Beastbuzz - How was it?

I had to miss it due to a last minute priority change. But the weather was great and how was the event?

In one word - great. In two words - great and tiring. (Yes, technically that's three.)

We did the Beast walkback and got a couple of laps in before the park opened, then got to go for a ride on TR:TR before we did the backstage look at it. Interesting if you like looking at racks of computer hardware, but even better when Jeff Siebert let us look through the one door and allowed us to see the ride in operation.

After that, it was off to the International Showplace for the rules on the scavenger hunt. The scavenger hunt is what I spent most of my day on and it was pretty well done. Some of the questions were pretty hard, and others just caused us to smack ourselves when we finally got the answers.

The food was decent, and after a quick recharge, it was off to the hunt again. The evening brought the Beast backstage walk (which was pretty interesting), and the SoB backstage walk (which I didn't do, but from pics I've seen, allowed you to get pretty close to the loop... even closer than last year.)

After all that, at 10 pm we wandered into the Paramount theatre for the awards and the presentation of the 25th anniversary Beast video. Once the park cleared out, we were taken to Delerium and then DropZone for riding. Soon after, it was FoF and then a number of rides on the Beast.

That's about it. Although I'll be sending an email out to PKI's PR people to say the same thing, I realy appreciate the hard work they put into the event and want to thank them for allowing us to have the event in the first place. It's their great customer service that will keep me coming back.

It was awesome. :)

Rock on to Jeff, Stephanie and Jeff for organizing yet another great event!

That pretty much sums it all up. An excellent time no doubt! It speaks volumes that the event has grown from 70 people last year to 250 this year! The word is out that BeastBuzz is great, and there is much fun to be had. Even though I opted not to participate in the scavenger hunt, I was very impressed with the prizes that the park offered to the winners. Congrats to the winners of all those goodies btw.

I personally got the most out of the night time ERT. During the course of the normal business day at the park, it was packed and I decided not to wait in any of the ultra-long lines and instead just shoot video.

The only bummer for me personally was the fact that I lost my wallet in the parking lot on the way out. I didn't even realize I had lost it till about 12 hours later. I've already called PKI's lost and found hoping that some honest soul will turn it in for me. (everyone keep your fingers crossed for me!)

Thanks to the Jeff/Stephanie/PKI team for putting together one of the best events to date! I'm sure that there was a ton of work involved and let it be known that it was appreciated right down to the last stuffed envelope. Hope to see you all again next year!

I'm still recovering (Of course I went back Sunday for more, and are my feet paying the price today)

But I second what has been said above, the backstage tours were fun and interesting, have a lot of cool photos that may look good on the big screen.

The ERT was fun, I like the tour the park style.

The lunch spread was bountiful, the cake was delicions, Tom Rebbie gave the keynote speech.

Now to the subject of Sadistic Steve's Scavenger Search. It was challenging, It was fun, this should become an annual tradition. I'm sure that some of the more memmorable questions will become legendary as soon as the more detailed TR's come out (like the one I plan on writing). How many events include a self-guided tour of the park's Parking Lot!!! And going to the Krusty Krab Snack Shack. to get the price on a combo meal is not going to help you. Oh and be sure to read the questions all the way through, like "In this original park *RIDE* ....." (I hear one team decided on a plan on action that took them out the front gate, through and beyond the parking lot to go looking for some decorative thematic element of some *RIDE*)

Way more detailed TR to follow. *** Edited 6/28/2004 3:05:52 PM UTC by Coasterville Dave***

I had a great time. It was my first PKI trip so I skipped some of the events and did some line-standing to accomplish my credit-whoring, but I had fun and the ERT was awesome. Thanks to everyone who made this possible.

I'll write a TR as soon as I can stand to be awake for any length of time. That was a LONG day.

I loved it. By going last year and riding everything new to us, this year gave us more time to enjoy the park. The events they had planned were perfect for us coaster geeks.

The weekend in general for me was pretty intense as we drove in from Chicago on Friday. Had a 9am-->1am day at PKI on Saturday. And Sunday took us from Cincy to Louisville for SFKK. Then from SFKK to Holiday World (still in awe of that park) for my inaugural laps on Legend & Raven. Then finally back up to Chicago. All in all, 1030 miles and a great, great weekend.

Thanks to the Jeff's and everybody else involved for this full filled Beastbuzz adventure.

.. And when i get a chance, a detailed TR as well.

My family had a great time too. It was our 1st trip to PKI, and going for Beastbuzz made the trip well worth it. Had we gone on a Saturday without the ERT I don't think that we'd have gotten to do everything that we wanted to. The park got pretty crowded.

Starting out with 2 rides on the Beast was a great way to start the day. We did the Tomb Raider behind the scenes, and then Went to ride the other rides that we knew we weren't going to get to ride for ERT.

Our longest wait was Son of Beast about 30 minutes due to a breakdown, but that actually shortened the line for us. A lot of people left due to thinking it was going to be down longer. Good ride in seat 2. It is rough, but not as bad as I had read on here.

Were going to head to SFKK, but returned Sunday to PKI to ride a few rides that we had missed on Saturday. We were too tired from Saturday to travel any further away from home. ;) It was a nice weekend.

*** Edited 6/28/2004 3:32:22 PM UTC by Coasterfantom2***

I thought that it was great. I've been to PKI many times over the years, but the tours enabled me to go a few places I haven't been before. The scavenger hunt was fun as well. Combine those events and you have a little case of the shin splints...at least you do in my case. I came alone, but met up with some good guys and had fun. Thanks to all who made this possible, and the PKI staff, who rolled out the red carpet and treated us like royalty. Hope to see all again next year.

I wish that I could of made the event.

Work would not allow for it..........damn work!!!!

I broke a toe the night before and our team still finished 3rd (tied for 2nd, actually) in the scavanger hunt. Now if that's not dedication, I don't know what is. ;)

About that tiebreaker in the scavenger hunt, didn't that one dude guess 50,000 and was told that he was over?? Maybe I'm smoking crack or something.

RavenTTD:

That dude has a name, he's me (just giving you some grief) Here are a few smiles to let you know I'm not the least bit upset :) :) :) . Any no, my guess was 500,000.

Have to get you a pack of those new fangled New York style self-extingusihing cigarettes.

Well, these guys all summed it up pretty well. I'm sure TR's and photos will start popping up soon for those who missed out.

I have just one 'event' photo I'd like to toss out there. On the technical side it's total crap but for subject matter, I totally dig it. It's a photo of Buzzers cheering a train as it blows by during the Beast walkback. Good stuff.

My only regret was not hovering around Dave (Rideman) a little more. The couple of times I caught up with him on the walkback, he filled my head with more technical knowledge of the coasters in the 2 seconds we spoke than I had aquired in my lifetime previously.

-Gonch
the 'hair' guy :)

BeastBuzz was an awesome event, even better than BeastBuzz '03. I really, really hope that the scavenger hunt becomes a BeastBuzz tradition. I've never walked that much in a day at PKI in my life.

BeastBuzz finished off a 3 day, 3 park trifecta for my wife and I, and I couldn't ask for a more perfect ending (Cedar Point -> Geauga Lake -> PKI).

My thanks to Jeff (both of them) and the rest of the PKI staff that made BeastBuzz a success.

Jerry

Great times. I got to meet up with people I never thought I was going to meet. I too rode with ride man. My head is still buzzing from all the info he gave me in the time we had to wait for delerium. I then saw him on sunday at eagles. Two day of decent snapping.

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Coasterville Dave said:
I hear one team decided on a plan on action that took them out the front gate, through and beyond the parking lot to go looking for some decorative thematic element of some *RIDE*

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I heard that story and was surprised that Jeff S. didn't meantion it during the awards ceremony.

^^^ I was walking in front of Dave (eavesdropping) on the way to The Beast. I wish he would have been talking about coasters and not the lack of a drive-up at a McDonalds. Oh well... :-)
*** Edited 6/28/2004 4:32:36 PM UTC by Neuski***

Coasterfantom2 -- you didn't miss much by not going to SFKK on Sunday. I went and took a lap around the park and couldn't wait to leave.

One other thing I forgot to mention was meeting some of the funnest people I have met. The chit chat alone with all you people was worth the event.

Check the home page for the group photo (not that you can recognize anyone in the low-res version... that's a lot of peeps).