Philrad71

Great shots - love Joshua Tree NP! Still trying to figure out a way to get out to the Big 5 parks in Utah as well as the Grand Canyon this year. After seeing this, it makes me want to plan a trip to Palm Springs and visit this park again too!

^ I feel the same way. Out of all the coasters and rides that I listed, WT is the one that I would hope that they would keep the most. I also like Thunder Canyon because it fits so well into Frontier Town. I would rather they get rid of Snake River Falls and put a highly themed flume ride that could shame both SRF and STR.

Hopefully the pizza doesn't come out looking like that!

^ Those are some really great additions - although I'm with some of the others about not eating at Chick-Fil-A. No need for me anyway with all of the other great offerings that the park has been dishing out in recent years. The fold-over sandwiches certainly sound interesting...and Twistyyyyyyy Fries? Yes please! I love the fact that they are bringing back the Midway Entertainers as well as a Can-Can show to Lusty Lil's! As others have mentioned, it really makes you wonder what they can do to top the lineup of coasters that they already have. But if they were to remove some of the older attractions like Iron Dragon, Snake River Falls, Thunder Canyon, Corkscrew, CC Mine Ride and Wicked Twister, they could still shoe-horn some great coasters/attractions in those spots.

^ We were lucky enough to ride in the front seat on both multiple times. There was nothing like hitting that head to head loop.

I admit guilt on changing the subject...we need more SV photos!! I must have looked at Steve's photos 20 times already....that drop looks like it'll give El Toro a good run for its money. Wow.

I was trying to find the link to the newest commercial referenced above and came across these gems... You can see that they really touted the beach and Lake Erie back in the day. And check out the shots of Oceana's old dolphin show! I actually remember seeing this one!

^ I had really wanted to go to this camp and begged my parents because "all the cool kids were going". After three days, I was calling my parents in tears - begging them to come get me. They did because they knew how distressed I sounded - that and the fact that they weren't affiliated with any type of organized religion. I think my Dad told me later that he was tempted to tell me how he knew it would suck and that I probably wouldn't like it - Mom and Dad being right as usual. lol It wasn't until years later that I told them that I thought something weird was going on with the Deacon summoning boys to his cabin during what he called "Uncle Ron's Happy Hour" - where all the kids had to go take a nap in their cabins and he would call them one at a time out of the cabin. I never said anything about it until the whole priest scandal rocked the Catholic Church. I had no idea what may have been going on at the time, but still remembering that the whole thing seemed really suspicious. I remember lying in that bunk thinking and hoping that I wasn't going to get called out because I didn't want to know what might happen. The boys that came back didn't quite look the same after their "visitation". But luckily none of my friends were "chosen" either. Thinking about that guy still royally creeps me out to this day (even though he's dead now). And I can't even imagine the torment those young boys/men suffered throughout the years. Even though there is no way to prove that it really happened, once you put the puzzle pieces together, it all certainly seems to add up. And as far as I know, he never got caught either.

Time for a thread bump...how about some Dueling Dragons from IoA? Dueling Dragon's before they dumbed it down, American Style. I LOVED the trains! Which one was your favorite? I liked both, but I think that I preferred Ice Dragon Loved the little bit of airtime you would get here on Fire Dragon - weeeee!!!! Such a great concept - sure would like to see this pop up at a park (outside the US) where they could be reborn and duel the way that they were intended to!

Great report - thanks for sharing. Love some of the ride names like "Go On" and "New Exciting Machine"...and people make fun of Cedar Fair ride names.

Hopefully they can resolve the staffing issues at Melt, but I would imagine its popularity given that A). It was new B). It is the only place inside the park that has a full bar. Interesting to hear that for the most part that it has been pretty well received and that the prices aren't too insane. While I thought that the one we visited in Cleveland was good, I felt that the bread that they use is perhaps just a bit too thick. Not sure if they use the same bread on all sandwiches, but I would prefer a thinner slice as long as it's not attempting to support like two pounds of meat and cheese! Oh...and thanks to Steve for the photos - way to represent Western NY (and the Bills) by attending the Winter Chill Out event! Looks like it would have been a lot of fun. Hope to see more photos soon! And that drop on SV - holy freaking sheeeet, that looks more and more INSANE every time I see a different angle of it!!!!

^^ LOL - I missed that one. Thanks for sharing, Bert!

^ My version looked like a smooshed down, much weaker/greasier version than that.

^ It was his type of hellfire and brimstone crap that turned me away from any type of organized religion growing up. Well that and when I was bullied at a Christian camp by a Deacon's kids while he was busy diddling little boys in his own cabin (luckily I wasn't one of them).

A shout out to my family and friends in Philly on a nice, mellow Sunday morning...

I'd love to hear more people's reaction to Melt and what they had when they visited. It doesn't seem like too many people on here hit it up last year. Not sure if it was due to price, location or both?

LOVE the idea of a beach bar on the Lake Erie side! That's why I love the swim-up bar in the water park...if you didn't know any better, you could imagine being on an ocean-side beach with not a care in the world (but with a kick-ass amusement park at your fingertips). That would be great if they could incorporate some of the old water swings and beach slides to bring more appeal to using Lake Erie. But...first they have to make it so that you could actually swim in it without the risk of becoming deathly sick from ingesting the blue green algae (blooms) commonly found in Lake Erie these days. I am not sure how many times CP closes the beach from swimming each season for bacteria and algae, but it is a fairly common occurrence around these parts. Our Lake Chautauqua is so bad that the tourist season is really starting to hurt because boaters, fisherman and people wanting to just go for a swim can hardly do so without risk. I won't let my dog anywhere near it. But let's keep letting people continue to use weed killer and pesticides to keep those pesky dandelions and clover out of their yards!

^ That's awesome - thanks for sharing, Mark! I see that this map was made after they removed the Chinatown Wax Museum that featured a Chinese opium den with prostitutes - could you imagine?

We normally try to avoid chain restaurants, but Michael's daughter and her family bought us a $50 Applebees gift card for Christmas so we went there last night for dinner. They had been advertising $7.99 burgers and $1 Bahama Mama's in attempt to to boom reeling sales in recent years, so I was somewhat excited to check out one of the burgers. I had the whiskey bacon burger which is advertised as "Caramelized onions and bacon seared into an all-beef patty and topped with pepper jack cheese, crispy onions, bacon and a Fireball Whisky-infused steak sauce." I came away pretty underwhelmed, really. Yes, there was plenty of crunchy bacon, but I could not taste the pepper jack cheese and the steak sauce tasted pretty much like barbeque sauce. The burger was actually dry and overcooked despite ordering it "pink" (they don't offer rare, medium rare or medium). I'll stick with my diners, dives and Yelp reviews to quell my burger fix from now on. This was just too "meh" for me and stresses why we avoid chain restaurants and fast food joints. Looks great on the menu, but tasted very underwhelming and super SALTY. I was so underwhelmed that I didn't even bother taking a picture of mine to compare it to this one from their website. lol

I can't load the link about the land clearing, but assume that is where the bike show stadium was? Even if they removed WT, that plot would be pretty small to cram a coaster any larger than a T-Rex or some type of mouse/spinner. Whatever it is, I hope that it's something cool that is themed to the boardwalk (my preference would be to get a good flat and keep WT).

A ride based on Commander Perry in the Battle Of Lake Erie would still be better than Europe In The Air!

Beer, food and coasters...a great start to your trip report!

And people make fun of Conneaut Lake.

Given that I never rode this ride as Tomb Raider or The Crypt (and haven't been in the haunt), I found this to be very interesting. Sad that it didn't work out somehow, but I'll take Diamondback and Mystic Timbers as suitable (and more efficient/reliable) replacements for that area.

Lobster on a burger....interesting. Are you going to try it, Bill??