Michigan’s Adventure

Visited: July 28, 2023

Attending: Just Brian

I decided that after the conference, I would get a little nuts. If I went straight east from the Dells, I could encounter Michigan’s Adventure and Canada’s Wonderland before turning south to go home, so that was the plan. Unfortunately, the original plan involved crossing Lake Michigan on a ferry, which would save a lot of time, and sounded like fun too. However, the ferry sold out for Friday the 28th before I even left on my trip, so I had to drive south around the bottom of the lake, which took considerably longer. But I still got to Michigan’s Adventure around mid-day.

It’s a pleasant small park around a little lake in the middle. It’s smaller even than Dorney or Worlds of Fun, making it the smallest Cedar Fair park I’ve been to. And its coaster collection is similarly small. It has a massive parking lot for some reason, but that gives a lot of space to show off Shivering Timbers, which if nothing else, is extremely photogenic.

Shivering Timbers

This was my highest priority for this trip, and the ride that Buzzed Bars had enjoyed most during their recent Stumble, so I was optimistic. The line wasn’t particularly long, and I managed a back-car ride with another man of roughly my age, who was with his two kids. It’s got an out-and-back layout right along the edge of the park, which contributes to its photogenic nature. It’s just one hill after another all the way along. The first drop was awesome; there was a pothole after the second drop that was a bit jarring. Fix that, and I’d have nothing to complain about. I was surprised by the variety in the hills; they don’t just go in descending order. As a result, sometimes I got a big floater hill, other times a speed hill with a quick pop. Some of the hills on the return route were a touch rough, but nothing terrible. On the whole, it may not be in my top 10 overall, but it’s definitely a high-quality wooden coaster.

Wolverine Wildcat

I knew nothing about this one going in, except that it’s wood and apparently named after two animals (kidding). I was expecting some roughness, but I also noted that the layout seemed similar to Knobels’ Phoenix, so I had a burst of hope going up the lift hill. Going down the first drop, though, I was surprised to feel…nothing. No roughness, but also no sensation of airtime, not even a bump as it bottomed out. I was able to see later that the first chunk of the ride has been replaced with Titan Track. Technically, I’d encountered Titan Track before, on Zambezi Zinger, but that was just the lift. Here, the first half of the ride is Titan, which makes it much smoother. I’d have to say too smooth, in fact. It doesn’t feel like a wood coaster anymore. It doesn’t really feel steel either; it just gives the sense that something’s wrong. Then I got to the second half of the ride, and I wished they’d included more Titan Track. Like most Dinn coasters, this one has aged badly, and the second half was punishing. Unfortunately, it still has a fair bit of speed at that point. I escaped without a headache, but only thanks to the Titan Track.

Corkscrew

This is one of those cute little Arrow coasters found at parks all over the US. In fact, it’s very possibly the cutest and littlest I’ve ridden. It has no vertical loops, just a couple of corkscrews, and almost nothing else. There’s a moment right after the first drop where I thought “and this is where the loop should be.” The corkscrews were a little janky, but not more than I expected. It’s got enough speed (barely) to take them at a decent clip, so that wasn’t bad. A perfectly fine one-and-done, since I didn’t have to wait too long.

Thunderhawk

This is one of the infamous Vekoma Suspended Looping Coasters (SLC). I’ve only ridden one before, but this model has a terrible reputation. It’s also way in the back of the park, on the far side of the lake, as if the park is embarrassed by it. But I hiked all the way out there nonetheless, and fortunately, there was no line, as it was successfully running two trains, and the operations were sharp. It still has the older style trains with the headbanger restraints, but I just barely got above them by stretching my neck out. I got thoroughly stapled by the ride op, but who cares, it’s an SLC. The initial drop was smoother than I anticipated, but the transitions are still janky, and there’s little you can do about that. I’ll say this about SLCs: it’s almost impossible to tell where in the layout you are at any given time. As SLCs go, I’d have to pronounce it “not terrible.”

I had a lot of driving left to do that day, and I’d already decided not to ride Zach’s Zoomer, which is one of those kiddie creds that’s almost large enough to be considered. There’s a wild mouse as well, but those tend to attract a line. I saw it on the way out, but quickly dismissed it. So a couple of hours to get four credits, one of them quite good. Not shabby.