Suggestions on Canada/New England

Am planning a trek into Canada in early June with some coaster buds (Wonderland and La Ronde) and circling back through the Adirondacks into Maine and eventually back down the East Coast through New England, New York and New Jersey. Anybody have any tips on what absolutely MUST be experienced and what to AVOID on a trip of this kind?

Favorite parks? What parks can be done in half a day? What really require a full day, etc?

What about water parks? Any absolutely must experience things of that kind in this loop?

Appreciate any input from our area experts on the matter.

Thanks,

Barry J.

Well, obviously Canada's Wonderland will run you the entire day (at least). It has to be done on a weekday, because weekends are maddening with all those Canadians & being the "only game in town".

If you're traversing through Canada, make a stop about 100km past Toronto to Peterborough (home of 3-Days Grace), and visit a small park called Wild Water & Wheels. It's a nothing park, but it has only one of two Bailey Auto Sleds still in operation today in the entire world (5 were ever made). It's a side-attraction that will take you slightly out of the way from the 401.

If you're hitting up the Adirondacks, Great Escape can be man-handled in a matter of hours because lines don't hold large crowds... but obviously if (when) you head to Six Flags New England, it's a day & can get extremely maddening (maybe not as bad as Wonderland).

If you're looking for a waterpark, Water Safari in Old Forge, New York will tie you down for a day. It's about an hour North of Utica just around the edge of Adirondack Park.

Also in New York (gee, can you tell I'm from there)... Darien Lake can be done in a matter of hours, possibly a half-day... along with Martin's Fantasy Island... so if you head through Buffalo down to PA, or traverse up, it may be worth a stop ONLY if you haven't been there before.. otherwise, skip it.

Morey's Piers in NJ is a good half a day park. 6 coasters and if you go during the day when everyone is at the beach, the lines will be minimal.

DawgbyteII did some nice work....so I'll just add to that and YoshiFan...

If you're going up that way, Canobie is SWEET... Funtown/Splashtown is really nice, and Excalibur is a REALLY good ride that doesn't get much mention. Of course, Old Orchard Beach is RIGHT down the road from there, about a 10-minute drive (might take an hour to park though, LOL).

Lake Compounce rounds out most of my suggestions...of course, there's Rye, Adventureland, and Coney in the NY area. Quassy is mostly on the way from there to the NE parks...

The Jersey shore parks OTHER than Morey's are pretty cool too if you've got some spare time...

Water parks... There's a few of them around Montreal. An hour north of Montreal is "Mont Saint-Sauveur", which has one of the most extreme water attraction in the world! Its a rafting ride.. but you're in a concrete channel and the thing gets so rough you have to wear a helmet!

Super Aqua Club is closer to Montreal and has a Tornado, 2 bowl slides, 2 raft slides, body slides, etc. It also features a wave river and various concrete slides.

La Ronde can be done in a few hours if the park is empty, but operations are atrocious. Expect one train on all rides and they'll usually wait until there's an hour line before adding a second train!

I highly suggest a trip to Canobie as well, they have a real gem of a wooden coaster: the Yankee Cannonball and an impressive set of old flats (including the famous catipiller.)

So far this is all great stuff. . .

Thanks, everybody.

I particularly liked hearing about that Mont Saint-Sauveur thing, Absimilliard. We will definitely look into checking that out.

What's the best coaster at Morey's Piers? My friend Heath says that there's something up there I'll just love (wooden) but I can't remember what the name of it is. . .

Barry, Barry, Barry...don't you have rcdb.com bookmarked? You could have you answer in less than 30 seconds! ;)

As you can tell from some of my other posts, I'm not a big fan of Six Flags (high food prices, pay to cut, ride operations) but a Six Flags season pass could be very useful to you. You plan to go to La Ronde and there are four other parks in the region that honor the pass: The Great Escape, Darien Lake (yes it was sold but the pass is still good for 2007), Six Flags New England, and Six Flags Great Adventure.

Avoid SFNE and SFGAdv on weekends and fill up with food before entering any Six Flags park.

I'll agree...if you can, don't miss Canobie if you can get out there. They have what I think is the 2nd best coaster in New England, really good food, a bunch of fantastic flats, and some of the most unique atmosphere anywhere.

Not kidding, I've never been to a park that is anything like Canobie. Holiday World may be the most similar in my travels but it's hard to describe the place in words for people who haven't been there.

Lake Compounce is another park that would be well worth visiting. While it doesn't have the coaster numbers of a Six Flags park, it has 3 major coasters and Boulder Dash is one of the best wooden coasters around.

The park has a good mix of other rides including the Ghost Hunt interactive darkride, a drop tower, a Screamin Swing (Thunder 'n' Lightning), a variety of other flats, and a number of transport rides including a long skyride to the top of a mountain. (Yes, there is a mountain within the park)

There is also a good-sized waterpark within the gates that is one of the biggest draws at this park along with two water rides that can be ridden in regular clothes

Coney and the Steel Pier (Atlantic City) only because they won't be there or won't be the same after this year.

Check coast2coaster.com also for a map of RCDB.

Here is what I would do:

I would most certainly hit Lake Compounce, Six Flags New England and Canobie Lake Park (at least two of those, with LC being the weakest link), and then in Canada, I would suggest Paramount Canada's Wonderland and La Ronde. Outside of those two parks, I am not big on Canada. Sorry!

Anyway, those are the parks that I would suggest.

Matt, I live in Boston and agree Canobie is a unique and wonderful place, but second best coaster in New England? Never thought of it in those terms (sad), but given I don't think much of our coasters, I have to agree BD and Cannonball on the wood side, RoS on the steel side - everything else is mediocre.

Too bad Barry wasn't doing this trip late 60's or even 70s.

Tom

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Barry Williams said:What's the best coaster at Morey's Piers? My friend Heath says that there's something up there I'll just love (wooden) but I can't remember what the name of it is. . .

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Great White, it's a double and out and back and a really great ride (plus the view is amazing as you are basically right on the beach and very close to the ocean)

My friend Ryan has put together an itinerary in the last few days coupled with a lot of the great suggestions here and I think it is a coaster lover's dream come true. I'm going to have him put it on here for you guys to see. It's an AMAZING DOCUMENT and a SCHEDULING MASTERPIECE. We are, indeed, going to cover some ground.

He has done such a great job with this that I think you guys will fall over! Our departure date is June 1 @ midnight and we are going to do it all in 9 days, I think. We may consider doing a daily blog thing on our trip with digital pics every few hours, kind of relay a real-time experience that would show three guys hurling themselves across the Northeastern Map of the US, constantly in some form of motion.

Thanks again and when you see Ryan's MASTERPIECE, you can let him know if there is any "fine-tuning" that needs to occur (he's solicited commentary every other day from myself and my other friend, Jared, and we're always like, "Hey, what about this park, what about here or there?"--it has been a very fluid document!!)

You can imagine how excited we are when you see it.

*** Edited 1/26/2007 2:15:36 AM UTC by Barry Williams***

The Plan:

Friday, June 1: Canada's Wonderland

Saturday, June2: Martin's Fantasy Island, Darien Lake, Seabreeze

Sunday, June 3: Great Escape, La Ronde

Monday, June 4: Funtown Splashtown USA, Canobie Lake Park

Tuesday, June 5: Six Flags New England

Wednesday, June 6: Lake Compounce, Rye Playland

Thursday, June 7: Six Flags Great Adventure

Friday, June 8: Dorney Park (CoasterMadness), Knoebels

Saturday, June 9: Astroland, Clementon, Morey's Piers

Sunday, June 10: Lakemont Park, Conneaut Lake Park, Waldameer *** Edited 1/26/2007 2:36:31 AM UTC by Ryan Medley***

Ryan's spreadsheet didn't translate too well as a posting so I'll just go ahead and re-type it here:

Friday, June 1, 2007: Depart Florence, KY - Vaughan, ON to CANADA'S WONDERLAND

Saturday, June 2, 2007: To Grand Island, NY--Darien Center to DARIEN LAKE, then to Rochester, NY for SEABREEZE.

Sunday, June 3, 2007: Lake George, NY to GREAT ESCAPE, then to Montreal to LA RONDE.

Monday, June 4, 2007: To Saco, ME to FUNTOWN SPLASHTOWN, then to Salem, NH, to CANOBIE LAKE PARK.

Tuesday, June 5: To Agawam, MA, to SIX FLAGS NEW ENGLAND

Wednesday June 6: To Bristol, CT to LAKE COMPOUNCE, then to Rye, NY to PLAYLAND

Thursday, June 7: To Jackson, NJ, for a full-day at SIX FLAGS GREAT ADVENTURE.

Friday, June 8: To Allentown, PA to DORNEY PARK for Morning ERT @ Coaster Madness Event, then over to Elysburg, PA, for a full-day at Knoebel's, then BACK to Dorney for late-night ERT @ Coaster Madness.

Saturday, June 9: To Coney Island, NY to catch ASTROLAND, then over to Clementon to do CLEMENTON and to Wildwood, NJ for MOREY'S PIERS (who is Morey by the way??)

Sunday, June 10: To Altoona, PA, to LAKEMONT PARK, then to over to CONNEAUT LAKE PARK, then to Erie, PA for a final burst/gasp of activity at WALDEMEER.

Oh, and we are seeing a Broadway show Wednesday night and plan on doing some Times Square stuff as well that night.

Here's the summation:

10 Days. 20 Parks. 112 coasters. 1 waterfall (and what a waterfall--Niagara!). 1 Broadway Show (final perfs. of BEAUTY AND THE BEAST). 11 States. 2 Countries. 3300 Miles. 57.5 Hours of Driving.