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Six Flags Darien Lake (SFDL) Discussion Thread


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There is no way DL is closing anytime soon, the park was packed most good weather days this summer and there is also the PAC and campgrounds to consider. Its just too big of a thing in WNY to close, in fact I can even argue DL is literately the hub of summer fun in WNY its the place EVERYONE wants to go at least once during the summer.

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I am pretty sure the reason DL does not do the halloween event is due to a few factors. First, the weather is very iffy and unpredictible. Second, getting staff is difficult at this time of year with so many of the regular staff being back at school. Third, it is very expensive to run, and again with the staff. Finally, WNY has an abundance of Halloween events and Haunted Houses that DL would compete against.

 

My guess is it was just too costly overall to operate the park as needed to properly put on a fright fest event

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I will also be in the park on Sunday taking TONS of pictures for a well past due TR. I was hoping the park would do some fun closing events for the end of the year like a laser show on the final day. But I noticed that the park is only doing it on Saturdays and if I'm not mistaken it's just the show from the rest of the year. I thought way back when - laser Spooktacular was kinda cool but I'm not sure when that was put to a stop. I never really made it out to Fright Fest. Hopefully the operations won't be terrible for the last day.

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I liked FrightFest. It was nice for a change, but it came with its cons. The Fright Night Field Trip was always so popular and always had a long line/wait. The Laser Spooktacular special was nice too. But as for the cons, they had to shut down everything past the Ferris Wheel towards the Grizzly Run (half the park) just to fully operate the festivities.

 

I recall the area past RoS being lively and decorated nicely (or even the entire half of the park that was actually open), with the pumpkin patch and a spooky pathway leading to the haunted house. It was alright for this type of event (not as big as Cedar Points or U.Studios). Frightworld and House of Horrors definitely made/make Darien Lake having a haunted house a bad decision. But I'm not saying it wasn't nice to try it out.

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I went to the park today and it was VERY busy. I am sure the nice weather and the fact that tomorrow is the last operating day has alot to do with that.

 

Twister was running today! As were all other rides other than Ranger and the water rides. There was lots oing on, including some live shows in front of the emporium. I was rather impressed with everything I must say, and at no time did I hear anyone wanting halloween or fright fest stuff. The park definitely had fall decor out with hay bales, corn stalks and mums all over.

 

Also, I know the area back by the go karts has been discussed on end here, but while i was waiting in line to ride the antique cars with my 5 year old son, I noticed another small spot. Just to the left of twister is a nice small plot of land that would be ideal for a flat ride. If the park were to add a new area back there, they could very easily add a flat ride in that spot, which may help bring more guests back that way.

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If Premier is sticking around Next season.... does that mean that CNL will still be the EVIL OVERLORDS next season as well?? Or is the sale of the park Emanate??

 

Either way, it seems like Premier will be sticking around. So that either means the park will still run with CNL as the owners, or they are planning to purchase the park. At least for next year, it seems like HFE is out of the question based on the fact that the park has fall events for next year already planned.

 

 

Thanks to everyone posting updates for this weekend. Hope to see more, as the park has had time to work on things during the week.

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Darien Lake Closing Day 2015

The first 99 pictures from my Trip Report. The rest (18 pictures) will be in a second post. Enjoy!

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Mind Eraser welcomes us!

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I do like its placement right on the pond/lake/whatever they call it

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A Nice little entrance plaza. Too bad there's no B&M protector of the gate

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Some of the fall decor. It was minimal.

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Oh wait, there's a Fall event going on on this lovely Summer day?

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The bridge that leads off to nowhere welcomes us!

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They had a nice big stage where the Fountain usually stands.

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This was a neat little feature of the new Harvest Fest

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Behind this "Beer Sliders" stand, they had a band called "the Frankfurters" Playing music youd expect to hear at Busch Gardens' Oktoberfest.

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FOOD TRUCKS!

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Predator is nice to look at. I like how it goes over the path to RoS

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Off they go!

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I wonder, was this ever accurate? Aside from the picture at the end of the ride... were there ever really any strobes?

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Up up up!

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Not sure if they did it last year or this year, but for the most part all the gates look like this now, no more of the white plexi glass. (There is still some of it visible though in between the corrals)

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As I said back in July, this is a very Cedar Fair-esque shirt. It also reminds me of a 5X The Fury shirt I got at Busch Gardens in May

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The American Flag is on this one for some reason.

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Interesting. No peeps in the seats!

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I like the colors of this one

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I'm Sorry, but did the new RoS theme leak early? ( XD )

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Iron Moose or BatMoose, which will it be?!

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Star Moose!

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Comical t-shirt in Steel City

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New for 2012! How cool! - seriously, I wish they'd keep the biggest ride's exit station a little more up to date...

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This looks like its been sitting in this gift shop for YEARS

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theres a whole BUCKET full of them!!! (For those of you whom are unaware, these are supposed to be bouncy and they have glitter in them and what not.)

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Another stage, just below the Darien Square gate.

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For all the criticism Vekoma gets, Boomerang is quite fun and not all that rough in my mind.

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They were raising the screen randomly during the day

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I found out a little later that they were taking the screen down. Which made sense

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The line was about a 35 minute wait when I got to this, I felt it wasnt all that worth it.

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Most of the in park signage was empty

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This dreaded gate, I wish it were open.

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Same with the bridge. If you arent going to allow the public to use the bridge, and it serves little to no purpose to the employees, then get rid of it!

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Nice big open plot of land next to twister!

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Which, was down today. No surprise there.

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I figured it would be interesting to look into Ye Olde Golfe Coursee. It seems to be much more overgrown than last year!

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Viper actually had a bit of a wait today

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This is what gets on my nerves...

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lets look at the line... it was pretty far out... but they didnt use both trains...

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REALLY clear view of putt putt here

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Maybe next year. I found it interesting though that they labeled this train #3. I mean, If the old yellow train was retired, why not just name the two remaining trains 1&2 instead of 2&3?

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Man, the roof in the Viper station was all kinds of gross!

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I love this view you get while leaving the Viper!

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our SBNO friend. I think its called ranger... if only they hadn't removed most of the signage... I can't be totally sure anymore what its called! ;)

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The old queue for Ranger, now a Smoking Area, conveniently located upwind from a childrens area!

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Pretty fun! It's nice to see a superloop that isnt held up by cables and that doesnt shake upon operation

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Viper looks awesome

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I used to love the one by the RoS that would say "208 Feet? Piece of Cake!" Now it says "Superhero" or something like that and it just isnt the same...

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This ride was open when I got to the park, but when I walked past it, it was closed.

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Got this for $5 from the food trucks. Bacon Mac N Cheese. I didn't expect it to be so good!

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Perhaps this is new. Perhaps not. But this is the first time I noticed they did this to the old Subway

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a fun little drop tower.

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We saw this earlier today,

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But I discovered it was just a marking for a pipeline. I wish I had taken a picture but there was also another 2" pipeline flag right by the Predators restricted area entrance gate... Which I thought was interesting

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I didnt realize they had cut down the size of Predators queue. Was this recent?

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If I remember correctly, these werent on here when DL first received these trains. I dont usually make it out to Predator - usually because I dont want to. So does anyone know when they put these back on the front of the trains?

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You're welcome Darien!

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A very clouded award. for when Predator was voted 9th best coaster in the world.

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Maintenance Bay by the Predator. Did anyone ever figure out what those blue things were for?

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part of the fall decorating. as I said, it was minimal

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This poor theater is falling apart. Just by looking at the front of it... the signage is split and uneven...

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some more decor

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A list of the musical happenings for the day

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Haymaker in full swing

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A view at the water ride whom shall not be named's old plot o' land

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a new angle. Nice to know Darien uses some energy efficient lighting where it can

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Shoot! My main man for new ride info wasnt there today! I have let you down, TPR...

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Grizzly Run was all drained out. It was interesting to see.

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Though I had originally assumed that all the supports were to be finished by halfway through the season, it appears there are a few stragglers.

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The supports that are finished though, look MUCH nicer!

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Some empty pallets with an empty crate that has the initials M.E. on it. I wonder what these used to have in/on them.

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You can really see the fading and nastyness of the track. It stands out much more now thanks to the supports. Hopefully the track will be complete by 2016

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Darien Lake Closing Day 2015

The final few leftovers from my Trip Report!

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Some more land by the Mind Eraser/Grizzly Run

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I like where rolling thunder sits. it looks quite nice.

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Corn Popper Poppin' away!

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I noticed that the Big ol' hill had some grass maintained, and some not maintained. I wonder if thats soley due to the fact that theres a fire hydrant and some sort of power generator on it or if its something else aswell.

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Look at that nice skyline! Not CP quality but still fun!

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Where'd the rest of the fountain go!!!!????

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I was pretty proud to notice this on the side of the steel city building. Looks like a certain superhero has over-stayed his welcome!

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Such a beauty

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People dont really seem phased by the tiny fence

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Even the older peeps. Still walk right over it! I know it isnt deemed "restricted" but still.

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One last ride!

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Until Next Year!

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thanks for that one final look at DL for the year. What a beautiful ending to the season. I would have liked to have visited one more time but there's always next year.

 

Of all the times I've been to the park I must admit that the merchandising was top notch this year. I didn't buy anything but I really liked a lot of the ride shirts that they had.

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If whatever they put on barracuda bays old hill isn't waterpark related they should probably remove the bridge. That hill is just seeping potential for a coaster or a few flats. They don't have to level it but even if they just shaved it down a bit they could develop it. Such an eyesore to have a big empty overgrown plot in the middle of the park. There's so much land there, more than you can see because the backside of the hill facing the parking lot is just as big. Whoever runs the park in 2016 has to see the potential with all that land. Now that cuda is gone and the hill will need to be at least partially cut down they can finally dig up and remove ol' floodgate. Even if removing it created a partial hill collapse it wouldn't matter because it has to come down anyways and there's nothing it could really damage. In order to do anything with that spot floodgate has gotta go, same with the ugly old worn down bath house and l0ck3r building. That whole area just needs a redo. Let's hope they don't half ass it though and just bury floodgate under dirt or fill it with concrete and bury it though.... They did that with the campground pools where Motocoaster sits. They literally filled the old pools in with stone and concrete, didn't even break out the foundation or concrete walls of the pool, just filled it in. If you're in line for Motocoaster you can still see the depth markers on the pool deck that it sits on. That whole project was 110% lazy half assed work. I'll say it again, move Motocoaster into the Galaxy theatre and make it a darkride! And then rip out the old pools and decks and plant some damn grass you lazy cheap jerks. That is all, LOL.

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They should keep the old Barracuda Bay bridge even if Darien Lake doesn't put anything that is water park related into the area where a certain set of water slides were. The bridge looked nice as you're walking into park in the summer with flower baskets hanging from the sides. The water park area that was by the Barracuda Bay bridge is in need of a redo with a new family water playground, and remodeled bathrooms.

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With the new, modern water park, the whole Hooks area just looks old and dumpy now. Not even to mention that half of the water features don't work anymore, including the bucket which was the big draw. I wouldn't mind seeing something brighter and new like Hershey has, or what SFA is getting.

 

If its still CNL and Premier next year I could see that happening and keeping with the 1 wet, 1 dry theme they had this year.

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