I am a coaster geek, everyone who knows me knows this. I thought this old Gemini ad was awesome. Who saves this stuff, captures it and puts it on YouTube!? Awesome.
[embed youTube="http://www.youtube.com/v/GBSLdXwy8wk"][/embed]
After some trouble with the local roads, and entering through one of the wierdest entrances to an amusement park ever I finally arrived at Lake Compounce. I paid my $5 for parking and found a spot in the gravel lot. You can’t really see the park from here which is pretty neat but once you go under the bridge/tunnel though you are greeted with a pretty unique looking midway.
I wanted to visit Lake Compounce because of Boulder Dash and while on my way to the ride I had huge smile on my face, I was really wishing Monica had been able to come. I stopped for a ride on Wildcat on my way and discovered how odd they run their coasters. I walked into an empty station after the train left and found a chain preventing me from walking up to my seat of choice with no ride operating giving me any direction at all. So like a good boy I waited at the chain and waited for the ride op to come and let me in when a gaggle of kids came running under all the queue railings. They were asked to return into the line and the op let us all in. I got into the front seat and found Wildcat to be a pretty fun ride. Much more fun than the video makes it out to be. I would have like to get a backseat ride, but by the time I came back I was exhausted and late for my trip back to Boston so I skipped it.
Boulder Dash was next up and it had a one train wait! Awesome. I got into the back car not knowing what I was getting myself into. Out of the station, up the steep mountain side lift and off I am! Slow, slow, slow then all hell breaks loose. I am getting pushed from side to side, kicked out of my seat and generally having a great time. Next thing I know I am at the turnaround thinking the train is going as fast as it can go. Man was I wrong. The turnaround hits and the train picks up even more speed. This is probably the most intense element on a wood coaster, comparable to anything Raven’s last section. Airtime, airtime and more airtime on the return trip and then the brakes. Damn, great ride. Its in my top ten, maybe my top five. Its great.
I ended up with six rides on Boulder Dash in various seats, but I think the back was my favorite. By the end of my sixth ride my neck and back had enough. I can’t even imagine what a night ride would be like and would have loved to stay for one, but I had to get back to Boston.
There are two sections of the ride that absolutely need work in the off season. They are during the out section and it felt as if the train hit a two ft. pot hole it jarred my back so bad. Other than those two rough spots the ride was as smooth as you can expect when running steel wheels on steel track at 65 mph.
The park as a whole was really nice, but there was something not quite right. I loved it, but it seemed more like a Conneaut lake than a Kennywood. I spent some time walking around, put my feet in the lake, enjoyed plenty of free soda and water and took it all in. Its a neat place. The skyride was really amazing too, I had no idea it was so long and that the view would be so great.
All in all, I would visit again with a point on enjoying the waterpark and getting some night time rides on Boulder Dash.
See all the photos from the trip
August 23, 2006
Monica and I had plans to camp at Hershey this weekend, but her company had other plans for our us and sent her to go to the ASAE conference in Boston. We decided to make the best out of it!
After a ton of trouble with Thrifty care rental, we got our car (an upgraded Jeep Liberty) and headed out to Six Flags New England early Saturday. This would be our second visit to the park. We paid our $15 for parking and drove to what was almost the very back of the lot. We could have waited for a tram, but the one that was loading as we walked up to it was packed and there wasn’t another in sight. In fact, we made it to the gate before the one tram that was running started making its trip back. How annoying it is to pay $15 for parking and not have a good parking amenities? No one guided us to a spot and we would have waited a long time for a tram!
We arrived at the gate and there are huge lines to get through the metal detectors, we get through that and there is a line for the FlashPass! The park is packed. There were lines for the bathrooms it was so busy. We wandered over to Mr. Six’s Pandemonium and saw a two hour line. There is a single rider line, so we walked up and both of us were on within five minutes. Mr. Six’s Pandemonium is one fun ride, I would have liked to ride it with Monica, but that line was just too much to handle.
I saw Catapault had what seemed like a short line, but as Monica would tell me, it was a 1/2 hour for me to wait two cycles of the ride. The ride was pretty fun, but there was way too much pressure on my head at the bottom. I don’t think I will ride it again.
We left this area of the park leaving behind the poorly maintained and run Cyclone, only one train!?, past the hour line for Thunderbolt, only one train!?, past the two hour line for Superman…it was really busy.
Walking through the park we remembered why I liked it so much. There is tons of charm, I love the layout and all the themeing. The only issue I have with the park, besides the fact that it is run like a Six Flags, is capacity.
We arrived at Batman and saw an hour wait and said, screw it, we are going to have to wait at some point and got into line. They were meeting their intervals fairly well, but could have been faster and the people in line were fairly well behaived even though the line is hidden from anyone of authority. We got into the train after a slightly longer than an hour wait and had a good ride. I see what people say about the vibration, but I don’t think it took away from the ride at all, good times, but probably my least favorite floorless. We were planning on seeing the parade and got off Batman five minutes after it started…and it was over. A five minute parade? Is this really worth advertising?
I am honestly not sure what we did next but we ended up at the beer counter and enjoyed the pricey adult beverage at the games midway outdoor food court area. The whole area was disgusting, seriously. No one was around in the 20 minutes to pick up any mess, and the customers certainly didn’t help any by cleaning up after themselves.
I was hoping to get more than one ride on Superman, but the two hour line was way too long for us. After dealing with just a few line jumpers and minimal security to enforce the rules we made it into the station. I was excited. We got a seat in I think the third car, second seat. From the second we went over the first drop I had a smile on my face and couldn’t stop laughing. Superman did not disapoint at all after two years. There is just so much airtime, speed and laterals to not love it.
We made Superman our final ride for the night and made our long walk back to our rental. Monica had a long day ahead of her on Sunday and I had Lake Compounce and Boulderdash to look forward to. More on the rest of the trip in another post!
View all the photos from the trip
I have a busy couple of weeks coming up! I will be going to Boston for four days where Monica has a conference to attend. We are going to Six Flags New England on Saturday to ride one of the best steel coasters in the world, and I will be driving to Lake Compounce to ride Boulder Dash on my own while she is at her conference. I will then be working from the hotel room Monday and Tuesday, enjoying the city at night.
The following weekend we will be going to Geauga Lake’s bring a friend for free day on Saturday. and have a Pittsburgh Pug Fest planning meeting on Sunday. We are then off to Florida starting Wednesday morning where Mo has another conference to attend. I am going to go to Bush Gardens Africa while she is working, then we are driving to Orlando to stay at Port Orleans for the weekend. We are planning on visiting Animal Kingdom and Blizzard Beach for the first time as well as just relaxing at the resort.
It feels like my summer is just starting and its almost over!
Footers are in and a building has been constructed for the air compressors.
The Phoenix Phall Phunfest is a halloween event held at Knoebels Amusement park in Elysburg, PA in conjunction with the Covered Bridge Festival.
We planned to camp Friday and Saturday night, enjoying the festival Saturday but our plans were spoiled by the weather. We arrived Friday evening at around 7:30 to find the rain coming down just as hard here as it had been all the way accross PA. After arranging to upgrade to a platform site we began setting up our tent in the rain. Its making cold just thinking about it. We got the tent up and attempted to throw a tarp over the top, but our new for 2005 tent was too big for it to cover completlely. This worked out to be the biggest mistake of the trip besides not cancelling the Friday portion of the trip. After some beers and boredom we tried to sleep but awoke to wet pillows, wet shirts and spoiled spirits. Our tent had puddles along the sides and every non water friendly piece of clothing or blanket was wet. Yuck!
After a long, wet night, we awoke and dicussed our options and luckily found a Hampton Inn 14 miles from the park. The hotel was clean, easy to find and had a good continental breakfast in the morning.
So we took our tent down, cleaned up and headed out to Cracker Barrel for breakfast. Mmmm.
We wanted to check out the Covered Bridge Festival before the Phunphest and had about…8 hours to kill. Hmm. Monica wanted to get a water wicking shirt to go along with her new pants and had convinced me to do the same so we headed out to find a sporting goods store. After digging around a mall and finding nothing we moved along to Insert town name and found an outdoor store. We both found what we wanted, thermal drying underware. These things are great! With the new thermals, hiking socks and rain coat I was dry and warm the entire rainy evening.
A movie was on our list of things to do, and we saw Flightplan. Good thriller movie that kept us both guessing.
After the movie we checked into the hotel to clean up and change into our new clothes. While changing Monica commented on the opening at the front of my pants and reffered to it as a “cute hole for your little pee pee.” I had a laugh and said, little is not a word any man wants used to describe that. Anyways, we changed and headed to the event.
After roaming the booths at the Covered Bridge Festival we purchased our tickets and headed into the park for Phun!
Our first ride of the evening was Phoenix. I was really curious what my opinion would be this time after riding four world class woodies this summer, and it hasn’t changed. Phoenix is still my favorite wooden coaster. While the rides all evening were not as out of control as they were last summer they were still a blast.
The tunnel had a number of black light graffiti paintings, strobe lights and fog early in the evening. Touches like this made this event really special and put a smile on our faces all night.
The ride itself was dark, and the out section over the Antique Cars had fog at the bottom of the hills leftover from the Haunted car ride. The ride is so smooth from the middle bench it almost feels like a B&M! Airtime was mild, but the smiles were extreme.
We wanted to get on the Haunted Mansion before it closed for the evening, so we headed there next and had a fun ride. The Haunted Mansion is sensory overload from the second you go in till you are done. Lots of scares and good times.
After the Haunted Mansion we wanted to use our free pizza coupons. This was our first time eating at Cesari’s and I have to say the hype was warrented. The cheese slices were really good, the sauce was sweet, very similar to NYC style and the crust was fresh.
The Twister queue was all done up as well, including a ride op dressed as Michael Myers walking slowly around the platform checking restraints and never coming out of character as well as Halloween music playing from underneath the platform.
The ride itself again was not as out of control as I recall, but still was really great. The first drop, turn around, drop, double helix was as intenseas it was smooth. Great!
Heading down the exit ramp held another surprise, a garbage can had a trigger that would cause the lid to pop open with lots of noise and light. It really scared the crap out of Monica and I. Details like this made the night really special and worth the suffering we were put through the night before.
I have heard the stories, knew that these were the #1 rated bumper cars and knew they packed a punch. Holy crap were they fun. Monica and I have never had as much fun, nor been as scared as we were on these bumper cars.
Our ride cycle was stopped as soon as we started, the ride operator, whom everyone seemed to know, said “You have all done this before, turn around and go the other way” and started up the ride again. Lots of big hits, spin outs and laughter insued. Everyone in queue was cheering when a big hit was given. All in all, great times.
The amount of work they put into this was staggering, it was an entire dark ride outdoors with numerous scares throughout the ride. While the line was long, it was well worth it. A number of the ride operators were in costume and character, including this guy who struck up a vampire conversation with Monica.
While the camping wash out was really dissapointing, the Phun Phest was worth all the cold and wetness we suffered through the previous night. The attention to detail was great, and made the event so much fun. After one PPP, we are planning on making it an annual trip.
We were only able to spend one day of the original plan of two days here. One of the ride workers told us that we were smart to come on a Wednesday instead of our originally planned Saturday because of the light crowd. It seemed pretty crowded to us though. That same operator said that since the new waterpark opened the park crowds have been really low as it pulls 5-10,000 people everyday. Take that with a grain of salt.
This is the nicest Six Flags park I have been to so far. It has great coasters, good ride operations, great themeing and is clean and just fun. The park goers here were much nicer than I have seen at a lot of the other Six Flags parks, there was no line jumping or other mis-behaivior. Maybe it was because it was a weekday?
I have to laugh at Six Flags though for charging so much for their food. The parking lot was full of people eating out of their trunks because of the ridiculous food prices inside the park. Even us, who are used to the expensive park food were shocked at the prices. $5 for a small funnel cake? Ugh.
Monica: I had heard that this was one of the nicest Six Flags parks. I wasn’t sure what to expect since I am normally not a huge fan of Six Flags, but after a recent trip to Six Flags over Texas, I began to appreciate the original goal of what Six Flags was meant to be before they started to buy out smaller parks and fill them with duplicate rides. I really liked this place. I loved all of the themed areas. It was really different from any other Six Flags. There was lots of walking space and it had an atmosphere of fun.
I was expecting a rough ride with a short line and I got a fun ride with a long line, but it was worth it. I would imagine the ride gets even better as it gets later in the day, it seemed just a tad sluggish.
Good operations here, they got each train out of the station as the other was returning and they controlled the traffic in the station itself which is something I wish more parks would do. I hated the corporate park headrest PTC trains though, I never really got the point of these.
What is with that trim brake on the second hill? It kills so much speed so early that the rest of the ride is gimped from that point forward. If I had never been on another hyper coaster before this would probably be my #1, but since I have it was just OK. Was the layout inspired from Titan and Goliath at all?
Monica: This was my favorite ride of the day. It reminded me of Nitro at Great Adventure which is always a good time.
This was my third installation of this ride, and was just as good as the others, Exterminator and Crazy Mouse. The themeing of the ride was nice and followed the rest of the New Orleans area nicely. Well done. The queue could be less jam packed however.
Monica: This ride had the slowest line of the day. It was the same thing as the Exterminator at Kennywood, but was outside. I like the inside experience much better.
What a neat ride this was. Monica and I sat in the same car and smiles on our faces from the spiral lift hill until the ending brake run. I hope the rumors about this ride being replaced are not true, or it is relocated somewhere else.
It is quite a hike to get to this station! The eagle is a racing coaster that if it were maintained better would be a top ten coaster in my opinion. I liked the backwards side more, but what is the point of the head dividers? Typical corporate park not keeping their woodies in good shape.
Monica: This was another frontward/backward racing coaster. It was an interesting experience and the line was short. Don’t pass this one by!
I could have done without this coaster, stand ups are not my thing. Monica: eh! Nothing special.
We waited to ride Deja as the line was pretty long and the intervals were long. I was determined to wait as long as it took though just because it looked so damn cool! Man, what a waste of time, the restraints suck. They were the typical vekoma harnesses and don’t clamp down far enough. When I am going 90 degrees I want to feel secure. The bottom of the drops felt like we were hitting the ground, not a pullout.
A bumpy old log ride with an extra large ending splash.
Monica: This ride was nuts. It was in the upper 70’s or 80’s the day we were there so I wasn’t interested in getting soaked on a water ride, but in general the log fumes don’t get you that wet. We are big fans of log rides so we rode it and got absolutely drenched. There is a secret rapid at the bottom of the hill that gives you an extra splash. Boy was I cold when we got off that one. I would absolutely love it on a hot day.
Monica: I was disappointed that there weren’t a lot of vegetarian options. We ate at the Mooseburger Lodge which had overall good food, but the ordering process was a nightmare. I wanted to get French fries on my salad instead of chicken as a vegetarian version of the salad. They could not understand this. I thought for sure that I was getting chicken on my salad. The salad came out without the chicken, but the fries were missing. They did not seem to be used to special requests. But if I hadn’t ordered a special request I would have starved, there was nothing on the ordinary menu for me.
Courtyard Marriott Waukegan
Monica: There was nothing special about the hotel. It was nice and what you expect from a Marriott property. It was an exit away from the park and it looks like there is going to be a lot of new development in this area. In a year this area could be really nice, but now it was nothing special. One perk was that it was within a short drive of an IHOP which is a must stop on vacation since we do not have one in the Pittsburgh area.
Indiana Beach was the forth stop on our adventure. The drive from Holiday World was really long and filled with corn and other various vegetables as the only scenery. We ended up going to the park the same evening that we arrived because of a family emergency that was to cut our trip short. After waiting for the boat at the campground to take us over to the park, we were there. Wow! What a cool place. We received the ACE discount for half-price off of admission for the evening session. The park closed at 10 or 11 so we had plenty of time to do everything.
Monica: I really didn’t have any expectations of this place. Ryan added it to the agenda, but I had never heard of it and I really didn’t know what to expect even after reading the web site. I am glad that we went to the park during the evening session, the crowds were really light so we walked from ride to ride without more that one cycle’s wait.
Indiana Beach was unlike any amusement park that I have ever been to. Since it has been around for 80 years or so, it had that old time atmosphere. You could feel the history and sense all of the fun that people have been having there generation after generation. We went to the Skyroom bar for a Corona and in my head I could picture people jitterbugging, swing dancing, doing the electric slide, or whatever other popular dance of eras past. I was happy to see that they still offered “Fascination.” I think I only played that game once, but there is a certain feeling of nostalgia that comes over me when I see it. Since the park is located essentially over the lake on boards, it provided a complete unique experience. I felt like I was at one of the boardwalks on the East Coast that I love so much.
Monica summed it up for me, the atmosphere here was incredible and their wooden coaster duo take second place only to Knoebels. I wish it were closer to us. Does anyone know if there are any houses on the lake to rent for a week?
This ride was a really fun old dark ride retrofitted with electronic guns. what a great way to preserve an old ride and make it fun for the new generation.
Monica: I love dark rides! This one was great. I loved shooting the targets and I think I even beat Ryan for once.
The hoosier hurricane was a cool coaster. It didn’t have as much airtime as I expected, but it was fast, smooth and relentless. I loved it. Throughout the evening we walked on, or waiting for the train to come back into the station to board.
Monica: I loved it. It felt like an old-time coaster. There was no line and we couldn’t get enough!
Cornball was a complete shock after seeing how small it was in person. It packed quite a tight little punch with airtime over each hill, just enough laterals to keep it intense without pain, and some nice headchoppers. The buzz bar restraints are such a great way to experience any coaster let alone one with some good airtime moments.
I had heard a lot about the comfort level of this ride, and while I can’t say it was comfortable being squeezed into a tiny car looking across from two strangers trying to avoid touching legs, I can say that it was really fun and maybe a bit scarey. I never knew which way we were going as the turns were so tight and usually hidden.
Operations here were rather sad though with only two cars running, that means four people riding at a time. This was the only ride with a wait for us.
Monica says: This ride was a lot of fun and different than any other mine ride I have ever ridden. You ride up in an elevator and then you are dropped on to the track. The ride is very compact so there are lots of twists and turns. I think I laughed the entire time.
Sitting in the holding area waiting to go into the house a costumed grim reaper walked up to us, didn’t say a word and motioned for us to enter the elevator. As we went up the elevator the reaper simply looked forward and never made a peep. This set us up for a cool walk through attraction. Two thumbs up to the actor. We let the two young kids walk in front of us for a bit so we could experience all the gags ourselves. This is a good time, and highly recommened for even the most jaded coaster enthusiast.
Monica: I am sort of embarrassed to admit this, but I was actually really scared in this thing. I don’t want to give away any details about it to ruin the experience for anyone else, but it’s so dark in there and disorienting that I couldn’t wait until we were finished. I think I was more afraid than the little girl who went in ahead of us. Oh well!
We weren’t really hungry when we were at the park because we stopped at and had pizza on the way. I was disappointed that we couldn’t try the Skyroom. But as mentioned before, we loved the bar area.
Monica: From the get go, I was more impressed with this place than Lake Rudolph at Holiday World. I noticed on the map that we weren’t too far from the dock to take us across the lake which was an added bonus. Our campsite was large and sufficiently wooded. I loved walking on the wooded pathway to the lake. I really felt like I was one with nature. Again, we got stuck with rowdy neighbors and were graciously educated in whether or not we might be rednecks from the Jeff Foxworthy recording amplified from their truck’s sound system.
Ryan: The campground seems to be falling on hard times as the docks, mini golf course and other amusements are falling into dis-repair. Other than that the campground was really nice. Our site was large enough and close to bathrooms. As Monica said we continued our tradition of loud neighbors. I don’t get it, every campground we go to is silent at night except for our neighbors.
Coaster operations were odd, they wait for a full load before sending off the train, and re-rides are exhausting without jumping the railing and skipping the stairs.
There is an up charge for this amusement to keep out the riff-raff
Kennywood’s Swing Shot construction is coming along, rumor has it we should see the ride arrive on site by the end of this month.
We stopped at SFKK as a side trip on the way to Holiday World from King’s Island. We didn’t intend on spending the whole day, but since we were in the neighborhood, we couldn’t pass it by, especially since we have Six Flags season passes. We only ended up spending about two hours there.
We didn’t expect much from this park after hearing so many bad things about it, and while it was a pleasant surprise it still wasn’t great. Lots of food stands were closed and we were starving! We couldn’t find a place to spend our money! Thunder Run was surely the highlight, incredibly smooth turns (was expecting the worst) and freaking sweet airtime! Why haven’t I heard more about this coaster?
Monica says: I really had no expectations of this place. I thought it was odd that there was so much barbed wire around the park. Were we in such a high crime area? We only stayed about an hour there and rode two wooden coasters that were each a lot of fun. Hey, what can I say? It’s a Six Flags!
We spent the 4 th of July at Holiday World. The crowds were moderate and the weather was beautiful (hot as…). We stayed at the park from when it opened until it closed with a break in the middle to eat at St. Nick’s restaurant and to return to our campsite.
I personally could not wait to visit Holiday World and their two world-class wood coasters, Raven and Legend, but Monica and I were left disappointed with the park as a whole. There was the promise of a theme park, but there was very little theme outside of the named areas. Walking from area to area the theme hardly changes other than the music and the names and colors of the rides. Where were the fake gravestones and cobwebs in the Halloween area? How about some fake snow or more than one decorated tree in Christmas. And why are all the wooden railings in the entire park painted mud brown?
The coasters and water park dominate the park, without them there wouldn’t be much to do.
Monica says: I was psyched to visit Holiday World because I love Christmas and the other Holidays. I love amusement parks, too, so what could be better than a place that combines these two things? I have to agree with Ryan’s opinion of the park. Changing the music and the paint color does not change the theme.
Our first ride on Raven I was left wondering what the hype was all about, it was good and fun, but #1 in the world? For me it couldn’t compare to either of Knoebel’s woodies. The first half was good, but the second half to me was too lateral crazy and threw us around too much which resulted in a headache
At night things changed and I saw why it was ranked #1 for so long. The ravine drop from the back was wild and it got so dark on my last lap I couldn’t tell which way was which. The rides at night were far better, but were still far too rough for me to rank above my favorites, Twister and Phoenix. That said, I couldn’t resist getting off and running back around to the short line again while Monica waited on a bench drinking a free soda. The atmosphere in the line was electric, with plenty of parents and their kids eagerly waiting their ride cheering the whole way. Good times.
So this is were the howling we heard in the campground was coming from. Legend is huge! So much larger than I was expecting. It was lateral crazy and again it gave me a headache, but I can’t resist riding it. It must be something CCI added to the wood that makes them so addicting, kind of like McDonalds or Starbucks.
I loved the first drop & trip through the water park and its two nasty airtime hills. The double helix was relentless and the finale was just as intense as the beginning of the ride. While it is larger and longer, there isn’t much to me that makes Legend standout from Raven other than its length.
Splashin’ Safari is one of the best water parks the two of us have been to. All of the slides were a blast, the new Bahari wave pool was fun and nicely themed and the lazy river was perfectly paced.
Monica: This place saved Holiday World for me. I had a really good time here. The Congo River was so relaxing and all the slides were a lot of fun.
Nothing here stood out to me as being great, the pizza we ate was better than most amusement park pizza, but most amusement park pizza isn’t very good to begin with. The free soft drinks are a nice touch.
Monica: First off, the unlimited free soft drinks were the best! I love diet pepsi so much and even though I should have been drinking water all day, I couldn’t resist the sweet caffeinated nectar! We ate lunch at Kringle’s Café. I really enjoyed the pizza; it was nice and doughy. We ate dinner outside of the park. The park offered no “must-eats.”
Monica: The campground was located adjacent to Holiday World, but offers no direct park access. It offered paddle boats and miniature golf, but I have seen nicer campgrounds in my day. Santa Claus, IN is a virtual ghost town. There is nothing for tourists outside of Holiday World and the only full-service restaurant was St. Nick’s Restaurant located at Santa’s Lodge. The food was expensive, mediocre at best and the waitress neglected to tell us that there was a salad bar. It wasn’t the North Pole experience that I had hoped for, although we did get a nice photo of Ryan touching Santa’s bum in front of the municipal building.
Ryan: The atmosphere here was great, and pretty typical of a campground located so close to an amusement park, it felt similar to Knoebel’s. Of course we got stuck with the only two noisy families in the whole campground both nights who insisted on arguing with each other or yelling about a game of cards. There was only one small pool however, and due to the excruciating heat it was packed with children.
All that good and still disappointed? Its weird but yeah, there was just something missing for us. The employees, coasters and waterpark were all outstanding, but the park’s atmosphere was lacking and just didn’t feel right. That said, I am already craving Raven and Legend, and The Voyage looks too great to pass up. So we will be back. Even if I have to drag Monica kicking and screaming.
