Cedar Point
Sandusky, OH
Trip Report: Cedar Point
September 1-2, 2011
Sandusky, OH
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Those
who have been reading my trip reports for a long time now,
may recall the many coaster trips I took with Eric. Those became fewer after
Eric moved away, and lately it seems as if there is always something stopping
one of us from meeting up. This year, I received an interesting offer. It seems
that Eric would be celebrating a significant high school reunion, at a school
in Ohio. He also planned on stopping at Cedar Point for a few days, and had to
drive right past my house on the way to and from. Would I like to come along? I
think yes.
Getting time off
work was at a premium, such that Eric left work, far away right at closing
time, and arrived at Coasterville around 2am. He has
been using a Garmin, and it is scary how accurate that thing is at predicting
arrival time. He doesn't have a Cedar Fair pass anyway, so we figured we would
go up for Starlight on Thursday, and all day on Friday. Consider it akin to the
Hersheypark night before offer.
So after he got
ample sleep, we stopped by First Watch for some breakfast, and was on the road. Remember how I said it was scary how
accurate Garmin is? Well Cedar Point starts Starlight at 4pm. We left Coasterville at the time Garmin recommnded,
and even with a refueling stop, and a stop to check into our hotel, we still
were on the famous Cedar Point Causeway at 3:45.
We first noted the
topiary bushes alongside the Causeway, then noted only
one toll booth was open. Hopefully, this is a sign of the size of the crowd at
the park. We start driving through the parking lot headed towards Eric's
favorite section. we were not amused when this family decided to walk five
abreast, in the main aisle, slowly, while giving us shit eating grins, because
they know, there really isn't anything you can do about it.
We found ourselves
in stride, such that we hit the ticket scanners right at 4pm, and I used a
Cedar Fair pass, and Eric used a Starlight ticket. We proceeded to breath in the Cedar Point atmosphere as we walked back the
main midway. We could see evidence that they were starting to set up for their
Halloween event. We get back by Wildcat, and notice it has a pretty short line
for Wildcat.
We start our trip
with a quick peppy ride on Wildcat, sure its
not the biggest, fastest, whateverest, but it does
pack a lot in a tight compact package with its sharp drops and helix turns. I
note a loading gate has been after the turnstile that is remote controlled by
the loader.
After Wildcat, we
proceed to the train station and take a quick glance at the display about the
historical trains Cedar Point owns. We then proceeded to take a ride on one
back to Frontier Trail. The ride back offers you a great view of Lake Erie on
one side, and Intamin coaster goodness on the other.
We were seated near
the front of the train, which means you exit quite near Mean Streak. We decided
to get Mean Streak out of the way. We recalled a couple years ago, before
riding The Boss at Six flags St Louis, a coaster that most people don't like
that "Here comes the pain", and were then surprised by a ride we
actually really liked. I wonder if the same trick will work here. Mean Streak
was its usual walk on self, and I took a moment to look in awe at the massive
queue area tucked into the middle of the ride. We took our seats in the back of
the train and proceeded on the larger of Cedar Points
wood coasters.
Mean Streak, the
first half is actually quite decent, it doesn't really beat up up anymore, the rides problem is after the mid course brake, the ride is brought to a slow crawl and
you just sort of meander through the rest of the course at a crawl. At least we
got that out of the way for the trip.
Next, we headed to
Maverick. This would be Eric's first time on several Cedar Point rides, and
Maverick would be one of them. The signs said 15 minutes, I have me doubts as the most but not all of the covered section of
queue was full and the bridge was full almost back to the first section of
queue. It does move rather quickly though, and pretty soon we found ourselves
at the split. I see they still have the stupid single rider line you can't even
get to until after you have waited through 90% of the queue. Anyway, while
waiting for our train, we note the complex system. The ride runs very short
trains, only 3 cars each with 4 seats in a car. However, it has 6 of these and
the ride really runs 3 pairs of trains. What do I mean? When you load, they
load two trains at once, so 24 people per load, like a normal coaster. Then,
both trains depart the load station, the front train goes on up the lift, the
second gets held just short of the life until it gets the all clear. Both
trains, now separated, now run their way through the course, and then they pull
in one behind each other in a line of trains waiting on the brake run. Trains
are then brought into the station from the brake run in pairs, and the next set
of trains move up to just behind the station.
We would be in the
middle car of the back train. Drop the OTSR, the belt fastens easily. The first
gimmick hits when you realize it is a launched lift hill, the second gimmick
hits when you realize the drop is at a 95 degree angle, that is to say beyond
vertical. The rest of the ride features sharp turns, some nice airtime hills, corkscrew like rolls. Oh, and the mid
course tunnel where the ride brings you to a near stop, only to launch
you again. I think they got rid of the fire hose that used to spray down the
riders, but all in all, still a great ride.
After that, we
passed Snake River Falls, and Eric mentioned that he had never ridden it, nor
have I, and that he didn't plan on changing that on this trip. He did, however,
want to try out Skyhawk, an S&S Screaming Swing. They had the entire queue
maze shunted off so you walked right up to the turnstile. This caused the line
to overflow onto the midway which is atypical for Cedar Point, but I noted by
the tie we had ridden, the queue maze was indeed open. Maybe the park is
getting busier for starlight. At any rate, they only had one half of the ride
working, and the other half showed signs of repair work in progress. Also,
atypical for Cedar Point, we have a non coaster ride
that gives an above average ride experience with that weird "airtime"
caused by your body still wanting to go up, even after the swing has forcefully
started going back down.
From Skyhawk, we
went to Cedar Creek Mine Ride to experience a classic. After shoehorning
ourselves into the back seat, with both the typical Arrow mine train lapbar that is too tight, and the typial
Cedar Point seat belt that is too short, we managed to ride this classic mine
ride.
From Cedar Creek
Mine Ride, we started our way back towards the front of the park,
we got almost to Gemini before we realized we forgot to check out Shoot the
Rapids, and figured we would come back to it tomorrow during the day. Gemini is
one of the parks other classics. It is one of those Arrow
"steel tracked wood coasters" that caused much debate in coaster
forums of years past. It is a steel tracked racing coaster that follows a very
classical wood coaster profile. Today, only the red/orange side was running,
and at least one blue train looked to be partially disassembled. Again with the
way too short seat belts that barely fasten on an empty seat, let alone one
with riders. We shoehorn ourselves into this one as well, and I thought the
ride was running sluggish this year. It didn't seem to have near the amount of
airtime that I remember, yet the final helix can still yank you into next week.
Continuing our
little tour, we next came to Magnum XL-200, one of the first coasters to break
the 200' height barrier. 22 years ago, that was a BIG DEAL, I know, I went to
Cedar Point in 1989 to ride it, when the entire queue maze, plus the overflow
that runs behind the restrooms was packed to the gills. Lately it seems to be
another dependable short wait ride, such as the walk on it was today. That is
one thing, except for Maverick and Skyhawk,every
ride so far has pretty much been a walk on. Looks like we hit
the park on a good day.
Magnum is a great
coaster, you start with the 200' drop, and while you go up the lift you get a
nice tour of the water park, and they claim on a clear day you an see clear into Canada. After
you enjoy the view, its a
classic airtime hill laden out and back masterpiece. It has the profile of a
classic out and back, just exaggerated for height, with a funky little pretzel
turnaround tossed in, and of course those airtime hills were carefully
calculated to produce the most airtime possible. And to make sure you get to
experience this all undisturbed, all the mid course block brakes are at the end of the ride. We took
our ride in our favorite seat, #3, also known as The Ejector Seat. The Joy and the Pain of airtime coming right up. Yes, it is
very strong ejector air, and if you don't take precautions it can do a number
on your legs. You will feel it after the ride, but you'll be too caught up in
excitement of having just finished an extreme airtime coaster to notice.
You may be noticing
I have been dancing around some rides, rides like Raptor, Top Thrill Dragster,
Wicked Twister, and Millennium Force. Well, it's just that on recent visits we
have had negative experiences involving not being able to ride those, and we
didn't want to ruin this trip right off the bat.
Well, now we are
passing Top Thrill Dragster, a coaster I have never ridden (notice the tense,
spoiler alert). I go first in the Test Chair of Doom. Over the last however
many years I have really grown to hate this chair. On my last visit, two years
ago, I couldn't get the belt fastened, and when I say that, it wasn't even
close, like a good inch or so between buckle ends. Well, I have lost some
weight since then, I have gained some back since then. Now, I can fasten the
belt! Don't start celebrating yet. Cedar Point has this asinine policy I have
not seen in any other amusement park. No, they aren't satisfied that the belt
is fastened, they want the belt fastened and a certain
amount of extra belt through the adjustor. How much extra belt? Well, that's
another asinine thing, it depends on who you ask. Anywhere from a quarter inch to an inch. On Maverick, I note
they have stitched in a white line, no such thing here, it is all subjective.
Luckily, there is not one, but two greeters stationed less than 5' from me.
Great I can get two opinions.
I would have
probably been better off had their been one greeter. The problem is that the two greeters were
very engrossed in a very non park related conversation. How engrossed, they
wouldn't even acknowledge our presence when we were looking right at them,
talking to them. When they did finally notice us, we were a big bother,
obviously they wanted nothing to do with us, let alone help us. Eric tried the
seat next, and he managed to get a bit more slack out
of the belt than I did. Our two ever so helpful ride attendants
verdict, "Maybe". Said with taking about a half a
second glace over at the test seat, then right back away from us and into
planning their weekend. What you want us to wait 45 minutes on a Maybe.
Some help you two were.
But, I figured that
if Eric is a Maybe, then I can forget about it. We decide to go and see if the
Millennium Force greeter would be any more helpful. He was! It also helped that
I think the belt on the MF test seat is a bit longer than that on TTD, as I had
a much easier time with it. So great, now we are both cleared to ride MF, but
the ride is closed.
Let's see, what
areas of the park haven't we been to yet. Oh, Oceana,
and it has some changes. The big chance is that Ocean Motion has been moved to
the spot formerly taken up by Demon Drop. The beach gate has been moved a bit,
the area that was opened up was filled in with their Windseeker.
I think their Windseeker has even less queue area than the one at Kings
Island. I wonder if this is because they figure once the initial craze wears
off, that its not going to
be that popular a ride, particularly since it does handle 64 people a ride, as
opposed to the 20 or so on most flat rides. Or, are they trying a tactic
learned from Roller Coaster Tycoon, where they have gotten people used to
thinking, an oveflowing line is too long. At any
rate, they do have a sizeable portable queue area available under the stadium
grandstands next door. Today, it was just in the permanent queues, so you walk
about a third of the way around the ride, where the only thing separating you
from the outside world is a tall fence with spike like points at the top, then
back around to the front, where you go through the turnstile and assigned a
seat. I want to say the Kings Island ride has every individual seat numbered,
where at Cedar Point it is just every row. Same general concept,
and same general ride. Right down to the problem with the lap bar lights not
being visible.
Windseeker is one of the trendy new high altitude circle swing rides. It's
essentially much like Wave Swinger, only the swings go
up to just shy of 300' in the air. The height really does make the ride, and its also what makes peoples
phobias get the better of them.
I think by now Zamperla, Mondial, and FunTime have versions of this ride to market, and I would
not be surprised if its on
the drawing boards at other manufacturers. I have not yet ridden the Zamperla version, but I have a feeling I may get that
experience with Sparkler next year (see the benefit of writing these trip
reports so late), but I have some experience with the Fun Time version both in
Orlando at Magic Midway, as well as Oktoberfest in Munich. Kings Island has the
Mondial version, and the main difference here is the
seat attachment is much more rigid than on the Fun Time. Don't get me wrong the
swings still swing, but the main attachment is tubular piping instead of just
chains or steel cable. The Mondial also has a
fantastic LED light show that gives a park that classic midway experience.
I take my seat,
drop down the overhead lap bar, which is similar to the kind used on a
chairlift. A safety strap connects the lap bar to the seat base, as a back up to the bar lock. I can tell you, as a larger rider,
the rides computer is more demanding than the seat belt, so just because the
belt is fastened, doesn't mean you are good. A rule of thumb is to look at the
stub end of the lap bar, it it isn't lower than the
armrest, your in trouble. Mondial did something dumb here. They mounted two lights on
the outboard side of each seating unit. When the lap bar locks, the light goes
out. Seems simple enough except the light is red, on a red background, and once
you add the sun into the equation the loaders can't really see them. The advice
from the control booth isn't much better "You've got a bar open" Gee,
thanks. Warning to larger riders, even if your bar is fine, you will be the
first ones they target, and will staple you in the hopes that you are the
culprit. This is more annoying when they find out you weren't the problem. They
really need to add some kind of box around those indicator lights so the loader
can see them easier. This ride loads much faster at night than it does during
the day.
So once they have
spent 10 minutes playing "Which bar is loose?" the ride starts. At
first the cars raise straight up for awhile, before
the ride starts turning. The ride does offer on board audio by means of
speakers mounted to the ride gondola, so the speakers raise and lower with you.
At the top the ride spins for a while, and even speeds up. Not too fast, it
just gives a slight hint of laterals. It would be a perfect family ride, if
people would get over that whole 300' up thing. The Cedar Point ride scores
over the Kings Island ride in three categories: Location, Location, Location. Set so half the way around you
get a great view of the park, and the other half a great view of Lake
Erie.
So, the ride then
slows down to its slower spin setting, and then lowers down. Again once it hits
some magic point, the rotation stops, and you lower straight down. That was great, in fact I rode it again. This time
in the outside seat instead of the inner seat. No, it's not a thrill
ride, but it scores high on the just pure fun meter.
From Windseeker, we learn that Wicked Twister is also closed,
not a good day for the Intamins, but wait there is
another Intamin ride back here. We make our way into
the newer Disaster Transport entrance now that most of the queue has been given
over to haunted houses. Now it is just the final room, which is kept just dark
enough sot hey can try to
sell night novelties, I suppose that was better than the 3D glasses that
littered the sides of the brake run in years past.
Disaster Transport
is one of those old Intamin Bobsled rides in a box. Lots of black lights, and a futuristic feel. You board a
sled, go up a lift hill, then the ride is mostly turns and he car riding up a
bit as it changes direction just like a real bobsled. There are some ark ride
type elements you breeze past, but there are not really important. With that we
exit back onto the midway and make our way to Pinks.
Pinks is a new eatery that is supposed to represent the Hollywood hot dog
stand. We were going to try it, but it was already closed for the night. We
then cut across the main midway to Raptor.
It was a walk on
ride on Raptor. In 2009, I could not ride Raptor, but this time, no problem at
all. Raptor is one of the earlier B&M inverteds,
but it is still a great ride. After the ride, we finished off our night with a
ride on the classic Blue Streak.
Blue Streak is the
parks classic older wood coaster. The entrance looks like you are going down a
service path, but the ride is a classic. In fact, they have done amazing things
with it, as in certain seats, like the Schmeck seat,
or the back car, it delivers some great airtime.
With that, we
stopped by BW3's for wings and beer, then headed back to the hotel.
Day 2: Friday Sept
2.
We got some
doughnuts and coffee at Dunkin Donuts, and got to the park right before 10.
This time the parking attendants were out, and parking
you where they wanted you to park, even though where they send you may not be
the best parking available. On the way to the park, we noted that Sandusky,
like many toursit areas is begining
to have fierce competition from indoor waterpark resrots.
Kalahari, Great White, Cedar Point's own resort, and I'm
sure a couple more. I noted the Holiday Inn holidome
looks to have tried to make the conversion into a waterpark, but has since been
closed. In a way that is a shame, since I think the holidome
was the forerunner of hotel indoor recreation complexes. The wierd one is the one right before you turn onto the
Causeway, going with the trendy one sylable name:
Rain, it looks from the road to be a tiny indoor waterpark, attached to a
motel, off track betting parlor, and sports bar.
We decided to start
the day at Top Thrill Dragster, and true to Cedar Point, it seems to take just
under 3 hours to walk from the front gate to Dragster. Well, at this point, for
reasons the reader doesn't need to know, we decide to split up, and I fall
right back into "Cedar Point Ride Program 1"
Yup, I used the
touring plan I usually take with Rideman. I knew
better than to try TTD, so I headed to Magnum. Going up the stairs for this
walk on ride, I told myself I wasn't going to ride in the Ejector Seat. But,
what do you know that's right where I wound up. It's actually an easy seat to
get to, because that end of the station is so cramped
people can't get around the front seat line to get at it. That doesn't mean you
don't have to be agressive, but still. So, I started
with a Magnum ride that worked way better than the large coffee I just had at
waking me up.
From there, I
followed the ritual, on back to Gemini. I think the most noteworthy thing about
Gemini is that this time they were running the blue side. I took about the
third seat on the Blue side, noted the "Track Brake Open When Lit"
sign was lit both when my train left the station and when it returned.
Continuing the
pattern, I headed to Mine Ride, but Mine Ride would not open until 11. That's
not that far away actually, I use up most of the time riding Skyhawk, which had
just about the same line and ride experience as yesterday.
Now, its time for Mine Ride to open, so I was on the second
train in the middle seat of the back car. That seat affords more room as you
don't have the boxcar front, nor the wheel well behind
you. Much better this time.
Now Ohio had been
going through a very wet spring, followed by a sweltering hot summer, then it
had cooled off the last week or so. Today, over 100 degrees.
I decided to see what Snake River Falls was about. Snake River Falls was a walk
on seeing as t had just opened. I took a seat in row 1, and headed up the lift,
at the top you go through a tunnel, and then down the big drop. Like a lot of
the early shoot the chutes rides, this one is no nonsense, also like a lot of
the early shoot the chutes rides, it is very effective at getting you drenched.
Okay, now that I am
drenched, lets find Shoot
the Rapids. The exit for Snake River actually helped put me in the right
direction, as Shoot The Rapids is alongside the
frontier trail, just across from the closed for the season rapids ride. Shoot
the Chutes is an Intamin, like Pilgrims Plunge, but
unlike Plunge, the boats do stop in the station which I like. I do find it
interesting they didn't motorize the loading gates. They are mag locked, and spring loaded. When it is your turn to board,
you are supposed to push them open and board, but there is no signal they are
unlocked. You know, for those of us from my era, i
they would install a little buzzer that would sound when the gate was open, I
bet a lot of us would have a pavlovian response to
open the gate. So the boats are about like Pilgrims Plunge with the overhead
lap bar and all. The ride is a whole lot more complete than Plunge, first you
have a long disorienting lift approach tunnel with misters, then lift 1, then
the first big drop and run out. You then go through a rapids like section
(hence the name) with waterfalls that all but encourage you to rock the boat to
try to avoid getting wet. Then it is up lift 2 for the big drop and run out. My word of advice? Ride BAREFOOT, your feet will thank your for it. After drop two, the floor well of the boat
fills with a least a foot or more of water, and stays filled until the unload
station. At this point, with the lapbar you can't
raise your foot enough to get it out of the pool of water. A minute of this
will lead to the squishiest shoes, and soaked socks. That is really the ride's
only downside, other than that it really came out great.
After that I took a
ride on Maverick. The line for Maverick was just a little longer today than
yesterday, with the covered portion full, the uncovered portion closed off, but
the line was starting to overflow into the midway. Cedar Point, won't have any
of that, so right after I enter the line, they open some of the unshaded queue area. I remind myself that the line really
isn't any longer if they open up more sections of the queue after you have
entered. I did find it interesting they did not open the parts that would offer
access to the vending machines. I know yesterday, I laughed at the single rider
queue, but today, when I got toward the covered section of the queue, I noted
no one going for single rider, so I darted up those stairs at first
opportunity, and bypassed a trainload or so of people. I know, not really a big
deal. They have stopped assigning seats, so alll
single rider does, is when an odd number group from the main line enter the trunstile, they let one in from single rider. I think it is
encouraged yoou mate up with the odd rider. We wound
up in row 2 of the front train on Maverick and proceed to have another awesome
filled ride of Intamin goodness.
From Maverick, I
head over to get the daily Mean Streak ride out of the way. I enter the queue I
get about halfway to the turnaround, where, speaking of turnarounds I note
people coming my way, I look over and people are coming down the load stairs.
This has all the signs of a ride closure. You know, there are some ride
closures that you stand in front of the closed ride for 15 minutes sulking
about life not being fair, there are some that register as a disapointment, and then some you go :Oh,
well". This falls firmly in the "Oh, well" camp.
I head down the
Frontier Trail, where I note them getting the old Frontier Carousel building,
and Rapids Ride area ready for haunts, as well as general theming in the area.
It's the last area of Cedar Point that hasn't been lined with thrill rides, and
as such offers that nice relaxing, shaded walk. At the other end, you find
Millennium Force. I enter a 45 minute Millennium Force queue, which is to say
just the last section fo
queue maze was open. I am a biit more nervous than
usual, I mean the test seat says I am fine, but what about the actual train.
For a short time, it looks like the ride went down to two trains, slowing
things down even more. Eventually, I make it to the station and take the first
available seat. I fasten the belt, pull the tail, drop the lapbar
and hope for the best. I really got scared when the loader got near me, and
made the upbar hand signal. Luckily, it was for the
rider directly behind me. So, I am cleared for takeoff. The rider next to me
asks if I am nervous, and I ansswer, no, just
relieved since it has been something like 5 years or so since I could ride
this. The ride starts with a very steep, very fast launched lift hill, then
into an overbanked turn, before you go through the tunnel to the twisted track
that is on the island. Force is 300' tall, but the airtime, while there, isn't
near as violent as Magnum. A lot moe gentle floats,
and showing that you can do interesting things with curved track. I am real
glad I was able to ride this again. I think I did the Dance of Joy all the way
down the long exit ramp out onto the midway. You may recall in RCT when the
riders would stop at the end of the exit ramp of their favorite ride and jump
up and down. I briefly cosidered that.
Walking across the
street, I next took in Mantis. Mantis should have been a near walk on, as the
line was only back to the top half of the final staircase. A train later and I was positioned to board row 8. That's when it happened, a
Mantis train pulls into the station, and one of the riders is puking their guts
out. Okay, this shouldn't be too bad, they will unload it, hose it down, spray
some sainitizer, run the train empty a couple cycles,
but still use the other train But wait, there's more!
The sight of the rider in the train puking their guts out started a bad case of
chain reaction puking in the load station. When all was said and done, they had
to move everybody up into the front half of the load station so they could
completely hose down, and wash with some kond of
chemical, the back half of the load station The mic man tried to keep those of us waiting entertained.
"You want to know what the best thing about working at Cedar Point is? Well, this isn't it!" Some time
later, they decide to load a train, and they do something unusual, since they
were concerned about people slipping on whatever they used to wash down the
station floor, they loaded rows 5-8 all through the row 5 gate. As it was, I
was in the back left 'seat' on Mantis. Another eay
fit, and its up and away on
the stand up rollercoaster. It has the usual B&M intensity, and as usual I
spend the next 2-3 minutes walking off the feelings in my lower legs.
From Mantis, I
again cross the street, and note that Wildcat has about the same line it had
last night, so I grab a ride on the Wildcat. I follow that up with a walk on
ride on Iron Dragon. Iron Dragon has not recived the
belts that Cedar Fair has seemed to have put on all their other arrow multi
element trains, inclding the suspended coaster at
Kings Island. That may be becuase Iron Dragon is a
lot tamer ride. It is a two lift suspended coaster that was considered extreme
when they showed the ads for it in 1987. The part after the first lift is
really lifeless, it gets better after the second lift is a bit better but theat may be due to the interation
witht the lake below.
After Iron Dgraon, I really need to get a drink, or something, maybe
the heat is getting to me. The pepsi cart by Coasters
is like an Oasis as I graba soft drink before contining. Next up is Power Tower, and it is a walk on, so
I ride both sides. Power Tower is still in Sour Tower mode as there is just no
airtime force at the top. S&S makes a shorter ride called the Double Shot
that does way better in the airtime department. At least the
ones at Ocean City, NJ, and Indiana Beach offer good airtime. Double
Shot combines the upwards thrust of the Space Shot, with the faster than frefall downwards thrust of the Turbo Drop. But, Liberty
Launch at Holiday World shows that the strong airtime is not a sure product of
the Double Shot, as well as Dr. Dooms Fearfall and
the Big Shot showing that a Space Shot alone can produce good air, just not on
Power Tower. Power Tower is a 4 tower complex, with only three open today, 2
drops, and 1 shot. Makes sense, since the Turbo Drop ride experience is longer,
with the having to slowly raise the gondola to the top of the tower.
After Power Tower,
I make my way to Corkscrew. Since Cedar Point is in the middle of Big Ten
country, you know how Big Ten has Legends and Leaders didvisions?
Well, at Cedar Point they have botht he record
breaking new technology "The Leaders", mixed with some olde ride technology that was top of the line in its day
"Legends". Corkscrew is a legend, and so I took a walk on ride in the
back seat. Corkscrew may have been the ride that started putting the belts in
the Arrow cars. I'm glad to see they replaced the original installtion
with a more customer fiendly version they have used
at other parks. Corkscrew is not the generic out of the box corkscrew ride from
Arrow. You may recall that one was a compact coaster - turn out of the station,
up the lift, turnaround, down the drop, , turnaround, through the corkscrew,
then turnaround one last time onto the brakes. No, Cedar Point Corkscrew is
more of an out and back. On this one you take one of the patriotic themed
trains, and do a turnaround out of the station, up the lift, down the drop,
through an airtime producing speedhill that would be
great fun if it weren't for the shoulder bars, then a vertical loop into the
turnaround. On the way back yoou have the rides
signature corkscrew element which is placedsuch that
you actually go over a major park walkway, then onto a very long brake run, capeable of holding all three trains.
From Corkscrew, I
continue witht the Legends. For a long time, the park
has offered a low key ride called the Paddlewheel Excusion.
It's a slow, family ride where you ride in a faux paddlewheel boat in the lake
around the big island. It seems, this year the ride is closing. Now, it usually
closes after Labor Day, becuase they use the island
in the middle of the lake as a haunt and use the floating bridge from Geauga to
get people to the island, which blocks the route for the Paddlewheel boat. Now,
when I say Paddlewheel boat, don't think of the big boat ride at Disney,
instead think of Jungle Cruisse size boats. Very
fitting analogy, actually becuase the cruise route is
dotted with tablueax that the skipper would introduce
in comedic fashion, on a pun filled ride. Yes, this was Cedar Point's Jungle
Cruise. Well, next year the park is leaving the floating bridge up all season,
as the island is about to become a pay extra Dinosaurs Alive attraction. Hey
families, we have a new family attraction for you, at the expense of another
family attration, and you have to pay extra for it. Great. I hear they just got new canvas canopies for the
boats too, that figures, as at Kings Island, King Cobra had been rumoured to be removed for 5 years before it actually was.
I think it was removed the season after it got a complete overhaul and paint
job.
I don't have the
strong nostalgia attachment to Paddlewheel Excursion that some do, but I wanted
to get in my last ride on it. I head back to the dock, which is somewhat hidden
behind Camp Snoopy. Doesn't this figure, usually when I ride this, I merely
have to wait for the next boat. Now that the ride is closing forever in 4 days,
the line is spilling out onto the midway. In the hot sun.
I think Cedar Point wanted this wait to look as long and uncomfortable as
possible. I think they were only running 1 boat as well. I say look, becuase when you finally did make it into the big shelter,
they had the line configured to take the shortest route to the turnstiles. 30
minutes later, I was being loaded onto a boat. For the last time - the Svillians (Civilians) from the Barber Of Saville, the Lighthouse (95% lighter than other houses),
the crazy inventor and his flying machine that never got off the ground, and
much more. They say on these types of riders the skipper makes the show. In
this case, the Skipper was doing everything right, he was telling all the right
jokes, and seemed into it. it was the riders who sat
there stone faced. Come on guys: "Jokes? Funny?
Ha-Ha?" I think the skipper almost gave up on them. Maybe it was waiting
30 minutes to be rushed around the lake at full throttle, maybe it was the
mourning of their last ride, make it was some kind of silent protest, maybe it
was just total exhaustion from the heat. Whatever the case,
no more pier pressure.
From Paddlewheel, I
pass Dragsters, and grab a Lemon Chill. If I would have known they would have
given me the just the little wood ice cream tastig
spoon, I may have reconsidered. Also, why do they price their products so after
tax, it comes to $5.06. Couldn't we lower the actual price just a few pennies
and have a net price of $5. I suck on the Lemon Chill as I make my way towards
Oceana. Yes, I've pretty much taken care of the back half of the park, time to
move up front. I finish the Lemon Chill just as I am passing Matterhorn. I grab
a quick walk on ride on Matterhorn before continuing on.
I head to Windseeker, which has a slightly longer line than
yesterday, but nothing too terrible, so I get rewarde
with another fine view of Lake Erie, and a swing ride. From Windseeker, I hea to Wicked
Twister. Now, I wasn't really seriously thinking I could ride it, but I
needed that confirmation. I pole vaulted myself into the test seat, lowered the
bar, and just as I thought, "Not a Chance". This one still isn't even
close.
By this tie,
something started coming over me, and I wasn't feeling that great. I sort of
stumble over to MaxAir, and get there just in time to
be rider #50. MaxAir should be just like Delirium at
Kings Island, except its not. For one thing, they
have improved traffic flow with two exit gates as well as the two entrance
gates. They have a platform deck that doesn't look lke
it would tear your feet up if you rode barefooted, and the cubby holes for lose
items look better than the big metal toolboxes that look like they belong on
the back of a pick up truck. The queue area looks
smaller, but that may be just becuase they didn't try
the experiment of mainstreaming wheelchairs through the main queue on this
version. Also, the on deck 'bullpen' is the final twist of the queue, which
keeps riders lined up in order, instead of the holding areas Kings Island uses.
Kings Island has had to resort to painting numbers on the ground, not to keep order,
but to get people to keep moving in and filling up all the available space in
the holding areas. Note that both parks went to the Cedar Point style bullpen
for Windseker. Now, that I have gone over all the off ride imrpovements,
let's talk about on ride. In a nutshell, the ride expeiene
on MaxAir is much better, its more like the ride program Delirium used when it
was first installed. I don't know what happened to Delirium, but the program
they run on it now is a shell of its former self. It also is a plus that MaxAir is in the middle of the midway, and not situated
where one side of it swings out over a service area.
MaxAir
was refreshing, and while in this corner of the park, I note Space Spiral is
closed, not that I had any intention of getting in that sweat box, I instead got into a different Sweat Box. Disaster Transport. I should have known I was in trouble
when I walked all the way through the queue and into a waiting sled. Last night
the line was down the stairs and ust starting to back
up into the queue maze. Last ngiht I wasn't riding in
the middle of a 100 degree day, in a metal building, with no air conditioning. Trip to Alaska? (Who remembers that stroyline
anymore), try Trip to Death Valley! Trip to Hell! That building was roasting
inside, which is something I guess the Cedar Point regulars know. I make my way
down the exit stairs and dash over to the water fountain. That fountain used to
be very cold, not anymore. I duck into the restroom building near Space Sprial.
Wow this was actually
a good move, as this restroom building has an air condiitoner!
I admit I hung out in the restroom, until it got crowded with 10 other guys all
hanging around trying to soak in the air conditioning. Cedar Point has been
criticized in the past for nasty restrooms. I do think the park is trying to
fix that situations, one tell is when you go into a restroom if it has the sea
green/blue walls it's likely been renovated. This one, the one my the Funway train station, Mean
Streak, and Mine Ride are all in great shape. The one by Mine Ride even has
changing rooms, before you get into the restroom itself, trying to solve the
wet floor problem that persists in restroom buildings near water rides. The one
by Magnum is still pretty bad, and the one by Raptor is still at "Avoid at
all costs".
But, I' still not feeling good, almost delerious. I
make a trek through Kiddy Kingdom and into the Coliseum. If it's one place you
can pactically guarantee air conditioning, its in arcades and gift shops. Stnding
aound in a gift shop tends to bring unwanted
attention to yourself, so I duck into the Coliseum. When I see the big fans, I know, no air conditioning here. I do find a table that looks
like it came fro a 1970's fast food restaurant and
sit down for ahwile. It may not be air conditioned,
but its better than outside.
I do watch some interesting 4 player air hockey matches going on, on a true 4
sided air hockey table. Yes I know all air hockey tables have four sides, but
this one is more square, and has goals on all four sides.
I also take a tour of the aracde. It is really neat, its like a time machine, the games
nearest the midway are generally the newest games around, and as you go to the
back the games get progressilvely older. The back
wall is lined with pinball machines, many from the electromechanical era, and
many still operate. (When you see cyclometer scoring, you now its an old game. They also have
some old shooting games and the like back there. For some even older games,
check out the Town Hall Museum back by mine ride. Though, last I checked, none
of those games operate anymore, they are all show pieces.
So, its blazing hot outside. If this were during the middle of
July or August, I could duck into a theatre and get 30 minutes of AC while
watching a show, but I think both the ice show and the show in what was the
Centennial Theatre have ended for the season. At least during
the wee, anyway. Someobdy
suggests the Red Garter to me, but that seems far away. I do decide to venture
forth and check out Cedar Downs. Cedar Downs is the park's rare Racing Derby.
It's similar to a carousel, except the horses are in full speed race poses
instead of parade poses, and instead of focusing on going up and down, each row
has 4 horses, and they move back and forwards within their row to crete the sensation of a race, and the ever changing order
of the horses. It is also perceived to spin faster than a
rgular carousel, but I think somebody has shown that
the actual rotational speed of the turntable is actually the same as that of the
main carousel up by the front gate. The difeence is
the Racing Derby has a big infield in the center, so the turntable is much
larger, and the horses are much further away from the center. Which means, that
even through the machanism is moving at the same
speed as the regular carousel, the horse has to travel a lot farther distance
in the same arount of time, which yields to a much
faster ride. The ride is sentimental for me, as it is one of the rides I
remember enoying together with Mom and Dad, so I try
to ride it every time I go to Cedar Point.
From Cedar Downs, I
take a ride on Blue Streak, and decide I didn't really enjoy it all that much.
On the way back to the main midway, I spot Gameday
Cafe. More importantly, I note signs of air conditioning. I'm not sure what
problem I was suffering but somewhere between the 45 minutes of air
conditioning, the soft drinks with free refills ("Keep Em
Coming!") and what was actually a very reasonably priced, generously sized
and actually quite good Chicken Ceaser Salad, I was
feeling much better. From my table at Gameday, I
could watch Raptor run, and right after eating, I went to take a ride on
Raptor. If I thought I had a walk on last night, I was mistaken, now this is a
walk on.
After Raptor, I
took a ride on the sky ride. I hit it at a time when not many people wanted to
ride from the front gate to the center of the park, so I esentially
walked up on a waiting car and got in. They loaded me in, locked the door, and
as they were dispatching the car, the loader left me with a, "Don't forget
to buckle up!" I, of course, looked for the non existant
seat belt. It was a nice relaxing ride over the main midway, and I recalled a
favorite scene from the movie Rollercoaster. In fact, I think I'll give the
signal I switched suitcases as I near the north platform. The north platform
was considerably busier, with a line of eager skyride
riders almost all the way down the stairs. Beore
moving on, I took a ride on Dodgems, I am somewhat of a bumper car fan, and
Cedar Point actually has a nice set of cars. Of course, Cedar Point is also in
Ohio, where most Dodgems operations are in a competition to see which one can
be the worst.
From Dodgems, I
take stock in what I have accomplished. I have been on all my Tier 1 rides that
I am eligible to ride, except Mean Streak. I have een
accomplished many of my favorite flat rides in the park, so not really a bad
day for a Labor Day Weekend friday at the park. I
decide to go pick up the Mean Streak ride for the day, and in doing so decide
to ride back on the train ride. As the train is pasing
by Milennium Force, I think I spot Eric coming in on
a Milennium Force train. Now, even though I know by
the time I get back there, he will be gone to some other attraction, I decide
to skip out on Mean Streak, and just ride the train round trip. While the
outbound leg of the train ride is the Intamin
showcase on one side and Lake Erie on the other, the return leg cuts through
the center of the park, and I suppose with Milennium
Force and Shoot the Rapids is also an Intamin
showcase ride, but it is also dotted with animated tableaux that make it much
more interesting.
I get in line for Milennium Force, and much have gotten in line just in time,
as the line was taking the shortest route possible, and was only halfway back
to the entrance. By the time I was halfway up the big ramp, the last part of
the queue maze was completely full. I suppose this is with people rushing to
get their last ride of the night on the big rollercoaster. Did I mention how happy
I am I can ride Milennium Force again? B this time it
is almost time to catch back up to Eric. So I go up to the prearranged meet up
spot by Raptor, and take a Raptor ride. The "One Last Time" crowd is
here as well, as the line is all the way down the stairs and backing up into
the maze.
I finish up my
ride, and get a text that Eric is running a bit late. So I go over to Blue
Streak to get another classic airtime filled wood coaster ride, then I walk
next door to Calypso. I like the Calypso, and they have a good example here.
For theme, they do play calypso style music on the ride, and they actually give
you a decent length ride that spins pretty good. Maybe
not Munich Oktoberfest fast, but a good ride none the less. Speaking of
Oktoberfest, as I was waiting for my ride on Calypso, I note they have you wait
up on the big ride deck just outside of the area with the turntable. Unlike
Oktoberfest they have a fence between you and the turntable. It was actually
running so nice, I rode it twice.
I finished up with
a ride on Blue Streak. This is also being hit by the "One Last Time"
crowd, as the line was halfway back to the tunnel under the track. When I got
up to the station I realized they had taken the ride down to a single train.
After that, I met up with Eric at Ocean Motion, which is now by the main gate,
and we headed out. We exchanged notes, and I learned Eric focuses his day on
Dragsters and Millennium Force. He noted the actual trains on Dragster are a
harder fit than the test seat, that you can't ride
the Giant Wheel alone, and more. We stopped by Danny Boy's for some Italian
dining before heading to the hotel.