Photo TR: CP 9-18 "Farewell Demon Drop!"

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The website may have reversed the order of the pics, and they're kinda in order, so you might need to start at the bottom and go up. The quote will make more sense that way.

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My friend Lori & I decided to go on a late season trip to Cedar Point. Our original intention was to camp nearby, but seeing as it was rainy & cold, we opted at the last moment to stay at Breakers Express instead. We ended up really loving that decision for many reason, including that they gave us a good package deal on tickets, with parking pass and a nifty get-in-at-9:30 ticket.

 

So we went into the park friday night at 6pm, and were happy to find walk-ons throughout the park. The only exception was Millie, which we had to wait 20 minutes for. As the night went on, the line got shorter & shorter, so after 10pm, it too was walk-on. Since Lori is a fledgling coaster nerd, I was teaching her all sorts of nerdy things, like what heartlining is, and why Millie is quiet as it goes up the lift. She's even learning to identify who built a track based on what the track type is!

 

She had a memory of riding Draggie (Iron... not Top Thrill) at night and that it was fun that way. So we rode it in the dark, and she quickly proved herself wrong!

 

A cool thing happened that night... While riding Millie, you could see colored shadows of the structure projected onto low lying clouds. It was actually very cool to see! And of course, the night rides were great. We got about 10 rides on MF that night.

 

After the last ride, as we walked to the front of the park, a kid around 10 or 12 years old asked, "We're you behind us on Millenium Force?" We were so we said yes, and started chatting. He was walking with his family who all turned out to be enthusiasts. So we had all sorts of fun chatting about what rides are cool, etc. The kid was so excited to have just bumped into someone who spoke 'coasterese!' We chatted all the way out to our cars.

 

Saturday morning we went in early on our super-special-early-entrance pass, to get some quick rides on Millie, only to find that they were letting everyone in at 9:30. Suddenly we didn't feel so special! The lines were already building up, and the day was dismal, so we left the park and drove to Cleve-Land to check out the BodyWorlds exhibit at the science center.

 

Body Worlds is this amazing exhibit of real human bodies. It's truly incredible. You can see all the utter beauty & complexity of the inner workings of humans. For instance, they have a complete circulatory system floating in liquid. You can see the innumerable branches and the fine capilaries. Most of the bodies are free standing and not in a case, or even roped off. You get get a close as you want, and really see the amazing intricacies of the body.

 

They also display healty lungs next to smoker's lungs. There really is only one word to describe the smoker's lungs... Repugnant. It truly is disgusting!

 

We were happy to get there, as it is the final weekend, though I believe it is going on to Philly & Toronto. Check it out here... http://www.bodyworlds.com/en/pages/home.asp

 

So, Sunday we went back to the park! It was a gorgeous day, and the crowds were light. We had mini marathon's on Millie, Bluey, & Droppie (to say farewell!). I actually like Demon Drop alot, so I was sad to hear it's leaving.

 

Lori talked me into trying the rope ladder challenge game. I'm normally not into playing the games, but this one looked fun, so I gave it a whirl. It promptly showed me who's boss, by beating up my arm when I fell off. My arm rubbed against the rope, and really jacked it up. Check out the pic below to see what I mean! I ended up stopping in the Frontier Town first aid station. The nice, if somewhat spacey, woman tended my wounds. I had been planning to sue Cedar Point for a cool million, but the first aid lady gave me a popsicle, and that was good enough for me!

 

Because we had been in the park Friday night & Sat morning, we didn't feel the rush to get in as many rides as possible, and took Sunday fairly relaxed. We did things we normally wouldn't, like go to the petting farm, play skeeball, and ride Disaster Transport! Disastie was actually slightly less un-fun, because there were almost no lights on during the ride. The kids behind us loved it!

 

Then a few rides on MaxAir. I like this ride, and the placement adds to the experience, since you end up seeing the Space Sprial as you fly up in the air. We went on Wicked Twister a bunch too, and I ended up actually liking it. The first time I rode it, I thought it was boring, and didn't plan on riding it ever again. But this time it was walk-on, and we rode up front, which was totally worth it.

 

Something weird happened on Twistie... We got in, pulled down or harnesses, then they released all harnesses, and made everyone get out. We chose to leave, but they restarted the ride about 5 minutes later. Maybe Windows XP crashed...

 

As we were walking towards the Power Tower, I showed Lori the employee cafeteria (I knew where that is from working at CP in '91 & '92.) So we happen by the window of Richard Kinzel's office, where he was standing, talking on the phone. I've had the opportunity of meeting him on a couple occasions, and found him to be a truly goodhearted person. I'm sure he doesn't recognize me, but I waved as we passed and he waved back... Very friendly guy.

 

We also took a leisurely stroll through Camp Snoopy Kiddie area, and rode the PaddleWheel Excursion. I discovered they use the same jokes on Paddie that they did 20 years ago!

 

We continued on to Frontier Town and took a nostalgic ride on the Mine Ride. That was my first rolliecoaster, so it has a special place in my heart. We also spotted a couple possible markers for the mystery attraction that may or may not be planned for 2006. I went into full nerd mode and took pictures of stakes, and orange paint markers. We even went on to White Water Landing in hopes of spotting more markers, which was nice, cause we probably wouldn't have ridden it otherwise.

 

Ok, here's where things get weird... Our day was sooo slow paced, that we decided to actually go ride the Mean Streak! I guess it was one of those might-as-well moments. There seems to be an additional brake on the drop, so you go pretty slow around the course. You get banged around a touch less, but any semblance of fun this ride used to have is now completely gone. Well, now we know.

 

At about 7:40 (20 mins til close), just as we got seated in 2nd to last row of MilF, they shut down the ride for a puker... They didn't make us get out, though. I turned around in my seat and could see the ride-ops on the unload platform helping peeps wipe barf off their arms. Apparently, someone in the front row puked and needless to say, it got all over the cars behind them! Yuck! But they hosed it off, ran it empty a few times, and MilF was good to go!

 

So, here's some pics from Sunday. You can probably see that it was a great day!

I noticed that they don't have those little cartoony signs saying 'You must be this tall to ride." I don't know when or why they took those out. I always liked those signs...

Sunny day!

I'm headed for a cool million for this injury on the rope ladder challenge!

Getting in some last rides.

Final Ride on Demon Drop.

Ok... One more!

Lori waves goodbye to Droppie.

So long, and thanks for all the drops.

Oh, my god! It's a ghost-car!

Cedar Point goes all out for Halloween. They even put little cobwebs on Draggies brake fins.

Ghouls.

Strange... There's a stake with a little orange flag near Landie... I wonder what this could portend?

Someone spilled orange painted all over the faux creek.

Hey! That's not a spill. Someone put that orange paint there ON PURPOSE!

Is that blue paint I see?

Riding Landie in hopes of spotting more flags or markers.

Ooh! There's a flag!

Look! There's a flag waaaaay down there!

Ok, this is getting ridiculous.

Streakie's queue's are empty... I wonder why?

The towering Mine Ride stands guard over Cedar Creek.

No lines on Gemmie, but they were running both sides. I was hoping to slap hands around the curves, but the people on red were adamant about keeping their hands inside the car at all times.

Lori took this awesome photo of me riding Rappie with her new digi cam.

Thanks for a great weekend, Cedar Point!

Edited September 22, 2005 by MonkeyPants

Wow, the ladder game kicked your ass!

 

Nice pix! Glad you had fun!

Yeah, those were some great pics! Sorry about the reversing thing. Basically put the photos up in the order you want them displayed I think is how it works!

 

--Robb

Well, I discovered that I need to enter them in reverse order, then they appear the way I want them... But then I went in for an edit, and when I resubmitted, they were reversed.

Nice Trip report and pics! Sounds like you guys had a blast at CP despite having to say goodbye to DD.

Great TR.

 

It's obvious that the blue paint is plumbing markers. You usually do that to make sure you DON'T rip up the pipes. If the plumbing belongs to the flume, it's safe to say it's not going anywhere. If it belongs to something else (say, a near-by bathroom) then it's a goner!

Ahhh... Streakie.

 

God, I miss it.

Nice TR!, Great captions as well. So are both Demon Drop and the water flume ride gone after this season?

Great TR!

 

I've got 2 more weeks untill my Cedar Point trip. Can't wait. Last visit of the year.

Lol, sounds like you were on the train in front of me on Wicked Twister where they made everyone leave the train. Apparently, a girl towards the front puked and they had to clean it up, but obviously they wouldn't say that over the intercom.

 

Also, did you get to ride Wildcat on Sunday? Unfortunately while waiting in line for it, a car didn't make it up the small hop before the final helix, and as far as I could tell, it wasn't going to be open the rest of the day.

A puker, eh? Well, I'm sure her barf is worse than her bite...

 

That reminds me of a main point I forgot to put in the TR... At about 7:40 (20 mins til close), just as we got seated in 2nd to last row of MilF, they shut down the ride for a puker... They didn't make us get out, though. I turned around in my seat and could see the ride-ops on the unload platform helping peeps wipe barf off their arms. Apparently, someone in the front row puked and needless to say, it got all over the cars behind them! Yuck! But they hosed it off, ran it empty a few times, and MilF was good to go!