zombieninja

I really like the topper track and Chance Rides Aviator idea several posts up.

zombiejane is the reason I'm what I am today. Now I'm dragging her on rides!!!

Or, take care of all the above. Hire a DJ for the first season to entertain guests in line. It's going to be very busy next year!

Regardless of what has happened I will still ride Diamondback. Reporting any mechanical anomalies is just being responsible and so is testing the trains afterwards. Bad things happen when good people do nothing.

A winged invert (narrowly dodges tomatoes and a giant facepalm)

Close to 8pm? That must have been mine. Row 4, right seat, on green train. After the first drop my restraint went up a click right when the airtime started. First time in a while my hands went down on this ride. I was a little freaked out. I immediately grabbed a ride op and filled out one of their sheets.

I feel for you. I have this same problem pretty much everywhere. The people I know could care less about anything that's not on cable.

I must admit, I am very excited about this now. Steering away from the typical format where most coasters losing momentum toward end was ingenious. Now we have something that will build up speed downhill as it progresses!

Wow! I've never heard of this ride before today. We totally need one of these where The Crypt used to be. I think it would be a perfect fit.

2013 Trip Report, Part III (Ohio State Fair) August 4th, 2013 There is a unique atmosphere to the Ohio State Fair. It's busy, but not stressful. It's colorful, but not tacky to the point it's appalling. Everything looks odd by itself, but fits in when among everything else. Noise, colors, people, energy, movement, and just plain chaos is everywhere. It's a sea of everything but tranquility, yet everyone has chosen to spend their quiet Sunday afternoons here with their loved ones. This bazaar of oddness flows naturally in all directions like a large alien blob devouring the parking lot. Even in this busy atmosphere you can find green space. My first advice to anyone coming on a Sunday morning as we did is to get here early. Crowds are moderate and very manageable up until the middle of the afternoon. After that, good luck finding so much as a Port-O-John. Bringing cash of coarse is a good idea, too. Trust me, you will want to eat here. You will find an odd item you want or need. If variety is the spice of life, then I just ingested a raw ghost pepper. Everywhere you look is an ambitious food vendor trying to separate you with your hard earned cash. They do a very good job. Gyros, ribs, grilled corn, pulled pork, steak-on-a-stick, roast beef sundaes, fried Twinkies, and fried everything else litters the main stretch the whole way travelling to the midway. Not a salad in sight. Come on. You know you want one. Vendors are everywhere at the fair. Their tables range from As-Seen-On-TV items, to yard sale items, custom T-shirts, exotic kitchen gadgets, miracle cleaners (yeah right...), and even obscenely tacky dress wear. Many of these items are just a curiosity and flat out a rip-off. But do a little careful window-shopping, and you may find a unique item you can't find anywhere else for a decent price. If you're a person that has trouble saying "No", then you may want to steer clear of some of these areas. Upon arriving at a surprisingly empty midway, my girlfriend and I decided to pay for the ride bracelets and venture down the strip to see what they have. There are some carnival rides here that scream "tetanus" and "death-trap", but there are plenty of other rides which are spectacular and built solid. Typically you only see rides like these at a fair, so the Ohio State Fair is the best nearby opportunity to experience them. My first ride of the day was an interesting ride called The Vortex. It manages to achieve forces that I would normally only associate with a looping coaster in a very compact space. Immediately you will notice it is very solid, and has no give or creep. It feels like a permanently installed ride. It's almost as fun to watch as it is to ride, drawing people of all ages to photograph and take video. The restraints are comfortable and seem well-designed. In addition to four individual over-the-shoulder restraints, it has an additional metal cage that follows the contour of these restraints and locks into place over all of them. I rode The Vortex three times while I was there. I have finally found a flat ride that replaced Tomb Raider in my mind. Does anyone else think it's strange the floors are clean on a ride like this? If you hear the secret song, scream real loud! (Ride doesn't get intense until about 1:00) Space Roller is a Mondial Top Scan. There are a lot of videos of Space Roller on YouTube. This ride seems to be very popular and from what I understand, runs a much more intense cycle than its permanently installed amusement park counterparts. Intense may be a bit of an understatement. Like a giant robot claw sticking out of the ground, it mercilessly tosses you around in a ruthless, relentless, and unpredictable path of chaotic lateral G-forces. If this ride had lasted for 1-1/2 minutes I would have said, "Wow! That was an intense ride! You have to try this!" But riding the same ride at full blast the whole time for 4 minutes was about 2 minutes of fun, and 2 minutes of torture. I do not think it was intended for anyone to endure such strong lateral forces for so long. I believe that with a carefully planned ride cycle this could be the king of flat rides. The giant at rest. I for one welcome our new robot overlords. Going back the other way we hit a rusty wild mouse coaster. It was fun, but very shaky. It made me miss riding the Ricochet at Kings Dominion. Then I hit the last major ride of my curiosity, the Power Surge. This ride experience is comparable to the Space Roller, but much milder and without strong lateral forces. I think the way the seats tumble help manage any forces you might experience on this one. It's an experience that's very out of control, and leaves you feeling like you're in a jet fighter spiraling around. Flight Commander, anyone? As crowds rolled in during the mid-afternoon, I started going into shock from people-watching overload. The fair started turning from quirky and festive to pushy and overcrowded. It was time to bail out before everyone's weirdness started rubbing off on me. There is always next year, and I'll be looking forward to it. I hope everyone enjoyed their visit to the OIIIO State Fair!

Repost. The original was lost with the server change. Recreated lovingly from the original rough draft. Busch Gardens, Williamsburg: June 3rd, 2013 During my trips to Busch Gardens and Holiday World, I had a biased opinion in my head about what both of those parks might be before I ever walked through the gate. I anticipated Busch Gardens turning out to be like a stripped down version of Disney World with a couple of thrill rides thrown in to please the thrill seekers. Holiday World somehow stuck in the back of my head as the small family-owned amusement park that gets way too much attention just because of The Voyage. I was dead wrong. Originally our planned Virginia trip was to be two days at Kings Dominion and one day at Busch Gardens. We were only halfway through the day at Busch Gardens when it was decided that we'll spend two days there instead. You haven't even entered the front gate of Busch Gardens yet. Chances are you'll notice how beautiful the area looks and how well planned everything is laid out. You only need to take a short walk to get on one of their generously sized trams. Ticket sales are quick and painless. The staff is incredibly friendly throughout the park. There is shade everywhere, and every structure seems to blend in with the natural landscape. Upon entering the park, everything you knew the day before no longer matters. You are now in a world where everything is a curiosity and all you want to do is explore it. I haven't seen a single ride yet and my fascination with the place has already soared. The Loch Ness Monster wins my vote for most photogenic roller coaster. We rode a few rides along the way, but I'll cut to the chase and say the first object of our attention was Apollo's Chariot. Four across or four stadium style, the trains still feel as comfortable as Diamondback's. The chain lift seemed to take forever being at a shallower angle. Like an idiot, I put my hands up and prepared to drop at the crest of the hill, only to drop a few feet and coast forward. The rest of the ride is very tame compared to Diamondback, but I really enjoyed the shock at the end when a hidden drop appeared after a quick bunny hop! There seems to be a line drawn between fans of Intamin and S&S Drop Towers. This feud will probably last an eternity, but I'll go ahead and say I like the S&S design better. I absolutely can't stand Drop Tower at Kings Island! Busch Gardens has Mach Tower (not by Intamin, but a similar design). I immediately cringed in anticipation of painful restraints and a hard braking system. It turns out this one was actually quite comfortable. I like how they give you more time to look around at the top of the tower, but they totally blow the anticipation by counting down the drop. Now being in Germany, the first attention-getter was Verbolten. I had very low expectations for this ride, but it ended up really impressing me! The amount of detail put into everything from the queue to the trains themselves is astonishing. Pictures cannot properly capture how gorgeous Verbolten's trains are. It's like someone took a real European Roadster and transformed it into a roller coaster. Kudos to the people responsible for this rolling work of art. This is definitely a family roller coaster. The acceleration and turns are moderate, and smoothly executed. The dark portion of the ride was very trippy. The black light effects don't feel cheap at all, and are quite disorienting. Then you slow down to a stop for a short audio sequence and... WHAM! When the whole track drops it's very startling. This is not a high thrill coaster but a unique experience that kids and kids-at-heart will enjoy. Put away your Google facts Mr. Thrill Ride Junky and take some time to go be a kid again! Alpengeist is a good invert, but unfortunately another attraction has stolen the spotlight here for this trip report... the Festhaus! Throw everything you associate with King's Island's Festhaus out the door. Prepare stimulate your senses with a great dinner and a show! Busch Garden's shows are pretty top notch, and the one in the Festhaus is no exception. Nothing feels cheap or like someone cut corners in here. It's all excellent performance complete with acrobatics and absolutely amazing German food. It was all so good we did it again the next day. The price was good too. Cheaper even than the Philly cheese steak abomination at Kings Dominion the day before. So the lesson I learned here is a Festhaus is a Festhaus! Not a Chinese restaurant with Karaoke singing. Just as festive on the outside. Where there's food and entertainment, there's celebration! Oh, the wasted years. If I only knew of how amazing Griffon is beforehand I would have came here much sooner. It has managed to become one of my favorite coasters alongside Maverick and The Beast. At a glance, Griffon seems to really draw out the moment of of anticipation and perform the same two tricks two times in a row along with a gratuitous splashdown effect. Boy, does it ever! It's absolutely ingenious. Someone who seemed to know the psychology behind what makes roller coasters thrilling to begin with trimmed out the fat and enhanced the rest. You are forced to wait. There is no escaping the thought of how high you are and the moment of your release as you stare at the massive track in front of you. When it happens, you go facing straight down and into a ridiculously high inversion. When that's over, you have to do it again. That first drop is much bigger than it appears. This is my off ride video. There are many like it, but this one is mine. It's kind of hard to leave Busch Gardens. Suddenly your escape from reality has become your new reality. You want to mop it up into a bucket and dunk your head into it every time you get stressed at work. Every time your bills goes up. Every time your mom calls with bad news. Every time your kid attempts to drink milk through a crazy straw up his nose. This is that place. It's hard to take a bad picture at Busch Gardens. Holiday World & Splashin' Safari: June 17th, 2013 You would drive three hours just to ride a roller coaster?! Shame on you, there's a whole park here to explore! Holiday World & Splashin' Safari is a book you can't judge by its cover. You have to read the whole thing to get it. Somehow the authors of this incredible piece decided that they would spoil and lure in the consumer by revealing the climax without giving any details to the plot. We set forth on our journey into the park... ...And then we B-lined straight to The Voyage. Oh, the humility! I am such a hypocrite! I mean, come on! It's one of the world's best roller coasters! So you approach The Voyage with it's ridiculously tight queues in the sun and wait patiently. It's easy to be intimidated by its massive lift hill. Trains just seem to mysteriously disappear into the woods never to be seen again, just like our much beloved terrain-hugging wooden coaster at Kings Island. Finally reaching the station, I watched in amazement at how efficiently the staff seemed to operate. It was like clockwork. I stuffed my belongings into a free keyed locker in the station feeling safe that they would still be there when I return. This is so great! Why didn't Kings Island adopt a locker system like this? Anyways, down and up we go! Even from atop the first hill, you cannot see more than than the two large hills in front of you. It's really messes with your mind and catches you off guard after the second hill when you dive into a tunnel and are soon bombarded with forces from seemingly indecisive direction changes. It's all a blur. This ride behaves like a powerful ocean tidal wave being forced down a windy creek bed. It's completely unrelenting until you get halfway through and hit a modest straightaway. It was here I realized I was holding my breath the whole way. I gasped for air as we descended down what seemed to be a staircase of roller coaster track then continuing back to the station. I like to ride roller coasters because at the age of 32, it makes me feel 22 again. This day after The Voyage I felt like a 62 year old. You have to be nuts to want a re-ride. That was fun. Let's do it again! Upon exploring the rest of the park anyone with a 5 year old like mine will quickly come to appreciate the variety of flat rides here. He can ride all of them. I can ride almost all of them with him. This reflects the parks thoughtfulness as you observe it's humble demeanor throughout. Everyone here is so gosh darn nice. I think I might have made a wrong turn into Canada. Employees continue to work like clockwork in a friendly and efficient manner unprecedented by anywhere on this planet I have yet seen. Even their restaurants operate with good communication at an efficiency level that would make well organized fast food places jealous! Free soft drinks. Free sunscreen in the water park. You have to really pay some places to get good hospitality. That's also free! But upon looking around this park you really notice what's still missing; shade and theming. The park is very sparse in some areas without a tree or tarp in sight. The sun is your enemy here. Theming is so laughable. The holidays are more like area indicators than true themed zones. I laughed so hard when I saw the frightful theming on Frightful Falls. It had a graveyard of cardboard tombstones on large popsicle sticks! I guess they missed the sale on Halloween decorations at Wal-Mart. The most terrible thing about this park, as I have said earlier, is that The Voyage really steals the thunder from everything else. I really must emphasize that Holiday World has the best water park I have ever been to. If you come here, please plan the bulk of your day at Splashin' Safari. There's plenty of room for everyone. From a generous selection of water slides, two really fun water coasters, private changing rooms, chairs, life jackets, and intertubes, it's really hard to go wrong. Save that ride on The Voyage for after the water park. Save a hot bath for after The Voyage. Holiday World's other two coasters also seem to lose a lot of their thunder to a certain ride, which for the sake of eliminating redundancy, I will refuse to name for the remainder of this report. All 3 wooden roller coasters at this park are a mesmerizing experience. All three have a unique story to tell. No story is so short and sweet as The Raven's. Just like Magnum at Cedar Point, I almost want to shed a tear at the empty queues. The Raven tells a story of fun and joy from simpler times when all that mattered was acting like a kid. It has plentiful curves and airtime that define what a proper wooden roller coaster is supposed to do in all of it's simplicity. You don't need to break records to enjoy life. The Legend. How appropriately named. The lateral g-forces on this thing are truly legendary. When you start hitting so many twists and unbanked turns at absurd speed, you leave the station amazed that your skin is unscathed. Certainly some strange physics are at work on this coaster. I never knew a boxy little train could take so much. It's really hard for me to say anything but "whoa" after riding this. Upon leaving Holiday World I couldn't believe how much fun such a quaint little park could pack. I was so entertained that I totally forgot to take pictures! Hopefully I will return next year and get to enjoy the water park to its fullest. Save "that ride" for last. The Voyage! The Voyage! The Voyage! I'll go to my corner now. Now that this is back up, I can finally start working on my Ohio State Fair trip report. I must say it's going to be fun writing that one!

That is very rational thinking, but... under that logic, Diamondback is just a hypercoaster with more space between the seats.

Cedar Point a couple months ago. Gatekeeper was shut down due to wind and had a line of legendary size. My girlfriend and I were in line for Troika. The ride op was a young man with a dry, monotone voice. Ride Op: "You're riding... The Troika.......... The Troika.... is awesome... Riders, let me hear you scream..." Everyone screams. Ride Op: "You win... Everybody is a winner on The Troika.......... People in line for Gatekeeper, let me hear you scream." People in line for Gatekeeper scream. Ride Op: "You lose.......... You're going to be there all day long.......... You should have rode... The Troika."

I'll add to this snowball. Cedar Point's maXair is definitely the better experience. I wonder if Delirium's ride cycle could be adjusted to match?

As the proud parent of a 5 year old who had a similar experience, I cannot say enough how happy I am for you! Has he expressed any interest in The Vortex yet?

Best sounding ride - Raptor at Cedar Point. I just can't get over the way this ride sounds and echoes. Best Smelling ride - Any ride downwind of LaRosa's.

Oh! A Zipper! I was hoping they would have one of those at the state fair, too. Did you or anyone else here get to ride one?

Agreed.

I realize the station prints are a little blotchy with the level of detail of the trains, but don't they look suspiciously wide to be your average invert trains? Anyone?

It seemed that Moonraker, Space Roller, Power Surge, and a pendulum ride I forgot the name to were the other standouts at the fair. Unfortunately, I didn't ride Moonraker because only a few seats were functional, so the queue didn't really move at all when we came back to it. I will have to say Space Roller is the most ridiculously intense flat ride I've ever ridden.

For me, The Hurler at Kings Dominion.

The arcade area is unbelievably large. I would think only half that amount of space would be needed for a modern dark ride.

Vortex by Technical Park Just rode this today 3 times at the Ohio State Fair. It's the ride that finally dethroned Tomb Raider as my all time favorite flat ride. I took a video, too. It feels very solid and the forces going upside down aren't as bad as you would think. The seats are surprisingly comfortable. It has a nice second restraint system for safety. It takes a minute for the ride to really get started! I should have a complete trip report sometime this week for the Ohio State Fair.

Maverick and Magnum. Top Thrill is a close third. As far as flats go I can't get enough Power Tower and Cedar Downs.

Out to 2019 Flight Deck may be done. That's a lot of land for the future.