silver2005

Tip for Phoenix- if you want the magical launch to the moon airtine where you are nearly standing up, ride in the first car.

Good googly moogly that was fast.

So the idea behind saving Knoebels for last was to make it an ease down day before a relaxing day at Longwood and Philly. However, today is the hottest day of my trip. Slight humidity, but also just straight up hot.

Raises hand. I rather like them along with looping ships.

Something like this should be the T3 replacement IMO.

I'm pretty sure Flying Turns trains are recliner chairs on wheels.

Twister and Phoenix still run like a dream. Twister maintains atop my wood coasters.

If it did I'd be surprised if it wasn't concussed, injured or dead.

Hersheypark TR I was planning at being there at opening, but a car crash on the section of PA Turnpike by me took me an hour to get out of Allentown. I left before 8:30 with the intent to be there between 9:30 and opening at 10 since I had a LOT of construction on I-78, but I didn't end up walking in the park until 10:45. I-78 and US-22 has so many trucks going that route which didn't help the congestion. The lost half hour didn't really hurt the day at least. I, being the Hersheypark connoisseur that I am, knows how the crowds go in the morning. Crowds look crappy early on weekdays because they all flock to Candymonium and Comet early, not unlike how you don't go to GateKeeper or Raptor first at Cedar Point. I made a beeline to the back of the park and checked coasters on the way back. I did come armed with Fast Track, but it only does so much. The merge points are usually just before ride stations. Laff Trak has its merge outside the building, so if you have a full queue there, FT still gets you a minimum 20 minute wait. Ride crews are fine for the most part, but have moments of slowness every once in a while. I may have a high bar from my visit at BGW, so they're probably fine at HP and I'm just going off of recency bias. Once the crowds spread and/or headed to the water park, the only real uses for the FT were Fahrenheit, Wild Mouse, and Laff Trak. Coal Cracker and Comet had a little bit of a wait all day. Had pizza and a salad for lunch. The park still sits solidly at being my 3rd favorite park now, park smelled and looked great throughout, just a nice day at one of my happy place parks. Ride Count 1- Skyrush, Jolly Rancher Remix, Trailblazer, Fahrenheit, Wild Mouse, Laff Trak, Coal Cracker, Kissing Tower 2- Candymonium, Sooperdooper Looper, Wildcat's Revenge, Storm Runner 3- Great Bear 5- Comet 6- Lightning Racer Went over the woodies already. I'm still not a fan of Skyrush. JRR is a nice facelift for the Boomerang, though, I wish they actually used on-board music instead of just pumping music outside the station. Looks snazzy at night. Great Bear, among the B&M inverted coasters I've ridden, still retains being the most re-rideable of them IMO. I had one of the better rides I've had on Fahrenheit. Storm Runner is still amazing and the ride confirmed to me that I prefer it to Pantheon by quite a bit. Candymonium- This feels extremely out of place, almost kind of a reverse Thunderbird situation. I prefer the old entrance but understand why HP had to do it, but Candymonium kinda sits by itself with the carousel that they moved way out front of the rest of the park. I kind of lost track it was there for most of the day it feels so isolated. The ride itself is pretty good, kind of a faster paced Diamondback with the way it rode. The area by the fountain could be spruced up a bit, seems a bit barren. At last plant some more trees around the entrance, its kind of a concrete wasteland. Wildcat's Revenge- I'm finding with the newer RMC's that they kind of tamed their shaping a bit. It and Twisted Timbers have fewer moments of that jerky ejector air that Storm Chaser and SteVe has loads of. It also has a nice lack of intensity than most of the other RMC's which was kind of a pleasant surprise to lay back and enjoy the layout without having to brace so much. There is an unbanked turn past the halfway point which it flies through and has lateral forces on par with Thunderbolt and Legend, albeit brief. One moment you're climbing up the airtime hill prior, the next you're slammed against the side. It probably has my favorite pre-lift of the RMC's I've ridden as well. It sits pretty close with TT for me, I prefer it to Storm Chaser and Lightning Rod, but SteVe still reigns as my favorite RMC.

So Comet is running perfectly per usual, and while Lighting Racer is still very good, it does need a decent bit of patch work.

So Hershey's Fast Track works like many of Cedar Point's FL rides, you skip most of the queue up to the station.

It might be Kings Dominion, you'd see Orion from that angle with WindSeeker there.

How does Canada's Wonderland have 18 coasters and only 1 mediocre cloned launch coaster? Yeah, they need a decent launcher.

If you think Dollywood taking over Charlotte ad space is bad, there's a billboard on I-95N between the Ashland and KD exit that's got DarKoaster plastered on it. The Williamsburg hotel I was at only had BGW pamphlets. I stayed just a tad further with my family back in 2003 and I remember seeing both KD and BGW pamphlets.

KDs still has fire, it's just on the track level to the left and not the explosion on top like KIs.

These next few reviews will be shorter as I've been to the next 3 parks and most of it is rehashing. Hershey will obviously get a little more time with 2 new coasters for me. Dorney Park TR This was kind of like my visit to Stricker's on the 4th, get in, ride the good rides once, and leave. Rode Talon, Hydra, Possessed, Dominator, the flume, Thunderhawk and Steel Force. Didn't even bother with getting FL. Skipped the Mouse as its braked to death. SF feels a little more intense than my last visit, Thunderhawk kind of lost a bit of its airtime but still running comfortably. I've also gained an affinity for S&S towers that launch you up the tower. My 3rd favorite park awaits tomorrow.

The way I came in to Allentown also happened to be the route I will be taking to Hershey, and a good chunk of it was under construction and down to 50-55 instead of 65. Giving myself at least an extra 30 minutes to get there. I'm also looking forward to my drive to Elysburg later, too.

So going to 11 different parks in 5 different states requires a lot of looking up and adapting to all the different policies. Does get jarring pretty quick.

^Kings Dominion has ads for a similar type campground all around the park for comparison.

Giving TTD a gradient color scheme would be cool.

Made it to Gettysburg at a good time. Stopped for lunch, about 2 hours out from Allentown and Dorney.

Getting a later start on purpose today. I95 got pretty intense on my way back, and I'm trying to take it easy and avoid DC rush hour. Gonna make a stop in Gettysburg on the way to DP. Only planning on doing 1 or 2 rides on the bigger coasters, the flume, and their Dominator. No mouse though.

Give it to MIA and make it either a new area or a ride/rides with better capacity.

I hope they use paint that sticks for a while because this is also giving me Flight Deck vibes with the white and grey, and Bat as Flight Deck became a bit of an eyesore after a while. Now they're possibly doing it to a 420 ft structure.

Kings Dominion Trip Report I had some expectations going in as I did go there before in 2003. The park didn't leave much of an impression under Paramount aside from Volcano at the time, and seeing what they did with Kings Island, already a great park even under Paramount, I had some good hopes. It was a little tough readjusting my expectations after being at BGW the day before, but KD would put me at ease pretty quickly. Obviously, there are comparisons to be made with Kings Island as the 2 are about as close to being sister parks as any 2 parks can get (maybe the Great America duo despite being in different chains and SDC and DW). I do prefer Kings Dominion's International Street to ours. The trees and slightly narrower paths gave it kind of a cozier feel, especially at night. I'd even go so far as KD's having a more intimate feel. The fountain is simpler with 3 sets of circular fountains around a bunch in the middle of each that shot pretty high. There was a more elegant feel to KD's fountain, especially with the trees and foliage around. Also, its not just random trees, there's a bit of an artsy thing going on where each tree is kind of a center point with other things around to compliment the trees, even a few statues. Its something you might even see at BGW with a similar feel with the way it looks. Unfortunately, along with Drop Tower and Delirium being down, the Eiffel Tower was also closed. One thing I took note of is how KD's Eiffel Tower is really the only of the many 300 ft structures to be seen all over the park. At certain spots, I305, WindSeeker and Drop Tower weren't prominent compared to, say, Orion, Fury, Power Tower, or Millennium Force at their respective parks, partially due to all the trees at KD. KD's ET was a steady presence. The areas outside of I-Street do kind of fall off in terms of that kind of aesthetic quality except for Jungle X-Pedition. Old Dominion was a nice relaxing, quiet area with only the flume and WWC being there until you reach Grizzly more towards the main rides section. Music on the paths was good, a lot of ragtime, jazz, and very easy listening music, little to no modern music outside Planet Snoopy. The music around Twisted Timbers with the 50's music juxtaposed with the TT theming kind of gave a slight Stranger Things vibe to me. They really had the jungle drums theme music pumping in JX. Its nice to see that area be more cohesive given the many themes it's had with the rides scattered (jungle+racing+aliens+stunt driving, good job KD ). Ate at Firehouse BBQ with the brisket, salad and cornbread and it was pretty similar to Coney BBQ. KD had their own sauce which was pretty good. Drink plan got a work out (surprised KD doesn't have a Freestyle machine unless I missed it or it was closed). I know we use kind of a tier system with the CF parks with KI, CP, Carowinds, CW and KBF in the upper echelon and we kind of put the rest in a group on their own, but I think KD is in a mid-tier between those 2 groups. I feel its really, really close to eating at the big boys table, but I do understand why CF isn't giving KD much. BGW is a pretty hard park to compete against, at least that's the vibe I got from locals and park staff, but the locals appreciate both parks for what they are though, they have their own niche (they both can point and laugh at SFA though). However, CF has done wonders for the park since the Paramount era and I'm glad to see the park doing well. Ride counts- 1- Flight of Fear, Backlot, Tumbili, Reptilian, Apple Zapple, WindSeeker, Berserker, Shenandoah Lumber Company 2- Intimidator 305, Twisted Timbers 3- Anaconda, Dominator 5- Racer 75 7- Grizzly including LROTN Ride Reviews WindSeeker kind of has Carowinds' problems, not much to look at. I've come to like looping ships and Larson Loops and Berserker was pretty fun SLC- This flume has 2 drops, one about the size of RFYLCB, and the 2nd a little bit bigger. A very wooded ride, very dense with trees that hides it well. Coasters- Anaconda- This coaster comes down a lot to where in the train you ride it and when you ride it. 1st ride early in the morning was good near the back, 2nd ride in 1-1 was a little too intense and had that typical Arrow looper roughness, and my last ride, while in the back, was a little more unbearable. The last ride had a very forceful shimmy at the bottom of the first drop and the track between the loop and sidewinder. The 2nd half was equal between the 3 rides, the butterfly element was decent except the transition between the 2 curved hills, and the last bit was actually nice with the curve after, the pair of corkscrews with good hangtime, and the curved floater hill into the brakes. It has some upside, but its also pretty situational in terms of ride quality, more than a lot of other Arrows or even other steel coasters I've ridden. Apple Zapple- this is actually my favorite wild mouse style coaster if only for the simple reason that it has some decent drops to it. Nice poppy first drop and 2nd hill, and there's a few curved drops in the later bit that are pretty fun. I preferred its colors as Ricochet though. Backlot Stunt Coaster- This has tan seats, so kinda fancy. Rides similar to ours, though with fire on the sides instead of the explosion. In a slightly less eyesore-esque location than KI's, too. Dominator- A very good floorless coaster. Also got my first ride on a standard B&M floorless coaster in the front seat and its pretty intense seeing the track move that fast seemingly so close to your feet. B&M floorless coasters need to have 0g rolls though. The elements it does have are quiet good still. Tons of hangtime on that huge loop. Very comfortable ride as well, the transitions were smooth. I picked a good choice for #150. Flight of Fear- KD's is WAY smoother than KI's. Its not as lit in the inside which can make anticipating things a bit hard, but the smoothness makes it easy to ride despite that. The queue has a Haunt maze in so most of the queue is actually the outer part and no pre-ride show. Grizzly- Gravity Group made this a bit of a sleeper. I'm not a fan of that first, slow turnaround, but the rest of the ride makes up for it. The first drop is pretty intense, the smaller hops have great air, and it has great laterals on the curves. Better in the back for me. Also, I wore my Banshee first rider shirt which attracted ride ops and enthusiasts, mostly KD locals, and they all nagged me to get a night ride in with KI having Beast (I sense a bit of jealousy there ). While Grizzly isn't quite as good as Beast at night with the more twister style layout and the flood lights at each end, it is probably the best choice for a KD night ride (no lighting packages a la Orion or Banshee to be found). Intimidator 305- I had nerves going in as I compare this a lot to Maverick and the fact I don't like those quick transitions. I thought adding the extra 30-40 mph would hurt I305, and with how I can grey out a bit easily, that first turn worried me. However, I only greyed out enough to get through the turn, only slightly, and I came to early enough to enjoy the airtime atop the 2nd drop. Gigas are an interesting style. I feel they should differentiate from hypers a bit by having more low to the ground elements to make use of those speeds. But I also feel there should be a balance with bigger elements and some good air moments. I feel Fury and MF get that combination right. Orion, while good, seems too much like DB on steroids, and I305 has the opposite affect with its more speed focused course. I did like it, but it was pretty short and having so much of the layout be just low turns holds it back a bit. The transitions weren't as bad as I thought at least. Racer 75- This is running on par with Grizzly in terms of comfortability, decent air and laterals on the turnaround, but its an eyesore. Hey KD, please take a book from KI's and paint this sucker! I do like the head chopping tunnels at the end. Reptilian- The only other bobsled coasters I've done are Disaster Transport and Flying Turns, both a bit different than KD's. It was faster than I expected and had good positive G's, but the way the track is made gave it a bit of a vibration, made more so when it picked up speed at the end. It also comes to a near complete stop on the MCBR, never a fan of that unless there's a ride experience related reason (something like Mystery Mine's holding brake). Tumbili- A little shorter than Joker at SFGAdv which I rode before this, but just as insanely crazy with the spinning. I think I got a more insane ride than I did Joker, too. Twisted Timbers- This sits firmly as my 2nd favorite RMC and my favorite steel coaster at KD. It has all those good RMC forces but with a little less intensity and jerky airtime. The first drop has a bit more speed than Storm Chaser's while in the same style. Still hits that 0g sweet spot as it rolls and doesn't stop until you bottom out. Way better than its predecessor.