gigacoaster2k

I understand this. I would like to know the rest of the reasoning behind closing the park early, just so I don't make the hour drive to get disappointed once again.

Last night, I headed down to KI after work knowing that there would be possible thunderstorms. I've never let weather stop me from going to a park, so off I went. Once I got there, everything was closed due to thunder. I ended up stuck in Racer's station for over 2 hours while rain sheeted down and lightning flashed way too close and thunder snapped and banged. If that wasn't enough, the tornado sirens went off. Shortly after that, an announcement came over the intercom that KI was closing for the evening (2.5 hours early). Once the crowds started heading toward the gate, the sun came out. I can't tell you how many people were absolutely livid that this happened, and I won't repeat what I heard from people exiting the park, some even saying they weren't coming back. I was beyond disappointed. This has never happened to me in the years and years I've been visiting the park. For the record, the weather was crystal clear for the rest of the night. Did KI close yesterday due to the combination of a tornado warning and there being kids in the park due to a math/science day, for their safety? Or did it close just because there were storms? Maybe even just because it was raining so hard? If KI is going to start closing the entire park early for inclement weather alone, that will drastically reduce the number of times I will be visiting this year.. I live an hour away and would like to know if these sudden closures are going to start happening on a regular basis, or if it is a new policy. I understand if there are tornadoes, but just a passing thunderstorm is not going to be enough reason for people to stay away from KI. Please don't chastise me for going due to bad weather. We are all enthusiasts and we all understand that weather like that means an empty park for us. In most cases, bad weather passes after a short while, which this time it did not, and there was no way I would have been able to predict that.

We only waited an hour and a half for Millie with all the queues full on Saturday. I think the capacity was much better than normal.. that line rarely stopped moving. I was impressed. The MF crew really kicked butt on opening day. And I completely agree with you about Maggie's lift hill.. that is probably my favorite sound at CP next to Raptor's signature B&M roar, Power Tower's compressed air noises, and pretty much any sound Dragster makes.

I love how my question "Why are Cedar Fair platinum passes not scanning at their sister parks? My 2010 Kings Island platinum pass did not scan at Kings Dominion this year, nor did it scan at Carowinds, nor did it scan at Cedar Point. Each time, a red X showed up on the screen and I had to go to Guest Relations. When will this be resolved?" was avoided. Of course.

I noticed on www.visitkingsisland.com, that Slingshot is still missing. It never showed up when it was pki.com, or on the website before the CP-esque overhaul. Why has it never been on the ride list?

LOL, no. I'm 120, trust me. I have kind of a big butt though, and I did have a hoodie tied around my waist too now that I think about it.

Agreed. The pizza at Burger Patio by Raptor was like they glued a photo of a pizza onto a piece of cardboard and then cut it into pizza-shaped slices. The mini corn dogs from there are great, though. As far as the whole big people thing, I can understand if someone is large in certain areas of the body and can't help it. But if you're too large to fit on the coasters, refuse to diet and exercise, and then get angry at the park when you can't fit.. ? I have met people from other forums that exercised all winter and dropped a significant amount of weight just so they could ride their favorite rides again. One member titled his post "CP is weight loss motivation." He lost over 60 pounds and was thrilled that he was not only able to ride everything at CP the next year, he was healthier as a result. I have a small figure, but I run/do situps/lift heavy things/etc to stay in shape, and watch the amount of fast food I consume. People think it's so easy being skinny.. you have no idea what it takes to keep it that way.. one week of eating fast food every day will cause the scale's numbers to go up much farther than I expected.

Personally, I would much rather have them take longer to test the new trains and know that everything is running smoothly, than for them to just throw the new trains on and see what happens. I'm not usually one to have patience (as many of you have seen ), but in this case, I can be. Voyage is a spectacular ride with PTC trains.. if it is even better with Timberliners, I can wait as long as it takes.

I wear cargo pants about 90% of the time. Occasionally I will wear a drawstring bag as a backpack (http://cache.backpackinglight.com/backpackinglight/user_uploads/1200640983_04366.jpg) to KI or a Six Flags park if I wish to carry my sunscreen, a bottle of water, etc. I highly recommend cargo pants as opposed to lugging a purse everywhere.. at least then you know where your stuff is at all times. Oh and if you've never been to Cedar Point: Millennium Force and Top Thrill Dragster do not have drop bins in their station.. they have lockers by the entrance. If you come up to the front of the line with a refillable beverage cup, backpack, large stuffed animal, etc.. they will not let you enter the line until you get a locker for said item. Therefore I never carry a bag to CP.

I even had a bit of an issue on Dragster. I'm 5'5" and 120 lbs and even after fully tightening the belt, I had 3 inches between the buckle and the red tab. It is ridiculous how short they are now. But I was told that the longer belts are in the front of the trains, and the shorter belts are in the back. So for those of you who are afraid you may not fit this year, go for the front of the train.. you will have better luck.

At CP on Saturday, some of the ride ops on several rides were saying "Enjoy the rest of your day at Cedar Point, America's Roller Coast.. RIDE ON!" The guests getting off the trains would yell "RIDE ON!!" right after the ride ops did. Apparently nobody likes the new slogan.

Bring it.

David, we never saw you! Glad to hear you had a great time though. Aside from the crowds, we had a truly amazing day too. And you will be thrilled to know that my love for Millie has been fully restored.. she's mine and you can't have her lol

Now you see why I love it so much! That little old woodie has never once left my top 10 wooden coasters!

This opening day's operations were terrific compared to last year's. Last year, Millie kept stalling on the lift, and kept going down for mechanical reasons.. at 8 pm I went to ride and was told it had a total mechanical failure and wouldn't be running for the rest of the night. Maverick was down for a few hours, Wicked Twister barely ran, Dragster rolled back over 40 times.. it may have been due to the fact that last year's opening day was very cold. I'd count your blessings that this opening day was warm enough that ride closures didn't last for very long.

Yesterday in front of me, in line for Raptor: Brunette girl: "(pointing behind herself at Raptor's station) There's one over there (points at Raptor's loop) and there's one over there too." Blond friend: "I think there's three." Kid to his friend while exiting Millie: "Diamondback was way faster than that." Guy to me and Tom while we're on Power Tower: "Have fun! I hope I don't see you guys on the news!"

Most people look at me weirdly. Some people laugh. I had a CP police officer laugh at me. I licked Goliath's support at SFOG. I don't really care what other people think.. I like being crazy. CP is only a 3 hour drive from my house, and I live about 20 miles north of Dayton OH. It's worth the drive especially if you have a platinum pass. The energy in that park is unreal, they pull out all the stops.. I love it.

TOM AND I HAVE PROOF OF OUR FIRST ROLLBACK??!!! THAT'S SO AWESOME, IT'S RIDICULOUS!

I got some photos of my Millie as we walked toward it to check the line out. Shoot The Rapids.. it looks like fun. I'll probably ride it when it gets hot later this year. People having fun on Millie (well, almost everyone)! Go Millie go! Happy 10th birthday, Millie! I like the new commemorative banners. Millie's queue was completely full, so we passed on it. This suddenly made me far more upset than I thought I would be. I turned and wistfully sighed as I looked at the lift hill of the coaster that was a turning point in my life as an enthusiast, and walked away feeling like I wanted to run back and wait in that long, long line. Iron Dragon has a bit of a wait. We headed to Dodgems and had quite a bit of fun bashing into other cars. I love bumper cars.. always have! I think Tom had sensed how upset I was about not riding Millie, so we went back to check the wait. It was posted at 1 1/4 hour, so we decided to wait. We saw a random guest change it to 2 hours, and we also managed to see Adam, Aaron (pkiVortex), and Shawn (Beast Man) in the line. Millie is still popular after 10 years. GO MILLIE GO! I had forgotten how wonderful this ride is. We rode in seat 2:1, and I did indeed get airtime. I did feel some forces through the overbanks too. I got off the ride smiling as I remembered why I love it so much. We headed to one of my favorites.. Blue Streak! Tom said we should sit in 1:3.. HOLY EJECTOR SEAT! I'm never sitting any where but that seat again! We came back to the station to see no one waiting for our seat.. so we got a reride!! We headed back to the car because I was getting cold again, and we were both hungry. After that, I wanted a ride on Magnum, but it was down. We decided to head to the front of the park and go to GR to get our platinum pass coupons, where they told us they no longer have those and that we have to order them. I saw that Raptor was down to an hour wait and immediately entered the queue. We barely waited 45 minutes.. I love that capacity monster. We headed over to Disaster Transport to see our friend Scott that works there. We not only saw him, but ALL of the effects were on.. I'd forgotten what a great ride Disaster Transport is! We saw that Wicked Twister was a walk on, so we got in line. No sooner than we got to the queue gate, it broke down. We waited a few minutes, and ducked out of line in favor of seeing if Magnum was running. We hit Power Tower Space Shot on the way. We got in line for Magnum to see Bre once again leaving to go to break. I jokingly chastised her for it lol. We saw Kelsey again, and this time when we rode, the trim was off! YES! We went to go look at our photo, and Tom bought it for me. I LOVE IT. Tom, you ROCK. THANK YOU. He knows how much I love Magnum! We went to the car to drop off the photo, where I also dropped off my camera, and then rode Magnum again. Since we didn't get to ride Skyhawk earlier, we rode that, and then decided to check the line for Millie. We were meeting up with a group of KICers at Maverick at 9:45, so I prayed that the line was short so we would get a night ride on my Millie. I saw that we were about to walk through Starlight Experience, which was spectacularly done. I saw Millie's lift outlined in the twilight sky, and told it "I love you".. a second later, a bunch of blue lights came on all around me.. Millie spoke to me, and you cannot tell me otherwise! We got to Millie's entrance to see that the wait time was 1 1/4 hours.. my heart was crushed as I realized we didn't have time for a night ride on the coaster that is the reason for my username. Forget anything negative I've ever said about Millie.. I declared right there that my love for that coaster had been fully restored that day, and that it was going back in my top 10 steel coasters. Millie has special meaning to me, and not being able to ride it at night was a huge letdown. I swallowed the lump in my throat as we walked away from that magnificent coaster and I resisted the strong urge to run back to it. Tom and I met up with Dustin, Ryan (CoasterKid), Dustin's dad, Adam, Aaron, and Shawn for Maverick's last train of the night. The ride op held our train for us so that we would indeed get our last ride. That was one amazing last ride on Maverick at night. We said our goodbyes, and left the park around 11 pm. RIDE COUNT: (+1 for Tom, he rode Tilt-A-Whirl so he has 1 more ride than I did) Magnum - 3 Blue Streak - 2 Maverick - 1 Dragster - 1 Millie - 1 Raptor - 1 Skyhawk - 1 Disaster Transport - 1 Power Tower Space Shot - 1 Dodgems - 1 As crowded as it was, that had to be one of the best days I've ever had at an amusement park. Thank you to everyone who made it such a wonderful day.

Tom and I were getting hungry, so out to the car we went. It had suddenly gotten ridiculously hot, so I went from a hoodie to a tank top and applied sunscreen. I took some more photos. Magnum! Tom is a big fan of Tilt-A-Whirls, and I had told him where the one was at CP (it's in Camp Snoopy behind Dragster/in front of Gemini), so he went to ride it. I chose to stay on the bench outside the ride.. as fun as those rides are, my stomach does not like me one bit afterward. Some unexpected and very pretty scenery by the entrance to the ride. MILLIE! Tom on the Tilt-A-Whirl! He got off the ride saying that it was quite possibly the best Tilt-A-Whirl he'd been on.. so for those of you who like those rides, you may want to try it from what he told me. We walked around to check the line for Maverick, and it was ridiculous, so we passed on it. I got a great photo.. it took me forever to get this. We went to Skyhawk. I took some photos while we waited in line. Tom and I. We were about to get on when it looked like the ride had been e-stopped due to someone losing a shoe, but they announced that there was a mechanical failure, so we went around to check the line for Millie. STAY TUNED!

Tom (Tom76257) drove up to my house Friday night, and we were so excited that we slept for about 3 hours. We decided we wanted to be there around 7:30 am, as we planned on hitting Dragster first to get a rollback. My alarm went off at 3:30 am. We packed food in a cooler, grabbed our stuff, and left at 4:20 for Cedar Point! We stopped at the Speedway where I work to get breakfast for me, and a bag of ice for our cooler. Then it was back on the road! Good morning, home of America's Roller Coast! I completely flipped out (as I always do) when I saw THIS! I'M EXCITED! Cedar Point, HERE WE COME! Tom is excited too! My excitement quickly turned to irritation when I handed the parking attendant my KI platinum pass, and it came up invalid. I sarcastically said "well, THAT'S a surprise." They told me I'd probably have issues at the gate too, but waved me through anyway. Great. We got to the Soak City lot around 7:45 am.. but not before I properly greeted my Arrow hyper. MAGNUM! We were lucky enough to get a spot very close to the front gate, and went to a small GR booth by the gate. We were given tickets to get into the park, and they apologized profusely, but it did nothing to quell my irritation. My CF platinum pass didn't work at KD or Carowinds, and now it won't work at CP. I am far from happy about this. I paid the full $160 for a pass that doesn't even work.. this needs to be resolved. I got cold, and ran back to the car to get my hoodie. I came back to see that the line at the gate was going back about as far as the eye could see.. I wish I'd gotten a pic. Either way, the gates opened, and Tom and I RAN to Dragster, and when we got there, there were only 9 people in front of us! My lungs were burning, but I was happy to have beat the huge crowd! We waited.. and waited.. and waited. I took some photos to pass the time. Magnum testing! Millie testing with water dummies! Dragster waiting for us. 10 am rolled around, and Dragster was down for maintenance. I expected this, and had told Tom the night before that the latest I'd wait for Dragster was 11 am and if it wasn't open by then, I was going to Magnum. We heard something, and I looked at the track to see the catch car finally moving down the track.. several minutes later, the brake fins went up and we heard a deafening roar as a train shot past us and up the lift hill! The huge crowd cheered excitedly as we realized we may get to ride soon! I told Tom I was heading for the front part of the loading station instead of the back. The queue opened a few minutes after 11 am, and I couldn't stop dancing in excitement as we speed-walked all the way through and to the station! They test-ran the green train empty, and it rolled back! They ran it again, and it cleared the hill without hesitation. Thinking we wouldn't get a rollback, I was still excited to get the first train of the year. That's when Tom excitedly said "IS THAT THE BLACK CHERRY TRAIN we're going to be on??!!! That train is the king of rollbacks!!" I couldn't help getting excited when he said that! They finally opened the station to load the trains half full, and we ran to our seats! I jumped through the opening queue gate and was the first public person to touch Dragster's first train! We screamed wildly as we slowly made our way out of the station, and we looked to the right to see Adam (pkiboy) on the midway! He knew we were going for our first rollback.. he smiled to us and said "You got it." This made me scream with joy.. I was so excited by this point that I was shaking! Our train launched, and off we went.. shot straight up.. got to the top of the hill.. it sat up there for a few seconds and suddenly we were going BACKWARDS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WE GOT A ROLLBACK ON THE FIRST TRAIN OF THE YEAR!! I was screaming and screaming in absolute utter joy as we flew at an extreme speed backwards and straight down from 420 feet in the sky! THAT WAS ABSOLUTELY INCREDIBLE! Tom and I both now have 1 rollback.. that was THE best Dragster ride I've ever had! The ride op walked the track and asked if anyone wanted to get off.. the answer was a collective and resounding "NO!!" She laughed, we were launched again, and this time it cleared the hill. We met up with Adam and shared our rollback joy for a little bit, and then Tom and I decided it was Magnum time! My friends Bre and Kelsey work on that ride. We got in the queue to see Bre leaving for break. She saw me and gave me a hug. We saw Kelsey in the station too. I've missed my Magnum girls! STAY TUNED!

If I'm with say, a group of 8, and they all head to a coaster I'm not particularly fond of, I will get in line with them and ride it with them to spend more time with them.. it's not always about the coaster.

We (Tom76257, rotag, pkiboy, gnomeprisoner, Beast Man, DropZone99, and I) actually heard that the night of April 1 while we were on our way to Kings Dominion from people that rode it on media day. It spread like wildfire!