TR: Water Country, BGW & PKD 7/28-7/31

[Delirium_Guy]

Well, myself and the usual clan decided to go visit some family out in Newport News, VA......so of course this means the mandatory stop at BGW and PKD :-)

Actually, on Saturday we did something out of the norm. Since we all have Busch Passes, we decided to check out Water Country USA! None of us had been there. I was very curious to check out one of Busch's water parks.....wondering if it would uphold the same qualities that both BGW and BGT posses. I can happily report that YES it does! Simply put, the most beautiful water park I've ever step foot in. THIS is what I envisioned Boomerang Bay to be, when Jeff was hyping up all the *lush* landscaping. Yeah, right. Just like BGW, Water Country is surrounded by tons upon tons of trees. The Park features hilly terrain as well. Whats awesome is that pretty much all of the slides utilize this feature and many are built into the hillside itself. Without stepping foot on one attraction, I was already blown away with the place.

We only had about two hours to spend, so I didn't even come close to hitting all the slides. So I picked out the ones that looked the most interesting and off we went. First up was Aquazoid. Built upon a top of a hill, this thing is most impressive visual! Its very similiar to Zoombabwe at Holiday World in that you KNOW its there. Its massive. We loaded up in the tube and off we went. It was pretty speedy, had a lot of quick turns and was actually a pretty lengthy ride. The awesome part was that the slide was equipped with a lighting package! So at various points during the ride, the lights would flash and follow your raft along the way. Very very cool!

Next up, Hubba Hubba Highway. What I assumed to be a lazy river, turned out to be a not so lazy river. Its not an action river, per say, like the one at Schlitterbahn which features waves. Its not a lazy river either. You don't float through this one on inner tubes, but rather life preservatives. At first I didn't get one, I just wanted to swim, but after a while I picked up one floating along the way. The current in this thing is FAST! Fast enough that its very hard to fight it and really takes a strong effort if you want to back track for any reason. Along the way, its themed with various fun road signs and water stunts. We took two spins around, you never have to get out if you don't want. This this ROCKED! :-) By this time, it was already late. We emptied the locker to head back towards the front end of the Park. The last thing we did was something along the lines of Hidden Rapids at the Beach. Part lazy river / part water slide.

Perhaps the coolest thing about the Park was the fact that it had live entertainment in the form of a Survivorish type of show. It was decent and a nice way to end the short time we had in the park. Overall, its a darn good water park. Beautifully landscaped, dare I say better than PKI? Sad, but kinda true. I'm not surprised though....

Sunday we headed off to BGW. Not much new here. Park was crowded, but all coasters were at max capacity. We've been so many times to BGW that it doesn't matter anymore. We really just enjoyed the day strolling along and hanging out. Apollo was running better than usual, in the fact that I almost sorta liked it this time :-) Still a fun ride, taking fully advantage of its terrain.....and you gotta love that third drop out by the water. Stunning. Dar Kastle continues to rock my world. I still can't believe that they built this. Its definitely the most elaborately themed attraction outside of Disney / Universal. It could use a few more special effects in certain spots that are slow, but I have a feeling that more tweaking will take place with it over the off season. The changes that were made this past year made a huge difference, with an entire new scene added to the ride!

We FINALLY got out spin on Alpengeist that night. It had an hour + wait most of the day, so we saved it for last. We decided to wait for the front row, knowing that closing was near and that they most likely wouldn't run the front seat line out. Ok, first of all, let me set this up. BGW has a policy that you can re-ride TWICE if no one is waiting for your seat. Keep this in mind. Closing rolls around, the station empties out, except for those of us queued up for the first seat. They continue to cycle trains. Sure enough, they ran the front seat queue out! We hopped on. Had a superb dark ride on Alpie......just the three of us! That just doesn't happen very often! Kudos to the Alpie crew for a job well done!

Over in New France, clearing is well underway for the new for 2007 coaster. I understand its to be announced in about 3 weeks. From all accounts, its a B&M Dive Machine. Having ridden Sheikra last Labor Day, I'm all for this. Its a fun, fun ride! The entire hill side surrouning Alpengeist all the way over to Nessie has been cleared. All that remains of LeMans is a bridge that the cars used to cross. While I'm sad to see them go and so many trees cleared, no doubt in my mind the area will turn out just as stunning next year with the new addition. Everything they do seems to blend in flawlessly, one of the biggest reasons I love Busch. The area that they built for Sheikra is beautifully done, can't wait to see this one!

ON the way home Monday, we stopped by PKD for a few hours. Obviously we wanted to hit IJ for the credit. The Italian Job area is nice. The midway is painted to look like a street, complete with sidewalks and street lamps. The queue seems small, I'm sure its overflowed this season. They don't count off people in the station like at PKI, but rather you just wait for whatever seat you want. They were running two trains, which was fine since the line wasn't even across the bridge. So here are our thoughts:

1) First of all, PKI crew should go take a look at PKD's IJ crew! WOW! They were smoking the trains out. One big difference, they advance the train from unload into the station immediately following the other train that launches. At PKI, they seem to wait until it clears the parking garage. Why the differences in ops?

2) Wow, its August and their speakers STILL work! Guess the vandals decided not to stop at PKD this year. Best of all, isn't it shocking that you could actually HEAR the music?! It was loud and my god did it make one hell of a difference in the ride!

3) The helicopter scene. The train launches as the explosion happens, you can feel the heat from it as you launch through! It was actually IMPRESSIVE. Its literally about a 10 second stop, definitely shorter than your delay at PKI.

4) Wow, its August and ALL of the headlights and taillights were working! Shocking!

5) The boost out of the billboard. It is MOST CERTAINLY more pronounced than the PKI version, it actually launched us up and forward. Shocked the hell out of us it did.

OK, so what just happened? We LOVED Italian Job....we actually wanted a re-ride. In general, the ride was a bit faster than PKI's....it was noticeable just watching the train crest the parking garage. Though it was a small difference, it made a difference through the entire ride. Best of all, it actually looks like it FITS in the park. Its wedged over by Anaconda.......unless on the tower, most of the ugly stuff is fairly hidden from most views. Yes, its still an ugly ride........but it doesn't stick out at PKD like it does at PKI. Props to PKD for keeping everything working!

Volcano was up next. 30 minute wait. Always worth it. Super ride. Fast, smooth, intense, and boy do I love that feeling that you get when you blast out of the top of the volcano. You really ARE up there!

Tomb Raider was great as usual. Nice program, all effects working still. Its a must ride everytime we go.

Took a spin on Scooby Doo, still better than PKIs....I love the fact that the guns are laser pointers. Super easy to aim and easier to hit targets. Shockwave was running well in the back seat, made me miss King Cobra as it always does. Ricochet was a walk on, so a quick spin was taken......fun but braked way to hard. Hurler was OK. Better than last year but in need of some attention.

Lastly, Drop Zone Stunt Tower. I just can't come back from PKD without raving over this thing. Efficient loading, very well organized. It still amazes me at how fast the thing gets you to the top. The drop is awesome, you can tell that the braking area is short than PKI's........the extra few feet makes a HUGE difference.

We were all hot, it was miserable, so we decided to call it a day and head home. We've ridden everything before, so we weren't missing out on anything. Took a stroll through Old Dominion....passing the OPERATING Antique Cars and FLying Eagles. A quick trip up the tower and off we were.

PKI still shines in terms of employees. I think both parks are split in operations. Some of the crews at PKD were really hustling, just like a few do at PKI. After this visit to PKD, I'm convinced that it truly is up to each individual park as to what they spend their budget on. In general, PKD is such a nicer park for me. The landscaping, ride placement like Italian Job, the over abundance of trees in the Old Dominion area. Its a beautiful beautiful park. I wish PKI would take the time to spruce up the areas that need it, fix the theming on IJ and Tomb Raider. Its just the little things that DO make a difference. INstead, we get stuck wasting money to keep that piece of **** in Action Zone in a semi-rideable condition. Please oh please let it see the wrecking ball soon.......then maybe the PKI that I know, love and remember may one day return.

- Todd

[Jasper]

Sounds like you had three great trips. i have been to BGW twice and i enjoyed every minute of it the theming is great. When i went there was no waits for anything except for on day 2 when we got stuck in line on Apollo's Chariot because it was raining. I have never been to PKD or Water Country USA but i have heard good things about PKD from people on podcasts and on here. But i am sure that it is no where compared to our own PKI.

[Captain Picard]

I like PKD, it still has what PKI has lost in recent years. I would have liked to get back there before Cedar Fair makes any changes but I don't think I will make it.

[Reon]

My guess for IJ dispatches is that KI waits for it to clear the helix to prevent rollbacks. Also, I believe the new BGE coaster will be called Griffen. I've seen the announcement thread over at TPR. But yeah, looks like you had lots of fun on your trip!

[Delirium_Guy]

I like PKD, it still has what PKI has lost in recent years. I would have liked to get back there before Cedar Fair makes any changes but I don't think I will make it.

Bingo! Like I said, they do suffer from some operational issues.....but none of which are that bad. I'm absolutely in love with their International Street, i think its so gorgeous. They are certainly more detail oriented, for example making the IJ Midway an actual road with street signs and such.

As for BGE's new ride, they applied for the rights for Griffon.....and also two other names Volataire & Iron Eagle. While I think its likely that Griffon may win out, at least I like it better, we'll find out August 23rd. Should be a fun ride, Busch doesn't disappoint to often.

- Todd

[Delirium_Guy]

My guess for IJ dispatches is that KI waits for it to clear the helix to prevent rollbacks. Also, I believe the new BGE coaster will be called Griffen. I've seen the announcement thread over at TPR. But yeah, looks like you had lots of fun on your trip!

Thats the only reason for it, in my mind. I guess I don't understand why PKI operates one way but PKD operates another. The dispatches are so bad at PKI that the other night, they were running two trains, the second train had finished the circuit before they had even advanced the empty train into the loading area. I'm sorry, thats pathetic.

We were all just in complete shock over the differences between the two. Just had a ton of fun on PKDs. The sound was SO loud, it was NICE to actually be able to HEAR the sound track for the ride......which isn't half bad if I do say so.

[BoddaH1994]

Granted, I've never been to any other Paramount Park but from reading your trip reports it seems as though the other parks don't share PKI's problems with themeing, even if it's the same ride installed.

Do you think that PKI has less of a budget for that sort of thing, or does this mean that maybe the people who are responsible for the upkeep shouldn't be the people responsible for the upkeep...?

[Delirium_Guy]

Granted, I've never been to any other Paramount Park but from reading your trip reports it seems as though the other parks don't share PKI's problems with themeing, even if it's the same ride installed.

Do you think that PKI has less of a budget for that sort of thing, or does this mean that maybe the people who are responsible for the upkeep shouldn't be the people responsible for the upkeep...?

I'm not sure if its less of a budget or just the fact that they spend it on stupid other things elsewhere in the park. Anyone can look at the Park this season and tell that its not in the greatest shape. This is the worse I've seen PKI look. I just found out last night that a woman nearly broke her ankle after tripping over a pothole in Coney Mall? I've been told from several people that the big reason that Cedar Fair has canceled Winterfest is mainly because they have a lot of stuff planned over the off season. These changes are probably things that we won't even be able to notice though. For example, I-Street is slated to be nearly gutted out completely. The buildings are in such sad shape, completely infested with termites. These are the small things that have been overlooked during the "Paramount Era" and now have to be corrected. I dont' think it has anything to do with the actual people, I think they work with what they can. Again, I strongly suspect that a large chunk of that budget is spent on our most favorite coaster in Action Zone :-/ But you are right, neither PKD, Carowinds or Canada's Wonderland have ever looked like PKI. The theming has always been kept up and the Parks clean. Great America on the other hand.........

- Todd