TopThrill182

Thanks for the positive feedback guys. And TheRapidsNerd, I'm judging by your username you like rapids, as do I. I had to get pics of it. I have a few more I'll post in a second. No word yet on whether someone bought the ride.

More photos: Grizzly River Run Rapids ride. The rapids ride was actually good with SF, but once CF bought the park most of the water effects were turned off. Another look at the elaborate facade. Landscaping that was up for auction around Texas Twister. The ride entrance. The Texas Twister operating booth. This elaborate themeing was for Texas Twister, a Huss top spin now at California's Great America as Firefall. Looks like a twister came through here! Another look at the already removed 3-Point Shootout. Looking down a nice Coyote Creek midway. The underside of Hay Baler. The Villain MCBR is shown here, along with Double Loop's lift and brake run. I can't remember if they were auctioning this... Honestly, it was cool, weird, and very saddening to have this view again. The retractable seat-belts still worked. Double Loop car on display. Again this is reportedly off to the scrap yard. Double Loop break run. There was heavy vegetation around this coaster. Not anymore! Sponsered by scrap yard doesn't have quite the same ring... Double Loop entrance with warning sign. A world famous CF garbage can. While I would have loved to get one of these, they were being auctioned in lots of 150. As said earlier, this was not geared to individuals who were hoping to snag a piece of GL. Double Loop station with exit stairs. Double Loop sign. A shame CF couldn't have made sure this got into the hands of an enthusiast who actually cared about it (vs a scrap yard owner). Villain photo price list. Sign above Villain photo booth. Double Loop's station with air-gates and initial drop into the tunnel before the lift in view. Villain's queue. The small shed for vending machines in the back was actually empty for the last few years of CF's rule. Just one example of their lack of upkeep in certain areas of the park. More of Villain's themeing outside the station. Villain's mammoth structure. Lift hill above, brake run below. I lied. This is the last look. One last look at Villain's station with the operator booth to the right. SF added Villain along with Batman: Dark Knight, Superman: Ultimate Escape, and Beaver Land Mine Ride to Six Flags Ohio in 2001. Some of Villain's themeing. A view of both Double Loop and Villain's lift hill. Villain's structure was really mammoth. A part of one of these coasters may be in one of your future home appliances! Villain's station. Notice the open air gates. Villain's queue from its exit stairs. Much of this queue was filled for GL's last day of operation in 2007. Double Loop's lift hill. Double Loop station with operator's booth on the left. Villian's exit stairs. Villian sign for on-ride photos showing prices. I remember when I thought the flash for the on-ride photo camera was a strobe to scare riders. The front of one Double Loop car was on display right in front of the ride. It was somewhat sad pulling on the retractable seat-belts and hearing the usual click click. A shop in Coyote Creek. A look at some of the excellent themeing in Coyote Creek. Hay Baler and Villain are side by side. As bumpy as the ride was, it's sad to think the ride will (probably) never run again. My favorite roller coaster sign out there. A look at the transfer track shed. The landscaping was just starting to mature. It was really a cool slightly themed line and station. Villian's lift hill. The building to the left is the back of the ride's photo building. Really nice looking coaster. Reportedly, Villain was bought by a gentleman wearing a shirt referring to a Cleveland Scrap Yard. Villain queue. I remember distinctly how my first time on this ride the queue was completely full. That line was a little over 45 minutes. Hay Baler's queue and warning sign. This queue was often full during the summer. People that is... not leaves and debris. The ride's cars. Only got on this ride a handful of times. The entrance and housing to the Hay Baler matterhorn. Due to its enclosure it was filled with fog for many Fright Fests / Haunts. Hay-Baler exit

I'm about to post another round of photos but I wanted to let everyone know that even after the next round I'll still be only probably half done. Photos from the other side of the park are especially interesting. So keep checking back!

Thanks for the replies guys. I'm working on uploading more photos now (including ones from the old Hurricane Harbor water park). While it was cool to be able to walk around the park one last time, it was very sad. This park could have worked, but I really get the sense CF didn't want it to. And as far as I know Beaver Land Mine Ride hasn't been sold, and in the auction brochure it said anything not being auctioned was being sent to other CF parks. But it WAS completely removed which was surprising. And I completely agree pianojohn. CF should have removed some of this stuff and sold it at a set price. Heck I would have even bought a GL garbage can! And I heard others saying they would have too (the garbage cans were auctioned off it a lots of 150-200). The fact of life was CF was hoping to make quite a bit of money off this auction, NOT give people a chance to get some great nostalgic items.

There are many, many more photos to come but this should be a good start. And to any mods, looking back at the photos it appears that a few of the vertical ones are a bit larger than 800 x 600. I tried to update these with smaller ones but they then got out of order. If this is a problem let me know.

Ok so on with the photos: The photos really do their own talking so I will just have some captions to go along with them. I think those two pine trees and the rock would have looked PERFECT at Knott's behind Xcellerator. How could CF let these prized items slip away in an auction? Down it goes again. I knew the wind would blow up the tarp eventually. Luckily the carousel, as you can see, is still in excellent condition. Another look at the Dodgems building. Not the queue nor landscaping. Hmmm looks like something's missing. Not the station! Beaver Land Mine Ride. Beautiful ride. Grand Carousel safety sign. That tarp will blow up enough for me to get my pic eventually. Old safety sign. The inside of the Dodgems building. The cars and floor had already been removed. Dodgems building, queue, and safety sign. The Grand Carousel surrounded by plastic. The last addition made to GL: the cornhole toss game. This sign went for $800. A closer look at all of the kitchen supplies up for auction. As you can see inside of the Golden Nugget Arcade, a plethora of cooking supplies were up for auction. Old 3-Point shootout. This one had already been removed and was not up for auction. Another look at the games booth. Again, this building, and its contents, up for auction. All of these game booths were up for auction. Notice the (somewhat haunting) cotton candy sign still up. Power City stage still having the poster promoting the Peanuts Rockin Party show. Old gift shop. Again, except for the lack of people in the photo, this photo wouldn't make anyone think the park had been closed. Old GL map hung up around the park. Ramp to Thunderhawk entrance roped off. Old Thunderhawk photo/video booth along with old queue in background. An example how many things obviously went untouched over the off-season. Here is a sign promoting the new video cameras added to Thunderhawk last year. Notice the old Thunderhawk photo booth in the background. While you would have though CF would have auctioned off individual ride signs, such as this one, they did not. This lot, number 83, was for all the rocks, landscaping, trees, and shrubs in the Thunderhawk area. Old Thunderhawk sign still in tact minus the Thunderhawk lettering. Pepsi Plunge drop. Lamppost and ramp down to Thunderhawk / Serial Thriller. Notice the lot number tags placed on all the items. Basically everything in the park was up for auction, including these rocks. Good thing they didn't auction me as punishment for staying after 5. Pepsi Plunge The Thunderhawk site. Notice the two ferries in the background. Again, all of the fence in this photo was up for auction. Lamppost and fence in front of Thunderhawk site. Both of which were up for auction. Pepsi Plunge exit. Pepsi Plunge exit stairs. Notice how fences were already falling down. Pepsi Plunge queue. It actually doesn't look worse than it did when open last year. Many pictures don't look as if they were taken at a now closed amusment park. Looking back at them I keep thinking / wishing they were taken before the park opened. Americana Ferris Wheel in the background. Pepsi Plunge, Villain, and Double Loop. Notice how quickly this path is deteriorating. Closer look at the Pepsi Plunge queue, station, and drop in the background. A look at the Pepsi Plunge warning sign. All of these were still up for most of the rides. Notice that the queue was not roped off, but with security close by I decided not to try venturing up to the station. These electric signs housing the park maps were all still up and for auction. Ring toss game with the bottles and rings still there! It was amazing how many things went practically untouched all year. Closer look at the caricature building. Also notice the yellow caution tape they used to rope things off. The old car ride. If you notice in the front the sign has fallen down. This is because even landscaping and rocks were being auctioned today, and many had already been dug up! This area was roped off and you couldn't get any closer. The caricature building in the back with all the sample pictures still hanging! Also notice the directional sign in the front. The Tatoo Shoppe. Again, just as it looked last year with the chairs and tatoo signs removed. Plaza Pizza. Most, if not all, of these buildings were for sale (including the contents). However if you look carefully you will notice that most buildings were gutted. The old photo memories building. This is also where you rented strollers and lockers. Note the photo memories sign was for auction. Also notice the brick pavers falling around in the bottom left. This is the fountain and entrance plaza. Note that the fountain was up for auction today. The area around the fountain has been torn up and some brick pavers along the edge of the plaza have fallen down but otherwise the entrance looks just as it did last year. Another look at the Geauga Lake entrance. Now it's my desktop picture. Really a nice looking entrance in my opinion. Another look at Villain. Villain as seen from in front of the entrance. Notice the flags still in place on the turnaround. The Geauga Lake Entrance. Really a beautiful entrance, and as such, I hope it gets a nice home. Notice the grass and weeds though.

^^ I don't think so... I know I did go up the Villain ramp at one point but I know I refrained from any obvious CF insults... But if you were there at the end I'm sure I saw you. I am uploading pics now but did want to mention that it was amazing walking around yesterday how fast things can deteriorate when not kept up. Paint on the buildings as an example was in desperate need of a refresh. Railings were already starting to fall down, etc. I realize some of this is from some deconstruction, but much of this looked to happen just due to not being maintained. Really makes you appreciate how much work maintenance departments put into these parks! Just a little preview....

Yes you read right. A Photo TR from Geauga Lake in June 2008! Not that there were any credits... but still it was cool to get a look around and I thought some people may want to see some pictures from the park. I'll do a quick narrative about the day and then onto the pics with captions. For anyone that doesn't know, the Geauga Lake auction is taking place from Monday the 16th to Wednesday the 18th. Today, Monday, was the preview day. You were basically given free range to roam around the park and view the lots up for sale. Tomorrow, Tuesday, is the actual auction for the amusement park stuff. Wednesday is the auction for the campgrounds. I got to the park a little before 4pm and paid $10. I was told, as restated in all the publications, they closed at 5pm. I worked my way around the park taking countless pictures as I went. Some things were roped off, some things were not. The carousel for example had a plastic wrapping around it. Hay Bailer and Villain however, had no ropes around it and you could walk up the exit to the station. It was really sort of cool seeing everything. Texas Twister, Dominator, Thunderhawk, Shipwreck Falls, numerous KidWorks rides, and Beaver Land Mine Ride were gone along with all the merchandise from booths. That was about it though. Everything else was still in place, including the large maps, etc. Many brick pavers along the side had obviously been knocked down during deconstruction and stuff, but generally the park looked surprisingly good (there was a lot of paint chipping though, which I don't know if its due to a winter without upkeep or if they have to repaint some things before each season anyways). Now I do have some complaints. With all the bad press CF has gotten out of this, you would have thought they would have made this a nice event. Yes, I know some are going to say "It's an auction it wasn't meant for enthusiasts." But frankly, there were more enthusiasts there than serious buyers, and CF knew this. Most people were simply going around taking pictures and video. Now as I said, it wouldn't have killed CF to maybe give people a free water (they were instead selling drinks), give them a bag with maybe a souvenir GL pin in it or something, have employees offer to take pics of people's families, or even open up the Ferris Wheel for a few rides (most of these rides could have started running pretty easily). There were a lot of things that CF could have done to make this a nice day to erase some of the bad taste in people's mouths from the closing, but they didn't. The worst part of it was at 4:30 Norton employees in golf carts started racing through the park with megaphones announcing "The park will close promptly at 5:00pm which is in 10 minutes". Everyone started chuckling considering they still had half an hour left. They remained on the golf carts racing back and forth every few minutes announcing the park would close much earlier than it should. At 4:45 I was by Big Dipper and was approached by a suit and tie employee saying "The park is closed now". I said, "Umm it's 4:46". "Well we are closing currently and want people to move towards the front of the park". The last time I checked it didn't take 15 minutes to walk to the front gate from Big Dipper... After the suit and tie employee walked away to yell at others, another employee quietly comments to me, "I don't know why we are closing so early... You'd think when they say the park closes at five they'd let people stay until then." I'm not trying to complain, but I, along with many others, had to work today, and 5pm was hard to make in the first place. So I really couldn't have gotten there much earlier. And when you pay to get in and are told you can stay until 5pm, you should be able to stay until 5pm. You really had to be there to see how rude some of these people were trying to kick you out at 4:30. So then I finish all my picture taking and go to the front to register at the Norton booth for the auction the next day. Needless to say at 4:55 the booth was locked and everyone had left. I voiced my concerns to the nearby employee that had told me to leave at 4:45, and he gave me a refund (I think he was head of security). While the day was great, and the refund made up for the surly employees who were anxious to leave, everyone I passed was complaining about it. And many of those people never received a refund. It was just not handled well. CF could have made this nice and enjoyable, but really didn't. The Norton auction people were borderline rude, and many people who wanted to register for the auction on their way out were shut out. Still great opportunity to get some pics. It was weird seeing the park abandoned and lifeless. It really felt like there should be snow on the ground and it should be the offseason. Sadly it isn't. But getting some pictures was a golden opportunity and I hope to attend the actual auction tomorrow. On with the pics! TT182 **EDIT: Fourth batch of photos are up. Many more to come Monday. These will include photos of the old water park and 50's midway.**

I visited this park for the first time last year. If the park could get some decent coasters and a few more water park attractions it would definitely be one of my favorite parks out there. The park itself, as others have said, is just beautiful and really has some unique attractions. If it could just get a few standout rides and a larger water park it would really be world class.

Not really sure how this fits into "Hurricane Harbor"... and I agree with what someone said about how they seem to be just slapping big names on rides regardless of how it fits in. Still it looks to be a nice addition that will make their water park experience more enjoyable.

It looks like it would be extremely noticeable. In one of the pics on the first page you can see that the seats are angled directly up towards the fire as it passes by. Looks like a nice effect. Where is the fog that Rob mentioned? Is it by the station?

Nice TR! Thanks for the update. I have to say when it was first reported they were going to put the ride on Zonga's old concrete pad I was a little disappointed it wasn't going to get the nicer themeing present on the other ones, but it looks GREAT how it is. The concrete pad certainly fits in with the skate park theme. Looks great, just as the rest of the park.

My thoughts exactly after I saw this update. The ride certainly looks cooler than before but I'm not dying to hop on a plane to go ride it.

I'd definitely vote for Cedar Point. I think they have the better coaster collection first off. Yes, El Toro is incredible and my favorite coaster, but other than that there isn't too much else. I found Nitro really boring, Kingda Ka wasn't nearly as good as Dragster, Batman is just like all the others, Superman: Ultimate Flight is merely OK, etc. Cedar Point has Millennium Force, Top Thrill Dragster, Raptor, Maverick, Magnum, and Wicked Twister, all of which are EXCELLENT coasters in my opinion. I also think Cedar Point has the nicer atmosphere. The only nice areas at GADV are the Golden Kingdom and La Plaza. The others feel outdated and look pretty sparse. Cedar Point also has many more flat choices than GADV, which will make more for you to do. Both of which are great parks, but I definitely think CP is the better one.

I'm glad to see others are writing papers on amusement parks (they certainly choose to be interesting papers). I think yours was interesting too, it just needs some fixing. First off, as others have said, you need to sort of re-define your paper. You have probably 4 or more topics in one paper. You talk about the history of roller coasters, the history of amusement parks, what you do in amusement parks, etc. All of these things are separate topics, and you want to make sure your research paper is only on one of them. As others have said, we don't really know what the assignment is, but you need to pick a topic that fits the assignment. For example, if the assignment is to write a 3 page research paper on the subject of your choice, picking the overall history of amusement parks probably wouldn't be wise as there is no way you can do that in 3 pages. However if you had to write a 20 page term paper, that topic might be more in reach. Assuming that this is a moderate length paper, however, I think you need a much narrower topic than your current one(s). Let's say you pick the history of roller coasters. You now need to have a thesis, something which you are going to prove with research. "You'll always have a good time at amusement parks," isn't really something you can prove, and thus isn't a great thesis. Some statement like that can be a nice touch at the end of your paper, but you need a more concrete thesis in there somewhere. So if you choose the history of roller coasters as your subject, you need to find some sort of angle on it, which you can derive a thesis from. Some examples that could work: Roller coaster designers have continuously been known for pushing the limits, yet even as they design taller, faster, and more "original" scream machines, they are always making something thats safe. Roller coasters, having been around for decades, are still turned to by park operators as a sure fire way of getting guests into the park. In the first thesis, you could start off, like you did, with where the first coasters popped up and talk about how unsafe they were, etc. Then move on through the years and talk about wooden coasters and while they were safer, people were still getting bruises. You could then end with examples like Millennium Force and Kingda Ka, faster, more thrilling, and taller than any rides before, yet much safer. That way you can still talk about the history of roller coasters, but you are doing so in a much more focussed manner; on roller coaster safety. You could then end with a conclusion talking about you don't have to sacrifice safety to get more thrilling rides or something of that nature. In the second one, you could use attendance figures from parks and show how they rose in years with new coasters, etc. There are also many interviews with park officials out there talking about how important coasters are for attendance. As already mentioned, it sounds as if you wrote your paper with your general enthusiast knowledge. I think it would be more convincing should you go back and do some heavier research, maybe using quotes or specific statistics in your paper. As others have said, don't forget footnotes, and your grammar and sentence structure could use some looking over. Many teachers don't have a problem with editing from friends or family, so perhaps you could give someone your paper and let them tell you what sentences seem awkward / don't flow well, etc. You have a lot of interesting points in your paper, and if you take some of those and use them in a narrower topic, I think you could get a good grade!

I was beginning to think I was the only one out there that liked it! While its a little harder to do with the addition of Maverick and more people back there, usually if you ride Mean Streak starting an hour before closing trains will start to be dispatched half full, and this is when trims start getting turned off. All three trains deliver the same ride, but sitting in the front is certain to deliver a nicer ride than the back. If you want to get a good ride on it ride front or second car right before closing. I must say that after all this discussion I'm interested to ride MS this year to see how its running.

Well I've been to a lot of parks, and been on a lot of coasters, and have to say I still like Mean Streak. Cedar Point is my home park so I get to ride it a lot. Does it have its rough days? Sure. Is it a top 10 coaster? Not even close. But I still find it an enjoyable wooden coaster that, frankly, I'd take over a lot of others out there. The coaster is a bit rough, and if that is something that you can't take then you won't like the ride at all. But on every one of my rides I still get nice speed, and air time. And there have been many occasions where my ride hasn't been rough at all, and comparable to many of the other pre-2000 wooden roller coasters. If you tried riding it at closing, with a near empty train and the trims off, you'd be surprised how smooth it is. So is the first drop ruined by the trims? Yes. Is it a bit rough? Yes. But the ride is so long, and to me so well designed, it makes up for that.

Looks like a nice site!

Very nice TR. Aquatica is an excellent park. I feel lucky to have visited it so soon after its opening. I'm hoping to do a TR of my recent visit in the next few days.

Let me preface this by saying that I have only been to Great America, so I can only judge SDK by pictures and its list of attractions. I visited Great America this past summer and it was a disappointment. The park looked great. It was a really nice looking park with tons of landscaping, everything was freshly painted, it wasn't an open field but things weren't crammed together. But the attractions were mediocre at best. Grizzly isn't bad, but its about the most unexciting roller coaster I've ever been on. I didn't get a chance to get on Invertigo, but its clones aren't really any better than normal boomerangs in my opinion. You can't see much, and this makes the ride pretty dull. Demon is rough, and since it lacks the themeing is SF cousin has, its not very good. Vortex is short (both in height and in length) and is pretty boring. There's nothing special to it. The mad mouse is slow, and again very boring. Top Gun is the park's best coaster, and I'll admit its pretty good. Other than Top Gun, the park's coasters can al be summarized by one word: boring. There is nothing special to any of them, they are very small in size and in length, and in my opinion you will be very disappointed by them. Survivor: The Ride, and Drop Zone are ok flats, but still, the park is very average. There is a water park, which is nice, but again its small and isn't exciting. Basically if you go to Great America with no expectations, or extremely low ones, you will be pleasantly surprised an have a very nice day because the park is nice. But if you go there expecting a great amusement park and a vacation of a lifetime you will be very disappointed because the park is purely average. At least with Discovery Kingdom you get V2, Medusa, and Roar. They at least seem like 3 coasters that are above average. Medusa looks great, as does Roar, and any Intamin Impulse is better than the Great America selection. Plus you get the Boomerang (which I don't think is much worse than Invertigo), and although the SLC isn't great, I'm sure it still beats Grizzly. You would also get Tony Hawk's Big Spin, which I'm sure will be better than Psycho Mouse at Great America. The flats at Discovery Kingdom are comparable to the ones at Great America, minus the drop tower, but you gain a rapids ride which I really think are enjoyable and can be ridden over and over. Then, after all this, you get the animals. I'd honestly say go to SFDK, purely for my average and extremely boring visit to Great America.

I agree this is a great TR. I've never been to the park, and while it does look nice, some areas of the park begin to look a bit "rides stuck in a field". While I don't think a park always needs themeing to look nice, Valleyfair just looks a bit too much like a carnival in my opinion. Nice collection of rides though.

Really impressed with the progress on X2. I was very skeptical at first as I thought there was going to be too much red in the area (and actually liked the old pink and yellow color scheme). The trains also looked pretty bad to me when I first saw them, and didn't think this would make too much of a difference. But after seeing it now and imagining what it will look like with the tunnels, I think it really looks GREAT and will add a lot to the ride. Can someone clarify for me what exactly they plan on doing with the station?

I agree with what Robb says but the one thing I will say for Great America is they have a very nice water park. It's small, but nice for a few hours.

Awesome photos! Thanks for the great PTR. I'll be there mid-march.

I honestly believe that SF has many quality parks already, and they have already taken steps in the right direction to fix a lot of problems. The first thing the chain really needs to concentrate on is getting people into the parks. People are busy these days. Kids are on sports teams, are involved with different clubs, go to camps, etc. School sometimes even plays into this. Their free time is significantly less these days in comparison to years past (when kids may have had more laid back summers). Parents are just as busy. Many work in addition to being involved in different types of activities (not to mention having the responsibility to carry their kids to all of their activities). With people being so busy, SF needs to find incentive to get these people to make a day to go to a park and set aside whatever else they may have going on. Three new kiddy rides / new paint on buildings won't get people into the park. They still need to have major capital expenditures and other things that will get the bodies into the park (and make people want to pay the money to do so). Some things that could do this include: - A new major coaster Yes, I think parks still need to focus on this. "Tallest" and "Fastest" get people into the park. Many people at my school would take off and go check out CP's new huge rides like TTD and MF - A new major ride As someone else said on here what happened to major family rides? River rapids rides and large family rides like that are hugely popular. - Concerts A well known artist coming to the park would be a great way to get people into the park. Teens and young adults travel quite a ways to get to different concerts, especially if the artist is currently quite popular. - In Park Promotions The park could do something cool within the park that didn't involve a ton of money. Maybe something like a 24 hour weekend where they are open all the time. There are tons of different options for something like this (in park contest, etc). And obviously once the guests come into the park you have to make them happy but I think SF has done a lot for that. They are adding the kiddy rides, painting everything, etc.