For me, I am not a lover of "spinny" rides anymore, so I opted to be the watching bench for that one and get myself ready for the big Steel Venom. Of course I didn't get a daytime shot of that ride other than our group confidently striding in, but there is a cool evening shot later in the day. I've ridden it before - but WOW. It packs a punch. Noah rode it (holding Dad's hand), and was super brave, but was pretty determined that would be his only time riding it, like ever...
After coaxing Noah on that one, we promised him that he could do the Antique Cars that he saw when we were waiting outside. "Auntie" Alison (her new family name) said she would ride with him, so we broke off from the group which had older kids who were NOT interested in that ride, and the 4 of us went on slow poke lane to ride the cars.
After getting off the Cars, Noah quickly assessed that they were "boring" - so no having to worry about a repeat ride there - the boy was ready for bigger and better things. Ali also has a love of spinning rides, so the two of them tackled the Monster while Brent and I watched the spinning black chaos. (Someone has to take photos, right?!)
Since we were trying to sort of stay organized about how we were tackling the park, next was Corkscrew roller coaster. Though I am normally a big coaster fan, this one has never won my heart. And Noah was was not so sure about that one, so while the others were standing in line Noah and I went and found KidWorks for a bit. He found a fun Ball Factory to spend a few minutes of kid play time.
As a small group again, we rode HighRoller (the big white wood coaster) that I have liked since my first visit as a kid, and made our way to Renegade that Brent and I had never ridden. That was definately the hit of the day. It is a super tall wood coaster with so many twists and turns, you never catch your breath until the ride ends - fast, fast, fast! We loved it! (eventually did it 3 times). We were excited for Excalibur that we had remembered to be high and fast from previous visits, but after Renegade, it felt way short. Still fast though and we tried it both in front and back - back is best on that one - yay!
Noah was going to miss out on doing Soak City (the water park) since our timing was off in meeting up with the part of the group that had more kids, and our stuff ws out in the van when they were already going, so with promises of doing that part on a next year visit, we compromised and agreed to do Thunder Canyon water raft ride. You WILL get WET, you MAY get SOAKED. Yup! Alison took a little video, but I have no pics of the ride and how drippy we were when we came off - we didn't distribute adults in the raft very well, so the 3 adults got much wetter than the 3 kids on our raft. Whoops...good thing it was a warm day. After a later lunch we met back up with another chunk of the group who were going Wild Thing which is the tallest coaster out there - and way fast, and goes through a dark tunnel etc - Noah opted to sit out with a few others. fun stuff! Some of us did Power Tower which offers such a great high view of everything in that whole area. Kind of like Tower of Terror but without the dark. ;-)
I think some in the group wanted to do Renegade at this point since it shut down for a safety check when they tried to ride earlier, so of course we went again (time #3). Ironically when we got up to the front and the next car was ours, you guessed it - another safety check shut down. I'm all for being safe, but can we do it quicker? They need some "fast, fun and friendly" lesons there. And some fans - definately need fans. Anyway, still worth the wait and everyone laughed and screamed through it. A chunk of the group was leaving soon afterwards, so it was back to the 4 of us for the rest of the evening for wandering, snacking, riding, screaming, laughing etc. A few more shots:
whoosh! Yup...soaked again (only Noah though) He also got resoaked because he stood on the viewing bridge and got knocked down by the wave from the next boat ;-)
Chaos!
I live this nighttime shot of Steel Venom:
Noah's hair after drying off from The Wave
Enterprise at night
Last ride of the night - Scrambler
By the time we got out to our van (with many bug bites) we had been there for 12 hours. We agreed that time went super fast though and we all got along, and all had a totally fun day. Of course since I was taking the pics, there is little photographic proof I was there, but Brent took a really nice pic of me and Ali on her camera, that I'll have to get and post, and we did get a ride picture from Renegade, I'll have to see if I can scan it in at some point. We had so much fun that we ended up getting Season Passes for next year at a early bird price, so it looks like the adventure will continue in 2011! Amazing that you can get a season pass for cheaper than even a 1 day ticket at Disney. So we're expanding Noah's park horizons. ;-)
Jen
