My Pacific Northwest Trip: Part 2; Playland 8/2/3

My family and I, after arriving in Vancouver on the first of August, 2003, decided to visit Playland the next day, Saturday, and see the sites that day. So after circumnavigating Stanley Park, walking down the assembly line at the Gulf of Georgia Cannery, and giving my sister her allotted shopping time at the China Town Night Market, we were ready for a late 11 o'clock start the next day at the local thrill park.

The park definately has a carnival atmosphere as the park is built in a big parking lot but not in a bad way. The cheap price (I think it was 60 Canadian dollars for all 4 of us) I think was the primary reason it didn't feel too "carny." That and the park's permanent features, the corkscrew, the coaster, the space shot, and 2 pay per ride attractions (skycoaster & skyscraper) priced conveniently at $20 for both.

RIDES:

Coaster [+4]4 rides Definately a classic. There's nice floater air and nice force you to stand up because there's not enough to hold on to air as well as some nice floater while you're experiencing a drop and lateral Gs to the left air. The ride throws you around a bit but that's only to be expected with single position lapbars, no seat dividers, those comfy/easy to slide on leather seats, and tons of lateral Gs. *sigh*. The ride had a weird "retro" theme sponsored by a local tv station with pictures of the kid from leave it to beaver, Mary Kate or Ashly as a toddler from full house and.....Ray Romano? I didn't quite understand where he fit in with the retro theme. The only negatives on this ride are the unnecessary long line (but still not too bad) from runing one train and this thing it did to my neck after sliding me from one end of the car to the other (when i rode alone) which gave me this pain in my neck where i had to lean my head to one side for the rest of the day. But that was kinda like a freak accident and i don't hold it against the ride.

Corkscrew [+1] 3 rides Only my third Vekoma coaster but based on my experiences with this, Hersheypark's Sidewinder, and SFGAm's Deja vu I've gotta wonder whether or not all this Vekoma bashing is unfounded. This ride was perfectly smooth from each seat I sat in. Additionally the first drop gave a nice pop of air and the corkscrews were interesting taken at their slow pace.

Wild Mouse [+1] 1 ride This mouse was actually kind of scary. The sound it made was a little unnerving....like metal scraping against metal. But it's fast paced turns were fun and so were i'ts drops.

Hellevator [+1.5] 2 rides Another fun space shot...not as good as the one at Galaxyland but still fun.

The other rides I won't list and rate...there was the Yoyo, Enterprise, Wild Wasserbahn (log flume), Rainbow, Music Express, Hell's Gate (gravitron with jets of water)....typical rides but each fun none the less.

Overall the park was very enjoyable despite its' small stature among amusement parks....it was nice actually, everything was within viewing distance. There was no chance of getting lost and the park was easy on the feet. It's just a shame the park is so far away from Illinois.

Next stop: Silverwood
*** This post was edited by Krazy 8/12/2003 3:20:58 PM ***

You'd think they would have 2 trains running on Coaster....ugh! Well, at least I get to go during the actual PNE, so they will definitely have 2 running then.... along with the huge crowds! ;)

Nice TR, by the way.
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