After a breif (compared to two days before) drive
from pittsburgh we arrived in Altoona. We headed to
what seemed to be the parking lot for tha park and
entered through a group of condos (?). We went to the
ticket office and tried to buy enough tickets for me
and Ang (my sister) to ride the 4 coasters and for my
parents to ride the 2 woodies and a flat ride. This
proved to be an exceedingly hard task thanks to the
incompetent 26 year old working the booth who didnt
know how to count. We first headed to
LEAP THE DIPS- i forgot the designer but it is the
worlds oldest rollercoaster. It is a figure eight
side friction design, and i have hear that it is one
of the only remaining side friction coasters in the
world, but i dont know where the other(s) is(are).
can anyone help?
The ride is 41 feet tall and has a max speed of 10
mph and a largest drop of 9 feet. Theres was no wait
at all so we walked up to the station and handed to op
our tickets. He then tellsus that tickets arent good
for this ride, you need either a wristband or a ride
token from the gift shop (thanks goes out to the
ticket booth girl who knew that we were going to use
the tickets to ride this.) So we went into the gift
shop and bought enough for 1 ride each and then walked
onto the ride. The ride op then started the chain
lift and *pushed* us to it. The lift seems pretty
standard, but the anti-rollbacks are nothing more than
planks of wood that the train pushes up as it passes
and then fall down so that if the coaster should roll
back it would be stoped by this little 2 by 4. The
trains are nothing more than a little 2 seat car
caable of seating 4 people. They are very well padded
and have no restraint of any kind and no seat
dividers. All that they have is a metal rail out in
front of you that you can hold onto if you want. the
way the coaster works is there are the regular running
wheels on the bottom of the car, and then there are
side friction wheels on the side. There are no upstop
wheels at all, so gravity is the only thing keeping
you on the track.
The ride starts out with a small drop off of the
lift and a long turn. Acording to WWW.RCDB.com the
top speed is only 10 mph, but it deffinatly feels like
alot more. This is followed by small dip that
actually has a slight float to it. This is apearent
on almost all the hills by the sound of the train
slaming back into the track at the bottom (your
litterally leaping the dips;) The up sections on the
dips are very small so by the endo of the ride the car
is going pretty fast and the float is bacoming more
appearent. Also as you progress through the course
the dips are becoming larger. The ride is alot of fun
and a little scary. It also seems that the coaster
has rolled back on the lift a few times because a few
of the anti rollbacks are broke in the center.
Definatly worth the trip if your in the area.
I'm not gonna rate this as there is no good way to
rate it. I have never been on a coaster that is
similar to this in any way, but it is deffinatly lots
of fun.
Next my parents went over and rode the monster and
me and Ang headed next door to the
MAD MOUSE- i think it is an old MACK, but im not
sure.
This is one crazy ride, and not in a good way.
The restraints are nothing more than a bunch of
padding and both sides of you that kinda holds you in.
The ride starts off with the usual hair pin turns and
than the long slight drop into the banked turn. This
is a very effective wild mouse because i thought that
i was going to fall of the track on every turn and
there seemed to be many bunps and pot holes along the
track. The banked turn eally tosses (slams) you to
the side. This is followed by a couple of turns and
then the standard abrupt and sharp bunny hops. I tink
this ride has upsop plates instead of wheels, and a
big gap between them. The cars really slam up into
the plates and then slam down onto the wheels. This
was a terrible ride and gets one of the only 3
negative ratings of the trip(cha-ching)
- 1
Next we walked over to the
TOBOGGAN- chance medival torture trap
The ride is nothing more than a central spike, about
6 revolutions around it, and then 3 bunnyhops back to
the station. The cars are fully enclosed and use a
lap bar to hold you in (and a padded celing.) The
ride starts off with a straight up trip throough the
central coloum with deffining anti rollbacks. Then
you go up over the top and back into daylight and do
the many revolutions around thehellish lift. Then you
go into the bunny hops that slam you up/down even
worse than the mad mouse did. You then exit saying
"never again." WHAT A PEICE OF CRAP (cha-ching)
-2
(note'at'this'point'my'spacebar'stopped'working)
we'then'walked'over'to'the'
''''''''''SKYLINER-Miler'"L"'shaped'triple'out'and'back
we'hopped'right'in'the'back'seat'and'joined'the'five'-other'people'who'were'already'waiting'in'the'3'bench'-PTC'trains'with'2'pos.'lapbars'and'we'were'off.''after'the'quick'lift'right'next'to'the'well'groomed'minor'-league'baseball'feild'we'went'around'a'90degree'turn'-and'-then'said'by'to'the'train'and'hello'to'the'lap'bar'-with'-some'scary'ejector'air.''the'rest'of'the'ride'is'fast'-with'some'nice'floaters'and'some'weird'peices'of'-straight'''track.''with'enough'tickets;left'for'one'-more'ride'we''were'walking'back'to'the'main'part'of'-the'park'when'we'saw'our'parents'heading'for'the'-skyliner'so'we'offered'to'ride'with'them.''We'told'-them'that'the'back'seat'-was'awsome'and'we'were'gonna'try'the'front.''It'was'ok-but'hearing'my'mom'scream'in'terror'was'very'funny
MUAHHAHAHA
With'no'tickets'left'my'parents'went'looking'for'a-snack'and'me'and'Ang'headed'back'to'the'leap'the'dips'-gift'shp'where'we'bought'3'more'tokens(Shh.i'wanted'one'for'a'souvenier)and'i'bought'a'comerative'poster.''it'was'a'nice'-diversion'from'the'long'cross-state'drive'and'there'was'a'fridays'close'by'for'lunch
Overall--
this'wasnt'that'great'of'a'park'but'it'did'have'2'good-coasters.''it'wasnt'that'clean'though'and'definatly'-couldof'used'some'trees'or'something.-'''0
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