Sept 21,22 Halloweekends, the scariest thing = Food

My family have been season pass holders since about 1994. We have come to Halloweekends for the past 5 years.

My wife and I decided to try something new this year. Instead of coming on Sunday, driving 2 hours in the morning and 2 hours home in the evening, we left work early on Friday, dropped the kids at Grandmas (40 minutes from park) and went to a Friday evening Halloweekends.

First let me say it was on of the best times we have ever had at CP. There were plenty of concerns, but mostly fun, fun and more fun!

Friday Sept 21
We got there around 7pm
We started off with MF and waited about 30 minutes for a ride. We rode in the very back for the first time in years and it was a great ride, tons of airtime!

We then headed over to Maverick, which was closed down. We decided we would get in line anyway. After about a half hour with no car moving we gave up and headed over to Gemini. (Oops it was closed)

We then hit Magnum. This is one of favorites and we normally hit it about 20 times a year. We were towards the front. This was by far the fastest ride on Magnum that I can remember. I am lucky not to be bruised from the lap bar by the way I was flung into it. Still a great ride, and I didn't mind the speed at all.

Before today, we had ridden only MF at night for quite a few years. We had already ridden MF and Maggie and it would only get better!

After Maggie we checked the line for TTD, only 30 minutes! So we went in and of course it broke down. (I have ridden YYD 12 times and the thing has broken down at least 14 times with me in line)
They got it back up in about 15 minutes this time and we got a good ride.

My wife was chicken of CarnEVIL so we walked around it to WT. After a walk on front and walk on back ride, we headed over to Raptor.

We had another good ride on the Raptor after a 20 minute wait, and looked at our watches. It was now 11:35pm and the park closed at Midnight. We decided to give Maverick one more try.

We had to walk through the Frontier trail Fright Zone to get there, and the actors did a great job of being scary without being obnoxious. We then hit the line for Mav and it was showing 45 on the sign.

After going through the line for about 20 minutes, it broke down again. We decided to stick it out. We werent leaving unless they forced us to. After about 15 minutes down, they got it going again, to loud applause from the queue.

At 12:20 we got off Maverick, having taken our first ride in the back and at night. WE WERE SPEECHLESS. I am happy to report that I am now a believer. When they built it and even after watching the POV videos, I was not anxious to ride it, but it is now #1 or #2 on my list of favorite rides.

We left at about 12:30am and were back in line at 10:30 the next day to go again.

Saturday Sept 22
They let everyone in at 11am as usual, but they made everyone with early entry passes go through one tiny little choke point at Johnny Rockets (Yes I wish I had used the SC lot) It took us until 11:15 to finally get to Maverick and the line was already snaking around past Sky Hawk.

Maverick broke down again while we in line, but we persevered and got our first daytime run in. Again, I am thoroughly impressed with this ride!

After hitting MF one more time on our way out, we couldn't get over how crowded it was. On our way in, were in row 18 (3 rows back from handicap) but had to lose our spot to go get the kids. We got back at 4pm and the place was just packed! We had to park in row 46 or something ridiculous.

After picking up the kids, my 6 year old daughter, who just broke 48" wanted to ride some big rides. We hit Blue Streak first. She didn't like it. Her best comment was "why in the heck did they make this thing out of WOOD?"

Her dislike for woodies didn't last long though, after sending my wife and 4 year old to the Gemini JR, we headed for the real deal. She loved it, saying something like "that was the best ride ever!"

So the kids got in a few more good rides before we left at 8pm, but the place was packed and we were beat!

The food prices are now so bad that we only ate 1 meal out of 4 possible in the park. Next year it will be 0. If it wasn't for the short line at the Sugardale trailer and my kids affinity for Hot Dogs, we would have skipped it all.

We had a great time on Friday night and will be making at least one more Friday night trip this year! (Saturday was way too busy for me, but the kids still got to ride what they wanted)

Sounds like fun! But a question: Does CP have the worst prices for food around? I mean I thought Six Flags were worse.

After going to a Yankee game this weekend I am done complaining about CP's food prices.

She wouldnt go through CarnEVIL but she went through Fright Zone? I heard Fright Zone was scarier than CarnEVIL. I've only been in CarnEVIL, though.

I went to the first Friday of Halloweekends this year and the park was empty. Everything but Maverick which was about 25 minutes, was about a 5 minute wait. I think Friday's the best day to go.

I thought CarnEvil was scarier. I think it was because it was was a more open space, and I quickly became very disoriented & ended up almost walking into the aquarium (I thought I was close to exiting by Choas).

Fright Zone was a narrower path with not much room to stray from your original group, and not much room for people to hide in.

Really? OK because I thought CarnEvil was scary too so I wasnt sure about Fright Zone lol. I didn't know that CarnEvil was so short, because we went half way in and ran all the way back out because my sister was so afraid lol. The fog is so cool, especially with the lighting. Does the fog from Fright Zone usually travel over to Millennium? Because it did when I went.

Not sure about Six Flag's food, last time I was at one of their parks was SFWoA back in 2001 - After that experience I had no interest in going back. I even had a choice between going to SFMM (My Hotel was in Velncia) or driving 90 minutes to Knotts and I chose Knotts. (The free admission didnt hurt)

^I had just the opposite experience when I was out there. My hotel was right by Knott's, and when I wound up with an extra day, I chose to return to Six Flags. I had season passes for CF and Six Flags, but the people at Knott's spent 45 minutes claiming our CP season passes were no good there. So that's why Magic Mountain won our pick for our extra day.

Back on topic, there are a lot of people with a fear of clowns, so that helps give CarnEvil an edge for some people. As a Screamster, I personally don't like how open it is, but there are quite a few people working in there that love that aspect of it.

I'm glad you had a good time on Friday night. They are generally a good time to be in the park.

RTurb0 said:
Her dislike for woodies didn't last long though, after sending my wife and 4 year old to the Gemini JR, we headed for the real deal. She loved it, saying something like "that was the best ride ever!"

Psst - Gemini isn't a wood coaster.

Nice TR though. Friday nights are the best time for hitting the haunted stuff, and Saturday's are the best for people watching.

Jugga - You got me there, I spent 10 minutes explaining to her that unlike Blue Streak, Gemini did not have a wood track and then came here and still called implied it was a woodie.......Doh!

Kids are funny though, she really doesnt understand why they build coasters out of wood, and yet her favorite coaster before last weekend was the fairly odd coaster at KI.

Thanks for the catch

You need to get her to some other parks. Get her on Beast or Thunderhead. Those will change her opinion of wood coasters. Or if you really want to blow her mind, head to Santa Claus, IN and ride Voyage. She'll be wondering why its supported by steel but still has wood rails.

Thanks for the tip!
A trip to Holiday World is in our plans for 2009. 2008 will be our first trip to Disney.