Rai Fox

Well, that's good news for me; I'll be there Sunday. Looking forward to this one, painful or not!

New England? Riverside Park in Agawam, MA, had one until the park became Six Flags New England and SF started gutting their flats. No idea where it went; sadly, mostly like just a scrapyard somewhere. I remember the ride being quite fun, myself.

Leviathan was running more efficiently than I've ever seen any coaster when I got on it a few weeks ago. It's a high capacity B&M to start with, and the staff was running dispatches more efficiently than I've seen out of most crews at Disney or Knoebels. They had someone starting a steady countdown from 10 the moment the last person from the previous ride left the station, and the train -left- the station on zero. It may have been a bit slower than actually ten seconds...but not by much, and the train left on time every single run. Very impressive, CW.

Phew...I'm glad to hear that. I really need to get to Kennywood during the Halloween season someyear very soon. It's one of my favorite parks, and Phantom Fright Nights looks amazing. So many parks, so little time...

Lance at Screamscape posted that there was a notice that the Whip's last day is September 9th, but he hadn't seen the message himself. I just checked the sight, and this is in a yellow banner at the top of the screen. "Kennywood is open Saturdays and Sundays through 9/16. The Volcano, Raging Rapids and Arcade are closed today. Last day for the Whip is Sept 9. See EVENTS page for Sept 16 BOGO coupon. Limited time offer." Anyone know if they mean simply the last day for the season...or is this great classic ride leaving us, the oldest in the park, leaving us for good? There are other whips at other parks not too far away; I know Knoebels, Hershey, and Dorney all have them, but it would still be a shape to lose Kennywood's.

I have no idea what happened to Riverside's... but given that most of the existing attractions were ripped out in the first couple of years that Premier Parks was there I would venture to guess it was scrapped. Yeah, they tore out a lot of great rides. I was hoping to hear that maybe it was sold to someone else who was taking good care of it...but that doesn't seem likely.

Does anyone know what happened to Riverside's Tri-Star or Idlewild's Tornado? Are either of them still around anywhere?

Nope, you're not. I saw the first words of the headline and nearly went into shock.

There were at least two, Tri-star at Riverside Park, until 2000-ish when it became Six Flags New England, and Tornado (I think) at Idlewild, until a few years ago.

I live fairly close to the park, easily within day-trip distance, so I'd have no real need to stay overnight... ...buuut I'd do it anyway without a moment's extra thought! I really hope this goes through, I can't wait to see it if it does. Now they just need to expand the park itself a bit more to make it worth staying more than a day (and that's coming!).

I was starting to wonder if I was the only one that even remembered that ride. I only got to get on it once, shortly before it was removed. It was so good, and I've never been on another since. Idlewild had one for a while, but they removed it shortly before I had a chance to get there. I don't know of any others =/

Behemoth at CW. 3X in 15 minutes at the end of the day, twice in the front row.

A classic Enterprise is still one of my favorite rides anywhere. I've almost certainly been on the one at Lake Compounce more times than any other ride, coaster or flat ride, out there, and I just can't ever get enough of it.

Really, don't worry too much about planning. I don't think you can possibly go to Knoebels and not have an amazing day. You're going to have fun. You're going to want to get on every one of the rides that you've never been on before, you're going to want to try every snack that catches your eye, or your nose. I've never seen crowds bad enough that the park took any real planning; you'll be able to get on everything you want. There's plenty there to spread the crowds out, and the park staff keeps lines moving incredibly quickly, especially on the major rides. As far as dogs, yes, it's true. There are dogs all over the park! I've never seen another park anywhere that I can say that about. That's the one thing to keep in mind though; LOTS of dogs. Your dog won't be the only one there. If he/she doesn't react well to other dogs, the park isn't going to appreciate a dogfight in the middle of a path (I've seen it happen before), and obviously it will need to be well behaved around a lot of strangers. If it is the type of dog to like being around a lot of other animals and people though, it'll have almost as good a time there as you will.

Behemoth rough, really? I was on it not even a week and a half ago (front seats 3/5 rides, 2nd row once, 2/3 of the way back once) and thought it was perfectly smooth, and definitely a great coaster; maybe not quite as good as Nitro, but still one I'd love to get back on any time I get the chance.

Lance at Screamscape had posted that he expected the ride to be a temporary addition just for the halloween season, not a permanent part of the park. I'm not sure where he got that from, no one else had said that, and the park has now confirmed that that isn't the case; it will be staying there after this season. Lance has updated his post at Screamscape to reflect that.

I was hoping to be able to put up a good photo rip report, but unfortunately the friend I was visiting the park with doesn't really stop moving for long enough for pictures to have been much of an option, if I didn't want to find myself left behind. It couldn't have been a much better day at the park though. Weather was beautiful, crowds were fairly moderate compared to what I gather is usual for the park; heavy but not painfully so. We did pick up fastlane passes though, so they rarely slowed us down much anyway. We hit all of the major rides and most of the smaller ones, a few of them several times. We headed into the park and swung a left, figuring most crowds would be headed right for Leviathan. First stop, Flight Deck. I wanted the credit, so I was prepared for the pain, but it never really came. It wasn't -smooth- by any means, but it was no worse than any other SLC I've been on, and better than some. Time Warp next, which again was better than I expected, given the ride's reputation. No top ten coaster by any means, but fun while it lasted, and never really painful like I've been told. We hit a couple flats on the way - Sledgehammer (rather disappointing after so many years of wanting to get on it, not very exciting at all despite its size), and Psyclone (would have loved it last year, but after riding Black Widow, it just doesn't compare), but then we put the mediocre rides behind us. Behemoth was straight ahead. It may not be the biggest or fastest coaster at the park anymore this year, but it's still amazing. Great airtime, I'd say the best of the B&M Hypers I've been on, smooth, and fast. I love that hammerhead turn after the first stretch. I think I might like Nitro's layout just a bit better overall, but Behemoth is a great ride. Resisting the urge to go for re-rides now, since we didn't know what crowds would be like elsewhere and wanted to be sure we got everything, we headed on, stopping for a quick ride on Backlot Stunt Coaster next. The same as at King's Dominion, except without any of the special effects working this time. A fun little family coaster with some surprisingly potent forces in the first helix and a few of the bunny hops, though there's not really all that much to it. Now I was excited - Orbiter was next. I had high hopes, since the original Enterprise is still one of my favorite flat rides, and this was a big deal for me. I'd been crushed when the ride was closed a few years back, killing off my chance at getting on a Skylab, and ecstatic when Cedar Fair put it back into action. Now I was finally getting on it...unfortunately, it didn't come close to living up to what I hoped it would be. It isn't anything special at all- it doesn't even go all the way to vertical, and as soon as it hits its maximum angle it starts back down. Actually a far inferior ride to an Enterprise. At least I can say I got on it, though. Disappointed by that, we headed on to Vortex next. This one was anything but a disappointment. While it's not -quite- up to Big Bad Wolf's standards for suspended coasters, it's close. It lacks the themeing and beautiful location the Wolf had, but it makes up for it in sheer speed. Once it hits the bottom of the lift hill, it just doesn't slow down until the brake run. It feels wild and entirely out of control the entire time, and I absolutely loved it. Next up, the Mighty Canadian Minebuster. My friend insisted that this was one of the best coasters she'd been on, and a world-class woodie. One ride convinced me that I -really- need to get her down to my area to ride Boulder Dash. Minebuster moves quick enough, and it's reasonably smooth, but it doesn't -do- anything. No air time, no forces until the final helix, just a straight run out and back with a few entirely inconsequential hills. Not -bad-, just blah. This is when my friend told me that Skyrider was one of her favorites in the park and we had to hit that next. Skyrider, close relative of my old nemesis Shockwave at PKD. My head began to hurt just thinking about it. The whole point of the trip was to make sure she had the best weekend possible though, so I wasn't about to tell her no, as much as I dreaded it. Fortunately my fears were unfounded. Skyrider ran far smoother than the best ride I can remember ever having on Shockwave, and as long as I braced myself a bit for the worst parts, it was even fun. A very pleasant surprise. The high speed bunny hills at the end were an unexpected little giggle inducer, too. It's not a ride I'd go to the park for on its own, but it's enjoyable. I convinced my friend to do White Water Canyon next, despite her not really wanting to get wet. She finally agreed, saying that it's very rare anyone actually gets very wet on that ride. This was the longest wait of the day for us, at about a half hour. It's an okay raft ride, but pretty basic, and it was true, at least on our raft, that most people barely even got damp. One person did manage to get thoroughly soaked though; my friend who hadn't wanted to get wet, naturally enough. She laughed it off, and we continued on, though she pretended she didn't hear me when I tried to get her on Timberwolf Falls after. >.> We cut through the kids/family area just to have a look, then made our way around to the Bat. For her, with a lot less park and coaster experience than me, it's still a very fun and unique ride; for me, it's still a credit, so on we went. It's...well, it's a Boomerang. Not the smoothest I've been on, not the roughest. Just a boomerang. Not much more to say. Credit acquired. On to Shockwave. Shockwave was another flat that I'd been very much looking forward to, but by now I was starting to get used to being disappointed by the unique flats. Not the case here. Shockwave is insane, very reminiscent of Knoebels' Power Surge to me, but more unpredictable and disorienting. It took about fifteen seconds on the ride to completely lose track of little details like gravity. So much fun. We took a snack break; I got a big cup of Poutine fries, nice and hot, with a really tasty gravy. I'm not enough of a gourmet to know if the cheese curds were real, or just cheese, but they were good on the fries either way. Not Potato Patch fries, but not far off! Klockwerks was fun enough, I think slightly faster than Apollo at Dorney, but run on a much shorter cycle. Dragon Fire was next; another coaster that my friend thought was amazing, and more proof that I need to get her on more coasters. It's good by old Arrow standards, certainly - very smooth, second only to Loch Ness Monster in that regard, I think - but the simplistic layout suffers compared to newer rides. Decent, though, especially for it's age. We hit riptide next, where I got a bit of a surprise. I'm used to Top Spin style rides that tease riders with fountains that cut off at the last moment, but I've never actually gotten wet on one before. Riptide got my friend and I absolutely drenched; a welcome addition to the ride on a hot day. Other than the water, it's a pretty average ride, but enjoyable enough. Spinovator was the first Calypso ride I've gotten on. Very fast, though I still prefer a good old Scramber myself, or a Huss Breakdance. The Calypso just feels a bit bland overall. Nightmares was the last of the flats I'd been waiting to get on, the first Huss UFO I've been able to get to, and it didn't disappoint. The open cages feel very exposed, making the ride a lot more interesting, and the near vertical angle it gets to gives it a nice lead over an everyday Round-Up. It suffers a bit from CW's tendency toward short ride cycles, but it's still good stuff. We'd planned to save Leviathan for last, so we avoided getting close enough to be lured in for now and headed over to Wild Beast. A credit down, and a coaster I have little interest in getting on again. I didn't expect to dislike it so much, since I love PKD's Grizzly, but Wild Beast loses a lot to Grizzly for being plopped down in an open field instead of built into the woods, and falls behind far more for being much rougher than Grizzly was at its worst, nevermind now that Grizzly is running well again. Wild Beast just doesn't really have anything to it to make up for the pain. A quick stop on the drop tower, which was...well, it's a moderately tall drop tower. It's like every other drop tower, except taller than some and shorter than a lot of others. Nothing outstandingly good or bad about it. And that put us in front of the queue for Leviathan. The monstrous queue, snaking back and forth around the back and side of the queue. Oh, wait...fastlane. I definitely felt more than a bit guilty cutting that line, but we walked right on into the station, waited about five minutes, and got in the front row. Operations on this coaster were fantastic. All of the coasters so far had been good, but this crew could have put the average Knoebels' ride crew to shame. The gates opened, I ran through to leave my glasses in the bin on the other side, jumped back into my seat, pulled the harness down just as the attendant was coming up to check it, and we were gone, it felt like fifteen seconds since the gates opened. I'm not enough of a writer to try to describe Leviathan. It's not actually the fastest coaster I've been on, but it -feels- it. The speed and the sensation of it along the first stretch of track is incredible. I'm not sure why it feels significantly taller and faster than Intimidator 305 to me, when it only has one foot over it, but it did. It does very different things with its speed after the first drop than I305, it doesn't have the wild, gray-out inducing forces, but it just feels far faster and more graceful, quickly reminding me why I love B&M coasters so much. I absolutely love the low hill after the first drop, the way it just lets you enjoy the speed for a bit before any bigger climbs bleed off the speed. The coaster reminds me almost of a steel Boulder Dash, the way it just holds its pace so well. The only downside is how quickly it's over. Even a mile of track doesn't last long as those speeds. It seems like a matter of seconds before you're on the infamous brake run, grinning like a maniac. (Really. The on-ride photo from that one would have been enough to get my friend and I admitted to an asylum.) I'm not sure if I can say it's my favorite steel coaster or not, but if it isn't, it's very close to it. Worth the trip to Canada just for that alone. Of course, we did fail at getting on Leviathan last; we realized after we'd missed the Fly and Thunder Run. We ended up skipping Thunder Run since it had no fastlane line and a long normal line, and we decided we'd be better off using the time to get on several other rides again. Since I don't count powered coasters as a credit, I wasn't missing anything there, anyway. We did hit the Fly (decent for a Wild Mouse, painfully hard brakes), credit whored on Ghoster Coaster, but forgot about Silver Streak, costing me one valuable credit. We grabbed dinner; I ordered a veal sandwich at the Backlot Cafe, was mistakenly given a pulled pork sandwich instead, but it was good enough that I saw no reason to bring it back or complain - my friend got a massive sausage, brought it back to the cafe, and asked if they could put chili and cheese on it; the girl working there was happy to give her both if she wanted, but suggested she stick to the cheese, "the chili isn't very good." Honestly very much appreciated. Then it was time for re-rides. By the end of the day, we got back on Leviathan once more, another ride on Vortex, two more on Shockwave, two more on Skyrider, and then four more in a row on Behemoth, with virtually no wait; twice we got off one train, ran around, and got back on the next one, once even in the front car. Unfortunately that brought us to closing, and we headed out to watch the Starlight Spectacular. One of the best theme park shows I've ever seen, if short, just absolutely amazing, Disney-quality effects. The videos I've seen online don't do it justice since they only show the mountain, not the effects in the pool and around it, which are so much a part of the show. I wish I could find a video that did show it all. Only real downside at the end of the day, I never did get my Strawberry Nutella Crepe. I saw a stand selling them near Windseeker (No, I didn't go on it. No thank you. maybe someday. Not likely.) early in the day, came back later for one, only to be told that they'd run out of batter, but they would be open until closing and I could come back later. By 9 or so I desperately wanted one, but when I went back again, I was told the strawberries had been out too long, so they couldn't give me one. Grr. Now I'm back in the US and still craving one, so I'm going to have to make them myself =P Of course, there's more to the park then just the rides. The overall experience there was far better than just the rides would suggest. CW is a beautiful park, immaculately maintained and kept up. The grounds are attractive and clean, there's rarely a flake of paint missing or a burned out light bulb in the park, the staff is friendly, and operations and amazingly efficient. On the last two, the park very nearly gave Knoebels a run for its money, something I never expected from a big "chain" park. Given that I experienced just about the same pleasant surprise at Dorney Park earlier this summer, I think Cedar Fair is doing something right. Food at CW ranged from average to fairly good, but quite pricey. The crowds would have been an issue without Fastpass, and we certainly would have been a lot more rushed without them, likely not getting in any re-rides either, but I think we still would have had fun - the park staff handled the numbers very well. In the end, I wouldn't say it's my -favorite- park - a lot of the rides are just very average, though there are a few truly amazing, world-class ones - but it's one of the better ones. Certainly one of the "nicest" big parks I've been to. With a couple changes - personally, I'd love to see Wild Beast replaced with a really good wooden coaster, and a few more efficient, high capacity flats to help spread out crowds some - it could be a real gem. As is, I'm very much looking forward to the next chance I can get to go back there.

Yep, got there myself yesterday, was so happy to see Behemoth running. Unfortunately hurt my finger making typing a bit difficult, so I'll put up a report later when it's not going to take me forever to type ^^ (Short version - -great- day, really good park, Leviathan is amazing)

NOOOOOoooooo..... >.< I reallyreallyREALLY hope they have it up Sunday. I'm heading up to Canada for a long weekend and Behemoth is one of the big reasons for my trip, I've wanted to get on that one since it opened.

Absolute favorite flat? Oooh, tough call. Power Surge at Knoebels is definitely waaay up there. Black Widow at Kennywood is incredible, and would probably be my favorite... but no matter how amazing a flat ride is...I don't think anything yet beats a good classic Huss Enterprise for me. I don't know why, but I could just ride one all day long...

Well, it wouldn't be the first time. IIRC, their last flat opened late in the season, too.

That's great, I guess I'll have to make certain I get there this October. That's one flat ride that's till on my "to-ride" list.

Really? A KMG Tango? O.o That's a pretty wild ride for that park. Would be great to have one in the northeast though!

I'm kinda surprised to hear this. Was it really that bad? I know it used to be years back, but last time I was on it...last year or the year before, I forget...it was surprisingly smooth, one of the best rides I've ever had on an old Arrow Corkscrew.

Been to - Lake Compounce Dorney Park Knoebels Delgrosso's Kennywood. Will be going to Canada's Wonderland. Quassy Rye Playland and possibly Canobie Lake Park for their Halloween event. Definitely Lake Compounce's.