gigacoaster2k

As much as I love the air on DB, Millie's first drop blows DB's first drop out of the water. And the speed on that thing is out of this world.. especially since MF has no trims and no MCBR to ruin it or slow it down. I really do not see a fair comparison between MF and DB, they are two completely different ride experiences. Maggie has all the roughness of a woodie with all the fun of a steel, and delivers some outstanding air. As great as DB is, Maggie is always going to be in my top favorites.

My KI platinum pass worked fine at the marina entrance Saturday. It worked fine at the parking tolls, the main entrance, and the Soak City entrance all last year too. IMO they really should not have any issues, it is an all-inclusive CF pass. I can see if once or twice you had to sign a sheet due to computer problems, but you should not get a runaround at the tolls or the gates EVERY TIME you go to Cedar Point. That pass is expensive and the drive isn't exactly short. They should be able to just scan it and let you in. I'd definitely be telling people at guest services how I feel about that one. I really need to get back up there. I am not happy with the fact that I only have two rides on my precious MF, even though I did successfully get on the first train of the year.

Wow! I'm glad to see you guys had such a great time (aside from some of the waits, and I hope DD10 is feeling better today). Also glad to see that unlike me, you got to end your day at the Point with a ride on Millie. That's my baby. You really should hit Blue Streak next time you go. If you like Racer, you're going to love Blue Streak.. it's an oldie but goodie that packs some serious airtime. It's a tiny tad bit rough (it has been operating since 1964), but it's definitely worth a ride.

Can't say I blame them. It's great that in its 10th season, Millie still draws in crowds like it just made its debut yesterday.

You're telling me. For years, I used to repeatedly try to perfect several different flips and dives off of a diving board that was 15 feet above the diving pool. It does indeed feel like hitting concrete.. but you all know me, I didn't give up until I got it right, no matter how much it hurt.

NOOOO Terpy, I'm glad you understand. I have so many people laugh at me and call me weird because I'll do whatever it takes to get on my favorite coaster. I'm so sad and sometimes even angry when my Millie breaks down. I didn't go today because I had to work 3 pm - 11 pm. I don't ride Gemini because every time, the sudden helix has aggravated an old neck injury from a car accident. The way I take to CP is I75 north to Route 6 east, and Route 6 takes you all the way into Sandusky, right to the CP causeway. Rachel, did you forget about a city called Findlay? J/K, I luvs u. indianapolisman, feel free to use my photo. I'm glad you like it!

So to tell the story of my plot with Dvo, we were both planning to get to the marina entrance painfully early to get on Millennium Force's first train of the year. I planned to get to the park around 7 am, so I set my alarm clock for 3 am. I woke up at 12:45 am, so excited that I couldn't get back to sleep. I left the house at 3:30 am. I75 north isn't bad of a drive because there's plenty of places to stop and eat, get fuel, etc. Route 6 is another story. Once I started to drive over the causeway, I realized that I wasn't slowing down enough to get a good picture of the new entrance sign. I failed at this photo because the massive strings of beads on my mirror obscured the rest of the sign.. guess I'll just have to go back. Since there was no traffic on the causeway at 6:30 am, I stopped to take a couple of photos. I wish the lot would have stayed this empty all day.. fat chance with it being a Saturday. I chilled out for a little bit, and waited for David (Dvo) so we could walk to the marina gate. While we were walking back, I got a nice shot of Blue Streak's first drop. David and I got to the marina entrance at 6:45 am to see only one other person there. I had to use the restroom terribly by this time, so I went over to the marina restrooms. To my horror, they were password protected. This man exiting with his son was nice enough to enter his password for me so I could use the restroom.. driving 3 hours with only 1 restroom break tends to do a number on your bladder. When I came out of the restroom, I looked over to my left and I had to grab my camera. No photo will ever do justice to how big this monster really is. You have to be there to see how it towers over and dominates the entire skyline. Walking back over to the marina gate, I saw these ride signs complete with height requirements, and the welcome sign for Magnum's birthday party. David and I heard a "Hello!" and turned around to see Single Rider Bob and a few of his friends. He proceeded to tell us that he got 1,201 rides on Millennium Force last year, and started joking about how he was going to try to get 501 rides on the carousel. I told him that when he does, he should have a carousel put on his shirt, and he and I started arguing good-naturedly about who loves MF more. "I'm not moving from this spot!!" (Photo courtesy of Dvo) Millie testing. The train was choking on the hill quite a bit. It seemed to happen every time with the yellow train, not so much with the red train, and not at all with the blue train. My friend James that works on Thunder Canyon and Maverick came to chat with me for a bit before he had to go to work. David looked back to see Derrick (Phantom Theater) behind us in the rapidly growing line at the marina gate. Once the gates opened at 9 and my pass was scanned, I made a full run for it. I even took the shortcut behind the Dodgems. Trying to put my pass back in my pocket, I dropped it so I had to stop to pick it up and keep running. At that point, David ran full speed past me.. I couldn't keep up with him. I heard "YOU CAN DO IT ANGIE!" behind me, and looked behind me to see Single Rider Bob behind me, cheering me on.. I was beating him to MF!! I caught up with David, and we managed to get the second to last seat on the FIRST TRAIN OF THE YEAR. I was in so much pain from running (apparently Giga is more out of shape than she thought), but it was totally worth it. I was ecstatic and screamed with the rest of the train as it sped out of the station. I had forgotten how intense that first drop really is. Diamondback's first drop feels like a free fall, but Millie's first drop yanks your stomach into a knot against your spine and takes your breath away. I have yet to find a coaster whose first drop beats Millie's. Our second ride, however, was on the yellow train. I took some photos of the blue train in the station while we waited. As we were going up the hill on the yellow train.. it happened. The train ground to a halt.. sat there for several seconds, rolled back a few inches, made a loud metallic clattering noise, and then resumed going up the hill. Derrick and I decided to head over to Magnum's party. On the way, I ran into my friends Bre and Bryan. I asked Bre if she'd seen the skydiver take the American flag down to the plaza, but she said she heard that they canceled it due to budget cuts or something. Derrick then informed me that there was Magnum cake in a tent off to the side. There wasn't just one, but two cakes.. even with the molly orange icing. Time for the Ohio State marching band to play, complete with a male baton twirler. I wish I'd gotten a video of him twirling, he was actually really good. He'd throw the baton a good 10 feet in the air and catch it with his arm tucked under his leg. I did, however, get a video of the band playing. Tony Clark from the Cedar Point blog.. and Derrick in the way. During the speeches by the guest speakers, several of the Ohio State band members went for a spin on Witches Wheel. New Magnum entrance sign. It's much bigger than it appeared in the post where I linked photos of it on the CP blog.. it dwarfs people and I think it looks fantastic. We finally got to ride Magnum around 11 am. Great ride as always.. especially since they turned the trims off. It was flying through the pretzel and throwing us out of our seat on every hill. I can't get enough of Magnum. I decided since I was back that way, that I would visit my friend Ben at Sweet Tooth on my way to Maverick. I grabbed some chocolate/vanilla Dippin Dots, and headed over to the 1.5 hour wait for Maverick. I was halfway through my ice cream when it dawned on me that I still had a half bag of M&Ms in my pocket, so I dumped them in there. Want some? The water in Maverick's queue does not look healthy. I was going to take the SRL, but it was closed. This aggravated me, but not too much since they were running at almost full capacity and the line was moving faster than I expected. It had to be e-stopped before the launch on the hill. The ride op came out of the control booth, walked over to the e-stopped train, came back with a camera, and repeated the spiel about cameras and loose articles.. oh he was NOT happy. I took some photos from the exit ramp after the ride was over.. check it out, 2 trains in one shot. This one made me wish they had a photo contest.. I'm really proud of this photo. After Maverick, I decided to see what Millie's wait was.. it was already at an hour and a half. I took this opportunity to take photos and video of my Millie. I checked Mantis's wait because I wanted to say hi to my friend Tony that works the ride, but it was a 1 and a quarter hour wait.. I'm sorry, I'm not waiting that long for Mantis. So I decided to hit Blue Streak and say hi to my friend Scott (the one that worked on Wicked Twister last year). Derrick somehow caught up with me, so we waited the 45 minutes for Blue Streak. That sucker packs some airtime. I really wanted a ride on Raptor, but the queue was completely full, so I headed for maXair, thinking the line wouldn't be long.. I was sadly mistaken. The queue was full and the line was out on the midway almost to Troika. I waited, because I know how amazing maXair is. For anyone disappointed with Huss giant rides, I promise you, maXair will put that faith back. It blows Delirium out of the water. CP's lovely Giant Wheel. I got on maXair as it started sprinkling. With each perfectly smooth and exhilarating swing, the rain got harder and harder. By the time I exited the ride, Cedar Point was getting hit with a downpour. I was soaked, and realized with a start that my camera and my cell phone were probably going to get wet. I went to the gift shop by Dragster and they gave me a small plastic bag, and then it was off to the TPOL meetup. I got there and was told by the leader of the meetup that 90 percent of the group left to get food while I was walking over from maXair. We decided to hit Magnum because it was down to a light sprinkle. No sooner did we leave the station than the rain resumed. By the time we were halfway up the lift, it was back at a downpour, and it got colder.. and stayed that way throughout our entire (again trimless) ride. Talk about raindrops turning into bullets. My clothes were dripping wet.. I thought I was going to freeze to death. That was certainly a new experience. I got fed up with being so cold and wet, and bought a poncho. Wouldn't you know as soon as I buy a poncho, the rain stops and out comes the sun. I decided to hit the red side of Power Tower to attempt to dry off. Apprehensive riders on the red side. And terrified screaming riders on the drop side. Dragster still wasn't running, and I'd already ridden maXair, so I headed for Wicked Twister.. which had a 45 minute wait. This is what you see from Cedar Point. I decided to brave the huge line and hit Line Jumper's Paradise.. um, I mean Raptor. Totally worth the wait. I saw my friend Schuyler that works the ride, but he was extremely busy so I left him alone. After I got off Raptor, my friend Katrina called me from the Wicked Twister queue. No sooner did she exit the ride than there was a failure with the LIMs. I waited for her, and we decided to hit Challenge Park and do Skyscraper and Ripcord because she had coupons. The lady at the ticket booth very snottily told her that her coupons clearly read that they weren't valid on Saturday.. and we both about had a heart attack when we saw that ONE PERSON for Ripcord is now FORTY-FIVE DOLLARS. Besides that, Skyscraper was closed. We said forget it, let's go ride some coasters. We were going to hit Magnum but the queue was completely full. So we (me, Katrina, Rachel and Amy) all headed for Cedar Creek Mine Ride. We screamed our heads off on the whole ride trying to act like we were scared, but we were laughing too hard. We really got the people on the train cracking up at us, and even joining in. Katrina seemed to think (or want to think) that Dragster would be up and running soon (it hadn't been running all day except for test runs). So we waited.. and lo and behold, it "started up." This meant loading 4 people onto a train, and it rolling back over and over and over and over and over, with the queue not moving so much as an inch. I told Katrina that I really didn't feel like waiting for this, and ducked out of the queue. I did get a photo of the new banners in the process of leaving (she didn't mind). I headed to my car to get my hoodie, and was ecstatic about hopefully getting some laps on Millie before I left, like I always do. I re-entered the park around 8:15 pm, and saw to my horror that there was an empty yellow train stuck on the hill. I walked to the ride entrance to see the ride closed sign up, and the ride op told me it had a mechanical failure. I felt tears sting the back of my eyes as I walked away.. yes I know that sounds silly, but I don't care. Millie is my ride, and ending the night with my favorite coaster is special to me. I chose to end the night with laps on Magnum instead. I did 2 laps before I met up with my friend James again, and we got in 2 more laps before the queue closed. ALL trimless. I left the park around 10:30 pm, and got home around 2 am. Ride count: Magnum - 6 (every ride was trimless!) Millie - 2 Raptor - 1 Blue Streak - 1 maXair - 1 Maverick - 1 Wicked Twister - 1 Power Tower - 1 Cedar Creek Mine Ride - 1

AND If KI throws these bad boys into the mix, I will have no reason to go to Cedar Point.

I can honestly say that when I compared the fun I've had recently at Kings Island to the fun I had at Cedar Point yesterday, that I really wasn't as sad about driving away from CP as I was last year, which is a lot coming from me. My second to last Kings Island TR was when I was sick, tired, dehydrated, and sunburnt.. yet I still went to KI. It's not just Diamondback.. something is drawing me in and holding my interest. Don't get me wrong. CP is an amazing park and I did have a great time yesterday, but aside from Millennium Force, Magnum, and seeing friends I hadn't seen in months, it just didn't hold the same level of excitement for as it did last year.. kind of like an "I've been here before" feeling.

LOL, I only joined ACE for the coaster events. My trip to HoliWood Nights this month will be my first ever trip to Holiday World.. I imagine I won't be disappointed. (I also got the coaster calendar for free.. I "accidentally" left the order form on the kitchen table around Christmas last year.. tee hee) And bonus: since I'm an ACE member and a platinum passholder, I get into CoasterMania! for free.

I'm glad I got the good rides on it while I could then. I've been on it 3 times this season, and once back when it was Tomb Raider.. that's it. The last ride I got on it was far more intense than any of that I remember, it had me pinned in my seat upside down and people were screaming bloody murder. I won't mention names but it actually scared 2 people in my group. That's how I want to remember the ride.. so I doubt I will ride it anymore. If anyone wants to ride a giant Huss that has yet to have an epic breakdown fail, go ride maXair at Cedar Point.. trust me on that.

I didn't see him quote you when he was replying. It is hard to tell when people just make a general post without directly quoting the particular person they were replying to. Learning to properly use quote tags is not rocket science.

How can you be so sure? Magnum XL-200 is still Magnum XL-200. Cedar Point is still Cedar Point. There were no name changes. The big reason for Magnum's new sign was to commemorate the anniversary of the coaster that fired the first shots in the coaster wars. As far as storm damage, don't you think that if Magnum's sign or the CP entrance sign was damaged beyond repair, that extensive damage would have occurred throughout the peninsula? Those signs are about as hard to knock over as an F-350 pickup truck.

I know right. I can't wait to see the signs in person the day after tomorrow. I just have to wonder how many times that causeway sign will get hit. I'm guilty of gaping in awe at MF, or gazing out at the sparkling water dotted with sailboats, and then noticing I'm drifting into a lane I shouldn't be drifting into.. I've also hauled ass down that causeway at about 60 mph with people flying right past me. It's not safe, but it's slightly humorous to know everyone else is also thinking Z0MG Cedar Point, PEDAL TO THE METAL BABY!

New Magnum XL-200 sign: http://www.cedarpoint.com/public/fun/blog/index.cfm New entrance sign on causeway (first 5 photos): http://pointpics.com/categories.php?cat_id=403

Everyone on here is saying exactly what I wanted to say about RWW. If future events are going to be as amazing, count me in for all of them. I can't thank everyone enough.

I only got one drop on you, you big baby.

funky chunky tom, bom bom bom.. *does a little dance*

All day long, I'd seen people throughout the park with ice cream cones, thoroughly enjoying every taste. We went to the Ice Cream Zone, and I was going to get water until I saw this girl right next to me destroying a vanilla cone with sprinkles, and my mouth watered. I crumbled and got the ice cream, I couldn't take it any more!

I forgot to mention that I got my very first taste of blue ice cream Saturday (yes, I know I'm late on that one). I got blueberry swirled with vanilla.. all I have to say is YUM-MY. Totally worth the ice cream headache.

Oh God. Please don't start labeling me as a nerdy ACEr. I'd rather stab my eyes out with a flaming screwdriver than look like some of those people.. I only joined for the coaster events. I dress like a normal person. AND I AM NOT BALDING OR 40-70 YEARS OLD, I AM ONLY 27!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Darn you all.

I entered this one.

I'm really still not sure which one I'm entering. I'm considering the fact that many people will be entering very similar photos because of the walkbacks. I would enter that shot of Delirium if I'd gotten the entire wheel in the pic.

Exactly the point I was trying to make.

I only disagree with that statement because it's so generalized. Kings Island has worked so hard to appeal to so many venues. Claiming that families are where the money comes from shows that the park feels that it needs to redeem itself for something, which it does not need to do. There are all types of people and all types of groups that visit an amusement park. There are singles, couples, families, enthusiast and VIP groups, small and large groups of friends, church and youth groups, school bands and organizations, and company outings. Families don't necessarily spend the most. In fact, I see most families out in the parking lot having a tailgate party with lawn chairs, blankets, coolers, and the car radio on. I spend money on clothing, food, and souvenirs, and am a 3 time platinum passholder. I feel that it is not fair to them for them to claim that their money only comes from one source, regardless of how appropriate that phrase may sound to a limited group of people.