SaraAB87

[ quote=Matman-TheRide]Remember when Doug said "I can speculate that the go karts area could look vastly different when it comes time to evaluate the offerings in that area." ? I know Darien Lake has taken fan ideas from the internet in the past (Blast Off was from discussions on Facebook suggesting a drop tower, one guy (I don't remember his name) on this forum suggested waterslides between Tornado and Swirl City and that became Brain Drain). I remembered that I made a suggestion on this forum myself about a Skyrocket (Kennywood) clone going into the spot where the go-karts are after Doug's post (the one I quoted). A while after I posted my suggestion, I googled mapped the Go-Karts and compared it (to scale) to the Skyrocket at Kennywood. If you turn Skyrocket's layout vertically, it fits perfectly in that area. I'm not saying that it will happen, however, considering Darien Lake's usual budget and the amount of land under the go-karts, it could. I also suggested they remove the gokarts, on here, not on Facebook. No one rides them, parts and upkeep has to be pretty high and they require several employees to run, more than a normal ride. Overall it's a good idea that will free up a lot of land. They also have the antique cars and the bumper cars so they have guests covered for car type rides. It's a no-brainer idea so I think a lot of people have suggested it. I also think they need to put in a high capacity ride of some sort, something that can move people through the line so guests can actually get on a ride that doesn't take forever to get on. The only high capacity ride in the park is the top spin and it's often not running, otherwise the park is full of low capacity rides blast off, moose on the loose etc... The Larson super loop is a start.

I don't think the meme thing would work since these meme's come and go and people totally forget about them. However I have always wanted to see a video game themed amusement park, and I think kids and adults would go bonkers for it if it ever happened (somewhere, someday).

The weather scaring in buffalo is at an all time high right now, it seems they just try their hardest to put doom & gloom into the forecast as much as possible.

The land that the gokarts are on is currently being wasted by the gokarts. The last time I went almost no one was on them. They are old, expensive to maintain, take up a lot of space, use expensive gasoline unlike the new modern electric gokarts and take up quite a few staff members. I believe someone said there is also land behind the gokarts that can be used as well. But if they are still in the park they must be making money on them..... The sky coaster can stay, I see lot of people on it, more than on the gokarts. Slingshot, I don't care either way but removing it would make room for a new flat.

If anything should be removed it should be the go karts which are expensive to ride and no one rides anymore. Either that or remove some of the stupid, horribly overpriced upcharge rides.

I did say motocoaster was one and done, so I definitely don't disagree. I don't like it either but I had to dig to find something good to say about a coaster there. I have been to Waldameer with no problems, I have to dig deep to find a complaint about ride operations or guest services there. I waited 15 min longest for ravine flyer 3 which was totally amazing. I even was able to wait for the front something I never do. The whole park at DL needs a complete overhaul. As far as raging seas they literately had 2-3 boats operating on that thing, so they basically had no choice but to replace it. I don't care for ring of fire type rides so that addition won't bring me in. I don't do water parks. I don't even think it's worth driving there for me at this point since I won't even ride any of their coasters because I refuse to wait over 2 hours for one ride. Half of their flats are always broken down, and if a ride doesn't work at some point during the season, it will most likely be down for the rest. One ride down kills the lines in this park, because the park has so little to begin with. It's also full of expensive upcharge rides that no one cares about and that no one in the WNY area can afford. If you can afford a visit to DL with upcharge rides then you can definitely afford to go to CP. It's a shame because they at one point had a really good collection of unique flat rides but they fall totally short in the coaster department. When I went I just rode the haymaker, silver bullet, the huss round up was down which I was severely disappointed by and I rode a couple other flats. Silver bullet is a killer ride for me and I also like the haymaker. Both have short waits so I just stayed by those 2 rides for like 2 hours and rode them over and over. I can't deny it, I did have fun but I question if it's worth an hour drive for like 2-5 things that I will actually go on. I was looking up rates and it's probably only slightly more money for admission to CP, food prices are probably actually MORE at DL ($10 for a hot dog last I checked) and there is nothing to do around the park area other than the campgrounds. Food quality is stuff you would get out of the dollar tree or the cheapest Walmart food you can get, which is probably a step above what you will be served at the park. There isn't even a single restaurant in the area of the park unless you drive 30-40 min out. Darien lake is also officially the most draconian park when it comes to weight limits. If you are over 200lbs, don't even go. They post weight limits right on the website, the top spin they have is 198lbs per seat and the wave swinger is 170lbs per seat. Some others are slightly more generous, like moose on the loose which is 220lbs per moose so unless you are very skinny you won't be able to go on the moose with your child. I have no idea how much this is enforced but these are just examples and they are posted by the rides; there is more. I dug on CP's website and the only official weight limit I could find was for the wave swinger which was 230lbs a far cry from DL's 170. I thought CP was the most draconian park for fat people, I guess I was wrong. Waldameer doesn't even have any weight limits posted ( and judging by the park clientele and what I saw on my visits weight is officially a non issue at Waldameer) neither does most other parks as I was trying to see if this was a common occurrence among parks but apparently it is not. If you can't go on a couple rides due to weight at this park then it will diminish your experience since there aren't that many rides there.

Home park has totally lost its luster, haven't paid to go to Darien Lake in years, went twice through a company picnic for free and wouldn't go again until they make some major improvements to ride operations, ride lineup and cleanliness of the park in certain areas. I am sure kids love it but it's clear parents and families and all other guests are miserable at the park. They only have 1-2 coasters worth riding and ride of steel was an over 2 hour wait both times I went due to one train operation on all coasters and the fact that there is only one good coaster in the park so the entire park lines up for ROS. The other coaster worth riding is motocoaster, but it really is a one and done thing. Their kids rides also operate on a rotating basis with sometimes a single op for several rides, so if you have small children they have to go in the order the one ride operator runs them in. They also promised 2 train ride operations last season and some kind of fun guarantee thing and skip the line of it's too long thing but they never seemed to deliver on any of those promises, especially when they sent out an email to some season pass holders that they would have 2 train operation on coasters and never even tried to have 2 train operations. Please do not implement something that you have no intention of promising. However I have been to Waldameer, Martin's fantasy island and Seabreeze so I do have other choices. My closest is MFI but I don't think I will be going there unless they get some more rides because there just isn't enough for even half a day there for me. Last year's incidents at this park definitely make me want to avoid it. They also spent over a million dollars on a KMG speed type ride called over the falls that both did not go over very well with the public, had poor capacity and was down all the time. This year they are adding a music express which is what they should have spent the money on last year (it's a very family orientated park).... Can anyone say "I told you so"! Really you plop a high thrill ride into a family park, that already has a couple high thrill rides for the big kids and expect everyone to love it. I was confident that parks put a lot of research into what they buy but evidently that is not the case with this park, especially since it was a custom designed ride made for the park which meant it was more $$$ and was removed after only one season. I really don't want to sound like I am the type of person who knows what is best for this park (I obviously don't)but this was such an obviously bad decision that it is hard not to see the fault in it. As in any idiot would be able to tell you that placing a music express in this park is a much much better thing for the park then placing an expensive, custom KMG speed. Waldameer is very good, I have been twice and there are still a few things I did not get to, they have a lot of rides, I am not sure if they actually have more rides than the other 2 parks I just mentioned but perhaps it just feels like they have more rides because I like every single ride they have (this is personal taste, Waldameer just seems to be a place where they plopped every single ride I like into one place.) I can't review Seabreeze yet because I haven't been there in a very long time but I plan on going soon.

Basically any smaller park on a weekday or an off day Waldameer in Erie, PA is fine on just about any day, when I went 15 min wait or less even for the coasters and it was a Sunday in the middle of summer however I hear the place gets totally mobbed on holidays, avoid on holidays. A park that is never crowded is a park that has one foot in the grave, all parks will have super busy days out of random and all parks will have random slow days. So it's possible you could hit one of those types of days out of random. Other local events, school trips and bus trips and special event days will all affect crowds.

I might be going this year to sea breeze, looking forward to it!

This, I know when I go to the park I have my enthusiast goggles on and want to see two train operations. However on my visit last year MULTIPLE times in multiple lines I head the GP complain about how slow operations were. And I can saw without a doubt they were by far the slowest operations of any park I visited last year. I think just and improvement on operations & guest services could help this park a lot. This is exactly my point. This park needs consistency, they have areas that are in really bad shape like the inside entrance (the first thing you see when you get to the park), then they have areas that are beautiful like Rowdy's. It's such a drastic contrast that I think it exacerbates the problem even more; aka the dirty areas look more dirty than they would at a park that has a consistent layout, and the clean areas are so clean that they almost look too clean for the park. I am not concerned with rides sitting out in the parking lot out of guest access but I do like the way the park is going, I would prefer they update in a smaller way each year rather than put in a big attraction then not add anything for the next 3 years. This park draws mostly locals, regardless of what we think people are not traveling cross country to see DL just like I am not going all the way to the west coast specifically to visit Lagoon in Utah. Therefore they should be catering to the local market. If they spent a whole year just to refurbish rides and overhaul guest operations I would be fine with that if the park changed for the better. Operations at this park are currently so bad that I will not be returning until it improves in the way of 2 train operation. I am not even a hardcore enthusiast, I don't know a lot about coasters but I do know the manufacturers of most rides, it's cool to know where the rides come from.

Maintenance and operations and guest services are 3 areas where DL really need to improve, ever been to the park most people who go are miserable while they are at the park, and no this does not apply to all parks because I have never seen such miserable clientele at any other park. Guest friendliness needs to improve, 2 train operation needs to become mandatory for all coasters and cleanliness needs to improve a lot. If this happens and 2 train operation returns and is done well then DL will be a park worth visiting. Otherwise it's a park where you will spend 50% or more of your visit waiting in line for ROS. If you have been to a park that has 2 train operation vs one that does not you know how much of a difference it makes and even the GP can see it, you don't need to be a hardcore enthusiast to see why the line does not move.

I operated Riverside's version of this back in the late 90's and there was definitely a positive correlation between the amount of weight on the ride and the quality of the ride, even running the same program. I don't know that I've ever seen Twister full at Darien Lake and the rides have always been a bit lackluster... so I've always assumed that it's primarily a weight thing and that it actually can produce a really good ride if only there are enough people actually riding it. They have a 198lb weight limit per person on the twister so I wonder if that has something to do with it. Maybe that is why it has low ridership, because they turn a lot of people away because they look over 198lbs. I can attest to being well over that limit and fitting in the top spin at the Erie county fair just fine, so I suspect twister could hold a 220lb person at least just fine but technically not allowed by the park.

Over the falls seemed to have a very negative perception with the guests, the guests didn't like it and it didn't hold enough people. If they made it an extra charge attraction that would have caused a nightmare because no one would have paid to go on it, do you pay for those extra charge attractions at the fair that aren't included with a wristband...... I know I never have. Plus they would also lose the ability to advertise the park as all inclusive and affordable. Everyone just wanted the old ugly log ride back. I think MFI should stick with the family friendly theme instead of trying to install the biggest and the best.

I have to agree, none of this is realistic. DL will not close, it's obviously making money and people are still coming as much as all of us think the park is a crappy run down place. If it was in danger of closing local news media would be all over that, and I haven't seen anything out of the news yet on that. SF would never buy back a park they sold, again same, you would see it on the news if anything big was going down at the park.

The fact that the park is changing owners every few years is not a good sign Whomever gets the park needs to fix the issues that are already there and improve the guest experience before adding anything new. clean restrooms, more restrooms, 2 train operation on coasters, remove any rides that are too run down to use and don't just leave them SBNO..

I have to agree about the bathrooms. Also the whole entranceway needs an overhaul. Having a beautiful entrance when people arrive at the park and that is the first thing they see absolutely will make a difference as a person will be starting their day on a positive note. Also there aren't enough restrooms in the park at all especially at the entrance. The whole entrance area is dirty and unkept. It doesn't say much about a park if they can't keep the entrance way in good condition. The dinky tables at Tim hortons need to be replaced ASAP. There are places that are very busy that can and do maintain restrooms so it can be done. Not only do they need to clean the restrooms, they need to build more. There is just so much that needs to be done with this park and tbh it all needs to happen fast, but in reality that will not happen.

It's not gonna close, there is too much involved for it to close. It's not just a park, it's a resort, a campground and a concert venue. It's one of the only concert venues in the area, especially if you want to go to an outdoor concert. The concert venue alone brings tons of business and I am sure most of those people going to the concert also go to the park as well. Yes it needs improvement but as far as I know the people have not stopped coming. If the parking lots are empty and the people stop coming then I would say yes it's in danger of closing. The parking was into the overflow lot the last time I went so clearly that is not happening. Concerts are almost always packed. Regardless of what the park does people will still come due to severe lack of entertainment in this area. If someone built something better than DL (NOT Likely at all) in this area then the people may jump ship. As of now WNY has nothing better. They may not have the best guest experience, but it's not horrible either and in general people don't care that much about things like long lines, one train operation etc since they come once a year cause the kids want to go so they take them no matter what. They will simply wait in the 2 hour line to go on ROS and just take it in stride.

Best park within reasonable driving distance of WNY, no strange restrictions on food or drink in the park and no restrictions on glasses on rides like a certain other park in the area. I wear a strap but I didn't see anyone else in the park with one and no one had any problems .No admission fee for non riders or anyone else, neither of the other 2 parks here offer this. I am sure they make a lot of money off parents who bring their kids and just go on a few rides since kids tire out quickly and no other park allows this. Carnivals are super expensive here at $4-5 per ride even for kiddie rides. Waldameer is more like $3 per ride even if you are buying single credits with nothing over 4.50 per ride.

I don't really get why parks are closed on Mondays (and it seems like a lot are), seems like it would make more sense to close on Tuesdays or wednesday if they need a maintenance day or a day off. Closing on Monday makes it difficult for the weekenders like me who will get a hotel for one night and come to erie (and any area with a park really). With all the attractions and shopping in erie it's the perfect weekend destination. We stay over Sunday night and then shop on Monday but it would be nice to have the park open on Monday so that we could do the park on Monday if needed.

Last time I went to the Halloween event it was really packed so I am guessing they make enough money on it since they are the only park in the area doing a Halloween event and there is nothing to do in WNY now that summer has ended. If it stops being profitable they will stop having it. But they can open half the park, decorate a few rides and call it a Halloween event and people will come so they will have it.

The students are back in college and the kids back in school so they likely have less workers now. I don't think the end of the season is the best time to visit the park, rides start to fail and sometimes in ways that they cannot fix during the season and operations and service will be at their worst due to lack of workers. But If you managed to give a positive review even despite all that then that is a good thing. I would ideally go a couple weeks after full season opening, aka after the kids get out of school. This Park has problems getting enough workers in the off season when everyone goes back to school which is something I really don't understand since everyone here is out of work, ideally there should be plenty of people clamoring for these jobs. There was an accident at the Erie county fair where a ride was started before everyone was on the ride and a girl fell from the swing ride and broke her arm. I personally feel the Erie county fair is VERY fast paced, the ride ops hustle like none other I have seen and you have to be on and off the rides in seconds (and I have been there many times). Perhaps DL employees are just slowing things down a bit in order to make sure there are no accidents. I find that when an accident happens in this area the ride ops on every ride suddenly become more cautious and that takes more time.

From what I am hearing this year I don't want to be mean or put words in someone's mouth or anything like that but they did have a mechanical failure of the swing ride and an incident which I will not specify on the mouse, though that one could happen anywhere. There seems to be more complaining about MFI than DL though. The problem is I just get this gut feeling that MFI values profit over safety and is a bit neglectful of the safety of the rides.They don't exactly have guest friendly policies though especially concerning glasses, I always wear a strap with my glasses on any ride because they are so expensive so I am obviously responsible for myself and my property. When I was at Waldameer I am pretty sure I was the only one with a glasses strap at the whole park. The problem is that I can't see at all without my glasses and therefore I cannot safely board a ride without them. I am unable to wear contacts also, I have tried but I can't get them in. I can move around my house a little without my glasses but that is because I know where everything is already but as for stairs and edges and stuff I cannot see those at all so if I tried to board a ride without my glasses I would fall instantly. I also cannot have a pair of glasses that cost several hundred dollars sitting on a shelf, ledge or some ride platform, and even then once I put the glasses down I won't be able to find them again so that is another problem.

MFI is replacing rides because they have old rides, that log flume was built in 84 and was way past it's time and a maintenance nightmare. There is a lot of room to expand behind where the flume was now. Though the guests seem to hate the new ride, since there is complaining about it everywhere. I am not sure why people are complaining about the flume since it was old and the water getting dumped on you is disgusting and gross and I would never go on it.

The park will always try to deny something. If ranger is closing I would not be surprised.

Used but still current rides would be a great way to replace some of the parks aging or removed flats. Darien relies on locals and most locals haven't been on anything that isn't at Seabreeze, MFI or Waldameer or what is at your local carnival. If they get used rides the public won't even notice. Like most people here I would like them to focus on getting something that has not been seen in WNY, southern Ontario or northern PA. If they put in a duplicate of something that is already at one of the other parks in the general vicinity I will be disappointed.