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Upon arriving at the entrance we discovered that the ride was closed and would be open later in the morning. After learning this, we headed back toward Tomb Raider because its line can also get lengthy as the day progresses. A trashcan placed at the line’s entrance and the cave being closed off let us know that Tomb Raider was not open yet either, so at last we headed to The Beast.
I ended up sitting in the second seat of the second car of one of the first rides of the day. The Beast feels a lot smoother to me on recent rides as compared to previous years. It is still very powerful and violent, but not nearly has painful as I used to remember it. After we got off we saw Mr. Siebert greeting some workers at the photo booth. Apparently he had also just ridden, and he spoke with my friends and me for a moment. I am the only “enthusiast” among my friends, so I recognized who he was. He was quite a friendly man.
After the Beast we noticed that Tomb Raider has opened so we hopped in line. We waited one cycle and the ride was okay. I haven’t ridden since 2003, and it was a little different than I remember. The ride vehicle seemed a little jerky on some of its maneuvers, and hanging upside down over the lava pit gave me and all of my friends a bit of a headache.
Next we headed over to Vortex. I’ve always loved Vortex but yesterday the ride just seemed mediocre. I don’t get to take many coastering trips, but last month I visited Hersheypark and I think that maybe a few of the coasters there dampened my opinion of some of my former favorites at PKI. None the less, Vortex was a still a good ride and for such a large Arrow creation, I think it has aged well.
After Vortex we took a spin on Flight of Fear and I had much the same reaction. Normally this ride is one of my favorites but it just seemed a bit lackluster on my visit. Perhaps it was because I sat in the last seat and normally I sit toward the front, but the ride itself seemed a little jerkier than I am used to and the launch didn’t feel as intense. I still enjoyed my ride but something felt like it was missing.
We ate lunch next and then headed over to the Action Zone. We took a spin on Top Gun, a personal favorite of mine. This ride is just really fun from the top of the lift all the way to the brake run. It never lets up and although it is short, it is very fun. I wasn’t disappointed.
One of my friends was feeling quite ill after Top Gun as a result of our lunch and previous rides, so he and I took a break while the others hit up Son of Beast. I wasn’t surprised to hear that it was a painful experience. Next we rode Delirium and Drop Zone, both incredible rides. I just can’t get enough of Delirium. One of my friends liked it as much as I do, so we broke apart from the group for awhile later in the day to ride it a couple more times. Drop Zone still scares me to death every time, but it’s all worth it when the big drop comes, what a rush.
The only ride in the park I was really looking forward to was Italian Job. I didn’t get a chance to ride it in April because it wasn’t open, and then on my visit in May it was super crowded so I opted out. We got in line and we weren’t really sure how long we would have to wait, but it ended up being around 25 minutes. The crew really loads and unloads the trains very quickly and efficiently. They were doing a great job. The ride itself was about what I imagined it would be. The launch was pretty nice, and the rest of the ride was just really fun. I especially enjoyed the tunnel. The only thing I didn’t really understand was where all of the effects were. The speakers inside our cars weren’t even working, and I didn’t notice anything else that was rumored to be installed such as the stairway and fishtail effects. For me personally, this didn’t detract from the ride experience, it was still really fun and deserved a re-ride a little later in the day.
Some of the other rides we took in included the bumper cars, Viking Fury, Face-Off, Adventure Express, The Racer, and a few re-rides on some of our favorites. The day was overcast and it sprinkled lightly a few times, so crowds were fairly minimal most of the time. Our longest wait was for Italian Job and Drop Zone, but they were only around 20-25 minutes. We really enjoyed our visit and there wasn’t much to complain about. The only thing I noticed was the area around Italian Job still looked a little unfinished, there was still a lot of barren ground around the line area. Other than that, everything was top notch as I expected from a park like PKI, and we enjoyed our visit very much.
Thanks for reading.
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