Canobie Coaster

Alpine Bobsled has been perpetually on the chopping block for years, but it always seems to survive.

I never saw that ride closed when I visited Great Escape, but it is at the end of a dead midway. Could they connect that area to the water park somehow to give it more space?

Thanks for the update! I wonder which of the rides will be saved.

Considering Dollywood has messed around with the zero car over the years (downsizing it, removing it at points), I had a strong hunch weight/wear was the root cause.

I don't care if this is wood, steel, PVC, or a combination of anything. As long as it has the same great layout and actually runs reliably, I'm happy!

The layout looked a bit different than I expected, and that's not a bad thing! I expected it to have more camelbacks/bunny hills mixed in, but this ride just keeps throwing one crazy banked element after another.

I just got caught up on these reports. They were great! Pennsylvania confused me with how people reacted to covid. Most people were quite vigilant about wearing masks correctly, but almost no one cared to social distance at any of the parks. I figured those two things would go hand-in-hand. I agree the best places to photograph Phoenix and Twister are behind the ride. My go-to for Phoenix was to stop on the antique car ride, which the operators were ok with as long as no one was behind you. That's a shame you missed out on Wild One. That's my second favorite coaster in the park, partially since it used to be 15 minutes from my parents' house. I too enjoyed Firebird...if I rode in the back. It beat me up in the front, but in the back, the only bad spot was the exit from the corkscrew. Mine Blower has always had a shimmy like you described. It has never really bothered me, but I could see it causing an issue for others.

Very cool find! I think the bowl slide they ended up with worked out better for the park.

I refused to wait for that ride unless the queue started at the top of the lighthouse. The ride's throughput was glacial. I think it had an hourly capacity of about 60 guests since the slide itself was decently long for a speed slide and the guest had to completely clear a line past the slide's exit for the next rider to be allowed on the slide.

I don't mind if they go with one train most days, but it was frustrating on busy Saturdays when the ride's queue stretched back to the midway and was an hour. I almost saw the ride run two trains a few years ago, but when they announced they were closing the ride temporarily to add the second train, enough of the line left (maybe 1/3 of it) that they decided to not actually transfer the second train on.

They did close Lights Out (I doubt they'll remove it since it's part of the lighthouse structure), but they started building Venus Vortex shortly thereafter in a separate plot of land.

Gillian's Wonderland Pier Ocean City, New Jersey is home to two amusement parks within a half mile of each other. The first I visited this year was Gillian's Wonderland Pier since it opened an hour earlier. And I needed far less than an hour. The park was dead and since the park wasn't offering wristbands, I quickly rode what I wanted to with the pay-per-ride option. And before talking about the park, do not miss the Tee Time mini golf next door. It was just $5 and it was one of the best mini golf courses I've ever played. Every single hole had some sort of obstacle, including a few I had never seen before. Gillian's is split into a small indoor section and a larger outdoor section. The indoor section is comprised mostly of kiddie rides, the park's classic carousel, and a weird monorail. For the most part, Gillian's is your typical boardwalk park absent of theming. But for whatever reason, they decided to give their monorail a themed station. As for the ride itself, it circles the entire park, so it's a good way to preview the park or get some aerial photos. 6 out of 10 The other ride that's themed is the Canyon Falls Log Flume. And it's easily the park's star attraction. This flume starts below the deck and it passes through caves and through several scenes. This one only has one drop, but it's a really good drop. It gives a tiny pop of airtime and it has a fantastic headchopper when it dives back below the deck. 9 out of 10 The park was in the process of installing a Huss frisbee during my visit, so the newest operating ride was their ARM/Larson drop tower. And since Gillian's was jealous of Cedar Fair's drop tower names, the park decided to name it Drop Tower. While the name is laughably lazy, the ride is fantastic. It gives a wonderful view of the beach. And then the drop is absolutely gut-wrenching. You drop like a rock and float the whole way down. 10 out of 10 But what name could be better than Drop Tower? Dark Ride! Again, the name is laughably bad, but it's a solid dark ride. This is not your average tacky carnival haunted house. This one has a lot of scenes with jump scares, but the one criticism I have is that it's a bit too well-lit, so you can see some of the scares before they happen. 6 out of 10 If you want coaters, Gillian's unfortunately removed their largest coaster, Runaway Mine Train, a few years ago. So the only remaining coaster is a Wacky Worm. I got this credit in 2017, so I didn't feel the need to pay for it a second time. Having visited during the covid-19 pandemic, I have to give the park credit that almost every ride was running. The only exceptions were the under construction Frisbee and the Tin Lizzy bumper cars, which were comically on their side like an obese turtle. Ocean City, NJ is a really fun boardwalk. While I'll never make a trip exclusively for Gillian's, I'll most likely pop in to ride that flume and drop tower whenever I find myself there.

To Lake Compounce's credit, more often than not they replace a removed attraction with something new. The only exception that I can think of off the top of my head is the Sky Ride. While we may not get a new ride next year, I imagine it will be replaced eventually.

At least there's hope Lake Compounce will add something when they finally clear all the land around the lake and presumably make the park a full loop. Because removing a bunch of trees and clearing a bunch of land only to not use it would be as illogical as transferring the second train onto a roller coaster while the other one is on the circuit.

I still want to know why they didn't get more of the logs from Log Jammer when Kennywood closed that ride. Meanwhile Kennywood is auctioning them off on eBay.

Sadly the sky ride was demolished. The park cited safety concerns when they took it out if they ever had to evacuate it. Keep in mind, Lake Compounce also quietly had closed their best water slide last year in Lights Out. I think they're going to keep it standing since the Lighthouse it's built into is probably the most iconic structure at the water park (well as iconic as a 2 decade old structure can be).

The only other edge I'd give New Jersey over Minnesota along with the coasters is that it has faster dispatches on the rides. But Minnesota's has a far better atmosphere. It feels like an outdoor park. And the central location gives it a ton of kinetic energy. New Jersey's feels like a warehouse with the minimal skylight and few windows. Plus it feels dead being placed in the corner of the mall. Minnesota also has far better admission options and better non-coasters, most notably the Log Chute, which I would take over any ride at the New Jersey park.

At least the water park (which also currently has the no re-entry rule) is planning a smart perk post covid. One of the employees mentioned they're planning a food delivery option where guests can order food from somewhere else in the mall and have it delivered to the water park, saving them the hassle of having to change out of their bathing suit, leave the park, and get dressed again to swim.

^ Your experience with the food is why I make sure to fast while I'm at the park. I load up on food before I get there. There's a really good bagel place (Bagels Plus) and gyro place (Lyndhurst Jerk & Gyro Spot) on the NJ side just 10 minutes away.

Same here! Although I still prefer master blasters/water coasters more as far as water slides go.

Twisted Timbers is my new number one roller coaster at the Land of Make Believe. Land of Make Believe The Land of Make Believe in Hope, New Jersey is a small park primarily targeted for kids. And this was a really weird park. In some ways, it reminded me of Knoebels. The park is located in the middle of a forest and has no paved walkways. In other ways, it reminded me of Storybook Land or Story Land with the non-ride attractions such as the petting zoo, play areas, and walkthroughs. But then you had some really head-scratching policies that made me want to rip my hair out. The first was the fact that this park does not accept major credit cards due to their policies on consumer fraud. Fortunately, I had some cash in my car that was reserved for parking at the boardwalk parks, so I was able to avoid a trip to the First Hope Bank. Second, the park's covid precautions were annoying. All guests were asked to wear masks unless they were in the water park. However, none of the employees were wearing masks anywhere. The closest I saw was the ride operator at Twisted Timbers wearing his mask as an arm band. I thought that was a pretty bad double standard during a pandemic to have guests wear masks in the dry park, but not hold the employees to the same standard. Third, I had a cloth mask I wanted to wear in the water park while walking around and queuing for water slides. I planned to store that mask in a zippered pocket whenever I actually rode a water slide. However, employees told me I wasn't allowed to wear a mask anywhere in the water park for safety reasons. Thankfully, the park was dead so it was extremely easy to social distance. Now that I have the negatives out of the way, let's focus on the positives. This small kid's park has not one, but two coaster credits. The older credit is Thriller, the Miler kiddie coaster. This one wasn't overly wild, but it was smooth. 2 out of 10 Twisted Timbers was the "star" roller coaster. It was the best Twisted Timbers I rode in 2020. Unlike its namesake at Kings Dominion, this Twisted Timbers is not an RMC loaded with airtime. Rather, this Twisted Timbers is your garden variety SBF Visa spinner. Though this one does give a very long cycle, so as far as SBF spinners go, this one is elite. 4 out of 10 If you visit Land of Make Believe, solely for the coasters, it's a pricey pit stop. Beyond the coasters, the only other exciting ride for me on the dry side was the Scream Extreme 360, an extremely disorienting, miniature inverting frisbee. This one didn't run as long of a cycle as Quassy's Frantic, but it still had a ton of hangtime and made me very dizzy. 6 out of 10 The rest of the offerings were understandably targeted towards kids. You had some standard flats plus a few intriguing walkthroughs; however, the latter were closed due to covid. And the park also had a cute looking castle stage, but I didn't see any shows taking place, which also could have been due to covid. But if you like water parks, Land of Make Believe is well worth the price of admission. While the dry side is filled entirely with kids rides outside of the inverting frisbee, the water park has some intense water slides. Most notably, there are two drop pod water slides called Pirate's Escape and Pirate's Revenge. These ones are shorter than the ones you'll find elsewhere, but the initial plunge is shocking as ever, the turns pull some good Gs, and it's very smooth on your back. It was the best ride at the park without a doubt. 8 out of 10 The other notable water slide for me was the Sidewinder half pipe slide. I always enjoy the abnormally large drop on these things. However, I'm spoiled by the version I grew up with at Aquaboggan in Maine since that one allows you to ride it backwards. This one did not. But it was still quite thrilling experiencing a drop that big and steep for a tube slide. 7 out of 10 The rest of the water park offerings weren't anything special, but the lineup was deep with some regular tube slides, a body slide, and a bowl slide. If you have kids, the Land of Make Believe is a no brainer. If you enjoy water parks, the Land of Make Believe is well worth experiencing. If you're a dirty credit whore seeking two junior coasters, come on down. Just know, you'll be paying for those credits if that's all you care about. But I personally enjoyed my 1.5 hours there mostly because of the water park, despite the frustrating policies this park had in place.

It sounds like the new train is only needed if you perform elements you previously couldn't with GCI's wood track like launches or inversions.

Great report! I've never made it down to Ocean City, Maryland, so it was cool seeing these two parks. I'm surprised they opened on a day like that and remained open. So many of these boardwalk parks seem to have rolling closing times.

I have a feeling they'll do (at least initially) what Six Flags originally did with RMC's topper track. They tried small sections on Six Flags New England's Cyclone and Six Flags Fiesta Texas's Rattler. Those sections did indeed ride more smoothly, but the rest of the ride didn't. A few years later, Six Flags decided to RMC the whole ride. I could see Six Flags trying a small section in the worst of the worst spots on Predator and then deciding to add more steel track if it's successful.

I'm surprised they wouldn't try running it this weekend considering it will be in the 70s, but at least they let people know.