We arrived at the park around 11am and made our way through the turnstiles. Thank goodness for season passes! The first thing we noticed as we entered the park was how bare the square looks when there is not a festival occuring. It is REALLY OPEN without any additional stands and what not. We made our way past the "future expansion area" (some of you know what I mean) and headed down Hill Street to what would be our first coaster of the year.
Usually our first coaster of the year is in Minnesota, but we decided not to go to MOA this season in protest of the mall dropping Cedar Fair as mgmt and thus loosing Peanuts. But I digress and that's another story -- on with the review!
Our first coaster of the season was to be PowderKeg (1.1 - me and 1.2 - Missy). I thought it was running rather well today and I enjoyed the acceleration. I notice that if you haven't experienced acceleration recently this coaster seems fast. Last fall when we went for the Crafts Festival we had just got back from our EastCoaster trip where we rode several launched coasters and thus PK seemed tame then, but I am digressing again. We ended up riding three times, one of the three was in the back seat and while the airtime back there is fun, the visuals in the front cancel any positives the back holds out. I did not enjoy the fact that they ran only one train most of the day. It wasn't until about 3pm that they finally put a second train on.
From PK we made our way to Fire In the Hole. For some people, this ride is a paradox and they don't "get" the ride. To me, it is one of my favorites and I never grow tired of it. It was interesting seeing a line for this ride. The entire queue was full (including the switchback). It was running well like normal, but some of the effects were off and need some attention.
WildFire was only running one train today as well, but it was eating people up so there was not much of a line. We of course rode in the back 8.1 - me and 8.2 - Missy and then 8.4 - me and 8.3 - Missy. The ride was running without the trims on the cobra roll which made for a wild ending. I really don't like when they turn those on as it slows the train down to almost a crawl going through the end of the ride.
ThuNderaTion was only running one train as well today and that meant it had a line. I like this ride, but I hate waiting in line for it. We settled for a backwards seat and rode it once. I never understood why they think they can only run one train on this ride even when there is a line. Any more people waiting for it and the line would have started going down the stairs.
Missy kicked my butt on Flooded Mine. I knew I shouldn't have told her my trick for getting more points. I score 980,000 and she scored 20,060,000. For those who don't know, the guns fire low and if you hit a target pull the trigger as quickly as possible on the same target to score bonuses.
The train ride has a new robbery that involves a tree falling over the tracks. It goes on forever and isn't very funny. Hopefully they can fix what is not working and shorten the sketch.
American Plunge and Lost River were open. Why the hell people were riding them was beyond me. It wasn't warm enough to get wet, yet there were idiots who were soaked. Splash Harbor was also open.
Grand Exposition area was not open yet or even halfway visible. Update will be online Monday or you can view the preview in another thread.
Overall, opening day went well. Lots of old familar faces are back and I think it will be a great year for SDC. Be on the lookout for the next huge expansion to start very early this season. Hint: ACE Coaster Con is coming soon!
