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Big Trip To New England

T

theRock-steel

Mega Poster
I was able to go to eight parks in just five days in the northeastern United States and Québec. This is the list of them in order of how much I liked them.
Canobie Lake Park
Six Flags Great Escape
Lake Compounce
La Ronde
Six Flags New England
Playland Park (Rye, NY)
Luna Park / Scream Zone (Brooklyn, NY)
Quassy Park

There was a lot of driving around, 40 coasters, and many flat rides. A detailed trip report cound take forever to write. Why don't you ask questions about the parks and rides, and we will go from there.
 
CoastingChris50 said:
My obvious question is what did you think if Boulder Dash?
Click to expand...
As you can tell by my name, I am generally all about steel coasters, but this trip was really centered around woodens. Prior to this, the only ones built by Custom Coasters International that I thought were more than just ok were Holiday World's Legend and SFSTL's Boss. Well Boulder Dash is a terrain coaster that moves fast for a wooden (60 mph) and has never ending airtime. That is all the good news. However with that train that you are sandwiched in, most people can be turned black and blue. It is a long ride which is great, but with single train operations the line turned a little long real quick. With only two laps around on it, I really don't have more to say. Of my 85 wooden credits, it sits at number 12 just after Ravine Flyer II.

The next question from someone else was about La Ronde and Goliath at it. Well, operations at that park moved kind of slowly. On most attractions, previous riders have to be out of the station before new ones can be let in. I wisely rode the lower capacity ones like the wild mouse and boomerang early, but the Vekoma SLC and Intamin indoor family one eat up some serious time. The worst for this was the big double sided wooden Monstre. With SFNE closing down their Cyclone, I may not get to another built by this company (William Cobb). I had to ride it, and try both sides, one in the front and one in the back. It was very big and very fast; that is really all that can be said. The true stand outs for that day and for all the steels of the trip were Goliath and Vampire. Hypers are a blast and B&M's are on the top of my list. This one is unquie and yet not really as good as it could be. There are 10 airtime hills which are great, but an overbacked turn or helix it didn't have. You go out with some hills and come back with some hills, that's it. Vampire was my 9th "Batman" invert. Without question, it is the best. I knew what was coming: loop, zero-g roll, loop, corkscrew, corkscrew. This was done the best way. Throw in some fog along with the last drop, and you have a winner.
 
Thunderbolt was ok as long as you didn't move from side to side or up or down. I like the 100 degree lift hill and drop, but this ride was pretty painful most of the rest of the way. Hollywood Rip, Ride, Rockit, Dare Devil Dive, and Fahrenheit start off a similar way but finish much better.
 
I haven't heard many people's opinions on Canobie and considering it's my homepark I'd like to hear what you have to say.

And what about Great Escape? Don't recall ever hearing anyone's thoughts on that.
 
^ Both parks are clean, pretty, the staff is friendy and helpful. They had much better staff, and much better ride operations than SFNE or La Ronde. Even though we tend to be centered around coasters, I love it when parks have a nice mix of flat rides too. That is why Canobie, Great Escape, and Lake Compounce are my top three on this trip. Canobie has Turkish Twist, Wave Blaster, and Blue Heron Lake Cruise. All of those are not the kind of thing you find everywhere. I normally ride every coaster I can but don't go back again to the small stuff. This was the first time that I can recall going on everything at least two times. The Corkscrew by Arrow and the kiddie one by Zamperla were not the best, but this time they were worth a second try. The biggest surprise of the whole week was Yankee Cannonball. That's too bad that it is not a little longer, and the line for it was the longest for anything and was that way all day.
Great Escape has Condor, Extreme Supernova, Sasquatch, Swan Boats, and a sky ride that goes over top of most of the rest of the park. Comet and Alpine Bobsled were the big coasters in the park and did not disappoint. I was not really thrilled that they didn't open until 11:00 though. That was the major problem of the day.
 
La Ronde - Can you tell me if any of the rides (Goliath, Ednor, Batman, or Monstre) have single rider lines? My wife doesn't ride. Thanks.
 
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