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The reason I was back in Utah for the weekend was to see an old college roommate get married. His wedding was Saturday morning and then he had a luncheon at 12:30 pm. The luncheon went until 2:00 pm and I finally said goodbye to my friend and got out of Salt Lake around 2:30. Lagoon is a quick 20 minute drive from Salt Lake but the weather was chilly and windy so I stopped by my Aunt and Uncle’s home in Farmington to pick up a jacket and change clothes and got to the park just after 3:00. I paid my $7 for parking and the parking lady told me that the park would close at 5:00. Well I figured with the weather being not so good and that it was opening day that the park would be pretty sparse. So I finally got into the park around 3:15 and had just under 2 hours to get reacquainted with an old friend and meet some new friends.
I headed directly towards the Spider. I haven’t had the opportunity to ride a spinning coaster yet and I was excited for this ride. This is easily the best themed ride in the park. They have a huge spider you walk under to get to the ride and a nice little castle you walk through to get on the ride. The layout looks like a lot of fun and the spinning looked awesome. On my first ride I sat looking forward. The cars hold four people, two facing forward and two facing backward. The first drop is fast and furious and then you come zipping around the corner and the ride is then unleashed to spin at will. This spinning adds an excellent affect to the ride and makes for a lot of different forces that I haven’t ever felt on a coaster before. I could tell that this coaster has become a instant favorite. This coaster is my second favorite in the park. My favorite is coming up.
After the spider I decided to jump on the “new” Wild Mouse since it is right next to the spider. This mouse is actually about 7 years old now but it wasn’t there the last time I went. I had ridden their old wooden Wild Mouse that used to stand in the same location as this one and that old one was freaky. I always thought the cars were going to tip right off the track. While I was standing in line for the Wild Mouse I saw one of my favorite flat rides was gone. The Roll-O-Planes had been completely taken out and nothing was there in its place, but some new landscaping. This ride was a capacity nightmare but it was sure fun to ride once you finally got on it. Back to the mouse. This is a fun mouse and they didn’t have any trims on the top part so the zig zag down the top was quite fun. It had some other nice dips and turns and is heads and tails above it’s old counterpart. Another good addition to the park.
Now it was time to hit an old favorite and still my number one coaster in the park. You can’t go wrong with this classic Schwarzkopf. The locals just call this ride Colossus but its real name is Colossus the Fire Dragon. The reason we call it just by Colossus is because on the top of the first loop it says Colossus. The Fire Dragon part is on the sign for the entrance into the queue. You will very rarely hear it called the Fire Dragon. The were running run train today and the other two trains must still be in storage because they weren’t even on the transfer track. Colossus still looks the same as the first time I rode it and is in dire need of some new paint, however it still rides like a dream. One of the best parts about this coaster is that it only has lap bars! The lift hill is very steep and then there is a nice right banked drop into the double loop where you feel some powerful G’s. No tear drop shaped loops here. Then you come flying back around through the second loop and then the best part of the ride is the very end with the double helix. The last helix is just fantastic because it hugs the ground it feels like if you are in the right seat you could reach out and drag your hand on the ground. You also get some really nice G’s through the last part of this helix. I rode Colossus three times and it still runs smooth and packs a nice punch. I love this coaster.
Next was the “White” Roller Coaster. Its real name is just Roller Coaster but ask anyone around here and its name is the “White” Roller Coaster. They don’t allow singles in the front or back so I took two trips on this baby one in the second seat and one just in front of the back seat. The back is a lot better, but this ride was extremely sluggish today. I hope it runs a lot faster when it warms up, but this ride needs some serious TLC. They have put up new supports around the ride but what it really needs is a new paint job. It just looks so old and beat up. Hopefully they’ll get some paint on this baby and soon.
I went to check out the progress on the Bat. They put this coaster back by the miniature golf course. It looks really nice and as most of you know it is an exact replica of Rugrats Runaway Reptar at Kings Island. The coaster was all put together and the train was even on the track but they still had to finish the station and landscaping. This ride should be open in a couple of weeks and will be the 7th coaster at Lagoon now.
After I checked out the Bat I went over to Jet Star II and it is getting a new paint job. All the track on the spiral lift were gone to the paint shop. They are painting the supports red and the track yellow. This ride is going to look brand new when they are done with it. Keep up the good work Lagoon with the new paint.
I then saw behind Jet Star II the Flying Eagles!!! Lagoon actually calls them the Flying Aces. I can’t remember if these were always there or not. Anyone know? They had a brand new paint job and looked nice. I took about 4 spins on them and got about a half a snap out of them. These are a bit more difficult to snap than the old Eagles at the Island. They are still a lot of fun though.
Next up was the Rocket. I have ridden plenty of S&S tower rides but haven’t hit this one yet. I rode both sides. Blast Off and Re-entry. Both are a lot of fun.
I wanted to ride Samurai but it was closed and so was Cliffhanger. Oh well I guess I will have something to look forward to next time. Samurai has taken the place of an old favorite the Magic Carpet ride but Samurai looked like a really nice replacement.
I was about to leave the park but I realized I hadn’t ridden Lagoon’s two dark rides in a long time and I wanted to see how they were so I could let you dark ride fans out there how these are. First off Lagoon does have TWO classic dark rides. These are fun and they seem to have changed some of the scenes in each of them but I could be totally wrong since I haven’t ridden either of them for so long. Both rides are classics and actually have some parts that make you jump. If you ever go to Lagoon you need to check them both out.
Last quick observations: The Tilt-A-Whirl looks freshly painted. They have a nice catapult ride. The fountains in the entrance plaza are really nice. They have tons of nice rides in the kiddy area and a couple of nice new ones. They have a great coaster collection but I am still waiting and hoping for the day when they build a big new coaster in the field to the north of the park. Maybe they need to strike a deal with S&S to build a new wood coaster in that field. That would be a dream come true. I noticed a season pass is $73.00. I can’t believe I can get a season pass to Six Flags for $50. At any rate if you are ever near Salt Lake, Lagoon is a really nice park that is consistently trying to get better. With the Salt Lake area continually growing hopefully that big coaster won’t be too far off in the future. Maybe another 5 years?! Thanks for reading!
Doug
P.S. They only charged $20 to get into the park for opening day. Just an FYI! *** Edited 4/10/2005 5:35:11 PM UTC by S&SFAN***
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