Associated parks:
Waldameer Park, Erie, Pennsylvania, USA
The wife and I stopped at Waldameer on our way from Cleveland to Niagara Falls. Neither of us had been to the park before and my main motivation for going was to ride Ravine Flyer. I knew the park was small, but I didn’t realize how small until we got there. Not that this is a bad thing, it’s a very nice change of pace from Cedar Point and Kings Island. We did the Whacky Shack first. We might have skipped this ride if I hadn’t read about its 40 anniversary on CoasterBuzz. It was fun in a goof sort of way. Next was Steel Dragon which was a nice little coaster.
For lunch was had a couple of meat ball subs which I highly recommend, and they were cheap for amusement park food. We had some chocolate covered Oreos and a Carmel apple later in the day. I thought Waldameer’s food was good and very reasonably priced.
After lunch we did the Farris wheel and then finally Ravine Flyer. The ride did not disappoint at all. The pacing was incredible as was the view of Lake Erie from the top of the hill. I’m a big fan of tunnels on coasters and Flyer’s tunnels are positioned perfectly for maximum effect. I would love to ride this at night some year. The coaster was a little too intense for my wife (KI’s Diamondback is more her style) so I did a second solo lap later in the day.
Next we rode the Comet which was a bit difficult to find among all the big old trees. What amazed me about Waldameer is how much stuff they packed into a small area. The Carousel is almost completely hidden by game and food stands.
We played a couple of the games. The wife sunk 2 out of 3 putts at the putting challenge to win a big green stuffed dog. After that we continued our trip to the falls. We had a good afternoon at the park and hopefully can make it back in future summers.
Nice TR. For a little park, Waldameer packs in a lot of things to see and do. Definitely not a place where you can cover everything in an hour.
Nice TR! Thanks too: I was trying to think of something cheepish and fun to do this Sunday and your TR reminded me that I'm only ~2 hours from Waldameer. If the weather's nice I think I'm gonna throw some friends in the car and drag them up there. Glad you enjoyed it, I was pleasantly surprised by Waldameer when I visited for the first time the year RFII opened. It's an easy day trip from Pittsburgh and there's a surprising amount to do at such a small place, especially if you hit the waterpark.
Bill
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