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11/8/2017 Part 8: Lake Compounce - October 7, 2017 After the couple hour drive, Phillip and I arrived to Lake Compounce, which was hosting a Halloween event on this evening. Unlike other Halloween events at theme parks, the haunted maze that park was presenting was not included, rather you could either pay for the just going through the maze, or to go on the rides. As we arrived to the gate, we found that thanks to Phillip being in the army, we could get a great deal that included both for less than the cost of just going on the rides. This was another park which was a first time visit for Phillip but not for me. They did, however add a new coaster, the Phobia Phear Coaster, a Sky Rocket II coaster from Premier. This model of coaster has also been replicated multiple times, and like the S&S Free Fly, this is a coaster that I am okay with seeing replicated as it is a really fun ride. The amount of airtime it gives cresting the top going up, and then again when coming back down was a surprise, and I am also a fan of the hangtime you experience in the barrel roll up top between those two points. The only downside with this style coaster is that it is a short ride, but understandable as it has a lower capacity with only one train that fits 12 people. Either way, I would be okay with seeing more of these at smaller parks, although it would be great if there were some more unique layouts. 
  We also took a couple rides on Boulder Dash, their popular wooden coaster built on the side of the neighboring foothills. The first time I rode this coaster in 2011, I was a huge fan! It felt out of control, and that it didn't follow the laws of physics as there were times it felt like it was climbing higher when it shouldn't have been able to. While it still maintained the out of control feeling, it seemed like it could use a bit of retracking, and unfortunately there was a moment when the side of the car caught me on the bottom of my ribcage on a turn that really hurt. I imagine it was kind of "bad luck" moment, and not anything to do with the safety of the ride, but it wasn't a pleasant feeling when we got off of the ride as for a moment it felt like I might have cracked one, but as the evening went on, it was probably just bruised.   Because of feeling the pain from Boulder Dash, and because Wildcat was closed for a retracking project, Phillip and I kind of took it easy for the rest of the evening as he wasn't too interested in getting Zoomerang. So we walked around the park and took in the nighttime atmosphere, and he tried some of their lobster bisque they were serving as a special item for their Halloween event. 
We did get to check out the main feature of the Halloween festivities for Lake Compounce, which was the Haunted Graveyard. While Lake Compunce is nowhere near the size of Many Cedar Fair or Six Flags Parks, this may have been one of the BEST Halloween haunts in any amusement park I've been to!. They ran this a bit differently than most theme park haunt events as most places have multiple mazes that you can go through at different times. This one had six mazes with different themes that were all connected, essentially making it into one super haunted maze. When you complete one maze, you go right into the next one, and the scenery changes along with the types of scaracters you see. I don't remember the exact amount of time they were saying it takes to complete, but I want to say that it was something like 45 minutes to an hour once you enter the front door of the maze. And the quality of it was excellent! It maybe isn't quite to Universal's Halloween Horror Nights level of production, but it was fantastic for a local regional park, and I believe that is because it is an outside group that puts the haunt on, and they specialize in these types of productions. If you go to Lake Compunce in the fall, it is definitely worth the extra cost to add a pass through the Haunted Graveyard while visiting the park.    While it was a shorter visit to Lake Compounce, it was nice to make a return visit and to try out a new Halloween event! While our rides on Boulder Dash weren't as good as they were when I rode it in 2011, I'm willing to give it another chance on a return visit as they tend to invest in the maintenance of the ride, and it very well could have just been a bad year for it. The next day we would take a little bit of a field trip to add some other coaster stops that were not originally on our itinerary, but found that they weren't too far away to add to the trip. |
