Joncars05

Everyone may not agree with me here but this is disappointing news. Sure it will speed up the line and increase riders per hour. But it feels like CF is money grabbing again. They will charge $2-$5 each locker rented knowing that this will be the most popular ride in the park this year. I for one will abide by the rules and only bring things that will fit in my pocket. One thing I will be leaving in the car will be my wallet. Penny pinching customers does not make me want to spend my hard earned money in the park.

Glad they moved the water ERT to the evening of the first night. Now my wife and I might go if the temps are up. It was way too cold in the morning and now we can sleep in a bit the next morning! Cant wait to hang with some friends again. 1. jcgoble3 (50-50 chance, depends on budget) 2. Hendrick 3. Joncars05 & Mrs. Joncars05

I would love to see the Banshee scream incorporated at the top of the lift hill before the initial drop. I love pre-drop noises/sound fx. I think of it as the mark that signals the ride is about to get crazy. For example, the howl before the initial drop on Legend at Holiday World. I love that kind of stuff.

Maybe... if 32 people from here get in line at the same time. We won't know what will be happening regarding reserved seats, filming, etc.Park officials will be extremely busy with actual media that day, so I doubt that any park reps will be able to do anything with us. Enthusiasts aren't the focus of Media Day, and KICentral isn't a paid coaster club that will be recognized for the event. Thats true. I just didn't know if the members here were wanting to say hey to each other and maybe share rides even if we aren't members of the same coaster club. I saw about 14 were going to ride during media day so if they bring a guest (I think that you were allowed one guest per club member last year at Gatekeeper) then we would have plenty to fill a train. But then again I don't know everyone's schedule, hours planned on staying, how crowded it will be, or how long the event lasts either. (I've never been to a media day before so this will be all new to me) I was thinking it might have been possible, but I guess it is a long shot. Just thought it would have been cool to do something with the members here of this board that were going to be there. Edit to clear up any confusion: this idea was for KIC members that are MEMBERS OF PAID COASTER CLUBS that will be invited to this event. I know KIC is NOT an approved club because it is a free forum and not a paid membership club. Paid clubs such as TPR, ACE, GOCC, CCF, etc. should be on the approved list. My wife and I are members of Club Coasterfusion so based off of the invitation to Gatekeeper's media event I am expecting CCF to be invited to Banshee's media event. Thus my thinking was that if any KIC forum member, that has a paid club membership and will be at this event, wanted to meet up we could try and ride together.

Random thought here. This will be my first media day so I really don't know how everything operates. Seeing as Don will be there for media day, do you guys and gals think we could have a KIC only train during media day? Maybe Don and any other park rep could join us for the KIC only lap. I think that would be pretty fun.

Never got to ride this thing because I honestly was scared of coasters just about 3 years ago. (I know I missed out on a lot, but I am making up for it very quickly haha) But looking at that video posted above sure did bring back some good memories of looking at this behemoth structure. I always thought that SOB looked amazing with all of the supports and everything. The structure always made me stop and look at it during the time it was SBNO. It was a beautiful looking ride.

Of course it is. Dan doesn't want to get off the gravy train. EDIT: I'm sorry this is the 2014 coastermania thread I'll stop talking about off topic things.

Didn't see this on here but Kings Island tweeted that track work is scheduled to be completed in January. With "other parts" being completed later on in spring. They are moving so fast!

Provided that event even exists in 2014. I know this has been responded to already but: What do you mean the dates for HWN are already set for May 30th and 31st. I understand you were a fan of Dan but if you read the reports he illegally tried to take the park from Lori. Dan is gone as he should be he was in the park for the money and not for the customers. Matt Eckart was there during the original HWN and they want to continue this great event for the foreseeable future. Paula and HW use this event to connect with enthusiasts from around the world. Why would they change or cancel an event that has such a great reputation for fun in the enthusiast company?

Yes!!! Its being held the weekend after Holiwood Nights at Holiday World! Last year going to both Holiwood Nights and Coastermania was the best week ever with my wife and it looks like we will be able to duplicate that week again next year!

This is genius move by KI. 1.) First off sprucing up the area and changing the ride's paint scheme will make FD (errr The Bat) a bit better. 2.) It pays homage to the original ride. 3.) Sad to say this but it will be true. Some of the general public will think this is a new ride. All in all this, plus the addition of Banshee, should make the ride way more popular than it was before.

My last ride of the season was with my wife on Blue Streak. It was very fitting that we rode a classic to finish out the year.

Club Coasterfusion is the club I have been in the past two years. They were invited to Gatekeeper's media day so they should be invited to Banshee's media day as well. We used the membership for Virginia is for Coaster Lovers, Holiwood Nights, andCoastermania. Definitely worth it because its cheap ($20, +$5 for any more members) and you get most major events.

There was once a $20 million ride called Son of Beast that stood on the very ground that most would consider it a major "oops." (Granted that was not B&M nor was the company's reputation near what B&M's reputation is at) If there is truly a clearance issue I'm sure they could clear some of the land with a shovel!

Left side in the back row is stunning. The pull and forces through the inversions are stronger on that side IMO. To those who are worried about the clearance Banshee, rest easy. If you have been on Gatekeeper the seats are tilted pretty far back. This means that legs dangle but dangle above the true bottom of the train. The train will have plenty of clearance. Ill try and find a photo to illustrate what I am saying. I know this one is from X-Flight but its the same thing. Look at the feet of the people they are not below the support beam for the seat: As you can see (even though these aren't the best pictures) , very few people can have their feet dangle below the seats but if they do its only by 6-12 inches. You do realize Banshee is not the same design type as Gatekeeper or X-flight. Right? Uh... yes I do. The seat design for Banshee is very similar to Gatekeeper and X-Flight. Look at the video above showing what the Banshee trains and compare it to the Raptor above and see what I am talking about. The difference I am trying to point out is the trains should be shorter (in height) on Banshee than a traditional B&M invert. The reason why is because the seats are reclined which makes the rider's lower legs dangle but not past the bottom of the train. Notice the rider's feet on Raptor they dangle at least 6-12 inches below the train because of the non tilted seats. The tilted seats also mean the overall height of the train should be shorter because they are not up and down like traditional B&M's. The picture of Raptor above shows very long supports for the seats. (My guess, which could be wrong, is that the trains for Banshee will be about 1-2 feet shorter.) This means lower passes which you are seeing already during the ride design. Again I could be wrong but that is my view on the trains for the ride.

Left side in the back row is stunning. The pull and forces through the inversions are stronger on that side IMO. To those who are worried about the clearance Banshee, rest easy. If you have been on Gatekeeper the seats are tilted pretty far back. This means that legs dangle but dangle above the true bottom of the train. The train will have plenty of clearance. Ill try and find a photo to illustrate what I am saying. I know this one is from X-Flight but its the same thing. Look at the feet of the people they are not below the support beam for the seat: As you can see (even though these aren't the best pictures) , very few people can have their feet dangle below the seats but if they do its only by 6-12 inches.

Thanks for the photos. These are great. I was thinking the same thing. But I also think because they are usuing restraints similar to Gatekeeper, Banshee can get lower to the ground than traditional B&M inverts. They tilt back a bit so your legs shouldn't dangle down as far as other inverts. The clip below shows the angle well around 4 seconds into the clip.

My wife and I witnessed a phone being ejected from the loop on the return run for Invertigo. It flew from the loop (not the cobra roll) all the way over the pathway and into the pool for Congo Falls. It was amazing to see the phone fly through the air like that. We were also glad it didn't hit us or anyone else for that matter.

Update for Sunday 10/20 trip to Cedar Point: The day started with the wife and I heading to the Mcdonalds by the causeway about 20 minutes before ERT gates opened. Apparently everyone else had the same idea because the drive thru line was all the way into the street. We decided to head inside and walk thru the line but again we weren't the only ones who thought of this as there was a line of what seemed to be 30+ people waiting to put their order in. We looked across the street and saw that the dairy queen had no line outside so we went there to grab food before heading in. Once done with the food we headed to the park and entered the gates for moorning ERT at 11:10. We had the plan of leaving the park at 3pm and try to ride everything we could before we leave the park for home. Once inside we noticed that Raptor, GK, and Maverick were all slow to open. In fact Raptor was down for the entire day due to the rust issue mentioned on my TR yesterday. I was told by the ride op standing outside the ride they have someone coming out to look at the ride. My assumption would be that Raptor may be down for the rest of the year unless something miraculous happens. with the news of the rides being slow to open we headed to MF were just about everyone else decided to go as well. During ERT the wait was already over 40 minutes for MF so we decided to go back to Maverick and wait for it to open. We were in a line that shouldve taken 15 minutes but the load was pretty slow this morning so it ended up being about a 25 minute wait. It was a fun ride and with the gates for GP opening we decided to hit TTD twice. Our first wait was only 8 minutes. The second wait was about 15 minutes. We headed to Magnum after our PT ride on the upshot side and it was about a 15 minute wait. The ride was nice and filled with airtime. We decided to head back to ride Mean Streak it was a walk on it was a fun ride. After that ride we headed to Cedar Creek Mine Ride and that was about a 15 minute wait as the load was going slowly. The ride itself is okay. It has a section that goes over the water but it is pretty much a bland ride. It does what a mine ride is supposed to do when it was built 44 years ago. 6/10 Gemini had a line that was 25 minutes so we skipped that. Magnum filled up quickly and was about an hour wait. Corkscrew's queue was filled so we skipped that. We were short on time as it was about 2:10 when we passed TTD heading to the front. We saw that Raptor was still not running so we headed to our final coaster we didn't ride Blue Streak. We hopped on after a 5 minute wait and the ride was classic out and back woodie! Airtime hills and speed was all over this ride. Me being an airtime lover, enjoyed the ride and let it be our final ride of the season. After heading out of the park we headed over to season pass processing center to renew our platinum passes. After that we bid farewell to the 2013 amusement park season and left CP after an awesome weekend of coaster riding. Notes: On Sunday the weather was amazing and with the good weather it brought out the crowds. Long waits were abound for the major rides. I believe MF was around 1 1/2 hours at 1:30pm, Maverick was using the queue on the other side of the pond by 12:30pm. The first three turnarounds were filled for maverick after the covered area was filled. The lines may have just seemed long to us because we were trying to get in everything in just over 3 hours. Also I expected the crowd to be smaller on Sunday (similar to Friday night's crowd) but it was probably 2-3 times as large as Friday. Either way we still had a good time and will make another trip next year. Sunday's Ride Count: Maverick: 1 Mean Streak: 1 Blue Streak: 1 TTD: 2 Power Tower: 1 Magnum: 1 Cedar Creek Mine Ride: 1 Ok sounds great thanks for sharing that info. I didn't know rain could do all of that I just figured they took them off because they were expecting smaller crowds. I'm 100% for safety even if it makes the waits longer. Glad I know now why they do it. Shorts and the t-shirt were probably okay during the latter hours haha. My wife and I were bundled up with long sleeve shirts and hoodies on and by 1pm we were sweating because the sun was out and the breeze couldn't reach us. Hope you had a good time. The weather sure was great. It brought out more people than I expected but this was the first halloweekends that I have attended so I can't compare crowds sizes for past Sundays.

It has been fine for us. We park in the Soak City lot whenever we go to CP so we haven't had to wait at all while leaving the park, plus we park in the first two rows back there. We left both nights just after midnight and our exit from the back has been smooth. I will say when we get to the main parking lot up front the line looks long, lots of brake lights, and slow moving traffic but nothing out of the ordinary. But we have escaped those lines due to being in the drive lane from the Soak City lot. Coming into CP has been no problem because we come in during ERT time. They do still have temporary parking set up in the grass on the causeway but they have even come close from the times we have been there to even filling the main lot. There were very few cars (20-30 cars) in the side lot on the southwest side of the parking lot.

Here is the update for our trip on 10/19 at CP. The weather was bleak for the beginning of the day. We left our hotel at 10 and the rain was coming down at a light pace or just heavier than a sprinkle. The ground was already wet and we knew we were in for a little bit more. The rain were constant from about 10am until 3 pm then it disappeared and the rest of the night was clear but windy. Our day started with a ride on MF during ERT. The ERT line was already down to halfway through the first turnarounds. We ended up waiting 30 minutes for our ERT ride. What was the hold up you ask? Well apparently whenever it rains CP decides to use one less train on virtually ever ride in the park. Not sure why they do it but it slowed down everything while it was raining. I'll talk about that more at the end of this report. The first ride was smooth and fast and the drizzle was stinging as we made our trip around MF. We ended up getting off and the line was around the same length so we went ahead and got in line again as we knew this was going to be the only time we really were going to be able to ride MF without a long wait. The 2nd ride was great again and since the gates for the GP were opened we decided to head out and ride something else. Mantis was our second coaster of the day. It is my first stand up coaster. The ride is amazing to look at. They squeeze 4 inversion in what looks like a limited space. The first loop is large and very nice to look at when you are off of the ride. The B&M roar is present as well. I like this ride it is intense enough to be fun and unique as well. I will say even though it is unique I feel it is a bit gimmicky with the stand up aspect. It is a different way to ride a coaster but for some reason it feels that way to me. But after a 2 cycle wait we were onboard in the 2nd row. There are two twisty transitions that caused me and my wife to bang our heads on the OTSR It didn't bother me too bad but my wife didn't like it so we decided to try another ride. We headed back to Maverick and (Surprise!) it was down AGAIN! So we headed to Mean Streak. Now I have heard some crazy stories about this ride but all the times I have been on it this year it has been really fun and yes smooth for a wooden coaster. It was running 1 train operation due to the rain. After 2 cycles we were onboard. The first drop is slowed by trims but after that the ride is fun. The fast dives with the slower turns allowed us to catch our breaths and maybe took a bit of the intensity away. I liked the sections where the ride travelled under its own track. The headchoppers were nice to duck from and it made the ride feel "enclosed". I liked the ride and felt it has a bad reputation from the stories that I have heard. 7/10 After Mean streak we headed back to Maverick and it was finally opened! We headed into the line and it was only about 10 minutes long. While in line we waited for the line to move and it didn't. Then we looked out and saw a ton of empty cars running. They sent out the entire cycle without anyone on it. We waited for another 25 minutes and we finally got on the ride. We were in the 2nd row. The ride is absolutely fantastic! The first drop is nice will the transfers are excited. The inversions are nice and smooth. My favorite part is the second launch under the station. The sound makes the launch even more intense. I love the speed and the darkness of the tunnel makes the speed seem even more intense. The swoop over the water was without the water cannons going off and after a few more twists and turns we were done. This is a fantastic ride when it is up and running. So far it seems like it doesn't want to run, at least during this weekend. In fact when we got off our ride 3 mechanics were coming up the exit ramp when we got off. 9.5/10 when it is up and running. After Maverick we decided to try and go ride something else. At this point it was 1:20. The rain was coming down harder than a drizzle so everything was wet. Our hoodies were soaked and the crowds just kept coming. In fact at this point The waits times were as follows: MF 2+ hours, Magnum: 1:30, Corkscrew 1 hour (Yes you read correctly), Wicked twister 1:45, and Gatekeeper had to be 3+ hours. The line for Gatekeeper had every turnaround in the queue filled, and leaked all the way to the ferris wheel AND curled back towards and almost entering the entrance plaza... We headed over to Raptor to see that it was not operating. It ended up being down for the entire day. The explanation that I got from the ride op out in front was that it was shut down partly due to rain but also because it has a rust issue that somehow prevents it from running in poor weather. I was very surprised to hear this from a ride op and with that disappointing news we headed out of the park for our Saturday break. We headed back into the park at 930pm. We decided to do the "smaller" rides so we did Gemini first. The wait was about 25 minutes due to the fact they were only operating one side. Not sure why they were doing this especially with the Saturday crowd but the ride was fun. I can see why it was on the Coasting for Kids list at CP. It was fun and smooth. 7/10 We then headed to Mean Streak for a night ride and the ride seemed a bit more intense due to the darkness mixed in with the lighting of the supports. There were 3 trains rolling, the line was barely to the stairs yet we still waited over 10 minutes for the ride. The ride ops were more interested in playing and talking with each other than getting people through the line. The trains stacked 3 deep before the train was released every time. We headed for a trip on the train after the ride was over. I liked the theming the train had and the waving from the people on the paths that we block while crossing was nice (I usually wouldn't wave if I got cut off by the train but it was nice of them to do so). We got off the train and saw the line for MF was over 2 hours still so we headed to Iron Dragon for a spin. Iron Dragon was a nice little ride. The wait was a 1 train wait. The ride was intensified from our last ride due to the darkness. The swinging and speed was way less that Flight Deck. The ride was a medium thrill and the only true exciting part was the final double helix over the water. I liked the ride because it was an easy, laid back type ride that doesn't kill you with speed or crazy laterals. A good beginner coaster for new riders. 6/10 When we got off of Iron Dragon the 11pm Skeleton crew show was starting. My wife and I watched for about 10 minutes. The stunts were pretty cool as the entertainers were catapulted off of a see-saw into intense flips. The flame twirler was awesome and there was a lady that was doing stunts with a big circle and rode in the circle around the stage. It was a good show. Probably best viewed at night. We headed to Corkscrew and it was a walk on. The ride was simple with an airtime hill, a loop, and a double corkscrew. It was a fun ride that was way less jerky than Vortex. 6/10. My wife and I were headed to TTD but the wait was over 1:30 so we decided to head towards Magnum and ride it. The line was at the station and we waited 2 trains for our turn. The lift hill is very long and slow but the ride is worth it. The first drop was nice and the speed was good. The airtime hills into the pretzel turn were good but the real fun begins on the reverse trip. The airtime hills on the return run are fantastic! Every time we went over the hills I was bumped out of my seat. The ride was great! 8.5/10 We decided since we had little time left for the night and the lines were short we would marathon this for the rest of the night. We got 4 rides in and then we were turned away as the park was closed. We headed to our car then to the hotel for the night. Overall this was a fun day for us at the park. We avoided waiting long for most of our rides. We stayed away from the park when it got crowded and got plenty of rides in at night. We were really surprised that the weather did not keep the crowds away. As Existential stated the weather does not hold off the crowds at all. I will also complain that due to these crowds and the combination of CP only having 2 trains running made the lines unnecessarily long. The wait times that I list above were around 1:20 pm and the front of the park was jammed packed. GK, MF, Maverick, Corkscrew, Magnum were all missing one train during the rain. Mean Streak was a one train op. TTD, Gemini, and Raptor were not opened due to rain. Raptor did not open all day due to a rusting issue from a ride op that I talked with. Skyride was not opened and WS was down due to wind. The ferris wheel was not opened and has not been for the last 2 days. My issue with this is that the combo of rain plus the Saturday crowd made the wait times almost unbearable. I am not sure who makes the call for operating less trains during the rain or if there is a legitimate reason for CP to do so but in my opinion it was uncalled for and intentionally made wait times 1/3 longer than they needed to be. If anyone on this board can explain why this happens please do so. I can understand doing this when there are smaller crowds but the crowd was big today so I think that throws out that reason. Either way the day was great and we look forward to our half day in the park tomorrow. Saturday 10/19 Ride Count: MF: 2 Mantis: 1 Maverick: 1 Mean Streak: 2 CP&LE Train: 1 Corkscrew: 1 Gemini: 1 Iron Dragon: 1 Magnum: 4 Again sorry for typos or grammatical errors I was typing this around 2:30 am. I'll try and fix them when I get to a computer. Malem I hope you got my message I sent you about the rides during the wind this weekend has been wild with the weather and wind.

Haha sounds like a deal to me. Its going to be a rough one today. Oh what we put ourselves through for the love of riding coasters! Good luck to you! :-)

The wife and I decided to head to Cedar Point to end our 2013 amusement park adventures. Since I didn't create a TR for our Coastermania trip I'll do a "quick" brief on what I think of CP's coasters (This was our second trip up to CP). We originally were headed to CP on Columbus Day weekend but due to seeing a couple of stories online at PointBuzz about how busy the crowds were expected to be that weekend we decided to go to KI instead. After hearing of the horror stories about the past Saturday we were glad we made this decision to switch trips. The trip took about 4 hours and 20 minutes to get from our house to the hotel. We entered the park during ERT and since we were going to be at the park for 3 days we decided to stick with one ride for our ERT sessions. Friday was for Maverick, Saturday was for Millennium Force, and Sunday was for Gatekeeper. We headed straight for the Soak City Lot and through the back gate headed straight for Maverick. But our ERT session was not to be as we closed in on Maverick we noticed they were not letting anyone in line. The ride was down (surprise, surprise). We then headed to MF for the remaining time and were greeted with a 25 minute wait during ERT. After riding MF I can see why it holds the #1 ranking as best steel coaster. Our ride was in the front row of the last car. Quickly making our way up we are pulled down what I consider the best first drop on a roller coaster that I have ridden. We floated out of our seats into the first banked turn. Then through the first tunnel and along the course I was surprised by the speed that was carried throughout the ride. The overbanked turns and the few airtime hills that were placed throughout the ride really made it a great ride. 9.5/10 After MF we headed to TTD as the park had opened to the public. Once again we were greeted with a sorry this ride is down message (surprise again! not really haha) so we headed to Power tower and rode the drop side, it was a 2 cycle wait. I was shocked at the timing for the ride's drop and it was a nice surprised fall back to the ground. 7/10 After Power Tower we went back to the car to grab money for food and when we headed back in TTD was throwing cars through a cycle. We ended up getting right in line and getting a ride after about 5 cycles (This is the positive side about rides being down. People leave the line and once it opens if you are close enough the ride is basically a walk on.) This ride is pretty unique. The layout is simple but how it is executed is pretty awesome. The ride's speed and height is very intimidating but still enjoyable. The launch is powerful as you get thrown back into your seat and you shoot straight up into the air. After you twist and slow down to creast over the hill you can get a good view of the lake, MF, and CP. Its a beautiful sight. Then you hit the speed again and through the "finish line" you go. The wind in your face is pretty awesome and its so intense that it seems like you can't even yell when you are on it. Its an adrenaline filled ride that is fun and will always attract people due to the records it once held. 9/10 After that we decided to eat. I got mini corn dog bites and fries while my wife got chicken tenders and fries. I would say the food was mediocre but at least filling. The fries that I had from the fresh cut store were good while the corn dog bites were at least edible. While waiting for our stomachs to settle we went for a ride on Cedar Downs. I heard good things from the ride so we gave it a shot. It was actually pretty fun. The horse going back and forth and "racing" added a little bit more excitement to the carousel. We even got into it with the stranger that we were riding "against." It was a nice ride and relaxing. 7/10 It finally got dark after the Cedar Downs ride so we headed to ride WindSeeker. We waited one cycle for our WS ride. I have learned that if there is a full queue you will get on the ride within 2 cycles. Away we went with the Harry Potter track playing for our flight. The view this ride gives you is awesome. The water with the full moon gleaming off of it looked amazing while the rides (GK, TTD, PT, MF) look stunning as well. The wind was brisk up at the top of the ride and as soon as we were up we came back down. I think I like CP's WindSeeker better than KI's. I think it trumps KI's because you have stunning rides to look at and I like looking at water more than look at woods. After WS we headed to Wicked Twister. We waited 3 cycles for this ride and rode 3 rows from the back. The launch of this ride reminds me of FOF. Its quick and you really feels so forces when you go into the twists. The 5 swings are fun especially with the increasing speed on each one of them. After we were done we rode it again with a 3 cycle wait but 3 rows from the front. The front feels more twisty but both rides were good. 7.5/10 We then headed to GK next and were shocked to find it to only have a 15 minute wait. We decided to ride the last row on the left. Whoever said the ride is forceless needs to ride this thing in the back. It felt like we were being pulled into ever inversion and drop. The drop is very unique and the inversions are fun. I have chimed in on what I think about the addition to the park. I really don't think this was created to be a thrill seeker's ride. I really think this is a next level ride that can be enjoyed by the entire family and that has a huge visual effect as you enter the park. For enthusiasts it may not be a must ride but for most of the general public it will be. after the ride we ended up going again but in the last row on the right side. I think the left side is more forceful but the right side has more effects with the keyholes and foot and head choppers. Side note: My wife and I are not big fans of the restraint change on GK. the Shoulder harness' are too loose now. I could easily pull the restraints forward while going up the lift hill. I am all about changing it because some people complained but I never had an issue with the restraints and it just felt too loose while going through some of the inversions. Also a big shout out to the GK crew this night they were very quick and friendly. 8/10 We headed over to Raptor next and it was a 4 cycle wait. Again the crew was on it with this ride as well very quick and friendly. This ride is very fun and forceful. The zero g roll is my favorite element on this ride. It feels like you get pulled down when you are riding through it. The cobra roll is quick and the final helix is great as well. The speed really isn't there but the forces are. I like this ride a lot and it makes me even more excited for Banshee next year. 8.5/10 After Raptor we headed to GK again for 2 more night rides both were good (wait times were around 5 minutes, the lines started at where you chose to ride left or right side.) After that we headed to MF for a night ride and got one in after waiting about 40 minutes to ride. The sign out front said it was an hour wait but it was wrong as the line moved quickly even though the first two switch back sections were filled. We capped our night off with a night ride on TTD. The wind was brisk and cold but the 17 second ride was thrilling as usual. Tired and a little bit chilly we headed to our hotel for the night. The crowds were absolutely perfect for riding. Minimal waits (5-15 minutes were normal for most ride except MF and TTD. I didn't see what Maverick's line was like) I thank my wife for sticking around with me during the night because it was busy. We could've ridden a lot more but my wife was tired and needed some breaks between rides. Fridays seem to be good days to head to CP during HW. Tomorrow will be a little bit more cold as the high is projected for 49 degrees. Further updates to the TR will be added here as the day finishes up. Sorry if this is hard to follow or if there are errors in it. I am typing it on my Ipad and it's 2:20 am. I'll try to catch the errors when I reread these later. Fri 10/18 ride count: MF: 2 GK: 4 Raptor: 1 WS: 1 WT: 2 TTD: 2 Cedar Downs: 1

This is the latest facebook post from Cedar Point. It is just a cover photo update from a family that they posted yesterday morning. https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151665111211463&set=a.10150582435226463.375429.10625691462&type=1&theater Not sure if you can see these comments or not but there are about 154 comments as of now (10:30PM) and I have yet to read one positive review about what happened saturday. This is seriously making me consider NOT going to CP this upcoming weekend. Part of CP response to this situation was "While guests were attempting to park their vehicles, and subsequently, leave the park at the end of their day, they experienced a longer than normal delay in our parking lot and on our causeway. Like sporting events, concerts and other events where large crowds gather, guests leave around the same time creating a backup." I have been to many sporting events Pacers games, Colts games (including a bar outside across the block from the Super Bowl that was in Indianapolis), and large concerts such as Lollapalooza (Which hits capacity around 70,000 concert goers, not including the employees and volunteers working the concert) and I have NEVER had to wait more than 45 minutes (that was at Lollapalooza) to leave an area by car. I understand there are few ways in and out of CP but they have to have a better plan in place to accommodate crowds like this. I feel terrible for the families that had young children stuck in their cars for 4 hours...and for the people who decided to come with their families, spend hundreds of dollars (stories say anywhere from $300-$700)to run into a mess like this past Saturday. Just awful.

Boy am I glad we switched days for my wife and my trip to CP. We were going to go up there this weekend and decided not to on Wednesday this past week. We ended up doing a 3 day trip to KI (which Fri and Sat were pretty bad). I would rather spend a packed day at KI (takes us 1:50 to get to KI) than travel 4:30+ hours to CP and be met with record crowds... We are headed to CP next weekend and expect similar crowds on Saturday. But the weather should hold some people away (Mid 50s for high and low 40s for lows.) Though after reading this I doubt the crowds will be that much smaller... :-/ All I know is we rode two rides after 4pm at KI and I hated it. But I took it as a positive as well because days like this past weekend are what puts rides like Banshee in the park (FL,food, parking sales were through the roof).