Sunday, July 6th 2014

Today was my third trip of the year. I arrived about 11AM. I went with my friend who is a regular season pass holder, so I couldn't do early entry but I didn't really need it today anyway.

First, we headed back to Maverick, about a 30 minute wait. Then Pipe Scream, which was a walk-on. And Gemini, another walk-on. Then we took a break at Coca-Cola Freestyle. After that we headed to Magnum, which was about a 10 minute wait. Then Corkscrew, which was about another 10 minute wait.

After Corkscrew we went to Iron Dragon, which was about a 25 minute wait. Then we went to Blue Streak, about a 5 minute wait. After that we took a little break and went to Toot Sweets for a funnel cake.

After the break, we went to CCMR for about a 10 minute wait. Then right from the CCMR exit, we went on Skyhawk. Then we went to the Challenge Park go-karts. I get BOGO with my platinum pass.

After getting back into the park, we took another rest and watched TTD for a little bit. I wanted to go on it, but didn't due to the wait time. TTD was down for a while due to wind so I think that was the cause of the lines.

After that break, we went on Millennium Force, about a 30 minute wait. It was about 5PM at this point. My friend was afraid of MF last season and didn't have a good experience but gave it a second chance today and now loves it.

After MF, we took a break and did 1 lap on CP&LE. My feet were getting really tired at this point in the day. The break on CP&LE really helped. After CP&LE, we went to get some drinks. I was feeling dehydrated and got free water from a couple of places. That cold water felt so good.

After the drink break, we took it light and went on Scrambler, Dodgems and Matterhorn. Dodgems was about a 10 minute wait while the other 2 were nearly walk-on.

After taking it lightly, we were trying to get some re-rides. We got a walk-on to Corkscrew and Gemini. Pipe Scream was a 30 minute wait, so we passed. Maverick was 45 minutes, so we passed.

Then we began to make our way towards the front. And then we headed for Gatekeeper. It was about a 15 minute wait around 8PM. This was my friends first experience with GK and it was a very positive outcome. Now it's one of his favorites.

Then I wrapped up the night by going on Raptor solo. It was a walk-on at about 8:30PM. I didn't go on it last time so I wanted to go on it today.

I had some spare money left in my budget so I went to the gift shop up by the main gate and got a t-shirt. Then we headed home. It was 8:45 when we got back on the road.

Overall, I think this was a good day. The crowds weren't as heavy as I expected and my friend handled the rides way better this time and exceeded my expectations. My friend was afraid of coasters last year and only went to the park once, but got a season pass this year and now loves coasters, today was his second trip of the year. Used to be just me and my sister would go, but now I got a new person that I can go with sometimes.

I may park in the Soak City lot and start in the back of the park for future visits. Is that a better strategy? It looks like the rides in the back end of the park get lines later in the day while rides up front are walk-ons later in the day.

On a side note, I did enjoy plenty of Platinum Pass perks today. I know I thought 10% wasn't much of a discount, but it saved me a few bucks today between drink, snack and merchandise purchases as well as BOGO go-karts.

We've been parking in the back lot by Soak City for the past three years. Not only do we frequent the water park often, but we typically enjoy the back of the park more than the front. Since we spend a lot of time in Frontiertown and Camp Snoopy, it makes things easier if we need to grab something from the car or drop something off. Even if we close the day near the front of the park, the back parking lot is still easily accessible via the beach gate along the boardwalk.