The trip my girlfriend and I planned started out innocent enough.. It was vacation time and we were interested in going to Busch Gardens Williamsburg to ride some world class coasters. But being the enthusiast I am, and the closet enthusiast she is, one park wasnt good enough for us. We had a week off so I started suggesting that we go to some other parks as well. The trip grew from there to a total of 5 parks, and we thought we had gotten ourselves way over our heads.

We ended up going to Busch Gardens Williamsburg, Paramounts Kings Dominion, Hershey park, Dorney park and Six Flags Great Adventure.

On saturday the 23th, We started our long drive from Longwood, Florida to Williamsburg, Virginia. Left about 8am, and arrived in Williamsburg at around 9pm. The drive wasnt so bad, and we broke it up by making several stops along the way. I guess we were just anxious to get there.

Busch Gardens Williamsburg
We arrived at BGW just before it opened. First off, let me explain how I feel about BGT. Its definately my favorite park in FL. All the coasters are top notch and the African theming is great. But its set right in the middle of what appears to be a borderline ghetto section of tampa. All that aside, I couldnt believe just how different this park was from BGT. The theming was VERY nice. The best part was that the park seemed to be all alone in the trees and hills, which was the antithesis of BGT. That means that we didnt see any liquor stores or run down shops from the lift hills of the coasters . We headed straight to DarKastle, because we figured that the queue would be the shortest in the morning.

DarKastle
As we made our approach, I just couldnt help but take notice that a huge portion of the grey building housing the ride was clearly visible. Thats just a minor nitpick, but it looked incomplete. Anyways, we waited in line and the wait wasnt too bad. It was nice to see that there were tons of fans along the queue because it was scorching hot! We were ushered into the preshow building, which the preshow setup the ride nicely. Im glad they decided to to this and not just have a bunch of tv screens along the queue. We boarded our sleigh and rounded the corner. The 3d was very good quality, and the 3d gags were pretty good. This isnt a complaint, but the ride seemed like a modified version of spiderman. The sleighs seemed to do most of the same stuff in the same order. The only thing I could complain about is that it didnt seem like the scenes were seperated all that well, or maybe the cars were running too close together. All in all , Id give the ride a 7 out of 10.

Alpengeist
We decided to hit up Alpengeist next. Man was this ride amazing! Its only 45ft taller than Montu, but seems MUCH taller. The first drop seems to last forever. In fact, the whole ride seems much longer than your standard invert and had nice theming throughout. As far as forces, it seemed about as forceful as montu. Overall, this ride deserves a 9 out of 10.

Next up, we rode Escape from Pompeii, which was alot shorter that I thought it would be. I was suprised to see some brain fire in there, I love that effect on the Mummy. It was a nice family flume ride. Then Davincis Cradle and all the rides in that area. Davincis Cradle was way more fun than it looked, I would recommend not passing it up. Then it was on to Apollos Chariot.

Apollos Chariot
This was our first B&M mega coaster. The restraints were very comfortable, I wonder if they can adapt these to an invert. We ascended to the top of the hill and down the first drop. All I can say is wow. I was speachless the whole ride. Really nothing more to say other than RIDE THIS!! 10 out of 10.

Loch Ness
We waited until night to ride this. It was alot better than I expected. The loops seemed very small and compact, and it looked like there might be some whiplash going through them, but the loops were great. The never ending helix was cool because it was pitch black. Then it was on to the second lift hill and the 2nd loop. Good coaster for being 25+ years old. We wanted to ride it again , but it was about 30 min until closing time. We had a choice to make.. Big Bad Wolf, or get some back row rides in on Apollos Chariot?

It was a no brainer for us.

We got 2 back row rides in on AC, and we got another onride photo. The back row is the place to ride!! 20 out of 10

After the day was done, we came to one conclusion. You definately cannot compare BGW to BGT. They are two totally unique experiences. I can definately say that BGT does have more of an extreme edge on BGW, but BGW has a warmer more family oriented atmosphere.

Next, its onto Paramounts Kings Dominion. I will write about that later!

-Imhotep

So now its Monday the 25th, and we see on the news that there is a major heat wave up here. We were thinking heatwave? Were Floridians!! well, we werent even used to the 100+ degrees we were about to encounter. We packed plenty of water and our ACE membership cards and set off to PKD. Our first impression of the park was, this was definately NOT Busch Gardens. The place looked a little run down and wore out.

Paramounts Kings Dominion
Im glad to see that this park honors ACE members. We paid half price for our tickets, walked through the huge metal detectors and into the park. Wait.. Metal detectors? I dont recall any other park having these. These werent the metal detector wands, these were like the ones at the airport. I had to take out my keys, wallet, and eventually take off my belt before I could pass through the detector without it going off and they would let me proceed.

We first went up into the Eiffel Tower to survey the park. And thats when I remembered I wasnt a huge fan of heights. It wasnt being up in the Eiffel tower that made me realize this, it was being eye level to the ring of people getting ready to drop almost 300 ft from the dropzone tower. My GF is not afraid of heights, and she tells me we have to go on this. I figure, what the he!!, this is vacation, and Im not going to die. Lets do it first and get it out of the way.

Drop Zone
I was pretty nervous waiting in line, but once we got strapped in I was fine. We got all the way to the top and it really didnt seem like we were up that high. next thing I know, we are let go and the drop was intense. We stop inches from the ground, and all I can think about is when are we going to do this again! We ended up doing it before we left.

Hypersonic XLC
We hopped inline for Hypersonic next. One thing I found odd is there werent any fans or shade until we got into the station. So we were out in 100degree weather for about 45 minutes. They should really think about putting some fans up or something! Anyway, we wait for the front row. We strap into these HUGE chairs, and we are off around the corner. We get locked into the catch car, and we are told to keep our heads against the head rest and our arms down. Never to follow the rules, we put our arms up awaiting the lauch.
We get the green light, and a half a second later we are off!! it seems like you get to 80mph instantly, it was almost scary!! There wasnt any airtime over the big hill, and it seemed like the rest of the ride was smooth, but bouncy from side to side. Maybe it was the pneumatic tires that caused that. Then we CRASH into the break run, which was incredibly loud. Out of all the launch coasters I have ridden, this had the most intense launch and we loved it! Unfortunatlely we couldnt get any more rides in because it broke down shortly after. I hope they are planning on building a second generation of this ride somewhere. Id give it a 10 out of 10 just for the launch!

We hit the wooden coasters next. Grizzly was good, Hurler wasnt all that great, but the highlight was Rebel Yell. We only rode the backwards side. I wish they would do this to all wooden coasters. Such a fun ride! Next we went over to Volcano

Volcano
The wait for this was absolutely horrid. when you enter the queue in the volcano, you are on a walkway that is about 2 people wide and surrounded by chicken wire. Once again there are no fans and its very hot in there. Anyone whos clausterphobic should probably wait for a very short wait time to ride this. The launch out of the volcano was the best part, but the rest was kinda bland. Just one heartline roll after another. You did take the heartline rolls kinda slow, so you got some good hangtime like in Shiekras Immelman. Over all, factoring in the crappy queue and somewhat bland layout, Id give the ride a 6 out of 10.

Next we walked on to Tomb Raider. This topspin packs a punch!! you get flipped end to end several times. cool fire and water effects made this one of the highlights of the park. We rode this probably about 4 more times. Then we went over to flight of fear.

Flight of Fear
We waited in this hot queue with once again no fans. It seemed cool though. They had a preshow which we didnt get to watch, and you walk up into this space ship. We boarded the front row, and awaited the launch... Then we were off! The launch is comparable to Rock and Roller coaster, not too intense but catches you off guard. I didnt care for the premier trains. I am not a tall guy, but my legs were cramped in the cars. The block brake seemed to stop us dead in our tracks, making for an uncomfortable lean to the left into a drop. but overall, the ride was great. No annoying OTSRs. Can all inverts PLEASE adapt to this method of restraint? 8 out of 10.

Then we hit up Anaconda. I will not waste putting this coasters name in bold print, I wont even underline it. This ride was painful. One of the roughest rides I have been on, wooden OR steel. The second roughest was Shockwave. You know what? Im not even going to rate either of these. Im sure there are some people out there that like these rides, but I sure didnt. Forget I even mentioned them.

We did ricochet, which was a good wild mouse, hit drop zone again, and then did the SKYCOASTER! It was my first skycoaster and it was AMAZING!! Im ready to do the one in oldtown now . My only complaint about this was the ride ops were pretty rude. The lady suiting my up was bolivian if I remember correctly from her name tag, and I didnt understand her. So I asked her to repeat herself, and she rudely did so. Repeating the instructions to me like english was my second language. Im not trying to be rude, but come on. As we were waiting to get off the lift, they were hooking up a mother and her two daughters who were very nervous. The mother didnt even say anything close to a profanity, and they told her to watch her language, profanity wasnt tolerated and she could be ejected from the park. I wasnt sure what was going on with the ops, but hopefully they can be a little nicer next time. 10 out of 10 for ride experience, 3 out of 10 for the ride ops.

We got the dvd of our experience, and saw hypersonic was testing.. We hoped to get one more ride in before we left, but it didnt happen. During one of the launches, something was ejected from of the car, looked to be a square black rubber thing. It flipped several times before loudly smacking to the ground inches from someone walking by. I guess maybe something was left in the car during the test run, or maybe a peice of the seat came off. I dont know. But it was pretty dangerous. Im glad no one was hit by whatever came out of the car. After that, I didnt see it test. We decided to leave.

Despite our intial impressions, and our issues with the skycoaster ops, we walked away feeling that PKD was one awesome park. It had a great variety of rides, and we had a blast just being there. Just goes to show theming doesnt make a park. We liked PKD more than BGW, and that says alot considering how brilliant BGW was. Maybe I liked it so much because I sort of overcame a fear of mine here? That may be true. But nonetheless, we cannot wait to come back to this park.

Next we drove up to Harrisburg, got a hotel and some shut eye. Hershey park is next on our list, and Storm Runner is the ride Ive been looking forward to the entire trip! Ill write about it more later.

-Imhotep

Awsome TR. I am looking foward my trip to PKD & BGW in a few weeks. I can't wait to ride Tomb Raider & Dark castle although i keep hearing negative reviews about Dark Castle so i'm not hopeing for too much so i won't be dissapointed.

__________________

2009 Carolina Cobra Crew
Go Panthers! 4-6: Week 12 @ New York Jets

#6 North Carolina Tarheels 4-1

I wouldnt say darkastle is bad. Its actually very good. Its just if youve been on Spiderman before you might be a little more critical about certian things. If you havent been on spiderman, prepare yourself for a unique experience with very hi res 3d and nice effects. I will say this.. The sleds were much smoother than spidermans. Like on the 'drop' I felt like I was actually falling, where as the drop in spiderman I feel like the sled is travelling down a gravel road. I dont know if its because the sleds are newer or if they are just improved overall.

Anyways, you will LOVE PKD. I really wanted to hit Carowinds on the way back, but couldnt due to time restraints. I might save that for the next trip.

On to park 3 of the trip. Hershey Park!! A tip for anyone planning on going here: Buy your tickets at a Giant Supermarket if you want to save $10 dollars. We found one not too far from the park, got our tickets and headed onward.

Hershey Park
As we drove up, I could see cars going over Storm Runners tophat, which made me happy as this was the coaster Im looking forward to the most. It will officially be my first intamin rocket coaster. It would have been my second, but Dragster had to go and snap a lauch cable the day before I got to Cedar Point last year. Yeah yeah, poor me.. Anyway, We walked into the park, and imediately saw the SooperDooper-OnlyOneLoop-er and great bear.

Great Bear
The girlfriend loves inverts, so we decided to do this one first. I was interested how the helix before the drop would feel, I thought and hoped it would press you into your seat during the helix and throw you out of your seat for a little airtime during the drop, but unfortunately my hopes were squashed. The helix did gather some speed and there were some small G's, But the helix and the drop were too far apart. There was enough time to recover from the helix, and we just coasted down the drop into what seemed like an ok layout. It was nice that it was so close to the SDL, built almost right on top of it. Great Bear overall wasnt bad, but it wasnt one of B&Ms standout inverts. It was cool to see the funky support work they had to do over the stream in person. But I guess thats how you know you are an enthusiast when you are like "Oh, cool, Supports!" Id give it a 6 out of 10. On second thought, Ill give it 7 out of 10 because of the tricky support work. By the way, if you do want to see the supports, you can see them really well right when you walk into the queue for the SDL, which we rode next.

SooperDooperLooper
Ahh I can finally say Ive ridden a Schwarzkopf other than Scorpion! It was a good ride. Kind of relaxing, and nice scenery. Its cool being on a vintage coaster and see a new generation whizzing over your head. We rode it twice, Ill give it an 8 out of 10.

Comet
I thought this coaster was going to be bad. If I remember correctly, the lift hill about half way up kind of sags a little on one side, so I thought the tracking was going to be off for the whole ride and be very rough like the Georgia Cyclone. So I braced for the worst. Luckily the woodie was pretty smooth, and we enjoyed our ride alot. 8 out of 10.

Storm Runner
We make it over to storm runner to see that its almost a walk on!! so we wait it out for a front row ride. About 3 trains later we were off. The dual loading station is nice, and seems to effectively cut down on the wait time.
I always hear about the intensity of the Intamin rocket coasters, So I couldnt wait. With spectators eyes focused on us like we were famous, we pulled up to the launch. The brake fins depressed into the track and we heard the semi cheezy in my opinion "get ready, here we go." Bam!! we were off over the tophat, and through the crazy inversions in notime. the 'Flying Snake Dive' was crazy, and it was refreshing to experience a new element. The break run was very smooth, and I loved the sound it made for some reason. If they could only adapt this break run to Hypersonic .
Speaking of Hypersonic, if I had to compare the two launches, I say Hypersonics tops Storm Runners, hands down. I know Storm Runners launch was a little slower, but it lacked the intensity Hypersonics launch had. Its like you could feel the accelleration on the hydraulic launch a little, but couldnt feel the accelleration on the compressed air launch. I would give storm runner a 9 out of 10 for uniqueness, but it made me miss Hypersonic like an old friend. Will I get to ride Hypersonic soon? Hopefully very soon.

We decided to ride Sidewinder because it was right next to Storm Runner. It would be my first Vekoma Boomerang.

Sidewinder
Likes and dislikes about this coaster. The Likes: Riding it in the front row. The dislikes: riding it anywhere else. It feels like someone is using the back of your head as a punching bag if you ride towards the back. Not pleasant. 5 out of 10 for the front row, 2 out of 10 for anywhere else.

Headaches in tow, we decided to skip Trailblazer and headed over to I guess you would call it the midway section to ride the 2 woodies over there. But first, we rode the claw, which was pretty nice, I can only imagine what MaxAir is like now. we checked out the classic Whip ride, which was nice but loud, and the Chaos ride which was an ok flat ride. We had a hard time getting our cars to flip.

Wildcat
This ride reminded me alot of Gwazi for some reason. We had alot of fun on this coaster. The drop had a nice curve to it, and there was some cool banking turns. 9 out of 10.

Lightning Racers
We hopped in line for Lightning for our race. The drops were fun, the ride wasnt too rough but for some reason it seemed alot more rough than Wildcat. All that matters though, is we won!! we totally stomped Thunder.

We skipped roller soaker and did some more of the rides again. Then we headed over to Allentown to our hotel, and our next stop, Dorney Park. More on that later!

-Imhotep

I have been on Spiderman and i was a little amazed but not that impressed. The ride was a bit jerkey at points.

__________________

2009 Carolina Cobra Crew
Go Panthers! 4-6: Week 12 @ New York Jets

#6 North Carolina Tarheels 4-1