Canobie Lake Park, 9/6/15

Over Labor Day weekend we took a trip up to Boston to see the Phillies play the Red Sox at Fenway Park. Canobie Lake Park was only 40 minutes from the hotel and we decided to stop there before going back home even though it was north of where we were.

Even though the Phillies lost, Fenway Park was very nice and was different compared to the modern stadiums. Even with both teams in last place at the time, the stadium was about 90% full.

Normally I wouldn't want to go to a park on a holiday weekend but that was the only option at the time. Canobie Lake has free parking which was nice. Even though Gold passholders don't pay for parking at Great Adventure and Dorney, it was different to just enter the parking lot and not go through a toll booth. The lot was almost full with the grass overflow lots not being used.

First was the Policy Pond Log Flume. Unlike most log flumes, this one has most of the ride in concrete troughs in the ground and a small cave. It was fun and good to get cooled off and not soaked. The wet/dry slides looked fun and had a very long line so they were skipped.

Mine of Lost Souls is the park's dark ride. There were a lot of animatronics and many different scenes. The waterfall doesn't completely turned off so you get some water on you.

Canobie Corkscrew was the first coaster of the day. The line was past the ramp and was about 15 minutes with 1 train running. The ride is ok and there isn't much to it with the drop, turn around, double corkscrew and you are done. When these rides were new, I'm sure they were a big deal with the rare chance to experience a coaster with inversions. Now they are good first looping coasters.

Near the Canobie Corkscrew is Castaway Island the water play structure with some water slides. It looked very popular and looking at it reminded me of a smaller version of East Coaster Waterworks at Hershey where it was difficult to wait for a slide since there are no formal queues in the structure.

Canobie 500 was a good car ride, they moved fast and the track was good with some theming like one of the cars painted like a police car that lit up at night.

Dragon Coaster was similar to the coaster of the same name that used to be at Dorney except this version has an extra uphill section and a 2nd helix. The loading was very slow with the ride ops loading 1 car at a time, checking restraints for that car, then letting more people in from the queue and checking that car until the train was full. They are fun coasters even though some people don't count them as coasters since they are powered.

The Blue Heron Lake Cruise was next and the first of disappointing operations for the park. Only 1 boat was running and the boat holds 49 people. 5:30 ended up being the final boat of the day and they don't cut the line off when the final boat's capacity is in line. This caused people to wait in line for 25+ minutes only to be turned away from riding. There was a ride op at the dock the entire time while the boat that the park should have close the line so people don't waste time in line for nothing.

The Boston Tea Party looked like you got soaked and Star Blaster looked like fun but I didn't want to wait since I have ridden the Double Shot at Playland's Castaway Cove and they are the same ride.

Untamed was next which was not only my first Eurofighter and also my first Gerstlauer coaster. Unfortunately this was another ride that had horrible operations. They were only running 1 car. The ride is already low capacity only seating 8 people per car and it was horrible for a holiday weekend for only 1 car to be running. The queue was almost full and I'm going to guess was 90 minutes to 2 hours. There is a single rider line and with about 10 people ahead of me, it took around 30 minutes which was better than the regular line.

The ride itself was fun, with the vertical lift and beyond vertical drop. The ride is over so quickly it's difficult to take in the coaster since it's barely 20 seconds from the top of the lift to the brake run. The cutback was a cool element. I would have liked to have tried the coaster a few more times but didn't have time and wasn't willing to wait at least 30 minutes for another ride.

While I rode Untamed, everyone else went to the Antique Cars. I liked the Green Monster on the side of a baseball game building next to the ride and it's nice to see a park with 2 car rides when so many parks have been removing them.

Yankee Cannonball was around 40 minutes. There was 1 train running with the 2nd train covered with a trap. There are only 3 cars so it only holds 18 riders per train. Afterwards I looked it up and it appears the ride can no longer run 2 trains. For one of their main attractions, I'd like to see them try to resolve that so they can run 2 trains.

The ride was smoother than expected, thanks to some work GCI did on the ride during the offseason. It was a fun coaster that I'd probably rank somewhere as good as Thunderhawk as Dorney. Like the other coasters at the park, it doesn't have much track with RCDB saying it is 2000 feet. The trains were comfortable with the standard 3 bench PTC trains with a buzz bar.

The last ride of the day was the train. They were only running 1 train with 3 cars. I'm not sure if that is normal or not and saw an empty train car off to the side in the middle of the ride. A round trip takes around 40 minutes and they were only allowing a one way trip with the option to get back in line at the other station and hope you are able to reboard the train (we were able to). I was surprised that at the crossings that go through walkways, there were no crossing gates like at some other parks.

It was getting late and we still had over a 6 hour drive to get home and left after the train. There were a lot of flats that looked interesting like the Caterpillar and Psycho Drome in addition to the coasters.

I'm glad I got to the park and the coasters were fun but the operations overall were disappointing. I know on a holiday weekend you aren't going to get walk ons but at the same time, rides that are able to run multiple trains or cars should be. I would go back if they add a new coaster and would try to go on a slower day.

One car on Untamed? Day-amm!

Canobie became an immediate favorite the first time I visited in 2013. Great park. Well done report.

We visited in the Spring and the park wasn't nearly as crowded as you described. Single train operation except for Untamed. You're right. You have to ride multiple times to take it in. It was a 10 minute wait with 2 trains operating. Yankee Cannonball is another good Schmeck coaster, but you're right they need to run 2 trains. That was our longest wait. It was around 30 minutes.

It was nice park with a good collection of flat rides. I loved their Rotor the Turkish Twist. That was my daughter's favorite ride there.We had a good time. Nice trip report.

My favorite ride was actually Mine Of Lost Souls. Brought back memories of the haunted dark rides I used to love in Wildwood and Seaside back in the 1970's.

Nice TR. I loved Cannonball, but kinda know what to expect from Untamed (if/when I get back)...ouch!

Passing up a running Caterpillar is something of a sin, IMO...