13-day, 10-park Trip Report

[Farley Flavors]

Day 13. Friday 28th August.

 

Alarm at 0830, showered, checked out and got to MI at 1030 for the 1100 opening.

 

Mad Mouse

 

Decided to get this one out of the way first as we knew that the lines would quickly build. Standard mouse ride. 6/10

 

Shivering Timbers

 

Here's where we encountered the most hopeless, inept, sour-faced ride ops of the entire trip. The park wasn't all that busy and what should have been a short line very quickly stretched out of the line into the midway.

 

Despite the fact that two trains were running and we only had to wait for two trains for the front row, it took TWENTY MINUTES before we boarded! Yup, an average dispatch time of ten minutes.

 

There was a grand total of two people on duty - one in the booth and another to go along the ride - very slowly - checking the restraints.

 

There was an incident earlier in the this road trip - I can't recall which ride it was offhand - where there was "human spillage" on one of the seats while we waited in line. What seemed to be the entire team sprung instantly into action with hoses, cloths, sprays and so on while one of the team apologized to the waiting line and assured us they'd be back up and running very soon. Which they were.

 

After our first row ride on Shivering Timbers, we lined up for the back. Unfortunately, there was some "human spillage" on one of the trains.

 

The operators' response?

 

Close down the entire train and call for someone to come and clean up for them. A full twenty-five minutes later, a security guy who looked just as bored with his job as the ride ops arrived with cleaning materials and (again, very slowly) cleaned up the mess.

 

45 minutes after lining up for the back row we finally got our ride.

 

A great woody though. The airtime is significantly better in the back but the helix is much more fun in the front row. 8/10

 

Thunderhawk

 

Only a one-train ride for the front row but the train departing the station as we arrived got stuck on the lift hill for several minutes. A bit of a rough ride, but at least the harnesses were well padded which helped with the head banging. 6/10

 

After that, we checked out the lines for Wildcat and Corkscrew but they looked like they were well over an hour each. I'm guessing the operators on those rides were just as incompetent as those on Shivering Timbers.

 

Michigan's Adventure - your staff need a good kick up the arse!

 

We were all agreed that it was a bit of an anticlimactic end to a rather wonderful road trip. MI just wasn't worth the several hundred mile drive.

 

So at 1400 or so we headed off for O'Hare, battling nightmare traffic in the Chicago area and arriving at 2000.

 

Dropped the rental car off and checked into the rather lovely Hyatt Regency near the airport before heading out for beers.

 

Dinner that night was a glorious stuffed pizza with sausage and spinach, delivered to the hotel from Giordano's.

 

Day 14. Saturday 29th August.

 

Not much to report here. We were prepared to be stuck in Chicago for a night or two as the flights were very busy (in fact our friends, who also work for British Airways, had decided to route back via Washington). But we scraped on into business class at the last minute.

 

A really successful trip, we thought, so much so that we're already planning another one for next year! We ordered two 2016 Six Flags Gold Passes in the recent sale for $70 which have to be picked up before 1st. November, so we're flying out to Dallas today to tick off Six Flags Over Texas and Six Flags Fiesta before returning next year to do the other Six Flags parks in the northeast!

 

Finally, a calculation of cost-per-coaster-ride. Not counting the flat rides but including the cost of the Platinum passes, the Fast Lane passes at CW and CP, the Knoebels, Conneaut Lake and Waldameer tickets, each coaster ride cost us $2.85. Very acceptable losses!

 

Thanks to everyone on here who offered advice and thanks for reading!

[LiftThrill]

Can't wait to see how you view my homepark and favorite park (SFFT and SFOT).

[PKI Jizzman]

Great stuff! Can't wait to read the bonus Texas trip reports. If I'm going to drive out of the way for a park, it's got to be a place like Silver Dollar City. Even though Shivering Timbers looks fun, I don't think it warrants a big drive out of the way. Glad you liked the ride, though!

[TheCoasterKid211]

Pictures! Where are the pictures??? Great trip report though.