LongLiveTheSmurfRide Posted April 29, 2012 Share Posted April 29, 2012 I'll probably go over a lot of what was reported before, though I was there in the evening. Got to the park around 6:00 PM (had to work earlier) with my wife, Laura. It was wet and chilly, but not too bad and the rain seemed to be holding off for a while. Love that the metal detectors are gone. The front of the entrance is opened up. So much more inviting. We got in and met a couple friends and their 4 year old over in the kids area. They had just gotten out of Boo Blasters, which their son had been wanting to ride, but he got really scared this time. His dad said that all of the effects seemed to be going (which was new to them) and that there were a lot more skeletons inside than before and that scared the kid. We hung out with them for a bit and watched the son ride a couple things. Then Laura and I split off for about half an hour to ride some things before we'd meet back at the Festhaus for dinner. First we rode The Racer. One of the sides was blocked off at the entrance, so I figured that they closed a side down because it was slow or because of the rain. Then when we got to the station (which we walked right up to) and noticed, as it has been reported already, that the chain link fence separating the two sides was gone (for about the first two-thirds to half of the station.) I like that change, since it always bottlenecks at the front with the 1st seat waiters. Reminds me more of Gemini's station at CP now. Wonder if they'll always have the one side of the entrance blocked though. The Racer ride was a nice opening coaster for the season. Love that one. Happy 40th Anniversary. Also, it was nice to see the waiting tunnel at the end nice and clean with no bubblegum yet; which I'm sure will change in a couple weeks. Then we went to Adventure Express because it was just about a walk on. Rode nicely, as usual. As I've reported on a couple other posts, this is the first time in years that I've seen all of the guys in the finale hill with working arms. Usually there is one stubborn guy that doesn't move one of them, but they were all going this time. Good show. Met our friends at Festhaus and I had a couple slices of pizza. This year they have XL slices of pizza instead of the old double slices. If this isn't new, it's new to me. Still, at $5.99 a slice, seemed like a raw deal. Got my thimble full of water to go with it for no charge. Then the guys split off to go ride Delirium while the ladies took the kid back over to Snoopy. Delirium was a 2 cycle wait and is still the best flat in the park, IMO. It started to rain when we were waiting for (and riding) Delirium, so we headed over to Snoopy to meet the gals. Once there we watched the kid ride some more. The area was really emptying out (this was around 8:30.) While he was hitting the lady bugs the rain slacked and I noticed that Surf Dog had nobody waiting. I walked over to it, excited that I might get a Zen ride on Surf Dog, but the ride op said that it was down because the track was wet. Bummer. The friends made for home, so Laura and I made for Diamondback around 9:00. We had about a 10 minute wait and then rode. We got somewhere in the middle back area (can't remember the exact number). The ride was great, and there was still some vibration at the bottom of the hills, but not as badly as I felt last year. Then we went to The Beast, but it was a 45 minute wait. We passed this time, though I regret it now after reading that it was giving great rides. We went over to Stunt Track, which was a walk on. Fun little ride, but only worth it if there's no wait. Walked through the Starlight Spectacular, which was okay, though a big section of the Charlie Brown squiggle on the Tower was out already. Not sure if that was a technical difficulty, or if it's a left over from last year. Then we hit the Grand Carousel. Sadly, they still seem to be pumping the music in, though it sounded good. My horse had a little kick to her, but I got her settled down pretty quickly. We finished the night watching the fireworks and then browsing the shops on International Street. Like some of the new merch. Especially liked the 80's store which was packed with Star Wars merchandise and Fraggles! Lots of cool shirts from Back to the Future and Goonies to Gremlins and Ghostbusters. In the end, it was a nice short trip. I'm trying to talk Laura into going Friday evening so that I can try out The Beast. We'll see how that works out. Also, on a 'personal accomplishment' side note; I've lost over 30 pounds since last season. I was having trouble getting comfortable in a lot of the seats last year (though I could ride, but usually had the minimum amount of 'clicks' on the lap bars). Last night I felt like a new person, had no issues and had clicks to spare. Going to be a great season. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jcgoble3 Posted April 29, 2012 Share Posted April 29, 2012 Nice report! Thanks for posting! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slitthythroat Posted April 29, 2012 Share Posted April 29, 2012 Great report . :3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Interpreter Posted April 29, 2012 Share Posted April 29, 2012 Congratulations on becoming a lesser man. And thanks for the great report. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Diamondbacker Posted April 29, 2012 Share Posted April 29, 2012 Yeah, great report! After reading all of these, I can't wait any longer to go to KI. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
standbyme Posted April 30, 2012 Share Posted April 30, 2012 The Racer was a nice choice to start out the season. Thanks for taking the time to do a trip report. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jasper Posted April 30, 2012 Share Posted April 30, 2012 Awesome report, and The Beast was giving great rides last night, all the lights were out in the second tunnel and it was roaring through the woods like no other. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coney Islander Posted April 30, 2012 Share Posted April 30, 2012 Aside, I never caught the ending of your life with the smurfs profile diary. I hope you don't mind me asking. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LongLiveTheSmurfRide Posted April 30, 2012 Author Share Posted April 30, 2012 Thanks folks! Aside, I never caught the ending of your life with the smurfs profile diary. I hope you don't mind me asking. Hah, I'm not sure that I ever finished it. Good memory. I believe it turned out that the some of the Smurfs (Papa, Smurfette, Handy) were semi-evil and sacrificing the "no name" smurfs out in the woods to appease Gargamel so that he wouldn't attack the village anymore. Plus, he was getting huge and fat from eating all of the sacrificed Smurfs. Papa Smurf's plan was to get him so big that he could hardly move and then they would attack and finish him off. I got a bit busy and wasn't able to finish the rest though. Maybe one day, lol. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarketingExpress Posted April 30, 2012 Share Posted April 30, 2012 First we rode The Racer. One of the sides was blocked off at the entrance, so I figured that they closed a side down because it was slow or because of the rain. Then when we got to the station (which we walked right up to) and noticed, as it has been reported already, that the chain link fence separating the two sides was gone (for about the first two-thirds to half of the station.) I like that change, since it always bottlenecks at the front with the 1st seat waiters. Reminds me more of Gemini's station at CP now. Wonder if they'll always have the one side of the entrance blocked though. On Sunday they had both lines open, although the small buyout crowd could have had something to do with this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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