Photo TR: A Great Credit Run Through NJ & PA!

[milst1]

We had a really fun weekend recently, shooting through NJ and PA to score credits! It was fun to actually drive in our own car and not deal with airports and rentals for a change. BTW, apostrophes were causing a problem in the captions (They all came out like this \\\\\\\\\\\ for some reason), so they have been removed. Sorry if it reads a little weird. But I did notice the new features in the posting tools, which are really useful. Anyway, on with the report!

As you can see, I did a lot of prep to score those marginal online discounts. But props to Robb and Elissa...we had a huge number of Knoebels tickets left over from Road to Cedar Point two years ago!

The first stop was the Funplex in my home state of New Joisey. Mount Laurel was about a 2 hour drive from our place in Queens.

The Funplex is all about fun, and the Funcoaster will set you back only $6.

The Funplex appears to be a typical FEC, but as you can see, they won the Brass Ring Award from IAAPA in 2011 for best FEC in

North America. Funspot Orlando/Kissimmee took the award for 2012. Well find out in November about 2013.

Cool water play structure.

The Funcoaster is an SBF Visa spinning mad mouse.

In addition to bowling there is an arcade, frog hopper and assorted kiddie flats, mini golf, and other FEC kinds of attractions, indoor and outdoor.

Onward!

Sesame Place was the next stop on our journey.

Oops, the Single Day ticket that is sold online is only good on weekdays. Note that they don't call it a weekday ticket. That is in the fine print.

We were supposed to have gotten the Elmo Ticket, which is full price, good on the weekends, and includes a second day at the park, so we

had to upgrade our ticket to the regular gate price: $60.99! Its only a few dollars less than Six Flags Great Adventure! You get one coaster for

almost the price of 12!

So first we scored the one credit, Vapor Trail, a Vekoma Junior. It is one expensive credit, 10 times the coast of Funcoaster!

We needed to get back on the road but I wanted to take some photos, so we started walking down the midway and saw this...nothing.

Most of the attractions are tucked to the sides and geared to very small children. What surprised me was the relatively minimal theming.

I guess its better to have less stimulation than more in these situations. This place must be raking it in on busy days like this

one.

Theres Ernie at the Teeny Tiny Tidal Wave. We did enjoy the park soundtrack. Onward!

In all of our travels, we had never made it to Lancaster, PA and Dutch Wonderland until today.

The first thing we saw was this guy getting escorted out of the park by Security. Some other guy who was watching looked at me,

shook his head, and said, Who gets kicked out of Dutch Wonderland?

We understood his puzzlement. It was a clean and friendly park.

Kingdom Coaster was the fun CCI family woodie.

Joust is the Chance Big Dipper.

Theming on par with Cedar Fair.

Family fun with wizards!

Not as good as it looked.

My iced coffee was pretty good, though.

More parks should have pony rides! Onward.

Normally its a short drive of 35 minutes or so from Lancaster to Hershey, but we got caught in the traffic for the Jason Aldean concert at

Hershey Stadium. That was an extra hour going nowhere. When we finally got to Hersheypark, we met up with Kevin, whom I know through

IAAPA. As you can see, Im rockin my Japan Tour t-shirt.

This is the credit we were after. Even though the park was packed, there is a very nice quiet path to Skyrush if you go to the right after entering the park.

If any coaster ever deserved the adjective aggressive, this is the one.

I loved Skyrush, but it was a difficult ride for me. Instead of the restraint holding me in at the hips, these restraints held me more on the thighs,

which meant that all of the forces would go directly to my femurs. Consequently I had to really hold on tight with my hands to hold myself in my

seat and prevent the full force of the negative Gs from going directly my legs. Others on the TPR forum have said that it gets better as you learn

the layout. I hope I get that opportunity, because this is one badass ride. It was one of the most ferocious coasters Ive ever ridden.

We hit a few other coasters like Wildcat and Lightning Racer and had a decent meal. We then skedaddled to avoid the post-concert traffic. Four parks

is not a bad day.

Sunday was reserved just for Knoebels and the drive home. There is Kozmo on the carousel.

Heres a ring collection box for the carousel.

Warning! The sight of Phoenix may cause coaster enthusiasts to climax prematurely.

This coaster is consistently excellent.

These flood markers are incredible.

Here was our credit, Black Diamond, which I really enjoyed. I love coasters that are dark rides and dark rides that are coasters.

Knoebels tradition of above-average food continues.

My sandwich was freaking dee-licious!

We saw a lot of testing activity happening on Flying Turns so we wandered over.

We spoke with one of the guys working on it for a bit. He was cautiously optimistic that the ride would open before the end of the season.

Sure enough, that water dummy testing video came out shortly thereafter. Im looking forward to it, just because it looks pretty neat and the

whole thing is technically impressive. And bobsled coasters are neat. And its a woodie! As Robb says, hopefully it will be successful for the park.

Well, summer's almost over. I hope everyone had a great coaster season. Thanks for joining us on our trip!

[larrygator]

I didn't realize you had not been to Dutch Strollerland previously. Nor Sesame Place , I avoided Sesame Place until the year I bought a Busch Pass.

[cal1br3tto]

Funplex looks pretty spiffy. I'm still not sure if I'll ever bother with Sesame Place, even if it isn't too out-of-the way. I've never noticed that ring collection box at Knoebels and am intrigued by how that system works at different parks. I finally cleaned out all my Knoebels tickets the other day and only needed to buy $3 to finish off the night. Fun report!

[cfc]

I've had a Busch Platinum Pass for years, and I've never made the trip to Sesame Place. But I'm thinking that I would like to get up to Knoebels this season.

[YoshiFan]

I didn't realize Sesame Place had gotten so expensive. I used to go there all the time when I was a kid before they had any rides (back then it was all water slides and playgrounds/net climbs) but am glad I did manage to get the credit on one of my final trips there before everyone in my family outgrew the park.

[BintamiM]

The reason why the attractions are tucked away to the side at sesame place is because they have parades running through the main path of the park.

[gisco]

The cost of the credit at Sesame Place isn't so bad. Add up the number of credits you got on your last Japan trip and divide into the cost of that trip. I think when we did Dubai it worked out over $100 a credit. We have a crazy hobby but we do get to travel a lot. Well worth the price!

[milst1]

^^^

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