Another Haunting

About a week before Halloween I'm online and I get a message from a bud I had met the previous month during the Labor Day weekend.   He was looking at going to King's Dominion's Halloween Haunt and wanted to have a buddy go along with him.  I figured it sounded like the opportunity for a good time, so I agreed to go.

Saturday morning, MX picks me up and we drive down to KD, getting there around 11 AM.    Now unlike my last trip during the Halloween Haunt, they were running two cars on each of their coasters, so lines were a lot shorter this time.  It also had been raining earlier in the day, so things were a bit damp.  There was a bit of worry about the weather because it was going to rain later that night.  However, we were going to make the best of it.

The first ride was on Dominator, which was a blast.  Then it was off to Volcano.  MX remarked how much you actually stay up around the top of the mountain before coming down.  There is some truth to that, so if you're afraid of heights, you might not like this coaster, but then again, you might not be much of a fan of roller coasters either.

Next it was Avalanche, then onward to Back Lot Stunt Coaster, and Flight of Fear.  This weekend they kept Flight of Fear open as a coaster until 4 PM before closing it to make it into one of the haunted attractions that evening.  We then hit up the drop tower, which again, that is the sort of ride that truly will scare me.  Anaconda was on the agenda, and for whatever reason, it seems like it was running slower than usual.  I wonder if that coaster may eventually go the way of the dodo, though that might be difficult because of its location.

Moving onward after stopping for lunch, the next ride was on Shockwave before hitting up Grizzly.  Walking back to go on Dominator again, we stopped and rode Scooby Doo's Haunted Mansion.  I will be curious to see what they're going to do with most of the kids area next year when it's all converted from Nickelodeon and Hannah Barbera to Peanuts.

From Dominator it was back over to ride Drop Tower again.  It was while waiting in line there that we'd end up making some new friends for the evening, S and T, who were a (straight) couple from Richmond.  They were at the park on Twilight tickets, and hadn't attended a haunt before.  Once I started telling them about it, T's eyes lit up, she was all about going to do the scary stuff.

So we hung out for a bit and then the haunt stuff started.  Hit up Club Blood and then the Toxic Dump before walking over to see if there was a short line at Volcano.  Unfortunately when we got there, it had started to rain again, so they had shut down the ride.   To get out of the rain, we hit the alien themed haunted house.  After getting out of there the rain had calmed a bit, so we went over and hit up Volcano.

After stopping for dinner, we took a ride on the Crypt and then walked over and hit up the Slaughterhouse haunt.  Now let me just say here that basically MX doesn't do the scary stuff so well, at least when it comes to the surprise scare, which is what most of the houses are.   When it came to the groups, it was in the order of T, S, MX, and myself in the houses, since the two braver folks had to bring up the front and rear of the line.  It did make for a different experience with some of the scary folks, considering I was usually the leader of the group the last time I was there.

Moving onward we headed for Dominator.  Now I figured because of the rain driving folks out, we would have a short line, including for the front, which was fine because I needed to pee by then.  However, fate decided to fuck with me this night.  As we're in line, it starts to rain again.  Being the diehards that we are, we stayed in line, while others left, so it got us rather close to the front.  However, it would be about 15 minutes before the rain would stop enough to get going again.  I hate that I had to do this, but when it came close enough to our turn, I walked across to head for a bathroom because I had to pee so bad by then that I don't think hitting several G-forces of turns would have been a good idea.  Oh well, it's not like I won't be riding in the front of Dominator ever again.

We then tried to hit Blackbeard's Revenge, but due to the rain, apparently it made that haunt muddy and possibly unsafe for folks.  So I led us over to Maze of Madness, but that was closed as well.  This was probably because by then it was 11:45 and the park was going to be closing in 15 mins.  MX and I ended up saying our goodbyes to T and S and headed to the nearby hotel where we had gotten a room for the night.  It was a good idea because we were both tired.

The next morning, it was get up, have breakfast, and then head back to DC.  Thanks to the time change, it meant getting back just before the football games started.  Overall it was a fun time this weekend, and I got to hit a few more of the haunt attractions as well.  MX said he had a fun time as well, despite some of the haunting stuff.  Now the season is over, but there's always next year for me (yay season pass!).

First Halloween Haunt

During the month of October, many theme parks are open with some kind of a Halloween theme going on to get patrons in there on the weekends.  King's Dominion is no exception.  I have never gone to a park on Halloween, but since I have a couple of buds who love Halloween and wanted to go, it was just a matter of picking a day and getting our asses down there.

So last Saturday morning the plan was to meet up with DB and CT in DC where we would go to brunch, RC would meet up with us later and we'd all ride down to King's Dominion (KD).  As with any leisure trip, things don't always go to plan.  When the three of us tried to find a place to park in DC, we ended up saying "screw it, we'll find something along the way."  I tried calling RC but then I was getting no answer (he was at the gym) so eventually we said we would just get on the road.  Right as we were getting on 295, RC calls me back, and he is on his way to meet us.  So I turn us around and we head to Greenbelt to do brunch at the Silver Diner while RC got himself together.  After we finished with breakfast and coordinating meeting up, we got on the road and down to KD.

I'll mention here that the weather was predicted to have showers on and off throughout the day, and according to park policy, unless the rain was sustained long enough, they don't usually close rides, so we decided to risk the weather and go anyway.  I mention this now to set up the context for later on.

The first ride DB, CT, and myself hit is Dominator, though it turns out the line looked deceptively short.  It was here that I would realize that they were only running 1 car at a time on Dominator (and as it turned out, on all the other coasters as well), so that meant longer wait times.  It was a bit disappointing because one of my bragging points about KD and similar parks is the short waits.  However, considering it's October, and most of their staff is back in school, not much you can do about it.  If there is anything I would definitely change, it would be to have security catch the stupid fuckfaces who can't go through a coaster line without lighting up a cigarette.

Next up was avalanche, and by now it started to rain.  After that ride we dashed for one of the shops and bought umbrellas.  Moving forward, we got into line for Anaconda, and were on the train within two runs because there was practically no one there.  So we got in and everything started up.

And then it happened...

For the very first time in my life, I had a roller coaster actually stop during the ride.  In this case, we were just out of the station and going up the lift hill.  So the chain stopped, and we were just holding there.  The staff came up the stairs and said that something had tripped the fault protection so the fail-safe kicked in and stopped the ride.  Maintenance would reset the ride and see if it would start again, and if it did we would continue on our merry way, otherwise they would have to get us out of there.  Did I mention it was still raining?  I could at least look over and see the construction of the new Intimidator 305 that had been done.  Of course, DB has some dark humor going on about how this could end up being one of those CNN moments, and that at least we're not stuck upside down.  I vowed to him that if he jinxed us into getting stuck upside down on a coaster, that I would find a way to get out of my restraints, reach behind me, and strangle him.  About 5-7 minutes later, the ride started up again and we completed it without any other mishap.

Backlot Stunt Coaster was next, and it was good as usual.  After that it was beginning to get a bit late and almost time for dinner, so we found our way over to the Country Kitchen.  KD was running a deal for a buffet dinner so we took advantage of that for our dinner.  Fried chicken, brown sugar ham, mashed potatoes, corn, green beans, biscuits, and such were enjoyed by all.

After dinner, the haunt started.  Now the park was filled with fog and the ghosts and goblins were coming out to play.  Of course it is now sunset and everything is dark.  We saw plenty of scary looking people who were following customers around, and it caught people off guard, very entertaining to watch.  We made our way over to Grizzly and had a ride on that, before we started in on the official haunt activities.  Grizzly is fun to ride in the dark because there are some spots that are pitch black; it adds an element of fear.

After regrouping we started hitting some of the haunted mazes.  They're basically areas that each have a theme to them, and most of the scaring is done by startling people.  The rule however is that the costumed folks cannot touch you, and so you don't touch them back either.  Anyway, so first up was Toxic Plague, definitely nasty looking, and scary at parts.  Then there was club blood, if you like vampires, it's fun.  After that we decided to head over to the Volcano roller coaster as a break and to hopefully take advantage of a shorter line.  It wasn't shorter, but we sucked it up and waited.

After Volcano we hit the Alien Outpost.  This maze is what a part of the Flight Of Fear coaster has been converted to for the haunt.  After that was the Big Top Terror.  Outside of this ride is a person selling polarized glasses for $1.  Spend the $1 because it makes the maze so much more fun with all of the 3D effects.  We went to try and hit Elvira's Superstition, which is a show inside the action theater, but it was closed at the moment due to mechanical issues.  So we hit the Maze of Madness instead.

By this time it's starting to get pretty late, and so we hit the Starbucks for coffee.  I would especially need it since I was driving home.  We decided to try Elvira one more time for our final Haunt "ride" but if not there, then we would head over to Feary Tales.  Elvira was open so we got in there and got to go on a rather wild ride.

By the time all was said and done, it was about 11:45, the park would close in 15 minutes and I knew full well it could turn into a clusterfuck if we tried to leave when the park closed.  So we took off back to D.C.

So Halloween Haunt, definitely worth it, despite the disadvantage of longer lines for roller coasters.  I will be doing it again next year, and that's already guaranteed because I renewed my season pass back in September.  In fact, I will be going again on Halloween because a guy I met recently wants to go, we'll see if he enjoys it as well.

King's Dominion - Sept 2009

Yesterday I made my second trip to King's Dominion for this season (a third trip will be in the works) partly because I had bought a ticket to attend an after hours party there.  I also brought a friend along since he had never been to the park and he wanted to go.

We got to KD after a later start (he's an EMT and needed some extra sleep) and luckily traffic was no major issue.  Oddly enough though I had a computer snafu that involved my season pass.  When I got to the park my pass refused to scan, saying it was invalid for parking, so I had to pay to get in there.  However, when I took my pass to guest services, for some reason it was valid for admission, but not for parking, which was wrong because of the level of pass I had.  Luckily I was able to get that parking fee refunded.  Still odd though because for the entire summer I've been going into KD and other Cedar Fair parks and not had a problem at the parking gate.  However, I do know how databases can screw themselves up and such.  Thank god for good customer service.  I did also go and renew my season pass for next year, so I will be good and ready for Intimidator 305 (The pieces are already in the parking lot, waiting to be put together).

First ride was on Dominator, which was a blast as usual, then Volcano, Flight of Fear, Back Lot Stunt Coaster, Avalanche, Hurler, Rebel Yell, and Grizzly.  All of them had relatively short lines because the park wasn't as busy as it would be on a summer day, and again, the folks are smart enough to keep enough cars running to keep the lines moving.  We did watch one guy practically have to be stapled into one of the cars on flight of fear because of how tall he was, though somehow they made him fit.  Still, all the rides were fun.

At the end of the regular time at the park, we stepped out and got in the lines to get in for the party.  I called up my friends MB and JHs to let them know where we were and made arrangements to meet once inside the park.  This was their first time at the park so I basically spent the night playing tour guide.  There were probably a few hundred people there when things got started.  I don't know what the official numbers were for how many actually showed.  Hopefully it was enough to continue justifying doing this.

Along with MB and JHs were K&D as I know them.  I had met them in the past but didn't realize we had mutual friends, so they were along as well.  All together we rode Dominator, Volcano, Flight of Fear, Anaconda, and Back Lot Stunt Coaster.  For some reason it took a few minutes to get the rides going once they started letting people in, but then the lines were rather short, so that meant getting to repeat some coasters that we liked again.  Ultimately by the time the rides were over, we had gotten to finish with riding Dominator one more time.  It was a lot of fun and I was glad to be able to meet up with friends to do so.

After the rides were over there was a dance party in the center area.  I was driving so I didn't do any drinking while there, but I did hang and chat with folks I knew before heading home an hour before the party was to end (1 AM).  The reason I did that was because I knew if the parking lot was going to be anything like Carowinds, I would have been in a clusterfuck to get out of there, and I was going to be tired enough as it was.

What else can I say other than I love this park, and with a new coaster coming there and to Carowinds next year, already my season pass will be justified.

Six Flags vs Cedar Fair

Over the Memorial Day weekend, I took a trip down to Kings Dominion.  For those who are not aware, KD was owned by Paramount, but 3 years ago, Cedar Fair (CF), the parent company of the famous Cedar Point park bought KD and a number of other properties.  The next closest Cedar Fair owned park around here is Dorney Park up in Allentown, PA.

For the last two summers, I have been in touch with my love of roller coasters.  The first summer, I had a pass to Six Flags (SF) here in MD, and last summer, I had a season pass to both the Six Flags and Kings Dominion Parks, and I have to say that I am beginning to see a large difference in how each of the parks operate.  It has started to give me a preference as to which type of park I would rather go to.  Simply put, I get what I pay for.

I pay more for my pass to KD than SFA ($150 vs $95) with what looks like the same benefits on paper.  I get unlimited admission to my home park, and several other parks owned by the same company, free parking, and various discounts.  Of course, if I was at a different SF, I would actually pay more for my pass because I have seen that other SF locations charge more for their season passes.  That's not entirely the point.

I find that I get a much higher quality of a visit from visiting a Cedar Fair owned park than a Six Flags owned park.  Both of them do have plenty of roller coasters and other thrill rides and such, along with your usual restaurants and shops, so that part is pretty much the same.  However, it's a wildly different experience as to how I am treated as a patron at times.

First and foremost, there is a huge difference in attitudes among the workers at the parks.  At SF, most of the folks look like they're bored, they don't want to be there, and their work reflects it.  Hell, I felt at KD that they wanted me to be there, which is not a feeling I have gotten at any SF park.  I experienced more breakdowns of coasters at SF parks last year; not that there wasn't the occasional mishap at a CF owned park, but it seems that they moved really fast to get things going again and to keep the folks happy.  

One other thing I noticed was more often than not, it would be at an SF owned park that the coaster would run one car at a time when they have the capacity to run 2-3 cars, and the line is approaching an hour.  Very annoying.  At KD I rode Dominator, which is a very popular ride, but the most I waited was about an hour, and that was with the line being all the way back to the entrance, yet because it seems their workers understand that it's important to keep things moving, I had no issue with standing in line.  In fact, at Cedar Point, I don't remember waiting an obscene amount of time to ride their coaster, they kept the line moving. 

Also, while SF has the cheaper season pass, they make up for it by nickel and diming you with fees.  They have taken away the bins next to the rides for people to leave their stuff.  Now you have to pay for a "ride locker" before you can even get in line for a ride.  It's typically $1 for 2 hours, and it's a one-time use locker; once you open it again, it's done.  It makes bringing a backpack very inconvenient, they likely do it so that you don't carry around water bottles and such and instead buy food at the park.  Personally, I'd rather keep my Camelbak with me so I can just drink water as I stand in line and drop it in the bin when I actually ride.  One way I have been able to get around it on occasion is to rent a locker for a flat fee at an SF attached water park since those you can typically get in and out all day.  Any CF owned park I have been to does not have a ride locker, they still have their bins next to the ride itself that you drop your stuff in, and I hope they will keep it that way.  At least I can be happy to report that KD has them this year.

Hell, now that I think about it, CF owned parks don't have to utilize a "fast pass" type of system because they tend to keep their lines moving.  A few times I actually paid extra money at an SF park to be allowed the privilege to line jump using their "flash pass" system, and that was because the lines would get way too long for their own good.  Then again, if their workers actually cared about their job, they might actually move people through the line efficiently.  Of course, if that were to happen, fewer people would buy flash passes, the park wouldn't make as much money off of fees for extras like that, and those workers would probably get fired.

So ultimately, even though I pay a bit more money up front for a season pass to a CF owned park, the quality of my visits make it worth every penny of the extra fee.  Considering how many extra "fees" I would have to pay at an SF park, I probably end up paying for that pass in the end.  This is why I find if I have a choice, I'd rather go to a CF owned park.  It's only the proximity and slightly lower cost of the SF season pass that keeps me buying, but if they ever raise their rates, I wouldn't be as upset to drop buying a pass from them.  

Perhaps I am not the only one that thinks this way about the parks, and perhaps that is why Six Flags is in trouble financially while Cedar Fair is doing just fine for the most part. 

Luau, Kings Dominion, State Fair

Saturday night I went to a party to celebrate the 20 year anniversary of some friends I knew from church. They decided to throw a luau themed party and it was pretty awesome. I decided to make two batches of gougeres for the party, one batch of Blue Cheese, and the other using Cheddar Cheese. They ended up being a hit, and my priest wants the recipe for it, and a few other folks as well.

The party itself was a night of chatting with various people about anything, including roller coasters and football, two of my favorite subjects. There were also conversations that if you came in at the wrong time, the conversation sounded totally wrong, including a discussion of someone's thighs.

Either way, it was a good night overall.

Sunday I went to Kings Dominion with JH, where I rode the other side of Rebel yell for coaster credit 96. We also rode Dominator and Scooby Doo for coasters. Other rides included the log flume, whitewater canyon, screaming eagle, and the space flyer. For the last weekend in the park there were a lot of people there. Unfortunately you could also tell that they had already lost staff to folks going back to school as some rides were only operating at half their capacity, or in the case of the space flyer, there was only one person to check all the riders and operate the ride. It was ridiculous that it took 40 minutes to get through three groups of riders. I would think that if it's down to just one person operating it, either they need to put on extra help, or just consider not running the ride at all. That's way too many things that one person has to do.

After the Space Flyer we called it a day and headed back to DC. That evening I headed up to Baltimore to meet a friend, LS, who just moved to Baltimore from Phoenix. I got to see his new apartment, which is pretty sweet, and very conveniently located to shopping and the bars. We watched The Birdcage and chatted for a bit before I headed home.

Monday I hit Arundel Mills mall to look around and ended up scoring a deal on some Ravens hats, then it was over to JH's to plan to go to the MD State Fair. He wasn't feeling well at first so I waited around for a bit until he felt better. We went over to Timonium and first tried to find parking around the fair, which was a no-go. So we drove over to a nearby light rail station and hopped that to come down to to the fair.

The fair itself was interesting, but very very crowded. It didn't quite help that it was very hot that day. We spent more time inside than outside for obvious reasons. Eventually after seeing all the vendors, the arts and crafts, and buying some candy from the bulk candy place, we took off for the Glen Burnie area to have dinner. We went to Costas Inn and had whole crabs. I have to admit these were some of the best crabs I ever had. They were full of flavor and there was lots of meat to eat. It was enjoyable.

Afterward we played a round of mini golf. I didn't do too bad, finishing 3 strokes behind JH. Of course, now I learn he purposely screwed up on a few holes so as not to completely kick my ass at the game...bastard :-P Either way, it was fun. There have to be more places around here to play mini golf.

So that sums up my labor day weekend. How was yours?

Yes I'm Still Alive

Wow, just over two weeks without posting, that is totally not like me right now. Especially when it is an unintentional vacation.

So what have I been up to since posting about going to Hershey Park?

• I went to Kings Dominion with JH, CD, and V on the 4th of July. The park was fun, we got to ride their new coaster, Dominator (JH had ridden it when it was over at Geauga Lake). We cooled off in the water park, yes it was crowded, but worth the trip.
• Saw the fireworks on the National Mall on the 4th, I have video saved to my phone that I need to review, and possibly post to YouTube.
  
• Went to Philadelphia with JH, DP, and BD and wandered around there for a bit. The next day we went to Six Flags Great Adventure where I finally rode Kingda Ka. Now I can say that I have ridden the worlds tallest and fastest roller coaster (456 feet at 128 mph). They have got to make that ride longer though, 28 seconds is not enough!
• Started rehearsals for Children of Eden, I'll be playing Cain in Act I and Japheth in Act II. I'll provide more details later.
• Attended the wedding of my friends CJ and George two Saturdays ago. The wedding was great and the reception was well done. I got to chat with a few folks that I haven't seen in a while, and I hope to see again soon.
• Attended a party after the wedding of my friend Chandra, where I saw a few of my Baltimore friends, the night wasn't complete without making someone from my past paranoid, which I admit I had fun with. Karma is a bitch my friend, and you brought it on yourself.
  
• Saw Mr GreenGenes this past Friday at Power Plant Live in Baltimore. The show was awesome of course.
• Went to the Eastern Shore with JH and had fresh steamed crab last Saturday. One of the many advantages of living near a bay.
• I haven't even mentioned work yet, but it's going fine, I have a project that's going to be released for production next month. Next up is a revision to the survey from hell, which will take up my time from now until April 2009.
• After all of my recent coaster trips, I have now ridden 80 rollercoasters in the world. That still puts me 70 behind JH, which I will probably never catch up to since he has a bunch of credits on coasters that don't exist now :-P

So that's the summary of all that has happened so far. Clearly this is what happens when you have a BF who is not a stay at home guy, you don't get much time in front of the computer ;-)