Chrisrad

I rode Ghostrider last Wednesday, and it was annoyingly/painfully rough; after the MCBR, I wanted it to end very quickly. As for Wildcat (if that's the other GCI near Lightning Racers), I rode it on the Cedar Point trip, as my VERY last ride for ERT (having spent most of my time on the Racers, plus a few rides on the mouse). It was by no means ridiculously rough or annoying, just kind of bumpy and boring. Could I have easily ridden Wildcat multiple times? Yes. Can I re-ride Ghostrider? Maybe twice, and I'm in pretty darn good shape. (knock on wood)

Of all of the SFMM TRs I've seen, I really enjoyed the descriptive/thorough nature of yours. I can't wait to ride Green Lantern at WCB next year.. I'm assuming it's loads of fun, but I can't justify spending the money to go there for one ride. Also, check out the guy with the camera on the front row of Riddler's. Again, great report! I'll be subscribing now.

Wow, I'm actually really bummed that I didn't get to ride the sky ride.. I figured it just went up the side of the mountain, but as you said, it's much longer. Great report and descriptions!

Yeah, their response was that it is rough because it's a wooden coaster. I guess if it ever reaches a point where riders are complaining of injuries from riding GR, or if there is the potential for lawsuits, Knott's might take a more serious approach at making the ride 'smooth'. But as others are saying, it still draws crowds.

I love the look on my face while sitting in Nor' Eastern's station.. I have a look of "OMG this is going to suck" on my face.. And then I had the stupidity to ride it again because I thought the front would have been smoother. Even the ride op said that all seats were the same. And yes, it, I mean 'IT', was a great ride, and was definitely a bit unnerving. EDIT: ^ I'm talking about 'it'.. the ride with lap bars only. That ride spiel had more puns than the 'Airplane' movies.

Thanks! Yeah, I began the trip by taking a picture of EVERY coaster, then my picture count slowly dwindled toward the end of the trip when I got tired of uploading them to my laptop and carrying my camera everywhere. I don't even know if I have very many pictures of Cedar Point. And I think most of my Hershey pictures are of the 'factory'. And yeah, super easy sharing a room with you! Thanks for answering all of my trip questions!

^ I guess I didn't realize it until I reflected on my roller coaster/theme park history.. I kept hearing talk about the phenomenon known as airtime.. and these things called giga coasters! I guess I was quite sheltered with just the California stuff under my belt.

Ok!!! Park #3 - Six Flags New England, which was also Bizarro Bash for non-trip participants. Compounce broke my flat ride and 'real' woodie cherry; SFNE introduced me to the awesomeness that is Q-bot. I progressively created more and more disdain for Six Flags Magic Mountain as the trip progressed.. I think that opinion had climaxed by the time we reached SFGAdv. I enjoy SFMM for what they offer - unique/record-breaking coasters - but compared to SF parks we visited, their operations are sub-par, and their offerings are somewhat lacking. SFNE was a beautiful park! The entrance screamed New England, the park was fairly clean, and, other than the typical inundation with ads at SF parks, it was a delightful experience that was only enhanced by the fact that their claim to fame was Bizarro. Again with the TPR amazement - catered lunch, free beer, TPR QUEST!, Q-BOTS! (which allowed us to scoff at Saturday crowd levels), morning/evening ERT, water-challenge on the wild mouse (the one with the ridiculous name that I'm not looking up), backstage tours, etc. Which reminds me.. there are going to be some sexy backstage tour photos in this report. Great.. there's only 4 flags. This can't be good. Oh wait, the point of this photo was to take a photo of people taking photos. The entrance.. and some cheerleaders who were there for some dance thing. Morning....w-, no. Morning steel? Sure, why not? My first REAL Intamin! (no CA Screamin', you don't count.. Disney neutered you too much). Hmm.. Backwards 'R'... ..and now this? Looks like someone didn't watch Conjunction Junction when they were in school. Conjunction Junction, what's your function? Hooking up words and phrases and clauses. Speaking of grammar: ABCDEF GCGEFAA HIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWZYZ Oh... that's the name of the ride? I thought SF was creating their own alphabet with that ride's acronym. Haven't I been on one of these before? Somewhere? Like.. at a fair? Or at DCA? Like a lot of things in life, this ride is better when it's wet. I mean, this ride is better when there's moisture involved. I mean.. Wild mouse + TPR + cups of water = free intamin wheels. And a wet Chris Fourmont. This sign is aboot right, but fails to mention one thing, eh. It, uh, fails, eh, to mention that our neighbors to the north end most sentences with 'eh'. Would you like some skittles, eh? While they are still called skittles, they probably have their own variation of flavors.. bacon, maple syrup, and donut flavored. Would any of you count this as a credit? I mean, it has a steel track and all.. It doesn't matter if you love him, or capital H-I-M Just put your paws up 'cause you were Born This Way, Baby aaaahhhhhhhhhhhh (just watch Piers' video) It was still ERT and the on-board audio had been switched to Lady Gaga (at least for the people in the back). A B&M Forcele-, I mean FLOORless. Ok, it did have a good zero-G roll on it. But there were a few seats that were rough. I think we ended up riding it 5+ times in a row. I LOVED THIS FRICKIN RIDE! Word of advice - NEVER take anything I say seriously. But I'm still sure that Laura liked it.. Right Laura? Giggity.. I like where this is going. You see all of those people waiting? Q-Bot laughs at those people, chews them up, then spits them out. Then does it five minutes later when it's time to ride something else. But honestly.. ...I rode it 'defensively' at first, then realized that it was a VERY fun, pain-free ride. Despite the smoke-stack looking things, and signage, I realized, after waiting in line, that this was not an M&M factory; it was, in fact, the line for Jingle Bells: The Ride. Mean Steak has a weird layout and it sucks harder than a Dyson vacuum; this ride had a WEIRD layout and it was amazeballs. And again, Q-bot saved the day. Since I'm into cars (check my FB photos), I was intrigued by the ride certification/inspection placards.. License plates!! How awesome is that? See, I told you my camera is capable of burst shots.. this, once again, proves how intense Boulder Dash is.. In New England: creek, stream... In California: Storm drain, place to dump trash, sewer overflow, homeless bathing facility. Well so much for waving to onlookers, and the hour-long line we walked right past. You know, maybe I'm a prick, but I found it rather joyful to walk past a queue full of people with the handy-dandy q-bots. Am I going to hell for enjoying that? Probably. But I didn't wait in as many lines as other people. A boomerang next to chinese food? Bad theming. They ought to have a vegemite stand.. Because of Robb telling us to try this ride, I had an idea of what to expect. Otherwise, this was just a random haunted-house looking attraction that could have been anything.. It was quite fun! This is what it was.. And I'll leave it at that. Oh cool! I hadn't been to church for a while, so.. See, Jingle Bells.. Or tweetie's sky ride. Actually, that looks like a B&M ball.. BACKSTAGE TOUR TIME! I bet you I'm the only person who got a picture from the bottom of the first drop. Remember what I said about taking me seriously? Well that's 'bizarre'... look at how much shorter the first drop looks in this picture compared to the last one. The contractors got lazy when they added the plywood theming to Bizarro so they didn't bother cutting the hole you see in this picture.. Instead, they just cycled the trains through a bunch of times. Umm.. I thought SFMM had a lot of graffiti.. BACKstage tour? How about UNDERside of the train? Since you can only get this shot on the tour. Remember I said there are some sexy shots from the backstage tour? Here you go. But I'll warn you, don't look at the next one.. Because the lady in the middle might ruin that sexiness for you.

Cool. But if you ask me what it is tomorrow, I will just tell you it's a flat ride at Compounce. I'm looking through pictures and I have to rekindle my memory on parks we visited and rides we rode..

So what do you think.. is it time for Compounce? I'm thinking it's easier to divide this TR into a post for a park or two. I might stop with Compounce for the night since I'm at SBUX using their wifi, because mine is only slightly better than dialup. Ok.. Lake Compounce! Pretty much one of my favorite parks, evar! It's just a cute little place that you want to hug. Ok, well not really but after seeing it on Bert the Conqueror, I wanted to see it in person. And yes, I watch Bert the Conqueror just to see the rides.. I don't necessarily care for his screaming. But yeah, Compounce, like many of the parks on the NE trip, was on a lake (or body of water). It also had Boulder Dash. Do I really need to go any farther explaining it? I mean, it has Boulder Dash.. What else do you need to know? It's worth going there just for that. Ok, ok.. it's also a very neat place with: free Pepsi beverages, a good assortment of flats (with awesome programs), a cute little main street area, a Boomerang (yay?), a sky ride, a dark ride, and, well, if there's anything I forgot to mention, you'll see it in the pictures. We also had an excellent dinner at Compounce, with a variety of food that would rival any casino in Vegas, plus we had dinner and entertainment (thanks to Piers). And free beer!! Ok, yeah, you've seen a million pictures like this. But every story has a beginning and an end, so how can we start talking about Compounce without seeing the entrance? Did I say Boomerang? I'm sorry, I meant Zoomerang.. In that case, I've never been on a ride like this before. This one was not horrible... honest. This pretty much typifies that mood of the entire park.. just little quirky/cute details like this that make it such an awesome place. We later found painted fire hydrants (yes, they are all painted, but these were themed). Also, is there a more manly word for 'cute'? They had one of these. I think we rode it at least five times. Compounce was pretty much the place were I broke my flat ride cherry.. Before this park, I had never really gone on flats. True story. Which allowed me to overcome my fear and go on this thing. I'll also apologize for something else.. I don't really keep up on the name/type of each ride/coaster.. So while this might have a certain name, just look at the pic and figure out what it is. NATURAL beauty.. something that CA, and a lot of its residents, lack. So I guess fake boobs and man-made landscaping/scenery go hand-in-hand in this wonderful state.. Am I bitching too much about CA? I'm sorry.. I did not enjoy returning home.. My camera was set to high-speed burst and still couldn't catch up with the amazement that is Boulder Dash. This ride was balls-out excitement by day, and OMFG incredible by night. I guess this would also be my first REAL woodie.. no, not some neutered CA POS woodie.. or the overbanked high-speed ride known as Apocalypse.. but a true airtime machine with long stretches of sexiness. At first, Wildcat was closed (God was sending a message).. Then, I must have pissed him off.. because it reopened. OMG, yeah, wow. Ghostrider is like butter compared to this thing. So what does a stupid person do? Rides it twice. I thought I chose a bad seat, but no, the ride was just rough all over.. Some things involving woodies and riding are rough, in a good way. But not this ride. Oh hey.. dinner's not too far away, we don't need the train. Wrong. And because of so much walking, I rewarded myself with extra beer. Yes, it's that amazing. And I had not had one drop of alcohol before taking this picture. BD is just so incredible that it rumbles its surroundings, making photography difficult. If Chuck Norris was a coaster, he'd be Boulder Dash. You know, they should put his fist on the first train.. WINDSEEKER actually seeks wind when you're 300' in the air. BOULDER dash actually dashes boulders. And probably whatever wild creature crosses its path. Which is what I started to wonder on these terrain coasters.. how screwed would the riders (or animal) be if an animal crossed the tracks? Anyone know the outcome (or have pictures?). Beast is a perfect example.. that thing is in the friggin woods. Because of timing or weather, this was closed. What's that I hear? Oh, it's Knoebels laughing hysterically at parks that close rides.. That's not in their vocabulary because they are so awesome. Bobby! Nicole! Patrick! Boulder Dash! If someone actually has a non-blurry shot of boulder, I want to see it. I won't pay you, but I just want to see it. I mean you probably have an expensive ass camera.. but for those of us with point-and-shoots, this is how boulder dash comes out. It's like the train is camera shy.. Like a fat chick that walks behind you so you don't see her ass.. After 3 or 4 pints of beer, I start taking pictures of random things.. Like Bobby on a carousel. Hi Bobby! And yes, someone got my pic on the carousel.. see my avatar? I was doing naughty things to that horsie, or I was buzzed pretty good.. Haha.. free Pepsi? That's so 'general public'. We had free beer. The beer made this ride incredible. Like more incredible than a night with Piers. And more incredible than taking a bunch of TPR people to walmart. And even more incredible than beer pong in a hotel room. (no, that didn't happen). haha.. poor, poor riders.. if they only knew. There was a drop tower. But beer and a camera don't mix well.. so, yeah. Rule #1 when taking pictures of tall objects.. be farther than 15' away from said object. Well, much like my timing with attending the TPR trips, I just now (my pics are in chronological order) got a picture of BD's sign. It's a pretty thing, isn't it? A neat little main street. Also, they are known for their potato products. I did not try them as I figured I'd be gaining enough weight with beer alone. Paint Can: the ride. For this season, it was sponsored by Behr (a home depot brand for our across the pond members). I heard that this ride will 'stir' you up with excitement, and 'color' your face with joy.. I'd better brush up on what this ride replaced. Compounce asked Six Flags how to theme their dark ride. SF's response? Just neglect it for a few years so the sign will be in disrepair. And, voila, theming! But seriously, this was a fun ride. And, for those of you in my group, I apologize for kicking your asses. For a $249 costco camera, not too shabby, eh? Umm.. ok sure, why not? Let's ride the kiddie ride.

First off, I'm the guy on the left in the first photo. I was the guy who added the Northeast trip at the very end, and then added the Cedar Point trip even later.. So I know the definition of 'procrastination' quite well. I had already booked the NE trip and was in Oregon with family when the spot(s) opened up on the Cedar Point trip.. two weeks of TPR madness? How could I resist? First off, let me preface this TR by saying that I met the most incredible people, with whom I still continue to keep in touch. I am looking forward to seeing everyone on a 2012 trip. Also, I'll admit that I've been all over the US for other reasons, but have only been to theme parks in CA - I guess you could say I was quite the virgin on this trip. Finally, before getting to the pictures, I'd like to thank Robb & Elissa for all of their efforts. During my six year employment at a local winery, I oversaw countless weddings and events so I know the involvement/effort required for even the smallest of gatherings. After going on a trip and experiencing their expertise firsthand, I was blown away. So... with that in mind, here...we...go.. And I'll refrain from using MS paint. **If I forgot to add anyone on FB, click the link under my avatar.. I have a lot of pictures on there. PAGE: 1 - Quassy/Compounce/Six Flags New England 2 - Maine - Palace Playland and Funtown Splashtown, then Morey's!!! PARK 1: Quassy We got to ride the new Wooden Warrior, enjoyed a catered lunch with free beer, got tickets for a free ice cream/popcorn/or cotton candy, then had a wristband to ride other rides, as well as the ferry boat. It was a cute little park and was in New England.. so... Anything else I'm supposed to say? Yeah, I'm the guy on the left...things got a little too intimate at Canobie and the end result was being wet. Thank you Matt or Andrew for getting photographic evidence of the intensity of their log ride. Just for the hell of it, this is what Oregon looks like.. (or the Pacific Northwest). I've been going here pretty much every year of my life so it has a special place in my heart. And here's a place called Trees of Mystery in northern CA - this is kind of theme park related, right? If Anyone's interested, I can post a bunch of pictures of Oregon. Chicago, Chicago, that toddling town, Chicago, Chicago, I'll show you around, I love it, Bet your bottom dollar you'll lose some blues in Chicago, Chicago, the town that Billy Sunday couldn't shut down So yeah... apparently Sinatra had better weather when he visited Chicago. Man, those are some ugly skies.. Oh, I apologize, you're here from theme park pics. Well, in that case, here's Quassy. Contrary to what our society thinks, it's not always better to have a bigger/longer woodie. Geez everyone.. I'm talking about roller coasters. WOW. Case in point.. this little guy. It's kind of like Suzane Boyle.. by the looks of it, you'd never expect anything satisfying to come from it. Wrong. This little thing was quite the delight. No, this isn't a ghost ship. We had Captain Bill as our tour guide. Other than the lack of true stories, and not having a thong attached to his sun visor, Capt. Bill was a pretty kick ass guy. He said he's even ridden the rides at Quassy. I know there are pics of him in other TRs..so.. yeah. I will forewarn you though.. I wasn't on this trip to ride/take pics of coasters 100% of the time - if that doesn't match your expectations, you might want to bail on this TR right now. The point I'm trying to make, I take random pics. OMG.. these east coast states/houses/trees are putting CA to shame.. I mean it's already a desert with water brought in from surrounding states, but people think that CA is this amazing place. Yeah, I'm sorry.. I'd move to New England in a heartbeat. Here's the train ride at Quassy. I did not ride it, because....... ...I was riding this bad boy. I can't figure out what's more fun when whoring out kiddie coasters.. the shear look of horror on parent's faces who watch adults ride them, or the fact that I simply don't care and have no shame in looking like an ass. They had one of these. We did not break it. At first, we thought there wasn't an employee, then realized there was one at the top. She was amused when I warned her about a bunch of adults coming to ride the slide.. At magic forest, they had the same slide, but it had a weight limit that even I was too big for. Now that's not very magical, is it? Signature shot. Oh HEYYYYY Bobby and Nicole!!!! Yes, you can right-click and save this pic! I think that sums up Quassy! I really enjoyed the place, the employees were great, the lunch was awesome and included free beer, and, according to other people on the trip, the flats were pretty good.

^ Save that match for Mean Streak. Unlike Mean Streak, Ghostrider has a pretty decent layout with a lot of speed - the biggest problem is that it's just rough. If you re-tracked MS, it would still suck because the layout is boring; if you re-tracked GR, it would be, at least in my opinion, pretty far up there in terms of best woodie. But again, that's just my opinion.

^ It's coming.. I might have to do it at Starbucks or something because my wifi is almost as slow as dialup. Sometime this week for sure..

Oh, well thanks for clarifying. And, if what you're saying is true, I apologize for accusing them of that. I will still reserve judgment until I ride it next year, unbalanced, with some large people. *Deja Vu closes in October I think.

^ I haven't ridden GL yet because I can wait until WCB 2012, but... they trimmed it there? I mean seriously? SFMM should have an on-site vet office because they are damn good at neutering things. Which is yet another reason why I'm starting to hate overly-corporate parks that are simply trying to dodge lawsuits.

^ Ok, cool. For a minute there, I thought SFMM was in charge of the audio on Windseeker. I guess with the Ohio Windseekers, they are surrounded by an amusement park and trees, not hundreds of cars that might make it hard to hear the audio.

^ No audio at the top? After riding it for at least five times (probably more but I don't do tally marks on my hands when I ride things) without audio for the media shoot, I rode it later in the day while the park was open and, if I remember correctly, there was audio at the top. I know the two Windseekers in Ohio had working audio all the way up - a lot of people were talking about the songs they were using (Harry Potter, Star Tours I think, etc.). Was it cutting out because of wind or?

Glad to hear you both liked Goliath.. it's not intense, but it's just a fun/smooth ride, plus, the tunnel is awesome! X2 is also one of my favorites - just so different from most other coasters, and the first drop is insane. I guess someone forgot to mention that SFMM in August is a bad idea.. I was there last august and it was 110 on my phone. Riding all of the coasters in the front row was like sitting in front of a heater. On the plus side, I survived, and the crowds were incredibly light..

^ Since most schools are starting back up, with some having already begun, the park should be thinning out. Also keep in mind that the park goes back to weekend only operations sometime in September. If you get there before the park opens, head toward X2 QUICKLY, then check Tatsu's line; if it's too busy, head toward Superman and/or Apocalypse, then complete the loop. Conversely, if you get there after they open, head to Goliath first, and then make the rounds.

Does anyone have a closeup picture of the Deja Vu restraints? Even though SFMM is my home park, I've never ridden the ride, so I don't know what everyone is talking about.

I've only been on Termi/Apocalypse, Wildcat, and Lightning Racer. Since they are each different (Apoc is short with sharp/overbanked turns; Lightning racer is long, with airtime hills, and it races), I'd still have to go with Lightning Racer. And honestly, I rode the ride probably 20 times during ERT - I still don't remember the colors.

Great photos! It's awesome to see angles/shots that I never would have thought about getting! Plus, there were things at that park I didn't get a chance to see. That backstage tour was incredible. If I remember correctly, the manager/tour guide (his name slips my mind) said they had recovered 11,000 items in just three months, excluding hats.

And it's just so different than out & back woodies that have straightaways and airtime hills (or scenic forest tours *cough* Beast *cough*). Plus, for the time being, it has tunnels and fire, and, on occasion, fog. I just hope the park keeps it smooth.

But sarcasm about a Windseeker > 30 pages discussing Deja Vu's replacement. But I guess that's why there are over 2000 pages for SFMM.. On a serious note, how is Termi, I mean apocalypse, running these days? And how is the audio doing on X2? I guess I'm trying to motivate myself to get up there for the Halloween stuff.

The Marmot/Canadian groundhog caption will never be beaten. I don't have much to say about LAAA RRRROONde because you pretty much summed it up. I'm digging your Canobie photo quest of phallic and sexual innuendos/objects.