June 17 - Birthday trip with Girlfriend - Long Trip Report

Well my birthday was on June 15 and my girlfriend came down from Toledo so we could spend Sunday together at the point.

I was spending time with her so I didn't take any pictures...
Just kidding :) I didn't take very many (a lot less than normal) but I did get a few (http://tinyurl.com/2krygg P.S. I am using TinyURL to try to keep these short).

We started out by going to the Marina Gate. I have Joe Cool but she had a regular ticket and was not staying in a hotel so we waited till 10 to enter. While we were waiting we had some nice conversation with the two employees working the gate.

Once they started to play God Bless America (which means it is 10) we entered and walked to Maverick. We didn't see any reason to try running because we would have to wait no matter what and we were ahead of the large group from the front of the park :). Once reaching Maverick the sign said an hour wait, so we entered the line. Once we got onto the bridge that leads into the queue house (the old whitewater landing station) Maverick went down Mechanical. The line was not really all that bad so we waited. (http://tinyurl.com/373vbr)

After about 10 minutes it went back up and we were on the ride an hour after entering. So the sign was correct after all!

I will tell you I love this ride. My girlfriend is a coaster nut and this was the first time she got to ride Mav. She loved it. She is ranking it number 3 for her (Raptor, Millennium, and Mav) where for me it is number 1 (Mav, Raptor, Millennium) I still say that if I did not have trouble with the belt on Millennium that would be my number 1 coaster :(.

The only problem I have with Mav (and the reason I will only ride it in the front) is that I am so tall (6'5") that just sitting in the station my shoulders touch the shoulder restraints and going through the inversions and air time hills my shoulders get slammed pretty hard into the restraints. But it is still a very enjoyable ride.

While we were in the area we decided to ride SkyHawk. The line was very short, we only waited one cycle and were on. While we were waiting my girlfriend pointed out a small child that she thought was cute (http://tinyurl.com/3e4z74) he barely fit in the restraint :)

After riding SkyHawk we started toward the front of the park with Raptor as our goal. On the way we stopped at a few of the shops in Frontier town and walked through Snoopy's Playground. We stopped at the Paddle Wheel Excursions for a trip around the lagoon.

Our Captains (we had two on this trip http://tinyurl.com/349y2v) were very enjoyable, the Captain doing the spiels, Mark, was very good at his job and was very funny (I am sorry I don't remember the name of the other captain, but they played off each other very well).

After our trip around the lagoon we made our way to Skyride for a walk on ride to the front of the park and into Raptor. The DJ was working at Raptor and considering that the line was no where near his hut (it wound through the queue at the front but not under the shelter of the station or in front of the DJ's booth) he was doing a good job. After we were already entering the stairs he came out of his booth to gather requests from the crowd.

Raptor was a great ride as always, as I said before it is my girlfriends favorite ride. After riding Raptor we went by space spiral to get some cheese on a stick. After eating we started to make our way back to the back of the park to ride some water rides.

After getting a locker we went to Thunder Canyon and enjoyed a wet and wild ride (I got soaked on a waterfall :)) After Thunder Canyon we decided on Snake River Falls, we even stood on the bridge and got wet again. We returned to our locker and gathered our stuff and I stopped to get a picture of Snake River Falls (http://tinyurl.com/2vg7py)

Since it was about 15 minuets to show time we decided to see the show at the Palace Theater. I already did my review of this show (http://www.pointbuzz.com/cpplace.aspx?mode=thread&TopicID=21066#323572)
But this was the first time that she had seen the show. She really enjoyed it and I think was actually a bit better than the last one I saw. After seeing the palace show we decided to see the Red Garter show.

We started in the balcony but noticed that we could not see very well from where we were and saw that there was an open table right next to the stage, so we moved down.

I will say it again, This show rocks!! I think it gets better every time I see it. And this was the first time that I really just sat there and enjoyed it, I took no pictures. The audience was a bit cold, no one seemed to be really getting into it except us. But we enjoyed it and had a lot of fun. The only thing I wished is that we could have gotten a seat a bit farther back, we were literally right next to the stage. They were dancing between us and the rest of the audience we were that close. It was an interesting angle for the show but we missed out on some of the sound and some of the visuals we were so close. But we both really enjoyed it anyway.

After the shows we decided to head again to the front of the park to get some taffy, we went into Ben And Jerry's hoping to get some ice cream but it seems that since Toft's left they took their selection with them. There were only like 6 flavors and none of them looked good to me.

Well since we were in that area we decided to stop in at Disaster Transport and take a ride. It was a 10 minute wait but as we reached the top of the stairs a couple of kids were trying to cut line and get in front of us. I stopped them and told them to not cut, that it could get them kicked out of the park. And no sooner were we off the ride then they got stopped at the exit (they rode the same train as we did) by security :)

But as for the ride itself. It was very dark, only one set was lit, the one with the satellite, so the rest of the ride was dark. It is still an interesting ride but I think it would be much better with some light. Even the work lights would be better than nothing.

After leaving Disaster we made our way back to the train to take it on a trip around, but saw Maverick and decided to stop and ride it again. A two hour wait but well worth the ride.

Then we hopped on the train, took it through Boneville and back around front. Made our way up, got the taffy that we forgot about, and made our way out around 9:00.

All in all we had a fun filled day at the point. I will be back soon to take some more pics :) and even some video since I got my camcorder working again. And Alison will be back for Halloweekends if not sooner. I can't wait!
*** Edited 6/18/2007 5:45:12 PM UTC by Morté615***

Morté615 said:

While we were in the area we decided to ride SkyHawk. The line was very short, we only waited one cycle and were on. While we were waiting my girlfriend pointed out a small child that she thought was cute (http://tinyurl.com/3e4z74) he barely fit in the restraint :)

This is a bit concerning to me actually. What would stop this child from going upward out of his seat in the event of him panicking? The bar does'nt even come close to touching him, and there is PLENTY of wiggle room. I don't know, maybe I am over-reacting, but I am much larger than that child and I feel quite a bit of airtime on that ride. I can't imagine how it would be for him.

Those bars are not pushed down yet.

Oh my... I am a moron.

Loopy: 1 Josh: 0

;)

Haha - I was going to say... :)

Haha the little kid..I wonder if he ever got on?...or maybe they said he couldnt go on. ??

Read the 3 posts above you.

Yep he rode, and by the smile on his face as he got off I would say he loved it. :)