bubala

So, I will be heading up to Canada's Wonderland at the end of April to participate in the first ride charity auction for Leviathan on April 27, 2012. I will have one extra to ticket to the park for that evening. This ticket does not include a "first" ride on Leviathan, but, the park will be open on the evening of April 27th for winning auction bidders and their friends to enjoy. I would imagine that the park will also be open to the public on that night, but I am not sure. The park's website does not list that day as a regular operating day. If anyone is interested in using this ticket, please let me know. I hate to see it go to waste! Oh yeah, it's free! -Jason

Stopped by the park today and snapped a few pics of the demolition work going on at Skull Mountain. Looks like they're tearing it down pretty quickly now that the park is only open on weekends. Notice that most of the final lift hill is gone! All of the first lift and first drop are gone too! Lots of the lower trough is missing now. Something is missing here... Still a lot of the trough left after the final drop and on the final turnaround. Breaking up the concrete! The old ancient Skull Mountain ruins! More ruins. Interestingly, they have not started demolition on the station. Might they be considering using the station for a haunt this year? Crumble! There was a lot more demolition work that I could not photograph since I could not get to those areas from any publicly accessible area within the park. A ride on Roar, however, allowed me to see that they have completely demolished the enclosed turn around after the first drop. There are huge piles of rubble waiting to be hauled away from the site. They are really destroying Skull Mountain very quickly! At the rate that they are currently progressing with the demolition, the whole ride could easily be gone by the end of September. All pics were taken from public areas of the park. No park rules were violated during the taking of these pictures.

I'm not embarrassed by it at all. All of my friends and family know I'm a big roller coaster nerd! They don't really get it sometimes, but I don't care. I get that "eyes glazed over look" so many times when I am talking about roller coasters and amusement parks, but that never stops me. It's my obsession. Everyone has an obsession, and many obsessions are nowhere near as healthy as a harmless fascination with roller coasters and amusement parks. Stand tall and be proud! You are not alone!

Bizarro Bash was my very first Theme Park Review trip ever! I was a little apprehensive about going, since I really don't know anyone in the club personally and I was on this trip by myself. My worries were completely unnecessary though. Everyone I met while on the trip was super nice. It felt so good to be amongst my own kind of people; People who understand my obsession; People who don't look at me like I'm an idiot when I tell them I spent my entire vacation driving around New England to every little amusement park to ride every roller coaster I could find! I cannot wait to meet up with the group again in the future for more trips! Now, onto the pics... Good Morning! SFNE has special significance to me. I was married in this park in 2009! Right in the middle of Bizarro! Gag! I could certainly do without the spinning! BONUS CREDIT! Last time I was here, they wouldn't let me ride this! Lunch time! That's a whole lotta wieners! Too bad you couldn't use your Flash Pass at the beer line! We were treated to a great Q&A session with SFNE park president, Jason Freeman during lunch. See? Everyone was very interested in what he had to say. Time for TPR Quest! What fun! Um.... I've got nothing... Bizarro's nuts! Another credit for me! Yay! I've never been to Kentucky Kingdom. The park was very crowded. Everyone was probably there to see all the famous Club TPR members! Pretty Mind Eraser. I like these colors better than the oranges at SFA. One of the big highlights of the day for me! My first ever backstage tour! Membership has it's privileges! I felt so at home in this crowd! Mind Eraser's nuts! I hope no one's shoes fall off! Bizarro & Batman are really close friends. You can't get this photo every day. Or this one! Batman's nuts! (Yes, I apparently have a nut fetish!) More backstage tour goodness! And one more. Twisty, Bizarro fun! Nerd shot... Aha! So, that's why I was craving M&M's all day. Pretty night shot of Cyclone. Pretty night shot of Pandemonium. Pretty night shot of an ugly old Vekoma Boomerang! This shot almost makes me like Flashback! Thunderbolt was great at night. Time for some night time ERT. Amazing! Whoosh! Scream! Bizarro night time ERT was simply amazing. Pretty! OMG! I so wanted to win a wheel during the Gauntlet Water Challenge! I tried to hold my cup of water in my mouth during the ride. It was working until someone made me laugh and I almost drowned! The walk back to the car after ERT was so peaceful. I love an empty amusement park at night. Goodbye SFNE! Hopefully we will meet up again really soon.

Oops! I guess I should have posted this in this thread and not in the SFGAm thread. Duh for me! Looks like SFA's Site Concept permit for their top secret "Stand Up Coaster" (*smirk*) has been approved.

It looks like the Site Concept permit that SFA submitted was approved...

Yes, I was!

On the way back from Funtown Splashtown and Palace Playland, I stopped off at Canobie Lake Park and took advantage of their twilight special price deal. This was my first time at Canobie Lake Park. The park was very crowded when I arrived at around 5:30pm. The crowds thinned out during the course of the night, and I eventually got to do everything I wanted to. Canobie Lake Park is awesome! They have such a great assortment of rides. The theming on everything (rides, buildings, etc.) is excellent. If you're just looking for coasters, then Canobie probably is not going to be your favorite place. But, if you are looking for a nice traditional park with something for everyone and plenty to do, then give Canobie a try. Oh, and I learned that I have been pronouncing Canobie wrong all of my life. The 'o' is silent, and the accent is on the 'Can." Now, let's roll that beautiful bean footage... Very welcoming entrance plaza. The first thing I rode was the Yankee Cannonball. It was okay. A little rough in some spots though. I only managed to get one ride on YC, because there was only one train running and the line was pretty long all night. What's missing in this picture? Next, I headed over to Big Bear Plaza for the new for 2011 Gerstlauer coaster, Untamed! The station is themed very well, like a lodge. The eight seater trains are actually bears! Awesome! Twisty goodness! Nerd shot! Isn't it pretty? Night time twisty goodness! Another credit! Ka-ching! I sometimes wonder what the adults watching their children ride these coasters think when this crazy 40 year old man gets on all by himself? Next up was Canobie Corkscrew. An arrow corkscrew coaster. The best part of the ride! Obligatory pretty sun through the coaster track shot. three... two... one... OUCH! Shut The Front Door! What is that???? A dark ride? I love dark rides! The Mine Of Lost Souls was entertaining. Did I mention that I love dark rides! The popcorn stand is shaped like popcorn! The fried dough sign is shaped like fried dough! The schozzberries taste like schnozzberries... er... I mean the hot dog stand is shaped like a hot dog! This might just be the coolest theming for a Round Up ever! I still didn't ride it though! It certainly isn't the largest, but what it lacks in size, it makes up for in style! Oh deer... Noted! I'll be sure to put my clothes back on and secure my equipment! Possibly the best ride in the park! This ride is older than me, but much more exciting! I love the disco balls on top! The lights on the Pirata ship are very pretty. Another big wheel that I didn't get to ride! I would have loved to take a night time spin on this one. The wheel has an excellent LED package. Anyone know what they're building behind Untamed? These antler chandeliers on Untamed were a nice touch. Stupid tree hugger! Roar! Geek shot from Canobie Corkscrew. Aw... nuts! Canobie Lake Park was all that and a bag of fries!

Yes, it was terrifying! I'm not too afraid of heights, but dangling there 50 or 60 feet above jagged boulders for a half an hour was not as much fun as it might seem!

I took a ride to Maine yesterday to grab a few new credits at Funtown Splashtown in Saco, Maine and Palace Playland in Old Orchard Beach, Maine. Both parks were well worth the trip! (About 3 hours from my hotel in Enfield, Connecticut.) I'll let the pictures do the 'splainin... It's a fun... and splashy town! Yay! Another woodie! There is a much higher percentage of woodies in New England! Excalibur is a fun little twister that blends nicely in to the trees and woods that surround it. This is not the first coaster that I have been on with a castle around it. 100 feet to the top... Fun! Funtown Splashtown has a great collection of flat rides. I love the theming on this Trabant! It almost made me want to ride it... almost. Wait! What's that hiding over there behind those buildings? Why, it's a Maurer Söhne Wild Mouse... Meh! Wheeeeee! Hey man, thanks for the tip! I am so not used to "freestyle" bumper cars. Back home, they only let you go in one direction. I love this dragon! The theming for Dragon's Descent was done very well! I was told that the view from the top of this one was incredible. You can see the Atlantic Ocean! The line was too long for me to wait though. Must... ride... coasters! Whereas this picture is not all that exciting to me, I am including it for the benefit of others. Mario? Luigi? I think I'm going to fit right in here! Next stop, Palace Playland! Um, okay... If you're into that sorta thing... Zamperla has got it going on! Why is this slide called the Euro Slide? Is it uncut? Time for some Galaxi goodness! One of my first coasters 30-something years ago was the Galaxi at Kings Dominion. Pretty sun through the coaster shot! More prettiness. Oh, yes I did! I'm a total credit whore. Oh, did I mention that there is a beach here? Hello? Homeland Security? I have a tip for you... Another big wheel that I cannot ride. I need some friends! *sniff* I'm too sexy for this ride... Or, maybe it's the other way around. I originally refused to ride this when I got to the park, but I changed my mind and rode it. It wasn't that bad! I originally refused to ride this when I got to the park, and I did not change my mind! Troika? Troika? Troika?!? A friend suggested that I get a lobster roll while I was in Maine. I did... That is all. No Dogs Allowed! Hey! I said no dogs allowed! Yay! A penny smasher! Booooooo! Decisions, decisions. Um... No comment. Like JJ says... Funtown Splashtown and Palace Playland were Dy-No-Mite!

After leaving Quassy on Wednesday, July 27th, I headed over to Lake Compounce to check out what had changed since the last time I was there in 2003. I remember the exact date of my last visit to the park. It was August 14, 2003. Does anyone know of any significant events that happened on August 14, 2003? If you said, "Oh, that was the date of the big Northeast Blackout Of 2003," you are correct! Of all places to be on that date at 4:10pm, we were on the Lake Compounce Sky Ride. We had just turned around at the top of the mountain and were about to start our descent back down over the rocky jagged boulders when the ride stopped! At first, we figured it would be a quick stop. The ride operator had told us that the ride might stop for a few seconds while we on it. Nothing to worry about. Well, about 30 terrify minutes later, the ride finally started moving again! Apparently, they have some sort of backup power generator for just such a situation. Phew! The park has made some fantastic improvements over the years. Down Time, Thunder 'N Lightning, The Revolution. I'm still waiting for them to add a new coaster though. It seems like they would have added one at some point over the past eight years! Maybe with their recent acquisition of new land, they will finally make room for a new coaster. Fingers crossed! Now, for a few pics... Lake Compounce is very picturesque. I love how a lot of the park is built into it's surroundings. This is honestly the most terrifying ride I have ever been on in my life. I can't believe they let me ride alone! Nasty 'ol Zoomerang! Your pretty sign cannot hide the fact that you are a Vekoma head banger! Note the empty train... Nobody likes you, Zoomerang! (Actually, the ride was testing after it had gotten stuck on the lift a few minutes earlier.) I loves me some Trolley rides! No credit whoring for me today! I could not a find a youngster to borrow! *sniff* Not sure what look they're going for here. The abandoned Kiddie Coaster look? Someone needs to take a weed whacker to that mess! I love the theming on Down Time. Although, I'm not sure that Down Time is the best choice of names for a ride... Wheeee! Having some "Up" time on Down Time! The 2007 retracking of Boulder Dash must have helped! The ride was very smooth. This is one of my favorite woodies! Definitely the best terrain coaster I have ever been on! I made a new friend! His name is Brutus, and he enjoys cuddling, long walks on the beach, and picking his nose. The first of several big wheels that I will not be allowed to ride on this tour. No single riders...

Yesterday morning, I boarded a plane from and took off from Baltimore to Hartford for the first day of my own little solo tour of several New England parks. Just as soon as I got off the plane and got my rental car, I was on my way to the first stop of the day, Quassy in Middlebury, CT. When I arrived at Quassy, I was a little skeptical. Quassy is a small park that sort of resembles a carnival or a fair. It reminded me ever so slightly of the now defunct Williams Grove. I actually ended up really liking this park a lot though! The new Wooden Warrior roller coaster is great! It packs quite a punch for a tweener. The Timberliner trains are very spacious and have comfortable individual seats with lots of room under the lap bar to accommodate a wide variety of rider sizes. The ride was very smooth for a woodie, and there was a surprising amount of airtime for such a small coaster. The only only other coaster in the park is the Little Dipper, an Allan Herschell oval kiddie coaster. (Yes, I did ride it! Credit whore credit! Woo hoo!) Now, on to the pics... Yay! A new park for me equals new credits! The Wooden Warrior coaster is a great addition to this park that is geared towards children. I heart these trains! The park has a lot of random things like this scary constipated, um... Humpty Dumpty? SNOOPY! Is this a Cedar Fair property? What a beautiful nut... Quassy has several spinny, barfy, flat rides. Not usually my thing, but I did ride a few of them and I didn't throw up! Random Scooby Doo. This is one of two random Scooby Doos that I saw. First person to tell me where the 2nd one is wins a dollar! I had arranged my own private backstage tour of the Fun Slide, but it turned out to be much less exciting and informative than I thought it would be... Yo Yo... Yo! What a beautiful pair of nuts! Yay! Another credit! Imagine how pathetic I looked riding this all by myself. I'm a 40 year old man... Nice... um... rooster! Boob credit! Does it count if they're covered up? The world's largest toilet ride! Shhhhh! Don't tell the Disney lawyers about this! If your faceless child turns up missing, random SpongeBob probably kidnapped them!

Here is some video footage of Skull Mountain shot on July 10,2011, the final day. I managed to get a ride on the very last boat that went out for the public. So, I was one of the very first riders in 1997 and one of the very last riders in 2011. I didn't think I would be sad to see the ride go, but I really am. I am so glad I made the trip to the park for a few more rides on that final day. Enjoy! -Jason

I will be heading up to the Bizarro Bash early on July 27th. (My first TPR trip! I'm a virgin!) The plan is to hit several of the smaller parks in the area before heading to SFNE on Saturday. Plans include stops at Quassy Amusement Park and Lake Compounce in Connecticut, Canobie Lake Park in New Hampshire and Funtown Splashtown USA and Palace Playland in Maine. (Yes, I am a credit whore...) Although I am used to traveling around the country all by myself, like a big nerd, collecting roller coaster rides, if there happens to be anyone out there who will be in that area with nothing else to do and who wants to join me, let me know. These will be day trips, and I will be leaving from my hotel near SFNE each day. I will provide the transportation, but you would have to pay your own way at the parks. I am looking forward to finally meeting a big group of people who are just as crazy about roller coasters and amusement parks as I am! Most of my friends just don't get it!

I also made a video of my trip on Monday with footage of Superman, Joker's Jinx, Batwing and Skull Mountain. It's my first video ever! Be gentle! It's on YouTube:

On July 10, 2011, lucky riders will take their final plunge on Skull Mountain at Six Flags America. The ride is going away to make room for a new attraction scheduled to open in 2012. I have a special place in my heart for Typhoon Sea Coaster. I remember when the ride opened way back in 1997. I was working at the park which was called Adventure World back then since Premier Parks had not yet bought the Six Flags chain. I was assigned as a ride attendant on Typhoon Sea Coaster during it’s first season. As is the case with a lot of new rides, Typhoon Sea Coaster was not ready for opening day. In fact, for the first several days I was stationed at the ride, they had not even added the water into the ride’s reservoirs yet. Park management had us climb down inside the ride with brooms and dustpans and sweep out all of the dirt and debris from inside the water basins. I was actually nerdy enough to enjoy that work since it gave me insight onto the inner workings of the ride. After the ride finally did open, a lot of my first few weeks were spent manning any one of the three turntables on the ride while Adventure World maintenance staff, outside engineers and Sandor Kernacs from Intamin Worldwide worked all of the kinks and bugs out of the ride. A big problem with the ride when it first opened was that the turntables that were supposed to turn the boats around at various points during the ride did not always turn the boats into the right positions. Here is how it was supposed to work, or so I was told. There were holes all around the perimeter of each turntable. An electric eye was supposed to shoot a beam of light up through the holes as the turntable spun around and count the number holes that passed over the electric eye and then stop the turntable after a pre-determined number of holes had passed over the eye. The problem was that holes covered with water or other debris were not always counted accurately by the electric eye, so the boats would sometimes stop too soon or too late and not be properly aligned for the plunger to push them off of the turntables. In fact, one time, when I was stationed at the first turntable at the top of the first lift hill, the boat did not align properly. It was way off and the plunger was about to push the boat off of the platform in the wrong direction. There were not guard rails all the way around the sides of the platform at that time. The platform is about 20 feet in the air, and there were guests on the boat! I thought for sure that a boat full of guests was going to be pushed sideways off of the platform and drop 20 feet to the concrete below! They hadn’t really trained us all that well about what to do in such a situation since no one had assumed that something like this could or would happen. Fortunately though, they had stationed representatives from Intamin at each turntable with us. The Intamin guy pushed the e-Stop button just before the boat was launched off of the side of the turntable! It was amazing how fast all of the water drained out of the ride after the e-Stop button was pushed. They installed more and higher guard rails all around the first turntable shortly after that! It took a while to get the ride running smoothly and consistently. For most of the first season, we all jokingly referred to Typhoon Sea Coaster as either Typhoon Sea Disaster or as the 2A Sea Coaster. (2A was the park’s code that meant that a ride was broken down with passengers stranded on it.) Close to the end of the summer, they finally got the ride running pretty reliably, although I don’t think they ever got it running with the maximum number of boats that were theoretically possible. I was always disappointed with the theming of Typhoon Sea Coaster. The concept art showed a much more exciting ride with a fully enclosed Skull mountain, a lighthouse around the first turntable and many more water effects. When the ride first opened, it had a couple of water falls that would spill down over the mountain and out of the skull’s left eye, but over the years the water pumps for those waterfalls fell into disrepair and were never fixed. If the ride had been built to more closely match the concept art, I am sure that it would have been such a better experience. The addition of the pirate scenes and music in later years helped, but I still always felt that the ride could have been so much more. All of that being said, I will still miss the ride when it is gone. I have a lot of memories of the ride and of how excited I was when I heard that it was going to be built. I look back fondly on my time spent working on Typhoon Sea Coaster. The good times, like the night we climbed up to the top of the 2nd lift hill and watched the fireworks from up there. It was the 4th of July, and there were many fireworks displays all around the area that night. We certainly had the best seats for all of them! The bad times, like when that boat full of guests almost plunged off the first turntable! Thanks for the memories, Typhoon Sea Coaster. You will be gone soon, but certainly not forgotten! If you haven’t already, get to Six Flags America quickly and get your last ride in! I got mine on Monday, and I may even go back for one more ride before it is gone forever.

The Rattler at Six Flags Fiesta Texas on June 16, 2011. The Rattler!

**UPDATE: Sorry, but the tickets have already been claimed!** Hey Gang, I am going to have 2 extra tickets for the Intimidator 305 First Rider Event at Kings Dominion tomorrow. I'd hate to see them go to waste. If you can be at the park BEFORE 9am tomorrow, April 2, 2010, let me know.This is not an April Fool's joke. I really do have two extra tickets. You would not be on the auction winners' trains, but you would be in line right behind the auction train riders. Message me here on TPR if interested. Thanks! -Jason (Bubala)

That's because it is not the final official marriage certificate. It is an intention to marry. This is the copy that the Justice Of The Peace has to sign after marrying us and then file it with the city clerk and then an official marriage certificate is issued. The intention to marry certificate is only valid for 60 days after the date of filing. So, after we filed in April, we had 60 days to actually get married. That is where the June 9th date came into play. It is not valid outside of Massachusetts because we could not file intentions in Mass and then use that intentions certificate to go and get married in another state. -Bubala

LOL! You're welcome. No honeymoon yet. That will happen later this year. We wanted to be married on the 16th of May since it is our anniversary, but we will be heading to California in September for our honeymoon! No, we did not throw flash passes, but that would have been a great idea! Expensive idea, but a great one! Whereas I was tempted to go and make out in the Houdini attraction at the park, we waited until we got home to consummate the marriage! My mother was with us at the park after all, so it would have been awkward! Congrats on being together for 27 years! That is awesome! I am sure that you will get the opportunity soon to live your pipe dream! Make sure you take plenty of pictures! -Bubala

No party yet. The reception was held in the park! We headed straight to the nearest coaster which happened to be Thunderbolt. Then we just moved around the park from coaster to coaster having a great time. Oddly enough, the person who had the most fun riding coasters that day was the Justice Of The Peace! He had a blast!

I agree coasterbear! I must admit that I was a bit hesitant to post the pics in the first place. I only did because of another TPR member's request for me to post them. I am glad now that I did post them, and I am very grateful for all of the congratulations and words of support! Thanks so much to everyone! -Bubala

On Saturday, May 16th, 2009, the 13th anniversary of our very first date, my boyfriend and I got married at Six Flags New England in Agawam, MA. We arrived at the park at around 11:30am and met up with the Justice Of The Peace. We then headed into the park to a spot that we had scouted out a few weeks earlier. A place along the trail that winds down into the middle of the Bizarro (Superman) coaster. We picked this spot because it is secluded and because of the beautiful surroundings. Pretty purple coaster track was jutting into the air in all directions all around us. The perfect place to get married, in my opinion. Since we hadn't informed Six Flags that we were coming into the park to get gay married, we were a little worried that we might be interrupted mid-ceremony by park security. (For the record, we did e-mail SFNE several times about the wedding, but we got no response.) Thankfully that did not happen. The whole thing went off without a hitch and right there in the middle of the screams, with coaster trains rolling by on the Thunderbolt and with the hiss of the Scream! S&S shot tower in the background, we were married. It was incredible! Oh yeah, we also rode a few coasters afterwords too! The marriage license. We are now official! Bubala & Mumi are our pet names for each other. The 13 is how many years we have been together. I don't even hold on this tight on Vekomas! What a perfect backdrop! At this point, I'm wondering exactly how I managed to talk Mumi into this? The rings. It was a very traditional ceremony. Well, besides being in an amusement park and the whole two grooms thing... I do! Now, let's real quick go ride some coasters! Oh yeah, I have to give you a ring too! For those of you who are bound to ask, neither one of was the bride! Mr. Six approves! Yes, my big mouth mom told him all about the guerrilla gay wedding that day! Indeed!

I'll be at Knott's on Tuesday and SFMM on Wednesday. Will probably be heading to Disneyland at night on Tuesday after Knotts...

Yes, it will be my first time at SFMM. That would be great about getting on everything. No worries about wanting to ride Goliath a lot. I probably will want to also. Or, I can just find something else to do. I'll have no trouble keeping up. Don't worry about that. What time will you be getting there? I plan to be there just before opening.