silver2005

Got everything I wanted to do, and just got a temporary weather suspension announcement. Gonna wait it out as it appears to be somewhat short.

Busch Gardens Williamsburg is definitely in the running for being my favorite park up there with Dollywood and a good bit better than my former 2nd favorite park, Hershey. Alpengeist and Apollo's Chariot lived up to expectations and Loch Ness Monster is loads of fun and is my 100th steel coaster. Up to 143 heading into Kings Dominion.

I lucked out, Tempesto is open. Getting to 150 tomorrow at King Dominion.

^Except the 'source' in this case has been historically known on this forum to post false information.

You know Don posts here right? You better know what you're talking about.

^What kind of bugs?

I miss Kings Dominion's Grand Carnivale by a day. I go Monday and the last day for it is tomorrow.

For day 1, I tried a Cook Out for the first time. Its like a UDF and a City BBQ had a baby, its really good for fast food. I also found I have a TON of pancake houses in Williamsburg. After that, I took a walk through Colonial Williamsburg for a few hours in the evening. Walked around the William and Mary college, then swung by the actual colonial buildings, got a lot of pictures. Heading to VA Beach today and seeing the ocean for the first time in forever today.

The Quick Queue Unlimited Plus I got gets me FL like access to all the coasters except Tempesto, Invadr and DarKoaster, those 2 I get 1 time where I can bypass the line. Escape from Pompeii, Finnegan's Flyer, and Roman Rapids are also unlimited access. QQ Unlimited does all that minus the 3 coasters I mentioned. QQ normal just gives a one time skip to the rides under QQU.

^I got QQ Unlimited Plus which ran me $180. However, with the sale BGW did on the 4th, I'm getting in for only $70. I got my HP ticket during a spring sale and am getting in there for only $50. I'm also armed with Fast Track for HP and I have all season FL for KD and DP (which I doubt I'll need at either, especially DP on a Tuesday). Also looking around VA Beach and downtown Philly for good restaurants. I wanted to eat on the beach at VA, but all those restaurants are very much outside my budget. Probably going to spend a few hours on the beach and walking the boardwalk then getting something NICE but within reason for dinner. The weather for Saturday looks great. Tomorrow after I get to Williamsburg, I'm super close to colonial WB (I've done the tours before) so I will likely just take a relaxing walk through the area. I can almost walk there if I weren't staying on a bit of a highway. I can take normal roads to BGW if I want I'm so close. I did print directions, but just from the convenience of the roads I have to take to BGW, VA Beach and KD, I may not need directions. PA on the other hand, especially my drive to Knoebels.... I will say, my in-park food selections are pretty good this trip outside DP. BGW and Knoebels go back and forth on being the best park food, I know HP's is fantastic from experience, and KD's looks really good. I'm gonna wing it more in Philly as that's the last day of my trip (after visiting Longwood).

This just dropped on Facebook from Holiday World. Appears they're cooking something for 2024. https://www.facebook.com/HolidayWorld/posts/pfbid02WjPXRFfeB1qXz7ijnaNT2odwrcEGxAd8dsgExWnJc7nrpc8J1zJsw539gT9Atzv9l

You know, before Intamin and S&S first went to 100 mph, they didn't have anything of note either at their respective times.

So the day I go to BGW looks iffy. I had to choose between Sunday and Monday as they had a 4th of July sale and it only applied to the date specific tickets. At the time, the weather looked similar so I had a 50/50 chance of getting it right. Unfortunately, Monday, the day I chose for KD, looks to have the better weather. The day I do BGW has higher rain chances, but I think I may have a few windows of opportunity to work with. I may have to speed run BGW a bit. I have Quick Queue which should help. Tempesto is still listed as closed. All the PA weather so far looks nice, especially Wednesday for Hershey.

I had a bit of a pattern on my last trip on coasters with lap bars where I would sit in front of girls with long hair and sometimes got hair in my face, particularly on Magnum. Also rode in front of a lot of screaming girls (like high pitched and top of their lungs), my ears might still be ringing from my 2 days at CP.

^I only see a few smaller flats and (unfortunately) the Sky Ride as closed. I see every coaster (including the underrated Flying Turns, which was down for a long time) and the good non-coasters as open.

Knoebels is everything you wish Stricker's or Coney Island could be. They do the ride tickets and all day wrist bands like Stricker's with a fantastic classic ride line up, which, has a Zierer Eurofighter-esque coaster that does kind of stick out like a sore thumb (but still fun). Phoenix and Twister are incredible wooden coasters which they take care of very well. Twister is currently my favorite wooden coaster and Phoenix has THE best air time of any coaster I've ridden (better than El Toro and trimless Voyage IMO). Very good food, too, usually in the running for best theme park food on various polls. The drive to Elysburg is also part of the charm, its a pretty mountainous area of Pennsylvania. I'm saving it for last on my trip as kind of a wind down park and its also among my favorite parks. Its a bit out of the way, but totally worth it.

This is more of a guests do the darnedest things- on the 4th around dusk, I saw a guy on Beast wave his arms around really erratically upon entering the helix tunnels, almost like he was about to try and hit the side.

I just went on the Tuesday and Wednesday of the first day of summer and I thought the amount of food stands being open and the service was fine. A lot of the drink stands were closed, but food variety was really good compared to my last visit in 2018. Had good BBQ wings by Magnum, turkey at the Grand Pavilion (a MUCH needed addition to the CP beach front), and pizza near Raptor (CP's pizza leaves a lot to be desired). Got glimpses of the food I didn't get and thought most of it looked pretty good. Assuming the final colors on TTD 2.0 will be white and grey, I'm only assuming its to help whatever lighting package they have planned. Hangtime at Knott's has similar looking track and the way the light glows through the track looks pretty cool. Doing it on TTD's 420 ft tower will look awesome.

Well, for non-enthusiasts, if it looks and sounds like a duck...

Went to Kings Island today. Got a decent day of riding in including my first go arounds on Sol Spin and Cargo Loco. I didn't realize Sol Spin went fully vertical. I might ride it every once in a while, but it feels like it can trend to being a bit on the intense side for me. I definitely prefer Huss Enterprises. I got stuck with malem for Cargo Loco and got an Exterminator-esque spinning session. Assuming I don't get that again, I can learn to like it. I will say though, Sol Spin deserves a more flamboyant lighting package. That's not all though. So, with the whole schtick with Tempesto likely being down when I venture to Busch Gardens Williamsburg on Sunday, I decided to make up for it today. I ventured to Stricker's Grove for the first time. The trip was basically do Bear and Tornado and go back to KI. Its turned out a bit different than I thought. I've driven by it a lot and didn't think much of it. I didn't expect so many other buildings there. Its a nice little getaway park. I probably won't ever go back except maybe to take a chill day or something when its open, but its pretty nice for what it is. Frankly, I wish Coney Island was done in that same style on the dry park, though, I definitely know why it likely can't be that way. Teddy Bear wasn't anything too special, a scaled down version of Woodstock, which, I actually liked a tad better. Its always nice to encounter a woodie gifted with buzz bars and no seat belts. Tornado impressed me a bit. Runs real smooth, has decent air, also with buzz bars but with seat belts (not an issue really), and a few hills were profiled in a way with a little bit of ejector air, always welcome with PTC buzz bars (which, I get launched to the moon next week a la Phoenix at Knoebels ). I am now back on schedule to hit 150 coasters at HP. If, by a miracle, Tempesto opens and all goes well, 150 will actually take place at Kings Dominion. If HP, it will likely be RMC Wildcat. If KD, I'm actually going to hold off on saying which because I've have a unique choice for 150 if it happens in Doswell.

A single support problem which didn't result in a catastrophic failure and didn't have any injuries/casualties with video evidence that the train still made the circuit just fine in spite of that and can be easily fixed isn't going to make CF completely relocate the ride. Last I checked, Fury 325 is still regarded as one of the best coasters in the world.

Making a change of days. Sunday looks slightly better in weather, so I'll be moving BGW to Sunday and KD to Monday, so BGW will be the sight of my 100th steel coaster. I'm at a 3 way decision between Apollo's Chariot, Alpengeist, and Loch Ness Monster for that. I also lucked out in waiting to get my BGW ticket, they're having a 4th of July sale. Getting in for $70.

I got some decent hotels for my next trip. For Williamsburg, I'm staying within walking distance of Colonial Williamsburg, I'm 10 minutes from BGW, and have a LOT of breakfast options. Also an hour from Doswell and Virginia Beach. For PA, I'm staying roughly where I stayed last time, just not at the hotel which charges you for every little thing. Also lost of breakfast options including a 50s diner, I'm 10 minutes from Dorney, an hour from Hershey, an hour to Philly, and 90 minutes to Knoebels. I'm watching weather carefully. I've been waiting to get my BGW ticket just to see how the weather pans out as I'm giving the better weather day to BGW. All the days I'm in VA look to have equal but low-ish chances of rain, so we'll see. Also looking for good restaurants in Williamsburg and Philly. Bringing masks for Philly as well.

I feel like I dodged a bullet with this, too, regarding trip plans. For my next trip, I was 50/50 on making the part after my Virginia portion either Carowinds or the current Pennsylvania plans. I was also contemplating a SCarowinds trip in October, which is a big nope now.

To me, I think its just B&M maybe miscalculated the forces at that particular spot. That's one of those lower high speed turns, which is a pretty forceful part of the ride. Add in those trains which are pretty dense with the weight and there you go. Carowinds should have fault for not finding out as its not like Fury is a secluded ride and its in a spot pretty obvious to spot. The support doesn't look all that different than other supports in similar areas on Fury, Leviathan, or Orion. Fury is the more forceful of the 3. Good news to me on this- it wasn't catastrophic, no one was injured or worse, and its a relatively easy fix, both in hardware and making adjustments to maintenance. I do suspect that no one will ride it again until 2024 though.