The one thing about the loss of Geauga Lake is that there are no looping coasters in the region. It has made me miss Double Loop, Mind Eraser, Serial Thriller, and most notably Batman Knight Flight this whole summer. Thankfully Kennywood will resolve this issue but we have to wait till next year.
While I've been to Waldameer twice this year I've been craving some serious steel coaster action lately. While I do love Steel Dragon, to me it's just a spinning wild mouse. I did not get to Kennywood this year due to the construction and detours to get there as I'm not about to get lost in Pittsburgh. My only alternative is one of my favorite regional parks, Darien Lake.
When I arrived at the park I knew it was going to be a very busy day with the lines to get into the park stretching all the way out to the edge of the entrance plaza. It was almost 10:00 so the gates and ticket booths weren't open yet. I'm not sure if it can be done but Darien Lake needs to find a better way of handling the lines through here. You can't tell who is in line for tickets and who is in line to get in.
One thing I do like at the park is how they write what today's weather was going to be - high of 86 and sunny. Three rides were closed today - Boomerang (which I was pretty bummed out about it as it is my favorite standard model), Big Kahuna, the large family raft slide the park got from Astroworld/Waterworld before SF sold the park, and Thunder Rapids, their log flume. The latter was actually open today but Shipwreck Falls was not.
The rides usually start at 10:30 but they dropped the rope in front of the fountain ten minutes early and, like majority of those waiting, rushed to Ride of Steel. I, too, was part of the cattle though I didn't run to it.
Happy 10th Birthday, RoS! Hard to believe it's been ten years since Intamin stunned the world with their first hypercoaster. Super Steel, being the oldest of its kind, sure acted like elderly, that is, cranky. It broke down at least three times during the day, including shortly after it opened and I was next in line. The breakdowns weren't short either, they were somewhat lengthy. They eventually made everyone leave the ride. Before anyone asks me, they were running both trains.
So I ventured over to Viper next. On majority of my visits I usually walk right up into the station but today there was a line that stretched all the way to the lead in drop to the corkscrews and eventually grew to go all the way to the base of the vertical loop. That was okay by me as it gave me an opportunity to soak in the sounds of a classic Arrow coaster. I guess we better appreciate those sounds as I fear a lot of Arrows will be disappering from the landscape within the next ten to fifteen years. They did run both trains and the wait wasn't too bad. It was a decent ride that had me smiling from the first drop to the brake run.
Next was Mind Eraser. I figured I better hit this SLC before the line gets too long later on. This is where I had a few issues of line cutting going on that really perturbed me. In this day and age I are afraid to say something because 1) people just don't care and 2) you fear they'll wait for you at the exit to kick your a** for ratting them out. I sat towards the middle and with keeping my right ear against the right side of the harness it sort of softened the headbanging a little bit.
Now that I got some of my steel craving out of my system I headed over to Sleigh Ride. While I thoroughly enjoyed my ride it seemed to be running slower than I have ever remembered it to be. To top it all off the young couple in front of me were taking pictures of themselves while the ride was moving, but that was towards the end of the ride anyway.
Next I ventured just around the corner and hopped on UFO. I don't recall seeing two ride ops running the ride in the past but today they did. I love this ride soooo much and it's sad that Huss doesn't make them anymore. I wonder why it never caught on. I was smiling throughout the entire ride.
When I was in line for Mind Eraser I had seen that RoS was back up and running again so I headed back over there. I got in line despite the posted wait time of almost an hour and not even ten minutes later I saw them have the riders get out of the train and back into the station queues. A little flustered at this point knowing that the ride has just broke down again I left the line and headed over to RoS's neighbor, Predator.
Predator actually had a nice little line down the stairs and into a part of the queue. They were running both trains today. Despite the line and the way they operate it (first they check the seat belts then go back and check the restraints), the wait wasn't that bad. I sat in the middle part of the train, around 4-1, and while it wasn't one of the better Predator rides (like I had last year), it also wasn't the worst either. Again I saw fresh wood piled within the ride structure but I don't recall seeing any on the ride itself. It wasn't overly rough but, as I always do, I have to blame it on those awful trailered trains. I actually like the compact layout of the ride and while in line I wondered how Gravity Group or GCI could improve on that design.
By this time it was pretty much around the peak heating time and I knew I had to get out of the sun for a bit. I went to Beaver Brothers to get a bite to eat and some air conditioning. It was exactly what I needed and I felt a bit better when I left. I headed over to see the line for Motocoaster and while it wasn't that bad I just didn't feel like riding it.
I headed back around to Viper and got another ride. The line was still about the same length as when I rode it the first time and like before the line would eventually stretch all the way out towards the base of the vertical loop. Again the wait wasn't that bad.
I did a lot of walking around at this time. I pretty much did everything I wanted to except for one or two that were on my must do list. RoS was still down and I headed down there just to see what was going on. A very small line of teens were there just waiting for the ride to open. The blue train was parked on the lower part of the lift. I decided to get off my feet for a bit and check out the ride and such. I had this impression that PARC really needs to do something with this area. With RoS being the only ride it gets pretty dead back there when it's down. There's land just beyond the ride that they could install one or two flat rides just to bring a little more traffic down that way. So after a few minutes I left and headed towards my next must do ride.
I hopped in line for my number one Darien Lake flat ride, the Raging Seas. Ray P. might be surprised to find that there is only ONE broken "ghetto boat" on the ride instead of two. Another one of those rare rides that just had me smiling from beginning to end. Can't get enough of it.
I started to walk around again, which is all I could do seeing the park was absolutely packed by this time. While the lines overall weren't too bad around the park as most people were in Barracuda Bay, the midways were bustling. I have seen the park busy but I've never seen Darien Lake get this busy.
I wanted to ride the Giant Wheel, the last of my must rides, but the line was too long considering the ride cycle and the loading/unloading it goes through. I noticed there are still no lights on the ride.
So I finally made my way back to RoS after seeing the blue train, which was parked on the lift, finally make its way to the top. The small line from just a short time earlier was a little longer so I decided to wait it out since if the ride did reopen soon I would have a very short wait. They kept cycling trains and eventually they let us in. I sort of felt cocky in that I was able to get a couple rides on my visit last fall so I felt pretty sure of myself that I could do it again. Sure enough I was able to just barely get the belt fastened like last year and took a spin on RoS. I wasn't just smiling as we crested the first hill, I was literally beaming the entire ride. When we got back to the final brakes, the line wasn't that long as the masses hadn't rushed back to the ride yet so I took another spin it. Again I was just beaming from the top of the lift to the final brake. Both times I felt the air time, or at least the attempts of getting it on the return leg after the first helix. Two great rides to end my visit to the park.
I was going to stay at least till five but with the park being quite crowded I decided to leave after the last RoS ride. My steel coaster craving has been met, returning home very happy and glad that I made the trek out to Corfu, New York.
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On September 21, 2007, a historic 119-year old amusement park had been secretly murdered. Never forget it. |
