Heading East!

I leave tommorrow, but I havent totally gotten reservations all situated. At any rate, Im going on a little coaster trip for my last vacation of the year.


Tuesday Night-Wednesday
Hershey Park!!

Thursday
Six Flags Great Adventure

Friday
Dorney Park

(possible)
Saturday
Knoebles or Kennywood

Then I return home. I may need to go out and buy another memory card - dont think the one I have will suffice for 3 parks, ESPECIALLY with the new rides on the trip.

Just a suggestion. You may be able to hit all of Hershey by noon or so on the second day. I would suggest heading to Six Flags for the evening as that has much longer lines. Maybe you can even get KK out of the way that night. Just my two cents.[:D]

Nah, Im not a credit whore. I like to enjoy parks. Plus I have heard nothing but awesome things about Hersheys atmosphere and the park condition, so I want to enjoy it.

Plus Im leaving now to buy a Compact Flash 1GB Ultra 2 card so I can fit another 350 pictures. Hopefully I get some nice skies and nice weather to get some great pictures. Would hate for it to be terribly cloudy.


Also Im heading to Six Flags on Thursday to avoid the fri-sat crowds. My original plans had it for Friday, but realized Id have a much better chance on Thursday.

One last note:
Why do I need to do KK? Ive ridden Dragster some 50+ times. If I dont ride it, I wont be crushed. Id rather be on Nitro, Medusa, SUF, Batman, etc.

Here I go...Leaving officially at 11am. Should arrive in Hershey around 5-6 where I will get the hotel then go to Hershey for the rest of the night.

CANT wait for some sweet, sweet Intamin/GCI/B&M action. See you guys on the flip side.

Be safe man ... throw your arms up once for the wood freak here in the South.

Hands up all the way TCon. I will remember you on WildCat and Lightning Racer

Indeeeeeeeeeeeeed ...

Back. Whew!

Pretty much hit everything except a few I already rode or didnt think were important to the trip. I even got to ride Kingda Ka but Ill have a very indepth review of that.


Gotta sort through pictures. Unfortunatly, didnt get any from Dorney (weather SUCKED - total overcast) and only a few from Great Adventure but majority are from Hershey. I will see what turns out.

Here is my quick cap of Kingda Ka


Its one of the roughest steel rides I have ever ridden. Definatly has more than that "Intamin shuffle" and I think, without changing the trains, that we have hit the absolute limit.

I have ridden Dragster over 50 times and multiple times up near the 126mph mark and in no way did the trains vibrate like Ka's did. I heard reports of this but really didnt believe any of them.


I rode front car, row 2 (wasnt crazy enough to keep waiting for front row - just wanted the airtime) and even the launch was funky. Its a 3-4 stage launch. Dragsters is one complete pulling motion while this pulls in stages. It was really odd and breaks up what should be an incredible run to near 130 (it still is, but to someone experienced, its strange)

Going up was nothing new, however the speed over the top wasnt anything faster than I was used too, the airtime was more sustained. The trim did effect the train as much as I thought, though I didnt ride back so I dont know how it feels back there. The roll down is longer and thus slower, no big deal.

The ride vibrated on the launch much more than dragster but it was REALLY bad in the pull out. I am not sure if its just the G's or speed or combination of both, but I dont think those trains were made to handle those speeds. I heard several people just in line speak of the way its rough and vibrates. We all know its not "rough" per say, but it vibrates way, way too much especially at those speeds.

The airtime hill delivered a ton more airtime than I thought which was very much enjoyed.



I would rank it above Dragster but I cant for the simple fact that somewhere someone screwed up. It should not, ever, vibrate like it did. It felt even more than a vibration, maybe even a full out shuffle. It definatly only really happened at the high speeds and high G's but its something that Dragster, only going 4-6mph slower doesnt do at all. I cant imagine the G's are even increased so much to make that much difference. I really think that for those trains, thats the absolute limit. Either there are some tracking issues or something in the trains themselves. I am not sure, but it gave me a splitting headache and my head never even touched the restraints. It wasnt from the airtime because Storm Runner has way more intense airtime (going up into the snake dive is simply the most intense airtime Ive ever felt) so it wasnt that.



It was better than I expected so yes, it delivered in those areas. However, something is seriously wrong with those trains or we are starting to hit that limit of whats reasonably rideable. I wasnt the only one with the head problem - everyone in my group and others throughout the day that rode it plus the people online.

I dunno if I payed enough attention or not, but when I rode it last Wednesday, it did not vibrate like you said it did.

I did, however ride it after they re-opened it so there could have been some modification to the trains that fixed the vibrations you experienced.

The air was a lot less than I had expected from what I had heard from other people and the trims were practically pointless.

And, if those trains were/are the problem, what do you suppose the right trains are?

I rode it last week, so it was definatly after the vibrations. Im not the first one to say this either.


If you arent experienced with Dragster, it may feel normal. If you are, there is a definate difference between the two of them.

Do you think it has anything to do with the OSTRs, as that's pretty much the only thing that Kingda Ka has different than TTD? Also, was there a lot of fishtail or thing ss of that nature or was it just vibrations?

Couldnt tell because it was shuffling/shaking so badly. If the OTSR's had anything to do with it, it would be not because of the actual restraint but because of the whole system on the train.

However, Storm Runner did nothing of the sort. I think its a problem akin to only KK and really needs to be sorted it. I dont think I would ride it again unless I took a few pills before hand.

Here is why there is such a strong vibration...

There are no wide supports at the base of the tower; all that is holiding the track up all the way from the launch to the vertical track is a series of single pipes.

If you watch the launch on TTD, the track oscillates back and forth constantly after a launch. On TTD, this problem is only noticeable from the ground. However, with the increased height on KK, it has hit a critical oscillation point where the shifting can be felt in the train.

This is the only explaination I could think of... everything else seems fine.

I find this all very interesting as I just went and got 10 laps on KK and didn't really notice the shimmy. It seemed a bit bumpy, but not really that bad. I wonder if it was the train you were on? My laps were all on the same train.

I also remember a sustained pull on the launch. It sounds like this ride has serious consistency issues that need to be sorted out. I have a call into a freind that works on the automation and control for Six Flags to see if he can spread any light on this issue.

I dont think its the supports cjd, it seems much more like a train problem. I personally think weve hit the critical point where the suspension is losing the battle against the speed and vibration.

I rode the turqoise color train I believe, the darkish green one but not blue.


With the launch it is sustained, but it pulses. It seems to gradually pull harder but not in one smooth, fluid motion. It suprises me because the launch being shorter than Dragster, shouldnt have a problem with length and it should pull evenly even at those high speeds.


The train deal was not isolated though. I heard several people coming off mention it on other trains and on the internet Ive read about. I dismissed it thinking it wasnt that bad, but I was wrong.

I thought KK would have no problems because it's brand new and we have so much technology now.