Geauga Lake & Phoenix Phall Phun Phest @ Knoebels!

[Delirium_Guy]

October rolls around and the first thing that pops into my mind is the Phoenix Phall Phunphest at Knoebels Amusement Park! This marked my 5th PPP, I missed several years but made a return to last season’s event. I was hooked again and knew that 2005’s Phall Phunphest was a MUST DO! Friday, I hopped into the car with Coasterdime, Snapper and my partner Robb. Originally, we were going to head off to Kennywood’s awesome Phantom Fright Nights but had to change plans as Kennywood closed on Friday due to excessive rains falling in the Pittsburgh area. We were bummed, Fright Nights is hands down THE BEST Halloween Event outside of Universal Studios and the famous Halloween Haunt at Knott’s Berry Farm. I believe in just 3 years of doing it, it has already been ranked the 3rd best Halloween event by Amusement Today. Folks, this isn’t FearFest! Oh well, we plan on trekking back out to Pittsburgh next weekend to try to hit it up again!

So now what to do? Well, seeing as how we were still spending the night in Pittsburgh, Geauga Lake was only about 90 minutes away. Cleveland-bound we were, arriving at Geauga around 730PM with an 11PM closing that evening. Crowds were non-existent, we were frequently the only ones on the coaster trains. A few notes:

Villain – Running fantastic, I thought. Fast, nice air, much smoother than previous rides this season.

Wolf Bobs – BEST ride I’ve ever had on it. Smooth, speedy, a few pops of airtime. Glad to see how much this thing has vastly improved over the past few seasons.

Dominator – As always, balls-to-the-wall intense. One of the last good B&M’s built, before they started engineering the force out of most of their newer creations.

Halloween Haunt – WOW. Nicely done. The Fear Zone over by Villain was NUTS. If you thought Cornstalkers had a lot of fog, you haven’t seen anything. For those familiar with that part of the Park, they had about 25 scareactors in that small area chasing people around. We were completely disoriented walking through, it was FANTASTIC! The atmosphere was top notch, however the actual haunted houses need a lot of improving. Could have been the fact that we were the ONLY ones walking through them, the actors were bored as there were NO guests coming through. I expect to see good things in the future out of Geauga’s event.

We scored double rides on most of the coasters. Rode X-Flight once, despite the fact that it was a walk on, and then went back for a 4th ride on Dominator. I certainly wish them the best of luck next season. The Park has a lot of potential, hopefully Cedar Fair can pull it back to its glory days before Six Flags.

Made it to Pittsburgh around 130AM and quickly crashed. Just a few short hours later, we were back up and off to our random stop of the day……Dorney Park. Its only about 2 hours of Knoebels, we figured we could hit it up for an hour or so, since we have passes. I hadn’t been to Dorney in several years, so Talon and Hydra were to be some new credits for me. Sadly, the torrential downpours and horrific construction delays along I-78 to Allentown put us SO far behind that we decided to just head on north to Knoebels. Best decision ever.

There’s just something about pulling into the parking area at Knoebels. Essentially at no point in time can you see EITHER Phoenix or Twister. All of the rides and coasters are nestled deeply in the trees, with just the sounds and screams of riders making their way out into the Parking lot. Immediately upon entering the Park, I’m always blown away by the charm of this place. The carousel organ can be heard faintly in the background, the fresh cut fry stand is near the entrance so the enticing smell hits you in the face right at the beginning. We made our way down the gravel midways, passing over the covered bridge over to the ticket booth. We paid $30 for the PPP event. It included the 12-5 ride session, 2 huge slices of pizza, a free drink, free game, free ride on the Sky Ride and of course extra riding time on pretty much ALL of the park’s rides.

SNAP! The sound of cables snapping could be heard just behind the building. Our first ride on the Flyers brought back a lot of great memories from PKI’s Eagles. These are arguably the best set of Scooter’s out there. Unrestrained and just pure crazyness. PKI’s were a fine set and provided some AMAZING rides, but the set at Knoebels kinda takes that to the next level. A few rides of crazy snapping and we were off to explore the Park.

Phoenix – Running a bit slower than last year, but still is loaded with air time….all the way to the end. Just like last year, the beginning tunnel is decorated for Halloween. Inside are black lights, strobe lights, heavy fog, carved out pumpkins, etc. We rode Phoenix about 10 or so times yesterday. Just a fun fun ride that NEVER gets old for you!

Twister – I’ve never been the biggest fan of this ride, but last year something happened. It ran like crazy and was just hella fun! It was a bit slower this year, like Phoenix (neither ride seemed to really like the cold and rain), but was still just hauling ass all the way through. I love the folded lift hill and the fun, speedy S-Curves that follow. The first two drops are powerful too, steep and drop all the way to the ground. I’m always amazed at how they fit the ride into that small foot print. Its always something to see the curved brake run snake right into the curved station. Gotta love the skid brakes! Random note, they added some spooky effects to the queue line this season that added a few laughs for unsuspecting guests.

Haunted Mansion – Never gets old. For traditionalists like myself, this is the best dark ride left. Anywhere. Its basically an old school Pretzel dark ride. The track just winds back and forth, kinda like a wild mouse. As the car approaches the corner, the stunt is triggered and lit up for a few seconds before going dark again. This takes up a SMALL amount of space, but gives the illusion of traveling through a rather large mansion. The Park maintains it beautifully, it runs like it is brand new.

Looper & Fandango – Fandango was the new-for-2005 Frisbee like ride. It’s a baby Delirium. Floorless, outward facing seats. WAY more intense, wow what a shocker it was. Definitely a great addition for the Park. Neat little touch for PPP, they installed fog machines UNDER the floor…..so every time it dropped and cloud of fog rolled out and surrounded the disk! ïÂÅ  Looper was another 2005 addition, I believe it was purchases from the now defunct Whalom Park. I had ridden this at Whalom, but it wasn’t in the best of shape. As always, Knoebels has provided the ride with some TLC and it now runs fantastic! Its hard to describe. You basically sit in a cage, facing each other. You can rock back and forth and eventually get the cage to roll upside down. This is attached to an arm that spins around a circular path. The end result, you are pretty much rolling around like a wheel ïÂÅ  Way fun, quite disorienting! Here are some pics on Screamscape http://www.screamscape.com/html/knoebels.htm

Skyride – This was built last season, I believe. It’s a nice, relaxing 15 minute trip up the mountain and back down. This, too, was purchased used and completely overhauled and refurbished by the Knoebels team. The view is breath taking, but just a tad cold in this years’s cold and wet weather!

Bumper Cars – Even if you don’t like Bumper Cars, if you ever go to Knoebels, you HAVE to ride these. These are the old school Lusse cars, dating back from the 20’s. Solid steel. No fiberglass bodies. Talk about some HARD hits. You can’t help but laugh and have a great time on these. Two consecutive rides were about all we could handle at at time.

High Speed Thrill Coaster – Just like every PPP, they crank up the speed of the lift motor and turn this into one, evil little kids coaster. You see more adults on it during PPP, than kids. Again, never fails to put a smile on your face.

The rest of the day was spent re-riding, eating delicious food and just riding the random assortment of attractions that Knoebels has. Power Surge, Down Draft, the flying carpet, Pioneer Train, etc. Total all, we probably scored around 60 rides yesterday.

It rained all day, non-stop, no breaks. Temps were well into the 40’s last night. We were cold and wet and just didn’t care! Knoebels is a place that you can’t help but make memories every time you visit. The employees are friendly and really get into dressing up for the Phun Phest Event. The ride collection is wonderful and gives you a chance to experience a lot of rides that are quickly disappearing from the scene today. Two world class wood coasters, grabbing the brass rings on the carousel, the food, the midways, it all adds up to one of the best times I EVER have in a Park.

- Todd

[The-Snapper]

Yeah it was one hell of a trip! The park is just so much fun! Its different , and it make u feel like a kid again! I cant wait to go back to this beautiful park! And by the way Pheonix Owns The Beast! the tunnel on it is so amazing!

Brandon!

[Skippy]

Did you get on Geauga Lake's Scary Oldies attraction? To me it was the best attraction it the park (maybe even all three of Ohio's parks)! I was dissappointed in PKI's Fear Fest, GL&WWK's Halloween Haunt, and CP's Halloweekends because none of them had scary houses I'm surprised PKI didn't have something like Scary Oldies, not the antique cars part, but the whole famous horror movies theme part! They had Freddy, Jason, Chucky, Leather Face, Alien, Predator, Hannibal Lector, Michael Myers, and Christine (the car). It was a hidden gem!

[The-Snapper]

no we didnt get to! we wernt there for a whole long time