My silly trip with Peabody (Day two)
Associated parks:
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Rob (nasai) gave me the honor of writing day two (May 28), and sorry it's taken so long. I'm in the midst of another trip.....and, I've been spending my precious few minutes of computer time checking email (and reading the "Coaster Preservation Club" thread and coverage on ARN&R :))
I'll try to be a little less long winded than Rob ;) I'm a man of few words.....or so we'll see......
Day one would be hard to top, but we gave it a shot. After a delightfully short night despite sleeping in, we hit SFWOA right after opening.
X-Flight - This was Rob's first time on it and my third. After waiting only 10-15 minutes we got our ride. Both of us had this kind of response about the coaster: "OK, what's next". Basically it's just not my cup of tea, and it didn't seem to wow Rob. Not comfy, not terribly fun, but not bad, blah blah blah. Just my opinion :)
Superman: Ultimate Escape: Good stuff! Perhaps the best ride of the time at SFWOA for us. The holding break is wonderful, as it seems to fire a little longer than others I have ridden. It was a total walk on.
Big Dipper: Bummer! I have been riding this coaster since the mid 80s, and have never had this rough of a ride on it. We rode once in the back and had enough. Let's get a little TLC for this ride!
Batman Knight Flight: We both walked onto the ride (back seat) really psyched for it. I have ridden it a good dozen times or so in the past and LOVED it....awesome layout, and pretty smooth except for a little bumping in the corkscrews. Today wasn't the same. It seemed like the wheels hadn't been changed for years. OUCH! Not a single section was smooth. While I went to take some pain killers, Rob decided to give it a second chance, this time in the front. I will never forget seeing his face getting off it. It looked like he just got done with a 10 day marathon on Kong or something. OUCH! Later others we spoke to confirmed how bad the front seat was.
Raging Wolf Bobs: First half: Yuck Second half: Woohoo! Wow, what a huge difference compared to recent years in that second half. Why stop there? Let's finish retracking the ride. I would have ridden much more if I had been able to get on for just the second half, but one ride did just fine after Batman!
At this point it was barely 45 minutes after opening and we had ridden everything we wanted to except for Villain. Since we were at the Bobs, we walked through the Sea World side since I'm a real marine life freak. I thought the rides side was dead (and it was), but there were no more than a dozen or 2 GP on the Sea World side total....made me pretty sad. I REALLY was impressed with the Aquarium. I keep reef aquariums, and enjoyed seeing their two tanks with live corals. (My tank is better ;) ) Pretty nice tanks! Their octopus, nautilus, and jellyfish displays were wonderful too!
We passed by the new Tiger Island habitat, which was a real thrill. The kitties were right against the fences, literally 4 feet from where you could walk. It was a pleasure to be that close to such a spectacular creature! I wish I could have seen the show.
Heading back to the rides side we met up with Robocoaster for the first time (and it wouldn't be the last!) Unfortunately we only said "hi" for about 2 minutes, grabbed a quick Villain ride, and left the park before lunch. (Villain was OK, but could use a little TLC....not quite as ridable as I remember it being in 00-01)
So why did we split so quickly? TTD was calling! With all the encouraging signs from the previous day, we thought our chances of riding it were pretty good. I always had the chance of riding it on June 12-13 (which never happened of course), but I knew this was Rob's only chance....that and I really wanted to ride the damn thing!
After grabbing lunch, driving back to CP, picking up some cheap tickets, etc. we stepped in the Magnum gate at about 3:00 with Dragster not running yet. Thinking of grabbing an MF ride before getting in line, we walked past TTD to check it out. Well, there was a full crew on the station plus a few "suits", and a line of several hundred people despite announcements of "Top Thrill Dragster is currently not in operation. We highly recommend....." Well, after seeing all these signs of life we decided to get right in line.
I do have to say that I understand and appreciate the complexities of the ride, the headaches it gives the park, and that they want it to run just as much as we do. Sure I would be disappointed if I couldn't ride, but I'm not going to whine about it if it's down. These things happen!
A brief synopsis:
3:00 - Enter line
3:30 - Train enters launch position, but gets backed up into the station so workers can look at something.
4:00 - Train launches! We'll be on really soon I hope....maybe in an hour????
5:00 - An hour of nothing passes and they finally launch each train empty twice.
5:30 - All trains launched with a person testing them. Woohoo! Any second now, right?
5:30-7:?? Nothing happens, no signs of life, people dropping out of line fast, etc. We notice that we still inadvertently seem to be stalking Robb Alvey (see previous thread!) as we notice him in front of us. This is just getting scary! Rob (nasai) introduces himself to say that we aren't stalking him :) Alvey's friend, the "Dippin' Dots guy" has apparently informed him that the ride should open before 8. I don't care if it's the Lemon Chill guy, I was glad to have a little hope.
7:30 - All of the sudden launches resume, and they let us in the queue. The line is MASSIVE behind us. It ran underneath the corkscrews from Corkscrew. It's a good thing that we got in line, because we had a room near PKI that night!
So, after waiting this long, we figure an extra 15-20 minutes for the front seat wouldn't be a big deal. So, somewhere about 8:15 or so, we're in the front (that is, after a delay which frightened us a bit until Monty Jasper gave us all the thumbs up, and applause erupted from the wary crowd).
I'll refrain from describing the ride, because I just don't think it's possible to do. We were dumbstruck and unable to think of appropriate words to describe the ride. Bottom line: It was worth every second of that wait (which wasn't too bad since we talked to some pretty cool folks waiting with us), and we would have gotten right back in line had we not needed to drive to PKI that night.
Trying to get a good night's sleep, we still struggled to figure out a description. I called my dad (a coaster freak) to tell him and nothing seemed right: "psychotic", "mind-blowing", "insane", "amazing"....just not good enough!
After sleeping till 10, and getting ready to go to PKI the next morning, the word came to me. I told Rob I had thought of the right description and he said he had to. Amazingly enough, we thought of the same word....(drum roll please)........."silly". That ride is just silly. That's all I can say :)
Enough rambling out of me! Rob gets to do the next day.....PKI!
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What's shaking in Robland? - Click it, or lose it. ;)
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Never Has Gravity Been So Uplifting.
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President, C.R.A.P. (Coaster Rescurers And Preservationists).
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I've gotten the Point of life, and can now pass away a happy man!.......
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- "I used to be in the audio/visual club, but I was kicked out because of my views on Vietnam........and I was stealing projectors" - Homer Simpson
Awesome TR's! I know how the extensive ones can take a lot out of you, especially since you guys have a lot to share with us. Can't wait to hear the rest of it! I am so glad you guys got to do Dragster. :-)
-Tina
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Feel The DragsterGasm....
www.intenserides.com
*** This post was edited by coasterqueenTRN 6/16/2003 7:37:23 PM ***
Jeff did a good job, didn't he???
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What's shaking in Robland? - Click it, or lose it. ;)
I didn't know that you are a marine life freak. I am too. Spent 6 months in Australia on the Great Barrier Reef, awe inspiring is about all I can say. Great to meet you guys.
I find it interesting that people who were there the same day and rode the same seats can have such a different opinion of a ride. My group and I were there on Wednesday and I rode Batman upwards of 12 times or so. I rode front, back, middle...everywhere. And only one time did I think the ride was "rough." All of the other times I had no problems with it -- in fact I thought it was running smoother than normal!
I had a great day at the park on Wed, glad you guys kinda/sorta did too. If you are into flats, you should have checked out the Wipeout on the Life side -- SICK!!
Look forward to meeting you, Rob, when Keith and I come out your way in August!
Joe
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Top Thrill Dragster -- The most intense, unbelievable, and spectacular fifteen seconds on any coaster, anywhere, ever.
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What's shaking in Robland? - Click it, or lose it. ;)
Robs reaction on Coaster: ===========> :)
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Arena football has arrived in the Windy City. Go "Chicago Rush"
BTW, I am milking these TRs for the summer. Makes for interesting reading, eh? ;)
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What's shaking in Robland? - Click it, or lose it. ;)
When were you at the park? We rode around 10:30-10:45. I wonder if we got a bad train that was swapped out? It was unbelieveable....so much so that I was glad there were witnesses to back me up on how bad it was right then. Here's hoping my next ride will be like previous ones I've had! :)
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- "I used to be in the audio/visual club, but I was kicked out because of my views on Vietnam........and I was stealing projectors" - Homer Simpson
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