On Wednesday, after spending the afternoon at Devil's Lake State Park, we decided to make a quick trip to Noah's Ark. Last year, we had visited on this exact day, only to find heavy crowds and extremely hot weather. This year, it was the opposite.
We got to the park around 5:00, (only two hours before the park closed), and got our first rides on Black Anaconda of the year. Anaconda was closed on my previous visit to the park on media day, because it and Scorpion's Tail had been struck by lightning the night before. It gave a great ride, as expected from my the best waterslide I've ridden. And after riding it with 2 and 3 people in the boat, I must say it's more thrilling with 2 people, because you do get air on some of the hills.
Next up, was Scorpion's Tail. I had ridden this on media day, and had been the second "official" rider on it. Sure I knew it was Tested several times by employees, but I was still happy to be the second public rider. As before I loved this ride. It was just as intense of a ride as it was when I first rode it. The best part, is the anticipation in the trap door capsule, and the drop. Unlike The Point of No Return, where you actually have to scoot yourself of the edge, Scorpion's gives you a major "falling" moment just after you are dropped. Mainly because you aren't touching the slide! The poitive G's in the loop are also an asome element that I didn't notice on my first ride. Overall a great slide, and a perfect addtion to the Ark. Possibly my second favorite slide!
After that amazing, not to mention SMOOTH ride on Scorpions, we decided to get a "red, painful back" on the poor one sided Point of No Return. Despite the cool drop, and the fear of having to push yourself off a ten story slide, the landing is just brutal of your back, and enough to say "No Thank You" to a reride on The Point. It's worth trying if you haven't ridden it before, but more than one ride in a row could be too much.
We then headed to Stingray. I'm always sure to get a ride on this one everytime I come to the ark. The drop is great, especially when experienced backwards facing, and although short, is definitely worth trying .
By this time, it was around 6:00 so we got another ride on Scorpion's and Black Anaconda before headng to the back side of the park to ride the Time Warp.
Time Warp is a fun ride. We only had two people in the raft, so we only went around the bowl once. Same as most rides, the drop is the best part. This ride is best with four people. You gain alot more speed in the drop, therefore being able to spin around the bowl one or two more times.
Knowing that neither Slidewinders nor Flash Flood ever built up much of a line, we skipped them today, as we usually come around five times a year with our Season passes.
Dark Voyage, however, does build up quite a line later in the year, so we warmed up by getting a quick ride on it. That is probably one of the only reasons I ride Dark Voyage. To warm up. Otherwise it may be waste of time if it has a long line.
It was now about 6:20 and we were starting to see some serious dark storm clouds approaching, so we got packed up and ready to leave. It was a very good day to visit, with NO CROWDS and perfect weather most of the time. No crowds, as in every ride was a walk on in the raft or slide without waiting besides Scopions.(wich was about a two minute wait!). We could still enjoy the rides without freezing, but it wasn't too hot to walk of the rough pavement of the park.
Just as we got to our car in the parking lot, it started to rain. And by the time we were out of the parking lot, it was pouring down rain! I was glad we packed up a little before closing! We'll be sure to visit again very soon.
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Mt Olympus Water and Theme Park 6/16/10 "Report Card Day"
Yesterday, I decided to make a trip to Mt Olympus Water and Theme park, in the Wisconsin Dells. I knew it was a special event day called "Report Card Day", a day that anyone with an "A" on their report card could get in free. As expected, Report Card day is very busy, due to people wanting to save money in the Dells! One thing that should be noted about this special event day, is that bring your report card with an "A", will only get you as far as the waterpark. For $10 extra, you can upgrade your pass to admission to thet dry reides as well. Which includes; all of the roller coasters, the go cart tracks, and the small kiddie area.
Getting to the park a little after 9:00, we started our day off with a ride on my favorite wooden roller coaster, Hades. All who visit this park, should keep in mind that all rides on Hades should be done right away. Or else you will find yourself waiting in lines over an hour very early in the day! This is something I like to call, "One Train Operation". One, Five-car train is all that Hades has to offer, therefore making the line over two times longer than is could be. This is one thing that really annoys me about Mt Olympus. Hades' station is very small, and the ride ops are very slow and lazy, with no one with a microphone to get riders excited or pass time in line.
Despite this awful capacity, Hades is truly an amazing ride. The drop out of the station, and pre-lift section really get you excited for the ride. Three pops of airtime before even getting to the lift hill! The drop is really intense and the underground tunnel is awsome. If 90 degree banked turns in pitch black isn't good enough, you burst out of the tunnel on the other side of the parking lot, only to experience another great airtime hill into a head chopper back in the tunnel that is sure to get everyone in the train covering their heads! Coming out of the the second tunnel, you encounter one last airtime hill and two more forceful helixes.
The ride really makes up for the long line, and lack of worker friendliness! Hades is the ride that keeps me coming back to Mt Olympus frequently. We rode it five times in a row early in the moring before the line got really bad.
Next we headed to Zeus. This ride has never really felt safe to me. The ride itself is good with some airtime and a decent drop, but is very rough, with trains that need some serious attention.
Luckily part of Zeus got some much needed retracking in the turn around. On the note of retracking, I also hard heard that Hades got some retracking in part of the ride!
Opa! the parks spinning wild mouse coaster was next in our coaster tour. It is located in the Pathenon indoor theme park, and is a nice little ride. It only runs three cars, which makes the line move very slowly. To add to this slow line, the green car was having technical difficulties coming in the station. It wasn't spinning. that's when I realized that the train only held one person, therefore not being able to spin in a full rotation to return to the station. The two other cars were stopped in block brakes for a while, when they resolved the problem. We were also stopped in block brakes in our ride, while they were still trying to work on the green train. That made our long awaited ride much slower.
By this time, we were ready to ride Hades again. It was about 12:00 and we waited in a 45 minute line to ride this time. Please Mt Olympus, put another train on Hades!
After that excellent ride on Hades, we decided to eat the luch that we had packed. So we went out and ate luch in the car, because Mt O. does not let you carry anything inside the park. They don't even let you bring water inside!
We the decided that it was time for some water rides, because it was now the very crowded peak of the day. First we went to the other thing that makes a visit to Mt Olympus worthwile. Poseidon's Rage surf pool. The huge wave that appears ever 90 seconds is insane! When everybody first sees it they start screaming like it was a big surprise that it was coming. You get blown back by the wave and seriously trampled by others. Although quite painful, its one of the best rides at Mt Olympus.
We then checked out their new Sand beach that they added this year since we were in that area of the park. It was pretty cool. Its wasn't the biggest beach ever, but still a nice little addition for a theme park in Wisconsin.
Since we were still in that area of the waterpark, we rode Triton's Challenge six lane mat racer a few times because it didn't have a line. I enjoyed it alot, but didn't have enough ait on the drops to be my favorite mat slide. The Plunge at Noah's Ark still holds that title.
Because it was almost time to go, we decided to check the line for Opa! again, but it was too long. So we rode their small bumper cars. It was actually a surprisingly fun little bumper cars for fitting in such a small indoor area. On our way out, we check Hades line one last time but was too long, so we skipped it.
It was a very good day at Mt Olympus. We were there from 9:00 to 4:30, and got alot of rides in. I'll be sure to visit Mt Olympus again sometime very soon.
Getting to the park a little after 9:00, we started our day off with a ride on my favorite wooden roller coaster, Hades. All who visit this park, should keep in mind that all rides on Hades should be done right away. Or else you will find yourself waiting in lines over an hour very early in the day! This is something I like to call, "One Train Operation". One, Five-car train is all that Hades has to offer, therefore making the line over two times longer than is could be. This is one thing that really annoys me about Mt Olympus. Hades' station is very small, and the ride ops are very slow and lazy, with no one with a microphone to get riders excited or pass time in line.
Despite this awful capacity, Hades is truly an amazing ride. The drop out of the station, and pre-lift section really get you excited for the ride. Three pops of airtime before even getting to the lift hill! The drop is really intense and the underground tunnel is awsome. If 90 degree banked turns in pitch black isn't good enough, you burst out of the tunnel on the other side of the parking lot, only to experience another great airtime hill into a head chopper back in the tunnel that is sure to get everyone in the train covering their heads! Coming out of the the second tunnel, you encounter one last airtime hill and two more forceful helixes.
The ride really makes up for the long line, and lack of worker friendliness! Hades is the ride that keeps me coming back to Mt Olympus frequently. We rode it five times in a row early in the moring before the line got really bad.
Next we headed to Zeus. This ride has never really felt safe to me. The ride itself is good with some airtime and a decent drop, but is very rough, with trains that need some serious attention.
Luckily part of Zeus got some much needed retracking in the turn around. On the note of retracking, I also hard heard that Hades got some retracking in part of the ride!
Opa! the parks spinning wild mouse coaster was next in our coaster tour. It is located in the Pathenon indoor theme park, and is a nice little ride. It only runs three cars, which makes the line move very slowly. To add to this slow line, the green car was having technical difficulties coming in the station. It wasn't spinning. that's when I realized that the train only held one person, therefore not being able to spin in a full rotation to return to the station. The two other cars were stopped in block brakes for a while, when they resolved the problem. We were also stopped in block brakes in our ride, while they were still trying to work on the green train. That made our long awaited ride much slower.
By this time, we were ready to ride Hades again. It was about 12:00 and we waited in a 45 minute line to ride this time. Please Mt Olympus, put another train on Hades!
After that excellent ride on Hades, we decided to eat the luch that we had packed. So we went out and ate luch in the car, because Mt O. does not let you carry anything inside the park. They don't even let you bring water inside!
We the decided that it was time for some water rides, because it was now the very crowded peak of the day. First we went to the other thing that makes a visit to Mt Olympus worthwile. Poseidon's Rage surf pool. The huge wave that appears ever 90 seconds is insane! When everybody first sees it they start screaming like it was a big surprise that it was coming. You get blown back by the wave and seriously trampled by others. Although quite painful, its one of the best rides at Mt Olympus.
We then checked out their new Sand beach that they added this year since we were in that area of the park. It was pretty cool. Its wasn't the biggest beach ever, but still a nice little addition for a theme park in Wisconsin.
Since we were still in that area of the waterpark, we rode Triton's Challenge six lane mat racer a few times because it didn't have a line. I enjoyed it alot, but didn't have enough ait on the drops to be my favorite mat slide. The Plunge at Noah's Ark still holds that title.
Because it was almost time to go, we decided to check the line for Opa! again, but it was too long. So we rode their small bumper cars. It was actually a surprisingly fun little bumper cars for fitting in such a small indoor area. On our way out, we check Hades line one last time but was too long, so we skipped it.
It was a very good day at Mt Olympus. We were there from 9:00 to 4:30, and got alot of rides in. I'll be sure to visit Mt Olympus again sometime very soon.
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