Big Chiefs 7/13: Some positive changes

Was in the Dells this weekend for my birthday (7/13). Took my three nieces to stay the night at Treasure Island and enjoy two days at the Family Land and Bay of Dreams waterparks. Hotel guests get admission to both waterparks included in the price of the room.

Bay of Dreams is a huge indoor waterpark with two body slides, two tube slides, a lazy river, a couple whirlpools and a kiddie area. It was well layed out and was actually quite enjoyable.

Family land is the outdoor waterpark and includes a huge wavepool, a handful of body slides, a handful of tube slides, one of those straight down slides, another one like it with a triple dip (sweet airtime), a sled drop type slide, a lazy river, kids area, bumper boats, and mini golf. The slides were ok, and the park was a lot less crowded than Noahs Ark gets on a hot day. The staff there was very friendly. The only complaint for me was I felt like I ran out of things to do pretty quickly and it seemed to get boring. All in all not a bad experience. They dont have the newest water attractions, however, and that will hurt them in the long run.

On Saturday, facing midlife crisis, I decided to ride the Skyscraper over by Timber Falls. If you are in the Dells and you havent riden one of these things, get down to Timber Falls and ride this thing. It is worth the 20 bucks for a few minutes of sheer terror.

On Sunday, just before we packed up and left, I walked over to Big Chiefs to ride Zeus and Cyclops. There was a thread earlier about safety concerns on the coasters and ops not checking the trains before they dispatched them. I myself wrote a letter to the park as did others from the sound of the thread. Though I never received anything back from them as far as a reply, it looks like they may have taken our words, our maybe an inspector's words to heart. There were two ops working each coaster and they were very thorough in checking each train before it left the station.

Cyclops was delivering just like it always has for me. It had been two years since I last experienced the airtime nirvana that is Cyclops and I will admit that the first time over The Drop(TM) I was more than a little intimidated. Someone said that this is the best half of a coaster they have ever rode. I agree with that wholeheartedly. There is so much speed left when you hit the final brakes that you could easily add more coaster. The ejector air in the back seat of this monster is phenominal. It is unmatched by any coaster anywhere, and that includes Raven.

As for Zeus, I had a couple of good rides on this one as well. I am a huge fan of that double dip on the return trip. It doesnt look like much, but if you are sitting in the back you get a nice pop of ejector air.

All in all, Big Chiefs wasnt too bad. I still think they charge too much for the coasters there, however, in some ways it is worth it. You won't get good customer service here, so dont expect it. At least now they are checking the rides. Oh and before I forget, they are still working on the new water coaster. I am doubting that it will open this year. The lift is up and all the troughs seem to be in place. They still need to add the drop itself. It looked like too much work to complete and test, however, before the end of the short Dell's season (the Dells pretty much packs up after Labor Day)
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Bob Hansen
Resident Airtime Whore

Thats awesome thanks guys for writing letters. Ill have to get up there soon and get some for laps on those coasters.Thats cool that they have cleaned up there act.

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