Dirk's America Trip Part 3! (11/24th Update)

[Dirk_Ermen]

Ok, it ended up being Busch Gardens once more.
But...

Before going to Busch Gardens, we took a detour to Cypress Gardens. The park was closed, but maybe there was a chance to still go inside and take some photo's from the rides and park.
At Cypress Gardens we ended up at probably some staff entrance, an old staff member apparently just came by and I asked if it was possible to go inside and take photo's.
She didn't know if I could but she was going to ask the owner.
After a couple minutes of wait the owner came driving towards me in a golf cart with the announcement it wasn't allowed. Too bad.
I did ask about the Swamp Thing why it was still standing. Because rumors told it was being sold to a dutch park. He told me that the ride still was for sale...

I took a small drive around the park for some outside photo's and went off to Busch Gardens. Did some great ERT'ing! Also I noticed that the Tiger track on Gwazi was being Re-tracked! At the end of the day I asked an attendant about it and I was told that they hope to get the Tiger side open again before Christmas. [:)]
I also rode the little mouse coaster this time. Compared to all other Mack wild mouse coasters this was bloody smooth through the corners. I was used to being slammed into the sides at the mouse turns. This ride had all very smooth lead in and lead outs! Wow!

After Busch Gardens I went for a short moment to Old Town/Fun Spot, but it was just a little too expensive to do some rides there...
3$ for a kiddy coaster... I'm a creditwhore, but not THAT much!

It was a fun and great day!

We even have rough schedule planned out for the upcoming days:
Wed 18th: Wet 'n Wild (Tomorrow)
Thu 19th: Boomers (Miami)
Fri 20th: Sea World
Sat 21st: Universal IOA/Studios
Sun 22nd: Universal IOA/Studios
Mon 23rd: Busch Gardens
Tue 24th: Flying back home [;)]

Anyone still care for doing a meetup?

Originally posted by Dirk_Ermen


Best flyer so far but that wasn't too hard out of the list what i've ridden so far: Air, Tatsu and Manta...

That's all of them except Superman. All 4 Supermans, that is. You're not missing much.

[Dirk_Ermen]

Today it was a nice day to take a swim. After walking for a short distance we arrived at Wet 'n Wild to get a little wet. Stays a fun park. I did totally ruin my feet by walking all day on that concrete and those stairs...

Mach 5, the slides with the those mats are cool. I mastered maximum speed in all 3 slides after a couple of rides. At the most right one I ended up maxing out all those corners in height... First time that I reached that high I really was like: WTF!? The middle slide is just awesome to slide very fast. I ended up soaking the lifeguards a couple of times at the exit pool...

I also tried the new slide: Brainwash. Personally the small size of the tilted bowl didn't do much for us. What a downer was this slide. To make it even worse, you'd have to bring the raft yourself all the way up. And since those are already huge enough so that you can't even carry them properly up those rotating stairs... Imo they should have kept the old slides...

Bomb Bay stays very cool, the surprise element makes this slide very fun [:)] After some studying of the mechanical structure on top I have the idea that it's possible to let people board in a lay down position. Tilt up the whole cabinet, and then drop them... Does anyone know more about that?

Barrel Run was closed, they were doing big maintenance on this ride and while they were at that, they were also repainting the tower and stuff.

The Storm used to be a cool slide, I did notice the bowl was getting rough. You're starting to feel all those seams. If they get the chance they should fix that. [:)]

The 2 other raft slides were also ok to ride. Disco H?????????O was actually only fun on the big drop. But yeah, this is for the rest just a massive bowl ride... The other one from this tower was a downer after I've ridden the one at aquatica. Because I expected something similar.

Blast stays also very cool. It's not high or long, but it's just a wild water river like we have in The Netherlands. The only difference is that your sitting in a tire. Awesome water effects and a simple theme that works. I love that message what you'll hear in case you'd have to queue: "Please take into consideration that you will get soaked". Uhm... You're in a waterpark. and why do you go to a waterpark? Right! To get soaked! For the people who didn't want to get wet, That's a pretty late message when your standing in 3ft deep water!

As a final slide to talk about: The Black Hole slide
Which was also fun. Think they have done some kind of restyle on this ride. I remember both slides being in total darkness. Now they have added a space theme in the slide. Which was cool, even tho I didn't notice a lot of it. Because I still was wearing my sunglasses.

Well, I think i've talked about every slide in Wet 'n Wild...

Tomorrow the drive towards Boomers in Miami. Woodie!

I cant make it to seaworld friday but i can make it saturday now that I'm no longer ill.

[Dirk_Ermen]

Yesterday was the visit to Miami, after leaving for a 3,5 / 4 hour drive we ended up nice at 12 at Boomers.
What a cool rollercoaster is that ride. Front seat has some ejectors when going up the hills but in the backseat you'll more have some floater kinds over those hills. On the day I was like: Front is better. But when I returned back in the evening I totally changed my mind. Backseat is definitely better. In the back you'd have much more the out of control feeling. The front stays cool because those sudden pops, but still I'd more prefer the little slower in build up, but it's still the same force. I also like some of the shock airtime in the back. Just because of some roughness you'll fly sometimes out of your seat. Love it! About all rides i've got we're just me alone. I wonder how much more fun the ride would be on a busier day with it has constant full trains. [:P]

I got now some video of it: Front & Back @ Day & Night [;)]

Here's the backseat onride @ night:
[youtube]KrFTx9H5k4s[/youtube]

We've also driving to Miami to enjoy a bit of the area. Been for a short time to the beach and then drove back to something more fun [;)]

Eventually after we left around 9 at Boomers we took the non-toll road back. Which was only about 10 miles more but 30 minutes longer. I ended up back in the hotel around 1:30am Now we still don't know where to go today.

Originally posted by dah137

I cant make it to seaworld friday but i can make it saturday now that I'm no longer ill.

Sure, sounds good. Last weekend it wasn't too crowded either at seaworld. [:)]

Wow today was awesome..... go Shamu express!!!! go third wheel!

[Dirk_Ermen]

Originally posted by dah137

Wow today was awesome..... go Shamu express!!!! go third wheel!

If it wasn't for the third wheel we never would have had proper negative G's [;)]

Today was awesome yeah! I'll probably post some photo's tomorrow. Matt did some awesome cool5 impressions in the park!

Oh yes.... my cool5 kraken face is pure gold!!!

wow, okay I know I'm late posting, but why is it that ONLY Ohio parks seem to have hundreds of hours of queue time for roller coasters? I have never had to wait anywhere outside of OH longer than 30min. Last time I went to Cedar Point there was a 45min wait for the Corkscrew! CORKSCREW!!! Why! Same for King's Island, last time I was there we skipped the Vortex because of an hour long line! It wasn't that long a year after it came out.

Are the lines short like that in the UK as well?

[Dirk_Ermen]

Hi guys,

I'm currently at the airport waiting until my plane departs. A little more than an hour left and then i'm off into the ski. Too bad I have to leave Orlando again, If I had a couple more days I would have gone swimming once more at Wet 'n Wild. I want to slide again from the Mach 5 and take the highest possible turns.

My whole trip though Orlando was great. Yesterday was it once more to Busch Gardens to finish off the trip. Had some great fun on Kumba with a total of 18 rides! Also my final day at the Universal Studios were cool. Like 3 years ago I spend again like 2 hours in the kiddy area at the waterarea. How fun is it to make people wet when they don't expect it. [:D] I even got a little kid thinking the water came from a whole different tower than me.

I also have some nice coasterstats from the complete trip. From most to least ridden, if there are number with equal rides. Than it's also sorted from most fun to least fun [;)]:
- Kumba: 32
- Dania Beach Hurricane: 25
- Revenge of the Mummy: 18
- SheiKra: 17
- Manta: 8
- Gwazi Lion: 8
- Kraken: 7
- Incredible Hulk: 5
- Scorpion: 4
- Hollywood Rip, Ride, Rockit: 4
- Journey to Atlantis: 3
- Cheetah Chase: 2
- Shamu Express: 2
- Dueling Dragons - Ice Dragon: 1
- Dueling Dragons - Fire Dragon: 1
- Montu: 1
- Woody Woodpeckers Nuthouse Coaster: 1

I enjoyed a lot on this trip. As soon as I get back home I can start finishing the other PTR's and start working on these PTR's. [:)]

Originally posted by Metalkat

Are the lines short like that in the UK as well?

When I went to the UK, I was in the offseason, so the lines were short yeah. But I know from stories that you don't want to come in the highseason to the UK. Huge lines from 1 to 2 hours...

In the Netherlands the queues are usually short, except for special events. Then you can expect lines from 15 minutes to over 1 hour depending on the ride.

Nice Dirk!
Why only the 2 rides on Duelling Dragon's? I think they are pretty awesome! And hows that Harry Potter bull shxt coming on?