Camden Park: The New Sensation

[The Interpreter]

The most words I've ever found on the New Sensation:

https://fghsaa.wordpress.com/2011/06/27/memories/

Note rcdb.com has the Big Dipper history incorrect. They've been advised many times.

Also of interest:

https://fghsaa.wordpress.com/2010/11/07/camden-park-memories/?relatedposts_hit=1&relatedposts_origin=1852&relatedposts_position=0

Don't miss the comments on each post, which are at the very bottom.

[DubVLegend]

Smh

I wish Cedar Fair would by Camden. They could do amazing things right there

Sent from the future while riding #KIProject2017 using Tapatalk

[westcoaster]

Or build a traditional park at Geuga lake with the water park..

[The Interpreter]

Neither is likely.

What amazing things have they done lately in Michigan?

Terp, who likes to ask sometimes inconvenient questions.

[silver2005]

Sorry to break on a tangent, but what reasoning was there for Cedar Fair to even purchase Michigan's Adventure?

[Diamondback96]

Maybe CF was playing Monopoly?

[stashua123]

Cedar Fair decided that since Michigans Adventure looked more like Baltic Ave. than say how Cedar Point was the like the Boardwalk... the "Monopoly"(quotations for a reason ) company decided to just keep two house at Baltic Ave. (Mich. Adv.) instead of buying a hotel and used that money to buy a huge and grand hotel for the Boardwalk (Cedar Point)!

 

(Life is not as simple as a Monopoly game however, despite how many friendships have been broken by that game. )

[freaks76]

Good reads.

[The Interpreter]

Sorry to break on a tangent, but what reasoning was there for Cedar Fair to even purchase Michigan's Adventure?

The park had just built Shivering Timbers, had sound management and what was seen as great potential, was near Cedar Point (relatively), had a good waterpark, and sold for what Cedar Fair saw as an attractive price.

[MantisMan]

 

The park had just built Shivering Timbers, had sound management and what was seen as great potential, was near Cedar Point (relatively), had a good waterpark, and sold for what Cedar Fair saw as an attractive price.

 

 

I had always heard that location, the area between Chicago and CP, was very desierable to Cedar Fair. Correct me if I'm wrong but was there not a couple of failed attempts for them to buy land and build a park from the ground-up in the Michigan area? Near Battle Creek possibly??

[KIBeast]

Great article! I still have lots of love and support for Camden. Not many small parks like it left.

 

Michigan's Adventure makes  money. Plus, they rarely add new large rides and increase the gate year after year with no drop in attendance. The water park is the main draw.  

[medford]

I know almost nothing of the history of the place, other than what I just found on Wiki.  If Wiki is accurate, it would appear that they built 4 coasters of varying sizes (including a wild mouse and what appears to be true kiddie coaster since you can ride it at 36" w/ an adult) b/w 1998 & 1999, as well as a new coaster in 1994.  Perhaps it was a combination of the owners over building the park too quickly (as many places were at the time) and finding out that they bit off more than they could chew, while CF saw it as a growing threat to one of their markets and took the opportunity to purchase it at an attractive price with no plans to grow the park into anything that would be considered any threat to Cedar Pointe's hold on Southern Michigan.  The Park was sold/purchased for $28 mil, so for the cost of one huge coaster addition, they in theory staved off competition while acquiring an asset that could net a small profit.

 

As a side note, after watching POVs of Shivering Timber, Corkscrew & Thunderhawk, it would appear there would be more headbanging per inch of coaster track than any park I've visited or seen thru POVs.  Obviously POVs are not a true indication, do those rides really shake you around as much as they appear.  I assume Corkscrew, like every other arrow looper that I've been on, has a decent amount of head banging, what about the others?  Speaking of Corkscrew, I just assumed all of the arrow loopers of that arrow had a vertical loop followed by two corkscrews.  Michigan adventure's skips the vertical loop and turns around after the drop to head thru the corkscrew element.  Very short ride.  Seems there is very little (at least from the coaster side of things) to attract me to that park unless I just happened to be in the immediate area.  Even their Madmouse, which was built the same year as Valley Fairs (which I've ridden, and enjoyed) appears to be very similar, if not identical but suffers from a lack of scenery that you get on Valley Fair's version.

[MrPKI]

I visited Michigan's Adventure for the first time last week, so I'll share my experience. Business travel for my wife provided the opportunity for us to swing by for a few hours.

 

For the enthusiast, Shivering Timbers is the main attraction. One might consider it to be the precursor to The Voyage from a design perspective, however, it is not as aggressive. I found it very enjoyable, and quite photogenic! I was tricked twice into thinking that the ride was over at around 2/3 of the way through the course, a fun surprise! I wish we'd had time for more than two rides.

 

Thunderhawk is tolerable, not much headbanging. Corkscrew rides similarly to Vortex, but I found the two inversions to be smooth. Wolverine Wildcat was a disappointment to me - stagecoach style bouncing at the bottom of the drops made for an uncomfortable experience. We did not get to try Mad Mouse as it was down for technical reasons.

 

The park's big draw is WildWater Adventure, but I found it to be a well-rounded rides wise. Cedar Fair has kept the place in good shape despite [the often-expressed enthusiast complaint] that the park rarely receives new major attractions. I appreciated the central lake setting with swan and bumper boats, mini golf, etc. You don't as often find those types of attractions at the bigger parks. The Funland Farm petting zoo is also a nice homage, if small, to the park's past as Deer Park Funland.

 

As this topic is about Camden Park. I feel obliged to comment that Camden has been at the top of my short list for a while due to both its proximity to me and its history. I enjoyed the blog posts and hope to visit later this season. The weather was not favorable when I desired to visit over Independence Day...

[KIBeast]

Having rode Thunderhawk at Geauga Lake, I didn't notice any head banging. Rumor has it that this was the smoothest SLC installation.  

 

MrPki, you should stop by Camden and enjoy our small park. There is a new coaster this year that is absolutely fantastic and fun. They also have a nice set of flyers, a nice haunted house, a good tilt-a-whirl, a kite flyer, a good kids wooden coaster, and a decent big wooden coaster. My only problem with Big Dipper is the shuffling up and down. My experience with employees has been nothing but exemplary.  

[MrPKI]

Thank you, if I do get the chance to visit I will make sure to post about my experience!

[MrPKI]

Following up on this - I was able to visit Camden Park this past weekend, on the last day of standard operation no less. Schedules came together at the last minute surprising me with a free Saturday, an afternoon at the park, and the opportunity to watch my Alma mater play football against Marshall in the evening. It was a great day!

 

My wife and I arrived at the park around 1pm after a quick stop at Tudor's Biscuit World (huge breakfast sandwiches). I was impressed with the look and feel of the place. For a park with many of its marquee attractions being 30-60 years old, everything looked well kept and clean, and the employees were very friendly. Sure, some rides could use fresh paint, but at the same time it didn't exude a lack of maintenance, at least not to me. In fact, the Big Dipper had a fair amount of new (unpainted) wood. We did notice the sign only read "IG DIPPER". Maybe the "B" needs some cosmetic surgery.

 

Speaking of the Big Dipper, it was a lot of fun. Each car was a different experience. I mentioned above how uncomfortable the stage coach style bouncing on Wolverine Wildcat was. Well, Big Dipper had that too, especially in the front car, but it was not painful here possibly due to the less constrictive restraints. It was a completely different experience of air time than I am used to with many surprise pops. We liked it a lot. The back car gave intense ejector air instead of the bouncing. Car two was a mix of both, which my wife liked best.

 

The other two attraction highlights to me were the Hawnted House and Whip. I haven't ridden a Whip since I was a young child at KI, great fun. The Hawnted House is quite the interesting contraption because it is gravity powered. The scares weren't effective, but that's probably not the point. Its a piece of Americana that you don't see much anymore. We also took rides on the Little Dipper, Slingshot (new spinning coaster), Log Flume, Train, Rattler (frisbee), Sky Lift, Flying Scooters, and Camden Princess (Rockin' Tug). The kids coasters round out the collection nicely, and the Log Flume is also a classic. We enjoyed the scooters too, but I thought the cycle was very short.

 

Other thoughts: There were a lot of families with young children visiting, and it was apparent that the group picnics are a big draw for the park. We liked the gift shop even though we didn't buy anything. It was meticulously organized and they didn't sell a bunch of junk - only Camden branded items and a few plushes from popular cartoons.  Given a little more time we would have liked to try the miniature golf course. The theme was very West Virginia and it looked well kept. I've also heard Pronto Pups are not to miss...maybe next time. We did get to try Stewart's Hot Dogs before the football game, however, which was tasty. All told, it was about a three hour visit, but definitely worth the time, and I'm glad to have made it there this year.

[KIBeast]

Glad you enjoyed your visit. I was most certainly surprised by how fun Slingshot is. The miniature golf is excellent.