Indiana Beach (June 20, 2005)

We arrived at Indiana Beach a little before 12 noon… about an hour after we had wanted to. Oh well, we would lose about an hour of the first ride session of the day. At least we thought it was 12 noon since Monticello is in the Eastern Time Zone (same as Pennsylvania, so that is what my watch was set for). However, after we paid our $2 cover charge and started walking toward the board walk area, we noticed that none of the rides were yet running… and that there was no water even running in the flume. Something was odd. Then it hit me… there are a few parts of the US that do not observe Day Light Savings Time… and this area of Indiana was one of those parts… so, while it was in fact in the Eastern Time Zone, it was actually an hour behind my watch which was set for Daylight Savings Time, not Eastern STANDARD Time. (I hear this may change in 2006). Anyway… even though we were an hour late, we were right on time.

Even though Michele was not planning on riding much, we saw the price of individual tickets, did the math, and decided that two ride passes would be the way to go.

First up for me was Hoosier Hurricane. A walk on… but still had to wait. I quickly discovered IB’s coaster policy of holding trains for a set amount of time, even when some seats are filled but there is no one else waiting in the station. Good points: Saves wear and tear on the coasters and it is great for people who are getting there a little bit after the first seats are filled. Bat points: Those seated and restrained have to wait, and you technically can’t chose your own seat. Get there first you can… get there later, ops make you fill in empty seats. Oh well. I wasn’t busy, so only once was I forced to chose a seat that I really didn’t want. Anyway… a fun fast coaster with great drops and some wicked changes of direction. Love the fact that this thing uses buz bars instead of individual lap bars. Five rides in a row on this.

Next up we headed toward Corn Ball Express, but I took a slight detour and decided to take a credit ride on Tig’rr coaster. Another walk on, and I chose the front seat of the car. No belts, no bars, no restraints of any kind (except for gravity). In today’s litigation happy world, I was surprised to see a coaster still being run like this (they way the cars were originally designed). I decided to catch another ride, but this time I tried the back seat. WOW! What a difference. It seemed so much faster and intense back there. Michele was standing in front of the entrance ramp… she held up the camera and motioned for me to take another ride. I climbed into the back of the car again and off I went. When I finally rejoined her, I said that I saw her with the camera just as I hit the main drop, but I apologized for not waving. With no belts and with the air on that hill, I decided I would rather hold on than wave for the camera and go airborne.

For what ever reason we decided then to hop the little train. This was the type of train in the old west that the robbers with out horses used to hold up since they had to run on foot to catch up with it. It was so bloody slow! But it served its purpose by depositing us at the far end of the board walk. Since we were there, we hopped a ride on the Ferris wheel. We then took a break for lunch. (Does everyone in Indiana put so many onions on their Polish and Italian Sausages?)

Since we were walking past it, I decided to hit Lost Coaster of Superstition Mountain. However, it was closed. Seeing the crew and maintenance washing down the spot where someone lost their lunch, I can see that was a wise move.

After a short spin on the Antique Cars, I checked on Superstition Mountain again. It was now open. Somehow I managed to wedge myself into those cars. This is quite a unique ride. Not a tame ride… those “bone rattling” (or something like) warnings are there for good reasons…. But it is a wild and fun ride! Now I know how Indi and Short Round felt on those mine cars!

Continuing up the boardwalk, Galaxi was next. A standard coaster of this type, except for the fact that it ran FAST through its entire course. A quick pit stop at the Blue Bunny ice cream stand for milkshakes and we were on our way again.

We were not back to Cornball Express. Front seat ride. It was an okay coaster… but not much more than okay. Back seat ride. WOW! Great coaster! Great air. On my second back seat ride I made sure my belt was EXTREMELY tight… especially feeling the way that drop just after the helix tries to throw you out of the train. Five rides total… all but the first in the back seat. Very impressive “little coaster”.

The surprise of the visit (entire vacation?) was yet to come. Den of Lost Thieves. We rode this ride’s cousin of the same name in Wild Wood NJ… and its 3rd cousin twice removed at Lake Compounce (Ghose Hunt). After these two, I wasn’t really expecting much from this ride. Was I wrong. Even as a stand alone dark ride this isn’t bad. Add the interactive target practice and it is a very fun ride. We rode it twice… each time I out shot Michele.

Even though I told her it was rough, even though there were the signs, Michele said she wanted to give Superstition Mountain a try. We did. She said it was fun, but she kind of lived to regret it. She was kind of “fuzzy in the head” for the rest of the visit after that.

Knowing we had a few hours of driving ahead of us, and having ridden all we wanted to at IB, we decided to call it a day. Since our walk from Superstition Mountain took us back toward the Cornball Express and Hoosier Hurricane, I decided to get a sixth and final ride on each of these… but not before one last round of target practice in Den of Lost Thieves. I even managed to squeeze in a final lap on Tig’rr Coaster.

One note... decided to skip "Air Crow" after seeing the "No Snapping Allowed" Sign.

The last ride of the day however came on the little log flume just before we left the park and headed toward our car. It was not extremely hot that day, but we were exhausted. We chalked it up to the fact that since everything is built practically on top of everything else, you spend more time walking up stairs than you do actually waiting for or riding on the rides.

Indiana Beach has a nice little “home town” feel to it… a more “traditional” feel than the big corporate parks. Kind of a "Knoebels West". Its clean, the employees are efficient and friendly at best… efficient if not very talkative at worst. While the price for individual tickets seems a bit steep… the price for a ride all day wrist band is very reasonable, considering the number of rides you can get. Only one down side: Holding coasters for fuller loads when some riders are already seated and ready to go. On the whole though, a very nice little park… one that I certainly would not mind visiting again.

*** Edited 6/28/2005 6:02:45 PM UTC by SLFAKE***

Thanks for the report. It sounds like you had a fine time. I like a lot of onion but I don’t care for sausage.

I don’t know if you like the flat rides too much but IB has some nice running flats. The water adds to the excitement of some of these rides. Did you ride any of them?

I have ridden Tig’rr with my hands behind my head the entire time. There is really no chance of falling out of the ride as long as you stay seated.. They actually use to let kids 36” ride it, now you have to be 54” tall to ride. Glad to hear you had a good time Sflake.

We were doing the "whirlwind tour"... we wanted to be in Cincinnatti OH by around 11pm that night. Had we had ALL day to spend at IB... then we would probably had hit more of the flats. As it was, we got in as much as we could before we decided it was best to get back on the road.

IB flats seem to run full tilt with loooong ride cycles - best Tilt-a-Whirl and Falling Star I've ridden.

Cornball front row can be amazing. While both IB woodies give excellent rides, they are simply spectacular on hot, humid nights.

I absolutely get that you liked the park but you need to spend the entire day to truly appreciate all of it's charms. Not enough to do you say? Frankie's Castle, a few old school Skeeball games, some Fascination, a relaxing dinner in the Sky Room, an hour or two in the water park, take in the water show, tacos (!)...next time spend the day. You won't regret it.

And don't dismiss the snapless Flyers. Hanging out over the water adds a little something different you're not going to find anywhere else. The same goes for the swings and Paratrooper.

Love me some IB!

Just wondering, on a typical summer day at IB are there long waits for the rides? Thanks.

---

Raging_Bull said:
Just wondering, on a typical summer day at IB are there long waits for the rides? Thanks.

---

Nope. Longest waits are usually for the Den and LoCoSuMo.

---

IB*Dave said:

---

Raging_Bull said:
Just wondering, on a typical summer day at IB are there long waits for the rides? Thanks.

---

Nope. Longest waits are usually for the Den and LoCoSuMo.

---

Cool, that's good news. I live in Chicago, and I think I may take a day trip on my own down to Indiana Beach sometime in July. Thanks.

Has anyone manged to snap the flyers at IB? I still haven't really figured out snapping, but there seemed to be much more resistance on Air Crow than on any of the other flyers I've tried.

---

IBsteve said:

Not enough to do you say? Frankie's Castle, a few old school Skeeball games, some Fascination, a relaxing dinner in the Sky Room, an hour or two in the water park, take in the water show, tacos (!)...next time spend the day. You won't regret it.

---

Geeze... okay.... calm down

1) I never said "not enough to do"... I just said that we knew we had a few hours of driving ahead of us... that's why we left when we did.

2) I gave the park a good review... I said I liked it. I would hate to see your reaction if I said something bad about it.

I did the same thing many times. Sometimes you just don't have enough time to leisurely stroll around absorbing everything the park has to offer. Naturally you want to get your fill of all the coasters first. Kennywood last year, I had 11am to 2pm to spend at Kennywood in order to make it to Conneaut Lake by 5pm. I missed a ton of things but managed to get in about 12 rides on their 5 coasters. I'll be going back possibly next year.

Exactly...

When we go to parks our priorities are...

1) Coasters

2) Dark Rides

3) Log Flumes

4) Ferris Wheels

5) Antique Cars

6) Other unique flats

7) Other flats (that you can see at any park)

With our day divided between park time and travel time, we decided to concentrate on the items higher up on our list than the flats.