Many folks here know my adventures ensue exclusively during opening weekends; closing weekends; the first Monday of the season; the last Monday of the season; and/or any overcast Monday/Tuesday throughout the season of any given amusement park. I have been to nearly every park on this continent and ridden over five hundred coasters to date. I also like to wait at least one or two seasons for the parks’ newest attraction to work its bugs out.
I began this round with PKD! (Along with ACE and Coaster Zombies) This season’s newest attraction is “Scooby Doo and the Haunted Mansion!”; DropZone opened a year ago; and Hypersonic XLC just kept braking down previously.
My adventure began on Thursday evening, April first. I was opening my birthday gifts (yeah, I’m no fool), when I found tickets and a hotel reservation for Best Western King’s Landing and PKD respectively. As my transportation had conked out on me the week before, my other-half thought it best I should take my mind off things and ride coasters all day long.
(Okay, so I asked for the tickets). Now, PKD is not the closest park to me ... BGW is. However, I ended last year’s season there. And, as this season will hold SFA, SFNJ, SFNE and Hersheypark (Storm Runner) in my future, I had no plans for PKD ... Surprise!!!
We checked the weather and it sure looked like it was gonna be semi-rainy all weekend long. It rained most of Friday night while in the hotel and we thought it would be all rained out by morning. We woke up to a slight drizzle; an extremely overcast day and a view of the entire park from our hotel room (which we obtained for half price thanx to the Internet!). After drinking a couple cups of crappy coffee, we checked out and walked the couple hundred yards through an empty, drizzly parking lot to the park’s entrance – Hey! Free parking at the hotel, the shuttle bus was not available as of yet.
10:30am:
A lone guard stood vigil under a blue canopy watching over the ‘Golden Pass’ parking lot where twelve cars sat quietly, closest to the main gate. An expanse of tarmac settled behind us; nearly forty to a hundred vehicles sat motionless, their owners moving zombie-like towards what we could only hope would be a fun day at one of our nation’s foremost thrilling amusement parks.
Rain or no rain ... I began to wonder ... “Had the events of 9/11 not happened, would this place be a bustle of activity?”
I’ve been to many opening weekends (rain and shine); there were always A LOT more action than at the gates of PKD that day :-(
BTW - Bring any Coke product to the gates, can or bottle, and get $7 bucks off–on up to six admissions! We saved $14 bucks and that one product cost us under a buck. Yo, Pepsi fan here!
On with the coasters!!!!!
10:40am
We started out in International Street and took the newly carved-out left hand turn located next to “Berserker.” I thought to myself, “Ooh, a shortcut to VOLCANO!” However, ‘Scooby Doo and the Haunted Mansion’ is PKD’s newest attraction. The park map and my ‘follow the park in a clockwise motion theory’ landed us right in front of this fatal attraction. As the line for Scooby didn’t look like it would build any time soon, we traversed our way around it and entered the Congo area of PKD.
10:45am
VOLCANO: The BLAST Coaster! Ahem ... If for some dumb reason you find yourself in this park at the height of the season due to your parents’ lack of (whatever), ... do NOT miss out on this attraction. It may not be the best coaster in the world, but it’s the best PKD has to offer. I had hoped PKD still used ExpressPass (a system designed like Disney’s FastPass), alas ... they now offer something called “Golden Pass,” a program for season pass holders only. The pass allows ERT on certain rides on certain days. Never-the-less ... No express passes; drizzle city; the line was breaking up due to ride malfunction ... duh ... I have been to too many parks on rides with many malfunctions to know that the computers are VERY generous and will spare a human life at all costs. No fear ... we got in line and waited a whole THREE MINUTES for the computer to respond to the problem and get the ride operational again. Now, I don’t usually ride the best coaster first, however, it was beginning to get a bit more overcast than I would have liked and only PKD ‘ops’ knew how long the park would remain open ... A young mother in a yellow slicker, with an even younger son, stood beside us in line, scared to the bone as she had never been on a coaster before; worried about what could be wrong, as a strange looking guy behind her claimed the ride was stuck upside-down at the top. “But the computer will let it coast back to reality ... don’t fret.” The walk to the attraction from the front gate was longer than our wait to board. Volcano is the ONLY suspended looping coaster with TWO LIMS ... One 0-70 in 2 seconds and a second 40-70 in 1.5 seconds straight up and upside down!!!!
The ride was fun, as it always is.
Only because AVALANCHE emblazoned a sign “This Attraction will open at 12pm” we Skipped it and headed straight to the next attraction ...
10:55am
OUTER LIMITS: Flight of Fear!
I’ve been on them all: Flight of Fear PKD and PKI; Poltergeist at SF/FT; Joker’s Jinx at SFA; Rock ‘N Roller Coaster at WDW/MGM ... We followed the park in the same clockwise orientation. ... Flight of Fear is still the best ride of its type.
10 seconds wait ... we walked right onto this ride. I thought because it was drizzly, that everyone would be in this building ... guess again. Wooo-whoooo!!!
11:00am
“Are we gonna get wet on this?”
ANACONDA! Um .... Duh ... Well, as my partner and I crossed the bridge leading to this legendary ‘head-banger,’ a couple of hardy dudes asked me this question as the train slithered back up from the pond which it had just dived.
BTW – All PKD special effects were totally operational that day ... The volcano was spewing flames 10 seconds before the train would make its blast upside down through the top; the water was sloshing up alongside Anaconda as it dived into the murky depths of the Congo; and the lights where flashing throughout Outer Limits.
11:15am
A Hamburger, Fries and a Soda at “Johnny’s” under the squeals of Shockwave while we watched feet kicking as riders traversed Drop Zone. The screams and rumbles of Rebel Yell, XLC, Ricochet, The Hurler and Grizzly could be heard as well as the barks of the ‘game carnys’ as we were deep inside The Grove!
11:30am
We decided to walk our food off ... looked around at all the exciting stuff ‘The grove’ had to offer. In the high heat of the summer, ‘The Grove’ is where ALL the action is. I wondered to myself, “What the hell happened to Wayne’s World?!?!”
11:35am
GRIZZLY! ... The second (or third, or forth) best wooden roller coaster on Earth!!! Okay ... our food hadn’t settled yet, but Grizzly is awesome! As the lines are never more than a half hour long (or, 10 seconds during the off season), true ‘woodie’ fans should not miss out on this ‘may-get-decapitated-any-second’ thrill of a ride!
11:40am
We skipped the Log Flume (still drizzly and didn’t want to get any wetter) and headed straight for SpongeBob 3-D!
ROFL – If you are at all a SpongeBob or a 3-D fan, and like being tossed about while watching a movie ... Bwa-ha-ha-ha!!!!!
High Noon!!!
We spent 12pm high atop the Eiffel Tower.
Um ... on my way up I had to drop to the floor. I am terribly afraid of heights. I had hoped the attraction would not affect me so, as I truly wanted to traverse Drop Zone ... we shall see.
The clouds began to break as we made our way through Nickelodeon Central. SHOCKWAVE was our next coaster. I usually skip it as VORTEX and GEORGIA SCORCHER are so much better. However, my partner had never ridden a ‘stand-up’ before ... well, if you’ve never ridden one ... ya gotta try this ... front row all the way! We waited a whopping 11 minutes!!!! (The wait would have been a measly 3minutes had we ridden anywhere else on the train).
12:15
REBEL YELL ... backwards all the way! As this ride used to be the best in the land, I found it to be bumpy and bruisy :-( Too bad Paramount can’t figure out a way to bring back the smoothness to these tracks like Hershey has with TheComet. The rickety wooden timbers had wracked into our brains ... we headed onto RICOCHET ... um ... Okay ...
Kiddie-Coaster ... fun, fun, fun ... maybe not if you are on the heavier side. I thought the darn thing would topple from high at any moment!!!
12:30
The sun was shining by now! The weather started to warm up! The line for XLC looked like it only had 30 people in it!
Um ... yeah ... yet another ride malfunction! Ha ha ha ha ha ... we headed straight for the receding line! We waited like 30 seconds for the ride to resume, however, the line had only dwindled down a few notches. The last time I was at the park, I had waited for two hours (the LONGEST I have ever waited only for the ride to close for the day -- I got passes for ERT, tho) ...
This time ... 20minute wait for a 15 second ride!
Apparently, there were some folks in this line who have never even heard of Top Thrill Dragster!!! Aside from VOLCANO, Hypersonic XLC (Extreme Launch Coaster) is the best in the park.
Then ... we had to hit HURLER before lunch ... No wait ... just 2minutes of “hurl.”
1pm
LUNCH!!!
The best place in the park is Country Kitchen in OLD VIRGINIA. Bar-B-Que!! Yum ... Chicken and Ribs ... Mmmmmm ... Smothered in Bar-B-Que sauce!!! Finger lickin’ good! And only three more coasters to go.
At this time, we had decided to stay only ‘til 6pm ... the park would close at eight. I suggested we go back to International Street, get a map and see what shows PKD had to offer. I remember the days when Paramount offered a wide variety of shows. From ‘Puttin’ on the Hitz’ to ‘Klingons on Ice!’ ... Alas, the only show PKD had to offer were for 3 to 9 year olds, and the ONLY adult show would not start until May29 ... “Magic of the Movies” .... B-o-r-i-n-g!!!!
We cruised the shops on International Street and worked our way back to KIDZVILLE ... Boy I wish I was small enough to ride RUGRATS Toonpike ... LOL ... Sure ... Tha water wuz not turnin’ at Green Slime Zone ... been there, done that.
Thank God.
By now it wuz ... 2pm!!!!
The sun wuz shinin’ Brightly ...
Scooby Doo’s Ghost Coaster!!!! ... What-a-blast!!!! This has got to be the BEST starter coaster on the planet! I have ridden this over a dozen times over the years, and I’ve got to say, Scooby Doo’s Ghost Coaster is the BEST!!! Fun for Children, ... fun for adults (who really don’t like coasters) and fun for everybody in between. Forty feet high and 28 miles per hour!!!! EXTREME! Okay ... the ride is pure joy.
2:15
TREASURE CAVE!!!
Finally! A walk-thu fun house ... Dump-da-de-dum ....
Okay ... so this would only scare the little kiddiez ... whatever .... the final part of the trek left me delirious. Pitch dark alcoves, spooky twists, slanted floors ... YIKES!!!
2:20
“Scooby Doo! And the Haunted Mansion” Damn! What a long wait we had for this attraction. While the outside was marvelously decorated in classic haunted house style (with the added debauchery of moving plants, bubbling bogs and a stranded Mystery Machine were quite the extreme in my eyes), the VOLCANO loomed over the site promising youngsters of a more frightening future. However, the entire feel of the attraction's innards was overdone with black lights, flourescent paint and an overpowering need to shoot ghosts ... I was distracted by the true thrills of the experience of falling bookcases, toppling boxes, and exploding portraits as I tried my best to find Scoobster (his real name). I left the attraction with only 150 points, while my partner had 1200 points and the two children in front of me had 750 and 825 respectively.
It was a LONG line to get in and the ride was longer than any roller coaster in the park ... nuff said.
3:00pm
Yeah .... Scooby is a BIG HIT with kidz.
My partner and I headed over to AVALANCHE ... I said he had to try it, ‘cause the train leaves the track!!!!
Okay ... the ride is real cool ... NEVER a line ... not even a queue for one ... never-the-less ... AVALANCHE is a fantastic experience!!! Woooo-whoooooo----- yay!
By now, we have gone around the park a couple times and we are back at VOLCANO ... “Can we go again?” ... Sure ... The line looks like it’s poking out of the top of the hole ... We get in line and a couple comes back out claiming, “The line’s too long for us.” ... booo hooo ... ha ha ha ha ha ... Once again, we wait a total of nearly ten minutes before we are strapped into our harnesses that will launch us into the bowels of the Volcano!!!!!
Sometimes, I think people are really stoopid.
I would wait 10 minutes over two hours ANY TIME .... Ms ‘yellow coat’ didn’t ride XLC because the line looked too long and the “not-knowers-of-Top-thrills” rode AVALANCHE three times ... hmmmmm .... Ms. yellow coat popped up in a couple more lines ...
Park attendance at that time was a bit over 3000, therefor, we rode many of the same rides with a lot of the same folks :-/
Hey ... wait a minute ...
DROP ZONE ...
!!!!
295 feet into the air!!!!
70 miles per hour drop!!!!
Okay ....
I couldn’t get up the bolls. But my partner did. I forced him to ride it. I said. “You don’t ride this thing, you ganna regret it the rest of your life!” he waited a whole seven seconds for the ride to reach the top ... it fell to the ground in four.
He thanked me for the ride of his life and on the way home we passed Busch Gardens and waved at the track of Apollo’s Chariot sticking high into the clouds!
Been there, done that!
While Hypersonic lacks in elements, it is a VERY powerful experience. The seats are very comfortable, and I was a bit taken aback by the tiny hand bar I had to hold onto. I LOVE the blast effects on newer coasters (Volcano, Outer Limits, XLC, etc ...), however, the 0-80 (as cool as it is) was not as thrilling as the 0-70 on Volcano. The vertical ascending and descending was a very excellent experience!!!
BTW - Concerning wooden coasters: not sure if it's the fault of PKD maintenance, or the fact the rides are getting older, I found them to be overly jarring; more jarring than times I have ridden previously. Also, PKD on the whole was nicely maintained and cleaner than past seasons.
This was my first posted trip report and I just wanted to show readers how I plan my treks ... I very rarely wait in lines for long periods, while I continue to experience this country's top attractions.
If any of you would like to let me know what you would more like to see in a trip report, or something I could have added/deleted to this one, please let me know.
thanx
-CE
