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I watched at least two videos all the way through. The only lag I experienced was while the videos were buffering. Once the buffering was done, the video and audio worked smoothly all the way to the end.

I tried both Safari and Firefox on my Mac and everything is running good!

I voted for Harry Potter although this wasn't supposed to be a Summer '09 blockbuster, thanks Universal! I am also looking forward to Angels and Demons. I am not crazy about Tom Hanks in this role, but I always felt that this would make the better transition to a movie than Da Vinci Code.

I completely forgot about the trim brake on Avalanche. That thing literally stopped the ride! Rebel Yell wasn't that bad, but I actually passed up riding one of the sides because I was still recovering from my kidney blow on Hurler. Enjoying the update so far!

Nice shout out to Busch Gardens there. Now you are the one bringing up that awful song. When were you down there again? The crowds looked like when we went in January. Looking forward to the Epcot pictures!

Day 8 - Clementon Park This is going to be the shortest update because we just didn't spend very long at this park. Clementon would serve a similar purpose as Rye's Playland. We had a long drive from the Jersey beach up to Allentown, PA, so going to a amusement park was a lot better than a Jersey rest area. It also turns out that Clementon has a decent woodie. Hellcat/Puma/Tigger or whatever it is called nowadays was a nice surprise. We got several rides on it while a thunderstorm raged off in the distance. This probably didn't come close to the experience the Ravine Flyer folks had, but it was kind of freaky riding while lightning was off in the distance. I actually feel bad for the park staff because they offered Robb ERT on Hellcat but the group ended up voting to leave early for the hotel. The ride was technically closed when we left, so I don't know if we would of ever been able to ride due to storms. Anyway on to the pictures... I have very few pictures here because Candace wasn't feel good and I didn't bring the point and shoot. One last photo and that will conclude day 8. Hersheypark is up next! I told you there was a East Coast law about naming pirate ships, Sea Dragon. Looks like a nice kiddie area. We didn't have much time to explore the park. I was not a fan of the log flume. Smelled like fish and the water spilled over the log several times. Just got the focus on the last car. We are in there somewhere. There was a tad bit of air here if I remember correctly. Lift hill shot with the darkening clouds above Evidently, the photographer was still drunk from the night before. The station was pretty high above ground level which made for some great views of the incoming storms. Identity Crisis the Ride

Wow, what a moron. I just took the picture and didn't think about it. I rode it, but I don't recall anything about it. We rode so many dark rides on this trip, that they are all kind of blending together right now. Care to share what was so strange about it? This next bit is going to be a bit off-topic, but I just got some news that I am excited about. As some of you ECT participants already knew, my wife and I are expecting our first child in April. Well, we just found yesterday that it is going to be a boy! Technically, this is on-topic, because if you do the math right, nine months from April is August. Not coincidentally, my mom keeps referring to the baby as "Roller Coaster" Wilson. Candace is not amused. Okay, I'll have a short Clementon update hopefully later tonight.

Look at me rolling out these updates! Morey's Piers Part 3 This update will finish up our day at Morey's Piers. We had afternoon ERT on Great White which turned out to be a decent wooden coaster. Adventure's Pier was the last pier to open up, so we didn't end up riding any of the other rides. Hope you enjoy the pictures. I'll close with probably one of the better T-shirt prints I've seen in a while. Clementon is up next! I decided to observe today, but I became addicted later on the trip at Knoebels. We had just enough time for a few games of Fascination! We actually didn't ride because Candace needed a breather. Evidently, that was a wise choice after the ride reviews came in. Because there were zombies that needed to be shot at with lasers! Although, it has been life-long dream to ride a ride called "Junkyard", we didn't want to wait for the ride to open. Um, scary. I had no clue about the drop out of the station. That was a great start to the ride! This is what you like to see on a TPR trip. Half-empty trains at 1:30 in the afternoon! Great White was a fun coaster. I didn't think a wooden coaster could be fun again after the day before. It's time for ERT on Great White! Okay, lets find out what all this extreme fun is all about. One more and we will move on. Looks like I was missing out on some fun. (Probably not) Oh oh, looks like G.J. might of had one too many Mr. Curleys. I know I've gotten this expression of Jason riding a spinning ride before. Perhaps a preview of the East Coast DVD? It's time for another round of TPR members riding spinning rides. I really have no recollection whatsoever of riding this. I know I did, but I got nothing. I almost forgot! There is another credit on this pier! I am glad Robb told us his Sea Serpent accident story after we rode. Almost time for this one, but not quite yet. Roller Coaster Tycoon anyone? Lots of Jersey folks enjoying the water today. The water park looked amazing at about this time. Morey's Piers is on the ocean in case you missed it somehow. The water parks looked nice. I didn't want to have to keep up with the swimming suit, so no water for me. It also afforded us some great views. This ride really hit the spot after a long morning in the heat. After lunch, we still had some free time until afternoon ERT, so we checked out some more of Mariner's Landing. It's Curley! Who the heck is Curley?!? At lunch, we were just chilling when who showed up? Let's go get some lunch to replenish our energy. ("Dick") Because we are too lazy to move right now! Did I mention it was hot today? Are you ready for some extreme fun? Well, you will have to wait.

I didn't see that. They were cycling some of the logs through while we were waiting, so maybe they were having problems in that section. Time for part 2 of the update! Morey's Piers Part 2 This update will cover Mariner's Landing as well as some of the boardwalk. This was my first experience with a true boardwalk like this. It kind of reminded me of Gatlinburg on the beach. (or is Gatlinburg like Morey's Piers in the mountains?) You had all the cheesy tourist traps mixed in with the t-shirt shops, although there was an unacceptable lack of ninja shops). We would get ERT on Sea Serpent (the boomerang) and a couple other rides. After that, it was free time until lunch. Here are the photos... Will be riding you shortly. Still more to come. Kerry looks like she just got her ass kicked. Yeah, that pretty much looks awful. Glad I stayed off of this one! And they're off. Eli and David are ready to go it seems. This was also opened during our 2nd ERT session. I didn't ride, because I don't care for spinning rides. Is it a law that every pirate ship ride on the East Coast has to be called Sea Dragon? Might as well look up and take a photo while we are here. We were crapped out by this point, so we decided to take a refuge underneath the ferris wheel until lunch. They also opened the pirate ride for us. I don't remember this one at all. It was a boomerang. Where we have ERT on Sea Serpent. We've finally made it! I suspect she had the orange paint. Allison is seen here taking careful aim at something... The guy in padding would walk back and forth while twirling the shield in front of him. Regardless of his tactics, he pretty much got owned. G.J.: That dude is going down! You can't shoot paint balls at some dude at Kings Dominion, that's for sure! The tradition of statue credits was alive and well on the ECT. Still lots to see on the boardwalk. Ooooh! Snake Pictures! And we still have a long way to go! Let's stop and see how much progress we've made. There is the abandoned old roller coaster. Time for a flex break. Is that a TPR tattoo I see? Yes, the heat is starting to get to us! "Mini Balls in Big Oval Rims" equals charm. It was a fairly long walk between piers made all the more difficult by the fact that our photographer had one too many the night before at the Hampton Inn. But first we get to check out some of the boardwalk. Watch out for these crazy kids and their buggy contraptions. They will straight run your ass over! Our next destination would be another ERT session on Mariner's Landing.

Time for the next update. Day 8 - Morey's Piers Morey's Piers turned out to be one of the surprise hits for me on this trip. After our day at Kings Dominions, it was a welcome relief to see a park go out of its way for our group. The park does not by any means have a world-class coaster collection, but it makes up for that with its uniqueness and charm. Candace must of really liked this place because she took a ton of photos, so I am going to break this update into three parts. The first part will cover our first ERT session on Surfside Pier. This would include a filming session on The Great Nor'easter, as well as several other rides being open just for us. On to the pictures... These benches rocked! More Morey's Piers to come! Hmm, what was Drew trying to do. Without the opportunity to cool off, the heat started going to our heads. Which leads me to one of the few disappointments of the day. The log flume was closed. This was probably one of the hottest days on the trip. Can you stand the chaos of a 10 second mirror maze?!? Dante's Dungeon is your normal dark ride except for the lady that comes out of nowhere and scares the crap out of you! Here's Drew being Drew. Chris seems to be enjoying her ride. This turn led to some good photo ops. Flitzer was interesting. They could of just plopped down a bunch of rides on the pier, but at least they attempted to theme most of them. Time for some credits. Doo Wopper was your standard mouse. Your standard drop tower but with a hilarious attempt at theming. After the filming session, the group split up and had free reign on just about the entire pier. In conclusion, the new trains are a definite improvement over the old ones. The ride was still as rough as a normal SLC, but you had a fighting chance now to keep from having a headache. You definitely couldn't hold your arms out like this before. This is still painful but the pain is transferred from your upper body to your elbows. I guess that is a fair trade-off right? Lets throw in a few action shots for you now. This is Robb on probably his 15th consecutive run and he still has a smile on his face. The man is a machine! As you can see, the restraints fit like a vest which was a LOT more comfortable on the neck and shoulders than the old restraints. As you probably know, Vekoma designed new trains for the Great Nor'Easter and they used our group to film the new trains in action. It was because we were going to get filmed to ride on the new trains! Or the leg choppers with the log flume. It wasn't because this one is built right next to Atlantic Ocean And why would we be so excited to ride these torture machines? I never thought I would see the day that a bunch of roller coaster enthusiasts would be excited to ride an SLC! Got the whole pier to ourselves! TPR likes free stuff! The staff really seemed to be genuine and enthusiastic about their jobs. Two big thumbs up to them! Our day would start with a warm welcome from the staff.

Your welcome! Thought maybe those shots were going to go to waste. Glad I resurrected this thing so you could see them. I'd figured he was more of a "bribe me with food" kind of guy. Send my regards for me. Glad you enjoyed it! We did get more shots of Volcano, but they were all pretty much the same shot at various zooms. Candace is doing great. We find out if it is a boy or girl on Monday! Thanks for all the responses so far.

Excellent start so far! Its never too early to enjoy an overpriced Bud Light! Don't be too bummed about the Tiger's season. At least you are going to a bowl game this year. (Our new coach's wife is hotter than your coach's wife though) Looking forward to the rest!

I guess after neglecting this thread for over two months, its time for another update. I checked the motivational meter tonight and it was flickering around a 2, so I figured I should update while the getting was good... Day 7 - Kings Dominion Kings Dominion just wasn't very good. We got Morning ERT on the two best rides at the park by far, Dominator and Volcano. After that, we would witness the worst operations of any park on the trip by far. Highlights of the Day -Dominator-This is a good ride that seems to be attracted to mediocre parks. -Volcano. This is a pretty good ride for a prototype but what's up with the anti-climatic ending? I'll close this update on a positive note. There was no crowds! Moreys Piers is next! (Hopefully, I'll update it a little quicker) This reminds me of the Grizzly River Rampage at Opryland and makes me sad. All joking aside, this was the most painful roller coaster I have ever been on. Three out of four Chiropractors rate this ride their Number 1 woodie! Ride two Kings Dominion wooden coaters, and get one free consultation with an area back specialist. A little known fact about Kings Dominion is that it has an active partnership with the greater Doswell Area Chiropractic Association. Although I have heard it is usually rough, Anaconda was actually running pretty good. I guess this ride was a highlight since it didn't hurt. (Foreshadowing) I have actually wanted to ride this roller coaster since I saw it in a roller coaster program years ago. Did anyone else bang their knees on the speakers? I guess it wouldn't of been that bad, if the speakers were actually working. This was the Italian Job themed coaster but it was delinquent on its bills so they turned off all of its effects. Reason #4267 to go on a TPR trip. Taking pictures of the general public trying to figure out why there is a bunch of coaster geeks on the opposite end of a rope drop. After ERT, we had exclusive Scooby time! I didn't do so well on this one. Volcano was another good ride. Besides being rushed by the management, ERT was definitely the highlight of the day! Sarcasm aside, it was a great roller coaster! They painted it a different color because it is the tallest loop on a floorless coaster. Why didn't Geauga Lake think of that?! By far, one of the best coasters in a crappy park in America. I guess a year ago this would of been a pretty boring photo. But now there is the coaster with the largest yellow vertical loop on a orange coaster in the world! That's what they told us at lunch at least. Our Morning ERT awaits us... This is probably the best shot I got of both buses. This is your average morning on a TPR trip. Arrive at the park early enough to stare at it across the street at the local convenient store.

NITROgen, I get it. And yes I am a nerd.

I really wish I had planned my last Orlando vacation to be in October so I could of gone to HHN. Looks like I will have to wait till 2010. (Wouldn't want to go next year and see all that awesome Harry Potter construction and not be able to go in it) Really enjoyed the update, Erik!

I know exactly what you mean here. I was moving along at an update a night at first, and now I am lucky if I find the motivation to update my report once in a week! I really have more respect now for everyone that does these long trip reports. Loved seeing the Morey's Piers pictures, as I haven't really looked through our pictures from that day yet, and it brought back some memories. Keep up these updates now that you got some momentum!

You didn't get wet on Blizzard River (unless you were Drew who decided to sit on the bottom of the boat and get his ass soaked in the process) but there was an unacceptable amount of spinning. Great pics Hanno, I think someone said it earlier, but there is no point of buying on-ride photos if you are on the trip.

Day 6-Busch Gardens (Part 3) The final part of this update will cover the rest of our day at Busch Gardens after morning ERT and the DarKastle tour. I want to move on to the pictures so I will just say that I loved this park and felt that it was on par to the Disney and Universal parks with its theming and attractions. Highlights for the Day - Curse of DarKastle. It wasn't as good as Spiderman, but I live the overall story better. - Getting the Quick Queue system for the day = no waits on a crowded day - Spending an hour soaking people on Roman Rapids - Big Bad Wolf ERT - Finally getting the chance to experience this park You do not want to get on his bad side. Kings Dominion is next! Transformation is complete! Yep, we are definitely going to need some glitter! Its almost there, but it seems to be missing something. Now, its time for the mouth. Here is the progress so far. Since we have all this black makeup, how about some of this stuff. A little black stripe action. Then, add white makeup. First, add green makeup to half the face and forehead. I will close this update with what I like to call: "G.J.'s transformation" Here is a normal picture for comparison. *Not shown, the chicken dance If you've never been before, the stage with the polka band rises up to make room for the hyper polka dancers. Its the Red-Bull Fueled Polka Dancers. Or you can catch the polka band whilst enjoying a beer (or a Minute Maid juice box). Like the opportunity to own a piece of Ireland. Or is it the chance to listen to an incredibly, annoying (yet addictive) song over and over. Time to check out some of the things that makes Busch Gardens so unique. And here was my lunch. We'll come back here in a bit, because it is time for lunch. While we were waiting for lunch to be ready, we killed some time in here. They really got the ride backwards. Get the riders wet first, then dry them off with the flames. I did escape from Pompeii and managed to get a little wet. *Bonus Denzel Washington Movie Reference* Any guesses? Since we realized that we had just walked down into what was essentially a pit, we delayed the climb out by taking pictures of turtles. Now, back to the interlocking loops. We managed to break away from the hypnotizing, interlocking loops long enough to provide this photo for you guys. Poor Nessie is now dwarfed by Griffon and Alpengeist. I bet no one has a photo with the sky lift precisely in this position. Loch Ness Monster was not a part of the Quick Queue system. Probably, because there was absolutely no wait on a crowded day. Can you handle one more? Some rapid's action for you know who. As demonstrated here. This specific cannon was probably the best one, I think it was number 10? This side wasn't quite as good as the cannons facing Apollo's Chariot. We did spray some complete strangers! Being a good husband, I refrained from spraying her. (Actually, the quarters from G.J. hadn't arrived yet! Dangit!) Here I am sitting by the water cannons as my wife goes by. Last one. Nice airtime here. Of the 3 B&M hypers I have been on, I rank it 2nd with Nitro firmly on top. We ended up riding Apollo's Chariot twice. The first time I didn't care too much for it, but the second time around was a lot better. You can't get many good shots of this coaster from inside the park, so I will have to settle with some crappy bus shots. Naturally, our main focus in Italy was this ride. Italy seemed like it was nicely themed but we didn't linger in this section that much. On the way to Italy, crazy shenanigans were being performed by TPR members. I can't imagine what this curve was like before the trim on the drop. I was not disappointed and night time ERT was amazing! After watching all the coaster shows/videos featuring this ride, I was thrilled to finally get a chance to ride it. Thanks to the Quick Queue we got right into the station with only a three or four train wait. I am a little fuzzy on the order here, but I believe we hit up Big Bad Wolf after DarKastle. Thanks to Chuck (cfc), I probably would of never found the urge to take this picture. I am just going to randomly start this update with the log flume.

I'll join the group that likes Boulder Dash more than El Toro. I am giving BD an unfair advantage though because I only rode El Toro three times during morning ERT before it had a chance to warm up.

The key to the bumper cars at Knoebels is to ride with people who know how to use them. Our ride wasn't actually that great, but right before we got on, the GCI guys were pretty much destroying each other on them. I have never seen bumper cars cause such impacts before! As a group, we were all pretty nervous riding them after witnessing the carnage.

More Busch Gardens... Day 6-Busch Gardens (Part 2) This update will cover our Curse of DarKastle walkthrough. This was a great tour. More Busch Gardens to come! Here is one of the effects designed to disorient the rider. At this point, you are made to believe that you are flying around out of control, when in fact the vehicle is staying level throughout the ride. This is where malfunctioning cars go. If a car needs to be serviced during the day, this door opens up and the vehicle goes into a maintenance shed without interrupting operations. Nice wallpaper. Nice eyebrows. Without knowing the backstory, I am going to assume that this kid is a huge douche. From what I gathered, between each 3D screen, there would be these transition rooms to allow time for each screen to reset for the next car. There were plenty of tripping hazards along the tour. This is a mean ass family. Larry shows off moves from his former job in air traffic control. As you can see, the whole tour was filmed by Robb. The game quickly ended on the next round with "Right hand red". I am a big fan of dark rides so I was pretty excited about this tour. It's time to go in! The monitors were not running audio so we never did catch the back story. I love the theming for this ride. Our guide would be Larry Giles who I believed was head of the design of the ride. After morning ERT, it was time for a tour of this.

Because of the amount of pictures I have for Busch Gardens, I am going to break this it up into smaller updates. Day 6- Busch Gardens (Part 1-Morning ERT) On the way to Williamsburg, Robb informed us that Busch Gardens had selected our group to do a filming session on Griffon in the morning. We were already scheduled to have an hour of ERT on Griffon, as well as Alpengeist, so this meant that we would be arriving at the park 45 minutes early and essentially getting more ERT! This also meant that with evening ERT on Big Bad Wolf, this was going to be nearly a 15-hour day at the park! The park had asked Robb to choose 30 people in the group based off specific criteria to take part in the filming shoot. Fortunately, both Candace and I were chosen. What this meant was we would get on the first two rides of the day. We started out on the outside seats of the back row. I really liked the ride but was a little disappointed that we didn’t tilt over the edge on the first drop very much. For the 2nd ride, we moved up to the middle row and it wasn’t much different of a ride. (I will come back to Griffon after my Alpengeist review.) After our two rides on Griffon, Candace and I decided to run over to Alpengeist while the rest of the group rode Griffon. Evidently, not many people had this idea because we ended up getting back-to-back rides by ourselves! I am a big fan of this ride. I felt it was extremely forceful and had a very unique layout for an inverted coaster. (I am used to Batman clones up to this point). Since we still had some time left for ERT, we decided to head back to Griffon for another ride. Just like Alpengeist, we would be the only ones on Griffon! We decided to give the front row a try and we loved it. These giant drop coasters are quite an unique experience especially in the front outside row. There is absolutely no track around you and it really feels like you are flying through the ride. Griffon is a great overall ride, I just wished they decided to do something else with the layout besides repeating the drop and immelman loop. After we rode Griffon, it was time to meet up with the rest of the group for our DarKastle walkthrough but that is for the next update. Picture time... One of the best ERT sessions on the trip! Darkastle walkthrough is next! Awww, DENIED. We headed back to Griffon for one more ride before ERT ended. Looks like Axel is pleading for one more ride! Completely unintentional two train shots are the best The ride does a great job of interacting with the terrain. and another. More Alpengeist. Check. Why are Boomerangs, which have loops that look awfully like Cobra Rolls, called Boomerangs and not Cobra Rolls? Silly Vekoma. Loved the first drop! Here is your lift hill porn and whatnot for those that dig it. This is what the station looked like after our two rides on Alpengeist. You've got to love ERT on TPR! If a 200 foot coaster is a Hyper Coaster and a 300 foot coaster is a Giga Coaster, what is a 21,741 meter coaster? Attention future owners of Busch Gardens Williamsburg. Do not mess with the theming! Next up is some B&M sweet goodness. Sorry, that loop is just hypnotizing to me. Okay, moving on now. With the addition of Griffon, Busch Gardens became the champions of having the most Immelman loops in one park. That is a fact, at least I think... I love me some Immelmans. Dangit! That track got in the way of the sun in this picture! This would be a better shot with people on it, oh well. Testing has begun! While waiting for the filming session to begin, we might as well take some early morning shots. This is why! And why are we here so early when ERT isn't scheduled until 9:00? Time for a long day at Busch Gardens.

This fact scares me everyday...EVERYDAY. I was once in a pirate rap group named YARRR!!! so I will support the cause.

^You had every right to look terrified on that mouse! Great pictures so far, Hanno. Enjoying the report!

We only used 2 of the 5 rides and ended up giving them away. I don't recall. It evidently wasn't running very well that day, so perhaps it was on.