June 16 and 17 (excruciatingly long)
Trip: Annual pilgrimage to the Coaster mecca of the world. About 25-30 in our family go each year.
Principals:
Me, Kathey (significant other), Lexi (daughter - 11), Megan (Lexi's friend, also 11), various assorted cousins.
(If you want to get right to the coaster stuff, please skip ahead "Saturday, June 17")
Friday, June 16
---------------
Left Camp Hill at 5:30 PM on Friday afternoon for the long drive to Sandusky. Made only two quick stops and pulled up to the Breakers at exactly midnight. Usually, this is a 7-hour trip, but we were very lucky and hit minimal construction on both the Ohio and the Pennsylvania turnpikes.
While we could see MF while driving through down the Causeway, it was during a torrential downpour, and we didn't have enough perspective to capture the magnificence of the structure, even though it was lit splendidly. Upon closer inspection from Perimeter Road, it truly looked awesome. The lift hill seemed to rise steeper than 45 degrees, and even at the posted 23 miles per hour, we were past the drop before we knew it. The excitement was beginning to build!
All this rain, and there wasn't a bellhop in sight at the Breakers. Actually, they were in sight, but on their way down the hallway to call it a night. Apparently, they all finished their shifts at midnight.
I went to the main desk, and check-in was finished in 10 minutes (no lines at that hour). Then I went to the Bell Captain's desk where he and another guy volunteered to get the bags. Kathey and the girls followed the luggage to the Bon Air section while I found a parking space.
There wasn't a parking space to be found over in that section, but there was the "cheater space" available. This is the slot facing the main parking lot and closest to the hotel. It's just big enough to squeeze between the fence and the rear of the car in the last "real" parking spot, but due to the angle of the fence there is plenty of room once you get in. (Hey, it's not a secret of "ejector seat" proportions, but when you need a close spot in bad weather, it's nice to know about).
Walked into the Bon Air entrance at the same time that everyone reached the bottom of the stairs. The guys didn't bring a rolling cart and were carrying the luggage by hand. Guess that made sense since we were on the second floor. I grabbed one end of the cooler full of soda ("pop" for you Pittsburghers) and adult beverage and helped the guy up the stairs. Into the room and straight to the window for my favorite sight -- Magnum's lift hill. Let others pay extra for a water view. They don't know what they're missing. Tipped the guys too much because of the pouring rain, then settled in for a short nap before the crack of dawn.
Saturday, June 17
-----------------
The alarm went of at 7:15, and it actually took me a moment to realize where I was. Grabbed a shower, as did Kathey, then we woke the girls to do the same. I pulled up the shades to check the weather. After last night, who knew what might greet us? The last time I checked the weather channel, it had called for thundershowers on Saturday, but it looked like it was going to hold off today. It was cloudy, but they weren't foreboding rain-type clouds.
Then as I was turning away, I caught a glimpse of something out of my left peripheral. Looking again, I realized that the view out my window was twice as good as it was last year, for sitting there to my left was the famous "M" logo, only this time it was live. If Breakers management reads this, they're going to start charging extra for my room :).
We left the room at 8:45 to go over to the Magnum entrance. Our room was only two doors down from the fire escape, so that's how we generally went in and out of the building for the duration of the trip. I saw that my favorite "real" parking space was available, and moved the car to the one space in the entire lot that is closest to the fire escape doors.
Over to the Magnum entrance and saw that the line to get into the park was through the Challenge Park ticket booth and back to the Soak City fence. Ah, but we wouldn't wait.
Straight up to the Guest Services door, a quick knock, and we're in ahead of the crowd. Our secret "Fast Pass" comes in the form of a Dorney Park Season Pass. Season pass holders from other parks show their passes at Guest Services and sign in there. Once we signed in, I sat down because we still had five minutes to park opening. Kathey asked what I was doing, and I told her that we couldn't get in until the gates opened. The GS host heard me and told us to go on in anyway! First ones in the park, and a five minute (in reality it was about two minute) jump on the general public!
We ran under the tunnel and made the left turn toward Power Tower knowing that we were going to be first in line on MF! WRONG!!!
As we approached Coasters, we saw the sea of humanity who had apparently been let into the main gate a few minutes early. It was as if a siren were sounding and the Eloi could do nothing but follow. We joined the masses. When we finally reached CP's version of the Morlock's subterranean trap, we entered the line exactly between the MF exit and Toot Sweets. Few of the queues were opened yet though, so it would be only a 30 minute wait.
The energy in the crowd as the first train rolled up the hill was electrifying. A wave of enthusiasm swept through the line like I haven't seen at Cedar Point since the Magnum DJ said he wouldn't play YMCA again for the rest of the day back in 1997.;)
It was only now that I realized what a breathtaking structure this was. As I watched the train speed up the lift, my eyes were transfixed on the apex. When the train actually peaked, I was amazed to watch the elevator lift catapult the train over the other side. I stood in awe, awaiting my turn to be flung over the edge.
Before long we were on the loading platform. There were about a dozen people ahead of us, so getting the first car was out of the question. However, I thought we might have a shot at the already-mythical 5.1. Strangely, most folks filled the seats front-to-back, so I hopped into the middle car and buckled in. Lexi and Megan, already knowing all of my CP secrets, bolted for 5.2.
As has been said in other reports previously, words cannot adequately express the ride on this monster. We pulled out of the station and began the ascent, at first slowly, but then kicking into second gear halfway up the hill.
Due to the angle, I couldn't see the track ahead of us, so it was a great surprise when we began to crest the top, far earlier than I expected we would. Hands up. I said HANDS, GET UP THERE!! (OK, hands are now listening to the head again).
We began the descent, picking up speed at an alarming rate. Every millisecond that I thought we must be at the 80 degree angle, we continued to drop over more and more and more. After what seemed an eternity, the earth was finally rushing straight at us. The G's on the pullout were unreal. I was having a difficult time keeping my arms in the air, but WHAT A RUSH!!
The overbanked turns were so smooth that I didn't even realize until later rides what the horizon looks like from 122 degrees. I continued to watch the track ahead.
We sped around the left turn and into the tunnel at breakneck speed. Out of the tunnel, and immediately up the gigantic second hill, where I would later measure the airtime at an unbelievable 4.1 seconds!
I had never seen the full POV video, so coming down the hill, I saw both the outgoing and the incoming track and for some reason thought that we would turn LEFT on the island. As I prepared myself for that turn, I was jolted back to reality by the right hand turn.
Through the first island turn, then expecting a pretzel-type turnaround like on Magnum, I was once again surprised when we hit a hard right into the second island turn.
Through that turn, then over the final island hill, still at a velocity that would get you a speeding ticket in every state but Montana, and back through the second tunnel with every voice on the train now at maximum volume.
A hard left, screaming past the station of cheering onlookers (still) and into the final overbank. We jetted into the station and cruised to a stop knowing that we had just experienced the nirvana of thrill rides. (Dear other coasters of the world. Please be advised that you have all been moved down one spot on the favorites list. Thank you.)
My adrenal glands were working overtime. I'm pretty sure that at that moment, I could have lifted a car off a baby if called upon to do so. My heart was racing, my lungs filled fuller, my legs were energized, and life was very very good! In summation -- WOW! In fact, reliving it while I was writing this just now was pretty darn good :).
It was now close to 10:00 and Lexi hadn't ridden the Mantis before, having been a bit leery of the notion of a stand-up last year. She had just been on MF though, and was ready to conquer anything. A 15-minute wait got us to the platform, so we waited another 15 for the front seat. If you're going to do your first ride, you might as well do it right.
Mantis crew '00 shouldn't even be mentioned in the same breath as Mantis crew '99, so I won't. They were efficient, and part of the spiel was "Don't worry about the seatbelts, we have trained professionals coming around to take care of them for you". The folks who could buckle the belts did, those who couldn't waited, and the whole process was much faster than last year. Very little stacking of the trains, and never two at once.
After Mantis, we settled for an uneventful Iron Dragon ride. We rode because Megan had never been to CP before and wanted to do all the coasters. Besides, I hadn't ridden it in at least three years, maybe more.
The rest of our family lives in Pittsburgh and drives up for this trip on Saturday, so we decided to head back to the Breakers to see if they were in yet. We left from the Oceana/Beach entrance and the girls wanted a quick ride on Ocean Motion. There was no line, so they jumped on for a quick ride.
On the way back to the hotel, I saw one of my cousin's kids in the Breakers East pool, so I asked him who was in already. Most everyone was, but few rooms were ready (this was just before noon) and they were hanging out by the main pool and in the lobby.
Nobody was planning on going into the park until 5:00 on their starlight tickets, so we agreed to meet up later and left them.
We were getting hungry, and TGIFriday's was just opening for lunch, so we decided to eat there before heading back out again.
Once we were seated, the waiter told us that the computers were down and while he'd take our order, they still hadn't figured out how they were going to charge us (bummer). I told him that back in the old days (the 80's) that we used to hand-write the slips and that seemed to work well :).
Appetizer was the Three-for-all, stuffed skins, mozarella sticks and some excellent wings. For lunch, Megan had potato skins, Lexi had chicken fingers and some not-so-good broccoli cheese soup, Kathey had the spinach/artichoke dip (blecch) and I had half a club sandwich and some very good onion soup.
After lunch? What better way to digest than on the Magnum? Jumped in line and had about a half-hour wait to the very full platform, then about a five-minute wait for the ejector seat. Gotta love the hidden line!
I have to keep repeating the mantra, "Magnum is a different ride than MF, Magnum is a different ride from MF" but I think Millie has ruined me for other coasters. I enjoyed Magnum for what it was, but the old thrill was gone. The air was great, but I made the mistake of leaving just a little too much room between me and the lapbar, and my legs took a pretty good beating.
We noticed that Gemini was only running one car, and since the whole thrill of the ride is in the race, we skipped it and decided to come back later. On to the Mean Squeak.
Got into a conversation with a guy named Gene from Toronto while in the 20-minute line who recommended getting up to Darien Lake for Superman. He was also high on Paramount's Wonderland, which I haven't been to in 20 years since it was a Hanna-Barbera park. Apparently, Paramount went in and built a lot of coasters, making it a possible worthwhile future trip.
I was really hoping that with the previous night's rain, we'd have a faster Mean Streak ride. However, even though it wasn't exactly sunny, the track had dried out nicely. It wasn't painfully slow, but it wasn't too fast. It was however, just as jarring. Leaning forward in the seats helps immensely, but it makes it awfully difficult to keep your hands up on the ride. Weighing out the alternatives, I opted to make this a hold-on, lean forward ride. Not too bad.
Gemini was now running two trains so we headed back that direction, but hit the Mine Ride (because it was there). It was a 25-minute wait even with two trains. Dispatch was a bit slow, and I didn't sense even a modicum of the enthusiasm from that crew that I've seen alluded to on different posts here. Bad day, maybe? Hey, the park WAS fairly crowded at this point.
Next, it was over to Gemini, where the girls wanted the red car because it had been winning all day. Kathey and I got in the blue line, and watched as blue won the race right before us.
The ops let red go just a little too soon, and it wasn't even a race. You know when blue is a full train-length behind red going up the lift that it won't even be close. And it wasn't. Oh well, the girls were happy that they won.
Since we were now close to the hotel, we decided to go back and check on the rest of the crew. We found out that several of the group were going to head straight for MF. Since it was a 2 hour+ line at this point, we took out on our own again. It had occurred to me that it was only 5:00, and we had already been on 7 coasters. I've never done all the adult coasters in one day, so we figured we'd go for it.
Raptor wasn't going to cooperate. The line was over an hour. However, it went by fairly quickly even without a DJ (on a Saturday night? No DJ?) There was a full-capacity line for the front seat, and a fairly long wait for the back, so we grabbed the 2nd row. Although I believe that every view on the Raptor is the same (if you're not in front) the second row allows you to see just a bit of what's ahead between the heads of the first-row riders.
Raptor was running hard tonight. It seemed faster and more powerful than usual, almost like it knew that there was competition in the park and it was going to do whatever it needed to do to defend its territory. Very slight trims at mid-course to boot and we were pulling some serious G's on the final helix. A GREAT Raptor ride!
Blue Streak was a walk-on, which I didn't expect with the size of the crowd. Cheated the lapbar and got some excellent air on the short hops. It felt so close to standing that I had to double-check to make sure that I wasn't on the Mantis. One regret from this trip is that I only hit this classic once.
Next was over to Disaster Transport, which I typically pass on. I did ride last year for the first time in several years, and continue to be disappointed. However, we had a mission, and this was part of it.
Inexplicably, DT was a 45-minute wait. I understand when it's 90+ degrees outside, but the weather at this point was very pleasant. I just don't get the attraction behind this ride. It would be 100% better if they'd scrap the theming and turn out the lights for the entire ride. Forget the trip to Alaska, forget the "I'm losing control", and just call it a dark roller coaster, because the dark sections of the ride weren't half bad.
10 down, 2 to go and plenty of time to spare. Wildcat was a 30-minute wait and there's not much to describe about the ride. I do try to ride it every time I'm there because it was my first CP roller-coaster way back in the 70's.
Finally to the Corkscrew. Only a 10-minute wait, so we opted for the back seat. There are two things worth mentioning about Corkscrew. 1) It's very short. 2) Get the back seat. The pullovers on the hop before the loop and going through the corkscrews are pure power, making this a very worthy end to a day of coaster supremacy.
It was only 8:15 PM and we briefly discussed doing Woodstock's Express, but if we had ridden that I'd have felt obligated to find a kid to do Jr. Gemini as well. Also, the girls had wanted to hit the hotel pool, so we called it a day in the park.
Once the park closed, the evening was spent catching up with relatives that I only see twice a year -- at Christmas, and at Cedar Point.
Stay tuned for Part II (yes there's more) when I report June 18-20.
-------------
Duane Cahill 2000 Park Tour:
April 1-7, WDW
May 27, Dorney
June 3, KW
June 16-20, CP
June 24, KW
July 30, CP
Principals:
Me, Kathey (significant other), Lexi (daughter - 11), Megan (Lexi's friend, also 11), various assorted cousins.
(If you want to get right to the coaster stuff, please skip ahead "Saturday, June 17")
Friday, June 16
---------------
Left Camp Hill at 5:30 PM on Friday afternoon for the long drive to Sandusky. Made only two quick stops and pulled up to the Breakers at exactly midnight. Usually, this is a 7-hour trip, but we were very lucky and hit minimal construction on both the Ohio and the Pennsylvania turnpikes.
While we could see MF while driving through down the Causeway, it was during a torrential downpour, and we didn't have enough perspective to capture the magnificence of the structure, even though it was lit splendidly. Upon closer inspection from Perimeter Road, it truly looked awesome. The lift hill seemed to rise steeper than 45 degrees, and even at the posted 23 miles per hour, we were past the drop before we knew it. The excitement was beginning to build!
All this rain, and there wasn't a bellhop in sight at the Breakers. Actually, they were in sight, but on their way down the hallway to call it a night. Apparently, they all finished their shifts at midnight.
I went to the main desk, and check-in was finished in 10 minutes (no lines at that hour). Then I went to the Bell Captain's desk where he and another guy volunteered to get the bags. Kathey and the girls followed the luggage to the Bon Air section while I found a parking space.
There wasn't a parking space to be found over in that section, but there was the "cheater space" available. This is the slot facing the main parking lot and closest to the hotel. It's just big enough to squeeze between the fence and the rear of the car in the last "real" parking spot, but due to the angle of the fence there is plenty of room once you get in. (Hey, it's not a secret of "ejector seat" proportions, but when you need a close spot in bad weather, it's nice to know about).
Walked into the Bon Air entrance at the same time that everyone reached the bottom of the stairs. The guys didn't bring a rolling cart and were carrying the luggage by hand. Guess that made sense since we were on the second floor. I grabbed one end of the cooler full of soda ("pop" for you Pittsburghers) and adult beverage and helped the guy up the stairs. Into the room and straight to the window for my favorite sight -- Magnum's lift hill. Let others pay extra for a water view. They don't know what they're missing. Tipped the guys too much because of the pouring rain, then settled in for a short nap before the crack of dawn.
Saturday, June 17
-----------------
The alarm went of at 7:15, and it actually took me a moment to realize where I was. Grabbed a shower, as did Kathey, then we woke the girls to do the same. I pulled up the shades to check the weather. After last night, who knew what might greet us? The last time I checked the weather channel, it had called for thundershowers on Saturday, but it looked like it was going to hold off today. It was cloudy, but they weren't foreboding rain-type clouds.
Then as I was turning away, I caught a glimpse of something out of my left peripheral. Looking again, I realized that the view out my window was twice as good as it was last year, for sitting there to my left was the famous "M" logo, only this time it was live. If Breakers management reads this, they're going to start charging extra for my room :).
We left the room at 8:45 to go over to the Magnum entrance. Our room was only two doors down from the fire escape, so that's how we generally went in and out of the building for the duration of the trip. I saw that my favorite "real" parking space was available, and moved the car to the one space in the entire lot that is closest to the fire escape doors.
Over to the Magnum entrance and saw that the line to get into the park was through the Challenge Park ticket booth and back to the Soak City fence. Ah, but we wouldn't wait.
Straight up to the Guest Services door, a quick knock, and we're in ahead of the crowd. Our secret "Fast Pass" comes in the form of a Dorney Park Season Pass. Season pass holders from other parks show their passes at Guest Services and sign in there. Once we signed in, I sat down because we still had five minutes to park opening. Kathey asked what I was doing, and I told her that we couldn't get in until the gates opened. The GS host heard me and told us to go on in anyway! First ones in the park, and a five minute (in reality it was about two minute) jump on the general public!
We ran under the tunnel and made the left turn toward Power Tower knowing that we were going to be first in line on MF! WRONG!!!
As we approached Coasters, we saw the sea of humanity who had apparently been let into the main gate a few minutes early. It was as if a siren were sounding and the Eloi could do nothing but follow. We joined the masses. When we finally reached CP's version of the Morlock's subterranean trap, we entered the line exactly between the MF exit and Toot Sweets. Few of the queues were opened yet though, so it would be only a 30 minute wait.
The energy in the crowd as the first train rolled up the hill was electrifying. A wave of enthusiasm swept through the line like I haven't seen at Cedar Point since the Magnum DJ said he wouldn't play YMCA again for the rest of the day back in 1997.;)
It was only now that I realized what a breathtaking structure this was. As I watched the train speed up the lift, my eyes were transfixed on the apex. When the train actually peaked, I was amazed to watch the elevator lift catapult the train over the other side. I stood in awe, awaiting my turn to be flung over the edge.
Before long we were on the loading platform. There were about a dozen people ahead of us, so getting the first car was out of the question. However, I thought we might have a shot at the already-mythical 5.1. Strangely, most folks filled the seats front-to-back, so I hopped into the middle car and buckled in. Lexi and Megan, already knowing all of my CP secrets, bolted for 5.2.
As has been said in other reports previously, words cannot adequately express the ride on this monster. We pulled out of the station and began the ascent, at first slowly, but then kicking into second gear halfway up the hill.
Due to the angle, I couldn't see the track ahead of us, so it was a great surprise when we began to crest the top, far earlier than I expected we would. Hands up. I said HANDS, GET UP THERE!! (OK, hands are now listening to the head again).
We began the descent, picking up speed at an alarming rate. Every millisecond that I thought we must be at the 80 degree angle, we continued to drop over more and more and more. After what seemed an eternity, the earth was finally rushing straight at us. The G's on the pullout were unreal. I was having a difficult time keeping my arms in the air, but WHAT A RUSH!!
The overbanked turns were so smooth that I didn't even realize until later rides what the horizon looks like from 122 degrees. I continued to watch the track ahead.
We sped around the left turn and into the tunnel at breakneck speed. Out of the tunnel, and immediately up the gigantic second hill, where I would later measure the airtime at an unbelievable 4.1 seconds!
I had never seen the full POV video, so coming down the hill, I saw both the outgoing and the incoming track and for some reason thought that we would turn LEFT on the island. As I prepared myself for that turn, I was jolted back to reality by the right hand turn.
Through the first island turn, then expecting a pretzel-type turnaround like on Magnum, I was once again surprised when we hit a hard right into the second island turn.
Through that turn, then over the final island hill, still at a velocity that would get you a speeding ticket in every state but Montana, and back through the second tunnel with every voice on the train now at maximum volume.
A hard left, screaming past the station of cheering onlookers (still) and into the final overbank. We jetted into the station and cruised to a stop knowing that we had just experienced the nirvana of thrill rides. (Dear other coasters of the world. Please be advised that you have all been moved down one spot on the favorites list. Thank you.)
My adrenal glands were working overtime. I'm pretty sure that at that moment, I could have lifted a car off a baby if called upon to do so. My heart was racing, my lungs filled fuller, my legs were energized, and life was very very good! In summation -- WOW! In fact, reliving it while I was writing this just now was pretty darn good :).
It was now close to 10:00 and Lexi hadn't ridden the Mantis before, having been a bit leery of the notion of a stand-up last year. She had just been on MF though, and was ready to conquer anything. A 15-minute wait got us to the platform, so we waited another 15 for the front seat. If you're going to do your first ride, you might as well do it right.
Mantis crew '00 shouldn't even be mentioned in the same breath as Mantis crew '99, so I won't. They were efficient, and part of the spiel was "Don't worry about the seatbelts, we have trained professionals coming around to take care of them for you". The folks who could buckle the belts did, those who couldn't waited, and the whole process was much faster than last year. Very little stacking of the trains, and never two at once.
After Mantis, we settled for an uneventful Iron Dragon ride. We rode because Megan had never been to CP before and wanted to do all the coasters. Besides, I hadn't ridden it in at least three years, maybe more.
The rest of our family lives in Pittsburgh and drives up for this trip on Saturday, so we decided to head back to the Breakers to see if they were in yet. We left from the Oceana/Beach entrance and the girls wanted a quick ride on Ocean Motion. There was no line, so they jumped on for a quick ride.
On the way back to the hotel, I saw one of my cousin's kids in the Breakers East pool, so I asked him who was in already. Most everyone was, but few rooms were ready (this was just before noon) and they were hanging out by the main pool and in the lobby.
Nobody was planning on going into the park until 5:00 on their starlight tickets, so we agreed to meet up later and left them.
We were getting hungry, and TGIFriday's was just opening for lunch, so we decided to eat there before heading back out again.
Once we were seated, the waiter told us that the computers were down and while he'd take our order, they still hadn't figured out how they were going to charge us (bummer). I told him that back in the old days (the 80's) that we used to hand-write the slips and that seemed to work well :).
Appetizer was the Three-for-all, stuffed skins, mozarella sticks and some excellent wings. For lunch, Megan had potato skins, Lexi had chicken fingers and some not-so-good broccoli cheese soup, Kathey had the spinach/artichoke dip (blecch) and I had half a club sandwich and some very good onion soup.
After lunch? What better way to digest than on the Magnum? Jumped in line and had about a half-hour wait to the very full platform, then about a five-minute wait for the ejector seat. Gotta love the hidden line!
I have to keep repeating the mantra, "Magnum is a different ride than MF, Magnum is a different ride from MF" but I think Millie has ruined me for other coasters. I enjoyed Magnum for what it was, but the old thrill was gone. The air was great, but I made the mistake of leaving just a little too much room between me and the lapbar, and my legs took a pretty good beating.
We noticed that Gemini was only running one car, and since the whole thrill of the ride is in the race, we skipped it and decided to come back later. On to the Mean Squeak.
Got into a conversation with a guy named Gene from Toronto while in the 20-minute line who recommended getting up to Darien Lake for Superman. He was also high on Paramount's Wonderland, which I haven't been to in 20 years since it was a Hanna-Barbera park. Apparently, Paramount went in and built a lot of coasters, making it a possible worthwhile future trip.
I was really hoping that with the previous night's rain, we'd have a faster Mean Streak ride. However, even though it wasn't exactly sunny, the track had dried out nicely. It wasn't painfully slow, but it wasn't too fast. It was however, just as jarring. Leaning forward in the seats helps immensely, but it makes it awfully difficult to keep your hands up on the ride. Weighing out the alternatives, I opted to make this a hold-on, lean forward ride. Not too bad.
Gemini was now running two trains so we headed back that direction, but hit the Mine Ride (because it was there). It was a 25-minute wait even with two trains. Dispatch was a bit slow, and I didn't sense even a modicum of the enthusiasm from that crew that I've seen alluded to on different posts here. Bad day, maybe? Hey, the park WAS fairly crowded at this point.
Next, it was over to Gemini, where the girls wanted the red car because it had been winning all day. Kathey and I got in the blue line, and watched as blue won the race right before us.
The ops let red go just a little too soon, and it wasn't even a race. You know when blue is a full train-length behind red going up the lift that it won't even be close. And it wasn't. Oh well, the girls were happy that they won.
Since we were now close to the hotel, we decided to go back and check on the rest of the crew. We found out that several of the group were going to head straight for MF. Since it was a 2 hour+ line at this point, we took out on our own again. It had occurred to me that it was only 5:00, and we had already been on 7 coasters. I've never done all the adult coasters in one day, so we figured we'd go for it.
Raptor wasn't going to cooperate. The line was over an hour. However, it went by fairly quickly even without a DJ (on a Saturday night? No DJ?) There was a full-capacity line for the front seat, and a fairly long wait for the back, so we grabbed the 2nd row. Although I believe that every view on the Raptor is the same (if you're not in front) the second row allows you to see just a bit of what's ahead between the heads of the first-row riders.
Raptor was running hard tonight. It seemed faster and more powerful than usual, almost like it knew that there was competition in the park and it was going to do whatever it needed to do to defend its territory. Very slight trims at mid-course to boot and we were pulling some serious G's on the final helix. A GREAT Raptor ride!
Blue Streak was a walk-on, which I didn't expect with the size of the crowd. Cheated the lapbar and got some excellent air on the short hops. It felt so close to standing that I had to double-check to make sure that I wasn't on the Mantis. One regret from this trip is that I only hit this classic once.
Next was over to Disaster Transport, which I typically pass on. I did ride last year for the first time in several years, and continue to be disappointed. However, we had a mission, and this was part of it.
Inexplicably, DT was a 45-minute wait. I understand when it's 90+ degrees outside, but the weather at this point was very pleasant. I just don't get the attraction behind this ride. It would be 100% better if they'd scrap the theming and turn out the lights for the entire ride. Forget the trip to Alaska, forget the "I'm losing control", and just call it a dark roller coaster, because the dark sections of the ride weren't half bad.
10 down, 2 to go and plenty of time to spare. Wildcat was a 30-minute wait and there's not much to describe about the ride. I do try to ride it every time I'm there because it was my first CP roller-coaster way back in the 70's.
Finally to the Corkscrew. Only a 10-minute wait, so we opted for the back seat. There are two things worth mentioning about Corkscrew. 1) It's very short. 2) Get the back seat. The pullovers on the hop before the loop and going through the corkscrews are pure power, making this a very worthy end to a day of coaster supremacy.
It was only 8:15 PM and we briefly discussed doing Woodstock's Express, but if we had ridden that I'd have felt obligated to find a kid to do Jr. Gemini as well. Also, the girls had wanted to hit the hotel pool, so we called it a day in the park.
Once the park closed, the evening was spent catching up with relatives that I only see twice a year -- at Christmas, and at Cedar Point.
Stay tuned for Part II (yes there's more) when I report June 18-20.
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Duane Cahill 2000 Park Tour:
April 1-7, WDW
May 27, Dorney
June 3, KW
June 16-20, CP
June 24, KW
July 30, CP
I hereby proclaim Duane Cahill as "King of the Trip Reports" Well, maybe you can share the title with Dave :) I always look forward to your yearly commentary. Great job!
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Cedar Point Virtual Midway
http://www.schmidty.com/cpvirtual
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Cedar Point Virtual Midway
http://www.schmidty.com/cpvirtual
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