Time for an ADRENALIN rush

Geauga Lake

Formaly known as Six Flags' Worlds of Adventure

I would probably consider this as being my "home park" Only reason why, cause is closer than Cedar Point unfortunately. Formally known as Geauga Lake, Six Flags bought the park in 1999 and trasnformed it into Six Flags' Ohio for the 2000 season, plus added 4 new coasters; Batman Knight Flight (built by B&M and is the worlds longest floorless coaster), The Villain (CCI wooden track/steel structure), Superman: Ultimate Escape (Intamin AG Impluse), and Roadrunner Express (junior coaster). In 2001, X-Flight (Vekoma flying coaster), or as I like to call it "The Mean Green Flying Breakdown Machine" was added along with Six Flags buying the old Sea World Ohio park, combining the 2 properties and gave it its current name "Six Flags' Worlds of Adventure."

On April 9, 2004, Cedar Fair, L.P. (company that owns Cedar Point) completed the acquistion of SFWoA for $145 million dollars. In the process the park was renamed back to its name sake, Geauga Lake, 5 of the 10 coasters got renamed, all the Loony Tune Characters are out, Hurricane Harbor gets a new name along with old Boomtown, and all of the animals were taken out of the park and 3/4 of the former WildLife side is now closed to the public. CF upper management says that they'll now turn the park into a mor "Traditional Family" Amusement Park, which would leave one to think that rides are going to be shipped out of the park and no new ones coming in. But hopefully not and GL can turn into like Kennywood and perhaps get the long-awaited hyper coaster (granted Dick Kinzel said we might get one along the lines of Magnum).

One coaster I wish they would bring back is the Corkscrew. The ride was removed in 1995 for make way for Mind Eraser. I think it was a stupid move, in my mind. I've only rode Mind Eraser once (2002) and I probably won't ride it again cause it sucked ass. Even though it was my first "backwards" coaster, it still was rough as heck.

For the 2007 season, Cedar Fair has decided to remove X-Flight and send it down to Kings Island and re-naming it Firehawk, along with making the decision of taken down Steel Venom and putting it in storage. Me personally, this decision really doesn't matter to me cause I really didn't ride Steel Vemon that much since "big" people cannot really ride it and only rode X-Flight when there wasn't a huge line. So, now we'll just have to see where Steel Venom goes.  Here's a list of all the coasters that the park currently has while the former names are in ().

Kennywood

My first and only visit to the park was in 2002, and I enjoyed it. The Phantom's Revenge is, in my mind, the best ride in the park. I've heard all the stories about the original Steel Phantom, even though I didn't get a chance to ride Steel Phantom, I can't compare the two...but looks like the new one is better. The parks three wooden coasters; Thunderbolt, Jack Rabbit, and The Racers are some really good coasters. Lots of air time on Thunderbolt (if you're sitting in the back), good air time on Jack Rabbit (thanks to the double downs) and just a good fun, side-by-side racing on The Racer.

The worest ride in the park, imo, is The Exterminator. Maybe when it first came out, it was a good ride...but it sure isn't now. Think it needs a little rehab to make it smooth and then, I might change my mind. Also, I think the part could use another coaster and maybe do away with some of the flat rides.  List of the coasters that the park holds.

Photo gallery coming soon

Hersheypark

All I got to say is WOW!!! The park is, to park a line from Cedar Point, absolutely amazing. There are 10 coasters that are spaced out nicely throughout the park. The park was built in 1907 by Hershey founder Milton S. Hershey. Probably the two best rides in the park is Great Bear (an B&M Inverter) and the parks latest thrill ride, Storm Runner (an Intamin AG hydraulic launch coaster...with inversions). Didn't get a chance to ride Roller Soaker cause I didn't want to get my camera wet and the line was long (due to the temps being in the low 90s).

Word of advice, if Storm Runner is open...make sure you sit in the very front row along with riding Wildcat and Lightning Racer.  Here's a list of the coasters that the park holds.

Dorney Park & Wildwater Kingdom

This park wasn't bad, but it reminded me of CP and GL...oh yeah, thats because it's owned by Cedar Fair, LP. The park opened in 1935, but really didn't start adding rides till the early 1970s. The waterpark opened in 1985 and in 1992, the park was purchased by CF. The first ride that CF put in was Steel Force (a Morgan Hyper) in 1997. Interesting thing about this ride, is that it's almost a copy of Magnum XL-200 up at CP, with the differences being Magnum was built by Arrow Dynamics, and has a Pretzel style trun around where Steel Force has a big ol' helix. Anything thing that is interesting, the logo for Force was supposed to be used for Mantis when the name for the ride was going to be called "Banshee." The lastest big ride they added in 2001 was Talon, a B&M inverter. The one thing that's different from this B&M coaster than all of the others, is you don't get the traditional ROAR that you hear with other B&M coasters. Reason why, when Talon was built the track pieces where filled with sand while the supports were filled with gravel.

In 2003, Dorney annoucned that it was tearing down their wooden coaster named Hercules (built in 1989 by Dinn and Summers) due to the wear and tear the ride was having along with the people riding it. The replacement ride is going to be a B&M floorless coaster called Hydra: The Revenge. Just a word of advice, bring your best pair of walking shoes cause it's a nice walk down to Force and Thunderhawk, but it's one hell of a climb back up to get to the front gate.  Here's a list of the coasters that the park holds.

Kings Island

The park opened in April of 1972 after the owners of Coney Island wanted to expand. In 1979 the park decided to build the longest, tallest, and fastest coaster ever made. The end result was a ride that was 7,400 feet in length (covering 35 acers of land), two lift hills (135 and 141 foot drops), and a 540 degree helix at the end and was simple called...The Beast. Since then, big and longer coasters have been built, but Beast still holds the record for being the longest wooden coaster. Best place to sit, is the very front seat and it's a must to ride it at night.

In 2000, the park announced that it would build the tallest and fastest wooden coaster in the world with a one catch...it would also have a loop in it. The end result was entitled, Son of Beast. It had a 218 foot hill and reached speeds of up to 78 mph. Course, the signature part of the ride is its 118 foot loop and the interesting thing is...the whole is steel, of course, while the loop's track is wood.

2004 marks The Beast's 25^th aniversary. Hard to believe it's been 25 years since this ride was built and still holds the record for longest wooden coaster in the world. For the 2005 season, the park added a ned coaster themed to the movie The Italian Job and called it Italian Job: Stunt Track. Half way through the 2006 season, Cedar Falr, L.P. purchased all of the Paramount Parks for a cool 1.26 billion dollars and Son of Beast was closed for the latter part of the year after and accident that injuried 20 people.

For the start of the 2007 season, Cedar Fair decided to drop the Paramount name for all the parks including Kings Island, removing the loop from Son of Beast and adding a new coaster. Yet, the coaster is not new, it's the former X-Flight from Geauga Lake and the renamed it Firehawk and gave it a new paint scheme (red track with yellow supports).  Here's a list of the coasters that the park holds.