ACE question

Hey Rob and Elissa. Im new here and I love roller coasters. I was just wondering what ACE is and is it worth it to be a member of. Im seriously considering it, my home park is The Lake, Lake Compounce. Great little park. So any information would be very helpful. Thanks!

We are personally not members of ACE and haven't been for quite some time.

Reasons are basically:

- The magazines were always late and the information they included was either old news thanks to the internet or yet another report on "The Coasters on Idora" or some other "insert defunct amusement park here" which I personally had no interested in.

- Most events we would want to go to were park sponsered events which didn't require ACE membership. And if there was on occasion an ACE event we wanted to attend (haven't been to one since 2002) the cost of the non-member rate was cheaper than the yearly dues.

- Most parks they have discounts to I already have a season pass for or were similar to other discounts you could get (coke can, online tickets, etc)

- And finally, we kind of got a little fed up with the "political nature" of the club. We did a LOT of contributions from 1999 to 2003 and hardly even got a "thank you."

As a suggestion, if you feel the need to join a coaster club, I would join the European Coaster Club. Their magazine is much better than ACE's, it's on time, and actually has information that's not out of date and often times has information that hasn't made it to the internet yet!

And most park-sponsered events accept ECC members.

Those are my thoughts. Hope this helps.

--Robb

Your homepark throws a sweet little event, but I wouldn't join the orgainization for just an hour of Boulder Dash ERT.

Thanks Rob, after some thought I don't think I will join a coaster club. Thanks for your help!

I have been a member of ACE for over 10 years. Prior to the advent of the Internet and the home PC ACE was really top of the line. Nowadays,the info is out-of-date by the time you actually get the newsletters and magazines BUT it IS nice to have pics that you can look at anytime without having to turn on the PC. They do have some great pics!!! I will always belong for this factor alone. And there are some benefits (First ride of the day on The Beast and half price admission, discounts on rental cars etc . . .) But it's like any "enthusiast" club, the fun is just knowing that there are other people who belong who "GET" the whole theme-park-experience and love rides as much as I do.