Scott Evans Posted May 25, 2010 Share Posted May 25, 2010 I took a trip to Cedar Point this past weekend with my wife and met friends of ours up there who joined us. It was an interesting trip with really four levels of "thrill seekers". My wife likes smaller rides and coasters, my wife's friend doesn't like anything over a "1" rating, and my friend likes some coasters but nothing inverted and none of the spinning rides. Also my wife can usually only last about 6 hours at a park before getting tired and ready to go. With all that said plus multiple rides being broke down the ride count was small so in this trip report I will compare the ride at CP with those at Kings Island that are similar. Ride 1: Sky Ride - KI - nothing similar Sky Ride was a decent way to get the day started as it gave me an overhead view of the front part of the park. No real reason to implement this at KI as the park layout makes it easy to get to one part to the other. Also I was amazed at the lines of people waiting to ride the Sky Ride rather than walking the midway. Ride 2: Corkscrew KI - Vortex Corkscrew was surprising to me at how short it was especially compared to Vortex. My wife surprised me and wanted to ride this, our friends, sat this one out. The wait for this ride was 0 wait, as we literally walked on to it. I would say this was a fun ride and very surprisingly smooth. My wife also enjoyed this ride even though she issued her trademark screams which left me deaf on my right ear. I'd give the ride a B+. Vortex though wins the battle of these two however, though barely as Vortex is a much rougher ride, however the thrills and speed make up the difference. Ride 3: Iron Dragon KI - Top Gun/Flight Deck My wife and I also rode Iron Dragon as our friends sat out. This was an excellent ride, extremely smooth, and the theming was perfect with the first half gliding through the trees and the second half through the lagoon. The added fog effects added a very nice touch. Grade of A for this ride and it beats out the faster but theme lacking Flight Deck at KI Ride 4: Cedar Point Train vs Kings Island Train After that we made our way to the train at Cedar Point to head back to the area where Maverick was. We also rode the full train and it beats Kings Islands by a mile. The bonetown animations were great and entertaining. Ride 5: Antique Cars This was a ride that all 4 of us decided to ride, especially since the mine car was down. Was a bit of a wait for these as one of the cars broke down on the covered bridge. Ok for what it was. Nothing at KI to compare Ride 6: Paddleboat Excursion Wait for Maverick was an hour so we moved on to see if Gemini was running as the Mine car was still down. Gemini was also broke down so we took the paddle boat excursion which was a decent tour of the park and the new water ride there looks like lots of fun. Ride 7: Witches Wheel Me and my wife were going to ride Monster but the CP operator was really inefficient at loading the ride so we moved on and took a ride on the Witches Wheel. It was a decent ride that made us dizzy. Fun for what it was. Ride 8: Magnum XL KI Diamondback Me and my wife's friend husband decided to ride this ride next, when we got up there the sign said 1 hour wait though I saw someone mess with it right before. Wait was maybe 15 minutes. Ride was pretty decent though alot rougher than I expected for a steel coaster. Also someone evidently had a bowel movement halfway through the ride which provided an interesting smell. Ride itself was an A- Diamondback though is a clear winner though really not the exact type of coaster to compare it to. Ride 9: Mine Car Ride KI Adventure Express Gemini was still broke down and they had a mechanic looking at what looked to be an electrical box half way through the track. My wife took this one off her will ride list after seeing this..so we walked back over to see if the Mine Car was running and it was. Once again it was a walk on and me and my wife took the front seat. I found it interesting that the restraints required all three seats of people to cooperate before they would latch down. As for the ride itself it was a decently fun ride but still trails Adventure Express in both theming and speed. Winner: Kings Island, Ride Grade B- though going over the water was pretty cool. Also to note that someone had changed the wait time sign to 2 hours which caused some people to look at the wait and then walk away. Ride 10: Millennium Force KI Diamondback After eating lunch and having the most expensive and worse cheeseburger I've ever had, we walked over to see what the wait was like for Maverick again, this time it was 1.25 hours so we decided to take the train back to the front of the park as Mean Streak was also still down. While riding the train back to the station I noticed that the line for MF looked to be pretty light. So me and the other guy on the trip headed over there while our wives went I believe out to the boardwalk. Anyway we get there and the ride wait time said 1 hour, in reality it was about 30 minutes. The line was long however it really never quit moving. The ride ops on this ride did an excellent job of loading and unloading the trains and ensured that the entire train was full. This was an awesome ride and unbelievable first hill climb and drop. Extremely smooth ride as well. Grade for the ride, A+. Though I still like Diamondback better for its unique seating and smooth ride. Was definitely worth the wait. Ride 11: Iron Dragon Me and my wife were going to ride Wildcat but decided it wasn't worth the wait, so we moved over to Iron Dragon again, this time was a much longer wait and evidently the ride broke down while we were in line as they had to do a few test runs, which created a much longer wait. Second time was not as fun as the first but still an enjoyable suspended coaster. Ride 12: Corkscrew Again the line looked incredibly short for this, my wife was going to join me a second time however decided against it as she had reached her level for being out all day around the 6 hour mark. So I rode it by myself, it would have been a walk on however the Ride Ops closed some of the cars for unknown reasons that created a longer line and wait. Incredibly stupid in my opinion. Still a fun ride. Ride 13: Gemini KI Racer The ladies were tired so me and the other dude left them at the Dragster viewing stands (which by the way we did see a rollback) and went to see if the Gemini was finally running, which it was. It was a short line that was moving fast until..the blue side broke down. This of course slowed things down as they lost 50% of their capacity. The ride itself was fun however I have to give Kings Island's racer the edge here as it seems to be as fast with more air time in my opinion. Gemini Grade: B+ Edge Racer Ride 14: Mean Streak KI Beast My friend didnt really want to ride this as he knew that it was way to rough from previous rides (he's from Sandusky). However since Maverick was broke down (again) we went ahead and got in line for it which was much longer than I initially though. The ride itself was horrible, and is third on my least favorite coasters behind SOB & Firehawk. It was incredibly rough and was really not fun. Grade: F Beast wins by a mile and even SOB was less painful than Mean Streak, and I rode Son of Beast about 1 or two trains before the major incident a few years ago. Anyway we would have been better off waiting outside for Maverick to reopen as it was running again by the time we got off the Mean Streak and the line had already rebuilt to the 40 minute mark and our wives were calling us ready to go. Overall impression: Cedar Point was a nice park, very clean, but seemed to have lots of breakdowns for some reason. Food was not good but wasn't expecting too much. Also I would recommend for eating outside the park Manny's Sports Bar which has a Kobe Cheeseburger for about 10 bucks and the Brown Derby Roadhouse. Both are on 250 near the hotels (Hampton Inn, Fairfield Inn etc.) Next time I go though I will leave the wives at home. :-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PhantomTheater Posted May 26, 2010 Share Posted May 26, 2010 The Wildcat should be ridden by all, it shows what a brilliant mind Schwarzkopf (Sp?) was. No blue Streak? That ride is more comparable to Racer than Gemini is. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott Evans Posted May 26, 2010 Author Share Posted May 26, 2010 The Wildcat should be ridden by all, it shows what a brilliant mind Schwarzkopf (Sp?) was. No blue Streak? That ride is more comparable to Racer than Gemini is. The wives were ready to leave at 3pm so we left at that time. I may try to make it up there again before end of the year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaveStroem Posted May 26, 2010 Share Posted May 26, 2010 The Wildcat was running extremely smooth last week. We all were pretty WOWed by it. Even my wife liked it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Interpreter Posted May 26, 2010 Share Posted May 26, 2010 One of my very favorite coasters anywhere, the Kitty is not to be missed...nor confused with Galaxis, of which it is not. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Millennium Posted May 31, 2010 Share Posted May 31, 2010 Some of those comparisons do not make sense...I would compare the rides like this: Gemini vs. Adventure Express Adventure Express vs. Cedar Creek Invertigo vs Wicked Twister Diamondback vs Millennium Force Diamomdback vs Magnum XL Corkscrew vs Vortex Raptor vs. Firehawk Beast vs. Mean Streak Racer vs. Blue Streak etc... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bkroz Posted May 31, 2010 Share Posted May 31, 2010 Some of those comparisons do not make sense...I would compare the rides like this: Gemini vs. Adventure Express Adventure Express vs. Cedar Creek Invertigo vs Wicked Twister Diamondback vs Millennium Force Diamomdback vs Magnum XL Corkscrew vs Vortex Raptor vs. Firehawk Beast vs. Mean Streak Racer vs. Blue Streak etc... And even then things do not really make sense... Sometimes rides can't be compared, I guess. If every Kings Island ride had a counterpart at Cedar Point, they would probably not both exist. Firehawk vs. Raptor? Beast vs. Mean Streak? Invertigo vs. Wicked Twister? Even Power Tower vs. Drop Tower seems obvious, but is really impossible to judge. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Interpreter Posted May 31, 2010 Share Posted May 31, 2010 In fact, such comparisons are rather.....pointless. Terp, who has been to Maple Grove...and had a great adventure Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Millennium Posted May 31, 2010 Share Posted May 31, 2010 In fact, such comparisons are rather.....pointless. Terp, who has been to Maple Grove...and had a great adventure I have no idea what Maple Grove is or how it relates to my post? And my comparisons were not pointless. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Interpreter Posted May 31, 2010 Share Posted May 31, 2010 Stick around, you will understand after a while. Some things take a while to grok. Terp, who hopes some day you see der point. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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