This was the first event that I really felt didn't turn out the way I wanted. With all of the others, and we've had quite a few, things came together quickly and we had a great group of attendees. What I think I can attribute to turnover in the group sales department meant that everything was a little too last minute, so we didn't get to properly promote the event. Dealing with tickets and such turned out to be problematic as well.
That experience leading up to the event put me in a bad mood of sorts. Fortunately, Catherine was there to kick me in the nuts (what are ex-girlfriends for? ;)) and I was in the park for all of ten minutes before I was happy to be there.
The crowd was enormous. It was 90 degrees with very high humidity. Still, we were determined to at least ride certain things, with a break in the middle at the hotel. Cath needed to study, I just needed time to sleep and let my brain rot a little. I feel like I haven't had any time to just do nothing in about three weeks. It's not that I don't like doing "stuff," it's just that eventually you need to catch up.
Upon entering the park, and getting passed a really salty old bastard of a security guard at the bag search, we were a little worried to see Comet's queue totally full. We went up the hill to check out Great Bear, and it was looking like 45 minutes or more, so we went back down to ride the only thing we missed last year (aside from Roller Soaker), the Sooperdooperlooper.
The line was short, and the crew was fantastic. Granted, when you have no seat belts or shoulder restraints to screw around with, it's pretty easy to move quickly. I'm always pleasantly surprised at how well Schwarzkopf coasters age. I've never been on one that I didn't like. Interesting chain and linkage too between the station and the lift. Great ending.
After battling around through the crowds, we decided that mid-day escape was in order. We stopped to pick up a bag of those kettle chips, and they were fantastic. Greasy as hell, but yummy and fresh. Not recommended on an empty stomach, by the way.
I napped in sweet air conditioning. It was awesome. Comfort Inn there at 422/322 is fairly nice. Would've been nicer without the hordes of kids staying there. (Insert "get off my lawn" comment here.)
We got back to the park just in time for dinner. While the "chicken breast" was definitely chicken, and may have contained breast meat, I think calling it that was a little bit of a stretch. Still, it was yummy, and I'm not complaining. The salad and fruit salad even seemed to go over well. Apparently they "forgot" to bust out the ice cream at first, but we got hooked up, and enjoyed the novelties.
It rained for a little bit, so we had some time to be social in the small group. Cath and I adopted Carrie to ride and headed toward the newer part of the park.
First we went to Lightning Racer, and it was nice and wet. Had a great lap on Lightning. More on that later for the ERT. What I was most interested in was riding Wildcat with the new Millennium Flyer trains. The difference was fairly dramatic, but it was still a little on the rough side in places. To be honest, the "math" of the ride isn't quite right to create the magic that Racer or a newer ride like Renegade creates. It's still a lot of fun though, and very comfortable with the new trains.
Because restroom talk is funny, the girls mentioned that the restrooms in this area of the park were not air conditioned.
We headed down to the middle of the park and did the Reese's eXtreme Cup Challenge, and received no candy at the end. I was disappointed. The theme of the ride still strikes me as super stupid, but the vehicles for this dark ride/shooter are easily among the most interesting. My gun was broken again and I couldn't score. Someone at Sally hates me I think.
We all agreed that we needed to ride Great Bear, so we decided to just deal with whatever line was there. I was disappointed that Coal Cracker, the log flume, was not open. On a day like this, it would've been perfect. This is one of the last truly great log rides of the 80's.
Last year, Great Bear had the only really lame crew in the park. This year's is much better, and the line moved fairly quickly. Great Bear doesn't seem to get a lot of love, but among the B&M inverters, this one is so balls-out intense start to finish. It has no slow point. I love that ride.
We stopped for Boardwalk Fries, and I was shocked that they did in fact offer a bucket size. The three of us shared a large instead, went inside for A/C, and talked about life, love and career. Good times.
Carrie wanted a spin on the Tilt-a-Whirl, but it really didn't do much spinning. We were actually having a serious conversation most of the ride. It needs to be lubed up or something.
We finished on Comet. As someone mentioned later, going up the lift, it's crooked. Like trick track on the lift. And the cars flex as it climbs. That's sweet. Cath and I were in the front seat, Carrie in the second. I was blown away by the amount of air time that thing made. What an outstanding ride. If the line was shorter I would have loved to do it again.
Unfortunately, the crew sucked. When a guy on the platform is signaling to buzz the bars open, or let some stuck people out, and the op at controls is too busy flirting and laughing with other crew members, that concerns me. Also concerning, on all of the coasters, actually, is that they don't watch the train leave. Most of the parks I can think of, they watch the train leave to see that every restraint is in place. That doesn't happen there.
The group reconvened at 10 by the catering pavilion. There was no security officer there to greet us. Fireworks started. We waited some more. At about 10:15, an officer comes down the hill, says nothing, and sits on a bench. Cath goes up the hill to ask the Storm Runner crew what's going on, and they say the security guy will escort us.
A little after 10:30, a guy who I assume is a rides supervisor, tells us they've actually opened Lightning Racer and Wildcat for us, but Storm Runner "won't be running" for us. Naturally, the one thing we held off on because we thought we'd have it for ERT was down.
While annoyed by that, it didn't ruin my night or anything. I bypassed Wildcat for Racer, and ended up doing 11 total laps on it, in the winning car every time. The crew was very enthusiastic, and everyone seemed to have a good time. After some moving around, I discovered that Thunder offers the better ride, especially in the front. The top of the first turn-around absolutely tosses you up and out to the right. Awesome stuff. I had the chance to ride with a number of different people and really enjoyed myself. The smell of chocolate and the beautiful lighting on the ride really made for a great enthusiast moment.
Overall, I had a pretty good time, even if I was a little burned out on work and travel. I hope that if we do look into an event there next year, that the group sales folks are a little more on top of things.