PTR: Lake Compounce & SFNE 7/5/17-7/6/17

Nitro1118 · July 6, 2017

What's up everyone? So about 2 weeks ago, a few days after financing a new car, I made the decision to take my new Civic and my girlfriend on a road trip. I had 3 options to make a short trip out of; the first option was a KD/SFA trip, the former I hadn't been to in 12 years, and the latter I had to skip after getting into a car accident after a trip to BGW. This trip was enticing because of the opportunity to get a fair share of new credits, including I305. The second trip idea was Hershey, which I had just been to last season. The last idea was a SFNE trip, which I had been to last in 2015. Ultimately, the pull of Wicked Cyclone and the freshly rebranded Superman was too strong for me to decline the trip, and I figured I would hit up Lake Compounce as well for good measure.

Day 1:

After a relatively frustrating post-July 4th ride up the NJ parkway, and an equally frustrating drive thru the never-ending construction of NY and Connecticut highways, we got to Lake Compounce around 1:00pm. Now, I hadn't been to LC since 2004, so I was very excited to get back on my 3rd ranked wooden coaster in Boulder Dash. I was also very excited to get on Phobia as I had never been on one of these Premier models before. Upon arrival I noticed many school buses and a fair amount of cars in the lot, which was a fear of mine considering the holiday the day before. I only had 1 goal, which was to get as many rides on Boulder Dash and Phobia as I could in roughly a 3 hour window.

Rides:

Boulder Dash - 2x - As I mentioned earlier, going into this trip Boulder Dash was my 3rd ranked wooden coaster. After my rides on it today, it definitely dipped a bit in my rankings. Firstly, the 1-train operation turned what should have been a 5min wait into a 25min wait. Overall not too big of a deal, but definitely annoying. Secondly, the first ride I had on it in the back row was quite rough and almost felt sluggish on the "out" portion of the layout. Not anything too violent, but some uncomfortable jackhammering at certain valleys and transitions, which actually made my back ache the rest of the day. My second ride, which was a few row from the front was a much better experience. The jackhammering was less noticable, the pacing felt quicker and it had stronger pops of airtime throughout the layout. The return trip was especially awesome. Overall, Boulder Dash is still an amazing ride 13 years later, but the back rows will definitely be a pass for me in the future.

Phobia -2x - This coaster packed a more intense punch than I expected after seeing POV's. The ride was essentially a walkon both times we got on. The launch went as expected, but the hangtime on the backwards portion was really fun, the inline twist gave great hangtime, and the swooping drops provided really good airtime in the back row. This was a really great addition to the park, giving it an exciting steel coaster to compliment Boulder Dash.

After 2 hours, we decided to leave early to give us extra time to relax at our hotel in West Springfield before hitting up SFNE for a couple of hours. Overall, LC is still a really solid family park with fantastic employees and a world class coaster. I do wish I had more time to soak everything in but I wanted to get rides in on WC and Superman tonight so my day at SFNE tomorrow can be somewhat relaxed.

After the hour drive to my hotel and some relax time, we made the 15min drive to SFNE around 6pm. The parking lot seemed kinda full upon arrival, but lines proved to be mostly non-existant for the coasters. SFNE is a park I have always found to be very underrated. It is a very pretty park with some charm, solid theming, a great location and 2 absolutely incredible coasters. After a quick tram ride we entered the park and immediately went to Superman, which is something I am so happy to be saying for the first time since 2004. Back in 2015 the ride was looking very dull with the faded and chipped purple paint, and the on-ride audio was pretty terrible. Anyway...

Superman: The Ride - 3x - Still a top 3 coaster for me 13 years later. We got 2 rides in the 2nd row and the 3rd to last ride of the night in the front row, all station waits. The new red paint looks stunning, the train redesign is very sleek and those stupid speakers getting thrown in the trash greatly improved the 2nd row experience. As always, great flo-jector or ejector over every single camelback and some strong positive G's on the helices. Our front row night ride was one of the very best I have had on it, including when it was S:RoS back in 2004. It was my first time experiencing the LED shields which surprisingly a really cool effect. I cannot wait to get on it a bunch more tomorrow!

Wicked Cyclone - 3x - My #1 steel.coaster and arguably my #1 overall, over El Toro. In 2015 this thing blew me away and tonight was even better. Back in 2015 the ride would slow down significantly after the bunny hop after the first zero g roll. Today it absolutely ripped through those turns, that weird hill with crazy laterals, it hit the second zero g with speed, and the last outward banked hill and small bunny hop both provided true ejector. The biggest difference from 2015 is they now allow you to choose your own row, so we opted for the back each time. Perfectly smooth and some of the most forceful elements I've ever experienced. The ride was essentially a walkon and I am kicking myself for not doing a mini-marathon, but after such a long day my girlfriend couldn't handle so many re-rides. Oh well, we have 11 hours tomorrow to run the count up.

The Joker - 1x - Being that we have a clone at my homepark, I got on this mostly to get the credit. The queue/station is mostly the same, although I find GAdv's color scheme and location much more appealing. However, maybe it was a fluke, but the ride experience felt more intense than any of my rides on Joker at GAdv. We got purple, which from what I've read offers less full flips than green. We ended up.getting zero full flips, but the thing felt more out of control than my 3-4 flip rides. We got two 3/4 flips, where we were past inverted and then quickly snapped back up right, and a couple of more half flips. I am not sure what it was but it definitely was more intense than GAdv's. I will take another lap on it tomorrow to see if that experience can be matched.

Below are some pics I took today. I am writing this half-asleep so I am sorry for the half-assed writing portion of the TR. I got another day at SFNE tomorrow and will likely be getting FP. I will update with a report from that day on Friday.

Edited July 7, 2017 by Nitro1118

boldikus · July 6, 2017

Some really awesome photos! Makes my recent report of the same parks look like sh*t!

Canobie Coaster · July 7, 2017

Great report! Your photos of Superman are particularly impressive. I can't come close to getting a clear photo of it at night.

Too bad you didn't get Boulder Dash running at its peak. I thought it was running well in late May.

Nitro1118 · July 7, 2017

Thanks for the replies!

Day 2:

Instead of writing a long-winded TR detailing every movement I made today, I am just going to do a ride count and random notes and observations from the day...

Wicked Cyclone: 5x

Superman: 2x

Joker: 1x

NESS: 1x

Thunderbolt: 1x

Batman: 1x

Pandemonium: 1x

Goliath: 1x

Blizzard River: 1x

Typhoon: 2x

Tornado: 1x

Bonzai: 1x

-Mind Eraser was closed both days on this trip. In one of the photos below I snapped a crane next to one of the trains on the transfer track with a couple of employees working on it.

-Superman was up and down throughout the day. One of the times it was down a crew was mounting a camera on the front of the train for what I assume is for on-ride footage. I got a back of the train ride while the camera was mounted. We were told we were being filmed for a TV spot, which I believe will be for a commercial as all of the crew were SF employees. The ride broke down around 6pm and never reopened during the rest of my stay (left around 7).

-Lines were mostly moderate. We did opt for a standard flash pass for the 2nd half of the day, which definitely helped with some of the lower capacity credits (Thunderbolt and Pandemonium specifically) and WC rerides.

-Once again we got purple side of Joker and did not fully flip. And once again it was a great ride with a 3/4 flip, which is the best sensation I have gotten on either model I have experienced.

-WC and Superman were hauling ass just like last night.

-GAdv's HH could really use a water coaster like Typhoon. That ride is an absolute blast and I can safely say I prefer it to many regular coasters out there. SFNE's HH in general is a very solid waterpark.

-JB's was fantastic! I really enjoy the sports bar feel of the inside and the food was really solid. GAdv would really benefit with a similar restaurant.

-We left 2 hours early to see Spiderman at Rave Cinemas in West Springfield, which was a last second decision. I am so happy we made that call as the movie was awesome. Lots of humor and a very entertaining movie overall. Definitely a perfect cap to a great mini-vacation!

Pics below. Thanks for reading!