TR: SWO, IOA, BGT. Part III

***Chip*** · #1 07-24-2001, 02:38 PM

Part III

7/16-BGT

We decided to take a break from IOA and go to BGT. We took a free shuttle there and got there about an hour after the park opened. We went right to Gwazi and decided to ride Lion first since people say it has slow loading time. Boy, are they right. They have to check all the seatbelts and then let the lap bars down. It takes too long to load! I was really let down by this coaster. In my mind it was taller, longer and had more near misses. I liked all the airtime, but it was really rough. My brother hated this ride. It also loses points for the low capacity and my experience. Here’s what happened when I got on: I buckled the seatbelt and a rode op asked me if I had a camera. She noticed my camera bag that was clipped to the side of my fanny pack. It’s easier to carry it like that so we can easily take it out to take pictures (not on ride, we aren’t stupid!). She asked me if I had 50 cents and I said I didn’t (I only had fivers). She went up to the station area where the people who operate everything are and got two quarters from them. I took the camera bag off and put it in a locker nearby. That really slowed the loading. They could have had an employee at the entrance take it from me like they did on Kumba, but I had to slow down loading. That stunk. We waited 50 minutes for this one. 5/10.

We went on Tiger next. We only waited 30 minutes. Same as Lion. Disappointing. 5/10.

Montu was next. We waited 30 minutes for the front row. I didn’t like how this one guy was smoking in line and the employees did nothing. The drop was good, and I like Immelmans, but all the space between inversions bored me. There seemed to be way too much time before the next element. And there was a brake before the batwing! It was on hard, too. I really felt that one! The MCBR is on too tight! Being in the front row, I slid to the side of the restraint/seat before we finally started to actually fall down the drop. There’s a point between the second vertical loop and the corkscrew that we just crawled through. Stupid brakes! 6.5/10

We decided to ride Scorpion since Kumba was down. I am happy that I have now ridden a Schwarzkopf Coaster in all its glory! Lap bars, no brakes anywhere but the end! Awesome! The lap bars are small, too with no padding so I was a little scared. The G’s are good on it. 6.5/10

We ate at the Crown Colony Restaurant and I had a sandwich, which was very good. I like the view of the animals, too.

World Rhythms On Ice would be today’s show. It featured people ice-skating around to different music from around the world. It was cool up until the end when these streamers fall down from the ceiling. One of them didn’t unroll all the way and the ball of streamer hit me in the groin. Ouch!

We went on the train to get some views of animals and then we took the sky ride to the front of the park. From the sky ride, we say Rhino Rally sitting there with people working on it. Too bad.
As we were leaving the park, we saw Rhino Rally trucks driving around a course next to the water park. That was cool, but I’m a little mad it wasn’t running.

7/17-BGT, take two

Kumba’s open! Yes! We go to the back of the park via the sky ride to ride Kumba. This is one awesome ride! I rode this four times this day (front, middle, middle, and last row). This ride is the best in the back! I love it! You get whipped though every single inversion and the zero-g roll rocks in the back! The dive loop was cool, as well. I love the interlocking corkscrews, they were my first. This is by far the best ride in the park and one of the best back seat rides on Earth (behind the Beast, of course). Up front, there is airtime into the MCBR and the drop out of them is awesome in the back. This was also a milestone! My 50th coaster! 9/10.

Python. Classic Arrow first-generation inverter. I rode up front and it was a little rough. Small drop, no airtime on that turning hill before corkscrews. The corkscrews were a surprise to me because for some weird reason, I forgot this ride inverted. I guess I just wasn’t thrilled and it bored me, but I had just ridden Kumba. This coaster was good for its time, but it’s nothing now. 3/10.

We ate at the Vivi Restaurant. It started to rain when we ate so we decided to stay there and wait for it to clear up. It sort of did so we went to the Ubanga-Banga Bumper Cars. What’s with the lap bar? These things seemed to move a little slow, but it was fun. We hopped on the train so we wouldn’t miss:

Moroccan Roll. The singing and dancing was cool and they even interacted with the audience. We got to sit in the front row and this guy on stage bugged us. He stood my mom up and said she was a psychic and she predicted it would rain (of course it did). She got a coupon for a free game of ring toss that would later win her an enormous dragon we had to lug around the park. Back to the show. At one point that guy had a fake camel he called Camela Anderson and it spit on me. He grabbed me and made me come on stage with him. He dressed me in funny clothes and he left. Three women walked out and sang a song to me. That was pretty cool and my mom and brother got lots of pictures!

7/19-BGT and Old Town.

I rode Kumba three more times to bring the total to seven rides on it! We left the park, Rhino Rally was still down. After the bus dropped us off, I decided to ride Wildstorm, Old Town’s big roller coaster. This coaster is a junior steel and it seems very scary. It makes a lot of noise in the brakes and doesn’t seem safe, but I wanted to raise my coaster count. I paid $4 to ride this coaster. I rode up front. I have never been on a coaster where the trains rock back and fourth climbing the lift! Scary! The drop is small, you get a little airtime after it, turn around, then a “big” drop. You swoop by the ground then up into a banked brake run (this brake run consisted of a single tire to slow it down a bit). You do a 180-degree turning drop and swoop around into a helix then into the brakes. Meh. This coaster was not worth $4. 2/10.

7/20-IOA, take four!

This would be our last day to do anything and we decided to spend it at IOA. I got a total of five rides on Hulk today. I took advantage of the two rides early in the morning and three more rides in the single rider line. I love that! If you’re not with a group, go in that line, ride by yourself. It cuts your wait a lot! I only waited for a minute or two in that line all three times! The disadvantage is you can’t ride up front. We rode DD in the back, which rocked! These rides are awesome in the back! It scared me since we flew down that drop and into every inversion! Coming out of the airtime hill on Fire, you get airtime down the entire drop! You miss the dueling aspect but the ride is better back there! Ice even gained a point since the back is a good ride. Ice got a 7/10 for the good back ride! We also rode Spidey once. That is one awesome ride that I can’t get enough of!

Well, that’s my trip report. Sorry that it’s so long, but I did something different each day and I wanted to get a lot of details in. In the end, Millennium Force is still my #1 coaster, but Hulk and Kraken turned out to be my #2 and 3, respectively. I also have a new favorite inversion: the zero-g roll. Best inversion out there! IOA is also the best theme park. They went crazy with the themeing! I hope you enjoyed reading this. This was the second best trip I’ve been on (best was PKI, CP last summer). Now my official coaster count is 53! Now, what to do next year. I’m trying to convince my mom to take us to Pennsylvania for Dorney Park, Kennywood, and Heresheypark. We’ll see…

-Chip