coasterbill

So we took our first trip to Canada and Canada's Wonderland this past weekend and had a great time. This was actually our first trip out of the U.S. and even though in many cases we were so close we could see New York state and my iphone was still getting Verizon service we felt like a couple of regular explorers because we're dumb tourists like that. I'll get to the park in a minute but if anyone cares I have just a few comments in the rest of the trip... - We stayed in Niagara falls which was absolutely amazing. The town was a very fun little tourist trap and the falls themselves were breathtaking. Everyone needs to take a ride on the Hornblower or Maid of the Mist once in their lives. It really allows you to appreciate the incredible beauty and power of nature. - We visited Marineland also and had a ton of fun petting the whales and feeding the bears but the Sky Screamer is one of the best drop rides anywhere and Dragon Mountain is incredibly smooth and fun which I didn't expect at all. We loved this park and so did our fitbits. 30k steps... holy crap, this park is huge. - We did the CN tower Edge Walk in Toronto which was ridiculously cool. We're all thrill seekers to come degree obviously so I suggest this to anyone. Wow!!!! - Canada in general was great. Sure it's very similar to the U.S. but everyone was very friendly, the little bit of the country we saw (basically the falls area, the Toronto area and the area along the western side of Lake Ontario) was beautiful. We loved it. - I have no idea how many liters my car takes and it took me until the last day to get used to looking at the tiny KPH numbers on my speedometer but now that I'm home I have to keep reminding myself to look at the miles per hour. - You Canadian's are right, Tim Horton's coffee is the greatest thing I've ever tasted. ==================== Okay, so onto the park... We got there right before opening and followed the plan everyone on here gave us. We went on a Saturday which I thought was packed but everyone there was talking about the light crowds (Leviathan's queue was spilling out onto the Midway and 100% full so I can't imagine the crowds they normally get). We got there at rope drop and headed right for Guardian, then went right to the Fly, the Bat and Thunder Run. After we knocked those off we headed back to Silver Streak and Ghoster Coaster and then to Dragon Fire. Sure it felt strange riding all those rides first and ignoring Behemoth, Leviathan and Vortex but we managed to knock out all of the non-Fastlane coasters in 2 hours and were feeling pretty proud of ourselves. Of those rides, the only 2 standouts were Thunder Run and Guardian. We actually came back and rode Guardian again later as it was one of my girlfriend's favorite rides in the park and I loved it also. We thought it was a ton of fun and the drop track was a great surprise. Thunder Run was longer than expected and a ton of fun. We managed to get on all the coasters except for Taxi Jam and we even had time for some flats... Windseeker (twice... I'll NEVER turn down a ride on one of these), Psyclone, Night Mares, Orbitor and Rip Tide. We also got to re-ride a few coasters, some multiple times thanks to Fastlane. We got multiple rides on Guardian, Leviathan, Behemoth and Vortex. Overall the coaster collection is a bit lacking but they have a few great ones, and the great flat ride collection makes up for some of the downfalls of the coaster collection. I won't bother reviewing every coaster, just the standouts as many are pretty standard models that you can find anywhere. First the bad... Time Warp, Minebuster and Flight Deck: I can't think a park with a trifecta of suck quite like this... all 3 of these rides are terrible and should be removed immediately. Removing Time Warp and Flight Deck would open up a huge chunk of land and even though they do a great job building through Minebuster I'd be totally fine with them removing it and replacing it with absolutely nothing because this ride is flat out horrible... plus Wild Beast is a perfectly solid wood coaster so if people wanted to ride a good woodie they could find one on the other end of the park. Now the good... Leviathan: This ride was awesome! Great speed, fun floater air and a great drop. It's easily the best coaster in the park and while I don't put it on the level of Fury, Millennium Force or I305 it's a top 20 ride for sure. Behemoth I had really low expectations for this ride but ended up loving it. It's one of the better B&M hypers out there and it compliments Leviathan very well. I love it's proximity to water and unlike at Carowinds where I feel like Fury completely stole Intimidator's thunder I feel like this ride can go toe to toe with Leviathan as it's incredibly fun. Vortex: I loved the interaction with the lake and the mountain and the ride itself is completely insane and out of control. This is probably the most intense coaster in the park but it's incredibly smooth and fun. I really wish we had more of these. Overall we had a great time at the park and we can't wait to go back when they get that rumored new coaster. Thanks to everyone for all your trip planning help... the advice all worked perfectly!

Sorry Hershey but unlike Storm Runner's barrel roll that element would ACTUALLY be a "Flying Snake Dive". Those Lake Erie watersnakes would go flying onto the midway and that's too bad because those little things are vicious. I see a ton of them at Cedar Point and a youtube search shows you nothing but videos of people holding them, talking about the need to preserve them all while they look like they're about to pass out from severe blood loss.

I think we have a winner... it seems like it has a lot to do with blocking, Robb is right though it does make for another exciting element. Also I love how I say with great authority that rcoaster10 is right when everything I know about dive coaster construction comes from Rollercoaster Tycoon 2.

Both are super smooth and comfortable so I don't have a preference.

Oh so the animation is going to be taken really literally huh? Okay well then I have some complains about the 2016 additions too based on my ultra-literal interpretation of the video. 1) The ride doesn't roar enough obviously as has been mentioned. 2) While I agree that this is Murica and the Skyride needs to be reversed so it's not traveling on the left side like it's in some monarchy where they don't have freedom like here in Murica, I don't see why reversing the Skyride would make any financial sense. It seems like alot of money to spend for something that's not marketable... unless of course they're taking a page from the Six Flags playbook like for example... "For a Limited Time Only Ride Sky Ride... Backwards!". In that case that sounds amazing and I'll absolutely head out there to experience it. 3) I don't like that they're removing Iron Dragon's transfer track. This will really hurt capacity since now it has to run one train. 4) I'm disappointed by the lack of a photo booth or gift shop at the exit. Any ride that doesn't allow me to buy a $5 Vitamin Water upon exit sucks and isn't worth my time. 5) I don't get why they would only run 1 train even on what's apparently a slow day with no other trains in transfer. Cedar Point operations should be better than this. So yeah according to the renderings this season's gonna suck.

Funny... I had that same cool idea for Hurler.

The fact is that when non enthusiasts see the holding brake they're going to absolutely lose their s**t. For a lot of people that's flat out terrifying and it's unique to the park and for that reason alone I'm pretty sure a lot of people will look at this as an innovative, thrilling ride and an example of Cedar Point pushing the envelope for thrills. Enthusiasts won't feel that way but 99% of people will. The holding brake is what makes this ride for most people and if you're not a coaster person and if you're afraid of heights it WOULD be terrifying.

^^^^Honestly I joke but this ride might be slightly okay with wind. Not always, but more often than not the wind blows from the bay, which is a huge problem for Raptor as the train approaches the mid course, Dragster as the train tries to crest the tower and Gatekeeper because most of the first half of the course with the tallest elements are going right into the wind. It's no surprise that those 3 coasters close first. This ride really doesn't spend a ton of time directly fighting the wind. The turn into the mid course is the only area of concern but when it straightens out it's facing a direction where wind is rarely an issue. That doesn't mean they won't close it in the wind anyway, but I don't see this closing down with that first group (Gatekeeper, Raptor and Dragster). As for rain, it's up in the air. I'm sure they'll add it to the rain policy wheel and then it all depends what happens when they spin it. Some days it will probably be able to safely operate in the rain, other days it'll probably close in a light drizzle.

We're not seriously talking about capacity being a problem again right? Right? Anyone?

I normally agree with you but I have to step in here... Millennium Force is a highly themed journey back in time to an island filled with dinosaurs. The name makes perfect sense too as they never specified which Millennium they were referring to. Everyone misses the theme because they incorrectly assume they were talking about this Millennium.

My opinion of the ride is that it's basically just icing on the cake and I love it. The park already has a flat out ridiculous coaster lineup and this looks to be another great coaster that makes it even more ridiculous. Do I expect it to match the intensity of Maverick, Dragster, Raptor, Wicked Twister or Magnum? No. Do I expect it to be as mind blowing as Millennium Force? No. But it should be another Gatekeeper / Rougarou style, great, fun coaster with mass appeal, great capacity and great up-time assuming it's not drizzling or slightly breezy. Personally I'm thrilled and this is probably my most anticipated 2016 coaster with the obvious exception of Lightning Rod.

Cresting high points at slow speeds is imperative for a proper Cedar Point coaster as it ensures that it won't be able to operate on windy days.

Very cool! And I love the midway from Valravn to Blue Streak.

Don't remind us... those Lake Erie winters are brutal.

Gatekeeper.

I don't want to speak for anyone but I honestly think the problem is that people don't read a few pages back on a hot thread and that causes the frustration and the angry responses. For example... the capacity thing. Someone mentioned it and it was addressed. And then it was mentioned again, and again, and again and again and that's what leads to types of responses that people are getting. The problem isn't that people have differing opinions, it's that people don't go back and read and it frustrates the people who have been reading the thread or people that moderate the site and have read everything because they basically have to in order to moderate it. I'm not intending to speak for anyone of course but that's what it seems like to me so I understand where everyone's coming from.

I'll never understand why anyone cares... they could call it a Log Flume and it wouldn't matter. We all know it's not.

Pffft... you should all be riding in the front anyway and the ride is super smooth up there.

Hooray! This park is actually adding a flat ride! If they want to call it a coaster that doesn't matter to me at all, it's still a flat ride and the park desperately needs it.

Enthusiasts probably make up approximately 0.000001% of the parks attendance. Everyone else (and many enthusiasts) will love it. Plus, I'm sure they saw that the videos of Batman went viral with enthusiasts AND non enthusiasts all across social media and that made putting one in one of their largest markets an obvious decision.

I hope the locals rally around the ride like they do with Sooperdooperlooper at Hershey. Sooperdooperlooper seems to have seen an incredible surge in popularity lately between the queue times and incredible amount of merchandise sales for the ride. It seems like the older it gets the more people love it.

I've got to admit... that sounds like a massive upgrade to me overall. You forgot Sky Screamer (pretty major), the new Bumper Cars, and the new Scrambler too. Also, holy crap I didn't know you were on TPR.

Assuming that's true and maybe the shin guard is the reason it's okay now (and I don't know enough about local laws or the legal end of the industry to even begin to speculate on it), how is it okay on Montezooma's Revenge to just have a lap bar? I have no idea how this stuff works but I'm curious so if anyone has any insight that would be great.

Excellent addition here!