ziplock

I just left Cedar Point and it was very crowded even though it's a Monday. The wait times for Top Thrill Dragster and Millennium Force were both about 1 and a half hours, which is longer than I waited for either of them on the weekend. Maverick was down though, so that may have contributed to the long lines today. If there's one thing I've learned about Millennium, Top Thrill, and Maverick these past three days, it would be that they don't stay open that much. Each one of them had breakdowns ranging from 20 to 60 minutes every time I got in line. That is another thing that will drastically increase your wait time. I'll try to post a trip report soon that will be more in depth about the actual wait times for each individual ride so I hope that'll help you!

I've blacked out on Titan at Six Flags Over Texas before. That helix area after the mid course brake run really pulls some g's. At first I thought that I blacked out from being dehydrated on the 100 degree Texas day, but after reading about the high positive g forces I realized it was a common thing.

The Beast? Rough? I think you need to plan a trip to Mt. Olympus to learn the definition of a rough coaster! But honestly, after riding one of those four wooden brain damagers at Mt Olympus, The Beast seems B&M smooth.

Sorry I'll be at Cedar Point that day. I'd love to come and help the cause if it was the week after!

I would LOVE to go to this event. Family Force 5 puts on the best live show I've ever seen (Trust me, I've seen them live 5 times.). A combination of Family Force 5 and Kings Island would be just amazing!

I'll try to get a TR posted! It may be a good week or so after the trip that I do post it though. Just because I will still be on a vacation and not have access to a computer. I'm also not sure if I should take pictures or not. All I have is an iPhone 4 camera, but I'll see how much extra time I have at the parks!

Thank you! I don't think I've gone to a theme park in July and waited less than 30 minutes (without a Flash Pass), so this will be nice. So I got the Cedar Point plan, it seems I don't really need a Carowinds plan much, does anyone have any strategies or plans for KD?

Nice! That'll make getting up early more worth while. Is it slow like that in the peak vacation season too? That would be awesome!

Oh thanks. There's only WindSeeker and Vortex? I thought some of the more popular rides would available like at Cedar Point. Does anybody have any experience with Kings Dominion or Carowinds that you'd like to share?

Thanks for the tips! I'll definitely refer to these before my trip. I just have a couple of questions about early entry at Cedar Point and Kings Island. How long are the lines for Millennium Force, Maverick, and Raptor during this hour? I know only hotel guests and platinum pass holders are the only ones allowed, but I have no idea how many of them there are. Also, what rides is the Kings Island early ride time for? And how long is it for? Thanks again!

Hello KIC. I am a long time reader of the forums here, but I don't post too often because I lack the knowledge of KI that most of you experienced members have. I know a lot about roller coasters and parks, but just the fact that my home park is Mt. Olympus makes it difficult to visit Cedar Fair parks. I have visited 5 of the best Six Flags parks (SFMM, SFGAdv, SFGAm, SFOT, and SFNE) for some reason instead of any Cedar Fair parks besides Kings Island. This late July, my dad and I plan on taking a tour to Cedar Point, Kings Dominion, Carowinds, and lastly Kings Island! I have been to Kings Island twice already, however I have yet to experience the other three parks. I have done extensive research of all these parks, and have all the rides staked out (I've been looking forward to this trip for a long time!). I am a platinum pass holder this year, and am aware of the perks and early entry times, but I really have no idea about any strategies of attacking Cedar Point, Kings Dominion, or Carowinds' rides. . The trip schedule is... Saturday July 23: Drive to Sandusky, OH/ Go to Cedar Point in late evening Sunday July 24: Cedar Point Monday July 25: Drive to Doswell, VA/ Go to KIngs Dominion in late evening Tuesday July 26: Kings Dominion Wednesday July 27: Drive to Charlotte, NC/ Go to Carowinds in late evening Thursday July 28: Carowinds Saturday July 30: Drive to Mason, OH/ Go to Kings Island in late evening Sunday July 31: Go to Kings Island You may have noticed gaps in this schedule, but that is just because the trip is being incorporated with a business trip for my dad, and other "fun" things that are not amusement park related. I thought that I would post the schedule for experienced Cedar Fair park goers could further help me with how and when to do what rides. Any tips/advice/strategies for me at each park to avoid longer lines and possibly make the day better? Thanks for any help!

I was interviewed by Bert at Noah's Ark in the Wisconsin Dells episode. Being the large contributor to the Noah's Ark forum that I am, I was able to score an interview, and was able to be the second public rider on Scorpions Tail. However, sadly my interview was chosen to not air on the show. I was pretty disappointed about not being on The Travel Channel, but I was still so glad I got to meet the Noah's Ark owner and Bert, AND be the second rider on the scorpions tail!

I'm glad the 5@5 is coming back. I loved to read those!

Shockwave at SFOT only has a lap bar restraint. In fact I'm on my way to ride it right now.

This mobile version is really cool. I'm constantly checking KIC. Most of the time being on my iPod/iPhone

Mt Olympus is my home park. I've been there over 30 times

The coaster you're thinking of is Cyclops. Anyone can ride back row of Hades. I have countless times.

It was obviously not really the ride ops birthday. All the other ops were laughing while people were singing. And he said it was his 4th or 5th birhday this season.

Guest in line for Hades the other day - "You have to be over 18 to ride in the back row"

The other day at Great Adventure, a bored Bizarro ride op convinced everyone in the station that it was another ride ops birthday. And by the time the train returned to the station, everybody was singing Happy Birthday to him. While boarding that train, my dad asked how many birthdays he had this season.

A day at KI with no crowds would be awsome. Sadly I've only gone with extremely longs lines on every ride.

Thanks! We had actually planned to get a Platinum Flash Pass. But when we saw the weather we perchased the gold instead. I had no idea what the crowds would be like on a Sunday in Mid- August. It was definately not necessary, but we always plan on buying a Flash Pass at SF parks just to make sure we ride everything we want on single day trips.

Great Adventure is awsome. And El Toro is just insane!

We arrived at Great Adventure at around 12:30 on Sunday morning. Knowing of the 80% chance of rain all day, we weren't quite sure how many rides we were going to be able to get in before the storm came. The first thing we did was buy a Gold Flash Pass. We didn't know if it would be necessary, as we had never been to this particular park before, but I had planned on investing the extra cash just to make sure that we could ride all of the rides we hoped to. Keeping in mind that Kingda Ka can close in any kind of precipitation, we decided to make it our first ride of the day. We cut the small wait that it had, with our flash pass, and headed into the station. I was quite nervous about this ride, since it was to be the first ride of its type that I had been on. The anticipation grows even further as you watch the train ahead of you rocket at 128 MPH. It was absolutlely insane. The forces on the launch are incredible, while the view and drop are amazing. Overall I would rate it 9/10. It's a great ride, but can get a bit rough at times. El Toro was next. After hearing very good reviews of this ride, it was possibly the ride I was most looking forward to at Great Adventure. We choose very back row, as that is the row I sit in 90% of the time I ride coasters. After being stapled into your seat, you start out by acending a very fast 180 foot tall cable lift hill. And after a quick left turn you get INSANE ejector air on the crazy first drop, and every other airtime hill throughout this ride! It FLYS over every one of its drops. 10/10 New #1 wooden coaster. (Sorry Hades, but I will be wearing an El Toro t-shirt next time I ride you. ) We then reserved Nitro on our flash pass hoping to get yet a few more rides before the rain came. I was very excited for this one as well. I knew it was going to be similar to my (then) #2 coaster Diamondback. To my surprise we then entered a completely empty station, went directly to back row, and got three rides without getting off. Its an awsome ride. With a great drop, fantastic airtime, and some really cool turns. The bunny hills after the MCBR are a nice little touch at the end of the ride too. 10/10 Next we rode some of the smaller (not as popular) coasters. Batman was a walk-on for the front row. Thats how dead it was in the park at the start of the day. At that point I wasn't feeling very confident in my $140 Flash Pass investment. Good ride 7/10 For The Dark Knight, we actually used our Flash Pass to cut about a five minute wait. Okay ride. I've ridden the one at SFGAm 5/10 Skull mountain was another walk on. It was actually pretty jerky at times. Still pretty good 6/10 Superman was only running one train, but we decided to ride anyways. After an about twenty minute station wait, we finally got on the ride and it started raining. We then saw why people have nicknamed it "Superman: Ultimate Bordem". 6/10 Its not really that bad, just slightly on the boring side. The rain stopped about 5 minutes after we got off Superman. So I went to go check out Rolling Thunder. Despite what I've heard from other people about this ride, I actually somwhat liked it. I rode 2-1, and got a little air. It wasn't overly rough either. The one bad thing about this ride, is that the train makes a horribly loud screeching noise throughout the layout. I didn't know what that was about. 7/10 anyway After a couple of rerides on Toro and Nitro, we headed to the corner of the park to ride Bizarro. It was a very cool floorless coaster. I like the mist and fire effects, as well as the on-ride audio on Bizarro. Its IMO better than Scream! Just because of those effects and theme. 8/10 Then took a boring and rather panful trip on Runaway Mine Train. Probably the worst ride of the day. 4/10 One thing that should be noted is that Kingda Ka was closed for a good portion of the day after the 5 minte rain shower we had earlier. So we then rode El Toro and Nirto both a few more times, and another Bizarro ride. This time we rode Bizarro in the front row, and it was a ton better than middle. Upgraded 9/10 Finally Kingda Ka reopened, so we got a quick ride on it before we started our night rides. Our night rides included: A front and back seat ride on El Toro, Two back seat rides on Nitro, And two more rides on Ka It was a very good day at Great Adventure, and I hope to visit New Jersey again soon for more Toro and Nitro. Thanks for reading.