Canobie Lake Park Opening Day TR

[mrceagle]

Opening day had finally come to Canobie Lake Park in NH. The weather predictions were beyond positive and we set out early to beat the crowds and get to the park for opening. Though in our efforts we got there a hour before the park opened. I went with a larger group, older brother, younger brother, sister in law and their 3 children. We then meet up with friends later in the day. That brought our group to 9.

 

I got 3 tickets for today and 2 tickets to use later in the year. Cost $88 with the opening day sale. I was given the wrong tickets originally but since they were folded I didn’t notice right away. But it was easy fixed with more apologies then needed.

 

I didn’t have a camera which was a shame a lotto of little thing have been worked on around the park. So I will try and simplify the report a bit.

 

Rides down: Xtreme Frisbee, Pirata, Crazy cups, Kiddie boats, Kiddie jeeps.

 

New Things:

 

2 new games:

3 point challenge is located next to Xtreme Frisbee were High striker and Guess your weight were last year. Paintball Alley will replace the Put Put challenge in the Canobie Village. It was not ready for opening and should be up and running by Mothers day.

 

There were some game changes this year. The park rehabbed a couple games. Long shot got new hoops. Coaster chase got a new Machine. High sticker will be reinstalled later in the season. Guess your weight will go in storage for now.

 

Food:

I only got refills myself, $1.00 dollar + tax.

 

There is a new food stand in Canobie Village. Chicken Coop replaced the Pick ax Pub. A Chicken Basket with fries is 8.75 and flavors like Buffalo and Teriyaki are 9.85.

 

I have one complaint though. By now nearly every food stand offers baskets. Meaning you get the meal and the fries. I’m not a snacker but I also don’t always want a larger meal. It would be nice to have the option of getting the Burger or Chicken fingers without fries. Especially those wavy/crinkle fries I don’t like.

 

Park Improvements:

The park took over the larger Gift shops. So they are being renovated. The carousel gift shop in Old Canobie Village has a new floor. The Wood walkway in font of it and the connected ice-cream stand was replaced. The midway in front of it was regarded/raised nearly a foot so that the walkways are even. The ice-cream stand also has a new accessible window for guests who can’t reach. The building that houses both also received a huge makeover and new wood. The railing was new on the wake a mole building. Not sue id that was planed or do to damage caused by the wind storm a couple months back. The park lost a lot of trees in that storm and fresh cut stumps were obvious around the park. I looked around the side of the park and there was at least 10+ cords of wood stacked up. There were also limbs missing form many of the trees around the Flume.

 

Mine of lost souls had nearly every effect working. Only the water effect at the end was not working and the audio was very good. Better then years past.

 

Overall day:

The park was very busy. But lines moved fast. Most flats were 2-4 cycles long similar to a summer day. Food stands all had lines and some moved very slowly.

 

Rides that were open ran well but a few ride cycles seemed short. Davinci’s Dream seemed particularly short. Cannonball was working well and ran reasonably smooth. Corkscrew is getting rougher. Bumper cars and Zero gravity had a few glitches but were worked out quickly. Rides put off by the down time were allowed to get right back on if they stayed. Though not all the ride experiences were positive; Double riders on the flume are now required to sit together in the front. This is not needed on a Hopkins flume and only causes the boat to bottom out most of the ride. The park also changed the Height requirement. Rider 36in and under are no longer allowed to ride with an adult. So this kept us from bringing my 2 nieces on the ride.

 

I wish that was the only disheartening event with rides but it wasn’t. When we went to bring the girls on Baja Buggy/Jump around we were told to get off. The extra height requirement said 36 to ride alone. We waited in line for a wile in eye shot of the team lead. In all it wouldn’t have been a problem if he had not waited till the girls were on and stabbed in before saying something we were within eye shot the entire time. So with 8 Minutes left we wanted to grab one last ride. Looked at Cannonball and its line was shut down with a full queue. So we ran over to Star blaster. The main line was shut so we walked to the secondary entrance used on busy days. We waited till 2 of and heard an announcement of the park closing. We were after that told to leave the line, seem they shut that line down early also. But at closing there was only 2-3 cycles left so only about 5 minutes of people.

 

So this was just annoying. I confronted the team lead in Kiddie land before leaving I was not going to make any argument in front of the kids in the area it’s not a good example. I also talked to one of the park owners about the height confusion and suggested they look into it and state the requirements more clearly.

 

In all this was not my best visit. But it was good to be back. I have 2 more tickets and an ace event to hit this year. Hopefully the problems well be worked out. Early ride closures are not needed. I think they also need to think about having more time/hours opening day and stay open past 6. There just wasn’t enough time in the 7 hours the park was open.

 

Rides hit 1x – Cannonball, Mine of Lost Souls, Flume, Zero Gravity, Caterpillar, Skater, Turkish Twist, and Boston Harbor Patrol (With my 2 nieces)

[Dr.Shadey]

Nice trip report mrceagle. It was cool to get to meet you (I'm TULADN from Canobiefan, btw)!

 

Canobie made some nice improvements this year, but it didn't seem as much as a "fresh start" as last year, I guess. Alot of little things around the park looked like they could use maintenance or sprucing up. My main beef was with the Log Flume loading station, the graffiti wall was still intact and it looked like it could really use a cleaning. Not to mention the bear head is gone : (

 

But other than that, I thought everything went well.Cannonball ran beautifully and Corkscrew has given me worse rides, so I was happy.

 

thanks for the update!

[mrceagle]

I want to give them a bit of the benefit of the doubt. there was a lot of obvious damage form the wind storm. The new Machine in teh coaster chase spot was Just delivered by Bobs space racers just before opening. But there were small things that seemed like easy clean ups that could and should have been done in my mind.

[Dr.Shadey]

Yeah I agree. Poor Sea/Land Rescue : P

I got a photo of the damage to the stage, I'll post it to CanobieFan when I'm on my other computer.

[mrceagle]

Ya Poor land sea rescue. though I feel Canobie missed out on a huge opportunity. I feel they should have removed the rides, since it's a repeat style, and added a mere family friendly attraction .