Devil's 2014 Trip Reports - Conclusion Posted

Hey guys! I've been pretty quiet on coaster forums lately ever since Coaster Fuel went down, but I intend to come back. What better way to start off then to post my first ever trip report on this site? I live in North Jersey, which is one of the most convenient locations to go to as many theme parks as possible, without contest. I had a great summer and I am excited to share the great time I had. Here is all that I did this summer:

-Season pass to Lake Compounce & visited twice
-Quassy Amusement Park
-Hersheypark
-Knoebels
-Clementon Park
-Six Flags America
-Lakemont Park
-Kennywood
-Conneaut Lake Park
-Waldameer
-Martin's Fantasy Island
-Canada's Wonderland
-Darien Lake
-Seabreeze

For anybody who is interested in top 10s and what not here was my Top 20 before the year started since I will be referring to it a lot. At the end of the report, I will show how it changed.

1.Boulder Dash
2.Phoenix
3.Maverick
4.Skyrush
5.El Toro (SFGadv)
6.Bizarro (SFNE)
7.Manta (SWO)
8.Intrimidator 305
9.Kumba (BGT)
10.Alpengeist
11.Storm Runner
12.Montu
13.Talon
14.Coney Island Cyclone
15.Cyclone (SFNE)
16.White Lightning
17.Batman the Ride (SFGadv)
18.Volcano, The Blast Coaster
19.Wooden Warrior
20.Kraken

I'm going to start off with the parks I had already visited, which surprisingly are only the first few. Sorry for the general lack of pics for these. The rest will have much more.

Lake Compounce kind of sucked this year. Boulder Dash is beyond amazing as always, but the crowds were awful and operations sucked (1 train for Boulder Dash). Wildcat is actually a good ride now that it was re-tracked and not the roughest coaster in the world. Make sure if you go, ride it in the front car second row. My second trip I took my friend for free. Sadly, Boulder Dash was running like s**t (still the best thing ever though). We stopped at Quassy and enjoyed a few rides on Wooden Warrior which was just as fun as ever. Awesome back seat ride. Sadly though, I don't know when I would be willing to go back to Lake Compounce after such a bad year. Still worth a try if you haven't been.


Don't remember this from previous years. Smells a lot like Kennywood. Looks like Palace is trying to create a brand.


The final few hills on Boulder Dash are ridiculous.


Boulder Dash may be hidden in the trees, but the lift-hill can look quite daunting to non-enthusiasts.


Wooden Warrior packs quite a punch for its size. If you're in the area, try it out. Admission is free and prices are reasonable.

My mom took my family to Pennsylvania for one of our last trips together as we'll all be leaving the nest soon. We spent the weekend at Hershey and Knoebels. Hershey was great as always, but Storm Runner wasn't running too hot. My sister despises Skyrush after this trip. She can't stand that pain on her legs. It is bad, but it is still an amazing ride. Knoebels was so much better on my second go. I suppose my high expectations got the better of me. Now it's my favorite park. Great charm, great coasters and the best collection of flat rides I have ever seen. I get those flyers popping to a point where I lose control for a good 20 seconds. This is an amazing park that anyone who has the chance has to try. As for Flying Turns, I liked it, but it wasn't anything too spectacular. Just don't ride with someone with long hair in the same seat. Sorry, no pictures from these parks, just wanted to share my thoughts.

Clementon Park:

My first new park of the year was Clementon Park. I was heading in that direction for my Freshman Orientation and thought I might as well spend $50 to check out Hell Cat with my mom.


Hell Cat dominates the park's skyline.


It is really quite large.


Quite an impressive looking layout.

First ride I rode in the back car. I actually had an enjoyable ride. It was extremely rough though. The bottom of the first and second drop are quite nasty and the turns shudder like crazy. However, it has its share of airtime and weird moments to keep it from being horrible.


These last few hills provide some semi-floater airtime.


So how was my front seat experience? Awful. Just awful. Stick to the back on this. This is quite simply the roughest coaster I have ever been on. This beating out Wildcat at Lake Compounce before its retracking. Especially don't sit on the wheel and you will regret it for about a week and a half.

That aside I thought my ride in the back was ok and was somewhat enjoyable. Not worth the $50 though.

The rest of the park was just as bad. The train around the park felt quite unstable. The operator was nice enough to back us all up back into the station to let 2 people on... The actual track itself had animals lined up all along it.


Caesar. is. home.

It was themed to some zoo...? I guess? With the inclusion of lions, gorillas, black bears, and a bull dog, I'm not sure this made too much sense.

My mom thought it would be a good idea to ride the log flume. I tried to talk her out of it, but she obviously hasn't been to a crappy park before. Disgusting water and a painful ride, as expected.

I left the park quite disappointed with everything about this park without many redeeming qualities. However, I left with a nice surprise:


There is something quite wrong about an operator sleeping on the job...

Would I recommend this park? No. Unless you're a serious credit whore, this is not worth the $50.

Six Flags America:

My dad took my cousin's and I on a day trip to Six Flags America. They live in Delaware, so it was either this or Six Flags Great Adventure. Having been to Great Adventure far too many times, I thought it would be nice to try something new.


The front half of the park is quite beautiful and welcoming. The back half was open with a bunch of clones plopped down in an open field, but it's bearable.

First up was Ragin' Cajun. The parks "newest" coaster. Not just a clone, but a transferred clone. As always, low capacity first. We got it to spin quite a bit and it was quite smooth for this model. Not bad.

Next was one I was quite excited for, Wild One



I thoroughly enjoyed both the front and back seats of this ride. Some good laterals and good pops of air. Really quite an awesome ride.


Blatant Snickers ad is actually kind of funny.

Next up was the other coaster that was transferred from Six Flags Great America, a stand-up coaster that is either considered really good or really bad, Iron Wolf Apocolypse.



I can confirm... it sucks. Worst B&M I have ever been on. It is quite rough and the head banging is horrible. There are some good sections, but there is not much that can redeem this ride.

Next up was another old GCI that doesn't have that great a rap and the only one that still has PTCs, Roar.



My front seat ride was great on this. Some great pops of airtime and laterals. I actually thought my front seat ride on Roar was better than Wild One. When I rode in the back later in the day though, I regretted it. It was quite rough. However there is a huge pop of ejector air that made the back seat worth while.

Next up: Mind Eraser.


I love how they put this in the corner of the park away from everything else. It's almost daring you to avoid it at all costs. Needed the credit though.

It actually wasn't as bad as some of the others.

It was time to try out the nearby rapids. They were actually quite good. They didn't depend on waterfalls and other water effects to get you wet. One of the better ones I've been on.

It was time to head under Wild One into the back of the park.


I love how Wild One creates a barrier across the park so that there is only way through.


Noooooo! Spited.


But I loved Flight of Fear and this one isn't trimmed! Next time.



The moment we've all been waiting for! Superman - Ride of Steel. I thought this ride was fantastic! Definitely the best in the park. Intense helices and great airtime, this thing provides one hell of a ride. It can't quite compare to Bizarro as the pacing isn't quite there, but it is an intense ride. This slipped right into my #10 spot on my top 10. Both the back and front deliver some great rides but that straight away detracts quite a bit from the greatness. One thing the straight away does well though is build anticipation for that hill. Great ride and i couldn't wait to ride Ride of Steel.


As every other ride in the park, the line was quite short, but they were only running one train. It built quite a bit throughout the day.

Next up was Batwing which I forgot to get pictures of. It was my first Vekoma Flying Dutchman and I thought it was meh. The uncomfortable seats and the painful corkscrews make it not too great a ride. It is quite a relief when the train flips over because the cushions shoved into my back.

I tried out the flying scooters which I was able to pop quite a bit, but nothing like Knoebels. I felt much safer though

Overall, I thought Six Flags America was actually a good park. I know it gets a lot of s**t but it just seems like a nice medium sized park with some pretty good rides and short lines. Sure it can't compare to other parks nearby but it is worth the trip.

Expect this to continue in the future. I will be posting my reports for my 7 day, 8 park trip through Pennsylvania, New York and up to Canada's Wonderland hopefully starting within the next week when I find time. Just got back and I'm exhausted, but I had a great time. Thanks for reading.

Edit: Edited because Flickr sucks

I have never been up north but I've always been curious as to how Boulder Dash's final hills are compared to Phoenix's last hills. Phoenix's are my favorite part of any coaster I've been on, even more so than El Toro, so if everybody rates Boulder Dash above Phoenix I assume its with good reason

[gouldy]

I'd love to ride Boulder Dash one day...

I'm assuming Jokers Jinx was done still because of it getting stuck a few weeks back? I wonder if they're planning to alter anything about the ride.

Epic trip report!

Thanks for the responses guys!

CKidd wrote:

I have never been up north but I've always been curious as to how Boulder Dash's final hills are compared to Phoenix's last hills. Phoenix's are my favorite part of any coaster I've been on, even more so than El Toro, so if everybody rates Boulder Dash above Phoenix I assume its with good reason

I would argue that Boulder Dash's final hills are better than Phoenix's. They provide totally different experiences though. Phoenix is all about the single position lapbar being so far above your legs and getting ridiculous airtime. Boulder Dash, while I still have some room on the restraint, is more about the lightning fast pace in which you hit those airtime hills, and you really get some ejector on all of them too. What brings Boulder Dash way above Phoenix though is the fact that the rest of the ride is just as good as that finale in different ways. I love the crazy laterals in the beginning and the terrain hugging middle section is just crazy.

gouldy wrote:

I'd love to ride Boulder Dash one day...

I'm assuming Jokers Jinx was done still because of it getting stuck a few weeks back? I wonder if they're planning to alter anything about the ride.

Epic trip report!

I'm sure it's open now. I went back on August 18th which was about a week after the incident. It was testing by the end of the day. I just went at the wrong time.

[mkingy]

Great trip report! Do you have any of the pictures in hi-res (I like my work desktop to rotate through rollercoaster pictures!)? In particular the Boulder Dash Lift hill and the shot of Apocolypse

You can just check out my Flickr page.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/46313480@N07/

I have every picture up there and you can use whichever picture you want. Just warning you, some of my photos were taken with my iPhone so they are not really high quality.

[mkingy]

Awesome - thanks!

[TTD03]

Great Trip Report!
You'll land yourself on the homepage within a few days once the Six Flags hype wears off.

^Cool, thanks.

I guess I'll Start this next part by giving an introduction to this trip. It was a long time in the making and it's not something I ever would have thought I could do. My sister and I planned this 7 day 9 park trip (I have turned her into quite the enthusiast and credit whore). We were originally going to go to Idlewild, but we couldn't go on a week that it was open so it was cut down to 8 parks. This road trip consists of 2 hotels one in Pennsylvania and one in Buffalo. We made a circle by going from Jersey to Pennsylvania to New York and back. We stayed at a Four Points by Sheraton north of Pittsburgh and a Sleep Inn by Buffalo airport. This trip dug deep into my savings but it was worth it. I hit some of the best coasters I've been on and I was very happy to spend the $1500 I spent. Here is what I did on the trip and then I will go into my Lakemont report.

Day 1(Thursday August 21): Drive 4 1/2 to Lakemont Park and drive to hotel
Day 2(Friday August 22): Kennywood
Day 3(Saturday August 23): Conneaut Lake Park and Waldameer then drive up to hotel in Buffalo.
Day 4(Sunday August 24): Martin's Fantasy Island and Niagara stuff
Day 5(Monday August 25): Canada's Wonderland
Day 6(Tuesday August 26):Darien Lake
Day 7(Wednesday August 27):Drive to Seabreeze then take 5 hour drive home.

I had been to none of these parks and I was able to ride 36 new coasters (Canada's Wonderland could not be finished in one day).
It's actually one of the better trips I could have taken. Okay so let's get started.

Day 1: Lakemont Park:

We started the trip with a very long drive to Lakemont park


Western Pennsylvania really has one of the best landscapes I have ever seen. I suppose the weather could have had something to do with it.


This looks like something out of Lord of the Rings. Sadly though, we were not in New Zealand... I guess that's not that sad because there are no parks there.

When we arrived, it was very difficult to find where the parking was. We soon discovered that the parking garage was meant for Lakemont Park and the nearby stadium. The entrance was quite welcoming but the rest of the park was rather open and rather empty. The pricing was very good at somewhere under $10 and I only had to pay extra for Leap the Dips.


Here is the kiddie coaster I wasn't allowed to ride. The ride op wasn't believing that I was 5. No big deal, not going to hijack children so moving on.

First ride of the day was Skyliner.


The ride was walk on so we took the front.



I thought the ride was great! The first hill had some great airtime up front and with a single position lap bar and no seatbelt it was even better. The rest of the ride was fun, but there wasn't much after the first bit of airtime leading into the first turnaround. The back seat wasn't as good but it was still quite fun. It wasn't overly rough either which was a plus.

Next up was one of the worst coasters of the trip, Toboggan

Everything about this coaster is wrong. Its supports are laying on piles of wood.


They start by locking you into these cages. Next, you get carried up a vertical lift hill in this claustrophobic rusted tunnel. Then you go down this super long and trimmed helix before you get slammed forward and backwards. It really is quite dreadful.

Next up was the oldest roller coaster in the world, Leap the Dips.



You have to pay an additional $2.50 for this, but with the price for an unlimited wrist band, this is totally reasonable.



This was a great little ride. No restraint and really strange tracking made this ride very entertaining. It is also a really cool credit to get.

We went to get a few more rides on Skyliner.


Too bad this place was packed and the lines were long... We were only able to get 3 rides in a row without even stopping in the station. Shame.


Well, I had lots of fun at Lakemont and was a good little park. The staff was nice and the rides were ok. Worth the stop, but the next 2 days were what I was really here for...

Can't wait to see your Kennywood report!

[TTD03]

Very nice!

Late to say, kind of, but the 2nd photo of Clementon Park makes me think of a noticeable drop of the Voyage! The better angle of your camera, I guess, sounds like that.

^The dropped is trimmed to all hell (get it?) so its not that great.

Day 2: Kennywood

80% chance of thunderstorms. Rain was supposed to start at 1:00 and the rides opened at 11:00. This was going to have to be a crazy fast credit run. It didn't even rain all day so we were finished with the park nice and early to get re-rides on Phantom. Sadly though, I didn't get too many pictures of anything besides Phantom because I was rushing to get those credits.

It was going to have to be outdoor rides and we would have to stand the line for Exterminator.

We left nice and early in case of Pittsburgh traffic.


Pittsburgh was one of the coolest cities I have ever seen. I know it has its problems, but visually, it's stunning. It's built right into the hills and the road system is amazing. I can't believe how smooth the traffic was.


We got to the park 30 minutes early and got the closest free parking in the lot. I would never have paid the $7 for the difference of an escalator so we took it. First goal for the park was Phantom's Revenge to get my sister her 100th coaster.



We waited outside the line for 30 minutes for the ride to open. We saw the crazy out of this world fast music express ride testing. That ride would make Knoebels cry. We were finally able to get the first ride of the day in the front row of Phantom's Revenge.



Wow. Just wow. This coaster is ridiculous! So much craziness. It starts off nice with the Arrow drop which is interesting to have on such a great ride. Then we hit that second drop and wow is that an experience. Riding down that ramp, accelerating into that pull up wondering whats going to happen to you on that pull up before you slam upwards into fan curve is just fantastic. This beginning is slow paced but I like it because it leads into that crazy finale. After the fan curve you finally get the first moment of craziness when you slam down into the next pull up before tearing you right out of your seat and slamming right back down. After the next turn, the airtime increases before slamming down and immediately hitting the next airtime hill and slamming right back down. Next time, it happens even faster before slamming into one more airtime hill before the end. These hills are out of control! As the day went on, this ride got crazier and crazier and crazier! The back seat is great for the huge drop but when you hit the valleys the jolt can be a little much. I just don't understand why this ride is so underrated. This thing shot right into my top ten and found its way to #4 above Skyrush and below Maverick.



Next up was Thunderbolt, since we were in the area. Front car was a must and the ride was walk-on so we took the second row. They were only running one train but since it was 1 time deal, I don't really care. The entrance to the lift had some good airtime but overall the ride was pretty meh. The laterals were ok but they didn't do much special. It was just a decent wooden coaster.


Oh look. An S&S Screamin' Swing running only 1 side? I've never seen such a thing! Oh that's right... every other one ever...

Next was Sky Rocket. The line was quite long, as expected, but we had to get my sister on Phantom first and couldn't get to Sky Rocket right away.



This ride has some of the best inversions ever. The forces put on your body are so strange. Weird lats and crazy hang time that you never see coming. They are surprisingly eventful. The drop out of the station was good but everything else was kind of lame. The trick-track did absolutely nothing and the last hills were just dumb. Overall, it was a good ride, but it was nothing overly special.

Next was Jack Rabbit. Of course I took the back seat. The line was quite long and they were only running 2 trains but it moved fast enough. This was a little better than Thunderbolt because of the double down, but it's still very tame and dull.

The final outdoor credit was Racer which had to have 2 go-arounds for the full credit. Sitting on a wheel seat this actually was quite rough, but next time we tried to sit at the front of the car and it was better. It was ok. Some decent airtime and nobody was willing to grab hands in the other train.

It was now time to catch some flat rides. We went over to Black Widow, which had quite a line.


This thing is huge! But we of course took the seat that NEVER went to the top. It was so damn boring. I was pissed because I really wanted to hit the top at least once and get that crazy airtime. Looking down was cool, but I would have rather had a combo.

We then went over to eat lunch over by Phantom since there was nothing overly important left outdoors.


because grammar.

We then rode the Whip and headed to the line for Exterminator. It was long and took a long time as I expected but it was surprisingly worth it. This is the best spinning coaster I've been on. Everything was fluid and there was some decent airtime and the turns weren't a bitch. Also fun in the dark even though I know the layout like the back of my hand.

Finally, it was time for a Phantom re-ride... and they were running one train. Palace <3. I took 2 pictures of this entire line.


In front of me.


Behind me.

Yeah let's keep it at 1 train.



They finally put on a second train while we were in line.

We got a few more rides later with a much more reasonable line.


This ride was fun.

I got a total of 5 rides on Phantom before finally leaving the park.



Good-bye Phantom!

Overall, I thought the park was really great. The landscaping around the park was great and they had some good rides. It could go for another good coaster though as I feel the atmosphere of the park couldn't make up for the lack of many great rides too much. I would definitely want to return one day. Next up is my trip to Conneaut Lake Park and Waldameer.

[TTD03]

Verrrry Cool!

Day 3: Conneaut Lake Park and Waldameer

This was the travel day from Pittsburgh to Buffalo, which would normally be bad if it weren't broken by Waldameer. Of course, though, there was a priority over everything else on this trip, Conneaut Lake Park. Likely to close at the end of this year, I had to get my trip to Conneaut and ride Blue Streak. This was very much an in and out deal as the park opened at 1 and we had to get to Waldameer so no pictures. You would think this park would be a ghost town, even on a Saturday. However, when I arrived I found many cars with different license plates from Illinois to New York. I was even more confused when I found the line for Blue Streak to be rather significant. It became clear what was going on when all of the ACE shirts started to pop-up everywhere. When I asked, they said it was a few groups from ACE (they could just be another coaster group with members in ACE.) How nice. And they decided it would be nice to hog the seats by sitting one per row so they could save that seat for other enthusiasts. (psh coaster enthusiasts )

As for Blue Streak, I thought it was pretty fun. Good airtime all around and plenty of laterals. I started with a backseat ride which was pretty rough but not bad and then we went for the very front the second time around which was smoother and with an awesome lateral hit. It will be very sad to see this great coaster go as I thoroughly enjoyed myself.

As for the rest of the park, I won't be as sad. In fact, their notable dark ride was gross and smelled very bad on the inside. My sister wanted this to be much more of a credit then a drop and when she realized it was only one drop, she backed off on her claim that it was a credit (I'm in charge of her count anyway, so it's not like it would have happened anyway). The rest of the rides were pretty rusted and scary and the park wasn't very beautiful. That being said, the employees were great and seemed to appreciate every customer. We got out within 45 minutes and headed to Waldameer, which would be an hour drive.

Part 2 of the day was going to be much better, but my sister wasn't so sure. She thought that this would probably be an in and out with some decent rides as she wanted to get to the next hotel. On top of that we had to park on the complete other side of the parking lot because the park was so crowded. She had no idea what she was in for.

When we got in we were nicely welcomed by Comet. We received our unlimited Waldameer wristband and headed into the park. Our obvious priority was Ravine Flyer II since there was nothing we could do about the line for. Steel Dragon 3 hours into the day. Getting through this park that was was more jam packed with people then any other park. I'm not saying it was "crowded" as the lines weren't anything near a Disney or a Cedar Point or ehem Canada's Wonderland... but the paths were overfilled and it didn't seem like the park was designed to hold this many people.


Ah there she is.

The line was probably about 15 minutes long which I wouldn't have minded if it weren't for my encounter with a poisonous spider on the hand rails. We took our spot in the front seat and were ready to ride Ravine Flyer II.



I have to be honest; in a way, I was let down by this ride, and this is only because of the similarities this ride has to a lot of Boulder Dash. It was a fantastic coaster, but nothing really threw me off guard. All of the following rides, though, were just as good, which confirmed to me just how good this ride really was. The re-rides never got worse and only showed me how much I adored this coaster, especially the first half. After the drop, you are hit with a barrage of airtime and laterals until you take a quick floater pause before your hit with 3 consecutive rocket fast paced airtime hills before being lugged back up the hill. Your are then hit with some floater before you are jabbed sideways into a series of awkward transitions before hitting the 90 degree bank. Now this is where this ride could have excelled and made it over the top holy $#!# crazy where it drops back down the hill at 90 degrees and could really pick up pace, but instead, you are hit with a few mediocre hills that are undermined by the previous. Normally, these hills would be praised like on a classic woodie, but when you compare it to the rest of the ride, you can't help but be let down. That being said, the first half of this ride was Boulder Dash worthy, and after long long long consideration, it was able to push over Phoenix into my #2 spot. Truly a brilliant ride (despite what I just said) and the pacing is out of this world and the view of Lake Erie was stunning. Truly one of the best in the world, but it comes nowhere near touching Boulder Dash.

As for which seat, front and back are pretty much equal, but I kind of liked the front a little more.


Thankfully, I never warned my sister of how good this was so she was utterly shocked when she got off the ride. She actually thought this competed with Boulder Dash. Of course, I was quick to point out flaws on one of my favorite rides.


While waiting in line, someone puked on the blue train and the vomit had to be cleaned and the train was then dried.

Next was the longest roller coaster in the world, Steel Dragon.


The line was bad, as expected, but we missed the influx of people.

The drop going backwards was great, but other than that, this was a little uncomfortable and kind of dumb. Not one of the better spinning coasters but it wasn't bad like some of the Riverchons (sp?).

Next was the 4th and final credit, Comet


This line for a Junior woodie? Fine.

My sister decided to ignore my wishes for either the front or back and raised her hand when the operator asked for 2. Not like it was really a significant ride anyway, but there could have been some good floater thrown in the ride. It was pretty good, but nothing too special.




Alia Babua?

No. That's not copywright infringement. It's Ali Baba and we'll just make everything kind of look like Alladin and kids will understand the reference, but it has nothing to do with it.

We got our last few rides on Ravine Flyer II and headed off to Buffalo. But first, we had to take the scenic route.


And that route may have included turning around somewhere
So awesome.


So beautiful.

Overall, I thought Waldameer was a fun park. There were some good rides and one great one. I feel like it is very reminiscent of Lake Compounce, but at least they run 2 trains on their world-class coaster... The price was reasonable and the park was nice. I just wish I hadn't come on a Saturday, but there was no other choice. We were able to make to our hotel in one piece and we passed out after a late day.

The next day would be easy, but we were in for our trip to take a downhill tumble at one of the worst parks I have ever been to with one of the best wooden coasters I have been on.

Edit: Fixed dumb grammar mistakes.
Edit: Fixed dumber grammar mistakes.

Day 4: Martin's Fantasy Island

Alright time for some CCI awesomeness at Martin's Fantasy Island. I was debating whether to go at opening or to save money and go at 5 and get some late day rides on Silver Comet. My decision to go early was perfect because operations were slloooooow. The line would have probably been an hour long, since the park only has one train. Alright time to report on this $#!t hole of a park.

I don't think I have ever ranted so badly leaving a park in my life. Nothing but one thing about this park is even worth this trip. I can say that it is probably the worst park I have ever been to, despite it having one of my favorite wooden coasters, and that's after I have been to Clementon Park (that was a run-on). I thought that this would be a fun little trip, but it seemed like every time I dealt with an employee, either they or a policy bothered the hell out of me. Okay, I'll get to my report and you'll see what I am talking about.



We entered the park and it seemed pretty nice. It seemed like a small park with some fair rides. Nothing special, but nothing wrong. The weirdest thing though was how spread out everything was. I feel like if they removed one carousel, they would have room for a B&M hyper.

So we took the annoyingly long trek towards Silver Comet. We got our first ride in the front seat.



Before I start bitching and ranting, I have to say how great this coaster is. This has great airtime and great surprise laterals. And that final turnaround! Wow, crazy. Front and back were both great, but I think the back was a tiny bit better because it had more variety, but both are great. My second CCI does not disappoint. This coaster finds its way behind Montu and ahead of Talon to find its way to my 16th Overall and 5th for wood behind El Toro and ahead of the Coney Island Cyclone.



However, this experience is made much worse when we have to wait for the operators to take a long ass time to dispatch the train. I'm talking in the range of 3 minutes... and they have 1 train... And the no glasses rule pisses me off too. We step into the train and put our seat belts on. Then they go around and check each seatbelt. When they're done, they stop and scream "Raise your hands in the air! Do not touch the restraints! We MUST put them down FOR you!" Every time. Then they individually put down each restraint and take 10 seconds to hook the seatbelt to the empty seats. Then one of them aimlessly walks back to the operating table and dispatches the train. It is by far the longest dispatch time I have ever seen (and I thought Alpengeist was bad...).

After a few rides on Silver Comet, we headed over for the other credit, Crazy Mouse.


That thing off in the distance that I was too lazy to take a good picture of is Crazy Mouse.

It's amazing how some of these are good and some are really bad. This would be the latter.

The tilt-a-whirl was actually ridiculously fun. It would not stop spinning. I have never spun so much on one of these things, but when I say it wouldn't stop, I mean it went the same way the entire time.

We then decided to get food. Neither my sister or I like pepperoni, so when we went to order pizza, we asked for cheese slices. The nice employee at the counter told me that they only sell pepperoni by the slice...? How does that even make sense? We shrugged it off and went to the next stand. When we ordered our food, we sat down and the guy took 20 minutes to get us our food (chicken strips and fries) while we were sitting there staring at him. He could have at least given us our drinks beforehand. He spent the time giving everyone else their fries. On top of that, the food was not great and it was out of this world expensive. My suggestion for eating would be to wait until you've finished the park, leave the park, get off that island, and eat out.

Employees were generally rude and the park was strangely open and lacking quality rides, but Silver Comet, which I rode a total of 5 times, was worth it.


I spy an S&S drop tower. Sorry Marineland, not this trip.


We went over to check out the falls.


We didn't want to spend a lot of money, so we didn't get any great views of the Canadian falls. We had been there before though, so we went back to the hotel.

We went to the local movie theater to watch If I Stay (not my choice), which was not very good, but it killed the time.

Next was the day of hell, Canada's Wonderland. Don't worry; more ranting to come...

Ugh it's always nice to see a really long series photo trip report, I love getting new angles of rides. Looking forward to the CW segment. Great work so far Devil.

[TTD03]

This page is just getting longer and longer and longer and longer and longer.

Amazing though! Thanks for sharing!

[Paradox]

I was at Niagara 3 weeks ago. We drove up to Canada's Wonderland.

Thanks for the responses, guys!

TTD03 wrote:

This page is just getting longer and longer and longer and longer and longer.

Amazing though! Thanks for sharing!

Yeah, I'm just waiting to get that page break. It's great to see that people are following along; thanks for continuing to read!

[mkingy]

Great (continually) trip report! Its nice to hear about all the smaller parks that (me especially being from the UK) you don't get to hear about so much!

[TTD03]

devilsrule911 wrote:

Thanks for the responses, guys!

TTD03 wrote:

This page is just getting longer and longer and longer and longer and longer.

Amazing though! Thanks for sharing!

Yeah, I'm just waiting to get that page break. It's great to see that people are following along; thanks for continuing to read!

Thanks for continuing to post!

lol I also live in north Jersey and have family in DE. Small world. Nice reports man.

I agree Boulder Dash's ending is more exciting than that of Phoenix...I don't even think they're remotely close. Phoenix's airtime is fun, but it's sorely lacking speed there and airtime by itself doesn't usually do it for me. BD has the speed, airtime, surprises, variety, scenery...a little bit of most everything in its ending.

I rode Hellcat a few years ago like 15X lol, definitely one of the most insanely rough rides I've been on, but also a lot of fun. I'd definitely love to see it have trackwork completely redone with topper track, and brakes removed, but I'm guessing that wouldn't be in the budget for such a small park that seems to be struggling as is. Too bad as that's one of my favorite layouts of any coaster.

I think, of the rides you showed, the one I'd most like to try is Phantom's Revenge. Looks very unique and exciting all at the same time. An intriguing coaster.

[TTD03]

Phantom's Revenge is definitely a coaster that exceeded my expectations, it was a fantastic coaster!

Thanks everyone!

dcs221 wrote:

lol I also live in north Jersey and have family in DE. Small world. Nice reports man.

Since when? I've been here, what, 6 years and I had no idea you lived right near me? Did you move recently or something?

I agree Boulder Dash's ending is more exciting than that of Phoenix...I don't even think they're remotely close. Phoenix's airtime is fun, but it's sorely lacking speed there and airtime by itself doesn't usually do it for me. BD has the speed, airtime, surprises, variety, scenery...a little bit of most everything in its ending.

I agree that the pacing really isn't there for Phoenix, but me being as thin as I am, I get to fly up almost to the point of standing, making it seem so much more fast pace than it really is. I do like the rest of the first half of the ride, though. I know Phoenix is known for its ending, but I love the surprise lateral jerks and random pops of air on the double down. I could see why someone wouldn't like it so much though.

I rode Hellcat a few years ago like 15X lol, definitely one of the most insanely rough rides I've been on, but also a lot of fun. I'd definitely love to see it have trackwork completely redone with topper track, and brakes removed, but I'm guessing that wouldn't be in the budget for such a small park that seems to be struggling as is. Too bad as that's one of my favorite layouts of any coaster.

I can imagine it has gotten even worse over the years; 15 times would be a hard thing to handle, and I generally don't complain about wooden coasters. You're right though, it is quite fun. I wouldn't mind GCI coming back and working on it again. I know they couldn't do much with the profile the first time around because they had no skill with steel structure. Now they could kill the trims, re-profile those stupidly high banked turns, and make this a fantastic coaster. It would be fun if Alan Shilke worked on this again, though, even if only a basic re-profile.