Canobie Coaster

Sorry to disturb the 2018 speculation, but I have to chime in to say how nice this park is. While Magic Mountain and Great Adventure are often considered the chain's 2 best parks with enthusiasts, this is the nicest Six Flags park I've been too. Great theming in every area and it never felt tacky like it does at other Six Flags parks. The park's setting is also amazing and the ops were sending trains out fast on everything. Oh and it certainly helps that Iron Rattler is absolutely insane. It's definitely in my top 5 and I think it may be my new number 2 just behind Fury.

That's too bad. It looked like a family coaster but was hopeful after riding the one in Georgia.

Did Wild Waves have any airtime? The Miler I rode at Fun Spot Atlanta had some great air but the turns were pretty brutal.

Dang it! I got the wrong pierogis. I was fooled since the ones I had were so good though.

Glad "it" survived. Honestly I'm shocked NJ let it reopen that quickly since we've seen how cautious they are with the whole Ka/Zumanjaro thing.

Great report! Glad you guys were able to get on Lightning Rod after missing it last year. The review definitely affirms my decision to keep trying to get on it in the coming years even though I'm 0/3 so far.

Attitash Mountain Resort Anyone who reads my trip reports knows that I enjoy a good mountain coaster. So naturally after a visit to Story Land, I needed to ride my personal favorite mountain coaster since it's just a 10 minute drive down the road at Attitash. Long known as one of New England's premier ski resorts, Attitash has the most activities of any of the mountain resort style parks I've been to. Their star attraction is probably still the old-fashioned Alpine Slide, but the Nor'Easter Mountain Coaster is what brought me in. Unlike other mountain coasters that cost $15 a ride and offer no all-day pass, Attitash actually offers an all-day pass. For $49 you can get unlimited rides on the park's mountain coaster, alpine slide, water slides, chairlifts, airbag jump, rock wall, and mountain biking. They also have a 3-6 special that sees the price drop to $35. Considering each ride costs $15 a pop, the wristband is a decent deal by comparison. I had full intentions of only riding the mountain coaster and booking it out to Whale's Tale. The last time I was at Attitash, the mountain coaster had a half hour wait and the other attractions looked similarly busy. This time, Attitash seemed considerably less crowded so I decided to risk my life. Yes I finally signed the waiver and bought a ticket for the Alpine Slide. I have heard stories from my dad and friends how they violently wiped out. My dad still has scars to this day from his crash. The Alpine Slide began with a long chairlift up the mountain. Since the park isn't Lake Compounce, the chairlift was open. And you know what? I didn't see a single person being an idiot since a fall from this chairlift would likely be fatal. Once reaching the top, the views of the White Mountains were spectacular. I promise they are whiter in the winter but today they were very green. I really wish the Chairlift had backwards facing cars so I could have enjoyed this view the whole way up. After taking in the view and letting the girls ahead of me get plenty of distance on me, I grabbed the sled and was on my way down the hill. Despite the thrill seeker in me telling me to use less brake, the responsible adult in me told the alpine slide virgin to be a little careful. I wasn't going at a crawl, but I have definitely seen people fly down these at far greater speeds. I saw a few points, particularly the large drop a quarter of the way down the hill that could definitely be prime wipe out spots if someone was lax on the brakes. By the last third of the ride, I had gotten a better idea how fast I could safely push the sled, but alas that was the only ride I budgeted for the day. When I return to Attitash (it's bound to happen, I like being the creep at Story Land too much ), I will definitely go faster now that I know what to expect. The ride's setting is fantastic and the whole ride down is quite scenic. It was also considerably longer than I anticipated. I thought the ride down would only be a minute or so, but I think it was triple or quadruple that. 8.5 out of 10 I didn't die! After surviving the Alpine Slide, it was time to have a ridiculously fast and unbraked ride on their mountain coaster. I've been on 10 or so mountain coasters at this point and none of them match the intensity of Attitash's. The setting is amazing and fully covered by trees so you can't see what's coming next. The speed on this one seems much greater than the other alpine coasters and the turns give insane laterals and there are some pops of air as well. While more controlled, I do prefer the mountain coaster since I know I can't kill myself on that one. 9 out of 10 Still the best mountain coaster I have been on. Make sure you have plenty of space in front of you since you can absolutely fly down the hill. Morey's may say they have the Great Nor'Easter, but this Nor'Easter is better. Someday I need to make a visit to Attitash where I'm not rushing to Santa's Village or Whale's Tale so I can capitalize on the wristband to perfect my alpine slide technique and continue to avoid the brakes like the plague on the Nor'Easter Mountain Coaster.

Of the ones I've visited Holiday World, Busch Gardens Williamsburg, and Kennywood come to mind. Liseberg looks like a very strong candidate.

Great report! I haven't seen a full trip report of Lakeside in quite some time. I hope to make it out to that park someday since I love classic wooden coasters. And yes that drop tower is amazing since it's one of those ARM/Larson ones. The air on those things is unreal.

Favorites 1) Disneyland- It may be smaller than the Magic Kingdom, but I prefer the ride selection at Disneyland and there's something magical about visiting Walt's park. Yes the pathways get very congested, but despite being a Disney park lines never seem to exceed 60 minutes for anything and I know how to game the Fastpass system to maximize my day. Indiana Jones is the best dark ride I've been on, Splash Mountain is the second best flume after it's big brother in Florida, and they have the better of the Space Mountains. Then there's the dark ride collection, the ability to meet the Disney characters, etc. This is everything a theme park should be. 2) Knoebels- A stark contrast to Disneyland, Knoebels is everything an amusement park should be. Phoenix is my favorite wooden coaster and Twister is another great ride as well. The park has the best flat ride collection anywhere, mixing it with rare classics and modern thrillers. And they all run amazing cycles (fast and long). They also have one of my favorite flumes, an amazing dark ride, a great setting, Fascination, and the best overall food collection of any park. Seriously any food item there is guaranteed to be great. 3) Cedar Point- The park with the best roller coaster collection has to be on this list. Cedar Point has the renowned Intamin collection, some great B&Ms, a really good wooden coaster, Magnum, and some really nice flat rides. And this is before they add what looks to be one of the best RMCs. The park also has one of the best settings (unless the water pipe bursts) and has good operations. 4) Magic Kingdom- More well-planned layout and crowd wise than Disneyland, the Magic Kingdom has just a slightly worse ride collection and much of the same magic that makes Disneyland special. For a week vacation, I'll take Walt Disney World but for a one day trip I prefer Disneyland. 5) Busch Gardens Williamsburg- This park is one of the most beautiful around and has an amazing coaster collection to go with it as well. Apollo's Chariot, Griffon, and Alpengeist are all smooth and fun coasters that are super reridable. The park is lacking in the flat collection, but makes up for it with some good shows, excellent food, and a nice water ride collection. Honorable Mentions- Dollywood, Holiday World, Universal Orlando, Hersheypark Bucket List Parks 1) Tokyo DisneySea- I love the Disney parks and it seems to be a general consensus among enthusiasts that this is the best one out there. They have some of my favorite rides from the US in Indiana Jones, Tower of Terror, and Toy Story along with the epic looking Journey to the Center of the Earth. Every image of that park looks straight from a movie and too nice to actually be a theme park. 2) Universal Japan- I'm a fan of Universal Orlando and this looks to have many of the rides that makes Florida great with the addition of Space Fantasy, Holiday Dream, and Flying Dinosaur. Plus the park looks like a beauty. 3) PortAventura- Like the two parks above, every shot of the park I have seen has been nothing short of amazing and they have a great roller coaster collection to back it up. Honestly this looks like Busch Gardens of Spain in terms of the ride collection. 4) Alton Towers- The great setting and how cleverly the park has built thrill rides with a tight height restriction has made this park one I've always wanted to visit. Nemesis easily looks like the star, but the rest of their coaster collection looks quite impressive too. 5) Silver Dollar City- I loved Dollywood so I figure Silver Dollar City would be up my alley. Much of the theming that made Dollywood great seems to be shared with Silver Dollar City and they also have a RMC that will probably run when I visit.

Great report! Shockwave sounds really good and it's so ironic, but expected, Mr. Freeze had a hot station.

I've learned that saying you just really love coasters doesn't work in many situations. I learned that with a police officer in Indiana. I guess it looks pretty sketchy if you drive an out-of-state license plate alone in the wee hours of the morning. I wanted to get to Holiday World for opening, but despite my roller coaster shirt and tickets on the passenger seat, the officer did a very thorough search of my car for drugs. Now I try and make sure I get an in-state license plate when I rent a car. So no running in a kids park is a rule I'm going to keep. Last thing I want is to become the Flume Dog of Story Land. Hahaha the runaway Antique Car ride sounds amazing! I would have loved that as a kid and being the troublemaker I was, I would have intentionally tried to drive away and out of sight. If only they were faster... It was Father's Day weekend; on Saturday, the kiddo and I left early in the morning to drive up to Maine. We started off at Funtown Splashtown USA, bopped over to Palace Playland, then drove down to Canobie Lake Park, and ended the day at Fun World (okay okay, not really a park, but it had three rides so I'm counting it dammit). On Sunday, we drove to Six Flags New England, then down to Lake Compounce, then Quassy ever-so-briefly, and concluded the trip at Rye Playland. With the exception of SFNE, all the parks were new to us and it was a fun but kinda exhausting trip. I keep meaning to write up an indepth photo TR on the whole weekend but I am so backlogged at this point. Story Land closes early which makes them hard to hit, but I would have tried to fit them in on the Maine day. I do support going to Fun World since that's a really nice arcade...that of course has a kiddie credit too.

^ The other impressive thing is that the food is actually good. A lot of those gimmick restaurants are weak in that area. The Alton Towers Roller Coaster restaurant sounded like an amazing concept having coasters bring you food, but the reviews didn't really mention the food. If I weren't local, I probably would never have made it to Story Land. It's pretty far north from Boston, but it's in a very scenic area. Just curious what parks are on your trip?

I think the park takes pretty good care of Roar-o-saurus, but there's just nothing they can do on some of those transitions. Mine Blower sounds similar from the reviews that I have heard. I did meet Cinderella...back when I was 5. I haven't walked up the hill to that castle in like 15-20 years. There is the pumpkin coach that takes you to the top, but it only seats 4ish people so the line is painfully slow.

Story Land Story Land is, as one of my coworker's says, the "Disneyland for poor people." For kids, that's a very fair point. Instead of Mickey Mouse, they have Duke the Dragon. Instead of Cinderella, they have, well they actually have Cinderella. And each ride in the park has great attention to detail that makes a standard tilt-a-whirl or tea cup ride just a bit more special and memorable for kids. For a single adult, Story Land can be a little awkward, but Roar-o-saurus is such a good roller coaster that it's worth waiting in line with dozens of kids half your size as parents confusedly look at you wondering where your kid is. Also while the theming is meant for the younger audience, I can still appreciate just how well themed the entire park is. Welcome to, as my coworker calls it, "Disneyland for Poor People." This may not be Disneyland, but you can still meet Cinderella. No really, the park actually has their own Cinderella. Lake Compounce advertises Story Land. Story Land advertises Lake Compounce. Now that's a good business relationship. Being a Story Land veteran, I knew how to tour the park. The key is to not run towards Roar-o-saurus. Not only would a single adult running through a children's park draw unwanted attention, but Roar-o-saurus opens a half hour after the rest of the park. So what did I do instead? I rode Story Land's coolest coaster, the Polar Coaster. By taking the shortcut up and over the hill (Six Flags Magic Mountain make all other hills seem puny), I was on the second train of the day. What would otherwise be an uneventful junior coaster is actually a decent ride thanks to its location on the hillside. The first half is a series of slow turns, but the second half has a decent little helix and a small little hill over the water. It's not a very thrilling ride, but it's a coaster I grew up on and better than a few of the mine trains I've been on. 5 out of 10 This is without a doubt the park's coolest ride. The Polar Coaster has a really nice setting on the hill. Helix of death! After that, I made my way over to a ride that's certainly a mouth full to say, Dr. Geyser's Remarkable Raft Ride. On hot summer days, this ride can actually start to pull half hour waits, but I entered an entirely empty queue building and was able to get two solo rides back-to-back on the river rapids ride. Actually I lied, Dr. Geyser's isn't really a "river rapids" ride. It's more of a gentle stream with sprinklers, misters, and geysers around every corners. While most rapids rides can get you uncomfortably wet for the rest of the day, Dr. Geyser's actually provides the perfect amount of wetness in most cases unless you hit the jackpot and get absolutely nailed by every single one of the geysers. The latter happened on my second ride but I didn't mind since it was 90 degrees and I had my belongings safely tucked away in zip lock bags. 8 out of 10 Not the distinct lack of rapids on the "river rapids" ride. But there are geysers! And a mist filled tunnel that smells as dank as a pair of used rain boots. Dr. Geyser's blows his load. It was 9:50, so I had 10 minutes until I could board the park's innocent-looking but incredibly awesome Gravity Group wooden coaster. No better way to spend it than riding the park's adorable log flume, the Bamboo Chutes. If you don't look at those boats and go "aw", there's something seriously wrong with you. It's a pretty short layout for a flume, but the park has some great landscaping around the flume, a giant dragon that is a squirter instead of a screamer, and a good final plunge built on a hillside. 7 out of 10 Bamboo Chutes is the cutest flume around. Just look at those panda logs! Bamboo Chutes is good; Pablo Sandoval is not. What a waste of 0 million dollars. The clock struck 10. The rope dropped and the dinosaur section was open to park guests. Quite a few kids and parents had the same idea as me, but the weak dropped out as they were distracted by the Magic Submarine sprayground, cotton candy, or their own light-up sneakers. I made my way to Roar-o-saurus and saw an employee standing out front. Closed... I did not just drive 3 hours to visit a park whose star wooden coaster would be closed all day. Thank goodness I didn't. That would be Dollywood. The employee assured me Roar-o-saurus would be up and running sometime in the next hour. Phew. That was a crisis averted. My faith and justification for visiting a children's park rested in their hands. With an extra hour to explore the park, I sampled a few of the park's other rides. I tried the park's Splash Battle and got much wetter than I anticipated. While at Dollywood, the older guests barely used the off-ride water sprayers since they were afraid of getting wet themselves, the younger guests at Story Land had absolutely no reservations getting soaked to the bone since they didn't have to worry about leaving with non-functional cell phones or soggy wallets. They stood in there like a major leaguer taking a retaliation fastball and made sure I left the ride dripping wet. The pharaoh reigns down on his subjects. Their flat collection looks amazing. Honestly, I think they theme their flat rides better than the flat rides at Disney or Universal. Their Alice in Wonderland tea cups ride has a well-themed queue with the Cheshire Cat. The tubs of fun is located in an elaborately themed cuckoo clock. And the park built an entire Dutch Village just to go with their little roto jets ride where you ride in Dutch Shoes. I'm really not kidding, just look at the photos how well they theme all their flats. The tea cups ride theming is on par with Disney. But then the queue blows Disney out of the water. Now you see me. Now you don't. I honestly think the theming must have cost more than the ride here. Just look at that theming! There's an entire village around the little Dutch Shoes ride. Still the only park I've ever seen this flat at. These were the best themed tubs I had ever seen on a Tilt-a-Whirl until I saw Holiday World's turkeys. I mean you can't beat a turkey. Unless it's on Thanksgiving. Slow and unsnappable, but they look pretty good. Not quite good as Canobie's cocks though. After riding Flying Fish, I heard the clickity clack of a lift hill and saw Roar-o-saurus cycling trains. I made my way back to the dino area and 5-10 minutes later, the ride reopened. My first few rides on Wooden Warrior absolutely blew me away (like everyone else) and I was amazed a ride that small could provide that much air. When Story Land built a similarly sized Gravity Group wooden coaster, I hoped it would be equally as amazing but was afraid Story Land would tame the ride down due to the park's clientele. Much to my pleasant, Roar-o-saurus is actually wilder and a more aggressive ride. Woohoo, the maintenance guys did it! Every single hill give a very brief but abrupt pop of airtime. The ride feels very much like a buckling bronco. While most coasters have some downtime between elements, Roar-o-saurus doesn't let up and has some of the tightest transitions I've seen on any coaster between elements. This keeps the intensity up, but unfortunately it adds some shuffling. Nothing too rough, but it was definitely noticeable. I got 5 rides on Roar-o-saurus. It wasn't quite as good as I remembered last year, but it was still a great coaster and by far the best ride in the park. 8.5 out of 10 After my last ride, I saw a teenager complaining to the operator about his lost phone. Despite the park having free storage bins and warning riders the coaster is much wilder than it looks (both verbally and with a detailed whiteboard listing how many riders in the day and season have lost keys, wallets, and phones), the guy lost his shiny iPhone 7 and it landed face-up in the middle of the ride. I'm honestly impressed the screen didn't shatter, but the teen wasn't impressed that the park refused to stop operations to retrieve his phone. It may only be 35ish feet tall, but the ride is aggressive. Air on every single hill. Just look at that guy's face in row 2. One other particularly unique attraction is the Antique Carousel. Instead of going up-and-down like 99% of the other carousels out there, Story Land's classic carousel allows riders to rock back and forth. I think the intent is for parents to rock their kids gently back and forth, but this can easily turn into one heck of a workout violently rocking the horse back and forth on your own. It's like the Derby Racer except normal speed. I had also planned to hit Attitash and Whale's Tale in the same day, so I called it a day after 5 rides on Roar-o-saurus. On my way out, I passed through the park's older area. I used to spend hours in this section as a kid since they have some animals acting out childhood classics as well as playgrounds galore. Where's the wolf? Goat big or goat home. I know it's primarily a children's park, but if you are in the area, I definitely recommend checking out Story Land. Roar-o-saurus is a really good wooden coaster. I know I seem to be in the minority as I like it over Wooden Warrior, but the ride has more to it at the expense of being slightly rougher. After leaving I stopped at my favorite restaurant in the area for lunch, Glen Junction. It's a really good breakfast place and they have model trains running around the restaurant which is a definite plus from me. Best restaurant in the area. They have great food and trains.

That's awfully ironic.

Oh my god this is awful. I can't imagine seeing the seats fall off across from you. Who provided the midway for this carnival?

Great report! Mt. Olympus is one of those parks that I need to experience for myself just like you. I'd like to think a park with 4 wooden coasters can't be that bad...

Great report! I had an ok visit to Six Flags America since there were no lines so the terrible operations (such as 10 minute Batwing dispatches) weren't a major issue. The park let me down by having Superman down for the day but I had ridden Darien's mirror image the year before. It's a good hyper, but of the Intamin megas I've been on, it's at the bottom which is a testament how good their rides are.

Great report. Six Flags Over Texas looks like a really nice Six Flags park. Just curious, how many flips did SFOT's Joker give you. 2-3?

Great report! Hopefully I can get to Fuji-Q someday. Despite the negativity towards the queue lines, their top 4 rides all look pretty unique.

Great report! I prefer Disney, but everything I am in Orlando I need to spend at least 1-2 days at Universal since I like how their rides are different from Disney's in both style and intensity. If you're like us and don't mind driving a few hours to get to the airport if it means ridiculous savings then yes. I don't know exactly where you live (I know you're in Massachusetts since it says it under your name) but you can fly from Newburgh NY, Portsmouth, NH or Providence, RI. Just playing around with it quickly (I really didn't even try that hard), You can fly from Providence to Tampa on Oct 30th and come back a few days later on November 3rd and round trip after taxes and fees the airfare is $76.00 TOTAL. Seriously... stop reading this and book that! Don't bring bags though. Don't do it. One day when I'm retired, Allegiant seems like a good option when I can have a more flexible schedule. That is assuming they don't have a catastrophic, company ending accident of course.

Great report! I agree on Intimidator. Not as bad as I was expecting from others' reviewers, but definitely on the lower end of the B&M hypers. Fury meanwhile was outstanding from start to finish. I thought the last few hills still gave amazing airtime and they weren't a let-down relative to the first half. And that was even with the trims biting a bit last year.

Huck Finn's Playland With this report I bring you a park that's new to TPR, Huck Finn's Playland! Hoffman's Playland has reincarnated as Huck Finn's Playland. After 62 years of operation, Hoffman's Playland closed its doors at the end of the 2014 season. Home to a credit, the bigger loss was the park's classic Lusse bumper cars (as fast as Knoebels, but with no center divider so you could absolutely crush people). It was sad to see another park bite the dust, even if it was more of a kiddie park, but from the ashes rose Huck Finn's Playland. In one of the weirder relocation stories ever, a local furniture store purchased all of Hoffman's Playland's rides and relocated them adjacent to their warehouse. Almost all of the rides were saved and the park is in the midst of its third year of operation. Unfortunately the one ride that didn't make it was the Bumper Cars. However, the coaster lived on and was the main reason for my visit. The park's location is odd and I thought I was going to a construction site. When you get off the highway, you drive down a barely paved road lined with chain-link fences and deserted buildings. This is one of those times that I thought my GPS was trying to kill me. I knew the park had a Ferris Wheel, yet I couldn't see it. But at the end of the road, I was greeted with Huck Finn's Playland. There's the cute Ferris Wheel. It's somewhere in between a kiddie one and an adult one. My visit was the definition of credit whoring and a pit stop. I spent less than 10 minutes at the park and that was enough time to take pictures of all the park's rides and ride the coaster. The park is extremely small like Hoffman's was, but Huck Finn's Playland was decently crowded. The ride lines were minimal, but the midways were pretty crowded, probably because for every kid riding something there were 2 parents and a stroller on the midway. The park is mostly made up of classic kiddie rides. But there are some classic flats like the Paratrooper. And the Scrambler. A Tilt-a-Whirl. And this Train that runs around the perimeter of the park. I paid $2 for my coaster ticket. On the way over, I was snapping photos of the Roller Coaster (yes that's its name) and the Ferris Wheel. The ride operator watched me do this and when I went up the ride ramp, he asked if I was a roller coaster enthusiast. I guess an adult riding a kiddie coaster all alone is a tell-tale sign nowadays. I proudly said yes and grabbed the best seat in the house, the front. I have been on a few of the Herschell kiddie coasters, but this one has a unique "high-speed turn" after the lift instead of the slow, flat turn. This turn did give some laterals thanks to the minimal banking, but it was bumpy. The rest of the ride was fairly smooth and I got 3 laps. The operator was staring me down as I photographed the park. He could tell I was a coaster enthusiast. See I wasn't the only adult riding it...except I think he had a kid next to him. Check out that high speed turn. Huck Finn's Playland is the perfect pit stop if you're in the Albany area. I'm glad to see Hoffman's Playland reincarnated as Huck Finn's Playland. I hope the park can find a way to add the Bumper Cars back since they were true gems, but in the meantime it looks to be bringing in the families on the weekends. If any of you credit whores are passing by Albany, I recommend popping in for a few minutes since it's free admission and just 1-2 minutes off the highway.

I actually really liked the Plants vs. Zombies simulator, but I rode it on a day when I was one of only 3-4 people in there. Those rides are so much more enjoyable when you can actually tell where you are shooting. If I rode with a full-house, I would have probably had a different opinion.