PKD,and SFA trip (very long)

It started out to be planed out as a week long vaction including BGW,PKD,SFA, and V.A beach,but after visiting PKD on june,25,2002 on a tuesday morning after spending the night at a ramda inn in fredricksburg,it changed! when we got to the park it was already 1hr after they opened ,and the parking lot was no where near filled. It was set to be a code red heat alert for the day, great! by 11am it was already about 90degs ,by the time I was inine for volcano and by 11:30 it seemed to be over the mid 90's with the humdity over 100 literaly. Vocano had a great launch we watied about 40mins for it that being the longest wait of the day after shooting out the volcano the ride just lacked so much ,It was an ok ride,but it dident excite me too much,great launch ,but you would think they could have done so much more with it. After that we headed over tord avalanche (how you spellthat?) that had no wait,and by then it was really starting to heat up,by then I relizedthatPKD was ending up to be, a very high priced park, a water cost $2.75,and a midway game was $5! Avalanche was a fine ride, preety exciting and longer then volcano.After that section ofthe park most of my partywanted to hit the waterpark becuase it was so hot out.

I rodehe shockwave, Itwas an ok ride, after waiting 15mins for our seats they took so long to load the train,the only complait was that the ride hurt my rips,but the bike seat was more comfy then the one on Mantis at Cedarpoint. After Shockwave I was left alone to venture the park as I was ditched!

I then headed over tord The outer limits and took a quick spin on Anaconda. I got in the middel seat somwhere hopein to have a quick and terbulent ride ,but after the brake run the ride lacked so much speed, it was just pulling trou the rest of the ride.by the way this ride was walkon. Then Iwent to flight of fear, I was xspectina line,but all Idid was wait for my seat. I hoped in the back seat, and dident find this ride too exciting, it was fun thou,but the brake run took all the speed leaving me to wonder why its still on after the removal of the harnest? it wasent too dark in the building either.

I then decided to take a lunch break,and got french fries and chicken fingers, the food was ice cold and i asked them to make me a fresh patch, while waiting 5mins i met some kid and PKD was his park, and he seemed to know alot about it,so we ate lunch together and then rode FOF again,but in the front seat,and it was so much more of a better ride. Then he rminded me of the other wooden coasters that the park offers,so we went to ride rebel yell, i took the backwards side and that was enough for me, it was a really nice ride with no wait just not re-rideable. Then we rode there wildmouse coaster which did nothing for me,but was preety fun.The onto Hurler This ride was also walk-on and i started to relize that the heat was keeping people out the park or making them drop like flies after seeing many people being taken away on streachers due to heat exsation.Hurler was an ok ride some good pops of air time here and there, but then I was promised somthing better which was the grizzly, after finding the hidden queue entrance thanks to my new freind (and thanks to him becuase i would have never found it) we got on the front seat again a walk on., this was a nice ride and some great pops of air time! I rode twice in a row.

After the grizzly we rode some type of flat ride where you can control your airplain, it was ok,but i got a bit dizzy. I then boght a slushie at a shop and the girl told me that will be $3.75! and i said wow where i live i get them for $1 and she like I use to get them for 50cents, and so i said realy are you from N.Y? she's like yea how'd you know ,I said becuase prop one of the only places you can get a slush puppie for 50cents, and so she said she missed the bronx, and i told her yea i miss N.Y a bit ,but I was going back so it dident matter etc, and I was on my way.After spliting up with my freind i met my parents and found them almost passing out on abrick type flower bed, and they asked if i rode Hypersonic? and i was like oh man! I must have forgot ,and they told me it was great! so, my dad went to the car, and my mom and i where out to go for a spin.

Oh no, "sorry this atraction is closed for today ,pleaseenjoy our other great atractions" I was so hurt,but then there came the train with riders in it ,and there where people waiting to get in the queue. so we jumped in that crowd and all the sudden they let us in the line and we walked right into the staion only waiting two trains, we got in, with a warning please keep ur head back during the launch,and arms down i cant stress that anymore said a ride attdendent,who seemed to be one of the many managers running the ride. We where off sitting there waiting for the launch was so freaky,and then yellow green and we took off! The force of gravity was so strong I couldent belive it, as we crested the top i trew my hands up and enjoyed the plunge down as my mother screamed to put my arms down and i screamed back dont worrie!, then i put them back down ,and smiled for the picturewhich by the way was one of my best so far.( I bought it) then we rode the wildmouse and hurler again and, had to leave erlie becuase the heat, it was so hot that if you got wet ur cloths would steam ur body! I wish i could have seen more of the park then just riding the coasters,oh well, next time.

As we all got in the car we deicided we where just going to go tord M.D instead of Williamsburg becuase the heat was too much, and the next day it was to be no better ,but worse! After traveling for about 30 miles we stoped at econo hotle ,and booked two rooms for the price of one at the ramada. I then went straight for the pool,and the nest morning we went to SFA.

We got to the park at around 12:30pm to find the parking lot fairly empty! I got my brother and his wife there half-priced tickets and we where off into the park, (oh yea I also got into PKD half priced thanks to an elderly man who gave me a cupon good for up to 6 people half priced!) After getting in the SFA we went to Two face, my father waited it out not much of a wait we rode ,and it was a nice ride, very scary for my borther and his wife who never rode anything like it before.Then we went to the wild one which we all got int he first car of the train, this was a great coaster ,and better from the first time I rode it, no wait for it just one train wait.It had some great airtime,and i just love that coaster, then we went to supermanr ride of steel. The ride is defintaly one of my favorite rides i have ever riden, the drop was so much fun,and was packed with air time and so was the rest of the ride, ralentless speed.

After a breather for my brother and wife my parents,and i had to go again,so we did in the back seat which wasent as great. Somthing Inoticed the park dose which dosent seem safe was they stack the trains and while one is loading the other is flying into the brakes,scaring everyone in the front seat! After this we headed tord the Batwing, not much of a wait nuthing over 10mins we where assigned to the front seat. This was was no so great my brothers wife did not want to ride,and the same for my father. This ride was so painfull, it wasent as great as I remember,and all the blood rushed to my head, then my mother annouced that the whole new area of coaster from stand ups to flying where no good,and nuthing beats a good classic woodencoaster.

By his time it was maybe in the lower 90's,but there was a good breeze unlike the dead more southern heat of PKD. We rode Jokers jinx, the change to lapbars was such a great thing for this ride,and after riding FOF Irelized there is no brakes in this ride unttill the end and if there is they are not on. Then we went to roar ,but it had technical dificaulties so we went tord mind erase and on the way there took,an old time photo which was alot of fun. Ithen rode Mid earase three times twice with my brother the thrid time with my mother who decided to ride on the last min. This ride was worse then a street beating,and was all over the place more rough then what Iremember last time. So far during the day I was having a great time at the park,and i totaly change my mind of any negative things Isaid about this park in the past. The we played some aracde games and rode roar , a great wooden coaster lots of air time,and twist,and turns the best ride, then we where onto typhoon sea coaster which was another fun ride. I then had dippin dots,and rode tower of doom before it started to rain,and we went home.

Over all this week long vaction turned out to be only 3days,but we had a nice time,too bad the heat had to ruin it. PKD gets a rating of 6 out of 10, and SFA gets a 8 out of 10. Im sure becuase of the heat,and weekday trip thats why the parks where so empty,but maybe next time i'll visit these parks in april! Note: i was trying to fix mistakes on this post beofre i sumited it,but there seems to be somthing wrong with it, that if i try to fix a misspelled word, it earses the other word si types so, try to work around the typos, i would ahte to retype this whole post!,maybe a modarator can exsplain why this happens?

Great Trip Report. Just one question what time was it when Hypersonic XLC opened?

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-Sean Newman
84 coasters in Track Record!! Hypersonic XLC # 100 in July. Waiting for the 305 foot drop tower in 2003. Thank you PKD.

Thanks, Hypersonic was said to be closed on the morning announcments while waiting at the ticket booths,but it looked open from when I got there,but then I think they had the sign and announcment going around kinda as a front so to speak just to keep the crowds away from it, it seemed like they where testing it all day with riders, I just think they dident want a major line for it becuase if it broke down after waiting 2hrs there would be alot of disapointed people.

Freaky, freaky stuff, LOL.
Our preference when traveling has more & more grown into a situation where we, for example with Richmond, have had a problem finding just the right place to stay, if you know what I mean. We travel with our dog, she's our baby. Motel6 has some nice units in their system, just not in/near Richmond, it's either the airport & planes taking off from the parking lot, or on the other side of town in a neighborhood, with people partying in the lot.
But, this VA PKD trip, we found salvation in Fredicksburg! There are two Ramadas there, I'm sure you probably stayed at the same one, though. Has all kinds of GOOD resteraunts, crap I eat everywhere, nice set up Ramada, at about 10 bucks more than Motel6, horay! EASY drive to the exit 98;). They were showing LotR, too!
Anyways, Monday night was our second night, Tuesday, second day at the park.
If you think it was hot, be glad you were not there on Monday. Monday we got in the park by 11, ended up spending near 30 dollars on water, by the time I stumbled out of the park at 8-8:30, I had a headache & felt heatdrunk. My wife was driving & it was hard not to pass out in the car. To make matters worse, I had been running to the kennel all day giving my dog ice because PKD cannot afford to move one of those big fans that's not blowing on anybody out there to the kennel.
Anyways, I'm amazed I woke up Tuesday morning. I started drinking liquids & preparing to spend a limited time in the heat early. The hottest I can remember being exposed to since 1988, & I live at the beach!

Small world, huh?

yea it is, i stood at a ramada which was across from a shoping plaza called central park which made me laugh since im from Nyc.Im just getting over my heat headache 2days later, it was like my brain was literaly fried.

If you'd gone down the road a little, made one turn, gone a couple of blocks, you would have seen the other Ramada, that's where we stayed last. They're like one exit apart or something.

Central Park;). We almost stopped at a park not far from there. Some of the buildings & old houses around there were worth taking a look at.

That headache, I've still got mine. It was indeed the heat cooking the brain. Every step was taken to deal with it, but when the heat index gets up there, the best thing to do is limiting exposure. You can't prepare for that stuff. Just the heat alone coming of the Hypersonic trains, it's like a closed up car.