A few hours at Camden Park 8/14/2010

We left Powell just after work and headed south to Camden Park for their Starlight admission. After a 3 hour drive though some major storms we arrived to the park just after 7:00 pm. Since this was a night trip, we didn't bring the camera so sorry, no pics.

We first went and rode Lil Dipper which was a fun kiddie coaster with cool NAD Century Flyer trains. Next up was their new ride Rockin-tug. This had a fairly short cycle and since it stopped 1/2 way through to change directions never seemed to get up to speed. We then proceeded over to the Tilt-A-Whirl. These were pretty decent with a good amount of spinning. We walked past the flume which looked decent, but had a full queue so we skipped it.

As we crossed over the railroad tracks (train was down) we got on one of the 2 highlights of the trip. The Whip. This one seemed quite small compared to others we have ridden but what it lacked in size, it delivered in intensity. Best whip I have ridden. Next up were the eagles. The queue was pretty full so we doubled up and took them for a spin. They were fast and we got the tubs quite high, but they would not snap for all of our trying.

We then proceeded to the Haunted House next. This was the other highlight of the trip. It is a smooth fast and fun dark ride that seems more like a coaster to me then a flat ride. After you load in to the car, the op pushes you for a few feet till you start rolling toward the lift chain. After you get to the top you go around a 180° turn before the drop. After you go back up, you go through some doors and into a mouse type course with some cheesy theming till you exit though another set of doors where a second op jumps in front of your car an manually stops it. After the lift, the entire ride is only powered by gravity. While this ride does not have typical track, it has track boards and a guide in the center. It rolls, it coasts and is only powered by gravity. To me this = Roller Coaster.

After this we headed across the midway to Big Dipper. The queue in the station was about 1/2 full but was only a 4 train wait. Again this coaster had the 50's style trains with chrome trim and headlights. While the ride did have a few pops of air, it was just OK. After we exited we did a spin on the Bullseye which featured the look of a red & black dart board. After we got off we could see some heat lightning flashing. We got a zen ride on the Paratrooper and then rode the Carousel. It was starting to sprinkle and looked as though a storm was blowing in. We took another lap on the Haunted Mouse before getting some Pronto Pups and a soda.

As we were eating I noticed some park managers discussing closing the park early. I pulled out my phone to check the weather and saw that we were just about to be hit by a severe storm with lots of red and yellow. So we quickly got back to the car. Just as we left the parking lot the deluge hit with near zero viability and deep water on the roads all the way till we were out of town.

While we did have a lot of fun, I do have to say that we were not impressed with this park. It was filthy dirty with tons of trash on the ground. The rides even seemed to dirty. The employees seemed like zombies and did their jobs in slow motion trying not to even make eye contact. Most of them looked like they had been wearing the same dirty shirts for the last several days. I also noticed several ops smoking while the rides were cycling. I didn't pay attention to what Camden's smoking policy was, but I found this a bit surprising compared to the other parks we have been to.

Did we have fun: Yes
Would I go back again: No