christianscoasters

^They were extremely busy this weekend and it typically gets busier as the fall season goes on. I’m sure they’re just being proactive to handle the expected crowds.

So I’ve been thinking. We know masks help and we know distancing helps too, as water droplets from your nose and mouth are what spreads the virus and they don’t travel more than 6 feet. But if you’re on a roller coaster or any moving object really, you’re technically traveling through the breath of everyone who’s in front of you which completely cancels out the need to be six feet apart. The only way riders won’t be exposed to other riders water droplets is if only ONE group rode per train. Obviously, this isn’t feasible. But if the masks work and cases aren’t spreading from amusement parks, I wonder if they can just load ride units at full capacity anyway as long as everyone wears their mask.

^It would sell out on most Saturdays at cedar point and a few days in July and August as well.

One thing about B&Ms is that the more full a train is, the smoother it will be. So with Orion only filling at MOST half the train, you can expect a rattle sometimes. Was butter smooth when I rode though. Rode Gatekeeper a few days ago and it was amazingly smooth too.

I bought a ticket since they’re discounted so heavily but I just don’t think I’m gonna visit unless Steel curtain is open. I only live two hours away so it’s not a huge deal but... I still don’t want to drive and be sad when I see it but can’t ride it

I think a lot of Rougarou hate comes from the headbanging in the corkscrew. I’ve ridden the ride hundreds of times so I’ve always braced for that section by keeping my head forward. I know not everyone is a fan of having to ride an attraction a certain way to be able to enjoy it, but it significantly improved my rides on it. If you ride in row 7 or 8, seat furthest on the right, you get some fantastic pops of airtime on the s-curves. Rougarou actually has a small fan base and they’ll all tell you to sit there to get the best ride. However, Rougarou will be opening soon and in row 8, the outside seats will be unavailable. In row 7, the inside seats will be unavailable. This is for social distancing.

Didn’t have FastLane. I got to Steel Vengeance at 7:15 and the entrance host said they’re letting people into the line without access passes because there wasn’t a line at all. So I rode twice. Could’ve rode again but I was ready to head out. As I walked by Dragster, it was reopening from downtime. But because the park was closing soon, there weren’t a lot of people around. So it was also a walk on and we had to wait for more riders to show up.

I went to Cedar Point tonight at about 5:30 without a reservation. I visited on Sunday the 12th and had… a pretty awful day. In my 2.5 hours, I managed to ride Raptor, Gatekeeper (twice,) Power Tower, Magnum, Top Thrill Dragster, and Steel Vengeance (twice.) The only ride I waited for was Power Tower and that was about 10 minutes. Steel Vengeance, of all rides, was actually a walk-on. That is super rare. Staffing is getting better as they’re bringing in lots of people from other Cedar Fair parks to fill the gaps. So in the next few weeks, expect to see things go a little more smoothly. I think it’s a little useless to run 3-trains on their B&M’s because they double stack every time. With Covid, ride hosts must dismiss riders to the exit gates row by row (or two at once, etc) to keep the exits from getting clogged with no social distancing. This doesn’t take long, but it means that dispatches are a little slower, which I understand. Just seems a little silly to be running 3 when there’s zero chance of that train not stacking. Throughput would be the same with 2. Here’s what’s blowing my mind though. Steel Vengeance is known for having some pretty horrible dispatch times. Last year, the pouches ensured you were probably always going to double stack. The pouches are gone this year and dispatch times are WAY up. Now remember, they’re only loading every other row so there IS less seats to check, but since they’re dismissing riders row by row to the exit and not opening the queue gates right away, this kind of evens it out anyway. I was shocked to see them running all three trains and only stacking one behind the station for a brief moment. They were typically sending a train in the station when the train ahead was entering the block brake or just shortly after. I’ve NEVER seen Steel Vengeance do that with all three trains. Not once. So mad props to the crew for being efficient as hell on one of the worst rides in the park to work.

^Yikes.

^Even if they dispatch faster, it’s not gonna matter since the trains will probably only be half full anyway. Also, anyone who had already bought a FastLane ticket for this year will be allowed to use it. I still plan on Steel Vengeance’s line being unbearably long.

Got mine for July 2 at 11:00!

Cedar point does most of its hiring in the winter/early spring. Many of this seasons employees were hired before all of the pandemic stuff was in full swing. They’ve been doing some trainings via Zoom the past few weeks. Source: Used to work there, tons of friends still do.

Ignorant indeed. One thing no one seems to ever mention is that most businesses in the Sandusky area, particularly along Route 250, are in Perkins Township, NOT Sandusky. Thus, you have all of those big businesses who are NOT contributing to the Sandusky tax revenue, despite being in the same market. Luckily, the Erie County bed tax helps with this in hotels but doesn't do anything for sales tax or income tax. Despite being a city that has declined in population, with a rash of area manufacturing facility closures leading to job losses, the city still manages to balance the budget. The current situation is absolutely unprecedented.

I love how they built that tower to look like a tree so it blends in... Then they chopped down all of the surrounding trees to add more parking. Now it just stands out even worse. Hahahaha

You still can. It costs a little bit more now but even if you buy a pass today, they'll still honor it in 2021.

Hydra the revenge.

I went in 2018. Everything was a station wait or walk-on during ERT except Steel Vengeance - which had over an hour wait, running 2 trains. Horray for metal detectors. Jesus, that's insane. Might be worth it for all those sweet Millennium Force rides though...Thanks for sharing. Mind you, that was BEFORE they installed metal detectors or required people to empty their pockets before getting in line. For some reason, the crew waited until a train reached the station before they dispatched the next one - even if the next one was ready to go earlier. It was their first day back to 2-train ops after the collision. After the collision, the block brake/MCBR/whatever was essentially written out of the code, for a lack of better words. Basically, a train could not advance over the lift until the train ahead had cleared the final brake run on the ride. There was one time I was on the lift hill and we stopped at the top because the train ahead wasn’t in the station yet. This was changed prior to the 2019 season.

Fun fact that nobody has mentioned yet. Right now, CP is paying all employees a $5/hr bonus for all hours worked. Soooooo a pretty significant portion of their employees are indeed making $15/hr or more right now. Actually, quite a few are making more than that. Just keep that in mind when you’re complaining that CP can’t find staff. It’s almost impossible when you don’t have a metro area close by.

^Can confirm. I work on 250, not too far south of Perkins Ave. I live 2.5 miles away from work and it took me an hour to get home yesterday. Even small, residential streets had gridlocked traffic. All of my local shortcut routes were jammed.

Seems like the gold pass has had a huge effect on attendance. It’s been busy practically every day since they introduced it. I visited the park on Friday after a big thunderstorm. You would think the park would be totally empty because of that but it wasn’t. It was exactly busy but Valravn, Millennium, and Maverick were all around 45 minutes in the later part of the night, but Raptor was running one train and struggling to fill it. Then, somehow, Vengeance only had a 25 minute wait? It was really bizarre. So not exactly crowded but not dead either. Friday’s have been picking up the last few years. Yesterday, the entire parking lot and all employee lots were filled, including the parking spaces in between the toll booths and the parking lot itself. Today, the main lot is almost completely full. Seems like Sunday’s might not be dead anymore either. Kinda sucks that this will be the new normal when you’re used to it being quieter, but more people in the park = More money for CP = More improvements to the park.

Seems a little redundant to add a Mack Big Dipper when they already have Tantrum, a similar ride.

I was there yesterday and the trains were being taken out of the storage area and one car was sitting on the ground with a tarp over it. I doubt it’s open today. The queue times site isn’t always accurate.

^Last Saturday was dead because of the forecast. It rained some but not a lot. I think I waited less than a half hour for Steel Vengeance. It’s pretty rare that Saturdays aren’t insane, but it could definitely happen again!

^It was running yesterday.

I have a question... IoA is only open until 9 pm today. I assume they’ll let anyone who’s in line by closing time ride, correct? But what happens when the line is 10 hours long before noon? The park is only open until 9. Are they going to close off the line at some point? How does it usually work with new rides?