Canobie Lake Park - Smaller Scale Amusement Park Pleasing To All
Written: Jun 19 '07 (Updated Nov 05 '09)
|
Product Rating:
|
|
|
Pros: geared to the family, clean, safe, good value
Cons: expensive food, not all rides/attractions open early in season
The Bottom Line: A fun park that I felt safe letting sixth graders roam around by themselves in. It's a good value and a lot of fun. Not many thrills.
|
|
|
| AliventiAsylum's Full Review: Canobie Lake Park |
A right of passage up here seems to be the trip to Canobie Lake Park. It seems to start with sixth graders when they graduate to middle school, and continue through middle school and high school as a place for band trips and the like. All the kids enjoy it and look forward to it. Despite the fact that I spent time every summer up here for years, I didn’t get to visit Canobie Lake Park until I chaperoned a trip recently.
LOCATION, HOURS, TICKETS & PARKING
Canobie Lake Park is located in Salem, New Hampshire. It’s easy to get to from I93, taking Exit 2. It’s about a half hour north of Boston or an hour east of Worcester. From either Providence, Rhode Island, Portland, Maine, or the White Mountains region it will take about an hour and a half.
Hours of operation range from 11 AM to 6 PM on weekends in April to 11AM to 10PM during the summer season. Select days they open an hour earlier at 10AM - the best option is to check the website for operating hours before you decide to go.
General Admission prices at $28 per person. We generally see discounts beginning in the spring printed on Coke cans locally. A discount is given to those under 48 inches and Seniors who pay only $19 per person. From 5 PM to close there are admission discounts in effect and this rate is $18 per person. There are discounts available for groups of 25 or more. Parking is free.
RIDES
If you’re looking for a lot of thrill rides, you won’t find those at Canobie Lake Park. They have a few rides that fall into the more intense categories, but the vast majority are rides that appeal across age ranges. It makes Canobie Lake Park a great place to go for groups where you don’t know how some of the group will react to the rides. It’s nice to take a trip like this and have all of the kids come away enjoying themselves at the end of the day.
Canobie Lake Park divides their rides into categories so people can judge more easily whether the intensity of the rides id for them. Those categories are Black Diamond, Blue Square, or Green Circle and are pretty easy for those of us who are into skiing to recognize. Most of the Black Diamond rides carry height restrictions of 48 inches.
Of the most intense rides, the Xtreme Frisbee is newest this year. I didn’t ride it as I don’t do well on swinging rides. It’s a spinning ride on a pendulum. Starblaster is a tower ride that blasts riders off. Corkscrew Coaster is a steel coaster that flips riders around in a series of corkscrews. Wipeout is a spinning ride that bobs up and down as well. Psychodrome is a “Scrambler” style ride that takes place inside a dome in the dark. Pirata is a swinging pirate ship. Turkish Twist is a centrifugal force ride that pins riders against the wall as it spins super-fast.
The other two coasters at Canobie Lake Park actually fall in the category of Blue Square rides. The Yankee Cannonball is a wooden coaster. It doesn’t have the smoothness of the steel coaster and the drops are not all that intense compared to other coasters I have been on, but it was my favorite the day we went there. The Kiddie Dragon Coaster actually struck me as more like the family-style coasters I’ve seen at other parks.
Other rides in this category included the Log Flume, another water ride called Boston Tea Party which is designed to get people very wet. There’s also the Timber Splash Water Coaster which will get riders very wet as well. I wouldn’t go on this since I didn’t have extra clothes or a bathing suit. There are swings, a ferris wheel, bumper cars, a haunted house, and much more that thrilled all of the sixth graders without being intimidating.
For littler kids there are plenty of kiddie rides, including a carousel, three different car rides, a balloon race type ride, swings and bumper cars for their size, as well as kiddie canoes which looked like a lot of fun.
Canobie Lake Park also has a water ride area. This wasn’t open the day we attended, but I looked at it from the train ride. Castaway Island has a lot of slides which don’t empty out into a pool, but instead are designed to stop riders in shallow water. This makes it great for even those who can’t swim as they can still use the slides without fear.
ATTRACTIONS - SHOWS
Unfortunately, most of the shows only run from mid-June through LaborDay at Canobie Lake Park. This meant our trip in early June was show-free. We saw signs promoting them and they looked interesting. There will be a dance show and a fitness show, which seemed different than what I’ve seen at other parks. On Saturday nights throughout the summer there are fireworks.
There are plenty of midway-style games at Canobie Lake Park. There were some open when we were there, but not all. My 12 year-old daughter won a Canobie Lake Park pillow at one of them. There is also miniature golf and a rock-climbing wall available above and beyond the admission price.
FOOD
Canobie Lake Park has 17 food stands, 13 catering pavilions, and 3 restaurants. Not all of them were open due to the time of year we visited. We had one meal at one of the catering pavilions as a group which was just hot dogs or hamburgers and fries. This wasn’t bad but was about what I’d expected and what I’ve had at other parks.
In addition, there are specialty places that have Italian fare, fried clams, Mexican food, bbq selections, and more. The food is expensive, plus New Hampshire tacks 8% rooms and meals tax onto the food (but we have no state income tax, so :-P ). Everything seemed extremely expensive already, but that has become the norm at most theme parks. While researching taking the kids to Six Flags, I saw that meal vouchers were at least $10 each for one meal! That is about what I spent a Canobie Lake Park for a burger, fries and soda for one of the kids. I had a loaded baked potato and soda which came in at a little less, but the food is definitely not inexpensive. If you can, you are better off eating outside. There is no designated picnic area either inside or outside the park. I didn’t notice if they allow food in, but if they are like most parks, coolers are forbidden.
MISCELLANEOUS
The rest rooms were fine the day we were there. It may be harder to keep clean when it’s more crowded, especially by the water rides, but from what I saw Canobie Lake Park does a good job trying to keep up with the sloppy masses.
The employees were all friendly and seemed to be paying attention to what they were doing. They are on the young side, but that is normal for these areas. Many parks bring in people from outside the country to boost the crew as they can’t find enough staff from the local population. I didn’t find this number to be unusually disproportionate.
FINAL THOUGHTS
I just wondered why it took so long for me to visit Canobie Lake Park. It’s more family oriented than thrill-ride oriented, reminding me of Knoebels Amusement Resort, although I think I liked the value for my money at Knoebels Amusement Resort a lot more.
However, it was fine for the age group we brought there. Teenagers looking for thrills might be bored fairly quickly with what Canobie Lake Park has to offer. The 7th through 10th graders who went a few weeks before in the school band did seem to enjoy it quite a bit, though. I had no qualms letting the 12 year olds loose to roam around the park. It felt very safe and secure to me.
The food selection was decent, if overpriced. I really liked that there was free parking, instead of adding $10 to the tab like at other theme parks.
I’d have no problem visiting Canobie Lake Park again. I thought it was a good value, especially when I can get it discounted from the standard admission even further.
Other sites to see in New Hampshire:
Attitash Bear Peak Ski Resort ~ Bretton Woods Ski Resort ~ Cranmore Mountain Ski Resort ~ Franconia Notch State Park ~ Kancamagus Highway ~ King Pine Ski Resort ~ Loon Mountain Ski Resort ~ Madison Boulder Natural Area ~ Mount Washington Cog Railway ~ North Conway, NH ~ Polar Express Event ~ Shawnee Peak, Bridgeton ME ~ Six Gun City ~ Story Land ~ Whale's Tale Waterpark ~ White Lake State Park ~ White Mountain National Forest ~ Wildcat Mountain
Some places to stay in New Hampshire:
Attitash Mountain Village - Bartlett NH ~ Comfort Inn & Suites - North Conway NH ~ Hampton Inn - Concord/Bow NH ~ Yankee Clipper Motel
Places to eat in New Hampshire:
Bea's Cafe, Conway NH ~ Cafe Noche, Conway NH ~ Decades Steakhouse, North Conway NH ~ Delaney‘s Hole in the Wall, North Conway NH ~ Harts Turkey Farm, Meredith NH ~ May Kelly's Cottage, North Conway NH ~ Merlino's Steakhouse, North Conway NH ~ Moat Mountain Smokehouse, North Conway NH ~ Muddy Moose, North Conway NH ~ Peach's Restauran, North Conway NH ~ Red Parka Steakhouse & Pub, Glen NH ~ Yankee Smokehouse, West Ossipee NH
Books about the area:
Appalachian Mountain Club White Mountain Guide ~ 50 Hikes in the White Mountains
© 2007 Patti Aliventi
Recommended:
Yes
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
AliventiAsylum
|
 in Movies, Hotels & Travel |
 in Movies |
 - Top 50 |
|
Member: Patti Aliventi
Location: Mount Washington Valley, New Hampshire
Reviews written: 2070
Trusted by: 687 members
About Me:
Interstate National Dealer Services from AAA is Automotive Extended Warranty hell: http://www.epinions.com/content_5328707716
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.