Indiana Beach was the forth stop on our adventure. The drive from Holiday World was really long and filled with corn and other various vegetables as the only scenery. We ended up going to the park the same evening that we arrived because of a family emergency that was to cut our trip short. After waiting for the boat at the campground to take us over to the park, we were there. Wow! What a cool place. We received the ACE discount for half-price off of admission for the evening session. The park closed at 10 or 11 so we had plenty of time to do everything.

Overall thoughts

Monica: I really didn’t have any expectations of this place. Ryan added it to the agenda, but I had never heard of it and I really didn’t know what to expect even after reading the web site. I am glad that we went to the park during the evening session, the crowds were really light so we walked from ride to ride without more that one cycle’s wait.

Indiana Beach was unlike any amusement park that I have ever been to. Since it has been around for 80 years or so, it had that old time atmosphere. You could feel the history and sense all of the fun that people have been having there generation after generation. We went to the Skyroom bar for a Corona and in my head I could picture people jitterbugging, swing dancing, doing the electric slide, or whatever other popular dance of eras past. I was happy to see that they still offered “Fascination.” I think I only played that game once, but there is a certain feeling of nostalgia that comes over me when I see it. Since the park is located essentially over the lake on boards, it provided a complete unique experience. I felt like I was at one of the boardwalks on the East Coast that I love so much.

Monica summed it up for me, the atmosphere here was incredible and their wooden coaster duo take second place only to Knoebels. I wish it were closer to us. Does anyone know if there are any houses on the lake to rent for a week?

The Rides

Den of Lost Thieves

This ride was a really fun old dark ride retrofitted with electronic guns. what a great way to preserve an old ride and make it fun for the new generation.

Monica: I love dark rides! This one was great. I loved shooting the targets and I think I even beat Ryan for once.

The Hoosier Hurricane

The hoosier hurricane was a cool coaster. It didn’t have as much airtime as I expected, but it was fast, smooth and relentless. I loved it. Throughout the evening we walked on, or waiting for the train to come back into the station to board.

Monica: I loved it. It felt like an old-time coaster. There was no line and we couldn’t get enough!

Cornball Express

Cornball was a complete shock after seeing how small it was in person. It packed quite a tight little punch with airtime over each hill, just enough laterals to keep it intense without pain, and some nice headchoppers. The buzz bar restraints are such a great way to experience any coaster let alone one with some good airtime moments.

The Lost Coaster of Superstition Mountain

I had heard a lot about the comfort level of this ride, and while I can’t say it was comfortable being squeezed into a tiny car looking across from two strangers trying to avoid touching legs, I can say that it was really fun and maybe a bit scarey. I never knew which way we were going as the turns were so tight and usually hidden.

Operations here were rather sad though with only two cars running, that means four people riding at a time. This was the only ride with a wait for us.

Monica says: This ride was a lot of fun and different than any other mine ride I have ever ridden. You ride up in an elevator and then you are dropped on to the track. The ride is very compact so there are lots of twists and turns. I think I laughed the entire time.

Haunted Castle *

Sitting in the holding area waiting to go into the house a costumed grim reaper walked up to us, didn’t say a word and motioned for us to enter the elevator. As we went up the elevator the reaper simply looked forward and never made a peep. This set us up for a cool walk through attraction. Two thumbs up to the actor. We let the two young kids walk in front of us for a bit so we could experience all the gags ourselves. This is a good time, and highly recommened for even the most jaded coaster enthusiast.

Monica: I am sort of embarrassed to admit this, but I was actually really scared in this thing. I don’t want to give away any details about it to ruin the experience for anyone else, but it’s so dark in there and disorienting that I couldn’t wait until we were finished. I think I was more afraid than the little girl who went in ahead of us. Oh well!

Food

We weren’t really hungry when we were at the park because we stopped at and had pizza on the way. I was disappointed that we couldn’t try the Skyroom. But as mentioned before, we loved the bar area.

Accommodation - Indiana Beach Campground

Monica: From the get go, I was more impressed with this place than Lake Rudolph at Holiday World. I noticed on the map that we weren’t too far from the dock to take us across the lake which was an added bonus. Our campsite was large and sufficiently wooded. I loved walking on the wooded pathway to the lake. I really felt like I was one with nature. Again, we got stuck with rowdy neighbors and were graciously educated in whether or not we might be rednecks from the Jeff Foxworthy recording amplified from their truck’s sound system.

Ryan: The campground seems to be falling on hard times as the docks, mini golf course and other amusements are falling into dis-repair. Other than that the campground was really nice. Our site was large enough and close to bathrooms. As Monica said we continued our tradition of loud neighbors. I don’t get it, every campground we go to is silent at night except for our neighbors.

Reasons to go back

• Cornball Express and Hoosier Hurricane
• Unique atmosphere of the park
• Various lake and boating activities
• Atmosphere again

Questions Marks

• Too far from Pittsburgh.

• Coaster operations were odd, they wait for a full load before sending off the train, and re-rides are exhausting without jumping the railing and skipping the stairs.

• There is an up charge for this amusement to keep out the riff-raff

Kennywood’s Swing Shot construction is coming along, rumor has it we should see the ride arrive on site by the end of this month.

See all progress updates

Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom

We stopped at SFKK as a side trip on the way to Holiday World from King’s Island. We didn’t intend on spending the whole day, but since we were in the neighborhood, we couldn’t pass it by, especially since we have Six Flags season passes. We only ended up spending about two hours there.

Overall Thoughts

We didn’t expect much from this park after hearing so many bad things about it, and while it was a pleasant surprise it still wasn’t great. Lots of food stands were closed and we were starving! We couldn’t find a place to spend our money! Thunder Run was surely the highlight, incredibly smooth turns (was expecting the worst) and freaking sweet airtime! Why haven’t I heard more about this coaster?

Monica says: I really had no expectations of this place. I thought it was odd that there was so much barbed wire around the park. Were we in such a high crime area? We only stayed about an hour there and rode two wooden coasters that were each a lot of fun. Hey, what can I say? It’s a Six Flags!

Holiday World

We spent the 4 th of July at Holiday World. The crowds were moderate and the weather was beautiful (hot as…). We stayed at the park from when it opened until it closed with a break in the middle to eat at St. Nick’s restaurant and to return to our campsite.

Overall thoughts

I personally could not wait to visit Holiday World and their two world-class wood coasters, Raven and Legend, but Monica and I were left disappointed with the park as a whole. There was the promise of a theme park, but there was very little theme outside of the named areas. Walking from area to area the theme hardly changes other than the music and the names and colors of the rides. Where were the fake gravestones and cobwebs in the Halloween area? How about some fake snow or more than one decorated tree in Christmas. And why are all the wooden railings in the entire park painted mud brown?

The coasters and water park dominate the park, without them there wouldn’t be much to do.

Monica says: I was psyched to visit Holiday World because I love Christmas and the other Holidays. I love amusement parks, too, so what could be better than a place that combines these two things? I have to agree with Ryan’s opinion of the park. Changing the music and the paint color does not change the theme.

Raven

Our first ride on Raven I was left wondering what the hype was all about, it was good and fun, but #1 in the world? For me it couldn’t compare to either of Knoebel’s woodies. The first half was good, but the second half to me was too lateral crazy and threw us around too much which resulted in a headache

At night things changed and I saw why it was ranked #1 for so long. The ravine drop from the back was wild and it got so dark on my last lap I couldn’t tell which way was which. The rides at night were far better, but were still far too rough for me to rank above my favorites, Twister and Phoenix. That said, I couldn’t resist getting off and running back around to the short line again while Monica waited on a bench drinking a free soda. The atmosphere in the line was electric, with plenty of parents and their kids eagerly waiting their ride cheering the whole way. Good times.

Legend

So this is were the howling we heard in the campground was coming from. Legend is huge! So much larger than I was expecting. It was lateral crazy and again it gave me a headache, but I can’t resist riding it. It must be something CCI added to the wood that makes them so addicting, kind of like McDonalds or Starbucks.

I loved the first drop & trip through the water park and its two nasty airtime hills. The double helix was relentless and the finale was just as intense as the beginning of the ride. While it is larger and longer, there isn’t much to me that makes Legend standout from Raven other than its length.

Splashin’ Safari Water Park

Splashin’ Safari is one of the best water parks the two of us have been to. All of the slides were a blast, the new Bahari wave pool was fun and nicely themed and the lazy river was perfectly paced.

Monica: This place saved Holiday World for me. I had a really good time here. The Congo River was so relaxing and all the slides were a lot of fun.

Food

Nothing here stood out to me as being great, the pizza we ate was better than most amusement park pizza, but most amusement park pizza isn’t very good to begin with. The free soft drinks are a nice touch.

Monica: First off, the unlimited free soft drinks were the best! I love diet pepsi so much and even though I should have been drinking water all day, I couldn’t resist the sweet caffeinated nectar! We ate lunch at Kringle’s Café. I really enjoyed the pizza; it was nice and doughy. We ate dinner outside of the park. The park offered no “must-eats.”

Accommodation

Lake Rudolph

Monica: The campground was located adjacent to Holiday World, but offers no direct park access. It offered paddle boats and miniature golf, but I have seen nicer campgrounds in my day. Santa Claus, IN is a virtual ghost town. There is nothing for tourists outside of Holiday World and the only full-service restaurant was St. Nick’s Restaurant located at Santa’s Lodge. The food was expensive, mediocre at best and the waitress neglected to tell us that there was a salad bar. It wasn’t the North Pole experience that I had hoped for, although we did get a nice photo of Ryan touching Santa’s bum in front of the municipal building.

Ryan: The atmosphere here was great, and pretty typical of a campground located so close to an amusement park, it felt similar to Knoebel’s. Of course we got stuck with the only two noisy families in the whole campground both nights who insisted on arguing with each other or yelling about a game of cards. There was only one small pool however, and due to the excruciating heat it was packed with children.

Reasons to go Back

• Free soft drinks
• Free Parking
• Clean
• Good capacity
• Great water park
• Really nice, and usually enthusiastic workers

Question Marks

• Lack of creativity in their themed areas
• Lack of unique flat rides

All that good and still disappointed? Its weird but yeah, there was just something missing for us. The employees, coasters and waterpark were all outstanding, but the park’s atmosphere was lacking and just didn’t feel right. That said, I am already craving Raven and Legend, and The Voyage looks too great to pass up. So we will be back. Even if I have to drag Monica kicking and screaming.

We started the day early and got to the park about 45 minutes before opening so we could participate in the ACE walk back. After a touch of confusion about the ACE discount, and a crowded wait to get in the park we were in. While we were waiting, we met another Pittsburgh area ACEr, Brian, from the North Hills. Another guy and a family showed up for the walk back and we all decided as a group that we wanted to ride the Italian Job rather than The Beast as the first ride. When we got back to the Italian Job, the ride operator informed us that the ride would not open on time, but we were free to wait. The group decided to take the first ride on The Beast. I think we accidentally stole Brian’s first seat ride and for that we apologize.

The ACE walk back is a really nice thing the park does every day of the season, I can’t belive how lucky we were to get a good discount and a nice perk such as the first ride of the day.

We wanted to ride Tomb Raider as the second ride, but it was closed and the ride operators had no idea when it would open. We would have to check back later in the day. It was a hot and busy day and we were there until the park closed. It was Monica’s decision to go up front and ride Scooby Doo rather than the rides in the rear of the park…it had the same long line it would have all day, and Brian later on said he was treated to an exit ride on Flight of Fear and a quick ride on Italian Job. We would wait over an hour each later in the day!

Overall Thoughts

I hadn’t been to Kings Island since I was about 16 and was looking forward to getting back to ride The Beast and their newest ride The Italian Job Stunt Track. The day as a whole was a good one, but I don’t feel the need to rush back like I do with Cedar Point. Their coasters are good, slightly better than average, but not one of them steps over the line into being great and the constant advertising really got my nerves. We saw the same music video, movie clips etc all day long.

Monica: I was really looking forward to visiting PKI. I saw it on the episode of the Brady Bunch where Jan swaps her cartoon poster with Mike’s architecture plans. I was looking forward to seeing the themed rides that came about after Paramount’s acquisition of the park. I was somewhat let down by the movie aspect of the park and I don’t think it compares to the Florida parks, but they are in a league of their own. I had a great time and would visit again if I were in the area, but I am not aching to go back next summer.

The Rides

The Beast

Our first and only ride was the first ride of the day in the front seat. After waiting at the start of the queue with no notification we could head back an operator walked up, gave us a funny look and nodded that we could head on. We entered the station to see the crew standing around twiddling their thumbs with all the lap bars down, they made no effort to aid anyone on board and never really acknowledged anyone was boarding their ride. Oh well.

Well, mark me down as one of the ones that doesn’t get it. The ride is fun, but after the first couple of drops and turns it just doesn’t do anything. The double helix was cool, but I don’t like that there is an entire lift hill just for that purpose and nothing but a brake run after it. I don’t see it as a top ten ride, but I never criticize anyone for having it ranked that high. We never got the night ride we were planning on since they closed the lines at 8pm for the fireworks.

Monica: I am not really a fan of wooden coaster built after 1940. The Beast was a nice long ride through the woods, and I wasn’t thrown around as much as I thought I would be. We only rode in the front seat so I may have thought differently had we sat further back in the train. We didn’t get a chance to ride it again, but given the chance, I would.

Racer

The Racer was sweet, well cared for and a blast to ride. We only got on the reverse side since we ran out of time in the day.

Monica: I really liked this ride. It was the type of ride that raced, but one car was forwards and the other one backwards. It was the first time I had ever ridden backwards on a roller coaster. It was an interesting feeling.

Flight of Fear

I thought this would be more than just a coaster in the dark, the thematic elements of the queue sure made it seem that way. We were treated to a great launch and a really disorienting ride, but I can’t help think there should be more to it.

Top Gun

The theme of this ride makes it seem outdated and lame, including the 80s soundtrack, but the ride packs a serious punch. I only wish it were about twice as long. Great ride!

Vortex

This is probably the only Arrow looper I would consider riding again. It still offers a thrill while giving only a slight neck thrashing. The crew was a bit of a disaster though, there was a kid that may or may not have been tall enough to ride. So rather than dispatch the train while measuring him, they spent about five minutes with three trains parked debating weather or not he was big enough. He was finally allowed on, but they dispatched our train without him anyway! So the waiting was for nothing.

Monica: I really don’t remember this one, but Ryan said that I didn’t like it. Not memorable = not good in my book.

Italian Job Stunt Track

What a great ride, after hearing the lackluster review I was shocked at the pep it had. The launch was so intense I knocked my elbow on the side of the car. The ride by itself was a blast, but the theme is what made it great. We would have only waited an hour for it, but break downs made the wait much longer.

Monica: This ride was a lot of fun. As a fan of theme parks and over-the-top theatrical rides, I thought this ride had a lot of great elements. I liked the mini cooper trains and the theme of the police chase. The ride was rather short and the line was very long, but it was worth the wait for the first-time ride. If I ever ride it again, I will wait until an off-peak time.

Scooby-Doo and the Haunted Castle

Monica: I really like this ride. I am a huge fan of dark rides. This was similar to Men in Black at Universal, but not as big of a production. It was cute. I made Ryan go on it in the morning, I think he would have skipped it if I weren’t there (Not true, I loved it and beat you! – Ryan). Even though there were a lot of kids in line, I would still recommend it. It was neat to walk through their children’s area. It was nice to see the themed areas representing all the Hanna Barbara cartoons that I watched when I was a young.

Drop Zone

Monica doesn’t do drop rides, so after waiting in the hour long line she took the camera and waited for me. Man this thing is big! I was facing the old campground and couldn’t get over how high we were…and how freaking long we were sitting…ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, and so on through the longest free fall I have ever experienced. What a rush.

Boomerang Bay Water Park

This water park was decent, certainly better than Sandcastle but lacked anything memorable. The lines were crazy, and some managed poorly where they split in two making the wait seem even longer since we had to stand around more.

I agree that this park is better than Sandcastle in Pittsburgh, but that is not very difficult. I liked Snowy River Rampage a lot. We really lucked out; it broke down right after our turn.

Food

Monica: Food at an amusement park is just as important as the rides. There was nothing special at PKI and nothing especially vegetarian friendly. We had fresh cut fries for lunch at a place near Tomb Raider and mediocre pizza in the Octoberfest building for dinner. There was no nice sit-down place to dine. We really enjoy a nice full service dinner at a park to take a break from the craziness and enjoy some A/C and some good conversation. We did stop at the Oktoberfest for a Michelob Amber Bock, our cheap beer of choice, but it was loud inside with the same advertisements that we saw in each of the lines. It did not compare to Busch Garden’s Oktoberfest experience.

Reasons to go back

• Drop Zone was ridiculous, Monica was too afraid to ride it.
• The wood coasters were in great shape and were really fun.
• The park was clean and easy to navigate.

Question marks

• Tomb Raider was closed all day
• Lines for all major rides except for Italian Job closed at 8pm, including The Beast which we planned our entire day around getting a night ride.
• Advertising all over the park and in every line with no variety. We saw the same five bands, video clips and ads the whole day.

Accommodation

TownePlace Suites Cincinnati Northeast

Monica: I would recommend this place. It was really homey and the price was reasonable. The pool featured adults-only swim from 10PM – 11PM on weekends at the adjacent SpringHill Suites which was an added bonus. The park was one exit away and it was a quick and easy drive which took us past Cracker Barrel where I was able to indulge in some pecan pancakes and real maple syrup.

See all photos from our trip

Monica and I are leaving for vacation today. We are going to Paramount Kings Island, Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom, Holiday World, Indiana Beach, Mt. Olympus Theme & Waterpark and Six Flags Great America. We are camping at two locations, and staying in three hotels, two of which are paid for with rewards cards, so this trip shouldn’t cost us to much.

I am most looking forward to Holiday World and their wooden coasters, Raven and Legend, which started the whole idea of this trip and Mt. Olympus’s brand new Hades.

Penelope is going to the kennel. We are both sad to leave her for so long, our initial idea was to bring her with us and keep her in park kennels, but we baby her too much and some of the kennels didn’t seem very appropriate for our pup. At the Country Lane Pet Hotel she has play group with dogs her size five to six times a day and seems to have a good time when she is there.

The cats will be staying with our friend Glen who has a cat we named Dirty, his real name is Muffin. Muffin and our cats sort of don’t get along, but I bet they will all be pals by the end of the week.

We will be gone until Sunday - July 10th, expect lots of photos!

UPDATE: We are back and had a great time. I am working on getting together some reviews and photos of the parks and coasters.

With Monica leaving for Washington DC and the oppressive heat in our house, I decided to take road trip by myself. I looked up local parks on rcdb and realized how close Lakmont Park and DelGrosso’s Amusement Park were. I loaded up the GPS and headed out with the AC blasting in the car.

I turned on KDKA for the Pirates game and was able to keep the station for the whole trip. The Pirates won in 10 innings, good stuff. Anyway the ride up was pretty boring until I got around Altoona and RT22 opened up some.

Lakemont Park

I pulled off 22 and saw the ACE Coaster Classic Skyliner behind the beautiful Altoona Curve baseball field, I had no idea it would be right outside the park. I found the free parking lot and made my way to the gate where I paid just $5.95 to get in for unlimited rides.

The first thing I noticed about the park is how badly it needs some landscaping, there is hardly any shade anywhere and the grass is burned out. Lakemont has a very sleepy atmosphere, things move pretty slow here and the park is really spread out.

Skyliner

Skyliner was my first ride. Walking up to the station I could hear the young ride operator yelling out directions, warnings and bad jokes. “If your lapbar should fly open and you fall out, Lakemont is not responsible for your death.” This kid was honestly wild and out of control, more on him later.

The ride is in decent shape, and runs just slightly better than Conneaut Lake’s Blue Streak. it rattles, it gives some airtime and its fairly fun. The layout is mediocre, drop, turn, drop, turn, drop turn etc and never seems to start. That said, it is worth the trip.

Back to that young ride operator. I have pictures, which I am sending to the park, of him riding the coaster basically standing up. I also have photos of him riding on the train’s step right up to the lift hill where he then got into the train while it was heading up the lift. I overheard him walking back to what I assume is the break room talking to his trainee saying something to the effect of “If we don’t have fun, the guests don’t have fun.” Great attitude, wrong example for the young kids on the ride.

I ended up taking four rides, one of which was due to a brake overrun. My favorite seat was the front, smoother ride and lots of airtime at the top of each hill.

Leap the Dips

Leap the Dips, another ACE Coaster Classic was closed, it looked like tons of work was being done to it as there were tools and new wood spread out everywhere. I guess I will have to take another trip someday to get a ride or two.

Model Railroad Display

As I was leaving the park I came accross the model train display, it was a 50c donation to see the trains. They had three layouts, and some nice people working and showing off the trains. They are all volunteers.

Final Thoughts

I really enjoyed my short time, for only $5.95 it is definately worth the stop just to ride Starliner a few times and hopefully get a lap on Leap the Dips.

DelGrosso’s Amusement Park

After the sleepy Lakemont I was expecting more of the same from DelGrosso’s, in fact I was expecting less. Boy was I wrong. Upon pulling up to the park there were people everywhere, and someone was directing traffic into the parking lot. The place was packed! I was impressed with the modern waterslides, go cart track and brand new infrastructure. Everything looked great.

Crazy Mouse

Or Exterminator in the open. The ride is actually quite different in the outdoors, and honestly was just as fun as Kennywood’s Exterminator. I shared both of my rides with a young kid and their parent and we spun and spun. The ride is run well, the trims are wide open and capacity was solid. It was really popular, looks like a real winner for the park.

Final Thoughts

I really liked this park, it was clean, well decorated and cheap. I had a slice of pizza which turned into two, the girl said they cut the pizza too small. Nice touch, and good pizza too.

I made it back home six hours after leaving Pittsburgh and crashed with Penelope in my air conditioned bedroom.

Monica and I recently joined ACE for the discounts and perks for a number of mid-west parks we are going to be visiting this summer. Coastermania was our first enthusiast event, and will not be our last.

After leaving work later than I wanted and dropping Penelope the pug off at the kennel we were on our way. A conversation on the turnpike turned into me calling Cedar Point and asking to change our reservation at Breakers Express to Breakers, a decision that turned out to be, well the best idea ever. We checked into the hotel around 9pm and headed down to TGI Fridays for some beers and ended up seeing a number of entusiasts at the bar.

Coastermania Day

My morning started at 5:30 without Monica who wanted to sleep in. I jumped on the shuttle to the front of the park, bought my ticket and went inside. Everyone was stopped in front of the carousel where a short speech was given before the chains were lifted and we were let in. The bulls started running, me…I went to Doughnut Time for an OJ and a fresh glazed.

I wanted to make Dragster my first ride of the day which had not even started testing yet. It took them until around 7:30 to get the ride going but once it was up it kept running all day. I got four launches and three full circuits on Dragster. Yes, I was on the rollback train in a seat all by myself, good times there but I dont see why everyone wishes for one. It was nice to get another launch though. What a great ride, each lap was just as good as the last! After Dragster I walked quickly to MF and had a pretty blah ride, it doesn’t do much for me early in the day.

I went back to the Breakers, big smile on my face, to pick up Monica. What a great morning! I had fun talking with everyone in Dragster’s line when waiting for the first seat, didn’t get anyones name though.

After breakfast at doughnut time (again) we headed into the park for the day. We took our time through the park, hitting a number of rides including Maxair which we both really liked.

We took a break mid-day to rest and eat. We met some people in the not so hot tub, two from California, and two from Florida. The dudes from Cali were doing a baseball/coaster trip that sounded like a lot of fun. We took a long walk down the beach to Sandcastle and got some photos of Magnum.

We headed back into the park around six to ride some more, and get ready for ERT. Again we took our time in the park, riding each set of the Antiqiue cars, the Turnpike cars, Calypso, etc and had a lot of fun. Our last ride of the night before ERT was Millennium Force where we met an awesome dad and his daughter who came from Baltimore. This was their first time in the park and their first time on the Force! I was really excited for both of them, nothing better than your first ride on a new coaster in the dark, especially when its Millennium. There were two guys there for Coastermania in front of them who joined in on the good conversation and gave them a tip on where to sit. Everyone had a blast on the ride, which to me is much better in the dark.

ERT began right after MF where we had two great rides on Raptor, one on Maxair, one on Blue Streak and a bunch on Magnum.

The rides on Magnum at night were insane! The trim was off and the return section was completely out of control, seriously so much fun. At this point I had been up for 20 hours after a hard work week of travel and early mornings. We both crashed hard once we got back from the park.

Wrap up

We spent our morning with mini golf and go-karts before heading home.

The park is always great, and the resort, while having a ways to go to compete with Universal Orlando, is getting better and better. Having a card to charge food service to your room is great, it would be better if it worked in every place you hand over money, and was your room key, not a flimsy piece of paper. We are allready planning another trip, hopefully with a car full of friends.

Friday, 25

After getting my rental car and being asked to upload a file I was ready to go to Busch Gardens. But there was one problem, it was pouring rain. I waited out eating and looking for a rain coat when after about two hours it stopped to a sprinkle. I decided to give it a shot and buy a poncho in the park. So I get there and there is no one taking money at the parking lot. Sweet! Move on, take the tram after about a five minute wait and purchase my BGT/SW Fun Pass. Once in the park, I got my ugly turquois pocho and headed for Gwazi.

Gwazi IMO is a good coaster, but there is never any moment where I say wow, that was great. It rattles through the course and is fun throughout, but never does much to thrill. Being this was my first ride since August it was a good ride. I took two before moving on.

Operations were solid with two trains, and much better than my August trip. Their loading sequence is rather annoying however, everyone gets in, seatbelts are checked, then the lapbars are dropped and checked. Without that two step process I have a feeling the trains would never stack.

I took a walk around the back of the park and around the Sheikra construction which looks tremendous! Its so much bigger than I thought, I cant imagine what that first drop is going to feel like. I was heading to Kumba, which by the time I got there was shut down along with the rest of the park because of the weather, lightning. I asked the worker at the front about it and he was polite, answering my questions. I waited it out since the rest of the park was shut down and was on the first train out, first row.

Kumba is the best ride in the park to me, it is just so fast and furious the entire ride. I really dig it. Its best moment is coming out of the Zero-G Roll and into the Cobra Roll, the gs are so great and I love going under the bridge and up into the midcourse so suddenly. Seriously great! I took two rides, my second being in the back row by myself. Its even more wild back here, I dont think there is a bad seat. Operartions again were solid with two trains running and an efficient crew.

After my rides on Kumba I made my way up to Montu for my final rides of the short day. By now the rain had stopped so I was optimistic I was going to finish the rides I wanted to get in. I made the long walk up front, stopping briefly at a couple of the animal exhibits. Once in the station I decided to get a front seat ride, being I was a single rider I politely made my way onto the next train through three groupd of three. Nice!

Montu is an OK ride, like other inverts of this size it just doesnt seem to have any kick and tends to coast too much. I rode it three times, front, middle and back, all giving my different results. From the front I waited my way through the elements, from the back and middle I couldnt see! Although the back seat pulls some serious gs through the Batwing. Once you float into the midcourse and go through the second loop the ride is over and coasts it way to the brake run. Some people love this ride, I dont.

Saturday, 26

I took the drive to Sea World the next day to ride Kraken. I am a big floorless fan and couldnt wait to get onto Kraken. I made my way to the parking gates and realized I didnt have any cash. Opps. They let me through no questions. It was embarassing, but a nice start to my day to not have to go searching for an ATM.

Sea World is a really nice park, well run, clean and fun. I really enjoyed my day, the rides, shows and exhibits were all great. I will not hesitate to visit again. Oh and the food choices are awesome!

Kraken. First thing in the morning it was walk on both times I rode it, I went for a backseat ride first then a second seat ride. It cracks me up how no matter how long they make the que for the first seat it still manages to fill up. Anyway the ride was great, the first half was fast and furious and I didnt know what was coming at me next, the zero-g roll made me laugh, and like other flooless coasters it just seems to spin you forever. Loved it! The trip into the midcourse was windy so it may have effected the speed into it. After that I loved the tunnels and how the crowd hung around to wait for the friends while you flew past them. The waterfalls add a lot as well. The mark I will put against it is the coast into the brakerun. I really liked the ride.

Sunday I woke up to pouring rain, so I ditched BGT for a second day and went to St Petersburg and the Dali Museum.