Geagua Lake 6/14 (first timer with pics)

Also check out part 1 of my trip report, Cedar Point, HERE.

So after Cedar Point on the 11th and 12th, we decided to do Geagua Lake on the 14th. We were staying in downtown Cleveland, and were suprised to find out that it was just a short 30 minute drive to GL. This was my first time ever at GL, despite having visited Sea world back when it was still Sea world several times in the late 90's. Arrived at the park around 10:30. It was a picture perfect day weather wise, maybe a little chilly for the water park side, but you couldnt have beat it for coaster rideing. Yet the park was empty. Everything was a walk on except maybe X-flight which was never more than a 1 train wait.

I enjoyed the Flyer at SFGAM, and X-flight looked like it had an interesting and fun layout, but I cant say I enjoyed it. It was so much rougher and more uncomfortable then Superman. I usually have a high tolerance for roughness on rides, it usually dosent bother me much, but for some reason X-flight did. 2 rides was plenty for me on this one.

Headspin was your standard boomerang. Not terrible, but not too exciting either. Now an interesting thing happened on Steel Venom. After getting loaded on for my first ride of the day, it broke down. The ops I guess couldnt release the restraints, so we had to wait for a mechanic to do it manually. During this wait the employees were very helpful, one female op in particular was making sure the riders stuck on the train were okay asking them how they were doing and talking to people and just being very helpful. Now after the mechanic released the restraints (we were probably stuck for 15 minutes in them), they had everyone sign a sheet with our names and phone numbers. I asked what this was for and the op replied with something about since they had to "walk us off", it was basically to audit them (the ops). Is this something new or has this always been done? Anyways, if I do recieve a call (I havent yet), I will for sure praise the ops because they did a very good job during the whole thing. I unfortantly didnt catch the one girl in particulars name who was especially helpful. Anyways steel venom was up and running later in the day, and its a good ride. I must say I enjoy the stop on the back spike.

Big dipper is a great little ride. Reminded me of the Thunderbolt and Jack Rabbit at Kennywood. Nice airtime and just a fun ride overall. Double loop was unfortanuatley not open all day. The villian looked great to me and I was excited to ride it. Unfortanuatley, it was terribly rough, and like I said I like to think I have a pretty high tolerance for pain on rollercoasters, having ridden rides like SOB and the Steel Phantom, ect. Fun layout I suppouse, but man is that thing rough, not sure why but it is. Again 2 rides were enough for me. Thunderhawk was another one that was a little too uncomfortable for my liking. I cant say it wowed me either. Dominator is the best ride in the park though, bar none. I found it to be very smooth ( at least compared to everything else at GL), and was a long ride with a good layout. Also the only ride running 2 trains. Some idiots in the front row on one of my rides decided it would be cool to drop some sort of tennis ball or something from the train at the apex of the vertical loop, and see what happened to it. I almost said something but since I think these idiots were actually older than me(im 19), I didnt quite have the nerve. Wolf Bobs wasnt bad, but just seemed boring to me.

After riding all the coasters, we decided to head over to the waterpark side, in part to see how it had changed(even though I dont remember it very well). I got some very nice pictures on the walk over there. Once we got over there we did both the Robots on Mars theatre and the Dinosaur thing. I remember seeing the pirates 3D show way back in the day, and I remember it being better. Also, the 3D effects seemed worse than I remember, maybe its just me though. Anyways it wasnt bad, the Dinosaur thing wasnt terrible either I suppouse. The waterpark itself looked clean and fun, although it was just too cold for my liking to give anything a try.

As for park operations, I was mostly impressed. Besides some ops on X-Flight that seemed to chat and joke around a little too much, most everyone seemed to be doing their job. I noticed employees cleaning up, and there were even a few stand outs here and there. The only bad thing about the day was how sad the crowds actually were. When a park is that empty on such a nice day, it just sucks the life out of the park. I really have to wonder how long they can stay in busniess. I mean I suppouse the crowds will pick up later in July and August, it is still early, but what I saw cant be a good sign. Its a shame too, because it really is a nice, well run park. I mean its hard for me to be too impressed with their coaster collection, especially after coming from Cedar Point 2 days earlier, but its not all bad. We ended up leaving at 6 because we had just done everything we had wanted to do 2 and 3 times or more. Hopefully the crowds pick up and this park can stay in busniess.

Glad your first trip was moderately enjoyable, Jason. My last trip, in 2003, was decent as well, with the exception that B:KF (now Dominator) was terribly bumpy, and headbangy. Oh well. I'll have to get back one of these days.

Mostly because I'd really like to ride RWB again, now that's it supposedly completely retracked. :)

Nice TR. Brevity is cool for a change...hehe. ;)

I could go just for Dipper, RWB and those *bumper cars*...one of my surprise flatride gems of '05... :)

I'd like to go for Villain, but man, that thing has gotten pretty rough...a ride THAT intense needs to be smoother...

CF needs to get something more out of GL, seems like that park has been noted as "eerily quiet" on nearly every TR I've read...

I actually really despise the hold on the back spike. I don't think it's very thrilling at all - just painful in the crotch region.

Although I don't know about the SV in Ohio, the one at ValleyFair has started to cause some head baning on the front spike. Has anyone else noticed this?

"I mean its hard for me to be too impressed with their coaster collection, especially after coming from Cedar Point 2 days earlier, but its not all bad."

But Geauga Lake actually has more inversions than Cedar Point. See RCDB inversion breakdown http://www.rcdb.com/ir.htm

Wow GL comes in at 3rd for most inversions. I never knew that, thats cool.

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coasterb said: Geauga Lake actually has more inversions than Cedar Point.

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...and this makes it better? How? *** Edited 6/18/2006 5:58:35 AM UTC by nasai***

Ha, ya I agree with Nasai, I just dont get a huge thrill from inversions anymore.

If coasters were like beer, coasters with inversions would be Budweiser or Miller. Now a good woody like Legend, Voyage or ST would be a really tasty microbrew, say Great Lakes Dortmunder or Edmund Fitgerald for example. :)

-Tambo

To me, Tambo, wooden coasters would be like pabst blue ribbon. Old classics, but really can't stand them anymore. Bring on the STEEL.