Waldameer is a small but charming amusement park in Erie, Pennsylvania.
This park is most well-known for Ravine Flyer II, which is understandable since that is
a great wooden roller coaster.
But this park offers so much more from its solid collection of rides, pleasant atmosphere,
and nice operations.
Find out why this is Pennsylvania’s most underrated park in this review.
Waldameer opened back in 1886 as a trolley park.
The park weathered different time periods, surviving Prohibition and wars.
Alex Moeller owned the park from 1945 until his death in 1965.
At that point, his adopted son Paul Nelson took over and he has owned the park ever since.
This park is stronger than ever and has still retained that classic family park charm.
The park’s name translates in German to Woods by the Sea, which is a very fitting
name.
This park’s location is one of its most defining features.
The park is located atop a hill overlooking Lake Erie.
It’s a picturesque location and the park’s tallest attractions offering stunning views.
This park is also famous for Ravine Flyer II’s placement.
This coaster travels down a ravine and zooms over a highway not once, but twice.
The original Ravine Flyer operated from 1922 to 1938, but it was removed after a tragic
accident.
The new one opened in 2008 to much fanfare.
The ride was planned for a long time, but it was delayed several times.
In fact, that’s why the park actually opened Ravine Flyer 3 before Ravine Flyer II, but
the wait was well-worth it.
Ravine Flyer II still the park’s signature attraction to this day and it led to a 20%
increase in attendance in its inaugural year.
Waldameer also features a water park named Water World.
Opening in 1986, this was arguably the park’s boldest move.
The owners went into debt to erect this water park and even sold their historic carousel
for $1 million to build additional water slides.
But this is now one of the park’s biggest selling points, so the gamble paid off.
Waldameer features two free parking lots and two entrances.
Admission to Waldameer is still free.
Once inside, you have the option to pay-per-ride or purchase an all-day wristband.
Rides cost 2 to 5.5 Wally Points and each Wally Point costs $1.
Alternatively, an all-day wristband costs $37 for the rides, $33 for Water World, and
$50 for both the rides and Water World.
All guests entering Water World, even if they’re just supervising a child, must have a wristband.
I love how this park looks.
As the name suggests, the park has plenty of trees and it’s very shady.
The park is also well-landscaped with a series of gardens and statues scattered through the
park.
Then the rides are pretty colorful and all seem well-maintained.
This park has basically no theming, which is fine because this park is going for the
classic amusement park vibe and it succeeds in that area.
It also helps that that this park has super friendly staff.
They’re still efficient, but they always seem to socialize with guests while loading
the rides and/or waiting for a train to return.
Lines are usually minimal.
Rides have always been walk-ons in my weekday visit and even when I visited on Memorial
Day weekend a few years ago, the longest line was 15-20 minutes.
It is possible to do a ton at Waldameer in a short period of time between the short lines
and park’s small size; it spans just 34 acres.
There are two operational notes.
First, check the opening times for the park and rides prior to your visit.
For the 2022 season, Water World opens an hour earlier than Waldameer at 11 am and all
the amusement rides open at noon.
In past years, some amusement rides would have a staggered opening.
The opening time for each attraction is listed on the individual ride pages.
Second, do not be afraid to visit this park in inclement weather.
I visited this park in 2017 during a massive rainstorm.
There probably weren’t more than 30 people in the park.
Every single ride stayed open.
The park did close 2 hours early, but I did so much in the 7 hours that it was open that
I didn’t mind one bit.
Moving onto the ride lineup, I think Waldameer is really balanced in this category.
The park has plenty of rides for guests of all ages.
The park currently has 5 different roller coasters.
The biggest and best of the bunch is easily Ravine Flyer II.
This Gravity Group creation has an exceptional first half.
The first drop offers a stunning view and awesome airtime simultaneously.
Then you have a rapid blitz of airtime pops on the bunny hills and aggressive turnaround.
The second half is noticeably tamer since you climb back up the ravine, but you do still
get popped out of your seat a few times.
Waldameer takes great care of this ride so it still runs smoothly despite the ambitious
layout.
I have a separate review going into more detail, but this is the main reason for coaster enthusiasts
to visit this park.
There is a noticeable step-down in quality for thrill-seekers after this, but the other
4 coasters work well at a family-focused park like Waldameer.
Steel Dragon is the largest steel coaster.
This Maurer spinning coaster is a clone.
In fact, it has the same layout as Hershey’s Laff Trakk.
But I do like the layout.
The sizable drop at the start is always fun and this one seems to spin pretty well due
to minimal braking.
Comet is a classic PTC wood coaster.
This ride has a similar layout and ride experience to the Woodstock Express wood coasters at
the Cedar Fair parks.
You may get a faint pop of airtime or two on this classic, but the best part is the
setting.
This ride is tucked underneath the trees.
Whirlwind is the park’s newest roller coaster.
This SBF Visa spinner has the standard figure-8 layout, but this one seemed to spin better
than others, which makes it enjoyable for all…as long as you like spinning.
And I like how the park added foam on the headrest for the comfort of guests.
Ravine Flyer 3 is the park’s true kiddie coaster.
This is a fun Miler kiddie coaster placed above water and around fountains.
It may be small, but some of the little humps try to pop you out of your seat.
This coaster is positioned right next to Kiddieland, which has a small cluster of rides for the
smallest of guests.
The park also features two classic Bill Tracy dark rides.
Whacky Shack is one of my favorite classic haunted houses.
The first half has a series of simple, but mind-bending effects.
The second half is wilder since you travel down a series of hairpin turns on a downhill
slope that offer some laterals.
And you also pass some animatronics including the infamous Mouse King.
Pirate’s Cove is a walkthrough fun house.
This one tries to mess with your sense of direction with rotating lights, darkness,
and angled platforms.
You won’t be able to walk straight coming off this one.
Waldameer’s flat ride lineup features a mix of classic spinning rides plus a few wilder
modern rides.
There are three I want to highlight.
First is X-Scream.
This Larson drop tower is the park’s tallest attraction.
Standing 14 stories tall, it offers an amazing view of the water.
But what makes this ride special is the drop.
You violently plummet back down to the ground, getting a terrifying stomach-dropping sensation
and floater airtime the whole way down.
I think Larson makes the most powerful drop towers.
Second is Chaos.
This Zamperla frisbee is the park’s lone inverting ride.
It runs a long cycle with many forceful pullouts and plenty of hangtime on the full revolutions.
Third is Music Express.
This is one of the fastest Himalayas out there.
The operators seem to be able to control the speed and on its highest setting, you get
powerful laterals plus itty bitty pops of airtime on the humps.
Plus this is one of the rare ones that still goes forwards and backwards.
The lone water ride at Waldameer is a good one.
Thunder River is a nice Hopkins log flume.
It features two solid drops with the larger one giving a faint pop of airtime.
This one won’t get you soaked and the layout is pretty good too, especially with the misty
tunnel.
Then you have Water World, which features 11 major water slides.
You have a mix of body, tube, and mat slides to satisfy all tastes.
The best slide is Bermuda Triangle.
This short body slide is fast but intense.
The middle one features a super steep drop that can give some airtime.
Beyond the rides, Waldameer offers extremely cheap food.
My favorite dish here is the deep fried soft pretzels.
It tastes like a hybrid of a Super Pretzel and fried dough, which is right up my alley.
But you can also get cheap entrees as well at the stand towards the center of the park.
So do I recommend Waldameer?
Absolutely!
This is a very well-run park with something for everyone.
Coaster enthusiasts will love Ravine Flyer II.
Families will love the varied mix of attractions and atmosphere.
This park often gets overshadowed by Pennsylvania’s larger parks, but Waldameer is well worth
visiting.
You can probably get all the coaster credits in 1-2 hours.
You can probably comfortably ride everything of interest and get rerides in a half day.
I could easily spend a full-day here reriding all my favorites though.
So those are my thoughts on Waldameer.
What are your thoughts on this Pennsylvania amusement park?
Do you enjoy this park as much as me?
Let me know your thoughts down in the comments.
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