Real

And in 3 years what was painted this year will already be faded...not like it is now obviously, but it didnt take long for that brilliant cobalt blue to start fading. I remember that distinctly. Really hoping Maxair goes up as soon as it can. One of my fave flats in the park.

LOVE those pop tarts. Ride looks slick too.

The picture of the helix on Dominator - yea, you could get it. There was a walkway and with a decent lens you could get it. I have a few from different angles. Not the exact same one but I was going for close ups off the MCB and as they entered that helix.

Really? Id think with all the coasters you and Robb have ridden that would be the easy part. We could argue that the rails are "tubular" but High Speed Thrill Coaster had flat steel rails and its definitely a steel coaster. Supports are irrelevant. Which, from the looks of it, it definitely gives any steel coaster in the world a run for its money. Also had no idea its a Schilke design. Sweet.

Thats the same thinking Ive been doing...it just doesnt make sense. We never have "good" winters and we always have crappy weather. You just work through it. It just seemed like they are less enthusiastic about getting the park ride ready for the first day. oh well...well keep thinking aloud but it wont help

We can only hope... I still say tear it all down, have one massive party/bonfire and then build a Gravity Group twister with the Timberliners. But the GP would still consider it a wooden coaster even if they Iron Horsed it, so no loss there. I just would have to bite my tongue a little harder while waiting in line haha.

I almost rode it...it looked like it was running well. I just hate that since forever, its one train op. Ill prolly try out Mantis later. Mantis always gives great pictures too.

I live 50minutes from Sandusky, on almost the same latitude...it hasnt been that bad. These are Toledo numbers. Depending on numbers, we average up to a half inch more of rain than Sandusky in March and April. March we had just 3inches of precip total. (right on target) April we got 6 inches - which is second most all time (3 inches more) Thing is, rides can test in the rain. Dragster I give a free pass because, well, its down so much it doesnt even matter and it hates the rain. I just dont buy the weather as an excuse for the state of rides. Everything else looked great. Areas around the park were well manicured, things looked good and clean. Saturday the weather was perfect for 90% of the day. They could have started testing the red side of Power Tower I bet but didnt do that till Sunday when the weather was crap. Just lots of questions I have to which well never get answers. I just hope in a few weeks everythings good to go. Exactly. Im right behind ya with like 12-15 years of opening days. Ill still go because its a tradition, but I sure hope next year its a lot more ready!

Yea, typically I expect the crews on opening day to be still learning their roles and especially getting faster at their roles but the rides that were open seemed to go ok. It was just geez, it shoudnt take till 2-5pm to get everything working especially when the whole morning was void of rain and wind. But thats what I have a season pass for. Good TR here.

What is sad is that after being a pass holder for almost 20 years...I never saw that original Ocean Motion sign. So to me, that was a failure of a sign if I never saw it. I like how they stylized the font to create a wave under the name. Thats tasteful and classy artistic freedom.

And our two trip reports basically sum up the whole weekend. We had to have walked by each other a dozen times...haha. I was there from open till 9 on sat and 11 to 5 on sunday. So lame...!

It was "ok", but it took till almost 5pm for it to get ok. Ill say it one last time...I expect the normal hiccups with operations from new crews, crews not used to each other, etc. But this almost seemed like they were still doing pre-season testing. I live an hour away, our weather hasnt been that bad. And I have never had an Opening Day so full of chaos. I think I saw every upper management there this weekend (especially Saturday) and man, they not only looked bewildered but also quite angry. To which I would have said...hey, do this a week or two sooner, and you can work out these kinks And I also agree, the font is from an old english base. The ride is the ocean motion, its an old pirate style ship, what font do you want? Pepsi Font? TPR Font? It goes perfectly! The ride area is just lightyears ahead of its last position. Makes the front of the park look so much cleaner and tasteful. Though its sad and weird not to see DD there. I like the old drop rides. Way better than any of the S&S towers.

Ah yes, I forgot about Mantis but I typically avoid it because 1 train operation and terrible trains dont gel with me. Ive given that ride numerous chances to redeem itself, Im always disappointed. Though it was running trims off and the first half is good. Second half is a punching bag. And I wasnt aware there was a specific wind speed, especially since Mean Streak and Mantis are both much larger than Raptor and both ran. Yes, I know Raptor does valley easier but your "big coasters" is flawed with your own admission that Mantis ran. It also has to do with wind direction and today it was out of the worst possible direction - northeast. Meaning Magnum would run into the wind, so would Mf's overbank and second hill, so would most of Raptor first half...I know it was a combined effort of wind and drizzle. Its no secret though that Cedar Point doesnt like to run in the rain. I have far too many hours in that park during every weather condition possible (Still waiting on the elusive water spout to complete the collection) to have seen this first hand. Id ridden MF in sideways downpour but the wind direction was in the correct direction and we were ok. It kept running even beyond our train when it started. The most painful ride Ive ever ridden. What was really agitating was weather reports this morning called for 15mph winds. Not 30-40mph. And Maxair again, literally deserted. A crappy opening weekend for sure. I feel bad for people who dont have season passes.

But the odd thing is, I have been to almost all Opening Days at CP for the last 12-15 years minus a few here or there. They have never, ever been this bad. You get the occasional hiccup, ride ops not quite gelling with each other and those little things. Im completely ok with that. Yesterday was none of that. And John Peck - when I left @ 9, there were rides that had come up but gone down. I was being fair to say that all the other rides but Maxair and Windseeker eventually opened, yet, several of them went right back down. Dragster being one of them. Today was a shocker...it was less than a drizzle, like, that "spitting" rain that is very sporatic and the only rides they will run in the rain are: Mean Streak Blue Streak Disaster Transport (but that was testing till almost noon...? Why?) Wicked Twister Corkscrew Iron Dragon Maverick However, I got there at 11 this time and it took till sometime around 1 it seemed before Maverick, Corkscrew and Transport started working regularly. I have a feeling after that Magnum incident with the rain that they treat the rain like the plague, even a very light drizzle. Everything shuts down. Even Raptor. Raptor and Magnum never had their trains removed from the brake runs. Seemed a lot like they gave up this weekend. But I still think it looked like a lack of effort to make the park "fully operational" for opening day. And I exclude Windseeker in that because new stuff is always hit or miss. Oh well. Ill give it a few weeks before I go back.

Im driving back up today. Im really hoping they worked overnight to fix some of the stuff that didnt even open. 3 of Power Towers towers never opened. Never even tested. Maxair never even had a single worker on it. All in all, I mean, I suppose it cant get any worse so yea, today should be better.

I dont get that joke obviously... Ill just post the rest of the pics here. I made sure my pictures on facebook were available for all, no restrictions but whatever. Also, that font is very...old style. I think it fits well with the "old boat ride sorta a pirate ship" look theyve given it. But to each their own, its just a sign.3 Forgot to add, Power Tower took all day to open and only ONE single tower worked... Wicked Twister greeting me...sorta. Are you even there Twister? Power Tower was even more shy. Ocean Motion area. Maxair as we walked by. Happy riders Raptor in The Mist No idea we signed up for a taping of The Mist today. These next three show 3 shots, about 1.5 seconds apart shot at 1/2500th of a second each. Watch the train disappear. Going... Gone. One more sequence, this time, 2 photos that span no more than 1 second and shot at 1/5000th of a second each. Valley - The Ride. This is how you break The Monster (Octopus) That sure looks like some sort of antifreeze/or green hydraulic fluid and I doubt it should be all over the ground... Best shot of the day. The close swing is at full swing, swinging to the pictures right and far swing (in focus) is swinging to the pictures left. Llama Chicken? wtf? Through the trees...still do that here? lol Panorama of what I saw when I parked. I was parked in row 16 for this picture which is basically parallel with the last set of flags in the center area. aka CLOSE.

I've been to my share of opening days. Its gotta be over a decades worth now. None have been this bad. Ill try to keep it to bullet points here... Opened the park and these rides were not operating: Maxair Ocean Motion (being installed still) Blue Streak Windseeker (delayed) Gemini Top Thrill Dragster Mine Ride Maverick Wildcat That left these rides open at 10AM (mind you...they let in Platinum Pass holders in @ 9) Millenium Force Raptor Wicked Twister Mantis Iron Dragon Paddlewheel Excursions Magnum Mean Streak Thats unacceptable. Weve had a lot of rain, but these rides are not made of sugar. They will not melt and with the exception of Dragster, the others WILL run in the rain. Anyways, we waited for Maverick to open up and it did...1.5hrs later. There was no sense of urgency at all. Lazily transfered trains back and forth (Seemed to be a lot of confusion between ride ops...that or bad communication) and this was the theme for other rides as well. We were around the 6th train and after the 7th train went through and stopped behind us, the ride broke down again. They transfered a train off and apparently after a few more cycles, was back up. We walked the park and this is where I took pictures because, well, when all those rides are down, your options become limited. A VERY DENSE fog had rolled into the area and I felt it was time to take advantage of the unique situation. Pictures on my Flickr as well - Rest of photos posted below We also found that the thrill ride Octopus (or Monster to some) had suffered a massive failure or some sort of fluid. Engineers were trying to clean it up. It did reopen later. Also, Gemini's blue train had vallied at some point between the drop and first hill. So that wasn't running (red side did open up a lot later) Dragster didn't even show signs of life till 1:40pm. That crew seemed to not care in the least that it was down. Not that they could do anything but I didn't see any urgency to prepare the ride or get people involved. Around this time Pinks, the new eatery from the westcoast was set to open. We approached and saw it was blocked off. Not opening for 2-3 hours because of a malfunction. Wait, this is a restaurant...not a ride. Apparently during their VIP party the sprinkler system went haywire. At this time I noted at least 3-4 upper management personnel, all of whom I've seen before and they looked none to happy. Maxair was the only ride to not open at all that also wasn't still being built but it took all rides till sometime around 2 to achieve open status. Im going back today (Sunday) and hoping the results are better. If it were me, id have told the entire maintenance crew to go take naps/sleep during the evening because they'd be pulling an all nighter. This was, or has to be, one of the worst opening days they have suffered in a long time. I don't even want to hear weather was an issue. It was foggy but 65degrees F and not a drop of rain till almost 5. It then sprinkled for an hour and again was dry. So weather had nothing to do with it. Winds were also very calm, maybe 10mph max but averaged 5mph max there too. Probably wont be photos tomorrow but never know. Just to be fair, I give CP a lot of crap. But I hold them to a very high standard, a standard THEY put on themselves. Sure, the golden ticket awards are more or less rigged and a sham, but don't pat yourselves on the back and fail to deliver. I still go there and love many of the rides and enjoy my time there thoroughly. But today...wow. Really sad. I've attended at least a decades worth of Opening Days so Im used to hiccups and burps along the ride. Today, was all out vomiting in terms of preparedness. Heres a few images per forum rules...I don't think you want all 33 pasted on here for bandwidth issues. So here a few to tease, rest on my facebook. Ocean Motion Foggy Bird Fun on said Bird. Power Tower...seriously, its not funny anymore, come on out... There you are, but youre still trying to hide. I was pretty sure hiding a 420ft tall tower thats bathed in bright red and yellow would be difficult. Mother Nature threw up her middle finger to that today. One last shot, people enjoying Millenium Force.

So who were wearing the TPR Shirts in the Midway Eatery around noon? I was in front of you (with a friend wearing a Josh Cribbs Browns Jersey) Family of 3 or 4 I believe... Tall, goatee, on a cell phone I think I saw.

Its really sad they can install massive rides over the winter (as they have in the past...with high winds, snow, etc) but cannot install a simple tower with some rotating seats. As already said, it sounds like they went with a design that wasnt fully tested and now they will suffer the embarassment of not having yet another ride not open for opening day. I mean, really, I know its not THAT simple...but lets compare some other projects theyve completed over winter and you start to see that this is either a huge fail on CP or, a fail on manufacturer to have the rides ready to assemble, test and go.

Patriot? Not Patriot But its a 3ds spine. Just like on Talon. Then its a texture I made (actually, 3 textures, 1 for the 2 sides and 1 for top and bottom)

Have at least two loops, two corkscrews, and a batwing Thats what I was going off. When reading directions I go off the actual bolded stuff and I try to stick to bullet points. The original post only said what I just posted, verbatim. And just saying loop is different from VERTICAL LOOPS. And when you say CORKSCREW ELEMENTS I could take that very liberally or very strictly. Plus I think it said at least including those elements and you say a total of six inversions. Saying a total of 6 inplies only 6. Is it only 6 or can it be more? When doing contests its VERY VERY VERY VERY important to have your wording be precise and consistent, something Im struggling with getting from this topic. As the last person wrote, there is confusion now...

Not on the radar yet. I need sufficient photos of the entire grounds its on. Possibly try to find a topographical map as well or at least some good reference photos for the land its on too.

Lets get it on... Question - two loops...Just regular loop dee loops? Or do dive loops, immelman loops and such count as well? Im assuming just a standard loop... Alright...will be gone for 2 days...but I can definitely finish this before the deadline.

i went back 26 pages and only saw 2 NL projects...sad days. Heres some to break that up

Its just a Golden Orb Weaver...Has toxin but shouldnt kill you. The bite causes local pain, redness, and blisters that normally disappear within a 24-hour interval. lol I take macro pictures of these at my local zoo. Pretty impressive spiders. But, like most things in the animal world, these large spiders are far less deadly than their smaller cousins. Smaller ones seem to pack the biggest punch. Great TR. Once in a lifetime to go down unda.