Arrived early in the afternoon and ate at Culvers then went to Timber Falls. On the website awhile back they changed the rides name to Hellcat (which ironically is the same name of the other S&S wooden coaster out east). It was also known as Hellcat in all of the Dells brochures and mags. We noticed all the signs around the ride and all the rides merch still had it as Avalanche. We asked what was up with that and the people working the counter said Timber Falls didnt know what they were doing and no one knows
.Anyway there is a new rule Avalanche that with the unlimited wristband (which is $15) you can only ride it five times which prevents the ride from being cycled all day running up the maintenence costs. When I went to the Dells in 06 I rode it 66x, and with Hades' long line this rule really is downer.
We rode Avalanche once and went to Mt Olympus. Hades had a long line (it runs 1 train with MtO operations) so we skipped it so we rode Zeus first. Zeus had some good air but was extremely rough, much like my most recent ride on Mean Streak I had to prop myself up from sitting on the seat or my day wouldve been ruined.
We then to Cyclops and rode in the back row which was about a five minute wait. The 2nd to back row was blocked off and we noticed that a few bolts were popping out/stripped or something so they couldnt go back in
. Cyclops was awesome as always, insane ejector air on the last hill.Rode Pegasus next, which was pretty rough for what is supposed to be a mild ride. After that we did some gokart tracks, fun as always and this is the first time ive ever been to this park and did not get spun out by some idiot, so that was nice.
At the Poseidon track one of the cars was smoking while it was in the station, and another one was driving itself onto the track and went to about 8 feet in front of the station before stopping. The ops just loaded someone into that car and loaded the smoking car also, and that was that
We then rode Hades in the back row which was about 1 hour wait. It was much rougher than I remembered it and some parts were very painful. The fast speed in the tunnels combined with the heavy roughness rattled my brain around more than any coaster I can remember (maybe except for Zeus earlier that day and Cyclone at SFNE). Or maybe im just getting old. Overall it was still a fun ride but not nearly as good as it used to be. Also they added shields onto the side of the train like American Eagle at SFGAm has (though not as big).
There was a guy in line for Hades who walked into the ride area right next to the track to take a pee and basically everyone in line watched the guy take a pee in [what is but since its Mt Olympus not marked as] a danger zone area, right next to the track while the ride was running. He then re-joined the line and jumped the whole thing walking up to the station. A bunch of kids ages 8-12 were running around outside of the railings, way deep into the forest right next to the track. We seriosley thought we were about to witness a major accident. Eventually they rejoined the line. While we were sitting on the train ready to dispatch the ride op yelled "You have to wait a few minutes!" then went and sat on the stairs behind the station talking to the other ride op in another language (sounded either Polish or Czeck) while we sat there. A maintenence dude wearing a tshirt and jeans came and started the ride.
We then went to the Parthenon and rode Opa which had a long line but a friend needed the credit, it was running 3 cars. At one point one broke and spun the whole ride but then started working again. At this point we didnt realize how late it had gotten and the water park closed. We did some stuff in the indoor waterpark since it was included with admission and took off.
