Associated parks:
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Wed August 6th – Cedar PointThis trip was just to try to get my 7th lap on Top Thrill Dragster. I was 1 train away when it broke down for about an hour. The lucky people on the train in front of me got to rollback at least twice if I remember right. Anyway, awesome as usual. Now my second favorite ride behind Maggie and definitely the best 15 seconds on any coaster anywhere.
Thursday August 7th - 500 mile drive to home town in Southern Illinois.
Friday August 8th – Holiday World. Arrived at 11. Stayed until 8. Great day at the park. Highlights:Legend – This is a great ride. My number 2 woodie behind Shivering Timbers. The turns are crazy and the speed is constant. Raven – Good ride. Again, great speed. But, I have always found this coaster to be a little too short. Not as much airtime as I remembered. Liberty Launch – This ride was fun. But the wait was too long. I don’t like drop towers all that much and 30 minutes is too long for me to wait. But, it does give some great air time. Zinga – I really liked this ride. Only got 1 ride as the wait was an hour. I was a little disappointed that only 2 adults could go per tube though. The big purple toilet bowl looks really cool and is a lot of fun to spin a round in. We hit most of the rides in the park and had a great time as mentioned before. The free drinks and sunscreen were greatly appreciated by all.
Saturday – August 9th and Sunday August 10th – 15 hour drive to Kissimee Florida where my brother in law owns a vacation property. The place was great and the trip was not that bad as I had my gameboy advance and my little niece to keep me busy.
Monday August 11th – MGM Studios. This was my first trip to this park and I was impressed. The whole family had a great time. The shows were good for the most part and there were some great rides. Fastpass is great. Tower of Terror – 2 rides. This ride was pretty cool. Not all that scary but great themeing and it was super fun to watch my father in law almost wet himself on the ride. Rockin Roller Coaster – 2 rides. Again, this ride was a lot of fun. The launch was cool. Nothing compared to Dragster of course – but still cool. The music during the ride really added to the experience. I am a huge Aerosmith fan and I sang along on both rides. Again, most of the fun for me was watching and listening to my family’s reactions. My father in law was scared to death. My mother in law and sister in law couldn’t stop laughing and are planning a trip to our house and our park (Cedar Point) next year. Star Tours – This ride was probably super cool when it was built. I still enjoyed it but it is very outdated now. An overhaul to this ride would be very welcome.
Tuesday Aug. 12th – Old Town. This place is not very impressive. I rode both of their coasters. The Windstorm was really lame and seemed to be falling apart. There were chunks of the foam from the restraints laying in the floor of the car I was on. I rode the Dragon Wagon with my 1.5 year old niece as it was her first coaster and my first Dragon Wagon. She loved it and the operator gave us 10 laps so it was cool. I am just waiting for her to get taller now. The highlight of this day was my ride on the Slingshot. This ride was a lot of fun. Noone would go with me but I still thought it was great. The 25$ price tag was a little high but this is one of the coolest things I have done. Not really any better than Dragster though.
Wed. August 13th – Animal Kingdom. This park is not the best. The hours of 9 –6 are ridiculous but I guess that I understand them since there is nothing to do here. The shows were mostly lackluster – although the Lion King show was very good. The animals were not any more impressive than those I can see at the Zoo in my hometown of Toledo. And the rides… Well, there just aren’t very many. The two main ones are… Dinosaur – This ride takes you back in time to meet the Dinosaurs. There are Dino’s all around and meteors showering at you. Sounds scary. But it really isn’t. Not that impressed. Primevil whirl – This was my first Spinning Mouse coaster. First off the theming is pathetic. This ride should be at a Six Flags not at a Disney Park. And the ride itself was very slow with much less spinning than I expected there to be. Not as good as most regular mouse coasters I have been on.
Thursday August 14th – Lots of rain, little activity.
Friday August 15th – Rest Day. Tried to do a waterpark but got rained out. Ate a lot of seafood. Got sick.
Saturday August 16th – Big Day. Epcot and Magic Kingdom in one day. At 9 we entered Epcot and raced to Mission Space. We were on in 15 minutes. This ride is neat. But it will not revive Disney’s attendance. It is certainly not mind blowing. The jobs you have to perform are really easy and the effects are less than stellar. The theming is great however, and there are lots of positive g’s during the ride. There is also a short weightless period. Overall it was cool but not a must ride. Not as good as spiderman. Test track – 20 minute wait. The ride was shorter than I expected. Again, neat with a lot of good theming. Pretty exciting but certainly not super thrilling. After these rides we walked around the world showcase and made it to Magic Kingdom by 12:30. This park has super theming. It is by far the best theme park I have been to. WE hit all of the kiddy rides for my little niece and I enjoyed most of them. Peter Pan and Pirates of the Carribean were especially good. As for the major rides…Thunder Mountain – 2 rides. Not the fastested or scariest coaster but a lot of fun with the family.Space Mountation – 2 rides. I love this ride. The space theming is great and all the twists and turns and drops in the dark is super fun.Splash Mountain – 1 ride. This is one long ride. You don’t get soaked but the theming is great and the drops are fun. Overall, I enjoyed my time in Orlando. Disney is a great family park. I loved the fastpass system. I probably won’t be going back for another 4 or 5 years though as they need a few more big rides especially in Animal Kingdom – which we know has one coming. So, now I am sitting back in Illinois. I will be heading to WOF in 2 days and I will update this report then.
*** This post was edited by DBMjrider1 8/19/2003 11:41:39 AM ***
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