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Did you see the dolphin and Shamu show? Those are my favorites there, and the main reason I go up there, unless there's a new credit of course.

 

We saw dolphin, tiger and sea lion shows, but no killer whale. I think that area was under renovation for the Cirque show that debuted later in the summer. The entertainment options at SFDK are definitely a cut above other Six Flags parks, and the zoo/theme park combination works well.

 

I grew up in central California, yet never visited this park. Of course, when I was younger, it was located in Redwood City and was still called "Marine World."

 

The Bay Area wouldn't be a bad place for a theme park enthusiast to live. We had a great time at both SFDK and CGA, and I think they demonstrate that you don't necessarily need to have the biggest and fastest rides to give people a good time.

Posted

Thank you again. I so want to live in the Bay Area now. People think all of California is like that, but the Central Valley is no place for an enthusiast like me. 2 hours to CGA, 5 to SFMM, 7 to DLR

Posted

Part 5: Yosemite National Park

Zero pictures of rollercoasters in this post: you have been warned!

 

At this point in the trip it was time to take a break from coasters for a few days. It might be a national park rather than a theme park, but Yosemite is probably one of the most incredible places I've ever had the good fortune to visit. There is something very special about falling asleep to the rumbling sounds of a waterfall, and then waking up in a valley surrounded by massive granite walls. So after visiting for the first time in winter a few years back, I knew I had to check the place out when it wasn't quite so snowed in. And then take photos to shamelessly show off on TPR...

 

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An easy walk from the valley floor, Yosemite Falls is nothing short of spectacular. I can't imagine ever getting used to this view.

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Lens flare alert.

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Lower Yosemite Falls. 100m tall, or slightly higher than Millennium Force (I include this comparison in the name of relevance to the TPR audience).

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If you were Yosemite Falls, this is what you would be looking at all day.

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Another awesome view from the valley floor.

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The first major hike we did was to the top of Nevada Falls. This is the start of the trail - that's Vernal Falls in the distance, which would be our first stop.

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Australians don't really get why foreigners go crazy over kangaroos and koalas. But we will absolutely stop and stare at a squirrel for hours.

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After a fairly easy walk you end up at the base of Vernal Falls. Then it's only a third of a mile to the top. What they don't tell you is that this is entirely up a steep granite staircase.

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At the top of Vernal Falls you can take in the view of the valley below.

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It's a long way down...

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"Only" another mile or so to the top of Nevada Falls. The trail gets considerably less busy at this point.

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Most of the trail is like something out of Lord of the Rings.

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Every so often you stop to catch your breath and enjoy the view. In my case, this happened roughly every thirty seconds.

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More lens flare looking up at Liberty Cap. This rises 520m up from the valley floor, which is the height of four Top Thrill Dragsters!

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More photo-taking while I take a break to breath. The air is thin!

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Some fancy depth of field.

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Almost at the top. Then only 4 miles to get back.

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900 foot climb and I'm finally at the top.

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The top of Nevada Falls. Nothing short of spectacular. The rain clouds on the right would drench us on the way down.

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Liberty Cap and more ominous clouds.

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Our luxurious accommodation featured three walls and a canvas curtain. Bears do not respect private property so anything with a scent had to be stored in a special box. You too can have all this and more for just 0 per night!

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Next stop was Glacier Point. This is almost a kilometre (more than ten I305s!) above the valley floor. To get up there you can either hike up five miles of switchbacks, or take the bus. My brother was determined to hike so I took the bus alone. Pretty sure that makes me the smart one...

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Yet more lens flare.

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Just going to let this speak for itself.

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Some more fun with depth of field.

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Pretty impressive vista. On the right hand side you can see Nevada Falls, the one we hiked up the day prior. Doesn't seem so big from up here...

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Looking down into the valley - our plush accommodations are near the beach you can see at the bottom of the picture.

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One more look down into the valley. Just stunning.

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But we're not at the top yet. While I waited for Jon to get up to Glacier Point I hiked up the top of Sentinel Dome.

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It was a nice walk through the woods.

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Sentinel Dome. This is 8100 feet above sea level, or higher than the highest mountain in Australia by a good 800 feet (or two Lex Luthor Drop of Dooms!).

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On top of the freaking world.

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More depth of field nonsense.

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8117 feet up. So pretty high.

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Not many places in the world you get this kind of view.

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I did walk back down into the valley though. If Six Flags owned this place they would probably start attaching drop towers to some of the walls.

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The view up from our campsite was pretty special too.

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Mucking around with my camera settings gave me this pic. You can see where the stars moved during the exposure, which is kind of cool.

 

That's all from Yosemite for this trip. Definitely somewhere worth checking out, even for the most ardent theme park enthusiast. Next up: New York (I promise there will be some coasters in that one!).

Posted

Part 6: New York, New York!

The Big Apple. The Melting Pot. The Empire City. New York has a list of nicknames longer than the line at Katz's Deli, and after three days in the Yosemite wilderness it was time to venture east toward the glittering lights of Broadway and 42nd Street. I come from Melbourne which, with its 4 million residents, is hardly a small town, but arriving in New York City and walking up the subway steps into Times Square there was a definitely a sense of awe.

 

The weather was often uncooperative during the week we were there, but that didn't stop us from doing all the regular touristy things, seeing plenty of shows and heading out to Luna Park. I thought it was just an OK park, and in many ways similar to its namesake in Melbourne. Both have an old, classic wooden coaster that isn't as good as you'd hope, complemented by a bunch of somewhat stock-standard flat rides and smaller coasters. For some reason I had been quite excited about the Zamperla Volare and Air Race, I'll let you guess which one of those was actually any good.

 

But overall we had a great time, New York is a wonderful city and I definitely want to head back again someday. On to the photos!

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We flew over a LOT of desert on the way from Oakland to New York.

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And we're here!

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Everybody loves a good fountain.

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The police box. Run-of-the-mill to locals but fascinating to a foreigner.

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The city has some awesome architecture.

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The first play we saw was Peter and the Star Catcher. This was off-Broadway, then on Broadway, and now it's off again. At any rate, a brilliant show that wasn't too "Disney", and had us in stitches.

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I went to see this because it had Tom Hanks. That is all.

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I was very, very excited to see Book of Mormon. I'd booked tickets almost a year before and was not disappointed. Absolutely deserves all of its accolades.

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Newsies. Because I don't think anyone has mentioned this on TPR before. ;)

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ACERS. They are taking over the world one subway car at a time.

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What you can't see in this photo is the smell. New York subways have a distinct aroma that I call "humid garbage."

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Times Square!

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To promote a new model, LEGO had built a giant X-Wing and put it in the middle of Times Square. This was one of the coolest things I had ever seen.

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No visit to New York would be complete without a trip to the Apple store, although the humidity was making the nice shiny glass box fog up.

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Zoltar does indeed speak. For a dollar, of course.

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It was only mid-May, so there was just one day on the trip we could make it out to Coney Island when Luna Park was open. On the left you will observe Deno's Wonder Wheel, also known as motion sickness: the ride.

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This is what we'd really come here to see. Freshly cleaned up after the hurricane, Cyclone was once again taking passengers.

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The seats were very well padded, which should have warned me, but this was easily the roughest coaster of the trip. The parts that had been re-tracked recently were OK, but the train tended to fall, rather than roll, down most other hills.

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At nine dollars a ride, it wasn't something I needed to try twice.

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Luna Park is basically a Zamperla showroom, and would no doubt be lovely on a sunny day.

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But on this damp, overcast Saturday afternoon, it was all a bit "ghetto".

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The uninspiring lineup of coasters didn't help either. It's a good thing they are adding Thunderbolt next year, because the park really needs a standout ride. As for Steeplechase, I really like the motocoaster concept, but like Pony Express at Knotts, this one was just too short.

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The Tickler was OK for a spinning mouse, but featured one of the surliest ride ops I've ever encountered.

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Then there's Soarin' Eagle. Eggbeater lift, 'flying' restraints, this ride promises so much!

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I wondered... why haven't we seen more of these around the place?

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But after being strapped into the iron maiden restraints and enduring the ride, I realised it was probably a good thing there are only a handful of Volare coasters in the world.

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More 'caged lab rat' than 'soarin' eagle'.

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Ah, the Atlantic! It looks very similar to the Pacific, in case you're wondering.

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The Coney Island boardwalk is kind of fun, and would no doubt be great on a sunny day.

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For all the average coasters, Luna Park is worth visiting for one ride - the Air Race. My new favourite flat ride, this thing is insane!

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I had heard very good things about Scott's Pizza Tour, mostly via TPR. So the next morning we found ourselves at Lombardi's to learn about this iconic New York dish.

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Scott himself would be our guide. This guy's passion for pizza is absolutely infectious, and he is one of the best tour guides I've ever had the pleasure to meet. Here he is in front of Lombardi's oven.

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Lombardi's pizza! The pizza elite (of which I am now one) do not simply bite into a slice, there are three key steps to consumption. First, one must observe, or "taste with the eyes".

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This is where pizza ovens are born!

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This dude was hanging out outside the pizza shop supply store. One day some kind soul will adopt him, wipe the bird poo away and give him a new home.

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Next stop was Joe's Pizza. On the way over Scott had asked people what the weirdest topping they'd ever had on a pizza was. Somebody said egg, which is a key component of the 'Aussie' pizza back home. I was baffled.

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Joe's pizza! The second stage in pizza tasting is to smell the slice, sniffing gently around the flavoursome crust.

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The final port of call on the tour was John's Pizzeria. Scott was aware of Melbourne's pizza scene and asked me to suggest my favourite. The pressure caused me to panic and forget the name of every single pizza restaurant I've ever been to.

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John's pizza! The final stage in pizza tasting is, of course, to actually put it in your mouth. As we would find out at Hersheypark later in the trip, the steps involved in chocolate tasting are very similar to those of pizza tasting.

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We did all the usual touristy crap. This is 'The Beast', which is basically the best way to see the Statue of Liberty if you don't want to waste half your day on a sightseeing ferry.

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You get all the great views of the longer cruise, but are out and back in 30 minutes!

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Just enough time to get the obligatory photo with the lady herself.

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Walking across the Brooklyn Bridge is a nice way to see Manhattan. Unfortunately, everybody else thinks so too.

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This is a cool little tradition, but the combination lock is kind of non-commital...

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We received numerous warnings at the Empire State Building that it was 'a bit foggy'. But this also meant that there were no lines!

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It was neat to see the Freedom Tower rising out of the fog.

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We spent a long time staring down on the city - there aren't many places in the world with such an eclectic mix of architecture.

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Then it was time for some culture. To escape the rain we visited the Museum of Modern Art. This is what happens if you leave your couch out in the humidity too long.

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A lot of the "modern" art was clearly edgy, and challenged convention. But that doesn't automatically make it good.

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Genius or nonsense? I can't decide.

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More culture can be found at The Museum of Natural History!

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There were lots of animals to see. Some were gracefully posed in picturesque dioramas. Some were not.

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Look into my eyes!

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More culture. Some sort of elephant bowl, complete with genitals.

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More nudity in the name of culture.

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Superman can't go near this stuff.

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On the other side of central park is the Metropolitan Museum of Art. This was a very interesting place to visit, and I could easily have spent more time there. There was a wonderful diversity to the collection, and it was less pretentious than MoMA.

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Some Pacific island totems. Art.

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They don't sell these at IKEA. More art.

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Faberge eggs are art too.

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So are Egyptian tombs. This was very impressive from a distance but up close there wasn't a lot to look at.

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One more touristy activity. Top of the Rock!

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NYC at night is pretty cool.

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Looking back toward the Empire State Building. That's all for this update, coming up next we head to Six Flags New England, Lake Compounce, and Quassy!

Posted
^^^

Shamu is Sea World; Shouka is the lone killer whale at SFDK.

 

Great great report, with great photos. We're very due for another Cali trip. Wish we could make it for WCB.

 

In the meantime, great stuff.

Shouka is gone! SFDK sold him to Sea World since they only had one which caused a great deal of stress on the lone killer whale.

Posted

Great photos, the starry sky ones in Yosemite were magical. It was nice to see Glacier Point, I've only done Half Dome and Yosemite Falls, so it was good to see what I missed. I still haven't been to the two San Fran parks, that would get me well over 600 coasters (587 ATM).

 

Love New York, wish I was there right now.

  • 2 weeks later...
Posted

Part 7: Six Flags New England, Lake Compounce, and Quassy!

Once we were done with New York we collected the rental car, ready to begin the next part of the coaster tour. Our original plan was to hit up Quassy and Lake Compounce on the first day and spend the night in Enfield. But the weather had other ideas and it rained so heavily that both parks were closed, so our wet-weather standby of going to the movies had to suffice. Not one to want to miss out on a credit I formulated a plan that would see us hit up all three parks on the same day, before heading to our overnight stop in Utica. Ambitious? Absolutely. But it was also one of the best days of the trip, and we fit in a stack of great coasters.

 

Some observations:

- Bizarro absolutely deserves it's place as one of the top-ranked steel coasters - it's got the airtime of an out-and-back with the high-speed turns of a spaghetti bowl. We had a Flash pass (because it was Memorial Day weekend and I'd expected the place to be packed) and managed to get in five rides in the few hours we spent at SFNE.

- Batman is underrated - I thought this was definitely one of the better B&Ms of the trip, not sure why it gets a bad rap sometimes

- Gotham City Gauntlet was the most gentle wild mouse I've ever been on. It was very relaxing.

- Thunderbolt was surprisingly rough for a small woodie. If we'd had more time I would have liked to re-ride to give it a second shot.

- Boulder Dash was awesome, not as smooth as I was expecting for such a highly-rated coaster but great nonetheless, awesome use of the surrounding terrain.

- Wooden Warrior was definitely worth going out of our way for. It would be great to see more parks add a 'small' woodie to their lineup that isn't a museum piece.

 

Stats at the end of this leg:

8 parks

41 coasters (33 steel, 8 wood)

4 boomerangs

4 log flumes

5 rapids rides

5 drop towers

2 rides themed to Superman

1 night spent at a Red Roof Inn

 

On to the photos! (Wish I could have taken more, we were on a pretty tight timeframe!)

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Still a bit cloudy but the rain was gone, so with Bizarro's lift hill teasing us we were ready to start the day at Six Flags New England!

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I think we were the first people of the day to ride this. The ride ops were really happy to see us! Despite it's name containing the word 'gauntlet', this wild mouse is notable for its gentle nature.

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Thunderbolt pretty much won the prize for having the most difficult-to-find Flash pass queue. The key is to ignore the signs pointing to the entry.

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Catwoman with whip. Best kiddie coaster theming ever.

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Bizarro totally lived up to expectations. Best of all, the ride ops were on their game and dispatching trains very quickly.

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Gotta love a giant lift hill.

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There is not a single part of Bizarro I didn't like - it completely delivered from start to finish.

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Look at all these happy people!

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After four hours gunning it through SFNE, it was time to head down to Lake Compounce. At this point the sun made an appearance, and so did some lens flare.

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Only three coasters but there's plenty more to see at this park.

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Wildcat was pretty good for an 'older' woodie, especially the sections that had been recently retracked.

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Check out all the new wood - so smooth!

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Despite the fact that it was Memorial Day weekend, the park was almost dead. Lines were short!

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I'm always up for a shooting dark ride. Some of the targets on this were definitely broken, but the theming was pretty cool. I especially liked the little demons taunting guests.

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Boulder Dash was worth the visit alone - really, really good use of the terrain to create a great coaster.

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So many little hills... so much airtime!

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I didn't have the patience to wait for a train to come along, so apologies for this picture of just track.

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Some tasty depth of field.

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The awesome theming on the Pirate ship was marred only by the fact that it wasn't open.

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Boomerang #4. Better than the one at SFNE. Don't ask me why, it just was.

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We arrived at Quassy about an hour before they closed, but this did not deter the carpark attendant from charging us full price for a parking spot. The park was empty, and (after some searching) I found somebody to sell us ride tickets.

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It might only be ten metres high, but Wooden Warrior packs more of a punch than coasters twice its' size.

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I'd only bought a couple of ride tickets, but the ride ops were awesome and let us go around half a dozen times since there was nobody waiting.

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I thought this was a great example of how good design can win out over raw height and speed on a coaster.

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At this point in the day it was just us and the staff in the park, so by the time I took this they'd shut down the ride. So another ugly track shot with no train. You'll have to enjoy the lens flare instead.

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I'll end with a glamour shot of the rental car, our trusty Chevy Impala. This thing had 200 miles on it when we picked it up at Newark airport, and close to 3000 when we returned it. That's all for this update - next up is Waldameer and Cedar Point!

Posted

^Kind of annoyed that I missed that one. It was at the *wrong* end of the park and I only had a few minutes to grab photos before we needed to get going. This day was such a blur... mostly I just remember being excited that I actually fit on Bizarro and it was all an adrenalin rush from there!

Posted

Batman has been running exceptionally this year! No rattle, little to no trim, and the lift hill has been sped up. I figure they speed everything up for capacity.. More B&Ms should be run this way, Everyone wins!

  • 3 weeks later...
Posted

Part 8: Cedar Point!

After spending a good chunk of the (Australian) summer watching Gatekeeper's "birth" on the Cedar Point webcams, I was eagerly anticipating out visit to "The Point". As if the new hotness wasn't enough, we also had Top Thrill Dragster, Raptor, Maverick and Millennium Force to look forward to!

 

The drive from Utica (our overnight stop after the insane SFNE/Lake Compounce/Quassy day) was the longest of the trip, and broken up by pit-stops at Niagara Falls and Waldameer. Niagara Falls was very pretty, but far too touristy to actually be enjoyable. By that, I'm not referring to the number of tourists, more that everything in that town seems to exist to squeeze every last dollar out of you and get in the way of actually seeing the falls.

 

Waldameer was fun. I ended up skipping the photos at this one, by the time we were done with rides it was too dark anyway. The highlight was definitely Ravine Flyer II, which was running spectacularly well. The park's selection of flat rides was excellent, and it has the best drop tower I've ever been on (Knoebels' new one is a close second). The log flume was superb. The local clientele were... interesting. There were a lot of police around later in the day, and the Music Express was e-stopped at one point (while we were on it) because somebody had decided to light up a joint. But we still had a great day, and it's definitely a park I'd visit again at some point.

 

Cedar Point absolutely lived up to expectations. It was a bit windy on the first day we were there so quite a few rides ended up being closed for at least part of the day (MF had valleyed a couple of weeks earlier so I guess they were being cautious). The second day was much better, although TTD never opened while we were there, so I'll have to go back to get that credit at some point.

 

Some observations:

- Millennium Force was a huge highlight, absolutely awesome ride.

- Maverick took me by surprise and may well be my #1 now.

- Magnum's airtime in the back seat was absolutely insane, I felt like I was going to fly out on those final hills.

- Gatekeeper was exactly what I had expected - not forceful, but very smooth and a great "flying" sensation.

- Did not expect much from Gemini but it consistently gave great rides

- Raptor is the best B&M anywhere (that I've been on, which is a few now).

- Mean Streak is nowhere near as bad as it's reputation suggests. Roar at SFA is far, far worse.

- Shoot the Rapids is a weird flume ride, and a death trap apparently. Lapbars on a log flume? Really?

 

Stats at the end of this leg:

10 parks

57 coasters (45 steel, 12 wood)

6 log flumes

6 rapids rides

7 drop towers

4 nights spent at a Red Roof Inn (so cheap! And the one in Sandusky is actually pretty good!)

 

Onward to pictures!

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Oh. Canada.

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Niagara Falls. Not pictured: thousands of other tourists trying to take this exact photo.

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Cedar Point's sexy new entry plaza.

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Bad weather forecast = short lines!

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Everybody loves a good keyhole.

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It was great to finally see Gatekeeper in person, and not just on a Cedar Point webcam. In the dark. Because, you know, time difference and all.

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I had a great time on this ride - it definitely wasn't "rough and slow" when I rode it.

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The back side of keyhole.

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One of the best first drops on any coaster!

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Flying!

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Rastafarian bananas. For the man who has everything.

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Maxair/Wicked Twister double!

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This is a really cool coaster. Unless you are fat like me, in which case you wait at the exit with all the other fat people while your slimmer companion rides.

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Once again, our efforts to ride the Windseeker were thwarted by it being closed.

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Australia. Not important enough to get a balloon on Snoopy's ride.

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There are six coasters in this photo. Can you spot them all?

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Corkscrew. The most evil coaster element ever invented.

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But it does look awesome sitting over the midway.

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Mantis and Iron Dragon are terrible, so here's a picture of a fountain.

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Top Thrill Dragster is super tiny compared to Power Tower.

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It's barely taller than this ride sign.

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Closed due to wind. I was disappointed to miss this one - we would ride Kingda Ka later in the trip, but popular opinion seems to be that TTD is better.

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How long until this gets a drop tower?

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Arrows are great until you hit a corner. Magnum gets around this by not having any.

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Gemini. Better than it looks, but I still have no idea what it's supposed to be themed to.

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Like all racing coasters it's much better when both sides are running.

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Finally. A photo with the train in it.

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Cedar Creek Mine Ride is the prettiest awful coaster around.

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Everybody hates on Mean Streak. Personally I didn't think it was that bad. Not great, but not the worst either.

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I liked Shoot the Rapids, and was blissfully unaware that of its potential to injure when riding.

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Maverick's track. Great ride, but it broke down a lot while we were there. We managed to ride twice on the first morning with a 5 minute wait each time, after that I only ever saw it closed or with a 90 minute queue.

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More Maverick. Best Intamin? Probably.

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Dry.

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Splash.

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Drenched.

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The old-time/wilderness-themed part of the park was really pleasant

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Maverick might be a better ride, but Millennium Force is still the king of Cedar Point.

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Big drop.

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Big curves.

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Big airtime.

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There is nothing "small" about MF, and it delivered a fantastic ride.

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Radiator Springs Racers: Cedar Point style.

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Mantis: you won't want to ride twice.

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It has a good looking loop though.

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B&M are going to find a new market selling sit-down trains for their standup coasters in the next few years.

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The midway games building looks really cool, but I've never understood the appeal of playing video games at a theme park. Rumour has it that this will be repurposed as a dark ride one day, which would be a great addition to the park.

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Raptor. Best inverted B&M anywhere. This was closed due to wind for most of our visit, so we camped outside the entrance for 30 minutes on the last day. Once it opened we got on the first train. By the time we got back to the station the ride was closed again...

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One last look at the midway and Gatekeeper.

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Goodbye Cedar Point! I will return when it's less windy!

 

That's the end of this instalment. Next up: Kings Island!

Posted

Strange to hear Raptor, Dragster were closed due to wind - and Gatekeeper was not? I think a steady 20mph wind closes the ride. Glad you got to ride nearly everything though, good on ya for sticking it out to ride Raptor! I love that ride too. You can trade spots with me so you can come back to ride Dragster and I can ride Superman Escape!

Posted

I think that Maverick is the best ride at Cedar Point--top-ten material for me, too. Intamin did not cover itself in glory with Shoot the Rapids, though.

Posted

Awesome job on the photos and captions!

 

This was my favorite caption in the trip report (about Waldameer)...

 

The local clientele were... interesting. There were a lot of police around later in the day, and the Music Express was e-stopped at one point (while we were on it) because somebody had decided to light up a joint.
Posted

^The e-stop happened almost at the end of the cycle, so they decided to send us around for a second time. Two consecutive runs on that thing with it's 'turbo mode' was more than enough!

 

Waldameer's Space Shot, on the other hand, I could not get enough of, despite the cranky ride op who made us go through the whole queue to re-ride even when there was nobody waiting.

 

Strange to hear Raptor, Dragster were closed due to wind - and Gatekeeper was not? I think a steady 20mph wind closes the ride.

Gatekeeper might have been shut for part of the time as well - we rode it during early entry on both days to beat the queues - but it seemed to have less downtime than Raptor or TTD. Didn't seem like much more than a light breeze at ground level, but obviously that's not necessarily the same as the wind speed at the top of a ride.

Posted

^ Yeah, when I was there, a gust of wind or a drop of rain shut TTD down for sometimes hours, but still got a few rides in, we were lucky because it was a few very windy days while we were there.

Posted

Part Nine: Kings Island

One of the biggest questions when planning our trip was "how far do we go?" Cedar Point was a given, but beyond that lay Six Flags Great America, Holiday Park and plenty more. At some point though, we did need to return to New York, so Kings Island was to be our westernmost destination on this part of the trip. I'd mainly picked the park to ride Diamondback and The Beast, but Vortex and Flight Deck were pleasant surprises.

 

The park's remaining selections were very solid. Flight of Fear, Firehawk, Backlot Stunt Coaster and Invertigo might be cloned elsewhere, but they all gave pretty decent rides. I was very impressed by the overall quality of coasters in the park, once Banshee is complete Kings Island will definitely rival Cedar Point (if it doesn't already!).

 

Somewhere around Lake Compounce my brother started to refuse to participate in any water rides, so (dedicated flume enthusiast that I am) I was doing most of these solo. The group of strangers I rode White Water Canyon with were absolutely hilarious every time we got wet, so it was a very memorable ride.

 

This was another park where having an extra half-day was a huge benefit - Flight of Fear broke down for most of the first day so we would have missed that otherwise, and both mornings we managed to fit in 3-4 Diamondback rides with almost no wait during early entry!

 

For those playing at home, stats after Kings Island:

11 parks

69 coasters (54 steel, 15 wood)

7 log flumes

8 drop towers

5(!) boomerangs

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Without the sign there would be no way of knowing whether we were here or at KD.

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Kings Island is themed to Paris and Dinosaurs. An unlikely combination, but I think it works.

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Diamondback was my favourite B&M hyper of the trip. Easy airtime on the hills, and incredibly smooth the whole way around.

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If you lose a penny, Kings Island keeps that penny. More impressive was the box of broken mobile phones in the Diamondback queue.

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Every rollercoaster should have water scoops at the end.

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An impressive finish.

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Sneaky Beast photo. I liked the whole ride, but the helix in the second half was awesome.

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By this point in the trip we'd started to see Arrows as something to be endured, rather than enjoyed. Vortex blew that jaded view away. "Unrelenting" is how I would describe this ride, and back-to-back loops are always great.

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This is either an arty silhouette or just poorly composed. You decide.

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The RCT-esque remainder of this trip report is courtesy of the park's Eiffel Tower.

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Backlot Stunt Coaster #1. An fun family coaster in need of a little attention to clean up the effects. I think if you ride all three you will eventually see all of the them working. At Kings Island the helicopter moved properly, but we'd have to wait until Virginia to see the stormwater scene.

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Not only does it give a great ride, Vortex is pretty good looking as well. Except for the turn before the MCBR, which will smack you into a concussion if you're not careful.

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Some Banshee footers. Yes, it has really taken that long to get this TR put together. I wasn't expecting much from Flight Deck after the disappointment of Iron Dragon at Cedar Point, but it ended up being really good, with the front car in particular swinging crazily all throughout the ride. On the upper left is our accommodation. Not the White Wolf Lodge, the Super 8 behind it... luxury!

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Invertigo was not bad at all. Definitely better than your average Boomerang, and sitting directly opposite other people certainly adds to the experience. Like the girls sitting opposite us who were clearly terrified the entire time - hilarious!

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Diamondback also has a good time when you ride. ;)

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Easily a top ten coaster for me. Which makes about 25 coasters in my top ten now. Mitch Hawker voting will be difficult this year.

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Flying coasters give you an interesting insight into a firm's design process. Vekoma are quite happy for riders to stare at the sun on the lift hill. And in case you weren't sure just how slow loading this ride is, they're running two trains and still need a double-sided station. Which is a shame, because apart from that it was pretty good.

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This was log flume #7. About a 4/10 on the wetness scale.

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And one more of Vortex for old time's sake. This was my favourite Arrow for about a week and a half, at which point I rode Loch Ness Monster. Next up - Kennywood!

  • 1 month later...
Posted

Part Ten: Kennywood

In the interest of actually finishing this report at some point, it's probably time for another installment!

 

After the wonders of Kings Island we headed east to a little town called Pittsburgh, as made famous by the film Flashdance. This hilly metropolis is home to Kennywood, an interesting park that has a very diverse set of rides. The park's coaster collection has an excellent strike rate - Thunderbolt and Steel Phantom are both superb, and the others aren't bad either. Ghostwood Estate was pretty good, and the park had some great landscaping. At the other end of the scale, Garfield's Nightmare is easily the worst dark ride I've ever been on, and the show we saw (something about an evil scientist) was truly awful.

 

We tried the park's front-of-line system, $15 for one fast pass to a given coaster each hour, starting at 2pm. We found this was only really worth it on two of the rides, and on a couple of them we just ended up waiting in the standard queue because we weren't planning to stick around that late.

 

On the whole I liked Kennywood. It definitely felt more like a locals park than Kings Island or Cedar Point, and with some operational improvements and a little TLC on some of the older rides (especially Noah's Ark) I'd certainly visit again.

 

Quick stats: at this point we'd visited 12 parks, clocking up 75 coasters (57 steel, 18 wood)!

 

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The daily parade was underwhelming.

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Kennywood has a serious fountain fetish. They are everywhere.

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Racer has that real 'classic woodie' feel to it. I love how the track goes across the ride facade.

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Thunderbolt is another great wooden coaster. It was running fantastically during our visit.

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45 years old and it'd still make my top five woodies.

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Garfield's nightmare must have been that a theme park would make an absolutely terrible ride about him. Seriously, what were they thinking?

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More fountain madness.

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Phantom's Revenge is all kinds of awesome.

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Best first drop? Maybe.

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No OTSRs!

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The second drop is even bigger than the first one. Is this a "terrain hyper"?

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You have to basically climb into the bushes to get this shot. You're welcome.

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Noah's Ark was interesting. It's clearly falling apart but still charming nonetheless.

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Fountain: The Ride.

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Skloosh!

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Kennywood has the most eclectic thememing of any park I've seen. A short stroll will take you past pirates...

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tikis...

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and lunching aliens. Awesome.

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Sky Rocket is yet more evidence that Premier absolutely know what they're doing. The first hill delivers some surprising airtime for such a small coaster, especially in the back row.

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They've squeezed a lot into a small space. Not sure about the zig-zag track at the end but the rest of the ride totally makes up for it!

That's all from Kennywood, next up we visit Knoebels and Dorney Park!

Posted

I love how this TR spans months and just keeps on going. Can't wait for more photos and reviews! It was nice to see a few photos of Kings Island since the park is closed for the season now.

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