Opening Day '04: Sick and Tired
I woke up at 7:30 with a stomachache, headache, and what felt like a slight fever. I really didn’t want to go today (well, actually, I did, but not how I felt). The stomachache was getting worse throughout the day, but it was opening day, so on with the party!
After much replanning, the group of 8 soon shrunk to 3, but 2 more people would meet us in the afternoon. However, one eventually couldn't show up, so it was actually eventually 4. So we leave at 12:20 (I drove) and are in the gates at 12:30. We already had our season pass vouchers that we renewed over the phone.
We headed over to get our pictures taken first, but the line was almost past the Grand Music Hall, so we ride Whizzer. No wait. Next we rode Orbit. Again, no wait. We headed over to Southwest Territory, and rode Viper. No wait. There are about 6 new shades throughout the queue, all of them in the straight part of the line that connects the corral with the station. Two of them are strategically placed under Bull’s track.
Wow, this is going to be a great day, despite the somewhat bad weather.
We rode Raging Bull and the line was just getting to the steps you go down after leaving the corrals. The wait was about 15 minutes. We also rode Giant Drop with no wait. Only 5 of the 6 cabins were operating. The other one was at the top.
Next, we headed straight to Revolution. This is a really fun ride. While we were waiting in line, someone in the cycle before us threw up. It was interesting how Six Flags responded, because that’s never happened to me. The ride itself is on concrete that’s easily accessible from stairs that are at the operator’s booth. So if you lose, for example, your hat, you can get it after the ride, just like if you lost it on, say, Triple Play. Anyways, they hosed down the two seats and didn’t have anyone sit near them. Then, later on, they disinfect it. I didn’t ride it until some hours later, but by then they were fully clean.
Okay, now about the ride. It is really fun and I enjoyed it, but it’s not for those who are looking for pure intensity. It only gets really fast and really high about the last 10 seconds, after the spin reverses directions. It holds a LOT of people, and chances are you’ll make it on the next cycle.
Seeing that my stomach was hurting even more (not the hungry kind of hurt but the sick kind of hurt) I really didn’t want to ride it, especially after seeing someone else throw up. But I did anyways, and it was a fun ride. And I didn’t throw up.
We were hungry, so we headed over to Mooseburger. This was the first time I ate inside at Six Flags. I can’t stress this enough: you need to eat inside! The food is MUCH better. I had the Lil’ Mooseburger with cheese for $5 and it was awesome. Much better than at the food court in County Fair and the wait was like 3 minutes. I also was feeling much better after sitting down for a half hour and eating something. I heard my cell phone go off twice, and I kept saying, why doesn’t that person answer their phone? Then I realized it was mine! It was my friend who met us at Mooseburger.
So we headed over to Batman: The Ride. No wait. You really need to see the paint on this close up. It looks awesome. However, it’s of course peeling. Most of the theming still remains also, mainly just not the graffiti.
Next, we rode the East River Crawler, a fun ride and no wait.
After East River Crawler, we passed through Mardi Gras. King Chaos and Big Easy Balloons look fun, but Jester’s Wild Ride looks pretty small but still should be fun. Ragin’ Cajun just had the track from the station to the bottom of the lift hill complete from what I saw. It should also be fun. Hopefully the track will be completed by next weekend.
Next, we rode Condor and Rue Le Dodge (the bumper cars). After the bumper cars we went back to East River Crawler and Condor to look for my friend’s lost cell phone, which we didn’t find, but we got some more rides on those.
Then we went on Superman: Ultimate Flight. We were next in line when it stopped. I knew it couldn’t be a manual E-Stop because the train was already in the station but the chairs weren’t flipping down to the sitting position. It turned out to be a broken sensor on the holding brakes just before the station. Apparently, the train didn’t clear as it pulled into the station, so while it was sitting in the station, the other train came to a quick stop on the Mid-course brake run. After they figured out what it was, the mechanics had the sensor replaced in about 3 minutes. Altogether, it was about a 10 minute wait.
Two of my friends headed over to lost and found before the ride opened again, so it was just me and my other friend. Then we met up again at We Got The Beat! It’s a pretty good show where the characters dance to music and they’re singing. At one point, kids could go up on stage and dance along.
It was getting pretty cold now, so we headed over to Stargate: SG 3000. It was good and we rode it 3 times to stay warm. We were saying the lines by the third time. It’s pretty short but better than SSA. They still have the arrivals/departures signs up.
Next, it was my stupid idea to go on Sky Trek Tower. All was good until they came around to close the doors from the outside. Well, we were sitting right in front of the far doors, opposite the operator, when they opened about four inches. Then the ride started. We started screaming! Someone on the other side told us to be quiet. We shouted back and said “Hey, we’re Catholic!” It was pretty funny and we were both laughing. Anyways, the operator heard us and it’s a good thing we did because he came around and closed the doors. On the way up, I kept thinking I was going to fall. I felt so much safer on Giant Drop, and would rather be in that than in Sky Trek Tower. I was FREAKING OUT! So, I was very happy to be on solid ground.
Then we got our season pass pictures taken. The coupon book has so many more coupons. But what I like best is that any day, you can present your season pass and get $7 off up to 4 general admission tickets, which could actually be a better deal than half off. The breakdown is pretty much half off weekends in May and free Sundays in August, as well as some others.
Next, we headed over to Whizzer again. We got a newly refurbished train. After that, we split up. Me and a friend went to Déjà vu, which was finally running! My other two friends went to Fidler’s Fling. We were next in row 5A, and the train miscatched on the second tower. I must be jinxed, because I was next in line in the same row last time I came (Nov. 2, 2003) when it closed. So I still have never rode Déjà vu.
After that, we rode Spacely’s then met up at Mooseburger. Me and my friend took a quick ride on V2, front row with no wait, and it was my first ride. All I can say is it’s AWESOME!!! And don’t worry about the acceleration, because it takes a while to get up to full speed. It’s not much more surprising than when Whizzer kicks off, just faster.
Okay, we met back at Fiddler’s Fling and took a ride on that. They just closed the gate when we got there. There was a new employee that was going to let us on, but the other experienced employee said we had to wait. So we did. It was a fun ride.
Next, we rode Revolution again. Again, it was fun. Then I looked at my cell phone. It was 7:58 AM. (Okay, I was too lazy to bother to go back and change it to PM.) We RAN to Raging Bull and were next in line for front row with no wait, but they said, “this is the last train of the evening, so you’ll have to go to another row. So we went to row 8, second to last, and sat between two people. (It was just me and one friend who felt like running.) Not a bad way to end a great day.
We went to a couple of places to get water, but they all said they were closed, but the guy at the one to the right of Viper’s entrance was nice and unlocked the cabinet and uncovered the pop machine just to get us some free water. Then, we went to the shop just before you cross under the bridge from the Carousel to the Whizzer. They had where you took a bag and could scoop out Jelly Bellys and other candy and pay by the quarter pound. Well, I took 1 pound and a quarter and went to go pay. It took the cashier a while to figure out how much it would be, but she said 12 something. (she wasn’t sure.) I told her I only had $6 and she laughed and said it happens a lot with that (what they need is a scale, but then people, like me, would stop sooner) and she let me get a smaller bag. I ended up with exactly a quarter pound, and paid $2.50. I think that’s pretty good for Six Flags, and it lasted the rest of the park and the entire ride home.
We left after a great day. It must have been great because I rarely stay passed dinner. We went to my friends house and watched Breakfast Club, but I fell asleep about halfway through. I was tired from a great day at Six Flags.
Mine are for june, so either they made different coupon books or you put wrong month?:!: 
