Photo TR - Wild Waves & Enchanted Village, 5/28/16

[LuminousAphid]

Since I randomly had Saturday off, I decided to head down to Wild Waves & Enchanted Village to check out the park this year. It's my local park, and there are some changes happening this year that I wanted to check out- they're installing a S&S Double Shot and an Enterprise, plus officially "splitting" into 2 parks so that guests can pay less $$ rides only, or more $$ for both rides & slides. I don't know if there will be an option for only the water park for less $$. I think it's a good idea since if it's a colder day and not good for water slides, they might still get some guests on the rides side.

 

Such was the case on Saturday, but since they haven't implemented the 2 separate parks yet, I decided to bring my suit and actually got to try all of the slides I haven't been on. i was able to get on all of them plus my old favorite the "River Rapids" ride, so it turned out to be a more fun day than I thought it might be considering the weather. It definitely kept the crowds away, and everything was a walk-on all day except if you wanted a front seat on one of the coasters.

 

I headed down a little later in the morning and arrived around lunch time, and this was the first hopeful sign that my hunch about low crowds would be right on

 

A good sign as far as crowds go

The parking lot was nearly as empty as when I was there during Christmastime, and that made me smile. The one thing I hate about this place is going in the summer when lines are ridiculous.

 

I headed toward the rides since it was still very cold at 11:00, and The Wild Thing immediately broke down (or one of the people didn't know how to operate it, I don't know) while I waited to get on the first ride of the day. Oh joy.

 

The Wild Thing

Corkscrew

Off to Timberhawk, for a couple of fun rides in the back

 

Timberhawk: Ride of Prey

I waited a cycle for the paratrooper before the op told me there were no single riders, which I still don't understand on the majority of rides this rule is in place for. This model is cool because it has a hydraulic lifting arm, so all the cars can be loaded at once instead of needing to rotate the whole ride for each load

 

The Patatrooper

Needs a cleaning

Then I went to have a look around at some of the scenery, and I was pleasantly surprised by some of the stuff they have going on. A lot of it looks really good, and while other spots need some work it's overall a really nice place to walk around in. I didn't really see any glaring ugly spots except the construction sites and the "Downhill Tubin'" area looked pretty beat up

 

Lots of hanging baskets

Leftovers from Halloween?

To the right is where the Double Shot and Enterprise will be

Very nice bathrooms overall

The Candy Factory was sort of disappointing, but they had some caramel apples with Oreo pieces stuck to it

Silly fountain

Overview of the bigger slide towers

I went on the Timber Axe which made me a little queasy, so I decided to take a break, get some lunch and try some of the water slides!

 

Looks harmless

Not so harmless on my stomach

I will continue this later, it's memorial day and I don't want to spend all day writing about this instead of enjoying the (now nice) weather!

[Nrthwnd]

Good report on your visit. It was POURING here on Saturday. I asked ride ops

how it was for them etc. and they said pretty much "everything was open."

 

"Just wet."

 

By the way, that is nuts about the Paratrooper. I've ridden many around the

world of that type of flat, and haven't been told I can't ride solo. Wierd.

[Zamperlafan]

Great start to your trip report! It's nice to see that at least one person is consistently reporting on Washington's few attractions. ( I only post on these because the last out of state park I went to was SFMM two years ago )

I went there on the last $9.99 Sunday the weekend before in a kind of last minute trip with my friend.

We arrived there kind of late but the weather started looking up. Then it rained. We got an interesting ride on the timberaxe with water pouring down on us. xD

Then they slowly started closing down rides and then whole sections of the park until we essentially were cornered out of the park nearly an hour early.

 

You're lucky, Nrthwnd that they still have everything open when it's raining!!

[Nrthwnd]

^ Actually, I also found out, that they closed the park an hour early (4-5pm?) because of the continual rain,

and the minimal crowd that was there that day. But it was basically because there was hardly anyone there!

[viking86]

Nice trip report! Other than the rollercoasters I knew literally nothing about this park, but it looks like quite a nice park. Thanks for sharing!

[LuminousAphid]

After getting off the Timber Axe I felt a bit woozy, so I went and sat down for a bit. I'm glad I'm starting training early; trying to go to West Coast Bash later this year but I'm worried about my riding stamina! I think most coasters are fine for me--probably the most intense I have been on is a GIB and it was no problem--but some flat rides just get me. I walked around and got some more pictures of rides while waiting for the weather to warm up.

 

First drop on Timberhawk is actually pretty fun with lots of head choppers through the structure

This is good on a hot day, but I skipped it for now

A lot of water gets on the front riders as I would find out later, and the exit bridge gets drenched

I had to take a ride on the Zamperla Kang'A'Bounce because this is probably my favorite flat in the park- there's one point in each rotation where the arms get a really good bounce and I just love it! Every time I ride it I laugh uncontrollably and come off smiling, which is the best type of ride honestly. It makes me want to try more bouncing or "jumping" type rides, but you don't see many in the states.

 

I think it would be super fun if they could run it backward

I found the construction zone for the Enterprise on my way out of the park for the first time, and it is right down by the lake. I think it is where the Scrambler used to be, since I found the Scrambler disassembled up the hill from there. It should be a cool point for a new centerpiece ride, and at this point I was excited. Alas, I have ridden one of them since this time, and I now know my head cannot take the unrelenting spinning of that sort of ride

 

Same picture as last post but for context, this is the view from the slides side of the park near the River Rapids ride- Enterprise is going to the right

Here is the pad for the Enterprise, I hope they do some improved themeing or badass lighting or something- doubtful

I left to get lunch nearby, since the food inside the park seemed expensive and not great quality, so I can't report on that aspect. I was alone once again, and I have no shame in my game-- I'm trying to save some money due to recent expensive car repairs, so out to Jack in the Box it was, then back for some water slides!

 

The water park is a huge draw for people in the area in the summer, and is frequently packed especially on hot weekends, but today it was more on the deserted side. The weather was still cloudy when I came back around 1PM, but it had warmed up a little; however as I came back into the park with shorts on I still got a chill from the ~65F wind.

 

Here's one of those water jungle gym things, I like these too but a lone older guy running around with kids is a recipe for mistaken intentions

A view toward the north when coming back through the water slide section

It held off really raining, but never got sunny at all, so the crowds stayed away. For me this was fantastic- I hit all the tube slides first, one after the other and getting out of breath from running up the stairs as fast as I could, and no one waiting at the top. The first set of 4 slides, called the Konga Slides, is forgettable with simple modular tube designs, but I was pleasantly surprised with the second set, the "New" Mountain Dew Slide Complex:

 

If Mountain Dew has to sponsor a water slide for it to be awesome, I'm all in!

When I finally found a tube near the exit (pretty far from the entrance and pretty annoying) and got to the top, I stepped into the water and smiled- it was warm! Not just luke warm, really warm! It was awesome even on the open green slide, but on the orange and yellow ones it was downright balmy inside and it made for an awesome break from the cool weather. I found out by chance that going down backward was way more fun then going forward, which wasn't technically "allowed" but no one said anything when I came out backward at the bottom.

 

At first I was really bummed because my traditional favorite water ride at the park, the Raging River ride, was closed for the first part of the day. I hit all the rest of the slides, most of them ones I hadn't tried, in about an hour or so. The best tube slide is the Orange Mt. Dew slide, and the close runner up is Riptide, the bowl slide which drops straight about 30 ft and slings you around the "toilet bowl" at the bottom. I had never been on one of these and it was really fun! I couldn't get on the family slide because no one else was there to hitch a ride with, but I went back later and found a group who let me go with them. It was mediocre, so I would definitely not bother if there was a big line.

 

I finished everything except the little "cannonball" drop slides and stuff, and began to think I would head back to the rides at 2PM. There used to be pay feeding stations for the carp in the lake, now they are all covered up but the carp are still there

 

Out of service

FEED ME

I've never ridden it or taken a close look, but the antique carousel looks nice from the outside, and it fits in well with the plaza theme across from the Carousel Cafe

 

No music though

I went back up the hill to ride TImberhawk a couple more times, lamenting the fact that they had this terrain to work with and didn't use any of it, but I got some nice shots of the coaster. It looks well built and as the only S&S woodie west of the Rockies, it tries to hold its own against other coasters in WA. It loses the 1st place spot in WA to Classic Coaster at the Puyallup fair, but it's still a fun little ride with some great shots of air and lots of headchoppers to keep things interesting, even if it's not the most intense.

 

Timberhawk

That rusty post is where the on-ride photo used to live, and it ruined my shot!

Another view of the structure

After that I went looking around some more at the scenery, which is when I found the Scrambler and the new site for the drop tower (really a launch tower if it's a Double Shot as rumored)

 

Looking down the hill from the future scrambler site / turnaround of Timberhawk at the drop ride site

The construction progress on the drop ride

They have some really nice looking kiddie rides and flats, not that kids would appreciate the aesthetics but it makes the park a nice place to be

 

Airplane ride

Disc'O'Flashback- standard Disk'O, great for making the kiddos sick

Powered kiddie coaster is retro chic, it was going around ~5 times for each ride this day haha

Klondike Gold Rusher is the only other "Full-size" coaster at the park, but I don't really think it counts as a credit- it's a wild mouse, not even a good one, and is the biggest waste of time in the park. Not one thing is really fun about this, but it looks decent tucked back in the forest I guess

 

Klondike Gold Rusher- about as exciting as traveling to the real Klondike during the gold rush!

Again I went back to ride Timberhawk a few more times, mostly in the back seat but at this point there were a few people in line so I had to take where I could get for re-rides. They let you re-ride as long as there is not a queue, but anyone coming in through the gates has first pick on seat position, and I think this system is awesome! Kudos to Wild Waves for having cool ride ops as well, I have seen some of the kids for multiple summers and they seem like they enjoy themselves.

 

The Decision

Lift hill & final dip

I went for Lumberjack Falls before heading back over to the water slides, just to say I did it. The ride up is extremely slow, but the little hump on the drop gives the whole car a bit of a kick forward which is sort of fun, and you get just soaked if you sit in the front like I did. Luckily I was about to go get wet again anyway!

 

Lumberjack Falls

I was running out of things to do, so I took a walk back around the water slide part of the park and hit a few more slides. Here's a view I got of the Wild Thing from the Riptide tower

 

The Wild Thing

As I walked back around the lake I noticed the line for the Raging River ride looked open, and there were tubes waiting! I fast-walked up to the top feeling excited like a little kid, and hopped in, again with no line.

 

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This ride just reminds me of childhood, coming here with friends who had to move away to Tacoma, this was the place where we always met up during the summer since it was partway between both of us. It's super fun on its own, but interacting with other guests makes it even more fun. I actually wished it was a little more busy at this point to have that hectic pace back, but it was still super fun and just brought back good memories.

 

I have to say some of the themeing in the water park side could be touched up or redone- I know it's not the easiest climate to grow "tropical" looking plants, but there are plenty of landscaping options which would be better than some of what they have going on...

 

Waterfall- no water

The wave pool was pretty nice and had a fun interference wave right in the middle, and it has a couple of not-hot-enough hot tubs to one side, but again it suffered from a lack of themeing.

 

Small wave pool

I dried off and went back to Timberhawk for a few more rides, and rode until I was the last person in the train, sitting in the very back After that I figured I would let the poor ride ops close the ride, and so I headed out and back home past Seattle.

 

 

---

 

 

This park has been a summer staple in the region for years, but is not well-known outside the immediate region because it doesn't really have anything that's a strong draw or crowd-pleaser. Timberhawk was their last major investment I would say, and that was over 10 years ago, but it's a good sign they are getting not 1 but 2 new rides in one year. Again, they're not anything that will draw people from miles around, but at least the tower is a good addition to their lineup. The Enterprise I now know doesn't like me, or I don't like it, whatever the case may be. I hope that they now begin to save up some money or look for capital to get something really unique going, like a small launch coaster something along the lines of Wicked or Lynet from Farup Sommerland, I always really liked the looks of that one and it could fit in the current park with some custom design.

 

I doubt I will ever see the park develop into anything major, since there are so many other recreation opportunities for residents of this area, but you never know! I will keep my fingers crossed for the announcement of a new coaster one of these years, but I am not holding my breath

 

[Zamperlafan]

Sorry to bump a thread, but I wanted to give an update on the new drop ride. They had a naming contest and came up with the name "Brain Drain" which is suspiciously close to the "Brain Drain" name of some rides they built very recently at Darien Lake, Elitch Gardens, Frontier City, Splashtown Waterpark and Rapids Waterpark. I could be over analyzing but they're owned by the same company, CNL.

The ride isn't open yet, but it's almost completely put up. It has a prominent appearance in the middle of the park that's easy to notice driving by.