Cedar Point Trip Report

[PKI_Diana]

Sorry this is SOOO long....

Trip Report to Cedar Point 7.6.05

So after 3 years since visiting Cedar Point, I get it in my head, that as a graduation event, I’m gonna go up this summer. So I did so this week.

After arriving in Sandusky on Tuesday night, and an early morning wake up call, my boyfriend George (a.k.a. DragonLord) and I began our adventure to Cedar Point, America’s Roller Coast. Getting to the park was relatively easy from our well located and friendly hotel, just a mere 12 minutes away, when you go the shortest route. We arrived at the car entrance toll at 9:25 am, and were inside the main gates at 9:35 am- Ready for our fun filled exciting day. I love pre-purchased ticketing!

Seeing TTD and MF having a long line already, and not quite ready to jump on to a huge coaster first thing in the morning, we hop on the Cedar Point Sky Ride for an early morning view of Lake Erie, beach, the park, and its many attractions. After that, we decided to stroll to the back of the park, which was an excellent decision, seeing that it was empty, and every ride we went on back there was a walk on wait!

We hit the Cedar Creek Mine Ride, which was quite a surprising ride for a little coaster, although a bit jerky. Then we hit one of the best flumes ever, White Water Landing, which was again walk on, and its cloudy out, so no one wants to go. Of course, no one gets wet, and we just enjoy the trip among the trees. At this point, George and I begin to notice a common theme among the CP employees- No one smiles, or initiates a conversation with the guests. It seems like no one really wants to be at their jobs.

Next we head off to The Beast’s rival, Meanstreak, which has an operator texting at the greeter position, and a walk on wait, and a fabulous view of Lake Erie and the park. Definitely a great coaster for a woodie and it’s not nearly as rough as SOB. Then being a fan of the older rides, I decided we should ride the train, Cedar Creek and Lake Erie Railroad, around and look at the crowds, and the small animated skeletons that line the tracks telling a chilling tale. Although PKI’s train no longer has a story, it is longer, but CP’s lets us ride over and over and over again, which is nice.

After that as we are walking up to the front of the park, we come upon Top Thrill Dragster, a coaster I have been wanting to see and ride for myself for a while now. We stop to watch it launch many times. The cables smoke when it launches, and the whole tower shakes when the train zooms up it. People looked scared and excited to be riding it. After finally convincing George that we should ride, we go to the tester seat in the front of the line. Unfortunately, I don’t fit in the seat for TTD, so that one is out for the day. I’m upset, and frustrated again, but I soon get over it, because I am just enthralled watching it launch for a few cycles. Then moving on to the indoor roller coaster, Disaster Transport, we have a long wait for a dinky coaster. I had been on this before, and George was expecting more then what the coaster really was. My lap bar wasn’t even pulled, and again, everyone seemed to be in a crappy mood. I don’t know how they call it 3D, when they didn’t even give us 3D glasses to wear. Then it was off to my ride equivalent, the Space Spiral. We went up got the view, and came down, and were not allowed to take pictures while riding, which I thought sucked, because I am a picture fanatic. Then came a pleasant experience, we ate burgers at the Burger Patio on the Midway near the front, where we met a happy employee, by the name of John. He was very friendly, and answered many of our questions.

After eating, we walked over to the Wicked Twister, which we found out was closed all day, and instead we ended up riding the Ferris Wheel, a ride I miss from my vacation on the New England boardwalks. I got some great photos there! After that, we watched the maXair run, which is nothing more than Delirium, and I was surprised to see it had such a long line. We did not ride, because we have Delirium down here, and we were not going to ride rides that PKI already has, in the interest of time management.

After watching maXair, we went over to Gemini. Let me say this. It was one of the best rides we had that day! The crew was fabulous- saying hi, being cheerful, welcoming riders back, telling jokes to those who were next in line, and smiling a lot. It was good to see since most employees didn’t smile most of the day. Our thanks and appreciation goes out to that AWESOME crew including, Ryan, Jonathan, and More! George and I must admit that it had great airtime as well- which was surprising. I must say though, during our wait in line, we had several smokers around us, which wasn’t cool because it’s such close quarters and not allowed.

Then we went into Camp Snoopy to the Theatre, to get our picture taken with Snoopy, how much fun, although I swear we were the only people taller than 44 inches, without kids in the whole area! Great to meet Snoopy anyhow!

After then, we wandered upon the Paddlewheel Excursions, where we met another noticeably great employee, Captain Nathan. He was great driving the boat, with the little prescribed story. And although it was probably the 19th time that hour he said his speech, he was happy to be doing it, or at least he acted well about it. And we thank him for it, because we even enjoyed the corny jokes.

After the Paddlewheel, we went to the Midway Carousel, in the front of the park, to ride another Carousel, which was fitting, considering I am a Carousel supervisor. I must admit, it was great fun, and they have beautiful horses, and the tails are real hair, how cool is that??

Now comes a shocking part of my trip, we saw one show while there, Livin’ in America. It was absolutely fabulous! Better than School of Rock, Tuned In, and even the gone but not forgotten Tomb Raider Stunt Show! It was awesome with great costumes, dancing, choreography, and even some Vegas style magic thrown in! I give great compliments to those actors and dancers for giving us a hard to resist show for well over half and hour!

Then we went to check out our front gate photo, and of course, my eyes are closed because I am squinting due to the sun, so we go back to the front and scout out another Kodak personnel, where we met Scott! Scott is an amazing employee, full of smiles, willing to take our photo so we can have the Carousel in it, even acting like Tweety bird so we smile and laugh for the camera. Our photo comes back in an hour, and Scott is behind the counter, so we help him with commission and thank him personally for our great photo of our trip! Cedar Point needs more employees like Nathan and Scott.

After then, we ride Blue Streak, and shopped at the CP Shop beneath the Sky Ride, The China Ship (where we meet another great employee by the name of Ms. Hill), and the Snoopy Boutique (where we met Philip, who was fabulous, talked with us a good 15 minutes after learning where we worked, and gave us the reading of the name tags, so we know who is who, and how to find a supervisor, minor, full timer etc). It was great to see someone so excited about the park, and willing to share in our little amusement world.

After this, we decided since we had been up since around 5 it was time to call it quits, go to dinner outside the park and go back to the hotel. So we stopped by Guest Relations to pick up a comment card to mail back to them (which is the next thing on my list after my TR).

So the few things that George and I noticed about the park:

1) It is impeccably clean!!!!

2) Ride lines were longer then PKI’s.

3) No one seems happy or wants to smile, even if you smile and wave at them as you pass.

4) No Smoking or Alcohol in Line is NOT enforced, several people walked right past the Greeters at the coasters, and nothing was said.

5) We saw maybe 4 security guards in the 13 hours we were there.

6) We saw First Aid once, which was quite surprising.

7) We really liked that each guest was escorted into a parking spot when they arrived on the lot, instead of having a free for all as PKI has.

8) The food was scrumptious! But expensive, of course.

9) That area of Ohio has no humidity, thanks to the lake breezes. How jealous are we, when it’s humid and hot!

I think that’s it. We both had the time of our lives and we hope to do more trips like this in the future, and although it wasn’t cheap, it was worth every penny, even without being able to fit into Millennium Force or TTD. I would go again in a heart beat, and I’m sure George shares that feeling.

[YoungStud]

so you didn't fit on milly either i presume?

[pkiboy]

I'm glad you had a good time.

[PKI_Diana]

No I did not. But now I'm aiming to loose enough weight to return to ride both of those by October.

[YoungStud]

No I did not. But now I'm aiming to loose enough weight to return to ride both of those by October.

That is the great thing about Cedar Point, MOTIVATION!

[beastdude]

if you can fit into ttd you may not be able to fit in mf still and some crews enforce the one inch rule. There has to be one inch of slack in the belt but good luck anyway.

[PKI_Diana]

I'd been on MF before, so I wasn't that upset about it. Oh well, such is life. It goes on anyway.

[DragonLord]

I let Di write out the TR, so there really isn't anything to add. I did have a blast and the rides were really cool. We didn't get any flats in, although Chaos looked like fun. We also never found a ride with "Witch" in it... I kepted seeing the name, but never found the ride. Oh well. It would be great to go up again and maybe stay a couple days instead of just one.

There name tags are pretty cool. They are color coded like ours, but they have much more detail, like where their hometowns are, or where they go to college. It also has the number of seasons they have worked in the park, which Di and I thought was a great idea that PKI needs to pick up on. The name tags have just a first name on them for regular employees, managers and I think sups, get their full names printed on them. Full timers get their full names and a different color and people that have been there for 25 years or more get a cool looking gold name tag.

I also love the Peanuts gang, so Camp Snoopy was awsome! I wish I could have gotten my picture taken with the entire Peanuts gang. Maybe next time...

[BoddaH1994]

I'm glad you guys had a good time! Believe it or not, I have yet to go to CP (so if any of you guys are going soon, I'm comin' along! ). I'll see you up at the park!

[Reclaimer]

Never been to CP before, and I REALLY want to. It's just such a long trip from Indy as compared to PKI.

[DeliriumDreamer]

I've never been to Cedar Point either, and probably won't this year. (I don't have anyone to go with.)

[ohioamusementparkzrule]

Im goin to CP next week. We went last year but i cant get enough of CP. MF and TTD are just sooo awesome.

[tubaman]

I love every thing about Cedar Point except...

Blue Streak, IMO its just a mini version of The Racer.

Mean Streak, IMO its rougher than SOB and only good for the view from the top.

Everything else is great.

[Ben]

Blue Streak, IMO its just a mini version of The Racer.

Blue Streak

Length: 2558'

Height: 78'

Drop: 72'

Speed: 40 mph

Duration: 1:45

Max Vertical Angle: 45 Degrees

Racer

Length: 3415'

Height: 88'

Drop: 80'

Speed: 53 mph

Duration: 2:30

Angle of Descent: 45 degrees

I don't see how Blue Streak is a Mini Racer. Racer is only ten feet smaller, and 900 feet shorter. Blue Streak is a ACE Classic, and a lot smoother than Racer IMO.

[beastdude]

I will be heading back to the point real soon contact me if you are going.

[tubaman]

I don't see how Blue Streak is a Mini Racer. Racer is only ten feet smaller, and 900 feet shorter. Blue Streak is a ACE Classic, and a lot smoother than Racer IMO.

I just found it boring and small. People talk about how great it is, but IMO it isn't.

[YoungStud]

I don't see how Blue Streak is a Mini Racer. Racer is only ten feet smaller, and 900 feet shorter. Blue Streak is a ACE Classic, and a lot smoother than Racer IMO.

I just found it boring and small. People talk about how great it is, but IMO it isn't.

i get way better airtime on blue streak!

[Jasper]

I am looking forward to a three day trip to Cedar Point. Last year i had a great trip and i hope to have another good one this year.

[Discodude3737]

Blue Streak is excellent! I never really used to ride it much, but now it is a must-ride for every trip to the Point. The classic airtime is awesome. It is also very smooth, and it gives a cool view of the lake, Raptor, etc.

[TopThrill]

Yes I love Blue Streak. Its small but it give's good classic airtime, 1960's style. Oh and Diana when you get the change to ride MF and TTD they are to smooth and fast. Very nice detailed trip report.

[PKI_Diana]

Yes I love Blue Streak. Its small but it give's good classic airtime, 1960's style. Oh and Diana when you get the change to ride MF and TTD they are to smooth and fast. Very nice detailed trip report.

I've ridden MF. I love it.

I'm sure I'll love at least trying TTD at least once.

I'm game for anything once, but if I don't like it, you'll never get me on it again (lol, Slingshot!)

[KIBeast]

"We also never found a ride with "Witch" in it... I kepted seeing the name, but never found the ride."

What you were looking for was the Witches Wheel, which is an enterprise type of ride. I rode it once and it was good. You did miss a good ride in Chaos, I have had lots of fun riding that one.

[Coasterfan]

Wow, that sounds different. We've been there 4 times this year and all of the rules are STRICTLY inforced. But yeah you do have to have 1 inch of slack in the belt for TTD and MF and you MUST ride TTD if you haven't! It will blow you away!

[gburn07]

Compared to Blue Streak. I feel that Racer forwards is ten times the airtime machine of Blue Streak. and I also feel its alot smoother too. Not too many rides give me a headache when I get off, but B.S did that.

[Jasper]

Mean Streak is one of the worst wooden coasters i have ever been on. It suck so bad. But i have to ride it to say that i have rode everything. When we go we are stayin in Hotel Breakers. does anybody know if it is good quality?

[KIBeast]

^Yeah, Hotel Breakers is great. It's a two minute walk from the back gate where Magnum XL200 and challenge park is. They have a TGI Friday's in the tower section.

[Jasper]

I think that might be where we are staying. We had planned on it last year but didnt.

[tubaman]

Mean Streak is one of the worst wooden coasters i have ever been on

Yep!