Chadster's Vacation Adventures: Final Edition!

[ShavethewhalesIf the donkey is rockin, don't come knockin!]

Enchanted Forest looks freaking awesome. If I had a few million to blow making a theme park, that's more or less what I'd want it to look like. They've obviously gone to great effort to build an immersive environment full of great thematics and detail, which is what I really like to see in parks. It looks like they keep it clean too. A few more rides would make it a destination in my book.

[Pirouettes907The Future Mrs. Big Mike!]

Forests tend to creep me out. Something about lots of trees, no sun peeking through, I don't know--but they always seem dreary, depressing and claustrophobic to me.

So when you plop a theme park full of figurines of nursery rhyme characters, some of whom have these truly freaky, lurid expressions (Humpty Dumpty, anyone?), you have the ingredients for a nightmare setting in my book. Is it just me, or would this place be a really good set for a horror film?

But in all seriousness, I went on the park's website and read a little on this place's history (the guy who designed it saw a dearth of family activities in Salem and scraped together what he had to finance his dream; it took seven years for it to actually become a reality) and I really do have to appreciate what this place is all about and that it still exists today. I think the nursery rhyme theme might be outdated these days, so this place seems like a relic of the past with a few quirky rides thrown in the mix to keep things even more unique. I'm very much looking forward to visiting Enchanted Forest in September.

Thanks for sharing all this, Chad!

[RoCo"Excuse me, miss, may I pound my large rooster into your donkey?"]

Very cool that you got to Enchanted Forest! LOVE that place. Was the "haunted mansion" still there? My only visit was just passing through, on a Sunday morning (?) and the park was completely empty. It was surreal. But the Bobsleds were a blast. Gotta give it up for a totally in-house-designed and -built Matterhorn tribute.

[chadsterThe Pony Express can't find my teepee]

14,000 page views, thanks everyone

^ Haunted Mansion was alive and well! I thought it was really really creepy, but in a good way! It was well thought out and gave an authentic haunted house feel.

[chadsterThe Pony Express can't find my teepee]

The Topper Track on Tremors is on the top of the first turn after the first drop then is on the hills leading to the far turnaround and through the far turnaround. I think it's like 1200' of track!

From Screamscape today:

Park News - (7/22/11) Roller Coaster Alley dropped by Silverwood this past week and...report that the test sections of Rocky Mountain’s Topper Track that were installed last year have now been removed (and were seen laying by the air strip from the train ride) and replaced by some newly rebuilt and retracked segments on Tremmors....

Jake, I guess this would be why I didn't notice any topper track on Tremmors, and I agree with the folks at Coaster Alley, it was running damn fine, though I have no previous rides to compare it to.

[chadsterThe Pony Express can't find my teepee]

It's the next to last weekend of daily operation for Worlds of Fun and that can only mean one thing, the 6th Annual Coaster Mayhem held on August 13th. Coaster Mayhem is a park sponsored event open to anyone with a valid coaster club membership and comes with a very reasonable season pass cost of $14 + new for this year, $2 for will call pick up.

So, you are asking, what do you get for your $16? Well, you get free drinks, lunch, ERT on Patriot and PROWLER!, VIP seating for "Don't Stop Believing" and several discounts throughout the park. Also featured this year was a Worlds of Fun history exhibit and working model's of WoF's past coasters.

At lunch we were treated at a peek at the concept art for this year's haunt. Worlds of Fun is promising to become the best in the chain for haunt season so Knott's, are you listening Knotts? Watch out, the midwest is gonna strike! Also, I was able to quash one rumor, WoF will not be getting a Windseeker....in 2012. Yeah, I know, I was disappointed too. What does 2013 hold? Well, that's still a secret, they have plenty of space to expand, so let's hope Cedar Fair will give them something good in 2013 ;)

This will be a two part Photo TR as I'm including some stuff I don't normally include along with several pictures from the "weekend only" history and coaster model exhibit.

[JakizleI had sex with N-Tag before you did.]

Chad, Roller Coaster Alley was actually incorrect...in the photos even they posted you can see the topper track on Tremors. It's just such a brilliant design it blends in so well with normal coaster track of the same color. Someone emailed Silverwood and I think confirmation is pending but in the photos and videos on YT it definitely is still there.

And P.s. I love WOF! Super nice park IMO.

[chadsterThe Pony Express can't find my teepee]

Part II, includes just what in the world is up with Thunderhawk.

[PALDonkeys are my way of life!]

Nice park. It looks like Cedar Fair invested serious money in the past few years. How tired did it get beforehand?

Prowler, come Friday you will be mine!

[chadsterThe Pony Express can't find my teepee]

^The kids area over the years just lost it's luster, actually it never really had any, it was just there, not much for the kids. After tearing down the Orient Express and Zinger amongst other rides, they really just didn't have much to draw you to the park. I hated to see the Himalaya go, but the tradeoff in Patriot was worth the sacrifice and Prowler beats Timber Wolf like Timber Wolf beats you. It's a smaller park in the rides department with a large footprint so it needed something to keep people there which is what Cedar Fair appears to try to be doing. Holding true to form, I don't see any capital improvements in 2012 as it seems of late they only infuse major cash every other year.