One Last (Great) Adventure, Part 1

OK, so “last” is a bit dramatic. No one is near-death, but emotions are high as this is the last summer before our oldest heads off to college at the University of Findlay to run Cross Country and Track and major in Equine Science. Yes, that’s a thing, and perhaps partially influenced by Cedar Downs. So, in a lot of ways, this is a last, because many of us remember all too well that page-turning moment when we left for college (or just home in general), and I also know many of you are fellow parents who have experienced this up close. I’ll continue my tradition of odd trip reports that force you to listen to music to, you know, set the mood. This first part happened just before and up to Father’s Day and has nothing to do with Cedar Point, even though we were hotel-booked and ready to spend our usual Father’s Day week at that place on the lake. And we would have gotten away with it to if it wasn't for those meddling kids...

Press Play:

How we Ended up in Pennsylvania

Pics or it didn't happen; here is one from five years ago when we started our Father's Day adventures. Future horse trainer on the right. Future abandoned building all the way to the right.

As usual, we booked our five nights at the Comfort Inn Rivers Edge in Huron, looking forward to making memories at the Point as the school-year wound down. But track season was also winding down, and these two had different plans and decided to run fast enough to qualify for the New Balance Outdoor National Meet in Philadelphia, which just happened to take place over Father's Day weekend. We pivoted, and decided as a family to forego our tradition and start a new one, because how awesome would it be for them to run at Franklin Field at UPenn?

If you're not a track nerd, this is one of those sacred-ground places to run (it's the oldest college stadium in the United States). Plus we were now armed with our free "all parks add-on" with our Tickets of a Lifetime, so why not? I had honestly never been to Philly, so with the Rocky montage playing in my head, it's off to PA we go...

The Twentieth Anniversary of our Second Anniversary

Way back in 2006, my wife and I decided to do a road-trip for our second anniversary, and being the amusement-park lovers we are, we decided to use our Platinum Passes to go to a park we have never been to before (Dorney), and also sneak over to another park we had never been to before (Six Flags Great Adventure). So we drove from Columbus into PA, and meandered our way there and back again. Good times. We quickly realized that we had a chance to recreate this adventure with our girls, who didn't exist back in 2006. I found a place to stay 1) close to Philly, because running, and 2) a half-way point between Dorney and Great Adventure, so we could celebrate the 20th anniversary of our 2nd anniversary. We stayed in a little town just outside Philly called Conshohocken, which is really fun to say, especially if you pretend to be the Swedish Chef from the Muppets. Seriously; try it.

So, the plan was five days in this hip little town, with the girls running Friday (Kylah, the big sis) and Saturday (Hayden, the little sis), and then hitting the parks in whatever order on what was left of Saturday, all-day Sunday, and Monday early before we made our way home Monday night. The kids both ran well in their respective races, with Hayden wrapping our track season up by 9:30 AM on the track on Saturday. We decided to go visit Rocky...

...because that's what you do when you're in Philly, and with it still being early in the day we decided to hit up Dorney. The idea that we were re-visiting places my wife and I had not been for 20 years, only now with our kids, was never lost on me.

Dorney, Day 1

Tom Petty has to be wrapping things up, so press play:

Dorney Park seemed to be...well...aside from a few new additions, exactly how we left it. The park was clean, the staff was pleasant, the lines were nothing to speak of, and everything was up and running. We got to the park around 1:30 in the afternoon and we did a couple laps each on Talon, Hydra, Possessed, and Steel Force before hitting up the newest addition, Iron Menace. While the theming for the ride (and it's whole area in the park) was nice, the ride itself was not that great of an experience. We rode it once, and all of us thought the lift hill was the best part, because it was the only part that didn't give us a rattle-induced headache. I don't want to exaggerate (it wasn't Son of Beast bad), but it was just surprisingly uncomfortable for such a new-ish ride. My daughters are my "old man" barometer, and even they didn't enjoy it, so it wasn't just my 49-year-old body complaining. We didn't get any food because we had all eaten before (closer to Rocky), and honestly the plan was to hit up some coasters and then head back to the hotel in good ol' Conshohocken, but that's when we saw it on the way out...

Hello, old friend.

Oddly enough I almost forgot Demon Drop was here, and to make it even more fun, the kids were, to be honest, a little freaked out. Of course they wanted to ride it, but it was so fun hearing their fears come out exactly like mine did as a kid when I saw it for the first time. The noises, the un-nerving aspect of the cart inching it's way out at the top of the tower, and did I mention the noises? This ended up being my favorite memory of day 1, because how often do you get to ride a ride with your kids that you rode as a kid and they never have? They both agreed it was the scariest "drop" ride they have been on, and loved the intensity that you just don't get on something like Power Tower. What a cool moment.

Steel Force was the favorite, Demon Drop the scariest, the park was in great shape, and the girls were amazed that in about 3 hours we did all the major headliners. We ended the day early with the plan being to do an "open to close" at Six Flags Great Adventure the next day on Father's Day. My wife and I had a less-than-awesome experience 20 years ago, so expectations were not exactly sky-high. (and yes, I'm proud of myself for finding a trip report from 20 years ago on C-Buzz).

Back to the Future: Great Adventure 20 Years Later

I'm not sure how many of you have visited a place once and then again after such a large time gap, but it was a neat experience, with part of my brain recalling 20-year-old memories and another part enjoying watching my daughters explore a brand new place, while at the same time enjoying everything together for the first time.

Just push play:

As we pulled up to the parking lot, the memories came flooding in. Aside from seeing Bakunawa being built on the horizon, we were momentarily 29 again, and it was a great father-moment seeing the girls so genuinely excited to e xplore a place they had only heard of in boring parent stories but had never been.

Let me just get this part out of the way; from start to finish, Great Adventure absolutely impressed all of us. The park was immaculate. The ops were fantastic (with a couple outliers). The landscaping was beautiful, the staff was hustling and friendly...it was a polar opposite experience of what we had etched into our long-term memory from 2006.

We got our usual 2 all-day dining bands, and ended up pleasantly surprised by the food. While the girls did there usual feast on chicken tenders, we got some nicely-done seafood at "The Pub" early in the day and later on at the new Boardwalk at a brand-new place called "Riptide Seafood Shack". Cedar Point is on a lake filled with perch, and yet I get better seafood at Six Flags Great Adventure.

You don't need a play-by-play of rides, but some highlights are worth mentioning. The Flash (one train, obviously) was the only ride with a long line at the beginning of the day, so we decided to circle back later in the day (more to come on that later). Nitro was running as well as ever, the Dark Knight Coaster was a surprisingly fun ride, the girls loved Skull Mountain so much they made us ride 3 times, Superman was at best OK (the one area of the park that seemed neglected), Batman was closed (but we knew because website said so). El Toro was running only one train but it was just as great as we remembered.

We all agreed the biggest bummer of the day was Jersey Devil. This was the one ride where the ops seemed, to be kind, clueless. Multiple trains with multiple empty seats (and it's single file), and the ride itself was not exactly awesome. You could feel the joints between track segments under your seat as it went through the course. If we could go "back in time" and skip one ride, this would be it. Swing and a miss for RMC.

The biggest surprise might have been Houdini's Great Escape. This was actually not open 20 years ago when we were there, and I can still hear my girls' laughter. I had no idea what to expect but this was a fun and unique attraction.

All in all we had an absolutely fantastic day at Great Adventure. Without Fast Lane we did anything and everything we wanted multiple times. To close the day, though, we headed back to Flash, the one ride we never got on, and that's when the day became awesome.

I didn't realize Flash was built by Vekoma and had the same trains/theming as Siren's Curse because none of that was working all day. By 9:30 the crowds were low enough to make Flash a walk-on so we decided to make this our last ride of the night, which quickly became our last 5 rides of the night.

This ride ended up being everyone's favorite, and on our 5th and final ride (right when the park closed), the lights and music on the trains started working, and poetically we also had front row seats on that last ride. If you enjoy Siren's Curse, it's a lot like that, only with half of the ride being backwards, which is fun.

Overall, we left with a completely different perspective of Great Adventure, and we are seriously considering a return trip next year, because the younger sister wants to run Nationals in Philly again next year as a freshman in high school, so...why not? A great Father's Day.

Dorney, Day 3

After such a great day at Great Adventure, the plan was to hit Dorney for a few hours and then make the 8 hour drive back home to Louisville, Ohio. This trip was such a blur because of all the different things we did, from the focus on a track meet to the days at the parks, it was a fun whirlwind of a trip that ended on a (lightly) rainy day. But the rain did not stop this clan from making the most out of one last day at Dorney.

I'll be (thankfully) brief on this one, so just hit play now:

With a mild steady rain all morning, we ventured into the park to just enjoy the atmosphere and enjoy a few last rides. The girls got a couple laps on Talon, and we all enjoyed multiple rides on Thunderhawk, which was running really well. We didn't do this on our first day at Dorney, but something must have been done since our last visit 107 years ago.

Dorney is photogenic.

We did some laps on the kids' favorites (and also introduced then to "The Whip", which was fun). The girls also needed some help:

Around 1:30, we decided to call it an adventure, and headed back to the car. On our way out that song you have been listening to by Alphaville was blaring on the speakers, and the irony was not lost on me.

If you're still listening, check out the first picture I posted from 5 years ago, and then come back to this picture my wife took on our way out.

As of this post, Kylah leaves for college in 3 days.

More to come...

I hope you chanted "Demon Drop Demon Drop Demon Demon Demon Drop" the way we used to back in the day. (And then went on to chant "Mine Ride Mine Ride Mine Ride" and "Pirate Ride Pirate Ride Pirate Ride" etc.)