coasterbill

On our way back from Cedar Point over the weekend we decided to stop at Waldameer and Conneaut Lake for the first time. While our experience at Waldameer was great I think Conneaut Lake somehow failed to meet our unimaginably low expectations. This park needs to be put out of it's misery. Even though it was a holiday weekend the place was dead, there were probably about 15-20 cars in the parking lot and it was creepy walking up to the old ticket booths and seeing the tilt a whirl start moving as there was nobody in sight. Finally we saw one guy walking his dog who just looked at us confused and didn't say anything... it was like they were shocked that anyone was actually walking in to the park. The ticket booths looked like they used to be nice once as well as the old fountain (I guess) in front of it which is now just a mosquito breeding ground with green water and a few water snakes in it. We walked up to the booth but realized they weren't used any more as they were full of Christmas decorations. We walked through them and saw a few empty ride pads and a few rides that were empty but I think they just had a roaming operator who was working the Tilt a Whirl at the time. The rides all looked like they were ready to collapse at any minute. When we made the turn by the fence that said "tickets" on it with an arrow next to the crumbling buildings we arrived at what I guess was a midway once. The miniature golf course looks like the best thing in the park but nobody was playing it. On the left is an abandoned waterpark and way down the midway was a ticket booth that looked open so we walked up to it. There were only like 4 people in sight and they looked like they were just wandering aimlessly... I'm not sure if they were guests or employees. The wristbands were buy 1 get 1 for $20 total so we each got them figuring we wouldn't get our money's worth but the park could use the money so it was okay. We were happy to see that Blue Streak was open so against our best judgement we hopped on the front seat. The ride operator's safety spiel went something like this (no I'm not kidding) "Welcome to Blue Streak keep your hands and arms in ahhhhhhh...." and then he sent the train. The ride was predictably terrible and rough which was sad because you could tell that it was probably great once. The tunnel at the beginning was cool and it had an interesting layout but it looked like it could collapse at any time with how warped it was. I always laugh at people that say this about coasters but with this one I think those concerns are justified. I'm amazed it hasn't killed anybody yet. Going over one of the hills I got hit in the face with something from the ride, I'm not sure what it is... it could have been something unimportant but I just tried not to think about it for the rest of the ride. The train just sort of crashed along the course and it was a real relief when we finally hit the brakes. Then it was off to the Devils Den which was better than I thought it would be. It didn't do much but it was almost traveling carnival quality which is more than I could say for the rest of the park. I appreciated it's uniqueness. After that we walked around a little and checked out some more abandoned rides. I heard they had something called the Hotel Hostile that was supposed to be good but we saw no sign of this ride. They had part of an old kiddy ferris wheel and an abandoned Toboggan coaster lying around which for some reason had Christmas lights on it (though they weren't lit). They had a few games where you could win some "Git R Done" merchandise and a few other things with confederate flags on them. They had a row of a ton of run down looking games with one poor kid in charge of running all of them. I don't say that because he was busy because he wasn't since there was nobody there... it just made you feel bad for the place. Next we went into the gift shop which was incredibly confusing. They didn't have much Conneaut Lake stuff in there but they had some cool Geauga Lake merchandise and more confederate flag stuff (lol). They did have a Conneaut Lake keychain which we bought. On the way out we saw the Tumble bug operating so we took a ride, it's definitely the best ride in the park though it looks like it's ready to fall apart. We looked at the flyers too but my girlfriend refused to ride because she didn't think we should "push our luck since we managed to survive 3 rides so far". Given her ability to snap flyers it was probably a good idea... we had had enough anyway. I feel like this park may have been great once but in it's current state it's just a sad place. It needs to be put out of it's misery. Just a few pictures... Seems Legit... Blue Streak Station. 1/2 of the people that were in the park are probably in this picture. I'm not joking. Anyone want a Slap Chop? It's for sale at the Conneaut Lake store! (My girlfriend hates the way this picture came out but it had to be shown lol) Sorry, I had to.

Another good point. Mantis is also flat which will be an issue for Dorney. I guess It would need to replace Dinosaurs alive and the area behind Revolution and as far as I know Dinosaurs Alive isn't going anywhere (and neither is Mantis).

1) Mantis isn't going anywhere 2) If they were getting a coaster this massive don't you think there would be some land clearing already? 3) Carowinds tweeted about this too. Does that mean they're getting Mantis?

As much as I selfishly wanted everything released today I think this is really smart. First of all they can get more people in the park who want to ride Mantis for the last time. I'm sure on the last day they'll have some kind of event that probably features ERT on Mantis which will get people in the park on a generally slower day and make them stay all day if the event is after park close (they'll be busy as it's their Halloween event but not as busy as a Saturday so this may boost attendance a bit on that Sunday). If they said right away that they were just converting it people might not care as much. Second of all they now make headlines and local news outlets twice. They'll be in the news today for announcing the removal of Mantis and again in a few weeks for the announcement of the "new coaster". If they had announced today that they were updating Mantis they would have only been in the news once. Now they get twice the exposure and free publicity. I'm surprised that they're doing this but I think it's a great move. I would think it would be tough to justify the expense of adding new trains to Mantis if they would have to spend a lot of money on them and wouldn't get much of a return on investment. The best way to get people through the gates is to market the ride as "new" with a cool new feature. As far as I'm concerned this is as good as them getting a new coaster because it's taking a ride I just ignored and never rode and converting it into a ride that will likely be very enjoyable. Sure they haven't officially announced a conversion but I'm assuming that's what this is as all of the signs are pointing to it.

Probably Mantis with new paint, a new name and new trains.

Like I said earlier regarding Mantis... we were there for 3 days this weekend, we rode every other adult coaster in the park multiple times including Corkscrew which we don't even like. Even though we knew Mantis might not be operating in it's current state after this year we still didn't ride it. It was horrible and I couldn't be happier to see it gone (well... as a stand up coaster).

Thank you.

The live cam has been pointed at the Dippin Dots and Snowcone stand. Well done Cedar Point

There is no way in hell they are ever going to Iron Horse Blue Streak. I find Maverick to be perfectly smooth. There's no head banging at all.

I'm aware of that... my point is that I doubt you could actually feel the difference between 120 MPH and 128 MPH so the fact that one feels faster than the other is probably due to something else like a slight faster acceleration (or it's just in my head). I know that Kingda Ka is technically a tiny bit faster.

I kind of hope we don't get Batman backwards to be honest... it's already one of the best rides in the park. It doesn't need any dumb gimmicks. That's just my opinion though.

We spent Labor Day weekend (Friday Saturday and Sunday) at the park and had an amazing time. I didn't book the trip until a day before as I never do with Cedar Point given their ridiculous weather policies. I almost decided to save the money and stay home as Friday looked great but Saturday looked very windy with a chance of storms and Sunday had an 80% chance of rain all day but I'm glad we went. As it turned out it didn't rain one drop all weekend and while it did get very windy in the middle of the day on Saturday it didn't effect us at all as the only rides that closed were Gatekeeper, Sky Ride, Raptor, WIndseeker, Giant Wheel and Magnum. Gatekeeper and Raptor were only closed for a few hours so we just rode other rides while they were closed and the wind died down enough at night that even the Sky Ride opened back up. Overall we got really lucky with the weather. I don't know how to do a full report on 3 days so I'll just make some general points and then do a ride by ride breakdown of the major rides (though we rode a ton of smaller rides and flats as well). We also managed to spend a lot of time on Frontier Trail which is a great little area and we got a chance to eat at Famous Daves out in the Marina which is highly recommended. Sitting outside by the water is a great way to enjoy a nice summer day and get off your feet for awhile, and the food is great too. First of all the staff at this park is exceptional. I know there are some Cedar Point staff members on this site and you should all be proud of the great job that you do. Other than maybe Universal and Dollywood I've never encountered friendlier staff at any park. Everyone we ran into seemed to love their job and the operations on all of the major rides were amazing. The Raptor, Sky Ride, Maverick and Millennium Force crews especially were really hauling a** every day. Second of all I really admire the park's policy to do whatever they can to open rides if they can operate no matter what time it is. I remember Saturday night after the wind died down around 8:00 we rode Gatekeeper and Raptor and when we got off Raptor about 45 minutes before the park closed we saw a Sky Ride cabin come out of the station when it had been closed just about all day. The ride finally opened with 30 minutes left in the day with every Cabin (except maybe 2 or 3) on the cable. Needless to say we took a ride because after a few full days in this place the Sky Ride and the train quickly become your favorite rides in the park. Finally, the park had ERT for pass holders on Friday, Saturday and Sunday night. We got about 6-7 rides on each and the employees always let you stay on when it was possible so you didn't have to walk around. On Millennium Force they opened the gate between the unload station and the line right before the main station so you only had to walk a few feet between rides which was much appreciated. We were there from early entry to the end of ERT each night and little things like that were much appreciated. This park does everything possible to make sure their guests have a great experience and that's nice to see after spending so much time at Six Flags parks. Anyway... on to the rides. Raptor I absolutely love this ride. It has a pretty unique layout that's just loaded with unique elements. The zero G roll and cobra roll are great as well as the long swooping dive of the mcbr. I feel like every enthusiast has one or two rides that they rank way higher than everyone else does and for me those rides are probably Mystery Mine and Raptor. I loved Banshee but Raptor puts it to shame. I love the intensity of this ride and it compliments Gatekeeper very nicely at the front of the park as one is over-the-top smooth and glides through the course while the other absolutely rips through every element on the course. I lost count of how many times we rode this (in the front every time). Gatekeeper I love this coaster. It may have the best first drop of any coaster anywhere (well... except El Toro) and the keyhole elements are awesome too. I know this ride gets a lot of crap from enthusiasts but we love it. We always wait for the front on this one. Getting so many front seat rides during ERT was a real treat. Wicked Twister There's not too much to say about this ride but it's a great ride. We rode it a few times, once in the front row and a few times in the back few rows. I may actually like it better in the back seat. Windseeker The view from this ride is breathtaking. This is my favorite Windseeker / Sky Screamer simply based on it's location right on the beach. Maxair Great ride, I forgot how intense this thing was. Blue Streak Nothing to write home about... it was running rougher than normal in wheel seats but in the middle of each car it was still quite enjoyable. Iron Dragon We rode this one quite a bit as I'm a big fan of suspended coasters. This is probably my least favorite of all of them but it's great for what it is and the pretzel at the end is a lot of fun. Power Tower I don't know why this ride isn't more popular but I'm glad it's not as we rode it just about every time we walked by. I put S&S towers a step below Larson and Intamin towers but they're still great fun and like Windseeker this one is helped a lot by the location of the park. Top Thrill Dragster We only rode this once as we have Kingda Ka in our home park but it was a lot of fun like always. We waited about 2 hours but only because we waited for the front and it broke down at one point. I can't decide which I like better... Kingda Ka for some reason feels faster (even though I don't know why as the difference in speed probably wouldn't be noticeable as it's so slight) but Dragster has a better view and better restraints. Magnum We usually only ride this once or twice each visit because of how violent it is. I want to like the ride more than I do but the airtime is flat out painful, especially after a few rides. Corkscrew This ride is terrible but we rode it a few times because of the short line. As bad as it is I hope they never remove it because it looks really nice over the midway. Gemeni I love this coaster, it's very smooth for an old arrow and the hand slapping element is fun. Pipe Scream This was a lot better than I expected. If the line wasn't so long we should have ridden it a few more times. Lake Erie Eagles These are hard to snap but it can be done. My girlfriend snapped the hell out of them... I don't know how she got so good at these, I didn't manage to snap them at all. Mean Streak I know the general consensus is that this is an awful ride that needs to be torn down or Iron Horsed but I can't agree with that at all. I know a lot of people feel that if you have to ride a ride in a certain seat in a specific way then it's a bad ride and you have every right to that opinion but if you grab the bar on the seat in front of you and keep your back off of the seat back this ride is very enjoyable. I actually think it's smoother than Blue Streak is when you do that and even though the layout is nothing special it's still a fun ride. It's also hard to ignore the way this coaster looks... it's probably one of the most visually appealing coasters anywhere. If they ever do Iron Horse this I won't complain as I'm sure it will be great but I enjoy it in it's current state as well. I feel like people over hype how bad this ride is because of the high profile park that it's in but it doesn't deserve the hate that it gets. Maverick This may be the most intense coaster I've ever ridden. It beats i305 at it's own game of super intense, crazy directional changes and even though we rode it more times than I could count during ERT the elements kept taking me by surprise as it's extremely disorienting. This is one of the best coasters I've ever ridden... the world needs more of these insane Intamin rides. Everything about it is amazing. Skyhawk I forgot how much fun this was. With it's huge capacity it never has a line so we rode it at least once every time we passed it. Cedar Creek Mine Ride Fun little ride. Shoot the Rapids This was our first time on Shoot the Rapids and I thought it was a great ride. It got you a little wetter than I expected but it's a lot of fun. Mantis This is the only coaster we didn't ride. This ride is awful. Millennium Force The same thing always happens with this ride. I ride it and think it's amazing... then I go home and ride El Toro and read negative reviews about how forceless it is and start to think that maybe it's not my #1 coaster any more as it's getting older and there are other, more intense coasters out there that deserve my top spot. But then I ride it again... I know this opinion may be unpopular but I absolutely love every single thing about this ride. It's relentless speed is flat out amazing and the low to the ground turns and elements really let you appreciate that speed. I also think the coaster has some great airtime in multiple places even though most enthusiasts don't agree and I always grey out at the bottom of the first drop and after the first turnaround before going into the tunnel. I love the ride in the front for the sensation of speed and in the back for the way it rips through the overbanks. This coaster has everything you could ever ask for in a ride and because of that it's still my #1. Sorry that report got a little long but I did my best to condense 3 days into one post. As always we had a great time at Cedar Point and can't wait to go back next year.

You can always count on Six Flags New England to remove popular family rides and replace them with absolutely nothing. I don't want to hate this park but I really do. lol

^^Great Adventure has 2 water rides. They had 3 but nobody ever rode water effect. Kingda Ka is a great ride if you ride it in the front, but even if you don't it's still very good (though a bit rattly). Also, they don't "keep removing rides". They did for awhile but in the last few years they've added new Bumper Cars, a Sky Screamer, a Scrambler, the Safari, Zumanjaro and now this while (I believe) only removing Rolling Thunder which was incredibly mediocre. Are you going to tell me that you honestly thought Rolling Thunder was that good but Kingda Ka isn't and Nitro isn't even worth mentioning? Also, in regards to them keeping wild animals a few of their animals are extinct in the wild. Do you really think keeping them and breeding them is a bad thing? Really? Great Adventure has a lot of problems including what you said about theming but to pretend there isn't a ton of stuff to do there is insane.

I know right... I completely agree with you. There's basically nothing to do at Great Adventure. All they have is the tallest coaster in the world, the #1 rated wood coaster in the world, a B&M hypercoaster that goes 80 MPH, an old school super-intense B&M invert, a 7 looping floorless coaster, a huge stand-up coaster, a B&M flying coaster, 2 indoor coasters, the tallest drop tower in the world, an arrow mine train, a 200+ foot sky screamer, a Vekoma mad house, a 90 minute long Safari ride with a zipline in the middle of it, a very good log flume, a 200+ foot parachute tower, a ton of other rides I didn't even mention and now a new looping flat ride. I agree... there's nothing to do in this park.

That's great. I really love the fact that they're going out of the way to make the game more realistic.

The more of these the better. They're great rides.

If that's the case then I love this addition. I feel like it's going over by Zumanjaro though based on these images from Great Adventure History. Sure it's not major construction but otherwise what are they doing?

I've never been to this park but they seem very light on flat rides so this looks to be a great addition for them.

How do you know if it's a major addition when it's a prototype coaster and you've never ridden one like it before? Sure it looks similar to a ZacSpin but by all accounts it doesn't ride like one. Personally I think it looks like fun.

This ride looks great, I can't wait to ride it.

This looks awesome... I'm glad there's only going to be one station though so Magic Mountain can't close half of it. As far as the dueling element I hope that works as well as it looks like it will in the video. Hopefully they'll have software to match up the lifts like a lot of Racing coasters do (basically the opposite of what Dragon's Challenge currently has).

Why would anyone ever want to Iron Horse Wild One? It's literally one of the only good things in that park.

Interesting promotion by the park... Apparently if you wear an NFL jersey you can get 30 minutes of ERT on select rides. According to Facebook those select rides are El Toro, The Log Flume and for some reason the Skyway even though nothing on the other side of the park is open for ERT so I guess you'd just ride it round trip. I kind of wish I was around for this. As much as I love El Toro I couldn't pass up Log Flume ERT. lol

What I mean is that most people don't have the expansion packs (because they're awful) , so if you release the park for download most people won't be able to view it. And that makes sense with the chairlift. I'm assuming that means the stations will be pushed back then? Like I said before, great work so far!