The Meta Post; Bumper Cars and Sky Rides

I named my blog Bumper Sky after my 2 favorite non-roller coaster rides, bumper cars and sky rides. Both attractions top my priorities after roller coasters and other unique and historic rides.

Bumper cars were invented in Northeast America in the 1920's by either electrician Victor Levand or Max and Harold Stoeher. Josephh and Ray Lusse were also major players in the history of bumper cars. They were originally called dodgems implying the intention was to dodge other drivers instead of intentionally colliding as modern drivers typically do.

I really appreciate having the autonomy to completely control your rides in bumper cars. You can go on the offensive and fly into the melee, or take defensive maneuvers further away from other drivers, or a good mix of both. The best bumper cars I've been on were at Little Amerricka in Marshall, WI, and the worst bumper cars I've been on were the ones at Disney's California Adventure at the now defunct "Bug's Life" area. Those bumper cars may have been intended for use by smaller children, but none of the ride ops stopped myself or my mother from riding them during our visit.

Sky rides have a much more storied history. One of the first ropeways ever created was thought to be installed in Poland in 1644 by Adam Wiebe. It was powered by horses and transported soil over a river for construction purposes. In the late 1800's passenger cable rides were known to exist in Gibraltar and Hong Kong. Chairlifts, and somewhat similar experience, are thought to have originated from rural Chinese and Japanese areas at the same time or even earlier that Wiebe's installation. They were used to transport materials and passengers. Wikipedia sites a 1936 instillation at Sun Valley in Idaho as the first Ski chairlift, but it's also possible it was instead a 1908 installation by Robert Winterhalder in Germany.

Von Roll is probably the biggest single manufacturer of sky rides used in theme parks. Many of their previous installations have since been demolished, such as all installations at Disney parks across the globe, but at least 10 remain in operation to this day, including rides at Busch Gardens Tampa and Williamsburg, Six Flags Great Adventure, Cedar Point, and state fairs in Oklahoma, Minnesota, and Washington State. Of these, The Busch Gardens Williamsburg installation is unique for operating in a 3 station loop instead of the typical out-and-back 2 terminal ride.

The Scenic Skyway at Knobels is maybe my favorite sky ride I've been on so far. I also appreciate how in Gatlinburg, TN, there's loads of random sky rides up mountain ridges in the area. I would love to hear of more places like that. Also check out this cool blog I found for loads of more detailed information on sky rides across America.

I appreciate sky rides for providing scenic views of the areas they traverse. The rides themselves are slow moving and graceful, with the thrill of seemingly soaring through the air. If I could pick a superpower, flight is probably my #1 favorite option, and taking a trip on a sky ride comes close to fulfilling that fantasy.

Goofy 325!! Or The Problem With “Normal” Disney Roller Coasters

If Disney wanted the greatest collection of "normal" Roller coasters, I think they could easily put that together. What makes me think this is looking at the estimated price tags of Disney roller coasters vs roller coasters at your more average theme park. Guardians of the Galaxy opened just last year, ensuring each park would have at least one roller coaster, and with an estimated price tag of $500 Million. The coaster takes place entirely in the biggest show building on Walt Disney World property. It must need all of that space as it ties for the 10th longest steel roller coaster in the world at 5,577.4 feet. The 3rd longest steel roller coaster in the world, Fury 325 at Carowinds, is 6,602 fet in length and cost an estimated $30 Million when it opened in 2015 ($38.6 million in 2023 dollars). Fury 325 has been on the short list of best roller coasters in the world since it opened.

So why doesn't Disney just slap 12.9 Fury 325s on their property and call it a day? Probably because being 325 feet tall, that would instantly make those roller coasters the tallest structures on property. Walt Disney World famously has no buildings taller than 200 feet, including Cinderella Castle, Mt. Everest, The Hollywood Tower, and Spaceship Earth. Disney employs a lot of tricks with forced perspective and creative architecture to make buildings and landmarks look bigger or smaller as they please. Disney also carefully crafts their site lines to maximize guest immersion. How exactly am I supposed to feel like I'm on a jungle expedition if I can clearly see a future mountain over yonder. A gigantic steel wave on the skyline would probably throw both of those into chaos, but also consider what you would see from the tallest structure on property. What do you mean we're not actually flying through a pristine alien landscape?!?

Well, Walt Disney World is huge and mostly undeveloped. Let's just make a new park to put all of our Fury 325s in. How much would that be? If Lost Island in Waterloo Iowa was any indication, they could do that for about $100 Million. That takes into account Lost Island opening with 3 roller coasters, about 20 rides total. In reality though, a new Walt Disney World park would probably set the mouse back $1 - $2 Billion. That estimate is in line with what Animal Kingdom and Universal's currently under construction Epic Universe estimated costs of construction. So what gives? For a simple explanation you could scale up visitor expectations. This article says the owners of Lost Island were hoping for 2,500 - 3,000 daily attendance to keep afloat. A new Disney park would probably be trying to pull nine to ten times that figure.

OK, so we have to drop a Billion for a new park, but then we can pump it full of Fury 325's with all of our sweet sweet mouse money right? It might seem so, but Disney would still choose not to. An average roller coaster conflicts with three core values of Disney parks.

The first of these is that Disney is doing it's best to make experiences for the entire family. This includes small children. The highest high requirement for any ride at Walt Disney World is actually already a roller coaster. Rock'n'Rollercoaster at Disney's Hollywood Studios is currently the only ride at the park with a height requirement of 48''. The next lowest is a 3 way tie. Expedition Everest, Flight of Passage, and Space Mountain all require riders to stand at least 44'' tall. Then the requirements decrease from there. Fury 325 has a height requirement of 54'' which would begin to significantly exclude smaller children. High intensity rides may also exclude the elderly or those with certain medical conditions. The most intense rides at Disney may already do this, but only the few most intense rides do. The slower dark rides Disney are known for are much more accommodating.

The second core value is that Disney wants all of their rides to tell a story, and big lurking scream machines are not well adapted for doing so. Roller coasters do tell a story. That story is "you're going really fast, up and down and round and round." and for a lot of people that is enough, but Disney is not particularly interested in only saying that. Now there are some big roller coasters that do say more than just being intense thrill machines. The roller coasters that come to mind immediately are Superman The Ride at Six Flags New England ($21.2 million) . Medusa at Six Flags Great America ($27.5 million), Montu at Busch Gardens Tampa ($38.9 Million), Alpengeist at Busch Gardens Williamsburg ($38 million), and Nemesis (25.4 Million British Sterling) at Alton Towers. Note That's only big hulking outdoor Roller coasters. Non-Disney parks do make highly themed roller coasters such as Laff Track ($18 million) at Hershey Park, and Mystery Mine ($25.7 million) as well, but those rides are in line with the smaller-scale roller coasters already offered at Disney. Funnily enough, Disney did build one roller coaster of which the theme was 'this is a roller coaster'. That was California Screamin' ($86.1 Million) at Disney's California Adventure. It opened with the park, which was a critical and commercial failure the first few years it operated (The park, not just the roller coaster, but it was in the park). Although there were many problems when Disney’s California Adventure when the park opened, one of them seemed to be that it was filled with rides that were themed to be rides. Disney would say the stories of those rides are that they’re rides, a normal person would say they just weren’t themed. California Screamin' was rebranded into Incredicoaster in 2018, and is the 6th longest steel roller coaster in the world.

By the way, the sum of those roller coasters listed is $194.7 Million not including California Screamin’ or $280.8 Million including it.

The last core value I can think of as to why Disney avoids large scale roller coasters is that Disney sticks to unique experiences. Unique experiences and quality experiences go hand-in-hand, that is to say, quality experiences are unique experiences. Disney strives to be the leader in quality experiences, so they must also offer unique experiences. While a lot of enthusiasts would love for Disney to plop down 10 roller coasters and call it a day, that already exists. It's called Cedar Point (or Energylandia for European enthusiasts). Local theme parks that invest in large scale roller coasters can think of themselves as serving an area. The top non-Disney parks such as Six Flags Magic Mountain, Cedar Point, and Dollywood, could think of themselves as serving the nation. Disney is serving the entire world.

So while it would seem enticing for Disney to make it's own roller coaster destination, not doing so also makes a lot of sense for their business.

Also Vekoma won't let them.

(While I was writing this I found this really interesting video from DSNY Newscast on the more realistic concerns of Walt Disney World adding a 5th park, because I know there's a lot more that goes into building a theme park than hypothetical money calculations.)

Some ACE Basics

ACE, American Coaster Enthusiasts, is the leading roller coaster fan club in America. Founded in 1978 and boasting over 6,500 members, they represent a real force in roller coaster appreciation, advocation, and preservation. ACE recognizes historic roller coasters with 2 main distinctions, ACE Coaster Classics and ACE Coaster Landmarks.

ACE Coaster Classics denote historic wooden roller coasters that offer a riding experience mostly unaltered from when they were originally built. ACE feels these rides preserve a classic riding experience by avoiding unnecessary modernization. These rides remain fun and safe despite their unchanged ride seats and restraints. ACE does list a subset of this award, roller coasters that used to offer classic experiences but have modernized their seats, restraints, or operations to disqualify them from this distinction. 30 roller coasters have received this designation, with another 13 being originally eligible but being disqualified later. Unfortunately 2 ACE Coaster classics have been closed, 2 have been demolished, and 2 disqualified classics have been torn down.

ACE Coaster Landmarks are perhaps more well known. They included wood and steel roller coasters of historic or cultural significance. 48 roller coasters have received this distinction since they started issuing this award in 2002. Only 3 ACE Coaster Landmarks have ever been demolished. Chances are somewhat high that even a casual amusement park guest has ridden an ACE Coaster Landmark. The newest roller coasters to have received this designation include The Raven wooden CCI Coaster installed in 1995 at Holiday World, and Batman: The Ride which is the first inverted roller coaster built by B&M at Six Flags Great America (Chicago) in 1992. 12 exact clones of this ride can be found around the various Six Flags parks, SeaWorld San Antonio, and 3 parks abroad.

I personally have ridden 9 ACE Coaster Classics and 3 rescinded Classics. About half of these roller coasters are full sized installations, but half would be considered medium or small roller coasters intended for children and families. Of these I'd say my favorite would be Cyclone at Coney Island Luna Park in NYC. Although not particularly forceful, I remember appreciating the fast paced ride racing over and through the jungle of wooden supports. I also remember getting a kick out of the old controls. Where a modern roller coaster would have a slick collection of buttons on a console, instead the Cony Island Cyclone has a series of gigantic levers in the ground to release various sets of breaks. I'd given Thunderbolt at Kennywood a close second on this list with it's significant laterals and unique hillside setting offering distant views of Pittsburgh suburbs surrounding the Monongahela River.

My ACE Coaster Landmarks collection is more complete at 23 over 48. There's a much larger variety of ride experiences to consider. I should also note there is a good amount of overlap between ACE Coaster Classics and ACE Coaster Landmarks. By far the best themed ACE Coaster Landmark is the Matterhorn Bobsleds of Disneyland. Built in 1959 by Arrow Development, this ride is the first modern steel roller coaster, utilizing a tubular steel track design that would become the industry standard future steel coaster manufacturers. Although Matterhorn Bobsleds is mostly enjoyable thanks to it's Disney level theming. The ride itself is mostly jostling and bumpy, a rough ride but not the roughest. In my opinion its middle of the pack in the Disney roller coaster line up. It's about on par with Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, I rank it over California Screamin'/Incredicoaster, Slinky Dog Dash, Goofy's Sky School, Barnstormer, and Primeval Whirl, but not above Rock'N'Rollercoaster, Space Mountain, or Expedition Everest (or probably Cosmic Rewind, which I have yet to ride).

The wildest ACE Coaster Landmark ride is by far Magnum XL-200, specifically in the magic seat. Magic is real, and it exists in 3rd row of this roller coaster. Normally forces are most pronounced on roller coasters in the front or back of the train, but there's something about the 3rd row of it's trains that does it's best to send you flying into orbit. Magnum XL-200 also built by Arrow Development was the first roller coaster to stand over 200 feet tall and the fastest roller coaster ever at the time of it's 1989 opening. Some people would say it started a time of roller coaster development known as 'The Roller coaster Wars' during which theme parks competed to push the boundaries of roller coaster design and break records for fastest and tallest rides.

My personal favorite ACE Coaster Landmark, also one of my overall favorite roller coasters, would be The Beast at Kings Island. This roller coaster was designed and built in house, something of a rarity for modern roller coasters. Opening in 1979, it is famous for being the longest wooden roller coaster in the world, and the 2nd longest of any roller coaster type. The Beast rides over 7,361 feet of track set in a secluded and densely wooded forest in the back of Kings Island. This ride is a polarizing coaster in the Enthusiast community. A lot of enthusiasts feel like this coaster simply meanders around most of it's layout with little purpose. I however appreciate the sublime experience of rushing through the forest at high speeds. Most can agree though that it's finale, an inclined double helix off the drop of it's second lift hill, is a crazy experience worth a ride. Critics and fans can also typically agree that night rides on The Beast are worth catching.

The ACE Coaster Classics and Coaster Landmark designations add a lot of fun to the hobby of riding roller coasters. They highlight interesting stories in theme park history and help raise awareness of preservation efforts. Although most amusement parks are businesses first, it typically serves them well to respect and care for the history they themselves develop.

It's awe inspiring to think of the countless people that rode those rides before me, to think what their lives may have been like, what sort of world events they were living through, and how different society and technology were for them. Roller coasters unite people past and present over the joy of safe thrills.

Best Theme Parks I’ve Never Been To

Now to actually talk about two of the last elite parks in the nation that I have yet to visit; Six Flags Magic Mountain in Valencia, CA, and Silver Dollar City in Branson, MO. My next big trips will hopefully involve either of these parks which display vastly different business models in the theme park experience.

Magic Mountain opened in 1971 and was purchased by Six Flags in 1979, making it the chain's 5th acquired park but 2nd park purchased instead of built from the ground up. Being so close to the moving making hub of Hollywood in California, it has featured prominently in all sorts of movies, TV shows, and other popular media. The most famous appearances would probably be in 1977's 'Rollercoaster' and 'National Lampoon's Vacation'. A pre-built version of the park was included in the classic videogame Roller coaster Tycoon 2 which was released in 2002.

The park currently holds the world record for most roller coasters at a theme park with a nice and even 20. Of those 20, 3 are for kids, one is wooden, and the remaining 19 are steel, but one of those includes the RMC conversion Twisted Colossus which could be considered a hybrid build. Twisted Colossus is the park's highest rated roller coaster, finishing in the top 30 of the Golden Ticket Awards top steel roller coasters list since it opened (it placed 6th in 2019).

11 of their roller coasters include inversions, with 43 total upside down moments between them. Although not the first successful modern inversion, the first successful modern vertical loop is on the park's 'New Revolution' opened in 1976 and still operating today as an ACE Landmark ride. The other notable inversions come from X2, the 1st "4D" roller coaster which opened in 2002. Apparently X2 gives an insane ride experience during which your seat flips in an independent yet controlled manner. Its inversion count is only 2 on paper, but I don't know if that includes all of these seat flips or not.

The park holds the first roller coaster to break the 400 feet barrier, Superman: Escape From Krypton. Opening in 1997, this shuttle coaster was the fastest and tallest when it opened, being the 2nd roller coaster to break the 100 MPH barrier. It missed out on being the first by about 2 months and only lost to its little sister, Tower of Terror II, which operated at Dreamworld in Australia from January 1997 until November 2019.

One of the park's icons, an observation tower named Sky Tower, opened with the park in 1971 but has been standing but not operating (SBNO) since 2014 due to a projected cost of several million dollars for the elevators comply with updated state safety requirements.

With it's record breaking and historic roller coaster collection, alongside it's place in American media and pop-culture, despite possible operational or customer service shortcomings the Six Flags brand may bring, Magic Mountain rightfully earns its spot on the short list of best theme parks in America.

Silver Dollar City is a park much less likely to be featured in pop music videos or Hollywood blockbusters, but perhaps more deserving on its spot at the top. The park opened in May of 1960. It is the flagship park of the Herschend Family Entertainment group, which acquired fellow best-park-in-America candidate Dollywood in 1976. The group also owns and operates Kentucky Kingdom, Wild Adventures in Valdosta, GA, and about a dozen other attractions and resorts. Silver Dollar City offers a highly themed frontier / country adventure.

Silver Dollar City offers 7 roller coasters. Although dwarfed by Magic Mountain’s coaster count, this is an impressive collection in its own right. 1 kids’ coaster, 1 very special wooden roller coaster, and 6 steel coasters. Silver Dollar City offered a total of 11 inversions spread across 3 coasters.

Fire in the Hole is the park's historic roller coaster-dark ride blend first opened in 1972. Sadly, this ride is planning to close forever in 2023, but the park has already teased a possible replacement project. They have their work cut out for them replacing a beloved and historic family roller coaster. [[I wrote this article before the it was officially announced, but it has been confirmed that a modern yet similar new version of the coaster-dark ride hybrid, with the track done by RMC, is opening in 2024]]

The very special wooden roller coaster is Outlaw Run, the 2013 RMC ground-up installation. This was only RMC's 2nd independent project, their first complete roller coaster, their first Topper-Track installation, and their first inversion. This project would help cement RMC's place in the roller coaster industry as a successful up-and-coming manufacturer. In my opinion, this coaster also ties with Hades 360 as the first successful inversions on wooden roller coasters. Of course, Son of Beast opened at Kings Island in 2000 with a vertical loop, but I think it's safe to say that was not a successful project.

The last roller coaster to quickly single out in their lineup is Time Traveler. This is a 2018 Mack Rides "Xtreme Spinner" model. The first of only 2 such models yet to be installed. These trains sport fully and independently spinning cars, but the catch is the ride is much more intense than that of an average spinning roller coasters. The loading station of this roller coaster is situated on a hillside, which the ride immediately drops out of, 90 degrees straight down for 90 feet. The ride goes on to navigate 3 inversions and 2 launches at max speeds of 50 mph. This ride has finished in the top 30 of Golden Ticket Award's top steel roller coaster lists since its debut. I have heard nothing but the highest of praise for this roller coaster, which has probably the highest re-ride value of any American roller coaster. No two rides seem to be the same with its freely spinning cars rotating as they please. Hopefully we will see more of these installations, as its older brother, Ride to Happiness in Plopsaland, Belgium, also receives beaming reviews.

Silver Dollar City's claim as a top American theme park is in large part thanks to its theming, entertainment offerings, food, operations, and customer service. The park seems to be very dedicated to providing an immersive and quality 1880's frontier / country themed experience. the park offers 4 "signature shows" and 5 summer productions, and another 9 acts listed simply as "Live Music". The park's website also lists 13 crafts people practicing various trades for education and souvenir production. The food is probably really good too. I'm not just saying that after drooling at pictures on their website, but assuming so on account of their Herschend affiliation, which runs Dollywood, which is always in the debate for best theme park food in the nation.

Among Silver Dollar City's other various rides and attractions, you will find a truly one-of-a-kind experience. Included with admission to the park is an hour-long tour of Marvel Cave. The Natural Cavern is actually the founding attraction which the park grew around. Disney might be able to theoretically slap 12.9 Fury 325s in a brand-new park, but they can’t bring a completely authentic cavern tour to their parks. The beauty and awe of nature speaks for itself.

Both of these parks, Magic Mountain and Silver Dollar City, have wildly different business models. Magic Mountain going wide with its vast roller coaster collection, almost tripling Silver Dollar City's count. Silver Dollar City aiming for less rapid ride expansion, but maintaining a more complete and immersive overall experience.

Runner-up Best Parks I’ve Never Been to.

I’ve been lucky enough to visit most parks that are frequently discussed as being ‘the best theme parks in America’ but I am still missing a few elite parks. I’m also missing tons of average and smaller scale parks throughout the nation that offer quality entertainment experiences. There are a few parks I haven’t been to that are in-between. These are runners-ups for a spot on the best parks list that in my opinion just miss out on being considered elite, and I wanted to write about three such parks today.

First a duo of honorable mentions, the Texas Six Flags parks, "Over Texas", and "Fiesta Texas". Six Flags operates 15 amusement parks, 6 water parks attached to various locations, and another 13 separately ticketed water parks. I've been to 4 of these amusement parks, "America" In Maryland, "Great America" just outside Chicago, "New England" in Massachusetts, and "Great Adventure" in New Jersey. Six Flags in general is known as the budget chain, and there is at least some truth in the old saying 'you get what you pay for'.

Although they pack their parks with prolific roller coaster collections, the quality of their operations and customer service is known to be inconsistent. I have heard people having great and terrible days at various Six Flags locations. Although The Over Texas and Fiesta Texas locations bolster large roller coaster collections, and probably provide adequate levels of theming and other attractions, I have heard of too many negative experiences at these parks to place them among the other elite parks in America.

I would still very much like to visit them one day, and they both probably still place in the top half of Six Flags parks and American amusement parks as well. Truthfully I'd like to visit every Six Flags location, but I know when planning those trips to temper my expectations.

I do have to commend Fiesta Texas, as it seems that park is trending in a positive direction. Their new B&M dive coaster, Dr. Diabolical's Cliffhanger, seems to offer a very well themed pre-ride experience. They also revamped pre-ride and line experiences at Poltergeist their Premier Rides LIM Launched 'spaghetti bowl' rollercoaster, and at Joker: Carnival of Chaos, their Zamperla giant pendulum.

My third and last honorable mention for now is Universal's Hollywood Studios in California. The three Universal parks, soon 4, are truly some of the best in the nation. In fact, I would say they are so good that they get excluded from discussions about the best theme parks in America because they would automatically win in a 9-way tie with the Disney parks.

The California Universal park seems the be the weakest of the three, and if you've been to the Florida Universal parks, which I have, it would seem as though you've already done at least 70% of California’s Universal. The two big things the California park currently has going for it are the Super Nintendo World and The World-Famous Studio Tram Tour. While their studio tram tour will remain somewhat unique, the Florida resort is currently building a bigger and probably better version of Super Nintendo World. If everything goes according to their plan, Epic Universe is scheduled to open in the East coast resort sometime in 2025.

National Roller Coaster Day 2023 at Kings Dominion

National Roller Coaster Day is probably about the best day to launch a theme park blog. Apparently on this day, August 16th, 1898, the first patent was issued for a vertical looping roller coaster. Fast forward 125 years, it was a great day to go to my home park, Kings Dominion in Doswell, VA.

Our day started about 15 minutes after the advertised opening time of 11:00AM. Being a pass holder and having already been this year, my friend and I were not particularly stressed about time. Also we were certain the lines would not be long on a random Wednesday in the middle of August. This was indeed the case for almost everything we rode today. We didn't go to the water park and stuck to roller coasters and flat rides. Our first ride was on the back row of Intimidator 305, the NASCAR themed Intamin giga coaster highly praised among coaster enthusiasts and somewhat infamous among Virginia citizens for it's first black-out inducing first turn. In fact, the entire first turn was widened after it's 2010 debut season to reduce the positive G forces that caused this. Our first ride was fun but not nearly as forceful as it's reputation would suggest.

Immediately afterwards we hit up Flight of Fear next door, the Premier Rides indoor launching 'spaghetti bowl' coaster that features 4 inversions and twisting turns in a dimly lit and ominous outer space setting. Although this 1996 roller coaster was the first to feature an electromagnetic LIM launch, I strongly believe it stands the test of time and is one of the best launches on any roller coaster. While the launch, first half, and ending of this ride are excellent, the middle section seems to meander somewhat aimlessly through turns.

We had the typically "cuddly" Reptilian ride (1988 Mack Rides Bobsled), and a surprisingly non-flipping Tumbili ride (2022 S&S 4D free spin, where riders normally flip upside down 2 or 3 times at random). We also rode Backlot Stuntcoaster (2006 Premier Rides launched family) and were pleased to see the fire effects properly running. Lastly for the start of our day was Anaconda, the 1991 Arrow Dynamics looper. We picked a random row towards the middle of the train and were mostly spared from the rough ride this coaster is known to give. The first drop was better than I remembered from previous rides, and the double corkscrew ending was surprisingly graceful. We did get banged up once or twice, but not nearly as bad as on previous rides.

We took a break for lunch at the new Firehouse BBQ restaurant. I was still full from my Sheetz breakfast but did find some room for a cup of great Banana Pudding and some bites of my friend's Peanut Butter Pie he couldn't finish. In hindsight I should have had a smaller breakfast to save room for what looked like a great BBQ platter with compelling sides and corn bread.

After some rest and hydration we tried to ride Dominator (2008 B&M floorless looper) only to find it was temporarily closed. We were thankfully informed by the employee in the station that it wasn't a short "unknown delay" but probably a longer one. We headed for the back of the park and grabbed a classic ride on the Blue Ridge Tollway antique cars.

Reluctantly, it was now time to ride Grizzly. This 1982 PTC wooden coaster is the roughest roller coaster I've been on out of over 200. In the past I have found this ride to dole out an absolute beating, making my shoulders and back sore for days on end. from Labor Day 2022 up through Spring 2023, The Gravity Group extensively refurbished the first half of this ride. They reprofiled the first drop to be steeper and the rest of the track to be buttery smooth. Unfortunately there is a stark point where the refurbishment abruptly ends and the old roughness picks back up. The first half of this ride shows so much potential. I'm not sure if the second half of this coaster is also slated for reworking, but I sure hope it is. We took our lumps and scurried away.

We made our way over to Twisted Timbers (2018 RMC referb of The Hurler), our favorite in the park, to find it temporarily closed. We got a nice ride on the underrated Apple Zapple (2002 Mack Rides Wild Mouse). We started to make our way back up the midway and picked up a losing blue-side ride on Racer '75 (1975 PTC Racing Wooden).

Today, on National Rollercoaster Day of all days, I decided it was the day to ride some rides I normally skip in the park. This started with the Ferris Wheel Americana. Although this Ferris Wheel is not particularly tall, it was still a delightful ride that provided some good views. Next we rode the Carousel located close by. I was surprised to find the old calliope seemingly still in the center of the ride but unfortunately withering away. I would love to see park management refurbish this dilapidated music machine. The least they could do would be to replace the old broken drum heads. We found the Carousel ride to be on the short side, but we did appreciate the lack of seat belts. Our last new-to-us and often skipped ride was Bad Apple, a 2002 HUSS Troika spinning flat ride. I felt somewhat vindicated skipping it all of these years. The ride was not bad, but also not particularly interesting.

We took another hydration break after Bad Apple and headed back on Twisted Timbers. We had seen it running on the Ferris Wheel and it had fully reopened by the time we circled back for it. our 10 minute station waits for this ride were the longest we experienced all day. We first rode 2nd row to the front, then circled around for a second ride in the back row. this ride really is absolutely insane, and I'm not just saying this because it's at my home park. This relatively smaller scale RMC conversion is completely packed with insane and unyielding ejector. It's like every air hill on this ride is doing it's best to send you straight into the sun. I found the (2nd from) front row ride to have more intense ejector air, while the back seemed to have somewhat more mellow (but still insane) air.

With our day now mostly over, we made our way towards the front again, stopping for a 2nd ride on I305. I hear other enthusiasts comment on roller coasters warming up during the day, running faster as it operates throughout the day. I have no idea if this is real or not, but I could point to my 2nd I305 ride as proof. The first turn this time was threatening to turn my lights out. The snappy transitions on this ride are also excellent, and while this ride is not known for it's airtime, it also provides some quality floater moments.

We were pleased to see Dominator was now running as we were making our way out of the park. This was our last ride of the day. It was unfortunately much rougher than I remembered. Although not the worst B&M ride, it did fall down my rankings a good bit. We rode towards the middle of the train and I wonder if the front or back would be better or worse. Hopefully I just caught it on a rough day (pun maybe intended).

All in all, it was an excellent day at Kings Dominion. Our longest lines were for Reptiliian, Tumbili, Twisted Timbers, Americana Ferris Wheel, and Bad Apple, probably only 15 minutes at worst. Although I'd already been on every roller coaster this year, I'd say I was particularly impressed with Flight of Fear, Anaconda, and Apple Zapple, and specifically let down by Tumbili, Grizzly and Dominator. Everything else was as I remembered (Twisted Timbers and i305 are still excellent - Reptilian, Backlot Stuntcoaster, and Racer '75 are still ). We skipped Woodstock Express (1975 PTC Family Wooden) and the bumper cars. The Eiffel Tower was not operating or otherwise I would have considered taking in the view. Our visit was about six hours well spent.