3 replies to this topic

[sethdawg17]

So my summer vacation was long, tiring, but fun. Starting Saturday 7/23 we drove up to Carlisle, Pennsylvania to stay with some family friends. Sadly I was very close to Hershey Park, we did not have time to go.

Part 1: Pennsylvania

First, we drove through West Virginia which was a new state for me!




While we were at the house in Pennsylvania I made a new buddy, Sasha, a German Shepherd.




The next day we headed to Philadelphia to see the historic sites, and the city itself. We saw Independence Hall, the Liberty Bell, Christ Church, Ben Franklin grave, Betsy Ross' house, Eastern Penitentiary, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Jim's Steaks and the many sports stadiums and arenas.

One of the bigger skylines I had seen upclose to that day.



A Ben Franklin lightning and kite statue.




Independence Hall, home of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.




Room where the Declaration of Independence was signed.




The famous Liberty Bell, and yes its still cracked.




The famous LOVE statue for the city of brotherly love.




We went to look over the river into New Jersey and saw Campbell's Field, home to the Camden Riversharks, a minor league baseball team. This is signifcant because my last name is Campbell.




Whenever you visit Philadelphia its a must to have a Philly Cheesesteak. This was my first ever cheesesteak, and it was great!




We then went to the Philadelphia Museum of Art, famous for the steps that Rocky Balboa ran up.




Now it was time to cross into New Jersey on the Ben Franklin Bridge. We headed to Burlington, NJ to stay overnight before Six Flags Great Adventure the next day.




Thanks for viewing, Part 2: New Jersey/Six Flags Great Adventure will be up momentarily!

[sethdawg17]

Now time for probably my favorite part of the trip, being a coaster enthusiast!
Part 2: New Jersey w/ Six Flags Great Adventure


On Monday 7/25, we headed to Six Flags Great Adventure for the day. I had really been anticipating this part of the trip, to ride long last Chang from my home park (now Green Lantern), the tallest coaster Kingda Ka, one of the most top rated woodies, and an excellent B&M hyper Nitro.


As we approached the park, the Parachute Drop and Chang...err Green Lantern were peaking through the trees.






Once paying the ridiculous $20 to park, we parked right across from 4 amazing rides. My excitement just went up immediately seeing this in front of me.






As we approached the main entrance, Superman, a beautiful B&M flyer was just dying to have its picture taken.






As we entered the park, we immediately headed to the boardwalk section of the park to ride Green Lantern, new for the 2011 season. I had missed out on riding it as Chang back at my now defunct home park Kentucky Kingdom, so I was anxious to ride it. It was a great ride and I decided it was my favorite B&M standup that I have ridden so far.






Next we headed over to Kingda Ka, the tallest coaster in the world! Luckily crowds were low all day and especially in the morning. We had about a 15 minute wait. I got this picture on the way to the ride over some of the tall brush lined along the path towards the coaster. It was an intense ride and great to get a credit on the current tallest coaster in the world!






Next up was my most anticipated coaster of the trip, El Toro! I had a lot of high hopes for this to break my list as my top woodie and it delivered! It also broke my top 5 overall coasters. I just loved the steep drop, smoothness, lots of airtime and the quick turns. Notice the blue train stuck on the hill on Rolling Thunder, it was there for about 10 minutes.






After the amazing ride from the bull, I rode Rolling Thunder. I can officially say its the roughest ride I have ridden and just was not enjoyable at all! So after getting beat around I decided I needed some smoothness and fun, so I headed over to Bizzaro. It was a really good B&M floorless, my favorite floorless to date. I actually did like the theming, although the on-ride audio was not working. Next I went to go get the Runaway Mine Train credit. While in the area we decided to take a break and get a little wet on the log flume.






It was time to dry off, so we went over to Skull Mountain and then decided to eat lunch after that. We ate at Johnny Rockets, which was pretty good. While eating it started to rain, which had been predicted all day. It was never a heavy downpour so none of the rides closed. After eating we wanted to try and ride as much in the area, not knowing if it would storm for the rest of the day. I decided I had to ride Nitro so we did. A short wait and we were on. It was a bit painful as the rain was still coming down at a decent rate, but I was taken away by this B&M hyper. I was amazed at the amount of airtime, intense g forces especially in the helix. Overall a great ride and a top 10 coaster. It also knocks Diamondback out of my favorite hyper spot. Then I got a quick ride on Batman: The Ride, which was your typical B&M Inverted Batman clone. I didn't find it as exciting as Raptor or Montu. It was still raining so I decided to ride Dark Knight: The Ride and was surprised by the decent pre-show and theming with the ride. Operations for Dark Knight were great, getting people on and off quick, a great crew! After all this we decided to take a ride on the Big Wheel where I got some pictures of the park from up high.


Nitro and Batman: The Ride from the Big Wheel.






Basically the whole other side of the park, which held the majority of the rides.






For whatever reason the Skyride had been closed the majority of the day, but we noticed it opened back up as we got off the Big Wheel, so we decided to take a ride to the other side of the park where we would finish up the day at.


Our Skyride car.






To begin to end the day, which we had to end early so we could get to Brooklyn that night we rode El Toro once again. After another incredible ride on El Toro, Kingda Ka still had a short wait so we decided why not. An intense ride again! We had passed on Superman at the beginning of the day so we decided to go back to the Boardwalk and ride it. Dark clouds and rain soon followed us and began. Superman kept running, but for whatever reason was only running 1 train and the crew was just being lazy. Whether they cared or not there was a 2 hour wait for the line. I didn't really understand the neglection of efficient loading and even having the second train out of the ride. Either way we waited a long time and finally got on Superman. It was a pretty good ride, but not the best B&M flyer, I found Manta at Seaworld Orlando to be much better, especially layout wise.


Well we stopped in a gift shop and got a t-shirt and then proceeded to leave the park. As we were walking out to the parking lot I shot this cool pic of the mix of dark rain clouds and the sunset, although a bit blurry.






Also got a pic of Superman against the dark clouds as we were leaving.






That concluded a fun day at Six Flags Great Adventure! We then left to go to NYC, specifically Brooklyn to our hotel. This you will see in the next part.


Coaster Count:


Green Lantern - 1
Superman: Ultimate Flight - 1
Kingda Ka - 2
El Toro - 2
Rolling Thunder - 1
Bizzaro - 1
Runaway Mine Train - 1
Skull Mountain - 1
Batman: The Ride - 1
Nitro - 1
The Dark Knight Coaster - 1


Thanks for viewing, the next part featuring New York City will be up in the next day or two. I still need to import the mass of pictures from it.

[biZarRo]

Nice PTR! I agree, that $20 is ridicilous for parking, but the park is pretty decent, with very nice coasters. I still don't know why the team at SUF was so lazy, because they were like that when I was there too. Batman gave me a headache, because of it's intensity. Can't wait to see the rest of the PTR!

[sethdawg17]

I can agree the $20 parking is worth it, because the park is great! I really didn't get the operations that the SUF crew were choosing to do...