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A Tour of the North East of USA - Some Final Thoughts

EmmaUK

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So here it finally is. My daughter and I on our 7 night, 8 park journey across the North East of USA. With any luck I'll hit 200 Coasters here and she'll hit 100 (not bad for a 9 year old!). At the time of going my top 10 was 1) Shambala 2) Velocicoaster 3) Mako 4) Red Force 5) Hagrid's Motorcycle thingamabob 6) Nemesis 7) Icon 8) Manta 9) Shriekra 10) Furius Baco. There was high anticipation of a fair few coasters breaking into this list. My daughter's favourite, for reasons best known only to a 9 year old, was Wipeout at Pleasurewood Hills. One should never Judge I guess.

The flight out from Manchester to New York was fine. After spending too long trying to work out what the difference actually is between my seat in Economy Delight and the cheaper Economy Classic ones (spoiler - I couldn't see it) and wishing I was up front in business, I settled into my post WEURO 2022 win football everything obsession and read a few Chapters of Inverting the Pyramid. If you're into football history and the tactics of the game its an awesome book.

Anyway, after a too long queue at immigration, which ended up not mattering because actually the luggage still hadn't been unloaded, followed by a too long wait at Avis to rent the car, any hope of going up to have a quick stop at Lake Compounce went out of the window. Not that I'd really decided whether we were going there anyway as $59 per person plus $30 for parking seemed excessive simply to hope Boulder Dash was that good. That would have made it the second most expensive park on this trip after Busch Gardens Williamsburg. I mean sure, there's rumours online that they have a cheaper ticket after 5pm, but I couldn't find out if that was still the case and the twitter account decided not to reply.

So instead it was the 2.5 hour drive in our Mazda, that has a very unsettling shake at around 60mph, straight up to Six Flags New England. The thinking was that we'd heard of horror stories of people struggling to redeem their annual passes and we didn't want that to interfere with the chances of a decent rope drop. Driving into the car park at 7.30pm for a 9pm close, as an FYI, the car parking booths were abandoned. We had our annual pass tickets at the ready anyway, but good to know no one was going to charge anyway.

Re getting the tickets it was fine in fact. We showed the ticket on my phone, had a photo, got the physical pass, and off we went. Straight to a real competitor for that top 10 - Wicked Cyclone. My first RMC.

We arrived to see the dreaded no lose articles sign. So to the lockers we went. A word about these lockers. What kind of psycho organised them. You come to screen to book the locker. Pay your $2. What kind of psycho puts a key pad in this order.

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But then you re enter. And it doesn't accept your 4 digit code as the key pad has changed. Eventually it accepts it. You then pass by the girl in the corner crying because she had left it too long and now couldn't open her locker or get her car keys to try to find your locker. The locker numbers made little sense. Some were rubbed off. The locker doesn't work first time and you have to re enter really slow. Eventually sorted you head to the ride to find out that everyone has ignored the warnings anyway and taken their bags in the queue. Sometimes it was enforced. Sometimes it wasn't. Welcome to Six Flags.

So with no phone in hand I couldn't take any photos. But it didn't matter cause it turns out that unlike her ride, Wicked Cycline is shy and retiring. She's camera shy. Its rather tough to get a decent photo of her.

The nearly 1 hour queue (I think - no phone to check) allowed night to fall, and we were treated to a wild, out of control, ride on her. The darkness meant we had no idea what was coming next. This throws you one way, then the other, sidewards forces that shouldn't exist over outward banked turns, ejector that actually didn't hurt despite the restraints, this thing is bonkers. Definitely a top 10 ride, but I wanted to re ride it in the day just to see where it sits.

Running to Superman, to find it shut for technical difficulties, and seeing the time at 8.56, we sprinted up to Batman the Dark KnightIMG_3028.jpeg

It was fine. My daughter loved it a lot more than me. I felt it was a bit B&M by numbers, and whilst it was forceful in a "here's some Gs as you go through the inversion" kind of way. It wasn't going to trouble my top 10, or 20 for that matter, it was a perfectly fine supporting act.

The park is really rather beautiful at night. We followed the throngs of people towards the exit, passed an area near to the Slushie sellers that had a lovely piquant like that smell you get when you're stuck being a bin wagon on a narrow street. That sweet but yet very gone off smell. We'd later realise that that smell was there all the following day. Lovely

Thank you Six Flags for a lovely evening

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Back the following morning, the plan of attack was straight to Superman on the assumption it would build the biggest queues, but also we didn't want to risk it going down and spiting us.

Deciding to take the rope drop by Thunderbolt as it had more shade we were surprised how thin the crowds were for a Sunday in August.

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The rope dropped and quick walked to Superman, went through the enforced non carrying of bags into lockers routine, and decided to wait the extra 2 trains to get a front row ride. And she's a beauty. So beautiful it seems I forgot to take a single photo of her. The first drop is awesome, the airtime hills are B&M esque in their beauty, and that end winding section, where it stays low to the ground but carried all of its speed were amazing. It was like the best bits of Mako and the best bits of a fast ground hugger like Rita put into one. Which means, sorry Mako, she drops you down to at least number 4. Maybe number 5 depending on where I put Wicked Cyclone.

We thought now was the time to hit as many creds as we could whilst the crowds were light.

Gotham City Escape from Whatever was notable purely because of the unusual number of abandoned baseball caps in the queue. And then turning the corner, there were 4 kippahs discarded and strewn across the pathway. What was this beast that discards headwear so wantonly across the pathways. It was a dull wild mouse, thats what it was.

Catwoman Whip lacked any whip.

And so we were on to one of my favourite ride types. I love a B&M inverted so we were off to Riddlers Revenge to... oh crap its an SLC. How had I convinced myself it was a B&M. SLCs are bad enough to begin with, even worse when you're expecting a B&M. And this was awful. The transitions were effectively chiselled. The comfort vests a necessity as the more traditional SLC over the shoulder restraints would surely cause concussion on this. I left feeling ill, but knowing we needed to get through more creds quickly, it was on to the Joker.

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Now I've never done one of these before. Not liking anything that "Spins" and feeling a bit rough from the SLC, I was really concerned. I shouldn't have been. This was really rather good. 3 full inversions and 3 partial, including one that went on forever as we went down one of the drops, it turns out these are a lot better than I feared.

Knocking off the Great Chase kiddie ride, which it less embarrassing when you're with a 9 year old, we headed over to our first big wait of the day, Pandemonium. I've never been a big fan of spinners but this wasn't too bad. Not worth the 45 minute wait. But I've been on worse. And, it turns out, it was my 150th Coaster (I'd had a fear that it was in fact Great Chase, but I'd miscounted). Finding Flashback closed and not fancying the huge queue Thunderbolt was showing, we had a nice peaceful ride on the Skyscreamer.

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I was surprised at how this feels so serene despite being so high on what looks like flimsy chain.

Oh look down there, Flashback is testing again, but that queue for Wicked Cyclone is looking a bit ominous.

So off to Flashback it was.

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There was no seat selection so we were placed the back seat. And something happened to me that hasn't happened in a very long time, I think forever on coasters. I greyed out. I mean that kind of very dark grey that almost looks black. I know the Gs on this are high, and only 4 months ago I had surgery on my head and skull, but that grey out surprised me. I mean the coaster is awful. Even for a boomerang its bad. Millie hated it as well, and as Wipeout was her previous favourite that is saying something. Hideous ride.

Feeling a little ill now, I stumped up for 2 one-time flash passes to Thunderbolt and Wicked Cyclone, and headed for some lunch.

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Thunderbolt it alright. I mean its above average in my woodies, but as a large proportion of my woodies are the abominations at BPP that probably isn't saying much. Truth is, as I write this the next day, I don't really remember much about the ride already. There was a chain lift, a drop which went across to make this lap a figure of 8 rather than an oval. It went up. It went down. There might have been a double down. I'd have been very disappointed if this was after a 45 minute wait.

And then off to the biggy. Wicked Cyclone. Fear building that it would not meet my high expectations from the night before. Flash pass in hand, and all lose articles in the locker, except for my mobile phone which had the fast pass on, which rather defeats the whole no lose articles thing, especially because if you think I'm just leaving my iPhone on the side you have another think coming. No chance, its going straight into my bra.

Anyway, the quicker queue allows, in a weird way, to appreciate the theming a bit more.

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I mean, it's not too bad. Sure its not Disney, but its better than we mainly find in the UK.

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And the quick queue moves so fast you don't have time to wait for a train to get a better photo.

"Have you travelled far" asks the nice woman at the Flash pass meet point

"Well, England" I reply

"wow" she says, before giving us an English accent from when she was involved in amateur dramatics. Lovely. Anyway....

So, after persuading Millie to allow us to go into the back seats, we were again treated to the out of control totally bonkers ride that is an RMC. The ability to kind of see where you were going didn't detract from the night before, but then again it was still a bit of a maze and disorientating as to where you were at any time. Whilst its essentially part oval, part figure of 8, not unlike Thunderbolt, it feels so much more discombobulated on it. The only real downside was that the photo booth was shut both times, despite my having purchased a photo pass. So where does it sit? It didn't quite grab me like Velocicoaster did, or Shambhala. But it's a solid, and very close, number 3. I'm now really looking forward to Twisted Timbers later in the trip which seems generally to get better reviews.

Another ride on Superman, now only a 15 minute queue, ended up the day. Again rejecting the opportunity to blow $150 dollars just to see if Boulder Dash was actually that good, and noting that the good rides at Nickelodeon Universe were all apparently closed, and by the time we'd arrive we wouldn't have much time and again it was very expensive for what it is, we decided to just continue to our hotel near to Six Flags Great Adventure.

So there we are Six Flags New England. Some great rides. Some truly awful ones. An actually really nice park. Sure its not Disney or Universal, but its just so cheap. The Extreme Annual pass that we got, with a years worth at any Six Flags park, free parking, money off merchandise and food, was basically cheaper than a day at Disney or Universal. Its unfair to compare the two, so you just can't.

As I write this, we're about to get up, hit up the local IHOP, and head down to Great Adventure, which we're hoping isn't too busy (its a Monday, right?) as we have 14 coasters to get.
 
So Day 3, and after a quick stop at IHOP to fill ourselves to bursting point so that we didn't need to buy anything in the part and ruin our chances of hitting all 14 Coasters, and in knowledge that there were a good few here today which could pierce the top 10, we found ourselves in the queue at the entrance of Six Flags Great Adventure at 10.15 ready for 10.30 opening. Unlike Six Flags New England, here they simply started letting people through at 10.30 to run to the part of the park they wanting to go.

Being behind a bit of a crowd

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The lack of people on our walk over there told us what we already expected - this side of the park was going to be dead

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With lockers seemingly being enforced more here, but at least in more obvious places than SFNE, we stumped up our $10 and purchased a moveable day locker and jumped onto Nitro.

Millie loved it. Me, well, not so much. I can kind of understand the love for it, and I kind of get why once upon a time it was a top 10 for many.You can clearly see how this moved onto the likes of Mako, but Mako is a much superior beast. This, rather than butter smooth, had a really annoying rattle, the kind that makes your teeth chatter.

Moving on to Batman the Ride, Millie absolutely hated this. For me, meh, it was okay. The second loop caught me off guard, I didn't expect that. Its a B&M invert. It was basically exactly as we expected.

Seeing that the Jersey Devil was down, we decided to hang about in the area and go to Skull Mountain next

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Again, a straight walk on. It wasn't too bad for what it was. A rickety near pitch black coaster. Meh, one and done.

Seeing that Jersey Devil was now testing, we walked over to see it was just opening. This for me was the big one. The coaster here, more than any other, that really excited me. Once again, a walk straight to the loading area, itself a thing of wonder. It pulls you up the chain hill so fast and then launches you into... well...disappointment really. It just doesn't work. The airtime hills barely get you out of your seat, those wonky side hills do nothing, the stall doesn't quite hit and you're not up there long enough to feel the stall. Whilst its still, objectively speaking, a decent enough ride, and would (by the end of the day) sit at my no15, you doing want "objectively speaking" when dealing with RMCs. You want OMFGs when dealing with RMCs.

40 minutes in, 4 coasters done, we headed down to the Dark Knight, basically an indoor wild mouse. Nothing special here. Move along.

Wild horses could not drag me on to Wonder Woman Lasso of Truth, so Justice League Battle for Metropolis was up next.

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And what a good ride it was. Wow. Kind of a mix between Spiderman at IOA and Buzz Lightyear at MK. Sure I had no idea what I was shooting or if I was hitting anything (although my score was increasing) but I'd have to put this towards the best dark rides I've ever done.

Over to Joker to see a surprisingly long wait, it was the Harley Quinn crazy train next. Was fine, but lets be honest, we only went on it for the cred.

Over to the mine train which was fairly unremarkable save for bonus points for the mini Verbolten style drop

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And then to Medusa. less than 1.5 hours in, 6 creds down. All was going swimmingly. The less than 5 minute wait for Medusa punctured by the ride going down. Don't worry Medusa, we'll be back.

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So around the corner to a near walk on to El Toro.

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What a thing of beauty this ride is. From every angle it is just gorgeous.

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Or so we thought. The line went straight past the Fast Track merge point, and then entered the building. And stopped. One train operations here slowing everything down.

Opting for row 3, as the 20 person separate queue for the front row would last until tomorrow at this rate, and there being a small gap in the 3rd row, we boarded and went surprisingly quickly up the lift.

And Oh My God

Wow

Wow

I cannot emphasise how good this ride is. The airtime. Wow. The pacing. Yes, the legendary Rolling Thunder hill where I thought I was going to be thrown from this beast and die happily about it. This thing is awesome. Whilst I thought I might get a new no1 on this trip, I did not expect it to be El Toro.

Sadly, I was alone in my view on this as my daughter absolutely hated it. So just the one ride today. But I'lll be back El Toro, oh my go will I be back!

We'd seen Medusa had been running again so we went over, only to find that she was down again. So into the queue of Kingda Ka we went. After 20 minutes of not moving the dreaded announcement came over that there was a lengthy maintenance issue, so the queue emptied, and we went along with it.

Over to Green Lantern to a walk on queue, only to see Kingda Ka was already up and running. Damn it.

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This thing is awful. Who thought standing up would ever be a good thing. It shakes you about. It rattles your head. I can only imagine how uncomfortable it must be for those of a gentleman persuasion as this thing was even brutal on me. Awful.

On to Superman. 25 minutes wait. Met a couple of goons in the queue who told me I was missing out for not doing Cedar Point this trip. I agreed, but to go there and not see Top Thrill Dragster running would kill me.

Anyway, Superman is rather good. Probably a better ride than Manta, although I do prefer Manta as the decor is more than grass and car park. After yesterdays grey out I was worried about the pretzel loop but no such issues. A really bloody good ride.

Off back to the Joker to see a walk on queue, we ticked that off. Once again, they're surprisingly good, but never going to win any awards. A quick dark ride in the Houdini haunted room thing, and back to Kingda Ka with a plan. We'd forgotten that on our annual passes were two "jump the line" passes. So we booked them and went over the beast. Deciding on row 3 as Millie was petrified and did not want the front row (that will have to wait for another trip) we sat that on the track for what felt like an eternity before you hear the mechanism kick in and whoosh, you're gone. Yes its mega fast, yes its very high. Yes the drop and the twist are a really unusual sensation. But I prefer Red Force. I've no idea what was missing from it, but it just felt as though something wasn't quite right. When I got off Red Force I could hardly walk. I was jabbering on and smiling like a Cheshire Cat. On this, I was slightly, just slightly, underwhelmed. I mean sure, its still a top 20 coaster. And maybe checking my phone and seeing that Nunez had just received a red card and Liverpool were 1-0 down didn't help. But something wasn't quite right.

Back to Medusa which was finally up and running. Was ok I guess. Maybe I'm being harsh, it was actually quite good. Thing is, I dont remember much about it except that the view was mainly of a backstage storage area.

On to the Cable Car, which to be honest, was a bit of a highlight itself.

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Onto cred #14, the lil devil. Confession time. I have a little guilty pleasure about these. They often exhibit forces that you dont expect and are a lot more fun than you'd think.

Anyway, that done, it was back for a re-ride of Battle for Metropolis. Still brilliant. Then Nitro. Still rattly. Then Jersey Devil. Still disappointing.

So into the car and ready for the drive up to Dorney.

Honestly, this park surprised me. I loved it. I thought I would, and I guess the lack of queues for the first 2 hours so that we could get so much done helped. But it just felt like a nice place to be. And El Toro. Oh my god El Toro
 
Looks like you're having a good time! If this is your first US road trip then don't miss out on dining at Cracker Barrel when you inevitably pass near one on the interstate :)
 
Going Into Day 4 we stumbled out of our hotel, directly opposite Dorney Park, and drove around to the parking area, being in front of the entrance by 10.40am.

The plan of attack was to go straight to the back of the park, hit up Steel Force, Thunderhawk and Possessed, picking up the remaining creds before heading over to Knoebels to enjoy the rest of the day. Spoiler alert, this did not go well.

Steel Force first, and its alright

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Straight in and to the front of the queue

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And its alright I suppose. Amazing how a hyper can have a little to write about it. It goes up, it goes down. It tries to give airtime. It fails. Next.

Well next was Thunderhawk

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And yeah, its an okay woodie I guess.

Quickly onto Possessed

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Its better than I expected to be honest. Decent forces. Decent launches. Yeah, its ok.

We're knocking these out quickly and over to Hydra the Revenge. I'm not sure what the Revenge is for, but I'm cool with it

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Its good. Actually really quite good. My favourite flourless of the trip so far. I'd heard the Jojo roll was a bit of a gimmick, and maybe it is, but I really liked it. Enough for us to have a second go. 4 down in 50 minutes. What could possibly go wrong. Oh look, there's a wild mouse.

Everywhere else having been a walk on, we saw a queue of maybe 100 people and expected maybe fifteen minutes wait for this.

One hour and ten minutes.

Seventy whole minutes.

Never in my life have I seen ops so bad.

The beauty of a wild mouse is that the block sections means that you can have 2 or 3 cars going around at the same time. Look at this photo. No cars

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Nil. You can see one car at the break run because they were stacking. And this was often. How is it possible to have ops so bad. Add in a trickle of Fast Passes and Disabled visitors and the queue simply wasn't moving.

The wild mouse itself was ok but nothing can take away just how bad the ops were here. At one stage I tried doing a throughput calculation. There was about a dispatch a minute (if we were lucky). Only 2 adults allowed per car, so say an average of 3 people per car, as some had children and some didn't. Thats around 180 per hour.

So, ride done, we went off to Talon and were there, ready. to board, when it went down for maintenance. Damn you Wild Mouse. Your poor ops has had a knock on effect and cost me a cred :mad:

Consoling ourselves with the Woodstock Express (its a kiddie coaster yet also induced pain) and Demon Drop (together with the inevitable "how is this not a credit again?" conversation we waved goodbye to the park and to our first spite in Talon.

Bit gutted. Even though I'd read that Talon was a bit middle of the road for a B&M invert, and that almost no-one picks it as their favourite, I'd liked to have grabbed it. Not least because I'm unlikely to ever grab it as I never, ever, want to return to this park. Sure the Wild Mouse was the real sour point to me, but moreso, its just not a great park.
 
I'm not sure what the Revenge is for
Its because Hercules used to stand on that spot. Which is almost clever ride naming I reckon. :)

First time I went to Dorney (years ago, when Hercules was still there!) I skipped the mouse due to the SLOW throughput, things don't change much I see.

Great TR - keep it (and the trip) up! :)
 
Consoling ourselves with the Woodstock Express (its a kiddie coaster yet also induced pain) and Demon Drop (together with the inevitable "how is this not a credit again?" conversation we waved goodbye to the park and to our first spite in Talon.
It looks like a cred, feels like a cred, and quacks like a cred. According to this very scientific formula, it’s a cred🤷‍♂️ Please don’t fight me.

Really enjoy the report so far, thanks for posting!
 
Having left Dorney later than we wanted to due to the Wild Mouse fiasco, we turned our attention to the 1.5 hour drive through what very much appeared to be Trump Country out to Knoebels.

It wasn’t long before we realised our mistake here – 2 hours is not enough to properly enjoy this park. In my head this was a glorified Hyde Park Winter Wonderland. A few creds, a few kiddie rides, a bit of food. I can’t even put my finger on it, its just a nice place to be. It really is quite beautiful.

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Deciding that tickets were better value for us than the wristbands, we headed on over to Impulse. The turn in our luck continued as we had a 15 minute delay due to, well there’s only one way to put it, a fat guy being stuck in the seat.

Anyway Impulse. Yeah its fine. Reminded me quite a lot of Rage at Adventure Island.

Seeing that Flying Turns was closed we headed over to Twister. Those ops, wow. None of these delayed dispatches here. The 2 lads working it were racing to ensure all lap bars were down. It was put your bag on the side and you’re send before you’ve fully let go.

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As for the ride, I know this is much maligned, and yes it does lack much by way of airtime, but I liked it. It has this weird split chain lift, lots of weaving in and out, and there’s certainly no lack of speed on it.

Wait, what’s that, flying turns is working.

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OK. Let’s do this.

I’d read about its really low top speed (something like 20 odd mph) and expected this to be a little roll down the tube. I mean its not very tall is it?

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Its really rather good though. I’d take it over BPP Avalanche any day of the week. It really did feel out of control, and the fact that it was made in house and took so long to build really did add the feeling.

Then it was the big one. Phoenix. This really was one of the rides I was looking forward to on this trip. It starts off with a tunnel section which is quite cool and then lifts you up a surprisingly small lift hill. Yes, the ejector on this is surprising. Yes, the buzz bars really add to it and at one stage I thought I was going to be thrown out. But I didn’t fall in love with it. Maybe if I’d done this before EL Toro my heart would have been free to love it, but there was something missing for me. Sure, I didn’t get to go on the back row as my 9 year old had starting to get a bit whiny at this stage and didn’t want to go front or back on anything.

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Black Diamond was closed. Shoulders shrugged not really caring we headed on over to the Ghost Train. Which was fine. A few decent jump scares but to be honest nowhere near as good as it was made out to be. Give me the one at Breen any day. It’s just a shame it’s at Breen!

Next up the chairlift. It gave some really great views and was a lovely peaceful end as we came to the end of the day.

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As we got off, we saw the final credit, Kosmo’s Curves, had a short line. So we paid our tickets ready to ensure the tedium of the kids ride.

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But Oh My God. This thing rocks. I have no idea what alchemy is involved. Somehow, over 4 laps, this thing threw us around, gave us airtime, laterals. Honestly, this is probably the world’s best “kiddie coaster”.

All closed we got some fries and got what we’d got everywhere at this park but nowhere else.

“Oh my god, I love your accent”

And in one particularly pleasant exchange “I love the British accent. You sound just like them from Downton Abbey”. For context, I’m from Yorkshire, went to University in Newcastle and live in Greater Manchester. My accent is very much “generically Northern”

So that was Knoebels. Lovely park. Not convinced its a full day park, but it certainly warrants 4 or 5 hours. Would I come back? In a heartbeat.

On now to Hersheypark
 
On to Hersheypark we go and despite arriving at 10.30 for an 11am opening on a Wednesday, we crawl into the car park and end up parked a long way from the entrance.

Uh ho. That’s a lot of cars in the car park. This place is gonna be busy.

We arrived at the gates to see a massive crowd waiting to get in, the kind of crowds more often seen at Magic Kingdom waiting for rope drop. This is going to be a struggle for 13 coasters in only 8 hours. Especially as we decided to book into the Chocolatier restaurant during park hours. In addition, my daughter decided today was the day to start being a whiny little bi…. person. I think the next time I do one of these trips it will be with an adult, so basically I’m now taking applications for my future trips.

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The queue went fairly quickly when the gates opened but it was still 11.10 before we were through the turnstiles, to be met with that whine only a parent can ever truly appreciate “I’m thirsty. I need to sit down”. OK Fine. She was hungry too, so after a 20 minute queue for hot dogs and an eternity to eat them we were ready to go, all intentions of hitting Laff Track first now being blown out of the water. Deciding to bite the bullet I order the fast tracks. It turned out to be a very good decision, but we’ll come to that shortly.

We started with Fahrenheit. And yeah, it’s a decent enough ride. Some decent airtime and decent inversions. The only problem is it’s a big forgettable. I’m here writing no more than 48 hours after being on it, and I’m struggling to remember much about it.

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So on to Laff Track. A very slow moving but decent enough queue through a hall of mirrors (who doesn’t love a hall of mirrors) leads to a fairly standard Maurer Spinner. Lots of cardboard cut out “décor” on show here, but it just cannot dress up a fairly standard spinner. That actually didn’t spin much.

Lightning Racer. A standard wooden racing coaster. We board, we set out. We’re behind as we get to the lift hill and experience tells me that once behind that’s it for the racing element. Go down the first drop. Couple of hills with limited force. Couple of corners. And… wait… what’s that? They’re not alongside us? They’re now coming towards us? Sweet, that means that according to the Emma Standardised Cred Counting Procedure ™ both sides are not the same so it counts as 2 creds. Sweet. I mean it would be sweet if it were a good ride. Its just tolerable. But sure. That’s 2 more ticked off. Oh and Thunder is slighter better than Lightning. But they’re both middling at best.

Wild Mouse time, and massive marks to Hersheypark for the loading procedure here. The mice don’t stop. They come in and then trundle slowly through the loading station giving maybe 20 seconds to get off and 20 seconds to get on. So no stacking of cars and straight onto the ride. See Dorney. That’s how you can do it (the Dorney Wild Mouse bitterness will not go away). Not much I can say about this. It’s a Wild Mouse.

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On to NEW FOR 2022 Jolly Rancher Remix. Tis a standard Vekoma Boomerang. But Hersheypark have tarted it up. New seats. A new paint job. A gimmick where each ride is a different flavour. You get on, the lights above flash through the favours of Jolly Ranchers. Suddenly it settles on one and the announcement is made “Green Apple” or whatever. All the lights turn to green and the ride starts in its normal format. Reverse cable lift that seems to take a long time and is always higher than you remember it. The hiss. The drop through the station, the painful cobra roll. A tunnel. Wait a tunnel? The loop. And the lift hill to do it backwards. On the reverse you understand the tunnel – its fragranced to your flavour. Sure, it was subtle, but I could smell apple. Very clever. And then cobra roll – ow – and back to the station. Sure the Remix is literally the definition of polishing a turd, but it is quite nicely polished.

On to Storm Runner. Now this one is one I’ve wanted to go on ever since I had RCT3. A decent enough launch into the top hat and its all very standard so far and then it just gets weird. You know on RCT3 where you’re making a coaster, and you put down a piece of track, and then it gives you just random pieces that you can put down for the next piece fo track. Well that’s how Storm Runner feels. Like some 12 year old designed it. “Ok, so top hat done, now we go back up into an inversion and come back down, then up, but whilst up we’re going to do a twist, and then dive down again”. Its weird. But kind of works.

Getting to Trailblazer and seeing that to get to the fast pass line, you have to get into the queue and then queue up be within like 20 feet of the station before you can use the queue. And this looked like it had a 60 minute queue. So we walked on. No fast pass queue for Cocoa Cruiser, so on to Great Bear it was.

We sit in our seats. And then the announcement. We were all to get off. Oh no, after Talon going down on us yesterday as we were next to get on, was Great Bear going to do the same?

No. Apparently a storm was on its way. According to Accuweather it was 26 minutes away, but maybe Great Bear is a really long ride? A quick check on the app, all coasters were down. People were invited to wait to stick it out. A quick check on the Accuweather app – the storm (or at least rain) was due to last two and a half hours.

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Deciding instead to do Reeces Cupfusion – an indoor shooter ride somewhere between Battle for Metropolis and Toy Story, and very, very good. We then headed to the Chocolatier in the hope of getting seated early. We failed as everyone else had the same idea, so instead we just sat and waited for our table.

The restaurant itself was very nice. I had some tacos and an amazing chocolate cocktail. I’d love to go back just to work through the cocktail menu.

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5pm came, nearly 2.5 hours since the rides went down. With a 7pm close this would be impossible without the pass, and close even with it.

Candymonium. Yeah, its rather good. Up there with Mako. Until you hit the MCBR. It takes all of the pace out of the train and instead it trundles around the last bit of track, that bit you see in all of the photos around the fountain. Whether it was slowed down deliberately for those aesthetics I don’t know, or if it was so forceful otherwise that part would cause difficulties, again I don’t know, but when you have a coaster hauling so much speed, have so much taken out of it, it really should have simply been a longer ride. The first half is all airtime and joy. The second half simply disappointment.

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Comet. More disappointment. I mean this thing managed to do nothing and be painful at the same time. Make me wonder how bad Wildcat was that it was often considered the worst in the park.

And then onto Skyrush. I’d heard so much about this ride and heard so many conflicting views. And those who say this thing is amazing are totally spot on. Oh my god this thing just throws you around like a rag doll. I’m firmly in the “hands up” category, and at one stage I thought it was going to tear my body in half, my upper body going in one direction and its quick transition in the other direction pulling me apart. There’s nothing more to say about the restraints by now. They are so painful. I have never known another coaster where they release/loosen the restraint whilst on the brake run waiting so you’re not sat there in pain. This thing is brutal. Awesome. But brutal. And straight into my top 10.

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SooperDooperLooper was dull as dishwater. Not necessarily painful, or bad, just meandering and dull.

So over to Great Bear. And what an amazing invert this in. Great footchopper effects over the water, a layout that mixes it up a bit and isn’t “B&M invert by numbers”. Comfortable seats. Lots of forces but minimal headbanging. One of the better B&M inverts and only behind Nemesis on my list.

With only 20 minutes left we decided to leave Cocoa Cruiser and Trailblazer and headed for another ride of Storm Runner.

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So Hersheypark? It’s a great park. Probably my favourite of the trip so far. Sure it was busy as sin, and yes, the rain lost us 2.5 hours, but this felt like the first park where 1 day was not enough. I need to get back onto Skyrush, and if Wildcat is becoming a RMC, then even the more reason to visit. Its just a very, very good park.
 
Day 6 - Kings Dominion. After the disappointment of Dorney Park this was only our second Cedar Fair park, and we were desperate to see what it could do.

We'd stayed at a hotel opposite and walked over. Ridiculously expensive parking saved.

We arrived at 10.40 ready for a queue at the gate. We had 13 credits to get and were eager to get a head start. To fine no-one there. It was dead. Feeling more confident, we entered and saw this:

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I'll take things you don't want to see on entering a theme park for $500 Alex.

Anyway, we joined the rush of people to queue up at the rope drop for Twisted Timbers. Look at all these people:

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Rope drop was maybe 12 people. 4 went straight to queue for Apple Zapple (no idea why) meaning that even after getting a locker, we were on train 2. Train 1 had only 2 people on it, and there were only 4 on this one.

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This was Millie's 100th coaster, not bad for a 9 year old! And she's a beauty. The inversion on the drop was good, very good in fact, although I preferred the non-inverting drop on Wicked Cyclone. Then she's all about the airtime. For me it lacked the out of control, disorientating feeling of Wicked Cyclone. It's pretty much airtime, airtime, right turn, airtime, airtime, right turn, airtime, inversion, airtime.... That's not to say that it's not good. It's very good. Top 10 worthy. But certainly not perfect. Anyway, the crowds were so light that we stayed on for one more go. And felt a bit ill afterwards.

Seeing the 4 people still queuing at the not opened Apple Zapple, we went to Racer 75. Or non-racing 75 as they only ran one train all day. I can only imagine that the racing element makes this coaster, as its otherwise DULL. Very dull.

Apple Zapple now open. Meh, its a Mack Wild Mouse.

Deciding to go on the Windseeker, the sky swing, this caused a real problem in a dead park, as the first cycle of the day had to have exactly 8 people on it, the second cycle 16, and the third 31. 7 people in the queue this led to a young girl shouting at the few people around to join us. It's alright.

So Grizzly. I love how you have to go through the shop to get here.

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The shop was the highlight. Cause this is rough. And the forces weren't good enough to make up for it.

Drop tower. S'alright.

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The Backlot Stunt Coaster being down, we went on this monstrosity.

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What a hideous coaster. Rough. Dull. It actually stopped on the MCBR. It has no redeeming features. Even its gorgeous setting over the lake felt a waste.

Straight onto Flight of Fear and our worst queue so far of 15 minutes. Honestly, I'm not a fan. Its quite a forceful launch, and the inversions are okay, but otherwise it seems to just meander.

Reptilian is a decent enough Mack bobsled coaster.

And then the fear hit. I was due to get my 200th coaster today. But in my excitement I forget whether I needed 11 or 12 more. F***. What if I get it wrong and end up with the Great Pumpkin Coaster by accident? I decided to quickly knock it out to make sure - I've spoken how kiddie coasters can be a guilty pleasure, but not this it was dull. Woodstock Express was no better.

Deciding to quickly knock out the now running Backlot Stunt Coaster (more meh). I decided to hit this beast.

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Oh my god, this thing is immense. I mean look at it:

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Yesterday I loved Skyrush, but this thing OH MY GOD. That grey out around the first corner is almost like being on drugs. You know that moment where you're given a general anaesthetic and you feel it hit you head, its that feeling, and then you hit the first hill and it clears. And then its ridiculous speeds around quick transitions. This thing should not exist. It must be somewhere near to the limit of what rides can do. This thing is awesome and intense and only really was missing a bit more airtime in the second half. Top 5 material. Easily.

Dominator is I'm sure very good, but after I305, it was always going to come off worst.

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Truth is it was good, very good, but I don't remember much as I was still high from I305.

Completing the set with Tumbli (its okay but another S&S free spin - if anything this felt that it spun less) we went up the tower to see the amazing views

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Look how empty the car park is:

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Back down and back on to I305 again. Because its fricking amazing.

So 4.30 pm, park completed and we were ready to go.

Its a nice park but it feels it was missing.....something. Not sure what but to have 13 coasters done in 5 hours 30 mins, together with re-rides, and leaving because we were bored now, it clearly was missing something.

Anyway, I've no idea which areas were closed.

I also got it right and I305 was my #200.

We therefore took the advice of @witchfinder and headed to Cracker Barrel for a platter as I couldn't decide what to have. Was rather good!

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Congrats on the 200 and glad you got a stress-free day at last on this trip :)

Cracker Barrel is so good, those fried apples 🥰 They do have too much good stuff on the menu to choose from though!
 
A delayed report for Day 7 on account of getting home and life very much taking over.

Today was Busch Gardens. And what a day it was. It's clear why this place keeps winning all of those "most beautiful park" awards and, spoiler alert, I think this might well be by favourite every park. If it added another world class coaster I don't think it would ever be in doubt.

So we started in the traditional manner of paying a fortune for parking at a car park so far away from the park that you need a tram. But its okay because you get a decent view of Apollo's Chariot on the way in.

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I make no apologies for this being a picture heavy post. As this part is stunning. So so beautiful.

Arriving a little after midday as I had work commitments in the morning, we arrived and Morris danced our way through merry olde England at the entrance

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We headed straight to Loch Ness monster. Why? Because it was there. And it was ok. I'd go as far as to say quite good for an Arrow Looper. Sure the tunnel was...weird. And the entire ride just seemed to be about getting you either side of the ravine so you could go through the interlocking loops. But I've had worse starts to the day (looking at you Dragon Khan).

Leaving Scotland and into Ireland. They were obviously gearing up for Halloween. And I'm so jealous I'm not there for it

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Ireland was probably the most beautiful "land".

How does Harry Potter get on this ride?

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He goes through the Griffin-door

Anyway, Griffin. Probably my favourite dive coaster. And Millie's new number 1. Its rather good. the views from up there are awesome and the way it, Alpengeist and Nessie all use the ravine giving you great views of each really puts its above Sheikra.

InvadR is alright. Decent. Probably on par with Wicker Man (save for the show elements). But really not worth the hour long queues.

Alpengeist is great. Sure, it meanders a bit at the end, and the "snow" is appallingly bad, but for such a large invert its smooth, its whippy, its just really good fun.

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Taking a wander through Germany to Oktoberfest, I was a little gutted not to be with a group of adults as they had what looked like a rather decent beer festival on.

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The Oktoberfest Hall was really rather impressive, but we had coasters to get, and we weren't ready to eat yet. Verbolten had took long a queue so we decided to come back later.

Such a beautiful park.

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And off to the main event - Pantheon

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I have been looking forward to this so much since it was announced. And whilst short, she really does pack a punch. The first launch is good. Not great, but good. Into a couple of decent elements, a nice inversion, and then onto the main event. The triple / swing launch is very impressive. That tiny little hill half way along has obvious witchcraft as it creates airtime that simply should not exist. From this point on, it's truly a world class coaster. The top hat, whilst not quite Velocicoaster, is great, pushing you out of the seat, the off camber hills, the lovely stall-type inversion (not sure I'd truly call it a stall, but it doesn't matter, it's great). Its clear than Intamin have taken all that is good from Intamin and thrown in a little RMC. They truly are top of their game. A true top 5 ride.

Speaking of top 5 rides.... just kidding, its Tempesto next. A sky rocket.

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Its Meh. I'm in no mood to seek them out again. Its most surprising quality was how the forceful looking launch was really tame when on it.

Oh well. Next onto Apollo's Chariot. Deciding to do front row on this one, I have to disagree with so many goons on this. It's bloody good. Sure its not as smooth as Mako, but it had more grunt to it. The airtime was good, the feeling of choosing through the trees great, yeah, I loved it.

Back to Verbolten taking the obligatory Big Bad Wolf appreciation shot:

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I really liked Verbolten. Much better than Thirteen. Good dark portion. Yeah. Good ride.

Off to Oktoberfest again for a $15 beer!

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But the show was good.

It was getting late now, so it was back onto Griffin, where the falling light levels made France even more beautiful.

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It was even better at night.

Grover's Alpine Express was, sadly, very poor.

But night rides on Apollo's Chariot more than made up for it.

And then Pantheon. The 60 minute queue was a sign that something great was going to happen. By day this thing was excellent. By night, oh my god she was amazing. Completely, totally, a world class ride. And park.
 

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Day 8 and we were off to Baltimore Airport to fly back. But on the way, what with our Six Flags season passes, it'd be rude to not try and tick off a few creds at Six Flags America. We knew that we weren't going to get them all, and a ridiculous wait at IHOP for breakfast, and then heavy traffic, meant by the time we got there at 12.30, we had at most one and a half hours to do what we could.

Now Six Flags America is often maligned as being awful.

On entering I couldn't help but think how spoiled American Goons are. 9 creds. On paper some of them looking alright. And its a decent enough looking park.

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With only an hour and a half we thought we'd go to the back of the park. Quick go on Joker's Jinx. Ah no, it's down for maintenance.

Oh well.

Passing by Blizzard River.

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Down for maintenance.

The Sky Swing.

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Closed. Down for maintenance.

At least there is Superman.

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Nope. Down for maintenance. What the hell. 4 rides next to each other all down.

So Batwing.

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Well. the queue was open. Maybe 100 people in it. Thinking it might at least be quick. No dispatches in the 10 minutes we were there. So we left the queue.

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Good thing they keep these signs handy hey.

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Finding it is easy. Riding it, ah now thats a different issue entirely.

Being dejected I didn't even bother taking a photo of Firebird, the only cred that we got. And meh, it's ok.

This was, without doubt, the worst park I have ever been to. Sure, break downs happen, and maintenance is required, but the sheer number of them, against a backdrop where I'd heard how bad they were, cannot be coincidence. Add to that poor ops, surly and grumpy staff, and it was a place I'd really rather never go to again.

Off to Baltimore then, for our flight to Manchester via JFK.

A 1.5 hour transfer in JFK should be fine right.

Well unless the plane takes off 15 minutes late and then spends 78 minutes waiting on the tarmac at JFK to go to the gate.

No more flights to Manchester we're told, but we can get you on the flight to London. How about London to Manchester "ah, that's on you, because that delay was Delta, and this flight is Virgin. Or we can get you on tomorrow's flight, but we won't pay for any hotel". Heathrow it is then, and an annoyed girlfriend was then called to ask her to pick us up in London. On the plus side, they did upgrade us to Upper Class.
 
For something a bit different, I let Millie write up her thoughts of the trip. I've left it completely unedited:

Hi this is Millie Emma’s daughter. I really enjoyed the trip my favourite parks were Hershey Park and Busch Gardens. I loved Griffin, it is my all time favourite coaster. A lot of coasters on this trip got into my top ten and on this trip I got my 100th roller-coaster, Twisted Timbers. My 100th was the first ride we went on in Kings Dominion. It was a really good park. You could walk from the hotel so we did. It was nice but if I thought about going to one of the theme parks again it would not be number one.

My favourite coasters of this trip were:

1. Griffin, Busch Gardens

2. Superman, Six Flags Great Adventure

3. Wicked Cyclone, Six Flags New England

4. Green Lantern, Six Flags Great Adventure

5. Batman, Six Flags New England

6. Superman, Six Flags New England

7. Intimidator 305, Kings Dominion

8. Nitro, Six Flags Great Adventure

9. Twisted Timbers, Kings Dominion

10. Apollo’s Chariot, Busch Gardens

I liked all the rides and parks we went to. We went to a lot of Six Flags parks. The first two were great and I didn’t know why people said Six Flags was bad but in the last park I knew why. All the rides were closed. I saw 3 that were open out of 9. I presume it is all due to malfunction. It was very disappointing. We only went on one ride. Luckily we got the Six Flags season ticket so it was free to go. We were going to the airport and we had to drop off the rental car which was horrible when it got to 60mph it started rattling but we dropped it of at a garage and there was a bus from the garage to the airport but then we didn’t know we were the last stop so on the bus we worried that it wouldn’t stop at our stop but it did. When we got there it was almost empty so we whizzed through, went to a couple of shops and got the final presents and got some food at a restaurant then got on the plane. It was a plane from Baltimore to New York but when we landed we had to wait 70 mins on the tarmac and missed our flight from New York to Manchester. We went to a Virgin desk and saw two other people had the same problem. We all got transferred to 11 o’clock flight to London and the seats were 1stclass. We teamed up with the other people and got refunds and allsorts. We got more gifts, McDonalds, and set off. The flight was overnight so we slept on the plane. It was very comfortable and felt so quick but the ride home wasn’t. It took 4 hours to get home. I felt sick on the drive but I was fine but somehow the suitcase was still in America. Before we went home we had to fill a form so it could get delivered to us we went home and that was our trip done.
 
Some final thoughts:

A total cred Count of 71 bringing me up to 212 in total.

A new top 10 of:

1) El Toro
2) Velocicoaster (yes, I moved this above Shambhala despite riding neither - just Pantheon made me realise how much I loved this ride)
3) Shambhala
4) Intimidator 305
5) Wicked Twister
6) Pantheon
7) Superman (SFNE)
8) Twisted Timbers
9) Skyrush
10) Mako

Despite a bit of cred whoring (going on all the middle coasters etc) the sheer quality of the rides for that week has meant a complete shift in my top 40. 22 of my top 40 were from this one trip. Furius Baco is down from no.10 to no.23.

In terms of the parks, I'd place them:

1) Busch Gardens Williamsburg
2) Hersheypark
3) Six Flags Great Adventure
4) Knoebels
5) Six Flags New England
6) Kings Dominion

Big Gap

7) Dorney Park

Massive Grand Canyon sized gap

8) Six Flags America

Honestly, I'd love to visit the top 6 again. That said Kings Dominion was probably my biggest disappointment. I expected so much more and it was just missing.....something. I just hope the works its carrying out will give it whatever it was that was missing.

Of the Coasters, a few disappointments in there. Batman at SFGA was certainly one of them. Nitro I expected so much more, but the biggest disappointment is the Jersey Devil. I expected a probable top 5 coaster, and it just sits there at no21. It could have been so good, and yet lacks so much.

Onto planning the next big trip. No idea where for the next one, but I certainly have the bug!
 
Some final thoughts:

A total cred Count of 71 bringing me up to 212 in total.

A new top 10 of:

1) El Toro
2) Velocicoaster (yes, I moved this above Shambhala despite riding neither - just Pantheon made me realise how much I loved this ride)
3) Shambhala
4) Intimidator 305
5) Wicked Twister
6) Pantheon
7) Superman (SFNE)
8) Twisted Timbers
9) Skyrush
10) Mako

Despite a bit of cred whoring (going on all the middle coasters etc) the sheer quality of the rides for that week has meant a complete shift in my top 40. 22 of my top 40 were from this one trip. Furius Baco is down from no.10 to no.23.

In terms of the parks, I'd place them:

1) Busch Gardens Williamsburg
2) Hersheypark
3) Six Flags Great Adventure
4) Knoebels
5) Six Flags New England
6) Kings Dominion

Big Gap

7) Dorney Park

Massive Grand Canyon sized gap

8) Six Flags America

Honestly, I'd love to visit the top 6 again. That said Kings Dominion was probably my biggest disappointment. I expected so much more and it was just missing.....something. I just hope the works its carrying out will give it whatever it was that was missing.

Of the Coasters, a few disappointments in there. Batman at SFGA was certainly one of them. Nitro I expected so much more, but the biggest disappointment is the Jersey Devil. I expected a probable top 5 coaster, and it just sits there at no21. It could have been so good, and yet lacks so much.

Onto planning the next big trip. No idea where for the next one, but I certainly have the bug!
You don’t get the full KD experience unless you eat at grain and grill. Literally my 3rd favorite thing in the entire park (behind I305 and TT of course).
 
I'm slowly catching up and just want to reiterate what I said before - this trip report has been a joy to read and live somewhat vicariously through.

So glad you had a good time and thanks for taking the time to write it up!
 
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