Friday May 26 thru Monday May 29

Friday May 26, 2006

This trip started as they always seem to, with me scrambling to get out of work as quickly as possible to maximize park time upon our arrival. I clocked out of work at 3PM, which was perfect, since my 11-year-old son got out of school at 3:20. We were on our way… The first thing I noticed as we circled perimeter road was Millennium Force was still closed. We checked in to Hotel Breakers around 7pm, and after getting settled in, we entered the park around 8pm. Crowds seemed pretty light, but with only 2 hours, we decided to linger at the back of the park. We started with laps on Magnum, Paddlewheel, and Gemini. The Gemini has a great crew this year, always interacting with the riders. Kudos go to Mat, Eli, and the others. We noticed that Skyhawk was closed, but we rode Mean Streak, Antique Cars, and Cedar Creek Mine Ride. While on CCMR about 9:30, we noticed Skyhawk tested, then opened. We quickly got in line, and after a 10 minute wait, got our second ride of the season. I enjoy the ride, but still contend that Maxair is better. It was about 10, so we decided to start walking back to the hotel, but… As we passed Gemini it was about 10:05, and the line was still open, so we made the fateful decision to give it one more lap. We were on the last train of the day, blue side, and as we hit the brakes after the final helix, we sat for about 5 minutes. Soon, an employee walked out to us and announced that we'd be walking off the ride due to mechanical problems. Yaay, my first walk-off. Woot!! Granted, we were only 15 feet behind the station, but I'll take it. We topped the first day of our trip off by winning several stuffed Care Bears in the Hotel Breakers arcade…

Saturday May 27, 2006

ERT rides were Raptor, Mantis, Maxair, and not sure about Skyhawk. That's right, still no MF. That was heartbreaking, but since we missed the oft-broken Maxair on opening weekend, we started there. Two circuits on Maxair, and I decided that would be the most my stomach could handle. We then headed for Raptor, waving at the lowly general public waiting behind the gates. A front seat ride was just what the doctor ordered! After some Blue Streakin' and a soft pretzel, we noticed at 10:30 that MF was indeed running with people on board. A brisk walk to the entranced revealed a 1.5 hour wait. Sorry, but after all those 10 minute waits during ERT, we couldn't swing it. We headed to Soak City for that opening day. Nothing has really changed in Soak City the past couple years. I guess you can't blame CP for that, since they're getting away with charging more than the entire admission price for Michigan's Adventure just for Soak City, and usually pulling in good crowds. That said, the crowd was light on Saturday. We walked on everything. My favorite slides are still Erie Falls, and it's always fun hanging around Splash Zone and the lazy rivers. Unfortunately, waterparks are the one area where my son and I tend to differ. I usually get bored pretty quick after going on the slides I like, while he could probably spend the entire summer in Soak City and never want to leave. Back in CP on Saturday night, crowds were fairly heavy. I can't remember what rides we went on , but we closed out for the second straight day on Gemini. Millennium Force was still open at this point, so we anxiously awaited Sunday ERT.

Sunday, May 28, 2006

We loaded up on the TGI Friday breakfast buffet, brushing elbows with Charlie Brown in the process. The sign in the lobby once again said Raptor, Mantis, and Maxair were ERT rides, but we've learned over the years that Hotel Breakers isn't always in the know about such things, so we committed to heading to Millennium Force. Well, it was kinda open. Everybody was lined up outside the entrance when we got there and about 9:15, they let people in. It was such a relief to be riding her again after 3 long weeks. Things were moving slowly in the station, and by the time we finished our circuit, it was 9:35, and a huge line had amassed. The sign already posted 1.5 hours. We decided to suck it up, and get in line. We got all the way up to bottom of the ramp when the red train got stuck on the lift hill. We could see one of the lap bars sticking up in the back seat. The seat was empty, there was only one guy in back. I couldn't tell if this was the only one that popped up or not, but the result was a 30 minute delay. Fortunately, we had entertainment from that dude with the headphones who's always singing and dancing in line. Wooooo!!!! He had most of the queue doing Woooos! After 30 minutes, we saw the elevator ascend the lift hill. I was afraid there would be a walk-down, but 5 minutes later, the elevator was gone, and red train was on its way to cheers from the entire queue. After high-fiveing the Woooo dude, we enjoyed our second, and sadly, last MF circuit of the trip. Not long after, Millennium Force was broken down again. We followed our ritual of heading to the back of the park and rode Mean Streak. The 11:00 open time didn't hurt us in this case since we got hung up at MF. But the new time change was 12:00 for the water rides Thunder Canyon, and Snake River Falls. This caught us off guard, along with several other hot people who already dumped their extras in a locker and prepared to get wet. At 12:07, we got in line for Snake River, which already had a much longer line than the adjacent Skyhawk. After that we waited about 30 minutes for Thunder Canyon, and were thouroughly cooled off. Sunday was by far the busiest day of the weekend. We took an extended break in the afternoon to hang out on the beach and in the Breakers pools. In the evening, we took in another compendium of great rides, before closing out for the third straight day on Gemini. A few more Care Bears, and off to bed.

Monday May 29, 2006

Monday, we did the unthinkable. We skipped ERT. In 12 trips totaling 37 days, this is the first time we ever did this. With MF broken down still, our spirits were fairly broken, and we decided to sleep in. We checked out of Breakers, always a sad affair, and entered the park at 10:30. At this point, 2 things were missing from our trip. Macho Nachos, and Top Thrill Dragster. I made the ultimatum, "We're getting in line for Dragster first thing," and my line-dodging son agreed. The line was back to where Corkscrew crosses the midway, but as usual, they were just beginning to let people on the ride, so the queue was empty. We waited 55 minutes for a fabulous back-seat ride. Did I mention it was very hot and sunny? We binged at Chuck Wagon for lunch, and I have to admit the heat was starting to get to me. I almost was ready to leave for awhile, but I knew I'd be letting my son down, so I had about 10 free cups of water from various food stands across the park as we headed for everybody's favorite queue, Disaster Transport. I was praying for a huge line, but we only got about 20 minutes. We decided to ride the line one more time, and afterwards, I felt fully rejuvenated. We tried to see Divine Divas at the Palace Theater, but couldn't get there at the right time, so we'll save that for next time. Skyhawk was down most of the day, and I noticed it was testing and the two sides were way out of synch. I don't know if that's necessarily a problem, but it looked pretty funny. We finally got our Macho Nachos from Los Gatos. Other than that, we made another lap around the park wrapping things up, as usual, on favorites Gemini, Paddlewheel, and Magnum. We left about 8:40, got home at 11:45, and 7 hours later, I was back at work financing our next trip less than 3 weeks away.

I won't post ride counts, since they were pathetic compared to our opening weekend trip. Let me just say we rode Cedar Creek Mine Ride and Blue Streak more than anything else.

Highlights:
-The Gemini has a great crew. I can't wait to see them again when I get back.
-TTD has been holding its own this year. What's up, Millie?

Lowlights:
-Downtime. I don't even remember all the times, but Maxair was down almost the entire time we were there, MF down most of the time, and Skyhawk about half the time. And all three were up and down on multiple occasions. This has to be considered something of a disaster for CP's Memorial Weekend.
-Where the heck are the cotton candy carts? I got some at a joint near Raptor, and 3 different people approached me asking where I got it. Nice promo, CP.
-Late opening times for rides, especially Mean Streak, Snake River, and Thunder Canyon
-Only 2 laps on MF, an all-time low.

*** Edited 5/31/2006 4:13:00 PM UTC by Darth Snoopy***

"Skyhawk was down most of the day"

I'd say it was down half the day. We were in the area from 11ish to 1 and it still hadn't opened. But I think that it opened around 3. I still managed to get in 2 rides on it, and I could have got 5 in the last half an hour, but I wanted to continue the tradition and end with WT.