Photo & GIF TRs from ConeyIslandChris

This past weekend, I had an excellent little mini-road trip lined up for my son and I. We were going to leave early on Sunday, drive up from NYC all the way up to Maine and hit several of the smaller parks and minor credits as well as some that we missed, including Palace Playland, Funtown Splashtown USA, Canobie Lake Park, Six Flags New England, Lake Compounce, Quassy, and Rye Playland. We would stay overnight somewhere near SFNE as a break in the journey.

Aaaaaand then the wife put a veto on that, saying that she thought we were going to do stuff as a family this weekend. OH WELL. So, while that trip gets moved to an undisclosed date in the future, we compromised and ended up doing some local stuff on Saturday, while the kid and I drove down the Jersey Shore yesterday. And now here we are on Monday, at home, in front of the TV, doing laundry, and otherwise "spending time as a family". Yay.

DAY ONE: SATURDAY

Even these plans were up in the air. We had been talking with some close friends and were discussing an activity that all of us could do together. We had been thinking either the Bronx Zoo or the New York Aquarium, and it wasn't until Saturday morning that we finally decided upon the aquarium. Great! Since that's right next to Luna Park, we could swing over there and get in a few rides before and after. We made plans to meet around 1 at Nathan's for lunch, but we ended up getting there closer to noon, parking in the lot right next to MCU Park.

A slightly overcast day on the boardwalk.

There's been a fair amount of talk recently about Luna Park introducing a ride-all-day wristband. But since we were visiting on Memorial Day weekend, the highest possible pricing was in effect, $69 per wristband. Rather than investing in some of these, I went with the Luna Card option instead, where I loaded up a scannable card with $100 worth of ride credits (and they gave a bonus $25 worth). In previous years past, they'd give a smaller amount of bonus credits for less, but no dice anymore -- only the $100 reload garners you the bonus. Also, while they claim unlimited rides on every ride in the park, it is worth noting that they give only 1 redemption apiece for the Slingshot and Coney Island Raceway (the two most expensive upcharge-style attractions). Zenobio, which is normally 12 credits, is still included in the unlimited wristband.

After loading up, the kiddo and I immediately made a beeline for the nearest ride, Endeavor. He was a little too short the last time he was here to ride this, but handily measured up this time around. After helping him into his seat and taking an empty one right behind him, it was time for lift-off! And man, this thing GOES. I know I've spoken about it before, but I really love this take on the classic Enterprise ride. While you don't get that feeling of sliding around the cabin anymore, the extra security from the OTSRs somehow feels more freeing, and the transition to being upside-down is really disorienting when you can look around without any bars obstructing your vision. The kiddo loved it, as well! He gives it an 8 out of 10. (But he gives almost everything an 8 out of 10, so take that as you will.)

Wheeeeeeeeeeeee!

After this ride, my wife informed me that there was no line over at Steeplechase, so the kiddo and I hightailed it down the steps and got in the queue for this one. This would be his first launched coaster, and he wasn't expecting the strange feeling of the restraints pressing down on his back. As we maneuvered into position, I told him to look ahead at the traffic signal, because when the light turned green, we were going to go fast... and sure enough, RED... YELLOW... GREEN! And we're off! There's no huge drops on this ride, it's all about that speed, and the launch took his breath away at first, but as we crested that first turn, he started cheering and hollering at the top of his lungs! Also a solid 8/10 from the kiddo here, and although he wanted a re-ride on it, we got a text informing us that our friends had just arrived and were heading to Nathan's. So off we went!

The Scream Zone's many coasters and rides, including Steeplechase, as seen from the heights of the Wonder Wheel.

As far as Nathan's, what can I say? You get in there, you line up in front of one of eighty or so cash registers, all of which have lines, and then wait for the register jockey to take your order, ring you up, then gather your order all at the same time. It's not a terribly efficient process, but the wait for the food is worth it -- I love their hot dogs, and I love their fries. The kiddo ended up getting a burger, and our youngest had a kids meal with chicken fingers. One note; don't order a large fry unless you want to end up with like three pounds of potatoes in front of you. I got one large fry for all of us to split, forgetting that the kids' meal came with fries as well, and so we all ended up with fries for days. Delicious, filling, and a Coney Island tradition.

The big kids doing their best penguin impressions.

After this, it was off to the aquarium. They're apparently still rebuilding this from the aftereffects of Hurricane Sandy, and are supposedly going to be reopening it in full next year, but for right now... it's a little bit sad. The entirety of the indoor portion is two somewhat small rooms. Outside, you have an amphitheater with the obligatory sea lion show that lasted about 10-15 minutes. There were also some outdoor displays for the sea lions, otters, penguins, and pelicans, as well as an enclosed outdoor tank for sharks and stingrays. You also get admission to a 4D Ice Age short, which we didn't take advantage of thanks to the two-year-old starting to get really, really cranky. All in all, it didn't end up taking us more than 90 minutes to see everything on display here, and even that was with us taking our sweet time. $12 discounted admission still felt like you were paying for more than you actually got. If you have to check it out, come back next year.

Shark is the loneliest number.

After this, since we had the cranky little one, we decided to head over to Deno's Wonder Wheel Park instead of Luna Park, mainly for some kiddie rides that she could actually get on. $4 per ride for each kiddie ride, or a punch card of 20 rides for $50. Yep, that's that NYC price inflation for you. We did a balloon race ride which somehow managed to fit me and three kids (it was a tight squeeze), and we all got majorly dizzy. There was a bouncing buggy ride which I rode with the little one, and the other kids took individual cars. Then we did the Sea Serpent kiddie coaster, which was the big kiddo's first coaster nearly two years ago to the day. Memories! This actually ended up being the little one's third coaster, behind Road Runner Railway at SFGAdv and Kosmo's Kurves at Knoebels. She still loves them, and the big kiddo had fun showing off how to ride hands up to his best friend. We ran over to the Tilt-a-Whirl after this, but Little Miss Cranky-Pants was back with a vengeance at this point, so she sat it out while the two bigger kids and me hopped in and spun to our hearts' content. We rounded out the punch card with a quick ride on their little carousel and train rides, and that was that.

In front of the Wonder Wheel, a teeny tiny choo choo.

Finally, all six of us made the decision to hop in a non-swinging car on the Wonder Wheel. My wife is very much afraid of heights, but she's been slowly making progress on that; this was her third time on the Wonder Wheel since we've been a couple, and every time she gets on it I feel proud of her for taking steps to conquer her fears. Unfortunately, although our smallest handled it without any problems last year, this year her crankiness just simply took over, and she spent the entire ride buried in Mommy's bosom, screaming her head off. We made the best of it that we could, but it was definitely time to get her in the stroller and hope for the call of the nap to hit.

95 years of Bethlehem Steel construction.

While the wife got her settled down and strapped in, the rest of us headed over to the main Luna Park section for a couple of rides before hitting the road. The two kids and two dads first started with the Tickler (another one of the kiddo's first coasters, and still one of his favorites). It's your standard Zamperla spinning mouse model, and does what it does fairly well. While most of us handled the spinning sections really well, the kiddo's best friend wasn't so keen on it, and didn't want to ride it a second time. Instead, since he's on the shorter side, we all headed over towards the other coaster option for his height, the Circus Coaster. It's another off-the-rack kiddie coaster from Zamperla that you can find just about anywhere, just with a little extra height and spiral to it. The kids hopped into the front row, while us dads jumped into the back seat of the front car. How we managed that, I have no clue, but we ended up getting very cozy. This one went down much smoother for the best friend, and with that, we called it a day.

The legendary Cyclone and much of the main Luna Park section, as seen from the Wonder Wheel.

Heading back to the Coney Island boardwalk, we noticed that Windstarz was now running several seats with a VR option for a $5 upcharge per rider. I can't really attest to it, but none of the riders seemed particularly thrilled with it. I still don't get it. Hopefully they enjoy it, but for me, this is one fad I can't wait to see the tail end of.

Windstarz, now with extra VR that no one asked for or particularly wanted.

Overall, a decent day without really insane crowds at Coney Island. We didn't end up waiting more than a single ride cycle for anything we wanted to get on. The threat of less-than-pleasant weather definitely seemed to keep most of the crowds away. It ended up being a decent enough compromise for one of the days to the point where I won't complain about it. Then again, I'll never complain about a day that lets me get some more Nathan's in my belly.

The sun setting on the Parachute Jump and B&B Carousell. Bye bye, Coney Island!

Stay tuned for part two, in which yours truly and the big kiddo take a trip down the Jersey Shore on Sunday.

Thanks for the trip report. I liked the gifs as a nice change-up.

That's awesome Zenobio doesn't have a restriction on the number of rides. The fact that it includes that along with Slingshot (2 upcharges costing $10-20 anywhere else), it's a little more palatable now.

I love this report Chris!!!! Can't wait for more!

DAY 2: SUNDAY

After checking the weather conditions on Saturday night and seeing that rain wasn't supposed to hit until 8:00 PM, I made a deal with the wife to take the big kiddo down the Jersey Shore to hit up one of his favorite parks, Morey's Piers in Wildwood, as well as hit some of the other boardwalk parks on the way back, now that the unthinkable has happened and Gale Force finally opened up. She reluctantly agreed, and so we set the alarm to roll out of bed at 8:00 AM, hit the road by 9, and get to Wildwood by noon.

And everything went all according to keikaku. Or did it?

...it did! Well, kinda. Traffic was smooth all the way down, and the kiddo ended up treating Waze like his own personal video game. "Daddy! I see a vehicle stopped on shoulder! Let me submit a report!" We ended up parking a block away from the Surfside Pier with 20 minutes to spare, just enough time to get to a ticket booth and cash in that Golden Ticket from last year for a free wristband... wait... where is it?

Oh. There it is, right where I left it, pinned to the fridge. Insert Homer Simpson "d'oh!" here.

Oh well. It's a bright, sunny day, we've got at least five hours before we need to leave for our next stop, let's go ahead and just get a couple of wristbands anyway. It'll be worth it! We double check his height, measures up at 48 & a half, and the friendly ticket counter lady who was legit all smiles and sunshine issues us a pair of 48" and over 3 pier wristbands. So since we're at Surfside Pier, what's the first ride he wants to get on? Flitzer? Doo-Wopper? Zoom Phloom? Atmosfear? Nope, it's the double decker carousel. Hey, why not? We end up first in line, and he makes a beeline for the freestanding porch rocking style swing up on the top level. Hardly a super thrill, but it's a pleasant enough way to kick off the day and get some decent views of the pier!

The kiddo is ready to go! Some people want to do the biggest rides first... not him.

After this, we hit up all the major rides that Surfside Pier has to offer. Even though we just did a Tilt-a-Whirl yesterday at Deno's, we have no hesitation about getting right back in line over here, and for good reason -- the Surfside TAW spins like CRAZY. It was pretty much nonstop whirling from start to finish! It always throws me off to see one of these without the hoods on the cars, but who cares when you're twirling like nuts?

The Flitzer, Tilt-a-Whirl, other miscellaneous kiddie rides and ticket booth.

After this, we see that the perennial Surfside fave, the Flitzer, is a complete walk-on! So we bounce right into the "line", get buckled into the bobsled one... two... THREE different ways, and get sent up. It's nothing too crazy, but always a fun ride. And there's definitely not that many other coasters where you can ride practically laying flat on your back. After disembarking and checking out the atrocity of our on-ride camera photo (wisely skipped this year), we decide to check out the Kong flyers up on the roof of their main gift shop. Sadly, we get up there just as the ride op is strapping the last person in, and even with a few empty flyers left, informs us we'll get on the next cycle. Not a big deal, since this means the kiddo gets first crack at taking car #1! (Yeah, he obsesses over stuff like that.) Sure enough, as everyone else leaves the ride and we get let through the gate, he hones in on #1 like a heat-seeking missile. We get buckled in along with a couple of other riders, and aside from the prerecorded spiel warning us to not intentionally slack the cables or face immediate ejection from the ride (which I can't help but laugh at, picturing these flyers all equipped with their own personal ejection seats? Lol!), we are on our way! I've never had any luck snapping these flyers, but it doesn't matter as the kiddo took the reins on this one. Even without snapping, it's still a fun and relaxing ride. The T-shirt clad King Kong adorning the center of the ride is one of those classic Wildwood sights. Four thumbs up from the two of us.

The Kong flyers, doin' what they do... flying.

At this point, we are a stones' throw away from the ride with the tallest height restriction on the pier, the monstrous claw ride known only as "it". Now, I've never had the chance to ride it before, but with only a cycle's wait and great weather, I wasn't about to pass up the opportunity. The kiddo and I struck up a friendship with another family whose taller kids wanted to ride while their youngest was strollerbound, and so I hopped into line while the kiddo hung out at the exit with the mother of the other teens, phone in hand, taking some video. I WOULD post some of that footage here, but needless to say, he's less aware of where his thumb is in relation to the camera lens, so all you'd see is Thumb: The Ride. Boldikus has been talking this ride up something fierce, since it's one of the few claw/pendulum style rides that doesn't use OTSRs; just a single lap bar locking you into place.

OMG. I was not ready for the insanity. I was not ready to experience literal ejector air on a claw ride. This is honestly up there with Skyrush as one of the most terrifying ride experiences I have ever had. But my god it is amazing and I will never pass up a ride on this ever again.

Holy shhhhh... it's "it"!

A couple more flats under our belts; first, the Rock 'n' Roller, which is just your average Flying Bobs style ride, but themed to 50's hot rods to cash in on that boardwalk nostalgia that Wildwood does so well. Better than the average, actually, because this seems to be one of the few remaining Himalaya/Bobs that actually runs a long cycle both forwards and backwards, and any ride that ends up going backwards is a thumbs up from the kiddo. After that, we hop over to Dante's Dungeon, which even though he gets scared on, he always wants to do. IIRC Schwarzkopf had something to do with this ride. Other than a cheap jump scare at the beginning and end from a cloaked actor hiding behind the doors popping out, there isn't much in the way of genuine scares... but damn, I always forget just how gruesome some of the scenes are in here. The initial ascent up to the top level is cool, with the tall gothic blood-stained windows casting a red sheen over the hall. Then it's rotting corpses, heads with spikes, skeletons, demons, and towards the very end... a day glo grizzly bear in blacklight that looks like it's a leftover prop from a Showbiz Pizza Place. It's hard not to laugh at it!

Rockin' and rollin'!

After the dungeon experience, we both agree it's time to cool off with the Zoom Phloom. This is another one of our must-rides every time we visit. For my money, it's one of the best (if not THE best) flumes in the States, with two steep drops, long twisty above ground sections that intertwine with the water slides and coasters, and an awesome "under the boardwalk" section that is second to none. The kiddo has been weird about water rides lately, after getting drenched two out of two times on river rapids rides at SFNE and SFGAdv, but he takes the splashes here in stride. Hopefully that phase is over... but we'll see what happens if he ever goes on a shoot-the-chutes style one. Fingers crossed.

Next up, I figured it was time to finally try out the Great Nor'Easter. I've never been on this SLC, so I don't have an exact frame of reference for how terrible it used to be -- I can only judge by my previous less-than-thrilling experiences on SLCs in the past, namely Mind Eraser at SFNE and Kong at SFDK. Met up once again with our new friends from over at "it", and the mom once again took over kiddowatching, stored all our stuff in one of the complimentary lockers, and got in line with a one-train wait. Pulls into the station. Gates open. We all enter, take a seat... and are promptly told to return to the line. After a couple minutes of inspection, they make the decision to temporarily take it down for maintenance, you're welcome to wait in line if you like, but we don't have an estimate on how long it's going to take. Le sigh. We all decide to try our chances on a different ride and head out of line. Sorry, Nor'Easter, looks like you'll have to wait until the next visit.

But hey, on the plus side, that paint job looks really nice, doesn't it?

So after dropping off the teens, collecting the kiddo, and returning to the lockers, we discover that... well... the locker system is down, and we're unable to retrieve our everything from said locker. No phone, no wallet, no keys, no nothing. BLAH. What's up, Nor'Easter? It wasn't enough for just you to go down by yourself, you had to take the damn lockers with you? So the two of us walk across the pier to Guest Services, where we see a huge line of people there for processing wristbands and season passes. Thankfully, one of the reps sees us standing by the side and asks us if everything's alright, and proceeds to attempt to take care of us in short order. He grabs the keys for the lockers, heads over to them... and discovers that the system has crashed so hard, even the manual keys won't open these lockers. WTF. So a second rep comes by, unlocks the system housing the computer controlling all of this, forcibly resets it, and puts it into maintenance mode. After about ten minutes, we finally have an unlock scenario and we manage to get all our stuff back out of the locker. Nor'Easter is still down, so we decide to round out the rest of the rides on this pier and then go grab some lunch. (Locker.)

QUICK HITS. Atmosfear, their drop tower. Different on-board audio program than last year. Still a bit hard to hear, but we caught the tail end of it ("on second thought... you SHOULD be scared. It's more fun that way!" *drop*). Cygnus X-1, their Gravitron. First try on this, we got hit with the same board-then-unload thing as on Nor'Easter. So we popped over to Doo-Wopper, their wild mouse, and had the longest wait of the day of about 10 minutes. It's not a particularly good wild mouse but the retro theming with classic cars and funhouse mirrors is nice. After the ride, we saw Cygnus X-1 was back in action, so got back on it and actually managed to get to ride this time.

It was about that point when I learned a new fact of life. Mainly that, um, I can't do Gravitron rides anymore. My heart and lungs literally felt like they were being pulled backwards through my spine, and I breathed the largest "thank god" sigh of relief when it finally started slowing down. Kiddo ate it up, though. Y'know what? That's ALL him from here on out. No thanks. Buh bye. It was a good run, Gravitron, and maybe I'll see you again in the future when I shed some of this weight or otherwise get into better shape, but for now, adios.

The five major food groups; breakfast burritos, corn dogs, buffalo fries, quesadillas, and paninis.

Was really hoping to grab a slice of Mack's, but the kiddo was super hungry and thirsty by this point, so we made the strategic decision to stop at the first place that didn't have a huge line. That ended up being the Hot Spot Cafe location that's nearest to Surfside. A couple of slices for both of us, nothing special, but it's sustenance, right? And a couple of bottles of water. (So thankful the kiddo doesn't like soda like seemingly every other five-year-old in existence these days.) A nice thirty minute break, but already we can see the skies changing from bright, clear sunshine to a more overcast view. (Foreshadowing!)

After we wrap up the lunch break, the kiddo wanted to spend some time at an arcade, so we stop off at the hilariously named Lime Rickey World arcade for a few minutes, lured in with the promises of Pokemon, Paw Patrol, and Mario plushies from claw machines. No dice. Never any dice. Even with our powers combined, we are the literal worst at claw machines. No problem, though. We spend some quarters on the Jurassic Park rail shooter and he outlasts me by like three or four minutes, as I just fire on anything and everything and end up killing some innocent civilians in the process of shooting dinosaurs in the face. Not him, he's got that dino blasting down to a science and manages to survive even on a single shred of health for what feels like an eternity. After that, he hunts down his favorite ticket game in the world... Deal or No Deal! Three plays and we end up with 170 tickets in our pocket. We head to the prize counter to redeem them for some cheap plastic crapola, and true to form, we walk away with a knock-off "Slinkee", a double pack of emoji erasers, and a purple metal belt clip which we are going to use to collect all of his on-ride photo keychains. Score!

He chose... wisely.

We exit the arcade and the skies are growing even darker, so we bypass Mariner's Pier and head straight on over to Adventure Pier to get some rides in on their awesome wood coaster, Great White. But first, it looks like the Scream'n Swing is operating, so we head on up to check it out. Not having been on their version before, we learn in short order that it's a $5 upcharge even with the wristband, you have to get a ticket for it from the nearest ticket booth, and oh, for some reason, the kiddo doesn't quite measure up to the 48" mark now. What? The op advises us to head over to the guest services booth and get an official measurement for him. We shrug it off and head on over to Great White, measure him up in front of the ride, and get in line. When we get to the top of the stairs, same deal. He measures up just slightly underneath the pole marking, and once again, get directed towards guest services for an official measurement. So heading on down there (thankfully located directly underneath the Great White) we ask for a measurement, and with their digital measurement device, he comes up at... 47.3? No way. Can you try it again? ...47.8. We're both getting a little frustrated at this, so I ask the kiddo to make sure he's standing up straight, feet together, back straight, shoulders squared, looking straight ahead. One last time... and this time, he comes in at 48" on the dot. Lesson learned; get this measurement at the start of the day, when he's less likely to be slouching around and more likely to be giving it his all to stretch out all the way.

We head back up to the top of the steps, flash his newly acquired red wristband denoting his height, and get in line for seats 15 & 16. There's a two train wait at this point, and they're only running a single train, so it's about a ten-minute wait until we can board, but worth it. We both love this coaster! As we take our seats, I notice that the backs of the cars are a little wet as I brace myself, and sure enough, as we leave the station, we get pelted with some light drizzle. This light drizzle gets faster and fiercer as the ride goes on, but the kiddo is determined to make it through the entire ride hands up, and he laughs when we get back to the station and my hands are down. "HA, Daddy! I won! TAKE THAT!" Yeah, yeah, kid. You don't gotta rub it in.

Great White imposing over Adventure Pier, with the Scream'n Swing in prime photobombing territory.

We exit the Great White and notice it's getting worse and worse weather-wise. We're parked all the way up at Surfside, so it's at least a twenty minute walk. We put our heels to the wood, but the kiddo doesn't wanna leave without getting a ride in on the Sea Serpent, their classic boomerang. I reluctantly sigh and agree, and we pick up the pace to a light jog and get in the queue. Thankfully, there's no wait, so we hop right in the middle of the train, get our one-and-done ride in, and of course get soaked head-to-toe with rain both on the ride and while leaving the station. Turns out that 8 PM rain got there about 4 hours early. Back to the boardwalk, and we don't see a tram car anywhere in sight, and the covered stops are filled with beachgoers trying to escape the storm. We power walk it all the way back to the car in record time.

Once safely out of the now-pouring rain, I check the weather conditions on Dark Sky. Ocean City? Raining now, raining the rest of the night. Atlantic City? Rain starting in 30 minutes, rain the rest of the night. Seaside Heights? Clear for another couple of hours. So we decide to forego Gale Force this trip and save it for our next time, and instead make the briefest of stops up at Casino Pier in Seaside Heights.

Hydrus' station from the boardwalk, along with the famous Casino Pier skyride. (It's no Von Roll, but it'll do.)

About 90 minutes and one fill-up later, we make it to Seaside Heights, and find some metered parking just off the boardwalk with five minutes still on it. I pop in 7 quarters, giving us an hour and 15 minutes to get in, get some rides, and get back on the road. We end up buying a surf card with $50 worth of credits. We spend the first 16 of those on a ride on the Shore Shot, their 125 foot tall S&S double shot drop tower. The only one like this the kiddo's been on previously was Dominator over at Dorney, and he can't wait to get back on this. While the ride op was a little uncertain on his height, she saw the wristbands from Morey's and let him on without any issue. This one ended up being a solid 10/10 from the kiddo!

The view of Hydrus from the exit queue.

After that, we spend the next 20 credits on their new coaster, Hydrus [#204 for me, #64 for the kiddo]. It's a Eurofighter with an awesome lighting package, much like the one out at Adventureland. We didn't really get to see it in action all that well since the sun hadn't completely set at this point, but we were both eager to see how it would ride. This was the kiddo's first coaster with a vertical lift and beyond-vertical drop. Out of all the 8 people in the car, I think he was the one that handled it the best! I had forgotten how you get ejector from these beyond-vertical drops (my only previous experience being Maverick at CP), and was surprised by being thrown up against the lap bar and diving straight into that loop. It was an awesome ride, but like so many of these low-capacity smaller coasters, it was over all too quickly. Didn't matter to the kiddo. He wanted a second ride on it, and I wasn't about to say no. We were just one credit shy, so at the bottom of the exit, we picked up a keychain to add to his collection and threw one more buck on the surf card, and hopped right back on. (No complaints either time about height from this crew, FYI.) It's a fast, intense experience... I just wish it was longer! Hopefully whenever we get on that northeast trip, we'll get to check out the slightly longer version at Canobie (and not have to pay $10 a pop to ride it, either).

The looping action of Hydrus, as seen from under their brand new ferris wheel.

And with that, we had a few minutes left on the meter, so it was time to call it a day. While not everything this weekend ended up going according to keikaku, it was still a fun couple of days with lots of great rides, good food, salty ocean air, and a whole lotta walking. Now, we just have to figure out when we're going to do our next shore trip, because we definitely needed way more time at Morey's, and the rest of the parks along the coast are still missing. We'll see you again soon, Jersey shore -- that I promise.

You learned a very important child height restriction lesson. All humans shrink during the day! When you have a little one right at a height restriction it's important to get all of those borderline rides out of the way first before they shrink!

Glad it worked out and you guys had fun!

Awesome update, love the gifs. I was just there and this makes me want to go back. Shame you didn't just hit Sams for food, its right across from Surfside. Its not Macks but its OK - some people freak out over it. Also LOVE that you managed a ride on IT. Now you understand.

That's awesome Zenobio doesn't have a restriction on the number of rides. The fact that it includes that along with Slingshot (2 upcharges costing $10-20 anywhere else), it's a little more palatable now.

Yeah, for sure. There's no denying that it's a hefty investment, but if you have the time to take full advantage of it, it ends up worth it in the long run. Next time I have a full day to spend over there, I'll definitely be grabbing one (and I'm still holding out hope for a Groupon deal to drop).

You learned a very important child height restriction lesson. All humans shrink during the day! When you have a little one right at a height restriction it's important to get all of those borderline rides out of the way first before they shrink!

Indeed! We didn't seem to have this problem last season, but it's definitely something I'm keeping in mind going forward. We've got a lot more trips planned this summer (and the aforementioned North East trip is back on the schedule for three weekends from now)!

I was just there and this makes me want to go back.

I WAS JUST THERE and this makes me want to go back. For right now though it doesn't look like this upcoming weekend is going to be any better.

Shame you didn't just hit Sams for food, its right across from Surfside. Its not Macks but its OK - some people freak out over it.

That was actually going to be my original second choice, but the line was all the way back to the boundary of Surfside Pier. I didn't need it that bad. It was literally a case of "get something quick" over "get something good".

Also LOVE that you managed a ride on IT. Now you understand.

I def owe our new mommy friend Nicole a world of thanks (doubt she reads TPR, but just in case, THANKS!). And yeah. Pants-crappingly, jaw-droppingly, terrifyingly great. Are there any more of these around anywhere, or is "it" one of a kind?

Great report! It seems like you had an awesome weekend. I can't wait to get back to Wildwood.

Great report! It seems like you had an awesome weekend. I can't wait to get back to Wildwood.

Yeah, all things considered, even though plans kept changing and we kept rolling with the punches, it was a great couple of days. I'm honestly contemplating another trip down there in the very near future... still gotta use that golden ticket, after all!

Make sure to let me know when. I can't get down this coming weekend but the following two are likely candidates for a visit. Maybe we can meet up again bruh.

Great trip reports as always! I definitely wish to visit some of these epic Boardwalk parks, especially for their awesome flat ride packages!