AmyUD06

This! Everything about Dragster made it the better ride than Ka, who cares about 8mph and 45 feet? In addition to all of the things you listed, what really pushed Dragster over the top for me is the "all force at once" launch, as opposed to the "okay, lets go....now lets go a little faster....now lets go full speed" launch of Ka. Dragster also kept its smoothness through its entire life, as opposed to Ka which got horribly rattle-y after the first few years. And since we're wildly speculating with ideas that will never ever happen, I would not be upset if they put a vertical loop on top of the spike to reclaim the height record.

This is the first I've heard of this "theory." How exactly are they going to do a swing launch without constructing a massive rear spike for the train to "swing" onto?

If only they would follow through.... Shorter lines for the rest of us.

My faith lies in the "as you know it" phrase, but I hope for all that is good in the world that they do not do to it what they're doing to Montezooma. Everything Kumbak makes can die in a fire.

It was my first time in Vermont. Coming from the NJ/PA area, where things are open quite late and rest areas are everywhere, it was quite a shock. I get that. I really did enjoy it; it was probably my favorite park overall of this trip. Damnation, so I did miss one. I'm already planning a trip back up to Canobie Lake next year so I'll have to swing by Palace Playland and Funtown again for night rides on Excalibur. How is that beach town? Anything like Wildwood or Ocean City MD?

So after my long day trekking through most of the New England States, I arrived at what was easily the largest Best Western branded hotel I'd ever seen. 6 Stories tall with two restaurants, a bar, conference and event rooms, it played host to some sort of teenage hockey tournament as well as a Quinceanera party, so yeah I thought it wouldn't be all that quiet. Thankfully, I was adequately separated from all the crowds and was able to get a solid night's sleep. The next morning I was on the road for my second trip ever to... Six Flags New England, Agawam MA As pretty much everyone has been here multiple times, and my goal today was just to get the credits I missed on my 2017 trip I didn't take any photos worth posting, My rides here were: -Pandemonium, two-train wait. Plenty of spinning but the course made it better, much more so than a spinning mouse. Still, 6/10. -Gotham City Gauntlet, walk-on. Whatever, it's a mouse; no rating. -Catwoman (no-apostrophe-S) Whip, walk on for row 16. Same ride as Rudy's Rapid Transit at Santa's Village and Harley Blackbeard's Lost Crazy Treasure Train at SFGAdv; no rating. -Riddler (no-apostrophe-S) Revenge, 6 minutes for front row. It has the new vest restraints, which are nice, but still not quite as smooth as as Great Nor'Easter. 6/10. -Joker, 10 minute wait for back row. One and a half flips. I still don't really like these, but due to the limited flipping, 4/10. -The Great Escape, walk on for back row. One pop of air in the back row, but otherwise it's a kiddie coaster; no rating. -Flashback, 4 minutes for front row. Possibly the worst boomerang I'd ever been on to that point. 0/10. I also grabbed a front row ride on Superman (30 minute wait) and can safely say that his has dropped to the bottom of my Top 10 steel coasters, entirely due to the restraints. Wicked Cyclone was posting a 60 minute wait, and it looked it, and Thunderbolt's line was way too long, so I beat feet out of there and was on the road to my next credit-makeup stop... Lake Compounce, Bristol CT Wildcat was down for refurbishment during my 2017 trip, and I had skipped Zoomerang then too, so I had these two to make up. First up was Wildcat. A nice homage to the past... And the ride sure is photogenic.... Don't mind the half-a-brake (look close; it's missing one of the pads). New wood right where it matters most. (/s) The little black cat prop was the best part of this ride. So what did I think of this 1927 classic? After a 40 (yes, 40!) minute wait for the front row, for a while there (the lift through the second turn), I thought, "Hey, this might not be so bad." Then the pain began. The restraints just clamped super hard (Millennium Flyers did not help this coaster) and the train just jackhammered all over the place. To quote my notes video, "Absolutely horrible, burn it to the fucking ground. Horrible, horrible ride." Negative-Infinity/10 Oh, wait, there was actually an awesome part of this, but it happened in the queue. The ride op at the panel was on their game when it came to catching line cutters. So many people would use the old "joining up with the rest of their party" trick, and if the ride op didn't call them out while they were doing it and send them back, they waited until they lined up at a gate and told them "You're not riding, walk on through. If you sit down, I'm not dispatching the train and I'm calling security." It was absolutely beautiful. I also rode Zoomerang here, a 6 minute wait for row 5. It was slightly better than the Boomerang at SFNE, but not by much. 1/10. At least the new paint job looks nice. And that about did it for this park. I thought about taking a lap on Boulder Dash (it is in my Top 10 woodies, after all), but having read recent reports and not wanting to sully my memory of it, I skipped it. That about wraps up my two-day blitz through almost every park New England has to offer; I only skipped Quassy due to nothing new since my 2017 trip, and Edaville, since they never reopened post-COVID. If I had to do it again, I'd definitely budget more days into the trip, and spend a lot more time at Canobie Lake Park, which was easily the star of this trip despite only having one solid coaster. I do have a question if there's any Vermont natives on here: Why is there only one actual rest area on I-91, and why does it close at 7 PM? Seriously it's a three hour ride from the MA border to Canada and there is just that one place on the highway with a bathroom. Those stupid "parking areas" with no facilities do not count. But wait, there's more! After fighting my way through the Cross Bronx Expressway and GW Bridge back into NJ, I decided to try to hit two Jersey boardwalk parks where I missed credits during my 2021 quest to get them all. The first stop was in Keansburg, to be greeted by a still-closed Looping Star and a Sea Serpent kiddie coaster that I was told adults couldn't ride. At least I could take in their classic haunted walk-through, right? Sadly, no. When I walked by it, it was open, but after I bought tickets and went back, a chain was across the entrance and there was no staff in sight. So back in my car I got, and down to Seaside Heights I went, for Xola Loco, that had opened since my last trip. Unfortunately, the flipping hamster-wheel cars line was about 10 times the length of the spinning cars line, so I just rode in a spinner after a one train wait, but hey, it's a credit. I also tried unsuccessfully for a ride on their indoor scrambler, Centrifuge, but was denied - No Single Riders, for some stupid reason. I grabbed a slice of Three Brothers Pizza, and made my way back home to Delaware. Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed reading. This about gets me caught up on TRs from this summer...my next trips won't be until the Haunt events start at the CF Parks in a few weeks. Take care!

Yeah, as @michaellynn4said, cute theory. Not going to happen. What would their motivation be for removal of the arena? It's a bowl in a mound of dirt, there's no infrastructure to fall apart.

To wrap out day one of this trip, I made it to my next destination at just after 7 PM for a 10 o'clock closing. And honestly, I'm glad I didn't spend more time at other parks earlier in the trip since I truly did love... Canobie Lake Park, Salem NH (Massively underexposed picture of the main gate purposefully not show). I don't know what it was, but this park had a ton of charm, and I really wish I had more time to spend here, in the daylight, when I wasn't tired from visiting 3 other parks earlier in the day and driving a total of almost 300 miles. That said, I did get on the two coasters and the dark ride, and took pictures of pretty much everything else. Of course, since those pictures are mostly at night, my phone probably did a shitty job of them, so apologies in advance. On with the photos! I noticed this at a lot New England parks....you guys sure do love your misnamed funnel cake. Awesome theme on this Matterhorn. Getting ready for Halloween. And onto the first coaster here...Yankee Cannonball! Yes, this is where the queue line started. They were only running one train, so I had a massive 51 minute wait for the back row. Ouch! That said, it was more than worth it! PTC with buzz bars and skid brakes? Awesome. It was very smooth with a couple of nice pops of air, better than decent laterals, overall a very quality ride. 9/10. Just put on that second train when the park is packed! It's not every day you see one of these left in an amusement park...a Pinball Parlor! Back outside, continuing my lap in search of some soft preztels (I hadn't eaten anything since breakfast around 13 hours ago)... Finally, I found some, and then it was time for the only other real roller coaster here, Untamed. Warning: Nerd Shots. On this, I had a 23 minute wait for the front row, left edge. It's a Eurofighter but with shoulder restraints, and in my notes video I commented "like Hyrdus, but worse" and I think that about sums it up. 4/10. Moving along.... I laughed at the "Ages 3 and Up Only" sign on the kiddie whip...so can full grown adults ride this? I didn't try. Some more pre-Halloween setup. An actual Chance Rotor! Nice. The water park was closed by the time I arrived. An arcade with non-redemption games? Gasp! Cool looking log flume that was skipped for time and non-desire for wetness. But what I did ride in the back part of the park was the Mine of Lost Souls dark ride. Complete walk-on, and had some very nice animatronics and scenes. Very nice. 8/10. Sadly all my photos came out way too blurry to post. The Ferris Wheel lighting package could use some work (this was not in the middle of a pattern). "I'm not paying that much for popcorn from Popcorn Stall 2!" Seriously, I had never seen an actual popcorn-shaped popcorn stall outside of Roller Coaster Tycoon. And I'll end this part of the report with a shot of Ice Jet at night. I swung back by Yankee Cannonball hoping for a second ride, but the queue was long and I'd been awake for a long, long time, and still had an hour drive to my hotel, so I decided to take off. I will be back here for a more proper day next year, that's for sure. And that about does it for new parks for me on this trip. For anyone considering a similar blitz credit run through these four parks in a single day like I did...it's doable, but it's kinda a miserable day. Stay tuned, there's more to come!

Moving right along, my next stop on this rapid tour was.... Funtown Splashtown USA, Saco ME This was a much more balanced park, but had a decidedly "permanent-carnival" feel. In addition to the rides section, they also have a small waterpark and a go-kart track. Just check out the park map: The first ride you come across is their Asian-themed drop dower, Dragon's Descent. Really this hut and the area beyond it were the only Asian-themed things in this "area," a trend which will appear later. There's also a small picnic area right near the entrance as well. On to the rest of the park... A cool name for the bumper cars. Does every New England park have one of these rock-panning things? So I had heard lots of awesome things about the Astrosphere...unfortunately, if I wanted to make it to Canobie Lake Park with adequate time, with this line, it had to skipped. The first coaster of two here, a standard portable Maurer Wild Mouse. I had an 18 minute wait and that's about all there is to say about it; it's a Wild Mouse. They were running more than one car on the course at a time though, so I guess it's better than Dorney's? They too had one of those flat canoe rides. And then we come to.... Seriously, was there supposed to be more on the other side of this bridge, in the "Camelot" section? The only things that exist are Excalibur and a gift shop. Anyway, onto Excalibur itself. A cute little warning sign. In theory, this is absolutely ingenious...extend the front and back row lines back as far as possible. Unfortunately, what this resulted in was people in the big pre-separated line just crowding up the middle path for "all other rows," leading to plenty of empty rows happening while the front and back rows were absolutely massive. Given that this coaster only has one train, it's kinda a problem. That said, I love the theming on this. Though I don't understand why Galahad is ahead of Lancelot 25 minute wait for row 2. This was easily the best ride of the trip so far. Quite a few pops of air time, great laterals, but a little janky around the corners. Not a top-10 quality ride, but very good. 7/10. It's also worth noting that this ride is at the very back of the park, which is shaped like a U, with no path to make it a full loop, so I had to walk back through everything else to exit. Which I did, and hit the road for what was possibly the best park of the trip...

The next stop on my agenda for Saturday was.... Story Land, Intervale NH This is another family-focused park, with not too much for adult thrill seekers (besides Roar-O-Saurus). Thankfully, this place was included on my Palace Entertainment Platinum Pass, but I did find a lot of the kids stuff to be super cute. On with the report! First, the very bare-bones entrance plaza... ...and some sorely missed corporate sponsorship. So the first thing you come across here (if you go to the right, anyway), is life-size recreations of all of your favorite fairy tales. Here in the "kingdom" themed area, you have a few more classic examples... Including a pumpkin coach ride to... ...Cinderella's castle, complete with meet-n'-greets and photo ops. They also had this cool "assisted dress up" where staff would help your kid become a princess, knight, or whatever. There was a very small pirate themed area.... ...with a riverboat ride... ...and climbing structure (identical to one that used to be at an elementary school near my parent's house in Central NJ)... ...and a pretend jail. There was a "tales from around the world" section. This was apparently some sort of dark ride or walk through experience, but was closed. And finally, we come across the first coaster...Polar Coaster. Sadly not air conditioned on this very hot day. Anyway, this is a Hopkins/Morgan family coaster. About a 20 minute wait for the back row. Some decent forces throughout, especially on the final helix...kinda surprising for an obvious kiddie coaster. Some of the rest of the park.... ...including a splash battle... ...and their own version of a flying shoe ride. They even have a ball pit, sort of! Finally, it was time for the crown jewel of this park (or was it?), Roar-O-Saurus. It definitely is photogenic. 28 minute wait for the back row. It had a couple of nice pops of air, but it suffers from the same problem that Mine Blower does - on any kind of a turn, it jackhammers and shuffles around like its the trains job, slamming you every which way. Not fun. 3/10. Rounding out this park, here are some of the final pictures. And I'll close this par of the report with a truth-telling bag seen in the gift shop, featuring an insightful quote from a true legend.

On the weekend of August 19th through the 21st, 2022, I decided to do a blitz trip of almost all of the New England parks. Most of these were first-time visits, and the trip also included return trips to SFNE and Lake Compounce to grab the credits that I had missed during my initial trip to these parks in 2017. So I had worked midnight shift the night before this trip began, getting off of work at 7 AM. I was home and in bed by 8, grabbed a couple hours of sleep, and was on the road by 2:00 PM. My destination? An overnight stay in White River Junction, VT, to get a proper start on the trip the next day. This drive should have taken me only around 7 hours, but due to ever-present NY traffic, it took closer to 9, and I got into town and checked in to the Hotel Coolidge around 10:30. And let me tell you, this is small town America at its core - absolutely nothing was open. The hotel was very cute and boutique-y and was on a quintessential main street though, so it had that going for it. It was also right across the street from the "Center For Cartoon Studies", which apparently offers college-level degrees in cartoons. Yep, I'm in New England all right. The room, however, was extremely tiny for the cost (around $130): When I woke up, I grabbed breakfast at a classic small-town diner, and on my way back to the hotel noticed that nearby was a restored steam locomotive. Non-train-fanatics can skip ahead to the next text. I checked out, and was on the road to my first park stop of this trip... Santa's Village, Jefferson NH This was a quaint little family park, themed around Christmas of course, featuring two coasters and a pretty cool shooting dark ride. This place was surprisingly busy, which I guess makes sense being the only park in a 2 hour radius. On with the photos! The entry way. Once inside, you're greeted with very cutely decorated architecture from some period which I can't name. ...and a ride. Sorry, I know it's hard to tell due to the blurriness, but all of the "horses" on this carousel are reindeer. And we come to the first ride I rode, The Great Humbug Adventure. This is a shooting dark ride where you are trying to exterminate "humbugs," which apparent look like this: ...and stop them from stealing the Christmas spirit, or something? I don't know. The ride was fun, though, with plenty of animatronics inside on the course. I had an 18 minute wait. The queue was quite well done as well, including this animatronic guy explaining the premise. And here's a shot of the ride vehicles. Moving along... They had a log flume that was laid into the ground for the most park, and was very difficult to take other pictures of, and (from the sight of exiting guests) got you soaked. Pass. ...Which brings me to my next ride... Poogee Penguin's Spin Out Coaster, a SBF Visa spinner with a longer double-figure-8 layout. Okay, so I didn't ride this until I was about to leave, because it kept going in and out of operation, but when I did, I had a 21 minute wait and a not-very-spinny 3 lap ride, which was nice for me. Yes, this is the same ride that seriously injured a 51-year-old ride op a week later. Moving right along....there was some sort of kids show in here. Well-hidden bumper cars. They did have park-style swings everywhere. And they served beer! Guess they had to have something for the adults to do. They also have a small petting zoo. And this comically-named tube-down-a-hill slide. Going by the signage, this is apparently open in the winter, and is probably a bit more fun then. There were also these little elf dudes all around the park, each named for a different letter of the alphabet, and kids could put cards into the white boxes and pull the lever and it would punch a hole in their card. If you collect all of the elf-hole-punches, you get some sort of special prize, which I did not figure out what it was and the website doesn't say. For how well themed most of the park was, these plain buildings really stood out. Amusingly I did not spontaneously combust while taking this picture (yes, I made the same joke at Holiday World, sue me). Even in a park clearly marketed at families....C'mon, Cedar Fair! This was all this ride was. Get in the boat at one end, and let the current bring you to the other. Weird. Some vintage fire engines, for those into that sort of thing... ...right next to the kinda-out-of-place firefighting ride. Which finally brings me to the last coaster, Rudy's Rapid Transit. This is the same model of Zierer as is at SFNE and SFGAdv, and was a walk-on for back row. This is kinda in a dead end of the park, the only thing beyond it being a small water park, so I guess that explains the lack of crowds. It was fun for what it was, despite sitting in the station for 10 minutes while the ride ops figured out if they wanted to start the ride or wait for more passengers. Honestly, I only hit this park for the credits, figuring my chances of ever being this far north again were pretty slim. I'd like to say this report will get more interesting soon, but it probably won't for a while. Hang on though, because it does get good, I promise!

Honestly I think all it needs are the new Vekoma vest-restraint trains and it'll be perfectly fine.

Before I get to the park itself, it's time to talk about Trimper's Haunted House. This is an incredible two-story Bill Tracy dark ride, built in 1964 by the same family that runs the rides park, and is still family owned and operated. That said, it is not officially part of "Trimper's Rides" and wristbands or park tickets from there do not work here - it's a $7 flat fee, and is absolutely worth it. The course is super long (it takes around 15 minutes to get through), there are a ton of animatronic props and physical gags (for example, going over railroad ties before a freight engine in front of you lights up and blows the horn), there are live costumed actors roaming about to scare passengers, and I mean, c'mon, the cars are coffins: This is easily the very best dark ride that I've ever been on (sorry, Knoebel's Haunted Mansion), and is worth much more than the $7 they charge. Absolutely incredible, 15/10. Enjoy some more photos.... History sign (they say 5 minutes but I swear it was more like 15): The ticket booth: One of the actors, on the balcony: The loading area: And an animatronic "host": Seriously, if you go to Ocean City and only do one thing, make it this. Moving on to the park itself, Trimper's Rides Why yes, that is another Bill Tracy attraction there on the right... Pirates Cove, a walk-through attraction that I have to imagine is pretty similar to the one I sadly skipped at Waldameer. This one has been updated with some neon, but is otherwise great with a ton of physical gags and animatronics. 9/10. Trimper's is also home to the rarely-seen Mondial Electric Shake, this one themed to Magnum PI. C'mon, just look at that background art. I skipped this, as I valued the contents of my stomach, but wow this looked crazy. Just check out this video of the full ride cycle: VID_20220816_221731634.mp4 Trimper's has two coasters, one being a Vekoma Boomerang called Tidal Wave. It still runs the original trains, but it does have a decent light package on it. I actually didn't ride this on this trip, but rather a few weeks earlier when I came here with a friend from college, his wife, and kids, and had a walk-on experience for front row. It was quite a "not-fun boomerang," in my exact words...why any of these don't have the new vest-restraint trains is beyond me. 2/10. They also have a figure-8 SBF Visa spinner, literally called "Spinning Coaster," that gives you seven laps. Whatever, I got the credit. Otherwise, it's another typical collection of your standard boardwalk fare, including... ...a Yo-Yo... ...a kiddie whip... ...a Rock-n-Roll... ...kiddie swings... ...Gravitron (in which they do not let people turn sideways or upside down...are there any of these left where the operators allow that?)... ..balloons-go-round... ...mini-Teacups... ...Tilt-a-Whirl... ...a Zamperla Endeavor, which was non-operational... ...and a Himalaya, which I did ride. This one was quite a surprise...it started backwards, and was kinda slow during that phase so I wasn't expecting much, but once it went forward they cranked the speed up to 11. Trimper's also has a vast collection of indoor kiddie rides, much like Gillian's Wonderland in the other Ocean City. I very much doubt they pay royalties for the graphics on these... I'd never seen an elongated boats-go-round, so I thought this was kinda cool. I absolutely loved the original carousel ticket booth they had on display (would've been cooler had it been in use) and this "picture with a pirate" bench. And, that about does it for amusement parks in Ocean City, Maryland. Obviously, there's not as much to do as in Wildwood, but the Trimper's Haunted House makes a trip down here worth it for any enthusiast. I wrapped up the night with a tasty adult beverage at Seacrets, one of the coolest bars/nightclubs I've ever been to (seriously, they have tables in the bay), and headed home. One last thing from Ocean City, though: Yes, that is a banner for the "teen night club" they have, a genre I could've sworn died off in the mid-2000s. Brought back a lot of memories of going to teen nights at Temptations in Seaside Heights and Club Abyss in South Amboy. Anyway, thanks for reading everyone! My next report will be a blitz weekend I did of almost every park in the New England area.

Glad to hear! If you're a water park person, I find theirs to be one of the best I've been to. Talon really is the star of the park, though, along with Demon Drop, Enterprise, and Apollo.

My next destination was... Jolly Roger at the Pier ...the other park owned by the Jolly Roger folks. This one is down at the southern tip of Ocean City, on the boardwalk, right near Trimper's Rides. This park uses the same points cards as their one further north at 30th Street, and features a slightly different collection of flats, and one coaster: A Pinfari looping Zyklon, aptly called "Looping Star" Fun Fact: This model, at the now destroyed Fun Town Pier in Seaside Heights, was the first ever upside down coaster I ever rode. I honestly forgot how batshit intense these are. I had a three and a half minute wait for row four, and was not disappointed. Tons of positive Gs to be had here, but it was a bit bumpy and you really need to hold you neck solid to avoid getting boxed between the OSTRs. 7/10. The only other ride I rode here (due to time constraints) was their dark ride, Morbid Manor. A Bill Tracy dark ride this was not. This was laughably bad, especially with the 15 minute wait. There were only three or four gags, but otherwise it was completely dark with absolutely nothing going on. There was a small drop, but this is definitely not a credit. I honestly think the portable dark ride I went on at the Delaware State Fair in 2021 was better. 0/10. Anyway, onto the remainder of their collection (apologies for the blurriness of many of these pictures). They have a rather large Ferris Wheel, with a more functional light package than the one on 30th Street... ...bumper cars... ...an inverting spin-n-swing... ...some sort of spinning thing?... ...a small drop tower... ...a slingshot... ...crazy cabs... ...Tornado... ...a KMG Move-It that ran an absolutely insane program... ...double-decker carousel... ...mini-Himalaya... ...junior pirate ship... ..and this Musik Express called Hurricane, which had the music blasting and was running super-fast. Unfortunately, due to time, it had to be skipped (it had a HUGE line).\ And that wraps up the other Jolly Roger in Ocean City. Honestly, these two parks are kinda cool, and better than any boardwalk park I've been to not owned by the Morey's family as a whole. Next up: Trimper's.

Yeah, thanks! Fixed it.

Ocean City, Maryland, is often overlooked by park goers in favor of the more well-known NJ oceanfront parks, but if you ask me it's definitely worth a trip. They have some solid coasters, a decent flat collection, and two Bill Tracy dark experiences. That said, it can be kinda expensive if you're trying to buy wristbands for each park. My first stop, on the way south from Delaware, was Jolly Roger at 30th Street. This park is honestly a lot bigger than you'd think, with a small rides section, two large mini-golf courses, a substantial water park, and a massive go-karts complex. Unfortunately time was short, and I didn't have time to experience the later two. But seriously, just look at this park map: Note that this was pulled from their website just now, and has not been updated in several years. Anyway, first up here was the Wacky Worm. Whatever, it's a Wacky Worm. Got two laps. Interestingly, the lap bars did not latch to anything, and were held in their "secure" down location by a chain with a C-Clip at the end that could be undone at any time. The next ride I did here was Barracuda, the former Flitzer from Jenkinson's in Point Pleasant NJ. Sorry for the quality of the photo, this was really the best I could get. Minimal wait, super-enthusiastic ride ops, no seat belts. Still an awesome ride. 8/10. And my last ridden ride here was Wildcat, a Schwarzkopf (you guessed it) Wildcat. Fun history fact: This was actually the original Cedar Point Wildcat that existed there from 1970 to 1978. That picture was where I started the line. 22 minute wait, mostly because they were only running two cars, making it only barely more efficient than the one at Adventure Park USA. It runs the original cars (with the lights disabled), which was cool, and you gotta love that final helix. 8/10. While waiting for Wildcat, I got to observe their hilariously bad "magic pirates" show, featuring two of the oldest performers I've ever seen. Gotta give them credit though, they were definitely in to their roles. As for non-ridden rides, they have your standard bumper cars... ...Helicopters-go-round... ...a Happy Swing... ...a small drop tower... ...standard carnival fun slide... ...train ride... ..tea cups... ...carousel.... ...whales-go-round?... ...Tilt-a-Whirl... ...and the first ever pirate ship I've seen where they didn't bother to enclose the mechanicals. They also have a classic Zipper with the original cars... ...a standard kiddie climb-around... ...an odd spinning...monkeys?.... ... ...junior pirate ship (sorry for the blurriness)... ...a circus... ...Monster... ...another kiddie climb-around.... ..a rather unique spinning ride with heart-shaped cars... ...a Ferris Wheel... ...and one of the more uniquely themed Musik Expresses I've ever seen. And that about wraps up the first Jolly Roger park. My next stop was their other park, located at the southern tip of Ocean City.

So I'm getting caught up on posting reports, and realized that I never posted my brief report from DelGrosso's, which I stopped in at on my way back from Cedar Point in late July. Seeing as the last report from this place was posted in 2013, I figured I might as well provide a bit of an update. Without any further ado... DelGrosso's Amsusment Park, July 28th, 2022 DelGrosso's is a small, family-owned, amusement park located about 15 minutes north of Lakemont Park (home to Leap-the-Dips) and about 2 hours west east of Kennywood. If you're going to either park from the east, it's worth a stop, but honestly there isn't really a whole lot to say about this park. It's small, it's free-admission and either wristband or pay-per-ride, and has two mediocre coasters: a Wacky Worm (that adults can ride) and a Reverchon spinning mouse. I basically grabbed the coasters, took a bunch of pictures, and headed on home, but not before getting the best theme park cheesesteak I've ever had from a restaurant in the water park, which happens to have an old-school up-hill water slide. Unfortunately I was very short on available time and didn't have enough to spend in the water park, which actually seemed quite nice. Enjoy the photos! Entrance sign and the foot bridge over the roadway separating the water park from the rides. A few classic rides which are slowly disappearing: Another also ever-disappearing sight at parks: A theme I had never seen before for a Rock-n-Roll: They have a ton of kids X-goes-round rides. A classic mini-Turtle. Some history plaques: I also really liked their height grading system: And one of the ticket booths: The water park, as I said, seemed very recently overhauled and very nice: Yes, it was "delizioso"! They do not mess around. And finally, the aforementioned uphill slide. Anyway, I know most of you find small parks like this mostly pretty boring, but I hope some of you enjoyed.

I know this is way late, but figure better late than never. I did end up stopping by Kennywood on both my way to and from Cedar Point during my late-July trip. On the way out, I did stop in for a ride on Steel Curtain. The queue was about halfway full, and it was a 53 minute wait for the front row. In addition to the one-train running, operations were kinda horrible - at points they weren't letting anyone even line up in the station until after the previous train had de-boarded. As for the ride itself, it was pretty good but nothing too spectacular. I had a couple of pops of air, but the ride is basically non-stop inversions. I did like the "Banana Roll," which is basically a cobra roll with a corkscrew sandwiched in the middle, which I'm pretty sure I invented in my 2007 No Limits creation, DecaDemon (attached for anyone that still has No Limits). The ride really does seem like someone's No Limits design in the way it just slams you with inversion after inversion. Anyway, the ride itself is a 7/10 I guess. Here's a photo of the empty station while they let the previous train's passengers exit: The theme, and the theme of the area, as a non-Pittsburgh native, however, is a -20/10 for me. The announcement recording during the queue by the former Steelers Coach with all of the horrible football puns is an absolutely joke. I can see how locals eat it up though, since just about everything in the region is Steelers-themed. Anyway, on that brief stop, I also wanted to grab Lil' Phantom but it was closed, so I swung by the park on my way back from Cedar Point and got that credit. Whatever, it's a kiddie coaster. I unfortunately somehow lost my Zippo lighter on it, though. Anyway, just thought I'd follow up my previous report with the conclusion. DecaDemon (Arrow Multilooper).nltrack

Probably Monday.

By "regular hours" to you mean daytime? If so, yes, the park is not open to the public during the daytime on Sunday, October 2nd. I'd say 12 hours is probably enough to hit everything you want at least once. "Great Pumpkin Fest" is the name of their daytime, family-friendly Halloween stuff. All rides that would otherwise be running run on those days. But not that day, October 2nd, during which they have no public hours posted. If this is confusing, you should probably call the park or send them a message on FB.

Congrats on being one of the enthusiasts that give us all a bad name and make us hesitant to identify ourselves at parks.

"Too many" pushaw...and it's still less than it did in the first year before they reprofiled the first turn. Anyway, according to the Wikipedia page its 4.3g. Coasterpedia lists 4.5g. So somewhere in there.

At first I laughed, thinking you were referring to the clientele, then I remembered they had the safari park.