1200+ miles, four parks, and some great wood coasters

[violakat03]

This weekend turned into another one of those random trips that have been a large part of my life this amazing summer. I believe it was last weekend that Nick (dare-to-fly) mentioned he was off work for three days and wanted to know if I'd be interested in a coaster trip at the end of the week. Many ideas were tossed around, but we finally settled on Indiana Beach, Six Flags Great America (a new park for both of us), and Holiday World. We also tossed in other ideas such as Navy Pier, a possible trip to Kiddieland, and figured we'd probably end the trip out at Kings Island by default, but those were all "if we can, we will" ideas.

Wednesday was a late night of packing, cleaning out the car, and getting ready. I knew we'd be camping out, so I loaded up my VUE with all the necessary equipment (including my 4 bedroom, 3 car garage tent). The plan was to meet in Richmond IN at around noon on Thursday. I listened to CoasterCrew's live podcast of the KD announcement on my way across I-70. Big kudos to Clint for setting up the ability to listen on the phone, I thought that was great plus I got to be among the first of my friends to hear the announcement of Intimidator 305.

After some delays, last minute packing, and the obligatory Taco Bell trip, we finally got out of the Richmond area at around 2 p.m. and hit the road for Indiana Beach.

We saw a lot of wind energy farms in Indiana. I had never seen any before and thought they were more a plains states thing, but they were definitely all over Indiana.

Indiana Beach was scheduled to close at 6pm on Thursday so we knew we were pressed for time, so we just pushed on straight there without stopping. We finally arrived at the park at about 5 p.m. We parked in what is apparently the 'back' parking lot, which provided a great view as you walk across the bridge. The problem with that is, I hate bridges, and this one moved under your feet while walking, which thoroughly creeped me out. It did provide some nice photo opportunities though!

I see wood coasters!

The creepy bridge.

Hoosier Hurricane goes underneath the bridge and skims across the water.

It took us a while (and a lot of walking) to find the one ticket booth open. The lady took forever to get us our wristbands (the ACE discount rocks, btw) so by the time we were ready to go, we had 45 minutes to get everything in we wanted. While Nick had been here before and had all the credits, this was my first visit so I wanted to try and get all the coasters.

Our first stop was Hoosier Hurricane. This was quite a nice ride (despite the ridiculously long time it took to load and the fact the back seat was broken so we had to ride second-to-back), but I soon understood why Nick wanted me to ride it before Cornball. It has some nice air time pops, but wasn't just outstanding.

After Hoosier Hurricane, it was on to Cornball Express (much to Nick's excitement).

Another long load time later, we finally headed out in the back seat. That first drop REALLY took me by surprise. Wow!! And it didn't end there. The amazing air time on this coaster (paired with buzz bars and a complete lack of trim brakes) pushed this coaster high up into my top ten. I would have loved another lap on this, but we were in super-credit-whore-mode-supreme and unfortunately didn't have time. However, it will guarantee a return trip next year!

We were so busy from that point on that I just didn't take any more pictures. It was time to run and ride! From Cornball, we jumped on Tig'rr (where Nick was highly annoyed by the addition of seat belts) for a fun Schwarzkopf ride. I enjoyed it more than other Schwarzkopfs I've been on. There were a few fun little surprises in the layout that were quite enjoyable. After Tig'rr, we ran over to Steel Hawg, IB's newest addition. This was my first S&S coaster. I'll be honest, I was unimpressed. There were a few cool elements, such as the 111° drop and the wrong way banked turn, along with a few of the inversions. However, it was very trimmed (yes, I hate them as much as Nick does, I'm just not normally as vocal about it) and the restraints were incredibly uncomfortable and left a bruise on my collarbone. Overall, it was "meh." Good parts but I think the bad outweighed the good.

With less than 20 minutes left, we still had 2 coasters to grab that were all the way across the park. A ride on Galaxi was almost our last one because they were trying to load a full train, but I dropped mention within the op's hearing range that we only had one more coaster to get to have them all, and he sent us out. One of two Galaxis I have been on, this was more fun than Pepsi Python at Coney, mainly because it was bigger and faster.

I believe when we headed to Lost Coaster of Superstition Mountain we had 10 minutes before park close. By the time we made the walk and waited for the train to return to the station, they were closing the line as we loaded in. I rode backwards. I believe my comment was I haven't ridden a coaster backwards since 2005. However, I was disappointed with this one. The elevator lift was very cool, something I've never experienced before. There were a few quick drops and fast turns, but for the most part it was trim brake, trim brake, trim brake. So the coaster ended up feeling very slow and more like a dark ride than a coaster. But hey, at least it was another credit, the last of the park!

We left the park a little after 6 and headed out on another adventure. I'd discovered that there's an 1885 Dentzel carousel with an operating brass ring machine in Logansport, Indiana, which is 30-45 minutes east of Monticello. I couldn't find on the website definite hours for the carousel, so we went, crossing our fingers it would be open. Most people who have hung out with me know that I dearly love carousels, and I have never ridden one with a brass ring machine.

When we finally got to the city park the carousel was located in, it was about 7 pm and the carousel was closed. Apparently they had moved off of summer hours and into school year hours, which means it's only open 1-5 pm on Saturday and Sunday. So, I got some nice pictures of it from the outside of the building! This is another reason for a trip to Indiana Beach, only this time I'll make sure I get the carousel too.

While I was disappointed in not being able to ride the carousel, I didn't let it deter me from continuing to have a great time. We headed towards the state park I'd picked out for camping, which was near Lafayette, IN. We set up our tent and tried to get a campfire going, but the wind from an approaching storm just wasn't letting it happen. We ended up hanging out inside the tent, munching on whatever food we had that didn't need to be cooked and listening to the rain and thunder roll through before heading to bed.

Continued in next post.

[TTD Maverick]

You go girl! Good ptr! I really want to see what GA is like.

[PhantomTheater]

That is as close as I got to the Logansport carousel as well, it is very disappointing when one can not ride such a beautiful creation. Notice how there are no jumpers on the carousel, all the horses are stationary.

[dare-to-fly]

I'm glad one of us is doing a trip report. Other things are winning the battle for me at this point.

[TTD Maverick]

Please tell kat to update!!

[dare-to-fly]

Please tell kat to update!!

Patience, patience. She can only type 150 wam, and pictures take a little longer to upload.

[DropZone99]

Sucks you only had about an hour in Indiana Beach! I only had seven hours when I went and barley got all the coasters in, plus a few rerides on the amazing Cornball Express, and rode some of the park's great flat rides! Can't wait to see the upcoming parks!

[KI Kevin]

Please tell kat to update!!

Really man, you got to be patient. Trip reports don't update themselves, you know.

[violakat03]

Great Coaster Adventure part 2: Chicago

The second day of our trip was a long one. We woke up around 7 a.m. and took our sweet time getting ready as neither of us had slept much the night before thanks to the storm. Around 9 we finally hit the road. We took a route that avoided I-65 since I'd heard many horror stories about the construction around Merrillville. We still got stuck in horrible traffic all through Chicago and arrived at the park around noon.

Of course, I immediately spotted one of my favorite things ... a carousel! This is the first double-decker carousel I've ever seen, so of course we had to ride it.

Nick semi-willingly riding the carousel. He's not exactly as big a fan of them as I am.

Happy Kat! And yes, I'm wearing a jacket. It was actually quite chilly.

Looking out over the midway towards the Gotham City themed area. Looks nice and sunny right?

But it's not sunny. The clouds looked ominous and were heading our way.

So after the carousel, it was time to hurry up and start getting our coaster credits! First up, was the B&M flyer Superman: Ultimate Flight clone. I really, really like B&M flyers. We waited about 15 minutes for the back seat of the train. I realized I forgot the strap for my sunglasses so I rode without. I rarely ride anything without my sunglasses so this was an interesting experience. I also got hit with change during the pretzel loop that I swear had fallen out of my pocket, but when we got off, I checked and pulled all my change from my pocket so it had to have been someone else's.

Super intense pretzel loop!!

I consider B&M flyers to be far superior to Vekomas in every way. The trains, the design, the elements, everything.

As you can see, the clouds were starting to move in and the whole park was getting rather dreary. We slid on over to Dark Knight, because it was right next to Superman. This is another clone ride, an indoor themed wild mouse. Not much to say about it other than it was a wild mouse. Inside. Yay? It was about a 10 minute wait, including watching the pre-show video. After Dark Knight, we headed off to Ragin' Cajun. This is a spinning mouse, but it wasn't as good as the spinning mouse I rode at Worlds of Fun. It was locked into facing forward for the first half of the ride, so you really only spun the second half.

Then it was on to Batman: The Ride. I was quite excited to ride the first B&M invert. It was a complete walk-on for the back seat. (You've probably noticed that we really like the back seat.) This is also the third of the clones I've ridden, and honestly it was the best. You can tell it was designed to fit that area, rather than copied and placed there like the others. Plus, the queue music was great! Nick and I were rocking out to it. One of the ride ops told me it was from the Batman Forever soundtrack and I later tracked it down for my iPod.

After Batman, we took another look at the clouds and decided to hurry up and start making our way around the park before we got rained out. We grabbed a near walk-on ride near the front of the train on V2 (Vertical Velocity).

It decided to start raining then, so we jumped in line for Fiddler's Fling, a calypso, though the cars had little tops on them, so we wouldn't get rained on. Holy cow, that thing flew! Now I know what a non-trimmed calypso is supposed to feel like and may have trouble enjoying Cedar Point's as much in the future.

The rain was short lived, so we hit up Iron Wolf, another B&M first, this time a stand up. I was pleasantly surprised by this coaster. It was not as rough as I expected to be (and Nick said he actually enjoyed it), and I rate it above Mantis on the B&M standup spectrum. I still prefer TOGO standups to B&Ms though.

From Iron Wolf, we finally got what we were both waiting for - a wood coaster! American Eagle is a HUGE racing coaster, it takes up the entire back side of the park.

The queue splits for red and blue just before the station, and it takes longer to talk to it than it does to get to Flight Deck. We chose red side because blue (the first one you come to in the queue) had a little bit of a line. As we both predicted, red was a walk on, so we snatched the back seat. Both of us were pretty much blown away by this ride. We just were not expecting it to be as good as it was. The gigantic double helix at the turn around was awesome, even though it was trimmed. The return trip was neat, with the trains crossing over each other a few times and ending with a single helix. The air time throughout the ride was unexpected. When we got off, we found a cut-through from the exit to the entrance so you don't have to walk through the entire queue again (similar to the cut-through on Flight Deck). We rode blue side this time, to compare and though we still enjoyed it, both of us decided red had better air time.

After American Eagle, it started raining again, so we took a break for lunch. Well, a very late lunch, it might have even been considered dinner. As we sat under the awning watching it pour down rain, we plotted our course of action, looked at what we had left to ride, and continued to wait. Finally, the rain let up enough that we decided to brave walking out in it. None of the rides had reopened, so we walked around checking out what flat rides we were interested in. Just as we were about to make a decision on a flat, we heard Raging Bull start testing. We walked past Viper first, and sure enough, it had just sent out it's first train with people on it, so we got in line. Another ride that jumped into my top ten wood, I was very impressed with it. Plus .. no trims! Woo! We rode it again, because it rocked and Raging Bull wasn't running with people yet. By the time we got off it the second time, Raging Bull was open, so we headed over there.

Raging Bull was my fifth B&M hyper, and I think I'm going to rank it as the worst. I think Nick's description of it really summed up how we both felt about it - he logged it as "Powerwalking Bull" in his ride notebook. I honestly thought we were going to valley a few times because it kept hitting trim brakes every three seconds. There were two spots of really nice ejector air, but it went through the rest of the elements just painfully slow.

With that, we had all but one coaster credit, the last being Whizzer. It had been down the first time we walked past it, and then continued to be down for the entire rest of the day. So sadly, we missed one available credit. But hey, an excuse to come back next year! We decided to make a flat ride run, and hit Orbit (enterprise), Chubasco (tea cups, which we made ourselves very dizzy on), stopped to play some DDR (well, I played DDR. Nick went and rode American Eagle again), got a re-ride on Viper, Ricochet (which was odd), Condor (which honestly scared me), King Chaos (top spin), and East River Crawler (polyp aka octopus). We finished out the night with the second-to-last train of the night on American Eagle, red side.

After we wandered through gift shops in hopes of finding a shirt either of us liked (no luck), we discussed our options for the rest of the night. It was still threatening rain, and cold, so I was afraid the Navy Pier ferris wheel would be closed. We opted instead to go to the Gurnee Mall down the road and eat at Rainforest Cafe, which was a very very cool experience, before heading back to the campsite for the night.

To be continued: Holiday World

[DropZone99]

I feel bad you didn't get to ride Whizzer, it's probably the second or third best thing at SFGAm. Although Raging Bull is my least favorite hyper, I still rank it 9 out of 10, but wow those Trims suck. Did you ride the kiddie coaster or Giant Drop?

[The Interpreter]

Spacely's Sprocket Rockets!

[violakat03]

Kiddie coaster required a kiddie to ride.

[The Interpreter]

Nick didn't count?

[DropZone99]

Kiddie coaster required a kiddie to ride.

I rode it last year! I may be short, but I don't think 5ft. 5inches. is considered a kid height, is it?

[violakat03]

Nick didn't count?

Well, he did get height checked on the top spin...

We actually didn't try to get on. We just saw the sign that said something about adults required a child to ride and didn't try it. Maybe we should have.

[The Interpreter]

In all the years I have gone to Six Flags Great America, I have never seen that rule enforced. Kind of reminds me of the last year for Phantom Theater, when Kings Island put up a sign and for ONE DAY enforced a rule that you had to have a child with you to ride. After what must have been six zillion complaints to Guest Relations, the rule was not enforced after the first day. The sign, however, was not removed for several weeks thereafter. Those adults sans child who believed the sign did not get to ride. If you are going to have a sign, enforce the rule. If not, don't have a sign.

[TTD Maverick]

YAY!!! Good PTR! I LOVE Six Flags and that looks like one of the better parks. V2 looks almost as good as WT, all the woods look awesome, Batman looks great, and Raging bull looks decent.

[rotag]

this post is for post one

{qouted from violakat in person on august 9th}

(points fingures downwards)STUPID TRIMS!!!

[KI Kevin]

Kat, how did V2 compare to Wicked Twister? I've heard of some people that like the straight back tower, and some that prefer the twisted back tower found only on WT.

And by the way, how do you like the TOGO standups more than the B&M's? I've ridden one TOGO (Shockwave), and two B&M's (Mantis, Chang), and I'd rate Chang and Mantis WAY above Shockwave. I think Shockwave is the one coaster where I didn't think that airtime was a good thing. Plus when you're entering the helix you get flung to the side. I did not like it. Can you tell me why you like the TOGO's more? I honestly truly don't mean to bash your opinion, I'm just asking you to explain you ride experiences on both types.

[violakat03]

My Holiday World pictures are taking forever to load, but don't worry, they're coming.

As for why I like TOGOs - I find B&Ms to be painful and have too many G-forces. I usually end up getting bad coaster blackout on them because it's harder to prevent when standing instead of sitting. I also always end up with one leg turned funny because I can't get my feet flat on the floor easily, I have no idea why. They also bang my head around more. TOGOs do not bang me around, and I find the restraints more comfortable. They are more minimalist, rather than large and bulky. I also LOVED the air time on King Cobra. I was slightly disappointed by Shockwave because it's missing some of the air time hills that King Cobra had. KC was one of my favorite rides at Kings Island.

For Wicked Twister versus V2 - If V2 had the brake still active on the back spire that held you there for a few seconds, it might be more interesting. But I prefer Wicked Twister because of the twisted back spire. There's a particular seat you can sit in that gives you an unrestricted view straight down to the ground, V2 doesn't have that ability.

[KI Kevin]

I found the loop on Shockwave to make me knees feel like they were about to cave. But hey- we all have our own opinions. I do agree on the restraints. I was actually a bit unnerved by them they were so minimalist.

As for V2, it's sad they don't have the brake on the back tower. I watched a show on thrill rides on the Travel Channel (best channel ever, IMO) from 2002, and they featured "Superman- Ultimate Escape at Six Flags Worlds of Adventure", aka Possessed at Dorney, and it had the brakes on the back tower. I think the V2 at Discovery Kingdom looks pretty wicked (no pun intended). It was too tall for standards, so they shortened the back (straight) tower, and made the front (twisted) at a 45 degree angle instead of 90 (straight up). So you actually do a barrel roll move while going 45 degrees up (and down).

[The Interpreter]

That Six Flags Discovery Kingdom version is actually a very odd, and unique, experience.

[KI Kevin]

Was it a lot of fun?

[The Interpreter]

Yes, indeed. That entire park is a fun experience. I am glad I got to ride Zonga, the former Texas Tornado at AstroWorld there, too. That was a very strange experience, as well.

[KI Kevin]

From what I've heard Discovery Kingdom is a great park. Zonga looks interesting. Those loops are very wide!

Oh and here's the link to V2 at Discovery Kingdom: Here is the link :)

[The Interpreter]

The ride is now in Mexico. It was actually far more fun when it was in Texas than when it was in California, though the restraints actually hurt a great deal. The ride had much of its structure very close to the riders, and the restraints used in the USA forced you to keep your arms down and inside the car. They were very painful, and pressed hard into your shoulders.

[violakat03]

Great Coaster Adventure part 3: Holiday World

Saturday was an early morning for us, because it was time to pack up the tent which isn't exactly an easy feat. We got it done fairly quickly though, loaded everything back up in the VUE and headed out. I had only slept about 2, maybe 3 hours the night prior, so Nick drove. I know at some point I passed out in the passenger seat for an extended period of time, so I don't remember much about our trip to Santa Claus. I do remember waking up as we passed through Jasper.

We arrived at Holiday World at about 11:30 to see threatening skies but a packed parking lot.

Self-portait in the mirror of the VUE.

VOYAGE!!!!!!!

By the time I could shoot this photo, I was wide awake and very giddily excited.

Legend.

It's not usually a good sign when you have to park in Legend Lot that early in the day. Even worse, we were parked back by tram stop 3. That's the farthest I've ever had to park.

We hopped on the tram and rode it over to the tunnel, got our tickets and headed inside. The sun was coming and going as we headed through the park, trying to decide what to do first.

Grabbed a picture of Angie's favorite fountain.

I still love the HallowSwings. Some of the best theming on such a simple ride.

We passed Raven up as it had a completely full queue and knew that would change later. We also passed up Legend for the same reason.

On the way back to Thanksgiving, I saw an interesting photo opportunity.

We finally made it back to Voyage. It was in the lower queues. I think we waited about 20 minutes for it, but I REALLY wanted Voyage. And boy did I get it. We rode in the back seat (because really, where else would we go?) and it was everything I remembered.

After Voyage, we went back to Legend, where we waited about 20 minutes also.

Sadly, the bell is broken again. They are not having good luck with the bell this summer!

After a great back seat ride on Legend, we finally got a back seat ride on Raven after a short 10 minute wait.

The rest of the day involved eating (Plymouth Rock Cafe for lunch, and Alamo and BBQ pork for dinner), and continuing to lap Legend and Voyage. We did not ride a single flat ride the entire day, just basically wandered between Legend and Voyage until 8. At 8, we were getting off Voyage, intending to head to Raven and then the exit, and I mentioned that I would love to have a true night ride on Voyage. I've had twilight rides on Legend and Voyage where the tunnels were dark, but I've never had a true night ride. At this point, it was obvious that if we got one of the last trains of the night, it would definitely be a true night ride. So we waited around outside the queue, and entered it at about 8:20. We managed to get the third to last train, in the back seat. It was absolutely nothing short of amazing. My first true night ride on Voyage, and it was again everything I expected and so much more. The triple down in the tunnel in the pitch black. The wrong way banked turn into the 90° turn when you couldn't see anything. Just .. wow. What a perfect end to an awesome day.

As we headed out of Holiday World (with an additional 6 Voyage rides and 4 Legend rides on my count), it was about 9 pm and we were both very tired. We managed to make it to Cincinnati .. somehow .. and stayed the night there.

Part 4: Kings Island

Sunday morning, and Nick had to be at work early, so we managed to rouse ourselves at what I felt was an obscene hour, I dropped him off at work and then headed back to the hotel to get myself ready for the day. I texted Jackson to see if he wanted to go, and he said he'd meet me at the park.

I got to the park about 15 minutes into ERT when all was said and done. Jackson was already there, and said both Diamondback and Beast were down. After seeing the HUGE line forming for Diamondback, we decided to go to Beast instead. It was a good decision, I believe, because Beast was opening as Diamondback was still doing block testing. Jackson and I made a beline for seat 6-2. The funniest part of this ride was when we were going down the first drop, Jackson decided to repay me for what I did a couple weeks ago. One of the other times we were at the park, for the photo I reached over and looked like I was strangling him. So this time, he did that to me, only he somehow managed to accidentally pop me in the mouth and bust my bottom lip open. So I picked on him for that the rest of the day.

After two more re-rides on Beast (because no one was waiting for our row), we decided to head over to Flight of Fear. We ran into coastersnsich (Tom) on the way there and got in the non-existant line. It broke as we got to the station. After waiting about 5 minutes, one of the rides area supervisors came in and said it was probably going to be down for awhile. So the three of us headed for Firehawk which was .. wait for it ... A WALK ON. That's right. We walked onto the back row of red train. This was my first Firehawk ride of the season because I won't wait for it. As expected, having just ridden Superman 2 days prior, I was disappointed. I just am not a fan of Vekoma flyers.

After Firehawk, Flight of Fear was still broken, and Tom said he wanted to ride Vortex, so that's where we went. There was about a 10 minute wait. We got seat 7-1 while Jackson took 5-1. I enjoyed the ejector air on the first drop. From there, I declared that I wanted Diamondback and the single rider line was very short, so away we went. Two SRL rides later, the main line was ridiculously short so we wandered into it for a third ride.

At this point, I was hungry and so was Jackson, so we split up with Tom and headed for McDonald's. This turned into a long trip as I discovered that I need to run an errand while gone that required a trip almost all the way home to meet my mom for some paperwork. By the time we got back to the park, it was almost time for Jackson to leave, and Adam (pkiboy) met up with me there. We went to Beast, then to Diamondback. After Diamondback we met up with Adam's friend Phil, and rode Beast again. Nick met up with us during his break, and then when he went back to work, Adam, Phil and I went to ride Diamondback again. By this time it was about 7:30 and we knew we only had time for one more ride, Diamondback or Beast. We were originally going to finish with Beast, but as we left Diamondback's line we ran into Gary, who was just about to take his 1,000th ride alone!! We couldn't let that happen! So Adam and I joined him in line, and incidentally met up with txdrummer in the queue (he was in front of us). The four of us rode in rows 1 and 2. Diamondback's crew did a great job hyping everyone up and making a big deal out of Gary's 1000th ride. It was a TON of fun, quite possibly one of the best DB rides I've ever had and yet another great end of a great day.

Adam and Gary in line for row 1.

The KIC car!

Gary, Adam, Nick and I went out to eat afterwards, which is always an entirely too entertaining adventure, and then finally it was time for all of us to go our separate ways, ending a great coaster adventure.

An overview:

Number of days: 4

Number of parks: 4

Number of coasters: 23

Number of new credits: 16

[Monroe]

Very good report, I enjoyed it a lot. I have come to the realization that I am in Indiana Beach withdrawal, for I have not been there in quite some time. A Cornball Hurricane may sound like a spring break drink, but to me it is pure fun!!

[DropZone99]

Nice photos, did you get a new camera? I really wish I lived in the Cincinnati area and could go to KI as much as you guy's do, and maybe even go to Holiday World sometime (Haven't been since 2001.)

[KIfan1980]

Kat - thanks for sharing an awesome PTR with us all. I love the way your emotion comes through in words and pics.

Also, pretty cool that you joined Gary for ride 1000 - funny how Adam looks more excited than him. Although the busted lip from Jackson may be the funniest part of the TR.