July 4-5

Better late than never.

This was an unplanned trip. I was sitting at home drinking beer on Saturday night, and I thought, 'I don't wanna do this all weekend! I'm going to The Point!!' Hotel Breakers was already booked for the 4th, but I managed to score a room at Breakers Express.

My son and I woke up at 4:30AM on the 4th and prepared for the 187-mile journey, expecting to fend off large crowds. Well, our timing was perfect. We walked up to the gate at 8:45, and after singing along with the anthem, we were on our way. I quickly noticed that crowds didn't seem unusually extreme. We got 2 quick laps on Millennium Force, and after a 25-minute wait, got a third by 10:05. That 25-minute wait turned out to be the longest we waited for any ride during our 2-day trip. Per ritual, we got a quick walk-on on the Mantis, then killed some time on Iron Dragon and Power Tower Space Shot before waiting 15 minutes for a 3-4 MF freeway stamp. The heat was already pretty bad, so we headed back for 2 laps each on Snake River Falls, and Thunder Canyon. Thunder Canyon is an okay ride, but I wish it had more waterfalls. I cringe every time I ride it and hear people saying "this ride is lame" or "why don't they have more waterfalls?"

After some beef stew and biscuits at Chuck Wagon, we slowly made our way around the park, hitting CCMR, Mean Streak, Gemini, and Magnum(ejector seat). From Magnum, we could see Soak City was packed, there were huge lines for all the slides. Then we waited about 20 minutes for a TTD freeway stamp for 8-9. We had time for a quick ride on Chaos(my first ever), and a 15-minute wait for Maxair from exactly the end of the queue fence. Next we headed to MF to get our freeway ride. We waited about 15 minutes for the greatest ride in the world, while the people we merged with said they waited just over an hour, so the freeway was well worth it.

Then it was 4:00, time to check in at Breakers Express, whose sign stated the temperature to be 96 degrees. The early wake-up was catching up to my son, who fell asleep as soon as we got into the room. I wanted to do the same, but when I noticed The Karate Kid on Showtime, I just had to stay awake. I gave my son 1 hour to rest, then I heard Mr. Miyagi saying "Show me...ride roller coaster," so we had a quick dinner at East Of Chicago buffet and headed back.

It was time to give Soak City a shot since it was hot and we had a couple hours before our TTD ride time. It was still pretty crowded there, so we went on a few slides, both of the rivers, and I vowed we would return the next day.

Just as we got in line for TTD, the purple train rolled back. I love how people in the Midway panic when they see a rollback. "Omigod, it didn't make it over!" Priceless!

On opening day, we rode the Raptor as the fireworks were going off, so we decided to recreate the magic. We waited for the front seat, and boarded at 10:05, just in time to see fireworks as we twisted, rolled, and screamed... Then we did something totally irrational. As people were seated all around the Midways taking in the fireworks, we headed for the Disaster Transport. As far as I could tell, we were the only two in queue or on the ride. We got in the front seat, and as we went up the lift hill, the fireworks grand finale started going off. Now that's a cool special effect. My head was shaking from the sound of the explosions outside the building. See, the ride has potential.

We were both fairly exhausted by this time, but decided to close out the park, so we hit a few minor rides and ended on the last boat of the night on Paddlewheel Excursions, where all the scenery was turned off, apparently operated by a timer that didn't know the park was open an hour late.

I'm rambling, so I'll try to summarize the 2nd day. Opened again with 3 rides on MF in light rain in just under 1 hour. Got swarmed by flies while eating at Coasters. Spent about 4 hours in Soak City, 2 of those in Splash Zone, my favorite part of SC. Had our first ever meal at Midway Market(Yummy)! More laps on Magnum, Maxair, AC Transport, Raptor, Blue Streak... Nearly closed out the park again. Got home about 1:30 AM and had to work at 7:30 this morning.

I'm so happy we decided to go. Our next trip won't be until August 14, when we plan to spend 4 days.

Highlights: Going psycho on Dragster. Every moment spent strapped in to Millennium Force. Relieving myself in the Lazy River.

Lowlights: Wicked Twister still closed both days. Thinking about other people relieving themselves in Lazy River.

Ride counts:
Millennium Force: 7
Dragster: 1
Magnum: 4
Raptor: 2
Maxair: 2
Frog Hopper: 0

Now, I'm just sitting home drinking beer. Bottoms up.
_________________
Frog Hopper... The Future Is Riding On It...
*** Edited 7/18/2005 3:20:46 AM UTC by Darth Snoopy***

I always knew it was "The Urine River", but seeing in words makes it worse.

MrScott

Is the back of Magnum the "ejector seat"?

Very thorough trip report, Darth Snoopy. P.S. I'm liking the signature. :)

That sounds like a great trip. I wish I could just decide to get up one day and go to the park, but, well, I can't so I will have to wait until August 29 and 30!

The ejector seat is car 1, row 3.....provides some of the most forceful airtime you will ever get on a coaster.

Yeah, since I discovered "ejector" that's about the only seat I ever ride. Not to mention that when the station is full, the second and third seats in the front car usually have the shortest lines since everybody is crowding the area waiting for the front seat.

Thanks. I've never ridden in the front before... I have on all the other coasters, Raptor and WT being my favourite.