I'll try to keep to important details, because you all really don't need me to review what it's like in the 4th car on Cedar Creek Mine Ride. Plus I've done everything but TTD, Skyhawk, and maXair so it wasn't much of a revelation for me. I’ve separated key experiences...
Went to my friend Keith's house for the night. Making the trip would be Keith's parents, Keith, their foreign exchange student Val (from Germany), my friend Mike, and myself.


Left Cheektowaga, NY for Sandusky, OH at 5:45 AM. We nearly flew there, as we were in the parking lot at Sandcastle Suites by 10:15, and we had stopped at McDonald's for breakfast at the Ohio border. Check in was at 4, so we had most of the day to frolic. Keith, Val, Mike, and I bought the tickets from the hotel and headed up the boardwalk to the Magnum entrance. It was supposed to pour all day, so we wanted to get started quickly in case mother nature wasn't friendly...

Magnum XL-200
Did it as the first ride because Mike and Keith wanted a "warm-up" before TTD, which appeared to be fully operational. We walked on to the last car, and Val enjoyed his first ever American roller coaster. Not a bad start, if I do say so myself.

Top Thrill Dragster
Why waste time? Val and Keith were now pumped and I was prepared to conquer the only coaster at CP that I hadn't. We unintentionally tricked Mike into riding because he asked if it was “that coaster over there” (pointing to Iron Dragon), but it looked like he was pointing at TTD’s brakes, so I told him it was. I was happy to see the wait was posted to be an hour and 5 trains were running. We waited for a rollback, but didn't see a single one the whole weekend. At least it was running almost the whole time. We got 2nd/3rd rows on in exactly an hour. I must say, although the ride itself isn't that great of a coaster, the experience of waiting for the launch is one of the greatest thrills I have ever experienced. It seems like forever before the takeoff, and the launch is fantastic. "Wow" was the only word out of my mouth for several minutes.

So, how do you measure up to that? We ended up lining up for Power Tower, but both green towers broke down within minutes of each other, so we rode the ride side. Val called it "lame." I think it's pretty tame as well, so we vowed to return when it was totally operational. We decided to eat before crossing the park to find something more thrilling for our German friend. 4 $10 hot dog and chicken finger meals later (Sky Ride refreshments), we made our way to MF.
Walked over there, line was closed and employees were informing people that the ride was closed indefinitely, and at least for a few hours if not all day. Damn.

After that disappointment, we did the usual CP run-through in true thrill seeker fashion, trying to hit every coaster we could in the limited time frame. We got on Mantis, Iron Dragon, Skyhawk, Mean Streak, Gemini, maXair, Disaster Transport, and Wicked Twister before our heads were spinning and it was time to check in at Sandcastle. We took the longest route up the boardwalk back to the hotel, grabbed some drinks and watched some World Cup. Once our stomachs were settled, we figured it was safe to return. Still hadn’t rained and it was fast approaching 5 o’clock. Hooray for weather forecasts.

Upon return, Val suggested Magnum again. Why the hell not? We figured since it was a walk on anyway we’d do the front row. Good deal. Then I insisted on Raptor, so we made the trek in that direction. We took a wrong turn and ended up in front of Blue Streak, so Keith insisted we ride in the name of conquering all 14 coasters (sorry WE and Jr. Gemini). We did walk on to the front row before queuing up for Raptor. The wait was a whopping 40 minutes, and it was starting to get hot, but Raptor (or “Rapster” as Val called it) would be worth it. We got second row because we were tired of waiting and got the expected great ride. I forgot how much better a Beemer Invert was than my standard SLC. I’d be reminded again later, though...

We hopped on Demon Drop and Corkscrew before heading back to the hotel for dinner. Burgers on the grill saved us a bunch of money we would have spent on food. Keith’s parents joined us for the evening at the park. When we headed back we basically followed their agenda for a while, riding Wildcat and re-riding Mantis, which wasn’t as painful as I’d remembered, and Corkscrew. As darkness approached, we check on the status of MF: no progress. We determined TTD would be the best course of action, but Mike disagreed. Keith’s dad accompanied the three of us as we queued up at around 9:15. The wait was no longer than half an hour, and there was much rejoicing. Hopped in second row and rode it in the dark. I should have been expecting everything this time, but it was still almost as thrilling as the first ride. We figured that was a good way to end Day 1, so we headed back to SS to get some sort of shuteye.

Read on...

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Raptor
We had ERT for staying in the hotel, and we planned on using it on this sunny Saturday that promised to be at least twice as crowded as the day before. We were in the park by 5 after 9, but MF was still down, so the exclusive rides were TTD, maXair, Skyhawk, and Raptor. Figuring most guests would head to TTD, we guessed that there’d be no wait for Raptor. Bingo. Jumped on once on last row and once on first row. The front row ride was possibly the best ride of the trip to date. Val wanted another ride, but when we got back to the front of the queue it was 9:32 and the GP had been allowed to enter, the line had several hundred people already in it. Screw that.

We got to maXair where there was only a 2 ride wait, but before we got on someone lost their breakfast in the seat, so we had to wait for clean up and 2 empty runs before we got on. Gotta say, this is one of my favorite flats, and the wait may have been worth it. Now that the crowd had really formed, we’d have to wait a while for anything. We’d done most everything, so since it had started to heat up Soak City sounded like a good idea.

Soak City
After a short break in the hotel, we used our day 2 passes to get in and got quite toasted. We rode all the tube slides (I think) and then the Zoom Flume (the 4 man slalom-type slide), which was probably one of the scariest rides I have experienced because it gets so close to the edge. After a ride around the lazier of the tube rivers we decided to rest for a while. Falling asleep in the sun turned out to be a bad idea. I’m still red. We went back to the hotel and hopped in the pool there to cool down. We grabbed some food and headed back to the park.

Nothing painfully important would happen until we decided to try our luck with Power Tower again. Green side was up, and it turns out we were luckier than we thought. On the way up, we noticed that the greater powers that be were smiling upon us, as MF was going up the lift. We forgot all about PT, and Val and I discussed MF, even on the way down. We high tailed it in that direction.

There were 2 rent-a-cops posted at the entrance discouraging loiterers. When we asked, they said it was only the first of many test runs, and they probably wouldn’t be open the rest of the day. BS. We figured we’d try back after a quick ride on CCMR, the last remaining coaster aside from MF. Woohoo. We mistakenly took our time getting back, as when we turned the corner in Frontier Town it was evident that the queue was open. Jackpot.

Millennium Force, Part Deux
We missed the opening by probably 10 minutes, but still waited just under ½ an hour to get on. Since the wait for the rear was no longer than the wait for any other car aside from the front, we hopped on there. Again, I forgot the difference 100 feet makes. The air was more significant than I remembered, as well. Just an all out awesome ride from start to finish.

As planned we checked in for dinner, but we had a while to wait for a table at Friday’s so we got in some mini-golf with the free passes we had. Nice course, but, well...it’s mini-golf. Then we sat down to eat. Didn’t wait long for food, and the waitress seemed upbeat and interested, although she annoyed the hell out of me by the end. We still tipped generously. Without further ado, it was back to the park.

We spent some valuable time waiting for Keith’s parents to meet up with us at TTD, but they didn’t actually want us to wait for them, so we blew the time we’d have had for 2 rides. They wanted to see the light show, as did Mike and Keith. Val said he’d rather get in line than wait “to see some crappy fireworks” and I agreed. We had to decide between TTD and MF, and ended up going with the overall better ride...

Millennium Force, Part Trois
We scooted over to MF, which had a much longer line now. It wasn’t bad, as they had a DJ taking requests and we could see all the fireworks anyhow. Waited 60 minutes to get into the station and another 30 for front row. Finally, at 11:08 PM (just missed the closing of the queues) the blue train departed the station, Val and myself at the head. Best. Ride. Ever. I don’t think I’ve ever had a coaster experience like MF in the dark in the front row, and I know our German friend won’t be forgetting it anytime soon, either.

In the dead of night Val and I retreated to the hotel room, and somehow beat the others (who had decided their final thrills would come from Mean Streak and Wildcat) back. We watched Scary Movie 2 and hit the sack.


We got up, consumed the remaining breakfast hot pockets, and hit the road. We were home in exactly 4 ½ hours, and thus my miraculous Cedar Point trip came to an end.

Final Ride Count:
MF (2)
TTD (2)
Raptor (3)
Mantis (2)
Magnum (2)
Iron Dragon (1)
Mean Streak (1)
Blue Streak (1)
Corkscrew (2)
Gemini (1)
Wicked Twister (1)
Disaster Transport (1)
CCMR (1)
Wildcat (1)
maXair (2)
SkyHawk (1)
Power Tower (each side, 1)

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Nice trip report looks like you had a great time. How was the new Skyhawk, did you like it? I have ridden the smaller 2 seat version of the ride and thought it was pretty wild. I was wondering what kind of ride experience the larger model is with the larger seating with lots more people on the ride at one time.

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Johnny Upsidedown's Roller Coaster Website
www.Johnnyupsidedown.com
Stop by and take a look at lots of coaster photos, construction and trip reports.

It doesn't look that extreme, but the speed is really pretty intense, and it goes up higher than you'd think. We waited a little less than 30 minutes I think, which will probably be the norm, and I definately recommend riding it at least once. We'd have gone again if there weren't bigger fish to fry.

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