TR - Waldameer 8/30-9/4-2010

[TJinPgh]

Made what is becoming an annual trek to Erie last week. Thought I might submit a few notes about the overall experience from a repeat customer perspective.

 

Part of this review includes my lodging for the week. As has become customary for us, we stayed at Sara's Campground. For those who aren't familiar with the area, Sara's is located just down the hill from Waldameer, nestled right in between the park and Presque Isle State Park. It's the closest campground to Waldameer and it's within walking distance (if you don't mind trekking up the hill).

 

Sara's doesn't take reservations, so we chose a Tuesday afternoon arrival because we knew we could get a tent site without any difficulty. We've loved staying there over the years. Recently, though, the experience has sort of degraded from love to tolerate. The park is clean and the tent rates are the cheapest in the area. Sadly, the availability of sites has diminished year by year.

 

About 85% of the campground is taken up with "seasonal" (read permanent) residents. People who have parked their trailers there, year after year. Gone so far as to build structures off of them. The number of over night sites has decreased annually.

 

Typically, we would pick a site in the small wooded loop just over from the main road into Presque Isle. To our surprise, these sites are no longer available to tents. Since last year, the sites have been paved over and are trailer only. That leaves the sites right next to the road, the beach, and the area over by the bay.

 

The sites by the road are too small. The sites on the beach are far too windy. And insects tend to be an issue by the bay. We chose by the road since it wasn't that crowded.

 

Not sure how many more years we'll be going to Sara's, or how many will even be possible without purchasing a trailer.

 

Ok, enough about Sara's. As mentioned, we arrived Tuesday afternoon. Waldameer is traditionally closed on Mondays but it was odd to not see anything running as we arrived at Sara's (you drive right under the Ravine Flyer to get to Sara's). Nobody had any info at the campground so, after setting up camp we drove up to the park. A sign stating that the park would only be open from Friday to Monday was up. Not great news as we had planned to go Thursday. Pays to check the website for scheduling ahead of time, I guess. At any rate, we weren't leaving until Saturday so that left Friday for Waldameer.

 

Tuesday-Thursday were hot. 90s all three days. We spent Wednesday at the zoo and lounged on Thursday. Incidentally, the coffee house at the entrance of Presque Isle has a cool open mic night on Wednesdays. Matty B tends "bar" and is a pretty cool guy.

 

Word that the weather was going to turn south for Friday wasn't encouraging. It rained a little early Friday morning and the temperature started to dip. It was down into the 70s by late Friday morning. It was cloudy but didn't look awful so off to Waldameer we went.

 

Combo for Waldameer and Water World were $23 without any discounts. Still the best deal out there, IMHO.

 

Started off at Water World since most of Waldameer is closed until after 1pm. While cruising around the lazy river it began to rain. Fairly hard. Cold and windy. Made several trips around the circle then finally chose to hang out at the heated relaxing pool. Rained a little, on and off for an hour or two. Water was warm, though. Finally stopped raining and warmed up a tad so it was time to hit the slides.

 

With the kids going back to school, a good bit of their staff was missing. As a result, there were some things closed due to a lack of man power. The speed slides were closed, as were a few of the other slides. I'm not a huge fan of body slides so it was no big deal for me. There were only a couple of tube slides closed and the other body slides were open for those who like them.

 

No lines! Pretty much just climb the steps and go.

 

Finally ventured over to the Midnight Plunge slide. One doesn't realize how high these things are until there are no lines and you can climb straight to the top, lol. There are two slides on this tower. Two people (with a 2 man tube) were ahead of me at the top. I noticed that one of the slides was chained off, although the water was running. I inquired about the other slide (awesome twosome?) and was told that since they only had one attendant working (that lack of manpower thing) they could only operate one slide at a time but I could use whichever I wish. Ended up taking 2 trips down each slide. I confess that I am not in tip top shape and was pretty much wore out from 4 consecutive climbs up that tower, lol.

 

Had a nice chat with the lifeguard at the bottom. Talked about possible future expansion, including a wave pool still being planned at some point and that was about it for Water World. Next it was off to the main park for a bite to eat.

 

One of the main complaints about Waldameer is the food. No options that one would call great. Pretty much strictly burgers and fries. We opted for the meatball hoagies. $17 for two 6" hoagies and two large drinks. Same could have been picked up at a local Subway for half the price. Pretty tasty, though.

 

Went for a funnel cake for desert. Previously you could buy funnel cakes and waffles topped with fruit. Sadly, it's no longer available. Powdered sugar or cinnamon and sugar only. Oh well. $3 something for a decent size funnel cake. Not awful for an amusement park.

 

Took an hour or two to play some games.

 

At around 4:30 or so we started to ride. It was at this point that I really began to smile. Once again... NO LINES! Straight onto every ride in the park. Never had to wait any longer than the next car for any ride I went on. Well, with the exception of the Wacky Shack, which had about a five minute wait the second time I road it.

 

Never had an experience like that. In 2 hours, I road the Comet, Ravine Flyer, Wacky Shack and Thunder River twice along with the Steel Dragon, X-Scream and Pirate's Cove each once. I can honestly say that I got nauseous from riding so much so quickly.

 

I'm not a huge fan of spinning type rides so I chose to pass on the rest of the rides. I have no doubt I could have hit just about everything else in another hour or two. I saw the Ali Baba running with ONE rider on it. Amazing.

 

A note on the X-scream. Not my favorite ride, but the view of Presque Isle from the top is amazing if you're facing the right way.

 

No entertainment that day. The singers had all gone back to school, I guess. No Wally or Wendy, either. But, from a pure riding standpoint, I can't say I've ever had a better day at an amusement park.

 

We left Erie on Saturday afternoon. The weather wasn't any better and it still didn't look like there were going to be big crowds.

 

Not sure how often that happens on the final Friday of the season, but one could very easily get spoiled if it does.

[Dailey Enterprizes]

That was a very nice TR of Waldameer. It's nice to see some consistency in the trip reports for the park even though it was the end of the season and some of the employees have gone back to school. I think the water park is under rated even though it is a bit small. I think everyone should make it a part of their visit, so they feel like they can experience the whole park and not just the rides. I agree the food isn't the best, but that's why I always save plenty of room and hit up Sarah's Diner at the bottom of the hill. I haven't experienced the campground because that isn't my thing, but the Diner is fantastic especially if you love Coke, curly fries, and hot dogs.

[TJinPgh]

I've loved water parks since I was a kid when the campground my grandmother bought into at Pymatuming built one right along side the campground.

 

There are obviously larger water parks out there but Water World does have decent slides. Plus, the one thing I like about it over Sandcastle (Pittsburgh) is that you can't go down the double slides at Sandcastle without a double tube and another rider. Water World doesn't worry about such things.

 

And, you're right about Sara's Diner. Well, it's actually the Ice Cream stand as the Diner no longer serves food. It's just used for indoor seating on really busy days. The Hot Dogs are good but my favorite is the Italian Cheesesteak.

 

As an aside, the coffee house next door that I mentioned earlier (Presque Isle Gallery) has some awesome paninis that aren't too terribly expensive. Good Chai Tea if you like that sort of thing as well.

 

The nice thing about Waldameer is that there is no admission or parking fee (except on fireworks nights when you have to have a ride pass if you intend to enter after 3pm). The nice thing about that is you can leave and grab something to eat outside the park and return if you don't want to eat there. Tons of places near by to eat no matter what you're craving. Excellent steak at Joe Roots, about 2 blocks from Waldameer on the main road. They used to be down where the coffee house is now.

 

Waldameer continues to be one of my favorite parks. I'm to the point where I hate even going to Kennywood (I haven't been there this year to ride the new coaster at all). Even on busy days the lines at Waldameer are nothing compared to Kennywood. I live 3 miles from Pittsburgh and I've often said that I could drive to Waldameer and ride the Flyer before I could drive to Kennywood and ride the Exterminator. Other than all the construction on I-79, I still stand by that statement.

 

Granted, if you're a coaster fanatic Kennywood has more to offer (although the Flyer beats them all, hands down). But, Waldameer has more than 75% of what Kennywood delivers with half the lines and half the price.

 

The only thing I would change about Waldameer is that I'd keep the amusement park portion open until Halloween, like all the other parks in western PA are. Yes, I know the weather turns south in Erie a lot sooner than the others, but it would be nice to see it stay open longer and there's no reason the non-water rides couldn't operate through October.

[TJinPgh]

I just wanted to add, for those who aren't familiar with Waldameer, Sara's is not connected with them in any way. It's a family owned establishment that includes a campground, diner/ice cream stand and a tourist trap sorta place called Beach Zero that just happens to be located right next to Waldameer.

 

Just wanted to throw that out there so people didn't get put off by the lack-luster review of Sara's campground. The food is great, though.

 

There are quite a few motels along the strip leading up to Waldameer that can be had for reasonable prices. There are more upscale hotels down near the waterfront if that's more your speed, as well as a number of campgrounds a bit further away.