Photo TR: Divv's U.S. (and U.K.) Adventure...

[Divv3k]

Thanks for the kind words guys. It really encourages me to do more updates!

 

cobra_roll06 - You'd have been amazed at the amount of Celtic fans I met over there! I even bumped into a random guy wearing the hoops at an obscure train station in Illinois. No Rangers fans introduced themselves to me though

 

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PART SEVENTEEN: THE MALL OF AMERICA

 

Who'd have believed I could have spent almost an entire day in a mall? Well that's what I did!

 

Obviously the first thing I did was scope out the camera shops and purchased myself a new one. It wasn't exactly the type of camera I wanted but I needed one that took AA batteries since I'd have no way to do any charging being on the road for the next four nights.

 

The main reason for visiting the mall is the amusement park they have inside it. Nothing spectacular but its pretty cool for being inside a shopping centre. I just rode the coasters but there's quite a few things to ride there if you wanted to.

 

Timberland Twister is a fun spinning coaster that didn't make me ill. No Dragon's Fury or anything like that but a fun ride nonetheless. The Pepsi Ripsaw was cool in that it gave you a good overview of the park but it's not a thrill machine or anything like that. I also rode the powered coaster despite me not counting them, you know just to spite the people who do!

 

Anyway, I won't bore you with all the boring mall details but I looked about a bit and went to see two movies Bourne Ultimatum and Ratatouille (which isn't out in the UK for a bit yet) so that was fun.

 

After the mall I found an Irish bar near the bus stop, the bartender and a few of the patrons were really into the fact that I was a Celtic supporting Glaswegian in Minneapolis. They wouldn't let me pay for my drinks which was great! I also had the best Tuna toastie I've ever had in that bar so plenty of good memories to take home. I really liked Minneapolis, one of the nicer cities I visited.

It's blurry but Nadia'll kill me if I don't include a photo like this to round out the update!

Minneapolis was a really cool city!

Where I enjoyed the best ever Tuna Toastie in Kieran's Irish bar and also got free beer!

I also used a few hours to check out Minneapolis.

Well that's it for the Mall of America. An interesting place to spend a day.

Sadly I left my shaving stuff accidentally at the last hotel so look for my facial hair to become obscene over the next few updates.

And a powered kiddie coaster

Among the other attractions on offer is the ferris wheel.

The Mall also had a really cool Lego shop [Lego geek here - look out for some more Lego related photos from me in the near future ]

It weaves in and out between all the different rides and interacts with the log flume too.

It was good for getting a nice view of the park.

The other coaster in the park is the Pepsi Ripsaw.

It's a pretty good ride. Even for a non-spinning fan like me!

Timberland Twister is the star attraction here.

Say hello to my new camera too! No more blind shots from this point on, so I no longer have an excuse for shoddy photography!

Next stop on the tour - The park at Mall of America!

[cobra_roll06]

It moments like this when you here about hoops fans meeting fellow fans and getting free beer that make me sometimes wish I was part of the Dark Side!

 

Anyway glad to hear you got a functioning camera. Minneapolis looks like a really cool place. Nice pics.

 

Oh yeah, is Ratatouille any good?

 

Looking forward to the rest of the TR!

[bpbbabe99]

Mmmmm Divv, Stella AND a tuna toastie!! Heaven surely, why couldn't they have tuna toastie's anywhere I was lol!!

 

oo check those shiny buildings too Divv in the background!! Yup even if it's blurry ya gotta keep up those constipation photos

[Shockwave]

Glad you missed the collapsing bridge credit, or otherwise we wouldn`t be reading this!

 

Keep `em coming Divv, props to you for getting your photos up quicker than I did and lots of props to the new bridge that gets built. It might need them!

[bigstevet07]

You missed out on the treetops tumbler? That is one of the best flats I've ever been on. This was an awesome TR though. I had to follow the whole way through. Nice Job!

[spaceace12]

what type of camera did you get?

[Divv3k]

Thanks guys! There's still more to come!

 

The camera I got was a Samsung S850.

 

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PART EIGHTEEN: SIX FLAGS GREAT AMERICA - THE RETURN

 

This was the day I had originally planned to go to Michigan's Adventure using a hire car but as I mentioned that plan was nixed due to my hellish journey to the US. For a while it was looking like I was just going to spend a day in Chicago. However after I left Six Flags Great America the previous week still missing a few credits I decided this would be a good opportunity to go back. So after a night on the Megabus I caught a train then another bus and made it to Great America just before opening. I decided that hitting Superman first was the best idea seeing as it always seems to get horrendous lines later in the day. I rode in the back this time, the pretzel loop of really intense there but I really found the rest of the ride really lacklustre. i guess I'm just not a big fan of flying coasters. After that I hit Batman and walked onto the front row. It's such a great coaster (yes, WAY better than Raptor!) and inverts are always excellent in the front.

 

Having got in the two coaster rerides that I really wanted to do I set about getting those missed credits. First I hit the rollerskater which I basically walked onto. Then I headed over to American Eagle but was saddened to see that the red side was still dead. Ah well, at least I got to do the blue side. I then hit the only other coaster I needed to do - Demon. Another crappy corkscrew, not much more can be said than that.

 

Having rode all the credits I could I checked out the Marvin the Martian 3D movie then had a quick wander around the waterpark.

 

I finished my time in SFGam with a ride on Viper which was running amazing! This was a much better ride than I'd had the previous week. I should also point out tat the park was so much quieter than it was when we were there with TPR, although that wouldn't have been hard.

 

After leaving SFGam I did some sightseeing in Chicago where in the library I found a really cool exhibition showcasing the old amusement parks of Chicago like Riverview. There were lots of cool scale models photos and other props. Those old Chicago parks must've been amazing!

 

To finish my time in Chicago I visited Navy Pier, one of my favourite places of the whole trip. There's a really cool assortment of restaurants, bars and music and it also has a really kickass view of the city at night! So after a few beers I headed for my late overnight Megabus to Cleveland and slept the whole way.

That's it from my second visit to Six Flags Great America - it's not the same without the TPR madness! But hey, at least I got a few more credits and still had fun!

After riding I realised that I never missed much...

Demon was another ride I missed last time.

Sadly the side of the American Eagle I missed was still closed. Another Intamin ride closed. Ah well, these things happen.

Here's a surprise - Deja Vu is closed! Good thing we got on it last week!

Always fun riding a kiddie coaster on your own!

Enough with the rerides! There's credits to be had!

Batman was rockin' too. Such an intense little ride.

I realised after this ride that the coaster kinda dies after the pretzel loop.

Of course Superman: Ultimate Flight is the place to head to first thing in the morning without a Q-Bot.

Yeah we were here last week but I'm back again!

[Zen Coaster]

Good to hear you did everything you wanted. What did you think of the roller skater? Did you do the carousel?

 

Marvin's quite a good show, we had it here in Oz at Movie World before they replaced it with Shrek 4D [which I was very happy about].

 

It's not surprising to hear about Deja Vu. I think the real name they're called that is because when you see them closed, you get slammed with that feeling.

 

While I don't entirely agree about Superman -- it's still fun after the pretzel loop -- I would rather do Tatsu any day being that you can actually look straight ahead of you instead of down with everything passing in a blur.

 

Thanks for sharing the photos and hope you're well.

[Divv3k]

Can't really say much about the rollerskater, it was just a credit to me. It's one of the better kiddie coaster models I suppose.

 

As I said Tony, I just don't think flying coasters are my thing, I'm not a fan of Air either. That said, I'd still love to give Tatsu a go.

 

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PART NINETEEN: GEAUGA LAKE

 

Let's take a look at what the other Midwest trippers could have won!

 

I added Geauga Lake to my schedule after TPR wisely decided Kennywood would be a much better place to visit. That said I still wanted to visit Geauga Lake since I would be in the area. So after my second consecutive night on the bus I ended up in Cleveland and took some local buses over to Geauga Lake.

 

I'm so glad we went to Kennywood instead of Geauga Lake, it's not much more than a credit run park in my view. Here I was on a sunny Friday in August and the park was dead! Well the rides section was anyway, the waterpark on the other hand was packed!

 

Anyway, I basically just rode all the coasters and had a quick look around before leaving after a couple of hours. Moving the two big steel coasters out of the park is a good move in my view since they aren't attracting any custom I literally walked onto both rides in the middle of the day. Dominator and the SLC will serve as much better attractions at other parks. Geauga Lake should probably think about becoming water park only if the place is like my visit on a regular basis. Anyway here's a quick coaster run down:

 

- Headspin: Believe it or not this was my first ever ride on an old fashioned Vekoma boomerang! Gave my ears the bashing I expected.

- Big Dipper: Average woodie that doesn't really compare to its blackpool namesake.

- Thunderhawk: Horrible SLC, although not the worst I've ridden.

- Dominator: My first ever floorless coaster. I really liked it in the fornt row. Elsewhere the floorless aspect is just a gimmick that doesn't work like it's supposed to. It's still a good ride and I'm sure it'll be a good crowd puller in King's Dominion if that's where it ends up.

- Beaver Land Mine Ride: Kiddie coaster, nothing else needs said.

- Douple Loop: Crappy arrow looper. Still not a fan of these head bashing machines.

- The Villain: Ouch, I had a real horrible ride on this, I got pretty beat up.

 

I wasn't too enamoured with the place so I just had a little walk around and didn't bother riding any non-coasters. I left after a couple of hours in the park to check out Cleveland which was pretty nice for what I saw. I left Cleveland early to take an overnight bus to Washington DC.

 

Don't let my review get you wrong though, I did enjoy my day and I'm glad I got to visit Geauga Lake before it changes dramatically over the next few years. I'm just glad that TPR didn't have to waste a day there in lieu of Kennywood.

And that was my day (well, two hours) at Geauga Lake!

I'm glad I got to visit before it got stripped bare!

This is going to be a rare photo a year from now! I think it's a good idea to take Geauga Lake's focus away from the coasters. There's already some decent coaster parks in Ohio.

Oops, can't forget to include this photo in my trip report! Luckily this is the last Cedar Fair park of my trip so enjoy your final bin picture!

How long will this ride stay standing? Hopefully longer than the SLC and Dominator!

...but it looked pretty dead.

Raging Wolf Bobs was there too.

No airtime to be found here. Move along...

The Villain. What an evil PoS this was!

The kiddie coaster was one of the better coasters in the park too.

Yeah, it's got a big loop. As well as some other now standard B&M inversions. It's the best ride in the park, by a long way.

I think this was the fullest train I saw on the coaster all day.

As you can see I didn't have to wait long to ride...

Dominator was my first floorless coaster.

Ouch squared. The SLC was not good! Have fun in Michigan!

Big Dipper wasn't up to much. Although I'm thinking it's still probably my favourite woodie in Ohio!

Ouch, sideloop pain!

Time to ride my first Vekoma boomerang!

Looks like they'll need to make this sign a bit bigger next year.

Today was my last day in the Midwest and Geauga Lake was playing host!

[thecoasterkid]

I remember wanting to visit this park back when I was younger. That was pre-Six Flags even when the park was still small and Sea World was a seperate gate.

 

Has it ever gone down hill since then! I'm definitely glad that we went to Kennywood instead, much much better time spent there!

[Zen Coaster]

Yeah. Looks like it's good for a few credits but won't be placing the park high on my 'to do' list for US '08. Glad you had good lines though.

[Divv3k]

PART TWENTY: BUSCH GARDENS EUROPE

 

Not many updates to go now but at least these few remaining updates will be a nice little preview for those of you doing the East Coast USA trip next year.

 

Busch Gardens Europe was a late addition to my itinerary, I only added it when I found a bus trip that that included admission and transport to the park. The only problem doing it this way is it meant I wasn't going to get a whole day in the park since I 'd have to stick to someone else's schedule. But still, I figured that some time at BGE was better than no time at all. Plus I'd get a quick look at Washington DC as well this way.

 

Sadly my trip from DC to BGE was plagued with horrible traffic and so we got there even later than we were supposed to. But I still managed six and a half to seven hours in the park. I'd have loved to have had a bit more time because the park was PACKED! I suppose that's to be expected for destination park on a sunny Saturday on August.

 

Anyway, when I got into the park Griffon was closed, well testing so I headed over to Alpengeist. I had been pretty excited about Alpengeist having enjoyed all the B&M inverts I'd ridden before but I have to say Alpengeist was a total letdown. Apart from the first drop I didn't feel any forces or intensity, I felt as though the train was just meandering around the elements. It's an impressive looking ride but I'd rank it last out of all the B&M inverts I've been on.

 

After Alpengeist I went for Griffon. Luckily I noticed the single riders line and got on within twenty minutes. I was in the last row but I still loved the ride. It really blows Oblivion out the water, it's just pure fun the whole way. Sadly after my ride the single rider line was closed and the normal line was standing at two hours. The single rider line never reopened and so I never got to ride the front row, which was a shame. Luckily BGE is a park I know I'll be back to one day so it's all good.

 

The big surprise at BGE for me was Apollo's Chariot, I never expected much from this before hand. Especially after Raging Bull but Apollo's Chariot was fantastic. Great air on every hill, great speed and just generally an enjoyable ride. It was my favourite coaster in the park.

 

Big Bad Wolf was also really good, the best Arrow suspended I've been on. Really good layout and nice scenery too.

 

Surprisingly I also liked Loch Ness Monster. Not amazing or anything but better than every other Arrow looper I've been on. Maybe it was the Scottish theming that jaded me.

 

I also rode Darkastle, which had a horrendous wait but was still a very good ride. Of course I've not been on Spider-man but Darkastle was one of the most impressive rides I've ever been on. Except for a few long stretches of corridor which were pitch black that seemed like I was missing something, but still a good ride.

 

I had time to reride a couple of coasters and have a look around the whole park and I have to say it really is a beautiful place. I left in the evening and did my fourth and final consecutive night on a bus. This time I was heading back to New York City.

 

Here's the Busch Gardens Photos...

And that was my day in a busy Busch Gardens Europe! One of the nicest looking parks I'll ever visit I'm sure!

Any park with an Ireland section is automatically awesome in my book!

Two good Arrows in one park?! Who'd have believed it?

Surprisingly, I actually liked it!

And the Loch Ness Monster looks like this.

According to Busch Gardens, Scotland looks just like this...

Darkastle was awesome! Shame I had to wait about an hour and a half to get on it though!

This was a real great ride. Definitely my favourite Arrow suspended.

It's big. It's bad. It's Big Bad Wolf. (lamest caption ever)

Busch Gardens was selling counterfeit football tops. For some reason this amused me greatly.

Now this game looks like LOADS of fun! What d'ya think cobra_roll06?

Great air on every hill, even if there's trims on a few.

This ride restored my faith in B&M hypers.

Apollo's Chariot must've stole all of Raging Bull's airtime.

Apollo's Chariot was a lot better than I was expecting!

Mandatory Griffon splashdown photo that must be included in every BGE TR.

If only Oblivion was more like Griffon! I hope we see a few more dive machines pop up in the future.

I don't think anyone's used this angle before!

Time for some never before seen shots of Griffon in action!

Griffon has really huge trains! The floorlessness on the edge of the train really makes a big difference!

Time to move on to a good B&M!

I prefer Nemesis Inferno to this!

But they weren't met sadly. It just didn't really do anything for me.

My first stop was Alpengeist. I had high hopes.

But wow, was it busy today!

Then it was on to Busch Gardens Europe!

My day started with a quick look around DC where I managed to find some random girl to take my photo.

[RIP Psyclone]

 

Yeah, it would probably be my fave too. I don't understand why SFMM's Ninja, built 4 years later, couldn't have a drop like that.

[cobra_roll06]

AHAHAHAHAHA!!! kudos on that "whack-a-hun" caption! (bastard!) Anyway, my cousin went there last year and she was also disappointed with Alpengeist, but right enough shes a Celtic fan as well!

 

Another great TR man, going to be sad when there all over. Really enjoyed following it.

[Fallen Heretic]

Whack a hun just made me fall off my chair. lol.

[Divv3k]

Apologies for the delay in continuing the updates. I just started a new job this week so have been a little pushed for time. Hopefully I should finish up this TR over the weekend!

 

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PART TWENTY-ONE: NYC & ASTROLAND

 

This was my "rest day", well not so much rest but my coaster-lite day. This was an opportunity to see the so-called "greatest city in the world" and while I don't really agree with that I still had a great day!

 

I arrived in NYC really early in the morning which gave me an opportunity to walk down Broadway and get my bearings. I arrived at the Hostel I was to stay the next three nights so that I could leave my luggage before checking in later in the day. I found internet access when I realised that back in Scotland the Celtic vs Aberdeen football game would be kicking off soon. So I used the internet to find a bar in New York which was showing the game. luckily I found a place on 86th Street which I legged it to. It was pretty weird to be in a bar full of drinking Scotsmen at 9am on a Sunday morning in New York City. Thankfully Celtic won the game after being a goal down for most of the match so it was a great start to the day for me.

 

After the match I took a walk around New York and checked out Times Square for a few hours which was pretty cool. Later I managed to check into my hostel where I was introduced to my shoebox room which was literally nothing more than the size of a bed. Which was fine by me since I was only planning to sleep in there and it was clean, safe and much cheaper than most other places in the city.

 

After I checked in I started making my journey to Coney Island which is when the heavens opened. On my way I was sure that there would be no way I would get to ride the Cyclone in this weather but I was wrong. All the other rides in Astroland were closed but the Cyclone was still running. I had a pretty painful ride what with the roughness and moreso the rain but I'm still glad I got to ride the so-called most famous coaster in the world. I don't really get why it places so high in all the rankings, I found it pretty mediocre. Not bad, but not amazing either. Sadly with the rain I missed the two kiddie coasters but that didn't bother me too much. I can live with a few missed kiddie credits.

 

After I left Coney Island I decided to visit Ground Zero in the pouring rain which was a pretty sombre moment. Glad I got to visit it even if I couldn;t really see much. I then checked out battery park before heading back to my hotel. All in all a good day with some culture credits thrown in. A shame about the rain but at least I still had my Cedar Point poncho!

Good thing I held on to that Cedar Point poncho! This was a really memorable day for me!

My night was spent checking out some wet sights and footering about with my new camera. Not with a lot of success.

With pretty much everything closed I didn't spend long in Coney Island. At least I got to ride the Cyclone!

Not the best idea to ride in the pouring rain, but at least it helped make the ride more memorable!

But thankfully the Cyclone was open!

And the kiddie coasters were closed.

Yeah, it was pretty wet...

I arrived in Astroland just as the rain kicked in.

Hooters Crew represent!

It really is the most impressive collection of Disney merchandise I've seen outside a Disney resort! If only all the Disney stores were like this!

Of course the Disney-geek in me couldn't pass up this place!

Being a big fan of the Letterman, I was delighted to see the place where it all happens.

I took some time to check out Times Square and the surrounding area.

Woo for beer at nine o'clock in the morning!

Forget culture credits - its all about the football!

My day in New York started with a visit to this Irish bar.

[bpbbabe99]

HOOTERS!!! NYC stylee ey!! Lovin it and the fact you were in the Irish bar at 9am, classic!! That pricey Cedar Point poncho did come in handy too then, I still have a Port Aventura 1 from 2004 so I'm sure yours will last long too!! It's a shame to hear Cyclone wasn't too exciting, at least it looks damn sexy anywho

[Divv3k]

PART TWENTY-TWO: SIX FLAGS GREAT ADVENTURE

 

This ended up being one of the best days of the trip for me! When I got up early in NYC the streets had dried and the rain appeared to be a t bay but as soon as my bus left the station it started pouring again. This ended up being a really good thing because the park was DEAD! I heard some staff say that there was less than 5000 people in the park at 2pm and less than 2000 by 5pm. Add those levels of people to a gold flashpass and you pretty much have the run of the park. As long as the rides opened, which is what I was really worried about, especially after my time at Cedar Point where nothing would run in the rain. Thankfully at Great Adventure it was a different story. The only ride that had any real problems with the rain was Kingda Ka, which is understandable. Some of the coasters would close if the rain got severely heavy but would reopen as soon as it died down enough. This led to some painful, crazy, memorable rides on a number of coasters throughout the day!

 

Of course the first ride I headed to was El Toro. This was probably my most anticipated coaster of the trip seeing who much I loved Balder. I'm glad to say that El Toro did not disappoint! It was amazing! Definitely my favourite coaster of the trip and my current number two behind Balder. El Toro has the best first drop of any wooden coaster I've been on, amazing airtime over those first few hills and then the drop over Rolling Thunder has the most insane airtime I've ever felt. Needless to say that with the low crowds I got a fair few rides in! I think I rode about 20 times, I made sure to try it in every row and it was fantastic in every one! The people going on TPRs East Coast trip next year are in for a real treat! More parks should get Intamin plug'n'plays.

 

For a while in the morning it was looking like I wouldn't get to ride Kingda Ka due to the rain. Thankfully, the rain held up enough for it to open twice for two periods of half an hour during the day. The gold flashpass was a real lifesaver here because the queue was over an hour the first time it opened but I managed to skip right on. Had I not had the flashpass I wouldn't have got on that time. Which might have been a good thing because that ride in the back of the blue train was horrible. It was horribly rattly and shakey which the OTSRs didn't make any better. This was a really crap ride compared to my back row rides on Dragster and Stealth. Thankfully when the ride opened for the second time I was right next to the flashpass entrance so I managed to skip past everyone walking through the queue line and get a front row ride on the green train which was like a different ride. Really smooth and very fast. It was a lot of fun. I still marginally prefer Dragster due to the better rides on average it gave me and the restraints but really they are very similar obviously so there's not much in it.

 

Here's a run through of everything else I rode in between rerides on El Toro:

 

- Rolling Thunder: Only one side was open, it was nothing special, just a mediocre woodie.

- Medusa: A fun ride, but not worth the hype it gets. I preferred Dominator to this, but even then the floorless gimmick is better suited to dive machines.

- Runaway Mine Train: So so arrow ride.

- Great American Scream Machine: Ouch, this was another horrible rough Arrow looper.

- Superman Ultimate Flight - Still not a fan of this after the pretzel loop. Still the presence of the pretzel loop alone makes this ride better than Air!

- Blackbeard's Lost Treasure Train: Just a kiddie credit really.

- Skull Mountain: WTF! Not quite as much as X:\NWO but still a pretty weird (but fun) ride!

- Road Runner Railway: My 200th! Yes I could have worked things out to make my 200th Kingda Ka or El Toro but with Dragon at Beech Bend being my 100th I figured riding Road Runner Railway all by myself would be a much more fitting 200th!

- Nitro: Another fun B&M hyper. Not as good as Apollo's Chariot but still a fun ride. Although it's very painful on the face in the pishing rain!

- Batman The Ride: I love this ride! I can see why they made so many of these because they are great little intense inverts!

 

Of course Chiller was just standing there doing nothing, which seems to be more than it'll be doing next year, would have been nice to ride but it's no big deal when you have El Toro in the park! All in all this was a fantastic day since I had free reign in the park. I'm sure I could have got away without the $71 gold flashpass but then I might have struggled to get on Kingda Ka and definitely wouldn't have got so many rerides on El Toro.

 

Great Adventure is definitely a place I'd return to, I just wish I was a bit closer so I could ride El Toro even more!

Here's the final bearded shot of the trip!

I had an amazing day at Great Adventure! I got really lucky to get there on a quiet day, it really is a "must visit" park for any enthusiast!

Worth $71? Maybe not today but the Gold Flashpass would be a real lifesaver on a busy day at this park!

It might not be just as good as Balder but it's a hell of a lot easier to photograph!

It's for sure the best coaster I've rode in the U.S.

Lets finish off with a few more sexy El Toro shots.

Of course I wouldn't let Wonder Woman go home without getting her photo with me.

Hows this for a Kingda Ka wait?

It's Kingda Ka - through a branch!

Luckily the rain held off enough for me to ride the world's tallest and fastest coaster twice.

They be headed to Kingda Ka!

Hmmm, where be those people headed?

I even had time to get a second to hang out with the furries.

But at least I got to see the whole structure standing!

Chiller was pretty dead looking.

Although Batman might want to get to a Kwik-Fit before the Joker goes on another rampage.

These are great inverts, good forceful fun.

Hey look - it's Bench: The Ride!

This was about as busy as Nitro's station got all day so I managed a fair few rides.

If you like your floater air then you'll love Nitro.

Although it does hurt your face in the rain.

Nitro was another good fun ride.

My 200th!!! Nothing like riding a kiddie coaster all by yourself to make a coaster milestone!

Skull Mountain was pretty random, if they put some theming in that building this could have been a really great ride!

Another kiddie coaster, another credit.

But apart from this loop it just didn't really do much for me.

Thankfully Superman Ultimate Flight was less painful.

Oh the pain!

This wasn't a pleasant experience.

Only one side was open, but I wasn't expecting to be able to secure every credit today with Chiller being closed.

Rolling Thunder was very quiet, which isn't a surprise sitting next to El Toro.

Medusa was good fun too, but not worth the hype in my opinion.

The Runaway Mine Train was not bad.

Ok, lets pull ourselves away from El Toro for a second and see what else is on offer.

Enjoy the facial hair today because it's here for a limited time only!

Here's an exclusive never before seen photo for you to enjoy!

The airtime on these hills is superb in any row and at any time of the day!

This thing was running insane in the rain!

Mmmm... El Toro...

Of course there's no other place to head straight for than El Toro.

The rain was a blessing in disguise because the park was DEAD!

This was the sight I was met with upon getting to Great Adventure.

[RIP Psyclone]

Wow, I wish I had been there that day. This seems to be the neverending TR (which is a very good thing), how many more parks???

[IwantRevenge]

ugh the wait for kingda ka should always be that long...it's such a bad ride, very overrated.

 

how ever that wait for nitro

[fudgey]

Ok.. anticipation for East Coast now growing nicely....

[coasterbilly]

nice report, glad you enjoyed my homepark!

 

Kingda Ka is crap, haha I agree with you a million percent that Dragster is better, I know shoot me I should be representing my park and coaster here, but it's the truth.

 

El Toro, awesome and true opinions, except I truly think the back is the most out of control row on the ride and no other row delivers as much as that one, although the other rows dont take away, it's just the drop and the hills in the back are so fantastic for ejector air.

 

Medusa is my favorite steel coaster in the park, you must've hit it on a bad day or sat in the wrong seat because it is one fantastic floorless that remains one of my favorite beemers anywhere

 

thanks for sharing again, looks like a great day!

[cobra_roll06]

Nice TR man, SFGA is in the top-ten of to-do list. El Toro just looks so amazing. If it's anything like Tonnerre de Zeus then I might have a new number 1 in the future!

[CoasterAnne]

Wow, that queue of KK is amazingly short

[pianojohn]

Great photo TR! I can sympathize with the flight drama. When I went to Tokyo a few years ago, I got bumped from my flight 3 days in a row (I was on a buddy pass) and I ended up buying a one way ticket from Tokyo to Orlando,FL for $2000!