Waldameer (7/3/06)

Woke up to the sounds of a thunderstorm. No matter what the weather was, I was going to Waldameer because of my dad's company picnic.

When I got there the parking lot was very full despite the pouring rain and heavy winds. The only ride not operating was the Sky Ride. I was surprised to see the Ferris Wheel open. I decided to eat some gross food at the picnic before riding in hope the weather would clear up. The rain never really stopped and the winds seemed to get worse.

The rides. Sea Dragon was as usual, one of the best rides in the small park. Thunder River is still in my opinion one of the best unthemed flumes around. It obviuosly had no line. Ali Baba was your typical flying carpet ride. Pirates Cove is still fun to sprint through and see how fast you can get through, and slide under the bars. The house itself is still a great walkthrough. Wacky Shack had a long line (longer than usual) because the ride was indoor and the line covered. No matter how many times I ride this it will never get boring. I love all the old surprises and effects. The Ferris Wheel has an awesome view of Presque Isle. The waves on the lake were huge. Also, I got rides on Scrambler, Paratrooper, Spider, Wipeout, and Dodgems.

The Coasters. Comet is a classic. Something about it is still just fun even though its a junior. Through the years this coaster has not changed a bit. The ride is not bumpy or jerky, and I have yet to have a bad ride. The Steel Dragon by far is the most thrilling ride/coaster in the park. The first drop is great and the overbank is cool too. The ride unlike other spinners is not jerky at all.

Water World was empty so I took advantage. The water park has a lot of variety. I can even say it was better than Cedar Point's Soak city. Soak City has a lot, but it seems there a lot of the slides that are redundant.(You ride one, you've ridden them all) Water World has many different slides. The tube slides all are different in layout and theme. The body slides range from free fall, speed, and length. And to go along with slides you got the freezing endless river.

The weather throughout the entire day seemed to have no effect on the crowd. The park had more people than usual in fact. Despite the horrible weather, I ended up having a good day.

Glad you had a good day dispite the weather and unusual crowd. Seems like a nice little park. You just happen to miss their "new" ride, which is there from the 7th to the 16th as a "preview"
http://www.waldameer.com/EmailCntst.html
Its a drop tower thats 90 feet tall, for now, and they are having a vote (Im almost sure the 140 foot tower will win) along with a naming contest. I picked "Daredevil's Descent" *** Edited 7/5/2006 6:40:11 PM UTC by P18***

Again, I can't say enough about small traditional parks. They provide a more relaxed experience at a very affordable price. The one thing that these parks need is continued patronage so that they will survive and continue to get better.

It's great that Waldameer will be getting a drop tower. That and the future Ravine Flyer II will bring more visitors in from other places such as Buffalo, Cleveland and Pittsburgh. None of these places are lacking when it comes to parks but a park like Waldameer, Seabreeze, or Conneaut Lake provides such a change of pace from the bigger parks.

The race track with the slots thats going in will help them too.

The trick there is advertising. I don't know where Waldameer advertises at, but I had never heard of it until the summer of 2004, and that was just because I stumbled across it online. Virtually noone here down in the Cleveland area has ever heard of it.

Tom

In fact I'm going to the drop tower tonight.

Can't wait, when they give you a survey, make it good.

When Ravine Flyer II is completed, that is when we can expect to hear more about this park in cities other than Erie.

Any word of a target date for that Ravine Flyer II (or target YEAR?) I know they've had mounds of legal setbacks.

I took my son to Waldameer last year. It is still a GREAT little park, and reminded me a lot of West View (sans the 2 great coasters West View had). The Comet is a neat little package for what it is. I love the traditional flats as well, and this park is clean, wasn't overly crowded, and has all the charm of what I grew up with. No themes here, just cool rides wherever they would fit! :) *** Edited 7/13/2006 6:49:21 AM UTC by Chooch249***

Probably the features that Waldameer has most in common with the former West View Park are the sky ride over the midway and the 2 Tracey dark attractions, Wackey Shack and Pirates Cove.

West View had three Tracey dark attractions, the two story Haunted House, the Boot Hill walkthrough, and Davy Jones Locker, a retheming of the old Ride 'n' Laff darkride.

As was mentioned here, the main things that West View had that Waldameer lacks were the two big coasters. One can still get some of the West View coaster experience about 30 miles to the south, however, by riding the Blue Streak at Conneaut Lake which was designed by the same person that built the West View Dips. *** Edited 7/13/2006 12:01:16 PM UTC by Arthur Bahl***

I am a volunteer firefighter just outside of West View, and my company was called to all the major WVP fires after it closed.

Sadly, my very first fire call as a junior member was 1-1-78, which claimed the life of one of our own firefighters. That was the fire that destroyed the old horse stable. Many more "mice with matches" type fires followed, the Dips (I missed that one), Boot Hill (we heard West View get toned out for it, ran outside of our own station about a mile away and ashes were falling on the cars parked outside), the Talkie Temple.... vandals with no respect for life, property, or memories.... sad.

Boot hill was cool, although it always smelled like pee.... :p

The biggest West View Park fire, of course, was the Danceland fire that leveled the ballroom that was once a stop for major entertainers. This occurred while the park was still in operation. There was a time when the big bands played here when they came to Pittsburgh. Even the Rolling Stones appeared here during their earlier days.

Some of the stunts from West View's Haunted House are now found in a darkride at Erieview Park, a small park located between Erie and Cleveland.

Well, seeing i'm going this Saturday to my Father-in-laws company picnic, I'll check out the drop tower and get to ride all the great classic rides again.

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Arthur Bahl said:
Probably the features that Waldameer has most in common with the former West View Park are the sky ride over the midway and the 2 Tracey dark attractions, Wackey Shack and Pirates Cove.

West View had three Tracey dark attractions, the two story Haunted House, the Boot Hill walkthrough, and Davy Jones Locker, a retheming of the old Ride 'n' Laff darkride.

As was mentioned here, the main things that West View had that Waldameer lacks were the two big coasters. One can still get some of the West View coaster experience about 30 miles to the south, however, by riding the Blue Streak at Conneaut Lake which was designed by the same person that built the West View Dips. *** Edited 7/13/2006 12:01:16 PM UTC by Arthur Bahl***

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The Blue Streak is almost a mirror image of the West View dips,the one big differance is the turn around.

Ed Vettel I believe built both of them.

The last small dip on West View's Dips packed a much stronger whallop as well! That was airtime at it's finest!

^^Yes it did.The Blue Streak use to have some pop to its last drop before they started using that trim brake before the turn around.Not as good as the Dips though.

I burst out laughing when I saw that 90 foot tower. My mom who hates drop towers with a passion even said she could handle it. I didn't even waste the money to ride it. Good thing the news said Waldameer is 99% sure of purchasing the 140 ft tower.

It is interesting that Waldameer is polling people on whether the permanent tower should be 90 or 140 feet tall. They have already pretty much made up their mind to get the big one but it does give them some publicity in the meantime. The real question is, what will the ride's name be? KW got a lot of attention from holding a naming contest for their Screamin' Swing.

My favorite name for an existing drop tower is Down Time at LC. This fit the nature of the ride and led to nice theming of the tower but it also poked some fun at SFNE for having so many of its rides down so often.

Did anyone else put in a name?