Photo TR: Lakemont Park

[Kennyweird]

OK, here's the deal. I had a tour of Penn State scheduled for Monday, so I convinced my family to stop at Lakemont Park for a few hours on Sunday, since you literally have to go right past it on the way to State College. Unfortunately, we were pressed for time, so I didn't get as many pictures as I had hoped.

 

At any rate, here's my review of the place:

 

Coasters:

 

Leap The Dips:

OMG, for being the world's oldest coaster, this thing is freaking ridiculous! There are absolutely not restraints to hold you in, and you can literally feel the car lift up on the dips. While this ride is not intense, it's definitely scary! It feels less like a coaster and more like a runaway go-kart!

 

Skyliner:

I was pleasantly surprised by this one. The first drop has some nice floater on it, and the rest of the ride was relatively smooth and fast paced. Overall, it was a decent woodie with no real problems, but at the same time it wasn't anything that special, either.

 

Toboggan:

What can I say? It's a Chance Toboggan. It's boring, painful, and the lift hill smells funny.

 

They have a Kiddie coaster there, but I'm too big to ride it.

 

Flats:

 

I didn't get to ride too many flats, so I'm not going to comment on them.

 

Food:

 

I did not have a good experience with their food services. They screwed up my order, and the coke they gave me was flat.

 

General:

 

- The park was absolutely empty. According to the staff, it's like that all the time except for dollar days, so I have no idea how this park stays afloat.

 

- I'm not sure, but the place appeared to be understaffed.

 

 

Alright, I think I covered basically everything. Let's move on to the photos.

Well, it has a few problems, but ultimately Lakemont Park receives my seal of approval! Thanks for reading.

BTW, they have a train - with almost no one on it.

BAD IDEA! I became nauseous and had to sit down for a while.

Next, someone convinced me to ride the Tilt-a-whirl.

This midway is also where their kiddie coaster is.

And this monstrosity called "Twister". I did not ride it because I was still recovering from my encounter with the Toboggan.

After getting raped by the Chance Toboggan, I stumbled out onto a midway full of strange, old rides, like the Monster wannabe in the background...

"OH GOD!"

"Noooooo!"

Toboggan: "Too late, you're already on me. Muhahahahaha!"

"No, I won't ride you just to get the credit. You can't make me!"

"Oh god, what is that?!"

They had one of those gas powered car rides, which we rode.

Skyliner THROUGH THE TREES!!

Moneyshot.

Thankfully, it wasn't. See how empty the train is? Yeah, it was like that all day.

Skyliner is a relocated wooden coaster, so I was afraid it was going to be rough.

After riding Leap The Dips a few times, we went over to the park's second major coaster, Skyliner.

Here's the "Dips" part. Thankfully, there is no "Leap" part, although I did feel the front end lift up a few times.

Leap The Dips has a very interesting and very questionable lift hill.

Before there were drive tires, before stations were sloped downhill, there were ride ops, and muscle.

This is the car. They only run one at a time because it tends to get stuck from time to time. Like I said, the only thing it has are handle bars; no restraints. BTW, the ride op in the background - he's a real ride op. He actually has to pull a lever to stop the car! :shock:

"Don't worry, Mr. ACE plaque. I think you matter. Sort of."

The plaque that doesn't.

The plaque that matters.

Ah yes, the real reason I'm here.

I kind of wanted to ride the Monster, but time wouldn't permit it.

Right next to the Skydiver is this boring, non-oscillating chair swing.

One of the first rides to greet you is this Chance death machine, the Skydiver. It wasn't running, and being carsick meant I probably wouldn't have rode it even if it was.

One of the most striking things I noticed upon entering the park is that it's essentially empty.

This is the view from the front entrance. It's also basically the entire park.

We're here!

[Thrillrider92]

Nice pictures. The first time I was there, I got sick on the Octopus, the 1950's spider. The second time I was there, I rode the Skyliner ten times in a row, it was awesome. I had the back seat for eight of the runs. And for me, the Toboggan is a fun ride except for the first drop after the spiral. I don't even remember how many times I rode that ride there. Too many. Lakemont is truely a nice park. To bad when it became Boyertown, The Carousel and the building were demolished, the whip was sold, and the Monsters Den dark ride was removed. The only good thing was bringing in the Skyliner and then some idiot decided to paint the entire ride white before they built the ride again. So the park had to look at pictures and hire a specialist to help rebuild the coaster. Thanks for posting your pictures. And one more thing, dollar days are awesome because you get the rides and the water slides and still you get on the rides fast because most people jam Lakemont's water park.

[eddie200330]

The park gets crowded some days due to company picnics and such, but the rides never have a line. Back seat Skyliner gets major ejector air going down 1st drop!!! Rest of the ride not so much. That wanna be monster ride is friggin awesome if you like spin and puke. It really gets going and doesn't stop, kinda like a tilt a whirl on acid!!! I try to get there at least once a year as it's only an hour up the road from me.

[the ghost]

Just out of pure curiosity how intense is the skyliner? I only ask that because I was looking in the coaster milestone thread and Elissa said Kristen had 8 credits(this was late 2008 mind you) anyway, Elissa said that the park staff would have allowed Kristen to ride the skyliner, but, being the good mom Elissa is she said no. So is the ride literally not intense at all, or is it as WTF as it seems to let Kristen ride the coaster when she was a few weeks shy of being two years old?

 

Sharktums wrote,

Poor Kristen could have gotten a lot more credits on the East Coast trip, but I value her brain and spine too much to put her on some of the stuff she was allowed on! (SkyLiner at Lakemont, Mad Mouse at Quassy, etc.!)

 

proof, from the trip they took last year.

[eddie200330]

Height requirements for the rides at Lakemont Park are as follows.

 

You MUST be a Minimum of 48” tall unless with a parent or guardian to ride

 

* Bumper Cars

* Ferris Wheel

* Monster

* Octopus

* Scrambler

* Skyliner

* Tilt A Whirl

* Toboggan

* Twister

Just pulled this off of their website. I thought I seen a height stick that read "unless accompanied by parent" , so apparently if mom and dad wanna put junior on the coaster, have at it!!! There is only an old fashioned lap bar that comes down, no kind of belt or anything else!!!!!

[Kennyweird]

^^It's fairly intense. I cannot see Kidtums riding it.

[the ghost]

Yeah, lucky Elissa is smart, I bet 90% of parents going to a park are going to let their kids on any rides they are tall enough for. There appears to be a pretty big jump from the average kiddie coaster to that thing, especially considering I don't even think Kristen has ridden a roller skater yet. Oh well, lets just thank god elissa is smart enough to not have taken KT on Quassy's death mouse, that thing is insane.

[Wood Dragon 1988]

Lakemont definitely is a horse of a different color. I've been there twice: on the TPR trip last year, and a random fall weekend last year. On the TPR trip it was a "dollar day" or whatever, and the park was relatively packed (for the type of capacity rides they have!) and on the fall weekend it was amazingly empty. I really hope the park survives, as it is interesting to say the least and has two good wooden coasters.

[coasterfreaky]

Thanks for posting the pic of the Chance Skydiver. There used to be one of those at Fair Park (aka Cumberland Park) in Nashville...as well as a Skyliner coaster by John Allen....odd coincidence.

[coasterville]

Did you happen to try the "boring, non-occilating circle swing ride"? I recall that what it lacked in variation (bobbing up and down) it more than made up for in sheer speed. Wait, I just saw your recation to the Tilt-A-Whirl, I guess you didn't. That swing ride needs to get up to speed and fast because the center spindle does not raise up like most swing rides, so it has to get you out and clear of the ride deck as soon as it can. Another oddity is it doesn't have the child swing bar you lift up on the front of the seat, instead the chain that comes up between your legs cluips to both sides of the seat frame.

 

That Twister was down on both of my trips to the park, but I rode the one at William's Grove which by most acccounts is the better of the two anyway.

 

I'm with you on the Skydiver being a death machine, and last time I rode that Toboggan I swore "Never Again!", which is a shame becuase I used to kind of like them, but strong airtime, and unpadded car roof just does not work out well.

 

I miss the Mad Mouse they used to have, it was one of the older wild mouse rides and gave a pretty wicked ride. Their two woodies are not top shelf thrill rides, but both are great for their own reasons.

 

As far as the state of the park, they aren't trying to be the next big theme park, well Boyertown tried, and you see what became of that. A couple years ago I was at the park and the park owner was talking about their situation. He remarked at the time they serve a community where the median income is under $20,000 and their customer base just cant aford much more than the very minimal ticket prices they charge. Did you notice they have removed most, if not all, of the midway games, and their arcade is on a $3 play all day system. It's a local park just trying to survive to provide some amusement to its community.

 

At the time he remarked how there were 20 something parks accross the nation that charge more to park your car than they do for admission, how Six Flags was getting praise lavished upon it in Amusement Today for lowering ticket prices by $5, yet no word on his $1 days. In other words they know their place, they don't try to be more than they are, and somehow, depsite how it looks it all seems to work. He commented though that they have many of the exact same rides as the parks that charge $30 and $40 do.

[CoasterCard]

OH NO!!! Not the Chance Toboggan!!! I can't believe they let those things run any more... I rode it once at a festival in my hometown and will never ride it again.

 

You, my friend, are a brave, brave human being...

[Kennyweird]

Did you happen to try the "boring, non-occilating circle swing ride"? I recall that what it lacked in variation (bobbing up and down) it more than made up for in sheer speed. Wait, I just saw your recation to the Tilt-A-Whirl, I guess you didn't.

 

No, I didn't ride it. But then again, I wasn't being serious when I called it "boring". I'm sure it's a fun ride.

[Thrillrider92]

Last time I went to Lakemont, I rode the German Swings, and I have to say it was a boring ride. The ride operater let the ride run for about five minutes. I'm not kidding. It is not a Wave Swinger but a nice ride to have for a park like Lakemont. For the Skyliner, I have rode it in mostly every seat, and the last three seats gets alot of air time and the last seat gets the most airtime. Personally, I thought the first hill was awesome since I would almost fly out of my seat since I'm small. But I think as stated already, the first hill is the best and you get the most air time out of any of the hills. The seats in the middle are not bad, getting some airtime, and the front seats don't really get anything. But all in all, I like the Skyliner alot, fun coaster. Going back to the Skydiver, I have to say it is a fun ride, I rode the one at Conneaut on June 12. Both time I was a Lakemont it was closed.