Better Days ahead for Conneaut Lake Park

I never found CLP's rides or attractions to be anything but clean (although Blue Streak could certainly use more paint above the eight foot mark). The food stands were perfectly normal for an old amusement park -- a few too many bees at times, perhaps, but nothing I'd wrinkle my nose at. And the Beach Club (or whatever it's called) was perfectly fine. The restrooms were about on par with Kennywood's main bathroom facility -- not great, but doable.

Of course, I only visited CLP in its last two years of operations, when it seemed like an effort was being made to improve the state of affairs. Perhaps prior to that time it was worse than I saw.

I spent three hours at Waldameer, and while I liked the park, that was plenty of time. I spent four hours driving to and from it. If I'm going to invest that much time, I'd sooner go to Kennywood.

If you are only spending a few hours at Waldameer, then you are missing out on alot! They have a very nice collection of rides and are one of the best traditional amusement parks in the country. As with most parks, you also MUST experience the park at night! The magic begins at night when the sun goes down and the lights come on! The Ravine Flyer II is a whole different ride at night and cannot be missed!!!

I also feel the same about Conneaut. The Blue Streak MUST be ridden at night! If you miss the night rides, then you have missed out on the whole experience of both parks!

I've spent many a full day at Conneaut. Granted, I'll spend over 3-4 hours of that on the Flying Scooters. For the most part, if you're just there for rides, you could be done with CLP in about 3 hours, longest wait being the Dodgems.

Waldameer and Conneaut are half-day parks if you ride everything you want to ride and hit the road. I can completely understand the reasons for doing so, since the parks are so close to one another (on numerous occasions I have done Waldameer and Conneaut in the same day). However, both parks can easily be turned into all-day affairs if you slow down, relax while eating meals and make it a point to ride everything a few times.

Since I have to drive more than six hours to reach both, I want to spend as much time as possible at the parks (well, Conneaut when it was still open).

Having a second park relatively close by makes it a more attractive trip IMO, even if you make each park a full day visit.

We made a full day out of Waldameer by taking our time, riding the coasters several times each, getting a snack mid-afternoon, leaving the park for dinner at a restaurant in Erie, driving along the beach on Presque Isle while our dinner settled, then returning to the park to watch the sun set from the Ferris Wheel, and ended the night on RFII. We did not ride all of the rides in the park or visit the waterpark, we did ride RFII about 10 times (it is worth the wait for rides in the dark).

If you do not get into multiple re-rides on coasters and skip the water park, like we did, you could easily do a credit stop in just a couple of hours.

Rob: However, both parks can easily be turned into all-day affairs if you slow down, relax while eating meals and make it a point to ride everything a few times.

Alan: We made a full day out of Waldameer by taking our time, riding the coasters several times each, getting a snack mid-afternoon, leaving the park for dinner...

Ummm...isn't that what I said, albeit in fewer words, in my post above?

Moosh: As much as I love both Conneaut and Waldameer they're only full-day parks if you take a very leisurely pace.

Paraphrasing is the highest form of plagiarism. :)

^^ Think of my post as more of an elaboration than ignoring what you said ;)

Some folks really do need "leisurely pace" defined for them.... :)

...thinking of my extravaganza last year where we got to IA, MN, WI, and every other freakin' place in the upper Midwest within about 72 hours....all driving, no sleeping...and VERY short park visits. But the hotel rooms were nice - I guess... ;)

Did you even see the inside of the hotel rooms? ;)