Day (): Being the guest and not the worker.

Every month I work, I get four free admission passes to get into the park. So I thought it would be fun if I took my younger cousins to the park today. So the six of us (me, my sister, two cousins and my cousin’s friend) got into the park with no problems and for free. I led them towards the back side of the park where all the bigger kid rides are. We raced on the big slide--which I must say, didn’t really look like it needed a painting like the other rides. Then, being bold, I decided that I would try the new ride at the park, the Mega Disco. The Disco is a ride that moves back and forth on a half pipe shaped track and spins around as it goes. I hate spin rides a lot, and won’t dare to go on them, but I was hoping that if I went on, my cousin would.

So I got in line, positive that this would make me nauseous, but ready to try it anyway. The ride is a big disc shape with seats lined around the outside which you sit on like you were on a motorcycle. Then, a backing comes up and locked you in place. Trust me, these seats aren’t that comfortable because your chest is being pressed against the pad on the front. But anyway, I rode, I didn’t get nauseous--I think because of the fact that it wasn’t staying in one place and spinning.

We went on the Full Tilt as well. Its similar to the Crazy Bus except bigger. This wasn’t so bad, except the harnesses weren’t super tight, and as a result you moved around as the ride was running. But other than that, it was a good ride. Now comes a complaint. We all were thirsty so me, my cousins and Madison all got Pepsi. After taking a few sips, I realized that there was something wrong with it, it tasted weird. It was flat. Nice, they sold us overpriced flat soda. I decided to go back and tell them that these sodas were flat. The worker tested some from the machine, agreed with us and found the source of the problem--the carbonation machine had turned itself off. She gave us all new sodas and apologized for the inconvenience.

Then there was the Crazy Mouse. It had broken down, and two of my supervisors plus maintenance was working on getting it up and running. We waited for about twenty minutes and they started to do test runs. But then once of my supervisors (whose name escapes me) said it would be another half hour wait for it to be ready to ride. So we walked next door to the Ferris Wheel. We got on and I noticed the Crazy Mouse was up and running and giving people ride. Nice. That made us all mad. That wasn’t even close to being a half hour! It was really annoying that they weren’t even close on predicting how much time the Crazy Mouse would be out of order, we were at the front and since they said it would be a while, we left.


We went to the water park, and let me tell you, it was a zoo. It was jam packed full of people, and that wasn’t even the worst thing. The worst thing by far, was the bathrooms/changing rooms. You walked in and first of all there was lots of people, second of all, it smelled like something crawled in there and died months ago. It smelled terrible. I would rather stand next to a fresh pile of horse crap than be in there. To make things worse, it was 110 degrees, making the smell 200 times worse than it already was. Plus, the floors were all wet and gross. Ew. There was no possible way that I was changing in there. Out of all the repairs that need to happen at this park, the bathroom in the water park should be at the top of the list. But I doubt that will happen.

So I personally didn’t change into my swimsuit, although everyone else did. I though about how gross the water is, and how countless numbers of kids probably peed in there that the chlorine couldn’t kill. I think I made the right choice in not changing. I sat under one of those faded and old giant umbrella and watched people play in the wave pool. A little while later, my Uncle showed up. We were talking and he said something along the lines of this:

“There are some things in life that I don’t want to see, and I saw about a dozen of them walking in.”

Although mean, it was very true. Its true that the majority of American is overweight, but that doesn’t seem to stop people from wearing no shirts and bikinis. He even mentioned he saw an elderly lady wearing a bikini *flinches* Yikes! Could you imagine your grandmother in one? Yea, I didn’t think so. Case closed. Everyone was done with the water park within a half and hour or so, meaning I wasn’t just sitting there for long. They all got dressed, we got some soft serve ice cream, and back into the main part of the park we went. The Crazy Mouse, the Mega Disco, the Silver Comet, the Tilt-A-Whirl, etc. We rode more rides, and were out of there by 7-7:30. I must say, by the end of the day, I was pooped. I don’t know how people stay there for the full nine hours, its exhausting.

So now that I have a perspective of being the guest, I have to say that I rate the park 2/5 stars. (FAIL) There are a lot of rides that need to be fixed up and looking nicer, and the facilities are quite gross, plus none of the employees were all that happy. Not even a smile, except for one of two of them. It is a very kid friendly park, but the rides need repair and the food prices are so high that its hardly even worth buying. I do not recommend wasting your money here if your kids are a little older. This park is mainly for real little kids. If you have a kid between the little kid rides and the big kid rides, take them to Darien Lake. Although the price is higher to get in, there is more variation between rides, and they may better enjoy it. Note: This review is strictly taken from a guest’s point of view and is based nothing off the fact that I work there. This is how I honestly perceived the park as a guest.

Final grade: D