Gatekeeper/CP opening day

I have this same trip report on CBUZZ, and I thought it was fitting here too. I do get angry for reasons in this trip report, but all in all, it was fun.

We left at 4 am to get to the point. We got there at 7:40 am. You'd think that Gatekeeper wouldn't be much of a problem when they let us in the park. It was. We were only 100 people back to get in the park. First problem: there were two early entry lines to get to the park, and they randomly opened 5 extra lines to get in the park at 5 minutes before 8:30. There were people entering those lines from our two lines to get in the 5 new ones. So we went from about 100 back to 750 back. Second problem: the 5 extra lines were meant for resort people, and the other 2 were for plattinum. Third problem: after they let the people in it was a free for all to Gatekeeper and it took longer to scan season passes, so we didn't get to Gatekeepers line until it was 4 hours long. It was all queued up and a line going around the carosal all the way to the Marina entrance. To that far back it was about 6-7 hours, we heard. (The thing was that I heard later that from where we were, the line was under an hour. Shoot.) We bailed and went to Millenium Force. We were only to MaXair far back. Again, we would have had a 4 hour wait.

Millenium Force was a compromise. (Never said that before). Still got on by 9:20 am. MF was shakey and not that fast, well it felt slower than normal. Not the best MF ride, but any MF ride is good.

Next, headed to TTD. We waited for 20 min, then it broke down. Ride ops say it is experiencing technical difficulties. We don't know how long it will be broken down. Ok... is it closer to 5 min or 2 hours? We don't know. Alright. Thank you. (I didn't say the thank you). We settled for Power Tower.

Then we went to Magnum. It breaks down, same story. Errrr. I was started to get ticked off. It was amazing because the tone in their voices. It was almost rude. :-(

We were like: ok. Can't something be manageable? The park was crawling with people. By the was, I met with some Acers, and they were nicer than you guys said they were. I had good chats with them. Then I met a tpr-er. He was nice also.

We decided to check Maverick, which was broken earlier (of course). We thought we'd get lucky. We got on with a 70 min wait. 3 rides in 3 hours. Gives me the chills...

At least Maverick ran well. It was smoth-ish and faster than expected.

We then rode Mean Streak. I was optimistic but they had really un reasonably trims operating on it. It was boring, slow, and bumpy. It's slow as ever.

We saw Magnum testing. (We also watched TTD get 3 roll backs in a row. Lol). We ate an elephant ear (the we is me my dad and my sister. She'd never been to CP and wanted to ride TTD bad.) We saw Gemini with a SHORT wait. (That means 20 minutes on a day like today.) We road it and boy is it running well. I got so much air time and I was sitting in the back. Take that advice.

Magnum, we skipped. It was opperating, but my sister saw TTD might be open. Nope. We watched it go and another roll back. 5 in a row. We settled for power tower. It was 1:30 and I told my dad and my sister that we came here to ride Gatekeeper. We have to ride it even if it's 4 hours. Nothing else has good wait times. They said Ok. We waited 3 hours which was shorter than earlier in the day.

Now to analyzing Gatekeeper...
CP's best coaster. Hands down. I would wait 3 hours for that. I wouldn't for MF. I did ride the front car left side, which was just insane. Well we were waiting for it, they had to stop the ride 4 times because of people throwing up on it. That's how intense it was. The key hole and the first drop were best. The camalback hill wasn't the best part liked I dreamed. (CBUZZ inside joke) I really felt disoriented in a good way after riding.

After the Gatekeeper, we rode Magnum. It was good. Then, it was 5:30 and we wanted another MF ride. We had to leave at 8:00, so we had time. We waited in line for 1 hour and 30 minutes and it broke down. Same garbage as usual. "We know nothing and won't tell you anything and want you to just stand here and do nothing or get a fast lane to ride another ride." (Paraphrasing)

We were ticked off. We saw TTD get another roll back. We decided to leave. 8 rides in 9 hours with one of those being early entry. :-(

Bad things CP did:

-slow ride ops at MF.

-opening the extra 5 lanes to get in the park to mess up the people who there early and allow the late people to get in before us.

-making 8:30 am a free for all.

-having a 20 second opening ceremony of two fireworks.

-dumb ride attendants.

-fast lane was sold out. That means lines moved SLOW for the rest of us.

-again, CP messed up. They hit the jackpot with Gatekeeper, making so much money, but failed to impress us with anything else. The ride ops were rude (except at GK) and we were messed up by those 5 extra lanes opening for 8:30. I heard that some general admission people without early entry getting in early.

I've learned my lesson: get a cbuzz club card and go to media day. Never go on Saturdays, nor opening day. At least GK was my favorite steel coaster ever. If it was terrible, my rant would have been twice as long.