Earlier this summer I took my daughter on a tour of east coast theme parks for her 16th birthday. We share an interest in roller coasters, so our goal was to ride as many of the best coasters as we could within a week’s time. To minimize costs, we bought Cedar Fair season passes. Our flight east left early in the morning so we could be walking into the first park about the time it opened.
Six Flags Great Adventure
We chose Great Adventure back before Kingda Ka had been decommissioned, but we decided to keep it as part of the itinerary based on the new rides that had been installed since. The first part of the day saw us wandering around a little-used portion of the park. Many of the restaurants, shops, and rides were closed. The Superman: Ultimate Flight roller coaster was one of the worst I’ve ever ridden—the prone posture, while a novel idea, doesn’t work well in execution because visibility is very limited.1 Medusa, our second ride of the day, was marred by over-the-shoulder restraints (OTSRs) that banged our heads. El Toro (the ride I was most anticipating) was temporarily closed. The new rides Kinga Da had been demolished to make room for had not yet appeared.
Eventually, we figured out most of the good coasters were on the other side of the park. I was feeling nauseous and a bit dizzy from the heat and the previous rides, so I didn’t want to ride The Joker, which has a lot of spinning around the side-to-side axis. We got in line for Nitro, but it broke down, so (observing my rule of never waiting in line for a ride that isn’t operating) we left the line and went to Batman, which also had OTSRs. One of the attendants tipped me off to lean my head in the direction the train is about to go, and it helped! It detracted from my enjoyment of the ride, though.
When Nitro came back up, we got on with very little waiting. (A major upside to this park, and perhaps because it was Tuesday, is we never waited in line more than ten minutes). Nitro has a four-wide train with Maverick-style lap bar restraints on a steel track. This ride started with an electromagnetic launch, I think, up the first hill and then took us through a lot of smooth, swooping arcs and inversions with a lot of airtime. It was our favorite ride at this park, and we rode it again a couple times.2
We also rode the Jersey Devil, which introduced a couple of interesting concepts to us. The train is one-wide and moves slowly but continuously through the station as riders disembark and board. It’s on a steel, square-cross-section track and is very intense. We liked it and rode it again the next day.
Against our better judgment, we rode a couple of indoor roller coasters (Skull Mountain and The Dark Knight). They had the same problem as any indoor coaster: there’s nothing to see or hear. I finally realized why—since the whole thing is in one big room, there can be no sound or lighted visuals for one part of the ride without the whole rest of the ride experiencing them, too. It would just be a jumble of light and sound. So you just end up riding around in the dark being unpleasantly surprised by sudden changes in direction. That’s problem #2 I guess: much of the thrill of coasters is anticipation of the big drop, inversion, etc., you see in front of you, and the indoor coaster robs you of that.
It was so hot and humid we got dehydrated, headachy, and dizzy. I couldn’t think straight. So we left around 3 pm and checked into the hotel.
The next day, we rode the Joker first thing because we knew it would take a lot out of us. It did, but it was fun. Nitro and Flash weren’t running, so we went on a Justice-League-themed shoot-em-up dark ride. It was fun, but the playability wasn’t great—no feedback on screen or to the cheap plastic guns.
At some point, we re-rode Jersey Devil, which I enjoyed much more than the first time, and Nitro, which was a little less enjoyable. I grayed out on the helix, and, recovering from that, banged the back of my head because I wasn’t ready for a quick acceleration. But all that was relatively minor.
The food at the park was ok but insanely expensive ($20 for three chicken fingers and inedible fries). We liked the little town near our hotel, though. They treated us well at Tavern on the Lake—I had crab cakes and a Světlé (Czech smoked pale lager) from Sacred Profane in Maine. All good. Then we checked out the lake nearby (cover photo).
We had some outstanding bagel sandwiches the next morning at Hightstown Bagel. Crispy outside and chewy in the middle. We needed this fuel for the two-park day we had planned.
Dorney Park
Dorney Park is like a diminutive Cedar Point. The signage, benches, trash cans, and other details reminded us immediately of our favorite park. We could tell right away this park would be cleaner and better managed than Great Adventure.
The rides were great, too, even if many were almost duplicates of Cedar Point rides. Steel Force is very similar to the Magnum XL-200 but much smoother. Iron Menace, with its seven-wide train and hesitating, beyond-vertical dive, mirrors Valravn. We didn’t ride Possessed, but it closely resembles Wicked Twister. All these coasters were fun but seemed to lack something compared to their Cedar Point counterparts (maybe we’re biased). The venerable Thunderhawk was the only one we preferred to its Cedar Point analogue, Blue Streak.
Not all the rides lacked novelty for us. The suspended Talon has a four-wide train and some thrilling design elements, like an Immelmann turn. Hydra is a “floorless” coaster that features a slow barrel roll right out of the station! Unfortunately, both rides have OTSRs that require physical and mental exertion to avoid banging my head.
We managed to ride everything that interested us within three hours! So we got in the car and headed in the direction Hersheypark. There was heavy traffic for most of the drive. As a treat for Dad, we stopped at Tröeg’s for a late lunch. We had braised beef tostadas, a hot dog, and a giant grilled cheese. To drink, I had their American Light Lager (excellent) and a half pour of their Pilsner (very good). The place is vast, can’t-miss for any beer lover, and probably quite enjoyable for anyone else.
Hersheypark
It was clear as soon as we got inside that Hersheypark would be a step above the parks we’d visited thus far. Everything was well designed, polished, and clean. As you enter, you’re greeted by the sprawling Candymonium coaster, a soaring, gliding delight that proved to be our favorite. We also very much enjoyed Fahrenheit (reminiscent of Maverick), Stormrunner (a smaller Top Thrill Dragster), Wildcat’s Revenge (a smooth, spirited sister to Steel Vengeance).
I don’t remember as much about Great Bear and Skyrush, as we rode those while I was really hot and a little ill. In fact, we had to spend a fair amount of time resting while I waited for nausea, dizziness, and sweating to subside. Despite that, Hersheypark was a great stop and well worth it despite not being included in our Cedar Fair passes. We concluded that we could have easily spent a whole day there, and maybe part of another day for Chocolate World.
Kings Dominion
Kings Dominion is almost a duplicate of Kings Island. It has the Eiffel Tower replica (so a replica of a replica?) and the pool with fountains and shops on either side. There’s a Peanuts-themed kids’ area, and several rides are similar, such as Backlot Stunt Coaster. There’s no Beast, of course, but there is Grizzly, which is plenty enjoyable but quite a bit tamer.
We bookended our first day at this park (on July 4!) riding Twisted Timbers.3 Then we made the mistake of getting on Flight of Fear. I’d thought it was only partially indoors, but I was confusing it with Backlot Stunt Coaster. It started with an electromagnetic launch that wasn’t really that fast. The indoor part was awful—painfully jerky. There was one part that felt like being knocked onto your butt. I felt very sick afterward and had to rest for a long time.
Finally, I felt well enough to ride Rapterra, which is similar to Cedar Point’s GateKeeper but with an electromagnetic launch at the start. While I like the launch, it isn’t nearly as smooth and majestic as GateKeeper. I’d like to ride it again today, but it won’t be a priority.
I didn’t feel well enough to ride Tumbili, a free-spin coaster that looks identical to The Joker at Great Adventure, and neither of us wanted to ride anything with OTSRs, so that ruled out Dominator. So we rode the Backlot Stunt Coaster. It spent too much time indoors for me—I just closed my eyes. It had an electromagnetic launch, too, but was otherwise not that thrilling.
We spent some time in the arcade knocking down clowns and snowmen and playing coin-push machines. Eventually, it was near closing time, so we re-rode Twisted Timbers. It was pretty special to watch the fireworks as we rode!
We really didn’t eat well this trip. On this particular evening, my daughter got chicken fingers, but I was grossed out by the food and ended up eating the Reese’s protein bar I’d got from Chocolate World.
Next day, we started off with rides we missed the day before that we knew might be physically challenging. Due to my aversion to side-to-side axis spinning, I kept my eyes closed for most of Tumbili. Then we rode Rapterra again, this time from the front. I still found it way too jerky, but maybe I’m unfairly comparing it to GateKeeper.
Then we rode the one I was most anticipating, Dominator. We were disappointed. While intense, it was quite jerky, and we got banged up by the OTSRs.
After riding Grizzly and Twisted Timbers again, we went back to the hotel for a nap. We had dinner at the Mexican restaurant at our seedy hotel. It wasn’t bad! Finally, we were ready to return to the park.
We rode Racer 75, a twin wooden coaster, and loved it. Then we did a night ride of Twisted Timbers, easily our favorite coaster at the park.
Finally, it was time to claim a spot for a second night of fireworks. Earlier, we’d figured out from the map and asking questions that a grassy area in the water park would be the perfect viewing spot, and it was! Only a handful of other groups knew the secret and were there.
After the fireworks, we walked back to the hotel. Walking was definitely the right choice. We’d driven over the night before, thinking we’d not be in the mood for walking, and it took us an hour to get out of the parking lot. But walking took maybe ten minutes.
Busch Gardens Williamsburg
I wasn’t sure what to expect from this park but quickly came to appreciate not just the coasters but the atmosphere. While the “countries of the world” device isn’t unique, they’ve executed it with a lot of creativity and attention to detail, from the English pub to the German food hall. Thoughtfully arranged flowers, landscaping, and animal exhibits offer some balance against the typical coaster park in-your-face visuals and noise.4
We rode all the coasters we set out to ride, saw some animals, and enjoyed the ambiance and some good food. Even the much maligned Verbolten was good, including its indoor part. My favorite, though, was Pantheon, which we rode twice in a row.
Lessons Learned
We conquered five coaster parks in seven days with no major setbacks or injuries! Here’s what we learned, which may or may not apply to anybody but us:
- Don’t ride indoor coasters!
- Bring natural fabrics for lounging. They’re more comfortable than athleisure in over-air-conditioned spaces.
- Watch out for OTSRs. Sit in front, and aim your head in the direction you’re about to go.
- Ride in front when possible.
- Never fly through Charlotte! That airport is more or less purposely always over capacity, resulting in delays and cancelations. (I already knew this but somehow keep reliving the same mistake.)
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