Northwest Hedonism - Part 3 of 4 (Enchanted Village, Remlinger Farms and Fun Forest )

“Oh goody! We get to go around again!”

We had another early morning in store for us. Luckily our hotel was very close to our next park. Once Barry Short and I ate a quick breakfast at the hotel, we checked out and made our way to the first park of the day.

====Wild Waves & Enchanted Village====

I had no expectations for this park at all. I knew it was home to a new wooden coaster as well as a few other rides, but I had nothing to go by. As we pulled into the parking lot we couldn’t help by notice the obvious draw to this park is the water park. So much so in fact that the amusement park is listed with smaller letters on the main sign. From the outside it didn’t look like the water park was all that large. Once we walked inside the rest of the water park came into view. I wouldn’t exactly call it large, but it did look like it had a lot of stuff to do. There was no chance I was going to sample some of those things as it was very cool outside and getting wet was at the bottom of my list of things to do this morning.

In order for us to get to the coaster we were having ERT on, we had to hike up a large hill. Barry and I joked around with Steve Gzesh by saying this was the Northwest version of Magic Mountain, but with more rides that operate. =:^)

----Timberhawk: Ride of Prey----(#590)

I have heard mixed reviews about this coaster. Since this is the first S&S woodie, I was looking forward to riding it. Because we were riding it the first thing in the morning I honestly didn’t expect much at all. The coaster looked nice as we were walking up to it and I couldn’t see much of the layout. As we walked into the station and hopped into one of the trains, we got our first surprise of the day. The seatbelts.

I am not sure of the reason why, but one end of the seatbelt was quite long, while the other was so short you had to really look for it when you sat down. You virtually couldn’t see the belt on the other end of the buckle as it was tucked so far down into the seat. Once we figured out a way to fasten the strange belts, we left the station and headed up the lift hill.

I noticed that on one side of the coaster it appeared the railing area looked like a dense fence or something. There was no space from the track up to the hand rail. My guess is they did this for noise control?

Once at the top of the lift we slowly curved about 180 degrees before flying down the first drop, filled with some nice head choppers. We then climbed up into a small hill before reaching the first turnaround. There was quite a bit of banking in this turn so I thought we would fly through it but that wasn’t the case. The train did track this section well though.

I can’t remember the exact layout from here on but I do remember diving down once again and raising up into the structure where a nice moment of airtime was felt. I think there was one other moment like it someplace else as well. The ending of the ride contained two brake runs. Because of the strange seat belts, we spent a few minutes waiting to go back into the station while people were strapping in. The crew looked like they were trying to dispatch as fast as they could but almost everyone had trouble with those belts. Supposedly the belts are going to be redone during the off season.

During ERT I ended up riding more and more. With each ride it seemed the ride was getting a bit faster, but not totally wild. This isn’t a bad thing as the ride was clearly designed for families. I think it is the perfect family coaster and I enjoyed all the rides I got on it. It’s only fitting if you think about it. The first coaster from CCI was more of a family ride as well.

Once the park was opened we walked our way around the rest of the park. The park itself is pretty small with most rides on one side, the water park on the other, and a lake in the middle. Steve took us around to a heavily wooded area where some more rides sat.

There was a small Zamperla powered coaster but we decided not to ride. The layout was really small but the cars reminded me of Magnum’s. How weird. Near this powered ride was our next coaster.

----Klondike Gold Rusher----(#591)

This Zamperla mouse looked identical to the other two versions I rode a few weeks before at La Ronde and Magic Springs. As with those versions, this version was totally brakeless. The last couple of turns were real rib smashers, but in a good way. Once we were done riding we spent a few minutes watching other people getting slammed around on the last couple of turns. It was pretty funny considering most people didn’t expect the ride to be so strong.

As we made our way down to the next and final coaster at this park, we passed one of those park caricature deals. You know? The ones where you sit down and someone makes a funny cartoon drawing of you. There were samples of some of the work you could expect. I swear to you. One of the drawings looked just like porn star Ron Jeremy. Barry and Steve agreed. We had to do a double take when we saw it. I think Barry might have even shot footage of it.

----Wild Thing----(#592)

This Arrow looper looked to be just like the version I missed at Great Escape. I did get to ride a similar version at Libertyland so I kind of knew what I was in store for. While we were in line we got to meet up with Jerry Williard. We talked about various things including Steve’s imitation of an infamous Silverwood “rap” before hopping into our train. The layout of the ride is simple. Lift. Turn. Drop. Loop. Corkscrews. Brakes. Repeat?

Even though there are no signs stating the policy, one ride on this coaster consists of two laps. With the exception of a lot of kiddie coasters, and a couple of other rides I have ridden, there aren’t many parks that operate a ride like this. Luckily the ride wasn’t that rough and doing two rides was pretty easy.

Once we had ridden all the coasters in the park, we walked back up to Timberhawk and got another ride or two. Steve and I also took a ride on the Falling Star which overlooked the lake and water park. I couldn’t believe there were people in the water park. It was pretty chilly out but that didn’t seem to stop the locals.

Our lunch took place on top of a building in the water park area. The same vendor that supplied us with our great lunch the day before was on hand again to give us even more of a variety. While we were eating, introductions and announcements were made on a PA. A park spokesman answered a few questions for the crowd before the picnic ended.

We could have stayed all day in the park but Barry and I wanted to go to another park. After talking to friends Tim Baldwin and Jeff Siefert, they almost had us sold on going back to the Puyallup Fair with them to try and grab a ride on the water coaster as we had heard it was running. After doing some checking we found out the coaster wasn’t open. It was a hard credit to get and it didn’t look like we were going to be able to ride it. Oh well. Maybe another time?

Barry and I left the park and decided to try and find a tiny park east of Seattle. It was home to one kiddie coaster. Since we were in the area and didn’t know when we would be back, we wanted to try and ride everything we could.

We headed to the east side of Seattle via some real hilly roads and beautiful scenery. Both Barry and I were blown away by the look of the whole area. While there were mountains all around us, we never did see Mount Rainer again as it was too cloudy. Our drive took us on a main highway as well as a small two lane road through a town. We thought we would get lost finding our next park but it ended up being fairly easy.

====Remlinger Farms====

As we drove down the small dirt road leading up to the park, or farm, we weren’t sure what to expect. As the place came into view we had doubts about the place. This certainly didn’t look like any park I have been to, but then again, it was on a farm. We walked inside and into an area that had all kinds of crafts for sale. We followed a couple of signs telling us where to purchase wristbands for the rides. We ended up at two check out lanes like you would find at a grocery store, complete with conveyor belts and all.

Three women were standing there. Two of them greeted us. The third woman looked like she had just purchased something. Upon closer look, the third woman was another enthusiasts and friend named Susan. I shouldn’t have been surprised to see any other enthusiasts here but considering the nature of the place, I was. Susan had just purchased a wristband and headed off to go ride the coaster. Barry and I purchased our wristbands and talked with the kind women for a couple of minutes. They were so happy that we would come all the way out this way to check out the rides. We told them to expect more of us and they seemed even happier to hear that news.

Barry and I walked into the park. This has got to be one of the strangest parks I have ever been to. It’s aimed at families and kids so there were all kinds of tiny rides like a Ferris Wheel that had 4 cars on it and was about 8 feet tall. There was an area where kids could play in the hay as well as a tiny suspended carousel. The whole area was, just, odd. It had kind of a Lightwater Valley vibe to it for some reason. The coaster we wanted to ride was in the back portion of the park.

----Mine Twister----(#593)

As we walked up to it we could see Susan enjoying a ride. This coaster looked exactly like the two coasters we weren’t allowed to ride at the Puyallup Fair. I guess this place had no problem letting adults ride. The entrance for the ride has a nice mine theme to it, but we couldn’t walk through the mine to get to the ride because it was roped off with a small sign.

“Ride closed. Come back in 45 minutes after I take my lunch break.”

Oh oh!

We honestly didn’t want to spend 45 minutes in the park waiting to ride this coaster. No offense to the park, but we did have something else planned once we left this place. We walked over to the exit and asked Susan how she got on the ride. She said she went through the mine entrance. When we told her it was now closed, the single ride operator came over to us and asked us if we wanted to ride now and pushed opened the exit gate. He didn’t have to do that but it was very cool that he ended up giving one last ride before he went to lunch. Susan joined us on our ride as well. Just as some of the other coasters this size, it seemed to be more fun with some friends.

Once we were done taking a few laps, we decided to leave the park and head to our next destination. We said goodbye to the nice ladies that we talked to a few minuets before and headed out. As we were leaving we saw more enthusiasts show up. I looked like they were going to have to wait a while before they rode as the ride operator for the coaster walked away from the ride when we left.

We left the green hills of the area and headed into the Seattle area. We drove across a pretty long bridge that skirted the water just as the Seattle skyline grew closer and closer. Our next park we were visiting was actually the first park we went to at the start of the trip, but this time the rides were running. As we were driving around the Space Needle area looking for parking, we saw friends Cindy (I am sorry I forgot your last name) and Martin Valt from England. Martin had come the longest way for this event and was doing the same thing we were. Riding as much as we could.

===Fun Forest Amusement Park===

The first thing we noticed was the Fabbri Booster that was being dismantled a couple of days before was now gone. At first we didn’t see any activity in the park, but as we continued to walk up to it, we saw one of the coasters running. As we were walking up to purchase tickets, we ran into Marlon Scott and Lisa Scheinin. Both of them warned us the larger coaster was pretty violent if you sit in the front and to hold on.

----Windstorm----(#594)

This was a standard Windstorm coaster. It looked shorter than the rest for some reason but as we walked up to it we could tell it just sat lower in the ground than the most. I think I have ridden 6 different versions of this ride so I had an idea what to expect. Barry and I rode in the back row. There were only two other people on the train when we dispatched.

For those of you that are not familiar with the ride, the highlight of the ride for many people (including myself) is the mid-course, 80-degree twisting drop. Every time I ride one of these things that drop always surprises the hell out of me. This was no exception. While the rest of the ride was a bit shaky in some areas, I didn’t find it to be very violent or rough. I guess I am glad we didn’t ride the front.

As we were walking away from the ride we ran into enthusiasts Deb Oliver and Bob Velbeck. They decided to ride the front. We could tell they were being thrown around quite a bit but they didn’t seem to mind. As we were headed towards our next ride, I counted up the tickets I had left. The next ride would only use 2 of my tickets. I gave the rest away to two other enthusiasts who were just about to purchase more tickets.

----Rainbow Chaser----(#595)

Yep, another kiddie coaster. This one was almost identical to the one we had just ridden at Remlinger Farms. Adults were allowed to ride this one as well. I can’t even remember how many laps we got on the thing as I stopped counting at 8. I spent the rest of the ride looking straight up at the Space Needle as it was directly overhead. It was just weird looking up at it and watching it rotate as we made our way around the oval layout. I told Deb to look up as well but I am not sure if she got the same effect as I did.

Once our ride was finished, we headed back to the car and started the nice 3 hour drive to our next country.

Canada.

The drive itself was fairly nice with some large mountains in the distance. For a good 30 miles of the drive we noticed large banners that hung off the side of almost every bridge we drove under. They all were very patriotic and reminded us never to forget September 11th, which just happened to be this day. Lost of people were standing on the bridges as well, waving. We would honk as we would drive under each bridge with a banner.

Once we reached the border we expected to be delayed considering one of my last experiences with border guards. As we pulled up to the booth, a guard asked us the standard questions and wanted to know exactly why we were heading to Vancouver. When we told him we were going to the PNE, he looked confused and asked if it was still open. When we told him we were part of a coaster enthusiasts group that was having an event there, he smiled and told us to have a good day. That was very easy!

We continued our drive into Canada and made our way to one of the most beautiful cities I have ever seen. I have never seen a picture of Vancouver and I was speechless seeing it for the first time. It was amazing looking from far away. The next day we would be getting a much better look at it but my first glance at the city is one I won’t be forgetting anytime soon.

We made our way to our hotel in Burnaby. As we were walking up to the hotel we looked over to the right of us and noticed a large group of people taking pictures of something. We looked over and were kind of shocked to see a large MGM movie/TV studio. There was a sign at the top of one of the sound stages that listed the shows they film there. Shows like Outer Limits, Smallville, Dead Like Me, and a couple of others.

Our room faced the studios. It must be a popular place as we saw many people taking pictures of it. Even a few tour busses showed up so people could get out and take pictures. We would have loved to check out more of the place but we went and grabbed dinner at a pizzeria. By the end of dinner I was very tired and just wanted to get some sleep. I was really looking forward to the next day as I have heard nothing but good things about what we were going to ride.

Next up…..

A park with an amazing setting and amazing rides, and one last chance to make the trip complete.

Thanks for reading,

-Sean

I am not sure what it was doing there. They also had a Top Spin (or something similar) that looked like it was temporary as well.

"Since when did carnivals and theme parks mix?"

Ever heard of the now defunct Family Funways? =:^)

-Sean

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Sean Flaharty said:

Ever heard of the now defunct Family Funways? =:^)

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Isn't that the scary one in Minnesota?
Remlinger Farms was a very cute place. It reminded me a lot of the orchard/market type of place that I used to go with my mom to when I was a kid growing up in Southcentral PA. The funniest moment of the weekend happened on the Mine Twister when a little kid asked my wife and I why we were riding such a small coaster? I didn't have the heart to explain to him in front of his mom what a credit ho was ;)

Looks like you are about to hit the 600 mark eh? :-)

For me, reading TR's like about parks I really know little about is much more informative than going to their respective websites, etc.

You always add a little *more*...the towns, scenery, your funny (and sometimes not os funny) experiences while on the road.

Great tips for trip planning. ;-)

That area sounds absolutely beautiful!

Someday. ;-)

-Tina

*** Edited 10/23/2004 2:45:42 PM UTC by coasterqueenTRN***

Rob - who says next time, let's meet up.

Yep. That's the one. I have never been to the place but I have seen creepy footage of it.

Dutchman,

I didn't even think to look to see if there was a train. We were in and out of that place in a matter of minutes. I guess that's the down side of cre-ho'ing.

Thanks Tina. I know you would love the area up there. It really was incredible looking. Let's put it another way. It sure wasn't Arkansas. =:^)

Rob,

Wooops. Sorry dude.

To be honest, I didn't know there were a few Buzzers that lived in the area. I am not big on the Meeting Calendar as I had a pretty bad experience on a coaster trip because I told someone I was going to be at a certain park. Ever since then I don't respond to roll call lists or anything like that.

I am sure you are cool though. You have to be. You post here. =:^)

-Sean

I NEVER respond to those meeting calendars.

I don't know about you meeting Rob, Sean. :-D Rob is the biggest stalker of all......or is that me stalking him? I keep forgetting. ;-)

Na, Rob is THEE coolest of the cool. You'll like him.

-Tina

Yes, I don't 'always' appreciate a good stalking, but it seems that most people that post here have become online friends that I trust (to a certain degree). I might not have them out to my house for dinner, but meeting somewhere for a few hours is pretty cool, and gives you a chance to bail when they are freakier than you realized. ;)

Sean, you sound just fine to me. :)

(Actually, I was quite pleased with myself on that parking job, given I'd just gotten the car that afternoon and the visibility on it was VERY different than the cars I'm used to. :) )
*** Edited 10/25/2004 4:36:44 AM UTC by GregLeg***

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Dutchman said:
When yu were at Remlinger was the train running?They have Crown live steamer, which is always worth a ride.

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The train was running that day. We wanted to ride it but unfortunately when we were in the park it was close to the point in the afternoon when they shut down the rides for lunch.