coasterbill

Yes... for a few hours on opening day before it stranded everyone on the train and then closed down for the remainder of the season. I'm not joking.

I was surprised at how cheap it was to rent a car in L.A. (compared to renting one in New York at least). It's definitely the way to go. Getting a cab in L.A. (especially going to Magic Mountain) would be insanely expensive like Robb said, especially because L.A. traffic is legendary and I could absolutely see you sitting on the 405 for hours throughout the course of this vacation just watching the meter run up when you're not even going anywhere. If you rent a car though your dad should drive. Since you're under 25 the price of renting the car will go way up... I was a week away from turning 25 and they still doubled the price on me (which I expected, but it was still annoying). Also... if you get a chance go to the Santa Monica Pier. They have a coaster credit and it's a nice place to spend an evening by the ocean and get something to eat. Edit: Some of the parks will be very crowded since it's near Halloween. I highly suggest skip the line programs and at Magic Mountain a gold or even Platinum Flash pass might be recommended (if you want the re-rides).

Um... what?

I remember stinger also had something like that (I didn't try the wild mouse though) and I too thought it was rather bizarre but quite funny. Demon Drop does too... something like You... Are... Ri.. Ding... De... Mon... Drop... Be ...Sure To Keep Your Head... Against... The... Seat Back. It's so bad it's almost good.

The only Morgan coasters I've ridden are Steel Force and the Santa Monica West Coaster. Of the 2 I might actually prefer West Coaster, lol. I like Steel Force but for a hyper it's nothing special at all. Since it's the only one I've ridden I'd have to go with that but I won't vote as I have nothing to compare it to.

We will get a 10 million dollar RMC makeover soon, WMG cost 10 million so doing a RMC make over is probably in 2 years. ... spoken with great authority. If I hadn't known better I would never have known you were just making stuff up based on what you want to see at the park with no regard for the fact that we have no idea what the park is doing, they haven't given us any real hints and we don't even know if Cedar Fair has any interest in Iron Horsing a coaster. For all we know Six Flags may have exclusivity as they mentioned that recently (though the way it was worded leaves it open to interpretation)... we really have no clue.

How is that a trend? Since then they built Mantis which opened 6 years after B&M's first coaster was built, Millennium Force which opened 21 years after Intamin's first coaster... Wicked Twister that was built 23 years after, Dragster 24 years after... I don't see a trend. lol I think you're reading way too far into this. Why don't we start speculation on that mystery coaster! I bet it's going to be a B&M flyer with some elements going over the lake. Are we speculating on a coaster that we think might open in 6 years just because it's their 150th anniversary and we decided we should get a coaster even though the park hasn't even hinted at that being something they're interested in doing? Okay... just making sure.

^Personally as a guest I think Cedar Fair's simple wristbands are much better than Lo-Q's software as you can usually walk right on to everything and get a lot more rides in as you're not in a virtual queue. Selfishly I hope they keep the current system.

If I was 12 years old and I snuck away from my family in an amusement park only to get a surprise hug from someone I would absolutely contact the police.

Cedar Point is a ghost town on weekdays before the local schools get out.

You're kind of right about SDL... it's not mind blowing but it's a lot of fun and it's very unique as you said. I'd just ride both sides of Lightning Racer since it won't have a line. It's short lines are 100% based on capacity and location though... it's a great ride. Personally I don't have a favorite side but I think the green side (I forget if it's Thunder or Lightning) usually wins so I guess if you had to pick you could go with that one even though it's a pretty dumb reason to do so. lol

The only ones that come to mind are Talon and the Conneaut Lake Blue Streak (obviously because nobody goes to that park). Normally I don't like this on wood coasters or airtime coasters as the trains run slower and the ride experience isn't as good but since Blue Streak is such an awful ride I was pretty thankful for the fact that there was no additional weight in the train.

I suggest you break the grid a little bit here. I know it's hard without custom scenery but right now everything is at a 90 degree angle and it's looking a little overwhelming. Edit: Also, set the minimum dispatch time for the Sky Ride. Add the ride times together for the 2 sides of the ride, then divide that number by the number of cars you have and make that the minimum AND maximum wait time (or make the maximum 2-3 seconds longer). Sky Rides look a lot better with cars evenly spaced and I just noticed that in one of your screens they're all going the same direction. That would never happen in a real park and it's a quick fix.

The design in the water is cool but you wouldn't be able to appreciate that from anywhere if you were a guest in the park. Try to imagine what things would look like from the guest's perspective, not just the perspective of the people viewing it. Otherwise this is a nice start.

I'll never understand the hate for Great Bear. I think it's nice to see B&M build an original layout for once and personally I love the ride. The flatspin / corkscrew (whatever) at the end of the ride is a great moment too since the train makes you feel like you're turning in the opposite direction of the inversion right before you hit it. Because it's an invert you can't see this coming at all unless you're in the front seat. Great Bear is awesome, don't listen to the haters.

The only rides that make me even a little sick are anything that I can spin. Teacups... Twister's... anything like that. The only thing is I don't know if I feel sick because of the spinning or because of the workout from spinning the thing as fast as I can until I feel like I'm gonna pass out (not literally but close lol). Usually I go to the parks with my girlfriend and we just take turns spinning the hell out of them while the other person gets a breather. lol

I think modernizing it would ruin the experience... personally I think one of the things that makes them awesome is the look of the tower. Even though you know the ride is safe you can just picture it dropping the car down the shaft or having some other type of horrific accident because it looks like a complete piece of crap. Again... I know the rides are safe and this won't happen, but I love rides that scare the crap out of you and make you feel unsafe even though in reality you couldn't be any more safe. In addition to this they do seem to have a better drop than any other towers except the Larson ones. I've said this quite a bit lately but I think Demon Drop is actually the best ride at Dorney after Talon and Thunder Creek Mountain*. *If it's a log flume just assume I love it... don't judge me, lol. I don't belong to any coaster clubs but If someone here wants to make a quick 50-100 bucks just create a club called the American Log Flume enthusiasts and I'll pony up the membership fee... no questions asked, lol.

A combination of both winds and staffing. I can confirm that Cedar Point eventually decided it was more worth their time and resources to send their staff to other locations that were in need of help instead of waiting on the winds to die down in hopes of only a few hours of Sky Ride operation. Before you jump on CP for something like this, I can tell you a bunch of parks do similar things. When staffing is short, you have to make the tough decisions. Your best hope for a Sky Ride experience is a calm start to the day with winds so that the staff isn't sent away to other rides. I can't bash the park for that because I know it's very unlike them and they were obviously in a tough spot. When we were there in the summer the Skyride was closed one day all day until 9:15 at night because of wind (that for awhile also closed Raptor and Gatekeeper). The fact that they bothered to open the ride with just 45 minutes left in the day was amazing.

Don't miss Lightning Racer... it's pretty much always a walk on and it's a great ride. With the short wait times it always has it would be a real shame not to ride it. Sooperdooperlooper can sometimes get long lines but it's worth riding if at all possible... it's a fun little coaster.

This looks amazing. It's too bad I'll likely never get to ride it. I'm blown away by the theming.

I really like Flying Falcon, it's easily my favorite flat ride in the park... that Whip is just amazingly bad. You should almost ride it just to laugh at it. Also... if Coal Cracker is open it's a very good flume that doesn't get you all that wet so it's perfect for this time of year. I'm assuming it's probably closed though. Those are the non-coaster rides I suggest. Howler is fun but not overly unique and I like Reese's Xtreme Cup Challenge more than anyone should but I'm assuming most people think it's complete crap so I'm not going to suggest that to you. lol

I noticed that the Sky Ride was closed all weekend despite minimal winds which is very strange for Cedar Point. I assumed it had something to do with them being under-staffed but it looks like they're actually doing some work on one of the towers. Hopefully this means the ride will re-open this weekend. From the live cam...

Great pictures. Thanks for sharing.

That's a great read... thanks for sharing.

I'm going to have to disagree with some of your points... As I said in my original post capacity played a major role. Iron Dragon crushed Dragster and Maverick and I know reliability, capacity and up-time are the major reasons why but at the same time you can't fault the ride for being reliable and having a high capacity because even with the capacity being what it is the ride still always has a line and always fills it's trains which is not the case with rides like Gemeni, Corkscrew or even Magnum. If you go to the park right at opening Magnum will often have an entire car roped off and still won't be filling the rest of the rows despite being right next to the resort gate, Corkscrew won't be filling it's trains, Gemeni will be running one side and still not filling the trains and Iron Dragon will be filling it's trains and have a full queue line spilling out the entrance already despite having a really high capacity that should mean it could eat through that line in no time at all. You're sort of right, but then again you're sort of not. Let's say it's a little after 10:00 one night and Iron Dragon has a 10 minute wait and Top Thrill Dragster has a 3 hour wait. That would mean that at 10:20 (given the grace period) Iron Dragon wouldn't be running and Dragster wouldn't finish running the line through until 1:20 AM. That's an extreme example but you can't ignore the fact that the parks run the lines out so that does give those coasters a little help in catching rides like Iron Dragon. You're absolutely right... and the fact that Iron Dragon is more reliable and able to operate more often than those coasters is all the more reason why the park shouldn't remove it (which is a point you agree with but for different reasons). It's not fair to count the coaster's reliability and capacity against it. Numbers aren't 100% based on popularity but it plays a huge, huge role. If Corkscrew had a capacity of 10,000 people per hour it's ridership numbers probably wouldn't go up much because people don't like it and don't want to ride it. It's already pretty much a walk on all the time. People do like Iron Dragon which is why it always has a line. It probably appeals to more people than any other coaster in the park if you think about it. It's small enough that it won't intimidate riders with a fear of coasters but it's large enough that thrill seekers still ride it. Unlike other rides that appeal to families like Cedar Creek Mine Ride and Corkscrew the trains are large so it can fit pretty much everyone (not the case with CCMR) AND it's really smooth and comfortable. It also doesn't go upsidedown which might scare some people away from Corkscrew. So yes... I think popularity does play a big role in those numbers. It doesn't tell the whole story but it plays a big role.