Cedar Point - for the very first time.
A bucket list visit to the 'roller coaster capital of the world' was open to me. I was SO excited. Did lots of research and thought I was going to have an amazing and memorable day. Memorable it was. If you want photos then here is the point where I apologise. Grey and drizzly weather, gusts of wind - they do not make for great photo oppotunities.
And if you are still reading, then I do not want to put a downer on your day. Also another apology, as the short ride reviews come later after my report of the whole day. Unusual, maybe, but if you are still reading then all should become clear.
A Friday morning, the park opened at 11 due to HalloWeekends and arrived at 10.20. Parked and took camera shot of the position for later as recommended. Walked to the entrance under Gatekeeper and was surprised at how quiet everything seemed - bar the wind.
Quiet, because nothing seemed to be operating for early entry or for testing. Never mind, I thought, I'll get some shots later and joined the turnstile queues.
Got in just before 11 after joining the free wifi for the Cedar Point app and queue times. Oh dear. Only Millennium Force was operating so rushed over and got on in 12 minutes.
Headed over to Maverick and Steel Vengeance where Maverick's queue was building up so chose Steel Vengeance, on within another 15 minutes. So far so good. Then...the app updated and all became much clearer. Gatekeeper, Valravn, Raptor, Magnum and Rougarou not open because of weather. In fact Magnum, Gatekeeper, Raptor and Valravn did not open at all. No Slingshot, WindSeeker, Giant Wheel, maXair, Power Tower, Sky Ride, Skyhawk all day. Boardwalk's mouse was running/down/running/down for some of the day. Rougarou tried to open, ran for a short while, then stayed down.
Managed to work out the park layout, and rode Blue Streak, Iron Dragon and Gemini. 3pm, I went to buy single fast passes for Maverick and Steel Vengeance due to queue lengths and got to the top of the Maverick steps as the only fast pass rider and....
strange alarms from time to time, platform announcements, no movement, 2 full trains in the station and all stop. Engineers arrived, the ride and station got evacuated. Went straight to Steel Vengeance and reached the fast pass entrance when a chain went up. Ride went down. Re-rode Millennium Force as queue times said 30 minutes, (more like 50) and at this point in the day, only Millennium Force, Blue Streak and Corkscrew were operating, as it remained until 8:30pm when I gave up and left in the rain.
In total, 2 x Millenium Force, 1x Steel Vengeance, 1x Iron Dragon, 1x Cedar Creek Mine Train, 1x Blue Streak, 1x Gemini rides, plus a few smaller attractions and the horror/murder/musical show.
The park knew some time ago that Top Thrill 2 was going to be out of action for the rest of the season. Surely they would make sure that all rides and attractions would then be open to compensate. They then decided to retire Snake River Falls because of Siren's Curse. Fair enough I suppose, but when no work was going on, no ride removal, no screens, nothing - why not keep the Falls going to the end of the season? Thunder Canyon was not open - I could not be bothered to find out why. Many stalls and food outlets were closed. Park colleagues could/would not say when rides would open, only said that Maverick and Steel Vengeance were down for maintenance issues, and then night fell. No evidence then that engineers were working on Maverick to get it back running. The lines for scare attractions just kept on getting longer and longer. All day drink plan worked well, parking voucher worked with no hitch, but had issues with the dining plan where some 'entrees' were excluded. Why? Had to keep checking what I could and could not choose.
At customer services, there was also a bit of a queue of disgruntled customers....was told I could have a refund for my unused fast passes and that the rides did not open because of the weather. Yet Millennium Force at 300+ feet stayed open...when others are not so tall.
Plenty of cast members were walking around after dark in costume and make-up. It definitely smacked of corporate profit over customer satisfaction to close nearly everything and just try to get people into seasonal scare events. Even booking quite far ahead, Cedar Point is not cheap. So not a lot for my money.
Well, thanks for reading if you got this far.
Blue Streak - credit achieved but do not need to ride this one again. Rough, pretty basic and really needs to be replaced.
Cedar Creek Mine Train - an old Arrow with some good ideas, but which really needs some work or replacing. One point was very sharp.
Iron Dragon I quite enjoyed with some good positive g's. It does show it's age but I liked the layout through the trees and over the water which is quite different to Vampire @CWOA.
Gemini was much better than I expected. Only one train running, but an ambitious coaster for it's time and some good forces all through the ride, especially the final helix.
Millennium Force - wow, the first giga coaster, and still runs quite smoothly. A great first drop followed by the huge overbanked turn; but best of all I enjoyed the smaller airtime hill just before the left turn where it runs along the station and queue line. It is really all about that feeling of speed and smooth travel along the track. A very good ride indeed.
Steel Vengeance - a novel experience of going through a scanner onto a ride with NOTHING but the clothes you are wearing. My first RMC of any kind. In a word, Crazy - crazy in a good, organised kind of way. I have never experienced anything like this. It is crazy after the station and does not let up until the final airtime jolt into the brakes. Some wonderful elements, but my favourite that I have ridden? I do not think so.
In summary, my worst ever day at a theme/amusement park. Certainly this must cloud my judgement of the 2 'main' rides I did go on, so neither breaks into my top 10. Gutted that I could not ride Maverick and Gatekeeper as I anticipated Maverick to be up there. I just do not know where to rate Steel Vengeance because I want to ride it again, to just enjoy the experience rather than wondering 'what's next'? Millennium Force definitely fits somewhere in my favourite 11-20 list.
A bucket list visit to the 'roller coaster capital of the world' was open to me. I was SO excited. Did lots of research and thought I was going to have an amazing and memorable day. Memorable it was. If you want photos then here is the point where I apologise. Grey and drizzly weather, gusts of wind - they do not make for great photo oppotunities.
And if you are still reading, then I do not want to put a downer on your day. Also another apology, as the short ride reviews come later after my report of the whole day. Unusual, maybe, but if you are still reading then all should become clear.
A Friday morning, the park opened at 11 due to HalloWeekends and arrived at 10.20. Parked and took camera shot of the position for later as recommended. Walked to the entrance under Gatekeeper and was surprised at how quiet everything seemed - bar the wind.
Quiet, because nothing seemed to be operating for early entry or for testing. Never mind, I thought, I'll get some shots later and joined the turnstile queues.
Got in just before 11 after joining the free wifi for the Cedar Point app and queue times. Oh dear. Only Millennium Force was operating so rushed over and got on in 12 minutes.
Headed over to Maverick and Steel Vengeance where Maverick's queue was building up so chose Steel Vengeance, on within another 15 minutes. So far so good. Then...the app updated and all became much clearer. Gatekeeper, Valravn, Raptor, Magnum and Rougarou not open because of weather. In fact Magnum, Gatekeeper, Raptor and Valravn did not open at all. No Slingshot, WindSeeker, Giant Wheel, maXair, Power Tower, Sky Ride, Skyhawk all day. Boardwalk's mouse was running/down/running/down for some of the day. Rougarou tried to open, ran for a short while, then stayed down.
Managed to work out the park layout, and rode Blue Streak, Iron Dragon and Gemini. 3pm, I went to buy single fast passes for Maverick and Steel Vengeance due to queue lengths and got to the top of the Maverick steps as the only fast pass rider and....
strange alarms from time to time, platform announcements, no movement, 2 full trains in the station and all stop. Engineers arrived, the ride and station got evacuated. Went straight to Steel Vengeance and reached the fast pass entrance when a chain went up. Ride went down. Re-rode Millennium Force as queue times said 30 minutes, (more like 50) and at this point in the day, only Millennium Force, Blue Streak and Corkscrew were operating, as it remained until 8:30pm when I gave up and left in the rain.
In total, 2 x Millenium Force, 1x Steel Vengeance, 1x Iron Dragon, 1x Cedar Creek Mine Train, 1x Blue Streak, 1x Gemini rides, plus a few smaller attractions and the horror/murder/musical show.
The park knew some time ago that Top Thrill 2 was going to be out of action for the rest of the season. Surely they would make sure that all rides and attractions would then be open to compensate. They then decided to retire Snake River Falls because of Siren's Curse. Fair enough I suppose, but when no work was going on, no ride removal, no screens, nothing - why not keep the Falls going to the end of the season? Thunder Canyon was not open - I could not be bothered to find out why. Many stalls and food outlets were closed. Park colleagues could/would not say when rides would open, only said that Maverick and Steel Vengeance were down for maintenance issues, and then night fell. No evidence then that engineers were working on Maverick to get it back running. The lines for scare attractions just kept on getting longer and longer. All day drink plan worked well, parking voucher worked with no hitch, but had issues with the dining plan where some 'entrees' were excluded. Why? Had to keep checking what I could and could not choose.
At customer services, there was also a bit of a queue of disgruntled customers....was told I could have a refund for my unused fast passes and that the rides did not open because of the weather. Yet Millennium Force at 300+ feet stayed open...when others are not so tall.
Plenty of cast members were walking around after dark in costume and make-up. It definitely smacked of corporate profit over customer satisfaction to close nearly everything and just try to get people into seasonal scare events. Even booking quite far ahead, Cedar Point is not cheap. So not a lot for my money.
Well, thanks for reading if you got this far.
Blue Streak - credit achieved but do not need to ride this one again. Rough, pretty basic and really needs to be replaced.
Cedar Creek Mine Train - an old Arrow with some good ideas, but which really needs some work or replacing. One point was very sharp.
Iron Dragon I quite enjoyed with some good positive g's. It does show it's age but I liked the layout through the trees and over the water which is quite different to Vampire @CWOA.
Gemini was much better than I expected. Only one train running, but an ambitious coaster for it's time and some good forces all through the ride, especially the final helix.
Millennium Force - wow, the first giga coaster, and still runs quite smoothly. A great first drop followed by the huge overbanked turn; but best of all I enjoyed the smaller airtime hill just before the left turn where it runs along the station and queue line. It is really all about that feeling of speed and smooth travel along the track. A very good ride indeed.
Steel Vengeance - a novel experience of going through a scanner onto a ride with NOTHING but the clothes you are wearing. My first RMC of any kind. In a word, Crazy - crazy in a good, organised kind of way. I have never experienced anything like this. It is crazy after the station and does not let up until the final airtime jolt into the brakes. Some wonderful elements, but my favourite that I have ridden? I do not think so.
In summary, my worst ever day at a theme/amusement park. Certainly this must cloud my judgement of the 2 'main' rides I did go on, so neither breaks into my top 10. Gutted that I could not ride Maverick and Gatekeeper as I anticipated Maverick to be up there. I just do not know where to rate Steel Vengeance because I want to ride it again, to just enjoy the experience rather than wondering 'what's next'? Millennium Force definitely fits somewhere in my favourite 11-20 list.
