boldikus

With GAdv, Morey's, Dorney, SFA and Hershey all within 2.5 hours, I guess I kind of have this. Since I only really go to GAdv (and Moreys) repeatedly, I'll answer speaking only of those. GAdv I went to a bunch in the 80s and early 90s and loved it. I was young so its hard to say why, but I loved the rides, and the park itself and the experience of going left a huge impression on me. It's reputation (what I heard from friends, etc) in the late 90s and early 2000s is what kept me away. Once I went back in 2013, it was almost a completely different park and I was generally impressed on my first visit back. I had this idea of what it had become, and the rides have changed so much that I wasn't paying any attention to cracked paths, faded paint, etc. It certainly felt more corporate but the line-up of rides blinded me to most of that side of things. Ive gone back 11 times since (10 of those in 2014) and the rides keep it from getting stale. I know its a short period of time compared to some other posters who have been going to their home parks for years and years and years, but put it this way - I barely shrugged when I found out about our (lame) 2015 addition. I have minimal desire to ride El Diablo, my hope is that since its "the new thing" it will keep the lines for my preferred rides shorter. The park is close, and the line-up is already stacked so I plan on visiting just as much in 2015. Morey's on the other hand I've been going to every summer, multiple times, for as long as I can remember. Their ride line-up has gotten stale (we've been promised a new coaster for almost the last 10 years) but the atmosphere of the piers, the boardwalk, the food, the lighting packages, the water parks, the beach, the pizza, the fudge, the bars, etc more than makes up for it. My folks live nearby so it's just a short 10 minute walk when I'm in town, and that is huge for someone like me that does not drive. It's such a nostalgic place for me that even though most of the rides are been-there-done-thats, I think I'll always find some reason to go back year after year.

saturday night i drank yeungling lager in cans, and in excess. so gross. still paying for it 2 days later.

Had on a coaster POV (a hyper, I forget which) the other day and the missus, who generally favors wood over steel coasters, says "it freaks me out that you can't see the... legs... while you are riding. It looks like there is nothing underneath the track holding it up." Totally confused, I eventually figured out she meant supports. LMAO. We had a good laugh about it.

^ It's been there since at least December. Flyin Phil caught a shot of it in the lot behind Kingda Ka back on December 21st.

Co-sign on the "rich person" thing. I don't get offended by much, but it's offensive to assume that about someone, imo. I certainly don't have to defend myself to this board, but I was raised in a middle class/working class household, I live in Center City Philly (not cheap) because of my jobs, and currently have a rent payment AND a mortgage AND bills AND loans I'm paying off as the missus and I just bought and are rehabbing our first home. We're also in the early stages of planning a wedding. To do all of that I have to work two jobs (THREE if you count the small amount of money I make DJing). I buy a season pass so that I don't have to pay each time I go to the park. I'll skimp on doing other things I like to do like taking the missus out to dinner and a movie, or I'll pack lunches instead of ordering or stopping for fast food or whatever. I budget my money so that when a friend calls and offers to go up to the park with me, I have some extra money so its not a waste of a day off standing in line. Because I don't drive, I'm usually at the closest park/my home park, and when I go its on a much needed day off. My point is I hustle to earn a living and its my right to spend that hard earned income on the leisure activity of my choice, which is going to parks. I'll get a FP anytime the line is longer than I feel like waiting (30 minutes seems to be my threshold), but I am far from rich.

LMAO watched this 100x as a kid and totally forgot about this part.

I love them. I will absolutely budget any sort of skip-the-line pass at any park I go to, including my home park, because I'm not very patient, get bored easily, and I don't go to a park to stand in line. I'm more willing to wait inline/not buy one @ GAdv since I go so often and have ridden everything there already, but if there are 30min/1hour+ lines I'm usually buying one. If I can afford it, it's hard to resist. They are great @ GAdv because you only really need the gold pass, I've had really good days of constant riding with a regular pass also. I just hate waiting.

All of this. I could not believe how awesome Wild One was when I rode it last year. So much that I had to keep riding it. I'm always surprised there is not more love for it. Not super smooth, but far from rough and a great layout, with such great airtime. Roar, on the other hand... eh. I'd be fine with it getting Iron Horsed.

I hope this means Gadv may be getting Namtab for the second half of the year then? lol Makes sense SFOG is getting it first since their Super Loop is going in their Gotham City area, and will attract more people to the area.

I think most coasters are photogenic, some more than others but I always love to look at them almost as much as I like to ride them. Surprised no one posted the obvious across-the-lake shot of Toro and Kingda Ka (or I missed), so I'll share my favorite photo of my favorite moment of my favorite ride.

Thanks, but not sure if we'll be doing that since our last day will be a long drive home and a big comedown. My sister and my fiancee will be completely wiped by that point, I'm sure and will likely not feel like going that far out of the way for one ride after so many over the few days prior. ^ You originally from Philly? Not everyday you find a Flyers fan from Boston, lol.

Thanks for all of that, everyone! ^^^ We'll all have GPS but the planner in me won't be able to help having printed directions as well for each leg of the trip, so this definitely helps.

We're not staying near Kennywood, the plan is to stop through on the day we drive from Hershey to Cedar Point. The missus' family is from Pittsburg so she's been there a bunch and (kinda) knows the area and is probably the most excited out of us to visit that park. It will essentially be an afternoon stop between the other two parks.

My mother sent this to me the other day. She said it has "1981" written on the back. My cousin is in front, my older sister in 2nd row, me in row 3. If the year is correct I would have been 4 years old, and this is likely my actual first credit (or one of the first). I always say its The Flyer as thats the first coaster I actually remember riding. Anyways, awesome picture. I'm obviously enjoying myself. Not a clue what ride this is - it has to be the Jersey shore (only place we went and its on a boardwalk of some sort) and some sort of prehistoric Wacky Worm.

new Panda Bear album on repeat

Good to know, this type of info is helpful. We're really looking to make the room in Hershey a really cheap no frills, nothing special, just a cheap place to crash as we'll be out early. Yeah, like I said I've just been to Hershey in October and Skyrush was my favorite ride in the park - it's my favorite steel overall so far. Rode it 4xs that night, compared to one ride on everything else - not because I didn't like anything else, we just did a short 4 hour evening so not much time - would have rode Skyrush more, but the park closed. I can see why people complain about the restraints, they were a little awkward and I'm sure after marathoning it I'd be in pain, but they didn't bother me like I anticipated. I could not, however, ride hands up. I tried, but instinct would take over on the airtime hills and I'd be back to whiteknuckling it. Wildcat I didn't love but I far from hated it. I just felt it was a decent woodie, rougher than Lightning Racer for sure but it didn't kill me. Maybe I got it on a good night or something, I don't know. I do remember the first thing I said when I got off was "coaster enthusiasts are pussies". Another factor could be that I rode Thunderhawk at Dorney a few weeks before and THAT was the absolute worst wooden coaster I've been on yet. Just horrible. Painful and zero airtime. I don't know why but from videos I think this looks like a great little ride. Right up my alley. Out of their line-up its my 2nd must-do after Phantom. Surprised it gets such polarizing opinions, but that makes me want to ride it more haha. More of these. A big concern of ours going into this is having eat park food from Friday night to Monday morning. It's looking more and more likely we are staying at Breakers so that we can come and go from our room to the park as we please. All of us would rather have the ability to go back to the room/pool/beach for a break or nap at will instead of having to have all four of us drive back to another hotel/motel off the peninsula. It's definitely not cheap, but I think if we can manage to stretch our cash on the first two Hershey/Kennywood days, we can just splurge and go all in @ CP. Thank you for responding! I follow you on FB and love your photography and know you're obviously at the park A LOT lol. I just keep thinking Memorial Day Weekend = PACKED. But I guess some fast passes will take care of that. THanks again for the advice everyone, I love TPR! I'm getting so excited!

What I did not mention is that we're likely going as a foursome - me, my bro-in-law, my sister, and my lady. All of us love coasters but the missus and my sister may want to take it easy and not go crazy hard riding like me and bro will want to do. So that is why we'd like to stay on site and why I asked about the other things to do as far as restaurants, etc. We can split up if they want to go drink/eat or do the beach or pool or whatever while we're doing rides. Or vice versa (tho I predict bro and I will ride as much/often as we can, we're already kinda freaking out that this trip is actually materializing). Anyways, yes we are trying to keep the budget as small as possible but I think we're feeling like if we're gonna do CP on Memorial Day weekend to just go all in and stay at Breakers. Great advice so far on CP and KW, still hoping some folks chime in on budget hotels near Hershey. Once again its why this board and its members are so awesome, you all will make this trip so much easier and likely better than if I didn't have this resource. Viva la TPR!

I feel like this is going to be a stupid decision due to crowds, but since if we go then we'll all have to take less time off from work, it looks like we are actually going Mem Day weekend as of right now. It's also seeming cheaper to stay on site that weekend. It looks very unique to me and an all around fun ride. From the looks of it Sky Rocket looks right up my alley and the woodies like like good classic rides. I've only spent an evening at Hershey and did 7 of the coasters (missed Comet, one side of Lightning Racer, the boomerang and the mine train) and enjoyed all of them, even Wildcat. Skyrush to me is alone worth another visit, as are the others. I really liked the park itself as well and want to spend a whole day. As I said bro has been but not since 2009 and we really want to get up together so why not make it a stop on the way to CP. Good to know. Any other suggestions around here are welcome. We looked at a few places like Days Inn nearby but we'd like to keep it really cheap since we are just going to be crashing and heading out early to head towards Kennywood. Can anyone break down the difference in the two? Are we talking like a pool? Continental breakfast type stuff? Wifi? If we can get early entry or late night ERT by staying on site I'm willing to pay for that. If we're doing this trip I want the full CP experience. Breakers is what's getting renovated correct? We priced out rooms there for Mem Day weekend and while it isn't exactly cheap it's what we're leaning towards right now. Sounds like a nice morning cup of coffee to me. Another question - I know CP is kind of its own little universe and there isn't much else around right there but are there nearby places to eat within walking distance or a short drive? I'm wondering about eating all weekend. I'd hate to be subjected to park food for two days straight. We'll definitely bring some stuff for the room - snacks, etc but if we wanted to go for like drinks and food at some point is there "better" places in the park or very close by?

Bro already said he wants to do Black Widow, he wanted to ride the version @ Kings Island but my sister would not ride it with him. I think I would try it if I felt up to it. We both love the Screaming Swing so we'd hit that for sure too.

I have not, and I remember reading your report about KennyWood, etc last year and was hoping you'd also respond to this (in addition to locals/those with insider tips, etc) so thank you! This trip started as an idea for a road trip to Cedar Point, since neither of us have been, and once I visited Hershey in October and did Skyrush, its all I've talked to my bro-in-law about since we both love airtime and Intamin. Last time he was at Hershey was when Fahrenheit went up and the park has a really nice collection otherwise in Storm Runner, Great Bear, SDL, the GCI's (I liked Wildcat, sue me!) etc. I also need the Trailblazer and the boomerang creds and I missed Comet too so I definitely want to get back. Anyways, as we were talking about it the idea came up to do Hershey, and head to CP for a few days. We thought "why not stop at Kennywood for a quick credit run on the way? It's right on the way." And so here we are. My main concern @ the park is Phantom. I think it looks amazing. Sky Rocket also looks awesome, even for its size. The woodies are also must-dos, imo. I know Exterminator has a buzz about it but Ive done one spinning mouse and hated it (Ragin Cajun @ SFA). I don't really like most mouse to begin with and hate tea cups with a fiery passion and to me its a combo of the two. We are into some flats too I just don't like anything that spins too much (or at all depending on the day). Bayurn Curve is a huge MUST - loved that ride as a kid, haven't been on one since. Thanks so much for all the advice so far, you guys rock.

This is why I love this board, you guys are freaking awesome, keep em coming! edit: I'm thinking the good thing about our plan is if it looked like heavy rain all day on Friday (Kennywood) we could just skip it entirely and head to CP early since we could have the nighttime/evening park admission included (if we stay on site). Also, after doing some pricing it looks like a room for us @ Breakers is cheaper Memorial Day wknd than the weekend after. I don't know why, but according to the site it is.

^ ^ Good to know as we are not huge water park folks.

sorry for the double post We do not have CF passes at all, we both have 6F season passes but obviously will do us no good on this trip lol. The only other CF park I plan on visiting is Dorney and thats close (aka spontaneous) and cheap (if we buy online). We are thinking of doing Coasting For Kids @ Dorney so that might just be our one day there this year which, if I understand, will work out to be essentially free for us if we manage to raise the funds from friends/family/etc. So, if we have no CF passes and decide to stay on site, just so I understand this, we do get early access to the park because we are staying on site, correct? And I guess depending on a room package we can get park admission included for the two days? We would get FastLane just because, but I don't see any other season to get a season pass since this and Dorney will be the only times we'd use it all year.

Personally I am thinking the weekend after might be a better option because 1. everyone just took a vacation the weekend before and 2. hotels will be cheaper and parks generally less crowded. Both assumptions on my part, so correct me if this is not usually the case. As far as driving night vs morning, we just figured since Kennywood seems like the shortest amount of time we'd need at the three parks we are going to hit, we could squeeze the driving in both in the morning and evening on Friday and not have to worry about travel at all on Thursday and just enjoy Hershey and crash right after, and then on Saturday morning we are already @ CP so we can just get up, eat, and go riding.