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When In Muskegon://Michigan's Adventures Closing Weekend Day Trip

Jarrett

Most Obnoxious Member 2016
With my coaster travels really stepping up within the last 2-3 years, I've done more of the US than I haven't done. As of the end of last summer, I only needed three more Cedar Fair parks to clean out the chain. But here's the catch: one of them was the third closest one to me and I hadn't been, and for a good reason. Michigan's Adventure on the western side of Michigan's lower peninsula is often regarded as the most neglected park in the Cedar Fair chain, having only two custom coasters out of their lineup of seven, and their last new one being a secondhand SLC from Geauga Lake. But a +7 was a +7, Kings Island is closed for the weekend, my pass got me in free, and I had a voucher from Hertz from one of their employees majorly screwing up, so I thought it was the perfect time to go get it. After a few iterations of plans, I ended up going with Matt, a fellow Daytonian enthusiast friend of mine, and decided to make this an absolutely mental day trip, with the park five hours away.

So I woke up in the predawn darkness at 5 am, it's pouring down rain, I throw my Twisted Timbers shirt and Tatsu hat, Matt's already here, we hop into the rental car and head north on one of the longest, most boring drives I've ever done. Eventually the sun came up, we stopped at a Taco Bell and saw on the radar there was this massive green blot taking up virtually all of Ohio and Indiana but not Michigan so we were good. Eventually we cut up through Grand Rapids and after an aggravatingly long drive we were seeing signs that just said "Amusement Park." That's right, doesn't even have its name on the signs. :p

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I knew Shivering Timbers was the inspiration behind Voyage and driving up to the park and seeing it first, I was already drawing parallels. It has the same visual effect as that drive up to Holiday World with Thunderbird and Voyage, and honestly, it's a gorgeous coaster.

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Extremely generic Cedar Fair entrance, nothing to see here.

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Possibly the most uninspiring park entrance ever. You walk through this gate thing and there's what looks like a giant restroom on the other side with Fast Lane, a few gift shops, I think guest services, stuff like that. You enter in front of this giant concrete block, turn the corner between this and another concrete block, and come across a Coasters diner restaurant and an Arrow corkscrew.

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Matt and I GPed it and just went right for Corkscrew since it was dead anyway...but on one train. The employees obviously didn't care about speed there so it took a bit to send trains but we got on after two cycles that were way longer than they needed to be.

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Meh, standard Arrow. Wasn't overly rough but just didn't do much. Bit of hangtime in the corkscrews, a little jerky, for what this coaster model was designed for it's perfect but its purpose is just to execute two elements that are common on coasters of later tech levels. Nothing special.

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Heading further back into the park, it's not an ugly property. The landscape here is great with the variety of vegetation and little ponds and lakes all over. This one is artificial but it looks great, I'm a total sucker for lakes in parks.

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Speaking of lakes, here's a coaster that was brutally ripped from the greatest park ever by DICK Kinzel and Cedar Unfair, who then turned back the turnstiles and threw the evidence into the lake. It's the last of the surviving Geauga Lake coasters I still needed, so I strapped on my tinfoil hat and turned up that X-Files theme and chose to believe that Cedar Fair did something totally illogical so that a failing park wouldn't threaten their successful one!

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Industry conspiracy theories aside, it's actually the second closest SLC to where I live but I'm just now getting it. Now I hate SLCs just as much as the next guy, but this is almost always the one brought up by SLC defenders that don't like to see the hate, so I was anxious to try it.

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I took several shots of Thunderhawk because they're pretty rides, including a few of this light that I can't decide between.

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Here we go! Easily the best logo here too!

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And it actually isn't too bad! Okay, it's an SLC, it's bad, it definitely struck me a lot more often and a lot harder than I would consider acceptable on a coaster. But it's not nearly as bad as the other SLCs, and for that it's actually going to be the only one that doesn't get a negative ranking. I'll rank it just above my boring block because it does have a great layout with some impressive moments, if it were smoother it could have ranked up there with some of the worse B&M inverts, but for an SLC it performed very well for us!

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Look, there's theming. The area around Thunderhawk had the makings of what could have been a themed area, but the park just sort of made architectural choices that would compliment it and didn't actually bite the bullet and do it.

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Well our plan next was to take the train up to Shivering Timbers and get pictures, since it looks like a nice wooded setting. Well thank god I got this shot from the station because you can't take pictures on their train. Yes, a scenic ride like a train and photography is prohibited, kind of goes against what I think of when I imagine a scenic ride, people looking around and pointing and taking pictures of all the cool stuff they pass. So you just sit there and go through the woods, no narration or anything, and eventually end up back at the front of the park.

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Up next it was time! The only positive thing I ever hear about this park and what I've been told ranges from an insane ride to CCI's best, Shivering Timbers! They were on one train ops so the wait was annoying and when Matt and I sat down there was a kid who stepped down onto the tracks and walked right in front of the train while loading it only to be told "buddy don't do that," so operations were a bit...lax for a Cedar Fair park. The ride op was also calling it Michigan's Adventures, despite the word Adventure being clearly shown as singular on his name badge and several signs in the station. There's barely enough here for one adventure, let alone plural. :p

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To be honest...meh? It was okay? We rode up front and I got a bit of weak floater over the hills but other than that, it's just an incredibly lame take on El Toro or Blue Streak or any other standard out and back coaster. It's not rough at all, I wasn't bothered by it, it just didn't blow me away. It's not bad just massively overrated.

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Afterwards, Matt and I decided to use our meal plans at this place next to Wolverine Wildcat. Somehow it took Michigan's Adventure a full 20 minutes to get out a hot dog and fries. Had there not been kids around I would have asked them if they had driven all the way to and from the CP dorms to get it. Photos don't do it justice, the hot dog was actually quite big but they still put it in a bun that was too big for it.

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And on this day when Phoenix took the title of World's Best Wooden Coaster...I don't get to ride it but it's basically the same thing! Right? Right?

Right?

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I could tell it had been pouring in the area but Wolverine Wildcat was probably in the area most affected by it, the ground under the structure was really wet and soupy.

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Well after some of the worst operations I've ever seen on a coaster, one girl up in controls and another checking restraints, hopping between train cars to cross platform (majorly unsafe according to a ride op friend of mine), they dispatched the last train before mine...and stopped it because this girl screamed bloody murder. So they E-stopped it with the front two cars hanging out the station to ask this girl if she was okay. And she almost died of embarrassment, ride ops asked if she wanted let off or was good to ride, she decides she can, they dispatch the train. I rolled my eyes, waited it out, and then got on!

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GOD :emoji_zipper_mouth: IT!!!! :emoji_zipper_mouth: ING :emoji_zipper_mouth: :emoji_zipper_mouth: PILE OF :emoji_zipper_mouth: !!!!!!!! :mad:

The SLC next door is literally better, this is AWFUL!!!! I sat on what would be Phoenix's magic seat...but if it's a coaster that's this rough that magic seat happens to be a wheel seat! Good god this coaster is so bad, it has no airtime at all and beats the snot out of you, and in an era later than Phoenix's own, it should have gotten better not worse! This coaster is terrible, sure a retracking could fix the jackhammering but the layout is also incredibly boring. And in that beautiful location it's in combined with a twisty, compact layout with a few high points and a lot of structure to work with...

#RMCitorWreckit

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At least the view from the station is...okay.

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After that brutal pounding I got on Wolverine Wildcat, I went from cat to mouse on Mad Mouse. It's a standard Arrow wild mouse like the one at Valleyfair, though it's right in the parking lot. It's right next to a petting zoo too, so the entire wait smells like goat feces, so that's lovely. It's a zippy little one, bit of airtime on the hops, better than VF's but they're very similar in experience. Getting off was a total nightmare though, the control system had a hiccup so I was stuck sitting on the brakes for maintenance to show up to fix it, leaving me out there for ten minutes. And when I got back to the station the exit path is through this stupid short, narrow trellis that's awful if you hate enclosed spaces, thank god it had holes in it so felt more like a cage than a box.

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Up next was Zach's Zoomer, a standard wooden kiddie coaster. Not a bad experience at all, smoother than Wolverine Wildcat, standard wooden kiddie coaster. I'd still like to see RMC actually put like little I-box track on one of these for giggles though, kind of curious how it would turn out.

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Haha, I love lighthouses so it made me happy to see this in the kiddie area.

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K, last cred of the day, let's clean this snoozefest of a park out and never have to make that grueling 5-hour trek from Dayton to Muskegon ever again! It's a kiddie coaster, painfully jerky, think it's a Morgan or Zamperla but didn't take the time to look it up. But that's the +7!

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Thought I'd deal with the massive wait and let Matt film some more while I got another lap on Shivering Timbers before judging it based on just one ride.

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While Matt had gotten me in the front for that ride earlier, social media was telling me to ride in the back, so I went for the second row to the back, avoiding that dreaded wheel seat.

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Woo! Last ride ever at Michigan's Adventure! Let's do this!

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Cool stat sheet on the op panel

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Well I wait out the wait on one train ops...and then they bring maintenance over and put the second train on after I'm just one cycle away from riding. A bit frustrating but I laughed it off, as long as I got one more ride on it I was good.

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It's better in the back but still not life-changing. The airtime there is significantly better than it is up front but it still pales in comparison to some of the other stuff I've seen done on CCI's coasters. Not to mention it's only a few instances, the rest is just the same weak floater I got up front. So it's an improvement but not by enough to live up to the hype. For a little mid-sized regional park like this it's a great ride to have as your showstopping E-ticket, people love it, but there's simply better stuff out there that's closer to other better stuff that I would recommend doing before going out of the way for this. But it's Michigan's Adventure's baby, everyone loves it, they've kept it in great condition, and they have every right to be as proud of it as they are.

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On the way out, Matt and I decided to stop and get a few shots of Shivering Timbers from the parking lot.

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It looks like this big scary wooden coaster that goes on forever.

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Around the turnaround!

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This might be my favorite photo I got of it.

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Wish this whole lake shot deal had been easier to pull off.

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After Matt and I waited 20 minutes getting pictures of the thing, we hung up our cameras and headed home.

The drive home was really brutal and we only stopped once to gas the car up, no food or anything, we just wanted to get the drive over with and get home after having been up for 12 hours already at that point. Amazingly, I only added 30 minutes to our Waze ETA, and that was including waiting on a train at a crosswalk in downtown Van Wert. When we got back far enough into Ohio...still raining, it hadn't stopped all day! Finally, I pulled into my driveway, Matt headed back to his place, and I stuffed my face with the leftovers of the pineapple poblano pork and salsa my family had had for dinner.

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So honestly...my review of the park isn't necessarily positive. I don't want to sound like a negative sadsack that didn't have fun because I did enjoy the day, but rating the place as a property, I can't find anything stellar to say about it. :( What they have is really standard stuff you can find as filler anywhere else without much to really set them apart. It's kind of a pretty park, but they've done nothing to really grab this potential by the horns and milk it. It's a standard amusement small regional property that has nothing terribly original and has a lineup that could be a lot better for its size, not to mention how awful Wolverine Wildcat is. The service there screamed of mismanagement, running one train on your most popular attraction on the last Saturday of the season. If we're talking mid-sized regional parks, I would recommend Darien Lake or Kentucky Kingdom over this place any day. Long term, there are several possibilities I could see for this place. At worst, it's fairly obvious Cedar Fair isn't investing in it, something that's usually needed to keep people coming, and while I wouldn't necessarily predict it I wouldn't be surprised to see it closed or sold in the coming years. At best, there are a few investments I could see this park getting. If CF is working with Gerstlauer, a small Tantrum/Adrenaline Peaks-style Eurofighter would fit this park nicely for an appropriate budget, could also see a Zamperla Disko or Chance Aviator to go with a conversion of their kids area to a proper Planet Snoopy or a Starflyer like Valleyfair got. But I think the most likely path for this park is the one we've been seeing. Just casually letting it exist and draw a profit in from the local public as it stays the butt of enthusiast jokes everywhere. I see why the people that were there that day decided to do that with their time, to the locals it's a cheaper alternative to Cedar Point which I think is a good thing for them to have, but if you're deciding what to do with your hard earned coaster time and money, I would place this very low on a list of priorities.

However, despite my mixed to negative review of the place, I did have a fun day. I was at a park I'd never visited before with some fun things to both look at and photograph, one fairly enjoyable coaster, and it certainly beat sitting at home while Kings Island's closed. It would take an unusually large investment for that park to get me back there so it's probably my last time there, but I'm glad I went.
 

Antinos

Slut for Spinners
Yep. We were there on the same day and had a nearly identical experience. The park seems to have been in a downward spiral for quite some time now - it's a bummer you visited at its lowest point yet.
 

Hixee

Flojector
Staff member
Administrator
Moderator
Social Media Team
The view of Shivering Timbers from the parking entrance is the only good thing about that place. It'a a magnificent looking coaster. They don't make 'em like that anymore.
 

Snoo

The Legend
Speaking of lakes, here's a coaster that was brutally ripped from the greatest park ever by DICK Kinzel and Cedar Unfair, who then turned back the turnstiles and threw the evidence into the lake. It's the last of the surviving Geauga Lake coasters I still needed, so I strapped on my tinfoil hat and turned up that X-Files theme and chose to believe that Cedar Fair did something totally illogical so that a failing park wouldn't threaten their successful one!

No. Just no. No all the way from here to the Sun and back. And Geauga Lake was not a great park. Just no. Get out no.

As far as operations go, I was far from surprised. The park was a dead zone. Short of Timbers, why run more then 1 train?

Short of that and the RMC non-sense, pretty on point.
 

Zek_Teh_Kek

Hyper Poster
I remember going back in 2008 and seeing about a 30-45, maybe even 60 minute wait for Thunderhawk. I went again last year, and actually found Wolverine Wildcat... not that bad? I didn't ride on a wheel seat, sure, but I thought there was pretty decent airtime where I sat. I can't believe it's gotten that much rougher though.
 

Snoo

The Legend
I remember going back in 2008 and seeing about a 30-45, maybe even 60 minute wait for Thunderhawk. I went again last year, and actually found Wolverine Wildcat... not that bad? I didn't ride on a wheel seat, sure, but I thought there was pretty decent airtime where I sat. I can't believe it's gotten that much rougher though.

Yeah I rode all rides not on a wheel seat short of Thunderhawk, which I think is still the best SLC out there surprisingly, so I didn't die on some rides like Antinos and Jarrett did. You could hear and even feel the pain and suffering of others though (as Antinos sat right behind me, I laughed hysterically as we went around the course).
 

Jarrett

Most Obnoxious Member 2016
Yep. We were there on the same day and had a nearly identical experience. The park seems to have been in a downward spiral for quite some time now - it's a bummer you visited at its lowest point yet.
Oh man, wish I had seen it when it was better. :( As a small regional park it has some serious potential, they just need to go the extra mile and really try and it would be a great experience for what it is.

The view of Shivering Timbers from the parking entrance is the only good thing about that place. It'a a magnificent looking coaster. They don't make 'em like that anymore.
I'm sure Voyage, Steel Vengeance, Twisted Cyclone, Fury, and several other newer rides that are beautiful to look at while driving to the park would like to have a word with you. ;)

No. Just no. No all the way from here to the Sun and back. And Geauga Lake was not a great park. Just no. Get out no.

As far as operations go, I was far from surprised. The park was a dead zone. Short of Timbers, why run more then 1 train?

Short of that and the RMC non-sense, pretty on point.
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You clearly don't know me if you thought that was serious, all this Geauga Lake conspiracy garbage is flat out ridiculous and I love to poke fun at it. Throwing evidence in the lake, turning back the turnstiles to make it look like it was failing, I've seen some pretty stupid comments about it over the years.

I do agree about ops though. Thunderhawk literally had two people in the station, they didn't need to go bashing up that second train. I was more referring to Timbers and Wildcat (which I read in a Facebook comment only has one train anyway), they had lines and were running one train and it was getting annoyingly long. At least they eventually did the right thing and got Timbers's second one on.

Wouldn't really say I posted any RMC nonsense either, my comment about Wolverine Wildcat I think was the only time I even mentioned them. And as I've said before, all I mean is that I simply think it's a crappy ride, fairly sure most would agree too. Either RMCing it or razing it would require money that I know CF isn't willing to spend on that park, that comment wasn't meant to be that serious. I'm 99% sure I'll never be back but in the event I am they at least have one enjoyable wooden coaster so I know which one to go ride and enjoy and which one to avoid. :p

I remember going back in 2008 and seeing about a 30-45, maybe even 60 minute wait for Thunderhawk. I went again last year, and actually found Wolverine Wildcat... not that bad? I didn't ride on a wheel seat, sure, but I thought there was pretty decent airtime where I sat. I can't believe it's gotten that much rougher though.
As I said above, it's a crap ride. No airtime, rough as the morning after a few drunk Steel Vengeance laps, I found it virtually impossible to enjoy and I was kind of excited to ride it. I can't imagine the park that busy either, it was a total ghost town last weekend as I said.

Yeah I rode all rides not on a wheel seat short of Thunderhawk, which I think is still the best SLC out there surprisingly, so I didn't die on some rides like Antinos and Jarrett did. You could hear and even feel the pain and suffering of others though (as Antinos sat right behind me, I laughed hysterically as we went around the course).
I do second this, there was a lot of complaining on the brakes on both wooden coasters, and the second time on Shivering the couple behind me (I was front bench of back car, avoiding the wheel seat like a good goon) said it really tore them up. Not like the whole train screaming "OW!!!" and then grabbing their necks in pain while swearing like Pegasus's slam into the brakes, but there were audible reactions that were clearly negative.
 

Matt N

CF Legend
Nice report, Jarrett! I always think that Michigan's Adventure looks like an OK park; reminds me of Oakwood in a way! I'd really like to try Shivering Timbers some day; it looks like an awesome ride with some great airtime!
 
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