Associated parks:
None
5/17-5/18 Las Vegas: Stayed at Buffalo Bills. Desperado was still closed. Rode Speed @ Nascar Cafe (2x). Didn't ride anything else. Ate at the RIO Buffet Champagne Brunch. MMMMmmmmmmm.
5/18 Midnight : Drove back to Phoenix. One of our Party had too much Champagne and then a big beer at night. We had to pull over 4 times so he could heave. Drove thru Laughlin with an idea to stay there, but EVERY hotel was booked SOLID. Got a cheap 99cent breakfast and then drove all the way home (the long way). Got home at 7am.
5/21 Morning: Hopped a flight to Cleveland. Arrived around 3:30pm. Went to Mama Santa's in Little Italy (one of our favorite eats) for lunch. Headed to our condo in Port Clinton. No rides.
5/22 - 5/23 Cedar Point: Woke early (even though our bodies are on Pacific time) and made our 15 minute drive to CP. Got our new Season Passes and entered the park. It was a bit more crowded than we had hoped or expected for a Wednesday. MF and WT had 45+ min lines, while everything else was short wait or walk on (Raptor was packed at the beginning of the day, but down to 5min toward the end). We got a FREEWAY handstamp for MF, the got a WT handstamp on the other hand. That allows you to return between a specified time and get in line about 5-10 min from the station. Only these two offered the FREEway. BlueStreeak-fun as always. Raptor-running magnificently-Great ride. Mine Ride-hmmm it's a mine ride. Mantis-one ride just way too jerky and an unneccesarily long 45min line. Iron Dragon-Is this the SLOWEST of all the suspendeds. Wildcat-superfun little mouse ride. Mean Streak - Gave it three runs over the course of four days and it was way bumpy and LAME. Gemini-OK day one, but was Racing other days, which made it much funner. Magnum-running better than last year, but still pretty rough. Two rides only. Corkscrew-needs modified seats, the head rest kills. Disaster Transport-I like the bobsled ride, but it's too short and the 3D change doesnt do anything to help. Woodstock Express-Quite a challenging ride for the little tykes, but not so much for us thrill-seekers. Wicked Twister (opened mid-day) - Good ride, but not much difference between S:UE. MF-duh, it's the greatest ride ever constructed. 2 rides day one, one ride day 2.
FREEWAY- it seems nobody at Cedar Point knows what is going on with the freeway system. Day one we got a MF stamp for 3-4 on our right hand. We got WT stamp for 4-5 on our left hand. Then washed off the MF stamp after riding and got another for 6-7 on out right hand. No prob. On day two, first thing we did was get a MF stamp. Went to WT to get stamped and they said NO. Only one stamp per day, PERIOD. Whatever. We rode MF, washerd our hands, and then got a WT stamp. WT broke down and didn't re-open. We went to MF and got another MF stamp, but it started to rain and we left. Third day we were there we got a WT stamp (late) and FREEWAY stamping station was closed before we rode WT, so no MF stamp. We had to wait in line (see 5/27).
5/24 - Did no park activities.
5/25 - Drove to family members in Indiana, Pennsylvania.
5/26 Kennywood+ : drove to Pittsburg in the morning and went to Kennywood. First time there and waht a treat it was! Unfortunalety, we chose to eat at K-Mart and save a few bucks from the OUTRAGEOUSLY priced Park Food. Then realized that Kennywood's food prices are NOT over-priced. We ate-ate-ate more. Our first ride was JackRabbit-Didnt expect too much from this old relic. The trains had a stationary bar and a leather strap. Wow, must be pretty dull. Two words:Double Dip. Holy Crap! I havent grabs a bar so fast since I was 8ys old. We quickly got right back in line. By far the best airtime I have ever experienced. Up next was Racers. Pretty fun ride for a 75yr old coaster. Very neat how it is a single track, not two mirror tracks. We jumped in line for the log ride, but it broke instantly. Over to Aero360. Neat upside dow, face-to-face ride. Then over to Thunderbolt. After being overly-impressed with the other two woodies, I figured the much-talked-about Thunderbolt would blow me away. It didn't. Of the three, this one was my least favorite, although I did like it quite a bit, just not as much as I anticipated. The laterals are amazing, more like what you'd get on a Himalaya than a coaster. Over the the Pitfall. After riding Power Towers and Supreme Screams, this thing looked like a really primitive freefall tower. That was Scary in itself. Fun ride. Over to Exterminator. The first ride with a substantial line (45min). Didn't know what to expect, but though it would be pretty lame once we saw the big goofy mouse shaped cars. HOW wrong we were. This thing is so out of control and fun! I wish the line were shorter, because this was a supremely entertaining ride. Finally, over the Phantom's Revenge. After riding such rides at MF, Goliath, and X - the Phantom looked good, but not overly impressive. The cars are HUGE, easily the most leg room ever. The ride is very smooth and then come the little hops. More airtime! Crikey! Kennywood has so much airtime! I am not an air-time person, I prefer inversions, but Kennywoods coasters ALL creep up into the top of my favorties. Everyone was re-ridable, but we didn't because it was 6pm and time to head back toward Port Clinton while it was light outside. As we passed by the SFWoA exits, at 8:30pm, we had to make a pitstop. We had our SFMM passes and missed X-Flight by 2 weeks last year. We got to the park just before 9pm (no parking fee) and went directly to X-Flight. We waited about 4 trains to board. What an unbelievably exhilarating ride. I held on the entire time. Much better than I imagined, and it jumps ahead of Ghostrider to my #2 spot behind MF. We got right back in line. Another great ride, and I let go on and off. We pulled into the station, on our backs, and didn't recline up. The ride was broke. We laid on our backs with blood rishing to our heads for twenty minutes before a mechanic showed up. It took him about 20seconds to fix the problem. We all had raging headaches now, but ran over to Superman:UE. Got in two rides in the very front, then the park was closed. Stopped by a Steak n Shake (great restaurant) on our way back to Port Clinton. Got pulled over for some crazy obscure law about slowing or merging for a pulled over patrol car, just a warning. Got to our condo at 2:30am.
5/27 Cedar Point : We slept late and went to CP around 4pm. Stopped at Steak n Shake for lunch on the way. We really just wanted to get NIGHT rides on MF and WT. This was our only chance. We got WT Freeway stamps for 8-9 (not quite night). rode miscellaneous stuff till 8 (lots of flats, as Memorial Day was rather busy). Waited for the very front of WT, since our other two rides were in the very back. It was just getting dark (dusk) as we boarded around 8:45pm. Good ride in front. Rode DT since we were right there. Tried the 3-D glasses. The handprints on the wall were cool, but everything else was a waste. Not worth $1. Hit Raptor for a few spins, BlueStreak, Wildcat, and got in line for Millenium Force at 9:30. It said a 45min wait, but we hoped to get on in 30min, so we could get back in line just before closing. We just got to the long bridge part of the line that leads into the staion. It was exactly 10pm. And we notice that no more trains are zipping pasty us. Huh? What's up? MF broke down. NO!!!!!!!!!! We waited 20 minutes, without any word as to what/why/how or IF. A maintenence worker said a train was stuck on the lift, but we couldnt see the lift thru the trees from where we were. Soon, a train zipped byu and everyone cheered. We got out Night ride about 5 minutes later. Left around 10:45 and went to Steak-n-Shake (3rd time in 24hrs!).
5/28 SFWoA: Woke up, packed our stuff and headed for SFWoA. There was rain in the forecast and we past thru some heavy rain on our way. Got ther aroun 2pm. No lines for anything. Rode Batman:Knight Flight, RWB, and head across to the wildlife side. Check out the animals, saw the sea lion show and the tigers. Got a glimpse of the Orca, but it wasnt open for public viewing. Took the ferry back to the Rides side aroun 5:30pm. Rode Big Dipper twice (one front one back). Front was byu far better and I found myself nearly standing over some of the hills. Good air. Headed over to X-Flight. Got four quick rides in and then boarded for a fifth (7th overall). I asked the Ride Op what the "official" time was (hoping to boost my total to 10). 2 minutes to til closing! Drat! We took our "final" ride of the night and pulled into the station. The ride op pointed out 4 empty seats for the "last" train of the nigh and invited us to stay on. We hopped to the other seats and took off for another spin (6th in an hour and 8th overall). Another graet ride, which by now I was hands-up for every ride. The train pulled in and the seats sat up. "Want one more ride?" the ops asked the entire train. Everyone cheered, the ride reclined and we were off again (3rd in a row, 7th in an hour, 9th overall). That was the last ride. We left the park and went to Mama Santa's in Little Italy. Got a hotel in Streetsboro.
5/29 SFWoA & Home: Woke early, returned to SFWoA. Only line was for X-Flight (20-30min). We skipped it. Rode Big Dipper, Boomerang, B:KF (very front), Villain, Serail Thriller, Superman:UE (7x without getting off), one ride on X-Flight (10th hooray!), and saw the magic show (blah!). Left at 2pm. Headed for the airport and caught our flight home to Phoenix at 4:40.
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I've traded in my 2000 Giovanola for a 2002 Arrow X4D :)
My other car is now an Arrow X4D!
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Not MLK's words but mine..I have a Dream! I have a DREAM! I HAVE A DREAM!
I have a dream! That SFMM fans will be able to walk hand in hand with CP's!
AND no ONE cares what a coaster is and what a coaster isn't!
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