Sunday--Halloweekends, Best Time To Visit Cedar Point!

coasterell · #1 09-22-2008, 04:15 PM

Yesterday my father and myself took one of our random road trips up to Cedar Point. He's been working some pretty weird hours and I didn't know if I would even be going back up to Cedar Point this season.

We left Cleveland (Chesterland) area around 11:20ish, and arrived up in Sandusky around 1:20ish. Ended up doing a bit of a hike through North Olmstead/Westlake area to get on I-90 from I-480.

In the parking lot, it seemed like there was quite a few people there, but it didn't look "busy" by far. I told my dad that I could get him a spot close to the front entrance, and he said if I did, then he would buy me a beer.

After we parked and headed in, we choose our rides carefully as we were originally running on a very tight schedule and wanted to all the rides we liked in. We were hoping to leave by 5, 5:30pm at the latest, but that of course didn't happen. When you visit Cedar Point, never run on a planned course of action, because anything can happen.

MaXair-1 Ride Cycle Wait:
First stop of the day. Originally it appeared to not be running, but found out that there was just an unusually short line. This ride really delivers and I am extremely happy that Cedar Fair fixed it! I believe it is running a longer ride cycle and seems to have more full swings. 10/10

Wicked Twister: Back Seat---2 Train Wait
The day was looking very promising, and the lines were looking even better. Wicked Twister was about a 10 minute wait for the very back seat. Also it seemed to be running extremely fast as the train went all the way up the back spike. I'm sure the front did as well, I just know my dad and I looked up at the back and saw nothing but blue sky, no yellow track in the way. Pretty sweet to have that happen. 10/10

Walked past Planet Snoopy and came to the great fork in the road. Either way you choose leads to the back of the park and either way you have awesome coasters. So the big question was: "Do we go to the left catching WildCat, Mantis, Iron Dragon and Millennium Force, or to the Right catching, Top Thrill Dragster, Corkscrew, Magnum, and Gemini?" We chose the left path, and decided to chance not getting any of the other 4.

WildCat: 10 Min. Wait.
This is a classic coaster in my book. Very fun, and just something that no matter how old you are, it's a great ride. I love the drops and especially love the helixes. In my book a Cedar Point trip isn't complete without a ride on WildCat. 10/10

Iron Dragon had about a 20 minute line which was really surprising considering the next two rides we rode. We decided to skip the Draggin' Iron and headed over to the Nut Cracker a.k.a. Mantis. (My dad says CP should take out Mantis, take it to Holiday World, where it would fit in being called Nut Cracker.)

Mantis: Front Seat, 10 minute wait:
I absolutely LOATH this ride. People say you have to learn how to ride with the coaster, but I disagree. I have been on several other Stand-Ups, but none of them have put me in as much pain or discomfort as Mantis. I guess though it was my stupidity for taking the Outside Front, because when in the middle I have discomfort, but not intense pain. I almost couldn't walk after riding...too much pressure is put on my inner thighs because of this coaster. It would be a nice floorless if Cedar Point would consider converting it, but as it is, in my book a waste of time. 2/10

Millennium Force: Front Seat, 15 minutes.
When I glanced at the Millennium line, my mouth dropped. I expected to be in line for 1/2 hour at the LEAST. We walked into the line, through all the ques and halfway up the ramp. The only other time, besides employee events, that I have seen the line this short was at the Platinum Pass ERT night, and even then the line was down to the bottom of the ramp. Waiting about 5 minutes to get into the station, my dad and I decided to wait the extra 10 to go in the front seat. We rode the blue train, and as always Millennium delivered some serious thrills.

Walking back into Frontier, we stopped at the Red Garter, and my father bought me the beer he owed me. He also bought one for himself. We tried the Jack's Pumpkin Spice Ale, but I don't think it was all that great. Didn't really taste any different than a regular Bud Light.

We sat down by the benches in front of Town Hall to enjoy our beers. And headed toward the Maverick.

Maverick-1 hour wait, back seat.
I suppose it is a good thing sometimes that beer takes so long to kick in, but then others it's not. About 3/4 of the wait I started feeling a bit buzzed, and by the time we boarded I had the full effect set upon me. We chose row six, they actually were not assigning people to rows, just let them choose, and waited for 1 train. We were on the right side of the station, so 2nd to be launched up the lift. As always the Maverick delivered an awesome ride, but at the end, our train as well as 3 others were stuck for about 20 minutes. I guess there was something wrong with the timing of trains, they were running all 6, and had to remove one train. No one ever told us what was going on, and I think it had something to do with the fact we were at the isolated braking pad. Anyhow this made us late for the 5:30 leave time we planned. 10/10

After the Maverick wait, we decided to try and head toward the front by 6pm, but near the Gemini, I ran into my old buddy, Lance. We chatted it up for probably a 1/2 hour. So my dad, realizing we weren't going to be making our 7pm deadline to have been back home and somewhere else, decided to hit up some more coasters. We skipped Gemini and headed toward Magnum.

Magnum: Back Seat, 2 train wait.
The ride op doing the spiels for Maggie was amazing and extremely funny. It made the wait go by even faster. Maggie went up the lift pretty slow, but the ride seemed to get a major boost of speed coming out of the pretzel turn. As always great amounts of airtime and just a smooth ride. 10/10

Next up was Top Thrill Dragster, and NOTHING could have prepared me for what I saw there....

TTD: 10-15 minute wait, 20 for front seat:
We WALKED UP into the STATION, not just the ramps outside the station, we actually walked into the station. Front Seat was of course a longer wait, but still I've NEVER seen TTD have that short of a line. It was a bad mistake taking the front seat at dusk however. My dad and I ended up getting off covered in bug guts... but oh well it was so worth it. TTD is a great ride, and seemed to be running faster yesterday as well. 10/10

The final ride of the evening was Raptor.

Raptor-Walk on
We just choose a seat and rode. Raptor is a good ride,it's just the braking that needs fixing. After hitting the brakes, my father and I had some serious headaches. I love Raptor, just wish they could smooth it out a little bit. 8/10

Overall I had probably one of the best times at Cedar Point I have ever had, and I really miss working there. Heck I missed visiting there, I felt like I was being deprived and am happy we went. Also this upcoming weekend I'm trying to convince a group of my friends to go with me. 90/100

Carowinds 73-03 · #2 09-22-2008, 04:38 PM

Great TR! I had no idea Halloweekends started already. Kinda early.