Behind the Scenes at Waldameer

Last week, we had the wonderful opportunity to visit Waldameer Park and Water World to get a behind the scenes look at how they prepare their rides for the upcoming season. The winter is a very busy time for parks around the country, including Waldameer. Steve Gorman, President of Waldameer, showed us around the park and inside the maintenance building to help us get a better idea of what goes on around the park during the off-season.

Our first stop was the park’s largest coaster and #6 wooden coaster in the world, Ravine Flyer II. To get to the station we had to trudge through nearly two feet of snow, but it was worth it. Seeing the snow covered coaster was very cool.

We then headed up the lift hill to get a better view of the park.

The view from the top was incredible! You can see the whole park, plus a frozen Lake Erie. I have to say, being able to walk up a coaster was a dream come true.

How about a view down through the lift?

As you can see, both of RFII’s trains are not in the station; that is because they are in the process of being dismantled, cleaned and put back together.

Here is a look at RFII’s blue train in the middle of this process. Each section along this row is one whole car that has been dismantled and is awaiting a good cleaning.

Once cleaned, the chassis look brand new. The process of disassembling, cleaning and reassembling takes about one week per car.

In the late fall, all of the flat ride and kiddie ride cars are taken off and stored in the bumper car building. This process can take several hours to a few days depending on the ride.

After checking out the maintenance facility, we went over to Comet, the park’s ACE Coaster Classic.

It is amazing to see a coaster like this when you are used to seeing them during the summer with trains flying around the track!

The electrical panels that control the ride are taken out during the winter.

This year, Waldameer is expanding its water park by adding a huge wave pool. Here is a look at the construction site for it.

Our last stop was at Steel Dragon, a spinning steel coaster, which is a lot of fun to ride (but maybe not today)!

We would like to give Steve Gorman a huge thanks for taking the time to show us around and allow us access onto the coasters and maintenance shop. We had a great time and learned a lot, and we hope you enjoyed seeing some behind the scenes shots from Waldameer. It is easily one of the best family-owned parks around and we can’t wait to get back up there this summer!

Want to see more pictures from our visit? Check them out on our Facebook page!