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 We started out in Madison, WI and left around 7pm CST, and drove down I-90, and around I-280, then up into Michigan. We totally avoided the construction downtown Chicago, and the Open Road Tolling made the Tolls that much faster.
We arrived in Muskegon about 1AM and checked into the Comfort Inn. The hotel was nice, clean, cheap, and free breakfast.
The park is about 10 minutes away from Muskegon, and kind-of in the middle of now where. It's even a few minutes off the freeway. As you drive into the park, you drive right by the immense coaster that is Shivering Timbers.
We went to the group sales to pick up our Timbers Fest stuff, and I have to say that compared to other Cedar Fair parks, the check-in amounted to a T-Shirt, and a Name Tag sticker. We didn't even get an itinerary!
The only coaster running for morning ERT was Shivering Timbers, I first rode it in the back. And it was quite rough. Not as bad as the "Boss" in the back, but not as nice as "Hades". I moved to the front of the coaster, and the ride was much smoother. The airtime was great, and the long out-and-back portion of the ride was my favorite. After the Turn, the coaster makes small dip, and then goes up a small hill. I noticed that their seemed to be a problem with the track or something just before the first small return hill. It felt like, even in the front, that there was a rough spot? After the 1st return hill, you don't go down much, but up another quick hill, then you go down for the "Trick Track", which is more of a wobble, quick Left and Right. Kind of odd, but interesting. The return ride is great, but the Helix at the end is brutal. Overall it’s a great Wooden, definitely in my top 10.
I countinued on to ride the Mad Mouse, which is a basic mouse ride. Then the Corkscrew, which was a super short ride. Almost a kiddie coaster.  Then we ventured over to the Children's area, and took in the Big Dipper. The Big Dipper was one of the first kiddie rides I've ridden, so I was surprised to have to wait to have the attendant un-lock my harness before I could get out.
Then Zach's Zoomer, a children's wood coaster, which was surprisingly fun for a ride I had to sit cross-legged.
Now that the park was open, I ventured over to Wolverine Wildcat to finish out the coasters. The Wolverine Wildcat was made by the same people who made the WOF Timber Wolf. It is the 10th coaster I've ridden by that manufacturer and considering that at Six Flags Darien Lake, the words "Predator" and "Ride again" don't happen! Ouch! It was actually in very good shape and was a pleasant ride. Nothing really to note about it.
The Park
We'll it's very small, but they seem to have a bunch of land to expand on. The coasters are to the Right of the entrance, and the kiddie area to the Left. Straight down the midway area past the carnival rides, you'll end up at the entrance to the water park. And follow the part to the right and there are the 2 new water rides. A "splash water falls" ride and a "Raging Rapids" amusingly called "Grand Rapids", ha ha.
Both the new water rides were top notch. It was kind of weird thou seeing a completely exposed Rapids ride that wasn't built into trees and major landscape. You can pretty much see the whole ride from the Path and it has almost no theming. But it's new, give it time.
The weird thing about this new area of the park was the Train Ride. We hopped on the train, and made a huge loop around a fake lake, and over to the Shivering Timbers station. We passed nothing; it's a train ride for the sake of having a train ride.
So I asked some employees about the "area" by the train that looks new, and ready for expansion and all I could get was that they have some plans, she thought a new midway, but she's not sure.
The Water Park
For such a small park, the water park was quite excellent. 3 wave pools, a Funnel Ride, and a bunch of slides.
I couldn't ride the Funnel of Fear as you needed 2 riders, and my Wife couldn't ride. :( But the main wave pool had some really nice Tidal Waves, and the Snake Pit slides were fast.
Food
We love food at parks. So I had to try the Hot Dogs, and Corn Dog Nuggets from the "Dog House". Really quite good and reasonably priced. They even had a special for season pass holders of like $5.50 for a hot dog and a souvenir cup. This includes $1 refills with the cup. Cool. Later we ate at "Coasters" and had some OK cheeseburgers. An ice cream sundae bar on the midway served us up an ice cream with fudge, carmel and cherries. And for the Timbers Fest Dinner, we had some BBQ Chicken. It was ok, but I wouldn't travel here for the food...
Anyway, overall it was a nice park with a great wooden coaster. I'd come back as part of another multi-park trip, but for the features, I'd be better of with Mt. Olympus in Wisconsin Dells.
So after a short trip to walk in the waters of Lake Michigan on the beach, we were back at the hotel to sleep. |
