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"Park opens at 1:00 pm"
Waldameer is just a short drive from Erieview...perhaps an hour. So I arrived at Waldameer at about 11:00am, just as the waterpark was opening.
I proceeded to park the car and wander the grounds of this free-admission park, taking a few pictures.
I bought and ate lunch.
I waited.
And waited.
Finally, at 1:00pm, the park...which had been crowded since about Noon ...began to open. 1:00pm???? What are they thinking? For a park like Erieview, which is really a lakeside resort more than an amusement park to not open until evening is sensible, as most people will be spending the day on the lake. But Waldameer is not a lakeside resort, it is a traditional amusement park. The place was crowded at Noon, and while we all knew the rides wouldn't start until 1:00pm, I know I was not the only person annoyed by this. In my case, problems with operating hours forced me to cancel my visit to the Herschell factory and museum simply because Waldameer opened late and the museum closed early. Grrrrrr!
The magic hour finally arrived, and I headed for the Comet. I had been told to expect a 'familiar' ride from this junior coaster, and indeed it did have a familiar feel to it, reminding me of the Sea Dragon. But it seems that the Comet is a taller coaster, but not quite as long from end to end. It looks like it is slightly abbreviated, as if perhaps there was an obstruction (a railroad track, perhaps?) at the 'far' end when it was built. The ride has some slight airtime, but really shines with its setting. The whole course of the ride is densely wooded, making for some nice headchoppers. But the trees are neatly trimmed; I didn't manage to touch any of them. I did notice, though, that NOBODY (except me, of course) stuck his arms up during the ride.
I wandered the park and sampled some of the other rides; in fact, here is a full ride list--
| Major Rides: | ||
| Paratrooper | Hrubetz | Paratrooper |
| Bumper Boats | J&J | Bumper Boats |
| Sea Dragon | Chance | Sea Dragon |
| Ferris Wheel | Chance | Giant Wheel |
| Sky Ride | ?? | Sky Ride |
| Wipeout | Chance | Wipeout |
| Spider | Eyerly | Spider |
| Whacky Shack | Funni-Frite? | Whacky Shack |
| Pirates Cove | ?? | Dark Ride |
| Tilt-A-Whirl | Sellner | Cable-drive Tilt-A-Whirl |
| Thunder River | Hopkins | Flume |
| Comet | PTC | Junior coaster |
| Carousel | Chance | 4-row w/full scenery |
| L. Ruth Express | Chance | CP Huntington |
| Scrambler | Eli Bridge | Scrambler |
| Dodgem | Majestic | Ninja cars (w/lap bars) |
| Kiddie rides | ||
| Pony Cart | Herschell | Pony Cart |
| Boats - Herschell | Boats | |
| Sky Fighters | Herschell | Sky Fighters (w/platform) |
| Umbrella Ride | Hampton | Combo umbrella ride |
| Ball Crawl | Pentes Design | Playport |
| Lil' Sneak | Foster | Kiddie bumper boats |
| Lil' Toot | ?? | Kiddie hand cars |
| Mini-E | Zamperla | Samba |
No, I didn't try the dark rides (shame on me!). I was also a little suprised to find a Chance carousel in this traditional park. The park is a wonderful place, and I would have liked to spend more time there, but I was in a hurry...I wanted to get to north Tonawanda before the museum closed. It turns out I didn't make it, and I ended up going on over to Niagara Falls and seeing the illuminations there instead. For more details on that visit, see my Vacation Supplement.
Engineering:
I did notice something interesting about Waldameer's flume. I'm pretty sure
it is a Hopkins; I believe the station conveyor is a dead giveaway. Anyway,
what got my attention was the wire rope running down the outside of the lift
assembly. Upon closer inspection, it appears that all of the anti-rollback pawls
are tied together with this wire rope, which is in turn attached to a pneumatic
cylinder near the base of the lift. It appears to me that the system is designed
such that the anti-rollbacks can be mechanically disengaged. Personally, I am
having a hard time figuring out why that would be a desirable feature. Hmmmmm...
The Comet has a fairly new train, or at least one with all the updates. It is a four-car flanged-wheel PTC junior train, but it has electric lap bars and tie-rod couplers like the ones that were added to the Sea Dragon this season, rather than the more typical sleeved-bolt couplers. Waldameer appears to have two functioning trains, and there is a signalling system in place (two buzzers on the platform) for two trains, but in spite of the large crowd (wait time was about 20 minutes for the Comet), they did not use the second train during my visit.
I never did find out the exact reason why, but during the morning preparations, Waldameer coated the bumpers of all the bumper cars with a thick paste of talcum powder and water. Perhaps to keep the bumpers from scuffing each other?
I also noticed something odd about the Chance Wipeout. It seems that the bottom light on the center lighting package is actually a "lap bar unlocked" indicator...that is, the green light comes on when the bar is open, and shuts off when the bar is locked. This makes very little sense to me, simply because amusement parks are notorious for not fixing burned-out lamps. I think if I were designing that system, I would have made the green light a "locked" indicator so that if the light were out, a tug on the bar would indicate that the lamp is merely burned out. As it now stands, if both the lamp and the lock fail, there is no indicator to say so..... Nothing to do with Waldameer, of course, this is a Chance thing.
Off to Buffalo...but the next report will be for MarineLand.
--Dave Althoff, Jr.
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