Sue

I agree that it's not the best place to post it. I normally wouldn't check that page either, but I'm glad that I did. It's also nice that they do at least warn you ahead of time. For us, Top Gun is still the only reason to go. We've already ridden Borg and Vortex and have no need to ride them again. Stand-up and flying coasters are usually a ride once and never again for us. If I had to pick a 2nd best coaster, it would be Hurler. However, those coasters are very hit or miss--either they're running really good or really bad. So, how do you guys consider Hurler to be running this year?

Does anyone happen to know why Top Gun at Carowinds is closed this weekend? It's listed on their website as being closed on 9/15 and 9/16. There's a chance we might go the following weekend, but we probably won't bother if Top Gun isn't operating.

We sure do, but I'd much rather have it done for me.

Don't hate me for saying this, but I'm one who would wait until the last minute to merge. The reason for that is because that's what I've seen done my entire life so that's become my way of thinking. I've actually never heard of or seen people get into one lane before a merge point. I don't necessarily think it's a matter of right or wrong in this case. I think it has to do with where you're used to driving.

I'm with you, Nicole! The most aggravating thing for me about PA drivers is that they stop on entrance ramps when entering a highway. To me, that lane is for accelerating and if you don't accelerate, you're never going to be able to merge. I guess it could be the NJ driver in me, but if you ever did such a thing in NJ, you'd get killed. The other thing about PA is that people don't move into the intersections when making a left turn. They just sit behind the line and wait for the next green arrow. I know there are some intersections where that's the way it is, but I'm talking about the intersections where it's "left turn yield on green". If they would just move up into the intersection, 3 or so cars could turn before waiting for the next green arrow. PA drivers also love driving in the left lane for no reason. I do so much passing in the right lane, it's ridiculous. Even being from NJ, I'm courteous enough to move to the right when I'm not passing. That felt good to vent!

Would Sammi like to go to Cedar Point at the end of August? I'd gladly pay to get the Jr. Gemini credit. That credit has just been impossible to get.

We're not much into visiting waterparks, but we decided to give Camelbeach a try on Sunday. It seems the weekend must be the big time for out-of-state visitors as every car in the lot had either NJ or NY plates. They offer scenic chairlift rides and mini golf in the price of admission which is a nice touch. It was fairly crowded, but the lines were manageable and we had a fun day. The only disappointment is that they closed slide lines early so that they would be finished with the line by closing time. Triple Venom slides and Titan family slide: Camel Cove water play area and Checkered Flag Challenge racing slides: Scenic Chairlift: Alpine Slide which is no longer used: 2 enclosed slides and 2 open slides: Bumper Boats: Looking back as we go up the Chairlift: On top of the mountain: Looking down one of the ski slopes: Going down: On the right is the Spin Cycle and Vortex bowl slides along with the Kahuna Lagoon wave pool:

The neighborhood around the park is fine. It has nothing to do with Allentown. Something like this could happen ANYWHERE.

For seaside parks, I'd have to go with Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk on the west coast as my favorite. For the east coast, it would probably be Wildwood. None of the coasters at Wildwood are that great, but there's still quite a bit to ride there. The Zoom Phloom there is the best flume ride I've ever been on.

The second day of the ACE Preservation Con was held at Astroland in Coney Island. Since we were there early, we lucked out and got on the first train of the Cyclone during ERT. We're not fans of Cyclone at all, but we rode towards the front and it wasn't as bad as we remembered. After getting off, the line was HUGE and they were only running one train. We found Donna, Jan, Judy, and Ann towards the end of the line and they decided not to wait. Instead, we all headed to the subway to visit Victorian Gardens in Central Park. Here's the line of ACEer's waiting for Cyclone as we left on the subway: Before getting to Victorian Gardens, we came across the Central Park Carousel. We then arrived at Victorian Gardens and rode the Mini Mouse. It's certainly not a cheap credit as it cost us $9.50 each($7.50 admission plus $2 for the ride). After returning to Coney Island, we took another ride on Cyclone with a much shorter line and 2 train operation. No air gates here! I then had to take a ride by myself on the Breakdance which is my favorite Coney Island ride. Forget the Cyclone, it's all about the Breakdance! I took 2 insane rides in a row and loved it! We then headed next door to take a ride on the Wonder Wheel at Deno's. The swinging cars are so much fun to ride! We passed on the Sea Serpent coaster since we had ridden on a previous visit, but the others still needed their credit. Coney Island was jumping yesterday. I'm sure the Brooklyn Cyclones baseball game was part of the reason, but it was just wall-to-wall people all over the place. Both parks were doing very well yesterday! Here's a couple of other random shots at Coney Island: Our last stop of the day was the Adventures Family Entertainment Center in Brooklyn. They have a new wacky worm style coaster called TL3 which just opened this year. We weren't expecting this day to be that great since we've never been crazy about Coney Island, but it turned out to be a really fun day with good rides and good friends.

During the afternoon on Saturday, we headed to the NJ shore to visit Casino Pier in Seaside Heights. The main reason for our visit was to ride the newly opened Pirate's Hideaway coaster. Since we had a 1/2 price ticket book that we bought during their annual Easter sale, we were able to ride quite a bit more as well. Everyone was on the beach so it was easy to ride everything that we wanted. Pirate's Hideaway looks good from the outside, but as I've heard others say, it's like riding a coaster through a warehouse. No theming inside at all! The trains are nicely themed, but are very uncomfortable. Chillin' at Casino Pier: Hot Tamale coaster: Awesome Disk'o ride on the edge of the pier over the ocean: Wild Mouse: Yay for indoor Scramblers! Star Jet coaster(the placement of this ride makes you feel like you're going in the ocean): Stillwalk Manor dark ride: Sky Ride: Funtown Pier in the distance:

The Tidal Wave is still there and running. In fact, all of the rides at Trimper's seemed to be running and doing quite a good business.

Since I'm trying to get my coaster count to 700 by the end of the year, we decided to take a crazy trip to Maryland and Virginia to ride some coasters that were new since our last visit. First stop on Saturday: Six Flags America Even though there wasn't any new coasters added since our last visit, we still decided to make a quick stop. The employees at the parking booths and front gate were friendly, but the ones working the rides were slow and lifeless. The only rides closed were Tower of Doom which was expected and Two Face which, from what we've heard, has been down a while now. There were maintenance workers working in the station at Two Face though so hopefully progress is being made. Most coasters were running 2 trains except for Joker's Jinx. That was disappointing since that was one we wanted to ride, but had to pass due to the line. Ride Count Superman: Ride of Steel-1 Wild One-1 Roar-1 Second stop on Saturday: Ocean City, MD If anyone wants to go to Ocean City, MD, do yourself a favor and don't go on a Saturday. The traffic was absolute HELL! We thought about turning around and forgetting it, but we did stick it out. It took us 1 hr 20 min to go 8 miles. That same 8 mile stretch going away from Ocean City took us 16 minutes. Our first stop was at Trimper's to ride the Wacky Worm. Awesome Haunted House where you ride in coffin-shaped cars: Toboggan and Drop Tower: Jolly Roger Pier: Our next stop in Ocean City was Jolly Roger to ride the Racing coaster and Wacky Worm. Ride Count Trimper's Wacky Worm-1 Jolly Roger Wacky Worm-1 Jolly Roger Racing coaster-1 Third stop on Saturday: Motorworld in Virginia Beach, VA We had a bit of trouble getting on the coaster here since the operator didn't speak much English and didn't want to let us on. We weren't giving up since I knew for a fact that other adults had ridden earlier this year. I would normally contact a park before trying to ride a kiddie coaster, but since we knew others who had ridden, I didn't bother this time. We eventually found a supervisor who said the only restriction was that no more than 4 adults could ride at a time so we got our ride on Motorworld Express. Ride Count Motorworld Express-1 Fourth stop on Saturday: Go Karts Plus in Williamsburg, VA We just made a quick stop here to ride the Python Pit coaster. Ride Count Python Pit-1 First stop on Sunday: Busch Gardens Europe We had hoped to make it here Saturday night but, thanks to Ocean City and it's "lovely" traffic, we weren't able to make it. Again, this was only a quick stop to ride Griffon. Thanks to the single rider line, we were able to both get a front row and second row ride in a short amount of time. It was a fun ride, but we both prefer Oblivion and Shiekra over Griffon. Ride Count Griffon-2 Second stop on Sunday: Kings Dominion Since we were passing by and have season passes, we made another quick stop at Kings Dominion. They only ride we went on was Grizzly which is one of our favorite wooden coasters. Ride Count Grizzly-3 Third stop on Sunday: Planet Fun in Greenbelt, MD This used to be a Jeepers location, but is now called Planet Fun. The former Python Pit roller coaster was transformed into the Haunted Roller Coaster. Ride Count Haunted Roller Coaster-1 Fourth stop on Sunday: Adventure Park USA in New Market, MD We stopped here to ride the Wildcat coaster which used to be at Williams Grove. They did an excellent job of refurbishing the track and the trains. Back when we rode it at Williams Grove, I was praying that we would make it back to the station in one piece. Everything at Adventure Park seemed to be in immaculate condition. Although it's a bit out of the way, they seemed to be doing a good business. Ride Count Wildcat-1 Speaking of Williams Grove, we passed by there on the way home to see the Cyclone sitting dormant.

After seeing the various people pictures posted on this site, I just had to take a picture of this "prize" we saw at Beech Bend this weekend.

Fred and Wilma have returned for the 2007 season and are still providing "quality" entertainment.

Congrats Pam and Brian! Cliff performed our wedding on Boulder Dash last year. One week from today is our one year anniversary.

I'd take BGA any day because Montu and Kumba are far better than anything BGE has in my opioion. Plus, as Robb said, I also love the tortoises at BGA. BGE used to have a petting zoo with tortoises though. Does anyone know if that's still there? On our last visit, that section was closed off for a Halloween maze.

What a disappointing ending! Eric and Danielle were on the CBS morning show and said they're not even together anymore. Big suprise there!

The only 2 I really don't want are Eric and Danielle. At least the chances are good to finally have an all-female team win this time.

Awww, that's too bad. I'm suprised they're not out yet now that the weather is warmer. They're really amusing to watch--whether it be mating or trying to climb over the fence. Watching other peoples reactions when they're mating is especially priceless.

Great TR, Chuck! I enjoyed it. Did any of you happen to notice if the Aldabra tortoises in the Golden Kingdom area at GA were out yet? I'm sure Robb would've noticed if they were.

Great TR. It looks like it was a fun day! Were you allowed to reride anything since there seemed to be no lines? PKD used to be great for letting you reride when there were no lines, but I'm wondering if Cedar Fair has put an end to that.

Not that there's really been the need for all trains to run so far this year with the cold weather and low crowds, but quite a few coasters at SFGAd haven't been running to capacity. --El Toro just started running 2 trains on Monday. --Nitro and Runaway Mine Train's 3rd trains are both still in pieces --Rolling Thunder has only been using one train on one track --GASM and Medusa have only been using 2 trains --S:UF seems to mostly be one train It definitely seems like they're going to make the effort this year, but it's not there just yet. Shapire visiting Europa can only be a good thing. I haven't been there yet, but from what I've heard, it's definitely one of my must-get-to parks.

I can't believe Chiller opened! We were there until about 5:30 and never even saw it test.

Those wait signs seem very innacurate to me. I don't think it's accurate to have permanent signs like that when the waits vary due to the number of trains running. Even if it was one train operation, those wait times seem inflated. I guess they think people will be happy if they get on quicker than the signs indicate. Then again, for people who aren't as familiar with the park as we are, I could see those signs discouraging people from going on the ride because they think the wait really is that long.