Knoebel's Labor Day (9/3)

Waaay back in July, my mom called me on the phone one day and asked if I would be interested in going to Knoebel's someday in August.  I replied with a quick, "Yes, definitely".  Well, about middway through August soccer camps started.  We could go on a Saturday, but I opted to wait until Labor Day.  I am very glad I did...
Myself, my dad, my aunt, and one of my cousins arrived at the park at 10:15am.  The rest of my family would meet us at the park at around 2:00pm.  After walking around the park and becoming familiarized with it, again, (my last trip was 2 years ago!) the rides finally started to run and my cousin and I queued up for the Phoenix.  We got the 2nd train of the day in 1-2 (someone had snagged the ejector seat just in front of us!) .  This ride is still absolutely amazing. The first drop does seem a tad bit lackluster (I still prefer the Comet's first drop), but the rest of the ride is unbelievable.  Right after the turnaround, we shot right into the bunny hop and got great floater air.  Same with the hop after that.  The rest of the ride is out-of-control ejector air.  It is the most airtime I've ever experience on any coaster, ever. 

After a stunning ride on the Phoenix, my friend and I looked at each other and ran right back in line for another great lap. 

Next up was Twister.  We only had a 8 train wait for the front seat.  This is another outstanding ride.  The double lift hill is quite fun, especially since my cousin thought we were at the top after we disengaged from the first hill.  The tunnel was great and much better than I had remembered it.  All in all a very, very good coaster. 

It was around noon, so we grabbed a pizza and soda at Caesarri's (sp?) and had a nice lunch in the shade.  Which brings me to one of my favorite aspects of this park.  There's shade.  And lots of it.  There are trees everywhere and it just made my visit that much more enjoyable.  Other parks (Hershey) take note -- give us shade! 

We were right next to the famous haunted house, so we hopped on.  This ride is just so much fun.  I love to scream at every little thing that pops out at you!  Of course, the "truck(train?)" at the end made me let out a surprised yelp. 

It was now time for my favorite flat ride on the planet -- the carrousel.  Not just any carrousel.  This one has something that hardly any more do -- RINGS.  I simply cannot describe how much fun it is (at least to me) to snag the rings as I fly by.  I don't even know why it's so much fun, but it just is. 

We decided to get on the log flume since there was no line.  This is a nice flume -- easily eclipsing Hersheypark's coal cracker.  The "fake drop" that's not really fake, but doesn't get you wet was a really cool idea. 

My aunt wanted a break from riding so we hopped on the min-train.  This was actually a pretty cool ride.  Going under Twister was very cool.  The journey into the woods was equally amazing.  The ride lasted for quite awhile and is definitely a "must" ride, even if it isn't too exciting. 

The remainder of the day consisted of:
1 more ride on Twister (it was a 30 minute wait, but oh well)
1 more ride on the Log Flume
2 more rides on the carrousel
9 more rides on the Phoenix (6 of which were in the ejector seat which was just unparalled in the airtime category)

I was sad to have to leave at 6:00pm, but I had a 2 hour drive and school the next day.  I will definitely be sure to get to this park again next year!

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Rollercoaster -PA
http://gandc.20m.com/index.html

Yup, if I was forced to choose to ride only one coaster for the rest of my life (many, many times of course!), Phoenix would be it. 

It is a train at the end of the haunted house, yes?  I will take a careful look to be sure during PPP on Oct 6.

Shade, yeah, that's part of the magic of Knoebel's.  After all, it is Knoebel's Grove which implies trees and shade.  A lot more parks need to "do" shade better especially in the queuing areas.  .

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I know you rider
Gonna miss me when I'm gone