5/6-5/10 Chasing MaXair (Very Long)

After making my first CP trip for two days in June '05, I wanted a longer more relaxed trip this year. So I rented a LHP cabin for Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday night and hoped that crowds would be less of an issue in early May. Wow! Was this well worth the money! If it's possible to have too much fun at CP, then I certainly did this week!

5/6 Saturday

We decided to leave a day earlier than planned and get our passes on Saturday afternoon and hopefully catch a few rides and the fireworks. We planned on having a hefty line to wait in for the passes and we got it. Two and 1/2 hours to get our pictures taken. But at 6:30 we entered a fairly quiet front of the park and grabbed a 10 minute wait on Raptor then hit WT for a few cycle wait. Grabbed rides on PT down, CS, Mag, Gem blue (first Gem ride ever with two trains racing!). Walked through Frontier Town to check out Skyhawk and took a pass on the 45 minute wait. After all we had 3 1/2 more days and ERT for Skyhawk right? Well almost. Did Mantis, WT again (maXair still down-bummer). MaXair is the only ride I did not get to go on last year that I wanted to and I was ready to ride it big time. Plus I was determined to ride every ride I didn't get on last year and maXair was at the top of that list. Realized that this was my only chance for a night ride on MF for the whole trip so after a quick 20 min wait got my one and only night ride ever on MF. Incredible! Then just a 5 min wait for one of my favorites: Wildcat. The fireworks started just as we were getting into the car. We caught glimpses throughout the ride and headed towards the front watching the fireworks during the entire walk to the front. It was a very nice and quite long display. An awesome start to what would be an unbelievable trip and we had only been in the park for 3 1/2 hours!
Total Rides: 10

5/7 Sunday

Checked out of the Cleveland Rd. Econolodge and arrived at LHP at 8:30 to register. Fairly quick and painless. Got the parking pass and even an invitation to check back before 4 "something might be ready early". Great. Went to park up front and enter at the Marina gate for ERT. Skyhawk closed today! I was seriously depressed about this. About 50 people were already in line and some were getting annoyed that they weren't let in at 9 and complaining that the web site had said 9. I know that when I checked cp.com it did say 9:30 for JC and resort guests but only for the first few opening weeks. In at 9:30 for 2 MF laps and a front seat run on Mantis within 45 minutes. Hopped the Sky ride. MaXair down again today, but only waited 10 min for front on WT. Then headed for DD. Around noon decided to check at the resort desk at the front gate about the cabin. They said some were ready but one had not been assigned to us yet but maybe if we check at the LHP Desk we would be able to check in. We drove back to LHP but they told us to come back at 4. No biggie. We parked at SC lot and hit up WW (love this ride!) and Maggie. TTD had been down all morning it seemed. But people were waiting. We hopped on CS and heard them begin testing TTD so with hope we joined the line by the fence and watched them run various tests on it for almost 2 hours before they finally opened the line. Once open we could have gotten first train out but didn't hustle enough. That train got a rollback! But quick re-launch and we were on in 2 more cycles. TTD never gets old! I was so happy to have gotten a ride and that wait turned out to be the longest of the trip by far! Little did I know then how awesome Dragster would run on Monday and Tuesday. I didn't want to chance not getting a ride on it. After Dragster we calmed down with ID then walked the trail, saw "the site" and had a piece of cold, undercooked pizza from Frontier Inn. That was a minor let down. Poked around WWL station a bit and the construction all around it and behind Frontier Inn. Then waited a good 15 minutes for MS which didn't seem as rough this year to me. Finally time to get the cabin. A little confusion at the desk required a manager for some reason. Again no big deal. Got the keys and was happy to have one of the cabins nearest MS. It was clean, well stocked with towels and had a great view of TTD from the living room. Freshened up and hit the park again for another turn on Magnum with little wait. Did PT up, ID, BS, Rap, WT, DT, then Sky ride back to PT down. We then finished the day with 2 laps on MF in 15 minutes. Back to the cabin then took a walk along the boardwalk after the park closed in hopes of eating at TGIF's on the beach, Bar was still open but no food. Nice walk though.
Total Rides: 23

5/8 Monday

Waking up in the cabin to TTD testing was nice! quick awkward shower in the tiny cabin bathroom and off to the Magnum gate for ERT. Skyhawk was down again today the sign said. I was getting worried that It would be down for the entire trip along with maXair. Got back to back MF laps and back row on Mantis. Whew! I had such a stiff neck after that I had to sit down a bit to work out the kinks. Getting too old for this? Nah! Never! Did PT down, 5 minutes for front on Maggie (nice), Gem red (only one train today), MS was down so waited an incredible 20 minutes for CCMR because they were only loading one train and sending one empty. The guy giving the spiel was WAY over the top with it and his answer to one guest for why one train was running empty was that "we are just not busy enough to fill both trains"! I thought that was nuts. Skyhawk was sitting there dead with no maintenance guys in sight. Not a good sign I thought. We walked the trail and walked on the front of ID and during the ride saw maXair testing finally! So we headed up there to watch it test a bit and hope. Didn't look good so did DT, Troika, Chaos, WT back, Matterhorn, PT up then headed to the cabin for lunch hoping dragster would hold out and maXair would open later. After lunch we got our wish about TTD and had 3 rides in one hour! Then hit CS, Sky ride to front and two back to back walk-on's for Raptor (one front, one back). Then Calypso, Turnpike Cars, BS, and DD. We were so happy with the weather and the crowds and TTD that we decided to head back to the cabin for a breather and to update our ride count list before we lost track. We went to Guest Relations by the gate and the very nice lady working there called us a shuttle and offered any other help we needed and the shuttle was there at pet check in a flash to take us back to LHP. Nice. After the break we waited 30 min for TTD FRONT SEAT! and as most of you with the patience to read this know, it was the most intense thing I've ever experienced. Walked on ID front to chill a bit after Dragster. Then WC, MF (10 min wait), Wave Swinger, MS down again so hopped in the front of Gem red and were the only people on the train! Did back seat on Maggie. TTD was down for a short bit then so hit up PT, ID, and WC again before finishing the night off with 3 walk on laps for MF and ending up on the red train for the final ride of the day! Booked it back to the cabin, grabbed the car and made it to TGIF's at the beach just before they stopped serving food. Great service from Derek. Good drinks from the bar and the food was some of the best I've had at Friday's. Great day! Thank you TTD! Ran like a champ all day. The crew and spiel guy were right on the money all day. We had such a great day we actually thought of leaving a day early since the LHP desk said there would be no fee to cancel the final night. We were having so much fun though that we only mulled that idea over for about two seconds and said forget it! We are staying to enjoy this as long as we can!
Total Rides: 37

5/9 Tuesday

We were hoping on a repeat of Monday and we got it! Dragster ran beautifully all day again. Still at ERT there was the dreaded "Skyhawk Closed" sign to greet us. Was hopeful for maXair considering all the testing Monday. Started off with a 6 cycle wait for MF front seat (my first ever MF front seat ride!). What more can I say? Hit WC and headed with hope for maXair. Since I wanted to ride all the rides I didn't get to last trip, we did Cad Cars and CDowns on the way. No maXair so waited a cycle for front on WT. Did the Giant Wheel, Space Spiral (solo), DT, BS, Carousel, DD, Sky ride to Dodge 'em. Took a pre-lunch spin on Scrambler then headed to the cabin for an hour. Back in and 20 min wait for TTD, then CS front, Magnum front, Paddlewheel, Monster, Gem blue (only one train today too), MS front, CCMR to find another wait and only one train running. BUT Skyhawk had people waiting in line! Maintenance was checking under some of the seats for awhile and they were not letting anyone in line but let those already in line stay. Decided to ride Antique cars and hang around SH a bit. Just as we stepped in line for the cars, I noticed the SH ride ops locking the seats to prepare to test. So jumped out of line and joined the SH line. They tested once and reopened the line and we walked right on! I loved this ride! It's just too short and loading is very tedious. But a great ride. Looks great where it is too. After our minute ride on SH we then hit the Antique Cars and found no line. We took another cabin break. In half an hour we were back in the park for a 15 minute Dragster wait. Then grabbed front seat walk-on's for ID and Mantis. No waiting for WC but Sky ride was "down due to weather"? So we walked to Raptor for 2 walk-on's (one front row). I really, really love this ride! Seems smoother than last year and the crew was fantastic at getting those trains out. Decided to check out the maXair testing. No luck. Ran plenty of tests though. It did seem to attract a lot of people to the front of the park for the last hour or so of the day. Strategic testing time perhaps? But got on WT, DT, had some great garlic fries while waiting around for maXair. Finally gave up and headed around for a final lap around the park. Decided to give SH another 15 min wait and go again. Then booked over to Dragster for 2 walk-on's and a shot down on PT just in time for closing. Left by the beach gate and walked along the boardwalk to LHP, grilled out and was out like a light by 11. Exhausted in a great way. Another perfect day. Except for the elusive maXair. Would I ever get a ride?
Total Rides: 36

5/10 Wednesday

Final day, but I wasn't too down when packing and checking-out of the cabin. We had already had such an incredible trip. We parked by Magnum and got ERT with only a handful of people waiting at 9:30. No "Skyhawk Closed" sign so headed around the back for first 2 swings of the day then to MF for 2 walk-on's and saw maXair running! Could it be? Is it possible? Yes it was! Waited one cycle and FINALLY got a Frisbee ride! I loved it. If only the ride on SH were this long. Was tempted to go again, but the line was filling up fast and I wanted another ride on Dragster. So headed to TTD for a 5 min wait. Did the Super Himalaya, Magnum, another swing on SH. Then got the car from the Soak City lot. As we were driving around Perimeter Road to leave we realized that we were still one ride short of having ridden every adult CP ride. The train! How could we forget the train! We parked in the front lot and headed back in. Grabbed a walk on for Raptor back, walked back towards the train, noticed maXair down again already and when we got to the Dodge 'em, we ALMOST decided we just didn't have time and had better just go as it was 2 and we had a long drive ahead. Thankfully, we came to our senses and took a full circuit ride on the train. It was finally complete. I had ridden every ride at CP. There were only 3 rides that I didn't ride this trip--but did ride them last year: Ocean Motion, Snake River Falls, and Thunder Canyon. After the train, we hopped on the sky ride, grabbed one last spool of cotton candy and headed out the front gate. As the park music faded away while we walked past all the flags at the entrance gate, I could feel reality already starting to pull me back in. But I didn't mind. The past four days at the point had turned out to be so excessively perfect that I was actually ready for it to be over. You know....too much of a good thing. Hope this doesn't spoil my next trip.
Total Rides: 12

Highlights

LHP was worth every penny. It's not as far to walk as it may seem. Got to ride every coaster at least twice. Rode front seat and back seat on every coaster! The weather did get a bit chilly at night but all in all perfect conditions. Sunny with no rain or wind the entire time. Such light crowds. I never thought that even opening week would be THIS slow. The park staff were always helpful and polite even though obviously working some pretty long hours. The .25 cent cotton candy was very nice and not too hard to find. Dragster ran perfectly (except for Sunday). I finally got one ride on maXair. The '07 area looks like a pretty major deal to me. Let's just hope it has a better opening weekend than Skyhawk did this year.

Total Trip Rides: 118

Total Trip Coaster Rides: 74

MF: 13
TTD: 10
MAG: 7
RAP: 6
WT: 6
WC: 5
ID: 5
MAN: 4
GEM: 4 (2 Blue 2 Red)
CS: 4
BS:3
DT: 3
MS: 2
CCMR: 2
SH: 5
MAX: 1! Finally!

Wow. I wish I could stay for that long of a trip. Sounds like a great time.

Sounds like you had a great trip! :-D

Lighthouse Point is the best way to go!

MrScott

Omg! Look a the webcams, the palce is empty right now! I wish I was there... only a week or so to go.

Sounds like you had a good time, I plan on making a trip like that next year.

Edited for spelling and...

I was wondering, if it's not to personal, how much that whole trip cost? Like, under 1,000$?
*** Edited 5/11/2006 10:42:52 PM UTC by Screamomatic***

Man i'm am dying i have less than a month to go wohoooo

Thanks to this Trip Report, I think I'll go on all the days he did.

Geez, planning for next year and I haven't gone this year!

Hey, Scream - when are you going and where are you staying?

I've got a group going on the 19th & 20th, staying @ LHP - thought maybe you might be there around the same time.

This year? It's in my signature... I wanted to go in the middle of week because I can't wait in lines, even if it's 30 minutes and for MF I probably wouldn't wait.

Hopefully they'll have that '50$ off opening week nights' coupons at the HB next year.

Oh, man. I'm not very observant, eh?

Oops. :) Oh well, have a great time when you go! Wish I could go during the week, but don't want to use up too much vacation time just yet!

I was one of the people who waited for Dragster all morning to open on Sunday, and my friend Ryan was in the front row of the first train of the day that rolledback. *** Edited 5/12/2006 4:35:59 PM UTC by ttdboy111***

Not to be rude or anything, but how much did you end up spending on this?

^Rude? I don't think that's rude to ask. We got season passes ($100 per). The LHP cabin with taxes was about $450 for 3 nights. Spent the first night in a motel. That was around $60. We ate most meals in the cabin. That saved us a lot. The only other cost really was just gas for the car. Considering how great the weather was and how light the opening week crowds were, I think it was worth every cent and then some. We could have stayed in a motel and used Joe Cool for ERT each day, but we really wanted to try LHP and we loved it. Of course LHP is alot more costly if you stay there at the height of the season in July or August.