mattnz

Great photos. It looks like Intamin airtime heaven. I am officially jealous of all those on this year's New Hotness Tour!

I thought I was a reasonably patient person until I waited for two and a half hours for Maverick two years ago. It was UNBEARABLE! This was during a three day visit to Cedar Point and I only got on Maverick twice. This year with TPR we had ERT and I can't count how many times I rode (it was many, many times!). A trip with TPR = queue problems (largely) solved! I don't think I could wait 5 hours for anything at all now that I've been so spoiled.

Your photos of the cinnamon made my mouth water! Do you know why the Thunderation trains were changed to forwards only? That's a shame. It was a rather unique experience riding backwards. Beautiful park in a beautiful part of the country.

I put Boss somewhere in the middle too. It's got a really interesting layout with some huge sweeping drops but the jackhammering definitely distracted me a bit. I don't remember Screamin' Eagle having much airtime to speak of in 2010, so I hope it's improved a bit. I think I may be the only one who quite liked Wildcat at Lake Compounce! Andrew and I rode it three times on the TPR trip and didn't find it too rough, which just goes to show it's all a matter of your personal experience and opinion when it comes to coasters and (especially) temperamental woodies.

I also am sad to see Pitt Fall gone, but its location for a frisbee-type ride is absolutely perfect. Should be an amazing ride.

I thought I'd give this a go for the first time now that I've been on 58 woodies (courtesy of TPR trips!). All American alas so far. My top 10 is: 1. El Toro 2. My Favorite Steel, Anypark Anywhere 3. Boulder Dash 4. Phoenix 5. Viper 6. The Voyage 7. Prowler 8. Wooden Warrior (this will hopefully get a nice, high placing) 9. Cornball Express 10. Comet (Great Escape) 11. Lightning Racer - L (tied) 11. Lightning Racer - T (tied) Look forward to seeing the results!

Wow I thought Kennywood looked great at night on TPR's visit this summer, but all those Christmas lights have made the place look really spectacular. Thanks for sharing!

I was starting to wonder what the first drop would be like with lap bars only... I remember Steel Hawg at Indiana Beach really throwing you into the OTSRs, but with a heavy-ish trim as seen in the testing video for Green Lantern I guess it will be OK?

Yay! This was one of my favourite coasters at Six Flags Over Georgia. Great to hear the chain are giving their old woodies some love, this one really deserves it.

Looks like a great year for the Gold Coast parks. I think this ride's a perfect fit for Movie World and with lap bars only it will be insane!

This is definitely a park on my 'must visit' list. Verbolten looks like it's going to be a great ride - good on Zierer/Busch Gardens!

This is good to hear, glad also to read they're doing so well considering the small market they have. Will check out the park over Christmas.

There is something about these rides that's...very intimidating. I love how you 'edge' out to the drop and then wham! down you go. I'm glad Dorney Park got Cedar Point's secondhand ride. A very fun ride! (If it's from the 80s, you kind of expect a bit of pain!)

^ I think Cedar Point could be so much better with just one thing: a fast pass system. Of any kind! It can be quite frustrating travelling from the other side of the world and having to stand in a lot of long queues. Just this ONE thing and I'd be happy! It sounds like the chain may be headed in that direction and that will be a great thing. In terms of their operations and general day-to-day stuff I think Cedar Point is pretty stellar. Thanks for your comments all!

So the Road to Cedar Point finally led us to "America's Roller Coast", the "Best Amusement Park in the World" (according to Amusement Today) and certainly one of my favourite parks in North America - Cedar Point! Like Kings Island, Andrew and I visited Cedar Point just last year and stayed on site during an incredibly busy three days. We used the one hour early morning entry to get in rides on the big attractions like Maverick and Millennium Force, which otherwise had one and a half hour-plus queues for the rest of the day, if not longer. We filled out our days with as much as we could, getting all the credits in and trying to experience everything the park has to offer. We were a little overwhelmed by the park at first, especially the long queues, abundance of asphalt and blaring sun, but gradually discovered all the cool things the park had to offer. Our favourite rides weren't necessarily the ones we expected. Gemini, for example, is an awesome racing hybrid coaster with airtime galore. Blue Streak is quite underrated (made even better by never having long queues). Magnum XL-200 is a people-eating airtime machine. OK it's a bit violent on your thighs but it's still definitely a great ride. Disaster Transport is weird, random fun in the dark. The 'big' rides didn't disappoint us either. Millennium Force was 10 (now 11) years old, still smooth as it descends from its awesome height and speeds around the course. I like all the overbanked turns and nighttime rides are a must. Top Thrill Dragster is breathtaking each and every time you ride. The relative smoothness and lap bars certainly give it the edge over Kingda Ka. Maverick is a kick-ass ride - just full of great, intense elements. You do need to ride it a little defensively or it can be a bit of a "neck chopper". Wicked Twisted is the park's fourth 200 foot-plus coaster and always a fun ride. My favourite row is the very back where you're really spun around the back spike and can feel the incredible height of the ride. This year with TPR Cedar Point was quite a different experience. After we arrived we just sort of...relaxed. Which was nice! We came and went from the park, didn't have to hurry, spent quite a bit of time drinking the house wine at T.G.I. Friday's...and got to know all the TPR trippers a bit better. Andrew and I didn't even bother with early morning entry! One of the greatest perks for us was nighttime ERT on Maverick and Millennium Force, and I'm still amazed the park gave that to us. It was AWESOME being able to experience these two great rides over and over again. Andrew and I also did one other thing we didn't do last year, which was to go on all the water rides. We put on our swim suits and hit up Snake River Falls, Shoot the Rapids and Thunder Canyon in a row. It was great fun being able to ride all of these without worrying about getting our shoes wet. We also made sure we got on the 'new for 2011' attraction Windseeker, which I'd probably give the edge over the version at Kings Island due to the awesome location by Lake Erie. Oh and one other thing: the weather held out for us YET AGAIN! It was expected to rain on day 3 of our stay and didn't rain at all until after park closing. So that means Andrew and I have visited Cedar Point for six days without seeing a single drop of rain... Apparently that's quite a feat! Our thanks again to Robb and Elissa for putting on an amazing trip. And to all the trip participants: we hope to see you all again very soon! After Cedar Point Andrew and I spent a couple of days at Disneyland Resort in L.A. since Andrew had never experienced a Disney park before. But for now...here's the end of our 'Road to Cedar Point'. What a journey it's been! Well, here we are again at Cedar Point! Even after walking under Kingda Ka a week ago, Dragster still looks impressive against that sky. But our first ride this time round was on the Monster! Yay for new flat ride credits! We had to take a few spins on Gemini, which was one of our favourite rides last year. I LOVE that retro station. You can pretty much just pick your row on Gemini. This racing hybrid Arrow creation simply eats through its queue. Still one of the best coasters at Cedar Point. It's a bit hard to photograph, but you can just see all those hands up in the air. Always a sign of a really fun ride. Damn you Jr. Gemini! Only credit we still haven't got at Cedar Point. Cedar Point has plenty of games on the various midways. Can't go by a Whac-a-Mole! Farewell Paddlewheel Excursions! I'm sad to see you go - you're a nice relaxing ride in a park full of adrenaline. Near Paddlewheel Excursions you can get right under Top Thrill Dragster's top hat. This is the "oh my God!" moment of the ride. It's amazing how long the final leg before the magnetic brakes actually is. We had to give the ride a spin and wait it out, break downs and all. It really is worth the wait - this is a breathtaking ride! I can never get over how fast the launch is. Amazing. Urgh... Only in Ohio did we again see these awful tank tops cut to the waist. How does this even pass for clothing?! The girls of Ohio weren't immune either. Bloody hell! Moving toward the front of the park, here's Corkscrew, the Arrow looper with a bonus airtime hill. Signature shot. Pretty to photograph, not all that great to ride! The Sky Ride is pretty short but enables you to snap some photos from higher up. Especially good to photograph from up here is Raptor, the park's roaring B&M invert. Still a very good, intense ride. Only a few rough spots here and there where you snap through a few of the elements, but not bad for a 1994 coaster! We only rode once last year due to time constraints so had to give it another spin... And had to wait in THIS! The queue never seemed to let up every time we walked past throughout the day, so we bit the bullet. Definitely a fun ride. But worth the wait...? I gave it the thumbs up again this year. And we re-rode on another day with a much shorter wait. If anyone can explain to me the weird randomness of Raptor wait times I would appreciate it! It doesn't seem to make any sense! Blue Streak is just next door to Raptor but never seems to have a queue... And it's a lot of fun! We had to try Calypso, another new 'flat ride credit' for us. It's similar to a Scrambler, but probably a bit faster than corporate park Scramblers tend to be. Also love the Derby Racer! A fun and very fast carousel. Andrew and I had a couple of cheese burgers which rated as easily the worst burgers we've EVER eaten! A dry bun, low-grade meat patties, plastic-tasting cheese - and that's it! I mean, no sauce or anything! How is this acceptable at Cedar Fair's flagship park?! In fact, where can you find decent food inside Cedar Point?! The new Pink's didn't look all that promising to me either. More burgers, fries, etc... (Fortunately we had some buffet lunches care of TPR! I think you need to leave the park for anything even slightly decent. Rant over for now.) Ocean Motion has been moved to the very front of the park to make way for... Wind Seeker! Which was a lot of fun in its beautiful location by the beach. For our ride, we were accompanied by Jerry Goldsmith's Star Trek theme again! (How do they know us so well?!) I really like the front area of Cedar Point. It's bright, colourful and aside from Raptor doesn't seem to attract the longest queues of the day. We rode the giant Schwarzkopf Ferris Wheel. You get some nice views up here. Some stunt show going on next door. I never bother to watch these... Hello Wicked Twister. Wicked Twister never seemed to get a queue at all, which we thought was kind of weird... It's a great ride! Love the launch, backwards twisting spike, the whole experience is awesomely fun. Moving back through the park, Andrew and I had to give Mantis a ride this year. The first drop trim brake was on, so now we've ridden trimmed and trimless! (We preferred the slightly more intense trimless version of 2010.) We enjoy stand-up coasters. I know we're a little bit in the minority within the coaster enthusiast community on that one! We ended up getting a nighttime ride as well which was pretty cool. Speaking of nighttime rides...it was time for ERT on Maverick! I still can't believe the park did this for us. Awesome!! I couldn't count how many times we rode. (A lot!) The ride was a big hit with TPR. Just watch those 'neck choppers' and hold on tight! Maverick pics from day 2: Ride in action. The trains only take 12 passengers but they cycle them through pretty fast. The air time hills are completely insane. I also really like the back-to-back 'twisted horseshoe roll'. Very smooth and intense. One of the many 'twisty bits'. Watch your necks! I love this swooping turn over the lake. Water bombs. Yep, this was definitely a good replacement for the park's old log flume. (And I'm a bona fide log flume enthusiast.) On day 2 we also got on some of the less popular rides at Cedar Point. For a ride that looks so impressive... ...the aptly-named Mean Streak just doesn't do all that much - except for beating you up pretty good. It was cool to see the 'hi TPR!' sign in the station though! We took a spin on the Cedar Creek Mine Ride. Not one of the better Arrow mine trains out there, but at least this year it didn't injure Andrew! (He got a minor spinal adjustment in 2010.) I do like the old school trains with triple single-position lap bars! Cedar Point still has some very nice tree-covered areas, like the Frontier Trail. There are even farm yard animals, etc. In the Frontier Trail is the Red Garter Saloon, which was a very popular way to escape the heat and have a drink in the middle of the day. I haven't forgotten about you Millennium Force... This became mine and Andrew's favourite coaster last year. After our back-to-back TPR trips this year, it's been beaten but not forgotten! But how can you beat that first drop? I also enjoy the giant overbanked turns. Did I mention we had nighttime ERT on this on day 2? Riding over and over again at night the ride certainly came to life. 11 years old now but still a great ride. And not waiting in hour and a half lines due to ERT = AWESOME!! One ride we didn't get on this year was Wildcat. I would've liked to but it was hard to justify the queue for such a 'minor' attraction. It's fun though! Probably one of my favourite carnival-type coasters. A little out of place at Cedar Point nowadays I guess... Iron Dragon was another skipped credit for us this year, though in this instance I couldn't care less! (This is the best - probably only half-decent - part of the ride.) Time for a bit more park food and these hot dogs were 'OK'...they came with a bag of chips, which often seems to get served in the US at lunchtime. I don't get it at all! Cedar Point's giant Power Tower didn't have much of a queue, especially the Space Shot side, which I don't understand! I FAR prefer Space Shots to Turbo Drops! Don't you? Ride in action. As night started to fall we decided to dip our feet in Lake Erie. It's hard to top Cedar Point in terms of its amazing location. We saw some of Cedar Point's Summer Spectacular show... Who exactly is this supposed to appeal to?! We're not used to this level of patriotism in New Zealand... I think it's something unique to America (and especially Cedar Fair!). The Snoopy lights were more up my alley. Oh, pretty! On day 3 a group of us decided to check out Tomo Hibachi, an interactive Japanese eating experience! All the food is prepared right in front of you. Things get a little hot... (In fact, you might want to watch yourself judging from what we heard!) And then they play games, such as throwing food at you! I found I was quite good at this! Things do get a little messy...and I left covered in sake! (It was nice though!) Back in the park, we got quite a few rides on Magnum this trip...obviously forgot to take too many photos though. Oops. On day 3 we also hit up the park's three very wet water rides. I love shoot-the-chutes but can never get on them at parks for fear of getting drenched for the rest of the day. Fortunately at Cedar Point we could just skip back to the hotel and put on our swim gear. Snake River Falls was a great ride of its type and I don't think I've inhaled quite so much water before. Shoot the Rapids had a longish wait but was fun, quite elaborate and very, very wet. More than we expected all round! These would come in handy if we weren't already in swim suits... Finally, it was great to be able to get on a rapids ride without worrying constantly if the level of wetness would be 'acceptable' or not... We were already drenched, so who cares! It was great to stay on site at Cedar Point again this year, check out the park late at night, and experience the Point with TPR! It was also fun taking arty shots of Windseeker showing off its spectacular lighting display after dark. Thank you Robb and Elissa and all our fellow TPR trippers. We really had an awesome time! Here's to another summer with TPR!!

^ Hey Jared! Wow, another TPR member working at Kings Island? I always like to take pics of flat rides though we didn't ride too many at KI. Sorry we didn't get to say hello! This trip had so many awesome perks - I mean, we even had ERT on Maverick and Millennium Force at Cedar Point. It really was amazing. Actually, I would recommend going on TPR trips to ANYONE, even if you live close by the parks TPR plans to visit. You really get the 'ideal' visit with TPR, and might end up seeing your local parks in a whole new light. (The Australia trip this year is a good example.) Keep up the good work Jared - the operations at Kings Island this year were really good!

One or two more photos below... Adventure Express was the other coaster I really wanted to ride today as I didn't remember too much about it. As you can see, it's very hard to photograph from anywhere in the park! Here's the station. I'm afraid I still don't remember too much about this ride, apart from the final lift hill back into the station... Oh yeah, it broke Andrew's glasses! Boo! (He found this out in the queue for Racer.) Thank you Kings Island - this was a great visit! And thanks Rob and Elissa for the fast passes today, they worked a treat! On the drive through Ohio we again got to experience a TPR bus tradition - snack time! Andrew chose the M&Ms! Our bus journey went slightly off route for a little surprise...Columbus Zoo! The zoo still has a little rides section... ...featuring Sea Dragon, a 1950s junior woodie. TPR LOVES bonus credits! And this was a really good one! Thanks for reading. Next up is Cedar Point - looks like we've finally made it!

^ The main reason I wanted to ride Garfield's Nightmare was because it was an original 'Old Mill'. I love to go on rides for their historic value, even if they don't have much else to offer! Getting closer every day to Cedar Point, TPR next hit up Kings Island in beautiful Ohio. This was an interesting stop for us as Andrew and I visited Kings Island just last year after the Mid-America trip. (Last year's trip report here). We braved the highways of America and visited on a very quiet day. This year Kings Island introduced their new fast passes, and though the park was certainly busier than on our last visit, we had very little waits thanks to the efficient system. You basically just go up through the exit, which is much better than being queued into the station. Thank you Cedar Fair! (Now bring it to Cedar Point please!) Robb and Elissa had another surprise for us at Kings Island - which was a night time visit including ERT on Beast. A thunder storm came through that evening but fortunately cleared in time for ERT (the Intamin gods really do love TPR). Night rides on Beast was absolutely a coaster nerd dream come true for me and though the ride 'ain't all that' nowadays it was fun to race through the dark on this old classic. I honestly don't find the ride too rough, which is probably down to the massive use of trim brakes! We had a great time at Kings Island last year and this time round could just take it easy, having previously conquered the park. I think they have a very strong ride line-up, with Diamondback a stand-out B&M (especially in the front or back - the middle isn't up to much...). Firehawk and Flight of Fear are both excellent rides, Racer is a fun woodie and Flight Deck is a solid Arrow suspended coaster. I also quite like Invertigo and wish the U.S. had more of these over the standard Vekoma boomerangs. They really are a lot of fun. Vortex was a surprise as we thoroughly enjoyed it last year, found it unique, intense and not too rough. This year it was a real head-banger. I didn't know Arrow coasters could be temperamental? Odd... We also took a spin on the park's massive new Windseeker ride and it was a pleasant, scenic journey up to 301 feet. It's not a thrill ride to speak of, but still fun. For thrills I enjoyed getting on the park's amazing Intamin gyro drop tower again this year. Now that is an incredible way to conquer your fear of heights and one of the best rides in the park. On day 2 we also got to do a Beast walk-back tour. That was incredibly cool and as the photos will show we even got to venture into the ride's massive helix. Awesome! Being somewhat a 'trip of surprises' we journeyed to Columbus after Kings Island for a visit to Jungle Jack's Landing at Columbus Zoo to ride one of the oldest coasters in Ohio - Sea Dragon! It was a fun little junior woodie. TPR trips are just fantastic to get on these out of the way credits and I had never even heard of this one... Our surprise early visit to Kings Island was accompanied by some ominous clouds... Foolishly, we went to Invertigo first. The thunder came in and the ride shut down. Oh noes, hopefully this weather will pass and at least Beast will open for us! The park had their 'hot summer lights' on. Very pretty. I also liked the 'hot pink' Eiffel Tower. The thunder didn't stop the park putting on a fireworks show. The weather cleared up and became just about perfect for night rides on Beast! They were awesome! If you're going to experience Beast at its best, night is the time to ride. And it was a coaster nerd dream come true for me. Day 2 and we're back for more. The weather was great today (and the rest of the trip for that matter). In addition to the new park fast passes we also had early morning ERT on Diamondback! Choose your row carefully guys! This is definitely a 'front or back' coaster. I'd give Nitro the edge over Diamondback this year because every row on Nitro is pretty damn good! After a quick daytime spin on Beast, TPR did a kiddie coaster takeover. This was the one credit we couldn't get last year due to the maximum height restriction - so thank you Kings Island! Kidtums and Robb do not need to feel ashamed! Every year it seems Planet Snoopy wins awards for 'best kids area' and there sure is a lot to do here... This is a good idea for the little ones. This I'm glad we don't have to bother queueing for again! Surf Dog is much less thrilling than your standard Disko. Actually, while the selection of rides in Planet Snoopy is good, I don't know if it's much 'nicer' than some other kiddie lands I've seen... I also wanted to give Woodstock Express a spin this year. This is a really decent junior woodie. Piers can't wait to ride! Moving through the park, it doesn't seem like it's going to be too busy today... But we went over to Invertigo early due to its slow loading times. And we were determined to ride today! So Roxanne is a bit of a U2 fan... They played the U2 song 'Vertigo' pretty much on a loop, making her a very happy customer! The station is a little...ugly. Twisted Impulse coasters don't seem to need these cow gates... Anyway, I actually really like Invertigo! It's tall, intense and and has a cool back-to-back seating alignment. I wish there were more of these around (and reliable ones wouldn't hurt, either). Next door to Invertigo is Congo Falls. I always like to photograph these. I had to run from this one to dodge the spray. Due to the HUGE loads, Drop Tower never has a queue, but we didn't have to wait even one cycle due to the fast pass entrance right up the exit! This could well be my favourite ride at the park. It is just all kinds of awesome! And still one of the few rides that really intimidates me. Actually, I will say I was a bit intimidated by Windseeker too. You go so high up in those little seats attached to those flimsy-looking arms... Are you guys ready to ride?! It was none too thrilling, as you felt very secure in the restraints. It was a very good ride though - 'pleasant' is the word I would use - and seems to be a big hit with the general public. I also enjoyed the musical accompaniment from Jerry Goldsmith's Star Trek theme! You get an interesting view of the backside of Vortex from the Windseeker queue. I was looking forward to re-riding Vortex, as Andrew and I loved it last year. I also loved the 'child pen'! Look at that twisted lay-out - it's insane... And the first drop is GREAT. RIP Mr. Ron Toomer, who died today. Hats off to you and your innovations. Unfortunately, Vortex was quite the head-banger this year. The mid-course brakes come on very strong. Subsequently, you get a bit of 'hang time' in the corkscrews. Still a fun ride, maybe we got it on an 'off' day. Kings Island has lots of old flat rides, like this Scrambler. Old school Monster rides also seem to be prevalent at corporate U.S. parks. I was yet to ride one of these at this point but got on the one at Cedar Point. 'Fort Kinzel' still hasn't been re-named I see... This area is home to the oft-forgotten Flight of Fear and one of Vekoma's best rides - Firehawk! I love how you flip face forward just as you drop... This is an awesomely intense ride. Much, MUCH better than B&M's Superman clones (if you ask me). We had to get on Racer again, an oldie but a goodie. Despite the looks of this queue it took all of 5 minutes to get on. The people of the Mid-West sure do like to crowd their stations! No exception on the red side either... Gotta love racing woodies. This is the ride that started the 'second golden age' of roller coaster building in the 1970s. Like a lot of these 70s racing woodies, it doesn't have all that much airtime nowadays. Still a classic ride! On the way to lunch we passed by the log flume, which got Andrew a little wet last year (and not in a good way!). This was another lunch with free beer and an awesome sign out front to welcome us! Cool! It was almost time for the photo walk-back tour, so we grabbed a few snaps of Diamondback. The splashdown is cool, especially if you ride in the very back. The first drop is also not to be sneezed at! Here they go... Time to move round for a better angle...and 'boob time'! There you go! We got to use the super secret entrance for our exclusive backstage tour of Beast. Clasp the pearls, we're behind the scenes! Looking back at the impressive station. I had been looking forward to this backstage tour more than any other! First drop into the tunnel. Here comes a train...looks like we're been spotted! On come the trim brakes. These guys don't look too sure... I see happy riders! Here's another train... You know what? The more I look at these photos, the more I think Beast ain't all that bad. Let's give it some love! We got a great run-down on the ride from one of Beast's original creators. Here's the train coming into the second lift hill. It really is a MASSIVE ride. OK so next we did something that made me totally queen out... We got to go inside the heart of Beast's awesome helix! I think this is the best part of the ride. There they go... It really is quite intimidating as you race into this tunnel, especially in pitch darkness. Doesn't look like we need to worry about Beast burning down anytime soon! Wandering up the hill the trains just kept on coming. I could've stayed here all day watching - it was so much fun. Enjoy your ride. After the Beast walk-back we also got up quite close to Diamondback. This was a good opportunity to get some unusual angles. The GP kindly continued posing for us. After the walk-back tour it was time to take it a bit easy. The Eiffel Tower is the perfect place to take photos. And we also met Jeff from the North East trip! Hey Jeff - nice to see you again, working the Eiffel Tower! All our high, far-off photos from this TR... ...are courtesy of Andrew's long lens! Thanks Andrew! See what I mean? I don't think we even bothered riding this today... Um, yeah, nothing to see here, move along... The park's iconic entrance. We haven't forgotten about you Flight Deck! This is a really decent Arrow suspended coaster that seems to pick up a lot of speed all the way to the final brake-run. I love how the whole ride sways back and forth as it hits the brakes. Station shot. A couple more photos to follow!

Nice TR Laura! Glad to see you found the Auto Skooters after all.

Ah! Manhanttan looks so amazing. I wish we did the pre-pre-add on. Nice start Kevin!

After our somewhat short visit to Dorney Park (which was still more time than we needed) it was time to head west to Pittsburgh for our surprise early visit to Kennywood, including nighttime ERT on Phantom's Revenge! This was a really cool idea as we got in a lot of rides before ERT began, including some of the quirky ones, like Noah's Ark - which I loved! How awesome that the park has kept this open. The myriad of tricks inside surprised me. Phantom's Revenge certainly didn't disappoint. I loved the unique layout including the awesome second drop into the ravine. There was airtime all over the second half of the ride right up to the final brake run and it was just a really fun experience from start to finish - made all the more fun at night with TPR! Day 2 rained on and off - and began with some rather wet ERT on Racer. Racer doesn't do a whole lot but is still great fun due to the racing aspect. We got in at least one rather wet ride just as it started raining quite hard, which taught me that riding in the rain can be a little painful. After that it was time to head over to the park's newest coaster, Sky Rocket, and that's when the heavens really opened and it BUCKETED down! So much so we had to wait in the station for a while until it at least stopped pouring. As you'll see from the photos the park had a great attitude to ride operations and as soon as it eased just a little we were off. Those without the trusty TPR ponchos got soaked! Sky Rocket was a fun ride that fits perfectly into the kooky ride line-up at Kennywood. I especially loved the trains which comfortably manoeuvred all the twisted elements. Kudos to Premier Rides (I hope to see more rides like these) and kudos to the park for operating the ride in the rain - even though it employs an LSM launch! (Hey Six Flags/Cedar Point - what's your excuse?!) Andrew and I did quite a bit of re-riding during the second day and experienced one ride on Phantom's Revenge as it started to pour again just as we were going up the lift hill...resulting in the most painful ride we have ever experienced on a roller coaster! 85 mph through pouring rain is an interesting experience, I can tell you! There was so much else to see and do at Kennywood it's hard to know where to begin, so I've chosen loads of photos to do the talking for me. Suffice to say I thought the park has done a great job over an obviously very long time keeping their traditional flavour alive while adding new rides (Sky Rocket being a prime example) that fit the quirky/kooky bill nicely. The setting of the park too is impressive - looking over the river to Pittsburgh's billowing industry and sometimes employing the terrain to sandwich in their unique coasters in a way that adds to the ride experience. Driving into Pittsburgh I was reminded of Wellington, with the little houses perched on hills everywhere. But everywhere you also see reminders of Pittsburgh's industrial heart. Kennywood was yet another 'must visit' park I was really looking forward to. It didn't take long before it started to get dim and Kennywood lit up. (Apologies if some of our photos are a bit blurry - didn't have the good camera out...) We queued for Jack Rabbit - here's a random building nearby. Jack Rabbit was quite fun - it only has one really good moment (the double down) but it's worth the ride. Bums way, way out of seats in the back! Looks like Kennywood has one of those inverting rides we went on at Dorney Park. Some kind of boat ride in a scenic setting. Hello Racer, we'll get to you tomorrow... We had an agenda! That's right - get the kiddie credit! (Not a lot of head room for Hans...) Yay they let us on Lil' Phantom! Ka-ching! We also tried out the Auto Race, the last remaining ride of its type, designed by the indomitable Harry Traver It was very curious! You kind of just race along and the steering wheel is completely pointless. But it's fun! This is Laffin' Sal. She's been laughing here for God-knows-how-long. Apparently she's made over as a witch for Halloween. But she is so damn creepy I hardly think that's necessary! Kennywood has afro fountains! We gave Thunderbolt a nighttime ride. It had really old school trains. The 'larger' person had to sit on the left hand side due to... This helix! (With good reason!) Another quirky ride we got on was the Turtle. This was yet another randomly fun ride you won't see anywhere else. I think this was a food stand. I liked the old school look with the lights and coaster-referencing name. Nearby was Noah's Ark which I'd been looking forward to. It's the very last 'ark' still operating in the entire world. Creepy Noah welcomes us aboard! Some of the animals inside. I loved how the whole structure swayed like a ship. There were lots of other cool effects as you wandered through the narrow passageways... Including this crazy rocking room! Thank you Kennywood for preserving this old school fun house. We rode a newer attraction at Kennywood - Ghostwood Estate. This is the pre-show room where Lord Kenneth explains how to rid his estate of ghosts... It's a fun shooting dark ride, but has so much themeing that's it's very easy to miss all the details. It's kind of a shame in a way. Oh, pretty! At park closing we all gathered for ERT... There is nothing like having a GREAT ride all to yourselves! Thank you Robb and Elissa for bonus nighttime ERT!! What a great way to end an awesome night at Kennywood. Day 2 at Kennywood and we still had so much to do! There really is a lot of cool stuff at this park... We began our day with ERT on the park's historic Racer. Best part: They let us round twice each time! Racer, you see, is a Mobius Loop coaster, which means it actually has only one track...you start on one side of the station, and return on the other. So we got to ride the whole 'loop'! Awesome! It's a little hard to get photos so here's one from across the park later in the day. We did not ride in these dry conditions... But a wet hand-slapping good time was had by all! Next up we had early morning ERT on Sky Rocket. By now it had started to POUR! Um...are you sure it's OK to ride in these conditions? After it started to ease a little - they let us on! Here's the first train returning - with no shelter on the brake run! Quick, load the ride!! The rain eased a little for our turn - whew! We loved it! What a unique and fun ride. A nice little launch, fun holding brake at the top of the drop, and lots of cool twisted elements. After all our time in the park we still had a credit to get... (I see you Pitt Fall!) Exterminator! This was actually a really fun spinning wild mouse in the dark. Amazing what a bit of themeing can do to a pretty standard ride. The area near Exterminator is known as 'Lost Kennywood' and is a throw-back to the park's long history. It's also really beautiful. The centrepiece is a shoot-the-chutes ride. RUN! Since Pitt Fall wasn't open (boo!) we went over to the Screamin' Swing. Gotta love these. Always a short but fun ride. Random Enterprise themed to a volcano! I was intrigued to ride the Schwarzkopf Bayern Kurve, which was another 'rare flat ride credit'. Enjoyable, and really fast, with a random and very loud horn blasted at you for no particular reason. Near the centre of the park was this nice tree-filled area. Here we found the Kangaroo, another 'last of its kind' in the world. It bounces off the hill, accompanied by a bouncing sound. Very funny! It was time for another spin on Sky Rocket. Here you can see Kennywood's 'fast pass' system which gave us specific times to get on specific rides. Bit of an odd system, but it did help us get on more attractions than we would've been able to otherwise. You just go up through the exit, and they only made us wait out one train. Sky Rocket is very re-rideable. Here's the awesome little launch. The holding brake slows the train down just for a moment to catch your breath... Then you rocket through the rest of the course. Glass smooth and very comfortable, with lap bars only. It was time for lunch and Kenny Kangaroo came out to say hi! After lunch we used our 'fast pass' to get another ride on Jack Rabbit. Nice use of the ravine. Old school fun! We wandered by the log flume, but kind of felt like we'd had enough water for one day. Had to get another ride on Thunderbolt too. Off they go into the ravine! I love how this park has built their coasters into the natural terrain. Speaking of rides that use the terrain well... It was time for a few more rides on Phantom's Revenge - which had by now become my favourite ride at the park! The first drop is great but it's hard to top that second 200 foot plus drop through the Thunderbolt... The ride also interacts with the Turtle! We raced back into Lost Kennywood because I saw something exciting... Pitt Fall was open! I LOVE Intamin drop towers and this was apparently the ride's last season at Kennywood. It was certainly an impressive drop tower, standing at 250 or so feet. There was at least one other thing I wanted to try at Kennywood... The Old Mill now known as Garfield's Nightmare, but also known as the Tunnel of Love. Ooo... Fun facts in the queue. It certainly looks like some opportunities for 'love' may await you inside... But when you're out, you're just glad it's over. I loathed the ugly fluorescent colours. And I thought Garfield was supposed to be funny? What a turn off! We checked out the candy store to cheer ourselves back up! I was sad to leave Kennywood, but new adventures awaited us on the Road to Cedar Point. Here's our fantastic bus driver Brian getting us through some Pittsburgh traffic. Pittsburgh had a lot of character. Not the most well-to-do city, but those are usually the most interesting to me. Some interesting buildings too. Kings Island up next - thanks for reading!

Awesome video! That was an incredible ERT session. I still haven't gotten over it! Just an amazing way to end a all-round fantastic day on the trip.

Thanks Gary, Neil and Nick! ^ Holy crap, nighttime ERT on Phantom's Revenge was amazing! Daytime ERT on Sky Rocket in the pouring rain was interesting too! Kennywood was definitely a favourite park for me.

It has been incredibly sad over the last week to see all the flooding at Hersheypark and especially at Knoebels after having so recently visited in person. My best wishes to them in their clean-up efforts... I wasn't quite sure what to expect from our next stop on the Road to Cedar Point - Dorney Park. I'd heard it had a pretty mediocre collection of rides, and was very corporate, with its traditional park atmosphere stripped beyond recognition only to be replaced by concrete. I certainly found that to be true - especially for a Pennsylvanian park - though I'm not quite sure how much that is the fault of Cedar Fair (who acquired the park in 1992). I suspect a lot of its charm disappeared before then - maybe someone can enlighten me? (I know the park suffered a pretty major fire in 1983...) In any case, as I was going through the photos for this TR, I was reminded what a nice day we had during our fairly brief stop at Dorney Park. The weather was great and the crowds were light - ideal conditions for any Cedar Fair park visit! We had early morning ERT on Talon and Hydra: The Revenge. I'd rank Talon as a 'solid' B&M invert - fun, though not too intense, and eerily quiet due to its sand-filled track. Hydra looks quite interesting on paper, with all the elements in an unusual order for a B&M, the oddly shaped cobra roll, and a couple of hills that looked like they might deliver some airtime... But I found the ride to be incredibly tame, and perhaps the most forceless B&M coaster I've ever ridden! The bizarre 'jojo' roll before the lift hill was completely pointless but at the same time kind of cool. Steel Force looked very much like Mamba at Worlds of Fun and was similarly fun. I have developed a bit of an affinity for these Morgan hypers. Possessed was great - I love twisted implulse coasters and this one had a working holding break. Yay! Thunderhawk is the oldest coaster at the park (1923) and was 'OK', with some surprising airtime in the front of the train, especially at the crest of the second hill. Unfortunately the return bunny hills were bereft of airtime due to trim brakes. The park could certainly do with a modern woodie. Another ride I'd highlight is Demon Drop. I had never ridden a first generation Intamin drop tower...and I LOVED it! It was very intimidating and I'm glad the ride was saved from the scrapyard. At some point during our visit to Dorney I remember Andrew and I looking at each other and rolling our eyes at the addition of seatbelts and the endless barrage of safety messages on EVERY single ride. I know Cedar Fair parks are all the same in this respect - but I guess after our recent visit to Knoebels it kind of struck us how unnecessary it all was. After Dorney Park we had a great surprise in store - an evening at Kennywood with nighttime ERT on Phantom's Revenge! That was an awesome perk - and Phantom was one of the coasters I was most looking forward to on this trip. But I'll cover that in the next update. For now, onto Dorney Park! First up on our agenda today - the historic Dorney Park! Dorney Park were doing their bit for breast cancer awareness. As you enter the gate the first thing you see is Talon's impressive-looking drop. This way to ERT! I spy TPR members! (The best part of Talon? Riding WITHOUT members of the general public.) As our trip progressed I think I became less and less enamoured with the GP and more and more of a snob! Talon was a very fun, impressive coaster. I really liked this low-to-the-ground helix. One of the more intense parts of the ride. Hydra was also open for our ERT session. This is the bad-ass sign. There really is nothing like having a park pretty much to yourself first thing in the morning. Pics from later in the day: So Hydra does some pretty funky stuff - like this 'jojo' roll. Here's the bent-out-of-shape cobra roll. Always best to try the front row on floorless coasters. Zero-G roll taken rather slowly... At least its colourful. Next up TPR rode the Wild Mouse, which had an annoying policy: only two adults per train, so long waits even before the general public got round to riding. Speaking of the general public...oh, they don't look so bad! Let's see what else the park has to offer... Steel Force coasting in the distance. We'll get to you soon! It was time to get 'Possessed'. Another bad-ass sign, something this park seems to specialise in. Waiting in the very short queue we snapped some TPR members having fun. I LOVE twisted impulse coasters. Front row, back row - every row, in fact, is great fun. And this one had a working holding brake! Take that, Six Flags Great America! This photo almost got a little X-rated... The part of the park around Thunderhawk/Steel Force was quite scenic. There was a nice little stream. I had been looking forward to Steel Force. It looked very much like Mamba, which I thoroughly enjoyed. Is the woman in the front posing for us? The queues were short today but despite that the park ran this coaster very efficiently, so hats off to them! Like all Morgan hypers, the mid-course brakes come on pretty strong. All in all, Steel Force was a very solid ride. I liked it a lot, though I think I'd give Mamba the slight edge. Thunderhawk was next (nice to see Piers riding a coaster!). It certainly had a traditional flavour. The lift hill was somewhat dominated by Steel Force in the background. I was surprised by the ejector air on the crest of the second hill! The return journey wasn't quite as good. Hey - the park has a Whip ride! The oldest ride at Dorney - nice to see it still operating, even with the long safety spiel. Like almost every other Cedar Fair park there was also an S&S tower complex. Looks like the GP are having fun. Speaking of tower rides, I was looking forward to trying out a first generation Intamin drop tower. Cedar Point's loss... ...is Dorney Park's gain! This was awesome! I held my breath before the drop. What an intimidating ride experience. This is the weird part of the ride where the carriage drops backwards to return to the station... Very odd but also interesting and old school. Dorney Park also has a cool log flume, with a very long incline up the hill, some nice, speedy sections and big drop at the end. Here's the station. Another short wait today. It was also quite a wet log flume, but it was hot enough to warrant a ride. The park had quite a few flat rides. Here's one... Here's another. (I don't know how many pictures of chair swings I must have uploaded to this TR by now...but it's quite a few!) This flat ride was great fun. The park also had a large shoot-the-chutes, quite similar to the one at Cedar Point. These are always fun to photograph. The splash didn't look too big though. Definitely a 'wet' ride nonetheless! We checked out the new and improved Planet Snoopy, which was looking pretty good. They had all your standard kiddie rides. This looked fun! This I don't get at all. Back on the 'Road to Cedar Point', here's beautiful Pennsylvania! Kennywood here we come! (Stay tuned - thanks for reading.)

I absolutely loved our day at SFGAd. They really turned it out for us. Great rides, awesome operations, super friendly staff! El Toro ERT was insanely fun. I have agree with others, it was truly my "best day ever" at a Six Flags park.