Photo TR: A Wicked Fahkin Weekend

[sfriday1998]

^^I personally love the boo-woop thing. Always gets me hyped an in a fun mood. Sad that not everyone does it.

[boldikus]

Lazy Sunday At The Lake

 

After all simultaneously crashing dead to the world Saturday night as soon as we got home, we got a good nights sleep and were all up and ready bright and early Sunday for a morning shorter drive out to the great state of Connecticut's #1 family amusement park, and the oldest operating park in America, Lake Compounce!

 

Going into this trip I didn't know much about Compounce other than Boulder Dash and their new Premier skyrocket coaster they added last year. I recently made the connection that they are also owned by Parques Riundos, who also own Kennywood. As a big fan of KW that tidbit actually made me a bit more excited to visit Compounce.

 

Happy Anniversary, LC!

Since I had a train to catch back to Philly later in the afternoon, we got out to the park at opening, stopping for morning munchies and coffee at Dunkin once again, hitting a tiny bit of traffic on the way. Upon arrival we did the smart-enthusiast thing and hit the new (low capacity) hotness right away, bee-lining our way over and up towards the parks new Phobia Phear Coaster. While walking through I was taken aback by how pretty and quaint this little park is. Maybe its withdraw from all the advertising at SFNE, but the shrubs and foliage really popped at Compounce. The parks location at the base of a mountain was amazingly scenic and unique to me.

 

Sidenote: on the way in to Compounce we noticed the 300+ foot very Bladerunner-esque windowless skyscraper sticking out of the woods like a sore thumb and wondered aloud what the hell it could possibly be. It just seemed so out of place with nothing else around. We got distracted and forgot about it until we rode the chairlift later and noticed it again. I had to look it up while doing this report and came to find out its an Otis Elevator testing facility. Pretty random, but kinda cool!

 

Ew they have these here too? Gross. lol

So last year in Virginia the first thing we did upon arrival at Busch Willamsburg was run right to Tempesto for a morning ride. If you recall from that trip, I smashed the sh*t out of my rib on Grizzly the day before, so for my first ride of the day, I was extremely cautious and more focused on not injuring myself further than actually allowing myself to enjoy the ride. I came off of Tempesto feeling that it wasn't bad, it wasn't great, it was more or less what I was expecting. But I couldn't help feel that the injury tainted my opinion of the ride, and was a little bummed we never got back to ride it again.

 

I can't imagine what else is so different from Tempesto that made Phobia so much better for us. The shorter trains? The lack of comfort collars?

 

All I know is the three of us absolutely LOVED this ride! We had a one train wait and on our first lap Bill and I took the front row with Brit just behind us. I've heard others toss around the idea that these are becoming the new boomerangs and I hope that is true.

 

Taking pictures of Bill taking pictures

They are incredibly fun rides with a tiny footprint that give you a little bit of everything - fantastic airtime, heavy positive G's, some insane laterals and such forceful launches. And the hangtime through that roll with only a lapbar, no seatbelt or anything, is bonkers. I find it hilarious that up until about three years ago, I always used to hang on when riding. I only started going hands up three years ago - and I do it most of the time now, but I don't really think about what I'm doing when I do it anymore. Unless of course when I'm literally hanging out of a train through a slow barrel roll 150ft in the air held in only by a measly lapbar. Absolutely loved it.

 

Greetings from Lake Compounce

My only complaint about these rides are the trains are near impossible to get in and out of, but that's a very small gripe. Instantly one of my favorites of the entire weekend. I vowed to come back for another spin later, but we had boulders to dash.

 

I wanna say this is my favorite part of the ride...

but all of it is great!

With Superman and Wicked Cyclone, Boulder Dash made up the trio of 'must rides' for me this weekend. It's another ride that had been hyped up beyond belief for me prior to this trip, having been on my radar for more than a few years. The idea of a wooden coaster down a mountainside is such a genius idea, and the reviews and constant high rankings of this ride had me truly thrilled about my first lap.

 

We walked up to one train operations but only a one train wait for the backrows - so I jumped in the very back, Bill and Brit just in front of me. We headed up the lift into the mountainous forest, around the curve to the first drop and...

 

OW!! What in gods name is this torture device?!! I feel like I'm committing some sort of enthusiast blasphemy but if you love this ride you might wanna just skip right past this section cause I'm about to talk some sh*t. I'm sorry folks, but I really did not like this ride. At all. I wish I did, as I was truly prepared to love this thing. And for the record, I'm always the guy going "wooden coasters are supposed to be rough, you pussies!".

 

Photo by Bill

In theory its an amazing idea, but what an incredibly aggressive coaster. It definitely has that out-of-control feeling going for it and I do tend to like that sort of thing, but - and I'm not even being dramatic - I worried this thing might actually injure me. I feel like that's probably a tiny bit of Grizzly PTSD rearing its ugly head but I've ridden wooden coasters since that incident and not felt like they were actively trying to break my bones. I'd hoped for this ride to pack a punch but this was not the kind of punch I had in mind. And for the love of god, bank that turnaround. Jesus christ.

 

Even Bill and Brit (who've ridden before and enjoyed) agreed that it was running terribly. Not only was the airtime everyone speaks so highly of kinda lacking, but this was the first time I'd experienced first hand what enthusiasts refer to as "square wheels". I know they've retracked that one section but they need to get new trains or retrack the whole thing. Based on Bill and Brits testimonies that they had in fact enjoyed it in the past, maybe we just caught it on a bad day. I did say I would like to come back later after my body had time to recover so I could try it sitting up front.

 

We stumbled out of line, the three of us feeling like we'd gotten into a fight, and headed for the parks screaming swing, stopping at the bathroom and to grab free soda! I knew this was a thing at Holiday World, as its been mentioned an awful lot in reports and enthusiast conversations, but no idea they did this here. I don't drink much soda anymore, especially colas (so syrupy, so gross) but I thought it might be fun to get a little jacked up on free Mountain Dew at a park located at the bottom of a mountain whose star attraction is a mountain coaster.

 

One of the big selling points for me with this park was that they had a screaming swing that is not an upcharge (seriously). I absolutely LOVE these rides, in general they are my favorite flat and one that I would own if I had that kind of coin to throw around.

 

Its just that classic backward swing you grew up with, but on crack. Great airtime, love the height and speed achieved during the full swings. I thought this installation looked nice with a nice color scheme and great Thunder and Lightning theme. The cycle felt short but they always do for me - I could sit on one of these for an hour. The plus side was the op did not staple me at all which provided some borderline scary airtime. According to Bill, I like to live dangerously.

 

Upon exiting we noticed Phobia still did not have much of a wait at all and we hopped in the queue and this time took a spin in the back two rows. Not much to say that I didn't already - fabulous ride, a little different in the back but equally enjoyable.

 

I ain't afraid of no tacos!

Good times (photo by Bill) Think this was taken right after Boulder Dash, hence my expression

Right outside the exit of Phobia is the parks dark ride Ghost Hunt. I'm not a big dark ride guy and this was actually my first dark ride 'shooter'. This was a cute little ride but I feel like the shooting aspect kinda distracted me from the overall experience of enjoying the animatronics and set pieces. Of course I did terribly compared to Brit and Bill who had much higher scores than me, I just never know where to shoot LOL! I'm glad we stopped for this - a fun little break from the big thrills.

 

Somehow I managed to not take a single good photo of Ghost Hunt

You just know that Bill was talking up taking a ride on the flume since we arrived and the warm weather was actually perfect for it. Too bad we didn't hit it up as soon as we arrived, as by now it actually had a fairly significant wait. And for some really dumb reason the park was only running like 3 logs total on it. We gave it a shot and waited for 10 minutes or so but the line barely moved and we bailed. Bill rationalized our decision by saying that it was a relatively lame and short flume, but Brit and I knew he died a little inside.

 

Continuing on we found the parks Flyers were closed (which Bill commented suck anyway so we weren't missing anything), and we skipped the swinging ship (which btw looks great!) to head over to the boomerang. With Wildcat closed for renovation, this would be my last new credit for the weekend.

 

And this folks, marks my 4th boomerang in a week if you include Sea Serpent @ Moreys the Sunday prior! Jeez. Not much to report here other than you know a parks coaster lineup is on the lighter side when people are THIS fired up to ride a boomerang.

 

I never imagined I'd one day ride 4 different boomerangs in a week

For some unknown reason the entire train was freaking out only the way crowds do on Millennium Force - hooting, hollering, clapping, and while going up the lift, half of the train was singing an unknown-to-me song in unison. So completely strange, but it definitely made this boomerang ride the most festive and jubilant of the four I'd ridden. We got off the ride laughing.

 

Just next door is the parks 'Dinosaurs Alive lite', entitled Dino Expedition. Taking a short break we wandered inside and had a look. The exhibit is very short and none of the dino animatronics were really working but still an educational and interesting short break. Naturally, we took lots of photos.

 

We found some things we'd like to point out to you (photo by Bill)

Brit gets up close and personal (photo by Bill)

LOL! photo by Bill

We moved on to the parks disk-o ride next door, Revolution. We had a short one-cycle wait. This was my first official disk-o ride unless you count something like Pipe Scream, which is a similar yet totally different experience compared to this.

 

I know I'm really slacking on the gifs in this report, here's one!

I've never ridden any motocoasters or thing with these kinds of seats/restraints so that was a bit different. Of course I was concerned the spinning would get to me but it didn't bother me at all. This was a fun ride with some interesting forces. While their collection is small, this park has some decent flats.

 

And that brings us to the parks Wave Swinger. We passed this thing on our way in while it was running at full steam and I commented how it looked like one of the craziest Wave Swingers I'd ever seen. I'm not a huge fan of these rides, but I'll ride them, so I declared we had to check it out if we passed it again, and since this park is generally pretty small, here we are again. We lucked out as they were loading as we walked up and we got right on.

 

Totally not a full speed. This thing was insane.

As suspected, they crank this thing up to 11, so much that we were getting very small pops of floater airtime. It was also getting pretty hot at this point, so the ride definitely served as a nice cool down as we flew around in the breeze. Happy we popped on this, as it was a great time providing lots of laughs.

 

After this we noticed we were getting short on time and knowing the chairlift will take up a decent chunk of our afternoon we headed that way, taking the longer way around the front of Wildcat, checking out the retracking work going on, and peeping in at the waterpark, which I have to admit looks pretty awesome.

 

While walking down the path that takes you along the lake and Boulder Dash's return run I was impressed at being able to see that they actually built the thing not only into the mountain but actually have the footers poured right into actual boulders. Super cool! As much crap as I talked about the ride experience I am certainly impressed with its construction.

 

I can only imagine the amount of surveying and planning that had to go into this thing

Notice

Aka: if you ride this prepare to die up there

The chairlift had absolutely no wait and we got to hop right on. This thing is totally misleading as at least twice I thought we were at the top, but the gradient changes just slightly and up you go, even further. It feels like it never ends.

 

Boulder Dash's brutal turnaround

Occasionally a train comes screaming by

I don't have a fear of height generally but with such minimal restraints this high up I definitely had the sweaty palms from the Sky Screamer the day prior make an encore appearance here, as a fall from this ride could surely seriously injure, if not kill someone.

 

Creepers on the lift

photo by Bill

But it was fun seeing all the stuff people dropped to never have returned to them again - phones, shoes, game prizes, you name it! Once we got to the top, and turned around to head back down the view was absolutely breathtaking and worth the amount of time it took to ride the thing. So here's a crapton of photos from up there.

 

Skyway selfie

I'm not going to go into a big rant about the parks recent decision to close the ride in light of the idiot @ Great Escape but I will say its a crying shame and I consider myself lucky to be one of the last riders, if they do in fact close it permanently.

 

See the giant elevator test building to the left? Freaky

photo by Bill

Just off to the side of the chairlift and rapids entrances is Compounce Watering Hole, a little beer stand we noticed on our way into the area, so we stopped to see if we could grab one of the new Lake Compounce Summer Ale craft brews and we were in luck! At only $8 a pint, not a terrible price either.

 

The life. (photo by Bill)

Bill and Brit grabbed some delicious popcorn for us to munch on since while we weren't starving, we hadn't eaten since Dunkin on the drive up in the morning. The beer itself was great, and we sat on the deck nearby that sits right out on the lake to relax a bit more, enjoying some shade and the breeze off the lake. I spotted the trolley that runs along the lake loading and since we had walked up here to the chairlift, I suggested we try to hop on for the ride back to the main section of the park. Mostly because it seemed like a fun thing to experience but also because I'm a little lazy and my dogs were barking after all the walking the past two days.

 

Lovebirds on the Trolley

Walking by Boulder Dash again we spotted the new wood

The rest of it could use some lol

The parks final "must do" for me was their S&S tower since, as I explained yesterday, I have an affinity for these things. While the loading on this ride was slow as molasses, the ride itself was a good time - love the sound effects at the top and the themeing, while sparse, was neat.

 

While boarding, Bill made the totally appropriate joke that with a name "Down Time" the ride should have been an Intamin! Bill also had the forethought to hit record on his phone when he left it in the loose article bin so he got a great little video of the three of us riding. Check it out.

 

[fbvideonew]https://www.facebook.com/william.mahony.92/videos/10212241221060075/[/fbvideonew]

 

I am always willing to give a ride a second chance and as promised, I wanted to make sure to give Boulder Dash another go before we left the park. We were hoping for a front row ride and decided to wait it out, with the ride still running with one train and a considerable wait compared to earlier in the day.

 

Lift hill to hell

We had maybe a ten train wait and stuck it out, but the line grew longer with exit pass folks (ADA? Does the park even have a fast pass?) jumping in the front seat, and then we were rudely line jumped by a couple of douchebags, so with the clock ticking we gave up and jumped in rows 3 and 4. Close enough. Annnnndddd... another terrible ride. What the hell. I've already said as much as I need to about this ride but anyone that ranks this over El Toro is out of your goddamn minds. I love intensity, but not rides that feel like they are out to murder me.

 

YAY!

Even though we were cutting in to our travel time to get me to my train back to Philly, we risked potentially missing it because we couldn't leave the park on a sour note. While headed toward the exit and spotting a still short wait for Phobia, we went for it! The back rows were half as long wait as the front, so we just jumped in back there.

 

Maybe a two train wait? I should mention how the ops on this all day were absolutely ripping through any crowds they got, the fastest turnaround times I've ever seen on a shuttle coaster, let alone a shuttle coaster that seats 12. Glad we did this again as it was as fantastic as our earlier laps. Surprising to me that this had a much smaller wait all day than Boulder Dash but I guess humans in general are gluttons for punishment?

 

It was sad to leave knowing that was the end of a truly epic weekend. Consider than in just a little under 16.5 of combined park time this was the final ride count:

 

----- SNFE

Superman The Ride 4x

Wicked Cyclone 4x

Batman 2x

Joker 2x

Goliath

Mind Eraser

Flashback

Fireball

Thunderbolt

Scream

Pandemonium

Buzzsaw

Gotham City Gauntlet

Catwomans Whip

New England Sky Screamer

Tomahawk

----- LC

Phobia 3x

Boulder Dash 2x

Thunder & Lightning

Down Time

Ghost Hunt

Zoomerang

Revolution

Skyride

Waveswinger

 

Pretty impressive, huh? Especially considering we never rushed at all, never purchased any fast passes, and in fact took quite a few breaks of just sitting, imbibing, and people watching. 14 new credits were the icing on the cake. I can't come up with more words to describe what an awesome time I had, and have to thank Bill and Brit once again for being such wonderful and fun hosts and all around awesome people to spend a weekend of riding and hanging with.

 

Remember how I said I splurged on the Amtrak ticket on the way up? Yeah well there was no way I was paying for a roundtrip at those prices so my trip back to Philly was a long, 6 hour slog on NJTransit through New York, New Jersey and into Philly on 4 different trains and 1 bus. Note that it was a quarter of the price Amtrak would have been. Bill and Brit dropped me off just before 6pm and I walked in my front door just past 11:30pm Sunday night. I was exhausted and it hit me as soon as I got on the first train, so I slept on and off through most of my journey home. I did catch a couple neat photos of NYC skyline and Freedom Tower from the Secaucus station during one of my layovers.

 

Thanks for reading and commenting, everyone! I do this for you! I'm taking a break from parks for the summer but keep an eye out for a few random Moreys dispatches and, if the stars align, a few more epic trip reports coming later in the year. Cheers!

 

Sad the report is over!? Read our other reports!

Coasterbill's Alcohol, Coaster and Culture Trip Reports Land

Kings Dominion & Busch Williamsburg, 2016

Kennywood & Cedar Point, 2015

Six Flags Over Georgia, 2016

Hersheypark, 2016

Six Flags Armpit, 2016

[Canobie Coaster]

Great report of Lake Compounce!

 

It's a shame you didn't get a good ride on Boulder Dash since I am one of those lunatics out of my mind that puts it ahead of El Toro. I've never gotten a painful ride on it. The front is definitely the best seat on the ride but I still love it even in wheel seats. Though waiting for the front can be annoying because of one train ops and how (as you mentioned) the front is often taken by people coming up the exit. I actually remember one Haunted Graveyard where it was taken from me for 4 straight rides. I admit Boulder Dash is aggressive, but I love the combination of air, laterals, and the setting. Every time I've ridden it this year has been in the green train. I'd like to think one train wouldn't make that big of a difference though.

 

I'm always shocked how short Phobia's line is despite it being the newest coaster there. But the short ride cycle combined with pretty fast loading seems to keep lines down. The worst line is the flume. Earlier this year everything was a walk-on except the flume which was a 30 minute wait. I don't know why they aren't running as many logs as they have in the past.

 

Your pics of the sky ride are fantastic and I still can't believe it's closed. I heard it wasn't entirely Great Escape, but the park was worried about idiots smoking on the ride, discarding their cigarettes, and then starting a blaze on the mountain. People are the reasons we can't have nice things.

[MisterBrow]

Great report.

 

SFNE and LC is such a nice two park trip.

 

Everything looks nice after you have been to Poughkeepsie, NY.

[boldikus]

It's a shame you didn't get a good ride on Boulder Dash since I am one of those lunatics out of my mind that puts it ahead of El Toro. I've never gotten a painful ride on it. The front is definitely the best seat on the ride but I still love it even in wheel seats. Though waiting for the front can be annoying because of one train ops and how (as you mentioned) the front is often taken by people coming up the exit. I actually remember one Haunted Graveyard where it was taken from me for 4 straight rides. I admit Boulder Dash is aggressive, but I love the combination of air, laterals, and the setting. Every time I've ridden it this year has been in the green train. I'd like to think one train wouldn't make that big of a difference though.

As I said I wish I liked this coaster and we even did it again to make sure the first crappy ride wasn't a fluke. I didn't say it in the report I don't think but BD seems like the type of coaster I would love if I lived nearby and got to know the thing well. I wanted to like it, and I have a lot of respect for it, but I'm also not in any rush to get back there to ride it again.

 

I heard it wasn't entirely Great Escape, but the park was worried about idiots smoking on the ride, discarding their cigarettes, and then starting a blaze on the mountain. People are the reasons we can't have nice things.

Oh god, I never even thought about that. Yeah that would be awful and a terrible thing to have to deal with. But I still feel like they managed to run the thing for how long? And one dumbass kid at another park does something stupid and isn't even killed or critically injured and they decide to close it? It's all so lame.

 

Everything looks nice after you have been to Poughkeepsie, NY.

Haha since everyone I've talked to recently has such high praise for Poughkeepsie, I should probably clarify Bill and Brit do not live there, that's just where the train took me. They live in a cute little town about 20 minutes from there.

[Canobie Coaster]

I used to think Boulder Dash was overrated myself in the first few years because for some reason I couldn't get any air, which seems insane based on the rides I get on it now. But then a switch flipped and Boulder Dash finally started delivering the rides that I expected.

[Genx24]

Maybe it was the train on Boulder Dash? I was at Lake Compounce the next day and they were running the green train (I notice in your report they had the blue train on) and was getting the same, bats#!t insane rides I always do. I'm not sick enough to rank it over El Toro, but Boulder Dash in the truth. Shame you didn't see the light.

 

Nice report, as always.

[Jcoaster]

Nice report, but I have to say this is the first time I've ever heard Boulder Dash slander. Beat riders up a little? Yes. Lack of airtime? I'm shocked.

[boldikus]

There was certainly air, it just wasn't what I was expecting based on everyones consistently glowing reviews. I also just don't feel like I could appreciate what was there since I was so concerned with not breaking something.

[coneyislandchris]

Maybe it was the train on Boulder Dash? I was at Lake Compounce the next day and they were running the green train (I notice in your report they had the blue train on) and was getting the same, bats#!t insane rides I always do. I'm not sick enough to rank it over El Toro, but Boulder Dash in the truth. Shame you didn't see the light.

As above; the kiddo and I were there on Father's Day and we got three rides in on the green train. Wasn't painful in the slightest, and it was gloriously out of control in all the best ways. I do agree that there's no way I'd rank it above the Bull but I still think it's a fantastic ride and definitely one of my top woodies. And as you can see below, the kiddo put it in his top five (but I have a feeling nothing's gonna take Wicked Cyclone's spot until maybe New Mean Streak opens up).

 

Also, I have to say, I'm jealous and stupidly kicking myself for not taking advantage of the sky ride while we were there. We were on the second day of our 8-park Father's Day Weekend roadtrip and pushing to make it to two more parks after that. I literally thought to myself, "eh, we'll get it the next time, it's not like it's going anywhere." Goddammit.

 

The free drink stations were a nice touch. I'm on a seltzer kick at the moment so it was nice to see that they had just the plain soda water option as well, and we took full advantage of that.

[coasterbill]

Great report! I'm glad you came up, it was an awesome weekend.

 

For the people talking about how Boulder Dash is aggressive, believe me I know and that's part of what makes it so good. That weekend though the ride was beyond the point of aggressive and was honestly running like pure sh*t. I've been to this park loads of times and this was the first time I didn't enjoy the ride. Phobia took a huge dump on Boulder Dash when we were there, and honestly I'd even say Zoomerang was more enjoyable.

 

Initially I was bummed that you were going to miss Wildcat, but knowing what we know now I'm really glad we went when we did and you got to ride the chairlift. That was easily the most unique ride in the park and while I had been annoying Brit like crazy about finally becoming Season Pass holders (since were only like an hour away) leading up to the trip, with the way Boulder Dash is running and the removal of the Sky Ride I think we'll just stick to our one semi-annual Haunt visit. I'm really glad we got there when we did, it was an awesome day!

 

PS: Thanks for clarifying that I don't live in Poughkeepsie BTW

[jynx242]

What a great report!

 

I'm hoping that there was some sort of train issue with Boulder Dash for you. It's one of those times where someone whose opinion you have come to appreciate doesn't like a ride that you like. I feel betrayed by the ride!!

 

It's been several years since I've ridden it, but definitely remember it fondly! Note: not El-Toro fondly, but I did really like it.

 

David

[boldikus]

^ I felt a little betrayed too. I was really looking forward to riding it and based on everyones love for it I had every intention of coming on here and gushing about how great a ride it was. Let down is an understatement. I just flat out disliked the thing.

 

PS: Thanks for clarifying that I don't live in Poughkeepsie BTW

I don't know much about the place other than a girl I went to high school with was from there. Oh and Snooki lmao. But anytime I've mentioned my train took me there everyone has responded by telling me how much a sh*thole it is.

[MisterBrow]

PS: Thanks for clarifying that I don't live in Poughkeepsie BTW

I don't know much about the place other than a girl I went to high school with was from there. Oh and Snooki lmao. But anytime I've mentioned my train took me there everyone has responded by telling me how much a sh*thole it is.

 

 

I grew up on the other side of the river and so spent many high school and college age nights at shows there, and yes, if you wanted the train to the city that's where you went. It's just when Po'town is compared to the other villages and towns on that side of the river it's ugliness is magnified I think.

[boldikus]

LOL It was dark when they picked me up and the train station was like any other average train station, so I didn't really get to see any of Poughkeepsie. On the way home I departed from some random station in the middle of Bumblefu*k, NY.

[ytterbiumanalyst]

You guys in the Northeast are so lucky. I have to go 2 hours to get to the nearest train station. No exaggeration.

[boldikus]

LOL the nearest train station is literally half a block from me. I mean, its the subway, but I can take that to trains to the airport or to Amtrak that'll get me to Boston, NYC, DC, Harrisburg, Pittsburg, etc etc etc. Philly is pretty central and its easy to get anywhere from here w/o a car.

[Nitro1118]

I'm kind of glad to hear I'm not the only one who thinks Boulder Dash is running kind of poorly. Two days ago the back was very jarring with some bad jackhammering on some valleys. The front half of the train was riding much better but still a step down from my last rides 13 years ago. I hear that they are running 1 train to prevent more accelerated wear and tear, which is really sad since the ride is already getting in rough shape. I hate to even suggest it but with the ride's speed, size and LC's budget, it may be wise to invest in RMC treatment.

[ytterbiumanalyst]

LOL the nearest train station is literally half a block from me. I mean, its the subway, but I can take that to trains to the airport or to Amtrak that'll get me to Boston, NYC, DC, Harrisburg, Pittsburg, etc etc etc. Philly is pretty central and its easy to get anywhere from here w/o a car.

Yeah, out West we got nothing but highways. About four blocks from me used to be a train station, but it was torn down 50 years ago. Amtrak and MoDOT did a study about 10 years ago to get train service restarted, but they determined it would cost $3 million per year, and then further decided they did not want to spend that amount of money. So they spend $100 million on 10 miles of additional freeway lanes instead....

[boldikus]

Yeah, out West we got nothing but highways. About four blocks from me used to be a train station, but it was torn down 50 years ago. Amtrak and MoDOT did a study about 10 years ago to get train service restarted, but they determined it would cost $3 million per year, and then further decided they did not want to spend that amount of money. So they spend $100 million on 10 miles of additional freeway lanes instead....

America!

 

I'm still waiting for us to get a proper high speed line up and down the east coast, or at least the Northeast corridor. We have Acela but that sh*t is ridiculously priced, and not really high speed considering what they have in Asia.

 

I'm kind of glad to hear I'm not the only one who thinks Boulder Dash is running kind of poorly. Two days ago the back was very jarring with some bad jackhammering on some valleys. The front half of the train was riding much better but still a step down from my last rides 13 years ago. I hear that they are running 1 train to prevent more accelerated wear and tear, which is really sad since the ride is already getting in rough shape. I hate to even suggest it but with the ride's speed, size and LC's budget, it may be wise to invest in RMC treatment.

 

You know I thought about this. I was going to include that in the report but didn't want to sound like that guy that yaps about every wooden coaster that's a little rough should be RMC'd. But with such an amazing setting it would be a shame if they didn't do something to ensure that it doesn't get worse. Just topper track the whole thing - no iBox or crazy changes - keep the ride profile but just new track. Or trains. Or whatever. Something. LOL

[Philrad71]

I noticed that it had gotten a little more violent when we were there for Haunt a couple of years ago, but I waited for the front seat at night for my 2nd ride of the day and it was just about as insane as The Beast is at night.

 

Yeah, I don't get the one train operation either. It was brutal waiting out the front with one train, especially with people coming up the exit ramp and making it even longer.

 

It also didn't help that two members of some type of charity group (think something like Big Brothers/Big Sisters, but with a dose of God thrown in) were actually encouraging small children in their group to line jump. I muttered to Michael that "someone was going to hell for breaking park rules and encouraging the kids to break said rules."

 

I'm still kinda bummed about the Skylift too. While I white-knuckled it right along with you, it was a very beautiful ride!

 

Elevator test building...I wondered what the hell that was! And yes, it does seem strange to see such a tall building way out in the middle of nowhere.

[bert425]

Love the report. . can't believe they closed the chair lift.

 

is it confirmed it's permanent???

 

wonder if Knoebel's will have to do something too

[coasterbill]

Nah, its Knoebels. That's not really how they roll. I wouldn't worry.

[Khat26]

Great report! Man, I really need to get my ass up to this area and check out these parks.

[boldikus]

Love the report. . can't believe they closed the chair lift.

 

is it confirmed it's permanent???

 

 

Thanks! And yep, sadly it's confirmed. Can't believe we were some of the last riders.

 

http://www.nbcconnecticut.com/news/local/Lake-Compounce-Permanently-Closes-SkyRide-432699503.html

 

Sara Frias, a spokesperson for the park, issued the following statement on the matter:

 

“Due to the rugged terrain of the mountain and the limited access to the remote area, Lake Compounce has decided to close the SkyRide attraction permanently.

 

We look forward to utilizing the loading zone area for future attractions in the coming years to continue to bring unforgettable fun to America's longest continuously operating amusement park.”