Philrad71

^ For instances like this, it ain't half bad being old is it, Bert?

It's cute that you think there is a way to quantify "maturity" on Reddit! Seriously, though. Thank you for the support. These people always seem to end up weeding themselves out and it's just one less potential headache we may have to deal with at an event like West Coast Bash. Oddly enough this guy also emailed me about wanting to represent TPR at a media construction tour event at Magic Mountain! Could you imagine if I had actually said "yes" to that??!?! So glad my gut feeling was correct not to choose him. While I have heard of Reddit, I honestly have no idea what it is and have never visited. Sounds like a really good place to continue to know absolutely nothing about!

Oh my...they are just crawling out of the woodwork this weekend, aren't they?

Thanks for banning idiots like this, Robb. I just can't get over how many Americans think that they are so f%cking entitled to have every little thing go there way, or they throw a temper tantrum. It just speaks for his maturity level when he went on Reddit and made that post - unreal. On a more positive note, I am really looking forward to the other reviews from our respectable TPR members. Hang Time looks like tons of fun and I LOVE that lighting package! Looks like Knotts has a winner here!!

^ Wait, what..."Entry need not be truthful?" Well it is Kiss98.5 after all, so...I would be interested to see what some of these submissions look like. I wonder what this woman claimed was a "malfunction"? Ride Of Steel Incident?

Looks like we'll both be getting rained on. Cross your fingers. I know I am. Emily and I are going to Coaster Campout, so I hope we don't have a soggy night. I do hope that it holds out for you and Emily over the weekend, Zach - and anyone else attending the event! I am really starting to think that weekends in May in the Great Lakes area are nothing but f%cking rain every year. We might see a couple nice days during the week, but it seems like every weekend is above a 50% chance of rain...with a little dose of freezing-ass cold weather like what we experienced last weekend. Saturday does look like one of those days where it will at least be warm, so a passing t-storm could clear a lot of the crowds out during the afternoon. As Andrew mentioned, you might be able to save on FL+ and use it to drink beer during the t-storms. Good luck - looking forward to your take on the event!

Fastlane money is never wasted. If you don't need Fastlane, it becomes beer money. With reference to the SV queue line, it's all new. Most of it's covered and they've peppered the surrounding area with some nice landscaping and mulch.

We were there on Tuesday and probably saw you in the park. You probably recognized me...I was the guy with an older guy that was in a motorized scooter...oh wait. I agree with how you ranked your coasters. Despite only getting one ride on Powder Keg and Time Traveler, they both impressed. I ended up with about six rides on Outlaw Run and agree that it is definitely the star attraction of the park. Can't say enough good things about this park - we LOVED it!!!

Great news! This will be a perfect addition for the park!

Uggghhh...that was really pathetic to watch. So glad that our visits to SDC, SFStL and CP were the exact opposite of this. We encountered nothing but pleasant/friendly people during our visits to these parks. Granted it might have been because Michael was in a wheelchair, but still... Glad that we went and got this park in when they were offering the 10:00 PM-1:00 AM tickets. There were hardly any people there and it was actually quite fun!

Sounds like the park's very aware some folks are making the trek from far away solely to get a ride in on it, and don't want anyone bursting because "the ride we traveled halfway around the world to get on just closed." It's so nice of Cedar Point to be doing all these things you guys are mentioning. That's above and beyond what some other parks would probably do. I agree. I love this. From the marketing side this will help give positive reviews and curve the social media haters. Driving 10 hrs to ride SV once was all I needed bc I was aware of these problems. Now I get to enjoy this awesome park and maybe get another ride tomorrow or Wednesday. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk When we were standing in line, the ride op mentioned that there was a couple that had flown in from Seattle that day just to ride SV and after their ride, they left and flew back home. If that's true, that is some roller coaster dedication right there! She was good about razzing people that weren't being loud enough coming back into the station - so I did my part and was hooting and hollering before we left the station and most certainly when we came back in. Our train was the loudest of all the ones I had heard previously before boarding. To the left are the cards that were being handed out at the Breakers exit. To the right are our room keys that Brandon said we could keep for a souvenir (nice touch). Back of the cards.

I forgot to mention that they were handing out Steel Vengeance cards at the exit gate on Friday night with a scratch-off where everyone wins a prize. I won a BOGO admission for a return visit. Not sure what the other prizes are, but I thought that was a nice cool gesture!

Thank you, Arthur! I agree that it must have been a PR nightmare for the park to have to pull both trains out of commission, but it was absolutely the right thing to do, so I commend them for that! I hope my coffee was acceptable for the story. It sounds like you still enjoyed your trip. Despite the hardships you guys faced, I'm glad there was a silver lining. I'm sorry to hear about Michael. A long trip like yours seems like it would be taxing for anyone, so it sounds like you guys really champed it out despite the obstacles. I don't really talk about it much, but I have a couple health issues that provide me with often significant inconveniences throughout my daily life which are even more inconvenient during activities like park visits. I couldn't imagine being in his spot. I hope for a full recovery and I'll say a prayer. Wow. Coffee is absolutely fine, Zach! It has always been our way to try and cram 6 days into 5 whenever we go on vacation because we never want to be bored. But cramming two full days in a row at SDC and then a show at the Welk resort on Wednesday night, I could tell that Michael was shot. He was actually dozing off during the show (that he REALLY wanted to see), so I knew that we should have likely opted out of two full days at the park despite the fact that we both loved it. I am sorry to hear about your health issues. I have some myself, but they pale in comparison to Michael's. He is certainly a trooper and I know that he wouldn't be here today if he weren't. Guy is tough as nails, when I think that I may have cashed in my chips a while ago if I went through what he has been through. Although it's been tough on me too being his caretaker and driving to and from various hospitals every day during that six months. I can't say that I didn't come out of this with a bit of PTSD. I can only imagine what you must go through on a day to day basis in the police department! Hang in there though...and I hope that your upcoming vacation is as great (if not better) than ours was. Certainly hoping that you have better weather for the coaster camp-out at CP and that you won't have to wait two hours to ride SV. Even then, it wasn't that bad as I thought it would be waiting in the line. It reminded me a lot of waiting 1.5-2 hours for Magnum back in '89!

Thanks Bert! It certainly was a great experience despite the disappointment of having to leave the park. Versus feeling like whipped puppies, we left for home feeling very grateful for what CP did as well as feeling like this was one of our greatest vacations ever! Michel has spent most of the day chilling out on the couch and I admit that I was pretty exhausted from the trip as well. Glad to hear that other visitors were able to have a great time with low crowds despite the raw weather...teacherkim, you are a trooper. Thanks for the update!

^ It really was amazing customer service. I am still in disbelief. We had an opposite incident when Michael's diagnosis came in after we had booked four nights at the Crown Plaza in Portland, Oregon to attend a good friends wedding celebration. I called them two weeks before our reservation to cancel and explained the situation and they still wouldn't refund the money because I had unknowingly booked a non-refundable room. That one hurt, but another life lesson learned to always read the fine print! In this instance, we expected to lose it all, but CP just completely blew our minds and went above and beyond!

^ Unfortunately only got to ride SV, MF and Valravn this visit, but we will be back!!! I mentioned earlier a cool CP story that I was going to share, so here goes...this will be a bit lengthy, so you might want to grab a beer (or a non-adult beverage if you are underage) for this one! Okay - So Michael and I had planned a trip to Lincoln's tomb, Branson & SDC and planned on stopping at CP on the way home so that I would be able to ride Steel Vengeance. The trip length was set for 10 days. For those that may not know, Michael was diagnosed with bile duct cancer in July of 2016 and after a grueling six months in the hospital where he almost bled out three different times, I can say that today he is cancer free (YAY!) - although still not at what one might consider 100% recovered. Since we went to Florida in December, we had been wanting to do a trip featuring stuff that he would like to see (Lincoln, Branson/shows) as well as hit a couple of theme parks for good measure. Even though Michael can't ride coasters like he used to, he loves people watching and has no problem doing that while I ride coasters and rides. This has proven to be good therapy for us both. We booked tickets to SDC and CP in advance which we both knew might be a crap shoot as weather in May can be unpredictable in any area of the country. For reassurance however, I booked ECV's for Michael for both days at SDC and for Saturday at CP. I just didn't want to take a chance that the ECV's and FL+'s would sell out before we got to the park (neither of us are early risers and the early entry isn't really our cup of tea). We also managed to hit up SfStL at the last minute because the weather was warm and Michael was feeling great. I also got a nice workout pushing him around the park in his wheelchair! Branson weather couldn't have been better with sun, low humidity and temps in the mid-80's. Sandusky in turn was cold, cold cold...with rain and temps in the upper 40's. When we arrived at CP/Hotel Breakers on Friday afternoon, I looked at the forecast and it didn't look good at all. Cold with rain showers and high winds forecast for Saturday. While it was cold when we arrived at CP, it wasn't raining, so I asked Michael if he minded if I bought a Twilight pass to see if I could get on SV versus trying to riding it Saturday, when despite the weather, it was likely to be busier than a weeknight. He said to go for it and he would be in the hotel room with the thermostat cranked to 77, in bed reading his Kindle. Since his surgery, he has gone from someone that never liked the heat, to always being cold (losing 85 lbs will do that to you). As mentioned in an earlier post, I was able to get on SV with just under a two hour wait. In terms of ranking this coaster, I would like to ride it a couple more times in various seats to get a better feel, because for that first ride, it just felt like a blur - plus I wasn't wearing my glasses because I didn't have a strap (I would buy one in the gift shop later that night). But that one ride...oh man...SO UNBELIEVABLY AWESOME!!! After getting exhilarating, face-numbing rides on MF and Valravn, I packed it in at 9:00 and crossed my fingers that somehow, someway, that there might be warmer weather on Saturday. Michael ended up having some abdominal issues on Friday night (fairly common after a Whipple Procedure), but when Saturday morning arrived, he said that he was feeling better. We walked down to Perkins for breakfast and assessed the weather by looking at what were 2-3 foot waves on Lake Erie - not good. We stepped outside after breakfast and the wind gust almost knocked Michael to the ground - also not good. I asked him what he thought about going into the park, and while I was sure that I already knew the answer, he said he didn't think it was going to work. Even though we had an ECV rented and I had FL+ reserved, after much deliberation, we decided that it would be better to just take one in the gut, sacrifice everything that we had reserved and head for home so that he could rest...he was just cooked after Day 9 and the ailments of the night before. So before we left the Breakers, I decided that it would be the right thing to do to call and cancel the ECV rental so that if someone else needed it, our rental would be available. I also wanted to see for the heck of it if we could get the FL+ pass reimbursed (knowing about the SV incident). When I spoke with the woman at the wheelchair rental, she was very friendly and helpful and was sorry to hear that we weren't going to be able to come into the park today. She put me on hold for a bit and then came back and said that they could refund the ECV cost! She then transferred me to Guest Relations and after speaking with someone there and explaining the situation, they said that if I came to Guest Relations that they would refund the cost of the FL+ as well!! I didn't use the excuse of not being able to use FL+ for SV - I was honest and told them that we had been on a 9 day excursion and that my partner was just exhausted & cold and just wanted to go home. They were completely awesome and said "Not a problem, we understand and will issue a full credit to your account". WOW! After that call, we went to the hotel lobby and told them that we were checking out. Obviously they referenced the early check-out and asked if everything was okay - we explained that our stay at the hotel was great, but after our vacation, Michael was cold, not feeling particularly well and just wanted to go home. I mentioned that I understood the cancellation agreement and that it wasn't a problem that we were losing the cost of our Saturday night stay. To our surprise, the employee (I think his name was Brandon) said, "Let's see what we can do to recoup some of your loss, guys". He went back and spoke to his manager and came back to say, "We are going to credit the cost of your room for tonight and your tickets back to your card & this will be filed as an extenuating circumstance - we understand that these types of things happen." Say what??? Needless to say, we were both blown away. We NEVER expected, asked or or pleaded for any type of refund for anything that we had booked, other than the FL+ that we had pre-purchased. We fully understood the policies and despite the fact that we well understood that we would lose close to $400 by heading for home, the fine folks at CP made sure that that didn't happen. I literally had watery eyes as I shook his hand, thanked him and walked out of the hotel. This was such a heart-felt, thoughtful gesture where they could have easily just taken our room cards and said, "Thanks for choosing Cedar Point, we're sorry that you can't stay with us tonight." They didn't - they showed actual empathy for us versus following the "rule book" - it was unbelievable. Cedar Point has been a mainstay in my heart since I was a kid. I have always known their superior customer service to be on par with Disney...but I was not expecting treatment like this at all! Tony Clark - if you are reading this, I can't say enough good things about the park & the employees. The ride-ops and greeters always kill it with their hustle and great attitude, but the folks at Guest Relations and at the Breakers deserve HUGE kudos for what they did for us. This will certainly not be forgotten! From the bottom of our hearts....thank you so much, Cedar Point! We WILL be back again and have vowed that the reimbursed funds will be used for a future visit, when Michael is stronger, the weather is warmer, and we can put that FL+ to good use! THANKS AGAIN!!!!! Lesson learned for us - from here on out, we talked and agreed that we are now going to limit our vacations to 7 days or less so that Michael doesn't get too burned out. We both feel that 3-4 day weekend excursions would be best for us moving forward. Our plan will be for me to take a day or two off from work and go back to CP during the week for two nights/days when we know the weather will be warmer. We are already looking forward to it!

Here are a couple of shots from Friday night at the park...full report of CP and our Branson adventure coming soon! Yay - I made it! Signage More signage Going up... and going down...like really freaking fast! Evac on Corkscrew. An employee at the Breakers said that this is the third time this has happened this season...wonder what's up with the ride this year? Early season jitters perhaps?

That would have been great, Zach, but I understand that it's family first! Plus I remember how brutal you said that your schedule was leading up to your coaster trip - hope that isn't wearing you out too much beforehand! We did have a great time, although we had to cut our trip short and head home yesterday - not so much because of the weather, but Michael was just worn out from the duration of the trip. He wanted me to go into the park without him, but I wasn't going to leave him at Breakers all day while I went out and had fun. I have a pretty cool story to tell about CP and once I get my pics uploaded onto the computer, I will be sure to post some!

I thought that strap was for the ride op to check faster. Most likely yes, but I'm sure frightened guests will likely use it for a "Jesus" bar.

That last photo looks surreal...holy crap!

It was a little under a two hour wait and probably up there for the longest that I've ever waited for a coaster...but this one was well worth it! Compared to Outlaw Run a couple of days earlier having a couple of minor rattles (not a complaint - it still kicked total ass), SV (being new, no doubt) is butter smooth from start to finish. The drop is phenomenal, the speed carries from start to finish and the airtime is equivalent to being on a bucking bronco - the theme fits perfectly to the ride. My ride was in row 4 and while I'm sure that the front and back seats are probably better, there can't be bad seat on this coaster. While there is a grab strap on the lap bar, most enthusiasts won't need it. This is just all around relentless hands-up FUN from start to finish. A well deserved 10 out of 10! The two other trains are on the transfer tracks so hopefully they'll be back in action soon. Also snagged a one train wait each for MF and Valravn. It was surreal to be riding these bad boys in 48° weather with 20-30 mph wind gusts coming off of Lake Erie. MF was sluggish due to the cold, so no real airtime, but still made my eyes water. All ride ops were kicking at high gear despite the fact that I knew they must have been freezing their butts off. Kudos to them as always! I could have easily gotten a few more walk-on rides, but the cold was just ridiculous after having mid-80's for the rest of our vacation. I mailed it in at 9:00 and whisked myself back to the warmth of the Breakers after about 2.5 hours in the park. Most of the rides were closed down from Corkscrew up to Magnum during my walk back to the Breakers. Witches Wheel looked liked the only ride running in that stretch. Tomorrow is looking really iffy weather-wise, but we'll do what we can do. Could be a short day and Michael might very well stay at the hotel as he did tonight to stay warm. Hope to have a full trip report of the big adventure soon!

In line for SV right now. App says 1 hour wait...got in line at 6:30 with 4 switchbacks and under the structure into the station. Will let you know how long I wait! Most (if not all ) of the coasters look to be in operation currently. Just started sprinkling, but it's still running for now!

Hmmm...the forecast that I see is calling for 80% chance of rain all day on Saturday. We'll be there this weekend and just see what hand is dealt to us. It's not looking great, but we just had PERFECT weather for two days at SDC. Ya can't win 'em all, I suppose!

Cinnamon BREAD not rolls!!!!! Totally different!!!! They sell both so be careful and get the BREAD!!!!!! Ahhhh...thanks for the tip, Elissa...headed there now! Also thanks to Andrew for seat recommendations. Text if you want to grab a couple of pints later! Edit - awesome day at the park today. Didn't get on Time Traveler or Powder Keg due to mechanical issues, but had complete walk-on's for just about everything else. Outlaw Run was closed when we initially went back to that area, but after an awesome ride on the barn swing, we noticed it was running. One ride in the back and one in the front seat. Wow to both...love it. Cinnamon bread was unreal, ribs were good at the BBQ event, and we met Andrew for beers at Branson Landing afterwards. Full trip report later, but thanks to Andrew for all of the great tips for our visit...thanks again for coming down to have a couple of beers with us! Can't wait to go back for Day 2 tomorrow...SDC is AWESOME!!!

^ FYI - Superman was down all day Sunday - not sure why. Several rides were down actually, but we still had a good time. Mr. Freeze, American Thunder and Namtab were the highlights for me.