GeaugaLake3

In the past Father's Day was always a good day to visit, the crowds are usually not too bad. It has also been the unofficial Gay Day at CP as well and you will see a lot of guests wearing red as is tradition. If the weather cooperates (nothing operates in the rain) it is a great day to visit the park. I think you will probably be able to ride most of the coasters, with the exception of MF, TTD, GK, and Maverick, with minimal wait times.

Elitch's, Wild Waves, Calaway Park (they apparently do fantastic business), Great Escape, Adventureland, Valleyfair. As for Michigan Adventure it would be nice to see a new coaster there but it really doesn't seem to need one, same goes for Silverwood. Dorney Park is destined, at least it seems that way to me, to forever play third fiddle to Hersheypark and SFGAv so I totally understand the instillation of second hand rides, I just hope the next transplant is full circuit. Camden Park, I imagine, will close before they add a new coaster.

As someone who grew up loving Seaworld and Shamu I felt like animal activists needed to shut up. Aren't there more important things in the world to rally against? Of course there is. Without Seaworld would we value marine mammals as much as we do? I certainly don't think we would. I supported Seaworld, but I wanted to do some research to back up my claims for its existence. Unfortunately what I researched made me change my mind. Orcas are extremely intelligent and social mammals. Their vocalizations are unique to each pod, they stay with their mothers for life, and there is evidence that they are capable of abstract thought. Seaworld often states that their whales live longer under their care, which is a total falsehood. Orca lifespan is similar to that of humans. You can argue all you want about those points but there is one thing you can not argue and that is that an orca has never been recorded of killing a human in the wild, Tilikum however has killed three. I will leave the activism to others as I think there are many more important human crises that need to be addressed before we talk about orcas, but I will not visit Seaworld again. I don't mean to stir the pot but it seems to me that many of you are unwilling to even consider the arguments made against Seaworld. Blackfish and the book of the same name it is based on, for me at least, rely too much on emotion and not enough on science, but they do make valid points.

There was a wonderful water park in Ravenna OH, 20 miles south east of Geauga Lake, called Holiday Sands ( I'd post some photos but they all seem to be disabled from copying, look it up.) It was a simple operation and I imagine more risky then it was worth. It consisted a large concrete lake with giant steel barrels that you ran on until you fell off, monkey bars spanning the width of the lake with two metal water slides one about 15 feet tall and the larger one being about 50 feet. I remember going down taller slide which just had a trickle of water, and just being terrified. I remember holding on to the sides and I swear I remember seeing sparks, at the end you were shot out into the middle of the lake. The craziest thing there though was the playground with this giant space ship, its probably a lot smaller then I remember, but I remember climbing up to the top of the inside of it and thinking if I slipped that'd be the end. There was also a giant steel basket that sat 10 or more that surround a pole, it basically mimicked what you did on a chain swing when you twist the chain and spin around. There was also a self propelled yoyo or wave swinger. I believe the park closed in 2000 or 2001. Dover Lake was another North Eastern OH water park that closed after the 2005 season. It had two great tube slides that were a series of chutes connected to each other by rivers and pool, that I remember being very lengthy as well as very rough. There was one chute in particular on the larger river where they had a lifeguard stationed at the bottom to flip you right side up as more often then not you flipped. Dover lake had a lot of attractions that looked to be made in house. The lazy river which was the last addition I believe was just a steel trough with a very minimal current. They also had a giant steel whirl pool which required a life jacket to be ridden. The park was bought by the ski resort that operates next to it and turned into a snow tubing park. Neither seemed to be remotely as dangerous as Action Park but seeing the video reminded me so much of these two attractions.

Such an interesting class. Include Russian Mountains and the Mauch Chuck Railway as well as the Switchback Railway, Loop the Loops or Flip Flap Railway which had an oval loops instead of a teardrop loop, and the Cyclone at Coney Island, as well as the Crystal Beach Cyclone, that ride looked insane and was in fact dangerous. The Racer at Kings Island really started the silver age of coasters in the 1970s and Magnum which changed the coaster wars from how many inversions you could throw in a roller coaster to height and speed. I imagine that this is probably an engineering class as Carnegie Mellon has an amazing program, but you could also include the shift from a more traditional amusement park (1890s-1960s or so) to the theme park which was brought on by Disney.

There is a new roller coaster under construction at Fuji-Q Highland. I was click around Youtube and found this www.youtube.com/user/purplefinale#p/a/u/1/R-HNTNhwNaM. Looks to be a Euro Fighter.

I think this is probably the most appropriate place to post this question, but does anyone have any info on this new Jr. Boomerang for next year. Its sounds like a pretty interesting concept.

I was thinking it might be hinting at the manufacturer, S&S and Interactive Rides are both located in Logan UT, but besides the Inverted Centrifuge from Interactive Rides, I couldn't find anything on either manufacturers website that would fit the name Stratosoar.

First year since 2002 that I have not had a season pass. I might not even visit an amusement park this year as the money I make this summer has to go to books for school and clothing.

I just remembered, Daredevil Fall at Dollywood. Great scenery, theming, and of course the amazing drop.

Kennywood's rapid ride, Raging Rapids I think, is by far the most unique rapid ride I have been on because it makes such good use of the topography. Log Jammer at Kennywood is also great. The Wild Thornberry's log flume, I am not sure what it is called now, at KI is probably my favorite log flume, followed by Waldameer's which is on par with many major amusement park's log flumes. I also love White Water Landing at Cedar Point, and the Pepsi Plunge at Geauga Lake will always have a place in my heart because it was the only ride I was ever evacuated from.

There are so many overrated roller coasters out there. I agree and disagree with Millennium Force, the first time I rode it I found it to be nothing short of a religious experience, but when I rode it again a few years later I found it to be Millennium Forceless. Having ridden it more since then I think it is just one of those rides where some days its great and other days its just okay. There are several coasters that I just don't get why people think they are so great. One that sticks out the most to me is Voyage, I was rather disappointed by the ride, I think that when I rode it I had such high expectations for it that I was let down, but I'll take Beast over it any day. Raven too was another ride that I didn't quite get, I think that the Legend is the best ride at Holiday World. Sheikra, I feel, lives and dies on a gimmick and not a very good gimmick at that.