McSalsa's Coaster Adventures: Get to the Point (CP 9/16/2017)

[McSalsa]

Hello KICentral! I am back with a trip report that may have come outta nowhere since I don't think I said anything about it. And it isn't for Kings Island this time! Nor did I return to Holiday World. It was my first ever trip to...Cedar Point!

Now, Cedar Point trips may be commonplace to a lot of people, but for me, this was special. I have been to Kings Island a bunch, and Holiday World a few times, but every time prior to this in the years 2010-2016 we tried to go to Cedar Point something ruined everything and blocked it, and we had to go to Holiday World or Kings Island instead. While I had fun at those parks, I wanted to get the much-hyped and massive Cedar Point on my list of visited parks.

Yesterday, my sister turned 26, and at long last I arrived at "America's Roller Coast" with her for the celebration. We stayed at Hotel Breakers, on-site, so we would not have to drive home stupid tired until 5AM. I guess now is a good time to explain my ride ratings...

RIDE RATINGS

10=Amazing

9=Excellent

8=Very Good

7=Good

6=Decent

5=Meh

4=Bad

3=Very Bad

2=Horrible

1=Stinky Poo

0=Ultimate Stinky Poo from Hades Underwear!?!?

I'll also say this now: it got pretty crowded and there were some events (I'll explain) that kept me from riding everything. Of the 14 "adult" coasters (there are also 2 kids coasters) I only got 7 of them, or about half. I did ride a few non-coaster rides as well though. It was a Saturday during Halloweekends (aka Haunt), it was not gonna be a ride everything day. Anyhow, let's begin.

ARRIVAL AT Cedar Point & HOTEL BREAKERS
Our group (Me+My Sister+2 Friends) arrived at the park after a 4 1/2 hour drive at 10:20AM. Seeing Cedar Point for the first time ever is a sight to behold- this park truly has a AMAZING skyline of roller coasters and thrill rides. Driving around it to get to Hotel Breakers and seeing several of the big rides up-close further built the excitement. Since we had a on-site hotel we could have taken advantage of ERT, but we had stuff to unpack and thus had to go to our Hotel first, and we also needed to get our tickets. By the time we had unpacked, ERT was over. I headed to Millennium Force (leaving my group who wanted to start with Iron Dragon because the guy who was scared of big coasters was with us), since it looked to have a short wait. It did- it was about 20 minutes tops. However, with 5 minutes to go in my wait, Millennium Force realized it was a Intamin and broke down. I met with my sister and she said if I wanted to try and wait the breakdown out to meet her at the hotel at 2PM. I agreed, but Millie was not showing any sign of re-opening for a while.

With Millie down, I was anxious to get on a coaster at all, so I chose the closest big thriller I could find...

RIDE #1: Rougarou

Wait Time: 10 Minutes

Rougarou, the former Mantis Stand-Up coaster, now turned Floorless. I had heard it was super rough and painful from some, even after the conversion. Well, after riding it for myself, I can say that is mostly false IMO- there was a little headbanging, and it was not 100% smooth, but it was perfectly ride-able to me. The coaster also packs some great forces and elements into its layout. It starts off feeling like Banshee a bit with the huge inversions, but after the MCBR it dissolves into chaos as I twisted and turned and I could not tell where I was going until we hit the final brakes. I enjoyed Rougarou quite a lot actually- I love Vortex, and I think Rougarou just managed to edge Vortex out.
Score: 9/10

After Rougarou, I checked out Millennium's line again since it had re-opened, it had grown to 45 minutes. And I watched the ride struggling still- empty trains were going out, and sometimes there were big delays in dispatches and it seemed to only have 2 trains on track. So I decided to go see if Maverick, which had not been running during ERT, was running now. It was but it already had a 1-hour wait and I knew my sister would wanna ride that since it is her favorite ride ever. So I walked past the Steel Vengance construction (in person the coaster looks like it is going to be even more awesome) and Cedar Creek "Mystic" Mine Ride (I loved the nod to Mystic Timbers) and went to my 2nd coaster of the day- which back in 1978, at least Cedar Point claims this, was the biggest coaster in the world.

RIDE #2: Gemini

Wait Time: 5 Minutes

OUCH! I had heard Gemini was one of the smoother Arrows, what the heck happened here?!?! On almost every drop or turn, Gemini kept jackhammering and my back was mildly punished by it. There was some light airtime and if the ride wasn't so rough I probably would have liked it, but this was a horrible first impression for Gemini. Invertigo is probably my least favorite big coaster at KI and I'd ride that over this without hesitation if Gemini is always like this. I'll give Gemini another chance some day probably, but the first ride was meh due to the roughness.

Score: 6/10

After Gemini, my back OK but in some mild pain, I headed further down the Midway and to a ride that I was eagerly wanting to ride prior to this trip- but after Gemini, I was kinda worried about this one...

RIDE #3: Magnum XL-200

Wait Time: 20 Minutes

Dang, the station for this was crazy unsorted because of how big it is and the fact there are no dividers until you nearly board the train. Also for some reason Magnum XL-200 was only running 2 trains- the 3rd was on the transfer track. Probably needed repair or something. Anyhow I boarded eventually and thankfully, Magnum XL-200 was MUCH smoother than Gemini (still not sure how Gemini was that rough- my friends rode it separate from me and liked it). The first drop kind of underwhelmed me, with little air. The 2nd drop was a bit better with some weak floater, then the tunnel hit. The intensity began to increase. The ride hit the trims which sapped some speed but the pretzel knot was still forceful and fun. Then came the next few hills, and Magnum XL-200 came to life. Ejector Air! Over and over, up and down, I felt like I was gonna fly out of my seat multiple times and even thought my glasses, in spite of me using a strap, had flown off in that crazy final tunnel (thankfully they did not as I realized seconds later). The airtime was so strong it did kinda hurt my thighs a bit, but it was not too bad, so it was well worth it IMO. I actually like Magnum XL-200 over Diamondback, mainly due to how crazy the airtime on the final few hills is.

Score: 10/10! (EJECTOR AIR FTW)

After Magnum XL-200, I had about half an hour before I had to meet my group again. I saw Top Thrill Dragster had a 15-minute wait. I could have ridden earlier but I felt nervous after seeing TTD in person, the launch looked crazy and the noises were insane. But after Magnum XL-200 and all the ejector air, I felt ready. I boarded TTD 15 minutes later. The train rolled out of the station behind the 1st train. The train ahead prepared to launch.

TTD then remembered it was a Intamin and broke down.

UGH. That's 2 Intamin breakdowns. I had no time to wait to see if Dragster would re-open (it did, but it took about a hour to fix, and it had a huge wait all day after that so I never got to ride) since it was time to meet my group. My sister, who is scared of heights, was actually impressed I even tried to ride it alone. My solo session now over, I rejoined the group, ate a snack in our hotel room, and we went to go hang out on the beach a bit. I took my shoes off and let my feet into the lake water- they felt like they needed it. After washing the sand off, and putting my shoes back on we headed to a on-site store to buy Cigarettes, then we took a shuttle to the front gate because we wanted to ride a coaster near there...no, it was not Raptor or GateKeeper, both of those had huge waits. We instead rode...

RIDE #4: Blue Streak
Wait: 20 Minutes

Yeah, 20 minutes was one of the shorter waits according to CP's wait time app my sister was using, and it turned out to be accurate for the most part. As for Blue Streak itself, it was kinda how I imagined it- like Racer. If Racer was rougher, and was faster paced and had twice as much airtime. I did not expect Blue Streak to pack this much punch! I loved it, in spite of the roughness which I think was partially because we (Me+Sister) rode in the very back. I actually even liked it more than Holiday World's beloved Raven (Raven is awesome but so was Blue Streak).

Score: 9/10

After the small but spunky Blue Streak, it was about time for dinner. My sister had pre-bought tickets for the "Night of the Living Fed" event, held in the convention center section of the park. We arrived, rested (and they smoked their newly bought cigarettes at the nearby smoking section), and headed in for dinner...we were greeted by some of the scareactors as we entered.

FOOD: Night of the Living Fed

The food buffet was great. It was almost all delicious and there were lots of options. However, what really made this event was the scareactors- they were interacting with guests, and IMO, it was hillarious. They even fed my friends and our favorite of the bunch, a guy named Voodoo, put our silverware in my sister's hair! We made sure to get a picture as we headed out. This was awesome, and I'd do it again in a heartbeat.

Score: 10/10

After NOTLF, we decided to go back to Frontier Town and ride Maverick, my sister's favorite ride, since we were stuffed and could wait for a ride now. We got back there as haunt was starting, and got in line. We waited 45 minutes, and then Maverick went down for the day. I cannot confirm this, but apparently at some point bees were on the track and had made a hive, and this may have been that. So I dunno if it was bees, or if the ride just Intamin'd like MF and TTD did earlier.

Since there was nothing in the back of the park to ride (Steel Vengeance loomed for 2018 though), and we saw GateKeeper's wait had shrunk to 45 minutes, and my friend and sister wanted to ride Giant Wheel, we decided to go to GateKeeper the fastest way we could: train, then walk.

RIDE #5: Cedar Point & Lake Erie RR
Wait: 5 Minutes (for train to arrive)

Holy cow this was the spookiest ride I have ever had on a train. Haunt was in full force, so the lighting and effects were at max creepout level, and the off-ride props really stand out at night. The fireworks sound the fake guns were making got me to jump. Why can't Kings Island's train be this cool!?!?

Score: 8/10

The train got us much closer to our destination, and we walked the rest of the way to Giant Wheel. This section of the park was very pretty at night with all the lights. Me and one friend hesitated to ride Giant Wheel, as I had a bad experience on the one at the state fair a few years ago. My sister and our other friend got in line anyway, and I looked around for something to ride quick while they rode Giant Wheel. I saw...

RIDE #6: MaXair

Wait: 10 Minutes

If you have ridden Delirium, I can sum up MaXair easily: it is Delirium with a longer, better ride cycle. If you have not ridden Delirium these rides dish out some fun positive and negative G-forces at 75+ mph. Delirium was my favorite flat ride...before this.
Score: 9/10

After MaXair, I got off, and my sister was not even on Giant Wheel yet! Eventually they bailed and re-joined us, and we went to GateKeeper instead. The app said 45 minute wait...

RIDE #7: GateKeeper

Wait: 25 Minutes

HA! App was off, in a good way, by 20 minutes! I rode in the back of the train on the left wing. Also...I do not get, at all, why some people call GateKeeper forceless and boring. It actually was very fun and had good forces! The first drop with the twist was incredible and nothing like I have ever felt before on a coaster, save maybe Banshee's slow roll. Also the big hill afterwards actually had airtime on it! Add a bunch of fun inversions including the keyholes to this, and a fun helix ending, and you have a great coaster. In comparison to Banshee (since both are newer B&M models with the same restraint system) I think I'd actually take GateKeeper- it's super close, but having even a bit of airtime and a amazing first drop give it the edge in my book. GateKeeper is a incredible roller coaster.

Score: 10/10

After GateKeeper, time was running out, as only 2 1/2 hours remained before the park closed. We decided to ride the Sky Ride to quickly get to the Millennium Force section (as I had ridden Banshee previously Millennium Force was higher priority to me than Raptor and both were claimed to be at 1 hour), though I was hesitant since the one at the Indiana State Fair scared me.

RIDE #8: Sky Ride

Wait: Walk-On

Thankfully, this Sky Ride is not stupid slow like the state fair one, and gives some nice views. So it did not scare me as much. It was a nice, quick way to cross the main midway too.

Score: 7/10

After Sky Ride, we headed to Iron Dragon since our friend who doesn't like huge coasters wanted to ride it. It had a short wait so I decided to ride as well, just to get a extra coaster credit at least.

RIDE #9: Iron Dragon

Wait: 15 Minutes

Iron Dragon is a fun ride, though unlike The Bat, I would not call this ride very intense. Swinging through the trees and over the pond are fun though, especially since it was nighttime. A fun ride to ride when you don't feel like something crazy.

Score: 8/10

After Iron Dragon, me and my sister broke off from our friends (who were gonna go shop, eat, go back to the hotel, etc.) as I wanted to try to ride Millennium Force again. It had a 45 minute wait. We got in line, waited, and my sister called out a line jumper while we waited. We waited some more. We got near the station. We boarded.

Millennium Force forgot it was a Intamin, because it actually let me ride!

RIDE #10: Millennium Force
Wait: 45 Minutes
My first INTAMIN roller coaster. My first Giga coaster. These are 2 major coaster milestones for a coaster lover. Would Millennium Force be as awesome as everyone says it is, or is it, as some say, overrated?

Millennium Force was, IMO, as awesome as it claimed to be. The sheer size of the first drop is staggering, not even Diamondback comes close (2nd tallest coaster I have been on so far). The speed is crazy, 93mph is very very fast. You blast through the tunnels, and at night, they were pitch black. And it offers some nice floater airtime on 4 occasions (first drop, both big hills, and final hill). MF at night felt like a mix of Beast (great speed through the forest and trees) and Diamondback (excellent floater air and huge hills). Those are 2 of my most loved coasters, and mixing them creates something epic. MF gave me giddly chuckles I previously have only gotten on Beast @ Night. It has (barely) surpassed Beast and become my new favorite coaster (Beast remains #1 wood though). That is one heck of an achievement. Now, can Millennium Force hold on to that title? Fury 325, El Toro, and more coasters I have yet to ride may have something to challenge that...heck, even Beast might try to re-bound...

Score: 12/10!!!

After Millie, me and my sister went back to check Maverick. It was still down. On the way there, and some of the way to our final ride, we passed through a scare zone which was very well done and very creepy- you could barely see anything, leading to many scareactors coming from the shadows. We finally headed around, towards the beach exit to our hotel, but first we grabbed one last ride...

Ride #11: Magnum XL-200 (@ Night)

Wait: Walk-On

I tried to get 1-3, as I heard that was the "ejector seat", but we got 1-2 instead. However, that's not a wheel seat, so it was very smooth for a old 1989 Arrow. I also noticed that the lift can actually be very fast on this ride. The lake looked like a black void. I noticed there was more airtime on the first drop (still not much, but some) and the 2nd drop had a surprising pop of air come outta nowhere atop the hill. But the real fun once again began at the pretzel knot- the trims were off! So this time we blasted through the pretzel knot, and then got CRAZY ejector air on every hill after! It was not quite as good as the Millennium Force ride earlier, but it did come close. Magnum XL-200 deserves its legendary status in my book. It is also my new airtime king. Sorry Diamondback.

Score: 11/10!

I checked TTD's line again after we rode Magnum- it was pretty long so we just went back to the Hotel. We grabbed some snacks, and headed out to the beach side patio and chatted with our friends. Then we headed back in and slept. We woke up the next day, and had breakfast at the in-hotel restaurant I forgot the name of, but it had very good food. I got the Chicken Biscuits (no gravy- I'm not a fan) Scrambled Eggs, Potato Bites, Bacon, and a soda. It was delicious. Then we packed up, came home, and now I am writing this trip report for KIC.

And that was my first experience at Cedar Point. I loved it, even if the Intamin coasters were having issues. I missed a ton of what are probably amazing coasters, so a return trip is very much needed. Probably on a day where crowds won't be as heavy. Not to mention Steel Vengeance in 2018 is probably gonna be amazing. Also do note that I did make quite a few comparisons to coasters at Kings Island (and one Holiday World) in this report, but that's because KI and HW are what I previously knew and thus would compare with. I still love the rides I made comparisons with BTW- especially Beast, since that one is what got me into coasters in the first place. 

And now, for the Pros/Cons of the trip:
PROS
+Amazing roller coasters and thrill rides, and lots of them!

+Night of the Living Fed had great food and the scareactors were great

+Beautiful lakeside location, and it lights up beautifully at night

+Hotel Breakers is great with amazing staff. Will stay there again!

CONS

-Intamin has reliability issues and it shows here- though Bees may be to blame for 1...I can see why Cedar Fair has stopped buying from them.

-Huge crowds, though that was to be expected considering the day we visited

Overall I loved Cedar Point and cannot wait to return. Oh, as a bonus, since I got 7 new credits this visit raising my total to 26, here is my updated Top 10 list...note that prior to CP I have been to only KI, Holiday World, and Indiana Beach way back in 1999...

#1- Millennium Force, Cedar Point (Intamin)

#2- The Beast, Kings Island (Custom)

#3- The Legend, Holiday World (CCI)

#4- Magnum XL-200, Cedar Point (Arrow)

#5- GateKeeper, Cedar Point (B&M)

#6- Banshee, Kings Island (B&M)

#7- Mystic Timbers, Kings Island (GCI)

#8- Diamondback, Kings Island (B&M)

#9- The Voyage, Holiday World (GG)

#10- Blue Streak, Cedar Point (PTC)

The Raven, Flight of Fear, Vortex, and The Bat have been kicked off my Top 10. I still love them though- also Rougarou which did not make Top 10, but I still really enjoyed a lot. I have been on a LOT of really good roller coasters considering I have been on "only" 26 of them (only Invertigo and Gemini are "meh" for me so far, and I may have just caught Gemini on a bad day)! Anyhow, I hope you enjoyed this trip report. Questions, comments, and even advice for the next possible Cedar Point trip I make (aka when would be a good time to try and do it for example) welcome.

 

 

 

 

 

[PhantomTheater]

Did you ride Gemini in a -3 seat (back of car)? If so, there was your issue. Also we are Screamsters, not scareactor.

[McSalsa]

^
I did actually. Next time I am getting a non-wheel seat for sure. I would have done that on this trip, but they had about half the back cars (save the very back) blocked off and the seat I took had no extra wait. Both sides (Red & Blue) were running though.

Magnum XL-200 at the end of the day was doing the same thing, but I still got a non-wheel seat (1-2) because there was no wait for it on that one since it was close to park close.

Also I did not get the racing element of Gemini because, and I forgot to mention this in the TR, when the trains were sent out some lady in front of me had her phone out. The ride ops hit the E-Stop for the Blue Train I was on, told her to put it up, and I watched the Red train pull away and reach the top of the lift before we even began to climb it.

Also thanks for informing me on the new/different name for monster actor dudes, I wasn't aware it was different at CP (or has changed).

[Arrow]

Maybe I just didn't see it on the list, but did you manage to go on Corkscrew? There's a wide range of opinions people have on it, and I'd love to know yours!

 

 

 

..that is, if you got on it.

[McSalsa]

^
I didn't. It seemed like a very simple and basic coaster (Drop, Hill, Loop, 2 Corkscrews, brakes), and I figured maybe I'd ride it if it had a short wait, but by the time I was curious about it it had a 30 minute line according to the wait time app. I was also targeting more stuff CP has that Kings Island has nothing like, and I've ridden the same model but more complex & bigger Vortex at Kings Island a lot. (BTW I do enjoy me some Vortex, in spite of it not being in my Top 10 ATM). I only did MaXair because it was right there and had a super short wait while my friends did Giant Wheel, and Iron Dragon to snag a quick credit since I had only ridden 5 coasters at that point. Though both of those were fun so I regret neither (In particular right now I'd like to say again Iron Dragon is probably a perfect starter coaster).

My sister is already talking about returning to Cedar Point, next May, on a weekday and going for 2 days this time so I will probably have a great chance of riding Corkscrew- and many of the other coasters I missed- if that goes as planned. Also on that list: Maverick, Top Thrill Dragster, Raptor, Valravn, Wicked Twister, Cedar Creek Mine Ride, and of course new-for-2018 Steel Vengeance. Not to mention I missed a TON of fun-looking flat rides, including Skyhawk and Witches' Wheel. I guess the ad was right- one day at Cedar Point really is not enough!

[silver2005]

My complaint about CP's Corkscrew is the raised floor.  By comparison, MIA's has the same trains but a lower floor.  I could sit up right properly at MIA vs CP.  I think CP's used to be  42" height requirement (says 48" on the site, but I'm pretty certain it used to be lower), but it results in a much more uncomfortable ride.  I'm only 5' 7" and I'm cramped in CP's Corkscrew, mostly a pain on my knees and elbows.   The turn into the corkscrews on CP's isn't bad though as it looses a lot of speed on that hill after the loop.  MIA's takes its corkscrews a tad faster with some decent positive g's, not so on CP's.  CP's does have better forces up to the hill after the loop though, but the cramped cars aren't pleasant IMO.