TR- Martins Fantasy Island 8-4-02 - my 1st 6 pages

TR: Martins Fantasy Island 8-4-2002"Locostraps and eyewear thieves"Ok, this is going to be a 6-page trip report just like all the guys inthe chat room wanted me to write, I am typing it in Microsoft word andI'm using Arial size 12 in case you are wondering. In case you do notknow I kind of have a phobia of the sun which makes it reallydifficult to go to theme parks cause you gotta be in the sun whileyour at the park, and I have to stay away from the sun. Luckily thesun didn't come out for very long and I was able to enjoy most of mypark stay. Also I think my phobia is getting better because imchatting with you guys so I think I better keep chatting and going tomore parks and maybe it will go away.This TR is dedicated to aunt rose and Jerry and Dave A, and Paulbecause I kept thinking about stealing kiddie ride restraints and thatreminded me of aunt rose and then I remembered about the locostrapsand that reminded me of Dave A and Paul cause I rode the giant slideand I think Paul is the person who told me to never pass up the giantslide so I thought of him when I rode that, and I also took a pictureof the giant slide for Paul.This is my first attempt at a TR so please forgive me if it sucks. Also since I have to write 6 pages about a traditional family themepark there is going to be a lot of rambling. If you are reading thisTR respond to this thread because then at least I will know someone isreading my TR cause its gonna take me a long time to write 6 pages.I actually went to a theme park after like a 2-year absence from goingto a theme park. That's right I have not been to a park in 2 yearsuntil now so I really enjoyed this visit. I went with my mom and my5-year-old cousin which meant I got to ride the kiddie stuff too whichwas cool.We split up at the parks entrance and I ran toward the flying bobssince this was the thing I wanted to ride the most. (Other than thesilver comet of course). These flying bobs are really good and impretty sure they are made by chance but I might be wrong about that, Ialso think they are the portable model cause most of the rides at thispark are portable carnival rides. But what's cool about these flyingbobs is that they run them both forwards and backwards and they giveyou a pretty long ride cycle. The line wasn't really long for themeither and I was able to walk right off from my first ride and getright on again for a second ride. The rides were pretty good and Inoticed they replaced the seatbelts on almost all of the cars that wasmuch needed! When I went to the park 2 years ago all the seatbeltshad knots tied in them just to keep them together. Some of the carsalso had retractable seatbelts I guess they removed them cause theyprobably broke by now. Now they just have the fold over kind ofbuckles, but I think those are too big because they dig into your legsand stuff when you get thrown into them. (I know I know I know, youcan ridicule me as much as you want but I cant give up tightening theseatbelts on the flying bobs, I made an honest effort to try but itjust wouldn't happen, maybe next time) I would prefer a smaller afterburner cockpit type seatbelt with a pushbutton. (Don't know if thatwould be strong enough though). A smaller fold over buckle would beideal but I don't think ive ever seen a small fold over style buckle. Also I think the cars need to be washed on the flying bobs orsomething cause they were really dusty; I don't know why they justdon't wipe the dust off them. I don't know why but there were 2 carsthat were roped off as well. I was riding alone on this ride and mostof the others of course, and I think the car rocks more when you ridealone because the last time I got on the flying bobs I had to ridewith a girl and the car didn't rock.After I took 2 rides on the flying bobs and took a couple pictures ofthe silver comet while I was in line for the flying bobs, I made myway over to the silver comet. The lines weren't that long at thebeginning of the day (we went to the park between 3 and 4pm) and Idecided to take my first ride in the front. The silver comet is a CCIwooden coaster built in 1999 and its max speed is 55 mph and it hasone PTC train that is purple. I don't know why the train is purple sodon't ask. There weren't any interesting people in line in the Q thistime. Ok now is where I have to talk about the locostraps. For thosethat do not know I will explain what the locostrap is. It's a strapyou put around the lap bar and the grab bar and it prevents the lapbar from stapling you into the train. I do not know who exactlycoined the term "locostrap" but if anyone knows please tell me,thanks. BRING A LOCOSTRAP FOR THIS COASTER. I personally do not knowthe proper procedure for using a locostrap so I refrained from usingit cause I didn't want to get in trouble with the ride ops. I didbring a locostrap to the park in case of an emergency I mean you neverknow when you're going to need it. If you usually need a locostrap,you need to bring one for this coaster. I saw about 10 people theyhad to undo the lap bars on with the lap bar release key (thanks Jerryfor telling me what that thing is called). I was fine without thelocostrap I think the stapling occurs on the lift hill, just make sureyou hold the bar up on the lift hill, its not a hard task. Andspeaking of stapling, why is it that everyone staples themselves on acoaster, I do not know why these people would staple themselves into acoaster, as it looked pretty painful. I thought that was reallyweird. I think I was the only one who actually had a clue how to ridea coaster, as I was the only one not stapling myself. The ops didn'tmind and I found that a 3-click ride was more than enough room for me. It didn't feel like I was stapled at all and there was plenty of roomfor airtime. (I am not taking a one-click ride, again you canridicule me for this, and they wouldn't let me take a 1-click rideeven if I wanted it) The ops also didn't push down on the lap barthey pulled up on it. The one time they pushed down they pushed verylightly and I didn't even feel it.The thing that I don't think you guys are going to like is that theytake your glasses and they wont let you wear them no matter what, soif you have a problem with this, don't go to this park. But I thinkid rather have my glasses taken then be stapled. They were beingcareful with the glasses too.Oh yeah, they also don't tug on the seatbelt, and they don't force youto tighten it either. I will admit that I voluntarily tightened theseatbelt cause I had the loose lap bar. At least I had the loose lapbar part down, and I didn't really put the seatbelt that tight. Istill got a lot of airtime. Ok I have finally decided that airtime isa good thing!!!!! I never used to like airtime but now I like airtimeso again chatting with you guys has done me some good.Now down to the actual rides on the silver comet. I took 5 ridestotal on the coaster that was all I had time for during the day. YesI know I was supposed to ride it 10 times but I would have never hadtime to do that. But I am going to be going back to the park so maybeI can try for 10 times again. The first ride I took in the front. Ifound it very painful. I liked the back better than the front. Thiscoaster has a lot of laterals maybe too many because you areconstantly getting thrown around in it. I also had my hands up thewhole time and I just let the coaster throw my arms around as much asit wanted to. You don't get a lot of airtime in the front, but thefront is cool when you're going down the first drop. If you likelateral g's ride in the front seat. In pretty much any seat thecoaster slams your knees into the front of the train but it doesn'thurt a lot.My other 3 rides I took in assorted middle seats. By this time I wasgetting pretty good at narrating the entire ride which was prettyweird, I didn't think I would have been able to do that. For theserides I found some pretty interesting people in line. I found onefamily that has obviously been to a lot of theme parks as we mentionedKnoebels, PKI, SFDL, Cedar Point, and Kennywood in the sameconversation. I also took this opportunity to spread some rumorsabout how MFI is supposed to get a steel coaster soon, but I told themit was a rumor so I guess it was ok if I told them it was a rumor. Ialso explained to them what a steel coaster was cause they asked meand I told them about how the owner of MFI is really good friends withchance rides and so most of the stuff this park will be getting isgoing to be from chance. The rides in the middle were ok, it's morepainful if you sit toward the front and you get better airtime if yousit toward the back. I liked sitting in the back much better, youdon't have to be in the last seat to get good air, you can get it aslong as you are toward the back of the coaster. I also found a girlwho apparently fell in the mud and she was joking that she had an"accident" and that the coaster gave her the accident. This sameperson was picking on and telling jokes to the ride op named "Dennis"who was working the silver comet. There were also assorted drunkpeople riding the silver comet from the company picnics that weregoing on so that was quite interesting (the drunk people could barelywalk down the exit ramp).Between these rides I walked into the arcade hoping to find somethinggood. This arcade sucked, they lose a lot of points with me becausethey didn't have any pinball machines and I really like playingpinball. When I went 2 years ago they did have one pinball machine sothat pacified me. They did have a few classic games which was goodbut they were all turned off. I wanted to play the Stun Runner too. I didn't bother putting any quarters into anything in the arcade and Ileft quickly for more silver comet rides. I was disappointed with thearcade.The 1 other ride I took was in the back seat. This was the best rideof the day. The airtime was very good and intense. EJECTOR AIR!!!!Again I had more than enough room and took a 3-click ride in the backseat with a semi tight seatbelt. (I just cant give up the tightseatbelt thing, if I could do that, then I would have the ultimatecoaster experience, but I still like having the semi tight seatbelt) The laterals were not as intense in the back as the front so it wasn'tas painful.Then it was time to go on the wildcat. This is a shwartzkopf (sorryabout the spelling if I screwed it up) wild cat I think. I think it'ssimilar to the galaxy or zyklon coasters. It has 4 separate cars,each which hold 4 people. This coaster does not have any seatbeltsand I think it has single position lap bars and also no seat dividers. Ok, I only took one ride on this coaster, and it SUCKS! I mean it'sreally bad, it's so slow and you get absolutely no airtime at all. Also the purple and yellow paint scheme isn't too appealing either,and it has 2 pink, 1 blue and 1 yellow cars.Then after this I met up with my cousin and mom and we hit the giantslide and the kiddie rides. This was very interesting. I guess I amone of the few lucky coaster people who get to ride a kiddie coaster. First up was the kiddie coaster, it was a Wisdom Orient express. Ihave to say that this coaster is more fun than the wildcat!! They sentthe coaster around 5 times which I thought was pretty good. Alsolines for most of the kiddie rides were nonexistent. We actually hadto wait for more people to come on the coaster before they ran it. The kiddie coaster is slightly rickety but not too bad, and the carsare quite large they were big enough for me and it wasn't a tightsqueeze at all. This is a great fun, family type ride. Its reallynice that they let adults ride most of the kiddie rides at this parkbecause its no fun if you have to just watch your kids the whole timeon rides, a family should ride the rides together!The giant slide was very fun but since I have a slight fear of heightsso I do not like climbing up the stairs, that part is very scary forme. It's enough of a deterrent for me to stay away from the giantslide. They also repainted the giant slide it is now yellow, blue andpurple. It was all red before; I think it goes faster now that theyrepainted it.I will start off by saying this is Zamperla kiddie land, that is notnecessarily a bad thing though, it's a good thing. I thought theZamperla rides were very nice for the kids and offered a decentlythrilling ride that wasn't boring at all. Adults can ride theZamperla rides as well, and I am not sure about this, but I think youcan get on them even if you aren't with a child, there isn't a signsaying adults must ride with children. You might even be able to geton the kiddie coaster without a child too. The Zamperla rides have apretty good locking system on them because the operator has to take akey like thing and open up each of the gates to the cars with the keything, you cant open and close the gates by yourself, except on theballoons.The Zamperla rides were the crazy bus, kiddie balloons, and kiddieteacups. The first one we went on was the balloons. Now this was aninteresting experience for me because the restraint on the balloon wewere in didn't fit me!!! AHHHH im actually going to get anunrestrained ride. I know I know I know, I should appreciate anyunrestrained ride nowadays because they are very rare. Ok so itwasn't that bad riding unrestrained, it was kinda fun. All therestraint was was a 1-inch strap with a plastic clip on the end. Youcan really get these balloons spinning if you want to. It turned outthat only the one restraint was broken and that's why I couldn't fitin it, we went on the balloons a few more times during the day andevery other time the restraint fit with lots of extra room. Kiddieride restraints are very comfortable though so it didn't bother me tobe restrained at all. This was probably my favorite kiddie ride outof all of them. The one time we were on the balloons one of the kidswas scared and they had to stop the ride to get her off. I thoughtthe ride op did a good job with this situation because he toldeveryone not to get off because they just had to let someone off. Theride op didn't just leave the scared child on till the end of theride. (And yes aunt rose I did want to steal one of these restraintsfor my collection but I was able to keep myself from doing so,heheheheheh). This ride may be a tight fit for some adults, but nottoo bad, and you can fit in it.Next was the crazy bus ride. I don't really have much to say aboutthis ride but it was kinda neat since it went both forwards andbackwards. There is also a lot of space in this ride for adults tofit easily.The teacup ride was next. This ride was also pretty fun. The blacktub wouldn't spin though and that's the one we had so we had to go onthis ride a couple more times in order to get properly spinning tubs. You can also make this ride spin pretty fast as well. It is also asemi tight fit for adults. Right before closing, there were actually2 adults in one of the teacups and they were spinning really, reallyfast, it was funny though. My mom was mildly amused by this.Adults couldn't go on the kiddie airplane ride but my cousin and mymom reported that it was very difficult to get the planes to go up inthe air, so if you put really small children on this they might not beable to get the planes to go up in the air.The other kiddie rides were ladybugs, a circle car ride (not Hampton),either a Zamperla convoy or something similar to a Zamperla convoythat is located in the adult section of the park (I think Zamperlamakes the convoy), and wet boats which I think are by Allan Herschel. My cousin also had trouble getting into the wet boats.The parks newest ride is a Chance Slingshot, so of course I had toride it. I had also never done a drop ride in my life so this wouldbe my first one. This ride has the longest line out of anything inthe park; I am suspecting this is due to the low capacity of the ride.Before I talk about this ride I want to make a comment about being asingle rider at the amusement park. I don't know if this works atother parks, but it was very cool to be a single rider at this parkbecause I got to cut in front of a lot of people on many rides becausethey just needed one person to fill up the ride. Being a single riderdefinitely works in your favor at MFI. I got to cut in front ofpeople on the slingshot, the wildcat and the silver comet in manyinstances. No rides have a no single rider policy either.Cutting in front of people on the Slingshot was a great welcome due tothe line. (I think this ride is actually called the daredevil at MFI,but im calling it the Slingshot cause I like to call rides by theirmanufacturer name) I felt this ride was very tame; it's cool when itshoots you up to the top though. I would also imagine the view fromthe top is pretty good although I didn't wear my glasses so I cantcomment on the view. You do get held at the top for long enough totake in the view though. The drop down to the bottom I felt was slowand relaxing and it also has a little bounce to it at the end.Finally it was time to head over to kiddieland for a few more ridesand them leave the park. The park has very nice gift shops and anexcellent candy shop for candy lovers, and the fudge is good, if yougo to MFI you have to buy some of the fudge. I didn't get any otherfood at the park because I generally do not like to eat at parks, Ididn't really have time to eat anyways. I don't know why I don't liketo eat at parks (probably because I am too busy) but I just don't liketo eat at parks.I went into the candy shop and found the one kind of candy I love themost. ROCK CANDY! I have an obsession with rock candy, I just lovethe stuff. They also had cotton candy flavored rock candy, which Ihave never seen before, and the rock candy was on a stick which is theway I like it more. So MFI gets points with me for having rock candyin the candy shop. Of course we bought some of the fudge because it'san absolute must, my favorite flavor is the peanut butter, they alsohad creamsicle which looked interesting.Then I went in the souvenir shop to buy myself something and getsomething for Jerry since he was nice enough to make me a coasterrelated name tag. I bought an 8.99 t-shirt which I thought was a veryreasonable price for a park t-shirt, its not the greatest park t-shirtbut its still cool. I also bought 2 coaster buttons for myself. Theyhad patches and lanyard key chains too, and hats as well, with thepark logo on it, so at least there was some coaster and park relatedmerchandise there.Ok, so this ends my first trip report, I have now written over 6pages. I enjoyed my visit to this park so much that I want to go backagain right away. I will probably be going back next week sometimefor the after 5 admission special. I will write another trip reportbut I promise I wont right as much as I did today.I hope you enjoyed the trip report!

Wow man, you need to make paraghraphs. I couldn't finish reading the whole thing it was so hard to read. Just a tip for the next time you write one. And also next time don't try to write six pages. It just ruins the quality of it. But otherwise I'm glad you had a great time there.

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"Enjoy your voyage to the sun on the wings of Apollos Chariot"

*** This post was edited by Brendan w on 8/6/2002. ***

Wow.... all I can say is.... wow....

Not that I read it or anything. Something that small and not broken into paragraphs is WAAAYYY too tedious for me, especially for a park that I live like less than 10 miles away from!

Sure, I'd like to know what you have to say about it... but unless it's broken up into paragraphs, and it's a little biger so I can read it... I'll have to pass...

...besides, how much is there really to say on a family park that has only 1 decent coaster (CCI's Silver Comet), and one wild mouse coaster??

ok im sorry i didnt know it came out like that on here, i had it in paragraphs, and the guys in the chatroom wanted me to write 6 pages so i did, i can try reposting it

I have *excellent* vision, and this is just too small.

Paragraphs and punctuation are each your very best friend.

Run-on sentences wait in the schoolyard to beat you up and steal your lunch money.

I'm going to Fantasy Island this weekend, I suspect. I wish I could read this.

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~~~ Maddy ~~~

*** This post was edited by Chernabog on 8/6/2002. ***

ok , try the repost everyone, it looks much better!