Waldameer Discussion Thread

^ I sat in the 3rd row the first time, then the first row, which both were bad, the first was a little better, but not by a whole lot.

Also I really think the Wally Cards are an innovative and great idea, it's good for kids or teens if parents are gonna send their kids off on their own for a while, and it's easier than cash.

^ Sorry to hear about your rough rides on RF2.

 

I drove out a couple of weeks ago, bought the Wally card and did two rides on it - once in the next to last seat and once in the front. Both rides were sublime.

Same here -- similar seats, too! Some of the GG woodies can be ornery, but I think Ravine Flyer has been running really well. It's definitely wild and aggressive, but the park has kept it fun and totally free of jackhammering and potholes.

That said, there are a ton of factors that influence ride experience; for example, Magnum reviews are regularly all over the place -- and I've had my share of terrific, terrible, and just okay rides on it. I've also had night rides on Millennium Force that are coaster nirvana, and then I get back on it the following morning and both the coaster and I are groggy. It's definitely possible to get thrown around on Ravine Flyer, but I hope you'll give it another chance, DarienPoint!

Great reports! Waldameer is a bucket-list park for me. I was in the area a couple of years back, but couldn't swing it with my schedule. The coaster looks fantastic, but the dark rides look amazing too.

I took my brother to Waldameer on Saturday night. He grew up in Erie, but lives in South Carolina now. He was visiting for the weekend and said he hadn't been to the park for about 20 years so he hadn't been on Ravine Flyer 2 yet.

We wandered around a little and looked at all the remembered rides from childhood and the expansions that have happened in the past decade or so. The park was the busiest that I've seen it in years (I never visit over the weekend though) so that's good for the future of the park.

The review from someone who had never ridden RF2 before was that he thought it was fantastic and he was amazed that Waldameer has a "real" roller coaster. (the only coaster there the last time he was in the park was the Comet)

Overall a good time and a nice review of the park and the prime attraction.

Even though it's been known for a while, Waldameer has officially announced their new-for-2019 "Chaos", a Zamperla looping pendulum ride. https://www.facebook.com/pg/Waldameer/posts/

I have been visiting Waldameer since 1991 and it has been a blast watching the park grow and expand. Mr. Nelson has made terrific choices in their additions over the years and the result of that has been a small park that has thrived rather than faded away like so many others have. While Chaos is definitely too intense for these old bones, it will be fun to watch others go head-over-heels for the first time at Waldameer since a Loop-O-Plane was there way before my time!

Even though it's been known for a while, Waldameer has officially announced their new-for-2019 "Chaos"

a Zamperla looping pendulum ride. https://www.facebook.com/pg/Waldameer/posts/

Kidding. Those are great rides and it's a great addition. But like... for a second there I was losing my sh*t.

Perfect ride for this park!

Another nice flat for the park! Is this their first inverting ride?

Like coasterbill, I too wish that this was an actual Chance Chaos. But alas, it is not to be! At least the park still has a Sky Ride though.

And CanobieCoaster, yes, this is the only ride at the park that turns passengers upside-down. I do recall reading something here (or perhaps in a video) that the park is going to see how well the upside-down option goes over with visitors. If they feel it would be better off as a non-inverting frisbee ride, they can set the ride cycle that way. Of course, I could just be hallucinating with all of the medication I have been on recently!

Like coasterbill, I too wish that this was an actual Chance Chaos. But alas, it is not to be! At least the park still has a Sky Ride though.

 

And CanobieCoaster, yes, this is the only ride at the park that turns passengers upside-down. I do recall reading something here (or perhaps in a video) that the park is going to see how well the upside-down option goes over with visitors. If they feel it would be better off as a non-inverting frisbee ride, they can set the ride cycle that way. Of course, I could just be hallucinating with all of the medication I have been on recently!

I too have read somewhere that said they purposely have had nothing in the park that went upside down. I guess they are using this as a starting point.

Personally I think that drop tower is far more terrifying than most inversions, but that may be just me.

A nice little write-up today in the local paper about Waldameer and their "half century of Transformation"

https://www.goerie.com/news/20190217/half-century-of-transformation-at-eries-waldameer

In addition to Chaos for this year, the park is also installing a new "hot tub" / relaxing pool to the new expansion area (between Kidz Zone and the Wave Pool) which has a capacity of 125-people. The capacity is a 3x bump over the old pool which I believe will also operate this year as "overflow" but will be removed in the future.

It has also been announced but not discussed here yet that they are removing their two speed slides (good riddance) and in it's place installing a 6-lane "Rally Racer" slide (same as Whitecap Racer at Hersheypark) for 2020.

A couple of other notes from the article regarding upcoming future expansion (no timetable, other than these are in their new 10-year plan):

• "Lazy/Endless River" to be expanded by at least 50%.
  
• "5-person raft ride with a tunnel and a tower"
  
• "Automobile ride" to replace the pavilions closest to Comet near train station.
  
• Hints at Fall / Halloween operations

As a local who only lives two minutes down the street, I'm excited for their dedication and continuing investment into the park. Definitely one of the bright spots of Erie.

I thought they were rumored to get a new coaster in a few years? Guess not. Me and my wife made our first visit to this park this year. We really liked it. Ravine Flyer is easily in my top 5 wood coasters

It's still possible that they add a new coaster in the near future, but they won't tip their caps at that until they are ready to announce it. The second you say "we're adding a coaster" without concrete plans in place, you risk a lot.

Hell, it might seem like a distant memory now but the whole 10-year long fiasco with Ravine Flyer was a mess of a situation (Park getting construction variances and clearances and their battle with the Candelas, which I never understood). Luckily it worked out, but it had so many hurdles and was so drawn out I don't see them saying stuff too early like that again in the future.

I'm still curious what they will do with that hillside behind Rainbow Gardens in the future. They did a lot of land clearing and shaping in that area in the past couple of years.

Oh nice. I like that a lot of their stuff is heated. I went in August and the water was still pretty cold in the non-heated pools. A hot tub would do well here, I think.

The old little hot tub is always packed, it will be nice to see the upgrade (even though I stay out of public hot tubs and their human soup) The most exciting thing on this list is the expansion of the lazy river, it has always been one of my favorite parts of Water World.

I think there are "plans" for a new coaster but nothing is concrete enough to announce to the public. They have said they would like to add another one eventually, but the issue in the park will always be space, they will have to build on their property heading down toward the lake. They have been working on really improving the water park a lot in the past few years and it is worlds better than it was a decade ago.

My biggest question with Waldameer, over the past few years, has been why Ravine Flyer II uses PTC trains and not Timberliners. Either way I'm glad to hear they are continuing to expand, they didn't expand very quickly when I was a kid.

^ I completely agree. It's amazing to see the transformation alone in the water park after almost completely neglecting it (upgrades wise) since it's installation.

In terms of the coaster, I know it has to be in their plans. Once ajfelice starts talking at all about it, then we know it'll be close to on it's way

The article did state that they do have all of the land they need for their current 10-year plan, but they are not opposed to new land buys if the price is right and it makes sense (quoted Nelson as saying if the price is in range he's "buying it") so that's always good to hear.

Please buy out that old trailer park in front of the park that is prime for development

I'm sure that is more-or-less the land that was being referred to. I'm sure the park would love that piece of property as it is the only barrier from them owning all of the land from lake/Sara's Campground to West 6th Street.

As of now, this is (as far as I know) the land map of the land they own.

Red = Current Developed Park, Yellow = Parking / Roadway, Blue = Undeveloped Owned Land

So much speculation, l love it.

Expansion plans stretching out 5-10 years are ambitious, but also flexible. Nothing is for certain until pen meets paper on a contract for a new attraction which isn't always far in advance as one may think. What I can say is that Chaos will not be an outlier in thrilling attractions to come for the water park and dry park. The word "roller coaster" is discussed in terms of future larger and smaller possibilities. We definitely want another thrilling coaster, but most importantly we are looking to best serve our families with young children.

I wouldn't put too much speculation into the lakeshore at this time. Recent projects in that area were for drainage expansion to accommodate a giant wave pool. On a positive note, there are some innovative plans to more efficiently use our developed land. Feel free to guess away for that.

As for this...

My biggest question with Waldameer, over the past few years, has been why Ravine Flyer II uses PTC trains and not Timberliners. Either way I'm glad to hear they are continuing to expand, they didn't expand very quickly when I was a kid.

Great question. For now, Ravine Flyer II will run PTCs. Looking back to 2006-2008, Timberliners were still in development, Millennium Flyers were not being fitted onto non-GCI rides yet, and the single-bench PTC would have been a prototype and the risk after a decade of waiting wasn't worth taking. Why don't we just make the switch now? Our current trains have not reached the end of their service life by any means, and the cost of switching would take away greatly from other expansions and improvements. Lastly, a death blow to a season would be extended downtime for Ravine Flyer II if there were teething issues with new trains.

Why don't we just make the switch now? Our current trains have not reached the end of their service life by any means, and the cost of switching would take away greatly from other expansions and improvements.

Bingo. A park doesn't just switch out for a new set of trains because there's a newer model available. I'd bet that those trains still have a long life ahead of them, and Ravine Flyer II still kicks all kinds of butt.

Great question. For now, Ravine Flyer II will run PTCs. Looking back to 2006-2008, Timberliners were still in development, Millennium Flyers were not being fitted onto non-GCI rides yet, and the single-bench PTC would have been a prototype and the risk after a decade of waiting wasn't worth taking. Why don't we just make the switch now? Our current trains have not reached the end of their service life by any means, and the cost of switching would take away greatly from other expansions and improvements. Lastly, a death blow to a season would be extended downtime for Ravine Flyer II if there were teething issues with new trains.

I actually didn't know the timeline for the development of the timberlines. I love Ravine Flyer as it is so I have no issue at all with the PTC trains. It was just a curiosity that now has an answer (timberliner trains being in development when the coaster was put in).

Heading to the park Saturday! Hopefully the weather is not too terrible. Cant wait... first time in about 6 years. I love these small family parks.

Weather looks pretty crummy for Erie right now. Hopefully the weather reports are wrong for you, I hope you have a great time.

Eh, par the course for Erie from the start of May until about the second week of June in terms of weather forecasting.

Most of the time it's just a straight 40% to 60% chance of rain predicted every day. The only thing you can really count on is the temperature being fairly accurate, although every day has been around 5 degrees or more above the forecasted high.