Canobie Lake Park - No Pics? No Problem. 7/23/17 Trip Report

I’m writing this report from my hotel room in the White Mountains, so this report will be fairly brief as my family is on vacation, but we all got a little taste of New Hampshire this past Sunday with an impromptu night trip to Canobie Lake Park. So how did my first trip to a park this year go? Read on and find out!

RIDE COUNT:
Canobie Corkscrew: x1
Da Vinci’s Dream: x1
Dodgems: x1
Policy Pond Log Flume: x1
Starblaster: x1
Turkish Twist: x1
Untamed: x1
Yankee Cannonball: x2

FOOD CONSUMED:
Order of Fries: x1
Pepsi: x1

Time in Park: 5:00 - 10:00
Crowds: Moderate. Parking wasn’t spreading to the overflow lot, but a decent amount of people were at the park. Crowds began to lighten towards the end of the night. Got several compliments about my Bob Ross shirt from other patrons, which was nice.
Weather: Excellent. Temps in the upper 70’s and lower 80’s all night. Perfect evening to be at the park!
Operations: A tad bit slower than normal, but not bad overall.

Now, I didn't manage to get any pictures due to my phone being on low battery, so I’ll do my best to describe the night. Silly me forgot to plug in my phone in the car. Oh well. On with the report!

We arrived at the park at precisely 5PM. A few distracted employees delayed us getting through security, but we made through the gates and off we went. First thing I did was glance towards Frisbee to see if the unfortunate rumors about it being down were true. Turns out, they are, but it isn’t just covered in a tarp like most have said. The damn thing is enveloped in a grey shrink-wrap! Seeing it in such a state really makes me doubt they’ll get it up and running this season, or if they’ll ever get it going again.

Heading towards the midway stage, I saw a lot of changes to the park. Firstly, the carousel music. Cheerful organ tunes were playing, but they were faint and sounded very digitized, as if coming from a speaker. If something is wrong with the organ, I hope Canobie gets it fixed soon. A park is nothing without a carousel, and a carousel is nothing without its music. Two changes near Wipeout caught my eye, the first of which being at the former spot of Tiki Maze. In a nod to the former attraction, Tiki Bars are being constructed, though I don’t know if they will serve alcoholic beverages or not. The second change was much more jarring: the classic row of ski-ball machines and the prize counter by the train station have been removed and replaced by a more modern arcade. The whimsical midway sounds are gone, along with the giant prizes that always caught my eye. I’ve been saving up my arcade tickets since 2012 to try and win one, only to see them absent. Oh well.

Speaking of the train, it is very much present at the station, albeit sitting idle.

The line for Cannonball stretched beyond the fountain, so we went to Starblaster first instead. As usual, the ride is short but oh so sweet, and that airtime is wonderful. Following that was Untamed, and then Da Vinci. The latter was an absolute joy to ride at sunset, though it probably wasn’t the best idea to hit Turkish Twist afterwards. Two spinny rides in a row? Not a good call.

I’m not sure if I was persuaded by nostalgia or possessed by the demon ghosts of Arrow Dynamics, but I was craving a ride on Corkscrew. Now, I noticed three things about Corkscrew on Sunday.

1: The trains have received new metallic blue decals in varying shades, with pin stripes and hot rod flames decorating the sides of each car, and they look absolutely FANTASTIC. Beautiful job on Canobie’s part giving Corkscrew another facelift.

2, and perhaps most surprisingly: Corkscrew ran GREAT! It wasn’t smooth as butter by any means, but that classic Arrow roughness actually struck me as fun rather than painful this time! Forty two total years in operation, and the old girl is showing she’s still got some life in her!

3: Markers. Not on or beneath Corkscrew itself, but small wooden poles with pink ribbons atop them were nearby on the plot of land where the train turnaround is. Now, it’s possible that these markers are for the sewer upgrades, but given that we saw markers directly under Corkscrew a few years ago, I’d say it’s still worth keeping an eye on.

From there, we braved the Log Flume and worked our way back towards Cannonball, stopping at the Dodgems along the way. Cannonball ran great, as usual, though it was strange seeing her with white handrails rather than the orange and red ones we’ve seen in years past. We then got food at the stalls near the stage, then braved Cannonball one last time before calling it a night.

That's all for this report! Hope you all enjoyed despite it's lack of pics and decent length. Next park I get to this year, I'll make sure my phone is charged! Promise!

Nice trip report! So you were the one with the Bob Ross shirt? Wow. Me and my co workers saw that and we thought it was awesome!

Thanks for the report. Hard to gt up there and most of the updates I have seen are from specific sections of the park. it's a bit sad to hear the park was not busy. A weekend with good weather even a Sunday in years past would have been pretty busy.

The arcade was done over early season it was still closed opening day but announced around that time. So with no redemption counter the only redemption area would be in the casino near the water and Davinci's Dream. I also have a bunch of tickets saved up.

Yup! That was me! Glad to hear you got a kick out of it. Where'd you see me?

It was fairly busy, but not as bad as I thought it would be. I think there is a redemption counter at the new arcade, but it's small. I'm just kind of mad considering I've been saving up for years, and when I think I finally have enough tickets, all the cool prizes are gone.

Right in front of Trellis. We thought it was great!

Ha! Yeah, I was over there towards the end of the day. Glad you enjoyed it!

Ya the park really hasn't had great redemption options. Hopefully you will luck out next time and see something you like and can afford.