August 2018 - Starr Tours & Charters

Summer of Starr

How it is that I feel like I just took out my white pants, when in reality Memorial Day was 2 months go? How is it that our (first and last) family-day-at-the-beach is planned for Labor Day Weekend, just a few days from now? Summer has flown by! But it’s no surprise – time flies when you’re having fun. Can we ever slow it down?

 

Here’s a recap of the “Summer of Starr” that brought so many of us wonderful travel memories:

On our Agawa Canyon bus trip, Carole Brown and her group had a wonderfully scenic train ride to the bottom of the Canyon where tour guests had some time to spend and take in the beautiful Canadian landscape. Do you think the Starr Bus was going to race the train? Hmmmm…

 

 

You can’t look for ponies on Assateague Island on an empty stomach which is why we stop for lunch at Phillip’s Crab House in Ocean City. Sure looked like the group was enjoying their meal. Glad the weather held out for them, too! Starr Tour Director Angie made sure the weather forecast was looking good!

 

 

 

Tour Director MaryAnne and Driver Bill (also MaryAnne’s husband) had a great time on their trip to Cape Cod. This shot shows 40 happy hands in the air at the National Seashore. Our fabulous tour guests loved Starr’s new hotel and the Dune Riding Tour was the favorite activity!

 

 

Our 3-day Bus Trip to New York’s Hudson Valley stopped for a visit to FDR’s Hyde Park home where Tour Director Bette snapped a photo of these two lovely couples: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt and two happy Starr bus tour guests. We also stopped at West Point, a Winery, Innisfree Gardens, Vanderbilt Mansion and did a Boat Cruise. It was a busy but memorable trip!

 

 

 

For the first time in many years, we operated a bus tour to the American side of the Falls – where you don’t need your passport. These (thankfully) dry Starr travelers had a wild time on the Maid of the Mist Boat Cruise with their Tour Director Karen. On this Niagara USA bus trip we wanted to make sure our tour guests got up close and personal with the Falls! The feedback was very positive for this first-time tour itinerary and the tour guests loved staying at the Seneca Niagara Casino Resort!

 

Penny Rudolph, Starr Tour Director and resident photographer, took this wonderful group shot on our August trip to Quebec City and Montreal. Our Canadian neighbors welcomed us with open arms and warm hospitality. Boy the Hilton Quebec City is magnificent and in a great location!

 

 

Summer heated up with Christine Durling and her tour guests on this trip to the Yuengling Brewery and Jerry’s Classic Cars & Collectible Museum. We tasted some beers at America’s Oldest Brewery and then relived the past at Jerry’s with over 20,000 interesting items! What fun!

 

 

So as you can see, the summer flew by but here is an example where Starr tour guests stopped to take care of themselves. They treated themselves to a wonderful vacation that delivered memories that will last much longer than our short 2 month summer! Don’t let the fall pass you by, we have lots of bus trips to choose from!

What memorable trips did you take this summer?

Throwback to the Days of Great Adventure

Great Adventure’s Safari Tours are a common snapshot in the family vacation albums of many families in the tri-state area. From 1974 – 2012, visitors to the safari park had the freedom to drive their family vehicles through the wilds and have up close and personal (at times very personal) experiences with the animals. Chances are you or someone you know has a story about the time the giraffe stuck its head through their sunroof, or the time the chimps climbed up on top of the car and stole their windshield wiper. These stories are a part of Starr’s history, too!

The motorcoach in the picture is parked in the hospitality area of Great Adventure. It’s #116, one of 6 sister coaches purchased in 1988 – with a 49 passenger capacity and onboard lavatory.

Starr ran a regular daily shuttle through Great Adventure’s safari for at least 5 years, providing up to 15 buses per day. Starr owner, Alan Glickman, dispatched the buses on the weekend when the demand was the greatest and even drove the route through the park from time to time! He often joked that the buses were going to the “Monkey Farm.”

The shuttle service began as a solution to the problem some Great Adventure customers encountered when the chimps in the safari started tearing up and eating the vinyl roofs and other parts from personal cars that drove through the park. For a small fee, customers who did not want to take the “Baboon Bypass” to spare their own fragile cars, could ride on safari shuttle buses through the park and avoid possible damage to their vehicles. We typically sent our older buses to run the Great Adventure Safari Shuttle because of the threat of damage by the animals and the off-road route they had to travel through the safari. The monkeys often tore off the bus’ wipers and ate the marker lights so we had to replace the plastic lenses with glass ones in order to stop the damage. Alan says there was other monkey business that occurred, too, but it’s “too dirty” to talk about in this post. On personal vehicles, over 100 vinyl tops were torn off daily and Alan recounts watching cars finish the safari trip with only bare grey metal left on the cars’ roofs.

Thunderstorms were another challenge as the safari tours ran rain or shine and the storms would often get the animals excited. Alan recounts that there were several lion and tiger attacks on the bus’ front tires and adds that breakdowns in the middle of the safari were an “adventure” for mechanics and drivers! Alan’s wife, Renee, recalls many a summer weekend when he would be away from home tending to his dispatch duties at the park.

When Great Adventure, now Six Flags Great Adventure, ceased allowing personal cars to ride through the safari in September of 2012, the decision was met with nostalgic regret and hopeful relief. It was the end of an era for many who fondly recalled the “great adventure” of driving through the park and making memories with their family and the animals. While for others, it was a shift in the right direction for the welfare of the animals.

Today, Six Flags still operates a safari park with the Safari Off-Road Adventure included in the price of general admission and visitors get to ride in rugged off-road vehicles specially designed for splashing through ponds, climbing hills, and over rugged terrain as they traverse the 350-acre preserve.

What’s your favorite memory of Great Adventure’s Safari? Share it in the comments section!