DerekRx

Just a heads up for people coming from Philadelphia or New Jersey, etc who would normally take the PA Turnpike going by King of Prussia/Valley Forge...The Turnpike will be closed at midnight tonight until 5am Sunday morning between the King of Prussia/Valley Forge exit and Downingtown. This probably won't affect too many people, but for those of you who like to get there extremely early for breakfast or something, you will have to detour. See everyone tomorrow!

Maybe it's just my experiences, but just as recently as this past weekend I've seen groups of two on Hydra at Dorney (a floorless coaster) who rode together in the center 2 seats. Face it, some people just feel more secure with a track below them, regardless of the fact that the restraints are the same for all seats. Also, I know the renditions aren't always true, but these seats seem much closer together than on the recent B&M hypers, so maybe it won't matter as much to the groups as to who "gets punished and ousted" to the end seats. I'm just happy Hershey is getting another coaster, regardless of the fact that it looks to be sweeter than chocolate! And am I amongst the minority who is interested in this whole new area opened up for walking just because of Skyrush?!

The in-park event seemed to be pretty popular, even though Hershey released the information to 25 media outlets about an hour before the announcement in-park. The contest to be first riders begins today, runs through Aug 16, and information can be found at http://bit.ly/portal2012. Not much was explained at the event other than the video showing the stats, but they did say they will be releasing some FAQs about Skyrush in the next couple of days, so keep checking http://www.hersheypark.com/skyrush_2012/ for more details. I'm very excited about this ride, seems like a perfect ride for Hersheypark. Thanks to Hersheypark for doing the media event like this, as well as all the viral marketing! Comparing Skyrush to Comet

Steel Force at Dorney

Both Nagashima and Parque Espana look to be great parks, so I'll definitely have to go back for those, but Universal just looks way better than I thought! Thanks for sharing the pics, Hanno, can't wait to see the rest of the trip through your lenses, and especially excited for Disney (yes, I know it's going to make us all sad looking at them instead of being there).

Wooden Warrior at Quassy. Really fun, smooth, and with some nice moments of airtime! TPR Northeast Trip-goers will probably have a great time riding this in a few weeks!

A S&S 4-D would compete with Gardaland's non-flipping B&M 4-D, and could easily take the title of tallest 4D and most inversions, and I can't really see the park wanting to go with another launched coaster like Powder Keg when they just got a launched a few seasons ago (unless they're going with the Kings Dominion approach). I'm also in the group who would have preferred to see something else installed like a Plug and Play or some sort of hyper, but this will just draw the crowds away from Katun and iSpeed, and that would make me happy.

Maybe we can combine them into a tiger cub with a evil tiki mask on who loves to play jokes on people (who cares if the punchline is death!) and call him Chandiki? I'd carry him around with me everywhere!

Congrats on your desire, determination, and overall achievement! Definitely an amazing story. Hope to read a lot more trip reports of your adventures to parks all over the UK, and don't worry I'm sure Robb and Elissa will be planning a return trip across the pond to the UK or Europe some year soon. Worst case, there's always the fact that the US $ is crap compared to £ and you'll be able to afford a US trip in next to no time! Even if you can't do the full trip, maybe there will be a day or two where a park day will be opened to local members or something like that. Thanks for sharing your journey!

^^^They sell beer at DisneySea but not at Tokyo Disneyland, and it must be consumed within the area where it is purchased (ie: inside the restaurant, or on the pier in the case of the NY area of the park)

I'm angry that they brought out more Tower merchandise after our visit, but they probably did that because we bought up all the other stuff they had out!

Intimidator 305 and Volcano are the best 2 there, and they're also amongst the best in the country. Rebel Yell is pretty similar to Racer at KI, Anaconda is comparable to Vortex, and FOF is the same exact thing at both parks. Avalanche is the only Mack bobsled in all of North America, the other 2 woodies aren't horrible, and the standup will probably hurt. Plus you'll get the chance to say hi to some old rides from Geauga Lake like Dominator, the Ferris Wheel, and El Dorado. Richmond isn't too far to the south and DC about an hour to the north, so there's other things to do besides just the parks if your family so desires.

I'm guessing from your park options that you have some sort of Cedar Fair pass? If that's the case and the main reason for these, I would say Kings Dominion would be your best bet for amount and variety of rides, but is also probably the farthest away. If you have other options besides those 4 parks, Busch Gardens, Six Flags Great Adventure, Holiday World, Hersheypark or Kennywood all offer better coasters and are just a little bit farther away from your original destination options if not closer.

In my opinion, your on-ride video of Journey may just be your greatest contribution to mankind, unless KidTums grows up to be some awesome brewer or theme park chain president and demands that all parks in her chain add a Mega-lite and a Journey clone or invents time travel or finds the cure for stupidity or something along those lines. DisneySea is beyond amazing, and for as many pictures as I looked at before visiting, I was still completely blown away the moment I stepped foot in the place. Easily my favorite park on the planet with a great collection of rides, shows, restaurants, snacks, shops, and things to explore. The crazy part is it doesn't even have an amazing signature roller coaster, just a roller skater and a clone of another Disney coaster (which they managed to make better by magically transforming it to be less painful) but yet the park in no way screams "I need a good coaster!" like many other parks do. In a way I'm kinda glad the park doesn't have a great coaster, otherwise it would mean I'd have less time to dedicate to Journey, Tower, Sindbad, Indy, Aquatopia, etc! I can't wait to get back there, but until then I'll keep myself happy with the Journey hi-def POV, amongst the other videos. Thanks a bunch, can't wait to see the rest!

^If it still does that's the route I would definitely go. Gold Flashpass everything, wait for your ride time (if any wait) in the air conditioned Festhaus while enjoying a Shiner Bock. The only coaster that won't be on the Flashpass is the kiddie.

Galaxy Express 999 at Aqua Stadium. I wish I was there riding that weird thing again right now(heck, I'd even take Fuji-Q!) but instead I'll just have to finally watch the anime and try to figure out what the heck was supposed to be going on.

Back in late 1999/early 2000 SFA got approval from the county for several years rides, which at the time included a stand-up coaster, ferris wheel, and an indoor coaster (rumored to just be the park's old Python Arrow shuttle loop indoors). While never officially announced, there was also all the Astroworld rides that ended up at other parks; Ultra Twister to SFA, SLC to Great Escape (now at La Ronde), and Batman: The Escape to Darien Lake, and whatever that deal was with CGAs Shuttle Loop ending up in the parking lot at Discovery Kingdom for several years. Also IOA was supposed to get a jeep ride in Jurassic Park where Hogwarts now resides, and the ill-fated Unusual Driving Machines in Seuss Landing which was changed over to the Trolley. Oh, and DelGrosso's planned on rebuilding the Arrow Loop Screw from Libertyland but still hasn't done anything with it, other than supposedly putting it up for sale again.

Joey, thank you SO much for this report. And thanks especially for saving Tokyo Disneyland and Disney Sea for last, as those are my first destinations and just the site of them has my face hurting from the smile your pictures produced. While you're not on this trip with us, thanks to your updates we'll be thinking of you, especially when it's time to eat! Hopefully next year we'll be sharing in the trip fun together, wherever it may be!

I'm definitely excited to see how this ride turns out

Mmmmm, so many delicious looking food options. Hopefully I can remember at least a few of them since Joey and Amy won't be going with us! At least I have the iPhone app to help me find beer in Japan, and I'll definitely have to try the vending machine beer at least once. Looking forward to seeing your Tokyo Disney stuff, less than 2 weeks until I'm there!!

Yeah, I'm hungry for cinnamon bread too now. I guess I'll have to hold onto that craving until next year.

Great pics, Adam, looking forward to visiting in October. Much like Chuck and others, I've never even heard of the caverns, so thanks for pointing out something new I gotta check out next time. It sure seems more exciting than Tut's Tomb!

Joey, this is amazing and getting me so excited for all the new food and drink options (in addition to the parks which I've already been studying for years), so thanks for doing this for us. On the other hand, you suck for not going with us! I'll be sure to have some delicious mochi for you while I'm there.

I miss City Museum. My knees, on the other hand, do not...especially the hamster wheel and Jake. But man was that a fun day, even if it was hotter than the surface of the sun outside that day in St. Louis. I totally missed the vault room and the piano, and I'm sure a whole lot of other little cool quirks.

From what the GM said on Saturday, originally the plan was to have Mach Tower assembled and tested over in Italy and then taken apart and brought to Busch Gardens. But when they fell behind in manufacturing, they just decided to get the thing over here and assemble it from scratch at the park so as to not cut into too much of the season without the new ride, not to mention doing construction when the park is in daily operations mode. Sure it increases the risk of needing tweaking (which is what is happening now), but otherwise it would have taken even longer just to get it on site. He also said that the park president is hoping to have the new coaster (name he confirmed as Verbolten) ready for opening day next year, but the GM was pretty skeptical about that timeline.