Photo TR: Michigan's Adventure, Cedar Point, and Geauga Lake

I want to start off by saying – what a great trip. The 3 Cedar Fair parks were awesome. The people there treated us well. They were really critical of picture and video taking, though. It was a bit frustrating, but we dealt with it. The trip report might be a little long. I took more video of the rides than pictures. I hope you enjoy the pictures.

Saturday, (5/21) Day 1: We flew to Detroit with first class upgrades. This made the trip so much more bearable and a great way to start it off! The flights were packed and it took forever to get our luggage even though the airport itself wasn’t crowded at all. We went straight from the airport to Hard Rock Café. My cousin and his wife met up with us. We all went to the Detroit Tigers game at Comerica Park. I haven’t been to one in years. I was born in Detroit and used to go to the old stadium. Our seats were right behind home plate. This stadium is terrific; it has a carousel and Ferris wheel inside the stadium. We rode them both. The game went 11 innings and ended with post game fireworks. My cousin took us to my Grandma’s cottage just north of Ann Arbor and we spent the night there. The cottage brought back some good memories.

Sunday, (5/22) Day 2: We left the cottage and headed to Michigan’s Adventure in Muskegon. I have been looking forward to riding Shivering Timbers, it didn’t disappoint. We arrived at the park around 2pm. After an hour and a half, I told Gyendolynne that we rode all the coasters. She couldn’t believe it, she asked, “Is that it”? :o They only have 7 coasters, but Shivering Timbers was well worth the trip and the park wasn’t crowded at all. This was the second day the park was open this year and no one was there. When we stopped at Guest Services they told us that tomorrow, they were having a kids’ day and the park would be crowded. We were happy we came on Sunday. Gyendolynne found a restaurant called Diamondback Steakhouse on our way to the hotel. It looks like a dive from the outside, but the inside was really nice. They have been opened for just over a year, good food and great service.

Monday, (5/23) Day 3: We went to Michigan’s Adventure to get some souvenirs and then leave. There were only 7 buses in the parking lot (we’re used to SFMM, or PGA buses of 50 or more). We couldn’t believe how empty the park was, so we rode Shivering Timbers twice, front and back cars. The back car gets a lot more airtime and it feels faster. This ride has the best airtime! We left around 11am. On the way to Cedar Point we had to stop at Bob’s Big Boys. Being a Michigan kid, you definitely know about Bob’s Big Boys. Gyendolynne never ate there before. We arrived at Cedar Point around 5pm and went right into the park instead of checking into Hotel Breakers. The line for TTD was long. We went to Millennium Force. The wait there was 50 minutes. It was cold, but they had the fans running in the queue?? :shock: What’s up with that? We were able to ride it once and then check into the hotel. Our room was above TGIF’s right off the elevator. How convenient! We went to TGIF’s for dinner the soaked in the hot tub. What a great way to end the day.

Tuesday, (5/24) Day 4: ERT on TTD was not that great. They didn’t get it going until 9:30 and we didn’t ride it until 9:45. :? We were able to ride it twice and then we went to Millennium Force where the wait wasn’t bad so we decided to ride the front car. I rode Mantis and Iron Dragon next. Gyendolynne doesn’t like these two rides because they beat her up. Next we headed to the front of the park to ride MaxAir. This is a good ride. The wait isn’t that bad, it holds 50 people at a time. Spinning 14 stories up was pretty cool. Disaster Transport was right there, so we figured why not. After DT, our Freeway Pass for MF was about to come up. We headed back there only to find out that MF was down. We rode Power Tower and saw that MF was running. After about a 15-minute wait, we were on it. Ya just gotta love this ride. I rode Corkscrew next. I found out that there was only a 10-minute wait for TTD. I got off Corkscrew and it started to rain. TTD was down now. They didn’t get it back up and running again until after 7:30pm. We left when it started to rain, but on the way out we rode Magnum and Gemini. Neither ride was all that great in the rain. TGIF’s for dinner…again.

Wednesday, (5/25) Day 5: The sun was out and the rides were running, all the makings of a beautiful day. Including crowds. My goal was to ride every ride in the front seat. I came up a little short. We were in the part at 9 am but ERT on MF didn’t start until after 10am. I know! 10am is when the park opens! We were around 7th in line, so we waited there. TTD wasn’t running either until after 10. We rode MF in the front seat and then headed to the back of the park. The back was empty. As we made our way up to the front, I kept riding all the rides in the front seat. I thought I could wait for TTD until the end of the day. The wait for it never changed. It was around 2 hours. We rode MaxAir, Wicked Twister, and Disaster Transport (yes, again). While waiting for Wicked Twister I was filming the Ohio Ocean, also known as Lake Erie (if you can believe it, a couple people told each other it was the ocean!). While I was filming it, a ride attendant said I couldn’t film on the deck. She was pretty nasty about it and said there are signs posted everywhere. The only signs I saw were the ones that said you couldn’t film ON the ride. I put the camera away anyway. For the most part the people there were nice, but they were so critical about the cameras. I took a picture of the sign that stated no cameras in the bathroom. It was before you get into the bathroom, so I figured what the hell. We rode the train to the back to check out a show, but found out that the show was actually by MF. The show ended up being so good that we watched it twice. It was a half hour show. We were there for an hour and a half. The name of the show is Rockin’ the Garter Live. It was fantastic. I highly recommend seeing this. We went back to TTD to ride it before we went to dinner. This time I bought a locker to put our stuff in. We kept our sunglasses on and headed to the line. One of the operator guys stationed at the entrance to the line said we couldn’t take the sunglasses on the ride unless they were strapped down, or secured in a zipper pocket. We just bought the locker. I was pretty pissed because we had been on TTD a couple of times this trip and never had this problem. We went back to the locker. The attendant there unlocked it for us without having to pay again. He made our day. We turned the corner to wait in line. I counted 30 people in front of me and 15 people behind me wearing sunglasses the same way we were. I decided to talk to the Freeway Pass attendant there. I told him what I thought. His name was Joe. He turned out to be really great. TTD had a problem going over as we were getting to the top of the queue. Joe’s shift changed. He ended up with us stopped at the top of the queue. I decided to tell him a few more things. I also asked a couple questions. The most interesting answer I got was about the seatbelts on MF and TTD. He said that Intamin took the seatbelts in a little bit more from last year because of the death on Superman at SFNE a couple years back. I was telling him that I know I am fat, but I fit on these rides last year pretty easily and this year was a big difference. While waiting for the first car on MF, we must have seen 2-3 people removed from each load due to their size. Some didn’t have any business riding it, but I thought some could still get on. Joe said that TTD’s seat gives you about a half inch more room than MF. That was why I could hook up TTD’s seatbelt easier. I thanked him for the information. We rode TTD. For dinner we went to Famous Dave’s. This place wasn’t crowded at all. It is a nice place to go for a change from TGIF’s.

Thursday, (5/26) Day 6: ERT on TTD didn’t disappoint. It opened right away at 9. We rode it 4 times together. Gyendolynne decided not to ride it anymore. I rode it 2 more times. We left after that. We were headed to Cleveland for the Rock ‘n Roll Hall of Fame, Hard Rock Café and an Indians’ game. The Rock ‘n Roll Hall of Fame wasn’t what we expected. You can’t take any photos or video inside (this was too familiar for our trip already). The artists didn’t want their items photographed since they donated everything. The Hall could have been better if they had a display for each of the inductees. They only had a wall with the band’s, or individual’s autographs in alphabetical order. We thought if it could be in the order chronological order by date inducted, that it might be better. Our plan was to go to Hard Rock Café and an Indians’ game. We parked our car in a structure beyond the left field fence of Jacob’s Field. The parking attendant told us to park in a reserved spot, which was cool because those spots were for the skybox holders only. She was so nice. We parked and walked to the Hard Rock. This HRC is big! The people there were very helpful. We bought our souvenirs and headed to the ballgame. Jacob’s Field is nice, but I thought Comerica Park was better. Our seats were behind home plate. As the stadium filled up, it became harder to see the game because the rows are much closer than they were at Comerica. We walked around after the 7th inning because it was so hard to see. The game went 11 innings, Minnesota won. We left before the end of the game and headed for Geauga Lake. It was only 30 minutes away. The Bertram Inn was a nice change from Geauga Lake Hotel. The reason we made the change was because Geauga Lake Hotel wasn’t open until Friday! Can you believe that? They aren’t open unless the park is open...se la vi.

Friday, (5/27) Day 7: We arrived at Geauga Lake 2 minutes before it opened. It wasn’t crowded at all. There was absolutely no wait, or lines, to get in. We went straight to X-Flight, it wasn’t open yet. We headed to Steel Venom, same thing. Head Spin (a Boomerang ride) was running, we went there. Typical Boomerang ride, it beat us up! I thought I could ride Mr. Hyde’s Nasty Fall while I was over on that side of the park, it wasn’t running either. At this point it is around 10:30, the park is empty, and we have ridden one ride because nothing else was running! A little disappointing, but it will get better. We headed to Thunderhawk and Dominator. Thunderhawk beat us up a little, but Dominator was an okay floorless coaster. I still like Medusa at SFMW. There were no lines whatsoever on either of these two rides, or the next 5 coasters we would ride. We rode Raging Wolf Bob’s, Beaver Land Mine, Villain (a little airtime, but Shivering Timbers was better), Double Loop, and Big Dipper. Next we finally made it over to ride X-Flight. It was the only line in the park. The wait wasn’t that bad though, 15 minutes. I rode it 3 times. It reminded me so much of Stealth. A storm was on the way. We saw that they had a Dino Island II show along with a new robots’ 4D show at the top left of the park. We headed that way. On the way we saw a guy fishing in Geauga Lake! That was a little different. We made it to Dino Island II just as the storm hit. Dino Island was the same show from SFMW. We liked it, and with the 4D effects, it was a little different (you will get a little wet on the ride). They put you in a simulator sort of like Star Tours. The Robots show was a little too long (at least 20 minutes), but it had some good 4D effects too. We headed out and I stopped to get my smashed pennies. I collect them. We left there around 5pm and headed to Detroit to stay with my Aunt and Uncle. On the way, we stopped at Tony Paco’s in Toledo to get a few hot dogs. Those of us that are older should remember Klinger on MASH talking about this place. There was a 35 minute wait, so we took the dogs to go. We arrived at my Aunt’s around 9pm. They had plans to go to Greenfield Village the next day for Civil War Remembrance weekend. My Uncle is a big Civil War buff.

Saturday, (5/28) Day 8: Up early and out the door to Greenfield Village. My Aunt and Uncle are all decked out in their Civil War attire. I haven’t been to Greenfield Village for years either and it made it kind of new for me. The place is a museum of sorts. The village has a lot of homes and buildings from all over. The Henry Ford Museum has some other artifacts, but we didn’t go there. We got an all day pass to ride everything there. We rode the steamboat; the steering wheel and two engines were brought up from Florida. They were the only items that were salvageable from the original steamboat after a hurricane hit Florida back in the 1909. We also rode the Carousel (a classic), Model T, and a horse drawn carriage. Unfortunately we were unable to ride the train (not enough time). This place isn’t so much for the rides as it is for the history. Riding in a Model T was enjoyable, though. We headed to my cousins for dinner. He lives in the Northeast Detroit area. After dinner we went to Dave and Buster’s for a little Virtual Reality Racing. Gyendolynne smoked me every race. I would never hear the end of it if I didn’t put that in.

Sunday, (5/29) Day 9: Homeward bound. We had upgraded our tickets to first class both ways. The movie on the flight was the Incredibles. We also watched Troy on our portable DVD player. Man what a long movie!

There it is, trip over and pictures below. Never a dull moment and why should there be?

I am posting the pictures in a couple of posts. Day 1 pictures are below. The other days will follow.

Thanks for reading!

Rick and Gyendolynne

The tiger's eyes go green when they want a ralley

The fireworks after the game

My cousin, Wayne, and his wife Julie

The sun is setting on our first day

Ferris wheel inside the park

That's a lot of weight to hold up

The Carousel's Tigers

The Carousel inside the ballpark

Fountains after the inning. It should be after a homerun, but Detroit doesn't hit too many at the moment.

Scoreboard at night

Scoreboard during the day

Beer guy. This doesn't exist here in Nor Cal. They walked around and sold beer in Detroit and Cleveland.

Gyendolynne and Julie in front of Comerica Park

The kid behind us must think I am nuts...Maybe I am

Ted Nugent on the wall

Hard Rock Cafe, Detroit

What a crowd at the airport

First Class Upgrade!

The next couple of days

Where are all the kids?

Shivering Timbers busy queue line

Here's more proof that it was just me...hehe

Me on Logger's Run

MadMouse

One of our few "On Ride" pics

I looked for all the kids and found these two walking down the midway. Out of my way!

Guest Services was soooo crowded

Here's all the buses we were worried about

MA's entrance on Day 2. Look at all the kids

Diamondback Steakhouse for dinner

She gave up on me and wanted to hang out with Snoopy

Gyendolynne asking, "Is that it?"

Zach's Zoomer, one of the MANY rollercoasters here

Full queue on Sunday...

Crowded parking lot

No lines, or metal detectors

Gyendolynne gets through without a bag check

Tall first drop

This is why we are here!

My cousin looking out from the cottage's deck

We liked this picture of us

This is what we woke up to.

Grandma's Cottage facing the lake

Grandma's Cottage

Next few days

The Marina on our way out.

Rick on TTD

TTD the fastest rollercoaster, no longer the tallest

TTD 120 MPH going by

We've been throwing back a few too many beers.

Everyone gets soaked

Snake River Falls gives one hell of a splash

Me Too!

We had enough time to take in a foot massage

So was the rest of Frontier Trail

Wednesday after ERT on MF (10am), Mean Streak's queue is empty.

Had to get my smashed pennies

MaxAir's Queue

We did ride Raptor a few times

TTD down on Tuesday's ERT

We heard that this was the ocean. I had to include OHIO's ocean in the report.

The end of another great day and the beginning of another beer....

Dinner at TGIF's

The fans are still blowing in MF's queue.

Millenium Force's wait is 50 minutes. Gyendolynne is cold because it is just barely 60 degrees out. Kids are running around in shorts because earlier it was around 70 degrees.

Now THESE are buses!

Maybe I don't need it....

Trying to get one more Big Boy in my belly

Continuing our Photo Trip Report.

This guy was fishing on Geauga Lake. I had to take his picture.

The villian, still no waiting. The only wait was over at X-Flight. Dominator was running 2 trains, everything else was running 1 train.

Might as well ride the front car

Double Loop....?

Gyendolynne in front of Grizzly Run

Raging Wolf Bob's....No one here too.

Dominator's Queue...Still nobody.

Thunderhawk's queue

Me and my Smashed Pennies

This ride banged us around a little. Just like any Boomerang

A picture with Snoopy. The park is sooo packed.

The "Guess the Year" was the year I was born, so I took the picture

An older lady took this picture and she was holding the camera at an angle. The look on my face was a little curious about how this pic was going to turn out. I guess I should have just smiled.

The scoreboard

This is the place!

Gyendolynne buying her program

Jacob's Field, home of the Indians

Gyendolynne in front of the BIG guitar across the street

Hard Rock Cleveland

One of the only places where you can take a picture there

Cleveland, birthplace of Rock 'n Roll

This is the end.

I told you I would always find a bar. This is actually in his basement!

Back to my cousin's house

My Uncle, cousin and Gyen at Dave and Buster's

Another Belly Comparison

Gyendolynne in front of the Wright Brother's Cycle Shop

The Model T

Gyendolynne stearing the boat...not really

The Carousel ride

Gyendolynne on the Carousel

I will always find a bar

Here's another sign you can't post now.

Gyendolynne found this sign funny as I am sure most of us working people will....

Gyendolynne with my Aunt and Uncle in their Civil War outfits.

My Uncle talking about the Civil War

Greenfield village, Henry Ford's Model T car. We rode in one.

Tony Packo's is in Toledo and it was the place Klinger would talk about on MASH.

On our way back to Detroit, we stopped off at Tony Packo's

Great TR!!! Haven't posted on here in awhile but I just had to say thanks for taking the time to write it and put the pics up.

I especially like the ballpark pictures as I'm always trying to get to new parks whereever my journeys take me.

They dont have the beer guy at So Cal ballgames?

Eric

Wow! I just have to say that your TR is a PERFECT example of what Elissa and I wanted to do with the site and the forums! To give people a place to be able to post photo Trip Reports "TPR Style" and contribue as much or as little as they want!

Great TR and thanks so much for posting all those awesome pics!!!

--Robb "See you guys on Saturday!" Alvey

Great TR, it's fun to do stuff besides parks on trips sometimes, as we experienced this past weekend.

^^ They do have beer at SoCal ballgames, and do sell them in the stands. I think Rick was referring to NorCal ballparks that only sell beer at beer stands, but not actually in the stands.

I mean, what do you expect from the Giants and A's.

That was a kickass TR. Thanks for posting all the photos. Those ballparks, especially Detroit, looked really nice. Of course, I still think the best ballpark ever is in Baltimore...

Is MA ever crowded? I guess it's just in a pretty much out of the way location, but it just never seems to be busy...

dt

Great TR! I love looking at TRs that are of the "whole experience" and not a bunch of coasters. Looks like you guys had a great time on your trip.

Thanks for the responses. We had a really great time.

In response to the beer in the stands, there were problems up here (Giants/A's) a while ago. They stopped selling beer in the stands at that point. It just really surprised me to see and hear someone yelling (ICE COLD BUDWEISER!).

Downtown Detroit is torn up pretty bad right now. They are having the All-Star game there this year and they have the Super Bowl in 2006 at Ford Field next door. I don't know how they are going to accomodate all those people. It took us 40 minutes to get out of downtown with less than 30,000 people in attendance. What will they do with a sell-out and then some? My cousin said he doesn't want to be anywhere near it and his in-laws have season tickets! I like Baltimore too. I have been to quite a few ballparks in my life. I'll post a pick or 2 once I scan one in.

Very nice TR!!!

Look like someone else found Friday's on the Beach at CP! I'll be there a lot this weekend.

I know it's kind of early in the season, but I'm getting kinda worried about Geuaga Dog

Thanks for the responses. We had a really great time.

 

In response to the beer in the stands, there were problems up here (Giants/A's) a while ago. They stopped selling beer in the stands at that point. It just really surprised me to see and hear someone yelling (ICE COLD BUDWEISER!).

 

There goes my 401k

^I thought you would like the ICE COLD BUDWEISER quote. Sorry about the 401K.

By the way, I drank Bud Light the whole time except when I was in the tavern at Greenfield Village, even my cousin's basement bar has Budweiser. :o

WOW! Those queues were insane man! I would hate to queue for them!

Brilliant photos. Like the way you included the Stadiums!

^I thought you would like the ICE COLD BUDWEISER quote. Sorry about the 401K.

 

By the way, I drank Bud Light the whole time except when I was in the tavern at Greenfield Village, even my cousin's basement bar has Budweiser. :o

Oh no, drinking Budweiser is GOOD for my 401k. Make me a rich man! 8)