Six Flags Darien Lake (SFDL) Discussion Thread

Ride Of Steel rules the first few times, but after marathoning it can get boring.

Viper is my favorite coaster there, but Tantrum hasn't opened.

I enjoyed Predator until last year, It hurt everywhere.

The other coasters are average as they are clones, but ME isn't as bad a everyone says IMO.

Now on the subject of Fantasy Island, Silver Comet is okay, it is in fact my favorite woodie, but Max's Doggy Dog Coaster is #1 in New York, if not the country.

I am guessing there isn't 2 train operation at DL because of staffing issues, it's no secret that the park is understaffed most of the season. My suggestion is to NEVER go to a park in WNY unless it's between the 4th of July and before college starts, especially DL since staffing issues hit the park hard early and late in the year. You have a short time to hit a park but this will make your trip infinitly better if you hit a park when they are in full operation. Going to a park during this time period almost guarantees your visit will not be a disaster. Also they will never resolve these staffing issues as the park is in the middle of nowhere, staffing issues at this park have been around since well as long as I have been alive.

For the person visiting the falls, there are some fine attractions here but everything about the falls is crappy and overpriced at least on the American side. The Canadian side is 10x as expensive as the American side so that is even worse and the stuff over there is not worth the money for the attractions. My advice is to take 2-4 hours for the American side, see the falls and move on. Once you see the water for 15-30 min you will be done. Picnic lunch or drive out of the area for food, there is zero good food or even edible food in downtown Niagara Falls. Fantasy island is close by and is decent enough but if you want real thrills you will want to forego both DL and FI and the entire Niagara Falls area and head directly to Canada's Wonderland, it's expensive and crowded but it's got enough thrill rides to be worth the money and since you get the whole park you will probably spend less than you do in the Niagara and Clifton hill area for entertainment that is much more worth your time and money and a much better experience overall.

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The Falls is a great time. As others have said, the Cave of the Winds and Maid of the Mist are both very cool experiences and likely to be highlights of a trip. Don't just snap a pic and leave! The town of Niagara Falls, ON is cleaner, livelier, and more touristy than Niagara Falls, NY, but both offer beautiful views of the waterfalls themselves.

I like to stay in a park and digest it slowly, but Martin's really was a "couple of rides and go" kind of place to me. The Silver Comet is pretty fun (always good to ride a now-rare CCI), minus one violent turn near the end (not sure if that's been re-tracked since or what). If you're short on time, Martin's is a good way to sneak in a few rides.

Darien Lake really isn't in the backyard of Niagara or anything, taking me a good hour to get there from the Falls last year. I think Ride of Steel and the awesome, steroidal Slingshot ride are still worth the drive, but again, not if it makes you snap a pic at the Falls and get right back in the car—that'd be a bad choice. If push comes to shove, don't cheat yourself out of quality time at the Falls!

Fantasy island is close by and is decent enough but if you want real thrills you will want to forego both DL and FI and the entire Niagara Falls area and head directly to Canada's Wonderland

I don't disagree, but let me offer a friendly counter: I think Wonderland works best as its own dedicated day, part of a larger Niagara/Toronto trip, or with other adults on a coaster tour. I've tried tacking it onto a one-day Niagara/Buffalo visit, and I ended up falling way behind schedule at the border and in traffic, leaving me with not enough time to appreciate either the Falls or Wonderland. If hoppedup's daughter wants to experience the Falls itself, and then they have to drive 4 hours to somewhere else, I think it'd be a lot less hassle to just enjoy the Falls and Buffalo-Niagara area.

Superman

AH NO! It's Ride Of Steel.

I'd say Darien Lake would be worth it, never been to Fantasy Island so can't help ya there. Decent Arrow looper, good Intamin, new Gerstlauer coming.

^ "Decent" Arrow Looper?! The best Arrow Looper! I'm kidding it's the only one I've ridden.

^ I'd only say decent cause headbanging, that just ruins it for me. It's an awesome layout, but they need new trains or at least new restraints.

^ Eh, I rarely get headbanging. My ride on Saturday was headbang-free.

It really depends on what you are looking for..

If you want an all thrills park with the biggest rides, Canada's Wonderland is it, Toronto also has some other nice attractions.

Niagara falls is more state park-ish, do you like woods and outdoor adventure without any rides, then the cave of the winds and the other falls attractions are on the list. The gorge and Devi's hole are also must see's if you like the outdoors. There is also a zip line. If you don't like outdoorsy things the falls will be 20-30 min of looking at the water then you will be bored and want to leave. If you are taking kids they usually get bored of the falls unless they are really into the outdoors, because there isn't much for kids unless you go to the Canadian side with clifton hill.

Clifton hill is nice and extremely crowded but its not really quality entertainment for your money, if you want quality I would stick with the outdoor adventures or one of the many theme parks. There is also currently a ton of construction on the Canadian side of the falls which makes getting around on anything but your 2 feet very miserable, hopefully this will be finished by the summer.

It is definitely possible to make a day of FI but you are going to have to stretch it and do everything in the park, with a couple hours in the waterpark though you can fill a day, they also do not have free parking anymore and you cannot bring your own food into the park. The park is a good value but they do not have the biggest and best thrill rides. The park is located in the city so there are some restaurants literally within walking distance where you can eat if you don't want to buy overpriced park food.

DL will definitely fill a day but there is absolutely nothing around it other than the park and the campgrounds, so you have to either eat your own food that you bring or eat something in the park, if you stay at the campgrounds you can cook your own food, But as another person said it is over an hour from the falls area so its not really close by, so it depends on where you are touring, Buffalo would be about 30-45 min from Darien lake so you would want to keep that in mind. With the campgrounds you can make at least a full weekend vacation of Darien lake. The park has long lines most of the time so you will be spending lots of time in lines especially for the coasters.

Superman

 

AH NO! It's Ride Of Steel.

LOL! Fixed. Good eye.

Darien’s Mind Eraser is pretty bad, it’s rough and shaky, but if you use the SLC trick of holding your head firmly against one side of the restraint, it isn’t too bad. However, if the wait is more than 15 minutes, just don’t bother going on it, it isn’t worth it.

^ I really hope in the upcoming years they will actually think about that coaster and give it a repaint and get better trains on it. Honestly DL needs to get a LOT of things repainted, which is literally so obvious around the park. Heck, even Rolling Thunder's railing in the queue needs repainting!

They need to take an off year and work on overall park improvements, repainting, fixing rotten wood, and possibly adding new trains to coasters that need it (*cough* ALL OF THEM).

Let's hope more SLCs go through what Morey's just did, which really was a different experience. I do think Darien's wasn't as bad as the worst I rode, which is CW's. Couldn't wait to get off of it.

Michigan's Adventure wasn't bad either.

Can't remember what others ones I got on.

Let's hope more SLCs go through what Morey's just did, which really was a different experience. I do think Darien's wasn't as bad as the worst I rode, which is CW's. Couldn't wait to get off of it.

 

Michigan's Adventure wasn't bad either.

 

Can't remember what others ones I got on.

I agree with you on this. I had made my first visit to Darien Lake and the other two Western New York amusement parks last August and I found Mind Eraser to be more enjoyable than Flight Deck at my home park, Canada's Wonderland. Keep in mind though that the Mind Eraser at Darien Lake is slightly newer by two years (1997) than Flight Deck (1995) at Canada's Wonderland, so the design of the coasters could have possibly changed slightly to provided a smoother ride within that time.

Anyone at the park today? I’m going later and I was wondering what rides are closed.

Let's hope more SLCs go through what Morey's just did, which really was a different experience. I do think Darien's wasn't as bad as the worst I rode, which is CW's. Couldn't wait to get off of it.

 

Michigan's Adventure wasn't bad either.

 

Can't remember what others ones I got on.

 

I agree with you on this. I had made my first visit to Darien Lake and the other two Western New York amusement parks last August and I found Mind Eraser to be more enjoyable than Flight Deck at my home park, Canada's Wonderland. Keep in mind though that the Mind Eraser at Darien Lake is slightly newer by two years (1997) than Flight Deck (1995) at Canada's Wonderland, so the design of the coasters could have possibly changed slightly to provided a smoother ride within that time.

Probably likely that CW's has been run a lot harder than DL's. Factoring in two trains, longer operating schedule... etc. Flight Deck may have given twice as many rides in the same period.

Let's hope more SLCs go through what Morey's just did, which really was a different experience. I do think Darien's wasn't as bad as the worst I rode, which is CW's. Couldn't wait to get off of it.

 

Michigan's Adventure wasn't bad either.

 

Can't remember what others ones I got on.

 

I agree with you on this. I had made my first visit to Darien Lake and the other two Western New York amusement parks last August and I found Mind Eraser to be more enjoyable than Flight Deck at my home park, Canada's Wonderland. Keep in mind though that the Mind Eraser at Darien Lake is slightly newer by two years (1997) than Flight Deck (1995) at Canada's Wonderland, so the design of the coasters could have possibly changed slightly to provided a smoother ride within that time.

 

Probably likely that CW's has been run a lot harder than DL's. Factoring in two trains, longer operating schedule... etc. Flight Deck may have given twice as many rides in the same period.

That is quite possible as well. I also found it interesting how Mind Eraser's lift hill was quieter than Flight Deck's lift hill, which was nice.

On Darien Lake's insta, they posted more updates of Tantrum's station, and MAN does it look cool! Take a look:

I figured I’d do a mini trip report from my visit to the park today. Closed rides included Predator (which is getting new wood put on it in various spots), Pirate, Twister, and for the first half of the day, Ride of Steel. RoS was having restraint issues, but they got it open by around 5:30 today.

Tantrum is looking good, almost finished, photos below. They are definitely trying to revamp that area and it looks pretty good!

Also, many more food stands were open this time, compared to opening day.

Now to the pictures...

The gathering at RoS when it was testing, getting ready to open

Giant Wheel, with 4 cars missing on it this year, found that interesting. Still hoping for nice LED lights on this thing someday.

Tantrum’s track is complete! Cars have arrived, in shrink wrap, but I didn’t get a photo of them.

The freshly-painted former TR queue looks really nice!

Also, I love the colorful new graphics!

It appears that Tantrum will have an on-ride photo!

The Potato Works food stand next to Tantrum also got a nice touch up!

Sleighride doesn’t have a roof now, don’t know what that is all about.

Viper is always a good way to finish the day off! See ya Memorial Day weekend for Tantrum, DL!

Ive seen Sleighride roofless in early season before, maybe its just something they do later all the time.

In this instance it was damaged by wind the evening before opening.

In this instance it was damaged by wind the evening before opening.

Oh, I wasn’t aware of that, thanks for informing me!

I never saw Sleigh Ride roofless before. Having no roof on Sleigh ride makes the ride look sad and tunnelles.

In this instance it was damaged by wind the evening before opening.

That wind was ridiculous

So I am a little out of the loop, Did Darien Lake sell their 2nd trains for all their coasters? are they in storage? or are they just junk?

So I am a little out of the loop, Did Darien Lake sell their 2nd trains for all their coasters? are they in storage? or are they just junk?

They were cannibalized... in other words, if a part failed on one train, Maintenance just took the part off of the other train and never replaced it, leaving the second train incomplete. In Ride of Steel's case, the park only bought one new train for it.