Northeast US & Canada Trip (9 Parks Total!) - August 2015

[gad198]

My amusement park traveling companion Dave and I decided to do an end of Summer blowout trip.  We decided on northern New England due to the fact that neither of us had been to Vermont, New Hampshire or Maine.  We also wanted to hit up the new RMC coaster Wicked Cyclone at Six Flags New England to compare to the four other RMC coasters we've ridden this year.  I actually took a lot of photos to include in this report, but unfortunately my phone broke while I had it in my pocket on El Toro (more on this later!) and I lost everything on my phone as a result - including the pictures. 

 

With all that out of the way, I'm going to write this up in three or four segments.  We visited nine parks in total and ate at a lot of good restaurants that I'll include brief summaries for.  The park list:

• Seabreeze - Rochester, NY
• Martin's Fantasy Island - Buffalo, NY
• Canada's Wonderland
• La Ronde - Montreal, QC
• Story Land - Glen, NH
• Funtown Splashtown - Saco, ME
• Canobie Lake - Salem, NH
• Six Flags New England
• Six Flags Great Adventure

Please stay tuned!

[thekidd33]

Can't wait to read this! Looks like that had to be a fun trip!

[CoastersRZ]

Enjoy Canada`s Wonderland.  I made a trip up there last spring and enjoyed the park.  

[malem]

I actually took a lot of photos to include in this report, but unfortunately my phone broke while I had it in my pocket on El Toro (more on this later!) and I lost everything on my phone as a result - including the pictures.

Even if the device won't fully boot, it might be possible to recover them via USB. (Though the usual interface wouldn't work.)

 

This is one reason why I like micro SD cards in phones.

[gad198]

Part I - Seabreeze, Martin's Fantasy Island and Canada's Wonderland

 

Seabreeze:

 

Seabreeze is a smaller park right on the doorstep of Lake Ontario just outside of Rochester, NY.  You can see the lake from most areas of the park, and the views from the tops of the rides are some of the best in the country.  We visited on a beautiful Saturday and you could see a long way out over the lake, which included a lot of sailboats enjoying the late Summer weather.  The park itself only has a couple of coasters, but it has a nice flat rides package and a lot of charm.  In many ways it reminds me of a much nicer Waldameer.

 

The rides:

 

Jack Rabbit - this is a shorter out-and-back coaster that dates back to 1920, so it's one of the oldest continuously operating coasters in the US.  The trains look like they were built by Morgan but I can't say for sure.  Either way, this is a nice "starter" coaster - one that isn't too thrilling but still fun.  The ride actually tracks pretty well so it's clear that the park takes care of the ride.  Grade: C

 

Bobsleds - not a whole lot to say about these.  We got the "Jamaica" sled on our run.  These actually ride on a steel track all the way around so it's a little bumpy.  Grade: C-

 

Whirlwind - the park's spinning coaster.  We did not spin a lot on our trip around the course, but what the ride lacked in spinning it made up for in aggressiveness.  It is perhaps the most forceful run we've ever had on a spinner!  Grade: B-

 

Flyers - these are very similar to KI's current set.  I did get these to snap twice on my two runs so that was satisfying.  They do not drop as low as the ones at KI during the ride so it makes it more challenging to get them sideways.  Still fun though!  Grade: B-

 

Summary:

 

Seabreeze is a really nice small park - one of the best ones we've visited on our travels thus far.  The views are great, everything looks like it's in nice shape and the employees are all very nice.  It's a little out of the way but if you happen to be in the area it's absolutely worth a stop.  Overall Grade: B+

 

Martin's Fantasy Island:

 

Martin's Fantasy Island is just off the highway as you approach Niagara Falls from Buffalo.  It's a little bit of a modern day Americana in that it looks a little run down and the park has seen better days.  It does has a cool looking canoe ride that you can load up in and paddle your way around the moat.  It also has a Starflyer swing ride as well as a ride called Devil's Hole - essentially an indoor centrifuge that made me sick just looking at it running!  Due to time, however, we only rode the two coasters.

 

The rides:

 

Crazy Mouse - ugh.  This may be the worst wild mouse in the US.  I was extremely thrilled when this ride was over!  Grade: D-

 

Silver Comet - a CCI wooden coaster with an absolutely wicked first drop.  Unfortunately though the rest of the ride has an identity crisis - it just can't figure out what kind of coaster it is.  It does have some airtime, it has some laterals, but it never really does anything well past the first drop.  It tracks very similar to Raven - that is, a little shaky in spots but not enough to be rough.  I really wanted to like this but it was just OK.  Grade: C+

 

Canada's Wonderland:

 

We visited for a couple of hours on Saturday evening and for a couple of hours on Sunday morning.  We already had all of the credits here except Wonder Mountain Guardian (Dave also needed Leviathan), so we decided to hit those two coasters on Saturday.  Every coaster on Saturday had a full queue which made things very interesting.  Sunday morning included Behemoth ERT during which we got five rides.

 

The rides:

 

Wonder Mountain Guardian - the Triotech dark ride that debuted last year.  I had never seen a POV of the ride so I went in with no expectations.  The ride itself is actually quite fun.  The motion of the ride - even with the 3D glasses - flows quite well.  The guns work with no problems and I love the interactive nature.  There are two downsides. (1) The story isn't really cohesive or immersive.  You get an idea as to what the plot is while in the queue, but many of the scenes just feel random without any real sense of place.  (2) The capacity stinks.  Thankfully this is not on Fast Lane so the line did move - albeit pretty slowly.  If KI ever sees one of these I really hope that the capacity problem gets addressed.  All that being said it is a fun ride and I'm glad we tried it.  Grade: B

 

Vortex - I believe this is a near-clone of The Bat at KI.  For some reason though Vortex always seems to be the faster of the two rides.  I think the setting over the water has something to do with that but I've always preferred Vortex to The Bat.  Grade: B+

 

Behemoth - a B&M hyper.  Dave and I have always gone back and forth as whether we like this or Diamondback better.  We ended up with 7 rides on this on Sunday morning, and after those rides I think I like Behemoth just a tad more than Diamondback.  Behemoth has evidently had some train maintenance on it that Diamondback has not, as Behemoth was running smoother than Diamondback on every train we tried - particularly on the back seat rides.  Leviathan being at the park now has really changed the crowd patterns, as Behemoth was a walk-on for the first hour and a half the park was open (which was also true when I visited the park two years ago).  I really like Behemoth and it's still in my top 10 overall coasters.  Grade: A

 

Leviathan - a B&M giga.  Leviathan is absolutely the most popular ride in the park now.  I LOVE the B&M gigacoasters.  We had a chance to ride both front and back rows over the two days, and I still prefer the front as the sense of speed is much better up there.  There are four nice pops of airtime - the first drop, the speed hill and the two larger airtime hills.  Fury 325 is a better ride overall, but I really like Leviathan and it's still a top-10 steel coaster IMO.  Grade: A

 

Closing Notes on Wonderland:

 

Canada's Wonderland is a really nice park.  The park has retained a lot of the charm and has a really cool vibe.  Having said that, there is one thing we encountered here which warrants its own discussion.

 

While waiting for Leviathan on Saturday evening we ran into a rather annoying issue.  The queue was full when we got in line at 7:30.  I told Dave that the last time I visited back in 2013 my girlfriend and I also waited in a full queue.  The line took 50 minutes to get through in 2013.  The line took us 90 minutes to get through this year.  It took us nearly 20 minutes to move from the bottom of the steps into the station.  So what gives?  Two things were at play here:

• Dispatch times were up.  Each dispatch took roughly 20 more seconds this year compared to 2013.  The newly installed seatbelts forced a change in operations so that the lap bars needed to be left up on all of the seats so that they could be checked.  This had to be done because the operators couldn't check to see if the seatbelts were fastened in the middle seats if the lap bar was already down.  The seat belts were not responsible for all of the extra 20 seconds, but it certainly doesn't speed things up.
• Fast Lane.  The line for the Fast Laners was all the way down past the bottom of the stairs, so I'm guessing there were around 100 people in the Fast Lane line the whole time while we were in line.  The line was actually moving along OK for the first hour, and then just before we got to the stairs everything came to a virtual halt.  The attendants controlling the Fast Lane line at the top of the stairs were apparently given the command to get people through the Fast Lane line quicker, so what did they do?  They started taking 3 Fast Lane guests for every 1 standby!  That statement is not hyperbole.  Imagine being in Diamondback's standby queue in front of the cell phone box and waiting 20 minutes just to get into the station because of the endless parade of Fast Laners being let through.  In 2013 they were taking one Fast Laner for every 3 standby.  Cedar Fair really needs to take a look at how Fast Lane is being managed, because it's bordering on comical right now on their major attractions.

  Part II is coming tomorrow.  Stay tuned!

[gad198]

malem: Thank you for the advice about trying to retrieve my lost cell phone photos via USB.  I plugged the phone into the computer, and thankfully it recognized the device.  A notification came up to install a Samsung/Verizon driver, I installed it, and it after everything was installed I was able to view all of the items on the phone via Windows files.  I copied and pasted all of the photos on the phone to my hard drive and downloaded them to Flickr.  Assuming this works, I'm going to post the photos from Seabreeze, Martin's Fantasy Island and Canada's Wonderland below.  The remaining photos I'll integrate into the report as we go.  Thanks again for the tip!

 

Seabreeze Photos:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Martin's Fantasy Island Photos:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Canada's Wonderland Photos:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[gad198]

Part II - La Ronde, Vermont & New Hampshire

 

La Ronde:

 

La Ronde is on an island just outside of downtown Montreal.  The island is reminiscent of Eden Park in Cincinnati - lots of trees and plenty of cool things to do around the island.  Getting to the parking lot here was a real adventure as the signs aren't very clear!  We did however find our way, and these are some of the views that await you:

 

 

 

2

 

The rides:

 

Le Monstre - the parks dueling wooden coaster.  I had been forewarned that it was unlikely that we were going to get both sides unless we came on a busy day.  We visited on only a moderate day, however, and did indeed only get one side (Track 2).  Eh, it's not bad.  It's got a little Mean Streak-y feel to it with a more more interesting layout.  The racing element would have helped notch it up in the rankings, but I'm actually not too upset we didn't get to ride the other side.  Grade: C

 

Super Manege - the parks Vekoma corkscrew coaster.  Vekoma + early 1980s + OTSR = hurts just thinking about it!  Grade: D

 

Toboggan Nordique - a bobsled.  This one has a more wild mouse feel than the bobsleds at Seabreeze.  We did however get the Jamaica slide again for the rare double Cool Runnings award!  Grade: C

 

Dragon - an Intamin family indoor coaster.  Let's just agree to move on, shall we?  Grade: D+

 

Ednor - the Vekoma SLC.  This one isn't as rough as some of the others I've ridden.  Having said that, there's a B&M invert on the other side of the park that does the same things but does them much better.  These rides are all one-and-done for me.  Grade: C+

 

Batman the Ri....er, Le Vampire - the ubiquitous Six Flags B&M invert.  This is the last of the Batmen I needed to ride in North America, so it was nice to complete the collection.  I couldn't tell one from the other if asked, but some are maintained much better than others.  This one rides well I'm happy to report which is always nice.  Grade: B+

 

Le Cobra - an Intamin standup.  This has B&M track with trains that are a cross of the B&M & Togo standups.  Yeah, it's all a bit odd and it also rides a bit rough.  This is another one-and-done coaster IMO.  Grade: D+

 

Goliath - a B&M hyper.  I've now ridden all but four of the B&Ms in North America.  Unfortunately it would remain that way after our visit as Goliath was down all day.  "Why?" you may ask.  In typical Six Flags form - they simply decided they were going to not run it that day.  What???!!!!  Ugh!  I wouldn't mind going back here to pick up this credit if it didn't take a 14-hour car trip and a border crossing to get there.  Grade: 1 Flag, just because I'm feeling nice.

 

Overview:

 

La Ronde is OK.  The park has a lot of potential, but the way it's run from an operational standpoint is always going to keep it from being anything more than a decent regional park.  We would have been content to never go back had Goliath simply been open, but I have a feeling that I will have to go back to pick up that one ride.  C'est la vie!  Park Grade: C-

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Driving from Montreal to and through Vermont & New Hampshire

 

I thought this deserves its own portion.  Vermont and New Hampshire are absolutely BEAUTIFUL.  We stayed in a hotel about an hour south of the US/Canada border in St. Johnsbury, Vermont.  When we would step outside it smelled like a a bag of freshly opened mulch because of all of the trees around you.  I can absolutely see why that area of the country is popular during the Fall.  I'll let the pictures do more of the talking.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I did want to mention one restaurant we visited.  We stopped in a little town in Quebec called Granby.  We ate at a place called Cafe de la Brulerie which looked like it would have fit right in a ski town in Colorado.  It was set just above a little river and had a really nice outdoor patio.  Many residents in Quebec are bilingual and speak both French and English.  The farther away from Montreal you get the ratio definitely swings way more to the French side!  As such, communication can be very interesting at times!

 

Our waitress did speak just enough English to help us sort out the menu and even gave us a brief French lesson!  She recommended the "Club" burger which had bacon, cheese, a slightly spicy mayonnaise, lettuce, tomato and roasted vegetables which included...wait for it...zucchini!  I'm happy to report that the zucchini on the burger is very good!  Dave had their version of poutine - potato chips with gravy, cheese curds and some roasted peppers.  A picture of our dinner is below:

 

 

Part III will be coming up later tonight.  Thanks for reading!

[gad198]

Part III - Story Land, Funtown Splashtown & Canobie Lake Park:

 

Story Land:

 

Story Land is a small park near the New Hampshire/Maine border.  As its name might imply it is a fairy tale-themed park that caters to families with smaller kids.  We were even greeted by Cinderella and Tinkerbell at the entrance!  The park was larger than I was anticipating, but is still small enough to keep its really nice charm.

 

The Rides:

 

Polar Coaster - a cute little family coaster.  It's like a very lite Adventure Express.  A nice little starter coaster.  Grade: C

 

Flyers - the gliders moved along at an OK clip but there's very little chance of anyone snapping this particular set.  Another family-friendly attraction.  Grade: C

 

Roar-o-Saurus - the new Gravity Group family coaster.  It may be a family coaster in description but this ride will satisfy both families and enthusiasts!  The coaster itself is exactly 40 feet high, but make no mistake, this thing rides like a coaster 3 times its size.  Great first drop, 8 or 9 pops of really good airtime, and it is aggressive enough for the seasoned rider and yet rideable enough for the smaller set.  Gravity Group did an amazing job with this coaster and I really hope that more of these pop up around the country.  I wish it were a little bit longer but It's top-10 wood material.  Grade: A-

 

Story Land is a really nice small park.  The first thing I thought about after seeing the main portion of the park is "this looks a little bit like Lake Compounce", and soon after I said that I saw an ad for Lake Compounce along their antique car ride!  There's also a nice looking river raft ride there.  I was very impressed with this park - it's clean, it's got a lot to do for families and it's in a beautiful location.  Park Grade: B+

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Funtown Splashtown:

 

Thie park is just south of Portland, Maine along US Route 1.  Think Coney Island in Cincinnati for a comparison.  There are only two coasters here and a decent flat ride package.

 

Astrosphere - an indoor scrambler with a nice lighting package.  The ride also features glow-in-the-dark paint on the actual cars, music, and a nice long ride cycle.  The scrambler itself wasn't moving all that fast but the package as a whole made up for it.  Grade: B

 

Wild Mouse - eh.  This one wasn't as bad as the one at Martin's Fantasy Island but it wasn't far behind either!  Grade: D+

 

Excalibur - a CCI coaster.  It's Raven in the first half of the ride - a nice first drop and a few decent pops of airtime.  It's Legend in the second half with more laterals.  Overall it's a decent coaster, but I really wish that it featured a little bit more speed and airtime during the second half.  It rides a little rough but for a park with only one wooden coaster it's not too bad.  Grade: B-

 

 

 

 

Lexie's Joint:

 

This is a burger joint in Portsmouth, NH; about halfway between Funtown Splashtown and Canobie Lake Park.  For those of you who have been to Terry's Turf Club and thought "wow, this is pretty small" - this place is even smaller!  Having said that, this place is an absolutely must stop if you happen to be in the area.  It has good cheeseburgers, great milkshakes, and FANTASTIC french fries.  The fries in the picture below are the Bistro Fries - fries with bacon, parmesan, and chives.  It's one of the best things I've eaten in a long time.  It's reasonably priced (the burger and fry combo you'll see in the picture ran $8.75) and the service is really good.  They have a niche and they fill it really well.  Grade: A-

 

 

 

 

Canobie Lake Park:

 

Canobie Lake is less than an hour away from Boston on the New Hampshire side of the border.  Where Story Land was a lot bigger than I was anticipating, Canobie Lake was much smaller.  The park sits on a decent sized lake and is very clean.  The ride operators there win the award for most enthusiastic staff.  They were really good.  There are only four coasters there which includes one kiddie.

 

The Rides:

 

Yankee Cannonball - an old-school out-and-back.  The ride iike a smaller version of The Racer but with much less airtime and speed.  We rode in the back car and it was fun but nothing I'd go out of the way for.  It did track OK so that always helps.  Grade: C+

 

Untamed - a Gerstlauer Eurofighter.  I'm not a huge fan of Eurofighters and this one was...OK.  The layout is OK, it tracks OK, and the rides shorter layout is OK.  It's an OK coaster!  Grade: C+

 

Corkscrew Coaster - an old Arrow corkscrew coaster.  Um, yeah, so there's that.  Grade: D+

 

Kiddie Dragon coaster - the parks kiddie coaster.  Adults are allowed to ride and I see why now.  The laterals on this thing are crazy!  It rides like a Music Express on wheels.  I was pleasantly surprised with this one!  Grade: C+

 

Flyers - these guys had an interesting shape and story (see the picture of these below).  The ride moves at a pretty quick pace, but there are chains on the sails that prevent you from swinging side-to-side with any kind of pace.  Ergo, there is a virtual nil chance you'll get these to snap.  The tubs are cool though!  Grade: C

 

Canobie is a nice, albeit it small, park with a nice setting.  Having said that, I'd be hard pressed to come back here until they add another coaster.  Park Grade: C+

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The fourth and final part is coming tomorrow.  Thanks for reading!

[coasterfanatic83]

That is one of the few things I miss about living in the Northeast (Maine)- the beautiful scenery. I'm glad you were able to appreciate that while on your trip.

[gad198]

Part IV - Six Flags New England and Six Flags Great Adventure

 

I've written trip reports for both of these parks in the past, so I'm going to skip right to the good stuff!

 

Six Flags New England

 

You can tell that management here is really trying to make their park better each season.  My first visit was here in 2010 and I've enjoyed the park more with each subsequent visit.  There's still work to do here but they're heading in the right direction.

 

The Rides:

 

Bizarro (soon to be Superman again) - this has been my #1 steel ever since I rode it five years ago.  I absolutely love the layout of this coaster, as it has a little bit of everything and is nice and long.  Unfortunately, this ride for some reason has lost a little bit of its luster over time because of the really uncomfortable trains and restraints.  The restraint hits you at a really awkward angle on your legs, and as such the should-be-glorious airtime is not always enjoyable.  I still really enjoy this ride, but after the rides I've had over the last few years it's no longer my #1 coaster.  I really hope that they can do something to make this ride more comfortable when they re-brand it back to Superman.  Grade: A-

 

Batman: the Dark Knight - a B&M floorless.  The layout packs a lot of action in a pretty small footprint.  It's 10 years old but still rides very nicely.  The general rule with B&M floorless coasters is the bigger it is the better, so this being one of the smaller ones makes it one of my least favorite floorless.  Having said that, it's a fun coaster and it's the third best coaster at the park.  Grade: B

 

Goliath - the Vekoma giant inverted boomerang.  This was closed during our visit with pieces of the train on the ground just outside of the station.  Dave and I were here two years ago we got a ride on the "old" train and both enjoyed it.  Unfortunately, I keep seeing reports that the "new" train is way worse so I'm not really disappointed that we didn't get a lap in.

 

Wicked Cyclone - the new RMC coaster.  We were able to get three rides on this coaster - row 2, row 3, and the second-to-last row.  There is a ton of action in this layout and the coaster is as smooth as glass.  We thought the rides toward the front are good, and the inversions are definitely better riding towards the front.  The second-to-last row ride we had really shows why this ride has gotten a lot of praise.  The airtime is much more pronounced towards the back and it turned a good ride into a really good ride. 

 

One note about this ride for anyone visiting - they are assigning rows.  They load the train front to back, in sequence, and only keep one train worth of people in the station at a time.  They are EXTREMELY strict on this.  DO NOT go in expecting to get a front or back row on this ride unless you get extremely lucky.  We were the third and fourth people in line for the day and they made us go in row 2 instead of allowing us to wait for the front row on the second train.  The last time in line we actually had to intentionally let a few groups go ahead of us just before we got to the station so we could get a ride near the back of the train.

 

The ride itself is a ton of fun.  The airtime is plentiful and strong and the ride up through the second inversion is excellent.  The ride does fizzle out at the end and the third inversion wasn't really necessary, but those are the only real misgivings.  It's top-10 steel material, and had it not been for Fury 325 I'm fairly confident this would have been the best new-for-2015 ride.  It's definitely the best of the RMCs thus far in my opinion.  Grade: A

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Six Flags Great Adventure

 

I really like Great Adventure.  Lots of good coasters and the best operations at any Six Flags park in the country.  We both already have all the coaster credits here so we decided to hit up the only big ride we hadn't yet experience (Zumanjaro) and what we feel are the parks best coasters.

 

The Rides:

 

Zumanjaro - the drop ride attached to Kingda Ka.  Kingda Ka and Zumanjaro can't run at the same time due to New Jersey state law, so they typically dispatch two Kingda Ka trains while Zumanjaro is loading, run a Zumanjaro cycle, then rinse, lather and repeat.  The ride is a long way up there and you get a really nice look at the entire park while up there.  The drop goes on for what feels like forever although it's not quite as thrilling as I was expecting.  It's still a nice ride and I'd definitely get on it again on future visits.  Grade: B

 

namtaB - their Batman: the Ride invert is currently running backwards.  I had already done this at Six Flags Great America and didn't really enjoy the experience, but Dave hadn't done it so I tagged along as any good coaster buddy would do!  I enjoyed the ride more this time but I would still much rather ride it going forward.  Grade: B-

 

Bizarro - a B&M floorless.  This is probably the second- or third-best B&M floorless in the US.  This would be a top-tier ride at just about every other park in the country but it's overshadowed by a lot of other things at Great Adventure due to its location in the park.  It has one of the best zero-g rolls anywhere, and some recent train maintenance has really smoothed it out.  This is a really nice ride.  Grade: B+

 

Nitro - a B&M hyper.  I really like Nitro.  The ride operators here were the best I've seen working any B&M hyper/giga this year.  They also allowed re-rides in empty rows (which is always welcome), and as a result we got four rides in very quick succession first thing in the day before the lines built up.  The only knock against Nitro is that the airtime isn't nearly as strong on the first two large hills as it is on the newer B&M hypers, but it's still a very enjoyable ride with an excellent first drop.  Grade: A-

 

El Toro - an Intamin pre-fab wooden coaster.  El Toro is a top-3 wooden coaster.  Having said that - the ride is getting a little rough around the edges and we were done after two back seat rides on day 1.  The rides were intense enough that we didn't even ride them early in the day on day 2 with a short queue.  I mentioned earlier that El Toro "got" my phone; i.e., that El Toro "got" my phone to stop working after the second ride we had on it!  I had my phone secured in my back pocket like I do on every other coaster I ride.  Unfortunately El Toro takes secured loose articles personally and decided to run the phone through the ringer.  This is actually the second time that El Toro has done this to one of my phones, as I had an iPhone that it also sent to the morgue three years ago.  Note to self: don't let there be a third time!  Grade: A-

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This concludes the trip report.  Thanks for reading!

 

 

[coasterfanatic83]

The more reviews I read, the more I think I need RMC in my life. Thanks for sharing!