Hey all,
I took the afternoon off of work since it was such a nice day, and went to the park with my wife and kids. We arrived around 1:30.
We were disappointed when we saw the season pass gate was not open. The main parking lot was pretty crowded, so we figured we were in for some long lines. Upon entering the park we headed for spinmeister. The ride had a temporarily closed sign on it. Oh well. My 4 year old son was going to ride it for the first time, but no luck. My 7 year old daughter also loves it, due to the fact that is goes "upside down a hundred times". Maybe next time.
From there we headed to the music express. I hit that one with my son while my wife and daughter sat it out. Fun ride, but why does it take 15 minutes to load and start the ride? The rideop "Brian" was his usual spacey self. It is always amusing to watch the way he talks to himself during his safety checks. I also liked the sawdust covered vomit that coated the canopy on the center of the ride.
From there we hit the Stuntman's freefall, which my son wont do yet, but my daughter loves. This is where I had my first encounter of the day with line jumpers. The first group of idiots got by me, but I was able to snag the last one by his shirt and let him know that security was going to kick him out of the park when he got off the ride. Just after this, another group of 4 tried to cut in front of us, but I stopped the first one and sent them to the back of the line. The people waiting nearby started to talk to me and ask if I worked for the park. I told them no, that I was just sick of people who thought the rules did not apply to them. The line was only about 10 minutes, so why bother to line jump? The first group was looking back at me nervously for the remainder of the wait. I got on my cellphone but could not remember the number to security. Oh well. I told the rideop about them while they were on the ride. She said she would say something to them. When I got off the ride with my daughter I asked her what she did, and she said that she told them not to line jump. Big deal. I wanted to see them get escorted out of the park. I don't think she even said anything to them. Another example of a low paid employee not caring enough to go out of her way to do the right thing.
After that we noticed the line for Chiller (Batman side) was all the way out the queue. No thanks. The line for Batman the Ride was also very long. Skipped those and headed for Nitro. The line was not too long, but it looked like about 30 minutes. They were only running 2 trains. My daughter wanted to do it, but she is VERY marginal in the height department (53 3/4"), so we decided to skip it. We don't like to wait in a line to have her get turned down for height. Plus, she has already ridden Nitro 5 times this year. Not bad for 7 years old.
From there we let my son ride the kiddie drop. Skull mountain had a line visible from outside, so we skipped it. My son and I went on the blue rotor ride, which is always good for some centrifugal force induced nausea. The ride op there obviously spoke english as a second language, and was very slow moving. We then hit the Buccaneer, which is always a crowd pleaser.
From there we caught the tail end of the 3:15 ski show, and we decided we would hit the 5:30 one since it looked pretty good. We wandered over to the log flume (packed) and skipped it. Noticed the spayer nozzles on the bridge and after the drop. No one was using them. Runaway Mine Train was down with a train stuck on the lift. We had some dippin dots' (are they a milk product or man made?) and wandered towards Viper. The Medusa queue was all the way through the first set of cattle corrals at the bottom of the stairs.
My daughter wanted to hit Viper, so I went with her since my wife does not like to have her head smashed around. The line was about 10 minutes. We rode in the middle of the train, and it was not actually too bad. I noticed a bunch of survey stakes in the ground on the way out of the Viper queue, and also all along the sides of the water on the Viper side of the wooden bridge. They had numbers on the stake, with a pink ribbon. I saw about 10 or so of them.
My wife and son got in a ride on Rolling Thunder (red train, right side) while my daughter and I were on Viper. My son wanted to go again, so the whole family went on. 5 minute wait, blue train right side. It was running really fast, and my wife commented that the blue train ran much faster than the red. We got a few good pops of air on the final bunny hills.
On the lift hill of RT we noticed that Mine Train was running again, so we hit that next. 10 minute wait. Fun ride, my son loves it. A little tame for my 7 year old daughter though. My daughter mentioned that she got some "air time" on the last drop before the water turn.
At that point we wandered over to the ski show that was about to start. That was a great show, much better than I expected. They do a good job of getting the crowd involved.
After that we went on the parachutes. First time I have ridden those in the 2 years I have been going to the park. 15 minute wait. My son liked it. Nice view of Nitro from the top. Wished I was on it.
After that my daughter and I hit Scream Machine, complete walk-on. Blue train, back seat. Pretty bumpy. I heard a nice crack from my neck at the bottom of the first drop. The rest of the ride was not too bad. It was the first time my daughter rode it, so she loved it.
From there we hit Houdini which is always fun. The thing that makes the projector noise in the first room was not working. The water torture tank had no lights or water, one candleabra had no lightbulbs working. The Houdini head in the glass ball still doesn't work. They really need to change the seating in there to prevent kids from getting their legs pinched when the bar comes down. On this trip some people behind us had a child get his knee caught in it, and he cried the rest of the ride. It seems like all they would need to do is put a 1 foot wide seat divider in so that people cant slide all the way up against the end of the bench.
At that point it was 7:15. We were debating on going to the Circo Magnifico show, but we decided against getting caught in the parking lot at park closing time.
All in all it was a fun day, even though I didn't get to hit the better coasters in the park.
Sounds like you , and ur family had a good time,but also sounds like the park was very crowded! , I have to agree with you on the houdini ride, those lapbars come down too tight,and can realy stapel you to the seat if you dont hold it from closing to tight, therefor hurt children.
