We arrived at the park at about 10:00 in the morning. It was a nice day, not too hot nor to cold. As soon as we got into the park, we headed for the Vortex as we were eager to see it's new paint; however, on the way we passed the Les Taxis and decided to take a ride, simply because there was no line and we hadn't done that in a while.
Upon seeing the Vortex as we turned the corner, we were literally amazed. Though not all of the ride had been painted, the parts that did looked as if they were a completely new ride. The brilliant colors were a sharp contrast to the old faded ones. We walked all the way into the station, and could have walked onto the ride, but we decided to wait for the front seat since there were only three groups waiting there. They were finally running three trains again, but it took about 15 minutes for us to get onto the train because someone became ill on one of the trains and we had to wait for the ride ops to clean it up, but once the ride started, we received one of the smoothest rides on the Vortex that I can remember. Not once were we jerked around. Even though I don't mind the Vortex's roughness, it was a welcome experience.
After the Vortex we headed over to the Beast. At this time the park was already starting to get very crowded. It was Mother's Day and moms would get in at a special price, and also Rodger Bingham from Survivor was there, so tons of people flocked to the park. We waited about 20 minutes for the Beast and, as always, had a great time on this legendary coaster.
Once we got off of the Beast we rode the train in hopes of seeing some signs of construction. Instead, we only saw the remnants of Kenton's Cove Keelboats Canal (which is completely destroyed now).
After the ride on the train we headed to the Eiffel Tower, just to look around and kill some time before we met the rest of our group before lunch.
Once we ate lunch, we walked around the park, pondering over which ride we wanted to ride next. We ended up going a few different places such as Flight of Fear and Face/Off and Drop Zone, but their lines were huge. Even the Vortex had a long line at this point. We decided to grab something to drink and watch the interview with Rodger off of Survivor. It was cool to see him and hear of some more of his stories and get to know him a little better. He is a very nice man (and funny too), exactly as he appeared on the show.
After the show, we headed to Top Gun, a coaster that usually has absolutely no line at all. However, the park was very crowded and we waited 30 minutes for a ride on it. Top Gun is a good ride, but it could be a little longer.
It was about 2:30 now and lines were only getting longer. So we decided to call it a day and drive home. It was a very crowded day for PKI, but we still had a good time. I even managed to get some pictures which can be seen here:
http://www.geocities.com/pkitex87/index.htm
