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After a miserable rainy morning the rain finally stopped early afternoon. I arrived at the park around 3 to not even a quarter of the parking lot filled. As I was making my way to the handstamp booth I met up with my aunt and her kids for the day. Lucky for me they had an odd number in their group so I lucked out and only had to pay $10 instead of the $20 for the RAD pass. They ran the buy one get one free both days.
Our first rides were on the Phoenix. Great rides as usual. Air on all the hills and strong laterals on all the flat turns. Still one of my favorite coasters. After several laps we made our way to Twister.
The first thing I noticed was Twister actually got logos on the fronts of the trains this year. Twister is a great ride but I'd sooner be on the Phoenix. My favorite part is still the enterance of the helix in the first car second row!
By this time I had to ride the Flyers. Every season I'm worried they will be slowed down. Then I see the tubs snapping the next ting is what if I forgot how to fly them. Needlees to say they didn't slow down and I had a few great rides on it. After two days and 20 or so rides I'm paying with a sore lower back and side of my ribs! The one thing I just realised is if the Flyers were a coaster we would all probably complain about the beating you can get on them. But for some reason the more of a beating you get the more fun you are having! Why doesn't this work the same way with coasters? HMMMMM?
We then ventured to the Scooters still tons of fun. Hard hitting and pretty fast! With every hit I was reminded of my sorness from the Flyers.
HSTC is still one fun little ride. I still can't figure out if it is a kiddie coaster or not? There is also a new mini covered bridge crossing the moat of the motor boats and new wooden fence to replace the chain link fence to the HSTC. It looks pretty good.
I was hungry by this time so I ran to the International Food Court and got my 3 Amigos meal, a taco, Quesiadia, and burrito with a large drink it came out to $6.25. I didn't finish the entire meal.
The Super Round is is located next to the Food Court as well just behind the Paradrop. They were still working on that. The loading station still need some work and some of it's themeing panels were next to the food court. I'm guessing it should be operational in another week or two.
Sometime durring the day I ventured over to where they are working on the Skyride. They must have just put the footers for the station in in the past week or so. I guess they were put in after they opened the bridge on Rt 487. When the bridge was close part of the one footer would have been in the road. I heard it's going to be another pay attraction like the Haunted Mansion, Log Flume, and Sklooosh. $3.00 a ride. That is expected to open Memorial Day Weekend! I can't wait to see the park from the top of the mountain. I just wonder how the view will be since it appears to go up along the height of the tree line. I guess I'll find out in late May!
The Carousel is always a fun ride. On Saturday I rode it 3 time. The second time I caught the brass ring for a free ride. I was doing prettu good catching rings as well. On one ride I caught 22 rings! I could barely hold them all.
I got tons of rides the 3 hours I was at the park. On my way home I ran into Jeff Pike, and Chris Gray from GCI and also Jeff's wife Andrea AKA:CoasterWife1. They were telling me the front seat on the Ozark Wildcat is incredible and it's their best coaster to date! They also hinted about another coaster next season at a park and it will be another Great Coaster! They didn't give any details or any parks so we will have to wait and see!
Sunday was a much nicer day. Not a cloud in the sky and temprature in the mid 70's. The parking lot was fuller than the previous day but not to the point of being extremely crowded. I was solo but found a partner for the handstamp deal. I started off the day on the Fyers. Was my back sore from the day before. They are just too much fun to sit out though.
While we were standing by the Flyers GregLeg and his sister Liz stopped buy quick to say hi and darted off to get food. I would have like to talk to them more but never met up again! A little later I met up with John DeBeuis and we hung out the rest of the day.
Sunday was a laid back day, basicly just strolled around makeing comments about things, such as the flood signs, the trees, people with pets in the park and general park stuff.
The Rockin' Tug is an awsome family ride. It's pretty tame for anyone over 10 years old but is a great ride for the kids too small for the bigger spin and pukes. I can see one of there in every park in a few years.
While we were strolling thru the park we happened to see two matainance guys at the Super Round up. We stopped there to see if it would do a few test runs. They must have had some problems with the hydraulics. The first time it raised up in the air it only went up a few feet. After a few minutes they got it to go up to about a 70 degree angle or so. The only problem was it wasn't spinning. I guess they can do that for testing.
On our way out to the car we saw pieces of the Skyride in the parking lot so we had o investigate. It was the rest of the supports. After we looked at them we noticed some junk next to the pavillions. Under a tarp on a flatbed was the seating platform for 1001 Nachts. After looking at that we noticed more parts for the Sky Ride under one of the pavillions. There were a lot of pieces for the seats to be put together yet. The motor house was also nearby too.
By this time the park was alredy closed for almost 2 hours and we were the last two people in the parking lot. A security guard came over to see how much longer we were going to be but we were just on or way out then.
I can just never get enough of Knoebels. 20 some years of going there and i never get sick of the place. I can't wait for next weekend!
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After 4 1/2 years I'm a "single" rider again!
XBox Live Gamer tag: Coasterpunk
*** This post was edited by coasterpunk 4/27/2003 11:50:50 PM ***
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--Greg, aka Oat Boy
My page
"I can't believe I just left a nuclear weapon in an elevator." -- Farscape
If I haven't said this every single time I've been to PKI this year, I... You can say that again! :)
But for some reason the more of a beating you get the more fun you are having! Why doesn't this work the same way with coasters? HMMMMM?
Great TR coasterpunk and you just make me more anxious to visit Knoebel's for the first time this season! I've always been more interested in riding Twister, but it looks like you really can't go wrong with either that or Phoenix.
I was wondering, does the Skyride go across the park from one end to another or does it go away from it like the one at Lake Compounce? Either way, I think it was a good choice to add.
Thanks for the report!
-Danny
I'm gonna have to try the sweet potatoe fries this weekend, Greg!
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After 4 1/2 years I'm a "single" rider again!
XBox Live Gamer tag: Coasterpunk
Are there any times that are better than others for crowds?Last year we visited on a Friday evening and then a few months later on a Sunday (I think it was possibly on the last weekend of the season). Both times lines for Pheonix and Twister were kind of on the long side... of course they were only running one train on each at the time.
Now granted, the lines were no where near that they would be at near by Hersheypark on a weekend, but they were not walk ons either (except for Twister during the near down pours... on both visits).
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Kind of hard to take a post as objective if a park or coaster name is part of the "user name"
The Skyride should be open Memorial day. Thats at least when they plan on opening it.
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After 4 1/2 years I'm a "single" rider again!
XBox Live Gamer tag: Coasterpunk
They have such a great ride collection while keeping that small hometown park appeal. What a way to spend a Sunday.
I hadn't been there since I was 10, so needless to say I was pretty eager to see what it was all about. Their coasters are great.
Truly a wonderful park. The one thing I don't like is that If I had paid the $28.50 for the all day pass I wouldn't have been satisfied, and buying tickets is even more of a rip off. You can go to a major park like Hershey for several more dollars, and have more fun. And for the cheap Day Williams Grove is the option. Sure they don't have those 2 good woodies, but they do have the Twister flat ride. I could spend the day on that alone.
I am organizing a big family reunion for there in the middle of May(I have a huge family.) I have enough family that we can get a group rate, so that is the perfect place to hold such an event. I am looking forward to it.
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