Jarrett
Most Obnoxious Member 2016
With the new hotness that the 2016 season will bring starting to surface, it's inevitable we'll all start to be goons and flip out over construction walls and dirt and pick projects that look especially appealing to us. This got me thinking, for me at least, in past seasons since I found the hobby in late 2010, I tend to look at all of the new additions for the season but there's usually one that really sticks out to me as "OMG AWESOME!!!" that I get really excited over and the next thing you know the wait's tearing me up all offseason. I can't be the only one who does this.
So post the season for which the ride was new, the ride you most anticipated, maybe a small description of that wait or what it meant for you, a small review from when you finally did ride it, and maybe some honorable mentions if there were other projects over which you were flipping out.
2010: Intimidator 305- Before I got into the hobby, we would always spend family vacations going to a beach town and doing a park on the way there or back for my sister and I. My dad had this idea to maybe try hitting up Kings Dominion out of our way and see if it was worth it. Well I looked it up online and on the front page of their website they were building this...thing. It was this huge steel arch on two supports that dropped you off of it at a vertical angle. Just that picture made me decide I needed it in my life ASAP. Well we went and I rode it, and it blew me away! The drop, even though it was trimmed, was still awesome, but what captivated me was how intense it was and how sharp those transitions were. I got off the ride, I felt lightheaded, I was seeing in muted color, and the fact that one of these installations could do that to you fascinated me. This was more of a "I saw something online and did it and it got me hooked" than an actual wait but it got me into the hobby so I say it's significant.
2011: Cheetah Hunt- I had just been getting into the hobby as rides for 2011 were being announced so I didn't follow this one from announcement forward, but one night I was on YouTube and found a construction update, and what I saw looked awesome and I loved how the park was putting so much effort into making this ride actually mean something with the theming and landscaping and windcatcher tower. So I saw a POV and I fell in love. This was during a very stressful time in my life at the end of my junior year when I was barely hanging on in chemistry, dealing with this stupid end of the year project for this horribly demanding English class, and doing driver's ed on top of all of that, so I associate this wait with coming home from school in a frazzled, irritable mood and rushing to my computer to check BGTNation for updates. I even built a 3-foot tall Eurofighter out of pretzels to try to win their Snyder's of Hanover contest and get some plane tickets down to ride. I didn't get on it until 2013 but when I did it was totally worth the wait. I expected it to be competing with Maverick (my number two at the time) but it not only beat Maverick but beat Millennium as well. It remains my number one steel to this day and I believe it to be a testament to coasters that don't need to be massive or insanely intense to be really fun.
2012: Wild Eagle- I had always thought a coaster where you ride on the side of the tracks could be fun and gimmicky, but the wing coaster concept was never one that really tickled my fancy. When I saw that Dollywood was building something in that plot and that there was blue B&M track on the way, I thought it would be themed to some kind of mountain bird but was expecting it to be a flyer that spent most of the ride zooming around the terrain with a few high elements, somewhat similar to Tatsu. Well when they announced it, I saw what they were doing differently with the wing coaster concept and thought it was the most creative thing ever. I remember loving the landscape and scenery there and I thought having a wing coaster providing a soaring sensation over the park overlooking the mountainous horizon was an amazing idea. I also loved how they were selling the ride as more of a challenge and adventure than the traditional "thrill-inducing death trap" most coasters use. Well when I got to ride it, we rolled into Pigeon Forge while it was raining but when it stopped we went to the park, I gooned out on the trolley in front of EVERYONE when I saw the massive lift hill, and the park was dead. I got to take my first ride with wet tracks as the rain was evaporating off of the mountains, producing the smoke effect the area is known for. Today I find it to be the weakest of the three wing coasters I've done but I do still love it and it's one of my favorite rides at Dollywood. Honorable Mentions: Verbolten, Skyrush
2013: GateKeeper- After riding Wild Eagle, I was thrilled to find out we would be getting one within day trip distance of me. Well one fateful summer night, when I was up at 4 in the morning being the third shift night owl I am, I saw that the renderings for this ride leaked. What did I immediately notice? The "twist, half loop" drop I had been building on Rollercoaster Tycoon since I was a kid and two awesome keyhole near misses right over the entrance! I FLIPPED OUT and ran all over the house trying to find someone that was still up that I could show. I remember following construction for this one, the highlight of which was watching them blow up Space Spiral and get the keyholes up. I wasn't as excited for this one as I was some of the others, but it was still great seeing it go up. Come time to ride it...I got spited on it at my first CF Live.
But I went back in July, we won a front of the line pass from Plinko, and my first ride in the front on the left thoroughly managed to knock Wild Eagle out of its spot as my favorite wing coaster! Honorable Mentions: The Smiler, Iron Rattler
2014: Banshee- Having grown up around Son of Beast, I was excited to see the park finally do something about this when they ripped it down in 2012 and I bought a bolt from it. Speculating on this, my brain was all over the place. I started off expecting an RMC called Iron Beast themed to a continuation of the Son of Beast story. Footers quickly put the wabash on that and I started expecting a giga. Then a wing coaster. Then an invert. They teased the ride beautifully as well, the warnings on the fence, the no camping signs, the owls, the scarecrows, the comb, it was perfect. When I saw the layout leak, I was so excited just for the batwing and loop around the lift. It looked amazing and when I watched them announce it on the news, it started the longest offseason EVER. I spent that offseason loaded down with physics, calculus, chemistry, and frantically trying to pull up the webcam on my phone between classes. I remember having a dream I accidentally took a wrong turn driving and drove into the park and saw them test it...then woke up and saw on Facebook they were testing it! This also carried with it probably the best first ride of anything on this list. It was 6 am on media day, the wind chill was -10, it's morning in April in Ohio and it was cold, dark, painful, and AMAZING, putting a much-needed end to the longest offseason ever. This ended Montu's short reign as my favorite invert and became my favorite B&M until I rode Leviathan.
2015: Fury 325- Picking up on that last note, in late August of 2014 I rode Leviathan and it shot to my number three spot. I stated specifically that had it been longer or not built in the parking lot it would have been my number one. A week later this was announced. Then I rode Voyage. But I was still excited for this and while I'm not sure it has a chance against Voyage, it definitely has Cheetah Hunt right in its crosshairs to be taken out as my favorite steel. Anyway, I remember setting an alarm just to wake up early to see them announce this bad boy. And it was amazing. I followed construction of this one pretty closely, watching people post webcam updates and planning when I was going to get down there, which will be three weeks from the time of this posting. Can't wait!
2016: Either Valravn or Kentucky Kingdom's RMC, will update when announced.
So yeah, just take a trip down memory lane and remember announcements past and post! But unless your brain takes things and runs like mine does, I don't recommend writing as much.
So post the season for which the ride was new, the ride you most anticipated, maybe a small description of that wait or what it meant for you, a small review from when you finally did ride it, and maybe some honorable mentions if there were other projects over which you were flipping out.
2010: Intimidator 305- Before I got into the hobby, we would always spend family vacations going to a beach town and doing a park on the way there or back for my sister and I. My dad had this idea to maybe try hitting up Kings Dominion out of our way and see if it was worth it. Well I looked it up online and on the front page of their website they were building this...thing. It was this huge steel arch on two supports that dropped you off of it at a vertical angle. Just that picture made me decide I needed it in my life ASAP. Well we went and I rode it, and it blew me away! The drop, even though it was trimmed, was still awesome, but what captivated me was how intense it was and how sharp those transitions were. I got off the ride, I felt lightheaded, I was seeing in muted color, and the fact that one of these installations could do that to you fascinated me. This was more of a "I saw something online and did it and it got me hooked" than an actual wait but it got me into the hobby so I say it's significant.
2011: Cheetah Hunt- I had just been getting into the hobby as rides for 2011 were being announced so I didn't follow this one from announcement forward, but one night I was on YouTube and found a construction update, and what I saw looked awesome and I loved how the park was putting so much effort into making this ride actually mean something with the theming and landscaping and windcatcher tower. So I saw a POV and I fell in love. This was during a very stressful time in my life at the end of my junior year when I was barely hanging on in chemistry, dealing with this stupid end of the year project for this horribly demanding English class, and doing driver's ed on top of all of that, so I associate this wait with coming home from school in a frazzled, irritable mood and rushing to my computer to check BGTNation for updates. I even built a 3-foot tall Eurofighter out of pretzels to try to win their Snyder's of Hanover contest and get some plane tickets down to ride. I didn't get on it until 2013 but when I did it was totally worth the wait. I expected it to be competing with Maverick (my number two at the time) but it not only beat Maverick but beat Millennium as well. It remains my number one steel to this day and I believe it to be a testament to coasters that don't need to be massive or insanely intense to be really fun.
2012: Wild Eagle- I had always thought a coaster where you ride on the side of the tracks could be fun and gimmicky, but the wing coaster concept was never one that really tickled my fancy. When I saw that Dollywood was building something in that plot and that there was blue B&M track on the way, I thought it would be themed to some kind of mountain bird but was expecting it to be a flyer that spent most of the ride zooming around the terrain with a few high elements, somewhat similar to Tatsu. Well when they announced it, I saw what they were doing differently with the wing coaster concept and thought it was the most creative thing ever. I remember loving the landscape and scenery there and I thought having a wing coaster providing a soaring sensation over the park overlooking the mountainous horizon was an amazing idea. I also loved how they were selling the ride as more of a challenge and adventure than the traditional "thrill-inducing death trap" most coasters use. Well when I got to ride it, we rolled into Pigeon Forge while it was raining but when it stopped we went to the park, I gooned out on the trolley in front of EVERYONE when I saw the massive lift hill, and the park was dead. I got to take my first ride with wet tracks as the rain was evaporating off of the mountains, producing the smoke effect the area is known for. Today I find it to be the weakest of the three wing coasters I've done but I do still love it and it's one of my favorite rides at Dollywood. Honorable Mentions: Verbolten, Skyrush
2013: GateKeeper- After riding Wild Eagle, I was thrilled to find out we would be getting one within day trip distance of me. Well one fateful summer night, when I was up at 4 in the morning being the third shift night owl I am, I saw that the renderings for this ride leaked. What did I immediately notice? The "twist, half loop" drop I had been building on Rollercoaster Tycoon since I was a kid and two awesome keyhole near misses right over the entrance! I FLIPPED OUT and ran all over the house trying to find someone that was still up that I could show. I remember following construction for this one, the highlight of which was watching them blow up Space Spiral and get the keyholes up. I wasn't as excited for this one as I was some of the others, but it was still great seeing it go up. Come time to ride it...I got spited on it at my first CF Live.
But I went back in July, we won a front of the line pass from Plinko, and my first ride in the front on the left thoroughly managed to knock Wild Eagle out of its spot as my favorite wing coaster! Honorable Mentions: The Smiler, Iron Rattler2014: Banshee- Having grown up around Son of Beast, I was excited to see the park finally do something about this when they ripped it down in 2012 and I bought a bolt from it. Speculating on this, my brain was all over the place. I started off expecting an RMC called Iron Beast themed to a continuation of the Son of Beast story. Footers quickly put the wabash on that and I started expecting a giga. Then a wing coaster. Then an invert. They teased the ride beautifully as well, the warnings on the fence, the no camping signs, the owls, the scarecrows, the comb, it was perfect. When I saw the layout leak, I was so excited just for the batwing and loop around the lift. It looked amazing and when I watched them announce it on the news, it started the longest offseason EVER. I spent that offseason loaded down with physics, calculus, chemistry, and frantically trying to pull up the webcam on my phone between classes. I remember having a dream I accidentally took a wrong turn driving and drove into the park and saw them test it...then woke up and saw on Facebook they were testing it! This also carried with it probably the best first ride of anything on this list. It was 6 am on media day, the wind chill was -10, it's morning in April in Ohio and it was cold, dark, painful, and AMAZING, putting a much-needed end to the longest offseason ever. This ended Montu's short reign as my favorite invert and became my favorite B&M until I rode Leviathan.
2015: Fury 325- Picking up on that last note, in late August of 2014 I rode Leviathan and it shot to my number three spot. I stated specifically that had it been longer or not built in the parking lot it would have been my number one. A week later this was announced. Then I rode Voyage.
But I was still excited for this and while I'm not sure it has a chance against Voyage, it definitely has Cheetah Hunt right in its crosshairs to be taken out as my favorite steel. Anyway, I remember setting an alarm just to wake up early to see them announce this bad boy. And it was amazing. I followed construction of this one pretty closely, watching people post webcam updates and planning when I was going to get down there, which will be three weeks from the time of this posting. Can't wait!2016: Either Valravn or Kentucky Kingdom's RMC, will update when announced.
So yeah, just take a trip down memory lane and remember announcements past and post! But unless your brain takes things and runs like mine does, I don't recommend writing as much.
