Canada's Wonderland - July 25th, 2023

 Today was visit number five of the 2023 season at Canada's Wonderland!

It was nice being back at Canada's Wonderland after travelling to three amusement parks in the US Midwest two weeks ago. Some things had changed since my last visit on July 3rd. Some changes were for the better, while others were questionable. Despite some of the not so great changes, I still had a great day at Canada's Wonderland!

On the drive over to Canada's Wonderland there was some rain and lightning. Luckily it had passed by the time my Mom and I arrived at the park.

Once the rides opened at 10am, I headed to Action Zone to ride Behemoth, Psyclone (which I hadn't been on since Winterfest 2022), and Sledge Hammer.

Here is a photo of Yukon Striker. I didn't get a ride on it this visit.

The fountains in Grande Worlde Exposition of 1890 where looking quite nice with the nearby flowerbeds.

Another ride I didn't ride during this visit was the photogenic Swing of the Century.

To my surprise, Tundra Twister appears to now open one hour after the park does. It is a strange move for a new ride. What made it more strange was how the restraints were left open, there were no operators around, and the queue was not roped off.

A few people had walked up the queue to only realize that Tundra Twister was closed and gave no time as to when it would open.

It was kind of odd and something I hadn't seen happen at Canada's Wonderland before. By the way it looked, you almost would have thought the employees walked out and went home. lol
But shortly after 11am, Tundra Twister came to life. This was my 7th ride on Tundra Twister since its debut earlier this season. I guess the 11am opening is something to expect going forward for at least weekdays.

Later in the day I would ride Vortex. This is a view from the Frontier Canada path near Yukon Striker and White Water Canyon.

Since my last visit, the park had installed a water bottle filling station attachment at the washrooms near White Water Canyon. It was able to fill a water bottle in about three seconds! Hopefully more of these pop up around the park as it is something many guests have been asking for over the last several years.

As I had mentioned earlier, a change that was questionable for me was the new delayed opening times for White Water Canyon and Timberwolf Falls that were implemented sometime over the last two weeks.

Many regulars at Canada's Wonderland were use to White Water Canyon and Timberwolf Falls opening at 11am, one hour after the park opens as that is the way it has been for years. Now both attractions open at 12pm on weekdays and only at 11am on weekends.

At the Timberwolf Falls queue entrance there were two signs stating when the ride opens (12pm on weekdays and 11am on weekends).

I guess these new later openings are either due to a staffing issue or the park waiting to open these rides when there is more of a crowd. I could see these opening times being used in May and June, but not in July or August when it is typically hot outside by 11am and the park is quite busy. I guess we'll have to wait and see how long this lasts.

While getting in line for White Water Canyon, I noticed the waterfalls were back up and running! The last time I saw them running was in August 2022.

This was a really neat floral basket arrangement near Backlot Café.

Shockwave was still operating an insane ride cycle like it was a few weeks ago!

In the afternoon, I took a ride on Wilde Knight Mares, Leviathan, and Drop Tower. All three rides had short waits, which was surprising for a nice day in late July!

After riding Drop Tower, my Mom and I caught the Fall Out show in Medieval Faire.

Just like last year, this show consists of acrobatics, diving into Arthur's Baye, and a tightrope walker.

Even though he is tethered, tightrope walking is still a huge no for me. lol

After watching the Fall Out show, my Mom and I headed over to Grande World Exposition of 1890 for a ride on Antique Carousel. On our way over, I happened to notice that Time Warp now has all of its cars stop in the station to be loaded, unlike the conveyor system where the cars never stopped they had up until recently.
I do not know the reason for the change in the operations, but I had never seen it operate like this before. I know for certain it wasn't like that during my one ride of the year on Time Warp back in May and is more of a recent change.

After getting on quite a few rides today, it was time for my Mom and I to head home! Thanks for checking out my photos from my fifth visit of the 2023 season to Canada's Wonderland! :-)

Indiana Beach Amusement Park - July 13th,2023

 Our final amusement park of our road trip was to the fun and quirky Indiana Beach of Monticello, Indiana on July 13th!

When you think of boardwalk amusement parks, you may think of ones in California on the west coast or New Jersey on the east coast. But then there's Indiana Beach which is near no large body of water, except for Lake Shafer, a 2 square mile lake, which the park is located next to, and in some cases on as some of the rides are built over it!

Indiana Beach is home to an awesome collection of classic roller coasters and rides, some of which you may not find anywhere else! I am glad that this small boardwalk amusement park is still around as it did face closure a few years ago, but it looks to be on the up with its new owner at work!

Be sure to check out my photos of our great day at the unique Indiana Beach Amusement Park! :-)

After an almost 6 hour drive from St. Louis, we arrived at Indiana Beach just before 2pm.

Indiana Beach has been a destination of fun and relaxation since 1926. Indiana Beach was originally known as Ideal Beach from 1926 to 1951 and was owned by the Spackman Family from 1926 to 2008. Then from 2018 to 2015, the park was owned by Morgan RV, LLC before being sold to Apex Parks in late 2015. They operated the park for a few years and then announced in early 2020 that the park would not reopen. After some deals made, Indiana Beach was acquired by Chicago business man, Gene Staples, who saved the park and reopened it that year.

While the beach on Lake Shafer was once originally the main draw during the park's earlier days the roller coasters and thrill rides added over the years are the main attractions of today, with the beach still in operation to this day!

After going through the check point you are greeted with this lovely view of Indiana Beach from the suspension bridge!

There aren't many amusement parks with a view like this!

Once across the bridge, you walk by the entrance to the sky ride to the boardwalk along Lake Shafer.

Unfortunately the unique Lost Coaster of Superstition Mountain was closed during our visit.

As mentioned, there are quite a few classic and unique rides to be found at Indiana Beach.

The Paratrooper and Scrambler are one of the handful of rides that operate over the water!

Here is a train on the Hoosier Hurricane climbing up the first hill before descending the one of many drops on this out-and-back roller coaster! I would ride it later in the day.

My first ride of the day at Indiana Beach was on the Tig'rr, a Schwarzkopf Jet Star 1 that has been operating at the park since 1984.

The Tig'rr was my first roller coaster by Schwarzkopf and features many tight turns as the single car zips along the track at 31.1 mph ( 50 km/h).

Tig'rr was a really fun roller coaster and I was glad to finally be able to experience a roller coaster from the legendary Anton Schwarzkopf, even though it wasn't the biggest or most thrilling of his creations!

Up next was the Cornball Express, a fun Custom Coaster International (CCI) wooden roller coaster from 2001 filled with many banked turns and pops of airtime!

While not the largest or fastest of wooden coasters, the Cornball Express makes up in thrills with its use of buzz-bar trains, banked curves, airtime hills, and how it interacts with the Hoosier Hurricane, which opened seven years earlier.

The Cornball Express ended up being my favourite roller coaster at Indiana Beach!

Those curved airtime filled hills on the Cornball Express are amazing!

Here you can see how Hoosier Hurricane and Cornball Express utilize some of the same support structure.

Up next was a ride on the thrilling Hoosier Hurricane, Indiana Beach's premiere wooden roller coaster, opening in 1994! It was also manufactured by CCI and features an out-and-back layout of 2,891 feet of track along the boardwalk. The Hoosier Hurricane has a maximum speed of 51 mph (82 km/h) with a height of 77 feet and a drop of 98 feet! It also operates with a PTC train with buzz bars.

Here is a look at the Cornball Express and Hoosier Hurricane overlapping each other.

Among the classic rides at Indiana Beach is a Mack Musik Express. I would ride it later in the day and discovered it operates both forward and backward!

The next roller coaster to ride was the Steel Hawg, an S&S El Loco coaster that features a beyond vertical 111° drop followed by tight turns and two twisted inversions!

One of the inversions on Steel Hawg is a dive loop. The other is an inline twist.

Steel Hawg is quite compact and thrilling!

Behind the Steel Hawg is the not quite yet ready triple looping Schwarzkopf roller coaster, All American Triple Loop.

The All American Triple Loop originally travelled the German Fair circuit as Dreier Looping from 1984 through the mid-1990s. In 1997 it found its way to Sunway Lagoon in Malaysia where it operated there as Triple Loop until 1999.

In 2000, it opened at Magnum Force at Flamingo Land of England until 2005. Afterwards it was bought by La Feria Chapultepec Magico of Mexico where it operated there from 2007 to 2019. After the park closed, the Triple Loop was put up for sale. Indiana Beach eventually bought this thrilling roller coaster and has been working hard over the last few years to get it operational!

Hopefully I'll be able to ride it one day in the future!

Steel Hawg was the first of six El Loco coasters to be built to date when it opened in 2008.

You can get a great view of the Cornball Express and Hoosier Hurricane from the path near Steel Hawg.

Here is one last look at the Steel Hawg. It was definitely one of the most bizarre and unique steel looping coasters I have done to date!

It is not everyday you get an under view of the components of a roller coaster! This is a brake within the station of the Hoosier Hurricane.

Indiana Beach is also home to a vintage skyride. Since it was a tad breezy, I opted not to ride it.

Indiana Beach is home to the shortest power tower I have seen!

From the queue of the Double Shot, you can get a nice view of the water park at Indiana Beach.

The Double Shot was manufactured by S&S and opened at Indiana Beach in 1998. It sends thrill-seekers about 80 feet in the air and is followed by a lot of airtime filled bounces thanks to to air compressed launches power towers are most famous for! It was really fun and powerful for its size!

The Dodgem Bumper Cars were also quite fun too and have been a staple at Indiana Beach since the 1960s.

Indiana Beach is home to two unique dark ride attractions, one of them being the Den of Lost Thieves. This interactive shooting dark ride opened in 1998 by Sally Corporation. It is located in a previous dark ride building, although the details of that dark ride are sparse. Den of Lost Thieves is filled with a lot of animatronics and targets to shoot with laser guns attached to the cars. It is one you don't want to miss if you love classic styled dark rides!

After a nice ride of target shooting fun on The Den of Lost Thieves, I took a ride on the classic Cyclone coaster.

This unit opened at Indiana Beach in 2022 and is like many Zyklon/Galaxi coasters that you see at many large fairs in North America. The Cyclone had previously operated in Mexico.

After the Cyclone, I took a ride on Rocky's Rapids, a log flume that had once operated at the former Pontchartrain Beach of New Orleans, Louisiana that closed in 1983.

This was the second ride to my knowledge that I had been on that once operated at Pontchartrain Beach, with the other being the Steamin' Demon at the Great Escape.

The Tilt-A-Whirl was in great shape and provided a fun ride spinning, like any great Tilt-A-Whirl should. The colours even matched my replica 1977 Nike Blazers. lol

The other unique dark ride attraction at Indiana Beach was Dr. Frankenstein's Castle! While it is an upcharge attraction, it is definitely worth the $3.50 paid to get in!

It is a classic walk-through haunted fun house attraction with many dark corridors, props, and animatronics within a couple of levels! It took me over 15 minutes to complete! It was a hilariously good time! But I would not recommend it to those who are claustrophobic! lol

Here is one of the ghouls that calls Dr. Frankenstein's Castle home. He even detaches his head every so often. lol

After a fun 15-minute walk through Dr. Frankenstein's Castle, my Mom and I rode the Lake Shafer Queen together. The Lake Shafer Queen takes you on a approximately 20 minute paddle wheel boat excursion on Lake Shafer.

It provides passengers with a great view of the rides at Indiana Beach.

We sat up on the upper deck to get a great view.

Indiana Beach's location on the water makes it truly special.

The Paratrooper and Scrambler rides have been a staple at the park for decades.

Indiana Beach is home to a sky coaster that sends passengers over the lake! It was quite popular during our visit!

The Lake Shafer Queen takes you first past the water park area.

Many cottage owners along Lake Shafer drive their boats past the Shafer Queen.

There's the small but mighty Double Shot!

These views really show you just how close Indiana Beach is to the water!

On the excursion, you can also get a great view of the yet to open Triple Loop.

How I wish this was ready during our visit! But I'll definitely try to get back once the Triple Loop is operating!

Here are some of the private cottages located across Lake Shafer.

The boat then takes you past the other end of the park.

You can get some great views of the Hoosier Hurricane and the Cornball Express from the Shafer Queen.

Indiana Beach is quite photogenic from the water!

After a relaxing ride on the Lake Shafer Queen we took a ride on the Spackman Express, a Chance Rides CP Huntington train ride.

It takes you past and through the structures of the Cornball Express and Hoosier Hurricane.

I believe this was a view of the Lost Coaster of Superstition Mountain which was unfortunately closed during our visit to Indiana Beach.

The train also passes by the Antique cars which operate on a boardwalk structure over the water.

Here is a look at the locomotive on the Spackman Express.

The second station of the Spackman Express is located in the turn around of the Hoosier Hurricane.

In the early evening, I took a ride on the Air Crow, the park's flying Scooter ride! It is neat to fly out over the water!

After taking a spin on the Paratrooper and Scrambler rides, I took a photo of one of the planters in front of the Scrambler. They are made using the bottoms of Scrambler cars.

It was a beautiful afternoon and evening at Indiana Beach.

The rides and roller coasters are all quite photogenic at Indiana Beach!

Here are three brave teenaged girls flying on the SkyCoaster over Lake Shafer at Indiana Beach!

The Hoosier Hurricane can be seen from many angles at the park!

From the bridge, you can get a nice view of the Air Crows.

Here is one last look at a train speeding by on the Hoosier Hurricane!

Here's another final look at the Cornball Express before heading out!

On my final ride on the Cornball Express, I ended up sitting beside another roller coaster enthusiast who happened to be visiting Indiana Beach for the first time too! What a coincidence! It was a pleasure meeting you Tom! :-)

Here's my Mom and I after spending a great day at the fun and unique Indiana Beach! That night we stayed at the Monticello Inn before driving home the following day! :-)