Goliath513

This sounds like Cedar Point meets the TPR east coast trip SFA and Kings Dominion days. Those two parks on the trip had the worst operations I had ever seen at parks; hard to determine which one was worse. When I was at Cedar Point, they closed down the rides before the rain clouds even arrived overhead. At least Fuji-Q did not close rides when they saw rain clouds on the horizon. Did they?

Led Zeppelin or Eagles would be great for the park. They could sure use a B&M or a good Vekoma. The park should demolish the Hurricane Mountain slides that are blocked off and rotting away in the view of the public to make way for whatever this "big" announcement turns out to be. Best of all, this would be right at the entrance and the first thing people will see as they enter the park in the upcoming season. A slightly used coaster purchased at a park liquidation for a cheap price could do wonders for SFA by bringing in more visitors!

From the facebook page... If they close and bulldoze the place, it sure won't be like anything we've seen before at the park. In all seriousness, it's probably a new coaster being brought over from Hard Rock Park or something.

Just add some gravy, and this thread will make it to the front page of the ACE website. Great looking soup Chuck!

^^ No I'm not on NE. You all knew something crazy like this was coming - something so ridiculous and unheard of that it could not possibly ever happen - until NOW! For 2008, the park decided to build a ride dedicated to their business model. Presenting - Trash Can: The Ride! During the adventure, guests will board trash can shaped vehicles and travel along a powered track through four themed areas - The Land of Concrete, The Trash Can Factory, Name & Logos Department, and Journey to Cedar Point. This interactive dark ride will feature "Laser Snake Horse" guns on board the cars that riders will use to shoot the trash cans while competing against one another as digital counters keep track of the scores. For 2009, the park put in the rejected logo from their new for 2010 coaster as a prop for the ride. This is the second time Cedar Fair has had to change their plans due to a leak of the Laser Snake Horse on Fire logo. First Kings Island, now Rocky Mountain Park. However this time, they abandoned their "largest project for the park ever" due to this leak instead of simply changing the name. The coaster they had planned will show up at another Cedar Fair park under a different name in 2010. Although the initial plan was to use the logo from Rocky Mountain Park's Diamondback on the new King's Island coaster after removing it during the 2008/2009 off season, this Diamondback will not be removed afterall. No new coaster in 2009 or 2010. The park promises a new coaster for 2011 and are looking to recent coaster installations at other Cedar Fair parks for inspiration. SCR6.BMP Trash Can: The Ride. What more needs to be said?

Well, the guy at the Dip N Dots stand was replaced by a new employee, so I guess the rumors WERE true about Maverick, but it looks like it is safe at Cedar Point for now, due to the leak. A new project has been undertaken. Diamond Back closed three weeks before the rest of the park did at the end of the season. Rumors about this coaster about to make an exit look to be true. The guy at the Lemon Chill stand was talking about a "horse on fire." The park already has FireHorse, so he must have been confused because he also mentioned a "snake seeking revenge." With Diamond Back rumored to be on its way out, could this ride be some sort of new high tech animal that Cedar Fair has come up with to seek revenge on an old ride the way they did with Hydra and Hercules at Dorney? The park hasn't had a "new" coaster since 2003, so they are long overdue. Management says they have something in the works so big, so massive, so awesome that even the most hardcore and critical fanboys will wet themselves over it when the ride opens in 2010. In other news, the Camp Snoopy children's area (and Blue Streak family coaster) are been blocked off for the 2009 season due to construction of the new coaster and staffing issues. With this much space, this new coaster is said to be larger than anything the park has ever seen! Most of the rides were moved a short distance to the new Planet Snoopy children's area which opens in 2009. SCR1.BMP Skyhawk opened a few years later, but has had more downtime than Top Thrill Dragster. SCR2.BMP Steel Venom opened in the back of the park in 2002. Not many guests get back here anymore. SCR5.BMP New kids area? Or money-saving response to the recession? SCR4.BMP OMGZ ITZ TEH BATHROOMZ FROM GEAUGA LAKE!!!11!1

I must be one of the only ones who actually enjoyed Dark Knight. The ride itself was quite more enjoyable than other mouse rides I've been on. What little theming it had after the pre-show area made it more of a unique experience than anything else. Keep in mind, this is coming from someone whose old home park got a coaster last year with an even more pathetic theme concept. The Dark Knight > Tony Hawk's Big Spin As for the rest of the park, I had been there just a few days earlier and got in the rest of my credits (with the exception of Superman). So I was only mildly disappointed we had to leave because of the rain.

Top Thrill Dragster clone?

This coaster will be like Millennium Force for Quassy compared to the other coasters in the park. I wonder if they will remove the Mad Mouse, which has managed to pass safety inspections long after it should have failed, for this?

^ Win! ^^^ Greased Lightnin was sent to SFKK and some of it's track sections were used as replacements on the other "Tidal Wave." So there's no hope for it returning.

^ That would actually be an improvement over Vortex - even if it never actually opened. Trash Can: The Ride would also be good for the park. They could use a good dark ride.

In late June, I got in all my credits at Cedar Point in one day, plus re-rides and other rides. I used quite a bit of my second day for Soak City. As for the Denver trip, you might want to consider going to Waterworld too because that's the highlight of Denver in the summer. With nearly 3 miles of slides, you will need a full day here since it gets VERY crowded during the summer - even on weekdays. At Lakeside, you will probably get only 2 of the 4 credits since nobody over 54" is allowed on the Kiddie Coaster, and Dragon is never operating (not sure when the last time it ever did). Many rides are often closed, but the park does have a nice historical feel to it - even when half of its structures are boarded up and rotting away. You can get in the two coasters in about 20 minutes. They also have an ARM drop tower that's worth riding. As for Elitch's, it's a decent park, but you could conquer the whole thing (including the water park) in less than a day. The coasters aren't particularly good there either. Sadly, Sidewinder (Arrow shuttle loop) is their best coaster. Mind Eraser is one of the more painful SLCs I've ridden, and Boomerang is nothing great either. I suggest Cedar Point, but if money is an issue, then Denver would be fun too if you include a day for Waterworld.

A new bathroom is a lot to be excited about! We were all so thrilled to get a new one at SFDK last year in addition to THBS! Whatever it is, I hardly believe Cedar Fair would put in something remotely expensive. Possibly some new trash cans or planters?

Five months and 17 updates later, I bring you the final installment of Sam's east coast trip report. I apologize for the long delay in the middle due to starting college and all. Day 11 - Knoebel's (and GCI factory tour) We awoke on the final morning, loaded our bags onto the buses, and headed off to our final park of the trip - Knoebel's. But wait, it's 7:30 and we have not left yet. What's happening? I'm sure Tyler and Adam can explain...yup, you guessed it, they were late. But at least their violent awakening wasn't due to a flooded bathroom. Here's the final batch of photos from one of the most exciting, unique, and overall greatest days of the trip! I hope you enjoy them as much as I do reliving this trip through preparing this report here in Notepad. After a fairly long bus ride, we arrived at our destination. Unlike most parks, Knoebel's featured free parking and free admission. Interesting squirrel sign Wait, this looks familiar! Ok, so before our visit to the park, I did not really know much about Knoebel's. All I knew about were the Phoenix and how awesome everyone says it is, and their unfinished Flying Turns coaster. I also knew they had a wooden coaster called Twister that we got ERT on in the morning. It turns out that Twister is a remake of the former Mister Twister at the old Elitch Gardens back home in Colorado! The new Elitch Gardens also has a remake of the ride, but not as similar as this version. The double helix through the station like on the original was amazing. I felt like I was riding a piece of history even though the ride was not even 10 years old. The double turn around lift caught me off guard - I was not expecting that! Overall, this ride was amazing. I had not had that much fun on a wooden coaster since El Toro and Boulder Dash earlier in the trip. This easily made its way into my top five. Knoebel's also has a few waterslides that are mostly covered by vegetation. They looked pretty fun, but not enough time to try them. Even though we had a full day, the Flying Turns tour and GCI tour took a considerable amount of time. I didn't get on the shoot-the-chutes (which made the biggest splash I had ever seen on one of these rides) or the log flume (which was also probably awesome - considering everything at Knoebel's is!) Just like on the original...double helix under the station. They even brought over parts from the original for this one! "Hey Matt, do you think we will be able to enjoy Twister II back home after this?" "I don't think so either." Definitely more compact, but it still had all the notable traits of Mister Twister and its retarded half-brother across town. It's even held together with a bolt from the original! With Twister ERT over, we were given $35 in tickets to use on the remaining rides. Being a "pay per ride" park, the lines were never very long even though this was a Sunday. With ERT on the two main coasters, we didn't use up all the tickets. I still have quite a few left for when I come back after Flying Turns opens up. But before breaking off from the group, quite a few of us went with Robb over to Phoenix for a filming session that would later be featured on Roller Coasters in the RAW, Vol 2 and trip DVD! In a hurry to get over with the group and on the ride before the GP were let on because of a restroom stop along the way, I forgot to take any pictures of this ride up close. All I have is one taken from the top of Flying Turns later in the day. Now onto my review of Phoenix. As we approached it, I did not realize how such a simple coaster could be so much fun. With no seat belts under the lap bars, the airtime was intensified! With airtime all the way through on a fast paced and smooth ride, the night time ERT helped Phoenix made its way to #2 in my top woodies list only behind Boulder Dash! Yes, El Toro fanboys, you read that correctly! The Haunted House dark ride was the first of many certain types of rides that would come throughout the day and prove to be "best of their kind" High Speed Thrill Coaster (did Cedar Fair name this one?) This made its way up the list into "best kiddie coaster!" Insane airtime! I think the weight of all us adults in the train, combined with the lift running on a faster setting for our group made this especially thrilling! It will be sad to see this great coaster go. It's a Bouncy-Bouncy ride! Extreme lateral G's too! The park has a mini-railrod ride that goes far out into the woods. Here we see the base of what looks to be a ropes course or zip-line or something. And by "far out" I mean far out. A large group of us came back after dark, which turned out to be even greater! They have so much potential for Halloween theming out here in the woods! Passing by... Here are some very well hidden water slides. I saw people carrying foam mats up to the top of these slides. Our last group meal. *sniff* I remember this being one of the better tasting of the catered lunches on the trip. Knoebel's also wins the award for "best amusement park food." It's Dick Knoebel himself! I think he and his family are the only ones who have ridden Flying Turns already. He gave us a brief talk about the ride and about the park! After his visit, we headed over to Flying Turns for our tour of the ride. We entered through the gates where we were given a brief talk before getting into the ride. This maintenance area is the low spot in the ride where we got in. Mike Austin actually looks interested. I guess this coaster won't turn out to be "rubbish." From here, we were basically given a free walk of the track. Most of us headed up the track to the highest point first! Backwards POV shot! Someday we will see trains full of happy riders on these tracks! This was one of the most interesting and exciting perks of the trip! From the top of the main lift, I got my only shot of Phoenix. Looking back down through the support structure! Adam and Matt give the tour a thumbs up of approval as I take our picture! Josh Turner won the "most likely to be put on a hit list" award" So at lunch time, we had the first annual TPR Pointless Awards ceremonies. These awards were given out to those whose personality fit best. There were many interesting ones such as "trying hardest to be a TPR celebrity and failing miserably" - which Tyler won. "Most likely to be used as a boob credit." - not sure who won this, but it's one of the girls, so it shouldn't be too hard to figure out who. Adam won "Biggest Robb and Elissa fanboy." I don't remember much else, but I do remember Max won the "least likely to get laid" award. This was quite an entertaining lunch session! Sometime at lunch, one of the guys from GCI came over and talked to us about our visit there later. Back to the pictures. One of the only good pictures of myself from the whole trip. Not sure where in the ride this is, but I think it was near the end. Uh oh...This won't be good when the ride opens. And into the brake run. We only got to walk about half of the track, but it was still awesome! After the Flying Turns tour, we got on the busses and headed over to the GCI factory. At first glance, I wondered why we were stopping at someone's small house in the woods. But then when I saw the sign, I realized this was the place. I pictured it bigger. Before the tour, we were explicitly told not to discuss anything we saw inside. So I will just say that what we saw was amazing! This was just about as great as the Flying Turns tour. Definitely a one of a kind experience! After we got back to the park, many of us headed over to the Flyers - which you can actually "snap." I was new to the whole "snapping" thing, but I somehow managed to do it several times. Some of our more experienced group members nearly broke the thing! Behind the Flyers, we saw Flying Turns testing! Knoebel's also has the "world's greatest bumper cars" These things were awesome. The cars are much larger than normal bumper cars, and weigh about as a Volkswagon Beetle. So if you can imagine the force and impact of a real life car crash, that is how the ride is! Several of the GCI guys came back with us and participated the TPR takeover of the Bumper Cars! Other flat rides in the park included a "musik express" style ride in a dark building with strobe lights, audio and fog effects. Also better than your typical Musik Express. There were some bumper boats that we had quite a good time on after dinner. Oh and on the subject of dinner, the Pizza was awesome! They also have a chairlift that goes up the mountain and gives some great views of the park. Another exciting experience for me was my first brass-ring carousel. Instead of like in the old days when getting the brass ring meant winning a free ride, they just loaded up with rings and we all collected one each time around! After dark, we went back for one last ride on Twister before heading over to Phoenix for the ERT after park closure. For a second-hand ride, it was fucking great!!! This was the last ERT session of the trip. As the park closed, the end of the trip was just beginning. The ride at night was even better than in the day. I had not seen so much energy among the group since our Boulder Dash ERT. So many rides on this. For the last few minutes, the park turned off all the lights on the coaster, so we were in complete darkness. I finished off the trip by riding with Robb in the back. What could have possibly been better than ending the trip with such a great and memorable ERT session?! Phoenix night, or Boulder Dash night? Which was better? As the day came to an end, we got on the buses which took us back to Philadelphia where we started. On the bus ride home, Robb collected our memory cards one last time, and I won a "TPR bag of crap" for winning Elissa Bingo. Knoebel's was one of those parks that beat out my expectations. It's no SFGAdv or anything, so I guess that is why my expectations for these smaller parks were lower. This was one of my favorite parks on the trip. Much better run than some of the big parks we visited. In fact, I enjoyed it so much, I rate Knoebel's as better than Disneyland. No heavy crowds and no corporate feeling to it. Here are the contents of the "bag of crap." Note my foot was NOT part of the contents. After we arrived at the hotel around 2:30AM or so, I packed up my bags and just hung out in the lobby area with others as we said our goodbyes since I had a very early flight home; just a few hours after arriving at the hotel. I'd like to thank Robb and Elissa once again for organizing this amazing trip! It was the most fun I ever had on a vacation in my life! Thanks for reading! The end.

Day 10 - Dorney Park Hey everybody! We got up nice and early on our "day off" before the end of the trip the following day. Why our day off? Well, Robb and Elissa explained to us that this Cedar Fair park is not one of the best run parks around, and since our hotel was right across the street, the park was optional. I, of course, was up early as always, to walk over to the park for our ERT session on Steel Force and Voodoo before park opening. From what I had heard, I had very low expectations for this park, but it turned out to be quite fun! Taking pictures of the GP behind the gates is always a fun perk of TPR trips! Hehe... Empty train is always a good sign. The logo seemed like a rip off of Phantom's Revenge, but this came first. The ERT begins! So having ridden Magnum XL200 at Cedar Point less than two months prior to this trip, I expected these rides to be similar. Nothing could be further from the truth. This was my first Morgan credit and I now understand the meaning of "Forceless Morgan." The ride was about as intense as the powered Dragon Coaster in the kiddie section near Laser. The drop was great, and as was the airtime, but the ride had nothing else. Despite being incredibly tame, Steel Force gets my vote over Magnum because it did not leave me with bruises on my thighs when riding. After our Steel Force ERT, we headed over to ride the new Voodoo. I had not rode a standard Intamin Impulse since the original V2 at SFDK in 2001. The holding break in use on the back tower was a nice reminder of what SFDK's V2 has not had since the first month of operation after they turned it off. One ride was all I got on this. The logo was awesome, but with the conflict of name with a ride at SFDK, rumor has it this might be changed. Let's start the speculation... "Backlot Impulse Coaster" "Steel Venom" What will Cedar Fair come up with this time? Steel Forceless, and Thunderhawk For its age, Thunderhawk was a decent ride. I rode it twice throughout the day with my group. Nothing too special, a bit slow throughout, but still a good ride. Much like the Lakeside Cyclone back home in Denver. After Voodoo, we all lined up to ride the Laser - which would be leaving the park soon. Unlike it's next door neighbor Steel Force, Laser was one of the most intense rides of the day. Very smooth and powerful! I only rode this once. This seemed like what the late Zonga at SFDK would have been like if Six Flags hadn't messed with it. Old school Schwarzkopf loopers rock! We the proceeded to ride the Dragon kiddie coaster here for the credit. My only shot of Laser, but it is a good one! After the ride on Laser, those who were headed off to SFGAdv literally ran around the park to snag the credits while there were still no lines (it was a Saturday which = massive crowds). "Why SFGAdv?" you ask. Well, on our day at the park it rained after we had only been there several hours. We all got our ERT on Dark Knight, El Toro, and Kingda Ka, but many of us still had many more credits to get at the park. Robb and Elissa had arranged one bus to take anyone back who still wanted the credits. We were given rain-checks upon leaving that day to return later, however, we would have to pay for the Q-bots ourselves. Fortunately for me, I flew in a day early to go to the park with some others from the group and got in most of my credits that day. The only new one I got on the TPR day was Dark Knight. Which leaves Superman as my only missing credit at the park. I decided it was not worth it to come back just for a parking lot B&M flyer. There were still other attractions in the park I wanted to experience, so I will probably come back sometime within the next few years anyways. With this in mind, I decided to stay and enjoy a relaxing day at Dorney. Those of us who stayed got a backstage tour of the park. The guy (his name escapes me) who led us was an excellent guide! We started by entering the employee parking lot behind Steel force! The employee parking lot made for some great shots of the park! If it weren't for the power lines, this would make a great desktop background. Talon and Dominator... The park was still pretty empty at this point. Had we waited and got the backstage tour after lunch or so, we could have got all the credits in before hand and spend the remainder of the day in the awesome water park! We got a tour of one of the park's warehouses where ride parts, trains, etc are kept. We also got a sneak preview at Haunt! No pictures were allowed inside though. Halloween came early for us! A never before seen angle of Steel Force? "Complete with audio effects and everything!" We concluded the hour long tour by entering the park from the employee entrance. Seriously, this tour was awesome! The park had already exceeded my expectations for it by this point! But the tour was not done yet?... We walked behind Hydra and White Water Landing for a tour of the under construction "Club Blood" maze for haunt! I decided to skip White Water Landing since I rode the clone of it earlier in the summer at Cedar Point already. A circumcised Cedar Fair trash can...instead of Dave. We will be back at night for Talon. The second part of the tour came to an end in the water park - which we would return to in the evening! Patriots Plunge was unquestionably the most fun I ever had on an innertube slide. Story time! I believe it was after our early dinner that Robb, Elissa, me, Tyler, and a few others went over to Wildwater Kingdom. Starting of with "Locker Tetris" by cramming the belongings of 10 people into a small locker that required Robb to put his weight on it to close it, our hour long visit to the water park topped off the day! Getting lost while trying to find the lazy river entrance, near death on the Cascade innertube drop down slide when Robb and I came down so fast we glided across the splashdown pool and hit the fence on the edge of the path, epic journey down the innertube rapids ride - a series of pools connected by terrain style rivers with rapids and whirlpools, takeover of the body slides, followed by Patriots Plunge! The water park was about to close, so we went up to Patriots plunge. These aren't your typical curvy innertube slides; they are insane speed slides. After my run down the white tunnel, the park was about to close. So a few of us rushed back up for one more time down, this time, I went down the red side which was even better! Wildwater Kingdom is awesome! Back to the main park from earlier in the day... "Do you want to know how I got these scars?..." "Dan is tormented with sugar." - Bingo square! Sometime after dinner, we went and got the Wild Mouse credit. This had the longest lines of the day. After the park closed, we got ERT on Hydra and Talon! Hydra was nothing more than a mediocre B&M floorless. Talon on the other hand, was great! Two rides on this, and it was time to head back to the hotel to rest for our final day. It was like Raptor mixed with Silver Bullet. Overall, Dorney by far exceeded my expectations. It was better than other Cedar Fair parks like Knott's and especially Kings Dominion! It seemed like a small Cedar Point to me! Thanks to the awesome water park, this was one of my favorite days of the trip so far! I will post the final photo TR from this awesome trip soon!

Here's part 2 of the last update. About the new coaster: The Dip N' Dots guy's uncle's sister's son said the park will be "getting Maverick from Cedar Point next year, because Cedar Point is sinking and nobody goes there." SCR11.BMP Time Warp (Chance - Double Inverter) was brought over from Geauga Lake for the 2009 season. Yo-Yo (Chance - Yo-Yo) [not pictured] was also moved from Geauga Lake for the kids' section near the Windjammer Food Court. The park also got the urinals from Geauga Lake's bathrooms for the new for 2009 bathroom (to be shown in next update)! SCR10.BMP Son of Firehorse (Alan Herschell) was relocated from Old Indiana as "Little Rickies Little Twister" in 2004 for all those kids who are not tall enough to ride Firehorse. SCR9.BMP Royal Caribbean cruise ships are not the only places where you can find a meal full of headbanging! SCR8.BMP Following the success of White Water Landing at Cedar Point, Cedar Fair decided to build another Arrow "hydro flume" a few years later called Snake River Falls.

Featuring urinals brought over from Geauga Lake. Despite Vortex being a terrible ride, I don't think we'll see it go before Grizzly. Although Grizzly actually draws a considerable line and Vortex is always empty, removing it could possibly please the bitchy neighbors (since it's a louder coaster) and maybe they will vote in favor of allowing the new GCI for 2010/2011. Assuming the economy doesn't bring them down... Actually, that would be nice to see happen - this recession might not be all bad if it could rid CGA of its pesky neighbors! If not, and this park does get paved over, I won't be sad to see it go. My visit there back in mid July was downright depressing to see what it has become since my previous visit in 2002.

^ I've been wondering the same thing. Where did the whole Bench: The Ride joke begin?

This update will feature some random rides from around the park. SCR10.BMP Blue Streak is a "Zierer - Tivoli" model relocated from Freizeitpark Kirchhorst in Germany as Marienkäferbahn in 1987. Located in the back of the park in Camp Snoopy, this old coaster (along with the rumored to be removed 1990 Diamond Back) could easily be wiped in one clean cut for the massive coaster being planned for the future. When asked about the future of these old rides, Cedar Fair answered "I don't know, we'll see." SCR9.BMP Continuing the tradition of using second-hand rides, MaXair was relocated from Great Escape in 2007 shortly after being moved from Astroworld as Serial Thriller after it closed in 2005 and replaced 4 of the original waterslides. More classic park attractions - gone. What will be next? Despite not having a "new" coaster since 2003, the park says they have "something BIG" in the works for sometime in the next few years that will make even the most critical fanboys wet themselves! SCR7.BMP The Turbo Racer mat racing slide replaced the two enclosed Jet Stream innertube speed slides in 2006. The area underneath Firehorse in the background was actually a very large portion of the original waterpark that was shut down and demolished in 2001 to make way for the coaster. SCR6.BMP Drop Tower and Flight Deck. Do the names get any more creative than this? Drop Tower was built in 2008. While advertised as "new" it is actually a restored and refurbished "Superman: Tower of Power" brought over from SFKK that they got at a very cheap price from Six Flags after being removed after the 2007 season. While the ride got all new cables and electronics - the tower, cars, and everything else are the original. SCR5.BMP Kinzel Theater was built in 1991 and hosts all kinds of shows such as Snoopy on Ice, and more!

I didn't know it was still 2008. The first Freefall I rode was SFMM's during its last season of operation. Last ride was in August 2007 right before it closed for good. Then, last summer I ride Demon Drop at Cedar Point. I rode that at least five times while there. It still drew a pretty large line (even longer than on some of the coasters) when I was there.

Hey everyone! Last night, I met up with Adam (thrillgeek) and some other friends for the new years eve party at SFDK! The late afternoon was mostly walk-ons, and for the rest of the night, we didn't wait longer than 15 minutes for any ride. The highlight of the night was being on Medusa's lift as the year changed over to 2009! As the train peaked over the lift to the drop, the fireworks began and we watched them as we rode. Last ride of 2008, and the first train back into the station for 2009! Here are the pictures! And finally, Austin Powers makes his appearance in the parade! More of the parade. The Looney Tunes characters make their appearance! The Holiday Parade began at 10 PM This year's theme - Austin Powers! Holiday sea lion show. Santa's sleigh and reindeer decorations on V2's spike. Tree at night. And yes, my camera's night settings suck. Kong has finally been repainted. It wasn't running as bad as earlier in the year, but it still delivered much pain. It's always funny to hear people complaining of headaches after getting off. This should be sponsored by Advil instead of Heinz. Not quite as big as last years tree, but the tree hugger hippies still protest. Monsoon Falls was also down for its annual rehab. Tony Hawk's Big Spin from Roar's station. Something's missing here... You can see how crowded the park was before night! Roar, now 10 years old, is still running great! The Santa tracker looked a bit worn out from all the Holiday action. Tony Hawk's Big Spin welcomes us along the hike from the parking lot to the park.

Tie between the Boulder Dash ERT at night and the ERT session on Phoenix on the last night of the east coast trip!

I got of Medusa at SFDK today at 12:02am!!!

Let's see if I can't get in one last update before the new year. Day 9 - Hersheypark Well, as uploading my pictures, it looks like this will be another photo trip report lacking photos of all coasters at the park. Too many pictures of Fahrenheit. Cowster... We headed over to Stormrunner for the first ERT of the day! Sad to say this is my only picture of Stormrunner. After my two rides on Stormrunner (which were awesome!), we walked over to Fahrenheit for the remainder of our morning ERT! The lift was pretty cool. As was the 97-degree drop! The Norwegian Loop was also pretty fun. We then headed over to Roller Soaker for those of us who wanted to get the credit out of the way early on before the crowds on this low capacity ride. But first, we payed a visit to Canyon River Rapids which would close down two days later to make way for the lazy river and wave pool. The first section was like a generic rapids ride. And the second part of the ride went under Roller Soaker and featured waterfalls that crossed over the track - drenching everyone in the boat! Very fun ride, and I think it was a mistake to remove this great ride. We got to Roller Soaker to find it was down. After waiting about 20 minutes or so, it opened up and we got on! More Fahrenheit! Mediocre rides get all the highlight in this trip report. Yeah, I was letdown by this. Not sure what all the hype was about. I enjoyed Storm Runner more. Next, we went and got our Wildcat and Wild Mouse credits. The new Millennium Flyer trains sure made the ride fun, but you could feel the damage done to the track from the previous PTC's. Trivia - what coaster now uses the original Wildcat trains? For later in the day. Sidewinder was the last Vekoma death machine credit of the trip. And this was one of the worst boomerang experiences I ever had. We rode Great Bear and Sooperdooperlooper several times each. Great Bear reminded me of a tamer Raptor, and Sooperdooperlooper reminded me of a better SFMM Revolution! Odd supporting. Tilt-a-whirl and Comet. Enough said. After an "interesting" ride on Chocolate World (which is like Hershey's version of Disneyland's "It's a Small World"), we found ourselves in the chocolate shop. This place had death written all over the walls for Dan. Hershey History. Historical plaque dedicated to Milton Hershey. More of Comet! Due to its location on the otherside of the waterpark, Lightning Racer shots were hard to get. This is my only one. Dinner at Wildcat Catering made for some new angles for Fahrenheit shots. And, of course, Wildcat shots too! But mostly Fahrehneit... I don't know why I wanted so many pictures of this. Seriously, it's not THAT photogenic of a ride. TPR Trivia face off! Fun times! Last shot of Fahrenheit. The REAL chocolate factory. Carousel credit! One last ride on Great Bear for the night, and we found this interesting sign! Last ride of the night was a takeover of the Coal Cracker flume ride! That was our day at Hershey. After park closure, we ended with ERT on Wildcat and Lightning Racer. The majority of the time was spent on Lightning Racer! Okay, ONE LAST picture of Fahrenheit. Had enough? Dorney Park up next!

Train Town is roughly 10 minutes away from my parent's house where I am staying during the holiday break. I still do not have the credit there. Too bad I didn't know you were going, and I could have had an excuse to get up there - even though it was closed during your visit.