TR: Castle Amusement Park 11-28-08

[rcdude]

Over Thanksgiving, my cousins came down from San Francisco to visit. They decided that they wanted to go to an amusement park while they were down, so I suggested Castle Amusement Park. We had gone with them to the park last year and they liked it, so we decided to go again since the park had added two new rides for the 2008 season.

 

We left for the park at around 11 on Friday, November 28th. Since my aunt and uncle had plans, we knew that we had to leave at 5. After stopping at a Taco Bell for lunch, we headed over to the park. When we got there, we found both good news and bad news. It turned out that the park was having a special on all-day wristbands, and they were half price. However, about a third of the park's rides were scheduled to be closed (it ended up being the Little Dipper (kiddie coaster), Flying Saucer (gravitron), Ferris Wheel, Ghost Blasters, and two or three kiddie rides).

 

After buying wristbands we headed to the rides. Unfortunately, only about half of them were already open (the park opened at noon). It was close to two hours before all of the remaining rides opened, but they did all open (except for the ones listed as closed). We went on most of the operating rides, in addition to playing a round of mini-golf and arcade games in the five hours we were there.

 

Ride Reviews:

 

Bumper Cars-The bumper cars here are a bit strange. They don't accelerate very fast, but if you drive around for a bit without bumping anything you can get going faster than most other bumper car rides. My younger cousin liked this ride a lot and rode three times in a row since there was no wait.

Scrambler-Just an ordinary scrambler, but it seems like it runs for twice as long as most of them. Fun ride but nothing special.

Kings Crown-This is a chairswing (I think it is a yo-yo, but I'm not sure). It was fun, but again, nothing special.

Merry Go Round-I didn't actually go on this ride, but I watched it. It looked pretty typical.

Dragon's Tower-This is an S&S double shot. It is probably the best ride at the park. The first launch is pretty typical for an S&S ride, but the second one gives an extreme amount of airtime when you hit the top of the tower. I rode this twice during the day.

Falling Star-A standard falling star ride. Was fun but nothing special.

Merlin's Revenge-This is a Vekoma Junior Coaster. It is a great ride for a family park like Castle Amusement Park. On Merlin's Revenge, you get two circuits which is something I haven't seen on other Junior Coasters. I rode this ride a grand total of four times throughout the day, including one ride where me, my younger cousin and my aunt were the only people on the entire train.

Spider-I didn't ride this since these types of rides make me sick, but my cousin, brother and sister all had a great time on it. The ride consists of cars on the ends of arms that move up and down while they go around and the cars spin freely.

Dragon Flyers-This was one of the new rides for this year. It is a flying scooters ride, and didn't seem as fast as the other one I have been on (Flying Eagles at CGA). I did ride twice, however. The graphics on the ride (a fire-breathing dragon) are worth the ride and the Lord of the Rings music doesn't hurt either.

Screamin' Demon-This was my main draw for coming back this year. It is a Fabbri Spinning Madness, and Castle Amusement Park's new coaster for this year. I believe it just opened this month and I heard somewhere that this is the first Fabbri coaster in the U.S. However, it seemed to be having difficulty, since it didn't open until about 1:30 and broke down in the middle of the day. The ride seemed like a great family ride, but I wasn't too impressed by it. The cars didn't spin very much and there were spots in the ride that were a bit jerky. I rode three times and on each ride I was slammed into the bar at the exact same two spots in the ride. Not bad, but not that good either. At least it is probably the best coaster at Castle Amusement Park, although Merlin's Revenge comes very close.

Antique Cars-This is a car ride. There is some neat landscaping around it. Unfortunately, the cars are a little small and are tight for adults, although most people can still fit if they ride by themselves. This was the only ride my uncle went on.

Sea Planes-One of the kiddie rides in the park, and the only one that I actually saw running. Very generic just like the park's other kiddie rides.

Riverside Railroad-The park's train. It is a nice relaxing ride around the park, although it only lasts for 3-4 minutes.

Log Ride-This ride didn't open until late in the day, so it was the last ride we did before leaving. The log ride looks like a portable layout, but is a permanent structure. It also has one of the steepest drops I have seen on a log flume. Castle Amusement Park's second best ride.

Arcade-The arcade at Castle Amusement Park is two stories, and contains at least 150 games, including redemption games, skeeball, air hockey, shooters, racing games, DDR, and several crane machines. It is also the location of the Ghost Blasters shooting dark ride, which is an upcharge and was closed during our visit. I managed to win over a hundred tickets with less than five dollars of tokens in the arcade (over a third of them came from the Deal or No Deal game).

Mini Golf-Castle Amusement Park has four mini-golf courses, but one was closed for resurfacing when we were there. The courses are kept up well for the most part, but we lost four of our seven balls in the pipes on one hole and had to finish the last two holes on the three remaining balls. The courses are ranked in terms of difficulty, and are pretty fun.

 

Overall, Castle Amusement Park is a great family park. It is probably the best minor amusement park in California except for the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk, and is definitely worth visiting if you are within an hour or so drive of Riverside. It is also pretty cheap as well, and has enough for four to six hours. However, it is unlikely anyone will need an open to close visit.

[itnotfair]

Great TR! I was hoping you'd get over there for the new spinner sometime soon, as you're the only TPR member I've encountered representing the Inland Empire.

 

The cars didn't spin very much

 

I'm glad about that. My girlfriend and I just hit SFDK in Vallejo and got pretty sick on Tony Hawk's Sadistic Hellscape, so I was a bit worried about the Demon.

 

Sounds like a cool place to spend an afternoon. I guess a trip is in order soon! I still need to hit Santa Cruz, CGA, and Gilroy Gardens as well.

 

Oh, and Adventure City, but I need to kidnap a kid to get in.

[rcdude]

I went on Tony Hawk's Big Spin at Six Flags Discovery Kingdom over the summer and the cars on that thing spin about three times as much as the ones on Screamin' Demon. I rode with my brother and cousin using similar weight distribution on both rides, and Screamin' Demon got a constant spin going for the first couple switchbacks, but completely died afterward, while we had a good enough spin during the entire Tony Hawk's Big Spin ride that it felt like a gravitron.

 

During the off season, Castle Amusement Park only operates the rides on weekends, so if you are going out there check the hours on their website (www.castlepark.com) before you go. If you want to do everything, the best value is the royal pass. It is $32 and gets you unlimited rides, a ride on Ghost Blasters, a game of golf, five dollars of tokens, a bag of popcorn and a coupon for any food purchase. Also, if you are going for credits, call ahead and see if the Little Dipper will be open. It has been closed on my last two visits, but I had gone on it previously so the only disappointment was for my younger cousin.

[Xcoaster]

Good TR. I've driven past the new coaster a couple times, but I don't think it was open yet. I'll need to swing by there sometime for that, plus the swings.

 

I think they give half price discounts on wristbands when they have a significant number of rides closed. The last time I got a discount they said it was because their old haunted house darkride was closed.

 

Also, when I last rode Ghost Blasters, they weren't charging anything, but it might've just been a slow day.

[rcdude]

They didn't originally charge for Ghost Blasters, but they do now because you can actually win a prize. If you are the high score of the day, you will win a free season pass. I forget when they started this, but it was sometime between the ride's opening and last year. I remember going at least once before they charged for the ride.

[Canobie Coaster]

^ That's a cool idea. Does any other park do that?

 

Good trip report. I especially liked your reviews for each of the attractions. And I know for a fact that Steamin' Demon isn't the first Fabbri spinning madness in the US, as Fiesta Shows (a New England carnival owner) has had one for two years now. I agree with you that the Fabbri spinning coasters are underwhelming and rough. Not surprised about the trouble this one had since the one Fiesta has usually breaks down once a day or so.

[rcdude]

The Screamin' Demon has traveled with Butler Amusements since 2005, when it was known as Pole Position. It was just sold to Castle Amusement Park this year.