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You know what other park is larger and could use a B&M capable of 3 train operation? Six Flags Magic Mountain.

Hold on a second. So they are building a brand new theme park in the middle of nowhere Iowa - including a relocated Intamin and SLC - and nobody is talking about this? Wow. This is awesome!

Given the insane price point of this place our plan going forward is to go once a year in the dead of winter and that's pretty much it, but over the weekend a few friends of ours hooked us up with free tickets so we made our first trip back since February. Sandy's Blasting Bronco was new for us and it's a great ride. The backward launch is really powerful and it has some great whip throughout. This park has a really impressive coaster collection for being located in a mall and only a year old and this is a contender for the best ride in the park. My thoughts on the park as a whole are unchanged. I really like it a lot but the price point is insane so it's hard for me to really recommend it. If this place were like $35-$40 I would sing it's praises constantly. Also, more and more stores are opening in the mall and it's actually starting to become pretty awesome. In a few years this will be one of the best malls in the country. PS: Shellraiser still wasn't rough for us. It's a great ride.

looks to me like just a glitch - maybe they weren't expecting to need reservation system into 2021, so it's not enabled and they need to tweak it. Fiesta is my home park, if you've never been you'll love it.

So, for a long time, 2020 was looking like it was going to be the year without a coaster for me -- for largely obvious reasons. And then I rode a looping Pinfari and a Vekoma boomerang. Which is actually quite a 2020 way to end the drought. In September, I planned out a road trip through the mid-Atlantic. A largely keep-to-myself adventure just so I could get out, do some photography, visit some places I'd never been, and so on. Theme parks weren't even really a consideration, so it's not like Ocean City MD was some big destination. Just another stop on the way. Hey, did you know that Ocean City, MD is 3,073 miles from Sacramento, CA on US-50? Now you do. But as I put together the itinerary, I realized it made sense to spend an evening in Maryland's biggest beachside resort town. So I got myself a hotel a block from the ocean -- for under $100 on a Sunday night, when the same place was over twice that the night before. Good timing. For a few reasons, this wasn't a typical beach visit. 1) I'd only be there at night. 2) It was 45 degrees with wind gusts of about 35 mph. 3) We're still in a pandemic. Nonetheless, I decided to check out Ocean City's two small amusement parks -- Jolly Roger at the Pier, and Trimper's Rides. Three coasters between the two parks. Could I pull a few credits out of this otherwise pathetic year? Yep. And was it safe? Employees outnumbered guests at Jolly Roger. Trimper's was only slightly busier. Two of my coaster rides were completely solo. I think there were two other people at the back of the train on the boomerang. Very easy to keep my distance. Both parks also have Ferris wheels, a bunch of flats, and Jolly Roger's even got a dark ride. I didn't ride anything else, so this is no comprehensive review of the two parks. Got in, got three credits, got out -- but took a bunch of pictures on the way. Let's get to it. A trip report from September 20, 2020. A stop at Homer Gudelsky Park on the way into Ocean City for some views. A look over the water. This is just the south end of Ocean City -- it's a miles-long stretch of hotels. A bridge across the intracoastal waterway. Beach ball water tower! Faux-pirate ships and boat cruises, probably not running on a crummy-weather day in the offseason. Behind the boats and marinas, that's the hotel where I stayed. The ocean is out that way behind the breakwater. Catch some fish. And now for a look at the two parks, just across the water. This is all that's visible from Jolly Roger at the Pier. An older Ferris wheel with un-enclosed cars. You can also see the top of the Pinfari. This is an overview of Trimper's Rides. It's about the same size as Jolly Roger, but has some larger attractions. The Inlet Eye is a newer wheel with enclosed cars. Color-coordinated cabins. After waiting about 10 minutes, the boomerang (Tidal Wave) finally operated. This is 2020. Driving three states over to take pictures of a boomerang. There's also a drop tower. I'm not sure that I ever saw it run. First-ever Vekoma Boomerang / US Coast Guard combo photo? Vertical loop! Wider view of the business end of the boomerang. Ker-chunk. Yep, it's a boomerang. And that's about it from this spot. Now, heading to the beach. Outside my hotel, which was not quite a ghost town, but close to it. View from my balcony. Nobody using the pool on this chilly day. Looking west from the hotel (this picture was taken the next morning). Sunset over Ocean City. An additional view of the sunset. Sunset and birds. The drawbridge over the bay at sunset. Cleaner photo of the above from the next morning. Trimper's Rides, visible about a half mile to the south. Wheel colors. More wheel colors. A wheel and a boomerang. Now it's green. Alright, down to the beach. Actually not my first time in Ocean City MD -- went there once for a couple hours in 2016 on a similar trip. Weather was much better then, and it was quite busy. On this day? Not empty, but not a lot of people around. Your typical boardwalk shops with their supply of edgy-sloganed t-shirts. Just past sunset. Two wheels -- and a moon. To the left is Jolly Roger at the Pier, which is on a platform that extends out over the beach. To the right is Trimper's, which is set back from the beach at the far south end of Ocean City. Jolly Roger's two main attractions -- the Ferris wheel (sponsored by Pepsi) and Looping Star, a looping pinfari. Meanwhile, past a Ripley's Believe It Or Not location and a bunch more cheesy shops, Trimper's is visible. Notice how smooth the sand looks in the foreground. These are long-exposure shots, and the sand was blowing and drifting like crazy due to the wind. I guess what I'm saying is that I got sandblasted to get these pictures. Another view of Jolly Roger. There are lots of other rides, including one of those 360-degree pendulum things. Pretty sure they don't allow single riders on the Ferris wheel, though. My first credit of the day -- and of the year! -- was Looping Star. Over 450 coasters on my list and this is my first-ever looping Pinfari. According to RCDB, Looping Star is a Zyklon ZL42, and it has been operating since 1996. So, how was Looping Star? Surprisingly not bad. Reasonably smooth. The loop was actually kind of fun. Overall, better than expected. The back side of Looping Star. Getting ready for a dispatch. It ran every 5-10 minutes or so, usually with just one party on board. Another dusk scene at Jolly Roger. (sponsored by Pepsi) Flags in the (rather stiff) wind. Long exposure of a train at the top of the lift. Looping Star train on the first drop. Both Ocean City wheels had really good lighting packages. Another lift hill view of Looping Star. I think that's a skycoaster or something also. Parking lot long-exposure view. Long exposure shots were tough due to the wind. A view of Jolly Roger from the boardwalk. This is the pier that Jolly Roger is "at." It had closed for the night, but I wouldn't have wanted to go all the way out there with the wind anyway. Still a pretty good view from the open section of the pier. A dark, windswept Ocean City. Jolly Roger from the pier. I did not need a "night time arm band" -- both parks sold single rides on their coasters, and that was all I needed. A view of both parks from the pier. The wheels are pretty bright. Still some color in the sky as night continues to fall. A wheel and a boomerang. I remember this parking lot being packed full of cars when I visited in 2016. Trying to make a Vekoma boomerang look good with long-exposure photography. One great travesty from this trip -- was too busy taking pictures to get some Kohr Bros. Bad decision on my part. Didn't get very many of these long-exposure wheel shots to turn out due to the wind, but I tried. Wheel and moon. (yeah this one's wobbly but it's still kind of cool anyway) Adjacent to Trimper's is the Ocean City Life-Saving Station Museum. There is a large anchor. There's a watch-tower -- lit up by the lights of the Ferris wheel. Also, a really big fish. A view north from the end of the Ocean City boardwalk. There were actually a few people around here. The Inlet Eye -- the large, modern, indoor-cabin wheel at Trimper's. The Inlet Eye and a few mostly-empty flat rides. Live music and a long-exposure round-up! Definitely kind of a unique picture. Obviously, we're talking about huge crowds here. Maybe 15 people in attendance for the concert. I'll watch from a distance. Alright, getting to the two coasters at Trimper's. This is a spinning coaster called ... Spinning Coaster. Very creative. Long-exposure Spinning Coaster! Spinning Coaster is one of those SBF Visa spinners that are appearing absolutely everywhere. It was installed in 2015. Tidal Wave is up next. The entrance to Tidal Wave -- 12 points on your Trimper's card. Tidal Wave has been here since 1986. So it's an older Boomerang. That gave me some concern. (also, thumbs up to the ride op) Long-exposure Tidal Wave! The verdict? Not completely terrible, I guess? I do not like Vekoma Boomerangs, their uninspired layout, or the fact that most of them are just old and bad and rough. But I'm struggling to think of a Boomerang that rode better than this one. Maybe Speed of Sound at Walibi Holland? So yeah, ending the night without a Boomerang headache was a pleasant surprise! It's still a one-and-done coaster, but in 2020, I'll take what I can get. A final view on the way out of Trimper's. Back on the boardwalk, the arcades were open, and well lit, but mostly empty. Boardwalk ghosts at the end of the night. That wraps things up from Ocean City -- and my only trip report from 2020. (updates to my Europe 2019 TR are coming soon) Thanks for reading!

I don't know that anyone here works at SFFT in HR (or IT) support, so I'd suggest either calling them or chatting via the link on the SFFT website? it's a year round park, so they will be open in Jan. and the park calendar shows they are open weekends in Jan/Feb. so yeah. . a glitch with the reservation system, that's only allowing thru end of year. reach out to them.

Scream has been rumored to move since it opened. 17 years ago.

Sorry, should probably have read RCDB better if I wanted to make a list of GCIs that I have never ridden but I am willing to possibly sacrifice before Ghostrider.

Twisted Timbers is my new number one roller coaster at the Land of Make Believe. Land of Make Believe The Land of Make Believe in Hope, New Jersey is a small park primarily targeted for kids. And this was a really weird park. In some ways, it reminded me of Knoebels. The park is located in the middle of a forest and has no paved walkways. In other ways, it reminded me of Storybook Land or Story Land with the non-ride attractions such as the petting zoo, play areas, and walkthroughs. But then you had some really head-scratching policies that made me want to rip my hair out. The first was the fact that this park does not accept major credit cards due to their policies on consumer fraud. Fortunately, I had some cash in my car that was reserved for parking at the boardwalk parks, so I was able to avoid a trip to the First Hope Bank. Second, the park's covid precautions were annoying. All guests were asked to wear masks unless they were in the water park. However, none of the employees were wearing masks anywhere. The closest I saw was the ride operator at Twisted Timbers wearing his mask as an arm band. I thought that was a pretty bad double standard during a pandemic to have guests wear masks in the dry park, but not hold the employees to the same standard. Third, I had a cloth mask I wanted to wear in the water park while walking around and queuing for water slides. I planned to store that mask in a zippered pocket whenever I actually rode a water slide. However, employees told me I wasn't allowed to wear a mask anywhere in the water park for safety reasons. Thankfully, the park was dead so it was extremely easy to social distance. Now that I have the negatives out of the way, let's focus on the positives. This small kid's park has not one, but two coaster credits. The older credit is Thriller, the Miler kiddie coaster. This one wasn't overly wild, but it was smooth. 2 out of 10 Twisted Timbers was the "star" roller coaster. It was the best Twisted Timbers I rode in 2020. Unlike its namesake at Kings Dominion, this Twisted Timbers is not an RMC loaded with airtime. Rather, this Twisted Timbers is your garden variety SBF Visa spinner. Though this one does give a very long cycle, so as far as SBF spinners go, this one is elite. 4 out of 10 If you visit Land of Make Believe, solely for the coasters, it's a pricey pit stop. Beyond the coasters, the only other exciting ride for me on the dry side was the Scream Extreme 360, an extremely disorienting, miniature inverting frisbee. This one didn't run as long of a cycle as Quassy's Frantic, but it still had a ton of hangtime and made me very dizzy. 6 out of 10 The rest of the offerings were understandably targeted towards kids. You had some standard flats plus a few intriguing walkthroughs; however, the latter were closed due to covid. And the park also had a cute looking castle stage, but I didn't see any shows taking place, which also could have been due to covid. But if you like water parks, Land of Make Believe is well worth the price of admission. While the dry side is filled entirely with kids rides outside of the inverting frisbee, the water park has some intense water slides. Most notably, there are two drop pod water slides called Pirate's Escape and Pirate's Revenge. These ones are shorter than the ones you'll find elsewhere, but the initial plunge is shocking as ever, the turns pull some good Gs, and it's very smooth on your back. It was the best ride at the park without a doubt. 8 out of 10 The other notable water slide for me was the Sidewinder half pipe slide. I always enjoy the abnormally large drop on these things. However, I'm spoiled by the version I grew up with at Aquaboggan in Maine since that one allows you to ride it backwards. This one did not. But it was still quite thrilling experiencing a drop that big and steep for a tube slide. 7 out of 10 The rest of the water park offerings weren't anything special, but the lineup was deep with some regular tube slides, a body slide, and a bowl slide. If you have kids, the Land of Make Believe is a no brainer. If you enjoy water parks, the Land of Make Believe is well worth experiencing. If you're a dirty credit whore seeking two junior coasters, come on down. Just know, you'll be paying for those credits if that's all you care about. But I personally enjoyed my 1.5 hours there mostly because of the water park, despite the frustrating policies this park had in place.

My money, in all seriousness, is on Tiki Twirl. CF already has a logo drawn up and everything.

Taking the cue from some of the members on TPR I decided to take a look through some of my old photos from past park trips and scan them to post here. I figured this would be a good way to start my first ever topic. I was not into taking a lot of photos at parks at first, just get enough to have some memories of my visits. Nowadays I try to document as much as possible in between rides. To start this thread off I'm posting a few random pics I took at BGW back in 1992. This was the first time I was ever at the park and I instantly fell in love with the place. The infamous Drachen Fire was brand new and became my favorite Arrow looper at the time due to the uniqueness of it compared to their other coasters. I still rank it rather high due to Arrow trying to do something "out of the box". Unfortunately it didn't work out for them. It took me eleven years to finally get back and the park sits solidly at number one of my all-time favorites. With my last visit being 2003 I really need to get back down there again. I just wish it wasn't so far away. Well start with the legend that has now been laid to rest. Wish I could have had one last ride. Even though everyone seems to have this shot you still can't get enough of it. Racing up from the river below. Festhaus. One of the most beautiful bulidngs I've seen in a park anywhere. But, IMO, BGW is beautiful in every aspect of the park. Gladiator's Gauntlet. From what I remember it was a unique ride that was also not very thrilling. Loch Ness from the Sky Ride. Drachen Fire towers in the horizon. The iconic shot of LNM's interlocked loops. Hastings from the Sky Ride. Now Killarney, Ireland. I always liked the arched entry into this area from the stables. The Rhine River view from the San Marco bridge. Looks odd without Alpie and Griffon. Roman Rapids (for Rapids Nerd).

Great pics Geauga Dog. Keep 'em coming.

Great photos. Drachen Fire always gives me the chills for some reason, it had such a short life.

They are pretty much the same except that SFDK has slightly tighter turns and a different pre-lift section because it uses millenium flyers. SFA came before the millenium flyers and it uses PTC's. Therefore the transitions are more spread out and whatnot.

For those who don't like reading, music video & pics are below the text. Geauga Lake never really looked like much on the surface but with seven new credits (eight had Raging Wolf Bobs not derailed about a month before my visit) and also being owned by Cedar Fair (hooray for Maxx Pass!) I had to stop by. And I'm really glad I did! Let me start off by saying that this park was kind of strange. Its location takes you by surprise - across the street from strip malls in a normal suburban community. The layout was unique - a large lake separates the two sides of the park. The guests were (how do I put this...?) working class (there, that's a nice description) - lots of tattoos, smoking, some mullets. The park regulations were lax - shirtless guys, bathing suit-ed girls (on the ride side of the park). Since every coaster was new to me, I had a full day planned and decided to start out with Dominator - my first floorless coaster. To my surprise, they were only running one train, so the line moved rather slowly. I thought a one-train operation was very odd considering it was a Saturday in July; you'd figure one of their busiest days of the season. Thankfully, as I was the next to board, they transferred the second train onto the track. Now, one would say (as one did next to me in line) "I don't want to wait while you put another train on the track". This kind of frustrated me. I wanted to explain to her that once they put this second train into service, she could come back in a half-hour and walk on to Dominator... So, they get the other train into the station and this guy that was waiting for front row with his family (significant wait with the one-train operations) tried to board with a backpack. When the ride-ops told him that he couldn't bring that on board, he had no idea what to do with it; he even tried giving it to someone else in his row to hold on to. You have got to be kidding me! You've been standing in line for how long and didn't notice backpacks, toys, etc. being put into the bins?!? Are you that clueless?!? Did it never once enter your mind, "Um, where am I going to put this while I'm riding?"? Then, after he locates the (huge metal) bin near the exit, the rest of his family starts giving him their glasses, shoes, hats, etc. After all was said and done (and after much eye-rolling and fuming by yours truly), it took this guy three minutes to get all of their belongings into the bin. OK. Rant over. On to the ride. Dominator kicks a$$!! Loop, cobra roll, interlocking corkscrews; who could ask for more?!? The floorless aspect wasn't as special as I had kind-of-expected - many mega-hypers and mega-twisters have seats so high that your feet don't touch the car's floor, plus the train is going so fast that I didn't even notice that the track was visable. The great part about the ride for me was that the seats were so damn comfortable that you felt like you were traveling at 60 mph in your Lay-Z-Boy. This is definitely a re-rideable coaster and I did ride it a couple times. Thank god Dominator was at a park with low attendance coz if this coaster were at Cedar Point, you'd have to wait close to two hours for one ride! And two rides in an hour would be impossible!! Big Dipper was the next big (pardon the pun) hit at the park for me. Built over 80 years ago, although it was rehabbed in 1980, this coaster gave one of the best woodie rides I've had ever. The airtime was constant, the pacing was great, the laterals were existent but not too extreme, the speed was fast but not too fast, and the length was perfect. It was a perfect coaster! The padding on the facing in front of you also helped absorb all of the shock to your knees while in the tiny but comfortable trains. This was also a re-rideable coaster and multiple rides beckoned me as well. After that, you've got Villain (a herky-jerky rough wood hybrid that beat you up pretty good), Thunderhawk (a standard Vekoma SLC that's more painful than a root canal with no anesthesia but not as painful as SFKK's T2), Head Spin (a typical Vekoma boomerang/headbang), and Double Loop (an Arrow umm... double looper). The Beaver Land Mine Ride kiddie coaster has one of those 20 car trains that are so strange to watch! Seriously, the front of the train is heading up the first hill while the rear of the train is still on the lift! They ran two circuits so this little coaster was pretty enjoyable. On my walk back from the water park side (which is really nice), I passed by the Raging Wolf Bobs which was still SBNO. It looked in dire need of a paint job but, I'm guessing since there was no indication that it would be running soon, they're probably gonna let this one crumble to dust. That makes me sad coz it was modeled after Chicago's ancient Riverview Park Bobs (I'm a bit obsessed with the history of that park with me being from Chicago and all). Plus, I'll probably never get this credit! As far as non-coasters go, the park had your standard collection of flats: Flying Bobs (Hay Baler), Top Spin (Texas Tornado), Octopus (Black Squid), Scrambler (Boardwalk Typhoon), Swinging Ship (Bounty), Swings (YoYo's), Magic Carpet (El Dorado with a car shaped um... car), etc. I checked out the 4D film Legoland Racers (something I never do at parks) which was pretty fun although instead of simulating snow they just sprayed water on you (probably to make us cold). I was also tempted to try the Dino Island II sim/movie but skipped it in the end. The park does have one of the nicest kiddie areas I've ever seen (I even liked it better than Kings Island) - close to ten rides catered to little kids in addition to a huge maze/slide and a huge foam ball fort. Overall, Geauga Lake was a lot of fun but I have a feeling it would be less fun if the crowds were bigger. I mean, I got my seven credits before 1 pm and was able to score re-rides and capture lots of memories. I was kind of skeptical, though, as to how long Geauga Lake would be operating as a ride/water park. I had a strange feeling that rides would continue to disappear slowly or gain SBNO status (Skyscraper was stuck 3/4 of the way up the tower, the old waterpark is still erect but fenced off, the lake ferries were parked at the closed-off dock, there was no water show even though they have a huge stadium for it, and Raging Wolf Bobs) in lieu of focusing on the water park. And as we know, in the end, Geauga Lake as we knew it will cease to exist. I am especially glad that I was able to visit this park in its last ride-operating season. Now I can possibly pass along memories like my folks did to me about Riverview Park in Chicago. Although somehow, the details of Geauga Lake will most-likely pale in comparison. Thanks for reading! BTW: Posted in multiple parts due to large number of pics. Here's the music video I made with the footage I shot: This angle makes the turn-around look like an inclined loop... (...and here) (Insert caption here...) Juicy! Interlocking corkscrews. Yummy! Time for the second half of the ride... Second drop (after the MCBR that was barely turned on). And I love B&M cobra rolls even more! I absolutely love B&Ms! Floorless cobra roll = fun! The Batman building was still visable. They could've painted over it but why waste money on GL?!? Look mom, no floor. Over-banked high-speed turn. Awesome! Symmetical-ish cobra roll shot. Me under the loop. Train in the loop. Sun behind the loop. I can't tell which track is which; looks like a pretzel to me. Dominator's beautiful B&M goodness! The huge loop... I still can't figure out if I like banked/turning first drops or straight ones. I guess it depends on the coaster. This was a good one, nonetheless. Dominator heading up the lift. First stop: Dominator - my first floorless. The view right after entering the park. This pic looks like it's from the 80s & rightfully so - Geauga Lake was kind of caught in a time warp.

Um....I really don't see that happening anytime soon.

Cedar Fair ruined a park with a lot of history. When Cedar closes Cedar Point, I bet America is going to have a repeat of the California riots, but in Ohio. -Tatum

Great pictures. I'm still kind of cheesed that they closed GL.

Thank you so much for taking the time to share these with us! Awesome, awesome photos to remember the park by.

Great pics, fun captions. I will also back up Big Dipper. I always thought that was a fun ride. Not the best, but fun! Ragging Wolf Bobs, honestly you did not miss a thing. I have been on that thing many times, (lived about 25-40 mins from the park at one point) and every time it sucked equally. Looks fun, rides horrible and hurt. Geauga Lake could have been a really good park. SF did a great job really screwing it up and really making a cluster F of the navigations, placements, etc. The park had tons of land which could have been developed into a vacation destination but the lack of vision killed what could have been. Also they had to find a way to keep the Cleveland thugs out of the park. (Honestly what is it with SF parks and gang’ish people, it’s like magnets) RIP. Roy Scheider No more fish on a stick…

Amazing pics and a great review to boot! I gotta stick up a *little* for double loop. Other than the obvious that you noted, I seem to remember a big 'thump' of airtime in the front of the train (in the hollowed out Arrow 'nose') when cresting the hill after the first drop (the 'thump' being your feet hitting the roof of that Arrow 'nose') and a similar event after the 2nd loop. Man you really hit dead on with the Big Dipper. I had a very rough ride in the back seat in '88 (like grinding) but other than that, BD always delivered a super classic what-a-coaster-should-be ride! I am still floored how CF is treating this ride and GLake as a whole. It's always been a no-brainer that the park couldn't possibly do well for any amount of time after SF came in, shoved a bunch of big coasters miscellaneously around in a small park. Oh yeah, and I'm still pissed what CP did to the Blue Streak for '94 and ESPECIALLY '95. That was my ride. I hope that's ok to say around here, I get shunned or shussed and made fun of at another certain popular coaster forum that I no longer support (and have deleted my membership there as well). As far as RWBobs goes... well, I'm from Chicago as well. My mom and uncle, my Grandpa, all told me how wild and all that the Bobs was. Other than a footprint that is somewhat reminiscent of the Bobs, RWB was pretty much NOT much. I rode the heck outta the thing when it opened in '88 and then it was fast and fun. The 2nd drop had violent lateral-airtime, as did the following speed bump. But the rest of the ride, although rather smooth and fast, really did nothing. One thing that supposedly was a 'feature' was that front curve (left of the lift) was banked insane, like 70 degrees or something. And it was later de-banked to like 30 or 40 degrees (maybe no longer going fast enough to make a high bank?) I think I rode it once or twice in the early 90's; it was pretty bumpy and pretty much nothing to ride again. And why would they paint it white? It looked great natural, with the green and red station (and a big rock with a wolf w/glowing eyes on top of it!). Big Dipper though, CF will feel the Karma.... It actually is MORE than just ' bizness, money, reality' and "thats life." That's a bunch of crap...

Great pics and report! Time Warp is a cool ride SFGA in Jackson,NJ used to have one and I used to like going on it when I would visit the park. It is sad when a park closes down. It looked like it was a nice park.

Great TR! I wish I would have had a chance to go there.

Awesome trip report, and many of those photos were really nice. It saddens me that Cedar Fair killed such a nice park, and in my opinion, I'd rather visit Geauga Lake than Cedar Point.(especially when it was SFWoA) It looked like a nice park with something for everyone. It seems to have had some nice themed areas, and a lot of atmosphere. Sure it had few stand out attractions, but it seems like a park that would have been a lot of fun to visit.

Ah, you missed out on RWB. Poor thing never had a chance.

Geauga Lake was my first foray into posting PTR here. I liked the park. It was quiet, and had enough thrill rides for my taste, and enough stuff for kids. Sad it's gone, but understandable in today's theme park landscape.

^It looked like a great park. Such a sad fate for a wonderful looking park.

awesome trip report. Geauga lake looks like a great park to go to

Geauga Lake was such a nice park when I went there 10 years ago. And now two, not one nationwide park chains managed to kill the park. How sad.

Those are some AWESOME pictures, thanks for sharing them. Some of the best coaster pics I have seen in awhile! Great Report!

Awesome Photo TR man! I really liked all the nice shots of Dominator!

Awesome trip report man, you take really great pictures! My personal favorite was the picture of Dominator's drop. Keep up the good work!

There looks like there is a nice crowd there. I went in August and the park looked dead.

Part five (aka The End): Next I ventured into Dino Island II. Wait, where's Part I? How's it I ALWAYS end up behind these country folks transporting cr*p that's not secured in the back of their trucks?!? Time to bid farewell to Geauga Lake, figuratively & literally. Thanks for reading this trip report! So as I'm walking to my car, I notice these wells & a sign hanging on the fence... Oh yeah, & no Geauga Lake TR would be complete without... drum roll, please... CORNHOLE! Time to leave but not before the obligatory entrance fountain pic. Speaking of said park map: I finally found one. ... especially since the Ferry WAS blocked off (& removed from the park map). I was surprised that this RWB ramp wasn't blocked off... I almost volunteered to paint the thing! If they were to re-locate & re-open it, I hope they repaint it! There was no evidence that they were TRYING to repair or paint it. Even though it looked like it'd fall down any minute now. I wanted this credit SO badly!! It's modeled after Chicago's Riverview Bobs. It's been sitting here rotting away since it derailed. However, I don't think I (or anyone else) will be riding Raging Wolf Bobs any time soon. Hey! I still need this credit!! This is for all you barbed-wire fence fanatics. Now I've got to walk BACK to the other side of the park coz I didn't see a shuttle... I DO understand THIS name: Booty. Oops, wait a minute... it's Bounty. Or this name: Black Squid. WTF?!?It's RED (& black)! Looks like a Lobster to me... I don't understand this name: Boardwalk Typhoon. Pirate's Flight. Nicely themed ride! Although I wasn't aware that pirates flew... Old-school swings: YoYo's. Thriller Bees are a slightly different take on the almost-seemingly-guaranteed-to-be-in-a-park-these-days bee ride. Happy Harbor Nets - a huge happy maze in the harbor with nets... Big surprise, eh?!? Just in case you wanted to read about how to attract song birds to the water garden, here it is... I have no idea how I found this fountain/stream thing but it was nice. (see, I told you: no captions) (nada) (zilch) (zip) (nothing) (blank) Lots of scenery that I will NOT captionize...

Part four: I actually checked out Lego Racers 4D. Not bad! Thunder Falls from the front. It's pretty sweet, if you're into that sort of thing! Thunder Falls. Splash Landing. The right half of the front of the park from REALLY far away. The left half of the front of the park from REALLY far away. Wow. That was a LONG walk! Finally, I've made it to other side of the park! The lake show stadium from across the.. you know... The retired ferries & Raging Wolf Bobs from across the lake. The floating bridge to take you to the other side of the park. Dominator from across the lake. Thunderhawk (the coaster, not the bird) from across the lake. (And, no, the bird is not Photoshopped) How do I get to the entrance of this building? Fence... Bear... Help! It looked pretty sweet! Rocket Sled Ride maze-type thingy... Cute fountain... Hot Air Express... Half Pint Railway... I don't know why, but the "flowers" made me think of the Wizard of Oz. A huge area for kids to throw/shoot foam balls at their parents. Cool! Gotcha Games... which is... Dippy Diver... Rocket Relay... Cute lil Tree Hopper... Big ole monster trucks... aka Road Rally. It's one of the nicest kiddie areas around. I even liked it better than KI's. KidWorks, however, was packed! This is the most full I saw Starfish all day.

Part three: Symmetical cobra roll shot. Wow, two at one park. Am I THAT predictable? Surprisingly, not-as-head-banging-as-I-imagined cobra roll. Amazing! ;-P See?!? Watch how Head Spin is so fast that Skyscraper doesn't move an inch in the background... Preparing for descent. Hooray (not really) for my first standard Vekoma boomerang. Steve Martin, come out from behind that curtain! (Extra points to anyone who knows what movie I'm thinking of) Ditto. Speaking of pathetic... The old waterpark was fenced off but I found its pathetic-ness. Thank god this pic of El Dorado is right side up. One of the best woodie rides of the summer! Timeless!! After riding it though, I'll NEVER forget its name. I offended the line checker dude coz I called it "Little" Dipper. Oops... Big Dipper is older than my folks & they're REALLY old. The splash it made was so big it landed on the midway. No lie. OK, you agree? I'm not missing a sign or anything, right? I think this ride is called Shipwreck Falls. What do you think? The world needs more of these! I loved this ride! Hooray! New flat credit: Time Warp. Note to self: perhaps laying down in the queue entrance to get a pic is going a little overboard. Yeah, I ALWAYS smile while getting my brains beat in on an SLC... Toxic water under Thunderhawk. Friggin' disgusting!!!!!!! Tons of ugly yellow track twisted into a mess = Thunderhawk.

Those are some terrific pics! Love the composition on several of the Dominator shots. Have to agree with you on Grizzly Run. Dunno who the company is that makes the boats without the seat backs, but they just look cheap.

Part two: ...like hell! ...but still hurt... Not as painful as T2... Most of Thunderhawk's layout. Why does something that looks so fun feel so NOT?!? Oh no. An SLC. I don't know if I've fully recovered from T2 at SFKK two months prior... Peeps are everywhere! Everywhere BUT on the rides! Texas Twister. I still didn't fully understand the theming for this ride: Pretty sign for an ugly rapids ride. So ugly, in fact, that I only took a picture of the sign, apparently. This barn pretty much sums up the people hangin' out at GL today. I think I built this arcade in RCT one time. Or maybe it was a candy stall... Double Loop up the lift & Villian down the drop. One of Double Loop's, erm, double loops. The other loop's pic is MIA. Friggin' genius. ...and a double loop. ...a drop... Amazingly enough, Double Loop consisted of... Walking under Villian over to the picnic area. Pretty. Pretty painful, that is. Now you're closer... That's better. I see you way off in the distance... ...especially when the sun is setting in the middle of its hill. Villain is kinda pretty to look at... Oh boy. A CCI hybrid. I'm officially worried about my health! Hey! It's the Hay Baler. ...with one of the longest coaster trains in history! 20 cars!! OMFG!!! One of the longest named kiddie coaster in history: Beaver Land Mine Ride... Dodgems. Nothing else to say... The Grand Carousel. At least they spelled it right... OMG!! Did I spend THAT much time on Dominator?!? Nope. Clock's stopped. Unfortunately, though, this is the last Dominator corkscrew pic. B&M corkscrew pics never get old for me. As you can see, the turn-around is NOT an inclined loop...

Great pics! I'll really miss having such a great floorless less than an hour away (from my camp...2 hours from home). The regulars at Kings Dominion are getting a quality coaster.

Excellent BGE photos. That park has been on my must do list for a long, long time. I'll get out that way one day... PKD looks rather funky too.

OK Day 5: Six Flags America. While there are a few decent coasters in the park, The Wild One was really awesome, SFA was hands down our least favorite park on the trip. Ride operations were lackluster (except for the Wild One), many of the employees were very rude or unresponsive, and all the water rides were closed. Lucky for us the park was not very crowded and we were able to get all the credits, minus Joker's Jinx, in about 4 1/2 hours. We also did not have to spend money on Flash Passes as well. What an unusal McDonalds. OK there is our car. Ok we got all we can, lets get out while we can. But they made up, and we got a nice picture with him. Bugs scared Dar quite a bit. They only had one train running, because the red one was still causing all sorts of problems. Ok, I am smiling because we did finally got our Superman credit. It still was a good ride. We got the kiddie credit! Worst coaster on the trip. This was really bad, even for a Vekoma SLC. Dang it, I really wanted to ride this one. They had a bunch of problems with the red train today, we ended up leaving the station without the credit. We decided to go try Superman again only to be greeted by a stuck train. We then hit Two Face, which was our first invertigo boomerang coaster. See how it brought smiles to our faces. Mmmmmmm...Wild One. My 2nd favorite wooden coaster. Awesome operations as well. Yeah it is true, Ultra Twister is located right here. The coaster was fun, lucky for us we were on the 2nd train of the day, they had a dispatch about every 10 minutes or so. So we continued around to the back where Batwing awaits. Too bad we encountered a closed ride with a clueless park employee sitting in front. We headed right for Gotham where the Intamin awaits us. As you can see, there was not many people in the park at opening. The front entrance area seemed kind of nice. Just in case you forgot which park we were at. No Joker's Jinx for us on this visit, but we got all the rest. We got to park right next to the entrance. Our next park, Six Flags America.

Hey Erik could you give a brief opinion on each coaster when you are done with the photos? Thanks, JEFF

Agreed! When you go throught the village on the ride at night, there are lights in the houses and its amazing. Anyway cool Photo TR Erik.

Great pics Erik, Glad you had fun in VA. I See you disobeyed EVERYBODY on this board and went to the most perfect park that is BGW first, therefore your trip to PKD was total crap and a waste of time. It always blew my mind how the operations on Alpengeist get Worse every year, and Apollo is one of the easiest coasters to load and dispatch and they Stack 3 trains constantly! IMO PKD's ops are not bad, it is the fact that they run 1 train on all of the wood now except weekends (they used to always run max. trains on everything) Good to see that PKD was empty on Monday,they usually are during the first weeks in June, Kids still have a week of school left here. If you gave me a pm before the trip you could have borrowed my kid for Taxi Jam to get that awesome credit Oh Erik, Tell me you rode Scooby in the back seat!!!!!! (insane air on the second drop) Looking forward to the rest of your pics. JEFF

Yeah we rode it. It was fun. I will add pictures of that one later.

More PKD. Thanks for the great time PKD. Lucky for me that I was short enough. Yeah, Leanne and Dar were tall enough to ride all the rides. We all mastered the Scooby-Doo ride. There he is. Oh yeah, they have one of those Scooby shooting dark rides. Yeah, the park really was not very crowded that day. We went back to Hypersonic for a couple more rides, since the line was very short. You now have proof that God loves Intamin. How high did this thing go? It certainly was up there. Oh yeah, I forgot they had this ride at PKD. As well as an observation tower. They have swings at PKD. While all the rides were pretty much open. It was difficult to find a place to eat. I was able to very slightly snap them. Nothing like the flyers at Carowinds though. Though these flyers were pretty difficult to snap. Yeah they got Flyers here. I guess they removed a bunch of trees for this one. AS well as the new Go-Kart track right next door. Its Grizzly. I now know what it means when people say, "Togo Death Machine." This one was our first Togo coaster. It is also a Togo standup coaster as well. Oh dear, it is Shockwave. It was kinda cool that we went under water on this one. We liked it more than some of the bigger ones in the park. It was a fun Junior wooden coaster. But there is always Scooby Doo's coaster. Yeah, we did get denied for this one. At least she was polite. Oh look, it is another credit. Ready for the Top Spin? Waiting in line for Tomb Raider.

Ok so this is delayed cause of work and travel delays .. stupid airlines! Anyways .. my semi-hellish weekend as follows: Day 1: - Left DFW around 650am, it was way too early, but I got to ride the new automated people mover which is the largest airport train in the world currently and it's very nice. Just something scares me about French-Canadian Automation. We landed at IND (Indianapolis) around 10am, picked up the rental car, set GPS and head out to Holiday World. Due to slowness of the driver, we didn't make it to Holiday World until almost 1pm. Got our ACE Discount tickets, my handful of park maps and headed for the Raven. - Waited for the train to return, buckled into the back and head out. Got about 8 clicks up on the rollbacks and bam, we stop. The mechanic was working, employees came out to tell us everything was ok, then he said it wouldn't restart. So they evaced us, something I've yet to do on the Raven, but I got to walk on it. We waited around for a bit longer in the station house and then they said it wouldn't open the rest of the day, final cause .. "Drive Fault" on the panel. Ok so headed for Legend. No lines here, ended up with around 20 rides or so. Also did the new Hallowswings, Eagle's Flight, Liberty Launch and then we left after checking Raven one more time. - Next was a quick stop at Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom. It was empy, got my 315th coaster in as Greezed Lightnin, then hit Chang, T2 *shudders*, Thunder Run and Twisted Twins. The park took maybe 30mins to complete .. I love when parks are that empty. It was now around 5pm, so we decided we should book it to Cincinnatti if we wanted to make PKI. We hit PKI right around 730pm. Headed in and got placed on Italian Job by Jeff. Nice little ride, the line was about 90mins without the reservation system going on. Got 2 rides on the ride and we left. Stopped at White Castle *puke* then headed up to Sandusky for the night. Day 2: - Arrive in Sandusky around 1am, checked into the Breaker's Express and fell right asleep. Woke up around 430am, showered, got dressed and headed up to CP. Got our CoasterMania buttons and headed in the park and right for TTD. Saw 4 rollbacks while waiting for it to open. Got 3 rides during the ERT, which was fine with me. Got 6 Millennium Force rides during ERT. After ERT, we headed out for Geauga Lake. - Got to GL around 11am, to very empty parking lot, but alot of busses. Tried to get in with our WOF passes, but you have to have Guest Relations sign you in then escort you through the gate. Now if Six Flags can make barcodes work at their 20+ parks, why can't Cedar Fair do it with their 7 parks? Anyway, hit Steel Venom first, since last year the holding brake was off. Got that, checked the line for X-Flight .. umm no .. around 90mins. Hit Big Dipper next. I love this ride. Dominator was next and wow, this thing sucks now. It beat the living snot out of all of us, it's worse than Superman Krypton Coaster now. After that was Raging Wolf Bobs, the retrack is extensive in the first curve and straight-away, after that .. still painfully rough. - Villian had a huge line for some reason, turned out to be a break down. Did Double Loop and then we hit Big Dipper and Steel Venom a few more times and headed out. We were going to do Conneaut Lake and Waldameer, but we decided against it since we were exhausted from the night before. We headed back into CP and ate at the Midway Market again. Hit more rides like MaxAir, Disaster Transport, Sky Tower, Wicked Twister, Chaos, Gemini, Millennium Force, Wildcat, Blue Streak, Corkscrew, Mantis. Did the evening ERT on Disaster Transport and MaxAir, or should I say Muffleheads roasting on a hot light ride. Raptor was running well, no head banging in the Cobra Roll. Day 3: - Woke up early again, and headed for Pittsburgh. Arrived at Kennywood at 1030am and was stunned by the entrance. They did a very very nice job on this. Kennywood had more cars than last time in the lot, but crowds weren't bad. Hit Garfield's Nightmare first then Jack Rabbit. The new seatbelts are ok .. they don't pull them, just check to see if they are buckled. After that hit Gold Rusher, Phantom's Revenge several times, Whip and Exterminator. Ate Potato Patch, then Noah's Ark and more Phantom's. Ended up with Thunderbolt and we headed off for Primanti Bros in downtown. After filling up on the wonderful food that is Primanti Bros, we headed out back to Cincinnati, our stop over for the night. We drove through West Virginia, which we had to stop for the "Visitors Center" and then left. Day 4: - Woke up early AGAIN. Headed out from Cincinnati to Indiana Beach. We arrived in Monitcello around 955am. Stopped at the local gas station down the street from IB and got some drinks and such. I drank my water too fast and ended up throwing up in the parking lot .. that's lovely. We got to IB at 1015 and noticed the rides didn't open til 11. At 11, got our wristbands, only $10 for ACE members and hit Hoosier Hurricane first. It's running a bit better, but still very much a letdown. After Hoosier Hurricane, it was Tig'rr time. Since it was closed last time I was there, it was new for me. Nice little ride. After Tig'rr, it was time to give the new Larson Flyers a try. They have a sign stating no snapping is allowed. - The flyers are AMAZING. I got 6 really good snaps in without even trying, it was alot of fun. Sam lost his hat in the lake and a guy with a boat helped us retrive it. Nice guy. After that we hit Cornball .. man how I love this ride. After that we did Frankenstein's Castle, new for me as well. I also ran into the wall and got it on tape. Did more rides and such, Lost Coaster was another new one for me since it opened three days after I was there last. It made me kinda sick, but it's interesting to say the least. Headed back to the airport, stopped at Steak 'N Shake for food before we left. Flight was delayed almost 3 hours cause of storms in Texas. Photos: New nasty colors Steel Venom .. Geauga Lake formally known as Six Flags Worlds of Adventure formally known as Six Flags Ohio formally known as Geauga Lake Ouch .. but has a new sign Yay for John Miller coasters! Coolest coaster with "beaver" in the name droppage mmmmmmmmmmmmm Doesn't look so big now ! It goes ... SWOOOSH It's umm Deliri ... MaxAir! Schwarzkopf Wheel ... that's why I like it ! The ever great Gemini! Old Frontier Lift station .. yes I was bored mmmmm Arrow Sunset at CP Yay for Blue Streak! Blue Streak! Tornado! poor Quake Tornado ad thingie Entrance .. yay? Still one of the better INTAMIN freefalls Greezed Lightnin! The new water tower Raven .. I miss it

^I thought you would like the ICE COLD BUDWEISER quote. Sorry about the 401K. By the way, I drank Bud Light the whole time except when I was in the tavern at Greenfield Village, even my cousin's basement bar has Budweiser. :o

People already want Mystic Timbers retracked? What is wrong with the world?????????