Photo TR: The Finglish duo do the best of the rest - NE USA

[andybarnes84Beware of the Magic Donkey at Lotte World!]

Hello everyone and welcome!

I thought I'd make the effort to write a trip report for our recent vacation driving around the Northeastern States visiting parks that I'd first found out about by watching a VHS some of you probably remember on here called "Coaster Expedition Volume 1" waaaay back when.

Along with my very patient and long suffering girlfriend Hanna (who's from Finland hence Finglish in the title), we finally made it and had a blast at all but one of the parks. Just a little background, we've been to Florida twice and the LA/Vegas area in the past 5 years so we've done the parks and rides that most tourists would visit. This was our first trip out of "la la land" and into the real USA so to speak.

Our ambitious itinerary:

June 9th - Arrive NYC
June 10th - NYC/Coney Island
June 11th - Dorney Park/Hershey Park
June 12th - Knoebels
June 13th - Niagara Falls/Presque Isle State Park/Waldameer
June 14th - Cedar Point
June 15th - Kennywood
June 16th - Washington D.C.
June 17th - Kings Dominion
June 18th - Busch Gardens Williamsburg
June 19th - Six Flags America
June 20th - Six Flags Great Adventure
June 21st - Six Flags Great Adventure/Depart

Some of you may be thinking how the heck did you do that all? I know, it was a bit nuts but we generally didn't have to drive more than 3 1/2 hours at a time, hotels were prebooked in strategic locations and I just spent a lot of time planning and researching online which I happen to really enjoy, sad maybe but true. Hanna started to get a little fed up with having to change hotel all the time but midway through the holiday I think we just got used to it. It also gave us the chance to try out several hotel chains for future visits.

There were some parks where we would have liked a second day, and luckily we managed a second visit to SFGAdv before our flight home. The Six Flags season pass has to be the biggest bargain ever, if only the Cedar Fair pass was as cheap.

Final point before I get on with the TR, this was an AWESOME time to visit. Sure, there were some school groups, but apart from our day at Cedar Point (which in all honesty wasn't that busy, I just think it's one of those parks that will always draw a crowd because of it's fame), I can't recall having to queue more than 15 mins on average at the parks we visited. There were some exceptions but I couldn't believe our luck. Minimal queues, late openings and no closures through the week, perfect.

It'll take me a while to write up each day, partly because I have to somehow remember what we did. One of the side effects of such an ambitious trip! I'll try to keep them to the point as much as possible. Apologies for the often poor quality of the pictures, they're taken from shaky video footage shot by yours truly.

Day 1 - Arrival and NYC

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"Good morning ladies and gentlemen and welcome to this Continental flight to....uh....United flight to Newark".

The cabin crew still think this is Continental. It is a little confusing, let's keep our old color scheme but take the United name. To be honest the food was better when it was Continental, but the IFE is still the same and extensive. Gimme United over Virgin Atlantic any day! Enjoyed Chronicle and Star Trek along with some Family Guy.

Flight arrived on time, minimal queue at immigration but having been to the States 3 times now in the space of a year, they stare at us with deep suspicion. Awkward pause..........stamp stamp. Bags, hire car and off we go!

Does choosing to shop here mean I'm middle class? Because I can assure you I'm not.

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Stopped at Target for out usual bits and bobs before checking into the Candlewood Suites Jersey City, a great location to be close enough for easy access via PATH to Manhattan but far enough to actually get a decent nights sleep. Newport felt a lot like Canary Wharf here in London, a modern 2nd financial district removed from the madness. This hotel was 2/3 of the price of anything we could get across the water and with free parking I couldn't complain. I don't think driving into Manhattan and finding a place to park would have been the most relaxing start to the holiday.

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Not a bad walk from the hotel to the PATH station.

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I know you've all been to NYC already so I'm not going to go on and on and on and on about the places we visited. After we checked in, caught the PATH train up to 23rd Street for Shake Shack at Madison Square Park. Unfortunately not only was it a Saturday afternoon but there was some uber-crazy BBQ festival on so no juicy burgers for us right now.

Longest queue of the holiday, all for a freakin' burger (this is just the last 1/3 of it). Curse you BBQ festival event thing!

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We walked north and checked out Grand Central Station, didn't find Bruce Willis in a cloak so headed west to Times Square. Visiting Times Square makes me realise why I see so many dissapointed faces at Piccadilly Circus everyday.

A quiet Saturday evening.

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Anyone else looking forward to the new ABC show "Hillary Clinton's drug conspiracy"?

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"Granny's gotta eat!"

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A pre-Hershey Hershey visit.

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Day 2 - NYC/Coney Island

Had a much needed good nights rest after the craziness of Times Square. The only issue coming from the UK is waking up ridiculously early. After some early morning TV and repetitious warnings informing us of the crowds expected for the Puerto Rican Day Parade we headed out to the PATH train for our trip up the Empire State.

Good morning PATH train!

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One benefit of getting up stupidly early on a Sunday morning.

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"So how does this lift work again?"

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"Okay that's enough boring sightseeing, time for HOTCAKES!!!!"

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Mission accomplished.

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Off to Coney Island we go, via the D train I think it was. A reasonably long ride through some interesting neighborhoods.

See you in a bit oh famous bridge.

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I think it's this way?

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No queue?

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Oh here it is.

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This makes Coney Island look positively clean!

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We enjoyed Coney Island. We weren't there to do all the rides, nothing really caught my attention. I think the travel fatigue was setting in again and I regret not going on the Wonder Wheel. The main thing I went there for was the Cyclone and I really enjoyed it. The re-tracking has probably helped it out a bit as I didn't find it too bad, sat in the back of the front car. Entry is a little steep but it's a thrilling ride which is always a pleasant surprise for a coaster this old.

Wonder Wheel Puerto Rican style.

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Are you a swinger? Or a stationary....er?

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This looked a little nuts.

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The classic, highly predictable and unoriginal shot.

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Through the fence!

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Artsy shot.

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I think I enjoyed it?

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Pretty sure London is a close second place.

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Who needs squash rackets when you have big hands.

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We continued walking along the boardwalk and all of a sudden I noticed something a little strange, I wasn't sure if it was the travel fatigue setting in but of all of a sudden we found ourselves in RUSSIA BY THE BEACH?

These shows coming to a sleaze bar near you soon!

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GTA IV anyone?

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Female? Only her "врач" knows!

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Mini ninja KGB agents displaying their skillz.

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Damn Russian furniture truck spoiling the shot.

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That's better.

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After Coney Island we headed back on the tube/metro/subway to Brooklyn Bridge and made the epic walk across. Okay it wasn't too epic but it was flippin' hot so exhaustion set in and marathon/spare battery mode took over.

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$4 for this piece of edible art by one of our friends from across the border, bargain!

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Getting there, enthusiasm dwindling...

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Enthusiasm REGAINED, SHAKE SHACK YAY!!!!

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After our tiring walk across THAT bridge, plus a wonderful refreshing meal of cow and cocaine juice at Shake Shack (which I'd rate higher than In-N-Out and Five Guys but a little under my unpopular favorite Fuddruckers) we made our way, zombie-like, to the free tourist ferry for cheapskates like us, the Staten Island Ferry!

Otherwise known as "House of Slytherin".

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I suppose we're not the only ones who want to save some bucks sightseeing. Oh wait, you mean these people live on the other side? Free commuting, in NYC? I must need more sleep.

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Farewell...

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[Erik JohnsonFormer captain of the Arrow bus.]

Nice photos....keep them coming!

[cal1br3ttoWhy do I still have a donkey title???]

I always love seeing reports from NYC. I suddenly find myself a bit scared to try out the Staten Island Ferry, though...

Sounds like a great itinerary you planned out!

[beatle11I prefer to mate with donkeys over humans!]

Loved New York and Coney Island last year. Cyclone was definitely rough, but not quite as bad as I thought it might be, as long as you didn't sit in the back. Looking forward to seeing the rest of this report!

[CoasterRollinBeware of the Magic Donkey at Lotte World!]

Great photos! And wow, that was an ambitious to-do list. I'm interested to see what you thought of a lot those parks and their rides. I live in Maryland, and you guys basically covered the entire bubble of theme parks surrounding the state, and then some!

[andybarnes84Beware of the Magic Donkey at Lotte World!]

Day 3 Part 1 - Dorney Park

I'll admit I was a little nervous about our first proper theme park day. Two reasonably big and well known parks in one day? In June when the schools are all visiting these places in their masses?

Turns out we didn't really need much more time than we had. I'd like to mention that whilst I used to be all about the credits, now I just ride what I want and what I think isn't going to break my neck (unless it's famously good otherwise). So unfortunately I haven't ridden everything but time was against us so we had to prioritize and I hope we got onto the best coasters in each park.

Woke up ridiculously early (yet again) at the Holiday Inn Express with the following view:

Good morning Talon, are you really a crap invert?

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After braving the run across the busy highway to save some parking fee money, we make it to the first big park of the trip, the 98' Corolla of amusement parks (i.e. bland but comfortable), Dorney Park!

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"Welcome to Dorney, it's actually quite good, honest!"

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What did we think?

Talon 8/10 - This is a very good invert, used to be my favorite coaster type but then airtime machines took over and I feel very indifferent over these now. Talon was much better than I expected it to be, after riding the disappointing Silver Bullet I wasn't sure what I'd make of one of these tamer B&Ms but turns out it's actually got a good mix of everything.

Steel Force 8/10 - Another surprise of the day, a solid, smooth hyper with nice air on those final hills. The only jarring moment which wasn't really bad at all was the transition from the massive turnaround up into the MDCB.

Hydra 7/10 - Hang on, this is the mediocre Dorney Park right? Another good coaster? Smooth yet again, unusual layout, not the tallest but does great things with the space it has. I enjoyed it's unpredictability and funkiness.

Possessed 9/10 - I have to admit I'm a sucker for these impulse coasters and wish we had one over here. This version gets an extra point because it has a working holding brake for that "holy crap" moment.

Stinger was down, the Wild Mouse looked unremarkable, I should have ridden Thunderhawk (regret number 2) and Demon Drop would have been interesting but was the only ride with a reasonable queue so we overlooked it. We just kept riding Steel Force and Possessed for the remaining time we had there due to zero queue time, kewl.

Dorney was a fantastic park, much greener than expected, very clean, friendly staff and on retrospect definitely felt like the little brother/sister of Cedar Point. Thanks Club TPR for the discounted entry!

I have a feeling we're gonna see you again this week.

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[GroteslurfWhy do I still have a donkey title???]

Great report and pictures

[Rai FoxBeware of the Magic Donkey at Lotte World!]

Great report so far, I can't wait to see the rest.

These days, Dorney is a great, underrated park. To be fair, last time I was there before this year, maybe eight years ago, it was pretty unremarkable, but it's come a long way, and I just fell in love with the place when I got back there last month. It's definitely not "mediocre" in any way at all anymore. Great rides, friendly staff, solid operations, top-notch appearance and maintenance....I've never had a park climb so far up my favorites list in one visit before. Still do need to work on the food a bit, though.

[YoshiFanDon't make me kick you in the donkey!]

You didn't miss anything by skipping Wild Mouse and Demon Drop. Wild Mouse at Dorney is the worst wild mouse coasters I have ridden. It is very heavily braked to the point of being painful at some points of the ride when you get thrown into the lap bar and the line is very slow moving because of the way it is run. Demon Drop although has nostalgic value isn't that great either and also is very rough when you get lowered from lying down to the reverse portion of the ride.

[RoCoBonafide Donkey Expert]

Man, what an epic adventure, also looking forward to the rest! The shots of Coney are getting me jazzed for my own trip later this month. It's so weird to see a SkyCoaster on that skyline.

Glad you liked Dorney. I've always enjoyed that park, though I do miss Hercules.

I like "The Residents" version of Snoopy they have, too.