June 10 - A Coaster Junkie's Tale

A little slow in putting this together. I went on my annual 2nd Sunday in June solo trip with the only goal being to get 75 coaster rides in. I hit 65 last year but felt I could push a little harder this year to get 75.

Started the day on Raptor with Joe Cool. Mornings like this one really make me wish CP would allow re-rides, especially when they are sending out empty trains. I never thought I would be able to get 10 rides in the first hour but thanks to some aggressive line running I was able to. As we hit the helix on the 10th ride I saw that the “commoners” were now into the park and much to my surprise 98% of them made the left turn to Raptor. I really thought that this year they would pass by Raptor to hit Maverick. Guess not. Oh well, since everyone decided to ride the green bird of prey I figured it was time for a Wicked Twister marathon.

Almost got a solo ride but not quite as a couple of kids hopped on. I do like the crew there this year, especially the new adjectives they come up with for the “How was your ride” spiel. I mean come on, when was the last time you heard the word “spiffy”? Anyway, after 14 rides on WT I looked at my watch and figured I would be at 30 total coaster rides way before noon. That will teach me as just then the station got very quiet as the train apparently e-stopped in the brakes. I decided that must be my sign to marathon on Magnum.

I made the trek to Maggie only to find a line all the way down the stairs and into the first queue block. Obviously the lack of the 3rd train is killing capacity. Decided to skip her for now. Walked over to Gemini to see an even longer line with only one side operating. What is the deal with that? Decided to keep walking. Maverick had a 1 hour wait - not bad but no time for that with my goal. Figured I would jump on Mean Streak. Oops - not running. Now I am starting to get mad as my goal is quickly falling out of reach. I see that Mine Ride has no line so I take one spin on it to give me 25.

I walk back towards the midway and catch 5 walk on Iron Dragons. With 3 trains running that thing has to have an obscene throughput. Maybe its because my son likes ID so much but I think that is a pretty decent little coaster. I figure by now Wicked Twister is back up so I go back for another spin. Nuts, a 4 cycle wait. Decide to head over to Blue Streak so that I can catch a peak at Raptor’s line. Bad news is that the Raptor line is still around 20 minutes. Good news is that there is no line for Blue Streak and it is running awesome. Sitting in the back and watching the cars ahead of me make the turn around is really neat with the speed that it makes the turn. Thank goodness for upstops. Apparently no one rides over and over on big Blue as the operators seemed really impressed that I kept riding again and again. After 9 Blue Streaks giving me an even 40 I head back to WT. Same story as before - 1 ride and look for a shorter line.

Walk by Magnum again as the line has grown even longer. Surprisingly I see that Gemini is now racing and there is no line. What is up with the red side never winning? I went 0-6 before I finally switched to blue where I won the next 2. I decide to take one more on blue to give me 50 for the day. They then announce that this would be the last blue train of the day. By the time I get back into the station, what was no line has now turned into a full station extending well past the stairs. If the crowds are there to support racing why not just close off a car on each side and prevent the line? Looks like a clear case of cost cutting to me as now they only need 1 crew. Oh well. Thanks to Ryan for at least trying to make the red side enjoyable during my losing streak by coming up with some nice spiels.

I decided to head back to Mean Streak where I pick up a couple of quick rides. I have to laugh as every time we hit the brakes just outside the station all you hear is the moans and groans about how rough the ride is. I guess I know where to sit as I do not have any issues with the roughness.

I head back to the front of the park to hit Raptor. It has no line but I just can’t handle the stacking. The crew just flat out was not trying. I honestly don’t think some of them could move any slower. I give up after 4 rides and head back to Wicked Twister where I am greeted by a 1-2 cycle line. Fortunately for me Alexis who is pulling double duty with station control recognized me and she always managed to get me on as a single rider. Thanks! I probable saw the most interesting thing of the day on WT. A bird decided to land in the station directly under where the train passes overhead. I figured this would get interesting. As the train came flying back through the station the bird tried to take off but the pressure wave knocked it flat against the ground. The bird looked around as if to say “what the heck was that” and then it managed to get out of the way.

Trying to wrap this novel up I bounced back and forth between WT, Blue Streak and Raptor to get me to 74. For sentimental reasons I took the 75th ride on Magnum at 8:00. I did it. As I was driving home I thought about what I had done and I realized that I did not have fun in the normal sense. That was a really hard day. By the end you just don’t have the energy to position yourself on the rides. You are totally at the coaster’s mercy and you end up being tossed about pretty violently. And for the next two days I pretty much can’t even stand the thought of doing anything like that again. So why do I do it? I guess its just my thing. And by the third day my addiction kicks back in and I can’t wait to do it again. Do I hear 80 for next year???

Well that answered one of my questions I had a year ago, which was how many rides can someone handle in one day, The most "Rides of all types" for me is 35, man did you blow that out of the water. :)

^ I thought I was bad with 24 in one day. :)

I'm pretty impressed. I would think 10 straight on Raptor followed by 14 on Wicked Twister would wipe anyone out for a while.

Just for reference, several years back some folks from this board did a Gemini 100. A feat which is probably unlikely to ever happen again since that was when it still ran 6 trains most of the day. You can read a bit about it here:

http://www.pointbuzz.com/cpplace.aspx?mode=thread&TopicID=5144

*** Edited 6/15/2007 6:33:57 PM UTC by Chuck Wagon***

Shades, thanks for the compliments towards our crew! We will try to continue and do our best!

Splendid!

Hmm. Riding 75 or 80 or whatever coaster rides by yourself? That sounds pretty lame to me. To most people fun would involve some sort of human interaction. It sounds pretty stupid to run around an amusement park like a mad person all day riding rides by yourself. I bet people who work there get some good entertainment laughing at people like you.

Coming from a former park employee, we actually don't mind people who marathon rides like that. In fact they are normally very courteous, and end up becoming "the regulars" that you know by name.

In fact, when I worked at MF, a wonderful "regular" of ours invited us for a late dinner on the 4th of July at her vehicle in the Soak City lot. It was probably the nicest thing that any guest has ever done.

Single riders rarely cause trouble. It's normally the huge social groups, who care more about socializing than paying attention or following the rules that become the annoying guests.

If marathon riding isn't your thing, thats fine, but don't assume that everyone thinks the way you do.

Well said, Josh.

I'll second that Josh. I've gone to parks plenty of times by myself, and always have a great time. And "marathoning" rides can be a lot of fun. Great way to get to know the ride crews. I did that plenty during HalloWeekends last year.

*** Edited 6/20/2007 9:48:11 PM UTC by Mark Small***

Fabulous report Shades! I just happen to be headed to the park for my first solo trip tomorrow and I came across your report just in time for it to be a great inspiration.

I'm a very fast paced person and get frustrated with people who can't decide what they want to or people who walk slow, so I thought a solo trip would be the perfect way for me to zip around the park on my own and do everything I want to do for once!

Thanks again!

MadMan

I had to double-check my log book for this one.

Most rides in a day was 76: or 38 double rides at the Dells in '98. That was hard work for the 5 hr POP!

Most memorable was the 70 ride marathon at SFGAD one cold Sunday in Oct. 97. Most of these were on Batman (anyone remember the lead whose AOL name was Batwave?) and I ended up taking a group photo of the crew while we were DDW.

My last major marathon was on Millennium Force during Millennium Mania in Sept. 01: in 6 hrs I got 55 rides!

I don't do marathons any more: I'm getting older or the parks are busier. ):

Roz