Gordon Bombay Posted August 28, 2008 Share Posted August 28, 2008 So some of you may remember my recent rather interesting, yet dissapointing trip to Cedar Point a few weeks ago where lots of things went wrong and it wasn't one of the best visits to the park: http://www.KICentral.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=14427 I didn't think I'd get to go to Cedar Point again this season or any other park for that matter, in fact, originally myself and some friends had planned to go up to Canada's Wonderland this week to check out Behemoth (as a sneak peek for next year) and ride Skyrider to remember King Cobra... Things didn't work out, everyone had different schedules with work and their obligations, and the trip fell through. Well a good coworker and friends thought up the idea of going to Cedar Point this week since Kings Island is closed during the week, so since we all had some time off of work myself and 3 of my friends from work decided to head up to Cedar Point. Not anxious to repeat the same mistake as last time and taking advice from previous trips and other posters on here we decided to go for two days. Most of us had to work over the weekend so we could get up later and take our time getting there Monday, stay the night, and spend the whole day there Tuesday. Myself and one friend met our Dayton friends around 11 A.M. and we were off to the point, stopping only for Subway and to use the restroom, making it there right around 3 o clock. The causeway traffic was dead, compared to last time, the tolls had no other cars in them, we drove around Perimeter Rd. to park in the back and the park seemed nearly empty on the inside. Unfortunately as we scanned our Platinum passes, we walked in to find a rather crowded Cedar Point. I only took a few pictures our first evening, and these pretty much sum up what we found our first day there: Yep, long lines and one or two trains on the transfer tracks of most of the major coasters. Millenium had one on it's transfer track with most of the queue's filled, Top Thrill had 2 off, and Mean Steak had one off. We waited about a half an hour for Magnum XL-200, we felt kind of frustrated. I could understand removing a train when you have low attendance but when you obviously have a large crowd wouldn't you want them to be waiting in line as little as possible so they could spend money elsewhere? Looking back, this worked out in our favor, we ended up taking the time to ride rides that we usually overlook and that I had not been on. I shoved my camera and lenses in a locker and we decided to take it easy and relax on rides like Cedar Downs, the Antique Cars, the Bumper Cars (which are far better at CP than they are at KI) and I took my first ride on Demon Drop. When it was first announced Demon Drop was for sale many on here and other sites defended it saying it was one of the best drop rides around and worth keeping. . . . I'm sorry, but Demon Drop sucks. The drop itself is great, but the pain and fluid leaking everywhere make it not worth it. . .no thanks. We rode some more flat rides, followed by: Raptor! (who had all of its trains on and a 15 minute wait), Blue Streak (Fantastic wooden coaster) then decided to hop in line for Maverick at around 7 o clock, knowing it would be our last of the night. Once again, it is so worth it to wait for the Front seat of Maverick, an absolutely phenomenal steel roller coaster. What started as a somewhat frustrating night turned out to be great. You really take for granted all the great little rides like the CP&LE RR when you spend all your time waiting in line for big roller coasters. I also noticed that the Sky Ride and Space Needle were working and looked forward to riding those the next day as every other time I come they are closed. We left the park, got a room at Howard Johnson's, dined at the Thirsty Pony, picked up some soda and other beverages from Marathon and went back to our room to watch the DNC and talk politics. I won't delve into politics on these boards but it was pretty interesting going on a trip with two who thoroughly enjoyed watching the DNC and two who would rather not have watched it. We slept and woke up the next morning to head to Cedar Point. The morning started off with a bit of frustration as we noticed yet again many roller coasters did not have all their trains on and the lines were building up: Fun Fact: Did you know that the wait for Top Thrill Dragster is signifgantly longer when it only runs 4 out of the 6 trains? Walking around the park we found more trains on the transfer track, and more long lines... ...sigh. As I had mentioned, yesterday I had seen the Sky Ride and Space Needle running with guests on them (Both rides that elude me every time I visit due to closures), I looked forward to finally getting to ride these, yet as we came upon the long lines I saw. . . . . .The Sky Ride closed. The Space Needle also sat at half mast, closed too. We decided to just suck it up and hop in the 1.5 hour line for Top Thrill Drgaster running 4 trains yet was warmed up and had all seats loaded. First there were two roll backs, those take forever to re-set and launch the trains again, adding to our wait, but they sure are fun to watch. Then we finally reached the station and we noticed the ride was cycling off its guests. They added another train, this was a good sign, but added to our wait. This train loaded, then launched, and rolled back. Back into the station, ask tehm if they want to go again, then launch again. . .they made it! No more than 5 minutes later: "Ladies and Gentleman Top Thrill Dragster is going to be temporarily shut down for mechanical reasons." After about a 15 minute wait, it re-opened, we were finally on and away. What a great ride Top Thrill was but it took us 2 hours and 40 minutes to get on. Afterwards we rode Millenium Force, I know in the past I have dogged this coaster, but it gave a great ride! Also, in the past I was worried about fitting on these rides, during a recent visit to the doctor I found that I had lost 5 pounds, I now fit on both of these rides with plenty of slack to spare! Eventually we decided to ride one of my favorite rides at Cedar Point: The Ferris Wheel, with this I finally broke out my camera: -The Ferris Wheel had a short wait. -Most of the coasters at this time had added all their trains providing for very short waits. -From all the way up here with the wind and wonderful 77 degree weather, it was quite cool. -Ferris Wheel interior. -Cedar Point Midway. -Wicked Twister and Lake Eerie. -Again. -I think this is my favorite area of the park. With most of the coasters having all trains running and short waits I thought maybe the sky ride had opened. -But as you can see in this photo of Blue Steak, it had not. -Kings Island needs a Ferris Wheel. -For some people, like my friend Greg, the Ferris Wheel is more terrifying than Top Thrill Drgaster or Millenium Force. "Hey, is the Space Needle open yet?" "Nope." For me the highlight was ridding the Ferris Wheel and taking pictures, such a good experience: We decided to make one last lap around the park hitting up Magnum, passing up Gemini due to its one sided long wait, and then I convinced everyone to do what I always do at Cedar Point: GIVE MEAN STREAK ONE MORE TRY! Like I always say, Mean Streak looks great from a distance, then you ride, and it sucks. . . majorly. . . Son of Beast I can tolerate and enjoy but last trip's back seat ride on Mean Streak made me want to burn the thing down. I convinced everyone in our group to wait for the front seat, and away we went: -It's odd, the front seat of Mean Streak provides such a better ride compared the other seats. I must admit, I loved riding the front seat of Mean Steak, great lateral forces. -See, some people do come back smiling on Mean Streak. -We considered riding Maverick with a 1.5 hour line before leaving, but voted in favor of Millenium one more time. On the way over to Millenium we came upon one other ride none of us had ridden before: Snake River Falls. Three of our group of 4 thought "Hmm, maybe its like Congo Falls where you don't get that wet on the initial drop, most people are wet from standing on the bridge." We were very, very wrong. We got soaked, but it was worth it to try something new. Water rides terrify me. We dried off waiting in a half hour line for MF and got even drier on the 300 ft. ascent to the top of the lift hill. Millenium is such a great ride. The night before we had noticed the ride operators at Magnum were horrible. One guy kept spitting off the side of the station and checking his cell phone between cycles, while the guy in the box kept teasing people over the microphone and remarked about how everyone looked sad and made stupid faces at him. This was a stark contrast to Kings Island where you can find ride operators at rides like The Beast consistently getting riders excited. Our experience changed when we met Brian over at Cadiallac Cars. He complimented me on my Diamondback shirt and was making conversations with all the guests and getting them excited to ride what seemed to be a rather boring ride. On our way out we made sure to stop by and ride again and to say hi to him. If you're up at CP soon, say hi to Brian at Cadillac Cars, him and his crew were the nicest employees we met the whole trip. After the anique cars we made our way towards the front of the park, preparing to leave and head home to Dayton/Cincinnati. I had to check again though. . .oh my. . .IS THE SKY RIDE ACTUALLY RUNNING? -Nope, thats just a bird, its still closed. Doug wanted a funnel cake, saying he hadn't had one in years, I wanted a corn dog cause i had heard such good things. They were good, but not as good as Camden Park's Pronto Pups. As we are we gazed up at Raptor: But decided our final ride should be on the all time classic, Blue Streak: We made some purchases at various gift shops, stopped by Guest Services to put in a good word for our friend Brian and his crew, and I had to check one last time on the Sky Ride: -Yep, it never opened. So I still didn't get to ride the Sky Ride or Space Needle but I got to take in lots of new rides (new to me at least) and ride some of my favorites while enjoying the atmosphere and taking photographs on one of my favorite rides. All in all a great trip with great friends. Thanks for reading and viewing. -Gordon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gigacoaster2k Posted August 28, 2008 Share Posted August 28, 2008 Great photos and TR! The Giant Wheel is gorgeous, isn't it? Millie is having blocking issues right now, which is why they are only running two trains. From my understanding, they are having problems with one train waiting to enter the loading station while another train is in the loading station. So the temporary solution is to remove a train, instead of hours of downtime while they figure out how to fix it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Interpreter Posted August 28, 2008 Share Posted August 28, 2008 Great trip report and pix! Did you ride the Kitty? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gordon Bombay Posted August 28, 2008 Author Share Posted August 28, 2008 Great photos and TR! The Giant Wheel is gorgeous, isn't it? Millie is having blocking issues right now, which is why they are only running two trains. From my understanding, they are having problems with one train waiting to enter the loading station while another train is in the loading station. So the temporary solution is to remove a train, instead of hours of downtime while they figure out how to fix it. Thats what some people have said, it however was running three trains all day on Sunday. Great trip report and pix! Did you ride the Kitty? Are you referring to Wildcat? Nope, closed on Monday and too long of a line on Tuesday. That is one of the ones I need to ride though! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fan of beast Posted August 28, 2008 Share Posted August 28, 2008 great tr. your photog skills are amazing. the last time we went to the point, we checked out all the usually overlooked rides instead of waiting for hours for the midway giants. it made for an awesome day. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gnarkiller Posted August 28, 2008 Share Posted August 28, 2008 Great photo TR!!! How did you get that photo of mean streak? Anyways great pics! hope you had fun at CP. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flightoffear1996 Posted August 28, 2008 Share Posted August 28, 2008 Wow what kind of camera do you have? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gordon Bombay Posted August 28, 2008 Author Share Posted August 28, 2008 Great photo TR!!! How did you get that photo of mean streak? Anyways great pics! hope you had fun at CP. I stood near the entrance to Mean Streak where their greeter is, that part of the ride is when the train drops down near the midway where the on ride photo is taken. Wow what kind of camera do you have? A Cannon 40d DSLR and various lenses: Canon 50mm f/1.8 Sigma 70-200mm f/2.8 Sigma 28-70mm f/2.8 Promaster 11-18mm f/4.6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markr Posted August 28, 2008 Share Posted August 28, 2008 No Gemini? Once again, great trip report and great photos. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kawana Posted August 28, 2008 Share Posted August 28, 2008 Gordon, Thanks for the great photos and report. My girlfriend and I rode the Wildcat while we were up there, and I was thouroughly impressed. I highly recommend it, although I wouldn't wait more than 15-20 minutes. I'm glad this time was better for you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
indianapolisman Posted August 29, 2008 Share Posted August 29, 2008 Nice report, and photo's. Too bad the Canada's Wonderland trip didn't work out. Glad to see your two day trip went better. I'm also glad to read you gave MS another chance, and enjoyed it. I love all the head-choppers, and interwinding track. I've also found the front seat green train is the best ride. The pict. of the park from the ferris wheel is awsome. I too agree KI desperately needs a ferris wheel. This time for good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iChase Posted August 30, 2008 Share Posted August 30, 2008 Ronny, you've impressed me again. I love your pictures! Especially of the ferris wheel. It's really frustrating when you see huge lines and trains sitting on transfer track. I just want to go crazy! On a different note, I want a ferris wheel. Definitely can't have a classic amusement park without a ferris wheel. Great TR and photos! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beast1979 Posted August 30, 2008 Share Posted August 30, 2008 Ronny, Absolutely fantastic PTR! Your Photo Trip Reports are by far my favorite to read, not only because of the Stunning, Amazing Pictures but because of the spectacular context and a great trip analysis overall. Keep the PTR's Rolling! Jackson Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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