| Darien Lake & Canada's Wonderland 6/10, 6/12
I took a trip out to the Niagara Falls area and visited two parks for the first time.
Darien Lake Theme Park:
1st Park was Darien Lake. This, of course, is a transition year for DL since they are no longer owned by Six Flags. The park was empty so all rides were either a walk-on or close to it.
In general I was very impressed with the park. It is small and easy to walk around. The lake in the park is nice and provides a nice place to kind of chill out in the middle of the day.
I can't compare it to when Six Flags ran the place, but I'm fairly sure it is overall a better experience. They allowed certain foods and drinks into the park. The prices of food seemed to be lower than what I am used to at an amusement park (Six Flags or not). The staff was friendly and there is nothing I can point to that detracted from my stay.
As for the rides. Darien Lake has nothing really to write home about except for Ride of Steel. I came in expecting a fun ride as I rode its brother in Six Flags America. What I didn't expect was that due to the surrounding scenery and the different arrangement of the ride elements that this Ride of Steel is better than the one in SFA. Sure it has all the same elements. The hills are just as high and the turns just as steep, but the way this coaster is put together is just more pleasing. The first hill dropping over the pond is a nice touch and very cool.
The rest of the coasters were just standard park fare with your generic Mind Eraser and a woodie that seemed unnecessarily bouncy. Overall I give Darien Lake a huge thumbs up.
Canada's Wonderland:
I visited the Park on a Tuesday and like Darien Lake it was pretty much empty so I was in a good mood to start. The setting was nice. Everything was pleasing to the eye. The employees were nice.
Unfortunately there is not really anything about this park that stands out. The coasters, barring one or two, are very forgettable. I'm having trouble remembering them now, only a week later.
Dragonfire: It's an older coaster that is a little rough, but not bad considering that many of its cousins are spine-crackers. Pleasant if not unassuming.
Bat: Any park with a Boomerang coaster gets an immediate demerit point in my book. It reeks of a small pier ride. At my age they are barely worth a bother.
Fly: One step up from a cookie-cutter wild mouse ride. A very small step.
Vortex: Perhaps the best coaster in the park. I don't usually like suspended coasters all that much. This one delivers. It is really fast and whips you around. I had a lot of fun.
Tomb Raider: I was looking forward to this unique ride. I love the "lift hill" and I love the look of the cars and how you ride it. It LOOKS like a lot of fun. Then I got on it. While not horrible, this ride is not as smooth as it looks and riders tend to get thrown around inside (especially during the oh so slow corkscrews). I was entertained, but in no rush to get back on. I give it full marks for originality though.
Canadian Mine Buster: This looked like it was going to be the best ride in the park. The signature woodie that was a pleasure to ride. It was broke most of the day, and my wife and I were one of the only people to ride it. I was disappointed once again. CMB offered nothing exhilarating to me. It was just a nice ride.
That brings up the only truly bad point about the day. A lot of rides were broken. Tomb Raider Broke down. Top Gun was spotty as well. Italian Job experienced stoppages. And this was on a very light day, crowd-wise.
Boomerang, Wild mouse, Vekoma hang-n-bang, Stand-up (Shockwave-like). I've clearly been to too many parks because when I see these things I'm always a little disappointed since I've ridden them before I even ride them.
Canada's Wonderland gets a firm C in my book.
Later this Summer I'm heading to Carowinds where I hope to ride my 200th coaster.  | 
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