Delirium_Guy

I read over on TPR, someone used sometype of measurement tool on Google Maps and came up with a track length close to 5,000 feet! So, a nice long coaster is refreshing indeed down here! Yes, the Sky Ride will be closed for a while.....right now its scheduled to be down from June 1, 2010 through the rest of the year. The train will also be closing at some point, as a portion of the tracks will be taken up to accomodate construction but there isn't a date listed on the Park's website yet. Oh, while these plans were uncovered a permit was also uncovered for a new building that is to be used during Howl-o-Scream for what would appear to be a new haunted house. Given that the area underneath the old monorail station is typically used for a haunt and will clearly be underconstruction during this year's Howl-o-Scream event, I'm happy to see the Park taking additional measures to keep capacity high during the extremely busy Halloween season. SeaWorld Parks and Entertainment have also trademarked 3 names that someone else uncovered, though its unsure if they are related to the Busch Gardens Project: Kangaloom, Kookaburra's Nest and Walkabout Waters. Personally, I feel those names are better suited for Aquatica....who is also rumored to be getting a decent size expansion for the 2011 season to follow up with this year's Omaka Rocka. - Todd

Well, Terpy, I'll agree about one Maverick....but I happen to tremendously enjoy that new Cedar Fair steel I-305 a bit more. Either way......this kind of ride at BGT along with Kumba. Oh my. Me thinks I'll be spending a lot of time in Tampa next summer. Ryan, yes losing the water portion of Rhino Rally is disappointing. While its never been a favorite of mine, I have always appreciated the effort that the park went through to create the attraction and to set it apart from Kilimanjaro at DAK. Without it, the ride is just sorta of meh. I'm so glad it was working the day that you and I went! - Todd

A new coaster has been in the works for Busch Tampa for several years, however with the InBev purchase many things were postponed. Rumors have been swirling wildly over the past several months that the project was back on track for a 2011 opening and for a change being brought to us by Intamin instead of B&M. The ride will utilize the former monorail station and part of the current SkyRide building and basically run out towards Rhino Rally where it will also use the canyon that currently houses the river portion of Rally. The river portion will be discontinued from the Rhino Rally experience due to the significant amount of downtime that it experiences. A local contracting company in Tampa posted PDF files on their website which included the layout of the coaster and details regarding the new pathway that will be constructed to accomodate the ride as well as a new temporary path that will actually be constructed OUTSIDE the Park to get guests past the construction area from Katonga over to the Egypt area. These have now been spreading over the net. Someone was able to make out Intamin's name on one page of the PDF file that was posted. As for ride type.....its a guess at this point. Most rumors are pointing towards a Maverick style ride that will feature multiple launches, which I think is quite likely if you take a look at the layout, however a few people are guessing that its possible one of Intamin's Wing Rider coasters. Either way, this is a significant project and the coaster itself is quite long! Take a look, let the speculation begin! Don't expect any details or major announcements out of any of the Florida parks until after the Harry Potter grand opening festivities take place and simmer down a bit. http://bgtguide.com/bgt/project2011 - Todd, beyond excited about the possibility of Florida's first Intamin being a Maverick.......please, please, please let it be!

Check out the video of the ride testing. Looks like yet another winner for Holiday World's already awesome water park! Looking forward to riding in June. http://www.holidayworld.com/node/3260 - Todd

Yep, crocodiles have been gone for several years now....but what a neat touch they were. Awesome TR, glad you enjoyed your visit to the Park. The Park really is a beautiful, beautiful park. I obviously visit BGT more frequently now that I'm local, so the Park has really grown quite a bit on me during my time down here. I still prefer Williamsburg, I just think it has a much more intimate setting nestled among the trees. I don't really find the quality of theming to differ that much between the two parks, actually. One has to give Tampa serious props though, they have done a lot with the Park especially given their location. Oh, I'm definitely glad to hear you loved Kumba.....its easily, easily my favorite coaster in Florida and none of the others down here come close to it for me! :-) - Todd

Well I'll agree with the atmosphere and the landscaping and such. I've always said this in all of my past TR's over the years for Kings Dominion, the Park is beautiful and the jewel of the former Paramount parks (with Wonderland being a close second). Yes Congo is absolutely awesome but I particular like the area you posted a picture of....its taken from the path that runs from Eiffel Tower back to the midway with Drop Tower and such. Also, the Grizzly area and Antique Car area are killer too. Their Antique Cars remind me much of what was taken away from us at KI. We, too, used to have that beautiful and serene area.....too bad that was ruined by Backlot Stunt Coaster. I'm gonna have to disagree majorly that KD's ride has the worse placement. Yes, while its in Congo the theme was carried out to the outer areas of the ride like you mentioned. I don't necessarily have a problem with its proximity to the water park. I do have a huge issue with Kings Island's placement as it simply destroyed what was one of the best looking areas in the Park. Its sad to see the state of any of the Backlot Stunt Coasters....they used to be somewhat fun and, as you said, pretty fun at night. Oh and about Volcano, though KDCOASTERFAN touched on it, essentially yes....a train has to complete the circuit before the next train is dispatched. You are aware of how short the ride is, so clearly isn't as bad as it sounds. I honestly compare it more to Millennium Force and its 3-train operation. The seperate load / unload plus the additional block behind the unload allow for it, but as far as dispatching.....a train isn't dispatched until the one in front of it has pretty much completed its circuit. - Todd

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Looooook, Terpy.......I have no clue what you are talking about and will not be held responsible for any such thing! Ahhhh, good times indeed! - Todd

Exactly Terpy, you and I are quite familiar with conflicting opinions on rides :-) Of course, I think we can both agree on the awesomeness that is Georgia Cyclone. I'll also never forget my first ride on the Cyclone at SFNE! Wow! - Todd, who knows that Terpy probably much prefers Rolling Dumpster, er I mean Rolling Thunder, to its much bigger and better brother El Toro :-)

Well I want OUR Flying Eagles back from Carowinds not Kings Dominions set that don't snap worth a darn in comparison. Would be great and I realized how much I missed them after taking a few spins Saturday night at Carowinds. Interesting about Kings Dominions though, I've never had a problem snapping that set either. They seem to take a little longer to get going, but once I start I usually have good rides on them. - Todd

Nick, I am glad you enjoyed I305 but I still wonder how anyone can think that a coaster that causes most people to blackout/grayout is a good thing. Because some people prefer to actually feel like they are on a ride..... Most of the B&M hypers are waaaaaaaay to blah for my tastes, not so much because of the airtime, but I find the pacing on most of them to be terrible. When I ride the front, I don't particularly enjoy hanging over the next drop and slowing as the rest of the train catches up. I dunno, they just don't flow well. I305, much like Maverick and Bizarro, is non-stop. These rides just all flow incredibly well for me. - Todd

In addition to I305 both grizzly & rebel yell (south) had two trains going on saturday. Shockwave needs to have it's lift components repaired/replaced from what I hear & should be open by mid to late april while hurler is undergoing a re-tracking but just isn't worth riding. Volcano actually opened with two train operation Saturday, also. We chose to go there first, after learning on Friday that I305's line was not much of an issue! Unfortunately, two train operation lasted about.....well it didn't :-) First train of riders rolled back and they removed the train. My question for you, KDCOASTERFAN, do they still utilize the third train for Volcano? It had been a few years since I had last been to KD, but my last visit saw three train operation. With that said, opening weekend definitely wasn't a great weekend to showcase the Park to new visitors. I've always been a huuuuuge Kings Dominion fan and much prefer it to Kings Island, but the operations quickly drove us right out of the gate and right down to Williamsburg.....we never even made it out of the Congo area :-/ - Todd

That's interesting to hear. We felt the opposite. I found the back to be my favorite, the first drop was out of control in the back. I'll say though, our one backseat ride we got was also at night.....when we couldn't see or anticipate anything coming. In the end, I can't say ANY seat on the ride was merely good.....I will say ANY seat is amazing. We rode front, middle and back and each area of the train delivers. For me, there is no bad or dull seat on the ride. - Todd

Last weekend, I missed an opportunity to ride up with a friend from Orlando for the opening of Carowinds' Intimidator. Bummed out after hearing such glowing reviews of the coaster, I decided that the second weekend would be just as good as the first to check the coaster out. In typical fashion for me though, one park is never enough and it was confirmed that Kings Dominion's Intimidator 305 would infact be opening with the Park on April 2nd. Perfect. So my friend Steve and I left Orlando Thursday around 7PM, drove over night to Kings Dominion and arrived around 7AM. Took a quick nap in the car before heading to the parking lot. I still had to process my pass, fortunately they began processing around 845AM that morning. So that gave us plenty of time to get lined up to make the dash to I-305. Before I get into Intimidator 305, I'd like to say a few things about the Park. First of all, if you look at any of my prior trip reports for Kings Domininon, you'll find that I've always been a huge fan of the Park. It still reminds me of what Kings Island used to be like back in the good days. The Park still has a lot of charm with it, no one can argue how wonderful the entire Congo area / Volcano area is. The Park itself is situated in dense groves of trees, aside from the the Shockwave / Rebel Yell midways. Operations are *usually* decent, though the wood coaster operations leave a lot to be desired as they typically are only running one train every time I go. I've never really had a bad day at KD....then again I hadn't been since before Cedar Fair took over the Park. Ugh. To say the least, opening weekend this year was not a great time to be showcasing the Park: * One train operation on Volcano, FoF, Avalanche. Two train operation on Dominator, with the third train no where to be found. The third train for Volcano also appeared to be missing from the storage area. Volcano attempted two train operation Saturday morning, but train 2 was removed after it rolled back with guests on the first ride of the day. So back to one train. * Incredibly slow dispatch times * Many rides suffering from frequent periods of downtime * Strange event at Intimidator at the end of Friday. The ride was taken down to one train early in the evening due to an issue. We hopped in line around 7PM, knowing only one train was operating which was fine. The ride went down. People bailed, we continued to snake our way slowly through the queue before ultimately ending up in the final run to the station when the ride finally started to operate. Great, no problem. I'm guessing that there were *maybe* 7-8 train loads of people behind us in the queue, not a terribly large amount. They apparently fixed the issue with train 2, so they shut the ride down AGAIN to add the second train on. If this were the middle of the day, I'd completely understand and be very happy about this.....but why shut the ride down for another 10 minutes or so after it was already down for close to an hour to add a second train for a minimal amount of people still in the queue? I understand that it is opening weekend, so somethings can be overlooked. Employees are still training and learning, fine. Rides suffering from some minimal downtime, fine. My issue I think comes from a maintanance stand point with Dominator and Volcano. Each coaster missing trains from their transfer tracks, which would seem to indicate they aren't done with their off season maintanance. Really? Why is it that Busch Gardens Williamsburg was able to have every coaster open and operating at MAX capacity, but Kings Dominion was not? Dominator's line was spilling well beyond its queue line due to a very slow two train operation. Volcano was one train operation with no hope of a second train because it was having maintanance issues and the third train wasn't even a potential back up plan because it wasn't on site. I didn't even attempt FOF, I had already heard it was one train operation. I personally find these types of problems inexcusable, especially when you are opening your park on a very, very busy Holiday weekend. One would hope that things will smooth out later in the season, but this is a big reason why we spent fewer than 3 hours at KD in the 2 days we were in the area. We did finally manage a Volcano ride though and I'm happy to report that its just as awesome as ever....I've always been a huge huge fan of it. OK, Intimidator 305. I know there will be other reports coming in so I'll just make some bullet points: * First and foremost, the restraints were perfectly fine for me and my friend both....and we are built quite the opposite of one another in terms of body proportion. The ride was incredibly smooth and I had zero head/neck banging.....and I feel these restraints are absolutely necessary on this ride! * Lift hill seems much faster than the cable lift on MF, though that may not be the case. * The ride, hands down, is the most incredible ride I've ever been on in my life and immediately took its place as my #1....out of 460 coasters that I've ridden so thats saying something. * First drop is unreal no matter where you sit and all seats deliver incredible ejector airtime.....the backseat is down right insane in terms of air. The drop on I305 craps all over Millennium Force. I personally find Millie's drop on the tame side.....fun but not incredibly forceful. I305 truly has the best first drop on any coaster, IMHO * The first turn was incredibly intense to the point that I grayed out everytime I rode * By the time you get your bearings back from the first turn, you are launched out of your seat as the train rockets over the second hill. Blissful is a great way to describe this hill, for what seems like a good 5 seconds of sustained ejector air all the way up and over it. * After the second drop, all hell breaks loose. The ride delivers pops of ejector air on every little bump the train flies over. The transitions are quick, powerful, intense and very smooth. * Trim brake up the last camelback brakes the train significantly, but the train still careens on through to the finish and still dishes out large amounts of airtime. * The ride is the most intense thing I've ever ridden. Its fast, powerful, relentless and an absolute blur. * The track length may seem short, but honestly I'm not sure i could handle much more on it. It flies through the course in 1 minute, including the lift hill. Each ride simply left me breathless. * Night rides. OMG. Zero lighting on the course, except the awesome red chaser lights on the lift hill. * Get to KD ASAP and ride it, simple as that. * Single rider line worked well for us, we rode 4 times in an hour Saturday On Friday afternoon, we hopped over to BGW for a few hours. Kings Dominion should check out their competitor for some tips on how you operate a park. BGW's parking lot was completely full, the Park was busy, yet our longest wait was 30 minutes for Apollo....thats with the queue almost completely filled. All coasters were running all trains, even Loch Ness Monster was running 3. Operations were flawless, I give serious props to all the ride crews and BGW for taking pride and making an effort to pump people through the rides. Apollo in particular had an amazing crew, the train was usually checked and ready to dispatch BEFORe the train in front of it had crested the lift hill. In 4 hours we did all the coasters twice, took a spin on Dar Kastle, strolled through the entire park and had a beer before heading back to get our night ride on I305. Saturday we did go back to KD, thats when we got our Volcano ride as we went there first thing since we knew that the line for I305 moved very fast. We took advantage of I305's single rider line for about an hour, catching 4 rides before we decided to head on down the road to Carowinds. Its amazing that these two parks operate under the same banner. The operations are Carowinds were far superior to what we encountered at KD. We arrived at the park around 6PM, they closed at 8PM. I've been to Carowinds a number of times, I essentially was only concerned with catching a few rides on Intimidator, Afterburn and our beloved Flyers of course. A few things: * I rode both Intimidators within a matter of 5 hours of each other. Poor Carowinds' ride just didn't stand a chance after coming from KD. There just isn't a comparison between the two. * Carowinds' Intimidator IS a great ride and I will say that I prefer it very much over Diamondback. I found the airtime to be much more along the lines of ejector during our front seat ride. Second hill was too much fun and the turnaround was awesome! Trims were off (pay attenion, Kings Island). The ending is horrible, but like others have mentioned so is Diamondback's ending. I read a post from someone that said there aren't any bad seats on the ride....I must disagree. My first ride was dead center of the train. Talk about a snoozefest. Front seat was great, never got to try the back so can't compare. Great addition to the Park! As far as ranking the B&M hypers for me: Goliath, Apollo, Intimidator, Diamondback, Nitro, Raging Bull * Afterburn was terriffic as usual, but I still prefer Alpengeist. * God how I have missed the Flyers! Rode 4 times and happily closed the night out on them instead of Intimidator. I was very pleased to see that the ride operator was ENCOURAGING people to snap the cables. I will never, ever forgive Paramount/Kings Island for taking these away for that piece of garbage that now resides in the middle of what was a very beautiful section of Kings Island. A final note. Both Kings Dominion and Carowinds both were assigning rows, as others have stated. I have a HUGE, HUGE issue with this. If people are waiting in line for an hour plus for a ride and you have an EXTENDED queue built for the front or back seats.....for god's sake let people wait! Even the Orlando parks, which draw far larger crowds than Kings Dominion or Carowinds could ever dream of, let people wait for the front seat or back seat if they ask. Its bad guest experience, simple as that, but I guess I shouldn't be surprised....I've come to expect nothing less from Cedar Fair these days. Great trip. 1800 miles in 2 days. We were exhausted after returning to Orlando, but are already planning a return visit for some more I305! - Todd

That's awesome to hear that Terminator was added! Unfortunately I was on a tight schedule when I went, I only had about 4 hours so I chose to ride the coasters that were new since my last visit. Terminator was absolutely fantastic, but I only got to ride once so really couldn't get a good feel for it. Its definitely better than the the two Roar's, Wildcat and Gwazi. From there I dunno. I'm a huge fan of Thunderhead, Evil Knievel and Prowler. Its certainly a high caliber ride like all of those. - Todd

I DEFINITELY recommend a gold flash pass. It was the only reason I got to do as much as I did when I was out there in September. You will have no problem accomplishing everything on your list. With that said I gotta point out, unless its changed since then, both X2 and Terminator are NOT included with a Gold Flash Pass. You have the option to purchase one ride on each for $10 each....thats in addition to what you shell out for the Gold Flash Pass. I did it for X2, but Terminator's line wasn't so much of an issue when I made it to that area of the Park. Like I said, that could have changed since my visit last September but be forewarned :-) I had a great day at SFMM, Terminator and Tatsu were definite highlights. - Todd

You said you are going to Universal and that if you didn't make it to the Potter Park you'd have to deal? You DO realize Wizarding World of Harry Potter is just a re-theme of the existing Lost Continent section located in Universal's Islands of Adventure, right? :-) So if Universal is on your agenda, so is Potter! It is NOT a new theme park....despite what Universal's marketing team may be telling you :-) - Todd

You should be safe. Last I heard, they had ramped up construction with longer hours and some additional crews to speed things along. Dragons have finally shut down for their final transformation, which is tentatively scheduled to last through March 17, I believe. When I was there yesterday, Hogsmeade is very quickly closing up the gaps. Rumor has it that the first phase (Hogsmeade)will soft open in late March / early April in an effort to grab attention from the busy Spring Break crowds. We'll see soon enough! - Todd

I'm sorry to hear about his experience, too! Though, I must be fortunate because I've never really had a *bad* ride on Kumba....some that rattle a bit more but nothing offensive. You are right though, incredible is a great word for it Terpy :-) - Todd, who thinks Kumba is hands down the best coaster in Florida and one of his favorite steel coasters even after all these years

Needless to say, the first show was very emotional. I popped over quickly to watch before heading into work myself. Regardless of one's opinion on whether these animals should or shouldn't be in a place such as SeaWorld (despite the fact that they are shown extraordinary care by the SW staff), it doesn't change the fact that this tragedy still took place. As hard as it was for those of us who work for the Park to fight back tears, it was very touching for me to see guests that were every bit as emotional as we were. My hats off to ALL of the Believe trainers....I know this was a very difficult day for them. - Todd

No, the death in 1999 was the result of someone who snuck past security into the park and decided it'd be fun to jump in the tank....said person was also intoxicated. He died of hypothermia, though Tilly did think he was a toy and apparently tossed him around. I am at a loss for words, really. I've had the pleasure of speaking with Dawn several times, would see her almost daily in the lounge. Its difficult to even think about. When word spread to DC this afternoon, much like SW, you could feel the grief, shock and sadness that swept over the team members. My heart goes out to Dawn's family and also to the rest of my SW family during this time. I have a very close friend who had the unfortunate position to respond to the call to Shamu Stadium this afternoon. I haven't been able to speak to him much this evening, but I do know that he is incredibly distraught over what he had to witness. I feel terrible for the rest of the trainers at Shamu Stadium, they are a very close knit group. Certainly the darkest day in the history of any of the SeaWorld Park and Entertainment properties. Oh, despite what the Yahoo article states, the Park did NOT close this afternoon. Essentially that half of the park was blocked which included the arcade/games area, Shamu Stadium and Happy Harbor. - Todd

A little more information regarding the opening..... http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/features_orlando/2010/02/universal-offering-harry-potter-packages-that-kick-in-may-28.html - Todd

The jury is out for me whether I am excited to see another 4D or not. I had the pleasure / displeasure of riding X2 back in October. I will say that the first drop / raven turn combo was possibly the most unsettled I've ever felt on any ride I've been on. It REALLY freaked me out, in a good way though :-) Not a lot of rides, if any, do that to me the first time I ride them. Unfortunately, the last 1/3 of the ride was without question the most painful ride I've ever been on....so much that my calves had bruises on them from being bounced back and forth so much. By that point, I don't think I've ever wanted off a ride more! Before anyone wants to suggest that the reason is simply maintanance by Six Flags, from I've read Eejanaika suffers from the same thing but only worse! If they could find a way to make the ride experience more comfortable, I'd be all about seeing some more built. However, my one ride on X2 is likely to be the only ride I ever bother to take on it for the reason listed above. - Todd

Hopefully not. As of right now, there are no indications that is taking place. It got a major reprofiling several years ago when it went down for rehab. What I'd like to see them do is come up with a better lapbar system, ugh! Its horrible! - Todd

I agree, the show building is a lot more impressive looking from the air....too bad it still looks horrible from Jurassic Park :-( There hasn't been much leaked about the ride itself that I've seen. Just what you mentioned about the Kuka arm and simulator. I hope with them being so secretive regarding the attraction, it isn't setting itself up to be somewhat of a disappointment to people. I've had friends ask me when the Harry Potter theme park is opening, then I explain that its not a park but really rather just a retheming of an existing section of IoA....you can hear a bit of disappointment in their voice. In any event, the ride is rumored to not be opening until late May / early June but the it keeps getting around from several places that the soft opening for the area in general will be late March / early April. They are saying Dragons is going down at the end of the month for final transformation. Since your visit, the walls have been taken in even FURTHER in the Dragons queue. You literally walk through a tunnel that is about 5 feet wide now that serves as the ENTRANCE and EXIT pathway of the attraction as you cross over the bridge....its a flippin' mess. Supposedly they are behind schedule but are using whatever means they can to speed construction up. I was at the park this afternoon, it was absolutely pouring rain but they were still out on the rooftops and such working. On a final note....Ripsaw is down for what looks like a MAJOR refurb!! Scaffolding is up all over the front of the attraction and it seems as if its getting some MUCH needed TLC. They have setup a wall blocking the entire area actually, which would seem to indicate that it will be a lengthy down time. So happy to see this, as the ride truly was looking incredibly ran down in some places. - Todd