-stall.

The rest of the park has a few more large-flat rides, I didn't do them though - the one looked
like it would give me a brain-hemorrhage so I avoided that and the rest were fairly standard.

There was a quiet cool log-flume tucked in one corner though that I did ride, not much of
a splashdown but pretty well done for an indoor water ride.

--

So my combo-ticket included a visit to the local Merlin-owned SeaLife centre thing (basically
Merlin bought out the mall's aquarium and branded it) - this was in the basement of the mall,
presumably underneath the theme park bit.

It was actually all rather rubbish though. Couple of tanks as you wander in, then the jellyfish
display, then wander into the main acrylic tunnels bit;

...and that was it. The tunnel bit was I think 3 sides of a square that then dumped you in this
rain-foresty bit...

but it was all over then. OK the big pond/tunnels were OK (but not very big), but the whole
place felt like it was only half an attraction. Not recommended.

Wandered around the park and the mall a bit, but shopping malls don't really rank high on the
list of interesting things to do on holiday, so so headed off (stupidly in the rush hour traffic)
to find my hotel for the night (luckily only a couple of miles down the freeway).

 

[davidm]

Re: Up The 'Merica:SFoG/DW/KK/KI/MA/SFGAm/Dells/NickUniverse

Friday 6/6: Valleyfair!

So my last park of the trip was the other large park in Minnesota, Valleyfair! (the exclamation
mark being part of the name it seems). Another new-to-me park, and thats always good, its
just a few miles outside of the Minneapolis/StPaul conurbation where I am spending my last couple
of nights.

The park layout is a bit poor; its quite long and thin with the only bit where you can circulate
being in the middle, otherwise there is a lot of backtracking involved in walking around the place.
First ride is deliberately (again) the mouse Mad Mouse, like Michigan's another Arrow
mouse and essentially the same ride. Theres no Q first thing when I ride it and a full
cattle-pen (which must have been the best part of an hours Q) later in the day - I feel smug
about that.

further along the dead-end that starts at the mouse you go through a little tunnel (under
the park's flood defences apparently) and find tucked up at the end of the path the next coaster
I ride; Excalibur. I didn't know what to expect of this odd Arrow ride - steel coaster
on a wooden structure (ala Gemini@CP I guess). Turns out it was a bit rubbish. Quite short,
doesn't really do much with what speed it gets from the drop.

best thing about it is its sign.

Also out here beyond the flood defences (as I write this, the park is flooded due to weeks of
rain - these rides outside the barrier and Renegade are all closed) is the rapids ride, which
I don't ride as it looks quite wet and I'm not in the mood to get wet!

Since it is still early and there is no Q, I next grab a few rides on the lovely looking
GCI wooden coaster Renegade. Again I didn't know too much about this ride, but having
been on a few of GCI's similar recent coasters (not least of which was Thunderhead earlier
in this trip) I was quite looking forward to this. And it was very good.

Quite surprised by the first drop actually ; it was S-shaped rather than straight down or
even bending - thats new to me!

The rest of it is the expected GCI speed and hills and rushing around - very nice indeed then.

Pretty sure I rode their other wooden coaster next, the much older High Roller which is
more of a out'n'back job - not terribly exciting or different, but fun enough. Failed to take
any pictures of it though it seems.

The kiddy-area 'Planet Snoopy' kind-of sits inside the L-shaped layout of High Roller and
contains a powered kiddy-cred Cosmic Coaster. Not quite sure what was cosmic about it
though?

Back down the other end of the park (at the start of another big long dead-end in the park's
layout) is the Intamin impulse (the same as the one in Chicago a few days before) Steel Venom.

Have to Q a bit for this, but the Q was moving relatively quickly so not too bad.

Due to its location in the park, I ended up taking quite a few snaps of it during the day.

This season they have opened up a new themed zone - themed as "Route 66" it appears that they
have moved a few older "classic" flats into the area and added another of those quite fun
disko-type thingies (like the one at Kings Island a few days earlier).

Moving on, there is one huge coaster that runs down much of the length of the park, the big
Morgan hypercoaster Wild Thing.

I do like these. Sure they are not as clever as the more recent Intamin/B&M varieties, but
they are proper old-school BIG steel coasters that do one thing and do it well.

There is a big Q, but they are running 3 trains on it and it rattles through the people pretty
swiftly - nice.

(Think I just need the Mexican one for the set now)

Later in the day its running empty for a while for some reason;

Theres just one coaster left, but its not been running at all so far today, I have a word with
the op standing at the Q entrance and they are predictably none the wiser (is it just policy
to say "I don't know" when asked what is going on I wonder - if you don't know, then why are
you standing there giving out information?).

So wander the park (and its stupid layout for a while), didn't ride this evil looking thing though;

Did ride the shot tower, which is out on a little island in a lake in the middle of the park;

The US seems to be persisting in its dopey "no single riders on ferris wheels" policy, so I
miss this

Entertain myself with taking some snaps of the carousel and the splash ride next door;

They seems to be having a few technical issues, not only is the last coaster not running, but
a few other significant rides are not running

(think this screaming-swing ran earlier in the day, but not for the rest of the time I was there)

I'd been keeping an eye on the last coaster, and saw it testing, so headed back there and get
into the just-opened-Q. The cunningly named Corkscrew sits in the middle of the park
and runs over bits of the lake.

Its better than Michigan's one the previous week, but that doesn't say much for it.

Relatively easy to take some pics of though, so I do that for a while too.

They've got a crappy little train ride, so I have a go on that - train rides are usually good
for some different views (and pics) of the park from angles and places you can't normally
go, so I was planning some pics of Wild Things hills from the train.

Only, they have a no-photography-on-the-moving-train policy. What the? Huh? Never heard of
that stupid rule before. Respecting the rules as I do I just look at the hills of Wild Thing
from a different angle rather than photographing them.

The weather has been HOT all day, but late afternoon theres a storm coming ; I grab a couple
more rides on Wild Thing and Renegade but then the rain starts coming down heavy so I call
it a day (not sure how long they ran stuff in the rain for, but I was done by then anyway).

--

So thats all folks ; 2 weeks, 8 states, 72 coasters (half of which were new for me),
9 parks (and a FEC), 2000+ miles in the hire car - headed to the airport the next morning
for a fairly uneventful trip home.

Where to next I wonder?

--

Final score;

Six Flags over Georgia
Batman The Ride
Dahlonega Mine Train
Dare Devil Dive
Georgia Cyclone
Georgia Scorcher
Goliath
Great American Scream Machine
Mind Bender
Ninja
Superman - Ultimate Flight
Wile E. Coyote Canyon Blaster

Dollywood
Blazing Fury
FireChaser Express
Mystery Mine
Sideshow Spin
Tennessee Tornado
Thunderhead
Wild Eagle

Smoky Mountain Alpine Coaster

Kentucky Kingdom
Lightning Run
Roller Skater
Thunder Run

Kings Island
Adventure Express
Backlot Stunt Coaster
Banshee
Bat
Beast
Diamondback
Firehawk
Flight of Fear
Flying ACE Aerial Chase
Invertigo
Racer
Vortex
Woodstock Express

Michigan's Adventure
Big Dipper
Corkscrew
Mad Mouse
Shivering Timbers
Thunderhawk
Wolverine Wildcat
Zach's Zoomer

Six Flags Great America
American Eagle
Batman The Ride
Dark Knight
Demon
Little Dipper
Raging Bull
Spacely's Sprocket Rockets
Superman - Ultimate Flight
Vertical Velocity
Viper
Whizzer
X-Flight

Mt Olympus
Cyclops
Hades 360
Little Titans
Pegasus
Zeus

Knucklehead's Bowling & Family Entertainment
Miner Mike

Nickelodeon Universe
Avatar Airbender
Back at the Barnyard Hayride (p)
Fairly Odd Coaster
Pepsi Orange Streak
SpongeBob SquarePants Rock Bottom Plunge

Valleyfair
Corkscrew
Cosmic Coaster (p)
Excalibur
High Roller
Mad Mouse
Renegade
Steel Venom
Wild Thing

 

[tomahawk]

Re: Up The 'Merica : SFoG/DW/KK/KI/MAdv/SFGAm/Dells/NickU/VF

Terrific report, I really enjoyed it.

 

[davidm]

Re: Up The 'Merica : SFoG/DW/KK/KI/MAdv/SFGAm/Dells/NickU/VF

^ Ta!

--

Couple of processed pics from VF!

 

[Darren B]

Re: Up The 'Merica : SFoG/DW/KK/KI/MAdv/SFGAm/Dells/NickU/VF

Great reports, Dave. Really enjoyed reading through them. As for needing the Hyper in Mexico to complete the set of Morgan's; I think you can justify saying you've ridden them all, Chance actually built Superman, not Morgan (they designed it though).