Late adding this, but we’ve been busy. We went to the park on Friday the 16th and arrived around 10:30am. Parked in preferred parking and there was maybe 40 cars in it. Got in and did a little browsing in the shops before heading TT. They had just opened it and the guy working the test seat said it was 2 to 2.5 hours wait. We turned around went back to cave entrance and bought Trailblazers for the day. Went back to TT and was on the ride in 10 minutes. Loved every minute of it. My daughter went with me as my wife was leery about the spinning. Got off the ride hit the shop and bought a TT shirt that had the year on it and then went straight to the Culinary School to enjoy the view on the back porch (on a side note….while shopping in the TT shop, I heard a voice behind me that I knew I had heard before but couldn’t nail it down. After surveying all of the shoppers I noticed SirWillow and his family exiting the store. Didn’t go chase him down as he was out the door and I had unpaid merch in my hand).
Went inside Culinary School and actually did some shopping for the first time inside. Their honey pecan butter was to die for and we bought a jar of it for our breakfast in the condo the next day. We also tasted some instant salsa mix. Pour an amount of their canned dried seasoning in with a can of diced tomatoes and boom, instant salsa. It actually tasted really good. $20 for the can but it made quite a bit of salsa. Talked to the nice lady working in there for a bit and moved on for lunch.
We ate at Buckshot’ Skillet and I had the jambalaya (very good). Went to FM and had no wait. The fresh paint always makes it smell new and updated. The ride was great. We went and rode the train next. Show was fun and had lots of adlibbing and it was the longest I’ve ever seen (maybe this is normal on day 2 or the first week or two??) Exited and went to TNT. No wait once again and had a great ride (still one of my favorites).
At that point TT was a 15-20 minute wait and after a LOT of convincing my daughter and I talked my wife into riding TT. She doesn’t do “spinning” at ALL, but she absolutely loved TT. We walked across the swinging bridge and grabbed some cinnamon bread at the mill. Spoke with a gentleman bagging some freshly grounded product and was sad to learn that they are using electric power now to turn the mill inside. He said that they can switch to water if they wanted but rarely do anymore due to them shutting water down during later months for possible freezing. Wife and I went and rode FITH and used Trailblazer to save a few minutes in line while the daughter wanted some homemade chips at Chester’s. FITH was great. The lights seemed brighter and everything smelled clean (sure love that first week of the season).
We then headed up to PK and used Trailblazer for me and my daughter while the wife stayed back and hit some shops. We next swung up to WF and used the Trailblazer for it. This is where I learned that the Trailblazer can be cumbersome too. We didn’t care where we rode on the ride, just wanted to skip the line. Well, we were behind about 3 sets of riders who all wanted to ride in front row. The workers on the ride allow a front row Trailblazer to go every-other-ride. So we had to wait about 6 rides before we could board and noticed that people that were walking with us as we approached the building were riding before us. I feel one way to make the trailblazer work a little better would be to have one section (or row) of seats dedicated to trailblazers. If there are no trailblazers in line then let normal riders use that row for that ride. That way the normal riders aren’t watching ride after ride of trailblazers get ahead of them as they would know that this one particular row is dedicated for TB and no normal riders would be in line for that row. Not sure this makes sense, but it sure did to me at the time!
After WF, we headed up the hill and visited the owner at “In His Hands” in their new location. We then caught a Homestead Pickers show (they were inside the cabin and we made sure to arrive about 30 mins early to get a seat). Great show and the crowd was full inside and standing outside. We then walked down to Outlaw Run and walked right up to the ride (no wait). Great time! After OR, we went to Giant Barn Swing. They were only operating one swing and the wait was about 20 mins or so even though there weren’t very many people in line. Walked around looking for working squirting machines to squirt the Lost River riders, but they weren’t working.
We decided to call it a day and head to Danna’s for some bbq dinner. Great day! Crowds were never very much on that day and that might have had something to do with it being a Friday and that it was raining around park opening time, but it stopped by 10:00 and never rained again during the day.