Erik Johnson

I am curious, has anyone else been on this cruise in the past few months?

Waaaaaaaaaa! With that said, I am sure they will get everything working again very soon.

Monster Mansion walkthrough sounds amazing!

Thanks for posting. I know it takes a lot of effort to post a review like this one.

What do you mean?....2203 people killed already!

Whoa! You can already watch it on Netflix! I can start it 8 minutes before you!

Thanks! They are still using the old Chiller station for a Halloween Haunt, so it is still getting some use.

It has been a real constant struggle for me these past few years. Like Larry said, it is really important to stay hydrated while in the parks. Also, you need to pace yourself throughout the day and take breaks. So far I have found that Motion Eaze seems to work really well. It is basically a peppermint smelling liquid that you rub in behind your ear lobes.

Hah, I did ride it 6 or 7 times that day. The hour of evening ERT was simply amazing! Sorry I did not take any photos of it this time around. I have plenty of them from previous visits.

Opa! Is in the ride building. Sorry to see how this park seems to get worse from year to year. They really need to start spending some money on the upkeep of these coasters.

Six Flags Great Adventure! After five visits I have to say that this is still my favorite Six Flags in the entire chain (I have been to all of them except Mexico and Discovery Kingdom). Six Flags Over Texas and Georgia are a close second and third. Overall, the ride operations were simply amazing. They had multiple trains on everything, and the ride ops really hustled getting people on and off the rides. Operations were simply night and day when compared to La Ronde. While I do not have many general park photos in this update, we were given a super rare opportunity to have both a Nitro and Kingda Ka walkback tour. Again, thanks to Robb and Elissa for organizing this amazing trip. I will have another update after this one with my individual coaster reviews. Good morning Six Flags Great Adventure! We meet again Chang....I mean Green Lantern. For whatever reason, I found the ride to bash me up a lot more as Green Lantern. Maybe it was revenge because I thought that the new movie was not very good. The old Chiller station is still here. Not many people get the chance to do go under this. It was pretty amazing opportunity to walk back here. First drop goodness! Nitro doing what it does best. The full first drop. First drop from a distance. Off the Mid. Nitro Nitro Nitro's big drop after the first turnaround. Hammerhead! Trim! A little more sunlight is always good. The hammerhead looks funky from this angle. The hammerhead really is quite tall. Nitro Hammerhead and trees. Remember to get a secured box folks. Nitro is still one of the best B&M hypers. I am finally happy to be able to get good photos of the layout. Nitro I can't wait to see what kind of photos were taken with some of the nicer cameras. Funky supports! Bonus walkback! Most people only can get shots like this. Or maybe even this. If you are on a TPR trip, you get perks like this. Kingda Ka station. Here they go! Water is constantly running to help keep everything cooler. Kingda Ka doing what is does! All 450 feet of Kindga Ka. Still the tallest in the world. It reaches 128 mph right here. It reaches around 100mph on the return trip. Hanging out with Kingda Ka. You get dizzy trying to look at the very top from this angle. We are directly under the ride now. I bet that is a scary elevator ride. Yeah, it seriously would be a scary elevator ride. Support! From behind the ride. It really is a long way up to the top of the tallest coaster in the world. We see you Rolling Thunder! Both sides were running today...and they were trying to race them. For me, this part of the ride is pretty scary. Kingda Ka! The sheer force of an 128mph launch. It is pretty impressive being this close to it. I never tire of looking at the top from here. It is time to head back. Thank you TPR and Six Flags for this once in a lifetime tour. Kindga Ka launch! Everyone has this shot. Two lines in either direction. Very cool! Overview of the park. After five visits to the park, I finally got to experince this cool attraction.

Six Flags Great Adventure coming soon.

The Great Escape! Magic Forest Easily the most surprising park of the trip. I honestly did not know much about this park other than it is a Six Flags park. You would not know that while you are in the park as it really has a totally different vibe than every other Six Flags park in the chain. It really feels like a family owned park in that it has retained much of that old charm that is missing from every other Six Flags park. While the coaster collection is not the very best, The Comet proved otherwise. Are you ready for a LOT of new photos? Good Morning....The Great Escape! You are greeted by an rather large S&S tower at the front of the park. TPR trip perk #352. You get into parks super early before the regular crowds. Are you sure this is a Six Flags park? Bizzare! Good morning Comet! See....Comet! There is a lot of history behind The Comet. More history. More happy TPR riders. Reverse shot of more happy TPR riders. I thought Comet was really good, especially in the front car. There are lots of nice pops of airtime throughout the ride. Fast happy TPR riders! Easily one of the best coasters on the trip. We got lucky in that the most difficult credit in the park opened today. Go Team Jamaica! The old Looney Tunes area received a new makeover for this season. It says so right here. The old Road Runner Express earned a new name. No matter the name, TPR was there. Many were able to earn this credit. These would be all of the new characters in the area. My guess is that many of the rides received a make over as well. The old walkthrough is still here, minus Looney Tunes. Which way again? Most of the area consists of suspension bridges. This house looks pretty abandoned. Some of the these bridges were are bit tricky to get across. Isn't that right? Hooray! Another Boomerang credit! As far as Boomerangs go, this was one of the better ones. Google maps was here....I wonder if TPR will be all over the next Great Escape update? Canyon Blaster was next! Big mine train! More happy TPR riders. Still teasing riders. The name really is a warning. At least we did not have to wait long for it. Maybe it was my row, but this was the worst coaster on the trip. Even the loop hurt. The log flume was pretty good. You drop out of this box. Then your TPR friends drench you with the water sprayers. I am not sure what Neil said could be printed here. Ha ha ha! Just try to escape. The Swan Boats would be the most classic attraction in the park. Swan Boat! Ready for your ride? You get a nice relaxing tour of the park. Who knew that M&Ms could fly. This would be the park's original name. No idea! Yes, we see you. Look who it is! Dueling Swan Boats! Want to check out The Great Escape from above? You can thank this guy. Bobsled! You start way down there. Team Jamaica is ready! I hope they know about the final bashing turn. Comet! There is one of these here. Giant turn table. So evil! The Great Escape has kept many of the classic areas intact. Giant tree! It is awesome that they have kept some of this stuff. Three Little Kittens. Here they are. This looks meancing. I guess it is the way to the Ghost Town so I have to go! Do I have to go into the scary looking hole? Reverse waterfall shot. You exit out of this tunnel. Looks like we wandered into the middle of a gunfight. They must have a show here. The Great Escape easily has the most charm of any Six Flags park. I mean, does this look like a normal Six Flags park? Pig! Wow, this pig has a lot of history. Look who I found. This sponsor makes sense for this ride. S&S towers are always fun! I always like doing car rides. POV! How was the music? You find out a lot of history of the park while riding the train. Oh no! Another Ghost Town! Looks dead to me. Jungle Land! Looks scary! Watch out for the elephant! Frankie's Mine Train. Which ones look like TPR members? After a great day at The Great Escape we approach a bonus park! Magic Forest! This is why we are here. It took a few attempts to get over the lift hill. Attempt #2 Attempt #3 After four attempts (and unloading the back car) the train makes it over. So fast! We had a few minutes to explore the rest of the park. Spacemen! This was super unique! Pretty amazing collection. Who would have though that this was here at this park. Six Flags Great Adventure is next!

We did not have any time to explore Montreal. There simply was not enough time since we had a long drive afterwards.

La Ronde Yes, I am a coaster geek. I finally got to ride the last B&M Hyper and Batman/Clone B&M Inverted coaster that I needed in North America. I guess I really need to finally travel to Europe/Middle East/Japan soon so I can get the others. With that said, I hate to say that I found La Ronde to be one the bottom tier Six Flags parks I have ever visited (It is still better than Six Flags America). While the park is really not bad, the ride operations were some of the worst I have ever experienced. For example, it took us 50 minutes to get on the SLC with a gold Q-bot. The Vekoma corkscrew seemed to dispatch once ever 8-10 minutes. Le Monstre only had one train per side operating with a very full queue. I should say that, for whatever reason, operations were really good for the Intamin standup. With that said, I still had a pretty good time in the park. Both Goliath and Le Vampire were both solid rides. I also found that the indoor coaster, Dragon, to be a real fun surprise. Anyways....onto the photos. Yay! French Canada! The storm totally took out this deck. We parked the bus right next to Le Monstre. Most people know this as the Freecreditreport.com coaster. We know better. Here they go! Exclusive lift hill shot. It really is a modern take on the old out and back coasters. Lots of that floaty airtime. Do you have one of these Larry? It certainly is a different varation of the classic carousel. Adults can not ride it, unless you have a kid. The scariest thing about this ride was the lapbars. This ride looks very familiar. Oh, it is one of those non-official versions. All of these rides kick butt. This version also has mist. Lots of mist! Make sure you get this early, it is not on the Q-bot. I wanted to take the best possible photo of the Vekoma corkscrew. It is called that. I really did LOVE this ride! Indoor coaster....With LOTS of cool dragons. Oh dear God! This really should have been a good warning. Those poor people! They do have a big wheel at this park. Also a wave swinger. They also have one of these! That would be the name. You can get some nice photos of the park from the observation tower. The SLC is pretty much 100% over the water. It really is the only place to get photos of Le Monstre from inside the park. Yes, there are two sides to Le Monstre. Yes, both of them were open that day. Goliath. Le Vampire and Montreal. Dragon! More coasters from above! Broken Condor #1 from above. Oh boy! Hooray! I do like Arrow mini-mine trains, but they have a strict, "must have a kid" policy on this one. A few people got the credit though. Bonjour Cameron! Happy elephant! Happy chicken! We can't forget about the Intamin stand-up.....can we? Those poor people! At least ride operations were really good on this one. You do know that this stand-up has an airtime hill, right? You can see the airtime hill on the far right. No idea. Again...no idea. Air filled bumper cars. Just in case Larry. Funky monorail. Now we leave Montreal, with a random photo of Dolphin Lake.

Sorry about that! I honestly do take very few pictures of people.

I honestly think that there would not have been enough time to do it, but you always have to save something for another visit!

Those evening shots are really awesome. It certainly was a great event, the backstage tour of Bizzaro was a real surprise.

Canobie Lake Park. I thought this park was pretty good. It has a good ride selection, good family rides, and places you can just simply sit back and relax. New for this year was Untamed which I thought was a good fit for this park. Even thought I am not much of a Eurofighter fan, it seemed like most people enjoyed it. Well, I got to head off now, so enjoy the photos! Good morning, Canobie Lake Park Time to get our special TPR stuff. AKA tickets and wristbands. It is always good to have a park map. Especially if you have never been here before. Untamed is the brand new Eurofighter. It is TPR's for the next 60 minutes. Bear! Bear themed trains! A train full of happy TPR riders. Untamed is a good fit for a smaller park like Canobie. The supports are painted to make them look like trees. More construction going on in the new Big Bear Plaza. We also have ERT on the Yankee Cannonball Blurry happy riders. Lift hill. Oh dear! We love Arrow corkscrews!! Trees do not help the ride. Rules of the ride. They have one of these as well. Ha ha ha ha! Madonna and Ozzy could make for an interesting tour. They have a pretty awesome dark ride here. I thought it was the best attraction in the park. "You go through mines as well as travel to Egypt." More happy riders. The snapping was really amazing on these flyers. The New England area of the park was really nice. It might be the wettest splashdown boat ever built. Notice the covered drop. No one is spared. Reverse splash shot. "Can we just leave you guys here?" While they do have one, this maybe the worst Catepillar photo ever. Yay! Air Condition. Thank goodness for ERT! Both of the main coasters were quite popular during the day. Wheeee! Canobie Lake does have a good collection of pinball. It is fitting that they have this one here since Canobie Lake was one of the major influences for the game. TPR won the Jackpot 3 times! Time to get the tickets! 15 minutes later. There is actually a lake here. You can take a boat ride into the lake as well. Wave Swinger. Old classic Carousel with a working musical organ. I always try to ride these rides. Canobie Lake Park is a really nice family park. Log Flume! Here it comes! Sploosh! It was cool that they still have these really old short movie machines all around the park. Bears! Time to head on out of the park. Bye Yankee Cannonball!

It is not a top 20 ride, but it is pretty solid.

Quite a bit of the water that spilled on Chris was from my cup. Sorry Chris.

After a 10 minute drive we make it to Funtown Splashtown. It is the largest park in Maine and features a good sized wooden coaster, Excalibur. For a smallish park, the have really spent some time and money with the area surrounding the coaster as well as the S&S tower. They also have a pretty good collection of flats and other standard park rides. While I did not visitt the waterpark section, I understand that it was quite good. Ok, onto the photos. For an added enhancement to this section feel free to click the youtube video below as it features one of the music selections which you can hear in the Camelot section of the park. About 10 minutes later we made it to Funtown Splashtown. See! I was correct, right? Excalibur would be the main reason why we are here. The park does have another coaster. Rodent! Thumbs up for the mouse. Random swings ride. Well, they have really themed up the area around Excalibur. Excalibur! Even the loading station is themed. Ride Stats! Aussie takeover! Up the lift they go! Thumbs up for Excalibur! This would be the entrance into the station. The first drop is the best part of the ride. The drop is really amazing in the back car. Is that you Dave? Overall, I did find the front row to be my favorite. While a little rough, I found it to be a solid ride. More happy riders. Next to Doctor Doom, Dragon's Descent may be the most themed S&S tower on the planet. Yes, it towers over the park. Hah....Even the rules are themed. Just in case if Larry needs one for the Park Index. Garbels...are you ready for your ride? How is it up there Garbels? More theming. Dragon's Descent. Those are some serious seagulls. It is dark out, must be time for Excalibur ERT. Excalibur station......at night! Everyone loves ERT! See! I was right. Pac-Man is timeless. Proof that we are in Maine.

It is time to head up to Maine. Palace Playland was the first park of our, "Maine Day". It is basically a small park by the ocean with a few common attractions. The most important feature of this park is that there are 2 coaster credits here. Since Maine only has 5 credits in the entire state, it was necessary to check this place out. After a long drive we stopped by here for lunch. The lobster stew and beer selection were amazing. My first park in Maine. "I need about 630 tickets please!" My first coaster credit in Maine. At least the Brit crew is ready to ride. Wheeeee! Here they come again! Wheeeee! Part 2 Yes, they do have another credit at this park. I do not think anyone noticed that I was taking a picture. Wheeee! Part 3 See....Galaxi They did have this funky Aladdin in French fun house. Hi Aladdin! Dave seemed to really like this fun house. Is it a Genie or The Hulk? You decide. Spinning like a record player. Hi Cameron! Certainly a funky drop tower. There was a large pier right next to the park. This is the pier. Map of the park. Looks like the Salvation Army decided to have a parade. We just made in across the street in time.

^ I honestly do not remember if the mist was on in the first tunnel. It certainly was on in the second one as well as through the series of Superman shields.

Next up is Lake Compounce as well as Bizarro Bash at Six Flags New England. I honestly did not take many photos in these two parks as I have been there before and there was not really much that was new to me. Boulder Dash was running just as well as it did in 2008. It is certainly one of my all time favorite coasters, and I was happy to see that it still is amazing. Bizzaro was running even better than my last visit, though I felt that the new lap bars were not as comfortable as the older Ride of Steel ones. With that said, it still my 1st or 2nd favorite steel coaster in the country. We had 2 full hours of Bizzaro ERT for the bash which was amazing, especially our night rides. We also had a hour of ERT in the waterpark. SFNE's waterpark is one the the best in the entire chain. Anyways let us move onto the next batch of photos. Good afternoon, Lake Compounce. Boulder Dash...Probably my #3 Wooden Coaster. It is that amazing. Dave shuns the lamp post. Another batch of happy TPR riders. Boulder Dash has my favorite lift hill. It climbs up the side of a mountain into the trees. Boulder Dash....doing what it does best. Garfield looks a bit different now. This is what the sign looked like back in 2008. I still have yet to get on the sky ride. Closed due to rainy weather. Riding Boulder Dash at night is a MUST DO for any coaster fan. The ERT session was insane. The next morning we approach stairs made out of M&Ms. Six Flags New England. We are here to ride this. This is what Bizzaro looks like. The coaster was running really well today, especially during evening ERT. This would be the very first coaster I have ridden in two different locations. It used to be at Kentucky Kingdom. Dark Knight was going to be built in the same location in 2008. They basically got the same ride minus the box. I wonder why we are all standing by this gate? Bizzaro walkback! Bizzaro tunnel! The Bizzaro tunnel is basically a tent like structure placed over the original tunnel. First drop! The first drop again, right next to the Bizzaro tunnel. This is what the Bizzaro tunnel looks like from the back. TPR getting ready for the next train. Exiting the Bizzaro tunnel. Bizzaro blasting through a wooden sign. Yes, I am a bit of a geek. Have you had enough yet? These wooden building cutouts were added with the Bizzaro makeover. Here is a close up of the flowers, just in case if you wanted one. Bizzaro...doing what it does best. Lots of good airtime on these hills. Here they go! Ok, we can give you a shot of the Batman floorless coaster as well. Those poor riders on Mind Eraser! Both Thunderbolt and Cyclone were running better this visit due to all of the track work that was done. Bizzaro....Bizzaro....Bizzaro!