Photo TR of SFNE and Quassy

[capnkyle1]

I took a solo day trip up to Six Flags New England and to Quassy yesterday to process my Six Flags season pass, get some rides in, and check out Wooden Warrior - the newest woodie in the Northeastern area's stable. Weather was mild and cloudy but both parks were fairly crowded for April.

 

Six Flags New England

 

First of all Bizarro was running just okay. Granted I rode it only in the morning before the line got too long and before it had gotten properly warmed up but the airtime was really just limited to the first hump and the last three humps. So yeah, just okay. It was rocking the turns though!

 

Thunderbolt was closed with track work in progress. There wasn't any topper track in place yet that I could see so I don't know what treatment it's getting but there was definitely new wood.

 

Gotham City Gauntlet Escape from yada yada. Fun wild mouse. Heavy braking of course but the theming was very good. I would say it was almost to the level of the Dark Knight mice if they happened to be outdoors. I loved that the cars were themed to the different villains though, that was an excellent touch.

 

Cyclone is half running like a dream and half running like a curmudgeonly old caffeine addict that hasn't had his morning coffee fix. The topper track is in place on most of the first half of the coaster excepting the first drop sequence and the lift. The difference was staggering - like being on El Toro and Rolling Thunder in the same ride. Let the debate begin whether this constitutes a steel coaster or a wooden coaster but in my opinion - even while being awesomely smooth it still felt like a wooden coaster - like El Toro. I'm sold on the topper track! The last half of the ride was typical Cyclone - heavy braking, shuffling, squealing, dumbness. . .

 

Batman the Dark Knight opened at 1:30 and I caught a ride on it to end my day at SFNE. It went fast. I liked it. Nothing else to report there.

 

Other items of note - the park was in full bloom and looked great. The public areas were very clean and the employees were all on top of their friendliness game and it seemed that without exception everyone looked genuinely happy to be at work. I was very impressed with how outgoing everyone was, my kudos to the staff! Operations weren't super efficient but probably acceptable for a typical weekend in April. However Season Pass Processing was lightning quick. I was in and out of there in less than five minutes.

 

Quassy Park

 

This was my first visit to Quassy. I had attempted to go a couple years ago but traffic in Connecticut has a habit of often confounding me and I didn't make it in time. This was a quaint little park and something that I would be very happy to take my kids to each Friday night like my parents did with me if I lived closer. Ahhhh memories. . . Anyhow, the staff here was also very friendly and the park looked well kept. Clearly they aren't a gleaming theme park but it certainly isn't a pit either. I would recommend it to anyone with small kids to check out. Small enough to provide a few hours of diversion before their attention wanders and reasonably priced.

 

Wooden Warrior was great! I went in with the impression that it would be better than the Scooby Doo clones and Pegasus out at Mt. Olympus but not up to Kingdom Coaster's high bar of awesome junior woodiness. How wrong I was! This ride has a level of fun and aggression to match Cornball Express! Sure it's short but it packs a huge airtime punch! And it was clear with the patrons of the park yesterday that it is a HUGE hit with them as well. The Timberliners were performing well. However I can't say for sure if Wooden Warrior will provide an ideal experience since the dynamics of this ride are vastly different than that of, say, Voyage. I was impressed with them on this ride though. They tracked very well and the ride was incredibly smooth except for all the airtime! The side mounted lap restraints were surprisingly comfortable since they came across your hips rather than your thighs. They also stayed in place which is something that always bothered me about the Millennium Flyers. I will say that the manual lap bar release process looked like a real bear which could cause issues on lift hill evacuations. The ride is still in the calibration process as it was overshooting the station brakes by just enough to not engage with the lap bar release which provided a lot of rerides for happy riders.

 

Okay, enough yakking. Lookit th' pitchers.

So SFNE has this Bizarro thing. That's how you know where I am.

If you're looking for the entrance to Gotham City Gauntlet you aren't gonna find it here! Gotta-go-round!

See here it is! On the other side. I wonder why they couldn't use the entrance they built for Dark Knight.

The queue has shade. This is thoughtful.

There are signs on the top level that correspond to all the Batman villains. This one proclaims that you are entering a "Pouncing Zone" which was always the best part of Batman - when Catwoman was pouncing on someone.

More of the upper level. The lower level had a lot more props an mist and flashing lights but were tough to photograph because of the fencing that surrounded the ride.

Here comes the Catwoman car from which she will pounce. Perhaps in the pouncing zone. But she is part cat so she may do her pouncing when she dang well feels like it.

More villainous cars up to no good and taking innocent people along for the ride. Although since we are Escaping from the Asylum, does that mean we too are deranged lunatics?

As I mentioned the park was looking very bloom-y.

Sorry folks, ride's closed. Moose out front should've told you.

You can sorta see the track work going on in the first drop area.

And also the track work is visible on Cyclone. Although it was open so no need for a moose.

See, here's that topper track I was talking about, see? Nyah.

And here's where that topper track starts, see? Nyah.

And here's an artsy fartsy photo, see? Nyah. Really working that F-stop, nyah.

Oh my God would you shut up with the Snidely Whiplash nonsense! Now stop this dickering around and get to the Wooden Warrior pictures! That's what everyone came here to see anyway. And go get me a live chicken. You big dummy.

Right, sorry Leona Louise, sorry everyone. Wooden Warrior shots begin now.

From the parking lot.

Wooden Warrior from the road.

All the kids in the two classes who came up with the name Wooden Warrior got their names on this plaque in the queue. Heather Fotheringham has a pretty sweet last name.

Entering the double-up.

On the brake run.

Being awesome.

Making pudding.

A closer look at those Timberliners. Looking all spacey and out of this world.

The hood ornament is a particularly nice touch.

This is a picture of the loading process of the Timberliners showing the side down motion of the lap restraints and is absolutely not a picture of the ride operator's heinie.

The head choppers start off right away!

The first drop.

This picture looks like vomiting eye sockets to me.

Vomiting eye sockets through the trees! Yay cliche!

The butt of the Wooden Warrior.

So that's all the Wooden Warrior pictures. For the interested Quassy also has a wet/dry slide.

An arcade.

Which has a bunch of games in it.

A carousel.

Which has a bunch of rowdy horses in it.

And a choo choo that has a tunnel. And Scooby Doo. Scooby Doo is not pictured because the engineer rather fancied blasting through the tunnel at 90 miles per hour. But take my word for it. Scooby is in the tunnel.

Games on the midway.

The kiddie coaster.

These are not Kennywood potato patch fries. However, the chili is good. Very chunky and I like my chili chunky.

Trabant. Yeah I got nothing.

They seem to be pretty permissive with their pedal boats at Quassy.

I can see across the lake, does that mean I could pedal all the way over there??

They have schwings.

Bumper cars.

And a water play area.

Okay, that's all from Quassy. Hope this was informative. I liked the place a lot and it's well worth a stopover when heading out to SFNE or Lake Compounce.

Okay, very nice. Thanks for sharing. Now go get me a live chicken. And apologize to Chuck for ripping off his Angus McNasty bit.