Finally made it out to my new home park yesterday after a few weeks of chaos at work and weather not cooperating on my days off! Was able to take my dad too, he’s on vacation and he hadn’t been to a park since pre-covid Great Adventure, save for a ride on the Cyclone in 2023. Unfortunately Copperhead Strike has been down for a few days, but I managed to hit every other coaster in the park aside from Wilderness Run.
Ops were pretty bad early in the day, the only coasters I saw cycle with passengers before 10:45 were Ricochet and Vortex. That said, beyond that almost every ride was a 5-10 minute wait.
Ricochet - I try not to judge Wild Mouse models too harshly, but ouch. Most of the layout isn’t overly offensive, but the first few turns and any trim brakes were awful. 89/107
Vortex - I haven’t exactly made it a secret that I dislike B&M standups, and I expected this one to be especially bad as the 3rd B&M ever built. While I didn’t hate it nearly as much as Green Lantern or Rougarou, it’s still not a good ride and I hope something else is in this plot by 2030. 93/107
Carolina Cyclone - I absolutely adore Arrow loopers and I’m thrilled to have one at my home park for the first time in 15 years. Maybe I was subconsciously riding defensively after two pretty bad coasters, but I didn’t think it was rough at all and didn’t have any headbanging. Still janky of course, but just the right amount of Arrow jank. 44/107
Fury 325 - There’s really not much to say about this ride that hasn’t been said repeatedly. Fury is the first B&M to be in my top 10 since I was 11 and had very little to go off of for rankings. I’m glad it lived up to the hype, and while I’m not one to close my eyes on a coaster since I love the views they give, I did for my 2nd ride on Fury and holy shit. What a layout. 3/107
Carolina Goldrusher - Pretty short for an Arrow mine train, but still fun. Love a good terrain coaster. 60/107
Flying Cobras - It’s a boomerang lmao. Not much to report here, although oddly enough this is only my second boomerang after Jolly Rancher Remix. 72/107
Afterburn - I had high expectations for an invert with a batwing. The batwing itself didn’t disappoint at all, super intense, but the rest of the layout is pretty par for the course for an invert. Still though, one of my favorite ones out there. 25/107
Kiddy Hawk - Knew I wouldn’t like it, it is what it is. SFCs are miserable little things. Could’ve sat on for another ride, but my dad and I shared the thought process of “why would we do that to ourselves?” 104/107
Snoopy’s Racing Railway - I’ve never been this excited for a family coaster. Great theming, an absolutely beautiful train, and a fantastic addition to a park that desperately needed a modern family coaster. Launches are a bit more forceful than I expected too, kinda figured it would just be enough to crawl through the layout, and a second lap is always nice. 66/107
Woodstock Express - I’ll never turn down a ride on a PTC. Despite what I said about the park having needed a modern family coaster, I wish more parks had family wooden coasters whether they’re 50 years old or not. 69/107
Thunder Striker - I haven’t been on a bad hyper yet, but this was fairly middle of the road for me. Not bad by any means, but I’ll take Diamondback or Nitro over it any day. 35/107
Hurler - We hadn’t seen it cycle once all day. Kept checking when we were in the area and it was down. Right before we left, we decided to check one last time and it was running. Let me preface this by saying that a rough ride isn’t automatically bad to me, I love Arrow loopers and classic wooden coasters even if they beat me up a bit. But Hurler is something else, and I mean that in the most negative way possible. Whether they do an IBOX conversion, give it 208/topper, or have Gravity Group come in and overhaul it, something needs to change. Easily one of the worst coasters I’ve been on. 106/107
Only did 2 flats, Windstar was janky as hell but fun and Boo Blasters was some much needed coverage from the sun.
Nighthawk’s station and footers, as previously reported, are still there. The front of one of the trains is sitting inside the station, and there are two pieces of the track in the parking lot.
Hoping to get back out in the fall and catch Copperhead Strike. All in all, definitely a nice park to have as my new home park (although I wish it wasn’t 3 hours away), but I definitely see where the common notion of “great top 4 and not much else” comes from.
Ops were pretty bad early in the day, the only coasters I saw cycle with passengers before 10:45 were Ricochet and Vortex. That said, beyond that almost every ride was a 5-10 minute wait.
Ricochet - I try not to judge Wild Mouse models too harshly, but ouch. Most of the layout isn’t overly offensive, but the first few turns and any trim brakes were awful. 89/107
Vortex - I haven’t exactly made it a secret that I dislike B&M standups, and I expected this one to be especially bad as the 3rd B&M ever built. While I didn’t hate it nearly as much as Green Lantern or Rougarou, it’s still not a good ride and I hope something else is in this plot by 2030. 93/107
Carolina Cyclone - I absolutely adore Arrow loopers and I’m thrilled to have one at my home park for the first time in 15 years. Maybe I was subconsciously riding defensively after two pretty bad coasters, but I didn’t think it was rough at all and didn’t have any headbanging. Still janky of course, but just the right amount of Arrow jank. 44/107
Fury 325 - There’s really not much to say about this ride that hasn’t been said repeatedly. Fury is the first B&M to be in my top 10 since I was 11 and had very little to go off of for rankings. I’m glad it lived up to the hype, and while I’m not one to close my eyes on a coaster since I love the views they give, I did for my 2nd ride on Fury and holy shit. What a layout. 3/107
Carolina Goldrusher - Pretty short for an Arrow mine train, but still fun. Love a good terrain coaster. 60/107
Flying Cobras - It’s a boomerang lmao. Not much to report here, although oddly enough this is only my second boomerang after Jolly Rancher Remix. 72/107
Afterburn - I had high expectations for an invert with a batwing. The batwing itself didn’t disappoint at all, super intense, but the rest of the layout is pretty par for the course for an invert. Still though, one of my favorite ones out there. 25/107
Kiddy Hawk - Knew I wouldn’t like it, it is what it is. SFCs are miserable little things. Could’ve sat on for another ride, but my dad and I shared the thought process of “why would we do that to ourselves?” 104/107
Snoopy’s Racing Railway - I’ve never been this excited for a family coaster. Great theming, an absolutely beautiful train, and a fantastic addition to a park that desperately needed a modern family coaster. Launches are a bit more forceful than I expected too, kinda figured it would just be enough to crawl through the layout, and a second lap is always nice. 66/107
Woodstock Express - I’ll never turn down a ride on a PTC. Despite what I said about the park having needed a modern family coaster, I wish more parks had family wooden coasters whether they’re 50 years old or not. 69/107
Thunder Striker - I haven’t been on a bad hyper yet, but this was fairly middle of the road for me. Not bad by any means, but I’ll take Diamondback or Nitro over it any day. 35/107
Hurler - We hadn’t seen it cycle once all day. Kept checking when we were in the area and it was down. Right before we left, we decided to check one last time and it was running. Let me preface this by saying that a rough ride isn’t automatically bad to me, I love Arrow loopers and classic wooden coasters even if they beat me up a bit. But Hurler is something else, and I mean that in the most negative way possible. Whether they do an IBOX conversion, give it 208/topper, or have Gravity Group come in and overhaul it, something needs to change. Easily one of the worst coasters I’ve been on. 106/107
Only did 2 flats, Windstar was janky as hell but fun and Boo Blasters was some much needed coverage from the sun.
Nighthawk’s station and footers, as previously reported, are still there. The front of one of the trains is sitting inside the station, and there are two pieces of the track in the parking lot.
Hoping to get back out in the fall and catch Copperhead Strike. All in all, definitely a nice park to have as my new home park (although I wish it wasn’t 3 hours away), but I definitely see where the common notion of “great top 4 and not much else” comes from.
