Associated parks:
None
Our morning ERT was to be on the aforementioned SLC, as well as the first woodie of the tour, Cyclone, and also the Funhouse. I rode the coasters before entering the Funhouse, but it's the Funhouse that I'll discuss first.
Having the Funhouse as part of the ERT was very significant, in that ordinarily it's open only to children, but now Pleasureland was allowing adults on. The Funhouse contains such usual kid attractions as the pool of balls and a spiral slide. However, it also contained things that we rarely, if ever, see anymore -- trick floors, moving staircases, and the like. But most importantly, was a functioning wooden floor wheel (I'm lacking a technical term here :) )
Ever see the old movies and pictures of people sitting on a large flat wooden wheel that spins until they get thrown off? Pleasureland has one, and it was the hilight of the morning. People were having an absolute blast with it. I myself was SO tempted to ride it that it wasn't funny, however my bad ankle was bothering me horribly, and I was afraid of injuring it even worse, so I contented myself with watching it in action. Even that was entertaining. I still have over 300 pictures to go through from the tour and post on my website (odds are not all of them will make it up there), but in the meantime I HAVE posted a video of this wheel in action. (Warning: This is a 55 second Quicktime file, a bit under 18 megabytes to download!)
Unfortunately, tragedy struck near the end of the ERT. Remember, under most circumstances only children would be riding, and the wheel had been running pretty much nonstop for the entire ERT. Well, the wheel BROKE. From the burning-electrical smell, I believe the motor had burned out. Very unfortunate, and I hope Pleasureland will repair it in short order. I also hope that they will continue to allow adults on it for special occasions in the future, as I REALLY would have loved to ride it (but as I said, I didn't want to risk injuring my ankle further, and people WERE getting hurt -- friction burns, bruises, and the like. Nothing major, but...)
As for the coasters:
Cyclone (5 rides total; 1 in back, 2 in 1-3) -- The first woodie of the tour, and a decent one. The old trains had some good thick padding, and were quite comfortable. Decent air both in the back seat and the back of the front car (had to test for "ejector air" after all).
Traumatizer (2 laps in a row) -- One of the smoothest SLC's I can remember. Mixed praise, to be sure, but this was a fun ride.
Big Apple (1 lap) -- This was our first ride when the ERT ended. A small kiddie coaster, we hopped on quickly for the credit.
Wildcat (2 laps) -- The usual small steel wildcat.
King Solomon's Mines (2 laps) -- the 2nd woodie of the tour, and my first wooden wild mouse! This was a very fun, crazy little ride. The cars do indeed tip on the turns, as RCT would have you believe. There was also some mad airtime that will result in people's on-ride videos showing their feet suddenly appear in the camera's field of vision. A great little gem.
We also found ourselves with plenty of time to hit many of the other attractions at this park:
Space Shot -- a nice shot tower with a good pop of air, and a GREAT view of the ocean.
Ghost Train -- a reasonably nice haunted house type ride
1001 Mirrors / Ghost Swing -- The Ghost Swing is your usual "spinning room" illusion ride, a predecessor to the modern rides like Houdini at Great Adventure. The queue for the Ghost Swing was a mirror maze!
Caves of the World -- One of the few remaining "old mill" (to put a Kennywood perspective on it) rides. The scenes were quite different than Kennywood's, of course.
Haunted Inn -- A good walkthrough tilted/haunted house
Mistral Machine -- Flying Scooters. We got a few snaps from these, but they were a tad restrained.
Waltzer -- The first Waltzer of the trip. This one cost an extra pound to ride, and was well worth it. As I said in my overview, this is a bit like a tilt-a-whirl on steroids. This one, like the one on the South Pier at Blackpool, has an operator giving the cars extra spins while the ride is in motion. Not 2 days after declaring the Vortex at Thorpe my favorite flatride, that declaration fell to this.
Pleasureland also had the distinction of having some rather, interesting, souvineers. Several shops had some "adult" gifts, which I won't go into in too much detail on a family site like CoasterBuzz. Overall, we had a GREAT time at this park, and I can't wait for the opportunity to return.
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--Greg
"Are you justified in taking life to save life?" -- The Great Debate, Dream Theater
My page
*** This post was edited by GregLeg on 7/23/2002. ***
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Steel: 1)MF, 2)Goliath, 3)Magnum
Wood: 1)Villain, 2)Beast, 3)Roar(SFMW)
Edit - BTW, I can't get the video to work.
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"Look outside, I know that you'll recognize it's summertime." - The Flaming Lips "It's Summertime (throbbing orange pallbearers)"
*** This post was edited by chris on 7/23/2002. ***
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--Greg
"Are you justified in taking life to save life?" -- The Great Debate, Dream Theater
My page
Worked just fine for me. And yes Greg, I did see who you were talking about. ;)
Coasterman Mike
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Kennywood, Celebrating 75 Years of Racing Sperm ;)
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Sean
*** This post was edited by SFgadvMAN on 7/23/2002. ***
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