Darien Lake Meal Plan (Updated)

     We picked up the Darien Lake meal plan this year. At $69.99 per person on top of the season pass, my wife objected strenuously. Normally, I would agree but we've been to the park 3 times in the 4 days they have been open and ate dinner. At park prices, we haven't made back out money yet. If we go 7 times and eat, we will break even.

     Unlike a Disney Dining plan, the menu of items is limited and does not include drinks. Your options are:

Roast Beef Sandwich w Kettle Chips
BBQ Pulled Pork
Spicy Crispy Chicken
Sahlen's Dog & Fries
Sahlen's Italian Sausage & Fries
Chicken Fingers & Fries
Personal Pan Pizza (Pepperoni or Cheese)
***Cheeseburger/Hamburger & Fries*** This option replaced the Bacon Burger mentioned below.
Chicken Caesar Wrap & Fries
Buffalo Chicken Wrap & Fries
2 Tacos (Chicken or Beef) w/ Nachos
Chicken Caesar Salad

     I've had the chicken fingers twice and the bacon burger once. Both were excellent. I am a sucker for chicken fingers, so I can see doing that a lot. The BBQ sauce is ok, but if you ask, they will give a cup of hot sauce, which is very good. I dressed up my bacon burger with the standard mustard, relish and ketchup but next time I will try it with the BBQ sauce.

     One of the best things about this meal deal plan is my wife and I can send these 3 goofballs out on their own with a little spending money and they can order whatever they want, when they want. They've had the bacon burger, tacos and chicken fingers.

     There are some downsides to the plan. It takes about 7 visits per person to break even. It is not often that a visitor from elsewhere would ever be able to use the plan effectively.

     Also, we encountered a problem ordering our season passes and meal plans online. You end up with 2 sheets of paper per person and when my son got his picture take for the pass, he thought the deal plan was a duplicate and put in his pocket. Oops. No meal plan for him.

     It was easy to correct at the service desk, but somehow they registered that one of us (me, I think) had already had a meal for that day when we hadn't. They would have sent my on my way without correcting the issue if I hadn't thought to ask. If you have this problem make sure they double check everything.

     Right now, the menu choices seem ample. But if we really go 2 times a week, every week I am sure the variety will not be enough. This can also spin to a positive. I hope the salad is really good, because I always like a good salad. My son has also confirmed that he will have hot dogs or tacos every visit, so this plan is a dream for the picky eater.

    Update 05-18-2018 - It seems they have replaced the bacon burger with a choice of cheeseburger or hamburger. I like these options better than the bacon burger, I prefer my bacon burger with cheese which was not an option.

Darien Lake Tips (Updated)

My son and I are here at Darien Lake Theme Park on opening day. The weather is gorgeous and we are having a great time. The weather is gorgeous and we are having a great time.      Visiting the park is a little different than camping here, but if you think about it you can take advantage of some great amenities from each to make your stays and days better.

For the coffee drinker, most restaurants offer coffee but you can find the best at Tim Hortons located at the main gate and the other Tim's in the Sweet Tooth Candy Shop. If you go to the main gate for coffee, the muffins there are probably the healthiest and cheapest snack in the park.      Sweet Tooth also has a variety of favored kettle corn. We tried the cinnamon. It was a tad pricey at $5.99 but by the bottom of the bag, we wanted more.

     For people just spending the day, sometimes the Camp Shop is you best options for many things. Their sub shop is easily the cheapest place in the park for food. Also, they sell alcohol, cigarettes and batteries at fairly reasonable prices in addition to fresh food items from local farms.

(New tip! At the end of the last year, they added a Tim Hortons to the camp shop. They also sell apple cider in season!)

    My son and I tried the ham sub and meatball sub. Both were excellent and we paid less than $10 each, even with chips and a drink. We had half subs, but a whole wouldn't have cost more than 12 bucks. He really wanted chips.

Around the corner from the Camp Shop is the camp lounge. It has TVs, sofas, a fireplace, and rocking chairs. They also have electrical plugs and free WiFi. It is fairly spartan, but on a rainy day, it's a great place to wait it out.       On really rainy days, it a great place to play games. They have a giant size chess set which is fun and tables so you can bring your own games. I'm tempted to try a pick up game of D&D here, but the weather hasn't been that bad yet.        One other handy stop is the coin op laundry. Wonderful if you soaked your clothes and need to dry something quickly.

Darien Lake 2018

Darien Lake has new rides for 2018. It´s my mission to hit every one of them. Here is my list broken down by area.

Lakefront Boardwalk:

Redhawk
The Giant Wheel
Blast Off!
Grand Carousel

Midway Marina:
Haymaker
Silver Bullet
Rock Climbing Wall
Pirate

Crossroads:
Predator
Ride of Steel
Lasso
Scrambler

Darien Square:
Motocoater
Boomerang

Fun Zone:
Bear Valley Bumper Buggies
Twister
Tin Lizzy’s
Grand Prix Go Carts

Thunder Road:
Sleighride
Mind Eraser
Corn Popper
Thunder Rapids
Shipwreck Falls
Rolling Thunder

Main Gate:

Slingshot

The Tantrum isn´t on the list, it will not open until May 25th. Also missing from the list is kiddie rides. I´m too tall for many of them. :)

Destiny 2... again.

Well, I have completed Destiny 2 with a Titan, I am now working on my Hunter and Warlock. I can't say this game had the pop of the original. I feel like I am doing it to get my 60 bucks worth. What I find particularly galling is exotic weapons don't feel powerful. I am currently running with two legendary weapons. It's just ok. 

I'll post more later.

Opening Day at Darien Lake

May will be cold and rainy, but that has never stopped us from going to the park opening day. May 5th, 10:30-8 will be the hours. 69 days from today.

The water park opens a few weeks later. We have our season passes and this year we picked the food option. Last year, we spent over 22 days in the park and it seemed to make sense to add in a meal plan. I figured five people dining 22 times a year vs. the $69.99 price tag, that works out be less than 20 bucks a visit. I can't feed a family of five for $20 at McDonalds. We'll see how it goes. 

Today, I am posting some of the nicer images I took over the years. I should create an album for this sort of thing. 

Giant Wheel

The Predator

Tornado

Boomerang