9/25 - Halloweekends - LONG
We rode MF first thing of the day with about a 10-15min wait. It was rockin. Next, we headed over to Mantis as I wanted to get my 2 friends from IL, and OH, who have never been to CP on it. It was about a 20minute wait for the front. When we got off the line was about 3 times as long as when we got in.
Rode Iron Dragon, noticed the line for TTD was very very long. We walked around trying to find something without a long line, we were unsuccessful, so we rode Wildcat with about a 15minute wait. After Wildcat we headed for Raptor, it had about a 2 hour wait! I couldn't beleive it, we started waiting but I remembered that freeways were going to be given out at 2, it was about 1:30 at the time, so we headed for TTD freeway. We were pretty close to the front of the line and got a stamp for 5-6. We then head over to MF freeway and got a stamp for that for 7-8. Pretty good so far, get to avoid the 2 most biggest lines in the park.
Wicked Twister was closed, which wasn't cool, was looking forward to riding it again. I head of it having Electrical problems but I thought it was back up?
After getting our free-ways we rode Power Tower up with about a 15minute wait. Demon Drop with a 10min wait, then over to hit up The Raptor with about an hour 30minute wait, the line died down a little, but not much. After Raptor we had about 15minutes to get in line for our TTD freeway ride. We get in line and are on the ramp and it goes down due to mechanical reasons. I had noticed it wasn't clearing it very easy all day, and sometimes i wouldn't see a launch for a while, then I'd see one. They kept saying over the intercom that it would be a lengthy delay. After waiting about an hour, we leave to get in our MF freeway. We wait for the front, and by this time its dark. The line for MF at the time was 2 hours. The front ride was rockin especially with the Halloweekends fog down by the tunnels.
After MF, we hit up Magnum with about a 20 minute wait, and Gemini with a 15 minute wait. By then it was pretty late, around 10. We walked through Frontier Town through the fog with the monsters, this being my first time at Halloweekends, I didn't know they had scary monsters new_let_it_all_out.gif It took forever to walk through it, not knowing where we were going and all the people crammed back there, it was probably the first time I had ever seen that place jam packed with people, they really need a coaster back there...
We go to the front of the park and rode Blue Streak - since one of my friends had never been on a woody before. Blue Streak was classic and flyin at night. My friends didn't like it though, nobody enjoys the classic woodies anymore since they are to "rough" icon_sad.gif saddens me really since roughness is sometimes part of the coasters fun.
We saw the line for Raptor being short, but we chose not to wait in it anyways as we were pretty tired. We took the Sky Ride back towards the back.
My friend had bet me that TTD wouldn't be up for the rest of the night, and I said "man you're wrong, CP will always work to get things up asap even if there is 30minutes left in the operating day." (he was one of my friends that had never been to CP) As we were walking to the soak city lot at 11:30, I noticed that the empty station for TTD wasn't a ghost town anymore, as the trains were not transfered off, there were still the 8 people who chose to wait through the 5 hours of downtime, and ride ops! Right as we were walking by the purple train rolled out to test. So me and my friend jetted to the entrance, being pretty far up in the line and with 30min to go till the parks closed I got really excited. I had always wanted a front row Dragster ride, and this would be the time I thought to myself. After a bit of testing they letted people in. We hopped into station 2 and were about 5 trains away from the front. After about 30minutes of sending trains, making it over every other one with people in the front rows. We finally got strapped in on the Blue train. We rolled out, our friends waiting by the fence talking to us. We launched, I threw my arms up, it was amazing having the track rush in front of you. I had been on TTD 4 times prior. As we neared the tophat, we slowed down, and ROLLED BACK! My life was now complete. I was going insane! My friends who were waiting couldn't beleive it. The ride op came out and talked to us asking if we wanted to ride again, and we said yes. We then moved back into launch position. And the lights and sounds just shut down. And it was down due to mechanical reasons, this was around 12:20. This was how the break down occured earlier today. So we were on the runway sitting there, the mechanics came out and worked on the launch track. It was interesting to see what they did, they sanded down some metal near the catch cable with sand-paper, and tested some electric current I believe. They were gone quick though, and we rolled back into the station to unload.
When we were on the runway I had an interesting conversation with one of the TTD rides ops. I asked him if he knew about the new rocket @ SFGADV. He said yes, and told me he thinks it won't work, just like TTD. He then asked if we were enthusiests-since we knew about the new rocket. I replied that we were, my friend who was riding with me isn't really though. My friend mentioned dueling dragons, and the ride op quickly said "oh dueling coasters?", "at cedar point, hmm, do you think they would do that?" I said I think it would be a good addition as for capacity and reliability. He then went on telling me he knows what CP will be getting next year, the year after, and 2 years from now. In my head I thought it was a load of crap. I asked him if employees knew then why wouldn't everyone know. He said "you will get fired" I thought to myself again that if general employees know, CP would never know who leaked the information. I also asked him if he knew anything about WT, and he said he didn't know what was up with it. I then asked him if he has ridden Delerium, he said yes, and that it was a fun ride. I told him I havn't ridden it, but he strongly hinted at CP getting one next year. I don't really believe anything he said, because I have read that employees will try to mess with the customers this way. However, it was an interesting conversation none the less. they unloaded us back into the queue lines, and they transfered the blue train off, and brought out the red train. I was excited since they never use the red train. I noticed it was pretty dirty, as they had polished the other trains during the breakdown. There were cobwebs on it, and dirt on the headrests. It didn't bother me though. We climbed into the red train, rolled out to the runway, and launched and cleared the tophat fast. I was out of my seat the whole tophat and spiral, it was insane. My friend's hair was like spiked back from the wind, it was crazy. I snapped a shot of the read train after we had exited with my cell phone. http://shraps.net/geewhzz/260904-000818.jpg (You can see the red nose)
My friends who were waitng for us got an awesome snap of me and my friend during the down time, while we were on the launch track, but I don't have it yet as I just got back tonight.
All in all it was an amazing trip, good times with friends, great weather at CP, first Halloweekends, Front rides on MF and TTD, First rollback, and some other good rides despite the large crowds. I cannot wait to return Oct 23rd for my birthday. *** Edited 9/27/2004 6:07:31 PM UTC by Geewhzz***
In my head I thought it was a load of crap
Go with that feeling.
However, we do sleep in a hotel because we are so worn out, we normally find a cheap one for about 50-80 bucks and split it amongst us, so it isn't to bad, maybe 10-20 per person.
I'm getting a season pass, parking, and JC next year which should add onto the amount of trips I take.
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