A very Coaster Christmas...

Yup...

Lets just get this over with.

So the terrible holiday season is here (well, now I guess its nearly over with.....) and I've got a random blog post about my... uh, three Christmas trees? Wonderful.

Woo, photos.

My "full sized" tree... I think its a 4 footer, filled with mostly things from my travels and adventures past.

:D

And now for my two smaller, amazing trees!

The "Hippo Tree" is new for 2013, although it was used a few years ago as a Mickey Mouse tree.

and my favorite.... is... the.......

DUCK TREE!!!

woo!

But....getting back to the full sized tree.... Lets take a look at some of the ornaments

(well, at least the Park/Ride/Zoo ones)

Woo!

Lake Compounce/Boulder Dash and my Canobie Lake Park ornaments!

(The Canobie one goes at the very top, obviously)

Continuing with the New England parks we have Six Flags New England, Funtown/Splashtown USA, and my original Canobie Lake Park ornament. 

(note how the SFNE one is cheaply made of plastic)

And so they don't feel left out, I've got Edaville USA and Story Land ornaments as well

((can't wait for Roar-O-Saurus))

And of course I have my monorails.... Both Disneyland Resort
 and Walt Disney World's

Showing off some of the Zoo ornaments....

Jacksonville Zoo in Jacksonville FL, National Zoo in Washington DC, Henry Doorly in Omaha NE, and Big Cat Rescue in Tampa, FL. :D

Kinda hard to guess where he came from... Hopefully I can replace this one next summer ;)

Silver Springs.... back when Silver Springs was an amusement park... 

Oh and a Lake Winnepesaukah Cannonball ornament, woo

Matching, but generic Busch Gardens and SeaWorld ornaments... I kinda wish they made them for each independent park... Oh well

This will have to do!

Some ornaments from both the Florida Aquarium and the Georgia Aquarium.

Unknowingly buying them in the same style, ha.

These two ornaments from the Roger Williams Park Zoo (RI) and Mystic Aquarium (CT) are my newest, having just gotten them over a week ago.

Walt Disney World 40th ornament (#1) and a Disneyland Sleeping Beauty Castle one.

 WDW 40th #2, it came out later... and I liked it more than the one I already had... ha

My nifty "self built" Legoland ornament!

Woo, Six Flags Great America with its duel-carousel
 and Kings Island Diamondback ornaments

(I never noticed that there were snakes lining the Diamondback frame until I took this photo!)

From my 2013 adventures, this awesome Oklahoma City Zoo ornament not only has a Hippo with a Santa hat on...it comes with the lyrics to "I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas"!

From my 2011 adventure, this Adventureland Iowa ornament is one of my favorites. I just think its neat looking.

My Henry Vila Zoo (WI) ornament is pretty cool as well. Its made out of all recycled materials and each one is 100% unique (making it a pain in the ass to pick one) Also, an extremely boring Universal Studios ornament... but the ONLY one the park sells.... ZzZzz.

Homosassa Springs Wildlife State Park, home to Florida's only "native" Hippopotamus (and a bunch of Manatee!) And Zoo Atlanta with its Panda... and Winter, the dolphin without a tail // Clearwater Aquarium.

And then....... there's this one.

that I'm absolutely terrified to hang on my tree anymore, so I had to go out and get a stand for it.

So that's it... yay! I can't wait to add a few more for 2014..... And maybe get a bigger tree too :X

Yaayyy!!!!

(Now to start work on my long year-end-review post!!)

But first...

BONUS HIPPOS!!!!!!!

Two Flags Over Niagara Fun Park

Er, uh, I mean.....

Martin's Fantasy Island!

Yeah yeah, lets go with that...

So back in June I made a trip to Buffalo, NY to visit Yatpay and pretty much use his house as a base-camp to pick up some upstate New York and Canada credits... Oh, and also to hang out with my friend and make him ride Silver Comet!
(Since this trip.. he's now moved to NYC... and I'll be making him go to Coney Island in 2014!)

Martin's Fantasy Island! Well worth the price
(of their after 5pm rate)
I'd been here once before, on a cold and raining season-opening day back in 2005
((they were in the process of replacing the maps when I was here last time))
Pretty much everything here now was new for me but Silver Comet, the Ferris Wheel, and the Log Flume (that was skipped this go-around) I really, really liked Silver Comet back in 2005... So I was pretty excited to get to ride it again as well as take in all these new flat rides (and be kinda sad at the ones removed since 05... I regret not riding Chaos but I'm glad Sling Shot is gone)
Since my visit in 05 I've driven past the park at least 4 times.. But half of those were in the winter when the park wasn't open and another time it was like 6AM because I needed to be at Canada's Wonderland at opening....

We got to the park at like.. 4:30 and waited around for the after 5 rate to kick in... Once inside the park I kinda.. ran off to the parks newest coaster....

Max's Doggy Dog Coaster!

Yatpay... sat it out.
I, on the other hand.. got my +1!
And it was sooo worth it.

Getting the first of my two credits... I made my way over to Silver Comet.. not really caring about the second credit yet.

Silver Comet! Still so good after all these years.. and now with a rainbow-ish train.
Back in 05 it had an all purple train.

It was Yatpay's first coaster since 2009! Although we tried to ride a coaster earlier in the day but it was closed.
(He liked it... so did I!)

Mind Warp was new last year and like I've noted in past updates... it's one of just two Technical Park Loop Fighters in the US....
This, is the better of the two.

Blaah.. the park now has a Zamp Mega Disk'o... I would have skipped it if it had a line.. but it was a walk on so I took a spin.
(I liked NITRO, the parks former Frisbee better...)

FYI, decorative fence.

Flight, a Zamp swing tower was new back in 07 I believe
It replaced the parks AWFUL chance Sling Shot

I found it awfully suspicious that its in the same colors as the original Funtime Star Flyer
(and amusing that people online think its a Star Flyer and not a crappy Zamp product)
But its fun... despite the parks bizarre loading process of not letting anyone into the ride area until they have enough riders to fill a certain number of seats (no singles either!)
It just makes it look... closed, as you see people waiting around in line.. but all the seats remain empty.

Hey look, a ferris wheel.. that only went around ONE time....

 And that Log Flume I rode back in 05 and got annihilated on... PASS

OH LOOK! and that Crazy Mouse coaster that was "new for 2005"
To be fair, while the sign hung at the ticket booth says July, their website didn't... So it was a little disappointing that opening day the coaster was not only MIA, they had barely cleared ground.

Well, at least the rides here now.... Although not very good.
Easy credit, I guess.

This lady had the same face I did, the whole ride.
(But she probably knows the people riding with her... I got placed with some random old guy that pretty much sat on my lap)
Until riding it this past summer... Crazy Mouse was one of the extremely few adult coasters I'd seen in passing... but not ridden. (in fact, right now I can't even think of any off the top of my head unless seeing the coasters at Scream Zone from a plane counts?)

With time running out.. and both of our needs for some numnums.. We made our way to the exit.. but with a few more quick stops on the way out.

Martin's had the first ARM Full Tilt.. and much like the one I rode owned by Reithoffer.. it was boring.. But the girl next to me seemed to be having a good time..
Or a heart attack, I'm not sure.

This is the only park I know of that has "I Got It".... So I made Yatpay play...
(They have a touring version at the Florida State Fair I can't seem to pass up)

He didn't get it.

And I was amused by this...
Ok and now for real before leaving...

We took one last ride (front row <3) on Silver Comet.

I hope its not 8 again... before I ride it again. Although with lack of real-reason to head back up that way.. It might just be that long.
After leaving the park and driving back to Buffalo (Orchard Park) we stopped at a TGI Fridays and watched Nik Wallenda's Skywire Live. yay
So yeah, Martin's Fantasy Island... a much better park in 2013 than it was in 2005 and still home to a world class Wood Coaster. Its just inconvenient to get to for a park that's not really in an "out of the way" location.

Woo, Wild Adventures!

Woo, back in May when Mark was down here... We went up to Wild Adventures for the day. Yaayyy!

Mark had never been to the park before and Jeff and I hadn't been yet this year.. So we made the uneventful 3 hour or so drive to Valdosta, woo.

(annddd I think we stopped at Waffle House on the way!)

Sweet, the third best park in Georgia, Wild Adventures!

Mark, having never been needed all the credits and we had originally planned on spending time at the water park but due to it being colder than we hoped.. we skipped the slides.

 Right inside the park is their Roller Skater, Ant Farm Express... After being line jumped by awful little kids without shoes on (who were then turned away...) we got our ride and moved on...

 And quickly ticked off Go Bananas or Bug Out... or whatever the park is calling their Wild Mouse today as well.

 After that we walked right onto the parks Boomerang... named.. uh.. Boomerang.

This is still by far the smoothest Boomerang around, sadly the same cant be said for their SLC....

It may have been too chilly for the water park but we did take a ride on the raft ride, Tasmanian River Rapids 

(its waterfalls were off)

 I also went for a ride on the parks Chance Aviator.

Even with its OTSRs and being way shorter than the Star Flyers popping up everywhere now, I still like the ride (I think I made Jeff ride it 5 times when we came here for Halloween in 2011)

 Umm.. we rode the parks Chance train too, one of the few places in the park you can still see animals.

 Yup, animals.

 Making our way around the back side of the park.. We walked up and onto Cheetah. yaayyy

CCI Goodness and the best of the three coasters I've ridden named Cheetah.

 Even with its G-Trains.. its still a fun ride and worth a few rerides :)

 Not worth a reride is Twisted Typhoon / Hangman

I don't know what happened here but this SLC used to be *the* best SLC... Now its just kinda.. average. 

 But it looks nice with its new paint job and colors.

 We walked over to ride Viking Voyage.... 

But found this sign.

And also this....Oh well, I've got the credit (in two states)

 YUP

 I.... had to ride the Sky Coaster.... But to be fair, I hadn't been on this one yet.

 

 Tail Spin is the parks new for 2013 Zamp Disk'o.

I just don't find them fun (ZzZzz) I rode it.

But I was extremely amused that a park that already has a Moser Sidewinder... got a Disk'o.

I guess you need two rides that rock/swing back and forth while spinning riders who face outward, in the same park.. pretty much next to each other. 

 Yeah............

 Also, what the hell happened to the parks double shot?!

 Now renamed Firecracker and no longer shooting riders to the top twice. Jeff and Mark sat it out after seeing it cycle.. I had to try it myself so I could fully complain about how awful its being run now :P

Oh hey Mr. Random Snake, on the midway not part of any exhibit.

Oh, and the Yo-Yo was ridden too... yup

I also rode Blackfoot Falls, alone. It was a bit too chilly for me to want to ride it.. but having been here now like five times and having never seen it run... I couldn't pass it up. :\

Random photo of Swamp Thing... None of us rode it today.. but umm.. 

It has little CrocaGators that live under it!

(yes, I know the difference.....)

Wild Adventures used to be pretty half and half when it came to rides vs. animals.. But it seems over the years (and with its newest owners) more and more of the animal aspect is being removed... that being said, they still had some animals out on the Savannah (seen only by the train really) as well as the nature walk trail on the left side of the park, and a petting zoo now found where some kiddie rides used to be.

I made nice with this little cow.

I wanted to make nice with this duck... but she was giving me evil-eye... so I let her be.

Uugghhhhh..... Jeff and Mark wanted to feed the birds... I wanted nothing to do with them.

BUT I DID WANNA SEE THE BEARS!!!

And was devastated when they weren't out

:'(

Who would think this photo is from inside an amusement park with seven coasters and a bunch of flats?

I don't know how I feel about Wild Adventures... On one hand you can see the park is trying to clean up and is adding trees (much needed!) on the main midways... but there is still an extreme lack of food options and the bathroom situation is pretty horrific (although a work in progress) The park still has way to many battle scars from rides past and the layout could use some work. The new owners also seemed to have dropped any sort of theme to the areas within the park and are renaming/theming things without consistency. It's just kinda... unfortunate that a park being run by the same people who are running DOLLYWOOD and SILVER DOLLAR CITY just are not putting enough effort into bringing Wild Adventures up to those standards. (But I know it'll never be that way... Its just not the same kind of market... nor park... but still, work needs to be done here!) Yup, that being said... I'll still try and make my yearly visit to the closest out-of-state park I have and I'll still have a fun time doing it.