10 Day, 9 Park, 12 Admission Tour 6/29-7/8/2018

EDIT: Brain must be scrambled. Should say 13 admissions.

Day 1, Cedar Point: Drove friend to CP for his first ever trip there. His favorite and mine was Steel Vengeance. Awesome time. Even got to ride the front seat of TTD 2 times in less than a half hour. Only major issue is that he purchased Funpix for the day at the end of the night and none of the pictures they showed us he had put on the temporary card have shown up yet.

Day 2, Waldameer: Rode Ravine Flyer II for the first time. I can definitely tell this is a Gravity Group coaster. Loved it. Rode it 6 times. Was cool to see so many old twirl and hurl rides there. While their spinning coaster looked fun, I wasn't going to chance it. Really enjoyed this park.

Day 3, Kennywood: Haven't been here since Steel Phantom was brand new, so, it's been awhile. The park is really pretty but I could only tolerate it for a half day due to the humidity and the fact that they have no water park. Phantom's Revenge was really fun. Their launched coaster was down and has been down while waiting on a part.

Day 3, Hersheypark: Left Kennywood to take advantage of Hersheypark's free evening admission with next day's ticket. I must say that I absolutely LOVE this park. Such an awesome collection of wood and steel coasters. Since going there in 2016, I had deemed Skyrush to be my all time favorite coaster until...Steel Vengeance this spring, though I knew I needed to give Skyrush another chance since I only rode it in 2016. By the oh so slightest of margins, I have to give the title to Skyrush. While I absolutely love SV and the duration of the ride, I can hold my hands up the entire time. On Skyrush, it's intensity and major ejector air forces me to pull myself down to the seat while going over several hills. Skyrush is the perfect length for how extreme it is.

Day 4 & 5, Hersheypark: as I stated, I LOVE this park. definitely took advantage of the waterpark due to the near 100 degree temps but got many evening rides in on the coasters. Love Lightning Racer. Wish CP would get one of these, but bigger.

Day 6, Knoebel's: Enjoyed my half day here. The Phoenix was MUCH better than I'd experienced in 2016. Thought I was going to fly out of the thing several times. Twister is really fun and smoother than 2 years ago. Didn't do Flying Turns this trip. Found it to be an ok ride in the past. The ride that I wouldn't ride because it spins is the one that is like the Lake Erie Eagle at CP. The one there is much bigger and faster. People were getting them to hit the tree branches...it was crazy.

Day 6, Dorney Park: Unfortunately, got rained out but that was ok. I did manage to watch the Cirque Dreams show which was pretty good.

Day 7 & 8: Six Flags Great Adventure. My absolute favorite park, hands down. They have what I consider to be the best overall collection of coasters of any parks I've been to. While many of the coasters they have aren't the best of their kind, they are all pretty darned good if not excellent. Nitro is one of my favorite hypers and El Toro is insanely awesome. I spent nearly the last hour of each night on El Toro without ever having to walk out of the station and back in. The second night, a friend was with me who prefers Nitro so we marathoned that from 8-9 and then headed over to El Toro to finish out the night. The only coaster I won't ride there is Kingda Ka due to the roughness of the trains. TTD kills KK. A major drawback to SFGAdv is that the waterpark is not included with season passes purschased at other 6 Flags parks. LOVE this park!

Day 9, Lake Compounce: since I had to drop my friend off about 30 minutes from LC, I decided to give this park another chance since the horrible triple down was removed from Boulder Dash and the Wildcat had major re-tracking done since my visit in 2016. Even with new trains and track work, Wildcat is still horrible. Boulder Dash IS better, but still not a great ride. The best thing about it was riding with a woman who was terrified by it while her little daughter loved it. The mother kept saying that the daughter couldn't be hers and must have been switched at birth. I giggled for about 20 minutes after that, probably due to my being quite slap happy at this point. While I love Phobia and think many smaller parks like poor Michigan's Adventure should get one, it doesn't justify the $62 I paid for parking and admission.

Day 9, Quassy: For it's size, I Really loved Wooden Warrior. It's amazing what Gravity Group was able to do with a 32 foot lift and a 36 foot drop. This type of coaster would be a great addition to the Wicked Twister midway by removing the crappy bumper cars and everything else over towards the Coral Dining room. Even if they had to move Troika and Tiki Twirl. Anyways, it was very fun for the size.

Day 10, Cedar Point: had to hit the park for 2 dinners and to see if SV was number 2 or number 1...Skyrush just barely beats it out due to its intensity.

All in all, other than the extreme temps and humidity, it was an awesome trip. The friend I hung out with on day 8 and I are planning on doing an 18 day tour next summer hitting at least 18 parks.

Just went through my track record and it turns out that Wooden Warrior is my 150th coaster. At least it wasn't Harley Quinn's Crazy train. lol

Nice TR. I'd really like to get to Waldameer and Kennywood but can't see myself making the 5-hour drive alone and don't know anyone who'd be interested in making the trip. (Flying is too expensive in proportion to the distance; I can fly from Philly to San Antonio for less than it would cost to fly to Pittsburgh or Erie.) I too like Lightning Racer a lot and prefer Twister to Phoenix. Think that Boulder Dash is phenomenal although on my 6th ride last summer I sustained a rib contusion that took several months to heal. Liked Phobia more than Tempesto b/c it doesn't have OTS restraints. For me Lake Compounce is a bargain; due to my advanced age I can get in for $24.99. Wooden Warrior turned out to be the biggest and most pleasant surprise of the trip that included LC. In this case size truly doesn't matter. As to Skyrush, it's the 2nd most intense coaster I've ridden - I-305 is the 1st - but for me the restraints kill it. Although I always ride it at least once per visit, I approach each ride with the knowledge that it's going to be painful and that's an unfortunate way in which to have to approach a ride. If it weren't for the restraints Skyrush could easily be a top 10 coaster.

Nice TR. That's a lot of of parks to jam in 10 days. We're still recovering from our trip. We haven't been to the waterpark at Hershey yet this year and typically we would've been there at 4 or 5 times by now.

We love Skyrush too, but you do have to ride defensively. I hold on to the lapbar at the bend by my hips and it keeps the restraints from being a thigh crusher. Is that what you do too? I love Storm Runner too. It's great to have Hershey as my home park.

Last time we were at Kennywood that coaster was down for us too. Would like to go back soon. Waiting for the announcement of the new ride or coaster.

We really enjoyed Waldameer too. Was hoping to get the credit at Conneut Lake too, but they weren't open yet. The Ravine Flyer is a fantastic ride, and completely different intensity from front to back.

We really enjoyed Lake Compounce and I love Boulder Dash both before and after modifications. The Wildcat is just ok. Phobia was new and wasn't open yet the last time we visited. Bobby that's good to know about the lapbar only. I love Tempesto, but would like it even more without those straps. Get why they do it though.

I like going at a slow pace, but doing 5 parks in 8 days in 90 degree heat isn't the most ideal of circumstances. We still had a lot of fun, got a lot of new credits, made memories, and finally got to see what's in the shed! ;-)

I'm the friend from day 8! :D Just updating my track record as we speak - A great adventure was had by all!

I DO wish they could come up with a different restraint for Skyrush, but for as short as the ride is, I can handle them, especially if they release that little bit while waiting in the brake run. I do pull myself down on this ride with the sides of the lapbar, especially when getting to marathon on it. Too bad it would kill capacity if they put Millennium Force trains on it, but maybe it would dispatch fast enough to make up for fewer riders per train. Or maybe they could just get the bars to lock in place rather than allowing them to tighten during the ride.

As far as Boulder Dash goes, it has too much of the headache inducing bouncy roughness to it. Keep in mind that 4 of my top 6 coasters are wooden and include Lightning Rod, The Voyage, El Toro and The Legend. I can marathon any one of those and might get a slight headache. 2 times on Boulder Dash and I was done.

While I think Hersheypark's Wildcat has a decent layout out, judging by no one riding it, it definitely needs RMC to come in.

This trip was a little less intense than 2 years ago...14 days, 14 parks, 15 admissions. As far as next year goes, I recalculated how long that trip could be...18 days. Tentatively June 20th until July 7th. My body will probably require some site-seeing days in the mix. Maybe the Wild Caves Tour at Mammoth Caves.

While the heat and humidity WERE horrible, it did keep the lines for the coasters short.

That's the bad part about a lot of amusement parks is that if you want to visit during the week it's primetime Summer season. I almost wish all parks operated like the FL parks all year in our region.

I keep saying that to my wife. I love Wildcat, but I'd be ok with the first GCI in existence to go that way. Roar at SFA would be another target like Road West had done. Looking forward to that.

You must be younger to handle the duration.

^You are 4 years younger than me. I turned 50 on July 3rd during my Hersheypark stay. That was also the 2 year anniversary of my last alcoholic beverage. That started on my 14 day trip I took back then.