TR: Rye, SFGAdv, Moreys Piers, half dozen piersand more 7/14

[FParker185]

will write a more complete TR later, will delete parts of this post and insert a full TR, just going to hit the highlights now...

First off... Flight out, Rye Playland and Coney 7/10/08

So my trip actually started on the 9'th when after work I packed and took the train to Scotts apartment in the loop (Who I did this trip with, some may know him), so after plenty of bullshitting and 3 coronas followed by a 40 of miller I fell asleep. So woke up around 5 am and got ready quickly and went outside to the Orange line stop to get to Midway and catch our 7:30am flight to Long Island on SWA, got there plenty early and had breakfast as Harry Carrays I think, either was was decent, got done just in time to get in line for our upper B seating assignment, ended up in the very last row of the plane, was a fairly standard 737, though I hate all boeing aircraft with a passion, they are absolute garbage when it comes to design and passenger comfort.

Anyways we take off on time and get to long island on time and pick up our rental car without any real hassle, of course they didn't ask to be my fake coupon that got me a free rental day which works out just right. And we hit the road to Rye Playland which is probably about 20 mins north of NYC, though about an hour ride from the airport. Had printed directions for the entire trip and they proved accurate and we made it there easily and surprisingly without traffic, even on the long island expressway. Paid a fairly reasonable $5 to park (after about $30 in tolls to get there with all the bridges). So anyways walked in, park is free then you pay per ride and as of last year they introduced 6 hour wristbands, last year they were $50 this year they are $35, so went for that. The park is pretty old Fashioned, sorta along the lines of Lakeside in Denver and Kennywood, though it's pretty small, though they have some modern rides. First rode Super Flight which is a Zamperla Volare which if anyone here has ridden one knows it needs no review. Don't remember exactly what we did after that, but the park has 3 kiddie coasters, skipped all three despite eligibility to ride 2 of them, besides that they had a Splashwater Falls type ride which I skipped, then Double Shot, starship 2000, Kamikaze, Sea Dragon, Log Flume, several world class dark houses (which I skipped, I don't do them), all was fun. Then they also have a Whip which was utterly insane, I think there was to much slack in the cable but with enough weight in a car, at each end it would spin up up onto 3 wheels and slam you around violently, it was really really good. Last but not least they had the Dragon Coaster, an old Prior and Church coaster which was a whole lot of fun despite the morgan trains. It really didn't do anything really great but it was an incredibly long coaster, has a good tunnel, isnt rough but does provide alot of fun, which is what coasters are really all about. Oh they also had a Zamperla Zig Zag coaster, rode it, credit, done.

We ended up being in the park for about 3-4 hours, which is longer than I had hoped to be there, but it was just such a nice park, was hard to leave, but had to do Coney and at the time was planning to do the New Jersey State Fair.

So yeah, it was around 3 when we left Rye and started heading over to Coney Island, again we hit very little traffic when we got to Coney we cruised for probably 10-15 mins before we found a parking spot, though we didnt have change for the meter, but we left the car anyways and headed over to Nathans for some hotdogs (and change), got the dogs and walked back to the car, no ticket, so we put the change in and ate our hotdogs which were awesome as I expected them to be (they sell them at jewel here and were similar), so then we walked back to the parks and wandered around. I forget the order we did stuff in but I know I rode Breakdance, Pirat and Log Flume at Astroland Breakdance came from the European Fair Circuit a few years back and it was really good and had an awesome mic man/operator. Rode it thrice (got a wristband at Astroland). Top Spin 2 which I was really looking forwards to riding was closed. Also rode Cyclone twice (max amount allowed by the wristband), first ride was in the infamous back seat. Reports this year say it's riding worse than it ever has before and it's crap and terrible and all that. Well if that's the case then the enthuiast community is full of pussys and pansies, cause it's not that bad. If you are going to ride the back seat o Cyclone you know you're going to get roughed up some, but I was expecting it to be a hell of a lot worse. It was fully enjoyable, second ride was sorta in the middle of the train and it was perfectly smooth there. I'd say Coney Island Cyclone isnt a top 10 coaster, but it's still a damned good ride and totally worth riding for anyone who visits the area.

Besides those we also did Wonder Wheel at Dinos WonderWheel Park did tickets at Dinos though I tried to ride a kiddie/family coaster there and was denyed despite the signage saying otherwise, didn't really care though. Did the rolling cars on Wonderwheel, worth noting I have no fear of heights at all nor fear of machinery, so I wasn't scared at all, and the rolling didn't even make me nervous, but it was a heck of a lot of fun. I think it's kinda funny that the 80+ year old Wonder Wheel with bent flat iron track for the rolling cars actually rides smoother than the Intamin/Waagner Biro clone at DCA with modern tubular steel track. Also got a few worthwhile pics from the wonderwheel. Anyways it was getting late, and we sorta made the call to skip the NJ State Fair and hang out at coney for a while longer, ended up doing Sideshows by the Seashore, which was good, had some classic acts, but I think SFGAm's freakshow is alittle more entertaining, but I'd call Sideshows by the Seashore a definate no-miss if anyone is ever in the area, especially if you are into the art of the sideshow. So around like 8 or 9 we left Coney and then made the final call to skip the NJ state fair and headed to our hotel, that being a Extended Stay America in Princeton, NJ fairly near SFGAdv. On the way we were looking for places to eat, especially where Scott could get us a discount (he's in the restaurant industry), ended up finding not much, and chain fast food is basically out the question on vacation except as an absolute last resort, so we got to the hotel around 11 and tried ordering a pizza with no luck, so we went down to a local diner (Jeresy has loads of local diners), this one was called the Princetonian and it was incredible, ended up eating there 3 times, as we spent 2 nights at the hotel., but anyways after that, we were beat and we fell right to sleep seeing as we'd been up since before 5am CDT.

SFGAdv 7/11/08

Well, woke up bright and early and went back to the Princetonian for some Breakfast which was awesome then headed on down to SFGAdv which was 20 min or so from the hotel, got there alittle before 10 and used a parking pass to get into the lot, went for perferred parking and were informed that parking pass is only good for the regular lot, though the way they have it set up, it's not a big deal, in fact ended up with probably a closer spot than if we used perferred parking. So got into the park and found a chain across the midway, turns out the park opens at 10:30, so we stand and wait and at 10:30ish they dropped the chain and we proceeded directly to Kingda Ka which wasnt quite ready but would be opening shortly, so we waited and after about 5 mins they opened up, we went into the left hand station (looking out at the hill), and got in line for the front row for the second train in the station which people dont seem to realize it's 2 seperate trains, so there was no body waiting for the front of that train. Was my first expierience with those new OTSR restraints, seemed like a fairly decent design, nothing groundbreaking, but not bad either. As for the ride, well same as TTD but with an added hill. The hill made the ride feel slightly more complete, at least you get to go fast for longer, but it's still a one trick pony, nice trick though. Also worth noting it's in a fairly new area of the park called Golden Kingdom which was very nicely done, makes it obvious we were really ripped off with Mardi Gras.

Anyways after that went to ElToro it was walk on except for the front and back, first ride was the front row, waited maybe 3 trains, operations here were very efficient no stacking at all. So got on and there is another new restraint design here, sort of a Gerstlauer U shaped bar happening here, with without laterals to speak of, it's not an issue. They do push the restraint down pretty tight, but understandably so, and it was completely within reason, it's not like they were stepping on it or anything, just making sure the bar is where it's supposed to be, and it was fairly comfortable. I am a bigger person though loosing weight, I fit with no problem, though some seats sensors were lower than others, really didn't have a problem. As for the ride, you leave the station and head up an incredibly fast cable lift with a catch on the fly that was smooth, if anyone knows anything about how a cable lift works, you're impressed right now. So up the lift, long sweeping left turn with an incredible first drop, followed by an awesome hill then the turnaround, then a few more good hills, then a lame drop off a turn, after that there is one of the most incredible hills known to man, airtime is just unbelievable, but after that the ride just quits and gets pretty boring for the rest, ending is pretty bad. I personally perfer the hot ending on Colossos at Heide Park with a quick succession of 3 effective bunny hops. Overall the ride is really good though, top 10 for sure. So after that we got back in line and rode probably 4-5 more times in the back seat which is a bit better than the front. When we were done there we headed to Medusa which opens at noon, and it was just before noon and they had just opened, so it was a completely empty station, rode front row. Before I go on it was noon, they just opened and they had all 3 trains on and ready to go with plenty of staff. So we get off and decide to get a quick second ride, so we get to the station and queue up for the back row and it turns out the second train of the day someone made a big mess in the front row. It took a good 20-25 mins to clean it up (it was everywhere, all 4 seats, station floor, railings, OTSR's, it was bad). That ended up being the longest wait of the entire day. But Medusa was running better than it did in 01, though that's not saying much. And it desperately needs a paint job.

After that we got lunch at some western place near the mine train and medusa, my food was ok though overpriced, it had entertainment value, the burger I got tasted ok to fine but if anyone remember the old wendys commercials with the Home of the Big Bun with the where's the beef lady, this was literally the burger from that commercial. It was maybe 3 inches across and pretty well burnt on a kaiser roll that was at least 6 inches across. It was definately related to that burger. It cost way to much, but for entertainment value of that caliber, it was good by me. Anyways after that we rode the mine train, rode front row, it's a pretty standard mine train though at the end of the ride there is a really good airtime hill.

Then we rode the sky ride over to the other side of the park, shockingly both sides of the skyride were open and running efficiently, in 01 only one side was running and you could literally go for minutes at a time without seeing a single gondola plodding along. So on the other side we check out the line for Dark Knight and see a full queue, which we note and move on (with connections we'd go back there and not wait in that line) So we did Skull Mountain which is a pretty good indoor family type coaster. Then onto Nitro which was hauling ass. It's easily the best B&M hyper I've ridden, even better than 01. It was kicking butt and taking names, airtime was unbelievable. And again they were running 3 trains and I did not once see them stack, the second the train crested the lift they'd dispatch the next train, lift didn't even have a chance to slow down. Line was about 5 mins, rode back row, after that though means that don't have to be disclosed we re rode 5-6 times at least once in the front row. Once we were done there we were escorted onto Dark Knight. Now i have no idea what happens in the queue but ride wise, it's identical to ours, underwhelming, but a credit. After all that it's a hair blurry but I know we rode the Ferris Wheel and then made it back to the other side of the park and rode Superman and Great American Scream Machine, GASM really makes me miss Shockwave, it's pretty different in key ways from Shockwave but close enough to want to ride it often again, but after those we pretty much rode ElToro and Kingda Ka alot. At the end of the night we got the same treatment for ElToro as we did at Nitro. Last ride of the night was on Kingda Ka which was alittle disappointing as we didn't accomplish something we were trying to do, but it was fun trying none the less.

So then we headed out and drove back to the hotel and went back to the princetonian for some dinner then back to the hotel and went to bed.





follwed by.. Playlands Castaway Cove, rode a few things there being a Flitzer and a Looping Zyklon and a Technical Park Street Fighter, sorta like an afterburner. It's technical parks prototype for the park model. Oh and skipped 2 kiddie coasters, I could have ridden both but it's just not worth the embarrassment anymore

leaving then Gillians Wonderland Pier, rode ferris wheel, L&T clone of the Pinfari MiniMega, was a really good family coaster, then rode a ferris wheel for pics and a Wacky Worm, I was mortifyed. Oh also rode log flume, was good.

and right after that was Casino Pier in Seaside Heights. No real highlights here, really nice looking park, some cool flats then the coasters we had
Pirates Hideaway - crap
a modern Miler Wild Mouse- crap and then some
and an awesome looking Miler Star Jet which during the course of my visit but before I could ride it clobbered a park employee in the head from which he died yesterday (Wed), coaster looked awesome though, disappointed that the employee disreguarded all common sense to retrieve a little girls hat while the ride was running. I guess I cant be mad at him though, he's dead.

Then right down the street there was Funtown Pier. Didnt ride any flats here but they had the standard assortment, for coasters they had a classic Miler Wild Mouse which was awesome, another Looping Zyklon which was suprisingly fun and a miler family coaster named Family Coaster. It was basically a kiddie but with a sprawling layout that I guess was a bit more adult oriented, was fun, but it ran really slow due to the humidity condensing on the track (was evening on the ocean). Skipped a dragon wagon

Then I ended up at Jenkinsons Boardwalk. They had a flitzer, was a good one but not worth a $7 ride. However on the other end of their boardwalk, well out of the rides area they have a funhouse which is by far the greatest funhouse I have ever been in, by a long shot. I wont give away any secrets except that is has a fart room.

Leaving only 2 parks being Bowcraft which was closed when we pulled up, which sucked, they have a really nice looking Zierer Family coaster there, so with that we ended up at Long Island Adventureland which had a slightly ghetto feel to it but they had a Hurricane which I rode, along with a Ladybug Coaster and I rode their frisbee. only reason I know of the park really is cause of the Tard Tosser and the Man Crusher, those being a Mondial Top Scan which tossed a retarded(overweight, but not sure that contributed to it) girl off the ride sending her crashing to her death though the windshield of a parked car in the parking lot, and a Mondial Super Nova which got old and during dismantling a panel from the ride crushed a worker to death.

So yeah, other notes and tidbits, it was 80's and sunny every single day, weather was beautiful. Flew on Southwest at a decent rate I booked in Feb and and abused a coupon code I found online to get a free day on my car rental with Alamo (they never ask to see coupons or discount cards).

So yeah was an awesome trip and in the coming days I will delete what I put down about each park and replace it with a full TR (or I may just re-post individual daily TR's)

[FParker185]

Bump--day one is now spoken for

[BP317]

I had a similar experience with GAdv recently, when I went in 2005 it was an absolute hellhole. Extremely slow operations, the place was nasty with gum and vandalism everywhere, and the atmosphere was horrible. I just rode all of the coasters and got the hell out of there. However in my visit a couple weeks ago the it was much improved: the major coasters had good operations, the place was much cleaner, and even though it still had quite a bit of vandalism and wasnt the cleanest or nicest park out there I actually had a really good time, El Toro and the parade were awesome additions.

[FParker185]

Re-Bump-- added SFGAdv

Also I didn't notice any graffiti or gum at SFGAdv, the park was basically spotless, I was really surprised, but that may have something to do with the fact I barely saw any riff raff in the park that day. Also never really waited in any queues where you see most of that, I'm sure it's there, but didnt notice any. Also forgot to mention, the only ride closed at SFGAdv was the parachute tower which was pretty disappointing, but understandable. Also missed Rolling Thunder as it was running old school. Only one side with one dispatch every 5+ mins with a decent sized line, rode both sides in 01 though and it's not that impressive and no big loss, was nice to see it painted though.

[FParker185]

rather than edit and bump, I think it may be a lot easier on the eyes and mind to do separate TR's...

Moreys Piers Coastin' by the Ocean and Flippers Fascination 7/12/08

So the main reason I did this whole east coast trip was to get back to Moreys piers which I had last visited in 01 and liked alot. This day would end up being a 22 hour long day so I don't remember exact details for a lot of it. Anyways... we knew it could potientially take a while to get from Princeton to Wildwood, alittle over 2 hours with no traffic and being a sat morn we expected lots of traffic, event started at 9 so we leaft at 5:30am to head down to Wildwood. Drive was fairly uneventful and traffic free. We did stop for breakfast at a rest stop which was our only food sin of the trip, that being Burger King, which served me up hands down the absolute worst breakfast of my entire life, it was outright disgusting, I dont remember exactly what it was, or what it was supposed to be, but most of it ended up in the trash. So we got to Moreys about an hour and a half ahead of schedule so we found a parking spot on a street and slept in the car for about and hour, after that we found a reasonably priced pay lot near the boardwalk, paid $10 for parking and headed to what we thought was the right pier. Ended up being the wrong pier(mariners Landing), but we were directed to the right pier where we got our tickets and welcome pack consisting of 2 free T-shirts, a free sport quart, a $10 gift certificate for a sit down restaurant on the boardwalk (Jumbos), 2 day wristband good at all their parks and waterparks, and good for $10 rides on SkyCoaster, Ejection Seat, SkyScraper, etc., an informational brochure about the park and it's history, a few post cards, and a voucher for 20% off everything and anything for 2 days. All for the low low price of $39, keeping in mind a one day wristband is $45. So with that out of the way, we had 2 hours of ERT ahead of us on Great Noreaster, a Mouse, Flitzer, basically all of the rides on Surfside Pier. Star of the show was definately the new and improved Great Noreaster, the SLC, now without OTSR's. The new freedom flight seats are awesome. Basically just a lapbar and vent similar to SUF, but less clunky. The ride is still rough but it doesn't beat you up at all, it's enjoyable now, vs. the mess it used to be. I never thought I'd ride 10+ times in a row on an SLC without getting off and actually getting off happy/impressed rather than in a coma. While that was fun, hit the rest of the stuff included in ERT including Condor, Log Flume, Flitzer, Wild Mouse (Doo Whopper), Music Express, skipped a dark ride. There were a few other things included, but they definately gave us enough to do, for all like 50-60 of us. Was get on, stay on classic ERT, this is the way ERT used to be before ACE got to big for it's own good, and HW turned into the 3'rd Reich.

So after ERT, took advantage of a $10 SkyCoaster ride, after that walked out taking alot of pics, checking out the boardwalk and riding a few rides here and there. During the day myself and Scott headed off to find some faciniation, found Olympic Fascination Parlor, was ok, but not worth mentioning really, played a few games of straight 5 and coverall. Well before we knew it it was time for the next thing on the official itteniary, a coaster shop tour and drawing board session with the owners of the park in the maint. building on the former Hunts Pier, also got a close up look at the Golden Nugget Dark ride/Wooden Coaster. Basically in the building they had some pretzels and water set up for us, and they let us look around, nothing to groundbreaking inside save for all the old SLC seats hanging under a shelf and hunks of various lift chains and wheels laying around. But they had a display set up showing some pier history, some future plans, and pics of the recent fire on Mariners Landing that took out a decent sized chunk of the pier about 2 weeks before this event, which also destroyed 3 rides. Anyways after we got to look around, they started the drawing board part, where they wanted to know out opinions on how they can improve the park, improve their massive GCI Coaster that's being designed, and in the distant future, what we think makes the best dark ride/walk through. Basically for the coaster we came up with it needs airtime, awesome tunnel and a cable stayed bridge over the beach (it will span 2 piers and a section of beach). If you look around you can find the artwork for the new coaster, they hope to build it in 09 or 10.

The drawing board session went way long, which was a good indication that both sides really wanted to keep talking. It seemed pretty productive and it's always appreciated when a park actually wants to hear what what our thoughts are on what they are doing.

As soon as that let out it was around 5:30 so we had to leave the park to set up camp as we didnt want to get a $120 room with a 2 night min stay when we only needed on night and there was a campground 20 mins away for $35. So we went to the campsite and set up my tent and air mattresses and all that fun stuff, which sucked having to pack all that and fly with it, but saved $$. Anyways after that we lounged around for a bit then headed back to the park, found another pay lot with open spots for like $12, went into the parks and rode a few random things again, like ferris wheel and other non coaster rides (all coasters had ERT at some point during the event). So it came time for the Luau at 9pm in their water park, where they rolled out the red carpet again with some free alcohol, gave everyone on free drink, though I bought a bunch more in preparation for the nights festivities

Of course food served at the luau included pork and various fruits and vegetables, I think there was some chicken in there somewhere. Also they set up a large fire and handed out forks and everything you needed to make smores. After all they they handed out more free stuff. I ended up leaving the event with a total of 5 free t-shirts. and more stuff I'll get on day 2 of the event. After that we had some time to kill, so as a large group at around 10pm we walked down the boardwalk to Flippers Fascination, the mecca of Fascination. Not sure how to describe it, but has anyone every played 50 games of fascination in 2 mins for only 20 cents?

That would be known as speedybingo, first to 5 lights in a row wins, normally it's played with one ball and lasts from 1-3 mins approx, but for this you play with 8 balls and the longest game will last 2-3 seconds. Also they had crazyball that being coverall with 8 balls. For regular facination if you got a blue line the place would go dark, bubbles would flood the place and the places theme song would play (search youtube for Flippers Fascination). Also this guy has all sorts of other games set up, so when you win a certain game of fascination you'd get to play another game, one was plinko, exact replica of what you see on the price is right, which yours truly got to play

It was amazing, also the whole thing was filmed, so I'll more than likely appear in episode 3 on the youtube series. Anyways the 8ball tournament went til almost 1am to ramp up to 8 balls and then ramp back down to 1, but ERT started at 12:30 and was going to go til 2, but got there around 1:15, basically rode Great White their CCI woodie which was running great, rode it about 5 or 6 times, and passed up the screamin swing ERT as both me and scott know the ride is retarded, and we went right back to play another few games of faciniation. We ended up stopping playing at about 2:30 in the morning, and walked back to the car, I was dead tired dont remember much but I know our group paid these 2 random girls $2 to make out with each other, was well worth the $$. After that we got a ride back to our car from a friend, and we drove to the campground and crashed.

Next up Sunday. More Moreys, more Fascination, and a half dozen other parks and another retardedly long day.

edit: almost forgot, during Great White ERT they were searching for and collecting corpses off the beach, which was sorta eerie. Due to that tropical storm off near Bermuda that weekend there was some incredible surf and a strong riptide. 2 people drowned during the day on Sat.

[FParker185]

TR: Moreys Piers, Playlands Castaway Cove, Gillians Wonderland Pier, Casino Pier, Funtown Pier, Jenkinsons Boardwalk


Well we woke up pretty early due to ERT beginning again at Moreys at 10am, plus we had to tear down the tent and pack up. So we got to Moreys shortly after 10, on the ERT agenda for this morning was 2 sessions, one 10-noon on Mariners Landing which included Sea Serpent (Boomerang), Rollies Coaster (a Zyklon), and Music Express. Super Scooters was on the original ittenariary also but it was on the half of the pier that burned to the ground, so obviously there was no ERT on it. Didnt ride much during this ERT session, I think I rode the Boomerang twice, Zyklon once and just hung around for the rest of the ERT, however during this time the PR staff was dragging up stuff, anything they could find to give away, so they gave away more T-shirts and other knick knacks, I scored a stuffed Curley doll which is the mascot for one of their french fry stands, so it's a French Fry with a huge smile and disgustingly cute face on it, holding an order of fries and a ketchup bottle, and says Curley down his front, it's enough to amuse me I guess. Also I had the breakfast of champions which I paid for (no food this morning) but it was a deep fried snickers bar, pretty sure that's what Olympic athletes eat before they compete, at least the ones that don't care about winning, feeling well for the rest of the day, or shortening their lifespan by at least a week.

So once noon rolled around, ERT rolled down to the next pier that being Adventure Pier, ERT was on Great White, Go Karts, Screamin Swing and a suprise, which happened to be their Sling Shot, which in New Jersey must be called Spring Shot and not use bungee cables, which was a $20 value per rider, per ride. We actually only ended up riding the Spring Shot twice and the second time we got hollered at by the ride op for flipping the gondola for to long, I guess they were waiting for us to stop flipping so we could come in for a landing, was hard to tell from on the ride though, I got it going good

After that we skipped the Screamin Swing cause it's about as lame as a ride can get. Go Karts slipped our mind, and after late night rides on Great White, riding it in the early am would be rather pointless. Also flippers Fascination is right next to Adventure Pier so we went and played another $5 worth of games, and this time I got to play the Wheel of Fruit which whoever wins a certain game, you get to pick a fruit, and it's a 10 foot tall 5 reel slot machine, with about 20 different fruits on it, at the Advice of Scott, I picked the Midway Fruit, that being Pizza. I lost. Last time I pick Pizza as a fruit. Also I got a blue line which initiated the flippers theme song and bubbles and all that. I got on a serious hot streak, but had to leave as I had about a half dozen more parks to visit this day. We left Wildwood at 3pm.

It was roughly an hours drive to Ocean City with little traffic for our next 2 parks, and due to some strategy and luck we got an awesome parking spot at a meter exactly between the 2 parks and it was 20 mins per quarter (an incredible bargain anywhere on the jersey coast), so we loaded in a few hours and walked the half mile or so to Playland Castaway Cove. It was a fairly nice albeit small park, as we were visiting short term we got ride tickets vs. a wristband. Ended up riding Python a Pinfari ZL42 (looping Zyklon), Flitzer and Xtreme Spinner the Prototype Park Model Technical Park Street Fighter (afterburner with 16 seats, and it was good). Also in the park that I didnt ride was a Wacky Worm, Miler Kiddie Coaster, Double shot and a bunch of random flats where if I had a wristband I definately would have ridden more, but time was short and it was about a mile walk down the boardwalk to Gillians Wonderland Pier.

Gillians seemed to be a less attractive park than Playland but it had a good ride lineup including Runaway Train a family coaster made by L&T systems, which is a clone of the Mini-Mega Coaster by Pinfari, it was a really good ride despite being italian, tracked well and it even seemed somewhat safe. Also I rode a Ferris Wheel for photography opportunities and also I love ferris wheels. After that Scott didnt want to ride anymore so I had spare tickets so I rode the Wacky Worm which I was allowed to ride, but no one else wanted to ride so I rode it solo, it was embarassing, and worse it was on the border of the park right on a public street, people were staring, so this ended my credit whoring, I dont need all these pointless kiddie credits. After that still had an excess of tickets so myself and scott rode the log flume which looked good, and was fairly decent though nothing really special. After that we headed out and back to the car.

Then it was alittle more than an hour drive to Seaside Heights home to 2 other parks. Casino Pier and Funtown Pier. We got to the area and had the same luck, found a parking space between the 2 piers and for a reasonable price, though with a short time limit, so we ended up feeding the meter a few times, but it worked. Anyways, walked out to the boardwalk and stopped at a pizza place, had a slice of pizza about the size of a toilet seat, and it was pretty good, so that worked out then we headed to Casino Pier to meet up with a friend of ours. So we got there and he was there with GF and kid, so his riding was limited but basically myself and Scott started out on their newest coaster Pirates Hideaway being a Wisdom Coaster with a spiral lifthill, a recreation of a Mack ride sorta that had rotted away in the salt air. Basically is was awful, cramped cars, extremely rough, lots of brakes that stop on a dime planting the lapbar into your gut, and a really really stupid layout, and it went though a hollow building. I cant say enough bad things about it so I'll move on. Next up was Mad Mouse a Miler Wild Mouse, knowing that Miler likes really extreme rides I had high hopes. Oh man was this coaster a piece of crap. Every trim just about stopped the cars, it barely rolled though the turns and it was still violently rough. After that we were going to ride a sweet looking Miler Coaster called Star Jet, but about an hour prior it clobbered an employee who was retrieving some girls hat. A true darwin winner. So missed that credit, but at least he's dead after 4 days on life support. So we rode Centrifuge an indoor scrambler with an amazingly loud sound system. Played death metal mostly it seems and it was a damned good ride, lots of lasers, strobe and pitch blackness. After that rode a few random flats. Me and Scott rode Rock N Roll which is a matterhorn with cars themed to look like 50's chevys, complete with tail fins. The ride was ok, but the mic man was pretty amazing, he knew how to work the crowd and it added alot to the ride. Scott was done with flats so I moved on to finish off our ticket book, so I rode an L&T Kiddie/Family Coaster which was being ridden by plenty of adults so it wasnt so bad, also rode an Enterprise and Scott ended up coming back to me to ask for tickets for the dark ride which he rode and said it was pretty good. I think I rode a few other things but cant remember what, it was a pretty nice park and was densely packed with rides. So we were done here and said bye to our friend who had to go home anyways and we walked back to the car and fed the meter then walked on down to the other pier.

Funtown Pier this was a less nice pier, though it was still nice. Here we rode Looping Coaster an Interpark clone of the Looping Zyklon though with a much larger loop, it turned out to be surprisingly good. Was intense and smooth despite the terrible OTSRs. After that we rode the Family Coaster, a large Miler kiddie/family coaster, it had a pretty huge layout so it was good to ride, though it ran fairly slow, the ride op told us it was the humidity being night time, the condensation on the track makes that particular coaster run really slow, normally it runs quite alot faster. Was still good though. After that we finished off on Mighty Mouse a 50's Miler Mouse which was damn good and scary as a mouse should be. That was it for this park, also in the park they had a Chaos that was disassembled, Eylerly Monster, a spongebob squarepants dark ride, and a bunch of standard fare flat rides. Oh also a pretty ghetto ferris wheel that we rode.

After that it was a fairly short 20 min drive to the next park, that being Jenkinsons Boardwalk, where we rode a $7 flitzer, but that's not why we were there, I had heard many stories about a Fun House at this place and that's what we were after. I dont want to give away details but it was worth every penny of the $5 we paid to do it and then some. If anyone is there, do it. (it's got a fart chamber).

At this point we left, we were going to go to Keansburg, but we stayed late at Casino/funtown, while we could have made it in time to Keansburg it was closing in on midnight and it had been a long day, so we skipped Keansburg and just went on to our hotel near Newark (I think Sommerset, NJ), but it was a Crowne Plaza I got on priceline, was a very nice hotel. Took a shower, watched a PBS special on Adlof Hitler and went to sleep.

Next up, the final day Bowcraft, Long Island Adventureland and the flight home


and right after that was Casino Pier in Seaside Heights. No real highlights here, really nice looking park, some cool flats then the coasters we had
Pirates Hideaway - crap
a modern Miler Wild Mouse- crap and then some
and an awesome looking Miler Star Jet which during the course of my visit but before I could ride it clobbered a park employee in the head from which he died yesterday (Wed), coaster looked awesome though, disappointed that the employee disreguarded all common sense to retrieve a little girls hat while the ride was running. I guess I cant be mad at him though, he's dead.

Then right down the street there was Funtown Pier. Didnt ride any flats here but they had the standard assortment, for coasters they had a classic Miler Wild Mouse which was awesome, another Looping Zyklon which was suprisingly fun and a miler family coaster named Family Coaster. It was basically a kiddie but with a sprawling layout that I guess was a bit more adult oriented, was fun, but it ran really slow due to the humidity condensing on the track (was evening on the ocean). Skipped a dragon wagon

Then I ended up at Jenkinsons Boardwalk. They had a flitzer, was a good one but not worth a $7 ride. However on the other end of their boardwalk, well out of the rides area they have a funhouse which is by far the greatest funhouse I have ever been in, by a long shot. I wont give away any secrets except that is has a fart room.