CP CoasterMania!! June 3rd & 4th '11

Could NOT get to Dusky fast enough I was so excited about being back in Ohio and especially to get to CP for my 12th CoasterMania. Hubby and I arrived around 4ish on Friday. We registered and my intent was to ride Raptor and then head to the Coral Courtyard for the 5pm social get together but we decided to skip Raptor (45 min wait) and instead headed to the courtyard. There was already a huge line waiting to get in. What it is about free food and enthusiasts? The funny thing was the line was wrapped around Windseeker which eventually brought a bunch of people running down the beachline thinking Windseeker was open. Nope.

The munchies were awesome, cheese cubes, meatballs, potato skins (that were YUM) fruit and all the pop you could drink. Mr Kinzel was scheduled to be our guest speaker so we made sure to eat fast and get in as fast as we could to insure good seats.
Despite the recent negative publicity about Mr Kinzel I just adore the man and always have. Besides making my life long dream possible in 2004, he has always treated me with the utmost respect. CP wouldnt be what CP is to myself and so many others if it wasnt for him. Anyway, his speech was very nice (and funny at times) and the film the big wigs made for him was sweet. I had thought by now the Q&A would be spared from GL questions....naturally not :(

After Mr Kinzel came time for the CM film festival. 3 finalist films and OMG they were all awesome! The 1st was a White Water Landing/Maverick film-excellently done. The 2nd (the winner) was about a time machine which was just supposed to go past the off season but ended up in the year 2033. Much to the time travelers relief CP was still there, much to his horror it was now owned by Six Flags. Cedar Flags--hilarious :)
The 3rd film was for a product called "Bug Off"-this film was hilarious also. After the late night Raptor rides last night I sure wish I had some of this stuff!! It was really hard to decide which film should win. I do recommend you see them on You Tube when they are posted.

Later that evening, I finally got my 1st ride this year on Raptor and was joined by my TL from 09. I had truly forgotten how much that green bird meant to me. During my 1st ride I felt almost sad that it was just my 1st ride this season. In years past I would have easily made at least 10 trips before CM. Raptor did me proud, the new wheels made the ride even more awesome for me :)

Ended up seeing Mr Skyward shortly after and he came running over to me as soon as he saw me. I took a picture with him. Yet something else I missed about CP, Mr Skyward. Although I do have to admit that all during the winter I would get texts from my CP buds when they would see him some place in Dusky. I may be changing my FB profile pic from Bert the Conquerer and I to Mr Skyward and I.

10:45 began night 1 of ERT. It was on Skyhawk (rode it 2x) Maggie, (rode her 4x) TTD (rode it none) and Mean Streak (rode it 2x)
Let me just say that what ever they did to MS this winter (less the fire) it is really a good ride. Still no Voyage but less painful and quite fun actually. Going up the 2nd hill theres no more jackhammering. The entire ride alot of fun and my spleen and girls were very happy about that. I was kinda hoping they would turn the lights off again like they did for CM '02 (?)

ERT rides on Maggie are 1 of my fav CM tradtions. Maggie was flying!
If they would let us reride (they didnt despite empty trains) we wouldve ridden longer but after 4 rides we called it a night.

I wasnt real happy with the fact I had to pay $7.95 for my all you can drink wristband, but after calculating I had drank about 20.00 worth of pop just on day 1, I didnt complain too terrible long. I love the wristband idea way better than having to carry a cup around all day.

By the time we left the park, got back to hotel and in bed it was well past 2am. We got up at 3:30 and got back to park at 4:30. 5am gates opened, we hit up the free donuts and coffee and headed back to MF.

Got 2 ERT rides, then headed to Maverick. I suspect that maybe Maverick had read my less than favorable comments about it compared to Cheetah Hunt cause it literally beat the crap out of me. 1 ERT ride, 2 Excedrins, plenty for me (hubby too) off to Bansh---Mantis.
Poor Mantis I swear it gets worse and worse every year. I used to love this ride and it really is starting to get unrideable for me. Being the B&M whore I am it kills me to hate that ride. Its really too bad it cant be redesigned into an awesome sit down or floorless like Kumba or Kracken.

We decided to head to Raptor and sat at entrance 45 minutes before the park was even open. We were definitely on the 1st train of the day :)
Rode a couple more times before hubby and I headed back to hotel to crash before lunch.
CoasterMania lunch was awesome, with the usuals they added fruit this year and way cool CoasterMania long sleeve shirts for us.

Hubby and I took in the whole park after lunch so I could take pics. We rode about anything we came across and even spent over an hour on the train. Blue Streaks trains were all redone by PTC so not only do they look great they ride GREAT!
I got a video of Windseeker actually spinning. The color show this ride puts on it really great. It does look like it is going to be alot of fun once its up and running.

Hubby and I realized we had forgotten about the GOCC get together at TGIFs, so we decided to eat at Pinks and OMG!! I had the Chili Cheese dog and no lie, it was the best chili dog I have EVER had!! Im from NY so the competition was pretty tough but Pinks won big time! Hubby had the NY hot dog and an order of onion rings and loved it too. Pinks is one of the best things to come along to CP food wise (IMO) since Johnny Rockets :)

10:15 started the PM ERT..Raptor, Blue Streak, DT, WT, MaxAir. The 11pm-midnight ERT on Windseeker was changed to MF. We hit DT and BS and literally went to Raptor and never got off. Actually, we did have to get off and walk around the 1st 2x, but then we were allowed to reride (I can not confirm nor deny I had anything to do with that) Lost my hubby after 3 rides, my Raptor bud Bets after 5 and I stayed on for a total of 32 rides :)
I had forgotten how much fun Raptor is at night and it was just BOOKING! The sworms of muffleheads were unreal during the rides, it was like they were waiting for the train to come so they could just squish themselves on us. I got tons of front row rides but wasnt that disappointed if I couldnt ;)

Midnight came way too fast for me and yet another CoasterMania over. It was really hard for me to drive away from CP knowing I didnt know the next time I would see it, my big green bird and all my CP buds again. CP and Raptor have such a big place in my heart.

CoasterMania '11 was WAY fun-my thanks to everyone who put it together and especially to the crews for tolerating all of us for 2 days. A big thanks to the MF crew for doing AM and PM ERTs, especially the PM one cause it meant less people on Raptor :)

Jo
Lifetime Raptor flights: 3034 :)

Wow you are intense. No way I could ever handle that much time awake riding, let alone 32 rides on Raptor alone. Awesome you could take advantage of it like that.

Awesome probably isn't the word I'd choose.

Great TR LuvRaptor! I totally agree with you about Meanstreak being a lot better of a ride. It had some good airtime moments and wasn't any near as rough as it has been in the past. And yes a big thanks to the MF crew for opening it up Saturday night! I was very happy since I wasn't able to man up and get up at 5am to ride it for AM ERT.

LuvRaptor said:
I wasnt real happy with the fact I had to pay $7.95 for my all you can drink wristband, but after calculating I had drank about 20.00 worth of pop just on day 1, I didnt complain too terrible long. I love the wristband idea way better than having to carry a cup around all day.

Considering one large soft drink is $5.99, that's about the best deal around. I assume this is just a coastermania thing, and not available to the GP?

I'd actually rather have a wristband than have to carry a mug as well.

^Best deal around? Ever been to Holiday World? I had to...

kpjb said:

Considering one large soft drink is $5.99, that's about the best deal around. I assume this is just a coastermania thing, and not available to the GP?

I'd actually rather have a wristband than have to carry a mug as well.

Not avaliable to the GP Im afraid..kind of funny you mention that cause 2 yrs ago (3?) CP did offer an all you can drink wristband. You had to go to Town Hall to buy it. I also know that this idea didnt last very long. I know I can pound down the Dew and Pepsi so I may be to blame why it didnt last :)

Jo

If anyone is interested here was the winning film from the CM film festival:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yh4nfwjM-uA

enjoy!!

Jo