Hey guys! I figured that this year I would start off my trip reports early and go throughout the year. It's not going to be as busy as last year, but hopefully I can get to some cool new places. I have no set plans yet, but I plan to go to Six Flags New England at some point as well as return to Coney Island to cover some missed credits. I'll also be going to Rye Playland for the first time and I will return to Six Flags Great Adventure. Nothing else is set in stone, but I may stay a few nights somewhere and hit a park or two out of my range, possibly La Ronde. So far this year I've gone to Hersheypark and for the first time Great Escape. The good thing is that the new parks that I'll go to will probably be quite abstract and you can get some interesting feedback about parks you haven't heard much about.
Okay I'll start off with my original top 20 and this time I'll update it as I go along. I never updated with my trip to Great Adventure during the fall, but I found that my bad ride on Batman was a fluke and that most rides on it that I've had are amazing. It has moved into my top 20 as it deserves.
1. Boulder Dash
2. Ravine Flyer II
3. Phoenix
4. Maverick
5. Phantom's Revenge
6. Skyrush
7. El Toro (GAdv)
8. Bizarro (SFNE)
9. Manta (SWO)
10. Ride of Steel
11. Intrimidator 305
12. Kumba (BGT)
13. Batman the Ride (GAdv only)
14. Superman: Ride of Steel
15. Alpengeist
16. Storm Runner
17. Montu
18. Silver Comet
19. Talon
20. Coney Island Cyclone (2013)
I've already been to Hersheypark, so I'll keep this short. I rode Skyrush first and found it to be disappointingly slow. The airtime wasn't crazy and the laterals were lacking severely. It was a fun ride with some decent ejector airtime. It put it more at the level of El Toro, and I would have to debate in my head which is better if that is what this ride ends up being from now on. The gap between El Toro and my first rides on Skyrush was significant despite being right next to each other in my top 10. I also rode Skyrush which was running great. I had gotten one ride like this before, but other times it is a more jerky and less forceful ride. I bumped itself over Alpengeist for that. My opinion didn't really change on anything else. It was a short trip run by my college, so I only got 7 or so rides in.
Um... Lightning Racer had a line... I was confused. It went away in about 2 minutes though lol.
Didn't get to ride Great Bear this time.
The park was very crowded.
I was very disappointed with how poorly this was running.
My friends had a low opinion of Hershey before this since they never got to ride the better coasters. One of them said that her opinion depended more on roller coasters. My thought was "Um but Hershey has nothing but coasters going for it." They enjoyed themselves when I took them on some coasters though, which was good.
Great Escape
It's a 3 hour trip up Route 87 to get to Great Escape so my desire to go was always in the back burner, but I have a Six Flags season pass this year, so I figured a free trip wouldn't hurt. I actually really liked the feel of this park. It has a very nice atmosphere almost like the front half of Six Flags America. This is by far the "worst" Six Flags park I've been to only because it doesn't have much going for it, but I thought that the park itself had a charm that the other three don't have. The layout of the park stood out as one of the worst. There are very specific ways to get around the park and you can't use landmarks to find your way. There is actually only one bridge going across the stream. I took the trip with my sister as I always do.
I loved the entrance area.
Our first ride of the day was Canyon Blaster, the Arrow Mine Train. It wasn't very good. It was jerky and more so than others, consists mainly of the 2 lift hills. The area around it looks better than I saw in POVs though.
The next ride of the day was Comet. Clearly the reason I was here.
The park was empty so we got as many rides as we wanted.
I loved this coaster! The first drop in the back was great because it just felt so fast and the airtime was great. The rest of the ride was full of great floater air, laterals, and that off balance feel that make classic wooden coasters so great. The bottom of the drop has this jerk going up into the turn around in the front seat. It's not bad, but if you're going to ride it watch out for it. The ride as a whole was great. Some of the hills don't deliver like some of the others, especially near the end. I was surprised how much energy this coaster had in the first half though. I liked it a little more than Silver Comet at Martin's Fantasy Island and took the 18th spot on my list.
We tried to go over to Alpine Bobsled, but it was closed. We tried to go over to the Boomerang, but that was closed, too.
Damn... so disappointing...
We headed over towards Steamin' Demon, but we stopped at a few rides first. The log flume was pretty cool, but it was a very short drop. We then went over to the HUSS Condor and the ride broke down on us near the top.
It wasn't a big deal. It took about 15 minutes to get down and we got a free fast pass, which was great considering how long the lines were.
We went straight for Steamin' Demon when we got down. It was a generic Arrow with painful corkscrews. I got exactly what I expected and it was not good.
We then rode the new ride Extreme Supernova, which we used the fast pass for because we would have had to wait for 1 ride.
We were about to leave after a few re-rides on Comet, but when we passed Alpine Bobsled, we saw it was open, so we ran on line. It was rougher than I thought it would be. All of the seams created jolts and when we hit the bottom of drops, it was quite a slam. I don't remember that on Disaster Transport, which is the only other Intamin bobsled I've ridden. It was good when it flew up the sides though. Not a bad coaster, but not as good as the one at Kings Dominion or Flying Turns at Knoebels. This ended up being my 160th coaster.
It was a fun little trip. Comet is worth the trip. I probably won't return though unless they get a good coaster. It's a nice park, which is refreshing from some of the larger Six Flags parks.
Okay so here's my updated Top 20:
1. Boulder Dash
2. Ravine Flyer II
3. Phoenix
4. Maverick
5. Phantom's Revenge
6. Skyrush
7. El Toro (GAdv)
8. Bizarro (SFNE)
9. Manta (SWO)
10. Ride of Steel
11. Intrimidator 305
12. Kumba (BGT)
13. Batman the Ride (GAdv)
14. Superman: Ride of Steel
15. Storm Runner*
16. Alpengeist*
17. Montu
18. Comet (Great Escape)
19. Silver Comet
20. Talon
Bold = New Addition
* = Moved
Thanks for reading! I'll be updating as I go along, so expect even more.