TPR "Mini New Hotness" Roller Coaster Tour

It's no secret that I love roller coasters and amusement parks. I've been on 590 different roller coasters on 5 continents. Sometimes I travel by myself, sometimes with David, and sometimes with my coaster buddies. A really convenient way to visit a lot of parks in a short period of time is to go on a coaster "tour." These are organized trips with coaster enthusiast groups. You don't have to worry about driving, park entrance tickets, or booking hotels; you get to just sit back and enjoy the ride! It's also a ton of fun to hang out with other coaster dorks. I've done two coaster tours before: the Europe 2012 tour with Theme Park Review, and the 2013 Outlaws in the Ozarks tour with the Metro Atlanta Coaster Club. Both were amazing, so I knew I had to find another trip for 2014. I saw TPR had a tour that visited a few parks I've never been to while also checking out some of the new for 2014 major coaster installations. I signed up, and in late July I joined the tour and visited eight amusement parks in six days. I had a fantastic time, and made some new coaster friends. I'm sure the talented photographers on the trip will be posting full trip reports, but I thought I'd share some of my cell phone pics. Now it's time to start planning for a 2015 tour. :)

Our route through the Midwest

Our first stop was an add-on stop to Coney Island, a nice small family amusement park in Cincinnati. It was much nicer than I expected. It's actually a really old park (it opened in 1886) that used to have some classic wooden coasters, but the site is right on the Ohio River and is prone to severe flooding. Most of its rides were moved in 1971 to a new site to form King's Island amusement park. Coney Island reopened in 1973, and has been slowly expanding since then. We enjoyed the shaded landscaping and the beer at River Dog Mugs n Suds. I think our group probably gave them more beer business in a few hours than they normally get in a whole weekend.

Python at Coney Island

Roxanne and Ian on the slide at Coney Island

Our next stop, and the first "official" stop on the tour, was a surprise visit to Sticker's Grove. This is a tiny private amusement park that is normally only open for groups of 300 or more that rent out the entire park. Luckily we were able to crash a church picnic and ride the two wooden roller coasters at the park. They're certainly rare coaster credits! Both were fun, zippy little rides.

The adorable Teddy Bear family coaster

Tornado and the flyers

The train went through a corn field and past a fiberglass hippo. Such a fun and odd experience!

The first big park of the trip was King's Island. This was a LONG day, leaving the hotel at 7:30AM and not ending until after midnight. Then we had to get up early the next day to drive from Cincinnati to Louisville. We started our day with exclusive ride time (ERT) on Banshee, the park's new inverted coaster. It's a very fun ride, although not really a top-10 coaster. I also thought Diamondback was excellent, and night rides on The Beast were a treat. The park staff was excellent and gave us lots of perks, including a meet-and-greet with the cast of their cirque show, a great lunch with beer, and tons of ERT!

Banshee in the mist!

Escorted to Diamondback before the park opened

Diamondback splashdown

Kiddie credit!

Backstage photo tour of Banshee

Banshee's excellent first drop

There's even Banshee ice cream. Blueberry-vanilla. Yum!

Beast photo walk-back

Banshee from the tower

Diamondback from the tower

They had a neat display of 80's toys

Another kiddie credit!

Vortex at sunset

After a short amount of sleep, we drove to Kentucky Kingdom the next day. This park opened in 1987, and was later bought by Six Flags and basically run into the ground, closing in 2009. It sat vacant for several years before reopening this year. It's still a work in progress, but the new owners have done a great job at refurbishing the park, especially the water park. The star new attraction is Lightning Run. It was my favorite coaster of the trip, definitely a top-10 ride. Fantastic airtime and a wild, out-of-control layout. Couldn't ask for a better way to start the day! We also met with the owner of the park, who solicited some feedback from us on future ride installations. Can't wait to see what the future brings at this park.

Our trusty bus, driven by Stanley the Swede

Lightning Run!

Mmm, beer

Lightning Run from the ferris wheel

Downtown Louisville in the distance

After a fun half day at Kentucky Kingdom, we drove down to Bowling Green to visit Beech Bend amusement park. It's a small/medium family park kind of in the middle of nowhere. It just happens to have a really good wooden coaster. We met with park staff, had a prize drawing (I won a t-shirt!) and did a behind-the-scenes walk through of their haunted dark ride. The day ended with some incredible night-time ERT on Kentucky Rumbler, in a light rain and with thunderstorms in the distance. It was epic!

Another kiddie credit! We almost broke this one. Oops.

A very fun GCI woodie

Walk through of the dark ride

Taking pictures in the dark ride

Rumbler at night! Wheee!

We left Beech Bend that night and began our drive towards Holiday World in southern Indiana. Most of us fell asleep as we drove through heavy rain. We awoke to the news that our hotel for the night, Satan's Lodge (ahem, Santa's Lodge), had accidentally released all of our rooms. This is the first time that's ever happened in nine years of TPR tours. At this point, it was almost 2AM. They managed to find us a hotel in a nearby town that still had some rooms, although not quite enough for all of us. Some of us had to do a little bit of doubling up. Three of us ended up in what must have been the "honeymoon suite." It was bizarre, and included some really weird decorations. We barely had time to enjoy it, as we got in so late and had to leave so early. The PR person at Holiday World, where we'd be visiting very shortly, tweeted that we were on the "#66 minutesofsleep" tour, a funny nod to their "66 days at sea" promotion for their new ride. Experiences like this actually make the trips more interesting. I'll always remember the fine decor of the suite at the Days Inn of Owensboro, Kentucky, where I spent a lovely 4 hours. :)

This is our Italy meets Kentucky dining nook. The chef clock was my favorite.

Christmas in July!

We made it to Holiday World bright and early the next morning. This is one of my favorite parks. It has a great atmosphere, lots of shade, great rides, friendly employees, and even free soda and sunscreen! This is how all amusement parks should be run. The last time I visited was back in 2006. I was excited to see some of their new attractions, and re-ride their three signature coasters (all wooden). Legend was unfortunately quite rough, and needs some re-tracking. Voyage and Raven are rougher than they used to be, but are still running well and are in my top 10.

One of the surprises on this day was waterpark ERT. I don't normally do waterparks, but Holiday World has one of the best in the world, so I couldn't pass it up. They have two incredibly fun slides, Wildebeest and Mammoth, that are actually magnetically launched. Airtime on a waterslide? Yes please! Some of the best rides of the trip.

After the park closed, we had a few rides on Voyage in the dark. This is a demanding coaster because it's very intense, but the back seat at night is a must-do experience. The first half is incredible, but then the second half gets rough and is a little too out-of-control. Still an awesome coaster. I finished off the night with a fantastic ERT session on the Raven (probably my favorite ERT of the trip!) where I rode over and over for an hour. I think Raven may be the best night-time ride on the planet. It actually used to be in my top 2 back in the late 90s when it had buzz-bar restraints and was really smooth. Kudos to Holiday World for an awesome day! I'll probably be coming back to this park next year to check out the new coaster.

Welcome to Holiday World!

Photo walk-back of the Raven

Walking under the Legend

They already had Thunderbird (new for 2015) merchandise!

The Voyage walk-back. It was very hot.

Nice photo ops by the Voyage

Coaster nerds on the walk-back

Waterpark ERT. Wildebeest was an awesome ride.

Raven at night!

After another late night with too little sleep, we arrived the next morning at Indiana Beach. I used to love coming here in the late 90s and early 2000s when I lived in Michigan and Indiana. It's a fun little family park with a quirky, low-brow, almost tongue-in-cheek atmosphere. It's kind of 1960s Jersey shore meets Indiana corn field, with a very mom-and-pop feel. We had morning ERT on most of the coasters, including the unique Steel Hawg. Unfortunately Hoosier Hurricane was down. Cornball Express was running OK, but not nearly as well as it was 10 years ago. Lost Coaster of Superstition Mountain is still a bizarre experience, although most of the effects weren't working anymore. We had a great lunch in the sky room, and some Q&A time with park reps. They were very welcoming and even gave us some "IB cash" to spend and Indiana Beach cups to take home. We only had half a day here, but we were able to ride everything we wanted, feed the carp, and enjoy some beer at the beach bar. Another great day!

Fun "use" of "quotation marks"

There wouldn't be awesome signs like this at Six Flags. Gotta love the "local flavor" of Indiana Beach!

Hoosier Hurricane's turnaround at the tip of the island. Awesome lakefront atmosphere!

The new kiddie coaster wasn't quite open yet. Darn.

Move the ladder and open it up! Heh.

Fascination take over! It's basically like ski-ball meets bingo meets a 1960s casino.

So much fun!

Had to get on the log ride, of course.

Feeding the carp. They loved ice cream cones.

Beer time at Indiana Beach!

Our final day was at Six Flags Great America north of Chicago. They unfortunately didn't offer our group anything special (ERT, photo tours, etc). Not that we expect anything, but it was interesting this was the only park on the trip that basically ignored us. Still, we had platinum passes that allowed us to skip the lines on some rides, so we crossed our fingers for a fun day. We started on the park's signature new coaster - Goliath, the fastest and steepest wooden coaster on earth. It's a very good ride. I enjoyed it, but it doesn't really compare to the awesomeness of some other coasters from the same manufacturer (like Outlaw Run and Texas Giant). Apparently Six Flags uses a different type of wheel than manufacturer specifications, which slows down the ride quite a bit.
The rest of the day we experienced typical Six Flags operations (read: lackluster). Poor operations on a really crowded day can be a bit taxing. This park still has a lot of potential, a few areas that are nicely themed, and some good coasters. Here's hoping for better management! A few of us left early for some more beer at Timothy O'Toole's pub. Great selection of regional craft beer.

Goliath certainly looks imposing, and is a smooth, fun ride.

The line got even longer than this. Luckily we were able to ride three times with little wait.

Having fun in the front seat.

Viper is a formerly awesome ride that has gotten a bit sluggish.

My coaster keychains from the trip!

I made a new friend! (No, this isn't mine).

If you like coasters, I'd definitely recommend joining a trip like this. They're a ton of fun! Just make sure you leave some time to catch up on sleep when you get back home. :)