CP August 16-18

Stayed at Breakers of course, and enjoyed the pools and hottubs located outside of the hotel, as well as the shore of Lake Erie. It's no Ocean beach, but it did the job just fine. Onto the park.

Went in around 1:30 and started the day with the Tilt-a-whirl. Walk-on. My fiancee' never even knew they had one til I took her into Camp Snoopy and showed her that there it was, running strong.

So after a ride on that, we headed over to Raptor. I know, what a bizarre direction to go, but for some reason the line was short so we hit it up then and there. About a 20 minute wait.

Next was Iron Dragon. 10 minute wait. Good ride as usual. I almost forgot there are two lift hills! A re-ride on this got us a wait on the second lift hill due to them getting ahead of themselves I think.

Onto Corkscrew. 5-10 minute wait. Good ride, except that for some reason, if I don't get the front of a car, I really get crammed in and the restraints hurt my shoulders. Same for any Arrow looper, even Double Loop. Unfortunately I couldn't grab a front seat of a car so I suffered through it. It really wasn't that bad, except for my dang shoulders! I have this problem on Head Spin at GL as well. Anyway, moving forward....

Next I decided to go back and grab a bite to eat at my hotel room, then it was off to Magnum XL-200.

This is hands down still my favorite coaster at the park. There's just something about the good ol' Magnum. I love to sit on the left side of the train because I like the feeling it gives when you hit the first banked turn.
Smooth ride through and through. 15 minute wait.

Then I went over to Disaster Transport. 20 minute wait. Not sure why people dislike this ride, but I find it fun. The ride in the dark and free movement of the "bobsled" type cars just makes for an interesting ride.

After that I hopped on Troika, (walk-on) which turned out to be a good little thrill. It's been years since I rode it, and I wasn't expecting the dips. Good ride.

So next was Wicked Twister. walk-on. While I've been to the park since it was built, I had not rode it yet. After tons of laps on Steel Venom at GL, figured it was time for something different. In the end the ride was great. The twist backward didn't even affect me however. At least not as much as I thought it would. I favor this ride now over Venom for one reason and one reason only: No holding brake. While I know most like that feature of Venom, I hate it. It just terrifies me. So WT is a welcome change.

That pretty much put a close to day 1, so onto day 2.

Woke up around 8:50am and went straight for Millennium Force. 20 minute wait with early access pass. Good ride. Great airtime throughout the ride. Very tall lift hill, but with the new lift mechanism you get right to the top no problem. Nice and fast drop, with the ride holding a good speed throughout the entire ride. While I enjoy MF, Magnum still holds my number 1 spot.

Onto Thunder Canyon. Now if GL could build a raft ride like this they would be set. Very cool ride through the woods. I could see GL pulling this off if they wanted to by building one along the land path behind RWB.

Next was Snake River Falls. My Fiancee' is terrified of high boat rides, but she was a trooper. Good drop for a boat ride. I had forgotten that it dives through the lift hill. Soaked after that ride of course.

Went back and changed into some dry clothes then came back in to ride Magnum yet again.

Next was MaxAir. 25 minute wait. Not a bad ride, except I think I could do without the spin. Only because I'm not big on spinning rides. At least my stomach isn't. Even though the spin was slow, I definately felt it. All in all a pretty good ride in the end.

Onto Gemini. 5 minute wait. Good coaster except I noticed they were braking the red train slightly to let blue get ahead. This was the case for most of the day. Is this always the case? Does red ever get the lead?

Next was Mean Streak. Suprisingly smooth ride on this bad boy. I remembered it being terribly rough, but perhaps it's just because I ride Villain at GL so much. 10 minute wait for this coaster.

Proceeded to check out the construction site afterward, only to find an entire half of the course already built! This had to of taken place way early in the morning, since the night before it was only about four sections of track in place. Still say this ride will be either the wingwalker trains, or a Rita type ride. I have yet to see Aquatrax elements, but it's still early in the game.

After that we made our way to Wildcat. 10 minute wait. Still a great little mouse coaster.

Onto Mantis. 15 minute wait. WTF happened to this ride?!? Ouch! Major headbanging in a few sections. Heck I think calling it headbanging is an understatement. Also the ol' male pride was a bit sore after the ride aswell which led to a no re-ride on this beast. Poor Mantis, it needs some major TLC. Maybe it was just me, I don't know. Anyone else have any headbanging issues like this?

Next up was several re-rides on the many rides that were reviewed in day one.

After that it was the Blue Streak. Walk-on. Forget airtime this thing has become nothing but ejector air! Not that it's a problem, which it isn't, but I just don't remember it being that wild. Then again I haven't rode it since 1994.

While in the area took a spin on Calypso and the turnpike cars. Great little rides that no one should pass up. Went around and got onto the cadillac cars aswell.

Then onto Cedar Downs. I forgot that this carousel is sort of like a horse race and was the suprise hit of the trip between My Fiancee' and I. It had us laughing the whole time.

Took a ride on Matterhorn as well as most of the other smaller flats in the area.

To end this day we went to Skyhawk. To our suprise it was a walk-on! The previous day only one arm had been running, but today it was running like a champ! Walked right on and I must say I like this ride over both MaxAir and Kennywood's Swing Shot. While the ride cycle may not last very long, I understand why. It is one heck of a huge Screamin' Swing and perhaps over-exerting the motors and such will hurt it? Anyway the ride was awesome. It was a night ride, so I wanted to come back in the morning and try it again. Onto Day 3.

Walked into the park at 9:00, only to find a freakin' huge line formed for Dragster already. Geez, all those Hotel guests and Joe Cool Club Members sure do make up alot of peeps. This wasn't even an early open ride! Heck, MF, MaxAir, Raptor, Skyhawk...all early open rides were 10 minutes or less with some being a walk-on.

Nope, these peeps were determined to ride Dragster first thing. So I never got to ride Dragster yet because on this day, I had to leave around 1pm.

So I went to MF first thing to find an extremely short line! The early pass thing is great. Got in two rides on it in under 30 minutes......however it wasn't but 5 minutes after that when....Here they come in droves! The queue immediately filled up to probably a 35-40 minute wait.

Went over to Skyhawk and it was a walk-on. Daytime ride was a little scarier seeing the ground in daylight. Awsome ride though and is probably my fav flat in the park.

After that we went back and checked out of the hotel, came back in and rode Magnum 3 more times in a row with only one train waits. After that we toured the park for pictures and video, then headed out. We both did not want to leave and was about to have my Aunt wire us money so we could stay longer.

Unfortunately, we have to go back to work and we have pets, so that was out of the question. Thankfully I have the CP and parking add-on to my GL pass so I will be back up on Sept. 1st. Then again for Halloweekends.
Good times.