Hutch
Strata Poster
Meant to get this out a bit earlier but got a bit busy with back to school stuff going on. But I’ve finally finished this up now so here we go.
So every couple years or so my family takes a trip up to Maine to stay at Kezar Lake for a week in August. I realized that Storyland was just an easy drive away from where we stayed. And since they just got a brand spankin' new woodie (the obvious main reason why I wanted to go), I was able to convince my parents to drop me at the park.
So our log cabin up at the lake was set on a hillside right by the lake and included our own private dock.
We also hauled up our 17 foot Boston Wailer. Every day we'd spend some time water skiing. The entire area is really peaceful and relaxing. There's no internet service or cable TV, but it was actually nice to have a break from all that.
All right enough that. It's time for some goonery action.
We got to the park at 11. Luckily the parking lot wasn't a hassle so I was easily dropped off. After dropping me of my mom and sister went out on a shopping spree; they'd be back to get me in a few hours.
I had been to the park before when I was like five or six, but don't really remember much of it. Don't think I ever did the Polar Coaster either, so of course I had to get that done.
I didn't really have any specific plan of attack. I came in without any worries or anything.
Of course Roar-o-Saurus was all the way at the other end of the park. I was thinking about picking up the Polar Coaster first as it was on the way, but the park was so small that I decided to just go straight to the woodie.
I had been drooling all over this ever since it was announced back in November. Lots of airtime packed in a small space, it looked great! I had never been on a modern woodie before as well.
My first ride on Roar-o-Saurus was a walk on. I hopped on the back of the Timberliner trains, and before long we were off. The lift hill was a quick ride up. It's great the the first drop isn't immediately after the chain so the train drops a little quicker, giving some nice airtime in the back. My first ride was pretty much what I expected: nice pops of airtime on every single hill.
I'm glad I was able to get several rerides on it later to form a better opinion (which I'll get to later). For now I left RoS and did some other stuff. There were only a few other rides I wanted to try, but not many. I didn't want to ride them immediately because I was concerned I might get bored. So I continued on with no rush.
One of the flats rides which was near RoS was the Turtle Twirls, a type of ride I haven't done in years.
Again, not much of a line. Just had to wait for the ride cycle to end so I could get on. I guess it was kind of fun. Bits of forces while being spun around. It actually went on for a bit longer than I expected, and I started to get a bit dizzy.
I figured before I do another ride I'd grab another go on RoS, again in the back row. Still great fun.
Next I decided to get the second cred of the day (and my final +1 of the year
), Polar Coaster.
Another walk on too (I wasn't expecting any of the rides if have actual waits). The station does have some nice theming, but nothing around the actual ride area.
I sat in the back row of the hard, uncomfortable seats. The ride is nothing special. Just mainly about turns and there's only a couple dips and drops. The first half kind of reminded me of a wild mouse. It's a bit jerky, especially around the turns, but nothing too bad. I think it's a great "first coaster" for kids, but nothing more.
Also, outside the station was a big cylinder of solid ice. I was starting to get a bit hot, so this was nice and refreshing.
After that I decided to take a break from the rides and just walk around the park.
I checked out the farm animals. I didn’t really realize that the park actually had real animals, so that was cool.
My favorites were the Three Little Piggies. <3
They even had their straw, stick, and brick houses. I thought that was kinda cute (don't remember seeing a Big Bad Wolf).
I worked my way around back to the front of the park. I came across this really creepy talking tree that gave people tips and directions about the park.
I went back around the other way. There was this rapids raft ride. I didn’t try it because it’s one of those rides where you get soaked (at least it looked like it).
I thought this was a pretty park in a neat location. I think this view is my favorite.
I wanted to get lunch soon, but real quick I decided to get another ride on RoS. This time I tried front row. Not as good as the back, but still a lot of fun. One thing I didn’t mention earlier is that there’s actually a bit of theming around the ride. Just a few dinosaurs and landscaping, that’s all.
I grabbed some lunch over at the food fair, and went back to do some more rides. I wanted to do the Bamboo Chutes log flume, but got distracted by a couple things on the way over, which included another ride on Polar Coaster, and a cow that you can milk.
Then I came across this, which I thought was kind of out of place for a kiddie park.
I’m not a huge physics guy, so I wasn’t too sure if that was really floating on the water or what. I haven’t really heard anything like that yet. You could turn it around or roll it in a different direction.
I haven’t done a log flume in quite a while (think this was the only one I did this year). It was fun I guess, a bit average. There’s just one “big” drop that gives you a nice sprinkle, but nothing too wet.
After that it was time to do some more Whore-O-Saurus rerides. I did eleven consecutive rides, adding my total to fourteen rides on this baby. I kept doing back seat, but tried some other seats as well. I must’ve re-ridden it for about 90 min straight. It was awesome!
There were actually a couple other flats that I considered doing, but I was having so much fun riding this, I didn’t care for them.
So my overall thoughts for this…I think it’s fantastic. Back seat is definitely the way to go. The first drop is a great way to get things going. The double up has some nice floater, but everything else is quick ejector. The second half of the ride is much more violent and wild than the first half, starting with the double down after the tunnel which is actually kind of intense. The last four bunny hills are pretty relentless as well, just like a classic woodie. The timberliners are sleek and comfortable, but I still think I prefer the old PTCs. But I’d say the timberliners are the way to go for smaller coasters and the more modern ones.
As I’ve said before, I’m really glad I did plenty of re-rides on this thing. I felt that my first couple rides were a bit smoother and more gentle than my later rides. As I kept reriding it I realized that the ride is quite wild. I saw a lot of adults who were riding with their kids quite surprised after riding it.
The ride ops also did a superb job that day. There was only one train running (I didn’t see a second train in storage or even a transfer track anywhere), but the ride ops did a great job loading everyone in and dispatching pretty quickly. At one point I also chatted with one of them. They seemed to have a pretty nice time and had smiles on their faces.
If I were to rate this ride I’d give it a 9/10. It’s the perfect example of “bigger is not always better” and there’s nothing bad about the ride really. If you’re in the area it’s definitely worth visiting the park just for this one coaster. Storyland’s looking at real winner here. =D> Love to see more of these built in the coming years.
After that it was time to leave. My mom and sister picked me up in the parking lot and we went back to our cabin. Despite not being a major park (but a great family park), I’m glad my last coaster of the season was Roar-O-Saurus. Thank you for reading this little report of mine!
So every couple years or so my family takes a trip up to Maine to stay at Kezar Lake for a week in August. I realized that Storyland was just an easy drive away from where we stayed. And since they just got a brand spankin' new woodie (the obvious main reason why I wanted to go), I was able to convince my parents to drop me at the park.
So our log cabin up at the lake was set on a hillside right by the lake and included our own private dock.
We also hauled up our 17 foot Boston Wailer. Every day we'd spend some time water skiing. The entire area is really peaceful and relaxing. There's no internet service or cable TV, but it was actually nice to have a break from all that.
All right enough that. It's time for some goonery action.
We got to the park at 11. Luckily the parking lot wasn't a hassle so I was easily dropped off. After dropping me of my mom and sister went out on a shopping spree; they'd be back to get me in a few hours.
I had been to the park before when I was like five or six, but don't really remember much of it. Don't think I ever did the Polar Coaster either, so of course I had to get that done.
I didn't really have any specific plan of attack. I came in without any worries or anything.
Of course Roar-o-Saurus was all the way at the other end of the park. I was thinking about picking up the Polar Coaster first as it was on the way, but the park was so small that I decided to just go straight to the woodie.
I had been drooling all over this ever since it was announced back in November. Lots of airtime packed in a small space, it looked great! I had never been on a modern woodie before as well.
My first ride on Roar-o-Saurus was a walk on. I hopped on the back of the Timberliner trains, and before long we were off. The lift hill was a quick ride up. It's great the the first drop isn't immediately after the chain so the train drops a little quicker, giving some nice airtime in the back. My first ride was pretty much what I expected: nice pops of airtime on every single hill.
I'm glad I was able to get several rerides on it later to form a better opinion (which I'll get to later). For now I left RoS and did some other stuff. There were only a few other rides I wanted to try, but not many. I didn't want to ride them immediately because I was concerned I might get bored. So I continued on with no rush.
One of the flats rides which was near RoS was the Turtle Twirls, a type of ride I haven't done in years.
Again, not much of a line. Just had to wait for the ride cycle to end so I could get on. I guess it was kind of fun. Bits of forces while being spun around. It actually went on for a bit longer than I expected, and I started to get a bit dizzy.
I figured before I do another ride I'd grab another go on RoS, again in the back row. Still great fun.
Next I decided to get the second cred of the day (and my final +1 of the year
), Polar Coaster. 
Another walk on too (I wasn't expecting any of the rides if have actual waits). The station does have some nice theming, but nothing around the actual ride area.
I sat in the back row of the hard, uncomfortable seats. The ride is nothing special. Just mainly about turns and there's only a couple dips and drops. The first half kind of reminded me of a wild mouse. It's a bit jerky, especially around the turns, but nothing too bad. I think it's a great "first coaster" for kids, but nothing more.
Also, outside the station was a big cylinder of solid ice. I was starting to get a bit hot, so this was nice and refreshing.
After that I decided to take a break from the rides and just walk around the park.
I checked out the farm animals. I didn’t really realize that the park actually had real animals, so that was cool.
My favorites were the Three Little Piggies. <3
They even had their straw, stick, and brick houses. I thought that was kinda cute (don't remember seeing a Big Bad Wolf).
I worked my way around back to the front of the park. I came across this really creepy talking tree that gave people tips and directions about the park.
I went back around the other way. There was this rapids raft ride. I didn’t try it because it’s one of those rides where you get soaked (at least it looked like it).
I thought this was a pretty park in a neat location. I think this view is my favorite.
I wanted to get lunch soon, but real quick I decided to get another ride on RoS. This time I tried front row. Not as good as the back, but still a lot of fun. One thing I didn’t mention earlier is that there’s actually a bit of theming around the ride. Just a few dinosaurs and landscaping, that’s all.
I grabbed some lunch over at the food fair, and went back to do some more rides. I wanted to do the Bamboo Chutes log flume, but got distracted by a couple things on the way over, which included another ride on Polar Coaster, and a cow that you can milk.
Then I came across this, which I thought was kind of out of place for a kiddie park.
I’m not a huge physics guy, so I wasn’t too sure if that was really floating on the water or what. I haven’t really heard anything like that yet. You could turn it around or roll it in a different direction.
I haven’t done a log flume in quite a while (think this was the only one I did this year). It was fun I guess, a bit average. There’s just one “big” drop that gives you a nice sprinkle, but nothing too wet.
After that it was time to do some more Whore-O-Saurus rerides. I did eleven consecutive rides, adding my total to fourteen rides on this baby. I kept doing back seat, but tried some other seats as well. I must’ve re-ridden it for about 90 min straight. It was awesome!
There were actually a couple other flats that I considered doing, but I was having so much fun riding this, I didn’t care for them.
So my overall thoughts for this…I think it’s fantastic. Back seat is definitely the way to go. The first drop is a great way to get things going. The double up has some nice floater, but everything else is quick ejector. The second half of the ride is much more violent and wild than the first half, starting with the double down after the tunnel which is actually kind of intense. The last four bunny hills are pretty relentless as well, just like a classic woodie. The timberliners are sleek and comfortable, but I still think I prefer the old PTCs. But I’d say the timberliners are the way to go for smaller coasters and the more modern ones.
As I’ve said before, I’m really glad I did plenty of re-rides on this thing. I felt that my first couple rides were a bit smoother and more gentle than my later rides. As I kept reriding it I realized that the ride is quite wild. I saw a lot of adults who were riding with their kids quite surprised after riding it.
The ride ops also did a superb job that day. There was only one train running (I didn’t see a second train in storage or even a transfer track anywhere), but the ride ops did a great job loading everyone in and dispatching pretty quickly. At one point I also chatted with one of them. They seemed to have a pretty nice time and had smiles on their faces.
If I were to rate this ride I’d give it a 9/10. It’s the perfect example of “bigger is not always better” and there’s nothing bad about the ride really. If you’re in the area it’s definitely worth visiting the park just for this one coaster. Storyland’s looking at real winner here. =D> Love to see more of these built in the coming years.
After that it was time to leave. My mom and sister picked me up in the parking lot and we went back to our cabin. Despite not being a major park (but a great family park), I’m glad my last coaster of the season was Roar-O-Saurus. Thank you for reading this little report of mine!
) and when you take into account it cost just $2,000,000 you're left wondering why more parks aren't getting these? Hopefully a few more will pop up soon.