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Trip Report 3/29 PKD. We left the house at about 6:00 and headed down to PKD. The traffic was not that bad and we made it there in about and hour and a half (which is a good time seeing that we drove all the way from Germantown, MD) We got there way ahead of out so called “schedule” and we went the 7 Eleven across the street. We got a slurpee and then waited a while. By that time about 3 cars lined up in front of the gate. We headed out of 7 Eleven, and this is were we got lucky. If you take the turn out of 7 Eleven on that other street, not the main street, but if you drive out of that and wait at the stop light in between the entrance and the exit of PKD, turn right. If you turn right there is a small drive way separate from the big one leading from the free-way. We were first in line of the little separate drive way and everyone gave us a blank stare…o well… it felt kind of weird though. By this time it was about 9:30.
We waited about 10 minutes and then all the people that take up your money for parking came to there little shacks and the security guard came up and let us in. We were the first person of the day to park and get tickets. Since this was our first time ever to a Paramount Park, we didn’t know what to except for general admission. We knew there would be insane prices for food and merchandise but we didn’t know anything about admission. We were surprised to find out that if you have a military I.D. card, then you get half price. So that was a big + on PKD’s part and we got in for only 25 bucks because we our military personal! (BGW is free to all military personal though!) By the time all this was done it was about 10:00 and now we had to wait to get in the park…by the end of the day I’m sick of waiting!
10:30 came and then we got into the park and then guess what, more waiting! We came to the Eiffel tower and then they held us back even more, and for another half an hour. The security guard was extremely strict and took his job way to seriously… he thinks he’s a real cop…but I hate to break it to ya, your not!He gave this huge speech before he untied the rope. “YOU WILL NOT RUN IN THIS PARK! Anyone who runs will have a special day at the park with me! I repeat NO ONE WILL RUN. I will take the most direct route to Volcano, and Tomb Raider. If ANY of you go in front of me, you will also have a special day in the park with me!” Turns out that he did actually take us the quickest way to Volcano, but stopping about 200 people on the way only because there were season pass holders in the park and he thought they were running ahead of the line.
He got us quickly to volcano. Thanks to him I was the FIRST non-season pass holder to ride volcano of the day! And what can I say about that ride, WOW, its just I’ve never been shot out of a volcano ‘ey. While I was on volcano my little bro (11 and I’m 17 if you need to know) took a swing at Tomb Raider. He said it was a little jerky but still a great ride. But I only think it was jerky because of the room between his skinny little body and the restraints.
After that we headed to avalanche. Both me and my brothers first ever bobsled. And surprisingly it was very, very fun! After that we headed over to Flight of Fear. Let me tell you, Jokers Jinx in the dark is 5x better then Jokers Jinx in the light! I tricked my brother on, telling him it did no inversions (he is insanely freaked out of inversions) I got him on, lap bar down and latched. Before the launch I said, O and Howie, just a reminder, YOUR GOING UPSIDE DOWN SUCKER! We launched and 10 seconds after the launch he was hooked. So thank me guys I got a new coaster enthusiast in the world on Wednesday. Now he thinks he can ride anything. After that we took 5 more walk-ons. And now it was about 11:20.
Headed towards shockwave. Now, I now that a lot of people have wrote bad reviews about this Togo, and just recently moving from Japan (believe me if you like, many people don’t, my dad is in the military) I know when a Togo is a rough coaster or not. And I have also ridden New York, New York. Let me tell you! Shockwave is one of the smoother Togo’s out there. It’s pretty smooth until that last turn, and overall it could almost get a 6/10 because it’s still a little out dated. By then it was 11:30.
Headed over to Drop Zone and WHOA this is an amazing Intamin Freefall. It was also my first circular Intamin (I’m used to 4 per car Intamin) very smooth and the drop felt like it was never going to end. Later Drop Zone broke down as well as Tomb Raider (about 4 times) and shockwave also broke too.) Wanting to go on XLC we headed over there. XLC look like a small line from Drop Zone, but I was wrong, the lady in front said almost an hour and don’t forget it could break down (she was using lots of sarcasm about it breaking down though). I passed by and too her knowledge she was right, it broke down. Headed towards hurler, 1 train operation and the whole station queue full, NOPE! And also ricochet was a long line headed back to XLC and a lot of people left so I got in line and it started to run again. 30 minutes and I was on. It all went by way to fast!
Anaconda was finally running and had walk-ons. It’s one of smoothest Arrows I have been on. Rebel Yell was 1 train operation on forwards only (no different then American Eagle at SFGAm, if your wondering why I mention SFGAm, it was my very first park). Now my brother was up for Volcano. It was about an 45 minute wait only because they were letting certain people load from the unload station and the whole line was held up…many people left the line and got really frustrated. We finally got on and my little bro went crazy…as in he loved it though! By then it was 1:00 and we headed over the anaconda again. It was a walk-on and this time we got out picture taken…man we look like we were on crack or something.
After then we headed out of the park. Overall Paramount does much better then Six Flags Inc. but six flags still does have one-of a kind coasters (some times that is!) and also Paramount does to…o well I still think Paramount is better, now that I’ve been there.
Overall, 8/10 because of the continuous break downs that happened all over the park. Also, there were not that many thrill rides besides drop zone, Tomb Raider and there Swinging inverter.
Volcano: running smooth and fast line.
Shockwave: Smooth ride until last turn.
FOF: running great also.
XLC: Very fast but a little bumpy at the part before the little bunny hill.
Anaconda: Extremely smooth for an Arrow. *** Edited 4/1/2005 1:14:58 PM UTC by Colin Fisher***
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