In Progress - May 26-29, stay at Sandcastle Suites

We're here!!!! This trip has been planned for almost 6 months so we are so excited to finally be here:):):) "We" is myself, Angie (24), and my husband, Travis (25), from Grand Rapids, MI.
We have been to CP 3 x's before but not in the last 5 years. In the past we have always camped off property and only for 1 night. This trip we are at Sandcastle Suites for 3 nights in a non-lakeview suite.
We are doing a 2 day ride-and-slide package for Sunday and Monday. We did not buy tickets for today because we hadn't planned on arriving til later this evening so today is kind of a chill day.
We left our house this morning after dropping off our doggies at the kennel at about 9:30, had 2 pit stops and arrived to Sandacastle at 2:30. Check-in was easy, no wait, just gave them my ID and cc, signed a few things, handed over my parking receipt which was reimbursed to our account, received our keys and directions, and off to the room we went. We were also given our tickets since we bought them with the room package and a parking voucher to put in our windshield.
See next post for hotel and room details...

Forgot to mention: They did give us the option to receive the parking $ back in cash but we chose to just have it taken off the room total. Also, I was curious whether or not we needed cash for parking, but credit/debit card was fine.

I am extremely crazy and slightly obsessive about researching everything I can about a trip before I go so I can be as "in the know" as possible. I have spent the last couple months endlessly reading reviews and forums on the subject of CP and its hotels. Because of this I did not have high expectations for Sandcastle Suites and even considered seeing if I could switch my reservation from Sandcastle to Hotel Breakers last minute. We are trying to save money so we chose to just live with the Sandcastle room.
We were very pleasantly surprised when walking into the room for the first time! The room is clean, well-kept, updated, comfortable and spacious enough for 2-4 people. I would not attempt to squeeze 6 adults in though.
We have a dorm-size fridge that fits my casserole dish, a large tupperware bowl, 1/2 gallon milk and 1/2 gallon silk, water bottles, a couple pop cans, and a bottle of wine in with a little room to spare. There is a microwave, coffee pot, 2 flat-screen tvs and lots of built in storage.
As for sleeping arrangements, there are 2 separate rooms - one with a sofa that coverts to a bed (I think it would be a REALLY tight fit pulled out though), and a bedroom with 2 queens.
All the furniture is nice looking and comfortable. The beds are a little firm.
We also have a nice screened-in balcony that overlooks a grassy area and the lake. I know I mentioned we didn't pay for a lakeview but the wing we are in (Raptor), at the end of the hall, both sides have lake views. What a nice surprise:)
Also a nice surprise, I'm sitting in the comfort of my room posting this! I was under the impression only the lobby had wifi, but that is obviously not the case.

Again, forgot to mention: In the reservation I made online I requested a top-floor room if possible as I always do at hotels. I am not the high-maintenance customer that I sound like but I am a light sleeper and I HATE having kids above me that decide 1 AM is the perfect time to have relay races in the room above me. Anyway, I got it! 3rd floor almost to the end of the hall..quiet so far:)
It was a little awkward earlier when a nice man and his family knocked on our door and were confused when I opened the door as he was given the same room. No big deal, I assumed they got it fixed as I never heard from him or a hotel staff member after. I am glad our "do not disturb" sign was in because it would have been really weird if he had just walked in.
Anyway..

So after unpacking we decided to take a walk and explore the property grounds. We headed out the parking lot, through the campgrounds, by Soak City and the rip cord all the way to Hotel Breakers.
We walked through the Breakers to explore and while I found it charming and beautiful, I am quite content with our cheaper, more updated, quieter, Sandcastle room. If we do this again next year, we'll probably make the same choice. We're ALREADY talking about doing it again next year, but for a whole week:):) We're just not sure 2 days is going to be enough.
We took the boardwalk back to Sandcastle from Breakers.
Again, I read LOTS of reviews so I knew beforehand about Sandcastle's infamous "bug problem". Yeah, there's a lot of bugs..large mosquito looking flying ones. But, so far, they haven't made a difference for me. There are none in the room or hallways. There are a lot outside of the screened in balcony, none in the balcony. There are A LOT in the stairwells and occasionally you'll walk into a group of them when walking through a more wooded area, but they haven't bothered me at all, just close your mouth so you don't eat one when you walk into a highly bug populated area.
Both hotel grounds are well kept up and beautiful. The beach is also very nice, but I'm sure the water is far too cold for swimming right now. There were a ton of people laying out and playing sports on the beach, but maybe only a handful in the water.
The pool is nice and good-sized at Sandcastle, but the hot tub is small and was full of kids last time we walked by. We're considering walking down to the Breakers later and use their large hot tub. We are also considering the Hibachi grille for a late dinner.
Tomorrow we have fast pass already bought and obviously early entry. I am excited to ride MF and Maverick for the first time. Truthfully, I'm also a little terrified of MF..we drove past it coming in...and that hill makes me nervous..but I am going to do it!!
I'll let you know how everything goes tomorrow. Feel free to ask if you have specific questions:)

Millenium is the best one IMO.

Excellent "live" reports! :). I enjoy reading these!

Do you recall what kind of music was playing along the "boardwalk" by the Breakers pools? It's been oldies music in the past, I have been curious if they changed it out with all the park music they changed this year.

^I heard some music playing out of the speakers on the boardwalk but they were pretty crappy quality. I think it was more current pop music. I'll pay more attention next time we walk by and let you know if that is not right.
Thanks, I enjoy reading others detailed reports and "journaling" a lot too, so I thought it would be nice to contribute. Plus, even after all my research I still had some questions without answers, so I'm kind of answering those for others as I go along.
Definitely let me know if you have any other specific questions and I'd be happy to answer if I can:)

Took a walk down to the hot tub to use during dinner time so there weren't kids anymore, but the tub wasn't really hot, and actually really gross and mucky looking so we walked down to the Breakers to use one of theirs. We lucked out, sat down in an empty hot tub and soaked for about 30-40 minutes by ourselves! No kids, no drunk obnoxious adults, no gossipy teens...it was so nice! Actually the whole pool/hot tub area was very empty. Realized as were getting out the sign that said 18 and up for that hot tub. We'll be visiting that one again:)
Getting ready to go to Breakwater Cafe for dinner...I think..we'll take a look at the menu and go from there.

Dinner was excellent, a little high in price, but worth it. We did end up doing Breakwater Cafe at about 9PM. Wasn't very busy, maybe 5 other families there. Sat us near the window so we had a great view of the water.
We did get forgotten about for about 10 minutes but we weren't in a hurry so it wan't a big deal. The hostess sat us and then we sat and waited until a waitress realized we hadn't been helped. Both waitresses thought the other one had taken care of us, but they figured it out after about 10 minutes and apologized profusely and took very good care of us the rest of the meal. Again, not a big deal, I realize its the beginning of the season and they are still getting into the routine of things and we had nowhere to be.
I had the cheeseburger with fries which was excellent, everything seemed very high quality, fresh, and cooked right. I really liked the fries. Travis had the fried perch sandwich that he really liked, good quality, excellent flavor. We had the option of adding the salad bar for $2 more which looked really yummy but we weren't quite that hungry so we passed. Thinking about going back for lunch one of these days and just eating the salad bar.
Time for bed, busy day planned tomorrow! We intend to start at MF during early entry, then moving onto Maverick for a couple of rides. We are also really looking forward to Magnum and Raptor.
Sorry but you won't be getting a TTD report from me as I am not a steep drop kind of person and that one scares the crap out of me just to watch..
Goodnight:)

Great reports. Keep 'em coming. I hope you have a great weekend. I'm a little jealous now. I'm just sitting at home doing nothing. I had my fun last weekend.

I have to say I've spent over 100 nights at Hotel Breakers over the past 9 seasons, and have never stayed at Sandcastle. I should probably give it a shot this season. We're just spoiled by the short walk into the park in the morning.

And I predict you will ride TTD :p

I'm right there with you in the amount of nights at Breakers Darth Snoopy! We have stayed at Sandcastle before and after the updates. It is alright, but you will miss Breakers! The suites are a little smaller than the ones at Breakers.

tasmith09, thanks for the live updates! We can't wait till our trip at the end of June. Going for a week to Breakers. Now, I'm not a CP proffessional patron like some on this forum. But based on our experience last year, we're are going to skip the habachi grille this year. I always expect to pay more at restaurants at CP, but our bill last year was too extreme for the quality/portion size of food for four people.

Looking forward to reading more on your trip!!

Thanks for the kind words, I'm glad all this typing isn't going to waste:P
We arrived at the beach entrance this morning at 8:50. Walked right up to the booth, no line at all, handed the worker our Fast Lane printouts and got our wristbands. Gave the gate attendant our tickets and lined up by the chain. Not 2 minutes after we walked in, the crowds came! Quite a line-up to get through the gates. Saw a few other wristbands, mostly families with pre-teen - teen kids.
Heard the national anthem and watched as all the kids from school groups sprinted to the coasters.
We headed first to MF (walked, not ran) and ended up near the front of the line, maybe a 5 minute wait usually, except...a train was already stuck, the first train of the day I think..about 1/2 up the first hill.
Waited about 10 minutes before deciding we didn't want to waste our early entry hour in line for a broken down ride so we left and went straight to Maverick. 1/2 hour wait but so worth it, LOVE that ride, probably my new favorite.
Stepped off at 9:55 and went to Magnum. Used the FL line but wasn't needed as there wasn't a wait yet.
Iron Dragon next, no FL line.
Then over to Raptor (LOVE!!) and bypassed a 90 min wait for a 5 min FL wait. Got some dirty looks, but some people were just curious and asked about them and what they cost. One woman was obviously appalled at the idea of spending an additional $50 beyond the base ticket price. The regular line and FL line merged on the staircase, I asked the worker merging the lines about how many FL riders she does per regular and she said it varies and is more a guesstimate than anything but probably close to 50% from each line. And it looked like the FL line always had riders in it so it does significantly lengthen the wait time for non FL guests.
Next we each got a bottle of water which we drank and then did Raptor again...not such a good idea.
Went back to the room to get cleaned up and take a short break then back to the park.
Did Maverick again via FL, had maybe a 15 minute wait but the regular line was 90 minutes.
Next was Gemini blue train, used FL, not really necessary as there was no wait for either line.
Then corkscrew, FL walk-on, maybe a 5 minute regular line wait.
Then Blue Streak FL, no wait for either line. Hated that coaster, not good on the head or back. Not one worth repeating.
For lunch, I had pre-purchased the meal-deals online and used them at Midway Market. Pretty good food, decent selection, excellent service. The meal deal was a fantastic value! We felt we got more than what we paid for:)
Now we are just taking a short break, then back for more rides!
Ride summary between 9 AM and 2 PM:
Maverick x2
Raptor x2
Gemini
Blue Streak
Corkscrew
Magnum
Iron Dragon

Okay, so I’m having trouble connecting to the internet tonight so I’m typing this out in Word before I forget everything and will post it when I have a connection.

First off, my feet hurt! Terribly. I just thought you should know that. I walked so much today and every pair of shoes I brought has some issue with them that makes long walks uncomfortable. I have blisters and raw soles.

Today was very busy, I’m not even sure I can remember everything we did but I’ll post everything I do remember now. So we stopped rides at about 2, had lunch, took an hour break in our room, and got back to the park at 4.
We took the shuttle back from the hotel as the bugs were starting to get pretty thick for walking unless you like the taste of bugs. We asked him to drop us off at the front gate and the closest stop to that was the Pet Check. Wasn’t a bad walk at all and it was nice to already be back at the front. The walk from the back to the front of the park is longer than I remember.

First stop was Ocean Motion, walk-on, it was a nice one to do after a meal. Then Raptor for a 3rd time, still good. No FL line at all, maybe a 45-60 minute regular wait. If my husband had a stronger stomach and could handle several rides in a row, I would have marathoned this one several times, but he does not so we never did a ride more than once at a time. With fast lane you realize how hard rides are on your stomach and head because there’s rarely a line to recover from the last run in. Turns out, we aren’t teenagers anymore and can’t marathon a coaster. Guess that good for the regular line folks.

Next was Corkscrew and Gemini for a second time each. I don’t remember what order, the whole day is kind of a blur now. Both walk-ons. I think we went to Maverick next for a 3rd time. It was at least a 30 minute wait for FL, 1hr45min for regular. Still amazing, definitely my new favorite. There was a lady who was upset in FL because she was told there wouldn’t be a FL wait over 15 minutes. I kinda just rolled my eyes. What’s she expect them to do, stop the regular line to get all of FL out in less than 15..right...
Next we were on the hunt for a pretzel, which by the way was much easier said than done. I knew throughout the course of my day I had spotted 2 gourmet pretzel stands. Well somehow we missed the one closer to the back and ended up walking ALL THE WAY around the park to find the one at the front. Don’t ask me how that’s possible, but we did.
Anyway, finally got my pretzel, and then headed back to Gemini for a 3rd time, walk on, Cedar Creek Mine Ride – 5 min wait, and then back to Maverick for a 4th time, 20 minute FL wait, 90(?) minute regular line. I couldn’t tell for sure, but they seemed to be loading 60ish% regular/40%ish FL at Maverick.
It was about 8:30 by then and we wanted another short break so we walked back to the room, took our showers, and got back to the park a little after 9. We were really hoping to ride a bigger coaster at night-time for the first time, but the wind had picked up and all the bigger ones were closed, including Raptor. We got in a fun ride on Troika, then a walk-on with FL on MaxAir. I admit, I was terrified of this one but actually really enjoyed it...with my eyes closed on the really high part. :p

Last ride of the night was Corkscrew for the 3rd time and it was kinda fun at night. As we were getting on Corkscrew, the bigger rides opened back up but it was already like 5 minutes to closing so we didn’t even try to make it back to Raptor. Too tired, too sore to run.

Now we are sitting in our room waiting for a room service delivery of Chicken Fingers and Mozzerella Sticks. Yum:p

All in all, a very good, productive, well-enjoyed day. We do not plan on getting FL tomorrow, only wanted to splurge for it one day, but it was definitely worth the cost if CP is a once a year thing.

Summary of rides for the day:
Raptor x3
Maverick x 4
Gemini x3
Corkscrew x 3
Ocean Motion x1
Cedar Creek Mine Ride x1
Blue Streak x1
MaxAir x1
Troika x1
Magnum x1

I hope you ride Millennium Force today. And good luck with the feet. Maybe sit in the hot tub for awhile and ask your hubby for a massage...

tasmith09 said:
I think we went to Maverick next for a 3rd time. It was at least a 30 minute wait for FL, 1hr45min for regular. Still amazing, definitely my new favorite. There was a lady who was upset in FL because she was told there wouldn’t be a FL wait over 15 minutes. I kinda just rolled my eyes. What’s she expect them to do, stop the regular line to get all of FL out in less than 15..right...

I believe that you've highlighted one of the issues that exist with the FL system at CP; what exactly are you paying for when you buy the FL bracelet? Is it no waits at all or reduced waits? I slightly empathize with the woman you mentioned as I don't think it's OK to still wait half an hour after paying $50 per person for these bracelets. And I'm saying this as a person who bought a FL bracelet on Friday, May 18 (a non-busy day) and had a great time with no waits on MF and Maverick. Obviously, the value of the bracelet goes down (concerning MF, TTD, and Maverick) if the park has bigger crowds.

Anyway, back to the trip report in progress (which is great by the way). :-)

I just rode Millennium Force Saturday for the 1st time and I'm 12. It was incredible! It was so smooth and the drops are amazing. Sit front row if you can. I was so scared at first but you go up the hill fast unlike Magnum which takes forever and the drops are pure bliss. Have fun!

Nope, no MF today, still too afraid. I hate drops on any coaster, and that one is just too tall for me. That's okay thought because there's plenty of other rides to enjoy the suit my tastes a bit better. I had the guts to do it yesterday...until the first train got stuck midway up the hill for quite some time, I would cry and pass out if that was me.
As for the FL issue, I believe you pay for reduced waits, not no waits. 30 minutes beats 1.45 any day. While you are paying for the benefit of getting to ride a little sooner, that shouldn't mean the people who don't pay for it have to wait an absurd amount of time for their turn. Keep in mind, it is a Holiday weekend and therefore going to be a bit busier than normal, I can't imagine FL waits get to be that long normally, just on extra busy days. Now, if I were paying $75 or more for a FL ticket then I would expect waits to be virtually non-existent, as that is a lot of money for us when you have to buy 2, but $50 seems reasonable and not too extravagant. Bottom line, at $50 each for FL, I don't think that its fair to make the regular ticket holders wait twice as long as normal to make room for FL holders.That is just my opinion, please no flaming.

So today we woke up at about 8 to get ready for early entry, which is way too early when you have a really long tiring day prior and go to bed late. Made it to the park at about 9:05. I made Travis take a couple Bonine earlier so we could ride a bit more today than yesterday and take fewer breaks. It worked!!
Straight to Maverick, got to ride it 3 times in a row without getting sick!!! First 2 were walk-ons, 3rd was about a 5 minute wait. So much fun:)
Walked all the way to the front of the park to ride Raptor before it got too busy, got there about 10:05 and it was down. Then over to MaxAir, 5 minute wait. Back over to Raptor, still down. Time for a quick break and some fluids as today was a hot one.
Back to the back of the park a little after 11 for a water ride to cool down, only one open was Shoot the Rapids, walk-on. Snack time - CP french fries, very yummy!!
Over to Soak City. Did 2 slides, both with 20+ minute waits, not worth it to us. Spent a little while relaxing on the Lazy River and back to CP.
Did Magnum twice in a row, no waits. Lunch time, Travis got the $5 all beef hot dog meal and I had a walking taco. Both excellent and not terribly priced.
Let our stomachs settle on the other 2 water rides, Snake River Falls and Thunder Canyon, both 5 minute waits.
Started walking toward the front of the park for Rapto MaxAir, and Disaster Transport before we remembered we needed to call someone and we didn't have our cell phones:( Crap. Picked up an elephant ear and got a shuttle back.
Now we're just taking a quick recharge break, then back for more rides:)

Not too late to ride MF. Lines should get shorter in the next couple hours. Just sayin...