Lake Compounce - October 8, 2022

My wife, sister, and I took a long weekend trip up to New England to hit Lake Compounce and SFNE. I had never been to Compounce before, nor had I heard of it before starting to dabble in these thoosie communities, so I was excited to check out such a quaint park with a world class coaster in Boulder Dash. I was also morbidly curious to see just how rough the Wildcat was.

I'll start with the rides and address park quality, crowds, food, etc afterwards. Disclaimer: any photos embedded are not mine.

• Boulder Dash - A masterpiece. Until just a few months ago, the only coasters I really enjoyed were woodies. I've never been on one like this before. I was able to get 3 rides on it. The first was a walk-on in the first hour of my visit. The second was a 10 minute wait for the very front. The third was a 30 minute wait or so for a middle car at night. Each time was a slightly different experience but each time was just incredible. The first ride was nuts as I didn't quite know what to expect. The second ride in the front row... Holy shit. If you are in Compounce you NEED to get on the front row of this ride. I was giggling like an idiot the entire time. The night ride was pure insanity, flying through the woods in the dead of night. I could ride this all day. The sense of speed is otherworldly. The ride just never seems to slow down. The drops and airtime over the hills are astounding. This is my ideal wooden roller coaster and easily in my top 3, potentially tied for #1.
• Wildcat - Everybody and their mom on the Internet says that this is the roughest coaster they've ever ridden. It's painful, you'll hurt your back, you'll hurt your neck, etc. My conclusion is that you all are a bunch of babies. I rode it once in the early afternoon and once later at night. The later ride was rougher as the temps had dropped to the mid 40s. The first drop and turn are very smooth, and while the rest of the ride is comparably much rougher, at no point would I describe the ride as painful. The seats and restraints are padded well enough to absorb the impacts. If there's any real criticism to make, it's that the ride's elements are relatively forceless. Without the bouncing around, it really wouldn't have much to offer at all. This is, to me, a good kind of rough.
• Phobia - A Premier Rides Skyrocket II clone. Fun and intense as the ride just makes it through the loop and twist on the second launch. If you have reservations against feeling the blood rush to your head, this is not the ride for you. A bit short, but there was virtually no wait for it all day.
• Zoomerang - Vekoma Boomerang clone. Sadly was closed my entire visit, but looked like it had a nice fresh paintjob.

Compounce is a great family park as well, with a good selection of flats:

• Carousel - A late 19th century Carousel in great shape. There is a Wurlitzer band organ built in, but they were using recorded music when I rode it.
• Train - A gentle train ride that takes you around the lake. You get a gorgeous view across the lake to the park from the other side.
• Down Time - A shockingly high 185ft drop tower for such a quaint park.
• Ghost Hunt - A ghost-themed dark ride where you shoot targets. Not particularly fun but had a huge line for the entire visit.
• Pirate Ship - Closed the entire time.
• Thunder and Lightning - S&S Swing ride. Seems old school, but these have only been around for 18 years. Surprisingly intense ride.
• Rev-O-Lution - Zamperla Disk'O. I've never seen one of these before. Pirate Ship meets Scrambler. Pretty fun.

This small park tucked away in a nice part of Connecticut makes for a great day trip. There is an impressive water park I'm sure gets packed during the summer. It's one of the smallest parks I've been to, with much of the listed acreage being provided by the lake and forested mountain area.

The setting of the park is gorgeous. There is a long driveway off the main road that leads to a gravel parking lot, then a small walk through a tunnel to the park itself. The entrance is as pretty as amusement parks get - nice buildings and the Wildcat with the forested hills in the foreground. With the leaves changing color, this was even prettier than the picture. Boulder Dash also benefitted from the fall foliage.

There are a lot of children's rides and admission is cheaper than SFNE or other competing parks, which makes this ideal for families. You can bring your toddler or your grandma here. Very comfortable and welcoming park atmosphere.

Ride ops were efficient enough with a skeleton crew, but extremely friendly and definitely enjoying themselves. This is in stark contrast to the clearly-miserable kids running the rides at Six Flags. The kid working Boulder Dash for my second ride warned that the park could not retrieve any items lost on the ride as they would be stolen by the Mountain People - and that Lake Compounce would not feel bad for you if it happened.

The park opened at 12 and was a ghost town until about 2 or 3 PM. Every ride was a walk-on for hours! If it had been me alone I probably would have just marathoned Boulder Dash over and over, but my wife and sister were not quite as eager to repeat it as I was.

The food is decent. There's a Johnny Rockets, a pizza stand, a sandwich place, and a couple of smaller snack stands. Towards the end of the night as the temps approached the low 40s, the ice cream stand towards the front of the park began selling hot cocoa and coffee. The hot cocoa was the worst Swiss Miss crap imaginable, but it was just nice to warm my hands on the cup.

At night, there are some really great lighting effects on the rides, and the park is generally well lit. The ferris wheel and drop tower both looked great. Wild Cat has some antique-looking lamps on the lift hill. Boulder Dash, of course, is shrouded in total darkness, which just adds to the experience.

I'm not much for haunted houses and the like, and this was no exception. We waited nearly an hour to get into one called MediEvil and it was a real waste of time. Would have been better served going on rides during that time.

For the overall experience and bargain admission price ($30 sale), I'd go back to Lake Compounce. It's a good day trip or stop on the way up to SFNE.

TL;DR:

• Small park, low crowds early, bigger crowd at night
• Admission was a bargain
• One world class coaster in Boulder Dash, one good vintage rough-and-tumble woodie in Wildcat, and two good clones
• Excellent park for families with a wide selection of flats, children's rides, and a big water park
• One of the most beautiful parks I've ever been to
• Worth a day trip or a stop if you're passing through