Diamondback96 Posted June 28, 2015 Share Posted June 28, 2015 So my parents and I have been planning this trip for a while now. We only recently settled on Friday. I heard something on here about Kroger tickets offering free ERT, but no one here was sure so we compared the Kroger price and the AAA price and it was within a dollar so we got the Kroger tickets. They did come with vouchers, so I have to thank you all for helping me become aware of this offer. We were second guessing our decision to go this Friday, since we wouldn't really be able to go until August since I'm taking a summer class. However, we (obviously) decided to go anyway despite the forecast. I had already downloaded the app and was excited about my 1/2 off funnel cake, especially when I heard about the cheesecake one! So, on Friday morning around 6:10 or 6:15 AM (we were supposed to leave by 6... my dad made sure to mention that) we departed with (hopefully) everything we needed. We immediately remembered one thing: Ziploc bags. We weren't turning around at that point so we decided to just pick some up on the way. After about 45 minutes of driving, we stopped in Shelbyville to eat at Bob Evans. It's basically tradition for our family, although we sometimes break the tradition and stop at the McDonalds by the casino if we're in a hurry. My mom and I had chocolate milk to drink with water as a backup, and my dad had a Coke. Yes, for breakfast. For the meal, we all had the cheesy hash brown casserole (it has potential, but it tastes a little weird, like it wasn't mixed well). I had a Border Scramble omelet with wheat toast, my dad had a Farmers Market omelet with wheat toast, and my mom had some egg product I can't remember (probably scrambled or over easy) with sausage links and white toast. As I'm a slow eater and was even slower because I was stuffing myself (I generally don't eat breakfast, and especially not at 7 AM!), my mom left to pick up some Ziploc bags at the Walmart across the street. When I declared I was done, my dad went outside and I went to the bathroom. Upon exiting the bathroom, my mom pulls up to pick us up. We then resume our journey. For the next part I should explain something first: my phone case. I have a Lifeproof case that I got on the way to WDW last year. It came with an adapter, since the headphone hole is too small for anything but Apple earbuds/pods to fit. The adapter also keeps the case water resistant. Anyway, our next stop was the Batesville rest stop. I had to hurry so we wouldn't be thrown too off schedule, and I forgot I had the adapter in my lap. So I run inside, then come back without noticing the adapter. I didn't notice until we were back on the interstate, so it was too late to go back for it. Luckily, I was able to order a new one right then on Amazon with 2-day Prime shipping- and it arrived on Saturday. After that, I think I fell asleep for a bit. Next thing I noticed were the beautiful hills of Ohio. Some time later, we're driving through Ohio on 275, then on 71. We made it to the parking tolls around 9:22 AM. We paid for parking in advance to save a couple bucks (would be 3 if it wasn't for that darn processing fee!), so we gave the attendant our pass and we were on our way. We found a parking spot easily, and we started walking in the park as ERT started (9:30 AM). Once we got in the park, I went to the bathroom while my parents got a locker. Once that was done, we didn't know where to go. Naturally, our first thought since we wanted to ride Banshee first before it got packed was to head left towards the KI Theater, but there was just a rope blocking the way. We asked an employee, and they said there's an entrance on either side. We used the left entrance, gave them our vouchers, and made it to Banshee before the park opened. We rode in the front row since the ride was a station wait. I have to say this ride is extremely intense, and the front row is really nice. By the way, since I was wearing athletic shorts and my dad was wearing cargo shorts, I had my dad hold my phone on most rides. After Banshee, we tried to hurry to Diamondback before the park opened. However, we reached IS as soon as the ropes dropped. However, it seems like very few people were heading to the south side of the park since we were able to make it to the stairs before we found a line. We rode in the front again, and it's really something you need to experience at least once. Apparently the ride has a hairstylist because I came off the ride looking like this: Right after, we headed straight for The Beast, but not before getting some good pictures: At Reds Hall of Fame Grille, you can buy wings, hamburgers, large TVs and air conditioned! ...Wait, what? Got photobombed by the CF trash can... My mom and I rode in the front row on The Beast, while my dad rode right behind us on a non-wheel seat(which is best for him since he has more trouble than my mom and me with coasters now). Despite that, the ride ended up being really smooth in the front. However, my mom said she sat on the wrong side. She says she gets slammed in the left seat or something. In my opinion, there is no "bad" seat on The Beast. Anyway, took this picture while exiting: Next, we walked through the Rivertown arcade. The sign said it has DDR. It has no DDR. We then walked through Rivertown to Vortex/The Vortex (has KI decided on an official version of the name yet?), questioning the spelling of "hoagys" on the LaRosa's sign. My dad sat out on Vortex because it's always been rougher on him, and he had shoulder surgery 6 months ago. It's a good thing he did; he would have been done for the day. I stood in the station trying to find row 5-1, and I did. However, my mom forced me to ride in 5-2. I'm guessing the ride experience isn't drastically different in 5-2 however, and it was pretty fun aside from the headbanging. My mom said she's never riding it again though. To be honest, the old OTSRs are terrible. B&M's new ones are much better, however I'm sure they're patented. Hopefully we see some clever alternatives sometime. New Vekoma trains may help out Vortex. Right after this, my dad and I rode WindSeeker to let my mom take a break (she hates WindSeeker). It's actually a great ride. It goes fast enough to feel like you're flying but not fast enough to be thrilling. It's relaxing. I noticed the evacuation system. It was a really good idea to add that. Also saw Urgent Scare and was reminded of watching the Spongebob 3D short in the left theater, and saw a little bit of Dinos Alive. My mom tried to take a photo of me and my dad... this was the best one. I'm the one sticking my head out. Noticed the empty area where Flight Commander used to be... you would think something would have gone there by now. I guess a bunch of picnic tables is "something"... sigh... Next, we rode the Dodgems, which are as fun as always. I still don't like the one way thing, but I guess they need it due to the support in the middle blocking part of the floor. I drove a blue car. I was going for an orange one but my mom took it. Towards the end, there was a major traffic jam on the Coney midway side of the ride. It started to dissolve as the ride stopped. Took this picture while leaving: Next, we went over to Firehawk, which had shut down for some reason. Flight of Fear seemed busy, so maybe it was a local power failure, or just normal problems with Firehawk and Flight of Fear being popular on a very humid day or it having its own problems. We waited for about 15 minutes for the ride to reopen, and we waited for about 5 minutes after that. My mom only rode because my dad convinced her to. She still hates the ride. We were also going to ride Flight of Fear but the line was too long at the time, so we skipped it and took a bathroom break. We then looked at the prices at Hank's Burrito Shack. Almost $15 for a meal? I could go to Taco Bell and get a meal for $5 or $6 that's probably more filling! A similar meal at Qdoba or Chipotle would probably be like $7-10. We decided to get pizza later, after riding The Racer. We rode in the front again (dad in the middle IIRC) on the red side, and we won! After that, we went to Festhaus to get some pizza around 1 PM (and caught Down Home Country as well). We only saw combo prices rather than individual prices and got worried that we had to buy a combo. It's also around $15, which is a little much considering a whole pizza can cost that much outside the park. However, we were able to get a whole pizza for I think $25 which is... okay. We then realized it was about to rain, so we headed over to Drop Tower. I still want to call it Drop Zone. Seriously, that's a very generic name. I understand Invertigo's rename since the movie was typeset as Face/Off as well, but Drop Zone was fine since it had no real ties to the movie and the movie flopped anyway. Anyway, we waited for about 15 minutes. Once we got on and started going up, it started to rain. My mom freaked out because of the suspense (as usual) but she (and I) laughed during the drop (as usual). I also found out that this weekend was the weekend of Spirit Song. Thankfully the rain drove the crowds away and many people were at Timberwolf once they got going. After that, we headed to The Bat (my mom said "That's not the real Bat!"). As we got to the station, the rain got steady. We ended up riding in the rain, which was a really cool experience. This ride is honestly extremely underrated. It's actually a lot better now that SOB's gone. It feels more secluded. Once we got off, we headed to the access bridge (which I can't believe still has the Top Gun theming!) so my dad could check the radar. We headed back to Festhaus to wait out the storm, and then headed outside. My mom and I then rode Viking Fury, which I actually like a lot. I'm definitely riding it again next time. After that, we decided we needed to go to the water park right away if we were going to do it at all. So we got our water park stuff and went that way. More will come later; I need to grab food for myself and then take care of the dogs. Gonna reserve some posts first so I can keep everything at the top if necessary. 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Diamondback96 Posted June 28, 2015 Author Share Posted June 28, 2015 ignore Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Diamondback96 Posted June 28, 2015 Author Share Posted June 28, 2015 ignore Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jcgoble3 Posted June 28, 2015 Share Posted June 28, 2015 Great report so far. A couple notes: $25 is indeed bad for an amusement park pizza. For comparison, The Beach Waterpark charges about $15 for a whole pizza IIRC. Also, if posting a trip report in multiple segments over time, it's generally better to append each section to the end of the thread after any comments that have been made, rather than editing them into previous posts. If you do the latter, those who have previously opened the thread are not notified of the "new post". 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marth555 Posted June 28, 2015 Share Posted June 28, 2015 It will always be Drop Zone to me and I agree that The Bat is very underrated Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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