Wood Dragon 1988 Posted September 28, 2008 Author Share Posted September 28, 2008 Alright everyone, this update may be a bit boring to some of you, as I am calling it my “coaster geek” update. I still consider myself, however, a coaster geek, and being that you are on a site such as this, you may very well be one too, so you may appreciate it as well. So, just for a warning, my final update consists of a bunch of ranking, over-analyzed reviews, and lots of other info about coasters, rides, parks, hotels, bus rides, puppet shows, and sauce you may or may not be interested in. No pics, videos, captions, or any cool stuff like that. If you would like to see those, just scroll up a bit! So now for a review of just about all the parks: Seabreeze: Fun little park. As Robb says “There’s something about the small parks.” I had heard some bad things about Rochester, but the area seemed okay. The rides were decent and I love parks with a semi-classic feel at least. Darien Lake: This one was interesting, because it used to be owned by Six Flags, but is now owned by PARC management. I had never been to a PARC park before. It actually felt very barren and “dead”, maybe because we were there so early, but it seemed that PARC had sucked all the soul the park had as a Six Flags park. It just seemed to lack atmosphere, and had a select few good rides, but an overall mediocre set of coasters. It was also weird to see many old Six Flags style themeing and buildings still existing there that I have became used to at the many Six Flags parks I’ve endured…errrr…visited. Martin’s Fantasy Island: Really cool little park. Had a great staff, and one great water ride and coaster. The Silver Comet ride ops were perhaps my favorite ride ops ever, because they let you leave the lap bar as high up as you wanted!!! I don’t know exactly why, but I absolutely loved the place, and if I were in the area again, I would probably go to this place before any other park in Upstate New York or Ontario! Canada’s Wonderland: As I said in my TR, I don’t think Dick Kinzel approves of the vast amount of trees that exist in this park! The park was actually pretty darn beautiful. Sure it had some BAD, BAD, BAD coasters, but I would probably rather have a Cedar Fair park with a lot of bad coasters than one with just a few good ones (I am talking about Cedar Fair parks only, however, if that makes since). It at least gave us something to fill the whole day with, and I thought it was quite impressive how almost all the TPR members came away with all the credits they wanted! Overall, this was just a real fun day, and I like CW better than the other three Cedar Fair Parks I’ve been to (KD, Carowinds, and Dorney) Marineland: A lot of people have been kind of complaining about this place, but I actually enjoyed it. I mean, it’s one of those places that really isn’t a theme park first. The few rides they had were good, and it seemed like a good place for a family day out. The type of people who go to Niagara Falls probably appreciate a scenic, zoo-like, picnic park like this compared to a real destination theme park anyway. Waldameer: Everyone liked this place, but I really didn’t First impressions was it was a permanent carnival type place, and nothing I saw later on convinced me otherwise. I got a little bored (and a bit sick) here, and simply sat down under the pavilion and talked for an hour, which I really enjoyed more than walking around the park! The park had some good rides, such as the drop tower, RFII, and others, but overall just wasn’t really my kind of place I guess. Maybe it’s just because I like traditional parks like Lake Compounce, Kennywood, and Knoebels way better, I don’t know. Oh yea, but ERT was amazing. Idlewild: This and Canada’s Wonderland were my favorite parks of the trip. Beautiful, relaxing, some awesome rare rides, and a great Vekoma coaster. Great food too, and very hospitable. GO HERE EVERYONE, THIS IS THE MOST UNDERATTED PARK IN PENNSYLVANNIA! Lakemont: Not the greatest park in the world, but honestly, I expected, MUCH worse! I had heard some terrible things about the ghettoness of this park, but thanks to a home baseball game and 5-dollar Wednesday, the park was doing pretty good business and had a decent atmosphere. Leap-the-Dips and Skyliner are DEFINITELY back-seat rides!!!! Yea the place was a bit ghetto, but I would (and have, LOL) visit the park again! Delgrosso’s: It is simply all about the sauce, and I don’t have to say much more……… Overall, it was a great package of parks for just four and a half days of park-going! The parks would have been pretty lame with no ERT and no group, but the trip atmosphere made it the best 4.5 park days of my life!!! Thanks a lot everyone! Top Coasters: 1. Ride of Steel, Darien Lake: This ranks in at about my 6th or 7th favorite coaster. This was a great ride, and rode like SFA’s Superman used to. No real airtime until the third hill, but after that, it was ejector city. ERT was awesome on it, even though I was sick! 2. Silver Comet, Martin’s Fantasy Island: Great ride, and has been maintained brilliantly over the past 10 years by this tiny park! From what I remember, the layout went something like: First Drop, good airtime hill, insane little airtime hill, turn, turn, double down with good air, aggressive turn, insanely aggressive turn, little airtime hill, brakes. Just a crazy ride, and it is great that a little park has a ride that people of all ages can enjoy! 3. Behemoth, Canada’s Wonderland. I REALLY like B&M hypers, even though they seem to lack the Intamin style ejector air found on their hypers and wooden coasters. This is probably my least favorite B&M hyper, due to the weird and week ending, but the first couple of drops are still really, really good. It has about 6 or 7 pops of airtime, that feel great despite the 3 or 4 trim brakes. I really liked this ride, but like Apollo’s, Nitro, and Georgia’s Goliath more. And just to be a picky, spoiled coaster enthusiast, it had more rattle than the other B&M hypers, most likely because of the weird trains I guess. 4. Ravine Flyer II, Waldameer. Great ride, liked it a lot, but didn’t love it. It was already very rough after just months of operation, and judging from the rest of the park, I’m not sure if this thing will get the TLC it deserves in the future. Maybe I just don’t like things this aggressive, and prefer a more relaxing yet kick-ass ride like Phoenix or El Toro. However, I do like Silver Comet and Boulder Dash, so I’m not sure. Maybe it is just the consistent airtime, or more “free” airtime that RFII seemed to lack that I missed. I guess I was just a bit too staple from the EXTREMELY aggressive turns to really enjoy the random airtime hills. 5. Whirlwind, Seebreeze. My first MS spinner, and I really liked it. It was out of control, smooth, fast, and very spinny in parts. Way better than Steel Dragon at Waldameer. ------------------------------ If you are still reading this crap, THANK YOU!!!!! Again, in closing this TR, I would just like to say thanks to TPR, and EVERYONE that made this trip so great!! I will see many of you again next year and can’t wait! Chris Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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