Best Day at the park... ever

I just got home from a 3 1/2 drive to the Point, and it was the best trip I've ever taken. After some complications with the weather, we left about 7 AM and arrived at 10:30, stopping at TOPS on the way to get our season passes. We must have really lucked out because when we got there, there was nobody in the season pass line. Later in the day, it got quite long.

When we first got into the park, not much was running due to the earlier rain. We walked to the back of the park and made a stop at the grandstands to watch a test launch of Dragster. Our first ride was Gemini, and the lines were extremely short. Many rows of the trains were going empty. They were even only running two trains. Next, we headed over to Magnum and rode it two times (both walk-ons), and headed over to Millennium Force.

The sign called for a 15 minute wait for Millie, but it turned out to be 25 or 30 minutes. They were only running one train! Two trains were actually running, but one was filled with water tanks. After about 15 minutes the ride-ops decided to take out the water tanks and everyone cheered.

We noticed that Mantis wasn't running, and when we took a trip on the railroad, we saw that a train had rolled back right after the mid-course brakes. Looked like all the mechanics were on their break when we went by ;). I'm not positive, but I think Mean Streak was down all day too. Wicked Twister was down most of the day, and opened up around 5 or so. We took two consecutive rides on Wicked Twister, one about a 5 minute wait and the other a walk-on.

Before all that we got in line for Dragster. The sign said a 1 1/2 hour wait, but it turned out to be about 2 hours. This is due to a few significant breakdowns. A couple of the breakdowns lasted about 10-15 mintues and the other lasted about 5 minutes. The trains seemed to be launching at 1:30-2:00 minute intervals, with 5 trains with 5 cars each. And yes, two countdown lights are on the tower, one of them is in place, and the other one seems to be resting on the catwalk. The new speedometer on the hydraulic building is pretty neat too.

Now for the ride. It was the most intense thing I've ever felt. My friend said, "you could never get used to that," and it's true. You could never get bored of that launch. Think of the intensity of Wicked Twister's launch, times one hundred. Like other people say, it's like instantaneous speed, and then constant acceleration.

Other things: we rode Raptor about 10 times, all walk-ons. Johnny Rockets is really expensive, I'm never eating there again. My season pass was screwed up because only half my name actually printed out and my last name is mispelled. The guy said it would be fine because the barcode is still visible, but I could bring it back and get a new one if I wanted.

Enough rambling from me, I'm done.
*** This post was edited by pagoona 5/9/2003 10:39:08 PM ***

Sounds pretty cool.

--brennan

I happened to get a picture of Mantis bottoming out yesterday in line for Millenium. I'll have to scan it later when I get it developed. Mean Streak opened up, and I happened to be the first in line and I rode in the front seat. Did you happen to notice anyone wearing a Navy Blue "Kiski Area Hockey" Hoodie while in line for Millenium? I was in line at the time, and was in-line next to the unloading station when they were taking the water dummies off.

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2 Laps on Dragster
Finally 3 times on Wicked Twister!

I was in line next to the unloading station when they took the water dummies off too! I don't remember see a person with that shirt on, though. Maybe you saw me, I was wearing a dark blue "Jimmy Eat World" t-shirt.

Awesome. I always hate it when it rains there. It just takes out all the fun of the day.

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Gas for drive to Cedar Point: $25
Ticket to Cedar Point: $43
Drink while in line for ride: $3
Travel 420 feet in the air: Priceless

Ah, but rain takes the people out of the park, too!