A couple of weekends of Awesome!

[DelPiero]

Dorney Park

I was lucky enough to get to go to Boston for work so decided to go early and come back late so I had 2 weekends to have some fun at some parks in the North East.

Landed at Newark at around 9:30pm on the Friday, picked up the hire car, A Toyota Corolla for those interested and drove for roughly an hour and a half to Allentown, typically I had a rough night, couldn't get much sleep and was up and about by 5:30am Especially bad as I was attempting 3 parks in a day :thumbleft:
Anyway, after a bit of shopping I made my way to Dorney, and queued outside the gates to get in. As I was so early I was first through the gates, so trotted over to Hydra for the first cred of the trip.

I'd heard this was pretty rubbish, so first train of the day, with noone else on the train, I was expecting it to be pants. But it wasn't. Yeah, the JoJo Roll is a total gimmick but it starts the ride off a lot better than turn/hill. The ride was reasonably smooth, with good forces throughout the ride and nice pops of air. The drop was also better than expected, and I got off with a smile, hoping the rest of the coasters I had low expectations for would also surprise me.

Moving swiftly on, I went back to grab the wild mouse, which was a standard +1 before moving down the hill to possessed.

Front seat ride for this one, again noone on the train with me. I do love these when they have low wait times, much better than a standard +1 zierer etc. The spikes always unnerve me as you get closer to the edge, and the launches are good fun.

Unfortunately Stinger was spiting so moved onto Steel Force.

I was told that the best seat on this one was "on the bench outside the entrance", such jokes, so of course I grabbed the front seat, with only a 1 train wait it took no time at all.
It was enjoyable if unspectacular, the drops were fun, as were the airtime filled bunny hops on the way back. Admitedly the helixes were a little boring, but gave an interesting view of the hydra/demon drop area of the park. Again, bettered expectations and would happily ride it again.

I needed some wood, so went on Thunderhawk.

Seemed to pull people to it as was the first coaster with a queue, although small and obviously due to only using 1 train. It was ok, a bit rough but there was some airtime in places. Not very memorable.

Stinger had opened so I quickly made my way over.

This is my first Inverted Boomerang, and was very apprehensive considering my hate of SLCs and standard boomerangs. So I played the "Pretend my head is superglued to the restraint" game. Front row again and it really wasn't that bad, couple of minor jolts but nothing like some of the bashings I've previously endured. One of the better boomerang types definitely, and would have no qualms riding it again.

Then was something I was really excited about!

I was nearly as excited about this as I was Talon, coz I love my drop towers. It feels so strange being in one of those cars, the drop was fab and the feeling of skidding along on your back is really strange, in a good way. Left with a big smile.
Next up was Woodstock Express.

+1 and done.

Time for the final cred at Dorney.

Fortunately the queue for both front and back was just 1 train each so had a quick re-ride, party because I had the time, partly because it's awesome!
First off, the pictures on the lift was a nice touch, better than a dirty staircase. The drop is excellent, one of the best Invert drops I've done, even lifted my legs at the bottom.
The Zero G exit was also fab, I really felt the train pushing me down the track all the way to the immelmann. Followed by move downward pressure out of said immelmann. The best parts are sections of airtime drops into helixes though, they are super intense.

So yeah, Talon is pretty damn fab, and it was my 250th cred yay! No pic though as I'm not that effing goony :wink:.
Have a pic of the car park instead.

Park thoughts - One really good cred and a couple of decent coasters to back up Talon, but lineup wise doesn't hold a candle to some other US parks. Although Demon Drop is brilliant. Feels really small as well, due to the waterpark taking up so much land. Park was clean enough, ride ops friendly enough, but felt a little soulless, with no real theming to speak of.

I had managed to nab all the creds plus Demon Drop and grab some tat within 1hr 30 mins, so jumped in the car to get going to Knoebels.

 

[Ian]

I think I'm the only person in the world who likes the jojo roll. When I rode it, I forgot it had one and as I was sat at the back of the train it really took me by surprise.

And yes, I agree that Talon is fab.

 

[Hixee]

I think I'm the only person in the world who likes the jojo roll. When I rode it, I forgot it had one and as I was sat at the back of the train it really took me by surprise.

And yes, I agree that Talon is fab.

No, I liked it too! I thought it was really funky. Haha.

Generally speaking I really enjoyed Dorney. I liked Hydra and Talon and I remember having a really fun time on Steel Force with Gavin, Brad, Jerry and Aiden. I look back on Dorney fondly.

 

[DelPiero]

I think I'm the only person in the world who likes the jojo roll. When I rode it, I forgot it had one and as I was sat at the back of the train it really took me by surprise.

I'm not a hangtime fan, so it didn't do much for me, but it's a lot better than just turning out of the station into the lift.

Knoebels

After smashing through Dorney in double quick time I needed to get to Knoebels, knowing that the combination of a Saturday coupled with good weather would lead to queues. I arrived at Knoebels at around 2:30pm and was greeted by hundreds and hundreds of cars in the parking area.

After grabbing a few books of tickets I went straight to Impulse knowing they had a single rider line.

Lucky they had that, as the standard queue was a mighty 45 minutes. Due to the single rider queue I was waiting a total of 0 seconds... as I got to the top of the stairs the Op beckoned me through the open gate and I plonked myself in the far right seat, back row.
Total luck but is definitely the fastest I've got onto a significant coaster on a saturday.

Anyhoo, the lap bars are extremely comfortable, the shin bars not so much but I really didn't notice them on the ride, just when being dispatched. So already it's better than any Eurofighter I've been on, and that's before leaving the station.
The drop is fab, enough airtime to be enjoyable and some lovely pull out G's whilst being tastily smooth. The inversions are fun, and i'm putting it down to the restraints, there's no Gerst judder through them and they pull some decent force. The loop was just the speed to give the right amount of hang and the helixes were forcefully fab.
I didn't like the In-line though, it was a bit slow, but I generally don't like them anyway. Other than that though it was great, a lot better that I was expecting, and would be happy for some smaller parks in Europe to pick up one of these from Zierer.
It's just a shame about the colours, they don't suit the park in the slightest.

Trundling on I was taking in the atmosphere, which was really good, loads of people milling around getting food, riding something or generally chatting, quite the difference from the morning at Dorney.

I then stumbled across Kozmo's Kurves

Which had a 15 min queue, but I sucked it up and waited with all the kids. I'm glad I bothered with this, the airtime in the back was pretty insane for a kiddy cred. I also liked how the boat ride casually goes straight through the cred course.

Moving on I managed to find the back of the park and Black Diamond.

I really liked this, its a really well done ghost train with a couple of coaster drops essentially. Some of the animatronics are really good and it has a working spinning tunnel, quite the rarity these days. Not the most thrilling of things but well worth a spin.

At this point the queues starting turning ugly, Flying Turns was 45 mins, Phoenix 30, so I made a bold decision to do Twister then come back. Luckily Twister only had a 10 min queue.

Expectations of this were low, but yet again the coaster delivered. There admittedly is next to no airtime, but I honestly didn't care. It's so quick with some great headchoppers as well as not being rough, most importantly it's really fun! The speed it went through the tunnel was the icing on a Twisty Cake. Great ride.

Flying Turns was still at the 45 min line so I got in the queue for Phoenix instead.

It was only a 10 min wait but I spent another 15 queuing for front, as it had to be done.
It's incredible, or as they say in Spain, increíble, incredibile if you're in Italy. I've never been on anything like this beast, I love the fact that even on the entrance to the first turnaround there's a lovely pop of floater in the front before the real ride begins.
The first couple of bunny hills totally set the pace for the rest of the course, perfect floater against the buzz bar then it turns around and gives another 3 gorgeous moments of floater including my personal favourite on the double down, at which point i'm giggling like a schoolgirl. The final stretch I wasn't touching the seat as I was floated again and again, it was simply increíble.

Time was running away with me, it was nearly 5 and I had to be on the road by 6, but **** it, I needed another ride on Phoenix

Row 3 this time and it was even better airtime wise, gorgeous gorgeous floater, so amazing. It made 3rd on my list at this point, there really is nothing like this anywhere else.

Finally I got in line for Flying Turns

I appreciate that Knoebels pushed on with it for so long. But it's pretty turd, after waiting for 45 mins and having to miss out on 3 more rerides on Phoenix I have a bit of resentment for this cred now. It does go up the sides quite far at points but the loading process it so laboured and it's over so quickly, plus stacking...

I grabbed myself a Phoenix T shirt and a couple of pin badges from the nearby shop before literally legging it to the car to beat the rush of people leaving. Another hour and a half journey awaited me.

Park Thoughts; Nice to have a free to enter (and not charge to park the car) theme park which offers free wifi and looks gorgeous in the woods. Most of the buildings fit with a Log Cabin type vibe and with the 3 woodies and Black Diamond, the creds fit the theme too.
Impulse looks strange though, it's a great ride, but it looks out of place.
It's a shame I didn't have more time as I would have liked to explore it a bit more, but it's safe to say I will go back, just so I can get my Phoenix fix again.

 

[caffeine_demon]

I don't know of any other coaster that gets you giggling as much as phoenix - definitely best in the front row of each of the cars (ie 1,4,7 and 10)

 

[Hutch]

Doesn't Dorney have an Intamin Impulse shuttle? I don't remember reading it in your report (or I may have missed something…).

I passed Dorney on my way to Hersheypark, looks alright. Seems to have lots of nice supporting coasters buts lacks that amazing ride (Talon does look excellent though).

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts on Compounce and SFNE… and I assume you returned to Hersheypark, right? I'd be looking forward to that too because Skyrush <333

 

[DelPiero]

Doesn't Dorney have an Intamin Impulse shuttle? I don't remember reading it in your report (or I may have missed something…).

I passed Dorney on my way to Hersheypark, looks alright. Seems to have lots of nice supporting coasters buts lacks that amazing ride (Talon does look excellent though).

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts on Compounce and SFNE… and I assume you returned to Hersheypark, right? I'd be looking forward to that too because Skyrush <333

Possessed is in the report but I forgot to nab a pic so easily missed when reading.
I passed dorney a couple of years back but I didn't have time to do it then, but it's not a bad park, just that nothing there is genuinely world class.

Hershey was the last of the 3 I did on this day, I'll get the Sat evening and Sunday written up in the next couple of days as all I have right now are notes and pics.

 

[DelPiero]

Saturday night at Hershey

The drive from Knoebels seemed to go on forever, but I eventually got to my hotel in Harrisburg around 7:15, dumped the bags and made my way to Hershey for preview entry. I found it really strange seeing hundreds, probably thousands of people leaving while I entered, excellent

I had no intention of doing anything other than Skyrush whoring for 2 hours, so that's exactly what I did.

First ride, front left.

The best coaster in the world, no doubt about it, I was actually really worried that it wouldn't be as good as I remembered it from 2013. Mainly because I only rode it once, and it was the first coaster of the US trip that year, but also because I've ridden a lot of brilliant creds since. But I needn't have worried, she delivered perfectly, the ORP sums up how much I love her.

I snapped a couple of crappy night pics, which really are awful, sorry.

Over the course of the night I got 5 rides in, queue was around 20 mins (front took an hour). All but the first ride I went back row, just the wing seats. Back left is my favourite, as the whip from the twisted hill and the Stengal seemed to be stronger there, but the right's force on the first turn out of the drop is ridiculous. Of course I got the last train of the day as well
Only once did the restraints tighten so much it was uncomfortable, and that was because they didn't release on the brake run.

I also forgot how strong the airtime is on the smaller airtime hill near the end, it's wonderful.
Everything about it is perfect, there is nothing I wouldn't change about the coaster itself, though it would benefit from a better station and faster cable reset.

All in all the first day was a blast, managed to get all the creds at both Dorney and Knoebels without too much trouble and had a few great rides on Talon and Phoenix, ending the day on my favourite ride in the world. I hit the sack content but damn tired, at least the following day would be less stressful.

Sunday

After a nice lie in, I made my way back to Hershey for opening, there were a couple of new creds since my last visit. As I wasn't staying in a Hershey hotel I had to wait for normal opening.

After getting through the gates I made my way towards Reeces Cup Challenge where there was a gathering of people waiting for the rope to drop. Once dropped I made a swift bee-line for the new for 2015 Laff Trak.

As I was there so early there was no queue, but I noticed the queue line was well themed, as was the loading area. Loading area needs work, batching is slow, gates are slow, possibly due to throughput issues but still.

The ride itself started off great, these maurer spinners are good fun, and I do like neon theming, unfortunately the block brakes were all on, resulting in jerky stops which totally killed the pacing and provided an annoying distraction to an otherwise fun ride. That being said, it's worth a re-ride or two, but that seems to be impossible as when I'd finished my ride and walked out I noticed the queue had already half filled.
I think it was the right choice for the park, it's totally different from anything else they have and people seem to really enjoy it. Plus it's a people hoarder, freeing up the better rides Win-Win.

Anyway, next was the only cred I didn't manage to get in 2013, the mouse.

Pretty standard mouse, nothing bad, nothing good.

As I was in the area I thought it downright rude not to have a go on Lightning Racer

I decided to do Lightning, as I recalled it being the better of the two. Unfortunately it wasn't as good as I remembered, possibly as it was still early in the day and there was noone on the ride. I do love the racing aspect though, especially near the end when it splits and the trains pass on the turn.

Started walking back to the middle of the park and saw Fahrenheit was practically walk-on, but it broke just as I got to the air gates. Looked like something had come loose on the train. I din't fancy hanging around for half an hour in the hope it would work, so bailed. Shame really as I really enjoyed the corkscrews last time, but rather this spited than others.

I decided Stormrunner needed some love, but before that I decided to give Sidewinder another chance after being horrible last time.

Much better ride than a couple of years back, the restraints are so much better than the standard ones and didn't get any bashing at all. It was still a bit jolty through the Cobra Roll but at least I didn't come off with concussion.

Stormrunner time, and as there were still hardly any queues for anything I waited for front row.

I still love this bad boy, the launch is excellent and it takes the top hat with more speed than most of the other Intamin launchers I've ridden. I forgot how good the Cobra Loop(sic) is on this, seems like it goes on forever before flipping right side and twisting down. The airtime into the heartline/flying snake dive is amazing, pop of ejector into the heartline and you float for ages as it dives. Brilliant ride.

Ran round for another go, 2nd row this time, still excellent and minimal roughness. A lap bar version of this would be killer.

I then made a bee-line for the final cred needed to complete the park, Cocoa Cruiser.

Not much to say about this, the location is the best part, I spent the entire ride drinking in the view of Stormrunner.

Reeces Cup Challenge was close so gave it a go. Don't remember much apart from getting a crap score and being annoyed I couldn't hit the lights. Honestly have no recollection of what it was about, damn shooters.

By this point the crowds were out in force, the front of the park was pretty swamped with people and Great Bear had an hour queue, so skipped it. Coal cracker was only 15 though and I didn't have time for it last time so gave it a go.

Not the greatest log flume ever, but I did enjoy the drop and the weird airtime hump at the bottom. It has some good views of SDL and Great Bear, but it meanders pretty slowly.

Lunch was to be had, so I went back to the Smokehouse and had the Pit Beef Sandwich and Mac'N'Cheese, which was fab. It's up there in my favourite food in parks, though Tivoli gardens owns the top spot.

After Lunch I went back to Skyrush for the rest of the day.

The queue was around 45 mins each run, so had 4 amazing rides in the back row before calling it a day as I had a gruelling 6 hour drive ahead of me.

Before Leaving I spent some time in the Skyrush area grabbing pics, before giving a support a cuddle and grabbing some tat.

Sunday was a weird day, as it was literally mopping up from my previous visit, plus some rerides on my favourite coasters. I noticed a lot of security here this time, nearly everywhere there was a couple of them wandering around, certianly a lot more of a presence than any other park I've been to.
I still love the park, it's got a great variety of rides, and really just needs a drop tower or Talocan style top spin to round it out. RMC'ing Wildcat would also improve the ride lineup. Obviously it has the 3 Intamins, which are worth the trip alone.

It's no Phantasialand though, but it's not trying to be. It's a great Amusement Park in it's own right.

 

[Darren B]

Massively agree with Impulse not fitting in with the park. I think it was Dick's son, Richard who decided on Impulse. Good ride decision, horrible choice of colour. Richard's a lovely guy (so glad he doesn't take after his dad who's a bit of an ignorant **** in all honesty) but without being rude, he's a sausage short of a BBQ.

I fear for the park when he takes over but I wish him the best of luck, he deserves it.

 

[DelPiero]

I've just realised I moved the old pics so they aren't showing in the above post, oh well, hopefully people saw them before I moved them.
Bit of a delay since the last update but I have some time today so...

I was gonna skip all the midweek stuff as there's no parks but just some culture and food stuff, but there was a cred and it doesn't take long to put up.

Working near Boston for a week meant I could pop into the city one evening and have a wander around, so here's some pics:

As part of my walk I went to Quincy Market, which was quiet due to both it being a Tuesday and a band of rubbish weather hitting New England

I did manage to get myself a Lobster Roll and Clam Chowder whilst there, the Lobster was fab, though the Brioche Roll was a bit stale, the Chowda was **** fantastic though.

On the subject of food, I had this lovely Lobster with Mac N Cheese pizza

But the highlight was a place called Firefly's Bodacious BBQ, which was seriously impressive. Good range of beer, and utterly fantastic food. It was so good I went there twice.

I was bored on Thursday to took a trip slighty north to Funworld Game center

Which had this funky little cred, with a very steep lift hill and quite violent airtime. One of the more memorable +1s I've endured that's for sure.

The plan was to head down to Lake Compounce on the Friday night, I had my Haunted Graveyard ticket and everything but it was really cold on the Friday, around 4 C, and being the prat that I am, I assumed it would be open. 2 hours later I arrived at a very closed park, one of the staff said they made the decision earlier in the day to close due to the temperatures, but typically I hadn't checked before I left.

There was nothing to be done but to drive the 2 hours back again and re-plan the following day. Now I had to get through 3 parks again in one day...

 

[GuyWithAStick]

There's nothing better than overly intense +1s.

That food looks fantastic, though. I am very intrigued about that Lobster/Mac n' Cheese Pizza thing.

Can't wait to see the 3 parks in a day thing. Good luck!

 

[DelPiero]

Arguably the most stressful day of the trip was this one, with having to add Compounce's Haunted Graveyard event onto this I had 3 parks to get through and 4 potential world class coasters to ride.

I got to Quassy nice and early, around 11:30, rides opened at 12 and there was no one, not a soul around, just a few members of staff who assured me the rides would be opening on time. So I wandered around getting some pics so I could jump on and go.

First up was Big Dipper (as it had an op there testing)

I was happy to have 1 lap and go, the op was gracious to my request so I slunk off quickly with a +1 under my belt.

Then was the first train of the day on Wooden Warrior.

Despite the fact that it was bitterly cold and the train had only done 2 testing laps it ran pretty well. Lovely airtime pops all over the ride, with my personal favourite part being the hill into the tunnel. It does lose quite a bit of speed into the final 2 bunny hills but there's still some nice floater going on. I would be very happy to have another go on this when it's warmer as I'm pretty sure I got a poor run and it was still fab.

Quassy is a weird park, it's obviously a local thing, with enough to keep young families entertained through the summer, and they have bought a fantastic little woody to cater to the older thrillseekers. I wish them well, the staff are friendly and it's well kept.

Park 1 done in 10 minutes, both coasters being the only rider, good times. Luckily that trend continued at SFNE.

I got to Six Flags around 1ish, parked up and legged it to the gates, but found the park to be strangely quiet. Apparently the potential Hurricane was scaring people away for the weekend

Not one to argue with excellent fortune I started my Six Flags experience with Flashback

Generally I would go as close to the middle as possible on boomerangs, but you're assigned on this, and they assign back to front. So even though I was the only person riding, I had to go back row despite my protests. It was pretty nasty, never again.

I was then too excited and instead of going for Goliath I went to Wicked Cyclone, my first RMC

First ride was front row, and it was amazing! The drop is steep enough and the trains long enough to generate a bit of hangtime before the back crests so you get the hang/kick drop I like so much on Colossos, with lovely airtime on all the hills, the stall in the front is sublime, easily the best part. I loved it, but I knew the back would be better.

The ride was walk on, so I got a 2nd from back row followed by a back row ride before moving on. The back is utterly incredible. One of the best rides I've ever had. The airtime on the drop is astounding, considering it's really not that tall, the first turn is a quiet ish moment to reflect on how good the drop is, whilst still being hit with some positive G's. The first airtime hill is so low the ejector is quite something before rising into the stall, which isn't as good in the back, but you get a bit more whip from the pull out.
The following couple of turns are a slight break before in my opinion, the best sequence of the ride. The trick airtime hill into 2 amazing ejector hills, followed by a quick turn, an outward banked hill, inward banked hill and then the most perfect Zero G roll ever created. My explaination of that element can't do it justice, maybe it's because of the restraints, which feel like they aren't there through it, but once you lift out the whole element is taken at the perfect speed and trajectory that once you land you're coming out again from the next airtime hill. It's amazing.

The next couple of turns flew by as I'm muttering "perfect zero-g" then I'm brought back to the ride with the twisted airtime hill at the camera, so much ejected lats it's fab.

It was with a heavy heart that I stopped whoring and moved on making a note that It's definitely in my top 10, maybe top 5 (Depending on other creds of the weekend), but I did grab another couple of back row rides before I left and got a hoody, because it's Wicked.

Next was Pandemonium

It was alright, couple of jolts and a bit too much spinning at the end, but there were a good couple of pops of airtime. One which the GP love, but I wouldn't bother again.

Goliath was calling!

Luckily got assigned front row, as I've heard the new trains are shockingly bad anywhere else. I really liked this though, super super intense, so much so that I needed a few seconds to compose myself before walking anywhere. I would definitely ride this again, especially in the front. The holding brake is brilliant, a backwards drop tower staring at the sky, really fun, and the loop backwards messes with your mind man...

I needed a break so got the Great Chase done.

One and done. Then Thunderbolt.

Expectations for this were quite low, so I was pleasantly surprised by some of the airtime, especially the double down, but mainly it was a bit meh and bumpy.

I'd heard so much about this, I remember it being one of the first POVs from the USA that I watched, it looks fab, I mean look at it...

It's a shame it's overhyped.

Front row, full train. No onboard music, no Bizarro above the drop hole, minimal airtime, uncomfortable restraints. I was so disappointed with the front row ride you can't imagine. I liked the drop, but it's nowhere near as good as MF's, the speed was one of the only redeeming features and the tunnel was fab.
I decided to go get the rest of the creds and hope Bizarro would warm up and turn into something recognising what I'd heard about.

Then I grabbed Catwoman's Whip, the bum vibrating Zierer.

And Mind Eraser

Congratulations, you've won a place in my bottom 5 you disgusting piece of ****.

Batman - The Dark Knight should rid me of the headache

And it did, for 75% of the ride, I was loving it until the interlocking corkscrews, which cauliflower eared me bad. I would have re ridden this but my ears were screaming at me, such a damn shame.

I then picked up the last cred - Gotham City Gauntlet yada yada yada

Standard Maurer mouse with some "theming", but the airtime hill did actually provide airtime on this, impressive.

Creds done, all I wanted was some rerides on the big 2. Whilst wandering around I took some pics of the Halloween event theming.

Due to timing I didn't do any of the Halloween Attractions, but they obviously spent a good chuck of cash on doing the place up, there were a few animatronics dotted about and scare zone areas well decked out.

I went back to Bizarro, hoping it wasn't still being rubbish

Back row, different story. MILES better than the front, it had been no more than an hour since my front row ride so it wasn't due to a temperature change. The whole thing felt faster, there was more airtime, not necessarily brilliant RMC/Skyrush/EGF airtime, but good airtime nonetheless. It is a very good ride, but it ended up missing out in my top 10 barely. Give me another few rides in the summer when it's not a very cold day and it could well jump up the rankings, it has the potential to do so, but it wasn't running well for me.

I finished the day with a couple more rides on Bizarro and Wicked Cyclone <3 as the crowds started to increase.

The weather was a blessing and a hindrance then for SFNE, on one hand it was very quiet, allowing for multiple re rides on the 2 main draws, but the cold affects Bizarro badly. The supporting cast of creds isn't anything to shout about, Goliath was pretty good, and Batman was decent for the most part, but the rest are total fillers with no re ride-ability. That said, it has Wicked Cyclone, which is incredible, and is worth the trip alone, I wouldn't hesitate to go back just to ride that over and over. Not impressed with the majority of the tat in the shops though, and they only had XL T shirts available (yes I know I was in America but surely there are some normal sized people like Snoo and Guywithastick). Their Halloween theming was pretty decent though, and I was there for the start of the event at 6pm which had a good volume of actors, but I left straight after.

Moving on, back I drove to Lake Compounce, and got totally lost looking for the car park.

TIP OF THE DAY

Don't put the park's sat nav in, the car park is in a totally different place, do some research, unlike me.

Once I'd found the car park I made my way to the entrance and was greeted by this amazing tunnel.

The pic might be rubbish but the amount of fog in there was ridiculous, you can't see a sodding thing and there's things hanging from the ceiling which you only see at the last moment, very unnerving.

So I got into the park around 7:30 after booking into the Haunted Graveyard for 8:30 giving me enough time to grab some creds right? Wrong, spited by everything, except Boulderdash. Obviously being spited sucks but at least the main reason for going to Compounce was running, so I got in line for the front.

Queue was lengthy, as they were only running one train, I was lucky I'd booked the graveyard for later as I waited around 45 mins for front row.
I got the row to myself as there were no other singles so I allowed myself to goon out with a massive grin as we climbed the lift hill.
I can see why this is so highly rated, the front row ride was amazing. I've never experienced any night ride like this, trees and rocks on both sides flying through the woods with blissful airtime, unable to see hardly anything with the trees blocking out the starry sky, albeit with the odd crunch. The return leg was acutally the more disappointing half for me. The turnaround had a really nasty crunch, like there's a literal pot hole in the track, which was obvious on each of my 5 rides in different seats. The back end had some lovely airtime but it seemed to run out of pace on the triple up before the camera and never recovered. It was very slow on the last 2 "hills".
I really don't like criticising it though as in all honesty that front row ride was incredible, but like Bizarro it suffered from;
A) Overhyping it in my head
B) Cold Weather
I got chatting to a couple of other enthusiasts who were whoring it after I'd done the Graveyard and they both told me it was too cold for the ride, and it was suffering from maintenance on the turnaround.

So typically, a ride which has the potential to be in my top 3, and I expected it to be, failed to deliver due to the cold. But it still made my top 5 despite this, that's how good it is.

So I also did the Haunted Graveyard, all the pics I took were total **** so excuse the lack of pics and the wall of text.

So this was my first real introduction to the USA Halloween Attractions, having not had time for SFNE's, and I knew very little about it when I booked it. Just that it lasts around 45 mins and there's at least 7 different sections/themed areas

There's actually a lengthy queue even when booking time slots, so I actually got in around 9, in the queue were a couple of well costumed actors who did the usual creepy jump scares.
Batched into groups of 8-10, there is probably a 2 minute gap between groups which allowed most of the attraction to take place without bumping into others.
Bear with me as remembering the sections in order is proving to be difficult, but you enter into a Monastary area they call the Catacombs, with Monk type figures with white makeup, I.e. an introduction to death and not overly scary, they were going about their business it seemed.
You exit the monastery into the main Graveyard area, which in my opinion was the best section. Zombies were coming out of the graves and running full pelt from one side of the graveyard (which is very large) all the way to the other side for the scare. There were a couple of really well acted parts here and went on for around 10 minutes due to the size.
There was then a shorter section with a load of ghoulish looking pumpkins and a actor dressed as one pretending to be on the shelf and rose out at the group, good scare.
Next was the standard slaughterhouse/butcher area which while well themed didn't have well utilised scent cannons, this should be the area where I feel sick from the smell but there was nothing, visually spectacular, but missing the scents.

Then was easily the worst part of the attraction, the corn field. This felt like another 10 minutes, going back and forth like a switchback queue, no actors, just the sounds of crows and children, after a few minutes all apprehension had left me as there was no suspense, just boredom.
I think the next part was werewolves but honestly I don't remember it very well. The next part was a cave, which had really good fog effects and coolness, not many scares but loads of bats and red eyes on the walls, creepy looking and well done.
There was then a spider area which I quickly went though, not a fan of anything to do with them so paid no attention and moved on to the next scene which was banshees/ghosts with well done strobes and bright white theming on the walls.
I think next was a pitch black area with lasers at eye level which would've worked perfectly with creepy noises in your ear or a light brush of the leg but alas, no actors here.

Next was the standard vampire area, no special scare tactics here, hiding vamp jumps out, scares women. Again, excellent static theming though, some of the statues looked real.
There was a weird Jungle area with body parts hidden in the trees and a really well done Hillbilly area with 5 actors all playing their parts well. Couple of funny one liners included too.

The last bit was exiting into what seemed like an ambulance area with pretend guests being patched up by doctors and nurses, but them chainsaw man appears and everyone (including doctors and patients) all leg it towards the exit where the doors open and they reset for the next group.

There must have been around 200 actors in there, and although the theming and production of it is incredible, I was disappointed by the creativity of the scares, they were mainly jumps with not much variety. The best was either pumpkin man or one of the fab zombies who really gave it her all.

After a few more runs on Boulderdash, back row, better airtime but the front was more fun for me, I went to get some tat, unfortunately the tat here is absolute rubbish.

Then I was shattered and I drove another hour down towards New York before getting my head down after a long but fantastic day!

 

[DelPiero]

There's nothing better than overly intense +1s.

That food looks fantastic, though. I am very intrigued about that Lobster/Mac n' Cheese Pizza thing.

Can't wait to see the 3 parks in a day thing. Good luck!

Especially when you have no idea they are gonna be that intense, I had 2 of then during the trip, This one and Cozmos Curves @ Knoebels were totally unexpected and a welcome hit of kiddy airtime

The Pizza was from a place call Rail Trail in Marlborough, they had a really fab menu, very different. So we had to have the pizza, as I'd never seen it anywhere else. We also had Buffalo Tater Tots, so scratch made Tater Tots with blue cheese inside , slightly fried in Buffalo Sauce, tasty!

I'll write up the final day at SFGAdv tonight/tomorrow so Darren and Ben have enough time to respond to my views on BD and Bizarro, i got some nasty messages from them whilst in the states /cry

 

[Gavin]

Generally I would go as close to the middle as possible on boomerangs, but you're assigned on this, and they assign back to front. So even though I was the only person riding, I had to go back row despite my protests.

This nonsensical s**t infuriates me. Obviously, ride ops aren't hired for their abilities to think for themselves, but it pisses me off.

 

[GuyWithAStick]

If the wait is less than 10 minutes, DON'T ASSIGN ROWS!

All it does is allow for a less enjoyable experience. At least at SFGAm you can actually ask for certain seats IF they are assigning rows.

 

[DelPiero]

They claimed that the weight was required to be on the back end, but I've never heard that one before. And if that's the case then why were they assigning Goliath front to back? Different model I know but still.

I missed out the fact that I actually lost my car keys whilst at Compounce so spent the last 30 minutes of my night searching around before one of the security guys rang round and found them for me. Apparently they fell out of my zipped pocket on Boulderdash and managed to stay in the seat...

Only mentioning because it is the scariest moment I've had at a park, I honestly thought I'd be waiting 5/6 hours for the car hire company to turn up with a new key as I'd got the car from Newark.

 

[peep]

Finally caught up with this report. Love this collection of parks, jealous you got to so Wooden warrior as that spited us. Sounds like you had a couple of awesome weekends though.

Oh and losing the hire car keys, I would have proper freaked out! Glad security found them.

Look forward to hearing about your day at SFGAm.

Sent from my E6653 using Tapatalk

 

[DelPiero]

There are days when you're bored, as work is a slog, so you browse old topics. Then you realise you never finished the effing trip report and feel like a nonce, well...

The final day.

I slept well that night, I was shattered, but upon waking at 7am ready for the 2 and 1/2 hour drive I was full of energy, for today was the record trip, tallest coaster and drop tower in the world, and one of the "Must Do's" of the enthusiast community.

I got to the park nice and early at around 10 and was greeted by maybe 5-10 cars in the parking lot, good signs, I mooched around for a bit watching everything test before they started letting us in around 10:30. The first thing I noticed was this fab fountain

I strode past and made my way towards one of the most anticipated creds of the trip.

Seemed like forever but they eventually opened the line at around 11:05, with 10 of us queuing up. I went straight for the back row and managed 2 runs without having to move, then switched to 2nd from back for 2 more runs before the station started to fill.
Toro's drop is one of the best there is, every seat I tried gave ridiculous ejector on that drop, it's incredible. The speed which the train goes over the crest is one of the reasons why it's so good imo. The headchopper adds a tasty topping to the cake, they must have designed it with an extra couple of feet clearance due to everyone being a foot out of their seats.
The large hills are sublime ejector and the turnaround is quick, well banked and not rough in the slightest. Even the return leg of hills, whilst not as severe airtime, are a bit more floatish, with headchoppers included, but that Rolling Thunder hill...
That's the most intense ejector I've ever experienced. It's borderline painful, totally terrifying (on the first run) but so addictive. The slalom turns add a lovely speedy dimension to the ride which just tops the ride off.

Both Kingda Ka and the Skyride were playing silly buggers so I traversed the park, picking up Blackbeards on the way before reaching Skull mountain

For a family coaster the first drop of this indoor ride sure is intense, I was prepared for it and it was still a shock. The rest of the ride was a little boring with only a couple of theming bits that I can remember.

Next on the list was Nitro

It was around midday now, 3 creds done (but I'd ridden Toro 4 times) and this was the current state of the queues.

Nitr-OH! MY! Front row I went, and this is one spectacular Hyper. Even when it'd only been running for an hour it still gave some amazing floater throughout. I love the first hill where it dives to the left, the floating while the train twists is a slightly unnerving feeling but fab. The hammerhead turn provided some nice positives to go along with the constant floatyness, then the upward helix which when in the far right seats is very powerful. I'm guessing because it's sustained at a decent speed? The final hills are pure floater bliss, perfect ending to a top notch coaster.
The first ride was the dreaded train C and I still loved it, but I knew it would be even better later on so I scampered off to Batman

Or namtaB as it was still running backwards. Of course I went back row, like always on these (fronts a waste of time on reversed trains of course). The force of this thing is ridiculous, so intense. I can see why a lot of people dislike these due to being too forceful, but I loved it. Sometimes you need that ride that totally kicks your ass to remind you forces aren't all floater or ejector, but huge positive G's that make you feel like you're being crushed. Really selling it aren't I...
Anyway, brilliant, but 2 rides was enough, not one that can be marathoned. I really want to try a normal facing one to compare to namtaB, hopefully the force is the same.

Next on the cred tour was Dark Knight

Slightly better than an average Mack Wild Mouse due to the theming but it was no more than a +1 really.

I then managed to find the kiddy cred Road Runner Railway

A few minutes of embarrassment for another +1 I can deal with, especially as there was noone else around.

From what I could tell Kingda Ka was going down on a regular basis, but at this point it seemed to be running for 30 minutes continuously so I jumped in line.

Record holder time, but I was less nervous for this than TTD a couple of years back, most likely due to the restraints and the fact that I'd done TTD and survived. I grabbed the first available row, simply because I needed the cred and couldn't risk a technical issue closing it for the day, row 4 I think it was.
Weird one... Not overly rattly on the launch, maybe due to mid seat, but didn't seem that quick. I think it gets to it's max velocity quicker than TTD, which I kept comparing it to. TTD seems to disengage from the launch mech a lot later than Ka. It felt like we were coasting the last few hundred feet before the hill.
The twist on the way down really rattled though but I wasn't overly bothered, I was just glad to have ticked the box.

Then was the ride I was most scared of doing., Zumanjaro

I love drop towers, but hate the climb, though I've got a lot better in the last couple of years. This one is around 100ft taller than any of the others I've been on, Zumanjaro being 415 ft, AtmosFear @ Liseberg being 300ft.
As expected, the ascent was torture, I barely managed to keep my eyes open and I wedged my arms against the restraints to provide a bit more of a secure feeling, see the below random pic of the not very calming restraints

We nearer the top and I appreciated the wonderful view of El Toro and the rest of the park before the drop. Once it released by terror turned to joy, it's freefall so there's no fab ejector like the fabbri's, but the speed of the drop is astounding, I've read it's 90mph for 6 seconds, and I can believe that. The drop is incredible, but I simply couldn't do the ascent again.

After facing my fear I decided to have a break and ride something tame so this was next

One of the longer waits of the day, around 15 minutes as they were "Thorpe Park'ing" it on this one. It was enjoyable, nice and smooth but not very intense, apart from the pretzel, which was fab <3

Right next door was Green Lantern

This ride really pissed me off.
There's so much potential but it's totally destroyed by the **** riding position and restraints. This could quite easily be a good ride, along the lines of Hydra or Hulk, it certainly has a few of the same elements and qualities, but I had to fight against the restraints to get any enjoyment out of the ride. Possibly the best part was the loop, which I relaxed through and it was reasonably smooth, but any turn or other inversion was awful.
Such a shame.

It was around 2pm and I'd nearly cleared the creds so focused on getting the last 2 then reassessing my plan.

Arrow Mine Train which, apart from a decent ejector hill, is rather disgusting. Kinks galore, like driving down a British road desperately avoiding potholes. Clunk - Clunk. Reprofile and it could be decent, I won't be bothering when I return though.

Final cred of the day(and the trip) went to Bizarro

Wahey!! New favourite floorless coaster!! Good drop, lovely smooth loop, intense immelmann, FIRE!!, and a beautiful Zero-G is a great sequence of elements. Although the best bit of the ride is when riding back left, and you experience the helix of win, wow! I was blown away by how good it was, and ended the new creds with an excellent one.

Creds done and loads of time left, I decided to grab a Halloween attraction pass, $20 for all the mazes wasn't bad, so as it got to 3 I hung around the first one to open, Forgotten Carnival.

Very well done [strike]maze[/strike] attraction (sorry Lofty), utilised the 3D glasses well with a couple of very well done scenes, especially the forest, which had splashes of flourescent colour mixed with contemporary green forest. The sets were well contained as well, with each section seperated from the others and fully covered with no shipping container showing.
The scares were also quite well done, a few clowns in Gypsy Trailers at the end being one of the standouts, and the Clown in the forest who was invisible due to the back of his costume being totally black so he could stand anywhere in the forest and turn round without being spotted (loved the thought behind that one). I did this one twice throughout the day, the first run being the better, Overall it wasn't overly scary but appreciated the way it was done more than the scare factor.
Scare Rating 3/5

There were 2 other walkthroughs which opened at 3pm so moved to those, The Manor being next.

Themed to a generic haunted house, the quantity of actors was quite low, maybe 5 in total. Although the masks/make up effects were very well done. Unfortunately the scenes weren't well seperated, with no ceiling in each section it detracted from the experience, but...
This attraction had the best effect of the day though. You walk into a bedroom and are forced to walk around the foot of the single bed, when suddently the bed lifts up and out comes an animatronic zombie the likes of nothing i've ever seen. Not only does it appear from beneath the bed, but it LAUNCHES out from under it towards the group, who all fly against the wall to avoid the screaming zombie. It was incredible, and I went through the maze again just to see that effect a 2nd time. Amazing.
Overall the scares were minimal and I wasn't very impressed by the sets but the Bed/Zombie animatronic is worth 3/5 by itself.
Scare Rating 3/5

The last walkthrough that opened at 3pm was Total Darkness

And it's exactly what you're picturing, nothing but darkness. You're put into groups of 4, the front person gets a little torch with a small red beam, attached to the torch is a rope, which has a few notches for everyone to hold onto. Idea being, person with torch goes first, rest of the group follow by holding the rope, in the dark.
The torch worked in the way that if you saw the red circle, you're about to walk into a wall, it provided no actual light. The walkthrough itself relied on spooking yourself more than being spooked, with again a small amount of actors in the attraction. They played their parts excellently though, with creepy noises. There was one moment where I thought we had finished as there were no actors around for ages, but we came to a corridor (i think) with the only light in the maze shining on our faces, it went out for around 5 seconds then shone directly on an actor standing against the wall, we all jumped like kids against the opposite wall. Fab <3
Scare Rating 3/5

I then spent the next couple of hours re riding Toro and Bizarro until the Awakening Show began.

I stayed to watch the main show and one of the songs/dance party bits before getting bored so wandered back to Nitro for another couple of rides. Tried the back which I wasn't overly impressed with but 2nd row train B was excellent.

The night mazes were opening soon so took the Skyride over to the Blood Shed.

I had to wait around half an hour for this one, and was themed to torture chamber/Cornfields/Hillbilly House. The Torture Chamber was well done, good scenes but not scary. The Cornfields had no actors at all and was total crap. The Hillbilly house has a family of Hillbillys which were more funny than scary, not worth bothering with.
Scare Rating 1/5

Whilst in the area it would've been rude not to ride Toro again, so got in a Front and 3rd row night ride, amazing
I also nabbed a front row night ride on Kingda Ka as it was surprisingly still running! The crowds were eating up the scare attractions so the front row lines had basically disappeared. The launch was miles better than 4th row, obviously, and I've very glad I took the time to do the front.

Next Haunt was The Asylum.

They let me solo this one, which was very interesting. Actors were impressive, tailoring responses to the solo fool who wandered in, my responses were met with good retorts as well which was fab. I especially liked them working together to occupy my attention while others would sneak around for a scare. The actual sets were the best of the lot as well, really immersive.
Scare Rating 4/5

I then did the Wastelands Haunt.

Think Blair Witch but themed to Toxic Waste and Monsters. Walking through the woods with the odd monster coming at you. It was really long and had enough actors to provide some really good scares (which were impossible to predict), but not too many that the jump scare wasn't overused. Loads of Fog, Scents and Strobes which were well utilised. Only issue was generic walk in the woods theming.
Scare Rating 4/5

Then I had my final rides on Night-Ro

These last night rides firmly placed Night-Ro in my top 10, and is proudly my favourite B&M. Every element was perfect (Row 2 train B), from the first twisty hill to the amazing Helix (especially far right seat) to the perfect floaty bunny hills, it's impeccable.

I then did the final Haunt - Voodoo Island

Unfortunately it was pretty pants, possibly worse than Blood Shed. There was 1 animatronic which was poor, the actors were obviously tired (end of the day) and couldn't be arsed, and the fog tunnell, which has so much potential, was literally just a tunnell with fog and no actors. Shame on you SF!
Scare Rating 1/5

My final rides were fittingly, on El Toro.

All in I managed 12 rides all day, only once did I wait longer than 10 minutes for a ride. One of my favourite runs being with a Chinese guy who was there with his wife but he wanted to go in the back row, so left her sitting in the middle and joined me. He didn't want to put his hands up but I persuaded him just before the RT hill and they quickly grasped onto the restraint once he filled his pants The front seat night ride was brilliant, but the back 2 rows on this are the places to be.

The park itself is alright, it was very quiet so got loads in and has 2 world class coasters. There's something for everyone here, and the supporting coasters are good and diverse enough to make for an excellent day. I got no magic from the place though, it's quite soulless really. Staff made no impression whatsoever, which whilst good that they aren't rude, did nothing more for me than a robot would.
The Halloween Event is pretty good though, 2 excellent haunts, a couple of other good ones and 2 which need restyling/the Lofty Magic.

Thanks for reading, sorry for dragging on.