Every year, that I go, I make sure to snap a pic with the cop. I haven't gone, this year, yet...hopefully, he's still there.

 

I do too, it's a damned shame. it still runs great, it's smooth for such an old wooden, hell it's smoother then some steels, it' an iconic legend and a fan favorite. what the hell were they thinking? just because its old? well revolution and gold rusher are old, matterhorn and space mountain are older still and the coney island cyclone is as old the hills. if they were gonna get rid of anything, get rid of that painful, jerky Green Lantern.

 

Geauga Lake had that name since 1887, long before Six Flags or Cedar Fair came along. The park had been struggling for a while, then Six Flags bought it (and the Sea World across the way) in an attempt to establish a foothold in Ohio and try their hand at a marine park. They put a bunch of new roller coasters in the first year (The Villain, Batman, Superman, and Mindbender), and another one the next year (X-Flight). Unfortunately, their experiment didn't work, and they decided to sell the park to Cedar Fair. In 2007, Cedar Fair then took the best rides to King's Island (which they also acquired), left the waterpark open as 'Wildwater Kingdom,' and let the rest of the park fall into ruin.

 

I've got some questions for you guys.
What was your first thrill ride?

What was the first ride you were too small to go on?

Did any ride ever truly scare the crap outta you?

Any rides you hate?

Any non thrill type rides you love?

My first big ride was Colossus at Magic Mountain, I went with my grandpa and I loved it.

The first ride I can remember being told I was too young to go on was Montezuma's Revenge at Knotts Berry Farm, I was upset, but you know what? it was disappointing anyways.

Only one ride ever truly scared the holy ever living hell outta me. I screamed and cried bloody murder and I've never been that afraid of a coaster since. That was this carnie ride called Hi-Roller at the county fair.

I only saw that one once and I've never seen it again. I dragged my poor old grandma on it. it looks tame, by a more seasoned coaster rider's standards but as a little kid at the time and by any coaster lover's standards...looks can be deceiving. here's a video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBEP4KuY1ic

I don't like Wild Mouse type coasters, or any ride that jerks you around like your in a car wreck,
tea cup rides make me sick to my stomach, bumper cars
freakin bumper cars, no matter what I do, I always end up with the one that won't work, happens without fail!

Non thrill rides that I love
carousels, the prettier the better
log flumes
trains
mine cart rides
stage coaches
rapid rides

 

IIRC they also pretty much took all the kiddie rides (which were multiple near-identical "carousel" rides, except they were the low-to-the ground vehicle kind that used the exact same structure and only differed in the vehicles used) and turned it into a second kids area in Cedar Point near the Windseeker and the Ferris Wheel.

Fortunately, I think they made the right call by moving X-Flight (renamed Firehawk) down to Kings Island after they decided to cut losses with Geauga Lake. It's only one of three flying Vekoma type coasters in the world and KI badly needed something new when it was finally coming off of Paramount Park management. I had the pleasure of riding it at night and holy goddamn it is truly a unique experience. In my opinion, Cedar Fair understands how to run parks as parks and not just a place full of Rollercoasters that was the product of the old Coaster Wars like Magic Mountain (which, given how pointless half the gimmicky stuff on Full Throttle is like that reverse launch, makes me thing MM is still trying to fight that war),

 

Figured I'd post this since it's theme park related:

Glitch evacuates Transformers ride at Universal Orlando | Theme Parks

 

Green Lantern kicked my ass
I am a woman and a well endowed one at that everytime the ride went forward the rubber shoulder harnesses bit into my boobs and collarbones everytime it went backwards I smacked my head against the back of it.
I've never gone on it since

 

Its been a long time since I went but MarineLand Canada was a kick ass place to visit. I remember going there after visiting Niagra Falls, and it was on the way to Toronto. I distinctly remember a huge roller coster, that you could see the falls from at the apex.( the Dragon?)

Since they are also a zoo and A marine animal sancutary they also have amazing animal exhibits.

One of my life highlights, no BS, was at marineland. They house Orca's there and I was at the end of the day, able to go to the "maintance" pen, and I spent 5 minutes with that majestic animal and it was amazing - so calm and docile well at least to me he was, he brought up his flipper to me, I petted him etc.

 

I am quite fond of Universal Studios Hollywood. It was great going to my first amusement park for a huge bulk of my life. The scenery was great. My favorite part about it was waiting for a ride down just to be greeted by the music of Jurassic Park then proceeding to ride the River Adventure. It was an awesome experience for me. To be honest, I don't remember it being hot. Maybe I was ignoring it because I was having a massively good time.

 

Damn, now ALL the Premade Real-world parks in the First Two Rollercoaster Tycoons will be badly out of date (RCT1 had the three big British parks, while RCT2 had the two major Six Flags parks)

 

I don't know about you guys but this is the best theme park around, bar none:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1WR5tAYO83s

 

The last time I've been to Six Flags Over Georgia was 11 years ago. Since then I heard the place is run down.

 

I feel ya on those shoulder harnesses. I went on this upside down pirate ship ride at Busch Gardens in FL and...well...my uh boobs had to get stuffed in the harness and it didn't feel good. I'll take the headache over a smashed boob ache any day of the week. :s

 

The entire family and I are going to Cedar Point as part of our vacation this weekend. I haven't been on vacation in over 10 years and haven been to Cedar Point in about 17 years. It's going to be interesting to see what rides are still there and what new ones exist. I know that at one point it was the highest ranked amusement park for rollercoasters in the country, hope it still is.

 

It is. While it doesn't have the world record for most coasters (used to be 17 until they demolished Disaster Transport and scrapped the aging Wildcat), it has the best.

and 17 years? Dude, the first thing you must do is beat the lines by racing for Millennium Force's line first thing (also get fastpass, you will NOT regret this if you mainly ride the big ticket attractions). Millennium Force is bar none the best roller coaster in the world.

And then you go and ride Maverick*. Then Top Thrill. Then Gatekeeper.

I hope your family plans on staying for the whole weekend, you're going to NEED it if you want to experience everything you've missed in the last 17 years.

(* word of advice: when you are on Maverick and enter the tunnel under the loading station, for all that is holy you need to lean to the left in preparation for the banked turn until you exit the tunnel. The hard bank turn you launch into is nasty if you don't do this. I speak from experience)

 

Cool and thanks for the tips. Yea, it's about 3.5 hours away for me and I normally don't make the time to travel much any more. Plus, being old and all, it's hard to get the guys together and go anywhere outside of the occasional ball game as they all have kids and such. It's a weekend va-k but only one day at the Point so I think Fast Lane Plus may be a must for me, that way I can ride all the rides I want as fast as possible then hit the waterpark and hang out with my nephews for the rest of the time.

 

Yeah, the big five you should plan on hitting with fast pass plus (which is going to be the only way you will have time to do all this and spend a large portion of the day with your nephews later) are Millennium Force, Maverick, Magnum XL-200, Top Thrill Dragster, and Gatekeeper. Going in order, that has you starting from the middle-left of the park and going clockwise until you're near the main entrance (Gatekeeper's "Gimmick" is that the track sends trains through the actual park gate multiple times along with having the highest elevation for an inversion - the top of the lift hill into the dive loop - in the world. In order to do this, the ride was built on top of the former sites of Disaster Transport and the defunct Space Spiral), then as you work your way to the back of the park to go to Soak City, you can hit any of the thrill rides or any other coasters you want to ride like Bluestreak, Raptor, Iron Dragon, and Mantis.

Also, be prepared to pay more for Soak City unless you get a combined "Ride and Slide" ticket, and that you need to make sure you get the Fast Pass ahead of time as they're limited in number and while they do have kiosks set up at the entrance gates to sell Fast Passes, they may not have any on the day you go.

 

They WHAT?! I hated that Roller Coaster with a passion, but that queue line was cool. That kind of sucks.

 

I remember when it was 'Avalanche Run,' and there was never a wait for it. Then they put an air-conditioned building around it, and everybody loved it again. I was more annoyed about demolishing the Space Spiral. I loved that ride as a kid, and was looking forward to taking my too-small-for-coasters kids on it. They could have just moved it to the long stretch of hot pavement outside the Mean Streak. It's not like they're ever going to have the queue lines out to the railroad tracks for it like the first couple of seasons.