CP Halloweekend: Sat. 9/23 & Sun. 9/24

Last Saturday and Sunday at CP was amazing. The forecast called for heavy rain and storms on Saturday, and showers on Sunday. Never happened. About an hour of light rain around noon Saturday was it. Wait times for Dragster and MF never seemed to be more than 30 minutes on Saturday and very short if not walk-ons all day Sunday. Nothing except Skyride was closed (Dragster closed during the hour of rain on Saturday and very shortly for wind later in the day. No mechanical issues at all with anything on both days that I saw. We rode every coaster in the park on Saturday-including re-rides on MF, Twister, Raptor, Dragon, WC and Maggie. Still had plenty of time for all the Halloweekend fright zones and all the flats that we cared to ride. It was just the best day I've ever had at the point. I've only been at CP once after dark and that was a great time but it was crowded then, so I didn't get many night rides. That was not a problem Saturday at all, especially since the park was open until midnight. The point at night is fantastic-even more so on Halloweekends with all the fog from the fright zones. I thought the new Fear Faire zone was great. CarnEvil was good too, but the original Fright Zone was the best. Frontier Trail is just perfect for this. Werewolf Canyon was not worth the wait in my opinion, it was the longest line of the entire day, but still only a little over half an hour.

Sunday was even better as far as crowds were concerned. There was no one in the park for ERT. Two front seat Raptor rides, MaXair, front seat AND back seat on MF all before 10. I was very happy. The longest wait of the day was about 20 minutes for front seat on Dragster then rode again in back after only a 5 minute wait. The rest of the day we just strolled around and walked on everything else we wanted to ride, went through all the haunted houses, and wound up leaving around 4. We had planned on staying until close, but we didn't need to. We had done it all and could get a big head start on the long drive home. It was just a perfect weekend.

Two "odd" things I noticed this weekend were: Ride ops on MF were seriously assisting larger people with the seatbelts more than I have ever seen. They were going out of their way to get everyone possible a ride. They didn't seem concerned about seeing "the inch" of black on the belts either. As long as the buckle fastened, you were good to ride. In the past I've noticed this not to be the case at all. In fact, I thought park policy was that the ops could NOT assist in any way in fastening the belt. I know the whole MF belt thing has been a huge gripe for a lot of people. Perhaps this extra help provided by the ops is the park responding to that. Who knows. Anyway, it was nice to see the ops going the extra mile to get as many folks a ride as they could. The second "odd" thing I noticed was while driving along Perimeter Road toward Lighthouse Point, a fox strolled across the road heading over to the bay. I don't think I've ever even seen a squirrel at the point. I was not expecting to see a fox. I was however expecting to see at least one cotton candy cart somewhere, but sadly no. I know, I know, you can still get it in a few places. But it's so much better freshly made at the carts.

What a great trip. Thanks CP! *** Edited 9/27/2006 10:27:06 AM UTC by CPMagNut***

Nice TR.

IMO, FrightFest weekends are the best for CP. We go every year, and seldom wait for anything longer than 20 mins. Maggie's usually a walk-on along with most of the coasters.

My family of four has been to CP during Halloweekends two years in a row and we will be there next weekend to make it three. We usually go mid-October, and the last two years the park has been VERY crowded those days. Why? The weather was gorgeous both years. Last year my parents tagged along and my wife and I were able to sneak on WT and MF. The wait for MF was about and hour-and-half, WT was much shorter. When we took a trip up the Space Spiral I was stunned as to just how packed the parking lot was. I guess it all depends on the weather forecast. It was supposed to be nice both trips, and it wound up being unbelievably nice so many people made their last trips of the year while we were there. It still was a great time and the little ones had a blast.

Tom

Great TR, Sounds like you had a blast! I'll be going to CP again Oct 13-15, I hope the crowds are light again. I've never been to CP for Halloweekends so I believe I have a lot to look foreward to. We're staying at Breakers (also a first) and I hope the early morning ERT on Raptor/MF is as good as everyone says.

No going to amusement parks this week... I'll be at the Bloomsburg Fair!

-TwIster