Yankee Cannonball Review, Canobie Lake Park Wood Coaster | Better or Worse After the Retracking?
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- Опубліковано 28 вер 2024
- The Yankee Cannonball is the star attraction at Canobie Lake Park. This Herbert Schmeck designed PTC wooden roller coaster was relocated to Canobie for the 1936 season. And before the 2016 season, the ride was retracked by GCI. But did it get better?
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Yankee Cannonball POV (Top Thrill Coasters)- • Video
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Video Link: • Video
I really need to get to Canobie at some point, Yankee Cannonball has been on my list to ride for quite some time. Thanks for the video!
It's a really charming park.
Awesome review of a beloved classic! I LOVE hearing these reviews of coasters that don't get talked about much.
Thanks! I figured I should finally review something in my backyard.
@@CanobieCoaster I was wondering when you were going to talk about this lol
Love me a good old classic Woodie!
Me too!
It's been a good while since I've been to the park, but this was my first big coaster when I was a kid! Hope to ride it again sometime soon.
Hope you can!
I love how smooth it is and overall it’s my favorite ride in the park!
It sure is smooth.
I also got some ejector airtime in a few of the hills! It felt like I was thrown out of my seat and thrown back down!
I rode it Last Weak In New Hampshire for my birthday , it’s pretty sick , the lines aren’t bad if you go early in the morning, I got on the yankee cannonball in like under 15 min
Nice!
After reading the comments, I think it's important to reiterate your saying the coaster was reprofiled and not simply retracked. Reprofiling is usually done to fix an area that is either unsafe (seemingly not the case here) or to reduce wear and tear to the coaster itself. The other options are usually trim brakes ( which doesn't seem to apply if the coaster isn't going that fast to begin with) or RMC topper track. (which takes away from the nostalgia imo.) If the coaster needs to be retracked, let's just say every five years, but this reprofiling will extend that to every ten years, then the park is looking at significant maintenance savings in the future. The cheaper it is to maintain the more likely it will hang around. Also I'd say the park is comfortable with the one train operation. To a park, manageable lines are a good sign that a ride is worth the wait time to their patrons. It's kind of similar to if you want to get rid of an old piece of furniture, you can put $20 on it at a yard sale, and someone will likely buy it and think they got a good deal, (especially if they talk you down another $5-10.) Or you could put it in the front yard with a "free" sign on it and nobody will take it because they think you trying to get rid of your trash. I line says 'value', while no line says 'trash'.
I agree the retracking/reprofiling was an overall success for the park and most patrons. Only hardcore coaster enthusiasts may be a bit disappointed with how it turned out.
I miss theme parks so much
Parks will start reopening in the northeast in the next month or two.
I’ve always had a fear of roller coaster but I’m considering trying this one. Is it a good coaster to start on?
Update: I forced myself to go on this and didn't regret one second of it! I've never experienced something so terrifying yet so fun at the same time lol
Update 1 year later: I’m now a total coaster enthusiast and just went on Superman, Wicked Cyclone, and Batman at Six Flags New England today! For anyone else out there who’s trying to get over a fear of coasters, I strongly suggest just getting on one, you might be surprised!
Yes, it's smooth and not too fast.
Before the retracking I might have hesitated to recommend it to a beginner, but now, it's a great first "big" coaster. Not too huge or too rough but it does give you a taste of the forces.
It was my first coaster too! A great starter.
Honestly, as someone who's rode it consistently for years I'd say it hasn't changed much since the retracking
Interesting, I noticed a stark difference.
I have definitely noticed the weaker airtime. This review I found very accurate to my view on the ride as well
i always will try and get the back row on this. the best airtime moment in my opinion is the drop in the back on the last L shaped turn around
Yes, that reminds me of how the airtime used to be on most hills pre-retrack.
i am terrified to ride this now. have ridden this beaut since I was 5 years old and was a top 3 ride of all time for me. last time i rode it was in 2012 and it still had all the magic. i am finally going to return this year and was so bummed to hear about the retrack. ugh. thanks for the info. guess it's better to be let down easy.
Unfortunately it doesn't run as well as it did in 2012.
@@CanobieCoaster yeah. sort of devastated now lol. really was looking forward to enjoying it (in the same old way) again. wonder, if ever in the future they return the track back to its proper form.
I've just became an enthusiast in the last year, and this coaster is part of the reason I love roller coasters now. I went to Canobie for the first time in 4-5 years last year and I rode Yankee Cannonball for the first time. I was still a gp at the time, and it was also my first woodie. I personally got 3 riders, I would of got more but I got really nauseous because I got (what I believe was insane floater) I can't quite remeber. All I know is I thought the ride was insane. I don't know if that was because I was a gp or not though. I desperately need to go to some parks. 2020 has been a bad year. I planned to go to Cedar Point, and Kings island for the first time, along with Canobie again, Palace Playland, and Fun Town. Of course, all those plans got canceled. But that's besides the point. I need to get back to Canobie to re-ride Yankee Canonbal, ASAP.
I'm just glad Canobie found a way to open this year.
cool ride.
Yes
That’s kind of a shame the airtime isn’t really present after the retrack
Yeah it's a bummer, but I understand why the park did it.
I actually haven't ridden this since the retracking, since I'm more of a fan of Untamed and the long lines for the Cannonball often dissuade me. I am now interested to go back and see if I agree with this assessment. One of the last times, I convinced my daughter to go on with me and she decided big coasters weren't for her--it was too much, too rough and too much air. I do wonder if she'd like it more now, if it's been tamed!
It's very smooth now.
This coaster serves as a great gateway to thrill rides but should not be treated as anything more, and that opinion is from someone who has not ridden the re-profiled version yet. I last rode it in 2013 and I do recall getting a bit of perceived airtime but came off the ride mostly perturbed by the lateral roughness, something I was willing to put up with when i was in my teens but not really up for in my 30s. It's a nostalgic ride and anyone who has never been on a wooden coaster will surly enjoy it. Those who have ridden larger wooden coasters will likely be disappointed by its speed and length regardless of how much air time they get off the first hump. I will try to ride the re-profiled version soon but it seems to me that it has been changed for the better and having it be a "blue square" ride will ensure it is enjoyed by many future generations.
The ride never had the speed of a big coaster, but it had good airtime given those buzz bars.
When I rode this coaster I saw paramedics outside carrying a guy into it while I was going up the first hill
Oh no, hope he is ok.
My biggest coaster let down of my New England trip last year. I expected Phoenix or Comet, and got a dud. Luckily Roar o Saurus and Excalibur blew me away.
The worst thing with Yankee Cannonball is that it used to deliver a much better ride. It's crazy Roar-o-saurus is half it's size but the better ride now.
IT'S YOUR HOME PARK!!!!
One of them.
I honestly think the airtime would be crazy before the accident in 2001
Even with the seatbelts, the airtime on this ride was great until the retracking in 2015-2016.
What’s the next roller coaster review
To be determined, but there will be one!
Is this ride scary?
No
Thank god GCI didn't ruin GhostRider.
I never rode the CCI version, but the GCI retrack runs extremely well there.
I thought that untamed was at canobie lake.
Untamed is at Canobie as well.
i would love if they rmc it but the gp would be insanely mad smh
The money would be better spent on a new ride.
Great review
Thanks!
Aye hello there! Wanna be friends? And this ride looks awesome!
I love the ones that spin horizontally as well.
Canobie Coaster what do you mean?
@@invertedthrills144 Whoops that was meant for a comment on a Satellite POV. I got mixed up on the Studio app. Yes Yankee Cannonball is a nice classic.
Canobie Coaster oh lol. I'm riding a buzz bar classic woodie soon (swamp fox)
2
Haven't ridden it in a few years but it's a shame it's gotten worse.
I wish I had a time machine.
this is just sad
It's unfortunate for enthusiasts, but the ride is popular as ever.
@@CanobieCoaster kind of like what happened to ROS (before it decided to start hauling again in 2019) but that ride was always great, but it will never match the level it was at on opening day from what ive heard
I've only ridden that ride in 2010 and 2019, so I must have missed the slower years in between.
@@CanobieCoaster yeah it was slower in between
"Yankee Cannonball" is said 46x, 👏🏾FORTY👏🏾SIX 👏🏾TIMES👏🏾, you wrote/edited/recorded the script. 🤷🏾🤦🏾😠🤣
Sorry!
16 minutes for a mediocre woodie. Sheesh
It's a nostalgic ride for me and many locals.
please stop messin with these classic coasters.! we dont have many left stop it! cant believethey gci'd the cyclone
I never rode Cyclone before the GCI retrack, but I love how wild that coaster is. Was it better before?
@@CanobieCoaster ive heard the first drop before they reprofiled it was just insane!
It still is to me at least.
@@CanobieCoaster I noticed after reding this comment section that if you ride a reprofiled woodie for the first after the modifications you'll probably like it a lot but if you ride it before and then after you'll be underwhelmed.
Did you like the GCI retracking?
It's smooth, but it hurt the power.
I don’t know why GCI would profile those hills to give less airtime when that’s part of the fun of a classic coaster. And the idea of taming down a coaster to make it more of a family ride is pretty dumb in my opinion.
Not sure why!
This coaster did not need a retrack, it was smooth before the retracking. Wooden coasters don’t need to be butter smooth, a little roughness doesn’t do any harm.
I agree it didn't really need the retracking, but a few said it felt bumpy to them.
Ah yes, one of the most underrated coasters ever. I rode it in 2019 and got standing airtime
Also I don’t get why people think Untamed is the best coaster at Canobie it kinda sucks
Lucky! I haven't gotten that type of airtime since the retrack.
@@coasterlamby3206 I like 'em both. It really depends on what you're looking for in a coaster, since they are such different experiences that they're hard to compare.
GCI ruins roller coasters
I never rode GhostRider pre-GCI retrack, but I love the new version. And GCI smoothed out the horrific triple up on Boulder Dash a few years ago.
Canobie Coaster i hate new ghost rider its a shadow of its former self... theres still great laterals but the airtime is dead
The airtime is pretty solid so I would have loved to experience the original version.
i would cry if i went to the park this year and saw rmc track but thats a no
I think their next coaster should be a family one with a low height requirement.
My father worked here in the early 80’s and he said that manual braking system was no joke. There are three levers. Starting the train was pulling lever 1 and pushing back up. Stopping however was this complex procedure of knowing what levers to pull and push and when. Train approaching the station at speed…..lever 2 down, up, lever 3 down, lever 2 down, both 2 and 3 back up, lever 3 down, 3 up, 3 down, and about four other moves. My dad pulled down on lever two when he should have pushed up on lever three and the train went right through the station and back up the lift hill.
I remember seeing those manual brakes for many years being impressed how they worked.
Rode this a few years ago in the pouring rain and it was one of the most memorable rides I’ve had on any rollercoaster. I think it was post retrack
Nice!
"Yankee Cannonball" 22x in FIVE MINUTES! Twenty-two, that's twenty-two, yes twenty-two times in five minutes he says "Yankee Cannonball" what in the holy spectrum is going on here.
Sorry!
I think some people liked the ride after the retrack, and you, did you like the 2016 track or the before track?
I preferred it before.
I think that this and Wildcat at Lake Compounce similar. Retracking of the two did get smoother for you?
Yankee Cannonball got incrementally smoother (it was always smooth). Wildcat went from bad to atrocious.
Canobie's been my home park since 2010, but the few seasons I was 48 inches tall before 2016, I never rode the cannonball as it always had the longest line. Now I kind of regret it, knowing what it once was.
It always has a line- weekend or weekday- and I don't see that changing. The average guest loves it just as much after the retrack.
@@CanobieCoaster Which makes you think - why have they not put in the money to update the brakes to get the other train back on? I guess it would be expensive, but it's a long term solution to the line problem. Extending the queue, though cheaper, is just going to make the wait times worse as a matter of fact, so why do it instead of saving the money to just fix the darn brakes? Then maybe they wouldn't have to extend the queue in the first place!
@@randomguy1017 From what I've heard, the park would rather use the funds to build a new ride that's more marketable rather than getting Cannonball up to two trains.
Does anyone know if there are plans in the works to get this converted into a steel hybrid? I've noticed most woodens are being converted and the hybrids are so much better.
Since this is the park's most popular ride as is, they will not convert it. Parks doing that are doing it to less popular rides.
I miss how it used to throw me in the air. I don’t want smooth 😂
I miss that airtime too.
I wonder how many died on that first drop??😳
No one. It's safe.
Shame the retracking didn't pay off.
It made the ride smooth as any.
Did you like this retrack or before?
Before
I rode it today and the airtime in the back row was amazing
Assuming you mean the first drop?
I mean in the back row
I have rode it every year since 2008
Nice!
I miss the buzzbars, that speed hill after the drop had some of the best ejector air in all of New England before the retracking! Btw do you know what happened to the old Galaxy coaster here? I think there was 4 in the area. One here, one at Funtown Splashtown in Saco, One at Palace Playland at Old Orchard, and one in Salisbury Mass at a place I cannot remember.
Thankfully it still has the buzz bars, but sadly the retracking after the drop doesn't really have airtime anymore. It looks like Canobie sold their galaxi to Zamperla when they removed it.
WAIT IT DOESN’T HAVE BUZZ BARS!!!????
@@Charleskesilatgmail It still has buzz bars. It used to run without seatbelts too, but those were added after the accident I believe.
The Galaxy portable coaster was sold in 2004. Although there were never any injuries, and I had ridden it previously, I recall not riding it in the late 90's because it looked like it was going to fall apart. I also remember the same model making the traveling fair circuit that came to Foxboro Stadium. They would prop it up on railroad ties to get it level. I don't know if traveling fairs still go to the effort as to erect such a large structure. I've always been curious how they assembled and disassembled them. Was there an instruction booklet? Did an engineer direct a small crew of carnival workers? Did it have special containers to store everything?
i wish they r m c is but i highly dout it
I'd rather them use the money on a new ride since Yankee Cannonball is still enjoyable.
I'm pretty sure that there isn't a park whose intensity guidelines are actually accurate
That's fair, but the fact the park downgraded it post retrack says a lot.
Coaster Studios brought me to your channel, and this was the first video I saw.
Awesome!
I think they should rmc it I think the time has come
I'd prefer them to put the money into a new ride.
@@CanobieCoaster ye@
@Charles Kesil lol this roller coaster has like NO airtime at all
@Charles Kesil you: family park
Roller coaster: untamed with massive insanely crazy
Just rode it today for the first time in a long time. It's not a super-intense coaster, but I was feeling some forces (it was a rain ride after a warm midday, which may have juiced it a little), and it is *extraordinarily* smooth for a 1930s woodie, which is probably what keeps those lines long. Exceeded my expectations.
(I was comparing it particularly with the jackhammering I got on Compounce's Boulder Dash this summer--Boulder Dash is a vastly bigger and more intense coaster and obviously you'd expect some roughness, but Boulder Dash seems to be getting rougher with time whereas the Cannonball has never been smoother.)
I agree it's extremely smooth.
I was only able to ride this for one night in the early 90s. Felt like my first real coaster. Sounds much more fun back then than now sadly.
I've only ridden it from 2000 onward.
Can New England not retrack wood coasters correctly between this and Wildcat?
At least the Yankee Cannonball's retracking made it smoother. I can't deny that!
Sucks the retracking nerfed the ride but at least it's smooth.
That's why I understand what the park did.
The old turnaround looks sick.
It was!
What a shame GCI has destroyed this ride - I wouldn't have expected that from them..
They made it smooth at least.
@@CanobieCoaster It was never that rough.
Request for woodie reviews: Renegade, High Roller(valleyfair is my home park), Hades 360, everything at holiday world, Thunder run, shivering timbers, new Mexico rattler, cannon ball at lake winnie, gasm, rampage etc. Not sure if you've reviewed these before but I love your reviews and take your opinion pretty serious. Plus I guess it's hard to review when you haven't ridden a coaster in 2-3+ years.
For me it's a matter if I have the footage. I have photos of most of those rides, but limited video.
@@CanobieCoaster I understand, I really want to know what your opinion on renegade is. Out of 63 coasters, she's still my number 1 lol
@@CanobieCoaster too bad valleyfair won't open this year tho 😭😥
Can you do a review about Xtreme frisbee and untamed?
I already have an Untamed review published! I plan to touch on the Xtreme Frisbee on a general Canobie review.
@@CanobieCoaster okay thanks
I'm not qualified to talk about this coaster, and now that I've seen this: It looks like I never will be, until I've ridden hundreds and hundreds of coasters. Considering I only have 86 credits that's not gonna happen any time soon.
This one in particular depended upon when you ride it.
@@CanobieCoaster Exactly.
I disagree. If you ride, and have an opinion to share, you're qualified. Sometimes watching a review like this can suck the sheer joy out of the ride. No disrespect to Canobie Coaster, as this is a fine, detailed review for coaster enthusiasts that appreciate analyzing every force they feel on a ride. I take a different approach. To me, the roller coaster is the grand daddy of the amusement park and every ride on one can be special. Riding a coaster like Yankee Cannonball with a young kid on their first ever ride; watching their face when they feel airtime for the first time; often times, airtime I've probably become too desensitized to feel. That experience, that coaster, can be like a time machine, taking you back to you first ride. It's probably the reason Canobie Coaster can give it a six, but probably rank it higher to an arguably better ride by most enthusiasts standards. There is probably some sentimental value that he can't cognitively add to the coasters rating, but in his rankings, can easily move it above a coaster he gave a seven. This is one reason, I don't enjoy rating coasters, or ranking them, or really even counting them. But I do enjoy riding them, and watching other people rate and rank! Everyone's qualified!
@@timk987 I'm rating it in comparison to all the coasters I've ridden, but this is still a special ride in my heart since it was my first wooden coaster.