SaraAB87

We are fairly close to CP as well, especially if you can get a hotel for one night and a 2 day pass. I don't think it's half as bad as people make it out to me, it's not a huge mega park or anything like that, its not supposed to be, but for a local park it is decent.

It just comes down to the fact that DL has more to do than MFI, despite the cons I think it's a good local park and I did not leave disappointed or without enough to do. I know I would run out of stuff to do at MFI since they just don't have as many rides as DL, I have become bored there in the past and that was when they had cheap after 5pm admission. They are also lacking any coaster for those under 48 inches which causes disappointment in children. Darien lake has a kids coaster and kids bumper cars too. Raging seas only had a couple boats down when I was there and honestly isn't that bad, it still runs and at least is not SBNO. I checked up on this and found out Mack still makes the same ride so they could order another, right, lol! It wouldn't even be that bad if they removed it since it's a fairly common ride at least in Germany. With that said they should be able to at least refurbish it, and even if they didn't I wouldn't consider it a huge loss. It would be much worse if we lost the UFO or corn popper. Also bring back the troika, I am so dying to go on a troika, and at this point it would be better than predator. Darien also has the only fahtze enterprise known to be operating in the world, and what a ride it is! The ride also looks nice and is well kept. It's like someone plopped a collection of obscure German rides in some park in WNY. I will never understand how fahtze rides made it up here, but it is what it is. I know about the former huss factory so that part makes sense. I have no plans to take a trip to Germany anytime in my lifetime so for now DL will have to do. The 3 family rides were a good idea and I will take those over the scrambler which I have been on a million times. Now all we need is a waltzer!

Superman ROS at Darien lake around 2002 during frightfest. The problem with frightfest at this park is they close half the park so what is left gets extremely busy. It was a nice day and operations neglected to put the second train on the ride but then tried to do it middle of the day which held things up even more. Meanwhile the queue was overflowing and let's just say getting a little rowdy so they had to send maintenance workers into the queue to calm the crowd... I can tell though it was very very close to a fight breaking out in the queue.

I haven't visited this park since the early 90s but I heard nothing about neglect then. It is a very strange park though, they only have a few rides and each ride is what feels like miles from the next. There is not much to do which is true unless you want a walking marathon. I don't have to worry about having the urge to visit as I don't have a passport. Sadly this is a tourist park so tourists will come and walk around and be like.. Oh animals! And they will be happy. This park can exist with high prices and basically doing nothing because most people who go aren't local and will not return. A lot of the tourists that go there don't even speak or read English so I doubt protesting would actually make people turn away. I definitely would not know animal neglect if it was looking me square in the eye so I am guessing it's not something you can see unless you have knowledge of animals or have worked with them or currently work with them.

I finished my visit to Darien and I must say the park has a Lot to offer. I most certainly was not bored and I would likely be bored at MFI. In fact I didn't even get to everything which is a good thing which means there was more than enough for a day's worth of entertainment. The biggest negative I would say is the food, as the food is terrible and very overpriced but that can be fixed by packing a lunch. I actually had a really amazing time at the park and now I am itching to go back. I didn't have any problems with other guests or unruly teens and the employees were very friendly. A lot of the flats were walk on's or very short waits. The silver bullet is very intense, forceful and fast. I could keep myself busy with just the flats in this park for a very long time. I did try the motocoaster but I thought it was pretty jerky but it is a unique coaster.

Which reminds me someone on the Darien Lake facebook page said that because she saw a guest with something offensive on their shirt that DL should ban all shirts with writing on them....

Geez.....Last time I checked airtime is normal on a ride. If you don't want to experience a small but safe thrill, then either stay home or stick to the family rides. There are still tons of people that obviously like airtime and if they dumbed down coasters so they had no airtime less people would come to the park since there would be really no point in going if they dumbed down every coaster so it was like a kiddie coaster. They have redundant seatbelts and lapbars on everything here now, even when the ride clearly doesn't need it, and when lap bars alone worked fine for forever. I am not sure how much more fool proof it could become.

Unrelated but I never did like the idea of the Oz park, I just don't think its the type of franchise that could pull people in, heck most of today's kids probably haven't even heard of the Wizard of Oz. Even if they have heard of it its not something that will have enough pull to make them put down the xbox contoller and beg to go to the park. Oz just has almost no media attention.. Now if it were a Narnia park, that is an idea I can get behind, but I am going way off topic now!

If they do a bit of refurbishing to predator I will be all for it. I just remember being on ROS and not liking it that much, maybe a little too much g-force for me. I have been on it before so its not like I haven't tried it. That and I probably won't want to wait in the line for it. I do like a good woody, I have done 60 laps on the silver comet on one day but I definitly wouldn't be able to do that again! Been on the silver comet in the pouring rain too, was fun and the rain didn't even hurt.

I don't think its that bad, they do have copycat coasters but in WNY we have no choice if we don't have hundreds of dollars to travel to an out of state park. I don't have a passport so no Canada's Wonderland for me. Its gotta be better now than when Six flags left it. Raging seas was pretty bad last time I was there but they did refurbish the sleighride. I don't think one bad flat is that bad for this park, we are talking about a very old ride here. They did add 3 new family rides which is the first time they have gotten new flats in a very long time. Otherwise their unique collection of flats shines. Mind eraser sucks and is unrideable, predator is almost rideable and the rest is rideable. Boomerang isn't the best but its rideable since its so short. I won't touch ROS but that is my decision, but its a great coaster for everyone else that likes it. So its not the best but not the worst for locals. At least they have a bigger selection of rides than MFI. Price is coming close to MFI too, I hear DL will be charging 24.99 soon with a coke can or something. MFI charges the same but you have to pay for parking at DL but its not that much more.

I haven't been on the Predator at Darien Lake in years but it must be pretty bad since there are a ton of complaints about it. It might be somewhat better now but it was much worse around say 2007/2008.

I think it will stay open no matter what. Even though it is clearly sub par to other parks it gets a lot of business from the locals who don't know any better. They also have a large concert venue and campgrounds so there is reason to stay open other than just the park. Unless it really gets to a state of disrepair and they raise the prices and people stop coming it will stay open. Though the fact that they have changed owners so many times lately doesn't bode well. I think I would rather be stuck with a visit to DL than fantasy island though. FI is a wonderful park but they don't have enough rides to keep me occupied for long. I would be done in 2 hours there. There are only 3-5 rides in the park I would actually ultilize, at least DL has more than that. The premier ride experience for me in this area is the erie county fair. $20 for a wristband on a weekday and a selection of rides better than any local park can deliver and I am one happy person. They also sometimes have different rides from year to year and they have so many rides that sometimes I don't even get to them all. Good food too, need I mention charlaps ice cream.... Oh I can taste it now!

I heard capriolo might be coming to the erie county fair which I will be going to but the ride won't be included in the POP so I won't try it.

We might be better off if they tore down predator and put up the batman coaster that is sitting in storage. I have no idea if that is even feasable given the space and condition of the ride in storage though. Imo for me and most adults in the wny area that I talk to unless their kids are begging to go DL its the park you go to every 10 years and hardly anything changes. I do have to admit though that they have a great collection of old and unique flat rides. I am into this type of ride so it works for me even if the coasters suck. This visit will be comped for me so I will not be paying for anything thus I will have a different opinion of those who pay. Last time I checked admission to DL was 54.99 that is with a discount either 1-2 years ago so I am glad they reduced the admission quite a bit. Its probably worth it if you do the water park but I don't do water parks for variois reasons.

Thanks I think I might avoid it since my visit is about a month away yet and it might get worse by then. I don't have to go on it since I have already been on it.

I have to agree on the ferris wheels, they scare me too, thus I almost never go on them. I think what scares me most is the openness of all of it, and there are no restraints on most. Not saying they need to put seatbelts on ferris wheels but it would probably take the fear out of it, at least for me. Think about it, most other rides you are strapped in really tight and aren't going anywhere but heck a lot of wheels don't even have anything for you to hold onto. The cars often sway and move too especially if its windy.

I am going later in the season but I am wondering if predator is rideable this year and which seats are the least painful.

This is gonna sound stupid but when I was like 7 years old I went on one of those kiddie plane rides like the herschell ones but I have no idea which one it was. It wasn't the herschell ones though because I liked those as a kid. Anyways I thought the plane tilted too much to the side and I thought I would fall out. That was scary in a kids mind.

A Zyklon traveling coaster that belongs to Strates Shows at the Erie County Fair in 2011.

I have a friend on a trip to Japan right now and I made sure he knew that Tokyo Joypolis has been recently renovated and updated. Maybe if we get lucky he will send me some photos from Joypolis. I can't guarantee he will be able to visit though.

Hi, I am Sara and I live in Western NY. I have been a park fan for a while but just registered today. My home parks are Darien Lake and Martins Fantasy Island. I don't get out to parks much but I do visit the Erie County Fair every year. I am hopefully going to Darien Lake in late august this year.