This was the third consecutive year the wife and I made the trip to CP. A record for me. Before the 2000 trip, my last visit was in '95. Before that was '89 or '90 and then a couple of times in the mid-'80's, but never 2 years in a row.
Last year we made the trip on the 21st and 22nd of May for our honeymoon. We just had a really big problem about the time we arrived. My wife started to get sick. We found out when we got home that it was her morning sickness. That just came at the wrong time and put a bit of a damper on our trip, so we decided to make up for it this year.
We had made the trip up with my parents to visit family in NE Indiana. We left our now 4 month-old son with them and headed to Sandusky on the 21st. I had already got my 2 day tickets that we were going to use on the 22nd and 23rd. We were just going to check into our hotel and check out the area, maybe take a ferry or something. Well, the wife was actually more excited than I was, so we killed some time and I used my buy one get one free Starlight coupon from the Getaway Guide and headed to the park.
It has become tradition for us to start our visits off with Magnum, and so we did just that. Walked on to the ejector seat and had an awesome ride! From there we headed to the back and hit Gemini, Mean Streak and then headed up the Trail to MF. Man I missed that thing! From there we hit WildCat (Iron Dragon was down) and hopped a ride on the Sky Ride to the front. We did Raptor and the amazing Blue Streak before making our way to WT. It was down at the time, so we killed some time with DT and Space Spiral. I really liked the new look inside DT and with the ride being pitch black, I thought it was pretty awesome.
We saw that WT was now open, so we headed that way. After reading the posts on here, I decided to wait for the last row. After watching people get launched with their heads forward and getting them slammed into the headrests, I'm somewhat surprised they don't warn you about that. Man, it looked painful! I've been on Mr. Freeze at SFOT and they warn you about that, so I made sure that my wife and I did the same on WT. This is one ride in the park that has a name which is a perfect description of the ride! It was absolutely amazing! Much more than I had expected!
We hit a few more small rides and then Magnum once more before we left the park at closing time.
The next 2 days were both started and ended with rides on Magnum with a few other rides thrown in for good measure. After our morning Magnum ride on the 22nd, we headed for Gemini again, but noticed it was closed. BUT, they were running both sides with full trains and a full platform and there were people walking around the base of the ride with cameras. Was Discovery there for something?
Something you don't see down in Texas is a group of Amish kids waiting in line for rollercoasters. We saw them in the MF line. The girls were obvious in their bonnets and dresses, but you probably wouldn't have noticed the guys if they hadn't been with the girls. But the big work boots were kind of a giveaway. Strangely, all the guys were wearing Cleveland Indians shirts and hats and their Amish haircuts were hanging out from under them. I dunno, maybe since they were there, they weren't actually Amish but rather Menonites (sp?) instead?
Since we had gotten so much done the previous day, we just took our time doing everything. We didn't get in any hurry and lines were no real big deal to us. It made the trip so much more fun and relaxing knowing that we had plenty of time to do everything we wanted.
When we went to ride WT on our second day, it broke while we were in line. :( We left the line and found the Freeway booth and got our stamps. We went back and headed through the Freeway line and were riding in no time at all. We skipped a pretty sizeable line with it too. I really like this system. It's 500 times better than the miserable TTR of 2000!
We used Freeway on MF on our 3rd day. Again, we skipped a sizeable line with it. We decided to go ahead and wait for the front for the very first time. Man, that platform sure can get loud as hell, especially when you have a very large ethnic group that has to scream at the top of their lungs to someone 2 feet in front of them. I was very happy when their train finally left. The employees all looked pretty ticked off at them too. Anyhow, 93mph with nothing in front of you is just flat insane! They should issue safety goggles on this ride! Luckily I have a great pair of shades that won't even let go on Raptor, but even with them on, my eyes were watering like nobody's business! AWESOME!!! :)
We finished off with a few more rides, got some souveniers and played some games and then headed to the car for the final time. I always want to cry when I leave the park because I know I won't be back for at least another year. :( I took it all in on the drive around Perimeter Road and said goodbye as we headed down the causeway.
This was the best CP visit ever and I hope we can make it back again next year and try to top this year's visit. :)
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