Thursday arrived at 5ish just as the rain was ending. Must have been a miserable morning with the rain. The park was empty though but lots of rides were still down. No wait for maXair, Dragon and 1/2 ramp for Millennium. Skyhawk was a walk on. Maverick, Cedar Creek and Mean Streak were all still down. We rode the new Lake Erie Eagles. Hey, it's better than Frog Hopper! Pipe Scream was testing but never ran all weekend except for a BRIEF time Friday night. We had a two cycle wait for the one train Magnum had running. Walk on for Power Tower drop. Windseeker had opened, so no wait for that. Took the Sky Ride up front to see Gatekeeper still down but Raptor had opened so only a few cycle wait for front.
Friday ERT was a mess for us. Maverick went down after first train of the day. We left for Millinium to find they had not finished testing and the line didn't open until after 9:30. Once we were off MF we headed to Dragster to find a short line only. But testing had just started and the line didn't open until around 10:40. We did Power Tower after then Perkins for breakfast and went to the mall as it was looking like rain and was getting fairly crowed with lots of school groups. Returned around 3 for the 1/2 off Skyscraper tickets for pass holders. I Love this thing! 10 minute wait for Magnum, walked on Witches Wheel, waited 20 for Gemini then walk on for Mean Streak. Took the train up to Dragon for a 10 minute wait. Sky ride to Raptor for a 15 minute wait for back. Sky Ride back and had a nice dinner at Famous Dave's. Went to the Car in Soak City lot for warmer clothes then back in for a stair wait for Magnum. Saw Pipe Scream finally giving rides. Waited 20 minutes for a spin. Nice flat but that was the only time I ever saw it run with people all weekend. We rode Mean Streak again then Skyhawk and Wave Swinger. We decided to go wander around a bit and finally get in line for Millenium last thing as we were counting on late ERT on Dragster. We got three great laps on MF and headed to TTD to line up for platinum ERT. Never happened and was moved to MF. Had just had 3 laps on it, so we headed out and ended a pretty decent day despite some rain, messed up early and late ERT.
Saturday ERT was no better. We decided to enter at the Beach Gate and head to Gatekeeper. We did get 3rd train of the day, but it began to pour after our dispatch and was a cold and rainy but great ride. They had to unload two trains outside of the station and walk us back to the station house. Most everything stopped running because of the rain. Skyhawk was up so we rode that but we were so soaked and miserable by then, we went back to the hotel, changed and went for breakfast at Bob Evans and shopping. We got back around 2 and got the Fast Lane passes we had bought ahead of time online but they were of very little use since the rain kept coming. We did though have 2-3 hours of walk-ons thanks to the passes for the few hours it didn't rain and the park was still busy. Should have skipped them, but that's the risk you take. Platinum night ERT on Maverick and MF went better. MF only went down for 15 minutes at the start of ERT but I did get an amazing, but freezing, front row night ride.
Sunday ERT was the BEST! Front Gate to Gatekeeper for a ten minute wait. Beautiful sunny back row ride. Raptor was down, was still disappointed about Dragster's late ERT that never happened on Friday, so we decided to just go line up at 9:30 for that hoping they would start testing early enough to open at 10. They did! Line actually opened at 9:50. There were only a few dozen people in line ahead of us, so we decided to wait 3 cycles for front row. Finally, we were loaded, pulled out to launch, then...of course...down mechanical. Got pulled back in, unloaded. Prepared for the worst, but after 15 minutes of resets, we got loaded again and, after 10 years of hoping and praying, I got my first ROLLBACK! AND IN THE FRONT ROW! I can die happy now! The rest of the morning was great with Magnum, Windseeker, Blue Streak, Skyhawk, Mean Streak, Cedar Creek, and Witches wheel all walk ons.
Thank you Dragster! A "just OK" trip became the best trip ever thanks to that front row rollback!
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