Amusement Parks

[johnnYYac]

A friend posted this on Facebook today.  They're on vacation.



Reminded me of some great rides.  My most intense was this water slide in Orlando.  I was chaperone for a high school senior trip and we were at Universal.  This water park called Blizzard Beach had a slide called the Summit Plummet.  I have a pretty severe fear of heights, but I'm always challenging it.  This thing was damn near straight down and clocked me at 55 mph! 



Not sure I'm up for anything like that these days. 

[Jeff Murray]

Those are not the days you want to wear the speedo... at least not for the sake of the children at the end of the slide....

[capt. scotty]

Amusement Parks start and end with Cedar Point, at least if youre a roller coaster lover. There's no other like it.

Went to Hershey Park a couple times this past summer, fun time but couldnt touch Cedar Point. Its been around a decade since Ive been to Cedar Point, gotta get back sometime soon!

[FiddleCastro]

Amusement Parks start and end with Cedar Point, at least if youre a roller coaster lover. There's no other like it.

Went to Hershey Park a couple times this past summer, fun time but couldnt touch Cedar Point. Its been around a decade since Ive been to Cedar Point, gotta get back sometime soon!

Six Flags Great Adventure is a great park too.

[Crispy]

Amusement Parks start and end with Cedar Point, at least if youre a roller coaster lover. There's no other like it.

Went to Hershey Park a couple times this past summer, fun time but couldnt touch Cedar Point. Its been around a decade since Ive been to Cedar Point, gotta get back sometime soon!

I do need to hit that place...I grew up riding the rickety wooden deathtrap-seeming Mister Twister at Elitch Gardens in Denver, and the Mean Streak looks like a monster. I love those crazy old wooden things.

[Fully]

I'm.not the Fully that I used to be. I can't ride roller coasters any longer, Vertigo keeps me from doing it. I used to enjoy them when I was a kid, but the last time I rode a roller coaster, after I got off,everything was spinning and out of sorts for a good hour. Not the best feeling to have while I was on Tom Sawyer's Island. It wasn't even a difficult coaster. It was a lightweight one. But the head doesn't want what the head doesn't want. I won't even try to ride a serious coaster now not a weenie one either.i'm afraid of that feeling, it was miserable.

[el_chode]

A (North) Jersey legend, at least to those of us who were born in early to mid 80's and earlier:

[el_chode]

Amusement Parks start and end with Cedar Point, at least if youre a roller coaster lover. There's no other like it.

Went to Hershey Park a couple times this past summer, fun time but couldnt touch Cedar Point. Its been around a decade since Ive been to Cedar Point, gotta get back sometime soon!

I do need to hit that place...I grew up riding the rickety wooden deathtrap-seeming Mister Twister at Elitch Gardens in Denver, and the Mean Streak looks like a monster. I love those crazy old wooden things.

I was in Cedar Point as Katrina hit (a "remember where you where when..." moment). It was great, especially because many people were too fat to ride so the lines were short. Soooo many people on scooters. It also has some legacy rides that were banned out east because of lawsuits. I think it is the Praying Mantis at Cedar Point which was a standing coaster, the counterpoint being "Shockwave" at Great Adventure in NJ, banned in the mid 90s for too many injuries. Note: it hurts the balls. A lot.


Cedar Point has the highest concentration of coasters per square foot of park space. So awesome.


I remember reading once that Great Adventure in NJ is Six Flags' "test" park where new coasters are tested and/or existing models are exaggerated to test their limits. Example: Kingda Ka at great adventure is the same ride as the NASCAR experience at Cedar Point. But Kingda Ka was so big it only would work like one out of ten times when it first opened, so they had to tweak it more to make it work.

[johnnYYac]

A (North) Jersey legend, at least to those of us who were born in early to mid 80's and earlier:

what is that?  A water slide?

[el_chode]

A (North) Jersey legend, at least to those of us who were born in early to mid 80's and earlier:

what is that?  A water slide?

Yessir. From the notorious "Action Park", currently known as "Mountain Creek".

It was a sort of "rite of passage" - you weren't a man until you went to Action Park and lived to tell about it.

This slide was a mere monument by the time I went there. I think it only operated for a few weeks at most. Legend has it someone died, but I know it resulted in numerous injuries because the majority of people never generated enough momentum to take them around the loop without having gravity take over at the apex of the loop.

Other notable features: The park is fed by natural mountain streams. In other words, it's like swimming in snow melt year round. There is the Tarzan Swing which if you didn't time it right, you'd launch yourself into a wood-and-rock wall that surrounded the pool. Hilarious, really.

Then...the alpine slide. Oh the alpine slide, where they pre-empted your ride with a picture of a skinned thigh as the only caution to KEEP YOUR FUCKING LEGS TUCKED UP TIGHT. Basically, it was a dry water slide that was ridden with a modified skateboard that had a hand brake in the middle used to slow your descent. Of course, that rarely worked, and if your legs hit the side you got something between road rash and a flaying.

[johnnYYac]

Yeah, we had alpine slides aplenty here in NH.

[sweatboard]

Die

[manonthemoon]

Amusement Parks start and end with Cedar Point, at least if youre a roller coaster lover. There's no other like it.

Went to Hershey Park a couple times this past summer, fun time but couldnt touch Cedar Point. Its been around a decade since Ive been to Cedar Point, gotta get back sometime soon!

I do need to hit that place...I grew up riding the rickety wooden deathtrap-seeming Mister Twister at Elitch Gardens in Denver, and the Mean Streak looks like a monster. I love those crazy old wooden things.

I was in Cedar Point as Katrina hit (a "remember where you where when..." moment). It was great, especially because many people were too fat to ride so the lines were short. Soooo many people on scooters. It also has some legacy rides that were banned out east because of lawsuits. I think it is the Praying Mantis at Cedar Point which was a standing coaster, the counterpoint being "Shockwave" at Great Adventure in NJ, banned in the mid 90s for too many injuries. Note: it hurts the balls. A lot.


Cedar Point has the highest concentration of coasters per square foot of park space. So awesome.


I remember reading once that Great Adventure in NJ is Six Flags' "test" park where new coasters are tested and/or existing models are exaggerated to test their limits. Example: Kingda Ka at great adventure is the same ride as the NASCAR experience at Cedar Point. But Kingda Ka was so big it only would work like one out of ten times when it first opened, so they had to tweak it more to make it work.

Haven't been in over a decade, but Cedar Point is the king of parks if your a coster person.  All I remember is having to ride the coasters in the smallest to biggest order because once you do the big one the others do nothing for you.  The lines were pretty small compaired to most of the parks I have been too.  Might have to make it a point to hit it up this summer, the only problem is that it in Ohio so .....

[Ghosts_on_TV]

I used to go to Action Park with my Aunt and Uncle when I wasca kid. Dont think i ever did the loop slide but I remember the tarzan swing.

[pawpaw]

Dark Roasted Blend (awesome site, in general) has a series on abandoned amusement parks. Here's one of them:

http://www.darkroastedblend.com/2009/01/abandoned-amusement-parks-in-asia.html

My favorite amusement park is the Boardwalk in Santa Cruz. It's a pretty crusty place by modern standards, but that's absolutely part of the appeal for me.

[Fully]

Dark Roasted Blend (awesome site, in general) has a series on abandoned amusement parks. Here's one of them:

http://www.darkroastedblend.com/2009/01/abandoned-amusement-parks-in-asia.html

My favorite amusement park is the Boardwalk in Santa Cruz. It's a pretty crusty place by modern standards, but that's absolutely part of the appeal for me.

bbill, you reminded me of an article I read a couple of years ago about Jim and Tammy Faye Baker's failed empire's amusement park Heritage USA. Here's the link

[johnnYYac]

Dark Roasted Blend (awesome site, in general) has a series on abandoned amusement parks. Here's one of them:

http://www.darkroastedblend.com/2009/01/abandoned-amusement-parks-in-asia.html

My favorite amusement park is the Boardwalk in Santa Cruz. It's a pretty crusty place by modern standards, but that's absolutely part of the appeal for me.

bbill, you reminded me of an article I read a couple of years ago about Jim and Tammy Faye Baker's failed empire's amusement park Heritage USA. Here's the link

Wow, what a sad waste of money and space.

[tdb810]

I used to go to Action Park with my Aunt and Uncle when I wasca kid. Dont think i ever did the loop slide but I remember the tarzan swing.

me too me too me too.

Taking Chrissy to universal islands of adventure next week.  She is very excited to go on the "Hulk" rollercoaster, which means I am also going on it    Used to love rollercoasters, and Rolling Thunder was my favorite at Six Flags!

[bowl of soup]

I'm much too old for this sort of thing now (I think), but as a Florida lad I grew up and still live in very close proximity to the wonder that it is Orlando. I know, we all hate Disney - they watch you and heard you and take your money faster than a mugger, but "Enhanced" EPCOT is the best place in the world. And I'm not just talking about theme parks here.

Every sense is catered to, the cleanliness is impeccable, and you are given constant assurance that the future is going to be great and wonderful and vibrant and that nothing can go wrong. EPCOT without help sucks - "Enhanced" EPCOT is paradise.