The Bebes

Thanks so much for all the kind words everybody! These TRs really take a lot longer to assemble than we expected they would, so it's nice to know that we are ACTUALLY entertaining and informing people! More to come this week (Dorney Park w/ Big Mike, Pittsburgh & New Jersey!) Also, we have made links on the first page of the thread so you can jump right to the TR page. Thanks a bunch! -The Bebes

^^^Lenaapple1974, I'm sorry to hear that you traveled so far to come away empty-handed! I thought that I remembered seeing a post that someone had found it, it was hard to find again because there isn't a photo, but it was posted, on pg. 357 And, for those who think it's unfair to collect more than one Mikestery Card (we have two ourselves), I must disagree. The rules of the game clearly state that it is in our best interest to find as many as we can! Rules on pg. 260

HPCrazy, The rain itself didn't really bother us. It was the closing of the rides that was frustrating (something we had to seal with almost every day of our trip). And even more frustrating when Customer Service gives out incorrect information. But the Prairie Dogs were all over the place. There were dozens of them! Even cute little babies. We must've spend 20 minutes at that little exhibit. Here's a few more shots.

Jim S, I think you're right. I generally dislike wild mouse rollercoasters and overall wish they didn't exist. They did use the trims only at the first and lost hills as you mentioned. Maybe Hershey Park's Wild Mouse wasn't as bad as I am remembering. But when you hate so many Wild Mice, it's hard to remember which ones you hated the most!!! The part that sucks for me is the biginning, where you are painfully crushed against your partner throughout the hairpins. Ugh! And to make it worse, they often seem to have the worst capacity, and generally not worth their wait. -Mr. Bebe

Day 4: Hershey Park Thursday May 28, 2009 We woke up early today with plans of going to Hershey Chocolate World at 9am before the park opened at 10am. Lady Bebe was feeling a bit better, but still had somewhat of a soar throat and a bit of a headache. Of coure, THAT won't stop Lady Bebe. She's so hardcore! Yesterday at Knoebel's she got a headache while riding Twister. There were no beverage stands open nearby, so she tried swallowing some Excedrin WITHOUT any liquids, so she wouldn't have to stray too far from the ride. She failed... hacking up the half dissolved pill. She then headed toward the bathroom and luckily found a water fountain. We jumped back on Twister. And another first for our trip: We didn't wake up to rain!!!! Although afternoon showers are in the forecast. We checked out of the Red Carpet Inn (ugh!) and headed out to Hershey Park!!!! Fairwell Hershey!!! We're off to Allentown where we will be spending tomorrow with Big Mike at Dorney Park!!! Once again, we were closing down the park. That's our rental car all alone in the parking lot. Overall, we had a great time at Hershey Park. A huge park, very pretty, clean, with nice employees & a great lineup of rides, albeit a few bad ones. No rain until the last hour and we managed every credit they had to offer, despite Guest Relations repeated attempts to foil us!!!! We ran back around and then got 3 consequtive rides without having to get off before it started sprinkling again, and they stopped the ride. It was 5 minutes til closing and we were the second train waiting in the rain to get into the station, so that ended our day. And this was the only picture we ever got of Fahrenheit!!! We saw Fahrenhet was reopen and rushed over. We got a quick ride in the very front with no wait and then one in the very back. The BACK is where it's at!!! You get whipped over the top of the 97 degree drop and thrown from your seat, meeting back up with it at the bottom. Super fun. We wasted some time on flat rides. The Claw was fun. Hershey's Flyers cement why Knoebels are so great. And Hershey's bumper cars were horrible and painful. A young girl was sent off with whiplash and a bloody nose!!!! We waited about 5 minutes, but after seeing Fahrenheit crest its hill across the park, we vacated the Stormunner line and headed for Fahrenheit. By the time we got there, it too was closed. Damn you Guest Relations!!!!! ...but two trains before we were to get on it started sprinkling outside and STORM RUNNER stopped running. Oh, the irony!!! BTW, Guest relations LIED!!!! It was a light sprinkle that shut STORM RUNNER down IMMEDIATELY. Why do they LIE??!!! Next up was a 45 minute wait for the front seat on StormRunner. A much better ride in the front compared to our center-train ride yesterday. Great airtime over the first hill and fun throughout, though the launch feels a bit weak. Lady Bebe didn't get a karate chop this time, but Mr. Bebe did!!! We hopped back in line to get a ride on the very back... We made our way back to Sidewinder, the boomerang we had passed up earlier. No more line, but Whoop-de-doo!!!! By far the WORST and ROUGHEST boomerang we've ever rode. One ride was one too many on this Piece Of Shhh! Hershey's old wooden coaster, Comet was sort of Blah. Rode front and back and it just didn't do anything for us. Hey, there it goes right behind us!!!! SooperDooperLooper is a Schwartzkopf looper much like Revolution at SFMM except for a few minor differences: NO OTS restraints and NO Trim Brakes!!!! It twists through Great Bear and is everything Revolution should (and probably used to) be!!! Good Fun!!! Front & Back. On our way to SooperDooperLooper, Mr. Bebe stopped for a quick game of WHACK - A - MOLE. Ouch!!! There's the fish and the chips (fries if you're not British) Stopped at this place next to Great Bear for some fish n chips. However, Lady Bebe found the Great Bear "pre-ride show" frightening!!! But Great Bear was Great Fun! A solid B&M Invert (front and back). Mr. Bebe says the sportscars were Super Sucky!!!!! Then we rode the antique cars and sportscars. AND the other side of the park too!!! Feeling bad for the old man, Lady Bebe got a park overview pic of the Great Bear / Comet Hollow area. This guy never opened his eyes or moved from this position for the entire ride! I kid you not!!! Noted. Lips moistened, Check. Puckered up, Check. We're ready to Ride!!!! Upon returning to the park, we got on our favorite ride in the whole park, The Kissing Tower!!!! Mr. Bebe reached over to pet "Friendly" and he was scratched up and bitten! Friendly. This prairy dog wanted to make friends, so we named him "Friendly". And you can get up close to this Alligator! There was this awesome pig-nosed turtle. It's a turtle because it lives in water, whereas a tortoise lives on land, in case you didn't know. Being mid-day and lines seemingly at their greatest, what better time to peel off and check out some animals at ZooAmerica. A Huge chocolate deer stands out front of the Zoo America entrance, and Mr. Bebe isn't afraid of it! Next, we made our way up a hill and rode this Falcon flat ride. Quite fun and positioned to give you an awesome view of the park. Our next credit: Trailblazer. An old arrow runaway mine ride & (in my opinion) a very very lame one. But it was a walk-on. A nice view of a river that Stormrunner passes over. By this time, as we approached StormRunner, the line was really long. Sidewinder (Boomerang) also had a long line, so we passed up the area and headed on. Since we had our rain gear with us, Mr. Bebe sacrificed himself to a waterbomb in the name of good photos. Bombs Away!!!! On Rollersoaker, you travel the course while nasty little brats shoot water at you from below. Of course, you are equipped with a single water bomb to drop on those little brats! Sounds fun enough & we braved it. And didn't get too wet either! Lame coaster, but fun concept. We made our way through the Boardwalk water park area toward RollerSoaker, unsure if we really wanted to get this WET credit. We grabbed some pierogies on our way to Lightning Racer. Half of them were still frozen. Even though we got 4 rides on Lightning Racer the night before, we hadn't rode together yet. So, with walk-ons abundant we grabbed 3 more laps. This is a really fun dueling coaster with a different winner everytime. 8/10 Next up: Mild Mouse. Nice creative sign on this one (sarcasm detected). WTF! The Ride: SUCKED. One of the worst wild mouses. One and done here, as it deserves the lame signage. Our first ride of the day: Wildcat. And with such a nifty sign, Lady Bebe couldn't help but put on her best Wildcat Pose! As for the ride, walk-ons for the back and front and just OK. Not terrible but nothing to brag about either. We got into the park and tried to get ahead of the crowd. As we passed Fahrenheit, it looked to have an hour long wait already. We continued on toward the rear of the park. After some shopping in the Hershey Chocolate World store, we walked outside to a sight that makes Mr. Bebe's blood boil: SCHOOL BUSES and tons of kids! It goes through the entire process from picking beans to packaging. And at the end, you get a free Fun Size Hershey Bar!!! YUMMY!!!! The tour was full of COWS. Apparently, "it's all about the milk!" Milk Chocolate, Hershey's Milk Chocolate! The factory tour was sort of a dark ride, in these cars. We only planned on doing the FREE Chocolate Tour, since we'd heard the other attractions were lame and not worth their price. We got to Hershey Chocolate World around 9:15am. Although there wasn't any rain, there WAS a lot of fog. As we made our way through the quaint town of Hershey, we noticed these: STREETLIGHTS that look like Kisses! Awwwww.

Wow, that scad tower looks soooooo fun, you are one brave man Big Mike!! We're so happy to see that you're having such a good time!

^Alpengeist, Please tell me you haven't been on The Voyage, and if not.... Get your A$$ to Holiday World!!!

I (Mr. Bebe) have to agree with coolcalicoasters. Not only does S:TE only ascend to about 325ft (on a good day), it also starts a good 50 feet above ground level. Hardly the ride they make it sound like. TTD and KK are truly 400+ foot monsters that actually carry the passengers to those extremes. Now, if S:TE mnaged to get people near the top, that would be another story.

You are very welcome STR8FXXXINGEDGE, and thank YOU for reading and the kind words! Much appreciated.

Apparently, the quicker you can click the right answer, the more points you earn. Mr. Bebe gets 263 and 15/15 correct.

MR. Bebe got 250 on my third try. That's a perfect score.

^OMG! Red Carpet wasn't THAT bad for us, but probably not a place I would stay again. AND... NOT the worst of our trip. Keep following to find out who wins that honor.

^^Alpengeist, Curious what your #1 woodie is..... ^DrJazzDDS, You are 100% correct. We DID stay at the Red Roof Inn Danville, and I might not be comfortable recommending it. While not a total pit, it was pretty run down and one of the least enjoyable places we stayed (in Mr. Bebe's opinion). Also, the Red CARPET Inn Hershey was bad too.

I quite enjoyed the theming and pre-show of Dark Knight (at SFGAdv), but found the build up to be much better than the lame standard wild mouse in (sort of) darkness. It would've been better as a Spinning Mouse (ala Exterminator at Kennywood). -Mr. Bebe

Day 3: Knoebel’s Wednesday May 27, 2009 We woke up ready to visit a small park called Knoebel's for the first half of the day, then around 4pm we would head out to Hershey Park for "preview night". Hopefully we'll have a nice day without rain and hit the highly touted Phoenix. Lady Bebe and a Reece’s Cup give a thumbs up to a quick hour of “preview” at Hershey Park. After closing down the park, we headed to Applebee’s where we were almost too pooped to even eat. Got to the hotel around 10pm and fell asleep right away. Lady Bebe slept very poorly and was fearful that she may had caught a bug and was worried about not being able to have a good time the next day. TO BE CONTINUED.... Who thinks Mr. Bebe looks like this frog??? Another packed queue line as you can see, so we went on separate trains. once in the front and once in the back, then switched trains and did it again, front and back. Four rides in prime seats and the only time we actually left the station was to switch trains. Then we went to Lightning Racer. Next was Fahrenheit. Again, a walk-on somewhere in the middle. Loved it. Thought it was better than Stormrunner. Across the way Mr. Bebe saw Stormrunner crest its’ hill. Stormrunner had been out of operation all season so we heading right for it. We walked on and rode somewhere in the middle. It was OK fun, except for the karate chop to the neck towards the end. We planned on leaving by 4pm so we could make our way to Hershey Park and take advantage of their “preview night” from 5:30pm-8pm, but didn’t even leave Knoebel’s til 5:30pm. It's a much bigger park than anticipated with TONS of flat rides. Great fun at a great park! We arrived at Hershey Park around 7pm. We didn’t have to pay for parking and got into the park to find NO ONE there. We asked customer service which rides might close due to rain, so we could get them done tonight, as rain was in the forecast for tomorrow. They said unless it was a downpour, all the rides would continue to operate. Mr. Bebe illegally eats a hot dog in the NO DOGS ALLOWED area, and the Bebes are ejected from the park. We finished our day on the “Best Bumper Cars”. And they were!!! Mr. Bebe LOVED the bumper cars. They were fast, slippery and super fun. With a little practice you could clip someone and send them into a nice 360 spin. Not one to disappoint, Lady Bebe stole the sign for Mr. Bebe. While Lady Bebe rode the Carousel, I talked to this Hot Babe (She says “Hi” to Big Mike). And Lady Bebe got the Brass Ring!!!! It was her second time around on her first ride. She received a ticket for $1 worth of rides (or a free ride on the Carousel) for grabbing the brass ring. But we had unlimited hand stamps, so it was just a nifty souvenir to take home. It was starting to get a little late so we headed toward Knoebel’s classic carousel. This 1912 hand carved masterpiece is the only carousel I’ve ever been on (or seen for that matter) where you lean off your horse to grab rings as it circles around, hoping to be the lucky one to “Grab the Brass Ring”. We ran around for another ride. Not ones to wait for much of anything, we took the first available seat near the front, row #3. The ride was even BETTER in lane 3. No seat belts on this ride, just a loose lap bar that crosses at the top of the car. Phoenix starts with a very long and unexpected tunnel run toward the lift hill. Then Phoenix sends you through a DOZEN or more hills that send you into the air like none other. On several occasions, the person on the right hand side of the car would come down on top of the seat divider (that’s like 6-8 inches high itself). After the train pulled into the station we both looked at eachother and exclaimed “Seat 3!!!!”. What a truly special ride this is, if only because of the lack of seat restraints and multiple instances of ejector air. We rode 3 or four more times in row 3! Also noticed it rode better with a full train than it did with a rather empty train. Never-the-less, we rode again. We wanted to make it a point to try every roller coaster at lease once in the back and at least once in/near the front. So we waited a few trains for the front seat, snapping this snazzy lift hill photo. And the ride was…. OMG!!! Completely different!!! Crazy ejector air time and super fun!!!! Lady Bebe jumps for joy!!! We got in and hopped right into the back seat with only a one train wait. And the ride was….. eh….. just all-right. Not sure what all the hype is about. PHOENIX IS OPEN!!!!! On to the Antique Car ride and …. What’s that behind the trees??? Is it???? Could it be???? Lady Bebe snaps this winning shot of Mr. Bebe on Wipeout. It was on this particular ride on Wipeout that we noticed the program of the ride was totally different that the one at Waldameer. This one was long, intense, and did things that Waldameer’s didn’t even come close to. So, don’t judge a Wipeout by its cover. Another weird old ride at Knoebel’s was the Looper. A sort of head-over-heels rolling cage ride where the heavier person (Mr. Bebe in this case) controls a foot pedal while timing the roll of the cage to keep it rolling. Mr. Bebe screams for his life as the Flyer spins, whips, and pops around. After the ride ended, the flyer was still swaying a lot. I expected the ride op to come around and settle the Flyers, but he just stood there. We had to stick our foot out of the Flyer and drag it across the ground until it came to a stop before letting ourselves out. So weird & NEVER at a Cedar Fair or Six Flags. Next up were Knoebel’s famed Flyers. With just a small leather strap and a none-to-interested ride op, these rickety old things didn’t seem too safe. The Flyer was Lady Bebe’s favorite flat ride at the park, totally scary and dangerous…and great! Everyone takes a picture of the Golden Bolt, so we did too. With our new wealth of information, we headed to Twister, where Mr. Bebe used his magical sign grabbing technique to twist and bend the Twister sign. Twister was a relatively fun ride with some very interesting elements (weird double lift hill) and some good lateral G’s with moments of out-of-control feelings. Not exceptionally GREAT, but a decent ride non-the-less. We rode three consecutive times (all walk-ons). Best ride came in the front seat. They remain optimistic and hopeful citing Fourth of July as a target date to open. A new design of train is being worked on as we speak. THESE trains are already DEFUNCT. He said not to listen to all the rumors about the Flying Turns. The biggest problem they’ve had, and what is currently holding up opening, is that Knoebel’s wants to operate Flying Turns with a 5-car train (for capacity). The long trains are slinkying and banging cars as they make the course run. He said the train runs the course perfectly with up to three cars on a train. We didn’t get the workers name and he didn’t want his picture taken (though we got shots of the other workers), and he mentioned that he used to work with Dinn Corp and GCI. More wood and stuff for current use. Some wood and stuff under tarps. A newly refurbished trough section. A shot through the beams. Then someone got our attention. A worker on the site invited us to step right into the middle of the construction for some prime photos and some insider Q & A!!!! And a set of train cars that were left uncovered during the rain. That cant be good for them. We got some pics of the Flying Turns. Oh, this paper answers all of our questions. We walked over to the very vertical Flying Turns. It was also closed. “But Why???!!” Lady Bebe exclaims. Dejected, Mr. Bebe wanted to drown his sorrows with food, but apparently, NO DOGS ALLOWED means Mr. Bebe’s shirt was banned from the premises. Mr. Bebe cried too. …until we walked up to Phoenix. Still Closed. And Lady Bebe cried. We were clowning around and having a great time at Knoebels... Kozmo hold Lady Bebe's portrait We had some portraits taken, and Kozmo was kind enough to hold them up so we could get a snapshot to share with all. This sign was outside the Haunted Mansion, and we couldn’t help but think a similar sign should be out front of Terminator: Salvation (see trip kickoff report pg.3 for SFMM). We headed over to the Haunted Mansion and coughed up the extra $1.50ea to ride it. It is quite a long ride and definitely worth $1.50, if only for nostalgic reasons. We found our way to the P.O.P. ticket booth, and our horrors were realized: PHOENIX WAS CLOSED!!!! A bit depressed, we bought our unlimited rides stamps for $19ea (which included the wooden coasters but not the Haunted Mansion). It must help a lot that they employ paper-eating pigs to handle the clutter. As we made our way to the Pay One Price booth in the middle of the park, we noticed what a nice and charming place we were coming to. Our rain gear was coming in handy! It was still raining pretty good by the time we got there. We drove to Knoebel’s following some nifty directions the hotel provided us with. We woke up to pouring rain again! Hopefully, everything (especially Phoenix) will still be operating at Knoebel’s despite the rainy weather.

Congrats on #800 Big Mike. Now we're only 650 behind you!!!!

Eddie is correct on The Bebes (posted out of turn also) pic. Nice one. Sorry guys, didnt get the game but now I'm on board.

Wrong, Astroworldfan1 My pic is NOT Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk. I guess SFMM on yours.

The Giant Disk-O at Kennywood is called Cosmic Chaos. Great fun with neat Alien theming.

Here's one: There's a lot of info in this picture, so it shouldn't be too hard if you've been there. GL. Photo of ___________ from _________ in ___________

Thx Big MIke, We had a great time on our TPT:P2, but we are sooooo jealous of all the TPR people on the Scandinavia Tour! Bon Bon Land is one of our life goals. We should be posting new reports every day or two, so Dorney should be coming up soon!

Day 2: Kennywood May 26, 2009. We woke up and looked outside to find pouring rain! We had seen that the forecast for most of our TPT:P2 (Theme Park Tour: Part 2) was going to be rain, so we figured we would go buy some rain coats, nothing was going to stop us from our Tour. Kennywood is also the only park on the trip where we have already been. Mr. Bebe’s Aunt Karen, Cousin Mike, and Mike’s girlfriend Jess all live in the Pittsburgh area and were planning on attending Kennywood with us. Aunt Karen has lived near Pittsburgh since 1985 and has NEVER been to Kennywood! We thought the rain would surely dissuade them, but Jess is hardcore and said no amount of rain would keep her away! She also said that Kennywood won’t close the rides for rain, only lightning. The Bebes spent the first few hours of the day trying to buy some rain gear, finally arriving at Kennywood around 12:30pm. The rest of the gang was waiting for us. The crowd was light-moderate, more than I expected for a Tuesday right after Memorial Day, but most rides were a walk-on or one-two cycle wait, except Phantom (20min with one train operating). We rode almost everything in the park and got extra laps on the better stuff. The rain was light and spotty all day, so it wasn’t so bad. It even got sunny and hot for a couple hours. We weren’t planning on staying all day, since we had a long drive to Danville in front of us. Of course, we stayed until they closed, having to get one last ride on Phantom’s Revenge in the dark before leaving around 9:15pm. We got on the rode and drove a miserable 3.5 hours to Danville in the rain and fog. THICK fog! We finally arrived at our hotel at around 1:30am and set the alarm for 9:25am. Hopefully Knoebel’s and the highly touted Phoenix won’t be a rain out! It's Magically Delicious!!! Dejected, Mr. Bebe seeks ice cream to sooth the pain. Maybe if Mr. Bebe uses his imagination, he can magically pull the ice cream sign down and eat it! This Lady saw the whole thing happen and didn't do anything. She just sat there and laughed and laughed and laughed. Mr. Bebe interjects, but Kenny disposes of Mr. Bebe with ease. Kenny Kangaroo makes a pass at Lady Bebe in public. Mr. Bebe asked for some info and was told that it was an electrical problem and Exterminator probably wouldn't be opening today. Our first non operational coaster of the trip! Good thing we'd already been to Kennywood and gotten this credit in the past! Next we went to Exterminator. It was closed. As for the Phantom's Revenge.... Everytime we ride this monster, it ranks higher. It has great speed, a really neat course (2nd drop – WTF!), tons of forces, and great moments of ejector airtime. The trains are the most spacious and comfortable, and they run as smooth as butter. Top Notch!!! But first, a quick game of Phantom Fling, where we must spit our gum at the bullseye. Haha! Mr. Bebe wins!!! No prize for winning and I don't have my gum anymore. Damn you Phantom Fling!!!! Worst game in the park. On to Phantom’s Revenge! Mr. Bebe tells a nice man all about the classic woodies he just rode. The old cowboy was a super listener, but really quiet. Thunderbolt next. An OK ride. Next was Jack Rabbit, Kennywood’s classic 1921 coaster with the double down. Lady Bebe wasn’t impressed last time we went to Kennywood, but this time she finally GOT IT. Lady Bebe thought she was going to get ejected and she LOVED it! So Mr. Bebe tried to steal the sign for her. Went to Racer first, which was fun because half our group rode on one side and half on the other. Mr. Bebe slapped hands with Jess through one of the turns. Coaster was just okay but way fun when you’re racing against someone you know! Rain or shine! We won't be stopped! Kennywood, Here we come!!!!! Mr. Bebe's crazy Pittsburgh relatives! Aunt Karen says "Hi"!!! This is what we saw when we woke up.

I don't know what it will be like in July, but we were just there on a weekday in June and the only rides that were NOT walkons were Bizarro (45min), Kingda Ka (1 hour), and El Toro (10-15min) and the log flume (didn't bother). Nitro was running three trains and really pumped people through. We got three rides in (one walk-on in the middle, one 3 train wait for the front, and a one train wait for the back). El Toro was running two trains and the line moved pretty well. Well worth waiting 20-30 minutes for, but the front seat line was 15-20 trains extra. We didn't ride the front. Kingda Ka in the back seat was the roughest ride in the park. We only rode it the one time, but I hear the front isn't as rough. Great American Scream Machine banged us around a bit. I wouldn't call it "rough" so much as "aggressive". Six Flags doesn't give ANYTHING out, so I wouldn't count on ice water. Also, don't bring anything with you that doesn't fit securely in your pockets unless you want to spend $1 at EVERY ride for a short-term locker. This includes "souvenir cups" . And the line monitor will send you out of line to discard items before you get to the station.

OK, The Bebes certainly were dumba$$e$ for missing the one in the Nutcracker's mouth, but we looked at that bell ringer for a good 5 minutes before deeming that it wasn't a ducky. Damn that gray kitty ducky!!!

^^^ Robb, We were actually considering a "Take the Tunnel" shirt to kick off our Tour with Terminator: Salvation, but then you announced yours!!! BTW - The Bebes "Ninety Degrees" shirts are available for $19.99 at..... just kidding! -The "we want royalties" Bebes