Lakemont Park Trip Report 2016

There is nothing like be able to spend about ten bucks for a full day at an amusement park, in addition to being able to get some time in at a waterpark. Lakemont is one of our favorite haunts for its terrific rides, light crowds, fun atmosphere, and affordable pricing. If you are expecting some well manicured park, with a parking fee, expensive ticket admission and meals, hour long waits, and more, then Lakemont is not the park for you. If you like going to a park to get actual ride time, without having to pay for parking, and paying as little as $5.95 on weekdays, and $10.95 on weekends, to ride everything, then Lakemont is a place that you want to check out.

We always love getting in some rounds of mini-golf

We did things a little backwards from what we usually do. Instead of a beeline to Skyliner, we opted for some Chance Skydiver intensity. It was a great choice, as always. There is nothing like when that ride really gets rotating and you get your cart spinning. I imagine that feeling is similar to what of a fighter pilot feels in the midst of some tight maneuvers. I wish more skydivers were around today. 

Skyliner is a wicked ride! Easily one of the top few flat rides that I consider to be the most intense.

The world's oldest coaster, Leap the Dips, is closed for restorations.  Don't get me wrong, this ride is a ton of fun, but my main draw to the park is Skyliner. I could ride that thing for hours. On empty days, they will let you do just that, letting you switch with people who want to ride in your row, or letting you just sit in the train and continually cycle. I think my record on it in a single sitting is somewhere around thirty times.

Just some of the work being done. Leap the Dips is a labor of love, like an old hot rod that you have in the garage that you like to fine tune and adjust. They just wrapped up a restoration project on Leap the Dips and it is open once again. 

Toboggan is a fun ride! One of only a couple operating coasters of its type. This Chance product pioneered the vertical life. Heading down the helix elements is always a ton of fun.

This midway has a ton of fun flats.

Especially this Eyerly Spider. It runs in beast mode and is kept in top working order with parts that are well greased, leading you to spin for a good minute or so after the ride has stopped moving. The same is true for their tilt-a-whirl.

A classic Eli Bridge Ferris Wheel on the left, and the ejector airtime filled Skyliner on the right. 

Skyliner was running terrific as always. This was our second visit to the park this year. The thing that most amazes me about this ride is how each individual cycle widely varies. On some rides you may get a ton of ejector airtime on one of the hills, and then get some nice floater on the remainder of the ride. On other rides you might get balanced airtime on every single hill, and on others you may get varying degrees of ridiculous ejector airtime on every hill. You have to ride it for a bunch of times straight to see what I am talking about. If you closed your eyes and continually rode, you might almost think you've been on one extremely long ride, as opposed to riding the same course over and over again. This coaster has so much character and it really is a masterpiece. The Philadelphia Toboggan Company's John Allen did a great job designing this ride for the former Roseland Park in the Finger Lakes Region of New York, and Charlie Dinn did a great job getting this rebuilt at Lakemont when they moved the ride. This coaster is tremendously underrated.

Brit had to get her goblet pitch game in. She was kind enough to let me take one shot from her bucket, and sure enough, I won!

I let her pick the spoils though!

As always, Lakemont is highly recommended by us. This is a low-key park to go and relax, and possibly one of the best kept secrets in the industry. Once again, you are not going to get the experience here that you get at one of the bigger corporate parks, but you will get friendly service, a series of rides that are very thrilling, and the makings for a fun afternoon and evening out, for less than the cost of going out to the movies.