Skycoastin Steve

^Why would they be taking a picture of a Gravity Group project and passing it off as their own?

^Yeah, unfortunately we didn't get the best the PA parks had to offer (for a variety of reasons), but we made them plenty of fun regardless! Kennywood will be there in the future for return trips, and hopefully crowd-ageddon and the storm of the month won't hit on the day we go back.

^Yes, at least one boat did sink on the employee ride night they had, I've been told that by more than one person that works there. However, they've solved the sinking problem, and apparently it's having electrical issues now. They were leaving the middle row of each boat empty when I was there this week, so I'm not sure what the reasoning was behind that. Hope that helps.

I just saw that a little bit ago. Very perplexing. I'd love to say it's in my back yard, but it's not, so that's one location down!

^^Can't argue with that view! :drool: ^Thanks for the comments, it's nice to see there are some other sane enthusiasts out there. The 305 straps are VERY comfortable and would be perfect for Maverick, so I hope the right people have done the right research on 305 and will be retrofitting those trains next year.

As expected and rumored, Carowinds will be adding the Snoopy Starlight Spectacular next year, as well as increasing their hours of operation! http://www.carowinds.com/public/news/whats_new_2011.cfm

^For you, Dave.

^That's pretty much it. Magic Mountain and Great Adventure might both have a lot of coasters to dot their skyline, but the fact that CP is flat and borders a large body of water just makes them stand out that much more. I will say that I did like SFMM's skyline quite a bit, just not as much as CP's.

^I do know that on a clear night you can see Cleveland from Magnum's lift hill.

^^Nope. Not even close.

Seeing how it never got a response in 5 years, I guess it was a pity post?

By the way, an awesome time was had by myself and another TPR poster at Cedar Point this week. Go check it out!

Full album with the pics from the entire trip can be found here! Yay Cedar Point! My old stomping grounds for two years. Early morning ride on MF! They took the tunnel, and were flashed in the process. Somehow I kept photographing the yellow train. 10 years old and still kicking ass! Sign action. Didn't ride till the 2nd day, but it was good enough for a log flume. Maverick! Water bombs! Current computer background. Fountains and Stengel dives. Fountains and overbanked turns. Patrons from Cleveland and Detroit probably wouldn't be phased by the sight of someone with a gun. Ohio: Birthplace of Aviation I love the sign. It's a shame it took them 20 frickin' years to get a sign for this ride. Flower! The park was looking great, kudos to the landscapers! Yay Cedar Point! Race for the sky! Coming down through a TWISTY!!! "ohhhhhhhhhh shhhhhhhhiiiiiiiittttttttt!!!!" No rollback this time. In fact, I didn't see a single rollback the entire trip. And the ride didn't go down either time we waited for it, which has NEVER happened to me. This picture is brought to you by the French. Yellow, yellow, yellow, GREEN! My my my, how different this will look by next year. An under-appreciated portion of the park. Guy in the front right seat is either 1. constipated 2. clenching or 3. taking a dump on the coaster. If you know which, EMAIL DAN!!! mrt0ad13@aol.com More TWISTY!!!! The operator explained, and I quote, "If it doesn't fit in the back, put it in the front." TWSS. Love. If Huss weren't bankrupt, I would say they should build one in my back yard. 12E I was terribly disappointed by Raptor, but it still takes nice photos. Coming down from the loop, no good faces this time. This just in from CNN: We have achieved loop. Misty AND Twisty! "Oh come on, I'm a dragon made of iron and THIS was the best ride you could come up with in my honor?!?!?!" Untrimmed Mantis. So-so ride. This just in from Fox News: More loop has been achieved, and we believe it was the Left's fault! Dive loop. Like regular loop with a touch of Greg Louganis. It works. Some B&M twisty for ya. The start of day 2, and I challenge anyone to give me a better skyline than that. M for Maverick! Oh noes! The coaster is stuck upside down! Got two trains in there. TWSS? Dragster is taller than the sun! *in the voice of Droopy Dog* "Going up, sir." I could sit and stare at this ride for hours. *in the voice of Droopy Dog again* "Going down, sir." Money shot. Lovely shot of Magnum. Incredible ride. On a side note, I was actually the first person to go up in this ride after it was built at CP. Good times were had here for two years! Jen and I with the Erie Ocean in the background. More Magnum awesomeness. Lonely Train in the Sky: The Ride Dragster snuck a train in there. So much fun it's scary! Doing its pretzel thing. A wooden stake in the ground isn't a very thrilling addition for 2011. I want my money back. From the train. Upskirt MILF porn! Thankfully I got a good first drop picture just before the train rounded the corner. Bret, Bart, Brent, Beau, Ben, and Sam! NINETY-FIVE DEGREES!!!!! Signature shot. Skyhawk is a swinger. And it goes both ways. Lonely Riders in the Sky: The Ride MINE? Midway Carousel, the only thing at CP that's older than Jeff Johnson! Blue Streak, old enough for my mother to have ridden it as a youngster! As you can tell, the sky was providing some lovely backdrops for these photos. Rest in Pieces. Another signature shot. The sun going down as the riders go down. All this going down is getting me excited...... McDonald's: The Coaster Red and White Barcode: The Ride The interactive fountains that replaced the ball fountain that now resides at Alabama Adventure and replaced.....interactive fountains. The end!

Alright, so since it had, for all intents and purposes, been two years since I spent a real day inside the park, I got to update my opinion on a lot of their rides. Last year I went to the park for about a half a day with family and it really wasn't that enjoyable, so this time was much better. Millennium Force - Alright all you haters, I got one thing to say. Shut it. I was honestly going into this trip wondering if MF would still be my #1 steel (as it has been since I first rode it 10 years ago), since I had experienced I305 earlier in the year. The only thing that happened was this ride got CEMENTED at #1. It was running as smoothly as I can ever remember it running, save for its opening season. It was also delivering WAY more airtime going over the island hills than I've ever experienced. Seriously, my butt was off the seat on those hills (which has never happened to my recollection). I've never cared about the lack of airtime on the ride, as it was built for speed and turns more than anything, but it was so refreshing to get some nice floating out of it! So basically, this ride is virtually untouchable at this point. Maverick - Still amazing, but it could definitely use the straps from I305. Top Thrill Dragster - The difference in this and Kingda Ka is night and day. From the queue inside the ride, to the grandstands, to the speedometer, to the Christmas tree lights, to the sound effects, to the lapbars, this ride completely and utterly blows KK out of the water in every possible way. Still in my top 10. Magnum - It's a little rougher these days, but I still friggin' love this coaster, and I always will. Mean Streak - TAER IT DOWN!!!!!!111!1!11 Blue Streak - Way better than I remember, awesome airtime. Wicked Twister - Another that ended up being better than I remember, just for the fact that I hardly ever rode it during the two years I worked at the Point. Back seat is wicked fun when you're hanging at almost 200 feet up and staring at the ground! Raptor - Plummeted in my rankings. Starting to rattle a lot, uninteresting layout (especially after the MCBR), and slow. After riding Afterburn as much as I have this year, it probably seems a lot worse than it is, but MAN I didn't enjoy my two rides on it. Disaster Transport - For the first time that I can remember, it was truly pitch black inside the building, which made it WAY more fun than usual. And as a hidden jewel, someone placed a stuffed Domo in the Alaska-themed portion of the ride right at the end!! I seriously almost peed my pants I was laughing so hard! Maxair and Skyhawk - Still awesome flats, I think every major park should have a Frisbee and Screamin' Swing! RipCord and SkyScraper - Stopped by Challenge Park to ride these (my first time since 2008), and SkyScraper is still one of the most insane rides I've ever been on. Jen almost had a heart attack, stroke, panic attack, and aneurysm at the same time! Starlight Experience - I actually liked it a lot, despite the fact that we were speed walking through it to get to MF before the line closed. I can't wait to see how it turns out at Carowinds next year. Shoot the Rapids - I didn't think it was that bad. It was very nicely themed, was a relaxing float through the river, and the two drops were fun. Didn't get extremely wet on it (about the same as any other log flume), and I enjoyed myself on it. Was it worth the $10 million investment? Probably not, but it's too late to take it back now. I think for what it is, it's a good enough attraction for them.

Alrighty, so anyone who has read any of my posts knows that I like Cedar Point. A lot. Given its flaws (yes, it has them), I still enjoy going there more than most other places just because there's SO much to do. And the thing that made this trip so special for me was the fact that I was able to enjoy more than just the coasters during my two-day stay. Is the food overpriced and not that great? Yes. Should there be more shade on the main midway? Absolutely. Did they go a little overboard with building coasters? Debatable. Is it still an awesome park? Most definitely. Is it the best park in the world? Nope, but that doesn't matter to me. On to the trip report. After our three-park day that included DelGrosso's, Lakemont, and Waldameer, we were able to get into Sandusky just a little before closing, so we went ahead and made it a four-park day and got in for a late night, back of the train ride on Millennium Force, which was AMAZING. More on MF later. The next day, we were up bright and early for the Platinum Pass early entry. Our first stop of the day was of course MF, and we got the front row since that was just something Jen HAD to experience. Once again, amazing. We then grabbed Maverick in the back row before the GP made it in the park, which was also a ton of fun (as always). After that, it was the credit whore portion of our day, as we knocked out Mean Streak (ouch, yawn), CCMR (ouch, yawn), and Woodstock Express (not bad for a junior coaster). After a hilarious journey on Paddlewheel Excursions, we got an ejector seat ride on Magnum (LOVE!), followed by some head-banging awesomeness on Corkscrew. Then it was time for Dragster, and I just can't get over just how much better the ride and ride experience are on this over Kingda Ka. It's not even close. Moving on though. After lunch, we made it back to the front of the park and swept by every credit up there, including two rides on Wicked Twister (one on each end of the train). We also rode Maxair a couple times and at some point in there I know we rode Skyhawk. Overall, the first day was a great success as far as credits were concerned, as we got everything except Gemini under our belts (Gemini had one side running and a horrendous line). The second day was my true "geek out" day since we basically had all the coasters out of the way at that point. We did the early entry again and did Maverick in the first row this time. Then we went over to Dragster before opening and waited on the front row, which was spectacular and windy! After Dragster we hurried to Gemini (one sided operation again) to get the credit before the line got long. Once we were done with that, we basically just meandered around the Point for a while. We took a walk down the walkway next to the beach and looked at Magnum's layout from back there (I showed Jen where the profile used to be in 1989), and then we walked by Breakers and Jen got another history lesson on that. After going back in through the beach entrance we rode Ocean Motion and paid our respects to the ride before its dismantling. We would also get a back car ride on Magnum at this point, which I kinda regret that I haven't done this more. Back car was ridiculous! After lunch at Coasters, we went and changed into our swimsuits to do all the water rides. We got progressively wetter as we rode STR (review to come later), Thunder Canyon, and SRF, but it was perfect since the temperature was right in the high 70s and the sun was out! On a side note, the weather was absolutely spectacular both days, couldn't have asked for anything better from Mother Nature! Once we dried off and changed back into regular clothes, we went back around and got the coasters in the front of the park again, the Midway Carousel, and another ride on Maxair. Towards the end of the night, we went around to get one more lap on Maverick (5th row), then walked through the Starlight Experience and ended our trip on a night ride on MF in the back row, just the way we started our CP experience! I'm going to break this post up and give my thoughts on a lot of the rides in my next post.

While I'm writing the Cedar Point portion of my trip report, enjoy this little nugget from Waldameer's karaoke day on Sunday. My ears were bleeding.

^The selling point behind this model was the ability to stay open in high winds. That park is windy all the time, and the only ride that I'm aware of that closes on a regular basis because of wind is the Sky Ride, but only because its max wind speed allowable is 15 mph. Even Dragster is allowed to get up to (I believe) 40 mph.

I rode Shockwave for the first time in like 12 or 13 years back in June. I wanted it to kill me before it was over so I would stop suffering. That's how bad I thought it was.

^ Be glad that you didn't have to see any of them in person.

^I wouldn't go either of those ways. I would take Route 6 to Bowling Green and get on I-75 there. Took me 3.5 hours max going that way, and I got to drive by the giant Jesus statue (RIP).

^This is Jen everyone. She's my travel partner. I've converted her from a comfortable member of the GP to a Dork-In-Progress in about a year and a half's time. Her coaster count has gone from a measly 12 last March to a whopping 181 today. She now knows the difference between Intamin and B&M, as well as my stance on the "you go faster in the back" comments that the GP makes. She's going on the Northeast USA trip with me next year, and is a fellow Gator. Welcome Jen to TPR everyone!

^Jen took the pictures of the crazy people, I just cowered in a corner with a rosary and waited for it to all be over. I rode the drop tower at Waldameer back in 2008, pretty insane if I remember correctly. Somehow those janky "fair-ish" drop towers are always the best.

I've made the drive before, and KI is no more than 3 1/2 hours away. It doesn't help that you have to drive through some of rural Ohio to get there, but it's really not a bad drive.

Pics from Kennywood, DelGrosso's, Lakemont, and Waldameer! We think a website should be started called "People of {insert park name here}" Laffin' Sal is laughing. Hilarious instructions for the train operator at Kennywood. "Quick! Staring contest, me and you, now!" "You win, you always do!" Axl Rose? Kennywood was scary enough, this place was even worse! But since they dump a giant bucket of Mountain Dew on you in the water park, who cares?!?! I hear they have good spaghetti, but fear rules over hunger, and we didn't stay long enough to find out. The worm looks deranged and strung out. The Wacky Worm is SO wacky...... HOW WACKY IS IT?!?!?! It needs a trim brake on its only drop! Which considering how it inches along, I don't get how it could need a trim brake. Crazy Mouse, just as painful as Exterminator. The woman on the left is sexy. Nope, won't see us again. Unless I'm nearby on free spaghetti day. Time for Lakemont! Crazy that there used to be 250 of these! 200th steel coaster. Ouch. That is not a look of pleasure, that is a look of PAIN! I used to love these as a kid!!! Lakemont is awesome simply for the fact that I can go and play in a sandbox between riding coasters! Time to leap those dips! #8 The other cars not being used. Loved the lift hill. Great experience, one that every enthusiast should have. Time for the other woodie, one that sits behind right field at the adjacent baseball stadium! Cool cloud action. I enjoyed this coaster, wasn't that bad! Going up...... And going down! I see a bridge with a roller coaster........ NINETY DEGREES!!!!!!!! Fun family woodie. Credit!

Just got back from the Mega Geek Out Tour yesterday, and it was a mega success! Lots of stuff could have gone wrong, we had some horrible traffic, surprise thunderstorms, and some of the most terrifying members of the GP seen to date, but it was a blast nonetheless! Since I already did a photo update of Kennywood, there won't really be any photos from there other than our "People of Kennywood" style update. Kennywood was a bit of a let down on Saturday, as the crowds were HORRENDOUS. Saturday was the only day we could go, so we were sorta expecting bad crowds anyway, but the parking lot was filled completely up to the lot on top of the mountain (where we parked). We bought a night time VIP coaster tour so we were at least guaranteed Exterminator, Sky Rocket, Thunderbolt, and Phantom's Revenge by the end of the day. We were able to slog through long waits and get on Jack Rabbit (Jen's 150th credit!), Racer, and Lil' Phantom, and we also got on the train ride, Log Jammer, and Swing Shot. Swing Shot had the worst ride crew I've ever seen in my life, as they literally took almost half an hour to clean up a relatively small amount of vomit that was on the concrete in front of the ride (not even on the ride). If anyone on here works on the Swing Shot crew, you should be ashamed at how awful your crew is. Slow, uninterested, lazy, pathetic. But anyway, we were only able to ride each coaster once, and we had a night ride on Phantom in the pouring rain (which was surprisingly awesome, despite icy cold rain to the face at 85 mph). I was bummed that Jen didn't get to experience Phantom without a poncho hood over her face, but I'm sure we'll be back. Traffic was abysmal getting out of there, which was expected, but the next day was better. On Sunday we drove up to Altoona to get our first trips to DelGrosso's and Lakemont. DelGrosso's was a small little ghetto paradise north of Altoona, and I literally feared for my life while there. Some of the locals were terrifying, and I felt like we were about to become a real-life version of The Hills Have Eyes. After credit whoring their two credits and bolting, we went back to Lakemont for a few more credits. When we got there, we rode Toboggan (my 200th steel credit), which was officially the worst coaster I've ever been on. After that it was Leap the Dips! Leap the Dips was such a great experience. For such an old ride, it's unbelievable that the thing 1. is still standing and 2. can still deliver a fun ride. The men working that ride were a riot and joked around with us, which made it even more fun. It definitely feels like it goes faster than 10 mph, and a few of the jumps after the dips hurt like hell, but with a 108 year old ride, what do you expect? We then got on Skyliner for another new woodie credit, and it was another surprisingly good old coaster (not to mention smooth!). Even though the park itself was kinda janky, I was still impressed with its charm and setting next to the baseball stadium. Not sure if I'll ever go back, but with a price of $10, I'll probably stop by there again if I'm ever in central PA again. After we left Lakemont, we made the 3-hour trek up to Erie to go to Waldameer. I had only been there once on a quick day trip in 2008, so I was excited to go back. As is my custom, we worked up to the best coaster in the park and rode Comet and Ravine Flyer 3 (new credit!) before it started POURING. I'm used to that Lake Erie weather, so we just waited it out in the picnic shelters for about half an hour. Once it quit raining, we jumped on Steel Dragon and then made our way over to Ravine Flyer II. I definitely wanted to get a more updated opinion on RFII since I have literally ridden every other wooden coaster in my top 10 since I first rode this one, and I was blown away. This ride is still as smooth as butter, has fantastic change of direction, and had wicked airtime both in the front and back of the train. My only real "complaint" is that the ride is too short. I know with terrain coasters it can be difficult to lengthen the ride since you're using the topography of the land around it, but I really wish RFII had more to it. Regardless, it still jumped up to #3 in my top 10, but it'll never compete with Voyage or El Toro with a short ride time like that. Pics to follow, with my Cedar Point trip report to come sometime in the near future!