mattnz

^ All I can say is find a way to do it! Beg, borrow and steal if you have to, you'll have so much fun! Thanks for the comments all! Simon: I will say NZ chocolate is much better than the Hershey stuff. Probably because there's a little more dairy and a lot less castor oil. Zach: Stay tuned for our Kings Island update - hopefully we found some good angles there too!

Thanks everyone for your comments so far - they are much appreciated! Hersheypark was the next stop on our Road to Cedar Point. Just like Knoebels this was another park on my 'must visit' list. But Hershey is certainly a more corporate affair than Knoebels. Not 'Six Flags' or 'Cedar Fair corporate' - but corporate nonetheless, at its apex in Hershey's Chocolate World which features a cheesy ride through the chocolate factory which is basically just a long advertisement ending in a giant gift store! There is certainly a lot to do at Hersheypark, from the water park to ZOOAMERICA and the park looks (and sometimes smells!) great. There are 11 coasters of all different types, and earlier in our trip the annoucement came through regarding their new Intamin creation, Skyrush. We had a backstage tour around the perimeter of the park and saw all the ride parts. My favourite coaster at Hersheypark was Storm Runner, and we enjoyed early morning ERT on this great Intamin accelerator along with Fahrenheit, which was definitely a less exciting affair. I liked the beyond-vertical drop, twisted layout and pops of airtime - I guess I was just expecting something a little more intense. Great Bear was a decent B&M invert with an interesting layout. Sooperdooperlooper was a classic Schwarzkopf that I'd been looking forward to. Not all that exciting either - especially compared with, say, Mind Bender in Atlanta, but you can't argue with a looping Schwarzkopf coaster with lap bars only. Of the woodies my favourite was Lightning Racer. It was an absolute blast racing alongside the other train through the duelling layout, and at night we experienced another legendary ERT session. Again...I think I might have been expecting a little bit more out of Lightning Racer. I had read some very good reviews but without the racing aspect I don't think the ride would be anywhere near as much fun. But I guess that's a moot point because the park ALWAYS races the trains, right down to an annoucement as you pull into the station as to which train has won. Finally I think Wildcat is a bit underrated. I enjoyed the crazy, criss-crossing layout and thought it was a solid ride, and not rough at all. TPR held an awesome East Coast Bash at Hersheypark. The weather was a bit on and off but that also helped stave off the crowds and there weren't any waits to speak of today. We had a great lunch including live animals, Q&A sessions, free beer, TPR Quest and giveaways! At night the park came alive and I loved how the wooden coasters lit up like Christmas trees. In all, it was another very long but very satisfying day! Another day, another 'must visit' park on the Road to Cedar Point. Today we are all VIPs! It had been raining pretty heavily in the days leading up to our visit, turning the streams at Hersheypark into 'chocolate'. Our day began with ERT on Fahrenheit. I guess in New Zealand they'd have to call this one 'Celsius'. Doesn't quite have the same ring to it... I love beyond-vertical drops! Fun fact: This is a 'Norwegian loop' borrowed from a Norwegian coaster by the name of Speed Monster. Fahrenheit kind of looks like Maverick...but it ain't Maverick. We also had ERT on Storm Runner...another Intamin creation, but one that REALLY knows how to strut its stuff. Although today was a bash event, there were no queues at all during ERT. Storm Runner is probably now my favourite accelerator coaster. It may not be as tall as others... ...but it does lots of fun, funky stuff. After ERT we took Robb's advice and hit up Comet Hollow, which tends to get a bit crowded and bottlenecked. Comet is the park's oldest coaster (1940s) and an amazingly smooth ride that goes right out across the river and back. It has some bunny hills with air time written all over them (sorry for the lack of photographic evidence). Alas, there was no air time to speak of due to strong braking on the second turnaround. Sooperdooperlooper was another ride I was looking forward to. Any ride from Schwarzkopf the mad genius is fine by me, even one of his more gentle creations! Yay for looping coasters with lap bars only! Sooperdooperlooping with Great Bear overhead. Speaking of Great Bear, we waited for this to open and rode it next. I quite enjoyed the odd pre-drop helix. It didn't add any speed to the ride though... This is the bit where it really gets going... Loop-de-loop!!! Heading into the Immelmann. Great Bear is another Hershey coaster with some 'funky bits' due to its location along the riverbank. It's probably a little too meandering to be a top-notch B&M invert, but I'll take it over quite a few others. We gave it the thumbs up! Many rides in Comet Hollow interact with each other, such as the log flume, which had this awesome-looking drop. Hershey's chair lift to nowhere! Hershey also has a Condor. We ended up seeing quite a few of these on the Road to Cedar Point. I guess they're not quite a dying breed just yet. Trailblazer is the park's Arrow Mine Train. Not a very good one, but the kids we rode with sure seemed to like it. In search of more credits we wandered through the water park, which saw some business today despite the weather. I was really looking forward to Lightning Racer. It may be a high capacity ride but the empty queue was ridiculous! This was much more fun with full trains during TPR's night ERT. (More photos from the walk-back tour further below.) In this vicinity of the park is the iconic Ferris Wheel, which was down for the count today. Next up we rode the Wild Mouse, which I'd heard was a particularly good one due to lack of braking... On our visit, it rode just like your standard Wild Mouse, i.e. just 'OK'. Much more wild than the mouse was, appropriately, the Wildcat! Another ride with no queue at all. I was glad to see Millennium Flyers on GCI's very first coaster, which I'd heard ran a little rough! I didn't find it rough at all - quite enjoyable actually! At lunch the park brought out some animals for us, like this owl. And this baby alligator... Getting to see this up close was awesome! I did NOT want to get anywhere near this though. The skunk was cute! Soon enough, random TPR fun ensued! After lunch we still had to get our Boomerang credit on Sidewinder. This was another example of new trains with better restraints not really helping out a rough coaster all that much! At some point during the day it decided to POUR. Fortunately it didn't last long and it was soon time for a hot, steamy walk-back tour! Bits and pieces of Skyrush waiting to be assembled... From the perimeter of the park we got some good views of Lightning Racer. Here's the cool off-set lift hills. Round the bend... First drop fun. The red train tends to win - but not always! Not as much air time on this as I was expecting, but what's a girl to do? The layout really is masterful. We found it odd that the supports were just sitting there by the roadside. But I guess they'd be pretty tough to cart off! Roller Soaker was down today due to the recent deluge (go figure!) but apparently it's kinda crap anyway. Wandering back into the park we saw these guys performing. We also bumped into the 'milkmen'. We decided to give the train a spin. It took you past some areas of important historic significance. "Boogedy boogedy boo!" We also rode the monorail. This park sure has some great ways to get around. The monorail takes you right outside the park boundaries. I see a chocolate factory! The monorail also goes right over ZOOAMERICA. And right past Storm Runner's twisty finale (train not included). We then decided it was time to eat some chocolate! The fudge was amazing. Umm...is this racist or what? Heading over to the chocolate tour we passed by the statue of Mr. Milton S. Hershey himself. And here we are at Hershey's Chocolate World! The tour was a little bit 'Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory'... Complete with singing cows. It sure smelt great in here! Time to get roasted... Or are we toasted? Hmm, what's round the next bend? Advertising overload... The advertising paid off by the looks of how popular the GIANT gift store was! "Mommy, I want one!" I actually really did want one of these! Ah, who am I kidding?! I'm a chocolate consumer and I love it!! As the day started dawning we had to get up the kissing tower. The view wasn't so great today! As night fell we got in another ride on Fahrenheit. And Storm Runner - which was great in the dark! ERT on Lightning Racer followed, ending our fantastic first visit to Hersheypark. Thanks for reading!

What can I say about Knoebels that hasn't already been said? It is a park I can now cross off my 'must do' list. I had heard so much about it... The friendly, homespun atmosphere, great food, amazing setting, fantastic rides, all run better than almost anywhere else... And all of it was true! TPR visited on a very wet day, but the weather didn't make one iota of a difference to our enjoyment of the park. As Robb said, if there was ONE park on our itinerary where it could rain without ruining our day, Knoebels was it. And rain it did - on and off, all day, as our pictures will show. The crowds came and the rides ran regardless. Coming into the park was kind of like stumbling across an amusement park randomly scattered across a forest in the middle of nowhere. You wander around and discover more and more surprises at every turn. The locals come for the food or stay onsite at the campgrounds. It has an awesome atmosphere - and it smells amazing! You can literally eat your way through the park. They have a lot of interesting food options too, such as the travel’n taco (taco fillings in a potato chip bag!), perogies (dumplings stuffed with mashed potato, sauerkraut, etc.), birch beer (a local speciality), cheese on a stick, homemade fudge, and so much more. The rides are all great, and there are a lot of rarities, such as the Satellite (Roll-o-Plane), Looper, Whipper, Downdraft (I'd never seen one of these before), Fascination parlour and two historic carousels (the park seems to have an affinity for carousels). Even the amusement park staples, such as the Auto Skooters (bumper cars), are worth checking out. In fact - definitely worth checking out! The Knoebels claim that their bumper cars are the best in the world is quite possibly true. The coasters are few in number but all great fun. Phoenix, of course, is incredible - a small coaster with a big attitude. Riding with buzz bars only and no seat belts was extraordinary. You really feel like you could be thrown from your seat and quite honestly if you stood up you'd be in a lot of trouble. The fact that the park hasn't installed seat belts still amazes me - I never thought I'd see a park trusting their patrons to this extent in the United States! Twister is a good compliment to Phoenix - and a very different ride experience. As for the kiddie coaster...it has airtime! Can't ask for much more from a kiddie credit. We also got a tour of the new Black Diamond indoor coaster/dark ride hybrid (formerly the Golden Nugget at Morey's Piers, Philadelphia Toboggan Co.'s only steel-tracked coaster) and it looks set to be a great attraction. I liked how Knoebels have re-themed the ride to fit in with the local mining history. Flying Turns, of course, is still under construction... If they ever finish the ride it will definitely fit in with their collection of odd and awesome rarities! In the middle of the day we stepped out of the park to visit the nearby offices and factory of Great Coasters International which was a very special treat. Thanks Robb and Elissa for fixing that up for us. Onto the photos! Arriving at Knoebels you wonder if you've actually come across an amusement park at all. It's the middle of nowhere and feels like a giant campground. As you wander in you start to see all the rides poking through the trees... We made it! Yay! I have always wanted to visit Knoebels. I haven't ridden a thing and I already love this place. TPR got to head over to Twister to ride before everyone else. Rick Knoebel gave us a spiel about the ride, which is a scaled-down version of the old Mister Twister at Elitch Gardens, a John C. Allen design. Twister has a curved station. (Note to Cedar Fair: No seat belts are necessary to ride Twister!) The ride itself is solid fun. Cool split lift, large, sweeping drops and this... ...double helix! I couldn't count the number of rides we got on Twister during ERT. But it was a LOT! I felt a bit bad for the public lined up after our ERT session ended. Oh, well! Armed with more ride tickets than we needed, most TPR people next lined up for the legendary Phoenix. (Hey Roxanne!) The ride did not disappoint! Airtime on every hill, and so smooth. It was incredible riding with all that airtime - and buzz bars only! Rows 1-3 were my favourite though any row would provide a great ride. And night ERT was absolutely awesome! More on that below. Soon enough, it started to rain...but we had TPR ponchos to help keep us dry. Aforementioned poncho...and me sampling some hash browns (can't remember the name the park gave them). All the food here was so cheap - I ended up eating much more than necessary. The rain today did not keep the crowds away. And yet I don't remember waiting in any queues to speak of... I really liked these revolving picnic and food stall pavilions. (The park's love of carousels in action.) We checked out the progress - or lack thereof! - on Flying Turns. It certainly looked like it was ready to go. Quite a few people stopped to watch the video progress update which included a POV. Looks set to be a very fun ride. Credit #3 was Kozmo's Kurves - a kiddie coaster with airtime! Nearby was this interesting-looking old school boat ride. Not a lot of head room under the coaster! The Danes are very good drivers. The Californians...not so much! Also in the vicinity is this awesome and rare Roll-O-Plane. Andrew and I rode together, and we LOVED it! Crazy fun. The chair swings looked very nice by day but spectacular by night (I'm afraid I don't have photographic evidence.) The park has a Whip ride, appropriately named. We rode other Whips on the Road to Cedar Point but I liked this one the best - because it was at Knoebels! It really started to pour so we took a break for some pizza (the broccoli one was interesting) and birch beer. I thought the birch beer tasted a little like cough syrup at first but later on developed a taste for it. Looks like others had the same idea we had! The park has plenty you can do indoors - like Fascination. I will admit, Andrew and I don't quite 'get' Fascination... I guess TPR must be attracted to its complete randomness! It was so wet today we may as well have ridden the log flume... We didn't get on it but it looked like fun. I was really looking forward to the park's ghost train. 'Please prepare your children!' It had lots of old school tricks and one or two great surprises. I would definitely rank it as my favourite ghost train. The park also has a lot of interesting shops. We bought quite a lot from this store. It was time for a trip out of the park to visit Great Coasters International, which like Knoebels is also located in the middle of nowhere! We couldn't really take photos during our tour but do have this kind of bizarre-looking one to prove that we visited! I can't quite recall which order we did things in - but sometime during the day we had a group lunch. This was particularly cool because lunch was delicious and we got to hear from Dick Knoebel himself! After lunch many of us rode Downdraft just as it started raining again... Shoot-the Chutes by the name of Sklooosh! Also the sound my shoes made today. We rode the curious carousel with the ring dispenser. If you ride on the outside horses you can grab the rings (which is quite hard!) and if you get the brass ring you'll receive the cost of the ride in tickets. You then return the rings in here. Random fun! The park even has a carousel museum. Time to sample some more random food... I like the look of those prices. Dennis tried out the travel’n taco. It was - yeah, just taco fillings in a bag... Curious but convenient! Nearby Black Diamond is the park's history museum. They covered a lot of history of the area (especially mining-related stuff) and some park-related history too. At the bottom of this photo you'll see an old Vekoma credit. Something probably best left to history! Knoebels claim that they're still around because "they never throw anything away". Everything is re-used for something. TPR got an exclusive back stage tour of Black Diamond. Here's one of the nicely-themed trains in the yet-to-be-completed station. We entered the three-storey bowels of the ride... Some of the unfortunate miners (not TPR members) on the right. The ride is going to have some nice little trick effects. Looking down to the spinning lava tunnel...TPR member thrown in for free! Fortunately, no trains were running during our back stage tour. This is the 'flaming' part of the ride. You'll see these guys at the top of the lift hill. Some authentic themeing inside the ride. The Knoebels "never throw anything away" attitude in full swing. Water will later be added. Man, it didn't look like fun to be a miner back in the day! The ride will also have some speedy bits. Thank you Knoebels for the tour - Black Diamond looks like it's going to be AWESOME! As the day started to dawn we had to get on the Flyers. And Knoebels runs this great. I managed to get in a snap or two. TPR also did a bumper cars takeover (notice all the bling?). I agree with this sign. You can really get these cars going fast and it all becomes violent fun! Photo from earlier in the day. Blur unintended but also unavoidable. Let's get more bling! Our final ride before night ERT was on the park's indoor Himalaya-style ride, the Cosmotron. TPR loves indoor flat rides! TPR is decked out and ready for Phoenix. But is Phoenix ready for us?! Night ERT on Phoenix was perhaps the most fun I've ever had at an amusement park. What a great ending to an awesome day. Thank you Knoebels!

Our pleasure for the Canobie log flume photographic evidence. Nice start to your TR. They take a while, eh?! Wow, you WERE a bit virginal before the trip. Glad TPR took care of that for you. I also enjoy walking past people in fast pass queues. Hey, everyone can get one if they want to! Oh and I love how parks are bringing in the beer. These trips are kind of tiring so it's nice to unwind with a beer at lunchtime (even if some of the American brands leave much to be desired!).

^ I have GOT to get on more of these Intamin prefabricated woodies. I guess I'll have to prioritise getting over to Europe (or Korea). Next up on our itinerary was a trip down to the Jersey Shore to visit Morey's Piers. We had beautiful weather and kicked off our day with some time in the water park. There are two water parks at Morey's Piers and Andrew and I opted to stick with the first (located on the 'SLC pier') and take our time. There were some pretty cool slides here, including a crazy speed slide with a massive airtime hill that left you with water up your nose, if not a bruised ass! Morey's gave us ERT and other perks on a number of different attractions. ERT on Great Nor-Easter was good in one sense because we got to try out Vekoma's new restraints, but bad on the other because the coaster was still horribly rough! Much more fun was ERT on 'It' - the park's brand new gyro swing with lap bars only. Wow - lap bars can really make a difference, and this ride was hands-up-if-you-dare fun. Later in the day we experienced Ghost Ship, the park's walk-through haunted attraction with hands-on scare actors. We'd never been in a walk-through with live actors before so were a bit intimidated by it - but it was very cool. We'll have to try out a few of our local scare attractions downunder. I hear we Kiwis do them quite well... We also had ERT on Great White, a fun if not all that thrilling CCI woodie. I enjoyed wandering along the boardwalk in the sun and checking out the crazy food options (deep fried what?!) and tacky t-shirt stores. Jersey Shore wasn't exactly filled with sterotypical guidos and guidettes either. Just normal people really - maybe a little tougher-talking and tan than usual. After Morey's Piers we had a long bus journey and ended up with a surprise dinner stop...at Clementon Park, which meant bonus credit time! The park has one coaster - Hell Cat - a rare and out of the way S&S woodie, which I had never even heard of. It was a nice surprise, even if the coaster kind of sucked! More in the pics below. Morning dawns in Atlantic City. Here's the daytime view from our hotel window. We just spent the night in a casino, and didn't lose a penny! Morey's Piers on the beautiful Jersey Shore. We enjoyed some time in the water park. Not everyone is 'tan' on the shore. Morey's Piers were great and gave us so many different perks today. First up - ERT on Great Nor-Easter, which gets my award for 'roughest SLC ever'. TPR are ready to try out Vekoma's comfy-looking new restraints. They didn't make a damn bit of difference! (Though saying that I couldn't imagine riding this with the old restraints.) Next up we got to ride 'It'. 'It' was awesome! The lap bars felt a bit like the restraints on S&S Screamin' Swings. You felt very 'free'. Not everyone can fit in 'It'. Also on the SLC pier is Dante's Dungeon, a fantastic ghost train with some cool tricks. "Boogedy boogedy boo!" Jersey Shore is a great place to get a coronary. The SLC pier has two other credits. First up was Doo Wopper - another Zamperla 'Zig Zag' coaster. This one had cute cars. More fun though was the Flitzer. These rides have been around for a long time. They're old school and we like that! Watch your camera David! The pier also had a Condor ride - another flat I'd never been on before. I liked how it slowed down at the top so you could enjoy the view. Everyone back home was interested to know what we thought of the Jersey Shore... Yep - it had it's tacky spots! I liked the 'Warn a Brother' t-shirt. I saw a couple of Snookie-ish people. Generally, it was very nice though. (Here's the 'Boomerang pier'.) How many signs can you see in this photo? Not sure who would want to see a movie at a beachside boardwalk? 'Shoot Out the Star'. Paintball with live targets... Geez, they ain't kidding! We saw these colourful shells you could buy. They moved all by themselves... On the Boomerang pier is Morey's fantastic walk-through - the Ghost Ship. Lots of creepy stuff inside... Alarms blazing, zombies whispering in your ear, hands reaching out for you - definitely not for the faint-hearted! Afterwards TPR got an exclusive back stage tour. Here are some of the scare actors, who mentioned that getting 'sucker punched' was part and parcel of the job. I have a lot of respect for them! One of the back stage halls for the actors to get from place to place and scare the hell out of you. Example of how it's done - in this instance via porthole. You're not allowed to touch the scare actors but they're allowed touch you - kind of like a strip club! Roxanne with the rubber sledgehammer. Safety first people! Next door to the Ghost Ship is another credit - a non-looping Pinfari creation with OTSRs. All I can really say is...ka-ching! The Boomerang was down so we wandered over to the third of Morey's Piers - the 'woodie pier.' We had ERT on Great White, a 1996 CCI creation. It's location on the pier was fantastic, stretching out toward the ocean. I found it OK - fairly enjoyable, and not too rough. I look forward to seeing what Morey's do with their new pier-connecting woodie. I believe it was on the 'woodie pier' that we encountered the world's most ghetto dark ride! Wandering back we noticed the Boomerang operating... Surprisingly - not bad at all (for a Boomerang). After a long journey north we had a quick dinner stop at Clementon Park for a bonus credit! Yay! The last time I saw a sign rating a coaster as 'extremely agressive' was Hades. By now I was a bit worried. The public seemed to quite like it... TPR are ready to ride. It was pretty bad. The back part of the ride with all the twists and turns threw you around a lot...but I will never turn down a credit! It had the same name and same looking structure as Hell Cat at Timber Falls, which I didn't like either (other TPR members will disagree with that assessment!). I had a very quick look at the rest of the park, which looked OK, kind of set up like a permanent carnival. As night fell we drove through Philadelphia and onwards into Pennsylvania for many more awesome adventures!

Isn't it weird? I guess B&M are not without their own 'B&M rattle' on occasion. Thanks everyone for your comments. Our photos are sometimes a bit variable but I like to give a good overview of the parks. Nick: Hope to see you again soon too! We are already saving our pennies.

Road to Cedar Point began with an incredibly long day at Six Flags Great Adventure - which turned out to be my personal BEST DAY EVER at a Six Flags park. It was also an add-on for the North East trip and many took up the opportunity to hang out with us for one more day. I'm glad they did because Great Adventure really outdid themselves and every other Six Flags park I've visited - I was surprised and amazed at the operations here. Multiple trains on every coaster, speedy dispatches, polite employees. I hope those North East trip participants who encountered rudeness at Six Flags New England/La Ronde were pleasantly surprised too. We had morning ERT on Nitro and the park ran THREE trains! I couldn't believe it! Andrew and I rode over and over and got to try out multiple rows which is always cool. I liked the ride a lot and would rank it high on my B&M hyper list - somewhere up there with Six Flags Over Georgia's Goliath. We also took an early morning spin on Dark Knight with the lights on which was a nice perk (it's definitely better with the lights off though!) and walked over to the other side of the park for ERT on the newly re-located and re-painted Green Lantern. It was a fairly painful ride unfortunately. Not too bad - just not all that fun. And then TPR got to ride Kingda Ka before the park opened. The ride is very impressive but has this oddly dragging launch - it's weird... It will still take your breath away though! And waiting zero minutes and being able to come back for re-rides with Q-Bots certainly beats waiting in one hour plus lines for Top Thrill Dragster at Cedar Point...hands down! El Toro - oh my God! I can't imagine what the general public who don't know too much about the ride must think when they get off. It's completely insane! It instantly became my favourite roller coaster. The drop is amazing, the airtime really seems to want to throw you out of the train, and to those who complain about the latter part of the ride - seriously, shut up! Those final twists and turns are incredible. We finished out our day with night ERT on this beast and it was just...so much! I know some finally had to sit it out but I couldn't stop riding. Onto the photos... Gloomy weather this morning...but forget the clouds, look at that coaster-filled skyline! Walking to morning ERT and the park seems very nice. Lots of quirky buildings and trees everywhere. Our day began with ERT on Nitro. Very impressive lift hill. The park ran THREE trains for our ERT session! Awesome! Next up was Dark Knight - another 'mouse in a box' from Mack Rides. Six Flags has done a pretty good job with the themeing. The pre-show does get a bit tired after you've seen it several times. The park has an interesting history and I think these buildings were probably part of the original ambitious design. Onwards to Green Lantern - a coaster themed to a comic I've never read and a movie I couldn't be bothered seeing. By way of explanation. I like diving loops on stand-up coasters (especially the enormous consecutive diving loops on Riddler's Revenge!). Green Lantern's controversial yellow loop. Not a bad ride - but I don't think B&M stand-up coasters like to be relocated. Heading over to Kingda Ka. The whole area was very nice. They've kept some animals here. Gotta love that non-existent queue. Kingda Ka...wow! Amazing ride, if a little rough around the edges. The park opened and it was already turning into a hot day. Next we hit up the potentially slow-loading Superman Ultimate Flight. I've been on all three US clones now. Compared to Tatsu...they ain't all that. Can't beat a pretzel loop though. This corner of the park holds the best coaster in the park - can you guess which one it is?! Bow down and worship the Intamin gods. It's EL FREAKIN' TORO!!! Amazing ride from start to finish. We wandered through a kind of out of the way, forgotten corner of the park. Friendly Great Adventure wildlife. Who says Great Adventure doesn't have flat rides? In this area we found a pirate ship, round-up ride, tea cups, Ferris Wheel and others. We found another coaster - Blackbeard's Lost Treasure Train. Not much of a wait with 40 riders per train! We came across Skull Mountain. This was quite a fun family coaster in the dark. We were on a credit roll - here's Road Runner Railway. Andrew had to ride by himself. Ohh... I almost forgot the park had a Batman clone. Can't complain - these are always excellent rides. Not sure what the old Chiller station is used for nowadays. After another amazing lunch (and yes, more beer!) we got ready for an exclusive backstage tour, which is something Werner takes very seriously. Wow, where are they planning to take us? Awesome! You cannot get these angles from the midway! We got to walk under and alongside Nitro. This was a very cool perk. Nitro is pretty much impossible to photograph from inside the park. Fun ride. The drop doesn't look very big in this photo - but it's huge! You can see from the second drop how massive this thing is. Due to great operations the trains just kept on coming. People started posing for us. Gurl, hold onto that weave! Nitro's helix made me grey out toward the back of the train. "I love B&M rides!" Behind the scenes inspirational signs. We also got a behind the scenes tour of Kingda Ka! The ride is even more impressive up close. Go! Ker-splut! Go! Go! Go! Wow - what a ride. This part is pretty intimidating. It was kind of scary taking these photos - watch those loose items people! I did see a loose article go flying from one train - and it must have landed a mile away. Quite amusing actually! Almost time to breathe again... Random behind-the-scenes shot of Rolling Thunder. Thank you Great Adventure for the awesome photo walk-backs! Moving on, and we had to try out the old school parachute drop ride. I'd always wanted to go on one of these - glad the park's kept it around. We still had more credits to get, including the park's pretty tall Arrow mine train. Signature shot. Our last credit to get was Great Adventure's version of Bizarro. I found this surprisingly rough. What is with the floorless coasters on the East Coast?! Scream at Magic Mountain was smooth and a lot of fun in comparison. We took the sky ride to get some photos. Didn't get on the log flume, alas. This corner of the park is looking very colourful. Ooo, scenic. Some kind of show was going on down here - not sure what... The cheerful Dutch contingent of our Q-Bot group, Dennis and Werner. Since I don't have any photos of our spectacular night ERT session on El Toro, here's the carousel instead! After a very long day we ended up, exhausted, at our hotel in Atlantic City, which was a surreal and very cool place to stay. I heard some hit the games but we just couldn't do it! Thanks Robb and Elissa for an amazing day and an incredible start on our Road to Cedar Point.

I edited my Bizarro Bash TR after reading yours - I think I was a little too nice! If the height restriction policies made more sense - and were consistently adherred to - then different story. Sorry to hear you had such an annoying time - idiotic policies and employees can really fuck up your day.

Thanks all! Am currently going through the 700+ photos we took at Great Adventure... Caesar - I've been enjoying your TR. Keep up the good work!

Very nice start Werner - I love your photo of the Loch Ness Monster drop. Look forward to seeing more.

Great Escape was a nice surprise and ended up being one of my favourite parks of the North East trip. And I loved Magic Forest! Nestled in the trees with all the old school rides...it would be a great place to take your kids.

Thanks for all your comments! I think I should clarify: I found the French Canadian general public friendly and personable - the La Ronde employees...yeah, not so much!

^ Cheers! I'm on a roll today, so here's Great Escape! ^^ So THAT'S what a groundhog looks like! If yesterday saw us visit one of the weaker parks of the Six Flags chain, today saw us visit one of its very best. I recall Robb describing Great Escape as the "young, gifted child" of Six Flags and thought that was very apt! I also thought Great Escape was a little like the rebellious child of the chain, as in many ways it just doesn't fit in with Six Flags and has its own character entirely. The park doesn't have the best selection of coasters but instead a well-rounded line-up of rides and attractions the whole family can enjoy together. Saying that, Comet was one of the very best coasters we rode on the trip - an incredibly smooth woodie with great airtime throughout. Alpine Bobsled is similar to Disaster Transport at Cedar Point and I'm really starting to love these types of rides. They're just so much fun. Robb and Elissa had a surprise in store for us with a bonus credit run to Magic Forest Park up the road which was a rare treat as the park is usually restricted to kids and caregivers only. We got a few looks from the bemused locals especially when we took over the kiddie credit - which actually rolled back a few times before we realised we'd have to load it a little lighter. Thank you Magic Forest and I really hope we didn't permanantly scar your ride ops or your ride! Final 'official' park of the North East trip. So sad! But it turned out to be a very nice one. Even in the car park you can tell this isn't your average Six Flags park. Inside the gate and it looks even less like a Six Flags park! Wow! First up today we got to ride Comet, the park's 1994 semi-relocated woodie. Pics from later in the day: Fun for young and old. Awesome airtime and very re-rideable. Hands up fun all the way! But only if you're sure! You could walk right along Comet for great photo spots. Whee! Some just preferred to have a fag. Next up was another Intamin creation. This one is quite rightly themed to bobsledding. I like how Intamin's version of this ride uses single cars - bit more authentic than the Mack version. God I'm a nerd... We were lucky to get the kiddie credit in, as I believe they stopped letting the big kids ride after a while. TPR loves kiddie coasters! The old areas of the park were very nice. Looks like they've kept most of the Storytown USA flourishes. I'm guessing Six Flags added this thing. Ker-chunk! Enjoy your ride! They had a castle, pumpkin carriage and princess in costume out and about. Very nice carousel. The search for more credits led us up the hill... ...to Canyon Blaster! It's an Arrow mine train that's really been around the block. Yay! An Arrow helix! "Nothing to see here, move along..." Google were out and about doing some mapping. I never did find out what they sold in here? We have an Arrow loop/screw in New Zealand. Ours is white. These people seem to be enjoying it. Sasquatch is an oddly-named S&S tower ride. It was a pretty tall one. I like the S&S 'shots' but prefer Intamin to take care of my 'drops'. Almost forgot about the swan boats... Looks like another TPR take-over. Yay for unique Great Escape attractions! The park put on a very funny penguin show spectacular! The penguins were daredevil high divers. Jump away from the Boomerang! The penguins were very naughty. If you were in the 'splash zone' you got VERY wet! I really can't praise Great Escape highly enough and I know many TPR members felt the same way after our visit. Just up the road was a bonus credit! "Come, children!" Our visit to Magic Forest Park was a brief one but I was immediately struck by how nice everything looked. Umm... Err... Creepy signs aside the park looked like a great place to bring your kids and seemed to have some pretty cool old school kid's rides, like this junior Turtle. They also had some nice walk-throughs. Odd and awesome bits of themeing everywhere. But we were here for the kiddie credit! And yes our fat asses made the coaster roll back several times! The park described this as 'the nation's only Diving Horse'. The official North East trip ended with an official Carrabba's take-over! Carrabba's = VERY nice Italian food. What a great way to end the first leg of our epic two-part trip. Thank you Robb and Elissa! And North East trippers: we miss you!!

^ Thanks Laura! ^^ Jen: I didn't even know gay people could throw balls. I certainly can't! TPR successfully made it into Canada for the sole purpose of visiting La Ronde - which apparently got us a few looks from a Customs officer! I wasn't expecting too much out of La Ronde to be honest and had heard it was the least of the Six Flags parks...but now I'm not so sure. Operations were lacklustre and often of the one-train variety, but we had Q-Bots and the French Canadians were so polite I didn't mind waiting in the queues too much. Like all our stops on the trip the park certainly laid out the red carpet for us with ERT and a very nice lunch - and that made our visit thoroughly enjoyable. Goliath has definitely rounded out the ride collection at La Ronde and was a solid, smaller-sized B&M mega coaster, and I overheard many TPR people rave about it. The layout doesn't look all that interesting but it's actually rather fun, with lots of nice floaty airtime. I found Vampire to be the most intense out of of all the B&M Batman clones I've ridden - it really took my breath away! Another highlight for me was the old 80s Intamin stand-up coaster, which had intrigued me for some time with its B&M-looking track and compact layout...well, at least I can say I've ridden it. La Ronde's location on the island in the heart of Montreal was uniquely awesome. Onto the photos! It's morning, and the building next door looks the way some of our TPR members feel today - wretched! Montreal has some odd and interesting-looking buildings. 'Poulet Frit Kentucky.' I do so admire our bus drivers. La Ronde is on an island right in the heart of Montreal. TPR got to use the super-exclusive entrance. This way to early morning ERT! Entrance to the best coaster in the park. Are you guys ready for some floaty B&M goodness? From the park's observation tower you can see the entire layout. "Floaty!" TPR gave Goliath two big thumbs up. Gotta love ERT! We also had ERT on Le Monstre, which had the worst graffiti and gum-covered queue I have ever seen! Being all strategic TPR next hit up the Wild Mouse - Toboggan Nordique - with its inevitably slow-moving queue. It was interesting to try out Zamperla's take on the Wild Mouse coaster, but like most other steel mice I've ridden it was just 'OK'. Chris eyes up the elusive Arrow mini mine train credit, which was - alas! - just for the kids (and we didn't feel like stealing one today). Old school! I enjoyed the setting of La Ronde with the bridges and city looming in the background. The park had quite a few flat rides which is always nice to see. Canada wants YOU! Next up was Vampire, the park's awesomely intense Batman clone. It had some nice mist effects too. Next door was an interesting credit that I believe came from Skara Sommarland. The fast pass queue was interesting too! It was cool to try out an old school Intamin stand-up coaster. It had a good, tight layout but was pretty unforgiving. It even had a little airtime hill but yeah, you don't really want those on old school stand-up coasters! We came across this cute creature and I'm still not sure what it is?! I guess he's just another friendly French Canadian. Another day, another S&S tower ride. Moving through the park we found the impressive public entranceway. Some art... And a credit that was down for the count. If there was ONE credit I didn't mind missing...this was it! 'Manitou' is also the name of a very funny, trashy 70s sci-fi/horror mash-up/monstrosity that I highly recommend. Le Super Manège. Sure doesn't look 'super' to me! (Though I will say the ride ops were super nice.) Surprisingly, this wasn't too bad and really didn't give me an ear bashing at all. Random shark! I think every English-speaker must take this photo... Anyone for a giant pink toy to carry around for the rest of the day? So look closely at what they're selling here right out on the midway. Sangria, wine, beer... Canada is AWESOME! The park's historic carousel. Time for some panoramic shots courtesy of La Ronde's observation tower. Looks like you just boat up to the park. Le Monstre. Vekoma junction. Hard to beat that backdrop. After lunch we still had some credits to get, including the park's newest coaster - Ednör - L'Attaque! Even with Flashpass, we waited about 40 minutes. I saw this person nearby and wondered, "Do I really NEED to go on another SLC? Why not just have a siesta instead?" I guess coaster enthusiasts are gluttons for punishment! Ednör l'attaqued me and was bloody awful! Every park in North America must have a chair swings ride. Dragon is the park's indoor coaster and quite far off the beaten path. It had one train, one ride op and a 45 minute queue (though I heard others only waited 15 minutes or so). We got another ride in on Golaith. Not sure if this girl's hair was this way before or after her ride? We had a great day at La Ronde. Thank you French Canada!

What can I say about Canobie Lake Park? It's another beautiful lakeside park of New England with a lot of character, including some very funny food stalls straight out of Roller Coaster Tycoon, trees everywhere, and some interesting, unique rides (a Rotor, very rare Caterpillar, Zamperla bouncy thing). And yet again TPR received star treatment with ERT on the park's brand new Euro-Fighter, Untamed, and the classic Yankee Cannonball. Untamed was a fun ride with Gerstlauer's signature beyond-vertical drop and speedy changes of direction, but surprisingly rough for a brand new coaster. Yankee Cannonball was a great, smaller-sized woodie that despite its age (1930s) ran very smoothly and had really nice airtime throughout the course. You really can't beat a classic wooden coaster! Dark clouds were forming as we left Canobie Lake (the Intamin gods really did smile down on TPR this trip) and it was onwards to Canada for a very surreal night in a blacked-out hotel after a massive storm had hit Montreal. We had a lot of fun at TP Dave's international alcohol exchange but I won't say too much about it! French Canada was fascinating. The thing that surprised me the most was that everyone spoke French! I'm not sure what I was expecting...but I kind of thought it was just a 'second language'. Very friendly people too - at least to those without conspicious American accents. I'd love to go back someday. Canobie Lake, since 1902 - I'm guessing that must make it one of the oldest parks in the US. And this morning we're here to ride the park's newest attraction - Untamed! Untamed has an awesome station. Gary can't WAIT to ride! Beyond-vertical drops get me every time. Zero-geee! Love the paint job. We also had morning ERT on Yankee Cannonball. Looks like Robb enjoyed the ride! Yankee Cannonball is the first thing you see when entering the park. An oldie but a goodie. I was immediately struck by how beautiful Canobie Lake is. One of the park's awesome food stalls. But...fried dough?! The park has a cool dark ride - Mine of Lost Souls - with an amusing finale in ancient Egypt! Nearby is the park's log flume. TPR did a mini take-over. It was definitely on the wet side. This is the Cedar Fair portion of the park. Alas, the Flyers were down for the count. We had another credit to get... Oh joy - an old Arrow corkscrew! It had a very impressive station. And required a little preparation to ride. Canobie Lake has a nice-looking water park/play area. Pseudo credit? It 'kind of' coasted along. One of the awesome things about Canobie Lake are all the rare rides - like this Rotor. We also rode the bouncy-bouncy Zamperla flat, which was actually really fun. I always love getting on rare flats - like this strange contraption, the Caterpillar. Whee! Psychodrome is the park's indoor Scrambler. Faster than the one at Funtown Splashtown but it would be hard to top their light/music package! Just a beautiful place. We took the train around the park to get some photos. The train went right along the lakeside. You may only live here if you're a Democrat and love gay marriage! Down the far end of the park are the chair swings. Very nice ones too. I liked the bubbles pumped from the upstairs window. Boston Tea Party is a... ...VERY wet ride! The gift store had some interesting items. What up? Skee ball! Looks like Texas won some random crap! Yay - the park has a Double Shot! These are easily my favourite S&S tower rides and you won't find too many of them out there. I spy TPR members. The park did start to get quite busy and with one train on Yankee Cannonball it was very nice to have had that morning ERT. It's Roxanne with some random crap! I think this was won here (geez look at Neil - what a pro!). I enjoyed the Janet Jackson show. The park obviously has an affinity for the Jackson family. (Thanks Canobie Lake for treating us so well!) Onwards to Canada and the scenery just kept getting more and more spectacular. Alright TPR - time to behave ourselves... We arrived at our hotel in Montreal just after a massive storm had hit - and by the looks of the building next door, it was pretty bad! It must almost be a TPR tradition to have at least one black-out every trip. Fortunately we have TP Dave's alcohol exchange party to keep us entertained.

Thanks everyone! Great meeting you too Chris. You can definitely count on seeing us again on a future trip.

I LOVE this photo of Roxanne! Great TR as always Steve - looking forward to more!

^^ Thanks Gary! Next up on the North East itinerary was Maine and two small parks - Palace Playland at Old Orchard Beach and Funtown Splashtown U.S.A. We had an absolutely beautiful day and it was wonderful visiting the beach and putting our feet in the ocean before wandering down the pier for a beer, making our stop at Palace Playland much more than just a quick credit run. We had plenty of time to experience Funtown Splashtown and got a lot of rides in. I agreed with the general consensus that Excalibur had a great first half. Lots of airtime on this ride, and though it petered out toward the end it's definitely a solid coaster. Funtown Splashtown was also the home of the attacking gulls from Alfred Hitchcock's 'The Birds' which made eating lunch quite interesting! And I also found some peanut butter ice cream which was very nice indeed. It was at this point on the trip that Andrew's freckles started to multiply and I started turning brown. Always a sign of a great summer! Our lunch stop today was at Jimmy the Greek's. Simple set-up, great food! Old Orchard Beach was a very cute seaside town. And it was HOT out. Or are we in Shelbyville? Entrance to Palace Playland. Quite a few carnival-style rides here. Log flume by the beach. This flat ran a fierce programme. First credit today was an SDC Galaxi, the first coaster model I ever rode! Lining up for credit #2 - Orient Express. Not a ride to overload with TPR members We wandered by the fun house. It was too hot for psychic readings today. The beach looked very nice. As I was putting this TR together I suddenly noticed in this photo... Is that... ...Piers?! We put our feet in the Atlantic. Everyone thought the ocean was cold. We thought it was beautiful! Heading up to the pier. Lots of interesting stalls and lots of seafood. Yep - we found the bar. Looking back at the crowded beach. I could see myself vacationing here... Onwards to gay-friendly Funtown Splashtown U.S.A! Our first ride was on the Wild Mouse. Pretty much your standard mouse. Yay - another trabant! On our way to Excalibur. Nicely themed station (and area for that matter). These signs outside the station were nice and convenient. Lift hill shot. The hard-to-photograph awesome first drop! Excalibur was a very solid CCI woodie that deserves more recognition than it probably gets. Enjoyable ride with a good layout. I thought the whole of Funtown Splashtown could use a bit more recognition. It would make a great little home park. They had a decent log flume too. Not the best photo but you can kind of see how it gets a bit speedy at certain points. Hey guys! (Hey David! David?!) TPR did an Astrosphere take-over! First you wait in this strange tunnel... And then things get really funky! Check out Robb's awesome footage. We rode Dragon's Descent, the park's S&S Turbo Drop. As night fell TPR also did a take-over of the tea cups before night ERT on Excalibur. Great end to a nice, relaxing day on the North East trip!

I say keep the fatties coming - I had a feeling your Mt. Olympus segment would deliver quite a few! That was a crazy day. Those ride ops were so disinterested and lethargic it bordered on hilarious!

Thanks all. And yes Brian - we will be back for more I'm sure!

TPR's next stop on the North East trip was Six Flags New England. This was probably the fullest day of the trip as we started out with morning ERT before park opening and had some legendary night ERT after park closing also. Andrew and I missed the water park ERT on Tornado and Typhoon (two awesome looking ProSlide rides) which I later regretted as it was a scorching hot day and we had more than enough time to get everything done. Lesson learned! We also had a great lunch with park management in attendance, more free beer, TPR quest (yay!) and a great backstage tour making for a very full and fun Bizarro Bash. Bizarro did not disappoint. It had so many fantastic elements, especially the first drop into a tunnel and its extreme airtime hills. The ride really hauled ass during night ERT and my favourite ride was certainly front row in the dark with the amazing light effects in full swing. Second favourite ride for me at the park was probably Cyclone which had some rather extreme airtime moments! The new track work seems to have helped out the ride a lot. Six Flags New England in general does have that corporate Six Flags feel to it, with advertising everywhere you look and urban hip-hop pumped throughout the park. But the park also has a great setting (yep - by a lake!), a diverse ride collection (nice rapids ride, Houdini's Great Escape, the weird S&S Sky Swatter) and they treated TPR very well! (Edit: Except some of our taller people; check out Skycoastin' Steve's TR for a different take on the day.) Next stop on the North East trip was Bizarro Bash at Six Flags New England! This way to ERT. Comparison: Look closely at this photo... This is the same angle later in the day. It's a Saturday in late July, but TPR has fantastic ERT sessions planned and Q-Bots to beat the crowds! We opted to ride Batman - The Dark Knight first up. I got a bit of an ear bashing I didn't expect... The trim between the loop and zero-G roll made for some good 'hang time' which was fun. View of the ride from later in the day. There was actually a queue for the water park. Batman was fun in the front row where you can actually appreciate the floorless concept and prepare for these interlocking corkscrews which were a little rough on me. Gotham City Gauntlet was open for morning ERT so we took a quick spin on it. This was very, very difficult with Bizarro also open for ERT and looming over us! And finally...we got to ride! Bizarro was an instant new favourite roller coaster for me. An Intamin masterpiece. After meeting up with our Q-Bot group (hi Chad and Laura!) we got this thing out of the way. It was mine and Andrew's very first SLC. We sat in the front. It was 'OK'. The 'New England Skyway' had a nice-looking station. When Elissa described this as the 'Christmas decoration' ride she wasn't kidding! Cute! Second Vekoma Boomerang of the trip. These really aren't fun AT ALL...and yet the general public seem to like them. Now Gerstlauer spinning coasters I do enjoy. These TPR members don't look so sure! The park's oldest coaster - Thunderbolt. I heard it was down earlier this year for refurbishment so was happy to see it up and running again. (It's rather hard to photograph!) Cyclone had a late opening. I was looking forward to this ride. Fun facts in the queue. (Comet - we'll get to you later in the trip!) Laura and Chad dared to ride the back row. I loved this coaster. It had at least two spectacular moments of 'oh my God!' airtime. It took a few attempts to get on this. At least we can say we rode it... I would like to say it was fun but it had killer restraints that really spoiled the overall ride experience. The park had a great rapids ride (Blizzard River) and it was certainly hot enough to give it a spin. Also kind of hard to photograph from the pathways! These fun little water play structures are a great idea. We found out the park's kiddie coaster didn't have a maximum height restriction. Yay! Is it just me or do Andrew and Laura kind of look like a cute couple in this photo?! Lunch was in a beautiful picnic setting across a stream. We enjoyed the Q&A with park management. Also - free beer! And TPR Quest! (TPR loves man boobs!) New for 2011: The Six Flags version of the Blue Man Group? New for 2011: Ninjas? This is the entrance to Houdini's Great Escape, our first 'Mad House'. It was actually a lot of fun. Cool to see it up and running. The park has a decent selection of flat rides, like Tomahawk. "This way children!" This was our failed attempt to get the Bizarro signature shot. Speaking of my new favourite roller coaster, it's time for an exclusive backstage tour! Prepare for some more of Andrew's Hanno-esque photos! "Ooo!" "Ahh!" Needless to say, this is really a freakin' awesome ride. Up close and personal. Even more close and personal. British shenanigans. Mind Eraser upskirt shot. Careless paint job shot. (Or is it art?) We also got some great views of Batman. Fun in the front. "Nerds!" Just a wonderful ride. Hands up = fun! After a very long afternoon, night falls on New England and the park looks great. Thunderbolt's sign looking pretty. Night ERT on Bizarro was simply amazing. Thanks for reading. Next up: TPR goes to Maine!

Hey Stefan, great work so far and can't wait to see/hear more. I remember you talking excitedly about Japan on last year's Mid-America trip and am intrigued to follow along!

^ I think so! But that's OK - it was quite hard not to slam into each other!

^ Thanks JoAnna! Day one of the official North East trip saw us drive up to Connecticut to visit two very nice, traditional amusement parks - Quassy and Lake Compounce. Quassy was a surprise for me as there was a decent amount of stuff to do there. I think their new junior Gravity Group woodie - Wooden Warrior - surprised everyone, and was just hands up fun all the way. Lake Compounce was one of my favourite parks of the entire trip and is of course the home of Boulder Dash, which did not disappoint! I was very happy to hear reports that it ran exceptionally well for us. The setting of both parks by lakesides started a trend for the North East trip, as most of the parks we visited had lakeside settings. The whole of New England was just beautiful, actually - a little like New Zealand, blanketed in trees. And just like New Zealand, we needed to think some "dry, happy thoughts" on day one, which worked out pretty well for us. Here we are in New England. Ain't it classy? Arriving at Quassy we were greeted by the car park Musik Express ride. First order of the day, TPR got to ride the park's brand new Wooden Warrior (with the local media in tow!) The Timberliner trains were very roomy and comfortable. Robb's current filming techniques in action - check out the awesome footage! Looks like the first riders have given the thumbs up! Wooden Warrior was very surprising and a whole lot of fun. It had a lot of airtime I didn't expect it to have. Moving through the park we saw Quassy's fantastic lakeside location. And tried to think "dry, happy thoughts". Heading over to the kiddie coaster for Quassy credit #2. This was one of those old school "watch your back" kiddie coasters. We LOVE old school back-breaking kiddie coasters! In the arcade you'll find the old Mad Mouse sign. Looked like a fun coaster. Yay! The park has my favourite flat ride - the Trabant! They also have a Yo-Yo ride and for some reason this one was really nuts, swinging back and forth more than it probably should. We loved it! 'Water Wars'. Looked fun. You can tell you're in a nice, friendly, smaller park when you see signs like these. Quassy put on a great lunch for us and gave us blocks of wood from Wooden Warrior. Awesome! Not to mention...free beer! This started another trend for the trip - beer and more beer! TPR devoured the buffet pretty quickly. Fortunately Kimberly did get to eat in due course. Quassy has two tower rides! Leaving the park it was good to see the general public enjoying the new coaster. And it looks like attendance is pretty good today. Glad to see it - Quassy was a nice surprise, and a great start to the North East trip. Onwards to Lake Compounce! This is the entranceway, where we caught up with some old friends from last year's Mid-America trip. I loved the park entrance with Wildcat overhead. Oh joy. First boomerang of the trip. I seemed to remember this one being 'OK'. Across the way is the park's Pirate Ship. Lake Compounce has a new Disko. Alas, I'm guessing it was the replacement for their old Rotor ride. We got a few rides in on Boulder Dash just in case night ERT got stormed out. Lift hill up the mountainside. Racing down the mountainside. Turnaround. These are Andrew's photos now by the way. He is a Hanno fan and wannabe! This a unique and really fun coaster. Pretty fearsome. You kind of want to hold on tight and prepare for those changes of direction. I foolishly kept my hands up for an entire ride and have bruises to prove it! This is the utterly insane triple up which was my favourite part of the ride. I'm guessing the girls in front are posing for the on-ride camera. Boulder Dash isn't the only ride at Lake Compounce that uses the mountainside terrain. The park also has a Turbo Drop which provides some nice views. Wildcat is the 'other' woodie at Lake Compounce. For some reason Andrew and I rode it three times. You DO want to ride this toward the front. Toward the front of the train Wildcat was honestly quite fun. The park had a nice-looking water play area with slides, etc, by the lakeside. To get to lunch we had to wander right along the lake past the really-out-of-the-way rapids ride. We found it very strange how far away this ride was from everything else! Lunch was great. When in New England...gotta try the Clam Chowder! More free beer! What's up guys? (Seriously, what's going on here?!) It's Patrick aka DJ PJ! Is this the boulder whose namesake is one of the best woodies in the world? Remember those dry, happy thoughts I talked about earlier? They worked! It rained during lunch, then the fog came in to cover the park just in time for night ERT! Unfortunately the Sky Ride was closed on our visit. It looked really cool. Walking along the lake I was taken aback by how the park managed to fit Boulder Dash into this setting. That's pretty incredible if you ask me! As daylight started to fade it was time to get some more rides in. The park has a Wipe Out which they ran on a fantastic programme. This was a lot of fun! By the way, Lake Compounce offers FREE Pepsi products, much like Holiday World. Andrew and I loved this because of...Sierra Mist! It's been too long!! (They don't have the bloody stuff in New Zealand.) As night fell we got a few arty shots of the Enterprise. Who needs Windseeker, eh? And the day ended with the aforementioned night ERT on Boulder Dash. What a great ending to an awesome first day.

Thanks so much! We really do hope to come back for much, much more random fun!