Leaderboard

So......we just returned from an Orlando trip. Had a date specific ticket to Epic on 10/1 and then went on our 1 day included with the package on 10/3 with plane tickets home on Sunday. As Friday morning dawned we had just accepted that we weren't going to make it on Stardust this time and had resolved to just enjoy everything else about the park; and it is a magnificent park. I mean they nailed the theming, lighting, soundtrack of each land. Never before was my son content to just walk around and appreciate the aesthetics in a park before like this one. THEN, as we are eating dinner on Friday (some of the best theme park food I have ever had btw) we hear the reopening news. Go look, sure enough trains in the station for the first time. What to do? Well we spend another $350 for two more tickets, concierge told us it was already sold out but we were able to purchase on line, blew off already paid for Howl O Scream tickets at SW, blew off a Vivo reservation (only significant because it was the only sit down restaurant at Citywalk I hadn't been to) AND went back on Sat 10/4, our last full day in town. Expensive ridiculous gamble? Yes. Was it worth it? Yes. Something wrong with us? Probably. So from the get go some upper management types were at the ride entrance telling everyone late afternoon to early evening would be when they opened, IF the weather cooperated. We spent until about 4 casually doing other things while keeping our eye on the proceedings. Around 1 or 2 there were maintenance personnel riding, after that other park employees were getting a turn, then the ride crew got their turn. About 4 we grabbed something to eat at the pub and started hanging out near the entrance. Rain coming off and on just to torture us and make it not a 100% thing. More bigwigs show up at the entrance in a vain attempt to keep people from hanging around. News copter overhead most of the time starting about 5. Finally just after 6 they very quietly and calmly opened the barricade and an unbelievably obedient crowd surged at a walking pace in and was walked backed to an extended queue. I think everyone knew how badly the park needed this to go well and no one wanted to risk getting kicked out...................JUST as we approached the actual entrance the fire alarm in the station starts going off. Yep it was accidentally set off and all of the ride crew, easily 20 or more employees had to evacuate. Now we are all being held: ride crew at attraction entrance, the initial 100 or so riders in the temp queue, everyone else where the barricades at the plaza entrance. Swell . About 15 minutes for maintenance to take care of the alarm. We ended up being on the 2nd train out. Got back in line and used our one time express for the other side. Two front row rides on each track. Then waited a good 2 hours for a third ride as by that time the entire park was aware. So three rides, one with an abnormally long line that doesn't usually happen due to capacity. The park did not close the line one second early and actually added a 3rd train on each side to increase capacity. The atmosphere was as raucous as any ert session I've ever experienced. You could tell the ride ops needed this and the crowd gave it to them. Lots of cheering, clapping, and high fiving. The ride itself? What a magnificent beast of a coaster. An instant top 3 and maybe higher once we have time to digest it. The interaction of the trains is amazing. The only thing I can conjecture as to how someone could get blunt force trauma is getting slammed backward into the headrest if you were flopped forward when unconscious, the torque of the two double boosts is unbelievable. I of course have no idea if that is what happened but after riding it I can not think of what else it could be. Not possible to hit the lap restraint or anything in front of you unless you were maybe 8 feet tall. Of course we don't know what we don't know but I can't figure this as anything other than a freak accident for someone not completely able bodied. What an experience the whole thing turned out to be though! Any questions that I didn't answer ( I was trying not to write a novel here) ask away.