SFGADV 6/8:the little breakdowns and THE BIG BREAKDOWN

*Warning* Really long TR ahead,but packed with info :-P**

So, I am officially cursed on Kingda Ka, seeing that I have gone to the park 4 times and only 

ridden once, that not even being today, but we'll get to that later. I got to the park via 

NJ Transit around 10:15 (that's a great service as long as you're willing to live by their 

schedule and deal with a bunch of kids crowding the bus). Anyhoo, I met ApolloAndy 

around KK and he tells me that the ops are keeping it down for the day for "inspection" 

(I love the excuses ride ops give). So, we head over to Superman and get in a quick 

flight. Since GASM was holding a long line, we decided to hit the one ride I never rode 

in the park: Spongebob!!! It was pretty kewl, if you like Spongebob, which I do :-P Once 

we get off,we hear that great horn and see the train crest KK's top hat, so we run over 

and see that they've run a few trains with peeps and the line is open. We jump on what 

seems to be a 1:30 line, but then no other trains launch. They really need to be able to 

make announcements to the whole queue about breakdowns. I know you can figure out that 

it's not running from seeing that there are no launching trains, but at least they can 

say if it's done for the day or if it's temporarily. Andy had to be at work by 1, 

so he left the queue at 12:30. I tried to stick it out and got all the way to the 

station, but then they gave word to clear out the station and the queue at 1:30 

(2 hour wait for me), which was a first for me, but may be regular now. I looked 

down to the transfer track and noticed engineers banging away at it and releasing 

a pressure valve. So, I was gonna hit up my baby GASM, but that decided to breakdown and 

so did S:UF for a little bit. So, I decided it was time to speak with guest relations and 

tell them about. The line at GR was even 30 min and there was all this chanting and 

yelling over there cuz everyone wanted there money back. I just wanted an exit pass to 

make up for the time spent on line for KK, and that's what I got. I was gonna use it for 

B&R:TC, but both sides were down and, oddly enough, Robin's train was in the observatory

(right before the cobra) with a can of paint next to it. I would have rathered a paint job

be done during off hours, but hey, it's a wednesday and only weekends matter, right. I 

got a ride on the only thing not sporting a long line: Blackbeard. So good in the back 

few cars! I decided to see the sand sculpturesthey have right next to the Dolphin Discovery.

They were kinda depressing (soldiers in trenches and with guns and a child and his 

grandfather). I don't get it, but it's art and it looked kewl. I was about to hit up taz 

tornado (I really had nothing better to do), when I heard that great horn again and I ran 

over there to see what was up. They tested 2 trains and took a little break, as the line 

built a little. Then 3 more trains, one with one of the mechanics on it. The sixth, and 

what seemed to be the final, test train then launched and started to make the huge banging 

and rumbling noise as it traveled down the launch track. I didn't get over to the 

observation area in time to see the parts flying (even though I did hear peeps saying 

that they were), but when I did get over there, I saw the train stopped at the very 

end of the launch track; at the base of the top hat. My very-weird-but-may-be-the-truth 

opinion is (bear with me) that the brakes came up and caught the ride while it was 

launching and caused a tension problem with the sled(sled accelerating, brakes 

decelerating) and that caused the noise. Or it may have been a snap. I just wish I 

could have seen the launch. The train did not rollback at all from what I saw  (I check it 

like 2 hours later and it was in the same position with engineers all over it). I 

figured it could safely be said that KK was down for the day. I then noticed that my baby 

GASM (GASM is my favorite coaster EVER and please don't stone me) was testing and I ran 

over to get a good spot before it opened. They must have run 20 trains on 2-train op 

and never decided to open it up. I really didn't understand it, but I figured that I 

still had like 3-4 hours left in the park so I could come back if it came up. I ran into 

a couple of old friends, and since everything was either down or crowded, we hung out for a 

bit at Granny's. They took the bus as well and were gonna be around until 7:30 (it was 

now 4), so we stayed in Granny's until 5:20 when they decided to hit the dpolphin show 

and I decided to use my exit pass on Nitro. Well, Nitro's ops decided to be excellent and 

run 3 trains and the line was speeding, so I saved my exit pass for later and had a 20 min 

wait for a pretty good ride today. B:TR's line was kinda alright, but I didn't fee like 

waiting,so I used my pass on that, but the op didn't take it (craziness) I never had one 

before, so I thought maybe they were letting you keep them. BTW, B:TR gave the most 

intense and fastest ride I've had in 12 years, from the first drop to the last curve. 

Stuntman's, which was down a bit earlier, came back up after running like 30 cycles. 

The line was about 10 peeps long, so I had to get 2 rides in. I don't know what it is about 

the Intamin 1st gen's, but I really like them a lot better than the other drop rides. I 

think it's the anticipation from the ride to the elevator, the ride up, and then the wait 

for the horn and that mini, but intense, drop. I still had like 45 min left, so I ran over 

to GASM which was a literal walk on to my favorite Blue train (go Spirit!). This left 

enough time to get to Medusa and use my pass on that half-hour line (the op took it this 

time). That was a pretty solid ride (All the B&M's were solid). I made sure to check out 

Viper's demolition, which is all the way down to the footers with the station still intact. 

I then ran off to join my friends in line for the bus. This was definitely a weird day a 

GADV, but I'm just glad that no one was hurt on or off KK, and that, even though the day 

was more than half done, I was still able to get rides on all the majors of the park 

except RT. Maybe I should do more afternoon trips.

*** Edited 6/9/2005 3:36:47 AM UTC by TwinsGP*** *** Edited 6/9/2005 3:38:02 AM UTC by TwinsGP*** *** Edited 6/9/2005 3:51:42 AM UTC by TwinsGP***

Yep. I rode S:UF and Spongebob. :(

Unless you count waiting for KK a ride. ;)

I think they launched a total of 2 or 3 public trains today. They were running empties when we went into spongebob and we saw the last full train when we came out (we ran over and got on line right before it broke the first time).

Guys its alright. You guys seem to live very close to the park. Youll get your chance. The same thing seemed to be happening with TTD the year it opened. The fact is these things take a bit of time to work out.

I was there when dragster in 2003 had its midsummer down time for about two weeks or more. I think they are just making sure the ride runs to good to great reliability, cause it finally seems now that cedar point has made the dragster run reliable, at least last week it was.

You guys have an amazing coaster, but with the best sometimes comes having to wait for it. i.e. X at Magic Mountain, they had to rework it a bit before it worked, so youll get the rides in. I got two in the inaugeral summer for TTD. You have a lot to look forward to my friends so be patient.

We've both already ridden it.

You guys kinda seem mad, what im saying is just wait for your time, it will get better. Cause i could have said the same thing. I rode Dragster the second week it was open to the public. SO what im saying is just let it happen and dont get mad. You guys have plenty of time to ride it.

We definitely weren't and aren't mad. Seriuosly. We are both very aware that the coaster will come up again and were expecting this kind of reliability.

What's up with the single-spacing? It looks like a paper I wrote in high school. And this wasn't even that long of a trip report. I think the standard that all others will be judged by is the "crunked-out" trip report featuring Mamoosh and others on their southern trip.

I copied and pasted it when I wrote it, but I couldn't figure out how to change the font back to arial. Can html be used in posts?