Memorial Day Maverick Mania w/ Pictures - Very Long!

After hearing the rumors that Maverick may be opening sooner than later, I began to make plans to meet up with my friend Rob at CP to try out this coaster I have watched since it's infancy. Luckily the rumors were true, and the plans were made to head out to the park on Memorial Day. After hearing about the fleece giveaway, I was finally swayed to give up the 15 dollars to upgrade to Joe Cool. I only go to the park 6-8 times a season, but the perks finally seemed worth it. Thus begins my trip...

The trip from South Bend to Sandusky is a fairly boring one. Despite being around 200 miles from CP, I make a total of about 4 turns the whole drive. 180 miles of the trip is down the Indiana Toll Road / Ohio Turnpike. This normally mundane drive was turned into quite the adventure Monday morning with the outrageous amounts of fog I encountered. When I left South Bend at around 4:20 AM, things were fine, with just some patchy fog here and there. However by the time I got near Toledo, the visibility was near zero, and I couldn't even read the exit signs till I was under them. Despite the conditions, I pressed on, and only lost about 20 minutes because of the fog. By the time I got to Sandusky the fog was clearing, and it was clear it was going to be a beautiful day! I arrived at the park at around 7:40 and met up with Rob and his family at the Season Pass Center to get our passes upgraded to Joe Cool. At 8:15, my friend who works at the SP center came out and upgraded our passes, and we hightailed it back to the Soak City gate.

As I got out of my car I saw Adam (TTD 120) and asked him how the line looked. He said it was pretty long already, and he was right. We found our place in line not far past the tunnel under Magnum, next to the Grand Prix track. Close to us in line were Adam, Dave (David Sagert), and a few other Pointbuzzers. Rob, his family, and the Pointbuzzers decided to stick together and make the dash to Maverick together. At around 8:45 the gates opened, and we were allowed to move down to a temporary gate under Magnum. The crowd became restless, and even before the National Anthem played, the horde was released. Now I have run the route from the SC gate to Dragster, as well as the Marina gate to Millennium, but this run was something else. It was quite a bit longer than I imagined (hoped for). By the time I was getting to the train tracks, I was completely out of steam. The fact that I had been sick the whole previous week didn't help this fact. Luckily my group supported one another, and we finished the run in pretty good position. Especially considering the line behind us.

The anticipation continued to build as we made our way through the queue house. I love what CP did with this queue. The music, although a bit loud, adds alot to the queue, and the line moves so quickly. Finally after about 15-20 minutes it was our turn. As we climbed the stairs, I was amazed with the great view from the station. As a former CP employee, I was envious of the location of this ride. What a view! I love how organized the station is as far as loading procedures go. If you ask the ride host, you will be allowed to wait for the front or the back seat, but otherwise you are assigned a row number as you enter the station. We wanted our first ride to be in the very back, as we had heard so much about it.

The seats were very comfortable, and it is clear that they are much more accomodating than the other Intamin coasters in the park. Anyway, it was time to ride, and WOW... what more can I say. It seems these threads have been full of praise for this ride, and I can only agree 100%. This ride is intense from start to finish. The transitions are beautiful, and the first drop simply takes your breath away. The only let down was the lack of fog/mist in the tunnel. There are so many great parts of this ride, it is impossible for me to pick my favorite. We pulled into the station and were blown away. I wasn't ready to decide for sure, but I had a feeling I had a new favorite on my hands.

Unfortunately, the joy and ecstasy of the ride was quickly swept away when we realized that Rob had lost his phone and his keys on the ride. They told us to come back at 12:15 to see if they had found it. At this point, we decided to hit some of the other rides, since everyone was at Maverick. We made a quick lap on Skyhawk, and then headed to Millennium Force. After waiting about 20 minutes for MF we climbed in for our ride. It was interesting... After riding Maverick, something about MF wasn't the same. It had lost some intensity for me. It was another sign that my favorite coaster could be changing.

We continued moving around the park hitting Iron Dragon (David loved it!), Power Tower Shot Side, and Witches Wheel. We checked out Magnum, but with the one train operation the line was over an hour, even with a very short line. We decided to pass. By this point, it was time to head to Chick-Fil-A to meet up with some other Pointbuzzers for lunch, and for Rob to check for his "lost articles". We stopped briefly to pick up our First Rider t-shirts and ran into Josh (exit english) and Mark (Mark Small). They joined us for lunch as well. I have always enjoyed Chick-Fil-A and their food, and the service was very fast, and very friendly. The price was obviously a bit steep. 10.34 for a Chicken Sandwich, Waffle Fries, and a drink. After eating, we met up with Rob and found out they hadn't found his stuff yet. He decided to break off and do some other things while the Pointbuzzers and I decided to head back to Maverick for another ride. We found a full queue, but just an hour and a half later we were on the stairs looking down on the great queue house (can you find Josh?), and ready to ride! While on the stairs we noticed what seemed to be a bit of a construction faux pas with the queue house... see if you agree. I again rode the back seat... this time with David and the ride was again incredible. After the ride we split up somewhat and did our own thing for a bit.

I met up with Rob and his family again and rode Gemini, and then headed to Wicked Twister. Unfortunately there was some issue with WT at the time, as the ride was E-Stopped and a loud, constant hissing sound was coming from the track in front of the riders. Maintenence was on the scene working on it, and I noticed a new hatch under the ride that I never knew was there. After watching maintenence for a bit, we decided to head up to get our fleece (2XL was all that was left), and then get a few rides on Blue Streak. I am really impressed with this ride this year, and neither ride dissapointed. Great floater airtime, and good laterals on the turnaround. It looks like they have some new signage as well. After this we went for a spin on maXair, and then took the train back to Maverick to check for Rob's phone and keys again. They had found them, but since they were in a low zone they could not get them out until later.

We decided to take another spin on Maverick after this, and ended up meeting back up with the PointBuzz folks for this ride. While in line I decided to fork over 3 bucks for a Pepsi. Unfortunately, when the machine took my 20 dollar bill, it decided to only give me 13 dollars back. That made it a 7.00 Pepsi... outrageous. I know I could have went up and complained and got my 4 dollars back, but I just didn't feel like making the walk all the way to the front for that. Once we got up to the station, Rob and I decided on the very front seat. Amazingly, we only had to wait 2 trains for it! There are things about both the front and the back that I love, and I honestly can't decide which I like better. Perhaps after a few hundred more rides I can decide :). All i know is Maverick is one amazing ride. After our third ride on Maverick we headed to the Roundup for dinner. Again, the prices were outrageous. We tried the new "Western Melt", and although the flavor was decent, when I think of a melt, I expect the cheese to be melted. It was cold, and not melted at all. The food service woes continue...

After dinner, Rob tried again to get his Keys and Phone as he really could not afford to wait until after park closing to get them. The Maverick TL was gracious enough to stop dispatching trains for 5 minutes to go get his stuff. What great guest service, she will definitely get a guest compliment from Rob! Despite getting his phone back and in good shape, his keys were not so lucky. He uses an "Intelligent Key" for his car, since it is a push-button start, and unfortunately it was shattered. He wasn't sure if it would work or not, so we said our goodbyes to the PointBuzz gang, had one more ride on Skyhawk, and then called it a day. Unfortunately for Rob, the key did not work. He had to wait on his parents to drive up from Columbus to bring him the spare, and he didn't get home until 2 AM. It was a lesson learned. Secure your loose articles! I got back to South Bend around midnight and was completely worn out. But even in my state of utter exhaustion, all I could keep thinking about was how excited I was for my next ride on Maverick!

Ride Totals:
Maverick - 3
Skyhawk - 2
Millennium Force - 1
Iron Dragon - 1
Power Tower (Shot) - 1
Witches Wheel - 1
Gemini - 1
Blue Streak - 2
maXair - 1

Hours in Park: 11
Total Rides: 13

View all of the Photos from the Day

Excellent post. And I cannot stress enough how valuable wearing cargo pants/shorts with zippers can be if you plan on riding loopers all day.

Great TR Josh. Nice meeting you Monday. Sorry about Rob's keys.

I was pretty exhausted when I got home too, and couldn't stop thinking about Maverick, and planning the next trip.

Haha... I'll be back this Sunday to get more of my Maverick fix!

That was a great trip report and nice pictures as well.

Can't get enough huh Josh? I'm hoping to be back on Sunday afternoon as well.

We went to CP on Memorial Day too (unfortunately it was our only trip of the year). We are probably back a little ways in that line picture that you took. I found it interesting that they let us loose before the National Anthem. That run was amazing. The people never thinned out the whole way there. I also hit MF after Maverick, so maybe we saw each other without realizing it. That day I got 3 rides on MF, 2 on TTD, and 1 on Maverick, not to mention rides on many other coasters. It was a great day and now I am kind of sad that we won't be able to come back for Memorial Day 08 (School goes a week later next year).