u/freshapepper

It was my first visit to my new home park! The park is absolutely gorgeous. The lake in the middle with all of the little water features around the park make all of the difference in the world. The landscaping, the lack of blacktop, the cute folksy touches around the park. It was excellent.

The TV’s need to be utilized or taken down and yes, everyone I’ve ever spoken to about the park says “they need to make a path!” I’m sure they will eventually as this is the logical space to put new rides, but the train was very regular and it was a nice breakup if we wanted to ride their rapids ride or the SLC.

Rides:

Mad Mouse - I like delayed gratification, so I didn’t go straight for Shivering Timbers. I went for Mad Mouse, the Arrow Wild Mouse from the 80’s. It was as advertised. Ejector city. I do wish the padding was a bit better but it’s a 40 year old Arrow. I don’t know if it’s my favorite mouse, but it’s top 3 and a 7/10 overall for me. Lot of fun and was a requisite each of my three days at the park.

Wolverine Wildcat - Gets a lot of flack. Not sure if it was in the before times, but this thing has gotten TONS of TLC and it’s obvious. The Titan Track is… off putting but in a good way. It’s very smooth, but it’s aesthetically weird. Especially compared to the weathered steel of RMC’s Retrak product. I loved it though. The drops on a coaster like this are just for speed to get through the course. The airtime pops were where it shined. 7/10, again. Excellent. This was a good wooden (hybrid?…) coaster and I rode it a dozen times over 3 days.

Corkscrew - Arrow Corkscrew. Drop, turn, two corkscrews, and breakrun. 5/10. Not because it was violent or bad, but because it’s past its usefulness like many Arrow loopers, in my humble opinion.

Thunderhawk - My first Vekoma SLC! It wasn’t as bad as everyone said it would be. I was expecting a fight simulator and honestly it wasn’t a clean experience with no banging, but it was way better than advertised. Intense, whippy, and fast. I think I’ve recently read of these being retrofitted with lap bar trains and I’m sure it improves the quality of ride x10. For now? 6/10

Zach’s Zoomer - Small, kids PTC lookin coaster. It was fun! I love the cute little airtime pops. I brought my brother in law on this ride and he lost his mind. He’s not a coaster guy, so the drops got him. His screams and my family taking one row a piece of the train made for one of the most memorable coaster experiences I’ve ever had. It’s a kids coaster. Not really worth a rating.

Finally

Shivering Timbers - This was sold to me as a wooden B&M Hyper. Ejector airtime hill after hill after hill. Yep. It’s exactly that. My favorite wooden coaster and #2 over all is The Voyage and I heard someone say this was “The Voyage’s chill older cousin.” That’s exactly how I would describe Shivering Timbers. The first few (RMC Retrak?) hills are smooth as butter and offer amazing airtime. You hit the steel turnaround and it feels like the train is about to flip off of the track. It’s an amazing sensation. Then the midcourse lack-of-brake run and subsequent fall off happens, which honestly might be my favorite part of the ride? After Raging Bull’s midcourse is a hardcore ejector pop. This felt like a wooden coaster’s answer to that which I LOVED.

The return… has quite a bit of jack hammering and more than one pot hole. I sat in the wrong seat and messed my neck up BAD on my 3rd ride.

My first ride (front row) was ELITE. Ejector air. Speed. It was a delicious experience and immediately I ranked it amongst my top 10.

Second ride: wheel seat, 3rd car. It was brutal. Painful. Shook me from side to side. I needed a full hour.

Third ride: last seat, last car. Injured my neck. Quite literally still feeling it as I type this. I can’t fully turn my neck to the left because of one of the pot holes on the return.

Went home and then because I’m stupid, I came back today determined to find the proper seat on this bad boy. I did. Last car. Front seat. Green train, specifically. I lapped it 10 times with a slightly messed up neck and it is solidly my 5th favorite coaster on this planet. I could ride that row (11 I believe) until the park closed.

I want to be clear, this thing’s return run needs to be retracked. Badly. My preference is GG precut to ensure this stays a true wooden beauty, but if enchanted wants to take the long lasting solution to the problem, I’d prefer the RMC Retrak for aesthetics. Shivering Timbers is a 10/10.

Ops were pretty good but honestly, nothing mattered. The park was dead. It was a Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday. This place DESERVES the visitation. Enchanted will put money into it because the company is smaller and they seem determined to do what’s best for everyone. I asked everyone that would talk to me about their opinions and everyone universally said something to the tune of “they really are trying to find out the problems we’ve been dealing with at our level to improve” which made me happy to hear.

Shivering Timbers is an elite, top tier wooden coaster and one of the best roller coasters I’ve ever ridden.
This is a crown jewel and I pray Enchanted gives it the TLC it deserves the same way Holiday World gives the Voyage the TLC it so rightly deserves.