ZeroGravity55 Posted October 15, 2014 Posted October 15, 2014 Holiday World is my home park and I always enjoy reading other peoples thoughts about the park. Just a few notes, The Legend has apparently been without it's second train since it stalled on the first anti-rollback in early June. Nobody has seen it since and it really has been a capacity killer for the ride. Holiday World is lacking in the flat-ride department. With the addition of Thunderbird being so far away from the Thanksgiving section, I'm hopeful that we're going to see several rides fill in between. I love that you put great detail into this report and the others as well. I've really enjoyed reading the reports so far and look forward to reading more.
rubysparkles Posted October 16, 2014 Posted October 16, 2014 I forgot about the "RMC" log flume. #orangeisthenewtrack
rcdude Posted October 22, 2014 Author Posted October 22, 2014 Holiday World is a great park and Voyage is amazing  I agree. They may not be the biggest or the best, but they are one of the role models of the industry and most other major parks could look to them for how to do a family-friendly park right.  Holiday World is my home park and I always enjoy reading other peoples thoughts about the park. Just a few notes, The Legend has apparently been without it's second train since it stalled on the first anti-rollback in early June. Nobody has seen it since and it really has been a capacity killer for the ride. Holiday World is lacking in the flat-ride department. With the addition of Thunderbird being so far away from the Thanksgiving section, I'm hopeful that we're going to see several rides fill in between. I love that you put great detail into this report and the others as well. I've really enjoyed reading the reports so far and look forward to reading more.  Yeah, we were told the second Legend train had to be sent back to PTC and probably wouldn't return until 2015. It still wasn't a terrible wait (about 20 minutes), but that was still the longest wait of the day. The park management also said the placement of Hyena Falls and Thunderbird was intentional, and while it may not make sense soon it will once their master plan develops into reality. I'd love to see them add a couple wet flats (such as a Mack Twist n' Splash) in the area where Pilgrims Plunge was and add 2-3 more thrilling but not extreme flats (such as a Frisbee) throughout the park.  I forgot about the "RMC" log flume. #orangeisthenewtrack   Okay, time for the next park. This was one of the two wildcards of the trip (along with Kentucky Kingdom) in that I didn't really know what to expect. With Kentucky Kingdom, the park was fun but didn't quite meet my expectations (in its current form...might change in a couple years). Indiana Beach...completely different story.  Trip 2, Part 6: Indiana Beach  Originally, our departure time for Indiana Beach was 8:00 A.M. However, due to arriving an hour late the previous night, the bus voted to cut our 90 minutes of ERT in half in exchange for extra sleep. Ordinarily, I would have voted for ERT, but after a very late night on top of an early morning/late night with little sleep, I was glad for the extra time. It ended up not making too much of a difference, as Indiana Beach was mostly dead and we still had more than enough time for the park.  Indiana Beach:  On every trip, there is always one park that I prejudge as a throwaway park. For this particular trip, Indiana Beach ended up being that park. The park does have some notable rides, but hasn't had the greatest luck in recent history with constant threats of closing, and with their inability to get all new for 2014 rides open on time I didn't have high hopes for the park. On the way there, the park gave Robb a call and informed him that Hoosier Hurricane had been closed for state mandated maintenance and would not be available for ERT (from the looks of it, it looked like it might be down for the season). Not a good sign.  Upon arrival, however, we were greeted by the park owner, who took us inside to get wristbands. We were also given a card with $5 of cool cash, a nice bonus. Finally, the park made up for the closure of Hoosier Hurricane by opening up Tig'rr Coaster during ERT, in addition to all three of the park's other coasters (Cornball Express, Lost Coaster of Superstition Mountain, and Steel Hawg). Although we only had about 45 minutes for ERT and the coasters are all low capacity, I still managed to ride all three and get several rides on Cornball Express before ERT ended. After ERT, I joined up with Caroline, Judd, and Nathan (as usual) and spent some time exploring the park. Due to a lack of crowds (partially caused by cold weather), we managed to explore a majority of the park in only an hour.  At 12:30 P.M. we had a group lunch in the Skyroom. For once, lunch was something different that the standard for this trip, and it was quite good. Indiana Beach gave everyone a souvenir cup and pin as well, and I.B. Crow was on hand for photo opportunities. Following lunch, it was time for TPR takeover of Fascination. I've never played this game before, and I'm not one for carnival games, but Fascination is a lot of fun. It's somewhat of a combination of a roll the ball racing game, a redemption game, and bingo. At only $0.50 per play, it's also very affordable. I spent around $10 on the game and ended up with two wins, which I used to get some candy.  After I finished with Fascination, I spent my remaining hour and a bit exploring the park more and riding some of the standard flats positioned over water. At 3:30 everyone gathered at the south entrance for the official Mini New Hotness group photo (including I.B. Crow), then it was time to get back on the bus for our drive to Chicago.  Coaster Reviews:  While not an outstanding collection, Indiana Beach's coaster collection is solid and contains some very unique rides. While I wouldn't consider anything at the park travel-worthy, nothing at the park is a bad ride and every one of their coasters is memorable in some way. While it is always disappointing to miss a major credit, I will say that Hoosier Hurricane is probably the park's least noteworthy coaster, so if you have to miss one it's an acceptable one to miss.  Steel Hawg: Having ridden my first El Loco at the Adventuredome one month prior, I was excited to try the original version of the ride. My feelings on the coaster are pretty similar to that of the Adventuredome's: good, but not great. I do prefer the layout of Steel Hawg slightly as it is less repetitive, but the cars on El Loco are a vast improvement. If pressed for an answer, I'd probably pick Steel Hawg as my favorite, but both are practically tied in my rankings. It's just a shame Indiana Beach only uses two cars on this ride, as I would have liked to ride more than once. C+  Cornball Express: Now here's an excellent wood coaster. It doesn't look like much, but the ride has tons of airtime, decent forces, buzz bars, and isn't too rough...and that's all just the first few trains of the day. I imagine this ride could be insane on a warm afternoon. Unfortunately, I only rode during morning ERT and based on those rides it just missed my top ten woodies, but Cornball Express is still easily the best ride at Indiana Beach and, in my opinion, better than the more well known Legend and Raven at Holiday World. It's a shame the ride is short, but given the small area the park has to work with it is completely understandable. B+  Tig'rr Coaster: Everyone raves about Schwarzkopf coasters, but I'll be honest...I just don't see what all the hype is about. I'm guessing the Jet Star and Wildcat models are more geared toward families, so they're not the best judge of Schwarzkopf's talent. As for this ride, I found it to be an okay family coaster with a good first drop and turn, but after that the ride just sort of meanders around so the coaster doesn't feel as short as it is. I give Indiana Beach credit for keeping this historic ride, but I will say it was my least favorite coaster at the park. C-  Lost Coaster of Superstition Mountain: Okay, I challenge anyone to find a more WTF coaster than this thing without leaving the country. Lost Coaster of Superstition Mountain is just such a bizarre ride, as it's a hybrid between a dark ride and wooden roller coaster with an elevator lift. The ride uses two car trains with rows of seats facing each other and netting covering the riders. Also, this ride has a habit of stalling out, so the park requires all eight seats to be filled and the front car to be heavier than the back to guarantee the train will complete the circuit. From what I understand, there used to be effects on the coaster, but they are no longer working. In any case, I was surprised how much I liked the ride, and if it wasn't for the park only having one working train (which resulted in a 60+ minute wait all day) I would have definitely done a second ride. Even though the ride is very short and the train never gets going above 20 MPH, this is my second favorite coaster at the park. B-  Non-Coaster Summary:  Indiana Beach's flat ride collection is decent, certainly better than Holiday World's. Most of the park's flat rides are just standard models, but as many are located on platforms out over the water the thrill factor is increased slightly. Unfortunately, a number of rides at the park were not operating on the day of my visit, so I was unable to try them out. Despite this, I rode more flats at Indiana Beach than at any other park on the trip, including Air Crow (decent flyers), Double Shot (one of the most extreme S&S towers I've been on), the Giant Gondola Wheel (which was having mechanical issues and kept rolling back), the Scrambler (still one of my favorite standard flats), and the water swings (putting the swings out over the water makes a big difference). I also rode the park's log flume, Rocky's Rapids, which was very dull and only had three logs operating.  Indiana Beach's star non-coaster rides, however, are not flats. The park does have a reasonably good dark ride, Den of Lost Thieves, which appeared to be an old two-story dark ride with interactive elements recently added. There is also Adventure Point, a ropes course/climbing wall/zip line that I wasn't aware was included with the wristband and therefore skipped. However, Indiana Beach's best non-coaster is Frankenstein's Castle, an old walkthrough attraction. Although it doesn't use live actors, the castle has every other trick in the book: animatronics, dark corridors, slanted rooms, moving floors...you name it, and it's in here. Unlike most walkthroughs, there are false paths inside this one and it is quite long, fully utilizing all three stories of the building and making you constantly wonder what comes next. It is an upcharge, but I think it was only around $3 so it is definitely worth doing.  Overall Thoughts:  I went to Indiana Beach expecting it to be the tour's throwaway park, and ended up enjoying the park more than any other non-major park on the trip. The park may not have the latest and greatest thrill rides, but it does have enough for 1/2 to 3/4 of a day of fun. Add in good food, great employees, a nice setting, and just the right amount of quirkiness and you've got a park I would definitely return to if I were passing by (plus I'm still missing a significant credit here). It is sad to see the park in the shape it's in, however, but hopefully Indiana Beach will bounce back and be around for future generations to enjoy.  The Indiana Beach day was somewhat of the rest day of the tour, as it wasn't a late night for once. Instead, when we got to Gurnee around 5:30 P.M. we had a nice dinner at Pizzeria Uno, a decent place for deep dish pizza. Officially the day ended with our arrival at the hotel at 8:30 P.M., but I took a look at Six Flags Great America just 3/4 of a mile away, checked to verify their hours (open until 10 P.M.), grabbed a sweatshirt and headed over with my roommate. As we would not be receiving any ERT at the park the next day (more on that in the next update), I thought it might be a good idea to get a bonus ride on Goliath, and about a dozen others (I'm guessing all those with Six Flags passes) had similar thoughts. Even near closing time the wait was still posted at 1 hour, 45 minutes, but we discovered it to be just slightly over an hour thanks to a good crew. How was the ride? You'll have to wait until the next update to find out, but I'll say two things now: 1. If you really want to know, check my signature, 2. I've got a pretty strong feeling I enjoyed it more than any of the other TPR members who rode it that night.  The real story of the night comes on the way back to the hotel. As we were leaving the park, we encountered someone in the parking lot who had won a giant stuffed bear but couldn't fit it into their vehicle. One of the members of our group (I forget who) bought it off the guy and we carried it the whole way back to the hotel as if it was a fresh kill from a hunting expedition. Some of the reactions we got were just priceless, especially someone we encountered in the hotel lobby (I'll let others tell the full story if they wish).  Ride Totals:  Cornball Express: 3 Lost Coaster of Superstition Mountain: 1 Steel Hawg: 1 Tig'rr Coaster: 1 Air Crow: 1 Den of Lost Thieves: 1 Double Shot: 1 Frankenstein's Castle: 1 Giant Gondola Wheel: 1 Paratrooper: 1 Rocky's Rapids: 1 Scrambler: 1 Water Swings: 1  Total: 15 rides in 5 hours (3 rides per hour)  Unfortunately, Indiana Beach was also the turning point of the trip where I started to take a lot fewer pictures. This was due to a combination of: 1. No more backstage tours, 2. More major parks that are already well documented, and 3. More rides to ride. I'll still post what I've got, but expect only 10-20 pictures per park instead of the 30-50 previously seen. Tig'rr Coaster. I may not get Schwarzkopf or think this was a particularly great ride, but I'm glad I rode it for the historical value. And I'll end with the famous Water Swings. YoYo swing rides are good, but stick them over water and they become significantly better. Got to Adventure Point just in time to watch Andy attempt the climbing wall. Success! That's better than I could do. Indiana Beach has a nice looking ropes course and it's included with the wristband! I wish I'd known that sooner. A look back up the midway toward the north end of the park. If I go back I need to do that Skycoaster...I've never done one due to price, but it was only $10 and is completely above the water. Lost Coaster of Superstition Mountain is definitely the most bizarre wood coaster I've ever been on. I wonder if CCI would have done another had they not gone bankrupt. Two coasters are visible in this picture. One I rode. The other is the most significant missed credit of the entire three week trip. Scrambler + platform over water = better than normal scrambler. I don't always ride Paratroopers, but when I do I prefer the ones that permit single riders. Frankenstein's Castle is amazing. That's not just a three story façade, the attractions actually is three stories (you'll come out on the top balcony if you do it right). Even if you don't do upcharges, DO THIS ONE! Hey, there's a Galaxi coaster here. Oh, wait, it's been replaced by a carousel. The Den of Lost Thieves was a good dark ride. An old-school ride with modern interactive elements squeezed into a tiny two-story building. We've arrived at Indiana Beach. Okay, this was actually the end of the day but there isn't really an official entrance at the north end where we started.
rubysparkles Posted October 22, 2014 Posted October 22, 2014 The funniest part of the day was probably us all having the conversation about who was going first into Frankenstein's castle. Nobody wanted to be first or last, but me and Nathan REALLY didn't want to go first or last. It did lose some of it's scare factor when we caught up with the family in front of us though.
rcdude Posted October 22, 2014 Author Posted October 22, 2014 ^Oh yeah, forgot about that. I don't remember what order we ended up in, though I remember being behind Nathan as I ran into him a couple times in the really dark sections. Now that I know what the castle is like, I think it'd be a lot of fun to go through there alone and see how long it takes to find the way out.
Nickstroberg Posted October 23, 2014 Posted October 23, 2014 Did anyone else notice that in the pic of The Voyage diving into a tunnel, the kid in the center of the shot is flipping you the bird?! Â Great PTR, these are two parks I really enjoy going to, and unfortunately I didn't make it out to either one this year
GwaziBSRider1 Posted October 23, 2014 Posted October 23, 2014 I went to Indiana Beach last year, and I thought it was a dump. It's a shame that Hoosier Hurricane was down because (in my opinion), it's by far the best coaster in the park. Their Galaxi was also probably the best of them all.
rcdude Posted October 30, 2014 Author Posted October 30, 2014 ^^I actually didn't notice that until you pointed it out. LOL Guess they didn't want their picture taken.  ^Hoosier Hurricane looked like a good ride, but based on looking at it and my experience with CCI woodies I doubt I'd consider it better than Cornball Express. I'll need to go back at some point to give it a try. The park definitely seemed like it had seen better days, but the owners are attempting to improve the place. It's not a spectacular park, but it was fun and somewhere I'd return to if I was in the area.  Now for the final report from the Mini New Hotness tour. This one might get some flak from fans of the park, but everything is 100% honest based on my experience at the park.  Trip 2, Part 7: Six Flags Great America-July 29th, 2014  Tuesday, July 29th was not a happy day for a variety of reasons. First and foremost, this was the last day of the TPR Mini New Hotness trip. Around a dozen participants (including myself) would be continuing on to the Mini East Coast trip for another week of fun, but for the rest this would be the last day we would see each other. For most, however, the other main sadness for this day came from the last park of the trip: Six Flags Great America. For those of you who are local to the park or think highly of it, fair warning: You may not like my review, but it presents the park exactly how it was on that day, and it isn't a pretty picture.  Six Flags Great America  Unlike most days on the trip, our day at Six Flags Great America was not an early morning, as we didn't depart the hotel until 9:15 A.M. Wait, what? Before I continue, know two things: Six Flags Great America has long been considered one of the best parks in the Six Flags chain and has offered some good perks to TPR on previous visits as recently as 2013, and every park on this trip has gone above and beyond to ensure we had a great visit. Now, before the trip, the conversation with SFGAm went something like this (this dialogue is not real, but the sequence of events is):  Robb: Hey, SFGAm, we'll be visiting at the end of July to check out your new RMC woodie and were wondering if you'd be interested in hosting an event for a couple hundred of our members. Here's a schedule for an event we're doing at Kings Island earlier in the month. Think you could host something similar?  SFGAm: That looks like an excellent event. Unfortunately, we will be unable to accommodate that at this time.  Robb: Okay, we'll still be visiting with a group of around 50 members. Do you think you could give us a similar ERT package to our visit last year?  SFGAm: No, sorry, we'll be unable to do any ERT this year. We suggest you purchase the Flash Pass to ensure everyone in your group can enjoy all our park's rides.  Robb: Okay, okay, listen...we've got people coming from all over the world to ride Goliath. Could you just let us on 10-15 minutes early so that everyone will be able to ride at least once without a huge wait?  SFGAm Park President Hank Salemi: Sorry, but we just can't do any ERT this year. We often accommodate much larger groups than yours, some as large as a thousand, and many simply purchase the Flash Pass as it's impossible to give ERT to everybody. We hope your group is able to enjoy a typical Six Flags experience.  Yep, SFGAm was unable to give us any ERT, any backstage tours, anything special whatsoever. As a result, Robb and Elissa sprung for Platinum Flash Passes so everyone would be guaranteed one ride on Goliath. As it turned out, the very helpful people at Accesso were able to secretly slip a second Goliath ride on the Flash Passes, and by joining the mad dash in the morning most managed to get on within 30 minutes of park opening. Following that initial Goliath ride, everyone got into Flash Pass groups (I joined Caroline, Judd, and Nathan for the last time this tour), was given their Qbot and wristbands, then left on their own to explore the park.  I will not go into detail about my day at Six Flags Great America and will leave specific events for the summary at the end, but suffice it to say that the day was more of a credit run than anything else. Using the Flash Pass, we were able to get double rides where desired, but we had little time for anything other than coasters due to crowds and operations. We left the park at 4 P.M. for the farewell dinner at Outback Steakhouse, which may have been my favorite group meal of this part of the trip, then returned at 6 P.M. to finish our credit run (we were still missing four credits). Flash Passes were returned at 9 P.M., at which point we checked on the kiddie coasters (Little Dipper was still a 60 minute wait, and Spacely's Sprocket Rockets longer than it was worth), so my group headed out without me (my story will come at the end).  Coaster Reviews:  If there is one element of Six Flags Great America worthy of praise, it is the park's coaster collection. The park has 13 coasters, all of which were enjoyable to some degree. In terms of average quality, this park is probably second best in the Six Flags chain and in terms of variety it's one of the best I've seen. The only issue is that SFGAm has a lot of good coasters but few great ones, as there are only two coasters at the park I would consider worth going out of the way for.  Goliath: A lot of people found this ride underwhelming. However, I found the ride to be outstanding. It may be because this was my first RMC, but Goliath was way better than I thought it would be. The ride has a great first drop and just continues through a series of exciting elements including the very unique Zero-G Stall. Yes, it does end abruptly and is not a long ride, but I didn't think it was too short as many tend to say. No, it is not the best wooden coaster in existence (and actually feels more like a steel coaster) and was not my favorite coaster on the trip (third on Mini New Hotness, eighth for both trips + Cedar Point), but it is absolutely a top tier coaster. If someone were to get off the ride and say "it's great but not top ten material," I'd have to wonder what ten wooden coasters they think are better. A  American Eagle: This is a solid racing woodie with a good out run, a shaky helix, and a mediocre return. Honestly, the main problem of this coaster is that it has strong trims. If the park removed these trims (or at least toned them down) and gave the ride a bit of retracking, American Eagle would probably be one of the better racing coasters. this Either way, I still enjoyed it more than I ever enjoyed Colossus, it just doesn't justify the 75 minute line (no Flash Pass on this one). B  X-Flight: You know, I've heard this is a better ride than GateKeeper, but after riding I really don't think it's any better. It's not worse, at least not significantly, but it still has that feeling of "this should be better." X-Flight doesn't have any dull sections, unlike GateKeeper, but it never really delivers the ride I'd expect it to as the elements are slow and repetitive and the ride just never gets intense. It's still a pretty good ride and one I'd definitely ride again, but it feels a lot more like a Silver Bullet than like a Batman. B  Demon: Having ridden CGA's Demon, I knew what to expect here. The drop, loops, and tunnel were better on this one, but I prefer the second half of CGA's Demon as this one seemed a bit rougher. Both coasters are just okay in my opinion, though the fact that CGA's usually is only a few train wait and this was 45 minutes in the regular queue gives CGA's a few bonus points (though this one has better theming). C-  Raging Bull: Raging Bull is considered the worst B&M Hyper by many enthusiasts, but I really liked the ride. The ride is very long, has a good amount of airtime, a great first drop, decent forces, an unconventional layout, and none of that B&M rattle some rides are known to get. If the trims were deactivated, I would probably rank this above Diamondback, but even in its current state Raging Bull is still somewhere in the middle of the B&M Hypers for me and is easily the best steel coaster at Six Flags Great America. A  Viper: Viper was a bit of a disappointment, as I always hear amazing things about the ride. While I enjoyed the ride, I didn't think it was spectacular. The ride is known for having a ton of airtime, but I personally thought Raging Bull had more on this visit. I did hear from others that Viper was running very sluggish, so that may be why I was disappointed in the coaster, but I can only rate based on my experience. Good, but not worth going out of your way for. B+  Whizzer: This was a pretty fun bridge coaster that has a lot of history behind it. At least once, the coaster was about to be removed but was saved by fans and it is now the last Speed Racer in North America. Being a family oriented coaster, the ride is fairly tame, but it's still a decent ride. It did have a 75 minute wait, however, which is far more than it's worth, but if the wait was 30 minutes or less I'd definitely do it again. B-  Superman-Ultimate Flight: Like the SFGAdv version of this ride, Superman is fun but doesn't compare to the larger flyers like Tatsu. The pretzel loop is great, but after that the ride just meanders until it uses up its energy. Additionally, the coaster is on the short side. I did find this better than SFGAdv's version, however. It's a fun ride, but nothing special. B  Dark Knight: This was much better than the SFGAdv version of the coaster because all the effects were working and you were not forced to view the preshow. However, the ride is still little more than a wild mouse in a box. The coaster is fun to ride once, but I wouldn't wait in line for a re-ride and consider this the park's worst coaster. I'm still shocked people were actually waiting 75 minutes for this. D  Vertical Velocity: I like the Twisted Impulse coasters, and Vertical Velocity actually ended up being the first standard model I've tried. While I didn't enjoy it as much as Wicked Twister, it was still a very fun ride. Like others of this type, the ride is extremely short but more intense than you'd expect by looking at it. B+  Batman The Ride: The original inverted coaster, this is the ride that put B&M on the map. I've been on several clones of this ride, but the original is better than all of them. That said, I'm not the biggest fan of the Batman clones as I don't care for non-stop intensity, but they are a good ride (although short) and prove that bigger isn't always better. B  Six Flags Great America Coaster Ranking:  Must Ride:  1. Goliath 2. Raging Bull  Good Coasters:  3. Vertical Velocity 4. Viper 5. X-Flight 6. Superman-Ultimate Flight 7. Batman The Ride 8. American Eagle 9. Whizzer  Average Coasters:  10. Demon  Credit Coasters:  11. Dark Knight  Non-Coaster Summary:  Due to limited time, I was unable to experience many non-coaster rides at Six Flags Great America, but from the looks of things it appeared that the park's non-coaster selection was pretty average. Of the three I did ride, my favorite was Giant Drop, a standard Intamin 2nd generation drop tower. Giant Drop is neither the best nor the worst of its type that I've ridden, but it was still a fun ride. We also rode Yankee Clipper, which had a good final drop with fairly wet results but was otherwise a somewhat boring log flume with my least favorite boats anywhere (four adults is a squeeze). The only other non-coaster ride I did was Columbia, which is a unique double-decker carousel that's little different from the normal single deck variety once you're on it. In addition, the park had a decent number of other flats, but nothing that really stood out. The new kids' rides for next year will help, as the park's kiddie area seemed fairly limited as well, but SFGAm really needs to focus on non-coaster attractions for the next few years before building another major coaster (5 coasters in 10 years is too many).  Overall Thoughts:  I really want to like Six Flags Great America, and I went in hoping that I would get past my negative impression based on how the park responded to Robb's requests (a polite "we're sorry, but it's just not going to work this year" would have been much better). However, what I found was a park that embodies the typical Six Flags experience almost perfectly. The physical park of SFGAm is actually quite decent. They have an outstanding collection of coasters, the whole place is laid out well, and compared to most Six Flags properties the theming is actually pretty good. Sure, the non-coaster selection isn't anything special, but that's honestly the only issue I have with the physical portion of the park.  The way Six Flags Great America is being run, however, is absolutely unacceptable. Here is a list of things I encountered at SFGAm that I would not expect at a major park:  -Unacceptable operations. I don't expect every park to be as good as Cedar Point or Holiday World, but I expect attractions to be run in a reasonable manner. 2 minute dispatches are reasonable on most coasters. 5 minute dispatches are unreasonable on any coaster, but we encountered these on X-Flight, Raging Bull, and Viper on every single ride. Raging Bull even has a countdown clock (60 seconds) and was running three trains, but practically every single time the trains would double stack and the clock would count back up to around 150 seconds before the ride was actually dispatched. Viper was the worst offender as the train would often complete the course and reach the brakes before the loading gates were even opened. This goes hand in hand with...  -Outrageous lines. I get that we were visiting in the middle of summer at a park with a short operating season near one of the largest urban areas in North America and that the park doesn't really have any competition and just opened the most exciting new ride in 15 years, so I expected it to be busy. I'm not complaining about the fact that every major coaster was 75-90 minutes and even the smallest rides were 30+ minutes open to close, or that Goliath got over 3 hours in the middle of the day, as I wasn't waiting in those lines. I'm complaining about using a Platinum Flash Pass and then having to wait 20-30 minutes AFTER merging before boarding the ride. This wasn't the case everywhere, but on Batman The Ride, Dark Knight, Vertical Velocity, Viper and especially X-Flight, even with a Flash Pass there was a substantial amount of waiting involved. I don't expect immediate access, but when you're paying $100+ per person for an advertised 90% wait time reduction, anything more than 10-15 minutes just isn't right. Every other Six Flags park does this right, so why can't SFGAm?  -Inadequate food service. How can it take 20 minutes to get a basket of chicken strips when there's one person in front of you? Why are only two people working at a food stand during the lunch rush? It just doesn't make sense. To the park's credit, the food itself wasn't as bad as I've seen at some Six Flags parks, but that isn't saying much.  -Rude employees. This was not the case everywhere, but I did see it. I hate going back to Viper, but if you heard the KidTums story you'll know that they were the worst crew in the park (short version: KidTums rode Goliath and American Eagle (both with 48" height restrictions), then got denied at Viper (also a 48" height restriction), and even after getting officially measured the crew still refused to let her on until a supervisor intervened). We also witnessed someone getting their seat stolen on Raging Bull, and what did the attendant do? Tell those who were entitled to the seats to get off the platform so they could send the train.  I could go on, but I think I've made my point. Now, I will say this: Not everything was bad about SFGAm, and not all of the above applied universally. We did have a few good surprises, the most notable of which was receiving an exit pass for being stuck on Demon for about 20 minutes (which enabled us to get both American Eagle credits without a 75 minute wait). A few rides (namely Goliath, Superman, and American Eagle) did have good crews and reasonable operations. However, for the most part the way the park was being run reminded me a lot of how Six Flags Magic Mountain has been in the past few years (although SFMM does seem to be rebounding a bit this year). Still, throughout the day I kept thinking "this wouldn't happen at SFMM," and having been to a majority of the Six Flags parks, it probably wouldn't happen at most of them either. La Ronde is the only one that seems to have more problems than SFGAm, at least from what I've experienced. Therefore, I'm going to say this: We did not receive our promised "typical" Six Flags experience, but rather we received an atypically bad one.  In summary, I will say this: I really want to like SFGAm, and I did make the best of it and have an okay day at the park, but this was definitely my least favorite day of the trip. It is entirely possible that I visited on a bad day and got unlucky, but as the reviews of the place seem to have been on a steady decline over the past couple years, I'm guessing that is probably not the case. The park does have an outstanding collection of coasters, but that alone is not enough to justify a visit. I am absolutely willing to give the park another chance, but I'm unlikely to visit again until the park gets new management and things improve. With proper management, this would be one of the top three parks in the Six Flags chain, but as it is now the park is enjoyable while riding coasters and frustrating at most other times.  Ride Totals:  Note: Due to Platinum Flash Pass, we were able to do double rides on everything except Goliath, Vertical Velocity, and Giant Drop. For what you would likely experience without Platinum Flash Pass, divide the totals by two (where applicable).  American Eagle: 2 Batman The Ride: 2 Dark Knight: 1 Demon: 1 Goliath 4 (including previous night's ride) Raging Bull: 4 Superman-Ultimate Flight: 2 Vertical Velocity: 1 Viper: 4 Whizzer: 2 X-Flight: 2 Columbia: 1 Giant Drop: 1 Yankee Clipper: 1  Total: 28 rides in 11 hours (2.55 rides per hour)  Without Platinum Flash Pass, you'd be lucky to get more than about 16 rides in a day (1.33 rides per hour). With no Flash Pass, you'd probably get about half that.  What happened after I left my group? Well, in typical Midwest fashion, it began to get really windy really fast. I returned to the Flash Pass drop off point and met up with a couple of my friends from the area (JoAnna and Zack), who advised me that it could start storming within the hour and offered me a ride back to the hotel (due to bus driver regulations, we were required to walk back after SFGAm). I decided to try for one last ride on X-Flight before leaving to see if it was really better than GateKeeper or not, but just after getting in line I hear this: "Attention guests waiting in line. X-Flight's operation is determined by weather. While we will do our best to accommodate everyone in line, it is possible we may have to cease operation at any time. In an attempt to permit everyone in line to ride, we will begin assigning boarding aisles at this time." Deciding that waiting for a ride I might not get to take was not worth the risk of making the 3/4 of a mile walk back to the hotel in a torrential downpour, I decided to bail out. On the way out, I ran into JoAnna and Zack, who were just leaving the parking lot and offered me a ride. Just as I was getting in the car, three more TPR members came running out. I will not reveal the details of what happened on the way back to the hotel, but I will say that it was definitely a memorable experience.  Overall Thoughts on the Mini New Hotness Tour:  Mini New Hotness was my fourth TPR tour, following IntimidaTour (2010), North East (2011), and LeviaThon (2012). Before the tour, North East was my favorite of the three, but Mini New Hotness managed to dethrone it. This trip had a great selection of parks (with a nice balance between major, midsize, and small parks), offered lots of perks at all those parks (SFGAm excluded), and with only one bus it was easier to get to know everyone. Additionally, the trip did not have as many early mornings or late nights as North East did (partly because it was shorter), though Mini New Hotness's early mornings and late nights tended to be very early and very late. The trip was intense, but not excessively intense, and didn't leave me as tired as North East or LeviaThon did. Sure, there were some hiccups along the way (such as the Satan's Lodge ordeal) and some of the parks could have been better (aka the Kentucky parks...and SFGAm), but Mini New Hotness was still a very fun trip that I would love to do again.  That's it for Mini New Hotness, but not for this trip report. I've still got four more updates from Mini East Coast, two parts for my family New York/Boston trip, and one last summary of the summer as a whole.  Only a few random ride pictures this time. We were so busy running around that the only time I thought about pictures was when we were stuck in lines. X-Flight soars through the sky. I applaud Six Flags for attempting to theme this ride. It's a shame many of the effects (like mist) don't work anymore, but the theming still adds to the ride. The original Zero-G keyhole (well, in North America anyway). This and the dive drop are probably my favorite parts of the ride (the immelmann is good too). Viper, a woodie Six Flags built in house. I believe this is the only time Six Flags has done this. While it may be another Cyclone clone, Viper is far better than the defunct Psyclone. Even though it was running sluggish on the day of our visit, Viper was one of the better coasters at SFGAm. Raging Bull from Viper's exit ramp. Enthusiasts don't give this coaster enough credit. We'll wrap up with a shot of Caroline and Judd enjoying Viper, as this would be the end of their trip.
GwaziBSRider1 Posted October 30, 2014 Posted October 30, 2014 It's a shame you guys had such a terrible day at the park. Your description of the Flash Pass lines reminds me of the Fastlane line for Bat at Canada's Wonderland. I will never forget waiting 45 minutes for that thing!
rubysparkles Posted October 30, 2014 Posted October 30, 2014 Great addition to the report. I forgot about how slow the food service was here. You would have thought getting stuck on Demon was going to be the worst experience but that was quite pleasant compared to watching some of the crews *cough X Flight cough* load a train.
rcdude Posted November 13, 2014 Author Posted November 13, 2014 ^^Oh, that line for Bat was awful! That's the second longest I've waited for a boomerang (waited an hour for the Knott's one once only because it was a friend's second favorite coaster at the park). For whatever reason, every Six Flags park does a great job of Flash Pass except Six Flags Great America and La Ronde.  ^Getting stuck on Demon was somewhat of a blessing in disguise as it allowed us a second ride on American Eagle. There are a limited number of things the park nailed, but the way they handled that incident was great. I really hope Six Flags Great America improves their customer service parkwide next year because it is not only bad for the theme park industry, but bad by the standards of Six Flags.  I think it's time to get the Mini East Coast reports underway. These reports will be less photo heavy since the trip didn't really include any backstage tours, but I'll still include what I've got.  Trip 2, Part 8: Hersheypark-July 30th & 31st, 2014  Officially, the Mini New Hotness trip ended upon arrival at the airport on July 30th. With a 4:15 A.M. departure to accommodate those doing both tours, sleep was minimal. Most of the dozen or so TPR members doing both tours were split between a direct United flight to Harrisburg or a Delta flight connecting through Detroit (this one was mine). At noon, everyone joined the waiting crowd of new tour participants to kick off the TPR Mini East Coast tour.  It wasn't too far from the airport to our welcome lunch destination: Lancaster Brewing Company. The food was good, not great, but the best part of the lunch for me was meeting the new trip participants. Most of those I had hung out with on Mini New Hotness did not continue on to Mini East Coast. Once everyone was done eating we got back on the bus and headed off to the first park of the trip. I half expected a bonus stop at Dutch Wonderland, but it was not to be. Instead, we went directly to...  Hersheypark  Hersheypark is one of those parks I've wanted to visit for some time despite hearing mixed reviews of the property. According to what I'd read, the park contains some great coasters but is overall underwhelming compared to the major Cedar Fair and Six Flags parks due to subpar operations and extreme crowds. Despite this, I went in with an open mind and ended up having an excellent time. I really wonder whether we got lucky with lighter crowds and better operations than are typical or if reviews just tend to blow things out of proportion.  My approach to Hersheypark was similar to my approach to Cedar Point: Use the first day to pick up all the credits, then re-ride your favorites on the second day along with non-coaster rides. We had roughly 6 hours on the first day to explore the park, which was sufficient to get all the credits except the kiddie. I re-rode a majority of the coasters on the second day, got the kiddie credit, did a decent number of non-coaster rides, and explored Chocolate World. Due to a 4 P.M. departure to allow for a group dinner I didn't have time to check out the waterpark, but it didn't appear to be anything special.  What about TPR perks? Well, Hersheypark gave us more than expected in the ERT department, with 60 minutes the first night on Fahrenheit and Storm Runner (we were originally told 30 minutes on Storm Runner only), plus we got to join resort guest ERT the next morning, which included all of Founder's Circle and the Hollow plus parts of Music Box Way. In addition, we received meal tickets for both days (with included souvenir cups) and Fast Track tickets for both days.  Coaster Reviews:  While not up to the standards of the nation's top coaster parks, Hersheypark probably has the best coaster collection outside of Six Flags or Cedar Fair. The park features three Intamins, three woodies, a decent B&M, a historic Schwarzkopf, and several other smaller coasters. The park's top coasters are all good enough that any park would benefit from them, and even a lot of Hersheypark's second tier coasters would be top coasters at most of the country's mid-size parks. There is one significant flaw among Hersheypark's collection, however, particular with the steel coasters. Excluding Skyrush, every steel coaster at Hersheypark is on the short side compared to others of their type.  Lightning Racer: I am a GCI fan, and in my opinion Lightning Racer is the most creative of their North American designs. Independently, each of the ride's two tracks would be considered somewhere in the middle of GCI's coasters: they're not too intense for families but thrilling enough for everyone, they have a little airtime and a good amount of twists and turns, and the coaster is decently long, but there isn't anything to make it a top tier ride. Put the two tracks together, however, and you have one of the most fun wooden coasters I've been on. Solely due to the dueling aspect, Lightning Racer is in my top ten woodies, ranks as my second favorite GCI, and is my favorite of Hersheypark's three woodies. A-  Wildcat: Wildcat is GCI's original coaster, and it's quite interesting to see how far they've come in under 20 years. While it's probably the worst GCI creation I've been on, Wildcat is still a decent wood coaster that gives a fairly thrilling ride. The coaster is a bit rough, but not terrible by any means, and has a great first drop leading into a truly twisted ride. B-  Storm Runner: This was the last North American accelerator for me to ride. Even though most people consider it the best, for whatever reason I think it's my least favorite. Don't get me wrong, it's still an outstanding ride with more air time than any of the others, but I didn't find the inversions particularly exciting and the top hat is smaller than any of the others so the drop isn't quite as good. Put it this way: If Storm Runner and another accelerator were placed side by side, I'd ride the one with the shorter line, but if an ERT session included both I probably would spend more time on the other accelerator. A-  Skyrush: This ride gets extremely good reviews, but after riding I was disappointed. Everyone raves about it being one of the most extreme coasters in North America, but I found the ride somewhat sluggish and intense but not insane. I did hear other people with similar comments, and I did later ride in a wing seat, but while I found that experience significantly more intense it was too uncomfortable for me to enjoy it. Now, the ride does have good airtime and it is just as twisted as other recent Intamins, but like Intimidator 305 I consider this coaster overrated. Skyrush is a very good ride, but not quite a top tier coaster in my book and surprisingly my least favorite of Hersheypark's three Intamins. B+  Comet: Comet is good mainly because of its classic status than because it is a particularly good coaster. The ride isn't bad by any means, but it has very little airtime and just isn't worth the long waits it typically gets (probably partly due to low capacity). Fun to ride once or twice, but not a coaster I'd wait more than 15 minutes for again. C+  Sooperdooperlooper: Okay, I expected to really like this one since it is somewhat like Revolution but still has only lap bars. Unfortunately, I actually found the ride to be fairly dull. It definitely felt like the ride was trimmed somewhat strongly, but I think the biggest factor was that I was expecting a thrill ride when Sooperdooperlooper is more of a family looping coaster. Fun, but not the legendary Schwarzkopf experience I'm still looking for. C+  Great Bear: If Great Bear was longer, it would be a top tier inverted coaster. The ride starts off strong with an interesting helix/first drop combo and three great inversions. Unfortunately, after that point it just winds its way back to the station. The ride is certainly unique and is still better than some of B&M's more recent inverted coasters (such as Silver Bullet), but it still only a middle tier invert in my opinion. B  Trailblazer: While not the worst mine train ever (in fact, it's not even as bad as Cedar Creek Mine Ride), Trailblazer is nothing to write home about. This is a pretty short and uneventful mine train with a couple jerky spots. Every park's got a worst coaster, and this just happens to be the one for Hersheypark. D+  Sidewinder: Sidewinder was my 10th boomerang, and if such a thing as a good boomerang exists I think it is this coaster. Sidewinder uses the new Vekoma trains first seen on Carolina Cobra, but unlike the latter ride Sidewinder is fairly smooth. A boomerang is a boomerang and they only get so good, but Sidewinder is one I would not only be willing to ride again but one I'd be willing to wait for again. B-  Wild Mouse: A standard Mack wild mouse with one exception: no trims on the switchbacks. Due to this, the ride is actually pretty fun and features stronger laterals than many of these coasters. A wild mouse is a wild mouse, but Hersheypark's is on the better end of the spectrum. C-  Fahrenheit: I always thought Fahrenheit looked like a good ride and would be quite fun, but I never expected it to be my favorite coaster at Hersheypark. After one ride, however, I knew it was. The ride may not be the biggest or the fastest, but the elements on the coaster just flow together really well and the ride is perfectly smooth. It has just the right number of inversions, a great drop, one strong airtime moment, and some twisting as well. I didn't ride this one until night ERT the first night, and due to being extremely tired (I don't do well on less than 4 hours of sleep) I only got a few rides in. Unfortunately, Fahrenheit has terrible capacity so I didn't get as many rides as I would have liked, but I would absolutely wait whatever length the line is for this coaster on a return visit. A  Cocoa Cruiser: Hersheypark's brand new Zamperla kiddie coaster, this is the smoothest of its type I've been on. I think it did two or three laps (don't remember for sure), and I did enjoy it more than Trailblazer. Not much else to say about the ride.  Hersheypark Coaster Ranking:  Must Ride:  1. Fahrenheit 2. Lightning Racer 3. Storm Runner  Good Coasters:  4. Skyrush 5. Great Bear 6. Wildcat 7. Sidewinder  Average Coasters:  8. Comet 9. Sooperdooperlooper 10. Wild Mouse 11. Cocoa Cruiser  Credit Coaster:  12. Trailblazer  Non-Coaster Summary:  Hersheypark has one of the better non-coaster collections, with a good selection of flat rides, two quality water rides, a unique dark ride, and numerous other attractions. Of the flats I rode, my favorite was Frontier Flyers. While not the best flyers I've been on, this was one of the better ones and had a nice setting. I also liked the Claw and Flying Falcon, though I found Hersheypark's Whip on the weak side. In addition to flats, I rode the three scenic rides at the park: The Monorail and Kissing Tower offered some good views, but Sky View was probably the worst chairlift I've ridden anywhere. In the water ride department, Coal Cracker is one of the better flume rides I've been on. Although it only has one drop, there is an airtime hill at the bottom and the ride is quite dry. Lastly, I did ride the Reese's Xtreme Cup Challenge. It's one of the worst interactive dark rides I've been on and doesn't make much sense at all, but it's worth riding for the WTF factor.  In addition to what I rode, Hersheypark has numerous other flats (mostly geared toward families), a railroad, a splash boat, and a small waterpark. Finally, there is also the Chocolate World dark ride just outside the park, which is an absolute must ride and is just one step below some of Disney's attractions. It even has its own theme song.  Overall Thoughts:  I went to Hersheypark with an open mind and left with a new top ten park. The park is quite large, but feels more like a family owned park and less like the corporate Cedar Fair and Six Flags properties. The entire park is nicely landscaped, with decent (although limited) theming throughout. The park has a good selection of attractions, and in addition to rides there is also a zoo, waterpark, and Chocolate World. All the employees I encountered were great, and operations for the most part were great. Food quality was decent, certainly better than a lot of major parks. Lastly, we got lucky with crowds and managed to avoid any waits longer than 30 minutes.  There are, however, two major issues I have with Hersheypark. Firstly, the layout is very awkward. The park is long and narrow, but doesn't form a complete loop, so Pioneer Frontier and Midway America are essentially a dead end. I could see this being a major traffic issue if the park was busy. The second issue is the park's Fast Track system. Hersheypark uses a punch card system, where a Fast Track gets you on a set number of coasters once each, similar to Quick Queue. However, at Hersheypark riders are restricted to a single boarding row and must return in a 45 minute window, or at least in theory. I found that operators tended to not enforce the end of the return windows, and would let you on early if there weren't any other Fast Track users waiting. Additionally, when it was more convenient Fast Track riders were sometimes seated in other rows than the designated one. Finally, they would occasionally forget to mark the card, allowing multiple uses. Yeah...either enforce the rules or don't have them. We also discovered that Hersheypark limits the number of Fast Track tickets sold for each return window to 17 and makes no effort to fill the Fast Track row if no users claim it. By my calculations, that's as many as a hundred empty seats per hour. Due to all these issues, along with the excessive price ($50 for 9 rides or $25 for 5 evening only rides) I would recommend against using Fast Track and suggest Hersheypark either switch to an unlimited use system, cut the price, return times, and assigned seats, or increase the number sold to ensure the seats are filled on every single cycle.  Regardless of these issues, Hersheypark has become one of my favorite parks. In terms of thrill parks, Hersheypark is second only to Cedar Point in my opinion, and when compared to all major parks it is just behind Dollywood for overall quality. It isn't a park I would make a trek to visit every year, but is definitely one I have interest in returning to.  Ride Totals:  Cocoa Cruiser: 1 Comet: 2 Fahrenheit: 4 Great Bear: 2 Lightning Racer: 3 Sidewinder: 1 Skyrush: 3 Sooperdooperlooper: 3 Storm Runner: 8 Trailblazer: 1 Wildcat: 1 Wild Mouse: 2 Chocolate World: 1 Coal Cracker: 1 Claw: 1 Flying Falcon: 1 Frontier Flyers: 1 Kissing Tower: 1 Monorail: 1 Reese's Xtreme Cup Challenge: 2 Sky View: 1 Whip: 1  Total: 42 rides over 2 days (~13 hours in park; 3.23 rides per hour)  The bus left Hersheypark at 4 P.M. on Thursday. Despite an adequate number of reminders, nearly 1/4 of the tour was left behind (1 person didn't make it and took a taxi). We had a group dinner at Funck's Restaurant that night, an interesting restaurant with some decent but not spectacular food (though better than Lancaster Brewing Company IMO). At about 6:30 P.M. we headed back to the hotel in order to get plenty of rest for the next day. Although a full day with a late night was in store, it was perhaps my most anticipated day of the entire tour, as I would finally get to experience the legendary Knoebels. Sooperdooperlooper has a good loop. It's too bad the rest of the ride is quite dull. Sky View...the most pointless chairlift ever. Seriously, you get on, cross the river, then turn around and go back. Now get ready, here we go! I didn't ride Howler, as this isn't really my type of ride, but these tend to be pretty fun rides. I wish Intamin built more rides like Fahrenheit. This ride really surprised me, and I'd consider it an underrated coaster by enthusiasts. That's a big splash! No wonder Tidal Force is officially part of the Boardwalk. Even though this is one of the better Wild Mouse coasters, it is one of the worst coasters at Hersheypark. ...but since there were only a half-dozen major slides and none looked particularly unique, I passed (plus this was the busiest section of Hersheypark). The Boardwalk is Hersheypark's waterpark. I was originally planning to spend some time here... I like the architectural style of the buildings at Hersheypark. It's nothing fancy, but it looks nice. While it doesn't quite have enough capacity for a major park, I could see one of these fitting in really well somewhere like California's Great America or Six Flags Discovery Kingdom. Hersheypark is up there with Busch Gardens, Dollywood, and the Disney parks in terms of atmosphere. It is enjoyable to just walk around the park. Music Box Way serves as Hersheypark's kiddie area, but I found rides suitable for kids dispersed throughout the park. For a family-friendly park, this is a much better strategy. Skyrush is Hersheypark's largest coaster, but is only average sized compared to other hypers. Welcome to Hersheypark, the best major park in Pennsylvania (major being the key word here). Although the bus didn't leave until 4 P.M., I left Hersheypark around 2:30 P.M. on the second day. That gave me a good hour or so to explore Chocolate World. While not part of Hersheypark proper, I definitely recommend allowing an hour or two to check this place out on a Hersheypark trip. I think there was a sign explaining this lighthouse-like thing, but I forget what it said.
GnastyGnoric7 Posted November 13, 2014 Posted November 13, 2014 Great report AJ, Hersheypark is my home park, and overall, the operations are hit or miss, sometimes they are fast, other times they are average. I do agree with you on the Fast Track system, if Hershey reworks the system, and allows as many rides as you want with the pass, as well as choice of row, and added it to the Boardwalk, it could be an excellent system. I thought our 2 days at Hersheypark were excellent, and the ERT was incredible.
GwaziBSRider1 Posted November 13, 2014 Posted November 13, 2014 Another great TR, AJ! I too had heard many terrible things of Hersheypark, and I visited this year for the first time since 2008. Wildcat really isn't that bad, as you said. I think some people whine about it too much. I also agree that Fahrenheit is extremely underrated. It's my personal favorite coaster at the park. Â Funny story: I rode Xtreme Cup Challenge opening season. Remember that little dip through the arch at the end of the ride? My car valleyed on that hill and we had to wait for a maintenance worker to push us over.
hey...hey Posted November 14, 2014 Posted November 14, 2014 Another great TR, AJ! I too had heard many terrible things of Hersheypark, and I visited this year for the first time since 2008. Wildcat really isn't that bad, as you said. I think some people whine about it too much. I also agree that Fahrenheit is extremely underrated. It's my personal favorite coaster at the park. Â Agree...Fahrenheit and Wildcat, along with Great Bear are my favorite rides there.
rcdude Posted November 20, 2014 Author Posted November 20, 2014 Great report AJ, Hersheypark is my home park, and overall, the operations are hit or miss, sometimes they are fast, other times they are average. I do agree with you on the Fast Track system, if Hershey reworks the system, and allows as many rides as you want with the pass, as well as choice of row, and added it to the Boardwalk, it could be an excellent system. I thought our 2 days at Hersheypark were excellent, and the ERT was incredible.  Thanks. Based on what I've read and what I experienced, I have a feeling we visited on better than average days, but either way Hersheypark is still one of the best thrill parks I've visited. I really hope Fast Track is different next year as Hersheypark is the only major park I've visited that doesn't seem capable of running a skip the line system effectively.  Another great TR, AJ! I too had heard many terrible things of Hersheypark, and I visited this year for the first time since 2008. Wildcat really isn't that bad, as you said. I think some people whine about it too much. I also agree that Fahrenheit is extremely underrated. It's my personal favorite coaster at the park. Funny story: I rode Xtreme Cup Challenge opening season. Remember that little dip through the arch at the end of the ride? My car valleyed on that hill and we had to wait for a maintenance worker to push us over.  Thanks. I sometimes wonder if Wildcat's dislike comes more from the fact that it isn't as good as other GCIs than from the fact that the ride itself is bad. It was GCI's first coaster, but I still think it is better than over half the wood coasters I've been on. Fahrenheit was a huge surprise for me...I expected to like it but not love it, and it ended up being my favorite ride at the park. Also, I could definitely see a valley occurring on Reese's Xtreme Cup Challenge. That ride has the weirdest ride system of any dark ride I've been on, almost like it was originally going to be a coaster/dark ride hybrid and Hersheypark changed their mind at the last minute.  Agree...Fahrenheit and Wildcat, along with Great Bear are my favorite rides there.  You like Wildcat better than Lightning Racer? Everyone's got their own opinion, that's just not one I've heard very much. If the last 1/4 of Great Bear was as good as the first part of the ride, it would be a top tier inverted coaster, but in my opinion it is instead at the top of the middle tier inverts (comparable to Flight Deck at California's Great America).  Now for the highlight of the Mini East Coast Trip, at least for me...  Trip 2, Part 9: Knoebels Amusement Park & Resort-August 1st, 2014  I was not originally going to do the Mini East Coast Trip, as the price of both trips combined was close to $3,000. However, two factors convinced me to do it: 1. My family's New York and Boston trip, and 2. A chance to finally visit Knoebels, a locals' park that is legendary in the enthusiast world.  Our hotel was only about an hour from Knoebels, so the departure time wasn't too bad (8:30 A.M.). Upon arrival, we met with a number of other TPR members (this was the Club TPR day for Mini East Coast), then with Rick Knoebel, current manager of the park. After a group photo under the famous Knoebels sign, it was time for ERT to begin.  Knoebels Amusement Park & Resort  Knoebels pulled out all the stops for us, with over two hours of ERT, two meals, and more. Our morning ERT was originally going to be an hour on Twister, but due to anticipated crowds we were given morning ERT on Flying Turns as well. Flying Turns has pretty terrible capacity (even with our small group the wait was still about 15 minutes), so ERT on it was greatly appreciated. Following a single ride on Flying Turns, I headed over to Twister for the remainder of morning ERT.  Once ERT ended, I retrieved my wristband and Haunted Mansion ticket, then met up with my roommate Evan and toured the park with him. I don't remember what specific order we experienced the park's attractions in, but I do know that by dinner we got on all the significant attractions, some more than once. Lunch was two slices of Cesari's Pizza and a soda, and while not the best pizza in the world Cesari's was still very good.  As the day progressed, clouds moved in and the threat of rain increased. Then, while making the climb on the Stratosfear drop tower, we heard thunder, leading to the scariest drop tower I've experienced. Following the ride, we made our way to the dinner pavilion just before the rain arrived. Dinner at Knoebels was good, probably the best park meal of the trip, though it's been so long I can't remember what was served. During dinner, Dick Knoebel (the original creator of the park) came and did a Q&A session with our group, and Rick told us some about Impulse, the park's 2015 coaster, and urged everyone to buy glow before night ERT.  After dinner it was time for the TPR Fascination takeover. Like at Indiana Beach, I spent around $10 on the game here, though unfortunately I didn't win anything. After Fascination, there was an unofficial Flyer takeover, then everyone was free until the Skooters takeover at 9:30 P.M. If there is any theme park ride I thought I could be injured on (other than a really rough roller coaster), it is Knoebels Skooters bumper cars, but I did three rounds without incident. By the end of the third ride, the park was closed, so I headed to Phoenix for our 90 minutes of Phoenix Glowfest ERT. Since I ran out of time to buy any glow, I was forced to borrow a necklace from someone. The ERT session was one of the best I've experienced, with double rides on one of the world's best wood coasters.  Unfortunately, all things must come to an end and at 11:30 P.M. ERT ended. It was after midnight when we finally got back to the hotel, but I didn't care. I never thought Knoebels would be a full day park, but even after spending 13 hours there I still didn't do everything. I'll give more thoughts on the park below, but for now I'll say Knoebels lived up to the hype and if the trip ended here I wouldn't have complained.  Coaster Reviews:  Knoebels is not a coaster park, and they only have three proper adult coasters in the park. However, the park's three coasters are all better than many of their type or are at least unique, and with the addition of Impulse next year I'd put the park's collection on par with somewhere like Holiday World. Plus, any park with a top ten wood coaster is worth a visit regardless of what else they have.  Flying Turns: No, Flying Turns is not a super amazing ride and it has pretty poor capacity, but this ride is definitely a unique coaster. Unlike most coasters, loading on this one has to be very precise and takes a while as riders are weighed and adjusted before being locked into a loading pen to await their train. The ride itself is a fun family coaster and does get a little intimidating when the cars ride high on the wall, but it is very short and seems to take almost as long to return to the station as the actual ride was. Fun and worth a ride, but probably not worth the 60+ minute wait it typically gets more than once. B-  Twister: Of Knoebels's two traditional wood coasters, Twister is the less good ride. However, the park's largest coaster is still a top 20 woodie on my list of 60+ and is better than most in the Six Flags and Cedar Fair chains. The ride has an interesting layout with a split lift design, and features quite a bit of airtime and plenty of strong laterals while remaining mostly smooth throughout. It does die out after the mid-ride double helix, but Twister is still a great ride that would improve the collection of almost any park. B+  Black Diamond: Black Diamond may be more dark ride than roller coaster, but I still consider it a credit as the ride is gravity powered, has four lifts, runs on a track, and occupies three stories. As a roller coaster, the ride is about a D+, but as an overall attraction Black Diamond is good. There are better dark rides out there (including another one at Knoebels), but this is still worth a ride.  Phoenix: In the coaster enthusiast community, Phoenix has become one of those rides everyone must experience. Doomed to die when Playland Park closed, Knoebels spent carefully disassembled and reassembled the ride without the use of blueprints. Today, the Phoenix continues to thrill riders of all ages, providing more airtime than any coaster not manufactured by Intamin AG and running with buzz bars just as it has since 1948. Is Phoenix a top 5 coaster? In my opinion, it just misses that mark (I rank it 6th), but it is still an amazing ride that pictures and videos don't do justice. A  Kozmo's Kurves: While it may be just a kiddie coaster, Kozmo's Kurves is one of the best designs E&F Miler has built. The ride is just right for younger riders and intense enough to give older children and adults a mild thrill. No official grade for this one, but I will say it was better than several full size coasters on the trip.  Non-Coaster Summary:  I've been to over fifty parks and it is difficult to think of any with a better non-coaster collection than Knoebels. To start with, Knoebels has the best flat ride collection of any park I've visited, and many of their rides are run at the most intense or thrilling settings possible. In my opinion, the best of Knoebels's flat rides is the Skooters, an old Lusse skooters bumper car attraction run at full speed. Collisions on this ride are more jarring than a low speed car crash, and if cars collide in the right direction they will tip a bit. The park's other absolute must ride flat is the Flyer, an old flying scooters attraction powered by a gas engine and run fast enough to make snapping easy. In addition to these, the park has a number of unique flats including Cosmotron (an indoor Himalaya), Downdraft (a unique Darton Downdraft), Looper (the last Herschell Looper in operation), and the Grand Carousel (which still features a working ring dispenser and grabbing the brass ring), in addition to more standard flats such as a drop tower, swings, and a tilt-a-whirl. The only hole in Knoebels's flat line-up is in the kiddie ride department as the park lacks much other than the basic rotary rides, but this is made up for by low height requirements (a 42" child can ride all but the most extreme flats if accompanied).  Knoebels non-coasters in the other departments are not quite as spectacular, but are still better than many parks. The park has two dark rides, the coaster/dark ride hybrid Black Diamond (reviewed previously) and the Haunted Mansion, the best old-school dark ride I've ever been on. The ride is two stories tall, close to four minutes long, and cages are minimal. It is an upcharge, but is absolutely worth the price (only $2 if I remember correctly). For water rides, Knoebels has a good log flume and a decent splash boat (with the creative name Skloosh). In addition, the park has a vintage car ride, two train rides (the Pioneer Train is especially good), and the best Skyride I've seen at any amusement park (fun fact: the Knoebels Scenic Skyway was originally the Spring Fling Triple at Sugarbush Ski Area in Vermont).  Overall Thoughts:  I've always heard Knoebels was an enthusiast favorite, and while I was a bit skeptical of those statements they were proven true. I absolutely loved Knoebels and the park exceeded all my expectations. In the ride department, Knoebels has it all: great coasters, great flats, decent water rides, a good dark ride...the only thing I thought was missing was a good steel coaster, but Impulse will fix that. Knoebels has some of the best food I've ever had at an amusement park, rivaled only by Dollywood and Holiday World. I love the park's setting, as it doesn't really feel like a park and feels more like a bunch of rides set up in the forest. Sure, there is no theme and it isn't the easiest park to navigate, but part of the fun is wandering around and discovering for yourself what is over the next bridge or behind a nearby building. Lastly, all of the staff members were great, and operations at every ride were as fast as reasonably possible.  So, how does Knoebels rank compared to other parks. Well, it's not a major park so it's difficult to compare it to them, but I will say that I had more fun here than I've had at any other park I visited this year (except possibly Holiday World due to waterpark ERT) and while it's probably not my favorite park, Knoebels is definitely in the top five. Put it this way...if I lived outside of California and was offered the choice to take a trip to Disneyland or Knoebels, it would be a difficult choice. The park really is that much fun. Every enthusiast does need to visit Knoebels at least once, and unless you're only into parks for theming or high intensity coasters you'll probably want to go back ASAP.  Ride Totals:  Note: Since I didn't record my rides at Knoebels until a few days later, it is likely I missed a few, but I am certain I did the following...  Black Diamond: 1 Flying Turns: 1 Kozmo's Kurves: 1 Phoenix: 8 Twister: 6 Cosmotron: 1 Downdraft: 2 Flyer: 3 Flume: 1 Grand Carousel: 1 Haunted Mansion: 1 Looper: 1 Pioneer Train: 1 Scenic Skyway: 1 Skloosh: 1 Skooters: 3 Stratosfear: 1 Whipper: 1  Total: At least 35 rides in 13 hours (2.69 rides per hour) Flying Turns is a ride 8 years in the making. Construction began in 2006 and the ride took its first riders in October 2013. What's that hidden behind the trees. I've never seen anything like it before. A test train winds through the course. Yes, we are actually going to ride this today. And Flying Turns is open. I'll be honest, it's a good ride, but I think Avalanche at Kings Dominion is a better ride and Flying Turns is more worth riding because it's unique than anything else. The Pioneer Train warming up for the day. If you only do one train ride at Knoebels, this is the one to do. After Flying Turns we had ERT on Twister. If this coaster was in any other park, it would probably get a lot more praise as it's got some pretty stiff competition here. Turn the wheel...turn the wheel...step on the pedal and turn the wheel... While the Flyer is good, the Skooters are the best non-coaster at Knoebels. If there is any ride I thought had injury potential, it's this one. Much of Knoebels looks kind of like this. It is an amusement park, but doesn't really feel like an amusement park. Satellite is a Roll-O-Plane. Unfortunately, the ride broke down before I got a chance to ride and was closed the remainder of the day. Knoebels Scenic Skyway takes riders to the top of a mountain next to the park. The only other park I know of with this type of skyride is Lake Compounce (and it was closed on my visit to that park). Prepare to Unload. Keep Tips Up. Check for Loose Clothing and Equipment. Oh wait, this is a round trip ride. While the way up is nice, the good views are all on the way back down. Twister sits on the far side of the park. Knoebels isn't a big park, but it's not small either. From the top of the nearby mountains, there is little that reveals an amusement park lies in the valley. Stratosfear is clearly visible, but Phoenix can just be made out amongst the trees. Knoebels is so well hidden, you won't realize where you are until just before you arrive. My initial thought upon arrival was that someone simply had a ride in their backyard, then I saw the chairlift and realized we were at the park. Robb Alvey cameo! A lot of trip participants were riding this around the same time (it's the perfect ride to do after lunch), so the ride was kind of a TPR parade. Hey, it's a chairlift (specifically a 1978 Borvig triple). Let's take it for a ride. If you have not been on Knoebels Bumper Boats, too bad. They have been retired. Next year, Impulse will stand in their place. If this ride is as good as Wicked, Knoebels will have a top tier steel coaster next year. Welcome to Knoebels, the best non-major park in the United States. The Flyer is one of Knoebels best rides. This installation runs at full speed on a gas engine and is very easy to snap. Flyer is right next to Flying Turns. How appropriate. The fun of the ride comes from trying to flip the cars over. It takes good timing and some muscle, but it is possible to get into a continuous spin on this ride. Looper, also known as the squirrel cages, is a very unique ride (I believe it's the last one of its type in operation). The ride itself isn't all that exciting and just goes in a circle. Riding a wooden roller coaster in a thunderstorm? No problem. Riding this drop tower and hearing thunder while you are ascending the metal tower (which happens to be the tallest ride in the park)? True "Oh S***!" moment. So, which came first: The Roto-Jet at Knoebels or Rocket Jets at Disneyland? I'm inclined to say this one. Paratrooper through the trees. Knoebels has a really good mix of classic old-school flats and modern thrill rides. And our night ended with Phoenix Glowfest. Believe it or not, this is best picture of it I managed to get (and it's pretty poor). Check out Robb's video to see the true craziness that occurred that night.
GwaziBSRider1 Posted November 20, 2014 Posted November 20, 2014 Ah, Knoebels. I finally made it up this year, myself, and it's fantastic. As awesome as Phoenix is, I actually prefer Twister. I love the ejector airtime and incredible laterals in the last seat. Plus, it was a walk-on when I was there. For not liking Flying Turns as much, you should be glad you only waited 15 minutes for it, as I waited 90! I didn't think it was going to be as crowded as it was when I visited, and I didn't have enough time to do many flats. Can't wait for your next TR (and my next trip to Knoebels! ) Â Also, the pierogies there are amazing!
GnastyGnoric7 Posted November 20, 2014 Posted November 20, 2014 Another great report AJ, the Knoebels day was easily my favorite day of the whole trip. I enjoyed every moment of our day, except for Fascination, since I kept losing. The dinner consisted of mac and cheese, ham, scalloped potatoes, and ice cream, and it was incredible. I thought Flying Turns was a fun ride and I am glad I got a chance to experience it, but I enjoyed the other coasters a lot more, especially Glowfest ERT on Phoenix. As for flats, they were awesome, my favorite flats were the Flyers, and Stratosfear, even though it was the most terrifying drop tower ever.
rcdude Posted December 1, 2014 Author Posted December 1, 2014 ^^Knoebels is the only non-major amusement park I would consider traveling specifically for. Even some of the others I really like (such as the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk and Waldameer) don't justify a trip on their own, only an add-on to another trip. Phoenix and Twister are completely different rides, so it's quite hard to compare them. Given that I prefer generally prefer wood twisters to out-and-back woodies (GCI is my favorite wood coaster company after all), I'm guessing I would have preferred Twister had it not been for the night ERT on Phoenix. I would have been very disappointed if I had waited 90 minutes for Flying Turns. It's a fun ride but it's not something I have a strong urge to ride again if a significant time investment is required.  ^Hopefully you'll have better luck at Fascination next time you play. I did alright at Indiana Beach but poorly at Konebels, probably due to the much stiffer competition (I think there were 50-60 tables and every one was full). That whole day was truly outstanding, and I can't think of a single negative about it (even the rain wasn't bad enough to compromise anything).  I've got a goal of finishing this report off by Christmas, so I better get on with the next update. This is the penultimate day of the TPR trip, then there will be two post-TPR trip updates for the week I spent in New York and Boston with my family.  Trip 2, Part 10: Dorney Park & Wildwater Kingdom-August 2nd, 2014  While Knoebels was not the end of the tour, it was the climax of the trip. Though we still had two park days left, I knew that no matter what they would not live up to that day. Like I mentioned previously, I tend to pick one park on each trip as the throwaway park, and following Knoebels it was time for that park. We left the hotel at 8 A.M. and about an hour later pulled up to the gates of Dorney Park.  Dorney Park & Wildwater Kingdom  If I were to describe Dorney Park in one word, I would say generic. There is nothing bad about the park, but at the same time there is really nothing about it that gives the park a unique identity. You take a picture anywhere inside the park and if the Dorney Park logo or one of the park's few unique attractions isn't visible, it might as well be any moderate or large sized park in America.  Since we were visiting on Saturday, Dorney Park was unable to give our group any ERT. However, we were permitted to join passholder ERT in the morning, which allowed for several rides on Talon before park opening and was little different than TPR ERT (I'd estimate TPR out-numbered the GP at least two to one during this period). After ERT ended, every TPR member who needed the credit immediately rode the Wild Mouse, then everyone split up. I decided to see just how quickly I could collect Dorney Park's credits, as while we had Fast Lane it was a Saturday. Well, Fast Lane turned into a skip the switchbacks pass as everything was a station wait, so I got on every coaster (plus re-rides on a few) in just under an hour. I spent the rest of my time before our group lunch doing a few random non-coasters.  Lunch was standard Cedar Fair food and was fairly unremarkable (probably the worst group meal of the trip). After lunch, I found a couple guys to split a locker with (whose names I forget...if you're reading this, I sincerely apologize) and headed to Wildwater Kingdom for the afternoon. Wildwater Kingdom, Dorney Park's included waterpark, seems to be the main draw by far at this park as I never saw a wait longer than 3 trains in the ride park but several slides had waits as long as an hour. I'm really glad our Fast Lane was valid in the water park even if it was only for a handful of slides.  Coaster Reviews:  Dorney Park has what I would consider a satisfactory coaster collection. The park's seven coasters (I'm excluding Stinger since its future appears uncertain) form a decent collection, with a few good coasters in the bunch. However, while there is nothing really wrong with the collection, there is nothing specifically notable about it either. The coasters are mostly stock models, some of which are second-hand, but none of them are worth going out of the way for. In short, the collection is good for the park's typical audience but somewhat lousy from an enthusiast perspective.  Talon: I've heard people call Talon the last good B&M invert. Unfortunately, I found the ride to be more of a middle tier invert and about on par with Silver Bullet. I will give the ride credit for a good beginning, but after the immelmann the rest of the ride just seemed somewhat uninteresting. Now, I did only ride during morning ERT on a cloudy day so perhaps it wasn't running at full speed, but I just don't get the hype with this one. It's not a bad ride, just a bit underwhelming based on my expectations (from appearances I thought it would be better than Great Bear, but I was wrong). B+  Wild Mouse: "Welcome to the Wild Mouse, Welcome to the Wild Mouse..." Yeah, that rap song in the station is both one of the best things and one of the worst things about this ride. This is a Maurer Shone model, which are usually better than the Mack variety, but due to Dorney's excessive trims on the switchback and two adults per car rule (seriously, why?), this is the worst of the Maurer mice I've experienced. D+  Hydra the Revenge: I actually preferred this to Talon, and if it wasn't so rough compared to other B&Ms it would be one of my favorite floorless coasters. As it stands, this is right in the middle somewhere. The initial heartline roll right out of the station is a really fun addition, and the rest of the ride is an interesting layout with some unconventional inversions and even a little bit of airtime. It's not a super intense coaster, if that's what you're looking for, but it is still a fun ride and reasonably smooth and somewhat less shaky in the back half of the train. B+  Thunderhawk: I want to like this ride since it has the most airtime of any coaster at the park, but it is just too rough and trimmed to death. The ride has two strong moments of airtime, but other than that it's just an old woodie that will shake you up. It's a shame that the ride is in such bad state, as it has potential. It isn't a good sign when you're glad the ride isn't longer. C  Steel Force: Fifteen years ago, this was a pretty big deal. Today, it is a good but not great ride. The coaster is still a really long ride with some decent drops and a gigantic helix, but airtime is minimal unless you ride in the front car since trims kill the speed on the return camelbacks. The ride felt somewhat like a watered down version of Magnum XL-200, but unlike the latter there is no scenic setting to improve the ride. B+  Possessed: I was really excited to ride the first twisted impulse coaster, as well as my first with the holding brake. After receiving a pretty good punch on my first ride, the holding brake became something to dislike. I tried the ride a second time, bracing for the hold, and it was a bit better but still my least favorite impulse. I still find the standard layout less interesting than the SFDK V2 or Wicked Twister variants. B-  Woodstock's Express: Riding kiddie coasters has become little more than a formality for me. This is a standard Zamperla model, and possibly the worst of the type I've ridden. I'm glad I've got the credit so I don't have to ride again.  Dorney Park Coaster Ranking:  Good Coasters: 1. Hydra the Revenge 2. Talon 3. Steel Force 4. Possessed  Average Coaster:  5. Thunderhawk  Credit Coasters:  6. Wild Mouse 7. Woodstock's Express  Non-Coaster Summary:  Dorney Park appeared to have a decent collection of non-coaster rides, though nothing appeared specifically notable. Due to time constraints I didn't ride too many of the non-coaster attractions, but I did do the more unique attractions. My favorite non-coaster in the park was probably the Screamin' Swing, which is included with Fast Lane (it is normally a $2 upcharge). Other than Screamin' Swing, my favorite flat was the Enterprise, as even though it's just a standard model I really like these rides. Dominator was also a pretty good S&S tower with a choice between Space Shot and Turbo Drop, and Demon Drop was a fun reminder of the past with a better freefall than most modern drop towers (though the rest of the ride was somewhat unpleasant). Lastly, I rode Thunder Creek Mountain, a pretty good log flume with a weird lift hill, an interesting terrain layout, and a long ramp instead of a drop at the end.  Wildwater Kingdom:  While not one of the greatest waterparks ever, Wildwater Kingdom is a pretty good waterpark that is large enough to be a full day adventure on its own. The park is filled with body and tube slides, along with the waterpark staples of a wave pool and a couple lazy rivers. Unfortunately, the park does lack a lot of modern waterslides (other than some brand new trapdoor slides, everything is of the serpentine variety), but it still has some fun attractions.  Slide Reviews:  Lightning Falls: An old single tube slide with open and enclosed sections, this was one of my favorite slides at Wildwater Kingdom. The ride features several twists and turns before ending with a moderate drop to the pool below.  Snake Pit: The new for 2014 slide tower at Wildwater Kingdom, Snake Pit features three single tube slides and three body slides. Boa Blasters, a pair of half open/half enclosed tube slides are the best on this tower. They are short but both have a good drop at the end. Constrictor, the third tube slide, is enclosed the whole way down and is the least interesting slide on the Snake Pit tower (in fact, it was probably my least favorite slide at the waterpark). Finally, the three trapdoor slides, Python Plummet, were fun but not as good as the freefall trapdoor slides (Python Plummit is just serpentine slides with a trapdoor start).  Aqua Racer: A standard mat racer, and not one of the better ones. Fun for one ride with friends but it gets old really quickly.  Aquablast: Probably my favorite slide at Wildwater Kingdom, Aquablast is one of the best family raft rides I know of. The ride starts from a nine story tower so the ride is nice and long, and unlike some of these rides it is not overly braked and does get high on some of the walls. I'm really glad Fast Lane was available on this ride as the wait looked to be at least 60 minutes easily.  Patriot's Plunge: Three single tube slides with significantly different layouts, this was a pretty fun ride. Like Boa Blasters, the ride is enclosed until the final drop at the end. Both are really good, but I prefer Boa Blasters because there is a good chance Patriot's Plunge will end with a tube ejection (I ended up about fifteen feet from my tube when it hit the pool at the bottom).  Overall Thoughts:  Dorney Park can best be summed up as a decent park, but nothing special. The park has a good collection of coasters and a good collection of non-coaster attractions, along with a pretty good waterpark, but better can be found elsewhere. The park has no theme and feels pretty bland, but it does have pretty good employees that keep the (minimal) lines moving. There's nothing wrong with the park, but at the same time there's nothing remarkable about the park. While not my least favorite Cedar Fair park (despite Gold Striker, that dishonor still belongs to California's Great America), Dorney Park is a fairly forgettable park that is fun for locals but mostly a credit stop for enthusiasts. I am glad I got a chance to visit, but without a major new coaster I'm unlikely to return to the park on a future visit to the area.  Ride Totals:  Hydra the Revenge: 2 Possessed: 2 Steel Force: 2 Talon: 3 Thunderhawk: 1 Wild Mouse: 1 Woodstock's Express: 1 Demon Drop: 1 Dominator: 2 Enterprise: 1 Screamin' Swing: 2 Thunder Creek Mountain: 1 Aquablast: 1 Aqua Racer: 2 Lightning Falls: 1 Patriot's Plunge: 1 Snake Pit: 6 (Boa Blasters: 2, Constrictor: 1, Python Plummet: 3)  Total: 30 rides in 6 hours (5 rides per hour)  We departed Dorney Park at 4 P.M., and despite my initial worry it ended up being plenty of time for the park (I would have liked more for the waterpark, but I'm guessing 2/3 of the group doesn't care for those). This allowed plenty of time for a dinner at Carrabba's, which was quite good and possibly the best group meal of the trip (definitely my favorite on the Mini East Coast portion). Once everyone was done with dinner, we headed off to our hotel a couple hours away. With an 8 P.M. arrival and a 9 A.M. departure the next morning, this meant plenty of rest for the final day of the tour (for those not doing the New York add-on). I don't want to give anything away, but I will say that it was a 2000% better Six Flags day than our previous experience. Talon looms over the park's gate. It's a decent middle tier invert. Demon Drop is a rare breed. As the last of it's kind in North America, this is a must ride for any park visitor. The overall ride is not that good, but it's worth it for the excellent two-second freefall. I still wish this had come to Knott's as originally planned. Even though the drop isn't much of a drop (it's more of a ramp), this was still a fun log flume. Like I've said in my report, there's nothing wrong with Dorney Park, but it looks very bland. It almost looks like a park I'd make in RCT. Dinosaurs Alive has invaded most Cedar Fair properties, and Dorney Park is no exception. However, I think I saw a total of four people in this at any given time, so I wonder how much money it really makes. Will Stinger reopen next year, or is its life over? I have no clue, but I'm glad I got the credit while it was at CGA. Steel Force above the trees. My first full size Morgan coaster. Possessed through the trees. It's a shame the brake ruins the back spike on this one. Dorney Park has a number of flat rides, both old and new. Unfortunately, there were few guests to enjoy them. Dominator's a fun S&S tower, though it's just a standard model. It's also not the park's only drop ride. You'll never see me on one of these. Yes, that roll is directly out of the station. Most enthusiasts disagree with me, but this was my favorite of Dorney's coasters. And we'll end with the park's best flat. Honestly, if the upcharge is only $2, what is the point of the upcharge? Welcome to Dorney Park & Wildwater Kingdom. Even from the entrance you can tell the park is fairly generic.
GwaziBSRider1 Posted December 1, 2014 Posted December 1, 2014 I really like Dorney, even if it is pretty generic. For how small it is compared to some of the other CF parks, it has a killer coaster lineup. I also prefer Hydra to the other coasters. Personally, I wouldn't mind seeing Possessed AND Stinger removed for something awesome built in their place. Thunderhawk is an incredibly fun ride, but it desperately needs a good retracking. Â Also, I wish Demon Drop was still at Cedar Point, but I'm glad that the nostalgia is still on the East Coast.
coasterbill Posted December 1, 2014 Posted December 1, 2014 I'm slowly warming up to Dorney but after a day at Knoebels I'm not surprised to hear you were underwhelmed by it. They have a ton of flats but Knoebels has more and they all run better / longer programs at Knoebels except for the Swinging Ship for the simple fact that Dorney has a SeaDragon model which actually provides floater airtime which most swinging ships don't come close to doing. Â Dorney could benefit greatly from a few unique rides that set them apart from everyone else. Besides Thunder Creek Mountain (because it's a terrain log flume), Demon Drop and Hydra just because of the JoJo roll... they don't really have that. Â Also, in regards to Talon I think it's a solid ride but it's probably overhyped because it's at Dorney and most people consider it to be much better than all of the other coasters in the park just because there isn't much competition for that title.
GnastyGnoric7 Posted December 1, 2014 Posted December 1, 2014 Another great report AJ, I only visit Dorney Park for Coasting for Kids, and the only coaster I enjoy a lot at Dorney is Talon, but I don't think there is anything wrong with the park either. Wildwater Kingdom is where this park shines, and I had an excellent time there, the Snake Pit slides were my favorite, and having Fastlane Plus was really helpful.
805Andrew Posted December 2, 2014 Posted December 2, 2014 If I would have known that the Screamin' Swing was included with our Fast Lane I would have ridden it. Though I didn't see it running either time I went by it. I also would have gone on that flat that you said I would have never seen you on had I seen it. I went on Dominator once and didn't realize there were two types of drops and just went on whatever tower was the quickest walk on, which I felt was really tame compared to Demon Drop which I had ridden earlier. I also skipped the Whip, not thinking it would be better than Knoebels. It shows you my priority was getting all the credits, Demon Drop, and the log flume before lunch and hitting the water park after lunch. Â I agree with you that I liked Hydra better than Talon. I thought it was more interesting and unique with the JoJo roll. I also agree that I could have used more time in the Water Park to ride the non fast lane slides like Patriot's Plunge, but the time was adequate to ride all the Fast Lane water slides. I feel that people that like water parks like me enjoyed Dorney but coaster enthusiasts that don't like water parks hated or disliked Dorney. With the included water park, I liked Dorney better than CGA until I rode Gold Striker in September, but now I'm not so sure. CGA has a much nicer layout and a nicer look overall, with Gold Striker and a Sky Ride, but Dorney has a much better, complete water park, so it's a toss up. I'd say if you are going to spend at least a couple of hours in the Water Park, Dorney wins, but if you are not going to utilize the Water Park or its closed then CGA wins. But they are both run of the mill Cedar Fair parks.
rcdude Posted December 2, 2014 Author Posted December 2, 2014 Time for some responses... Â I really like Dorney, even if it is pretty generic. For how small it is compared to some of the other CF parks, it has a killer coaster lineup. I also prefer Hydra to the other coasters. Personally, I wouldn't mind seeing Possessed AND Stinger removed for something awesome built in their place. Thunderhawk is an incredibly fun ride, but it desperately needs a good retracking. Â Dorney Park is one of those parks I would probably visit all the time if it was a local park, but wouldn't go out of my way for without a major new attraction otherwise. Honestly, most of the Cedar Fair parks seem to feel this way to me (Canada's Wonderland, Cedar Point, and Kings Island being the exceptions that I would go out of my way for without new attractions). It's a fun park, it just has little to offer of value to the traveling enthusiast. This would be an excellent park for a GCI, though if Thunderhawk was retracked and given new trains it would be a decent wood coaster as well. Â Also, I wish Demon Drop was still at Cedar Point, but I'm glad that the nostalgia is still on the East Coast. Â Surprisingly, I barely noticed its absence from Cedar Point. I really wish SFMM still had Freefall (their 1st generation drop tower) as it's space is unused and you can still perfectly make out where the ride was to this day. Â I'm slowly warming up to Dorney but after a day at Knoebels I'm not surprised to hear you were underwhelmed by it. They have a ton of flats but Knoebels has more and they all run better / longer programs at Knoebels except for the Swinging Ship for the simple fact that Dorney has a SeaDragon model which actually provides floater airtime which most swinging ships don't come close to doing. Â Visiting any park shortly after Knoebels except a Disney/Universal/Busch park or possibly Holiday World will probably seem a bit underwhelming. Other than a park filled with great coasters or a park with numerous quality dark rides, it would be difficult to beat Knoebels in the ride department. Â Dorney could benefit greatly from a few unique rides that set them apart from everyone else. Besides Thunder Creek Mountain (because it's a terrain log flume), Demon Drop and Hydra just because of the JoJo roll... they don't really have that. Â I definitely agree with this. In a lot of markets, Dorney Park would be perfectly adequate as it is. Unfortunately, the park has a ton of competitors: Knoebels, Hersheypark, SFGAdv...even more distant parks like Lake Compounce and SFNE probably share some of Dorney's market. In addition, there are a bunch of smaller parks in the area that likely have some influence. Dorney has a lot of draw from the waterpark, but the ride park is definitely not all that appealing to the general public compared to alternatives. The big question is whether Cedar Fair will feel it is worth the investment to compete in the ride department or just float on the waterpark, as that decision will probably shape the future of the park. Â Also, in regards to Talon I think it's a solid ride but it's probably overhyped because it's at Dorney and most people consider it to be much better than all of the other coasters in the park just because there isn't much competition for that title. Â Probably. Any coaster park without a true top tier coaster is bound to have their best coaster be overhyped. Â Another great report AJ, I only visit Dorney Park for Coasting for Kids, and the only coaster I enjoy a lot at Dorney is Talon, but I don't think there is anything wrong with the park either. Wildwater Kingdom is where this park shines, and I had an excellent time there, the Snake Pit slides were my favorite, and having Fastlane Plus was really helpful. Â If a park is enjoyable that is all that matters. Not every park can be amazing. If Fast Lane didn't include the waterpark at Dorney, I probably would have skipped it as the Snake Pit's line looked to be at least an hour. Seeing how long some of the queues in the ride park were made me wonder if Dorney ever does get busy...maybe when the waterpark is closed on a holiday weekend. Â If I would have known that the Screamin' Swing was included with our Fast Lane I would have ridden it. Though I didn't see it running either time I went by it. I also would have gone on that flat that you said I would have never seen you on had I seen it. I went on Dominator once and didn't realize there were two types of drops and just went on whatever tower was the quickest walk on, which I felt was really tame compared to Demon Drop which I had ridden earlier. I also skipped the Whip, not thinking it would be better than Knoebels. It shows you my priority was getting all the credits, Demon Drop, and the log flume before lunch and hitting the water park after lunch. Â I didn't know Screamin' Swing was included until someone else mentioned it to me, and I hardly saw anyone ride it so the operators tended to just be standing around. The flat I'd never ride (Meteor) was right in front of Hydra so I'm a little surprised you never saw it. I had similar priorities to you, though I somehow managed to beat everyone to the coasters (I actually had the train all to myself on my first Possessed ride, and that was the last one I got to). Â I agree with you that I liked Hydra better than Talon. I thought it was more interesting and unique with the JoJo roll. I also agree that I could have used more time in the Water Park to ride the non fast lane slides like Patriot's Plunge, but the time was adequate to ride all the Fast Lane water slides. I feel that people that like water parks like me enjoyed Dorney but coaster enthusiasts that don't like water parks hated or disliked Dorney. With the included water park, I liked Dorney better than CGA until I rode Gold Striker in September, but now I'm not so sure. CGA has a much nicer layout and a nicer look overall, with Gold Striker and a Sky Ride, but Dorney has a much better, complete water park, so it's a toss up. I'd say if you are going to spend at least a couple of hours in the Water Park, Dorney wins, but if you are not going to utilize the Water Park or its closed then CGA wins. But they are both run of the mill Cedar Fair parks. Â While I would have liked to ride all the slides in the waterpark (I keep track of waterslide credits as well as coaster credits though I'm not as strict about doing every flume), nothing looked like a particularly unique attraction so I don't feel I missed too much. Visiting Dorney Park without doing Wildwater Kingdom is kind of like visiting Holiday World without doing Splashin' Safari...you can do it, but you're missing a major chuck of the experience and you may not enjoy it as much. As far as CGA vs. Dorney Park goes, I'd say the following: Gold Striker is better than any coaster at Dorney, but Dorney's overall collection is better than CGA's; non-coaster rides are roughly the same at both parks; Wildwater Kingdom is much better than Boomerang Bay; CGA looks nicer and has better theming than Dorney, but Dorney has better staff and more efficient operations. Overall, Dorney wins for me, but it's a pretty close call. Either way, they are the two Cedar Fair parks I don't have much interest in returning to at the moment (Carowinds would also be in this category if not for Fury 325).
The Great Zo Posted December 13, 2014 Posted December 13, 2014 Excellent report so far -- love the detail! Â Put me on the "underwhelmed by Dorney" side, but I did not go into the water park. I actually do like water parks, but I had my fill at Kentucky Kingdom and Holiday World, so I didn't try Dorney's. Sounds like I missed out. Â That flume at Dorney was an odd one, but I remember it being ridiculously wet! Do you remember what part was the wettest? I seem to recall that it wasn't the drop. Â Great to read some reviews of my favorite parts of the trip -- Kentucky Rumbler ERT, bonus ERT at Hersheypark (I'm also a Fahrenheit apologist), and just about everything at Holiday World and Knoebels. Also appreciate your honest report on SFGAm, which matched my experience almost exactly. Sorry you got caught in the wind storm, but I was kind of hoping it would blow the whole park over. Â Outside of my group (Stacy G and Mark K) you're the only other TPR member I know who went on Deep Water Dive at Kentucky Kingdom. I absolutely loved it! I thought it was a noticeably longer freefall sensation than on the standard-height capsule slides (or other speed slides) I'd been on before. Loved that so much I did it three times.
rcdude Posted December 18, 2014 Author Posted December 18, 2014 Andy, Dorney was probably the best waterpark on the East Coast leg, but if you did Kentucky Kingdom's and Holiday World's waterparks you weren't missing all that much. As for the flume at Dorney, I think there was a waterfall at one point. I rode it in the morning so it wasn't on and I didn't get too wet, but I'm assuming that would be the wet point. The drop was just a small splash. Also, as for Deep Water Dive, that slide is just insane and in in my opinion is scarier than almost any coaster or drop ride. If there weren't so many stairs to climb I would definitely have done one or two more rides as the wait was only about 15-20 minutes. To me, the freefall did feel a little longer than the standard seven story variety but it also felt like the slide took longer to pull out at the bottom.  Well, I don't think I'll be making Christmas, but I'm hoping to finish this report by the end of 2014. This will be the final update from the TPR trip, but I've still got a couple more from my family trip to New York and Boston.  Trip 2, Part 11: Six Flags Great Adventure-August 3rd, 2014  As I stated previously, Six Flags Great America provided us with a typical Six Flags experience. The day was full of annoyances including horrible operations, insane crowds, and poor customer service. Based on my previous experience at the park (on TPR's North East 2011 tour), I figured Six Flags Great Adventure would be a better day. Fortunately, my guess ended up being correct, and our day at the park was more or less the polar opposite of that day at SFGAm.  Six Flags Great Adventure  Based on my previous visit to Six Flags Great Adventure, I initially wasn't all that excited about a return visit. There isn't anything wrong with the park, but I'm a SFMM local and other than El Toro SFMM has a version of everything at SFGAdv (often a superior version). However, when checking out the park I was reminded of the Safari Off Road Adventure and 2012 additions, so my interest increased somewhat.  Originally, Six Flags Great Adventure was supposed to be a full East Coast Bash. However, due to delays in working out the details the event didn't happen. However, we were still offered quite a few great perks. With our hotel only 30 minutes from the park, a 9 AM arrival got us there in plenty of time to get Flash Passes and get inside before opening. Once inside, we were met by a couple park managers, who took us through a backstage pass over to Kingda Ka to ride the first trains of the day. Our group took the first three trains, and we all got not one but two rides before the public was allowed to board.  After Kingda Ka, we were taken back to the new Zumanjaro: Drop of Doom in order to get first rides on this too (the opening was delayed). KidTums definitely showed her bravery here, riding an attraction that several adult TPR members were too scared to try. I really liked Zumanjaro, but I have to give a slight edge to the very similar Lex Luthor due to the added thrill of tower sway caused by Superman (Zumanjaro and Kingda Ka cannot run together).  Exiting Zumanjaro, we expected it would be time to head out on our own. However, park representatives gave us one more surprise: Exit access to the Safari Off Road Adventure. Although the ride is now included on Flash Pass, it often gets huge waits so this was a very welcome surprise. The ride itself was really good, better than even the San Diego Safari Park's tour (and from what I heard, better than Disney's Kilimanjaro Safaris). My only issue with the ride is the length: The ride is at least an hour, and combined with the wait it is difficult to justify the attraction for a first time visitor. I did like the midway rest stop, but I wish there was more to do there as the limited exhibits and wait to re-board the vehicles makes exiting barely worthwhile.  Upon return to the park, we were set loose to explore SFGAdv on our own. My Flash Pass group (those who I hung out with at Wildwater Kingdom) was mostly first-timers, so we spent the day collecting credits and doing other unique attractions. The day was not without difficulty, as wet weather seemed to be causing an abnormal number of technical issues with the park's headliner coasters (Bizarro, El Toro, and Nitro all broke down on us at some point). At 9:45 P.M. we headed to El Toro to return Q-bots, then got ready for the ultimate way to end a TPR trip: An hour of night ERT on El Toro.  Coaster Reviews:  I have been to over 70 different parks. Among them, only two (Cedar Point and Six Flags Magic Mountain) have a better coaster collection than Six Flags Great Adventure. The park's collection contains El Toro, arguably the best roller coaster in North America, as well as Kingda Ka and Nitro, two top tier steel coasters. The park's remaining coasters mostly range from decent to great, with a few clones thrown in for good measure.  Kingda Ka: The world's tallest and North America's fastest coaster is also one of the most extreme rides I've been on. The ride is the definition of a one-trick pony, but it has one really good trick. While not as good as Top Thrill Dragster, I still really like Kingda Ka and rank it second of the four North American accelerators. I just wish the ride wasn't so shaky if you sit anywhere but the front car. A  Runaway Mine Train: While just an okay ride, Runaway Mine Train is one of the better Arrow mine trains. The ride has an unusual layout, is smoother than some, and actually does feature a small amount of airtime. Fun if there's no wait, but not a must ride by any means. C  Superman-Ultimate Flight: A good, but not great flying coaster. The pretzel loop is just as good as always, but the rest of the ride is pretty dull and fairly short. For whatever reason, I thought this was weaker than the SFGAm version. C+  Green Lantern: Back in 2011, I really liked this coaster. The ride was still good, but it has gotten somewhat rough. Still, it's a long stand-up coaster with a good sequence of elements that doesn't get repetitive, and is a better ride than its predecessor Mantis (though the Rougarou transformation will probably change that). While Green Lantern isn't the greatest ride, it's still not the worst B&M at SFGAdv in my opinion. B-  Batman The Ride: Another Batman clone, this one seems to be the weakest of the five I've tried. It's still a forceful ride and just as good as any other Batman, but I'm just not a particularly big fan of these coasters. They're a little too short and repetitive for my tastes, plus I don't like non-stop positive g-force. I still like this better than a couple of the park's B&M's, I just don't find it a must ride. B  Dark Knight: A Mack mouse in a box, the same basic ride as SFGAm's version. SFGAdv still requires viewing of the preshow and not all of the effects work anymore, so this version isn't very good. Just as it was in 2011, Dark Knight remains my least favorite wild mouse. D-  Skull Mountain: While this is little more than a family coaster in the dark, Skull Mountain is a unique attraction. It's got a pretty good first drop and a layout that is difficult to follow, so this is a pretty fun ride. It's no Space Mountain, but it's not a Dark Knight either. C  Nitro: I've been on eight B&M hypers, and Nitro is not only my favorite but also one of my favorite steel coasters overall. Nitro is a nice long ride that's full of airtime and is glass smooth throughout. The ride also has a good moment of positive g-force and a couple elements not found on other hypers. Nitro is not only the best steel coaster at SFGAdv, but one of the best in the country. A  Blackbeard's Lost Treasure Train: It's little more than a family coaster, but this is still a fun ride. My favorite of the Tivoli coasters (even better than Jaguar), this ride is worth it just for the laughs of watching the extremely long train navigate the course. C  Bizarro: In 2011, I didn't care for this coaster as it was a rougher version of Scream with the worst operations at the park and a horrible soundtrack. In 2014, the ride was much smoother with a better crew and no soundtrack. The ride is now really good, with an excellent first half, a decent second half, and a much better setting than Scream. Not the best floorless coaster, but one of the better ones. A-  El Toro: I have been on over 350 roller coasters, and El Toro is my second favorite overall. The ride is simply amazing: excellent first drop, tons of airtime, a non-stop sequence of elements featuring both out and back and twister sections, and a reasonably long ride. Seriously, there is not a single dull moment on this coaster. The airtime is so strong it feels like the ride just wants to rip you out of your seat and fling you across the park, and this ride just does things no wooden coaster should ever do. I will say that the restraints on this coaster tend to be a bit tight and this is probably the most restrictive coaster in the country (or close to it), but most riders will be glad of how secure they feel. I do understand that the ride may not be everybody's favorite, but there is no denying that it is one of the absolute best rides in not only the US but also the world. I have only ever given two coasters an A+ rating, and El Toro is one of them. A+  Six Flags Great Adventure Coaster Ranking:  Must Ride:  1. El Toro 2. Nitro 3. Kingda Ka 4. Bizarro  Good Coasters  5. Batman The Ride 6. Green Lantern  Average Coasters:  7. Superman-Ultimate Flight 8. Blackbeard's Lost Treasure Train 9. Skull Mountain 10. Runaway Mine Train  Credit Coaster:  11. Dark Knight  Non-Coaster Summary:  When I visited SFGAdv in 2011, I thought that except for the kiddie rides the park had a pretty poor selection of non-coaster attractions. Since then, however, the park has mostly redone Adventure Alley and added both the Safari Off Road Adventure and Zumanjaro: Drop of Doom (as well as a few minor attractions). While the non-coaster collection is not amazing, I now think it may be the best in the Six Flags chain.  Technically, my favorite non-coaster ride at the park is the SkyWay, but that is mainly due to how much I like these rides than because it is the best and SFGAdv has a rare double Von Roll skyride. As mentioned previously, I really liked both Zumanjaro and the Safari Off Road Adventure, both of which are relatively unique and are must rides for most visitors. In addition, I enjoyed Parachute Training Center: Edwards AFB Jump Tower simply because it is the last of its kind in operation. The best non-coaster attraction at the park, however, is Houdini's Great Escape. This ride is one of two Vekoma Mad House attractions in North America and has theming that is only a step down from a Disney attraction. It's not an intense ride, though it can be disorienting as the room spins around riders. In addition to what I've mentioned, SFGAdv also has a SkyScreamer, a couple decent water rides, and around 10 or so standard flats, plus several kids areas for the younger set.  Overall Thoughts:  Six Flags Great Adventure represents the experience all Six Flags parks should provide. The park has an excellent collection of coasters as well as a decent selection of non-coaster rides for all members of the family. The park is reasonably clean, reasonably landscaped, and reasonably themed. Food selection is better than average for the Six Flags chain, with a number of good options other than standard theme park fare. The employees are all pretty good, and in general operations are nothing to complain about. Sure, there are issues I have with the park, but I can't think of any major ones and a lot of the common Six Flags issues weren't present here.  Is Six Flags Great Adventure the best Six Flags park? Out of all the properties I've visited, I would probably say so. However, there is one exception: If you want to ride coasters and only care about riding coasters, Six Flags Magic Mountain is probably the better park. While SFGAdv does have El Toro, SFMM does have more coasters and more top tier coasters than SFGAdv. However, for the full park experience I would pick SFGAdv any time. It's not as good as the top Cedar Fair parks, but it's not a bad park at all.  Ride Totals:  Batman The Ride: 2 Bizarro: 1 Blackbeard's Lost Treasure Train: 1 Dark Knight: 1 El Toro: 12 Green Lantern: 1 Kingda Ka: 2 Nitro: 3 Runaway Mine Train: 1 Skull Mountain: 1 Superman-Ultimate Flight: 1 Congo Rapids: 1 Houdini's Great Escape: 1 Log Flume: 1 Parachute Training Center: Edwards AFB Jump Tower: 1 Safari Off Road Adventure: 1 SkyScreamer: 1 SkyWay: 1 Zumanjaro: Drop of Doom: 1  Total: 34 rides in 13 hours (2.62 rides per hour)  As Six Flags Great Adventure was the last day of the Mini East Coast tour for some, the bus proceeded from the park to Newark Airport. While I was not participating in the New York City add-on, I chose to ride the bus into New York instead. At 1:30 A.M. the bus arrived at the hotel where I found my Dad waiting for me. We headed back to our hotel in the Time Square area to begin the family portion of this trip: A week in New York and Boston.  Overall Thoughts on the Mini East Coast Tour:  I wasn't planning on doing the Mini East Coast Tour, as while I had interest in Hersheypark and Knoebels I wasn't all that interested in Dorney Park or SFGAdv. Additionally, I knew I wouldn't be able to afford the NYC add-on and didn't want to miss out on an opportunity to visit the city for the third time in a row. However, when my Dad planned the family trip it made sense to do it. Honestly, the trip was a lot of fun, and three of the four parks were great (the fourth was enjoyable but not too memorable), but if I had to pick a least favorite TPR trip from the five I've done it would be this one. It wasn't a bad trip by any means, it just didn't have as many parks or perks as most. It's kind of like this: If Mini New Hotness was El Toro, Mini East Coast would be Nitro...both are excellent, but one just isn't as good as the other. I do not know what the future of TPR trips will be, but I hope I get the chance to do another some day.  I don't have too many photos for this update, but SFGAdv is pretty well documented so I'll post what I've got. There is massive airtime over that hill, as well as every other hill on this ride. Regardless of how tightly you are stapled in, you will briefly lose contact with your seat on this ride. El Toro!!! Even though Rocky Mountain appears to be the most popular wood coaster company now, I doubt they'll ever build a ride better than this beast. Welcome to Six Flags Great Adv...this is a theme park, right? How accurate do you think these signs are? I'm guessing pretty accurate. SFGAdv has had a drive-thru safari for a long time, but last year the ride was converted to a standard theme park attraction. It's one of the most unique things at any traditional theme park in North America. You'll see plenty of animals on the safari (including lions, tigers, and bears...oh my!), but there are some at Camp Aventura as well. Yep, we're just out at Camp Aventura, the midway point of the Safari Off Road Adventure. There is a ride out at Camp Aventura...an upcharge Soarin' Eagle zip line. I didn't ride, but a few TPR members had fun on it (after the one at Glenwood Caverns this one just seemed somewhat lame). This is the last remaining parachute tower in North America. It's a pretty tame ride by today's standards but is still worth a try. Okay, back to the actual theme park portion of SFGAdv. I know the look is a little cheesy, but I actually somewhat like it. It's certainly better than some areas in some Six Flags parks. Two visits to SFGAdv and I still haven't gotten a chance to ride their Ferris Wheel. I honestly don't care much. This thing is better for views of the park. Also, a 240 ft SkyScreamer is significantly scarier than a 300 ft Windseeker. One more shot, this one of Nitro. While I haven't done every B&M Hyper, I've done a majority and this is still my favorite. Lastly, I walked through Times Square to get to my hotel in New York City. Even at 2 A.M. on a Monday there's still people about, though this was easily the least crowded I saw it while I was in New York.
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