ernierocker

Actually, Busch Gardens was by far the exercise park for the trip. That park is mammoth. The ERT breakdowns were more humorous than annoying. I also forgot to mention in the update that we got their version of the Flash Pass, so no one was really worried that they weren't going to get any of their credits. Glad you are liking it!

SFA cont'd... I did take a few non-coaster photos today. and to leave for Williamsburg! Busch Gardens is next! (Hopefully, a little sooner this time) After a group vote at lunch, it was time for an obligatory myspace photo... The mac was extra cheesy today, just hows I likes it. I love the unique views you can get at the different park's picnic pavillions. We ran into the infamous Uncle Sams on the way to lunch. I meant to ride the train to catch a glimpse of Ultratwister but we never got the chance. Candace was dragging a little bit after all the ERT tag we played that morning. Time for lunch. I did actually ride this. One of my few spinning rides on the trip. It wasn't that bad. It is a good ride, but maybe it was having an off day. Whatever was the case, it still can't hold a candle to it's namesake up north! This had more airtime than the 2nd hill! "Hi, I am Superman, and I'd rather be in Six Flags New England." Superman is running! But that is okay, because... GCI can always say that they were just trying to match the mediocrity of the park, right? After riding Boulder Dash, I was singing your praises! How could you GCI?!? A rough GCI ride?!? Next up... I think I took this one because it said "Lice baths" and Max never took baths, so everyone said that Max should get a lice bath. I took this picture thinking I would be able to come up with some sort of caption instead of this one where I am describing how I can't think of a caption while making a run-on sentence. In the above picture am I: A) Attempting to put my camera back in my bag, and like a moron hitting the button or B) Cleverly, sneaking a picture of Robb's boxers into this update There are three people currently walking around SFA with one shoe. Talk amongst yourselves. Is it the same thing that makes natural disasters good for photojournalists? Why are these things so photogenic? Would you actually wait 60 minutes for an SLC? We tried to stall as long as possible, but we needed the credit. Even with our doom awaiting us, TPR members never pass up an opportunity for a clever picture. Our next destination was this piece of crap. However, this photo on the other hand... There is nothing funny about this picture...

Time for the next update (finally)... Day 5- Six Flags America Day 5 would find us visiting Maryland’s own Six Flags America. I actually didn’t hate the park like some seemed to, but I can’t say that I liked it. All of the roller coasters that day seemed to be either running rough or slowly. The park just had a feeling of mediocrity in the air during the entire day. Not to mention, all the rides were constantly breaking down during the ERT session. I was let down by S:ROS the most. How is it possible that we didn’t get any airtime on that second hill?!? Batwing was also a letdown. It was my first Vekoma Flyer and I am just not a fan of the riding positions it puts you in. The one good thing about the park was that it wasn’t crowded at all, so we were able to leave at 1 P.M., which meant we would be getting to our Williamsburg hotel early! And with us not having to go through Delaware to get there, it actually happened this time. Let me just add, that our hotel was awesome in Williamsburg. I highly recommend Hilton Garden Inns. Hightlights for the day: - The unlocked coke machine behind Joker’s Jinx - Getting to the hotel early and being able to relax for the rest of the evening - Dinner and drinks that night - The Commandeering of Jake’s laptop for the purpose of adult research. You could of fooled me that was margarita mix! P.S. Candace didn’t bring her camera on this day, so I took all the photos with our “point and shoot”. We sat in front of Kristen, as she got her credit with her dad. This Great Chase has some theming but it didn't have the insane airtime curve like SFNE. We got the kiddie credit out of the way first. Superman was still down, so we decided to knock out the rest of the credits now that the park was opened. This is later in the day, but I am bunching all the Joker pictures together. For some reason, I am hoping for pasta today at lunch. The park did get Joker's Jinx to open early for us. That definitely nice of them! Nope, still broken! (It really felt we were running suicides at this point) Let's try Superman again before the park opens. And it was working this time! I have heard that this is usually a good ride, but today it was just running a little slow. Now, that we are batting 1 for 3, it was time to try the Wild One again. Batwing was definitely an interesting experience, but I just didn't care for it. The sun was shining from the left side of this photo directly onto the lift hill when we rode. This meant that you were blind before the ride even started. Yay! It works! Don't even think about it, Joker! Well, they are loading the trains! But, I am not jinxing it yet. Don't be broken, don't be broken! Okay, let's try Batwing! But it was broken too. We were informed to head to Superman next. Purdy. But first, I will take a couple of shots of the coaster in case the camera battery dies. (Which it would quite a bit on the trip) But that didn't last either! So, let's blow this joint and try the other two coasters. After the maintenance workers did some climbing around and the ride was tested a couple of times, they eventually let the first group back on. This doesn't look good! The ride had broken down, guess ride theming is not safe from the "camera of doom"! The first train has loaded, everything looking good so far. Wait...why is the ride-op on the phone? "Camera of doom" John thought it would be safe if he took a picture of this out-of-service train. "It's already broken!", I think he said. Our first attempt at ERT awaits us... I wasn't too disappointed about missing out on this credit. A quick look to the left, before we head to Wild One. Here is the group heading back to ERT on 3 coasters. But this is Six Flags America...will they have all the rides up and running? [/foreshadowing] Six Flags America, Home to the 39 page thread and quite a few fanboys evidently. This looks like the right place.

We really need to go down to Chattanooga again sometime. Growing up in Nashville, I used to always clown around on that town, but they really have done a wonderful job reviving their downtown area. I might even have to "See Rock City" for old time's sake. Really enjoyed the TR, Scott! P.S. Was rooting for Miami. Tennessee could really benefit from a resurgence from the Canes.

The Georgia Aquarium is on the "things to do" list. My aunt and uncle have been talking about taking us, so maybe seeing this will give me motivation to go next time we visit. Great TR and by the way... They still haven't fixed the windows from the tornado yet?

I completely forgot about the turntable station for Big Apple. That was an interesting experience. If I remember correctly, Spookarama was just one big open room. I didn't care for that one too much.

Batman is always worth a ride, but after that it is time to move on to other things. I was really anticipating SFGadv as well, and have a similar opinion of it as you. Great coaster collection, but not much else beyond the coasters.

With Epcot, I have noticed that it sometimes comes down to if you went to the park as a child. (Especially back in the 80's) Candace preferred the World Showcase over the Future World section, while I could spend 2 days in just the Future World section alone. Even though I only went twice back then, I still associate Epcot with my childhood because it had such an impact on me.

That was the one, Mike. I think there might of been a funnel wrapped in rain off in the distance. I never did hear about a report of a tornado, but with that many people on different buses seeing the same thing, it probably was one.

^LOL! She does have that questioning look in her eyes. This next update will be a non-photo update... Day 4 cont’d: Delaware: The Traffic Jam State Because of the rain-out at Six Flags, we ended up leaving four hours earlier than scheduled. As a result, it was looking like we were going to get a rare early night to the hotel. (So, we thought) After an uneventful drive through Jersey, we were greeted by a severe thunderstorm as we crossed the bridge into Delaware. This would serve as an omen. About half-way across the bridge, traffic pretty much stopped. I noticed that there was a toll booth up ahead, so I figured that was the reason for the traffic. As we passed the booth, the traffic jam did not stop. It ended up taking us almost three hours to go the 17 miles necessary to drive through Delaware! And what was the cause of this horrendous traffic jam? Another toll booth! After we finally got through my new favorite state, we also hit a smaller traffic jam in Baltimore. So, when we finally got to our hotel in Maryland, it was at the originally scheduled time of 11:30. The Delaware episode would lead to a funny experience at least. While we were stuck in the Toll booth State, the buses made a stop at a service area/rest stop. We had 30 minutes to go to the bathroom and grab something to eat. It was clear as we walked in, that this place was swarmed with angry motorists trapped in the same traffic jam, so we decided to hit up the pasta buffet which had the shortest line. It ended up being one of those buffets that charged by the weight of the food. What made this more special, was that they didn’t strain any of the pasta or meat causing half of the entrees to be swimming in water. Jason (Rollin N’ Coastin), who was in front of me in line, ended up getting about 1.6 lbs of food with half of it being water! Somehow, I ended up with just over one pound of “food” even though it looked like I had more of it than him.. Later on the bus, Jay (Eltoroextreme) provided us with one of those “information that would have been useful an hour ago” tidbits when he told us that a person should never eat a buffet at a turnpike rest area. Fortunately, we survived the buffet. One last thing I wanted to add to this update. Not even an hour after we left SFGadv, Robb informed us that they were working on a plan to send a bus back to the park so everyone could get the credits that they missed. I believe within a day they had the whole plan worked out. If you wanted to go back, a bus (led by Jahan) would take a group on our Dorney Park day after morning ERT. We had already received free vouchers. The bus would then return in time for Evening ERT at Dorney. Although, we ended up choosing to stay and rest, I really appreciated R&E doing everything they could to make up for a situation that they had no control over. This is just one of the many benefits of going on a TPR trip. (Correct me if I am wrong, but I believe everyone that went got all of their Dorney Park credits too!)

It depends on which update. For instance, Great Adventure was split about 50/50 between photos taken by both of us. The Six Flags America report will be just my photos because Candace wanted a break from lugging all the camera equipment around. I gradually started taking more and more photos as the trip progressed, because I was wearing Candace out trying to get specific photos that I wanted.

More Great Adventure... Make us go that way! Last one for tonight. Thanks for reading! It would rain off and on throughout the rest of the afternoon. We ended up waiting here until the meet up time. So long Medusa, perhaps I will get to ride your west coast buddy next year. So, all we could do was take more photos of it. Unfortunately, it would start to rain again. Not testing yet. The rain had actually stopped for a while, so we headed over to Medusa to see if it would start testing. I made Candace take this photo because of the theming I guess. Future home of the 2009 coaster project? The rain pretty much cleared out the park. Either that or everyone was in line for the Dark Knight. Who is Elisha Cuthbert? (Before I met Candace of course! ) Same thing as Catwoman's Whip at SFNE but with two cycles instead of just one. After lunch, there was nothing else to do but to walk around and take some random photos. I believe they were spiked though, because I look shlossed in this photo! G.J.'s wife was kind enough to bring everyone these awesome sandwiches. They were very good! And look who showed up! After finding out a storm was on the way, we decided to seek shelter at the Panda Express. We had terrible luck on Skull Mountain. The ride broke down as we were waiting in the station and it never reopened. I think I prefer the ones that go left to right, instead of right to left. One ride was enough for this one. Nitro was a great ride. I really wished we could of had a marathon session on this one.

I tried but I just couldn't think of a reference to go with the movie without really stretching it. Its a shame because that is one of his best performances in my opinion. Glad you are enjoying it so far! Time for another update! Day 4 – Six Flags Great Adventure Day 4 got off to a bang with us almost oversleeping. The stupid hotel alarm clock failed to wake us up. (I probably failed to set it right) Fortunately, I am used to waking up at 6:30 every morning, so I just happened to wake up about 30 minutes before the bus was scheduled to leave. With a little of that “oh crap, I just overslept” adrenaline aiding us, we were able to get ready, pack, and be downstairs in time to grab some breakfast for the bus. As you may already know, the weather would have a big impact on our day. Let me just say, that if it hadn’t been for the rain, we were on track to have all of the coaster credits before 1:00 and then have 7 hours for marathon runs on El Toro and Nitro. It is hard to tell how crowded the park would of gotten, but in my mind it would have been the largest crowds SFGadv had ever seen, and the whole day we would laugh at the huge waits with Gold Q-bots in hand. But back to reality, we ended up falling 5 credits short on the day. The only two I regretted missing were Medusa and Skull Mountain. I already had Superman at Six Flags Over Georgia and been on the other Arrow 7-loopers. As for Rolling Thunder, at least I was saving that pain until the next day on Roar. El Toro was just incredible. The only thing keeping it from beating out Boulder Dash at the top spot was the ending. Compared to the rest of the ride, that little S curve ending was anticlimactic. Especially, with that drop going over Rolling Thunder right before it. I really would of loved to have gotten on it later in the day after all the track had warmed up. Something to look forward to in the future I suppose. Kingda Ka was a great experience but I think once a visit is enough for me. I preferred Storm Runner much more because it actually did something. Highlights for the day - El Toro of course - Nitro (another one I wish I could of gotten more rides on) - The sandwiches G.J.’s wife brought us at lunch - Drinking 8 dollar beers at the Best of the West Grill Yes, I am a dork. Why so many green trash cans behind the fountains? Meh. Maybe we took so many pictures of it, because deep down I am a closet Arrow Dynamics fan. Best of the West means $8 beers evidently. Okay, I'll admit it this time. We tried to get this shot. Since Medusa was not open yet, it was time for a sky ride over to the other side of the park. No log flume for us today. After Kingda Ka, we headed back here to ride the mine train. More featured GASM photos than Kingda Ka? What is wrong with this trip report? So, the ride starts to suck at the bottom of this hill, is that about right? I did remember to take pictures of Scream Machine. This is going to have to count as a Kingda Ka photo. We were in a rush to get over there and I forgot to get some close-ups after the ride. After ERT on El Toro, they allowed us to be the first riders of the day on Kingda Ka! (We broke it of course) These fountains were so photogenic! Here is a scenic shot of some pretty fountains. Anything that shows up in the background is merely a coincidence. Here is some footers just in case there are any foundation engineers out there. I believe I preferred the front seat because of the view you get on the first drop. This is the one! No, no! Not that! Hmm, I wonder where we are going to next? They made us watch the pre-show which was pretty good. I guess Aaron Eckhart is hurting for work, because he was the only actor to appear from the movie. Dark Knight was okay. I can barely remember this ERT session, as it was being overshadowed by my anticipation for El Toro. We will be riding these Beemers later! Marcos really seemed to be interested in that trash can for some reason. I found it odd that once you got through the entrance plaza, you were almost at the back of the park. I see you testing there, El Toro! Ahhh, I love the sight of steel in the morning!

I am glad you pointed out the randomness of that dinosaur in the museum. I am sure there was a purpose of it being in there, but I made up my own little story as to why it was there. (Pretty much the same as your caption) Great TR. I missed a lot of the stuff you covered, so it makes me want to visit again.

You see why I wanted your picture? It was perfect for that! Both are correct guesses. You got 10/10! Thanks for humoring me there guys. I am hoping to have SFGAdv up tomorrow night, so we will get this PTR back on track.

Good start! You got 7/10. You got 1/10.

As I mentioned at the end of the previous update, it is time to play a game! The Denzel Washington Movie Reference Game! Okay, here’s the deal. Back in January, Candace and I went to Disney World. While we were watching the Stunt show at DHS, I kept seeing obvious references to Denzel Washington movies hidden in the show. For example, you had the stunt man falling off the building (Fallen) and the stunt man that was set on fire (Man on Fire). I decided right then that this might make a fun game for a trip report. So, I ended up making a list of movies I could use for the East Coast Trip and during the trip I looked for pictures which would match a movie on the list. It turned into a picture scavenger hunt and it was a lot of fun to do! Rules of the Game I will post 10 pictures taken during the trip. In each picture, there will be a hidden reference to a Denzel Washington movie. Post your answers here and let's see how well everyone knows their Denzel Washington movies! Picture #9 Picture #8 Picture #7 Picture #6 Picture #5 Picture #10 Picture #4 (Courtesy of Erik Johnson) Picture #3 Picture #2 Picture #1

I thought that was you at Great Adventure. I think we actually rode in the same car on Dark Knight during morning ERT. Rye's is definitely worth a trip in my opinion. Like Kerry said, we hit the park on a very crowded night. I really do think the angry man at the Dragon set the tone for most people.

I knew you were going to Florida before the trip, but I assumed it was just the amusement parks. Some really cool pics so far. Also, great idea to wait until you got to the U.S. to buy a camera. Looking forward to more updates.

Time for the final update on Rye's Playland. Good night Rye's Playland. Next up will be a special update. It's time to play a game! Here are few more pictures as we made our way back to the bus... Dan is going to ride a water ride? FYI, "Dan riding a water ride" was an Elissa bingo square. When, he found out we caught him, what did Dan do? He got out of line and didn't ride to negate the bingo square! Didn't get many good pictures of The Old Mill. But what's this I see? Moving on now. This is a ferris wheel. You have officially been Whipped! Yay for Devo! Yay for Stabland! You knew someone was going to use the Devo reference right? It was just bound to happen. *Cue Devo music* The ride really turned out to be insane, as demonstrated by the following reactions... Awwww. No one wanted to ride with Jason. And there off! So far, so good for G.J. and Matt. Stretching is a must before any ride on the Whip. Erik is preparing for the worse. I have no clue what Richard is doing except perhaps pointing at the number 9? Now it is time for probably the most infamous ride at Rye's: The Whip! Stabland did have a lot of flat rides to choose from. Here is the mirror maze I mentioned in my highlights. It was literally about 20 feet of just following one path. At least, the one at Morey's Piers had a slide at the end. Speaking of Zombie Castle, I thought it was cool how the building of the ride went underneath the structure of Dragon Coaster. Dark ride time! I don't remember the name of this one, but I think I preferred this one over Zombie Castle. Let's see what else the park has to offer. We didn't ride a single pirate ship on the entire trip. It really was a nice place to hang out, especially at sunset. After dinner, we decided to check out the Hudson River. Yep, there it is.

Um, Perhaps the caption for the 3rd Dragon Coaster picture? I definitely missed a golden oppurtunity for a "That's what she said" joke on that one. Then you will love the next update because it is more Stabland! Thanks Jay. I guess I just associated the pain with Vekoma. I corrected the captions. Yeah, that is the mirror maze I was referring to. The only reason I listed it as a highlight was because of how pointless and random it was. For everyone who mentioned the Whip, I have got a lot of photos of it coming up this evening.

Day 3 – Six Flags New England and Rye’s Playland We returned to Six Flags New England on Day 3, but this time armed with Gold Q-bots! Morning ERT once again featured S:ROS, as well as Pandemonium and Flashback. After that, we pretty much had open reign to a busy Six Flags park on a Saturday in August. It was amazing to be able to ride S:ROS twice in 15 minutes with the queue being over 2 hours! We didn’t take any pictures of the park this time, because we had gotten enough the previous day. So, on to the next park. Rye’s Playland was the “surprise park” for this trip. It would serve a similar purpose as Coney Island did on Day 1. We had a long drive from SFNE to our hotel near SFGadv, so Rye’s help break up the long bus ride. As for the park, I'll just say it wasn't my favorite. They did have a good wooden coaster, but the family flyer was not very good. I am not a fan of the restraints at all. Your shins are basically resting on metal bars. How is that a good idea? Here are some of the highlights of the park: - A nice collection of dark rides - Dragon coaster was a big surprise - The mirror "maze" - Watching everyone get their butt kicked on the Whip We didn't end up riding very much, but instead we took a lot of pictures. So, that means I will have to break this up into two separate updates. More Rye's Playland to come! Alan gets a little daring and goes for the Double Thumbs up. The "thumbs up" appeared to be the move of the day. Looks like Erik is happy to ride something that isn't a flyer. We've got the thumbs up from Richard so we are ready to go! With their approval, it was time for another TPR takeover of a kiddie coaster! Robb and Elissa were brave enough to test the waters for everyone else. In case you didn't know the name, they placed it on every car to make sure. Next up, was the kiddie coaster. And there's David, Eli, Kimmy, and Gary! G.J., Erik "Out of Focus" Johnson, and Matt look like they are having fun. Let's see who else is riding. There's Jason. Ready for your ride guys? It had very long ride cycles and you could start to see everyone get tired near the end. Derby Racer turned out to be this insane ride of endurance. I wonder what this is? This is a ferris wheel. As you can see from this pic, the park was very crowded. Ah! How convenient! At least, they aren't trying to fool themselves. Hmm, I wonder where the First Aid is? It was my first family flyer and hopefully my last. Super Flight was next and there was absolutely nothing super about it. Huge bonus points for the dragon tunnel. So, its not just a clever name. I didn't know what to expect from this one, but it turned out to be a good ride and rather lengthy. The angry man who scanned everyone's wristband made it very clear that you had to get lockers. We headed to the Dragon Coaster first, the park's wooden coaster. They had these covered plazas on both sides of the midway. Another park map sign. Another Go-Gurt ad. Entrance plaza was nice enough Rye's gave us a nice, warm welcome.

I didn't notice him being annoying during ERT. During the time he was talking about his birthday, I don't think they had the O.K. to start the session yet. I know we were waiting on that one ride-op, I think her name was Kim or Kerry, to come up to the station. After the session started, I didn't pay attention to anything he said because it was all about Boulder Dash then.

Sorry about that! I'll make it up to you with the Rye's Playland update, how does that sound? That is what you call happiness. A rarerly seen emotion I know. Okay, that is the last Mike joke I swear! I completely forgot it was his birthday! Does anyone remember his name? He told Robb he wanted to sign up for a trip next year. Thanks for the comments everyone! Glad you are enjoying the pictures so far.

I would love to be able to ride Boulder Dash again before add the trims! After doing that update, it really stirred up some memories of how great that thing was running for us! It really is a tough call on what was my favorite ERT session. It's a three-way race between Boulder Dash, Lightning Racer, and Phoenix. I'll probably do a summary at the end of this update, so maybe I will have a winner by then.