I went into this ride with no expectations for good or bad. We spent most of the day at Kennywood and had just made the 2+ hour trek up to Erie. It was dusk when we arrived in the modest grassy parking lot and we were surprised to find that the lot had a great deal of cars in it. Our previous encounter with Waldameer involved an empty park and them closing 2 hours early. We werent expecting this.
We purchased our ride tickets, went to the restroom, and strolled over to Ravine Flyer IIs queue. It was one of those obnoxious large queues that hides just how large it is from the midway. While waiting in the relatively quick moving queue we noticed that the blue train was most definitely off line. Someone on TPR tells me that this is because the ride is so new that they havent programmed the computer for two train operation yet.
After about a 40 minute wait, the seat picker assigned us to the back row. The operations were decent for a newly minted crew running a week old coaster. In no time at all we were climbing the rather modest-looking lift hill. My wife and I chatted as we leisurely made the ascent.
As we reached the top we could see the sun falling into Lake Erie as darkness began to take hold. Waldameers advertisements claim "Beautiful Views of Lake Erie". That view was more than beautiful. It was overpowering in way I wasnt expecting; by far the most stunning visual Ive had on any coaster.
As I was staring out in a trance at the lake, the coaster suddenly and ferociously ripped us down the 115 drop. Bat. Out. Of. Hell. Words shrink at my every attempt to describe the sensation of speed on this ride. To say it has great pacing doesnt begin to do it justice. Much like with the Raven, the speed does not shrink. Only this ride has much more airtime than the Raven could ever hope to have.
Racing over the bridge. Flying through the turn around. Racing back over the bridge. Through tunnels. Through 90-degree turns. Airtime galore. Finishes strong. No dead track. Definite Gravity Group feel, but not rough.
For some reason I keep coming back to comparing this ride to the Raven, but a better version of the Raven. The ride feels a lot like the Raven in that the intensity does not let up for a nanosecond. The fact that this ride has a ton of airtime, awesome scenery, and a unique bridge hop over the road make it better than the Raven to me, which is saying a lot because the Raven is a top 10 ride to me.
Ive ridden all of the Gravity Group coasters, except the Boardwalk Bullet. Ravine Flyer II, to me, is much better than Voyage or Hades. Its got the airtime that I demand from a top ride, but it doesnt try too hard like Voyage does. Its not overly large, so itll probably be a great ride 10 years from now and wont need 1,100 feet of retracking this October.
In short, Waldameer has a winner on their hands with this one. As far as wooden coasters go, I only like El Toro and Phoenix more. Waldameer is an awesome little park. After their 10+ year fight to get this thing built, nobody deserves this ride more than they do. Go ride it now!
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