Quick Photo Trip Report: Indiana Beach

[Cameron]

Very quick report after a totally stellar day at one of my favorite parks. This will be more like news, rather than a full-on report (there are many in the archives for people who want to be sold on the park).

 

We all know that at the end of 2007 the park was sold to evil, corporate, pigs, hell-bent on high profits; while totally disregarding the guests, the history or the atmosphere of the park! Whether you like the sale or not, the park last year was not at its best: under staffed, under capacity (one train on Lost Coaster and Hurricane all year), and just general teething problems. Many people were ready to write this place off, but not me. It's just too nice a place to give up on that easily.

 

Well today erased almost all of the issues present last year. Everything was running, everything was staffed (even the Frog Hopper!), and all the shops were open. Cornball has received a lot of new wood over the winter, and was running super-smooth and obscenely fast; this was Cornball of old! (And remember, today was the first day!).

 

Other great points were the Double Shot that was as insane as ever. Ditto for the Falling Star and the Pirate Ship. Nice long cycles on the Paratrooper and Yo-Yo, and a set of Flyers that are almost impossible not to snap. Not to mention the generally laid-back and super-relaxed atmosphere that you always get there (one of the reasons I like it so much). The old white train for Hurricane is back, but is now painted blue (looks nice with the red one).

 

Steel Hawg was running pretty much the same as last year, which is good (it's a great little ride). One change is that a number of the friction brakes have been replaced with magnetic ones, which makes the ride significantly quieter (no more endless "CLANG CLANG CLANG" while waiting in line). Unfortunately capacity it still horrid, since the station operates the wrong way around.

 

There were only a few disappointments, the most major ones being that the bumper cars seem to be driving at close to half the speed; and probably 30-40% of the targets in Den Of Lost Thieves were dead. Both of these are fixable.

 

Other notes: Lost Coaster didn't open all day, but there were mechanics working on it until well into the afternoon. I heard murmurings that something was wrong with one of the kicker-wheel motors that push the train back up to the station; however the really good news is that there are already two trains on the track! Cornball started to have issues in the afternoon where it would get stuck returning to the station (after a ride); but after a short down-time (maybe 30 minutes) it was running happily again. Finally, and in a totally unsurprising move, seatbelts have been added to Tig'rr.

 

The wrist-bands are now plastic, and each one has a bar-code. Before getting on any ride it is necessary to have the wrist-band scanned by this little reader. This system does away with the old tickets (you can charge up the wrist-band with $X, or X number of rides - it's all electronic). The scanners worked quite well, but the staff seemed to be having endless problems with the cash-registers and other new equipment. I gather that they will get the hang of things quickly.. Entry onto the boardwalk is now completely free.

 

The whole arcade was on Free Play, so we spent some time on the pinballs

 

Only a few pictures today, since the park is already so well documented.

Driving through Indiana is even more boring before the corn has been planted!

Train Crossing Tiger says "ROAR - Welcome back to Indiana Beach - ROAR!"

The whole arcade was on Free Play (they are in the middle of upgrading everything to use swipe-cards). We enjoyed some Fast And The Furious, and of course pinball.

Church Organ: The ride! This odd thing seemed completely out of place, until someone mentioned that it is left over from Halloween last year.

Two trains on Lost Coaster! I'm honestly not disappointed that this wasn't running today, I will be back countless times during the season

The Galaxi trains have been repainted in this awesome *cough* colour-scheme. The op gave as a peek at the train under the tarp, and it's actually significantly worse than this one..

One of the cute little cars on Tig'rr. The new seatbelts (which function very much like the ones on Whizzer at SFGAm) don't subtract from the ride at all.

[kumba830]

Great trip report Cameron! It's nice to hear the park is running better than last year! (Considering I may visit some time soon.)

 

I really don't think the cars on Galaxy look that bad... But I have yet to see the ones under the tarp!

 

 

 

*cough* Pinball nerd *cough*

[spaceace12]

Maybe I will give the park another chance sometime this month of early next. Awesome to hear there is atleast 2 Locosumo trains there. I did know that they were down to one last year. As for the station kick wheel, they have issues with it all the time on wet days. I got stuck on it when the wheel didn't push us in. It took about 5 workers to push us back into the station.

[Electerik]

I'm glad to hear this. I'm planning on going in about two weeks, as Misty has never been.

 

/Very much my kind of park.

[IggyACE]

Great hanging out with you again Cam.

Great to meet you Daron (Derwood) and Robin!

 

My recap of the day!

 

The good!

 

Some new wood on Cornball and Hurricane!

 

Both are running fantastic.

 

The bad!

 

They SLOWED the bumper cars down!!!!!!!!!!

 

Den of Lost Thieves has more targets out this year!

 

Beth and Mike showed up!

 

The UGLY!

 

Hurricanes second train (white one) is back and painted a pastel blue like the blue left over from the sky ride!

 

Galaxie trains are also painted a pastel purple and yellow and the one sitting under the covers were florescent green and yellow!

 

 

All in all it was a good day. They also started with a new system for wristbands. They have barcodes on them and now scan them at every ride. You can also load a Cool Cash Card that can be used for rides games and food. Almost all games have to be played using this card, no cash is accepted.

 

One of the bad with the wristbands is it goes on your right hand but some of the scanners are on the left of the entrance. Kinda awkward to try to scan it.

[dandaman]

Cameron, this isn't helping matters much regarding the end of June. The park just looks too awesome to pass up.

[mcjaco]

G'ah, I need to get back down there for my Steel Hawg credit.

[ginzo]

Thanks for posting this, Cameron.

 

I'm mostly just glad to hear that they're giving Cornball the love it deserves. Also, going to free admission is probably a good move. It works out quite well at Knoebels.

 

Unfortunately, I don't think I'm going to find the time to make it out to IB this year.

 

We just have too much going on.