Saturday, June 18 and Sunday, June 19 2011

I've been planning this trip with my girlfriend and another couple for a long time. It went off almost exactly as I'd planned and it will forever be one of the most memorable experiences of my life.

On Friday, I picked up my rental car and left Kansas City at just after 6pm. I had planned to stop whenever I got tired (presumably between St. Louis and Indianapolis) to sleep for the night, but I was just far too excited. I pulled off in a quiet, dark residential Ohio neighborhood around 4am, but just could not fall asleep, so after trying for about an hour, I got back on the road and finished my drive the rest of the way to Sandusky. I pulled into the Breakers Express lot at 8am and asked if I could get my early entry pass, tickets, parking voucher and if I was really nice could I please check in even though I wasn't supposed to check in until 4pm that day. The gentleman behind the counter was very accommodating and permitted me access to my room right away, which I gratefully accepted for a nice fresh shower and change of clothes.

Now, at that point, I probably should have called it a night and gotten some sleep since the rest of my party wouldn't be arriving for another 10-11 hours, but early entry was beginning in just 30 minutes at that point. How could I turn up that opportunity? I slapped on some sun block, hopped back in the rental car, and following some handy advice from these forums, I drove around to the soak city parking lot. I entered the park with the running of the bulls (although, I was a little tired to be running, so I just kinda power-walked it). The recommended ride order worked like a charm.

I hit Maverick and MF before the general admission entry. I heard the ending notes to "God Bless America" just as I entered the gate into the TTD line, which was a very quick 15 minute wait. From there, I hit Power Tower, Gemini -- where I was sad to learn they don't race trains before 11.30 -- Magnum (both gemini and magnum were back row and both were miserably shakey), MaXair and Mean Streak by noon. I stopped off at Pink's to see what all the scuttlebutt was about and left satisfied albeit underwhelmed.

By then, I was ready to call it a day and take a well-deserved nap, but not before stopping off at the caricature booth right by the exit and speaking with Natalie about my plans for the following day. More on that later.

The following morning, after my friends and girlfriend had arrived, we headed to the park, entering about 15 minutes into the early entry. We hit Maverick, then headed straight to TTD. After that, we did Iron Dragon, Power Tower twice (down, then up), lunch at coasters, then hit the shops in frontier town, when the storms started coming. Unfortunately, that was when we had planned to hit the water rides, especially StR, which we had missed last year since it wasn't open yet, but alas, that wasn't meant to be. Once the raid subsided, we hit up MF, corkscrew, then hit up the caricature artist I'd spoken with the previous day, Natalie.

Natalie was very excited to hear my plan and did a great job playing along. She listened to the request my girlfriend had made then got to work as our friends snapped photos and recorded video. A couple of times people stopped off and stared. I would later find out the GF just thought it was because she was doing such a great job (which, btw, she did). Anyhow, the rain came and went again while all this happened, but around the time the rain passed, Natalie turned the picture around, revealing this http://imageshack.us/f/233/caricaturex.jpg/

The look on my girlfriend's face was absolutely priceless. I dropped to one knee, said my little spiel and slipped the ring on her finger as she sobbed and hugged. There was a crowd waiting in line for Magnum (which was closed during the storm) that saw the whole thing, and they burst into applause once it was finished. So much fun!

From there, we took the pagodas to the front of the park, which we'd been neglecting far too long. We went on the Raptor (which my now-fiancee pointed out was the first coaster we ever rode as a couple and now the first we rode as an engaged couple!). She showed her ring to the strangers in line behind us. It was so cute. We went across the way to ride MaXair, then were disappointed to find Disaster Transport shut down when we were just 5 trains for the front of the line. The storms rolled through once again, so we went to the Midway Market (again, thanks to some suggestions) and had a nice dinner as we watched all the people run around in the rain, searching for shelter.

After dinner, we made our way back to Disaster Transport, which was still closed, so we hit up some more shops. Unfortunately, we never managed to find a shirt either of us wanted, but the caricature is more than enough souvenir! Finally, we managed to ride Disaster Transport, followed by the big wheel. MaXair was a walkon, so we did that again, then hit up Wicked Twister, then headed to WindSeeker, which was kind enough to open less than a week prior to our visit. My impression: the ride is neither thrilling nor relaxing, but sadly in this strange in-between place where we can't enjoy the romantic view because it spins too fast, but don't find it all that scary or thrilling either.

By then, it was 9.45, so we went to the front of the park to pick up our photo from the photographer ambush as you enter the park. We had to rush to pick up the caricature before the booth closed, so my fiancee and I hauled as fast as we could and got there as Natalie was closing up. She seemed relieved we had made it in time and wrote a sweet "congratulations" on the bag.

Our friends met back up with us and we exited the park, stopping off at RipCord for one last thrill to top off an unforgettable day.

Overall, I would say the day could not have been spoiled by any amount of rain, but I will continue to look forward to Shoot the Rapids for next year!

Congrats! Glad everything worked out for you, and props to Natalie on the caricature! Great TR!

Congats! Sounds like you had a pretty awesome time.

graized said:
Once the raid subsided, we hit up MF, corkscrew, then hit up the caricature artist I'd spoken with the previous day, Natalie.

I hate those pesky unannounced raids that just come and go on a whim. ;)