Memorial Day (May 28th) & May 27th Starlight (Long Read)

EDIT: Looks like it was too long to come through. Maybe the admin have to ok it first.

*** Edited 5/31/2007 3:03:37 AM UTC by cdrptrks***

Write it in word or notepad first then copy and paste, if it doesn't work then copy in sections.

^I wrote it up in Word and copied and pasted it and it showed up in the new topic pane, but when it started the topic it was blank.

I finally got it to work after pasting it from word to notepad and then from notepad into the reply box. So here is the Trip Report:

Let me apologize in advance for the incredible length of this trip report.

Sunday:
We left Indianapolis at about 12:15pm. We got to Breakers Express at about 6:15pm. My brother and I decided to do a starlight (we used the buy one get one free starlight ticket coupon in the getaway guide), while our parents stayed back at the room. We got there and had pizza from Hurricane Hannah’s and then headed to Blue Streak at 7. It was walk on and after that we rode Maxair, which was a 15 minute wait. I was glad to finally catch a Giant Frisbee ride open since the past 3 times I had visited a park with one they were always broken down. Then we did Wicked Twister. It was just a few cycles wait. It seemed rougher than it has been in the past (or perhaps the pizza didn’t settle well). After that we walked on Ocean Motion and then went into the arcade for a few minutes. Then we went to Gemini which was just a few minute wait. Unfortunately it wasn’t racing because of the small crowds. Then I went back and rode Skyhawk (3 cycle wait). That was the one ride where the hosts didn’t seem very excited. They were taking their time loading and they didn’t even say “sit up right, hold on tight, and enjoy your flight on Skyhawk” before we started. After that we went to Cedar Creek Mine Ride. Unfortunately they were only running one train, so it was about a 10-15 minute wait. They weren’t moving especially fast but the guy with the mic was pretty friendly. However, THEY REALLY NEED TO GET SOME DIFFERENT LIGHTS IN THAT STATION! Everyone was literally ducking on the ground trying to get away from the thousands of mosquitoes swarming around the weird yellow fluorescent lights. Everyone on a dispatched train would clap and cheer because they were finally free from the bugs. After that it was getting dark, and we passed MF. It looked like a half hour wait but my brother didn’t want to go on it so we went on. We went on Iron Dragon, and they were haluling. I got my leg caught in the gate and managed to squeeze out and then the train was gone 15 seconds after I got in. They were moving so fast they wouldn’t even open the gate to let my brother on my train (he was behind me). The fog/mist effect over the pond is one of the only effects that CP has kept up well. After Iron Dragon, we went back by TTD and I think the sign said ¾ of an hour. But again, my brother didn’t want to ride it. So, we finished off the night by getting in line for Magnum at 9:55. It took us until 10:25 to get on because they were only running one train. We got the second to last train of the night, and it was a fun ride. The weather was nice (low 70’s to upper 60’s), but if it had been much colder I would have been cold in my shorts with the breeze off of Lake Erie. Then we went back to Breakers Express.

Monday:
We got up and went to McD’s for breakfast and then headed to the park. For the first time, we parked in the Soak City lot and went in the Magnum entrance. There were quite a few people there waiting when we got in line at about 8:45. It turned out to be a nice day, so I think that drew some more people to the park than there would have been if the weather would have been better over the weekend. We ran straight to Maverick, along with thousands of other people. It was crazy. The whole way there it didn’t thin out; there were tons of people running there. We got on Maverick at about 9:40 (about a 45 minute wait) and got our T-shirt vouchers. There was a 10ish minute downtime in there too; I’m not sure what went wrong though. Maverick was great and like others have said, it never let up. As soon as you hit the lift, it just keeps going right up to the end. We didn’t have the mist/fog in the tunnel and we also didn’t have the water bombs. But it still was a fun ride.
After that I quickly headed for Millennium Force. I got in line at about 9:50 and waited 15 minutes to get on. I got right back in line again and it was a 35 minute wait that time. After that I my parents had caught back up (and had got our Maverick first rider T-shirts) and we went on Iron Dragon. They were loading very quickly and running 3 trains with very little stacking. I saw that the Mantis line was pretty short from Iron Dragon, so I headed over there. It was a good ride (about 20ish minute wait) and not as jerky as it was last year. By then it was almost noon, so we went around by Top Thrill Dragster (the sign said 1.5 hour wait) and had some soft pretzels. Then we rode Gemini as a family (it was racing this time); it had less than a 10 minute wait. After that we had lunch from a variety of places (I had Cheese on a stick and Chik-fil-a).
After lunch we checked the Skyhawk line but most of the turnstiles were full so I passed on that. We all rode Cedar Creed Mine Ride (they were running 2 trains this time) with about a 5 minute wait. After that my brother and I went on Mean Streak. It was about a half hour wait. It was less jerky than when I rode it back in 2002, but the trims on the first drop were way too noticeable and I never really got any airtime. I could feel that if we had been going a little faster (if the trims weren’t there) then it would have had some great airtime hills. While in line I heard that MF was down. Our family rode the CP&LE Railroad back around to the Mantis/ID station and we saw that there was a line on the midway for MF. They had just started letting the line go back into the actual queues, so I got in line and got on Millennium Force for the third time with about a 25 minute wait. It was fun to ride MF because I hadn’t ridden it since our 2004 trip (it was down for our trip last year). It has some great airtime, and I love the way you float out of your seat on the first drop. And it is smooth enough that you can keep your hands up the whole time without worrying about getting your back jerked. After that it was about 3:00 so we headed up to the front of the park
We rode Blue Streak (walk on) and then went on Space Spiral followed by Disaster Transport (25 minute wait). They didn’t have the air conditioning on in “repair bay” room so it wasn’t very pleasant (by then it was in the upper 70’s outside). They didn’t have very much themeing on during the ride, but it was a decent ride anyways. They had a few strobe lights going and that made it cool since it went from dark to strobe. Then we checked the Maxair & WT lines but Maxair had full queues and WT looked like about a 15-20 minute wait, so we moved on. I played skeeball in the arcade and after $4 worth I finally got over a 270 and got a small prize (a snake). They were giving out the same snakes as last year so now I have a matching pair. After that it was around 5:30, so we headed towards Dragster. We stopped for Power Tower on the way and did the launch up side because the line was shorter. I got in line for TTD at 6:00pm and the sign said 1 ¼ hour wait. The line was fairly full, but it moved pretty well. They had someone at the station letting people go in groups so that the station didn’t get clogged up, so it wouldn’t move for a while and then it would move a lot and then it would repeat. At 6:50 they announced that TTD was down for technical difficulties. I stayed in line until 7:30 and then finally left. I walked out and back towards the station looking for my parents and just as I passed the station they launched the green train, so I made an about face and got back in line. I actually ended up further up (at the bottom of the ramp) than I was when I left the line.
I got off TTD at about 7:50 and I had a headache that was telling me to eat something so I had a burger from Coasters and then we all went on Wildcat. After that we went on Iron Dragon again and they were really hauling. They were going so fast that we stopped near the top of the second hill (I am guessing it was because they were dispatching so fast that they ended up with a train on the brake run when we were at the top of the second hill). Anyways, the train behind us latched onto the lift and also stopped and then 30 seconds later the lift started up and I was surprised that it could do two trains at a time. When we got off the employees didn’t open the gates and they ran down the row and pushed all the harnesses down and dispatched the train empty literally within 15 seconds of us getting off. Apparently they were going too fast and they needed to get the train out of the station so that they could get the other train off of the brakes so that the train about to go onto the second lift wouldn’t stop like we did. While on Iron Dragon I saw that the TTD line was short so I rode that again (25 minute wait). TTD was really fun as usual and I even managed to get my arms up for the first time on my last ride of the night and that made it a lot more fun. After that it was 9:35 and I wanted to go on TTD again, but my family had been patiently waiting so I went with them to the front of the park. It turned out that TTD broke down about 10 minutes later and didn’t come back up that night, so it is good that I didn’t try to go on it again. I was exhausted by then and had a headache so we rode the Sky Ride over and my dad and I got in line for Raptor at 9:55 and my brother and mom went and my brother won the month of birth guess thing and got a monkey. We waited about a half an hour to get on. Raptor was fun and the cameras looked like an interesting thought, although we didn’t see any footage from our ride in the on ride photo area afterwards. The people getting on the train we got off of were the last train of the night, so I guess that made us the 4th to last train of the night. We walked back to the Magnum entrance/exit and got so see they moving the TTD trains off of the main track for that night and that was interesting. Then we drove back to Breakers Express. I fell asleep very quickly when we got back.

Tuesday:
We got up and checked out of the hotel at 11:00am and began the drive home. Shortly before we left I noticed a guy with a tractor with a mower attachment had just started mowing the field where the track for Maverick was last year. It looked like the first time it had been mowed this season. Perhaps they are getting the area ready for parts for Project 2008 ?.

Overall it was a good trip. It was a little bit crowded on Monday, but it was only reflected in the lines for Maverick and TTD (and then only during the day). I heard that Sunday was not crowed because it rained earlier in the day (before we go there) and a lot of people just stayed home. This along with Maverick probably contributed to the slight crowdedness on Monday. It was nice to see so many people in Frontiertown this year. I really liked Maverick (my brother said it was his new favorite steel coaster) and I think that it will help bring new life to Frontiertown for many years to come.

Again, sorry that this was so long.
*** Edited 6/1/2007 1:22:00 AM UTC by cdrptrks***