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Wild summer amusement park fun
By John Benson
For most families, the arrival of summertime means baseball games, bike rides and outdoor fun.
But make no mistake, the kids have their sights set on something more thrilling. Perhaps it’s a wacky water ride that fights dragons, a spinning disc that takes you high into the sky or even seemingly living dinosaurs that roar in your face.
Whatever your desire and pocket book has in mind for this summer, there are plenty of options near and far ready for a visit.
Here’s a look at what regional amusement parks have in store for the summer of 2012.
Cedar Point
One Cedar Point Drive, Sandusky.
Call 419-627-2350 or visit www.cedarpoint.com.
Online admission is $44.99 (age 3 to 61, 48 inches and taller), and $26.99 for juniors (age 3 to 61, under 48 inches tall) and seniors (age 62 and older). At-the-gate admission is $51.99 (age 3 to 61, 48 inches and taller). Children age 2 and younger are admitted free of charge. Cedar Point is now open daily.
A year after it introduced its high-flying ride WindSeeker, Cedar Point is going old school for the summer of 2012. Actually, it’s going prehistoric with Dinosaurs Alive! featuring 50 animatronic and life-size dinosaurs inhabiting the wooded area around Top Thrill Dragster.
“It’s just like walking back in time,” said Cedar Point Marketing Programs Representative Annie Zelm. “You see the dinosaurs and get a feel of what it might have been like to walk among these monstrosities. The cost is $5, and that’s an up-charge after you already paid to get into the park. We wanted to keep the experience an exclusive one so it didn’t become overcrowded.”
Billed as “The Roller Coaster Capitol of the World,” Cedar Point — located on the scenic shores of Lake Erie in Sandusky — boasts 364 acres with 75 rides, including 17 roller coasters. Referred to as the “amazement park,” Cedar Point for 14 years running has been named by industry publication Amusement Today as the Best Amusement Park in the World.
Now that park is offering a costly but perhaps enticing offer to visitors who want to get on as many rides as possible.
“We have FastLane, which is a great way to be able to skip ahead in line without making people mad,” Zelm said. “You purchase a wristband that allows you to have access to 20 of our rides, and you’re able to skip to the front of the lines. It’s $50 per person, and the price goes down with more people.”
Other new attractions at Cedar Point include nighttime live show Luminosity and the Soak City water slide Dragster H20. The water park is a separate admission.
“We do it bigger and better than anyone else,” Zelm said. “No one else can go faster or higher. We really just offer it all here at Cedar Point.”
Conneaut Lake Park
12382 Center Street, Conneaut Lake, Pa.
Call 814-382-5115 or visit www.conneautlakepark.com.
Admission is free with all-day ride wristband costing $15 (not including Blue Streak) and $20 wristband (including Blue Streak). Individual rides vary in cost. Schedule runs from Memorial Day to Labor Day.
It’s quite the milestone year at Conneaut Lake Park, which originally opened in 1892 as Exposition Park.
“This year is the park’s 120th anniversary,” said Conneaut Lake Park Board of Trustees Member Lisa Rawson. “When you’re 120 years old, just being open is a cause for celebration. This year over the winter, Conneaut Lake Park received its letter of eligibility to be on the list of national historic places, so that’s a big affirmation for the park.”
Conneaut Lake Park is undergoing a long-range transformation centered around its legendary Blue Streak, which was built in 1937 and is listed by American Coaster Enthusiast as a historic coaster. The plan is to replace another 150 feet of track on the Blue Streak through grants.
“This year, Adams Amusements will operate the ride area,” Rawson said. “That’s the company who has continued to restore our Blue Streak. Also, they will bring in some new portable rides for visitors.”
One of the few remaining historical parks, Conneaut Lake Park offers rides such as The Tilt-A-Whirl, Merry-Go-Round, Devil’s Den and more. Also located on the property is its bar/restaurant The Beach Club, which boasts a nonstop lineup of live entertainment options and karaoke fun. This year’s bill includes plenty of polka-based events.
“It’s the nostalgia; it’s the history; it’s the uniqueness of Conneaut Lake Park,” Rawson said. “It’s an amusement park, but you’ve got putt-putt, games, the rides. Then you have this historic hotel right on the waterfront. People come back because they remember going there as a kid, and now they’re bringing their kids. And you don’t pay admission. You just pay to ride, so it’s an affordable place to go. And it’s close enough to make a day trip out of it.”
Kennywood Park
4800 Kennywood Blvd., West Mifflin, Pa.
Call 412-461-0500 or visit www.kennywood.com.
Admission: $37.99/Funday Pass, $24.99/Junior Funday Pass (under 46 inches) and $18.49/Senior Funday Pass. Children age 2 and younger are admitted free. Kennywood Park is now open daily.
Last year, Kennywood took care of upgrading the park’s infrastructure and food offerings. This year, the Pittsburgh-area amusement park is focused on upping its scream quotient with the unveiling of its new ride, The Black Widow.
“You have to picture 40 people sitting on a disc facing outward,” said Kennywood Park Public Relations Manager Jeff Filicko. “That disc is going to slowly start to spin, and as it’s spinning, it’s at the base of a large pendulum arm that’s going to swing back and forth. At its highest peak, it’s going to go 146 feet into the air, swing back down the opposite side at 68 miles per hour.”
Located on the former site of The Pitfall, The Black Widow is similar in design to Kennywood’s Cosmic Chaos and SwingShot rides but is an experience unto itself, Filicko said.
Kennywood Park first opened in 1898 as a trolley park at the end of the Monongahela Street Railway. Today, the tourist destination boasts 80 acres with more than 30 big rides and more than a dozen Kiddieland attractions, including the brand-new Dino Dig. This sand-play area for kids allows them to uncover dinosaur bones and learn more about prehistoric creatures. There are also three new entertainment offerings.
“The great thing about Kennywood is when our guests come to the park, they expect the traditional rides like the Jack Rabbit, Noah’s Ark and Kangaroo,” Filicko said. “In my opinion, Kennywood is a perfect traditional family escape that has something for everyone in the family. If you have the teenage thrill-seeker we can meet that. If you’re coming with grandma and grandpa who just want to hang out on the midway, we offer that, too. It’s the perfect combination for the entire family.”
Kings Island
Kings Island Dr., Mason.
Call 800-288-0808 or visit www.visitkingsisland.com.
Located 30 minutes north of Cincinnati, the 364-acre Kings Island amusement and water park Soak City features more than 80 world-class rides, shows and attractions. Online admission: $36.99 adults (age 3-61; over 48 inches), $32.99 junior/senior (age 3 and older and under 48 inches and age 62 and up). Note: adult ticket is $53.99 at gate. Tickets are cheaper through the website. Kings Island is now open daily hours.
This summer, Kings Island is getting all wet with its Soak City water park, which was formerly named Boomerang Bay.
“New to us is we have a $10 million expansion of our existing water park,” said Kings Island Public Relations Area Manager Don Helbig. “It’s more than double the size from 15 acres to now 33 acres. We have new cabanas that will have things like flat-screen TVs, big family changing rooms, more than doubled the amount of lounging room for grownups and new sand volleyball courts.”
Perhaps the largest addition is the brand-new 650,000-gallon wave pool Tidal Wave Bay, which creates 4-foot waves for inner-tube-using swimmers. Another new attraction is the interactive Splash River.
“It has river rapids, spray hoses, bubble jets, rain curtains and waterfalls,” Helbig said. “It’s a new experience for our guests. Before, we had a lazy river, where you just floated down in your inner tube in nice, peaceful, calm waters for 2,000 feet, and now it’s a thrill experience.”
As for King’s Island, which last year added the 301-foot tower swing ride WindSeeker, the park is celebrating its 40th anniversary by upgrading its food offerings with healthy options and adding four new live shows.
“When you come here, we want to deliver the best day of the year experience for you,” Helbig said. “With the different offerings we have around the park, just upgrading the food items, adding what we have to Soak City, adding the live shows to go with the 14 roller coasters, we have and an award-winning kids area with Planet Snoopy; we’ve got the whole package here.”
Sandcastle Waterpark
1000 Sandcastle Drive, Pittsburgh.
Call 412-462-6666 or visit www.sandcastlewaterpark.com.
Admission is $31.99, $21.99 for seniors and children under 46 inches, with children age 3 and under free (slides not included). Sandcastle Waterpark opens up weekends beginning Memorial Day weekend and begins daily operation June 9.
Visitors to Pittsburgh’s Sandcastle Waterpark better be ready to do battle with a fire, er, water-breathing dragon this year.
“It’s been nearly 10 years since Sandcastle has had a new attraction, so we’re very excited about Dragon’s Den,” said Sandcastle Waterpark Spokes-woman Melissa Kelly. “It’s a bowl slide and very different than any other slide we have at Sandcastle. It’s kind of like an amusement-park ride meets a water slide. You go through a tunnel and land in a bowl where there is this big dragon in the middle that sprays water at you. That will make 15 slides for us here at Sandcastle.”
Sandcastle Waterpark, which is located just down the street from sister property Kennywood Park, recently received a face lift of sorts on its most popular attraction, the boardwalk. Set along the Monongahela River, the wet ’n’ wild outdoor venue offers a wave pool, grassy beach, volleyball area, lazy river and more.
“Another great attraction is we have two kids areas,” Kelly said. “We have Wet Willie’s, a water playground, and Tad Pool, which is like your child’s first experience here at Sandcastle.”
Considering its proximity and connection to Kennywood Park, Sandcastle Waterpark is often one of a two-day experience for families traveling to the Steel City.
“We want a visit here to be a vacation in a day,” Kelly said. “We want you to come here and for you to feel like you’re at the beach.”
Waldameer Park & Water World
220 Peninsula Dr., Erie, Pa.
Call 814-838-3591 or visit www.waldameer.com.
Ride wristbands for Waldameer Park are $23.50 (over 48 inches)/ $16.50 (under 48 inches). Entrance to Water World is $17 (over 48 inches)/$13 (under 48 inches). Ride wristbands for both parks are $26.50 (over 48 inches)/$19 (under 48 inches). Waldameer Park is now open weekends. Daily operation begins May 31. The park is closed on Mondays (except Memorial Day and Labor Day).
Over the past five years, Waldameer Park & Water World, located at the neck of Presque Isle State Park peninsula, has been reinventing itself with its new coaster Ravine Flyer II, the spinning Steel Dragon roller coaster, the classic wood-built The Comet roller coaster, the Flying Swings, the rotating Wendy’s Tea Party and the kid-friendly Ravine Flyer III.
Having added plenty of high-profile attractions, now Waldameer Park is turning its attention to enhancing the park experience.
“Using computers, we found out we had to get more capacity,” said Waldameer Park and Water World owner Paul Nelson. “So we bought a second train, and now we run two trains on our train track. We took our Comet coaster and put magnetic brakes so we can run two tracks. When we get busy, we changed our setup for the Wacky Shack so we have bigger capacity. We added a new ride called the Happy Swing for children and the family to ride. We upgraded our catering and put in three new games in our midway and an entire new arcade. We’ve done millions of dollars of upgrading.”
Basically, the idea is to keep people moving at Waldameer Park, which also offers the cashless experience using wristbands and bar codes. Looking ahead, Nelson hints that another big ride is coming to the park next year. However, for now, he’s hoping families think about making a day trip to the Lake Erie shore venue.
“We don’t charge for parking or admission, and we have free picnic tables if you want to bring your own food,” Nelson said. “With the economy the way it is, we’re drawing more people from out of state where the family can come up, and if the adults don’t want to ride, the kids can, and it won’t cost them an arm and a leg.”
Wildwater Kingdom
1100 Squires Road, Aurora.
Call 330-562-8303 or visit www.wildwaterfun.com.
Single day adult admission is $30.46, while single-day junior (or senior) admission is $15.22. The park is open Memorial Day to Labor Day.
Located on Geauga Lake, Wildwater Kingdom offers H20 fun for Northeast Ohio with attractions ranging from family and thrill-seeking slides on Liquid Lightning and Thunder Falls to a relaxing float down Riptide Run. There’s also kids-centric areas featuring splashing, climbing and soaking on Splash Landing, Coral Cove and Little Tikes Town.
“This year we expanded our Tropical Waters Cabana Bar,” said Sales Manager Lori Davis. “Located by the wave pool, the bar actually tripled in size with an additional patio and seating area.”
There are also plenty of special events planned for Wildwater Kingdom. Davis pointed out that Cleveland Browns player Joe Haden would be at the park June 13, followed by a Father’s Day Hole-in-One Challenge on June 17.
Naturally, one can’t think about the Geauga County area without noting its history. Wildwater Kingdom sits on the former home of Sea World, while across the lake was the location of the once popular Geauga Lake Amusement Park.
“It’s a very beautiful property — very safe and clean,” Davis said. “People are impressed with the lifeguards. We’ve won the platinum award for safety through Ellis & Associates for our safety record. We’re a really good value. We have great food and a lot of attractions for the whole family. I hope they leave feeling happy and as though they got their money’s worth.”