Headed up to CP on Friday just to see how the season was progressing. Arrived at around 9:00 at the front gate. I was kicking myself since I did not have Joe Cool and had to watch all the people with it head into the park. When I arrived there were signs up that said that Wicked Twister would be closed today =(. However, after just a few minutes those signs were changed for ones that said it would be open later. Looking through the gate, they were running Raptor in place of WT for ERT. As I waited until 9:30, I saw MF's yellow train stop on the hill (with people) for about 2 minutes and then go over. Then about 5 minutes later the yellow train stopped again on the hill for the remainder of ERT (about 20 minutes). As soon as I got in, I went back to MF, where the yellow train had just made it over the hill. They weren't letting more people in line, and soon afterward, an empty red train went up and parked itself on the hill. I took a stroll down the frontier trail, wondering what to do until 10. I decided to wait for Mean Streak, since it had been down all day (due to a broken chain lift) when I was at the park in May. This is when the mayflies came in. I had seen them on the walls all around the gates when I had come in. Being the first person to walk through the queues for MS at 10, I was reminded of a scene from the movie The Birds. Mayflies everywhere, hitting me in the legs, arms, face, hair, it was disgusting. There were mayflies an inch thick sitting on the lighting that shines upward on MS at night. Yuck. I rode in the first train in the front and the stupide trim on the hill was STILL on, I was a bit ticked, thought I could get around it.
After hitting MS 3 times, and Magnum 3 times (ejector seat all 3) with hardly any wait, I went back over to Millennium Force to get a Freeway stamp (it was around 11). I arrived to one of the most chaotic scenes I have ever seen at CP. The midway was packed. No one was in line for MF, and it was closed. There was a GIGANTIC line for Freeway, which had just opened 10 minutes before and the sign said they were already giving out stamps for 4-5 o'clock. At this point I was a little worried. It was now 11:15 and CP's two top rides were both down. I walked over to WT to see welding going on, and many mechanics, and (what looked like) CP executives walking around talking etc.
As the day went on, things got better. Both WT and MF opened up in the early afternoon. Although, MF was only running two trains, with mechanics working under the red train on the transfer track. I grabbed two rides on WT when it opened, and noticed a mechanic parked out on the beach looking up the back spike with some sort of binocular device. What a great ride WT is! I really like the music they put in for MF and WT it adds something that was lacking. Overall, turned out to be a very good day, way to go CP!!!
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*- CP Fan -*
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