thrillrider

Btw, part 1 of my trip report to six flags great adventure is right here.... http://themeparkreview.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=75949&start=50

It wasn't last weekend, but there was a few workers in there cleaning.

As long as it's not like the super 8 near kings island, you will be ok.

So our next park is six flags great adventure. We ended up spending nearly 3 days at this park, and never got bored. This park has a great selection of coasters and flat rides. There is also a really nice safari ride as well. With the exception of our first day at the park, the crowds were fairly light. This is exactly the reason I never purchase fast lane before arriving at a park. We never waited more than 10 min for a ride. Part of this had to do with the crazy hot weather. Someone said it was a heat index of 107. Even though we had a blast at this park, the heat took it's toll on us. After our time at this park, we decided to erase the last 3 days of our trip. The heat, plus blisters on our feet sealed the deal. This has to be one of our top 5 favorite coaster parks. The crews were hustling, the food selection was good, and the overall feel of the park is great. We were able to ride all the coasters multiple times, and also did the new cyborg ride. Here is our thoughts on the major rides... Nitro...always a great ride, one of my favorite hyper coasters. The back seemed to give more ejector air than the front. Batman...I love the Batman invert clones. Fun, and intense. Skull mountain...A fun indoor coaster. The back car was our favorite as is whipped you over the first drop. The air conditioning was a huge bonus as well. Dark knight... A fun indoor mouse type ride. This ended up being my son's first "bigger" coaster and he loved it. The joker...This joker ride was the last of this type of ride in the states that I had yet been on. It did not disappoint. We got multiple flips. El toro... Still one of my top 5 coasters after all of these years. Still running great, with loads of airtime. I did notice a few rough spots in the track, but did not notice them every ride...weird. Kinda ka....Did they do some work on this Ride? Last time I rode it, it was bumpy. This time around, it was pretty smooth. Always a fun ride. Bizzaro...A decent floorless coaster with some fun theaming. Superman ultimate flight...Im not a huge fan of flying coasters, but really enjoyed this one. Got to experience this ride durring the coke party. Green lantern....My least favorite kind of coaster. I rode this coaster a few years back and thought it was ok, but had to skip it this time around due to a foot issue. Runaway mine train...Only did this coaster once...that was enough. Harley Quinn.... fairly tame coaster, but fun. This ride must have the world's longest coaster train. Road runner railway...ouch is all i can say about this kiddy coaster. It was also the only coaster where I was told that I could not wear my glasses on(even with straps). Cyborg....interesting ride. We had a good ride with roughly 15-20 flips. Not as nauseating as I thought it was going to be. Sky swings...only rode once, but was able to experience it durring the fireworks! Safari....We were really impressed with the job they did with this attraction. It was almost on par with the safari at animal kingdom. The ranger station stop in the middle of the ride would have been more enjoyable if it wasn't 100 degrees out, and we didn't have to wait a long time to get back into the truck after our visit. Zoomanjaro... My new favorite drop ride. Omg! The only down side is the super long walk to get to it. With that said, onto the pictures.... Our home for the next 3 days. Front entrance gates On the main midway, looking right at the joker coaster. Our first stop was the golden kingdom to check out the safari. Made good use of our skip the line pass. The trucks are nearly identical to the safari trucks at Disney's animal kingdom. Here are just a few of the shots I took on the safari. Right next to the safari ride, it the log flume. With the weather, we ended up riding this multiple times. First time on one of these Nice light package It's bark is worse than it's bite. El diablo Bad ass sign! The parachute tower was a favorite of my kids. History and stuff.... Best coaster on the east coast! I bet nobody else has this shot. Remenants of the racing coaster still remain under el toro. Lots more coming from six flags great escape.

Just curious... I see a lot of people giving the park hell for only running 1 train on the coasters(as they should). But several other parks do the same thing, and nobody bats an eye. Why? A few examples would be... Great escape Frontier city Wild adventures Kentucky kingdom

^ Thank you! The next park will be up tommarow.

After multiple rides over 3 days I ended up with huge bruises on my thighs from SV, I figured it's because I'm fat and I have fair skin that bruises if I sneeze wrong. Wouldn't stop me from getting right back on it though! This is probably why I didn't like it nearly as much as everyone else. I think it was a bit too much against the grain for me. Felt a lot like bull riding! Nobody said he was to blame for the(supposed) decline in attendance. But nice twist on words. I believe the conversation was about Canadian visitors.

^Our president has not made it very apitizing for Canadians to visit either.

I agree! We could have spent all day there.

Adventureland in Iowa charges for water as well.

The crowds were pretty heavy. We had to wait roughly 15 min in line for wooden warrior, and maybe 2 cycles for the flat rides. There were a lot of people milling around. They also had a band playing out on the water, and that area was buisy as well. We never made it into the waterpark, but it seemed quite buisy. Frantic looked like fun, but my belly wasn't 100% so I passed

Our next park was quite a treat. Quassy park was a great little park that had a fun selection of rides. We scored big, as we were visiting on a Friday night and the park was offering 50 cent ride tickets. I really enjoyed the mix of old school rides and new rides. Wooden warrior was a fun coaster with probably the most comfortable restraints on any coaster I have been on. Why don't more coasters utilize this style of train and restraints? The park was buisy, but the ride crews kept the lines moving. This is a park that I would definitely stop by again in the future. There was a guy walking around in a quassy polo shirt and walkie talkie that I assumed was the owner. He was engaged with people, and really seemed to care about the park. I'm not sure about the history of the park, but it seems to have been around for a while. This park has a ride that I passed on because it looked like a puke inducing torture device. More on that later. We did not get there untill it was starting to get dark, so I apologize if the pictures seem a little dark. This afternoons entertainment is brought to you by... So...with our 50 cent tickets in hand, where would we go first? Lots of choices Love a non corporate midway. Our first stop. Was really looking forward to riding this, and it was as much fun as I imagined it would be. Rules and stuff We were loving the signs while in line. Fun ride. It just shows you that a coaster does not have to be 500 feet tall to be fun. Cumfy seats! Reverse time is the parks newest addition, and a lot of fun to boot. Under Over This park is home to many rides. Let's take a look at some of them. Old school slide Beautiful carousel This is the one ride I had to skip. It had puke machine written all over it. Inside the carousel house, they had a model of wooden warrior. Wooden warrior was not the parks only coaster. Quassy is also home to a classic Allen hershal(sp?) Kiddy coaster. Took the kids on this, and they loved it. This park had plenty of rides for the little ones as well. The yoyo had a beautiful light package. Music fest Classic Bumper cars The tilt a whirl lights were so bright, it was hard to get a clear picture. From a distance Every time I walked by the paratrooper, it was loading. A night shot of the slide Stairs to the top of the slide. Sunset Is this a new slide or something? It was on display in an office window. Crazy cups Didn't go into the waterpark. But here is one of the slides from the parking lot. It was good to see buisy midways at this family run park. They even have a playground for the kids to burn off some energy. Thats all from quassy. Hope to return here again in the future. Next park is coming up soon...

I should clarify that not "all" employees were miserable, but a large percentage of them were. As far as the weather goes, the radar was clear after the single rain storm passed. They closed the park at 3pm. We left at 2:30 to go see a movie nearby since the park was closing. We got out of the movie at roughly 5:30, and the sun was blazing with not a cloud in the sky. It remained that way for the rest of the day and evening. It was because of crowd size, not weather. I totally get the height restriction thing, however this park was the most anal about this that I have ever seen. Holding up the line to measure people to make sure they were not too tall, and what seemed to be lower height requirements than any other park I have been to. They even had height sticks that were like 8 feet tall that they were measuring people with. I don't ever recall this in the hundreds of parks I've been to. Just seemed weird. I did visit guest services on the way out about the safety issue. I do have to mention that we have only had maybe 2 bad park experiences in the past 10 years of hitting multiple parks every summer. This was one of those 2. Very rarely do I ever complain at a park services, but the whole safety issue with the water ride was important. At the same time, there have been multiple times I have visited a parks guest services window and complimented a park worker or crew for a great job. If you don't stop and let the management know about how well a worker or crew is doing, they will most likely never be rewarded for there hard work.

Photo Trip report of the park here.... http://www.themeparkreview.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=75949&start=30

I just posted a trip report from the park here... http://www.themeparkreview.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=75949&start=40

More pictures! Batman knight flight. This is a fairly short coaster. More lift hill porn. Station shot. We hopped into some air conditioning to check out this 80's show. Decent show. I wonder how much is cost them to put in an elevator? I failed to get a picture of the mouse coasters sign. They did a good job theaming the cars. They were all theamed to a different villain. We ended up riding in the scarecrow car. The riddler revenge. Seems like they are missing an S at the end of riddler. This is a standard slc, but with much better restraints. I really did enjoy this ride. It was like a mini steel vengeance. RMC is by far my favorite manufacturer out there. Station shot For some reason, I am missing some shots of this coaster. So here is blizzard river running and dispatching without any ride operators. None over here either The parks spinning coaster. This one was spinning like crazy. So yea...just about every ride was closed, even though the rain was over and no lightning anywhere near the park. The joker coaster. I really do like tgese coasters, even though they are on the short side. Station shot Catwomans whip Station shot The thunderbolt. It was hard to get a good shot of the thunderbolt, as it was behind trees and buildings. The great chase kiddy coaster The kids really enjoyed this one. The park has a huge star flyer ride. I believe it was 400 feet tall. That's all from this park. Quassy park is next up.

Pictures.. Six flags new England It seems that more parks are starting to use a large paper map now, instead of the brochure style maps. Not a fan of this new style. Our first stop was Houdini. The pre show area. You watch a short film on Houdini that sets of the attraction. The show/ride area. Superman. This ride has the potential to be a top ten coaster on my list, but the restraints ruin this ride. Lift hill porn. Lots of airtime...and lots of bruises from the restraint. Lots of twistyness. Station shot Apparently, I was too tall to ride this Harley Quinn ride. I'm loving the light package. Ride entrance Plenty of clearance Fun ride! The one good thing I can say about this park, was the food variety and portion size. I couldn't even finish this salad. Goliath has been one of the hardest credits for me to score. The last day we were at the park, I was finnaly got the chance to ride. After all the anticipation, the ride was just meh... The teacups seemed to be a popular ride. This was another ride with great theaming at the park. Flashback is the parks boomerang coaster. They had a weird policy that the back of the train had to be loaded. I did see more loony tunes here, than any other six flags park. The justice league is the place to be if you want to meet your favorite DC superhero. Lots more pictures coming up tonight from six flags new England.

The next park up, was unfortunately the worst park on our trip. This is a park I have not been to in a while, and was really looking forward to returning as I had good memories of the park. Unfortunately, six flags New England really let us down as far as operations and employees go. This park has some of the weirdest rules, and some major safety violations. Here are just a few examples... 1. This is the only park I have been to that they have maximum height requirements that are so low, and they enforce them religiously. I got denied access to the krypton ride(wipeout type ride) that I have had no issue riding anywhere else in the world. 2. The weather policy. We were there at park opening knowing that rain was in the forecast. However, a one hour rain storm should not shut down the park for the day. After the rain cleared out, it was sunny and hot the rest of the day. They closed the park at 3pm, an hour before you can use your dinning pass. Being that the crowds were light that day, I'm guessing that they were using the rain storm as an excuse to close early. 3. Safety... This is one that is just totally unacceptable to me, and you would think that it would be to them as well. The water rapids ride was running with the entrance wide open. So just like many other people, we made our way to the ride station to get on. That's where we were greeted by a ride running on its own with NO EMPLOYEES anywhere. People were actually getting into the ride, and once realizing that no employees were around, they got out just before the ride was dispatched. Anybody could have taken a ride or fell into the water, and nobody would know. So I contacted the parks security on the phone in the line, and told them the situation. They sent a security guard over to the ride, and he was at a loss of words as to why this was happening. This is where it really got interesting. So he contacted a rides supervisor on his radio and explained what was going on. It took nearly 15 minutes for someone to show up. The only explanation she had was "there was a chain blocking the entrance, and someone must have removed it". Seriously...a chain? Chain or no chain, why was this ride running with nobody around? A chain is not going to stop anybody like a child from entering the ride area and falling into the water. She also claimed that they let the ride run, because otherwise they have to Estop the ride and it's hard to restart the ride after. That's total BS. Even the security guard was questioning the rides supervisor about the safety factors of letting a ride run with nobody around. After a short talk with the ride supervisor that had no answer other than "sorry", she recommended that we visit park services on the way out of the park. I did that, and the only response I got was a half hearted "we will look into it". 4. Rude employees. Unlike the other six flags parks we visited, the employees here all seem to be in pissy moods. None of them greeted us at any time, and all seemed unhappy. 5. Ride clenleness. There were several incidents of dirty ride stations and areas, but one that stood out to me was thunderbolts station. Tgere was garbage just laying everywhere. In one area, you can tell the trash had been sitting there for quite a while as it was mixed with leaves from last fall. 5 minutes with a broom could have made a huge difference. 6. Closed kiddy rides. Why do they close the kiddy rides so early? I can understand closing them early on late night closings, but not at 8pm. And the one day it rained in the am, and were told that several of them can't run because it rained? Sounds like a budget move to me. The bus ride, frog hopper, car ride, and trucks were all closed. Anyways...I'll be posting lots of pictures today...stay tuned

Working on the next update....

Thank you! Here are some more pictures from the great escape. In case I forgot to mention it in the first set of pictures, this park has a lot of charm. Flashback Station shot Right twix or left twix? This is the parks drop/shot tower. Another one of the parks many spinning rides. This is the star of the show. Station shot It was hard to get a decent shot of this coaster, as the walkway next to the ride was blocked. Time for a look at the parks charm. There is plenty of charm on the train ride This park has a decent log flume ride. Waited for a log, but no luck The ghost town section is nicely theamed. Ended the day at the park with a beer in the alpine festhouse. That's it from the great escape. Stay tuned for the next park(and worst park) of the trip.

The rest of great escape will be up tonight.

Thank you. The next park was great escape. It's been probably close to 10 years since I have been to this park. Not much has changed since then, except for the addition of a couple of spin and puke rides. This park is perfect for familys with children, and pre teens. They are not really known for being a big coaster park. As a matter of fact, they have not received a new coaster since my last visit years ago. The coaster collection is kinda bland, except for the comet. The park seems to have a nice water park, but I really did not explore too much of it. One day is plenty of time to spend at this park. We hit up all the coasters(except for the closed bobsled), plus the log flume and a bunch of spinning rides. Tge park closes fairly early as well. You may be able to add another day of you plan on doing the waterpark. Here is my thoughts on the major rides... Flashback This was a typical boomerang coaster that was not quite as bad as others I have been on. Beyond that, nothing much to report other than it's a boomerang... Steaming demon Nothing too exciting. A typical arrow corkscrew ride with a loop and two corkscrew. Seemed to be well takin care of. The comet Amazing coaster! Lots of air time, smooth, and just a lot of fun. The train actually speeds up at the top of the lift. This coaster is tucked away in the rear of the park, but it's a must ride coaster. Alpine bobsled This is an old intiman bobsled coaster that according to a worker, has ran a total of 5 days this year. I was able to snag this credit years ago, but no luck on this trip. Cool looking ride. Canyon blaster This is an short arrow mine train that basicly consists of two back to back helexes. This coaster came from opryland years ago. Frankies mine train coaster This is a small kiddy coaster. Nothing much to this ride other than a drop, a helix, and a turn into the station. I was able to credit white this coaster with my son. Other than the coasters, the only other "notable" rides are the log flume, blizzard, boat ride, Condor, and train ride. The park is beautiful and very well kept. The rides all seemed to be in tip top condition as well. The Himalaya ride still had all of its theaming and lighting. Most parks remove a lot of that type of thing over time. The only real problem I can see with this park(besides the lack of a new coaster) was that all of the coasters are single train operations. This could be bad on a buisy day. Onto some pictures... Today, we are at great escape If you don't believe me, just look at the sign. Inside the gates, they have a charming main street area. Speaking of charm, this park has lots of it. This is the parks newest ride. It was actually a lot of fun. The blizzard is an indoor scrambler ride. The ride has music and lightning while in motion. Cedarpoint...please take note of how a Himalaya is supposed to look. First coaster we headed to was closed. Cool looking ride. Did I mention that this park has lots of charm? This was a walk thru attraction. Here are a few shots of Alicia in wonderland This is the parks kiddy coaster The condor is a fun ride that the whole family can ride together. Next coaster is the parks arrow corkscrew This coaster is really visible from the parking lot. Station shot Did I mention that this park has lots of charm? One of the parks unique features are these little houses all around the park. The kids can go inside every single house. The canyon blaster is the parks mine ride coaster. Not sure why, but I did not take many shots of this coaster. Station shot Lots more coming from the great escape...stay tuned!

They do, as does basically every other park in America. Except for adventureland in Iowa. They charge you for the cup. I couldn't believe that they were charging for a cup of ice water on a 95 degree day last summer.

I would not expect a preview night from SFMM for a flat ride that belongs at a carnival. Actually, I might but...really, who cares? Not shocked at all. Put that dumb ride out of its misery with a fire burndown. Or let Intamin plug-n-play the track, or just give RMC $10 Mill to make it better. That ride has been through so much and just sucks. Wow... Mr. Positive

Ok...here it is. This year's version of the MEGA COASTER TRIP got off to a ruff start and end.we ended up missing out on seabreeze park due to traffic and time, and we missed out on canobie park due to storms in the area. The tail end of the trip was axed after spending 3 days is 100 degree weather, and by acquiring a few large blisters on my foot. The hot weather was just too much to continue on for another 3 days, so we missed out on sfa, kd, and Busch. No worries, as we plan on returning to these parks in the near future. With that being said, we had a great time for the most part. Ill start the trip report off with our first stop at Niagara falls. The plan was to do niagra falls and hit up seabreeze park after. Well, we ended up not getting out of the falls till around 7, and then running into a major accident on the way to seabreeze park. So we decided to not bother with seabreeze park, because we would have only had 45 min or so in the park. So here is the first leg of the trip...Niagra falls. This was our first time visiting the falls, and were just blown away. We started the experience with a trip on the maid of the mist. It's just not possible to grasp the sheer size of the falls without going on the boat ride. After the boat ride, we walked around the falls to grab some pictures. We ended our day at the falls with dinner at hard rock cafe. We are ready to get wet. You get up and close with the American side of the falls. They also bring you really close to the Canadian falls as well. The face says it all! A few more random shots from the falls. We ended the Niagara falls part of the trip with dinner at the hard rock.