Photo TR: Indiana Beach 7/03/2010

[Airtime&Gravity]

On July 3, I made it to Indiana Beach again, and much to my surprise, the park was nowhere near as crowded as I thought. With my visit to SFSTL on July 4, 2008, I should really consider going to parks more on the July 4 weekend. Although crowds did pick up towards the end of my visit, waits, with the exception of Steel Hawg, log flume, and Hurricane towards the end, had a one train max.

 

Although, the park made up for the lack of waits with some atrocious dispatch times. I understand the long dispatch times for when rides breakdown (which was happening a lot), but not for when the ride is properly working. There was always enough to fill a train/ride in line, so it wasn't like we were waiting for a certain number of people. On the Cornball Express and Hoosier Hurricane, ride ops went down making sure there were no loose articles, then they went down tightening every seat belt until there was no more slack, and then they went down again and checked the lap bars. Hoosier Hurricane was having dispatch times approach 10 minutes. Maybe I just get spoiled with the operations at Great America...

 

Also, the frequent ride breakdowns was another frequent problem that day. Cornball Express seemed to be breaking down the most problems, but all over rides were broken down.

 

Other notes:

 

Steel Hawg - While fun, this ride seems a lot rougher than last time. While you can't hit your head on the restraints, the whole ride shakes throughout the ride making it a little unpleasant. It's no t2 or Predator, but it was a shock after how smooth my ride was last year.

 

Lost Coaster - Sadly this ride is still closed.

 

Hoosier Hurricane - Still rough, but it seemed to be running better than last year. It still isn't as good as it looks like it can be, but it's still a fun ride.

 

Cornball Express - I was disappointed last year with how this coaster ran, but it was running great when I went. On the few times my seat belt wasn't tightened all the way, there was crazy airtime throughout the entire ride. It was definitely the surprise of the trip.

 

Double Shot - I couldn't remember the second shot from when I rode this last year, so that powerful moment of airtime came as a surprise. Probably my favorite ride at the park, although Cornball Express will take that title if they change the seat belt rule.

Park map, as you can see, the park has a lot of rides in a very small area.

With the ride not testing, and no train in the station, I knew Lost Coaster wouldn't be open today.

Steel Hawg is one tangled mess of track.

Probably the second best part of the ride

It might not look like much, but you have some serious speed in this turn

I think I liked it, but I'm not sure

Yeah everyone has this photo, but it's hard to get photos of Hurricane, so this is all you're going to get

Cornball Express was amazing

With there being no wait around noon, I did a little marathon. I ended up riding it around 8 times in a row.

The Galaxy is still a fun ride, and there are still some good airtime moments to be had

For such a small ride, you gain some serious speed in the helices.

Scary paratrooper

Indiana Beach has a lot of old unsafe looking rides

Unlike my previous visit, Air Crow was finally open

Den of Lost Thieves had a pretty long wait, so I decided to skip it again.

Not Scooters, but still fun

Still pretty empty...awesome

Going up

Probably one of, if not my #1, airtime moment

Flying Bobs, sadly I forgot to ride this(I was heading to the Tig'rr Coaster at the time).

For being fairly small, Tig'rr coaster is a pretty intense ride.

Overview

Crazy wave swinger. Hearing the chains strain, and feeling them slip a little, made for a terrifying but awesome ride.

Giant Wheel opened up later in the day after some mechanical problems.

This is Indiana beach, one of the few places "proving there's more than corn in Indiana," but not much more.

Himalayas are always fun

Falling Stars are always difficult to get good photos of. Still a fun ride though.

I end my day with one last ride on Cornball Express

Still a messed up ride

If you're ever at Indiana beach You have to do this

Boogey Boogey Boogey

Jeff Johnson even showed up, although he has lost his head

The carp have a diet of fish pellets and line jumpers

Edited July 6, 2010 by Airtime&Gravity

[Dailey Enterprizes]

I love the pictures. Indiana Beach is one of many parks that I've yet to experience. Knoebles and Holiday World are on that list too...

[WildStangAlex]

Great Pictures! Love that park!

[CoasterWeasel]

Great pictures and I loved Indiana Beach when I went last month. My question is does anyone know what is wrong with Lost Coaster? It was closed the second week of June and I have seen a handful of trip reports since that show it was closed for them also.

[Airtime&Gravity]

When I was there it sounded like there was maintenance work going on inside the mountain. I don't know if it has run at all this season, so I can't say whether it's something as simple as retracking(odd time for it), or if it is something much more serious.

[spaceace12]

Every single TR I have seen has had it down. Hopefully it is up for the 17th because that is when I am going this year. If not, still have Cornball and Hawg.

[WildStangAlex]

I was there twice this year. Opening Weekend and the following weekend. Both times it was running, and the second weekend it actually was running two trains, something I haven't personally seen since 2006.

[HowieP]

I went to Indiana Beach in 2007 (one year before Steel Hawg) and I loved every minute of that place. Great pics!