The next time you read View From The Back, my coaster season will be back in session. It has been a good winter - I've seen my family more this winter than any in the past ten years - but I'm ready to get back to the parks..back to my other family.

I'm having a hard time figuring out what to do on Saturday, April 6. I was going to stay in PA to check out the debut of the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Pioneers of arena2football, but now I'm thinking I want to get to a park. I'm split between the opening of Paramount's Kings Island or the IX Indoor Amusement Park near Cleveland, so that I can also get my SFWOA season pass processed that day.

Do you have any thoughts? If so, please email me.

Third Annual VFTB Pre-Season Top Five

Every year we take a look at the five new attractions we think are going to be the most influential for the upcoming season. Two years ago, the VFTB pre-season number one was Superman: Ride of Steel, and it finished the season at number one. Last year, we chose Wildfire, but we fell just short of the top spot at the end of the season. The View, like just about everybody else, looked past Indiana Beach. That turned out to be a mistake.

This year, there aren't many major attractions being built. This leaves the door open for an unknown attraction to surprise us again. Or does it mean that the few obvious choices will dominate year-end polls? Let's take a look at what the View sees as this year's best.

1. Superman: Ultimate Flight, Six Flags Over Georgia. Bolliger and Mabillard have the opportunity to make up for where Vekoma went wrong with their flying coasters. B&M has the opportunity to take the exciting laying down feature and put it to use in a smooth, comfortable attraction. It is the ride that I personally am most looking forward to, and it is the ride we think will be the most talked about when the season comes to an end.

2. Tomb Raider: The Ride, Paramount's Kings Island. Forget about the hype. Don't even worry about what the ride inside is or isn't. Tomb Raider promises to be something completely different from anything else offered in the Midwest. For most people who attend Paramount's Kings Island this season, it will be themed like something they may have only seen once, if at all, if they visited Orlando. It certainly will be a much talked about attraction and has the potential to raise the bar when it comes to new attractions at corporate theme parks outside of Florida.

3. Lost Coaster of Superstition Mountain, Indiana Beach. The View will not make the same mistake twice. Last year, CCI teamed up with Indiana Beach to present the best new attraction of 2001. Only few cared before the season began, but everybody who went there was talking about Cornball Express long after they left. Lost Coaster is a different contraption, offering unique face-to-face seating and combining dark-ride experiences with a traditional wooden coaster. Look out, Indiana Beach may deliver once again.

4. Batman: The Dark Knight, Six Flags New England. Ok, so B&M floorless coasters happen to be one of my favorite styles, but B:DK looks like the floorless version of Talon from Dorney Park. It is compact and could deliver a more thrilling version of what some people claim to be the tame larger versions found elsewhere. SFNE's Superman has found a good partner in the Dark Knight.

5. Roller Soaker, Hersheypark. This is a tough one to come up with. There are numerous attractions opening this season that are good fits into their respective parks. Most will not become the park's signature attraction, but will just fill a need that the parks have. This is true of Roller Soaker, which should be yet another near-perfect addition to Hersheypark. Hershey visitors are typically families who enjoy being able to do things together. For those not wanting to ride the soaker, they can still participate or just have fun watching this Setpoint water coaster.

A Trip Through Eastern Pennsylvania

When I was younger, I used to take one day a year to try to stay awake for twenty-four straight hours. I would rent a couple of movies, buying a case of Mountain Dew, and stay awake from 9:00 am (which was an early time to wake up when I was 15) to 9:00 am the next morning.

Now, that day has been replaced by my yearly trip to see the amusement parks of eastern Pennsylvania before they open for the season. This year, that trip took place on Saturday, March 9.

I was on the road at 7:00 am and arrived at Bushkill Park in Easton, Pennsylvania before 7:30. I haven't been to the park all that often when it has been open, so I really can't remember much about it except for the 10 minute tilt-a-whirl rides my cousin and I got.

Therefore, if there were anything different now, I wouldn't have noticed. The thing that stuck out that I didn't notice before was that there was blue tarp on top of the dark ride building. It looked as if it were being used to patch up any holes that are likely in the roof. I'll get a better look at Bushkill Park this summer.

It wasn't that long and I had arrived at Dorney Park. There was practically nothing different to be seen at the park, except for some new wood on Hercules. That seems to be the case just about every year, though, and it never really seems to help. The park is getting a Zamperla Hawk named Meteor, but I couldn't really see it. It will be located near the Hercules station.

I drove past the Terry Hill Waterpark on Route 222 on my way to Dutch Wonderland. There are a ton of changes at DW this year, including the ownership. I've covered this enough in this column. The early plans sound pretty good, though. An S&S Frog Hopper and Zamperla Convoy will be the two new rides at the park, while a miniature golf course is planned for next door. The little things will be the most important things. Hershey will try to improve the little things, but many of those little things don't need changing. It is a difficult job for Herco.

I was able to use my new PA-Turnpike EZ-Pass for the ride to Williams Grove in Mechanicsburg. Williams Grove looked so much bigger than I remembered it. It certainly wasn't Disney World, it wasn't even Knoebels, but it was bigger than I remembered. I couldn't see any of the new rides, but I did get my first look at the Schwarzkopf Wildcat that the park recently added. Quite colorful. There were some cranes nearby, so I'll assume for now that this is where the new flat ride will be added for this year.

I stopped by the farm market near Williams Grove after driving past the park. I highly recommend this place when you are visiting the park. The food that this place sold in its general store was incredible. It took me more than a half hour just to look down one aisle at all of the varieties of homemade style food. The Williams Grove area is a great stop on a trip to Hershey. Try to plan it for a Saturday night at the races at the Williams Grove Raceway and you have a great family day while Hershey is too crowded.

Speaking of Hershey, that was my next stop. I parked my car at a jam-packed Chocolate World (the state high school wrestling championships were being held at the arena) and walked along the sidewalk around to the back of the park near the antique cars.

There were two things of note here. The swings were gone. Hershey always removes the ride completely for the off-season I think (at least I can remember a couple of other years that it has been removed). There was a crane sitting where the swings normally are, and the crane was holding a wooden structure. It looked like a steeple that you would see on top of a building, but I can't figure out which structure they were putting it on top of. It also could have been a small gazebo for the ground, but I don't see why they would have had to have a crane for that. Any ideas?

The other thing I noticed was a wooden structure being built at the Great Bear. It was big enough to sit about two or three people and was located on top of the track at the base of the lift hill. At first, I thought it was a new location for the driver to sit, but then I realized that would make no sense. For one, the head of the driver would be above the roof of the station, so they wouldn't be able to see in the station. The other thing was that the "box" was on top of the track, thus the driver wouldn't be able to see the cars anyway. I can't figure out why the box was there. Again, anybody have any other ideas?

After going for the walk, I moved my car over to the Wendy's on the other side of the park and walked down to Roller Soaker. One thing I noticed here was that it was much more compact than I realized. Roller Soaker only travels over the Canyon River Rapids twice, and one of those is right off of the lift hill. I now must assume that most of the interaction will be with onlookers and people in line, and not with the people on the rapids ride. The thing looked fun, the track work is complete, and I can't wait to watch. I think I'll only ride when the water isn't turned on, though.

After leaving Hershey, I made the drive up to Knoebels. I know that some people walk through Knoebels when it is closed, but I don't do that. Therefore, there really wasn't much to see here. Phoenix and Twister were still there, and that was the thing I was most concerned about. I also saw Power Surge, which is the other important thing. Besides, it was now windy and raining, and I was tired.

So, I didn't really get much out of Knoebels, but I had still had a good day. The parks of eastern Pennsylvania are almost ready for the 2002 season.

Hypersonic Not Opening Yet

Paramount's Kings Dominion has announced that Hypersonic: XLC, its S&S launched coaster, will not open with the rest of the park in March. According to reports, the park won't open the ride until they feel comfortable that it can run reliably. I personally didn't fall in love with the ride last year, riding it only six times in close to twenty visits to the park. It'll still hurt to see it SBNO for the first part of the season, but what can I do? I'll be at PKD before my next column, so I'll be able to talk about what it was like to walk past an SBNO coaster at my favorite park.


The long winter is almost over. March Madness is here, and it is not just NCAA Basketball. The parks are starting to get ready, and so am I. I've got a couple of more last visits with friends and family before the season gets underway, but then its parks and coasters for me.

Until next week, I'll take my own back seat ride once for me...


                                                                                 Coaster 3:16

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