TR: Cedar Point - 7/13/09
TR: Cedar Point
Sandusky, OH
July 13, 2009
Cast of characters: I went to the park with my cousin Rick, he had never been to Cedar Point before which made for an interesting day. To give you his profile he is not the hard core coaster maniac, and hates spin rides, but likes seeing the shows, playing the games, eating the food, and yes riding the rides.
Getting there is half the fun: WE traveled up from Cincinnati the night before opting to follow Googles advice and take I-75 to US-6 all the way to the Causeway. Stop at Cracker Barrel was fine, those 4 miles on I-75 around mile marker 160 where we traveled 10mph at most was not. Note to AT&T users, Sandusky seems to be very spotty for AT&T service (iPhone users beware) For example signal was fine at the park and at Max and Ermas on 250, but at the Howard Johnson on US6 right by the Causeway, nada, nothing, and no in room WIFI either. Talk about roughing it.
Monday mornng - stopped at the McDonalds on the Causeway for a slightly overpriced McDonalds breakfast. Ate it while going over the causeway.
It would figure this would be the year I did not get the platinum pass, so its $10 to park the car, and then be shown to a parking space by a parking attendant that has a death wish. They waved us forward and then when we were making the turn they jumping in front of us and signal stop. I guess that one car coming in from the Chausee was more important.
We enter the park taking advantage of the Ohio Lottery promotion - a losing Ohio Lottery ticket is worth $7 off, so that made the gate $38, and half of parking meant I spent $43 vs. the $75 it would have cost to upgrade my KI Gold to Platinum. Entered the park to "God Bless America" playing in the background.
Enter the park, and I head directly to TTD so I can confirm that yes, I still can't ride TTD. I'm not too suprised or upset, as that is not news, but there is hope, I could get the two ends of the buckle on the tester to touch but not to fasten. TTD wasn't open yet anyway, so over to Magnum.
Magnum was a total walk on, in fact we walked all the way on to row 1.3 AKA the Ejector Seat. Magnum seems to have gotten a great new paint job this season, and the ejector seat was ejecting in fine form. Massive airtime on this Arrow masterpiece. Rick's review was that it had "too much airtime" Is that even possible? Where did I go wrong? What's wrong with the kid? He further explained the ride was very painful due to his legs and the safety bar getting to know each other real well.
Next up was Gemini - another walk on, only blue side was working but I had delight in looking up to find the "Track Trim Brake Open" light lit, "Special when lit!". Gemini is not the airtime producer that Magnum is, but the ride is no slouch either. I don't remember the final helix being quite that aggressive before, it really fools you as the rest of the ride is so mellow.
Folow that up by, wait Mine Ride isn't open yet. I take a ride on Skyhawk but Rick sits it out. I walk all the way through the empty queue and right into a chair on Skyhawk. I note the caribeaner and eyebolt safety has been replaced by a more conventional length of seatbelt. I'm real happy I had no trouble getting onto Skyhawk as I really enjoy the S&S swing rides.
I exit Skyhawk and note that those coin operated strongboxes you store your stuff in are up to $2, for a single use! Moving back to Mine Ride, its a 2 train wait for the front, and after the usual contortions involving crossing your ankles and folding your legs under the seat I was able to ride. What more can I say, it's Mine Ride. I start to get the impression Rick is not caring much for Cedar Point.
We continue our way around the park with a walk on ride in the back seat of Mean Streak. I'm glad they have the longer seatbelts on Mean Streak, and hey I don't think Mean Streak is near as bad as people make it out to be, particularly if you remember to lean forwards a little bit. In more odd news, Rick enjoyed Mean Streak. Then again I prepared him by telling him it made Son of Beast look good, its all in the perspective.
We headed over to Maverick and decided to come back later instaed of wait 90 minutes, let's see if we can knock any other rides out of the way before we start the long tiring coaster waits.
We take the walk down the Frontier Trail, for some reason I don't think I remembered the petting zoo before. We got towards the front of the park, and well you should guess that if I couldn't fit on TTD, I didn't have a chance on M Force, but I tried the tester anyway just to make it official. I advised Rick he should really try to ride this while we were there. I offered to make a run of the spin rides while he rode.
We wound up not even walking all the way to Mantis, with a line overflowing the queue area, and knowing how painful that wait is, we passed to come back later.
We next wound up waiting 15-20 minutes to ride Iron Dragon, I got the bad feeling the crowd had caught up. We rode in the back seat, and I wonder why this ride didn't get the Arrow train seatbelt treatment like Top Gun / Flight Deck did. Rick liked the second part of Iron Dragon, so he's starting to warm up to the park. Rick assumed Wildcat would ride like a Galaxi or Zyklon, and didn't want any part of waiting 15-30 for it.
We decided to check on Raptor so we wound up taking the Sky Ride (walk on) to the front of the park, and Raptor was still posting about a 75 minute wait. We looked at Demon Drop, (45 minutes), and after Rick saw Demon Drop run he was like "No way in ____" We took a look at the skill games, and wound up riding the Space Spiral. It was a "Wait till the car returns" wait for Space Spiral, they were only running the lower deck, and Rick really enjoyed the view from Space Spiral.
We next waited 30 minutes to ride 12E (Disaster Transport) I note they have now permanently cut off the first 2 section of queue house and moved the entrance further down by the exit. They seem to have replaced the stupid 3D glasses person with a night novelties person. Yeah kids, enjoy those night novelties for the 15 or so minutes you are in that dark room. I bet the rides crew appreciates not having to sweep hundreds of pairs of discarded 3D glasses off the brake run as well. I kind of like Disaster Transport, and Rick seemed to like it was well, he just thought it was short. He commented "All the rides here seem short!"
We started to Wicked Twister, but then had to make a run, I rode Matterhorn while he took care of business. For some reason, I don't recall seatbelts on Matterhorn before. After Materhorn we took a while to walk through the arcade. Rick (27) is just old enough to appreciate some of the older games in the back of the arcade, and I really liked the row of working antique pinball machines I was intruiqed by the mechanical tank driving/shooting game, they even had two machines, but neither of them liked any of my quarters.
After leaving the arcade, we headed to Midway Market for some food as it was about 2pm. Midway Market seems to be the deal at only $12 a person for unlimited chicken, meatloaf, pizza, pasta, tacos, burgers, sides, salads, soups, and an awesome desert bar with hand dipped ice cream. Midway Market was doing quite a brisk business.
Rick wanted to let dinner digest, so we cuaght the "Signed, Sealed, Delivered" show at the Centenial. Nice looking theater, I like the fact the cast does meet and greets after the show. Oh yeah, and the show wasn't bad either.
After the show we paid the price for Midway Market, and let me warn you, do not under any circumstances use the restrooms by Raptor exit. Those rank right up there in my worse amusement park bathrooms list.
Speaking of Raptor, it was time to wait 45 minutes to learn I coud not ride Raptor anymore. That was depressing, I didn't try the tester as I had ridden Raptor before. Rick could have ridden, barely, but he complained his harness was way too tight and wound up not riding also.
We next headed to Blue Streak, and I was glad to find the new longer belts here as well. I didn't expect much as rick took the walk on ride in seat 2.1, but let me tell you seat 2.1 was delivering the airtime like nobody's business, I almost thought I was on the return run of Voyage, it was delivering air like a mad coaster.
Next up was Cedar Downs, well Rick made it to the boarding gate, but when he saw the ride run his 'I hate spin rides' alarm went off, and I wound up riding Cedar Downs without him. His loss, I really love the ride. Cedar Downs holds a special place for me because I rode it with both my parents.
At this point, Rick expresses an interest in riding TTD, he even chides me "I'll get to ride a coaster you can't" "Good for you, I'll go ride some spin rides" It wiped the smile off his face when the test seat rejected him as well. We went and took a walk on ride in the front of the back car of Corkscrew. Hey, it's Corkscrew not much to say here. We noted the Magnum queue looked half full now, and I showed him the Paddleboat Excursion.. If you have not ridden the Paddlewheel Excursion, its a nice laid back ride that is in a very similar vein to Jungle Cruise at that famous chain of parks. Well, the Jungle Cruises jokes may not be quite as corney as Paddlewheel Excursion, but I think its a toss up.
From Paddlewheel Excursion we backtrack to Wicked Twister, taking time out to go out and put our feet in the sandy beach on the way. Wicked Twister provided another double elimination at the test seat. Rick proceeded to play some skill games while I rode MaXair. I thnk I got the better end of the deal, and MaXair is way better than Delirium.
Returning to the main midway, we started to head back to Millenium Force for Rick's benefit but wound up taking in the ice show instead. We are both suckers for an ice show. I was really glad to see their ice show is much different than the one at Kings Island. It was really a good ice show, in our showing we got the added pleasure of having this dude in the back row who was standing up during the show, singing along (loudly and badly) to the songs, and heckling the skaters. To the point where at one point half the audience was staring at him. The ushers did something to take care of the situation.
Upon exting the Ice Show, we observed the Dodgems, and realized, "Hey, these don't look half bad" We waited 3 cycles and we were riding the Dodgems, and hey these aren't bad at all.
From the Dodgems, Rick got the bad news at MF, and we boarded the train ride. Train ride took us right back to Maverick, so that was convenient. Maverick was still posting about a 75 minute wait, but 45 minutes later we were in the station, if not for some downtime, we would have been out in less than the 65 minutes it actually took us. I'm just happy both of us, mainly me, are able to ride Maverick. Maverick is, without a doubt the best coaster in the park. I noted though, they seemed to have toned down the "Spray the cars" water effect.
After Maverick, we played the shooting gallery, I got my butt kicked at air hockey, we took another walk on ride on Mean Streak, then we walked the Frontier Trail. They have this special event where they have covered the Frontier Trail in christmas lights. I swear I thought I should be hearing carols and wearing a coat. By the time we got to the front of the park it was about 9:30 and we decided to try to beat the traffic out of the park. By 10 we were at Max and Ermas - open till 11PM, and providing good, friendly, fast, competent service, I know thats a rare thing in Sandusky.
It might not be how you would have spent the day at Cedar Point, but it worked out well for us.
Sandusky, OH
July 13, 2009
Cast of characters: I went to the park with my cousin Rick, he had never been to Cedar Point before which made for an interesting day. To give you his profile he is not the hard core coaster maniac, and hates spin rides, but likes seeing the shows, playing the games, eating the food, and yes riding the rides.
Getting there is half the fun: WE traveled up from Cincinnati the night before opting to follow Googles advice and take I-75 to US-6 all the way to the Causeway. Stop at Cracker Barrel was fine, those 4 miles on I-75 around mile marker 160 where we traveled 10mph at most was not. Note to AT&T users, Sandusky seems to be very spotty for AT&T service (iPhone users beware) For example signal was fine at the park and at Max and Ermas on 250, but at the Howard Johnson on US6 right by the Causeway, nada, nothing, and no in room WIFI either. Talk about roughing it.
Monday mornng - stopped at the McDonalds on the Causeway for a slightly overpriced McDonalds breakfast. Ate it while going over the causeway.
It would figure this would be the year I did not get the platinum pass, so its $10 to park the car, and then be shown to a parking space by a parking attendant that has a death wish. They waved us forward and then when we were making the turn they jumping in front of us and signal stop. I guess that one car coming in from the Chausee was more important.
We enter the park taking advantage of the Ohio Lottery promotion - a losing Ohio Lottery ticket is worth $7 off, so that made the gate $38, and half of parking meant I spent $43 vs. the $75 it would have cost to upgrade my KI Gold to Platinum. Entered the park to "God Bless America" playing in the background.
Enter the park, and I head directly to TTD so I can confirm that yes, I still can't ride TTD. I'm not too suprised or upset, as that is not news, but there is hope, I could get the two ends of the buckle on the tester to touch but not to fasten. TTD wasn't open yet anyway, so over to Magnum.
Magnum was a total walk on, in fact we walked all the way on to row 1.3 AKA the Ejector Seat. Magnum seems to have gotten a great new paint job this season, and the ejector seat was ejecting in fine form. Massive airtime on this Arrow masterpiece. Rick's review was that it had "too much airtime" Is that even possible? Where did I go wrong? What's wrong with the kid? He further explained the ride was very painful due to his legs and the safety bar getting to know each other real well.
Next up was Gemini - another walk on, only blue side was working but I had delight in looking up to find the "Track Trim Brake Open" light lit, "Special when lit!". Gemini is not the airtime producer that Magnum is, but the ride is no slouch either. I don't remember the final helix being quite that aggressive before, it really fools you as the rest of the ride is so mellow.
Folow that up by, wait Mine Ride isn't open yet. I take a ride on Skyhawk but Rick sits it out. I walk all the way through the empty queue and right into a chair on Skyhawk. I note the caribeaner and eyebolt safety has been replaced by a more conventional length of seatbelt. I'm real happy I had no trouble getting onto Skyhawk as I really enjoy the S&S swing rides.
I exit Skyhawk and note that those coin operated strongboxes you store your stuff in are up to $2, for a single use! Moving back to Mine Ride, its a 2 train wait for the front, and after the usual contortions involving crossing your ankles and folding your legs under the seat I was able to ride. What more can I say, it's Mine Ride. I start to get the impression Rick is not caring much for Cedar Point.
We continue our way around the park with a walk on ride in the back seat of Mean Streak. I'm glad they have the longer seatbelts on Mean Streak, and hey I don't think Mean Streak is near as bad as people make it out to be, particularly if you remember to lean forwards a little bit. In more odd news, Rick enjoyed Mean Streak. Then again I prepared him by telling him it made Son of Beast look good, its all in the perspective.
We headed over to Maverick and decided to come back later instaed of wait 90 minutes, let's see if we can knock any other rides out of the way before we start the long tiring coaster waits.
We take the walk down the Frontier Trail, for some reason I don't think I remembered the petting zoo before. We got towards the front of the park, and well you should guess that if I couldn't fit on TTD, I didn't have a chance on M Force, but I tried the tester anyway just to make it official. I advised Rick he should really try to ride this while we were there. I offered to make a run of the spin rides while he rode.
We wound up not even walking all the way to Mantis, with a line overflowing the queue area, and knowing how painful that wait is, we passed to come back later.
We next wound up waiting 15-20 minutes to ride Iron Dragon, I got the bad feeling the crowd had caught up. We rode in the back seat, and I wonder why this ride didn't get the Arrow train seatbelt treatment like Top Gun / Flight Deck did. Rick liked the second part of Iron Dragon, so he's starting to warm up to the park. Rick assumed Wildcat would ride like a Galaxi or Zyklon, and didn't want any part of waiting 15-30 for it.
We decided to check on Raptor so we wound up taking the Sky Ride (walk on) to the front of the park, and Raptor was still posting about a 75 minute wait. We looked at Demon Drop, (45 minutes), and after Rick saw Demon Drop run he was like "No way in ____" We took a look at the skill games, and wound up riding the Space Spiral. It was a "Wait till the car returns" wait for Space Spiral, they were only running the lower deck, and Rick really enjoyed the view from Space Spiral.
We next waited 30 minutes to ride 12E (Disaster Transport) I note they have now permanently cut off the first 2 section of queue house and moved the entrance further down by the exit. They seem to have replaced the stupid 3D glasses person with a night novelties person. Yeah kids, enjoy those night novelties for the 15 or so minutes you are in that dark room. I bet the rides crew appreciates not having to sweep hundreds of pairs of discarded 3D glasses off the brake run as well. I kind of like Disaster Transport, and Rick seemed to like it was well, he just thought it was short. He commented "All the rides here seem short!"
We started to Wicked Twister, but then had to make a run, I rode Matterhorn while he took care of business. For some reason, I don't recall seatbelts on Matterhorn before. After Materhorn we took a while to walk through the arcade. Rick (27) is just old enough to appreciate some of the older games in the back of the arcade, and I really liked the row of working antique pinball machines I was intruiqed by the mechanical tank driving/shooting game, they even had two machines, but neither of them liked any of my quarters.
After leaving the arcade, we headed to Midway Market for some food as it was about 2pm. Midway Market seems to be the deal at only $12 a person for unlimited chicken, meatloaf, pizza, pasta, tacos, burgers, sides, salads, soups, and an awesome desert bar with hand dipped ice cream. Midway Market was doing quite a brisk business.
Rick wanted to let dinner digest, so we cuaght the "Signed, Sealed, Delivered" show at the Centenial. Nice looking theater, I like the fact the cast does meet and greets after the show. Oh yeah, and the show wasn't bad either.
After the show we paid the price for Midway Market, and let me warn you, do not under any circumstances use the restrooms by Raptor exit. Those rank right up there in my worse amusement park bathrooms list.
Speaking of Raptor, it was time to wait 45 minutes to learn I coud not ride Raptor anymore. That was depressing, I didn't try the tester as I had ridden Raptor before. Rick could have ridden, barely, but he complained his harness was way too tight and wound up not riding also.
We next headed to Blue Streak, and I was glad to find the new longer belts here as well. I didn't expect much as rick took the walk on ride in seat 2.1, but let me tell you seat 2.1 was delivering the airtime like nobody's business, I almost thought I was on the return run of Voyage, it was delivering air like a mad coaster.
Next up was Cedar Downs, well Rick made it to the boarding gate, but when he saw the ride run his 'I hate spin rides' alarm went off, and I wound up riding Cedar Downs without him. His loss, I really love the ride. Cedar Downs holds a special place for me because I rode it with both my parents.
At this point, Rick expresses an interest in riding TTD, he even chides me "I'll get to ride a coaster you can't" "Good for you, I'll go ride some spin rides" It wiped the smile off his face when the test seat rejected him as well. We went and took a walk on ride in the front of the back car of Corkscrew. Hey, it's Corkscrew not much to say here. We noted the Magnum queue looked half full now, and I showed him the Paddleboat Excursion.. If you have not ridden the Paddlewheel Excursion, its a nice laid back ride that is in a very similar vein to Jungle Cruise at that famous chain of parks. Well, the Jungle Cruises jokes may not be quite as corney as Paddlewheel Excursion, but I think its a toss up.
From Paddlewheel Excursion we backtrack to Wicked Twister, taking time out to go out and put our feet in the sandy beach on the way. Wicked Twister provided another double elimination at the test seat. Rick proceeded to play some skill games while I rode MaXair. I thnk I got the better end of the deal, and MaXair is way better than Delirium.
Returning to the main midway, we started to head back to Millenium Force for Rick's benefit but wound up taking in the ice show instead. We are both suckers for an ice show. I was really glad to see their ice show is much different than the one at Kings Island. It was really a good ice show, in our showing we got the added pleasure of having this dude in the back row who was standing up during the show, singing along (loudly and badly) to the songs, and heckling the skaters. To the point where at one point half the audience was staring at him. The ushers did something to take care of the situation.
Upon exting the Ice Show, we observed the Dodgems, and realized, "Hey, these don't look half bad" We waited 3 cycles and we were riding the Dodgems, and hey these aren't bad at all.
From the Dodgems, Rick got the bad news at MF, and we boarded the train ride. Train ride took us right back to Maverick, so that was convenient. Maverick was still posting about a 75 minute wait, but 45 minutes later we were in the station, if not for some downtime, we would have been out in less than the 65 minutes it actually took us. I'm just happy both of us, mainly me, are able to ride Maverick. Maverick is, without a doubt the best coaster in the park. I noted though, they seemed to have toned down the "Spray the cars" water effect.
After Maverick, we played the shooting gallery, I got my butt kicked at air hockey, we took another walk on ride on Mean Streak, then we walked the Frontier Trail. They have this special event where they have covered the Frontier Trail in christmas lights. I swear I thought I should be hearing carols and wearing a coat. By the time we got to the front of the park it was about 9:30 and we decided to try to beat the traffic out of the park. By 10 we were at Max and Ermas - open till 11PM, and providing good, friendly, fast, competent service, I know thats a rare thing in Sandusky.
It might not be how you would have spent the day at Cedar Point, but it worked out well for us.
posted by Coasterville Dave | 10:31 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home