Michigan's Adventure TR 7/22

[thekidd33]

I finally got some time off from work this past week and the family was heading up to St. Joseph, MI to go to the beach for a few days...so my brothers (Kelly and Beau (bscott400800))and I decided we would leave a little early and get in a trip to Michigan's Adventure. It took us about 5 hours from Indy (though we did stop for about 30 min for lunch) to reach the park. By the time we got there it was raining pretty steadily and the park was all but empty. We got pretty lucky with our timing as it stopped raining about 25 minutes after we arrived and we basically had the park to ourselves. Both the parking attendant and the lady who sold us our tickets made comments about how thankful they were to finally have a slow day at the park. Apparently the park has been packing them in this season, which is good news. We got a chance to ride all the coasters except Mad Mouse at least twice and found several of them to be far more fun than we expected.

Overall Park Observations: Michigan's Adventure is quite a bit smaller than King's Island with the entire park situated in a 'U' shape around a small lake. Shivering Timbers and Wolverine Wildcat anchor one end while Thunderhawk sits at the other. The park was very clean and all the employees seemed very nice and very focused on getting trains out quickly...the problem was that there were far too few of them. Corkscrew and Wolverine Wildcat were both operating with two total ride ops - one running the board and one checking restraints. Even with the crowds at next to nothing this was visibly taxing on them. I hope that this was just due to the weather and not how these rides are run every day. The only other complaint I really had about the park (which a thousand people have stated before me) is that it would be nice if there was a path to complete the circle around the lake. It seems that this path (service road?) actually does exist, it is just closed off to the public. It would be nice to be able to make a much shorter walk to Thunderhawk from Shivering Timbers...but I suppose then we would bypass all of Mr. Kinzel's $5 games and $12 meals. Hopefully over time this area can be developed and that path added in. Overall it was a very nice little park that I really do want to visit again.

Corkscrew: Corkscrew is the standard Arrow Double Corkscrew design and sits right along the midway just inside the front gate. We got three rides in on it throughout the day (the first in pouring rain, which was both cold and fun) all in the back. There is a little pop of air back there down the drop and the corkscrews were fun. I didn't experience any head banging on any of my three rides and in fact found this to be very re-rideable. The only downside was the two man crew and one train (by design - not due to the rain) operation that made for slow waits, even with the light crowds.

Wolverine Wildcat: For any of you that read my Cedar Point TR know that my first encounter with a Dinn Corp woodie, um, wasn't pleasant, so I really didn't know what to expect from this one. Basically I just figured it couldn't possibly be as bad as Mean Streak so I hopped in line. I am happy to report that Meanie's smaller cousin is far far more enjoyable. I was in the very back and ended up riding with a 6-year-old boy who was there with his family. It was both of our first rides on this coaster and he had an absolute blast. The coaster itself isn't anything special as there really isn't any one element that makes it really stand out. There is some nice ejector air in the back on the first three drops but there didn't seem to be much air when I rode later on in the very front. However on that first ride watching this little kid enjoy his first 'big' coaster was awesome. He was laughing the entire way around. It really made me wish I could go back and experience things like this as a kid again. Very very cool to watch.

Mad Mouse: Mad Mouse was closed when we got there and closed up again later in the evening when it began sprinkling again, so I am assuming it doesn't run in the rain. This was the only full line we had to wait in all day. Kelly noticed it was testing when we were on the log flume and when we got there the line was almost all the way full already, despite the small crowds. It seems to be a pretty popular ride. This was my first ride on any type of Wild Mouse design and I thought it was pretty fun. There were certainly a lot of smiling faces getting off. We all thought it was a lot of fun and a good family ride. The turn/drop right after the lifthill made us all feel like we were going to end up falling off the edge. Not exactly a thrill seekers cup of tea but certainly a good time. Also this was just about the only coaster in the park that seemed to get people through at anything approaching a reasonable speed.

Zach's Zoomer: This woodie is a copy (I believe) of Woodstock Express at KI. There was no one in line for this on so we jumped on for a quick lap. I have to admit we all had a really good time on this ride. Kelly kept yelling "Zoooooomer!" the whole time and we were all dying laughing by the time it was over. It was very smooth and for a family ride was a nice thrill. It made me want to make sure I get a lap in on Woodstock's Express on my next visit to KI. We kept randomly yelling "Zoomer!" the rest of the day lol.

Thunderhawk: Thunderhawk anchors on end of the 'U' shape of the park and it certainly seemed to draw people back to its location. There were a lot of people standing around near the rides entrance though, not many seemed to actually jump in line. This was my first SLC experience. I rode it twice, once in the third row and once in the second to last row. I preferred the back row on this ride for sure. There were a lot more forces back there and it didn't seem to be any more rough in back than it was in the front. The pull you get down the first drop is a lot of fun in back too. While not overly rough, it certainly jerks you around in a few places. If this is supposedly one of, if not the, smoothest of the SLC's then I don't know how excited I am for the rest. Overall, Thunderhawk was a nice ride that fit really well into this park.

Shivering Timbers: Shivering Timbers was awesome. There really isn't any other way to put it. This CCI woodie is an absolute beast. We rode two times, once in back and once in front. The ride experiences are totally different between the two. The back has some wicked ejector air over the first three hills and offers an insane pull down the drop coming out of the turnaround. The front had crazy amounts of airtime throughout the ride and offered some great head choppers on the way back. They were only running one train due to the rain, luckily this seemed to be the only ride with its full compliment of ride ops on hand that day and they were getting trains dispatched as fast as they possibly could. I got off the first ride thinking it may have been my favorite woodie but after the second ride settled on placing it third, behind Voyage and Beast.

Other Rides: We also rode the log flume twice, falling star once, and my brothers rode the sea dragon once as well. The log flume offered some great views of the park and was a nice relaxing ride, though you did not get wet at all one it. Falling Star was really really fun! It has a fairly long ride cycle and was actually the first non-dark, non-water flat ride that I had ridden in a long, long time. I may have to give more of these a chance because falling star was a blast.

Overall it was a great day at a very nice little park. I can't wait to get back someday soon!

Thanks for reading!

[countess_of_tuscany]

Sounds like you had lots of fun! Jeff (count_of_tuscany) and I just went to Michigan's Adventure a few weeks ago and we had a blast! It is a nice little family park and Shivering Timbers is just incredible! Thanks for sharing your fun time with us

[bscott400800]

Good stuff, bro. I'll also add that, though we didn't go inside, the water park looked like it had some nice-sized slides, and a funnel slide, all with little to no wait (probably because of the weather...but still...after a day at Holiday World it was hard not to notice the short lines...lol). Definitely a good trip and nice report my dude. K.I. on Thursday baby!! ZOOOMER!!!

[DaveStroem]

We were at MA recently as well. My first ride on ST was just meh. Later in the day I guess the ride woke up and delivered some excellent air time. We never got to ride the mouse as it was closed all day long.

[thekidd33]

I loved ST, it really gave a great ride in both the front and the back.

BTW Dave the trip reports your daughter has been doing are just incredible! Very very fun to read! Seems like you guys had an amazing trip!