Joint TR - A day to remember at BGT
Associated parks:
None
2/17/02
After a late night full of riding the Hurricane, we departed to our respective places for the night. In the morning we met at Jon’s house around 8:30 and began our pilgrimage back across the state to BGT. As you know, we were entertained for a good portion of our 4 hour journey by writing our trip report from the previous night (see here). And now we’re writing this second joint trip report from Jon’s lovely hotel room sporting a great view of Gwazi from the balcony.
We arrived after weeks of anticipation at BGT around 1:30 (hey, it was a late night of coasting for us sleep-deprived teens!). We had half an hour before meeting fellow buzzer “Atlantis104” at Kumba; so we headed on over to Montu to get our energy flowing. We opted for the second row on this B and M masterpiece. What a wake up call it turned out to be! This excellent first lap on Montu was only a precursor to the extraordinary day to come. We know had to double-time it over to Kumba to meet Joey. Now would be a good time to express our feelings on the layout of this park. We would describe the jumbled and dead-ended midways as more of a giant maze rather than the simple paths we are accustomed to.
After numerous “its this way” “no its this way” type conversations, we arrived at Kumba just a little bit late. Luckily, Joey was patiently awaiting us, and escorted us onto our first lap on Kumba of the day. As many of you may have read Kara’s previous TR, it was obvious Kumba was not running up to par for her before. To those of you concerned (Josh!), her mindset has changed after receiving a “smooth as glass” run on Kumba. Whether it was new wheels or the drastic change in weather, Kumba was running exceptionally well. Unfortunately, we had made previous arrangements to meet our parents at Rhino Rally, so we had to run off. But fear not, that is not the last of our encounters with our fellow buzzer….we’d meet up again later. After seeing Rhino Rally’s 90 minute wait time, we decided to put it off until later that day. Off to Gwazi.
From a distance, we spotted both sides running and jumped in excitement…Kara would get her credit on Lion. Unfortunately, we knew that there was little chance of getting a dueling ride. We hopped in the queue for about a 20 minute wait, which with CF operations could’ve been a 2 minute wait; stupid loading procedures. While in the turnstiles, we decided that we just had to get them to duel. Kara made a makeshift sign out of a tissue with the plea “DUEL PLEASE” and displayed it forcefully in the faces of the ride ops while going through the seemingly endless loading procedure while in the train. We could see that something was up; the crew was on their phones to the ops up in the control booth. On the final lap bar check a crewmember informed us that there was no need for the sign anymore, that the call had been made…Gwazi was about to duel. While we were freaking out, heads in the station turned and marveled at the beautiful, yet rare, sight of two trains being dispatched simultainiously. Our backseat dueling ride turned out to be spectacular. With the excitement still flowing through our blood, we made our way back to the “mighty magnificent Mabillard Montu.”
We met up with Joey again, and took a spin on Montu. Despite the long wait for the front, we decided to do it; seeing as how it would be ample opportunity to just talk coasters. It turned out to be an amazing ride, which we all enjoyed immensely (duh!). In the mood for some “Anton action” we set off for Scorpion. Unfortunately, the line was ridiculously long – about 30 minutes. We decided now would be a good time to give Rhino Rally a try…we were determined to get a ride on this regardless of the wait. We met up with our parents, and began our hour-long journey through the queue. This is one of those times when having three teen enthusiasts, each with their own stories to tell, helps like nothing else to pass the time. Before we knew it, we were sitting in the Land Rover ready to depart. Well, we certainly saw our fair share of Rhino’s on our trek. One to be exact. However, if you had seen this Rhino, doing what this rhino was doing, you would not want to see another rhino again. Let’s just say, if the ride was not created to cross a river at this point, things had changed. Moving on… We entered the river portion of the journey, with the pontoon bridge acting as a raft. We were especially interested in the Vekoma track (right Joey?). Overall, the ride was fun..but not great. Nevertheless, we were glad we did it. With an hour left, we decided to get the most out of our evening, coasting away the rest. We decided the best thing to do was to get one last lap on both Kumba and Montu before the park closed. First up was Kumba. We took a nice sunset ride in the second row. With all attempts for a re-ride failing, we left for Montu. We ended up waiting a total of about 40 minutes, getting the last ride of the night in the back row. Not only was this last lap an emotional one (it would be Kara’s last coaster for 3 months), but it was also quite possibly the greatest run of the entire weekend. The combination of the back seat speed with the darkness of the night provided a truly amazing ride. If one has to say goodbye to coasters for awhile, this was the way to do it. After departing with Joey, who was off to Orlando that night (Kara hates you btw…) we went across the street to Pizza Hut, where we dined under the lights of Montu.
Now here we are, sitting in the hotel room…Gwazi in what seems like reaching distance away. It’s quarter to eleven, and Kara has to catch a 7 am flight back to Muskegon in the morning. Thanks to CoasterBuzz, FloridaCoasterRider and ST Chick had a weekend never to forget, not to mention a great friendship that will last well beyond this rendezvous.
After a late night full of riding the Hurricane, we departed to our respective places for the night. In the morning we met at Jon’s house around 8:30 and began our pilgrimage back across the state to BGT. As you know, we were entertained for a good portion of our 4 hour journey by writing our trip report from the previous night (see here). And now we’re writing this second joint trip report from Jon’s lovely hotel room sporting a great view of Gwazi from the balcony.
We arrived after weeks of anticipation at BGT around 1:30 (hey, it was a late night of coasting for us sleep-deprived teens!). We had half an hour before meeting fellow buzzer “Atlantis104” at Kumba; so we headed on over to Montu to get our energy flowing. We opted for the second row on this B and M masterpiece. What a wake up call it turned out to be! This excellent first lap on Montu was only a precursor to the extraordinary day to come. We know had to double-time it over to Kumba to meet Joey. Now would be a good time to express our feelings on the layout of this park. We would describe the jumbled and dead-ended midways as more of a giant maze rather than the simple paths we are accustomed to.
After numerous “its this way” “no its this way” type conversations, we arrived at Kumba just a little bit late. Luckily, Joey was patiently awaiting us, and escorted us onto our first lap on Kumba of the day. As many of you may have read Kara’s previous TR, it was obvious Kumba was not running up to par for her before. To those of you concerned (Josh!), her mindset has changed after receiving a “smooth as glass” run on Kumba. Whether it was new wheels or the drastic change in weather, Kumba was running exceptionally well. Unfortunately, we had made previous arrangements to meet our parents at Rhino Rally, so we had to run off. But fear not, that is not the last of our encounters with our fellow buzzer….we’d meet up again later. After seeing Rhino Rally’s 90 minute wait time, we decided to put it off until later that day. Off to Gwazi.
From a distance, we spotted both sides running and jumped in excitement…Kara would get her credit on Lion. Unfortunately, we knew that there was little chance of getting a dueling ride. We hopped in the queue for about a 20 minute wait, which with CF operations could’ve been a 2 minute wait; stupid loading procedures. While in the turnstiles, we decided that we just had to get them to duel. Kara made a makeshift sign out of a tissue with the plea “DUEL PLEASE” and displayed it forcefully in the faces of the ride ops while going through the seemingly endless loading procedure while in the train. We could see that something was up; the crew was on their phones to the ops up in the control booth. On the final lap bar check a crewmember informed us that there was no need for the sign anymore, that the call had been made…Gwazi was about to duel. While we were freaking out, heads in the station turned and marveled at the beautiful, yet rare, sight of two trains being dispatched simultainiously. Our backseat dueling ride turned out to be spectacular. With the excitement still flowing through our blood, we made our way back to the “mighty magnificent Mabillard Montu.”
We met up with Joey again, and took a spin on Montu. Despite the long wait for the front, we decided to do it; seeing as how it would be ample opportunity to just talk coasters. It turned out to be an amazing ride, which we all enjoyed immensely (duh!). In the mood for some “Anton action” we set off for Scorpion. Unfortunately, the line was ridiculously long – about 30 minutes. We decided now would be a good time to give Rhino Rally a try…we were determined to get a ride on this regardless of the wait. We met up with our parents, and began our hour-long journey through the queue. This is one of those times when having three teen enthusiasts, each with their own stories to tell, helps like nothing else to pass the time. Before we knew it, we were sitting in the Land Rover ready to depart. Well, we certainly saw our fair share of Rhino’s on our trek. One to be exact. However, if you had seen this Rhino, doing what this rhino was doing, you would not want to see another rhino again. Let’s just say, if the ride was not created to cross a river at this point, things had changed. Moving on… We entered the river portion of the journey, with the pontoon bridge acting as a raft. We were especially interested in the Vekoma track (right Joey?). Overall, the ride was fun..but not great. Nevertheless, we were glad we did it. With an hour left, we decided to get the most out of our evening, coasting away the rest. We decided the best thing to do was to get one last lap on both Kumba and Montu before the park closed. First up was Kumba. We took a nice sunset ride in the second row. With all attempts for a re-ride failing, we left for Montu. We ended up waiting a total of about 40 minutes, getting the last ride of the night in the back row. Not only was this last lap an emotional one (it would be Kara’s last coaster for 3 months), but it was also quite possibly the greatest run of the entire weekend. The combination of the back seat speed with the darkness of the night provided a truly amazing ride. If one has to say goodbye to coasters for awhile, this was the way to do it. After departing with Joey, who was off to Orlando that night (Kara hates you btw…) we went across the street to Pizza Hut, where we dined under the lights of Montu.
Now here we are, sitting in the hotel room…Gwazi in what seems like reaching distance away. It’s quarter to eleven, and Kara has to catch a 7 am flight back to Muskegon in the morning. Thanks to CoasterBuzz, FloridaCoasterRider and ST Chick had a weekend never to forget, not to mention a great friendship that will last well beyond this rendezvous.
*** This post was edited by ST chick on 2/18/2002. ***
Wow, another amazing day we had.... In all honesty, the day would have been incredible just hangin' out with you, but riding Montu and Kumba, and getting Gwazi to duel with you, well, that was truly unbeatable. Thanks again for an incredible weekend, and I look forward to many many more to come!
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-FCR (Jon)
I'd Rather Be Riding Roller Coasters
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-FCR (Jon)
I'd Rather Be Riding Roller Coasters
*** This post was edited by FloridaCoasterRider on 2/18/2002. ***
Jon, I had SO much fun! The coasters and the company was just amazing. Oh, I tried to steal that Gwazi poster for you, but got caught ;). You'd better come ride Timbers this summer!! Oh...and you have to see the video our moms did of them "riding Gwazi." I'll never forget the dueling thing :).
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Kara
403 Laps
What About Python?
Was it open/Did you ride it?
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Out of the coasters i've ridden here is wat i rank them overall:(ive been to canobie lake and SFNE)
1. S:RoS 2. Yankee Cannonball 3. Riverside Cyclone 4. Canobie Corkscrew 5. Thunderbolt 6. Galaxy 7. Mind Eraser 8. Dragon coaster 9. poison ivy's tangled
Was it open/Did you ride it?
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Out of the coasters i've ridden here is wat i rank them overall:(ive been to canobie lake and SFNE)
1. S:RoS 2. Yankee Cannonball 3. Riverside Cyclone 4. Canobie Corkscrew 5. Thunderbolt 6. Galaxy 7. Mind Eraser 8. Dragon coaster 9. poison ivy's tangled
To be honest, we just never made it over to it. It was a fairly busy day at the park, and the we had all ridden it before, so we just decided to stick to the B&M's for the most part. The TR pretty much accounts for the entire day, so we definetely squeezed in as much as we could!
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-FCR
I'd Rather Be Riding Roller Coasters
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-FCR
I'd Rather Be Riding Roller Coasters
I don't get it! I brought a stack of paper and a Sharpie to SFGAdv to make demand signs, and they didn't listen to me at all! I ended up making an "I <3 MY MOM" sign and holding it up from the front seat of Roadrunner Railway! How do you do it???
Again, sounds like just another stellar day of coasting...I wait with impatient anticipation. Thanks for letting us deprived children live vicariously through you lucky, lucky people.
And by the way, I'm currently fighting an internal battle as to whether or not I really want more details about that lone rhino...
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The Luv Monkey has spoken...
Track Record: 29 and counting...
Drachen Fire [1990-2002] "One soul is lost...too much, too late..."
MikeMir87, she rode it on her first BGT day. ONCE! And she says she likes Arrow! :P
Kara you have a great series of TRs! And what a fun and creative style of writing too! Very emotional....*sniff*...it's always tough to end a memorable day. And remind me to skip Rhino Rally! Can I borrow your duel sign? :) After meeting the man behind Gwazi's amazing model, I need to ride the real thing!
Brad Sherman, who is happy nonetheless at his lone coaster trip of the winter to Forest Fair Mall in Cincy!
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Don't.....look.....back! The Headless Horseman awaits you in 2002!
Model coasters and rides
Brad...who else has an Arrow shirt, nonetheless dressed as an Arrow engineer for halloween?!? Give me some slack here...I have the same thing 10 minutes away!
I don't care what people say, the Gwazi crew rocks just because they dueled it for us :).
Oh, but Brad - Timbers will always be in your heart...meeting the model maker or not...RIGHT;)?
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Kara
403 Laps
I cant beleive you only got that many runs in on Kumba and Montu! i was there on this very date last year and got 7 runs in a row on kumba( a total of 14 laps) and 6 total rides on Montu! I guess i need to make a makeshift sign next time I go to make the ops duel it for me!
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No Limits is every enthusiasts best friend! :)
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No Limits is every enthusiasts best friend! :)
Well I had a lot of fun at BGT. It was nice to finally meet another buzzer. Yes the river part of Rhino Rally is Vekoma track. And I had a lot of fun the next day in Orlando I only got to sea world (Oh well the Hulk will have to wait till friday.) I got 12 rides on kraken in about two hours, thanks to rerides. The park was pretty busy but they were running two trains on Kraken so it was all good.
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Joey Ciborek, Florida Coaster Club, Member
www.FloridaCoasterClub.com
"WE RIDE ALL YEAR!"
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Joey Ciborek, Florida Coaster Club, Member
www.FloridaCoasterClub.com
"WE RIDE ALL YEAR!"
Hey Joey, what is this...your TR;)? I thought of a new one- FLCC: We ride crap wood (except hurricane) all year!
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Kara
403 Laps
I guess it is. At least I can ride all year. ;)
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Joey Ciborek, Florida Coaster Club, Member
www.FloridaCoasterClub.com
"WE RIDE ALL YEAR!"
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Joey Ciborek, Florida Coaster Club, Member
www.FloridaCoasterClub.com
"WE RIDE ALL YEAR!"
What hotel was that? Best Western Near USF Behind Busch Gardens All Suites Hotel? (Can't get a longer name than that, can you?)
When I was there I should have asked the ops to duel Gwazi when I was there. I'm sure they would have, Tiger side wouldn't fill up the single train they filled (for some reason they had 2 train operation, but only filled one, both sides.), and Lion had plenty of standing room in the station. Oh well, maybe next time I get there... in 40 or so years.
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I have no signature.
It was the Baymont Inn & Suites right next to the park. As Kara mentioned, the lobby had the sweetest Gwazi poster ever, hanging right there... We were so tempted to grab it and run!!!
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-FCR
I'd Rather Be Riding Roller Coasters
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-FCR
I'd Rather Be Riding Roller Coasters
I didn't even notice a Baymont by the park. I missed the Gwazi poster, too, but the Best Western had a sweet not-quite-poster-not-quite-bilboard of all of BGT. I would have liked to take it, but it was kind of mounted about 12 feet above the floor. I could have taken one of the "Busch Gardens Prefered Hotels" plaques they had. I wanted to and give it to my uncle for his hotel, but his hotel isn't a Best Western, so I decided to stay out of trouble and leave it.
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I have no signature.
yeah...ok, this is all well and good kids...but tell me the important part of the trip....
which train won the duel??? Tiger right? :)
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I've just seen the future...what was I saying?
You think Jon and I would let our train LOSE? Absolutely not...Lion won:)!
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Kara
403 Laps
Hey Kara, my baby may be a *little* rough, but "crap wood". That's a bit strong...LOL. Really, upon opening Tiger was fantastic, intense, and pretty smooth. It has "deteriorated". Lion, on the other hand, I still feel is pretty good in comparison, even if a bit tamer.
But, if there's one woodie I WANT to ride ALL year, it is, in fact, DBH! If they'd let me theme that sucker, it would be "off the hook" as the kids say...;)
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