ajfelice

There are a circumstances why a park like Waldameer and probably Indiana Beach would have a no re-ride policy. Because of the wristband/card scanning system, particularly the cards, we must ask guests to walk back around to the station for a re-ride. Yes, we can tell which riders have unlimited wristbands, but it can be confusing making sure that anyone who used a card re-scans when the scanner is not literally on the platform. Therefore, to eliminate people sneaking back on for re-rides for free, and having the argument if they paid again or not, we ask all riders to walk back around. It is not that far of a walk, and it will not ruin your night. If anyone's visit is ruined by a no immediate re-ride policy, they need to grow up. If we were a gated park where everyone had unlimited admission, we would be happy to allow re-rides. Also with re-rides, as a supervisor, I put myself in a bad position. The last ride of the night on Ravine Flyer II had about 1/3 of the station gates full. I was up on the platform getting ready for shutdown, and a few guests asked for re-rides. I was feeling kind, and seeing that they all had wristbands, I allowed them to fill in empty seats, next thing I knew word was out, and there were 7 or 8 people yelling at me because others got to re-ride and they didn't. Therefore, out of fairness, the second to last ride may not re-ride in empty seats for the last ride because we can't fit everyone. Consistency is one of the main practices I preach. I'm not trying to rain on anyone's parade, as I love re-rides myself, but I'm trying to give a supervisor/operator's point of view.

I'm assuming the traditional "T-Bar" used on Millenium Force, the Superman models, and TTD are out of the question on this model of train. However, I see the biggest problem on Skyrush being that the restraints come from over the top of the seat, as opposed to lowering from in front of the rider. The current restraint construction reminds me of B&M clam shells until they start crunching down, and I think the orientation of how they lower has to do with the problem of the Intamin restraints pushing down increasingly harder throughout the ride.

Anyone know if they have been selected yet? Particularly for Cedar Point?

Going into the future, I believe a modern "large" wooden coaster would fit this park perfectly. Not necessarily 200 ft tall, but on a larger than average scale. It should have no ties to The Beast in terms of how it would be branded. I do know that the word "giga" has been mentioned, and I think a gigacoaster would be amazing. If a giga were to arrive, I think an experience resembling I-305, or something that focuses on intensity, would perfectly complement the airtime machine that is Diamondback. This coaster does not have to be Intamin, as I have heard about the unoffocial scheme Cedar Fair has with manufacturers of certain coaster types. On the long term outlook, whatever replaces that SoB should not entirely close off that unique area of land Kings Island is privileged to have.

I think Rob should put in a good word for me to get picked for Cedar Point on Oct 20 since I stayed late to operate Ravine Flyer II ERT this past summer. I have been anxiously been checking my inbox. Yeah I'm cool.

In my opinion, Halloween events make a lot of parks look bad. I read reviews from sites like TripAdvisor, and a common criticism of any park is closed rides in the fall seasons. All I ask is that people don't judge this park solely based on Fright Fest. Take a walk around Darien Lake on any normal day, and you will realize that this park is not Six Flags anymore. True, their operations are not Cedar Fair fast, but they are not Kennywood slow. Actually, Hersheypark wasn't much better at all in terms of efficiency this fall (I did both parks in consecutive weekends this fall). Resources are limited, and parks must do what they can to get by. If anyone has worked at a park in a small market like Darien Lake is in, they will realize why they can't open all of the rides this time of the year. There is simply not enough staffing! Finding people to work these weekends after Labor Day is tough. Students move away in the fall, and new ones coming in do not want to commit to some weekend job that ends in October (I'm a student). Seniors hardly last operating rides (no offense, but experience tells). People criticize the park I work at because we aren't open past Labor Day, but they don't want to see the product if we tried. I'm not trying to kiss Darien Lake's ass as they are far from perfect, but Darien Lake is nowhere near as bad as some like to lead on. Rant over.

It's funny, even since the Timberliners have been a failure to launch on a large wooden coaster such as Voyage, we have switched our remedy for rough rides from "get a set of Timberliners" to "RMC Overahaul." Hopefully this fad limits itself for some of the rough Dinn's, RCCAs, and maybe a few CCIs of the 80s and 90s. Losing the wooden coaster experience would be a detriment to the amusement park experience. I'm not against new projects/ride experiences, but I think it would be a shame to wooden coasters if this Iron Horse system really takes hold on some coasters that aren't far off from being great coasters.

http://www.goerie.com/article/20120923/NEWS02/309229901/Waldameer-to-buy-nearby-motel-other-land%3B-wave-pool-planned This is a BIG story for a small park that is growing a lot faster than we realize. Some main points include the following: Major land acquisition. Wave pool and children's play area as soon as 2014. Lakefront property expansion to include at least another water ride, inclined railway, and a family ride.

FYI, Floodgate falls is dead. I like the Supershot addition A LOT! Who says this park is only focusing on the kiddies?

Waldameer Six Flags Great Adventure Knoebels Canada's Wonderland Kennywood Darien Lake Hersheypark (Conneaut Lake probably in October)

Every morning this past summer as I was collecting ride inspection paperwork from each ride at Waldameer, Ravine Flyer II was roaring through its morning test runs. Because of the small size of the park combined with zero guests, the sound could be heard from anywhere in the park. I could tell where the train was on the course without even looking. A favorite sound was on weekends when we have two trains testing: hearing one train barrel through the course as one clicks up the lift. The best sound was hearing the train disengage from the lift when the typical anti-rollback clicking speeds up and gets louder to a deeper knocking sound. Hearing the rides without the screams and other background noises makes you appreciate the engineering behind the rides.

Darien Lake 9/8/12 Weather: Heavy rain and thunderstroms in the morning, conditions improving throughout the day. However, I was actually supposed to be going to Hershey on this day, but their forecast was even more severe all day, so I decided to swap Saturdays at each park. Attendance: Light (Parking lot started to get packed for a concert) The Coasters: After a couple rides on Mind Eraser combined with my experience with SLCs in the past, my opinion on this coaster has solidified. Of course, this ride is a headbanger. However, there are certain seats that minimize the pain. Near the back on the left side seat has the least amount of headbanging and shuffling. The layout, despite being a cookie-cutter, is good, and Darien Lake has a nice setting for their SLC. Once in row two, and once in the more comfortable row 10 (6/10). Motocoaster is a unique family coaster with a launch good enough to satisfy the thrill seekers. As for the rest of the ride, nothing much to write home about. One ride (6/10). Viper is looking sleek in its fresh, all black, and orignal color scheme. The ride itself was also very good for this kind of coaster. Transitions were tolerable, and my head didn't smack into the OTSRs ever. Stuff like only cutting the trees near the corscrews as little as possible make this fairly typical coaster memorable. Even better, this Arrow looper has a nice underground helix finale to cap it all off. Two rides (7/10) Yes people, I love Boomerangs! Now they aren't in the catagory of elite coasters, but they are tons of fun. The initial release from the lift feels similar to a drop tower. However, the crazy moment is going through the vertical loop backwards. Somehow, every time I ride the loop in reverse, it really disorients me (in a good way). Two rides (7.5/10) I'm priviledged to have Ride of Steel only 2 hours from home. On this visit, I have found my money seat: 1:2. This is the money seat because of, one, the ejector air on the bunny hops, and secondly, it never has a line due to the impractical setup of the station. I don't need to wait the excessive amount of time for that supposedly "perfect" view. Some may say this coaster is flawed because of the straight sections of track as well as the extreme size of the helices. However, I think the location of this ride makes it work. For instance, the straight section of track over a pond gives a great sensation of speed and perhaps flight. Also, the first drop into a banked turn over the pond is very underrated. Excellent ride all three times (10/10). Predator, hands down, was an amazing surprise. I took the risk, and sat 6:2 for my first ride. I do not know if it was due to the recent rain, installation of the former Voyage trains, or better track maintenance, but this woodie was running excellently. Airtime was a plenty, and of the "ejector" type especially in 1:1. The trim on the first drop was OFF all three rides. In terms of comfort, it wasn't perfect, but it was by no means painful. Only the section going up the hill after the descending turn had a moderate jolt. No Predator hate to be found here! Took four incredible rides (9/10). Park Impression: Darien Lake as a park experience is not as bad as some like to say. I really enjoyed msyelf. The park is well kept, and offers a variety of attractions for the whole family. Their work on Rowdy's Ridge was excellent. However, their ride operators were not the best in terms of professionalism. Examples included a lot of flirting and chatting with the guests when they could have been a little more aware of what their ride was doing. On three coasters, I saw the operator on controls having conversation with guests while operating at the same time. Despite the ride operators, the rest of the park staff was very friendly. I appreciated how the woman selling tickets was kind to inform me on the weather policy before making a purchase (Even though I was well aware of how parks operate in bad weather). She even was kind enough to give me a ten dollar discount because she felt bad that I didn't have any promotional discount coupon/ticket on this less than perfect day (I didn't even ask!).

I have trained myself to be a morning person only for travelling to amusement parks. For me, Cedar Point is about three hours away, which is honestly nothing for a drive. I will depart at 7am, and I will spend my entire day there until closing at 10pm, and I will be able to ride everything I want. I usually return home between 2-3am. The trip is tiring, but not exhausting. The longest travel time for a single park in a single day is a little over four hours to make it to Knoebel's which was completely worth it. Since the park doesn't require as much time as Cedar Point to fully experience, I can get away with travelling 8 hours in one day plus a full day at the park. With Kings Island trips, and my trip to Hersheypark this weekend, I will leave close to 5am and make it there by 10:00am. I will be at the park until 10pm closing. I stay the night, and arrive home the next day in the afternoon. Although, this particular weekend I'm going to plan on arriving home by 1pm for the Browns opening weekend kickoff! The most extreme trip I have taken in terms of the travel to amusement park ratio was this past spring. I left at 3:15am to arrive at Six Flags Great Adventure by 10am. I was there from 10am-7pm as the park was not busy at all (walk-ons everywhere). Spent the night in Jersey, stopped at Knoebels briefly, and I made it home by 10pm that night. In terms of finances, I'm a full time college student, so I pay close attention. Meals are a less than $5 stop for McDonald's breakfast. One meal in the park (because I love Panda Express in Cedar Fair Park). For water, I usually can sneek bottled water in a cargo pocket, or I spend the $3-4 on a 20oz bottle and refill it at the water fountains. Lastly, I make a small $5 stop for fast food on the way home. Lodging (if needed) is usually an economy hotel. The issue of gas is controlled by my Civic getting about 35mpg on the highway. I can afford this hobby and the rest of my life by working part time during the school year, and putting in 60 hours a week at Waldameer during the summer (most trips are early May or September). ^^That is my typical travel experience at an amusement park in a nutshell.

One of the few regrets I have as an enthusiast is only visiting this park once when it was only a little over 2 hours away from home. This was a very nice park.

Working as a supervisor at an amusement park has squished my coaster trips into late spring and early fall. Since my park ends its season on Labor Day, I really am not the most experienced when it comes to expected crowd levels in the fall. I understand that weekends, especially when they are nice, are still fairly busy at the parks during fall hours. This fall I'm planning on a Hersheypark visit either the weekend after Labor Day or the weekend following that. Does anyone have experience with Hershey during September? Is there a huge difference between Saturday and Sunday crowds? I understand that nobody has the crystal ball that can predict the future, but I'm curious if anyone has past experiences.

Two trains and Ravine Flyer II is a tough subject for myself because I love to see this thing busy and cranking out riders. Both trains are operated on a rotating basis, and heve been doing this since opening day. Starting with late-June Saturdays, and several Sundays until the end of the season, you will see two-train operation on Ravine Flyer II. We all must remember that Waldameer is small and doesn't pull in large park crowds on most weekdays, so one train operation is all that is necessary. It is amazing what that second train does to a line that reaches the bottom of the station ramps; it kills it. Next thing you know, we are stuck with empty seats. With empty seats, we are required to buckle the seatbelts over the lap bars. Doing this takes time, and the result is that we become counter productive in terms of efficiency in which the other train sits on the brake run for a much longer time than necessary. Also, for icing on the cake, most of the work on the trains is performed by exactly ONE mechanic, and having two trains to work on every day is a lot of work. He does an exceptional job and takes it very seriously, but he is also the mechanic responsible for four other rides in the park! That is a small park budget for you. Also, a guest service issue I took upon myself to address is our closing procedure for RFII. As many of you have experienced we do close the line early based on its length. Previously, we judged it and closed the line with no prior notice to our guests. Bummer, I know, I understand. This early closing policy isn't changing any time soon as we only have the resources for operators who put in 12 hours each day, and mechanics who put in close to 15 hours. To curb some of the dissatisfaction, I got some of the management team together and we decided on an announced closing time. You will see me sitting on the benches monitoring the line after 9:00. Then I will radio management the expected closing time for them to annouce. If the announced closing time ends up being too early, I leave the line open until necessary. If the annouced closing is too late in which the ride will operate some time past ten, oh well for us and we stay a little late. This has cut the complaints drastically. P.S. I will be at the coaster for the TPR event coming up soon.

1. Pirates Cove has had several scenes repainted, and a refurbishment of Bill Tracy's "Quicksand Hands." 2. I spoke with the head mechanic on Thunder River about the water wheel about a week ago. According to him, the wheel was victim of a design flaw in which the water pressure required for it to work properly was astronomical. It never operated properly when it did have water flowing. 3. Comet is VERY close to two train operation. The issue holding us back was the new system being retrofitted for the restraints. The green train has had its lap bar locking/unlocking mechanisms completely refurbished, and orange is in the process of being refurbished. Also, we got clearance from PTC to use the lubricant that we use on RF2's restraints on Comet in which the lap bars have been working excellently as of recent. Also, we moved the wristband/Wally Card scanner further back into the queue, so that guests are scanned and ready to board well before the train is ready. Efficiency has been dramatically increased. 4. Whacky Shack's new loading procedure ended up being better in thought than in practice. The goal was to load two cars simultaneously, and the outcome was guests who couldn't follow directions no matter how dumbed down they were. Combine that with a ride system that is completely manual between the exit, loading, and dispatch areas. This ride is tricky to operate, believe me. We have been staffing an exit attendant on busy days to help speed up unloading so that cars can be ready for loading a lot faster. 5. L. Ruth Express has been operating with two trains on Saturdays and Sundays, and the guests couldn't be happier with that. Ridership is up and the grumbling because of the sometimes 45 minute waits has been almost diminished. The Red train has a beautiful engine, and we are in the process of updating the older cars. 6. I'm sorry to say that if you are visiting in the next week or so, expect Flying Swings to be down. It went down yesterday and we are awaiting Zamperla's evaluation of the needed repairs. I cannot give any more details about that. Besides this bit of bad news for the Waldameer community, ride up-time has been very good. 7. A note about the cashless system. Our food and games revenues are significantly up from last year. The adjustment period for the guests has not been without its difficulties, but the reception as a whole was not as negative as I, guests, employees, or enthusiasts initially believed. 2013 is confirmed a Music Express. The ride has been purchased, and will be placed in the current location of Scrambler. Scrambler is moving right next door by the train station where the Hoop Shot game is right now. This game will be relocated elsewhere in the park. Last, but certainly not least, a little, important birdie told me that experts will be coming in this fall to evaluate Ravine Flyer II, and expect some retracking. The coaster still runs as great as ever, but this just shows Waldameer's commitment to their crown jewel.

I love my home park's Ravine Flyer II's view. However, like previously mentioned, the view of a giant woodie in the dense forest seen on The Beast is classic.

I heard a father talking to his family in line when I was operating a ride today: "The best time to ride roller coasters is in the cold weather because they run faster when the tracks shrink" Exactly why we remove some of the anti-rollbacks in the summer months here in the Northeast.

Oh how I hate to do this to my beloved home park, but for the sake of progress: Waldameer Near Future: The park is expanding and getting busier, so a security team along with some full-time sweeps is becoming more necessary. Repaint the white water slides (CP-Brilliant Idea), and overhaul the kiddie pools with some modern childrens' attractions. Somehow acquire some land for more parking to make way for a wave pool expansion. Some TLC for ride lighting packages (I understand perfection is tough, but some rides are looking shabby at night). Begin looking into some more intense flats. (Music Express in 2013 is getting there) Far Future: In the coming years, add another adult-sized woodie to complement RFII (Holiday World or Knoebels). Consider a Euro-fighter or coaster of similar stature that has a few inversions.

Today I have absolutely no fear of any ride or attraction, but my first step into the world of the big coasters was hindered by Arrow. My first "big" coaster was Dragon Mountain at Marineland, and it bashed me as I was at the height where my head made direct hits on the OSTR. My next large coasters were at Darien Lake. Riding (at the time) Superman: Ride of Steel and actually Predator didn't phase me, but Boomerang and Viper made me terrified of inversions because of the headbanging. Surprising enough, Mind Eraser wasn't so bad because my head was slightly lower than the headrests so I didn't get bashed as badly. The magic moment for Arrow/Vekoma loopers was when I learned to brace my head tighly against the headrest and headbanging virtually ceased to exist. Unfortunately, seeing the OSTRs also on Pitfall when I was young and ignorant terrified me because I thought that they would too bash me on the drop down, but one ride put that notion to rest.

The sad thing about this article is how true it is. We in the coaster community look at parks is a completely different way than the general public. We study the rides so closely that what seems to be general safety is obvious. Most people do not care to think that a cell phone, keys, or glasses that are ripped from the hands, fly out of a bra, or jump out of a shallow pocket are dangerous projectiles. Same with bags/purses that they try to string around their shoulder/neck; imagine that ripping away or pulling on you during a turbulent coaster ride. As for those pesky steps, ledges, and fences, most guests think its fine to take any quick shortcut they can find until the moment they get hurt and the park is the one ultimately responsible (hence why we park staff members are so picky about sitting on the railings or jumping fences). In conclusion, guests do not like to believe or follow any safety guideline that is inconvenient to him or her.

In terms of roller coasters, each park needs "The Coaster." "The Coaster" is a thrilling, visually imposing, unique, signature coaster only that park will have. For Example: Cedar Point: Millennium Force Kings Island: The Beast (Now you can argue Diamondback) Kings Dominion: Intimidator 305 Carowinds: Intimidator SFoT: New Texas Giant SFoG: Goliath SFGadv: El Toro Holiday World: The Voyage Knoebels: Phoenix Kennywood: Phantom's Revenge SFNE: Bizarro Canada's Wonderland: Behemoth/Leviathan Waldameer: Ravine Flyer II A Park with a Chance-Morgan Custom Hyper These go against my unique rule, but are still signature rides: Giovanola Hypers: Titan and Goliath SFA and Darien Lake's (Superman): Ride of Steel hypers Just to name a few

Memorial Day night as I was closing Ravine Flyer II's line. Girl: Can you go get my phone I left on the ride? Me: Do you know if it's on the train or in the loose articles bin? Girl: No, I lost it on the ride. Me: Sorry, you phone is LONG gone. Girl: What the F#%K! I just got it last week!!! Me: I'm sorry to hear that, this is why we ask you to put loose articles such as phones into the loose articles bin or into a deep pocket. Girl: But I didn't want to lose it! Me: And holding onto it during the ride did you what good?

I guess I timed my trip just right on Thursday May 18. Leviathan and Behemoth lines began at the bottom of the station stairs. Less than 10 minutes every time. I'm trying to understand the B&M rattle people speak of. I really can't identify with it. I guess you can say there is vibrations on parts of their coasters, but I just thought its a fact of life when travelling at those speeds. Anyways, Leviathan is an amazing combination of intensity, speed, and airtime making it an elite coaster.