I won’t bore everyone with where I ate breakfast, or which park has the best corndogs (as if there’s such a thing as a “good” corndog). I’ll get right to the point. (Not literally).
June 11 – Kennywood. Packed with kids! T-Bolt looks complete – still not running. PR was down until about 5:30. What a ride! This went from about the worst hyper as Steel Phantom to one of the very best. Not so sure if I like the lap bars, though – a little restricting.
June 12 AM - Lakemont. $1 admission! Skyliner giving very good rides. Twice on Leap the Dips. What a blast! HAD to buy a T- shirt.
June 12 PM – Knoebels. Phoenix is phenomenal. Twister is no joke, either. Gives Holiday World a run for the money for the best woodie one-two punch. A great, old park. Love the brass rings on the carousel. The haunted house is one of the best I’ve seen, too.
June 13 – Hersheypark. Clean, well maintained park. Nice Schwarzkopf looper. Great Bear has a unique drop into a helix. Lightning Racer is wonderful! Somebody has to put these Millennium Flyer trains on a CCI. Met up with some members of the UK Coaster Club. Hope you guys had a good end to your trip!
June 14 – Dorney Park. Nice park. I do like those big Morgan trains on Steel Force for some reason. Talon was interesting; a whisper quiet B&M. Maybe too quiet? Hercules was braked hard on the first drop. Still like the turn over the water. The vista of trees beneath Thunder Hawk is nice. Spent the afternoon in the water park. I liked the fact you could walk to the raft and plunge rides in your bathing suit. And we had a riot in the Water Works!
June 15 – My brothers in CT.
June 16 - Coney Island. The Cyclone. It’s a classic, for sure. Rode the Jumbo Jet for posterity.
June 17 – History trip in Boston.
June 18 – Six Flags New England. School trips! Cyclone ran very well. Thunderbolt had the Six Flags “Let’s-see-how-slow–we-can-load-a-train” syndrome, but rode O.K. They have a triple S&S tower, but to maintain the typical SF touch, they only ran one all day. S:ROS was running one train until about 2:00. When they tried to put the second one on, the computer apparently crashed. It was down for about an hour. About 5:00 the school trips started leaving, and we got 8 rides on S:ROS. I believe the hype is true on this ride; it may be the perfect steel roller coaster. A great drop, great air, over banked turns, helices, tunnels filled with mist. Wow!
June 19 PM – Six Flags Darien Lake. Almost empty. Predator was running like a typical Dinn & Summers. S:ROS was down until 6:30. Got 2 rides. Good ride, although the second helix seems like it’s bit overkill.
June 20 AM – back to SFDL and 6 more rides on S:ROS. Hey - when you’re only 10 minutes from a 200’ Intamin and you've got season passes...
June 21 AM - Martin’s Fantasy Island. Many re-rides on Silver Comet, a great little CCI. Dead park. Rode the Wildcat and some flat rides.
June 21 PM – Six Flags Worlds of Adventure. Went right to the line for X-Flight. It was running one train, with the second row out of service. I figured a capacity of 140-160 riders per hour, but waited anyway. It took 1:10 to get to the gate for the back row, and they closed it because of lightning. Waited for about another hour, the storms cleared, and we boarded. This was the biggest disappointment of the trip. Slow, short, and all those positive G’s on your chest made for a truly uninspired ride. Maybe I was wrong-I’ll try again tomorrow...
June 22 – SFWoA Back in line for X-flight. Met Woody from Coasterbuzz, and a couple of Acers from California (I never did get their names) for some good conversation. Third train of the day on X-Flight, with the same conclusion as last night. I’ve got this feeling it’s going to end up in the same boat as SLC’s. Oh well. Villain, S:UE, and BKF were still running. Had the obligatory front seat ride on BKF with the two CA Acers. This park actually performed quite well on this day. All the coasters (except X-Flight and RWB) were near walk-ons for most of the day. The Sea World part is nice, though nowhere near the caliber of the one in Florida. We met some good people here. This was the best park experience of the whole trip – believe it or not!
Total coasters ridden – 54
Total number of coaster rides (including re-rides) - 118
Thanks for reading!
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Without upstops, airtime would have a whole new meaning.
