Geauga Lake, Saturday 04

Saturday my girlfriend and I decided to get away and beat the heat. This was our first trip since before the new water park and I have to say, we were impressed. Below are just some quick thoughts about our trip.

- Our Kings Dominion passes were accepted just fine, it was interesting to see that Canada's Wonderland had the most checks. There were also a few people from Kings Island there.

- The work they have done looks great, and the old Sea World/WOA structures fit in great.

- The water park is laid out well and it just feels nice to be there. It felt like we were away on vacation. Well done.

- The slides all had pretty decent waits, and the play structure and pools were all very busy.

- The water was too warm, maybe 2 or 3 degrees over heated. It was refreshing, but with the heat of the air it was just a bit too warm for my taste.

- They need another slide or two, perhaps a hot tub?

- We ate at the service restaurant across the lake. We had waters and an appetizer and it came to $11. It was worth it just for the ac. They had a steady crowd, far busier than the previous two times we ate there during previous seasons. We would go back, its a nice relaxing break for the craziness of the parks.

- Big Dipper was awesome, it was the first time we have ridden it with a full train in a long time. They were running two trains and hitting their intervals, although they held the returning train outside the station until the other departed. Tons of air time in the second seat, pretty smooth. I love this ride. I wish they would re-track the rest of the ride like they did the turn around, it would be amazing, potentially as good as Phoenix. I said it.

- The park was busy. Waits at all the rides, and concesions. People had no problem forking over the cash for the sweets and drinks. Just goes to show you, show someone a good time, and they will pay just about anything for a Pepsi.

- Dominator was up and down all day, we got stuck on the brake run. :( The ride was still great though, if a little shakey. I love the loop and high speed turn after. There was just a slight squeeze on the mid-course which resulted in a strong finish. About a 15 minute wait for a middle seat. They hit every interval. Something that WOA was never able to do during any of our visites. Again, well done.

- Villain is a shame. Three train wait. The trains feel like they want to shake of the track, I still couldn't help grinning at the slow turn around while preparing for the hell that was about to break loose. With some maintenence it would be in my top ten as well.

- Grizzly Run is terrible. The loading cycle is slow which makes the line way too long for the quality of ride, we barely got wet and the theme and location is ridiculous.

We had a great time. I hope they can keep this up and continue to make improvements to the old water park area and at least tear down the old structures and plant a garden or something.

I do have to laugh however at the people who thought this park was on its way down at the begining of the season. If today was any indication, the people are back in love with Geauga.

Glad to hear you had a good time.

Where did you sit on villian? I feel a Front seat of a car closer to the front of the train is a decent ride, but agree it has a ways to go. The removed trick-track is a big improvement.

Other than Wolf-Kabobs, was everything else running?

Doesn't surprise the water was a bit warm. Due to the drought earlier this summer and some fairly warm days, the temps' probably a lot warmer than normal.

Did you see anyone playing CornHole? I have yet to hear one report about that. (They made such a huge deal about it before the season started.)

Was the Log Ride running? that's always been one of my favorites there.

Glad you had a good time there.

I snagged a second seat ride on Villain, which is usually where I always sit. Its odd, people around me seemed to enjoy it. They had their hands up and everything. Its just smooth enough to not make you hate it.

People were playing cornhole. Apparently this is a big deal now? There are tournaments and everything.

Everything was running, including the log ride which sported a full queue so we didn't ride it.

About the water, it felt like it was being heated. I suppose it could have been cause of the recent heat, but it would take a lot longer than a few days of hot weather to heat that much water. Up until a week or so ago it was fairly cool for the summer.

To the best of my knowlege they do not heat the water.

Last time I was there there were several people playing Corn Hole.

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eightdotthree said:
- Our Kings Dominion passes were accepted just fine, it was interesting to see that Canada's Wonderland had the most checks. There were also a few people from Kings Island there.

- The park was busy. Waits at all the rides, and concesions. People had no problem forking over the cash for the sweets and drinks. Just goes to show you, show someone a good time, and they will pay just about anything for a Pepsi.

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Well GL is closer to Toronto the Cedar Point is believe it or not. Only about 4-5 hours vs. CP's 6-7hrs. Im sure the park had alot of Ontario plated cars lol.

For the park being busy.. thats REALLY good to hear.. I hope they keep it up.

It's been about a month since I've been to Geauga, and it was reasonably crowded there. Whenever I went earlier this summer, the villian was down due to Mechanical reasons, when asked, the Ride Ops, had no clue. But sounds like it was worth it.

Has it been as hot as Columbus this past week in cleveland? I was there Monday and tuesday, and it was alright, but It's still like 94 here in C-bus.

I love hearing that GL was busy. I don't love the park, but I like it a lot more now that CF runs it.

Villain doesn't bother me too much. When it first opened I absolutely loved it to the point it could have been in my top 10 (if I kept such a list). Nowadays it is fun but not near perfect like before.

A lot of people really despise Villain.

GL's water park makes me feel like I'm on vacation too. I agree that it could use a few more slides to feel complete, but that area is still somewhat new, and it could be just a matter of time.

It still didn't sound that packed to me. With Dominator being 15 minutes, and Villian a 3 train wait, that's not that crowded. Look at it's sister with Raptor being 2 hours, Maverick an hour and a half, and Top Thrill Dragster probably an hour and a half during the middle of the day. It's August, and it should be really, really packed.

I went to the Ohio State Fair, and they had Ohio stuff to do brochures. I found the Cedar Point and Castaway brochure, but yet no Gaugeau Lake brochure. At a rest stop in Ohio, again, it was the same thing. They are treating GL like a local park, and Cedar Point like a tourist trap, or something. You think they would advertise both so people could go to both parks in the same visit. I didn't see Kings Island either. Why buy them all if you only want one park to get the publicity?

We went by GL sunday afternoon and the ride side lot was about 1/3 full, which for this summer is fairly good.

I finally got on Villain last week for the first time this summer. This has always been a very rough coaster for me; I usually only ride it once or twice a season, just on principle.

Man was I impressed! I've read many posts here and on Pointbuzz that the rehab hasn't made much of a difference (excepting the trick track removal), but I gotta say, it was easily 50% gentler this time around. I even rode it three more times, an unthinkable idea in the past. In every part of the train -- front, middle, and back -- the ride was not nearly as hard as it used to be. The laterals seemed smoother, and there was much less of the back/seat slapping action that went on. All in all, thumbs up!

Now somebody please freaking fix Raging Wolf Bobs.

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I've read many posts here and on Pointbuzz that the rehab hasn't made much of a difference (excepting the trick track removal), but I gotta say, it was easily 50% gentler this time around.

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I thought so too. But I don't have a whole lot of experience with the ride, so I figured I didn't know what I was talking about. :)

Spinout, the park had a very healthy crowd. The water park was slammed, every chair when we got there was taken, we had to settle for a less than ideal spot. The funnel slide was an hour wait, and the four tube slide complex was around fifteen-twenty minutes long.

GL will never have CP's attendance and never has.

Let me also compare GL to SFWOA and the coaster waits we had.

- Big Dipper never had a two train operation in my experience with SFWOA. I had a season pass for two seasons, and went on a two day weekend trip the year before. They were filling each train with a two train wait for every seat.
- Villain rarely had a two train operation, even on the busiest of days as SFWOA and it had the same wait as I had last week, only they were running two trains and not stacking them.
- Dominator stacked every interval under SFWOA. I think they only stacked once while we were in line last week.

Ensign Smith and Gonch, I will agree that Villain wasn't as bad as in the past. But thats no standard to hold a coaster up to. It still beats its riders up pretty good, ala Mean Streak's shuffle boarding. Its just the way that the trains hop and shuffle that make it so bad for me.

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Spinout said:
It still didn't sound that packed to me.

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Definatly busier than the walk ons from the past couple of years. The trend of attendance seems to be headed in the right direction.

Just this past Saturday the park was packed to the brim. The north parking lot was back into the overflow section, and the waterpark lot was just peaking where it levels off at the top.

Liquid Lightning in WWK had a line that stretched all the way behind splash landing, and Tfalls tube slide line began at the end of the splash pool. The body slides started at about the scond flight of stairs from the bottom.

Over on the ride side Dominator was about 40 min wait with the line snaking through the queue down at the bottom which I haven't seen only on Cleveland Clinic Days since CF took over. Thawk was out to the video booth almost (albeit one train, but still) and even Head Spin had a line that made it a little past the bottom of the rampway.

Other rides followed suit. I was impressed to say the least. It felt great to have to actually weave my way through people to get around the park.

I have been going mostly bi-weekly and each week it gets more and more busy. July was quite busy, but this last Saturday, August 11, was icing on the cake. The people are livin' it up at GL again.

"- The water was too warm, maybe 2 or 3 degrees over heated. It was refreshing, but with the heat of the air it was just a bit too warm for my taste.

- They need another slide or two, perhaps a hot tub?"

I dunno why that made me chuckle, how could you suggest a hot tub right after saying the water was too warm for a hot summer day? I guess if they shoved in a hot tub they could appease those who want warmer water so they could cool the rest of it down to be more refreshing, lol :) . Sounds like a good time, glad to hear the park has been busy, I'd love to visit sometime if I ever get the chance.

The past three or four Saturdays have been very busy at Geauga Lake.

Riptide Run and Tidal Wave Bay does have heated water. Thunder Falls and Liquid Lightning do not.

I have ridden Villain more this year than I have the past two to three years as it's running better than it has been. There's still some parts that need work but I'm liking the ride again.

Call me crazy but I was happy to wait in the queues for Dominator. I haven't done that since the SF days.

And like lakecrystal mentioned, it's great to be able to weave in and out of the crowds at the park again.

Last year (my first time on Villain) I thought it broke my ribs. I thought it rode horribly. Not many coasters have inflicted sheer pain.

Any work done would have to be an improvement over what it was.

Now, if they could just get RWB up and running again, they would have three solid woodies. That would offset the loss of X-Flight and SV in my book.

Is RWB really a solid woody though?

About the hot ttub comment, it was funny side by side. But towards the evening it was getting too cold and breezy to swim, but we didn't want to leave just yet. A hot tub would have been a nice place to go and relax after walking all day. If the crowds continue, their going to have to add more capacity.