milst1

Sorry to get off-topic about Kid Tums' unfortunate experience, although it was funny reading the GP's "advice" to TPR on Facebook. I've got a rookie question about the use of Platinum Flash Pass to get onto Goliath at SFGA, which is the only credit we need there. Of course we've used Flash Pass many times and we've paid the obnoxious Platinum premium to get onto a new ride. The problem this time, however, is that we are coming to the park later in the day. We've often reserved FP but we have come to the park in the morning. If we reserve/pay in advance, do we lose our money by showing up late in the day? If they sell out of Platinum but someone returns their Plat Q-Bot to leave for the day, will we get that Plat Q-Bot? Thanks for your help and sorry if this has been covered in the past.

Damn you, Larrygator!

Haunted House at Trimper's????? We saw the funhouse and a walkthrough. You don't mean Jolly Roger's at the Pier, whose haunted house we did ride?

First, many thanks for checking out the report. I'm glad you liked it. We were at Hershey on Tuesday and Knoebel's on Wednesday. The crowds were relatively light at Hershey and moderately heavy at Knoebel's. Flying Turns had the longest wait, about 45 minutes throughout the day. Enjoy your trip!

I know most people work during the week and then hit the parks over the weekend, but instead we decided to travel during the week because Cheryl had to work the weekends. In a rare surprise move, we got into our own car and drove for this latest trip. Delta Air Lines was shocked and dismayed. We headed through the Holland Tunnel to NJ, then south, through Delaware. We didn't know about the dark ride at Rehoboth (duh!), and continued on. First stop: Ocean City, Maryland! Here we are at Jolly Roger Amusement Park! There was a fairly large waterpark on the right as we walked in from the parking lot, looking for the dry rides. "Blackbeard and the Scurvy Dogs" was one of those pathetic animatronic displays that still has a working soundtrack but the actual movements of the figures are a series of clicks and Parkinson shakes. Time for an upgrade! Hooray! Jolly Roger got a new credit this year, apparently from the fair circuit. Sea Serpent is a Miler Oval. 50th Anniversary? Founded in 1964. Not bad. They have two amusement parks, a waterpark, a track, zip lines, and mini-golf Overall, the staff were helpful and friendly. They have a lot of Eastern European students on J-1 visas. One was decidedly unhelpful, but most were very nice. The other credits are a Wacky Worm... ...and a Schwarzkopf Wildcat. Their other park is on the boardwalk, so we headed over there. From what I can tell, Fractured Prune is an Ocean City-based donut shop that is starting to franchise nationally. We didn't check it out but you should. Ahh, boardwalk-y things, like a boardwalk, ferris wheel... ...t-shirt shops... ...theming... ...custard and salt water taffy... Jolly Roger's at the Pier! Looping Star is the one credit. No Coca, Pepsi. Dark Ride! Flats Thank you, Jolly Roger's. Now on to... Trimper's Rides, pretty much next door... Funhouse! Tidal Wave credit is... ...a Vekoma Boomerang! There's also a Wacky Worm. Boog Powell has a place here on the pier, for any baseball fans out there. While not a Hall of Famer, he was on four World Series teams with Baltimore (they won against LA and Cincy and lost to Mets and Pirates), won the AL MVP award in 1970, and was on 4 All-Star teams. They've got a Wacky Worm! Credit! But it's mostly a go-kart kind of place. Time for dinner. We've got an hour drive to Whitehaven, Maryland. Next and last stop in OC was Baja Amusements. Uh, if I drive further on this road, we will drown. A 3-car ferry! No charge. We are driving IN the Chesapeake, more or less. Now I'm drowning in some amazing crab soup at The Red Roost in Whitehaven, Maryland. Hush puppies, fries, shrimp, and clam strips. Fried chicken, sweet corn, and a plate full of these babies. I can refer you to an excellent YouTube video which explains the most efficient method of eating these. What a great meal! Then a long drive to Annapolis, Maryland's capital and the home of the Naval Academy. First stop in the morning, SFA. Cheryl has discovered Strawberry Lemonade Ice. I've never seen these Flash Pass kiosks before. How do they work? Do they not have the Q-Bots here? The park was dead so we didn't look into FP. One day I'm going to do a TR that is just about SF's absurd and crass over-advertising. It's a visual assault. You would think that there is no way to reduce the charm of this park, but they've managed it. We missed one credit here on our last visit, the Vekoma Flying Dutchman. We actually enjoyed this, which was a surprise. It's fairly intense, and it's a long ride. Fun with the WB characters! One shred of charm remaining, Capital Railways. And I'll concede one other point about this park: one admission for water park and dry rides. After Six Flags, we drove to Adventure Park USA. Wildcat is the credit here, which has been at Busch Gardens Williamsburg, Rye Playland, Steel Pier, and Williams Grove. They've cleaned it up nicely for Adventure Park USA. This is the midway. We didn't look around much. There are flats and a big arcade indoors. Some theming. Some more drive time and we're at Hershey. Sunset admission saves you a bit. Only $29.80 with four hours to closing. We realized that it's Hersheypark's Christmas in July event and took note of the Hanukkah decorations. They even have a kosher food stand (no crabs there!). It's a bit weird hearing Christmas music while you're sweating, but fun. New credit! Zamperla family gravity coaster. Now to my new favorite ride in the park. I've finally learned how to ride this thing: At loading, scoot your butt a little forward to the leg divider and ask the op for a staple. That keeps the restraint and the forces on my hips and pelvis instead of my femurs. I was able to enjoy the ride instead of worrying about the next blast of pain. Great ride. Some Kissing Tower action. Still plenty of sunlight. This was a pleasant surprise. Big airtime on the final drop with an acceptable amount of wetness! Live trombone entertainment! And we got some quality rides on Lightning Racer. Thank you, Milton S. Hershey! The next morning found us at Knoebel's. Credit! I did really like this ride. As people have already said, it's not a super thrill, but I have become more and more impressed with its technical aspects, and after watching video from the FT at Euclid Beach, I have to give a lot of credit, both to the original ride designers, and to the folks at Knoebel's who figured out how to replicate the ride for the modern public. It's a coaster geek's wet dream. I happen to love Black Diamond. We had a great tour of the construction during the TPR Road to Cedar Point tour, and I love how it turned out. I love any combination of dark ride and coaster. We did the Flyers together, which was a hoot. Scenic Skyway Stratosfear Train! And of course, Phoenix, which always delivers. But the best part of our Knoebel's visit was meeting up with TPR friends Derek, Matt, and Lauren, of course! Thanks so much for going on this great road trip with us!

Pin2K's? Isn't your avatar from Lake Winnie? Yes! You're the first person who ever guessed my avatar correctly! Should I send you a prize? Pin2k's were Williams last ditch effort at saving their pinball branch around the late 90's. Sadly it didn't work. They produced this mix of pinball and video in one game with their Revenge From Mars and Star Wars pins. Having only played the Star Wars pin at Zanzabar in Louisville (highly recommended), I think pin2k's were an amazing concept and really wish they'd caught on. I would love to play Revenge From Mars but haven't found it near me yet. Yes, I would love a prize! Well, now you know you can find those newfangled pinball machines in Pensacola, FL!

We went to these places for the credits, and they are what they are: FECs. If you're looking for Go-Karts and water parks and arcades and children's birthday parties, they're all up to the task. The added benefit is that they are all located in or near beach resort areas, so you can drop in if you're also enjoying the Gulf beaches. Also, only DeSoto Caverns is anywhere in the neighborhood of Rampage, and there's no credit there. The others are a bit further away.

Pin2K's? Isn't your avatar from Lake Winnie?

^^^ Cameron?

We spend every July 4th with friends in Alabama, and we try to tack some credits onto the trip. Last year we hit North Alabama and Tennessee, and two or three years ago we did a disastrous quick trip to KD for I-305, on which I left my zipper pocket open and lost my money clip and rental car keys on the coaster's first run of the day! But that's a story for another time. On this trip, we headed South, way South. This is us in Talladega, Alabama, hosting our annual Freethought Trivia game. I've been going to Alabama for July 4th for almost 15 years, and I've always seen signs for DeSoto Caverns Family Fun Park, so we decided to make a very quick unplanned stop. As you can see, the Spanish conquistador Hernando DeSoto also made a stop here in the 16th C. We've made it. This is an information booth. The caverns are the draw here, and we did not have time to wait for the next tour, but we'll be back. And Hernando would not look so happy if he knew that he was going to die of fever near the Mississippi. It's a short walk from the parking lot to the ticket counter. Nice fountain. Notice the clothed cherubs. Wait, are they cherubs without wings? There were a bunch of activities like Gemstone panning! You can dig for crystals in the dirt! A butterfly house! A Homemade "Water Wars" Wacky Water Golf A Gyro. Hoops Foam Bath And some kiddie flats. We couldn't really stay longer, but we look forward to next year. We made another quick stop in Enterprise, Alabama, to see the monument to the Boll Weevil. My understanding is that the insect's decimation of cotton crops led the local economy to diversify, which led to prosperity. Unfortunately, small rural Alabama towns like this one aren't particularly prosperous anymore. But we did find decent barbecue. The monument is, quite literally, in the middle of the intersection, so we're standing in the middle of the street for this shot. A bazillion miles later and then through horrendous July 4th Weekend traffic, we are at the newly resurrected Miracle Strip in Panama City. The original Miracle Strip had some great theming and attractions, but sadly, the park closed in 2004. The new owners are doing a nice job of honoring the park's memory with classic period rides. They've basically just moved out of a mall parking lot into a new, larger site. Price information. Here is the new credit, a 1976 Galaxi that was originally at Adventureland Iowa, then at Splash Kingdom Waterpark in California. Rock-o-Plane! Roll-o-Plane! Zip lines and additional adventure stuff like a climbing wall. A 1975 Scrambler Trabant! Ferris Wheel. There's more, but we didn't stay too long. Food looked good, too, and we got a nice t-shirt. As you probably know, the PTC John Allen woodie Starliner was relocated to Cypress Gardens, but Legoland took it out. The new ride will be a completely new GCI coaster, inspired by the original. We are looking forward to coming back. Some nice garbage can theming! Anyway, I hope that the new Miracle Strip makes a go of it and keeps people entertained for years to come. We then made the drive from Panama City to back to Alabama to visit Waterville USA in Gulf Shores. The driving was a pain because it was across all of the barrier islands and over causeways and more horrendous July 4th weekend traffic. The exit for Cannonball Run comes through the indoor arcade area. In all of it's CCI/PTC glory. Out and back layout. I liked it, but there is so much hunting in the turnaround that you'll think you've gone on safari. Time for some retracking. I should note that they gave us two go-arounds. We drove back to Pensacola, ate late night at Waffle House, slept, and then found ourselves at Sam's Fun City at 11AM-ish. Relieved to see that there is a pizza buffet. Getting ready for lunch. The rides don't open until 12, so we had an hour to kill. We started with some pinball. We hadn't seen the latest screen projection technology that makes your pinball machine feel like a video game. We were about even. $20 goes a long way at this place. Then some skee-ball. Cheryl dominated. Hoops. I think Cheryl and I were about tied. Dippin' dots! Bullwinkle! This used to be a Bullwinkle's. I'm a fan of the Jay Ward cartoons (Rocky & Bullwinkle, Dudley Do-Right, Peabody and Sherman), which were really funny even though the animation was terrible. The characters are still licensed out to FECs. There are Dudley and Nell, and Boris and Natasha. A little stage for birthday parties. There was a whole separate birthday game room too, I think. Awards from IALEI, the old FEC trade association, which merged into IAAPA. And the credit. The owners/management were nice enough to let us ride it. I don't understand why it's not considered powered on rcdb. These Miner Mikes are basically powered through 90% of the track. Some additional kiddie rides. I think the Scrambler was the only larger flat we saw. I'm also not showing go-karts and some other such things. There is a also a substantial water park which looked nice. Thank you for joining us on this trip through attractions in Alabama and the Florida Panhandle!

Loved this report, thank you!

Chuck, the dark rides are great gore fests. I wished that I was 9 years old again while riding them so I could truly relive that creepy old dark ride feeling.

Is that the head from the old SeaDragon ride? I guess it's possible, because there are actually two heads there and the Sea Dragon had two heads, but I've never heard of chopping up a flat ride for such a purpose. Also, those dragon heads are emitting steam/smoke, so some modification would have had to have been done on those heads to allow the steam to pipe out. I can't find older pictures to verify anything one way or another. I'm guessing it's not them, because I don't see big dorsal spikes on these heads, but I think the Sea Dragon had them. Or maybe they were cut off? Good question.

You could always just pay the $10 admission and then pay per ride, if the $30 entrance plus ride band price is too steep for you, but you're asking someone who will drive for hours, or even fly, to get a single credit, so four credits for $30 sounds like a deal to me. If you're a New York amusement park enthusiast, this is, literally, the only New York City metropolitan area amusement park that has survived the last century more or less intact. At various times the park has alternated between the pay-for-entry and open admission models. Currently, one must pay for admission, which keeps the crowds lighter and also affects the composition of guests (a good or bad thing, depending on your point of view).

Nice pics. We were there weekend before last and it was a pleasure. The park is in good shape.

Jenkinson's Boardwalk on the Jersey Shore has a nice funhouse, but I agree with Larry that the best are in Scandi, and the one at Grona Lund is a standout. I haven't seen a caterpillar or rotor in quite a while, except for the newfangled rotor-type rides. Whips and turtles are easier to find, and they're not too common.

Great! Yeah, we just weren't patient enough to wait for an enthusiast event!

Those older designers like Church, Traver, and Miller tended to have flat instead of banked turns, right?

Rye Playland is an interesting place. Situated on a beautiful beachfront along the Long Island Sound, the area attracted amusements, restaurants, and resort-businesses in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries, but it also attracted "unsavory crowds", so Westchester County eventually took control of the real estate, forced out the existing operators, and built Playland and its surrounding facilities. It really is a gem, but it has had its ups and downs over the years, and it has become a very big drain on the County's budget. You may have heard news in the last several years that Playland was going to close, which is at least partly true, because the County can no longer afford to subsidize it. A plan to "save" Playland was chosen by County Commissioner Rob Astorino, but the whole process seems to have been mismanaged. I was among those who wrote to the County to support an amusement-based solution for Playland, not the weird "Sustainable Playland" proposal that Astorino selected. There have since been so many delays and challenges to the plan that it's not certain whether Sustainable Playland will even go forward in their participation. There is a summary of the situation here. Why this report? We were missing one credit from Rye Playland...See the photos below for our adventure! (BTW, this is one of the parks where I grew up, and everyone's always called it "Rye Playland", although the official name is Playland Amusement Park. Still, you can enter "Rye Playland" and it will come up in rcdb.) On to our Saturday visit. Back in 2008, when I was young and slim, Cheryl and I visited Rye Playland on opening day and found that Kiddie Coaster has a maximum height limit and we were unable to ride it. It's very possible that I rode it as a child, but I don't remember it, and our rule is that we don't count credits that we can't remember or somehow document. So here we are on a beautiful Saturday to rectify the situation. Rob Astorino is now the GOP candidate for Governor. He seems to have botched his own Playland plan, which leads me to believe that the gubernatorial post is beyond his level of capabilities, not that he has any chance against Cuomo to begin with. To the government building to bribe government officials! But seriously, we just applied and paid for a park usage permit. Thanks to RB for the tip that this could be done. Nelly is our host. It is one half-hour before the park opens to the GP. National Historic Landmark We're in! Buckle your seatbelts! Ready to GO! And they're off!!! Appproaching lift hill. On the lift hill! CREDIT! Another go-around! And another go-around! Total: 3 Circuits We've made history! Hah Hah, Height Restriction! You've been vanquished! Back out of the gates, we walked to one end of the boardwalk (this is where BIG was filmed). All the way to the other end of the boardwalk. That's Long Island in the distance. In the GP queue for the park to open. The park has a lovely green in the center, with rides and eateries along the sides. First stop was Derby Racer. These were built by Fred Church, and only three remain. Anyone know where the 2 others can be found? Next stop was Zombie Castle. For a traditional dark ride, this really kicks butt. Lots of sick and grotesque gags, with a crazy loud and disturbing soundtrack. Oops, my reflection on Zoltar. I can't say for sure if this is the same Zoltar as in the movie BIG, but it does stand to reason, unless it was acquired some time after the film was made. Next stop, the classic Dragon Coaster. I definitely remember going on this as a kid, but it's still worth a ride. It's incredibly long and fun. Old Dragon car. Ye Old Mill is another of the park's collection of classic rides. They have these markers for the classic collection put in place for the park's opening in 1928-29. Unfortunately, this Old Mill has received the same treatment as the one at Kennywood: lots of bad retheming. These old "tunnels of love" were meant for smooching. Lunch time! Look, they serve beer! My barbecue chicken wrap was not bad. Another classic dark ride. Flying Witch is also a messed up twisted old school nightmare. If you grew up in the New York area, you might know Carvel ice cream, which was Westchester-based for years. Another view of Dragon Coaster. With its famous dragon! Wow, what a beautiful day! Thanks for visiting Rye Playland with us!!!

Great report.

That first photo of Gold Striker was awesome. Great report!

Hicksville? I work at Farmingdale State!

Same here... but great report regardless. Do allow me to apologize for that. We accidentally left my camera at home. I borrowed my San Fran sister's camera, and those photos came out fine. The other photos come from my iPhone. I have been thinking that something was wrong with my iPhone's camera because the pictures have had a yellow tinge for the last month or so. I never use filters, but I checked it and, sure enough, there was a filter ON. Gosh darn it. I must have done this by accident. The situation has been corrected. Again, my deepest apologies for that stupidity. Thanks for the kind words. I'm glad you enjoyed the TR.

We did have apricots! But not at the festival. Is Patterson near Sacramento?

Argh. They sent me the "Sure you can ride the coaster!" email on May 18. RichBan said it was closed when he visited May 25. Argh. On the bright side, they said they were getting on the phone to the State to get the inspection done sooner, not that it's going to benefit me here in NYC. Argh.