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USA East coast road trip 2019

peep

CF Legend
I was very excited for this trip, lots of interesting new places as well as returning to some favourites from my big trip in 2012. There were 5 of us on the trip, Nic, Richard, Owain, Jordan and myself.

Friday 7th
My adventure started with a bit of luxury as after years of saving up points I got to fly out in upper class with Virgin Atlantic. Very fancy. Got food and drink in the lounge beforehand including some tasty gyoza.

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The flight was great, very comfy (had a foot stall <3 ) and the staff were always passing by to see if I needed anything. The main meal came out like a proper 3 course meal in a restaurant and you could dine at your own speed. The quality of the food was outstanding, the beef in my main course just melted in the mouth, delicious. The snacks later on were also tasty and although I got excited when I read it on the menu the passion fruit eclair was not a good combination.

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Once landed we got through a pretty empty border control and met up with Owain who had already been in the States for a few days. It was then time to find out what hire car we'd have for the next 2 weeks. The cars in our category were all out bar one which was on the other side of the car park so the attendant was like "would you like a free upgrade to one of these monstrosities*?" Obviously we said yes and proceeded to load up the BEAST.

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It was absolutely massive inside. The longer we looked the more random nooks and crannies existed, fun times lay ahead. After about 40 mins of driving we arrived at our first hotel of the trip, a pretty basic red roof inn. It was then time for some sleep before the first day of cred hunting.

*My word, not hers


Saturday 8th
Best way to start an American road trip off is by having a great breakfast at iHop. Tasty tasty pancakes were had and it made me happy.

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Our first stop of the day was a mountain resort called Jiminy Peak which has a mountain coaster. I'm not really fussed about them, don't count them and would rather put that money towards something better so I just waited for the others to tick it off. The overall resort seemed nice though. Richard made Florida friends in the shop while Nic, Jordan and I giggled at the sticker on this t-shirt...

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Back on the road and we made our way to our first proper cred of the trip in the tiny little park in Albany, Roller coaster at Huck Finn's Playland. The park was a bit odd, more like a permanant fun fair. Felt a little dated but it seemed to be very popular with local families.

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The coaster isn't too much to write about either, just a little kids coaster and it'd be the first of many of this type on the trip.

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Back on the road a little while later we made it to our first proper park, Great Escape. The car park was rammed and it took us a while to find a spot which was worrying but fear not as most were there for the water park - not surprised either as it was boiling out. Getting a Six Flags pass processed now is weird but also quite effecicent, you just get given it at the gate and when scanned they just take your photo right there.

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It's interesting seeing the old Arrow loopscrew sitting basically on the edge of the park as you cross the bridge. Sadly for us it was also looking pretty closed.

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With the arrow looking closed the first thing we headed to was the parks Boomerang, just to get it out of the way. Pretty standard Boomerang experience.

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The park was unusual for a Six Flags, it was a pretty nice setting with some really old fairytale themed pieces here and there. I later learnt in the shop that it was a thing before the rest of the park which is interesting, how Efteling.

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Next up was Canyon Blaster, an old school arrow mine train. I usually don't like these, they don't really get up to much despite the room they take up in the park. This one wasn't that different and it wasn't great on corners.

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This coaster was situated in a fairly dilapidated Western themed area which felt like it needed some love. It did have a log flume though so we queued up for that as it was there, Nic decided find some shade somewhere instead. After a bit of a queue we decided to all hop into one boat, we were too heavy for this! The boat kinda slammed down in the station, caused a small wave of water to hit Rich who made a noise. The ride ops looked concerned so I hopped out. Apparently the ride goes through a shed which used to have a cred.

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As we were near the entrance for it we went to see if Steamin' Demon was looking like it'd open at all and we noticed people in the station! Then we saw it test and then the engineers leave. Ooo, was looking good so we stuck around for about 15-20 mins and ended up being on the first train of the day. It was actually ok apart from the corkscrew being a bit jolty.

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Side note: Each attraction, shop and food stall had the map numbers on them

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We didn't ride it but the Falcon ride next to it looked cool (I've only ever ridden the one at Gardaland and it was alright).

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We'd heard some random guests nearby saying how the bobseld coaster wasn't open which was the news I didn't want to hear. Luckily it was where we were headed next and I may have been a tad excited to get to it. Hearing it roar on our approach made me happy. Intamin bob time!!!!

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This actually had quite a long queue as station operations were dreadful. I was just excited to ride it though. During our wait we were all reminiscing about our favourite experiences with Bob at Efteling and how sad we'll be when it closes in September, such a shame there's not many of these around.

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This one was just brilliant fun, utter chaos and hilarity ensued throughout. The jolt into the brakes at the end was brutal but it just added to the amusement of it all. Urgh, if it didn't have a queue we totally would have gone round again, such good fun.

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It was then time for the parks old woodie stuck behind the water park. The layout of this park is just bizarre. Well not usually being a fan of older wooden coasters I wasn't looking forward to this but it turned out to be pretty fun, the double down was great and there were plenty of little pops of air time.

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After that we attempted to ride the kids coaster, Frankies Mine Train but the ride op was having none of it, probably not helped by the several senior team members nearby. Oh well, always worth a try.

It was then time to pop by the shops, Rich and Jordan to mop up some inivisible monsters and head off for some food. We ended up at a Texas Roadhouse which was pretty good. The waitress seemed to be on the ball, the food was ok and Richard enjoyed throwing peanut shells on the floor.

Our hotel for the evening was pretty average but outside had swarms of mosquitos which was annoying. It was a great first day though, nothing too exciting aside from the Intamin bob and woodie but we had fun.


Thanks for reading, hopefully I'll get the next part up tomorrow.
 

Hixee

Flojector
Staff member
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Good job on the Bobsled, I think that was reasonably spiteful last year! At least, it was for us on our trip...

Great Escape was a shame, really. It's a lovely park, but it's got a depressing selection of creds. When the old woodie is the best ride in the park (of 6 creds) you know you're missing a thing or two.
 

peep

CF Legend
Great Escape was a shame, really. It's a lovely park, but it's got a depressing selection of creds. When the old woodie is the best ride in the park (of 6 creds) you know you're missing a thing or two.

Yeah, with a bit of decent investment it could be one of the better parks in the chain. Not really sure how they'd go about starting to fix it though.


Sunday 9th

It was time for us to pop over the border to Canada. With a fairly early start we grabbed a quick hotel breakfast and headed North for La Ronde. It was the same day at the F1 Canadian grand Prix which takes place on the same island in Montreal. We were expecting it to be crazy busy with lots of traffic crossing the border and getting to the park. Nope, we sailed through with ease which meant we got to the park fairly early.

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It was quite exciting being on the bridge and just seeing a mass of creds in a big city.

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Due to getting there early we were able to get into the park early and get to the rope drop. We tried to plan a sensible itinery to get round the park efficiently so we could leave before the F1 crowds finish. It was interesting hearing the noise from some of the smaller races going on while we waited. First stop was the Zamperla mouse coaster, Torboggan Nordique. Annoyingly it didn't open with the park and it took (what felt like) ages before they started testing. At least we were near the front of an ever-growing queue.

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Finally open about 10-20 minutes later and operations were slow and painful but we finally got on and ticked it off.

Not wasting any time it was over to the duelling wooden coasters, le Monstre.

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First up was the red side which was awful, just shuddered around every turn and just generally unpleasant. The layout itself was interesting it just rode poorly. The yellow side was better, it still shuddered around in an unpleasant manner but it had a few moments which were pretty good.

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We then headed to the back of the park for the park's B&M hyper, Goliath. This was walk on which was nice. The ride itself was ok, one of the weaker hypers around but there was still some nice floater air time.

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We then headed round to Dragon, a ride that none of us really knew anything about. It had quite a long queue which was a bit burdenous but at least most of the queue was in the shade. The coaster turned out to be a weird Intamin family coaster which was super smooth but didn't really do a lot. I don't remember there being much in the way of theming throughout the ride either.

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Next up was Ednor, an SLC which has a really cool entrance and has a nice setting over the water. However this rode horribly, one of the worst I've ridden.

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Having ticked off the back end of the park it was back to the front for some more joyous coasters. First up was an Arrow corkscrew which ended up being pretty smooth. The queueline also had some benches made out of old log flume boats.

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Next door was Le Boomerang.

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While we were waiting the fly-over from the air force for the F1 race happened, it was crazy loud but pretty cool. The ride then broke down on the spike so riders were stuck up there basking in the sun for ages while we all waited for a mechanic to turn up to switch it on and off. Back up and running and after a test run we were soon on. This was one of the more brutal boomerangs I've experienced. What have we learned? La Ronde can't look after their Vekomas very well.

The park has a really unusual coaster called Marche du Mille-pattes, an Arrow mine train that poses as a little kids coaster. It had a bit of a queue and on the main signage board we couldn't see anything about adults not being able to ride so we waited in line. We did have an inkling that we wouldn't get on without kids though and sure enough the ride op was having none of it. Pretty annoying. Once we left the station we did notice a sign above the queueline about needing kids but it wasn't in a place you'd look? Seemed a little silly.

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It was then over to the last coaster of the day, Le Vampire, a B&M Batman clone. Upon entering the queue I heard a loud reaction from Richard (nothing unusual there) who claimed he got attacked by a bird. Pah! Yeah right, proceeded onwards and then the lil' cretin swooped down and attacked me. The red winged blackbird was clearly protecting a nest but yeesh it was violent. Moved on very quickly after that.

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The ride is as you'd expect if you've already ridden one of these clones, really forceful - especially on the legs. I'm not a massive fan of them despite loving other intense inverts.

After that Richard had a rant at guest services about the kids cred to no avail and we headed back to the States. At the border the guy asked us why we were only in Canada for a short period. We then had a little chat about theme parks and he told us about this park in Ohio, I think he said it was called Cedar Point? He told us his favourite coaster there was Millenium Force and Nic just blurted out "WRONG!" to our amusement. It was a little awkward after that and we quickly made haste once he let us go.

Our day wasn't quite over yet though, as we had made good time at La Ronde we were able to pop into the Ben & Jerrys factory! We were able to just rock up and just about get into the last tour of the day. All the staff there were lovely and when one guy heard Richard moaning about how the UK no longer has Cherry Garcia (his favourite and fun fact - also one of the top American choices) he gave Richard a card to someone who might hear Richard out and correct this wrong-doing by the company.

The tour was short but sweet, in that it ended in the original flavour making room and we got some free ice cream. We threw some money at merch, cried that we missed the scoop shop and then went to their flavour graveyard to check out some of their ex-flavours.

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Day Trip made.

We then headed onwards for food. We ended up at an Applebees which was fine, I think most of us got fajitas which was great. The lady sitting on the table next to us was really loud though, felt like we were all part of her conversation.

Our hotel for the evening was in this really old school town that had a very Main Street USA vibe. The hotel was a bit old and creaky and had a fair bit of history to it (it burned down twice) but was pleasant.

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Thanks for reading! Hopefully I'll get the next part up a bit quicker.
 

peep

CF Legend
Monday 10th

Our day started with a coffee from the local cafe where the staff seemed a little scatty but were wonderful and welcoming. The whole place had a cute small town vibe where most people know each other. Nice way to start the day. It was then into the car and on to Canobie Lake for the first park of the day.

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The park entrance was nice. Place was swarming with school trips though. Urgh. I was getting a kick out of the very rct-themed food outlets..

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We headed round to the Gerst Eurofighter first thinking the capacity on that will be the worst. The theming around it is neat, loved all the carved wooden bears.

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Fab theming and a fine rage clone. Next up was the old woodie, Yankee Cannonball. This had a burdenous queue but we got to see a magic/science show doing a rehearsal.

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The ride is actually quite fun and was very smooth for its age. Always shocked when I like an older woodie.

Next was the Arrow corkscrew which had quite a nice setting, very green. The ride was a bit brutal on the neck but otherwise fine.

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The last coaster the park had to offer was Dragon, a pretty standard +1.

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We then split to grab a snack before moving on to the next place. I've recently found out the park has a weird dark ride and I'm mortified that we missed it (apparently its tucked away in a corner of the park by itself?). OH well.

I actually quite liked this park, the setting is really nice and I think having the hordes of kids around gave it quite a nice atmosphere.

Anyway, onwards to Quassy! This park spited us in 2012 so was pretty excited to finally get to experience Wooden Warrior. We arrived about an hour before the park closed so the main entrance and booths were closed but a quick pop into the guest relations building and we were sorted with some tokens.

Wooden Warrior is such a great little coaster, really fun and has a great speed throughout.

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The other coaster in the park is an old Alan Herschell coaster. It's small but it really yanks you over the little hills which is kinda terrifying.

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Quassy is a weird little park, didn't get much of an impression outside of what we did but it didn't look like there was a lot there. Wooden Warrior is certainly worth checking out if you're in the area though. Back in the car again with the weather still looking like its about to go very bad. We were soon at Lake Compounce though but the sat nav led us to staff/priority parking and its a long drive around to the proper car park entrance (a real faff!). I was really intrigued to see if my opinion of the place would change since last time though, the school trips seemed to be gearing up to leave by the time we arrived so at least we didn't have to worry about queues.

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We went straight to the back for Boulder Dash. I thought this was pretty bland and not worth any hype in 2012, I enjoyed it more than then but I found the corners and some of the drops a bit rough. The speed it is able to keep up throughout the layout is quite impressive though.

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The only new coaster since our last visit was Phobia which decided it wasn't going to open that day, wasn't even a car on the track. Pretty annoying as I do like these Premier skyrockets. Phobia: Fear of coaster spite.

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Next was Zoomerang which Rich and I skipped.

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Found some fascinating trivia...

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Comet had been re-tracked and got new trains since 2012 so that was next on the agenda. It was so rough, kinda funny but I wouldn't do it again.

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I think it was at this point where it started to rain which was fine seeing as we'd ticked off all the coasters. We decided to trek back up the hill towards Boulder Dash but do the Haunted House. This was so much better than I remember it being? It goes on for ages and just has loads going on throughout. There's even a very Disney-ish song at one point which I thought was cute.

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Most of us then went back on to Boulder Dash hoping it'd ride better in the rain. The heavens proper opened just before we got on, the rain was extremely heavy so we were gonna get soaked. Wow, the rain really made a difference to the ride! Just a really fun experience. Did it make it as good as people usually make out? No way but it was certainly a far better experience than before and was a good note to close on.

With the heavy rain though it did mean ducking under any shelter we came across as we tried to exit the park. Overall the park was fine, probably on par with how I remember it.

Our hotel for the evening was peculiar, just cabinets everywhere of random collectable tat and the breakfast room had a 50s diner theme which felt like a complete contrast to everything else in the hotel. Just a weird and wonderful place. Unfortunately my bed was busted so I had a terrible night of sleep, not great.

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Thanks for reading!
 

peep

CF Legend
Tuesday 11th

After an average breakfast at the hotel we hopped in the car and headed off to Six Flags New England. In attempt to beat the crowds (yet more school trips) we headed to the GIB. Frustratingly it was closed but the ride host at the entrance seemed to suggest it would be open by lunch. So after Richard and I approving of an ice cream shop slogan we moved on to something that was actually open.

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The parks spinning coaster, Pandemonium, had a little wait but staff were being fairly effecient. I think it has a fun layout but we didn't achieve that much spin.

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The others did the Boomerang which didn't sound too pleasant.

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It was then time for the RMC, Wicked Cyclone. There was locker faff for this which was annoying. It was weird seeing the void of where the S&S skyswat used to live, surprised they didn't make more use of the space (I think most of it is now the queue for the sky screamer).

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Sat at the back for the first ride which was really fun if a bit painful due to the restraints. We then rode at the front which I didn't rate as highly. It's certainly not the greatest RMC out there but it's fun, I prefer the second half when it starts darting about a bit more. Thinking back now we probably should have given it another chance later in the day, oh well.

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The others then rode the little kids coaster and then the old woodie, Thunderbolt.

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It was then time for Superman which was almost walk on. I really liked this in 2012 so was hoping it at least lived up to that. Aside from the restraints causing a lot of pain it was still lots of fun with plenty of insane ejector. Good times.

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There was a new building next to it themed to STAR labs from DC Comics but I wasn't sure what was inside. I asked the very jolly lady at the entrance who was quite enthusiastic about us going in to go on the ride. Turned out to be a spin an spew so we avoided that. The others then had a quick ride on Catwoman's whip.

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We then split for a short snack break. I think I ended up getting a pizza slice that came with a batch of sad fries. At least the pizza was alright. We caught wind that some school groups were already getting ready to go which seemed very early.

After our snack break Richard and I laughed as the others went off to ride the SLC. The Joker, like the GIB had been closed since park opening but interesingtly enough it had started testing now that one of the schools were leaving.

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Everyone was off the SLC just as the Joker was opening up, fantastic! I was looking forward to this as it was my first of these but I'm also weird and love the Intamin ones. There was a lady controlling the queue split but she must have never worked at this attraction because although splitting the queue into two was her job she was oblivious to this fact. So she was sending everyone down the same line while everyone stares at her like "WTF are you doing?" then over the speaker the ride op tells her to send peeps down the other way too. She somehow didn't grasp this concept so a team leader literally had to come over and show her what to do.

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This actually worked in our favour a little bit as we were closer to the front on the other side. I absolutely loved this ride, there was just the right amount of crazy flipping and some decent air time too.

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Then next up was The Dark Knight which didn't really have a queue. It's fun but a little forceless, a bit of a paint-by-numbers B&M.

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I have to say I quite like the DC side of SFNE, there's a lot going on with some decent rides. I shall point out that the small mouse coaster, Gotham City Gauntlet Escape from Arkham Asylum, was closed all day. Spite. For us it was time to head back over to the now open GIB! YAY!

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I had heard a lot of horror stories about how the new trains have ruined this one but I shouldn't have been worried, it's still traumatising in all the right ways. The only negative from the new trains was how much it dug in from the forces on the reverse journey.

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GIB <3

We were going to check out the mad house but it was closed! Boo!

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So we decided to call it a day at SFNE, ran around the shops and then got back in the car for more adventures.

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You know how hotels all have those racks of leaflets for local attractions? Well we always have a look in case of random looking things to do if we have time. I just so happened to spot one with a discount for the Pez visitor center which just happened to be on our route to the next hotel. I think it cost us $4 to get in with the voucher but it also got us $2.50 discount in the shop each. I don't think any of us had any expectations for this place but we ended up having a great time. There was a little game where you had a sheet with zoomed in images of random pez dispensers that could be found and you had to write down the correct names for each of them. If you got them all correct you won a free pez dispenser!

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We all got a free pez dispenser!

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We then clubbed our voucher monies together to get all of the pez! It was a very fun and random last minute de-tour. We then had an evening meal at a bdubs (Buffalo Wild Wings) which was fun, our table was just full of food...

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It was a good day despite the tiredness setting in. I liked Six Flags New England, I think it has a good selection of rides and has some nice areas.

Thanks for reading!
 

witchfinder

Hyper Poster
Nice report so far - you've been to the parks I did on my 2017 US trip (Great Escape, Canobie and SFNE) so nice to see opinions on those, which generally seem to be pretty similar to mine. Looks like you had much better weather though! ;)
 

peep

CF Legend
Wednesday 12th

After a good nights sleep it was off to Playland Park for our first coasters of the day. We managed to get there just before opening, along with a school group. The initial rush to get in when they opened was a little chaotic.

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First ride of the day was obviously going to be the old (1929) wooden Dragon coaster. There was a fair wait for this and it was mainly in the blazing sun which was a lil gross. The ride itself was actually pretty fun, so much longer than I was expecting it to be and even though it had a vibration to it it wasn't rough. Nice.

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Next up was the Zamperla Crazy Mouse. It was pretty smooth and I was amused by the themed cars.

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Next to the mouse was an awful looking haunted house which we decided to check out. It was dreadful but in an amusing way.

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Owain, Richard and Jordan did the other haunted house because of course there was a second one? The next coaster was a standard little +1 but it sat next to a smaller version of that contraption at the top of the tower in Vegas...

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Some kids rode it as we were on the kiddy cred, it looked a bit depressing.

The final coaster the park had to offer was a lovely Volare. No storage facilities available and no bags allowed in the station area we had to do as all the kids were and leaving our stuff in the empty part of the queue. Hmm, bit dodge, certainly not a fan of this. The ride itself was actually great, I love the inline twists on it and there wasn't that much in the way of head bashing on the corners.

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We decided to check out the random boat dark ride before we left. Richard kept rocking the boat which made most of the journey round absolutely terrifying. It was surprisingly long but the scenes had long boring tunnels of nothing in between. I suppose it was quite nice to have something original and different in a little park like this.

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It was then time for us to leave. It's a weird little park, quite run down in places but it feels like they really look after the Dragon coaster.

En route to our next park we stopped off at a McDonalds for a quick snack break. I got a stroopwaffle McFlurry and it was pretty good.

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A bit longer on the road and we found ourselves at Dorney Park. I remember thinking this was an ok park back in 2012 so it'd be interesting to see if I felt the same way since they've added nothing since. I think Richard had to run back to the car for something so we sent the rest into the queue for the maurer mouse coaster.

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Once they were off we popped into the small queue for Talon. I remember liking this and despite the first half having quite a rattle it was fun and quite forceful at times.

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It was then time to head into the Peanuts area for the group to get their Woodstock cred. There was a little interactive dance thing going on with characters and they played Cha cha slide which Jordan joined in with. Such a child :p

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It was then time for Hydra. So glad this was as good as I remembered, such a unique layout but it is all about that jojo roll out of the station.

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Next up was Demon Drop. Intamin 1st gen drop towers <3

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The old woodie, Thunderhawk was next up. I don't really remember it from the previous visit and tbh this visit it didn't leave too much of an impression either.

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Steel Demon was next. Personally not really a fan of Arrow and Morgan hypers but I will admit there's some nice air time on the smaller hills in the second half and the speed through the helix was pretty ridiculous.

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Possessed was the final coaster on offer, I love Intamin impulse coasters, just ridiculous things.

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Owain and I went back to Demon Drop for some more terror. Upon exiting we found the rest of the group in a nearby shop where Jordan was having issues with some broken members of staff. If I recall correctly his purchase went through as a higher amount than the item was worth. Instead of trying to refund him before charging the correct amount he was trying to just charge him again. There was so much faff involved to sort out a very simple problem.

We decided to go back on Hydra and Talon before leaving. Both were still great second time round, Talon being even more intense at the back.

It was then time to leave Dorney, it's an ok park with some really unique B&Ms among a decent ride lineup. Seems weird they don't like to really invest in new things though.

For dinner we found a Ruby Tuesday. I've only been to one once and that was back in 2000 so I didn't really know what to expect. I don't know if this is chain-wide but this was a bit sketchy? The plastic table covers were random. The food portion sizes were great but overall I wasn't too impressed. They did do a really tasty Mango Lemonade though.

It was then an hour in the car to the hotel after another good day.

Thanks for reading!
 

peep

CF Legend
Thursday 13th

Today was a mainly culture based day, I didn't get too involved in the planning so wasn't really sure what to expect but it turned out a day walking around Philadelphia is great. Before going to Independance Hall Owain took us on a random route via some places of interest. First was "Elfreth's alley" which is just a well preserved old street that people still live in but half of it is awkwardly like a museum? The road was cobbled which seems very rare for the States.

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Then we saw but didn't go into the Betsy Ross house who is apparently the first person to make an American flag with stars and stripes. Seemed a little bit of a stretch to make this a "thing"?

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We came across quite a cool statue of Franklin...

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Slightly scared of whatever the hell was happening in the windows of this somewhat abandoned looking place...

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Unfortunately the next few tours of Independance hall were booked up so we had a few hours until the one we could get in. So we continued the fairly made up tour. The next place of interest was City Hall which was quite a cool, elaborate building with a pretty tall tower.

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We continued on to Logan Square which has a bunch of cool looking museum buildings. We stepped inside the Cathedral for a moment. I think this might be the first ornate cathedral I've stepped in and thought "this feels really new?".

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This was a lot of walking so we had worked up quite the appetite by this point. We ended up walking back most of the way to the convention center which has the Reading Terminal Market underneath. This place was amazing, so much great looking food everywhere. Nic had looked up where did the best cheesesteak seeing as thats a Philly thing. We ended up at Down Home Diner where we had some pretty tasty cheesesteaks and fries. Richard and I picked up some incredible sweet snacks from the Termini Brothers Bakery which is essentially next door. Highly recommend checking out this food market if you're in town. I want to go back.

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It was then time for our tour of Independance Hall. It was quite a large group and the tour started with us all sitting in a room and our intimidating guide asking each individual where they're from. Quite amusing when she reached us and we answered "England" "Wales". It didn't take long for everyone to realise the guide is very passionate about American history, especially independance from England.

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The tour was quite interesting and informative although I may have just had the Hamilton soundtrack whirling in my head a lot of the time. We then joined the long queue to get into the building that houses the liberty bell. Considering the line to get in it felt quite empty inside which was nice. It's not a big thing, lots of information about the bell, how it was made and attempts to repair it etc and then just the bell. Some people were taking their photo in front of the bell and a natural queue formed behind them so we could all get good pics of the bell. Just as I was taking mine the stupid security guard told everyone there was no need for a queue. I think Nic might have been the last person in the area to get a person-free photo of it.

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All filled with food and knowledge and exhausted from the walking it was time to get back in the car and track down some creds!

First place was a large arcade center called FunPlex. We walked inside and decided to find the coaster first before buying any tokens. They were oddly playing Toy by Netta, might be the first time I've heard a Eurovision hit being played in the States? Anyway we finally found the coaster but all outside rides were closed. SPITE.

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Sadplex

Next on the agenda was Sesame Place. I was a little excited for this place despite its grotesque entry fee. The weather was starting to look dodgy and it was pretty late in the day (maybe an hour before they closed?) so we rushed over from the car park in the hope that we could still get the two creds.

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No need to panic! All was fine and we headed straight round to Oscar's Wacky Taxi.

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What a brilliant little coaster! It's so fast throughout and just fantastic fun. More rides were needed but we hopped over to Vapor Trail to tick that off.

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Vapor Trail is a Vekoma Junior coaster with a unique layout, just all helixes, all the time. Strange coaster, a simple +1 in the grand scheme of things.

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A tiny look around the rest of the park and we went back on Wacky Taxi for another 3 incredible rides. At one point Richard's restraint was being naughty, everyone can see a screen which shows which restraint is/isn't locked and Richard's one kept turning on and off. It would be fine and then as soon as the staff member stepped away it'd go off again. Probably not the greatest thing to really be happening but the sheer ridiculousness of the situation was very funny. The ride itself just kept getting better, it was incredible at the back, just absolutely kicking it around the track and flinging you everywhere.

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So glad we popped by, Wacky Taxi was more than worthwhile. The rest of the park is extremely lacking in things to do. I know we're not the target market but I've never seen a "major" theme park with the entry price it was asking for with so few things to do. Bizarre place.

On the road for a little bit and we stopped at a Bahama Breeze for dinner. Never been to one before and I ended up really enjoying it, certainly something I'd go back to. The food was great and we had some tasty cocktails too.

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It was then onwards to the next hotel to get some rest for a pretty big day.


Thanks for reading!
 

peep

CF Legend
Hang on, you went to Philly but didn't go for a run up the steps of the Art Museum? Pop Culture fail! ?

Ah yeah I didn't mention those, we saw them... from a distance. We were on a tight deadline and I honestly don't care for Rocky so wasn't fussed we had to skip.


OMG so I forgot to mention that this was also the night we stayed in a sketchy motel near an air base. As we were chilling everyone's phone got a tornado warning! We looked outside and the rain was so hard the car park looked like it was flooding. It was fine though, I think it was just a heavy storm that quickly passed through.


Friday 14th

We were staying in the middle of nowhere really so finding a good place for breakfast was tricky. We ended up at this tiny ice cream parlor which had a bit of an old school charm to it. The lady running it was very friendly and did seem a bit shocked/baffled by having a bunch of Brits turn up. Food was good I think?

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It was then off to Six Flags Great Adventure. I liked this park last time so was excited to return, we were also meeting up with fellow enthusiast Khalid who was doing his own road trip. Getting in was a faff as we arrived just before opening along with a few bus loads of people so security queues were gross. Still we got in not too long after opening and we headed straight round to B&M corner #1.

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We timed this well as the queue for Green Latern wasn't too bad when we joined which was great because loading was a faff - as is usually the case with stand ups I suppose. I thought it was ok, really intense on the legs through most of it.

I wasn't looking forward to going back on Superman, I just loathe pretzel loops on flyers. The rest of the ride is fine though and does have quite a floaty flying about sensation which is good.

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We did a bit of back and forth for the next few rides for a specific reason I'll get to in a bit. So next was the old Arrow mine train which has a really unusual layout. It's not very good but it did have a few surprise drop moments.

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We then dropped our bags off at the lockers by El Toro as Kingda Ka hadn't opened yet. Just as we put our stuff away we noticed Ka had opened so we walked quickly down the pathway alongside the animal enclosures to get to Ka. For reasons some of us still had phones in zipped pockets but the staff at the entrance to Ka were being VERY strict about no loose articles being in any sealed pockets etc. Urgh so we had more locker faff before we could finally join the queue.

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The queue wasn't ridiculous so I think most of us waited for front. The ride is ridiculous, felt like the wind was melting my face off on the launch, so good! It was also Nic's 1000th coaster! *throws confetti in the air*

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We then checked out the drop towers added to the Ka structure. The view from the ride is lovely but the drop isn't very intense. It was then back round to El Toro. I had a much better experience on this compared to last time, the speed throughout is brilliant.

There was some minor drama happening in the station as we got off. Someone managed to ride with their phone still in their pocket. Station staff member notices and starts having a go at them and asking them to wait for security to turn up. They managed to sneak away through the mass amount of people exiting the ride. Ops at the park were actually ok but they were really strict when it came to loose articles, was surprising. Maybe if lockers were free people wouldn't be trying to sneak their one item on ride ;)

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It was then time for the lonesome B&M at the back, Bizarro. It's ok, a little intense in places but not the best floorless around. Entering the ride area underneath the giant cobra roll is cool.

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We then walked over to The Joker. Another S&S 4D spin, was very happy to already be riding another of these. On our way over there was a puddle in the middle of the path with some baby geese playing in it with the parents guarding them. We didn't want to anger the parents so we tried out best to avoid, didn't want another angry bird incident.

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The Joker was awesome, Khalid and I got some incredible spins.

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Most of the group then did the Tivoli next to it.

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It was then time for food. None of us could really make a decision but we finally semi-split up and got food from various stalls in a food courty area. Richard and I had been eyeing up some Dippin Dots and we decided today was finally the day for them. We ended up being a bit eager and getting large sundaes which were a bit much and not as satisfying as we'd hoped.

Now full we decided to tick off the random indoor family coaster, Skull Mountain. It's fun for what it is.

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The others then ticked off the little kids cred...

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More indoor ride times were had next with Dark Knight. A Mack mouse in a shed. There's a pre-show so the door was closed but with no staff member or sign outside to explain it led to lots of confused people thinking it was closed. Richard ended up going over and opening the door mid-show. Whoops. I actually really love the theming on this ride, the pre-show is actually a neat tie-in to the best Batman film, the cars have cool theming and the ride actually has some substantial sets and effects.

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More Batman was next for the group but this time just a B&M invert clone that sits in B&M corner #3.

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It was then time for the fifth and final B&M of the day, Nitro. Richard and I both had incredible experiences on this ride in 2012 so had fallen victim to hyping it up all day. Sorry guys, I think we jinxed it. It just felt soooo slow, absolutely nothing like we remember. I felt backstabbed, was so looking forward to re-riding what I claimed to be one of the best hypers around. Burdenous.

Coasters ticked off we checked out the rest of what was basically a new DC area. First was Cyborg, I honestly thought I'd never see/ride one of these so was scared/excited to give it a go. It was actually quite fun, a bit slow so lots of just forcefully leaning into restraints for far too long but I liked it.

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Then we did the Justice League dark ride. This felt a lot better than the one at Magic Mountain, having the cool Cyborg animatronic in the queue rather than a pre-show fits much better. Fire! Fire effects are always good. The last two main 3D screens still don't work for me, I think the teams in charge bit off a bit more than they could chew.

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Then it was Wonder Woman's Lasso of truth which apparently opened a day or two before we visited. The staff running it were on fire, each unload/load was like a military drill - efficiency <3 Unfortunately when it was finally our time to ride we sat on it and it broke! Mechanics were over in a few minutes, fiddled with a seat and then gave them the ok to re-open.

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The ride was fun, there were some strong forces at the bottom of the swings. Being able to see rides like Kingda Ka upside down was a bit surreal.

I really wanted to do the Mad house next so that's what we queued up for. I think the ride temp broke down while we were waiting outside. After a while we were finally let into the pre-show room which is where we met our new friend. There was a gentleman who clearly needed a carer but they didn't exist in this room. He just happened to keep on selecting us lot for whatever it was he was up to (I mean, somehow he singled myself, Richard and Jordan out of 40-odd peeps). We're talking grabbing arms, screaming in our faces etc and I think at one point he pushed Jordan? The room was really hot, the pre-show wasn't starting up and we had someone harrassing us for about 5 minutes. Tensions were getting high. Finally the clearly swamped staff member running it had to come in and let us know the ride was now completely bust for some time so we all had to leave. We didn't even care at this point we just didn't want to be trapped in the same room as him any more. Outside sitting on a bench was clearly his carer/relative(s). Urgh. Well I suppose we entered a "house" and got "mad".

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Well after that nonsense we decided to have one more go on El Toro and Kingda Ka. El Toro I sat closer to the front and it was incredible, the air time was great and it felt like we were getting thrown around a lot.

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Kingda Ka, Khalid and I managed to get second row and it was just wonderful. The sun was setting and it was just a brilliant experience. What an incredible way to end the day.

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We then faffed about a bit, looked around the disappointing shops and said goodbye to Khalid. Despite the afternoon drama it was a brilliant day with some great rides.

We found a Longhorn Steakhouse for dinner en route to the hotel. It was good but the waitress was a bit dim and I'm not sure she approved of us lot. Well, Richard. He asked if they did milkshakes, she said "kinda". He basically got a slushy, she didn't like being informed that there's a difference between a milkshake and a slushy. He didn't mind the drink it's just a really basic thing to know?

Always making friends wherever we go. :)


Thanks for reading!
 

peep

CF Legend
Saturday 15th

The plan for this day was ridiculous, we all knew it. You know how the Jersey Shore just has a cluster of little parks/piers? The plan was to mop up the whole lot in a single day. 9 parks, 21 coasters. So buckle up buckaroos for a ridiculous cred run!

It was a 2 hour drive to our first park, iPlay, a decent sized arcade center that caters to birthday parties. There was some sort of event at a place in the area so the car park was being strictly controlled for the businesses on the property. (It was crazy busy) Once inside we got a card loaded up with enough tickets for all of us to do the coaster. Our first SBF spinner of the day, yay!

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One of the pass scans didn't trigger so we used the random credit to play on some arcade machines! It was then back on the road for another 90 minutes to get to the second park, Storybook Land. It was a gross amount of money to get in for a measly +1 - $30!. Nic and I decided to not bother so we waited it the car with the AC on while the other 3 grabbed the cred. It looks like a nice little park but for what it is the price to get in is just not worth it.

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Third destination was Morey's Pier which took about an hour to get to. The town had some sort of parade going on so finding a car parking spot was hard! The seafront was huge and felt like it went on forever.

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The rides are split out on to 3 piers. First one we reached was the middle one, Mariner's Pier. Our first coaster was our second SBF spinner of the day.

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Then the pier's boomerang.

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Rollies coaster was next, a Pinfari Zyklon.

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I liked the look of the big themed shipwreck with rides going through it. Unfortauntely no time to waste to look more into it.

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Mariner's Pier ticked off we went over to Adventure Pier which is home to Great White, a CCI woodie. It starts off by diving under the pier structure which is very cool. The ride itself was a bit forgetful after that.

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It was then a long walk in the Sun over to Surfside pier. We started with Doo Wopper, a Zamperla wild mouse. It was fairly smooth and I liked the theming it had dotted around.

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Behind that was the Great Nor'Easter, a Vekoma SLC a sign claimed they spent a fortune on to make it smoother. Yeah we'll see about that!

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Oh my! Money well spent!! It was sooo smooth and the restraints were comfortable. I don't know how they did it but they need to let every other SLC owner know their secret. I also love the way they built a log flume around it, it looks so ridiculous.

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Thanks Morey's Piers you were alright.

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It was then back into the car for a 45 min drive up to Ocean City for Playland's Castaway Cove. I was excited for the contraptions of weirdness. First up, another SBG spinner!

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Then it was time for Wild Waves, a very custom E&F Miller family coaster that dances around GaleForce. This thing looks so weird but the air time is mental, proper ejector with headchoppers aplenty.

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It had a small breakdown as we were walking over to the park

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GaleForce was next, this mental looking S&S contraption looked ridiculous and it costs a small fortune per ride and we were excited/scared!

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If it didn't cost so much to ride we would have 100% gone round for more, this thing is absolutely brilliant. Everything about it just feels weird but in a way that just works. The way it flips over the top-hat-esque elements is wonderful.

The park's 4th coaster is a baby E&F Miller, Pirates gold rush. Trying to find the entrance was a tad tricky, the park is so crammed with everything. I have to give them credit for managing to cram so much into the space they have.

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A 10 minute walk down the coast was Gillians Wonderland. One of the sketchier looking places we visisted. It is home to Wacky worm from a company called Fajume (based in El Salvador - we found this to be fascinating trivia).

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I grabbed a bucket of curly fries and we were back in the car and off to the next pier about 30 minutes up the road in Atlantic City. I've always wanted to see this place seeing as it's so heavily talked about it sitcoms etc. It's a bit sad looking. Steel Pier is home to 2 coasters. The Reverchon spinner spited - boo! But we were able to ride the Loco Motion (starts singing that classic Kylie track).

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It was getting late already and we still had 3 places to go! The next place was Blackbeard's Cave which took about an hour to get to. It was busy inside, looked like a cool BBQ place having a great party but outside where the rides lived was all unlit and closed-looking. So we gave up on that and just kept on driving. Another 20 minutes later we arrived at Casino Pier. This was a lot more alive. It actually had a nice atmosphere. It was starting to drizzle so we went straight for the Gerst Eurofighter, Hydrus.

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The ride has a great lighting package, glad we were here at night, everything looked fantastic but seeing the lights chasing the car around the track was cool. The cars had lap bars and it was a super smooth experience, nice!

Next was Pirates Hideaway. The theming on the outside was cool but the ride looked weird, it's a custom coaster from Wisdom rides? They seem to mainly make little kids coasters like go gators and miner mikes so this seemed a little ambitious on their part. Well, they certainly bit off more than they can chew, it was such a strange ride experience.

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The final coaster the place had to offer was Hot Tamales, a little +1. Well Casino Pier seemed like a cool place to hang out but it was getting super late and we still had one more place to go!

A further 25 mins up the road is Jenkinson's boardwalk. It was surprisingly busy for the time of night. First up was a newer larger model SBF spinner. It vibrated quite a lot and I don't think we span too much. I think it tried to break Nic's back at one point.

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The last coaster of the day was Tornado, a Zamperla powered coaster.

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What a ridiculous day. Only spited by 2 coasters plus a new one on Morey's Piers which wasn't ready yet. We were exhausted and hungry and after another 20 minute drive we found an iHop just before it closed for a very late dinner. It was still another 90 minutes drive till we got to our hotel (arrived at 2am) for a few hours rest.


Thanks for reading!
 

Hixee

Flojector
Staff member
Administrator
Moderator
Social Media Team
Holy moly, that might be one of the biggest cred run days I've read about on here! Excellent work!
 

Benenen

Hyper Poster
That's outrageous. Thanks for sharing that big adventure with us, how you kept up your energy with so much driving and such low quality creds I'll never know.
 

peep

CF Legend
Holy moly, that might be one of the biggest cred run days I've read about on here!

All thanks to Richard and Jordan for working out what was what. There were a few last minute changes on the day too due to some places taking longer than anticipated.

how you kept up your energy with so much driving and such low quality creds I'll never know.

It wasn't all bad, the smooth SLC and GaleForce certaintly helped keep spirits high!


Sunday 16th

After a ridiculous day galavanting along the Jersey shore it was time for a slightly more relaxed day. It started with a 2 hour car ride.

We were off to Knoebels, a very different location to the seaside, it was quite nice having quite a contrasting day. Instead of sun we were also provided with cloud and later, rain. The car park looked packed but once "inside" the park* it seemed quite calm, just enough people to make the place feel alive without any horrible queues (*there's no formal gate or entry etc, it's a very open setting amongst some woods).

Our first stop was the very modern looking and very out of place, Impulse. A garish looking yellow and blue Zierer rip-off of a Gerst Eurofighter. The whole thing feels like a bizarre addition to the park. The ride isn't exactly perfect either with several bumps in the track like it wasn't made properly. Apart from that it's fine and I suppose a good way to introduce kids to inversions if they're visiting.

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Richard and I putting new creds before everything else in case of a storm meant that next up was Flying Turns. I think we were all quite looking forward to this seeing as it's so unique and took them so long to figure out how to safely open it. This was the only ride in the park with a queue as throughput isn't exactly stellar. There's also several stages before you get on, it's all quite a faff. First there's the gate where everyone is split into groups of 3-6 for each train load. This was done quite inefficiently and I'm very sure our group got bypassed to allow an even bigger group past.

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Then you get weighed to make sure each car of the train isn't too heavy. The it's finally time to board and experience a unique coaster. I like what they were trying to do with this ride but it never gains enough momentum to really do anything and there's like 3 or 4 lift hills. Give me an Intamin bob any day.

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Nic, Owain and Jordan then rode the small kids cred. Always amuses me how there's a little boat ride that just about goes underneath. Saw a grown man have to proper duck because it really is quite the headchopper.

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Nic having the time of her life

We then went over to Twister. I don't remember really liking this on my previous visit but despite the mass vibrations and lack of banking on the turns I quite liked it.

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It was then time for Pheonix. It was great, lots of decent air time but maybe not as ridiculous as I remember it being. We all agreed we'd give it some time to warm up and go back for more.

The others then did the cred in a shed, Black Diamond. Then we did the Haunted House. There was certainly a lot of things crammed into this but the lighting would come on way too late for every scene so it ended up being more like a bunch of loud noises and barely seeing what was happening.

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We then checked out the museum which was random. It's mainly about how the location used to be a big mine and the working conditions etc. Then at the back there's a big room dedicated to the history of the park. At one point they had an animatronic bear show but the two left on display are the stuff of nightmares.

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It was then time for lunch, most of us opted for pulled pork. It was incredible. Then we got insane amounts of ice cream which was really good.

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I think it started to spit/rain at this point so we ducked into the carousel museum. It had quite an impressive collection. We then went for some rides on Pheonix and it was running much better! It's normal to be standing up a wooden rollercoaster right? After a little while it just goes bonkers and really chucks you out of your seat, it's mental, I love it.

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We then ended our visit with the Carousel. I love the game of trying to reach out and grab the metal rings, makes it a really fun experience.

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Some of us still had some tickets left so we went for more rides on Pheonix before buying some merch in the tat shop. We were essentially on our way out via a lemonade stall (love it) when the heavens just completely opened. We took shelter like everyone else.

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The rain didn't look like it was going to let up so we tried to cover up and made a dash for the car. Blergh. I think I enjoyed my time in Knoebels more this time and I'm glad Pheonix is still obscene.

Another 2 hour drive later and we found ourselves at Hershey Road Family restaurant. Our waitress was fab, she was quite old but really on the ball, constantly providing drink refills and making sure we're ok. The food portions were absolutely massive.

I'm guessing the restaurant name gave it away but yep, we were now in Hershey and park tickets have a fab "enter for x amount of hours the night before" so we headed over to Hersheypark for the evening. The road down to the car park is a bit obscene, goes on forever. You might want to learn from us and stay vigilant for actual car park turn in signage. ;)

I was excited to be back at Hershey, I really liked it last time. Seeing the new entrance area under construction was really interesting and seeing the footers going in for the new B&M.

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We made our way over to Great Bear first. The layout of this park is nuts with so many steep hills, certainly a few times we doubted we were going the correct route.

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Great Bear is weird. Like it starts off with a helix and has so many long straight sections. Oh and the auto-complete finale. It's fine, certainly some good inversions but it's one of the weaker B&M inverts out there.

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The very auto-complete looking finale

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Next up was the mine train which isn't great but the location is pretty nice. Also the sky was looking incredible.

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The sky <3

Next we did Storm Chaser which barely had a queue. Nabbed a ride at the front and it was great fun. It has a good launch and a weird but interesting layout.

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Fahrenheit was looking amazing at night but we left it for the next day.

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Instead we headed down to the bottom of the park for Lightning Racer. This has to be the most fun racing coaster to exist. The entire layout you barely notice what it's doing, you just watch the other train race around you and it's just pure joy. Love it!

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We then headed back to the other side of the park (quite the trek!) for night rides on Skyrush! I was so excited to be riding this coaster again, scared it'd do a Nitro and not live up to my own expectations. Never had to worry though, it was still as brutal and insane as back in 2012. The restraints did feel a bit better and I'm pretty sure the random release on the brake run at the end is new (huge sigh of relief whenever it did work). Just a beautifully chaotic creation and it's brilliant.

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We managed 2 rides on it before it closed down for the evening. No worries, we would be back for more the next day!

It was then off to the hotel for some much needed rest after a pretty good day that ended with some of my favourite coasters.


Thanks for reading!
 

peep

CF Legend
Monday 17th

It was time for more Hersheypark. Happy times. The first ride of the day was Cocoa Cruiser, a new (for me) kids cred. Had no idea they added this.

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Love surprise +1s. We then queued for Fahrenheit. I sat at the back with Nic. The cobra roll was extremely rough but after that I found it to be really smooth and just and all-round fun ride. Nic - despite sitting next to me - found the entire ride to be very rough. Always fascinated by how varied coaster experiences can be depending on where you sit.

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We headed towards the back of the park where the rest of the group rode the wild mouse and Wildcat (I remember that one specifically being not so fun). Sitting next to these two coasters is now a huge building that houses Laff Track.

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Laff Track is just a standard Maurer SC2000 but I didn't know that beforehand, they're fun. There's some interesting theming going on and I like the concept of a fun house themed spinning coaster. I usually hate large UV-lit cut-outs but I think it worked pretty well on this.

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Just plain creepy

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The others rode the park's Boomerang, Sidewinder. It was then time to head over to the other side of the park for the other coasters. Sooper Dooper Looper was first. The queue was massive but moved at a decent pace. The loop is really good, some nice forces. Then the rest of the ride it just meanders trying to get back to the station.

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You get good views from the queue of the silly straight portions of Great Bear with its excessive supports.

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As it was there we went on Skyrush for a thigh-crushing time. Got way too stapled by the ride ops. We then queued up for the last cred of the park, Comet. It was fine, I remember it being a bit more fun last time, maybe we needed to let it warm up more.

We had a bit of a mare deciding on what to do for food. We ended up in an area with lots of different options. I wasn't really in the mood for anything on offer and everything had a gross queue. As we were eating it started to rain but luckily we'd grabbed a table underneath an umbrella. We then split up, Richard, Owain and Jordan went off to grab the 3 creds at Dutch Wonderland. Nic and I weren't too fussed, especially with the high ticket price.

Nic and I popped into chocolate World which is like it's own attraction place outside the park. It consists of a large shop and food court, several pay-for attractions and a free "factory tour". The tour is actually a really neat dark ride with some fun little songs in there.

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We got a free tiny Hershy bar at the end. Gave it a taste, I can't believe this is seen as acceptable in the modern World. Grim. We then headed back inside the park to try out the refurbed dark ride. The queue was tedious, long and barely moved. I did enjoy the videos they'd created for the ride but there's only so many times you can watch the same thing without getting annoyed by it.

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So once inside the station we then found out the queue took forever because unlike Six Flags Great Adventure who put all their top staff on the newest ride, they put all their incompetent staff members in charge. I don't think I've seen a ride op make so many noob mistakes in such a short period of time and it all took forever. Constant facepalms.

Anyway we were finally on and honestly it's a very good interactive dark ride, a very good amount of targets and they have created a good bunch of characters for it.

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Nic and I then headed towards Lightning racer. We got distracted by a live band who were pretty decent and then some ice cream which was nice. Lightning Racer was fab, went round a couple of times.

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Nic then wanted to chill out in the waterpark for a bit so I wandered off to take some footage and get a few other rides in. I ended up having a front row go on Fahrenheit which was great.

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I then decided to randomly check out the zoo that's connected to the park. Saw quite a lot of cool animals. Was amused when I saw a porcupine at the top of a large wooden pole, didn't realise they were climbers. It's not a very big zoo and most of the enclosures are a bit too small (aparently quite a common issue in the States?)

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* meep meep *

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The others had notified us that they were on their way back so I headed back into the park and tried the shot tower as it was there. It was good and had a decent ride cycle but the drop after the hold at the top was brutal, the way my shoulders hit the restraint from the air time was unpleasant and I was shocked that a horrible bruise never developed because they hurt for several days.

We all met back up over at Lightning Racer for several great goes. We did the whip ride that was next to it too, it was fun.

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Then we queued for Storm Runner which might have been one of the worst decisions we made in this park. Operations were a joke. I don't know what the ride op was doing but at one point the ride ceased while two ride hosts berated him for several minutes. So something happened, just don't know what. Everything about how the staff were acting was frustrating, slow and faff-tastic.

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After finally riding we headed over to Great Bear. It was actually fun at the back but it didn't change my mind on several portions of the layout.

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The river was full of birds demanding the sweetcorn from the little dispensors.

Then we had two rides on the brilliant Skyrush. Great times and a brilliant way to finish our time at Hersheypark.

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For our evening meal we ended up at a local brewery restaurant that was near our hotel. Called Lancaster Breweing Co. Richard and I shared a tasting tray, we got 3 small beers each. I got a Stawberry wheat (very tasty), Lancaster Kolsch (average beer) and Jam series, a N.E. style IPA (which was described as fruity but didn't taste like it, was ok).

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Food wise, I got an incredible pizza and a very tasty gooey cake thing.

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What a great end to a fun day. Thanks for reading!
 

davidm

Strata Poster
Good work on the beer tasting ; Kolsch is an aberration though, its a Cologne thing ; meant to be a pale ale that's brewed like a lager - was popular (i.e. in a few places) in Australia as an alternative to the 37 different brand-name lagers that they have on everywhere.

Cool report though ; keep it coming. :)
 

peep

CF Legend
Tuesday 18th

We started the day with another visit to IHOP. I had a Cheeseburger omelette which was actually incredible and I recommend!

It was then off to Six Flags America. I thought this park got more flack than it deserved after the 2012 trip so it was interesting to return. The park was pretty dead the whole time we were there, I think most people that turned up went to the water park (the heat was gross). We started things off with the SLC which Rich and I sat out.

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Then we rode Roar which I liked last time, I'd still consider this a fun coaster but I think it needed to warm up a bit.

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The newly stand up to sit down convert, Pheonix, was next. The fire effect was working so that made me very happy. Some of the transitions were quite rough but overall it's an ok ride.

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I also remember Wild One, the old woodie being really good last time and it was still fun but doesn't do too much with the speed it has.

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Next was a surprise +1 in the form of a Zamperla spinny mouse, Ragin' Cajun! Happy times. Well they would be if the queue had anything to help cool us down, felt extremely dehydrated in this queue (throughput was rubbish which led to an actual queue!). Richard and I were in our own car and we got some crazy spinning action.

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The rest then grabbed their small +1 in the kids area and I got some much needed water and cool air con.

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We then headed into the fairly well (if a bit sparse) DC area. We were about to get on Jokers Jinx and then it broke down. With Batman and Superman being down we didn't have anything else to do so we just waited around. It took a long time for it to re-open but at least it did. Love Premier spaghetti bowl coasters, so bizarre but really fun. That corkscrew at the end is just perfect.

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With Batwing totally not opening that day (there was a crane moving something around) we decided to call it quits and run back into the park the next morning in the hope they both open.

So I think I now agree with everyone else that this Six Flags park is actually a bit of a dump, just souless and nothing ride-wise that draws me back. We then headed into Washington D.C. for an afternoon of sightseeing. It was stupid-hot outside but we still did a lot of walking. We started with the white house, it was kinda neat to finally see it in person.

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From there we walked all the way over to the Washington monument. It was all cut off for some refurbishment which is fine as our tour was a little time-sensitive anyway.

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It was then down to the WWII memorial which was pretty big and I had no idea of its exisistence beforehand. It had some pretty cool details and it was very popular due to the humidity.

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There's a pretty long pool that links the WWII memorial up to the Lincoln memorial. All of this parkland with the memorials is actually really nice, wish it was cooler so I'd be more up for taking it in at a more leisurely pace.

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We got distracted by the Vietnam memorial before we reached Lincoln. Another thing I was unaware of.

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It was neat to finally see the Lincoln memorial, the scale is pretty ridiculous.

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It was then the very long walk back to the car. It was exhuasting but so glad we did it. We then drove around to near congress to check out a few of the cool buildings around there.

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Our plan was then to check out Arlington Cemetery but there was a storm brewing and traffic was a nightmare.

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Cool bridge statue

We parked up at the cemetery and decided to semi-brave it. It was absolutely chucking it down, the sort where a mere few seconds out in it and you're soaked through. It was just unpleasant so barely made it out to where the graves were before heading back inside where I at least learned the history of the site.

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Back in the car and we drove to some smaller area with a B-Dubs. Around the corner there was a place similar to Cold Stone Creamery so we also checked that out. It was good but despite the storm it was so humid out it was just melty ice cream everywhere.

It was a mixed day, SFA was a bit of a disappointment and the weather was gross but seeing all the D.C. things was neat. I'd happily return to see more and check out the museums.
 

Hixee

Flojector
Staff member
Administrator
Moderator
Social Media Team
The newly stand up to sit down convert, Pheonix, was next. The fire effect was working so that made me very happy. Some of the transitions were quite rough but overall it's an ok ride.

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I like the contradiction in ride names here. Can't tell if you did it on purpose or not. :p

It was neat to finally see the Lincoln memorial, the scale is pretty ridiculous.
This was the stand-out (or sit-down?) bit of DC for me. I was blown away by the size of the Lincoln Memorial. Magnificent.
 
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