CP Halloweekend 10/14-10/15

Associated parks:
None

Didn’t leave PA until after 4pm which was a big mistake with all the dang construction traffic. Arrived at CP around 10:30 and checked into Hotel Breakers. I’ve heard many mixed reviews about HB but I found it to be pretty nice and clean. We were in the 6th floor of the tower and had an awesome view of Dragster out our window. So by the time we got situated we had about an hour to use our Friday tickets that came with the trip package.

Entered the park and found it to be dead… both figuratively and literally. Just as we entered the park dragster made a launch and apparently the line JUST opened. So we quick jumped in line and after waiting at the station for about 5 mins we had a 2 train wait for the front seat. Wow, going 120mph when its 36 degrees out is cold, very cold. We ran back around and waited about 15 mins for a ride in the back. Just as good, but I think the front was better for the view. 2 TTD rides in fewer than 30 mins!

My mother thought Iron Dragon looked cool so we strolled over and got 3 quick rides on it. After riding ID in the front, middle, and back, I think it’s best in the back because you forcefully get whipped over the first drop and through the pretzel at the end. It was nearing midnight so we headed back to the Hotel to get some rest for Saturday. Got back to the room and called the Pizza Hut Express there in the Hotel only to find out that all Hotel restaurants closed right at 12. So we left the resort and ate at a nifty little diner along Rt250 called Dianna’s Diner. Good food, good prices!

We made use of the early entrance (along with the other 10000 resort guests) by arriving at the Magnum gate at 11 am Saturday. Everyone ran to TTD and MF so we went to the front of the park and got in line for Raptor. It opened a little late, about 11:30, but we settled for a back seat ride on the second train of the day. Sitting in the back made me remember how forceful Raptor really is… I seriously think I started to black out when exiting the vertical loop. Then we took a spin on Disaster Transport, a walk on at Blue Streak, a relaxing ride on Turnpike Cars, and finally a nice sit-down lunch at the Game Day Grille, home of one of the best Philly cheese steaks I’ve ever had.

The front of the park was getting crowded so we went to the back and watched the magic show in the Palace theater, which was actually pretty cool…especially when Chris puts himself inside a balloon! Then we took a stroll on the Antique Cars and a jerky lap on Cedar Creek Mine Ride.

By this time it was nearly 3 so we got in line for Undertaker University. Waited about 10 mins. Pretty dark inside, couldn’t see where we were going, but still fun. There weren’t many props, scenes, or scareactors either. Coolest thing was the rotating barrel. One spook made me jump. UU was overall about a 7/10 for scariness.

Then a trip back to the front of the park to hit the other houses before the long lines get there. Too late! Waited about 45 mins for Lair of the Vampire, which was the worst haunted house of the trip. Only 1 vampire, only 1 or 2 scenes, but once again the cool spinning disorienting neon barrel! LOTV was about 6/10 for scariness.

The line for Pharaoh’s Secret was completely full, but we decided to wait for it anyway. The indoor part of the queue was nice and warm which made it a relief from the 40 degree outside, but the line went really slow and the music playing got very annoying. After a 1 hr 15 min wait we entered. This was probably the best indoor Halloween attraction at CP. Lots of spooks, awesome themeing, and it seemed to be longer than the others. Jumped a couple times, maybe even screamed! PS was around 8.5/10 for scariness.

We then took a back seat ride on Magnum, which had about a 45 min wait. Airtime heaven! And it felt much more smooth then before. Then waited about 20 mins twice for a ride on each side of Gemini and won both times! The queue was full, but they were running all 4 trains and the line was continuously moving. Spent some money in the Gemini arcade and then went back to the hotel to rest before the 8pm attractions opened.

Ordered some Pizza, ate, and then bundled back up to head for Fear Faire. There was no line because guests are free to move through at their own pace. Fear Faire was a great new addition to Halloweekends. It seemed to have more fog, more lights, and more scareactors than any other haunted attraction. I also like that FF has an actual path and is not just for people to randomly roam around. FF was about 8/10 in scariness.

CarnEvil was actually funny, not really scary. Watching the little monkey run up behind people and slam his cymbals together was the best. And seeing girls run from the muscled spiked hair guy was pretty funny too. Nothing too scary in here, just fun to watch and listen. CarnEvil was only 4/10 for scariness, but a solid 8/10 for laughs.

We then headed back the Frontier Trail and into the Fright Zone. There was a good deal of fog and spooks, but there were so many people that it was not that enjoyable. It was literally packed wall to wall people. Probably a 7/10 scariness.

The only thing left was Werewolf Canyon, which I was really excited for because I heard it’s the scariest attraction at Halloweekends. The sign said the wait was 1hr 30mins but we were up for it. The line was long but moved pretty fast, the wait was somewhere around 1hr 45mins. Crazy fog, great scareactors, awesome layout, but it just seemed over too soon and not worth the wait. Still good, about a 9/10 for scariness, but not what I expected.

By this time it was nearing 11pm so we got in line for Millennium Force and after just about a 1hr wait we enjoyed a back seat ride in the pitch black! It was about midnight when we got off so we called it a night and went back to the room for the night.

Sunday morning we checked out at 10am and headed to the Cleveland Zoo. The Zoo was nice, light crowds, and it is really big too. After spending a couple hours looking at 100s of different fish, monkeys, kitties, and talking to the parrots, we started home. We also made a stop at a Fireworks store just to look around of course! ;)

Overall the trip went great. Got on everything we wanted too, even 2 rides on TTD. Although crowds got crazy on Saturday night, it was still enjoyable. I was very impressed with the amount of decorations and the obvious effort that CP puts into this event. Now I’d like to try out Halloween Horror Nights at Universal to compare!

-TwisTer

Edit: Spaced out paragraphs! *** Edited 10/17/2006 5:24:13 AM UTC by T-W-I-S-T-E-R***

Great trip report! It's obvious you had a good time. Can't believe you liked Werewolf Canyon over CarnEvil though. That's insanity.

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