Great Escape 8/7/02

After leaving SFNE we made the hour detour towards Great Escape. We pulled into a lot and parked for nothing, so this would be a free ride today :) . The park was very crowded and I was also expecting this to be a small park. It was actually kind of big as we walked forever to find our first coaster.

Comet (Schmeck/PTC) -It was kind of hard to believe this coaster was once the Crystal beach Cyclone them redone to make the Crystal Beach Comet, then moved out here. This double out and back starts out slow then just gets better. Over the first hill I did not get much of anything but that was soon to change.

Through the rest of the course there are some awesome pops of air just as the train is making a slight directional change. So we were forced up and to the side out of our seats. There was some good air on almost every apex. The train booked around each of the turns, which provided some nice laterals. I really liked the last turn and the drive back into the station. Although it is not a #1 as it claims on the front of the car think it is still a great ride (A)

Steamin Demon (arrow corkscrew with loop). The one thing this ride has working for it is it’s location on the site of a hill and it’s paint job. That's about it. Not terribly rough but still got banged around a little. (C+)

We forgoed the Bobsled because the line looked way to long, Nightmare at craxel canyon was not open and we were sick of boomerangs.

Capacity - Comet ran 2 trains OK, but the rest was awful. There were tons of empty seats and rows I saw go out on the bobsled. Being low capacity as it is they need to make an effort to fill them all. Stemin Demon had horrible intervals because they would wait for the station to clear then assign seats to get in. (C)

Theming/Atmosphere Had some nice little areas although I would not call the theming stellar, like at a park such as BGW. Seemed very clean (B)

Operation- There were several line jumpers, but not anything too bad (B)

Overall- this is a park geared heavily towards families with large kid areas and the Water Park, therefor my thought of it really can‘t count. Comet is a great ride but probably the only thing worthwhile there for us, but since it was free I can’t complain.

*** This post was edited by Joe E. on 8/12/2002. ***

Joe!!! If I knew you were at Great Escape, I could have come up and caught a few Comet rides with you as I live about 45 minutes from there. Heck, you could have stayed at my house! I think I agree with everything you said about this park, especially the capacity part. They load the Boomerang the same way as the Steamin' Demon which makes for terrible intervals over there too. And Nightmare has horrible capacity nomatter how it is run.

-----------------
-Matt
2001 Magnum Crew

Too bad Nightmare isn't open. I am going there next month.

-----------------
-Sean

Matt, Actually Great Escape was on a whim because we did not want to stay at SFNE standing in lines that don't move (so we went to another park with lines that don't move ;)). I just knew it was in Lake George and found the city on the atlas so we went. Thank goodness for Steamin Demon sticking out from the highway.

I was there on the 7th too.

Joe, how was the rainbow looking? Great Escape is my homepark, but I havent been there in awhile now. Ive been spending an extra half hour in the car to get to SFNE instead. Great Escape just doesnt do it for me anymore. We havent recieved any new rides in a few years now, and like you said the comet is really the only ride that generates some type of true thrill.

-----------------
John
Albany Entertainment:
http://home.nycap.rr.com/albanyent

I actually didn't see the rainbow running..

I was suprised how big the park was. I think it was as big if not bigger than SFDL or the old SFO, although there was a lot of nothing in between rides it seemed.

The park looks nice enough. However since the closest competition is SFNE and it looks like they still do good business, I don't see them getting new thrill rides that often . :(

-----------------
Don't, Don't Don't believe, Don't believe the hype.

*** This post was edited by Joe E. on 8/12/2002. ***

Rainbow is the same as it was last year. They're taking it down soon to make room for the new entrance gate. All the info about the current status of the GE is in an earlier topic titled, "Nightmare @ Great Escape-closed for season?" I made a huge long spew about what's going on with the GE in the next couple of years.

Hey! I live 20mins from the GE. If anyone ever goes and needs a tour guide or something, write!