MF Opening Day comments...

What a day it was today. The second the gates opened, everyone ran quickly to MF. The crowd got there so quick that they had not even opened up the queue yet, causing huge lines backing up all the way to near the front of the park. Finally they got the queue opened, and it was awesome. I actually got cut off from the line to get all the extras into the queue, and I talked to the CP Head of Operations. He said that #1 The yellow train was not running #2 The photos were working and #3 Even with 2 trains running the wait from the back of the queue is about 3 hrs, which all proved true. But the line was just tremendous. I was in the queue so I didnt quite see how far it backed up towards the front, but I heard it was around 5 or 6 hrs, and from what i saw it seems right. When the first train left the station, the crowd went nuts, as did they when it came into the final turn. There were a few things to note on the day:
1) I got the blue train both times I went on it, but from seeing them run it looked like the red was indeed very clickity and not as smooth.
2) They never got the yellow going. It was cool seeing it in the transfer track though with the water dummies.
3) Lines for Magnum, Raptor, Mantis, etc. were definitely shorter than usual, but they were all around an hour all day I believe.
4) While I was waiting for my second ride on the force, they seemed to be having a few problems with the elevator lift. There were a few delays, but then they got it back up again.
5) Later in the day, they had 4 carts at various places in the MF line selling refreshments. I think more people got free ice than a 2$ drink though.
6) I was mad at the way they handled getting onto MF at the station. For one, they let in people one train at a time, so that the most people that could be in a line for a row were two all the time. This caused problems because if you werent one of the first in for a train, you would have little choice on what row to get. Because of this, I couldnt get car 5, but I had to settle for 4 and 8. They didnt even have a line for the front - so if you were the first in for a train the front was all yours with no extra wait.

Overall, it was a fun day nonetheless. The weather got to be perfect, and everyone was really having a great time.

Thanx for the good report

From what I saw they did have a line for the front. It was filled until the end when I was there so they wouldn't let you wait for the front. Then after that they let everyone in a train at a time. I bet that they won't do that all the time though. It was just real crowded and they wanted to move the line as quickly as possible.

I got into the front, and there was a small line for it, and they would only let you in it if it wasn't completely full. The ride is the sweetest thing I have ever been on though, and it was all worth the wait.

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Whats life if you never get to the point?

I guess I didnt really check out the front in the morning - I just wanted to ride! But at 5 o clock when I went on for the second time, I even asked one of the employees if we could go to the front and they said we couldnt. It is a way to prevent empty seats, I agree, but it is not like every single person is going to go to the front.

One other thing that I just remembered, did they ever have a real opening ceremony? I was waiting in line, but I could still sort of see the entrance to the queue, and I didnt see anything. I didnt hear anything either. Did they have it in the station or something?

I got to ride in the front because when I got to the station, they asked for a single rider!

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"the Force of the new Millennium is being felt by those who choose to seek it."

nah i waited 1½ for the MF and 30 min each time i went on magnum and 1½ for both raptor and mantis i waited 3/4 of a hour for MS(very smooth this year) and 15 for blue streak(also very smooth in the morning) i got on 20 rides there on opening day magnum=4 (kind bumpy in the back) MF=1 corkscrew(smooth still)=2 nice sceenery this year like usual but i had a bad ezxpierence with woodstock express (the op though i flipped off the camera when i put my thumbs up and he yelled at me) oh well

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00'Coaster Count: 92

My guess is that the reason the crew was handling seat choices the way they were was merely out of capacity reasons. With the line as long as it was, they were probably doing all that they could to minimize it. Not allowing seat choice is something CP has never done before (well...ignoring Disaster Transport) and is something that hasn't been started on any other rides this year. It seems like as soon as the line dies down some they will go back to allowing you to pick whatever seat you want and wait in that line. That's how they were handling it on AAA day at least.

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James Draeger
aceercg@aol.com
C G & C P

Wow, sounds cool, I can't wait, how do you guys think the wait will be this friday?? That's when I'm going. How was it along the lines of queue entertainment? I was just thinking, wouldn't it be great if they had an actual dj, think DJ skribble from MTV, like not just a dj that played different songs, one that mixed dance music and everything, I think that would be awesome. God I can't wait. Also, did anyone notice on the CP webpage, the Millenium Force countdown now says "-1 days" lol. I thought that was funny.

Skribble would be pretty cool. He's awesome to see live. Good call, Clarkbar!

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UCSigep

I seriously doubt they could get DJ skribble, he costs too much, as cool as that would be. I meant someone along the lines of him. *** This post was edited by Clarkbar on 5/14/2000. ***

Majin, the red train was smooth as glass. It was not clickity or anything.

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"Got a green light, got a green light...but your going nowhere" Filter-The Best Things

Yeah, I agree, I road front seat red train and it was smooth as could be, no strange noises either.

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Whats life if you never get to the point?

Like I said, I never got to ride the red, so I wouldn't really know. Thanks for the info. How do you guys think the yellow train will run when they finally get it working?
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MF Rides: 2

Yeah, I agree Clarkbar, but the thought is pretty sweet. Maybe they could get DJ's from area dance clubs. I don't know if there are any around there, but down here in Cincy there are a couple great clubs. I'm there all the time.

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UCSigep

I asked one of the ride ops if they had the opening ceremony and he said that they did have it. He said that they did it before we got there and it was very brief. I also saw Mr. Kinsel after he was getting off of Millennium Force, he said that everything was going as planned. The Red Cross bidders got to ride and then the employees.

A friend of mine and I went to get in line for MF at 9:30 last night and they already had the queue line closed for the evening. When talking to a gentleman that was at the ride which had a silver tag, he provided absolutely no reason as to why. He said that they had announced it at some of the major rides starting at 6 or 6:30. We were not really upset that we could not get in - we have season passes and will be back many times. However, another lady was there and she was quite upset. Jeff, Dan - either of you know the real reason that the queue line was closed off before 10:00 on MF?

On the other hand, they were letting people in to the Raptor queue well after 10:00. We got up to Raptor at 10:15 and even after we got off at around 10:30, people were still getting in line for it.

I think the reason they cut the line off so early was because of the wait times. If you got in line say around 10 you would still be there for about 2 hours (seems that was the average waiting time) and that would mean they wouldnt get the people out of the park till after midnight. Thats just my guess.
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The more you ride it, the more you want it!

~~~Darla~~~

Thast too bad, cause I think CP's policy of letting you get in line right before closing and still being able to ride is great because you can always sneak in an extra ride. But I guess if CP needs to do this then its alright, but hopefuly they'll go back to keeping the line open until closing later on in the season.

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Whats life if you never get to the point?

They closed the line so they could send the crew home before 1 am.

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Jeff
Webmaster/Guide to The Point
Millennium Force laps: 23