Grizzly
- Thread starter I305Evan
- Start date
I'm hoping they did work on orange train as well. Last year orange ran like it was riding on potholes the entire time
I would love if they changed the seat dividers for this ride to be like Kings Islands wooden coasters where the divider isn't completely solid and has a large hole in the middle of it instead. It made those PTC trains significantly more comfortable by comparison.
YES! GOD YES!
The short, solid PTC seat dividers like KD uses are the absolutely worst ones I've ever experienced. They're JUST short enough where my thigh constantly jabs into the corner during airtime moments. The taller, hollow ones are my absolute favorite since you can sorta settle in below it.
This is why no matter how much work they do to the track, and how much people say the roughness is part of the “charm” this coaster will remain a DNR (do not ride). That divider hits at the right spot on my leg that causes severe pain and inhibits my ability to walk when I sit on the left side.
Just rode in 4 times. AWESOME! Easily the best woodie in Virginia. My personal favorite woodie not named El Toro, but I haven't ridden many.
I also just rode 4 times. Ride is easily twice as good. The retracted portions are butter smooth and and hill in the tunnel now gives actual ejector airtime. It may have before but it was maybe too painful to notice. This is smooth ejector. The bunny hill before the tunnel also gives much stronger airtime.
The only part I wish was retracted is the valley before the last turnaround. That still jackhammers hard. But hey, I guess there needs to be one part that still feels like a car crash. Gotta remind you of the past somehow.
The only part I wish was retracted is the valley before the last turnaround. That still jackhammers hard. But hey, I guess there needs to be one part that still feels like a car crash. Gotta remind you of the past somehow.
This afternoon and evening, I took 21 rides in Grizzly - where if you think that is just a bit excessive, don't worry as I met a few others who had even higher counts.
The retrack is gonna have a lot of positive reviews from the GP - as it truly is a beautiful job by The Gravity Group. But before going into the positives, I'm gonna start with the negatives...
The trees. Oh the trees. All of us here have known most all of the trees on the interior of the fan turn, out of the tunnel, have been removed. But seeing it (the devastation) in person - with today's rain leaving just a field of mud, with tree stumps floating out of it - I can't even begin to convey my frustration. Of all those dozens of trees, only 3 remain, with no replacements planted (yet).
And though the Grizzly of the past couple of decades is nowhere close to the original (pre-Hurler/Twisted Timbers) Grizzly, from the station you could at least get some sense of isolation from the rest of the park. But that's not the case anymore, as you can now easily see Twisted Timbers from the rear of the station:
The worst negative though is that Grizzly nights rides (as we once fondly knew them) are now dead!
In recent years there was always a few (on the dimmer-side) lighting elements throughout the ride. But for some reason, the park has decided to install high-intensity LED lighting just about everywhere. Here is a view of the station at 9:10pm:
...where I could sort of live with the insanely bright overhead lights on the final break run, and the high intensity spotlight mounted on top of that break run (which you can't really see in that photo) illuminating the lift hill. But the part that really gets me, is with all the trees removed on the turn out of the tunnel, they decided to install two insanely bright lights (which also match the intensity of two new lights on the first/final turnaround):
So with the major negatives aside, now the positives...
The parts of Grizzly that were retracked - which is the first 2/3rd's of the coaster - is awesome! Grizzly's first drop honestly never did much for me. But the new steeper and higher drop is now my single-most favorite aspect of the ride. All of the previous jarring transitions are gone; the floater air through the tunnel is awesome; (for the moment) the fresh smell of lumber through the tunnel is awesome; the head-chopper moments at the bottom of the first drop, and also into the final turn-around, are awesome.
So again, incredible job by The Gravity Group - where anyone who thought Grizzly was rough, should now be pleasantly impressed (with again the first 2/3rd's of the coaster, as the last third was for some reason not touched).
So though I'm still sort of feeling the loss of a beloved family member, given the night-ride aspect - which I guess could be fixed by turning off some of the new lights, if enough people complain - the new retracked Grizzly is incredible, and definitely worth a ride (or twenty
).
The retrack is gonna have a lot of positive reviews from the GP - as it truly is a beautiful job by The Gravity Group. But before going into the positives, I'm gonna start with the negatives...
The trees. Oh the trees. All of us here have known most all of the trees on the interior of the fan turn, out of the tunnel, have been removed. But seeing it (the devastation) in person - with today's rain leaving just a field of mud, with tree stumps floating out of it - I can't even begin to convey my frustration. Of all those dozens of trees, only 3 remain, with no replacements planted (yet).
And though the Grizzly of the past couple of decades is nowhere close to the original (pre-Hurler/Twisted Timbers) Grizzly, from the station you could at least get some sense of isolation from the rest of the park. But that's not the case anymore, as you can now easily see Twisted Timbers from the rear of the station:
The worst negative though is that Grizzly nights rides (as we once fondly knew them) are now dead!
In recent years there was always a few (on the dimmer-side) lighting elements throughout the ride. But for some reason, the park has decided to install high-intensity LED lighting just about everywhere. Here is a view of the station at 9:10pm:
...where I could sort of live with the insanely bright overhead lights on the final break run, and the high intensity spotlight mounted on top of that break run (which you can't really see in that photo) illuminating the lift hill. But the part that really gets me, is with all the trees removed on the turn out of the tunnel, they decided to install two insanely bright lights (which also match the intensity of two new lights on the first/final turnaround):
So with the major negatives aside, now the positives...
The parts of Grizzly that were retracked - which is the first 2/3rd's of the coaster - is awesome! Grizzly's first drop honestly never did much for me. But the new steeper and higher drop is now my single-most favorite aspect of the ride. All of the previous jarring transitions are gone; the floater air through the tunnel is awesome; (for the moment) the fresh smell of lumber through the tunnel is awesome; the head-chopper moments at the bottom of the first drop, and also into the final turn-around, are awesome.
So again, incredible job by The Gravity Group - where anyone who thought Grizzly was rough, should now be pleasantly impressed (with again the first 2/3rd's of the coaster, as the last third was for some reason not touched).
So though I'm still sort of feeling the loss of a beloved family member, given the night-ride aspect - which I guess could be fixed by turning off some of the new lights, if enough people complain - the new retracked Grizzly is incredible, and definitely worth a ride (or twenty
).I'm glad the re-tracking made the ride a lot nicer.This afternoon and evening, I took 21 rides in Grizzly - where if you think that is just a bit excessive, don't worry as I met a few others who had even higher counts.
The retrack is gonna have a lot of positive reviews from the GP - as it truly is a beautiful job by The Gravity Group. But before going into the positives, I'm gonna start with the negatives...
The trees. Oh the trees. All of us here have known most all of the trees on the interior of the fan turn, out of the tunnel, have been removed. But seeing it (the devastation) in person - with today's rain leaving just a field of mud, with tree stumps floating out of it - I can't even begin to convey my frustration. Of all those dozens of trees, only 3 remain, with no replacements planted (yet).
And though the Grizzly of the past couple of decades is nowhere close to the original (pre-Hurler/Twisted Timbers) Grizzly, from the station you could at least get some sense of isolation from the rest of the park. But that's not the case anymore, as you can now easily see Twisted Timbers from the rear of the station:
View attachment 28947
View attachment 28948
The worst negative though is that Grizzly nights rides (as we once fondly knew them) are now dead!
In recent years there was always a few (on the dimmer-side) lighting elements throughout the ride. But for some reason, the park has decided to install high-intensity LED lighting just about everywhere. Here is a view of the station at 9:10pm:
View attachment 28949
...where I could sort of live with the insanely bright overhead lights on the final break run, and the high intensity spotlight mounted on top of that break run (which you can't really see in that photo) illuminating the lift hill. But the part that really gets me, is with all the trees removed on the turn out of the tunnel, they decided to install two insanely bright lights (which also match the intensity of two new lights on the first/final turnaround):
View attachment 28950
So with the major negatives aside, now the positives...
The parts of Grizzly that were retracked - which is the first 2/3rd's of the coaster - is awesome! Grizzly's first drop honestly never did much for me. But the new steeper and higher drop is now my single-most favorite aspect of the ride. All of the previous jarring transitions are gone; the floater air through the tunnel is awesome; (for the moment) the fresh smell of lumber through the tunnel is awesome; the head-chopper moments at the bottom of the first drop, and also into the final turn-around, are awesome.
So again, incredible job by The Gravity Group - where anyone who thought Grizzly was rough, should now be pleasantly impressed (with again the first 2/3rd's of the coaster, as the last third was for some reason not touched).
So though I'm still sort of feeling the loss of a beloved family member, given the night-ride aspect - which I guess could be fixed by turning off some of the new lights, if enough people complain - the new retracked Grizzly is incredible, and definitely worth a ride (or twenty
Really disappointed to hear about the trees. The pictures are bleak.
Got 4 rides in today 1 in front row 3 in back car row 1. Yeah all of the retracked sections ride like a dream the first drop is significantly better and fantastic in the back and incredibly smooth and tamer in the front.
The turnaround is largely the same but the train doesn’t crawl as much to get into it with all the extra speed. The sequence after is fantastic both hills hit hard. The tunnel airtime hill is an aggressive pop in the back car. The fan turn is MUCH smoother now with a far better exit out of it. The rest after that I can confirm is largely the same track as before with the valley before the final turn around having some aggressive jackhammering in the back.
It’s probably my 3rd favorite ride in the park now with how much better the main core of the ride is. The airtime is significantly improved in all of the areas GG got their hands on.
The turnaround is largely the same but the train doesn’t crawl as much to get into it with all the extra speed. The sequence after is fantastic both hills hit hard. The tunnel airtime hill is an aggressive pop in the back car. The fan turn is MUCH smoother now with a far better exit out of it. The rest after that I can confirm is largely the same track as before with the valley before the final turn around having some aggressive jackhammering in the back.
It’s probably my 3rd favorite ride in the park now with how much better the main core of the ride is. The airtime is significantly improved in all of the areas GG got their hands on.
Do we think they will give the last 3rd the same treatment in the “off-season”? Seems odd to put in all that effort and then not do the last 3rd. So the jack hammering is only in the back? If so I will need to make sure my kid and nephew ride up toward the front. Otherwise they are liable to reject it.
I too find it odd that they didn’t redo the whole thing. Not doing that part and keeping the same trains feels really incomplete. Personally, hearing the same trains makes it a no go anyways, but to still have the part I thought was the worst part still stay the same is extremely disappointing.
Maybe they left a spot rough in case anyone wants to complain it's too smooth. It definitely won't hurt for it to get a little grit back in a couple of years, but for now just seeing all the new wood feels special.
After the retracking ends -- best I could tell, it was dark -- you go up a hill that is fine, and the last turnaround to the end really doesn't need a thing. However the valley before that turnaround pogo'd bad even on Grizzly's better days and it seems like they should have put a Band-Aid on it at least. Still, it's around 3 quick shakes and you're through, and it helps to reach it without prior damage. I didn't try a wheel seat but the front had become the worst so the back certainly won't add problems now.
As my first rides were in the dark, trees weren't too apparent and the light was welcome to see the work, but yeah they need to turn off that noise after a while. At least there were no lights in the tunnel!
A nitpick is they didn't reduce the whip coming out of the fan turn, they eliminated it. Still better than having the inertia of you and another person slamming you into left side of the car, of course. But you're going around a turn and then suddenly you're going down a ramp and it seems weird, almost like an element was removed. Acquired tastes or actually too big a change? Anyway, going into the fan turn still hits good and the hill in the tunnel is the best on the ride, insane!
After the retracking ends -- best I could tell, it was dark -- you go up a hill that is fine, and the last turnaround to the end really doesn't need a thing. However the valley before that turnaround pogo'd bad even on Grizzly's better days and it seems like they should have put a Band-Aid on it at least. Still, it's around 3 quick shakes and you're through, and it helps to reach it without prior damage. I didn't try a wheel seat but the front had become the worst so the back certainly won't add problems now.
As my first rides were in the dark, trees weren't too apparent and the light was welcome to see the work, but yeah they need to turn off that noise after a while. At least there were no lights in the tunnel!
A nitpick is they didn't reduce the whip coming out of the fan turn, they eliminated it. Still better than having the inertia of you and another person slamming you into left side of the car, of course. But you're going around a turn and then suddenly you're going down a ramp and it seems weird, almost like an element was removed. Acquired tastes or actually too big a change? Anyway, going into the fan turn still hits good and the hill in the tunnel is the best on the ride, insane!
Yeah replacing the seat dividers would have done wonders I do admit. I also hope they come back and retrack the ending to make that whole section like the rest. I still love it now and it's definitely getting ridden each visit. This along with I305, TT, Dominator, and FOF does give KD a very fun top 5 honestly.
I'm currently planning to go Sunday and expecting to do some Grizzly marathoning, especially since I have a condition right now that will make riding anything with an OTSR or vest potentially painful. Main thing I want to ride is New Grizzly anyway. Hopefully the rain holds off or is only minimal.
How has the line been for it? Are people back to riding it or is it still too hidden (or just not known that they did this work)?
How has the line been for it? Are people back to riding it or is it still too hidden (or just not known that they did this work)?