Last summer I took a week-long trip to visit 6 parks around the midwest and east coast, and here's my trip report! Yeah, it's pretty lengthy, but if you read through you'll find all of my nice pictures I took! Unfortunately, i didn't get a real camera until after Kings Dominion, so bear with me on the blocks of text for a little while...
Day 1: Busch Gardens Europe
Our first day of the trip was spent at Busch Gardens Europe. We met a friend of mine, Kyle, at the park, and we met him again at Kings Dominion (Day 2). As a theme park, BGE is wonderful. As an amusement park? Not so much. As we drove up to the park, I was excited to see apollos chariot running well, but as soon as we got to the back of the park to get in line, it was down for maintenance. We figured it was going to reopen soon since they were cycling trains. When it didn't open for a half an hour, we decided to just leave and go ride Alpengeist instead. The wait for Alpengeist was almost nonexistent, so we were happy about that! We didn't wait for the front seat because, well, frankly I just didn't want to. Alpengeist was surprisingly smooth given the horror stories Kyle told me about the snaps in the cobra roll. After Alpengeist was Loch Ness Monster, whose station was empty except for the front row, which had a 3-train wait. Here, we did wait for the front. Loch Ness Monster was a fun ride; being pushed through those little tiny loops by the rest of the train was really a cool feeling. For an arrow ride, it far exceeded my expectations! Next up was lunch: at a quaint little Italian restaurant near Apollos Chariot. The food here was surprisingly good for park food, and was a surprisingly good value, too! All of us got the chicken parmesan, which cost us just $8.49 apiece, and it tasted good, too! After lunch we checked up on the status of Apollos Chariot, which was still broken, so we caught the train back to Griffon, which also had almost no wait. This was an amazing ride. I was lucky enough to have my restraint locked 4 inches above my lap, so the first drop was absolutely amazing!! Even thigh it clicked an extra one after the first drop, it was still a very enjoyable ride. Because it was the last ride we had to get, we checked back at apollos chariot, which was still broken; in fact they told us this time that it would be down for the rest of the day! So, we made the most of the 95 degree, humid, sunny heat and took a ride on the park's log flume, a little ride called "Le Scoot". Le Scoot was definitely worth the 20 minute wait, even if just to get damp in the insane heat. By this time it was still early in the day, so we started reriding some of the other coasters. We rerode all 3, in fact, all with nothing more than a 10 minute wait! Now, we were really disappointed that AC was still broken down. Finally, we got in line for one last ride on Griffon, and 5 minutes into waiting, "inclement weather" struck the park, ending our day. The storm was very close, and looked really threatening, so we basically sprinted toward the exit, getting to our car just in time for the pouring rain to hit us. Fortunately the storm was short, so the hour drive back to our Richmond hotel wasn't bad at all; in fact the leftover clouds and the setting sun made for some beautiful pictures! Next stop: King's Dominion and my most-looked-forward-to ride of the trip, Intimidator 305!
Day 2: Kings Dominion
We arrived at the park at 10:25, just in time to get in for platinum pass early entry. Obviously, we headed straight to I305, and arrived to find virtually no wait whatsoever. Unfortunately, there was a 2-train wait for the front, so we just went to the middle seat for our first ride. It was awesome. Even though there were some reasonably heavy trims on the first drop, the first turn at the bottom of it was still incredibly intense, and I grayed out with no hesitation. The next airtime hill was far from spectacular; what little airtime there was was very restricted by the fact that my already-stapled restraint was pushed even farther down by the previous turn. The rest of the ride was just WILD. Lots of very fun, quick transitions with some very decent airtime over the now-untrimmed airtime hills along the lift. The only mildly painful transition was the last quick turnover before the final brakes; it ended a bit too abruptly for my taste. After that, we wandered around the park, and eventually ended up at Ricochet, the wild mouse of the park. This ride, too, had practically no line, so we got on it almost immediately. This was a very fun ride, and the brakes on the switchback section were surprisingly light, so the turns were that much more fun! Since we were at that end of the park, we hit Hurler and Grizzly. Hurler was pretty lame, to be honest. The layout showed no creativity; it's literally all right turns with an airtime hill here and there. It was relatively smooth, though, for a woodie of it's type, so that was a plus. Grizzly, however, was far from anything anyone sane would call "smooth". It had a great layout; lots of fun turns and some very decent airtime, but the roughness really ruined it. After that, it was time for lunch! We went to Johnny's for a Philly cheesesteak, whose cheese and steak were good, but the bread was absolutely disgusting. Oh well, it's Cedar Fair park food; what do you expect? Anyway, after lunch, we headed back over toward Intimidator to hit the other rides around there (they didn't open until noon). We hit Backlot Stunt Coaster with almost no wait, which is always a fun ride; this is the second of these I've ridden, with the other being at Kings Island. It's relatively tame, but the theming makes it much more enjoyable than it otherwise would be. After that, we hit up Anaconda, again with no wait. A friendly warning: if you go to Kings Dominion, don't ride Anaconda if you expect to enjoy it; it's worth riding for the experience, but nothing more. After Anaconda, it was time for Volcano: The Blast Coaster. And, indeed it was a blast! The two launches were really great, and although the shaping at the top of the volcano is absolutely hideous from off ride, it felt right from on the ride; something I've always admired about Intamin's design style. The rest of the ride was fun; the barrel rolls were really disorienting, but the final turn into the brakes shouldn't have been the final turn. The ride was far too short, but still vey fun; in fact, since the twists and turns on I305 were too much for my dad, it turned out to be his favorite ride in the park! After Volcano, we hit up the cute little ride next door: a Mack bobsled coaster! As relaxing as this ride was, it was also a whole lot of fun. I had never ridden anything like it before; Disaster Transport at Cedar Point doesn't count. The free-swinging bobsleds were really very comfy; it was almost like reclining while riding! So, after that we got a drink, and then hit Flight Of Fear. Since it was a hot day, and the building is air conditioned, it was a bit busier than the rest of the rides, but still only a half hour wait or so. However, what I did not expect was how wobbly the ride itself was. To be perfectly honest, it was terrible. Even the smooth parts were rough. But enough about my pain, and more about my enjoyment!! Since we were in the vicinity, we hit I305 again for a second run. This time, however, I strongly advocated sitting in the very front seat, and sure enough, the ride got 10 times better. The constant wind in your face had everything great about Millennium Force's front seat, but with the added excitement and intensity of Maverick's wildness. It was, for all intents and purposes, the perfect ride. However, I couldn't in good conscience award it my standalone number one spot because of the trims, but it did deserve a tie for first with Maverick. That ride made my day so much better; even my sister absolutely loved it, and she insists that she hates Maverick...
After that breathtaking ride, we hit Volcano again so my dad could enjoy his favorite ride of the park again, and as we got off, I realized that we had completely forgotten about the only B&M coaster in the park, Dominator!! Without hesitation, we walked over to it to find half-empty trains running, so we scurried to the station and got on and off in no time, including the extra train's wait for the front. The ride was an awesome ride to ride in the front, as are all floorless coasters. The layout was pretty unique for a B&M floorless, which made it more entertaining to ride. It kept a surprisingly good pace throughout the course, and was nearly perfectly smooth, with the odd exception of some strange chattering on a slightly curved part of the track immediately following the cobra roll. But it was still a fun ride, and something I missed by a year when it was at Geauga Lake. After that, we were all pretty tired, and since we had a 2-hour drive to our hotel near DC for the night before Six Flags America, we were just about ready to leave. But of course I couldn't leave the park without one last ride on Intimidator! This time, we got the back seat, just so we could compare it, and it was no match for the front seat. I still find it hard to believe how much better a front seat ride can be than the rest of the train!
Day 3 to come in the next post (with pictures!!!). Don't want to make it look too bad [;)]