Lagoon - July 13, 2009
Associated parks:
Lagoon, Farmington, Utah, USA
Travelling for work I had the chance to spend a day at Lagoon which is just outside of Salt Lake City. The bad news is that I fully showed my coaster addiction to my co-workers as I purposefully took the 6:30 am flight out of Canton-Akron just so I could spend 7 hours at the park before everyone else got to Salt Lake. The good news - 7 more coasters conquered!
Other than a few old news articles I found on CBuzz I really did not know much about the park. Hopefully this trip report will help out other folks who might be headed to the only amusement park in Utah.
The gates opened at 11:00, which I thought seemed pretty late, and I was in the park at 11:01 thanks to minimal people being there. My biggest fear when I hit a new park is what will the crowd be, especially in the middle of summer vacation season. I am not sure if the small crowd I found is normal for this park but regardless, my prayers were answered.
Sitting at 149 coasters when I walked in I made my way over to Colossus: The Fire Dragon. What better way to celebrate 150 by hitting a Schwarzkopf looper. I walked up to an empty station to see signs saying absolutely no single riders in the front or back rows. What is up with that? And to make it even worse they would not give me a solo ride. They said I had to wait until more people showed up. Luckily after a few minutes a small group showed up and I was off. The Dragon did not seem as intense as Laser at Dorney but I still love Anton’s loops. I love the feeling in my stomach that these loops always give me.
I then walked over to Wicked to be greeted by a 15-20 minute line. Lucky for me they have a single rider line which allowed me to walk right on. For some reason I thought this was an S&S air launched coater so I was a little surprised to go around the bend out of the station to be greeted by the LSMs. Up we went where a second set of LSMs threw the car over the hill. For some reason I really liked going straight up. The rest of the ride is pretty tame but the hill kept me coming back. I did find it pretty cool that the single rider was repeatedly given the best seat on the car - front, right.
Hit the Wild Mouse - nothing special. Spider was down with absolutely no activity in the station. Walked by Roller Coaster which also was closed. Two coaster sitting idle - not a good sign for someone who may not get back to the park again. Walked across the park to hit another Schwarzkopf classic - Jet Star. I was excited to ride this because while I vaguely remember the Jumbo Jet at Cedar Point I was not tall enough to ride it. Here was my chance to ride its brother. Once again I was greeted by signs that frowned upon single riders. In fact single riders were prohibited. Are you kidding me? I had to wait until a mom and her two kids came up to the station. They looked at me a little funny when I asked if I could ride with them but when they saw the signs they understood. Rolling up the circular lift was awesome. I understand it is ridiculously inefficient as far as lift hills go but I loved it. I still don’t understand how we made some of the insanely tight turns but I don’t care - it was great. I did manage a few more rides on this classic throughout the day but because of the single rider issue I was not able to get my fill.
I rode several of their flats which for the most part were the same as other parks have. One fantastic exception was Samurai. I managed a walkon ride so I did not see what the ride did. Holy crap! Awesome. One of my favorite flats has always been Chaos but this thing took Chaos to school When I got off I stayed and watched a cycle. I still can’t believe what I saw. Simply insane. Every park needs one of these.
Walked over to The Bat. Oops. I thought this was a typical inverted Vekoma. Not exactly. Turns out it is a family coaster. A clone of Runaway Reptar at Kings Island. Once is enough. They finally opened Roller Coaster. Longest line of the day. I love parks that think low crowds equals single train operation. Not bad for the 5th oldest coaster in the world. It could use some more speed though. Was on the first train on Spider once it finally opened. Just happened to be walking by when they opened it. Fun little ride but by the time I got off the line had quickly built to the point where a reride was just not worth it. Too bad fun little coasters like this just don’t have capacity.
I thought about hitting Puff the Little Dragon but decided against it. If I could have walked right on I would have but I could not bring myself to stand in line with a bunch of 3 year olds. I must be getting old as getting that credit just seemed silly.
I ended the day by finally scoring a front row on Fire Dragon. A mom and her daughter were riding and the daughter did not want to ride in the front. I gladly assisted mom so she could ride in front. Can’t think of a better way to wrap things up.
A few random observations: Lunch was BBQ ribs and chicken. At least the price was OK, $11 for chicken, ribs, mashed potatoes, and a drink. But the food was horrible. Was surprised by the lack of safety spiels. Many of the flats just started up with no notice. What is up with the bathrooms? They have a total of 6 for the whole park and they are hidden. I cannot remember having to look at a map to find a bathroom but that is what I had to do here. Has to be one of the smallest water parks around. The worst log flume ever - don’t waste your time. What is up with no minimal height requirements on many of the rides? People were putting 1 year olds on the log ride. I know it is tame but still seems crazy to me. Saw kids who clearly were not tall enough to ride the coasters riding them. No one was bothering to check heights.
Thanks for the TR. No single riders really sucks. When we go to parks there are 4 of us, but my wife is the official photographer and is most definitely a non-rider. So far the only time that this has come in to play for us was Thunderbolt at Kennywood. My oldest daughter wanted to ride in the front but my youngest did not and wanted to ride with dad. Since the ride was walk on for the both front seats, a ride op rode with her.
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