Peter’s Place

Last year’s trip to Darien Lake resulted in a rave review on this website.  This year’s trip, sadly, was just the opposite.  I gave a lot of leeway last year, since the amusement park was under brand new management, after Six Flags sold off several parks across the country during the winter of 2006-2007.  While Darien Lake wasn’t quite perfect last year, Parc had convinced me they were trying to turn things around.  This year, I have to say they’ve failed quite dismally.

Kelly and I made the 2½-hour drive (closer to 3 since we got stuck in traffic) to Darien Lake this past Saturday.  We originally planned for the date because a friend had given me a coupon for half-price tickets which would be valid at that time.  The day before, I managed to score free tickets at work, making things even better.  I realize I shouldn’t complain about something that was free… but when you add in food, drinks, parking fees and gas, it’s still far from free.

When we first arrived, I was actually very pleased to see the only attraction listed as being closed was the “Motocoaster.”  Although this was the big attraction prominently featured in all of Darien Lake’s ads because its “new this year,” no big deal.  I wasn’t really hyped up (it looked small in the ads) and since I’ve never been on it before, I wouldn’t be “missing” it, as I had missed the Predator last year.  Since only the Motocoaster was closed, that would mean the Predator (and a few other coasters that were closed last year) would be open today.  Yippee!

The Needlessly Long Queue

That excitement didn’t take long to fade away when we got in line for The Predator — just as they chained off the “short” queue, and made everyone go through 15 rows of snaking fences.  As we slowly made our way up through the maze and up the stairs to the boarding platform, we could see they were only running one train. 

You’ll remember this was a major complaint I had from last year’s trip — several coasters had only one train, which wastes so much time.  If you have two trains, you can be loading/unloading one while the other runs the track.  With just one train, everyone just stands, watches, and waits and waits and waits.  That’s fine on a miserably slow day when there’s no lines.  But when you have a packed house, there should be enough trains so there’s always one at the platform, loading or unloading.

It was great to finally ride The Predator again, for the first time in at least 3 years.  (Like I said, Parc had it closed when I visited in ‘07, and it was also closed for much of the ‘06 season under Six Flags.)  But in that long time, I had forgotten how quick the ride is.  It was enjoyable, but not really worth the ultra-long wait.  By the time we got off, we noticed the queue had since filled the entire area of snaking fences, and back out to the main walkway.

False Advertising

After The Predator came our next big problem.  We were thirsty.  We wanted drinks.  While we expected to pay “amusement park prices” (which are about as outlandish as movie theater or stadium prices), we were very excited to see many of the food outlets with large banners across the front advertising “Souvenir Cups” for $7.50 and refills for $1 each, good anytime for the rest of the season.  Even though the trip is too far to take more than once a year, $7.50 plus $1 for each refill is better than paying $4.10 each for “normal” large sodas.  Plenty of people seemed to agree, as I saw many of the tall, plastic bottles in people’s hands.

But after standing in line for 10 minutes, the girl behind the counter told us she was all out of the cups.  We asked where to go, and she just said “I don’t know.”  After checking about half a dozen other kiosks, counters and restaurants, we finally got an employee to admit the entire park was sold out of the cups.  When I asked why they still have all these banners and signs up, advertising cups that aren’t for sale anymore, he just shrugged his shoulders.

More Long Lines

I have to admit, it was good to see Darien Lake packed.  If you read my review from 2007, you’ll recall I was a bit concerned over how empty the park was during that visit.  It had me wondering if Darien Lake would survive much longer.  Seeing crowds of people this time showed me the park’s future seems to be intact.

I’ll also give them credit for running two trains on the Viper and the Mind Eraser, which we did not see during last year’s visit.  Having 2 trains running at the same time really helps speed things up.  But there are other ways they could speed up the process.

View from the top of the Darien Lake Theme Park ferris wheel, August 2008.

First off, create a separate “single riders line” for each ride.  There’s no reason a coaster should be going out with empty seats when there are hundreds of people in line.  All the coasters at Darien Lake have 2-seat rows.  If there’s a row with one empty seat, there should be an available pool of single riders standing by, ready to fill that empty seat.  Otherwise, the ride staff wastes time buckling down the empty seat, only to waste more time unbuckling it when the ride is finished.  It’s a win-win situation, because it lets single riders move through the lines faster, and you also prevent single riders from delaying larger groups.  Single riders can add up over the course of even just 30 minutes.

Second, because it’s always worth repeating, RUN TWO TRAINS.  With just one train running on The Predator and Superma—-er, The Ride of Steel (old habits die hard), the lines got really long, and they were moving really slow.  I would have loved to ride The Predator a second time before we left for the night, but the line was just too long to bother.  With The Ride of Steel, the line was so long that I didn’t even attempt it once — despite being one of my favorites.  It was depressing to drive all that way, and not ride all the coasters… but I’m too impatient to stand in line for an hour just for a 55-second ride.

There are several other methods used in major theme parks like Disney and Universal, but they would be too expensive or impractical for a smaller park like Darien Lake.  (Things like FastPass and signage showing ride wait times come to mind.)

Falling Apart?

I think the best trip I had to Darien Lake was something like 9 or 10 years ago.  Even though we had long lines that day too, they were still moving along pretty quickly, all the rides were working, and the park looked to be in good shape overall.

This time, even though The Predator was running, it still wasn’t back to full capacity.  The Viper and Mind Eraser still have their old “ride photo” buildings, even though neither ride has actually taken rider photos in the past 2-3 years.  (Oddly, the Viper’s camera strobe light still flashes as if it were taking pictures.)

Badly-chipped paint in the ferris wheel queue at Darien Lake Theme Park, August 2008

Many areas of the park (ride platform buildings, hand railings, even steel support beams for the rides themselves) are badly in need of some fresh paint.  I was also a little disturbed on more than one occasion, in how the park’s policy of “shoes, shorts and shirts required outside of water park” wasn’t really being enforced.

It was also sad to see the mini-golf course that runs under The Viper’s steel track was virtually abandoned.  It was no surprise that you’d never see anyone playing, since they charged extra for it.  But it was sad to see the park decided to just give up, rather than making it something that could be “included free” with your regular admission.  The same appeared to be true of the paddleboats in the lake near the ferris wheel.

Perhaps Parc is still trying to make their money back from the initial purchase of Darien Lake and the handful of other properties it acquired from Six Flags.  But it won’t be long before they have to start working on some serious improvements throughout the park.  Fresh paint where needed, tear down abandoned buildings where necessary (like the post-ride photo buildings that currently sit empty and look depressing) and last but not least, completely lose the Six Flags imagery. 

There’s a large building that used to house a Batman-themed stunt show, and the exterior walls are still painted in a Batman theme.  Even worse, “The Ride of Steel” is just a quick-fix cheap renaming of “Superman: Ride of Steel.”  Any reference to “(noun) of Steel” is simply out-of-place when you don’t have the iconic “Man of Steel” to go along with it.

Taking One for the Road!

Even though there weren’t any SODA souvenir cups left for sale, there were plenty of Labatt’s Blue souvenir beer mugs available.  Similar deal, pay a higher price up front for the mug, and get discount refills for the rest of the day, and any other return trips that same season.  As we were walking through the exit gates, Kelly noticed a man with one of the mugs — full!  Yes, full — as in, topped it off, and then headed directly for the exit.

And NONE of the 10-15 Darien Lake employees or security guards near the gates noticed it.  Or if they did, they didn’t feel it was necessary to take any action — even though this man, by leaving the park, was now violating open container laws, and likely well on his way to some drunk driving.  Even if he was a passenger, there’s still laws against driving with ANY open alcohol in the car, regardless of who’s actually consuming it.  If this guy caused an accident, I wonder if Darien Lake could have been held responsible for letting him get in the car with a mug of beer.