CP May 10 - Practically a Private Event! (long)

I made my first trip out to The Point it's first weekday of operation, and it was a great day! Not only was the weather beautiful (for the most part), the place was as empty as I'd ever seen it on a regular day of operation (not including Halloweekend Fridays).

My group consisted of eight of us: my wife and I, three kids of a co-worker of mine, two in-laws, and a cousin of theirs. These kids ranged in age from 11 to 15, so we had a lively little group! The three kids who were my co-worker's children were making only their second trip out to CP ever, and first day trip. I had taken them for the first time last year on a Halloweekend Saturday for the evening, but the place was busy so they didn't get to ride much. This day however, would prove to be much different.

We arrived at the park a little after 10:00, and knew right away we were in for a good day. We were able to park right up at the front gate of the park. Only the handicapped parking was closer. When we got into the park, we noticed that there just weren't many people around. It never got any busier either. The only rides that were more than walk up, were MF, TTD, and Mantis.

Mantis had the longest wait of the day, reaching an hour at one point. It was our longest wait of the day at 50 minutes, and we even used the Freeway that time! However, we did wait for the front. I'm sure at the busiest point of the day the wait for the front was well over an hour. Not good, especially for the Mantis. That's what one train operation on that ride does though. I certainly hope that is not a permanent situation, or I may never ride it again.

MF was never longer than about 20 minutes. The longest I ever saw the line was just past the ramp up to the station. Two train operation did cause it to be slower than usual. If they'd had all three trains running as they usually do, it would have been maybe a ten minute wait all day. The red train was the one that was off the track, and one of the times I was in line, there were a couple of maintenance men working on it. So I don't know what's going on with that, but hopefully it'll be up and running again soon.

TTD was running fairly well, though it struggled right when the park opened again, not being up when we first arrived at the park. On the whole though, it seemed to be running well. I also didn't see a rollback once. So I think they are making some progress with the ride. It's just slow progress. When we did get to ride it, shortly after it opened again from it's first shutdown, we only waited between 20-30 minutes. That was pretty awesome to only have to wait that long, and it didn't break down once while we were in line.

In other items of interest, the kids of my co-worker wanted to ride Mean Streak, since they never had, so I took them there. The rest of the group wanted no part of the ride, and stayed back. After walking up into the front seat, we gave it a go. Believe it or not, all three of them really liked the ride, and wanted to go again. So we rode it a second time in a row. I never thought I'd do that on Mean Streak again! But it really wasn't all that bad, and I told them how to ride it to make sure it's not so rough. So that probably helped them enjoy it more. I just thought that was pretty interesting.

Really quick, here are the rides I rode, and number of times I rode them:

Magnum - 3 times (2 in a row to start day, front seat later)
Millennium Force - 2 times (rode it with a first timer both rides)
Mean Streak - 2 times
Disaster Transport - 2 times
Demon Drop - 2 times
Gemini - 2 times
Power Tower - 2 times (once up, and once down)
Top Thrill Dragster - 1 time
Raptor - 1 time (walk up!)
Blue Streak - 1 time
Wildcat - 1 time
Iron Dragon - 1 time (nasty paint scheme isn't much better in person)
Mine Ride - 1 time
White Water Landing - 1 time
Woodstock's Express - 1 time (seriously!)

We were going to be the next people to ride on Wicked Twister when they shut it down. We had to dash off to Mantis to use our Freeway stamps before they expired, and never made it back to ride WT. So I missed out on that ride. But that's the only one that I really didn't get to ride that I wanted to.

Twice we tried to ride the Sky Ride just so save our feet going to the front of the park. Both times, they closed the ride just as we got there. It must have been us!

We actually ended up leaving the park early, because around 7:00 a huge storm blew in quickly, shutting everything down, and drenching everybody. There were huge puddles forming everywhere, and people were racing for their cars all over the place. Luckilly, we were already heading to the fron of the park when the storm hit, so we didn't have to go far. That's why I never got back on WT, because we were going to do that in the last hour. Even though we had to leave early, we still got to do tons of things, and also move about at a leisurely pace. This was just about the best trip to CP I've had ever! :)

So that's my book... er, trip repot. Sorry for being so long winded, but that's just how I am! ;)As I said before, it was an awesome CP trip, and a great way to kick off the season!

Great TR. Did everyone get on TTD and did they enjoy it? I also think that it was my best day ever at The Point. I can remember one time in the early 80s as a kid when my parents took my sister and I to The Point and we were only able to get on six rides all day. I think they broke an attendance record that day. I rode so much Monday that I was worn out and left the park early. I quess it worked out well as I just missed the big storm.

DILinator you should have stayed wicked twister opened up as did alot of other rides at 20 min till closing. The rain blew over and raptor ran till 8:30.

Yeah, I figured it probably would blow over, and if it had just been me out there, I probably would've stayed. However, with all the younger kids, and having done a full day already, I think everybody was ready to leave. We had an appointment with Taco Bell they were all looking forward to! ;)

We almost went back on Monday, but being there on Saturday and Sunday, my feet were KILLING me... Now I see why starting pitchers usually do not throw complete games in April. 6 months of no park walking will do that to you!!

how u did not ride dragster more?

We rode it once, got a good ride, and enjoyed the many other rides and such the park has to offer with no waiting. TTD had a 30 minute wait all day, which certainly isn't bad, but was longer than most other rides in the park which were practically all walk-ons.

Plus the other factor is once again the group I was with. If it was just me there with some coaster loving buddies, then we probably would've gotten quite a few more rides on it. However, with our group, we had a wider variety of things everybody wanted to do, and so we did those things. I have no regrets. It was a great time, and I at least got to ride Dragster once.

So that's why I didn't ride it more. :)