After Fantasy Island closed in 2019, the fate of Silver Comet was very much in doubt.
This CCI wood coaster was subject to graffiti and urban expeditions as people broke into the park.
But after Gene Staples purchased Fantasy Island in 2021,
there was hope. The ride just reopened after lying dormant for nearly 3 years
and in this video, I will review the current ride experience of Silver Comet.
Crystal Beach Park operated from 1888 to 1989 on the shores of Lake Ontario. In 1926,
the park opened the Crystal Beach Cyclone, one of the most infamous wood coasters of all time.
This coaster’s sharp banking and intensity was notorious for injuring riders. There was even
a paramedic stationed nearby for this reason! The Cyclone closed in 1947 and it’s structure was
reused for the Comet, a double out-and-back coaster. After this park closed in 1989,
the ride was saved and relocated to Great Escape where it still runs as the Comet today.
When Martin’s Fantasy Island wanted to add a wood coaster in the late 1990s,
they decided to honor Comet since this coaster was previously located just 20 miles away. The
park worked with Custom Coasters International or CCI to build Silver Comet for the 1999 season.
And it immediately became the park’s star attraction.
Like the original Comet, this ride was also a hybrid. The ride featured wood track and
steel supports, which made the Silver Comet name quite fitting. Fantasy Island also built a station
similar to the former ride. The station featured a spire with the ride’s name and some comet decals.
The ride ran well for 20 years, but Apex chose to close Fantasy Island after the 2019 season.
While many of the park’s rides were removed and/or sold, Silver Comet sat idle. Over the next year,
many people broke into the park, vandalizing it and even walking the track of Silver Comet.
But in May 2021, IB Parks purchased Fantasy Island.
The water park reopened in late 2021 and Gene Staples reopened the amusement side in
2022 as Niagara Amusement Park. At first, only Kiddieland was ready. Silver Comet
specifically needed some trackwork and a train, as Apex removed the ride’s former PTC train.
But in late August 2022, Silver Comet suddenly reopened. I really appreciate
how the park owners got Silver Comet open for at least a few weeks in the 2022 season.
Now the entire midway around the attraction definitely needs work. It’s clearly unfinished and
still being cleaned up. When I originally tried to ride Silver Comet last week, this entire section
was closed for this reason. I had to return the following day to experience Silver Comet.
I later learned the park is proactive about posting which sections of the park are open
on Facebook, but if you want to confirm the ride is open prior to visiting, I’d give Guest
Relations a call. This shouldn’t be an issue in future seasons once the midway is complete.
I also want to note that the ride opened a few hours late on the day I was able to experience it.
The same thing happened to me with Hellcat at Clementon Park, which is another property
IB Parks recently acquired. So hopefully this doesn’t become a long-term trend.
The old station is still there, but the marquee is missing.
I hope this can be added back in the near future since it looked really nice.
The ride currently has a single train from Philadelphia Toboggan Coasters. It features
6 cars, each seating 4 riders, for a total of 24 across the train. This train clearly wasn’t new as
it had some wear and it’s rumored that Niagara purchased the original train back from Apex.
It features a purplish-blue paint scheme and half the cars feature star decals on the side.
On the day I visited, the entire park was quite empty so Silver Comet was understandably a
complete walk-on. The crew was typically just waiting around for people to ride.
The seatbelt and lap bar checks aren’t the fastest on this coaster, but it wasn’t too big of an issue
since the ride had no wait. The train features the familiar individual seatbelts and lap bars,
although I noticed the minimum most position on these PTC lap bars
was higher than on other coasters. So even on the lowest position, I still had a few
inches of space to experience the ride’s airtime. As for which seat you want, I preferred the front.
I think the airtime was a little better in the back car, but the
front had far superior laterals. Before going into the ride experience,
I should note that I had previously ridden Silver Comet before the 2022 season.
But it was way back in 2010. So my memory of how it was running back then,
it a little foggy. The next section covering the ride experience will only
talk about my 2022 experience for that reason. The ride felt like it was running a bit sluggish,
but the 2022 POV I found seemed comparable to the 2019 POVs I found.
It was running very smoothly though, even in wheel seats. The park has done quite a bit of
trackwork on the coaster and it seems to have paid off from a rider comfort perspective.
Once dispatched, you slowly roll out of the station, round a turn, and head up the 82 foot
or 25 meter tall lift hill. To the left, you get a view of the park that’s being renovated.
To the right, you get a nice view of a campground and in the distance on a clear day
you can usually see the mist from Niagara Falls. The first drop is taken at a 50 degree angle.
It didn’t have the abrupt pop I typically get on CCIs. Instead, the drop offers
decent floater airtime in the back car. You then zip over back-to-back bunny hills.
You have great speed over both hills, but they’re really gradual. The first one gives
weak floater up front while the second gives decent floater airtime for all.
Next is the first of many turnarounds. Those up front get some floater ascending the hill.
Then everyone gets decent and sustained laterals on the turn. It’s minimally banked and there’s
a dip midway through it that helps maintain the lateral forces. You’re traveling quite slowly by
the end of this turnaround, which unfortunately happened on many of this ride’s turnarounds.
It really hurt the ride’s pacing. The exit from this turnaround is a double down.
The first dip isn’t notable. But you have this turn in between drops that gives some
mild laterals. And the second drop gives some more nice floater for those in back.
The next four elements are a compact series of turnarounds and turns.
Most CCI turnarounds are notorious for delivering strong pops of airtime and good laterals.
The next three on Silver Comet aren’t profiled sharp enough to deliver negative Gs
and you lose too much speed to get laterals anywhere but the front.
The second turnaround offers ok laterals up front.
The third turnaround has a great lateral slam up front, the most intense burst of lats on the ride.
The back gets a pinch of laterals exiting this turn, but nothing compared to the front.
The fourth turnaround has another solid surge of lats up front, but
you really crawl through the end of this turn. Next is a banked turn that dips down to the ground
and up. This is the one spot on the ride that had some shuffling, but it did have
a great sense of speed since you’re enveloped by supports plus solid laterals throughout.
The exit of this turn drops back down to the ground, which can give a very weak bit of airtime
in the back when the ride has warmed up. You then charge over a speed hill. It
looks like it should give airtime, but it sadly doesn’t in any row.
You then bank to the right into the brake run, and this maneuver offers good laterals for all,
particularly in the front of the train. This ends the 2800 foot or 850 meter long coaster.
So what would I rate Silver Comet? I would give this wood coaster a 6 out of 10. I’m glad the
park has this ride running smooth. And the ride had some nice laterals, particularly up front.
But the ride didn’t have as much airtime as I expected and the pacing really suffers towards
the middle of the ride, especially if you’re riding anywhere from the front. Still, this is
a solid wood coaster and I hope its reopening can help revitalize this amusement park.
So those are my thoughts on Silver Comet, the CCI wood coaster at Niagara Amusement Park.
As I mentioned, it had been a long time since I last rode Silver Comet,
so I’d love to hear from those who rode it more frequently how it was riding
just before Fantasy Island closed. If you enjoyed this review, I’d appreciate it if
you gave this video a like and you considered subscribing since there will be a lot more
roller coaster and amusement park videos here at Canobie Coaster. Thanks for watching!