Skycoastin' Steve's 2011 Season Extravaganza!!

[Skycoastin SteveFive babies drowned in a fire]

Since I have a ludicrous amount of trip reports to do for the Northeast Trip, I'm going to slowly ease into them and start with the pre-pre-pre trip day that Jen and I had on July 26. I picked her up at the Baltimore airport in the morning and we headed off to Clementon Park in New Jersey to get a new woodie credit for both of us, and then we went to Morey's Piers after that to get her all the credits there (I already went there on my Whore on the Shore day).

Clementon Park wasn't much, more like a large carnival than anything. It had a few flats here and there, and then of course Hellcat, which lived up to its name. We rode Hellcat twice, took some pictures, and left. Hellcat was just rough and uninteresting for the most part, and the four trims on the first drop didn't help. I can imagine it was INSANE when it first opened, but those days are long, long gone for this coaster. I'm looking forward to riding S&S's other woodie in Wisconsin a lot more.

Morey's Piers was the same as it was when I went in May. Nothing special, just a ton of rides spread out over three piers and LOTS of people. The ride we had on the SLC officially ranks in my top 5 worst rides I've ever had. You couldn't pay me to ride that again. Great White honestly wasn't running very well, but it's not that great of a ride to begin with. It seems like CCI wasn't too inspired on the layout. I imagine I won't be going back to Morey's until they build that GCI in 2013.

Either way, it was a good credit run and a nice way to wade into the craziness that would be the TPR Northeast Trip! Here come the photos, please comment! Thank you for reading!

[paiging_jenWhen I grow up, I want to breed donkeys!]

That was the worst ride I've ever had on a boomerang. I had thankfully forgotten about it until now when looking back at the pictures. I have never been more stapled in a ride in my life.

Definitely an interesting day to start the 13 day adventure. Thankfully it only improved!

[tatertot3710(22:06:18) ajc47: who are the obnoxious ones? (22:07:16) tatertot3710: Mr. Starr, jeremie, deathbydinn]

I was there yesterday. I agree about the SLC. I got off and told myself it was the worst coaster I've ever been on. I can't imagine it with the normal restraints. As far as the boomerang, it's actually my favorite and IMO, the smoothest I've been on, above the ones at Great Escape and Hershey. I don't know, I just didn't experience any headbanging. Stapling is another story though...ouch.

[Medusa1861Indiana Jones and the Temple of the Forbidden Donkey.]

They removed the drop tower from Clementon? It was the best ride there last year.

[VinTheAttendantChallenge me at Donkey Kong...I dare ya!]

^^Surprisingly, the SLC was a lot less violent with the old restraints. It used to be really smooth for an SLC. But then I rode it last weekend and it is clear that it hasn't aged well. The new restraints are very comfortable, but I would totally sacrifice comfort for a smoother ride.

Anyway, these pictures are fantastic (I particularly like the shots of Hell Cat)! I can't wait to see the rest of the trip!

I defintely indulged at that same Stewart's restaurant last summer. I 100% agree with the delicious orange soda, and I had a Philly Cheese Steak sandwich there as well. Not to mention, the waitresses there were very nice to look at. As for the two parks, I couldn't agree more with the ride collections being very "meh". On a positive note, the other Hellcat (my #100 woodie) is WAY better.

[Skycoastin SteveFive babies drowned in a fire]

^I've been drinking that Stewart's Orange Cream soda since I was a kid, and it's so depressing because it's incredibly hard to find! It needs to be sold everywhere!

And at some point I'll finally travel to the Dells and get all those credits, including the other Hellcat. If not next year, then it'll probably be in the 2013 edition of the extravaganza.

[Skycoastin SteveFive babies drowned in a fire]

Now it's time for the Un-Un-Official Day of the TPR Northeast Trip!

As has already been seen in other trip reports, the un-un-official day was spent at Bowcraft Amusement Park and then in NYC with Scott's Pizza Tour. Jen and I skipped the kiddie coaster in Central Park in lieu of spending some time walking around and enjoying the sites of the park, since I had never been there. I do have to say that Central Park is an absolutely gorgeous part of the city that everyone should experience at some point. There were so many times I looked around and literally couldn't tell that I was in the middle of a city as big as New York. It was quite a relaxing part of the day (a theme that really didn't last).

Scott's Pizza Tour was also pretty awesome, that guy is effing crazy about pizza! That's also something I would highly recommend for anyone who enjoys pizza. It was very informative, and you could tell the guy has the same passion about pizza that all of us have about theme parks and roller coasters. Not to mention the pizza was delicious!

After the tour was over, we broke away from the TPR pack to go check out construction on Freedom Tower (the new World Trade Center building) and then to go to the top of the Rockefeller Center for a great night view of the city. All I have to say about Freedom Tower is that it's going to be spectacular when it's finished. I think they've finished about half (or less) of the building so far, and it's already towering over everything else in lower Manhattan. The top of the Rockefeller Center was both good and bad. Good in that it provided some truly amazing night views of the city, bad in that it was PACKED with annoying and rude tourists. I guess it just comes with the territory of being in New York City, but I had the urge to hurl a few people off the roof more than once in the 15 minutes we were up there.

Either way, the un-un-official day was a great way to kick off the TPR portion of our trip, and a great way to sort of "wade" into all the people we would be meeting over the next week. Here are the pics!

If you so wish to see all of the spectacular photos I took on this day, please feel free to check out my facebook album that contains the rest of them. The album is public so you shouldn't have any issues viewing it.

[Intimidator305Challenge me at Donkey Kong...I dare ya!]

Great photos, especially those from on "Top of the Rock"! Call me crazy, but I really like the view and experience better at Rockefeller Center better than at the Empire State Building.

Also, thanks for that construction update on Freedom Tower, they are getting closer and closer to topping it off!

[larrygatorObsessive Overlord of the TPR Park Index]

Row Boat Lake is the correct name.