Skycoastin' Steve's 2011 Season Extravaganza!!

[dragonskeep]

For a guy who grew up in Huron Ohio, It's been way to long since I have been to the Point. It looks like photographing windseeker could become a past time all it's own. Really cool pictures, I enjoyed them.

Toft's rules the world but growing up I ate a lot of ice cream from the Red Barn, I ate a lot of everything from the Red Barn. CC is now on my bucket list. The year Maverick opened I got some pretty good tacos somewhere back by the ride. They were pretty cheap and quite good.

 

I miss Cedar Point.

[Skycoastin Steve]

And now for the fourth and final installation of my crazy week in the Midwest, it's time to take a quick look at Waldameer and Conneaut Lake Park!

 

I've been to Waldameer a couple times already, but on Friday, Conneaut Lake wasn't opening until 6, so I needed something to do to kill the time until then. Waldameer is only 45 minutes away, so I decided to spend some time there and kill time by riding Ravine Flyer II! It's odd to me that this Gravity Group creation is still running remarkably smoothly in its 4th year of operation, whereas Voyage was already becoming "too rough" for some people by its 4th year, and they are similar rides. I even did a couple rides sitting on wheel seats and it wasn't bad at all. Either way, it was fun to spend some time there and ride one of the best woodies in the world for a while, and I was also able to roam around outside the park and get some good pictures of the ride that you really can't get from inside the park.

 

I got down to Conneaut Lake Park right after they opened at 6, and my initial reaction was laughter. I'm not entirely sure how that park is still standing, let alone open. It's probably the worst shape I've ever seen a park in, and they were open for business! The only real reason I stopped here was to get the Blue Streak credit before 1. they close forever or 2. it falls over. Grabbing the credit was a spine-smashing success, and I documented the state of the park a little before I left. Blue Streak is a great ride as long as you ride in the middle row of a car. My first ride was in the front row, and I truly thought I was going to be injured by it as we went through the bottoms of the first three drops. It gave jackhammering a completely new meaning. Then I rode in the middle row of the back car, and not only was the airtime incredible on those three hills, it was much smoother! It was also frighteningly hilarious to watch the rest of the train in front of me buckle and shake going through those rough sections. All in all, I'm just glad I survived without having to go to the hospital.

 

Now for the pictures! Once again, comments are loved and appreciated!

Waldameer!

Ravine Flyer II!!!

One of the few decent shots you can even get from inside the park.

So that's why you go outside the park.

Voila! You can see so much more out here!

Like a bridge......over four-lane highways.......

Back seat on the first drop = airtime bliss!

Back seat on the return drop = airtime bliss!

So then I went across the street to the overflow lot, and discovered you can get REALLY close to the ride.

A little breather before the insanity ensues.

Anywhere on the train going over the bridge = airtime bliss!

I love the little S-curve it does entering the turn around. Gravity Group rides FTW!

Not a whole lot of track on this side of the road, but it's the best part of the ride!

Weeeeeee!!

These were inside the turn around. Are these old Comet trains? Anyone know?

Didn't think this picture turned out well when I took it, even almost deleted it. But as it turns out, I think it's a pretty cool effect.

Looking up at the 2nd big drop.

I went back down to the street level and climbed up these rocks to get these shots.

Very impressive engineering on this portion of the ride.

The first drop is a lot steeper than you realize when you look at it from outside the park.

More of the under side of the bridge.

One last shot before heading toooooo.........

Conneaut Lake Park!

Not entirely sure how it's been around since 1892, this place is in the middle of nowhere!

Ticket booths were in shambles.

Random flats on the way in.

Tilt-A-Whirl

As you can see, the place was packed today.

And even a cat was in attendance!

One of two in existence.

Really old Carousel.

FYI

The reason I'm here.

Can we start making TPR Landmarks? Put a plaque where Robb proposed to Elissa at Colossus, put a plaque on the seat where "something terrible happened" on Olympia Loop-on, put a plaque on the gorilla at Worlds of Fun that Robb sodomized. You know, important landmarks!

Train.

Back in the woods.

Lift hill, and this this was crooked like a set of teeth in Alabama.

Return hills were kinda boring.

WE'RE GOING STREAKING!!!

I did like how they had signs like this in front of a lot of rides. A little information never hurt.

Dilapidated, unused old building.

Dilapidated, unused old crappy coaster.

Dilapidated, unused old arcade.

Dilapidated, unused old building.

Dilapidated, unused old building.

Dilapidated, unused row of old buildings. And some American flags.

Time to leave, bye Blue Streak! For the sake of local chiropractors, I hope you stay open forever!

[paiging_jen]

 

Reamining?

 

Lift hill, and this this was crooked like a set of teeth in Alabama.

 

Great report, as always.

[Skycoastin Steve]

Reamining?

Oh snap! I never noticed that!

[Real]

Reamining?

Oh snap! I never noticed that!

 

Because Im basically the spelling police in my head, I saw that right away. Just figured someone beat me to it, glad I kept reading.

 

Great finish up on the TR. I should have went outside the ropes for Ravine Flyer 2 pics. I have some nice ones inside the park but man, I never saw those chances outside the park.

[Skycoastin Steve]

^I just drove up and down that street about 6 times looking for good places to stand for pictures. Not a very scientific method of searching.

[The Bebes]

All the way back to page 4: the 'WHORE on the SHORE' trip. LOL!!!! Best Trip Tour name Ever!!!

 

The Bebes had actually planned on hitting those piers during TPTP:2, but Lady Bebe wasn't feeling well. So we still owe ourselves that bit of Whoring.

 

Loved your CP sunset silhouette pix and Windseeker exposures. AWESOME!

[Skycoastin Steve]

^Thank you! You guys definitely need to do your own version of the Whore on the Shore trip. That day was truly epic in every sense of the word.

[TheSchwitek]

My Whore on the Shore day will be taking place in mid August. I feel like an exited schoolgirl. Speaking of Jersey, yet completely unrelated:

 

"Lloyd: That's a lovely accent you have. New Jersey?

Lady at bus stop: Austria.

Lloyd: Austria! Well, then. G'day mate! Let's put another shrimp on the barbie!

Lady at bus stop: Let's not."

 

-And totally unrelated yet again, the Jersey South Park episode is amazing.

[Skycoastin Steve]

^I'm honestly shocked you hadn't done the whore on the shore day yet. Let me know if you stop by KD on the way up here!

[DenDen]

 

Reamining?

 

Lift hill, and this this was crooked like a set of teeth in Alabama.

 

Great report, as always.

 

And they forgot the "close-paren" on this sign, (after the comma on line 4,) they must have been using Open Office...

[alilstronger]

Awesome update! I went to Waldameer for the first time back in May. It it such a awesome park. It is not huge but it is extremely well taken care of, VERY clean, and the staff were awesome!

[Skycoastin Steve]

^I agree. Waldameer has been a fun stop each time I've gone there. My only complaint is the amount of stuff to do, but they've been working on that the last few years, so they're getting there.

[Skycoastin Steve]

I was going to wait till Monday to do this report, but I'm bored.

 

Last night I drove down to BGW to check out Illuminights and to see some fireworks, and a great time was had! Illuminights consists of shows in four different "countries" of the park, which are Germany, France, Italy, and Ireland. They have showtimes at 5, 6, 8, and 9 so you can see all of them. Unfortunately, I got there after 5, so I had to skip a show, which would end up being the French one. The fireworks finale happens at 9:30, and they shoot the fireworks off from the railroad bridge over the river. The closest place to watch the fireworks is the bridge by the old BBW river drop, but I watched from over by Griffon so I could take pictures of them with roller coasters in the foreground (more on that later).

 

As far as the Illuminights shows were concerned, I thought they were pretty well done. The German show centered around Oktoberfest dancers, and then had the "world's largest cuckoo clock," featuring human actors playing out the parts of the cuckoo clock characters. Here is a video of that finale.

 

 

The Ireland show was a silly tale of some Irish dude that couldn't play the flute (or whatever instrument it was), so he needed a magic wand to help him play, and it involved large puppets. Then some giant broad threw gold pieces at everyone at the end. That's about it. I have pictures of that one.

 

The Italy show was basically some pretty impressive acrobatics.......performed by Asians. Thought it was odd that Asians were performing in the Italian show, but it is what it is, and it was still pretty neat! Here's a video of that show.

 

 

Overall, I think Illuminights was a fantastic experience. They do a good job mixing in music, humor, and some pretty breathtaking visuals (at least at night), and spreading it throughout the park. I think this is where it has the leg up on some of the Starlight shows at CF parks, because it's a much longer experience spread out over several areas as opposed to one confined portion of the park. The fireworks were your standard theme park fireworks (can't expect too much when they have to pay for a show every night). Definitely enjoyed it, though!

 

And as always, many pictures were taken, so here they are! Comments are loved and appreciated!

The day started with some credit whoring at Go-Karts Plus.

#305!

The GIANT hole where the building is going to go for Verbolten. It looks like they've finished digging and have leveled off the bottom of the hole in preparation for the foundation being poured.

One stake where a corner of the building will be. Judging by where these stakes were set up, the building will be HUGE.

A lot more clearing has been done over here, as well.

Mach Tower was doing a little bit of testing.

It was lifting up rather slowly, and they dropped it a few times, but it wasn't spinning.

German dancers for the Illuminights show.

Dancing around a May pole. Does that make them pole dancers?

Now for some roller coaster pictures.

This one turned out pretty well.

The clouds looked really cool yesterday.

Clouds always make a picture look even better!

Ole Nessie.

Griffon doing its thing.

Alpengeist also doing its thing.

It's a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow!!!

So the leprechaun was really bad at playing his instrument.

And he's trying to figure out how to make himself better.

So he pulls out his magic wand and tries to miracle himself some playing ability.

No luck there.

He was so bad, these random puppets popped up and laughed at him. Almost like the dog in Duck Hunt.

So he called for a volunteer from the crowd. This gentleman was given the magic wand.

And the leprechaun thought all was well until.........

This giant, ugly gypsy popped her huge head out from behind the building.

She wanted to know if the gentleman helping the leprechaun was her match.com date. Yes, that's what she asked. I was a bit perplexed by the writing in this show.

After the crazy gypsy killed the mood, the leprechaun called up for a child volunteer. Hopefully she wasn't his match.com date.......

She danced around with the wand, and he danced around playing sweet Irish music. Yay!

But it's not over yet! The sweet Irish music made this crazy, LSD inspired fairy pop up from another building.

I guess the point of his playing music was to bring back his love, which was the crazy, huge, LSD inspired fairy. The fairy must be his sugar momma, because the first thing he asked was if she found the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

Apparently she had found it, and she shot all her gold (colored paper) at the crowd with air cannons. The end! Awwwwww........

Back to roller coaster pictures, this one is awesome.

As is this one.

Purty.

They also light up the riverboat cruises for the end of the show. You can pay for a ticket to be on the boats while the fireworks are going off, but I'm not sure how much it costs.

The stage and surrounding area in Da Vinci's garden were very pretty.

Da Vinci's Cradle. I love taking shots like this.

Took this after the show was over, you can see in the left side of the picture that someone had one of those double light sabres as they were walking by.

Another cool one.

Ooooooo..........

This almost looks like the entire coaster is under water.

Is it dorky to have a favorite ride sign? Because this one takes the cake for me.

Time for fireworks!

Alpengeist made for a nice foreground piece.

Awesome.....

I really wanted shots with Griffon in the foreground, but there wasn't any good place to make that happen.

These were fun to take.

Very cool effect, I just wish the coaster wasn't blurry.

Grand finale!

Bright!

REALLY bright!

Fizzling out and over, like this trip report. Thanks for reading!

[Intimidator305]

Nice pictures and update! I bet the neighborhood around BGW loves those fireworks, haha! And yes, the Griffon sign is awesome, same with the lights that shine up on it at night.

[Skycoastin Steve]

^This is an edit of a photo I took of the sign last year.

 

[daveydo5172]

 

Reamining?

 

Lift hill, and this this was crooked like a set of teeth in Alabama.

 

Great report, as always.

 

 

Ummm, no one seems to point out the name Vettle Engineering...EVERY single roller coaster source guide has his name spelled Vettel! Everywhere you can possibly look, thats how its spelled!

[simon8899]

German dancers for the Illuminights show.

 

Gawd this is crazy.....I'd be lying there laughing my ass off....

[Skycoastin Steve]

^

 

I don't doubt it. It's a very "Americanized" version of European things.

[braztaz]

Those pictures of Alpengeist with the fireworks in the background are just amazing!

[Zingoman]

I even did a couple rides sitting on wheel seats and it wasn't bad at all.

 

Haha. I guess Ravine Flyer runs better than you realize because in fact every seat on any PTC two bench train is a wheel seat. Their last trailored trains to run were on Predator and they have been retired. Only two bench non wheel seats are going to be Morgan these days as far as I know.

[Skycoastin Steve]

^Well the front rows don't have the bench directly over the wheels like the back rows do. I mean, technically, your feet are over the wheels, but rides are noticeably smoother in the front rows on the two-row PTC trains.

[adamico2]

 

Reamining?

 

Lift hill, and this this was crooked like a set of teeth in Alabama.

 

Great report, as always.

 

 

Ummm, no one seems to point out the name Vettle Engineering...EVERY single roller coaster source guide has his name spelled Vettel! Everywhere you can possibly look, thats how its spelled!

 

I knew something with that name looked off, but after reading it out loud I said to myself, "no, that's right." Ha, I'm not going crazy.

[scottian]

 

Oh god I found myself riding one of these in my younger year before I knew better.

 

Sitting in a bird cage, and you sure as hell ain't singin.

[1badgmc]

 

Oh god I found myself riding one of these in my younger year before I knew better.

 

Sitting in a bird cage, and you sure as hell ain't singin.

 

I rode that ages ago when it was located at Dogpatch USA. My cousin and I loved it back then. Of course, being 25 or so years ago, I was obviously a bit smaller, which probably helped.