Hey Coaster Fans Who are Rejoicing the Return of Coaster Season!!
I was able to actually make it down to PKI this past Saturday (April 14th)! I got that great deal of Buy a Season pass and upgrade to a Golden Past for free! Anyway, I was with a few other non-pass holders so we went and headed for the Beast roped area. Area opened and the guard let us be the first on the Beast!! Front seat first coaster of the season!! Great ride as usual, and NO trim brakes on the second hill!! Things I did notice while on the ride is all the land clearing and path making right under and to the left and right of the main lift and brake run. The fence around the old flume ride says look for extreme thrill rides in 2002! And you know something big is going to sit right there and around the Beast....and I mean BIG! Anyway, we got off the Beast and went to Flight of Fear (oh, NEVER call it Outer Limits...staff doesn't like that now) while everyone would still be at SOB.
FOF was a walkon...and WOW!!!! Those lapbars are AWESOME!! I got off and could still feel my ears! The corscrew was sooooo Cool! it was like someone grabbing your ankles and swinging you upside down! Only one train running all day...which my later ride ended up being a 2 hour wait (bummer)! I think I also spotted Jeff 4 rows back during that time (sorry I didn't get to say hi, Jeff) Next was Racer...walkon...great airtime in back and front seat and very smooth! Fun ride all around!
We headed over to SOB. Wait was about 30 min all day....running 2 trains pretty fast. There's rumors of train 3 being put on this week all over the park right now. I couldn't get over how smooth SOB was out of the station it was like a steel coaster just coasting! first hill was awesome BUT now I'll compare it to Mean Streak...the helix(S) were like MS Only were Mean S. is BAMBAMBAMBAMBAM SOB was like BAM...BAM....BAM (more drawn out slams) not bad by all means though IMO. I thought a 200+ft wooden coaster was going to be a lot worse than it could have been especially after last season! They fixed this up a lot! the drop into the loop and the loop was almost as smooth as MForce! WOW is amazing how they engineered that thing! Biggest complaint about the ride...the raised floor!! With my feat on the floor it was almost impossible to pull the lapbar down! My knees where in my chin! It was like CP's Mine Ride restraints...someone PLEASE fix this! This ride is coming of potential.
Topgun was running great as usual. Faceoff was great. Adventure Express was extremely jerky compared to normal, but still very fun. And I still put King Cobra my #1 Stand up coaster. No other standup can produce the airtime that this thing gives in the front seat which IMO is all what a standup should be about!
Tracked over to Kid's area to check out the new stuff. I couldn't believe the changes over there! The kid's faces were all about why they did it. They loved it! Everyone little kid's eyes over in the rugrats area was cute and wide eyed! Runaway Reptar was a lot of fun and one great family coaster! And yep, it's a lot a like Woodstock's Express. The whole area is SOooo colorful and pleasant to the eyse. And the Wild Thornberry ride looks like a lot of fun, even though I didn't ride it. Goes GREAT sitting right next to the Reptar. Those two compliment each other nicely.
7th Portal, had only one side working (I still have yet to go in the right side in 4 years). It was very good 3D effects and a lot of fun...strange story line...but fun. By far the best movie they have had yet! The Beast was SOoo much faster at the end of the night and Vortex strangely enought also smoothed out and ran nicely the second half of the day. Drop Zone was also a lot of fun at the end of th night (20 min wait) and the breeze when it came down was sweet!
Festhaus actually had GREAT hamburgers! And food was pretty tasty in all parts of the park yesterday. And they staff was friendly all around the park. Great Job. Another plus, was the people of all races were friendly to each other, I had no problems with anyone and did not see any problems...everyone was nice. Even when a guy was chain smoking in line to FOF indoors and I asked him if he could wait, he said no problem. So that was nice of him.
The whole day was in the 70's and sunny, and nice breeze. I couldn't ask for a better day. The top of the Effiel Tower was VERY breezy and some times we had to lean into the wind...very fun! Overall, I'd say I had a great day at the park and everyone should try to check it out this year!
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"The Future of Roller Coasters"
RollerCoasterGod
E-mail: RollerCoasterGod@aol.com
