Klaire's Park Adventures- parks seen by eyes of my 5yr old

[Coastinmiller]

Nicole's parents (I shall refuse to say in-laws and we'll leave it at that) got jealous we were taking Klaire to park after park. So they suggested we visit them in Harrisburg and go to Knoebels for the day. Well I am not one to pass on a park, let alone a visit to Knoebels so off we go.

 

Now I hate to admit it, but I'm very honest. I have never really explored Knoebels fully until now. I never rode the bumper cars till now thinking "well there just bumper cars". I could have never been more wrong in my life, they were just awesome. I also never rode the boats before either. It was a great day and everytime I visit Knoebels I get more impressed. I did not take many pictures, I just wanted to go and have some fun and not worry about snapping pictures all the time. Here's some that were taken:

We actually started the day on Black Diamond, but I took no pictures of it.

This is the other carousel, not the grand carousel and Nicole's mother.

Cars and Nicole's dad.

Another hopper.

My first ride on the boats.

Another new credit for Klaire and I.

Soon enough Miranda.

Nicole's mom gets sick on some rides from time to time, so I talked Klaire to taking her on the whip, but she did not get sick. It looked like she was fading fast, one more time around might have done it, darn.

Klaire does not like Ice cream, ??, but she loves some freeze-pops.

My first time on the bumper cars, just plain awesome. If you hit them right, it's just like a car wreck. Nicole wasn't smiling when we were done.

Fish game

 

An finally, I would never have known what a "BRONY" was till TPR. Thanks to that Stars Wars thread and Elissa's recent Facebook post. So I would have never known what this next picture was all about. I asked Nicole if she knew what it meant and she didn't till I told her. But man, WHY does it have to be in my state and why advertise it like this:

It says "BRONY" on the plate. Never got a good look at the person though, don't know if I wanted to or not though.

[Meteornotes]

Knoebel's is awesome.

 

Bronies are not awesome.

 

dt

[cfc]

I have yet to try the boat ride--need to do that the next time I'm there.

[CorkscrewFoley]

Just seeing this post now, and I have to ask, on the second page with Klaire getting her credit, the boomerang behind her, was that the station for it?

[simon8899]

Cool to see that Knoebels keeps their "ancient" rides, the bumper cars look like being at least 50 years old.

 

Also always interesting to see how Moser Rides cornered the market with their kiddie towers.

[larrygator]

I still have not ridden the boats at Knoebels, the line is generally too long for my patience.

 

Just seeing this post now, and I have to ask, on the second page with Klaire getting her credit, the boomerang behind her, was that the station for it?

 

If you are talking about the pirate ship, no that is a children's play structure.

Edited July 7, 2012 by larrygator

[MayTheGForceBeWithYou]

Knoebel's is on my bucket list of parks. Just seems like such an awesome place.

 

I am a brony, but I would not go to the point of changing my license plate to reflect such.

[Coastinmiller]

Just seeing this post now, and I have to ask, on the second page with Klaire getting her credit, the boomerang behind her, was that the station for it?

 

The long building that runs the entire length at the back of the picture is the station for the boomerang. Larry is right with the pirate ship.

[Coastinmiller]

I get the week of the 4th of July off every year and always plan trips around that time, but with the family going to Leviathan Bash, we planned a big trip around that. So that meant us doing day trips for the week of the 4th.

 

On Monday my father and i hit up Coney Island and Luna park. The original plan was to go to Adventureland in Ny then head to Coney Island, but after finding out that the Hurricane was struck by lightning and was down, we scrapped that plan and just went to Coney.

 

On Thursday, we went to Busch Williamsburg for a great day. Wasn't busy at all and mostly everything was a walk on, minus Verbolten, which had a 10 minute wait. Mach tower was down until we were about to leave and got in line for the first run with riders that day!

 

But on Tuesday, we decided to take Klaire to the Jersey shore to hit the parks. I did originally think we could hit the 10 parks that we needed, but we ended up with the 5 northern parks, b/c Klaire wanted to go to the beach and play for a bit. Quite a fun day, but I don't think I would attempt that again as money was flying out of my wallet quicker than ever.

 

First stop was Keansburg

We decided to go early (10am) so Klaire could hit her kiddie rides as the big rides didn't open till noon.

Planes

Train

Ballons

Yet another hopper credit

Carousel

Whip

Credit time

My dad getting a ride on Wildcat

 

Next stop was Jenkinson's. We managed to do this park fairly quickly, but stopped for a bite to eat on the boardwalk and a LONG walk for free parking meant we spent a little more time here.

Quick ride on the swings

Flitzer credit

 

Then a long drive to Casino Pier in Seaside Heights. It's not long distance wise but with traffic it might as well be.

We parked in the middle of the 2 parks and walked the boardwalk to both Casino and Funtown Pier. This is where Klaire wanted to do the beach and we spent a good 2 hours on the beach playing in the waves.

Credit

Safari train

John getting his wild mouse credit

John getting his Star Jet credit

Swings

John and Klaire on the swings

John on the wheel at one of the funhouses. Blackmail pic??????

John and Klaire in a play structure.

Through the mirror maze.

Beach time.

 

After the beach we hit funtown pier, but for some reason I didn't take any pics. After funtown pier we went to Blackbeard's Cave and finished the day there. Nice little place, but the mosquitos were pretty vicious.

Credit.

Canoes

Slide

Kiddie pirate ship.

Swings

Planes

 

It was a great day and Klaire was a real tropper and even stayed awake for most of the 2 hr ride home. Glad to see she can make it on a long day of traveling to parks.

[larrygator]

Those ten parks in one day are very ambitious when you have a child with you. Glad you got half of them out of the way. And as you said the traffic sure doesn't help matters.

[Coastinmiller]

Since I got some free time now, I guess it's time to start up again.

 

On the way to Leviathan Bash, we decided to hit up a few parks that we haven't been to before. The first being Tuscora Park in New Philadelphia OH. Nice little park, not many rides to do, but I wouldn't mind living close to it being they have a nice pool with dives and many play structures throughout the park. Big Mike and Larry, your going to have to tell me how you guys got this credit, b/c no matter what I tried i got denied. Klaire was also too small, but it was a nice rest stop coming from Delaware.

 

And here we are, Tuscora Park

Prices

well this could be a problem...

And it was. Credit denied. Big Mike, Larry, how did you guys get this credit????

 

Here's their other rides:

Carousel that went on for at least 5 minutes.

Kiddie Planes.

Train

Ferris Wheel

Cars

Old school swings. These were pretty awesome.

But the seats were a bit tight.

 

Besides the rides they did have a few very nice play structures. Plus a pool, no pics of that though.

Train play structure.

Another play structure

 

And b/c i can't go one update without posting a picture of Miranda:

 

I plan on going back next year as we have a wedding in Akron to go to, so Big Mike and Larry tell me that secret!!

[Coastinmiller]

Next stop on the way to Leviathan Bash was the Columbus Zoo and Jungle Jack's Landing. I am disappointed that we didn't do the zoo more as we were in the water park for the majority of the day, but we spent 2 hours in the zoo and from what I've seen I was thoroughly impressed. Definitely need to go back and see the rest of the zoo sometime.

 

Didn't take many pictures today, but here they are:

Train ride

Sea Dragon

 

We had to go see the Elephants since they evicted the ones at the Philly Zoo.

Elephant

 

See not many pics today. Next stop memphis Kiddie Park.

[larrygator]

It's been quite a few years since I rode the coaster at Tuscora, back when Geuaga Lake was still open. I don't recall it being an issue at the time. I'm pretty sure I tried to hit Wyandot Lake / Columbus Zoo, Tuscora, and Memphis Kiddie Park the same weekend skipping a stop at Erieview at Geneva on the Lake which closed shortly thereafter

Edited August 6, 2012 by larrygator

[TheSchwitek]

I went last fall and successfully got a ride on the coaster at Tuscora. First, i bought the ticket/tickets and wasnt told anything about any restricions. When I walked up to the ride the ride operator asked me how old I was. I responded with "how old can I be to ride?" He responded with "no one over 17 is allowed." I followed with "well, I'm 17." (I'm 28, so he obviously didn't believe me.) Since there was no one else in line, and I gave him my whole sob story about driving 12 hours just to ride this ride, he eventually let me on. I thanked him, and went on my way.

[Coastinmiller]

^ & ^^

 

Thanks. Like I said, I'm going back next year and will try again. If I don't get it at least Klaire will have it.

[Coastinmiller]

Next stop on our way to Leviathan Bash was Memphis Kiddie Park in Cleveland. The weather turned ugly and it sure looked like we were not going to be able to make it, but the rains held off and we did this nice kiddie park. They certainly had quite a few unique rides and worth a stop if driving by.

Time for Memphis Kiddie Park

Cars that spin, the operator was good making all the kids high for for extra spins.

Ferris Wheel

Horse carrige

Boats

rockets

Train

Another rocket ride

Electric Cars

 

And of course the coaster:

The real reason we are here

partial layout

I'm guessing something happened when we were riding coaster at the Jersey shore that Klaire got spooked about the loud noises of the coasters, also combined with daycare doing something with loud noises, Klaire now holds her ears while riding. I think the coaster at the shore was Pirates Hideaway b/c I remember loud anti-roll backs on it. But her new ride style is this:

Klaire's new riding position

Family portrait minus Miranda

 

After Memphis Kiddie Park, keeping with TPR newest tradition, we found some good eats here at Melt Bar & Grilled. No pics of the food, but some awesome "gourmet" grilled cheese sandwiches. If ever in Cleveland, I highly recommend looking them up. You won't go wrong, they are big and great!

 

We did a night cap at Waldameer, but I took no pics as the place was empty from a t-strom that went through a bit earlier. We had the place almost to ourselves and had ample rides on everything. Ravine Flyer 2 was moving great and the wife finally picked up her credit for it.

[Coastinmiller]

The next day took us to Midway State Park. Small park, but again very quaint. They weren't supposed to open till 12, we got there at 11:15. The manager saw us pull in and basically allowed us to do the rides before they opened b/c she had ample staff and wanted them working (teenagers), and told us to buy the wristbands at 12. That was very generous and we were extremely grateful as it was going to be quite a long day anyway.

 

Here is Midway State Park:

Prices

Height requirements

Overview

First ride of the day, train

the train goes quite a bit out, plenty of open land.

 

And of course the roller coaster. RCDB had listed them as having 2, but the powered dragon was taken out (i believe they said maintainance issues.

 

There other rides were:

Electric cars

Tidal Wave

Tilt-A-Whirl

Fun Slide

Hand crank train

Helicopters

row boats

Boats

Rockets

Kiddie Whip

 

Then it was off to Holiday Valley Ski resort for their alpine coaster, our second ever. While it was ok, we felt that the one at Wisp was way better. At least there were no lines here.

Getting ready to go.

Nicole in front followed by John's first apline coaster.

Nicole coming back

John coming back

Nicole and Klaire going down.

[Philrad71]

Yay for reports from my neck of the woods!

 

I live about ten miles from Midway & grew up going to that park every summer - I used to love to go roller skating in the open air upper portion of the building on the waterfront (now closed) . I was like Klaire and did not care for the loud noise the coaster made and my sister would have to drag me on it because it always scared me!

 

Of note, Midway used to have old school swings very similar to your picture from Tuscarora Park except the seats were all wooden and painted fire engine red. They also used to have a giant slide about three times the size of the one there now & had a Paratrooper that always seemed to run insanely fast compared to one's I have ridden in recent years.

 

Sadly, I don't go to this park much anymore. We usually take out of town guests with kids to Waldameer because of the better selection of rides, the water park & and of course, RF2.

 

It will be interesting to see how long the state will maintain the budget to keep this place open. When we went over and walked around there last summer, it was nearly empty...definitely not the happening place it once was during my youth!

 

Still haven't done the mountain coaster at Holiday Valley either...hope to get out there soon.

[Coastinmiller]

^ I would have liked to seen Midway in it's glory days, as with many of the older parks. The mountain coaster at Holiday valley is good, but there are some better ones out there. I should have made more time allotted there as it looked like they had a great ropes course.

 

Finally we get into Canada and I get another chance to finish this trip we did. Thanks to a HUGE heads up by Big Mike and some others, we adverted disaster today as we were going to head to Sauble Beach. Instead we went the other way to Santa's Village. Another cute kiddie park with a decent selection of flats and a powered coaster. The park was rather small but the price to get in wasn't. Klaire and Miranda still got a hat out of it though.

Santa's village

Said hat. Surprised she wore it all day and the next day at Canada's Wonderland as well.

Rudolph's Roller Coaster

Feeding the deer.

A visit to Santa, still can't get Klaire to do it.

On the sliegh.

Miranda and Nicole on the train.

Klaire and I on the train.

It is a nice ride and takes you pretty much around the perimeter of the park.

A look at the lagoon with swan boats.

A bike ride

Planes

Frog hopper. This one was pretty loud for some reason.

Swan boats. Are we sinking?

A little swings before lunch. Can Canadian kids swings, a lot of them were getting hurt left and right here??

Of course a pic of Miranda.

 

We then head towards Blue mountain Ski Resort. Man what a nice resort, would certainly love to ski this one some day. Great village. The only downfall was there was an Elvis thingy going on, so the mountain and village were packed. The coaster was awesome, best alpine one yet. We would have done it multiple times, but the wait was 20 minutes so it was once and done. At least for as packed as it was, we were still able to run it without any brakes.

Blue Mountain

Here's my ticket. You can see the line behind us.

Finally....

Going up the lift.

Into the brakes.

Yeah the lot was jammed.

 

Finally a question for the locals up there. Heading back from Blue Mountain we passed an FEC on the right on Highway 26. Not sure if it was Blue Mountain Go Karts or not, but there seemed to be an unmarked credit in there. Had a car full of hungry people, plus a hungry 3 year old, so stopping for us wasn't an option. Can anyone confirm this or not?

 

There web site does have a coaster listed, but no pics of it. RCDB does not have it listed....you can claim it.

UNMARKED ROLLER COASTER??

[biker7766]

Is this the credit that you think you saw?

http://www.rcdb.com/6289.htm

Nebs Funworld, they have a go kart track!

[Coastinmiller]

Is this the credit that you think you saw?

http://www.rcdb.com/6289.htm

Nebs Funworld, they have a go kart track!

 

 

No it's not at Neb's, we were going to go there but it's not open yet. Neb's is to the East of Toronto. It's up to the North West. It's in between Collingwood and Brocks Beach up along the drive of the Georgian Bay. It might be in the vacinity of Bowers Beach.

[biker7766]

Yes, i submitted the correct info to RCDB, thank you,

[Coastinmiller]

^Great. I hope someone gets some pictures of it.

 

Moving on and time for Leviathan Bash. I was really looking forward to this day. Especially since riding kiddie coasters for the past 2 years. But I decided that morning that I would just ride during ERT and give my fast pass to my wife so she can run around with my old man since he has never been there before. I just took Klaire to the kiddie area and later to the water park. Not sure if anyone else at the bash made it to the waterpark, but OMG was it packed.

 

As usual, Robb and Elissa and Wonderland put on an awesome event. Thanks once again! Plus it sold my wife for future tours, the main reason I took the family up here I didn't take many pics today for some reason, I guess b/c it was just Klaire, Miranda, my mom and I walking around. I do regret not doing the Leviathan walkback, but couldn't see doing it with 2 kids.

 

Bash day!

Start with ERT on this bad boy!

 

After a good couple of rides on Leviathan we headed on over to the mouse.

 

Time for some breakfast.

The kids of TPR. Klaire is still asking to go play with Kristen.

 

After relaxing at breakfast we head on over to kiddie land for some rides.

Train

Swings

Of course Taxi Jam.

Carousel

Balloons.

and the best attraction in kiddie land, the...

DONUTS!!!

 

We did the waterpark after lunch and stayed till dinner, but this is the last of my pics. Again, what a great day and Robb and Elissa really do put on amazing events. Great surprises left and right and my mom loved the surprise show after dinner. It was perfect for her as she really doesn't ride anything!

[SharkTums]

^Glad the family had fun, KT *LOVES* that there are now more kids for her to play with in the TPR Family.

[Coastinmiller]

The day after the bash we were going to do 3 parks, but ended up only doing one. In the original plans we were going to go to Centreville, Neb's Funworld and Wild Water and wheels. Since my old man and I decided to marathon Leviathan at night ERT we ended up getting back to the hotel rather late that nixed Centreville, well that and I didn't feel like traveling downtown Monday morning in Toronto traffic which I despise more than Philly traffic. Neb's coaster still has not opened, so it left us with only one park then an early day in Kingston.

 

Wild Water and Wheels, while a bit rundown had only one slide complex and one go-kart track plus mini-golf and the coaster. The coaster was quite fun esp not really knowing what to expect of it. Wish I had done the others up there years back when I had the chance as this is the last of it's kind.

After a nice sleep in relaxing morning, here we are.

Prices

Looks like we got some work cut out for us today.

There goes Nicole.

Here comes the old man.

Nicole down the first drop. Little did I know I was standing on Big Mike's ducky.

Here comes the old man.

2 thumbs up.