Associated parks:
None
Well I enjoyed a nice full day at Silver Dollar City the day before, and before this trip I deemed these parks to important to cut short, and when I go back I’ll still spend two days for theses parks. Celebration City opens at 3:00, and in theory you can do both parks, SDC from 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 and Celebration City from 3:00 to 11:00, but you loose 3 hours of valuable Wildfire time.
So when I woke up about 9:00 I was delighted (not) to see that it was raining, and not just a short heavy rain, a medium constant downpour. We stayed in the motel room for about an hour then decided to go check out other things in Branson. Since it was raining none of the 7 go kart tracks were running, and the water park was obviously closed. So we went to the mall/ Wal-Mart for about an hour and hung out. I of course couldn’t get the thought of Ozark Wildcat out of my head, it was to be my first GCI and I had heard that it is arguably the best. On the way to Silver Dollar City you get a great view of it and of Celebration city, so I was extremely excited to go on the high banks and fast drops.We got done at Wal-Mart at about 12:00 then decided to go back to the hotel. To say the very least this day was getting dull quick. I would have gone back to SDC for a second day, but we didn’t buy season passes, and I didn’t have the extra $75 for two people, next time I’ll get the season pass and go back.. But we didn’t do that so we decided to be bored instead.
Back at the hotel we lounged around, watch TV and talked about other parks. Finally 2:30 rolled around and we decided to go Wendy’s for lunch and we stayed there, me half going crazy from being so excited. Not only do I get insane before a park, but if the main attraction is a woodie. God have mercy I would bounce of freaking concrete. 2:45 came around and we cleaned up and left. Since Branson is pretty small it was only like a 3-minute drive to the park. It was lightly drizzling making it a crappy day, but I already knew that if it were drizzling then the park would have no more than 25% of the people there then if it wasn’t. We drove into the park and I almost had a heart attaché, there were about 10 other cars so far and we were able to park about 25’ from the entrance of the park. Man I was in heaven.
We paid, went into the very RCTish Park and walked a little ways to Ozark Wildcat. Heaven will start now.
Ozark Wildcat #54
We walked through the lengthy queue, noticing the invigorating smell of fresh pine. We climbed the flight of stairs as the train left and were into the completely empty station. The front was our choice since it is pretty common knowledge that most GCI’s have better airtime up front when you pop into the turns. It took about a minute and a half for the train to get back to the station and my blood was pumping! The gorgeous Millennium Flyer pulled into the station complete with cat eyes on the very front and the people exited.
We climbed into the train and sat down. This was my first T bar on a woodie. The trains were comfy and it had the usual lap bar and seat belt. I wasn’t a fan of the lap bar because I have long enough arms that it is hard to hold onto the bar itself (not like I ever did anyways). And we were off and rolling! You make a nice left turn gaining speed and go over a bump, not supplying any air but oh well. Turn to the left and went up the great lift.
As you climb more of the coaster comes into view, and that psychotic spiraling first6 drop from hell stands out at you. You detach from the lift dropping and turning to the right, banking more and more as you get closer to the drop. Then you drop and an impossible angle, the drop seems so much bigger than it actually is. You then pull out from the dive bomb drop pulling some strong vertical g’s as you still turn slightly to the right. You climb into the first turnaround but before you get to the turn you are popped off your seat by GCI’s brilliant airtime. A fast diving dip sets you up for the longest amount of airtime!
You fly over this big hill off your seat till the bottom, but don’t forget to smile for the camera as you are thrown into the heaviest banking on any coaster I have been on, and it is taken at such a high speed that you’ll swear you fly through the tracks. This turn is so cool, no lateral gs but the feeling flying through it is indescribable!
Up you go into a marvelous sweeping right hand hugging the lift hill and first drop, of course you get a nice pop going into it. You drop down a nice drop that gives you some air in back and take a nice curve to the right again, and it sets you up for the strongest pop of air and best turn. It is a flat turn around but you get a very strong pop going into it and it banks hard to the left, then de banks then banks heavily again only to dive down in the double hop.
This double hop tickles your stomach every time! Pop pop and then you turn. This double hop is so much fun , as is everything after the flat turn. It is so energetic and ground hugging and gives a great sense of speed. You fly to the left and then bank into the right swooping turn to exit in another airtime bunny hop, then up into the brake run getting yet another moment of airtime! And you are officially done!
This ride is incredible, and boy it was fun. The first drop is intense and gives some great lats in the back, but the front is by far the best for the airtime. 8 moments by my count, not real long lasting but they are fun. Gotta love the twister nature of the ride, and the finale which is an absolute blur. Though I have been on much better wooden coasters, this will probably be forever branded into my top 10; it is a great smooth, fun ride.
Jack Rabbit #55
Yay! Miler! That is what I though at least. I had been on Scandia Screamer and was blown away, has great airtime and it was smooth too! I got on this expecting the same thing, but then I saw it and realized it is more like a Wild Mouse and Scandia Screamer combined, and on steroids. It only runs a 3 car trains, and it is understandable, because the cars would be ripped from the tracks.
The first ride was in the front seat because I knew it would have better air, and it did. You make a turn to the left, level out and have a turning left drop that looks intimidating. The drop was surprisingly rough, and then you pop into the first turnaround. There was airtime of course but there was also pain as you slam to your right, and down a straight drop into an intense and painful right sweeping turn. Pop, out of your seat, and bam against the side. Another drop with a bunny hop giving some floater, and then another violent turn, but after this drop there is a bunny hop that gives some extreme thigh bruising airtime.
This review may seem negative but it is still a lot of fun, it was a little painful, the back is a lot smoother but doesn’t have the airtime that the front does. The restraints are odd T bar restraints that will start giving you a bruise after a few rides. Worth about 3 rides no more, no less.
Thunderbolt #56
Well, I get to ride a wonderful Windstorm, oh I can’t wait!. Out of the 67 coaster summer this was the one I was looking forward to the most. Ok now I’m done with the sarcasm. This is actually a fun little ride. Waited for the front the first time and ended up getting stranded on the lift with someone else. They were able to get the other person out with their power thing. But it still left me and my mother stranded for about a half hour more. This is what they said “Because of the inconvenience we will give you a skip any line In the park today.” I looked at her and said “We don’t need that today, since there are no lines so can we get something else.” Well after the 45 minutes being stranded we climb down the stairs to find out that we a have a $20 meal ticket to any of their restaurants. Sweet ass free dinner, now that is insanely cool.
Well once they got it back running we finally rode it in the back car. It is a disorienting little ride. The first sets of drops are relatively calm, but when you get to the nice near vertical climb it really picks up. A small dip and then a drop out of a nightmare comes it is insanely steep and is banked impossibly.
After this there is a nice set of tight helixes, that are only a tad rough but are still kind of violent. Then you zoom into the brake run and that t bar gets jammed into your crotch because of the violent stop. I’m sure more than one man has been de nutted because of this ride. A fun ride but not up to the caliber of Ozark Wildcat.
Celebration City is straight out of Roller Coaster Tycoon, and not only does this great park Rival Silver Dollar City and Holiday for friendliness and cleanliest, but it offers a little something extra that I can’t put my finger on. It has some great flats, like a fabulous ferris wheel that gives you a fall view of Ozark Wildcat; they also have Fireball, which gets my vote for best flat ride out there. They have a crappy little flume and an only ok S&S Double Shot, Accelerator. But those two were not what I came to the park for. I came for the Wildcat, and man was it wild. Don’t
Nice TR, by the way.
------------------
I lied.
*** This post was edited by The Shy One 9/29/2003 11:19:50 PM ***
Did they ever get any borders for the onride photos? When I was there in June I got mine in just an envelope!
------------------
Signature will be closed today. Sorry for the inconveinance.
The Wildcat is a modern masterpiece, the double bump at the end is probably the most agressive little piece of track i've been on. It was fun sharing that evening with you. We (The Coaster Zombies Club) were there as part of our Parks of the Ozarks bus trip. Maybe we can meet on june 7th at Dollywood for a spin on the Thunderhead?
SAM
------------------
never met a coaster I didn't ride (except Junior Geminii) :(
You must be logged in to post