Great day at the PO!NT - it was HOT but ERT was awesome!
PART 1 - ERT
Alex Parks and I arrived at the park at 8:55, just in time for our first ever Joe Cool ERT! The line to get in at the Main Entrance looked long, but it turned out that half the people were regular ticketholders in the wrong line. Hehehe too bad for them...
When we got in at 9 we went directly to Raptor... ran through the queue for a walk on in the back row. Still, the train was probably 3/4 full. It turned out that a lot of people just hit Raptor once, because when we re-entered the queue there was absolutely NO ONE on the platform except four people in line for the front. Could this be the chance for a re-ride??? We rode in the back again, 6 people total on the train, and when we got back into the station there was still no one on the platform except a couple in line for the front. I really thought we could get a re-ride, but it was not looking good. They told us to go around. I pleaded with one of the Ride Hosts to let us stay on, but she would not have it. So we went around again and re-entered, and for our third ride it was only us two in the back and two people in the front. Still, no re-ride. :(
We decided to run back to MF for the rest of ERT, and got there at about 9:20. ALMOST a walk on, we just had to wait two trains, but it was still a great ride. We rode MF 3 times by re-entering the queue, the line eventually becoming a straight walk on. The 4th time, at about 9:50, we heard that they just opened the gates for the GP and we saw people running, so we waited for the front. It turns out they were either stopping people at Sky Ride or just not letting them into MF, because the line was so empty that it was running trains only 1/3 full. We continued to wait, and finally by about 10:10 or so the GP started showing up. We got our Front Row ride, yellow train, at about 10:15... Another AWESOME ride!
Now that ERT was over, we decided to move on with our plans... next, we wanted to break the "record" on Mine Ride by getting 32 rides. So we headed to the back of the park...
PART 2 - Mine Ride 32... errr I mean 6
I really wanted to do this Mine Ride Marathon, and it seemed like Alex did too as we boarded the train for our first ride. So we do the first ride, and run around for the second one. Natalie (Ride of Steel) showed up on the platform, hustling like crazy. We had a lot of fun trying to rally our fellow Mine Riders to go crazy when returning to the station, and there was sort of a competition to see what train could be the loudest as the morning went on. Natalie was soon the only ride host on the platform, she was flying to lock/unlock the lap bars, and we got the whole station yelling "GO, GO, GO, GO, GO, GO!" as she rushed. Funny stuff. I was having fun, but by the fifth ride I could see that Alex was not. It was HOT, and he just didn't like Mine Ride enough to marathon (BOOOOO!!!) ;) He really didn't want to marathon anymore, and even though I tried to persuade him, he wouldn't do it. So we rode it one more time for the big 6 RIDES and then left for other rides. I wanted to come back later in the day and get some more, but we never got the chance to. So the attempt was failed miserably. Oh well, I'll do it again sometime...
PART 3 - the rest of the day...
After Mine Ride, we went back and hit White Water Landing, hoping to cool off a bit. It was alright, but not really what I was hoping for. From there, we walked onto Mean Streak... BTW I haven't waited more than 5 minutes at all this year for MS, and you shouldn't either... We did not have the BEST MS ride, but it wasn't the WORST either.
We ate lunch, then did Gemini. It was probably my best ever Gemini ride. Hand smacking GALORE, a tight race, running very well, and it was hilarious hearing everyone behind me on the blue train say "Put your hands down, QUICK!" on the headchopper hill.
Magnum was next on the agenda, and we had to wait about 10 minutes. CRAZY ride on the ejector seat, Magnum is quickly threatening MF for my fav coaster. We checked out the line again to see that it was now a "walk in" to the station, so we did Maggie again in the ejector seat and had an even better ride. Came back around yet again, this time we did 1-2 but still great. It was still a walk in so we did it again, and rode 2nd to last row. This was actually my first time that far back, and I was amazed at how awesome the first two drops were. The airtime was lacking a little, but once again an awesome ride. BTW we had some HILARIOUS on ride photos.
Finally we left and walked down to PT, Space Shot was a 5 min wait so we did that. From PT, we headed back to MF. The line was about 7 rows in front of the pop machines, about a 25 min wait, and it stayed that way. So we rode yellow train, then decided to check out the Mantis line. 1 HOUR 15 MINUTES! Damn that 2 train operation!! The Mantis line is moving slower than ever. We skipped Mantis and did MF again... same wait, but I had a problem with "pricketry" in the station. As you know, they are letting people wait for the front and back rows. Well we were let into the station, and of course the ride host is waving everyone to the front of the train. Alex and I go to get in line for the back, but the guy won't let us. We say that "we are just waiting for the back" but he just continues his "all the way to the front, all the way to the front". That made me really mad. I had never had the back and wanted to try it. So after that ride, our 6th of the day, we got back in line again, waited same time, and this time there was a girl in the station waving people. She kindly let us get in line for the back. Thanks. Now why couldn't the guy do the same? The back was awesome, and now that we had 7 rides we decided to leave.
We went around the back, and tried to hit Gemini, but for some reason they were not letting people into the queue... I still don't know why, the trains were running fine it seemed... so we hit Magnum again, this time the very back row. Had another funny on-ride photo - Alex and my brother were both talking on cell phones (well they werent actually talking but you know what I mean).
It was VERY HOT and everyone in my group (my brother, Alex, and his brother) was getting a little ansy... they wanted to leave. It was only 4:45 though! We walked to the front to try to hit DT, but we skipped it after seeing the line that filled up the entire queue. So we walked over to Raptor, and were VERY PLEASED to see no more than a 10 minute wait! We did Raptor 3 times, all in the back, in a time span of about 20 or 25 minutes. It wasn't as good as ERT, but it still worked for me! On the way out we did Demon Drop... only my second time ever... basically just to say we did it and because it was a walk on.
We left at 5:30, one of the earliest times I've ever left. Still, it was a great day, filled with a lot of great rides.
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Steuks!!