Geauga Lake Opening Day 5/26/07 (with pictures)

So we skipped Maverick's opening to show support for GL, and they needed it.

We arrived into town around 11:30 or so and met up with Josh (exit english) and his fiancee Jen. We decided to grab a small bite before going over to the park so we ate at Ruby Tuesday's in front of Wal-Mart.

After eating we swung over to the parking lot for the park where we received a nice greeting from the attendant. I handed him my season pass with the all Ohio parking on it and he took it into his little booth to, I'm assuming, write the number down. He came back with my pass, a park brochure and a parking ticket for the day. It's amazing that even with all this technology that they're still handing out paper parking tickets to people with parking on their passes. To my surprise they had employees in the lot, parking people, well at least telling people what space to park in. It seemed as though there's patrons that have a hard time putting their vehicle between two lines. We parked and entered the park.

My CP Maxx Pass scanned but Josh and Jen's didn't. Jess had to go to guest relations with her KD Maxx Pass. We finally all got in and decided to give Big Dipper another shot this year, hoping that the grease on Mean Streak for opening weekend was a tell tale of maintenance being done to the woodies. Upon entering the queue we were greeted by this. Maybe they didn't have time to trim the overgrown trees because they were doing so much work on the coasters. We got into the station and lined up for seats 1-2 and 1-3 with only a one train wait. Unfortunately they were having some audio difficulties and had to shut the ride down for a few minutes to fix the microphone. Shortly after they were up and running again. While we were waiting I noticed some new wood near the station. We climbed in to our seats and I barely fit, they had put new padding for your knees and it was pretty thick. They also replaced the lap bars too. Unfortunately that new piece of wood and the train maintenance seemed as though it was the only thing that was done to the ride in the off-season. I see now why it needed new padding. OUCH! Well that was my one ride on Big Dipper for the year.

And here we have Thunderchicke...errr...hawk. Josh talked me into a back seat ride and to both of our surprise it was smooth and fast, unlike either of us remember. Woot! A decent ride at GL! We were happy. The new video system wasn't operating though. I can only credit this to the problem they had with Raptor's and not showing very much of the actual ride. I guess they'd rather not sell anything than sell crap, good decision Cedar Fair!

Next, we were off to check out Villain's new wood but we took a detour through Double Loop. It was a walk-on for the front and second row. It wasn't very much of a surprise when we found seatbelts on the ride. At least they were the newer design with the female end on the OTSRs and the retractable male end on the front of the seat. That's a pretty intense old Arrow coaster. That's TWO decent rides IN A ROW! Off to Villain!

The station hasn't changed, nor has the queue. I think we sat in seats 3-2 and 4-2. I had high hopes for the re-tracking. They were crushed as we traveled down the ungreased track, screeching around the turn around, shaking just as much as it did last year with just a slight better section where the trick track used to be. Disappointment was the word for the ride.

Taking a stroll through the newly widened area leading away from Villain was a pleasant surprise, it felt very open and airy rather than how it used to bottleneck. At the top of the short hill is where we found the new Cornhole Toss game with the 3 Point Challenge directly across from it. We made a left and took some back seat rides on Beaver Land Mine Ride since we were in the area.

The new paint job on Texas Twister was pretty nice, until you get up close and see that they got overspray on EVERYTHING! The ride was running well and had me more disoriented than I remember from last year (6 flips in a row will do that).

Dominator was next. The four of us took the second row and regretted sitting behind some Amish folks who smelled like they hadn't showered in a good while. There wasn't a line for anything but the front seat. Still a good ride in my opinion.

Josh wanted to take a ride on Sky Ride since the prices have been adjusted and made so that it's only $10 even if you're by yourself, we kept walking. Josh never rode. :)

As we were walking up to Raging Wolf Bobs we could hear the train leaving the station going around the turn...screeeeeeeeech. There must be a shortage of grease in the Aurora area this year. Again, no lines, even for the front seats. That had to have been the SLOWEST ride I've ever had on that coaster. I honestly didn't think we were going to make it to the brakes. We compared the speed to driving the Cadillac Cars at CP.

We contemplated walking over to the other side but we're lazy and the trams weren't running so we scrapped that idea. We went shopping for a bit and found some very interesting things in some of the gift shops.

I'll just post some pics of our finds.

Josh trying to fit in with the others at the park ;)

Josh being obscene

The true Josh

I understand they have to sell off the back stock of SV and XF merchandise but don't inundate EVERY store with it. If anyone's interested they still have plenty for you collectors.

Steel Venom Hat
Steel Venom Shirt
The fearsome four t-shirt

Those were just a few of the insane amounts of stuff they had.

Also in our finds we see that CF is starting to bring in some Nick stuff to it's other parks. Uh oh Snoopy, looks like Blue may be the new dog in town. ;) Dora and Diego found their home on the top shelf too.

These next few items are rather disturbing. What were they thinking when they placed the order for the Obsessive Compulsive Action Figure? How about the Donkey cigarette dispenser? The worst of all had to have been teh bobblehead Jesus, I couldn't even bring myself to take a picture. He was right next to the punching Nun doll.

I only have 3 letters for them...W T F?

Somewhere in our travels at 2:34 PM I grabbed a pic of the Midway heading toward the entrance. Where's everyone at? The Monorail station was looking pretty deserted too. ;)

Oh geeez, we're off to Headspin. Isn't that like on the other side of the road or something? Oh no, I guess it's just up here by itself in the middle of nowhere. Much to my surprise, there were no belts added to it.

Josh and I paused for the obligatory picture in front of the Dippin Dots stand.

Strolling around the park we decided to take a look at the long forgotten Beach Combers restaurant. Crossing the bridge to go eat you get a lovely view of the old Lazy River. If that doesn't make you hungry, I don't know what will. ;) Clean the stuff out already Cedar Fair, seriously. We were met at the front door with smiles and "how many"? Here's a look at the front of the menu and one of the back. You can be the judge of the prices. We just had some of the fried cheesecake and it wasn't too awfully bad. The amount of time it took to make the stuff was ridiculous but the waitress was very prompt and kept us updated every 15 minutes or so.

That about wraps up our 4 hour trip through Geauga Lake's opening day. Make the trip and support the park this year, they definitely are going to need it.

Great TR! Your pic of the Lazy River is primo! And the menu pic???? OUTSTANDING! Monorail to Nowhere, Fantastic. The pics speak volumes.

Thank you for posting this.

Just back up the truck!

Thanks for the kind words. I actually didn't have any intentions of taking pictures when we left the house so those were all with the cell phone.

Sorry about the quality.

We still had a GREAT time even though the park looks like it's in a little disrepair. Please, everyone, if you even have half a notion to go visit there this year, don't think twice. Go and go often, the park will need everything it can get to help out.

Did you play the cornball game? :)

No, nor was anyone else by the looks of it when we went past.

Yea, we took our 'mercy' trip to GL yesterday...I dont even know if the park was this bad when SF had control of it. I was putting my entire hope for the season in with Villain, and when that turned out to be a joke, I lost hope for the park.

I say five years tops before we see the classical GL turned into a subdivision.... *** Edited 5/29/2007 2:45:39 PM UTC by jar***

Less souvenir pics and more of your girlfriend next time! :)
I wanna take Da Babies there, but it might not be 'till '08.

-Me

FYI: I opted out of photos :P

Foiled again! *slaps forehead*

You WILL take photos with FKA CBaby and Da Midget one day. You know this, don't you? And not just the pink shoes, either!

-'Playa

AND...

I threw away the pink shoes. :O

See? Small-town people always hurt my feelings! :)

I was at GL today and they trimmed that hedge back on Big Dipper. While they took care of that if you are over 6'6" and riding Dominator watch your head on the sun tarp things ;).

As I think of it, I wonder if the low hanging tree branches was some sort of humorous tradition begun in recent years. You know, watch out for those branches!

Where the old souvenirs at least on sale, and if they were, how much were they?

Too bad I didn't run into you all. Looks like you had a great time.

Speaking of Dipper it didn't occur to me on my ride until someone mentioned it to me afterwards that with the monorail gone, there are no more headchoppers before and after the turnaround.

The park has always been dead every time I have been there. Last year at Coaster EXT the park was empty except for the people attending the event. The last time I saw it crowded was when SF operated the park.

I know I had to ask a few enthusi-asses to quit filming rides...

Really what are you the ride police.

^^

Bwahahahahaaa

You're a hoot!