TBpony414

Gotcha. The hours the pet check is open are pretty spectacular, I gotta say! My dog would most likely throw a fit when I left but he would settle down in a short while. I have the turn and walk away down pat. Great idea to leave a hoodie with your dog on the second day. Would I be allowed to bring in a kong filled with PB and kibble for him to keep busy with do you think? He's quite a handful (he's a working bred dog, after all) so the kong helps. I love that nobody would be handling him whatsoever. His commands aren't in English and I don't allow anyone not familiar with working dogs to handle him as in one blink with anyone else and he'd be off, probably diving into Lake Erie haha. The closest kennels I trust to watch him are between 80-90 minutes away each direction and frankly I'd much rather have him with me as much as possible as he's a well seasoned traveler. Thanks again for all your info - super helpful and I'm sure others will see this as well! ETA: Are you allowed to drop by and take your dog out for a potty and walk during the day? Or do they prefer you not stop by?

mjk - Do you know is Planet Snoopy (Flyers) open during the day at least? Whoever here is going to the park this weekend have fun!

Yes, awesome!!

Devins3 thank you so much for the pictures and details of CP's Pet Check! I really appreciate it!! My currently shepherd is extremely friendly and loves other dogs, however has not been in a kennel setup quite like that before. Do they require anything special to have your dog stay there such as proof of vaccinations or spay/neuter? How much did it cost per day for your dog to stay there and were the hours the same as the park?

We'll be there not this weekend but the next. Thanks for the tips and that scare zone map is very handy! Looks like I'll have to go thru zones 4 and 5 as we only want to ride Fury, the flyers, and maybe I232 a couple times. I absolutely hate scary stuff but will ignore the actors and pretend like I'm totally cool with them. Fake it till ya make it and all that.

Cool report but I really want to just talk about xmas lights. I, too, am a big fan. How does SDC attach their lights to the signs in such a way that, for example in one of the last light pics, they go with the flow of the sign? Are they stapled on or something? They look nice and tight. What we really need are pictures of your xmas lights! Pleaseeeee?

I didn't realize the Motel 6 was pet friendly, I swear I did a search a month ago for pet friendly hotels in the area and didn't come up with much and what I found was going to charge me an arm and a leg. Were you the one who asked about CP's dog kennels a couple months ago? If so, what were they like? For us, we get to CP once a year if we're lucky. It's a little getaway and since it's usually very hot out having a hotel right on the island to walk to for even 30 minutes a couple times a day to rest, change shoes, have a snack, put on more sunscreen, is a huge bonus. Not sure if it's a $400 bonus at those prices posted, however!!

Dang, I was banking on ride lines being nonexistent as well. Guess we won't know till we get there on the given day. We don't do mazes and try to avoid anything horror related in general so we'll be there purely to ride Fury and the Flyers. Can anyone clue me in on if they have big scare zones up front or are they mostly around other parts of the park?

Boldikus - you are forgiven for taking the pic from the brake run... it's phenomenal! Thanks for confessing haha. I clicked on the picture and saved it but if there's a better quality one can you email it to me? gp1086 - As long as the park is open and operating rides next month you will 100% for certain need to get a Gold flash pass, but for not much more you can get the Platinum and have an even better experience. I've found Halloween time to be without a doubt some of the biggest crowds the park draws and you will definitely need it. I'm in NJ quite a bit and go to the park all the time but my SO only gets up there once or twice a year so we spring for the Gold when he's along. However, the last 2 years we ended up getting the Platinum FP at Halloween and it was absolutely worth it. Rerides on Toro alone made it worth it! We did feel bad being all "Sorry everyone next in line, but we have these wristbands so we can get another lap..." however the ride ops would call out nicely over the intercom to let people know and we didn't receive many nasty looks at all. In fact, I had multiple people ask me where to get the wristbands and I know for a fact one person went and got the Platinum FP as well because I saw him getting resides later that night. Note: THEY WILL SELL OUT OF ALL FLASH PASSES during Halloween events so get them early in the evening. Be even smarter and get FP during the day before everyone figures out that it'll be crowded and they decide to get a FP too. With Platinum we were able to pop in one night for 5 hours and have a super relaxed time yet get on every single ride we wanted, multiple times. Our ride count was 22 at the end of that night which averages out to 1 ride every 4.4 minutes. GAdv isn't as massive as CP but it's still a huge park with a heck of a lot to do. If you are visiting infrequently and/or/especially on a holiday weekend and want to get on everything the Gold or Platinum is mandatory. Have a great time and come back to tell us all about it!

Excellent reply from Bill regarding MF vs. I305 vs.Fury! I agree on all accounts and also with Zach regarding I305 not being easy to marathon, while Fury and MF most definitely are.

Fantastic sunset shot of El Toro!!! Wowza!

We LOVED Fury! I was actually really surprised by how freaking fast and hands up in the air cheering the whole way fun it was. I really got a sense of speed however after the mid-course I felt like it crawled. We rode it on a day when it was well over 100 deg out with "feels like" temp of 114 so mid-course was surely kicking on a lot more than normal. Go ahead and crucify me, but the second half felt uninspired track-wise and the speed dwindled significantly. And the last right hand turn going back towards the station where you awkwardly monorail-it onto the brake run... what's up with that? Bank it a little more, maybe? Or something. Perhaps the first part is so stellar that the second half just can't live up to it, I don't know. Everything up until the mid-course was absolutely fantastic and I personally was blown away with the creative ride style, transitions, unique elements, the cool lighting everywhere, fantastic name and the ride feels like you're an angry hornet, and the million dollar tunnel is super. I want to take that first 1/2 - 3/4 and send it to coaster designers everywhere saying "THIS, folks, is how you make a great coaster!" Make no mistake - while I remain grumbly about the second half, SO's more forgiving and his top 2 coasters are Fury and Maverick. Fury is one of my favorites as well but the lame second half is what shoves it down several rankings. In fact we loved Fury so much we're heading way back down to Charlotte on a whirlwind overnight just to ride it the end of this month. Part of what I love about Millennium Force is its long ride time and no mid-course. It keeps its speed until it hits the brake run! If Fury continued that way it'd be #1 for me. TL;DR: Fury is excellent and the GTA's are otherwise inaccurate.

MNSSHP looks awesome!! The picture of you with the two bags of candy on Space Mountain is hilarious! Thanks for sharing your fun evening with us

Excellent, thanks!! We'll mark it on the calendar and get there the end of October.

^Cool! I agree with you regarding Storm Runner, Coal Cracker, and the Looper. Hershey has a great collection of rides and something for everyone! We may have passed each other yesterday when you were on your way out. I had an excellent time at the park yesterday from 1pm - 7pm. We haven't been in 2 or 3 years so it was nice to go back. The place was slammed but people seemed to gather in the walkways and not so much in ride lines as everything was between 5-25 minutes. I'll take it! The Carousel - I love the TLC given to these beautiful and lifelike horses as well as the working band organ. Wish more parks would take pride in their carousel like this! Comet - Oldie but a goodie. People still seem confused with how to fill in the station which baffles me. A few rows weren't filled on most trains due to people not realizing the train has more rows than you can see at the immediate station entrance. I call it The El Toro Effect. At least it wasn't crowded the way SR or GB's queues often are! Skyrush - Slow dispatches but loading all rows. We sat in Row 2 and it was extremely smooth with a bit less thrashing around than in the back. By "less thrashing" I mean I was able to keep my hands up the whole time and not feel like I was being yanked around like a possessed rag doll. The restraints let up on the brake run which brought relief among the train, although I'm not one who suffers from the Thighcrush issue. Sooperdooperlooper - Soooo smooth and the new trains are awesome. Coal Cracker - One of the lift attendants was giving everyone high 5's and sincerely wished us a wonderful day. A lot of ride ops at the park were like this, in fact. That kind of friendliness is what consistently elevates HP from other parks. I forgot the skip at the end which is awesome except it brought in a tsunami of water into our boat completely drenching me. Thankfully it was hot so my shoes and socks kind of sorta not really dried out as the day continued. I follow Lieutenant Dan's rule of keep your feet dry and change your socks often so this put a slight damper on part of my day. Great Bear - My favorite invert because it's powerful yet relaxing. I can reride it and not get dizzy or bashed around the way I inevitably do on others like Alpengeist or Batman, no matter how much I try to keep my head in a certain position during the snappy maneuvers. The boring end doesn't bother me as I'd rather have the ride end sooner (like SR) than continue on and have me say "I LOVE the first part but the second half..." Flying Falcon 3x - My favorite flat ride growing up and is still a great one despite the much tamed down and shortened ride cycle. I'll absolutely miss it. There were a lot of people also taking pics of themselves in their favorite colored birds which was nice to see. Trailblazer - Evidently the ride op from hell works here as she was big, loud, and NASTY to people for no reason whatsoever. I quite literally jumped when she barked loudly in unintelligible English at 2 young kids in the front row who were cheering happily when their train came back into the station. Neither of us could figure out what they did that may have warranted that reaction. Other than this we had nothing but fantastic encounters with all the employees. Storm Runner 2x - It remains one of my favorite rides ever and easily my fav ride at the park. The wait for the front is worth it! While waiting both times I couldn't figure out why the station seemed different... then it hit me - Sidewinder was closed next door and not making a racket for once. Ha! Food - They have so many different choices for food and I was thrilled to accidentally find a special people/allergy friendly/blah blah blah food place by Sidewinder. The chicken tenders from there were excellent! Seal and Sea Lion show - Enjoyed it a lot and was very informative. They used a slightly different format with facts presented followed by more of a Q&A session while the other trainer worked with the animals doing different behaviors. Mango the harbor seal showed us her new behavior which was getting plastic bottles from the pool and bringing them to the deck to dump in the recycling bin. She needed a little encouragement but did a wonderful job. I work with animals and the gal working with her interacted so wonderfully! It was awesome to see. I spoke with one of the trainers at the end and was pleased to learn what happened with the 2 sea lions (Eb and Duke) and 2 dolphins (Wee-Tee and Clovis) from the old show. Duke passed away last year, I forget where Eb is and Wee-Tee and Clovis are at Atlantis Resort. Lightning Racer 2x - Once on each side, Thunder seemed to win all day. Laff Trakk - This was our first time on it. I had heard it was short and mediocre so I kept low expectations. We had an exit pass which enabled us to skip the outside queue and go right into the mirror room saving quite a bit of time. We really liked it! Creative and extremely smooth. We spun 2 or 3 times. I still have 2 tickets to the park which I'll try to use this fall sometime. With their Halloween stuff do they open the entire park? I haven't been to their Christmas Candylane event in over a decade but last I was there only Comet and a few other rides were open. I mainly want to know if I'll be able to ride Storm Runner and Great Bear at some point in Oct/Nov/Dec or if I'll have to wait until next year.

Paging Coasterbill, I sent you a PM regarding your visit to CP!

October 12th is a major Jewish Holiday (Yom KIppur) and public schools are closed in NYC, not sure which districts in New Jersey have school closings, but someone at SFGAdv must have that insight. Thank you, I've never been to Great Adventure, but I've been itching to ride El Toro for years now and this flash sale with the Oct. 31 deadline is the perfect excuse to make it out there this year and some more next year. I am scheduled to be in NJ and will stop by the park Oct 12 too and thought the same thing - why the random Wednesday?? Thanks for the info, Larry! JRice you should definitely go - El Toro is worth the hype!! I'll arrive around 2pm and if you want to meet up just send me a message.

Great TR! I haven't been to BGW since they added Tempesto and while I knew it was in the same area as Apollo's Chariot, I didn't realize it was right next to it. Pennsylvania has some fabulous parks. Awesome that you got on LR - next year will be my first journey down to Dollywood!

I love learning things about rides and coasters from people in the know such as Ryan. Thanks for sharing!

Cool tour! I had the same thing happen to me the last time I was on HP's Wildcat and I will swear it off forever because of that. This coming from someone who was there on opening day and waited 3.5 hrs to ride it and used to always ride it. After being quadruple stapled in - never again! I'd rather ride something else that I enjoy more and/or won't get destroyed on haha.

Following and loving your TR. The pics and captions are hilarious!

Who was it that was able to contact CP and have them ship a shirt, or maybe it was a sweatshirt, to them? I need 2 shirts from TTD's booth and am hoping CP would be able to help me out... or maybe one of you you guys could? We were hoping to get back up to CP this year but it's not going to happen and the shirts weren't available in our sizes when we were there in June.

We had the best flyer operator ever at Carowinds as well! There was some crazy snapping going on and it was a super fun time! Can you tell me why you liked Plants vs. Zombies? We got off it and looked at each other thinking was an enormous waste of our time. I don't know what we were expecting but it was just weird, there were no real rules other than shoot at the screens but it was so fast paced with no lasers so we were like, da fuq? I wanted to like it. Sell it to me! We often ride Boo Blasters several times at Kings Dominion but our ride on it at Carowinds was disappointing as more than 50% of the targets weren't lit up or working. Small complaints really when you have that awesome air conditioned food hall with excellent food, and oh yeah, FURY!!!

Wonderful, thank you!! I found it on ABC and set the show to record. Will definitely check out the animal care center when we are there.