Dirk's huge USA tour - 4th Edition (BGW update)

What time are you planning on meeting at BK?

[Dirk_Ermen]

Originally posted by Jonny Richey

What time are you planning on meeting at BK?

My idea was around 9:45 [:)]

[Oscar]

when you leaving for the USA foo?

Originally posted by Dirk_Ermen

Originally posted by Jonny Richey

What time are you planning on meeting at BK?

My idea was around 9:45 [:)]

I'll be there at 9:45. My mom can give us a ride into the park; she has a parking pass.

[Dirk_Ermen]

Originally posted by Oscar

when you leaving for the USA foo?

*waves hi from hotel room in Chicago [;)]*

Originally posted by Jonny Richey

I'll be there at 9:45. My mom can give us a ride into the park; she has a parking pass.

Or just join me, mom and bockzilla in our rental car and than drive into the park! xD

So, have you been to Great America before?

[bockzilla]

I have a seson pass with parking. I will be at the BK around 9/9:30 to grab breakfast and waiting for all of you to arrive.

[Dirk_Ermen]

Originally posted by Jonny Richey

So, have you been to Great America before?

All the parks on this list are completely new to me [;)] Alltho, I've been to California's Great America



A small PTR from yesterday:

And we are on our way!


But we've got to have patience tho. Very long traveling!


Beautiful sky under us [:)]


This inspired me on making an NL environment. Let's see if I could pull that off [:D]


Almost in Atlanta for our connecting flight.


We've flew now already a long way!


And we have landed! Welcome to Atlanta! [:D]


After switching flights we can see the suitcases being loaded on-board [:)]


And we are back in the air! Chicago, Here we come!


Look! Downtown Chicago!


That'll be our rental car [:)]


And a beautiful sunset near the hotel.


That was day one, time to go to Chicago today. [:)]

[slosprint]

EEEEEWWWW!!! CHICAGO!!!

Originally posted by Dirk_Ermen

Originally posted by Jonny Richey

So, have you been to Great America before?

All the parks on this list are completely new to me [;)] Alltho, I've been to California's Great America

In that case, here is a list of what we have to do:

o American Eagle ????????? front row night
o Viper ????????? front row
o Raging Bull ????????? back seat ends
o Little Dipper ????????? back row
o Whizzer ????????? back row night
o Iron Wolf ????????? front row
o Batman ????????? back row
o Dark Knight
o Demon ????????? black train
o Sky Trek Tower

OMG, Atlanta is a freakin zoo. I have a relative who was a repairman for Delta there. I've been there plenty. Well, have fun. BTW, what kind of plane was that on your first flight?

Haha....the pic of you and (I assume) your mother...the light is obscuring her index finger so it looks like she's giving all of us the finger.... Of course, she probably is inside. I mean, it was your fascination with coasters that prompted this undoubtedly expensive trip to the U.S. [:)]

[Dirk_Ermen]

Originally posted by boneplaya

I mean, it was your fascination with coasters that prompted this undoubtedly expensive trip to the U.S. [:)]

It's not only my fascination that brought me to the U.S. Mom also likes rollercoasters and she still goes onto every ride with me possible. Even those little kiddy coasters! [:D]



My daily update:


We've been to Chicago first for the day. After driving a long time through the city we found out that apparently our navigation doesn't charge in the car! Which means, after a while we kinda had to drive blind so we took a while to find a shop where we could buy a possibly working one...
After wasting about 2-3 hours on that. No luck finding a working adapter so it was back to the hotel on doing a short re-charge on the laptop.



Eventually it was around 5pm, seen kinda the city. So we decided to visit SFGA already! [:D] We arrived at 6pm on the parking, it was crowded! (What do you expect on memorial weekend...) Even tho the parking was pretty full, the queues weren't too huge. Longest wait was roughly half an hour... And that was for the first ride we've ridden: Raging bull. Fun ride, too bad about that trim on the airtime hill after the first turnaround. Since it takes away all the airtime the ride had... I guessed the airtime was roughly 0.5-0.7 in the backseat at that moment... But this is currently the best B&M Mega Coaster I've ridden. (And the 2nd one [lol])

312: Raging Bull



After that we've ridden American Eagle, first ridden the red side. Running one train, blue side was running 2 trains. Looking at the ride I had the idea that it was going to be a pretty forceless ride, but the speed that the monster helix gained was crazy! Red side is definitely my favorite side! (Blue side has a dull strait moment... >.<'')

313: American Eagle Red
314: American Eagle Blue



After that it was time for Iron Wolf. (No Queue! [shocked]) Out of all the stand-up coasters i've ridden, I think this one is layout and speed wise the best. The ride itself was kinda rough and made me headbang in the backseat, but the rapid following of turns, drops and inversions was insanely fun! I think this is one of the first-generation B&M rollercoasters. The same pacing can be found on coasters like Kumba or Dragon Kahn. Also I noticed they took out a Mcbr or trims. I noticed a spine change but no brakes are there on that section. It created an awesome airtime moment in the back. Ridden it twice because I was allowed to stay seated. [pshades]

315: Iron Wolf



After that I saw the kiddie coaster, spacely's sprockets rockets. Done that for the credit, same layout as a kiddie coaster that's a 1 hour drive from my house.

316: spacely's sprockets rockets



Vertical Velocity was next. I've only ridden the Launched intamin invert that had a 45????????? angle roll so far. So I was curious how the 90????????? angle roll would be. Well, it was fun and something different than the strait piece of track. But for the rest it wasn't that special...

317: V2 Vertical Velocity



BTR was next. It was already dark outside so it provided a pretty good ride.

318: Batman The Ride



Little Dipper was next. Classic kiddie woodie! [:D] It had a long queue, but I'd expect it even longer tomorrow. Done for the credit and of course the nostalgic value that this coaster has. [:)]

319: Little Dipper



There was still 10 minutes left on the clock for park/ride closure. Instead of walking all the way to a next ride, we choose the easy way. Back to V2 for 5 more rides since the park was so nice to leave everyone in their row until it was empty. [:)]



Soo... That was my day for today! Tomorrow it's meetup time with 2 members! [:D] See ya at 9:45 at the Burger King! [:)]

You effing stole that pic from me!


[:D]

[Dirk_Ermen]

Originally posted by coasterpimp

http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b85/Dirk_Ermen/USA%20Tour%20V4/IMG_0180.jpg

You effing stole that pic from me!

http://i697.photobucket.com/albums/vv33 ... FGA013.jpg
[:D]

Yeah, I made a perfect photoshop of the train in there and increased the brightness of the photo... I also cropped the photo and photoshopped some more people in there.


Killed airtime hill... Yay...

I probably walked right past you... I rode little dipper when it was dark. lol.

Did you see the Glow in the Park parade? It was great!

[Dirk_Ermen]

Originally posted by Jonny Richey

I probably walked right past you... I rode little dipper when it was dark. lol.

Did you see the Glow in the Park parade? It was great!

No, lol. We did the last 5 rides on V2...

[Mikey]

Trust me, your not missing anything with the Glow in the Dark Parade.

[Dirk_Ermen]

Originally posted by Mikey

Trust me, your not missing anything with the Glow in the Dark Parade.

I don't mind, I only watch parades when I walk right into them...



Meetup went awesome today! Thanks guys for the awesome day! [:)]

A couple a photo's of today's meetup that has succeeded:

All four of us


Me and Jonny


Donnie


Mom and Donnie

I'll type out a little more extended TR tomorrow in the car. [:)]

What the heck man? Where is kings island in this list, its located in the east! its in the south west part of Ohio and your going to cedar point. If you get the extra time you need to go! Oh yeah and in Chicago did you go up to into the seers tower? I know its not a roller coaster but its something you must see in Chicago. I went there in a school field trip in may, and it was pretty sweet!

[slosprint]

This has been discussed, KI is way out of the way, it's all the way across the state.

Originally posted by coasterpimp

You effing stole that pic from me!


[:D]

Compare the two pics... Someone payed attention to the "your ad here sign". [:D]

I just meant the spot it was taken at. Plus, you didn't mention the Coca-Cola umbrellas behind it. [:p]

Where's the rest of the trip report?

I want to see the Eagle pov. [:D]

[Dirk_Ermen]

Originally posted by KentuckyFTW

What the heck man? Where is kings island in this list, its located in the east! its in the south west part of Ohio and your going to cedar point. If you get the extra time you need to go! Oh yeah and in Chicago did you go up to into the seers tower? I know its not a roller coaster but its something you must see in Chicago. I went there in a school field trip in may, and it was pretty sweet!

As said in the pre-investigation topic: It was too far out of the way and too little time to visit KI. We'll visit KI probably on a next trip when visiting parks that are more towards the middle of the USA.

And about the Sears Tower we just found out too late. I knew that tower was somewhere, but I forgot that it was in Chicago... Oh well, maybe again in a couple of years...

Originally posted by Jonny Richey

Where's the rest of the trip report?

I want to see the Eagle pov. [:D]

It's called no internet [;)] I've got all TR's typed ready, all I need to do is upload pictures. [:)]


-----------------------------------


31-05-10 ????????? Six Flags Great America

Today was our second day at this park. The weather started out pretty much dark and there was a thunderstorm coming up. So hopefully the rides stay open. Before we went to the park we went to the Burger King near the entrance of the parking lot. Not to get some burgers, but to meet up with 2 fellow coastercrazians! Jonny Richey and Bockzilla.



When driving onto the parking lot Bockzilla was already there. A few minutes later Jonny stopped at the BK and the meetup group was complete. We drove to the park and got in with our seasons passes. Since the thunderstorm was rumbling up the big rides were all closed for a while. Time to do The Dark knight coaster than.

For a regular Mack wild mouse it's a pretty cool ride. The theming actually made this ride better than any other wild mouse I've ridden so far. The pre-show was funny tho. But a bit long before something actually happened. The turns from this wild mouse were surprisingly smooth in the zig zag section. Felt almost like a Maurer S?????????hne wild mouse. Cool ride to have ridden, but I cannot believe that people would wait more than half an hour for a ride something like this.

320: The Dark Knight Coaster



After a ride the thunder was rumbling pretty nice and it started to rain too. So about all the coasters were closed, we wanted to ride something that was covered but the queue was uncovered... So we left that idea. I spotted an ITG machine in the arcade and since it was raining anyhow we decided to go inside the arcade. After I've played a game it stopped raining, so hopefully the coasters would open again soon.



During strolling a while trough the park looking for coaster that are going to open we saw the first rides doing some test runs. Good signs, but a little more rain made those rides close again. Too bad.



Probably around Noon-1pm we finally could ride another new coaster. Demon was the lucky one! We rode the ride backseat. The drop was backseat a lot of fun. Some really nice airtime. The 2 loops were cool but that straight piece was pretty awkward in between. But I understand why they've done it. This ride used to have 2 airtime hills instead of 2 loops. I wonder how awesome the ride would have been. The stories go that a lot of stuff flew out of everyone's pockets on those 2 hills. After the MCBR we had some awkward banking stuff, awesomely bad transitions into 2 corkscrews. Good ol' time [:)] Overall opinion: Demon is fun ride to do, airtime in the backseat on the drop is cool, you'd only have to brace yourself when you're entering the corkscrews.

321: Demon



Since most the bigger coasters were doing some testruns we decided to ride the sky tower and have an aerial view across the park. We shot some awesome photo's on that location.



From the tower ride we walked past Superman Ultimate Flight that had a queueline of at least 90 minutes long. No way that we are going to wait that long right now...



The next new ride for us was Ragin' Cajun. The regular queue was over half an hour wait. So we decided to use the Single Rider queue. But they weren't using it to it's full potentional. Only 3 adults maximum per car and they were first asking if the guests didn't had a problem with joining a single rider in their car. Wtf?
Oh well, the ride itself was done for the credit, I've ridden the same rides on our dutch fairgrounds, so yeah. Even tho the turns on this ride went really rough, maybe a little lack on maintainance?

322: Ragin' Cajun



Since the coasters were open again, time for us to ride the most rain unreliable ride: Whizzer. Probably one of the better steel coasters in the park that just can't run with rain. It's a good ol' Swarchkopf Jumbo Jet. I'm really glad they still kept this ride classic ride. Swarchkopf's are becoming slowly more rare around the world. Which is a shame because they are marvelous rides! This one is no exception, it looks pretty tame from the outside but as soon as you'll ride it, it goes much faster than you've expected. Why that is, the faster area's are all out of the view from the regular guests hidden between a lot of trees. Also the ride is still pretty much smooth as glass, Especially because of it's age.

323: Whizzer



We still had 2 more coasters to go in this park to gain a coasterbingo, so now it was up to the last unridden wooden rollercoaster in this park: Viper! When I saw the ride it looks like it's a mirrored cyclone layout. Cool, since those layouts are tons of fun. We rode the ride frontseat. A lot of great airtime on this ride as expected. But different to the layouts I've ridden so far was that a lot of turns weren't banked. Which added a lot to the ride. So this ride ended up having much more lateral G forces than I expected.

324: Viper



Only 1 ride left for us to do and that's the B&M Flying Coaster: Superman Ultimate Flight. For me personally it's the last B&M Flying layout to ride and probably something like the 3rd last B&M Flying Coaster around the world. (If I'm not mistaken there are currently 3 of these clones around the world.) Obviously this ride just does where it's been build for. Have a compact coaster with a Pretzel Loop. The rest of the layout is just a zig zag and to finish off they end with a roll onto the final brakes. It's a cool ride but imo the least fun ride of all the B&M Flyers that I've ridden.

325: Superman Ultimate Flight



Since we bought some T-shirts of some rides we got some cool Exit Passes. It ended up being only cool for only one ride in the park. At the rest of the rides all the ride-opp b*tch about seating preferences... On the exit pass it clearly states: ?????????No specific seating requests please.?????????. So they ask you not to have a seating request but that you are allowed to have a seating request... We've been denied with our seating requests twice on Viper and on American Eagle... ?????????No, we cannot reserve a seat for you in the back.????????? Oh come on, people pay money for those exit passes and you are being redirected to a seat in the middle?! What a rip-off... The worst part is, the time that we wasted on waiting and b*tching about those seat request we could have waited in the queue and got in that specific seat already. All they could have done was say ?????????okay????????? and arrange those seats for one of the upcoming trains. All under 1 minute time... Now they had to deal with us for over 15-20minutes what also resulting in having a full queue + 2 trains waiting for at least 10 minutes straight, because they were talking to us... Way to go Six Flags on providing ?????????One Flag Experiences????????? to guests.
They could have avoided this whole deal with 2 simple solutions: 1. Don't deny people when they have a request on every ride or 2. Get a much clearer description on the receipt saying: ?????????No specific seating requests.????????? or ?????????No specific seating requests allowed.?????????.



After that extremely negative experience with Six Flags we used all our Exit Passes on Raging Bull. That's one ride they don't complain about seat requests. We had front and backrow requests and those were all processed without a problem. All we had to do was wait a couple a trains... That's how easy it could have gone at the other rides...



At the end of the day we went back to American Eagle for a few last rides of the day. Too bad they closed down the Red side already, since that's obvious the best side with constant action. I shot an onride video at night on the blue side during one of the last rides of the day. So that'll be up for the premium members after this trip.



Overall we had an awesome day, ridden all the coasters we wanted to ride and ride again. Today is the day for Cedar Point, as on moment of typing this TR, I'm currently 3,5 hours away from Cedar Point or also been said: roughly 200 miles away. Can't wait! [:D]