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Coaster_Police · Kiddie Poster Joined: 03 Oct 2007 Posts: 31

Touched down in a humid Newark Airport just prior to a massive thunderstorm. While the thunderstorm performed around us we went through customs with ease and picked up our Luxury car with WITH ONLY 4 MILES ON THE CLOCK. BONUS

First port of call for us was Adventure Family Centre for the TL*3 Coaster which is a big apple - well, when in New York, why the hell not !?!

Just a couple of miles down the road was Astroland at Coney Island, home to the famous Cyclone. First of all we did another big apple Laughing

This one having a turntable to rotate the loading of the 2nd train while the 1st train is on the track.

Then it was over to the Cyclone where myself [Mark] rode the Cyclone as my 500th coaster [hence why the big apple's were done first] Next door was Deno's Wonder Wheel Park where we scratched the Sea Serpent.

After these parks we then went for a drive round scenic Brooklyn and onto Keansburg Amusment Park. Home to 2 more winning coasters. With these duly scratched, we headed to the hotel in Middleton.

We are now off out to the Outback Steak house next door for food and beer.

A very good day with a long haul flight, 6 winning coasters and BEER.

Highlight of the day was the Cyclone coaster and interesting to see so many people taking photgraphs. It is now a major tourist attrraction now they want to redevelop the site at the end of the year if they get their way.

Coaster Police Mark
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Coaster Police · Posted: Sat May 31, 2008 11:40 pm Post subject:

Hi all!

Matt here.... just to let you know, i'll upload my daily pictures (subject to internet in hotel) each day to my pics site.

This can be found at http://mdw.fotopic.net/

I've just uploaded the first batch, but not done any labels yet - i'll do them later when we get back from the beer establishment next door Smile

Mark's report above is great, and my highlights for the day are definately the Cyclone at Astroland, which is a great coaster. The seats are really well padded so it's more bouncy than rough. I think it's a great coaster, fast and alot longer than it actually looks. I am pleased i have finally done it, and rate it as a good coaster.

The other highlight, tho not as spectacular was the turntable system on the big apple coaster. I seem to have ended up on a whole load of big apples recently, and this is certainly different. A big apple with 2 trains!! Clever idea, i wonder if the place was busy if it really up's the throughput.... who knows....

Anyway, Heather, Marie and Mark are waiting for beer and food, so i'd better shut up and log off..... i'll do the pic labels later on..

Enjoy Smile

Matt.
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Matt
Coaster Police

RCCGB : 2163

My Coaster Pics Site:- http://mdw.fotopic.net/

Rough Rider · Hyper Poster Joined: 01 Oct 2007 Posts: 213

Greeting from your fellow Ukranian.
Glad you all arrived safe, and are having a great time.
Quite suprised you liked the Cyclone Wink

It makes the RATTL~R ride smooth Laughing

(this is where Magic comes in) Laughing

Great photos guys.......keep em coming Very Happy

Looking forward to day 2 report.
Take care
Ryan
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stevencaine · Junior Hyper Poster Joined: 07 Oct 2007 Posts: 108

Great trip report some nice photos god i wish i was out there with you Wink

catch you in a few days roll on Saturday

BAGuru · Posted: Sun Jun 01, 2008 1:03 pm Post subject:

Nice start to your extended trip guys and gals. Keep those reports and fotos coming. Have a nice day y'all Laughing

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Coaster_Police · Kiddie Poster Joined: 03 Oct 2007 Posts: 31

Hi Guys,

Wide awake at 0440 today due to the jet lag - no coasters to scratch at this time, so we attempted to watch telly. What a pile of FROTH it is!!!! Ended up watching the weather channel to avoid the excessive adverts interupting the programs!!!!!!! We have remixed the broadcast production, and instead of the Local Weather on the 8's..... it's now the Ukraine dance on the 8's Laughing

Today we were making our our way south down the coast of New Jersey visiting various small parks. All except Morey's Piers has nothing noteworthy on the coaster front.

The best coaster of the day was the Great White on the Adventure Pier, 1 of the 3 piers that make up Morey's Piers. A wooden (hybrid - steel frame) CCI coaster. As soon as you leave the station you are dropped beneath the pier at speed through a tunnel to gain access to the lift hill, which is a good sign this is going to be a fantastic ride. And she didn't dissapoint.

On the far pier from Adventure Pier is Surfside Pier. There are 3 coasters on this one. By far the biggest coaster on this one is The Great Nor'Easter. This is a Vekoma Inverter (similar to Traumatizer/Infusion) which looks really good. It's painted white and has many different coloured lights pointed on it that make it look kinda cool. These also flash and stuff as the train is going round. Lovely effects, but to be fair, it doesn't matter how many coasts of paint or flashing lights and gizmo's you add to it - it's still a Vekoma, and has the signature roughness Rolling Eyes

The other (middle) pier here called Mariner's Landing Pier has 2 coasters, with the biggest being a Boomerang called the Sea Serpant. Overall there are 6 coasters spread over the 3 Piers, offering a good selection of rides, with at least 1 big coaster on each Pier.... a great place to go.

So that's near enough it for today. We drove to Atlantic City (east coast version of Vegas) where we'll be based for 2 nights. There's 2 coasters just down the boardwalk from the hotel which we went and scratched, a crazy mouse and small steel coaster thing to round off day 2.

Day 2 : Coaster Count = 19 (denied 1 due to it being an annoying Go Gator)

Total Trip Count : 25

More tomorrow..............

The Coaster Police
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Coaster Police · Posted: Tue Jun 03, 2008 12:16 am Post subject:

Hi all!

Here's our trip report for day 3.

Today was a very relaxed day, we started out from the hotel at 09:15 for a short drive to Storybook Land. They have 1 reasonable sized coaster for a kids fun park called Bubbles the Coaster. Nice themeing, pink track and a cool bubble making machine that starts blowing out 100's of bubbles when you're on the lift hill so you ride through them.

Next it was onto Clementon Park for the HellCat coaster. It looked very good from the car park as it's a huge Hybrid coaster (wood with steel frame) built by S&S, but alas on arrival at the coaster it wasn't working Sad

The guy in charge of the ride came along to us to break the news that it wasn't working. The park is under new ownership this season and the new owners want 2 trains running. For the last few years it's only ever had 1 train running to keep costs down. Due to this and the strict New Jersey laws, they are still waiting for the state inspector to come along and sign the ride for public use. To add insult to injury at this point, it started testing. The guy then went on to explain that they've trimmed the first drop down with 3 trim brakes due to it bashing hell out of the second hill, so a measure to save wear and tear as they had to get the whole ride re-certified anyway. The first 5 trains of the day run un-trimmed to judge how fast it's working (and they'll all be test trains), then they set the brakes accordingly ready for run mode. In the end they gave us free tickets to return during the 2008 season, and the guy has my cell phone number. He thinks it could be running by the end of the week, so he'll call me with an update.... if it's working by Friday we can divert and still get it - Fingers crossed.

With excess time on our hands now, we trundled down to Ocean City for a couple of parks. These don't open until 6pm, so we had a nice chilled out day, eating, drinking, taking in a shopping mall etc. etc. At 6pm we went to the first of our 2 remaining parks for the day. The first was called Playlands Castaway Cove at Ocean City boardwalk. They have 3 coasters here, 1 looping coaster called the Python, 1 flitzer coaster (a popular design it seems this week!) and the Sea Serpent. The python is ok, not too rough and has a loop... it's very similar to Turbo on Brighton Pier. The Flitzer is a Flitzer - hard to explain, but ok... single cars that zoom about, and the Sea Serpent is a small kiddies coaster thats none too special, though the staff always find it amusing when 4 crazy adults are riding it laughing all the way round.

The final park of the day was about 10 minutes walk down the boardwalk and is called Gillians Wonderland Pier. This also has 3 coasters. It has a Runaway Train, Wacky Worm and a Minor Mike. When we got there, there is a top terrace area of the park which was closed... CRISIS, this is where the Minor Mike was Sad

So we went to the ticket booth to get tickets for the other two coasters. Next to the booth was Guest Relations, so i thought i'd pop in and see if I could get information about the closed area. It turns out that they had been laying new concrete and the area would be open tomorrow. Luckily the park manager was loitering about and offered us a free private ERS on the coaster. BONUS!! We all boarded the Minor Mike and after a short delay while staff went off to power up the area, we had 10 laps. After we got off we were told this is the coaster featured in the "Under Construction" area in the film Beverly Hills Cop III in the Wonderworld theme park. Nice bit of history there.

Now we're in the car for the short drive back to the Hotel in Atlantic city. I have the laptop in the car today which is why this is a more detailed trip report for the day than previously as i'm using the drive time to write this rather than rushing it at stupid o'clock at night after beer Wink

It's off to the Hard Rock Cafe this evening for dinner and beer on the Atlanic City boardwalk, then off to Dutch Wonderland tomorrow where hopefully we'll run into the other group (Dave Perry & Co.) as they are there tomorrow too!

Day 3 Summary: 7 out of the 8 planned coasters running.

Trip Total: 32 coasters

More tomorrow.......

Have a nice day ya'll !

Coaster Police
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Coaster Police

RCCGB : 2163

My Coaster Pics Site:- http://mdw.fotopic.net/

c anderson · Posted: Tue Jun 03, 2008 6:50 am Post subject:

It is a shame the Wildcat was not running. I was considering going to Clementon Park on Sat as it is only 32 miles from our hotel, especially as on a previous trip we saw the trains being built at PTC. Good luck that all the other coasters on your trip are working.
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USfriends · Posted: Tue Jun 03, 2008 9:34 pm Post subject:

Clementon is notorious for being closed. Planned a trip there before
only to drive up to an empty parking lot. I know someone who has been there multiple times and yet to tick Hellcat....Wildcat...J2...Tsunami..
perhaps this ride was cursed since its inception. Any ride renamed 4 times has got problems.
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Coaster Police · Posted: Wed Jun 04, 2008 10:44 am Post subject:

Pronounce when reading this whole trip report in a Geordie accent Big Brother style.....

Day 4 in the Koaster Krazy Kadillac

7:30 am - Matt, Mark, Heather and Marie are in the Kadillac travelling to Dutch Wonderland.

10:00 am - Matt, Mark, Heather and Marie join up with the other housemates in the theme park.

10:15 am - Dave and Heather have just completed a lap on the Kingdom Coaster. Heather asked Dave... "Is this a wood or steel coaster"?

10:16 am - Dave wets himself with laughter at Heathers question.

10:20 am - Some of the housemates board the Joust coaster whilst others watch from the garden.

10:30 am - Matt and Marie are summoned to the Smoking room.

10:45am - All house mates are told by Big Brother to board the Sky Ride for a challenge. The challenge is - can you get to the other end of this incredibly slow Sky Ride without falling asleep or out of the ride.

11:00 am - After successfully completely challenge, all housemates are rewarded with a gourmet buffet meal from the Cafe including Hot Dogs, Wraps, Subs and Chocolate Mousse.

11:01 am - All housemates enter the buffett for the reward when Heather makes a stoopid comment of "Is this a ride like the spinning tubs at Southend?"

11:02 am - All housemates finally stop laughing at Heather and collect their rewards.

11:45 am - Matt, Mark, Heather and Marie say goodbye to the other housemates as they leave the theme park and make their way to Planet Fun, near Washington D.C.

1:58 pm - Heather applies sun cream and gets her sunglasses ready before arriving at Planet Fun

2:05 pm - Housemates arrives at Planet Fun. Heather is totally blown up when she realises this is a dark indoor haunted coaster and wasted all her time with suncream and shades.

2:15pm - The housemates all board the Haunted coaster at Planet fun for 5 laps of rough riding

2:30 pm - Housemates board the Koaster Krazy Kadillac for a short journey to Adventure Park USA in Frederick, Maryland.

3:30 pm - Housemates arrive at Adventure Park USA for 1 lap of the Wild Cat coaster.

3:55 pm - Housemates go to the Kitchen at Adventure Park USA for some snacks.

4:03 pm - Mark jumps up and throws his money and 4 rechargable batteries out of his pocket and all over the table. On closer inspection it appears thge coins were short circuiting the batteries and had created a current in his pocket heating the money and batteries up to a very high temperature that became apparant all of a sudden based on Marks shock reaction (No pun intended).

4:30 pm - Housemates are once again summoned to the Koaster Krazy Kadillac for a long drive of 225 miles to Cranberry Township in Pensylvannia for the next coaster.

7:40 pm - Heather nearly wets herself laughing at the 2:05pm comment above whilst other housemates in the Koaster Krazy Kadillac are writing this report as we near the end of our long journey.

7:54 pm - Matt stops writing this report as he has caught up to real time. 13 Miles to go until the next coaster, then this report will continue after the break.......

<<COMMERCIALS>>

8.10 pm - Due to servere weather the housemates are denied access to Fun Fore All and the coaster which is outdside in the garden, and so the Koaster Krazy Kadillac heads for the hotel.

8.30 pm - Big Brother treats the housemates to some beer and steak.
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My Coaster Pics Site:- http://mdw.fotopic.net/

BAGuru · Posted: Wed Jun 04, 2008 12:34 pm Post subject:

Nice one Matt!!!

Keep 'em coming.
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Coaster Police · Posted: Thu Jun 05, 2008 1:46 am Post subject:

Day 5 Report

After last nights dissapointment caused by servere weather, thus missing the last coaster of the day, we consulted The Weather Channel at 6am this morning to make a decision on the day's plans.

Given that the servere weather was continuting for most of the day here in Cranberry Towship where the missed coaster was, we decided to step up the plans and head straight for Waldameer Park in Erie.

We drove up through the predicted servere thunderstorms as per the forecast, and entered much better weather about 30 miles south of Erie. After a quick MacDOnald breakfast it was into the park.

First port of call was the new Ravine Flyer II, however, there was some farce occurring getting the locking mechanism to work between the main track and the depot spur for the extra trains, so we decided not to waste time and headed to Ravine Flyer 3.

Ravine Flyer 3 is a smallish steel kiddie coaster which is quite fast and totally over water, so not bad. After this we noticed Ravine Flyer II testing, so they'd obviously sorted out the issues. We headed straight back to it, and were pleased that only 2 extra people has joined the queue line.

Expectant of a good ride, we boarded the train..... and we were off....... at the top of the lifthill you get an awsome view out over Lake Erie and the surrounding area. The front of the train has a short hanging delay whilst the rear clears the lifthill (like Blackpool's Big One), great first drop, then onto the new bridge over the 4 lane road underneath. Out the otherside and up again into a fast banked turn which rises again, before a second drop then back over the roadbridge.

Immediately after the bridge there are some tunneled bunny hops taken at a high speed....before another turn sharpening to just short of 90 degrees before the final drop into the ravine.... back out of that again, round a few more bends and into a very powerful brake run.

Front seats - awsome - loads of airtime, brilliant view of the speed of the thing.
Middle Seat - good - loads of airtime over the hills and hops.
Rear seats - great - big airtime when whipped over the firt drop off the lifthill. Good airtime all round.

After this we then went to get the other 2 coasters in the park. The Comet, a small wooden coaster aimed for younger entry level riders, but not bad really, though having just ridden the new coaster, was hard to get excited about it. After that, the 4th coaster of the park was the Steel Dragon.... a small form factor version of Spinball Whizzer, small but great fun and very spinny.

With all the other coastes scratched, it was back to the Ravine Flyer II..... after many more goes on this excellent coaster, a quick visit to the froth shop was made then we left the park and headed south again towards Pittsburgh.

With the weather improving on the way home we thought we'd pop into Fun Fore All to see if the coaster lost yesterday due to weather was working, and woo-hoo, it was... SCRATCH. This is a basic and simple Fiesta Express, so was scratched before heading to Marks favorite food establishment CiCi's Pizza. We got him a suprise gift from the staff of a CiCi's cap which he has promised to wear when meeting everyone at the airport on Saturday.

We're now in the car on the way to the Hotel in Blairsville where we're going stright to the bar for some beers after a great day, as we popped into Wal-Mart and they didn't sell alchohol !! OMG!!!

So, 5 coasters today, giving us a trip total of 41 so far.

More tomorrow after we visit Idlewild and Del Grosso's.
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Coaster Police

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Coaster_Police · Kiddie Poster Joined: 03 Oct 2007 Posts: 31

Coaster Police Matt has pictures of Ravine Flyer II on his website. Check them out on mdw.fotopic.net

The Coaster Police crew have secured bottles of Bud at $1 each [51p] So it's rude not to drink them all given an awesome day with an awesome new Coaster.......

We might have a lot of awesome's in the last sentence but in America no amount of enthusuiasm is enough..........

Heather has fallen asleep twice in the lobby of the hotel after just 1 bottle of drink. These pictures will be posted on Matt's website tomorrow.......

Goodnight Heather, we will finish the drinks.........
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Coaster_Police · Kiddie Poster Joined: 03 Oct 2007 Posts: 31

Not a true trip report as Heather will be posting today's later on so heaven knows what it will be like Shocked

.............

However over breakfast this morning Heather ask's the breakfast lady what they call English Muffins in America........ What a surprise they are called English Muffins. She has also left her bag in the middle of the walkway in reception and then forgot it was there. Matt suggested this is the most secure way of looking after your luggage, to which she replied "That's what we do on normal trips" Matt pointed out that there are not 55 people loitering around to keep an eye on it.

Clearly the one bottle of drink last night is causing problems this morning.

We thought we would add this now as her trip report will not include her own silly goings on........ Very Happy

Off to Idlewild now.
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butler · Posted: Thu Jun 05, 2008 5:47 pm Post subject:

Please ensure that Heather dose not drink anymore or is left on her own. FOr her own safety that is.

Coaster Chick · Posted: Fri Jun 06, 2008 1:00 am Post subject:

As I have been in police training for 5 days now the Coaster Police thought it was time for me to write the daily trip report. Usually I am confined to the back seat of the Koaster Krazy Kadillac writing postcards and calculating the group finances on the laptop!!!!

We had a leisurely start, having woken up to rain and cloud and drove to Idlewild. By the time we arrived it was sunny and very hot (only 18 miles down the road!). Idlewild is naturally a very pretty park with really friendly staff. We rode on the little woodie called Rollo Coaster, a cross between Blackpool’s Rollercoaster and Zipper Dipper. As we had it virtually to ourselves we rode several laps. Unfortunately the Wild Mouse, was denied due to technical faults.

As per usual the staff in the park were fascinated to hear about what we were doing in the USA and hearing about the coasters we have ridden.

It was then back to the car for the 84 mile drive to the next park and as usual Marie and I had to put up with the Coaster Police’s antics of singing out of tune to the radio, spotting number plates and when really bored, reclining the electric seats back and forth, turning on the rear heated seats, throwing sweet wrappers, and playing with all the car gadgets. Boys and their toys!! Need I say more!!.

We then visited Del Grosso’s Park in Tipton, Pensylvania. There we rode a Wacky Worm and a Crazy Mouse. The temperature had risen to 92 degrees, which made the waterpark look very tempting.

We were then off to Allentown for the next 2 nights ready for a day at Dorney Park tomorrow, which brings back special memories for me as it was my 1st park on my first club trip to the USA in 2004.

Another nice Comfort Inn, close to the park with a bar this time!!!

So it is now back to the office for me while I post this on the message board and looking forward to seeing all the other Koaster Krazy members on Saturday.

Goodnight all
Coaster Chick aka WPC Senior Cadet Heather Hall

Daily coaster count = 3
Total coaster count = 44
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BAGuru · Posted: Fri Jun 06, 2008 1:15 pm Post subject:

I'm getting a vision of Police Academy here......lol
Glad you're enjoying your trip and see you on Saturday (if I get on the plane, that is!!!)
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Coaster Police · Posted: Sat Jun 07, 2008 3:48 am Post subject:

Today we went to Dorney Park, a large park of 10 coasters operated by the Cedar Fair group.

Out of thge 10 we managed to scratch 9 of them (3 for Heather), only denied the Little Lazer due to it being for kids under 54".

Highlights of the day were the inline twist just out of the station on Hydra The Revenge. A great smooth twist before the lifthill. The rest of the ride was average. Steel Force was a great coaster. We rode this at the front and the back. The back definately being the best place for AirTime. It is slightly trimmed before the return bunny hops, but not as much as Wild Thing or Mamba, thus giving plenty of airtime on the return. Other highlights for Steel Force were that this is Marie's 300th coaster, and Heather loves this one as this was the first park she ever visited on a club trip years ago.

Talon was very good and rated highly by everyone.... this was the first coaster of the day, and also our first B&M of the week and it didn't let us down. The Voodoo coaster was ridden early in the day, which was good as it was down most of the day with technical issues, but came back at about 4pm, luckily as we were passing so we got to the front of what turned out to be a huge queue as hardly anyone had ridden it all day. Lucky!!

After riding the 9 coasters, we did a trip round the froth shops. After depositing the purchased items in the car, we all decided to cool off as the temperature was now in the 90's on the river rapid ride Thunder Canyon. Most people was coming off soaking wet, but Marie commented they went on wet. On leaving the loading station we soon discovered the reason why they were coming off wet. HUGE WATERFALLS, not the small ones in the UK theme parks. Panic then set in as we all had various camera's video camera's, passports etc on us. These were secured very quickly. After 10 or so waterfalls we all came off the ride soaking wet.

On leaving the park we were still damp from the earlier soaking. Heather was for once pleased of the heated seats in the car. However the journey bcak to the hotel was only 6 miles and not the usual 200 or so miles.

Daily Coaster Count - 9
Total Coaster Count - 53
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Coaster Police

RCCGB : 2163

My Coaster Pics Site:- http://mdw.fotopic.net/

Coaster Police · Posted: Tue Jun 10, 2008 11:03 pm Post subject:

Here we go all,

The final trip report from the Koaster Krazy pre-party. Apologies for this being a couple of days late, internet connection was flakey and serverly hindered by Ryans arrival and the magnetism of local bars.

Saturday morning we all sorted ourselves out, and headed for Bowcroft Park which is only 20 miles from Newark airport. On arrival we found out that although the park opens at 10, the rides didn't open until 11, so we had to flag these 2 coasters as we needed to get to the airport to meet the others.

We piled back into the Koaster Krazy Kadillac for the last time and used the 20 miles journey to play with the heated seats, electric reclining seats etc. etc. as much as possible. We got to Newark, handed the car back and went to International Arrivals to meet the others.

An hour and a giant Starbucks coffee later, Bob turns up with the bus. The official Koaster Krazy tour has now started !!!!

I'll leave others to post trip reports from the official trip now and close off our pre-party tour.

We've had a great week on our road trip here in the USA. In total, we have driven 1600 miles, accross 4 states in our brand new (not now it isn't!!) Koaster Krazy Kadillac. We've ridden 53 new coasters, with a heap more to look forward to this week.

Thanks for reading, we hope the reports were fun!

Matt, Mark, Marie & Heather
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Matt
Coaster Police

RCCGB : 2163

My Coaster Pics Site:- http://mdw.fotopic.net/