Indiana Beach, 8/24, STACK EM UP!!!!!
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What do you do when you buy a piece of land, realize the the lack of room, but still want alot of real estate assets? You certainly dont build big ranch houses side to side. You build upward, Condo style.
Thats exactly what my first impression of Indiana Beach was on our(my daughter and myself) first trip there. I couldnt believe how they magically stacked, intertwined, built over, under, etc such a large array of rides and attractions. What a work of art!!!!
I also cant believe that I have only lived 2 hours from this park all of my life and didnt visit it until now. I am still slapping myself silly. :)
We got to the park around 2:30 pm. Thinking that since this is Eastern Time Zone , I assumed it was 3:30 pm. Come to find out they are on the same time right now as Chicago. This left us with over an hour to wait for the second ride session. No big deal though. This gave us a chance to scope the park out and know where everything was at before riding.
3:50 pm hits and we get our wrist bands. First order of business was LOCOSUMO.
1. Lost Coaster: Hmmmmm, how do I describe this wonder of a woodie? Different is the first word that comes to mind. I was checking out the wooden track and how tightly twisted it is. No way in heck would a normal woodie train be able to navigate this course. It would definitely get torn apart. As far as the ride goes, it was pure intense fun. I rode both times facing backwards and I was just laughing and hollering throughout the whole ride. It throws you around but since the caged cars are padded , there wasnt a bruise to be found. Cool ride!! They were also running 3 trains so the line moved pretty good.
2. Cornball Express: First thing I thought of was Cyclops only with a helix added for good measure. Wow!!! What a coaster this is. Short and oh so sweet. The first swooping to the left drop reminded me exactly of Cyclops second drop. Pure out of your seat airtime heaven. While Cyclops still cant be beat for violent ejector air, this sure came close. From flying by the log ride, to swooping around the Tig'rr coaster, to the head chopper after the bunny hop over the water, to the intense, sustained lateral's helix, this is a gem in Monticello. Awesome!!!! :)
3. Hoosier Hurricane. While this may lack in strong airtime and lateral's, it definitely gets my vote for its placement. Great flyby over water, under the suspension bridge, great turnaround in the out portion of the coaster, to the small doses of airtime in the return bunny hops, this is a great out-and-back coaster.
4. Galaxi: Your typical carnival coaster with quck drops, tight turns and a little momentum in speed. Always a good time on one of these.
5. Tig'rr: Besides the 2 drops into the insane turns, this ride really didnt deliver. Certainly not one of Shwarzkopf's masterpieces. The 54" height requirement is a bit strict but I guess with the lack of restraints, I can sort of understand. My daughter had to sit this one out. :(
Now onto the other great collection of rides that is like taking 5 lbs. of potatoes and shoving them in a 1 lbs. bag.
The placement of some of these rides over the water makes a better experience. The paratrooper ride, the Scrambler, and the Yo-Yo being the 3 that protrude out over Lake Schafer. Pretty damn cool if you ask me. :)
The Den of Lost Thieves is a great addition to this park. How Disney-esque can you get. I love it. I havent been on one of these dark rides since I was a kid at Disney World. I love getting in the 2 seat cars and hitting the swinging doors where you enter your fate. :) We rode twice and on our second ride I scored 380 points. Is this considered good? I hope so, cuz I worked damn HARD to get those points.
Frankensteins Castle is one of the best and most creative haunted houses I have ever been in. That initial elevator go down was pretty creepy(in a cheesy way). Half way through the castle, my daughter actually got scared and started to cry. I had to carry her through the rest of the maze. With some tight spots to walk through, it wasnt easy but I MADE IT!!!! :) Well worth the $3.00 upcharge.
Double Shot was a big surprise to me. After being on rides like Giant Drop and Power Tower, I looked at this thing and almost laughed at it. Look how short this thing is. However my perspective of the ride would soon change. The initial launch up and then the "OH MY GOD THE SUSTAINED AIRTIME" moment of my ass leaving the seat made me yell out "YEAH BABY". We ended up riding it a total of 5 times because it was that good.
As far as food intake goes, we ate lunch on that restaurant boat that is docked next to the Queen Schafer. Simple foods like Nachos and Hotdogs were consumed.
The highlight of the food consumption was the taco stand next to The Lost Coaster. Great tacos at a reasonable(for amusement park food) prices. Actually all of the food at IB was reasonably priced.
Some of the last rides of the evening before the 11:00 pm hour hit were the Chaos(how cool is this ride), the huge Ferris Wheel, bumper cars, the Antique cars(over water rocks), the Falling Star, and a ride that brought back memories from my Hay Bayler riding days, the Flying Bobs.
The sorry ride of the day was their log flume ride. That is the crappiest flume ride I have been on. Slow, boring, and we didnt get wet at all, I mean "NOT AT ALL". The inside of the log we were in was bone dry. Pathetic!!!!
To end my TR, I will say that this is by far the best small scale park I have ever had the pleasure of visiting. Creativity in ride placement, lots of water, 3 great and 2 o.k. coasters, great collection of flats, a Disney-esque type dark ride, a cool haunted house, reasonably priced food, and a midway boardwalk. This is "The park on piers". I LOVE IT!!! :)
Thanks for reading,,,,,,,,,,,
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Ric Flair was hitting on the female host, he told her - "Space Mountain may be the oldest ride in the park, but it has the longest line." WOOOOO!
Chitown, great TR....to think I live over 1,000 miles away and we got there first....thanks to Scott and Carol for some creative arm-twisting....IB is a real gem, and we'll be back for LoCoSuMo and Tig'rr (closed our day) and a LOT more rides on that CRAZY Cornball......
The park reminds me of the Jersey seaside boardwalks, only lakeside...;)....BTW, my *theory* on the S&S towers is that the taller they get, the more momentum they lose on the way up, which kinda "cheats" you out of that precious airtime....I think you actually get some negative-g's on those....WA has one, also "creatively" named Double Shot...I assume that's the name S&S has for them....
Den of Lost Thieves, my favorite dark ride (actually, about even with MiB)....awesome....we waited longer for it than we ever did for CE....GLADLY....Jill generally racked up about 500, while I got about 350-400....just my luck to get paired up with Annie Oakley...;)
Thanks again!
Chitown stated:
The highlight of the food consumption was the taco stand next to The Lost Coaster. Great tacos at a reasonable(for amusement park food) prices.
Yet more proof that a) I was there on a bad day or b) I was somewhere else that claimed to be IB...I had heard of the tacos there from quite a few different people and TR's so I had to try them. The shells (which looked to be the hard-shell type) were soft and soggy. the meat was virtually non-existant and what meat was there was bland. I personally found Taco Hell to be better than the IB Taco stand...and that's not a good thing!
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Le roi est mort. Vive le roi.
Thanks Great America!
Chitown - Glad you finally made it, and had such a great time. I really love the Double Shot. While rides like Supream Scream, Drop Zone, etc. may seem like they have more to them, Double Shot's thrill factor beats them out. Those two "pops" are nothing but extreme.
gator - I think you may be on to something there with that momentum idea.
redman - a) I think you were there on a bad day. b) I agree with you 100% about those tacos. I think they're positively Ack-tackular, and must think that everyone who raves about them must have never had a real taco. Kinda like all those people who rave about Knott's chicken having never stepped foot in a place like Harold's or Howard's.
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"The perfect machine, you seemed to be, when I built you up in my mind..." - Reverend Jon Autry
Dont get me wrong, I didnt thing they were the "end all, be all" of tacos. I found them decent at best.
Living near Chicago, I have had my fair share of great Mexican food. For an amusement park, they were decent.
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""To be the man, WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!, You got to beat the man""!!!
Chitown,
you did call them great tacos in your first post, though...you had me wondering since we have so many really good and authentic taco places within a few minutes of our respective homes here in Elgin... ;)
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Le roi est mort. Vive le roi.
Thanks Great America!
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""To be the man, WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!, You got to beat the man""!!!
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Beer, my soon to be wife, coasters, and the FREEDOM OF SPEECH. Is this a great country or what!!
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stoogemanmoe
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Thank You for challenging TOS: The Ride. We hope you enjoy the rest of your day, here at Coasterbuzz.
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