1997 Trip Report index
Dave's Adventures
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I hadn't planned to spend the afternoon at Wyandot Lake; I just wanted to get my Premier Parks pass. But once I had my pass in hand, I figured I might as well stop in for a while and at least get in a ride or so on the Sea Dragon.
First, I picked up my pass. The procedure is a little more streamlined this season than in the past, with multiple computer terminals both for data entry an for snapping pictures and printing passes. Chain parks make for interesting situations...at the end of the line I picked up a pair of discount offers, a list of Premier parks, and 1997 brochures for Geauga Lake: The Great Escape, and Adventure World: The Great Escape. But they didn't have any brochures for Wyandot Lake! (Those were available at the front gate, as it turns out.)
I entered the park and noted that the big new attraction this year appears to be a booking of the Royal Hanneford Circus for three shows daily from mid-June through late July. No sign of any new rides or slides, though. My first stop was the venerable Sea Dragon.
Sea Dragon:
Ride time: 1:20
Interval (16): 4:18
Capacity: 528 pph
Note: I normally don't compute capacity on a single-train ride because the dispatch interval varies so much, but r.r-c reader Mike Brown asked what capacity the ride was running at.
Sea Dragon is running well this season.
There is a nice coat of oil on the rails (Cedar Fair should take note); and
one track section just uptrack of the brake run has been capped. The whole track
is pretty smooth, as they re-did the turnarounds last year. I took my first
ride in the front seat.
I'm getting accustomed to one of the more interesting and suprising effects of Usenet...as I exited the train and walked around to the entrance, a total stranger called out, "Hi, Dave!". I was a little suprised, but we did the obligtory introductions. A little suprising, certainly, but always pleasant. I just never thought of myself as being that obvious. 8-) Hi, Mike!
I also got a demonstration of one of the more important features of coasters like the Sea Dragon. Sea Dragon is one of John Allen's first three coasters, almost identical to Herb Schmeck's Little Dippers (Hillcrest Park, Kiddieland) and very similar to the Beastie (PKI) and Scooby Doo (take your pick). It is 35 feet tall, ride time is about a minute, it will do about 30 mph on a good day, and I doubt that anyone reading this finds it particularly intimidating. No, not even you, Andy Scheurer! 8-) Sea Dragon has a 42" height requirement, and there was one young girl there who had never ridden a coaster before. She was scarcely tall enough to ride, but she clearly loved this coaster. The world gained another roller coaster fanatic yesterday, because of this Coaster Classic...big enough that it is not a kiddie ride, but little enough that little kids can ride it and enjoy every second of it.
I also took rides on the Frolic, Scrambler, and Spider, all of which were running fairly well, though there is a peculiar bumping action on the Scrambler...they finally got it running at the proper speed. I also wandered through the water area and was suprised to see so many people in the water. It was a warm day, but it was also the first warm day in months, so the water had to be cold!
In all, it was a short but interesting visit. I think it is going to be a good summer for this park, and of course you'll read all about it as the season wears on.
Next trip: Stricker's Grove
1997 Trip Report index
Dave's Adventures
Back to Dave's page
--Dave Althoff, Jr.