Apparently, Funplex has a FunCoaster

Well, since Great Adventure ended up being bust (not that I had high hopes for it or anything) Rob and I left and headed onward to Knoebels with a pit-stop in Mount Laurel, New Jersey so I could get the one extra coaster I needed to make Flying Turns my 800th coaster later that day. Woo, easy credit!

Fun...plex... I sure hope this place is fun.
(I also hope they run their damn coaster in the rain!)

Inside is a pretty good sized arcade.

And a foam-ball factory thing.

Down a long hallway there is a fairly large enclosed ride area, built on top of a former parking area.
Given some time to fill the space in a bit more, this place could be rather nice... And since its indoors, could be open in the winter.

RCT style motion sim.

Bumper Cars that looked pretty thrilling, as you can see by the faces of the riders

And a pretty well kept Tilt-A-Whirl.
I'm pretty sure this is my first time seeing one at an indoor park.

There was also an SBF built Airborne Shot ride located inside. The ride-style is pretty new but a few have popped up across the US. This was my first time seeing one in person and I would have taken it for a ride had we not been in a hurry to make it to Pennsylvania and had single ride tickets not been outrageously overpriced. (a way to get people to buy into the wristbands) $6 a ride? No thanks.

Tucked away in the far back of the building was a set of indoor Go Karts
There was also a track in the outdoor area.

Stepping outside to go ride the parks solo coaster, for now, we passed Fun Twister, a looping Frisbee attraction that seemed to be pretty popular. Again, something I would have tried had I had time.. and again with the prices. ha

I was pretty surprised to find a second Tilt-A-Whirl located in the outdoor park. I'm not sure of any other park... uh.. in the world, that has two full sized Tilts at it..

They also have a mid-sized water fort called Splashin’ Speedway. Even with the poor weather, it was jumpin'

Oh wow, and it looks like they are about to add a full-on water park for 2016!
(gotta give it to the smaller FEC's willing to step it up and go full on!)

And there's also Free Fall, a Moser Spring to round out the outdoor rides.

Oh yeah, and uh, this so/so looking Mini-Golf...

But the reason we made this side-trip was so I could ride FunCoaster.

An SBF/Visa knockoff spinner with some awful looking trains....

The layout is basically the same as the Zamp Twister Coaster 420STD and for now is the only ride of its kind in the US.

Although... it fails to track as well, not that the Zamp ones are anything to write home about.
(ha)

But for an up and coming FEC about to turn into full sized amusement park.. It's a good start
(and better than nothing!)

And I guess the ride is fun for what it is.. but not something I'd go (far) out of my way for...
(haha, riigghhttttt)

As you can see, I was thrilled.
(Ok, +1... now lets get the hell out of here and off to Knoebels!)

Twitter photo - Photo

Yaayyy!

The Turbulence following a Hurricane.

Ah, Adventureland Long Island... One of the nicest, tiniest parks I've visited. Located in Farmingdale, NY about one third of the way down the Long Island and home to one of the 32 new for 2015 built coasters in the US. This would be my third time making the trek out to the park... and this time, I'd be dragging Yatpay along for the ride! Since I only had a day in NYC (and the Metro area) I had to make the most of it.. Zoo's, Parks, History, and Friends. haha. My first visit to the park was back in 2005 where I rode their at the time current Hurricane coaster, my 200th roller coaster (aww, and to think, since that day I've ridden some 600 more.). Hurricane was retired after the 2014 season and replaced with a custom Mack built spinning coaster that opened in May, Turbulence.
(And with an odd-twist... Hurricane ended up being relocated to Florida, where its now running in Panama Beach City at Race City (where I also happen to be visiting in the next few days!))

So, uh, since someone overslept and missed out on going to the Queens Zoo with me.. I waited in the parking lot after doing my thing for Yatpay to show up from the MTA so we could head down to Long Island.
Just over a half hour later we were pulling into an extremely full Adventureland parking lot... where their were no less than 9,000 school buses parked....Oh, joy.
Adventureland is free to walk around and guests can either get a pay-one-price rate or buy tickets for each ride. Since this was gonna be a One-and-Done stop, I opted for tickets and handed over my $7.50 for a single ride on their new coaster.
Had I planned on spending time here, I would have gotten the day pass like I have on previous visits. Turbulence alone would be worth a re-ride. (and the Frisbee in the park is one of the best I've ridden)
Since Yatpay isn't really into going on coasters (or spinning for that matter) he sat out and took photos while I did my thing, plus he knew I'd be making him ride at least one other coaster later in the day.

Woo, Turbulence!

My second time encountering a Mack spinner 

ZzZzz, the line was pretty long.. Although thanks to two train operations and quick ops, it moved rather quick. (and while lines might not be fun.. it shows the park that the ride was worth installing)

An overview of most of the layout.
The coaster even has its own soundtrack that plays as the train travels up the lift.

And for just $5,000,000 you could have a Turbulence of your own!

Some of the smaller hills even manage to provide a bit of airtime.

The somewhat clunky looking train, although it doesn't take away from the rides quality.

While it was added at the loss of the parks Hurricane coaster, Turbulence is a worthy replacement.

And I'd be fine with more parks around the country adding them

Yaayyy!

Turbulence!

After my single ride on the coaster, I took a few photos and we made our way out of the park and down the street to get some lunch at a Chipotle Mexican Grill before getting stuck in some hellacious traffic heading back towards Brooklyn and the Coney Island area, yaayyy.

And for fun... a POV from CoasterForce.

 Its super fun.

 

Twitter stuffers...
Turbulence photo - Photo
Turbulence video (via Vine) - Video

Woo

Colossal Curl... uh, is fun?

Well, uh, since it was September and we still hadn't made it out to Adventure Island in Tampa yet this year... Jeff and I made the just-over-an hour drive down to the park to check out their new for 2015 slide, Colossal Curl. A ProSlide built TORNADO 24/TornadoWAVE combo slide... And it's now the best slide in the park as well as being one of my overall favorite slides.

So yeah, woo, Colossal Curl!
Jeff and I rode it 3 times over our short visit to Adventure Island. I was up for a couple of more laps... but because it was now the Off Season, there was no line... And Jeff wasn't really feeling climbing the 70 foot tower... again (and again and again) Oh well, there's always next summer...

Adventure Island's new awesome Tornado/Wave hybrid slide
This version is better than the Bowl/Wave Combo I had ridden a few weeks earlier at Six Flags Over Georgia.

It replaced the well-dated Gulf Scream ""speed slide""
(if you could really call it that)

The entire slide can be seen here

The ride starts off with a small drop into a Tornado 24 funnel

Followed by some S cures that lead up to the slides major drop

Into the super fun Tornado Wave element.
Colossal Curl is now my third slide I've ridden to feature the element... And its still as fun as ever.

Woo, fun slides... are fun.

That time I went to the Zoo but the bears were missing....

So with a few hours in Massachusetts not dedicated to roller coasters, I had this plan to visit the Stone Zoo just a mile from where I grew up. All I really wanted to do was see the Bears.

So after flying into Boston from Orlando and taking the subway to Oak Grove my Mom picked me up and off to the Zoo we went! She had been telling me how all summer they hadn't had any real rain and stuff.... As soon as we got to the Stone Zoo... it started to pour. (Remind me again how it hadn't rained all year?) Well.. since we were already here... We ventured in, all I wanted to do was see the bears quickly anyways, and the bear viewing area is under a cover.. So yeah... uh... 

the Stone Zoo.. and stuff.

 And extremely wet and semi-deserted Stone Zoo

 I quickly made my way down the path to the Bears...

Where they were nowhere to be found. We hung around for 5 or 6 minutes waiting to see if they'd come back out now that the rain had stopped but, nothing. I made a quick lap around most of the rest of the Zoo before checking back at the bears (and my Mom, who was staying dry at the Bear enclosure)

 Surprisingly, an animal that tends to be a no-show when I'm here.. was very visible today, the Coyote.

 The Gila Monster staying near its heat lamp

(and warm rock)

 The Caribbean Flamingo didn't see to care about the rain

 Oh man!!

There were *two* Rock Hyrax in the Windows to the Wild exhibit being adorable.

 Aww, and a Matschie’s Tree Kangaroo

(Although slightly less cute than the one I saw with a teddy bear in ABQ!)

 Now replacing the Duck Pond

(sadly, but still.. yay?)

 I was pretty conflicted with this.. While I do enjoy me some Sandhill Crane... At the loss of the duck pond is hard to handle.

(can't they just... coexist?)

 The American Alligator is also new here, I think.

(it kinda amused me seeing two animals at the zoo back home that I have in my backyard at home)

 Mmmhm, Mr. Reindeer bringing the.. uh.. Rein.

 Clearly, from a Jeepers....

I wonder if they came from the one that was in Methuen

 Uh... also, this Hippo... thing... is pretty horrifying.

 Hmm.. and at some point they've replaced their kiddie train with a newer Zamp Rio Grande Train

 Oh, and some flowers.

:'(

Before leaving to get some super yummy Thai food (and get my glasses fixed) we checked on the bears for a fourth time... and still nothing. I was absolutely devastated.

BOOOOO :(