Michigan's Adventure Trip Report

Fresh on the heels of my California adventure we headed north to the great lakes. The intent of the trip was to visit the in-laws cottage but we decided to take a two day road trip into Michigan with the destination being Muskegon and Michigan’s Adventure.

The reputation of Michigan's Adventure was always a low-tier Cedar Fair park. The park only has 7 coasters with the standout being Shivering Timbers. A lot of what I read/watched going in was that the park is small but Shivering Timbers is worth the trip. So with that in mind we decided to make the 5 hour trek south to Muskegon.

The park is pretty small in scale so we decided to drive down on Tuesday, do a half day in the park on Wednesday and then head back in the early afternoon. We made good time on Tuesday so we ended up stopping by the park quickly to get a later afternoon ride on Shivering Timbers before heading into Muskegon for dinner. Weather ended up being ok. We got a tiny bit of rain on Tuesday and then just overcast on Wednesday morning before becoming nice and sunny in the early afternoon.

We had decent luck with the rides we ended up getting on everything except for Woodstock Express which was down all day Wednesday.

Coasters

Corkscrew

Very basic Arrow looper is definitely the shortest I’ve ever been on. Usually these are a lift, a couple vertical loops, a corkscrew or two, and then brakes all spaced with your classic janky old school Arrow transitions. This one was that same layout but minus the loops so I think the ride ended up being around 20s. Not the roughest looper I’ve been on but the over the shoulder restraints are not tall friendly so the short duration might have actually been a plus in this case.

Mad Mouse

This has the reputation of being one of the best wild mice out there with some great airtime towards the latter half. Having rode this I think that's mostly accurate. It was good airtime but for a wild mouse. Having ridden Psycho Mouse (California’s Great America) which is the same model/manufacture only a week previously I do like this one better. Not as good a Wild Mouse (Cedar Point) slotting in as my second favorite overall. Sidenote it was somewhat of a miciale that we rode this at all. For some reason they won’t operate this in the rain or with any water on the track. They didn’t open this up till about 1pm and when they did there were some mechanical issues. We ended up getting on the first train of the day thankfully but when we passed by on our way out of the park it was down again.

Shivering Timbers

This is basically if someone attempted to make Behmonth (Canada’s Wonderland) out of wood. Just a bunch of airtime hills with a turnaround and a helix finale. This ride is good but I feel like I somewhat over hyped it going in. It was fun but it is definitely not on that elite, top-ten, leave you breathless on when you hit the brakes kind of ride. The airtime is there for sure but it's not forceful or floaty it kind of falls in the middle. Shivering Timbers is also kind of rough. Not Minebuster levels of pain but uncomfortable enough that after three rides on Wednesday I was good. Glad I got on here but I don’t really think a re-ride will be enough to bring me back to the park. It's interesting to compare this to Gold Striker (California’s Great America) having just ridden that a week previous. Both very different wood coasters with Shivering Timbers being all about airtime and Gold Striker focusing on twists and turns. I think overall I do prefer the out of control feeling that Gold Striker brings over the airtime hill spam on Shivering Timbers.

Thunderhawk

When you ride a Vekoma SLC you always go in defensively as the reputation these have for being extremely rough is well earned. This wasn’t great but also not that bad. When I went to SF Discovery Kingdom I was spared a ride on Kong so the only comparison point I have is to Flight Deck (Canada’s Wonderland). Thunderhawk is better than that but still not a ride I’d go back for seconds.

Wolverine Wildcat

Decent little wood coaster where you can definitely tell where this has had new track installed. You kind of go from these buttery smooth hills into rough as hell turnarounds and then back to the smooth track. I think if they keep on with the new track this could be a great intermediate wood coaster.

Zach’s Zoomer

Surprisingly good family/kiddie wood coaster. Not a whole lot else to say here, probably most comparable to the classic Ghoster Coaster at Wonderland.

Conclusion

This park is small. It’s charming and well kept but you can’t really compare it to bigger parks like Wonderland or even Great America. Having now been to Michiagan’s Adventure it now makes sense to me why this park hasn’t gotten a new coaster in 20 years. Muskegon and the surrounding areas are quite small. I think most of the business this park gets is not from locals but more from people camping in the many state parks that are close by. For those kinds of people they are more just looking for something to do rather than explicitly making a trip to check out a new attraction. The park seems to be prioritizing the kiddie area and the water park over the other more thrilling attractions. It did really seem like the majority of the people here were here for the water park

I don’t regret coming at all but at the same time highly doubt I’ll ever be back again. It's a decently well run park but I still think if I had to rank everywhere I’ve been this would probably come last.