PTR--Winter Chill Out at Cedar Point 22FEB14

[thedevariouseffect]

So, time for a PTR & all that jazz..So as most of you know Cedar Point & Pointbuzz hosted a meetup this year. It was a paid event with all the money going towards Give Kids the World, it's an awesome group. If you have no clue what it is, go look it up, it's incredible and very important.

Now onto yesterday. First off we decided to leave early in the morning to avoid two hotel stays and plus, I didn't feel like driving at 0100 when Lindz got off of work to head up to the point. So after waking up, packing, etc. we hit the road from the base up to CP. I made it in record time, even with construction, stupid drivers, and some traffic around 0900. I usually will take 70W to 75N then RT-6 E all the way to Sandusky. The suggested route is to take Rt-4 N all the way up to Sandusky, but to me it's a death trap waiting to happen. It's a huge long boring straight that takes forever. I'll fork out the extra mileage and a bit of gas possibly to avoid that road. Anyways the drive is listed as three hours & 5 minutes, but i made the drive right on two hours forty minutes, not bad. Held 80-82mph or so on 75 except with traffic/construction and about 60-70 at times on RT 6.

Anyways once we got there we headed by the dorms and got a peek on the new dorm complex being built. Not too many details about them. I honestly believe the new dorms will be all female dorms to replace Golds which was recently just torn down and turned into a parking lot, and I believe 1300's which was the off site girls only dorms are still condemned..





Once we got off of the causeway we headed down 250 to Sonic for breakfast. Their ultimate burrito is very very good btw! Once breakfast was done it was about 1030-1040 or so, and we figured head over to Castaway Bay to get their early, register, and talk. Once we registered we headed up to the marina gate, parked, and got ready for the tour. Here's some shots of the tour, everything is self explanatory really. Nothing too crazy to talk about during the tour, just a nice casual stroll down the midways and some behind the scenes areas taking pictures, talking, and having fun.

First things first btw, here's a video highlight of the tour, phone automatically makes these, very nifty

Part Dos to follow

[thedevariouseffect]

BUT WAIT THERE'S MORE!!

Part Dos..lets start with the rest of the pictures:





















































So that was the tour, any questions or anything just ask. I omitted a few photos/duplicates but there are many more.

Anyways, back to Castaway Bay for Q&A..hey I rhymed, awesome

So we grabbed our food, which was all provided by Famous Daves, good stuff. Had a bacon cheeseburger, fries, brownie, and Mellow Yellow, good stuff. Once we sat down and ate a bit Tony and the rest of the CP crew came in to talk to us. Some things I can't talk about, we got some exclusives as a perk for donating our money (over 13 thousand) to GKTW. What I can talk about is this, I'm ganna just jot them down as bullets:

• Surf Dog is classified as a coaster as expected, parts are here, it will take a day to install
• Lake Erie Eagles will get here later, it will take a day to install
• A Coke Freestyle and Yogurt stand like at GK plaza will be placed next to Joe Cools
• GK gave 2.3 million (may be wrong correct me if so) rides it's first season. Raptor is still the winner. GK gave most rides this season
• Starbucks is coming to Donut Time
• New tweetup coin will feature Blue Streak being it's anniversary year, only 500 every year
• Blue Streak, Raptor, and I forget the last one are celebrating anniversaries this year
• Talked about the events (Campout, Walk-Backs, etc.)
• Iron Dragon's height requirement is going up to 48 inches
• Slingshot is being installed, it will be the second highest point on the peninsula at 360 feet. It is a paid attraction
• Camper Village is totally changing, the building currently demolished, no updates yet
• We raised 13 thousand in donations, I can't stress this enough
• And many more

So we ended with a Q&A with the Jason McClure, the current VP/GM of CF. You all might know him from his PKI & Carrowinds days as VP of Finance, and his last assignment as VP/GM of Dorney. Very cool guy, glad to have him on board, he will have big shoes to fill, but he is a good pick for the park, no doubt.

After the quick Q&A going over a few comments, which sadly weren't that great of questions aside from painting TTD (literally a painter with a roller will rappel down the tower and roll paint on the ride), someone even practically I bet ended the Q&A by asking a question about Geauga Lake..stupid stupid person. Whoever you are, you're stupid.

Anyways as a parting gift for raising this much money, doubling what we had last year, we got some parting gifts aside from some exclusive knowledge. In a packet, we received a Cedar Point 2014 calendar, it's pretty neat. I needed a calendar so this solved that. Lots of cool pictures, and has some CP events listed already in it, cool stuff. I also forgot to mention we got a CP Beanie, and CP gloves before the tour, they are going to mail our T Shirts to us as well. Also, and you guys that didn't go are ganna hate this We got one line pass per person. Just walk up the exit, anytime during the season, present the pass, ride the ride. No wait. Also as a final token, McClure put in a free pass to ride the new Slingshot for free valid anytime this season. Again, just walk up, present the coupon, and ride the ride. O

So all in all, paid 40 bucks per ticket, got a look at some behind the scenes stuff, got to see the park with some snow on the ground and no people, just us, snow, wind, and seagulls. Awesome food, Q&A, and some exclusive freebies. Plus the feelgood of donating money to an awesome charity. So for those that don't sign up for these things because you think, oh it's not worth the money, or oh it's expensive, or oh I bought a platinum pass why do I need to pay to do this, etc. Stop your whining, you get what it's worth being honest, and plus I'd bet the majority of the times we pay for an event, the money goes to a charity such as GKTW. As you see above, it's awesome to be apart of these events. There are things you guys don't even know about yet hehe

After the event, met with a few friends of ours and talked for a bit. Their group ate first so they decided to go grab dinner together while me and Lindz headed to get our hotel. We decided to stay at the Motel 6 off of RT 6 and RT 2. It's a great small place and good for a budget. This visit was my first in five times we've stayed here that I've been disappointed with them. The room was terribly messy and unclean. No reason to delve here, I got a partial refund and just sent the GM an email and pictures relating to the room. I will even after this recommend them. Staying five random times in five different rooms, being honest I'm willing to give them a second chance. The rooms are all modern, great amenities, and very cozy. Plus the beds are fantastic here. Great for a coaster trip, always have been.

Anyways while my friends ate, we went to Walmart and bout swimsuits, because we were going to try and do Kalahari day passes. However, after getting swimsuits and driving up the road to them, day passes were sold out unfortunately. Same with Maui Sands up the street, and Castaway Bay. Basically apparently Canadians/NY have a mid winter break and Sandusky was very popular this weekend, sadly. After seeing from the windows how enormous and amazing Kalahari is I will be back at some point. The water coaster alone is enough of a draw to go there for me. But the place is HUGE. I mean HUGE. For those of you who went to the KIC Holiday Party, take that GWL and multiply it by about three times. Kalahari is 215,000 square feet, wheras that GWL is 79,000 square feet. Let that sink in.This doesn't even include the size of the hotel/resort attached to it, just..MASSIVE

Anyways after no luck for waterparks, we sat around and talked for a bit about coasters/meetups/etc. we hadn't caught up for awhile. After parting our ways we headed to our room where we spent the rest of the night. We were going to go to Crowbar, a gay bar downtown that is fantastic, however the party wasn't for us, as a couple it seems weird, and we were both exhausted, especially me. Was up at 0600 for work Friday, worked, came home, and stayed up till 0100. Then woke up at 0600, drove, and did all the CP stuff. So by 2200 I was shot.

After getting a great bit of rest, we wokeup, and got ready to leave. After leaving the disappointing room, we headed to one of my favorite places to eat in Sandusky. For those who may travel with me up to the point for events this year, I will take you there. But for now Dirty Dees is my secret. For those that are enthusiasts and know what I'm talking about, it's the best place to get away from all the tourism, hectic, and crazy bit of the on season life that happens in Sandusky. After breakfast we headed over into Downtown Sandusky and stopped at one of the piers to climb rocks and go to the edge of them to take pictures of the point and look at the frozen lake. There wasn't anything really that wasn't frozen. It's so quiet and calm up there in the off season. Take that and remove the waves/water/boats, even more quiet. The only thing you heard was wind, seagulls, and us. Speaking of ice, the ice is so thick and solid I took a boulder and chucked it straight at the ice, threw another straight up, and nothing, barely a dent. It just hit, slid, and bounced. Also got to see another cool thing. Between two of the piers, there was an ice quake. There was a straight but somewhat jagged line down the middle of the two piers where the ice split and broke with a little water between them, very cool stuff.

Once we got off the rocks, the pier, and back to the car, it was time for the long drive back to Wright Patt. Passed up good olf Davis Besse, Flag City, and Piqua (Tra La La..see who read the books), and then on home. We left about 1230 and got back at 1510. So again, saved twenty minutes off of my drive. I'll take it.

Well, that's all folks, nothing else to report or upload. Just ganna sit here, relax, enjoy the night and prepare for work tomorrow. FUN weekend even if six ish hours were spent in a car listening to music, girlfriend, or nothing. Glad I got time to go up there and do this, hopefully KIC will get to do this with KI one day during the off season. I enjoyed this alot, I'd love to take a trip with all of you and have a similar experience at the park.

Until next time..btw...pretty soon..this Trip Report section will be filling up, are you excited yet?

75 days left till CP opens, even less for KI

[The Interpreter]

Can you please split the pictures up? This thread is loading only ? Marks for 3/4 of them on my phone. I doubt I'm the only one.

[TTD-120-420]

I don't think it gets said enough how ugly the Luminosity stage is. The stage and the bleachers combine to make one of the ugliest areas in the park. Just awful.

[malem]

Thanks for the pics & TR! It sounds like it was a great event.

Ultimately, I figured that going behind the scenes at CP wasn't worth 200 miles of driving on two-lane highways in questionable winter conditions. I probably would have been there had I known that others from here would be in attendance.

[thedevariouseffect]

The roads weren't bad, whatsoever, had no issues anywhere

Terp, pictures are split up amongst two posts lol

[The Interpreter]

Yes. And 3/4 of them won't load with so many per post, at least here.

[thedevariouseffect]

Are you on mobile or desktop? And man..y'all are posting, the replies won't be in order..boo.

How many from each aren't showing up so I can figure out where to edit

[The Interpreter]

Don't sweat it. Just post them over time in random. Heck, it may be only me that's affected.

[jcgoble3]

For the record, all photos are displaying fine on Firefox on my laptop.

[thedevariouseffect]

^^Or get a Facebook and view my albums

hehe

[The Interpreter]

That won't be happening.

[thedevariouseffect]

Nifty video my phone made, ganna insert it into the PTR, but figured for those current you'll see it here:

[fanofFirehawk]

Any word on Shoot the Rapids?

[thedevariouseffect]

Nope, other than they plan to have it up opening day and maybe a possible press release before then..but nothing now..

We walked passed it during the tour...we laughed, and poked fun, and said things..

[PhantomTheater]

Blue Streak, Raptor, and I forget the last one are celebrating anniversaries this year

Magnum, Jr Gemini/Wilderness Run, Woodstock Express

.

After the quick Q&A going over a few comments, which sadly weren't that great of questions aside from painting TTD (literally a painter with a roller will rappel down the tower and roll paint on the ride), someone even practically I bet ended the Q&A by asking a question about Geauga Lake..stupid stupid person. Whoever you are, you're stupid

Why is said person stupid?

Anyways once we got there we headed by the dorms and got a peek on the new dorm complex being built. Not too many details about them. I honestly believe the new dorms will be all female dorms to replace Golds which was recently just torn down and turned into a parking lot, and I believe 1300's which was the off site girls only dorms are still condemned..

1300's has been in use the last two seasons

[thedevariouseffect]

You're at a CP interview w/ the CP GM and the CP media comm. why ask about GL..especially in the manner she did, it was downright rude. We were going well with questions, then with hers, silence, then only one more question

1300's is back, impressive..if it gets bad enough it has to be condemned..there's a problem

[SOBwasaSOB]

Sounds like a great time. Sorry Kalahari did not work out it os great! I highly recommend it.

[kblanken]

• Starbucks is coming to Donut Time
• New tweetup coin will feature Blue Streak being it's anniversary year, only 500 every year
• Blue Streak, Raptor, and I forget the last one are celebrating anniversaries this year

Thanks for the report... did they say whether any special merchandise for Blue Streak will be sold?

[thedevariouseffect]

Nothing was stated, but again nothing was asked...so it's still within the realm of possibility.

[thekidd33]

With the number of PTRs showing up on various site it seems like there must have been a ton of people there! Thanks for sharing!

[thedevariouseffect]

Three groups of people..Putting it at a minimum without the exact figure raised...Take $13k/$40=325 participants at least..

It was pretty cray cray..but totally fun..got to see a few employees I used to work with