Associated parks:
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It’s day two of our New England trip, and it doesn’t start off well. The alarm clock radio provided by the hotel is a little too quiet, so my friend Matt awakens me at 10:42am. We were supposed to have gotten up at 9am. I had set my alarm on my watch also, but because I was wearing earplugs and had pillows over my head to drown out Matt’s snoring (I hear I was an equal opportunity offender), I didn’t hear it. We immediately went down to the lobby only to find out that the continental breakfast is all gone. Damn. Luckily, checkout was at 12pm, or we would’ve been in really big trouble.
The second part of the bad morning was that I woke up with a sinus headache. I’m thinking "No, I did not drive all the way up here to not get a ride on Bolder Dash". It’s fairly bad, and I’m about to pray to the porcelain gods. Eventually, it did subside, but just to be on the safe side, I picked up some Tylenol at the local drug store.
We were still hungry, and decided to eat at the Friendly’s right down the road. The parking lot was mobbed. As we’re waiting at the hostess check-in area, we hear someone announce that they’re done serving breakfast. Damn it again. So we decided that we’ve move onto the next meal and got subs at Subway. Since I had one of those coupon cards they’ve been handing out, it only cost me $2.82 for a value meal. Score!
The trip to Lake Compounce from our hotel wasn’t that bad. It just seemed like it was in a very odd location, as it was set back in an industrial park. From our parking spot, only two rides were visible—Downtime, the new S&S Tower, and the Skycoaster. The parking lot is fairly full, but we’re hoping most of the people are going to the waterpark. After paying the painful price of $30.95 to get in (which Matt assures me is common for smaller parks), we headed straight for Boulder Dash.
The park is relatively small, and reminds me of a cross beyond Kennywood, and Knoebels. The lines for Boulder Dash aren’t that bad, and so we guessed right that most of the people are at the waterpark. We found it interesting that they were already advertising for their Halloween celebration in front of the ride. Man, they keep pushing these holidays earlier and earlier every year. While we’re waiting, a maintenance guy showed up and had the crew send out the single train empty. We were hoping that this would be a positive sign, and the train stops on the lifthill. Yes! They are adding the second train. Why they didn’t do that before we arrived at 1pm (or later) in the afternoon is beyond me, but who were we to complain? After sitting down in the comfy PTC trains, we were off on one hell of a wild ride.
The first drop is sharp and steep, and almost feels dangerous as you dive down towards the ground. The speed was relentless, and there was hill after hill. If I thought the ride would tame down after the turnaround, I stood corrected. The coaster picks up more speed due to another drop off and we hit a couple of more hills on the way back. There were two deadspots on the ride, but they were very brief. The coaster is packed wiht laterals also. Boulder Dash definitely moved up into my Top 10 woodies list.
We needed a darkride fix and Ghost Hunt more than fit the bill, as it’s one of those Sally shoot-em-ups. Unfortunately, they only fit two to a car, unlike Scooby Doo and the Haunted Mansion at PKD, so the line didn’t move all that fast. I was trying to pass time by watching the pre-ride footage, but the dialog was almost impossible to hear due to very low sound, and very few speakers in the queue. Once onboard we took out the yellow guns, and they gave us practice targets before entering the main ride. That’s a nice touch. The ride was very similar to SD&tHM, and I still got my ass kicked by Matt again. I think the score was 1200 to my 660.
Moving on I suggested a ride on Downtime, since we skipped Scream! the day before. Matt doesn’t seem particularly thrilled, as it’s only a Turbo Drop. I can’t say that I disagreed with him, but I still want to get my $30.95’s worth. The line isn’t terrible, but when you’ve only got one tower, and empty seats on almost every ride, it makes things go slower. I was happy through to see that the main attendant had a paddleboard saying, "Single Rider Needed". So, we get onboard and the rise to the top feels like an Intamin 2nd generation drop ride, but the drop is sorely lacking due to the two bounces. I much prefer the "Are we going to brake before the bottom of this tower?" approach. One unusual touch was the sound of a ticking clock and an alarm bell before the drop, just in case you weren’t already nervousJ
We next moved onto Wildcat, their classic woodie. It basically has a figure-eight layout, and we were pleasantly surprised by the ride. We had to laugh at the saloon-style wooden "airgates". We probably would've taken one more ride later, but they only were running one train (I don't know if it had another).
We were happy to see that they still had a Rotor, and took a spin. The floor seemed to drop a little bit further than some of the others out there. We decided to check out the other side of the park, and missed the trolley going to the other end. It wasn’t that long of a walk though. We then boarded the chair lift ride which we were told would take 25 minutes roundtrip. We were a little scared at the warning sign that mentioned walking through rugged mountain terrain in case of evacuation. With the heights, steepness, and huge boulders, I don’t know if I’d want to take the hike down. We also thought about what happens in the event of a thunderstorm. The ride was very peaceful, and the scenery was absolutely beautiful. The best part was, unlike Knoebels, it was free. We got off the chairlift just in time to catch the trolley back to the other side of the park. We both loved the vintage ads, and the vintage trolley itself, but the warning signs cracked us both up. Why do you need the normal ride warning signs for a trolley?
The credit was up next in the form of yet another Boomerang. As others have thought "Not another Boomerang". I’ll take an Invertigo anyday over one of these. Like SFNE’s version, it featured the neck rest. We were going to ride the Flyers, but it seemed like they were running it a little bit too long. We got bored after roughly five minutes, and moved onto the Sawmill Plunge, a classic Arrow log flume. Surprisingly, as hot as it was, we only waited approximately 20-30 minutes to ride. It also helped that they called out for two riders, and were able to jump pretty far ahead in the line. After the lift you meander around some turns high above the hill. The drop was like any other logflume, and as we had four adult men onboard, we got pretty wet.
We finished off the day by taking some more rides on Boulder Dash. We also took one ride on the walk-on Enterprise. After our fourth or fifth rides on BD, we determined that the middle section was where all the action is. Sadly, we had to leave around 5:30 for the long trip back home. Maybe next time, we'll be able to get a night ride on Boulder Dash.
In conclusion, we really liked LC, and would gladly return. I would like to see some more rides for $30.95, but I figure that’s how they pay for the "free" soda:) I figured I spent about $200 for the whole weekend, but it was well worth it. With my finances the way they are, that just might have been the last trip for the year.
Note: *** Edited 7/12/2004 5:03:03 PM UTC by Intamin Fan*** *** Edited 7/12/2004 6:37:18 PM UTC by Intamin Fan***
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