Associated parks:
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Oakwood is a small park. We didn't realize how small until we got there. As tired as we were, our initial reaction was "A whole day here, what're we going to DO?" As it turned out, the day DID pass by, but we DID spend time sitting around doing little but resting. Not that this is a bad thing... With Oakwood being so far away from the rest of the parks, there really wasn't any other way to arrange the schedule, and with one of the best CCIs in the world, Oakwood definitely DID belong on the schedule.
Our stay at Oakwood would include two ERTs, in the morning and evening, both on Megaphobia. In between we had the rest of the park to explore, and the park did indeed have some interesting attractions worth checking out.
Megaphobia (14 laps total; 1 in front, 2 in 1-2, 2 in back) -- This is a VERY good woodie. I know in my summary report I said this was the biggest disappointment on the tour, and I'll stand by that statement. That doesn't mean I didn't love this coaster and think it belongs somewhere on my Top 10 list if I try to put one together again. This is clearly one of the best wooden coasters in the world, and was certainly deserving of the long spur on the tour to hit it. However, after having ridden other CCI gems back in the states such as nightime Raven and Legend, and Cornball Express, Megaphobia just didn't quite live up to expectations. (And for those who are wondering, yes, I know I said Oblivion disappointed, but I didn't have as high expectations for it).
Megaphobia does provide a good out of control, laterals and air feeling. I love it, and hope to have the opportunity to ride it again. It IS a great ride, and perhaps next time will go over even better in my book because I won't have those artificially inflated expectations going in.
Oakwood is also home to two smaller coasters:
Kiddie Coaster (1 lap) -- a small Circus Clown type coaster.
Treetops Coaster (2 laps) -- The typical twisting steel junior coaster much like Roadrunner Express at SFWoA, except that they were able to leave many trees in place. As a result you actnally can't see most of the circuit. Ordinarily on kiddie/junior type coasters, it's normal procedure to let you go around at least twice. Since that's the usual cyle, I count that as one "ride". We went around twice, but the usual cycle on Treetops appeared to be ONE lap -- when we returned to the station on the first lap the op let us go too far, and had to let us go around again. So, I consider that two rides. The clearances on this ride are VERY tight -- I very nearly got brained (according to the people behind me) when we went around an abrupt turn and my head jerked to the side, missing a tree by mere inches (again, according to the people behind me)
We also hit a few other attractions:
Hydro -- Oakwood's new Intamin chute-the-shoot, pretty much a Perilous Plunge clone. Except THIS Plunge doesn't have the kludgy shoulder straps. We took one lap on this, in ponchos as it was rather cool out for our tastes. Wow, what great airtime for a water ride.
The Bounce -- a small Huss drop tower. Nothing exciting, in fact rather tame, but we had time.
Bobsled (2 rides) -- An alpine slide at an amusement park! I'd seen them at "challenge" type parks before, but never at an actual amusement park. This was my first time on one of these. This one was rather short and slow, but still fun. My first ride down, I hit the brake a few times going into the turns, as I didn't know the layout and didn't want to wipe out. The second time, I just held it wide open the whole way, and was never even close to losing it. Fun, but tame.
Voodoo Mansion -- Sitdown haunted house. Conveniently enough, the exit fed to where we were to meet for lunch, AND it was lunchtime. Funny how things work out sometimes. :)
Brer Rabbit -- A train ride with some scenes dreamed up by someone on crack. This was very odd and very fun. The theme was a rabbit frat house. The drunken bunnies were just hysterical.
To kill some time, we also rode the other train, which led from the park to the parking lot and back.
As I said, Oakwood was small, but very nice, and Megaphobia is a little gem of a woodie that makes it worthwhile. Add in the shoudler-strap-less Hydro and the oddities like Brer Rabbit, and Oakwood belongs on the list of anyone with time for the detour.
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--Greg
"Are you justified in taking life to save life?" -- The Great Debate, Dream Theater
My page
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Bake 'em away toys.
Nope, the sheep were fenced off to the side.
I forgot to mention that we got a photo walkback on the service road by Megaphobia. I'd run out of digital camera memory by this point and bought a cheap disposable camera, so I don't know how those shots turned out yet, but hopefully at least a few of them came out.
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--Greg
"Are you justified in taking life to save life?" -- The Great Debate, Dream Theater
My page
Greg: Is it true that there are no trim brakes on Megaphobia through out the ride till you get back to the station? Nice Tr.
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Valleyfair Security 2002! 4years Security . 8Years working at Valleyfair ! "As everyone says got to get to Cedar Point and ride it"
*** This post was edited by The Beast on 7/25/2002. ***
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--Greg
"Are you justified in taking life to save life?" -- The Great Debate, Dream Theater
My page
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What is it Lassie? Did Timmy fall down the well again? Rough. Did Mr. Wilson have a heart attack? Rough. Is the drug dealer here for his money? Rough Rough. RUN!
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