Richard Bannister

Captain Kid Amusement Park is a small family park in the north-western corner of Oregon. It features an eighteen hole miniature golf course, a go-kart track, and a selection of child-friendly amusement rides. There isn’t much to draw in older visitors, and in all honesty I probably wouldn’t have bothered calling in myself were it not for the fact that I had a lot of spare time in my day. I figured that a ninety minute detour for a bonus credit would be a good way to use some of it – as indeed it was.

Roller Coaster (#3026) is a Schiff-built ride with a peak height differential of around five feet that previously operated at the short-lived Zone4Fun in Pennsylvania. Its full history and indeed age is unknown as of this writing, though it evidently travelled at one point; the station remains atop a trailer with road wheels, and those looking closely at the control box might spot an expired permit from the Missouri Department of Public Safety.

The ticket price today was $5.00, and in a break from American tradition this figure was inclusive of tax. The friendly operator told me to expect a four lap cycle and a hard stop after the final lap, and this warning proved to be on the money – though the abrupt ending was really the only blemish on a surprisingly fun ride that fits in easily among the top five permanently installed coasters in Oregon. The experience in the front seat was definitely on the junior end of the scale, but enjoyable nevertheless; I’m glad I made the effort to get there.

Yesterday evening I made a last-minute check of the Oaks Amusement Park website, and found language advising visitors to buy in advance as a limited number of tickets would be on sale each day. I took this at face value, which saved me a few minutes at the ticket window today – but it was honestly unnecessary; there was a lengthy queue of people buying tickets for cash. A quick poke around the booking system suggests that the “limited number” is actually 3000, and while that figure may occasionally be hit, it certainly doesn’t happen on a routine basis.

The primary reason for my visit today was Adrenaline Peak (#3027), a standard model Gerstlauer Eurofighter 320 that opened just under eleven months after the design premiered as Hydrus on the opposite side of the United States. The ride has three eight-person trains, and while only two were in use today the queue wasn’t long enough to justify more. Even if it had been, I rather suspect that the real-world capacity boost from operating a full fleet would have been minimal, given that the time from dispatch to brakes is no more than a minute.

The station area has storage for personal items, but it isn’t separated between trains, and given that I elected to use a coin-operated locker (25c) from a bank in front of the station. At least half of these were in an advanced state of non-functionality today. I was more than a little wary about trusting my phone and car keys to one of the few that was actually working, but upon reflection I figured it was a better choice than leaving valuables exposed in plain sight.

The ride experience was excellent. The trains negotiated the layout with ease, in sharp contrast to many (if not most) of the other Eurofighters, and comfortable lap bar restraints ensured that there was absolutely no issue with head banging. The layout could have done with being a little bit longer, but honestly that's a nitpick; what's there is perfectly respectable and to the point. I stopped at two laps only because a caravan of other guests joined the line as I was going back for round three, and I decided that it was too hot to wait for them to get through ahead of me.

On a side note, the operators today were insisting on “no arms up, no arms out” prior to every dispatch. The clearances in the layout didn't (and don't) look particularly small to me, but if they are surely that would represent a safety issue that should stop operation? Gerstlauer surely wouldn't build something hazardous to the more rangy, would they? I found myself wondering whether the verbiage was an abundance of caution or a response to a previous incident; if anyone knows more, please drop me a line.

I next my way to the northern end of the park for Zoom Coaster, a Miler family installation with a brilliantly ridiculous pair of airtime hills on the return to the station. I'm pleased to record that the loss of four extraneous vowels from the former Zoooooom at some point over the last fifteen years had no impact whatsoever on the ride experience, which remained fantastic. Most guests today were getting a two lap cycle, though as the operator noted it can occasionally be three “when I miss!”.

I went looking for the hokey Lewis and Clark Big Adventure dark ride referenced in my trip report from 2007, but after some back and forth I discovered that the building it had lived in had been transformed into the Merry Mix-Up Play Area for younger visitors. With nothing else on my radar I decided that I might as well head for an early dinner.