My day on July 10th 2006

[LongLiveTheSmurfRide]

This was my first trip to the park in over a year. I used to get season passes every year, but last year I just did not have the enthusiasm to do it. Italian Job didn't look all that great, especially since they were taking out two great rides for it. I normally go at least for Fear Fest but ended up doing Cedar Point's instead. So..... I had some catching up to do with my home park.

I came to the park with my friend from work, Mark, since my girlfriend was off doing her college thing. We go to the park at about 8:45 and had to wait in our car for them to open the lot. Of course, my first reaction upon entering the park was "$10"!?!?! To park!?! Then I noticed the sign that the trams would not be running. This has always been one of my biggest beefs with the park. Parking should not cost this much with so little to show for it. The trams hardly ever run, and it's not like they repave it every year. So what's this parking fee really going towards that it needs to be so high? The parking lot is riddled with cracks and bumps, so I know we're not getting some supreme parking experience. For $10 I expect to be able to park as close as I can if I get there early enough, but NO, there's preferred parking! I remember when I used to be able to get to the park at 8:45 and get one of the closest spots. Now it's $15 for that spot! It's crazy! I hope Cedar Fair gets rid of that policy. I've hated it ever since they started. Get rid of that and get those security people who keep people out of preferred parking and put them in the darn trams!!!

Anyway...we walk up to the gate and get through the metal detectors and I notice the first big change for me about the park. The admission booths were gone! I looked over by the season ticket booths and realized what they did. I was a little sad at first because that was always a routine when coming to the park. There'd be lines for buying tickets, then lines for getting into the park. Then the metal detectors came and there were lines for them as well. But then I thought, it helps keep the bottlenecking down, so it's a pretty cool thing to put the ticket buying process over to the side. Maybe next they can lose the metal detectors. I know it's a safety precaution but it still takes away from the atmosphere, having a big line of ugly metal detectors you have to go through. Makes you feel like you're going to court, not an amusement park.

The first thing we hit, after waiting behind the ropes, was Italian Job. I wanted to see what this giant eyesore could do. We were on probably the 5th ride of the day. The girl put us up in the first seat of the first train, which was cool. Then we were off. It was an alright ride, but not worth what was sacrificed for it. The Antique Cars and Flying Eagle will always be regarded higher in my book. There was beauty in that part of the park with the white picket fences surrounding the peaceful tree-littered space that the cars strolled through. Now it's a big ugly slab of fake billboards, stationary police vehicles and bad special effects. Wasn't there supposed to be an explosion somewhere? Like I said, it was okay, but nothing special. I totally would not want to wait in an actual long line for it.

On the way towards Flight of Fear, Mark realized he'd lost his cell phone. We went back to IJ and one of the kind folks checked each car that rolled up for it. They didn't find anything and Mark filled out a paper incase it turns up. I bet it's somewhere in the tunnel. Hopefully they'll stumble upon it one day and he'll be able to hear one of the nasty messages I left on it.

Flight of Fear was a walk-on. Still a fun ride. Then we went to Delirium, which we had to wait 2 cycles for. That's still the best flat ride I've ever ridden. I wonder if Skyhawk at CP will change my mind. Then we did Top Gun and got a look at the Son of Beast. The same train was still stopped on the lift which has been pictured on about every local news station and paper, including some not-so-local. Drop Zone was down early and Face-off had a long line, so we went to Racer. Backwards Racer is still a classic ride.

Next, we did Vortex. I've never been a big fan of Vortex, and it's steadily gotten rougher so I wasn't won over this time. I like the big hill and the airtime pop afterwards, but the over the shoulder restraints are really uncomfortable and the loops have hardly ever done anything for me. The Vortex is normally an endurance test for me as to whether I can get through without a migraine. This time, I succeeded.

Then we went to The Beast. My favorite coaster in the park. It was, like most of the rides that day, a walk-on. It seemed like the lift has gotten slower for this one. It wasn't until we got nearer to the top of the first hill that the chain kicked in quickly, which was a little odd. The coaster was great, as always, but I did notice that they've heavily braked the ride at the start. I know the first hill has been trimmed for a while now. Then for a couple years they seemed to alternated between braking the second drop and then braking in the shed. Well, this time, all 3 areas were braked, which was a little underwhelming. At least the finale was still has great as ever.

After that, we went to lunch. We left the park for a nice $4 meal at McDonalds which filled us up nicely. The same meal would have cost around $12 in park, so we felt pretty good about it. While there, we heard all manner of theories and stories about what happened to the SOB the day before. This one kid was telling all of his wide-eyed friends about how the very first train of the day broke the ride and that it flew off the tracks. I wonder how more distorted the story will become over the next few days.

On the way back to the park, we saw all of the media gathered at the drop-off parking spot by the PKI sign. Hmmm...I wonder how more distorted they can make the story seem before the park issues a statement. The line that pops out at me from watching the news on Sunday by one of the anchors is, "It may be the tallest and fastest coaster, but it's not worth losing my life over." I wonder how much more they can try to induce panic in the name of "good news".

Well, we got back in the parking lot and I lost my "great" $10 parking spot and had to settle with parking by the busses. We went to the new Nickelodeon Universe area and I stood for a minute, trying to picture which rides were there back in the Hanna Barbera days and which were new, and which were just changed with bright Nick-paint. It was a little sad, but I know that if I was a kid, this would be the coolest place ever. We were going to see who was the best shot at the Scooby Doo ride, but the line for it was one of the longest in the park, so no dice. Then I spotted Avatar: The Last Airbender, and I was ready to bend some air. That is one intimidating-looking kids ride. We got on after 1 cycle and it was sweet. Definitely the coolest kids ride I'd ever been on. I bent some serious air.

Then we went and did Tomb Raider. Once again, PKI fails to produce with their promise to theming. The line is still really great looking, but they've already abandoned the pre-show. Now it's just a kid barking orders at you from a loudspeaker. Good show. The ride is still as boring as ever with neat effects and inaudible voices over the loud sound effects. It starts off good, but the ending is so non-climatic that it just about ruins the ride on its own. They should give you one big flip at the end instead of holding you there as loud noises blow out your eardrums. It makes you feel like something cool should happen, but nothing does except some light flashes an smoke. Always a big mistake, in my opinion.

The rest of day consisted of a second trip of Vortex and Flight of Fear, then Drop Zone (which finally opened) and Face-Off. The last ride of the day was Viking Fury. We actually had our longest wait on this one because someone blew chunks on the ride before ours. So we waited as they sprayed it down, then let the ride go empty, then disinfect it (or swab the deck? heh heh), then let it go empty. Then we rode. Always a fun ride. And that was it. We left around 5.

I got the 2 day ticket thing, so I'll be back most likely for Fear Fest. I'd say it was a good day. I loved not having to wait too long for anything, and I'm glad they still have some of the little landscaping touches that make the park more than just a parking lot with rides. I'm hoping Cedar Fair can clean up some of the miscues and not make anything worse with the park. We'll see.

[Jasper]

On the way towards Flight of Fear, Mark realized he'd lost his cell phone. We went back to IJ and one of the kind folks checked each car that rolled up for it. They didn't find anything and Mark filled out a paper incase it turns up. I bet it's somewhere in the tunnel. Hopefully they'll stumble upon it one day and he'll be able to hear one of the nasty messages I left on it.

Well sounds like you had a great trip to PKi. The cell phone thing, the same exact thing happened to me talk about ironic and when i went to IJ:St they were more than helpful. I am glad you had a great trip and i am like you i cant wait to get back up there again.

[KIBeast]

Sounds like you had a pretty smurfy time. I agree about the parking. I mean, 10.00 and no trams? 15.00 for preferred? I hope CF does away with that too. Off subject, but, you said you went to CP last year during Halloween. How was it? This is something that I have been considering for this year.

[LongLiveTheSmurfRide]

Sounds like you had a pretty smurfy time. I agree about the parking. I mean, 10.00 and no trams? 15.00 for preferred? I hope CF does away with that too. Off subject, but, you said you went to CP last year during Halloween. How was it? This is something that I have been considering for this year.

I've gone the last 4 years, actually, and it's great. I don't know exactly how to compare it to PKI's Fear Fest. I do know that it's my favorite time to go (to either park, actually). The weather is usually perfect (except my first year it was in the lower 40's with strong winds), and the park's open late so you get to enjoy the nighttime park atmosphere longer, and you get free thrills and scares aside from the rides!

As far as haunted houses go, KI has the advantage because they have more and they were a little scarier, I thought. CP has 3 houses and a kind of trail thing which is supposed to be really cheesy (I've never waited in the 2+ hour line for it). The best things they got are 2 scary midways. One is in their Frontier section called the Fright Zone and the other is by Wicked Twister called CarnEvil. Both get freaky at dark and fill with smoke and lights and people dressed as ghouls roam amongst the crowds scaring them. It's the funniest thing just watching people get freaked out and sometimes getting freaked out yourself.

They also have little Halloween-type shows and dressed people roaming around. They have really good stage actors who do little one-man shows of old Edgar Allen Poe stories which are pretty interesting and a little intense. They have a magician as well. At night on their large screen that they do the laser show on, they show silent horror films.

All that plus all of the additional Halloween theming here and there makes it almost a completely different park. Another not-to-miss area is the old ride graveyard which pays homage to all of the rides taken from CP over the years. It's amusing and a little sad.