SFGAm 8/23/02--Where'd everybody go?
Associated parks:
None
I've lost my sense of sentence structure and style, so my TR is going to suck--if you don't want to read it, my point is: the park was empty.
This was by far my best experience at the park. It was pouring on the drive up, so a trip that normally takes an hour fifteen took two hours. We got to our usual parking spot by Shockwave, got our double stroller to hold all our crap, and walked in...into a ghost town.
We didn't know what to do with ourselves. There was no need to even strategize. We just meandered over to hometown square for our customary first ride on Triple Play. There was no one else on the ride. After that, we hopped in a nearly empty line for Whizzer, but they shut it down. We decided to come back a little later and strolled over to Orbit. Fun ride.
After that, we got in line for Viper, back seat, and waited all of 2 trains to get on. The ride was great, except for a minor incident where my idiot brother decided to stand up on the drop. Scraped his shin pretty good, and taught him a much-needed lesson in safety.
While my niece and her friend headed for the spinning salsa bowls (Chubasco), we adults got in line for Raging Bull, which was only running 2 trains. It didn't matter though, because the line didn't even go past the FastLane entrance. Glad we didn't waste any money on that! We got in line for the back row, and spotted a couple of line jumpers pushing their way through the queue up to the station. Why? For what purpose? The wait was about 10 minutes at that point. So as the ride op was checking my restraints, I mentioned the two impatient yoots to him. He winked and said that security was on its way. They were in line for the next train at that point, and I was treated to one of the kids smiling smarmily at me and waving as we pulled out. His tongue was blue. Anyway, as we went up the lift I got to see Security pull them across the station for a talking to. The ride was fabulous, as usual, and the kids were still being scolded when we got back to the station. We walked slowly out the exit, listening to them complain that they got booted from the ride. By far, the most gratifying experience of the day because I have a mean streak and I really hate line jumping.
Next...The Big Brown Stick, as my niece calls Giant Drop. Still terrifying, had to hold on and shut my eyes.
After that, the kids got a ride on Demon. I decided to save myself a headache and waited for them at the exit. Nice view of Deja Vu's valleyed train there.
Sooo...we headed over to American Eagle. This one scares the bejeebus out of me, and this time was no exception. We did backwards, in the back seat for some added insanity, and it was great. We got off, but there was no one in line so we hopped into a middle seat and rode again. Love the ride-ops there yesterday.
We went over to Camp Cartoon Network next so that my niece could ride the coaster there. Funny little episode. She had to wait for the front seat--money seat , so she could pose for a pic. I waited by the on-ride photo booth for her, and was just slightly taken aback by her pic. According to Melanie, she meant to give 2 peace signs but her hands got confused, so what came out was her, with an absolutely evil glare, flipping the bird at the camera with both hands! I really wanted to buy the pic, but the attendant was busy with some guy's credit card that wouldn't go through, and she never acknowledged my presence. Eh. It was just as well. They're not supposed to sell pics of obscene gestures, even if it's an innocent mistake by a 7 year old.
Anywho, it started to drizzle a bit at that point. My bro-in-law took the kids on Logger's Run (why? it was raining) and to the other kids area there, I can't remember the name, while my sister and I took on Batman and then...holy hell. We rode V2 in the front seat. I had avoided it up to this point, because the line is always so long, but we only had to wait 4 trains before we got on this time so my sister insisted. Blimey. I was shaking when we got off.
Met up with the rest of our people. We were all soaking wet but the kids wanted to go on White Water Rampage (I refuse to call it Ice Mountain Splash). Freebie of the day: water blaster #1 was working without quarters. So we had a lot of fun with that while the little ones waited in the longest line of the day. It was raining--why a line for a water ride? Go figure.
So, we headed over to Sky Trek Tower. I haven't been on that since I was a kid. Nice view of the park in the rain. We also got a good view of the nearly-empty parking lot.
After that, we pretty much decided to hit some favorites one last time and head home. Rode Viper twice more, RB twice more in the back seat, and the Big Brown Stick again. This time, I kept my eyes open, and my hands and feet out. Go me!
We started to head to Whizzer but changed our minds and decided to try the Eagle forwards. Again, empty station. I opted for the back seat and got 3 rides in, never having to leave my seat. I gotta hand it to the ride ops there. They did their best to race the trains, and letting us re-ride was awesome.
Couldn't leave without going on Whizzer, so we did that and headed out. It was nice--no logjam getting out of the lot, and we only waited 5 minutes for a table at Olive Garden, which I like. I had chicken giardino.
So that was it. I've never seen the park that empty, we felt like we were the only ones there. I was disappointed that the East River Crawler was down, but it was a minor inconvenience in the grand scheme of things
Aw, dang it. We didn't go today, we went yesterday, 8/22. I got my days mixed up. Sorry.
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If you're skating on thin ice, you may as well tap dance.
*** This post was edited by BuffaloGal on 8/23/2002. ***
Wow, sounds like a great day. I thought the weather might scare people off, and had been serioulsy considering using a "sick day" today.
chris, kicking himself right about now.
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"The perfect machine, you seemed to be, when I built you up in my mind..." - Reverend Jon Autry
*** This post was edited by chris on 8/26/2002. ***
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Bob Hansen
A proud CoasterBuzz Member
Operation Wicked Twister - Goal: Lose 50 lbs by next season to ride it! (updates soon)
I was there yesterday too, traffice was bad getting to the park, the traffic was backed up from toll to toll on the tollway. It wasn't as empty as it was during Mothers day, when you didn't have to get off the ride til you wanted to. But there wasn't many people there. I was running out of stuff to do since Shockwave and Deja Vu were down and I had most the coasters done before 1p.m.
Good TR
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Deja Vu Count = 25
CoasterWorld
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