Freestyle Music Park

Almost every year my entire family goes to Myrtle Beach for a week, we somehow missed last year. The year prior we went to the Hard Rock Park preview to see what it was going to be all about. Last year Hard Rock was to be open until Christmas, so we decided to go down Thanksgiving weekend, that way we could extend our coaster riding season. Well as you know the park went bellyup in Sept last year. We didn't think we were going to get to ride any of the coasters ever, so when Freestyle took over we decided to make a trip this year.

We bought season passes and got there this past Saturday. The park is still almost a ghost town. We never waited more than a few mins for anything, it got a little more crowded at night when the beach bums came over, but still not a huge crowd.

I was at 295 coasters on my "list", so these 5 finally got me to the big 300. I was very happy to get there!

We went over to the Iron Horse mine ride first. Devil Goes Down to GA was the song of choice for this coaster. The ride wasn't much, but it actually grew on me throughout our week this week. Its not thrilling, but its fun.

We stayed on for about 3 or 4 re rides on a Sat at opening time, then moved on to Hang Ten, the Jr. steel coaster. I am guessing its a Vekoma, decent little ride, does what it needs to do for the park.

Next we went over to the Soaked coaster, its just a coaster credit, these things annoy the heck out of me. Low capacity (only ran 2 cars), long waits, dumb ride... I have been on 3 or 4 of these thnigs over the years and don't like any of them.

We took a moment to do the little rope climbing thing they had, I had not seen anything like it in a park before, it was interesting.

Now I was deciding on what coaster to be my 300th, Round About or time Machine. I thought about Round About because it was unique, but decided on Time Machine because it has a traditional lift hill. So Round About was next to ride. Its a very interesting concept and probably Premier's smoothest ride, but its just kind of boring, the circle lift thing is a gimmick and its not even a good one... The ride is very short, I think you get maybe two lines of a lyric in there when riding once you drop. Huge waste of money on that ride if you ask me.

Finally onto Time Machine. I love B&M rides, but this one is rather tame and frustrating. The brake before the zero G roll takes ALL the forces away. Its just a rather slow and boring design, I guess they didn't have a lot of money to sink into a great B&M at the time. Its the best coaster in the park, but that doesn't say a lot... It will always be special to me because it was my 300th coaster though. And I have to admit I love the music playing while riding and it has different decades of music to hear, depending on what door you went through while entering the station. 60s - 00s.

One of the best things the park offers is the ball blasting room. I think we spend about 2 hours in there over the last 3 visits to the park, you just can't get enough of blasting foam balls off of somebody's head as they walk under your gun!

The former Knights in White Saten ride was redone slightly to the Monsters of Rock. It was pretty silly, not much to it. I felt like I was riding an updated Mr Toads Wild Ride from the Magic Kingdom. Just lots of silly painted wood props. The funny thing is we had to ride it twice. The first time it broke down and we had to walk out it, then we went to the ball blasting area for a bit and went back to get another ride, that time we got all the way through it.

We also saw Adrenaline Rush, a skate and bike stunt show, wasn't bad, but looked random with no real structure to it, it was to be a competition show, but didn't come across that way.

We also rode all the flats during the week at some point, again, nothing to write home about. I will say the food is a good deal at the park. They have many specials going on, such as a 6.99 combo for burger, drink and fries. Or a pizza and drink combo for the same price. There are a few more like that throughout the park. Merchandise was also reasonable. And with a lot of parks you get discounts with a season pass, they also give passholders free parking.

The park is rather small, but most upstart parks are and they add new areas over the years. I am VERY glad someone came in and saved this park, I just hope they can make a "go" of it, the crowds this week are VERY light. We have been three times and will go one more before going home. We spend about 3 hours each visit. Thats about all you need there.

Oh, I almost forgot to mention, the nightly fireworks are very good. Its around the center lake and is themed to music. Its done very well.

On a side note, we went to the Nascar Speedway go cart park yesterday for some go cart rides. First off, the Nascar Cafe itself is no longer there, closed and changed into something else. The go cart park is still there and in the far side of the parking lot is the old Pavilion arrow Wild Mouse. Its in pieces in a field, the entire thing. I do not think its going to be rebuilt there, I think its just in storage, we saw some of the old flat rides stored on other properties throughout the city.

It really is completely strange that so much effort was put into that Ferris wheel lift and the rest of the ride was made to just meander around. I think Premier Rides is certainly capable of doing fun and compact rides (I actually like the Italian Job rides).

I agree, some of Premier rides are decent, I have always been a fan of FOF at KD and KI and the Backlot Stunt coasters (dumb name) are fun, they are decent for a park that has another major launch coaster, but if Italian Job was the only launched coaster at a park, it may seem weak... I guess Wonderland is in that situation.

Anyway, yeah, a lot of money was dumped into that wheel lift, it is interesting, but doesn't add any thrill to the ride. I kind of doubt we will see anymore of that style done.

Danny Biggerstaff CoAsTeRDaN said:
We have been three times and will go one more before going home. We spend about 3 hours each visit. Thats about all you need there.

If you're going back 4 times, I'd say you're needing more than 3 hours. :)

Anyway, yeah, a lot of money was dumped into that wheel lift, it is interesting, but doesn't add any thrill to the ride.

I'd disagree on that. I found the wheel to be somewhat unnerving and pretty much the thrill in riding the coaster (along with a solid first drop).

Since I won't have time before heading out on Friday, my QUICK take on the park...

Soak'd? Almost completely dry, but that's why we sat facing backwards...the people in front looked only *slightly* wetter.

Hang Ten - it is what it claims to be, a Rollerskater.

Roundabout - the lift WAS the thrill. First drop was OK, and the "car wash" was a kind of quirky fun addition.

Iron Horse - surprise of the park. Really solid little ride, and we took our last re-ride there instead of the B&M.

On to the B&M - My home parks have lots of B&Ms, and move literally millions of people on and off the rides. This thing had 6-7 minute dispatches...at 32/clip, that's about 300pph. It was another "meh, OK" type of B&M sit-down. The station was awesome-looking, I'll bet last year it was a pretty cool wait. Now, there were some videos to watch during the interminable wait....for a ride that wasn't anything special in the first place. Half-hour waits with about a hundred people in line..intolerable.

Mon-Stars of Rock? You've heard my diatribe already... ;)

Overall, we spent almost 3 hours there, in one day, and I won't be going back without a really good reason (FK announcing a new ride perhaps, LOL). On to the pics: http://www.flickr.com/photos/rollergator/sets/72157621857108867/

No, you really don't need more than 3 or 4 hours. We bought season passes, so we are getting our moneys worth. You can complete everything in a few hours and be very satisfied. Plus, when I am on any kind of vacation, I want coasters at my access. haha

As far as the wheel goes, I am sure it has different affects on different people, didn't give me the smallest thrill though.

Agreed with Jeff on Premier.

The 3 coasters that they made that I have been on were all fun IMO.

FOF, Italian Job, and especially Mr. Freeze.

This one at Freestyle just has that "meh" look to it.