BGW/KD/Hershey May 26-29

After driving down to Virginia on the 25th, I went to BGW the next day.. I opted for the preferred parking for 5 extra bucks. I also opted to use the Quik Queue unlimited plus that got you one ride on Verbolten. I figured with the holiday weekend and the opening of Verb, wait times would be hefty.

Verbolten-Got right into the station with the pass and went to the last seat. Amazing ride (got the spirit of the forest). Def would put this in my top ten steel coasters. However, around 6pm it went down. People were waiting in line for almost 2 hrs until they decided to close the ride for the night. Hot weather, waiting for nothing...you can figure it out from there.

DarKastle is always great to do. One of my fav rides there.

Alpengheist-2 laps. Montu is still my fav B@M invert though. With the QQ pass you get shuffled into the loading area and you are on your own.

Apollo-3 laps. Best lap for me was at night. I waited in the regular line for around 15 mins for the front row. I really love the twist to the left after the first drop since I was on the left outside seat.

Europe in the Air still not as great as soarin'/ Escape from Pompeii for some reason didn't have the fire on the ceiling. I noticed on the sign entering the park that it was not operating (prob the day before) but who knows.

I saw the Pirates 4D show for the first time. I think the storyline was good but the dialogue is a little hard to understand.

On some of the rides I chatted with fellow coaster people and the staff were great of course. As mentioned in other reports, loved the new pretzel eatery. I highly suggest the cinnamon pretzel bites.

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Kings Dominion

A military band played the national anthem at the front gate to "open" the park. Being a music teacher I was stoked to see that.

Got to enter the back of the park with my platinum pass 10 mins early and got the fast lane pass. Fast lane was a really good idea for this park. Crowds were heavy because of the weekend, but I got onto every coaster I wanted and then some. FYI Fast lane only gives you three rides on Volcano which is understandable with the ride capacity.

First stop was Richochet to pick up my credit there. Friendly ride op with a supervisor shirt was cool to talk with. Even gave me some coaster tips and park tips which was appreciated.

Rebel yell-only one side was running at opening but eventually around 12 they were racing them.

Grizzly-Not my favorite but still like how it's in the woods. Got soaked on the rapids ride. But it was so hot I didn't mind at all.

I305-so much better with the ride improvements compared to 2010. 4 laps on that one.

Anaconda still is painful.....but very nice place to eat at the congo grill. Inside and A/C, food was good too.

Volcano-3 laps. Got a front row ride twice (loved the ride at night time.)

Hurler was better than Grizz but still beat me up a little.

Windseeker was amazing. Got two laps in. It was lit up with red white and blue lights for the evening. What surprised me during my night ride was that it was playing music from Harry Potter.....

Disappoinment of the day was Dominator. Sat in the front row and got huge ear banging. I thought it was a bit more smoother than that oh well.

Great day at the park for a Sunday. Staff were very friendly and I noticed a lot of supervisors walking around and in the stations. Probably to help out the new park ride ops and staff.

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Hershey Park.

As probably mentioned in other reports skyrush to me was thigh crush. I rode it during my preview night (ticket plan you can use with any regular admission) and it was a 30 min wait. Seems like most people left because of the heat earlier that day. I sat in the outside seat on the left side in row four. Lots of thigh pressure as you prob have heard and its silly you have to enter and exit the ride on the same side. But I enjoyed chatting with a fellow coaster dude and his wife and it made the wait go all the more faster. FYI He told me Hershey's new fast track pass does not include Skyrush or stormrunner. Prob by next year that may change. Rush was having some problems at park opening but they seemed to get it running by noon during my next day visit. 2 laps on that.

What really surprised me is Great Bear was having major problems all day. The lift hill kept stopping. People kept getting stuck on the lift hill and in the station (including me on one lap!) 2 laps on bear.

Most of the coasters at park opening were only running two trains which seemed odd to me since it was really crowded for a Tuesday. (lots of school groups and church groups at the park)

Farenheight was only running two trains all day. Around a 45 min wait for one lap./ Racer only one train all day-minimal waits-one lap on that/ SDL was running one train all afternoon but later got the second one up by mid day. One lap in the morning around a 25 min wait.

SDL is a much more smoother ride. You don't get that brake jerk before the station anymore. YAH for new trains.

The TAP show was awesome. Much better than last year. Those people worked their butts off and you could see the sweat flying off of them. Highly suggest it to anyone.

The rollersoaker was down until around 4pm and I am not sure why.

Around 5:30pm the clouds were turning black and all of the coasters shut down. By 6pm all outside rides were shut down because it started to pour buckets.

The most surprising thing about my whole trip. Hershey Park....

On Memorial Day (I heard this from my coaster friend during my skyrush wait they closed down Great Bear, SDL, Comet and Skyrush for elephants. Yes thats right the circus was in town and on ridge Road they walked the elephants through there during a parade. They thought the noise (esp from bear) would startle them. I could hear that PA announcment "Due to elephants skyrush etc will not be running. There are highly trained elephant walkers working on the problem.

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Those pretzels are delicious. Going to have to try the cinnamon next time.

I thought Sooper Dooper Looper seemed extra super fun on Monday! I had a fantastic ride on it, and something seemed different, but I hadn't been able to place my finger on it. Every time I tried for a ride on it for the past two years, it was either shut down or people were stuck in the brake run outside the station! Lol I'm very pleased it has gotten the TLC it needed. The new trains make a HUGE difference, as far as I can tell.