The Road to 100

[MDMC01]

Hey all,

I just wanted to create this thread for this summer's trip reports. As you may or may not know, I am hoping to make Nighthawk at Carowinds my 100th roller coaster. At the beginning of this summer, I was at 91 coasters and I'm slowly making my way towards that magic number. Below are my actual trip reports. I've traveled to Kentucky Kingdom (see below) and I'm planning on going to Holiday World soon and ending this series of trips at Carowinds. Keep watching this post as I'll update when a new trip report is added. Also, as a note, the numbers after the location and date are the coasters I've ridden that have gotten me to my current count (see About Me page). Enjoy!

 

2016:

Leg 1- Kentucky Kingdom- 7/23/2016 (92, 93)

Leg 2- Holiday World- 8/20/2016 (94-97)

 

2017:

Leg 3- Mystic Timbers- 4/14/2017 (98)

 

EDIT on 7/9/2017: So, it looks like I will not be able to make it to Carowinds this year to ride Nighthawk; therefore, the Road to 100 series stops with Mystic Timbers (this was originally Leg 2.5 and now that is Leg 3 as I am declaring the ongoing tour over). However, I will make an attempt next year to make it to Carowinds so that Nighthawk (or perhaps Fury 325?) can be my 100th!

[MDMC01]

Leg 1- Kentucky Kingdom- 7/23/2016

 

Hey All, I went to Kentucky Kingdom yesterday and had a blast. Before getting on to the good stuff, I just want to give you all a word of warning: If using a 2-day out of state ticket, please go to the ticket counter first to redeem said “ticket” as this is only a voucher, not an actual ticket (at least in my case; I went thru AAA, ymmv).

 

So, after getting into the park and getting a locker in my usual “waterpark lockers” location, I decided to tackle the first new coaster of the day, T3. I wasn’t sure that it was running (it didn’t look like it at first), but the moment I saw it operating, I got super-excited. As you may or may not know, T3 was my first SLC and one of the first of its kind. I sat in the front and enjoyed the ride. However, halfway through the ride, my body slid forward and my thighs felt very snug under the restraint. Overall, it was a good ride, but weird in that regard. I then rode again in the back and instantly fell in love with the ride, snug thighs and all (though this time, I didn’t feel the snugness until the very end).

 

After twirling about on T3, I decided to trek over to Storm Chaser, my first RMC coaster. On the way there, I saw signage for the old Top Eliminator Dragster attraction that operated when Six Flags owned the park. I read the signs (back in the day, it was $10 for two races!) and reminded myself to take some pictures. The grandstand was blocked off and there was a fence where the ride once stood saying “Fun Under Construction”- project 2017, anyone? So, once I got to Storm Chaser, it was down. However, a bunch of people left, so I was next in line for the 2^nd row of the first car. The ride reminded me of Son of Beast (probably because of its wooden-like nature (I know it’s all steel) and inversions. After 20-some minutes, we were given the all-clear to board. I really enjoyed the ejector air and this coupled with the fact that the inversions felt like filler reminded me a lot of Maverick. After the ride, I stated that “this is what Lightning Run wishes it could be”. However, I rode again in the very back and got a very violently airtime filled ride.

 

After the two new coaster credits were obtained, I wandered back to my old friend Thunder Run. However, Thunder Run must have changed since 2014 as it was not as enjoyable as it used to be (I rode in the middle-ish). I then rode the Rapids Ride since it was so stinkin’ hot out. Predictably, it was the longest line of the day so far and I made some friends in line who worked for their local Ren Fest (Oddly enough, their names, Dave and Tina, are the names of my two Blastoise on my Pokemon LeafGreen and Y games, respectively). The ride was very fun and had most of its theming from when it was known as The Penguin’s Blizzard River (umbrellas and all!). My pants ended up getting wet and the rapids made the boat very wibbly-wobbly. While in line, I was starting to get hungry, but I decided to ride T3 again before I ate. The line was longer than before and I sat in the very back. Unfortunately, I got stapled, which made the ride a little more painful than usual. I then got my stuff out of my locker and walked around to take some pictures of the rides, such as T3 and the Top Eliminator Dragster Entrance/Exit signage. I then picked up a T3 shirt before eating at Louie’s Fresh Market. According to the map, this stand is new for the season and it was pretty good. I got a ham/salami/cheese sub that apparently came with some chips. While the sub was very delicious (there was a unique flavoring to the ham), the chips were not.

 

After I ate, I decided to ride the Giant Wheel as I hadn’t ridden it before. It gave a nice view and I sat with some nice people. Afterwards, I decided to tackle Skychaser, which was new to me since last time. The ride is out in the middle of nowhere (well, technically near the waterpark) and looks interesting from afar. For this ride, you are restrained via a chain seat belt (like Zephyr, but with a seat belt instead of a clip) and a lap belt that went across your chest. I asked the ride op if I had put it on correctly (as I thought it might go in one’s lap) and she said yes. I soon saw why this became apparent as we started spinning really fast and stuff. It was definitely an interesting experience.

 

After riding everything I’d wanted to ride in the back of the park, I moved the front of the park. Once there, I chose Breakdance as my first ride in the front. Breakdance was down the last time I was at the park, but thankfully, it had the shortest line of all the rides I wanted to ride in the front half of the park. It was an interesting and fun little ride, and the way the ride stops at the end was definitely different. I then rode Cyclos, which is a pendulum ride that goes upside-down. It was down when I got there, but I was quickly on the next cycle once the ride opened back up. Unlike Delirium, I got to choose my seat, so I chose to face the parking lot and most of Lightning Run. It was pretty crazy and fun, so I did it again. While waiting in line for the second time, I counted the number of the times the other cycles went upside-down, which were 6-7 and 3-4 (or so I thought…). I then wondered aloud if there were different cycles, but no one seemed to know. However, the second time I rode, we seemed to go upside-down more, but maybe that’s because I miscounted the last time . Also, there were two ladders chained together next to the ride; don’t know if that was supposed to be there…

 

Afterwards, I moseyed on over to Professor John’s Flying Machines, a flying scooter type ride. I waited one cycle and had some fun soaring my glider high. The ride seemed to go slower than KI’s gliders, but I got some hang time, and that was worth it. After the ride, I personally thanked the ride op as I said that “back where I’m from, you can’t fly like I do”. After flying high, I headed to Enterprise after contemplating Tin Lizzies and briefly waiting for the 5D movie (which I did not see). The Enterprise was a fun ride and reminded me of Witches’ Wheel at Cedar Point, which is the same type of ride. I then went over and rode Tin Lizzies. This was the last new ride I really wanted to ride as I had planned to ride it last time, but didn’t get the chance. Since I hadn’t been on an Antique Car ride in years (and back then, I don’t know if I actually drove it), it took me a second to figure out that the bottom of the cars bump into the guide rails and that you actually power the car (I thought it was like Woodstock’s Whirlybirds, where you would be on the guiderail and you can push the gas to go and turn the wheel if you want). After riding, I thought the ride mechanic (as in, how the ride works) was tedious as you have to keep pushing the gas down in the cramped car. I can see the appeal for kids who can’t drive yet, but for people who do have their license and drive regularly, it was not very enjoyable. However, I did like the scenery throughout.

 

At this point, I was starting to get pretty tired, so I went back to the back half of the park to give T3 another go before I left. The wait was probably the longest I had waited, but it was worth it as I didn’t get stapled (I pulled the restraint down myself) and let the quirky little coaster do its thing. During this ride, I sat in the fourth row. Afterwards, I then went to the front of the park to buy a pin before leaving for the night (I was also going to try to visit this new roller coaster store, but it was in the back half of the park and I was in front and didn’t feel like walking back…).

 

I had a great time and it will be interesting to see how this park fares over the next few years. One nice thing is that for most of the day, there was Christian music playing over the loudspeakers as Way-FM was in the park. The songs that I enjoyed the most were “Diamonds” by Hawk Nelson (heard it 3 times- heading to Rapids, waiting for Skycatcher, and walking in the front half of the park) and “Move (Keep Walkin’)" by Tobymac, which has a nice island feel to it (it also reminds me of “Mike, Lu and Og”, which worked as most of the day was spent near the waterpark). Other songs of note were “I am” by Crowder, “Touch the Sky” by Hillsong, “God is on the Move” by 7eventh Time Down, “I am not alone” by Kari Jobe, “He Knows” by Blanca and a song by Lauren Daigle (she sounds like Adele).  And speaking of the waterpark, I did not end up spending anytime in the waterpark as it was too crowded (the wave pool alone was a sea of people and the slide lines that I saw seemed long). Also, at some point during the day, I explored the bumper car/game area that I did not know existed (I didn’t ride the bumper cars, though!). Finally, most coasters (with the exception of Lightning Run, which had both trains running) had one train running. At T3, they told us the orange train was “on vacation”, which was ok for the first two rides, but as the lines got longer, I feel like they should have added that second train on.

 

Well, that’s it for this trip report. Stay tuned to this thread for more #Roadto100 trip reports

 

Ride Counts for the day are as follows:

Breakdance: 1

Cyclos: 2

Enterprise: 1

Giant Wheel: 1

Prof. John’s Flying Machines: 1

Raging Rapids River Ride: 1

Skycatcher: 1

Storm Chaser: 2

T3: 4

Thunder Run: 1

Tin Lizzies: 1

[Infinity]

Great trip report! Can't wait for the follow-ups!

[MDMC01]

Leg 2- Holiday World- 8/20/2016

Hey all, I recently went to Holiday World with my Uncle Scott and we had a fantastic time. Here’s what went on:

 

My Uncle and I got there around 9:45 Central Time and got our tickets. After getting a locker and our picture with Santa, we waited at the entrance of the Halloween section for the park to open. At 10:00 the park opened and I (as well as about a third of the crowd) headed for The Raven as my first ride of the day. I sat near the front (1-2) and had a pleasant, but short ride. While riding, I thought it would be really cool at night as it speeds through the woods. I then headed to The Legend; I was really looking forward to riding this as this was allegedly dubbed “The Y2K Coaster” by the late Will Koch (according to his siblings via the 2016 announcement video). I rode up front and it did not disappoint as I thought it was better than Raven. I then rode again to see what it was like in the back, and I really liked it. I was getting a bit hungry, so I got a hot dog at Goblin Burgers, which was actually pretty good.

 

After the hot dog, we decided to head over to Thanksgiving to ride The Voyage. I rode in 1-3 and thought it was really cool. It had elements that reminded of Racer, Beast and Lightning Racer. I then decided to ride it again in the back, which was super insane and semi-painful as I kept hitting my knees on the lapbar. Since I needed a breather, we both decided to ride Gobbler Getaway. Upon seeing the ride, I immediately thought of the “Where’s Goble” thread and the ”Goble Getaway” sign. It was a refreshing take on the shoot-em up dark rides, and the surprise twist at the end was pretty funny. After getting some R&R by calling turkeys, I decided to climb the mountain to the last new coaster of the trip, Thunderbird. Thunderbird is America’s only launched wing coaster, and it looks so cool. I rode in the 3^rd row on the right wing and enjoyed it. Since there was a bit of a line, I didn’t get a second ride right away, though I wanted to (more on that later…) . Afterwards, I decided to stick around and ride Crow’s Nest, which is similar to Skycatcher at Kentucky Kingdom, though much shorter and with a slightly different ride cycle. It was fun and I came back down the mountain to meet my uncle.

 

After ascending and decending the mountain, I decided to ride Voyage again. I got 1-3 again and it was good, but still very crazy. I then decided to hit up Turkey Whirl as I love tilt-a-whirls. It was pretty fun and I got some really good spins from it (though I did inadvertently cause people to wait longer to get off as my turkey took longer to slow down as I’d leaned to give it more spin before the cycle ended). Afterwards, I headed back to The Legend to get another out-of-control ride. By now, I came to the conclusion that those building coasters in the year 2000 preferred turn-drops and helixes on their wooden coasters as these features could be seen on other coasters of the time such as Son of Beast and other RCCA creations. I then headed back to The Raven as I’d wanted to ride it in the back to see what it was like. It was ok, but thrashed me around a bit, which was crazy. Afterwards, I was considering riding Legend again, but my uncle wanted to see the 2 PM Dive show. Since the line for The Legend seemed longer the last time I rode, I decided to head to the Dive Show first as I didn’t think I could make it back in time. The show itself was good and the people were talented as well (also, I liked that I knew most of the show’s music from other sources). I thought the one interesting thing is that the host advised us to clap after they surfaced from the water as they couldn’t hear our applause underwater. After the show, it was back to The Legend again for another out-of control ride. I then rode again as I wanted to test a theory about riding in the right seat as I got bashed around on the right side from the last ride. My theory was correct as my right side didn’t hurt as much after that ride. I was going to take another solo ride, but my uncle decided to join me for what would be my 6^th and final Legend ride. We sat near the front and he really enjoyed it.

 

After going six twisty rounds with The Legend, we decided at long last to head to the Fourth of July section of the park, which we had previously not explored. Once there, I decided to get on Raging Rapids, the park’s rapid ride. I rode with 7 other people I hadn’t met and it was really fun; there’s just something about those types of rides I just love. Also, there was this random tunnel at the very beginning which seemingly served very little purpose as you didn’t get wet in there but it was cool nonetheless. Also, there were geysers, which did get a majority of our party wet. When we reached these, I proudly told of the exploits of our own Thrill Biscuit on WWC’s cannons. After coming off with my left pant leg soaked, my uncle got some ice cream while I watched one of the Rock the World shows (The Christian concert series Rock the World occurred on that day and some of the bands played on a stage inside the park while others played in a special, much larger venue). After rocking out to a drum-filled electronic song, we walked a ways and my uncle wanted me to try Plinko. He paid once for two tries, and I ended up winning the equivalent of a Front of the Line pass for 2. Luckily, I knew exactly which ride I wanted to use it on- Thunderbird. However, after winning at Plinko, we didn’t head back there just yet. Instead, I wanted to ride Revolution, which is a Round Up, similar to Electric Rainbow at Stricker’s Grove. However, I soon saw this was way different as it immediately lifted you 45 degrees and then started quickly spinning. After that craziness, I headed over to Liberty Launch. I got two unexpected bursts of airtime when reaching the top, and it was pretty fun overall. I then made my final 4^th of July ride Eagles Flight. Eagles Flight was good, but the rudder had little to no control. Somehow, I still soared high, which was nice.

 

After meeting up with my uncle (he rode the train while I rode the Eagles), I decided to make the trek back to Thunderbird to use my Front of the Line pass (my uncle didn’t want to go with as he’s not much of a rides guy- therefore, I was a bit surprised when he wanted to take that final lap with me on The Legend!). At the top, I had to wait about 2-3 cycles, but the ride op was really cool about letting just 1 person use the pass that was made for 2. I chose right wing again and sat in the front. Again, it was a really nice ride and I love how you really feel like you’re flying!. Since the standby line wasn’t too bad, I rode again, this time trying the left wing in the very back. The launch was more powerful back there, and it was interesting to see how the near misseses (supports, shed, etc.) differ from side to side. After coming down the mountain once again, I decided to head back to Voyage. It was about this time that the skies started to darken and get super ominous. They had previously sounded the severe weather alert twice during the day, and we’d gotten pretty lucky with just a few sprinkles or even sunshine. I got front seat and faced the angry grey sky. It was a good ride, but when we got the brake run, the rain just decided to pour and I got soaked. I could tell the rides were down for weather (there was lightning/thunder in the area) as they sent out an empty train in order to get us back into the station. Once in the station, I rushed around to find my uncle and ended up slipping in one of the free refill stations. After getting myself up, I searched the Voyage store for him but didn’t find him. We finally reunited in the bathroom and waited for the rain to dissipate. When the rain died down, we’d leave soon afterwards as I was getting pretty tired. However, on the way out, I went over to see if Frightful Falls had opened up yet as it was the only ride on the dry side that I had not yet ridden that I’d wanted to ride. However, when I got down to the line, the ride op said I couldn’t get in line. I waited for a few minutes, then decided to continue with our plans (I was going to get pictures and souvenirs before we left for our hotel). So, I got my stuff from the locker, gave my uncle the stuff I didn’t need (as he was going to the car) and snapped a bunch of pictures of the various rides and area signs. Along the way, I came across an ACER plaque by The Raven, which was cool. I got super sentimental by Thunderbird as it’s such a unique and great coaster (while Mystic Timbers is a fantastic addition to the park, I think KI needs to get a launched wing coaster asap). Oddly enough, as my picture-taking session was winding down, the storm was clearing, so rides started to open back up. Even so, I decided to buy some pins (Voyage/Legend and Thunderbird) and a Thunderbird shirt before heading for the gate.

 

Overall, it was a fantastic day and I had a blast at the park whose coasters could signify quality over quantity. For those wondering how I’d rank the wooden coasters, I’d go Raven>Voyage>Legend. Thunderbird is truly in a class of its own as a smooth, modern B&M in a lot of slightly cantankerous wooden coasters with a lot of personality. Also, I did not make it to the water park as I wasn’t really planning on that (Sorry malem!). However, some of the water slides were on my list of rides in case I stopped over there. We also did not make it to Rock the World as we didn’t purchase tickets, however, I did hear one song in the park as I mentioned earlier. My next stop on #TheRoadto100 should be Carowinds, but I don’t know if I’ll make it there this year. If I can’t make it down there in 2016, I’d like to ride Sea Dragon or Valravn before tackling Carowinds as Carolina Cobra is being re-themed (this was originally going to be one of my lead-up coasters to Nighthawk, but the re-theme changes things a bit). For those who’d like a list of the rides I rode, see below:

 

Rides:

Crow’s Nest: 1

Eagles Flight: 1

Gobbler Getaway: 1

Legend: 6

Liberty Launch: 1

Raging Rapids: 1

Raven: 2

Revolution: 1

Thunderbird: 3 

Turkey Whirl: 1

Voyage: 4

[MDMC01]

Hey all, back again! So, I got to ride Mystic Timbers for the first time on Preview Night as my 98th coaster. I've basically given my review of it in the "How was your ride on Mystic Timbers" thread, but I just wanted to reiterate that I think it's a solid ride that got better every time I rode (in fact, last night's ride was probably the most aggressive that it's been).

My final destination will be Carowinds, and I'm hoping this happens in July 2017. Stay tuned and prepare to take flight!

EDIT: I should also note that I waited 2 and a half hours for that first ride as the queue started near Slaughter House, snaked through Madame Fatale's, went thru Rivertown, and took up the whole of the MT queue.

[MDMC01]

Hey all, just bumping this thread as I edited the first post of this thread.

[malem]

Wow, you're really close to 100. Too bad you're not making it to Carowinds this season. If you haven't ridden Python at (Cincinnati's) Coney Island or Sea Dragon at the Columbus Zoo, those would be close options for getting over the hump!

[MDMC01]

I rode Python when I was a kid and yes, Sea Dragon is always an option for #99...