Raptor Jo's CoasterMania '09--2k Raptor rides!

[Raptor Jo]

Being lazy I am just copy and pasting my TR from Pointbuzz for the KI freaks to enjoy!

Friday June 5th

I was so looking forward to CM this season, maybe because it was my 10th or maybe because I just knew it was going to be an event to remember!

I couldn’t understand why my hubby wanted to follow me on his Harley, that is until I saw Roeder Harley Davidson in Sandusky. Seems he had neglected to mention it was bike week and what do you know, it was right in Sandusky! His Harley safe at home, hubby had no choice but to join the CoasterMania fun. We checked into our hotel (and thanks to the aforementioned bike week even our hotel was sold out) and headed to the park early.

It was then we found out we would be treated to CM t-shirt this year. They were pretty cool. I had made my own CM shirt but really like and appreciate the ones they gave us. Even the lanyards were cool.

Of course headed right for Raptor. I swear I was the oldest person in the queue. It seemed like every single kid under the age of 16 was there. I had CM buttons made for the crew so wanted to drop them off. We only rode 1x and then I was busy taking pictures before the social hour. The food was outstanding! There was veggies, cheeses. dips, sausage, hot pockets type things, fruits, chocolate, and drinks. Kudos to the food service people, they went way beyond, everything was outstanding. I met one of my CP buds there Tim, and we had a blast sharing stories about the KI Ride Warriors Weekend.

We then enjoyed the special presentation for Maggies 20th Anniversary. The PR department had put together a film showing the media hoopla in 1989. John Hildebrandt and Mr. Kinzel spoke with us briefly before Ron Toomer shared with us stories about designing Maggie. His co-designer Lee shared some funny things with us also. When the Q&A time came, naturally we were subjected to that same person who asks a (usually stupid) question/comment without fail. As soon as he stood up there was a mutual groan.

Hubby and I took in the park, and when the buses were about done pulling out, we headed back to Raptor and managed 9 more flights (mouths closed and no front rides) before it was almost time for PM ERT. Mere words can not describe the sworms of muffleheads-OMG! The swarms were so big hubby thought it was smoke and something was on fire! Blech! My shirt was so trashed from those things. Hate em!

We walked thru the Starlight Experience, not really knowing what to expect and wow! It was the coolest thing we had ever seen! I highly recommend you do not miss it!

By law (ok not really law) we would have to ride Maggie for the ERT. It seemed everyone had that same idea at 1st. Dave (Rideman) was with us so naturally had to hit him up with a bunch of technical questions about TTD. The beginning of ERT was pretty crowded, but as the rides progressed there were less and less people and each ride was more and more fun for hubby and I. The trims were off and the rides became more and more intense. Watching the people in front of us around the pretzel turn and during the bunny hill airtime I was literally crying I was laughing so hard.

We got to sing Happy Birthday to Maggie-that was so fun too.

We decided (DUMB move) to skip the final 2 rides and head to Maverick for some ERT. Maverick’s ERT ended up taking us 45 minutes and we got 1 ride. Please do not misunderstand, I said dumb move because honestly we had so much fun on Maggie we could have been content just staying there and then calling it a night. Maverick was fun as always, then we had the LONG walk back to the car-knew should have parked in Soak City-duh.

On the ride back to the hotel we were on the causeway and when we got to First Street I noticed there was a car that looked like it was going to make a left right in front of us. I said wtf before I saw the car was going to definitely going to pull out right in front of us. I hit the horn, hit my brakes and swirved to the right and know that idiot missed hitting us by a matter of inches. My hubby was freaking-I almost had to pull over cause I was shaking so bad. My guess is it may have been a CP employee coming home from Louies. Who ever it was lucky I learned how to drive in NYC-defensive is an understatement. Still that person was a stupid idiot and lucky they didn’t get someone killed. Jerk!

In hotel bed by 1:45-wake up call for 4am. Yikes.

1st day of CoasterMania was so fun (less the drive back to hotel) We couldn’t wait to see how day 2 would go.

Saturday June 6th

Nothing like getting 2 hours sleep and then heading back to the park again. We got coffee on the way (HAD to) and were 2 of about 20 people already there. MF and TTD ERT so when gates opened, we headed to MF. Donuts, coffee and juice awaited everyone! Nice! I ended up doing an interview for some unnamed show.

We rode 4 laps and then headed to TTD, where there was more coffee, juice and donuts! We decided to wait on front car. That launch gets me every single time--but 1 ride was enough for us and headed back to MF. By this time they were letting us walk thru the special access gate and get right back in line. Cool deal. Hubby and I managed 6 more laps on MF before heading to Raptor for some early ride time.

Hubby and I rode Raptor 10x before gates opened and the GP swarmed into the park. We took advantage of the beautiful weather and took pictures. I also hit up some of the stores for much wanted (but not needed) CP merchandise. We were basically just trying to kill time before lunch. We rode the train and I ended up crashing on hubby. I was OUT. A couple of our friends had seen us and apparently got a big kick out of me sleeping on the train. I drank 3 Mountain Dews (love the pop bracelet!) and was good to go for lunch.

Lunch was great, hot dogs, potato salad, grilled chicken, and vegetable lasagna. Dessert was shortcakes with fresh strawberries and whipped cream. Yummy. Again, Kudos to the food services people, they really out did themselves again!

Hubby and I booked out of the park after lunch and headed back to the hotel. When we got to First Street (location of almost accident night before) we saw these huge skid marks where I had slammed on my brakes before I swerved out of the way. Seeing that made me sick to my tummy.

Back at hotel, hubby and I crashed. OUT as soon as we got horizontal. We got up at 8pm, showered and headed back to the park. We ate at Johnny Rockets and then we rode Raptor 8x before ride was closed and waited there for the PM ERT fun to begin. We were the 1st ones in the line and ended up meeting with 2 of my KI friends. We had a nice conversation with them. They were shocked when they found out that KI is actually my home park. They had assumed it was CP since I spend so much time there. There actually had been quite a few people who mentioned they had seen me at KI a couple of times this season....amazing how just a new coaster can get me to KI more often!! Go figure!

Raptor ERT was beyond awesome. I don’t know what was more fun, the actual ERT or listening to the ride op Ben dogging Diamondback! He was saying such funny stuff. Making fun of all the trim brakes on DB and someone said to him “we have trim brakes but you have Mean Streak.” Ben said “yes I must apologize for Mean Streak” - too funny!! Anyway I finally made my 2k rides, which they announced! I ended up with 10 rides (8 of which were rerides) past that before the train after us ended up stuck on the mid course block brake. I was so mad I wasn’t on that train! So basically no more rides for us but it was about time for the ERT to end so no big whoppie. I heard they had to be evac'd-I am so jealous!!!

So with another CoasterMania under my belt we left CP Saturday night laughing about the fun we had and how sad we were it was over already.

Sunday June 7th

We woke up Sunday morning and I asked hubby if he would mind if we headed back to CP again for a couple rides. He didn’t want to at first but then I said if we didn’t go back to CP then could we go to KI instead. Hubby immediately opted for CP

We got to CP around 9:30am-stayed at Raptor and got 9 more rides (no it never gets boring to me) and instead of leaving (as we had planned on doing) we ended up taking in the whole park and riding quite a few more rides. It was a blast-that spur of the moment stuff always is! We ended up seeing a few of my KI friends (Brian and Karen to name a couple) this same morning too. They only stayed to ride Raptor a couple times and headed home.

Speaking of which, does anyone know that the big round flowerbed is going to say?? We tried reading it from Raptor and the sky ride and could not really read it. I think it is going to say Happy Birthday XL 200-but not sure-any ideas?

We said our final farewell to CP around 1ish. My payback was I had to stop at Roeders so hubby could hang out for while---a while turned out to be 3 hours so we didn’t even leave Sandusky till almost 4ish. Had I known I might’ve headed back to CP. Oh well, I’ve got my horses, he’s got his Harley and I suppose I owed him for the gazillion Raptor rides he rode with me.

All in all CM ‘09 was way fun and one of the best ones ever. My thanks to the PR group who worked so hard on the event. My thanks to the crews who had so much enthusiasm despite the long day and having to tolerate all of us. Again the food was all yummy. My thanks to all my friends too who hung out with us, plus all the people we ended up meeting.

Cant wait till CoasterMania ‘10!

Jo

Lifetime Raptor flights: 2019

[DropZone99]

Congratulations on 2K! I wish I could of made it to Coaster Mania but at the last minute I couldn't go.. So did you like it better than Last Years? CM08' Was the best day of my life, but alot of my Friends said they were disapointed with this years.

[Raptor Jo]

Congratulations on 2K! I wish I could of made it to Coaster Mania but at the last minute I couldn't go.. So did you like it better than Last Years? CM08' Was the best day of my life, but alot of my Friends said they were disapointed with this years.

I didn't think last years was as good as this years (PM ERT on Maggie was messed up big time) I really did enjoy this years alot. It was a LONG 2 days but fun none the less! PM ERT on Raptor was a dream come true--Raptor so rocks at night!!

I've had better CMs in years past ('00 was one of the best) but this one ranks right up there. Sorry you couldnt go!

Thanks for the congrats on my 2k...never thought I'd ever get there!

[TOPGUN1993]

Great TR Jo I enjoyed reading it, one of these days I'll make it to a Coastermania

[gigacoaster2k]

Congrats on 2k rides! I got my #50 on Millie this weekend.

I saw you on Raptor. I yelled and waved, but you didn't hear me over the station noise.

Thanks for the Raptor CoasterMania '09 pin too! My friend Adam and I saw the ride ops wearing them, and told him we wanted one as our ride was starting. When we got back to the station, he handed one to me and Adam.

I am so happy to have participated in such a great event. I honestly do not see how people were disappointed.. I had an amazing weekend.

[The Interpreter]

2000 rides! Awesome.

Congratulations!

By the way, do you like Raptor?

Terpy, who just HAD to (and who has ridden Ninja at Six Flags Over Georgia about 11 times too many...)

[violakat03]

I was the one that said they have Mean Streak to Ben. he ended up riding with us on the next train and we were picking on each other going up the lift.

We were 2 trains ahead of the one stuck on the mid course so we only got a station evac but we watched them evac the one on the mid course and discussed how jealous we were. Only enthusiasts!

[Avatar]

Raptor Jo I enjoyed your report and was impressed with the event. I have seen you at several events this year at KI and as well as this past event at CP. I did happen to catch you in in a photo at Raptor about the time you said you went from Mille to ride Raptor, I was taking a picture of a friend who I attended the event with named Sean (Indianpolisman).

Well hope you all got some rest and I'm sure well see you again at KI in the near future.

[Raptor Jo]

Raptor Jo I enjoyed your report and was impressed with the event. I have seen you at several events this year at KI and as well as this past event at CP. I did happen to catch you in in a photo at Raptor about the time you said you went from Mille to ride Raptor, I was taking a picture of a friend who I attended the event with named Sean (Indianpolisman). Well hope you all got some rest and I'm sure well see you again at KI in the near future.

That's not me!!

Imagine, me on Raptor--who would've thought! I have got to be some sort of nut-Raptor green nail polish and even CP socks! You'd think the tattoos would be enough!! I've been busy the past couple days trying to figure out how to add Skyhawk and MaxAir to my tattoo. I think I should just leave it to my ink man, he can figure something out Im sure!

Be sure you introduce yourself next time I love meeting new friends!

Jo

[rotag]

I can see why you copy & pasted.

[maverick2007]

I found it funny when the park opened to the GP at 10 and Raptor went from a walk on for the back row to a really long wait. I was in walking through the queue when it happened. Jo, did you get the chance to see it?

[Raptor Jo]

I found it funny when the park opened to the GP at 10 and Raptor went from a walk on for the back row to a really long wait. I was in walking through the queue when it happened. Jo, did you get the chance to see it?

I am not sure if the time frame is correct but I know on Friday they had a guest illness that threw off the great job the crew had been doing getting people in and out. They have to send the victim train out for at least 2 dry runs which messes up any intervals they had going.

I am of course only assuming this is the time you're talking about.

Jo