Cedar Point 7/15 & 7/16!

[thegajone]

My brother and I made the trip up to the Point this past Wednesday and Thursday. It was the first time for both of us since Maverick's opening year, whenever that was. I know they had bad weather up there Monday and Tuesday, and with a nice forecast for Wed. and Thurs. we expected the park to be a little busier than usual. But it ended up not being too bad, as you will see below.

On our way back to Breakers we noticed several workers on the 2nd hill of Mean Streak doing what appeared to be pretty serious repairs, so we figured that would be down for both days. Not the worst ride to be "forced" to avoid, lol. We arrived at Breakers a little before 11:00 and when we got out of the car it was cold, overcast and windy! Thank goodness I grabbed my hoodie as I left my house or it would have made for a chilly morning. To our surprise our room was already ready. This was especially surprising given that there were no reservations available for Tuesday night when we originally booked the trip. So we just decided to get settled in the room before heading to the park. We were in the northern? wing of the hotel near the back entrace, which really is an ideal spot. They did a nice job with the renovation but at $310 after taxes and fees and whatnot for just 1 night in literally the cheapest room they offer, I just don't think the convenience factor outweighs the cost. I've stayed at some kickass hotels for $300 per night and not minded, but this room was just a little too basic at that price point. But hey, if they're selling out weekdays at that price, then more power to them.

After checking in we wanted to grab an Auntie Anne's pretzel before heading in but they didn't have any ready and said it'd be 7 minutes. No thanks. So we got a quick ride on Magnum after waiting just a few trains. Rode in the ejector seat, which was a great way to start but a killer on the thighs with that lap bar. Afterwards we hit up the pretzel place next to Magnum's entrace; it was certainly no Auntie Anne's, but it was decent enough. As we finished we saw Dragster's first test car fly up the track. "Perfect timing" we thought and headed towards the entrance. After waiting about 15 minutes for them to let people through the queue, we waited another 5-10 to get on the ride and enjoyed the most thrilling 15 seconds I've experienced at any amusement park.

Following this we hit both Power Towers, which I had actually never ridden before in previous visits. I enjoyed both as I love those anticipation-type rides. The red side was a walk-on and we only had to wait 1 cycle for the blue side. Then we rode Corkscrew, which had a 20 minute wait. The Corkscrew over the midway is very underrated and one of the best elements to any ride in the park, both on the ride and walking underneath on the midway. People who have been going to the park for the near 40 years now that it's been open probably have lost some appreciation for how neat that is, but it wasn't lost on me. It really is pretty cool. And yes, I realize logistically that when going from back of the park to front, it would make way more sense to do Corkscrew THEN Power Tower lol, but we are not Cedar Point experts.

After Corkscrew we saw Sky Ride was a walk-on and thought "eh, what the heck" and rode it to the front of the park. It was another first for me. While on it we noticed Raptor was down. Bummer! So we headed for Gatekeeper. At this point the clouds had broken, the wind had died down and it was in the mid-60's and sunny. Beautiful! Couldn't ask for better weather. Neither one of us had been on GK before, or ridden any winged coaster anywhere so we were pretty excited. The sign at the front said an estimated wait time of 1.75 hours, but it was only an hour. And well worth it! I sat in the left outside seat towards the back of the train and that first drop is outstanding from there, as is the rest of the ride. Loved every minute of it. Afterwards we hit up the Freestyle Coke machine and got a slice of pizza in that area near GK's exit. I had read that the pizza at CP is "meh" but I found this to be worth every penny. Good stuff.

Following GK we headed for Blue Streak, which only had about a 15 minute wait. Seeing as I love Racer, this is another ride I fully enjoy. As we exited we noticed Raptor started running a few test trains. Did we really luck out again? We sure did! We hopped right in the line that built up near the entrance, waited about 10-15 minutes for the queue to open up and got on the 2nd train, back row. This was my first time on Raptor post-Banshee and it still holds up. Raptor's 0-G roll is outstanding and I love the force on the helix at the end. Great ride.

The natural progression from there is to head to the west side of the park, so Iron Dragon was next. The wait was about 20 minutes. Any coaster with 2 lift hills is ok by me I love the back and forth motion down the 2nd hill; great element there. I dearly hope they keep this ride around, or at the very least don't replace it with another record-breaking extreme coaster. Those are great and all, but family coasters like this one are essential to make a well-rounded park, and at my age I need a breather every now and then.

Rougarou was next and also had about a 20 minute wait. We expected longer given the fact that this was the first year it was being operated with the floorless trains. We were just as excited to hear how it was pronounced as we were to ride it, lol. "Ahh, it's ROO-gah-roo" we said to each other the first time we heard the spiel on the station. We each were among those who found Mantis to be too uncomfortable to ride, so we welcomed the change. While I did smack my ear pretty hard after the vertical loop, the experience overall was much improved over Mantis IMO. On Pointbuzz there seems to be some unexplained hatred for the 2nd half of the ride after the MCBR, but I found it to be quite enjoyable. It's almost a mini-spaghetti bowl-type experience.

Oh yeah, Millenium Force time next. Our favorite ride in the park. With a 2 hour estimated wait time, my brother decided to plop down 5 bucks and try the Plinko-style game for a one-time Fast Lane pass...and won! Easily the best 5 bucks spent all day. With the pass we waited 15 minutes and chose the very back seat. I don't think I'd ever ridden anywhere other than the front train before, so this was a different experience. The first hill is SOOOO awesome from back there. I'm a yeller, and I ran out of breath yelling before we even hit the bottom of the hill! I get the whole "Millenium Forceless" complaint that many people have (even though I do start to grey out at the bottom of the first hill), but the height and speed more than make up for it. I've also still never ridden another Giga other than this one so keep that in mind. So for me, this one is as good as it gets.

Following Millie we headed back to their version of Rivertown (forgive me for not knowing the exact name). I absolutely LOVE the music back here with all the banjo cover songs. "Rocketman" on banjo was seriously killer. Seeing as it was only in the high 60s/low 70s, the water rides had pretty short lines. And seeing as we were staying in a hotel just outside the park with plenty of extra clothes to change into, we thought "why not?!" We forked up 2 bucks for a locker to throw our shoes, socks and valuables in and headed to Shoot the Rapids. It was a fun ride with a little bit of themeing, but they certainly could have done more IMO. But it was nice to sit and enjoy a 6 and a half minute ride, which really was about 8 minutes with how badly it was stacking. I didn't get too wet, but my brother got it a little worse being on the waterfall side. After that it was Snake River Falls, which was a much longer walk to the entrance than we were anticipating! Great ride though, and we both got absolutely soaked on this one.

As a side note, I don't understand why they need both of these rides. They're pretty similar to each other in height and overall ride experience. I'm not complaining or anything; STR just doesn't seem like it adds any variety. Oh well.

Anyway, we walked on the other water ride (once again I forget the name, the White Water Canyon-style ride) which I enjoyed because I stayed relatively dry while my brother got DRENCHED! He got hit by 2 of the waterfalls while I avoided all of them.

Overall the water ride experience was definitely worth it. Despite being cool out for a mid-July day, at no point were either of us cold and we dried off faster than I thought we would have.

Next stop was Maverick, but it wasn't running. "It's been down for 2 and a half hours" they said. Bummer. So it was time to head back to Mine Ride and Skyhawk. "Wait, did I just see a Mean Streak train go by?" Sure enough, Mean Streak was open. I couldn't believe it. We got in line and waited about 30 minutes. 30 minutes for Mean Streak? Yeah, my thoughts exactly. We sat in the back row and jackhammered away. Instant headache, the back of the head type, too. And I love the layout; it's just a shame it's so rough. I find it fitting that there's a first aid station just past the exit, lol.

It was Mine Ride time next. At 6'1", 200 lbs. (not huge by any means, but a little on the larger side) and my brother even bigger than that, this ride isn't for us! It did make me appreciate Adventure Express more though which absolutely blows this ride out of the water. Skyhawk followed, which was a much more enjoyable experience. That's one of my favorite flats anywhere. Each of these rides had about a 15 minute wait.

Finally it was time to ride Gemini. Pretty much a walk-on. We opted to each take a side and race against each other. I didn't realize you could actually high-five the other train; either I never paid attention before, or I just forgot -- which is just as likely. So that was cool to experience. That was the closest race I've ever experienced on a racing roller coaster; I'm not sure which side won.

At this point it was time to head back to Breakers and grab a bite at one of the restaurants. We chose Friday's; bad call. The service was ok but the food was no good, even for a Friday's. Burgers were overcooked even moreso than usual and the fries almost tasted stale. Bleh.

After eating and regrouping in the room, it was right around 9:00. Just enough time to get a couple night rides in. So we headed back in and hit up Magnum first; it was another short wait. We decided to sit in the middle of the train in one of the middle seats to see how the airtime there compared to the ejector seat. "Yeah, maybe there IS a little more airtime in 1-3" we decided. Following that we headed all the way up to GK to try the right side this time. The crew was MOVING this time around (not that they were slow the first time, but they were hauling it at night). We only waited about 10-15 minutes. Awesome yet again, but we agreed that the left side might be slightly better.

We started heading towards MF after that but saw the Luminosity show was going. We didn't know if we'd be able to cross over to Millie, so we decided not to risk it and headed to TTD. We agreed that if we rode it then, that we wouldn't have to ride it on Thursday which would free up some time for other rides since we'd only have a few hours in the park to work with on our 2nd day. But alas, as we got to the entrance people were flooding back out the entrance saying it was down. Oh well. We still had time for one more ride and since Magnum was on the way out anyway, we figured "what the heck?" and got in line one last time. We opted for the front seat and got on the 2nd to last train of the night. "Maybe it's just the whole first car that has a ton of airtime, not just the 3rd row" we thought as our thighs got obliterated one last time. We originally wanted to ride Maverick at night but since it was down, Magnum was a nice consolation prize. Very very solid night ride for sure. As we exited the park, TTD started running again. I guess those who waited it out were rewarded!

Overall we got in 22 total rides (19 different rides) in right around 10 hours without a Fast Lane pass. I'll certainly take that! Couldn't ask for better weather or a better day overall.

Day 2 started with breakfast at Perkins in Breakers. You know how every Perkins is the worst, ever? Not this one! To my surprise the service was great, the food was good and they were fast. I couldn't believe it. Somewhere between 95 and 100% of my previous Perkins experiences had been negative, and seeing as this was the only real breakfast option and "people gotta eat", I had pretty low expectations. But they did great! Kudos to the staff over there.

The weather on Thursday was perfect. 70's and sunny. We got to the gate right at 9:00 for ERT and headed straight to Maverick with our fingers crossed. It was running! Hooray! We hopped on what had to have been one of the first trains of the day and had a great ride. It's certainly one of my favorites in the park. We decided it would probably be best to get 2-3 more rides in on it now before the park opens to the GP. BEH!!! WRONG!!! We get up to the station for our 2nd ride and it's down again. Son of a.... We wait about 10 minutes but it didn't look like it was going to be a quick fix and we certainly didn't want to waste any more of ERT than we already had to that point, so we headed straight for MF. Thankfully the line wasn't too bad yet and we only waited about 25 minutes. And once again it was as good as ever.

Following that we hit up Rougarou once again. It was a walk-on and the train was only about half-full which was nice because it allowed my brother and I to have a row to ourselves and spread out. We sure were crammed in there the first time around. No headbanging this time, which combined with the spreading out made it a more enjoyable experience the 2nd time around. Afterwards we did Iron Dragon 1 more time before heading down to Raptor.

Raptor's sign advertised a 1 hour wait and we ended up waiting closer to 1.5 hours. While in line my feet and legs were really starting to get sore. I held up pretty well day 1 but it was starting to take it's toll at this point. By the time we got off the ride, the line had grown considerably and the estimated wait time sign had been updated to show a 2 hour wait. "2 hours? For Raptor? Oh man, it's going to be busy today" we said. But thankfully that was our longest wait of the entire trip.

Following Raptor we headed over to GK for one last ride on it. I tried the Plinko game this time and didn't win I did win a stuffed Angry Birds toy though which I gave to the first youngster I saw. I hope he enjoyed it! Thankfully the line wasn't too long (about an hour) so it wasn't the end of the world that I didn't win the Fast Lane pass. Anyway, we chose the left side again and rode in the very back row. The crew was on point once again, but this time the girl working in the back was angrily yelling at people to get off the station every time it unloaded. If people were lolly-gagging bigtime that's one thing; but to start yelling without giving them a reasonable amount of time was a little overboard IMO. Even the 3rd time around, we still absolutely loved this ride. I'm not sure what the general consensus is amongst enthusiasts, but I'd place this right up there among my favorite coasters ever.

Coming out of the GK exit I thought I'd try the "cheese on a stick". Bad decision. I thought it was awful. The cornmeal breading part was fine; fine enough to where I'd have confidence in ordering a corn dog at CP if I ever felt so inclined. But the cheese part was extremely disappointing. It was basically just a flavorless goo. It not only didn't taste like cheese; it didn't taste like anything! Lesson learned.

Following that we headed over to Wicked Twister, which we passed on day 1 after seeing a 45 minute estimated wait time. It was only a few cycles on day 2 so we rode it and both enjoyed it. Afterwards we decided that 45 minutes would have been worth it as well.

At this point we were both wearing down and decided to ride TTD and call it a day afterwards. We expected a long wait but it ended up only being an hour if that. We got excited when the train in front of us seemed to BARELY clear the top of the hill, but alas the elusive roll-back remained that way.

It was only about 2:30 when we headed towards the exit, but we had done enough. It was a great trip and one that we need to take more often than once every several years. My wife said she wouldn't mind doing a Put-in Bay/Cedar Point trip next summer, so hopefully I'll be back sooner than later!

[PhantomTheater]

We were in the northern? wing of the hotel near the back entrace, which really is an ideal spot.

 

The Three sections of Breakers are tower, original (lobby rotunda area) and east (around the outdoor pool and lakeside pavilion). Thus I'm really confused by northern section.

 

 

Following Millie we headed back to their version of Rivertown (forgive me for not knowing the exact name). I absolutely LOVE the music back here with all the banjo cover songs. "Rocketman" on banjo was seriously killer.

 

That is Frontier Trail with the banjo music. After the bridge by SRF one enters FrontierTown and the music changes to country.

 

 

Anyway, we walked on the other water ride (once again I forget the name, the White Water Canyon-style ride) which I enjoyed because I stayed relatively dry while my brother got DRENCHED! He got hit by 2 of the waterfalls while I avoided all of them.

 

Thunder Canyon

 

 We started heading towards MF after that but saw the Luminosity show was going. We didn't know if we'd be able to cross over to Millie, so we decided not to risk it

 

Through midway access is maintained throughout the show. "Traffic Directors" make sure the pathway keeps moving.

[TheCandyManCan]

Glad you enjoyed the park and got alot in on one visit.

 

I recommend watching some of the Live E that park has. Several venues at the park, including roaming entertainment beat even Cirque at Kings Island. 

 

STR is there because of a former CEO, that is all.

[thegajone]

 

The Three sections of Breakers are tower, original (lobby rotunda area) and east (around the outdoor pool and lakeside pavilion). Thus I'm really confused by northern section.

 

The northern-most section of the hotel. The area of the hotel nearest the northern park entrance near Magnum.

[PhantomTheater]

Which is west, not north. Therefore the Tower section.

[thegajone]

Which is west, not north. Therefore the Tower section.

Dude, pull it up on Google Maps and tell me it's not waaaaayyyyyyy more north than it is "west".

 

The "Point", if you will, runs northwest to southeast, sure, but it's got much more of a north/south direction to it than an east/west direction. You could say it runs from NNE to SSW. The same can be said for Hotel Breakers.

 

Either way, to say "not north" is beyond laughable.