Quite a few years in the making... I finally got myself up to Coney Island. It was a fantastic night with some great people. This hobby truly is "enhanced" by the people you are with and I'd like to take a moment to thank all of my coaster buddies for sharing this great "pass time". Anyway, onto the TR...
We originally had a plan to have a large sized group meet up at Clementon Park to ride J2 for the first time this season. Well, this was our 2nd attempt, and 2nd failure. The first attempt was shut down by pouring rain and this time, J2 was closed for some major track issues. So once we decided CLP was out of the question, there was nothing to do... or was there??? There were many many different phone conversations between Dan, Bubba, Tom and myself about where to go... and suddenly, I'm not sure who came up with the idea, but we decided on Coney. Dan, Tom, Melissa and myself were all Coney Island virgins so this was a "monumental" trip for us. Bubba had been here before, but didn't speak to highly of the parks or Cyclone so I was really in no rush to get to the Island.
After an hour or so of getting ready, getting directions, figuring out how much money was needed... we were off to Camden NJ to pick up Dan. Melissa and I drove from the east side of NJ over to the Clementon area to pick up Tom (pcman). After getting Tom, we swung by Bubba's house and hopped in his "whip". Dan was our last passenger to acquire so once we got him, we were officially on our way. During the drive up, we hit traffic and passed some homeless people and some fancy bridges.
I went into this place with pretty low expectations. I always heard the crowds are bad, not large, bad, but the kind of bad where you better hold your purse, or lock your doors with a deadbolt. We encountered none of these 'hassles'. I've also heard GREAT things about the Cyclone and I've heard OK things about it as well so I wasn't sure what to expect. I decided to anticipate the worst, this way I wouldn't be disappointed. We arrived at the park too late to get wristbands, so this meant it was time to get ready to dish out big $$$
We parked right in front of the Cyclone, but didn't ride that first...
Instead, we walked around, went on the boardwalk, and proceeded to the Wonder Wheel.
It was my 2nd Wonder Wheel type ride and Melissa's first so she was pretty nervous riding it. We picked the "Swinging" seats for the best ride experience you can get for $5.
^ Tom and Dan are real swingers
The ride offered some nice views, but not as much swinging as the ride in DCA... still fun none the less. From the top, we got to see what other rides the area had to offer, like the Zipper, Saturn 6, Top Spin... etc etc.
I'm not too sure what order we did everything in, so I will just start to ramble the rest of this report, in order, and out of order. Try to stay with me
The Zipper was a ride I had high expectations for after riding the one in Ocean City. I always hear how great Coney's flat rides are, so this had to be a good one, right? WRONG!!! What a horrible way to spend $5. We didn't flip once, and we actually got more action while the ride was stopped as we tried flipping it ourselves.
The Coney Island Cyclone. The original. The "Legend". MOM as some call it.
This ride delivered in so many more ways than I ever could have imagined. I took my "cherry popping" ride in the back seat for the first ride. At this point our group had grown a little, adding Jim (jimvid) to the group ( who by the way is a wonderful host
)
I had a little trouble getting into the back row since the padding is so thick, but I made it in and felt pretty comfortable. The first drop on this thing is so wickedly violent. I don't remember laughing so hard throughout a coaster ride in a looooong time. This ride really was all it's cracked up to be. The drops on it were just insane, and the turns were taken at awesome speeds. I ended up getting 6 or so rides on it throughout the night and each ride was as good as the first. I was always told the back is the worst spot to sit, but honestly, it was my favorite seat or the 3 rows I tried. I do hope the city decides to keep this ride here for many more years to come. I will be back again and again to ride.
Dan and I rode the dark rides together. They were kind of corny, but fun.
I had heard wonderful things about the Top Spin and Breakdance rides... so these obviously had to get checked out.
Top Spin came first.
I'm normally not a fan of Top Spins. In fact, I really don't like them at all. I will say this about Coney's Top Spin, it is
THE best flat ride I've ever ridden. The cycle was very very long, the flips were uncountable, and our laughter was uncontrollable. I would have loved to ride it again, but at $5 a pop, it can get pricey.
The Break Dance on the other hand was kind of a let down for me. Break Dances are/were my favorite type of flat rides. This one was hyped up quite a bit for me so I had high expectations. The ride was very fun, don't get me wrong here, but it was missing something that I've had on other break dance's. It spun a lot, for a long time, but I never got the "intense pull" that some Break Dances give so much of. I actually felt a little sick after the ride, and I know Dan can agree with me on that one.
We then made the mistake of riding Saturn 6 immediately after the Break Dance. It was a fun ride, but the cycle was just waaaay too long. 8 minutes to be exact. I could have done with a 2 minute cycle and been just as satisfied.
Since it was Friday night, fireworks were to be on display at 9:30 p.m. They showed up late, around 10 p.m. instead, but they were very nice. Much nicer than the fireworks in my home town on 4th of July. This boardwalk is really in shambles compared to what I'm used to. Having just spent the last 3 weekends going to Seaside, Wildwood, Ocean City NJ and MD, this is a step or 5 down from all of them. The wood was loose everywhere and nails were exposed in a lot of places. Not very safe or clean, but it's all good.
The fireworks were beautiful... too bad I still can't figure out how to take good night shots. The night couldn't have been more perfect. Thanks to Jim for coming out and hanging with us. Thanks Bubba for driving. Thanks Dan and Tom for putting up with me and Melissa
I hit credits #318 #319 and #320, #75 wood and a new favorite flat ride. Cyclone is now in my "top 10 material" list of coasters. My low expectations were ridiculously exceeded.
I will end this report with a few random pictures from the night...
^ Bubba, me, Melissa, Tom and Jim (Minus Dan taking the picture)
^ random kids... Tom... Me with Melissa next to me and Da behind me whom you can't see.
Since Dan keeps getting cut out of the pictures...
^ Here are his feet.
^ "AAAAAY!!! Thanks for reading my report!!!" (in a heavy New York accent)
More pics can be seen here...
http://family.webshots.com/album/559907310aXhrQERob.
Topic: Coney Island Meetup TR Thread! (Read 10631 times)
