Under the Radar: Waldameer Park

The second park on our Under the Radar series is Waldameer in Erie, Pennsylvania! Located just off the shores of Lake Erie, Waldameer is home to over 75 rides and attractions, including two historic fun houses and the 6th best wooden coaster in the world: Ravine Flyer II!

Waldameer’s two dark attractions are among the first in the world, and still are considered some of the best. The Whacky Shack is a ride through a fun house, with many crazy effects along the way! Pirate’s Cove is a two story walk-through attraction that is a bit more on the scary side. People are greeted with skeletons and fish monsters throughout the 5 minute walk. If dark rides aren’t your thing, check out the coasters!

Ravine Flyer II was built by The Gravity Group in 2008 to replace the original Ravine Flyer that was closed in 1938 because a man fell out of one of the trains. The new Flyer is a hybrid wooden coaster, it has a steel structure and wooden track. It took years to get permission from Erie officials to build the bridge over the highway, but now it looks great! The coaster has a 120 foot drop and hits speeds over 60 mph. During the 2900 feet of track, there are 10 spots of airtime!

This ride packs a punch, there’s no wondering why it’s ranked #6. As you climb the lift hill, beautiful views of Lake Erie appear, nearly taking your mind off of that first drop coming up. After plummeting down into a tunnel, you come out racing across the iconic blue bridge into a large turnaround. Next, you come back across the bridge into some bunny hops and another two tunnels before going around a 90 degree turn! From the first drop, Ravine Flyer II does not let up, it feels as if you are traveling 60 mph the whole time! It is a little rough, but not the bad rough some coasters have. RFII is one of my favorite coasters, make sure to ride it from the back!

There are only 16 ACE Coaster Classic in the world, and The Comet is one of them. Built in 1951, The Comet will give you the classic roller coaster feel. It stands 45 feet tall and has 1400 feet of track. You can tell this ride is old, as you climb the hill the car creaks and shifts beneath you. Even though it’s small, it is a fun historic ride. If you like getting close to coasters, this is one to visit. As you can tell by the pictures above and below, visitors can practically touch the ride.

Look how close this is!

Some other notable rides at Waldameer are Steel Dragon, a free spinning coaster that is actually really fun, and X-Scream, a 140 foot drop tower. There is also a small water park attached to Waldameer but I didn’t have a chance to try it out when I was there.

If you ever get a chance to stop by Waldameer, you’ll have a great time. It never seems to be too busy and the prices aren’t bad at all. You can get an unlimited ride pass for around $25. I was there for about 4 hours and got about $45 worth of rides in. They also have really good french bread pizza and cheesy fries! It’s only about 3 hours from Cedar Point so there’s not an excuse to not include it on a road trip! Ravine Flyer II is worth the drive itself!

Has anyone else been to Waldameer?

Make sure to watch the RFII POV:

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p95CUAZF5_I?feature=player_detailpage&w=640&h=360]