Sat Oct 19th & Sun the 20th

Saturday Oct 19th

High Po!nts of day: Free pancakes! (Employee translation: if you eat them at 9am, you won’t be hungry again until 2) Stopping in PR office to say hi (I AM NOT AN ENTHUSIAST!!) I had kept an eye on the weather all week and bought 10 extra pairs of gloves for the crew. Being a Mom I knew some wouldn’t remember to bring theirs to the park or that some didn’t even have any. I was happy to see that was a good idea since most of the gloves were indeed needed. :) I did my 1st AM train transfer (had help with me just in case) I wonder how many people know we put the trains in order (1,2 then 3) back on track. Morning test ride, awesome as always. Thanks to our ride prides, real crew spared crowd control, entrance and freeway, which of course kept the crowds moving pretty consistent all day. I did my 2nd "runway rescue" and I got to do spiels and controls alot more which I just loved! :) The weather during mid afternoon was tolerable for us, and despite the cloudy morning it was sunny all day. I wore my "Banshee" pin and if anyone hears that Banshee is the name of the new ride I certainly didn’t start THAT rumor!! ;)

Low Po!nts of day: Weather! The morning was damp and chilly for crew, and it dropped to the upper 30’s (?) that night. I know load/unload 1 were the worst positions due to the wind. I had unload 1 (spiels) for the last 40 minutes of the night and was so thankful I had on 3 layers of clothes (one advantage of being female-TIGHTS!! :)) Thanks to some getting an early start cleaning queues weren’t too bad. It was obviously day 1 of "Freak Day" that day for we saw more strange looking guests and seriously couldn’t tell if they were dressed for Halloween or that is TRULY how they meant to dress!!! :)

Sunday Oct 20th

High Po!nts of day: CHOW down breakfast. You can ask Jeff how much food Raptor Jo can pack away! It is scary! ;) After breakfast our morning park walk. We stopped and visited with some Boneville skeletons then off to Raptor we headed. The day started out chilly (yes some of my gloves were still needed! :)) but beautiful blue skies. Morning test ride which I took with a ride pride. He almost fell over when I told him that was my 674th flight! Crowd was (typically) light all day. I got to see tons of GTTPers, GOCC’ers I know, plus met a couple new ones. Nice to see Josh (Freaky) and his wife too! You really don’t realize how many people you know or know you until you spend 10 hours at Raptor and hear your name called out all day! Mr Skyward came and rode a couple of times, I find it very endearing that he will go out of his way to find me and wave at me every time he rides. He really is a sweet guy and I believe all of us have to admit looking for him every time we’re at the Po!nt. I guess I have the honor of being the one HE looks for when he’s at the Po!nt! :) I had alot of spiel and control time again. Then got to do the evening transfer (solo-although phone close by!) the coolest part of that to me was getting the last train to the transfer track, of course I’m easily amused anyway ;)

Low Po!nts of day: Although weather nicer than Saturday I think we all could have done without the wind. When on load side when train would leave station we all would almost get knocked over with the wind. It was day 2 of "Freak Day"-what is up with the knee high 10" heeled boots? I don’t think any of us will ever forget the SILVER pair on the guest who also decided fishnet makes an acceptable skirt. WTH? I’m glad my kids don't dress like that cause they would never get to leave the house! ;) There were alot of CP virgins in park Sunday which caused alot of extra handrail sitters and swingers, people trying to take their big Spongebob Squarepants on the ride with them, people trying to cross the platform AS floor dropping, standing on the yellow line. Crowd stayed light all day which at times makes me chomp on the bit to ride but honestly I have been having such a great time this season with the crew that I am almost sorry I didn’t opt to work for September weekends too!! :)

Thanks to all of you who made sure they said hi to me and it was great meeting some newbies! Another great weekend as part of the CP family and the best crew ever!! :)

Jo
2000/2002 Raptor Crew
Lifetime Raptor: 674 :)
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It's all about getting around the barrels, or over the fences, right leads, no faults, fastest time and looking pretty when done. What's so hard about that? :)

One last thing I forgot to mention! On way home Jeff and I stopped in Wendys in Bucyrus. There was this family in front of me on line and I looked down and saw what a mess I was....uniform pants, sweat shirt, uniform shirt hanging out under, and knew my hair was JACKED. I looked at them and said "sorry I'm such a mess but I just got done working at Cedar Point."
The Dad said, "we were there too, we recognized you, you were on Raptor, weren't you?"
who me? ;)

Jo
2000/2002 Raptor Crew
Lifetime Raptor: 674
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It's all about getting around the barrels, or over the fences, right leads, no faults, fastest time and looking pretty when done. What's so hard about that? :)

The infamous third train flyby was always a favorite with me. It really freaks out some people, that sucker gets moving. There's nothing wrong with being obsessed with EVERY single part of the ride. Just ask anyone about the stuff I know, it's borderline scary. Angle of the K-braces under the transfer bay? 67 degrees. Number of track sections? 107. Horsepower of the floor motor? 1.4 Lines of Ladder Logic on PLC program? Let's just say a lot. It's sad to hear the station gates are on their way though.

Of course I'll have to send you a copy of the crew video I'm working on. If I can ever finish it, it'll be worth the wait.
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2002 Raptor Crew
"Hey, Cool. My voice is on the lift"

Another fellow Raptor obsesser! Cool! :) Although not as smart technically as you I am crazy about the ride. I'm probably going to add on to my Raptor tattoo this winter, not sure if I want to get it outlined in green or maybe add some claws to it like the new shirts. Such conflicts, huh? Your signature cracks me up because I had to say something on the lift hill and DIED when I heard how loud I was. I am SOOO dieing when it's a crowded Saturday to say on it, "this is God, GO HOME!" :)
I don't know how you can possibly say you're sad about the air gates, Im ESTATIC. Also heard they're removing the 2nd front car queue. GOOD! By doing those crowd control will be more tolerable, (my LEAST fav position)
With the airgates, no more saying "step behind the yellow line" or "hold" due to some idiot going to cross the train at the wrong time. I was shocked when Maggie got hers and Raptor didn't. If they rig them that they can open right after floor done rising then the timing won't be such an issue. Or if it's like Talon, dispatch will have to open and close them.
If people would just FOLLOW THE RULES then we wouldn't have the need for airgates or the constant supervision by us when we're working!! I would love a copy of the tape if you ever get it done. Email me and I will be more than happy to pay you for the tape and shipping :) I'm dreading this weekend, I really have had such an awesome time this season and no lie, it is really honestly because of the crew :)

The only reason I'm not looking forward to the gates is the capacity issue. Theoretically, it shouldn't change it. The gate switch should be at load 3, there's already the room for it. One of the button diagrams even shows a gate switch on it. It'll just come down to how quickly the the gates are opened.

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2002 Raptor Crew
"Hey, Cool. My voice is on the lift"

I was there on the 20th and I saw you Jo. I walked right on Raptor (well I had to wait a few minutes for the front because I couldn't pass up the front considering I walked right up to the platform!) and you were doing the spiels. I have to say you did a great job and I loved the Banshee pin! :)

It was interesting to see about 5-6 empty rows on Raptor for much of the day! Very cold too! I think it was definately my best trip ever since I walked on everything except for the 5-10 minute wait for Wicked Twister and the 10-15 minute wait for Millennium Force. But, I got plenty of walk-ons during the Joe Cool Club ERT. And I have never really been to Cedar Point on a day with all walk ons. haha
*** This post was edited by tWiStEd WiCkEr 08 10/28/2002 7:36:06 PM ***

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