panda367

Not sure about the chain breaking, but the last time it was there I saw it get stuck right before the first drop several times...this was when it was raining, though, so that might have been the cause.

As a ride op at Seabreeze for a summer, I saw some breakdowns- nothing too serious, but the scariest one was, of course, when I was operating a ride. I was set to run the Spring when the park opened, and when I reported to the ride there were mechanics fixing it because it had apparently broken the day before (when I wasn't working). After waiting an hour for them to fix it, they had me run it 5 times with nobody on it (all without incident) and then let me start loading people in. I run the ride for about a half hour, everything's working fine, and then all of a sudden it gets stuck at the top with no warning at all. Because the Spring isn't that big of a drop tower, there were lots of little kids on the ride who were crying, etc. I called the mechanics to fix it, and thankfully they were able to get the ride lowered down to let everybody out, but the ride was closed the rest of the day. Never asked what the cause was.

My condolences go to Sgt. Hackemer's family...such a tragic loss. I usually try to make it to Darien Lake once or twice every summer if I'm back home because it's only an hour away. Some thoughts: I was a ride op at Seabreeze for the summer of 2008. I only ran 3 rides (the Spring, Teacups, and Flying Scooters) and don't really remember hearing anything specifically about amputees and their limitations. However, when there was a disabled person in the park, they got a special wristband and our bosses would make sure to tell us about them/tell us what rides they would be able to get on. Of course, Seabreeze is a much smaller park than Darien Lake, so their procedures are probably different. At Seabreeze, you had to be 18 to work anything that wasn't a kid's ride and had to have at LEAST a year's experience to run any of the coasters, if not more. (Jackrabbit was the most strict about this due to how difficult the hand-brakes are to move). Honestly, we were always told to call our bosses if we had any questions about whether someone was allowed on- better to be safe than sorry.

They're replacing the Teacups at Seabreeze with a newer version by Zamperla: http://www.seabreeze.com/news.asp

It's an American 90's TV Show: Wiki Link

Every year, my family and I visit Enchanted Forest Water Safari in the Adirondacks. It's mostly a waterpark, with some flat rides. It may not be the most thrilling park in the world, but it's a nice family park. Onto the photos! Serengeti Surf Hill, the water slide where you race down on blue mats. I had a small "wardrobe malfunction" on this slide last year, but, thankfully, my top stayed on this year. The Shadow, one of their big tube slides. More waterslides. My sister, my Dad, and I on Cascade Falls, the family tube slide. Scrambler. Me on the Tilt-a-Whirl The majority of the flat rides. You can see the Ferris Wheel, Scrambler, Rock-o-Planes, Round Up, and Bumper Cars building in this picture. My sister on the rope swing My Mom and I on the lazy river. The balloon ride that goes around the park. My Dad and sister at the shooting gallery. The small wave pool

Looks like a fun trip! I saw a bunch of you guys when I was working at Seabreeze yesterday (I was the ride op at the Spring). It looked like you were having a great time!

I'll be working at Seabreeze (I'm a Ride Op) from 4:30-10 on August 2nd! Looking forward to seeing all of you! I'll probably be on the Spring, Teacups, or Flyers.

The photos aren't working for me- I just see a "Photobucket Bandwidth Exceeded" banner on each of them.

I love the Magic Kingdom! I just feel so good when I'm there. I remember the first time I went there, when I was 10, my family and I went to a character breakfast at Crystal Palace, and everyone was commenting on how happy I looked.

I love waterparks! I've been to a bunch of them, but my favorite is probably Enchanted Forest Water Safari in Old Forge, New York. Technically, it's not exclusively a waterpark, as it has a couple flat rides as well, but the water park is what people go there for. Although it hasn't gotten any new rides in several years (though they're rumored to get one of those bowl-type slides next summer), it has lots of fun waterslides. We go there every summer (in fact, you should be expecting a Photo TR from there in a couple weeks). Anyone else been here?

I haven't been on Great Bear in years, so I can't really comment on it specifically. I think your best bet is to just do it. When I was younger, I was afraid of a lot of roller coasters, but once I went on them I was always fine. Try to find someone you know to go on it with you- I always feel better when I'm not going on the ride alone.

I think in most cases they just underestimate the clearance on these rides. If you work on a ride every day, you probably become desensitized to the noises of the ride. So walking close to the ride probably wouldn't phase him. Probably just went to get the hat, and got too close, not thinking about how far to the side of the track that the car might extend. Still, most parks have procedures for when hats etc. fall off the rides. I'm a ride op at Seabreeze, and when we have a "rover" (hat falling off, etc.), we have to call for our manager to come and get it. Once they come to get the hat, we don't run the ride until they retrieve it.

Oh, Predator's still bad. I was at Darien Lake about a month ago and rode it...I really wish I hadn't. Motocoaster was great, though!

Definitely Predator at Darien Lake. Every time I go on that ride, I think it'll be better than the last time, but it's always incredibly bumpy and rough. Second place- Mean Streak.

The new Music Express at Seabreeze runs backwards. It was the one that used to be at Wild West World, so it might have run backwards there too.

Honestly, I used to be afraid of heights/really tall roller coasters too. My advice is to just do it- go on the biggest coaster you can. My friends practically dragged me onto the Superman at Darien Lake a couple years ago, and I was almost in tears all through the line, but once I rode it I was completely fine.

This is more of an "Out of the Mouths of Babes" type thing, but I was still wtf about it... I was operating the Flying Scooters (Flyers) at Seabreeze today. Behind me, a boy (probably about 7 or so) and his Dad had the following conversation, referring to the water by the Log Flume: Boy: They used to have crocodiles in the water down there, so if you fell of the log ride you'd be eaten by the crocodiles! Dad: I think you're making stuff up. Boy: No, I'm serious, they had crocodiles in there! But then they had to remove them for legal reasons.

According to some websites I visited, this thing is real and functioning: "Stretching out to the corners of the gymnasium, the indoor roller coaster at Royal Oak Intermediate School appears gargantuan compared to its creators. Twenty-four feet tall at its highest point and occupying 10,000 square feet, the fully-functional ride towers over the 135 eighth-graders who are its designers, builders and decorators. Students and four teachers have spent thousands of hours measuring, sawing, constructing, painting and decorating the wooden structure over the last three weeks." http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2006/03/roller_coaster_built_in_school.html http://paulandaline.blogspot.com/2006/03/roller-coaster-in-school-gym.html http://lang.sgvtribune.com/socal/gallery2/?folder=news/031606_coaster

At Seabreeze, where I work as a Ride Op, the code for a stuck ride is a REDA. I think that's an acronym of some sorts, but they never told us what it stood for. That being said, I've never been stuck on a ride, and I've never had a REDA on the rides that I've worked this season at Seabreeze. Then again, I haven't worked that much this year anyway.

Darien Lake is about an hour away from my house, but I haven't been there since 8th grade. When I found out that my senior class was going there for a trip, though, I jumped at the chance. At the beginning of the day, it was slightly drizzling, but not very cold. We obviously went on Motocoaster first, which was awesome. Then some of us did the Bumper Cars and the Viper, and then we went to lunch, which was in one of the pavilions because it was a school trip. I found it funny that on the lunch menu, they called ice cream bars "frozen novelties". After lunch, my friends rode the Ferris Wheel, but I can't stand them so I watched. After that, the rain completely cleared and it got a lot sunnier out, so we did most of the water rides (Grizzly Bear Run, Shipwreck Falls, and some of the tube slides.) The Superman (well, "Ride of Steel" now, but everyone still calls it the Superman) wasn't running at the beginning of the day because of the rain and even after that kept on getting stuck (usually as the riders were getting up the first hill), so we were a bit reluctant to ride it, but we finally did and it was awesome. Then, after doing Predator (I don't know why I keep on going on that ride, it's so bumpy. It doesn't even merit a picture) Boomerang, Motocoaster again, the Mind Eraser, and some more flats, we left for home. Overall, it was a great trip! Because of the rain, I didn't take too many pictures, but I did take some. The Slingshot at night, all lit up. I didn't go on it, but I think it looked cool at night. Mind Eraser! What a twisted layout. Motocoaster again, the second time we rode it. The line was incredibly long both times. Boomerang! By this time, the rain had cleared up. Viper! Sorry, this one's a bit blurry. People riding the Motocoaster! The motocoaster, again. MOTOCOASTER! That was such a great ride. The Ride Formerly Known as Superman, from the windows of the bus.

Just worked my first weekend at Seabreeze- I ran the Spring (after getting trained, of course). I'll probably be trained on more rides as the weeks go on- they rotate us through the rides.

I'm working as a Ride Op at Seabreeze this summer, along with basically all of my friends (I live about 5 min. from the park). I believe the rides we operate change every week. I have orientation tonight, and we might get to ride Music Express (the new Himalaya) if it's working. This is also a "welcome back" type of post for me, since I went back to lurking after my year got really busy.

Today I went to Seabreeze, fully equipped with my digital camera. Unfortunately, after I entered the park, I realized that my camera's batteries were dead. Nevertheless, I still had a great time in my home park! First, me and my friend headed for the Gyrosphere (an indoor Scrambler with a laser-light show). The music was a lot better than last years, but I remember it being faster and having a better light show when I was younger. Then, we hit the water park, first riding their new slide- the Helix. Even though I had been on that ride earlier this year, it was still really fun, and the line moved by really fast. It was a really hot day, so the water park was extremely crowded. After riding most of the slides in the water park (and going in the wave pool) we started on most of the dry rides. We had already been on all of the roller coasters before, but all of them are still really fun to ride. Since I've basically been to Seabreeze every year of my life, I've also been on the Bunny Rabbit (their old kiddie coaster, before they put in the BearTrax) and the Quantum Loop in past years. The Jackrabbit was really fun- we ended up riding it twice, once in the front row. We didn't ride the BearTrax because we didn't feel like bribing a kid to go on with us, but we did ride the Bobsleds and the Whirlwind. We also went on most of their flat rides- the only ones we skipped (besides the kiddie rides) were the Spring, YoYo, Screamin' Eagle, and Bumper Cars. Overall, it was a great time, especially because my friend was a Seabreeze employee (it was her day off) and got 40% off on the food that we ate. Even though I've been to Seabreeze many times, I still enjoy going there much more than SFDL or Marineland, the two other parks that are relatively close to me. PS: This is my first TR. I hope it wasn't a really bad one or anything. Sorry about the lack of pictures. EDIT: Added blank lines in between paragraphs.

I ate them. Why did Sally sell seashells on the seashore when you can just pick them up anyway?