Geauga Lake...9-4-04

I'll be to the point since my enter button doesn't work on CB's mess. board. Rain almost ruined the mid-afternoon, but after 2 hours, and much talk of rides closing the remainder of the day, the rain stopped and the rides opened quickly. We rode everything they had roller coaster-wise, (except Thunderhawk...it still eludes me! Me and my wife were in the front seats when they got the call to shut it down because of the storm coming). I finally did get to ride Double Loop & Beaver Land Mine Ride, (Hey! I have a four year old. And it is quite a wild ride for a kiddie coaster). On the sad side, the former "Wildlife Side" is soooo depressing, I hope CF does some incredible stuff over there. I do have to say, with all the rudeness & uncleanliness I endured there over the SFWoA years, I did miss the Dolphins, Whales, and Tigers, (Oh, my!). There's so much more to say, but I digress. I'll give GL 4 out of 5 stars for what I experienced. And lastly, the GL Motel was awesome! All around awesome!

Would the experience of been a 5 star if it had not rained and if it was not for the Wildlife Side?

Working that day, I was surprised at how many guests stayed despite the downpour! I am glad you had fun!

Now if only our weather modifying machine wasn't down for mechanical reasons...

Anyway, thanks for visiting. I love reading about guest's experiences, as I always want to know how I can improve as a ride operator, and what people like and dislike about the park!

-Sam

The rain wasn't really a factor that would have affected the score. The "Wildlife Side" just killed it for me. They should just put up the wall around the area from the bathrooms. Ya know, just keep the rides open over there.

While I'm thinking about it, I like how they moved the floating walkway across the lake, but are they ever going to reopen the path behind Raging Wolfbob's?

Now that I have an enter button that works, (I'm on my sister-in-laws computer), let me talk about the coasters.

X-Flight - Running as good as ever! Though I usually never have any good things to say about Vekoma's, but this is one of their better creations, IMO.

Steel Venom - Thankfully someone finally installed a larger seat, so my wife, after three attempts got to ride her first impulse. Good ride!

Head Spin - I'm used to Face/Off when it comes to boomerangs, it just kinda snaps you through the boomerang, but HS, you just make your way slowly through the boomerang.

Big Dipper - Still one of my favorite classic woodies!

Double Loop - This ride was a first for me. Every time I'd been there in the past, it was never open. But it was worth the wait, for it's age, it was really smooth and fast feeling. As we were going through the pit on the second loop a chipmunk ran across the wall and totally freaked my wife out...it was great!

Villain - I loved the speed on this coaster when I first rode this baby a few years ago, it's still fast, but seemed a lot rougher than I remember.

Beaver Land Mine Ride - I was forced by my four year old to ride this kiddie 3 times. And I loved every single ride. With the extra long trains it's a totally different kind of ride. On a full train you actually feel the rear of the train force you along the course in the front seat. It made for a really unique ride.

Dominator - All the did was change the name, it's still the same awesome floorless, except that I was getting pelted by sprinkling rain at 65mph, but, it's all good.

Raging Wolf Bob's - This is a very compact woodie that is really a lot of fun. Thank God I wasriding alone, or my partner would have been crushed. It's seems to be really underated to me.

And as I said before, Thunderhawk still eludes me, but I will conquer it yet! Later.

As we approached the GL exit heading home from a week in PA, we almost pulled off the turnpike for a few hours on this same Saturday. Ultimately decided against it, mostly due to exhaustion and 6 more hours to drive but the weather was a factor as well.

Because we had such a great time at WoA last year on our first and only visit to the park, I'm anxious to return to see how things have changed. I loved the Wildlife side of the park - we spent about a full day there - so I'm sure it won't be the same.

If the GL hotel is the former Six Flags Inn, then there must have been some improvements because our experience was, well, not so good. I continue to recommend the Bertram Inn just down the road instead.

Maybe next year. I need my Batman, er, Dominator fix!

You are not the first person I've talked to who said they had bad experiences at the motel, so CF must be doing stuff more their way. I don't know how it was before, this was my first stay there, but it won't be my last. As far as the former wildlife side of the park, I don't know what they may have planned for it, but maybe some of the locals do, like Avalanche Sam up above. My guess would be rides and shows. They've already got 3-4 shelters left behind from the Sea World days, plus a ton of land to build more rides on in the future. Two things I do remember being said in the past were: 1) The animals had to go! CF doesn't do animals, they never have, and they must've felt it was better left to Six Flags. 2) They had plans to build a new coaster when they were still SFWoA, but ran into all kinds of roadblocks with the city of Aurora. They said, if I remember right, that there were new, as well as, existing communities around the park that would have a problem with the asthetic looks of another coaster, and more noise pollution. If all that is true, I hope Aurora realizes that that parks future, is their future. Because outside of antique shopping there is no other reason to go to that town! It would kind of be like shooting yourself in the foot now...wouldn't it? *** Edited 9/12/2004 4:48:46 AM UTC by Chadley***

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Chadley said:

Steel Venom - Thankfully someone finally installed a larger seat, so my wife, after three attempts got to ride her first impulse. Good ride!

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And where is that on the train?

I believe it's the third or forth row from the back.

just thought i would ask, on your trip was Mr. Hyde's Nasty Fall open, or if anyone knows, i am going this weekend. thnaks

To answer your question, I was up there this past friday and saturday and it wasn't open. I doubt that it'll open up at all this year.