Photo TR: Nick Universe (Opening Day)

First of all, let me say that this park looks fantastic. I may not agree with the choice of theming, but without a doubt, they pulled it off perfectly.

Gone are the days of wishing for just one more ride on Ripsaw before going home. Gone are the days when Paul Bunyan's Log Chute reigned supreme over all the other rides at Camp Snoopy. And gone are the days when Timberland Twister was a big deal.

Our little park has come of age. And what a park. The park formerly known as both Camp Snoopy and The Park at MOA has been expertly decorated. The new paint glistens in the natural sunlight (incidentally, one of the best features of the place - none of that annoying manmade light here) and the new rides fit their surroundings effortlessly.

After parking and entering the mall at around 8:15 am (best parking I've ever seen there!), we (my parents and I) made our ways down to the enormous crowd that had already gathered around a large ribbon at one of the four entrances to the park. On the way, one catches numerous glimpses of the park itself. My immediate reaction to the size of Rock Bottom Plunge was a resounding "Wow." As with most new coasters, it's a lot huger in person than in any picture. Truly something you must see to believe.

Anyway, a few minutes after nine, "J-Boogie," from TEENick introduced a number of important people (but really, who could be more important than Miranda Cosgrove of "iCarly," the Naked Brothers Band, or Li'l JJ of "Just Jordan?") and hastily cut the ribbon, unleashing something of an avalanche of excited patrons. We all rushed into the park and went our separate ways. My small group purchased our wristbands and raced to Spongebob Squarepants: Rock Bottom Plunge, the massive new Gerstlauer Euro-Fighter. We secured a fairly adequate place in line (we ended up getting the 8th public ride, I believe) and waited about ten minutes for the "talent" to take their places on the coaster. For one reason or another (my guess is that the media needed more footage), they were granted a second ride. A bit annoying, yes, but nothing to write home about. Once actual rides began being issued, the line moved at a fitting pace.

And now, the ride.

As with every Gerstlauer I have ridden, the restraints did odd things to my legs. I'm not unusually tall or short, but they always seem to give me some kind of pain in my upper legs. No difference here. Now, this was my first Euro-Fighter, so I was quite interested to see how the drop measured against Maverick's. The vertical lift was amusing enough, but, of course, nothing compared to what was to come. At the top of the lift, the chain slows to an agonizing pace. The car inches its way over the crest of the hill until gravity kicks in and catapults it straight down. Unsurprisingly, the drop was nothing at all compared to that of Maverick, but it was a lot of fun. The first four elements (drop, vertical loop, small bunny hop, overbanked turn) of Plunge are taken extremely quickly. There is no time to think until the end of the first overbanked turn. The "zero-g" roll defies its title and pulls some nice lateral g's. The MCBR barely shaves off any speed. The combo-overbanked turn/helix finale is a blur of positive g's and laughter. Overall, the ride is far too short, but always a treat. I give it an 8/10.

From there, we headed for Avatar: Airbender, the new Intamin Half-Pipe coaster. Again, this was a new kind of ride for me. The line at this point did not look too long, but took at least twice as long as Plunge's. I wish there was something to do about this capacity problem, but there really is not solution. I boarded the "fire" side of the "train." Gerstlauer should take a leaf out of Intamin's book and mimic their restraints, becuase they are darn-near perfect for OTSRs. The ride hummed into action and away we flew. Airbender was a huge surpise. I was immensly satisfied. I would put it at 7.5/10.

After a splendid lunch at Ruby Tuesday, I got in line for Pepsi Orange Streak (affectionately known among we enthusiasts as "POS"), formerly known, of course as Pepsi Ripsaw. Here is another glitch in the capacity system. Ride attendants ate POS are given a choice: either stack the trains or do not fill the 15-car machines to capacity. Since stacking is generally the more frowned-upon, the poor crew was forced to fill trains maybe a third full (this was simply because it takes too long to scan tickets). I hope the park can some day find a solution to this problem. I don't remember it ever happening before.

There was really no change to the ride itself, save the drastically altered views and the trains.

Since we were so conveniently located at this point, we re-entered the line for Rock Bottom Plunge, which had more than doubled since opening (the wait was now around an hour). Still good.

Then it was back to Avatar. This time, I was placed on the opposite side of the board (after at least an hour of waiting) and, to my dismay, we did not spin at all. I'm not exaggerating at all - the vehicle was completely motionless throughout the ride.

Next on the list was Log Chute, one of the few rides that is just the same as it was in the days of Camp Snoopy (sadly, this will change soon). Formerly Paul Bunyan's Log Chute, this fantastic attraction was one of the big reasons that I love coasters today. This was the ride that conquered my fear of drops as a child (admit it, you all had one).

I have always been aware of the large amount of space that Log Chute has available for queuing. I never thought I would wait through every last inch of it. I now have. Not only was the entire queue filled, but there was at least a two-minute period of waiting in overflow queue. This line moves at a snails pace. And it is extremely popular with line jumpers (we counted exactly five seperate occurences just in our time in line - and stopped one from happening). So that ended up being about an hour and fifteen minutes. All worth it, of course. Such a wonderful ride.

One last ride on Spongebob followed (this time it was using overflow queue and the wait was well over an hour). We chaperoned a young boy who told us that this would be his first ever "big" coaster. It's always a pleasure to introduce a person to this wondeful world. He loved the ride, and I am sure he will continue to enjoy coasters for quite a while.

Finally, I decide to ride Splat-O-Sphere, which really does not resemble a sphere in any way, nor does it come remotely close to the stratosphere. I waited far too long for this mediocre drop ride. Lame, lame, lame. Perfect for families. But for us? Not so much. Go ride Drop Zone at nearby Como Town for a real bout of giggles. I declare that it shall recieve a rating of 4/10.

My last ride of the day was on Avatar. With the almost-full queue, I expected a wait of an hour and fifteen minutes. I would have been about correct, but when I neared the front of the line, the "talent" returned. Again, they were given two consecutive rides. They seemed to enjoy it, so that's something. Really, the only one I care remotely about is Miranda Cosgrove, and that's only because of her role in "School of Rock." That's not to say that the others aren't good people, but I'd rather not have them wasting my time in line. One ride is one thing, but two rides is a little much at that point in the day.

The ride was a perfect way to end the day. I had a lot of fun, and I can't wait to go back when the lines aren't so long. It was so crowded. There was barely room to breathe. It was SO crowded. I heard a guard say that there were over 7,000 people in that one room on Saturday.

Well, I guess they won't be going out of business any time soon, then, will they?

A recap:

Spongebob Squarepants: Rock Bottom Plunge - 3 rides

Avatar: Airbender - 3 rides

Pepsi Orange Streak - 1 ride

Log Chute - 1 ride

Splat-O-Sphere - 1 ride

Total - 9 rides

Photos! I must apologize sincerely for the terrible quality of the pictures that follow. We neglected to charge up our digital camera, so we were forced to buy a cheap Kodak disposable and use that instead.

Great P:TR! Does anyone know what POS's new colors will be?

I kinda like POS's blue building!

-Tatum

Nick Universe looks awesome.

I was wondering do they still have the Monument Home Plate and the chair on the wall to represent the old ball park that used to stand their?

POS will not be repainted any time soon.

Yes, both monuments are still in place. It would be quite tragic if they were removed.

POS will be repainted in phase two or three along with the rethemeing of the Log Chute.

BTW, there was well over 7,000 people there that day. It was more like 50-60,000 little peeps in that one room. I had never seen the park as crowded as it was ever.

Nice estimate there Nicky, but there was nowhere near that amount of people in the park. If there was, that would equate to less than 1 ride given on that day per person.

Also, from what I have heard, and posted time and time again, POS WILL NOT, again, WILL NOT be repainted. This could always change, but at this time, it is not being done. The "Orange Streak" is the train, not the track.

Another note about POS, as you mentioned, it is nearly impossible to scan people in fast enough to fill trains. This was the first time we'd operated 2 trains on the ride in over 6 months, and without the dedicated, seasoned 2 train crew, we could not manage to consistently avoid stacking (with some exceptions). Also, due to staffing situations at the park, there is a tendency to use temps or inexperienced operators who only can scan tickets at the large rides. This compounds the inherent problems with our scanners and causes the half-full trains you witnessed. Believe me, it was painful at times for me to watch the times we stacked, or the trains with 8 people as we had a full queue, but it was beyond control.

Though I believe the issue has been intensified by the new scanners, there were times with our old system where it was hard to scan people in fast enough on 2 train days. 900 pph was about the limit for scanning on the old scanners. If you actually scan every single wristband on the new scanners, I'd give it a cap of about 700 pph, and that is assuming you have no guest concerns.

Hopefully this makes sense... it is 3am on St. Patricks Day.

I did notice that it was a lot more difficult to get the wristbands scanned this year. More than once, I couldn't find it.

*Sorry* for the double post, but does anyone have any idea why these pictures stopped working? Is there some common error that I should know about?