I got an anonymous e-mail today pointing out that in the last month no less than 3 other sites have done this whole "update from the road" thing. Bah! So much for what I thought was an original idea. I really need to keep up with the coaster sites more than I do. But still, you know where all the cool people go and you do want to be cool, right? So keep checking back and all the hot chicks will dig you, your dog will start behaving, you'll get a new car and a small mansion and your own theme music - stuff like that. The things all cool people have. Nevermind. On with the update...

Today's plan was to do Valleyfair and the plan went without a hitch. We decided to go with no set wake up time and just recoup some of the lost sleep from yesterday's early ferry. This still had everyone crawling out of bed before 10am. I don't know about you, but to me that doesn't exactly consitute sleeping in.

I must say this Fairfield Inn is pretty nice. Our room has a cool view of the airport in the distance and my daughter has been mesmerized by the sunset views each evening. The hotel staff is incredible and our room is excellent considering the price range. Plus, this is one of the first hotels of all the Marriott chains to roll out the new 'feather-top' bed sped - each bed is super soft and our double queen room is stocked with 8 pillows. Sleep is comfy.

Anyway, we ended up getting to the park around 1pm and figured 9 hours would be plenty. We entered guest relations with Dorney passes in hand and while they still had to record our pass numbers by hand, there was no ticket exchange and subsequent gate entry. We were just ushered through the side door of the office and directly into the park. Better, but still not as simple a just scanning the pass at the gate.

We started slow with the usual kid stuff - carousel, antique cars, kiddie rides and things like that (including Corkscrew which is a standard corkscrew offering stuck in a wonderful location) but soon everyone was ready for the waterpark being as it was quickly reaching the day's forecast high of 89 degrees. I'm not a water guy and in turn, not a big waterpark person. I followed the wife and kids to Whitewater Country, helped get them settled and then went off to explore on my own for a bit with cameras in hand.

A hair shy of two hours later I returned to find everyone having way too much fun and had to put an end to it. (I'm a dick like that)

Everyone dried off and dressed and we figured it would be a good time to get a bite to eat. We stopped by Stadium Pizza & Grill for some sit-down, air conditioned eats and got raked for almost $30 for what amounted to potato chips and microwaved chicken patty sandwiches.

It's also here that I'd like to point out the one glaring downfall of the park - employee friendliness. From the girl working the parking gate who never spoke a word to us to the girl at the counter at the Stadium Pizza & Grill who seemed annoyed that we were there, we were less than impressed by the staff at the park. In general, the ride-ops were average - not friendly, but not slow - but the service related employees all seemed like they didn't give a crap whether they or we were there or not. Sad, considering how truly nice the park was. The landscaping was top notch for a mid-sized chain park, that layout was great, the park was among the cleanest I've been to and the general atmosphere was upbeat and light. The employees seemd out of place at many times.

To continue, we finished eating and headed to the back of the park to sample Excalibur. My daughter summed it up perfectly after we exited the ride by saying, "They should put up a sign that says, 'This Ride Is Stupid'" (which is today's Quote Of The Day mind you. She did a good job of summing it up and then followed that with a 5 minute monologue on the subject that would have been as good as anyone standing in front of the faux brick wall at the local Improv. I swear she's 7 going on 27 as cliched as that is.

We made our way to the front of the park, hitting various attractions along the way. We skipped the Mad Mouse as we had just done Michigan's Adventure's and were less then thrilled and the line on this one looked to be about 10 minutes. We just didn't care enough.

We took a couple laps on Wild Thing while my wife let my son ride some kiddie rides. We were surprised by the hype surrounding the "Survive It & Drive It" contestants still remaining (5 of 32 for the record) and shared lap #1197 with the contestant train. Not a bad coaster, but nothing special happening here. If we're going to choose Morgan Hyper Coasters, I'll take Dorney's Steel Force over this, thank-you.

Went back to find my son power riding Mild Thing. This seemed to be the day that the little button in his head 'clicked' and he finally got it. The kid was going nuts for the thing. He ended up with 7 consecutive rides (21 laps) before we could drag him away from it. Before this he was a 'please ride with me and hold on to me, Daddy" rider. I remember my daughter having the same epiphany with Dorney's Little Laser at about the same age, so it was cool to see our other child make the transofrmation from casual rider to early enthusiast - kind of like seeing man use tools for the first time or finally walk upright.

Took the train to the front of the park and took turns on Steel Venom with one train waits and noticed that Skyscraper had a line. Sure, there was a $5 special running, but at Dorney I don't think I ever saw an actual line for the ride. Probably better to have moved it west. Then we took the train back - how resourceful.

After several failed attempts to ride High Roller we finally got our lap (yes singular) on that overbraked wooden turd. Just hideous. It was slow to begin with and then trimmed to a level that would bring child abuse charges if it were human.

We ended the day with a few more flats and a ride on the Ferris Wheel that saw our car rocking so hard that it became almost unnerving before finally leaving the park just before 9pm.

All in all a very fun day and a really nice park with some generally unamused to be working there employees. Tomorrow we check out the Mall Of America before heading to Wisconsin Dells on Thursday morning.