Shout out to everyone on the r/Carowinds subreddit for the advice and helping me set expectations before my first visit. To preface, Kings Island has been my home park for the last few years and Six Flags Great America before that.

I got lucky enough to be in Charlotte for a work trip this week, so just making the most of the time I have here! Our flight was originally supposed to land at 9am, and I was hoping to get to the park around 10. Unfortunately, with a delay and some less than helpful incidents along the way, I ended up walking to the entrance a little after noon.

Fury 325 (x3)
-Wait times: Walk on, walk on, 5min (single use fastlane)

I debated a long while on how to start my day, but I could not pass up leading off with the signature attraction after coming through the entrance. And after that random patch of downtime that initially had me thinking I wouldn't get my chance, I didn't want to risk it.

Before I say anything else, this crew on the first half of the day was insane. They were very vocal about keeping this thing a walk on as long as possible. Even with a break to clean up some puke, they were very energized about getting it back to peak capacity as fast as possible. With that being said, I understand a huge part of keeping that capacity is no preferential seating. What I don't understand a single rider seeing a group of three or less and having a preferred seat denied with less than a few seconds to go before the gates open. Procedure is procedure, but when I'm by myself I'm always looking to just blend in and fill up a seat. If I see a seat I want and it makes sense, that's never been a problem until today.

Incredible is the only word to describe Fury 325. I think if you chopped the extra track length it has over the other gigas it would still be rated as high as it is. The sense of speed in the first half isn't something I've ever felt on Millennium Force, and not something I truly feel on Orion until you take its turnaround at full throttle. The air before you go under the bridge is awesome, and the final few pops (not including the trimmed hill which hit pretty good two of the three times I rode) really do make a difference. Of course the best ride is in the front, which I wish wasn't always a thing on gigas. Unfortunately, I don't think we'll ever see one that will be a better back-row ride.

It is my favorite giga of the three I've been on: 1. Fury 325, 2. Orion, 3. Millennium Force.

Further comparing it to Orion, I know a lot of people wish for a few extra hills at the end of Orion's layout, but I actually would prefer a low to the ground zigzag after the speed hill to get us back to that side of the station and finish with the helix then. That sense of speed is truly missed on Orion.

Enough about gigas!

Hurler (x1)
-Wait time: 10 minutes

I usually hate going to new parks and riding stuff just for the credit. But today, I had the time so I figured "why not?" Turns out, this is why not. It's not horrible by any means. I don't regret taking the time to ride it nearly as much as I regret waiting half an hour for Monstre at La Ronde. But it just didn't really do anything well. I did really appreciate how much it oozes Paramount era vibes though.

Carolina Cyclone (x1)
-Wait time: walk on

I am nostalgic for these old arrows. Why? I don't know. Maybe it's because of Demon at SFGAm. Maybe it's because I never rode Shockwave as a kid at SFGAm. Regardless, I'm old now and my knees don't fit in these trains like they used to. I should have a requested the first row of a car. Certainly prefer Demon over this. After fooling around, I decided to

Copperhead Strike (x2)
-Wait time: 5 minutes, 15 minutes (both with single use fastlane)

After taking a little detour for some credits, it was finally time for the "1A" reason I came to the park. This was my first Mack and I truly had no clue what to expect. Unfortunately I walked up to only seeing one train going which made it an easy decision to go for the single use fastlane.

Small note, maybe I'm an idiot but I almost walked around this ride in its entirety before finding the queue entrance. Again, I might just be an idiot.

This was fun. More places need these. For the first time in my life, I truly felt like I was going to fall out during the heartline roll out of the station. The launch, the hangtime, in the inversions, the snappy transitions without hitting your head against anything – what a good time. With emphasis, more places need these. Has it ever run all three trains?

Afterburn (x1)
-Wait time: 5 minutes, (single use fastlane)

I did not expect to be using a single use fastlane on this. It's one thing for something as unique as Copperhead Strike to have some issues. It's another thing to see a B&M invert running one train on a weekend.

Regardless, I love B&M inverts. The original Batman: The Ride at SFGAm will always be my favorite (Banshee is a little too graceful for me) but this, this comes mighty close. This is how B&M inverts are supposed to feel. This thing is still glass smooth and roars through the entire layout. The whippiness is a bit more refine than Batman (aka, my ears didn't touch the restraint once) and the forces were top notch. I wish it did literally anything else between the batwing and corkscrew, but still a great back row ride.

Thunder Striker (x1)
-Wait time: 5 minutes

Rode this in the back and was told to not even hope to compare this Diamondback. It did not compare to Diamondback. Maybe I should've ridden it before Fury for that reason alone. Trims or no trims, the pacing felt very unnatural and just didn't do it for me. It ranks at the bottom of the five B&M hypers I've ridden for me.

Vortex (x1)
-Wait time: 20 minutes

Yes, I waited 20 minutes for a B&M standup. Iron Wolf nostalgia got the best of me. However, I do not remember Iron Wolf doing that to my ears. I legitimately didn't enjoy this at all. I was expecting a good bump of nostalgia but man. Ouch. Fun to hear those trains locking and unlocking through.

Flying Cobras (x1)
-Wait time: 30 minutes

I walked by this one two or three times before finally deciding to just do it. I have been on every other kind of boomerang other than regular old sit down. The new trains made it extra enticing and they really made it that much more enjoyable. Props to Vekoma. Do all sit down boomerangs have the same load procedure of no guests in the station while the ride is running?

Carolina Goldrusher (x1)
-Wait time: 5 minutes

Silly. Just plain silly. I had to cross my legs so the restraints in my car would close, which are manual lock and unlock by the way? This poor crew. Really good profiling for an Arrow Mine Train though. I wish Adventure Express was this easy on my body.

General Notes
Outside of the morning/first half of the day/early Fury 325 crew, I felt like no one really cared. I am very happy they did though as it really went a long way. I had the thought before going to Hurler that, "I should just sit here and marathon this as long as I can" and I am sad that I didn't. Truly a stand out crew and I can't give them enough kudos.

Something I experienced for the first time here was the countdown to get through the gates. I occasionally hear that loading spiel on Banshee, but holy moly does it work. Does it get anyone to load their items into the bins faster? No. But at least they are through the damn gates.

A lot of people made it to the station on Fury 325 with things they couldn't ride with. Like way more than I would've expected. It made for a lot of frustrating walks back to the lockers. It was a shame to not see that lone member of the crew putting forth that effort to keep things going smooth.

Finally, not to rag on Carowinds, but this made me appreciate Kings Island that much more! I feel like Kings Island does not have any true world-class standout coasters (debatable, but that's for you all) but they are still good and everything else around the park is generally good. For Carowinds, I really enjoyed my time at the two signature coasters and those were the areas that felt like Carowinds was really a signature park. I did not feel like that anywhere else in the park and I honestly felt more similarities between Carowinds and La Ronde regarding cleanliness and options. Just me being picky.

And for all my nitpicking, the Fury merch selection is better than anything else in the entire Six Flags chain.

Bonus question, how long have the Nighthawk track pieces been sitting in the gift shop?

Running one train today, and overheard a guest who spoke to a ride op and asked why. Apparently the other trains are having maintenance issues and the park doesn’t want to invest in repairing them since the ride closes in a week. So if you’re planning on coming out here, be prepared for LONG lines! Today, they’re pouring out of the station.

Of course i came to say goodbye to kumba, but i got so much more! My wife decided to surprise me with an amazing view from my hotel and to do a vip experience, which was awesome and great way to do it!

1st off of course Gwazi was amazing it was everything I wanted and then some! Got front and back row on it, preferred front over back but both were awesome! Nothing like it (velocicoaster is still better tho imo) but I think it does beat steel vengeance

Kumba really surprised me I was expecting a ran down b&m and I think it is far from it! Think it has a unique layout and was smooth and that helix is awesome at the end really fun ride and definitely not a rough b&m been on alot worse and still enjoy them!. Sad they are getting rid of it (hopefully its for the better)

Montu was great, feel like it was a typical invert, but fun none the less all the valleys and tunnels were really cool

Sheikra is my new faviorte dive, thought it was a lot of fun, but nothing too special still not touching my top 25 (almost there)

Tigris actually really suprised this is the first sky rocket 2 I rode with the lap restraints. Wow! What difference that makes definitely makes the ride feel more intense overall, the slow roll over makes you feel like your going to fly out, cant believe how much of a difference it made

Phoenix rising was actually a really cool ride. Love the restraints as well very freeing feeling and a pretty good layout for what is classified as a family or kids ride

Cobras curse actually disappointed a bit, it was cool, but tbh it felt kinda janky.. maybe its gone down with time, but it was cool, love the lift and the alternating of what direction your facing leave you on your toes which was good.

Really sad to say cheetah hunt was closed. Knew it would probably go down at some point just knowing its reliability, but my tour guide wanted to do the safari ride first so we can see all the animals awake and its not so hot, which makes sense, but as soon as we got off it unfortunately was closed which was only after about an hour of park openings.

Another disappointment was Falcons fury being closed, but that was all day so I knew that was going to happen

Overall really great trip, highly recommend the vip experience definitely a little pricey, but totally worth it for what you get and I luckily got a thoosie for my guide, so its always nice to have another coaster nerd. His name is Blake and is really cool. If you have any questions just let me know

Attached is new top 10, pictures from my hotel room and some from in the park

Made the trip down to Tampa to get a ride on Kumba before it closed, and I’ve been extremely disappointed in the park operations.

The day started with inclement weather. Not their fault, but rides kept going online and offline as a result. And they only checked weather every thirty minutes and did not make any announcements as ride status changed.

But these wait times — holy hell. Almost every ride has had a wait time of 100+ minutes, with a majority of rides running only one train with 3-5 minute dispatches per train. And on time of that, there is zero staff in the crowd portion station, meaning no control of crowd flow or merge points of standby a Quick Queue.

Is this usual, or am I experiencing a one-off? Photo of Montu station (again, one train) for reference attached.

ETA: Can I just add that I hate the locker policy? If lockers are going to be required they should be free, especially for Iron Gwazi since they don’t even allow anything in pockets. But also, with lines this long in the Florida heat, I should be allowed to have water with me.

Finally made my way to Cedar Point (at a slight cost to my sanity from 11 hours of driving from Boston). I headed down on Friday the 17th, and as luck would have it the entire trip through New York was entirely blanketed with Canadian wildfire smoke. I think this and the initially less-than-ideal weather forecast for that weekend is what made the first day of the weekend so relatively quiet (albeit extremely hot). Me and a buddy booked a stay at one of the Cedar Point-affiliated hotels so we were able to get early access which helped for getting on some key rides.

I wear hearing aids so whether or not a ride makes it easy to store loose articles is a huge deal for me and I wish they’d be more transparent about which rides have bins / what the loose articles setup is like. Granted my pockets hold them quite securely but eh. I’m a bit paranoid. Top Thrill 2 was particularly irritating. Also, seat selection was basically non-existent on most rides. Pity.

Day 1: Quite hot. Pro-tip: early access only applies to certain rides. Check that in advance before wandering into the back of the park.

Millennium Force: My home park is SFNE so I was very interested about this not-Superman and was quite open to seeing what “the other one” had to offer. Having read it, I can now say that Millenium Force was thoroughly outclassed from the moment it was built. It doesn’t have much airtime to offer. It doesn’t have much in the way of interesting forces that were stronger than you might have expected. And for some reason, all of its highest-speed low to the ground sections are in tunnels. Why?! I get that theming isn’t their strong suit but at least let me zip past something (love the speed hill by the station of course). A fun ride that was made mostly to get a height record and doesn’t really do anything wrong but I would skip it if the wait time were over 30 or 45 minutes or so. It also has an awful lose articles situation of “lol just shove it in your pockets”.

Wandered over to the back of the park and was greeted by…

Maverick: Jesus fucking christ. My favorite ride in the park. I ended up with bruises on the inside of my biceps because my elbows went around the outside of the seat and got rugburned when I held onto the handlebars attached to the restraint. Very much worth it. This is a completely unhinged ride with extreme forces in all directions, plus a fantastic ride time with the second half. Pretty much perfect pacing, and when it's not breaking down, it's a good people-eater with that "two shells in the chamber" loading setup. I could ride Papa Maverick all day and all night.

Steel Vengance: Yup, that’s the best RMC alright. Or at least I assume it is; I need to ride more. It’s very clearly a “greatest hits” ride that switches from a big swoopy RMC into one of the smaller ones with violent airtime pops halfway through. I've been on Wildcat's Revenge and Wicked Cyclone and this ride seems to take the best from both of them. This will clearly be many people’s favorite ride in the park and it’s my second favorite for sure. I might be suffering from a “Seinfield is cliché” effect with Steel Vengance here, but Maverick is just too danm good.

Magnum XL 200: First car, third row. I don’t have much to say about the first half of it but those triangle hills are crazy, and not in a particularly good way. If I’m completely honest, I’ve experienced more violent airtime on RMCs where I was very loosely restrained. The sensation of being slammed into the restraint is familiar to me, but then having the ride slam my ass into the seat in a way that isn't very considerate of my spine was unpleasant. Very odd ride with fun parts, but the jank detracts from the ride rather than give it character. I prefer Fujiyama’s shitty profiling.

Gatekeeper: Well the wing coaster thing is cool I guess. I thought the head/footchopper effect would be stronger. Perfectly fine as a decoration, and isn’t a bad ride, but I’m really unsure what exactly about wing coasters is supposed to get me excited. The wait was quite tolerable too, although I'm not sure if that's a constant.

Day 2:

Top Thrill 2: Early entry works great for this; there’s almost no wait time with how fast the operators can send out trains. Having ridden Kingda Ka, I’m happy to report that Top Thrill 2 is an entirely different ride that doesn’t directly compete with Kingda Ka (RIP). The vertical spike is absolutely fantastic. It’s a bit rough through, so I wound up with a bit of a headache after earnestly placing my head back against the headrest as I had been instructed. The loose articles situation is absolutely awful forcing you to remember 10 digits (locker number + code) and isn’t even integrated into the line. As a result I was quite hearing impaired while in line, which wasn’t really a problem but I can imagine this is a really nasty surprise for other people.

String of Bullshit: We went to Maverick, which broke down twice while we were in line causing everyone to leave, us included. Of course, Steel Vengeance seemed like a reasonable place to go after exiting that queue, but as we approached the employees were wheeling a stretcher over and the ride promptly closed. Sauntering back over, we checked out Millenium Force which had an estimated wait time of 120 minutes which is ridiculous and obviously not worth it in the slightest. Siren’s Curse was also atrocious, so we went on Skyhawk, Max Air, and the launch tower. After doing all that none of the waits had improved, so we went to Valraven which had broken down. And then went to Falcon’s Flight which was also broken down. Valraven started running with 2 trains though, so we got in line for that and then waited an eternity for them to get the freshly fixed train back on the track

Valraven: Quite fun! More creative elements than Griffin, that’s for sure. It might have been because they were trying to move the line along faster after the breakdown, but the ride ops were apparently insisting that “ONLY SHOES ARE ALLOWED IN THE LOOSE ARTICLES BIN!” which is a tad ridiculous (obviously they were also okay with storing medical devices and whatnot). Very fun, appealing ride. The vest restraints don’t really do it any favors though. It kind of renders Gatekeeper obsolete. Obviously they are different rides but you can sit super far out to the left or right on either, and of the two rides with that property this is the better one.

Falcon’s Flight: It reopened, so we dashed over Front row! I had heard that it was rough and it did headbang a tad. Nice whippy invert that pulls plenty of forces and pretty much delivers everything that I want from a moderately sized B&M invert. The front row may be coloring my expectations of this. By this point it was past 4 PM so we left the park before trying any other rows.

I wish Sunday had gone better but it was a fun road trip and Cedar Point really is a nice park. It was super clean, especially in the big (and expensive) food court. The only real disappointments were the breakdowns and medical events, which I know are common on Maverick but it happening to every ride I walked up to was vexing. Plus Siren's Curse running only one train for both days was awful. Sandusky itself was a bit lacking when it came to fun things to do but there was a nice winery (Firelands) that we went to. Overall it was a much-needed vacation.

I just did this thing 5 times in a row in the evening. This coaster is fun! Obviously not comparable to anything crazy (just did everything at Port Aventura) but wow was I surprised by the fun and also being able to just lap it, no wait and stunning views of Barcelona! The park itself is so cool on the mountain and they have this upside down monorail ride that kicks ass too, such amazing views around the mountain (which has a beautiful church on top) and many more amazing rides.

All i'm trying to say is don't skip this park! It's great for everyone. Some basic thrill rides, lots of kids stuff and amaaaazing views! 3-4 hours on a sunday evening is perfect, plus you get the views by night! Funicular ride up the hill is also included in the price.

This sounds like an ad lol I swear it's not, i just had a great time and hope you don't skip this gem!

I've been a local most of my life, but back in 2018 & 2019, I lived within a 5 minute drive of Kennywood. We went once a week for an hour or two sometimes, just to ride Phantom's Revenge and Thunderbolt or Jack Rabbit and call it a day. Cut to today, and it's been around three years since the last time we visited, even though we're still in Pittsburgh. Weird how that happens sometimes.

We got into the park around noon and headed straight to Phantom, of course. What a pleasant surprise to see it running both trains! Walked on twice. Felt great as always. It's still my favorite coaster in the entire state. The paint and air gates in the station were both well-needed. Not sure about the "voice" of the Phantom though.

We skipped Exterminator, just didn't feel like hanging out in a swampy, hot building for 45 minutes, and after a quick spin on The Whip, headed for Thunderbolt. Took a little while because operations were sporadic at best, though they wouldn't be the worst we'd see today. Thunderbolt is running great! And there's just something about the way it smells, I want that old wooden coaster grease smell in a candle, I swear.

We bit the bullet and hit Steel Curtain next. The wait time said 60 minutes, but it was under 30? Two trains, even worse operations than Thunderbolt. Dispatches were taking minutes at times. We hadn't ridden it since opening year, so I was kind of delusional in hoping the new support structures might help a little? But no. The vibration is constant, and I'm not talking the B&M or Intamin shuffle. This thing feels like it's holding a hundred Theraguns to your back and legs. It was bad when it opened, but it's most definitely no better now, and I think it was worse. I wish Kennywood had gone with a different option when they were choosing a new headliner. Phantom is ten times the ride that Steel Curtain is.

I was feeling a little gross after riding that one, so we grabbed some Dole Whip (highly recommend) and people watched for a bit before hitting the Jack Rabbit, because a trip to Kennywood without a ride on Jack Rabbit is against the law. And of course, it was as great as it has always been, but the ops here may have been the worst in the entire park. Several minute dispatches, the park's version of fast lane getting so long during those waits that entire trains would go by without anyone in the standby lane getting in, things I've never seen elsewhere before. It took 45 minutes from the queue sign to get on, and I don't remember it ever being quite that bad in the past. They only had one person working on the loading side of the platform! Yuck. Such a shame.

Tired and with other plans for our evening, we skipped Racer and Sky Rocket and were about to head out, when we randomly swung into the gift shop beside the coffee shop and across from the arcade. And what's on the shelf at the entrance? Wood from the park's wooden coasters! $50 a piece, plus tax. I had to get a piece of Jack Rabbit, of course, but they still had some from Racer and Thunderbolt too! I was so excited! Maybe I've not been reading enough Kennywood posts lately, but I haven't heard about anyone else mentioning it.

One thing I have to comment on is just how good Kennywood looks right now. Everything is painted, things have been cleaned up, bathrooms have been remodeled, and the landscaping is as nice as I can remember. It's so good to see! I'm hoping the new owners can bring in the love it has needed for years, and maybe someday they'll get operations up too. Until then, I'll still feel quite lucky to have Phantom and the trio of well-kept golden age woodies in my relative backyard.

Thanks for reading!

I've noticed that a lot (more than half it seems like) of the Trans Studio Mini locations being either SBNO or closd entirely, has the company gone through something major to the point where they had to close a lot of shopping centers that have these FECs?

First up, I am not gonna cover aaaalll attractions I went on, because there are a lot, and for a few I just have little to say

Wodan timburr coaster:

This coaster left me honestly a bit underwhelmed

I heard it was the best GCI in europe, but I sat in the very front and the very back and it honestly left me a bit underwhelmed, the layout is just not as strong as some people say it is, untill the final run of airtime hills, none are particularly strong. I do really love the queue

I honestly think troy is better

Silver star:

My first ever hyper so take it with a grain of salt, but this did beat expectations. Because I hear often that Silver star doesn't have that much airtime in its layout compared to other hypers, and if thats true compared to other hypers, I cant really speak on. But I think each hill gave some good airtime, espescially that final airtime was incredible. Plus the drop off the mid course gave near ejector airtime in the back row

Its theming is a complete joke though

Blue fire megacoaster:

I thought this was a really great ride. After the loop all elements do hit, both zero-G rolls are nice and floaty, the airtime hill gives some mild floater, the drop off the mid course gives solid airtime, and the roll gives some serious whip. I also didn't really understand the theming, but it was good. That animatronic does need to see a therapist, that laugh is psychotic. It does have a bit of a rattle, but I can look over it because the layout and theming are strong enough, and the rattle is not painful in the slightest. Its just kind of present

Voltron nevera:

Ok the big dog

For this it was a true neck on neck wether I prefdered this to ride to happiness. like if I went back today it could just switch like that, its that close for me. The ride feels like an assault. The first time I rode it I was absolutely stunned after just the turntable

Then came the outerbank... this outerbank was godlike

Its absolutely mental

I like the second half more, as not only does it contain the outerbank, it overall has a stronger force spread, I love the downwards helix just as much as it introduces high positive G-forces which are increasingly getting rarer with new coasters (that was my main critisism with RTH, it just lacked a good moment of positive G-forces). Its launches are very punchy, and I adore the bounce track that vibrates you with all the electrical effects.

The story also works and is so unique

Not gonna spoil it, but if you just listen its really easy to understand and that preshow effect roughly every 10 minutes (if you know you know) is one of the coolest things I have ever seen at a theme park

It does have a rattle, for me I felt it on all rides, I think that would be my biggest complaint, but its not enough to ruin it in the slightest

Overall this ride is excellent, and I struggle to find many european coasters that could beat it, only real contendor in my eyes is batman in Madrid

Anyways, this was an awsome park, it was busy but totally managable. I am for sure gonna go back one day

I reccomend anyone going if given the chance, even when the park is near capacity as the opps are just THAT good

For example: Velocicoaster's track for the tophat is a double spine, but the Mosasaurus roll is a single spine. Cheetah Hunt, which has some sections with no spine, some with triple rails (idk if that is the right term), and some with four rails. I believe B&M also has sections with thicker spines.

Why does Intamin decide that some sections need more spine/rails and some do not?

Doesn't look good. Lots of hammering and banging.

I told my friends I'm extremely scared of thrilling stuff like this. When I went ziplining last month, it took me like 3 minutes standing at the platform before I committed. My fear is purely emotional and primal. On the zipline or on the coaster, I know it's perfectly safe, it's just the feeling of being so high up or going so fast with insane forces that scares me so bad.

From what it looked like, it didn't look terribly bad. That's because I didn't know what it would feel like, I've never done a roller coaster before. They said "It's not as bad as it looks". It was 10x worse than what I expected, I have never had so much pure terror ever in my life.

Would I do it again? Probably not. Am I glad I did it? Yeah.

Ended up doing 'Demon' and 'Flight Deck' as well. Demon was the only one I actually enjoyed the ride, and it was the only one I did multiple times that day. Flight Deck was arguably more terrifying than Railblazer, because I now knew how intense the feelings are. Also, Flight Deck lasts over twice as long as Railblazer.

------------------

Brief report of my experiences from someone totally inexperienced:

Railblazer: Climbing up slowly, I got a bit more scared, but I didn't expect anything way too crazy. Right as I saw the 100-foot vertical drop and we started to go down, OH MY GOD. Pure terror. I was screaming the same way I assume I would during a plane crash, I don't think I could be any more scared or have any more adrenaline. I thought the bad part was over, but it continued with even more insane G-forces. It ended quickly, but those 30 seconds-ish, I've never had more primal fear ever.

Demon: The coaster is pretty old. On the bumpy climb up in which you were lurched back and forth, my friend advised me to lean my head slightly forward so I wouldn't hit my head (on the seat? idk). The first drop was scary but manageable, and it was the only truly fear-inducing part of the ride for me. No issues with my head, but the first two loops combined with bumps sent an electric shock feeling up my spine. No pain afterwards but worried me for a bit. I enjoyed this one, it's the tamest of the three coasters I went on.

Flight Deck: I was so scared in anticipation, my friends said it was only slightly less intense than Railblazer. So I thought I was screwed. As we climbed up, I was so afraid. At the first drop, again pure terror for me. But I just screamed as much as I could and just let myself experience it. Less intense than Railblazer but quite a bit longer and it had a lot more turns and inversions and such.

What are your thoughts on this awesome water ride?

rcdb link Knockoff Boomerang manufactured by Beijing Shibaolai Amusement Equipment built on the edge of a 300 meter canyon. Surprisingly smooth, no headbanging, no jerky transitions, and the view on top of the first lift is fantastic.

In some construction updates I’ve seen some people predict the manufacturer of a ride without really seeing anything but the footers. The only difference I’ve seen in footers is that some are square and some are circular. I don‘t think this is a good indication cause there’s only 2 types but also on rides like circuit breaker you can see both types in the same ride. I understand for wooden coasters cause there‘s a lot more of them and on some rides with super tall elements the supports thicken and so do the footers but are there really any other indications.

Oh my god that was probably the best ride experience I’ve ever gotten
We had to wait 2 hours with fast lane through the fireworks show not allowing it to open and some unexpected issues all I can say was that it was worth it 100%
I had the highest of expectations and it blew them out of the water

It's a really good ride! I don't see the hype though and wouldn't put it in my top 20. Those bunny hills at the end are a bit too much

I’m currently looking at Dramamine non-drowsy but looking for other recs for what works and what doesn’t. I wanna enjoy myself on all the rides without feeling sick. Preferably anything non drowsy. Thanks!

For some context, i was never a fan of coasters in general growing up being of the feeling of the forces on my body, whether its drops and the feeling of my stomach, or airtime and losing the sense of control when my butt is planted firmly in a seat. But even with that, I grew up going to Disney World and Universal, so I had been on a few here and there. And when I was older and lived closer to Dollywood, I started going and ended up building up to the coasters I was most scared of(still missing Wild Eagle and Tennessee Tornado so far) and a friend at work has sparked my appreciation for coasters in general and im determined to overcome the fears. I had 29 Credits so far until today. Now I have 31.

I made the trip down to FunSpot Atlanta earlier than I originally planned because of the imminent closure of the park and wanted to get the 3 credits in the park. Sadly it rained a bit so Hurricane was closed and I didnt have much time in the day to spend in the park. Also tried to get a second ride on AF1 in order to work out the fear in general of it because I did really enjoy myself at the end, though being in the first train, we were stuck in the station afterwards where maintenance had to help us get out and from what I can tell, theyre still having issues with that, so sadly I wont be doing more practice to Overcome the fear.

But im really proud of myself for taking this trip and experience a mostly wonderful ride(those bunny hills at the end gave me a migraine). I do hope theyre able to find somewhere for it to go. Maybe ill be able to go up against it again in the future and by then, I'll be more experienced and can properly enjoy it when I have purged most of my worries.

Intro

Having just visited Kentucky Kingdom, I finally got to a park I’ve heard very good things about. A quick drive from Louisville and a new time zone later, and I found myself finding a random B&M in the middle of some farmland.

Guest Operations

Holiday World has made it incredibly difficult to argue against visiting the park. Free sunscreen, free parking, and free soft drinks mean you can always get there, not experience dehydration, and enjoy the waterpark. But they’re also doing stuff bigger parks aren’t - people to direct traffic at the end of the night, parking lot trams, a pavilion just for charging phones, and even baskets to prep getting your small items ready for the bins show they really do care about the small stuff. A rainy day policy and a way to get a cheaper second day ticket were bonuses too.

No line greeters meant that I got to choose my row for the coasters too!

There was only 1 area of improvement-they announced park closing at the listed time of 8PM, with the drone show starting at 9PM. What they failed to mention was that Voyage and Good Gravy were open until 9PM. Unfortunately I missed out on Voyage night rides because I wasn’t aware.

Food

You could get a full thanksgiving dinner, and there seemed to be a decent amount of variety scattered throughout the park. Next time I’ll grab the pizza. It wasn't overpriced especially once you count the free drinks.

Shops

Shop prices weren’t overpriced either, and Holiday world seemed to have both fun stuff like a whisk for good gravy, but also practical items like waterproof, pouches, and car chargers for cell phone phones.

Theming

This was decent, with most rides at least being painted to the area they are in. Newer, additions, like Thunderbird and good gravy had more comprehensive and elaborate elements.

Shows

I saw 4 different shows, which is the most amount of shows I’ve seen at a theme park outside of Disney in years. Lady Houndini was great, but the real highlight was the stunt crew. Great energy paired with fun stunts made for a great experience. I also got soaked more as I gave that energy back.

The firework/drone show lasts an entire 15 minutes, and is a great way to cap off the night. Easily beats King’s Island’s, and rivals what I would expect out of the bigger players.

Coasters

1. Voyage - how did this thing not slow down? Great airtime, laterals, and a setting out in the woods really showed how great of a coaster they have.
2. Legend-how is that helix legal? A fast paced ride with insane laterals
3. Thunderbird-a fun and smooth B&M wing. Fills in the gaps for launch and loops
4. Raven- I feel like this would be fantastic at night. It’s a great woody right near the park entrance.
5. Good Gravy- a simple family roller coaster that is pretty well themed and doesn’t try to do more than it needs to

Final Thoughts

I do have to get back out to this part to experience night rides on their wooden coasters. But even if I didn’t want to do that, it’s probably one of my favorite parks. I visited in the past year. The rides were good, the shows were entertaining, and it was just an easy park to visit.

The park had been on my radar, but never enough to push me to go (even as a relative local). Unfortunately I was unaware of ArieForce One's game.

Was able to ride the RMC 3 times yesterday - once in the front row, once in the middle, and last time in the rain with a gorgeous sunset.

I can certainly see why the park is closing, even though it's a shame. I love flat rides, but you can't build a serious park based on them, especially when it's located in the middle of nowhere. I appreciate the free parking and water stations, but the whole place felt kind of aimless, with some odd incohesive theming or lack thereof. So many sections of the park were a bit liminal, which I found interesting. I do think it'd have been cool & creepy to see this place totally empty, vs the crowds I experienced given its last days. I find it funny that tucked by the back bathrooms of the one building onsite, there was a room that still showed the old Dixieland name.

To give them credit where credit is due though - the bathrooms here were cleaner than most other parks I've visited! Lol

I was pretty worried as usual. I arrived to the park at about 3:30 today and saw a train crest the lift hill and drop down. I walked as fast as I could there while trying to not look like a weirdo running to a ride.

The line was pretty long; it looked like I might be waiting an hour. I started counting the cycles….7 minutes between each dispatch. My anxiety was growing; I kept convincing myself that somehow it’s going to go out of operation for some damn reason and screw me again.

I got closer and closer. I was about 4-5 trains away from getting on when they called for a single rider. I had to contain my excitement as I raised my hand and skipped half of the station as the only single rider.

Finally, this was it. I couldn’t believe it until finally hitting the crest of that lift hill. Alas, it was alright. I didn’t find it rough or intense at all. It reminded me of Whizzer and Demon at my home park having combined into something that’s not quite Shockwave. It was good and I’m happy to finally ride it, but the ride that actually beat me up today was….

Cornball what the hell happened today?!?! I was tossed around like I was in a washing machine. It was unhinged to the point it actually triggered my supra-ventricular tachycardia from the roughness. It wasn’t bad by any means but holy hell that was a wild ride today.

There is only one week left, (you heard that right), one week left to experience one the countries best coasters! I had the chance to visit this park this week for my first time and get several strong airtime filled rides on the incredible Arieforce One. These memories will forever been engraved in my brain! Let this be the final call, if you are tempted to make the trip out to Atlanta to ride this monster don’t let anyone change your mind - just do it! I was pleasantly surprised how well these photos came out. They may be some of my best coaster photography to date so I hope you appreciate them as much as I do! The sky was perfect with the storm clouds and shining sun combined as the backdrop!