As some of you may know, myself & @pritchardavid have just spent the whole of August in the US of A, with 2 weeks traveling around and visiting a number of parks and sampling the delights they have to offer. Following this, we then spent the next two weeks in Orlando, arriving just in time for my 21st (or was that 40th?) birthday. 
. So thought it would be a good idea to post a trip report on our experiences and give my views on the parks we visited.
In total, we drove close to 4000 miles (as well as another 1200 miles on 2 internal flights), visiting 14 states, 16 parks and around 122 coasters.
We visited the following parks on our road trip :
Carowinds, Dollywood, Kings island, Cedar Point, Six Flags New England, Six Flags Great Adventure, Hersheypark, King Dominion (quick stop off heading to Williamsburg to Ride I305) & Busch Gardens Williamsburg.
It was all very intense, and very little room for error. Any delays could of caused some issues, but thankfully all went fairly smoothly.
We had originally planned to visit Coney Island on 1st August after arriving in New York, but long wait in immigration, waiting for hotel shuttle buses, tiredness, 6am flight next morning and being 90 mins journey each way on Subway/Bus put paid to that sadly.
Anyway, after a very early start on Sunday 2nd August, we flew to Charlotte Douglass in North Carolina, picked up our hire car for the month and then set off on the short journey to Carowinds and to sample Fury 325.
We arrived just in time for opening at 10am and park close was 10pm, and sorted out our Cedar Fair annual passes sorted and our Fastpasses before starting our coaster riding. Over the course of the day we went on Fury 325 about 16 times (or thereabouts), pretty much whoring it in the last hour of park opening.
I absolutely loved 325. Very fast, quite intense, but not quite enough to knock you unconscious (See I305 later ), and quite a bit of airtime towards the end of the ride. Watching a plane pass over directly in front as it was on approach to Charlotte Airport as we crested the top of the lift, it felt like you could reach out and touch it.
As for the other rides. Well Thunder Road, the racing woody had closed for good just the week before, so we missed it, and the other woody, Hurler, was closed all day. But at least we still had Woodtsock Express, which for a small wooden coaster aimed at children wasn't all that bad. Good fun anyway .
Then there's the Vekoma Flying Coaster, Knighthawk which was so horrifically bad we had to have a second go later in the day just to remind ourselves how bad it was. Intimidator was OK, but now dwarfed by 325. Vortex, the standup coaster I didn't find a dull as Drayton's, but don't let that fool you in to thinking it's actually good, it isn't. Afterburn, B&M Inverted coaster was better than I was expecting, quite an intense and fast first drop and a couple of bits caught me by surprise by being thrown around a bit. A good solid old school B&M
The park itself was nothing special. generic amusement park, which was fairly difficult to navigate. There was a lack of directional signage, something which seemed quite synonymous with the parks we visited in the US, as well as lack of queue time information. Operations were average at best, though Intimidator on 3 trains had one loading in the station and 2 in the brake run, so running 3 was completely pointless.
However, they do a power hour the last couple of hours or so, where they really do hammer the trains out, with over enthusiastic managers getting very excited and never shutting up whilst donning the mic. During this they could get the train in the station on Intimidator out just as train 2 had hit the brakes and train 3 was still out and about.
After park close, we were stopping at a hotel just across the road from the entrance, and after a long day with little sleep it was very welcome indeed not to have to go far at all.
Now on to day 2 (Mon 3), and a fairly restful day as we set off on the journey to Pigeons Forge for Dollywood on the Tuesday, taking in The Smoky Mountains en-route, as well as taking a small detour so we could sample part of the Blue Ridge Highway.
Just a mile up the road from our hotel was the Smoky Mountains Alpine Coaster, which we just had to do. Cost $15. Took an age to get up to the top. Was a bit concerned there was a large group with young children not far in front of us, but thankfully they left a large gap after letting them go and the two other people who were ahead of us so of course straight down full pelt, no brakes. Not done many Alpine Coasters, but thought this was quite good but didn't feel as long as I was expecting. Looking forward to sampling the one by EP next Summer for a good comparison .
Evening meals (and alcoholic beverages) were to be had in the Smoky Mountains Microbrewery, which whilst being just across the road from our hotel was a nightmare to get to having to cross a massive, and very busy highway where there was never any time where all sets of lights were on red enabling us to cross safely. . Still, lovely food, staff, and of course, some very nice locally brewed beer to sample (in large glasses)
That's all for now, next up is Dollywood, Kings Island & Cedar Point
. So thought it would be a good idea to post a trip report on our experiences and give my views on the parks we visited.In total, we drove close to 4000 miles (as well as another 1200 miles on 2 internal flights), visiting 14 states, 16 parks and around 122 coasters.
We visited the following parks on our road trip :
Carowinds, Dollywood, Kings island, Cedar Point, Six Flags New England, Six Flags Great Adventure, Hersheypark, King Dominion (quick stop off heading to Williamsburg to Ride I305) & Busch Gardens Williamsburg.
It was all very intense, and very little room for error. Any delays could of caused some issues, but thankfully all went fairly smoothly.
We had originally planned to visit Coney Island on 1st August after arriving in New York, but long wait in immigration, waiting for hotel shuttle buses, tiredness, 6am flight next morning and being 90 mins journey each way on Subway/Bus put paid to that sadly.
Anyway, after a very early start on Sunday 2nd August, we flew to Charlotte Douglass in North Carolina, picked up our hire car for the month and then set off on the short journey to Carowinds and to sample Fury 325.
We arrived just in time for opening at 10am and park close was 10pm, and sorted out our Cedar Fair annual passes sorted and our Fastpasses before starting our coaster riding. Over the course of the day we went on Fury 325 about 16 times (or thereabouts), pretty much whoring it in the last hour of park opening.
I absolutely loved 325. Very fast, quite intense, but not quite enough to knock you unconscious (See I305 later
), and quite a bit of airtime towards the end of the ride. Watching a plane pass over directly in front as it was on approach to Charlotte Airport as we crested the top of the lift, it felt like you could reach out and touch it. As for the other rides. Well Thunder Road, the racing woody had closed for good just the week before, so we missed it
, and the other woody, Hurler, was closed all day. But at least we still had Woodtsock Express, which for a small wooden coaster aimed at children wasn't all that bad. Good fun anyway .Then there's the Vekoma Flying Coaster, Knighthawk which was so horrifically bad we had to have a second go later in the day just to remind ourselves how bad it was. Intimidator was OK, but now dwarfed by 325. Vortex, the standup coaster I didn't find a dull as Drayton's, but don't let that fool you in to thinking it's actually good, it isn't
. Afterburn, B&M Inverted coaster was better than I was expecting, quite an intense and fast first drop and a couple of bits caught me by surprise by being thrown around a bit. A good solid old school B&M The park itself was nothing special. generic amusement park, which was fairly difficult to navigate. There was a lack of directional signage, something which seemed quite synonymous with the parks we visited in the US, as well as lack of queue time information. Operations were average at best, though Intimidator on 3 trains had one loading in the station and 2 in the brake run, so running 3 was completely pointless.
However, they do a power hour the last couple of hours or so, where they really do hammer the trains out, with over enthusiastic managers getting very excited and never shutting up whilst donning the mic. During this they could get the train in the station on Intimidator out just as train 2 had hit the brakes and train 3 was still out and about.
After park close, we were stopping at a hotel just across the road from the entrance, and after a long day with little sleep it was very welcome indeed not to have to go far at all.
Now on to day 2 (Mon 3), and a fairly restful day as we set off on the journey to Pigeons Forge for Dollywood on the Tuesday, taking in The Smoky Mountains en-route, as well as taking a small detour so we could sample part of the Blue Ridge Highway.
Just a mile up the road from our hotel was the Smoky Mountains Alpine Coaster, which we just had to do
. Cost $15. Took an age to get up to the top. Was a bit concerned there was a large group with young children not far in front of us, but thankfully they left a large gap after letting them go and the two other people who were ahead of us so of course straight down full pelt, no brakes. Not done many Alpine Coasters, but thought this was quite good but didn't feel as long as I was expecting. Looking forward to sampling the one by EP next Summer for a good comparison .Evening meals (and alcoholic beverages) were to be had in the Smoky Mountains Microbrewery, which whilst being just across the road from our hotel was a nightmare to get to having to cross a massive, and very busy highway where there was never any time where all sets of lights were on red enabling us to cross safely.
. Still, lovely food, staff, and of course, some very nice locally brewed beer to sample (in large glasses)
That's all for now, next up is Dollywood, Kings Island & Cedar Point
