Six Flags Darien Lake (SFDL) Discussion Thread

Darien Lake has posted a new video teaser the newly repainted Viper, sporting its original color scheme.

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=391868362730

[coastertube]http://www.themeparkreview.com/coastertube/play.php?vid=391868362730_59721_ph56[/coastertube]Viper is back in black!

Also I have heard rumors outa their facebook page, get this, PREDATOR IS SMOOTH NOW!

"I'll take 'Things Nobody Believes' for a thousand, Alex."

It is scientifically impossible for Predator to be smooth. It is the fate of ALL Summers/Dinn coasters to become rough to the point of agony. Accept this.

I'm digging Viper back in it's original color. Really gives me a nostalgic feeling.

If they are doing what it looks like they'll run them in the voyage colors and just removed the voyage label and not replace it with predator according to recent facebook pics

I rode Predator yesterday and have to say the new trains are MUCH better.

I never thought that they would make this much improvement.

If you get to Darien Lake you have to try Predator again.

Viper looks goooooooood.

I rode Predator yesterday and have to say the new trains are MUCH better.

OMG...you went to Darien Lake in that crappy weather yesterday? Man, you are one hardcore coaster enthusiast!

During poker last night, my Dad brought up something about Darien Lake opening and I said I wondered if it would even be open with 60 MPH winds and snow flurries!

What was it like on Ride of Steel? Was it even open? I assume crowds were extremely light?

^ride of steel that day was closed

I wish Darien would use that coaster on the lot next to them! Its just sitting there!!!

^I'd prefur them to put up a nice drop tower, but the coaster would be nice

Was at the park today. Much better than opening day.

It was Math and Science day, but other than school kids the park really wasn't crowded. Superman had a little lift incident in the morning, a loud noise and a fun walk down the lift! But they got it up and running not too long afterward. A lot of the new slide trough pieces were up, but I forgot to bring my camera with me. Painters were also walking the Barracuda Bay slides, as those are being repainted nice bright colors, and are almost totally done. All in all it was a great day, with a little bit of excitement and a lot of front seat rides on Ride of Steel.

-Nick

^Glad you had a great visit, was RoS running well?

Would anyone happen to know how many people Darien Lake gets on average? I'm planning on going this Friday, but there is a Brad Paisley PAC Concert. I emailed DL and asked them about the crowds, and they replied that they are expecting 6,000 people in the park and 14,000 people at the concert. Is that 6,000 a lot for Darien Lake? How does that compare to an average Friday with no concert around this time? Will I be waiting in large lines all day? I don't want to drive 3 hours only to find that the park is ridiculously packed.

I'm not sure if that's a lot or not, but generally you don't have to be worried. It'll be busy because it's a Friday in summer, but generally Darien Lake just doesn't get mobbed. The most I've ever waited is 20 minutes for a full queue on Ride of Steel. The only things you'll probably wait for is the boomerang and motobike, just because they're slow loaders. I wouldn't worry.

Sounds good, thanks. Ironically both the Boomerang and Motocoaster were closed when I was there last year, so those are two credits I still need.

http://www.thedailynewsonline.com/articles/2010/06/18/news/6853087.txt

It's 9 a.m. on a chilly Thursday. Darien Lake Theme Park Resort doesn't open to the general public for another hour. Yet in the line for one of the park's roller coasters, the Predator, all that can be heard is cheering, the slapping of hands from high-fives and raw excitement.

 

The noise was coming from the 54 members of the European Coaster Club as they congratulated those who had just completed their first ride of the day on the 20-year-old wooden roller coaster.

 

The club, which was founded in 1996 and has 1,600 members, visited Darien Lake Thursday morning as part of a 15-day trip to ride roller coasters on the East Coast. The club had members from eight different nations in Europe and two Americans present.

 

The club will ultimately visit 16 theme parks, seven states and one province, and ride 111 roller coasters, said Yvonne Janik, American trips coordinator for the club and one of the two Americans present on the trip.

 

The trip is called the North America Adventure 3, as the club has already visited the United States twice before, in 2006 and 2008. This year's trip began on June 5 as the club visited amusement parks like Kings Dominion in Virginia and Carowinds in North Carolina. It will conclude on June 20 with Canada's Wonderland, which the club has never visited.

 

This is also the first time the club has visited Darien Lake. Members were rewarded for their visit as the theme park opened its doors to them at 9 a.m., allowing them to ride the Predator, the Ride of Steel and the Orange County Choppers Motocoaster before the park opened at 10 a.m.

 

After starting off with the Predator, several members of the club said that the wooden roller coaster threw them around a little bit. Jeppe Nygaard, a club member since 1999, said "it was a bit shaky."

 

But the Ride of Steel left a much smoother impression on the riders. Original club member Darren Hoy left the roller coaster that climbs 208 feet in the air saying, "It's awesome. I didn't have to move (to lean into turns)."

 

Bob Clark has been a member since 2000 and has earned a nickname from club members over the past decade. They call him "front-seat" Bob, as he said he enjoys being in the first car in order to get a visual over the first hill of the track. "Front-seat" has now gotten that visual 500 times, as he rode his 500th roller coaster during the first few days of the trip.

 

While Clark has ridden 500 roller coasters, Adrian and Lorna Dade reached an even higher milestone at Darien Lake Thursday morning. They rode their 600th coaster together, but it turns out that Lorna is the real roller-coaster enthusiast.

 

Adrian is what you call a "coaster widow" as he married into the enthusiasm, said Justin Garvanovic, the founder of the European Coaster Club and Editor of First Drop magazine, a publication supplied to members of the club. Garvanovic, who has ridden somewhere between 1,200 and 1,300 roller coasters, said that 95 percent of roller coaster enthusiasts have never ridden 600 roller coasters like Adrian and Lorna.

 

But Adrian and Lorna aren't the only club members who are married. Dirk and Christina Lather got married in May and decided to honeymoon on the trip to North America.

 

On a water ride in Japan last year during the 15-day South Korea and Japan tour, Dirk broke some ribs before the end of the trip. Christina then surprised him by changing their planned boat cruise honeymoon to the North America Adventure 3 trip.

 

During the trip, Garvanovic and other club members have told theme parks and hotels about the Lathers' marriage and got them upgraded to a honeymoon suite while in areas such as Virginia.

 

Darien Lake Public Relations Supervisor Cassandra Okon said it was great to host the European Coaster Club.

 

"We love them," she said. "This group is really easy going and I'm happy they could fit Darien Lake into their trip."

 

But Darien Lake wasn't the only New York theme park the club visited during the trip. They visited Seabreeze Amusement Park in Rochester on Wednesday and finished off Thursday afternoon with a trip to Martin's Fantasy Island on Grand Island.

 

In 2011, they are looking to do a large tour of Germany's roller coasters before returning to the U.S. in 2012 to venture out to the West Coast.

I was at the park for a good chunk of the day today. It ended up raining pretty hard but was fun riding Viper in it.

There's still only one train, the blue train, on Ride of Steel. When I was there about a month ago, it had broken down, and after the mechanic got it back up he hung around, and I asked about the other train. He said they were in the process of getting a brand new red train, he was just waiting for it to be prepped (specifically different "holes drilled") so he could put it together, he said it wouldn't take too terribly long. But as of today, there's still no sign of it. The line wasn't horrible, but ran all the way back to the entrance at one point (although excluding switchbacks, just a straight line).

Hopefully they get the red train there at some point soon.

Predator as of my last few visits has only been using one of its new Voyage trains. The other, I noticed today, was sitting on the transfer track, the front car separated and spaced away from the others, and some other seats detached from some cars. I don't know what's up with that.

Didn't really ride a ton today. I noticed on my last visit they'd turned the mist on on Mind Eraser, which is awesome and I haven't seen in years, but today it was off.

And this is also worth sharing, the park posted it on their Facebook.

Predator as of my last few visits has only been using one of its new Voyage trains. The other, I noticed today, was sitting on the transfer track, the front car separated and spaced away from the others, and some other seats detached from some cars. I don't know what's up with that.

It was like that back in June also. I wonder what their plans are for that train, but they probably don't need it anyway the majority of the time.

^^ That's a really cool photo of Viper. What year is that from?

I'm not sure if that's a lot or not, but generally you don't have to be worried. It'll be busy because it's a Friday in summer, but generally Darien Lake just doesn't get mobbed. The most I've ever waited is 20 minutes for a full queue on Ride of Steel. The only things you'll probably wait for is the boomerang and motobike, just because they're slow loaders. I wouldn't worry.

I assume that was with 2 trains. Unfortunately, when I visited the park last week, they only had one train on all of their coasters except the Motocoaster and Viper. Hopefully they can get the red train ready before the end of the season.

Lines weren't terrible even with one-train operation for most of the coasters. It was a Sunday. Ride of Steel was the only "long" line there, as it was a 45 minute wait for all three of my rides. I'd say that 1/3-1/2 of the switchbacks were completely full. Viper was a walk-on. Predator and Boomerang were 15 minute waits. The Motocoaster was a 10 minute wait. Then, Mind Eraser was a walk-on when I rode it first thing in the morning, but I heard others complaining that it had a pretty long line later in the day. I never saw, so I don't know exactly how long that line would have been.

My First Post! I've been observing the forum so I hope I don't mess anything up...

I haven't been to Darien Lake in a few weeks (Since July 21st), but when I was there I noticed a few things. I had a walk-on for Viper in the early afternoon and from the stairs exiting the coaster I saw (what I believe were) red parts of the RoS train just laying on the ground outside of the maintenance shop. Also a shipwreck falls boat was just sitting on a trailer. I really hope that they get the Red RoS train assembled soon, seeing as it is the most popular coaster at the park. Although the Ride Crew probably feels differently, this has probably made their jobs a little easier .

I visited the park this past Sunday, and sadly the red train is still missing from ROS.

From darienlake at Amusement Park Authority:

I heard that Darien Lake is not going to have Fright Fest this year and will end the Season in September.

Anyone know if this is true or not?

If true that's disappointing. Darien Lake has become one of my favorite parks to visit in the fall.

From Screamscape:

Park News - (2/24/11) CoasterFusion reports hearing a rumor that Darien Lake may actually cancel any plans for a Halloween event in the park this fall. They admit it is just a rumor, based on the fact that Herschend doesn’t have Halloween haunt style events at Silver Dollar City or Dollywood. However, Wild Adventures had a Halloween event before they were purchased by HFE, and continues to hold it at the park even now. I’ve heard the Halloween event at Darien Lake was quite popular, so I doubt HFE would even think of pulling it unless it was not a money maker for the park in the end.

HFEC will hold a Halloween event if it thinks it will be successful. DW and SDC don't have events because they simply wouldn't fit the atmosphere of the parks. Celebration City had a harvest festival in the last year or two before it closed. I could see them having a similar harvest festival during the day, with scary stuff in designated areas at night. That would be very much in line with how HFEC typically does things.