5 Park East Coast Trip Report (Complete)

[EagleFan344]

Chapter 1 – Geauga Lake – Saturday July 29th

Arrived at the park around 9:30. As soon as they let people enter the park, I headed to X-Flight. Crowds were light the entire day. No line was that long of a wait. Dominators line peaked around 9:30, which was suprising. Throughout the day I would just stay in an area, ride the coasters in that area a bunch of times then move on. I was at Dominator a lot…

Ride Reviews:

X-Flight – A letdown in my opinion. Going up the lift on your back was cool, but the chain was the loudest ever. The restraints were a lot worse than SUF’s. While in flying mode, you would just weigh on that restraint which was very uncomfortable. It also had the typical Vekoma roughness. Overall I would say its on par with SUF.
Rating: 6 of 10.

Head Spin – My first ride on this seemed better than the second. Anyway, it’s a Vekoma Boomerang. A little smoother than most, so it got a little better rating.
Rating: 4 of 10.

Villain – Wow. Just wow. How can Mean Streak possibly be rougher than this? After the first drop it was hell. After the first hill it got even worse. I actually wanted the ride to end. It takes the spot as the worst coaster I have been on. #98 out of 98. The roughness let up after the first two parts though.
Rating: 2 of 10.

Double Loop: A decent coaster. The drop wasn’t great, but the two loops were pretty intense. Not as spaced out as Demon’s. The crew running this was horrible though.
Rating: 6 of 10.

Big Dipper: This coaster may be historic and all, but it was pretty damn rough, and didn’t produce much air.
Rating: 3 of 10.

Beaver Land Mind Ride: Meh, kiddie coaster.
Rating: 3 of 10 (my default kiddie rating)

Thunderhawk: The best SLC I have been on so far. It was pretty cool being over wetlands too.
Rating: 6 of 10.

Raging Wolf Bobs: Smooth wooden coaster with not much airtime.
Rating: 5 of 10.

Steel Venom: Closed all day.
Rating: N/A

Dominator: Awesome ride. The first drop is sweet, it does a very sharp curve. Huge vertical loop. The banked turn around the entrance was very good in my opinion. You get a sweet pop of airtime after the MCBR. This ride keeps up the speed throughout unlike a lot of B&Ms. This is my favorite floorless coaster out of the four I have been on. This ride is also built over wetlands. Right on the lake too.
Rating: 9 of 10.

Overall I liked this park a lot. Great lines, and a good collection of coasters. Dominator is a great floorless. I didn’t go on a single flat here though. The longest line was for lunch, then after that it was probably X-Flight in the middle of the day, which was around a 10-15 min. wait. Dominator was mainly a station wait, was a walk-on sometimes too.

Ride Totals:
Villain: 2
Head Spin: 2
Double Loop: 5
Big Dipper: 1
Thunderhawk: 2
Raging Wolf Bobs: 2
Beaver Land Mine Ride: 1
X-Flight: 5
Dominator: 32

Total: 52

News and Notes:
Longest line was for food, and the food sucked.
I would love to see this park on a weekday. Must be hella empty.
Great setting for the park.
Really could use a new coaster, newest one is X-Flight?

Chapter 2 – Kennywood – Sunday July 30th

Arrived at the park around 11:45. There was a huge storm for about 1.5 hours around 3 pm. Since we had to drive to Hershey that night, I left around 8:15.

Ride Reviews:

Jack Rabbit: Old style wooden coaster. Does a drop or two before the lift. The first drop after the lift is actually a double dip. It’s the most intense double dip I have been on to date. The restraint is just a permanent lap bar, you don’t lock it everytime you get in, its just there. It actually felt like I could fall out of this ride.
Rating: 6 of 10.

Racer: Racing coaster that only has one track. Its weird, you start at one side of the station and come back on the other. ]
Rating: 5 of 10.

Thunderbolt: This coaster really uses the terrain well. It doesn’t go directly into the lift hill. Not much more to say.
Rating: 5 of 10.

Exterminator: Spinning Wild Mouse in the dark. Best Wild Mouse coaster I have been on so far. Being in the dark makes it great, very disorienting.
Rating: 6 of 10.

Phantom’s Revenge: This ride currently sits at #4 in my steel top 10, and $6 in my overall top 10. The first drop isn’t much to rave about, but the drop under Thunderbolt produced some good floater air, and really hit you with the positive G’s at the bottom. The best part was the two double downs. Extreme ejector air, I love airtime like this. I actually had some small bruises after, it was that good. The little hill before the brakes is also intense. Another thing I liked was the trains, they were very comfortable. The lap bar comes in from the side, which was cool. Morgan did an awesome job with this coaster.

I really liked the Screamin Swing they had there, Swingshot. You get some sweet airtime on it. The drop tower was good also. The flat collection made this a much better park than I anticipated it to be.

Ride Totals:
Jack Rabbit: 1
Thunderbolt: 1
Racer: 1
Exterminator: 1
Phantom’s Revenge: 13

Total: 17

Swingshot: 2
Pitfall: 1
Aero 360: 1

News and Notes:
A new coaster would turn this park into a great one. I dont see room for one though.
Food prices were very good.
No airgates here.
Wasn't a fan of Phantom's Revenge not opening with 2 trains. 2nd train didnt come on til around 5, after the storm.
Found a sweet Phantom's Tee, the only one in that entire park besides the plain white ones. Yes I bought it.
Not exactly the easiest park to find.

Chapter 3 - Hersheypark - Monday July 31st

Arrived at the park around 10am, but due to large lines to get in, I didnt make it to Storm Runner for first dispatch. I rode Storm Runner from 10 to 11:30, got 7 rides on it, 2 or 3 in front row. Front row or 2nd row is a must on this ride. Other rows just dont cut it. Mainly just hopped from section to section, stayed in each section for a hour or two. This park is mainly grouped into 3 sections. Stayed at the park til close.

Ride Reviews:

Wildcat: Very rough, but the rest of the ride was great. Provided some sweet airtime.
Rating: 5 of 10.

Lightning Racer: Wow, much better than I anticipated. I had heard things about rough and no airtime, wow were they wrong. The only rough part was at the bottom of Thunder's drop. You even got airtime on the curved drop. There was great floater air all over, and the Great Coasters International trains are the best woodie trains out there. They are just so damn comfortable. The racing element was great too, they had lights for the winner.
Rating: 8 of 10.

Roller Soaker: Waited about 1.5 hours for this. Worst capacity out there. The wait in the queue was amazing though, I got SOAKED. The train goes by the queue at the very end, so your bound to get soaked.
Rating: 6 of 10.

Wild Mouse: Meh.
Rating: 3 of 10.

Sidewinder: Oooohh Boomerang! The restraints on this were worst than most, they were painful on the shoulders. Rougher than most boomerangs too.
Rating: 3 of 10.

Great Bear: Wasnt expecting much, basically lived up to expectations. Had a zero g, which was great, and an immelman. But the drop was very lame in my opinion.
Rating: 7 of 10.

Comet: Alright wooden coaster.
Rating: 5 of 10.

Sooperdooperlooper: Dissapointment in my opinion. I was hoping the loop would provide some good positive G's, but it did nothing for me.
Rating: 5 of 10.

Trailblazer: Whoa, boring.
Rating: 2 of 10.

Storm Runner: Sweet. Good launch, great airtime on the top hat and before the flying snake dive. That twist thing at the end only put pain on the shoulders, but it was cool at night. The OTSRs seems bigger than KK's on the shoulder part. I didnt like it as good as KK though, KK just has that launch...
Rating: 9 of 10.

Ride Totals:
Trailblazer: 1
Roller Soaker: 1
Wild Mouse: 1
Wildcat: 2
Comet: 1
Great Bear: 4
Sooperdooperlooper: 3
Lighning Racer: 10 (5 on each side)
Storm Runner: 15

Total: 38

News and Notes:
Yay they forgot to charge me for the cheese on my fries and hotdog!
Great Bear crew was HORRIBLE. I was on that brakerun all day...
Park reminded me of BGE alot.
Very good park overall.

Chapter 4 - Dorney Park - Tuesday August 1st

Arrived at the park for opening. Once I was in, I couldnt even tell if sections were open. My first coaster was Hydra, after riding that a few times or so I went by Laser. I was the only person on this ride, along with my ride on Thunderhawk. I decided to leave at 4:30 so I could go to Great Adventure.

Ride Reviews:

Hydra: The Revnege: Pretty much what I expected. The JOJO roll was great, but the rest of the ride was pretty slow. The "inclined dive loop" was basically just a turn. The cobra roll was weak, it didnt even invert you fully. Still, a good ride.
Rating: 7 of 10.

Laser: Wasnt much in my opinion. Maybe the loops didnt put any forces on me because I was the only one in the train, so it was slower.
Rating: 5 of 10.

Thunderhawk: Good wooden coaster, but a trim near the end really killed the rest of the ride.
Rating: 5 of 10.

Steel Force: Good ride, I prefered 1:3 over back row. You get some good floater air on this ride but no ejector.
Rating: 7 of 10.

Wild Mouse: A non-spinning Wild Mouse.
Rating: 3 of 10.

Talon: Very good invert, I don't know if I would take it over B:TR or not. Its close.
Rating: 8 of 10.

Ride Totals:
Hydra: 10
Steel Force: 8
Wild Mouse: 1
Laser: 1
Thunderhawk: 1
Talon: 14

Total: 35

Dominator (S&S Tower): 1 (Turbo Drop)

News and Notes:
The park was dead. I rarely saw full trains go out. You could walk on any coaster. I was walking on Talon row 1.
Was 100 degrees out or so
Wasn't a huge fan of this park. I prefered all the other parks on my trip over this one.
I wish Steel Force wasn't so secluded from Hydra and Talon.
You can easily do this park in an hour or so.
Did I mention the park was dead?

Chapter 5 - Six Flags Great Adventure - Tuesday August 1st and Wednesday August 2nd

Arrived at the park at 6:30 on Tuesday. Walked on GASM. Kingda Ka had a huge line, so I went to queue for El Toro. One train operation. Line took about an hour and a half due to a breakdown. After that, it was almost dark out so I rode Medusa some and then Nitro to finish off the night. The second day, I went from opening to closing. Finally got on KK around 9, awesome ride. About an hour wait. Went to ET for a couple rides to close off the night.

Ride Reviews:
Batman: The Ride: I would take SFGAms over this one because of the terrain, rather than just gravel.
Rating: 8 of 10

Medusa: Great floorless. I re-rode this alot on Wednesday, it rarely wasn't a walkon. The Zero G on this is the best out there so far for me.
Rating: 8 of 10.

Great American Scream Machine: They really have this thing trimmed badly now. It comes to a complete stop on the midcourse. Smooth as ever though.
Rating: 7 of 10.

Nitro: Still the best B&M Hyper out there in my opinion. Floater airtime all over. It was trimmed, but it didnt affect the speed of the train much. On Wednesday, I blacked out nearly every time on the helix. Sometimes I couldnt see the MCBR at all. This may have been an effect from the 100 degree heat, I dunno. Great Ride as always.
Rating: 9 of 10.

Kingda Ka: I still love this ride. I got some good airtime on the tophat this time. I did notice the "pulsing" on the launch though. You can feel it tug a little more each second. Still one of the best rides out there.
Rating: 10 of 10.

El Toro: AMAZING ride. The cable lift is so fast. The first drop gives extreme ejector, as do the following two hills. I thought the best part was the hill before the twister section. The most intense air out there. The twister section was good because you go through it so fast, and its awesome at night. They shouldn't of put sand by it though, because at the bottom of the drop you can feel some sand hit you. Overall, I liked this better than Voyage. Voyage has the length, but El Toro has more intense ejector airtime, the best airtime out there is found on this coaster. Its also one of the smoothest out there, even against steel coasters. This is now my #1 coaster overall, wood or steel.
Rating: 10 of 10.

Ride Totals:

Medusa: 16 (2 Tues, 14 Wed)
Nitro: 11 (4 Tues, 7 Wed)
GASM: 2 (1 each day)
B:TR: 1 (Wed)
Kingda Ka: 1 (Wed)
El Toro: 7 (1 Tues, 6 Wed)

Total: 38 (8 Tues, 30 Wed)

News and Notes:
Operations at this park are horrible. Mostly one train on ET, the BTR crew was even worse than the Great Bear crew at Hershey, Nitro crew was also very slow with 2 trains. These ops should work at BK, where they are supposed to stack.
100 degree heat again.
KK ran horrible due to the extreme heat, as did El Toro.
All coasters were a walkon to a 2 train wait except for ET and KK. ET had usually a 30 min wait, KK's varied from 1 hr to an hr and a half.
Didn't ride Rolling Thunder, Runaway Mine Train, S:UF, or obviously Chiller this year. I have already been on each, except Batman side of Chiller.
Despite operations, this park is still my favorite overall. Their coaster collection is too damn good. They would be the best park out there if they could get good operations.
For $10 I got a measily hotdog and a large drink. Really bad food prices.
El Toro = #1 coaster all-time.

My new top 10:

1. El Toro
2. Voyage
3. Superman: Ride of Steel (SFNE)
4. Kingda Ka
5. Storm Runner
6. Phantom's Revenge
7. Nitro
8. Apollo's Chariot
9. Alpengeist
10. Kumba

[t-w-i-t-c-h-e-s]

Nice TR sounds like you had a great time.

[Trailblazer Tony]

That's a lot of coaster rides, that's for sure! I look forward to your other reports as well. Glad you had a good time!

[DejaVuGurl1203]

Wow, 32 rides on Dominator? That's double the times I went on it the one day I was there. Probably because I spent time on other rides as well. Anyway, sounds like a good visit mostly. I like that park, but Big Dipper was closed the whole day so I was disappointed, but from what you said I guess I didn't miss out on much.

[FRD714]

Dominator kicks ass.

[Ilovthevu']

I don't see how you can rate a lot of roller coasters really bad, but yet you say that you really like the coaster selection. Yes, one coaster can change your mind about the park, but I don't think you like the coaster selection a lot.

I also like did think that a lot of the rides are rough. However, I do like Head Spin, Dominator, Steel Venom (V2), and Double Loop wasn't that bad. I like you was addicted to Dominator. Doesn't everyone love that ride? X-Flight was just okay, and the other ones stunk really bad.

That doesn't mean that I don't want to go back there when going to Cedar Point though. It's cheap, and they also have my Hay Bailer that Six Flags does not have anymore!!!

I understand why Six Flags sold that park. It's a bad location, too many rough rides, and there is Cedar Point only an hour (I believe) away. I can't understand why Six Flags bought the park though in the first place?? Neither can I understand how Cedar Fair did either. I'm so darn confused???

When people are walking around asking you what you like and don't like about the park, you know there is something wrong. I imagine that they get a lot of complaints about the roller coasters, but they aren't going to add any anytime soon. They just bought the park, and are working with the water area instead.

[EagleFan344]

Well the thing about the coaster selection is they have alot of them. But how many parks really have alot of very good coasters anyway.

[Chitown]

Blah, blah, blah.

Gee, I can hardly wait to hear what you think about the other coasters on your trip.


According to you, all coasters just plain suck except for a few.

[EagleFan344]

^Wow really wtf is your problem? Your by far the biggest a-hole on this board. If you dont like my topics, or TRs, dont post in them.

[Chitown]

Biggest A-Hole? Thankyou, I appreciate the compliment.

Got a reputation to uphold.

[Timmy179]

Chitown is a poopy-face! (I enjoy hurling Cyber-insults!)

[HorseoftheDowrn]

At kennyWood my Grandma lives 5 minutes away from kennywood so she gives my family free passes to go and ive been on every ride there. Pitt Fall is 251 feet, 24 more feet then Giant Drop at Great America. And Exterminator is the same as Ragin Cajin but in a building.

[ragingbullchick]

Sounds like Kennywood was a good trip, also. Nice TRs.

[EagleFan344]

I added a news and notes section for each park.

[EagleFan344]

TR is finished.

[Director_Guy]

pictures?

[EagleFan344]

The only ones I have are from my phone, and I didnt take much anyway.

[Sedir]

Dang you're lucky you got to go to all of those parks. Sounds like there was small crowds for lots of riding.

[Ilovthevu']

I really seem to like what they have at Dorney Park. There roller coasters look good even though they probably need two more. This is just by guesstimating (if that's a word).

Did you try Revolution out?
http://www.dorneypark.com/public/inside ... lution.cfm
This is a ride made by KMG (which you might see at a carnival-All Star's Fuererball) that is sold by Chance. It's all KMG though. It's there park model.

I think that this park would be a great park to visit. It's Cedar Fair's third money making park with 56 million last year.

[EagleFan344]

^I didnt ride that one, but I rode The Claw at Hershey. It was decent.

[Ilovthevu']

Was it intense, or was it boring. That looks like the same ride. It might be weaker because it's a) an amusement park flat and b) it's a bigger version than the Fireball (32 instead of 24 This means that it has a bigger circumference, and less force on the riders.). Does it give you nice G's at it's highest point., and does it seem to spin really fast?

[EagleFan344]

Well I was on the side that was always at the bottom. So it wasnt that great.

[zjohn1988]

I loved X-Flight when i rode it a few years ago, although i waited an hour for it too....Villain is horrible! When i got off i felt like someone beat me with a steel bat in the chest.

Did El Toro ever get its second train?

[RVD420]

Amazing TR... Great job, sounds like you had a great time! I officially have to ride El Toro now because I am an airtime lover. Hopefully you can get on the west coast.

[Ilovthevu']

Well I was on the side that was always at the bottom. So it wasnt that great.

How long was the ride that it never turned around to get you on the top? Was it 20 seconds?