Lake Compounce Discussion Thread

[Canobie CoasterWhy do I still have a donkey title???]

I'm just interested to know what happened that made them go back on their decision. At least it appears the park is willing to use the second train on the busiest of days.

[prospekt88The best thing about TPR is the donkeys.]

Sad to hear about the state of the operations at this park. It really has the potential to be a gem of a park if they could pull it together.

[Canobie CoasterWhy do I still have a donkey title???]

FYI to anyone possibly going tonight- Lake Compounce had a power outage.

Edit- Everything on the left side of the park is closed. That includes Boulder Dash. They are no longer selling ride tickets but honoring season passes and pre-purchased tickets. They had to turn the Potato Patch fry stand into the Haunted Graveyard ticket booth.

Phobia is running at least. Unfortunately they do not expect to regain power to the left side for the rest of the night.

[Rai FoxWhen I grow up, I want to breed donkeys!]

Made it to the park for a few hours for the Haunted Graveyard last night.

The haunt itself has always been great, and still is now. I don't think it's the Graveyard's best year; there's nothing really new except that I think the zombie hospital at the end might have been very slightly expanded on, and at least last night, they seemed understaffed; there were more empty rooms than I'm used to. Still very well done overall with a good 45 minute walk through the entire thing, a lot of great themeing and environments, and some actors very much getting into their roles.

The graveyard really does have some great sets, too. There's one particular effect that has you walking down a slope into what looks to be a lake of fog that's incredibly effective; it's genuinely hard to make yourself take the step that "submerges" you. That hadn't been working properly the last couple years when I was there, with far too thin a fog to have any effect, but this year it was back to the way it was the first year they introduced it...and with a little extra surprise too that gave the best scare of the night for me personally. The Banshee Realm is simple but very spooky and atmospheric, the Vortex with the spinning tunnel is always such a fun effect, and the actors in the vampire and cannibal hillbilly areas were having a lot of fun with their jobs. Unfortunately the ending is something of a letdown now. The finale used to be the Reaper's Realm, which divides groups up and sends you down long, incredibly dark tunnels with absolutely no ability to see anything and, when it works properly, complete isolation. Unfortunately it usually turns into the person in front of you panicking and stopping, and you walking into them then shuffling down the blind hallway sandwiched between them and the person behind you...but it's still a very good room, and made for a great ending. Sadly instead of that being the end, it now deposits you in the Zombie Hospital, which is by far the worst part of the entire haunt. Plain white plywood walls and a few actors doing the "la la la I'm so insane won't you play with me la la la" act, it's just not at all up to the standards of the rest of the haunt, and a pretty sad way to end the whole thing.

Overall though, still a fantastic haunt, one of the best in New England, IMO.

Outside of the Graveyard, the park was...Lake Compounce 2018, meaning very up and down. Some of the extras for the season were very nice, especially the seasonal food and treats. The park has a stand set up with hot soups, in bread bowls if you want (the clam chower is very good!), lots of hot cider all over the place, apple fritters that were a bit more like a cider doughnut than what I think of as an apple fritter, but tasty all the same, and among a bunch of other nice treats, the halloween bubbling drinks have returned. They make them (four different kinds of vodka drinks) in special cups with a cage for dry ice at the bottom, so they bubble and smoke while you enjoy them. At $10 for a smallish drink, they're a little bit on the pricey side, but pretty tasty, and he bubbles on your tongue and the first time you realize you're blowing smoke out your nose are fun enough to go for once a year, at least.

We didn't have a ton of time for rides, but we got some of the important stuff in, anyway. Ghost Hunt was working well; the new guns make a huge difference, it's a lot more fun when you can actually hit a target. Phobia is still at the top of its game and running like a new coaster should. Wave Swinger continues to try its best to be a high end thrill instead of a family ride; I still have no idea how they can run theirs so much faster than anyone else. Looking great for the season with the custom LED lighting, too.

On the other side of things, because LC can't be all good things lately...Wildcat ran for a half hour or so then shut down and didn't reopen. This makes 5 trips to the park in a row over the last 3 years that WIldcat's been down when I tried to get on it. Maybe it's me. Downtime was also standing silent and making the most of its name all night again. The Ferris Wheel is looking absolute tragic right now with 60% of its lights burned out and missing; I'm really hoping the park just isn't replacing them because they're planning on giving it an LED upgrade in the off season. There's no excuse to let it get that bad otherwise.

And, of course, Boulder Dash. Running just the blue train tonight, but with crowds as low as they were, that was to be expected. It was much, much smoother than last year, definitely improved somewhat, but it still very like it was dragging quite badly to me. There was very little airtime on the out stretch at all, and halfway back on the return leg, the train picked up very nasty vibration and lost speed very quickly, just crawling over the top of the hill before the on-ride photo, so badly I thought something might be stuck under the train or a wheel. Apparently the group that rode the next train didn't get that at all, so I have no idea what it was. Still very much not the same Boulder Dash from a few years ago, though...

I don't regret going out to the park one bit, the Haunted Graveyard is well worth the trip, but there still seems to be a lot of work to be done on the park itself. It's really sad seeing all the problems they've been having lately. Here's hoping 2019 is the year everything turns back around for them.

[Canobie CoasterWhy do I still have a donkey title???]

I thought Boulder Dash was running very well at the beginning of October. It was absolutely flying. But I think it was 60 degrees the night I visited. Last night dipped into the 30s so I suspect that may have contributed to the ride running a bit sluggish.

[Rai FoxWhen I grow up, I want to breed donkeys!]

Yeah, the cold last night definitely didn't help things. I've been doing the Haunted Graveyard for a good decade or so or more though, and I've been on even colder nights when it still seemed to be running as fast as ever. My friends that rode after me claimed it didn't seem slow at all for them, though so...who knows. Just as long as I can get some really good rides in next year, one way or another...

[Canobie CoasterWhy do I still have a donkey title???]

That is encouraging to hear that Boulder Dash will run in the 30s at least. I was a bit leery after it valleyed earlier this year on a cold day.

[BoulderDashDon't let this donkey melt you with its laser eyes!]

BD was running two trains on 10/20, ops were amazing and were ready to dispatch before the other train was in-sight. Night rides were excellent and very fast. Not sure why Wildcat went down, it has actually been very reliable recently. Totally agree about Wave Swinger, it is awesome and is easily the best one iv'e been on. One of my favorite flats there along with Flyers and T&L.

I agree about the Zombie Hospital, it feels like it was rushed and not much thought was put into it. I liked how the ending was before without it, but I guess they wanted to add something afterwards. It is kinda cheap because it doesn't stay up all year and has easily movable walls. Wish there was something they could do to make it look better.

[Canobie CoasterWhy do I still have a donkey title???]

Two train operations at last!