Zand

They just billed me yesterday...same rate as last month. We'll see next month I guess. Like I said last year when they ended memberships...getting grandfathered in will eventually be moot because at some point they'll just keep jacking the price. Seems we've started that process.

Ha...definitely always go to both when I'm there. I like the atmosphere and drinks better at Jack's but definitely can't beat the view at Joe's. And no problem with the 5pm opening. Only problem last year was my wristband was only good till 7 with the same hours, so I had limited time on Surfside and didn't have time to get to Adventure Pier to use the wristband. So all good this year.

Embarking on my annual Shore trip August 21-23. Will be driving down Sunday and probably stopping for Gale Force and Manco & Manco pizza on the way down. Monday is Wildwood day and I already have a full day wristband ready to go as well as some drinking money for Capt'n Jack's and Pig Dog. Staying at Key West this year. Any updates on Moreys (and the Ocean City parks) from the locals? Missed the flume last year as well as a couple other attractions (Ghost Ship, Pirates). Also hoping that by going late in August, crowds won't be as bad as they were the last week of July last year. Tuesday my wife will spend the traditional tens of thousands of dollars on stuff at Douglass' Candy (if she ever hit the lottery I swear she'd just buy the store) and then we'll stop for a couple El Toro laps on the way home.

I thought about stopping in on the way to Wildwood in a few weeks but this confirms that I should just keep driving until I get to Gale Force instead. Snooki probably puked on those head-squeezing OTSRs anyway.

Spending a couple days in Lake George and threw in a few hours at Great Escape while in town. I had never been before despite driving by a ton of times. Unfortunately the forecast looked ugly today, but upon heading out from the hotel at 10:45 the sun was peeking out and the storms were still out near Syracuse so I figured that would be more than enough time to lap the park. Upon arrival I headed back to Comet and after the long walk back, someone walked down from the station and said it was down for maintenance. So I decided to go back up past the unsurprisingly closed Bobsleds and ride the pieces of sh*t up front. Hit Flashback first which had no line but also a laughably slow crew. After it stops in the station, they wait for the catch car to attach to the train, THEN they let everyone into the station to line up for rows, THEN they open the gates. I sat somewhere in the middle and it ended up being one of the smoother Boomerangs I've ever ridden. I usually don't mind these as long as they're not super rough, so this was a pleasant surprise. Then when it stops there is no automatic unlocking mechanism (WTF?!?) so they had to go around and unlock each car one by one. Apparently Great Escape doesn't own a hose. Skull Mountain? Headed up to the Western ghost town next (although the whole park was a ghost town so who could even tell?) and rode Canyon Blaster first. This this is probably the biggest piece of sh*t mine trains I've ever ridden as there is absolutely nothing redeeming about the layout and it's rough as hell. Burn this thing to the ground. Went around to a walk on Condor which was awesome to see operating. I had only ridden the Hershey edition many moons ago and it was a fun ride as usual. Next door, ADK Outlaw had maybe 12 people in line but it took a while as they were loading 2 people into each car for some reason. But once on it, just a super awesome ride with great upside down views of the mountains. While at the top I noted that Comet was finally running, and even more of a miracle, BOBSLED WAS OPEN! Before making my way to the alpiney goodness, I had to get my Steamin Demon credit (more like steamin pile of sh*t, god does this thing suck) before heading back. One and done on that thing. This hill has 2 coasters, 2 flat rides, and a closed log flume and thank god for the flat rides or it would be even more of a ghost town. At least it looks nice? Upon arrival at the Bobsled, there was an open pathway where the closed sign was supposed to be, but also unsurprisingly a car stuck on the brakes above the entrance with maintenance up on the platform. I stood there and they got it moving, then the maintenance lady who saw me standing there yelled to me "come on in, its open!". After a 2 car wait I got into the rather tight and uncomfortable seats and waited for the inevitable breakdown, but surprisingly we got the all clear and we were off. This thing is way more wild than I expected. It really moves around side to side and gets some good speed. It hits some of the brake runs kind of hard which causes you to slam your knees but otherwise what a fun ride. Wasn't expecting to ride it at all, so I was very glad to fit this into my day. Do you believe in miracles? Headed back to Comet next and thanks to absolutely NOBODY being back there I rode three consecutive times in front and once in back without leaving. This thing is fantastically smooth, has some light airtime, and has the worlds fastest chain lift on a woodie (unconfirmed, but it feels like it) and, while it won't break into anyone's top 10, it's definitely a gem and worth stopping in for alone. After my mini marathon, Supernova was waiting for a rider so I hopped on. After Giant Frisbees have popped up everywhere, riding a mini Frisbee is a nice chance of pace. Fun ride. Started my way back up and passed a few more flats with ops just standing there hoping one of the 14 people in the place would come ride their ride. I headed over to Blizzard which looked absolutely deserted but had no closed sign either. Without any idea if it was actually open, I got in the non existant line and thankfully heard music blaring from inside. The door popped open and I was treated to a much better indoor scrambler experience than at Funtown last week. While this doesn't have the lights and projections, it makes up for it by being the most insane scrambler I've ever ridden and the cycle was easily 4 minutes. Not sure if abandoned or its just a Tuesday at Great Escape. Once I was out of there it was starting to sprinkle and thunder was audible off in the mountains. Everything was still operating and I wanted to hit Sasquatch on the way out but I didn't want to get caught in a downpour so I headed out. Keep in mind I did all this in about 2.5 hours. Great day for getting some rides in but it's sad how empty the place was. I could see the wave pool from Comet and it had 5 people in it. Never seen anything like that at another park. Fun day and despite the mostly terrible coaster lineup, I would definitely pop in here again.

Takes too long to really ramp up to the max intensity that it reaches in the 2nd half. Skyrush is mind blowing from the second it drops off the lift until it hits the brakes with very few chances to catch your breath. Velocicoaster is a masterpiece, no doubt. Skyrush isn't really a masterpiece as much as something someone drew up on a cocaine binge which is why IMO it wins that competition.

It's a shame that park has great coasters. I'd love to just not bother going back whenever I'm in Florida but the pull of the coasters is too strong. Halloween will be fun there.

Velocicoaster is great, but at no point does it feel like it's trying to rip your legs from your torso

Cool, something else to make Skyrush's line shorter! In all seriousness, I think a park with an RMC, the most batshit insane Intamin ever built, and a host of other fantastic coasters might be in the running for best coaster park in the country once this is up and running.

They're still doing that?!?

Somehow today was my first time ever visiting Funtown. I feel like I've been reading about Excalibur for 20 years and kept telling myself I would drive up but just haven't ended up making the trip until today. Due to poor staffing, the park is only open until 6 for all but three "fireworks days" this summer, today being one of the three. I knew I wanted night rides on Excalibur, so I decided to brave what I knew would be a very busy day (especially with gorgeous weather) in order to guarantee myself night rides. Arrived around 5:30 and decided to head right over to Excalibur and that's when I learned the layout of this place is really damn messed up. Despite parking right next to it and the entrance not being far away, you have to basically walk around the perimeter of the park to the very end to get to it. I was reminded of Dinky Park on RCT when you have to start building paths over rides because you literally have to walk through a French Fry restaurant, over the Antique Cars, and through the Log Flume entrance to get back to Excalibur. After finally getting to the thing we were greeted with 3 lines, one for the back, one for all of the middle, and one for the front. All three were about even and we figured that meant the front and back lines would be stupid long, so we ended up dead center in the train. The operations on this ride are painfully slow (minimum 4 minutes on each load) with one train. Then some dipsh*t threw a basketball onto the tracks which took even more time (there were a LOT of knuckleheads in this park tonight) but finally we got on and my first impression from the middle was that it was decently smooth with some floater air moments and good laterals, including a whiplashing second turn which caught me off guard. I've seen people compare it to Legend and I have to agree, it's just much more out in the woods obviously. Got the flume credit next. This is one of the few rides in this park with a somewhat normal capacity, so despite the queue being almost full I was on in 10 minutes or so. This remained me of Canobie's flume but only 1 hill. Lots of fast low to the ground action. Very minor splashdown but there were 6 water cannons that were getting a LOT of use and there was no escaping getting drenched by those. Overall a thumbs up for the flume. Went to get the other credit in this park, the Wild Mouse. Standard Maurer-Sohne layout, only this one runs THREE cars on the whole damn track. So yeah, the line crawls but after 15 minutes we enjoyed the standard mousy affair. After a quick dinner at the chicken place next to the Mouse, I got in the full queue for the Astrodome. It was about a 3 cycle wait. Not bad, right? Well, when they're running THIRTEEN MINUTE load times, it's bad. I know most of the ops are kind of new and all, but god damn. You go into a room where they go over this long schpiel (....for a Scrambler) then you finally get on the thing and after they check your bar 3 times, it finally starts. Can't complain about the music choice (Fire on High by ELO) and the bizarre projections were interesting, but this is the second slowest Scrambler I've ever ridden (the SFNE edition runs in Grandma mode, I swear) and the building doesn't really get that dark. I remember liking PsychoDrome at Canobie a lot better. When it's over, they make everyone stand in a group before leading you through the exit (which is like 10 feet away) leaving you wondering where the last 45 minutes of your life went. Went up front to hit Dragon's Descent, an S&S turbo drop. 20 minute wait but thankfully this thing had way more normal load times than the rest of the park. It was 9:00 by then so headed back to Excalibur to finish with some night rides. The fireworks started at 9:30 so on my first ride they were going off to our,right while going up the lift. Rode in the front row of the back car which provided some great air on the first couple drops. This thing has Beast-style total darkness on most of the layout and the disorienting nature of the second half is really awesome at night. Had time for one more ride so rode in the second row and the first couple turnaround hills absolutely launch you to the stratosphere. Then you get a couple more ejector air moments and strong laterals all in total darkness. Just a damn good coaster and glad I finally got here to ride it. If only they could do something about the ~200 rider per hour throughput. Park was closed after that so headed out to the clusterf*ck of a parking lot which took 45 minutes to get out of. This place is worth visiting just for Excalibur alone. But the operations can be mind numbingly bad in some aspects and it was only made worse by a big holiday crowd. Hopefully they can kind of get that under control a bit. Canobie is a vastly better park but Excalibur blows away anything in that park. But if you're ever in northern NE, hit both in the same day!

Excalibur - Funtown Splashtown, Saco ME Decent coaster. Smooth enough. Couple airtime moments. Good laterals. The ops are a killer though. Only one train and god are they slow getting it loaded and checked. Will try for some rerides but tough to do on a holiday weekend.

It doesn't get more Jersey than the park's official IG using the hashtag #FIREAF.

Flew by SFNE on my flight back from Orlando!

Stopped in for a couple hours on our way to the airport. Only goals were to have lunch (since we had vouchers) and get a ride or,two on Mako. Had lunch at the place with the stage near the front. Was impressed that they gave you 3 huge chicken tenders, fries, a drink, and dessert for a food voucher here, whereas BGT gives you a slice of pizza and a drink and that's it. I'm glad Mako was my only real goal for coasters as Kraken was closed the whole time I was there (with a cherry picker near the cobra roll while I rode Mako) and Manta was closed the majority of the time with a train stuck on the lift (and people working on it) when we left. Didn't feel like walking back to Ice Breaker as I rode it multiple times a month ago. Speaking of Mako, thankfully was running two trains and maybe a 5 minute line. Got a couple backseat rides and this is the place to be. The first drop and first camelback are great back there. Unfortunately the rest of the ride is kind of lackluster (kind of similar to Candymonium in that regard) besides the speed hill, but still a ton of fun as all B&M hypers are. Only had a couple hours to kill there so after a trip through the Manatees, Dolphins, and Stingrays it was time to head out. Hope to be back when the new hotness opens up!

Picking up with the Cheetah Hunt ride, rode in back and as always a great ride. Even got the wife involved on that one, as well as our next stop, Cobra's Curse. I had QQ last time, so this was my first experience with the regular queue and it was fantastic! It is really well done (and air conditioned) and then you pop right out in the station. Quick 15 minute wait, and I love this thing. The theming is really fun and while the spinning aspect isn't much, it's just a really good family coaster. Hit Montu next door after a 3 train wait for the back (running 1 train but didn't really need a second) which was great as always. Best invert in the country that's not located in the state of Ohio. Had lunch at Oasis Pizza (where it's $14 a slice and you don't get a side...like WTF?) before making our way across the Serengeti to check out some wildlife and eventually Pantopia. Upon arrival at Scorpion, there was a "temporarily closed" sign at the entrance even though it was clearly running with people on it when I walked up. I stood there for a minute and some people walked past me, so I followed and walked onto the next train. Not sure what that was all about, but sure made the line short! Typical fun Anton ride, what more is there to say? Sign was gone when I walked back around. Got a pretzel next to the lifeless Falcon's Fury, then headed back into a 15 minute line for Kumba. Not that long, but the sun was beating on that front part of the line which sucked. Anyway, rode in back which was intense as ever and also had me immediately searching for the Tylenol guy because of the headache it gave me. Kumba was like "I'll show you a death roll! And also give your head a couple whacks in the corkscrews for good measure." Jumped on the flume next which had a 20 minute line (and boy does that line crawl...not quite Lake Compounce flume slow, but close) and upon cresting the first drop, a wave overcame the side of the boat and I got soaked from the waist down. Both splashdowns were acceptable wetness, but that wave had me regretting riding. Headed to Sheikra which had absolutely no line and rode in front. Saw dark clouds and some sprinkles on the lift, but didn't think anything of it. Ride was good, slight rattle in some of the valleys and for some reason this one doesn't quite click the way Griffon does to me. Upon hitting the brake run, we waited while they unfortunately unloaded the train in the station and then the train in front of us (WTF is the point of running 3 trains here?) So felt lucky to have gotten on the last train. Ducked into the gift shop while the quick and quiet storm blew through, then started walking back up front. Last time we were here, a storm hit about 3 hours before closing (just like this one) and they decided to not bother reopening anything. However, this time I was surprised to see Iron Gwazi start to test right as we were walking by! Ran up to the station and got on the 2nd train in back. We were lucky we did. At the top of the lift, a huge bolt of lightning very close followed by immediate crackling thunder much louder than any point during the storm occurred before we descended into crazy town. This ride felt much faster and wild than the earlier ones, probably due to the wet track. The booming thunder only served to add to the craziness. Once again, fortunate to get the last ride before the storm. This time I knew it would probably be a day ender. So we headed out and as the skies opened up we reached the tram shelter. We waited and waited, figuring they were just running it with 1 tram Six Flags style. A ton of people were behind us at that point. The rain started to let up and we got sick of waiting, so started walking. Once we popped out of the tunnel the skies opened up again and we got soaked. We also found the trams just sitting on that side chilling. WTF Busch Gardens...first off why would you stop running the thing anyway, and secondly why wouldn't you put up a sign or rope off the shelter? I just don't get this place. It has a great lineup of coasters, don't get that part wrong. But I just tell myself over and over that I can't believe it's the same park chain as Williamsburg. Having the Busch Gardens name sets a certain expectation, and I know they've had their issues but it's become a lower tier Six Flags experience. The food blows, the operations are awful, too many closed rides. Finished the day up the right way upon arrival back in Kissimmee. Bought an after 9 PM ride band at Fun Spot and took out my frustrations on some Florida drivers on the go karts. The track with the 32 degree banked turn is insane. So much fun to race these tracks and watch people wreck all over the place. Also got a few Mine Blower rides. Most of them were just me in the train so the ride ran much slower than my OMFG rides on it last month and kind of peters out in the back half. The storm ride on Iron Gwazi definitely blew it away, but it's still my 3rd favorite coaster in Florida. Glad to have gotten back to BGT after my very half assed day there last month, complete with almost passing out in a hot as balls 40 minute line at Zambia Smokehouse to get a soggy pulled pork sandwich. I wanted to give it a fair shot while having the energy to actually put in a full day. I love the coaster lineup and the selection of animals is pretty good (although something thst also exists close to me in Jersey) but otherwise this place really needs a kick in the ass to get itself to be as good as it should be. Otherwise, I just can't help but look at it as Six Flags America with animals and good coasters.

Maybe sometimes, but that was far from the only time I saw it there. Currently in line for Cheetah Hunt, running 1 station with 3 trains and they've been consistently waiting for the train to be sitting on the brake run before even opening the gates. And it's not a short ride. I havent seen a dispatch under 4 minutes yet. It has 16 f*cking seats. Just starts to drag on you after a while. Same reason I never go to SFNE more than twice a year even though it's 45 minutes from me...they operate like this too except on Superman. Actually sorry that was an accidental exaggeration. The screens here are in mm:ss. So a lightning fast 2:40 is the benchmark apparently.

Funny that the timers stop at 299 seconds. They could use more digits here. 40 minute line for 3 switchbacks. Anyway, got that coveted back seat ride that was the reason I travelled all the way back here. No doubt a better ride than the front with a few spectacular airtime moments. But I still can't help but feel a bit underwhelmed still, especially when people were putting it ahead of Steel Vengeance. I'm still not sure it's even the best coaster in the park. The death roll is incredibly overrated...basically just a high speed barrel roll and Kumba just laughs at it. Best moments are the last two airtime hills before the brake run. Park seems reasonably dead so should get a few rides on all the other essentials plus a few more here. Was going to stay till closing but I'm staying at the "Hotel Breakers of Old Town" (aka the Comfort Suites right next to Mine Blower) and I need to go get a few rides on the 2nd best coaster in Florida tonight.

At the airport now for my 1 day jaunt to Florida. Was also hoping Falcon's Fury would be open by now, but guess I shouldn't be surprised that 5 weeks later it's still not running. Just want to get a bunch of Gwazi laps in, hit the B&Ms/Cheetah Hunt a couple times, and then not bother going to Tampa again until this place shapes up a little bit (or adds something new). It's going to be murder seeing Universal tomorrow but not being able to go. Queue Times has looked pretty tame the last few weeks and usually in the 30-45 minute range for Gwazi so hopefully a good day tomorrow.

Beast Mountain Coaster - Killington, VT on Memorial Day. Despite being a diehard skier for 20 years, this was somehow my first mountain coaster. It was crazier and more of a laugh fest than I imagined it would be and I have to admit I hit the brakes a couple times! There's a good number of these in New England so I'll definitely be seeking them out. Don't have any pictures of the layout as it's totally in the woods, but theres a few pops of very unrefined airtime and some good turns with a pretty intense helix near the end. Summer skiing and then driving a quarter mile down the road to a coaster made for a great day!

Seems like a weird thing to just kind of...not announce. Sure $7 isn't much money and a lot less than seperate gate waterparks usually charge. But I can forsee a lot of disgruntled people and negative reviews being left.

I noticed a few flying around on my one ride 2 weeks ago. I'm surprised but not surprised that they haven't done anything to mitigate the situation. I'll be back in 3 weeks so it better be running, wasps or not lol.

I'm the last person to ever actually ride Rapids rides, but I found it kind of ridiculous that Infinity Falls AND the Rapids at BGT are both down for maintenance in May. Shouldn't that be a winter project?

Maybe Knoebels will have RMC convert Phoenix just to get people's heads to totally explode. I like Wildcat a lot more than Lightning Racer but neither one has a very inspired layout. Nor do many GCIs, IMO. Maybe RMC could do both at once

When I had my pretzel at BGT I had to keep looking down at the paper with the logos on it to remind myself I was actually at a Busch Gardens. They were decent, but I set my expectations way too high after BGW lol. Garden Gate not having food was pretty lame. Even worse was looking for an alternative to Zambia Smokehouse, then coming across a food place near the Log Flume which had a menu of...Chicken Fingers. That's it, that's all. Same chain as Williamsburg. Sure. Sure was hungry for convenience but BGT was more hungry to have me stand in a hot as balls 40 minute line instead.