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"It isn't really a wild mouse at all."
I left Toronto far later than I should have, then wasted a half-hour or more at the border learning that the nearly $14 GST on my hotel room was CDN$0.45 too little for me to get any of it refunded. What a racket they've got going there! That's why they don't simply not charge the GST on hotel rooms to foreigners...they know that most of us, for one reason or another, won't be able to get the refunds we're allegedly entitled to [Footnote 1].
Anyway, by the time I got to Erie, it was early evening. I figured I had arrived just in time for dinner. I entered the park, duly noting the hand-scribbled "NO ALCHOLIC BEVERAGES" sign posted at the entrance. Pesonally, I think alcohol and amusement parks are an unnecessary combination, and I was surprised to learn that this is apparently not Waldameer's normal policy.
Once inside, I bypassed the ticket booths for the moment, figuring that since I had only a short time to spend in the park I should find out the price for the new coaster. I toured the park, then returned for a pocket full of ride tickets. It's a good sized park, but much of it is picnic groves, and the midway is more than a little congested. I was happy to see that the park was quite busy on this Labor Day evening. The park's Chance carousel sits on a curve right next to the ticket booths, across the midway from the arcade building. Next to the Carousel is the Comet (more about that in a moment), the path to the waterpark, the Paratrooper, and the administration building. A stage in the middle of the midway hosted a continuous Karaoke show [Footnote 2]. Behind the seating area is a collection of kiddie rides, and the area is ringed with larger rides including the Ravine Flyer 3 kiddie coaster, the Ferris wheel, the pendulum boat ride, and the Hopkins-style aerial tramway. Extending out at a right angle from this cluster is another midway, bounded on one side by a classic-looking concession building and on the other by a dark ride, a Spider, and a Wipeout. Waldameer has wisely decided to remove the doghouse from the front of their Wipeout in favor of a control stand on one side of the ride. The result looks much better from the midway. Chance's factory configuration for the Wipeout, with the operator's doghouse on one end of the trailer, front and center at the base of the ride, looks like one of those situations where the engineers got into an argument with the designers and for once, the engineers won. Waldameer's set up dramatically improves on the design.
At the end of this midway is the station for the park's flume ride, and an ARM 1,001 Nacht (Ali Baba). But that isn't the end of the park. Next to the flume there is a gate right across from an ancient former pavilion of some sort. Through the gate is...more park, including the new coaster, the "Steel Dragon."
Steel Dragon is a new Spinning Coaster from Maurer-Söhne. My only prior experience with Maurer-Söhne product is the Wild Mouse-type coaster at Kentucky Kingdom, which is a most conventional Wild Mouse coaster. Steel Dragon is about the size of a Wild Mouse, but it has more in common with a Galaxi or a Wildcat. Each car seats four riders; in the station that's two facing forward, two facing backward,with the seats back to back at the car centerline. Riders are secured with individual lap bars, each bar equipped with a convenient grab loop on top. The seat is not quite deep enough, as it has a protrusion in the middle that looks like it should fit between the rider's legs, but instead ends up being a literal pain in the ass. I swear, sometimes I think these rides were designed to accommodate LEGO minifigs, which, unlike real people, are designed to sit on plastic studs. But then, LEGO minifigs don't have knees, so they might have problems with the legroom, not to mention troubles making the lap bars work...
Anyway, the Steel Dragon gets off to an entirely conventional start, whizzing up the diminutive lift hill. What follows is a series of steep, swooping drops, sudden rises, and high-banked curves that are reminiscent of the Windstorm. It's one of the most extreme-looking small coasters I have ever seen. But looks can be deceiving. Steel Dragon runs as smooth as glass, and flips through its extreme gyrations without so much as a bounce or a wiggle. The cars spin, though it isn't the extreme spinning of the Reverchon mouse. That's hardly unexpected with the passenger load concentrated so close to the center of the car. The lack of 180-degree flat turns is more than made up for by the horseshoe curves set at nearly vertical banking. The ride takes full advantage of its small footprint with long drops crossing diagonally across the layout, and high-banked curves to allow for impossibly tight curves. The ride does its thing remarkably well, and exceeeded any expectations I had for it. Steel Dragon may well be the most pleasant surprise of the season for me. I have some issues with the seat, but apart from that, the ride is pretty remarkable. Waldameer has a winner with this one.
Judging from the crowd and the large number of disused cars sitting on the storage track, the ride is designed to be much more of a capacity monster than it was when I rode it. I would have liked to ride again, but with a very long drive ahead of me, I didn't want to invest the time.
Instead, I stopped off at the concession stand for an inexpensive meal, then returned to the Comet for a few rides before going home. The Comet is a classic wood junior coaster which gives a very familiar ride, though it is not the same layout as the Sea Dragon/Scooby Doo/Zach's Zoomer class of junior coasters. It's a little taller, but I don't think it is any bigger. Waldameer has two trains, with the storage track in the middle of the curved station. They have two trains, but only one was operating, and the amount of dust and cobwebs on the second train suggested to me that the second train had not been used in some time. The ride was operated by a single operator, who was running it in the classic style. As the train approached the station, the operator would bring it in off the manual trim brake, then stop the train in the unloading station and press the unlock button on the side of the brake handle to open the lap bars. Once all of the riders had exited, he would set the load brake, release the unload brake, and step into the back of the last car and ride the train down to the loading station, standing in the back seat. As the train slid into position and stopped on the load brake, the operator stepped out of the train on the outboard side to open the boarding gate and collect tickets. The next load of riders boarded the train, and the operator slid the gate closed. He then walked down to the front of the train, crossed the track, and then pressed a button next to the load-station control levers to lock the lap bars. He checked each bar, then walked to his unload station control point to release the brake and dispatch the train. Repeat until closing. This is one of those situations where the way he was running the ride would not be permitted by most major parks, but except for his habit of crossing the track in front of the train instead of behind or through it, he really isn't doing anything foolish or dangerous, and if anything he is demonstrating competence with the ride operation and putting on a good show. It's the kind of thing that used to be common, but that you don't see much anymore.
I guess Waldameer is like that all over. It's a neat little park, clearly popular, with a nice selection of rides. The Comet is a competent little coaster, and the Steel Dragon is surprisingly good. Now if they could just get the Ravine Flyer II built, they'd have a great coaster package....!
Well, I'd love to stay and ride some more, but it's a long drive back to Columbus. I ended up staying at Waldameer just long enough that I didn't have to drive home with the setting sun in my eyes.
--Dave Althoff, Jr.
Footnote 1: The Goods and Serices Tax is not supposed to be collected on goods purchased for use outside of Canada, and non-Canadians are exempt from paying GST on hotel rooms...under certain circumstances. [Return to text]
Footnote 2: Now there's a clever idea: get the customers to supply the live entertainment! [Return to text]
--DCAjr
Next: Cedar Point (#8)
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