back from Vacation. (we did a Penn. Theme park trip, from Pitts to Philly)

[bert]

we are back!

Had a WONDERFUL time (other than the horror of American Airlines. . which managed to have delays on every single leg of our flights. . . needless to say, after finally getting home last night after 12:30 am?. . we will NEVER (as in Never, ever) fly American Airlines again.


the parks were all great, and we had incredible cooperating weather (as we usually do . . with great trip karma). . so Kennywood and Hershey were both days that had 90% chance of rain (meaning NO crowds, and guess what?. . no rain either. . not even a drop).

it POURED on Friday night but we went to Knobel's anyways, as it's free admission and parking, so what's to lose?. . rain stopped when we arrived, and we walked to a covered picnic area where it then proceeded to pour for 20 minues (as we sat covered), and then the rain was done, so we enjoyed the rest of the night and the next day at Knobel's.

and then on Monday in Dorney, it was hot and humid. .meaning the waterpark section was PACKED (we didn't even go to that part, having no interest in the waterpark), leaving all the coasters and flat rides as walk on.

hell, even our "Culture" day on Tuesday was perfectly timed. . .we did the Liberty Bell, Independence Hall, Congress Hall, before the first bus trip even showed up (in Penn. they aren't out of school until tomorrow for Summer). We had some groups of kids at Betsy Ross house, but had the Cristchurch Cemetery, the oldest alley in America, and Ben Franklin's house to ourselves.

when we went over to the Franklin Institute for the afternoon (around 1pm), we had about an hour overlap with TONS of school groups, but then they all cleared out by 2pm, leaving us 3 hours to explore this fantastic (and hands on) science Museum!

and yes, we on Sunday afternoon went to Philadelphia Museum of Art and did the Rocky Steps, saw Van Goh's "Sunflowers" and Picasso's "3 Musicians", as well as went over to the Rodin Museum to see "the Thinker" and "Gates of Hell" as well.

so all in all a great trip.

pictures forthcoming as I get them organized and uploaded.


what did I miss around here?

[Don C]

Glad you had fun!

I don't think anything interesting happened while you were gone.

[bert]

Glad you had fun!

I don't think anything interesting happened while you were gone.

we completely ignored news, only watching Food Network in the room. . so the "real world" didn't intrude much. . other than the capture of the Bengahzi "mastermind"

but there was no way to avoid THAT news.

[Tom Badguy]

Sounds like a good trip. Any pics?

[bert]

Sounds like a good trip. Any pics?

TONS. . but between the iPhone and the camera, it will take a few days to organize.

but I'll post some when I have em.

[FanboyStranger]

SOOPER DOOPER LOOPER!!!!!

I grew up in PA, and I've been to all those parks as well as the Philly museums. Some great times back in the day.

[bert]

SOOPER DOOPER LOOPER!!!!!

I grew up in PA, and I've been to all those parks as well as the Philly museums. Some great times back in the day.

yep. .my Partner's favorite coaster in HersheyPark. . we rode it 3 times.

here's my/our takes on HP's coasters:
rode together:
SuperDuperLooper: Fantastic, we rode it thrice
Trailblazer: he loved it, I was bored, just a so-so mine train in my opinion. still, we rode it twice
Wildcat: HATED it. Beat the crap out of us, like a car with square wheels hitting pot-hole after pot-hole. MISERABLE.
Wild Mouse: Fun, but standard.
Lightning Racer: Super Smooth, super fun. Rode it "twice" - once for each track. Preferred the Thunder track over the Lightning one.
Comet: just an OK woodie, with bunny hop hills we nicknamed the ball-crushers. Running with a LOT of breaks, and we would have liked it much more if it had kept a little of the speed thru-out the ride.


rode myself (he wouldn't get on them):
Storm Runner: Amazing, my fave among every ride in the park. Rode it twice.
Great Bear: Really good suspended coaster.
SkyRush: HATED it with the passion of a thousand suns. it didn't feel safe at all, I was hanging on for dear life, and making it worse was that it was so rough, I had to take a break and some aspirin before going on anything else. a ride tech said I should ride it again, sitting in the center instead of on a "wing". .but hell no, once was more than enough, thank you very much.

Farenheit: Got stuck on the lift hill several times while we were there. . so I didn't even bother. No way was i gonna chance getting stuck on that. Besides, we had just ridden SkyRocket at Kennywood the day before, and I didn't really care for it. . . so I just skipped it.

also skipped the Flashback shuttle loop coaster, as I've ridden them dozens of times, and they simply aren't anything special.
(tho i would have loved to ride Stinger at Dorney, since it's a suspended version. . but due to an accident in May, that ride was still down when we were there on Monday)

think that's all the coasters at HersheyPark.

[Krona]

It's not a big Roller Coaster park, but Idelwild Park in Ligonier PA would have been a good stop on your way east to the Philly parks.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

And now for the truly important question: did you partake of a Philly cheesesteak during your stay in my fair city?

[bert]

It's not a big Roller Coaster park, but Idelwild Park in Ligonier PA would have been a good stop on your way east to the Philly parks.

we considered it.

but due to health issues, I planned our trip to have "down-time" each day to drive and rest, between parks.

so we had:
day 1: flight, rent car, check into hotel, dinner (look at Kennywood, since we were staying 10 minutes away, but got in too late to make even sundown passes worth it).
day 2: Kennywood
day 3: get up, check out by 11, drive to Hershey (~3 1/2 hours), check in Hotel. rest. That evening get into HersheyPark 3 1/2 hours prior to close (benefit of staying on property)
day 4: HersheyPark (on property Hotel also got us in an hour early if we wanted, but we slept in).
day 5: get up, check out by 11, drive to Bloomsburg (~1 1/2 hours), check into Hotel (~20 minutes from Knobel's). rest. Go to Knobel's in the evening for a couple of hours (mainly to eat dinner and try some of their excellent food choices)
day 6: Knobel's

day 7: get up, check out by 11, drive to Philadelphia (~2 1/2 hours), check into hotel, rest. We got in around 2pm, and as it was Sunday, most things closed at 5, and since Nick was up for it, we cabbed it to Philly Museum of Art (so he could get pics on the Rocky steps, and then we could go into the museum to see VanGoh's "Sunflowers" as well as Picassos and the included Rodin Museum (casts of "the Thinker" and "Gates of Hell" are on display).

day 8: up by 9am and drive to Allentown (~1:10) for the day at Dorney. We were intending to stay until close at 8, but were really done and had ridden everything we wanted to by 4:30pm, so just headed back to Philly, where we showered, rested, and went to dinner at a great place called "El Vez" in the "Gayborhood" section of downtown Philly.

day 9: Culture day! Up by 7 to walk down to Independence Visitor Center (only about 6 blocks from hotel), got a timed ticket to tour Independence Hall, then spent time at the Liberty Bell, our Independence Hall and Congressional Hall tours, walked to the ChristChurch Cemetary to look at Ben Franklin's grave, toured Betsy Ross' House, walked up Elsbeth Alley (the oldest continuously occupied street in the USA), and ChristChirch gardens.
We were pretty wiped by now, but Nick really, wanted to go to the Franklin Institute Science Museum (he loves Science Museums), and it was only after 1pm on our last full day in town, and they were open until 5. . so we cabbed it from oldtown to the Museum District and spent the rest of the day there. It helps that the Planetarium shows are free, so we were able to sit down and take breaks between museum floors

day 10: up by 10am, check out of hotel, drive to airport/find airport, return car, and then spend WHOLE day traveling as American Airlines screwed around with us and delayed flights left and right, and changed gates on us willy nilly.

so long answer to your short question. . .we considered Idlewild -- as we were going to be passing close to it. BUT the combination of absolutely needing some downtime between parks, and that Idlewild is more known as a "children's park". . even the chance to ride "RoloCoaster" -- one of the oldest coasters in the country -- wasn't enough to get us to detour into it.

(the other one we skipped that we would have gone to if we had a few extra days is Waldameer. . would have loved to ride Ravine Flyer II)

[bert]

And now for the truly important question: did you partake of a Philly cheesesteak during your stay in my fair city?

I did.. a couple.

one from Chickie and Pete's (Buffalo Chicken, while at Dorney). . that gave me the craps something fierce!

and the other, a "traditional" one from a cheessteak cart outside of the Liberty Bell, that I enjoyed immensely.

[Mari]

Very interesting trip! It seems fun and educational, and good that you enjoyed it.

[Pharozonk]

I've always wanted to try authentic Philly cheesesteak. I need to head north sometime

[bert]

finally got some pics uploaded, so here are some from the first park of the trip, Kennywood -- a historic park outside of Pittsburgh:

Kennywood at night, the coaster is Phantom's Revenge, the Blue/Yellow thing is a Screaming Swing (one of the 4 or so rides we skipped), and the white coaster with the chaser lights is the Thunderbolt.




Me with the Kennywood kangaroo? we never did figure out what he is exactly, but I wanted to pose with him.

The damage to my legs is from running into an open dishwasher (really hard) two days before our trip!

[bert]

Phantom's Revenge, standing at the bottom of the first drop -- the 2nd drop is the big one on this coaster, as it dives off the hill, and goes THRU the wooden Thunderbolt coaster.



Entrance to the Black Widow. . . I hadn't planned to ride it (it goes REALLY high.. I believe at top of the pendulum swing, it's 30+ stories up). . . but there was absolutely no line for it, and I'd heard this ride typically gets a 1-2 hour line!



Looking graceful on the Black Widow before the ride starts.

I had been talking to the lady next to me, and I ended up having to sit next to her, so I was facing Nick and he could take the picture from the sidelines.