Halloweekend Friday 10/4 Trip Report

[decided to add Saturday's report to this original post... excuse the length]

FRIDAY

What started out looking like probable rain wound up being, hands down, the best day I've ever spent at CP.

We got to the park 15 min before ERT and easily hit MF once and Maverick twice (all walk-ons) within the first 30 minutes. Then we had a little drizzle that actually shut Mav down for a bit.

My wife and I were prepared to hit some indoor haunts if it rained heavily, but the rain never really arrived.

Long story short, I hit 16 rides between 5-11pm. We left a bit early due to being exhausted, hitting all the good rides and well... we're also heading back to the park tomorrow :)

Longest wait was probably about 25 minutes for Gatekeeper (front row both times). We only hit MF once because it seemed to be a 30 minute or more wait, and we were going to hit it after 11pm... until we got way too tired.

First time riding GK... and wow, what a great ride. Was expecting good, but it's really more than good. After riding all the money rides all day, we hit GK and my wife said it was her favorite ride in the entire park. It's only her 2nd visit, but she said it was the flying sensation combined with how smooth it was. Not sure if I'd ever NOT do the front row on it... since the view and experience in the front are so cool.

Magnum needs some lube! It's always been a favorite, and I have some great teenage memories riding it, but it's starting to give me a bit of a headache, and my wife won't ride it again after a rough ride last year.

Rode Windseeker for the first time. Sneaks up on you. Everyone is all chill... and then at some point, young girls just start screaming. I typically go hands-up on every ride, but I held on to the bar on Windseeker. All the way through. Good ride, but not great enough for a long wait, I'd imagine.

LOVE MaXair more every time I ride it. Seriously, it has so much air time and wonderful views... could rival any ride in the park for laughs and thrills.

We didn't do any indoor haunts, but we did head through Screamworks. The fog and lighting was just as cool as last year, but they had way fewer characters scaring people. Last year when we went, it was constant screams throughout... whereas this year, we only got a couple good ones. Still very fun, though.

For me, what makes a great day at CP is a combination of short lines, getting lots of great rides, and weather. Today was just perfect on all counts. Not only was it nice and warm, but the overcast skies were perfect for the Halloweekend thing. Just a total blast.

Tomorrow (Sat) looks more likely to have some rain, but the weekend has already been a huge success. Very thankful to have had such a wonderful time tonight.

Look forward to riding Gemini and Blue Streak, taking a few more spins on the others, and maybe hitting some haunts tomorrow. Fast Lane will help us get plenty of rides even if it rains.

Ride count for Friday:

MF
Mav (2)
TTD (20min)
Power Tower (3, all walk-ons)
Magnum (15min)
Raptor (2; 20min & 5min for front row)
GK (2)
MaXair (walk-on)
Windseeker (5min)
WT (walk on)
Skyhawk (10min)

SATURDAY!

Our strategy was originally to hit MF and Mav again during ERT, but my lovely wife made an excellent decision to hit GK first, in spite of the fact that it looked like everyone was heading straight for it upon entering the park.

Why was that the right move? Because the wait was maybe 15 minutes, and for the rest of the day it was between 1-4(!) hours. No joke. Also, we did have the FL (not plus) today.

We had a bit of lousy luck after GK... as we walked back to MF, which had a longish line already, so we skipped over to Mav, which wasn't running yet for some odd reason. Sooo... long story short, we only hit 3 rides before THE RAIN arrived. It hit around 11:30 and made things lousy through about 4pm. I think we managed to hit Skyhawk, PT and something else before we left for a couple hours during the torrential downpour.

The crowds were huge today... in spite of the rain. Lines were snaking out into the midway, but that's a bit deceiving because the cues weren't fully open on most rides. Still... the waits were long on most rides. Even Iron Dragon, Corkscrew and other weaker rides had a good wait.

(As a side note, apparently MaXair and WT run straight through heavy rain, as my sister & her friend rode both while getting absolutely pelted by the raindrops.)

Once we got back to the park around 4pm, it was all downhill from there. I'm too tired to remember the order of the rides, but I know we hit....

MF
Mav (2)
Magnum
Gemini (both cars were racing)
PT (3)
Raptor (3)
MaxAir (3)
Blue Streak (great memories, but VIOLENTLY ROUGH ride now... needs to go)

And then... for the crowning moment... we rode GK 4 times between 11-12 and closed the park down.

Between 4pm-midnight the weather was PERFECT. 70 degrees, breezy and mostly overcast. For a pale-skinned redhead like me, that means no sunscreen :)

As for FL, they certainly have made some adjustments this year. The entry points for several rides (especially Mav and MF) we're much further back than last year. Instead of 5-min waits, it was more like 15-30... and perhaps even 40+ on MF during the busiest hours. It's the main reason we only rode it once... the FL entrance, while noticeably shorter than the regular line, was still snaked back pretty far. In fact, it's the one FL line that I think is not giving you your money's worth. FL should never be more than 15-20 minutes, IMHO. We paid $50/apiece last year and never waited more than 10 minutes, this year, we paid $70/apiece and waited 15+ minutes on Mav and MF, but most of the others were 10 minutes or less, or even near walk-ons.

All in all... this weekend was just fantastic. 37 rides in two days, a hell of a lot of walking, some great Halloween atmosphere and in spite of the rain, we got 15+ hours of good weather and riding, with nearly all wait times of less than 30 minutes both days.

Can't wait to do it all again next fall.

New top 5 rides, after riding this weekend: MF, Mav, Raptor, GK, MaXair (yep)

*Power Tower (drop side) is still the scariest ride in the park. Probably always will be...

Sounds like a fun night! Gatekeeper in the front is amazing, but it's worth trying the back also just for a different ride experience.

Well I hope the two of you are having another fun day today! Good luck with the weather and don't be afraid to take a long break in the afternoon so you can last the entire day!

@Darth Snoopy-

We rode GK in the back, middle and near the front today... all were fun, but it's definitely smoother in the front than the back. Not much different in the 2nd or 3rd row... so we probably wouldn't wait and extra 10 minutes for front row most of the time.

Thanks for the tip!

Thanks for the TR. I have one major point of disagreement though, which is that Power Tower is NOT the scariest ride in the park. I mean, doesn't TTD have to be scarier?

The only ride there that really still scares me, believe it or not, is Sky Ride. There is no redundant safety, meaning, if the cable fails, you die. Don't get me wrong, I still ride it every time it's open, but that's always in the back of my mind.

The only ride that freaks me out to any degree is Windseeker.

Disagree about TTD being scarier. Not even a contest, IMO.

The main reason is that PT (drop side) gives you a ton of time to see how high you are and to think about it. It's actually scarier to be facing the other tower, since that view tells your brain how high you really are.

With TTD, you get a big shot of adrenaline, which is awesome, but you're up and down so quickly that for me, it's really not "scary" at all.

Now, if they took the cue from other rides in the US, they'd install drop towers on TTD that would make PT seem like a kiddie ride.

I'll be the first in line!

MaverickLaunch said:
Thanks for the TR. I have one major point of disagreement though, which is that Power Tower is NOT the scariest ride in the park. I mean, doesn't TTD have to be scarier?

The only ride there that really still scares me, believe it or not, is Sky Ride. There is no redundant safety, meaning, if the cable fails, you die. Don't get me wrong, I still ride it every time it's open, but that's always in the back of my mind.

Yeah, Skyride, my family teases me about how nervous I always am on it. What makes the fear worse is spending too much time playing on google and finding out someone has actually died from the cabin of a similar ride in another park coming off the cable. My least favorite part of the ride is always the towers when the cabin gets that little rumble and bump to it.