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Photo TR: Boldy's Beer and Airtime Adventures


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^ You do! I'm going to make it a point to showcase as much random Wildwood food as possible in this report this summer.

 

Great report! That's a shame about Surfside though. Mariners is okay, but Surfside is where it's at.

Agreed. Especially when I'm alone - there's a bunch of stuff on Surfside I'll do alone - Nor'easter, IT, Atmosfear, Flitzer, Kong, Kangabounce. But on Mariners I literally can't do the Giant Wheel or Pirates of Wildwood alone, and other than the waveswinger and Sea Serpent there isn't anything I really want to do by myself. I thought about hitting Can Am but it didn't seem to be open. We haven't had you guys do those go-carts yet, huh? We gotta do that this year, they're good.

 

I don't know what you're talking about, that BBQ mac and cheese looks perfectly balanced to me. It's right in the middle of the plate.

Yeah I had a moment of hesitation but I am so glad I got that. Amazing.

 

Your Mudhen review almost makes me wish I had waited a year to go to Wildwood. Almost. That town is way cooler than it has any right to be. It's like Branson with a beach.

Well, wait a few years and come back w/ the family. Maybe we'll have a newer big coaster by then. And if not, you'll have a new spinner to ride.

 

Also, not my photo but courtesy of Samuel in the Moreys FB group - Whizzer looks to be ready for Memorial Day. I'll get back in a few weekends to have myself a ride.

 

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Your Mudhen review almost makes me wish I had waited a year to go to Wildwood. Almost. That town is way cooler than it has any right to be. It's like Branson with a beach.

Well, wait a few years and come back w/ the family. Maybe we'll have a newer big coaster by then. And if not, you'll have a new spinner to ride.

Yeah, my trip was built around Knoebels, and of course Hershey and Great Adventure were a must. I kind of threw on Moreys as a "while I'm here" kind of thing. It was much more than that, and I totally get why people come back year after year. It's awesome in a very low key way. Maybe I overvalue seaside locations since I live in the mountains in the middle of the continent, but I don't think so. Moreys is legit great.

 

I kind of expected it to be a once and done sort of place, but I really think I will be back. It's a long way and expensive plane tickets, so we'll go to Orlando first, but we probably will all get back to Wildwood at some point. Gotta take everyone to Hershey and Knoebels anyway, those places are too good not to share.

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Nice report! Sounds like a relaxing weekend. Echoing the bottle cap is a good idea. I assume other breweries don't do it because they don't/can't bottle what's on tap in the brewhouse.

 

Edit: wow, I think that's the kindest write up of a boomerang on TPR

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^ Haha relax, now. In retrospect I'm pretty sure it was just the day drinking.

 

Yeah, my trip was built around Knoebels, and of course Hershey and Great Adventure were a must. I kind of threw on Moreys as a "while I'm here" kind of thing. It was much more than that, and I totally get why people come back year after year. It's awesome in a very low key way. Maybe I overvalue seaside locations since I live in the mountains in the middle of the continent, but I don't think so. Moreys is legit great.

 

I kind of expected it to be a once and done sort of place, but I really think I will be back. It's a long way and expensive plane tickets, so we'll go to Orlando first, but we probably will all get back to Wildwood at some point. Gotta take everyone to Hershey and Knoebels anyway, those places are too good not to share.

 

I'm happy the place made such an impression on you, especially in light of the impression we must have made on you.

 

But yeah - sounds like a family vacation in Wildwood is in your future!

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On a scale of Delicious to OMFG AMAZING, how do those donuts compare to the ones at Reading Terminal Market? The donuts we had at RTM last year were insanely deliciously amazing and we still talk about them. I got a good laugh out of your poor planning with biking home, but seeing as they didn't end up on the ground I'd say it was a great success!

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^ Huh, that's an interesting question. Beilers are like the best donuts on the planet, so while Fractured Prune are fabulous and insane, Beilers are generally better. Beilers has a wide selection, but lots of traditional flavors, while FP feels like its trying to be strictly outrageous/weird, which isn't a bad thing, but it would be nice to be able to get a simple glazed donut or something. Beilers also has filled (cream, jelly, etc) donuts, while if you notice FP does not have any - toppings only, so that also gives Beilers an edge.

 

The huge trade off is you can rarely have Beilers without waiting a significant amount of time. Even when the rest of the RTM is a ghosttown (weekdays, mid day) there is usually a wait at Beilers. Prune has been said to have been getting decent waits in the early mornings so far, but I have yet to run into anything significant, however I've only had them 2 or 3 times now, and this last visit the entire island was dead.

 

Also worth mentioning since we're talking about Philly area donuts - Federal Donuts. All they serve is fried chicken and donuts. And its phenomenal.

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Mmm doughnuts. Those look fantastic!

 

A few months late to this thread, but just wanted to say phenomenal reports. Spent the last hour going through your latest shenanigans. Always very informative! You lived through the food truck festival @ Gradv which I missed out on this year, so it was great to see, while not extravagant, it was a good time and won't be missed by me next year.

 

Just got back from Busch/Dominion myself and share similar thoughts as yours on just about everything rides-wise, though I was smart enough to avoid loch-ness unlike yourself . Bill is really good at peer pressuring in pretty much every report I read, lol. On Pompeii I would have been more worried about the water cannons than the ride itself I saw some people getting soaked from those the other day.

 

I generally don't drink a ton at the parks but Busch had a bunch of ciders (and Frozen spiked lemonade!) for me to drink, so I definitely took advantage and actually got buzzed. I like the way you guys roll. The photo with the drinks riding in the coaster car was welcoming to know is now possible / no more beer jail at Great Adventure :-P.

 

Anyway, just wanted to say thanks for the write-ups and photos!

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^ Appreciate the kind words, thanks for reading.

 

Bill is really good at peer pressuring in pretty much every report I read, lol.

You have no idea, dude is such a nag.

 

Also @TBpony414! Look what you made me do!

 

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I was up early today and took the train down to Beilers. Diet be damned.

 

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Middle-row-outer-two have f*cking bacon on them.

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^^ LOL. . .Liz (TBPony) is quite the convincer, innt she?

 

she got me to go eat at Melt! with her and her Mom (Hi Mom!) at CP last year.. even tho we had eaten a huge lunch earlier that day.

 

 

we need to all meet up: you, me, Liz, Bill/Brit . . it would be the perfect storm! drunk and stuffed full wobbling around the parks riding stuff!

 

 

 

as for me, when we were in Philly, never got to RTM . . it was closed by the time we got back to the hotel every night (even tho we were literally staying across the street from it).

 

luckily, in Austin, we have an outlet of Voodoo Donuts, so I get my fix that way:

(their signature is a jellyfilled, chocolate coated Voodoo doll, that you can stick with Pretzel sticks)

 

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Major family emergency on my end so I'm late to reply. Boldikus and Bert you two have me really laughing over here with your donuts!! And yes I can be extremely persuasive I was even *this close* to getting Bert to go see the BMX Stunt show at CP last year... and now that it's gone I hope you are truly kicking yourself for not seeing it in all its glory. Definitely count me in for park shenanigans with any of you hilarious yahoos!!

 

Boldy - I appreciate the in-depth analysis of the donut shops. Until I went to Beiler's I was not really a donut person but they seriously changed my entire view on the matter. I know for sure we got an apple pie, an apple crumble (yes two diff apple ones), blueberry somethingorother, banana cream pie, key lime pie, maybe an Oreo something? Good god they were delicious. Shawn and I keep talking about making a trip up there to get more donuts and go to Adventure Aquarium again in Camden.

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^ We had the oreo, banana cream and key lime as well. The key lime was not as good as we were expecting (and we're big key lime fans). My favorite is the chocolate mousse. God damn. Also, the Elvis Delight (peanut butter cream & topped with banana & sprinkled with bacon) was ridiculous. As was the smores.

 

I will say that as good as Beilers are, they are awfully small donuts. I knew this already but forgot about that tidbit until we had them again over the weekend. I guess thats good thing considering we bought an entire dozen.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Alright enough about donuts, but I'm not quite ready to talk about rides just yet. Rest assured we'll be looking at cool stuff and drinking beer in this next installment.

 

Last weekend the missus and I wound up having an impromptu date night of sorts to check out Independence Beer Garden, a new(ish) little spot near our downtown historical area where you can find the likes of the Liberty Bell, Betsy Ross House, Constitution Center, blah blah blah... (sorry but when you grow up here it all gets a little old). After some drinks and a bite we planned to walk a few blocks north to Franklin Square Park which was hosting the 3rd annual Philadelphia Chinese Lantern Festival, and which is coincidentally the only park in Philadelphia proper that contains a permanent, operating amusement ride. Yes its a carousel but its still counts. The park itself is one of the five original open-space parks planned by William Penn when he laid out the city of Philadelphia 1682. Over the last century it fell into disrepair and eventually became a homeless camp until the early 2000's when the city invested into cleaning it up. It currently houses gardens, a large fountain, a playground, and Philly Mini Golf - a fairly respectable course with obstacles and themeing based around Philly and its history, as well as Squareburger - a small milkshake/burger stand.

 

We hopped in an Uber and after a short 11 minute drive we were at 6th & Chestnut being dropped off in front of the new spot. The missus noted she felt a little old among the sea of early-20-somethings scattered around. I agreed. Once we got wristbanded after being carded at the entrance (feels nice when you're our age lol) we walked around and found the place was enormous. Sadly I was not thinking I'd be doing a Trip Report at this time, so I didn't take a lot of pictures at the beer garden (the missus took a few).

 

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We grabbed some beers and began to explore, noting the place had at least 4 different bars, indoor and outdoor seating, a whole section for people to park/lock up their bikes, shuffleboard, as well as an entire lawn with a small cornhole competition going on.

 

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We found a covered table, seated ourselves and within no time our server appeared and grabbed us another round of drinks and some menus. It's mostly bar food so I ordered up a juicy cheeseburger, some fries and pretzel bites. All three items were small for the price but not surprising considering we were smack dab in the middle of the most touristy area of the city, but we loved all 3. Slightly annoying was that all three items came out separately, which our server warned us about, but at the end of the day who cares.

 

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After we ate we settled up and slowly made our way a few blocks up 6th Street to find a very large crowd of people gathered around the entrance to Franklin Square. Even though we bought tickets online in advance, we still had to wait in a decent line. It moved quickly, and thanks to the beer we consumed prior to arrival, we were inside the park in no time.

 

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The park itself was very, very crowded. Inside, where the festival is held, are two dozen different lit up "installations" consisting of 1,500 individual lanterns made up of more than 15,000 LEDs. The lanterns are created by local and Chinese artisans. Some are small, while some are enormous, like a 200 foot long dragon that snakes across the park. The festival also features Chinese folk artists, as well as performances by acrobats & contortionists, and a food/beer garden.

 

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The event has been going on nightly since early May, but the night we attended happened to be the first Saturday in Philly in about a month where it didn't piss rain so the entire park was mobbed. Unfortunately the area around the stage where the performances were being held was particularly crowded, so we just slowly wandering around the park and checking out all of the different lanterns...

 

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You can see the stage in red. The large area in front of it is a huge lawn that was just covered in people. We didn't even try to get close, instead wandering further into the park to check out more of the lanterns...

 

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I took a few videos to make a few gifs out of so you guys could see the changing lights/colors. Really neat stuff.

 

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I'm not sure if you can tell by the photos but this tree was huge - easily 20-25 feet tall. The attention to detail was incredible. It was crowded enough that we had to "fight" a little bit to get close to the lanterns, but we did.

 

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Right in the center of Franklin Square Park is a large fountain, built in 1838, with water piped in from the Schuylkill River, and is thought to be the oldest surviving fountain in William Penn’s five urban squares. The park was very dark so it wasn't easy to get photos but at least I tried.

 

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Note the carousel on the other side of the huge fountain.

 

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Was having 90s rave flashbacks in this funky tunnel. That led us over to...

 

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The absolutely massive 200 foot long dragon!

 

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All the lanterns for this years show are newly created except for the giant dragon (above) and the ever popular pandas.

 

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Across the way we notice this massive contraption.

 

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So neat. And the dragon from the other side. Due to the crowds and the size of this thing it was near impossible to get the whole lantern in one shot. *sad face*

 

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This was one of our favorites - a giant glowing shark you could walk right through.

 

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This giant flower softly changed colors and then would suddenly turn into a tron rave robot.

 

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We made our way back toward the central fountain, stopping to peak over at the very busy mini-golf, and checked out the food offerings.

 

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We wound up getting a "funnel cake" which was a giant overpriced disappointment. No photos I'm afraid since it was so dark in the park, not to mention it was awful. We soon thereafter found ourselves the beer guy where we grabbed a couple of suds, so that made up for it. Sadly no photos of that either. But... look! A ride!

 

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We didn't bother with a ride on the carousel, as anyone who had brought children was lined up for a ride. I've ridden it already, its a nice carousel.

 

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One of our favorite of all the installations was the elephant. You could ride a bike that powered the changing of the lights but of course there was a nice little line we didn't feel like waiting in.

 

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You can kinda see a guy pedaling off to the right there.

 

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And suddenly we're snapping Brit like we're @ Seaworld. The was another one of our favorites.

 

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Hey everybody!

 

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And that's all from the Philadelphia Chinese Lantern Festival! Thanks for reading, and I promise the next update (coming soon) will feature some airtime. Subscribe!

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This is way more cool than any of the 20-odd Christmas light displays we have in our area. I love how some, like the lotus flower, look all quietly traditional until the light package goes into rave mode!

 

The walk-through shark is awesome. It should be the entrance to someone's house or a restaurant or something.

 

What happens to the lanterns after the festival is over?

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^ and ^^ When we had a Lantern Festival here in Vancouver last winter, I asked one of the people working at the display site

about that, and they said that it was "on tour," and was heading to another city, in the new year. But they couldn't remember

where the display was going next. By the way, that was a totally different lantern festival than this one. Which is great that

there is more than one display happening!

 

So, it's possible this one is "on tour" as well. Heading to another city after Philadelphia.

 

And great TR about it, Boldy! They're such beautifully-made colourful things. And we didn't have anything like

that SHARK to walk through! A couple of overhead "tunnels," but that was it. Thanks for sharing your trip there.

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they said that it was "on tour," and was heading to another city, in the new year. But they couldn't remember where the display was going next. By the way, that was a totally different lantern festival than this one. Which is great that there is more than one display happening! So, it's possible this one is "on tour" as well. Heading to another city after Philadelphia.
^ The lantern fest that we saw at Lowry Park Zoo in Tampa was very similar to this (although no shark - booo!) and it was a touring show as well.

That would actually make a lot of sense. Amazing the shape they keep them in if they do in fact move them around, especially considering they are out kept outside.

I picked the wrong time to go to Philly! Those photos are incredible; you're lucky to have a festival like this. Absolutely amazing.
Awesome photos!! Rikki and I drove past that after running a couple errands in the city, but unfortunately couldn't make time to stop over and check it out. Looks like we missed out!

Thanks guys, I though the photos were just OK, my phone sucks taking photos at night. FYI I should have mentioned - due to popular demand (and probably our crappy weather throughout June) the fest was extended through next weekend!

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The Chinese lantern festival is incredible!! Your photos turned out so well and the bright colors and creative designs they had... wow! It's hard to pick a favorite but probably the sea turtles and peacock at the beginning are front runners. I will look for something like this to come to the DC area because I definitely want to attend one of these festivals!

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I was over in the area again for my bachelor party on Saturday. We spent some time at IBG, and I have to agree that it seems like a hugely popular addition to the area. It's impressive how expansive the place is, and there's a decent variety of things to do depending on personal preference (indoor vs outdoor, regular seating vs large scale board games). I think that anyone who chooses to see the sites in the historic district should make this place a mandatory part of the itinerary going forward.

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^^ Thanks TBpony414!

 

^ Glad you checked it out, Mike, I really liked it and want to go back again. That food we had was super good.

 

OK fam, finally some airtime!!!

 

ICYMI last Sunday I went over to the park with a few buddies. It was a heat index of 106°F and after one ride on El Toro he spiraled into a severe episode of heat exhaustion and we spent the next two hours in first aid before leaving for the day. While it was a bummer, everything happens for a reason. The park may have been empty but it was not meant to be.

 

On Monday I got a text from my good friend Imri (you may remember Imri from our Hershey trip or Twisted Timbers opening day at the beginning of this report). He texted me to remind me that he's free weeknights and since the park is now open later w/ summer hours, if I take the train up to his work (an hour ride for me) we could take the quick drive over (30 mins) for some night riding. We agreed that since we were both off on Wednesday due to the 4th of July holiday, that we should pop over on Tuesday night and stay late. I'd been watching queue-times and the GreatAdv Conn group and noticed all weekend the heat had been keeping the dry park relatively empty, so I had high hopes we'd get a bunch of rides in during a short period of time.

 

Luckily we were slow @ work on Tuesday and I was able to get off early, and was already stepping off my train a few minutes from his work, right around 5:30pm. The park was scheduled to be open til 10pm (with an 11:30 closing in the Boardwalk area after a DJ/foam dance party and extended ride time on Superman: Ultimate Flight and Crap Lantern) so we had a nice chunk of time. However on the train ride up we apparently hit a snag - it was raining! There was absolutely no rain in the forecast. It was scorching hot and I was prepared to deal with that but rain? Knowing this park and its rain policies I suddenly feared my trip up here was for nothing, as if the rain kept up, and the park was empty, they'd surely close early. Not to mention any kind of lightning will shut everything down even if the park does stay open. As I jumped in Imris car and pulled up Wunderground I was horrified to see a 20-30% chance of T-Storms in and around Jackson... until 10pm. :/

 

After a quick ride over in a downpour we approached empty toll booths and were allowed in but a very unenthusiastic gentleman informed us that he "has to inform us that all of our tall rides are closed and may not open for the rest of the night". *Cue slow fart* Nevertheless, we headed in - Imri had some beers in the trunk and he's also got the dining pass so if anything we could get him some free food. Upon entering the lot I was ecstatic to see a decent amount of cars - at least people were here. The lot wasn't packed by any means but certainly wasn't empty. If they wouldn't run the rides for now, at least I knew the chances were low that they would close altogether.

 

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Ominous clouds... but hey at least people are here.

We hung out in the lot as the wind picked up we got a bit of drizzle and watched the storm skim along the southern edge of the park. It was neat to actually watch the Great Adventure Bubble in real time, but it never lets us down. We still hadn't seen any of the big rides run in the 20-30 minutes we were out here, but we eventually headed in anyway. Not yet wanting to eat, we pulled up the app and saw the four indoor rides were all open with 5 minute waits. I suggested Justice League but eventually agreed to face the intensity.

 

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Just whose report do you think you're reading?

Imri comes for the big thrills and isn't into the "kiddie rides" (his words) but we sat in the back row, the metal was cranked and we had an excellent first ride of the night over in The Mountain. He even said he liked it when we got off. Now our choice was Justice League, The Dark Knight, Houdini, or food. We set off toward Houdini but ultimately chose food. Macho Nacho to be precise. People like to hate on Macho but for theme park food, I enjoy it. Plus they take Imri's dining plan not to mention we'd be right next to the best ride in the park... once the ride started running. On our way over we noticed some smaller rides had reopened - the Tea Cups, etc - and had decent crowds. Through the arcade shortcut, which was packed, and over to Macho, which was empty. We ordered and by the time we got some drinks our food had come out, perfect time.

 

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Nachos and a marg, Imri went for a rice bowl and beer.

While eating I was bouncing between the Six Flags app and Wunderground. The big rides were still closed, and sadly the T-storm potential was looking like it was in fact going to stick around the not-so-immediate area, just not hit the park. We sat and bullsh*tted, drank and slowly enjoyed our food, killing a good bit of time, and as we finished up we tossed around the idea of hitting the rest of the indoor rides and heading out, as it was now after 8pm, and at this point I had very low hopes the park would reopen anything that late in the day, when out of the silence came the all familiar roar of a classic B&M floorless off in the distance.

 

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Bizarrrrrooo

We hurried over and had a fantastic sunset ride on Bizarro in the back of the train, the ride was absolutely hauling and all of the effects were working. While I didn't necessarily appreciate the added heat from the fireworks, the mist (and lights) were on at the S-shield and the meat grinder. I really love this coaster, after dark its so badass.

 

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Yeah, yeah you've seen this a million times... be jealous if this isn't your home park. ;)

Heading off we stopped on Runaway Mine Train for a short front row ride. We had another brief debate over whether or not we should ride as, like I said, Imri doesn't do "kiddie coasters" even though, once again he got off and said he had fun. I really have a hard time getting in and out of these trains, and once I'm in I always wind up crushing my nuts on the airtime hill over the lake because of how tight I have to keep my legs together. Its quite comical and also awful. I love this ride.

 

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Psychedelic Imri

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I love having this place to ourselves

We stopped to hit the bathroom and upon exiting I squealed with delight at the sound of the Intamin fart beckoning us from across the lake. No screaming riders but we bee-lined for the ride anyways. We found about 50 people already lined up, a few people milling around at the lockers, and the entrance still closed with the greeter and security guard posted up, and knowing exactly how this was going to go, Imri jumped in line while I quickly got us a locker and dumped our phones and his drink cup in there and I joined him.

 

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Just like that, the ride opened and at least half of the people in line got turned back toward the lockers for loose articles. We were able to get in and get to the magic seat with a one train wait. One train ops but who cares. I'll never get tired of the faithful, unanimous cheers returning trains on El Toro will consistently deliver, it makes it that much more exciting to climb onto. I was especially excited to ride The Bull on such a hot, humid day and believe me when I say it absolutely did not disappoint. As mentioned I also got to ride on Sunday morning and noticed it was running exceptionally well then, but tonight we were fuc*king flying. Holy crap, we're so lucky to have this ride so close to home. Ole!

 

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The timing worked out perfectly that when we got off, the line had completely dissipated and we were able to walk right around and right back up to the station, and to our surprise found row 1 to be a two train wait, and, well... you know what time it is. It's funny, I'm a huge 'magic seat' fan, and 9.7 out of 10 times will go for it, and had never even ridden the front until earlier this year, but since then, every visit I've ridden it in the very front as well. I prefer it in the back by far - the airtime is much more sustained. But the front is fun, its just a different animal.

 

By now it was almost dark, and we'd had a really great night, and agreed we would have been happy with going home, but I checked the app and noticed Nitro was finally listed as open, so we decided the rest of our evening would be better spent marathoning a fabulous B&M hyper through the sticky Jersey Pine Barrens. What better way to get there than the Sky Way, which was a walk on. Here's some photos we got up there

 

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Sorry its blurry but you can see Main Street was pretty dead by now

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Nitro night rides are something else

Nitro was a walk on, we literally walked up and hopped onto the back row of the train that was loading. All of the coasters had been running exceptionally well tonight but Nitro was really the shining star. With the sun finally down the air cooled and the ride was delivering. No moonlight, just butter-freakin-smooth, racing through the dark woods, delivering the most tranquil, beautiful floating air. The girl running the thing was clearly bored, hot and tired and her lifeless robo-schpeil of "enjoyyourNitrobyyeeeee" for every dispatch had us in stitches.

 

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Imri: "We have Six Flags most explosive coaster all to ourselves!!!"

With the back half of the station empty we stayed seated for a second ride and then played musical chairs for another ride a couple rows up. All three laps were incredible, we couldn't stop talking about how great and fast it was running and how strong the air was. After our third ride the operator mentioned the park closed in 19 minutes. Earlier we had talked about how cool it would be to ride Zumanjaro around 10pm when the fireworks were going off. Now, with the park closing, Imri suggested we try it. I told him he was crazy and doubted we would make it all the way from Nitro to Zumanjaro in... OK by the time we passed Nitro's photo booth we had 17 minutes. I also had my doubts they would even keep the entrance open all the way until 10pm and felt it was pointless to try.

 

We speedwalked our way through Movie Town, Adventure Alley, Main Street (where crowds had begun to assemble for the fireworks), the Boardwalk, and into the Golden Kingdom which was as usual pitch black, and also completely deserted. When we passed Twister, noting the beginnings of the foam party, it was 9:54pm.

 

6 minutes.

 

We made our way through the dark maze of the Kingda Kingdom when through the bamboo I head a familiar, robotic voice - "arms down, head back, hold on!"

 

All night Ka had been listed as closed and at this point we hadn't even considered riding it - our focus was a drop ride, but it didn't take much else for me to loudly declare "Oh F*ck That, Dude! We're Riding The King Daka!" We hurried back to the entrance and found a handful of other latecomers also entering. I guess the loose article policy depends on the time of day as the lockers/kiosks were all closed up and while there was security at the entrance, no one stopped us and we rode with phones in our pockets.

 

We were thrilled to find it a one train wait for the front row, the ops (as usual) encouraging people to re-ride, with most of the back of the train staying seated. Before long were slowly advancing out onto the pitch black launch track. Not sure if Zum was even still running it was hard to see to be able to tell if we'd have to wait a few minutes for that to cycle before we could launch.

 

But as soon as I had that thought, I heard the familiar hiss of the brakes retract and the train slowly roll back and "click" onto the catch car. Between the moment where that happened and when we launched, the sky to our right suddenly exploded and off we went! The launch and catapult up the tower were incredibly smooth, and as we crested the top, I glanced to my left and caught the sky lit up again - exploding rainbows of color, and caught a glance again as we twisted down the drop. As we pulled out and soared up the airtime hill - just as we crested - BOOM! Another huge firework. We hit the brakes and the train burst into cheers, the firework show continuing over our heads. Best. Ride. Ever.

 

I'm not "not a fan" of Kingda Ka but Ive always been fairly indifferent about it due to its brevity and (for me) tight restraints. Regardless, I will ride it when there isn't a wait, and especially love taking people on it that have never ridden it. But this lap was just otherwordly and like no other ride I've had on it before (and I'm not sure I'll get again). The parks fireworks were quite impressive and lasted quite a while, we were able to make it all the way out of Golden Kingdom and catch them from the Boardwalk. Took a ton of photos.

 

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Trying to take a selfie of our sweaty selves

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Finally someone offers to take one lol

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Instead of battling the crowds in the lot, we'd hang out and check out the DJ/foam party which was weird. Like... teens that are too cool for it, preteens that are way to into it, and families with babies that are out way too late all dancing in foam and strobe lights to such favorites as "Gagnam Style", "Timber", and "Party Rock Anthem". The Sling Shot had free rides and had a sizeable line, Twister was running as were the Go Karts (which were also free) as well as Superman and Green Lantern. We didn't ride anything, instead we got some ice cream and stood around going "this is weird".

 

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The awful foam party.

I tend to hate (and avoid) the place during the heat of the summer but I can't deny it was an all around a great night at the park. A roller coaster of emotions as we went from being excited to get out on a weeknight to the doubt of anything running due to the weather to the the elation of getting to ride some of the worlds best coasters which happened to all be running exceptionally well. Thanks to Imri for contributing some photos for this report, and thanks to YOU for reading and hopefull commenting.

 

Stay tuned for more! (Subscribe!)

 

Six Flags Most Explosive Coaster 3x

OLE 2x

King Daka 1x

The Mighty Skull Mountain 1x

Medusa 1x

Runaway Train 1x

Macho Nacho 1x

Sky M&Ms 1x

 

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