Canobie Coaster

It's definitely unique and I'd recommend checking it out even though it does rattle. The rattle was liking riding a slower Kingda Ka in the back car.

Playland's Castaway Cove I was originally planning to stop in Atlantic City to check out Steel Pier along the way. However, the weather forecast was shaky when I left Casino Pier (I mean look at the skies in that report) and there was a chance of thunderstorms in the late evening. Since I wanted to ensure I had plenty of time to hit everything at Morey's, I decided to cutout Steel Pier since I've been on a few Crazy Mouses at other parks and I really wanted to avoid Atlantic City based on everything I heard. My second stop was Ocean City. I have to say that Ocean City was a really nice town. While Seaside Heights seemed pretty seedy driving through it, Ocean City seemed quaint despite having a really nice beach and a very impressive boardwalk with not one, but two full amusement parks plus a water park. Part of the more family-centric atmosphere may have been the result of Ocean City being a dry town. Maybe Ocean City just seemed nicer since the clouds completely disappeared to make a bright cheery day while Seaside Heights was covered in clouds. Coincidence or is Seaside Heights just that dark shadowy place Mufasa warns Simba about? Like all boardwalks there was mini golf. And it was only ! First time I've seen one of these outside of an amusement park. So sad but true. Parked exactly halfway between Playland's Castaway Cove and Gillian's, I had a decision to make. Which one to hit first? When I saw the twisted blue track of GaleForce towering above the boardwalk my decision was made, Playland's Castaway Cove. Actually my rationale was that I was worried GaleForce could shut down at any moment after a year of construction delays so I figured I should get on it in case it pulled a Lightning Rod and went down. The park's entrance is actually quite nice off of the boardwalk. I bought enough tickets to hit the credits and ride a few flats. This was a really nice entrance for a boardwalk park. With my tickets in hand, I started walking towards GaleForce but my credit whore senses were tingling. The SBF spinner was loading so I decided to take a 2 minute diversion, a decision that had an unintentionally got me on some footage for a certain YouTube coaster channel (more on that later). Whirlwind had a really nice looking entrance and as far as these spinning coasters go, this one had a noticeably longer cycle that sent us around 6-7 times. These are significantly better than most kiddie coasters, but still can’t hold a candle to larger coasters. 3 out of 10 A year ago at this time I hadn't been on any of these spinners. Now I think I've been on 4-5 different ones. These spinners are better than your regular kiddie coaster, but what's that I see behind it? Enough kiddie coasters (for now), it was time for the main attraction GaleForce. To this point, I had still yet to see the coaster run. Was it even open? The queue wasn’t blocked off so that had to be a good sign, right? Right as I reached the top of the station’s staircase, the gates opened and a train shot out of the station. Forwards, backwards, and forwards again. Then it was time to go through TSA…I mean board the train. While Great Adventure used the honor system and visual checks for loose articles, GaleForce’s operators wanded me down and required all articles to be placed in a loose article bin (glasses and items in zippered pockets included). While a tedious loading process to say the least, I have no problem with it since they didn’t charge me to store my articles. Wanding for loose articles was part of the reason for the long dispatches. The other was that the park waited for full trains before sending them out. With the ride’s high cost and modest crowds, that took a solid 10 minutes. How was the ride? Honestly I was pretty disappointed by it. I was expecting this to rival the Premier Sky Rocket II’s. Those expectations quickly soured when the launch began. In terms of force, the launches were similar to the Sky Rocket with the first two being ok and the final one having a pretty good kick to it. However, while Sky Rocket II’s are glass-smooth, GaleForce rattled pretty violently through the launch. I have never been on a coaster where the launch was anything but smooth before so it was definitely disappointing in that regard. The first drop was amazing and had major ejector air. It was comparable to a longer, extended drop on a EuroFighter. The following 3 hills were twisted and disorienting, but unfortunately they had no air. The restraints had also tightened and were really digging into the crown jewels by the end if you know what I mean. I gave GaleForce a second try in the back and got a pretty similar ride. I think this ride has a lot of potential with the epic first drop, but the rattly launch and ball-busting restraints held it back. 6 out of 10 GaleForce's twisted track looks absolutely demented. The first drop was by far the best part of the ride. Crazy ejector air! Also just ignore that white track there. While a cool looking layout, GaleForce had quite the rattle. A shame considering how many delays the ride had. Dispatches were also painfully slow (10 minutes) so it was hard to get photos with cars. The two previous ones were the same one. For Larry. The third and final coaster is a Miler. No not Wild Waves. Who knows when that thing will open? The final coaster was Pirates Gold Rush, the park’s tiny kiddie coaster. The operator didn’t give me any weird looks and we were off. We got 5 laps and the coaster was smooth, but even by kiddie coaster standards it was extremely slow. I can’t think of a coaster out there with a shorter lift hill. 2 out of 10 Judge all you want; yes I did ride this. From posts in the park forum, I saw that I needed to try Topical Storm. I had never seen a ride like it before and it was definitely extremely intense. The spinning is ridiculously fast and the Gs are akin to what you’d experience on a Rotor/Gravitron. The Gs are so intense that you are actually lifted out of your seat which is an interesting experience. Though I kind of wish the ride had standing seats since the forces caused the edge of seat to dig into the back of my leg at its maximum speed. The ride had a weird cycle where it would run full speed for 30 or so seconds, slow down, and then repeat a few times, presumably to help keep the ride puke free. 9 out of 10 Tropical Storm may be the most intense spinning ride out there. The spinning was so intense it caused airtime. I also tried to park’s Double Shot tower after being denied the one at Casino Pier. It’s a good thing the park was empty since they were only loading people on one side of the tower. Thankfully the side that was available was facing the ocean since the views at the top (albeit brief) were quite nice. I prefer the towers that drop you down as opposed to shooting you up, but this one had solid air, particularly on the second launch, and the park gave 2 cycles for the price of one which was cool. So really the ride should be called the Quadruple Shot. 8 out of 10 Hey this S&S tower is open. Great view and the park gave a double cycle, so really this is the Quad Shot. Playland’s Castaway Cove is definitely a compact park but the park looked pretty good. They utilize every square inch they can get and there are rides in every corner. Some rides (like the Air Race) are built on top of rides. Others are built around each other (like GaleForce and Wild Waves) and can have a parasitic effect on the construction of each other. The compactness can make it kind of difficult to photograph some rides from inside the park, particularly GaleForce. I skipped the flume but it actually had a better layout than most boardwalk parks. A boardwalk staple. Skipped due to time, but the frisbee looked like it had a pretty good cycle. Didn't see too much work yet on this ride, but it'll probably still open before the Wild Waves. With the 3 credits at Playland under my belt, I had a nice 10 minute walk to get to the next boardwalk park, Gillian’s.

I know it's a historic ride and respect Leap the Dips for that, but I found it to be a lot rougher than I expected and not something I was raring to jump back in line for.

I had to stand around the ride for 5-10 minutes to wait for another rider. I was able to take a mother's son on the ride and she was grateful to get out of riding.

That's too bad it has a pretty bad shuffle but I'm glad the layout delivers. Roar-o-saurus shuffled a bit in the turns but never came close to being rough. Meanwhile the older Wooden Warrior is still glass-smooth.

But with their paint schemes it definitely seems like it would be easy to swap out if they ever did decide to go that route.

It's one of those things I don't question but just enjoy.

Great report! The last time I was at SFDK, neither the Joker nor Wonder Woman were there. Joker sounds fantastic and I'm really impressed how well Wonder Woman fits in. I really need to try one of those Zamperla Giant Discoveries. I missed out on the Schultz museum when I was in California a few summers back. I didn't even know that was there, which is unfortunate.

And as others have mentioned they don't take seating requests for the front.

Of those two floorless coasters, I take Bizarro since it's a longer ride. Batman does have the best element of the two in that zero-G roll though.

This sound like my experience at Morey's Piers. I've been stapled with lap bars before, but I've never seen an op grab the belt and tighten it to the max before then stapling the restraint.

^ Speaking of that park, I'd love for them to rescue Skydiver if it came down to it.

^ That small release on the brakes is definitely a godsend. Though on 1-2 of my rides, it didn't work or wasn't turned on for some reason.

From my recent visit to Morey's Piers.

Based on the paint scheme, it sure seems like it. Same with how Vampire seems like it was supposed to be Batman based on the paint scheme and bat theming.

I'm interested to see if Kenny's Parkway will be taken down/shut down too. I've never seen it run but it did seem like a very practical way to get from Kennywood's top lot to the bottom.

I knew the Brockton Fair had issues, but having one on Night 1 is a record for them. Maybe I should rethink I plans. Though this may be on of the funniest stories I have ever heard. The fact that the carnies followed the teenagers who tried to steal a prize into the parking lot and then got into a fight seems like something right out of a comedy movie. Though having seen many carnies, I can totally see this happening. Link

Casino Pier My Whore Tour began with a trip to Seaside Heights and Casino Pier. I think this was the perfect place to begin my journey since Seaside Heights is actually the city where the Jersey Shore tv show is filmed. I didn't see too much partying since it was the early afternoon and everyone was probably still hung over from the night before, but the boardwalk was decently crowded despite the overcast skies. The windy, overcast weather made the ocean waves pretty active all afternoon. As nice as the beach looked (it didn't look anything special), I sure as heck wasn't going to pay money to set foot on a beach. I think I'll enjoy the beach from up here. On principal I'm not paying to set foot on sand. Casino Pier was a pretty nice boardwalk. Considering Sandy decimated the place a few years back, the park was in really good shape. The park has a very small footprint, but they cram a ton of rides in that space. They had an impressive collection of flat rides and the lineup looked clean and well-kept. The arcade building is the closest thing Casino Pier has to an entrance. The park crams a lot of flats into a small space. Spinny and pendulum rides are the park's bread-and-butter. The Ferris Wheel looked quite nice and it probably gives nice views of the area...if you want to see Seaside Heights. The obligatory Moby Dick that every Jersey Shore park seems to have. About as good as modern fun houses are. This one had a lot of gags and they were all operational. The real reason I stopped at Casino Pier was for their sexy new Gerstlauer Eurofighter, Hydrus. While Canobie has the same ride with a bonus helix, Hydrus offered two things Untamed does not offer. First, the ride's setting is outstanding. It's located right on the edge of the boardwalk so as you crest the first hill, all you see is sand and waves. It's one of the best views I've had atop a coaster lift hill. Second, lap bar restraints. Untamed is a pretty good coaster, but the bulky OSTRs can cause some headbanging during the quick transitions. Hydrus's lap bars removed this and definitely added thrill to the ride. The first drop gives major ejector air like all EuroFighters and the 3 inversions are all great. The inline twist is particularly amazing with only the lap bars. While there wasn't a helix at the end, the hill into the brake run gave a pretty good pop of air as well. Hydrus's operators (and many of the Jersey Shore parks as I would learn) really believe in stapling riders, but I'll still take a stapled lap bar over OSTRs any day of the week. They were only running one train, but that didn't seem to be an issue with the park's crowds. Hydrus was the real reason for my visit. It's basically Untamed minus the helix, but it's a much better ride in my opinion. The lap bars make a huge difference. They eliminate any head banging and add a lot of thrill on the inversions. Plus the coaster is right on the water. The inline twist was particularly sweet in the lap bar restraints. Epic first drop as usual on a EuroFighter. Hail Hydrus! I have no clue what's going on there in the front. Hydrus is a really nice coaster and I absolutely love the logo. Before there was Hydrus, there was Pirate's Hideaway. There also was the Star Jet, but Sandy ripped that ride right off the boardwalk. Because of how messed up Pirate's Hideaway looked, I honestly probably would have stopped at Casino Pier even without Hydrus. I had to see how bad it was. If you haven't seen TPR's video of the coaster, please do. It's well worth a laugh and shows the air guitar theming on the inside of the attraction. It would be one thing if there was no theming, but the ride is literally in a big open warehouse. I don't even know why the ride is enclosed at that point. I was worried the turns would be rough, but they were fine. The brutal part were the brakes as they were very abrupt and bit hard. Yes Pirate's Hideaway was as bad as everyone says so one ride was enough. The only cool part of the ride is the spiral lift. 2 out of 10 Pirate's Hideaway or... Pirate's Hide. I think the latter since all of the pirates were definitely in hiding. Enjoy your ride on Warehouse the Ride. I did really enjoy a few of the park's more thrilling flats. The two I rode were Air Race and Super Storm. I would love to see more air races pop up and I really think they're an awesome flat. The ride does a great job mixing positive Gs at the bottom of rotations and hang time going over the top. The better of the two was Super Storm. This frisbee had really powerful ejector air during the first half. But I didn't watch the ride run before it started and it kept swinging higher and higher until it finally inverted. The inversions had great hang-time and provided a unique view of the ocean while upside-down. As an aside, could Clementon really not keep the Tsunami name for their wooden coaster when that disaster occurred on the other side of the globe? Meanwhile Casino Pier proudly has a ride called Super Storm when Superstorm Sandy literally flooded New York and ripped their former star attraction right into the Atlantic. Parks need more air races. These are seriously awesome flats. I did not realize this thing inverted before I rode it. This is easily one of the best frisbees I've been on. For those familiar with Casino Pier, you may also be foaming at the mouth for pictures of their kiddie coaster, Hot Tamales. While I openly admit I was planning on whoring that little ride out, the park saved me from some embarrassment by keeping the ride closed. I had ridden the same model at Dollywood last year and even by kiddie coaster standards, it was a pretty bad version so I wasn't missing much. I was a bit bummed out that the S&S tower was closed though but I got on one later that day at Playland's Castaway Cove with a similar view so that made up for it. Maybe this opened later when the (coaster) whores come out at night. This probably would have given a nice view, but it was closed. How did I know that? Well there was no sign, but there wasn't an op in sight nearby. A few blocks away was a compact but decent looking water park owned by Casino Pier in Breakwater Beach. I didn't stop in since there were more parks to hit, but they seemed to have a pretty good collection of slides. I saw one of those drop pod slides, which is always a win, and they also had a tantrum slide. When I looked the water park up later, I saw that the whole park seems to have a Revolutionary War theme despite there being no hint of theming visible in the water park and a name that doesn't seem to relate at all to the theme. Drop pod slides are always fun. Tantrums are pretty good as well. They fit quite a few slides into a small space. I only stopped at Casino Pier for a little over an hour, but they did a great job rebuilding after Sandy. I never saw the original pier, but they look to be in really good shape and hope Hydrus gives them an attendance boost this year since it's a fun little coaster. I didn't take time to explore the rest of the boardwalk nearby, but it seemed to be pretty lively and filled with the usual suspects (food, mini golf, games, etc). I will leave you with a slice of pizza that I got since I was starving and struggling to find a cheap place that accepted credit cards. It was overpriced (), but the pizza was pretty decent. I was hungry and desperate and they accepted cards.

At least that's good news that Wildcat will finally begin testing soon. I'm looking forward to seeing if it's ridable sometime this summer.

Adding the bars in between the legs is a simple enough solution but it shouldn't have even been necessary. I still can't believe this accident has supposedly caused the permanent closure of Lake Compounce's Sky Ride.

That's truly disappointing to hear. I'd love if they could repurpose SFNE's old sky ride cars since they were already caged but know that likely is never happening.

I really hope the ride isn't closed for good. It's easily the best sky ride out there. I was bummed out I missed it last month due to the no single rider policy they added at the start of the year. I wonder if this is the parent company's decision or if an insurance company forced their hand. If it's the latter, I hope it doesn't start to impact ski resort chairlifts too. These rides ran safely for how many years?

I agree they are pricey but at least I know I'm paying for a really enjoyable experience. I'd much rather that over one of the Jurassic Jungle Boat or Earthquake the Ride. Honestly I'd take one of the Jesus shirts over those two awful rides if only because I'd get more laughs from it. I think it's probably the best thing to do in Pigeon Forge after Dollywood. RiverRush alone is worth it. I don't know how that place keeps surviving Mother Nature, but they did a really good job fixing it up fast. The wind storm destroyed one of their bridges and they had already built up a new one. You could see the scorch lines where the fire stopped right at the edge of the course. After hearing the reports of what happened to Colossos, I'm glad Six Flags has been keeping up on the maintenance. The only rough spot from last year was fixed this year.

I don't think the park needs any extra help having that ride delayed.

Glad you didn't mind Goliath. I have only gotten one brutal ride on it and it was somewhere in the middle of the train. Most of my rides tend to be in the back 2 rows which aren't bad other than a random jolt at the bottom of the vertical loop in reverse (probably what you experienced). The front is still the best seat for that view going up the first lift. But that seating policy seems like what I've come to expect from the park. I'm just thankful they allow you to pick your seat on Wicked Cyclone now, but at least that ride is bonkers in any row. The no-brake ride on Gotham City Gauntlet is pretty rare. Every time I've ridden it, the brakes have bit quite hard.