Associated parks:
None
6.7.03
CronieCon1 Day 3
Six Flags Worlds of Adventure
Aurora, Ohio
After somewhat of an attempt to get a few hours of sleep after leaving Cedar Point at 1 in the morning, we got up for the drive to Six Flags Worlds of Adventure. Despite bad review after bad review, I was really looking forward to this park. I mean, hey, a CCI that I was REALLY looking forward to, my first floorless coaster, an impulse, and some more potentially good rides. Somewhere around 10:30-ish, or maybe a little later, Jay and I arrived at the park to a nice view of the coasters, and quickly processed our season passes. I like the free SFWoA calendar that came with the season pass, and my season pass photo turned out a little better than the horrid photo from last year.
We immediately headed for X-Flight, aware that it would probably have one train op, and it did. This would really be the only line we had to wait in all day. We opted to give the back seat a go, and off we went on my first Vekoma flyer. The loop is pretty intense, yes, and it is a fun ride, but I thought it was pretty mediocre and in my opinion the B&M flyers (or at least Superman at Over Georgia) blow away the Vekoma versions. X-Flight was my 98th coaster.
Scott Connor had suggested that I make Big Dipper my 100th coaster, since it is the only ACE classic in the Six Flags chain, and I thought that would be a good idea. I asked Jay which we should ride next, Superman or Mind Eraser, before heading to Big Dipper. He pointed out that if we went for Superman, then I could claim that I went on 100 coasters before riding my first Vekoma boomerang. So with that, we headed over to Superman: Ultimate Flight for a walk-on ride in the very front seat. Bottom line for me: Great ride, but I prefer Wicked Twister.
Big Dipper time! I hadn't really heard much about this, but we opted for the front seat, and off we went on my 100th coaster. In the front seat this ride is very smooth and filled with great airtime. Some of the hills that throw you up and turn at the same time are a lot of fun, and I think this was a great ride to make my 100th. It's good to see Six Flags keeping it in great condition.
Now, it was time for me to get that boomerang. There was no line for Mind Eraser, and we were actually the only ones on the train. One spin, and they asked if we wanted to stay on, but one ride was definitely enough. The trip going forwards wasn't too bad, but it got worse going backwards. The sign at the entrance that says "Hold onto your ears!" is quite appropriate.
Okay, let's cut to the chase. By this point I'm doing nothing but looking over toward Villain, and I had been anticipating Villain more than almost any ride on the trip. Why? I don't know, but I'm thinking the initials 'CCI' may have had something to do with it. Initial impressions: I like the small theming job that Six Flags did on this ride, and I enjoy the music playing in the station as well. While like most people, I'm not the biggest fan of the Gerstlauer trains, I do think they look really cool and are good for visuals. There was no line for the ride, like most things that day, so we took our first ride in the back seat. Villain was simply running out of control. My initial impressions were that it was a great ride, but a bit rough. Since there was no line, we rode again, but this time I wanted to try the front seat of the last car. The ride was a lot better this time, as those Gerstlauer cars for some reason are just so much rougher in the back of the cars than the front.
Double Loop was there and calling, so we went to get the credit (#103). I had heard this was one of the smoothest Arrow loopers around, and it was. We were in the front seat and I had my legs stretched out completely straight, so when we exited the second loop and were tossed upward at the top of the helix I got a nasty hit to the shins. The loops are pretty intense, and this is a smooth, fun coaster that I wouldn't mind riding over and over.
Continuing the credit run, we hopped in near the back of the ridiculously long train on Roadrunner Express (#104). Not a bad ride at all (gotta love that air horn). After that it was time for something I had been dreading: Serial Thriller. Did we really need the credit that bad? We rode in the very back seat, and this seemed rougher than what I remember T2 at Kentucky Kingdom being. The close clearances on this ride are great, but that's about it when it comes to positives I have for this. After some video shooting, it was on over to Batman: Knight Flight.
Batman: Knight Flight was my 106th coaster, and my first floorless, so I wasn't quite sure what to expect. We rode in the back seat, and I was pretty impressed by the ride. It didn't blow me away, but was a really fun ride. I like the hangtime in the loop and that first high speed turn a lot. I can definitely connect with the people who say it isn't very intense, but that didn't bother me too much.
Heading down the midway, Raging Wolf Bobs. Oh my. What a strange ride this delivers. Riding in the Gerstlauer train that it snatched from Villain, we found that the first half of this ride delivers a rough ride with ridiculous shuffling in the turns, and the second half provides a forceless smooth as glass ride. By now I for one was starved, so we headed toward the wildlife side of the park. I was really impressed by the looks of that part of the park, and while I don't know what it was like when it was Sea World, it seems that they kept most things intact. I do enjoy those animals, so this area was enjoyable. We ate lunch at the Lakeside Cafe, which was interesting with the birds begging for food (and getting it, despite the signs on every table saying not to feed them).
Mission Bermuda Triangle looked like it would be interesting, so we got in line. Only one of the simulator pods was running, which meant only about 28 people could go in every 15 minutes (yes, that's a wonderful capacity of slightly over 100 people per hour), so we ended up waiting about 20 minutes. We were at the front of the line after the group in front of us went in, so we chatted with the line manager, who was I would say the friendliest employee of the trip. He was also concerned about capacity, and talking of how he would get angry if the group ahead of us was late getting off the ride ;). As for the ride itself, it was pretty cool I guess. Nothing to write home about, and by no means a very thrilling simulator, but it was definitely worth riding.
We headed back over to the wild rides section of the park, this time using the boardwalk over the lake instead of the pathway behind Raging Wolf Bobs. We took a ride on Big Dipper in the back seat, and it was pretty rough back there, whereas it had been perfectly smooth in the front. Still a fun ride though. Back over to Villain, we got 3 good rides in, and further experimentation proved that yes, the back seats of each car in the Gerstlauer trains are rougher riding than the fronts. A kid in front of us was kind of enough to spit in the middle of the ride, hitting Jay right in the face. I think we scared him and his friends pretty good though, and we followed them into the Double Loop line. Not intentionally, of course, we were going to ride Double Loop anyway. This time around I kept my legs pulled back and didn't break my shins after the loops. Once more on Villain, over to Batman: Knight Flight for a front seat ride (awesome), and then time for dinner. One quick note: Waiting for the front seat on Batman trying to get a good shot of the floor dropping out, I was informed that filming was prohibited inside the station. Mhmm...
Since we had the full day at the park, and it was so empty, we had plenty of time for a casual dinner, and it was only logical that we go to Steak N' Shake, especially considering the fact that there was one right near the hotel. We also dropped off stuff, such as my camcorder, at the room. By 8:00 we were back at the park and looking forward to Villain once night fell.
We got another front seat ride in on Big Dipper, then tried Superman in the back. I was a little uneasy looking at the Time Warp flat ride, but Jay wanted to try it, so I consented. In the end, I really enjoyed everything except for the part where the ride stops upside down. I never have liked the rides that hang you upside down for an extended period of time so that the blood rushes to your head.
Night was beginning to fall at this point, and we took 3 awesome rides on Villain, but the best was yet to come. We both needed a break though, so we strolled the midways. We couldn't find a DDR machine, but instead went on Silver Bullet, the enterprise. After that I suggested the carousel, and we did it. Maybe I hadn't been on a carousel on a while (unless you count Cedar Downs the day before), but this seemed surprisingly fast. It was one constant lateral, and a very long ride as well. I really enjoyed it, and maybe I'll need to check out some more carousels if there are more fast ones out there. We had one last thing to do before heading over to close out the day on Villain, and that was a ride on Batman in the dark near the back seat. This was the best ride on Batman of the day for me, and I think my opinion of the ride was boosted significantly because of that ride, for some strange reason.
When we got to Villain, alas they weren't letting anyone on. Why? Well, someone had hurled all over one of the seats, and it was not a pretty sight. The ride ops seemed completely stumped on what to do, so there was a lot of standing around being done. It was at this time that we saw the now-infamous (in my eyes) Haybaler Man, who had just came from Haybaler. I saw the Haybaler Man shirt he was wearing and assumed that it had nothing to do with the flat ride in the park of the same name, but I would be proven wrong, as we overheard him say "I was just over on Haybaler, but they closed it," or something to that extent. You see, apparently Haybaler Man is a legend at Worlds of Adventure, a character who rides the Haybaler more than what one would think humanly possible. I hear he is also fond of Double Loop.
Okay, back to Villain. By this point the ops have just decided to clean the vomit with, of all things, bottled waters! After wasting 5 or 6 $1.00 bottled waters, effectively NOT cleaning the car (a nice chunk stuck to the side), they opened the ride with only a few minutes until closing time. Oh well, fine by me, since we weren't planning on riding in that seat anyway. One thing I must say though, is that I was impressed that they reopened the ride at all, since it would have been very easy just to gone ahead and closed it with the park about to close. At this point things got wild. We were riding with a fellow enthusiast who had been at CoasterMania; I believe his name was Paul. After an insane night ride, we were hoping that maybe we could get a re-ride for one last awesome ride. And, we did! By the time we returned to the station, it was past closing time. But wait, what is this? Three guests were on the platform furiously discussing something with the operators. We had no idea what was going on, and did not care at all, because for some reason they let us go around again! "How crazy is that?" we thought. Not crazy enough, because after returning to the station, they did it AGAIN. I have no idea what was going on, but I believe the guests had lost something on the ride, and the operators had no idea what to do, so they just kept running the train around and telling the people "We can't do anything until we finish running the ride." Whatever it was, after returning to the station again, we got yet ANOTHER ride. After 5 incredible rides in a row into well past park closing time (about 20 minutes past closing time I believe), we joyfully exited the park.
I really don't know what happened at the end of the night on Villain, but I think it was Six Flags employee confusion resulting in something really good for us, and it capped off what was an awesome day at the park, and after that day I had a new third favorite wooden coaster in Villain, only behind Raven and Legend. That ride stunned me like I never would have expected. After all the bad things I had heard about this park, I had a great day with fun rides, decent food, decent employees, and nothing really to complain about. I definitely won't hesitate to go back here if I am in the area.
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/\ Jonathan Hawkins
Starcoasters.com | ThrillSpot
Howard Dean for President!
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