• Predator @ Six Flags Darien Lake | Coaster Reviews

  Written by The Coaster Critic 6 Comments
  Last Updated: April 19, 2006

  Darien Lake & Predator offer that New York charm
  On a trip to my wife’s home park in Western NY, I got to experience what Six Flags Darien Lake had to offer. The Predator was definitely a memorable ride. It’s a wooden coaster located in the back of the park near one of the lakes and Superman: Ride of Steel. The layout looks interesting at first glance, so at first I was pretty excited. While in line, I found a monument to park vandalism. “The Great Gum Shrine of Darien Lake” Pretty gross. Even if it is kind of funny it shows the staff’s disregard for keeping their park clean. On to the ride, about three-quarters of the way up the 95′ lift hill the train came to an abrupt stop. Most of the riders immediately freaked out. Having been in this situation before I was calm and figured the coaster would move in a few moments. It didn’t. KISS happened to be performing at the park that day. It made for some interesting people watching as I sat on the lift hill for almost 15 minutes. Especially the eight year old walking around with KISS face paint. Finally, the Predator cranked back up and we were on our way. The result was a bumpy, sluggish, painful, terribly-paced ride. Maybe one day in the past this was a great ride, but this ride has aged terribly. The Predator has earned my “coveted” wrecking ball award as it has absolutely nothing positive to offer. I take that back. It looks like fun, but it’s way too painful and just unenjoyable. Here’s hoping Darien Lake re-tracks, renovates, or wrecks this coaster. Final Rating – 2.0 (Horrible)

  How bad is a 2.0? Check out the CCCS. Also, check out this roller coaster video of the Predator at Darien Lake.
  
  

  

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6 Comments

1. #1 Chris Bishop says:
   August 18th, 2006 at 12:18 pm

   I don’t think I’ve ever been on this one and I’ve been to D.L. many times…

   Reply
2. #2 The Coaster Critic says:
   October 5th, 2006 at 6:58 pm

   You didn’t miss much Bish. You didn’t miss much.

   Reply
3. #3 T. says:
   July 17th, 2008 at 10:17 am

   I was on this yesterday, its amazing how this ride has changed. I remember it being a great ride that really gave you a work-over (in a good way). Like an old fashioned wooden coaster should.

   But yesterday? I thought I broke a rib, punctured a lung, or worse… It was so painful that I didn’t even get to enjoy the ride. I put my hands up for the first drop; realized how painful it was, and then decided it would be best to use my arms and hands to shield the impacts.

   Six Flags sold Darien Lake to PARC, and they’ve really made the park fun again, hopefully they’ll revamp the predator, so it lives a little bit less upto its name.

   Reply
4. #4 bunky666 says:
   June 24th, 2009 at 12:53 am

   I visited Darien Lake when Predator was fairly new (before Six Flags owned DL), and Predator was indeed a memorable, fun, traditional woodie. In fact, it WAAAAY outranked any other woodie I had been on. It dismays me to hear what it has been reduced to in the coaster world.

   Reply
5. #5 Ryan says:
   August 14th, 2009 at 7:08 pm

   I was up at Darien Lake yesterday for the Phish show, and after tailgating for a few hours, I decided to go into the park, as the cost was only $12 if you had a concert ticket. Anyway, my first ride was the Predator, as I had read about it here, and wanted to get it out of the way.

   After riding it, I think what it suffers from most is simply mediocrity. I sat in the back, knowing full well that it would be rougher back there, but hoping for some floater air on the hills. While it was rough, it certainly wasn’t painful; in fact, it seemed to send a weird vibration through me that was….well, weird. When I got off the ride, I didn’t feel beaten up as I would on Mean Streak or Son of Beast, so I’ve definitely been on more painful rides.

   My main criticism is that the ride just doesn’t deliver thrills. As you crest some of the hills, you know that they were intended to deliver airtime, but it just doesn’t happen. Since the ride doesn’t really offer anything else, the lack of this, along with the lack of any solid drops, keeps you wondering just what the designers intended.

   In short, it wasn’t a painful ride for me, just painfully ho-hum. I didn’t have time to ride it again, but if I were at the park all day, I’d probably take a second ride, as the line was pretty short.

   *As a side note, I found the ride operators at Darien Lake to be very slow in getting trains out. No ride was running more than two trains, but the amount of stacking on the brake lines was pretty unacceptable in almost every instance.

   Reply
6. #6 The Coaster Critic says:
   August 14th, 2009 at 10:40 pm

   Nice review Ryan. I definitely remember the vibration you mentioned. Hopefully, Predator will undergo some rehab. I’d love to have ridden it when it was brand new.

   Thanks for reading.

   Reply