May 24th

[Oldiesmann]

Went to the park this afternoon after church. Got there around 1pm after a brief stop at Wally World to pick up a glasses case because I left mine at home.

As expected, the park was packed. I ended up parking all the way out in Beast 32 (which ended up being a great thing at the end of the night - more on that in a bit).

After switching from sneakers to sandles, then layering myself with spray-on sunscreen, I made the 5-minute hike from the parking lot to the main entrance. Seeing that the line for pass processing was backed up to the parking lot, I was glad that I'd gotten my pass processed already.

Long story short, I decided to mainly ride things I hadn't ridden yet this year, and even though the lines were long, I still got quite a few rides. I ended up riding DBack twice - once in the SRL and once in the regular line (which turned out to be perfect timing because the fireworks started just as we were heading out of the station - Diamondback with fireworks is awesome!). I would have ridden it more, but after I rode it the first time, the SRL was closed and there were a lot of people heading for that ride (which of course is what happens when the park map recommends people waiting until afternoon to ride it because lines will be shorter then...). The second DBack ride was a substitute for my usual Beast night ride because The Beast was closed by the time I got back that way around 9:15 or 9:30.

Ride count for today:

Adventure Express - 1

Avatar - 1

Blue Racer - 1 (and we won )

Diamondback - 1

Drop Tower - 1

Fairly Odd Coaster - 1

Firehawk - 1

Monster - 1

Shake, Rattle & Roll - 1

Son of Beast - 1

Spongebob - 1

Viking Fury - 1

Vortex - 1

Notes/observations:

Apparently some of the kiddies last weekend had too much time on their hands while waiting for Son of Beast, as evidenced by all the graffiti on the red support beam of the ramp, one piece of which is actually dated. Further graffiti can be seen etched into some of the wood further up the ramp.

Spotted this under the Son of Beast station:

The statues at the end of Adventure Express were actually working this time, but the ride itself seemed lamer than usual since I rode it right after riding Son of Beast.

Son of Beast overall was a lot smoother than it used to be, but the wobbly train made for a rough ride anyway.

There are several concrete posts under the final straight track on Son of Best - possibly leftovers from the Monorail?

I am not going to ride in the back of any car on Vortex again because I don't like squirming trying to avoid whacking my knees on the back of the seat in front of me.

Fairly Odd Coaster is still a fun coaster without the tunnel, but I liked it better with the tunnel.

Was going to ride Reptar, but decided quickly that it wasn't worth a 45-minute wait.

Parking at the north end of the lot turned out to be a good thing - only 20 minutes from the time the fireworks ended to the time I was on the freeway headed home. I avoided a lot of traffic by going out the north entrance. I still miss the trams though.

The line for Crypt was out the door at one point - too bad those people didn't know about the new program.

Someone lost their basketball in Rivertown because they were being stupid with it. They were tossing it up in the air, hitting the net under Diamondback near The Crypt. They caught it a couple of times before the ball hit a fence and rolled off well out of their reach...

The Euro Bungy thing was actually semi-popular today.

[thunderbeast1968]

My trip was not too bad, I am going to make just a few bullet points.

1. DB was really good, lots of airtime, if you relax yourself.

2. I'm 6'4" and my feet barely touched the DB floor. Like I said relax your legs, and it kind of did feel like a floorless.

3. The Crypt, waited 1/2 hour. Big waste of time, 2 flips upside down. It takes longer to load and unload the the actual ride cycle. Bulldoze this piece of garbage.

4. Rode SOB 1st time since loop removal and new trains, I love this coaster but, Just like other peoples comments, It is a one ride only for me. Did not care for it at all, and woodies are my favorite ,so this hurts commenting this way.

5. Park employees were generally friendly, not too bad.

6. Geauga lake ride ops (Ha Ha) need to train KI employees on Firehawk, this was way too slow for my taste. X flight had a train heading up the lift while the other was on the final brakerun. Several times yesterday 2 trains just sitting there doing nothing. I listened to the ride ops give a all clear, but the train just sat there for a least 2 mins, not even in the lay down position. I don't know if this is new ride ops or what? But a 1hr. plus wait and slow moving Firehawk employees. I give them a D- For their grade.

[Oldiesmann]

I do hope Firehawk moves faster in the future as I love that ride but don't enjoy waiting an hour for it. While I was in the station yesterday, I saw at least two times when one train came back and began unloading before the other train (which was fully loaded) even left the station.