I finally made it for my first trip to the Point this season on Monday. We drove all through the night Sunday night to get to the park at opening. The HoJo at the end of the causeway (more on that later) let us check in early, so we dropped our stuff off and headed to the park. I kept looking over at Dragster on the causeway, but didn't see it running. It wasn't until we got into the park that my worst fears came true, and I found out it was down.
Anyway, two of my cousins came with me (one for his first visit, the other on his second), and they got in line for tickets while I got my pass. Interestingly, it took them longer to buy tickets than it took me to buy my pass and get it processed. I can't say I expected that.
Once we got into the park, we headed over to Wicked Twister to meet up with my friend Joe and his brother in law. By the time we rode WT, it was time to go get Freeway stamps for MF. We noticed that Mantis seemed to be running really fast, so we headed over there after getting stamped. All of us gave our Mantis ride a big thumbs up!
We decided to head back through Frontier Town and actually rode Mean Streak. I had only been on it once before, and I can't say that I'll be going back for it again. I still can't believe there was a line for it, but I digress...
We caught a great ride on Gemini and headed over to Magnum and took the front car and had a really good ride on it as well. We walked by Dragster's empty station (so depressing) and hit Power Tower on the way to grab lunch at Coasters. It was nice to cool off inside for a few minutes, that's for sure!
After lunch, we headed over to Max Air. I am totally in love with this ride! I think it is an excellent addition to the park, and I can see myself spending a good amount of time on it in the future. We then headed over to Raptor and got a really intense ride in the back row. It seemed to be running really quickly (and I'm not talking about the crew - more on that later as well).
After Raptor, it was time for our ride on MF. Since we had Freeway stamps, we decided to wait for the front row. We waited for about 45 minutes or so total, which was nice. There were 5 of us, so I rode with another single rider in the line so that I could run down and get pictures of the other guys. I got 2 great shots of them coming over the last bunny hill, which was cool.
We hit Wildcat and Iron Dragon on our way back up to the front of the park, and then hit Blue Streak before heading back over for another ride on MaxAir and Wicked Twister. After MaxAir, we opted for one more ride on Raptor, and this one turned out to be the best Raptor ride I've had to date. We waited for the front, and the sun was setting over MF, which made for a picturesque ride, I must say. Man, it was REALLY flying on that ride. Hardly any trims at all...
We hopped onto the Sky Ride and went back over for our last ride of the night on MF. They were having problems off an on all day with the yellow train, and this persisted while we waited in the line. We finally got on almost 2 hours later and rode the back 2 rows. I was getting great airtime on that last one. MF is always a great way to end the day!
Tuesday morning, we got up early and headed to the park shortly before 10, and to my delight, Dragster was up and running, but with a really REALLY long line. We decided to skip it and ride Magnum and Power Tower instead so we could get our Freeway stamps for MF at 11. We hit Mantis again after we got our stamps and headed over to MaxAir for a great ride on it. We weren't in any big hurry, and we were getting hungry, so we went back to the car and made sandwiches before waiting for our Freeway stamps on Dragster.
When we came back in and were in line for our Dragster stamps, I kept looking up at it, as I often do in total awe. One train went up to the top and stalled for about 5 seconds and finally made it over. I was so excited for the people on that train! I've always wanted to hang up there for a few seconds to take in the view. Incredible! We got our stamps and it was time for our MF ride, so we went and caught the front row again. When we got off, the line was relatively short, so we decided to ride it again toward the middle. Both rides were incredible, and I was loving the airtime.
I tried convincing my cousin to ride Raptor before our Freeway time on Dragster, but all he wanted to do was ride it. I gave in and headed back over there. We only waited for about 45 minutes or so for the front row. Since it was his first ride, I really wanted to be with him. We took off and we both had our hands up, and after the turn on the hill, his left arm came flying right into my head above my right eye. It hurt really bad, and kind of made the rest of the ride a bit blurry, but it was fun nonetheless. He loved it, so that was good.
At this point, it was 5 o'clock and my friends Kristin and Jeff were on their way to meet us. I had to take one of my cousins back to the hotel to watch the NBA Draft (I never did really get it, but whatever). We came right back and met Kristin and Jeff in the parking lot and walked in to meet their friends Chris and Zach. The 6 of us went over to Paddlewheel Excursion for a relaxing ride, and then hit Gemini on the way back up to the front of the park.
Everyone agreed that MaxAir would be the next ride, so we got in line. We noticed the dark clouds that were creeping in, and eventually, the bottom fell out and it started pouring! We sought refuge in the arcade where Jeff and Zach went into a DDR frenzy. The rain eventually stopped, but we decided that it was probably a good idea to eat while the lightning passed, so we left the park and headed to Chet and Matt's pizza for a lovely (although slow) meal.
We got back to the park at about 9:30 and figured we could take our pick of the rides. To our surprise, Raptor and MaxAir had lines that were as long as the ones that we had waited in earlier before the rain. We wanted MF to finish the night, but we thought we could pull off one more ride on Magnum if it was walk-on before heading over to MF. When we got into the station, there was a 3 train wait, so we had to make a decision. Zach and I didn't want to risk missing MF, so we ran like banshees over there and made it in time. We were in line for a few minutes, when the rest of the gang came running up. I still can't believe they made it! The last ride on MF was truly spectacular. I was absolutely thrilled with the experience (as always), and it made for a great ride to finish the trip. On our way out of the park, we were walking by Dragster and witnessed the first successful launch after the rain. It was 11pm by then and everyone in the station was cheering and happy. It really put a smile on my face just to know that the crew did everything possible and got it back open for the people that waited it out.
Overall, the trip was great, but I noticed a big difference in the speed and attitude of the crews (with few exceptions) themselves. The Raptor crew in particular was a drastic departure from the upbeat and speedy crew that I saw last year. Halfway through the day on Monday, we were struggling to name one crew member on any ride that seemed to be enjoying his or her job. They all seemed nonchalant and generally unhappy to be there. I was pretty surprised, as this was not the case last year.
Other than that, the only other negative thing was our experience with the Howard Johnson. When we got back to the hotel Monday night, neither of the room keys would open the room, and when we finally did get in, the bathroom had a leak from the room above us, so we had to switch rooms. Just what you want to do after being out in the park for 13 hours. The next day, the room keys AGAIN would not open the room. At that point, I was pretty much over it and I went down to the office only to basically be chastised by the guy at the desk. He came up with some crazy story about the metal detectors at the park deactivated the room keys. I was like, uhhh... there are no metal detectors at CP. And even if there were, I've stayed at plenty of hotels in the past and had no problem. Bottom line, the HoJo by the causeway is a DUMP and should be avoided at all cost!
We left Wednesday morning and headed back to Atlanta but stopped off at PKI for a really nice visit on our way. Overall, a really great trip!
The ride count:
Raptor - 2
Wicked Twister - 2
MaxAir - 2
Blue Streak - 1
Iron Dragon - 1
Wildcat - 1
Millenium Force - 5
Mantis - 2
Dragster - 1
Mean Streak - 1
Gemini - 2
Magnum - 2
Power Tower - 2
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