elitch gardens is not very good
holy shit meow wolf kaleidoscape. i adore the ambition and how it pushes the medium of dark rides. maybe i'll write a separate breakdown some day, but suffice it to say this is easily the best dark ride i've tried outside of disney or universal.
the operations were stellar and maintenance seemed good.
a lot of the paint looks super washed out.
the landscaping is uninspired. with the water running around the front half of the park there are good bones but the execution just isn't there. most of the park looks like a shitty six flags.
their best coaster is an intamin half-pipe. twister 3 is the intended star attraction but too rough and disappointingly profiled to fit that role. other than that, they've got... what? a really painful vekoma invert? an (admittedly agreeable) boomerang?
you have to climb five flights of stairs to get to the station of sidewinder.
the flat ride collection low-key sucks. nothing more unique than a starflyer except for dragonwing (a failed attempt at making cooler flying scooters.)
outside of the old-timey entrance plaza, kaleidoscape, and twister, basically no theming or personality is to be found here. again, shitty six flags.
elitch gardens feels like what happens when a park is run for 25 years without anyone involved caring too much. it's landlocked by mediocre rides and has a personality of having no personality. THAT SAID, you can tell that recently they've been trying a little harder with kaleidoscape, a bit of new theming on twister, and very locked-in employees. that was enough for me to have a good time, just not for worth traveling to on its own.