La Ronde and Great Escape

ok well my vacation started wiht an 8 hour drive to Canada, and then once we were in montreal we checked into our hotel. I had a very nice view of La Ronde, Little did i know that this view would haunt me for 3 days to come. My mother and stepdad did not take me until 3 days after we got to Montreal. Went Jet Boating though, that was fun. OK, on to La Ronde.

For this report i will be using the 1-10 scale ! being the lowest, 10 being the highest.

Took the metro over to the park, then hopped on the bus that led from the metro station to the park. I arrived at about 10, bought my parents tickets, and the gates opened at 10:30.

Headed over towards Batman:t--errr...I mean Le Vampire....

Got on the second ride of the day, Row 4.

Le Vampire (B&M Inverted coaster, Mirror image Batman:the Ride Clone)
I gave this one a 6. It has a very nice color Scheme. The Que is Batman-ish so once this is a Branded Six Flags Park i can definetly see a name change. The ride was filled with sand to dampen the sound, It sounds really funny.
Next Up we hit my first ever stand up coaster, Le Cobra.

Le Cobra (Intamin Stand-Up Coaster, single loop)
Let me tell you this, everyhting about this ride (save the trains) screams B&M worked on it, which they did (they used to work for intamin/G-tec. The trains were a little funny, You have to slide into a half harness, move the little seat a little bit (up and down) and pull down the other half harness. I give this ride an 8, It was a walk on all day long which gave me a ton of rides, its not too intense but i have a new love for stand up coasters.

Then i went and hit the One-of-a-kind ride: Le Boomerang(Vekoma Boomerang Model)
a give it a 4, simply cause i kinda like boomerangs.
Then we hit the Super Manege. A vekoma Corkscrew Model. 2 inversions.
This had some pretty nice airtime and the corkscrews were smooth.

Next up was Le Monster. (William Cobb, Racing Woodies, Currently Holds the title for the Tallest arcing coasters in the world at 130 feet)

This ride was a walk on on both sides, so i got on both sides, Like great adventure they can run both sides, and unlike great adventure, they run them at the same time, yet they dont race them. Anyway i give this ride a 5, i got barely any airtime and there were laterals where there shouldnt have been, this ride is on the same level as rolling thunder. NO airtime at all! and i sat all over the train, front back middle, NOTIN! But the ride itself looks nice.

OK now it was time for me to tackle one of my biggest fears, Space shots.

Orbite (S&S space shot)
waited 2 cycles for this, and i loved it, i rode it 22 times on my trip to the park. i give it a 10. Its placement makes it even better, on one side, you can see the lake and ferris wheel, side 2 can see le monstre and the lake, side 3 can see the parking lot, and side 4 can see Vampire and Cobra.

Aftrer that i got a couple of rerides on everything, then went beck to my hotel and slept.

Pluses: the lines were short and they had a good selection of rides
Minuses: It was 102 degrees outside, need i say more?

Next Part coming right up, The Great Escape.

OK now after my stay in Montreal we headed down to Lake George to finish off the week. (3 hour drive, alot less Traffic then when we came up) I hit great escape on the Fourth of July at ppening i had unitl 1 oclock, when we would start heading home. (4 hour drive)
My aprents dropped me off and i got in with my season pass. I was just wondering until i ran into Alpine Bobsleds, And i litterally ran into it, This was my dad of runing into things but ill tlak aboutt hat later.

Alpine Bobsleds
Now this ride used to sit in the spot that The Scream Machine now sits in. And it was a wise move to get ride of it for that. The sign is a big rock wall with a litle opening where the que begins, me i wlaked right into that wall. and didn't even realize it was the coaster unitl i heard it roaring. Yes this thing you can hear from across the park. I got the first run of the day, I liked it a little but they brake it way too much. I give it a 7. Next i went over to Comet.

The Comet(PTC coaster, relocated from Crystal Beach where it once was the ledgendary Cyclone.
This uses Steel Supports with wood tracks, I sat all over the train and got good airtime all over the palce. Not as good as the Hersey Park comet but still good.
Next i went over to the Steamon Demon.

Steamin Demon(Arrow Corkscrew Model)
I never thought i would say this but i hate this coaster. I never thoguht it was possible to get headbanging inside a vertical loop, but i did, i liked it a little bit but i hated it, even in the corkscrews, i didnt get headbanging i got whole body banging. a fun little ride but it hurt.

I spent the rest of the day hitting all the flast arund the aork and then went home.

Pluses: no lines, multiple rerides. Extesnsive theming (beautil park.
Minuses: not enough rides too many dead end paths

Over all i say i had a good trip. One question for all, why did Steamin Demon, And most rides at La Ronde have to use manual Harness release every time, why do they not have a regular thing? Anyone know?

I'm happy you got lots of fun at La Ronde and on Monster and its lack of airtime: Its was running awfully slow that day, due to the consecutive days of very hot temperature. As you see, the ride time (from the bottom of first drop to the end brakes) can vary from as much as 58 seconds to 70 seconds (if its run under 58 seconds, they close the ride until its goes back over 58. If its over 70, they grease the ride likes there's no tomorrow!). Wednesday and thursday, its was running like very near 70, which means its sluggish around its course. If you get a ride (between 58-60), you get 3 spots of ejector airtime on track 1 and on track 2, one plus the third drop have you out your seat the whole drop.

i can kinda see what your saying. the ride runs slower on hotter days. I can understand that. I had heard so much about it being good, what surprised me was that the first drop is really small compared ot the height of the coaster.

The Monster is one of the few coasters out there that's first drop is not the biggest on the ride. Some days it works. Some days it doesn't.

I'd have to agree with Absimilliard. It has it's very good days and very bad. I've not had too many good rides on it this year myself.

Glad to hear you enjoyed GE. I went for the first time last week and I had a great time. I could have sat by the wave pool all day.

Nice TR! I'm going to Great Escape in September and when I was very young I went to LaRonde but I didn't ride any coasters because I was too young.

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-Sean Newman
84 coasters in Track Record!! Hypersonic XLC # 100 in July. Waiting for the 305 foot drop tower in 2003. Thank you PKD.

From your description of Great Escape, it looks like the park is not worth going to, yet has plenty of potential. There are no standout coasters, yet if SF works on the park, it can one day house a "must do" coaster.

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Formally Known as Ozzyhead.

Yea Great Escape is worth about an hour long visit if its not to busy. But they have a ton of room and an excellent free waterpark, Extensive themeing helped out alot, Like from storybookland to Ghosttown was this long windy tunnel that slowly changed from one to another. It has good rides and i can see why Six Flags purchased this park It has amazing potential and i see it getting ALOT better over the coming years, considering six flags is investing so much into the park (50 million i hear) so see it become a top player soon.

Ozzy, The Great Escape is worth going to if only for the Comet. Stop for the hour or so if that's the only ride you hit.

Is "Le Dragon" not there at La Ronde anymore? It was the enclosed type of ride, by Intamin. I have not been there in a long time but I remember it was there. RCDB says it is there, did you not go on it?

The Dragon is still there. I've ridden it once and it was defintily not worth the wait.

It's in a very out of the way part of the park, so for Dragon82487 to have missed it doesn't surprise me.

yea it is still there but A. im not a big fan of dark rides and B. it was so far out of the way (around the entire lake) and there was not connecting path so you had to walk all the way around. it is a circle main path wiht part of the circle missing. If you notice i didnt go on nightmare at crackaxle canyon in the Great Escape part, I absoloutly hate dark rides.