My Northeastern Coaster Odyssey

Nightride, his Dad, and myself are headed onto a “Northeastern Coaster Odyssey.” I’m looking for some information on the following parks:

Lake Compounce
Seabreeze
Quassy Amusement Park
Clementon Amusement Park
Six Flags Great Adventure
Six Flags New England
Six Flags Darien Lake
The Great Escape (SF Ran)
Astroland (Coney Island)
Martin’s Fantasy Island
William’s Grove Park

We’re trying to hit all of these parks in a mere five days. I was wondering, for each park, where is a good place to eat, a good place for souveniers, and where I could find some discounts. Also, if you know of any good hotels nearby each park, that would also help. And any rides that are not to be missed (Hidden Gems).

We’re trying to start the trip, Monday the 14th! Thanks for the Help!

[Edits]Paragraphs from Word[/Edit]

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Free Falls on Drop Zone: 11!
Batwing Flights: 7!
Superman: Ride of Steel Airtime-age: 10!
*** This post was edited by RCTfan 7/6/2003 3:56:40 PM ***
*** This post was edited by RCTfan 7/6/2003 4:16:49 PM ***

Now I noticed that you accedently forgot to add Canobie Lake Park to your mediocre list...Its not an oddysey with out Canobie...and if you go to Mcdonalds you can get $4 off admission to Canobie...So go there instead of Quassy because Canobie has every thing Quassy has plus more..

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#1 Canobie Lake Park Fan!!! My top 7 coasters:
1. S:RoS @ SFNE 2. Montu 3. Yankee Cannonball 4. Kumba 5. Gwazi 6. Cyclone (SFNE) 7. B:DK

I should be going too! .....damn parents :(

You should probably start at the individual websites for the parks. www.rcdb.com can help you, of course, as can the trip reports and common sense.
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Be polite and ignore the idiots. - rollergator
"It's not a Toomer" - Arnold Schwartzenkoph
"Those who know don't talk and those who talk don't know." -Jeff

How in the world di I forget canobie??? I know they have a sweet schmeck there, but I don't think it showed up on rcdb or something. Ok, canobie here we come.

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I hate it when "cooaster enthusiasts" put down coasters. Why can't we just have fun on all of them?

I'm just checking for information from Buzzers. I've already created a spreadsheet with all of the parks, their RCDB link, as well as a link to their Homepage. Also includes Pricing Parking, Woodies, Steelies, and their Locations. So, its safe to say I've used all those resources.

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Free Falls on Drop Zone: 11!
Batwing Flights: 7!
Superman: Ride of Steel Airtime-age: 10!

Ha! That's awesome RCTFan. I did the same thing for Keith and my "North By Northwest" trip coming up later this month (details to be posted here soon!). Spreadsheets rule!

Anyhoot, to help you out some I guess...
I'm assuming you have a SF season pass? That will take care of SFDL, SFGAd, SFNE, and the Great Escape. Out of those three SF branded parks, the easiest place to find souvenirs is right at the park entrance. They have gift shops right as you walk in (SFNE's is down at the end of the main street). Usually for ride specific merchandise, check the gift shops closest to the ride (ie Nitro stuff would be right outside of Nitro's entrance/exit).

As for discounts, when I went to Martin's Fantasy Island a couple years back I believe there was an after 5pm ticket which was around $7. So if you go to SFDL during the day you can save some money at night if you go there.

Are you planning on a full day at Astroland? If so, I believe the POP with Cyclone is like $26 or so and without it around $20. I honestly didn't see the need to spend a full day there, and if you're trying to get these parks done in 5hrs you DEFINITELY don't need to do that. Cyclone was $5 a ride (didn't see any discounts) and Wonder Wheel was $4.

Never been to Clementon, Quassy, Canobie, Great Escape or William's Grove so I won't comment.

(damn that's a lot of parks I haven't been to in a smallish region! I'll have to remedy that someday)

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Top Thrill Dragster -- The most intense, unbelievable, and spectacular fifteen seconds on any coaster, anywhere, ever.

12 parks in 5 days? Are you going to simply wave at each of them as you pass by on your way to the next?

Why Williams Grove over Hershey or Knoebels? Why not Rye Playland?

My mind is boggled.

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--Maddie--
What do I Listen-To?
I am stereotypical.

Maddie,

That is exactly what I was thinking...That seems to be an excessive number of parks in too short a time.

IMHO, if I am going to a park, I try to spend some time there to actually get the feel of the park.

Based on the number of parks and the time allotted, they will be running in, hopping on the coasters and running back out to the car to drive to the next park and repeating the entire process...and God forbid they have and vehicle problems or traffic jams...

But, as always, YMMV and that is just my opinion on it.

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--George H
---Currency tracking experiment... http://www.wheresgeorge.com (Referring to The "George" on the $1 bill - Not Me)

I'll do SFGADV. For souveniers, there are three good places. The one once you get in the park in the middle of the path, Attitudes by the Boardwalk and by JJF, and the one across from B:TR. For food, I like to go to two places. One is Granny's Chicken behind the big wheel. The other is a Chineese resteraunt located about 50 feet away from Skull Mountain's entrance. I am not sure about hotels, but I think a Ramada is like a mile away. The main ride list is Nitro, S:UF, The Chiller, Medusa, B:TR, GASM, and Rolling Thunder. All are great rides and have good capacity (not Chiller) Every day is a Great Adventure.

Don't forget to ride Boulder Dash or Yankee Cannonball!

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Top 3
1-S:RoS @ SFNE
2-Boulder Dash
3-Yankee Cannonball

You need a full day at Great Adventure, trust me. How you're going to fit all the other parks in this time period is beyond me. Don't miss Houdini's Great Escape at SFGAdv.
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If you have a problem with clones, the solution is real simple—Stop traveling.

go to Knoebel's, you definately wont regret it. you will get more airtime on Phoenix then you will at Great Adventure and Lake Compunce comnbined!

yea those 12 parks in 5 days is gonna be tough if you plan on actually riding anything. which park are you starting at? to fully enjoy your visits your going to need like 2 weeks.

i hope your taking the wait time in consideration also for parks such as SFNE and SFGAdv.

edit: and btw, i frequent GE, SFNE and SFGAdv all year since there the closest parks to me. ( GE - 30 mins, SFNE - 80 mins, SFGAdv - 140mins)
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John
Albany Entertainment
http://albany.n3.net
*** This post was edited by CalvinJ23 7/6/2003 10:55:36 PM ***

Well Knobles I would love to go to again, and none of this is set in stone. What RCTFan said was just our idea.. I agree taht is is not enough time. But my dad is the one doing most of the driving, and so far all we have to work with is 5 days. So some parks might get cut out. Williams Grove might for the main reason that it is not open when we want to be there. If we can get a whole week this will be much easier, but I dont know if that will happen. If we lost WG I think Knobles would be the next choice. I am not as big a fan of hershey, having only been there once on a weekday I found it very crowded, and did not do as much coaster wise for me as did knobles. We have not even tried to plan out how we are going o fit all the parks in in that amount of time yet, so either some will get cut or the trip will be extended. Hoping for the latter of the 2.

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I hate it when "cooaster enthusiasts" put down coasters. Why can't we just have fun on all of them?

I'll agree with those that say that you have a bit too much on your plate for 5 days. One park a day would be better, two if the parks are small and relatively close together.

Sure, you probably could squeeze them in, but what fun is one ride on every coaster and no time to relax or try some of the other attractions in the park.

If I were you, I'd go through that list and prioritize which parks you want to do the most.

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The Trip: CP, SFWoA, PKI, KW, HW, IB, SFGAm, MiA and LeSourdsville too.
8 Days- 10 parks. May 2003

TalonJosh1491 said:
go to Knoebel's, you definately wont regret it. you will get more airtime on Phoenix then you will at Great Adventure and Lake Compunce comnbined!

I think he should stick with what he has. And I think Boulder Dash would be a nice match against Phoenix in the airtime category.

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Top 3
1-S:RoS @ SFNE
2-Boulder Dash
3-Yankee Cannonball

I was at Hershey on a Monday (at night) and Tuesday in late june and there were no lines anytime throughout the day. The water rides had longer lines then even Comet. Comet was our longest wait at 20 minutes for a coaster, and rollersoaker was an hour.