Steph88

Wonder what will happen to Screamin Swing? If it's gone forever or going to move elsewhere?

So did they decide they aren't removing anything? Glad Racer is safe!!!

Not much of a slide fan but those sure are pretty. And maybe will draw more away from the coasters and wave pools!

Y'all have to wait til 2 to hear the announcement. I get to hear it at noon! Time zones can be fun.

Thanks for all you do to keep the site running smoothly!

I really, really hope they don't get rid of Racer!

Firefly Beach Resort & Campground (I may get a framed copy of the first pic!) Waldameer Cedar Point More to come, some are on my husband's work phone because it takes better photos. But he has it right now.

What is that building behind Racer toward the front of the pic? Not speculating anything will go in it, just wondering. Edit: If it turns out to be a Screamin Swing I'll be moving to Mason the first chance I get.

No, I forgot to double back to it, and I had read online that they were really unforgiving. I'm working on losing weight and taking better care of myself (I eat healthy but don't exercise nearly enough) so hopefully next year I can ride it.

Why does Disney wait SO LONG to even begin construction? Why bother announcing years before even starting construction?

It was the best. The only things that could've made it better are less driving, and more time! (For Kings Island.) Definitely hoping for another trip this spring. Probably just KI next time.

Haha, explains why my husband had no issues! XD That's him to a tee.

So, we just got back from our big Kentucky/Ohio trip. We had planned to visit Cedar Point, Waldameer, and Kings Island all in one week. However, we ended up missing out on Kings Island. My grandparents recently went into assisted living and I'm very close with them, and we decided to spend an extra day visiting them. Priorities, ya know? Our visit was a surprise and it really cheered them up. We can always get back to Kings Island in the spring. I have definitely decided to start saving more money for travel. It was nice to get away for a while. THE TRIP We had planned to leave Thursday early afternoon and my husband had been approved to take a half day off if he finished certain calls quickly enough, but he was swamped all day and didn't get home til late. I had the whole day off so I spent the day packing, double checking lists, doing laundry, and cleaning the house so we wouldn't come home to a disaster area. Of course, as I always do even with very careful planning, I forgot something. Our camp chairs. Usually we make 5 or 10 trips back to the house, but this time I only forgot one thing. And it wasn't a huge deal, we bought new ones cheap when we got to Kentucky. We left the house at 8 pm. It was a VERY long trip. We decided to take a different route than our usual one. We usually take I 10, 20, and 30 across Texas and then head up north through Arkansas and Tennessee. This time we decided to try the New Mexico/Texas panhandle/Oklahoma/Missouri route. That's the last time we will take that route, I tell ya what! New Mexico took us through winding, 2 lane roads where we got lost a couple times. It was actually kind of scary. Never know when someone will go over the center line. It took a long time but eventually we got on a straighter route through the Texas panhandle. We took a nap in Amarillo from 3 or 4 am til 7 am (also one of us would sleep while the other drove sometimes and we switched off). Then we were back on the road again. We stopped in Oklahoma City for a couple hours to see Bricktown. That was interesting, they have a four foot deep man made river thing surrounded by beautiful landscaping and restaurants. Lots of ducks! We rode a water taxi up and down the river thing, and it was really nice. Oklahoma City was about the same temperature as El Paso, but with the humidity I thought I was going to die! 104 degrees plus humidity is a bad combination. We got back in the car and headed off across Oklahoma again. The rest of the drive was pretty uneventful, until we hit St. Louis around 1 am. We missed a turn and I never thought we'd make it out alive. There was an unbelievable number of drunk drivers. Hanging out of passenger windows and screaming, running red lights and nearly hitting each other. We couldn't figure out how to get back on the highway and it was terrifying. FINALLY we did make it, and vowed never to go through St. Louis again. The arch was pretty though. We stopped in Evansville Indiana around 3 am. Too exhausted to continue, and got a hotel. The next day we headed to Louisville to see my husband's family. On the way, we were passing the Holiday World area and we saw a Kentucky Kingdom billboard. In Louisville we saw Holiday World and Kentucky Kingdom billboards as well. We visited his family in Louisville, then headed to Lexington and camped at the Kentucky Horse Park a couple nights. I love staying there, it's awesome. We visited family and eventually headed up to Ohio after a couple days. We made it to Sandusky in the afternoon, and took a look at the KOA, though it wasn't much to look at to be honest. No wilderness, just a crowded parking lot in the middle of a trailer park and some old apartments. We continued on to check out Firefly Beach campground. Firefly. Beach. Oh. My. Gosh. The pictures could speak for themselves, but I need to get them uploaded tonight and post em tomorrow. I HIGHLY recommend Firefly Beach. It is right on Lake Erie with a great view of the Point. Beautiful, clean beach. Small and quiet, grounds are kept very nice. They have little rainbow colored cabins, along with tent and RV sites as well. We chose a tent site beneath a tree. The ONLY downside was the number of spiders. I expected near Lake Erie there would be quite a few. But every time my husband would clear off the tent five minutes later 25 more would be right back on it. When we took down the tent days later there were probably 50-100 spiders. This does not bode well for me, and I was stressed out a lot at night. I'm highly allergic to spider bites. Aside from the spiders, it was an absolute dream. Falling asleep to the sound of Lake Erie waves and the music of the crickets was wonderful. The Erie Kai Tavern was on site. The bartender, Alyssa, was fantastic. Great, inexpensive drinks, and we split a meal of Lake Erie Perch, which was the best fish I have ever tasted. The whole place was decorated beautifully, wood furniture, island-style decorations. A Jimmy Buffet fan would feel right at home! Cedar Point We arrived just after opening. We purchased our Fast Lane Plus and our admission tickets ahead of time, and paid for preferred parking when we arrived. I knew after a day of riding and standing and walking my ankles and knees would not be happy with me. We paid 15 dollars a locker at the front of the park, to hold my backpack full of medicines (Aleve, Exedrin, etc.) and sunscreen and spare clothes in case we rode water rides. In hindsight, we should have chosen a more centrally located locker. We rode Ocean Motion to warm up for the bigger rides. I loved it when I was a kid, but these days it has no thrill anymore, even in the back row. The scenery around it is beautifully done, but the ride itself is like sitting on a porch swing. Next we made our way to Gatekeeper. It was there during our last visit but we couldn't afford Fast Lane, or to waste three hours of our day in line. With Fast Lane Plus this time, there was definitely a line but it was much more manageable. I think we waited 20 or 30 minutes each time. That's fine by me! I was just a bit too big for the regular seats so they sent me to Row 4, which fit alright. Gatekeeper was really incredible. We rode twice- once on each side. I liked the left side much better than the right, but both were awesome. We rode WindSeeker for the first time. Every time I've been to KI or CP since they were built, it's been closed due to wind. Ironic. But understandable. We ended up riding it twice. The first time I was actually kind of scared, because it kept going up and up and up. I'm not typically afraid of heights, just the thought of "what if this stalls like it has in the past?" thing scared me. The second ride I didn't worry as much. Wicked Twister's test seat was too small, so we didn't bother. Saving it for another time. We went across the park to see if Raptor was do-able. It wasn't, the seat was too small. Next time though. Blue Streak was great. I took the advice of some posters here regarding older coasters and made sure to choose a middle seat (as opposed to a wheel seat). It was a fairly smooth ride with lots of fun airtime, I liked it much better this trip than I have in years past. I had planned to come back and ride again but I forgot. We rode the Sky Ride, and then grabbed lunch, some chicken strips and fries which we split. I try not to eat much in parks. As great as the food is, I worry I'll get sick. It's only happened once, years ago, and not on the actual ride, but mainly because I'm careful about it. After that we rode Iron Dragon, which was awesome as always. It will always be one of my favorite rides, especially the front row. At the front of the line on Rougarou, by the way, the line attendant said we have to put our souvenir cup in the locker. No big deal, a bit of a trek but I understand. However, once my husband left to put it away, she let other people with souvenir cups, bags, stuffed toys, and other loose items go. We came to the station and there were bins. I was so confused as to why my husband had to waste 20 minutes and a lot of energy going to the front of the park and back while others just went on by. We had no other loose items, just an empty souvenir cup. I wish they'd have short-term lockers at the front of the line. That ordeal made absolutely no sense. So then we rode Rougar-ow, as I call it. I was expecting a smooth ride, but I expected too much. It was rough after that first hill and loop. That part was great, the rest of the coaster I was just PRAYING it would be over soon. Massive headache after. Something really erie was that after the ride was over and we were getting out, my husband saw an Iphone 6 sitting loose behind a seat. He insisted that the ride forces prevented it from hitting us. And I insist that we got VERY lucky. We gave it to a ride op and moved on, and that was my first and last ride on Rougarou. Not worth it to me. I had such a bad headache after that, and I couldn't think straight. It was the hottest and sunniest part of the day. My husband went to the locker AGAIN to grab the headache medicine and get some water in our souvenir cup for me. He is a real lifesaver. While he was gone, Rougarou stopped on the lift hill. We left before we saw what became of it, but it was running when we saw it later in the day. We rode the train after that so I could relax a moment and the headache medicine could do its job. Then we got off at the back station near Maverick. We skipped Mean Streak, there's no way I could handle that again, especially after Rougarou. We went to ride Maverick next. The line was incredibly long. For both Fast Lane AND the general line. We waited 40 minutes in the Fast Lane. I wondered how the people in the general line could wait HOURS in the hot sun and then another hour in the indoor-ish queue to ride this ride. So I expected it to be pretty amazing if people would subject themselves to that. We finally got to ride. I will say this about Maverick- it is a COOL ride. They did a really great job on the theming/visuals. However, it beat the heck out of me. It was actually as if I'd been on a bucking bronco. The negative Gs on the first drop would be excellent if not for the shoulder restraints- I lifted up and slammed into the tops of the shoulder restraints and then slammed back down at the bottom of each hill. The whole ride was a blur, it just hurt the whole time and I got a few snippets of views here and there, but not much. My new name for it is Maver-ache. It had some cool elements, I really can see why people love this coaster. I, however, ended up with a massive black bruise on the side of my hip and some shoulder pains the rest of the day. I was so tired by this point that I wanted to take it easy. I had considered trying Top Thrill Dragster but I read online the seats were not great for larger riders. I had REALLY wanted to try Millenium Force but I doubted I would fit in that either. I decided I'd give that test seat a try later, after a break to try out Skyhawk and get in some rides on Gemini. Skyhawk was INCREDIBLE. This was my first time on it, it was down because of that cable snap last time we were at Cedar Point. We rode it 5 or 6 times. At first it was kind of scary to be hundreds of feet in the air facing the ground. But I got used to it quickly and it was a blast. If I could just have Skyhawk and Gemini nearby, I would be the happiest person on earth. We had hoped to go on some water rides next, but my sandals were at the front of the park. We were tired and my ankles were swollen, something that hasn't happened since I had a bad sprain a few years back. We took a break and split one of those big turkey legs from one of the Frontier Trail food stands. It was pretty awesome. My ankles weren't getting any better and I figured I'd do better in supportive tennis shoes than sandals, so we gave up on the water rides and decided to try them first next time. We slowly but surely made our way over to Gemini, and marathoned that a while. At the top of the hill on some of our rides, we could see lightning and a rainbow over the lake where a storm was moving in. It was a really cool sight. We avoided wheel seats and the ride was smooth as ever. Gemini has the most enthusiastic crowd of all the coasters I've seen, despite having one of the shorter lines. Everyone actually cheers and gets excited on Gemini, riders talk to each other in line, give each other high fives on the turns. It has truly the best atmosphere of all the rides, in my opinion. We witnessed something a little jarring, there was another person who got stuck in the gate. A girl and her friend went to get on the train and the friend went to put something in the bin. A man thought she was a single rider and went through the gate when he quickly realized the friend was coming back, and he tried to step back and the gate closed on his leg. He pulled it free, a bit startled, and apologized to the riders and to the ride op watching the back area of the trains, who just kind of gave him this annoyed smirk. Those gates are pretty forceful and maybe they should pay closer attention before they close them. He was a nice guy, visiting the park with his son or grandson. The kid was going to be on the opposite train and they were planning to race but he held back when he saw what happened. Anyway, the guy was okay, but it was kind of startling that they would shut the gates on someone without paying attention. Other than that, the ride op crew at the front was enthusiastic and fun. They mostly do a great job. We got in a bunch of rides on Gemini before they announced it was the last race and they'd be shutting down the blue train for the night. (Sad, the blue train is my favorite of the two.) We moved on after that and I got some pictures of the beautiful Gemini midway. I thought about riding monster but I was tired, and my husband really wanted to try the fried cheese and I knew it would be closing soon, plus I wanted a night ride on WindSeeker. We made our way to the front. WindSeeker was closed. We chose the ferris wheel instead, where a couple held up the line because they refused to accept that the ride ops would not allow them to take their baby on the ride. They refused to go to guest services as directed or accept park policy, saying something about discrimination (I believe they were muslim based on their attire but I could be wrong) and someone in management had to come down and talk to them. It caused about a 15 minute extra wait, both for Fast Lane and the regular line. After management talked to them they left the baby with their daughter (age 6 or 7) and rode by themselves, not having to wait in line again. The height requirement is what it is. I don't see why people don't get that. It's clearly posted in the lines. We went to get my husband's cheese on a stick, and I tried a bite. It was alright. We went to the Sweet Spot and I got a chocolate covered twinkie and two pretzels for us to share later. The line was long but boy, did the workers there do a great job making sure everyone was taken care of! They opened more registers and made sure everyone got what they wanted, and we checked out much quicker than anticipated. Shout out to the awesome staff at the Sweet Spot! All in all, it was a great day. There were some odd occurrences during the day, but mostly a great trip. The park was clean and the employees were almost all friendly. Gemini was, as always, my favorite part. And probably always will be. WALDAMEER: Went back to the Erie Kai Tavern for drinks and then turned in for the night. The next day we went to visit my grandparents, and stayed in the area an extra day. They aren't very far from Erie so we went to Waldameer the second night and got the cheaper after-5-pm wristbands. Of course, I made a beeline for the Whacky Shack. We rode that twice in a row, and probably 5 times overall that evening. The weather was perfect, cool and breezy and not real humid. We rode the sky ride, then marathoned the Sea Dragon a bit. The ride op was really nice. One thing I've noticed is that Waldameer's Sea Dragon is the best swinging ship ride I've been on. It has the best airtime in full swing. It makes me want to find out who manufactured it and learn more about it. We rode the ferris wheel at sunset and got some great pictures, and saw a floating lantern in the sky. We rode Paratrooper and Ali Baba, walked through Pirate's Cove. I was considering Ravine Flyer II but by that time, spiders had started to come out. We took a second ride on the Ferris Wheel and they were EVERYWHERE. Huge, fast spiders building webs on everything. To the sides of us, above our heads in the gondola, in the queue lines. YIKES. The girl on Sea Dragon had to kill a bunch of them. I could only imagine what Ravine Flyer II would have, if Ravine Flyer III was so covered in them. And maybe part of me was not ready to try it again after hurting my neck last time. :/ We rode Whacky Shack AGAIN. I can't get enough of it. I look at all the theming inside Whacky Shack and Pirate's Cove and I think "Someone MADE this! Someone spent hours, maybe days, maybe WEEKS making this stuff!" I wish there were more rides like these. It's why I kinda don't like the idea of dark rides with screens. I see what dark rides can be, and I think "Why aren't other parks doing this? What is so great about expensive screens and 3D technology when you can make something like this?" Yes, it's a little cheesy and silly but I love it. And the ride is clearly very popular. We spent some more time with family in Kentucky for a couple days and then headed back to Texas. We picked up our dogs from our friends' house and my border collie hugged me for about 10 minutes straight. We usually take them everywhere with us, they've only been left with friends or in a kennel a few times, and not for quite as long. Our little ones are more easygoing but my border collie doesn't like being away from us. I don't like Texas, but the one upside of coming home was seeing my dogs again. It was a great trip. We don't travel as much as I'd like. On the last day before traveling back to Texas, we got a phone call. A couple weeks ago my husband entered us in some contests with a local radio station here. We won a trip to Los Angeles to see ACDC! Airfare, concert, hotel, and spending money! I'm SO excited!!!! A lot of the stuff we entered, I didn't know the bands, but I've always liked ACDC. I've never been to LA before and now I'm trying to figure out which park I want to visit. We'll only be there one full day and two half days so I have to pick one park to visit. Let the research begin!

I find it odd I can easily and comfortably fit on older rides like Gemini, Blue Streak, with absolutely no problem, but Raptor and Wicked Twister are a no-go, and Gatekeeper only in the modified seats. It really is as if they are making them smaller and smaller as time goes by. But some of that probably has to do with the shape of the seats. They now seem to mold only to a very specific body type. Also, remember not all guests of larger size are that way because of "dietary and activity choices". Maybe that is the case for many people, but not everyone. Exceptionally tall riders, riders with thyroid conditions that can't lose weight, etc. And a lot of it has to do with proportions too.

Some of this is true for me. I have a horrific bruise from Maver-ache as I now affectionately call it. (Super cool ride, I can totally see why people love it, but it is not for me.) I'm only 25 and I'm already getting too run down for some of the high speeds and tight turns and g forces. Thus I may go back to being picky about which coasters I ride. As far as people in line, the majority of my experiences in Cedar Fair parks have been positive.

I wish the news articles, and Cedar Point for that matter, would repeatedly remind everyone of the procedures for a lost phone. They can survive without it a few hours until closing, and go to Guest Services and ask if an employee can retrieve it after ride shutdown.

I wouldn't be surprised if they had one or more backups on hand.

I was almost always a single rider as a kid. I went with grandparents who didn't want to ride the same thing over and over and over like I did. I got paired with strangers sometimes, and rode alone other times. Nothing ever happened to me. But things DO happen sometimes. I have a really low tolerance for long lines, mostly because I don't get to go to parks as often anymore and my knees are awful. However, I don't care if someone wants to ride alone on certain rides even if it makes the line take longer. Beast, Adventure Express, Flight of Fear, Racer, etc. They should have a FUN day and feel comfortable and safe. I think that's a bit excessive on things like Banshee, Diamondback, Drop Tower, Sheikra, Rougarou, etc. where you really have your own seat and your own space, and it's more than 2 rows across or there's some separation. Anyway, no complaints here.

Camera One on the live webcams is back up and running. Go take a look where it's pointing. I had a feeling the outage was not a coincidence. I bet there will be an announcement VERY soon!! Any day now!

I've never been to Haunt before. Do they do any Halloween theming around the train at KI? I know CP has/had skeleton scenes on the sides of the train year round and I always thought that was cool.

For those who want the experience and don't need the luxuries of home for one night, this is a good thing. It shouldn't cost as much as it does considering the lack of showers, but maybe this is a trial-run to see how things would go. They can learn a lot from public reception and how this year's event goes and tweak things next time around.

I want to go SO BAD! We were planning on being there the following day. But 200 dollars is out of my budget. :_(

I suppose since Arrow is no longer around, they can't give the OK.

^ Does Ohio have different safety laws or something?

Not everyone has the same tolerance for a bumpy/headbanging ride. What's unrideable for one person may not be for another. I get on Vortex knowing it's going to cause me a migrane. But I ride it at least once each trip because it has a lot of memories, and it is a fun ride minus the headbanging. Pretty cool at night, too. Vortex definitely COULD use some love. I hope it gets some, cause I'd like to see it stick around for a long time.