10/11/2009 - Chilly but Fun

Hey all, this is the first TR I have posted so I'll try to not be TOO long-winded. As a former season pass holder who now is only able to make it to the park once a year or so (due to proximity and small children), I generally try to make the most of my visit. You people who live within a couple hours of the park have no idea how lucky you are! Anyway, since the extended hours for Columbus Day coincided with my birthday this year, my wife and I decided to make the trip up. Backing into a couple of free tickets didn't hurt either.

We stayed at a relative's house in Sandusky on Saturday night and got to the park at about 9:30. Thanks to this site I know the advantages of parking in the Soak City lot. We were through the Magnum gate a couple minutes before 10, and went straight to Maverick. There was barely a line, so we had two front-seat rides in by 10:45. I rode Maverick for the first time last year and loved it; this year was no exception. What a great ride. From there we headed to MF via the Frontier Trail. Has anyone else noticed that they seem to be building a new ride out by the lagoon? ;) MF had about a 30 minute wait; this ended up being the longest wait we had for any ride all day. It's still as smooth as ever but there seems to be a constant rattling sound that I don't remember. It reminded me of the sounds you hear in an airplane as it's blasting down the runway for takeoff. Anyway, after MF we hit a bunch of the other coasters in the area, many of which I hadn't been on in years: ID, Wildcat, Mantis. ID was just how I remembered it, Wildcat was fun, and Mantis was OK. It was a walk-on so we waited for the front. The first half of the ride is much more enjoyable for me than the second half.

From there we headed to the front of the park, and took a ride on Raptor in the first row, Blue Streak, and Calypso. I have always loved Raptor, and I think it has aged very well. We then took the Sky Ride and got in line for TTD, which hadn't been running for most of the morning. The line was short, but it went down for mechanical after a few minutes so we jumped out of line. Dragster is a great ride but I hate to have to wait very long for it. We were getting hungry and it was pushing 2:00 at this point so we went to Famous Dave's for a late lunch. Service was good, as was the food.

After lunch we rode Magnum and Gemini, with a spin on the Monster and watching the parade in between. Both coasters were practically walk-ons so we waited for the front. Magnum is such a classic ride. It just gets better with age. We went to Power Tower after this; we had never ridden the blue side so we tried that first. Luckily, we got seats 11 and 12, which offer a great view as you're being taken to the top. The turbo drop is outstanding. We went to the red side afterward, and after getting lauched up and bouncing a couple times, experienced some strangeness: The car stopped about 150' in the air, and very, VERY slowly was lowered to the ground. We saw three cycles on the blue side during the approximately 10-minute descent. The ride ops said that this was due to the car being loaded unevenly, and we were allowed to jump the fence and get back on the blue side immedately. That was pretty cool.

Dusk was starting to set in, so after a quick spin on the Scrambler we headed back toward the front and hit Maxair, Chaos, Wicked Twister, Troika, and DT. Twister was a walk-on, and I'd never ridden in the front, so we waited for that. Very cool. The top of that front spike seems WAY too close for comfort! We rode it again in row 15 so I could sit on the right and get that great view of the ground. In between the rides over there, we also walked through Happy Jack's Toy Factory. CP did an outstanding job with this, the detail was amazing.

It was now fully dark, so we started to formulate our exit strategy. We rode Raptor and Blue Streak one more time, both were walk-ons. We then hit MF, which had about a 15 minute wait. From there we walked through the Fright Zone, which was pretty creepy - that fog can get dangerously thick at times! There was a somewhat humorous situation, where a guy was walking with a lit cigarette and a screamster kept running around him, screaming at him to put it out. I couldn't see the resolution though because I was too busy worrying about running someone over. Finally, we rode Maverick one last time, and sat in the back seat. What a different experience than the front! Going down the first drop my rear end was out of the seat for about five seconds.

Despite temperatures in the 40s and 50s, it was a great day. We got multiple rides on pretty much every major ride we wanted, with very short waits, plus some spins on the twirl-and-puke rides that I hadn't been on in years. We weren't able to make it to Dragster but I was fine with that. We didn't have to experience the outrageous food prices, since our only meal was at Daves. It did seem like there were a ton of people smoking everywhere. I was a bit apprehensive that the crowd would be extreme, but this was not the case. Next year, my kids will be big enough to get on some of the rides. I can't wait!

Sounds like a great time---small crowds make all the difference! You'll have fun taking the kids and seeing the park through their eyes! I've taken my daughter since she was 4, and now, even though she's 16, it just isn't summer without a visit to the Point!

I agree, the folks who live closeby are so lucky!!!! :)

We wondered about what was wrong with PT. We were coming from the front of park and about the time we passed sky ride station, we saw the carriage moving VERY slowly down. We stopped at the ride to watch. Maintenance was there before you touched down!

We were in Dave's until after 2pm. Chatted with manager there, Steve. He is a great manager! That is the only place we'll eat anymore. I am addicted to their food! We try to hit at least one of their restaurants on every trip. We have been to 19 of them so far. :)

That is an interesting bit about the PT. It was doing the same thing on the red side when I was at the park on Saturday.
Sounds like you had an enjoyable day and the lines were great. It makes me wish I could have gone to the park on sunday instead of saturday.

If you're looking for short lines, go tomorrow. ;)

The lines were nice and short last night. We were able to do all nine haunts and ride a few rides easily. I'm hoping closing day is nice and slow too.