July 18-19 with a CP First Timer

My friend Dylan was visiting from Missouri (Which he had just moved to from living in California most of his life). I have been to Magic Mountain twice and Knott's once with him. Both trip reports from California can be read on my website if you're curious.

Anyway, He came up to visit me on Monday. We left on Tuesday morning and made the trek down to Sandusky. We ended up not getting up very early since I was up until 2 am the night before running a Skywarn net for the severe weather we had. The drive down was pretty uneventful, and we got to Sandusky around 1pm.

Dylan was awful quiet as we were driving up the causeway. I'm sure he was in awe of the park in front of him. We quickly made it through the tollbooths and back to the Gemini lot. We walked up to the gates, and he got his 2 day ride and slide pass.

We were in, and the first ride was Magnum in 1-3. As we were going up the lift I could see him getting worried. Just as we were cresting the lift he started screaming 'stop stop stop!', but by the third hill seemed to be enjoying himself. We got off Magnum and he wanted to re-ride, so it wasn't all bad. We rode again this time in the front.

Gemini had a long wait, so we skipped it. We headed back to Mean Streak front row. Line was about 20 minutes total. I'm not overly impressed with the speed of the Mean Streak crew this year, as they managed to stack all 3 trains while we were waiting.

We then took a ride on the train and then Wildcat and Iron Dragon. He wanted front seat on Iron Dragon, so we waited for that. It was, as usual, boring.

Then we went over to Mantis. The A Frame said 3/4 hour, but it turned out to be about 30 minutes for a front seat wait. I don't think he liked Mantis as much as Riddlers Revenge.

After that, we walked towards the front and got a ride in on maXair, and then met up with Chrissy. She got a special access book, and then we got a time for Dragster front seat. To pass the time, we rode Paddlewheel. Then we got a front row ride on Dragster, Dylans first. He liked it, however, he said he preferred Xcelerator to Dragster.

We then got a ride on Corkscrew and then went out of the park to Chet and Matts to get something to eat. We also got a room at Maples at this time, which is an awesome Motel for super cheap in Sandusky. I would highly recommend that anyone stay there if they are looking for a good clean room at a low cost in Sandusky.

After Chet and Matts we headed back to the park. We got a ride on Raptor. As we were getting in line a lady was giving the ride op a hassle about measuring her daughter with a wristband. We had a somewhat heated discussion for a bit, but eventually she understood that the ride ops are only doing their job, and parents actually do pull those bands off kids that are tall enough and put them on kids that arent tall enough. Raptors wait was about 25-30 minutes. Afterwards, Dylan said he had a new #1 at the park (Since up until this time, Magnum had been his number 1) much to my disappointment.

We rode Wicked Twister and then met up with John from the train. We then rode Power Tower shot first, then drop side. Dylan seemed a bit less ecstatic about Drop than shot, but that is to be expected.

After this, we headed over to Millennium Force for last ride of the night. I walked in and took a seat long the cement next to the ash tray as normal when I was rudely told we aren't allowed to sit there anymore (like I had done numerous times on previous occasions). A policy change is fine, and I accepted it and waited outside of the queue area, however, I am still not very happy with the way the employee handled the situation.

We waited in line, and got last ride of the night in second to last row. Dylan obviously changed his mind, and thought Millennium Force was #1, and wanted to ride it again. Of course, the park was closed and I was dead tired. John Dylan and I headed back to our cars, and we drove back to our hotel room. I took a quick shower and then crashed for the night.

Day 2

We ended up not getting to the park until around 11 or 11:30 as we slept in somewhat and took our time by stopping off at Panera for breakfast. First up was like 3 or 4 rides on Magnum, followed by Gemini. Then a ride on Skyhawk. Dylan wanted to ride Snake River Falls, and I told him be my guest, I wasn't riding it. He changed his mind.

A walk down frontier trail, and then a wait in line for Millennium Force. The wait ended up being around 40 minutes or so, and we rode in 5-1.

After Millennium Force, Dylan decided he wanted to go to Soak City. I called Tami, and we headed over to pick up Brandon. We went back to Soak City, and headed in. I made the mistake of not putting on sunblock on my shoulders, and I'm paying for it now. Dylan and I went to the 21+ section for awhile, and then we went and found Brandon. I played Basketball with Brandon for awhile and then we rode the slide with the very large tube (which name escapes me).

After that, Brandon and Dylan rode one of the tube slides a couple of times while I went and fetched out stuff. We headed back and got changed into our clothes again. We probably spent 3-4 hours in the waterpark.

We took Brandon back into the park to Millennium Force where we met up with his mom. We rode Millennium Force again in 3-1. Only about a 30-35 minute wait, not bad at all.

After that, it was a long drive back to Lansing. I got home sometime around 1 am, completely exhausted.

I really enjoyed reading your TR, especially since you were going with a first timer. Sounds like waits weren't too bad except for the 20 minute MS wait. I went on the 19th and was really disappointed with MS operations. Stacking was much worse than before, which made lines longer than they needed to be. I also greatly prefer Riddler's Revenge to Mantis. Riddler's Revenge is just so smooth, wheras Mantis is a headache waiting to happen.

Glad to hear he enjoyed MF so much, as well as the rest of CP.

bholcomb said:then we rode the slide with the very large tube (which name escapes me).

Zoom Flume:)

That would be the name. I couldn't remember it off hand. :)