GL 6/14/06 (first timer, with photos!)

So after Cedar Point on the 11th and 12th, we decided to do Geagua Lake on the 14th. We were staying in downtown Cleveland, and were suprised to find out that it was just a short 30 minute drive to GL. This was my first time ever at GL, despite having visited Sea world back when it was still Sea world several times in the late 90's. Arrived at the park around 10:30. It was a picture perfect day weather wise, maybe a little chilly for the water park side, but you couldnt have beat it for coaster rideing. Yet the park was empty. Everything was a walk on except maybe X-flight which was never more than a 1 train wait.

I enjoyed the Flyer at SFGAM, and X-flight looked like it had an interesting and fun layout, but I cant say I enjoyed it. It was so much rougher and more uncomfortable then Superman. I usually have a high tolerance for roughness on rides, it usually dosent bother me much, but for some reason X-flight did. 2 rides was plenty for me on this one.

Headspin was your standard boomerang. Not terrible, but not too exciting either. Now an interesting thing happened on Steel Venom. After getting loaded on for my first ride of the day, it broke down. The ops I guess couldnt release the restraints, so we had to wait for a mechanic to do it manually. During this wait the employees were very helpful, one female op in particular was making sure the riders stuck on the train were okay asking them how they were doing and talking to people and just being very helpful. Now after the mechanic released the restraints (we were probably stuck for 15 minutes in them), they had everyone sign a sheet with our names and phone numbers. I asked what this was for and the op replied with something about since they had to "walk us off", it was basically to audit them (the ops). Is this something new or has this always been done? Anyways, if I do recieve a call (I havent yet), I will for sure praise the ops because they did a very good job during the whole thing. I unfortantly didnt catch the one girl in particulars name who was especially helpful. Anyways steel venom was up and running later in the day, and its a good ride. I must say I enjoy the stop on the back spike.

Big dipper is a great little ride. Reminded me of the Thunderbolt and Jack Rabbit at Kennywood. Nice airtime and just a fun ride overall. Double loop was unfortanuatley not open all day. The villian looked great to me and I was excited to ride it. Unfortanuatley, it was terribly rough, and like I said I like to think I have a pretty high tolerance for pain on rollercoasters, having ridden rides like SOB and the Steel Phantom, ect. Fun layout I suppouse, but man is that thing rough, not sure why but it is. Again 2 rides were enough for me. Thunderhawk was another one that was a little too uncomfortable for my liking. I cant say it wowed me either. Dominator is the best ride in the park though, bar none. I found it to be very smooth ( at least compared to everything else at GL), and was a long ride with a good layout. Also the only ride running 2 trains. Some idiots in the front row on one of my rides decided it would be cool to drop some sort of tennis ball or something from the train at the apex of the vertical loop, and see what happened to it. I almost said something but since I think these idiots were actually older than me(im 19), I didnt quite have the nerve. Wolf Bobs wasnt bad, but just seemed boring to me.

After riding all the coasters, we decided to head over to the waterpark side, in part to see how it had changed(even though I dont remember it very well). I got some very nice pictures on the walk over there. Once we got over there we did both the Robots on Mars theatre and the Dinosaur thing. I remember seeing the pirates 3D show way back in the day, and I remember it being better. Also, the 3D effects seemed worse than I remember, maybe its just me though. Anyways it wasnt bad, the Dinosaur thing wasnt terrible either I suppouse. The waterpark itself looked clean and fun, although it was just too cold for my liking to give anything a try.

As for park operations, I was mostly impressed. Besides some ops on X-Flight that seemed to chat and joke around a little too much, most everyone seemed to be doing their job. I noticed employees cleaning up, and there were even a few stand outs here and there. The only bad thing about the day was how sad the crowds actually were. When a park is that empty on such a nice day, it just sucks the life out of the park. I really have to wonder how long they can stay in busniess. I mean I suppouse the crowds will pick up later in July and August, it is still early, but what I saw cant be a good sign. Its a shame too, because it really is a nice, well run park. I mean its hard for me to be too impressed with their coaster collection, especially after coming from Cedar Point 2 days earlier, but its not all bad. We ended up leaving at 6 because we had just done everything we had wanted to do 2 and 3 times or more. Hopefully the crowds pick up and this park can stay in busniess.

Great trip report and nice pictures, although its not unusual for everything at GL to be a walk-on! haha. That tends to be the case almost everyday.

X-Flight has gotten rough in its years, but its still a fun ride. Head Spin is always rough. And I'm glad you enjoyed Big Dipper! I agree with you in finding it much like Kennywood's classic woodies. Its smooth, fast, and packed with airtime.

Steel Venom has seemed to have a lot of troubles in the past couple years, whether it be with restraints, e-stops, or the holding brake. All-in-all its a fun ride though.

I don't blame you for not liking Villian! Not many people do. lol. Its amazingly rough and thats generally blamed on the Gerstlauer trains. It does have a fun, speedy layout, but its just not very enjoyable.

Dominator is always a crowd pleaser. It seems to be the favorite in the park. It has gotten a little bumpy lately, but its still pretty smooth. But its nothing like it was when it first opened.

I hope you enjoyed the park, although it does lack in areas. Its rides have gone downhill, but they still give a good thrill!

This park draws the water park crowd, especially now that Dover Lake has closed.

While I have never seen CP get names other than the blackout, it is for legal reasons they asked I'm pretty sure of it.

I know when I got stuck on the lift hill of MF, my legs numbed up. When we got off the ride 30 minutes later we were given front of the line passes (which in little print said not good for TTD or MF) and told to have a nice day. We, me and girlfriend, didn't ride another ride the rest of the day. I just didnt feel like being on my feet. It ruined the trip for us but we kept the passes as a memory keepsake.

America is sue happy and I'm sure they just want to cover all angles of trouble.

Le Villian has to be one of the biggest sins out there. Here is a ride that was hands down one of the best woddies out there. Certainly the jewel of the 2000 flagging of the park. Lats, air and speed until the final break. And now it is almost as unbearable as Son of Beast.

Villain has always been rough, even in opening year. I only rode Son of Beast two years ago (went in April, but it wasn't open yet), so I can't say how that one has weathered. At the time I thought it was punishing -- but not outrageously so. Certainly not as bad as the Beast has gotten, let alone Flight of Fear. They should supply general anesthesia in the loading station for that one!

Villain actually seemed a tiny bit gentler in the second half of the circuit than in past years. Not sure if that's from the rehab work done over the winter. If so, it's not enough. I doubt I'll get back on it again this year.

Great TR. I'm also not surprised you didn't like the Villian. However, I'm surprised you didn't ride X-Flight. I actually think it is pretty smooth and enjoyable. Hopefully crowds will pick up.

Yea, its funny X-flight didnt seem to bother my brother at all. I did have a spontaneous lung collapse back in January, and actually had surgery on it and everything and that area is still just a little sensitive so maybe that had something to do with it combined with that type of restraint system. Anywho, I just remember Superman at SFGAM as being much smoother and having more comfortable restraints.