My rockin' Myrtle Beach trip!
Associated parks:
None
Weather: Hot as HELL!
Gonch has the best HRP TR, but I was bored and thought I would throw mine up anyway...;)
Boy they were RIGHT, Myrtle Beach HAS gotten a LOT more congested since I was there in 1990! I got there Friday night and it didn't take long to find a "cheap" motel. I ended up staying at some place about 2 blocks from the old Pavilion site. Talk about heartbreak! It was so sad. I miss the Pavilion! I miss The Attic! I miss that arcade!
Anyway the dude charged me a little over $100 for both F/S, which I thought was a DAMN good deal. I am not fussy. The pool was clean, the room was clean, it was relatively quite, there was hot water, NO bugs, and the bed was actually clean and comfy. I was happy. :) I LOVE cheap rooms as long as I get a shower and get to sleep in a clean, air-conditioned room.
I planned on hitting Family Kingdom that evening but ended up falling asleep. I woke up about 10pm and didn't really want to deal with the SWARMS of people on the strand ( once you've seen one beach shop and high-rise resort you have seen them all) so I got some pizza and just chilled, and fell asleep again. LOL! It was a VERY LONG drive! :)
You know you are getting old when you would rather spend the night in an air-conditioned room alone than try to pick up drunk college guys on the street. LOL! ;)
Saturday I woke up and since there was NO traffic I decided to cruise up and down the strand to see how much had changed. I wasn't TOO impressed but I couldn't help but gawk at everything. I travelled the whole strand before heading off to my main goal......HARD ROCK! I intended on visiting the old Magic Harbour site but got distracted. Maybe next time. :)
When I got to Hard Rock I was immediately in awe. I walked through the gate and just gawked for about 15 minutes. I was like "HELL YEAH! I am HOME!" I didn't have any problems with the lines. Of course I was there early and left about 6pm to hit Family Kingdom, which was not the most pleasant thing in the world. When did THAT place get taken over by wannabe gangster kids? When did everyone become so rude? Why did they have only ONE ticket booth open when the park was PACKED? Why did it take the Swamp Fox ride ops a CENTURY to check the restraints? I should of just stayed at HRP till 1am instead. ;)
Being a HUGE lifelong rocker fanatic I literally had a cheesy smile on my face the whole time I was at Hard Rock.
I thought Led Zepp was more "fun" than "intense" although the sounds of "Whole Lotta Love" blasting in my face had me laughing hysterically. GREAT ride! The music really adds to the coasters that have them. Maximun was playing "Wang Chung" Heheheh. How freakin' cool is that? The whole park tripped me out. I was laughing at EVERYTHING! I hadn't had this much fun at a "rock" thing since The R&R Hall of Fame in Cleveland. :)
Speaking of "tripping" The Moody Blues thing was BY FAR my favorite! I rode it at least 4 times before the swarms of crowds came. It was VERY cool to say the least! I don't know which I liked the best......that or Dark Kastle at BGW. My favorite was the "tunnel" you had to walk through before getting to the actual ride. Who needs drugs when you have THIS? :P I had NO knowledge about this ride beforehand so I was immediately impressed. I was even having "flashbacks" for a few seconds after each ride. It's total sensory overload. In other words the ride freakin ROCKS!
The only food I had were some fries and they weren't that bad. Actually they were pretty good! I did see the Roadies tour as well as the BMX bikers, and a few other things they were doing throughout the park including a very cool jet ski/kite thing. The park was smaller than what I expected, but VERY easy to get around. The funky "props" that were everywhere (some kind of disturbing) was fun to look at as well. It doesn't take much to amuse me. ;)
I didn't get wet riding Slippery When Wet but I didn't EXPECT a whole GUSH of water to come down on me as I was trying to man one of the guns myself. I GOT SOAKED! That was fun as well! A little kid next to me was making fun of my ass. She said "See, I told you so!!"
"Life In The Fast Lane" is a killer little coaster as well, so was Shake, Rattle and Roll. :)
I REALLY had a great time. I was so happy that I stopped by customer relations to fill out a customer comment card, which I NEVER do unless I am REALLY BLOWN AWAY or REALLY TICKED OFF. The lady had that look on her face like I was going to complain but we talked about 40 minutes about how much fun I had as well as various other stuff. She said she gets more complaints than compliments. I said "How on EARTH could someone complain about this park?" The coasters and rides are awesome, the ops are cool, the operations were excellent, and it's just an overall kickass park, plus I LOVE all this music being blasted everywhere!" "It's a GREAT break from hearing your typical theme park music." She said "Well, most people come in here expecting us to be a "Disney" park or a typical theme park. We are a ROCK AND ROLL park!" I said "right on, girlfriend" shook her hand, and left.
They were blasting everything from the Beatles to Duran Duran to Linkin Park and everything in-between.Coasters and rock and roll........what more is there in life? :)
I think most coaster enthusiasts who are looking to ride the coasters and leave will be missing out on the whole experience, especially if they are not into the whole rock thing like I am. You will either LOVE it, or think of it as a place to get credits. If you are going there to credit ho' then I feel sorry for ya. ;) It was WELL worth the $48.50 and I definitely want to go back to see the park at night. I felt like I got my money's worth and THEN some!
When I got back I went to the Family Kingdom and got bored. It was PACKED and I mean PACKED. I did get one ride on Swampy though. I took a few pics, went back to the motel to cool off (I am a wuss when it comes to humidity) and decided to stroll around again. I also walked down to the beach and just spent about 20 minutes staring off in the ocean. I MUCH prefer the beach in the evenings. It's cooler and I don't like swimming in oceans anymore anyway. :)
The only other things on the strip that really interested me was the haunted stuff, but I passed. I didn't wander too far from my motel. Luckily it was right THERE. I used to think the strip was the bomb as a kid. I just wanted to avoid it as much as possible this time. I am not into bars or beach shops anymore. BORING! ;)
I am DEFINITELY getting old. ;)
I did consider getting some more ink but I was too lazy to find the tat place I saw in the phone book. I think I pissed off one lady who was running one of those fake tat places. I was checking out the "artwork" when she came up to me and asked me if I saw anything I liked. I didn't mean to sound rude but I proudly showed off my real tats and said "Honey, I am not interested in the fake s***. I got the real things!"
I think she took it the wrong way. :(
Thanks for reading. It was AWESOME to get away for a weekend!
For anyone who is bored and hard up for entertainment, check out my Hard Rock pics, as well as the few Myrtle Beach pics I took. I took several of the old Pavilion site. Some party animal I am, right? ;)
I know people are going to diss Hard Rock Park and that's fine. All I care about is what I think. ;) I LOVED it, and would gladly throw down another $48.50 in a heartbeat. :)
-Tina
*** Edited 7/26/2008 3:20:35 PM UTC by coasterqueenTRN***
-Patrick
I know what you mean about being too old for stuff. I was just having a discussion about this with a friend. My lazy butt can't be bothered to do much of anything after a long drive. I'm going to Cedar Point in August, and in the old days, I would have just likely slept in my car for a few hours and then gone straight back to the park after a night of partying. Now, I am making SURE I have a decent room booked so I can sleep all night after my journey. LOL No bars or boys for me.
I would love to get on a ride that triggers flashbacks. Bwahahahaha!
The thing is, this park is brand friggin new. I don't think people understand that. HRP will likely get more rides and be an interactive rock experience for people that love coasters as well. Right now, it might not be at that point, but it still sounds like a good time. Plus, ANYWHERE you go is only as good as you make it. I can't see too much better than walking around a clean, new park and not EVER having to hear Vitamin C's "Smile" and then on top of it, riding coasters with kickass music pumped through the speakers.
Can you really HEAR the Zep pretty good when you're riding?
Okay, that's it. Thanks for the great TR! :)
"Look at us spinning out in the madness of a roller coaster" - Dave Matthews Band
I only rode Maximum once, but I heard each car playing a different rock song. ;) The whole merry-go-round thing blew me away. Again, I wasn't expecting that. That first drop was awesome!
-Tina
A day at the park is what you make it!
I'd read some mixed reviews, so I went to the park last Wednesday with some pretty low expectations. However, the park more than exceeded them!
It's a very well-done park...nicely themed with great quality throughout. (My family also loved "Nights in White Satin"...we rode it three times--mostly just to walk thru the tunnel! <g>)
The layout of the park reminds me a lot of IOA. (In fact, if Univeral Orlando ever looks to add a third park, I think an HRP would fit quite nicely there!)
I found customer service to be excellent...from the gate, to ride ops, to retail, to food service, every employee I encountered was friendly and helpful. (Granted, I'm sure it helps that the employee-to-guest ratio was fairly high based on the light attendance.)
One review I read compared HRP to the old "MGM Grand Adventures" park in Vegas--I think that's a very unfair comparison. HRP is considerably better than that. (I'd liken it more to Disney-MGM Studios in its first season...)
I'll definitely go back!
I enjoyed the fact that Hard Rock Park was dead, though. I REALLY felt I had the park "to myself" for several hours. :) That's a GREAT feeling, especially when they are playing your favorite music all over the park and making you feel as welcome as possible. ;)
-Tina
*** Edited 7/29/2008 7:44:36 AM UTC by coasterqueenTRN***
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