My overall impression of the park was fantastic. What really made it for me was the rides, but also the hotel & beach (ok, more like the concept of the beach, because it was full of fish carcasses)! We ate a packed lunch in the hotel rotunda, and then checked out the beach for a minute or two. I was honestly surprised every single time we walked outside the hotel and saw all the roller coasters, or I looked at the lake for a while, then turned around and saw the Windseeker & Wicked Twister right onshore. The whole thing was just a conceptual shock to me, being so used to SFGAm's atmosphere. I just thought it was a really neat place.
Even though I had one of my more hearty lunches (more than just a hotdog and some fries), our 10-8 (open-close) stay there was quite the exhausting experience. All the big rides are way more intense than Batman!
Rough timeline:
Does anyone know why there are no metal detectors to walk through, and what looked like no bag check?
Magnum XL200
Hopped on this guy right away, as our CP veteran friend had parked us in the back/hotel lot, which was a great move. No one was in line yet. Magnum is one of my favorite rides at CP. Nothing fancy, it's just a great smooth ride, and the tunnels (especially the last one) are awesome. It's long enough to really get into it, and there aren't any boring parts.
Maverick
Did not disappoint. My favorite parts included the mid-ride launch, and the 1st half inversions. The drop is somewhat lame. I really liked how this ride never lets up; it's just powering through everything, with a nice breakpoint midway. The one bad taste I had was the fact that my left leg was literally losing circulation by the end of it. Probably partly my fault for not leaving the harness loose enough in the station. Now I know though.
Despite my high marks for Maverick, a curious phenomenon occurred to me where I realized that Maverick is easily forgettable. I remember, after leaving the park and basically reviewing the day to determine what rides I liked best/worst, I kept forgetting about Maverick! The next day when I was on Google Maps looking at the park, I could name every coaster except for Maverick!
Anyone else have this happen before?
Cedar Creek Mine Ride
Certainly a neat ride; it looked better than the one in St. Louis, but I'd have to say that St. Louis' mine ride beats CP's.
Skyhawk was closed for the day for repair. I forgot to mention that for a couple hours starting with Magnum we also rode with a girl who worked at CP. She was friends with the guy whose family always goes here. It's always nice to hear from someone who knows a park well.
There's a petting zoo!?! Awww.
Mantis
This is such a workout! I would compare 1 ride on Mantis to 6 back-to-back rides on Iron Wolf. Despite the exercise, I loved the layout of this ride. (Is it true that Green Lantern/Chang is the same as Mantis, but with one extra corkscrew?) I felt the force on every single inversion. It was fortunately less head-bangy than Iron Wolf, but I think the pressure on my legs made it just as uncomfortable. But honestly that's ok, because it is an intense ride. If this was a traditional sit-down, Mantis would be competing for top CP ride.
Power Tower
Meh. Apparently this is taller than Giant Drop, but it was qualitatively the same thing. We rode both sides. Shooting up is completely pointless, with no time to enjoy the view and almost zero free fall. The standard drop was... a standard drop I guess. It would suck to be stuck facing another tower. I also think the entire Power Tower is fugly compared to Giant Drop. Does CP's tower brake earlier than GAm's? After this our guest had to go off to work.
Gemini
This is so cute. I loved how the tracks hug each other for so long and you could high-five everyone so many times. Smooth & fun. I think Gemini's trains had the amazing cushions too, but maybe it was another ride.
I believe this is when we headed back out to the lot to get our lunch and eat it inside the hotel. Afterwards we checked out the beach/lake, then entered through the Beach Entrance.
Windseeker
A man behind me had a camera, so the ops stopped the ride about halfway up. I thought we were going to be kicked off for the next batch. Instead we got to go back up again, and the guy was still allowed to ride.
The only thing this ride is good for is if you have a fear of heights. Scariest part of this? Gusts of wind. I would much rather ride a Sky Screamer because of the looser feel. Being on the edge of the lake was great though. I'm glad they didn't put this in the middle of the park.
Gatekeeper
Kind of blows X-Flight out of the water, but even then I wouldn't consider this a "great" ride. It IS solid though. I don't think there's anything about it that could be considered a bad thing. The closest I could come to that would be the final helix (a little slow, not even as forceful as X-Flight's). This ride is aptly named, because I think my favorite part was the threading of the gate, and also the second fly-by. It also looks beautiful from a distance, both the gate and the unique shape of the opening elements.
I think I've decided why I was never really that thrilled by the "nothing above OR below you" aspect of X-Flight/Gatekeeper: I think the seats/harnesses are overbuilt, and so it counteracts any feelings of freedom. The shoulder harness will still tighten mid-ride too. Your butt slides back in the seat, so it's like you're riding in a cushy baseball glove. I'd love to see a redesign of the seats.
Raptor
Eeeeee! Probably better than Batman. I'd say it's as if you took Batman and just extrapolated the experience into Raptor's track length. Raptor is just as intense, but BIGGER. Rode front row too.
Wicked Twister, the one time we considered riding it, was shut down for a short while. We all wanted to come back to it, but since I had never been to CP before, and V2 is so similar, we put the other rides at a higher priority and we never got back to it.
Blue Streak
Based on the queue length, this ride is soooo underrated! It's like a 10x better version of Screamin' Eagle! Some people didn't have to get off for their next ride! Highlight of the ride: the feeling at the top of the hills of the top wheels lifting off the track and being shook up by the bottom wheels.
MaxAir was closed all day too. REALLY wanted to ride it. They were teasing us later on as they tested it empty towards the evening.
Sky Ride (frontend to backend)
Way too short, but what a relief it was. So cozy in the shade, and there was a wonderful breeze the whole time.
Train (Midway Station)
While we were waiting, we watched as a man talked to a bunch of park cops, and was subsequently escorted out of the park. He was flipping through what looked like photos on his phone to show the cops. The train was a great break from walking. We got off at the Frontiertown Station.
Mean Streak
I thought Viper was kinda rough. Then I rode this ride. Holy !@#$. I literally got a headache just from bouncing up and down and side to side. But who cares because this ride was amazing! If it weren't for the roughness, this would be one of my favorite rides. Both the Streaks in CP are simply awesome rides.
Train again (Frontiertown Station)
The skeleton town or whatever it's called was actually really neat. Kinda creepy too, but a great show. The views of Mantis are cool too.
Iron Dragon
If this ride had cushy seats, I would love it. It's got a relaxing feel to it.
Millenium Force
You know what, quit making fun of this ride by calling it "Millenium Farce" or "Millenium Forceless." I don't care that there was no forces to it. It's fast! That's what I loved about it! The tunnels are great, and the whole ride is fast. I wish it went even longer, because by the end you're still going crazy fast. This, Magnum, and Raptor are probably my 3 favorite CP rides.
Corkscrew
I was the one to talk the group into riding this last minute. We didn't have much longer before the park closed, and we could only make it to one other ride after. Favorite part: the first hill before the loop. Almost makes me wish Demon still had a hill.
Top Thrill Dragster
By the time we rode this, it was closing time, and I was freaking exhausted. I was just dying. So I'm really glad we rode this last. What a thrill. The best part was the the launch. Overall, as a ride, it certainly doesn't match the experience of something like Millennium or Raptor, but if you want a little jolt, it's amazing. We saw our pictures afterwards, and the girl in our group had the most terrified look I had ever seen on both pictures. One of the trip's highlights. She still loved it though. (side note: one of the park cops looked like his sole purpose was to make sure no one took a picture of the monitors. They are SERIOUS about that)
After Dragster, we headed back into the hotel for some ice cream and listened to some oldies on the jukebox. Great way to end the day.
The longest line in the park was Millenium by far, with Raptor in second. Next was either Gatekeeper or Dragster. Everything else was relatively short. (Maverick was probably pretty darn long, but we rode it quite early so it wasn't bad)
I REALLY want to go back now. Preferably by staying in the hotel.
Here's some random pics:
[Some internet trickery is going on with these image links. When you just click on the thumbnail, it's supposed to bring you to the fullsize image. Instead, it gets resized on the fly. Except, these URLs are the source image! Refreshing the page does nothing. So in order to see the fullsize image, you have to actually click on the URL in the address bar, and then explicitly navigate to that URL again. It will reload with the full resolution.]
What did you think of the quality of the park in terms of cleanliness and atmoshpere? I found it to be a little lackluster last year when I went. Hope you get to head back soon!
