2 new rides at Lakemont

I spent a few hours at Lakemont Park in Altoona PA last Saturday and was surprised with 2 new attractions that are located where the Mad Mouse used to be.

One was a walk through fun house kind of attraction called "Gladiator". The other was an unnamed haunted house ride. I asked the ride opp what it was called and he looked at the tag hanging from the controls and said, "Dark Ride".

Both attractions were an extra $1 admission not included with the POP, and no tickets could be used. Both were portable models. Before anyone asks, both were owned and opperated by the park, at least thats what the ride opp told me. I've seen the "Gladiator" type of ride that was at carnivals with different themes, so I wasn't too interested in it. "Dark Ride" was a different story...

"Dark Ride" was like a coaster in that it had a lift and ran off of gravity.

From the front, "Dark Ride" looked like a portable version of Camden Parks (Huntington, WV) "Haunted House". It had the turn, lift, turn outside, turn inside, turn, drop sequence before the inside ride took place. It seemed smaller than "Haunted House", and unlike Camden Parks ride was portable, as I said already. The stunts inside were minimal, to put it nicely.

The track inside the ride zig-zagged back and forth like a mad mouse down an enclosed incline. It was a very straightforward layout after entering the dark part of the ride. If you look at the rides backside, you will see what looks like a long, inclined box that houses the rides unseen section.

The front of the ride was decorated with brown spray painted sheet metal. On this was a few spray painted monster faces. Very oddly was that a pirate scene was painted under the out-in portion of the ride. This looks like a forgotton part of a retheming project.

After giving all of this info, I now have a question. What is Camden Parks ride layout like after the drop? Is it as simple as zig-zag back and forth until the ride exits the building, or does it have more to it than that?

I SHOULD already know the answer to that question, because I have rode Camden Park's "Haunted House" about 100 times, but that was a good 15 years ago. I remember a lot about thast ride, but not the layout after the drop.

Also, does "Devils Den" at Conneaut Park resemble these Two rides?

I believe those two rides were added just before Memorial Day weekend.

We were there on May 30th. The 'Dark Ride' was open but Gladiator was clearly just moved into place. In fact while I was snapping a photo of it, a park employee slid up beside me and asked "When did they put that in?" Seriously!

Pics:

Dark Ride
Dark Ride
Gladiator

I hope all of Lakemont's employees aren't that out of touch with what's going on at the place!

And to think I drove right past Lakemont on my way to DelGrosso's on Saturday missing a "dark" attraction (no matter how small).

Hmmmm... what does Lakemont's schedule and my schedule look like for the rest of September?

I hate that the Mad Mouse is gone but these rides seem like interesting additions. I'm not a big fan of upcharges but at $7.95 for a POP can I really complain?

I'll wager that they were brought in specifically for the weekend, ergo the upcharge. The carny that owns them and the park split the take. They're probably already back on the road.

Wow! Yet another walk thru in PA with a spinning barrel. I believe that makes 3 now. Bushkill, Williams Grove, and now Lakemont. Out of the 3 I must say the one Bushkill has is the best since it's an old wooden one from the 20's or 30's.

The funhouse is actually named Gladiator's but the second part of the name is missing. Gladiator's what? Gauntlet, I'm guessing.

And that dark ride? Ha...maybe at night and without park lights ;)

mOOSH [trip report coming]

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Dutchman said:
I'll wager that they were brought in specifically for the weekend, ergo the upcharge. The carny that owns them and the park split the take. They're probably already back on the road.

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Well according to the posts they were there right after Memorial Day and still there last Saturday, so....

My bad. Misread the date.

What the hell? I was there on Monday and didn't even see Dark Ride. I saw Gladiator and passed on it since they wanted an extra buck, and I had already splurged on a bunch of tickets (that I didn't need, apparently), but I somehow completely missed Dark Ride.

I'm going blind in my old age.

Me and you both Vater. I was there in August and didn't catch any dark ride. I saw the Gladiator $1 thing and passed; even at a dollar it kind of seemed like a ripoff and we were running low on money. Like, really low. This was the one with the boxing bag, right? I was joking that they needed a dollar per person cuz maintenace on that boxing bag costs so much money!

Both attractions were private concessions brought in for this year only, thus the $1.00 upcharge. I spoke with the park manager and he informed us that you probably won't see them at Lakemont again next year.

The dark ride was a modified portable Pretzel gravity dark ride similar to Conneaut's Devils Den ride. To my knowledge, this may be one of the only (if not THE only) portable Pretzel gravity dark rides in operation.

When I was at Lakemont last month, the Gladiator was in the place where the mouse used to be, but I didn't see the other one.

-Sean

The dark ride was hidden behind the Gladiator funhouse on it's right and sat perpindicular to it, facing the lake and waterpark.