Associated parks:
None
DISCLAIMER: Because of the whole "rating" thing, there will be acknowledgement towards other parks/rides. If this has the potential to offend you, please move on to another trip report! =]
Anybody left? Good, then let's begin!
Where: Seabreeze Amusement Park, Rochester, NY
When: Thursday August 1, 2002
Why: Part 1 of "T's" bribe for me attending her friend's wedding
Weather: Hot...but not DAMN hot, cooler with the lake (or should I say sea) breeze
Weary Willies (crowds): Inconsequential
Well about a month ago, T asked me to come with her to a friend's wedding in Rochester where she went to high school and college. As a "bribe" she suggested that we take a trip to Darien Lake. Well after asking around on Coasterbuzz what attractions were @ SFDL, nothing besides S:ROS really jumped out at me and I have an S:ROS here @ SFA.
Someone there suggested Seabreeze as an alternative. Y'all know I aint really one that
gets all worked up about little parks, but hey it would be different so I contemplated it. When I told "T" she was all like (just for you Cplaya =]) "It's a crappy little park". So we decided to go to SFDL instead. But a few days before our trip, her peeps told her about their half-price after 5 deal so she said we could go on Thursday after we got to Rochester, leaving all day Friday for SFDL.
After a mostly uneventful 6-7 hr drive up from DC, me, T and her friend "R", went straight to the park instead of going where we were staying first. We got there somewhere around 7:30 ish and were gone well before 10pm (when the park closed). But I think that was plenty of time for me.
Overall Impression of the park: DECENT
If I had been trying to make an entire day out of this park, I'd likely think it womps. If you have young'uns, this might be a good place to take them. But for a bunch of adults, it really was not all that. Though it *might* have been "really" fun drunk =]. Anyway, it was what it was and didnt claim to be anymore. Not really my bag baby, but good for just a few hours.
First things first, we rolled into the (free) parking lot and got all situated. The $9.95/person tickets were good for all the rides and waterslides though we had no intention of getting near the waterpark. Nature was calling, but there was no restroom near the entrance gate (strike one) so we had to go all the way to the far end for the facilities. The rollercoaster over there didnt look like it was open (boo) as not even the chain was running. After a closer inspection though, I saw people in the station seated in the train so off we headed for:
QUANTUM LOOP: Soquet steel double looper (one train running); COOL
At first glance, QL looks a lot like an Anton 'Doppel Looping" such as Dorney's Lazer.
This gave me a bit of trepidation as T got "very sick" after riding Lazer twice in a row. I didnt want her getting all sick as I dont know my way around Rochester ;).
Anyway, we get on and pull down the weirdiest restraints this side of the Intamin hyper seat belts. They are some sort of bastardized OTSRs, but they are cool because the bars are really far away from your head so banging isnt a problem. The ride itself was much like a doppel looping though not quite as many positive Gs in the loops. It gets bumped up to the "cool" catagory because the view of Lake Ontario from the lift was nice. I should mention that we walked directly onto the ride.
Next we crossed over the midway to a wood/steel hybrid:
BOBSLEDS: Wooden Structure with Tubular Steel Track, George W. Long adaptation of a John Miller design (three cars running); AWESOME
This was our longest wait of the day (still only 15 min) and IMO worth every bit of the wait. The ride runs cars most akin to an Anton Wildcat (like at Cedar Point), with the smoothness of an Arrow ride like Matterhorn @ Disneyland (and yes I said Arrow and smooth in the same sentence without the use of a negative =]). We decided, well *I* decided that we would all get in the same car, R in front and me and T squished in the
back (it's a good thing I actually like her :)). R protested, but I told her we'd be okay. Now I'm the lightest of the three of us so that tells you there was more than a *little* weight in the car (compared to the groups of little kids that were riding).
Anyway, there were little pops of air here and there and nice laterals throughout. It was just a great "schitts and giggles" coaster as all of us came off laughing. This is the rollercoaster I'd most like to have in my backyard when I have kids (my children would be the envy of all the neighbors...)
As we strolled down the paths, T spied a tent like looking thingie and suggested that that might have been the ride I had most been looking forward to at this park. She was indeed right! So with only a one cycle wait, we were in the:
GYROSPHERE: Eli Bridge (?) indoor Scrambler with smoke and light effects; AIIGHT
Since I told them it was a spinning ride, R decided to sit it out while T and I rode. Here is where I expericenced a nice healthy dose of "anticipointment". You see, I used to think back in grammar school that it would be such a cool idea to enclose a scrambler with a disco ball and such. I had no clue until last year that there were places that had actually put that idea into effect. Well as soon as I sat in the seat, I knew it wasnt going to be that great. Why? Because the Scrambler had a seat divider! I've never seen that before. Half of the fun of Scramblers is squishing the person on the outside. I know that as kids we used to take turns squeezing 3 kids into them and changing up who was on the outside. (Scramblers used to be my favorite rides!) Anyway, they didnt play any music that I recognized, just some generic techno. The smoke wasnt very thick. And worst of all, the ride didnt move terribly fast. It wasnt a bad ride at all, but even with all the effects, it wasnt as much fun as say the Scarecrow Scrambler @ Holiday World.
Departing the ride and rejoining R, we headed off to the park's oldest coaster:
JACK RABBIT: Philadelphia Toboggan Company (PTC) Wooden Out & Back (one train running); COOL
We walked up to the station, but couldnt actually enter the platform as they were regulating how many people could be on the platform at one time. The strange thing was that they didnt even have enough people in the station to fill a train. Not a big problem, just odd. Also, from my vantage point off the platform, I saw a girl smoking a cigarette right there on the platform (strike two) while waiting for the front seat and the ride ops neither did nor said anything (but I thought stuff like that only happens at Six Flags
parks *rolleyes*). At any case, we grabbed random seats near the back of the train.
Now I'd like to know why people complain about Morgan trains on woodies. On the two coasters I've ridden with them (this and Texas Cyclone) they seemed to work just fine. This coaster seemed to have dual position (open or closed) 2-person lapbars. The ride itself was not that great and really, besides the tunnelled helix I couldnt tell you anything special about that first ride.
As soon as we hopped off, I said that I had to ride it in the front, so that's what we did. This ride had some nice hints of float. There was even one moment of what might pass for "flo-jection" air. Not quite as forceful as Dorney's Thunderhawk, but very much like Comet @ HersheyPark. I *think* we ran around for one more ride in the back as well, but to be honest, I'm not sure.
Well despite her "airtime allergy", T really likes looping starship type rides (but the
regular swinging ships are too much). Well Seabreeze has *something* similar to that so
I asked T if she wanted to ride and she replied in the affirmative. Leaving R to rest on a bench, T and I sat across from each other in the Face/Off type seating of:
SCREAMIN' EAGLE: Zamperla Hawk-24; WOMPS!
Okay, really the ride didnt womp. It was actually a pretty long cycle compared to the
Hawk-48, Meteor, @ Dorney Park. But what made this one womp was that the restraints came down automatically and tighter than even the Intamin/Giovanola looping starships, so "Da Boyz" were not very happy at all with the ride. T looked across at my pained expression and thought I was just playing at first. But this was no joke. This ride would make the SFA "Femi-nazis from Two-Face" proud! One good thing though, I'm
starting not to absolutely HATE hanging upside down, so maybe there is hope for Volcano: The Blast Coaster after all.
We grabbed some free water then headed over to the "heart and soul" ride of most parks:
CAROUSEL: PTC #??? (sorry Adam, I forgot :(. I want to say 19): SWEET
Usually, merry-go-rounds are not something I would rate. Growing up with Six Flags Great America and the wonderful Columbia Carousel, I think that all single deck merry-go-rounds are inferior. Moreover, not being a connoisseur I wouldn't be able to tell a Dentzel from a Herschell (if those are even the right people =]). Anyway, this is apparently a hand carved model from the Long family. No brass ring, but there *is* a working band organ. It's not an original Wurlitzer (that was destroyed in a fire) but it is built from the specifications of an original now located in Wisconsin (There was a
flyer with the organ's history that I will post soon just for you Adam and Jay =]). The organ was set off to the side of the ride so that people could get a good look at it. It was cool to see all the different rolls of music. There were also pictures inside the building depicting the history of the park, including one showing the carousel during its opening year (that's the only reason I knew it was a PTC #something ;)).
T grabbed a "Sugar Waffle" (an extraordinarily crispy version of fried dough/elephant ears/funnel cakes) and we continued on. We sauntered past the games and while I'm usually intruiged by any dart games, their "Break a Balloon" game required that you pop 3 balloons with 3 darts (going 3 for 3 in a single game, no carryovers), more strict than most games. Plus the prizes sucked anyway. Then there was another dart game that had a wall lined with posters and on some of the posters was a star target. Here you either won the poster that you hit or the (again sucky) prizes. But the star targets were all on posters that sucked (like dalmations lying on a pink blanket). There *was* this Janet Jackson poster that I wouldnt have minded having, but after the conversation me and T had had about Ms. Jackson ('cause I'm nasty =]), I thought it prudent not to pursue it.
We then even convinced Miss R to get on a spinning ride. The flat ride most loved by
so-called enthusiasts, though for the life of me I dont know why:
FLYING SCOOTERS: (Mfg. Unknown): SUCK-TACULAR
As I said, I dont find these rides to be anything special at all. But because people seem so enthralled with this "snapping" of the cables, I figured I'd give them another shot. First thing, T and I coupled up again and sent R into her own scooter. I thought the extra weight would help to 'stall' the tub. Perhaps this wasnt a good idea as the tubs was almost too small for me to have my legs in a proper seated position. Then to top it all off, the sail/fin had these "stop limits" that prevented a full range of motion. I think that even if I knew exactly what I was doing I still would not have been able to snap these. Hence, I just got a slightly tilted spinning ride with even little elevation change. What it *did* do was make all three of us a little dizzy. And looking at the ride after getting off was almost too much. We decided then that it was about time to pack it in. We took one more ride on the nearby Jack Rabbit. The station was straight infested with mosquitos and gnats. Our ride in the front in the dark was
the best yet. Not nearly a top ten wood, but fun indeed.
With that, we departed the park. For whatever reason, I didnt really even feel like getting a shirt or other park merchandise. The park was fine for what it was, a tiny family park. Not a park I'd say that everyone must *run* to get to, but if you're around, especially after 5pm you can drop in for a few rides. But I'm really becoming more and more convinced that I will never be a big small park man.
If you've read this far, and judging from your bloodshot eyes you have, take a moment to download your favorite song and listen to it with your eyes closed. They need a rest!
lata,
jeremy
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"To get inside this head of mine, would take a monkey-wrench, and a lot of wine" Res How I Do
Sounds like a nice little park. I wouldn't turn have gone to SFDL though but I haven't been to either.
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-Sean
Seabreeze and Sfdl are my to home parks.
Jack rabbit was my first coaster and Viper @ Sfdl was my first steelie, great trip report!!
2Hostyl said:
GYROSPHERE: Eli Bridge (?) indoor Scrambler with smoke and light effects; AIIGHT
Since I told them it was a spinning ride, R decided to sit it out while T and I rode. Here is where I expericenced a nice healthy dose of "anticipointment". You see, I used to think back in grammar school that it would be such a cool idea to enclose a scrambler with a disco ball and such. I had no clue until last year that there were places that had actually put that idea into effect. Well as soon as I sat in the seat, I knew it wasnt going to be that great. Why? Because the Scrambler had a seat divider! I've never seen that before. Half of the fun of Scramblers is squishing the person on the outside. I know that as kids we used to take turns squeezing 3 kids into them and changing up who was on the outside. (Scramblers used to be my favorite rides!) Anyway, they didnt play any music that I recognized, just some generic techno. The smoke wasnt very thick. And worst of all, the ride didnt move terribly fast. It wasnt a bad ride at all, but even with all the effects, it wasnt as much fun as say the Scarecrow Scrambler @ Holiday World.
If a fast, psychedelic indoor scrambler with no seat dividers is what you want, you must go to Conneaut and ride Ultimate Trip. The neon graphics painted on the walls are kind of cheesy but boy does that sucker fly. No fog but flashing funky lights with really loud music.
Aint life grand?
jeremy
--still scheming on a way to get to SFWoA/KW this season...but it dont look good
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"To get into this head of mine, would take a monkey-wrench, and a lot of wine" Res How I Do
Yeah, yeah, excuses, excuses. When you finally get around to it, let us know and we'll roll out the red carpet for you. ;)
Lori
--still bummed we didn't get to spend more time with you at SRM
2Hostyl said:
We decided, well *I* decided that we would all get in the same car, R in front and me and T squished in the back (it's a good thing I actually like her ). R protested, but I told her we'd be okay. Now I'm the lightest of the three of us.....
Second-to-last words of an obviously single man.
I think the last ones go something like, "Naw, babee, naw! I like all that bootay on you! Oooh, did I say that, too? Aahhhhh!!!!!!!" Followed by a few thuds and silence.
Now go get your own big belt...maybe a pre-emptive self-beating will spare you.
-'Playa
(who sure doesn't remember any loriu red carpet for him...hmmmpf)
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The CPlaya 100--6 days, 9 parks, 47 coasters, 2037 miles and a winner.....LoCoSuMo.
Jeremy in regards to your PTC ? I made the same mistake when I wrote my TR back in 07/2000. The original carousel burnt around 1996. The one you road was carved in house.
My 2000 Seabreeze TR is posted on my web site. I received a nice e-mail from somebody from Seabreeze pointing out my error which I later added an excerpt to my TR.
Regards,
Kevin Reid
PCW Junkies
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We are paid by those who have learned from our mistakes.
loriu said:
2Hostyl said:
GYROSPHERE: Eli Bridge (?) indoor Scrambler with smoke and light effects; AIIGHT
Since I told them it was a spinning ride, R decided to sit it out while T and I rode. Here is where I expericenced a nice healthy dose of "anticipointment". You see, I used to think back in grammar school that it would be such a cool idea to enclose a scrambler with a disco ball and such. I had no clue until last year that there were places that had actually put that idea into effect. Well as soon as I sat in the seat, I knew it wasnt going to be that great. Why? Because the Scrambler had a seat divider! I've never seen that before. Half of the fun of Scramblers is squishing the person on the outside. I know that as kids we used to take turns squeezing 3 kids into them and changing up who was on the outside. (Scramblers used to be my favorite rides!) Anyway, they didnt play any music that I recognized, just some generic techno. The smoke wasnt very thick. And worst of all, the ride didnt move terribly fast. It wasnt a bad ride at all, but even with all the effects, it wasnt as much fun as say the Scarecrow Scrambler @ Holiday World.
If a fast, psychedelic indoor scrambler with no seat dividers is what you want, you must go to Conneaut and ride Ultimate Trip. The neon graphics painted on the walls are kind of cheesy but boy does that sucker fly. No fog but flashing funky lights with really loud music.
They have four of those up here in New England. Whalom, Canobie, and Funtown all have Psychodrome, and there is another one I saw at one of the seaside parks9either Old Orchard, Quassy, or Salsbury). They're okay, but I really don't care for them. Whalom's was cool though, because they played heavy metal music instead of the wordles techno, too bad we wont see that again. You can also go up to Alaskaland, where Psychodrome is currently Alaska's only permanent thrill ride.
Also the tunes they play on Gyrosphere are The ''Gyro Mix'' by DJ Tornado and ''Fire on High'' by ELO.
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Lake Compounce-So Fresh and So Clean Clean
*** This post was edited by Vertigo on 9/12/2002. ***
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NITRO ~ The most EXPLOSIVE coaster on the planet!
Im not opinionated, im just always RIGHT!
As far as the carousel is concerned, it is partially a PTC. It is the frame of #31, originally built for Lakeside Park, Dayton, Ohio. It eventually wound up in the possesion of Bud Hurlbut. About ten years ago Bud "cleaned out the barn" and this machine was sold off in pieces by Norton Auctioneers.
After the fire Seabreeze obtained the frame from the party that had purchased it. Using the horses that were in the paint shop as models, Ed Roth carved a whole new set of horses for this frame. Noted Belgian organ builder Johnny Verbeek copied the Wurlitzer 165 in a private collection to replace the one lost in the conflagration.(I just wish they'd put the proper facade on it).
Interestingly, #31 was in production at approx.the same time as #36, the machine destroyed in the fire, in 1915.
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