CP/SFGam 9/19-9/21 Raging Bull ROCKS baby!

I have been to many Halloweekends but never on a Friday night! What a blast!

We arrived for Joe Cool promptly at 5:30pm to learn that MF would be down that evening. Dragster had a hard time getting up and running (during testing) with the high winds due to the storm that had or had just finished passing through. Lucky for us it remained windy and chilly, yet dry for the rest of the evening.

Once the Dragster queue opened we waited about 20 minutes. The first train went up without a problem. The second train rolled back. Another 15 minutes later they relaunched and made it over with no problems. The next train made it over. Our train made it over (my GOD is that launch still freakin INSANE or what??????)

After exiting I hear the crowd roaring and look back to see the train after us rollback. Lucky guys. Lol. We missed it by ONE train!

After that the ride was shut down for several hours, with a few tests here and there (with many more rollbacks). I was surprised to see that Raptor was running only one train. Even on the least busiest days I have seen them run all three.

Magnum, I have to say was running the best it has EVER ran. I do not know what happened but the last dozen or so times I have been on Magnum it has been rather rough. This baby was ROCKING!

I also almost forgot how much I loved the Wildcat. This is one of CP’s best coasters IMHO. So fast. So sweet! It’s looking better especially with the new coat of paint.

Most of the other coasters were not running that night, due to the fact that they only run a selected number of attractions on CP Halloweekend Fridays. We took our time and played some DDR, and rode two of my all time favorite flats/non-coaster rides: the Demon Drop and Cedar Downs. I still think those old 1st generation Intamin drops are the most terrifying contraptions ever built. The G’s on those things (when you are forced onto your back at the base of the ride) are just insane. I am actually more terrified of the old Drops than the Gyro Drops or the S&S Towers. I guess the Demon Drop and those like it are just so old and make so much racket that you almost do not trust them. They almost remind me of a carni ride.

We took our time and visited the four Halloween-themed areas. I think my favorite was walking through the “Werewolf” Canyon. Hilarious. The fog machines were on overdrive and in some places in the park you could not see anything and it was easy to get disoriented at times (which it doesn't take much for me....lol)

Later on that night Dragster opened up about 10:30 and I managed to get my last ride shortly after 11. I think the ride broke down again for about 20 minutes (with only about 3 or 4 more trains to go for the night).

That night we drove to a friend’s house in Michigan to crash for a few hours and went to Great America Saturday and Sunday. This was my first time to Great America and looked forward to riding Raging Bull. It was also cool to catch up with one of my Chicago friends who I hadn’t seen in a few months.

Once we met up with my friend we went straight to the obvious.....

Raging Bull was fantastic, but I can’t quite decide whether I like it better than Apollo’s Chariot. Each time we rode it we got the back row. At first I didn’t think I would get to ride it right away because somebody, um, lost their lunch on the back seat. Of course they had to spray the thing down, detox it, take it off the track and send it off to be decontaminated, while they had to quarentine the whole park. HA!

Viper surprised me. Very smooth….great air. Awesome! I could of thought it was a GCI at times.

Iron Wolf: Not as bad as I thought it would be. I looked at it as “Well, it’s obvious it’s going to hurt but I may as well do it once and get it over with.”

V2: Didn’t get to do it. The lines were just way WAY too long. At that point I didn’t want to spend the money on a Fast Pass.

Batman: Those early 90’s B&M’s are just insane. Awesome G’s. You can feel the blood rushing to your feet.

The kiddy coaster: Didn’t do it.

Whizzer: WOW! I can understand why they made a fuss about this coaster. I am so glad it wasn’t scrapped.

American Eagle: The helix is just beautiful. I liked both tracks, especially backwards.

Demon: No opinion. The lights in the tunnel were kind of cool. As I said before I am not a fan of early Arrow headbangers.

Superman Ultimate Flight: Our first and only ride was the very back (where else? lol) The diving loop was just unbelievable!!!! Other than that the coaster didn’t do much for me. The restraints are more comfortable but I prefer X-Flight’s variety of elements. Superman just seemed to start out with a bang and then just kind stayed there. Great ride in any case.

Déjà vu: Seemed to break down on and off all day, but WOW! Much better than the SFMM version. It seemed to be a tad smoother and not as jerky.

The Giant DROP: I now have a new favorite drop!!!! Holy cow. What a surprise. The Hellevator and Pittfall are awesome but I almost felt like I was on the Drop Zone on this puppy.

The park was very crowded the whole weekend, and besides being stung by a freakin bee and realizing that Cinci traffic isn’t that bad afterall (lol) we had an awesome time.The two-tiered carousel, by the way is very nice, although it wasn't as fast as carousels usually are. I don't think we hit many of the flats, due to the insane crowds, especially on Sunday.

Saturday night my native Chicago friend took us out to an awesome meal. What else would it be but pizza right? Dominos. JUST KIDDING!

I have to email my friend now so he can tell me the name of that place again. It kind of looked like a "roadhouse" place but without the peanuts on the floor lol. Awesome pizza!

Awesome weekend.

-Tina

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Gimme speed, height, airtime and plenty of LAUNCH!!!

*** This post was edited by coasterqueenTRN 9/25/2003 3:34:52 PM ***

Your highness, your trip report was good, but I couldn't read all of it. My eyes started to hurt.

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Lyrically, I'm supposed to represent
I'm not only a client, I'm the playa president!

Sorry, I broke it up a bit. That's what I get for cutting and pasting. :-)

-Tina

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Gimme speed, height, airtime and plenty of LAUNCH!!!

Nice Tina! :) What with the list of parks you gave me and TR's like this how am I supposed to sleep for the next nine months LOL

Bummer on the rollback - so near and yet so far! Next season I'll sit in the bleachers til I capture it on tape ;)

Glad to know that Whizzer is worth looking forward to - my first proper twister was a Jet Star II and Schwarzkopfs' always have a spot in my heart :) Just goes to show there's life in the old dogs yet hehe That, and just a 'few other' coasters should do it for me!

Now you just put me in the mood for a Domino's too ;) Cheers mate!

-Jim (getting ready to start countin the days and wondering if you stung the bee back;))
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Coasters, kitties, beer n buddies - life *is* sweet :)

The bee's at SFGAm and around Chicago in general have been really bad lately, one flew right into my face yesterday im surprised I didn't get stung lol.

Good TR, im glad you liked Raging Bull. Be sure to thank the good people at Coke for the crowds you had on Sunday :).

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Good day....I said Good day!
Dave
http://www.SFGAmWorld.com

The bees were pretty nasty. When I went to first aid they acted like it was a very normal thing to happen. I told them I got stung and they acted like "Oh, another one this hour...come on back we have the medicine waiting".

Luckily I am not allergic. It hurt like hell though. I had trouble walking for a bit. Those bees must get their unusually strong *stinging* power from mooching off of those cheese fries and giant turkey legs!! LOL!

And I thought the CP muffleheads were relentless. lol

-Tina

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Gimme speed, height, airtime and plenty of LAUNCH!!!

Yeah, the bees have been terrible this year. I have had to kill 3 bee's nests on my balcony this summer. I still don't know if I am allergic to them because I have never been stung (I hope I didn't jinx myself :) )

Glad you enjoyed yourself. Doing a CP/SFGAm coaster trip is definitely heaven on earth(for an enthusiast at least). :)

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Arena football has arrived in the Windy City. Go "Chicago Rush"

Geez, and we probably ran into each other at some point.

:-)

I didn't think I was allergic but I hadn't been stung since I was a kid so....

At least I know now why it was insanely crowded Sunday. I didn't know there was a Coke corporate outing going on until you mentioned it on your TR. Of course a lot of the lines were not too bad for some of the rides, except for V2 which seemed to have had insane lines all weekend. Deja Vu and the Whizzer had some pretty insane lines at some points.
I don't really remember the American Eagle having that much of a line (either track).

The Whizzer really impressed me. I now know what the *fuss* is about and am glad Shockwave (although I never rode it but am not a big fan of those headbangers) got the ax instead.

Has anyone purchased Shockwave yet? I noticed some of the parts lying around when we took a trip in the Sky Spiral thingy.

-Tina

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Gimme speed, height, airtime and plenty of LAUNCH!!!

Nice trip report!!!!
Yes, the bee's were just awful the last few weekends, much worse than what im used too at the park.
Sunday had some of the longest lines i have ever seen( i dont go on sat./fri. to avoid these crowds!!!)
I also flip flop between which i like better, Apollo's Chariot and Raging Bull but would probably give the overall edge to AC because i like the bunny hop hills at the end better than the twisting ending of Raging Bull, but both are great coasters!!(one other thing better about AC, i have always had short waits).