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East Coast USA Roadtrip! incl. BGW, KD, KI, CP plus more.|June 2018

CookieCoasters said:
I don’t think Flying Dutchman’s are anywhere near as bad as Volare’s, in fact I actually quite like them (not done Batwing, but Firehawk and Nighthawk). I agree though that the lying down position can be uncomfortable when you’re waiting around on the brake-run to go into the station, or just generally when the sun is beaming down on you. However, the actual coaster bit, I like.

SF America doesn’t seem great yeah; we bypassed it a few years ago when we were in DC because we had a limit on the number of parks we would do, and I chose Dorney Park over it since that has two custom B&Ms and this has mostly clones. Doesn’t seem like I missed much, though I’m sure I’ll get the creds some time.
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Volares are definitely worse. I was half surprised that sfam didn't have one!

We did Dorney as well and I'd say that you made the right choice. SFAm wasn't a bad day but probably my least favourite of the trip only because we did loads of amazing parks.
 
Kennywood

Seems like a fitting day to do this one (SC announcement). One of my favourite films is Adventureland so I had been looking forward to seeing the park for real, and of course riding all of the old school stuff they have.

Phantom's Revenge- I was so keen to ride this one. The track is pretty smooth and it has loads of airtime! The first drop and drop through Thunderbolt are amazing! My only gripe about this coaster is the seating. The weird morgan armchair seats make you lean back a lot more than other coaster seats and if you landed wrong on an airtime hill you could land on your lower back instead of your backside. I had one particularly bad ride where this happened and I was fighting to stay upright for the rest of the ride once I had slipped down. If they could solve this problem I would rate the coaster very highly! I would have loved to have done Steel Phantom but I expect it rides smoother now!

Thunderbolt- The drop out of the station is a great perk of this ride and it works so well as a terrain coaster. This ride has some ridiculous laterals as it lacks banking and I felt uncomfortably rib-crushing on the turn after the second lift hill. It's quite a special forceful ride but the rib-crushing did kind of ruin the enjoyment for me and put me off reriding it.

Racer- This was fun, glad to see they've restored the classic entrance. I love the hype of racing woodies and I seem to remember this being smoother than nash so it was decent.

Jack Rabbit- My favourite of the woodies, another terrain coaster with a double down which is fab!

Sky rocket was down which was probably the most annoying spite of the trip (most were not very notable) because it looks kind of fun. Still only a sky rocket I suppose. Exterminator was weird, I think I prefer raptor attack??

Other notable things-
The spider themed pendulum thing was ridiculous! You got some crazy views over Pittsburgh! I usually love those kind of rides (except huss frisbees urgh) but this one had me a bit scared at the top! The noah's ark is a must-do as it's the only operating one still around, great to see it and what blackpool's one must have been like. It was quite creepy tbh! I can imagine little kids getting scared! The old mill is another must as it's a very old river caves style attraction, of which there are few still operating. Unfortunately it's been rethemed to a very bizarre garfield-themed glowing monstrosity that is like some kind of wacky trip, but nevermind, it was an experience! The potato patch fries were great as recommend by literally everyone! We also made sure to do the bayern kurve as you don't see many of those around anymore! The horn is very loud and went off ride as I went past ti. Lovely. I have since been informed that this blows when the train reaches full speed. We also did the musik express but there was no Lisa P to be found (adventureland reference as it's a filming location).

Here is everyone sitting in their couches.

Here is David and I on the Bayern Kurve. (They told us to sit in red cars, hence why we're weirdly spaced out.)
 
Hahaha, that photo of you in the Bayern Curves is hilarious. Looks like you had a falling out. :p
 
King's Island

The Bat
I had been keen to do more of these and this one was fun! I feel like it gets forgotten about because of it's location. Weird how they let you take everything on with you, especially if it's drink bottles etc! Not quite as forceful as I'd have wanted but it was fun, with an interesting layout.

Banshee
I was really excited about doing this as well because I love intense inverts (except maybe Batman at sfgadv which was just ridiculous) and this is obviously the biggest one. I'd heard mixed reviews and I knew the vest restraints would probably ruin it but I was intrigued to ride it either way. It wasn't as intense as I would have liked or expected but it wasn't without force. It rode a bit like Oz'Iris where it kind of floated through the layout. This was probably because the inversions were so big and the vest restrains sort of cradled you a bit. Maybe it's the new B&M invert style as Oz'Iris is similar. I like how they have the son of beast memorial in the queue with the flame and it shrieks as the train leaves the lift hill. It also looks amazing! Love the colour scheme! It's a different ride experience so say, montu or nemesis but if you accept that it's a different kind of thing it's still enjoyable. I seem to remember thinking the zero-g was possibly good in a floaty way? I think the vest restraints give you more of a sense that you're flying in a floaty kind of way than the old school ones.

Diamondback
This was decent and had a nice layout with the splashdown etc but to me it seemed kind of rattly. Every time it dipped after an airtime hill it just felt like it was rattling along. David disagreed with me on this and couldn't feel it but for me it really stood out. I wasn't expecting it as I was expecting smooth B&Mness so it was weird. No idea whether anyone else has ever thought this. Another stunning B&M in the park though-love that they landscaped around the splashdown as it really makes a difference.

The Beast
What a ride! So we did it first in the day and I loved it. I had forgotten about all the hype and about the layout as I hadn't watched a POV in ages and it just came as a surprise to me. The first drop is great into the tunnel and this thing just speeds up and up! I love the way it just carries the speed as most coasters will drop or speed up and then go directly into an inversion or speed-reducing element. The beast does not! It just keeps going! It felt like what a runaway mine train should really feel like- the coaster running away with you! It gives you a time to catch your breath with the second lift hill and then it holds you at the top of the drop on the trim as you see your fate before you hurtle into the mega helix! I remember wondering on my first ride as we were speeding through the helix whether this even beat Taron as my number one! It was close but I'd put it as a firm number 2! I know some moan about the trims but I think without them the coaster would probably derail! The one before the mega helix kind of adds to the suspense too so I don't mind them. We later rode at dusk a few times and also at night (after the fireworks) and it just got better and better. Flying past the fireflies is quite an experience. It doesn't have airtime or inversions but it doesn't need it! It's simple, yet effective! It was just one of those experiences of pure joy where you know you love it and don't have to think about whether you'd rank it highly or not, I just knew. My first ride on Taron was similar and you don't often get these experiences so I was so happy to have a new number 2!

Mystic Timbers

If it wasn't next to the beast this ride would be the best in the park! This is how airtime on a woodie should be done (ok except el toro but that's way bigger and in a league of it's own). The turning drop is great and from then on it just carries it's speed and throws you on here, there and everywhere! It goes out towards the woods and you get a nice view of the rapids as you meander past and over it. This was just pure fun. One of my favourite woodies, no question! Then there's the shed. The shed doesn't add anything to the ride and I kind of struggle to see why they bothered with it. It's not that it's bad but it just doesn't add anything really. I like that they tied in the ride themes into the finale options but it just adds so much more time onto the ride where you could be getting into the queue of the next ride. As I said, it's not bad but just doesn't really add anything to an already great ride.

Other coasters
Vortex was rough, as expected but it does look really great when you walk past it. Firehawk was gross, as Batwing was at SFAm. We didn't break Flight of Fear this time lol. Backlot stunt was as it was at KD, quite fun, very odd but nothing super special. We got on woodstock express this time (didn't get on the one at KD) which wasn't particularly memorable, as was the other kiddie cred, Flying Ace Aerial Chase which seemed to have gotten a little bit rough. Racer was really fun and Invertigo was ok.

We also did the Eiffel tower thing which was nice (but a bit high and windy!) because you could get nice aerial photos.

Overall I really enjoyed this park, it had a nice atmosphere and a ridiculously good set of woodies backed up by some great steel coasters. I preferred it to King's Dominion (we did have a wet day there for most of it though) because the line up just seemed more equally weighted. It's not often you get a park with multiple great woodies!
 
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davidm said:
Yeah you "get" the Beast too. :)
So many people slag it off because its not what they want/expect rather than loving it for what it is!
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The fact that it is so different is half of what makes it so good! So many B&Ms are so similar, even the RMCs have the same formula but the Beast is just awesome in a completely different way to anything else!
 
Cedar Point

Finally got to the legendary park that is CP. I was just hyped for everything really and the drive in is really as good as people say!

First up we got in line for the Steel Vengeance ERT. This took quite a while as obviously everyone had headed up here but the queue gives you a good view of the coaster and this built up the anticipation for the rest of the day.

Steel Vengeance
I'm going to be honest and say it didn't live up to the hype, as in it didn't blow me away or make me come off speechless like some have in their vlogs etc. It's a great ride, don't get me wrong. The first half is awesome, the drop is great, you get a great view and I loved the swoopy bits and inversions. Everything up until the mcbr was great, then it got a bit worse, not bad, but just more of the tiwsted timbers-esque jolty weird transitions. It didn't have as much of that as twisted timbers, which I think is mostly due to this time being a scaled up version that allowed for a less compact layout. It is an experience though that i'd recommend to all enthusiasts, the engineering is impressive (which I think is partly why so many obsess over rmc). Awesome start to the day.

We then decided to get the fastrack pass so that we could reride it later and also get all the creds in one day as I didn't have any of them. The next bit isn't necessarily in order but here we go.

Maverick
Ok we definitely did this next and it pretty much lived up to the hype. This was one of my most anticipated coasters on the trip as taron is my number 1. I came to the conclusion that Taron was slightly better but this is a great ride. It's kind of unusual, with the lifthill and launches and inversions etc and it just works really well. It also has a great location, like SV with yachts sailing past behind (nobody ever mentions this but I thought it was lovely!).

Millennium Force
Ok so I knew that this was a fanboy favourite and lots said it was overhyped so I was prepared to feel mediocre about it. I loved it. The great thing about MF is just the speed and how it maintains it for the whole layout. It is just so big and high it just goes and goes and goes. It's nice and swoopy with no jolty bits like SV and is just pleasant to ride. Again, as with everything at CP it has a great view. I don't mind fangirling over it because to me it's new and not overrated because people are bored of it.

I really enjoyed viewing the whole park as new as it meant I could judge each coaster objectively against each other rather than being bored of older coasters I'd ridden more, which I think a lot of local enthusiasts seem to feel like. (e.g. they're bored of MF so love SV etc)

Coaster reviews:

Top Thrill Dragster
The fastrack was useful for here too and we did it a few times, including once in the front. I can see why people prefer it to ka although I wouldn't say they were realms apart. After faffing about riding ka I walked straight on this with no worries so I consider my coaster launch fear cured woooo. Yes I preferred it to SV.

Magnum XL 200
This was so bad. Like horrific bad. I couldn't wait for it to end. I dreaded every airtime hill as it just hurt and was so rough. I wonder whether I just got a bad seat but this was a disappointing shock as I had been looking forward to trying the "better version of big one". Oh well, everything else had been great.

Gemini
This was bordering on uncomfortably rough but the dueling aspect added to it and it's quite an interesting coaster in terms of history and look. Was ok.

Wicked Twister
This was more fun that it looked, you get some pops of airtime/zero g as the train changes direction and again, awesome view being right on the beach.

Gatekeeper
This was decent, probably the or one of the best B&M wings I've done. It was more forceful than I was expecting, and again, great view.

Valrvn
The vest restraints make this kind of weird and it didn't really feel like the tallest dive coaster because of how many other creds and rides were around it but it was decent. Nothing super spectacular but good.

Raptor
This was good, I can see how it was hyped when it opens but I'd still rank montu, nemesis and mamba above it, maybe more. Solid coaster.

Blue Streak
A bit uncomfortable tbh.

Rougarou
This has a decent layout which I imagine works a lot better as a floorless than a standup. The mist and lagoons make a nice tough.

Corkscrew
A cute little classic. David had warned me about the airtime hill that can cause you to lose your tactical arrow-riding position just before the loop so I was well-prepared. It's nice that they've kept it tbh.

Iron Dragon
We had to wait ages for this because they were doing VR on it. I didn't go for VR because I wanted the classic experience and it was fun.

Other things to note
The melt place is amazing, go there for lunch...or dinner!! Love the artwork on the walls too.
The cable car is a must. I do love a good cable car but this one is another way to see the great views, as is the ferris wheel.

Did I mention that I love the views??? :p

Awesome day, loved it, so glad that it lived up to the hype. There's so much to do that is of great quality there.
 
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Interesting - I think you're the first non-blown away review I've heard of SV! Nothing wrong with that, of course, good to hear a bit of variety.
 
Hixee said:
Interesting - I think you're the first non-blown away review I've heard of SV! Nothing wrong with that, of course, good to hear a bit of variety.
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I know right, I thought I was broken! It is great but I wouldn't put it in my top 10 as there are so many creds I enjoy more, including Maverick, MF and Dragster all in the same park. I feel so blasphemous.
 
I'm back!

Next up is a double park day. Waldameer and Conneaut Lake.

Waldameer

Ravine Flyer II was the obvious hype for the visit and I agree with people that it is rough. As this was my first time riding it I can't say whether it had got worse like others say but, yeah, it went past the marker for fun and into the this-detracts-from-the-experience rough zone. I enjoyed trying it out and we had several rides on it to check that it wasn't just a bad ride. David had done it previously and I think he thought it was better previously but he didn't find the roughness as intrusive as me. The layout is great and I can see why, when it was smoother, people rated it highly.

The park itself is cute and local/cheap without a trashy vibe. It's similar to Kennywood in that respect. It has that traditional, family atmosphere. We did the kiddie cred Ravine Flyer III which was nicely positioned above some water (see below). Comet was fun too despite being the smaller woodie that some seem to forget about. It might have even been more enjoyable than RF II because I think it was smoother. We took a nice ride over the park on the chairlift which goes quite low over the rides and paths. We did the pirate walkthrough ghost house thing which was really bizarre. Lots of homemade weird things in it and it kind of reminded me of Kennywood's noah's ark except with pirates and (intentionally) scary things. It was quite busy. The maurer spinner is probably the worst one I've done but it wasn't terrible, none of them really are. The log flume was fun, as was the wipeout. I think that was about it. We had to get to Conneaut so didn't hang around all afternoon.

The classic shot.


So scenic.


Conneaut Lake

This park has a bit of a sketchy roadside vibe to it but it was still interesting to visit. The devil ride thing (which so isn't a cred) was the most anticlimatic ride ever. Literally nothing happened. I saw a sign for "the infamous gum wall" as we set off and waited for something infamous to appear. The ride was extremely bare and the infamous wall covered in bubblegum failed to impress. I think the staff member gave us a jump scare at the end though (unless this was another ghost train on the trip, possibly. If they did, I probably jumped at it.) Just weird.

Blue Streak. This is an old school cred. The shed and station were peeling and the trains were those metal old school ones. Everything looked like it was about to fall apart. It had a manual station brake so the old dude operating it (who I believe was in some kind of blue streak fan club) had to manually stop and release the car each dispatch. This ride is interesting but IT WAS SO SO ROUGH. The kind of rough where you reach the top of the lift hill/bottom of the first drop and you think "how will I survive this". It has a decent drop and numerous airtime hills so you really got shaken around. We did it twice but both times it was like being a brick in a cement mixer that looked and felt like it was going to break at any moment. It's pretty old and has charm but prepare yourself!

We also did the flying scooters because we wanted to try and snap them. The dude didn't really care so we faffed about a bit on them. There were also some ridiculous looking sketchy/ancient kiddie rides including a tiny kiddie cred which we didn't even contemplate asking if we could ride. We didn't do many of the flats as we'd done similar ones elsewhere (I think it was pay per ride) and some looked a bit past it. The whole place was a bit run down, the kind of place you rock up to and think "oh my" but then once you wander around you enjoy yourself and the quirks. Glad that we made it stop on the trip.

Operator/brakeman guy doing his thing


An example of the slightly sketchy looking kiddie rides with the sketchy kiddie cred in the background.


A view of Blue Streak through the woods
 
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A few of us will be at Conneaut Lake on Saturday, and this quote sums us, and our expectations of the park, up perfectly.
SilverArrow said:
The whole place was a bit run down, the kind of place you rock up to and think "oh my" but then once you wander around you enjoy yourself and the quirks.
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I'm a little bit gutted to hear that the old woodie is super rough, was hoping for one of those old gems!

Nice to see you slowly getting this report done!
 
Next is Hersheypark! Yay

Had been looking forward to this one and it didn't disappoint. We got a bit worried about seemingly large crowds of people going in at the start of the day, but because of a ridiculously hot weather everyone was going to the water park so the park wasn't overly crammed, just medium level i'd say. We took the advice of doing Laff Trakk first which I would also recommend though as this thing just collects a queue so quickly.

Notable ride thoughts:

Laff Trakk- Interesting concept of a spinning coaster in the dark, decent ride for what it is.

Wildcat- Don't remember much specifically about this, I know it has some significance as GCI's first coaster. I know some want this RMC'd but just, no.

Fahrenheit- This is really fun. It's pretty much intamin's take on a eurofighter.

Storm Runner- Yessss this ride is so good! It's pretty short but what it does do it does in a great way! The twist into the dive (not sure how you'd describe it) is especially good but the launch and top hat are great also. Loved it.

Great Bear- I like the setting of this ride and how they've given it an unusual beginning for a B&M invert. It's good, nothing insane but good fun.

Sooperdooperlooper- Got to love a schwarz, although I believe this one has new trains from someone else (?). Again, looks great with Great Bear.

Skyrush- Ok so this one had a big reputation to uphold in both intensity and thigh crushing. My first ride was so uncomfortable the thigh crush was horrid. I couldn't enjoy any of the latter airtime hills at all. I was so disappointed because the rest of it was so good. I then persisted to ride it, determined to find a more comfier position. After trial and error I found that sitting with my hips further forward put the thigh crush into more of a hip crush that meant the forces were more spread out over a larger area. This improved my rides so much so that I could then enjoy the ride. Phew! I found it easier to get the "correct" seating position in the inner seats as you had the floor to help you, however it wasn't impossible on the outer seats and my final ride in the dark, on the outside was insane! This one is certainly going in my top 10 but it would be higher if you didn't need to ride it a load of times to find out how to sit. If only intamin could update the restraints.

Comet- Didn't massively stand out and was a little bit rough but had nice interactions with Skyrush.

Lightning racer- I love this ride. It's like what gwazi could have been if it was actually rideable! The racing element is so fun and you really notice the other train racing along beside you. It has great pacing and is just so enjoyable. We had a great night ride on this which was awesome and very pretty.

Also the coal cracker is great! Shame there aren't more of these arrow flumes with the airtime humps around still.


Pretty!

Overall this park (and Skyrush) lived up to the hype with 3 coasters, Skyrush, Storm Runner and Lightning Racer (ok it's 2, so 4) contending for places in my top 10. The park has a pleasant atmosphere and is just a great place to visit!
 
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Rode Skyrush myself last week, completely agree on the Thigh Crush nickname. Absolutely loved the ride and the openness of the restraints but hate how tight they get. Whoever came up with the idea of loosening the restraints on the break run is a genius. Get the ride retrofitted with Taron-style restraints and the ride will be perfect.

May write a full trip report soon myself but absolutely loved the park. Park was dead as well when I went so virtually everything was walk on, they even allowed me to reride Skyrush multiple times without getting off!
 
Knoebels time!

First things first, Impulse was closed which was annoying but apart from the kiddie cred this was the best one to be down for sure.

First up we had some food in an indoor diner place near the pool. Had a nice toastie thing and it was cute and old school inside-the continuing theme of this park it seems. It's a lovely place to walk around, you feel like you've stepped into a movie or someone's old school summer vacation from decades ago. The pool was very busy as it was a hot day and it was buzzing with people milling around without being too busy.

Flying turns. The award for the faffiest loading procedure goes to flying turns! The queue was so much longer than anything else in the park due to this and when we finally reached the station had to participate in what could only be called the flying turns jig. They announced they were loading one person per car (do they ever load two??) and then proceeded to swap people around until the weight was right for each train. I proceeded to my designated spot and then another swap occured while the revised their original plan. At least one more! Finally we were ready to board. If you take this ride for what it is, a little gem of resurrected engineering that has been lovingly created to replicate an old school experience you'll enjoy it. If you're expecting it to hold up against other woodies in speed and airtime (spoiler, obviously it has none) then you'll be disappointed. I really enjoy modern bobsleds so was pleased to get this credit and I enjoyed the ride. There are some runaway moments and it was just a pleasant experience. If they could sort the loading the queue line would also be a pleasant experience.

Phoenix. This is a great woodie. I wouldn't place it in my top 10 (so I guess I'm not a superfan??) but I enjoyed the airtime and could see why some rate it highly. I think we only did it once so maybe if we had whored it instead of doing other things it would have gone up the rankings. There is a lot of other cool stuff to do at the park though. Also noticed a RCCGB sticker by the op panel lol.

Twister. It's a bit crazy and rough in parts and hauls it around the track. It's quite tall and compliments Phoenix as it's a different kind of thing. It has a weird layout with a double lift hill and a cool station/queueline flyby.

Roll-o-plane. This was awesome. Had been wanting to try one of these for ages, despite their sketchy look, and it was a really quirky fun ride. Nice that it goes forwards and backwards. I've now done a rock-o-plane and a roll-o-plane. :)

Diamond Mine. This was a bit unusual. Wasn't sure about it being a cred until I saw some older photos of it at it's past location so I've decided to count it.

Ghost train. Omg haha. This one scared me a bit....I won't put a spoiler in but there was a certain bit where I jumped/hid my face so violently I gave myself shoulder cramp!!

Flying scooters! Obviously we had to try these are they're known the be the best ones to snap where the operators are chilled about it. This was awesome! The first few times you get up there it's a bit nerve wracking as you feel like you're going to fly off/hit the trees and/or flying turns nextdoor but when you get into the swing of it it's great! I had been practising on a few others of these at previous parks so I was ready to go by this point and it really is such good fun!

The ring carousel is another must-do although the lack of signage meant I spent half the ride confused about what to do with the rings after I had got them. Some people appeared to be keeping them and others were throwing them to the lion so I guess just do whatever you want haha. Quirky idea for a carousel though!

1001 Nachts. The very ride from "that" documentary. Alton used to have one of these back in the day too apparently. This was fun and I do admit it is a really nice looking ride. Not as intense as it looks though. You get a nice view.

Now a regular had recommended to me online that I had to get one of the iced tea slushies from the stand near the roll-o-plane. It was a ridiculously hot day so obviously we had to try it. Let's just say we came back for a second one later as it was soooooo good! They did a couple of fruit flavours, I think we had raspberry one time and maybe peach the other?? Literally one of the best drinks I've ever tasted. Highly recommend! People were so right when they said the food was good here!

Here is the coveted beverage (the first one I think), and yes I couldn't seem to get a photo of it in focus but you get the idea


I took my film camera around the park so have some shots from that.




Loved Knoebels as I knew I would because I love retro stuff. It successfully lived up to it's reputation. We spent the morning/early afternoon here before going to Dorney so that will be next on the trip report.
 
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Dorney Park

We arrived late afternoon after Knoebels here. A storm rolled in pretty quick so we went and had food including crab fries which are these nice seasoned fries that come with a sauce.

The creds

Steel Force. This was fun. Some decent airtime and I don't remember it having the weird laid-back seating that caused some issues on Phantom's Revenge. I know it's a Morgan but people often compared them to arrows and this was much more enjoyable than Magnum (ok maybe I had a bad seat??)

Hydra. This was pretty forgettable. By this point I felt like I'd done a thousand B&Ms and this one was decent, like most of the others.

Talon. This is good. Not one of my top B&M inverts but I can see why people think it's a bit underrated and forgotten about.

Thunderhawk. This was quite fun I think. We got rained out of this the first time we sat down because the storm came but got back on when we went back later. I wasn't expecting them to have such an old woodie (1924) and it has a decent layout with airtime.

Posessed. Decent. Nothing insane but the launches pack a considerable punch and you can get some nice airtime on the spikes.

I don't think we could get on the kiddie cred and the wild mouse was closed so didn't get that one.

Demon drop! This was my second one so I didn't feel like a quivering wreck this time unlike when I had to do the one in Italy on my own. Luckily these don't give you the whiplash that they look like they do. Good ride, never fails to get you a bit nervous with all the clunking and noise that they make as they sound ominous and like they're about to fall apart. We did it in the dark which was good.

I don't think we did much else. We had a good walk around and did what we could. I felt like I didn't really "get" the park. Maybe because I didn't spend enough time there, a whole day might have persuaded me but it just seemed to lack a bit of personality. Like it was the forgotten stepchild of the CF chain. Maybe that is an opinion that has come from reading others' comments though? I enjoyed all of the rides and the park was pleasant enough it just felt a bit...bland?

 
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