Waldameer - June 3, 2023

After a fantastic day at Knoebels, my wife and I moved on to stop #2: Waldameer in Erie, PA. On the way up from our hotel, we stopped at a great little breakfast joint called Aunt Bee's in Cochranton. It was a windy, somewhat blustery day out by the lake.

I'll start with the coasters and rides, and address park quality, crowds, food, etc afterwards. Embedded photos may not be mine.

• Ravine Flyer II (2x - back, front) - This is an intense 2008 Gravity Group woodie (on steel frame) built on the site of the original (relatively short-lived) Ravine Flyer. Interestingly, the ride was largely designed by the defunct CCI in the late 90s/early 2000s, and by the time the legal red tape was cleared up for its construction, CCI had gone bankrupt. It starts with a majestic 120 ft drop just by the shore of Lake Erie. The view of the lake from the top of the hill is one of the prettiest coaster views you'll get anywhere. The coaster also has a unique element, crossing over the highway twice on an arch bridge. With a top speed of 60 mph, 10 airtime hills and whippy banked turns, this is easily the most intense attraction at Waldameer. Sadly, I felt it was heavily marred by roughness. I walked off with a bad headache after riding in the back. A few hours later after the headache fully subsided, I decided to try the front to get a better feel for the coaster's speed and to see if it was any gentler. Unfortunately, the front was no better. I'm usually not sensitive to rough woodies (Wildcat at Lake Compounce didn't hurt me at all), but this one hit me just the right way to give me headaches. Don't get me wrong - layout is great and it's a fun intense coaster, but the headaches were real bad. It's possible this ride was affected by the somewhat colder temperatures and high winds that day.
• Comet (2x - front, middle) - A nice little 1950s PTC woodie. It's not particularly smooth, but it's a small enough ride that it doesn't really matter too much (25 ft drop, 25 mph top speed). ACE considers it a "coaster classic" - buzz bars, no seat divider, no headrests, and choose-your-own-seat. Criteria seems a bit arbitrary, but it is what it is. Worth a ride or two.
• Steel Dragon (1x, going backwards) - A fun Maurer spinning coaster built in 2004. A lot like Hersheypark's Laff Trakk, but outdoors. Line moves a bit slow but that's the nature of this type of coaster. A good fun ride.

Waldameer offers a good selection of flat rides as well, with some unique experiences in there:

• Ali Baba - Nice magic carpet ride.
• Spider - I was excited to see this as I hadn't ridden one or seen one in ages. Pretty sure every subsequent park we visited on this trip had some variant of the Spider.
• Wipeout - Chance Rides Wipeout/Trabant. I was SO excited to ride this, as I hadn't been on one since Hersheypark removed the Rodeo in 2008. I was heartbroken to see this ride disassembled. Apparently they're waiting on a custom part. Not many of these left!
• Carousel - I expected a bit more charm from the carousel of a park this old. Turns out their original 1908 Carousel was auctioned off in the late 80s with some other rides, with the proceeds used to expand Water World.
• L. Ruth Express Train - This train takes you on a pretty nice tour of the park, all the way back to the Ravine Flyer/swings area.
• Sky Ride - Also worth it for the scenic view of the park's main drag.
• Pirates Cove - A very unique 1972 walk-through dark ride designed by Bill Tracy. This was extremely disorienting and, as someone with mild claustrophobia, just a bit panic-inducing. A girl who looked to be about 13 was waiting around the last turn to scream full-bore in my face which really added to the experience. Hope you got your kicks.
• Whacky Shack - Another dark ride designed by Bill Tracy, this time a haunted house. Interesting from a historical standpoint.
• Dodg'ems - Really good 1970s bumper cars with a nice long cycle and no middle partition to get in the way!

Waldameer is one of the oldest parks in the country and one of 13 "trolley parks" still operating. Even compared to Knoebels, Waldameer is downright diminuitive, coming in at only 34 acres for the entire property. Much like Knoebels, admission to the grounds is free, and you can either buy a ride-all-day wristband or pay-per-ride using the "Wally card" points system.

With the park being so small, it's easy to find your way around. It's a charming little place with a good lineup of rides and an impressive water park. The crowds were actually pretty good on a Saturday, and there were definitely some longer-than-expected waits. Ravine Flyer only ran one train, which didn't help things.

Ravine Flyer broke down twice while we were on line for the ride. The first time, we would have been on the next train, and the ride ops told us we could wait in the station. Abruptly, another op shouted "GET THEM OUT OF HERE," and we were scolded at to leave the station, and told we could wait in the queue. Then we were once again rudely scolded and told to leave the queue entirely. I was annoyed to waste 30-40 minutes in line and then, on top of that, get treated poorly. In general I thought the staff were not particularly friendly at this park. That doesn't usually bother me, but this was enough to detract from my overall experience a bit. The second breakdown was about a 15 minute delay, once again we would've been on the next train. At least we eventually got on that time.

The food all seemed to be decent. We got a bucket of fries as a snack and they were great - real fresh-cut russet potatoes, no frozen crap here.

The park's hours were rather generous, opening at 12 and closing at 9. There's more than enough time to go on all the rides at least once, and to sit down for some food. My wife broke off for a little bit during the day to check out the water park (absolutely not my thing) and enjoyed it.

Overall, Waldameer is certainly worth a visit if you're in the area. I wouldn't go out of my way to come back, but it's a good way to spend the day. If you love woodies, Ravine Flyer certainly makes it worth the visit.

So we began our road trip with two smaller, more traditional amusement parks. The next two days would be spent in a much, much different place...

TL;DR:

• A small regional park with an elite-tier, albeit rough, woodie in Ravine Flyer
• Some smaller coasters that are still pretty fun
• A good selection of flats and unique antique rides
• Worth a visit if you're nearby, but not worth going out of your way