I'm sure I'll be blamed for much downtown opening day!
It was a great opening day.Not too cold (except on lift hills),and not too warm.
Before going into park,I walked underneath Magnum and gave one of the supports a big hug & kiss! Great to be home!
I camped out on Maggie for the first couple of hours. Was on it during 2 set-ups. Running smooth, a little slower due to wind. Front seat first train out. Saw some familiar faces.
It was hard to pull away, but decided to make a lap with some friends. Did Gemini,great to see an ex-Magnum op there. Love riding that thing with no brakes! Flies through end helix!
Mean Streak-I felt it ran good. No better,no worse. I even rode very back seat in Green train. Not rough at all. Saw another ex-Magnum op there. She of course got some candy too! :)
CCMR-had fun as usual with friends. Screaming my head off! Coming into station we chanted #1!!!
Frontier Trail-glad to see they didn't replace with concrete. I'm not even sure it was new blacktop. It looked like it was just sealed.I could be wrong.
Passed MF-didnt want to wait 1 1/2 hrs
Passed up Matis also,only 2 train operation
BS-WOW! what an incredible ride this year!! As soon as I stepped onto platform,it stopped! Someone in back seat noticed a mess,so we had to wait for it to be cleaned.
Raptor-this is where the fun began! What looked like a 30-40 minute wait, turned out taking about 1hr 20minutes before getting off! While in line,it went down with train half way up. It sat there for about 20 minutes. We finally got on,in back. As we approached the top of lift,it slowed and settled back with a clunk! I went crazy! I was cheering my head off!!!! We sat there for about 25 minutes. I was glad I put my sweatshirt back on. But wished I was wearing more than shorts! It got downright cold up there!! While up there,I observed that the tops of Raptor's columns were already covered from seagulls. At end of ride,I didn't notice the wicked side-to-side jerk when coming into brakes. Did they change it at all,anyone know? When we got off,we were given Ride passes. I kept mine. Keep it along side with the one I got from Magnum (a couple of years ago,Dan & I got stuck near top)
Did some walking around checking things out. Found they changed some fencing between Giant Wheel & DT. You can actually walk underneath part of DT. I don't remember that last year.
PT-did NW shot tower. about 15 minutes. When getting off,problems with restraints
Corkscrew-walkon, said hi to another ex-Magnum op
Paddlewheel-had new scenery working. nice to see something added to such an old ride!
CPLERR-complete lap,to check out MF line. SHORT (but was down)LOL
Now it was about 6:30,so we decided to camp at Maggie rest of night.Toward end of night, I noticed Magnum trains had cracks already.
So I ended up with about a dozen rides on Magnum.
it was a great day! Seeing all my friends and getting back in the groove. It was like a big reunion! I greeted more people there than I do at my family reunion!
For those of you that don't know me, remember someone with blue hair with a yellow/orange beard?
There was someone else with blue hair(no relation) but didn't have a beard
I felt like a famous person.Had my piture taken at least 10 times. One of them was on Gemini. Someone in other train took a pic while riding.LOL
After park closed,we watched when they finally ran the empty trains on Magnum to shut her down.I was surprised that they did! Almost stopped on 2nd hill!! I was standing by restroom by soak city/campground and couldn't see the pretzel. I swear it seemed like forever before the train made back around into sight!!
Well,it was a great opening day and I hope to see everyone again soon!
-jerry-
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http://www.magnummania.com jerry@magnummania.com