The East Coaster Journey of June 2012

[peep]

Ha, glad I'm not the only one who thinks Toro isn't as good as the hype. Thanks for all the comments guys!


Tuesday 5th June

So it turns out that as well as our hotel room smelling of piss when we arrived, the shower is stupidly complicated and our breakfast consisted of some hot beverages and an array of danishes. I managed to get an apple and a berry danish, they were quite nice but it wasn't what I'd really count as a breakfast and more of a light snack.

Anyways we got in the car and made our way to the next park, Six Flags New England. The weather was looking a little dismal and due to the whole Six Flags locker faff I decided to leave my nice camera in the car so once again I apologise or lack of images. I have something later to make up for that though. So after climbing the M&M steps we're taken into a rather nice entrance plaza for the park, it was really well landscaped and nice, I approved.

But we're not there for landscaping, we were there for the most important of things...CREDS. So as it's very close to the entrance and it was actually running we joined the queue for their latest addition, Goliath. A very rare Vekoma GIB, something which I was a little sceptical about riding. The queue was long but it moved surprisingly quickly. When we got to the end of the queue we tried to get back row and after telling the lady that we had travelled all the way from the UK and after a lot of umming and arring she decided to let us on at the back, get in.

WOW. Why are there not more of these beasts? It was amazing, such an odd experience but so brilliant at the same time. Being pulled up into a vertical position backwards is so odd and then to be let go and zoom through the station is epic, loved it. The inversions were smooth and enjoyable and and then doing it all again backwards was just awesome. Can we get one in the UK please? Kthnxbi.

Next to Goliath stands their other boomerang coaster. There was no one queuing for this one, a sign of bad things to come? Apparently not, it was fast and very smooth, great little coaster. I'm still not understanding the bad rep these get.

The spinning cred, Pandemonium, was next. I'd never been on a spinner where you face inwards before but wow this was one awful coaster. It didn't really do anything. We got a tiny bit of spinning towards the end but overall it all seemed a bit pointless.

Joey decided it would be brilliant to ride the S&S skyswat as then he could claim he'd ridden both of them (the other being Slammer at Thorpe). I detest Slammer and this was meant to be worse so there was no way I was getting on. Dillon had never ridden one and Kyle didn't seem to happy to be going on. It sounds like it was a pretty awful experience, just like Slammer.

Next to it was a classic wooden coaster which didn't look much. Cyclone didn't have a queue but as soon as we were waiting for the train to come back for us to get on it started to rain </3. However the ride op started talking to us and he seemed quite fun, can't quite remember why now. The ride produced a ridiculous first drop, we have no idea what it did exactly but it really took us by surprise and we loved it. The rest of the ride was a bit meh with a couple of decent pops of air time.

They had this cool looking rapids ride themed to penguins but as the weather was being silly we decided not to ride which sucks. They also have this really odd sky ride which goes from that end of the park to the entrance area, about a 3 min walk. The pods were really small and weird. When Joey and I got into the pod the ride op asked us to tell the lady on the other side "you dropped your pocket". WTF? When we got to the other side, she smirked so we asked her what that meant. She told us it told her who was working on the other side, yeah, we didn't get it either.

We then headed over to Bizarro. I really liked the area, the way it was all designed was nice, with the coaster going all over the place, it looked cool. There was a bit of a wait and it gave us time to be amused at the #1 coaster on the planet posters. Would it really be that good? We sat at the back and with the on board audio going up the lift hill it was getting me excited. I loved the fact the audio was basically a rock mix tape, it was all a bit random but I think it works. None of us thought it was as good as the posters made it out to be. It was certainly good in some areas, I think the second half of the ride was probably the best part of it, tunnels are awesome. Overall we just saw it as a meh, been on better type of coaster.

Opposite Bizarro is the coaster with the worst name ever, Gotham City Gauntlet Escape From Arkham. Why is it so long? It's only a standard wild mouse cred. It was a little rough and with basically minimal theming it just looked a bit sad and rode like that too.

Catwoman's whip was next, one of those fun Tivoli family creds with a roar. It was fun, pretty standard really for the type of ride. Urgh, next up for us was the dreaded SLC, Mind Eraser. I hate that these parks kinda clone their creds across the company but at least with the SLCs they've named them appropriately. Urgh.

It was then time for their B&M floorless, Batman the Dark knight. We sat towards the back of the train and I enjoyed it. The zero-g was taken nice and slowly which was great. Overall it was smooth and enjoyable.

Our bellys wanted food by this point. We ended up at one of their chicken stalls. I had this chicken wrap which was pretty mega, very filling which meant I ended up leaving most of the my fries which was sad because they were epic curly fries and everyone knows that curly fries are the superior form of fries.

Next to where we were sitting was the shot tower. We decided to do it and it was ok, pretty much like every other shot tower imo. So it was then time for the parks second wooden coaster, Thunderbolt. It was very forgettable.

There was one more cred to acquire, the Looney Tunes kids cred. The ride op only sent us round once which was nice. Not much else to say apart from it had the least theming out of the three of them.

Time for some re-rides then. It was clear we all wanted to go back on Goliath because it was awesome. As soon as we joined the queueline it broke down, typical! After a bit of a wait, some faff by engineers and staff and a test run it was back open. The ride host remembered us from earlier which was nice of her. We sat closer to the front this time to see if there was a difference. It's still awesome but I found it more intense going backwards at the front of the train. It was almost too intense for me on the vertical loop, still, in the back of the train the whole ride is awesome.

We had another go on Batman: TDK but decided to sit in the front row of the train. It was no where near as good as it was at the back which was odd, I think the floorless effect was better on this one though.

It was then back over to Bizarro to check out front row. There was a massive difference than our ride earlier in the day. The drops at the front were just so much better, just really fast and awesome. Joey and I enjoyed it so much we went round again. Still not the best coaster on the planet but it was great.

We'd kinda got bored now, we didn't feel like re-riding anything else so we went into the merch shop to buy lots of things. We then headed back over to Bizarro because I wanted to go pick up an ORP from earlier in the day. Dillon is hilarious...

It was at this point we remembered they had a frisbee called Tomahawk, so we went over to ride that. It was a bit boring but then out of nowhere it just picked up and did some mental rotations which was good. As we got off we spotted a chipmunk!!!!!!! OMG, clearly the best thing in the whole park. It even made the little noise you'd expect a chipmunk to make, it made our day <3

As we were leaving the park we had to pass a guy in a Mr Six costume, it was terrifying. The head mask made him look like his skin was melting off or something, stuff of nightmares.

We got in the car and drove back to the hotel. At the hotel we chillaxed for a bit before Kyle discovered there was a brewery type place nearby so we went over to it. I say that as if it was across the road but this is America, it was like a 20 minute drive lol. The place was called the Cambridge House and it was like a pub restaurant which brews its own beer. That's pretty cool.

Our waitress for the evening was pretty awesome, just really casual and she used to live near Dillon or something and yeah, we were talking to her for some time. She was pretty confused about why two British peeps were travelling with two guys from Virginia. Lolz. The place was full of locals and there were quite a few TVs showing sports, gave it quite a nice vibe.

For dinner I got a pulled pork sandwich, this was also to be my first pulled pork sandwich and OMFG it was amazing. The meat and all the flavours and the barbecue sauce *starts drooling* it was just so amazing. Dillon, Kyle and I also tried some of their beer. It tasted like beer. Kyle also got a dessert which looked pretty spectacular. Photo time...

We then drove back to the hotel for some sleeps. Overall I had a really great day, the park was nice and clean, the staff were all friendly and chatty, well, apart from the food peeps, they were a bit lame and slow. The park has a good selection of rides...even has another Houdini mad house attraction! It was great finding another local gem of a place in the evening too, fantastic way to end the day.

Thanks for reading, sorry there was an epic delay between posts. To make up for that and the lack of photos in this report here is a video we took on one of our long car journeys...

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Mh0RhYM1eI&feature=relmfu[/youtube]

 

[andrus]

WOW. Why are there not more of these beasts? It was amazing, such an odd experience but so brilliant at the same time. Being pulled up into a vertical position backwards is so odd and then to be let go and zoom through the station is epic, loved it. The inversions were smooth and enjoyable and and then doing it all again backwards was just awesome. Can we get one in the UK please? Kthnxbi.

Agreed, the GIB was awesome!! I really wish there where more of these around.. It's so epic with a freefall face straight down, and then do it again backwards! The coaster section is really good too, amazing coaster imo <3

 

[peep]

Yay for GIB love.


Wednesday 6th June

So after getting ready and filling up on more danishes we got in the car and headed to the next park of the trip. Today's park was Lake Compounce, home of the very highly rated Boulder Dash. When we arrived there were loads of school buses, how annoying. There was like a constant chain of buses arriving, oh gawd why did we decide today was a good day to go here.

We made our way over to the entrance to purchase our tickets which were really expensive (I forgets how much, but for the size of the park it was a silly amount). The entrance area was quite nice, with one of their wooden coasters, Wildcat, towering over the entrance building.

This was the coaster we went over to first. The station was fairly cramped because school kids don't have brains apparently and the operator was constantly shouting instructions on how to board etc which was a little annoying but it clearly needed to be said as these kids were uber thick. We were finally on anyway and it was quite a forgettable ride. It was very bumpy and we could tell it would have been hell in the back row of the cars. On the break run we managed to break down and they had to call engineers over.

Well this wasn't a great start was it? We were sitting there for a good 5 minutes before the engineers came over, touched a button or two on the control panel and got it to work again. While waiting for them to turn up a security peep stood next to the train to make sure no one escaped and got into a place they shouldn't be. Was a bit odd.

We grabbed our first free cup of soda (what craziness was this?) before moving on over to Boulder Dash. We were looking forward to this ride, we've all had years of hearing about how amazing this coaster is and whatnot. The queue was rather burdenous so we played the country game.

I love how it looked like it just went up into the forest and you couldn't see what it was going to do next. It is the perfect setting for a wooden coaster. However we were getting way too much time to admire this one thing because they were running it with one train and with the sun really bearing down on us it was becoming unpleasant. The station was then a clusterfeck, just a mess of kids all over the place, was so un-organised and frustrating. Still we were finally on this very highly rated coaster. Going up the mountain was pretty cool and then turning round that corner still not really knowing what was ahead was cool. The first drop was actually decent and then it does a load of random stuff kinda in and out of the forest, there were some nice hills with pops of air time but there was an abundance of what felt like un-banked corners which I don't approve of. We got back to the station and all went "was that it?"

None of us could see where this hype came from, there was nothing there that could make a highly praised coaster in our opinions. It didn't help that Kyle was already getting very pissed off by all the kids in the park (he's not good in large crowds of them so it was like a nightmare for him as there were just so many of them).

So after that major disappointment we decided to go over to their boomerang cred, which was creatively called Zoomerang. There was a bit of a queue but nothing compared to what we had to queue for Boulder Dash. It was like all the other boomerangs of the trip, fun, smooth and quite enjoyable. However due to all the free soda my body didn't approve of inversions lol.

Sitting next to Zoomerang was American Flyers, a classic flat ride which I'd never been on but the other three loved. I really enjoyed it but it did take an age to stop. Dillon got out like a second before it came to a complete stop and the woman at the exit (some sort of trainer peep for the park staff) warned him about dis-obeying the park rules. It was such a random thing for her to say and she said it with this massive fake grin, it was just a bit awful really. He was in no harm at all as the ride was barely moving. I laughed at the situation but yeah, was weird.

Next Dillon and Kyle decided to ride Twister, a spin and spew type ride. Due to the fact you can spin the cars yourself I decided not to ride as they can end badly. So I became a spectator on the side with Joey. It looked a bit unpleasant but they seemed to be enjoying it.

Best thing in the park?

See, Dillon is always having a good time

We were already running out of rides to go on and we couldn't quite believe that Boulder dash was that bad so we joined the back of the queue. The queue was once again long and silly but at least it was moving quicker due to them now running it with two trains. Still we had enough time to teach Dillon how to play Merlin Top Trumps. I don't think he really enjoyed it, probably too British for his liking Joey managed to win after a very long bout between us two.

Well it was better second time round but it still wasn't good like everyone else was making it out to be. Shames. After riding it we decided to take a look at the map. We noticed there was more stuff down this long path that runs alongside Boulder Dash. Down there was a rapids and a chairlift that goes up the mountain. We decided to go check it out. On the way I got some Dippin Dots because I was told I needed to try them at some point. I got cookies and cream, it was odd but it was ice cream so overall it was good.

We then arrived at the sky ride which looked like it went up really high. The ride host informed us that it went over 700ft and it goes up higher than you can initially see. He also told us it lasts between 20-30 minutes and as soon as it gets to the peak it just comes back down. It looked cool and we then got on which was a bit scary. It's essentially a ski lift and when I went skiing I was terrified of them, feel so open.

Once on it was exactly what we needed, peace and quiet away from all the annoying children. When there were peeps on the other side coming down everyone would say hi etc, it was quite nice. There were two kids that seemed a bit too excited by it and on the second time we saw them they told us it was like their 7th go round. I don't blame them, it was clearly the best thing in the park, it was just relaxing and the views were really nice. #gettingold

Turning around at the top

With paying so much to get in and there not really being anything else to do Joey and I decided that another go on Boulder Dash would have to happen. So we joined the once again burdenous queue of kids (who were being burdenous in all sorts of interesting and innovative ways - cretins), Kyle would have died if he joined us. Still, after all the queue jumping etc we were finally on the ride (just wanting out by this point). It was alright but my opinion didn't shift very much, however Joey was warming to it and was starting to understand where the hype may have come from.

There was still one more ride I wanted to try out and look at that, it had a stupid queue. Gah, well we all queued up for it (apart from Kyle who just wanted out of the place) and after a long wait we were finally at the front of the queue for Ghost Hunt. The chap working on the ride was surprised to see peeps older than 10 in front of him which amused him greatly. He was quite nice and friendly and was probably the only staff member we came across who was like this. If you haven't guessed from the name of the attraction, it is a shooty dark ride. It was ok, the theming was quite dated and a little bit dodgy but good fun for the little ones I suppose. A lot of the targets weren't working which was a shame but I think if you hit a target it activated stuff which always makes that type of ride better.

The park also has a small kids cred, fairly similar to the ones we went on at the Six Flags parks. The old guy running it wouldn't let us on without a small child and as there were none nearby I think he just didn't want to do any work. My diary actually has a massive rant about this but I'm not going to post that here lol.

We then exited the park via the shop. They sold some quite nice items but as we were quite annoyed by the park with its extortionate price (for what it has to offer) we didn't feel like giving them any more monies. The park does have some nice landscaping and the sky ride was really cool and unique for a park. Just a shame there isn't a lot to do there.

So with still a lot of the day to go what were we to do? Well luckily Kyle had been looking into going to another brewery and had found one fairly near the park so we headed into the direction of that place. We turned up in like some alleyway that backs on to some shops, felt like a bit of a dodgy area. Turns out this brewery is in what clearly used to be a car garage. We were a bit unsure about going in but we did indeed.

There was this big dog just sitting on the floor and 3 guys sitting around this tiny bar with a big guy standing behind it. Looks like we interrupted their little beer break as they soon realised other people were there and they scuttled off to make beer. The large guy welcomed us in and offered us one of three brews. Not sure what one I had but it sure tasted like beer (think I'm the wrong person to be going to beer brewerys lol). The guy then showed us around and talked us through the production line which was quite interesting. They fill up and seal all their cans by hand which I think gives you a better idea as to how small this place is. He then talked us through how they make the beer and their large tanks which store it at each stage of the process. They make quite a lot for such a small place and he told us they struggle to keep up with demand and that in a couple of years they should be moving out to somewhere a bit bigger to help them make more.

We then began our quest to find a mall to help us kill more time. The sat nav sent us to somewhere that was clearly not a mall at first so we decided to ditch that plan and find one a bit closer to civilisation. On the way we saw two random storage thingys which Merlin always use for theming and the jokers we are quipped that Merlin were clearly building a new attraction in the area.

Dillon and I were feeling a bit hungry so once in the mall we found somewhere to grab a quick bite. We ended up in this pizza place. It was ok, very greasy and surprisingly not very filling. Oh well we continued round the massive shopping mall. They had a massive Rainforest Cafe which was a bit odd. I'm pretty sure at one point we went into a Yankee Candle store and I think this is the place where we went into the chocolate shop and was tempted by their expensive offerings. Soon enough we were back at the hotel though, chilling out and getting up to no good.

I believe this was the night where Kyle spent ages trying to find the receipt for his jacket thing so he could take it back to Target. He'd looked the night before but to no avail. When he finally found it down the back of the bed (yeah, we know, WTF?) there was such joy and excitement in the room. Kyle spent a good few minutes dancing around the hotel room much to our amusement (pretty sure we were high on sugar or something). Joey was laughing so much he fell down the side of the bed which just added to the hilarity to the event. I even captured the joy on camera but at Kyle's request no one can see it lol. You can see a pic of Joey crying with laughter at the side of the bed though...

Goodnight and thanks for reading.

 

[SaiyanHajime]

Ahahaha, you forgot to mention how I even left a letter for the maid telling her not to throw out any receipts she found.

Target rental services. <3

 

[kimahri]

Boulderdash was eaugh as well. When we went it was gradually getting better as time passed but I don't really belive it'll get to the mindblowing perpetual jizzing that it was being made out to be...

Meh.

 

[peep]

Thursday 7th June

This was our last day at this hotel so we packed all our stuff up and crammed it into Dillon's vehicle. We then grabbed some breakfast danishes and made our way to Dorney Park. We decided we needed more than one or two danishes for breakfast so on the way we stopped off at a really weird McDonalds. It was really small and just, weird. So after filling up on naughty foods we continued our journey.

My initial impression upon arriving in the car park was that it felt very Thorpe like, in the way you can see everything the park has to offer from outside, just very open and plain. Still I liked the entrance area and we made our way straight over to Talon.

lol, look at what time we waltzed up

There wasn't much of a queue for Talon and we headed straight for back row. It's an odd coaster and the best way I feel I can describe it is "nice" which sounds so lame. It didn't seem to really pack a punch but it was really fun, I think the fact it doesn't roar like a normal B&M makes you sub-consciously think less of it? I still really enjoyed it though.

Our next coaster was to be the wild mouse. We had to wait quite some time in the sun which was quite unpleasant. The ride itself was pretty standard, nothing much to say here really.

Up next on our cred radar was Hydra. Yet another B&M floorless. This was yet another odd B&M and again I think it was down to the lack of roar, just doesn't feel right. Still, I weirdly enjoyed the jojo roll out of the station, it was different. Actually I really enjoyed Hydra, it was another solid fun coaster with some great moments.

Sitting near Hydra was a tilt-a-whirl. All I'd seen of them before was in RCT3, never actually seen one at a park before. So I went on with Dillon and Kyle who were quite excited about riding. It was like a less intense Waltzer which was good because I find they can be too intense. So yeah, was quite good fun.

LOL, Dillon's expressions are amazing

It was really hot out and as we were near the log flume we decided it would be a fun idea. It had this odd section which looked like it was designed more for a rapids ride but then it turned out it didn't get us wet, still, I liked the unpredictability about it. Then we went down the main drop and I managed to get quite wet which was nice and cooling.

Sitting next to the log flume was the ride we were all dreading, the 1st generation Intamin drop tower. The anticipation was insane, I don't think my heart has raced so much on a ride before. The way it moves from the lift bit over to the drop track is terrifying. The actual drop was really good too but the way it goes from you laying on your back into the sitting upright position again was awful. I think we all really loved it, I think it's rare for us to get so scared by a ride so it was fantastic to experience that again.

Some sort of classic wooden cred was next, it was very forgettable. It was then time for Steel Force. I wasn't really looking forward to it because it's not really the type of cred I enjoy. To be honest it was ok, very smooth. The hills pretty much kill the speed as you go over them though, I like to at least go over the hills at a decent pace but that just didn't happen. It also had these weird bumps where it tried and failed to straighten out after the hills, I didn't really approve of them. Meh.

The parks new ride for this year is Stinger, another Boomerang but this one was inverted. However this one decided to spite us. I spent some time telling the peeps at the entrance of my disappointment. Just when I was starting to become a fan of these creds too.

Still, sitting next to it was Possessed. I was kinda looking forward to this. Kyle and I sat in the front row and it was so much fun. The launches were really good and it was generally very enjoyable. Just like the GIB, why are there not more of these?

So spiteful

It was then time to go get the kids cred, Woodstock Express. It was basically the same as the other kids creds on the trip.

We weren't sure what to do next so we sat down next to the Totally 80s show which was totally cheesy and the peeps couldn't sing. Joey went off in search of a snack and came back empty handed. Next to us was the shot tower, Dominator so we decided to have a quick go on that. It was quite fun, pretty standard shot tower.

I wanted to have another go on Hydra but this time at the front so we went and queued up for it.

Going through the roll in the front looked awesome

So there we were just about to get on when the heavens proper opened and, well, there was just a tropical storm out of nowhere basically. So there was no way they were going to run the ride with peeps on in this rain. They had to send the train out so they could get the peeps on the break run off the ride. They also evacuated the station so we hid under this tent like thing with some other peeps in the queueline. This turned out to be an awful idea as the rain was so heavy and coming from what felt like every direction that we were getting wet anyway. We soon had to make the decision to make a mad dash for some proper protection. The nearest building was the shop at the exit of the ride so on our count we ran for it. Within that minute we were absolutely drenched from head to toe. Eww.

We spent ages admiring the merchandise that the Hydra shop sold. The rain just didn't look like it was going to let up and preparing that this was to be the end of our day at Dorney we made our purchases and stood around a bit more. The rain then stopped and we had to decide to stay and wait for Hydra to re-open or to leave. They kept testing Hydra and a queue was starting to form outside the queueline. I really wanted another go on Hydra and luckily the others were happy to stand around till it reopened which wasn't too long. So we went back to ride the front row, this time without Kyle who just wanted to wait around.

You can just about see Dillon and I on the front row

It was really great to ride it again and I liked riding it in the front, the floorless effect was pretty good on it. So the rain had dampened our spirits (pun may or may not be intended) and despite kinda wanting to re-ride Talon we weren't really feeling up it so we just left. So we got into the car and drove to our next hotel. I really liked Dorney park, it had some really cool coasters, the park was clean and the staff seemed quite friendly.

The hotel room was really nice and probably the best one of the trip. After settling in Kyle found out about another brewery which was near Hersheypark. This sounded like a good plan so we set off out in search of this brewery. The Troegs brewery was a lot bigger than the previous places we visited. Turns out it is quite a new place and you could really tell. The place was designed really nicely and very touristy (but in a good way). The shop was about to close so we had a little look around that first. Dillon and Kyle purchased some mystery beer while Joey and I admired the cool maps showing where people had travelled from. Apparently this place is very popular and quite the destination.

The shop then closed so after putting the beer in the car we headed into the bar to try some of this beer. The lady behind the counter suggested a tray with a selection of flavours. It sounded interesting and meant we'd get to try more than just 3 or 4 different brews. The tray finally arrived and wow, it was pretty cool. We grabbed a table and decided to act like sirs and sip the same one, giving our reviews after tasting it. For once this beer didn't taste too much like beer! One of them had a hint of coffee, one had a hint of honey and one tasted of banana - WTF? It was pretty cool and we all enjoyed ourselves. The mystery brew in the middle puzzled us though and I wasn't sure if I liked it or not, was odd.

All gone

We then went into the tour area which had these cool signs everywhere telling you about each stage of the brewing process. It was very informative and had some pretty cool facts and figures.

We then left very happy as it was a nice place to visit. I still can't believe it's right next door to Hersheypark. We then went back to the car. Can you tell what Dillon's car plate says?

He's such a goon

We then went up the road for Applebees. I liked it, we had some epic amount of food due to one of their deals and it was just awesome.

We then went back to the hotel for sleep as the next day was going to be very long.

 

[Ride of Steel]

Thanks for the Dorney Report! Shame you didn't like Steel Force, but it was my first hyper. Dorney is a good park, a bit underrated though... did you do Dominator?

 

[Martyn B]

I'm enjoying reading these reports, keep 'em coming!

 

[SaiyanHajime]

We should do a poll... "what colour is Dillon's car?"

 

[peep]

Thanks for the Dorney Report! Shame you didn't like Steel Force, but it was my first hyper. Dorney is a good park, a bit underrated though... did you do Dominator?

I'm not really a fan of hypers, I like coasters to be fun and I just find them a bit full after the first drop. Dominator we did do, it's in the PTR somewhere. It's just like every other shot tower out there though, I prefer drop towers. But yeah, I don't think I really heard about Dorney before going which is a shame as it was a nice park.

^LMFAO. Poor Dillon.

I suppose I better try and continue on with this.


Friday 8th June

We had to get up at some horrible time in the morning as we had a very long day ahead of us. We went and grabbed some breakfast and at last we were given a fantastic selection of food. On offer was an array of cereals, egg, sausages, bagels, "biscuits", waffles and several hot beverages. We approved of this.

Seeing Skyrush dominate the skyline on the way to the park is awesome

After food we got in the car and headed down the road to Hersheypark. This was also the day of the Coasterforce Live, how exciting, finally get to meet lots of the American members. It was really surreal standing in the car park meeting CFers I'd seen posting on the forums for years as well as peeps I'd seen lots of times in the UK. After a while we made our way over towards the entrance where we met the epic guy that works at Hershey that organised all the awesome stuff for us for the day. We had to faff around for ages for the rest of the group to arrive. Once the whole group was together the Hershey guy took us through a side gate where some staff checked we all had tickets. We were then guided over to Fahrenheit for our first bout of ERT! I didn't really have any expectations for this coaster but the Intamin restraints weren't giving me much hope. However I was pleasantly surprised, I ended up really enjoying it. It was smooth, had some intense moments as well as some really weird inversions. The restraints weren't too much of a burden either! Luckily we were given four goes in total, epic stuff.

He clearly loves life

We were then informed that our ERT sesh wasn't over yet! We were then taken over to Storm Runner for four goes on that! It was ok, definitely the worst launch coaster I've done imo. After the decent launch it just dies at the crest of the top hat and after that it doesn't really do much oh and it has this awful, awful banked turn thing where the restraints clearly try to decapitate you </3 I did really like the dive after the inline twist but yeah, pretty awful overall. Still I was very thankful we got it in our ERT instead of having to queue for ages to be totally let down.

And that was the end of our ERT session....for now. We all thanked the awesome guy from Hersheypark for giving us lots of awesome ERT. The park was now opening by this point and we made the group decision of going over to RollerSoaker so us poor credit whores can grab the cred while there is no one else in the area. At every water pump thing was a CFer ready and waiting to get peeps riding the coaster drenched. I sat facing backwards with Katia, with Matthew and Andree on the other side. We had some really long wait before we were sent round. The coaster is just very silly and we only got wet on our legs from a couple of effects. We then ended up sitting on the break run for ages. Turns out our car didn't get to where it should have done, we stopped too early on the break run. Whoops. So this turned into sitting in the sun burning for ages with a random spray of water coming in from our left. By the time the staff had sorted out the issue we were totally dry lol.

As everyone started coming off we all compared our levels of wetness. Basically if you face backwards you probably won't get wet yet if you face forwards you get drenched. Just before Jerry, Ciall and Sue could get on it broke down again resulting in lots of faff. We all tried to get them drenched when they finally went round, they ended up being very moist.

Dan handed out chocolate to everyone

So after lots of faff and Ciall getting into a bit of a strop because peeps mess with his stuff we finally move on to ride more creds. I think we rode the Wild Mouse next because it didn't have a queue. Not much to say here really, it's just a wild mouse.

Sitting next to the Wild Mouse was Wildcat, a wooden coaster that I can't remember much about. I don't remember liking it very much, possibly quite rough? Meh, most of these wooden coasters are just merging into one for me. Sue doesn't look like she's having fun though...

We then wandered all the way over to Sidewinder, the Vekoma Boomerang. I'd heard bad stories about this ride but with these new trains it was pretty smooth, yet another decent boomerang coaster. Oh apart from the headrest is just a hard plastic and on the way back I managed to smash my head on it which really hurt. A bit of a softer padding here wouldn't go amiss.

Next up was Trailblazer I think. This is one of the worst mine train rides I think I've ridden. I don't remember it doing much at all, pretty random and pointless. It was at this point that we were all quite hungry so we went over to the entrance area to get our discounted food token things which was yet another amazing bonus the park provided us with. The group then split into two I think for food. I ended up with the majority at a place over by Trailblazer. Had a pulled pork sandwich which was amazing, one of the best things I've eaten at a park. It came with a side and I didn't fancy either of the choices so ended up with mac and cheese which was pretty rank. We also got a free refillable drinks capsule thingy which became the biggest burden of the trip. Some peeps found out that if you pull the straw out and blow it makes a very irritating noise, this resulted in an orchestra of this very annoying noise.


So after faffing with straws and the such it was then over to Great Bear, the hyped B&M inverter. The queue took forever and it wasn't helped that it broke down for a while while we were queuing and that the heat was becoming intense and unbearable. After nearly some of the group breaking the fence, a lot of messing around and goony chat we were finally on. I think I sat towards the back. It was ok, the helix just after the lift hill was random, fun and weirdly intense. I wasn't too much of a fan of the rest of the layout, there were so many drawn out moments and the bit back to the station is ridiculous.

We then rode the log flume which looked like fun from the Great Bear queueline. It was actually good fun but we didn't get very wet. It was then over to SuperDooperLooper which is a silly name for a coaster. It was actually quite good fun, I found it quite smooth.

There was then a lot of faff outside and then Sue raped Snoo...

At some point the previously mentioned burdenous drinks capsule decided to spite my bag resulting in wet times. Oh well, it was keeping me hydrated in the hot queuelines. I think we then rode Comet next, a classic wooden coaster. It was really good fun, definitely one of the better wooden coasters of the trip.

Then it was time for what we were all really looking forward to...Skyrush. It just completely dominates this area of the park, just so tall and epic. There was a bit of a queue. While we waited in the sun Jerry was building up all the excitement by telling us about how it rides etc. The hype was building, would it meet it? I tend to loathe coasters that have been hyped up so this was going to be interesting. I managed to sit in the back row and holy mother of goats it was incredible. The [strike]lift hill[/strike] launch hill is just utter insane and going over the crest is just terrifying. With just those little lap bars you feel so exposed and it just feels like you're going to launch out of your seat, just mental. You then very quickly plummet down that first drop and into that first banked corner, the forces are just crazy, nothing else like it. The rest of the layout feels like it's just trying to throw you out of your seat and you cling on to that tiny lapbar for dear life, so insane. Such an incredible ride, so unique.

However, those little lap bars were designed really badly. They put a lot of pressure on a tiny part of your thigh which results in pain. This doesn't seem to happen for everyone though and I admit on this first ride it wasn't too bad.

So after that epicness we then all trekked over to Lightning Racer, the last two creds in the park. Half the group went on Lightning while the other half of us when on Thunder. It's such a great duelling coaster while at the same time just being a great coaster with lots of really fun moments. So after going round again to get both creds we were getting to the point of "what now?". I can't remember what one was next but I'm gonna say it was Reese's Xtreme Cup Challenge. A little shooty dark ride with a stupid 'can't take bags on' rule - seriously wtf? The ride was a bit meh but it was nice that effects were set off once you hit the targets.

Next up we did the dodgems. They were ok, dodgems are always quite fun with a big bunch of CFers.

We then exited the park to go on the fake chocolate factory tour. Well, it certainly wasn't no Willy Wonka factory tour. It did have very random singing cows which made no sense and it all looked very fake. We got given some sort of Hershey chocolate to try at the end. It was ok.

There was then a lot of faff in the shop at the end. Andree showed off his juggling act...

I think Richard was a bit jealous and tried to juggle the balls too...

So peeps then went off and purchased a shed load of awful chocolate while some of us stood around a bit bored and tired, this trip was really taking it out of us. Sue wasn't too sure about the chocolate she purchased...

Dillon, Kyle, Joey and I decided to split from the group for a bit so we could chill and eat cake. I can't remember what I went for now but it was good. It was getting late now and the sun was setting so all the lights in the park came on. It's a totally different park at night, a much nicer atmosphere and more exciting. The lighting on the wooden coasters is really awesome. We decided to head over to Lightning racer for more goes. On the way we were in awe of all the fireflies. Joey caught one but I couldn't get my camera to focus on it which was annoying.

Lightning Racer was just as awesome this time round and because it was dark it felt faster and was generally more fun.

The lighting on the ferris wheel was awesome

I purchased some tat in the store next to Lightning Racer, Kyle then played on a couple of grab machines before we moved on over to Skyrush to meet the others. We got there quite early so Joey and I went for another ride on Comet. We sat at the front and it was awesome, really great ride. It had definitely picked up speed compared to our ride earlier on in the day too. Good times.

We then met everyone else by Skyrush and faffed around for ages, waiting for the crowds to leave the park and for the rest of the peeps in the Skyrush queue to finish their ride. Why is this? Because we had Skyrush ERT! Those awesome peeps at Hershey and Jerry and Snoo had worked their magic and we had 30 mins in the dark on Skyrush, awesome sauces. Good thing we purchased some glow sticks the night before and handed them out to the group. It was like Ghosterforce but in America and in the Summer <3

Dancing - Swedish style

We then had lots and lots of rides on Skyrush which was awesome. Each time shifting round so we got to try out all the seats we wanted to, just to make sure what was our favourite place. We also tried different techniques to not getting hurt on the thigh from the restraints. Different theories worked for different peeps. Still, it was absolutely awesome and the atmosphere amongst our large group was just brilliant. The staff were ace too (apart from the occasional stapling </3 ). What a fantastic way to end such a fun day out, meeting all the lovely new peeps as well as seeing the regulars from the UK, it was just really nice and how we managed to survive the entire day is beyond me.

Somehow the others drove another 3 hours to their next hotel, glad we didn't have to do that. We took a group photo outside the park entrance and said our goodbyes as we wouldn't see them again until Sunday at Busch Gardens.

 

[peep]

Ah, I better get on with this before I completely forget what happened on this trip. Oh and by the way my notes ran out about a third into the previous trip report, whoops.

Saturday 9th June

So after such a long day for the CF Live we awoke all tired like and I kinda missed breakfast lol. Whoops. We all packed our gear up and stuffed it all into Dillon's trunk before heading back onto the road. Clearly missing breakfast was a poor move and a while into our journey we stopped off at a Starbucks. I was weirdly excited by this. When Joey and I saw the sign saying about a COCONUT MOCHA FRAPPA I think we nearly feinted from all the joy, it had to be in our lives. And yes it was as amazing as it sounds, needs to come over to the UK <3

After some more time travelling we were finally at our destination, Knoebels. I'm not sure what it was but my first impressions weren't grand, maybe I was just expecting something else? But with a very busy grass car park we parked up and headed into the forest in which the park attractions are scattered amongst. I think the fact that there was like no formal entrance or anything with the addition of being very tired just made me instantly look at everything in a veil of disappointment. It reminded me too much of a funfair and I just associate funfairs with dodgy attractions and dodgy people. This view was not helped by Joey pointing out the ride and fence which some people on a documentary showed how they liked to rub themselves against them.

Randomly scattered everywhere were old carousel organs with varying sizes and sounds, was almost like it was a special day for them or something, was quite unique and I did like that.

Oh look a sign to tell you where you actually are

Our first port of call was a ticket booth to get some tokens so we could get on the rides. Yeah this park was hitting some of my major dislikes, tokens for rides are such a burden. It then turned out that we had to basically pay like the premium price because of the time of day etc, none of us were happy about it but I think it was more because there is just no information about this until you actually go to get the tokens. So after all four of us paid more than we had hoped we headed to our first coaster of the day.

This was quite amazing, height sticks all around the park showing how flooded they've been in certain years. I think the fact you can't tell when you look around that everything was submerged under water is quite amazing.

So our first coaster of the day was to be Phoenix. I think we actually had to wait a little while for this but operations were pretty mental. We sat towards the back and I don't think any of us were really thrilled by it. Going through the tunnel at the beginning of the ride was amusing though, Joey was trying to freak us out by saying how many spiders lived in there. *shudders*

Someone's actually put sucks underneath his name but you can't see it in the photo. It amused us

They were clearly getting some decent air time - how?

Hmm, the weather was glum and it really wasn't helping my feelings towards the park. Our next ride of the day was Twister. I don't really remember too much about this apart from a lot of awkward turns and discovering how much the park's toilet facilities opposite fail at life.

We had to go via this covered bridge, I like these sort of bridges.

We then made our way round to Black Diamond, the cred but not but counts. It had a really long queue, I don't think the park is actually prepared for queuelines for this ride as it just spilled out and looked a little silly. It was at this point we discussed the huge amount of dogs in the park. I don't like dogs and we couldn't see the point of bringing them because you just spend the day sitting around waiting for the rest of the group to go on the rides. However Black Diamond had one of the biggest surprises of the trip in store. On the ride op desk they had a print out of the Nic Cage "you don't say" meme, it made my day.

<3

So what about the ride itself? Well the staff member didn't take my tokens so for one I rode for free and secondly it was a good effort on their part with all the effects etc but it doesn't really do anything, very odd ride. Still +1 on the ol' coaster count.

It was definitely time for food now and we weren't too sure where to go. We ended up at one of the places in this sort of mill area with several different food kiosks. I did like the old exposed mill parts.

I think I had a slice of pizza which was very messy to eat and not very filling. Oh well, it did for the time being. I think we did the haunted mansion attraction next. I'd been informed it was very good, I'm not great with scary attractions but it did have to beat the ridiculous one at Brean. I sat with Joey who is also not a fan of scary rides. It did have some scary moments, mainly random stuff though. Brean is still more terrifying but it was definitely a good effort.

I think up next was the carousel which we had to do because of the quirky catching the rings thing. I'd never heard of this and thought it sounded interesting. I really enjoyed it, I wasn't amazing, kept bashing my finger on the wood just above the ring, managed to get 5 in the end, which isn't too awful for a first time.

Next up was the bumper cars which was odd. It would have been amazing if one, my foot didn't move off the pedal randomly and I didn't go into panic about half way through and two if there was actually more room for the silly amount of cars on the track. It was just too small meaning that most of the time it was just congested and no one could really do anything. Shame as the actual cars moved about at a really quick pace.

It looks like (from the order of my photos) that we did the Sky slide next. A simple helter skelter which was extremely thin. The last one of these I did was on Brighton pier (which I found terrifying). This wasn't too bad but because of the others telling me of their woe after getting burns last time around there was an element of trying to avoid the same fate. When we got to the top of the spiral stairs (</3) we found the ride peep was like a 14 year old kid, wtf?

Suffice to say we were all pros and none of us got burnt this time, hoorah. Next up was the little kids cred, Kozmo's Kurves. This had a really long queue, urgh. Dillon and Kyle went and found a bench to wait for us on. I was amused by the boat ride that narrowly goes under the coaster and the fact that one of the flood water posts was next to it and was about half way up the coaster. Insane.

So yeah, as expected Kozmo's Kred was, just that, another +1 to the count.

Such goons

We then went over and did the Flyer flat ride. The others told me it was better than the one at Compounce. Yeah, they weren't lying. It really picked up speed and the swinging motion was much more mental on it. The fact there were so many trees really close to it added so much to the ride experience. Good stuff.

Sitting next to the flyers was this odd contraption which you controlled yourself. It was a massive faff to get everyone strapped in and ready. Joey and I wimped out because it looked hideous. Yeah, I'm really glad I didn't do it, looks awful.

Oh look, it's that uber expensive statue the park has been building for years

I think it was this point we were getting tired and bored and we had lots of tokens left. We decided to use up the last of them on Phoenix. We sat near the front this time. There was a massive kafuffle in the station in front of us. This guy was being a douche about sitting behind his kids but was too simple to work out that a simple move into a seat next to another guy meant they could all just get on the next train. Pretty much everyone around was just despairing at the situation, urgh, so burdenous. In the end the seats went round empty and he got on the next train. Oh well we were soon on near the front and jeez, what a difference it made! Just felt like we were constantly being thrown out of the train which is insane because there are only lap bars, no seat belt. The air time was pretty ridiculous. So glad we rode at the front, we then went straight round again. It was just as mental on that go too.

We didn't really have enough vouchers to do anything else so we faffed in some of the many merch stores and admired the vast variety of t-shirt designs. Joey purchased an awful postcard for the lolz. We then made our way to the car for the epic journey back to Virginia.

It's a very odd place and I did start to enjoy myself as the day went on but I still don't understand the love for it and the ride selection is just very odd. Maybe it's just one of those places which isn't for everyone.

 

[peep]

OMFG, I haven't told you about our AWFUL time at iHop after Knoebels. We were pretty tired and it was probably gone 10pm but we needed food and iHop was one of the chains I hadn't been to yet. Turns out a lot of peeps were out celebrating their graduation so it was fairly busy when we got there. Our waiter also came across as quite new but what was to follow was just an insult really. When we FINALLY got our food it was absolutely amazing and I now want pancakes because I'm thinking about their food. But yeah, the service was dire and extremely slow and then when we finally saw our individual bills Dillon's was wrong and I think mine was the wrong amount or something too. I think Kyle had an issue too and Joey was still waiting on his desert which he was now going to have to take home with him because it was taking so long. So yeah, pretty big mess up and to get it all sorted took so long it was just a joke. I have no idea why either, it was just a rubbish operation and the manager didn't seem to be taking control of the situation and him and our waiter just kept disappearing into the kitchen to hide from the situation. Urgh, it was the worst. Such a shame because the food was good, so now my only experience of iHop was heavily tainted


Sunday 10th June

Kyle, Joey and I got up and got ourselves ready for another really long day at a theme park. This would be the first theme park day of the trip without a Dillon, it was going to feel weird. This empty void would be filled by meeting up once again with all those lovely Coasterforce goons. Yay. So off we went to Busch Gardens Williamsburg.

When we got to the park we met up with everyone else outside the entrance. We all faffed around a bit in the boiling heat (why was it sooooooo hot?) and then some of us got our tickets sorted before we all headed into the park.

We'll see about that won't we?

The entrance area was really nice, I liked the design of the theming. No time to stand around and admire it though as we were storming ahead to our first cred of the day, Grover's Alpine Express. This simple little cred was just tucked into the little Seasame Street area which had some nice little touches of theming but it seemed a bit random for the park and it totally wasn't what I was expecting. Thankfully the only peeps in the queue were us credit whores and a couple of kids so we got on in no time. Which in the heat was a fantastic thing. The rollercoaster isn't anything special but it's decent for what it is.

Youngster Joey loved this cred a little too much?

From here we walked past the incredibly themed Italian area of the park to Apollo's Chariot. I don't remember there being much of a queue for this which was nice. The coaster I thought was fun and had some nice moments. The straight bit after the first drop was odd but there was a bit towards the end that I really liked.

So it was then time for the trek over the lake to what we were all excited about, Verbolten. It's quite cool seeing that big drop from the bridge and the area theming is pretty cool. We had to put all out bags into lockers which was such a kafuffle and created annoying faff. Once in the queue all I could think about was how stupidly hot it was in the sun and with the cattlepens being right in the sunlight Richard decided to cause hell and basically hold everyone up inside so we didn't have to stand in the sun for ages. It was a nice idea but it just caused mayhem (in my eyes). And yeah, it was still hot in the shade and the fans weren't facing people which meant they were inefficient and silly. The heat was rather distracting from the theming details of the queueline which is a shame as it looks quite nice. The ride was weird, I love the theming of the cars but the ride itself I just didn't love. The launches were great, no doubt about that but then again rolling launches are hard not to love. The indoor section seemed very all over the place and random and I didn't really get a great impression of it. The drop section happened and was quite poor imo and then going back outside for the big drop. Well for some reason the section leading up to the bridge and from the bottom of the big drop to the station was all really rough. For a coaster which was only about a month old I thought this was clearly a sign of awfulness to come. If it's beating itself up already what is it going to be like in two or three years time? The drop was good but it just goes straight into a banked corner which can't seem to handle the forces and it just feels a bit awful.

Overall I just got a really bad impression of it. Others seem to really disagree but that's the way I felt about it, maybe I was expecting too much from the indoor section? I don't know but there was no way my judgement of the ride was sound from just one ride.

After we all got off there was some ridiculous faffing, like, to an extreme I've never experienced before. People were getting a little hungry but not to the extent of wanting lunch, just a snack. But no one acted like they were in charge which with a large group is a bad idea. In the end the group split and everyone headed for different food establishments. When we arrived at the one in the Italy area no one really knew what to get because they weren't that hungry but didn't want to find themselves starving for the rest of the afternoon. It was all rather silly and frustrating. I think it was just a culmination of the heat and everyone being tired and grumpy from a very jam solid week of travelling.

CAKE

I think we then went over to Alpengeist. I think there was a bit of a wait for this and I think I ended up somewhere in the middle of the train. Which might explain why I came off not that thrilled by it. Yet another B&M inverter in America that I'm not really a fan of. Some bits of the theming I really loved though, the skis on the actual train was a neat touch and the signs in the station were cool. I liked the peeps stuck in roofs around the area too.

Next up was Griffin. I was intrigued by this, I doubted the drop would be as good as on Oblivion. I was right to think this, however the ride overall is so much better, just the drop isn't as intimidating. I thought the inversions were really fun and yeah it was just a fun coaster, I could easily ride it all day if I wanted to.

Snoo being Snoo

There was a lot of faff where we took photos of Griffin. I think we went and rode it a second time too. It was then over to the chairlift to another area of the park. The views from the chairlift were quite nice. The hilly-forest setting of the park does seem to mean you never get a good idea how big the park actually is.

Jordan posing like a pro

I think this might have been when we went to ride Curse of Darkastle. Kyle's friend's Brian and Lauren turned up to say a quick hello and after a quick introduction we were all in the queueline for the dark ride. I was really looking forward to this as I'm a goony dark ride fan. There was quite a long queue but as Kimahri and I found out, there were random vents on the walls letting out really cold air, it was amazingly refreshing. Soon enough we were in the pre show room where some video plays, trying to build it up to be something really epic and serious. I was heavily pre-warned by Jerry that this was not the case on the ride and it's actually full of poor puns.

The ride itself I thought was brilliant fun, the 3D effects were great, the movement of the ride vehicle was fast and exciting and overall it met my high expectations, hurrah. My only issue was a random scene where it's just a dark room and you just slowly go through it spinning like mad, didn't really make any sense. It's still not as amazing as Huntik at Magicland imo because they also have proper theming and a shooty element and shooting attractions are one of my weak spots

Everyone was clearly starting to flag

I think we wandered over to Mach Tower next. A lot of peeps sat out of this so my bag was left with them. AJ and Taylor high-jacked my camera and took lots of photos. Some came out really normal...

Then I found ones like this....

And then this...

^WTF AJ?

Yeah, this wasn't the last time this happened on this day too. So anyways the rest of us were on Mach Tower. Kyle took my camera and managed to get pics of us sitting...

Thanks Kyle! So then we started moving up the large shaft. We then stopped and we were left just spinning around the tower. The ride had like e-stopped because someone was wearing burdenous sandals or something. So we were then lowered and the process of checking us in started from scratch. We then finally sent all the way to the top. It's quite tall, we then plummeted towards the ground which was fun. It was actually a decent drop and I don't understand all the bad press it gets?

It was then time for our final cred of the day, Loch Ness Monster. This is the only interlocking vertical loop coaster or something and it does look cool. I actually enjoyed the coaster too, it wasn't rough or too headbangy, it was fun and the random indoor helix of why was amusing.

The group then split for lunch/whatever time. A large group of us headed down the long pier to the boats. Most of the time on the boat was spent sleeping by quite a few members of the group.

The boat offered some really nice views of Apollo and Verbolten.

Once off the boat we noticed a few terrapins in the water. Then we noticed a snapping turtle!!! It got us all rather excited. Especially when it snapped when we threw a twig into the water. Who needs rides when you've got an actual snapping turtle?

Just about see it through the fence

We then headed over to the meeting point in Italy next to the water ride which looked epic. I think a few peeps got some dippin dots because they're awesome. We were sat there waiting for what felt like forever and we were really hot still so most of us went on (there was no queue). Wow, I totally wasn't expecting anything from this ride, the exterior looks epic but the interior is insane, the effects inside are really effective and awesome. You also get drenched from the drop, this was a good thing because of the insane heat. Yay I'm soaked and happy about it...

The rest of the group turned up some time later so the rest of us made sure every water cannon was armed...

Suffice to say, everyone got drenched. I think we then tried to dry off by going on Apollos Chariot again. It was still a fun coaster but it didn't really dry us off but we left quite a moist impression on the seats. I bet the next riders loved that. To continue the moist theme we went on the rapids like the nutters that we are. Holy catherine wheels we got absolutely soaked through on those rapids. Like, some unnecessary amount of water just dropped over parts of the boat. Katia and I were defo the most drenched of us all on our boat, we managed to get every water effect and wave splash going. It was just relentless. I thought you couldn't get any wetter than Tidal Wave at Thorpe or the Pompeii ride but apparently these rapids could go totally beyond their capabilities. Afterwards I was just in shock, I've never experienced anything like it before. Insane times.

Joey and I showing off our levels of moistness in a rather Kevin and Perry way

Oh look, my camera has landed in someone else's hands again, expect randomness...

CF was then let loose on water balloons, whose great idea was this? Somehow it didn't get anywhere near as out of hand as I expected.

Who needs to pay lots of money to use a dryer when you can just stand under the air-con of the arcade?

We went on a train. It was fun.

The group went on Griffin a few more times which was still great fun.

Before moving on for more Alpengeist. I didn't join the queue but we were waiting for what felt like forever, there must have been quite a long queue or the station was just a clusterf*ck.

After lots of faff and admiring of Kimahri's new Griffin plush we made our way back over to Germany for more Verbolten times. Annoyingly the ride was broken down, resulting in faff due to frustration and lack of time to really go over to something else. We ended up going on the dodgems next to Verbolten. We had fun but I don't remember the cars moving very fast?

The park was now closing so we made our way to the exit, making sure we stopped off at the shop of tat and purchased our tat with Jerry's annual pass discount. Thanks again Jerry for letting me use that discount!

So that was that, another day had come to an end. We must have done something for dinner but I can't think of anything, we must have just headed back to Kyle's house after saying our goodbyes to everyone. Oh wells. It was a really great day and it was interesting to continue comparing our experiences with everyone. It's a shame there was so much unorganised faffing about and Verbolten shutting down, it would have been nice to get a couple more rides on it to form a better opinion on it. I don't think it's the nicest park in the World like the poster suggests at the entrance but it is nice, if a bit random. I really loved the Italy and Germany areas, I thought they were done really well and just felt quite complete, if that makes sense? I can imagine that if I was local I'd be a massive fanboi of the park but for a first visit I enjoyed myself but not to the level that I'm craving to already go back. Still, it was a nice day.

 

[peep]

Gawd, I better continue on with this. Getting to the end soon.

Monday 11th June

First day after the ridiculously tiring road trip was set up for sleep, rest and cheesecake. Kyle had to go to work so Joey and I just lounged around the house. So at some point in the afternoon Kara came to say hi and she drove us to where Kyle worked. Gawd he has such a trek to work and that's by car, not jealous of that commute at all. So then Kyle finished work and said hai. We then drove to Cheesecake Factory.

This was my first experience of a cheesecake factory and it really wasn't what I was expecting. I really liked the decor and the atmosphere was formal but also informal, was a bit weird but I liked it. Our waitress was really awesome and was just honest with us because we took some obscene amount of time deciding on what to eat and she was all like "yeah I can give you more time, our menu is rather large". No kidding, I think Joey's expression explains what it's like to open their menu for the first time...

There is just way too much choice, like to have more than one page just for sandwiches is just insane and they seem to do pretty much anything you can think of (or it felt like it at the time anyway). I managed to eat all of the burger I ordered because it was nom (and I didn't touch the chips) but the other three managed to all leave lots of leftovers so boxes and bags were had to take them home.

There was definitely no room left for cake so we randomly decided as a group to see if we could get a whole cake to take with us. Turns out it worked out like $2 more than a singular slice which is absurd. So it had to happen. We then had to agree on the same cake and it ended up being the coconut one. So yeah, we walked out of the cheesecake factory with a whole goddamn cake. Such a stupid decision but how were we to know that at the time?

Middle shelf, far right is what we got

We then decided to go into the shopping mall nearby and go into several stores.

Of course we popped into the Yankee Candle store

Lots of randomness had happened at the mall and soon after we were back in the cars and on our way to another shop which I had to be shown. Joey took my camera into Kara's car, lots of random photos were taken.

Anyway, we got to Trader Joes see...

We milled around this store for a while. I noticed signs for a little competition for kids to try and spot their mascot bear somewhere in the store. If they found him and told the checkout staff where he was the kids got a gift. On the way out we noticed it in the basket near the entrance so like a small child I excitedly pointed it out to a random staff member walking towards us. He seemed amused and told me to go collect my free gift from the checkout staff, I didn't but the situation was still amusing.

We then went to a Walmarts, no idea why but we did. Kara and Joey ended up swatting each other with fly swats which was amusing.

We then headed back to Kyle's for cake. It was all right, it had lots of coconut flavour which was appreciated and the cream was nom. Kinda felt ill about half way through eating it and we each had three slices each that we had to eat at some point. We then sat in Kyle's room to watch Paranormal Activity 3. I didn't approve of watching a horror film at night so sat at the end of the bed writing my trip diary lol. The horror film wasn't helped by the fact that on the way back we saw what we thought was a bloomin' wolf on the side of the road in the dark, that was terrifying and it was followed quickly by a sighting of a deer in the road. No idea how I managed to sleep that night but I did.

So it was a fun day and it was nice to have some rest in the morning. The next day smelt really nice, find out why soon.

 

[peep]

Tuesday 12th June

More randomness was in order for today. I think this might have been the day I tried the pop tart, it was odd but nice. The main plan for the day was to go to a very large shop, the Yankee Candle superstore village...

The place was huge. Inside it's separated into like 5 or 6 small stores. There's the main candle store (which just looks ridiculous), the kids toy shop, the market, the all year round Christmas store and the home store (like kitchen utensils and photo frames). It was amazing, I loved how it was all themed too <3 They also had this random animatronic thing in the market area which sang this uber patriotic song, was a bit terrifying. Some photos of the ridiculousness.

the market area

scary patriotic animatronics

Christmas in June!

I've always wanted a Christmas tree decoration in the form of a slice of pie

Just one tiny portion of the candle store

Soooooooo many candles

Joey found Red Velvet cake, it was amazing

Love it


We then drove around to go to a really amazing tat shop, full of ridiculous things like fridge magnets, t shirts, books and antique guns and swords. It was so American, we spent a fair bit of time in there.

Looking back I should have totally purchased this hat

I helped this old lady take a pic of her posing next to this car, she was amusing

Antique guns, because...America


We then drove over to a small outlet store like place. I don't think they were really outlet stores but that's what it looked like. Does that make sense? We went into a few stores here and at one point it really pissed it down, like two seconds in it would make you look like a drowned rat. One store we went into had lots of foodie bits to try out so clearly we went around the store to try every single one.

We then went over to Go Karts Plus so I could be the coaster goon that I am and get my cred. The place was rather dead and the weather was poor. I went up to the ticket desk and got my token for the coaster. The ride attendant seemed really nice which was odd because her day must have been uber boring. Looking back at the pic I'm now wondering why the train is already half way up the lift hill?

The inclement weather clearly made the ride even better (just joking). It was a bit embarrassing getting this cred because, well, I was the only rider, there were barely anyone else around apart from Kyle and Joey just watching me and the icing on the cake? I went round 4 times!! FOUR! Oh well +1.

Inside the parks little arcade we found a little batmobile, so Joey obviously had to sit in it.

We then went to Olive Garden for noms. Inside it was very cold which was a shock after it being so warm outside. I ordered a filled pasta dish, it was a bit over-cooked but I was hungry so actually ate some of it and then we complained at the end and so the manager was like "really sorry" and took it off the bill. Kyle had some voucher which then caused them mega confusion so we were sitting there for ages, it became a bit of a joke in the end. Turns out what Kyle ordered wasn't included in the offer or something so we all chuckled. I bet the staff really hated us by this point. We then went back into the warm and then back into the cold at a supermarket (might have been another Walmart visit, can't remember) still we faffed around a bit.

On our way back to Kyle's house we stopped off at Kara's place so we could say au revoir as she was heading out to Texas (I think?) for a conference thing. Her friend was around there too, they talked to us about dentistry things which was actually quite interesting. Obviously Joey had millions of questions for them to our amusement. For some reason they had this huge Frankenstein monster just chilling at the back, was a bit creepy. So we said our goodbyes and headed back for sleep.


Thanks for reading about our random shopping adventures, our last park trip will be written up shortly!

 

[peep]

So I kinda missed part of the story from the previous day so I shall fill that in first. The reason why I mentioned about the temperature at the restaurant and then outside was because (in my opinion) this was what made me ill. By the time we got back to Kyles I was boiling yet shivering as if I was stuck in a freezer. It was horrible and I didn't like it. This led me to not really get much sleep. When I awoke the following day I wasn't much better....

Wednesday 13th June

I was still really ill, if anything I was feeling far worse. All my muscles just felt like nothing and was generally a mess. I hate being made a fuss of and being me I was trying to just get over it because I had a park to visit. Kyle and Joey were amazing and provided me with food and drink to see if that would help. Generally just being helpful and awesome. I checked my temperature too which was dangerously high, something like 102 degrees Fahrenheit. I finally managed to get myself sorted and still feeling ridiculous we left for Kyle's friends house. This is where I was properly introduced to Lauren. She's learning to be a pharmacist and as someone who works with medical drugs clearly had a cupboard just full of the stuff to deal with everything under the sun. She provided me with something which really, really helped. It made my head stop hurting and made life a bit more bearable but then again we were going to a theme park, which was still a very bad idea.

After some faffing and playing with the two cats we made our way to the final park of the trip, Kings Dominion. We arrived and were soon in the park. I just let Lauren and Kyle lead the way and the first coaster of the day was a woodie called Grizzly. It was alright but my body felt awful any time there was some airtime, balls, this wasn't going to end well was it? Still, I could tell that it was a pretty decent coaster and I liked that it went through the woods, that was cool.

Next was Windseeker. I'd always wimped out of starflyers because they just don't look safe but there was something about this that made me feel ok about going on. There was a bit of a queue. Finally we were on, the seats were weird. It felt like it was forever going upwards and the spinning was making my head feel a little odd. Weirdly enough it wasn't until we were at the top that my brain decided to freak out about how high we were, luckily going down felt a lot quicker. Lol, so it was terrifying and I think a ride that can still do that is good. Unless it's because it looks like a death trap then it's terrifying in a different way.

Trying to get a pic of the whole ride from the queueline is pretty impossible.

We then went over to the Mack Wild Mouse, Ricochet. It's a clone of the one I'd ridden at Legoland so I was preparing for the worst (what with me being a failure when airtime happened). It was walk on and a just a meh +1 experience in the end, those drugs were clearly kicking in lol.

Next up the others were trying to prep me for the worst. Hurler (even the name makes it sound disgusting) was the next wooden coaster of the day and it was awful. I think that's all that needs to be said about it.

Next was one half of Rebel Yell. Annoyingly they were only running one side which made me sad. I was made even more sad after riding one side because it was actually pretty good. Oh wells.

I think we did the stand up Togo next, Shockwave. To be honest I was not looking forward to this in the slightest. Stand ups are bad at the best of times and I'd heard awful things about Togos. However we had Lauren with us and as a previous employee at the park who worked on the attraction she provided us with tips on how to ride and not feel awful at the end of it. The first drop and the vertical loop were actually great fun and then after the helix it has that odd up and down dips bit which is where it all goes wrong but being prepared for that it was ok. So if it ended straight after that loop things would be good but it doesn't so it's a bit meh overall.

We must have ridden the Stunt coaster next. There was a little bit of a queue and someone thought it'd be a great idea to have this extremely loud and rather camp dude a mic while working on the ride. It was funny but also rather annoying. Still we were finally sitting in the fake Mini Coopers and being launched around a rather random layout. I thought it was rather disappointing. There was clearly meant to be effects throughout the ride and I don't remember any of them working. What a random little coaster.

I think next up was the coaster I'd been waiting for ever since I saw it on a documentary shortly after becoming an enthusiast, Volcano. So, as you can expect I was rather excited about riding it. Frustratingly there was quite a queue. The queue felt like it didn't move very quickly which was weird because the capacity seemed really good and the way they dealt with bags was rather unique. Just put them on a trolley and then move it to the exit for when you get off, really unusual. Still, after our long wait we were finally on. That rolling launch was great but then inline twists happened. I was also disappointed how not a lot happened inside the volcano, actually not a lot really happened apart from the two awesome launches and the twists. Consider me a little sad by it heavily falling short of my unrealistic expectations. I was also shocked to just see the metal structural workings of the volcano theming when just sitting on the final break run.

The bobsled coaster sitting next to Volcano was now open (it was closed when we first walked past). I didn't even know the park had one so was intrigued by it as I kinda like them. This one was alright, nothing amazing. I'm surprised how short it is for the speed it picks up, it just gets faster and faster and doesn't really do anything with that speed, odd.

I think Anaconda was next. The guy that loves his own voice was back too, he sure moves about. I really liked Anaconda and I'm surprised I haven't heard of it before. It has a really unusual layout but I liked it and the dive into the lake was cool.

Then it was time for Flight of Fear. Joey was uber excited about riding this again. However there was a very long queue and it's inside a big tin shed on a hot day. Yeah, it was an awful experience. Why was there no air con in there? Everyone was pretty much dying in the heat inside that oven of a building. We were finally on though and just like Jokers Jinx it was great fun and the final element shocked me again even though I knew it was coming this time.

Once back out in the sun we realised what time it was. Time to ride the big one, Intimidator 305. I wasn't too sure what to expect from this but omfg it was awful. One of the worst coaster experiences in my opinion. Going down that huge drop into just blacking out is not what I call fun or enjoyable and how anyone can like it is beyond me. I didn't even really enjoy the rest of the layout either, it was just snappy and with those restraints just meant my neck was getting chopped up like it was dinner.

We were starting to run out of coasters to go and ride. I think we headed back towards the entrance of the park for Dominator but stopped on the way to ride Ghoster Coaster which is clearly the best thing ever, a scooby doo themed woodie, what's not to love?

Then it was time for Dominator. It's just so huge and dominating. Obviously it was a floorless because apparently if it isn't a stand up B&M it's illegal for it to have a floor. For some reason I don't really remember the actual ride experience apart from going to sit down on it. Just some epic mental block that I've had relating to this coaster since I got back. No idea why. So I'm going to say that it was alright but not amazing. Because if it was amazing surely my brain wouldn't be blocking it out?

It was then time for us to go over to the water park to meet up with Lauren's hubby, Brian. The trek over there was awful in the heat and my body was starting to reject life again. We then met Brian and one of his colleagues that I've now forgotten the name of. They were awesome. Lots of walking later and we were being taken below Intimidator 305, like, in an area guests aren't allowed. We got a lot of weird looks. Not really sure if I'm allowed to really be posting about this on here so I'm going to check and you may see some cool pics appear.

After that we were all tired and hungry so we went up the tower for a bit and then left the park. We drove to this hunting shop place thing that Joey kept going on about and as Brian is a keen hunter (they had deer heads on their wall at home, so American <3 ) he highly recommended we went. By the time we got there I was feeling a bit worse for wear again but seeing as food was on the agenda I decided to not complain and see how it goes.

OMG I have never, NEVER, seen such a highly themed shop before and on such a large scale. This place was ridiculously huge and just for hunting gear, I was impressed. I didn't take any photos of this place annoyingly but suffice to say there were animals everywhere, dead ones in natural poses. they also had a stairway behind a giant waterfall feature. It was just so impressive.

After walking around most of the store we went into the restaurant which was just as awesome. It had this giant fish tank which you could see from most of the restaurant. Food was then ordered but there was a sigh of disappointment when we were informed we couldn't order the crocodile starter. We asked why and the waitress happily informed us that there just doesn't seem to be many crocodiles being delivered which is unusual for the time of year. WTF? I didn't even know this was a thing in America. Still, Joey and I had both ordered the pulled pork sandwich. It was probably the best one on the whole trip. Just delicious.

We then left the amazing place and said goodbye to Lauren and Brian in the car park. I got some more medicine from Lauren because I don't think I would've survived the car journey without anything. Such a life saver <3

It was an interesting day and I wish I wasn't so ill so I could actually manage better conversations with Brian and Lauren because they were both amazing. I wish I could also remember Dominator lol.


Thursday 14th June

I woke up and was perfect, such a nice feeling after being so ill. I don't think we really had a plan of action as to what we should do but we ended up doing several things like chilling around the house. I took a photo of all the candles we purchased at the huge store.

We drove over to a steak and shake as it was one of the places still left on the list of places I needed to go. I love milkshakes and wow these were good milkshakes. I want one in the UK

We then ended up at a Costco where we met up with Kyle's Mom. The food section is where we headed too and we got a few samples to try which were nice. Joey found a red velvet cake the size of his face.

We also found a HUGE teddy bear.

I think we went to this small row of shops next where we had a little look in some of the random ones for some cheap bargains. Kyle and Joey ended up getting some Sonic toys. We then turned into big kids when we went to Toys'r'us. We found Marvel masks and got a little excited.

We then ended up at another shopping mall and went into a few shops there. I think we stopped back at Steak and Shake so I could get a burger to have at Kyle's. It was a nice burger. We spent the evening chilling around the house. I think this was the night we spent some time just sitting in the living room and talking to Kyle's Mom who is amazing. This was also to be my last night in America.


Friday 15th June

Had to get up at silly o clock to get the plane from the airport down the road from the house. All tired I said by goodbyes to Joey and Kyle. Major sad face. I then got on my plane, extremely sad that the trip was finally over. I shall leave my story there.


Thank you very much for reading through all of my ramblings, spelling and grammatical errors and hope you enjoyed reading it.

 

[peep]

I should also post the links to all the facebook photo albums as there were LOTS that I didn't include.

ALBUM 1
ALBUM 2
ALBUM 3
ALBUM 4
ALBUM 5
ALBUM 6
ALBUM 7
ALBUM 8