mcjaco Posted June 21, 2006 Posted June 21, 2006 When Cubs tickets went on sale this winter, I thought to myself how cool to see them at Jacobs Field. My wife's best friend lives in Solon and I have family all over. My wife brought up Geauga Lake and the the deal was done. We headed over to get in as the gates opened on Monday. Much to my surprise, the lot had about twenty cars. We headed in and immediately went to Dominator. I hadn't gotten my butt in a floorless so, I decided to pop the cherry right away. It was running awesome, almost no trims on the brake run which sent you screaming the corkscrews, I myself prefer screaming like a little girl. Next up was Double Loop. It was the first of three bad rides. Typical rough Arrow, thank god it was short. From there we headed over to Villain, my wife bowed out and I went alone. She must have known something I didn't. This was by far the worst ride I've been on. Whatever joints I didn't have problems with before, I do now. As the 8 year old behind me said, "a real brain scrambler." Still thinking there might be a late arriving crowd we headed over to X Flight. Again, my wife bailed on me and, I rode alone. I'd love to tell what I thought but, I spent most of the ride trying to regain my eyesight from the lifthill from hell. The sun seriously burned my retinas so bad, I couldn't open my eyes the rest of the ride. Oh yeah, one train wait....where was everyone??? Next up, Head Spin. Nothing spectacular, typical boomerang. It was then off to Steel Venom. Four rides later, my middle eardrums finally made me take a break. My wife said she could see my stupid smile from the benches across the midway. I then hopped on Bigg Dipper, which I loved. Plenty off airtime and got a historical credit to boot. Sweet! By this time, we figured out that no one visits this park, at least not on Mondays and meandered back to Ragin Wolf Bobs. It looked to be entirely retracked but, was still horrendously rough. It was back to Thunderhawk, my first SLC. Did I mention I haven't been to a park in awhile???? After the horror stories I've heard, I was pleasantly surprised. Pretty smooth, and lots of good foot chopper action. My wife laughed as I went on three times in a row. How could you not with no wait??? All in all in was a nice park. The staff was extremely friendly and everything was running considering there were no crowds, which we found out were hanging out at the water park portion. I'd like to thank my wife, who is not a coaster fan for putting up with me all day. She said I was like a kid in a candy shop. She also took most of the pics. Here they are: Beautiful day, sun and no crowds! Stupid smile. Typical of the queues all day. The mighty Thunderhawk Exclusive pic of Thunderhawk and Dominator. There's my knees in the front row. Lots of invisible people. That's me waving. I wouldn't be so happy when I got off. So this is what I rode..... My wife wonders, "Um, where is everyone?" Side loop. For you vertical loop fans, I give you Dominator. Hmmm, I sense some Six Flags
YoshiFan Posted June 21, 2006 Posted June 21, 2006 Nice pictures, that queue set up for Headspin looks crazy (so many switchbacks). I'd hate to think how long the wait would be with a full queue.
kennywood!007 Posted June 21, 2006 Posted June 21, 2006 I love this park!!! Thanks for posting pics!! I was just there in May. Villian sucked at its fullest for me! It hurt and it had no airtime Anyways did you have fun?
mcjaco Posted June 21, 2006 Author Posted June 21, 2006 My uncle and cousin had said that the park was always empty. I didn't believe them. Everything was running with one train but, you never waited more than one train anyway. I think I rode everything, except Villian and Double Loop three or four times. We had a blast. My wife isn't a coaster fan but, loved the smallness of the park.
coasterbilly Posted June 21, 2006 Posted June 21, 2006 i'll be heading back next summer with my Cedar Fair SP , i went here when it was six flags, and honestly i loved it when it was six flags, the renames are terrible, but i love the coasters there, so i'm excited
Jon Sabo Posted June 21, 2006 Posted June 21, 2006 Nice pics! *Every themepark guests dream: "INVISIBLE PEEPS & nice day"..lol
Rollerholden Posted June 21, 2006 Posted June 21, 2006 Wow that looks like a nice park. I'm going there in 3 weeks, hope it's still so empty. Those were some nice pics too.
mb425 Posted June 21, 2006 Posted June 21, 2006 You thought RWB was rough? My ride was very smooth when I went in May. Were they running the black train or the silver/red train? Anyhow, it looks like you had a lot of fun! As for the "where is everyone?" feeling, that is courtesy of Six Flags. People just simply stopped going to the park because of how run down and dirty it was. But it's a lot better now and hopefully people will start to take notice and the park can become as popular as it was in the 80's and early 90's again.
lapseofreason Posted June 21, 2006 Posted June 21, 2006 Nice TR. I miss being able to hit up Geauga Lake when it's empty like that and riding everything umpteen times. (My record is the log ride 19 times in a row, and I think about 7 or 8 on Raging Wolf Bobs). And the renames ARE stupid; when I go back I'll still be calling everything by the old names anyways
USRoadTripper Posted June 21, 2006 Posted June 21, 2006 Wow...I can't believe how much Thunderhawk has faded. Last year it was bright and looked brand new. This year it still looks good, but in comparison to last year...wow. Your exclusive shot My exclusive shot
mcjaco Posted June 21, 2006 Author Posted June 21, 2006 As for RWB, they were running the red and silver train. It wasn't horrendous but for a re-track I thought it was pretty bad. US, my picture did not do Thunderhawk justice. It still looks good, perhaps it was the cloud cover??
Coaster Palooza Posted June 21, 2006 Posted June 21, 2006 Nice trip report. We went to Geauga Lake last year and encountered the same lack of a crowd. It is nice to just go right through a park in a couple of hours with multiple rides!
mb425 Posted June 21, 2006 Posted June 21, 2006 ^^ Ahhh, maybe the black train delivers a more smooth ride then, because I enjoyed my ride a lot.
mcjaco Posted June 21, 2006 Author Posted June 21, 2006 ^^ Coaster, I made my wife read your and USRoadTripper's TR's of last year. They pretty much clinched it for her. I think she really just wanted the pickle on a stick. As a bonus she got hit on by two really weird dudes that spent their day shooting the water cannons by Pepsi Plunge. ^mb, they was defintely a concerted effort to be overly friendly and accomodating to the guests. The whole experience was a lot of fun. We found out that the majority of the crowd was at Wildwater Kingdom. I've got a few more pics, perhaps I'll post them tonight.
lapseofreason Posted June 22, 2006 Posted June 22, 2006 As a bonus she got hit on by two really weird dudes that spent their day shooting the water cannons by Pepsi Plunge.. What the heck is Pepsi Plunge? The log ride? (I don't even remember what it used to be named, Geauga Falls or something weird like that?....)
mb425 Posted June 22, 2006 Posted June 22, 2006 ^ Yes, Pepsi Plunge is the name of the log flume. When the park was SFWoA, it was called Ice Mountain Splash.
mcjaco Posted June 22, 2006 Author Posted June 22, 2006 I forgot to mention in my TR that Grizzly.....(the full name eludes me) was closed. The whole ride was bone dry and looking pretty beat up.
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