Photo TR:NorthEast US/Canada

[davidmorton]

Hi there, (best Simpsons voice)....you may remember me from such previous

P:TRs as "LA/LV", "Germany" , "Spain" , "Holland" and "Texas"

...well this year's installment is along the lines of "bumming around the

North East US for a couple of weeks". Well here we go....

 

-----

 

So I was looking for what to do this year, deciding that I would try going to

some US parks before the kids broke up for holidays, so booked myself a bit of

time of work and booked a flight from the UK to the colonies (into Buffalo and

out of JFK) and off we went.

 

My plan was along the lines of;

 

Darien Lake, have a look at that waterfall, Canadas Wonderland, (then if they let

me back into the country), Knoebels, Hershey, Great Adventure, New England and

a couple of days in Boston.

 

 

After a few ridiculous plane delays all due to weather in the US, I finally get

to Buffalo around 10pm on Sat 2nd June. Crash out and then up nice and early for

a quick trip to;

 

 

Darien Lake - 3/6

=================

 

My hotel was right by Buffalo airport (in hindsight an extremely wise idea given

the delays I had the previous night), so the trip out to DL was a simple 25 mile

or so wander through some rather pleasant countryside. Realised I was near the

place when you could just see a rather large coaster poking up through the trees,

excellent we're off.....

 

Car park was empty, park was empty, I get myself a Season Pass (for reasons that will

be clearer later on for $60) and in we go.

 

Leg it straight to !Superman, and notice that the track going out was stuck on the

lift hill - poor people, how I laughed. They eventually get the train moving and

I manage to get on the next train out....which promptly gets stuck on the lift hill,

this time right next the top. Not laughing so much now am I. The poor ride-op had

to walk all the way up the hill to come to chat to us, but after 5 mins or so they

cleared it and we made our way over the crest.

 

Top ride. I'd been on SFA's a couple of years ago and loved that, so I knew what to

expect - didn't really notice any roughness that people have been moaning about, it

certainly wasn't smooth, but fast. impressive, wonderful hills and all round fun fun

fun.

 

Then by the time we get back in the station, they shut the ride down and I don’t see

it running loaded for the rest of the day (but I'm not there that long!). Even the

test runs they were doing were getting stuck on the hill;

 

Stuck:Ride of Steel

 

Shame. A ride-op tells me they are continually having problems with it - come on DL

sort it out!

 

Frankly that ride was my sole reason for coming out there, having really liked SFA's

and I did really like it, but it was v.annoying that I only got to ride it once, mind

you, 2 minutes later into the Q and I wouldn't have got to ride it at all Now THAT

would have annoyed me.

 

So I do a slow loop of the park - not so bad, not so good. Predator however was

completely awful. Shocking ride. It isn't that big so how can it be that painful?

I wanted to get off half way round, thats ridiculous. I can get broken 2 coasters

into my holiday can I? No wonder it was walk-on.

 

The boomer is in a reasonably scenic position on the lake, as is the SLC (different lake).

 

Shame it was overcast, otherwise this would have turned out ok!

 

Their Arrow looper (Viper) wasn't bad, I resisted the kiddie ride and decided to go

off to see the waterfall by about 12:30 - I hadn't set out with the intention of this

just being a quick "credit run", thats NOT what its all about for me, I just decided

that it would be a better use of my time....

 

...and it was, blimey is that impressive!

 

From the American-side observation tower

 

I wandered around the American side for the rest of the day, did the Maid of the Mist

thingy (which was FANTASTIC - but a bit hard to photograph as you are basically in a cloud

of water for the trip). Excellent, definitely a better idea that sitting around in a

mediocre theme park waiting for a coaster to get mended!

 

 

So the next day I go back to the falls and cross over into Canada (relatively simply).

The Canadian side was much more commercialised than the US (surprisingly) - while the

US is just one big commercial mess, they do do their National Parks really well, and

a lot of the US side of the falls is a National Park, whereas the Canadian side is

pretty much a tourist-trap town. Kudos to the US then!

 

However, the view of the horseshoe falls is somewhat better from the Canadian side

though;

 

From the Skylon tower - part of the Canadian commercialisation

 

 

Lovely! After a few hours staring at the impressive water (theres just SO MUCH of it),

head off to Toronto, mainly to visit Wonderland, but there’s something else I need

to do first....

 

...and that’s go up the big building....

 

View down from the CN Tower

 

I do like those big towers, and the CN Tower is pretty darned impressive. 147 stories

they reckon the top viewing pod is at (where that photo (which my mate with Vertigo

can't even look at!) was taken from). Just needs a drop ride on the side I think

 

 

The next day its off to;

 

 

Canada's Wonderland - 5/6

=========================

 

Didn't really know what to expect from this place. Biggest (best?) park in Canada?

Part (well used to be part) of the Paramount chain (and I liked PKI, PKD and Carowinds

a lot (PGA not so much)). They've got a lot of coasters?

 

Hmmm, well I wasn't very impressed. Yeah they have a lot of coasters, but not a standout

one at all. I suppose the Italian Job is meant to be that, but that wasn't too impressive

really (not been on any of the other IT:STs). I probably liked the big woody "Minebuster"

or "Vortex" the suspended the most, although bizarrely I also quite liked the Tomb Raider

flyer that everyone hates, sure it was bit rough, but it was trying real hard and it was

different, come on its not so bad really is it?

 

Hmmmm Zamperla goodness!!!!

 

Took most of the day to loop around the park, riding all the rides - I even popped my

Top Scan cherry on "Shockwave", weird to realise that I don't think I'd ever even seen

one of these before. Not being too much of a fan of spinny rides (I force myself to go

on Top Spin's occasionally), I was a bit unsure how I'd react to it. But I thought it

was great!

 

Theres not too much more I can say about CW, the locals all seemed to love the SLC (!?!)

and didn't really care that they didn't have any real good coasters. There is a good

selection of flats (like that wacky Sledge Hammer ride) and the place looked like it

had good "capacity", shame they just don't have a stand-out ride. Oh and the funny

thing about the day was that it was FREEZING. I notice from Tom's report that it had

been 35 degrees there a few days before, well it was something like 7 degrees the day

I went! I had checked the weather and gone wrapped up, but the number of locals there

freezing their ****s off in tshirts and shorts was very amusing. The shops did a brisk

trade in Wonderland hoodies that day!

 

 

So after a day long drive (and a real grilling from US border guard, who just couldn't

understand the concept of touring around theme parks - or maybe thats what terrorists

are using as cover stories now?), I was back in the US, central PA in fact and off to

a nice park the next morning;

 

 

Knoebels - 7/6

==============

 

What a nice place. Couple of really well looked after woodies, lots of flat rides,

lots of trees, lots of friendly people. Lovely.

 

Look at all them trees, lovely!

 

I thought the woodies were both really good (shame they hadn't finished the new Flying

Turns though, that looked very nice, but I can't even hold that against the place!)

and I even went on the (very thrilling) kiddie ride for a change.

 

What do you mean I can't ride it, looks OK to me!

 

After a few hours having a lovely time at the lovely Knoebels, I make the short drive

to my hotel for the night and in preparation for the next day at;

 

 

HersheyPark - 8/6

=================

 

Now I'd been here before, in 2003, so the only thing I HAD to ride was Storm Runner

(which they had inconsiderately built after I was last there). Quite liked it, bit

short, but miles better than Rita for example. I guess you can compare it to Xcelerator,

but the launch was much better on its Californian cousin. I guess it (SR) is

still fairly unique in doing inversions on an accelerator (theres a couple of Europe ones

though). I'd really like to see an accelerator on the scale of TTD,KK that did something

like the Superman rides, really use all that momentum to do something other than up/down.

 

Accelerator+Inversion=Good

 

Anyway, I like HersheyPark. It was pretty crowded, lots of school groups in for the day,

but you could still get around without too much waiting. Revised my opinion of Great

Bear somewhat (I'd thought it a bit dull, but now have appreciated it more!) and the

new trains on WildCat made it a much better ride than I remembered from the previous visit.

 

No-one has ever taken this shot before, no-one I tell ya

 

However, this time I also had a wander around the ZooAmerica thing attached to HesheyPark.

What a soul-destroyingly awful experience that was. I'm sure that they have good

intentions running that place, but the cramped pokey places those animals were kept in

was heart-breaking. I couldn't wait to get out of there. It really left me with an

unpleasant feeling. Honestly I had to have a few more rides on the Lighting Racer to

cheer me up. (I trivialize, I really was upset to see two fully grown crocs in a space

the size of my bathroom!)

 

 

Right then, had a the weekend to kill (hadn't really planned on any parks at the weekend),

so I drove into Philadelphia with the expectation of having a look around. Had a look around

and decided I did not want to stay there that night at all so carried on out to the coast,

knowing that there were a few rides at North Wildwood.....

 

 

Morey's Piers - 9/6

===================

 

....having had a look around at North Wildwood I decided I didn't want to stay there either

(if you've been you'll know what I mean!) - I drove up the coast a bit and its really really

nice around there, lovely beaches, nice small beach town, some fantastic houses (weekend get

aways for the rich of Philly/NYC I guess). Wildwood itself was just a bit "ugh".

 

But I forced myself to get the credits and they weren't cheap either - if you were

paying with tokens, it was something like $7 for a ride on the boomerang! It was quite

interesting to see the coasters out on a pier;

 

Great, another SLC

 

In fairness to the place (Morey's that is), the piers were a lot less tacky that I thought

that they were going to be. They had a lot of rides (not great coasters, but..) and

they appeared to be in good shape. All the ride-ops seemed to be foreign teenagers

as well, which provided you with a variety on non-Jersey accents to cope with.

 

 

I drive up the coast and get a random (expensive) motel outside Atlantic City and the next

day have a look around AC. Didn't like it at all. Like the crap-part of Vegas without

any of the good-parts of Vegas. I don't even wait around long enough for them to open

the one coaster that they have (its just a mouse, albeit a spinning one) and head out of

there almost as fast as I can (pausing only to take a few "arty" photos)!

 

Atlantic City. Great.

 

 

 

Six Flags Great Adventure - 11/6

================================

 

This is more like it. I'd been here before also in 2003 but for some reason I'd had a

pretty rubbish day. I remember being in a bad mood and having a headache all day,

combined with not staying anywhere close and having a 100+ mile drive to/from the park

probably made for my bad mood. Well this time I'd booked in somewhere 20 minutes away

and I was there nice and early and in the right frame of mind to have a good day out,

and I did!

 

Now the comment about the DL season pass (all the way back up there) makes sense, since

the $60 DL pass also gets me into SFGAdv and SFNE - bargain.

 

And off we walk (briskly) to KK. But its shut. So we walk off to El Toro, which is open,

short Q (10 minutes tops) and we are off.

 

I thought this was fantastic. Smoothest woody ever (went on HP's Colossos last year and

thought that was smooth, well its got nothing on El Toro). I'm kinda in two minds about

the arguments around "its not a real woody" - of course its a real woody (hell of a lot

more real then those awful hybrid woodies) - too true it rides like a big smooth steel

coaster and not an old rickety wood coaster, but thats progress for you. If steel

coasters had never evolved we'd all still be riding around on Matterhorn:The Ride

everywhere, so why can't woodies evolve into something "better"? Anyway, its great.

Great drop, great airtime hills, great drop into the in-field, great speed, great twists,

great. Colossos was my favourite woody, but this eclipses it by far. And I was riding

it on its birthday (1 year old that day!). And boy is it photogenic (well from one side

at least, bit of a pig to get from the other side, that Rolling Thunder thing is in

the way).

 

Again, another 100% unique photo

 

So I liked El Toro then. Oh yes.

 

By the time I'd had a few goes on El Toro and Medusa, and taken a few photos of them all;

 

Clear skies = good silhouettes

 

I spot KK testing, so make my way back there - they are still not letting anyone into the Q,

so I loiter for 5 minutes and they open up. Smashing, get to an empty platform as the

Q builds behind me and get in line for the front seat on the second train out. I'd

been on TTD before and had to Q for something like 4 hours (!!!) for that, so I was in

a pretty good mood given my 2.5 minute

Q experience for the front of KK! TTD broke down

when I was on the train, and KK didn’t disappoint either; got as far as the launch position,

rolled back the foot or so (like it does) and nothing happened. So we sat there for 10

minutes in the baking sun in those stupid uncomfortable seats (they are OK for 2 minutes,

not so much for 20 minutes). Eventually they sorted it out, rolled us back into the

station, then back out for launch. Yippee. It did seem faster (and rougher) than TTD

and the hill does make a slight difference, but its still that same ride. Excellent view,

very exhilarating. I like.

 

(The one thing that TTD does that KK is doesn't, is dominate the park. TDD you can get

up close to, see in the Grandstand overlooking it, really adds to the anticipation. KK is

kinda stuck out in the car park, so I don't think the "drama" of it worked as well as TTD)

 

 

At this point (midday) I started to regret NOT getting one of those gold-bots, as the

Qs had started to build up, say 40 minutes for Superman, an hour for Nitro, but it didn't

really bother me. I rode all the rides I'd missed last time I was here (apart from the

stupid mine train which wasn't working AGAIN) and had a good day. They even opened up

the Chiller:Robin in the afternoon and even though THAT broke down just as I was going

to get on it, they mended it long enough to clear the Q and then closed it down again.

 

The park was scheduled to shut at 7, so around 6 I thought about getting a KK reride to

close out the day (the Qs in the afternoon were "2 hours"). Much to my surprise, I wandered

through the Q and was on the load platform without a sole in front of me. Cool. So I

did KK again a couple of times

walkon and closed out with some more El Toro goodness

(also walk on). Moral of this is get your rides in just as the place shuts (I'm sure

it doesn't always work out like that!)

 

 

How about that for timing? KK and Toro in sync

 

Top day. Best day of the trip.

 

 

 

After a painful drive up (what about that NYC traffic!!!) from NJ to MA the next day

I found myself at;

 

Six Flags New England - 13/6

============================

 

Last park of the trip, and frankly this was always only ever going to be about Superman

wasn't it?

 

They did seem to have some problems with the ride, stood outside the Q for 40+ minutes

(before I gave up and went on something else) at the start of the day while they tested

it - ride ops reckoned its up and down all the time?

 

Anyway after that abortive start, I did all the other coasters before getting back to

Superman mid afternoon. I did like quite a few of the other coasters as well. Enjoyed

their floorless Batman a lot, was pleasantly surprised by the old Cyclone (since it was

not the usual Cyclone-copy but a completely different ride), had a go on Astroworld's

Sky Swatter (which I'd been on in Astroworld's last season ) and generally had a nice

day at the park.

 

But now it was time for the highlight. By then a big Q (they said 90 minutes, but it was

really about 45) had built up and I trapsed through it, realising that it'd be worth it.

 

And of course it was. Excellent ride. Quite a bit better than the other S:RoS

, and

I like them!

 

Strangely, after I have my ride and then wander around for another hour I come back, and

theres no Q. Well 10 minutes at most. Right then, so I just cycle round for the next

hour or so ride, 10 minute Q, ride. Excellent. Even get the front seat from the SRQ!

(Speaking of which, the SRQ is useless, you have to Q through all the Q line to get to

it and then it probably doesn't save you any time in the station. I only used it out

of politeness (since it was there I felt I "should" use it (how English am I???)!).

 

However then I had a bad thing happen, my camera glitched and I lost my days photos, which

was a shame. After rebooting it, it seemed ok so I got a few shots of the lovely Superman

 

 

Tunnel, wet.

 

The park had Tony Hawk fulfilling his contractual obligations by giving a show out in

the car park or something like that, anyway, some of that was pretty impressive, mainly

the flying motorcycles. Pretty good show - 50 minutes or so long as well!

 

I want a go on THAT!

 

 

So that was that for the coasters. Spent the next few days in Boston having a look around

(nice enough!).

 

Highlights of the trip? CN Tower, Niagara Falls, El Toro and Superman@NE.

 

Lowlights? Nothing too much, bit un-inspired by a few places (Philly,AC) but maybe I just

wasn't in the right mood that day?

 

Overall, good times!

 

 

Ta,

 

 

Dave.

 

(I'll post a load more photos at some point)

 

Concentrating hard on the audio tour in the Prudential Skywalk in Boston

[dandaman]

Theres not too much more I can say about CW, the locals all seemed to love the SLC (!?!) and didn't really care that they didn't have any real good coasters.

 

I'm still amazed at all my friends, because they all say the exact same thing.

 

Looks like a really full trip!

[odene497]

I hope they get the problems with Superman at Darien Lake sorted out, I'll be there this friday.

 

Nice TR