(Sorry for the insanely long TR but it being my first and most likely my last for a while, I figured I’d make it long!)
Being my last opportunity to write a trip report before becoming an official employee (unless someone wants to pay my admission…the day wiped out my bank account!), I figured I’d give it a shot. My day started at 8 in the morning. Being a college student, that was the earliest I had been up on a weekend in months. I got my haircut at 9 and after a long delay because of a wedding party, finally got outta there around 10:30. Funny thing was that it was the longest wait of my day! After collecting my group, we finally hit the road around 11:30. The “Millennium Force will open later today” signs greeted us as I paid for parking and my ticket for the first time since 1999. Having a season pass has really spoiled me. I really wanted to meet all the employees that I had met online so I forked over the 50 bucks and entered. The crowds seemed light and a majority of them were middle school aged kids. I guess there was some kind of band event. First stop was going to be Wicked Twister but we saw that it wasn’t running. We decided to hit up Disaster Transport instead. I was impressed with the paint job and the black lights but I sure did miss the “I’m losing control!” after the midcourse breaks. Overall, I think the ride was greatly improved. We headed over to Blue Streak right after although it took some convincing to get my group members to believe that it was gonna be a good ride. After getting off, they agreed with me; compared to years past, the thing was riding extremely smooth and delivered some nice airtime. After exiting, we noticed that Wicked Twister was back up and running. We headed over there and got in line. After about a 20 minute wait in the freezing cold wind, we finally entered. I took the back row all by myself. It’s been said before and I’ll say it again, back of the train is wear it’s at. The ride just rocked and my feet were tingling after hopping out of the seat.We then hopped on the train and headed back to Mean Streak in an effort to find one of my potential roommates, Rob. I got up to the station after a minimal wait and asked where he was. Nobody knew but he managed to show up right as the train was dispatching. After a forgettable ride with the first hill breaks grabbing tightly, we arrived back in the station to find him missing once again. We found him at the entrance and I talked with him for a while. Soon after, the ride set up and the train was stopped at the top of the hill. They shut it down and I left him to field the stupid questions, including “Have you ever fell off the lift hill?” followed by “Did you die?” Some people…This was followed by a ride on Mine Ride. After it, my rather tall friend vowed never to ride it again because the restraints crushed him in some rather sensitive areas. I don’t blame him. It was a fun ride for me though. We then headed over to Snake River Falls to meet my future crew. They were really cool and the ride looked fun to run. Their ideas for a crew shirt sounded interesting to say the least. Just hanging out on the platform for a short amount of time made me wish school would end right now so I could start. June 17th can’t come soon enough! I headed to Thunder Canyon after that to meet the other potential roommate, Nate (CaptainNate). I yelled at him from across the river for a few minutes and then headed on.The rain started coming down at this point so we headed to The Boathouse for lunch. It’s the first restaurant that I’ve been to where the service was too good. They were almost empty so my meal was there before I was done with my salad. I just had the waitress pile my food on the table. After the pork sandwich and sweet potato fries, I was ready to ride once again.Mother Nature disagreed with me. Rain was in the forecast so I wasn’t too surprised. A lot of things stayed open but we decided against riding in the rain and headed to Paddlewheel Excursions. It was fun even though the ride op’s jokes were being finished for him. His only counter to this was to think on the fly so when he asked “What kind of dog is he?” and someone yelled out “A sitter” he replied “No, plastic”. It became a running joke for the rest of the ride. We then headed to Challenge Park to see where my one friend would be working. The race track was down so we didn’t see it running but I told him he would have the Magnum lift hill spiel memorized by the end of the first day. We paid our respects at the VertiGo site and went back into the park. The rain had subsided so we hopped on Corkscrew for a typical but still fun ride on it. The rain picked up again so we visited Snoopy Boutique and headed to the Gemini Games area. I played what may be my last game of the summer at the speedball booth where I met fellow GTTPer Freddie (GeminiSpeed). After some chatting there we walked to the Cadillac Cars in the back of the park. We rode them twice and then hit the train. The back of the park was dead and we had an entire train car to the three of us. (And yes, all of us agreed that the skeleton is humping that fence) We hit Mantis where I met a couple more employees. The first hill trim was back on which disappointed me but it was still a fun ride. Plus it was a walk on so that made me happy. Wicked Twister was calling my name again so we rode it once again with a minimal wait. We took seats in the middle and again it was awesome but not as good as the back. I was supposed to meet Kelly but she was busy and kept running away from me. We walked on Raptor and witnessed Pippy spieling. By far the most enthusiastic spieler of the day. The night ride on Raptor was awesome except for the nauseous feeling I seem to get after the last corkscrew. It takes the fun out of the helix. We ended our visit on Cedar Downs. We had the entire ride to ourselves and my horse won.While I have had better days at Cedar Point, this one was still great. It was good to ride a roller coaster again and it was nice to meet the people I only knew from online. The next time I return I’ll be working there. Starting June 18th, stop by and say hi sometime!
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Brad Wagner
The Ohio State University
2002: Snake River Falls
*** This post was edited by BradwagsCP 5/13/2002 3:23:57 AM ***
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