Our visit had exactly one objective: ride as much **** as possible. Friends and family were in town, and wanting to get in their annual trip while riding as much as possible.
To accomplish this, we sought out "The List", a not-so-secret strategy for tackling all of Cedar Point's 16 roller coasters and other major attractions in one day. In general, I have always advised folks to "start at the back and move forward"; however we were open to suggestions on how to better improve this model. To help in this, PointBuzz had a discussion thread, with one user proposing the following:
So first things first, arrival time. We set everyone to arrive at the Cedar Point Shores/Magnum entrance at 9:45 (after having hydrated and eaten breakfast!) to let us get a jump to Maverick/the back of the park. 10 o'clock falls, and we are off to the races, waiting ~20 minutes for Maverick.
Without a second's lapse, we then immediately moved forward towards Millennium Force, who's queue was only halfway down the ramp. Wait time was again only 20 minutes, letting us, roll around to TTD for it's just-before-11 AM opening, affording a 15 minute wait there. Not a bad start! Grinding through the three Intamins first thing gave us much more time flexibility throughout the day, allowing for general faffing, restrooms, food, etc.
Back on target, we head towards the back of the park for our second pass, skipping Corkscrew's abnormally long 20 minute wait and heading to Magnum, who's queue was in station. Next to Gemini, again queue in the station. By this time, we are hitting 12:30, and feeling great about our progress so far. And since it is quite a large crowd for the park, seeing 2+ hour queues in the front of the park, we decided to close out the back park roller coasters with a pass on Mine Ride and Woodstock Express (screw Wilderness Run), and then headed to Pipe Scream, Screamin' Eagles, and Power Tower on our way to Rougarou.
But here, the mob finally caught up with us, giving us a 1 hour wait for Rougarou. I would never wait this long, but given the good time management so far, we knew we would have to bite the bullet at some point as the crowd migrated towards the back of the park and we, migrate forward. To help bide the time, we took a lap on the train, while also taking in some views of RMC Mean Streak progress. Bizarrely, some random park guests also jumped the fence, and where straight-up walking through the construction. I only wish I was so bold.
Finally time for lunch, for which we opted to head to Famous Dave's just outside the east gate. Again, this gives us a bit more time to let the crowd continue it's migration towards the back of the park, while letting us kick up our heels in air conditioning.
Back at the grind around 2 o'clock, we had to change tactics from "The List" to account for Iron Dragon, which I'll explain in a bit. In which case, we headed to Wicked Twister, who's queue had started dying down by this point. We then opted to jump in line for Windseeker, but started noticing looming clouds gathering...
... which did not open until we were on Windseeker, ascending 300 ft. through a torrent of water and rain. Let the records show, Cedar Point operates in the rain. It was simultaneously my worst and best experience on Windseeker, but we needed time to dry off after having hopped off.
Gratefully, the rain was a passing squall, only dumping water for 10 minutes and then back to blue skies. This brief moment of rain though gave us a fortunate reset for folks jumping out of lines to seek shelter. And as the clock was hitting 4 o'clock, we headed immediately for Iron Dragon.
But why? You may ask. It turns out Iron Dragon is Cedar Fair's latest experiment with VR - the coaster operates as normal throughout the day until 3, and then shuts down for a 1 hour reset, opening as Iron Dragon VR at 4. And after my experience with VR at Six Flags America's Mind Eraser, I knew one thing for sure - queue capacity would be ****e, and the only hope of riding would be a short wait. And while we waited ~1 hour to ride Iron Dragon VR... that was a short wait! Typical queue lengths throughout the day (and as I've observed over season) typically stretch 2+ hours.
So how was the VR experience?
My conclusion on VR is the same as it was at SFA, I still see the potential for VR to be applied to roller coasters, however only see it as a fleeting trend not to be approached as a true ride experience disruptor. Park visitors are still seeking real world experiences; light-technology inclusion is ok, but full VR immersion is still second-rate. And when you add on the extra logistics and ever-dreadful train capacity, barriers and logistical needs will still detract from the experience. I know we are still toying with the notion of retrofitting rides for VR - however I feel the only successful use of VR will be a ride/roller coaster purposely built from the beginning for it's use.
Back on point, The List. We have stuck to it so far, and have just the front of the park left to do. Gratefully, the high capacity B&M's have mostly done their magic in reducing queue waits. Gatekeeper proves to be 30 minutes, Raptor 20 minutes. We then break for dinner, and then hop on Blue Streak for a quick ride. Valravn's queue by evening still stands ~ 1 hour; we are done with it by around an hour and a half wait due to maintenance down time. And then, to finish the night off, we ride Corkscrew (walk-on) to complete 15/16 roller coasters in the park!
So did the List work? I would say overwhelmingly yes! We took just short of 14 hours to complete all the rides, with some general slow downs and flat rides built in. By focusing only on roller coasters, it should be more than easy to manage all the coasters in a standard 12 hour window. From here on out, I'll probably just stick to the list as guidance, and be sure to grind through the big 3 Intamins first in the morning, leaving all B&M's for later in the evening.
Oh! And we also had the chance to swing by the Cedar Point Nights Beach Party; a free to all nighttime party the park puts on the beach, featuring DJs, live bands, corn hole, fire pits, and (best of all) silent disco. Cedar Point Nights was introduced last year, and is a part of the broader Cedar Point effort of reinventing the Beach, Cedar Point Shores (water park), and new addition/renovation to the Hotel Breakers as a resort experience. The execution was excellent, and really helps Cedar Point achieve some beyond a "stay where you play" experience, better building out resort options for folks not wanting to be in the park day in and day out. Very well done!
To accomplish this, we sought out "The List", a not-so-secret strategy for tackling all of Cedar Point's 16 roller coasters and other major attractions in one day. In general, I have always advised folks to "start at the back and move forward"; however we were open to suggestions on how to better improve this model. To help in this, PointBuzz had a discussion thread, with one user proposing the following:
... Let's put it to the test!So first things first, arrival time. We set everyone to arrive at the Cedar Point Shores/Magnum entrance at 9:45 (after having hydrated and eaten breakfast!) to let us get a jump to Maverick/the back of the park. 10 o'clock falls, and we are off to the races, waiting ~20 minutes for Maverick.
Without a second's lapse, we then immediately moved forward towards Millennium Force, who's queue was only halfway down the ramp. Wait time was again only 20 minutes, letting us, roll around to TTD for it's just-before-11 AM opening, affording a 15 minute wait there. Not a bad start! Grinding through the three Intamins first thing gave us much more time flexibility throughout the day, allowing for general faffing, restrooms, food, etc.
Back on target, we head towards the back of the park for our second pass, skipping Corkscrew's abnormally long 20 minute wait and heading to Magnum, who's queue was in station. Next to Gemini, again queue in the station. By this time, we are hitting 12:30, and feeling great about our progress so far. And since it is quite a large crowd for the park, seeing 2+ hour queues in the front of the park, we decided to close out the back park roller coasters with a pass on Mine Ride and Woodstock Express (screw Wilderness Run), and then headed to Pipe Scream, Screamin' Eagles, and Power Tower on our way to Rougarou.
But here, the mob finally caught up with us, giving us a 1 hour wait for Rougarou. I would never wait this long, but given the good time management so far, we knew we would have to bite the bullet at some point as the crowd migrated towards the back of the park and we, migrate forward. To help bide the time, we took a lap on the train, while also taking in some views of RMC Mean Streak progress. Bizarrely, some random park guests also jumped the fence, and where straight-up walking through the construction. I only wish I was so bold.
Finally time for lunch, for which we opted to head to Famous Dave's just outside the east gate. Again, this gives us a bit more time to let the crowd continue it's migration towards the back of the park, while letting us kick up our heels in air conditioning.
Back at the grind around 2 o'clock, we had to change tactics from "The List" to account for Iron Dragon, which I'll explain in a bit. In which case, we headed to Wicked Twister, who's queue had started dying down by this point. We then opted to jump in line for Windseeker, but started noticing looming clouds gathering...
... which did not open until we were on Windseeker, ascending 300 ft. through a torrent of water and rain. Let the records show, Cedar Point operates in the rain.
It was simultaneously my worst and best experience on Windseeker, but we needed time to dry off after having hopped off.Gratefully, the rain was a passing squall, only dumping water for 10 minutes and then back to blue skies. This brief moment of rain though gave us a fortunate reset for folks jumping out of lines to seek shelter. And as the clock was hitting 4 o'clock, we headed immediately for Iron Dragon.
But why? You may ask. It turns out Iron Dragon is Cedar Fair's latest experiment with VR - the coaster operates as normal throughout the day until 3, and then shuts down for a 1 hour reset, opening as Iron Dragon VR at 4. And after my experience with VR at Six Flags America's Mind Eraser, I knew one thing for sure - queue capacity would be ****e, and the only hope of riding would be a short wait. And while we waited ~1 hour to ride Iron Dragon VR... that was a short wait! Typical queue lengths throughout the day (and as I've observed over season) typically stretch 2+ hours.
So how was the VR experience?
Again, I had the chance to ride SFA's Vekoma SLC, which used the Galactic Attack space-battle based VR experience. I was pretty surprised at the experience, and would say it's a fun change on the roller coaster riding experience. As a quick recap, Galactic Attack's story begins at the top of the lift hill, when a space portal appears (thanks to augmented reality, provided by piping the Samsung smartphone camera's video feed into your viewer screen), transporting the train into the middle of an epic space battle. Riders carve and careen through ship debris, shooting at evil alien invaders. The brake run also includes a mini(ish) game, where riders try to shoot at large alien eggs, before they hatch.
I did however want to experience a less-aggressive, non-inverting VR; just as comparison. To the best of my knowledge (correct me if I'm wrong), Cedar Fair is using Triotech for their VR programming, while Six Flags is using another provider.
This was immediately evident as the general theme of Iron Dragon was more compelling (per Triotech's reputation), using a medieval story of you (a friar? for some reason?) riding in a covered, horse-drawn wagon through a village, under siege from cyclops. **** gets immediately turned up to 11 however, as a dragon suddenly swoops in, carrying your carriage through mid-air over the (now) burning village. The horse, sadly, does not survive. Our new mode of transportation continues to carry the carriage, careening through the village, and leads us into a cave which suddenly collapses and gives way to dragons jumping up, trying to snatch at the wagon (a fun visual distraction for what is the second lift hill of Iron Dragon). The finale figure 8 of the physical ride is then adapted into villagers shooting large Ballista's at the dragon, who dodges the arrows while swooping over a lake (a nice tie-in for the mister feature on Iron Dragon). The dragon finally drops the wagon, which floats to safety in an underground town.
So how do the experience's compare? The graphics felt better on the Cedar Fair experience, which were also less busy, allowing riders to better take in the scenes. Granted, ride speed is slower on Iron Dragon, but I felt that was a perk for the VR, where Galactic Attack was very busy. By also not setting the scenes in space, but rather very physical places, the story was less disorienting for non-coaster enthusiasts unfamiliar with the ride layout. Props however to Galactic Attack for having content while sitting in the brake run - the Cedar Fair VR story just literally ends on the last screen, and stays there. And when we are still dealing with 5+ load times per train, anything to occupy time in the brake run is a good thing. Overall however, I prefer the Triotech experience, as head tracking/general software operation felt superior, and was better on visual calibration.
I did however want to experience a less-aggressive, non-inverting VR; just as comparison. To the best of my knowledge (correct me if I'm wrong), Cedar Fair is using Triotech for their VR programming, while Six Flags is using another provider.
This was immediately evident as the general theme of Iron Dragon was more compelling (per Triotech's reputation), using a medieval story of you (a friar? for some reason?) riding in a covered, horse-drawn wagon through a village, under siege from cyclops. **** gets immediately turned up to 11 however, as a dragon suddenly swoops in, carrying your carriage through mid-air over the (now) burning village. The horse, sadly, does not survive. Our new mode of transportation continues to carry the carriage, careening through the village, and leads us into a cave which suddenly collapses and gives way to dragons jumping up, trying to snatch at the wagon (a fun visual distraction for what is the second lift hill of Iron Dragon). The finale figure 8 of the physical ride is then adapted into villagers shooting large Ballista's at the dragon, who dodges the arrows while swooping over a lake (a nice tie-in for the mister feature on Iron Dragon). The dragon finally drops the wagon, which floats to safety in an underground town.
So how do the experience's compare? The graphics felt better on the Cedar Fair experience, which were also less busy, allowing riders to better take in the scenes. Granted, ride speed is slower on Iron Dragon, but I felt that was a perk for the VR, where Galactic Attack was very busy. By also not setting the scenes in space, but rather very physical places, the story was less disorienting for non-coaster enthusiasts unfamiliar with the ride layout. Props however to Galactic Attack for having content while sitting in the brake run - the Cedar Fair VR story just literally ends on the last screen, and stays there. And when we are still dealing with 5+ load times per train, anything to occupy time in the brake run is a good thing. Overall however, I prefer the Triotech experience, as head tracking/general software operation felt superior, and was better on visual calibration.
Back on point, The List. We have stuck to it so far, and have just the front of the park left to do. Gratefully, the high capacity B&M's have mostly done their magic in reducing queue waits. Gatekeeper proves to be 30 minutes, Raptor 20 minutes. We then break for dinner, and then hop on Blue Streak for a quick ride. Valravn's queue by evening still stands ~ 1 hour; we are done with it by around an hour and a half wait due to maintenance down time. And then, to finish the night off, we ride Corkscrew (walk-on) to complete 15/16 roller coasters in the park!
So did the List work? I would say overwhelmingly yes! We took just short of 14 hours to complete all the rides, with some general slow downs and flat rides built in. By focusing only on roller coasters, it should be more than easy to manage all the coasters in a standard 12 hour window. From here on out, I'll probably just stick to the list as guidance, and be sure to grind through the big 3 Intamins first in the morning, leaving all B&M's for later in the evening.
Oh! And we also had the chance to swing by the Cedar Point Nights Beach Party; a free to all nighttime party the park puts on the beach, featuring DJs, live bands, corn hole, fire pits, and (best of all) silent disco. Cedar Point Nights was introduced last year, and is a part of the broader Cedar Point effort of reinventing the Beach, Cedar Point Shores (water park), and new addition/renovation to the Hotel Breakers as a resort experience. The execution was excellent, and really helps Cedar Point achieve some beyond a "stay where you play" experience, better building out resort options for folks not wanting to be in the park day in and day out. Very well done!
