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I woke up at 9:00AM this morning and realized that I had the day off work. Contemplating how I should spend my free time, I decided to visit Idlewild Park. I was very excited because I had never been there, even though it was only 60 miles frome my home.
I arrived at Idlewild around 10:30. I was supprised to descover that you pay your admission from your car before you park. I had a coupon from a brochure I picked up somewhere for 5$ off which made it only 15$. I parked and began to explore.
My first ride was Rollo Coaster, a wooden junior coaster.My wait was about 10 minuts as they were only running one train. It had a small lift hill and an out and back layout. It was supprisingly exciting and unique. It was slower than I am used to but it was still very fun. It would be a good starter coaster for the little ones.
Next I strolled over to the Trinado, a threatining looking flat ride, and the largest spin-n-puke in the park. It reminded me of the Condor at Hersheypark except that it didn't have a tower. Instead, it rises on a tilting arm much like Paratrooper or enterprise
Afterwards I just had to take on the Wild Mouse. This coaster had a much larger track gauge than I have seen on previously ridden mice . Its twisted layout was complemented by towering trees weaving over and throughout the ride. My wait time was about 15-20 minuts and was well worth it. Several of the drops were enhanced by treelimbs providing a seemingly perilous obstacle to manuver.
After rideing some of the less-obscure flats I found a stange attraction called Dizzy Lizzy's Four Quarters Hotel. After a brief magic preformance you are lead to a room with two benches faceing each other. Then the benches, or is it the room, swings back and forth until you are completely up-side-down, or are you. I returned to this attraction a few more times throughout the day. I think SFGAdv has an attraction like this called Houdini (but I never rode it because it was closed when I was there).
Those were the most memorable parts of my visit. I also spent a lot of time at Soak Zone. They had a small-but complete-collection of enjoyable waterslides and a large swimming pool. I was there durring the hottest and most crowded part of the day but the lines were seemingly quick
I only saw one show. The Russian Acrobats show was definitely a highlite of my day. I caught the last show at 5PM. There were only about 40 other audiance members but the acrobats preformed like there was a full house. I never knew that someone could jumprope while two other men stood on his sholders.
In conclusion, Idlewild is a very beautiful park situated within a lush mountian forest. They have the same potato patch as sister park Kennywood. The prices were very reasonable. I realized that it was more suited for families, kids, and young teens and the next time I go, with more planning, my nephew will be accompaning me.
Oh yea,,,and count two more for my coaster count.
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Tomorrow's a mystery, yesterday is history, and today is a gift and that's why it is called the present.
The Houdini ride at GAdv is the same (well a bit more elaborate).
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Hello, My name is Dan and I'm a coasterholic.
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X-Flight World's Only flying coaster!
Batwing World's only flying coaster!
S:UF World's only flying coaster! Don't you love SF ?
It's awesome to see good reports about the smaller amusement parks as well. I love hearing about those!
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X Looks Awesome! Oh Yea!!
Questions:
smles@ilstu.edu
Did you hit Confusion Hill while you were there? Any trip to Idlewild without seeing Confusion Hill is just a little, um . . . off center. ;)
Coasterpunk, Do you mean Confusion Hill? Is so, yes I did (and that answers Phantom Catchers question). It was cool. There were a few too many people in my tour group and it was stinkin' hot, but it was a nice attraction worth seeing the two times I did. A funny thing happened the second time I went through; the kid who sat on the chair on the shelf came very close to falling off of the shelf when he lifted his head off of the wall and the chair was quickly caught by the tour guied (did that make any sence to those of you who have been there before?).
I also noticed the leaning lift hill on Wild Mouse and found it so unusuial that I asked a ride opp about it. She said that at it previous location at another park, it had a rotating tunnel that was not replaced when Idlewild bought the ride. I found that interesting.
SaxPlayer, I have been makeing an effort to visit some of the smaller amusement parks recently. I am getting a little older and while I love the big parks with all of thier big rides, I find the smaller parks to be much more relaxing and quaint.
Thanks for the complement, Todd.
Wild Mouse was previously at Alton Towers at Alton Mouse according to RCDB.com in case you were wondering, one of the pics shows that tilt, strange! Rollo Coasters trains look pretty cool, there is a picture of them and the riders look like their having a fun time, also looks like there are plenty of trees to flyby.
I also have an interest in the smaller parks, they just seem to take more pride in their coaster even if it isn't much to be proud of, it makes you feel all warm and fuzzy inside (at least for me it does)
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Tuesday's Gone With The Wind.
Elijah Rock.
Is it written in the stars?
La Vie Boheme!!!
I'm just a little surprised at the wait times that you mentioned. I was thinking walk ons or a few minutes at least... but 10 to 20 minutes surprises me.
Yep the wait was somewhere around 20 minuts for Wild Mouse all day. I did noticed that there were other Ride Vehicles that were not being used so maybe that had something to do with it.
Sometimes I found walk ons for the flat rides. They were also somewhat crowded all day but that didn't mean long lines for some reason.
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Tomorrow's a mystery, yesterday is history, and today is a gift and that's why it is called the present.
What the ride op. said to you about the Wild Mouse's lift hill is interesting. I never heard of the lift hill being enclosed by a rotating tunnel, but I can check if anyone else has heard of that. I have always wondered why the steel structure beneath the track on the lift hill was in a semi circular shape.
As for the wait times being 20 minutes, the Mouse always has lines. Part of the problem is that it is not a high capacity ride. The other problem is that there is a limit on how many cars can be out on the course at a time, which probably explains why there were some sitting on the side track. On top of all of that, the ride ops. know which cars run faster or slower than others. You may have noticed them making certain people wait for specific cars, especially larger people. If a car runs too fast, it will trip the safety system and the ride will shut down with all the cars stuck on the trim brakes.
So there is everything you wanted to know about the Mouse . . .
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