Photo TR: A Blitz Through New England, August 20-21, 2022.

[AmyUD06]

On the weekend of August 19th through the 21st, 2022, I decided to do a blitz trip of almost all of the New England parks.  Most of these were first-time visits, and the trip also included return trips to SFNE and Lake Compounce to grab the credits that I had missed during my initial trip to these parks in 2017.

So I had worked midnight shift the night before this trip began, getting off of work at 7 AM.  I was home and in bed by 8, grabbed a couple hours of sleep, and was on the road by 2:00 PM.  My destination?  An overnight stay in White River Junction, VT, to get a proper start on the trip the next day.  This drive should have taken me only around 7 hours, but due to ever-present NY traffic, it took closer to 9, and I got into town and checked in to the Hotel Coolidge around 10:30.  And let me tell you, this is small town America at its core - absolutely nothing was open.  The hotel was very cute and boutique-y and was on a quintessential main street though, so it had that going for it.

It was also right across the street from the "Center For Cartoon Studies", which apparently offers college-level degrees in cartoons.  Yep, I'm in New England all right.

The room, however, was extremely tiny for the cost (around $130):

When I woke up, I grabbed breakfast at a classic small-town diner, and on my way back to the hotel noticed that nearby was a restored steam locomotive.  Non-train-fanatics can skip ahead to the next text.

I checked out, and was on the road to my first park stop of this trip...

Santa's Village, Jefferson NH

This was a quaint little family park, themed around Christmas of course, featuring two coasters and a pretty cool shooting dark ride.  This place was surprisingly busy, which I guess makes sense being the only park in a 2 hour radius.  On with the photos!

The entry way.

Once inside, you're greeted with very cutely decorated architecture from some period which I can't name.

...and a ride.  Sorry, I know it's hard to tell due to the blurriness, but all of the "horses" on this carousel are reindeer.

And we come to the first ride I rode, The Great Humbug Adventure.

This is a shooting dark ride where you are trying to exterminate "humbugs," which apparent look like this:

...and stop them from stealing the Christmas spirit, or something?  I don't know.  The ride was fun, though, with plenty of animatronics inside on the course.  I had an 18 minute wait.  The queue was quite well done as well, including this animatronic guy explaining the premise.

And here's a shot of the ride vehicles.

Moving along...

They had a log flume that was laid into the ground for the most park, and was very difficult to take other pictures of, and (from the sight of exiting guests) got you soaked.  Pass.

...Which brings me to my next ride...

Poogee Penguin's Spin Out Coaster, a SBF Visa spinner with a longer double-figure-8 layout.  Okay, so I didn't ride this until I was about to leave, because it kept going in and out of operation, but when I did, I had a 21 minute wait and a not-very-spinny 3 lap ride, which was nice for me.  Yes, this is the same ride that seriously injured a 51-year-old ride op a week later.

Moving right along....there was some sort of kids show in here.

Well-hidden bumper cars.

They did have park-style swings everywhere.

And they served beer!  Guess they had to have something for the adults to do.

They also have a small petting zoo.

And this comically-named tube-down-a-hill slide.

Going by the signage, this is apparently open in the winter, and is probably a bit more fun then.

There were also these little elf dudes all around the park, each named for a different letter of the alphabet, and kids could put cards into the white boxes and pull the lever and it would punch a hole in their card.  If you collect all of the elf-hole-punches, you get some sort of special prize, which I did not figure out what it was and the website doesn't say.

For how well themed most of the park was, these plain buildings really stood out.

Amusingly I did not spontaneously combust while taking this picture (yes, I made the same joke at Holiday World, sue me).

Even in a park clearly marketed at families....C'mon, Cedar Fair!

This was all this ride was.  Get in the boat at one end, and let the current bring you to the other.  Weird.

Some vintage fire engines, for those into that sort of thing...

...right next to the kinda-out-of-place firefighting ride.

Which finally brings me to the last coaster, Rudy's Rapid Transit.  This is the same model of Zierer as is at SFNE and SFGAdv, and was a walk-on for back row.  This is kinda in a dead end of the park, the only thing beyond it being a small water park, so I guess that explains the lack of crowds.  It was fun for what it was, despite sitting in the station for 10 minutes while the ride ops figured out if they wanted to start the ride or wait for more passengers.

Honestly, I only hit this park for the credits, figuring my chances of ever being this far north again were pretty slim.  I'd like to say this report will get more interesting soon, but it probably won't for a while.  Hang on though, because it does get good, I promise!

[AmyUD06]

The next stop on my agenda for Saturday was....

Story Land, Intervale NH

This is another family-focused park, with not too much for adult thrill seekers (besides Roar-O-Saurus).  Thankfully, this place was included on my Palace Entertainment Platinum Pass, but I did find a lot of the kids stuff to be super cute.  On with the report!

First, the very bare-bones entrance plaza...

...and some sorely missed corporate sponsorship.

So the first thing you come across here (if you go to the right, anyway), is life-size recreations of all of your favorite fairy tales.

Here in the "kingdom" themed area, you have a few more classic examples...

Including a pumpkin coach ride to...

...Cinderella's castle, complete with meet-n'-greets and photo ops.

They also had this cool "assisted dress up" where staff would help your kid become a princess, knight, or whatever.

There was a very small pirate themed area....

...with a riverboat ride...

...and climbing structure (identical to one that used to be at an elementary school near my parent's house in Central NJ)...

...and a pretend jail.

There was a "tales from around the world" section.

This was apparently some sort of dark ride or walk through experience, but was closed.

And finally, we come across the first coaster...Polar Coaster.

Sadly not air conditioned on this very hot day.  Anyway, this is a Hopkins/Morgan family coaster.  About a 20 minute wait for the back row.  Some decent forces throughout, especially on the final helix...kinda surprising for an obvious kiddie coaster.

Some of the rest of the park....

...including a splash battle...

...and their own version of a flying shoe ride.

They even have a ball pit, sort of!

Finally, it was time for the crown jewel of this park (or was it?), Roar-O-Saurus.  It definitely is photogenic.

28 minute wait for the back row.  It had a couple of nice pops of air, but it suffers from the same problem that Mine Blower does - on any kind of a turn, it jackhammers and shuffles around like its the trains job, slamming you every which way.  Not fun.  3/10.

Rounding out this park, here are some of the final pictures.

And I'll close this par of the report with a truth-telling bag seen in the gift shop, featuring an insightful quote from a true legend.

[AmyUD06]

Moving right along, my next stop on this rapid tour was....

Funtown Splashtown USA, Saco ME
 

This was a much more balanced park, but had a decidedly "permanent-carnival" feel.  In addition to the rides section, they also have a small waterpark and a go-kart track.  Just check out the park map:

The first ride you come across is their Asian-themed drop dower, Dragon's Descent.  Really this hut and the area beyond it were the only Asian-themed things in this "area," a trend which will appear later.

There's also a small picnic area right near the entrance as well.

On to the rest of the park...

A cool name for the bumper cars.

Does every New England park have one of these rock-panning things?

So I had heard lots of awesome things about the Astrosphere...unfortunately, if I wanted to make it to Canobie Lake Park with adequate time, with this line, it had to skipped.

The first coaster of two here, a standard portable Maurer Wild Mouse.

I had an 18 minute wait and that's about all there is to say about it; it's a Wild Mouse.  They were running more than one car on the course at a time though, so I guess it's better than Dorney's?

They too had one of those flat canoe rides.

And then we come to....

Seriously, was there supposed to be more on the other side of this bridge, in the "Camelot" section?  The only things that exist are Excalibur and a gift shop.

Anyway, onto Excalibur itself.

A cute little warning sign.

In theory, this is absolutely ingenious...extend the front and back row lines back as far as possible.  Unfortunately, what this resulted in was people in the big pre-separated line just crowding up the middle path for "all other rows," leading to plenty of empty rows happening while the front and back rows were absolutely massive.  Given that this coaster only has one train, it's kinda a problem.

That said, I love the theming on this.

Though I don't understand why Galahad is ahead of Lancelot

25 minute wait for row 2.  This was easily the best ride of the trip so far.  Quite a few pops of air time, great laterals, but a little janky around the corners.  Not a top-10 quality ride, but very good.  7/10.

It's also worth noting that this ride is at the very back of the park, which is shaped like a U, with no path to make it a full loop, so I had to walk back through everything else to exit.  Which I did, and hit the road for what was possibly the best park of the trip...

 

[AmyUD06]

To wrap out day one of this trip, I made it to my next destination at just after 7 PM for a 10 o'clock closing.  And honestly, I'm glad I didn't spend more time at other parks earlier in the trip since I truly did love...

Canobie Lake Park, Salem NH

(Massively underexposed picture of the main gate purposefully not show).

I don't know what it was, but this park had a ton of charm, and I really wish I had more time to spend here, in the daylight, when I wasn't tired from visiting 3 other parks earlier in the day and driving a total of almost 300 miles.  That said, I did get on the two coasters and the dark ride, and took pictures of pretty much everything else.  Of course, since those pictures are mostly at night, my phone probably did a shitty job of them, so apologies in advance.  On with the photos!

I noticed this at a lot New England parks....you guys sure do love your misnamed funnel cake.

Awesome theme on this Matterhorn.

Getting ready for Halloween.

And onto the first coaster here...Yankee Cannonball!  Yes, this is where the queue line started.

They were only running one train, so I had a massive 51 minute wait for the back row.  Ouch!  That said, it was more than worth it!  PTC with buzz bars and skid brakes?  Awesome.  It was very smooth with a couple of nice pops of air, better than decent laterals, overall a very quality ride.  9/10.  Just put on that second train when the park is packed!

It's not every day you see one of these left in an amusement park...a Pinball Parlor!

Back outside, continuing my lap in search of some soft preztels (I hadn't eaten anything since breakfast around 13 hours ago)...

Finally, I found some, and then it was time for the only other real roller coaster here, Untamed.  Warning:  Nerd Shots.

On this, I had a 23 minute wait for the front row, left edge.  It's a Eurofighter but with shoulder restraints, and in my notes video I commented "like Hyrdus, but worse" and I think that about sums it up.  4/10.

Moving along....

I laughed at the "Ages 3 and Up Only" sign on the kiddie whip...so can full grown adults ride this?  I didn't try.

Some more pre-Halloween setup.

An actual Chance Rotor!  Nice.

The water park was closed by the time I arrived.

An arcade with non-redemption games?  Gasp!

Cool looking log flume that was skipped for time and non-desire for wetness.

But what I did ride in the back part of the park was the Mine of Lost Souls dark ride.  Complete walk-on, and had some very nice animatronics and scenes.  Very nice.  8/10.  Sadly all my photos came out way too blurry to post.

The Ferris Wheel lighting package could use some work (this was not in the middle of a pattern).

"I'm not paying that much for popcorn from Popcorn Stall 2!"  Seriously, I had never seen an actual popcorn-shaped popcorn stall outside of Roller Coaster Tycoon.

And I'll end this part of the report with a shot of Ice Jet at night.

I swung back by Yankee Cannonball hoping for a second ride, but the queue was long and I'd been awake for a long, long time, and still had an hour drive to my hotel, so I decided to take off.  I will be back here for a more proper day next year, that's for sure.

And that about does it for new parks for me on this trip.  For anyone considering a similar blitz credit run through these four parks in a single day like I did...it's doable, but it's kinda a miserable day.

Stay tuned, there's more to come!

[AmyUD06]

So after my long day trekking through most of the New England States, I arrived at what was easily the largest Best Western branded hotel I'd ever seen.  6 Stories tall with two restaurants, a bar, conference and event rooms, it played host to some sort of teenage hockey tournament as well as a Quinceanera party, so yeah I thought it wouldn't be all that quiet.  Thankfully, I was adequately separated from all the crowds and was able to get a solid night's sleep.  The next morning I was on the road for my second trip ever to...

Six Flags New England, Agawam MA

As pretty much everyone has been here multiple times, and my goal today was just to get the credits I missed on my 2017 trip  I didn't take any photos worth posting,

My rides here were:
-Pandemonium, two-train wait.  Plenty of spinning but the course made it better, much more so than a spinning mouse.  Still, 6/10.
-Gotham City Gauntlet, walk-on.  Whatever, it's a mouse; no rating.
-Catwoman (no-apostrophe-S) Whip, walk on for row 16.  Same ride as Rudy's Rapid Transit at Santa's Village and Harley Blackbeard's Lost Crazy Treasure Train at SFGAdv; no rating.
-Riddler (no-apostrophe-S) Revenge, 6 minutes for front row.  It has the new vest restraints, which are nice, but still not quite as smooth as as Great Nor'Easter.  6/10.
-Joker, 10 minute wait for back row.  One and a half flips.  I still don't really like these, but due to the limited flipping, 4/10.
-The Great Escape, walk on for back row.  One pop of air in the back row, but otherwise it's a kiddie coaster; no rating.
-Flashback, 4 minutes for front row.  Possibly the worst boomerang I'd ever been on to that point.  0/10.

I also grabbed a front row ride on Superman (30 minute wait) and can safely say that his has dropped to the bottom of my Top 10 steel coasters, entirely due to the restraints.

Wicked Cyclone was posting a 60 minute wait, and it looked it, and Thunderbolt's line was way too long, so I beat feet out of there and was on the road to my next credit-makeup stop...

Lake Compounce, Bristol CT

Wildcat was down for refurbishment during my 2017 trip, and I had skipped Zoomerang then too, so I had these two to make up.  First up was Wildcat.

A nice homage to the past...

And the ride sure is photogenic....

Don't mind the half-a-brake (look close; it's missing one of the pads).

New wood right where it matters most. (/s)

The little black cat prop was the best part of this ride.

So what did I think of this 1927 classic? After a 40 (yes, 40!) minute wait for the front row, for a while there (the lift through the second turn), I thought, "Hey, this might not be so bad."  Then the pain began.  The restraints just clamped super hard (Millennium Flyers did not help this coaster) and the train just jackhammered all over the place.  To quote my notes video, "Absolutely horrible, burn it to the fucking ground.  Horrible, horrible ride." Negative-Infinity/10

Oh, wait, there was actually an awesome part of this, but it happened in the queue.  The ride op at the panel was on their game when it came to catching line cutters.  So many people would use the old "joining up with the rest of their party" trick, and if the ride op didn't call them out while they were doing it and send them back, they waited until they lined up at a gate and told them "You're not riding, walk on through.  If you sit down, I'm not dispatching the train and I'm calling security."  It was absolutely beautiful.

I also rode Zoomerang here, a 6 minute wait for row 5.  It was slightly better than the Boomerang at SFNE, but not by much. 1/10.  At least the new paint job looks nice.

And that about did it for this park.  I thought about taking a lap on Boulder Dash (it is in my Top 10 woodies, after all), but having read recent reports and not wanting to sully my memory of it, I skipped it.

That about wraps up my two-day blitz through almost every park New England has to offer; I only skipped Quassy due to nothing new since my 2017 trip, and Edaville, since they never reopened post-COVID.  If I had to do it again, I'd definitely budget more days into the trip, and spend a lot more time at Canobie Lake Park, which was easily the star of this trip despite only having one solid coaster.

I do have a question if there's any Vermont natives on here:  Why is there only one actual rest area on I-91, and why does it close at 7 PM?  Seriously it's a three hour ride from the MA border to Canada and there is just that one place on the highway with a bathroom.  Those stupid "parking areas" with no facilities do not count.

But wait, there's more!

After fighting my way through the Cross Bronx Expressway and GW Bridge back into NJ, I decided to try to hit two Jersey boardwalk parks where I missed credits during my 2021 quest to get them all.  The first stop was in Keansburg, to be greeted by a still-closed Looping Star and a Sea Serpent kiddie coaster that I was told adults couldn't ride.  At least I could take in their classic haunted walk-through, right?  Sadly, no.  When I walked by it, it was open, but after I bought tickets and went back, a chain was across the entrance and there was no staff in sight.

So back in my car I got, and down to Seaside Heights I went, for Xola Loco, that had opened since my last trip.  Unfortunately, the flipping hamster-wheel cars line was about 10 times the length of the spinning cars line, so I just rode in a spinner after a one train wait, but hey, it's a credit.  I also tried unsuccessfully for a ride on their indoor scrambler, Centrifuge, but was denied - No Single Riders, for some stupid reason.  I grabbed a slice of Three Brothers Pizza, and made my way back home to Delaware.

Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed reading.  This about gets me caught up on TRs from this summer...my next trips won't be until the Haunt events start at the CF Parks in a few weeks.  Take care!

 

[Zand]

22 hours ago, AmyUD06 said:

I do have a question if there's any Vermont natives on here:  Why is there only one actual rest area on I-91, and why does it close at 7 PM?  Seriously it's a three hour ride from the MA border to Canada and there is just that one place on the highway with a bathroom.  Those stupid "parking areas" with no facilities do not count.

First time in Vermont?

Lol I went to college in Northeastern VT (about another hour north of WRJ) and, as you saw, just about the entire state rolls in the sidewalks at 6pm or so every night. Maybe one out of every 5 exits on 91 has a 24 hour gas station with a bathroom, but other than that you're out of luck driving in VT at night (especially if you hit a large animal which happens too often). If I was travelling to school at night, I would actually take the 15-20 minute longer route from my house up 93 in NH instead.

 

On 9/4/2022 at 6:03 PM, AmyUD06 said:

I don't know what it was, but this park had a ton of charm, and I really wish I had more time to spend here, in the daylight, when I wasn't tired from visiting 3 other parks earlier in the day and driving a total of almost 300 miles.

Canobie is largely ignored on this forum because it lacks in terms of coasters, but by small family park standards it is a fantastic place. It's a much much better experience than Lake Compounce IMO. Tons of good flats and generally has a great atmosphere, except it can get very crowded due to being the closest amusement park to Boston. I used to visit at least once a year but unfortunately haven't been in almost 10 years. They have an 80 foot height limit unfortunately so they'll never get much better in the coaster department, but maybe someday they'll get a good GCI or something to draw more folks north.

On 9/4/2022 at 3:54 PM, AmyUD06 said:

25 minute wait for row 2.  This was easily the best ride of the trip so far.  Quite a few pops of air time, great laterals, but a little janky around the corners.  Not a top-10 quality ride, but very good.  7/10.

Excalibur is a good coaster during the day, but amazing at night. Like...pitch black Beast style night rides. New England used to have two fantastic woodies with legendary night rides, but Lake Compounce decided they wanted to turn into a dump and stop taking care of Boulder Dash so...yeah. But if you ever get the chance to visit Funtown at night, it's worth it for Excalibur alone. Portland is an awesome eating and drinking town too.

 

Oh...you missed a credit or two in Old Orchard Beach ME at Palace Playland. Not far from Funtown if you ever go back.

[AmyUD06]

48 minutes ago, Zand said:

First time in Vermont?

It was my first time in Vermont.  Coming from the NJ/PA area, where things are open quite late and rest areas are everywhere, it was quite a shock.

50 minutes ago, Zand said:

Canobie is largely ignored on this forum because it lacks in terms of coasters, but by small family park standards it is a fantastic place. It's a much much better experience than Lake Compounce IMO. Tons of good flats and generally has a great atmosphere, except it can get very crowded due to being the closest amusement park to Boston. I used to visit at least once a year but unfortunately haven't been in almost 10 years. They have an 80 foot height limit unfortunately so they'll never get much better in the coaster department, but maybe someday they'll get a good GCI or something to draw more folks north.

I get that.  I really did enjoy it; it was probably my favorite park overall of this trip.

51 minutes ago, Zand said:

Excalibur is a good coaster during the day, but amazing at night. Like...pitch black Beast style night rides. New England used to have two fantastic woodies with legendary night rides, but Lake Compounce decided they wanted to turn into a dump and stop taking care of Boulder Dash so...yeah. But if you ever get the chance to visit Funtown at night, it's worth it for Excalibur alone. Portland is an awesome eating and drinking town too.

 

Oh...you missed a credit or two in Old Orchard Beach ME at Palace Playland. Not far from Funtown if you ever go back.

Damnation, so I did miss one.  I'm already planning a trip back up to Canobie Lake next year so I'll have to swing by Palace Playland and Funtown again for night rides on Excalibur.  How is that beach town?  Anything like Wildwood or Ocean City MD?

[Zand]

I've never been to OOB but I do know it's much smaller than any of the Jersey Shore towns and obviously way smaller than Ocean City MD. I just checked and they actually have 3 credits at Palace Playland...an SBF spinner and a kiddie credit like any good oceanside park, but also a legitimate windstorm-sized steel coaster. Also, if you're there to swim in the ocean be aware that the water rarely gets above 60 degrees north of Cape Cod. Save the ocean swimming for NJ lol.

Vermont is a giant culture shock to just about anyone from anywhere else. A lot of the ski towns are lively at night, but otherwise there are like 3 cities with more than 20,000 people in the whole state and even those have very little going on at night. It's almost like a foreign land if you've never experienced it. I love it there but I could never live there full time, although January-April I'd be totally fine living near the mountains.

[michaellynn4]

Glad you had such a good time!

Canobie was a pleasant surprise for us, too. We went on a whim since we were kinda in the area for a bigger family get-together, and we were seduced by its charm. Couple things:

• That seems to be the overall MO for Yankee Cannonball. I waited nearly an hour due to one-train operations. Still enjoyed it, though.
• I had the exact same reaction to the popcorn stand as you (I'm pretty sure all of us coaster nerds who grew up playing RCT have the same experience lol).
• Fun fact - they had plans a few years back to open a pretty cool-looking river rapids ride directly behind Untamed, but ended up cancelling them after the rapids ride accident happened in Australia.  

[Chiselphane]

I havent been to Story Land in 10 years since moving away from New England and it just warms my heart that it hasn't changed a bit.  So many good memories