Wood Coaster Poll Results...

Visionland is only about 2 1/2 hours from Atlanta and I don't think Dollywood is much further. I don't think that makes them TOO out-of-the-way.

Just curious... why was your Visionland experience so bad? Did something happen at the park, or was it just the boring ride through the middle of nowhere? I can't say I liked the park (not enough to do) but I don't remember anything bad about it either!

If you think Shivering Timbers had a hard fall this year... look at Tonnerre de Zeus! It was number 1 a few years ago and now, is sliding down and is not even in the top 20 this year. You can thank Parc Asterix lack of maintenance for that.

Well, Atlanta is still a pretty big trek for me and going back to either of those parks isn't as high a priority as the Dells, Silverwood (which is REALLY in the middle of nowhere) or HW for the first time.

What wasn't wrong with Visionland? The kiddie coaster and that's about it. The ops on Rampage were apathetic and even unsafe (large portions of the time they didn't even check the train. One of the rows had been roped off, presumably by maintanence and they let people ride in it anyway). The ride was very rough and not really fast or fun (granted, this was during the day).

We went to try to get on the ferris wheel and they had loaded it unevenly so it couldn't get around. It would go up, lose friction and slide back down. The solution: one of the ops would hold the drive motor going so that the tire would keep spinning against the track but sort of keep it in place (sort of) while people could get on and off so it would balance correctly. We didn't get on.

Then, we got on the log flume - our log had a hole in it so it was ankle deep in water (dirty water that was filled with trash). We keep sinking as the ride went on, but since the hole in the log was near the front, only a little bit of the water would drain out when we climbed lifts. Finally, for "the big drop" all the water was in the back of the log because of the lift so we dropped and when we splashed down, all the (nasty, stinky, trash filled) water came splashing forwards and soaked us from behind, head to toe.

So, no, I didn't even have a mediocre time. I had an actively bad time.

Yay, I'm glad the highest ranking wood from PKD was 62.

But very meh about how my trio of #2 coasters did. Thunder Run and Raven's spots are disapointing, though Thunderhead's is really good.

I can't wait for next year's poll. Voyage and El Toro can probably make top ten, and maybe Rumbler. *** Edited 12/9/2005 1:04:59 AM UTC by thepinkdoomofmonkeys***

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ApolloAndy said:
Aside from the fact that it's out in the middle of nowhere, I had the worst park experience of my life there.

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I agree, the park sucks. Too bad though, since Rampage is such a damn good coaster. Even though it's my #4 woodie I had no desire to make a three hour (round trip) drive to the park this year :-/

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Rob Ascough said:
Visionland is only about 2 1/2 hours from Atlanta and I don't think Dollywood is much further. I don't think that makes them TOO out-of-the-way.

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Dollywood is about 4 hours from downtown in ideal conditions.

Wow... it really sucks that you had such a lousy experience at Visionland. Aside from the park's out-of-the-way location and the dreadful selection of decent rides, I didn't see anything that would make me detest the place. Although if I had experienced what you experienced, I'm sure I would feel a little differently...

Andy, I wonder if you visited VL before the current management took over the park? I visited in 2003 for Scare Fest and had no complaints (other than the lack of Rampage t-shirts!).

I visited this Sept.

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Charles Nungester said:
Paula, Theres nothing wrong with promoting your park.

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Ah, but "promoting" and "hyping" are not synonymous, my friend.

Here's the definitation of hyping: To publicize or promote, especially by extravagant, inflated, or misleading claims.

Paula

Well I didn't mean anything to be insulting.

Is it May yet?

Chuck

it does suck

1. the trains

2.the speed

3. the ride itself