What a great weekend weather-wise. Clear and sunny, mild. Temperatures got a BIT higher than I'd expected, but never hot.
We got to the park at almost exactly 10. Season pass processing was relatively quick and painless.
Once in the park, it was off to Villain. Except Villain wasn't up. Oops. So into the Double Loop line we go, where I'm spotted by CoasterBuzz's own 2Hostyl (Jeremy), about 5 people behind us in line. We step back to join up with him.
So Double Loop was the first Ohio coaster for me this year (although not the first coaster, by a long shot ;) )
I'm going to spend an inordinate amount of time on Double Loop, for a specific reason. We came VERY close to witnessing a
SERIOUS safety violation. The ride op responsible for checking the restraints for the back of the train was giving the signal for dispatching the train, when
the back car wasn't locked. The emphasis is serious here, people. The riders in the train were even saying "We're not locked!" and the op replied "Yes you are." The riders were able to move the restraints freely! Now, fortunately, the op realized his mistake and DID lock the car, but this is exactly the kind of incident the industry does
not need.
Ok, so we get our token ride on Double Loop (making sure our train was locked properly). After that, Villain was up and running, so off we went.
After Villain we wandered over to the old Sea World section. It was pleasant, quiet, and more open than the rides section. I hope they keep it that way. We had a nice lunch on the Sea World side, and got some GREAT pictures from across the lake. We also noted that beer was actually cheaper than soda, at least at one stand. Now, people who've seen my comments in other threads may remember that usually I'm a dark beer man (Guiness, Sam Smith's Oatmean Stout, etc.), but when a tolerable draft beer is available for less than soda, well it's hard to argue that. Beer in hand, we walked back to the Rides section...
Ride tallies/comments (in order of first rides, as I can recall):
Double Loop (1 lap) -- standard early Arrow design, cute but nothing special. I'll refrain from ranting again about the incident here.
Villain (3 laps for the day) -- I love this woodie. The new lapbars didn't matter much to me, but then again the old ones didn't bother me either.
Raging Wolf Bobs (1 lap) -- I don't know what they did to this ride (if anything), but it seemed a LOT better than last year. No screeching through the turns, no kidney-jarring bounces. Surprise of the day.
Batman Knight Flight (1 lap, back seat) -- One of my favorite B&Ms (not that I've ridden them all yet ;) )
Roadrunner Express (2 laps, debatable) -- No line whatsoever, so we hopped on. I seem to remember only going around the circuit once last year when I rode this, but this year they sent us around twice. Does that count as one or 2? ;) Either way, this is a cute little family ride, with a surprising amount of kick to it.
Big Dipper (1 lap) -- Classic wood. 'nuff said.
Superman: Ultimate Escape (1 lap) -- Just as thrilling as last year. Having ridden Hypersonic didn't detract from this (very different) experience.
Serial Thriller (1 lap) -- Ouch. Hang-n-bang at its "best". One of our party had never ridden one, and was determined to try it. Afterwards he commented "Ok, don't need to ever do THAT again..."
X-Flight, of course, was not up. It does look pretty cool, though. Can't wait to ride it, even if it's a token ride to get it on my track record ;)
It was around 6 when my group decided it was time to head off for dinner and the drive to Sandusky to check into our hotel there.
Overall, with the exception of the Double Loop incident, not a bad day. The new LARGE park looks very nice. I really hope they keep the two sides different, although I fear that won't be the case. Time will tell...
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--Greg
http://www.pobox.com/~gregleg/
