Antinos' 2018 Thread (2018 Wrap-up: Six Flags Over Georgia)
- Thread starter Antinos
- Start date
Antinos
Slut for Spinners
Unfortunately, it's not in the plan for this year, but I will let you know if I manage to organize another trip out that way sometime.
Antinos
Slut for Spinners
Well this trip certainly snuck up on me. Before I knew it, we were on the road out to Boston and my first park of this trip: Canobie Lake Park. Luckily, @Sanchezmran met me at the park to hang out and show me around, which couldn't have worked out better!
Yankee Cannonball - here it is. Big 400! Cannonball still pulls the crowds even after 70+ years of service, and for good reason. The ride features a fun out and back layout and the buzzbars ensure that you can fully enjoy that airtime throughout the ride. The park appears to take great care of the ride - the paint looks fresh and the track is smooth as butter. I'm certainly not disappointed in choosing it for a milestone
Untamed - good for this park for having the capital to build a ride like this. Untamed is a clone of Rage and I was curious as to what it would be like since Rage typically gets bashed by the British enthusiasts. Well, it was alright. The layout was thrilling and fast paced, but the first generation eurofighter trains are just complete rubbish. One could tell that the track itself is smooth, but the coaches cause a lot of jostling of the riders. Granted, I'll let a few bumps slide because I'm so impressed with the details that the park included with the ride. The supports are painted to look like Aspen trees, the fencing surrounding the ride is carefully constructed with logs and decorated with carved wooden figurines of woodland creatures, and the deer antler chandeliers in the station are impressive.
Turkish Twist - one of Canobie's unique gems. This ride is similar to a gravitron ride except instead of your wall section sliding up, the floor drops below you. It was a pretty neat experience.
Corkscrew - it's your typical double corkscrew, although I realized that it was actually my 300th steel coaster. This one was fine aside from the restraint clocking me in the jaw entering the first corkscrew. I've been on better, but I've certainly been on worse.
Mine train - I don't remember the exact name of this haunted house but oh my goodness it had more plot twists than a M Night Shamalyan movie. The ride starts in a mine before finding a haunted spirit that takes you through a morgue and grave yard. Your cart somehow ends up in Egypt and then you end up exiting the mine? It's pretty wild.
Overall thoughts - I absolutely loved Canobie Lake Park. I thought it was fairly crowded, even if it was Friday night, but the rides we're being operated efficiently. The whole park is lush - pine trees tower over everything all throughout the park and many planters and gardens line the paths and surround the rides. The park was clean and the clientele was friendly. Canobie has always seemed to be a popular park among enthusiasts despite its size and now I understand why. I think it's a lovely, pleasant, well put together little park.
Next up is Funtown and Palace Playland...maybe tomorrow or Tuesday? I'm not sure yet.
Yankee Cannonball - here it is. Big 400! Cannonball still pulls the crowds even after 70+ years of service, and for good reason. The ride features a fun out and back layout and the buzzbars ensure that you can fully enjoy that airtime throughout the ride. The park appears to take great care of the ride - the paint looks fresh and the track is smooth as butter. I'm certainly not disappointed in choosing it for a milestone
Untamed - good for this park for having the capital to build a ride like this. Untamed is a clone of Rage and I was curious as to what it would be like since Rage typically gets bashed by the British enthusiasts. Well, it was alright. The layout was thrilling and fast paced, but the first generation eurofighter trains are just complete rubbish. One could tell that the track itself is smooth, but the coaches cause a lot of jostling of the riders. Granted, I'll let a few bumps slide because I'm so impressed with the details that the park included with the ride. The supports are painted to look like Aspen trees, the fencing surrounding the ride is carefully constructed with logs and decorated with carved wooden figurines of woodland creatures, and the deer antler chandeliers in the station are impressive.
Turkish Twist - one of Canobie's unique gems. This ride is similar to a gravitron ride except instead of your wall section sliding up, the floor drops below you. It was a pretty neat experience.
Corkscrew - it's your typical double corkscrew, although I realized that it was actually my 300th steel coaster. This one was fine aside from the restraint clocking me in the jaw entering the first corkscrew. I've been on better, but I've certainly been on worse.
Mine train - I don't remember the exact name of this haunted house but oh my goodness it had more plot twists than a M Night Shamalyan movie. The ride starts in a mine before finding a haunted spirit that takes you through a morgue and grave yard. Your cart somehow ends up in Egypt and then you end up exiting the mine? It's pretty wild.
Overall thoughts - I absolutely loved Canobie Lake Park. I thought it was fairly crowded, even if it was Friday night, but the rides we're being operated efficiently. The whole park is lush - pine trees tower over everything all throughout the park and many planters and gardens line the paths and surround the rides. The park was clean and the clientele was friendly. Canobie has always seemed to be a popular park among enthusiasts despite its size and now I understand why. I think it's a lovely, pleasant, well put together little park.
Next up is Funtown and Palace Playland...maybe tomorrow or Tuesday? I'm not sure yet.
Hutch
Strata Poster
It was awesome to meet you, glad you enjoyed my home park and even the flat rides. I've taken the park for granted (and I think many others have said the same about their home park) so it was really interesting to hear your live impressions. Since I've "grown up" as an enthusiast I've come to realize how beautiful and charming Canobie really is, and your photos really showcase that! I'm gonna try to visit the place more often, once a year at the very least.
Yankee Cannonball rode like it was in the best shape of its life. It had been five years and 100+ new creds since I rode it, and honestly I was wondering if it wasn't gonna be as fun as I remember. Glad I was wrong, that ride is awesome.
Yankee Cannonball rode like it was in the best shape of its life. It had been five years and 100+ new creds since I rode it, and honestly I was wondering if it wasn't gonna be as fun as I remember. Glad I was wrong, that ride is awesome.
Last edited:
Some nice photos in there too! Good work.
Looks pretty nice actually, can't say it's ever really been on my radar other than knowing it exists. Couldn't have told you where it was until now! Maybe one for next time I'm in that neck of the woods.
And great to see Sanchezmran [finally] making an appearance!
Looks pretty nice actually, can't say it's ever really been on my radar other than knowing it exists. Couldn't have told you where it was until now! Maybe one for next time I'm in that neck of the woods.
And great to see Sanchezmran [finally] making an appearance!
Antinos
Slut for Spinners
And the trip continues. We traveled up the coast into Maine following two full days in Boston. We found some seafood stands and ventured through some little coastal villages, which were quite charming. I'll likely post the best shots from the culture side of the trip when I get back to Michigan, but there are coasters to talk about!
The next park on the trip was Palace Playland, which is located right on the beach in southern Maine. Since Canobie, it has been raining on and off - luckily the weather somewhat broke and remained dry, but overcast all day. It has certainly made coastal Maine feel like we were actually on the opposite coast in the Pacific Northwest. But anyway... Palace Playland is essentially a permanent carnival. There really isn't much to it except a bunch of traveling fair rides that never move. At least they have two brand spanking new coasters to ride.
Wipe out - it's one of the many Visa spinners that have been popping up all over the place. I honestly don't mind these a whole lot. It's small and only travels in a figure eight - it's barely a coaster - but at least it has some decent spinning.
Orient Express - I endured three laps of shame for the +1. But I'll be completely honest, it was kind of intense. The latter portion of the helix was fairly forceful and the bunny hop actually had airtime.
Sea Viper - well this was really the only reason to visit this place. It's a compact, twisty, semipermanent generic roller coaster that's perfect for a tiny little fair-like seaside park. Off ride, it looks slow and meandering. Luckily, the ride does not feel this way on board. The ride's turns are surprisingly quick with decent forces throughout a fairly smooth layout. It's hardly anything to write home about, admittedly, but it's not bad.
Overall thoughts - as I previously stated, it's a permanent fair. It's a poor attempt at a seaside park that happens to have three creds that can be grabbed while one is headed to Funtown a few miles away. Between purchasing my tickets and walking off of the property, I managed to grab all three creds in 15 minutes.
But luckily I didn't end today on a low note. Funtown, which is actually Funtown Splashtown USA, which is located 10 minutes inland, is a proper park. Still, for us enthusiasts, it's quite a bit off the beaten path.
Wild Mouse - for some reason, I thought this was a Zamperla spinner. Much to my dismay, I arrived to discover that it was a non spinning Maurer mouse! It was aight.
Excalibur - ok, this was the most intriguing ride of the trip. I knew it existed, but I heard virtually nothing about the ride. Was it good? It's a ****ing hidden gem! I was delightfully surprised by how good it was! The ride starts off with a typical CCI turnaround that gives two solid pops of ejector before heading into a high speed curve under the drop, throwing you skyward and sideways at the same time. A high speed bunny hop follows and leads into another textbook CCI style turnaround. The ride then enters a figure eight portion, and although the ride has spent a good deal of gas thus far, Excalibur still hustles along at a good clip. The ride finishes up with a few more hills and turns and a hard slam into the brakes. I gotta tip my hat to Funtown - I thought it was as good as Medusa was prior to its conversion, and better than Tonerre de Zeus and Cornball Express. The ride is relentless and filled with solid airtime and the park is certainly giving it the TLC it deserves. Excalibur alone was well worth visiting this place.
Overall thoughts - Funtown is a bizarre park. There is one Midway from the entrance all the way back to Excalibur that sort of follows a weird C shape. The Midway is narrow and hard to follow where it leads and somehow, some way, you stumble your way back to Excalibur, which is actually fairly close to the entrance despite the fact that the park didn't loop the path back around. Nevertheless, like Canobie, the park was lush, clean, and seemed well maintained. They were also playing some great music while I was there. So yeah, the park is eh, but Excalibur is more than worth it.
I'll have to keep my eye on the weather for the next few days. The weather should be fine for Story Land on Wednesday morning and The Great Escape with @Youngster Joey and @Hixee on Thursday, but we might get a bit wet later in the trip. More to come!
The next park on the trip was Palace Playland, which is located right on the beach in southern Maine. Since Canobie, it has been raining on and off - luckily the weather somewhat broke and remained dry, but overcast all day. It has certainly made coastal Maine feel like we were actually on the opposite coast in the Pacific Northwest. But anyway... Palace Playland is essentially a permanent carnival. There really isn't much to it except a bunch of traveling fair rides that never move. At least they have two brand spanking new coasters to ride.
Wipe out - it's one of the many Visa spinners that have been popping up all over the place. I honestly don't mind these a whole lot. It's small and only travels in a figure eight - it's barely a coaster - but at least it has some decent spinning.
Orient Express - I endured three laps of shame for the +1. But I'll be completely honest, it was kind of intense. The latter portion of the helix was fairly forceful and the bunny hop actually had airtime.
Sea Viper - well this was really the only reason to visit this place. It's a compact, twisty, semipermanent generic roller coaster that's perfect for a tiny little fair-like seaside park. Off ride, it looks slow and meandering. Luckily, the ride does not feel this way on board. The ride's turns are surprisingly quick with decent forces throughout a fairly smooth layout. It's hardly anything to write home about, admittedly, but it's not bad.
Overall thoughts - as I previously stated, it's a permanent fair. It's a poor attempt at a seaside park that happens to have three creds that can be grabbed while one is headed to Funtown a few miles away. Between purchasing my tickets and walking off of the property, I managed to grab all three creds in 15 minutes.
But luckily I didn't end today on a low note. Funtown, which is actually Funtown Splashtown USA, which is located 10 minutes inland, is a proper park. Still, for us enthusiasts, it's quite a bit off the beaten path.
Wild Mouse - for some reason, I thought this was a Zamperla spinner. Much to my dismay, I arrived to discover that it was a non spinning Maurer mouse! It was aight.
Excalibur - ok, this was the most intriguing ride of the trip. I knew it existed, but I heard virtually nothing about the ride. Was it good? It's a ****ing hidden gem! I was delightfully surprised by how good it was! The ride starts off with a typical CCI turnaround that gives two solid pops of ejector before heading into a high speed curve under the drop, throwing you skyward and sideways at the same time. A high speed bunny hop follows and leads into another textbook CCI style turnaround. The ride then enters a figure eight portion, and although the ride has spent a good deal of gas thus far, Excalibur still hustles along at a good clip. The ride finishes up with a few more hills and turns and a hard slam into the brakes. I gotta tip my hat to Funtown - I thought it was as good as Medusa was prior to its conversion, and better than Tonerre de Zeus and Cornball Express. The ride is relentless and filled with solid airtime and the park is certainly giving it the TLC it deserves. Excalibur alone was well worth visiting this place.
Overall thoughts - Funtown is a bizarre park. There is one Midway from the entrance all the way back to Excalibur that sort of follows a weird C shape. The Midway is narrow and hard to follow where it leads and somehow, some way, you stumble your way back to Excalibur, which is actually fairly close to the entrance despite the fact that the park didn't loop the path back around. Nevertheless, like Canobie, the park was lush, clean, and seemed well maintained. They were also playing some great music while I was there. So yeah, the park is eh, but Excalibur is more than worth it.
I'll have to keep my eye on the weather for the next few days. The weather should be fine for Story Land on Wednesday morning and The Great Escape with @Youngster Joey and @Hixee on Thursday, but we might get a bit wet later in the trip. More to come!
Antinos
Slut for Spinners
It took less than 12 hours for it to show up in a podcast cover. Honestly not surprised.Love it.
Antinos
Slut for Spinners
Continuing on. The rest of my spark notes will probably be spread out over the next week or so since park visitation density (holy **** that sounds nerdy) has increased and I have less downtime in my travels now.
After spending a day in Portland, we started to head northwest into New Hampshire and eventually Vermont before heading to Lake George, NY. We planned to drive to the summit of Mt Washington and luckily Story Land is minutes from the start of the auto road. Even though it ended up being the most expensive park on the trip, I ran in (admission was $35 so it wasn't outrageous).
Roar-o-saurus - it's easily the best coaster on the trip and just bolsters my love for The Gravity Group's recent build of these small little Woodies. It's absolutely true that this is the best of the bunch and I actually think I prefer it to Mine Blower as it focuses solely on airtime. It's nonstop hills - 13 airtime moments shoved into such a compact layout, and they're not ****ing around with that airtime either. Each burst of air was almost RMC strong. All in all, it's a wonderful package and I would love to see it get cloned in many more easily accessible parks around the world. Easily worth the admission cost.
Polar Coaster - nabbed the other +1 prior to riding roar-o-saurus. It's a cute little ride - it just kind of meanders down the side of a hill. Nothing exciting but certainly not rough or dreadful.
Overall thoughts - Story Land is quite an adorable park! It's great for families with younger kids who could spend half a day or so riding some rides and playing on the play structures around the park. Like all the parks in the area, it's lush and clean, and the scenery gets increasingly beautiful as one travels into the Adirondacks. Unfortunately, I wouldn't say it's the best place for enthusiasts. Roar-o-saurus is really the only draw and unless you're pairing a visit with a drive up mt Washington, you'd be hard pressed to make the drive to this park.
And speaking of Mt Washington...I always love getting to do something that can ground me and just let me sit back and just enjoy the bigger picture of things. I'll let the photos do the talking.
Next up is The Great Escape. I might just save writing about it until I get home just so I can properly put my thoughts down instead of ****ing around with my phone. Looking forward to meeting up with @Youngster Joey and @Hixee, and eventually @Snoo, @Hyde, @pkiknex25, and @Error!!
After spending a day in Portland, we started to head northwest into New Hampshire and eventually Vermont before heading to Lake George, NY. We planned to drive to the summit of Mt Washington and luckily Story Land is minutes from the start of the auto road. Even though it ended up being the most expensive park on the trip, I ran in (admission was $35 so it wasn't outrageous).
Roar-o-saurus - it's easily the best coaster on the trip and just bolsters my love for The Gravity Group's recent build of these small little Woodies. It's absolutely true that this is the best of the bunch and I actually think I prefer it to Mine Blower as it focuses solely on airtime. It's nonstop hills - 13 airtime moments shoved into such a compact layout, and they're not ****ing around with that airtime either. Each burst of air was almost RMC strong. All in all, it's a wonderful package and I would love to see it get cloned in many more easily accessible parks around the world. Easily worth the admission cost.
Polar Coaster - nabbed the other +1 prior to riding roar-o-saurus. It's a cute little ride - it just kind of meanders down the side of a hill. Nothing exciting but certainly not rough or dreadful.
Overall thoughts - Story Land is quite an adorable park! It's great for families with younger kids who could spend half a day or so riding some rides and playing on the play structures around the park. Like all the parks in the area, it's lush and clean, and the scenery gets increasingly beautiful as one travels into the Adirondacks. Unfortunately, I wouldn't say it's the best place for enthusiasts. Roar-o-saurus is really the only draw and unless you're pairing a visit with a drive up mt Washington, you'd be hard pressed to make the drive to this park.
And speaking of Mt Washington...I always love getting to do something that can ground me and just let me sit back and just enjoy the bigger picture of things. I'll let the photos do the talking.
Next up is The Great Escape. I might just save writing about it until I get home just so I can properly put my thoughts down instead of ****ing around with my phone. Looking forward to meeting up with @Youngster Joey and @Hixee, and eventually @Snoo, @Hyde, @pkiknex25, and @Error!!
Hutch
Strata Poster
Nice to hear that Excalibur is good! I'm gonna try to knock out Funtown and Playland over the next week or so, probably start with Playland and finish with Excalibur. About time I got those creds over with.
Story Land is a charming little park. Cool to see that the Polar Coaster is getting a fresh coat of paint, but also interesting to see the color of the wood on RoS fading already. I went in 2014 and it was much more tan.
Story Land is a charming little park. Cool to see that the Polar Coaster is getting a fresh coat of paint, but also interesting to see the color of the wood on RoS fading already. I went in 2014 and it was much more tan.
Antinos
Slut for Spinners
Alright, I'm back in Detroit. Hell of an awesome trip, especially the last few days.
Following the drive up Mt Washington, we meandered our way across New Hampshire and Vermont and down to Lake George. Along the way, we stopped at the Ben & Jerry's Factory and also ended up at a brewery that only served IPAs. @Youngster Joey and @Hixee picked me up the next morning and we headed the few miles south to The Great Escape.
Flashback - Boomerang. Could have been better, but it could have been a lot worse. NEXT.
Comet - It sucks that such a historic ride is stuck in this park. The Comet was a pretty fun ride! It was fairly long and had quite a few rolling hills that delivered floater air. It's not going to knock your socks off, but it's a fun coaster that one can appreciate the hell out of. I mean, the damn thing was built out of trusses from the legendary Crystal Beach Cyclone...there's A LOT to appreciate about it.
Alpine Boblsed - SPITE! It's been closed since early July. @davidm is lucky he got a lap on it.
Steamin' Demon - Just get me the hell out of this place already.
Canyon Blaster - I didn't hate it, but it just kinda meandered through a few turns.
Overall Thoughts - The infamous @Snoo quote: "It's called The Great Escape because that's how you feel when you finally leave." It's in upstate New York so it's a fairly pretty park, but the paths are just so poorly laid out it's maddening. Comet is the lone highlight of the place, which is kind of a shame because the park could be a nice destination if they just had a few better rides. I have zero desire to ever go back.
OH! Knock off Disney castle in the 5th picture:
But wait, there's more! We made a pit stop at Sylvan Beach Amusement Park since it was on our route, they had a +1, and it was a good half way point to stretch our legs. Well...let me tell you something about this place...
Galaxi - I thought we were going to die. The ride was covered in rust and every single needle bearing in every single wheel bogey needed to be replaced a long time ago. Just rip all these things down for health and safety reasons.
Overall Thoughts - We walked into the park, which was maybe 300ft by 300ft in area, looked around, and I immediately wanted to leave without riding the coaster. The three of us doubled the park guest count. Some of the staff were missing teeth and smelled of booze and weed. I probably contracted a disease in our 10 minute stop. Yikes this place.
BUT CALL NOW, AND WE'LL DOUBLE YOUR ORDER! We arrived at @Youngster Joey's house and regrouped before heading over to Seabreeze prior to a thunderstorm.
Jack Rabbit - Still smooth and pretty fun. Even with limited riders, the wet rails really increased the speed of the ride - enough where we got a huge pop of air on the final dip before the brakes.
Bobsleds - oh, Bobsleds <3
Whirlwind - They only loaded half the coach due to the rain. @Hixee and I sat in front and the heavens really opened on us as we went up the lift hill. During the ride, we not only got completely drenched from head to toe, but we also loaded the coach enough to get some unbelievable spinning. It was one of the most exhilarating experiences I've had on a spinner, and it's definitely the best Maurer Sohne spinner out there.
Overall Thoughts - Seabreeze is still a lovely little park. I wish I had a Detroit version down the street from me.
After changing into dry clothes, we hit the bar. Same bar as last year. The rest of the evening was filled with excellent conversation and tasty beers.
I'll hold off on writing about Darien Lake until tomorrow. And now that it's easier to copy and paste, the roadmap returns!
Roadmap:
Following the drive up Mt Washington, we meandered our way across New Hampshire and Vermont and down to Lake George. Along the way, we stopped at the Ben & Jerry's Factory and also ended up at a brewery that only served IPAs. @Youngster Joey and @Hixee picked me up the next morning and we headed the few miles south to The Great Escape.
Flashback - Boomerang. Could have been better, but it could have been a lot worse. NEXT.
Comet - It sucks that such a historic ride is stuck in this park. The Comet was a pretty fun ride! It was fairly long and had quite a few rolling hills that delivered floater air. It's not going to knock your socks off, but it's a fun coaster that one can appreciate the hell out of. I mean, the damn thing was built out of trusses from the legendary Crystal Beach Cyclone...there's A LOT to appreciate about it.
Alpine Boblsed - SPITE! It's been closed since early July. @davidm is lucky he got a lap on it.
Steamin' Demon - Just get me the hell out of this place already.
Canyon Blaster - I didn't hate it, but it just kinda meandered through a few turns.
Overall Thoughts - The infamous @Snoo quote: "It's called The Great Escape because that's how you feel when you finally leave." It's in upstate New York so it's a fairly pretty park, but the paths are just so poorly laid out it's maddening. Comet is the lone highlight of the place, which is kind of a shame because the park could be a nice destination if they just had a few better rides. I have zero desire to ever go back.
OH! Knock off Disney castle in the 5th picture:
But wait, there's more! We made a pit stop at Sylvan Beach Amusement Park since it was on our route, they had a +1, and it was a good half way point to stretch our legs. Well...let me tell you something about this place...
Galaxi - I thought we were going to die. The ride was covered in rust and every single needle bearing in every single wheel bogey needed to be replaced a long time ago. Just rip all these things down for health and safety reasons.
Overall Thoughts - We walked into the park, which was maybe 300ft by 300ft in area, looked around, and I immediately wanted to leave without riding the coaster. The three of us doubled the park guest count. Some of the staff were missing teeth and smelled of booze and weed. I probably contracted a disease in our 10 minute stop. Yikes this place.
BUT CALL NOW, AND WE'LL DOUBLE YOUR ORDER! We arrived at @Youngster Joey's house and regrouped before heading over to Seabreeze prior to a thunderstorm.
Jack Rabbit - Still smooth and pretty fun. Even with limited riders, the wet rails really increased the speed of the ride - enough where we got a huge pop of air on the final dip before the brakes.
Bobsleds - oh, Bobsleds <3
Whirlwind - They only loaded half the coach due to the rain. @Hixee and I sat in front and the heavens really opened on us as we went up the lift hill. During the ride, we not only got completely drenched from head to toe, but we also loaded the coach enough to get some unbelievable spinning. It was one of the most exhilarating experiences I've had on a spinner, and it's definitely the best Maurer Sohne spinner out there.
Overall Thoughts - Seabreeze is still a lovely little park. I wish I had a Detroit version down the street from me.
After changing into dry clothes, we hit the bar. Same bar as last year. The rest of the evening was filled with excellent conversation and tasty beers.
I'll hold off on writing about Darien Lake until tomorrow. And now that it's easier to copy and paste, the roadmap returns!
Roadmap:
- Michigan's Adventure (TBD September)
- Kings Island (TBD October)
- Holiday World (TBD October)
- Dollywood (mid-November)
- Kokomo's Family Fun Center (maybe this year, maybe next year)
Youngster Joey
Strata Poster
We made the right and very wrong decision to switch our Seabreeze night plans. We may have been soaked to the bone but the absurd running speed of the rides and a quick 10 minute drive to clean dry clothes afterwards made it worth it in my book.
and yeah Sylvan Beach
and yeah Sylvan Beach
Antinos
Slut for Spinners
Alright, Darien Lake! A rainy forecast was threatening, but we chanced it and headed to the park anyway. Luckily we were able to ride everything before the rain arrived.
But before I review the rides...just **** their Six Flags season pass upgrade with a cactus. Instead of just looking at the passes, collecting the money, and letting us on our merry way, we had to go through an entire rigamarole to process an entirely new pass. They couldn't swipe a credit card for whatever reason and they instead ask that you follow a hyperlink on your phone and pay online. I paid with cash because surely that'd be easier, right?! The clown had to go get a supervisor to process a cash transaction. THEN we took a receipt over to the season pass processing center to get our Darien Lake passes...goodness gracious just let us in the park instead of wasting 20 minutes of our time.
Ride of Steel - we headed here first because @Hixee got spited at Six Flags America and this was some sort of pseudo-redemption. If there was one ride we were riding that day, we made sure it was this. I look at Ride of Steel as a testament to how far we've come. I can imagine enthusiasts creaming over an Intamin hyper coaster not quite 20 years ago. Ride of Steel is now somewhat tame relative to some of the wild monsters that have been coming out lately. It gives a few good pops of air at the end and it's decently smooth still.
Tantrum - If there were two rides we were riding today, Tantrum would be the second because I'm not missing the +1. I preferred it to Untamed from earlier in the trip and it was due to the coaches. This ride features the newer generation of rolling stock with lap bars. It doesn't seem to get snagged by the transitions and there's no horsecollar to get bashed into. The track itself was extremely smooth and offered a swiftly paced ride.
Mind Eraser - I skipped it because it was so bad last year.
Also, we noticed that the kiddie coaster valleyed:
Viper - Again, we've come a long way, but this would be up there in my rankings if it were like 1985 or something. It's not bad - Viper just has a couple nasty transitions in the batwing but the rest of the ride has aged quite well.
Motocoaster - Again, looks can be deceiving. This little **** has a much stronger than anticipated launch and the turns that snake through the structure are kind of fun.
Boomerang - How many times can I write the same thing about these rides?
Predator - So the rain was basically at the park by now and it did end up raining while we were in the station. Luckily, the rain paused for our ride. The wet rails really allowed the train to run about the circuit faster than usual and offer some nice airtime. The turns are a bit rough still, but it's a surprisingly good woodie.
And then there was this toothless guy:
We headed back to @Youngster Joey's house for a bit of a rest and then got some excellent buffalo wings for dinner. After a round of mini golf down the street, we decided to head back to Seabreeze for a more leisurely visit. We were able to grab a bunch of rerides on all three coasters as well as take a ride on the log flume and the flying scooters. It was a pretty good day!
Only two more days of the trip to write about: I'll share regarding Conneaut Lake, Cleveland, and Cedar Point in the next installment!
But before I review the rides...just **** their Six Flags season pass upgrade with a cactus. Instead of just looking at the passes, collecting the money, and letting us on our merry way, we had to go through an entire rigamarole to process an entirely new pass. They couldn't swipe a credit card for whatever reason and they instead ask that you follow a hyperlink on your phone and pay online. I paid with cash because surely that'd be easier, right?! The clown had to go get a supervisor to process a cash transaction. THEN we took a receipt over to the season pass processing center to get our Darien Lake passes...goodness gracious just let us in the park instead of wasting 20 minutes of our time.
Ride of Steel - we headed here first because @Hixee got spited at Six Flags America and this was some sort of pseudo-redemption. If there was one ride we were riding that day, we made sure it was this. I look at Ride of Steel as a testament to how far we've come. I can imagine enthusiasts creaming over an Intamin hyper coaster not quite 20 years ago. Ride of Steel is now somewhat tame relative to some of the wild monsters that have been coming out lately. It gives a few good pops of air at the end and it's decently smooth still.
Tantrum - If there were two rides we were riding today, Tantrum would be the second because I'm not missing the +1. I preferred it to Untamed from earlier in the trip and it was due to the coaches. This ride features the newer generation of rolling stock with lap bars. It doesn't seem to get snagged by the transitions and there's no horsecollar to get bashed into. The track itself was extremely smooth and offered a swiftly paced ride.
Mind Eraser - I skipped it because it was so bad last year.
Also, we noticed that the kiddie coaster valleyed:
Viper - Again, we've come a long way, but this would be up there in my rankings if it were like 1985 or something. It's not bad - Viper just has a couple nasty transitions in the batwing but the rest of the ride has aged quite well.
Motocoaster - Again, looks can be deceiving. This little **** has a much stronger than anticipated launch and the turns that snake through the structure are kind of fun.
Boomerang - How many times can I write the same thing about these rides?
Predator - So the rain was basically at the park by now and it did end up raining while we were in the station. Luckily, the rain paused for our ride. The wet rails really allowed the train to run about the circuit faster than usual and offer some nice airtime. The turns are a bit rough still, but it's a surprisingly good woodie.
And then there was this toothless guy:
We headed back to @Youngster Joey's house for a bit of a rest and then got some excellent buffalo wings for dinner. After a round of mini golf down the street, we decided to head back to Seabreeze for a more leisurely visit. We were able to grab a bunch of rerides on all three coasters as well as take a ride on the log flume and the flying scooters. It was a pretty good day!
Only two more days of the trip to write about: I'll share regarding Conneaut Lake, Cleveland, and Cedar Point in the next installment!
EpochEmu
Mega Poster
What was it called if you don’t mind me asking?
Youngster Joey
Strata Poster
Whispering Pines
Antinos
Slut for Spinners
Finally have some time to wrap up the write up for this trip.
It was an exciting day as the three of us were meeting the Ohio brethren for a good time. While planning his trip, @Hixee decided to switch things up a bit and visit Conneaut Lake Park instead of Waldameer. The plan to meet at Conneaut came together quickly as @pkiknex25, @Hyde, and @Error were ravenous for the taste of fresh cred blood (not @Snoo though since he's a slut and visited the park a decade ago).
Blue Streak - I appreciate the history of the ride and I thought that the NAD Century Flyers were gorgeous...but MAN. The ride was a bit scary if I'm honest. The tunnel was filled with holes from rotted wood and in some areas the walls were completely removed. The ride's foundation had clearly sunk or shifted in certain points and it caused a bunch of wobbles in the track. Blue Streak was not as rough as I expected it to be nor was the ride in general as poor as I expected, but it still wasn't good. The ride lacked airtime and there were multiple jerks throughout the ride. Even the ride operators played into the ride's condition by making jokes about how we might fly out or if we lean forward we might faceplant into the lap bar. Ok...+1.
Flying Scooters - These were also pretty scary as they were rotted out rust buckets with cables that looked like they should have been replaced five years ago. The ride operator also encouraged snapping and cheered us on when we would get a good snap. The most amazing part of this experience was that the ride cycle was probably pushing six or seven minutes of us snapping these rough looking scooters before the operator finally put the ride into neutral (it didn't have a brake...) for us to coast to a stop.
Devil's Den - What in the world. Just what. +1.
Overall thoughts - I'll be completely honest, Conneaut Lake Park was not as bad as I expected. I expected Sylvan Beach and it turned out to be a poor man's Waldameer. The ride selection was decent although a bit run down. Their water park actually looked quite pleasant - many of the slides looked newish and the water looked much cleaner than Darien Lake's. I also recently saw some news that the park has been having a great summer and both attendance and revenue are up, so good for them. I can't see myself going back, but the place was good enough to warrant the detour.
At this point on Saturday afternoon, it was time for some faffing, and by faffing I mean drinking. We headed west to Cleveland, checked into the Airbnb, cracked open some beers, and attempted to record a special podcast episode for The Drunk Riders. Unfortunately, I don't think it quite worked out audio quality wise...maybe snippets of it can be salvaged because it really was a great time with some nice, flowing conversation among all seven of us.
It was around dinner time now so we headed to one of my favorite places in the world: Shooters - a bar and grill in downtown, right on the bank of the Cuyahoga River, underneath a bridge, with an excellent view of all the boats and trains crossing another bridge. We had some more beers and our burgers were excellent! We stopped by Great Lakes Brewing Company and another bar before calling it a night. It was a good time getting to hang out in a more relaxed pace, again, with great conversation.
We woke up the next morning not hungover, but in no rush to arrive at Cedar Point. We all wanted some breakfast once we were ready to go. We stopped at Dianna's in Sandusky and pigged out. @Snoo literally ordered two meals and an appetizer and I was hardly any better with my full meal and appetizer - enough food for us to digest while we sat in the conga line of cars waiting to get on the peninsula.
Steel Vengeance - I mentioned in the SV topic that I carried three phones with me in a zippered pocket...ya just can't be suspicious about it. The policy is ridiculous, but suck it up and talk to your friends. The ride itself is still unbelievable. The airtime, forces, and pacing are all relentless and the ride goes on forever. It really does have the wow factor of all the other RMCs with the length of The Voyage.
At this point, it was my time to head home. It was already nearing 4:00pm and I had been traveling for 10 days. As always, I can't wait til our next expedition.
To put some numbers on this trip: although I visited nine parks, I only rode 27 total roller coasters, 18 of them being new creds (and yes, I'm in awe at how in sync those numbers are). The longest amount of time that I spent at a park was three hours at Canobie Lake and the shortest was the 15 minutes I spent at Palace Playland. The most expensive park ticket was $35 for Story Land and the cheapest was $10 for Conneaut (although honorable mention goes to Funtown, which offered an after 6:00pm deal for $13). Finally, I surpassed the 400 total coasters milestone as well as 300 steel coasters. And I clearly oscillated between loving the parks and just completely hating them, but overall it was a fun, worthwhile trip. Onto 500!
Not sure regarding @Hixee's current status - he very well might be on a plane at this very moment - but I encourage everybody to read his trip report whenever he gets around to posting it as I'm sure he has quite a few additional perspectives to share regarding the parks we visited and the different experiences we had.
Roadmap:
It was an exciting day as the three of us were meeting the Ohio brethren for a good time. While planning his trip, @Hixee decided to switch things up a bit and visit Conneaut Lake Park instead of Waldameer. The plan to meet at Conneaut came together quickly as @pkiknex25, @Hyde, and @Error were ravenous for the taste of fresh cred blood (not @Snoo though since he's a slut and visited the park a decade ago).
Blue Streak - I appreciate the history of the ride and I thought that the NAD Century Flyers were gorgeous...but MAN. The ride was a bit scary if I'm honest. The tunnel was filled with holes from rotted wood and in some areas the walls were completely removed. The ride's foundation had clearly sunk or shifted in certain points and it caused a bunch of wobbles in the track. Blue Streak was not as rough as I expected it to be nor was the ride in general as poor as I expected, but it still wasn't good. The ride lacked airtime and there were multiple jerks throughout the ride. Even the ride operators played into the ride's condition by making jokes about how we might fly out or if we lean forward we might faceplant into the lap bar. Ok...+1.
Flying Scooters - These were also pretty scary as they were rotted out rust buckets with cables that looked like they should have been replaced five years ago. The ride operator also encouraged snapping and cheered us on when we would get a good snap. The most amazing part of this experience was that the ride cycle was probably pushing six or seven minutes of us snapping these rough looking scooters before the operator finally put the ride into neutral (it didn't have a brake...) for us to coast to a stop.
Devil's Den - What in the world. Just what. +1.
Overall thoughts - I'll be completely honest, Conneaut Lake Park was not as bad as I expected. I expected Sylvan Beach and it turned out to be a poor man's Waldameer. The ride selection was decent although a bit run down. Their water park actually looked quite pleasant - many of the slides looked newish and the water looked much cleaner than Darien Lake's. I also recently saw some news that the park has been having a great summer and both attendance and revenue are up, so good for them. I can't see myself going back, but the place was good enough to warrant the detour.
At this point on Saturday afternoon, it was time for some faffing, and by faffing I mean drinking. We headed west to Cleveland, checked into the Airbnb, cracked open some beers, and attempted to record a special podcast episode for The Drunk Riders. Unfortunately, I don't think it quite worked out audio quality wise...maybe snippets of it can be salvaged because it really was a great time with some nice, flowing conversation among all seven of us.
It was around dinner time now so we headed to one of my favorite places in the world: Shooters - a bar and grill in downtown, right on the bank of the Cuyahoga River, underneath a bridge, with an excellent view of all the boats and trains crossing another bridge. We had some more beers and our burgers were excellent! We stopped by Great Lakes Brewing Company and another bar before calling it a night. It was a good time getting to hang out in a more relaxed pace, again, with great conversation.
We woke up the next morning not hungover, but in no rush to arrive at Cedar Point. We all wanted some breakfast once we were ready to go. We stopped at Dianna's in Sandusky and pigged out. @Snoo literally ordered two meals and an appetizer and I was hardly any better with my full meal and appetizer - enough food for us to digest while we sat in the conga line of cars waiting to get on the peninsula.
Steel Vengeance - I mentioned in the SV topic that I carried three phones with me in a zippered pocket...ya just can't be suspicious about it. The policy is ridiculous, but suck it up and talk to your friends. The ride itself is still unbelievable. The airtime, forces, and pacing are all relentless and the ride goes on forever. It really does have the wow factor of all the other RMCs with the length of The Voyage.
At this point, it was my time to head home. It was already nearing 4:00pm and I had been traveling for 10 days. As always, I can't wait til our next expedition.
To put some numbers on this trip: although I visited nine parks, I only rode 27 total roller coasters, 18 of them being new creds (and yes, I'm in awe at how in sync those numbers are). The longest amount of time that I spent at a park was three hours at Canobie Lake and the shortest was the 15 minutes I spent at Palace Playland. The most expensive park ticket was $35 for Story Land and the cheapest was $10 for Conneaut (although honorable mention goes to Funtown, which offered an after 6:00pm deal for $13). Finally, I surpassed the 400 total coasters milestone as well as 300 steel coasters. And I clearly oscillated between loving the parks and just completely hating them, but overall it was a fun, worthwhile trip. Onto 500!
Not sure regarding @Hixee's current status - he very well might be on a plane at this very moment - but I encourage everybody to read his trip report whenever he gets around to posting it as I'm sure he has quite a few additional perspectives to share regarding the parks we visited and the different experiences we had.
Roadmap:
- Michigan's Adventure (September 8th, I think)
- Kings Island (late-October)
- Holiday World (late-October)
- Dollywood (mid-November)
- Kokomo's Family Fun Center (maybe this year, maybe next year)