Photo TR: A Wicked Fahkin Weekend

[ytterbiumanalyst]

Good move when the weather is bad, going straight to the ride you want to go on the most. So glad you got to ride an RMC. I've been on 4 so far, and they're all pretty much like you describe. So lucky to have Outlaw Run 45 minutes away from my front door.

[boldikus]

^ I hear that. I did keep saying how lucky they were to be so close to both but he reminded me I'm less than an hour from El Toro. I kept joking I'd trade Superman for Nitro and once said Toro for Wicked Cyclone then quickly retracted my statement! LOL

 

Awesome report! You need to bring back the blue filter, though

 

[ytterbiumanalyst]

^ I hear that. I did keep saying how lucky they were to be so close to both but he reminded me I'm less than an hour from El Toro. I kept joking I'd trade Superman for Nitro and once said Toro for Wicked Cyclone then quickly retracted my statement! LOL

Lol! I need to go ride this El Toro you speak of. Sounds like it might be almost as good as Skull Mountain.

[boldikus]

If you'll notice I updated my top 10 in my signature. Neither worked their way into the top 3. Not much can match The Bull.

 

The epic Part 3 should be up tomorrow, almost done.

[JRice92]

That play by play of Wicked Cyclone was awesome! SFNE really has two winning coasters on their hands. Glad to see you had a blast here ! And it's only the beginning of the report!

[PKI Jizzman]

Another great report! The park seemed to have a really solid line up even before Wicked Cyclone, but now it's one of those "dude, just book a trip already" type of parks imo.

 

Can't wait to read the rest!

[CoasterRench]

I held off from reading this until today to help push me through a slow workday right before an extended weekend. So far, it has not disappointed. Excited to read the rest.

 

I haven't paid much attention towards SFNE, it was never really on my radar of parks to visit anytime soon. Reading through this has definitely changed my plans for the near future.

[boldikus]

And The Gang Rolled On

 

I suppose the trade off of getting to have an amazing Intamin and an incredible RMC for breakfast is that you gotta have a little Vekoma for lunch. I have to say how nice it was to show up at this park and have our very own little unplanned ERT sessions first thing in the morning. We probably could have (and maybe should have?) kept at this for a while. The crowds didn't move in til later, after the waterpark closed. There's a lesson here, kids: NEVER let bad weather deter you from going to the park, always embrace crappy weather days!

 

We moved on from Wicked Cyclone, though I could have easily stayed there all day. Since we hit the two "must rides" of the park, we more or less continued the rest of the day by hitting stuff as we came to it. Of course, on the path out of the North end of the park is their Vekoma boomerang, Flashback. The weekend prior I was in Wildwood and took a spin on their boomerang, Sea Serpent, so I was interested to give this thing a whirl for comparison. And you know... credits.

 

Photo by Bill

The experience was completely uneventful though we were directed toward the back of the train, we guessed in an effort to stop the train from valleying in the cobra roll as has happened at least once this season. I did point out how strange I thought it was the park had installed full floor-to-ceiling airgates, that's the first time I've ever seen those. But yeah, we came, we saw, we conquered Flashback. Nothing else to report. Boomerang was boomeranging. Not quite as smooth as Sea Serpent, but not terrible either. Bonus points for not valleying on us.

 

Moving on we figured we'd stop at Goliath as it didn't have an enormous line yet and we'd planned to ride it at least once today so might as well take advantage of a 15 minute wait. This would be my first Giant Inverted Boomerang, and Bill makes no secret of how he hates this thing unless he's riding in the front, but as a GIB virgin, and slightly mesmerized by how massive this thing actually looks in person, I wanted to ride. And you know... credits! LOL

 

The line actually moved pretty quickly, but we worried we would probably not be able to pick our seat as is the routine with this ride. Here we also came across another weird set of floor-to-ceiling airgates. As we approached the grouper, it was obviously setting up where we would not be anywhere near the front, and in fact would likely be toward the back of the train.

 

Warning: you may spend half your day stuck on this ride.

Of course we asked very nicely if we could let a few folks ahead of us so we could wait for the front row of the next train. She pulled the "I wish I could but my supervisor is standing right behind me right now and I could get into a lot of trouble" even though we saw no ride supervisors anywhere around the station. Ugh. She suggested we go to Row 8 since it rides as well as row 1. Dejected, that's where we went. I rationalized our current situation by attempting to look at the positive: maybe on the return the back will track well since at that point the back is technically in the front?

 

Well, maybe that was the case since the ride was actually not bad. I'd hoped to ride row 1 mostly for the view when going up the first spike, but also because of how much Bill sh*ttalked this ride in any row other than the front. However, we all got off and agreed it wasn't bad at all. I mean, its not an amazing coaster or anything, just a variation of a traditional boomerang, but I was happy to have finally ridden one of these things. I did get a nice clock to the side of the head going backwards through the cobra roll but I expected way worse. No rattling or roughness otherwise. It is certainly strange for the park to have two boomerangs literally right next to each other, but I'll give Goliath the edge due to how massive and intimidating the thing looks. While riding I shouted at some point "I smell Bar-B-Q!!!" which would become a recurring thing throughout the day.

 

We all agreed we needed a break after two back-to-back Vekomas. Bill and Brit weren't hungry yet - they'd had a bigger breakfast than my donut and coffee in the car, but my dining pass was burning a hole in my pocket - I planned to use both my meals and snack today. Upon Bill's insistence ("its really the only good food here") we stopped in JB's Smokehouse for some BBQ and brews... and as it was heating up outside - some air conditioning.

 

Bill and Brit just got beers and water and I followed someones suggestion in the SFNE thread telling me to try the fries w/ pulled pork, and I ordered a Sam Adams summer ale, as it was all they had besides Bud or Coors. The line for food was very short, only 2-3 minutes and they gave me our table number and I grabbed a booth. Within less than 5 minutes my food was out, hot and on the table. Impressive. As this place is themed to a sports bar there were a million TV's showing all kinds of stuff, but we honed in on the excellent drone racing show they had on.

 

Yum

Saucey

We all split my fries and downed some beers and I have to say I really liked the place. Fast, clean, good food, cold beer, no nonsense. I stated I would have no problem coming back for dinner as they had other stuff on the menu I would try.

 

Upon exiting we decided to head back down towards the DC Superheroes area again, and passing up Superman, as much as it killed me, we worked on getting me some more credits. First stop: Gotham City Gauntlet: Escape from Arkham Asylum (the dumbest ride name in the park) wild mouse. Surprisingly for a mouse it had absolutely no wait at all and we walked through the queue and right up into a waiting car. Bill and Brit up front, me in the rear. I guess because crowds were light they were running only a few trains so they had the majority of the brakes turned off and this turned out to be a rather fun mouse.

 

The credit whore tour continued as we stumbled past the parks tiny Zierer family coaster, Catwomans Whip (formally Poison Ivy). I knew this was the exact same model of our Crazy Train, which I actually find kinda fun. This had literally not a soul in the station, and I took the front seat with the two of them behind me. Keep in mind, we'd just a had a few beers @ JBs and it was HOT so we were just laughing it up on kiddy coasters. I have to admit I was a little bummed they don't send you around twice like they do on Great Adventure's Crazy Train. This has a ton more trees and foliage around the ride so its really a toss up on which I like better.

 

Catwoman gonna whip ya

Long ass train

Continuing on and... oh no! Another Vekoma? Goddamnit! LOL to be honest, after riding Morey's all new and ridiculously smooth Nor'easter last weekend I did want to try Mind Eraser to compare. The new trains with vest restraints definitely made it a bit more appealing.

 

This is actually only my third SLC after Morey's and Six Flags Americas' Mind Eraser, and much to our luck they are not even using the VR anymore (apparently since the headsets tend to overheat when the temperatures hit this high) so we had no wait at all, walking right onto the back two rows, my preferred seats for Nor'easter.

 

Hoped you liked having a mind...

because its about to be erased

Bill and Brit were also morbidly curious due to the rides newer trains which they had not tried yet. There were a couple good jostles but overall, it wasn't a terrible ride. I will say how much I hate the ugly ass paint job on this - could they have picked a more hideous color combination? And what's with Six Flags painting rides next to each other similar colors? I know its not the same shades as Superman but close enough. I did get some cool photos of it. And another credit.

 

Broke Joke

We passed the all new Joker and it looked broken w/ a short line so we moved on and oh lord jesus thank you a B&M! Now that we got all the Vekomas done, things are looking up. Bill talked up Batman: The Dark Knight as a fun and forceful little B&M floorless, and as a fan of almost all of the floorless I've ridden I was looking forward to this.

 

He informed me it was better than Hydra which was really all I need to hear. The theme of no lines continued here and we were able to ask the grouper nicely if we could sit in the back and she obliged. While this thing is tiny, and very very short it has some great forces. The first drop is actually very good with a great yank to it, and the zero-G kills. Bill had warned me about the whole "booooowoop" thing the ride ops do at SFNE, and this was the first ride where they were actually doing it, and some guests were doing it back at them. As the day continued, so would this weird New England phenomenon. It was pretty strange at first, but I grew to appreciate it.

 

Upon exiting we saw Joker heading up the lift and a very short line. Brit absolutely loathes the installation at Great Adv, but Bill and I love it, so she sat out her first ride of the day while the other two of us gave it a spin. After a 5 minute wait we got on and we both absolutely loved this ride. Probably my third favorite of the day after Superman and Wicked Cyclone. Just so incredibly fun. Not sure if it was because it is brand new or that they have the flip-inducing fins placed in different spots than Great Adventures but it was an even better ride than we expected. I tend to laugh uncontrollably - sounding quite like the Joker himself - on these things, so to me the name and theme are perfect. It looks great in its location and Bill commented multiple times that its so much better than the sorry-ass water ride it replaced.

 

As I said earlier in this report I am a huge fan of S&S towers. They don't get a lot of love in the enthusiast community, and they aren't the most forceful drop rides but I love them. I've also never done a combo tower so Scream was... ahem... screaming my name. We headed in that direction and had up until that point the longest wait of the day - but still only about 15 minutes. This ride was a ton of fun and I loved the combo action. The drop was a bit better than the shot but was cool to do them both on the same tower, since I'm used to Dorney where you have to pick one tower or the other.

 

Wheeeeeee

By this point the humidity had thankfully dried up but it was still hot as balls in the sun. We were parched and while waiting for Scream noticed the small saloon next to Macho Nacho so we headed over there and grabbed a few beers.

 

We had already seen a couple people walking around the park with beers and Bill had informed me a while back of this parks awesome alcohol policy (i.e. no beer jail) but as we purchased we noticed signs everywhere telling us we needed to keeps drinks on the patio.

 

Decent selections. They had wine too.

Nice view to go with my suds

That's OK because there were places to sit in the shade and at this point we had gotten so much done we were in no rush. It was just about 3pm and we had hit the majority of coasters in the park already. We sat, people watched and bullsh*tted while we chugged our drinks and decided it would be a great time to hit up the parks classic woodie, Thunderbolt, which is just nearby.

 

More flags?

Unfortunately Thunderbolt only has one train so even with a small group of people lined up to just the bottom of the station ramp we still had a half hour wait. Not a big deal, since again, we weren't in a 'hustle' mood, just relaxing and taking it all in. On this ride you just line up in the order they let you into the station so we wound up sitting a few rows back from the front. Thunderbolt was a fun little woodie. Nothing special to me, a couple small pops of airtime and featuring those old PTC trains that shift and creak even when just going up the lift. One and done, cha-ching!

 

It should come as no surprise that ever since earlier in the morning I was blabbing on about how we had to get back over to Superman at some point, and as evidenced by our last two rides, the wait times seemed to be increasing. Since we were nearby, we headed back down towards the ride and were greeted by a short 5-10 minute line that extended down the station steps and through the first switchback. Not bad at all.

 

Everyone has taken this picture, but have they made a cool gif out of it?!

We went for the back again this time - me in the very rear and Bill/Brit directly in front of me. While going up the lift I called out "I smell burgers!" because I did - Johnny Rockets is right next door. Needless to say the ride was just as insane as earlier in the morning, though on the crazy ejector hill right before the spaghetti bowl I noticed something - I'm pretty sure a pair of sunglasses - fly from the front of the train and explode on Brits headrest, and having to swiftly dodge the carnage myself. Brit missed the entire thing, and we were both very lucky with where it landed as it could have taken her eye out. Or mine. My message to all of you: no loose articles, assh*les! (Disclaimer - I wear my sunglasses on everything, but they are very tight to my face. They survived the entire day, notably all my rides on Wicked Cyclone, Superman, and Joker, much to Bill and Brits amazement).

 

We didn't ride Goliath again but its very photogenic

At this point, I had gotten every credit in the park save for the tiny coaster in the kiddie area which I had no plans of attempting, and the parks spinner, Pandemonium. We did want to do some flats, but Bill loves this ride, and pressed getting my last credit of the day before we had dinner and chilled out for a bit. But I hate spinners! Ugh. It was super hot at this point and I begrudgingly got in line, the sunset frying our faces.

 

This might have been one of our longest waits of the day, probably a half hour. Once we finally boarded I sat across from Bill & Brit and a little girl jumped in next to me. She was totally hyped to ride and turned my apprehension around a bit. Honestly, it wasn't so bad. I spent most of the ride turned backwards and there were a ton of unexpected moments that made the ride fun. The spinning didn't bother me at all. Not sure I'd hop right back on if I could've, but I might do it again if I'm back at the park.

 

As I mentioned it was hot and we were hitting a wall of sorts, agreeing we needed beer and food. Back to JBs! Again, amazingly we had no wait for food. Bill and Brit tried the kids meals and I went for the buffalo tenders w/ fries and another beer. Food came out in a flash. I barely ate any of the fries since that's what I had earlier but I ate all of the chicken - honestly some of the best food I've had at any Six Flags, ever.

 

This stuff is great. Dipped my fries in it.

Amazingly good tenders

Bill's kids meal

Cheers to juiceboxes!

Loved hanging out in JB's away from the heat and crowds. Highly recommend this place. And I should mention I had no issues with my dining plan working up here - I could have brought my sports bottle to get refills but we were getting free water at any empty stand we passed all day (protip: the Saloon next to Macho will give you a huge free pint of water if you ask) and I didn't feel like lugging my cup all the way up to Massachusetts and carrying it around the park all day.

 

Loved that you could get right underneath this thing.

After we finished stuffing ourselves with grub and suds we needed a ride that was fairly chill. I'd been avoiding it all day but there was no way Bill was gonna let me get away with not riding the New England Sky Screamer. We took our time wandering back there, and arrived to little bit of a wait - maybe 20-25 minutes, and watched trivia on the TV's and digested. I don't really have a fear of heights. Even Zumanjaro doesn't get me anymore. Before today I'd ridden 2 star flyers (SFOG and SFGAdv) and two Windseekers (KD and CP) and none of them bothered me. Our Sky Screamer at GreatAdv I've done a dozen times by now. But one double that size? With just the janky little chains? And that everyone says the winds may cause your seat to turn backwards? And to add insult to injury we were a threesome so I had to ride alone? Pray for me.

 

Alas, I did it. It felt like a short cycle since it doesn't do the all-the-way-up-halfway-back-down-and-then-back-up routine ours does, and it felt like one full rotation at the top. But still - sweaty, sweaty palms. As a reward to myself I told Bill and Brit we were riding Wicked Cyclone. I mean, we were right there, and they didn't argue. The sun was almost set and we needed a pick-me-up. As we headed into the queue we overheard an announcement the ride was down and people were exiting.

 

Ridiculous

We decided to chance it and get in line anyway, which was now down the steps and around the first turn. Not too bad. They were cycling empty trains for 5 minutes or so and then started loading them again and we got on in the back rows within 15 minutes. Mother of god this thing is incredible. Just full on balls-to-the-wall intensity from start to finish.

 

Bill found some themeing he thought worthy of pointing out

Bill had mentioned earlier that we should check out Tomahawk, a pendulum style flat ride in an area we hadn't popped into yet. We made our way back there and into an empty queue that filled in behind us. We watched a ride cycle and I worried it spun a little too much for my taste, and the cycle seemed very long.

 

We eventually boarded, and with one op checking restraints we sat and waited for a while for him to make his way around. Finally we started to move... we swung maybe three or four times... and suddenly it smelled like fire. Like burning rubber. Was the ride on fire? Everyone on the ride looked at each other puzzled when the ride suddenly came to a halt. The girl running the thing got on the mic with the usual exit schpeil and our restraints popped open. Everyone exited and immediately began asking if the ride broke to which she responded "No it was 4 minutes" and started to load the next cycle. People were crowded around her arguing with her.

 

Oh lord jesus its a fire

We didn't stick around to find out what happened but my guess it was one of the drive tires underneath the ride, but it was very surprising, and a little concerning, that she didn't take the ride down and call maintenance. Something was clearly burning. She clearly stopped the ride because she also smelled it, or the ride shut itself down because something was wrong. So strange, so very Six Flags.

 

Bill still butthurt about the Skyrides removal

We needed more beer after that fiasco. Right next to JB's is a small beer stand that had a nice selection on tap. I don't remember what Bill and Brit got but I had another Angry Orchard. I chug them like they are candy. Back to that stupid inconsistent alcohol policy - here we were not told at all we had to keep our beers nearby (nor were we at JBs) and we walked away and through the park with our beers this time, past multiple security guards, and no one said a word. They also don't give you 21+ wristbands like they do at Great Adventure, which is weird if you are in fact allowed to walk around with you beers. Whatever, we did it anyway and no one cared. We carried our beers through the park and right into the line at Buzzsaw!

 

No other pictures (I blame the beers) but goddamn if this isn't a great flat

Bill and Brit highly recommended this ride and when we passed it earlier it looked great - like a super forceful 1001 Nachts ride. And that's exactly what it was. Really awesome pops of air, and actually scared the pants off me on our first full rotation! A sad excuse for a ride cycle, but what we did get was an absolute blast, and I would love to have one of these closer to me. Wish we would have rode this again.

 

Just around the corner from here is Fireball, and as mentioned in the SFNE thread, I still have not ridden El Diablo @ Great Adventure (why would you want to with El Toro literally next door to it). Since we had run through just about everything, and it wasn't even 8:30, we still had time to kill before 10pm park close. So we headed over when we noticed how awful the entire section smelled. We had a one-cycle wait but that was long enough to almost induce nausea from the stench of what seemed to be trash?

 

We boarded, sitting across from one another and as soon as we got high enough to see, just on the other side of the fence next to ride were 3 large dumpsters and piles and piles of garbage. How awful of the park. Not only creating such a terrible smell that permeated this entire area, but that you could actually see it while riding. As far as the ride, it was a ton of fun. It felt much faster than I imagined it to be and offers some great hangtime. We were nicely buzzed so we were really whooping it up on this.

 

We headed back through the southern area of the park and I pointed out how well lit a lot of the park was at night - Goliath and Joker are both lit up with spotlights and look amazing at night, and all of the retail and games booths in the Rockville and Main Street sections had fabulous light packages. I wish my phone took better photos at night so I could show it off a bit better. Coming from Great Adventure - the darkest park on the planet, I was impressed. We decided to hit up Batman for a night ride, but noticed Joker had a very short wait, so we convinced Brit, even though she hates these things, that she could use one more credit.

 

Again Joker was fantastic, flipping me at least three times. I laugh like hyena on these things, such great rides. I was kinda blown away that the parks newest ride had almost no wait either time we hit it up. On the way up the lift I yelled out "I smell Funnel Cake!!!" but I'm not sure if anyone even heard me lol! From here we hit Batman which had a short 15 minute wait, and thankfully the grouper let us sit in the back again. Great little floorless. The "boowoooops" intensified here, and people on the train were doing it as we were loading with the entire train, station and queue responding. Fun!

 

Earlier in the day we agreed we would start and end the day with Superman. With its light effects, mist tunnels, and general location next to the river and away from the other lights in the park Bill and Brit recommended it as the best night ride in the park. Sounds good to me!

 

Supermans lift.

We headed back down to the ride and it had the longest wait of the day - probably into three switchbacks, so still not bad. We were in the station in 10 minutes and like greedy little bastards decided to try our luck on a front row ride, which obviously had a much longer wait than any other row. We had hoped to get the last train of the night. We waited a good while - maybe another 20 minutes as 10pm quickly approached, us praying people would keep showing up to fill in the other rows. We were two trains away from boarding when they announced the train currently loading would be the last train of the night and we needed to fill in elsewhere. Curses!

 

Last ride of the night!

Brit stayed in row two and Bill and I hustled to 3 or 4 rows from the back, as that was our only option. Sucks, but is what it is. We still got the last train of the night, everyone on it was positively fired up - clapping, hootin and hollering, and the thing was running like a absolute dream. A fantastic finish to basically a perfect day.

 

We started off with our very own little ERT session, and then got to spend the day at a nice, relaxing pace, enjoying the entire park, and riding everything that we wanted to and then some. I always have such a great time hanging out with Bill and Brit, they are fabulous hosts and excellent tour guides. Things could have gone very differently if the weather and crowds hadn't turned out the way they did. The crowds definitely picked up in the evening, presumably due to the waterpark closing, but we'd hit so much early in the day we didn't care at all about waiting a bit for anything at that point. And with our season passes and my dining pass I only spent money on beer, so it was a relatively cheap day as well. We headed out and back into the Prius for the long drive back to their place and all of us crashed immediately, needing to rest up for another great park in the morning.

 

Today's total tally:

Superman The Ride 4x

Wicked Cyclone 4x

Batman 2x

Joker 2x

Goliath

Mind Eraser

Flashback

Fireball

Thunderbolt

Scream

Pandemonium

Buzzsaw

Gotham City Gauntlet

Catwomans Whip

New England Sky Screamer

Tomahawk?

 

Not bad for no Flash Pass, huh?

 

Thanks for reading, and all the comments! Stay tuned for part 4!

Edited June 30, 2017 by boldikus

[coasterbill]

Great report! Just a few comments from the peanut gallery:

 

1) Wow, I really do look stupid in that Sky Ride picture. I probably should have let you snap another one.

 

2)

I don't remember what Bill and Brit got but I had another Angry Orchard.

I was going to comment back with something obnoxious about how we got a beer that wasn't complete sh*t, but I can't make fun of you for drinking Angry Orchard when this same report has a picture of us with juice boxes.

 

Pro Tip: The kids meals are a great deal at JB's if you're tired of fried food since it comes with SLIGHTLY healthier / non fried side options, but you used to get a small drink of your choice and now they just hand you a stupid a** juice box.

 

3) Awesome report of an awesome day! That was one of the least crowded days I've ever seen at that park despite the beautiful weather. I'm shocked at how well Goliath and Mind Eraser were running, though Goliath is hit or miss depending on the row so I'm not getting TOO excited about that one yet.

[Canobie Coaster]

Glad you didn't mind Goliath. I have only gotten one brutal ride on it and it was somewhere in the middle of the train. Most of my rides tend to be in the back 2 rows which aren't bad other than a random jolt at the bottom of the vertical loop in reverse (probably what you experienced). The front is still the best seat for that view going up the first lift. But that seating policy seems like what I've come to expect from the park. I'm just thankful they allow you to pick your seat on Wicked Cyclone now, but at least that ride is bonkers in any row.

 

The no-brake ride on Gotham City Gauntlet is pretty rare. Every time I've ridden it, the brakes have bit quite hard.

[RCjunkie]

Great trip report, thanks for sharing it all! Especially your detailed reaction to Wicked Cyclone. Wicked Cyclone looks fantastic and you have convinced me to get off my dead a** and get out there in the near future. And an Intamin (Superman) never hurts in my world either. A little surprised that with boldikus and coasterbill in the same trip report that no beer was seen until part 3 of the report. I just assumed that it would have started off with a beer bong in the parking lot while dodging security.

[bigcwd2000]

Great trip report! I thoroughly enjoyed reading it.

[anonymouscactus]

I don't remember what Bill and Brit got but I had another Angry Orchard.

I was going to comment back with something obnoxious about how we got a beer that wasn't complete sh*t, but I can't make fun of you for drinking Angry Orchard when this same report has a picture of us with juice boxes.

 

lol... love the juicebox photo. The expression on your face...

 

Anyway, awesome report, Boldikus! Glad you had an awesome time. No shame in Angry Orchard, that's what I would be drinking too. 8)

[bert425]

this has been great.

 

your phone doesn't take bad pics. . most of them are great (and they're all in focus)

 

keep posting, wanna see/read more!

[boldikus]

1) Wow, I really do look stupid in that Sky Ride picture. I probably should have let you snap another one.

There was another that was worse.

 

love the juicebox photo. The expression on your face...

That's Bills' "Oh great now there is going be a photo of me with juicebox on TPR" face.

 

No shame in Angry Orchard, that's what I would be drinking too. 8)

No shame in my game. I love the stuff. We talked about this at the park and determined Bill is just not a fan of apple-y things. I'm huge cider geek but I like apple ales and beers quite a bit. Angry Orchard tastes like candy and gives me a buzz, what's not to like?

 

this has been great.

 

your phone doesn't take bad pics. . most of them are great (and they're all in focus)

 

keep posting, wanna see/read more!

Eh, there are some crappy ones. But thank you! More coming. We still have a day @ Compounce to go.

 

Great trip report, thanks for sharing it all! Especially your detailed reaction to Wicked Cyclone. Wicked Cyclone looks fantastic and you have convinced me to get off my dead a** and get out there in the near future. And an Intamin (Superman) never hurts in my world either. A little surprised that with boldikus and coasterbill in the same trip report that no beer was seen until part 3 of the report. I just assumed that it would have started off with a beer bong in the parking lot while dodging security.

Hey hey now. We're not that bad. Though I will totally tailgate at parks.

 

Seriously, I know it seems we drink a lot but I think we had 4-5 beers and that's over the course of a 11.5 hour day, filled with walking, riding, sweating, peeing, water breaks, etc. We never get close to being drunk at parks - just a buzz. I wouldn't be able to ride anything if I was drunk. We certainly don't get sloppy and actin' a fool. I can't tell you how many times we stopped and grabbed free cups of water in between the beers. It was HOT AF and we were sweating our asses off all day. I took Advil in the morning and drank craptons of water so I could keep it up all day. I decided not to even write about it all the water stops because we did it so many times it would just become stupid lol. Though if I do recall Bill didn't feel well at one point and once we got a beer in him he said he felt better - not sure if its a good thing or bad thing.

[Philrad71]

Great report so far!

 

And you guys seem to have the same philosophy as I do at parks...sprinkle the beer breaks intermittently throughout the day with water stops and you can easily get through a hot day at a theme park.

 

The first time that we went to SFNE, I was kinda meh about it. I really didn't think that Superman was much better than the one at Darien Lake and the rest of the park reminded me of La Ronde with a bunch of crappy coasters.

 

Luckily, Wicked Cyclone got them that desperately needed good 2nd coaster to get me back. I loved this coaster and after riding Superman in the front and back seat, it shot up into my top ten steel coaster list.

 

I'd go back just for those two and with Joker...but it would still be nice to see them get another really good coaster - like a dive machine or an Intamin mega-lite.

[TBpony414]

Digging the TR, Boldikus! Especially the unfiltered photos haha. I've never been up that way so it's neat to see the park. How would you compare Batman: TDK floorless to Bizarro?

 

Great report! Just a few comments from the peanut gallery:

1) Wow, I really do look stupid in that Sky Ride picture. I probably should have let you snap another one.

 

2)

I don't remember what Bill and Brit got but I had another Angry Orchard.

I was going to comment back with something obnoxious about how we got a beer that wasn't complete sh*t, but I can't make fun of you for drinking Angry Orchard when this same report has a picture of us with juice boxes.

 

1. The smiling sky ride picture confirmed to me that you do in fact have teeth! Just sayin'.

2. Juice boxes in kids meals are the shiz.

Edited July 1, 2017 by TBpony414

[boldikus]

I find Bizarro fantastic and completely underrated, so I might be a bad judge. Bizarro is miles better, because it feels much longer and more like a complete ride. B:TDK like I said has a really great drop, zero G and the dive loop is also really cool. While it feels like its over as fast as it starts, I did like how compact it felt, Bizarro is has more drawn out elements, the pacing on B:TDK felt more like a Batman invert, with elements coming at you quicker.

[TBpony414]

I find Bizarro fantastic and completely underrated, so I might be a bad judge. Bizarro is miles better, because it feels much longer and more like a complete ride. B:TDK like I said has a really great drop, zero G and the dive loop is also really cool. While it feels like its over as fast as it starts, I did like how compact it felt, Bizarro is has more drawn out elements, the pacing on B:TDK felt more like a Batman invert, with elements coming at you quicker.

 

Cool. That makes sense about length and pacing, thanks for the great explanation. I love Bizarro and the zero-G on it is freaking awesome. I'm not sure why it's not more loved other than maybe it's back in the woods, kind of between Toro and the Safari/Flume so people walk right past it.

[Canobie Coaster]

Of those two floorless coasters, I take Bizarro since it's a longer ride. Batman does have the best element of the two in that zero-G roll though.

[jynx242]

As always, what an awesome TR. You always make me feel like I'm there with you guys. I'm sure there was a whole bunch of wonderful sarcasm and cattiness as well.

 

I haven't been on Wicked Cyclone, but I felt the same way about Superman when I first rode it, and I'll agree with Bill and Britt that it gives epic night rides.

[coneyislandchris]

Big thumbs up for the multi-part TR, Boldikus. Glad you enjoyed the park. For all the naysaying it gets I think it's my favorite in the SF chain currently, though I still have yet to visit SFOG or the Texas parks. Can't wait to get back (and hopefully without the kid, so I can get some quality time in on Superman).

[michaellynn4]

I've only been to SFNE twice, but I enjoyed both visits. I even got to ride the Sky Ride in its last year of operation. Only real downside was an incredibly obnoxious ride op on the SLC who wouldn't stop screeching into the mic, though that may have just been her attempt to deter people from riding the SLC in the first place.

 

Bring on Compounce!!!!

[Canobie Coaster]

I've never had a screeching op, but Mind Eraser and Batman tend to have ops that make this ba-whoop noise.

[boldikus]

Thanks for the comments, fellas!

 

^ That "boo-woop" thing truly seemed to intensify as the night went on, with ops @ other rides doing it too. I have to admit I kinda got into it, it gave our night rides a funny, festive atmosphere.

 

For all the naysaying it gets I think it's my favorite in the SF chain currently, though I still have yet to visit SFOG or the Texas parks.

I've been to all four east coast SF parks now - SFGadv, SFOG, SFA, and SFNE. I think I said so in the SFNE thread but I'd rank the park under SFOG (for sure), but over GreatAdv and considerably over SFA. It helped I'm sure that my expectations were low and that the weather/crowds worked out the way they did, but I found myself saying to Bill and Brit "WTF are people talking about? This place is fine!"

 

I think next on my agenda is SFMM and SFGam. I've been plotting and scheming a quick jaunt over to Chicago for a weekend maybe early '18? I can do it all via public trans/etc and the hotels near the park look decent for OK prices.

 

I'm sure there was a whole bunch of wonderful sarcasm and cattiness as well.

Hah! You know this! Brit can hold her own, too! She's got the southern sass on lockdown.

 

Compounce is coming, it took me forever to sort through the photos, now I just have to get inspired enough to start to write something. Work was hell today after a four day mini-vacation, I'm gonna try to knock something up tonight.

 

Give me a day or two... (you can't rush perfection)