Theme Park Discussion / FredD goes to America

I went to America in June, for 3 weeks. I only went for the theme parks (but we also did a zoo one day) but it was an amazing trip. The best I have ever done (so far). I was so shocked by the friendliness of the Americans, not only the ride ops but also other visitors, who were really interested from where we came (though we had to explain 8 out of 10 where Belgium can be find  ). It's so much different than in Europe, so much friendlier in the States, WOW. And it isn't faked, it feels really sincere. Never seen that over here.

 

Also so many pretty girls over there and they are so social and open. Food was a bit cliche, with most of the time fast food but it's from a way better quality than over here in Belgium, Europe. Loved the waitresses in Tilted Kilt (they should come to Europe), the club house sandwich at Applebee's and the Jack Daniels burger I had at TGI's Friday is the best burger I have ever tasted. So yeah, much of my negative prejudices were debunked. I'll definitely go back there.

 

 

Six Flags Great America

 

First park of the trip was Six Flags Great America, which we already visited on the day of arrival (after a flight of 9 hours). We got Six Flags passes since we also planned to do the Saint-Louis park. It had a promotion in October 2012, you could buy one for $ 65 but you had to go to a SF park to make that pass in 2012. No problem for Six Flags, they gave us the promotion anyways and upgraded our passes to golden passes without extra charge!

 

 

 

 

Entering the park, after a flight of 9 hours you don't want to be scanned another time. Never seen it in an European park so it was pretty weird and a bit frustrating. But of course, with the gun laws in America it's quite understandable. Since we were a group of 26 people, it took some time to make our golden passes. Six Flags: "No problem guys, here you have ride exit passes, 2 for each person. Have a nice day!". Our first acquaintance with the friendliness we would experience over the whole trip.

 

 

 

 

We decided to use one of those ride exit passes immediately for Raging Bull, because it was pretty crowded and we didn't feel like waiting 90 minutes. Raging Bull became my first American coaster, but it kinda dissapointed me... There are brakes on the second hill and they slow it way too much down. The part after the MCBR was the best part of this coaster. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That day we rode 2 more coaster, American Eagle is an old racing woodie. Didn't have high expectations like I had with Raging Bull, but American Eagle surprised me in good way. Those coasters were pretty amusing with even some airtime. Only the last helix was a bit 'auwch'. That was the end of the first day of Six Flags Great America, but we came back the next day.

 

 

 

 

Next morning we had no chance to wake up late, because we were expected early at the entrance of the park. Six Flags gave our Belgian group of rollercoaster enthusiasts an early entrance so we could do the first rides of X-Flight! Thank you Six Flags! We rode him 2 times before the 'normal' visitors entered the queue and our mini-Extra Rollercoaster Time (ERT) was done.

 

Swarm at Thorpe is the only B&M wing rider I've done so far, but X-Flight is better. It's more powerful than Swarm and I think X-Flight has a better lay-out.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lucky for us, X-Flight is at the back of the park so when the park opened for the other guests we had the chance to do some rides at the back of the park without any lines. First we went to Vertical Velocity, since it has a bad capacity. There is no Intamin Impulse coaster in Europe, so it was my first coaster of this type. Did not like it very well, you relies way too much on the bar to feel comfortable. Ride ops was great though, singing songs and counting wrong so people didn't expect when they would be launched.

 

 

 

 

We have a Batman coaster in Europa (at Madrid) which I've done. But Six Flags Great America came up with an idea to distinguish their Batman from the many clones. Let's just place the train backwards.  Yeah great idea?! Was pretty nervous because I heard stories from others who rode him it was sick. I agree, it was sick. But in a good way! Riding it forwards, it's already pretty intense, but backwards that's another story... We used our only ride exit pass we still had but the ride ops didn't take it, so we could use it again for another ride. Thank you Six Flags!

 

 

 

 

 

Then we went to do some kiddie coasters. You're a rollercoaster enthusiast or you're not! We don't discriminate.

 

 

 

 

 

I wouldn't want to do that queue when it's full ^  It was pretty hot over there, didn't expect that. I brought 5 sweaters but never used any of them. So we did the log flumes to cool off. Pretty fun, and bizarrely with a special ride ops on the top next to the big drop. Just sitting there. And waving to us of course.

 

 

 

 

Thanks to the ride ops from Batman, we still had one ride exit pass we could use. We decided to use it for the spinning wild mouse Ragin' Cajun since we didn't want to lose time queuing for something stupid like this. Which we also can do in Europe.

 

 

 

 

With the entrance of the rapids next to Ragin' Cajun, our choice was easily made. We had to queue some time for this but the nice portions of water we got was worth it. Half of our boat was also filled by African-American teenage girls. All the staff at Six Flags Great America were so friendly, but it was kinda awkward when the also African-American ride ops here put her fist in the air and softly yelles 'black power' to those teenage girls. It didn't work though, those teenage girls catched up most of the water

 

 

 

 

Fourteen coasters... in one park... As European, you're not used to that and since it's not a trip you make every year we really wanted to do every coaster. So also Dark Knight, an indoor wild mouse which we also have many of in Europe. It was quite a long time queuing over here, with always an extra queue hallway when you expected to arrive at the station. But this was the best wild mouse I have done. Just the best themed wild mouse I've seen. And he doesn't slow down at all, which European wild mouses do way too often.

 

 

 

 

The coaster I was looking forward the most, was Superman - Ultimate flight. Why? Simply, I have never done a flying coaster (they are hard too find in Europe) so it was a great new experience for me. I have to admit I was nervous, not knowing what to expect really. But those nerves immediately disappeared when the train did his first drop. Wow! What an experience! You'll never get a closer feeling to flying. And the pretzel loop is probably the greatest element on a coaster! Really a big shame there almost no (B&M) flying coasters in Europe. Wished parks bought more of this instead of those wingers.

 

 

 

 

 

Just 3 more coasters for the bingo. Whizzer was next, a decent fun Schwarzkopf coaster. It had really good drops and rode smooth. Much better family coasters than those stupid powered coasters from Mack.

 

 

 

 

We had some fear for riding Viper, since we have a clone in Germany (Bandit, Movie Park Germany) that is one of the worst coasters I've been on. His German brother is the opposite of smooth and it's one of the roughest coasters I rode. But Viper didn't live up our fears, lucky us. When it rides smooth, like Viper, it is actually a good coaster. I hope they can fix their version in Germany, because this was really an enjoyable ride.

 

 

 

 

 

Last of the fourteen coasters we did, was Demon, an old Arrow looping coaster. There aren't many Arrow's in Europe but I'm aware of their reputation. Because Demon didn't corner so much it wasn't that bad, only the run-up to the corkscrews were painful. 

 

 

We had an amazing time at Six Flags Great America, it was an excellent park to start our American trip. Everyone was so friendly, the ride ops, the management who gave us those extras,... 

 

 

If this trip report is liked, I'll put the other parks online as well.

what other parks did you visit? I'd love to read them.

 

I think its funny what you think of America, because the cliche is generally that there are loads of pretty girls in Europe and great food. But I suppose if you're looking for fast food, America is your place

^Yeah, even as a resident, I wouldn't really expect Americans to display "friendliness that we would experience over the whole trip", but I'm glad that they did. There's more than fast food in America, I guess

hopefully you got some good barbeque or tex-mex or something. I wish I could go to europe just to do the themeparks too

what other parks did you visit? I'd love to read them.

 
 
Little Americkka, Timber Falls, Mount Olympus, Nickelodeon Universe, Valleyfair, Adventureland USA, Worlds of Fun, Silver Dollar City, Six Flags St Louis, Holiday World, Kings Island, Columbus Zoo (they have 1 credit  ), Kennywood, Waldameer, Cedar Point & Indiana Beach. Will put the other trip reports here as well.

wow thats some trip! I'd love to see worlds of fun, SDC, SFStL the most, because they're more of my old home parks. I'm always interested in what people think of worlds of fun especially. but seriously, I lived in america and I never went to so many theme parks

I want to hear about Indiana Beach, Holiday World, and Kings Island, of course! Cedar Point too, what the heck. 

After 2 days Six Flags Great America, it was time to say goodbye to Illinois (but we'll be back) and drive to Wisconsin Dells. On the way up, we would hit up 2 smaller theme parks and score some coaster credits of course. First stop of the day was Little A-Merrick-A, Marshall (WI), founded in 1991 by Lee W. Merrick.

 

 

 

 

That is the "entrance" of the theme park. Or rather just the ticket booths, because Little Amerricka doesn't ask an entrance fee. You pay per attraction, or you can buy an all-in wristband which gives you the opportunity to do everything, like we did. I said theme park, but actually Little Amerricka isn't worthy that title. I'd call it a rusted fair...

 

 

 

 

Time to score the credits, because that's the only reason we stopped in Marshall. First coaster we did was Mad Mouse, an Allen Herschell wild mouse from 1960 which is bought by Little Amerricka in 1993 for... $ 6.000... That's just nothing for a rollercoaster, but everything has his reason. In 1960, they thought bars are for pussies, belts weren't necessary as well. The whole construction moved from left to right when a car passed by. And the two ride ops had to push the car manually out of the station. Du jamais vu (never seen before)...

 

 

 

 

But if Little Amerricka only has shitty coasters like that, then why even considering hitting it up? Aha, good question. They have a toboggan. Wild & Wooly Toboggan is one of the three operating toboggans this day, pretty unique he. I already had a toboggan on my coaster counter, I did one in the south of France when I was little (but park closed and that coaster isn't operating anymore) and I don't have good memories about that one. Little Amerricka's toboggan confirmed those feeling: incredibly narrow and short cars where even I being only 1M70 tall sat with my head against the ceiling, the ride experience wasn't comfortable. So if you're a coaster fanatic like me, you should stop by Little Amerricka and do this. Otherwise, just keep driving.

 

 

 

 

2 more coasters for the bingo, next was the smallest coaster of the park: Little Dipper. Forget incredible views and locations from other theme parks. From Little Dipper you have a great view on the nearby cemetery! They must have big Halloween events over here... About the coaster itself, nothing can be said really. It's your painful for your back and sadly they are generous with the amount of laps it does.

 

 

 

 

Just Meteor left for the bingo, a kiddie woodie. It was pretty fun, nothing special about a kiddie woodie but looking at the rest of their coasters this is just their best one.

 

 

 

 

It was 'La Movida day' at Little Amerricka, a festival organised by the local Mexican radio station La Movida. Which made that almost every visitor of Little Amerricka other than us, were Mexicans. And they brought their food as well. Yuck, I don't look Mexican food so I skipped meal and waited until the evening to eat something. The main attraction of Little Amerricka isn't one of those coasters. Or Pedro. It's a railroad! Not a little one, it has a length of 3 miles. You can fit the park 3 times in it I guess. 

 

The train was made on a 1/3th scale and was provided with his own elderly conductor. I had the honor to sit next to him. He was really amusing himself (and us) with his speaker, but he was right saying "If you don't make something it from yourself, it's really boring.". Someone from that age still working with such love and passion, it was really cute to see. What has Little Amerricka to offer besides all that? The smallest haunted house I've ever seen, go-karts, bumper cars,... and kind of shit. I didn't like the park really, it has nothing to bkeep you busy all day. If it was up to me, we would left after doing the coasters and the railroad. Chance I'll ever return to Little Amerricka is zero, and even if I would be in the neighborhood, I'll just keep on driving.

Well, I called Little Amerricka a rusted fair. But compared with our next stop it's huge. Timber Falls is nothing more than a mini-golf course with a coaster build around it.

 

 

 

 

But despite of his tiny surface, it was the proud owner of Hellcat, a S&S woodie. With his length of 724 meter he rides around the park... twice. That kinda says enough about Timber Fall's surface ain't it?! But it's a really good coaster! Very very powerful, so powerful it had to cool down for some minutes in the station after a lap before it could be dispatched again. He doesn't seem to loose speed, no contrary, it seems like he's getting faster and faster until you reach the brakes. Lucky, it isn't rough but really intense. After 2 laps, I had enough. It's one of the better woodies I did, but I'd say thanks no for an ERT.

 

 

 

 

 

For the first time on the trip, it rained, and because we were already wet because of the rain we decided we could do the log flume as well. Pretty dry for a log flume ride, but with this weather it would be an overkill to get soaked. After that, we only did one other attraction. But we did it twice because we enjoyed to so much. Not a coaster, not a flat ride... what's more amusing than bumper boats with splash pistols on them? Damn, every theme park should have this! 

 

 

 

That's not me

 

Despite of his tininess, I amused myself way more in Timber Falls than in Little Amerricka. 

I'm so jealous you went to the dells. Hellcat looks awesome.

timber falls may be nothing, but it inspired the entrance to my america park

 

one time I drove past the dells on the way to elsewhere, and saw the coasters go by. that was sad

If you're bored at Wisconsin Dells, it's your own damn fault! That place looked amazing, even without the coasters. Water parks as far as the eye can see, whole lot of entertaining places, hotels, small malls,... It's all there in Wisconsin Dells. 

 

 

 

 

But the main attraction of Wisconsin Dells is Mount Olympus. Named after the mythical Greek mountain, all the attractions have been given Greek names. However, there's almost no (Greek) theming in the park. The park is founded by a Greek immigrant, that explains a lot. His daughter and son are in charge of the park today. It's more a water park with some coasters added, if you decide not doing the water park, you can leave the park pretty quick.

 

 

 

 

The main coaster of the park, is of course Hades 360! It's the one you immediately notice because it's the highest coaster of the park (41 meter) and it has a part under the parking lot. This year, Mt Olympus wanted to adjust Hades, why not adding a gigantic corkscrew?! For some of our group, this would be their only wooden inversion experience, I'd do Outlaw Run later on. Of course we were curious to feel how an inversion on a wooden coaster would be like, so we did him right when we entered the park. There was a sign in the station, saying 'Hades is running very aggressive today'.

 

Yeah... the sign was right... That was one of the most roughest rides on a coaster I have been on. You can place Hades along side Goudurix, Coaster Express and Bandit in the line of most painful coasters ever! Ironically, the corkscrew was the only smooth part of the coaster. When we did him in the morning, in the center of the train it was just OK, just just OK to ride. We made the mistake to ride him again in the evening, in the front. Big mistake, BIG mistake! If you go to Mt Olympus, ride Hades first! When it's still not warmed-over.

 

 

 

 

No joke, there was really a sign!

 

 

 

 

 

 

After recovering a bit from the very aggressive Hades, our group of Belgian Roller coaster enthusiasts have been given a Q&A with a manager. Always fun, he replied something really weird on the question why Hades (and the other coasters) only runs with one train: "I just don't think it's safe to run them with more than one train.". Say what? In that case, at least make your staff work faster because they worked really slow. Later on, we would experience ourselves that his statement wasn't that weird at all...

 

 

 

 

After the Q&A we passed the entrance of Cyclops, so that was our next stop. It's the first coaster of the park, and a big bit smaller than Hades but it was way more fun. For taking the last seats, you had to be 18?! Why? Well... after riding we understood. What a bunch of airtime you get over there!

 

 

 

 

Between Cyclops and Hades, there's Zeus. Just like Cyclops, this had a really fun ride experience with a lot of airtime! And now the statement of the manager would become clear to us... The whole train was filled with members from our group. When the train entered the brakes, you just felt he didn't brake enough. But oh, there are brakes in the station as well... But they couldn't brake the train enough as well. There we went for a second ride! Lucky for us, after that the brakes worked fine. 

 

 

 

 

Another wooden coaster! Here in Europe wooden coasters are hard to find, but in America, every theme park has one, at least. Pegasus wasn't really good, just good for my coaster counter.What I couldn't add to my coaster counter, was Little Titans, the kiddie coaster of Mt Olympus. It had technical problems and was closed for the whole day. But even if it worked, we wouldn't have done him. Because of the strange policy to only allow adults when they are accompanied by a child...

 

 

 

 

Then it was time to ride Opa! If you say this in Dutch, people will look very strange to you, because in Dutch 'opa' means grandfather. The coaster is a standard model which are easier to find then a McDonald's. Nothing special really. Outside, the facade of the hall was nicely themed. But inside it looked ugly. But at least it was cool inside. 

 

 

 

 

We spent the rest of the day at the water park. Next to to six coasters there are only a few attractions left. They also have some cart tracks, which were fun but nothing compared with the 'normal' cart tracks. They should ride on asphalt, not on wooden or steel plates in up- or down going circles! On the last cart track we did, there was something wrong with my cart, it couldn't accelerate properly and everyone just passed me. All the others had to wait in the station until I arrived as the last one...Pretty awkward. It was the cart, on the other tracks, no one passed me!

 

 

 

Since there is almost no reaction to my reports, and it takes a lot of time to translate everything to English, I'll just keep it to the photos and a conclusion at the end.

 

 

Nickelodeon Universe

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It may be a very small park, but it was a really fun one. I'd definitely come back when I'm in the neighborhood (if that ever will happen...). If you visit the Mall of America too, you will need your whole day. The coasters aren't that special, but besides of the kiddiecoaster they were all very decent and very fun to ride. Pepsi Orange Streak is just the best Zierer I've ridden so far. Fairy Odd Coaster is one of the better spinning coasters I've done, I wouldn't place it in the top spinnings like Tarantula or Dragon's fury, but just under that level, like the Winja's. Rock Bottom Plunge gives a good amount of thrill, but was a bit disappointed because I expected more from it. Still a fun coaster. Avatar Airbender is something special, the Racer at Disney Studios in Paris is the closest "coaster" you can compare it with, but still Avatar's ride experience is totally different and unique. This was a nice surprise!  

 

 

Score for Nickelodeon Universe: 7,5/10

I'm reading them, even if not replying

 

I thought nickelodean universe was alright, but it could have done more with the space- just look at edmonton mall's park (they also have a legitimately great coaster) and places like Lotte world, which layer all the rides and themeing etc. but it was landscaped nicely and is a really cool backdrop to the mall, and great for kids.

Valleyfair

 

 

 

 

(that's not me, fyi)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was our first Cedar Fair park hurray! Unfortunately, the weather was bad. It rained heavily and almost everything was closed due to the rain. We did the merry-go-round and went back to the hotel. It stopped raining around noon so we went back to Valleyfair, hoping to see working attractions. Lucky for us, attractions were getting started to operate and thanks to the rain, we had the park for ourselves. 

 

It was a kinda small park, but with some fun coasters and a nice Cedar Fair atmosphere we would experience again in 3 more parks later on. Wild Thing surprised me in a very good way. I was kinda afraid it would be shaky and bumpy, but it wasn't. It rode really smooth and had a lots of airtime. Yeah Morgan ftw! Their Intamin Impulse coaster had a surprise which was nice, but I'm not a fan of this type of coaster. Renegade was just awesome! It's the better version of Troy (Toverland, Netherlands). Even the Arrow was kinda fun. Valleyfair, fun little park but not exactly a park where I desperately want to go back.

 

 

Score for Valleyfair: 7,5/10

If the morgan ride is as good as mamba at WOF, then its probably a blast (most underrated hyper coasters ever)

Wild Thing surprised me in a very good way. I was kinda afraid it would be shaky and bumpy, but it wasn't. It rode really smooth and had a lots of airtime. Yeah Morgan ftw!

 

Fuck yes

If the morgan ride is as good as mamba at WOF, then its probably a blast (most underrated hyper coasters ever)

 

Mamba @ WOF was also good, but I think this one is just a little bit better. We also did Phantom's Revenge (built by Arrow but adjusted by Morgan) which was the best of the three 3 Morgan hypercoasters we did on the trip. Yeah, Morgan is underrated for sure!  

Phantoms Revenge's bunny hills at the end <3

Adventureland USA (Des Moines, Iowa)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We had a long drive to go, starting from Minneapolis in Minnesota riding to Kansas City, Missouri, where we would spend the night. My roomie was so impressed by the friendliness of the Minnesotans he decided to give our hotel a present by turning our bathroom into an indoor pool room. Lucky for us, the hotel didn't mind.

 

We didn't feel like riding for 7 hours straight, so our organisation planned a stop at Des Moines, Iowa. Adventureland USA... never heart of it before. But appearantly Walt Disney helped designing the park. That was noticeable when we saw the entrance and main street. It was like a mini Disney version... also a bit less detailed. Just a little bit less... But once you leave Adventureland's mainstreet, the comparison with Disney stopped. Then it really was a big park with some attractions in it. Which is also nice, and definitely with this kinda hot weather.

 

First coaster of the day was a unique one: The Underground. It's an indoor woodie! Never saw something like this. The ride itself wasn't quite good, you could discuss if this is even worth a coaster credit... On the other hand, there is not a lot of thematisation and what's there, is in a really bad state. That's also not enough for a darkride.

 

If you want to go upside down in Iowa, it's possible here. Dragon is a steel Hopkins looper and that didn't make me feel good even before riding it. My expectations were right, it's everything but comfortable. Lucky for us coastermaniacs, Hopkins has build only 7 coasters. Let's hope they keep it that way. The best coaster of the park was another CCI: Outlaw is a decent woodie but it's nothing special really when you've done a few other wooden coasters (even the European woodies). But compared with the other coasters in Adventureland, this one was the best.

 

They have another woodie, but most of our group didn't rode it. He broke down in the afternoon and the problem was kinda serious. It would be shut down for the rest of the day... Those who rode it, said they found their new nr1 coaster. Unlucky us, but fortunately this would be the one coaster on the trip we would miss thanks to a technical failure. Better to miss this, than Top Thrill Dragster for example.

 

It was a fun stop on the road to Kansas City, but it's not a park where you can feel very excited to go to. I'd definitely recommend it as a stop on the road, but I would not drive to Des Moines just for doing this park. It's not that special really, even if this park would be in Europe (or even Belgium) it wouldn't stand out. 

 

Score for Adventureland USA: 6/10