My First Cedar Point Trip 6/2-6/3

[thekidd33]

Cedar Point. Coaster enthusiast's Mecca. What better place for my first (non KI) trip as a member of that club? My girlfriend had been telling me for months that Millennium Force would change my perceptions of all things roller coaster. I have always heard great thigns about the park so I booked a room at Breakers and off we went. We were joined by my brother and his girlfriend as well. It took us 4 hours and 10 mins to get there from the northside of Indy. That first glimpse of Millie and Dragster from the causeway was enough to get my heart racing! What an awesome sight! We checked into the hotel and headed for the park.

Gemini - The crowds were really light as we entered the resort gate by Magnum and headed over to Gemini. Only the red side was running but it was a station wait so we jumped in line and had to wait only two trains before our ride. I ended up in 3:1. What a surprise that first drop was! I was really caught off guard by how much air there was there. There wasn't a whole lot to get excited about after that on this ride, I would find later that was due to both seat choice and the fact that only one side was running, but it got us all pumped for the rest of the park.

Cedar Creek Mine Ride - Getting off Gemini I wanted to see what the line looked like for Maverick because it was the coaster I was looking forward to riding most. We got there to find the wait at a little over an hour (which was about 40 min longer then my brother was going to be willing to wait for anything lol) so we hopped on the Cedar Creek Mine Ride. I have always liked Adventure Express and hoped that this ride would offer similar enjoyment. I ended up in seat 3:1 again. I have to say I was a left a lilttle disappointed by this ride. It offered nice views of the area around it and the drop over the water is neat but it just didn't seem to have the character of Adventure Express.

Mean Streak - Despite what I had heard (which all turned out to be true) I had to give Mean Streak a try. I am a big fan of wooden coasters and there was only about a 10 minute wait. I took the advise I had always read and waited the extra 5 minutes for a front seat ride. I can see how when it first opened it was prolly a very thrilling ride. The first drop was fun and the view from the top is really good...but dear lord the jackhammering!! It was easily the most uncomfortable ride I have ever taken on a coaster. I honestly don't see how it hasn't injured anyone yet. Especially if I was in the seat that is supposed to make it 'bearable'. It was absolutely horrendous. Both my brother and his girlfriend went immeadiately to get some tylenol after riding (they rode in the front in the train after mine). Barring a major, overhaul that was my first and last Mean Streak ride.

Magnum XL200 - Licking our wounds, we checked the line for Maverick again but found it still too long for my brother so we headed around the bend to Magnum. The line was just to the bottom of the stairs outside the station. Perfect! I stuck with my theme of the day so far and took seat...3:1. Let me just say that I LOVE THIS RIDE!! The first hill gives a great view, the drop is awesome, not overly steep but still gives great air. The pretzel turn is a lot of fun and not an element I had experienced before. The bunny hills on the way back gave great air. This was my brother's girlfriend's first hyper coaster (and only my second) and as we all talked later on that day we agreed that Magnum plays the roll of 'starter coaster' perfectly. It is a great introduction to the world of hyper/giga/strata coasters. Overall a great ride.

Corkscrew - After a quick snack break (chili cheese nachos for me) we decided to give Corkscrew a try. They were only loading the front two and back two cars but we walked on to 5:1. Though short I had a lot of fun on Corkscrew. The drop gave decent air in back and the loop wasn't overly forceful. Corkscrewing over the midway was a great touch. All four of us thought this was a great little ride.

Disaster Transport - We then made our way towards the front of the park stopping to check out Planet Snoopy. Wicked Twister was down (I actually never saw it running either day) so we got in line for Disaster transport. I have read a lot of 'skip it, not worth the time, etc.' comments about this ride but the whole bobsled idea seemed fun to me and who doesn't want to ride a coaster they haven't experienced before? We waited about ten minutes and the got in the front row of our car. The ride was short and sweet - I'm glad I rode it - I wouldn't wait more then 15-20 minutes for it again - but it certainly wasn't terrible.

Blue Streak - Our destination at the front was Raptor but it too was down so it was Blue Streak to the rescue. This ride was also a walk on and my girlfriend and I took 1:1. As I said I am a big wooden coaster fan and this time I wasn't at all disappointed. This ride gave awesome airtime all the way around! I really liked the pacing of this ride too, never a dull moment and it seemed you spent as much time out of your seat as you did in it. Really a ton of fun and I stuck it right in front of Racer in my rankings.

Iron Dragon - Raptor was still down as we got off Blue Streak so we headed down the midway. My brother's girlfriend wanted to ride the Cadillac Cars so we relaxed for a bit on those and then jumped over to Iron Dragon. I love Flight Deck at KI (esp. this season) so I was excited to ride this one. It was a fun ride with some great views and the helix at the end was very cool...but it is definitely much much tamer then its KI companion.

Wildcat - By this point it was about 7:10pm and the park was really clearing out. My girlfriend was dying to get to Millie but Wildcat was calling my name as I got off Iron Dragon. None of us really expected much from this ride but boy were we surprised! We had a blast!! The drops were great the turns were a ton of fun and it never lets up the whole time. A real hidden gem in my opinion. One thing of note though, the lap bars on at least two of the cars running were not locking into position. A man in the group in front of ours asked why this was to which a ride op replied "It's been a long day" and sent them out. I never felt like I was in danger on the ride but it all did seem rather odd.

Millennium Force - It was just a little after 7:20pm when we got done with Wildcat and Taylor was getting her way this time - we were going to ride Millie. We got to the line and saw it was almost completely empty! We walked all the way up to the unloading station before stopping. I love roller coasters and have never been on one (not named Mean Streak) that I haven't enjoyed...but I was scared! That first hill looks HUGE standing under it. There was some sort of problem with the train right before ours and it was held in the station for about 5 minutes after it was loaded before they finally sent it out. We got the blue train and I was in 3:2. Millie doesn't waste any time getting up the lift hill! The first drop was absolutely insane!! Easily the best I had ever been on. The airtime on both Millennium Island hills was great but paled in comparsion to the launch out of my seat I got as flew by the station! My brother's girlfriend greyed out on the first overbank but she still loved the ride! It was an incredible 2 minutes. I placed it third (at the time) overall for the simple fact that I feel that Diamondback and Voyage (the two I had ahead of it) just do more. Mille has an amazing first drop and great airtime and awesome speed but there seems to be break between elements that Voyage and Diamondback avoid. Still a fantastic ride!

Maverick - With our adrenaline pumping we ran over to Maverick and got in line just before closing. This was the ride that I was looking forward to the most. We had a station wait and I got seat 2:1 and off we went! I think that one's first ride on Maverick is a learning experience. The first time over the first hill its hard to enjoy because you truely think you are about to fall out. You have to learn to go with the transitions and be ready for them and the power of the tunnel launch really catches you off guard. The headbanging was really bad since we didn't know what to expect. It was a neat ride but I think we all came off the first Maverick ride slightly disappointed. The park was closing so we headed back to the hotel for a quick dip in the pool before (a SLOW SLOW SLOW) dinner at Friday's where every single employee I saw had a badge that read "1st year of service." I know that these sorts of establishments have high turnover...but it was an inexperience staff that night and their service greatly suffered for it.

Magnum Round Two - My girlfriend and I headed to the park the next morning about 10:15am and had some time to kill before the other two met up with us so we decided to start our day off on Magnum. We were in seat 2:3 this time and we got a trimless ride! That pretzel turn was really fun and really intense without that trim! It was a nice touch to see the "We Love Maggie" written in the sand by that turn as well. Perfect start to the day.

Maverick - We rode the antique cars and walked around the museum for a little bit but when we still hadn't heard from my brother I decided I needed to give Maverick another chance. This time I knew what was coming and I could move with the train. What a difference! Maverick was a beast! It vaulted Millie and landed at thrid overall. This ride has it all, speed, a redic first drop, two great inversions and a LIM launch. Perfect.

Raptor - We met up with the other two and headed down to Raptor happily seeing that it was indeed running today! The line was rather long already and we waited about 30 minutes but to the ride crews credit we were moving the whole time. They were doing a great job getting trains loaded and dispatched quickly. The four of us were in row two and I was in the middle right seat. I loved this ride and it was incredible how much they jammed into it. The drop, loop, and helix really stood out. Raptor actually ended up at the top of my brother's coaster rankings. Me and Taylor decided to walk around a bit and take in other parts of the park we hadn't seen.

Gemini - On our way out I saw that Gemini had the Blue side running so Taylor and I headed over to try it out. We chose seat 5:1...holy airtime city!!! This was ten times better then the ride the day before as we got thrown out of our seats on each drop! The back is where its at on Gemini. It added a lot to the ride that the trains were racing too. A great ending to a great trip.

Overall it was a FANTASTIC trip! I cannot wait to get back to Cedar Point again very very soon!

[IndyGuy4KI]

Nice TR, thanks for posting!

[KI FANATIC 37]

Great TR! I am going next week so I will be sure to tell you how it goes!

[thekidd33]

Thanks for reading guys! Can't wait to hear about your trip Fanatic!

[Dbfan]

Great TR!

Why no Top Thrill Dragster? Or was it closed?

[thekidd33]

Great TR!

Why no Top Thrill Dragster? Or was it closed?

It was closed the whole time we were there on Weds and unfortunately we were under some time constraints on Thurs and I was the only one that wanted to ride it. I will certainly make it a priority on my next trip, hopefully later this year.

[The Beast Rider]

Mean Streak - Despite what I had heard (which all turned out to be true) I had to give Mean Streak a try. I am a big fan of wooden coasters and there was only about a 10 minute wait. I took the advise I had always read and waited the extra 5 minutes for a front seat ride. I can see how when it first opened it was prolly a very thrilling ride. The first drop was fun and the view from the top is really good...but dear lord the jackhammering!! It was easily the most uncomfortable ride I have ever taken on a coaster. I honestly don't see how it hasn't injured anyone yet. Especially if I was in the seat that is supposed to make it 'bearable'. It was absolutely horrendous. Both my brother and his girlfriend went immeadiately to get some tylenol after riding (they rode in the front in the train after mine). Barring a major, overhaul that was my first and last Mean Streak ride.

It's amazing isn't it? To me at least, Mean Streak is easily much rougher and more unenjoyable in it's current form than Son of Beast ever thought about being. But Mean Streak is still running...

Great trip report! It sounds like you had a great time up at the Point!

[BeastForever]

I'm going to CP this summer in July. Which I've been looking forward to all school year.

Anybody know how crowded Cedar Point is in July?

[The Interpreter]

Quite crowded...less so Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday than other days...

[BeastForever]

Thanks Terpy!

[The Interpreter]

Notice I didn't say, as I always do about Kings Island, that it depends on the weather. Cedar Point is more of a resort, destination park...and people generally do not cancel their trips due to weather. That being said, if it rains hard during the day...then stops, you may luck out and people will head back to their hotels...and you can ride!

[thekidd33]

Mean Streak - Despite what I had heard (which all turned out to be true) I had to give Mean Streak a try. I am a big fan of wooden coasters and there was only about a 10 minute wait. I took the advise I had always read and waited the extra 5 minutes for a front seat ride. I can see how when it first opened it was prolly a very thrilling ride. The first drop was fun and the view from the top is really good...but dear lord the jackhammering!! It was easily the most uncomfortable ride I have ever taken on a coaster. I honestly don't see how it hasn't injured anyone yet. Especially if I was in the seat that is supposed to make it 'bearable'. It was absolutely horrendous. Both my brother and his girlfriend went immeadiately to get some tylenol after riding (they rode in the front in the train after mine). Barring a major, overhaul that was my first and last Mean Streak ride.

It's amazing isn't it? To me at least, Mean Streak is easily much rougher and more unenjoyable in it's current form than Son of Beast ever thought about being. But Mean Streak is still running...

Great trip report! It sounds like you had a great time up at the Point!

Yeah I just kept telling myself that there was no way it could really be as bad as everyone says...next time I'll listen lol. It was the first time I couldn't wait for a ride to be over.

As for the crowds, it seemed like a great week to be there and the park really emptied in the evening when a lot of school groups left. I am already planning on coming back this same week next year.

[DaveStroem]

Did you get to ride Cedar Down? That is one of my favorites at CP.

[CoastersRZ]

I actually rode Cedar Downs for the first time when I went last August. Such a fun and unique ride. Too bad more of these great classic flat rides weren`t still around. I still say that if Kings Island were to get two or three classic flat rides added to the park (including a set of Scooters again), it would be a wonderful addition, as most classic flat rides could be enjoyed by a wider demographic range than all the big coasters.

Hopefully, I can make it up to Cedar Point sometime this year. Maybe I`ll make it up there in September and check out there HalloWeekends event and see how it compares to Haunt at KI.

[KI FANATIC 37]

Great TR!

Why no Top Thrill Dragster? Or was it closed?

It was closed the whole time we were there on Weds and unfortunately we were under some time constraints on Thurs and I was the only one that wanted to ride it. I will certainly make it a priority on my next trip, hopefully later this year.

Oh it better not be closed when I'm there.....

[thekidd33]

Did you get to ride Cedar Down? That is one of my favorites at CP.

I didn't but the people I saw riding looked like they were having a blast. I'll add it to my 'to-ride' list for next time!