The Journey To Find The Inner Terpy- silver2005's Pennsylvania & New Jersey Trip Planning and PTR

[VekomaRulz]

June will be way less crowded. Philadelphia, NYC and Jackson (and maybe other local NJ schools) are still in session that week with Philadelphia and NYC not getting out until late June. Schools near Hershey might be out by then but it won't be that bad especially with the 10 pm closings even on weekdays.

The days after July 4th will likely be crowded. I made the mistake of going to Great Adventure on July 6th years ago and it was hour waits for everything. I usually stay away from Great Adventure from late June to Labor Day since it can crowded even on weekdays. Hershey is more reasonable that time of year because the water park takes away a lot of the crowds but it still will be somewhat crowded.

[silver2005]

From personal experience, both times I've been to HP were within 1-2 days of July 4th and I didn't have much of a problem; as in, 15-20 minute waits for Storm Runner and Fahrenheit, 10 for Comet and Great Bear, and the rest walk on-5 minutes.  NJFTP, though, sounds like a bad idea then.

I may keep the original schedule as well. I'm seeing that's the week all the parks in this trip up their hours (the week before the 4th).  However, I won't push it to August because then heat becomes an issue with me.  

[silver2005]

I just realized that the week I picked in July is the week I may be going to Sandusky with malem, and since I'm gonna miss a concert regardless of the 2 sets of dates in June and get longer hours with the last week in June, I'm gonna stick to my original schedule. 

The Kentucky Kingdom visit I am planning will likely be something spontaneous since I can day trip to Louisville and back easily.  I may try to pick a later date and set up a meet up for that.  The main reason I'm going back is because Thunder Run got a new train.  Also, any excuse to get back to riding Lightning Run and Storm Chaser again is always welcome.  

[silver2005]

BTW, how likely are rollbacks on Kingda Ka?  Its kind of an abstract goal of mine to get a rollback on either TTD or Kingda Ka.  

[VekomaRulz]

It's very rare, almost 170 trips to the park since 2007 and I have never seen it happen even in cooler weather where it is around 40 degrees. The ride operators really try to make sure each train is almost full and on slow days will wait to load a train until there are enough people in the station which I guess also hurts the chances of a rollback.

[silver2005]

I'm kind of working out what I'm going to do on my off day, and one thing I'm considering along with visiting downtown Philly and/or cruising through Allentown is doing either HP's or DP's water park.   I plan on leaving Erie pretty early so I can get to Allentown in the early afternoon.

Thoughts on both?  I know HP's is getting new slides this year, but DP is closer to where I'm staying and wouldn't involve paying extra for admission.  

Any other suggestions of neat things to do would be welcome, preferably within an 45-60 minutes of Allentown.  I'm not doing Gettysburg since I've been there twice with my family already.  

Oh, and what are the restraints like on Superman: Ultimate Flight and Joker?  I'm particularly concerned if there's anything solid that you lay your stomach against.  I'll have to ride them early if its too odd (has to do with my medical condition, I'll probably get both early anyhow due to their low capacity and Joker being a spinning coaster).  

[VekomaRulz]

I really like Dorney's water park but they don't have that many "special" type of slides. Just the standard inner tube and body slides, a clone of Tropical Plunge, family raft slide, 2 lazy rivers and 2 wave pools. Not counting identical slides, like only counting the 2 speed slides as 1 slide, they have 22 slides.

Hershey's water park is really small, a water play area (all ages allowed with some full size slides), a kids play area, 3 inner tube slides, Tornado, bowl slide, 2 person inner tube slide, lazy river, wave pool, Flow Rider and splash ground plus the new slides. It's the only water park I have been to with an actual queue for the wave pool. 

Superman's restraints tighten up after they lock so the vest has no slack. Neither ride has a lot of support in the vest but I find Joker more comfortable. 

If you like science museums The Franklin Institute in Philadelphia is fun. There is also the historical sites in Philadelphia like the Liberty Bell and Independece Hall. I wish I had more to suggest but even living over 90% of my life near Philadelphia, I rarely went into the city except for sporting events and an occasional museum visit.

[silver2005]

Crap, the Phillies are away during my off day. 

[silver2005]

I have a request for those of you who are artsy.  I would like 3 print outs of the coasters I have pegged as my likely 100th credit during my trip to PA and NJ. 

EDIT: Due to a slight miscalculation on getting admission tickets, it'll be at Knoebels, so either Phoenix or Twister.

Just some ideas from me- use the actual logos, something that matches the coasters' color scheme, the number 100, maybe an image of the ride.  Make them fit on a 8x11 piece of paper in landscape, something that'll show up well in a photo of me holding it.  PM me if you've got something.  

[silver2005]

So I have a car situation right now, and depending on how long it'll take, I may have to push back the trip.  Everything is still TBA right now.  

[silver2005]

I think I'll have the car situation fixed by my trip, so I'll finally be booking this week.  Keeping to my original schedule.

EDIT: I've also chosen my guess-timated dates to visit KK and CP.  I'll be doing KK either on June 4th or 11th and Cedar Point on July 23rd.  KK will be a day trip while CP will be head up and go the day of (leave Cincy around 5-6 am), then stay a night up there and drive back to Cincy the next day.  I am bringing extra money to splurge on a FLP at CP if necessary.  Hopefully, Steel Vengeance will be running multiple trains by then and no power outage like my visit last season. 

I wouldn't mind doing a meet up with someone at KK and CP either.    

[jcgoble3]

12 hours ago, silver2005 said:

I'll be doing KK either on June 4th or 11th

So close. I will hopefully be at KK on June 3 on my way back from HoliWood Nights.

[silver2005]

I could use some advice on how I'm getting from Allentown to both Knoebels and Six Flags Great Adventure.   Most of the Knoebels routes look a bit odd at a glance. 

Any and all advice for getting through/around Philly en route to Jackson, NJ during morning rush hour would be greatly appreciated.  That's probably the one part of this trip I'm dreading the most from a driving standpoint.  

[VekomaRulz]

From Allentown to Great Adventure, it looks like the quickest route is to take the Northeast extension of the PA Turnpike, to the regular part of the PA Turnpike which leads to the NJ Turnpike and then exit 7A which is about 12 miles from the park. That's is the same way I get to the park, I'm just on the Northeast Extension for 60 miles before that. It's probably the most direct route but tolls are bad. I usually exit the PA Turnpike at Bensalem to avoid the NJ Turnpike to save some a few dollars (and it only adds a few extra minutes) but that involves taking Route 1 into NJ and driving through Trenton for a few minutes and may not be worth it since it adds to the chance of taking a wrong turn (there are some last minute lane changes for exits). I would have thought I78 would be more direct but it looks like a slightly longer drive that way and traffic can get bad on I78 as you get closer from PA to NJ. 

From Philadelphia to Great Adventure, it looks like it's I95 to Route 1 and the Route 1 part  is the same way I mentioned in the last paragraph that I use to avoid the NJ Turnpike. I95 is a constant work zone and can be bad. Where are you going to be that morning, in downtown Philadelphia or another section of the city? It may be worth going back to the PA Turnpike if you are near Bensalem / Neshaminy rather than drive on I95. 

I looked at Knoebels directions and they do look strange. I typed in Allentown to Knoebels in Google and I like option 2, via 309 N the best. It seems like it has less road changes and might be easier. 

 

[silver2005]

Guess who's getting 100% off a NJFTP ticket due to ACE being awesome? 

Also, I get ACE discounts at the rest of the parks sans Knoebels.  Not too shabby.  I'm also using my dad's AAA membership that he gets through his former P&G employment, so I'm also saving tons on hotel costs.  

[silver2005]

Finally got my time off approved at work.  Currently booking.  

[silver2005]

Why does Knoebel's say on their website that all the All Day passes exclude Haunted Mansion?

Edit- malem answered my question via PM. 

[silver2005]

Trip Details

Cincy to Erie PA hotel- 5 hrs 15 min

Erie Hotel to Waldameer- 20 min

Erie hotel to Allentown Hotel- 6 hours (staying off the PA Turnpike until NJFTP)

Allentown Hotel to Dorney- 15 minutes

" to Hershey- 1 hr 20 min

" to Knoebel's- 1 hr 45 min

" to NJFTP- 1 hr 55 min

With all I saved on hotels and park admissions, I actually have a nice bit of spending money for this trip.  I am pulling a malem and leaving at 5 am for Erie on day 1. 

I'm psyched for this summer!

[silver2005]

So I have a Skyline staff meeting on the 4th, so my venture to revisit the Hartland will be June 11th. 

I'm probably just gonna use the same hotel I did last season for my CP trip in late July.   If it ain't broke...

Also, hopefully way less mayflies.  

[silver2005]

Next Monday is the first of my trips- a short day trip to the Hartland.  Will be posting my trip report here.  

Also- ACE discount> out of state discount. 

Hoping Thunder Run's new train makes it even better.  Don't really care about the status of T3.  

[silver2005]

EZ Pass acquired.  

Just gotta get a rental car. 

[King Ding Dong]

What state EZ pass did you get?

[silver2005]

Massachusetts

silver2005, avoiding one word posts.

[King Ding Dong]

Never used one and am confused on the automatic recharge thing.  It seems you are charged a fee if your balance goes negative but how can that happen if you have automatic recharge set up?   A few things I read seemed to indicate that it can take a few days for the recharge to post so you need to have enough in your account before a trip.  This seems really stupid.  

[malem]

^ My E-ZPass is also with Massachusetts; it's the least expensive state to establish an account with.

When the balance goes negative, and autopay can't immediately bring it back into positive territory, your transponder is deactivated. To do that, your home state (i.e. Massachusetts) updates their master list of transponders and distributes the changes to all E-ZPass agencies nationwide. You are also notified of the problem. Some states charge a processing fee to cover the cost of doing all that and to incentivize customers to keep their accounts current. It's recommended to set up a secondary credit/debit card with E-ZPass to avoid the possibility of going negative.

For those interested in how E-ZPass works on a technical level, here's a little light reading on how information is communicated between participating states.

[silver2005]

The only time I'm using it is from Allentown, PA to Jackson, NJ and back.  Otherwise, it's gonna add a significant amount of time going all around that, and with Six Flags Great Adventure likely being last along with me being a bit on the tired side by then, I'll take anything quicker in terms of driving.  My hotel is already close to 2 hours away anyhow via the quickest route through the PA and NJ turnpikes. 

[silver2005]

I ain't gonna lie- part of me wants to re-visit Michigan's Adventure when I do CP in late July.

Muskegon has been growing on me. 

EDIT: There is a slight miscalculation on my part regarding my 100th coaster location.  I did the pay one price thing for Knoebels which isn't valid on Sundays, so I will be doing Dorney on Sunday and Knoebels on Tuesday, so  Knoebels will likely be the site of my 100th credit, thus, either Twister or Phoenix will be my 100th.  

[silver2005]

Hersheypark, I love you tons, but you go to your room and think about what you did.

http://www.hersheypark.com/rides/search.php?ride_type[]=1

[jcgoble3]

4 hours ago, silver2005 said:

Hersheypark, I love you tons, but you go to your room and think about what you did.

http://www.hersheypark.com/rides/search.php?ride_type[]=1

I don't get it?

[silver2005]

^They listed their new water coaster under their roller coaster listings.