TR June 9 -18 No photos!

[ajinaz]

This is my first trip report and really just describes for the most part what the plan and itinerary was. All opinions are mine (Everyone has one). This was the first time I had tried something like this and it was quite an experience. A few years back my daughter and I had hit Dallas, Houston and San Antonio but that was the biggest coaster trip I had done -- up till now. The last East Coast Park I had been to was Great Adventure back in the early 80’s so everything was new to me on this trip. I’ll break down the report into manageable chunks.

 

Backstory:

A few months ago while talking with my brother on the phone he had mentioned that he was going to try and ride 100 coasters on an upcoming trip with his son. He is in Delaware and I’m in Arizona. I mentioned that it sounded fun and pretty soon I was on board and our itinerary was set. As the date approached we made a few changes. We knew that there was a better way to do the trip and that we would be missing out on spending quality time anywhere but for this trip we wanted to see how many coasters we could ride. So on Friday June 8th I flew into Raleigh and my brother and my 15 year old nephew drove down and met me at the airport there at 1:00 AM Saturday morning. We drove to a friend’s house where we caught maybe 4 hours of sleep. And thus began our memorable trip.

[ajinaz]

Day 1 Saturday Carowinds

We hit the rode at around 8 AM and arrived at Carowinds around 11. My first thought was, “Good God it is hot here!” I had left 107 in Phoenix but 98 with humidity just took my breath away. First ride was Top Gun which I enjoyed. The second ride was Thunder Road backwards and this was where I asked myself, “What have I gotten myself into here?” The ride beat the crap out of me. I’m out of shape and the second ride of the trip has me beaten up. But onward we trudged. Borg was down the entire day so sadly we had to miss that. They kept testing it but never took on passengers. It wouldn’t be the first disappointment but we had built coasters into our plan, assuming that one would be down at every park. We left Carowinds around 8 and jumped in the car and pointed towards Virginia.

Coasters ridden:

1. Top Gun

2. Thunder Road – Backwards OWWW! It hurts!

3. Thunder Road – Forwards OK that felt better

4. Carolina Goldrusher

5. Vortex

6. Hurler

7. Carolina Cyclone

8. Ricochet

9. Rugrats Runaway Reptar

10. Fairly Odd Coaster – On the trip these rides always made us laugh.

[ajinaz]

Day 2 Sunday BGE, KD

After a couple hours sleep we were at the rope drop for Griffon. The park was beautiful but we had no time to waste. We were on Griffon within minutes and completely done the coasters in under 2.5 hours. We did ride Darkastle and Pompeii. We were in the car on the way to Kings Dominion around 1:30. We arrived at KD around late afternoon and checked into the hotel and headed for the park. It was kind of crowded but we still did pretty good at getting on rides. The line for Flight of Fear was really long and Italian Job was down for the day so we decided to get those in the morning. I really liked Volcano though the queue is really hot as you approach the loading area. Another favorite was the Avalanche which we rode a few times. We rode Grizzly twice. I had never ridden one of these and it was just fun. We headed back to the hotel at closing to get some rest for finishing the park in the morning.

Coasters Ridden:

11. Griffon - Very cool!

12. Alpengeist

13. Big Bad Wolf

14. Apollo’s Chariot

15. Loch Ness Monster

16. Avalanche

17. Volcano

18. Anaconda

19. Rebel Yell – Backwards

20. Rebel Yell – Forwards

21. Ricochet

22. Hurler

23. Shockwave

24. Grizzly

25. Hypersonic XLC

[ajinaz]

Day 3 Monday KD, SFA

We were back at the gates of KD shortly after opening to try and hit our last 3 but it wasn’t meant to be. Flight of Fear was down for the day. We hit Italian Job and the Ghost Coaster and then rode Volcano again. Headed for the car and drove to Six Flags America. The park was pretty much dead. We were able to ride everything by closing and then some. Superman was just awesome. As the trip has gone on we have decided that rides definitely fall into two different categories: Rides that are plain fun and rides that you simply survive. I hate being beaten up and having my head knocked around for no apparent reason. Superman was just true airtime fun. I think we rode it 4 times. Out to the car and off to Jersey!

Coasters Ridden:

26. Italian Job

27. Scooby Doo’s Ghoster Coaster

28. Two-Face

29. Wild One

30. Superman

31. Batwing

32. Joker’s Jinx

33. Roar

34. Mind Eraser

35. Great Chase

[ajinaz]

Day 4 Tuesday SFGA

This was going to be one of our most challenging days yet. We had to be at the Philadelphia Airport at 7:00 tonight for a flight to Columbus so there was no option to extend our stay. We were at the gate for opening and headed right for El Toro. This ended up being one of the biggest disappointments of the trip for me. Granted I was tired and outside forces may have played a part in my opinion. When we got on the ride the girl made me remove my glasses even though they were attached firmly to my head. Not being able to see anything really bothered me and trying to focus without glasses tends to give me an instant headache. As a final injustice she comes back down the row and practically stands on my restraint until I can hardly breathe. The ride was really rough to me. We next headed over to Kingda Ka but the line was really long so we decided to work on the other coasters first. Around 1:00 a storm rolled in and everything shut down for almost two hours. This gave me some time to walk around. I had not been here in many many years and I must say that it sure has changed. Back in the early 80’s this place was almost scary. But I really enjoyed seeing how clean and safe everything seems now. I will be back to visit. When the rain started we only had a couple rides left to do. Medusa and Kingda Ka. As luck would have it we hit Kingda Ka when the storm passed at just the right time. Just as we got off it started to rain again and they shut it down again. We hit Medusa two kiddies and headed for the airport. When we arrived at the airport we were greeted by thousands of passengers and delayed and cancelled on all the screens. Our 8:00 flight finally left at 10:40 and we still had a long drive tonight! We arrived in Columbus at midnight and headed for Cincinnati.

Coasters Ridden:

36. El Toro

37. Superman

38. Scream Machine

39. Nitro

40. Skull Mountain

41. Batman The Ride

42. Chiller- Robin

43. Rolling Thunder- Right

44. Medusa

45. Kingda Ka

46. Blackbeard’s Lost Treasure Train

47. Road Runner Railway

[ajinaz]

Day 5 Wednesday Kings Island, Geauga Lake

Today’s plan was to be selective at Kings Island so that we could also hit Geauga before they closed at 8 tonight. None of us had ever been to Geauga before. We were all exhausted this morning and getting kind of grumpy but onward we pushed. First ride at KI was Beast. I had mixed emotions about this one. Some parts were really rough but the long run-outs really were fun. The park got really crowded fast this day and after 8 coasters we had had enough of waiting in lines and decided to bolt for Geauga. We arrived at 6:30 to find a nearly empty park. We decided to try for as many as we could in the 90 minutes that we had. Almost everything was a walk-on. As we stepped off of The Big Dipper the clock struck 8:00. 8 coasters in 90 minutes! We could really get used to this. Back in the car and off to Cedar Point! Something told us we would not be walking on anything tomorrow.

48. Beast

49. Italian Job

50. Vortex

51. Flight of Fear

52. Racer – Backwards

53. Racer – Forwards

54. Adventure Express

55. Top Gun

56. Thunderhawk

57. Dominator

58. Raging Wolf Bobs

59. Beaver Land Mine Train

60. Villain

61. Double Loop

62. Head Spin

63. Big Dipper

[ajinaz]

Day 6 Thursday Cedar Point

We arrived at opening to find the largest crowds of the trip. Our plan was to hit Maverick first but we noticed everyone heading that way so we went the opposite direction. We started out at Wicked Twister and sort of worked our way around. We could see that TTD was not running consistently so we were surprised that we finally got on it near the end of the day. At around 2 we decided to bite the bullet and wait for Maverick. It took a while but I thought it was awesome. I loved how difficult it was to determine exactly what was coming next. I think that Magnum was my favorite of the day. I don’t know why but we all got a kick out of Disaster Transport. We just laughed the whole time on that and rode it 3 times. When we first arrived today and saw the crowds we were sure that we were going to come up short on our coaster count but by simply moving on we were able to ride everything we planned to ride. We stayed till closing and headed towards for Columbus for our flight back to Philly tomorrow morning.

Coasters Ridden:

64. Wicked Twister

65. Corkscrew

66. Magnum XL-200

67. Gemini – Blue

68. Gemini – Red

69. Maverick

70. Mean Streak

71. Cedar Creek Mine Ride

72. Millennium Force

73. Mantis

74. Iron Dragon

75. Wildcat

76. Top Thrill Dragster

77. Disaster Transport

78. Blue Streak

79. Raptor

[ajinaz]

Day 7 Friday Hersheypark

Today did not start out well. We got out of the hotel late, ran into traffic, had the wrong flight time and security was crazy! We ran on the plane 2 seconds before the door closed. After landing we headed for Hershey and arrived around noon to moderate crowds. I really enjoyed our day here. I loved the riding the wood coasters here. They just seemed so smooth and the park was beautiful and clean. We were out of the park by six and in the car headed for Niagara Falls. We arrived at our hotel overlooking the falls around midnight. This has been a looong day!

Coasters Ridden:

80. Storm Runner

81. Sidewinder

82. Wildcat

83. Wildmouse

84. Lightening Racer: Lightening

85. Lightening Racer: Thunder

86. Trailblazer

87. Great Bear

88. Sooperdooperlooper

89. Comet

[ajinaz]

Day 8 Saturday Niagara Falls, Canada’s Wonderland

We slept in today and then went down to do the touristy things. We took the Maid of the Mist to the falls and that was very cool. We checked out of the hotel at noon and headed towards Wonderland. We arrived at the park at around 4 and it was packed! As it got later the park began to look rougher with what seemed to be a gang element arriving in the park. We got three rides in and decided to just go get a good dinner and try again in the morning. Not many coasters today.

Coasters Ridden:

90. Tomb Raider

91. Mighty Canadian Minebuster

92. Silver Streak

[ajinaz]

Day 9 Sunday Canada’s Wonderland

We got to the park at opening and just started working our way around clockwise which seemed to be a good strategy. I don’t know why, but this was my favorite Italian Job. We ended up finishing everything by 2 and headed out for Darian Lake. We got to Darien Lake at around 5:30. This place was huge disappointment. It was very dirty and not many families around. Superman was down and they said it had been since yesterday. After 2 rides we had had enough of this run down dump. Back in the car and headed for Pa.

Coasters Ridden:

93. Scooby’s Gasping Ghoster Coaster

94. Top Gun

95. Italian Job

96. Skyrider

97. Vortex

98. The Fly

99. Thunder Run

100. Wild Beast

101. Dragon Fire

102. Predator

103. Boomerang Coast to Coaster

[ajinaz]

Day 10 Monday Knoebels, Dorney Park

For the last day of the trip we went small town. I loved every minute of our time at Knoebels. The coasters were great. Even the High Speed Thrill Coaster had us laughing. There is a great family feel to the place that can’t be beat. I’ll be back for Flying Turns. We next headed over to Dorney Park. The park was not too crowded and we were able to ride everything on our list. I loved steel force and the Talon. Our last ride of the trip was Wild Mouse. Always scarier with big adults on board.  With the trip over we headed for the Philly airport where I stayed the night for an early morning flight while my brother and nephew headed home in the car.

Coasters Ridden

104. Phoenix

105. Twister

106. High Speed Thrill Coaster

107. Talon

108. Hydra

109. Thunderhawk

110. Steel Force

111. Laser

112. Wild Mouse

[ajinaz]

Epilogue

Would I do this trip again? No way!

Am I glad I did it? Absolutely!

It was fun spending time with my brother and nephew and we sure have stories to tell. Every time we were nearing complete burnout there would be a coaster that just made us say, “Wow! That was cool!”

Favorite memories:

Having a deer in Ohio jump right into the side of the car while we were going 60 miles an hour at 2 in the morning. That woke us all up! We don’t know if it survived or not.

 

On El Toro a big guy was having trouble fitting in the restraints. First he was yelling, “I’m not that guy, I’m not that guy!” Then when he couldn’t fit he started yelling, “Oh my God! I am that guy!” When we pulled back into the loading area he was still there yelling, “I’m going home and eating 10 McGriddles!”

 

Early morning in Kings Dominion. We were walking by one of those game booths and the girl in there had a microphone headset on. There was nobody around but us, and we were not that close. This is what she said:

“I have a stone in my shoe, I have a stone in my shoe, I have OCD about my feet and now there is a stone in my shoe. I’m going to have to get that stone out of there very soon.” We laughed about that one for quite a while.

Sorry it got so long. Thanks for reading!

[hemmy]

On El Toro a big guy was having trouble fitting in the restraints. First he was yelling, “I’m not that guy, I’m not that guy!” Then when he couldn’t fit he started yelling, “Oh my God! I am that guy!” When we pulled back into the loading area he was still there yelling, “I’m going home and eating 10 McGriddles!”

 

LOL!

 

As for your trip on El Toro I can attest to outside forces ruining a ride. The first time I rode Nemesis at Alton Towers I was sick and the ride op also squished me in the restraint(I have big shoulders)

 

The ride was not enjoyable at all. But my 2nd time on it I loved it.