Skyrush Downtime Due to Inclement Packyderms

[ldnayman]

A few more details about the day beyond me bitching about the
ridiculous restraints...

Apparently, the coaster was out of commission early last night due to
thunderstorms. Today, it was out from about 11am till the early
afternoon. This is info from some park guests. One park guest. So
believe it, or not.

When I got there, at 5pm, the Skyrush - and the entire Comet Hollow
plus Great Bear - was closed due to inclement packyderm. Seems
Ringling Bros., who were in town at the nearby Giant Center, were
closing up shop and getting out of dodge. This, naturally, brought on
a march of the elephants through the hollow. Or the whole park, I have
no idea.

So, long story short, we got in line outside of the hollow, and about
10 minutes later the elephants and I can only imagine some large piles
of shit were announced to be gone. They opened the gates, and about 15
minutes later, I was on the Skyrush, last row. For a reride, there was
a 25 minute wait. It was all very tolerable.

At the end of the night -8pm. - there was a 15 minute wait in the now
closed off queue, but the ride was down. They were testing trains and
then stopped. I have no idea if the people in line at closing time
ever got their rides on the Skyrush.

By the way, a full queue on the SKyrush I'll estimate at 60 minutes
max. Every full wraparound line in the queue takes about 5 minutes to
traverse. The line moves quickly and the Queue isn't huge. If it ever
overflows the queue and goes down to the fountains, you'll be looking
at a really long line. The front row line spends very little time in
the station, so I think you can get a good guess on the amount of
cycles you'll have to wait by counting people on the stairs in the
front row line and adding a cycle or two. I would not recommend
waiting as the front ride is PAINFUL with the thigh-crunchers, and if
you really need to be that miserable you can get a 2nd row ride for
maybe an extra cycle over a middle row.

Sooper Dooper Looper was running it's new ugly-ass orange trains. Only
one, which contributed to a small line for the COmet, which I've never
seen. It was down to the bottom of the stairs. Maybe 10 or 15 minutes
for the Looper but that ride has never been more than a walk-on or one-
cycle for the front for me. I suppose the new trains and paint job on
the station, along with more people being brought down there for the
Skyrush contributed to it. I didn't notice any significant difference
in the ride itself, which remains an enjoyable vintage curio. The new
trains remain roomy and the lap bar remains surprisingly unobtrusive
on an inverting coaster. Would be great if you could have something
like this on the LochNess monster. Any arrow coaster would benefit
from it actually, as the headbanging would be eliminated. Wouldn't
want to be stuck upside down like that though, like what happened on
the demon 15 years ago.

The comet at 6:30pm after our second ride on the Skyrush was very
short - one cycle. I wonder if the days or ridiculously long rides on
the Comet are over - will the Skyrush and new-looking Looper draw some
of the mob away from the Comet? We shall see.

Rides were pretty much walk-ons everywhere else, but I was pretty sure
Monday night Memorial Day wouldn't be too crowded and I suppose I was
right.

[ldnayman]

...by the way that's an error, meant that the Looper was running only
one train (not the Comet), which contributed to longer lines on this
usual walk-on.