Jump to content
  TPR Home | Parks | Twitter | Facebook | YouTube | Instagram 

PTR: Indiana Beach August 2 08


Guest Papas

Recommended Posts

Indiana Beach did not quite meet expectations. Granted I did go on the first Saturday of August and was expecting it to be extremely crowded so I had no issue with waiting in long lines, but their overly crappy operations and the excessive downtime the rides had made it hard to enjoy.

 

We got there a little before opening hoping to do Steel Hawg and Cornball Express right away, but Cornball Express didnt open until 3 and Steel Hawg until around 4.

 

Hurricane Hoosier was running 1 train with a very long line (I know it has 2 trains and used to run them in the past).

LoCoSuMo was running 1 train with an enormous line (c'mon, that thing has to have at least 2 trains how much is it to ask to run 2).

Tigrr Coaster was running 2 trains with an enroumous line (doesnt it have like 4 or 5?)

Cornball Express was running 1 but obviosley was expecting that seeing as it has 1.

Steel Hawg was running 2 cars, it was stacking for long periods of time, and had a huge line. It was being run by maintenence guys seeing as they were out of ride ops.

 

There were a lot of comments from guests that the park was far worse with the new company that owns it compared to the family that previousley owned it. In addition to Cornball and Steel Hawg opening extremely late, a lot of the other rides opened late or closed early.

 

 

 

Splash Battle was down all day, Steel Hawg opened around 4, Cornball Express opened at 3 and the Log Flume opened at 3.

 

 

One of the rides electrical components are out on the midway.

 

 

 

 

 

 

As we know this coaster has no restraints.

 

 

Cornball Express closed.

 

 

 

 

Galaxi was a cool ride, some of the hills had sweet air (although the new yellow/purple scheme looked odd, and was already chipping and beat up).

 

 

Found this guy funny, he just kidna sat there and never made any expression at all. When the car stopped, the people would step on and he would press go. He never turned his head or moved his eyes at all while we were in line.

 

 

 

 

Found this hilarious. "Waiting for parts"

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 18
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

 

 

I had plenty of time to take pics in line for LoCoSuMo

 

 

The ride seemed to be having its share of issues even with 1 train op, every once in awhile they would walk people off from the brake run instead of the station. Every few cycles or so the operator would stand there and radio for a supervisor or maintenence guy, and then sat there and waited for them to come up and reset the ride. When we got in line it wasnt very long and it took about an hour.

 

 

 

 

It took them awhile to figure out 4 large people dont fit in a car very well.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

They got around to starting inspecting Cornball Express around 2.

 

 

Wouldve gotten a ride unit in this pic but both rides were closed.

 

 

 

 

They got Steel Hawg working and the maintenence guys took some spins.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Checking on that new brake.

 

 

 

 

So they keep cycling it and cycling it, and they end up setting up the rides PLC so a car got stuck in the mid course brake (they had already done the block check awhile earlier). So somebody goes up there pushes the car out of the brake and it stalls in the middle of this turn and balanced out Dragster style . The maintenence guys promptly whipped out their cell phones and took pictures and a little while later went up there and pushed it back to the brake run.

 

 

 

 

Random employee kid that was sitting on a park bench talking to his friends and smoking.

 

 

Cornball Express had just opened so we went over there and rode it, just before we got on they un-vallied Steel Hawg and started cycling it again.

 

If there was a major redeeming factor for IB it was Cornball Express, awesome CCI coaster with buzz bars and ejector air on a bunch of hills in the back row.

 

 

Crossing to the other side while the rides running.

 

 

D'oh

 

 

 

 

 

 

The ride was running 2 trains with 2 sitting on the storage track, it didnt look like it ever has run more than 2 because amazingly they were stacking pretty badly with 2.

 

 

Maintenence guys were running the ride.

 

 

Every once in awhile the car wouldnt come in right so a maintenence guy would walk out in the brake run and pull it into the brakes.

 

 

This doesnt look too bad, but when the lines moving 4 people every 5 minutes it sucks.

 

 

Luckily we got on it right when it opened, this was the line that extended outside the queue house.

 

Steel Hawg was fun, the sideways turn and diveloop were cool, the drop was very short though so you dont feel the 120 degrees very much (or at least not as much as I was expecting, Spongebob and Mavericks drops were way better).

 

 

The Flyers went down for staffing right after we entered the line. This guy was an ass when people would try to enter the line also, instead of standing at the entrance telling people the ride was closing he stood behind us and yelled at them not to enter the line.

 

 

We were very lucky with the timing, if we waited 5 more seconds to get in line we wouldnt have gotten on the flyers.

 

 

Their S&S shot was awesome, best one ive been on by far. And it had a nice lake view.

 

 

 

 

The Splash Battle seemed to be having some issues.

 

 

The yoyo's control panel.

 

 

Upon closer inspection

 

 

 

 

So their Haunted House won an award from somebody (Amusement Today I think) for best walk through attraction, and before I went somebody told me "Make sure to go on the balcony and look down, its the best part and most people just walk right by it." I so I was leading through the haunted house moving real fast (and walking into many walls in the process) to get to the balcony faster, not knowing what it was. It turned out to be a collapsing balcony effect so I walk onto it at a fast pace and look down then all of a sudden am jolted forward to the edge and the balcony falls like 1 foot, it scared the crap out of me. This is my reaction after the haunted house. Overall the attracton wasnt that great though especially since most people walk right by the best part, its just a bunch of hallways.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You said the key words "Not enough staff". They lost a lot of old seasonal employees this year (over 80 people have left under new management, so I hear).

 

It's a shame that they are having such a hard time when the Spackman's didn't have that much trouble running the show. Kinda runs along the old saying " If it ain't broke, don't fix it!"

 

I give IB three years and you will see condos in it's place. Morgan RV didn't want the amusement park anyway, just the campgrounds and the resorts!

 

Craig

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've only been to IB once ever, which was 5 years ago. I had the feeling that things were getting better this year with the addition of Steel Hawg and the new paint jobs and such. Wow, I must be wrong.

 

 

I may be going next weekend or so, hopefully things are a little better, but I won't hold my breath.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

^ We found the ride ops much higher quality this year than in the past (My fiancee and I have actually ridden Galaxi with no lap bars, as the ride op didn't remember to put them down, and when we yelled at him said it was okay "just hold on")! Also, they are all wearing uniforms which hadn't happened in years past. As for the guy working Den of Lost Thieves, he's been there like forever. I think they're having staff problems mainly because they are holding them up to a higher standard, and there really isn't much population around to draw from. A lot of there rides have been having issues since the storms a few weeks ago, too, when the entire park lost power. As for Steel Hawg, it's a new ride, so lots of downtime is to be expected, especially for a prototype. I didn't get to ride LoCoSuMo a couple weeks ago, when I went, but still had a great time, and you can't beat the price (use your Kroger Plus card for a discount wristband!). I'll admit I am a fan of this park, but I have to disagree because I thought the park LOOKED much better this year than it ever has, and the staff was a lot better looking AND acting. Sorry you caught it on a bad day, but again you went the first saturday in August...

 

-James Dillaman

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The big problem was they didnt have enough maintenence guys. The reason Cornball Express opened way late was because they hadnt gotten around to inspecting it until after the park had opened, and Steel Hawg was installing a new part. If the new coaster is going to have an extended downtime to install a part they should approve overtime for the maintenence guys to be there to it, instead they showed up at the ride when the park opened and start working on it. And after hearing many times this year that coasters would open late in the day it leads me to believe they flat out dont have enough maintenence guys to do all the work on all of the rides. Didnt they fire the main maintenence guy this year? I wonder what the logic behind that was. They also used to run more ride units on the coasters (I know Hurricane used to run 2, the second train wasnt on the storage track), pretty much everything was running minimum capacity.

 

Most of the employees seemed to do their job pretty efficiently. Quite a few employees were smoking while working though.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Some of those pictures were really funny. Not so much if I was there, but funny to see from a far.

 

Seems like it could be a fun place, but I can't imagine why they'd run a new coaster at 1/2 capacity.

 

I guess the Pavilion only ever did run one train on Hurricane, though.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I was there on July 31st and it did seem very different under new management...Also Steel Hawg was down the whole time

 

So it was good Papas?

It was fun, the drop was kind of dissapointing seeing as its the steepest one ive been on but wasnt as good as a Spongebob, Maverick, or El Toros...the drop was really short so I didnt feel it much. The turn that goes into the dive loop had some wicked lateral forces.

 

The GP really seemed to be amazed by it so its doing its job I guess and hopefully they get the capacity kinks fixed. They had to lift up all the seats manually, get people on, push the restraints down on them, then go back and recheck them and it took way too long to load a four seat train.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm camping out at IB tomorrow for 3 days. I've been personally assured by management that all the issues and concerns are being looked into and worked on. I've been known to have a great time there even with a ride or two down. We'll see how this trip goes. If the Hawg is up and running it should make my day.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Friday, Saturday and Sunday the average wait time for Steel Hawg was 45 minutes. The shortest was 30 minutes, but at one point an attendant estimated an hour and a half.

 

The ride ops are getting good at keeping things moving along. Most, but not all glitches have been ironed out of the equipment. Occasionally a car will be swapped out with one of the two in storage.

 

Those who rode with me all agreed that it was worth the wait. That is one sweet coaster. I love all 55 seconds of it but do wish it was longer and higher. Cornball Express just got bumped to the number two spot of my favorite IB coasters.

 

Morgan RV must be doing a great job on their advertising. All three days looked like record crowds compared to last year and the camp ground seemed to be a full house. There were smiling faces all around.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

We were there Aug. 8 thru 10. Early this year Hoosier Hurricane was down for a long time for track work. It's a much smoother ride now than at the end of last season. It was getting painful then.

 

I've never seen the park this crowded. Hard Rock Park in Myrtle Beach is ending the season early for lack of attendance... I think they all came to IB instead.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I wouldn't expect Condos on Lake Shaffer for the next century. It's not that type of area at all.

 

Number one it's not a nice lake compared to those in Northeastern Indiana and two even if it were it would have condos but family summer lake houses instead.

 

The campground is worth nothing without IB, it's the only reason people come there at all.

 

To boot the place is really really tiny with no way to get access to the end of the pennisula. It wouldn't work well for houses at all and beyond that, the property values on Lake Shaffer are very low.

 

Take it from a local, we will never see condos in place of Cornball.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 years later...

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.

×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

Terms of Use https://themeparkreview.com/forum/topic/116-terms-of-service-please-read/