Joncars05

Its amazing how they are extending the season and that they are were seeing an increase in attendance. When I was there in the middle of June Wild Eagle, Thunderhead, Tennessee Tornado, and, Blazing Fury were all walk-ons. Mystery Mine floated between a walk on and 10 minute wait. FireChaser Express was the longest wait going from 5 minutes to 20 minutes. The park just didn't feel crowded to me at all. I guess that does prove that Dollywood's entertainment and atmosphere is what draws in the majority of people. I guess when I look back on it I did see more "older" couples walking around and taking in shows.

Seriously good luck with Lightning Rod. It was extremely hit or miss when I was there for 3 days (and those were the 3 days It was "officially opened"). So if you are just going for one day I would honestly recommend not waiting around if the doors to the entrance aren't opened when you get there. I'm not exactly sure the best deal for discount tickets. My guess would be online at Dollywood's website. Best tip for rides. Start from back to front. Fire Chaser Express usually has the longest line. Thunderhead almost never has more than a 5 minute wait. It was a walk on the entire time I was there. If you ride the train they aren't joking about the cinders. So if you are sitting on the outside of the ride Make sure to squint or wear sunglasses. Ride Barnstormer. Make sure you get cinnamon bread from the Grist Mill! I'm not a show person but I have heard that their shows are amazing and sometimes sell out on busy days. Most of all enjoy your day. Dollywood is an amazing park. It has so much to offer from rides, shows, and awesome food.

^^Yes parking is $8 and is not included for either day if you are using the $29.95 2 day out of state ticket.

There is a ride that chases storms in a park about 4 hours north of Dollywood that opened without delay and has been hitting it out of the park all season long! ;-) @brenthodge the GP were mulling over that opinion all the way back in June as well. I mentioned in my trip report that there is just an overall uneasy/disappointing feeling surrounding the ride right now. It's frustrating and I hope they are able to figure it out. But because we are halfway through July and the ride has been opened and out of tech rehearsal for only three or four days, I see major changes coming soon.

No problem! I hope you can make it down there! Storm Chaser is such a good RMC coaster. KK did a great job with the addition of that coaster especially since they weren't able to salvage Twisted Twins.

Kentucky Kingdom July 5th-6th My wife and I, along with our daughter headed to our first ever trip to Kentucky Kingdom. After parking we headed to the front gate to pay for tickets. The line moved very quickly and after purchasing the out of state 2 day ticket deal we were in the park! We headed straight to Lightning Rod. The line spilled all the way out of the queue but for one train operations it moved quickly. It took about 25 minutes for me to get on the ride. This is my first Chance roller coaster ever. So I hopped in the back row and off we were. With the ride boasting “only” a 100 foot drop the lift hill was over quickly the first drop was stunning. The airtime on this ride is amazing. With it being in such a tight space the turns are sharp and really fun. This ride is unbelievable smooth! I seriously don’t know why there haven’t been more Chance Hyper GT-X coasters built. The only drawback that I see is low capacity. This ride is a top ten quality coaster that takes up minimal space and looks fantastic as well. Kentucky Kingdom knocked it out of the park with this addition. Our next stop was the kiddie section that is located by the entrance. We were able to let our daughter ride the train, kid swing, zeppelin, trucks, sun and moon, and carousel. The kid section was really good. My daughter had a blast in the section. I really appreciated the employees in this section. They were very polite and were great with all of the kids! The next stop was food. We stopped at Junior’s BBQ. The Pulled pork was good and the fries were good as well. On the second day we had Casa Mia’s flatbread pizza. It was large enough for both of us to share. The price again was cheap and the quality of food was good again. We also had an Auntie B’s funnel cake which I feel could feed 4-5 people easily. It was very good value and really good! After eating on the first day I was able to take my time to go take photos of the roller coasters. All of the coasters outside of Thunder Run provide amazing views and photo ops. I think Storm Chaser and Lightning Run are some of the most photogenic rides that I have been able to take photos of so far. My next ride was Thunder Run. This wooden coaster seems to be a clone of Hurler but I can tell you it is not even close. The back seat is a fun spot. The airtime is okay in the back and it isn’t too rough. If you ride in the front car the airtime is so much better. There are about 3-4 spots where you literally come off of the seat! It is a great wooden coaster. I am glad that they were able to restore the ride and make it smooth and fun. Next I went to the new ride at Kentucky Kingdom for 2016, Storm Chaser. This is the second RMC I have been on and man was it awesome as well! The initial barrel roll drop is really unique as you feel weightlessness while getting airtime coming down the drop. Then almost every element after is just great. The airtime hills are insane! The overbanked turn with the supports of the ride acting as headchoppers is really fun. The small turns are solid and the airtime hills are just insane. The only “knock” that I have for the ride would be the ride seems to peter out for the last 10 seconds in the final helix. It is another awesome addition to the park. IMO, Storm Chaser is a better RMC than Lightning Rod. I think it is more enjoyable because you can actually take in the elements on Storm Chaser. With Lightning Rod you just fly through each element so fast you almost don’t have any time to register what is happening. Either way Kentucky Kingdom literally hit a grand slam with this ride. I can see this as a possible winner for the 2016 New Ride Golden Ticket. Finally I hit up T3, or maybe I should say it hit me! It actually wasn’t too bad. The roughness came from two things, the ride not moving through the elements at a constant speed and the restraint clamping down on your thighs. The speed felt like it was slowing down and speeding up so the ride through the elements weren’t very smooth. Also the elements forced the restraint on your legs really hard so when the ride was over you had to wait while your legs lost feeling. Overall it wasn’t truly that bad of a ride. That might have been because I have heard some horror stories about it before they retrofit the ride. Either way it was a one and done ride for me. We ended the day on Storm Chaser and headed home afterwards. On the second day we visited the water park and rode some of the flats. The ferris wheel provided some great views of the park, the flying scooters were similar to Kings Islands as they could twist but not really snap, and the Drop Tower was really fun because it never truly stoped at the top so it was a total surprise when it dropped. The water park was pretty clean and very enjoyable. Our time was shortened because there were storms in the area and the park closed down all of the rides a couple of times during the day. But we were able to enjoy the lazy river and the 121 foot trap door slide Deep Water Dive. I was able to do the other body slide and because I was a single rider (My wife can’t ride because she is pregnant) I missed out on all of the tube slides. They looked very good almost on par with Holiday World. I will be able to judge the water park more fully when I can ride with my family. Overall my wife, daughter, and I had an absolute blast at the park. The park was clean and the employees were good. The only thing that I noticed was that the employees seemed to be nonchalant about things. They did everything correct but some ride attendants didn’t seem so thrilled to be there. I think that may be one of the reasons why people knock the employees. I thought it was a very enjoyable experience and will more than likely buy season passes next year for the park. If you have been on the fence about going to the park you should most definitely head to the park. They need people to visit and keep the park alive. I feel that they have done everything they have needed to attract people. The park is very solid on both the dry and wet side and I hope that most people who took advantage of the 2 day for $30 deal, will be like me and visit more often! Thanks for reading and my photos and ride count are below! Ride Count: Storm Chaser: 13 Lightning Run: 5 Thunder Run: 3 T3: 1 Storm Chaser's Corkscrew Storm Chaser interacts with the walking paths and plaza so well you can get some great captures like this with ease! Storm Chaser's Corkscrew Thunder Run's first drop from the station Thunder Run's first drop Lightning Run's track is an amazing blue. Kick the sky! If you hang out long enough you can see these huge freight planes flying RIGHT NEXT to Storm Chaser I think the blue train on Storm Chaser looks fantastic! Seriously the BEST coaster hair I have captured ever! Lightning Run Hang and Bang T3 Storm Chaser's Overbanked Turn and Airtime Hill

Thank you! It was a really awesome trip.

My wife, daughter, wife’s twin cousins, and I headed to Dollywood during an 8 day trip to Gatlinburg. We went to Dollywood for 3 days on their 3 day, $99 park promotion. This was our first trip to Dollywood, so sorry in advance because I’ll do a quick breakdown of each coaster we rode. Since my wife is pregnant she wanted to enter the park later than the twins and I. So we used the Pigeon Forge Fun Time Trolley system to be dropped off at park’s front door. It was an awesome deal because it cost $0.50 to ride and not have to pay for parking. We were able to enter the park and immediately went to Lightning Rod. They announced over Twitter and Facebook that the Lightning Rod officially opened that day but the park didn’t do a huge promotion for the ride. Once in line the ride was operating really smoothly. We quickly went through the line and were in the station in less than 15 minutes. The queue was really nice as they offered glimpses of the ride while waiting. It also had some cool theming objects to look at, including a model hot rod and model car pieces. On to the ride the station was well spaced out and since the ride was still new they were assigning seats. I asked the ride op if we could sit in the back row and he said if you want to wait you can. So we waited an extra cycle and promptly took the back two rows. Lightning Rod is something else. Rolling out of the station you slowly go around the corner and as soon as you straighten up you get launched up the lift hill. The hill is actually pretty forceful as you are going up a steep incline. Cresting the hill you hit the first airtime hill and it is solid. You go down a small hill then hit another airtime hill and to the biggest drop of the ride. To me I really liked the surprise of not having the first hill be the biggest drop it sets you up for a shock as you plummet into the valley below. The first turn to the left is awesome as there is a solid pop if airtime at the crest of the turn. Then you turned to the right doing a wave turn. You enter another smaller wave turn with a really good pop of airtime. After that you head over an airtime hill before entering the quadruple down. Holy cow every one of these hills have an enormous amount of airtime popping you right into your seat. Then you take a right turn and hit a pop of airtime before hitting a huge upward banked turn and hitting one more airtime moment before ending the ride in the brakes. All I can say about this ride is WOW! The speed is constant all the way through the ride the airtime moments are insane! The ride is very solid from beginning to end. It seems like a short ride but that is because of the launch takes away a lot of the ride time. The only bad part is the ride has terribly large amount of downtime. There was no specific reason as to why it would go down of not. The two claims that I heard from the CoasterForce crew that was allowed a behind the scenes tour were, faulty sensors in the launch mechanics and the ride sensors registering the ride not making it through a block. All I know is that the ride is very frustrating as the other time we were in the line for the ride the ride would frequently break down with the delay speil blaring over the speaker system. There was an incident on My last day there when I got into the park and was going to be on the second train and they delayed the opening all the way until 1230pm. A ride that should’ve taken 4 minutes to get on took over two and a half hours for me to get on. Also on that day the ride was opened for an hour or so then shut down for the rest of the day. As of now I can say this is a fantastic ride when it is opened. But the ride is a PR nightmare as Lightning Rod was supposed to open in March and as of this writing (7/8/16) the ride is still in technical rehearsal and has been “opened” for a total of 3 days. It has been photographed with smoke billowing from the launch area. After riding Lightning Rod we headed to Blazing Fury. I heard nothing about this ride so we went in with a blank slate. The ride is a simple electric powered roller coaster with a couple of drops. The theming was pretty nice and I really liked the simplicity of it. The nice thing was all of the animatronics and sound effects worked! It is nice when a park takes care of their rides. The boys loved the story and the ending of the ride. There isn’t much to say about this one other than it is a ride that everyone in the family can enjoy. The next ride was Tennessee Tornado. The only thing I knew about this ride was that it was an Arrow, so I was prepared for it to be rough! Luckily it was really smooth. The “preshow” of the wind howling as you make your way through the storage shed is a nice touch to begin the ride. The first drop into the side of a mountain was really nice. The loop feels massive! The last two inversions are great as they go basically to the ground and after that the ride is over. It is a very short yet very fun ride that uses the terrain really well. FireChaser Express was next on the list. This ride looks way more intense than what it is. The height of the track off of the ground makes it look more intimidating than what it really is. The theming once again is very solid. The station is themed to a volunteer firefighter station. This ride has launches. Not only does it have multiple launches, FireChaser Express has a forward and backwards launch! The launches aren’t forceful but they are still fun. The forward launch out of the station is marked with sirens and lights flashing. You go through a figure 8 element then into a lift hill. Once off the lift hill you roll around high off of the ground through the course. It is forgettable for the most part but the final S curves before getting into the firework portion of the ride. Once in the fireworks building there is a sound board playing up us in a firework accident that ends up leading to Big Bertha launching us backwards into the final section of the ride where you go about 600 feet of so backwards. I will say FireChaser Express is a well thought out and entertaining ride. It doesn’t have the best forces and is definitely far from fast but it is a great medium ride for kids that are just getting into riding coasters. Next up was the first wing coaster in the United States, Wild Eagle. The lift hill was built along a mountain and sort of hid the first drop. The first drop was pretty good. And the loop was nice as well. The zero-g roll is fantastic on the left side. The Immelmann loop and corkscrew as solid as well. There is a small pop of airtime and the ride ends on a figure 8 helix. The helix peters out a bit but it still is has some force to it. I think Wild Eagle is what wing riders should be like! Quick inversions, traversing high and low, and being smooth all made this ride great, IMO. Mystery Mine was the next coaster we rode. After waiting in a very well themed queue line we boarded our train and started our journey. The view in the front row is great. The initial drop was nice as you went through a plume of smoke. Then the theming really takes over. The wall is covered in crows with their red eyes ablaze and cawing their heads off. The ride strolls through the dark section and ends up at a vertical lift hill. The lift hill is very fun and once you get outside the ride has a small drop and quick turn around. The ride gets a little head banging through the outside portion but as soon as you get back inside the ride goes crazy! The theming once back in side is very good. The canary from the beginning of the ride is now dead and there is a storm that blows over a sign that blocks the exit from the tunnel. “We” light a fuse to see in the dark and it blows a flame in our face as we drop 95 degrees exit outside, into a heartline roll, dive loop, and end the ride in the brakes. Again the theming of this ride is really good, it enhances what is a very simple yet fun ride. The vertical lift hills are really cool as well. Lastly we rode Thunderhead and boy was I glad we saved it for last. This wooden coaster is absolutely stunning! It’s not the tallest, fastest, or most forceful but man does it rock! It is hard to describe but to me the turns and sporadic pops of airtime make this ride really fun. It is really smooth and the crossovers add to the intensity of the ride. I may not be going along with the popular opinion here but I thought that Thunderhead was the best ride in the park. Funny side note during the shutdown of Lightning Rod the ride crew came over to Thunderhead and did a mini riding marathon with the cousins and me. We got to chatting and they asked me what I thought the best ride in the park was. I told them Thunderhead and they were stunned. They kind of ribbed me for it but I got the final word in by saying it was my favorite because it is actually opened the whole day. They laughed and said they get that all of the time. But still thought I was crazy for choosing Thunderhead over Lightning Rod. Now on to the park overall. The food was amazing! I personally had a pulled pork sandwich, lumberjack pizza, corn dogs and fries, and their famous cinnamon bread. Everything that we had tasted fresh and was really good quality. The prices were really reasonable especially for the huge portions that were served. The cinnamon bread was so good that we ended up buying 4 loaves over the 3 days we were there. I also learned how to make my own version of the cinnamon bread at home and it is really good too! There was so much food that we will have to try the shops that we missed next time we go. The train was a really neat experience especially when you got away from the park and got a peak of the Smoky Mountains. My daughter, who is almost 2 now, loved the Country Fair section. The flats were really good back there. Throw in rides like Barnstormer and the water rides on the dry side, Dollywood has a great collection of rides. Sadly, I wasn’t able to watch any shows. I’m not a big show person but from what everyone recommended it seems as if I did miss out on some good shows. The bird sanctuary and bald eagle exhibit were nice to look at too. The park just felt different than a normal theme park. It felt more comfortable, almost as if you didn’t need to rush to get through the park. The Craftman’s Valley was a neat experience and it felt like a throwback to older times with all of the shops and restaurants themed the same. Not only did the atmosphere feel different because of the theming but it felt different from the employees as well. Everyone was so nice and helpful. When we were stopped and looking at a map we had an employee come up to us and ask if we needed help. It reminded a lot of Holiday World and how they go the extra mile to make your experience better. I mentioned to my wife that Dollywood feels like Holiday World of the south. She replied that maybe Holiday World was the Dollywood of the north. It just was an amazing atmosphere at the park. The little things like every ride had specific ride op uniforms that matched the theme of the ride and also differentiated them from other ride ops made a big difference. The park was super clean and just had a great vibe to it. After visiting my wife and I decided that we should make it out to Dollywood at least once every other year. The park was awesome and definitely deserves all of the accolades it has received. As usual my trip photos are below and thanks for reading my trip report! Ride Count: Lightning Rod- 5 Blazing Fury- 4 Wild Eagle- 18 FireChaser Express- 8 Tennessee Tornado- 10 Mystery Mine- 7 Thunderhead- 17 Train while blowing its whistle. If you look closely the 4th wheel of this train is literally off of the track! Lightning Rod has so much airtime! Thunderhead is just too awesome. Mystery Mine's heartline roll Tennessee Tornado's first loop Thunderhead! If you look at the rails here you can see that on the airtime hill the train gets so much air that some of the track literally has yet to be touched by the wheels! Mystery Mine Wild Eagle

I guess I shouldn't downplay CF and their effort to turn around the parks they acquired 10 years ago. (my first post seemed to say they bought the parks then did nothing) I wasnt an enthusiast before the park was sold but the way the parks are run and the investments they have made are really impressive!

Seems like an absolute steal now!

Thanks you all for your compliments! @Vortex Lover Have fun and good luck with your photos if you end up taking the DSLR.

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/incoming/mds-strathclyde-rollercoaster-accident-live-8286941 Live updates on the link above. This does not look good at all...

Holiday World June 3rd-4th. Day 1 My wife, daughter, and twin cousins set off for our 5th Holiwood Nights from our family’s place in southern Indiana. We ended up getting to the park at 4:30 which was the time we could check in with the HWN’s ticket. Check in was rather smooth. There were about 15-20 registrants in line but HW handled it pretty well with 4 check in windows opened. After about 5 minutes we all had our wristbands, schedules, and t-shirts and were in the park at 4:35. The weather predictions were bad so that kept the majority of the GP away from the park. Luckily for us it didn’t rain on Friday at all while we were in the park. The first thing we did was make sure we rode all of the coasters. So we worked our way from the front to the back. Raven rode well. The 5th drop is stunning as usual. The ride always seems too short, but it certainly packs a punch for it’s size. Next we headed to Legend. Legend had a huge overhaul this year with the first drop AND return to the station out of the double helix being completely torn down and rebuilt. A new double down feature was added to the course after the double helix as well. The theming changes didn’t stop there. When you go up the lift hill there is now a sound clip of a horse chasing you up the hill and a person saying don’t look back. The first drop was absolutely awesome. Before the re-profile, the first drop was jarring. Now it is as smooth as butter. This led to a much more comfortable ride throughout the course. The laterals were still there. The spiral drop in Splashin’ Safari and the double helix were lateral filled. After the double helix the new double down wasn’t as powerful as I was hoping. The first drop had almost no airtime and the second had just a small pop of airtime and it was nothing that I would write home about. After the double down the return trip was so smooth yet still felt fast and filled with laterals. It is an A+ ride! The work that the Coaster Cats at HW and GCI did on this is amazing. I wasn’t able to ride this ride until 2012 so the improvements to me made the ride seem brand new. Next we headed to Voyage and it was out of control and aggressive as usual. The ride was just so fast and surprisingly smooth. I didn’t notice any ‘chuckholes’ along the track and I felt as if it was really re-ridable. The little bunny hops along the track are so much fun and the first 3 drops were solid as usual. The ride seemed to be the same even when the trim brake was applied during regular operating hours. Lastly we hit up Thunderbird and it was solid again. This is by far the best wing coaster I have been on. The launch is forceful and the layout of the ride is great as well. We even had a crossover of Voyage when going through the course. The barn double keyhole is so much fun. Every time I have been on Thunderbird I still and just shocked that HW built a B&M coaster at the park. It is such a daring move and it seems to have paid off for the park. After our Thunderbird flight, we saw the HWN guests heading to the water park for the water park ERT. We ended up getting in and rode Mammoth and Wildebeest at least 6 times each. The park offered some snacks and had a new auction that allowed behind the scenes tours for some of the rides, a morning walk up the lift hill on Voyage, and a sign up for the new Gobbler Getaway turkey call tournament. I put in the first bid on the Voyage morning lift hill walk and I missed out on the last call because I was riding with the cousins. So I lost out on being there at the end to try and outbid others for the prize. Too bad. The dinner was great. It was the usual pizza, chips, veggies, and fudge. I honestly love their pizza. If I lived within 20 minutes of their place I would order a pizza for dinner at least once a month. (Yes I have heard of a couple of people that live down there doing this!) After dinner it was off to night ERT. When I say night ERT I mean it. This year was a new moon so there was ZERO light other than the stars and what was on the rides. This made the rides incredible as the trees looming over the rides and complete darkness made the rides feel even faster at night. After multiple trips on the rides we ended up leaving when ERT was over and heading to Santa’s Lodge for some rest. Day 2 Saturday’s weather looked even worse than Friday’s weather. So we headed to the park and spent the first little bit in kiddie land up front and in the back. I was able to ride a couple of rides with my daughter and she was able to have a good time in the morning. Once done with that the rain looked like it was on the way so we put our swimming gear on and headed to the water park. We were able to ride a couple of rides and then the rain came. Luckily they don’t close the water park for rain so it was really fun to ride some of the rides during the rain. I took my daughter to the newish Safari Sam’s Splash Land. It was really fun especially with her. She has never been on a water slide before so we did some of the small ones. She liked the open slides but still wasn’t up to trying the enclosed slides. I appreciated HW for having both options of slides along with a wading pool and fountains to play in. I really think you could spend all day there with a kiddo and they wouldn’t get tired. After that lightning was detected in the area so the water park was closed. We took shelter in a food area. This was a common theme as the park was shut down 2-3 times due to lightning throughout the day. Once the weather cleared I let the wife and kiddos stay in the water area as I went on the Voyage and Thunderbird walkback. I was able to get some fantastic shots of both Voyage and Thunderbird on this trip. The nice part was this year HW let us get back to the Zero-G section and the barn keyhole element. This was really cool as literally the train flew over you when it went through the Zero-G roll. This is the sad part of the event for me! After the Thunderbird walkback. My phone, which struggled to have any signal in Santa Claus, IN, vibrated and I saw I had a new voicemail. I listened to it and it was a voicemail from Leah Koch saying that they received my pre-event survey and that they were going to grant one of my request of how to make the event unforgettable by letting me have a walk back of Legend and Raven in the morning. Unfortunately, the morning she was talking about was Saturday morning! So I wasn’t able to go on the trip. They also announced that they were granting requests during the event program opening. I unfortunately missed that program because the kiddos were having so much fun in the park that we decided to skip the introduction. So that was a bummer but totally my fault because I literally missed two chances for a special walk back. I guess it’s time for a new phone and attend ceremonies because I usually skip all of them at these events haha. After the TB/Voyage walkback we came to the dry side and rode the coasters again. The dinner was good too. They had the same fried chicken, green beans, macaroni and cheese, and some desserts. I actually caught up with Leah and she apologized that we weren’t able to connect for the special walkback. I said I was just unlucky and it didn’t really hamper or mess up my trip at all. I thanked them for their generosity of the offer. After dinner it was time for night rides. Once again the new moon provided some spectacular night rides. After the ERT ended we headed out of the park, thanked the higher ups for another awesome event, and we headed to the hotel counting the days until the next Holiwood Nights event. Thanks for reading my trip report! My photos from the event are below. Ride Counts: Raven: 4 Legend: 3 Voyage: 11 Thunderbird: 18 The Legend The Voyage The Legend Thunderbird and Voyage It's launch time! Voyage Voyage Voyage Thunderbird reflection off of a puddle. I got a shoutout on the HW Podcast and a repost on Instagram from HW for this photo. Thunderbird loop

Are there still people thinking this is a minor issue??? This ride is Ssssssmokin!

Yeah I didn't see that! We posted nearly the same time so I missed his post because I was writing when he submitted his post.I do hope they get things ironed out. Because this ride is just awesome when its running. But when it's experiencing downtime after a certain amount of cycles and failing to open on time during the day, it's frustrating. I'm hoping this 3-5 day break will allow them to work on the ride and possible figure out the issue. Maybe they can have their EUREKA!!! moment here and did the ride for good. New rides will always have their Downtime Banshee on Opening Day experienced Downtime... Didn't Diamondback have an issue as well? The ride is new, especially with them trying new things on their restraints, they do not want a Texas Giant incident on their OWN trains. Yes those rides have experienced downtime. The difference is both Diamondback and Banshee opened without delay. Lightning Rod was supposed to be opened in March. It was delayed until the middle of June where it "opened" yet still suffered from downtime around 50% or so. (I am not going to count this 3-5 day delay against LR because it is a manufacturer issue affecting all rides built by RMC) That is the big difference. Banshee had 2 million riders in its first year. LR is still struggling to operate for half of a day, 3 and a half month after it was supposed to open. This isn't just a "first day" jitters issue with LR.

Yeah I didn't see that! We posted nearly the same time so I missed his post because I was writing when he submitted his post. I do hope they get things ironed out. Because this ride is just awesome when its running. But when it's experiencing downtime after a certain amount of cycles and failing to open on time during the day, it's frustrating. I'm hoping this 3-5 day break will allow them to work on the ride and possible figure out the issue. Maybe they can have their EUREKA!!! moment here and did the ride for good.

That is great news! Were you with the CoasterForce crew at the end of the night? I was the guy that ran into the group for the last hour the park was opened and rode with a couple of the group's members in the back before they all headed to Lightning Rod ERT after the park closed.

^^^ I see your point but nothing is more frustrating as a patron than hearing a ride is opened then going to the entrance multiple times during the day to only see it closed. ^^ Lightning Rod was good to go Monday and Tuesday mornings. Wednesday morning it wasn't. I was able to get a ride in on Tuesday around 3 and right at close. The times the ride was down was on Monday around 1 and 4, Tuesday around noon, and Wednesday it opened late around noon and close for the day around 2. Its really hit and miss. But it's a fantastic ride if you are able to get a chance to ride. ^Have fun! It's a blast!

I really hope they do. Lightning Rod is a stunning ride when operating but you can see the frustration even with the ride ops when they have to close the ride down so many times in a day. I'm hoping it improves soon because it's not a very positive feeling surrounding the ride as of now.

I just was there Monday through Wednesday this week and although the ride was opened, it really wasn't. The ride is incredible when it is actually running. The reliability is not good at all. Its a total crap shoot when it comes to getting a ride. There were at least 5 times where I came up to ride Lightning Rod and it was closed for mechanical issues. I was able to get 5 rides in over the three day period but the wait times were awful. What would've been at most a 30 minute wait extended to 2 hours due to the ride experiencing downtime due to mechanical issues. The last ride I was able to get I was able to get was in the morning on the third train. The ride didn't open up until noon even though ride ops said the wait wasn't going to be long and then they sent two trains out and it went down again. The maintenance team went out to the launch track, fiddled with some wires, came back, and told the ride ops he saw nothing wrong. So all in all I waited 2 and a half hours for a ride that should've been on and off of in 4 minutes. Even worse later in the day the Lightning Rod ride ops were out riding other rides because the ride was closed for the rest of the day around 3pm. My thing is why even say that the ride is "open" when it's clearly not ready at all. I understand it is new technology to wooden coasters but this technology has been around for 20 years! If you are only going to have the ride opened for 10-30 cycles before shutting down again just don't open the ride. It is not fair to the paying customer to basically have to hover around the ride all day to get a chance at riding it. The reliability is awful and I feel that if they haven't figured it out by now they may never figure it out.

I hope this coaster uses the terrain back there and they keep the trees somewhat close to the ride, I believe this will be a great ride! Imagine the night rides back in Rivertown!

Thanks, I have been working at getting better at taking photos of the park. If you get the time to participate in Coasterstock, do it! It is so much fun. I didn't even take full advantage of ERT and I as able to get 39 laps on the coasters! Plus the extra tours, food, and activities put the icing on the cake! Coasterstock is a must do event, IMO.

http://www.avclub.com/article/how-do-theme-parks-keep-roller-coaster-riding-idio-237813 A really good article/interview on some of the basics that go into how ride operators work.

Sorry my trip report is super long as usual, but I hope you enjoy it! Coasterstock May 20-22 Coasterstock was back again for it's second year and my wife, daughter, and I headed out for 3 days of adventure at the event. We arrived at the park right at 6. We had an issue with the parking even though we gave them the ticket. It was resolved rather quickly as we showed the attendant the information and they let us through. Once through the gate we found a parking spot and since it was raining I walked up to the registration booth on my own. This was my only issue with the event. There were two windows opened one being for A-M and the other for N-Z. The N-Z line was nearly empty, the A-M line had around 40 people in it. Of course my name begins with a G so I was stuck in the long line. When I got in line it was 615. The N-Z line was empty so people from our line went up to see if they could register there the guy at the window said he couldn’t do it. So basically everyone had to wait. I ended up waiting in line for over 50 minutes in the rain while waiting to register. My only idea to make this better is to either open more windows (1-2 more) or have the full list at each window so anyone can check in at any window. It was an unfortunate beginning but the even built up from there. With the rain ending we quickly entered the park and went to Banshee. It was a walk on. After that we went to the kids section and let my daughter ride until the park closed. After the park closed ERT started so I headed to ride Firehawk. I got in 3 rides in a row but on the 3rd on the rain really picked up and I headed to Flight of Fear to hide from the rain. The awesome part of our Coasterstock experience was they ride ops allowed us to ride with the lights on. This was a really cool experience. The speed of the ride seemed almost the same and the headchoppers were amazing. The room being lit up was amazing especially when you hit the MCBR and had the time to actually look around. I was able to get two front row lights on rides, a trip with the lights on for the first half of the ride, and a couple more regular dark rides. FOF felt like it was running great this year. After I was done I headed to the hotel for the night. Day 2 Day 2 started off like the previous night with rain in the area. I started it off with a couple of spins on Banshee, one on The Bat. After the park opened I was able to get a ride on Invertigo and Drop Tower. The day continued with my wife entering the park with our daughter and heading back to the kid section. Soon enough the behind the scenes tour of Beast began. I was in the 2 pm group. I really liked the way the park did this tour this time. It was way more intimate and with the smaller group I think more people were able to ask questions and feel like they could be heard. Many great facts were learned about the ride and some good photos that are normally not possible were taken. The dinner was actually really good this year! I was simple and had baked chicken and mashed potatoes. It was a much improved dinner than the previous year. Having Dennis Speigel speak during the dinner was a nice touch as we were entertained while eating. This was the first time I have heard him speak and it was really good information on the amusement park industry and what he sees as the next steps park will be taking in the near future. After dinner we stayed in the kid section until the park closed. Once it closed I headed straight to BLSC for a couple of spins. I hit Vortex up for one shuffling ride. I closed the night with a couple of spins on The Beast and Diamondback. I also got to meet one of my favorite park photographers (@Jantzen73 on Instagram)! This guy is amazing if you like my photos you will love his material, it is outstanding! Day 3 Day 3 was a great morning I had a ride on Banshee and Firehawk. The crowds were really light but I was pretty tired so I didn’t really ride too much. The weather finally broke so the sun was out and it wasn’t too hot. Lunch was good with burgers and hot dogs. The baked beans were good. It was a lazy day in the park even with the short line I didn’t ride any rides. I took the majority of the time to take some shots with the sun out. I enjoyed The Racer walk back and I believe the park did a walk back with Banshee in the evening but I missed it due to us eating dinner outside of the park. With the park coming to a close I headed back towards the first drop of Diamondback where I ran into Don Helbig. We chatted a little bit about the event and what I thought about it. He was really nice and attentive. I have talked with some other park reps before and some have not been so gracious to stop and chat for 5 minutes and seem genuinely interested in what I was talking about. He asked me about my favorite part of the event. I told him the ERT is my favorite part because I was able to experience the park with my family and not feel like I had to rush with getting in rides. I was able to get in 41 rides and I believe only 3 or 4 of them came outside of ERT. He hinted at some possible changes to the walk back of The Beast next year and some details of the event. I joked with him and said that who knows, maybe we will have something new to have a walk back around next year! He laughed and quickly and jokingly acknowledged the new entrance to WWC. After shaking hands and leaving I was able to get a couple of rides on The Beast, Diamondback (Where I ran into ohiocolts), and I finished the night off with a front row ride with electricsun, IndyGuy4KI, and I believe one more forum member but I forgot his name (Sorry!!!) Overall the event was fantastic and again is a must do if you are an enthusiast and have the time to make the event! Event Improvement points: The only issues I had with the park were that my ticket didn’t get us in right after 6pm. The booth attendant didn’t know of the event but we were able to explain the situation and they let us through. Registration- I would like to see maybe 1 or 2 more windows opened right at the beginning of registration to handle the “rush” for the first 30 minutes or so. The idea of splitting the booths by last name was great until the lines got really uneven and I as well as others had to wait longer than the other group. That could be alleviated by printing off the full list and having the full list at each window. Event Positives: Food- Much improved from the previous year. The chicken was delicious! ERT- The ERT as usual was fantastic everything was either a walk on or a one train wait. Behind the scenes tours- Great photo ops, behind the scenes information, and coaster viewing. Ride Crews- From the lights on trips on FOF, to the upbeat crew members manning each ride the park employees were fantastic! Moving the event to 3 days: I know it makes it tough for some people with the event spreading to 3 days but for myself and my family we had a great time knowing that we didn’t have to rush to enjoy the park and it spread the ERT and tours out enough that you were still able to enjoy the park as a regular patron and not have to be at ever Coasterstock event. My photos from the trip are below! Vortex! Racer! Invertigo Dino eating the moon. Seriously this is my favorite photo from the trip! Diamondback The Beast The Bat Banshee Banshee Flight of Fear with the lights on!

Looks like a great time! The weather looks soooo much better than what we had the Friday and Saturday before your visit. The work on Legend surprised me as well. It was so smooth and still fast and forceful!