I'm new to the group, and would like to share my mammoth first trip
report ever with you! I hope you find it to be of use!
Parks Visited: Geauga Lake, Knoebels, Dorney Park, Six Flags Great
Adventure, Busch Gardens Williamsburg, Six Flags America, & Wyandot
Lake.
Note to readers: I do realize this is a novel, and many parts of it
seem to be criticisms...but I must assure you that I had a wonderful
time on this trip, and that what follows an attempt to truly try and
express what my gut instincts were like...both things I really admired
and things that could use some work. Read the following with an open
mind, and enjoy!
Day 1 (7/25/05)—Geauga Lake
After the long drive from Chicago beginning at four in the morning, we
arrived at Geauga Lake around lunchtime. A quick bite at McDonalds, and
then it was off to explore the new Wildwater Kingdom! The main lot in
front of the park was about one-third full, but we decided to park
around at the back entrance since we’d be hitting the larger
waterpark first. It’s really amazing how much parking they have in
the old Sea World side….parking lots spanned the view for a
surprising distance, Cedar Point style. Luckily there were only about
5-6 rows of cars there already, so a close spot was easily found. The
first thing I noticed about this park is how friendly the staff
was…everyone from the parking attendants to the ticket sellers and
the restaurant workers (a few ride ops were dull, but more times than
not they were friendly, smiling, and interested in making sure guests
were having a good time)…this is something that would continue
throughout the day!
WOW! This waterpark is off to a great start. The lazy river is
excellent, complete with interactive pranks for bystanders to soak lazy
river floaters—what a great idea. Plenty of waterfalls, and
everything looked so natural. I headed off to the Thunder Falls complex
of water slides next….never have I been on a speed slide so
disorientating! The green body slide is much more enjoyable than the
purple one. First thought I had when I climbed the 100 foot platform is
“Holy cow! This is way too high for any waterslide.” Nonetheless,
you get a great view and a 20 second thrill ride to the bottom, As far
as the tube slides, I went on the blue one (open–air) which I found
very relaxing, although be prepared to swirl around and probably end up
going down the chute backwards. The orange slide was the other one of
interest, with a good 25 ft. drop at the end—good times. I decided to
pass on the funnel slide, as I had been on the one at Holiday World and
wasn’t terribly impressed after an hour wait. We decided to pack our
stuff into a locker for $6 all day (I was pensive at first to try these
electronic lockers, although after the day was over I found them to be
easy to use, reliable, and a great use of the $6).
We rode the ferry over to the other side of the lake, which was a very
nice ride, complete with patriotic music playing on the riverboat…a
nice touch. After unloading, we headed over to the old water park
section, which I found to be enjoyable as well. We went on the rocket
sled slides, which honestly are a blast. The old green tube slide on
the Shark Attack complex was a nice ride, reminiscent of the old
concrete slides that seemed to wander endlessly through the troughs.
The wave pool provided some powerful 4 foot waves and a gorgeous
temperature. If I hadn’t forgot my hat, and my face wasn’t cooking
in the red hot sun I would have spent a great deal of more time in the
water Note to waterpark lovers: Geauga lake has plenty of great
water attractions, and it’s worthwhile to simply stay in your bathing
suit with a cover-up or t-shirt all day, as we did.
Next, we headed over to the El Dorado “rainbow” type ride. It gives
you a great view and the restraints have to be seen to believed. It
consists of this thick metal U-shaped bar that comes down and jabs into
your stomach….interesting, to say the least. After that it was off to
ride X-Flight…which surprisingly had no wait, and I was able to hop
into the front seat. It was a bit rougher than I remembered it from the
previous September visit, although still a wonderful
contraption—there’s nothing quite like that moment at the top when
it flips you on your stomach, leaving you to stare at the grass far
below! I’m a fan of S:UF’s restraints and loading procedures more
than X-Flight’s, although I much prefer X-Flight’s layout.
As we meandered toward the back of the park, I marveled at how clean
and beautiful this park is…it has a ton of potential. Eventually, we
arrived at the Villain. I really want to love this coaster, but it just
isn’t going to happen until some serious re-tracking is done. I rode
this back in Oktoberfest, and found it wild with a couple of jolts, but
certain still ridable. HA! Not anymore. I took one ride on it this time
and found it to be absolute torture. I have a track record of over 175
coasters and this is the only one I couldn’t wait to get off of. It
bounced at the bottom of the hills, reminding me of SOB’s infamous
‘rosebowl’, and the turns were nothing short of violent. I really
hope Geauga Lake gives this ride some TLC this next off-season, because
it could be a real winner.
The Pepsi Plunge was a cute log flume, and Grizzly Run was a
satisfyingly fun raft ride, despite the hidden location and awfully
slow unloading procedures. Dominator was down for a while due to
mechanical reasons so we decided to hit up Raging Wolf Bobs.
Unfortunately we didn’t get a ride in the new train, as it was hiding
on the storage track This ride keeps changing for the better. Last
time I rode it I found it a little bouncy, but nothing terrible, with a
non-traditional, interesting layout. This ride was completely
different, thanks to the new re-tracking. We sat in the front seat,
which really is a prime seat on this ride. Wow can this thing fly! I
almost want to call this ride “Avalanche 2,” but it can’t earn
that reward until it gets its tail end straightened out. The first half
runs beautifully…smooth, fast, and intense…then you’re in for a
bit of ouchy if you’re not hanging on\paying attention. All in all
though, it really is a fun ride and deserving of more attention than it
gets. After a spin on the small gem of the park, Beaver Creek mine ride
(I really do like this one….maybe its just because they let you go
twice
we had saved the best for last: Dominator. This ride always
blows me away. The front seat is the best place to ride, and is never a
long wait. It rides as smooth as glass and with such fury that it’s
hard not to crack a smile. The only part that I dislike is the two
interlocking corkscrews near the end that provide a few head rattles.
Otherwise, this is my favorite floorless coaster. In fact, I even
convinced my mother to ride it—usually not the one to ride
multi-loopers—and she loved it! I highly recommend this ride to
acquaint anyone with a fear of loops and cobra rolls…it’s a great
ride to start on due to its comfortable ride.
That pretty much sums up day one of our nine day coaster extravaganza.
Geauga Lake is shaping up to be a superior park…we had a great day
and can’t wait to return. Even the guests were pleasant; much better
than the stuff we put up with back at our homepark, SFGAm, with line
jumpers, crabs and such. Two thumbs up for G.L. That night we stayed
over at the Radisson City Center in Akron. One word of warning for
Priceline users…avoid selecting the area this hotel is in (3 stars).
Although the hotel itself was a nice room and great price, the location
of it is horrendous, and the parking is whacked out. Radisson makes you
pay $5 to park in the creepiest underground garage next door—the
place is dim, low ceilings, incredibly confusing, and lacks the number
of spaces really needed for a 20 floor hotel. Yikes.
After the 3.5 hour drive from our hotel in Akron, OH, we were
pulling off the expressway onto the winding hill roads of Pennsylvania
to Knoebels Park. This was the first time visiting this park, and so
great excitement and anticipation was in the air. After reading so much
about this park I had very high expectations, and overall left feeling
satisfied, and only slightly below what I had anticipated. The park has
a very nice charm to it that I felt after spending only a few hours
there, although my first impressions were that the park was a bit too
"carnival" like with all the portable rides. We had only a half day to
spend in this park, as we were off to Dorney Park for the evening to
spend the night in Allentown. The first thing we hit were the legendary
Flyers. These truly are excellent...great speed, lots of near misses
with the trees and plenty of snapping opportunities. Next was the
Phoenix--a very intense ride (MUCH more than it looks/I had expected)
and lots of ejector airtime. Perhaps it was just because I wasn't
familiar with the layout of the ride, but I found it too rough for my
tastes---believe it or not, I actually had more fun riding the Twister
later! After a walk through the wooded park, we found our way to the
Haunted House. WOW. This is a great experience. Lots of things popping
out, and wonderful effects! Bravo, a well put together attraction...we
rode it twice.
Next up was the High Speed Thrill Coaster. At first glance I was a bit
skeptical of its rusted appearance, but this ride really packs a punch.
We enjoyed riding it and actually got a double ride because halfway
into the first ride a little girl started freaking out and wanted out.
We got about 10 laps on the ride--what a cool little first drop. After
looking under the coaster, we decided to try the motor boats--a fun
little cruise. The goal of this trip was to try as many different and
unique attractions as possible. As I mentioned before, I rode the
Twister and thought it was a great little ride...a cool dual lift, a
few awesome drops, great laterals and the helix was pretty sweet too.
That pretty much wrapped up our visit there--it was onto Dorney Park.
Thanks to someone who posted a shortcut on the Google Roller Coaster
Group, the trip was pretty smooth between the two parks.
We arrived at Dorney Park about 7pm, giving us about an hour in the
waterpark and 2 hours in the main park. Surprisingly, I was able to see
and ride everything I wanted to. Overall comment about Dorney Park: The
crowds were of a "rougher" type, it was a beautiful hilly park with
some killer rides, although park operations are not as smooth as they
should be (i.e. totally distracted lifeguards that horsed around,
slow/uninterested ride ops, etc.) The lazy river was great with some of
the largest waterfalls around, and the tube slide that jumped from pool
to pool was a great old fashioned ride. The wave pool provided some
nice rolling waves that were fun to crash around in. However, after we
saw a kid vomit in the pool and the parents do nothing about it, we
decided it was time to head over the theme park.
First ride up was the Talon. Holy Cow!! What an awesome, awesome ride
in the front seat. This is by far my favorite inverted coaster bar
none. It kicks Raptor and Alpengeist square in the behind. There's
something magical about the swooping dives that give airtime, great
pacing of the inversions, and sweet helixes so close to the ground
you'd swear you could smell the dirt. A+ in my book. Next up was Hydra.
Thank goodness all the rides were either walk-ons or 10 minute waits,
otherwise I couldn't have done the entire park. Poor Hydra was a
disappointment. It really is a tiny little beast with some breathtaking
steep drops, but the whole layout just seems "off" and the cobra roll
is a jiggly mess. Too much shaking for my tastes. The one saving grace
was the jojo roll. I ate it up and so did the GP. Lots of screaming,
and it is a unique start/feeling to a coaster. I wouldn't mind seeing
more of these elements.
As we made our way to the back of the park, I hopped on the Laser. Ah
yes, another crazy German ride. All I can say about this one (as I rode
it in the dark, and it's lit up by white lights) is expect everything
to be a neon yellow and purple blur. The G-Forces on the Laser are so
intense in spots, your vision is distorted! The longest wait of the
night was 10 minutes for Steel Force. Wow. My comment here is that
Steel Force is everything that Magnum should be...*ducks*...waits for
CP fanboys to settle down...
This ride was smooth, comfortable, and
full of gentle yet exciting airtime. Don't get me wrong, I love CP and
used to get a charge out of Magnum, but as of late, I've found Maggie
to be rough and provide plenty of thigh bruises from ejector air--Steel
Force really delivered.
To finish up the park, we rode the Krazy Kars (a very unique type of
bumper car controlled by levers---something I hadn't been on for
years!) and the log flume, which was very unique with an old fashioned
Chute-the-Chutes type gradual drop at the end. We hopped on the Wild
Mouse, which was a decent little ride, although my favorite mouse still
resides at Michigan’s Adventure. I caught a few more rides on the
Talon (the front is 10x better than the back) and then it was off to
our hotel, the Four Points by Sheraton in Leigh Valley. It was a very
nice room booked through Priceline and the Four Points beds are truly
something to marvel at.
The next day was spent traveling to the New Jersey coastline and
stopping at Seven Presidents beach. This was a truly wonderful and
serene beach (the waves were 9 ft that day, so only wading was
allowed...but that was still a blast!) That night was spent at the
Harrison in Princeton, NJ...a great resort, peaceful type setting. The
following day we set off to do Six Flags Great Adventure, a park new to
us.
The weather was perfect in the 80's all day, but unfortunately this is
one of the few separate Hurricane Harbors, so our SFGAm pass wouldn't
get us in there. We spent all day in the park, so this report won't
necessarily in order as we covered so much. Here are my major thoughts
on the park: Similar to Dorney Park, this park could be so much more
with a little TLC. While it was much more wooded and beautiful than I
originally pictured it, it still suffers from lack of coaster care, and
in general is just not run well. Nitro is a superb ride that to put it
lightly, looks like junk. The station sign drips with rust, the track
is dull and worn, supports are flaking, and the train restraints were
worn to all heck. Despite the appearance, the ride was delightful! Full
of airtime and great laterals--this ride is floating somewhere in my
top 10 steel. I decided to skip a few clone coasters in this park,
since the lines were a bit outrageous.
Rolling Thunder was terrible. They were only running one set of trains
which proved for a grisly long wait in the sun. The ride itself was
very lackluster, uninteresting, and the trains really separate and
don't "race" with barely any air. Medusa was down while I was in that
back section of the park, and the last tram had left for the safari
park---too bad because I would've liked to see that (only $5 for season
pass holders) as I drive a Sebring convertible---thus if a monkey
decided to hop on top...well you know the rest.
Anyways, we got in line for the Spongebob 4-d show, which seemed to
load at a painstakingly slow rate. The doors to the theater opened once
every 25 minutes. Despite this bizarre wait, the show was actually
quite humorous and the ride itself was enjoyable. However, I must say
that after seeing Disney and Busch Gardens 3-D shows, this animation
looked flaky. Plus the pre-show must have been designed by someone on
drugs. I've never seen so many people frown in confusion!
Skull Mountain....hmm....very interesting. Yah. That's about it--fun,
but it could be so much more than a corny "HUH HUH HUH" in the
dark--especially with that elaborate entryway. My concerns and
complaints started to heighten when we went to see the stunt show on
water, mixed in with some extreme skateboarding. The crowd behind us
was extraordinarily rowdy--a camp group chanting their songs during the
start of the show, and crawling all over the railings. Not only was it
dangerous, but it was distracting. I really felt sorry for the one kid
they sent up there to calm things down. He obviously couldn't handle it
so he called security. Twenty minutes later, 3 officers show up and
what they do amounts to nothing...this situation should have been
handled more timely, and in a better fashion...the show was almost over
and was pretty much ruined. On top of all this, at the same show, there
was a terrible accident. One of the skateboarders did a jump off a
wooden ramp, missed his landing and cracked his leg onto a metal bar.
It was obviously broken. He struggled to crawl behind a ramp to hide
from the audience and it was evident he was in a lot of pain. How was
this situation handled, you ask? Terribly. The hosts of the show
chuckled and said "Ahh, he'll be ok!"--and on with the show for another
5 minutes, while this poor kid sat there crying, trying to hide. No
medic of any kind came out to get him, and at the end, an audience
member hopped over the fence to him to lift him up and walk to help.
Unbelievable. I know there's the whole "on with the show" plead, but
this incident left a sour taste in my mouth on how this park was run.
On a lighter note, I spotted a Spongebob plush in a crane that was
easily gettable, so I hurried over to change a dollar. Well, during
this time a kid walks over to it and lands the crane on top of him.
Rats! A Spongebob rescued for a thin quarter! It must have been the
heat, but this really upset me
We ate at Wok and Roll, which was delicious and well worth the money.
General Tso's chicken was a delight, and the service was great...I take
it this is an independently owned franchise? We went to see the Tiger
Show, which was well done and provided more action with the tigers than
I was expecting---they are really wonderful creatures. Kingda Ka was
down all day, although they were testing it throughout the day. This
really wasn't a big disappointment, since I've been on Dragster
multiple times...
I went on the Chiller; only the red Robin side was open today...this
ride was pretty fun. I was glad I got to ride the red side, since the
blue is so similar to Mr. Freeze at SFStL, although it is an
interesting inversion. That last twist before the spike really got me
though...it's a real "dangler" with only lapbar restraints! That was
pretty much the whole day...lines ranged from 15 to 60 minutes. Next
up, Busch Gardens Williamsburg--but first a few stops along the coast.
We stopped at Jenkinson’s boardwalk in Point Pleasant Beach, NJ for
a bit and had a blast. I've never seen so many crane machines in my
life! The big highlight was the candy game here...for a quarter you can
place a bet on this wheel that spins---it has about 200 pegs, and you
pick a set of four for it to land on for a quarter. I couldn't believe
it, but I won on my very first spin! The prizes are excellent--just
about any kind of candy you can think of for the prize...and a huge box
of it at that! Most candy prizes came by the caseload...I picked a 2 lb
case of Sour Patch Kids...my favorite! We've been enjoying them our
whole trip. The funhouse looked decent, but a violent storm was
approaching that even had locals stirring so we decided to hit the
road. The next day was spent driving through Delaware, with a stop at
Rehoboth Beach. The shopping is great around here, and the Disney
Outlet is outrageously fun and reasonable. Rehoboth is a beautiful and
free strip of sand that stretches for miles. It's certainly a little
more commercialized than I pictured it, but nowhere near a Virginia
beach type. On the boardwalk there was a fun haunted mansion ride that
was very reasonable at $1.25 per ride...it used really interesting cars
that swung from the top, like an inverted coaster. Anyone know anything
about these rides? There were some fun screams to be had in there.
Despite it being really crummy that Virginia doesn't allow radar
detectors, they certainly have one of the finest theme parks in the
nation. I had visited BGW when I was about 10, but unfortunately got
very ill and we lost 2 of the 3 days on our passes. This time around we
got the 2 day hopper pass...and used both days to the
maximum...seriously, we couldn't get enough of this park! I have
nothing bad to say at all about BGW...I could just gush and gush about
how wonderful a park it is...whoever has this as their home-park is a
really lucky soul. This is about as close as it comes to Disney,
folks...right down to the efficient trams from the parking lot to the
front gate. Everything about this park is top notch, from the
employees, to the attractions, to the scenery, and to the food. You
certainly get what you pay for...and more.
Up first was the new attraction: The Curse of DarKastle. Hooray for
this ride! They truly pull it off well. The more you ride it, the more
you'll love it---it really grows on you. The opening movie is
convincing enough, along with the chilling temperatures inside the
castle. The "Golden Sleighs" that transport you through the ride were
comfortable, smooth, and provided a great view for every rider. The
ride itself is spectacular. The 3-D scenes are very fluid, clear, and
packed with detail. Even after four rides throughout our stay,
something new was seen each journey. This ride has so much
re-rideablity, it's amazing. The theming of the castle is immense, the
music superb and Disney-esque. Now for the famous comparison to The
Amazing Adventures of Spiderman: I'd call it a tie. I think that Spidey
holds a sentimental value for blowing me away that first ride, and also
because the characters are more familiar. However if you enter
DarKastle with an open mind, it will impress you just the same.
Alpengeist delivered as usual, and was just as good as I remembered it
years before. The one thing that really blows me away is how well BGW
keeps up their rides. I could swear that Alpengeist was a new ride---it
looked that good. The same goes for everything else as well. However,
riding Talon on the same trip, I cannot rank Alpengeist above it.
Apollo's Chariot was a new one for me this year and I had heard very
good things about it, so my expectations were very high. Although I
don't think it lived up to all the hype, I agree it is a wonderful ride
full of smoothness, speed and airtime. Those last bunny hills are a
real thrill. For what they are, Big Bad Wolf and Lochness Monster are
decent rides, but certainly not the highlights of the park. The best
part of Lochness is certainly the helix in the dark--very well done for
an Arrow.
Outside of the coasters, the other attractions are extraordinary, as
well. One of the best 4-D simulators I've been on is certainly
Corkscrew Hill. A fun little story, superb motion coordination and
fluid 3-d imaging. We just had to go on that one twice. R.L. Stine's
Haunted Lighthouse was enjoyable, and it was enhanced by a live
performance of the Busch Gardens "Boogie Band" preceding the
presentation! Other rides included a few trips on the train (which
provides some beautiful glimpses of the park, including a bridge over
their stunning blue river) along with a voyage on Escape from Pompeii
(an Intamin Spillwater with some great fire effects---getting wet never
felt so good after a room ignites on fire!).
The wild animal exhibits were outstanding...getting a close look at
gray wolves and close encounters with Lorikeets on your head was a
special treat. More importantly, the shows were ALL out of this world.
The "Imaginique" show at night was incredibly imaginative and just as
entertaining as Cirque d'Soeil (sp?). The Pet Shenanigans show was
extremely well organized with lots of laughs...very talented animals.
The American Jukebox show was rockin’, and the Irish Thunder show was
well done. I especially liked how Busch Gardens salutes our soldiers in
Iraq with special dedications--Bravo. While eating, the Oktoberfest
show was very interactive and exciting, and the Jazz band in the
evening was super--complete with a killer first trumpet player. I love
to eat delicious food and be entertained at the same time. That leads
me to my next topic: food.
Outstanding. All the food we had was restaurant quality, served in
LARGE portions very quickly, at a VERY reasonable rate. I can't
remember the last time I ate so much good food in a theme park. The
German food was very authentic from the potato salad and sauerkraut
mixed in special spices...and the sausages were outstanding. The
smokehouse was just delicious with barbequed ribs, chicken, and smoked
beef brisket. Even the country potato fries served with it were
phenomenal--a crunchy outer coating and soft potato filling. The Irish
Stew was very hearty with large chunks of sirloin, carrots, potatoes,
onions, and peas--all served in a tasty Hoska sweet type bread bowl.
The chicken parmesan with mozzarella sticks in Italy was tasty as well.
Most all entrees were under $10, with the exception of the
smokehouse--yet that was even reasonable as well...certainly cheaper
than the same food I could find in Chicago restaurants.
It was on-and-off rain both days we were there...but that didn't spoil
a thing....didn't seem to bother the "Cast Members" either...all were
friendly and helpful. We took advantage of the service in the shops
where you can buy items during the day, and after 6:30 they will
transport them to the front Emporium shop in the front of the park so
you can pick 'em up on the way out. It worked great, and saved lugging
around a bag all day. Prices in the gift shop in France were
outstanding: only $6 for a sporty black BGW hat!
The second day we headed over to Water Country USA with our hopper
pass, and that turned out to be a blast. A bit hilly, but all the
attractions were a terrific. There were a lot of old fashioned
slides...but they were a long ride for the walk up. The most unique
attraction though was the "Hubba Hubba Highway". This is no ordinary
lazy river...no tubes here--only life vests. Strap one on and float
through the strong current. You can flip and spin around freely...it
really is a blast, a smile-cracking one-of-a-kind experience!! That
pretty much sums up our two days spent at BGW...as you can probably
tell, it was definitely a highlight of the trip, and I can't wait to
get back there!
The following day would be spent driving up toward D.C. to check out
SFA for a short while, and then the long voyage to our hotel in
Worthington, OH. To put it honestly, thank Heavens that I hadn't
planned anymore time in SFA. Yuck. This park was a horrible experience,
especially after the fantastic Busch Gardens. Good thing we got in free
on our SF pass...I can't imagine feeding this park anymore of my
money--the $10 parking was enough. That's where the problems began--the
parking lot attendant was disgustingly rude...she just sat there in her
chair, forcing me to stretch my arm crazily to hand her a $10 bill. She
could see me struggling and she did nothing but stare, forcing me to
open the door, get out and give it to her. No thanks, no nothing.
Unbelievable!!! I felt like turning around there, but she had already
claimed our money. As we entered the park, I was greeted by a frowning
lady at the entrance taking tickets, with a "gimme that pass & move
along" attitude. Finally, once we were in the park it started to show
some promise. The park was more wooded and pretty in front with the
street facades. We trucked on over to Roar for a spin. I sat in the
front, (once again another rude ride op shouting at people in line to
walk through the turnstile--unnecessary when it truly was confusing
around the entrance to Roar which had a pathway that did bypass the
turnstile...they need to put a rope up and stop the shouting) and the
ride was just ok. Not as rough as I had been preparing for, but
certainly nothing to write home about either.
After exiting we saw a boat headed up the Typhoon Sea Coaster. I was
very excited to see this running and thrilled about taking a spin on
this unique ride. Here, not surprisingly, comes another problem. The
line wasn't more than 20 people long in the station...but the boats
were stacked and empty. The ride ops just sat there lazily staring
either at the guests blankly or out into space. After a few minutes of
this nonsense, I called over to them to ask what was going on. "duh
ride's broked" was the reply. Ridiculous. They certainly could have
made an announcement like any other normal park does, but instead they
make the guests wait in fierce curiosity as to what the heck's going
on. I was really getting fed up with SFA and began planning to voice my
complaint to guest services (although peeking in there later at the
scene, I decided my plea would fall on deaf ears and I'd be better off
writing a letter).
I was determined to get my credits on the coasters and get the heck
outta here. We headed back into Gotham City. I picked up a ride on
Joker's Jinx (meh, I thought…better when in the dark, like FoF) and
headed back to Superman. This ride was pretty good. It was not well
taken care of and could have used a new set of wheels to smooth it out
(actually felt dangerous at parts)...but other than that it was a fun
ride. The first helix was exciting, the second one kind of "old hat",
but all the hills were full of some nice floater airtime. The only ride
that got me really smiling though was the Penguin's Blizzard River.
Make sure you get a chance to ride this unique slide. I found it
fascinating how the rough patches on the edge of the slide caught the
raft and gave it a good whip! Finally to end this stay, we found that
Typhoon Sea Coaster had opened up. A short line of 50 people took a
half hour in the hot sun to get through. Horrible capacity, and again
the ride ops were no better...just rough-housing and jumping across the
loading canal for fun. To be honest, I would be very scared trusting
these ride ops if the ride broke down. OK, enough ride op rant...you
get the picture! The ride itself was enjoyable and long, but it could
be SO much more. I don't know how some of the scenes were supposed to be, since I'd never ridden it before...but most of the tunnels were
dark, with the lights burned out that were supposed to shine on all the
skeleton props...oh well. The backwards drop and turntables were
fascinating little contraptions. The water park was bustling, but we
decided to hit the road instead. I can assure you that we won't be
visiting SFA anytime soon...poorly run and mediocre rides at best.
Sorry to be such a downer, but I had to get that off my chest!
Our final visit would be a visit to Wyandot Lake after some quality
shopping at the high class Easton center in Columbus, OH (an excellent
visit for anyone in the area!). This is the first time we'd be going to
Wyandot lake, so I was interested to see what it was like. My
impressions: Thumbs up, Wyandot! We had a really enjoyable stay...I'm
so glad I attend college in Ohio...it's really a friendly state, as I
experienced here and at Geauga Lake on this trip. The ticket takers
were very welcoming, and wished EVERY single person a good day in the
park. Outstanding. The atmosphere was clean and cozy, and although the
park doesn't have much in attractions to offer, it still provides some
good clean fun. A nice addition to the midway was the huge grills with
guys cooking up mini hamburgers and hotdogs for 50 cents each! The
changing facilities were spotless, and the gift shop offered reasonably
priced merchandise. The wave pool was a nice treat...it's rare to find
wave pools today that reach 8 feet deep (although it was roped off at
the 6 foot mark, that was plenty deep to jump around). It was neat to
see a big movie screen they set up in front of the wave pool certain
nights, so people can float around and watch a flick! The Shark Attack
slide was a nice cruise and the lazy river was very relaxing...a nice
option to either swim through it or take a complimentary inner tube.
(Still, nothing touches Hubba Hubba Highway!) We took a spin on the Sea
Dragon coaster, which was a great last ride to end this trip on. Very
cool to see a lever operated coaster still in operation. We hit the
road around 4:30, stopped at a Ryan's buffet for dinner (these are
outstanding for the price!) and continued on our drive back to Chicago.
All in all, a superb trip and a great education. Thanks for reading,
and I welcome all your comments!
As I think back on the trip I decided it would be interesting to make a
list of the bests and worsts encountered, so here goes:
Best Attractions: 1. Curse of DarKastle 2. Talon 3. Nitro\Apollo’s
Chariot (tie) 4. Alpengeist
Worst Attractions: 1. Rolling Thunder 2. Big Bad Wolf 3. Joker's Jinx
Ranking of Parks from most favorite to least: BGW, Geauga Lake,
Knoebels, Wyandot, Dorney, SFGAdv, SFA.
Best Shows seen: 1. Spirit of the Tiger (SFGAdv) 2. Pet Shenanigans
(BGW) 3. Imaginique (BGW)
Favorite Drive: Strip of Delaware between Rehoboth Beach and Ocean
City--just amazing! Also, West Virginia and New Jersey are nice.
Most Un-favorite State to Navigate: Pennsylvania.
Friendliest People\Parks found in: Ohio.
Favorite 4-d show seen: Corkscrew Hill (BGW)
Thanks to all for reading! Hope you found pieces of this report useful.
All hotels were booked using Priceline, which was helpful...but here's
a tip to all: Avoid selecting downtown\city center areas. Although the
hotels are nice, many do not offer parking for their guests, and in
areas such as Norfolk, we were forced to park in city-run garages,
charging steep rates! For those planning similar road trips, I also
recommend putting together a binder full of maps printed out from
Maps.com, Mapquest.com, etc. and also all hotel confirmation sheets...I
found this to be a useful tool, and a neat memento to keep after the
trip ends. Happy coasting all!
-John
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and that's cool you got your mom to like the ride.
