Pirate's Cove - Mega Post!

Darkride designer Bill Tracy built many walkthrough funhouses in the 1960s and 70s, but only two remain. Both are named Pirate's Cove and are located 500 miles apart, at Waldameer (home to the Bill Tracy Whacky Shack) in Erie, Pennsylvania, and Trimper's in Ocean City, Maryland (also home to the 1964 Tracy ride-through Haunted House). Trimper's built theirs in 1971 and Waldameer's Cove opened in 1972.  I wanted to do a photo walkthrough of both rides and also show the similarities and differences between them. This will be a long post, so I'll be happy if you stick through to the end!

The first pic is of one of the entrances to Trimper's. The crow's nest with the terrified pirate used to be at Waldameer as well, but it was removed years ago.

Note that Waldameer has an apostrophe on the sign, and Trimper's doesn't. I know you care.

Here's the more detailed Trimper's facade. The "barker" parrot animatronics at the center were added within the past 30 years to give the front some extra ballyhoo. They run through a spiel and move a little.

 

Both rides have spooky skulls on the exterior. Waldameer has the bonus of the mouths opening and closing!

 

Along with the skulls on the wall that faces the midway, Trimper's has a nice mural.

When you enter the Trimper's version, you cross a rope bridge and navigate a tilting floor of a ship before arriving at the first interior stunt, the moving floorboards. Waldameer has an identical setup, minus the exterior stunts. If you take the "easy way," you'll be blown by multiple air jets.

                                 

Practically every Bill Tracy attraction has a diminishing corridor, and both Pirate's Coves have an example. It's a different sensation to walk than ride through one.

                

The next two stunts are identical between the two attractions. A shark diorama is followed by a circular room with a disco ball that you wind around several times.

                                

The following room that you navigate is a "Mystery Spot"in both attractions. Trimper's has the better one, with a tableau that's supposed to show water running uphill into a drunken pirate's mug.                                            
Compared to Trimper's, Waldameer's tilt room is barer:

There is a flashing diorama on one side of a dog with some bones, though. Right after this in Waldameer's walkthrough is a scene of a monster that is not a Tracy creation. Trimper's and Waldameer's attractions are pretty different from here, so let's finish up Trimper's first.

This is a revolving barrel with a spinning disk at the end. It's hard to take a picture of it!

The drunken skeleton is a Tracy classic and is very similar to one at Waldameer that we will see in a second.

 

The skull waterfall is found in Trimper's Haunted House and the Waldameer Whacky Shack, the latter of which is seen below. Waldameer still has the water pouring out of the eyes!

Following a rubbery floor, you see this head in an outhouse hole, yet another classic gag.

The next scene is this skeleton captain, with clear influence taken from Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean. He's supposed spin the wheel, but that feature was MIA last year.

     

Tracy ghouls always have a certain look, and Trimper's has some of my favorites!

After this pop-up that doesn't work anymore, you navigate a maze of bars with a flashing strobe light (when it works...) and leave the attraction. Now let's take a look at the remainder of what you will see at Waldameer!

First off is this barrel maze, which shines in its new paint here. The barrels are real, and they make a hollow sound if you knock against one.

Here's a Tracy water effect that actually works, which is remarkable given that these props are nearing 50 years old and are made of chicken wire and paper mache. 

The skeletal captain is placed in a more elaborate setting at Waldameer, complete with rotating "quicksand" hands and a waterfall along the rear wall. You're also crossing a suspension bridge when viewing this scene.

This scene is another pop-up that no longer functions, but take a quick look at the face of the ghost in the back? Does it look familiar? If not, take a close look at the crow's nest figure at the beginning of the article.

Here's Waldameer's drunken skeleton, but this one is better since it has a "Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum" soundtrack and a rotating coil that makes it look like he's drinking!

Waldameer has a "jail maze" like Trimper's...

This is one of the best Tracy gags ever because of the humorous accompanying soundtrack. These heads seemingly "float" up and down while they each exclaim in different tones of voice, "I ain't got no body!"

A Tracy "Last Drop" gag completes the walkthrough! You have to love the toilet paper roll, and water trickles out from under the toilet seat.

Whew! I'm sure that was much more info that you ever wanted or needed to know, but I enjoyed piecing it together all the same. Trimper's apparently opened their walkthrough this year and gave every person that walked through a pair of rubber gloves, which is definitely a commitment on their part, but Waldameer chose to keep theirs shut. Hopefully, it will come back next year. Thanks for reading!

Ravine Flyer II

Located at Waldameer Park in Erie, Pennsylvania, Ravine Flyer II is my second favorite roller coaster. It features a unique and intense layout with extreme banking. A modern wooden coaster using a steel structure, RFII opened in 2008, although park management had been planning its construction since 1995.

                                                    

The original Ravine Flyer lasted for 16 years in the 1920s and 30s, but it was closed following a fatal accident when a rider fell off the structure after attempting to leave a train that didn't make it up the next hill. One of the only known photographs of the original coaster is the one on this sign.

The original station of the Flyer was left and is still utilized as a picnic grove. The picture below depicts a good comparison of the original station at top alongside the present station.

Beyond being an awesome coaster designed by the Gravity Group (my favorite coaster manufacturer), Ravine Flyer II has several quirks that make it a one-of-a-kind experience. 

Waldameer is right on Lake Erie (like Cedar Point), so you get great views from the top of the lift hill before descending down the first drop.

One of the ride's features is the namesake ravine that it drops into. This makes it hard to get photos or video of its initial plunge.

After that surprise 118-foot drop, you do something even more surprising - you fly over the road that parallels the park, twist up into another hill, then fly back across the bridge. (Here's a Google Street View link of the bridge)

Erie is home to a coastal state park called Presque Isle, and that's the peninsula that you jutting out in the distance below. (Peninsulas always jut.) The blue covering over the bridge is to screen noise from reaching the adjacent trailer park. Those residents and the challenges of spanning a state highway created many difficulties in building Ravine Flyer II. It didn't help that the manufacturer that was to build the coaster went out of business midway through the planning process!

 Just as the ride starts to slow down, it goes through a 90 degree banked turn (permitted by the steel structure) at a speed that allows you to enjoy it before diving into the ravine one more time and returning to the station.

In 2019, I got to walk into the ride's "infield," close to the 90-degree turn, as part of a Great Ohio Coaster Club event. It was fun to watch the trains circle around you!

Return of Kennywood's Old Mill

After 16 seasons of operation, Kennywood's corny Garfield's Nightmare boat ride has been restored to a theme reflective of its past! The much-anticipated ride hits all the right notes for a darkride, and it feels a million more times like a classic darkride than Garfield's Nightmare ever did. This is my review of the newly rethemed attraction. (If you're unfamiliar with the story of the Old Mill and the ride theme it replaced, I wrote a post back in March about it.)  

My first impression of the entrance was that it had been opened up and is now free of the souvenir and food stands that cluttered it during the Garfield years.

It's a shame that they didn't bring back a version of the old 1920s-style Old Mill front, but I'm not going to complain because having a century-old ride at all is so much better than not, and updating any vintage ride to an old-school theme is just the most awesome thing to do.

It was only in March that the retheme was announced, and despite a months-long shutdown at the park, the people that designed the new theme (the designers of a famous Pittsburgh haunted house) were able to work together at home and online, so by the time the park opened in July, the "new Old Mill" was ready to go!

 The facade remains unchanged from Garfield apart from a new skeleton in the window.

While Garfield's Nightmare was not universally hated among park visitors, those outspoken about desired changes at Kennywood always cited it as their no. 1 attraction to bring back (and you would certainly hear a long list of others if you asked certain long-time Pittsburghers, who are known for being resistant to change.)

I'm not going to leave comments on every scene but will tell you some fun facts.

The "Hoot N' Holler RR" sign in the background of this diorama is a tribute to the old "hillbilly" theme of Kennywood's miniature train ride. (now it's Thomas...) The train itself is from a former darkride at the park called Gold Rusher that closed in 2007. Reusing props like this is cost-effective yet will surely bring back memories of the past for many.

Another former Gold Rusher prop are these coyotes, who are static. The motion in this scene is provided by the ghostly blacksmith in the next picture, a replica of a gag from the 1974-2003 Old Mill.

Notice the orange cat in the background. I'll let you make that connection for yourself. :-)

There is very simple animation in every scene; the clothesline bounces up and down, and the water runs from the pump, but there are plenty of details and references to old park rides that will make you want to ride again. And remember, these scenes are very dim in person, so you don't necessarily notice the simplicity of the construction.

The name of the main skeleton in all of the scenes is Harold, which is a shoutout to a former name of the Old Mill, Hardheaded Harold's Horrendously Humorous Haunted Hideaway. (longest ride name ever?)

Going through, I couldn't help but think that despite having a brand new theme, this actually feels like the oldest of Kennywood's three darkrides.

The Old Mill is not elaborate and may seem crude to many, but that's exactly the vibe that most classic darkrides give off and is a huge part of what makes them charming. Those going in expecting to be wowed or terrified will be disappointed, but if you temper your expectations to expect a simple boat ride through the dark (thankfully without neon colors on every surface), then you will surely enjoy it.  

This is the Old Mill that I knew we needed all along, and I'm sure that it was an inexpensive move for Kennywood that has gained them lots of publicity.

Here's the scene in the pre-Garfield ride that this tableau is a tribute to:

Overall, the Old Mill is a great addition to Kennywood's storied darkride legacy!

To end this post, I've scanned a response to a letter I wrote Kennywood in 2012 asking them to bring back the Old Mill. Eight years later, they finally got around to it. ;-) (My "fix" of the address at the bottom was because it came off when I removed the tape that was holding it to my wall.) :-p

Kings Island

I got to visit Kings Island in Cincinnati, Ohio at the end of July for my first ever visit. Even with all of the virus precautions in place, I still had a great time despite all of the rides being closed for a couple of hours early in the day. Crowds were light, so I was able to ride every coaster multiple times that I wanted to.

Opened in 1972, Kings Island has a long history, starting with a park called Coney Island located elsewhere in the city that was majorly successful. However, due to its location on the Ohio River, the park was moved to higher ground and rebranded into the new theme park of Kings Island in 1972. The park also served a stint as Paramount's Kings Island that saw the installation of several lightly-themed attractions before Cedar Fair bought all five of the Paramount Parks in 2006. The entrance leads into International Street and the iconic 1/3 scale replica of the Eiffel Tower. In the background, you can see the new Orion "giga coaster."

Orion is one of the few new roller coasters that have opened this year. It is the 10th tallest in the world at 287 feet with a 300-foot drop and a top speed of 91 miles per hour. Orion is a great ride and is one of my new favorite steel roller coasters!

 My dad took this picture from the Eiffel Tower. You can see Orion towering over the Racer, one of the rides that sparked a new interest in the wooden coasters and was famously featured in The Brady Bunch.

Any park with a working glockenspiel earns extra points.

The park's darkride has always been in this building and has gone through several themes over the years, with the most recent being the "Scooby-Doo and the Haunted Mansion" interactive ride since 2003. It was altered into "Boo Blasters" when Cedar Fair took over.

Seen here are three of the park's roller coasters: The Beast, the world's longest wooden coaster, is on the left, Diamondback, a hyper coaster, is in the right-center, and Mystic Timbers, a wooden coaster built in 2017, is on the far right. Also of note on the far left is the former site of Vortex, a looping coaster that closed at the end of 2019. I missed out!

Mystic Timbers was majorly hyped up, but I went in with too high expectations because even after three rides I came away disappointed. The track is very twisted, but no matter how many crazy directional changes and pops of airtime this coaster throws at you, it’s a bit too smooth for me. I love wooden coasters, but those made by Great Coasters International that I’ve ridden just don’t have the edge that I look for in a woodie.

The Beast is about as legendary as it gets when it comes to wooden coasters. I was hoping I would love it but wasn't expecting much, and as I anticipated, it didn't have a lot of action over its long length. The thing that made the ride worthwhile was cruising through the woods, and it’s hard to imagine what this ride would be like without that feature. The final helix also did not disappoint and is definitely the most forcefully memorable one of any wooden coaster.

My first visit to Kings Island was lots of fun and gave me a perfect opportunity to take in all that the park had to offer. I look forward to returning in the future!