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US Live Trip Reports

Snoo

The Legend
We had fun Pink. Reminded me a lot of the US Lives of the late 2000's. We had a grand ol time during those Lives. They've been.. different recently, due to declining membership across the pond. Hopefully this jump starts the trips moving forward.
 

Edward M

Strata Poster
I'm so so glad I was able to participate in this years US Live. Everybody was fantastic. Loving the trip reports so far as well, hoping to see more soon.

Also thanks for calling me a legend Snoo :p
 

Snoo

The Legend
From start to finish, how could you not be? I mean those bombs you were dropping are stuff made of legend. <3
 

Bat Fastard

Hyper Poster
My god Lightning Rod looks **** incredible. I need that sex machine in my life ASAP. Like now. Looks like you guys had an absolute blast and I loved reading all of your reports! Great pictures also.
 

tomahawk

Strata Poster
Gonna finish this up this week...I swear...

Day 1 (official) Kentucky Kingdom and Holiday World

So after a disappointing cred day on first coasters of the trip, I wasn't optimistic. I had heard RMC weren't too big guy friendly, and after one Wing Rider spite, I wasn't confident for another one, but, we moved forward and optimism showed its head.

We had convinced Hyde to spend an extra cuddle session with us at Kentucky Kingdom, but we had to get Hixee first! Marcus and I (and Erich?) went to the hotel, which was in an amazing area, mere minutes from the park, and grabbed our beautiful British bastard! We then headed to the park for ERT on Storm Chaser!

Made it!

Have to thank Rob and his team for the hook up. Absolutely fantastic how for a group so small, they took care of us so well! Discounted ticket price, 30 minutes ERT, amazing. We got into the park right at 10:30, walking back to the reason we were here, Storm Chaser.


March of the Goon


signage

We walked straight into the station, and I headed straight for row 4 with Hixee. This was a horrible decision that I wouldn't realize until the next day. Grabbed the belt, and quickly realized, there wasn't a chance in hell, so I lowered my head, and took the walk of


I was pissed, but I just walked down and began getting pictures. Here's a few of them...









They rode until shortly after the park opened, and Rob said his good byes, got a nice group shot of us.


Then headed over to Lightning Run and just some extra shame


After that we got some drinks and decided to hit up the scooters, because they are awesome. At that point, the rest of the creds were not worth me risking my back getting jacked up, so I elected to just sit out the SLC, Dinn, and roller skater. We left the park and said our goodbyes to Hyde, as he had to be lame and go back to work, so we headed to Holiday World.



It was disgusting outside, over 100 degrees. Snoo and I still needed tickets and thankfully we got discounted tickets since we got there after whatever o'clock. I really didn't take many pictures here, so this will be more words. We went straight to Raven and walked on. No shame here! I was excited to ride this after being so fond of it in 2009, but my memory deceived me. Not sure if it was just the ride we had, or what, but it was pretty rough, and everyone seemed to agree. We continued our run and went over to Legend, after getting more obscene amounts of water and gatorade (best thing a park can do is this with the drink stations, I wish all parks did them with at least water).

Legend was widely known to be getting retracked, and with another non wait, we got on. Not wanting to sit far back, I randomly decided row 4 again, and considering on Raven I had more belt left than being used, no biggie. Yet this seat was tight! I got buckled and was pissed off again, but we were off. The retrack wasn't complete like I thought I heard. You could tell where it was and it hurt like **** where it didn't. This was the type of thing my doctor told me to avoid. Oops.


Group shot to break up wordy word

After that pain, we went over to Voyage, which has been floating around my number one since my rides before. Again, we sat towards the front, I think third row, and there was more than ample belt. I was too tired to realize a possible connection at this point on just 2 rides. The beginning was just as fun as I remembered, but then I began the brace. For the next eternity, I held on for dear life as this thing beat the **** out of me. It fell fast in my rankings, but I have no idea where it is now, probably somewhere 5-8. I need to sit down and figure out where things sit now. After getting off, a massive headache fell over me, and I think everyone else.

We did Gobbler Getaway and all the **** that it was and then headed for Thunderbird.


Dominates the skyline.


The track jumped in front of my picture. What. A. Dick.

Well, we walked onto Thunderbird, and I kinda new the result. There was a small girl as ride op, and poor thing didn't have a chance to squeeze my ass on, so I just said **** it and did the shuffle.


After they did a few rerides, we walked down the hill to Voyage, where almost everyone rerode, but I said **** that pain, and just sat my ass in some shade. We decided to leave after that, as it was around 6, and we had an almost 4 hour drive to our hotel, plus we lost an hour. So instead of being smart we elected to go have a 2 hour meal at Red Robin where our waitress laughed at us the entire night, and we were obnoxious and loud. Shocker. She loved us though.

Next up is Dollywood! Which during the day had confirmed that Lightning Rod was out of technical rehearsal and now open! Our timing was impeccable!
 

Hixee

Flojector
Staff member
Administrator
Moderator
Social Media Team
She seriously loved us. It looked like a very slow Monday evening shift for her - we must have been the highlight of the night.

Erich - being a boss man said:
Happy 13th Birthday Joey!
She **** lost it. <3 <3

Oh Tom, so much shame... :(
 
All the shame is breaking my heart a bit. In all seriousness though, Tom, and this isn't meant to be rude at all, but before the trip did it cross your mind you may have a lot of spite? I feel like I've seen people far bigger than you fit on rides like this but it depends on where they're bigger (for instance, big thighs often equates to B&M hyper shame whereas bigger bellies leads to shame on other creds). Did you diet before the trip? I feel like if there was a chance I wouldn't fit on an RMC I'd probably starve myself to death.
 

tomahawk

Strata Poster
LiveForTheLaunch said:
All the shame is breaking my heart a bit. In all seriousness though, Tom, and this isn't meant to be rude at all, but before the trip did it cross your mind you may have a lot of spite? I feel like I've seen people far bigger than you fit on rides like this but it depends on where they're bigger (for instance, big thighs often equates to B&M hyper shame whereas bigger bellies leads to shame on other creds). Did you diet before the trip? I feel like if there was a chance I wouldn't fit on an RMC I'd probably starve myself to death.

I was pretty sure the B&M Hypers weren't going to happen, as, like you said, big thighs, equal no ride, and my legs have always been beastly. I had actually gone to KBF a few weeks before the trip and didn't have an issue with Silver Bullet, so I figured I would be fine with the OTSR B&M, until I learned they actually have shrunk the size of the restraints, and that comes directly from Pete at Dollywood. We had a conversation about it.

In terms of RMC, I was concerned, but not big time. A friend who is bigger than me (but not in legs) had ridden Storm Chaser so I was confident I wouldn't have an issue after hearing that. I had started watching what I was eating, but I wasn't serious, and I regret that so much. Storm Chaser is really upsetting since, as I will show later, I chose the wrong row. At Dollywood, the first time, I didn't realize, it was row 4, same as SC, and the belt was way short. The test seat was really close, so I said **** it. During ERT though, Erin the Marketing girl said she had seen much bigger people ride. I tried a different row and the belt had plenty of slack! Dollywood has a bull **** policy where their employees can't push restraints. I understand it, but still. So Marcus sat next to me on an attempt and stood up, got it, but they had to release because his ass had to be "in the seat" and when he sat, it flickered but couldn't stay. To say I was upset is an understatement as Storm Chaser would have definitely happened as they would have given that extra push, or let Marcus do it.

It truly was the motivation I was lacking, just spent hundreds of dollars to do get it sadly. I've got the plan to make this a thing of the past, and have a trip to SFMM planned for late August, possible SFDK in Sept, and then might hit SDC in November. Plus, I'm basically doing the same trip next year, just getting rid of Carowinds because an RMC wouldn't get me back there right now. Gonna throw in SFGAm and SFStl so I'm gonna get some redemption next year.

TL;DR: Extremely frustrating but making changes to make sure I never walk of shame again.
 
^ That really sucks about the wrong row! At least you'll get it next year, though. I can imagine doing the walk of shame isn't the most fun thing in the world, but at least RMC spite is a bit of a thinspiration ;) Seriously though, I have seen bigger people ride RMCs for sure (we thought a few people would get SHAME on Wicked Cyclone last year, but didn't), but I think it just all comes down to body shape at that point, or where on your body is bigger like I said.

I can understand the no pushing policy. It isn't fair for the ride ops to have to literally sit on some people's restraints to get them to close, and then also it holds things up, as well as potentially being a safety issue? Thinking back to the NTG accident here.
 

Hixee

Flojector
Staff member
Administrator
Moderator
Social Media Team
LiveForTheLaunch said:
^ That really sucks about the wrong row! At least you'll get it next year, though. I can imagine doing the walk of shame isn't the most fun thing in the world, but at least RMC spite is a bit of a thinspiration ;) Seriously though, I have seen bigger people ride RMCs for sure (we thought a few people would get SHAME on Wicked Cyclone last year, but didn't), but I think it just all comes down to body shape at that point, or where on your body is bigger like I said.
I think your last point is the real crux to be honest. We saw people smaller than Tom getting rejected from Lightning Rod, they're probably just the wrong proportions.

Pete was explaining they were actually having a little trouble with it, as their rejection rate was higher than they'd like. It's to do with the ratio of thigh to shin, which could catch anyone out really (within reason). Although that's not to try and put Tom off his goals! :)
 

tomahawk

Strata Poster
LiveForTheLaunch said:
^ That really sucks about the wrong row! At least you'll get it next year, though. I can imagine doing the walk of shame isn't the most fun thing in the world, but at least RMC spite is a bit of a thinspiration ;) Seriously though, I have seen bigger people ride RMCs for sure (we thought a few people would get SHAME on Wicked Cyclone last year, but didn't), but I think it just all comes down to body shape at that point, or where on your body is bigger like I said.

I can understand the no pushing policy. It isn't fair for the ride ops to have to literally sit on some people's restraints to get them to close, and then also it holds things up, as well as potentially being a safety issue? Thinking back to the NTG accident here.
I completely understand the no pushing thing, it probably started because of NTG, and I have no problem with it tbh. Just wish it didn't come down to it, which is why I'm making changes now.

Like Matt said, Lightning Rod has a massive spite problem, according to Pete. As he put it, if you have a longer thigh bone, you have a high chance of rejection, even if you aren't big, based off how and where the restraint hits.

On CP mine ride, my knees hit the front of the car before I sat down, due to that bone, those cars aren't very big, so my knee was hanging out of the car, literally, to ride it. The T bar restraints hit kind of the same way RMC does, and MF has a massive rejection rate as well.

I wasn't happy writing this report because it's really embarrassing, and I almost didn't. If it was a different group of people, I'm sure I would have been miserable, but it was probably most fun I've ever had. When I see people much bigger than me get on, and then I get spited, it sucks, but at least I have a bunch of dick friends who can bust my ass in a positive way to encourage me.

"We'll always have Lightning Rod"

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G920A using Tapatalk
 
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