Photo TR: Idlewild

[Kennyweird]

Well, I went to Idlewild Friday, along with my brother and mom, and despite the best efforts of my crappy backup camera, I managed to get some decent pictures. But before I get into the pictures, I'd like to do a brief review of the park. Since Idlewild brands itself as a rustic, kid-friendly amusement park and picnic grove, I will review it as thus.

 

Atmosphere:

This is definitely the park's best attribute. The rustic, wooded setting adds greatly to the park and helps take the edge off the heat. Also, most of the rides have been placed slightly out of sight to help preserve the park's rustic, picnic grove feel. The one complaint I have regarding the atmosphere is the condition of the pond that surrounds SoakZone. When I last visited, it was in good condition and had a place where you could rent paddleboats. Now, the paddleboats are gone and the pond is completely covered in algae. It looks like the park gave up on it.

 

Rides:

Idlewild's features a small but unique ride selection. With the exception of Wild Mouse (more on that later), none of the rides are terribly intense, but then again, Idlewild is a kid's park. The most interesting ride there is definitely the park's 1947 Traver Caterpillar, complete with a working canopy and blower. You won't find too many of those around anymore.

 

Food:

The food was good, I have no complaints. You can't go wrong with Potato Patch fries.

 

Staff:

The staff were courteous, cheerful, and competent. I have no complaints regarding them.

 

Waterpark:

SoakZone has gone downhill slightly. While they did get a new kid's area (sorry, no pictures), they also removed the speed slides, and like I said, the pond surrounding the area has gone to crap. But overall, it's still a decent area, and if you're there on a hot day, it's worth doing.

 

Misc.

I did not get to check out Mr. Rogers and Confusion Hill, but I've done those in years past. They're fun, I guess. I also didn't get to ride the adult hand cars. I really wanted to.

 

Conclusion:

Overall, it lives up to it's image as a great kid's park. It's worth checking out if you have the time, just don't expect lots of thrills.

 

Okay, I guess I've droned on long enough. Let's move on to the pictures.

Darkness falls, the fireflies come out, and our fun-filled day at Idlewild finally comes to an end. Thanks for reading.

One of the last rides I rode that night was the Paratrooper. This one is kind of ugly compared to Kennywood's.

Oh yeah, the Round-Up was closed all day, so I never got to ride it. Whatever.

The Great Balloon Race. I used to love this ride when I was little kid.

The Spider looks nice at night with its lights on.

Idlewild also has a Whip. For some bizarre reason, no single riders are allowed.

Warning: Guests who stand up during the ride will have a red steel bar fastened to their genitals.

Everybody loves the Scrambler.

After dinner, me and Matt took a quick spin on the Scrambler.

We watched this show while we were eating. I didn't understand it, it was really abstract and weird.

Dinnertime!

Idlewild has a Ferris Wheel. Um, yeah... moving on!

Matthew is SPF 007.

Hmm, maybe this is why they got rid of the paddleboats.

These fish live entirely off amusement park food. They also have heart disease.

There used to be speed slides here. Apparently they removed them due to age.

Some tubing slides and a racing slide. Nothing that special.

A standalone dump-bucket. There's something you don't see everyday.

Some weird water battle thing.

This used to be a nice lake, complete with paddleboats. I don't know what happened.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure the malaria water killed them all.

After taking a quick spin on PBLT, we headed over to Idlewild's waterpark section, SoakZone. To get there, you have to go around this massive pond of malaria water.

As you can see, it really doesn't get you wet.

Hey look, PBLT is running!

I repeat, if you do not place your hands on the red tape and brace for stops, YOU WILL DIE!!! (okay, maybe I've over-exaggerating)

Wild Mouse has a tilted lift hill. I don't know why, I guess someone thought it would be fun.

Listen to this sign or you will be picking chunks of handlebar out of your teeth for a week!

It may look harmless, but this thing has some of the most brutal block brakes in the world, but then again, what do you expect? It's Vekoma.

And a not-so-nice view of this gum-encrusted tree. Ewww.

Wild Mouse's queue offers a nice view of the Loyalhanna Creek.

Wild Mouse THROUGH THE TREES!!1!1

(Insert your own caption here)

It has a very sprawled out layout for a wild mouse.

Wee?

Idlewild is also home to another coaster: the world's only Vekoma Wild Mouse.

The children seem to like Flying Aces.

^

After Rollo Coaster, we took a spin on Flying Aces, one of the park's newer rides. Unfortunately, on this Flyer you're not allowed to "snap".

It's a cute little ride. Just don't expect it to deliver high thrills.

A train of expectant riders on Rollo Coaster.

You know you want to touch it.

It's also completely operated using brake levers. No computerization whatsoever.

It's all historic and stuff.

Next up is Rollo Coaster, one of Idlewild's two coasters.

Caterpillar POV!

At least it doesn't look high like a Wacky Worm.

One of the cars has a face painted on it. I guess that means Idlewild's Caterpillar has been chasing it's own butt for 62 years.

A good look at the canopy mechanism reveals why. (It's a high-maintenance mess of cables)

Next, me and my brother rode the Caterpillar. This is one of the last Traver Caterpillars that has a working canopy.

For lunch we had corn dogs and some Potato Patch fries. Yum.

The seating arrangement is also a little strange.

This type of ride has an incredibly inefficient way of loading and unloading.

Nerd shot.

The Spider, first ride of the day.

Hmm, I don't see any loggin' action going on right now. I'll check back later.

Ah yes, it's Paul Bunyan's Loggin' Toboggan!

What's this I see? A log flume?

Idlewild is many things. A magical land of pavement, however, is not one of them.

Welcome to Idlewild!

[CorkscrewFoley]

Nice pics, and look forward to a proper TR. I do have to say, when I was last at Kennywood, the group I was with had all ridden as single riders. I hadn't ridden a Whip since I was a kid...great fun.

[Team Thriller]

The park looks very classic, which is something you don't see to much anymore.

 

Just to let you know that Malaria doesn't come from dirty water, it comes from mosquitoes. Even though the name does mean dirty water.

 

--James

[atem122]

Any amusement park with a snapping turtle in its lake shouldnt be allowed to be taken seriously.

Really.

But the park does look like a good getaway for the locals, and you did a great job covering it

[jslim39]

ooohhh.... nice tr, but it looks like Idlewild has gone downhill a bit since i last visited... no speed slides?!? I guess I've just FULLY outgrown Idlewild.... always been a Kennywood fan.

[dr.gumbo]

Despite a few shabby looking parts, this looks like a nice park. Thanks for the TR.

[Electerik]

Excellent TR--except, no Mr. Rogers or Confusion Hill?? For shame!

[Kennyweird]

^ I know. How sad.

 

Just to let you know that Malaria doesn't come from dirty water, it comes from mosquitoes. Even though the name does mean dirty water.

I know. "Malaria water" is a term Robb uses to describe dirty water, so I thought I would use it here as well. And for the record, malaria actually means "bad air".

 

In other news, I posted my review, so go ahead and read it.

[LEsherick]

Hi I am new to the Forum. I live in Somerset PA, about 30 minutes from Idlewild. I used to visit every year as a kid and even up to 2 years ago at least every other year. Last year I visited Hershey Park for which I had to been at since the year the Great Bear opened. I enjoyed it but was upset that the Giant Wheel was gone and that they were tearing down the river raft ride. This year we have won free tickets to either Idlewild, Kennywood, or Sandcastle and are giving them to my cousin who is having a birthday party today but since he is 12 and my other cousin is 10 they are getting a bit older and do not want to go to Idlewild as much. But bring in a nice steel coaster and we would be back for sure. The kids love Sandcastle and one has been to Kennywood so that's where we will be going. I have a few ideas for that pond.

1. they could clean up the pond and put in some water trikes or something and those walk on water balls.

2. Could drain the water and build a river raft ride in its place. It needs another Water Ride.

3. Again drain the water and build a lazy river that goes from the entrance side to the other side and back. This would work well as it is a water park and even though they don't have a wave pool they have a pool and a lazy river is a bit more family friendly than a wave pool or a river ride.

[Kennyweird]

^I think the floating bridge connecting the main part of SoakZone with the children's area may be partly to blame for the lake's poor condition. If they got rid of it and replaced it with a real bridge, the water might be able to circulate a little better and keep that area from stagnating.

 

It's also possible that I was just there at the wrong time. We've had a lot of rain recently, it's possible that it could have rinsed a lot of nutrients out of the soil and into the lake, which would explain all the algae I saw.

 

At any rate, I don't think draining the lake is the best solution. There's probably legal issues with draining the lake, as well. It's just not a good idea.

[Team Thriller]

I know. "Malaria water" is a term Robb uses to describe dirty water, so I thought I would use it here as well. And for the record, malaria actually means "bad air".

 

lol. I was just trying to look like a nerd.

 

--James