Indiana Beach - Hawg Wild ACE Event, 8/5/2017

On Saturday, August 5th, we had our sights set on the annual ACE Event known as Hawg Wild at Indiana Beach in the middle of nowhere. We weren't quite sure what to expect. I knew what all the coasters were, and that it was in a beautiful location, but even though we only drove 2.5-3 hours to get there, it didn't feel like those other times we took I-65 down through Indiana.

That was just a little prologue there. Let's start the adventure!

Not the first time I've seen this sign. But whatever; we're riding coasters today!

We stopped at a McDonalds for breakfast, and WHAT IS THIS?? I get that mayo is added for flavor and all, but it must've dried as my sister and dad's orders were being made. SICK!!

Quick storytime; because of the morning ERT, and our sudden realization that we would have to leave an hour earlier than intended due to time zones, we got up EARLY and left EARLY. So it was like Chevy Chase and his family running to Wally World as we started to see signs like this (funny that I should mention that; I remember now that I was watching that movie when we drove to the park). Point being, it was great to start seeing these signs after early morning driving through the middle of nowhere and gross McDonalds breakfast.

Yep, we have indeed arrived at Indiana Beach!! Excitement everyone!

Ooh, we're being taken through the south gate and suspension bridge! How wonderful!

You're going to hear this several times throughout the trip report, so we might as well start now; the park is incredibly beautiful, and you can't help but take tons of photos of all the rides out on the lake.

Alright, we're in the park. Where should we go first?

LoCoSuMo seems like a great place to start! (for future reference, as shown on the sign, LoCoSuMo is abbreviated for Lost Coaster of Superstition Mountain. I'm not telling you again so remember that)

Unfortunately, we didn't realize that there were time sessions for the ERT. From 8:00 to 9:00, only Cornball Express and Tig'rr were open, then from 9:00 to opening at 10:00 the other coasters opened up. So LoCoSuMo wasn't our first coaster of the day.

I was kind of bummed that we couldn't get on it first thing; I really love coasters with extremely tight layouts, cool theming, and that intensity that really throws you around. Oh well, at least I got on it later that day!

Tig'rr Coaster broke down too, so everybody migrated to Cornball Express for their first ride (Credit #112).

Unfortunately, my first couple rides on Cornball were decent, but nothing amazing (I just had to wait for it to warm up a bit).

While everybody helped Cornball warm up, the Illinois Coasters crew went to Tig'rr right as it opened back up (Credit #113).

Hmm... this looks really similar to Whizzer. Could it possibly be better?

Yep, Tig'rr was an awesome, powerful little coaster that packed a punch. It's currently my second favorite Schwarzkopf coaster behind Mind Bender at Over Georgia, and ahead of New Revolution at Magic Mountain and Whizzer. (oh yeah, those restraints are AWESOME!!)

Got a couple more rides on Cornball on the way to our next ride. It definitely started warming up!

Hoosier Hurricane was next (Credit #114)

YES! More buzz bars! (hello there shadow of me)

Hoosier Hurricane is indeed another great wooden coaster. Large, well paced, some decent airtime, and quite intense. I love it.

Oh crap... looks like most of ERT has migrated to Hoosier Hurricane =)

Love how Hoosier Hurricane is built entirely over the park.

However, we're going to take a stroll away from the rest of the park for a while. Why might that be?

Yep, it's time to take on the inspiration for the event name and only one of two El Locos in North America (Credit #115).

And it lived up to the anticipation. Steel Hawg is insanely fun and awesome and something I'd gladly marathon. Another big win for Indiana Beach.

This is what we do to those who don't like Steel Hawg.

These restraints actually aren't bad. Stop bitching already!

Here's the Illinois Coasters crew today!

Okay, that's enough Steel Hawg for now (I got a total of 6 rides while we were over there); let's get back to the rest of Indiana Beach ERT.

But first, let's get another ride or two on Hoosier Hurricane.

HA!! I took this while waiting for the front row. How do you feel now?

What now? I know; more rides on CORNBALL EXPRESS!!

As I started to ride this more, I started to love it more! By this point in time, it was HAULING ASS!! The front car actually started to hop a little bit over each hill!! Thank you ACErs who helped warm this ride up as I picked up the other credits. You guys are awesome.

This is why ERT should be a part of every ACE Event.

Since I was the only one there, I racked up my Cornball lap count to about 21. And I think 9 of those were zen rides. Let's move onto the rest of the park now; don't worry, we'll get back to Cornball and it's insane airtime later in the trip report.

OOH! LoCoSuMo opened up from it's morning difficulties! Let's go there! (Credit #116)

Holy crap... this might be the tightest radius I've ever seen for any coaster turn. And that includes Wild Mice!

Yeah, LoCoSuMo is super fun and intense. As I said earlier in the report, I love extremely compact coasters that are really intense and throw you around and have lots of theming. LoCoSuMo does that, and does it super well.

Now unfortunately, after this photo was taken, I forgot to pull it back out for a while, so I'll just catch you up.

After a few rides on LoCoSuMo, ERT was over and the GP started rolling in, so we went and got the final credit we needed; Dragon Wagon (Credit #117). Cha-ching! Now I never have to ride it again.

Holy CRAP! This Scrambler KICKED ASS! It spun like a bat out of hell and beat us up. I loved it. Much better than any Six Flags or Cedar Fair Scrambler for sure!

"OH CRAP! ACErs are coming. Let's see what I can do..."

"HAHA!! Now that the ride is broken, you'll NEVER get those lost thieves!" (in all seriousness though, the ride did break down while we were in line and we never bothered to go back and try to ride again)

Love how Indiana Beach feels kind of like a small city.

It really does; I swear! There are restaurants everywhere, benches, pathways, it feels that way.

What is that? Could it be... a dueling waterslide?

You just got pranked! (In all seriousness, we came this way for the S&S tower, not the waterslides)

Here's a semi-decent video of me enjoying this small but powerful drop tower.

Continuing the theme of Indiana Beach's flat rides, we rode the Tilt-A-Whirl next. While not quite as insane as the Scrambler was, this Tilt-A-Whirl was still running crazier than any corporate park-Tilt-A-Whirl.

Hmm... world's best you say? This looks like a good place for lunch then.

HOLY BALLS MOTHER OF FLYING TURD!! They really DO sell the world's best tacos here! EAT THESE TACOS IF YOU EVER VISIT INDIANA BEACH!!

Oop, looks like LoCoSuMo broke down again. Have fun suffering in 90 degree weather, guys.

We decided to get another lap or two on Hoosier Hurricane to help digest the heavenly tacos.

Hoosier Hurricane indeed is the tallest coaster in the park!

Never gonna finish a trip report without including a close-up coaster shot; that's my rule.

Have fun everyone!

The queue line can provide some great shots that give you a good idea of some of the delicious elements on Cornball (if you haven't ridden it yet. If you have, then you should know the layout well. If you are one of these people and have visited the park, SHAME!!)

Buzz bars.

Buzz bars! (you guys on the ride are in for a treat by the way)

Buzz Bars!!

BUZZ BARS!!! (I had a bit of writer's block here. Don't worry... it's over)

BUZZ BARS!!!!! Just kidding; we saw this snake when we gathered for the ACE Event group photo.

Have I mentioned yet how beautiful Indiana Beach is? (Oh yeah, we didn't get on the Flyers today. Damn thing was closed =( )

While waiting for the photographer on the south gate suspension bridge, we just had to take some Hoosier Hurricane shots.

WHEEE!!

I said it already, I'm saying it again. I love how Hoosier Hurricane was always built over something, whether it was a ride, pathway, or water as shown here.

The airtime on Cornball Express is clearly (pun intended) too amazing for my camera.

I love how specific sections of Hoosier Hurricane don't have the "wooden coaster handrails" (On a side note, what's that girl in red in the second row doing?).

While it's no Cornball, Hoosier Hurricane still has some spots of airtime as shown here!

Is the train going forward? Is it going backward? If you know, comment below, and you'll get something special!

What's up with that bee? It looks like it got caught in a spider web, but it's stuck on the glass of the bridge.

Imagine how ironic that would be if this sign was for Hoosier Hurricane (referring back to the lack of "wooden coaster handrails" in some sections)

In case you forgot the great place we're visiting right now, here's a reminder.

My dad didn't get the LoCoSuMo credit during ERT since he was feeling a bit queasy. But whatever; the ride is really good. I'll gladly go for another lap.

Okay, I'm gonna go on a bit of a rant right now regarding LoCoSuMo's operations, and the ride operations of the park as a whole. I know LoCoSuMo has a low capacity and all, but the lines were absolutely atrocious. What would normally be a 10 minute line at a park like Six Flags Great America took 75 MINUTES HERE! Not even the low capacity excuse can save LoCoSuMo from this rant. Experiencing LoCoSuMo's full queue during summer weekends is comparable to in RCT when you make the capacity low because it looks funny to just watch the peeps stock pile in line. Except in this case, you're the victim. You're the peeps. We just stood there, moving a bit every 5-10 minutes, baking in the 90-degree weather (as mentioned with the Lost Coaster pic after the taco pics), surrounded by obnoxious elementary school and high school kids. The ops didn't nearly seem as interested as they did during ERT, and a ride with a capacity of 16 riders per train was dispatching every 2 minutes. There's just so much wrong with all of this.

Regarding the ride operations for the rest of the park, none of the other coaster operations are as bad as LoCoSuMo, but they aren't good either. All the other coasters during GP hours seemed to be dispatching every 2.5 minutes. While the dispatches are slower than LoCoSuMo, the capacity is way higher, so it's slightly more understandable. But the ops really need to improve their speed and friendliness. While I do like Indiana Beach, the operations did put a damper on our day, and hopefully they improve when we return to the park (whenever that may be).

While the operations were garbage for LoCoSuMo, at least I could get some interesting photo opportunities. Like of the only elevator lift on a wooden coaster.

While I didn't take a photo of it, I still love the sign saying "Lost Coaster is a bone rattling experience." It's pretty accurate!

There's actually a bit of airtime on this ride.

TAKE THE TUNNEL... er, I mean... TAKE THE SUPERSTITION MOUNTAIN!! (In case you forgot, LoCoSuMo is abbreviated for Lost Coaster of Superstition Mountain)

While they aren't the most comfortable on the inside, I like the outside look of LoCoSuMo's restraints. Very fitting for the theme!

Finally after that 75 minute wait, we got on LoCoSuMo. It was still a super fun ride, and my dad got the credit, but because of the awful operations, we didn't ride it again. And the operations, as you could've inferred from the rant, did kind of put a damper on my opinion of the ride.

Walking back towards the rest of the park, we rode Sea Dragon and Zero-G. Meh, neither weren't anything very special, for both this park and their ride types (thankfully, these were the only two flat rides that didn't ride crazier than they normally do at other parks)

LoCoSuMo's operations and the coaster operations overall during GP hours were the first negative factor of the day, and unfortunately, not the last. Our schedule listed 'Dodgems Takeover', so we got pretty excited because that sounded interesting; the ACE group taking over the Dodgems sounded like lots of fun. But then we started to wonder if we would just butt in front of everyone, or what we would do. Upon further questioning, the director of the event stated that it was informal, and pretty much a recommended time for all the ACErs to ride Dodgems together. While this isn't anything against the park, I wish that was clarified better because there were a few more ride takeover times listed on the schedule. At this time, we weren't sure what we wanted to do, since the next big thing was a catered dinner at 6:00 PM. This was at about 3:00 PM. Was it really worth it to have the nice dinner but suffer through bad ride operations and nothing really new for three hours? Our day was really starting to get frustrating.

Let's ride something good to get that sour taste out of my mouth. How about the amazing airtime machine? Absolutely!

Yeah... as mentioned with the Lost Coaster rant, the rest of the coasters don't have good operations. And unlike LoCoSuMo, the queue goes right under the station, so the only decent shot you can get while waiting for Cornball is...

...this. Not quite the cool angles of LoCoSuMo's line. If you remember the beginning of the report, I mentioned that I got 21 laps during ERT, and whenever we passed by Cornball we took it for a lap. So my final lap count was 27. And this photo was taken before my 27th lap, meaning it was the last ride of the day. Every queue was full, the GP here are obnoxious, and the operations (don't need to say more) just didn't make it worth it to see it out until dinner. We were just so frustrated that we left the park. While Indiana Beach is a decent park with some great coasters and heavenly tacos, and ERT was awesome, it's just really frustrating because it has the potential to be park that any enthusiast would rank highly. But it really needs some improving as I mentioned why we left. So hopefully Indiana Beach can improve how they handle the GP crowd and ride operations by the next time I visit.

So, I'm just going to say this one more time so I can get it in your heads. I don't hate this park. It's a decent place that I'd re-visit, but it needs some fixing up. So just take some of these rants with a grain of salt.

2017: A Year In Review

Welcome, all my fans and friends, to my official year in review! For my year in review, I’m going to include all my favorite and least favorite rides, and experiences, of the year. In short, I must thank everyone I know for making this a great year. My family, my friends, even people I don’t know too well. You helped shaped what 2017 was for me. 365 days of greatness. If you have any experiences from this year you’d love to tell me, go ahead and post them below in the comments. I’ll read them; it’s New Years! While 2017 was great, as I mentioned, I have some big plans for 2018 that I’m dying to tell you, so look forward to that sometime in early-to-mid January. I know I posted my first video in October last year, but if you remember, I posted a few update videos. This time, I’m trying to shorten that, and for that reason, our family still needs a bit of time to finalize some plans. Anyways, let’s get started!

January

January was a great kick-off month. Just a few days before New Year’s, I made a trip down to Six Flags St. Louis for Holiday In The Park, and that kept me busy giving you guys great videos for the park. Early on in January, during that first week, we had already heard some news that Space World was closing, and the rides were put up for sale, and it was already way back then that we found out a park had bought Kanonen. I had a lot of fun covering that with Adam, or better known as Rolly Coaster.

Soon after, I attended my first ever No Coaster Con with ACE. What a great day that was. I met up with a lot of friends, made a lot of new friends, and met my first park CEOs. That day, I met Don Helbig from Kings Island, Tony Clark from Cedar Point, Damien Nelson, Tess Clausen, Abbey Bobzin, and Allison Maliweg from Six Flags Great America, Rob House and Michael Moore from Kentucky Kingdom (who I sat at a table with), Pete Owens from Dollywood, Jeff Filicko and Jeffery Siebert from Six Flags Fiesta Texas, and Randy Witt and Brad Donati from Raging Waves (a water park in Illinois). I know I seriously enjoyed myself, and I’m more than excited to attend my second ever No Coaster Con just a little under two weeks from now. I even plan to livestream each park representative during the conference for you guys.

March

I’m skipping February, because nothing more happened than school and new videos. March was the first truly big month however, which should more than make up for no February.

March was the month where rumors and announcements seriously started to rise. The rumor of Vertical Velocity being relocated, the announcement of Boomerang at Knotts’ closure, I had fun covering it. However, while that was fun, it had absolutely nothing on my Spring Break trip…

During my Spring Break, our family spent 5 days vacationing in the Pigeon Forge/Gatlinburg area. Wow… I had so much fun. I had some fun appreciating the nature of the Smoky Mountains with my family, riding two of the alpine coasters, seeing entertaining shows, and most of all, Dollywood. While there, I was impressed with all they had to offer; from 7 surprising credits, including the excellent Lightning Rod which truly blew me away and gave me three great rides, some great theming, amazing operations, super satisfying food, and overall a phenomenal time which made Dollywood my new favorite amusement park. Did Dollywood maintain that honor throughout the year? Find out this week when I upload my Top 10 Amusement Parks!

May

Once again, I’m skipping over a month, just purely due to nothing interesting happening aside from school and some new videos, mostly surrounding Dollywood. May is where things got kicked up a notch.

Early-to-mid May is when I took my first visit to Six Flags Great America, my home park, of the year. This was a great time; I met up with a group of friends, and we got on every roller coaster that day, albeit not filming all of them. Nonetheless, it was great to get my first taste of all my favorites, such as Goliath, American Eagle, Batman The Ride, and Viper. As I finished up school, everybody started to announce their plans for the season, as I started them. Once I finished school on the last Friday of the month, we began our next major trip the next day.

On that next day, we went to Kentucky Kingdom, a trip that took a strange turn of events when we had arrived. After picking up the Lightning Run credit, a fun ride for sure, the storms came in, preventing us from getting any more rides in that day. Throughout the evening, we just walked around the park, saw the Sea Lion Splash show, and got a surprising backstage Storm Chaser tour in the station from some of the ops who saw my ACE shirt on. They even gave us free tickets for the next day. So instead of driving straight to Holiday World, we spent the first 45 minutes the park was open that day, picked up the other three credits. Storm Chaser is insane and in my Top 5, Thunder Run is a decent wooden coaster, and T3 was my first SLC (not something to be excited about). Then we drove over to Holiday World, for an amazing time. Three incredible coasters, one of which is my current #1, fantastic operations and hospitality, Plymouth Rock Café (the Thanksgiving area alone is worth the price), and just a great place to be. I’m excited that I have the possibility of attending Holiwood Nights this June!

June

This was my favorite month of the year. We did so much during this month, and it all happened during our California trip. The first couple days were just driving and views, but the third day, when we arrived in San Diego, I rode the historic Giant Dipper which surprised me in a good way. After some fun days of California culture, I went to Six Flags Magic Mountain. My, oh my... what a day. To start, I got 15 credits that day. Most of them were fine, albeit Green Lantern, which you will see low on my Top 10 Worst list which will be posted in the coming weeks, but Tatsu was an absolute surprise, Twisted Colossus was my 100^th credit, and X2 became and still is my favorite steel coaster. Those three just absolutely blew me away. The park overall was great, so that helped as well. After that, the next two days were spent at Disneyland and Disney California Adventure. It was interesting to see what I thought of the California version of Disneyland, after having visited Disney World two years before, and I enjoyed the park, despite our touring plan randomly updating on us making for a chaotic day. We rode each of the four coasters, and enjoyed them all (yes, even Gadget’s Go Coaster). Disney California Adventure is the one I preferred of the two. GOTG was my favorite ride at the resort, California Screamin’ a super good Intamin coaster, Goofy’s Sky School, ehh, and the operations are the best I’ve ever seen, with such a clean, fantastic atmosphere. And I’m not even going to get started on how amazed I was by Cars Land. So that was the big road trip of the year.

August

I’m skipping July, since the most that happened was I got the Joker credit at GAm. I didn’t really visit any other parks, and I took a bit of an uploading break.

On August 5, I made my way to Monticello, Indiana and visited Indiana Beach for the first time to attend the Hawg Wild ACE Event. It was great having morning ERT; we got every credit before the park even opened, marathoned our favorites, and knew which ones we wanted to re-ride. Plus, the chance to hang out with old friends I’d not seen in a while was great, along with a chance to check out everything else the park had to offer; their flat ride collection which had some rides crazier than anything Six Flags could add, because none of them were neutered, and a taco lunch. Oh my gosh; if anything is worth the admission price to Indiana Beach besides the coasters, IT’S THE TACOS! THESE TACOS ARE ONE OF THE ABSOLUTE BEST THEME PARK FOODS! So yeah. I’d highly recommend spending a day here, albeit the not-so-good operations.

Conclusion

Beyond Indiana Beach, the only visits I made were to Six Flags Great America. But that doesn’t stop the fact that I had so many great times and made so many memories! These times will stay with me until I take my final breath. 2017 will be known to me as the year I hit 100 coasters, and took that next step in my coaster enthusiasm.

Before I say my final words, I’d like to note my favorite and least favorite experiences this year. My favorites hands down go to my rides in the back two rows of Voyage way back on Memorial Day Weekend Sunday. After a couple rides towards the front and middle, I wanted to see how the back rows ran. I was treated so the experiences that truly blew me away more than anything else in my life. More than Maverick, Lightning Rod, and Storm Chaser. The airtime, speed, and relentless intensity truly pushed the coaster straight up to my #1 spot in my rankings, and if I go to Holiwood Nights, that night ERT might push everything back a spot. I’d rank normal Voyage and Holiwood Nights Voyage separately.

Now that we got the good out of the way, let’s finish up on my least favorite experience of the year. Green Lantern: First Flight at Six Flags Magic Mountain. Say you’re like me, first time at the park, move past it in the DC Universe area and enjoy Batman, Riddler’s Revenge, or anything else in the park. Whatever you do, don’t ride Green Lantern. It’s quite literally in a painful league of its own. It may not have headbanging like T3 or original Ninja at SFOG, but the way it just assaulted my whole body gives me absolutely nothing remotely positive to say for the experience itself. Clearly, park officials have felt the same way, as the ride has been SBNO since August. If it’s removed from the park website and map, I’ll probably throw a party.

Now that we’ve got that out of the way, I gotta personally thank each member of my family for supporting my dreams as a coaster enthusiast. My mom, for planning out each and every trip to all our family’s preferences, and for capturing all those moments, my dad, for always being there with me to ride the good and the bad and to help give me ideas for YouTube, and my sister, for just being there and being interested in all my coaster chatter.

Thank you everyone for this year; I’m excited for all the surprises 2018 brings, good and bad.

The Top 4 Roller Coasters at Holiday World

Holiday World in Santa Claus, Indiana dates way back to 1946 when it opened as Santa Claus Land, one of the world's first theme parks. Since then, the family-owned park has grown into a fantastic destination that blew me away when I visited over Memorial Day Weekend this past May. Their coasters are some of the best - not many parks can boast 4 out of their 5 coasters as some of the best in the world. For today's blog post, I will be counting them down based on my personal experiences.

#4 - The Raven

Some of you may hate me for this, but I have reasoning for this. So many people hyped Raven up so much, but after my ride in the back row, I was left disappointed. My disappointing back row ride was my only ride on it, due to thunderstorms coming in, so I do need to ride it again. But the restraints gave me a pretty bad stapling, and the whole train shuffled like crazy. After that second large drop, my lap bar came down another notch or two after being already stapled due to a nasty pothole at the bottom. Maybe, like I mentioned, a ride in other seats would have helped, but I think what would really help is if GCI came back to refurbish Raven like they did Legend in 2016. Rating: 6/10

Watch my Raven POV here:

#3 - Thunderbird

This is the newest coaster in the park, and the world's first launched B&M Wing Coaster. The first launched wing coaster overall title goes to Furius Baco at PortAventura. I have ridden all 4 B&M Wing Coasters in North America, and I can safely say this is my favorite. It's overall a top-notch coaster, and an extremely memorable one at that. The launch is wickedly forceful, the inversions are forceful and have good whip to them, and like every other coaster at the park, the terrain seriously adds to the experience. I only got to ride it twice, but I could have ridden it more. Rating: 8.5/10

Watch my Thunderbird POV here:

#2 - Legend

Like I mentioned with Raven, the coaster got refurbished by GCI in 2016, and over Memorial Day Weekend in 2017, it was running incredible. The layout is very compact with lots of terrain and ride interaction, the pacing is excellent, that first drop blew me away with it's shocking acceleration and tunnel at the bottom, it's a true coaster for lateral forces, and that double helix reminiscent of Beast at Kings Island gets pretty intense. It's not only my #2 coaster at this park, but it's also my #5 woodie, and #11 overall. Rating: 9.5/10

Watch my Legend POVs here (front and back row)

#1 - Voyage

There's no doubt in my mind this is absolutely one of the best coasters in the world. Not only is it the best in the park and one of the absolute best in the world, it's my favorite coaster out of a count of 128! It literally has everything a coaster enthusiast wants in a coaster. One of the biggest wooden coasters around, the restraints don't go down too far making for a comfortable ride, the terrain is just perfect, that first drop is one hell of a way to start the ride, it not only holds the record for most airtime (24.3 seconds) but it delivers in quantity as well, it's as intense as can be, crazy long, and what's unbelievable is how the pacing holds up after such a long ride. If you need at least one reason to get down to Holiday World, this is that reason. Rating - 10/10

Watch my three Voyage POVs here:

If you don't 100% agree with my list, I encourage you to either post your opinions if you have visited the park in the comments below, or head down to Holiday World if you haven't. Even besides these four masterpieces, the park experience is incredible with enough to offer that warrants a full day's visit plus. Look out for my Holiday World FULL PARK REVIEW coming soon! For now, remember to look out for future blog posts, and subscribe to my YouTube channel.