Philrad71

^ Danke! Yes, I could not believe how they could suffice as a meal for about 3 Euro!

Being that this is going to be a rather large update, I decided to open another thread instead of posting this in my 'Philrad's 2009 theme/amusement park' thread. There are quite a few pics to post...some are not the best of quality, but the majority of them were not taken with our normal Olympus camera. I hope you still enjoy it! We left Buffalo/Niagara airport on a rainy, cold fall day (9/29/09). This is the trip we have been waiting well over a year for and believe me, it did not disappoint! All of the people we encountered in beer tents and other spots along the way were warm, friendly and almost all of them spoke English! Even though the tents were jam-packed and we figured that we would never land a spot, there were some friendly German families that made room for us. I will say that Oktoberfest is one of the craziest, most awesome events on the planet! Yes, beer and ride tickets are very expensive...but well worth it. Despite the fact that there were some people that were extremely annihilated to the point of not even being able to walk, everyone was fairly peaceful. I did not feel unsafe at any point, but was aware not to flash money around or keep it loose in my pockets. Anyone that has a love for good beer, extreme rides and fun should get on over to Munich and experience this event at least once in their lifetimes! It was simply too awesome to explain in words! I see you over there Lowenbrau...we will get to you soon enough! Part two coming soon with beer tent pics, ferris wheel overview shots, more rides and us getting drunk at the 'Fest...don't miss it! Thanks for reading! High Energy is probably best enjoyed before hitting the beer tents. If you like spin-n-puke flats they had about five varieties of these "Scramblers on Acid". They also had a nice looking log flume ride: Wild Wasser. But of course...this was the biggie - Olympia Looping! This thing kicked total ass! So many G-Forces that I still have a huge bruise on my right thigh from the restraints pushing down while going through all of the loops! Damn, this thing is intense! The Alpina Bahn was one of the major coasters. Another tower ride, but this was one that shot you up instead of dropped. They had tons of smoke that came out of the center of the tower after launch. When I first saw it, I thought something majorly wrong was happening. Think SFKK and snapping cables - yikes! Jumanji - Robin Williams looks to have taken a turn for the worse here. Futureworld - didn't there used to be a really crazy looking martian or space creature that hung out over this attraction in years past? More dark ride love... They gave a shout out to Las Vegas + Siegfried and Roy. It's, it's...the Hollenblitz! Very cool looking coaster! If you're into Wild Boar, well...there just so happens to be a place where you can get some at the Oktoberfest! ...awesome!!! They had a Power Tower that had a crazy cycle. Slow up, drop halfway down, back up, drop all the way down... Speaking of fahrt...it was forbidden in this area. ...like Fahrt Zur Holle, which when run through my cheesy translator means: A Trip to the Hole! They had tons of dark rides, fun hauses and haunted hauses... I have never seen so many colors and lights on rides before...this is like Claw at Hershey, but about ten times more kick-ass! In case you can't get a seat in one of the beer halls or gardens, they have booze-go-rounds where you can hop on to enjoy your favorite Bavarian beer! Oktoberfest is very disorienting...dark one minute and light the next! Some looked like they may have had one too many Mas! Later that evening, we headed over to Oktoberfest. It was about a ten minute walk from our hotel room. After the beer and pretzels, we were shot. It was time to check into the hotel for a quick snooze. While the room was small, if they have a Dali hanging on the wall it automatically gets four stars! Not to disappoint some of the guys out there, I have to include some obligatory pics of German women in classic Bavarian attire! A Mas of beer and a pretzel - YAY! Seriously, these "breze" were enough for a meal...they were huge! Being that we were in Munich by 11:00 AM, we decided to walk around and just happened to end up here for an early breakfast of.... Welcome to Munich and the beautiful Marienplatz! De plane boss, de plane! This is actually the pond jumper we took from Philly to Munich. What better way to start out a trip to Oktoberfest than with a beer at the Buff airport?

Great reports, guys! I wish that we had more time to explore the German theme parks, but we are looking very forward to hitting up the only one we have time for on our trip this Thursday - Europa Park!

So Saturday we sorta expected the crowds to be a bit larger than Friday night. My God (oops, I mean gosh) were they ever! I knew it was going to be bad when our "ERT" for being a Camper Village guest consisted of a half hour wait for MF! Despite the fact, we just kinda walked around at our own leisure, took pictures and drank beer. The crowds did manage to dissipate some once the Christian rock concert was over, but no where near as light as Friday night. I think we got on a total of about six rides on Saturday. CP goin' green. Thx for reading, I'm off to Germany on Tuesday - YAY! Stay tuned for Oktoberfest drunken wackiness and (hopefully) some Europa Park goodness! Who wouldn't want to ride a Green Monster? While I wasn't thrilled with the big crowds, I wasn't nearly as p*ssed as Rocky Racoon! Good ole' WWL...RIP. New for 2009 - brought to you by National Grid. The new sign on the Frontier Trail. Oooohhh/ahhhhhh! The old Pirate dark ride is now home to the Magic House on Boo Hill. Complete with awesome purple pumpkins! Great view of a great skyline. ...till we saw this. Ugghhh, no thanks. We were going to ride Raptor... Took a ride on the Space Spiral since there was only a five minute wait. Even Demon Drop had a half hour wait. I had to do it though...I'm not sure how much longer it will be in operation! Beware though...the games will eat your quarters and not give you any plays! Happened to me three times and this little bast#$d was one of 'em! After the Midway show, we decided to go into the old Coliseum and play retro video games! This is where they danced to Thriller - yep, the entire song! But Michael didn't care - he joined right in the festivities! Perhaps the beer was starting to kick in? They had cool non-Disney, DC, Marvel characters on the Midway. They were getting shunned by the kids because they didn't recognize any of them from Nickelodeon TV. Lynyrd Skynyrd made a cameo with the Grave-Full Dead...but where the eff is Kid Rock? We're not drunkards...really. We just get really happy when we see beer! ICE COLD LABATTS! YAY! They also had Bud Lite and a pumpkin spice ale for Halloweekends. Psyche! Red Garter is still here in all her glory. She still serves plenty of.... Here they are burning down the old Red Garter Saloon to make room for STR. Here is your construction pic of STR. Impressed? CCMR flashing it's backside. Billy Bob's helping to build the logs that will be used for Shoot The Rapids. Here's everyone's favorite. I would have ridden it because I don't think it as bad as everyone says it is. But wait in a line for it? Not today. This element here will karate chop you in the neck if you are not well prepared. Perhaps the best part of the ride here. Maverick looking sexy today...too bad the line wasn't very sexy. Glad I rode you last night! Upskirt...LE&CP style. TTT!!!! Funny how the drop doesn't look that high from this angle. Well okay, maybe it's really not THAT funny! Wheelie shot... THis MF angle is brought to you by the CP & LE Railroad. This was the MF queue right after we got off our "ERT". Something tells me they opened the gates to the GP early today! We brought our own black cat with us to Halloweekends...say hell-o to Betty Boop!

^ I have never been questioned about walking around the park with a beer. They may say something if you try and enter a line with it though... As far as crowds and waits, Saturday's can be brutal. Friday and Sunday are the way to go...at least when I have been there. I just did a P:TR for Halloweekends. Not much to show in terms of the haunts, but you'll get a general idea of how the crowds differed from Friday to Saturday. Have fun!

Welllll...I guess it does have a kidney bean over water.

On Friday, September 18th, we headed out to our 4th annual trip to CP for Halloweekends. Last year, we overdid ourselves by going into the park on Friday night and then getting the two day pass for Sat and Sun. This year, we did the wise thing and only went in Friday and Saturday. One thing we weren't expecting was the 'Heaven & Hell' day at CP with a Christian rock concert (Toby Mac+others) in the parking lot of Soak City. I only go to CP once or twice a year, but this is the first time I have ever known them to have a concert. Regardless, the park was PACKED on Saturday! As you can see from my shot from the Space Spiral, there did not seem to be many empty parking spaces. For that reason, we did not ride much because the waits were simply too long. Despite the fact, we still had a great time and the crowds were very light on Friday night. We got on just about everything then, so no biggie that we didn't ride a lot Saturday. The weather was perfect both days. I can't give a report on the haunts as the lines just seemed way too long. The line was full for Happy Jack's Toy Factory and weaved behind Disaster Transport almost all the way back to Wicked Twister. Not knowing how long the lines were once you got inside, we decided to pass. We'll close out Friday night with some random theming. Here are some tombstones...Whyte/Kuns. Anyone know who they are? Next up - Saturday's CP (extremely crowded) Heaven & Hell Fest! Floral wheel. Happy 20th b-day Magnum! Rode it Friday night in the fifth seat..awesome. Rode it Saturday in the 3rd seat and got thigh bruises. Think he's getting a little tempermental in his old age! CP Factoid: This was from the Wildcat incident last year. *Disclaimer: I don't know what the hell (oops, I mean heck!) I'm talking about and my supposed "facts" are not really backed up by much of anything. Here are the Bills, Jets and Patriots fans rejoicing over Tom Brady's untimely demise! Which Brady is it? If a Bills, Jets or Dolphins fan designed it, I am sure it must be Tom. Oh, the joys of a non-crowded park!!! Millenium line on Saturday (ugh). This was minutes after the resort ERT ended at noon. I can't help but think they opened the gates to the GP a little earlier than advertised. Millenium line on Friday night - sweet! Returning from the grave in 2010!!!! One of the new haunts - HJTF. I will say that the flat cycles were longer than normal due to the low crowds. Matterhorn was begging people to ride. ...as was MaxAir. Wicked Twister was a walk-on... But we had fun on Friday night including a three car wait for TTD! Here is the parking lot from the Space Spiral on Saturday - fail! Interesting concept...a Christian rock fest during a Halloween event. Well, I'll be damned...I mean darned! Wait...what is this stage thing set up in the Soak City parking lot? ...such as mummies on Antique Cars with spookily awesome window glare! A familiar skyline, but with the addition of bug guts and power lines. I always try to capture images that no one else has posted on TPR! Yep, here we are again...Cedar Point Halloweekends 2009!

^ Thanks for the comment - glad you enjoyed the reports! ^^Ahhhh...I thought it was a generic Sally doll! Guess I'm not up to speed with some of the "newer" cartoons like Clifford!

^ It looked different in the way it ran through the woods in the concrete trough, but the lifts and drops looked like your standard flume (belt lift with splashdown). I wish we could have tried it, but it was getting chilly and dark around the time we reached that end of the park. They did have some cool looking tunnels and water guns so specators could douse the riders!

HAHA! Great post! I remember when they used to have rock/alternative/rap/metal videos with Martha Quinn, Kennedy, Riki Rachtman, Kurt Loder, Ed Lover, and Adam Curry. It was all about cool 80's videos....what idiot(s) screwed up the good thing they used to have? MTV for about the last 10 years has been the biggest pile of crap channel I have ever seen. Stupid reality shows, bogus, staged awards shows, lame V-Jays...I gave up and finally realized that they were no longer music television, but fail television. MTV eats total

I have been a Bills fan my entire life, so I am used to seeing endless blunders. We might as well marry Cleveland, Detroit and Cincinnati because we are one and the same! ^Seriously, we had the game won and failed on our own stupidity. Brady struggled as could be expected, but made the plays when it counted. You are right in that NE made us pay for our mistakes. Good teams figure out ways to win and bad teams will always figure out ways to lose. Total deja-vu from the Dallas Monday night game two years ago, the Jets game last year, the four Super Bowl losses, etc, etc, etc....uggghhhh! Yes, it totally sucks to be a Bills fan!!!!

HAHA! That's okay, Larry! I have learned my lesson and will most likely post Philrad's 2010 adventures individually so it won't take the pages forever to load. I have had a good time posting these and hope folks have enjoyed our reports! PS: Coming soon - Cedar Point's Halloweekends, Oktoberfest 2009 and (hopefully) Europa Park!

Canobie on 9/12/09... Thanks Olde and Newe Canobie Park - you are one cool little amusement park! Hmmm...lot's of questions with this pic. Is this Sally from the Peanuts gang? Will this park succeed because it doesn't have a Nickelodeon themed kids area so little one's won't recognize the characters and therefore not have fun? Will a car skid into all those Sally's? Which Sally would you choose if you had your choice? Ferris Wheel with an ominous background. The flume ride looked neat, but we were wet enough by that time. A nicely themed water tube ride that you ride with your clothes on. I believe these were a big hit at parks in the 80's. For the dark ride car/loading platform enthusiasts... 'Mine of Lost Souls' a rather lengthy dark ride for the family - very cool! Complete with a screaming wench - too awesome! Next up was the diversely named 'Pirata'. 73' high with two inversions! The coaster came from Old Chicago (Chicago Loop), Alabama State Fairgrounds (Corkscrew) and then to Canobie - according to RCDB. I thought it might have been the Python from Busch, but I was wrong. Everyone's favorite - the old Arrow Corkscrew! Could it really be? And what have we here? Anyone that likes big meat needs to visit Canobie Lake! Is it me, or is the chef trying to lick his own meat? Giant cotton candy! More awesome big food! They had a half-pipe Skater, but it was the only ride that wasn't running. They tested while we were in the area, but I never saw anyone actually on it. And the fully nude/exposed Caterpillar in all her green glory! Semi-nude Caterpillar getting ready to reveal all! Like Idlewild, they had a Caterpillar with the cover. They covered you immediately and kept you covered most of the ride. DaVinci's Dream was the best themed swing ride I have ever seen. If you like your Scrambler experience to be partially lighted and you enjoy the stench of sweaty socks, you'll love this ride! Psycho-Drome: our first indoor Scrambler. First drop...not much, but a fun little coaster and very smooth for it's age! So here are a couple from the parking lot. Yup...it's a lift hill. Not a lot of places to get shots of this one except from the parking lot. The main deal here was the Yankee Cannonball coaster. Only 63 feet high, but we caught some nice air at the tops of the hills - especially in the front! But they told us before we bought our tickets that all the rides would run in the rain...as long as there was no thunder or lightning! Woo-Hoo! This one tested my stamina though... Next up was the well-themed 'Wipeout'. At that point, it began misting so we got a little wet on this one. The flyers had big cock heads painted on them. Next up - Rowdy Rooster. Always have to do the flyers! I think Michael was trying to teach his grand-daughter how to snap! First up was the Frisbee. The ride cycle on this seemed about triple the duration of the one at SFNE (Tomahawk). Awesome flat! Well maintained and very clean. Kinda reminds me of Conneaut Lake and Waldameer. I sure wish Conneaut could get the funding to upgrade their park to similar standards. One of the coolest things about Canobie - big food! They were preparing the park for Screeemfest. Welcome to a wet Canobie Lake!

Last weekend, we visited Canobie Lake park in Salem, NH. Despite the fact that it had been raining and would continue to spit and sputter throughout the day, the park was actually quite busy! Overall, we were very impressed with the park. Very clean with some well-themed rides and (for the most part) friendly employees. Not a ton of thrill rides, but a great family park with a nice lakefront setting. We took Michael's grand-daughters there and they loved it! They are now tall enough (barely 54") to ride just about any coaster or ride. I sure wish I would have been as bold as they are when I was 7 & 9!!!! Onto the pics....

Well, here I am again...the guy that has never been on a TPR field trip but posts wacky trip reports that make people scratch their heads and go, "WTF"? I am hoping that I can get 1,000 pictures on one page one day just to boggggggg down your 'puters when you try to download! This time is yet another Labor Day weekend outing at HersheyPark. What can one say about Hershey? We are 3 for 3 on Labor Day weekends as far as weather and the park kicks major ass...that is all. Last picture of us waiting in line for Fahrenheit. Don't worry kids, we're really not drunk! The Alive Milkmen were performing a free show... Even Fahrenheit cannot escape it's wicked amount of wetness! Ever rode Tidal Force? It is a very evil water ride that forces mass amounts of wetness by placing cargo nets above to keep the water from escaping! Sea lion wouldn't hesitate to bark at the crowd if people weren't clapping despite the failure of the villain getting too drunk the night before and not showing up for his scheduled performance! I guess the villain decided to call in sick, so they improvised the normal show with more high diving and sea lion antics than usual - it rocked! They also had high divers. I'm only kidding...he really DID love balancing a ball on his nose to get those fishy treats! Fortunately for PETA, only one sea lion was hurt in the creation of this show. The sea lion show told us that we would get wet only because it was a salt water show. If it was regular water, you would leave as a dry person. Man, I miss me some Green Water Landing at CP. But sunny days are here again with the announcement of the moonshine drinkin' anti-kids/anti-family log ride. Woo-Hoo! I guess that this could be a queue for an Intamin someday. This is the hose in which the track lubricants flow...BEWARE! Noted track lubricants. Great Bear had a shower in the queue! Six Flags charges $1 per locker to store stuff while Hershey offers showers to guests that may have gotten soiled by track lubricants while in line! My Dad wanted to represent TPR West Coast Bash at Hershey - how cool is that? This is another place where Great Bear and Great Beer unite. Great Bear meet Great Beer. Great Beer. Great Bear. Let your children play...yeeeeaaah. Riders on the Storm... I have never been on this, but I would really like to own one. Downsa-daisy. Upsa-daisy.... Under the Boardwalk - we were not out of the sun, there were no people walking above...and believe it or not, we fell in love a long time before this pic! HA! This coaster is really neat and fun and is one my favorite Intamin coasters that would not be named: Millenium Force, El Toro, Bizarro or Expedition GeForce. Along with those European/Asian Mega-Lite coasters normal people won't ever be able to ride in their lifetime cuz they won't build them in the U.S....ummmm, StormRunner, Top Thrill Dragster and ummmmm....maybe Dale Earnhardt's new Nascar thingies? TPR tip #1 - ask for the cup of ice water! It will save you $3.50 and it really, really tastes like water, I swear it! If anyone ever cared to see the backside of East Coast Water Works...enjoy! Hey there StormRunner...what's goin' on? Say 'Hi' to your mutha for me, kay? Roller Soaker - don't worry, I only waited 45 minutes for it this year... Yesssss! Track, treck, trick, trock, truck. This was my "cram the entire park into one picture" picture. Wildcat - love the awesome cat logo, but the coaster is about the most "mehhh" coaster I have ever ridden. Although, I do like the strange farting noises it makes at the end of the circuit though - almost like it had too much fried food & cheese. Oh wait, it's straightened up it's act now....sorta. Guess it's middle of the road and doesn't know what the hell to support - kinda like me. Fahrenheit appears to be sinnnnking to the left. Must be one o' those darn Obama supporters. But wait, if you look at it from the other direction it is leaning towards the right. Damn those Conservative right-wing bastards! AAAARGGGHHH...which way am I supposed to be looking??? Only trouble is that they made it a two person raft instead of a four person...and only put in a total of four waterslides - FAIL! So Hershey added a Tornado a couple of years ago when they launched the Boardwalk... Lightning Racer - what can you say about this other than it is almost always a walk-on and kicks tons-o-buttock! This contraption is designed to cage in little brats and dump water on their heads almost continually so they will behave the rest of the day at Hershey. Tudor style houses and chocolate - two great tastes that go great together! Mmmmmmm! Our campsite at the High Meadows Campground. We lucked out enough to be about 90 yards from the railroad track. We learned this in Williamsburg at the Anvil - if you're close enough to the tracks, you can't get in trouble for making too much noise!

Thanks for the report! I will be going to CP next weekend for my annual b-day theme park trip. I will definitely check out some of these new haunts! PS - I would pass on the BloodLight, but will they serve anything like Morbid Molson or Lucifer's Labatts?

I would have to say it would depend on the day and how bad the lines were running. I have been there when Skyhawk seemed like it went to max height maybe twice each way and other times when it went at least four to five each way. I have never had a short cycle on Max Air. I will say some of the other flats seem a little tame, but I have gotten similar experiences at other bigger theme parks. I still like doing the Monster/Spider and I would not say the cycle is any less than the one's at Idlewild or Waldameer. Witches Wheel/Enterprise rides always seem like they are good for about three to four revolutions completely upside down and then it's coming back down. As far as Matterhorn, Troika and Himalaya...I don't see much difference in those either unless you ride them at a fair where they will typically run them a bit faster. I could have probably power-walked around the loading platform for Himalaya faster than the one at Hershey was running this past weekend. Sooo...in a nutshell, I really have not seen a tremendous amount of difference in flat ride experiences at other theme and amusement parks I have visited in the past. The only park I can think of where the ride cycles seemed incredibly lengthy was at Martin's Fantasy Island a couple of weeks ago. I was practically begging to get off that Star Flyer ride...ten spins, drop halfway down the tower and then go back to the top for twenty more spins was a bit ridiculous!! Not to mention what seemed like a half an hour on the Sizzler!

Buffalo Bills starting unit scores three points in five pre-season games, so they fire their OC a week before the season starts and then axe their starting left tackle today...good idea with New England looming on the horizon next Monday night?? Unfortunately, the local media and fans were calling for Schonert and Jauron's heads at the end of last season...so what do they do? They wait till a week before the regular season starts and then decide to start over! UGGGHHH!!!! Looks like another long season of no playoffs for Bills fans. Oh wait...we got us some T.O., so no worries, right?? It's no wonder Buffalo is classified as a drinking town with a sports problem!

Gahhh...so sad to see such a fun coaster retire, but I am glad I got to ride it one more time in June. I am really gonna miss this one!!!

^ I wish I could say the same...we rode in the front seat last year and were jackhammered like nobody's business. No airtime felt on the hills at all and the turns felt like we were running on square wheels. This coaster is simply not fun at all. I have never been beaten this bad on Mean Streak and probably have over 50 rides on it since it's debut. Definitely not what it used to be, but I would not rate it in the top five worst wooden coaster experiences. Hurler is definitely in my top five for worst wooden coasters...probably #2 behind SOB.

^ Awesome! Yes, I agree...Thunder Canyon is fun, but it sucks to smell like Lake Erie water for the rest of the day. In looking at the price tag, I think it would be pretty costly to develop an all new water supply system over the top of an already existing water supply from Lake Erie....sure glad they are though!

A great addition for the park and for families! Despite all of the complaining on here, CP basically delivered what most people wanted...a replacement water-themed attraction for WWL and a family-friendly ride. I originally called a water ride, but I really figured that CP would go for tallest and fastest. I am glad that they went mid-range with the lift heights so all family members can enjoy it. One thing I am wondering - are they going to utilize Lake Erie water like on Thunder Canyon, or have it's own water supply like SNF?

^ I agree. Kennywood would be a good park to visit on a non-holiday weekend. CP should have almost all the trains running on the major coasters so lines should move fairly quick. My family used to go to CP every Memorial Day and Labor Day weekend and I can say the crowds were never insanely long. However...I definitely wouldn't plan for walk-on's and 15 minute waits, as they are forecasting a beautiful weekend for the NorthEast which could bring out larger crowds. Particularly knowing people have been frustrated with the crappy weather we have had around the Great Lakes region this summer.

Nice job on the report! I also agree that Firehawk really impressed me. I had ridden Tatsu and was a little leary of a letdown, but this was way better than I imagined...especially for a Vekoma! We were lucky enough to hit it in the front seat at night when the line was slow - good thing because when we went back for another ride the next day, the line was well over 1-1/2 hours.

I think that was the year they put in Snake River Falls. I noticed that they usually have the pattern of adding a new coaster every two to three years. Even though it has been a couple since Maverick, I also feel that the new attraction for 2010 is going to be water themed, which is perfectly fine. Although if it's a new coaster, even better!