PKD-5/10/03

After my wonderful lunch at the wonderful Welcome Back Diner, I headed the grueling 5 miles north to PKD. There had been lots of thunder and lightning, but that had just stopped, and the parking lot was super crowded. After filling out the dummy sheet because I forgot my pass, I headed straight to Rebel Yell to meet RCTfan. He wasn't there yet so I rode it backwards. Fun little ride, good air on the first and middle drops. Wonderful family coaster.

I thin put new batteries in my Camera, and finally found RCTfan. We headed for Grizzly, and then saw that there was a 45 minute wait, so decided to run back to my house so he could see the progress on my backyard coaster.

It then started to rain again, so in fear that there would be a thunderstorm rushed back to the park, and got some simply awesome rides in on Grizzly in the rain, before the emergency brake failed, and it was closed for a couple of hours. So we then headed over to Hurler, not my favorite ride, but still a fun coaster, with great air on the first 4 hills. It was still slow in the end section, though. We went back to see if Griz was open yet, but it was still closed, so we rode Rebel Yell frontwards, and were surprised by the air on the 1st drop. Totally ejector seat. If only all the hills were like that.

Then we wanted some steel, so we headed to Volcano, but that had a 1 hour wait, so we went to Anaconda. Everyone gets down on Arrow coasters, but Anaconda is in my view better than most B&M sitdowns. It actually has laterals and a air. And wow those corks!

FoF had a long line too, so we were gonna get some food, but RCTfan's glasses broke, so we searched out a screwdriver to fix them. Then more light rain, so we were back to Griz. Still down, so we lrode a couple of other rides. Then at like 7:45, Griz opened, and it turned out that they had not only fixed the E-brake, but greased the track. SCORE!!! We rode it on into the night, and I got a video with my camera of a nightride(sorry about the horrible pun) on it. Then we just rode it some more. That coaster is just such a wonderful ride. I don't have anything negative to say about it. The ride ops even let us have the lapbars up one click. Totally cool.

I was getting a headache, so we went over to the Flyers, and thankfully a cool rideop was there who let us snap them. I am really getting good at snapping the flyers, and RCTfan is *learning*.

So it was 9:45, and we decided (again) to get the last rides on Grizzly. What can I say? I had one ride where the rideop let me have almost 1 foot between me and the lapbar, and I really felt like I was on Phoenix! The air was so extreme!!! And the combo of air and laterals it gives in some places put me on top of the seat divider, and that hurt!!! But overall, it was a great day(albeit short).

As of 45 monutes ago,

Anaconda- 8/10

Hurler- 8/10

Rebel Yell- 8/10

Grizzly- 10/10

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I am not going back to Cedar Point until they throw Mean Streak's brakes into lake Erie. There should be a law against killing coasters like Cedar Fair does.

No ride on Drop Zone? I was just wondering about the average wait time....going on Saturday to try it out! The PPH has got to be pretty high, so I am guessing the line moves along at a good rate. I will just have to see for myself won't I! :)

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I am SO ready to ride!

hey Lorrie, I'm going Saturday as well. I hope the winds aren't strong because if they are, they'll shut down DZ. I hope its not raining also, a storm or two is coming around that time. By the way, what part of NC are you in? I'm in Rocky Mount.

I was there at 10am. Drop Zone never opened, Volcano was down all morning and Hypersonic had it's usual problems. Considering the day weather-wise though, it's didn't go too bad.

Nice TR. :)

Gotta agree with you about Anaconda - it's a great looper. In my opinion it's underated - especially for an arrow.

You guys missed a cool DZ preview on NBC4's 4 PM newcast today.

They gave an overall summary of the park including some on board shots of DZ & tomorrow they're doing a review for SFA,so if anyone's interested & lives in the DC metro area be sure not to miss their 4PM newscast.

Come july 19th I'll be down at PKD getting my first rides on DZ & I can hardly wait,the only thing I'm not thrilled about is the cost,it's getting expensive these days at $42 bucks a ticket.

Yeah, Drop Zone was down all day incase of a storm. The little rain that we did get provided some excellent runs on Grizzly. Eventually it was shut down for awhile, but it was open enough for Nightride and I to score 20 laps on it! Closer to the front, the better.

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Free Falls on Drop Zone: 5!
Batwing Flights: 7!
Superman: Ride of Steel Airtime-age: 10!

Hey Htown.....I was born and raised in Rocky Mount. What a coincidence. :) Hope you have a great time Saturday at PKD.

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I am SO ready to ride!

Lol, I only live 10 minutes away, so I might be there this Saturday, and if I am, you can always find me on Grizzly the last half hour before closing.

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I am not going back to Cedar Point until they throw Mean Streak's brakes into lake Erie. There should be a law against killing coasters like Cedar Fair does.

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nightride said:
Lol, I only live 10 minutes away, so I might be there this Saturday, and if I am, you can always find me on Grizzly the last half hour before closing.

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Why is that? Why not do Volcano or DROP ZONE!

Well mainly because they are nowhere near as good rides!

And I can do a great Volcano or DZ ride anytime in the day, but Grizzly is only that awesome later in the day, after it has warmed up.

And, I would much rather have a good 20 rodes of extreme air, laterals, and rerides without getting off, more than 2 or 3 short tame rides on Volcano.

Well, sometimes I get off Griz and do DZ once so I don't get a headache.

To answer your question simply, because Grizzly in my opinion is the best ride there by miles at night.

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I hate it when "cooaster enthusiasts" put down coasters. Why can't we just have fun on all of them?

Oh, someone asked about wait time on DZ. Ususally like 5-15 minutes, but the whole que runs through in like 20 minutes, so you will not have any problem. The problem there is HSXLC and Volcano wait wise, because of low capacity.

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I hate it when "cooaster enthusiasts" put down coasters. Why can't we just have fun on all of them?