USA - June 2016

[Hixee]

I was too tempted by the USA Live (Storm Chaser, Lightning Rod and Fury 325) to pass up the opportunity to go back to the US this year. Seeing the US members again, and visiting those parks was an exciting prospect!

That being said, it’s a very long way to go for a three day Live, so I decided to bulk the trip up a bit more. Seeing as this trip crosses the Live, I’m going to break the trip down into sections – which I’ll complete when I can.

Part 1 – Louisville
Part 2 – USA Live (Kentucky Kingdom and Holiday World)
Part 3 – USA Live (Dollywood)
Part 4 – USA Live (Carowinds)
Part 5 – Charlotte & Kings Dominion
Part 6 – Jamestown and Williamsburg & Busch Gardens Williamsburg
Part 7 – Richmond & Philadelphia
Part 8 – Hersheypark & Philadelphia

I’ll post the USA Live portions of the trip reports in the USA Live Trip Reports topic, and the rest in here. I think that’ll work. Right… enough faffing…

Part 1 – Louisville

The USA Live was starting in Louisville, at Kentucky Kingdom. After a little bit of hunting around, I managed to find a very good deal on flights, meaning I could fly into Louisville itself and give myself a full day in the city to get over any jet lag and to see the city.

I did have to transfer through Atlanta, but the flight times gave me a relaxing few hours in between the flights and a chance to get some dinner in the airport. Immigration was a bit stupid though. They first put me in a line of “non-USA/other” passports, which was moving very slowly, but was moving. As I was nearing the front they asked if this was my second trip to the USA on the same ESTA, which it was, so they moved me into the fast track line with automated machines (that most of the other Americans were in). Unfortunately, I’ve grown a beard since my passport photo was taken, so the machine wouldn’t recognise me, meaning I got put into a line of “rejected” people, which snaked around for a bit and then re-joined the original “non-USA/other” line. It was very, very stupid – especially as the automated machine success rate seemed to be about one in ten!

Anyway, Atlanta airport was rather nice. Very big (not surprisingly), but with lots and lots of power outlets and seats, meaning it was a chilled few hours watching some TV on my phone and getting some food. Did the short flight to Louisville and a taxi to the hotel, and then slept. Like a log!

The next morning I had a leisurely breakfast and headed into Louisville on the bus. I appear to have missed all of the Ali crowds, but the city still felt very lively and busy. I decided to head out to their Waterfront Park and Big Four Bridge first, as I thought it might be a nice start to the day. It was! Now, time for some pictures (there might be a lot in this trip report)!

The Big Four Bridge is a former railway bridge spanning the Ohio River. They’ve since converted it into a pedestrian (and bike) bridge, and it’s really rather pleasant! It’s got nice views and is quite photogenic.

Just in case you’d forgotten what I looked like:

From there I walked back into the heart of the city through the Waterfront Park. I think it was already in the mid-30s (°C, mid 90s °F for the basics), so I was glad of the breeze and some shade. Their memorial to Lincoln was rather nice too (he was born in Kentucky):

By this point, it was time for me to dive for some cover. I had lunch, cooled down, refilled water bottles and relaxed for an hour or so.

I’d been debating about doing the Slugger Museum, and once I’d had a few locals tip me off about it too I figured I’d go for it. Baseball isn’t a sport I know very much about, so it would be interesting to see.

They have their giant Slugger bat outside the entrance:

Inside they have some exhibitions on past and current players, a factory tour showing the different production methods for the bats (and how they’ve modernised over the years). It was all quite interesting! Definitely worth a few hours. Plus it was air conditioned…

They have some batting cages in the back, and for a nominal fee you can face 10 pitches. Figured I’d give it a go. It was very difficult at first, but I got my eye in after a couple of misses and actually connected properly with the 5th or 6th ball. It hurt like hell! Amazing to feel the amount of force that the ball puts on the bat, and I wasn’t even facing full speed pitches (I think mine were at 55 mph). It was fun!

Proof!

Once I’d finished up there, it was nearing the end of the afternoon. I stopped by a street they have closed off (permanently) as “4th Street Live”. It’s a street with lots of bars, restaurants and clubs that seemed to have a nice crowd and atmosphere all day. I stopped by to check it out.

I stumbled in to the Jim Beam Urban Stillhouse, and ended up being able to get on their last tasting tour of the day. I’ve never really been much into Whiskey (and specifically Bourbon), but this was a really nice little session explaining the history and processes behind Bourbon, along with four reasonable measures of Bourbon. Very enjoyable!

The hostess in the Stillhouse recommended a couple of local bars for a drink and some food, which were ones I’d come across while I was looking up things to do in Louisville, so I decided to head to a bar for a drink (or two, it was a little early for dinner).

It was around 6pm at this point, but it suddenly started to get VERY dark outside. I checked the weather radars and there was a big rain storm moving in. I decided against getting another drink, and headed round the corner to a place that did food. Had a very tasty BBQ burger with a nice local beer (I avoided more Bourbon at this point as I was starting to feel a bit tipsy), and sat out the rain.

It was around 8-9pm once the rain had cleared up, and I was feeling pretty drained (it’d been a very long and hot day), so I caught the bus back to the hotel and crashed out.

Next up, the first day of the USA Live, Kentucky Kingdom! Thanks for reading so far.

 

[Jarrett]

Loving the report! I've actually not done anything in Louisville bar KK so it was interesting to see you actually see the city! Still...should've done Beech Bend just to see how bad it is.

 

[Snoo]

God you're sexy.

 

[Bat Fastard]

The Louisville Slugger Museum looks really awesome.... Unfortunately I had to skip it, as it was either that or Kentucky Kingdom and I just couldn't bring myself to pass on a brand new RMC.... Loving the report!

 

[Hixee]

Part 2, 3 & 4 - USA Live days 1, 2 & 3

I've posted the three days of the USA Live in the USA Live Trip Reports topic, I'll be back in there with the rest of the trip report soon!

 

[Hixee]

Part 5 – Charlotte and Kings Dominion

I’d worked out that I could get an overnight coach from Charlotte (where the Live was finishing) to Richmond (where my next major stop would be). This killed three birds with one stone; much cheaper than a hotel, didn’t lose a day to travelling, and gave me a day to chill out in Charlotte. Obviously the drawbacks being that I probably wasn’t going to get the best night’s sleep, but I figured I could live with that.

I got the guys to drop me off in downtown Charlotte after we’d had a relatively chilled morning and Waffle House (we had to finish the trip with one, let’s face it). We said our goodbyes and they started their drive back to Ohio. I checked my suitcase into the luggage storage at the bus station, so I wouldn’t have to carry it around with me all day, and headed into the city.

Charlotte itself isn’t the most exciting tourist city in the world. It’s got some nice places to eat, and some decent parks, but for a visitor there’s not a whole lot to do. That being said, I was looking forward to a more relaxed day after three intense park days back-to-back.

There seems to be a lot of development going on in the city, which I assume will look quite cool (I quite like city skylines) when it’s finished.

After doing some research on both things to do and the weather (hot) I realised an indoor activity would likely been required during the hottest hours of the day. Charlotte is home to the NASCAR Hall of Fame, which seemed like a good enough excuse. I do like cars and was curious about NASCAR at least!

It’s a nice looking building with a pretty impressive main hall.

The large banked arena around the edge was quite impressive, with a history of the development in car technology and the tracks (especially highlighting the increase in banking over time).

They had loads of exhibits and interactive displays on everything related to the sport. From safety, to pit crews, to living on the road. They also had a big driving experience thing (simulator type) which I didn’t bother doing as the mark-up seemed quite a lot really.

After a good few hours in the Hall of Fame, I’d seen everything (and learned quite a lot) and so I decided to head back into the city for a bit more random sight-seeing. There really wasn’t a great deal worth writing about, but they did have a funky statue thing which is apparently quite famous. I think it’s ****.

I had some dinner, and then tried to work out what I was going to do for another few hours before my coach. I was a bit reluctant to just sit in a bar drinking, as I didn’t fancy feeling groggy on the coach. I spotted a movie theatre in the downtown shopping centre, so went to watch Central Intelligence. It was pretty much what I expected, a decent enough comedy with some funny moments and the odd good stunt. Can’t say I’d recommend it for the cinema (they only had a small selection of films that would have worked for my timings), but it’s decent enough for some home viewing. At this point I headed back to the bus station to charge my phone and wait for the bus – on the way taking some pictures of the city.

I won’t go into the bus ride too much, but it was tolerable. With the exception of them making us all get off the bus at 4am so they could change drivers (by the looks of it they just literally swapped and signed a log sheet, not sure why we had to get off for that), it passed without any real hassle. I didn’t sleep that well though, so I was looking forward to some fresh air when we arrived in Richmond!

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I picked up the hire car, grabbed some breakfast, and got on the road up to Kings Dominion. It appeared as if there had been a pretty serious storm in the area the night before. There seemed to be lots of power outages, fallen trees and surface water on the roads. Thankfully the further north I drove to the park, the more and more things seemed to be relatively normal and once I arrived at the park there was no sign of any storm damage – although it was drizzling a bit still.

Once they’d done the national anthem (something I’d missed in the previous parks so far), they opened the gates. They have this funny policy of opening the gates half an hour early and then not actually opening the park until the scheduled opening time. They do open the area of the park around Dominator, and strangely run that one coaster. Kevin had tipped me off about this, so I was ready to get a few laps on Dominator before the rest of the park opened. It was a bit grey and drizzling, but it’s a great coaster and I enjoyed riding it three or four times at the start of the day.

The weather wasn’t as nice at the start of the day, but it cleared up (and was amazing) at the end of the day, so some of these pictures may appear twice as I went back round taking pictures later. I’m posting them in (nearly) chronological order.

I knew I was going to hit 400 at Kings Dominion, so I planned my next few creds to line up Intimidator 305 as my 400th. I needed five more coasters after Dominator, and helpfully there were five between that and Intimidator. I rode Volcano, Flight of Fear, Backlot Stunt Coaster, Avalanche and Anaconda (not in that order), lining me up perfectly for I305! Everything was basically a walk on, so it was a very chilled out morning. Now, time for this beast as my 400th:

There was a mild amount of soft drizzle when I boarded the coaster, which turned into flying daggers of face pain at the bottom of the drop. It made the first ride extra intense and it was really thrilling. I was really quite surprised by how well this coaster rides, as it always looks a bit awkward on POVs (specifically the very fast transitions between the bends). I grabbed a couple of laps, before heading round to sweep up the rest of the coasters.

At this point the sky was starting to clear up, and so on my way over to the other side of the park I rode the drop tower and Delirium (new for 2016!). I really enjoyed the drop tower – it wasn’t terribly aggressive, but it was high and fast and fun! Delirium was a bit underwhelming to be honest – it felt like you only got two swings at full height, which is a shame. Then I carried on down to the bottom of the park to ride Rebel Yell (good fun as these racers always are) and Grizzly.

I was starting to get pretty peckish by this point (it was nearing the middle of the afternoon), so I headed out towards the park entrance to go and get some food. On the way out I popped up the Eiffel Tower, as you sort of have to… :lol: . There was still a bit of grey cloud in the sky, so I actually went back later to get some more pictures, but here are some that were nice from the first time.

I went to a nearby Chick-fil-A, which was better than I remembered it from last time, and then headed back out to the park. At this point the weather had improved greatly, so I went back round the park (in a similar order to the route before) grabbing re-rides and pictures.

Dominator looks much better against a nice blue sky.

As does Volcano.

And Intimidator 305.

Plus a bonus #400 selfie (no sign, sadly):

After having three or four more re-rides on the various coasters in that area, I spotted Ricochet and Woodstock Express running (they’d been down earlier) – jackpot! All the creds! I moved back round the park, re-riding things and taking pictures.

I gave the Windseeker a go – I didn’t rate it. They market it as an exciting way to see the view. Problem is, it spins too fast to be able to see the view properly like in an Observation Deck, but it’s too stable to be the terrifying **** -show that is the Star Flyers. I don’t see the point? Yawn.

The lack of sleep the night before was starting to catch up on me a bit, so I made my way up the Eiffel Tower again for some closing pictures before moving on to the hotel.

It also wouldn’t be a trip to one of the Kings parks without at least one of these pictures:

Oops! Wrong way round! :lol:

Some thoughts on the coasters and the park.

Intimidator 305: One of the most powerful coasters I’ve ridden! It’s the first coaster I’ve ridden that consistently made me grey out, that first corner is savage. The airtime is amazing over the first hill, and I was really surprised by the amount of airtime in the transitions. They weren’t as harsh as they look in POVs and felt really cool on the ride. The heartlining is glorious. It was painful in the rain, but great in the sun. Excellent!

Volcano, The Blast Coaster: Another infamous coaster that I was finally getting to ride! The first launch packs a good punch, and the second one is really great too. The climb up through the volcano is okay, it’s got a little rough spot, but it’s not too bad. To be honest the rest of the ride is pretty mediocre, the twists and turns are fun enough, but I can’t help feel like it could have done a little more. After all, it is just a big helix. Thankfully the launches are good enough to make up for it, and it’s certainly unique!

Quite honestly the rest of the stuff at the park was relatively non-descript. I liked Rebel Yell, Grizzly had a nice setting, Backlot was fun and Flight of Fear was better than I expected. The drop tower was great, but the Windseeker and Delirium were a bit lacklustre.

Kings Dominion: Overall I quite liked this park, but I’m starting to realise I might be being swayed slightly by the fact that I’m essentially getting walk-ons on everything! Even Volcano, which I’m lead to believe can be a real killer, only had a three or four train wait. That being said, Kings Dominion felt quite green, had a nice selection of rides (both in terms of quality and variation) and there wasn’t anything that really sucked. Overall, not bad at all!

It was getting late in the day when I left the park, so I drove down to my hotel (only a few miles away), grabbed some great Mexican food in a restaurant nearby, and hit the sack. I think I slept for like 10-11 hours straight – it was glorious!

Next up, some more culture in Jamestown and Williamsburg and, of course, more creds at Busch Gardens!

 

[Pink Cadillac]

Ahh that's amazing, so many trees! <3 Looks like a nice, green park. Can't remember why so many people complain about it.

 

[GuyWithAStick]

Nice pictures Hixee! I especially like the Dominator ones. They look extremely professional.

 

[Howie]

^That picture of Dominator with 7 trains running - very cool!
I loved that ride, my favourite of the floorless coasters. Not the most intense, but so smooth and swoopy and graceful, I could quite happily ride it all day long.

Intimidator - meh. Wasn't impressed. Not exactly a bad ride, but I was expecting something sensational, y'know? It was one of the main reasons for me wanting to do that trip in the first place, was hoping for a new number 1 steelie (top 3 at least), but as it stands it barely makes my top 20.

But Volcano? OMG it's awesome! I totally did not see that coming. I didn't even realise it had 2 launches til I rode the thing - at night, front row, with a firework display going off as we burst out of the crater (KD's 40th birthday celebrations).
Unforgettable!

 

[Hixee]

^Yeah, I'm sort of inclined to agree. I did enjoy I305, and it is probably in my top 20 somewhere, but I don't think it's quite up there in the top 10s.

Ahh that's amazing, so many trees! <3 Looks like a nice, green park. Can't remember why so many people complain about it.

To be fair, that is the edge of the park. Most of the park isn't quite that green. :lol:

Nice pictures Hixee! I especially like the Dominator ones. They look extremely professional.

Thanks, I appreciate the feedback!

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Part 6 – Jamestown, Williamsburg and Busch Gardens

I’d had a feeling when arranging this trip that I was going to feel pretty knackered by this point, so I’d planned a more relaxed day. It came at the perfect time! My rough plan was to make the drive down to Jamestown and Williamsburg and do a bit of sightseeing there.

I’d been staying near Kings Dominion, so it was a reasonably short drive down to Richmond. I tried to stay off the main Interstate, taking some of the more pleasant backcountry highways. I worked my way down to Scotland, Virginia, a [strike]city[/strike] [strike]town[/strike] [strike]village[/strike] collection of houses on the James River. Nothing particularly special about this place, except the interesting little oddity that is Hwy 31. The highway exists on both sides of the James River, connected by a car ferry that actually forms part of the official state highway. Figured it might be a bit different and nice to see Jamestown from the river on the approach. Here’s a picture of Scotland as we departed, as you can see, barely anything to it.

The view from the boat itself wasn’t that amazing – there’s not really a lot to see – but I did enjoy the fresh air and change of scenery. Here’s a selfie.

And the ferry heading back the other way.

You disembark just outside the Jamestown settlement. I wasn’t really feeling like doing the whole visitor centre thing (not just because you have to pay, but I just wanted some quiet chilled out time too, and partly I didn’t want to pay), but you are allowed to drive around the Jamestown Island for free. They have some little laybys with information about the history and natural resources in the area. I think I only saw one or two other cars going round while I was there, which meant it was very peaceful (I also had a hybrid, so that was very quiet too).

At the most distant point from the start there is a little trail out to the end of the island, so I walked out there and had lunch. It was really quite lovely.

They also have some cool looking wooden bridges over the marshes.

Obligatory hire car photo:

From Jamestown, I headed towards Williamsburg. I decided to check into my hotel, and then after a quick look at a map realised I could leave the car at the hotel and walk into the colonial bits of Williamsburg. Several people had assured me that Williamsburg was nice, so I was looking forward to seeing what it was like.

They have a main street that is closed to vehicles, and all of the architecture is kept from the colonial era, making it quite picturesque. There’s not too much to write about at this point, so I’ll just include a few pictures.

There are lots of “traditional taverns” along the street, so I thought I’d pop into one of those for dinner, but the menus weren’t very inspiring for the price. I ended up finding an upmarket pub instead, which had much more reasonably priced food and a big beer selection. Once I’d finished with dinner, it was starting to get dark. I headed back down the main street towards my hotel. I also saw some fireflies, which was a first for me (in real life), but unfortunately it wasn’t quite dark enough and I wasn’t quite patient enough to get a good picture.

I got back to the hotel, sorted some of my stuff out and headed to bed. This was a chilled out day – as you will have been able to tell – but it was nice to have a breather! I’d certainly recommend both Jamestown and Williamsburg if you’re heading down to Busch Gardens, they’re nice places and worth a couple of hours each.

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My hotel was only a few miles from Busch Gardens, so I had plenty of time to get some breakfast and make my way to the park. I got there just as they opened the parking booths, so ended up with a space quite close to the entrance.

I grabbed my ticket (I’d bought one online beforehand, but I needed to redeem it) and headed into the park. It was around this point that I realised they opened the park in stages, with some of the areas closed for an extra hour and a half. This turned out to be okay, as it worked out for me that I was entering each of the new areas only shortly after opening.

The first coaster you come to (and that was open) was Loch Ness Monster, which at this point was essentially still a walk on. The first time they let me take my bag into the queue with me, but the second time they asked me to put it in a locker. I’m generally opposed to lockers, but it seemed like I wouldn’t have a choice today and they were only $1 for a couple of hours.

This actually worked pretty well, as I worked out I’d be able to ride Loch Ness again, Griffon and Alpengeist (once those areas had opened) all within the time available on the locker, then go pick up my stuff, take loads of pictures as I worked my way to the next locker stop for Verbolten and Dark Castle. And bonus, it messed up dispensing the change, meaning I got the first one free!

For the sake of convenience, I’m going to post the photos grouped by coaster, rather than chronologically. Starting with some of Loch Ness Monster. The interlocking loops are so fab!

After Loch Ness I headed round to Griffon, which had only just opened and was again a walk on. I actually got three or four laps (I can’t really remember) on it while the queue was so short. It was very fun! Here are some pictures.

The Skyride does offer some great views of Griffon, but unfortunately you’d have to get pretty lucky with your timing! I wasn’t that lucky! :lol: Still, you can see what could have been…

Next up was Alpengeist, another one of the most well-known B&Ms. This was basically a walk-on at this point too, so I grabbed a couple of laps before heading back down to retrieve my stuff. Some mixed shots, some from the Skyride (again, you’d have to be lucky to get the money shot) and some from the various paths. Alpengeist is a tricky one to get decent photos of – I think mostly because it’s in the valley with lots of trees obstructing the views.

The cobra roll is seriously massive. Is it the biggest one?

Lot’s of big B&M hardware in this picture. <3

On the way back to the lockers (near Loch Ness), I rode Europe in the Air. I think they should rename it as “Motion Sickness – The Ride”. It was awful. I can’t even be arsed to write any more than that to be honest. Don’t bother.

I grabbed my bag and dropped it at the lockers by Verbolten. This was (as expected) the biggest queue of the day. I couldn’t quite work out why, as they seemed to be dispatching trains at a decent pace and the park wasn’t that busy yet. Anyway, it was about a 45 minute queue, with an extra 10 minute breakdown, so just about an hour in total. I was quite impressed by Verbolten. Between that and Firechaser Express at Dollywood it only make me more disappointed by Thirteen – it could have done so much more…

I just about had time to ride The Curse of Dark Castle before my locker expired, so I headed for that. It’s a very impressive ride experience, with a lot going on. I remember Spiderman being much better, but that was many years ago. I enjoyed the scenes and the 3D worked pretty well, as well as the “4D” elements like the water and wind.

Dark Castle had a much shorter queue than I expected (I sort of assumed it was going to have horrible throughput for some reason, but it wasn’t too bad), so I also jumped on the Mach Tower. Really nice views, and a decent drop. Worth a ride if the queue is short.

I had some food in the car (mostly leftovers from the day before), so I headed out of the park for some lunch. After re-entering I headed towards Apollo’s Chariot and Tempesto, picking up the kiddie cred on the way. Apollo’s Chariot was great, and had a very short queue (I think that was partly down to very good operations), so I rode that three times before decided I needed to grit my teeth and get in line for Tempesto. I’ve ridden Superman (SFDK) and I don’t dislike the ride type, but they’re just awful at getting through people, so the queue was pretty slow. I rode in the back, and it was okay. I like the launches, but the large drop after the inline twist is a bit uncomfortable in the back row. Meh. Back to Apollo’s Chariot please.

I was tempted to ride Escape from Pompeii, but the riders coming off looked a bit too wet for my liking. I didn’t fancy being utterly soaked. I compromised and went and stood in the splash zone instead. :lol:

From there I headed back up the hill, grabbed another locker near Verbolten and rode that again, before heading down the hill to Alpengeist and Griffon for some last rides on each before calling it a day. On the way out the light was nice in the England area:

Mock Tudor and bunting – just like being at home…

Only kidding, I quite liked it really!

So, to wrap up.

Griffon: I really enjoyed this. It doesn’t feel as forceful as Oblivion (which I think seems to be most people’s criticism), but it’s massive and fast and fun! The drop is great and I really liked the first Immelmann. The second drop into the valley is kinda cool, and there was a fun pop of airtime before the water splash. I love water splashes on coasters, so another big thumbs up there for me. Brilliant!

Alpengeist: What a monster! The speed at the bottom of the first drop is amazing and the size of the Immelmann, loop and cobra roll are out of this world. The second half is a bit lame really, it doesn’t do a great deal, but I really loved this coaster. So powerful.

Verbolten: A great family coaster. The launches are fun and the indoor section is great. I really liked the UV colours. The indoor drop is good, and the large final drop is good fun. The different narratives is a nice touch, but I can’t say I was blown away by it – the differences were subtle as far as I could tell.

Apollo’s Chariot: I do really enjoy B&M hypers, and this was no exception. It seems to have lots of hills, meaning lots of airtime! It’s noticeably one of the earlier B&Ms, but it’s still smooth and comfortable. I did particularly like the straight section before the second to last drop. Another excellent coaster.

Loch Ness was fab. Tempesto was meh.

Busch Gardens Williamsburg: I was convinced that visiting Busch on a Sunday was going to be hard work. As I saw the numbers of people entering the park during the day I thought the crowds were going to get really bad. Curiously though, the park just seems to absorb people. None of the coasters had major waits (Verbolten at about an hour was probably the worst), and it didn’t feel cramped in the paths and things. The coaster selection is really quite excellent, and the park is green and the theming in the various lands is nice. It’s a very enjoyable park to wander around, and although it was probably the busiest park of the trip, I had a nice day. The lockers worked quite well too, allowing me to mix riding and photographing easily. Although I would recommend giving it a little thought, as you can definitely maximise the effectiveness of the lockers if you plan things a little bit (like I did). A very nice park – I’m glad I made the trip.

I left the park, grabbed some dinner (Outback Steakhouse <3 ) and then headed to the hotel and bed – I was going to have an early start in the morning.

Thanks for reading, next up will be a non-park update!

 

[Hutch]

You're really making me wanna go back to BGW, such a great park.

Really enjoyed you entire report so far though, and as others have said you've taken some fine photos as well!

 

[Hixee]

^Thanks!

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Part 7 – Richmond and Philadelphia

I had to drop the car off in Richmond relatively early in day, and my coach wasn’t until the early hours of the following morning. This gave me a very long day in Richmond – no matter I had a plan and it promised to be another nice day.

DISCLAIMER: I may get some of my history facts muddled up. I’m doing this from memory, so feel free to correct me if anything is slightly wrong (I’ve tried to avoid lots of specifics). Apologies in advance.

There was a bus that ran from the car hire place into the centre of the city, but it was such a nice morning that I decided I’d walk instead. It took around an hour and on the way I passed by some nice monuments on the very pretty Monument Avenue. They were mostly (as far as I could tell) various generals from the Civil War.

I also walked past this theatre, which has a fairly unique (for Richmond) architectural style:

I headed to the visitor centre to get a map and my bearings a little, and then headed into the city. First passing the Old City Hall – another interesting architectural style:

Richmond is the state capitol of Virginia, and I’d been recommended a tour of the building. They’re on the hour every hour and are free, so I took some pictures of the outside of the building before heading inside.

The new entrance is actually underground, and you arrive underneath the central hall of the old building. It’s a really magnificent engineering feat (they couldn’t extend the original building above ground due to planning and architectural restraints), and so I was naturally quite captivated. :lol:

This room is directly underneath that circular flagstone from one of the previous pictures.

And the sloped ceiling here is actually the underside of the front steps.

The tour went into the history of the location of the state capitol (it moved a few times before it settled in Richmond), the building (it was originally designed by Jefferson himself), its position during the Civil War and a bit into how it is run today. It has some nice hallways atriums and even includes a dome (as is traditional on state capitol buildings), however the dome isn’t visible from the outside. They also have statue to Robert E Lee, which quite nicely communicated the importance of the events that took place there (the state asking Robert E Lee to lead the Confederate Army). All quite interesting, and with plenty of air conditioning!

After I’d finished up in the capitol, I headed out towards the James River. They have a nice series of parks along the banks of the river, so I was planning to do a big 5-6 mile walk round the whole network. I bailed on that as it was too hot and I just wanted to sit down and enjoy the cooler air by the water for a while. To get over to the parks you can take a cool footbridge that is suspended below one of the highways. Very cool.

It gives a nice view of the rapids too.

I found a nice spot with a breeze, paddled in the water a bit and had lunch. There were loads of people out; kayaking, sunbathing, swimming, walking and cycling. There was a very nice chilled atmosphere to the whole area. A great couple of hours.

Selfie on the way back over the footbridge.

At this point it was nearing the middle of the afternoon and my coach wouldn’t be for another seven or eight hours. Conveniently, there was cinema near the coach station, and one of the best BBQ restaurants in Richmond just next to the cinema. Perfect! That was my evening sorted.

I headed back through the city, stopping at the new city hall to see the view from their viewing platform, and then caught the bus out to the entertainment complex near the coach station. I grabbed some dinner, which was delicious (I have a soft spot for BBQ sauce), and got some tickets for the cinema.

First up was Captain America (The Winter Solider). I’m not quite sure how they distinguish between the Avengers movies and the specific superhero’s movies, this had almost all of the Avengers in it! That’s just me joking around though, I really enjoyed this movie. It was a good Marvel film, with a decent enough story, good action and good light humour. Very enjoyable, and I’m glad I managed to catch it at the cinema.

The second movie was Finding Dory. It’s very good. Good casting, good story, good script and excellent animation. A very complimentary sequel. Not the best Pixar movie, obviously, and some of the “uniqueness” from the first one was a bit predictable this time round (whale speak, for example), but it was really great. Lot of feels. :lol:

It was approaching midnight at this point, and my bus would be in a couple of hours, so I headed back to the station and waited to board my bus. I was optimistic I’d be able to get some sleep…

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My optimism was misguided. I barely slept on the coach (probably two hours of restless sleep at best), but I arrived in Philadelphia feeling ready to have another day of sightseeing. I’d deliberately planned to have a day close to my hostel (which was in an excellent location, only about a five minute walk from the main tourist stuff in the city), so things weren’t too stressful. I dropped my stuff off at the hostel, got some breakfast and headed towards the sights.

First up was the Liberty Bell. I arrived fairly early, so it was relatively quiet (it got busier during the day, although no prohibitively so) and the queue to get through the security checkpoint was short. It’s a pretty nice building actually, well designed to lead you towards the bell and then present it in a large space with lots of room.

Independence Hall was next. You need to get a (free) timed ticket to go on the tour, which I’d picked up just before seeing the Liberty Bell. Independence Hall is, not surprisingly, a fairly significant building in the history of America. It is the building where they debated, wrote and signed the Declaration of Independence, as well as drafted the Constitution (I can’t recall if they signed that there too). It looks nice from the outside.

The tour is quite good, with the host explaining the history and significance of each room. The main room of interest is the Assembly Room, where the actual debating, writing and signing happened. I liked it. It felt (and is) significant.

From there I wandered around some of the local sights, including Carpenter’s Hall and the Tomb of the Unknown Revolutionary War Soldier. They were quite picturesque.

It was nearing lunchtime, and I’d been told by multiple people (and some online guides) that Reading Terminal Market was the place to go. It’s a giant indoor food market selling pretty much every type of food and drink going. It was excellent! I opted for a very appealing looking salad bar, and the food was good and reasonably priced (I thought it might be a bit of a tourist trap, but it appeared not).

While walking back in the general direction of my hostel, I found myself starting to feel quite fatigued. I’d been doing sightseeing in Philadelphia now for nearly five hours, and on top of only a few hours sleep and a long day the day before, I was starting to flag. Thankfully I could check into the hostel by this point, so I headed back, checked in, had a very long hot shower and spent a few hours just chilling in bed and in the living room.

It was nearing dinnertime, and I had no choice but to go for an infamous Philly Cheesesteak! I’ve had these before, but never in Philadelphia itself, so I figured I’d go to a local place that seemed popular. They’re not very photogenic, but they’re basically just 100% goodness. Very fattening I’m sure, but delicious as hell!

A shot on the way back to the hostel.

I headed back to the hostel, did a bit of socialising with the people there and then had an early night. It was really good to have a nice long sleep. :lol:

Next, Hersheypark and the final day in Philadelphia! Thanks.

 

[davidm]

Good snaps there fella ; this is the best ;-)

...although that one of Grizzly in the woods is a bit familiar too!

 

[Hixee]

Good snaps there fella ; this is the best ;-)

Haha, thanks! Yeah, it's a nice effect and works particularly well on some coasters.

...although that one of Grizzly in the woods is a bit familiar too!

When I was taking that Grizzly one I did think it seemed familiar.

 

[LiveForTheLaunch]

Awesome report, Hixee! Regretfully, even though I've been through a large portion of America, I've never really explored many of the cities so it's kind of nice to see what kind of culture they have to offer. I find a lot of big American cities quite boring and sterile, but the ones you hit up at least have a bit of history and look like they're worth visiting. I've always wanted to see Phili as I reckon it'd be pretty similar to Boston, and I loved Boston.

Looking forward to reading more!

 

[Hixee]

^Yeah, I tried to avoid going through too many boring cities. Charlotte was definitely the least interesting one for me, but Richmond was nice and Philadelphia was great.

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Part 8 – Hersheypark and Philadelphia

I decided to go to Hersheypark while staying in Philadelphia, as it would be a pretty easy trip to do and meant I could visit another one of the major US parks I had yet to visit.

I picked up my car early in the morning and got on the road to Hershey. The traffic was a little slow leaving Philadelphia, but once I was clear of the city it was pretty painless. The drive took a couple of hours, and I stopped for some breakfast on the way (Waffle House again… <3 ). I arrived at Hershey shortly after opening.

Thanks to a tip off from Jarrett, I headed straight to the back of the park to ride Laff Trakk before the crowds got too big. The queue was about 20 minutes already, so I think it was probably a wise move. It wasn’t that good – although I did like the neon lighting.

From there I headed to Lightning Racer. This was a walk-on for both sides, so I rode both. I quite enjoyed it, they had some nice interactions and good forces. It did bug me slightly that it seemed as if Thunder always wins… everyone knows Lightning is faster. :lol:

Next up was the Wild Mouse and Wildcat. Both were ****. :lol:

Finally onto the creds that I was actually excited to ride. Firstly, Fahrenheit. There was a 20 minute queue for this too, which seemed to just be due to the slow operations. I managed to get the front row (they were assigning seats), and I really enjoyed the coaster! At the very least it’s different!

Storm Runner was next, another coaster I’ve wanted to ride for years! It was only a couple of trains wait, so I grabbed a couple of rides. I really liked it, especially the Flying Snake Dive!

I grabbed the mine train (another annoyingly long wait), and then moved on to Great Bear. Another one of the famous B&M Inverts (mostly due to its unique first drop and supports). It’s a pretty impressive coaster, with some nice forces throughout.

I hopped on Sooperdooperlooper, before heading to Skyrush. Sooperdooperlooper is quite good, but I do prefer the straight drop on Revolution (SFMM), as I think it builds the suspense of the loop much better. It also has a nice symmetry with Great Bear.

So, onto the biggest ride in the park – Skyrush! I dropped my bag in the (free, yay) lockers, and then headed for the queue. I’m probably biased, as I’m pretty comfortable with maths in general, especially the numbers 1 to 4, but there seemed to be some difficultly in assigning people to rows. Call me miserable and picky, but it doesn’t take five or six seconds, per group, to assign a row. Especially when I’m just a single rider. It was a bit annoying to be honest. Anyway, moaning over. I ended up in the back row.

I knew the lift hill on it was fast, but it seems a lot faster when you’re riding it rather than watching it. Especially in the back row where you’re still in the station when it reaches full speed. It’s a very intense coaster, lots of airtime and positive Gs and it is very good. I do, however, think the restraints are **** and it has some pretty noticeable vibrations in the corners in the back row (although this was less noticeable towards the front). I’ll give it a proper review below, but for now some more pictures.

I rode a few times, and then headed out and rode Comet and the kiddie cred. I actually really enjoyed Comet, it was a good fun coaster with a surprisingly long layout. It also gives some nice views of Skyrush. It was mid-late afternoon at this point, so I decided to head out of the park and get some dinner for a couple of hours. I’d gotten all of the creds, so it was just re-rides now and the park was still open for another five or six hours, so figured I’d have a break.

On the way out I went along the path underneath Skyrush (as you may have been able to work out from my previous pictures), so got a few more before heading for the main entrance.

After dinner, I headed back to the park and went via the Chocolate World Tour. It was a cool and informative little ride. I didn’t take any pictures as my camera wasn’t cooperating with the very dark rooms, but if you’re at Hersheypark I recommend it. Now, back to the park.

I essentially decided to do the reverse of what I’d done previously, starting with Skyrush and working the other way round getting some more re-rides and pictures. Skyrush was still running great, and it was starting to look nice as the sun was getting lower in the sky.

The lift structure is absurd.

I grabbed a few more laps on Skyrush (it was essentially a walk-on, although they still seemed to be struggling with counting…) and then headed up the hill to Great Bear. From there it was over to Storm Runner for some laps, this ride grew on me every time I rode it.

A shame about the monorail…

Fahrenheit was next. They still had a sizable queue, so I only went for one re-ride. This time I was assigned to the back row. It did look particularly good against the setting sun too!

I went for one more ride on Storm Runner (for me it had the most re-ride-ability) and that was the end of the last park of the trip! I drove the short distance to the hotel, and slept easily. It all worked pretty well.

As I have been doing throughout, here’s some closing thoughts on the coasters and the park.

Fahrenheit: I actually quite liked this coaster. I wasn’t a huge fan of the drop – being beyond vertical seemed a little pointless – but the inversions were nice and it was relatively smooth in the front and definitely not rough in the back. I’d been lead to believe it was pretty bad in the back, but it wasn’t any worse than most. The highlight for me was definitely the Pretzel Loop – I really liked the floater!

Storm Runner: Excellent coaster! I’d never ridden with the old restraints, so I can’t really give a comparison, but the restraints were comfortable and I didn’t feel any head banging. The launch is great, and the straight drop off the top hat is really nice. The Cobra Loop rides much better than it looks and the Flying Snake Dive is fab. <3 I preferred this in the front row, but I will admit it’s rather fun in the back row!

Great Bear: The first drop and final turn/corkscrew are the real highlights of this ride for me. It’s definitely very unique and B&M did a great job getting it to fit into the area. The crazy supports are most noticeable in the front row (obviously), but they do provide some good foot-choppers in all the rows.

Skyrush: This review for Skyrush may come across overly negative – I don’t really mean it to be, it’s just a lot easier to write about what you don’t like than what you do. The forces on Skyrush are unlike those found on any other coaster that I can think of. It is a brilliant coaster, and probably the most intense coaster I’ve ridden. It’s very, very good, but it’s not incredible. I have three issues, which I’ll list in order of least important to most important. Firstly, the lift is too damn fast. Skyrush looks tiny as it is, but you barely get any time to enjoy the view. I can see the positives, it’s a very abrupt start to the coaster that feels in line with the ride experience, but there was a part of me that was a bit disappointed. Secondly, it’s got some pretty major vibrations if you’re in the wing seats towards the back. I have to admit, I was less than impressed after my first ride, which was in the back left seat. That being said, it’s better towards the front, much better. Finally, and it’s the biggest one, THE RESTRAINTS ARE **** ****. I can’t believe they changed them this season without redesigning them. They seriously let this coaster down for me. Something like a clamshell or even like the RMC lap bars would have been so much better and would definitely put this ride up in my top ten. At the moment it’s languishing up in the top 20 somewhere. I was told you “have to know how to ride it”, which is bollocks. Skyrush is a brilliant coaster, let down by shocking rider comfort. Almost everyone on the train was complaining about it on almost every lap I took too – so I don’t think it’s just me being picky. Anyway, sorry. It was really good, of course it was, it’s Skyrush!

Hersheypark: I quite liked Hershey. It has some good coasters, and a nice atmosphere. My only real criticism is that it doesn’t really feel that special compared to any other large theme park. I was expecting everything to be quite Hershey-fied, and the lead up to the entrance was promising. However once you’re in the park I think the reality is that it is just a theme park that happens to be in Hershey. I don’t feel like I’m explaining myself very well here, but it definitely felt more like Kings Dominion than it did Busch Gardens (to use recent experiences). Still, a nice park with good coasters and a good atmosphere.

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So time for my final day of the trip! Another early start to get the car back to Philadelphia, but another full day of sightseeing and relaxing. Perfect!

The first day I’d spent in Philadelphia had been focussed on the areas around Independence Hall. Today I planned to head a little further (not really that far in the grand scheme of things). Once I’d grabbed some breakfast and dropped my stuff at the hostel, I headed towards City Hall. One of the more well-known buildings in Philadelphia.

The downtown is also home to some very big and very shiny buildings.

I poked my head in the Franklin Institute of Science, as their atrium is quite impressive.

I was generally making my way towards the Philadelphia Museum of Art…

…better known for The Rocky Steps, and Rocky statue! I came to the statue first, which seemed to be very popular with tourists taking pictures with it. I did manage to get some with no-one in the way though – the benefits of a fast camera!

Next on to the steps. Again, with lots and lots of people running (or trying to) up the steps.

To prove I actually made it to the top. The view is actually really good from the top of the steps, you can see all of downtown Philadelphia.

I didn’t bother with the museum, and instead headed into the park behind for a sit down in the shade and some food. From there I headed back through the city, stopping in the odd park and stuff on the way. Nothing really worth sharing. :lol:

I headed back to the hostel to check in properly, shower and have a little rest. It was the middle of the afternoon by this point and so I ended up going for a few beers with a few of the other hostel-ers and chatting with them. We went for a few drinks after dinner, and then started to see the results from the referendum come in. I went to bed when it looked like it was pretty much decided, and with a lot of British people in the hostel the mood was a bit solemn.

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I had a very leisurely start to the day, as I had no real plans for this day. I was planning to just pick up any of the various bits and bobs I’d missed during the other days.

I decided to head back to the Liberty Bell, as I’d rushed through the whole exhibition thing the first time. Partly so I could get ahead of a big group and get some unobstructed photos of the bell, and partly because I wanted to make sure I arrived on time for my timed tour of Independence Hall. Anyway, so I queued up and went in. Whilst the line looked quite long, there was a steady movement of people (very simplistically the centre is just a long hall with information along the sides, so there aren’t really any bottlenecks) and I was through the security point quite quickly. I actually spent the time reading more about the history of the bell and what it had become to symbolise and I found it all quite interesting. I would recommend it if you’re in the city.

It was nearing lunchtime, and I’d had a tip off about one of the best Cheesesteak places in Philadelphia. It was a short (20 minute) walk from the Liberty Bell, so I headed off that way. Found it easy enough and ordered myself a sandwich.

The first one I’d had earlier in the trip was very good, but this one was superb. The flavour of the meat was excellent, the bread was very fresh and light and the onions were perfectly tangy. I’m salivating just thinking about it again! The place had a nice atmosphere, with probably an equal number of locals to tourists.

Jim’s Steaks has the black exterior in this picture.

It was a great end to the trip!

I caught the train out to the airport and began the journey home. It was pretty exhausting, as I couldn’t really sleep on my overnight flight, but everything went smoothly so I can’t really complain.

So in summary:
I added 57 coasters and 6 parks to my count, as well 2 new states (3 if you count the coach stopping in Wilmington, Delaware). Lots of fun with the CF guys (as always) and some nice cultural stuff too. All round, amazing! It’s likely to be a few years until I make it back to the USA, and I’ll miss it!

That’s the end. Thanks for reading if you’ve made it this far. I tried to include lots of pictures so it wasn’t too wordy, but I know I can waffle a bit. Bye!

 

[davidm]

Good read ; +57 not too shabby either.

 

[Snoo]

<3

Love you hunny!

 

[Pink Cadillac]

It's been a great report and I had no idea Williamsburg was so lovely. Skyrush is so weird as half the people really slander the restraints and the other half couldn't care less.