ytterbiumanalyst

That's a good way to put it. There are lights on the lift, but after that, you don't see any light at all until you hit the barrel roll. It's out in the woods and so, so dark. That's the most exciting thing about Pumpkin Nights. The extended hours in the summer are so busy and by the time Old Time Christmas starts, temperature becomes a factor. We just had our first frost the other day but lows are mostly in the 40s right now, so October will be great for night rides. Not to mention just after Labour Day when we still basically have summer temps but the crowds are gone.

Oh man, that looks like an awesome day. Thanks for the coverage of the Lamplighter Lounge especially. Everything looks great. Glad to hear MaxPass worked out so well for you. Last time I visited was just before they rolled that out, so I'm excited to try it. Sounds like it dehecticifies the day no matter how much or how little time you have. I did rope drop Tower of Terror with hundreds of people, but that was after the announcement of its removal, so everyone was there. Really looking forward to Guardians. Great pics of the interior; I love how they've done the Collector's museum.

That's great news. Thanks!

Are these the same ones that are already there?

All really great costumes. Halloween at Disney is always fun with the people that go all out, and these people certainly did!

Sorry the wind got in the way, but seems like overall a good day nonetheless. Some great photos of Thunderbird from an angle you don't get to see often.

All Season FunPix is valid at all participating CF Parks. Michigan's Adventure, Dorney & Valleyfair are the only 3 that currently don't have it. That makes sense. You really don't want photo evidence that you were there.

^ Oh yeah, Bill, you're really missing out. We've been winning so much here the last two years we're almost sick of how much we've been winning. As it turns out, all the prizes are covfefe, and we're running out of places to store it all.

Cool, all the new shows sound good. It's been a long time since they had a great summer show. Nickelodeon used to put on some great ones...oh...25yearsagolet'snottalkabouthowlongit'sbeen. The biggest announcement, though, is the Pumpkin Nights. The park will now be open after dark basically four months of the year. Add to that the short lines typical for the craft festival...yeah, this is gonna be fun.

There's a lot to love. It's small, but what they have is all good. They take care of the place, and Presque Isle is just a beautiful area naturally. Lol, exactly.

Nice! Haunted houses aren't really my thing, but always fun to see a park lit up at night. I enjoyed the city photos; I always like just walking around a city getting to know it beyond the tourist places.

Yeah, when I go to a new place, I always like to see the place and not just a theme park if I can. Thanks, collective TPR intelligence on the Toboggan. It can rot, those rides are terrible. Thanks, yeah I do think Conneaut is on an upswing. Now, it is still in terrible shape; the paths are all torn up from roots, to the point where I stumbled a few times, and just about everything can use some paint. But, there is an optimistic vibe around that park that's infectious. I could tell they were really trying to do the best they could with what they have, and the guests there really seemed to be responding to that. Waldameer is absolutely a better park, there's no question about it. Just the fact that they consistently add new things is testament to its success. I'll be back in this area for Steel Curtain at some point, and it just makes so much sense to do Waldameer and Cedar Point at the same time. Nah, it was taken down a few years ago. No way that's going back up anywhere. Agreed on all points, and thanks for the info about Toboggan. I actually was disappointed about Tumble Bug, but I got to do everything else, to it's fine. Good deal for $10. That's great. Sorry you lost the pedometer, but yeah RF2 doesn't hold back. They were issuing strong warnings on their station spiel, things like "You WILL LOSE loose articles brought on this ride." East of the ride wristband booth is a row of abandoned games booths. Go past that and down a gravel path for a while toward the lake. There will be one random hot dog stand for some reason, and just past that is that sign. Because Conneaut Lake Park. You should go! Just go on a $10 day, I've seen reports of those $5 crowds...ouch.

Ah, Stricker's Grove, the Birkin Bag of amusement parks. It's not better than other things, you just want it because you're told you can't have it. One of these days I'll get to Camden Park, because McElroy Brothers.

Day 8: Streakin' and Flyin' All right, theme park fans, it's time to get back to some parks. I had fun in Pittsburgh, and it was a great way to break up a coaster trip with some more low-key, relaxing activities, but this is in fact a coaster trip and it was time to get back to the coasters. I started my day with breakfast at the Eat 'n' Park near my hotel. It's really great and really cheap! After that, I got back on the Interstate and headed north to a couple of classic parks that have wildly differing quality. It was really interesting to see the stark difference. I get it, if you want to go the lake, why go to Conneaut Lake when you can go to Lake Erie just an hour away? Now that's a lake! Conneaut was a lot of fun for what was there. It won't take you very long to get through it all; I only spent about an hour at the park, and that was with really taking my time. The rides are all classics, and are well taken care of, they're just old. I didn't have any safety concerns here, and there were a lot of families and grandparents with their grandkids, trying to pass on the tradition. The "Yeah, we know you're only here for one reason" sign Hmm...where do I get a wristband? This must be the place. OMG, these is the cheapest-looking wristband I've ever seen, like cheaper than the ones you get from bars saying you're an adult. Devil's Den is so cool. I think this was my favourite ride there. The ending is genuinely surprising and awesome. I won't spoil it, just get your ass to Conneaut Lake Park and bring a really positive attitude with you, and you'll love it. They had bumper cars. The carousel was really great. They have hand painted images of classic rides that used to be at this park. The only other uncovered Musik Express I've ever seen is at the fair. Blue Streak was awesome. I rode in the back, and there is a ton of air. It's maybe a bit rough, but nothing like its reputation. Not so rough that's it's not fun. Tumble Bug was down. Glad I got to ride Kennywood's. They have a small waterpark that appeared to be popular. The train basically goes around Blue Streak. You get some good photo opportunities. Wait, is that the Toboggan from Lakemont??? In the back of the park they have this nice entrance fountain... ...and these nice entrance ticket booths that are empty. With that done, I headed on to Erie. Got a good recommendation for U Pick 6 Drafthouse for lunch. Awesome sandwiches. Waldameer was a fun afternoon. I got the combo wristband and since the waterpark closes early, that was my focus early on, but I made sure to get the essentials in first. I wasn't going to chance a breakdown happening while I was in a fairly standard lazy river. Waldameer's entrance is fairly utilitarian. They have a Skyride! Priorities. Comet is a fun coaster. Not super intense, but a total classic and awesome from start to finish. Despite not being able to choose your seat, I got both a front and back row ride that day. Absolutely worth the trip for this. Ravine Flyer II is of course the reason I was going to Waldameer. It's their premier ride there, and is incredible. The view of the lake is awesome, right up there with Millennium Force and Wildfire, and the rest of the ride is twisty and intense. Love it, and I rode it several times all over the train. Like most coasters with a great view, it's best in the front. Wacky Shack is a ridiculous dark ride that is so much fun. The line moves slowly for it, but I love Wacky Shack. This is the sort of hilarious, weird, trippy dark ride I love. Kind of a mashup of the ones at Indiana Beach and Moreys. Super great; do not miss this while you're here. Pirate's Cove is a cool walkthrough maze. Loved this. Pirate's Cove is another must-do attraction. It's a maze in the dark through some twisty passages, with some cool pirate stuff to see here and there. Seems like it's intended to be scary, but it's not very intense. Lots of kids were going through this over and over. I was the only one in line when I walked up to this, so I asked for the best view of the lake from the drop tower, and the attendant pointed me to the right seat. Beautiful, and the drop is unexpected and awesome like these towers always are. With the essentials done, I headed across for splashy fun. The waterpark is really fun; the new slide, CannonBOWL, is great, as this type often are. Original plans for this trip were for it to be in June, but work schedule pushed it back. This water was freezing, and it was late August. I cannot imagine how awful the water temperature must be earlier in the summer. Back in the ride side now, it was time to reride the two wooden coasters and get to the few other rides I hadn't done yet. I liked the Steel Dragon, pretty smooth and one of the better mice I've ridden. The Music Express had a really long ride cycle, forward and backward. The Disk'o was as great as they always are, and the train was long and relaxing and went all over both parks. Who's ready for SKYRIDE PHOTOS?!!! Waldameer is fantastic. It's small, and I was done in about four hours, even taking my time and doing everything that I wanted to. What is here is consistently good quality, and couple that with free admission and low wristband prices, along with a great lakeside location, and this park is a winner. The charm of this park is up to 11. Well, it won't be soon.... If you weren't so far away...but I'll probably be in this area again at some point. On the way to Sandusky (spoilers!) I stopped in Cleveland for some more Hofbrauhaus! Yep, that's two in two days. I'm a fan of German food, and there are a lot of Germans in my ancestry. It was much, much bigger than the Pittsburgh location, and right in the heart of the theatre district. The previous day I had a hard time choosing between bierwurst and pierogis, so I knew what dinner would be tonight! They had a live polka band here, and it was just so much fun. Highly recommended. German goodness awaits. Look who else is here! They had some excellent pierogis. Saving the best for last--always the way to do it--I drove into Sandusky for 2 days at the most fun peninsula on Earth.

Oh wow, that's really extensive. I don't know that Sea World has the money to get it up to Orlando standards at the moment, so it could be just fixing a bunch of stuff on a 15 year old, mechanically complicated ride. Would be cool if they did add theming though.

Haha, that's awesome.

Yeah other than the slow line there's nothing that can be criticised about Flying Turns. Glad you liked Knoebels so much; it really deserves all the hype it gets. The pierogis are for real, and the rides are pretty good too I guess.

This park does look really great...with kids. That rusty rockets whip ride is good, we have one at Worlds of Fun. My five year old loves it.

Remember that until very recently SDC was never open at night except during Christmas, and it's very bright with the Christmas lights. Sunset in July is after 8 pm, and with the park staying open until 10 most days in Moonlight Madness, it's not dark for that long. I doubt it's worth the expense for a couple hours a day for a couple of weeks.

Really dude. You went straight to "Am I not allowed to have an opinion"? I'm not going to engage with trollish behaviour, and AJ said it really well already.

That ride would be perfect in say, I don't know, a Valentine's Day section.

Thanks, SteveUrkle! This thread was way too positive, and we really needed someone to completely overreact to this news. We were dangerouly low on complaints and were teetering on the edge of losing our coaster enthusiast site street cred. Now we're safely within coasterboy parameters.

Surely is. This is from the age when wealthy men showed off their wealth by building elaborate public buildings. Carnegie did more than anyone to make Pittsburgh what it is, so he went all out on that library. Best of all, it's still a free public library! If you live in Pittsburgh and have a library card, you can totally check things out from it just like any other library.

^ Yeah, thanks for letting me know about the one in Pittsburgh, was very good. Wow, how time goes by. Yinz ready for the next installment? Day 7: A Man, a Plan, a Library No visit to Pittsburgh would be complete without a visit to the original Carnegie Library. Almost every town in America has one--in fact, Springfield calls theirs the Carnegie Branch Library--and it's all because of the profound philanthropic work of steel magnate Andrew Carnegie. Today, the library is also a really great art museum and natural history museum, and is a really great all day destination. The natural history museum is in the wings of the main library building, while the art museum is (mostly) in an annex out back. I did the art museum first, and it's really great. There's a lot to see, from Renaissance to modern abstract and even film. They present it in a way that educates visitors about the importance of art. You're not just seeing a Monet, you're learning what made Monet great, and what he was saying to his world. The museum teaches you to think like an artist. Kudos to the curators for having that vision and executing on it so well. The natural history museum is similarly spectacular, with several near-complete dinosaur skeletons, in-depth exhibits on Native American and Egyptian life, a huge display of rare gems, and one gigantic room full of columns, frescoes, and other architecture from the classical and Renaissance eras. The museum will take you all day, and it is very much worth it. Stop by next year when yinz come for Steel Curtain. Carnegie Museum was great. Oh this isn't an exhibit. This is the building. After the museum, I made my way to the top of Mt. Washington. I first drove to the top, and I got a real taste of Pittsburgh. I went up a winding switchback road, and around one curve I saw another Jeep at the top (Did I mention I have a Jeep and drove that to Pittsburgh? I don't think I did, probably because it wasn't relevant until now). He rolled down his window and folded his mirror in, so I did the same, and he waved me up. It was a tight fit, but we made it! I appreciate my Jeep now more than ever. The view from the top of the mountain is incredible. It costs $2 to park up there, and there are several lookout platforms for good photos. You can also get a return ticket on the incline railway, so that's what I did. It was so much fun! Super steep, elevatorish more than it is trainish, except that it's very much on rails. The only incline railway I had been on previously was Silver Dollar City's, so this was really cool. It's just part of Pittsburgh's public transit system, and I can see why. If I lived up there, I wouldn't want to drive that either. I didn't want to drive back down frankly, but I had to. Glad I got to experience the real Pittsburgh though. This was way better than experiencing the real Philadelphia. Great views of the city from up here. Incline railway station. The view from the bottom. The last thing for the day was the Hofbrauhaus over by Hot Metal Bridge. They had a fantastic dunkel and some really great bierwurst. I love this place so much. Best of all, to my surprise, I discovered it's a chain, and they have one in Cleveland...where I will be driving through tomorrow.... Good German eats and drinks? Yes please! Pretzels and mustard, as it should be. Having had this same meal in Germany, this is absolutely authentic. That's it for Pittsburgh. Coming up next, the rest of Western PA, including Waldameer and Conneaut Lake Park!

We had to cut "Pizza on Earth," "Five Onion ringy dingy ding-a-ling dings," and "Wok-in' in a Winter Wonderland," from the first draft, but ... oh well. You guys kill better puns than most people ever think of.