Sorry this is a bit late but I had to have time to write it.

Disregard any misspellings that this post probably has in it despite me proofreading it several times.

Here we go:

My first trip to Cedar Point began at 5:30 in the morning as my wife and I woke up early to make the trek from her parents house in a Detroit Suburb to Sandusky. She has been to Cedar Point Many times since she is from the Detroit area, but since we live in Atlanta, Ga she hadn't been to CP in about 10 years and I had never been. On the way she predicted that we would hit construction in Toldedo, which we did(she said its been that way for 20 years)I'm convinced most of the state of Ohio is under construction.

Anyways we get to the Sandusky area and I get alot of flak from my wife about not following the signs that say Cedar pointthis way. I used map quest and MS Streets and Trips 2003 to get my directions. She tells me over and over that "I've never gone this way before". Yet 10 minutes later there we are at the causeway. By this time it is 7:50 AM and I am in the lane to get on the causeway but my wife wants a bite to eat before we go in. Ahhh I've got this all planned out so we get in the park right at 9.In the end she wins out and we go to the Perkin's in the lobby of the Best Western. I feel like a couple of Grandparents eating therebut the food was good. I decided to go a little while longer before braking my Low-Carb Diet. So I order the veggie omelete and ignore the hash browns and Pancakes(sweet tempting pancakes). My wife laughs as I keep looking at my watch but by 8:15 we are back on the causeway and their is surprisingly not much traffic.

The day before it rained like a cow wissin' on a flat rock but today is supposed to start out misty and clear up and get to high 70's. Just then we round a curve and there they are.... the sight I have been waiting to see for two years(last years plans were canceled) Roller Coasters abound. We can't even see the top of TTD but MF is the most beautiful site in the world. I look at mywife and she is just as excited. So we stay to the left on the causeway(thanks to a trip tip that I picked up here) we have no wait and we get our parking pass along with the first of two dissappointments of the day. We get a neon yellow slip of paper
saying that TTD will NOT open today. This bums us out a little but I have to give CP credit for making sure people are aware before they enter the park. This is not practiced at SFOG.

Anyways we enter the parking lot and keep to the right and head around the Pennisula all the while oooing and ahhhing at MF, MS and
Magnum. We get to the Hotel Breakers lot and unload our bags and go to check in. The guy checking us in tells us where to park to be close to our room in the older section. He tells us appologetically that the older rooms don't have elevator access and we are on the 3rd floor. Not a problem.... I'm going to be walking alot today a few steps won't kill me. He also gives us our parking refund(woot!)and Get into CP early card(Woot! Woot!).

From this point it is about 8:50 so we decided to take our bags to our room and hit the restroom one last time. We got into our room and even though it was the cheapest set of rooms in the hotel they were good looking rooms if a little dated. Looking out the window we had a view of Magnum TTD and parts of MF. We dropped off our stuff grabbed our sunglasses, little disposable camera, and our tickets(purcahsed at a discount thru AAA) and were off to the Magnum enterance.

We get in a line of about 2 dozen people to get in the park. We show are passes and get in and everyone is going to the two rides open early: Mantis and MF. 3 weeks before hand I had everything planned out.... I was going to get a hand stamp for TTD and MF because I hadn't been there before and was worried about going on the best coasters first. Once we set foot in the park that stupid idea went right out the window aa we headed to MF(like everyone else it seemed). Looking at the map it is probably quicker to get to MF if you enter the Marina gate. When we got there they were not wrapping the line around so the line was back almost to the bridge around the frontier land area. But it turned out we only had about 20 minutes to wait. We got up to the last section before you enter the ride house and it was awesome seeing people rocket around over the last bump and hit the last over-banked turn and slow down gracefully to a smooth stop.

So we get into the ride house and hear the music which is perfect. And you gotta know a ride is going to be awesome when the trains return and they ask.... "how was your ride" and every single person cheers in
appreciation. I start to get apprehensive as I always do before my first tall ride of the day. It happens to me everytime.... I get a little apprhensive but after going on it(acrophobia for instance) I cant wait to do it again. We get up to the section where they load the train and my wife wants to go on MF in the front but when we see the line for the front
we decide that its not the best idea. I've read people in the past say that the rest of the seats you just have to fill in but I asked the ride op and he said I could wait for any seat I wanted... so we waited for the second seat. Two trains later we we are strapped in and ready to go. This is the scariest part to me wait for that thing to come down and grab the train. It comes down and we start up at a fast, smooth pace. My wife is already laughing with glee pointing out tall buildings across the lake. Next thing I know we are at the top and I wave for the camera that I assume is there. And then down we go.... WOW! what a first drop almost straight down and then through the first turn... we are going so fast its hard to keep my eyes open(from the wind), dangit I knew I shoulda kept my sunglasses on. This ride is great.... the tallest coaster I have been on is at six flags over Georgia. Not sure which one is tallest there not including Deja Vu which I have never been on because its always busted. All I know is none are as intense as this one. I won't bore people with every second of the ride but a great part is when you are just turning to head back from the island and you rush at one of the supports and it seems like its going to lop your head off. Anyways we zoom back past the queue and come in for a smooth as silk stop. Afterwards the ride OP asks how are ride is and my wife and I scream at the top of our lungs.

So we leave the ride and go to the photo center and it appears that the only camera is in the tunnel section(although the other half panel of screens is not on) and I have a dumb look on my face so I decide to pass on the picture. My thoughts on the ride are as follows: With three trains running and the efficiency of the ride ops the wait is very well worth it. This ride has to be a 10 out of 10 and is worthy of the worlds best billing that it usually gets.

Next, since Mantis is just across the way we decided to head over. The line said 45 minute but I would guess 1 hour since this line seemed to move Slooow. I got some good pictures of Mantus with Backdrops of MF and TTD. One thing I don't like about the ride queue is the water. It stinks to high heaven but I don't know if they can help that so I can live with it. We got into the middle of our train on Mantis since neither one of us cared about getting the front. This seems to be the least efficient ride to load in the park. My opinion of this ride is that the first drop and the loop are great , espeically the loop since it seems to hang there for an instant before going through. The rest of
the ride is superb as far as the elements and the power with which you go thru them but the ride was moderately painful to me. Compared to the Scorcher... I would say Mantis is more intense(and longer)but the Scorcher is smoother. Anyways this gets a 7 out of 10.

At this point I looked at my watch and we decided we had some time to ride Blue Streak and Raptor before the Freeway for MF opened. Turns out I never "sprang" my watch forward for Daylight savings time so I was wrong but we'll overlook that bit of stupidity. We headed towards to front of the park and along the way I noticed that the landscaping and lack of litter and gum on everything set this apart from other parks. There wasnt a spec of trash on the side walk and the grass and shrubs and stuff looked perfectly pruned. We reached Blue Streak and
there was a pretty good line and my wife said she never liked Blue Streak because it was "Too Tame" so we decided to come back. We continued on to Raptor which had a sign that said the wait was 1 hour. We got in line since we both like inverted coasters.... we both agree that Batman is our favorite at SFOG.

The line was an interestng one , I must say, for the people watching. But one thing I did not like were the huge speakers that would blast music. Maybe at 27 Im getting to old but when your standing right next to those speakers it is a bit too much. I also notice a park representative in one of the gravel beds where they plant the trees picking out gum with a set of tongs. This however was by far the most annoying line of all time... mostly because of the little brat standing
behind me. I felt sorry for the kid at first... he was wearing thick glasses and hand a mouthful of metal. But then he started yelling at the top of his lungs and it was obvious he was doing it to get attention from his parents who ignored him the whole time. If that wasnt enough everytime the line moved forward 5 paces he would make me aware that I was holding up the line. Not to mention he must have bumped into me or stepped on the back of my feet 30 times. Several times I asked my wife if I could powerbomb him or something.

After about an hour we go to the line for the front an decide to wait the extra 5 minutes for the front. The ride was awesome I can't say enough about the speed and power of this ride... the cobra roll was a bit rough as was the very end... but being about 6 foot tall really helped out. I did notice my wife's head banging all over the place though. I loved the ride myself.... I think again Batman at SFOG was more smooth last year but this ride was fast and agressive. I give it a 9 out of 10. One part I did not like was right at the end where you get slammed back down abruptly into a vertical position.... I noticed while waiting in line that people were getting jostled alot at this point. My wife didn't like the roughness of it but she is a gamer and said she would go on it again if I wanted to. I had my wife take a picture of me in front of Raptor as a train flew by and then we scurried back to MF to get a hand stamp.

We got in a very long line but it this was deceptive because it went very fast. The line for MF was now at 1.5 hours. While getting in line we noticed that it was now 11:30 - 11:45 and they were working on the 8-9 time period. 5 people from the front and the guy doing the stamps yells "we only have 5 stamps left". My wife and I mutter some profanity and jump out of line. Later on we notice someone with a 9-10 handstamp and realize that the guy meant 5 left for the 8-9 hour. DOH! Stupidty abounds. That one came back to bite us later too.

From there we ran over to Magnum and we saw the handstamp place first before we saw the line... so we got a 3-4 stamp. Then we rounded the corner and felt foolish as the line was a posted at 1/4 hour. We decided to ride. The line went quick and we got our spot up front. The chain lift is even more daunting then MF's because of the sound and the feel. This is an awesome Coaster... I loved looking over the edge and seeing people in the water slides 180 feet below... the tunnels are great for head choppers and you get what seems like a
ton of air in the very last tunnel. Overall this ride gets a 10 out of 10.

Next up was my wifes Favorite ride... I rolled my eyes everytime she said Gemini is her favorite.... until I rode it myself. We rode the red train in the front because every picture I see shows the red train winning. What can you say about this ride... the great speed the smoothness and the interaction with the other train makes this ride excellent. I especially love some of the head choppers and the helix at the end. This ride gets a 10 out of 10 in my opinion.

From here it was off to Mean Streak. We walked over and the sign said the wait was 1/4 hour so we jumped in. The wife said she really doesnt like the ride but I had to go on it. First off the ride looks great and I like how the queue is situated below the ride and you can hear but not see the cars rumble by. After about 10 minute we grabbed a seat(I can't even remember where we were on the train)and we were off. We went up the hill with great aniticipation(atleast I did) We get to the top and go over, the drop looks fierce but there seems to be some kind of break smack in the middle of it(its been noted in other spots here in the forums but I hadn't read any of them at that point) and the train almost comes to a stop on the way down. The rest of the ride was jarringly bad and I mummbled how "I don't need to go on that again", but I probably will next time. Anyways... I went onto the ride wondering how anyone can not like such a great looking ride and came off knowing exactly why. It gets a 4/10.

At this point it was about 2 o'clock so we decided to break for lunch(we missed the lunch crowds to). So we decided tht Marcaroni's up by the ocean aquarium and the pirate ship would be a good lunch spot. We started up that way and I got some pictures of TTD. As we were walking past TTD I notice alot of people lined up along the fence but the were still up saying it was closed for the day. All the sudden these Metal fins go up along the track and I hear a blast of air and then something like a spaceship and then a TTD train flies by with water dummies on board. We just sat there watching with our mouths open. It was an
incredible site which kinda made me glad in a way that it was closed because I wasnt sure I would ride it(I know I would have but it woulda tested the limits of my resolve). Anyways we would come back 1 hour later and see the same people lined up hoping it would open.

We made it up to Macaroni's and washed up and were seated. I decided to break my low carb diet and get a coke(on a hot humid day like that
it seemed like the best coke I've ever had). We ordered a 12 inch pizza with extra cheese, onions and ground beef, and I got black Olives on my half. I wasn't expecting to much but when the pizza came it was some of the best pizza I have ever had. It was thin crust(which I usually don't like) and very fresh and hot. Maybe it was being hungry from the walking but I give the pizza a 10 out of 10 as well!

After the Pizza we headed over to the underwater dive show window thing and just watched a few dives from under water.... nothing special.

From here we headed to Wicked Twister. Upon arriving we saw that the line looked very short but the sign said the wait was 1 hour. We checked
with the person on the stool at the start of the line and she said it was accurate so we decided to skip it. I regret this decision to this day but
oh well.

From Wicked Twister we headed to Blue Streak and the ride was a walk on. Good thing because my wife rolled her eyes everytime I mentioned going on it. We rode about 3 cars from the back and the ride is short but a good ride none the less.... I give it a 6 out of 10.

After this we hustled over to Gemini since it was about 3:15 and we had a 3-4 Freeway pass for Magnum. The next ride on Gemini we rode in the back and it was a great ride..... so great that we rode it again right after that.

It was about 3:45 so we took off for Magnum and used our freeway pass(good thing to because the line was 45 minutes)... the freeway had us on in 5 - 10 minutes. Even though my wife is a front or near front of the train person the ride on Gemini in the back convinced us to try Magnum in the last seat. So we start up the lift hill and we near the top and I notice people with their hands up already. I turned to my wife and started to tell her how I would wait to the top to put my hands up, but before I can finish the sentence we get tugged right over the lift hill. This gave the wife the shock of her life and thru the rest of the ride she hung on for dear life. I managed to get my hands up but I had a somewhat interesting experience going thru the turnaround at the end.
I had my hands up but the seat back musta been a little slick or something because the upper part of my body started to slide out of the ride(thank goodness for the lap restraints. This did give the ride an extra thrill factor. What a great ride. I read in previous logs that some people refer to Magnum is the mistake by the lake Not sure what they are sniffin'.

Next up we went over to Iron Dragon. We waited 10 minutes and rode this in the front. This ride is very tame almost to the point of being a kiddie ride but I thought it was Ok none-the-less. I did like the spray of water that you go thru at one point. Big Bad Wolf or Top Gun look like better rides but I will have to wait till I ride those to make that call. 5 - 10

The next ride we went to was Corkscrew. I insisted on riding this ride for nostalgia if anything else. Two weeks before going to CP I went up to my parents new place and I was looking thru some old pictures and came across a picture from 1977 and we were all at Cedar point. I got the scoop from my Mom.... at the time we were driving from New Jersey To Michigan and my sister insisted on stopping to ride Corkscrew... because it was the first roller coaster with three inversion apparently. Now here I was all these years later. The wait was 5 to 10 minutes. All in al the ride was fairly short but I love the corkscrew over the walkway. This ride gets a 6 - 10 for the ride itself.... but it should get some points for adding character to the park. I loved walking under it all day long as people zoomed by and at night especially when it was lit up.

After the ride on Corkscrew we headed back to MF to see how long the wait was. By this time my face was fried. We got to MF and the wait was 1.25 hours. We debated and then decided to go fo it. So we got in line and i tried to stay outta the sun as much as possible. We bought a
gatorade in the queue line.... what a racket. This line was fairly interesting as well. There was a guy in front of us with two kids... one
was his son and the other was his son's friend. The guy was in his late 30's I would say. The two kids looked like they were barely above the minimum height to ride the ride and the Son's Friend was very apprehensive. But that was nothing compared to the father... who kept turning around and asking my wife and I if we had ever ridden this ride and how scary/fast it was. So 1 hour of this later and we make it to the place where the trains unload. All the sudden this guy yells to the ride ops "Hey man can we bail out?". And he and his son's friend go thru the gate and down the stairs leaving his son behind to ride the ride by himself. My wife offered to ride with him but they found another kid who was hung out to dry by his parents. Apparently its an epidemic.

I wont bore you all with the details but I will say that we rode in the middle and had another great ride. I kept my sunglasses on which I highly recommend to everyone. I also noticed that the bugs I was seeing all day(some people called them Fish Flies some called them may flies) were getting more prevalent and one crashed into my upraised hand at 90 MPH. Later that night they would be even more numerous.

After another awesome ride on MF it was about 6:30 - 7:00 so we decided to head back to our room and then to dinner. We got back to our room and washed up.... I was amazed at my new red coloring(ouch!). 5 minutes later and we were down at the TGI Friday's waiting for a table. The wait was about 5 - 10 minutes and then we got the slowest waiter in the history of restaurants. I decided to break the diet again and got a coke and a peppercorn burger. MMMMMMmmmmmmm great burger and I like the onion rings it came with. I tried to stay away from the fries. My wife wanted dessert but I promised her we would come back later that night and get dessert.

After that brief respite we headed back to the park thru the Magnum entrance. As we were waling by we notice the wait for Magnum was a walkon so we went for it. We got on the ride at about twilight and to be honest
I can't remember what seats we had... though my wife refused to sit in the back so I am pretty sure we were in the middle. This was probably the best ride on Magnum all day mainly because the lady in back of us was forced to ride it
by her husband and she screamed bloody murder the whole way(In a having fun sort of way). My wife and I couldn't help but look at each other and laugh histerically as we went there and back with this
middle aged lady in back of us screaming her head off. Also I took note that you could actually see those bug flies whizzing by and they were definitely more numberous. At the end when the train stopped she turned to her husband, hair all messed up and said "Well that was interesting". It made
for a great ride.... sorta like how its better to be in a Movie theatre with other people as opposed to having the theater to yourself.

After Magnum we still had some time before 9 so we went over and rode Gemini again. We got into the ride house and its a good thing we got there when we did because they didn have enough for two trains so they combined the lines and ran one final train.
This would be the final train on Gemini for the night and the back seat was already nabbed. So we got the thrid row from the back. The ride ops here seemed to be having a great time and this
passed onto the riders but I could tell this ride was trouble as we headed up the lift hill. Right in front of use there was a big swarm of those flies and they were moving with us up the lift hill. Ah crap. We got to the top and My wife and I cover our faces with our hands
and arms and we hear other people yelling "eeeeeeeeeeeewwwwwwwwwwww and uggghhhhhhhhhhh" and again the hysterics start. I looked up at one point and saw a lady making a valiant effort to keep her hands up but at the same time she was waving her hands frantically in front of her face to keep the bugs away.
It was futile and funny all at once. The best was when we heard a lady gaggin in the back say "Oh God I just swallowed a bug". HAHAHAHHA. Maybe it was because of the dark but this ride seemed to run alot faster than the previous 3 esepcially right at the helix at the end. We barreled thru that.... as we came into the station
the ride ops had mischevious smile on their faces...maybe due to the bugs splattered on us maybe for another reason. I'm no expert on ride mechanics as some people on this site are
but the ride definitely seemed faster.

The evening was now winding down and we wanted to get a night ride on MF. We made the trek over there and the sign said it was a 1 hr 15 minute wait. Since it was 9:30 we asked the
guy at the sign if we could still get on and he said as long as you are in line before 10 O'clock you get to ride. Cool. So we got in line.... all the while
cursing ourselves for stupidly jumping out of the freeway line thinking they were out of stamps. Now we would have to wait 1 hour longer to ride... but we figured it was worth it
At this point I saw something that dashed our hopes.... lightning in the distance... a storm was coming. I tried to gauge it and it looked like we definitely were not going to make it.
We decided to find another ride since the lines should be shorter elsewhere... and it was getting apparent the storm was not going to hold off. We ran up to raptor and that was 45 minutes(jeez at 9:40).
We decided our final ride would have to be Magnum. So we hustled back to Magnum and got their between 9:50 and 10:00 PM. The ride was a walkon and it was
an awesome way to end the day. As we went up the lift hill the sky was being lit up by lightning(still a good distance away so we were safe) and the lake was illuminated
by some of the flashes. It was the best ever. Riding at night with the lightning flashing and the breeze picking up a bit. As we pulled into the station and they asked how our ride was we all yelled our
approval.

5 or 10 minutes later we were trudging up the stairs to our hotel room(wow .... now I know why they make sure everyone knows there
is no elevator access in the old section of the Breakers. No sooner did we make it to the room then the sky opened up and it started raining buckets. Good call
on jumping out of the MF line and getting one last ride on Magnum.

As we were leaving the next day I was down in the gift shop in the lobby because I told myself I was going to get a T-shirt with my favorite
CP coaster. I was trying to decide which one to get and it was tough. MF or Magnum(MF was the better coaster but I didn't like the desing on the shirt... that blue
tie-dyed desing). Since my birthday was coming up in July My wife said she would pick one for my birthday.... she kicked me out of the shop to make her purchase.

3 Weeks later I flew back up to D-Town to drive My wife and infant son back to Atlanta. We did a gift exchange on the fourth as my birthday is the fifth. To be nice
I opened the gifts from her family first. Then I got down to a gift from her and one that was marked to Daddy(me) from my son. I ripped into the one from
my wife .... an MF T-shirt. Yeah C'mon. Then I started opening the one from my son... not knowing what it was.... but as I opened the box I knew what I would find inside.
I was right... It was a red Magnum XL-200 t-shirt. And thats how our day at Cedar Point went..... I had high expectations and I got more than I had hoped for.