My ride and thoughts on X from Friday 1/4

**Sir Willow** · 01-06-2002, 07:04 PM

We walked by X's entrance at almost 11, and they hadn't opened it up
yet, though there were probably aroun 50-75 people waiting for them to
do so. After taking some time around the rest of the park, which had
absolultely no crowds (7 minutes wait for Goliath!!), we arrived back at
X at around 1pm to find it open and running.

The queue is beautiful, wonderfully landscaped, and gives some fantastic
views of Viper. As you arrive at the bottom of the station, the queue
splits into the lines for the different sides, though there wasn't an
employee or sign pointing that out today, so it was a little confusing.
From there it's upstairs and into the station boarding area. As you
enter the station the lockers are right in front of you ($0.50 for 2
hours use), with the unload section off to the right (or left, depending
on which side you come in) and nothing dividing the unload station from
the loading. On short line days it makes it easy to hop off and back in
line again.

We got in line for the 3rd row, and had approximately 10-12 people in
front of us- about 6 trains worth. Once that line splits, your line is
going to slow way down since each side only loads 16 at a time. And the
loading time, especially right now since it is new and they are working
bugs and getting used to it still, is very slow. Add in that they were
only running one train today, and those 6 trains took us 40 minutes of
waiting. This is one ride that they absolutely are going to have to
speed up the loading and run multiple trains, or they will have a lot of
upset people from the long waits. But the loading and unloading are
fascinating processes to watch, with the seats being low and upright
when you load and put on the restraints (2 shoulder loops that you pull
in over your chest, then pull down. Pull down first if you can, cause
it can get tight otherwise) After everyone is loaded, they then rotate
the seats to an easy incline backwards where they then check the
restraints, make sure you are locked in and comfortable (they are very
comfortable), and send you out of the station backwards!

On the lift hill your seat moves up just a bit to put you in a
comfortable sitting position looking out at the rest of the park, and
the view is incredible. Once you hit the top of the hill, you have a
small dip where your seat rotates into a face down position, then then
you are dropping straight down!! Airtime doesn't really apply since
your seat is above and behind you as you drop, so you won't notice if
you are doing negative G's, but you feel like you are flying! Halfway
down you rotate so that you are looking back up the hill, then it's
through the first raven turn, where again you feel like you are flying
head/ hands first all the way through it. On the camelback you do a
smooth backflip (very fun) then hit the turnaround, where again you feel
like you are flying through the turn.

Then comes easily the most disorienting experience I have ever had, and
one that actually scared my wife. The rollover, where the train
inverts. But at the same time that the train is inverting your seat is
also rotating, so by the time you come through it and get ready to hit
the raven turn you don't know if you are coming or going. I realized
which way I was going again as I saw the ground coming at me in the
raven turn, then you get to do it again as you approach the brake run.
It is an incredible experience, one that is very fun when you are ready
for it, but unlike anything else out there.

I rode on the outside, since I had heard that it was "rough", while my
wife was on the inside. She said her ride was perfectly smooth, and so
was mine. I only noticed to spots of "bumping"- during the rollover/
rotations, where by legs bumped on teh seat a bit as if I was kicking
them. It was not by any means rough, and actually when you consider the
forces from a rollever make very good sense for the outside seats to
have but not the inside (think centrifigal force). But again, not
rough, and far from painful. If anything they added to the disorientation.

In summary, X is a fantastic ride. Almost every train was filled with
cheering, clapping people as they arrived back in the station, and it
would be safe to say that at least 50% of them were jumping straight
back in line. While it is hard to rank since it is unlike anything else
out there, this is a coaster that is not to be missed- if the loading
times allow it. Hopefully they will get the other trains going soon,
and that should help a bunch, as will more experience with the ride.
Otherwise they are looking at some seriously long lines this summer.

**chilled** · 01-06-2002, 07:06 PM

i really gotta get over to cali......by the way this belongs in trip reports

**Cedarpoint_Mark** · 01-06-2002, 07:08 PM

Originally posted by chilled
i really gotta get over to cali......by the way this belongs in trip reports

Give him a break, he hasn't been here in a while. Great TR Sir Willow, and great to see you back too. I need to get to SFMM sometime in the next few years and ride this new phenomenon.

**edh101985** · 01-06-2002, 07:12 PM

good report. It sux that i have to live so far away. Mabe someday i will get a chance to ride it.

**Sir Willow** · 01-06-2002, 07:25 PM

Originally posted by chilled
i really gotta get over to cali......by the way this belongs in trip reports

I thought about that, but if you look at it, only 2 sentences are talking about the park. It's actually all about X, which is why I placed it here as opposed to trip reports. If I had talked more at all about the park I would have put it there. But since it's all about just the one ride...

And I'm actually around occaisionally. I'm much more of a lurker now than I used to be, but I pop in and out. Finding time to be active is a whole other story.

So anyone else going to be out for X's special events tomorrow and thursday (1/7 and 1/10) ?

**I_heart_airtime** · 01-06-2002, 09:59 PM

Originally posted by Sir Willow

I thought about that, but if you look at it, only 2 sentences are talking about the park. It's actually all about X, which is why I placed it here as opposed to trip reports. If I had talked more at all about the park I would have put it there. But since it's all about just the one ride...

And I'm actually around occaisionally. I'm much more of a lurker now than I used to be, but I pop in and out. Finding time to be active is a whole other story.

So anyone else going to be out for X's special events tomorrow and thursday (1/7 and 1/10) ?

If you think of it that way...then there's already a thread for X.

**Sir Willow** · 01-07-2002, 08:00 PM

I was out there for a few hours today (Monday) while they taped their promotional footage for X. Got in around a dozen rides or so, which isn't bad considering all the time that they take shuffling cameras around and so forth. And got those rides in all over the train.

The front is a blast and a half! The back is intense as all get out. Also the third and fourth rows seemed to be the ones that bumped around the most, with the outside being bumpier than the inside, and the right side of the train (if you are in the station looking at the front of the train) seemed to be rougher than the left. But it also provided some very different visuals and a small spot or two of airtime that the other side didn't have, though it's sometimes hard to tell with the rotating.

In the course of the day I got to ride and talk to several employees from all over the park about it, including a few that know the ride well from different departments. One of them (I won't say who or what department for their protection) said that while small stress fractures was one reason for teh delay, the major reason was because the little wall/ gates that are between the train- the train actually rammed it at one point during testing and it took some work to fix and replace damaged parts. This was then confirmed by a second employee that works there.

Possibly the most fun ride I had though was with a gentleman that was in his 50's or 60's that works in the parts crib (in essence the parts store/ barn) where the parts are contained for all the rides. He was laughing up a storm throughout. A lot of fun.