Has anyone been to GL's Wild Water kingdom this year?

My Daughter and some of her friends were thinking of going there this coming weekend and she asked me to post this.

I haven't read anything so far and was curious as to how they're doing.

Thanks.

I was there on Monday of Memorial Day weekend. It would probably have been a pretty decent crowd if it wasn't for the weather. The employees said the crowds had been pretty good at that point. But, it was only the first weekend of operation. I didn't even have time to go look at the additions to the park. I might make another trip this weekend.

I was there on Friday with my daughter and her friend. Attendance was light to moderate on a perfect day in the low eighties. (More telling is that, upon entering the park and asking, two different employees told me it was fairly busy that day -- an ominous sign, if you ask me.)

Lines were fairly short, for the most part. The park actually looked very nice, including the new area with the life size chess board and cornhole toss. One of their suits was all over the place, closely observing all aspects of operations.

Screamscape says (yeah, I know, break out the salt) this is the make or break year at Wildwater Kingdom. We'll see.

Oh yeah. 20 ounce Pepsi products were selling in vending machines and food carts for $3.00.

I was there yesterday, which was predicted to be in the 80s with a "RealFeel" near 90, but ended up being mostly overcast and barely reaching 80. It was still a decent day for a water park, especially once the sun came out, but I imagine that would explain the extremely light attendance.

The park itself is pretty much exactly as it was the last time I visited in 2007 -- and that's not necessarily a dig. Everything seemed clean and brightly colored and working well.

Their new addition for this year, "The Beach," is kind of a joke, in my opinion. I thought it would be something akin to the sandy area at Soak City, but it's really more of a metaphor. "Themeing," if you will.

There's a bunch of dark sand dumped over the blacktop, scattered with Little Tikes toys. Then there's a small portion that's decorated with ropes, grasses, fake crustaceans, etc. No water, though. There are also no signs to lead you there, so unless you knew it was added this year and were looking for it, you'd mostly find it by chance or if you were already headed for Little Tikes Town.

The area where the ski stadium used to be is now a vast concrete paradise littered with approximately 1,000,000 chaise longues covered with partial awnings. The best part is that they're all turned to face the side of Liquid Lightning, so you're basically looking at a giant funnel the whole time. I'd think a nicer view might be the lake directly behind there... but then you'd have to stare at an abandoned amusement park across the way. :)

Oh speaking of which, I noticed that "The Beach" also had a cornhole game. I wonder if that was relocated from the defunct Geauga Lake. ;)

In any case, even without any fancy new additions, I still felt the water park had plenty to offer, and we had a lot of fun. Even with the short wait times for slides we still spent about three and a half hours there.

A friend of mine went a few days ago, and said it was a ghost town. He said that there was maybe 50 people in the park.

That's a bummer to hear. It's a pretty awesome water park overall. I really had a good time every visit, and I'm far from being a water park kind of guy.

Crazy, his experience definitely contrasts with what I saw. On a Friday with good weather, there were certainly 400 - 500 customers, at least, in the park. Not crowded, by any means. But not the lightest day I've ever seen at a park either.

What all is left standing across the lake on the old rides side?

Big Dipper, Raging Wolf Bobs (though it's in especially bad shape), the uprights for their ripcord ride, and many of the buildings, including the front gate. I'm not sure, and you can't see it from the WWK side, but I'm guessing the old waterpark may have areas that are intact but overgrown.

Ensign pretty much summed it up. I would guess the concrete troughs for the rapids ride are still there. I know the old wave pool is still there. But, it got filled in to help prevent stagnant water issues. The Sky Coaster is up on Ital's site. It originally sold for $85,000 at auction and now has an asking price of $105,000.

The most recent ride to come out was the Sky Scraper. It was sold 3 times. It originally went for $12,500 at auction presumably for scrap. But, then it ended up on eBay and sold for $50,000. It to ended up on Ital's site and I can only assume it sold for the asking price of $69,000. After that is was finally dismantled and removed from the site in July 2009. It wasn't torn down. So I assume that it will be either used for parts or rebuilt. Though if it is rebuilt, I'm sure it needed quite a bit of TLC. It hadn't operated in several years.

In regards to the Bobs. Apex who originally bought it (along with Big Dipper) resold it to Ray Edgehouse Jr who then donated a 16-foot long by 9-foot wide by 5-foot high section of track and an original coaster car to the Geauga County Historical Society's Century Village. The society said ARMS Trucking and Ronyak Paving Company, both of Burton, donated their time and equipment to bring the section of track and the coaster car to Century Village on East Park Street in downtown Burton. Before reselling the ride, APEX was selling pieces of track and bolts on eBay as souvenirs. To the best of my knowledge, what was left of the track and equipment was scrapped out after the section was donated. So, even though it looks like the ride is still there, There is basically nothing left that would be usable in a relocation scenario.

the turn around to the lift hill is gone on rwb.The sky scraper was taken for scrap. it was torched apart and it was destroyed.most of the buildings there have no doors or windows anymore. The Big Dipper is still standing, untouched since auction date. The track is still in good shape. The trains are still all together for dipper as well. The carousel building is now boarded up, however some people have seen the horses transported out of there. It would be a shame for the corousel to go out of state.

I wouldn't want RWB to be relocated anywho. I did want Villian to come to Carowinds, though.

The Sky Scraper was bought in July of 2009. Scrap value was practicly nothing then and is still pretty low now. There couldn't have been that much scrap to justify a $65,000 price tag.

I havent been to WWK since GL closed....
I will say my kids and I used to love going to GL during the day, eating lunch at the picnic shelter under Villain then heading to WWK for remainer of day.

I dont think Id have the heart to go to WWK now...although I am with Jeff it was a super fun, nice and clean waterpark. The lazy river and Liquid Lightning was way fun!!!

My guess would be if it fails to profit this season I wouldnt be surprised if the stuff ends up at Soak City for next season.

Jo
Lifetime Raptor flights: 2010 :)

Tekwardo said:
I wouldn't want RWB to be relocated anywho. I did want Villian to come to Carowinds, though.

RWB was running AMAZING with a Villain train right before park closed. It was a kick butt woodie!!!
Villain SUCKED horribly!! No matter what they did to that ride it sucked! No surprise it sold for scrap and that was it!

Jo
Lifetime Raptor flights: 2010 :)

I do agree that RWB was running amazingly well in its last season or two, prior to the derailing that prematurely ended the ride's life span in June 2007. But Villain, too, was SOOO much better than its former, dental work-jarring self with whatever retracking magic the park performed upon it for that last summer.

Villain was brutal.

I think it had a lot to do with the type of trains it had on it.

I rode RWB in 2004 for the first and last time. Work had been done to it then, not sure if it was running G Trains or not, can't remember. You could tell where work had been done, but it just wasn't that great.

Rode Villian in 2004 and 2007 and I loved it in 2004, but it was running incredible it's last season when I rode. RWB had just had it's accident before I went, so didn't ride then. Dipper was also a great ride, wish it could find a home.

When Villain opened, it was compared favorably to Ghostrider. I'm sure the trains were a factor, but also the complete neglect by Six Flags was horrible.

I also rode Villain when it opened in 2000 and it was bad ass! I think it was my favorite wooden coaster that year. Apparently it went downhill ever since. Shame, since it was so similar to Ghostrider......with trick track.