Peter’s Place

This past weekend was “Welcome Back Weekend” at Darien Lake Theme Park. For the past several years, Darien Lake was owned by Six Flags. Over the winter, it was one of several parks Six Flags sold to a different company — I believe the name is Parc Management.

I had heard through someone at work, that admission was only $10 for opening weekend. Even though I didn’t see anything on the park’s website to confirm it, I convinced Kelly to go, and we brought along her 6-year-old niece, as Kelly was babysitting for the weekend.

When we got there…  sure enough, $10 admission! All 3 of us got in for just less than it normally would have cost one adult. Much to my surprise, they didn’t seem to have done much publicity on this. It wasn’t actually “posted” anywhere — they just told you when you walked up to the ticket booths. Darien Lake is right between Buffalo and Rochester, so I was prepared for the possibility that we’d show up, only to be turned away because the park was already full.

Apparently the PR folks at Darien Lake forgot to mention this in their press releases and advertising. The place wasn’t packed at all. In fact, it was almost scary how “empty” it seemed when we walked through the gates. I mean, there were people around, but I had just severely overestimated the crowds. Then again, it’s too early for water rides (although a select few were actually open)
and the weather was a bit on the cool and windy side.

The management may not have been pleased, but I was thrilled — I hate waiting in lines, and small crowds always means short lines. Even though only 3 roller coasters were operating, I was able to get on all 3 in less than 10 minutes. The longest wait was for the “Ride of Steel” (formerly “Superman Ride of Steel” under Six Flags). On the others, I could have boarded immediately upon walking in, but I chose to wait the extra 2-3 cycles for the front or back row. That’s much better than peak-season wait times of 1-2 hours just for “any” seat.

All 3 of us went on the flume ride together, and we literally walked right in and sat down on the ride. No lines, no waiting. Of course, we got soaked, but doing this early worked to our favor — it wasn’t long before the breeze and sunshine dried us off.

And Darien Lake staff earned extra credit here. After the drenching, I shook my head, and my sunglasses flew off my head. They landed just outside the water, but not in a place where “anyone” can just walk up and get them. I asked the operators if someone could grab them for me. I was expecting a “no” — so much that I almost didn’t even bother asking. But they actually called some office and got clearance to get the glasses. That was very cool, considering I just paid $13 for the sunglasses that morning, on the way to the park. At most other parks, you’d just get a “nope, park policy, blah blah blah.”

My only complaints, though minor:

• The Predator is still closed. It was also closed when we visited last year, but I assumed that was a “Six Flags shutdown preparation” thing. I hope this is temporary, because the “classic” wooden coasters are just as much fun as the steel ones.
• The “Ride of Steel” only had one train running, and the “spare” train was nowhere to be seen. They completely removed it! I hope this is also temporary. The ride is only a minute long. They should have 2 trains, so one is loading/unloading while the other is running. If you’re just running one train all day, the lines can build fast, and that’s not going to be fun if it continues into the summer.
• Same thing with the Mind Eraser… just one train. Not so bad today, but when it gets hotter and school’s out, they’ll need to put the “second” train back in service to keep things moving along.
• The Boomerang was closed. Eh, it’s a cool ride, but I didn’t miss it. Nobody else ever wants go to because it goes backwards (oh no!) and the line’s always long because this is the only coaster where it’s literally impossible to run two trains at the same time. It goes forwards and backwards on the same track.

The Viper was the only coaster that had 2 trains running, and it was awesome. I waited through 3 runs to get the front seat, but every time a new train came through, there were ALWAYS empty rows where people just arriving could just walk right on.

It was really nice getting to enjoy Darien Lake on a day like today. As mentioned earlier, the weather was chilly at first, but got warmer. We didn’t have the punishing, humid heat or large crowds of July and August. We were able to enjoy just about all the rides we wanted to, without having to rush or waste all day standing in long lines.

The fact that it was too early for the water park isn’t a big deal… because I don’t see Darien Lake as a water park as much as I see it as a coaster park.  We planned to be there from noon to 5… that’s what we did, and aside from rides that were closed, we managed to hit all the rides we were hoping for, along with a few extras.

My only serious regret was not having pictures to go along with this article. But I didn’t want to risk having my camera stolen, wrecked, soaked (like my sunglasses), or with my luck, I’d put it down somewhere and forget to pick it back up!