bert425

oh yeah, that Spider-Man coaster looks hella fun. I'll have to find some way to travel solo to these places, since my Hubby won't go overseas.. it's just a question of planning and timing (I'm still a working stiff, so getting time off is always a problem for me). but wow, Robb. . this looks like it was an amazing trip, with some fantastic food too!

you bet! I love me a Tilt-a-Whirl too (as you may have noticed). . LOL. . the moment I discovered they had one when walking thru Camp Snoopy on Monday, it's all I wanted to ride. and we were NOT the only adults that were in line to ride, tho most of the others waiting for the next cycle were with kiddos. oh, don't miss Ocean Motion either.. it's way up at the front of the park, and very easy to miss if you don't come in the front gate and take an immediate right. If you're staying at Breakers, you'll likely never use the front gate. . . so mentioning it. the Power Outage didn't affect us at all.. . we wouldn't have even been aware of it, if the Waiter hadn't mentioned it - we would have just thought it got more crowded in the front of the park. But we were riding a lot of flats Monday, so never really long waits for those anyways

Day Five, Monday - or: “Onward thru the fog!” So despite how much drinking we had done on our “off” day, neither Bill or I were hung over when we woke up on Monday morning. Despite my not sleeping well (or much) we were both up and about a good 10 minutes before the wake up call we were so worried about getting. The park opened at 10, so we were going to take advantage of that 9am early entry for Resort guests. I opened up the windows, and saw it was kind of “moist” outside. Actually, it was pretty dang foggy, and there was a huge fog-bank coming across the bay towards the hotel. I grabbed the phone and started snapping pictures, and got some great shots of Millennium Force just disappearing into the fog. It was eerie (ha! Erie). . .and kind of creepy, but very, very cool. about this time the wake up call came, nice to know that even drunk, we were able to arrange it. And as it was about 8:30, we heard Rougarou start to test in the fog. So we figured that they were going to open up anyways, so we pulled away from watching the fog, got dressed and headed down to Starbucks for morning coffee (Grande Vanilla Mocha for me, is my go to, and pretty much what I drank anytime we went to Starbucks). Bill had bought the all day Dining Plan for today, and we were going to be sharing that, as well as him getting his souvenir drink cup. By the way, *no* idea if it’s supposed to be “allowed” or not, to share one all day Dining, but at two of the places we stopped at we actually told the servers we were going to share, and they even brought out an extra plate. So either it’s allowed, or they just didn’t care where we stopped. . either way, a really good deal, even if we only used it 3 times during the day. anyways, we headed down the foggy boardwalk to the Windseeker entrance gate, and again, we were pretty much the only folks going in that gate for early entry. Things seemed to be running, so we decided to get a ride on Gatekeeper. . in the fog. This ended up being one of the most surreal things I’ve ever done, and is a memory I’ll hold with me forever. Out there on the “wings” with so much fog that the track was absolutely invisible. . it was disorienting, and so very very cool. Swooping, and diving, and not being able to see the GROUND (never mind not really being able to see the track, you couldn’t see the ground). .it was awesome. We got off it giggling, and talking about how cool it was. . the fog was so thick, that the cameras weren’t working for the on-ride photos. And we stopped to look, as we didn’t have any pics of us on Gatekeeper, and was considering buying it. Still the memory is so much better than the picture. It looked like Tiki Twirl was open for early entry, even tho there was no one riding it. . so we walked over to it and asked the operator, and he said sure they were running (and once we got on it, a few other people joined us). I’d never been on a Calypso ride before - not even a Breakdance, so I was really looking forwards to this. The tilted platform was very slippery due to the fog .. which really surprised me they were open with it being THAT slippery, but I guess it made it more fun. But once we got into our own cars and it started going, I loved it. It was kind of like a scrambler crossed with a Matterhorn. I really, really liked it, and wish I had ridden it more than just this once, but we knew that Monday was going to be a “hit the rides we missed but wanted to go on, and re-ride at our own pace” day, so at least I got to ride it, and I’m happy about that. After Tiki Twirl, we headed to the main midway for a spin on Cedar Downs (yes, again.. LOL. .I love that stupid thing!), and then went to Valravn for a quick ride. I’m trying to recall, but I *think* Bill rode it with me? It was still really foggy, and it appeared that MF wasn’t open despite many other rides moving (TTD was down too).. something confirmed for me by the chain across the entrance – I’d guess they can’t run it in the fog, because the cameras at the top of the lift can’t get a good look at the idiots in the train who decide to pull out cell phones. But we decided to keep going that way up Frontier Trail to head up to Maverick. It was about time the park was opening to the public, but when we got to Maverick, not only was it running, but it was walk on. In fact the station was SO dead that I texted Liz some pics of it. (her response: OMG, is the park even open???). This was the first time we rode Maverick where we got right up to the station and it was actually working too! : p I think we actually rode it twice before moving in the park.. where again, we couldn’t go on Cedar Creek Mine Ride, or Gemini yet, as they didn’t open until 11. . . so we slowly walked around the back of the park towards Magnum taking pics (it was so dark still, some rides had their lights on!). TTD wasn’t even testing at this point, and several of the trains seemed to be getting work done on them, so we hopped on Magnum – again, a deserted station, and decided to ride in the back (not as smooth as in the front, but still good), but I think that may have rattled Bill a little, as he was ready to slow down a bit. So rather than ride Magnum again, we decided to head back towards Maverick. . . and it looked like Witches’ Wheel (Enterprise) was testing. They weren’t quite open yet, but it was something I wanted to ride, since I hadn’t been on one in YEARS (Volcano was down at Kennywood when we were there, and the last one I rode was at Six Flags Fiesta Texas, before they removed Wagon Wheel (which was originally Spinnaker from SFoT). . .. .but I digress. . . They weren’t quite ready to open yet, but as noted since I didn’t want to leave the area (I wanted to ride it), we went over by the Dinosaurs Alive! Area (also not open yet), and decided to walk thru Camp Snoopy, since we actually had not been thru the area -- only to the two coasters on the Gemini exit side. Camp Snoopy seemed to have many of the similar rides that the Planet Snoopy area (over near Melt!) has. .which was a little odd, but right in the middle of it, I discovered a Tilt-a-Whirl. Not a kiddie one, but a full size one. Despite the employees riding many of the other rides (testing them, getting ready to open at 11), the Tilt-a-Whirl wasn’t moving yet, despite some operators there. . and as we stood there, maintenance came up (darn it). But they told me that all they were doing was replacing a wheel on a bad car, and it would be open later (yay). We wandered around Camp Snoopy for a little bit – and I got to get a picture of me at Lucy’s Psychiatrist’s Booth at the theatre (one of my favorite pics from the trip!) – before we headed back thru the area and back over to Witches Wheel, which had opened a little early and I got my ride in, while Bill watched (he doesn’t like Enterprises). Other things were starting to open, and the park was still really really dead. . I guess the morning fog kept folks away, but it wouldn’t for much longer, as they day started to get very nice, if a bit humid, and school band groups started showing up. We headed back towards Maverick, stopping to ride Gemini again along the way, only to find Maverick was down. That was ok, as we were starting to get hungry, and had seen Millennium Force start up, as the fog cleared. So we passed Maverick and took the train around the Rougarou station, and walked over to MF, which had a 10 minute or so wait. We went for the back row, and while waiting, I noticed the operator near the back kept looking at me. He had piercing blue eyes, so I looked back (and noted nametag Trevor), and then as he was checking restraints, he asked me, ‘do you post at TPR?”. . . and it turned out it was Password! He thanked me for helping him plan a Kennywood (I think) trip, and I quickly introduced him to Bill as the train left the toaster station. . . . We never got back around to talk more, as when I rode later he wasn’t around. . but still. . how cool is that? It was very nice to meet you in person, Password! After MF, we were hungry, and we noticed that the park had started to get more crowded (at least near the front), but we went over to Pink’s to get the all day dining started. The food, when we eventually got it, was decent. I think we just went for the standard foot long, but what was good is that the hot dog came with a side, so although I was going to buy onion rings to go with it, the meal came with a full size Onion Ring order. I ended up just getting the 2 for $6 bottled water deal and we shared. What was bad, is the cashier had absolutely no idea what he was doing, and the family in line in front of us. . also with all day dining they were trying to redeem, kept the line tied up for a good 10-15 minutes. It was really annoying, and it was hard to tell if it was the family that was having issues, or the cashier. I really think it was the cashier. . and although the rest of the employees on the line at Pinks were friendly and in a great mood, the cashier was very off putting . . . and likely is not the person you want up front to make the 1st impression at the place! Still. . *eventually* we got our food, and sat at a table outside and watched Raptor (which had developed a line by this point. . . we even commented on how weird that Raptor had a line), and ate our 1st meal. Again, was decent. . not the most amazing hot dog, but the rings were just about the perfect amount of grease. . really liked them. after finally eating something, we didn’t want to immediately get on anything “big” (and besides, what’s right there were the 1-and-done Raptor, Blue Streak, and Valravn (which had developed a very large line too by this point and we just weren’t in the mood to stand in). . . so we went for Cedar Downs (heh) tho Bill just watched me ride (and took a picture which he gave me for an avatar, but hell if I can figure out how to make it work). And then, since Liz had commented that we should ride the Cadillac cars with the low crossing – and it’s right next door to Cedar Downs – we hopped in line for that, and I drove while Bill got chauffeured. I don’t really get the point of these kinds of rides, to be honest, but it was fun enough, even if you don’t really NEED to “drive”. . but hell, that really is quite the low bridge crossing on that ride. Glad we aren’t tall people! We went into the Snoopy store, to look at a shirt I wanted. . I was going back and forth between two of them, and in the end I managed to talk myself out of both! Truth is, with 3 Cedar Point shirts already (including the Coasetermania! One), I just couldn’t justify buying another shirt, even if I loved it with Charlie Brown and Snoopy watching the sun set over the coasters. Bill had been itching to play skee-ball, and get some tickets. We had a handful from what we had played in the arcade on Monday, and although one really had to win a lot of tickets to get anything more than just standard Showbiz Pizza crap, we headed to the arcade to play some skeeball. I never made it back to the skee-ball machines, as I was stopped near the front by some “coin pusher” machines that were themed to the Justice League, and in particular, there was one featuring Wonder Woman vs Cheetah (some of my favorites!). .so I parked myself there to play ‘for just a little while’ – which of course turned into over 40 minutes, and over $30.. but hey, I had fun, and I look at it like I look at slot machines, I’m paying for the entertainment/enjoyment, and if I win something than that’s just the bonus. And I *did* win a bunch of tickets, including a trading card from the machine that was worth 50 tickets. Bill meanwhile, wandered around and found $20 on the floor. . . so he won more than I did. I gifted my tickets to Bill, and he bought a little piggy bank (which I’m sure he has a picture of), and with the remaining, I got a hacky-sack beanbag (which my dog has already torn to shreds. . but that’s why I brought it home for her to play with). It was a nice use of time, and we got to relax and have some fun in the arcade. by the time we stepped back out into the midway, it had really gotten pretty crowded in the front of the park, and it was almost time for us to use the next dining plan (it’s every 1 ½ hours, I think), so we headed across to Chickie and Pete’s, and they sat us in the back area (on the raised “football field” platform) where we watched Raptor go by the windows, and we could see Gatekeeper doing it’s thing while we ate. I honestly can’t recall what we ate here. .it was OK, and it had lots of cheesy sauce on it, and it came with crabbie fries. And here is where the waiter brought us a plate so we could share. . . . Bill had a beer, and I think that I stuck with water, but it was a nice atmosphere, and it was air conditioned. Although we noticed that during the meal Raptor had stopped passing by outside, we didn’t think much of it. We chatted with our waiter when he came by, and at one point I commented on how we were surprised it was so crowded in the front of the park, when it had been so dead earlier, and he said “oh, there was a power outage, everything past Top Thrill Dragster isn’t running, so that’s why all the lines up front have gotten so long” Now I posted a bit about this on TPR during our trip, on the day this happened. We were in the Arcade, and nothing ever flickered. . same is true while we were in Chickie and Pete’s. And Raptor, Gatekeeper, and Valravn were all running when we went into the restaurant, and at minimum Gatekeeper and Raptor ran for most of our meal, as we could see them outside our window. So I absolutely believe and agree with what our server told us – it affected the BACK of the park. -- and later at the bar in Breakers, our friend Gina told us that Breakers had lost power for almost 2 hours that afternoon.. and that too is in the back end of the park. SO I don’t know what took out Gatekeeper and Valravn (and forced evacuations), but it did not seem to be the power failure. Maybe there was a later surge, or something tripped when they tried to resolve? But those rides were running when we went into the restaurant, and there was never a power interruption that we noticed while we were in the front end of the park. For sure, when we finished up and headed out, everything up front had long lines – even Corkscrew was running with full trains. I’ll bet that doesn’t happen too often. the waiter had told us they were slowly getting rides back up, and for sure, most of the flats seemed to be cycling and getting back up. We hopped in line for Iron Dragon, which had about a 20 minute wait, and rode that. Then decided that we’d head back towards Camp Snoopy, to see if Tilt-a-Whirl was going. As we passed (the still down) TTD, and Magnum – which actually had a line spilling out into the “back and forths”, it was a good sign that they were getting things back up. We went to check out Dinosaurs Alive!, since it is free at several of the parks I’ve been to owned by Cedar Fair, but this one had a booth with a cash register, and the cost was $5, so we told the lady no-thanks. Would have been nice if she had offered to let us go walk the trail anyways, since we’re staying at Breakers (one would think this is an easy perk to offer), but no dice, so we thanked her, but said no thanks, and went to the gift shop – where I picked up some Dinosaurs Alive! Magnets as gifts (super cheap too.. cheapest magnets in the park at only $1.99 for not only the individual magnets, but also for the sets that were marked $3.99, but rang up at $1.99), and Bill picked up red/white/blue jelly bellies. Most everything in Camp Snoopy was running, but the Tilt-a-Whirl was still down.. . this time it was a wheel on a different car! So we figured we’d try again later, and at least the trip thru Camp Snoopy wasn’t a total loss, as Franklin was out and about, so I got a picture with him. Then we went across to Gemini and rode the red side (we had ridden Blue earlier).. hey, gotta keep even, right? LOL We decided to take another spin on Cedar Creek Mine Train, since we were right there, and this time waited for front row, since the other time we had ridden it was towards the middle/back. This line was about a 15 minute wait by this point, but it actually took a little bit longer, since when it was our time to ride, they couldn’t get the lap bars to go down far enough to “lock”. It was not us, in the front row, but rather one of the people in the two rows behind us. . . rather large people. They tried several times, including a few times where they told everyone to “really suck in”. . . we all knew exactly who it was that was causing the bar not to go all the way down, but nobody wanted to call her out, and the woman was playing innocent and kept saying things like “my seatbelt clicked, so it’s not me!”. . . . Eventually, and with some careful wording, they asked the woman to step out to “try” to see if it would go down if she wasn’t in the seat, and it clicked easily, and she fumed off to the exit to wait for the rest of her party and we were finally on our way. (I actually said something to the operator on the way out about how much I appreciated his tact, in finding a way to avoid having to say “sorry, but you’re too fat to ride”). . those operators really did try to get her in the ride. .and it’s a shame she had a bad experience she’s blaming on the operators. We decided to head over to Maverick to see if it was up (it was not), but that was OK, since Bill was wanting to buy a Maverick shirt I had pointed out to him in the exit gift shop earlier. . . but upon exiting the Mine train, we passed right in front of the Town Hall Museum. . .a place I had wanted to go into every time we passed (the giant KNex ferris wheel on display had caught my eye), but kept forgetting. It was our last day, and I wanted to go in, and Bill begrudgingly joined me (but once inside he loved it too). The museum is great, with lots of displays on the history of Cedar Point, with tons of small exhibits of the prizes they used to give out (glassware!) old arcade games, models of some of the coasters, horses from old carousels, a model train display, and just tons more. I could have spent well over an hour here, and as is, we spent at least 30 minutes. Bill had finished looking and I started talking to the “curator” and mentioned we had come for Coastermania! And it was our first visit. . he went behind the counter and gave me a “1st visit” pin and then he and I stood and chatted about things for a bit . .LOL..Bill was getting annoyed with me that I was so chatty, but all was forgiven when I gave him the “1st visit” pin I got for him too. He wanted to hear my impressions on the park, and seemed to really be listening (and he talked like he know the mgmt guys (Tony?) who had been involved in the Q&A from Coastermania! Some interesting tidbits I picked up from my conversation with him (and I wish I had gotten his name, but he was the boss in the Museum, the other folks in there reported to him, and he’s the one that went and spun the ferris wheel for us). -- I mentioned that the park really seemed to be missing a dark ride, and he said they hear that a lot and who knows what the next years might bring? (I didn’t ask about the rumor I’ve since seen about the Arcade on the main midway possibly being converted into a Dark Ride of some sort, but I can say that a lot of the classic games in the back ½ of the arcade were/are not working, and it does seem to be a waste of a lot of space that could be used for something else) -- I said how cool Mean Streak is looking, and he said “Mean Streak is no more” -- After I told him how much I loved Cedar Downs, he told me about how they only run it at 2/3ds speed, and if they ran it at full speed they would have to put seat belts on it. -- he asked if I ate at Melt and I told him I had, and commented on the décor and how much I liked it, and he said that most of the memorabilia on the wall had come from the remodeling at Breakers/Breakers Express, and it had been planned to go into the Town Hall Museum, but he was glad it ended up in Melt as a lot of people get to enjoy it. - I asked about the large amount of space that was sitting unused behind the CCMT (the leftover area from “Shoot the Rapids” which I had noticed when riding MF earlier in the day). He said they have plans for it, and I said I would hope for another coaster, but since they were doing the work on Mean Streak, that wasn’t likely at least for a few years. . to which he replied that they plan to add things every year, regardless if something else is being done. He asked me what coaster I would hope for, and I said that I thought CP was missing a good young adult coaster, and I thought a spinner would be wonderful (Nick and I had loved Sierra Sidewinder at Knott’s). . to which he responded. . hmmmmmmmmmm. So I wonder what will actually be going into the footprint of Shoot the Rapids?. . based on his interactions with me, I got the impression it would be within the next year or so they would do something with it. more believable than a Dippin Dots guy, I’d say : p It had been more than 1 ½ hours since we last ate, so we decided to go into Frontier Inn (no, I didn’t remember the name, I had to look at the map), to use the meal plan and get Buffalo Chicken Tenders, and fries. Bill also used this opportunity to get his souvenir cup. The chicken tenders were acceptable, but the sauce was so overpowering (and messy) that we didn’t really finish this . . didn’t help we weren’t all that hungry anyways. . so Bill ended up feeding some of the potato chips to the birds that were hanging around, and that kept us entertained for a little bit. We went into the Exit Gift shop next door, but Maverick was still down (the power failure had really messed it up). However TTD had started running by this point. Bill didn’t want to get in line for TTD tho, he was ready to go back to the room for a bit. . I wasn’t really wanting to since it was our last day, but agreed that since we had bought stuff by this point (Bill now not only had the Maverick Shirt, but also his souvenir cup, and I had those magnets in my pockets). My only concern was that we’d end up in the room for a long time, and blow the rest of the evening. . it was probably close to 5pm, and the park closed at 8 on Monday. But I agreed as long as we didn’t stay in the room more than 15 minutes, and we went along the back of the park, out the Magnum “Resort” gate, and to our room. It actually was nice to take a short break, and unload all the crap from my pockets, I watched TTD running from the window, and saw a big cloud bank moving in – no rain, just some big clouds. I was staring to get a little crabby from the lack of sleep the prior night, but was determined to get my fill of the park. while Bill mixed a drink, I went to one of the lobby restrooms, and took a few pics of the pool. .then came back to the room, nudged Bill, and off we went to the Windseeker gate to get back into the park. I’m pretty sure that when we came in, I noticed that Wicked Twister really was a walk on. Bill didn’t want to ride, so I handed him my hat/glasses and hopped on for a ride (very quick, I think it wasn’t even a 1 train wait). After I got off, I asked what should we do next? And he suggested Troika, which had a 1 cycle wait. I love troikas, and for some reason hadn’t ridden this one yet, so we got in line, and when it was our turn to load, there was an issue with some kids a few folks ahead of us. We couldn’t really figure out what was going on, but I gathered that the little boy was going to ride with his slightly bigger brother, but the brother wasn’t big enough. So I asked, “is he too little to ride with his brother? Is that what’s going on?” Yep, that’s what was going on. Since Bill and I were going to be riding in our own cars anyways, I offered to ride with the little boy, and I guess Bill thought that meant he would have to ride with the brother. . because he was NOT going to have it (extra funny points, if you read Bill’s update on his weekend trip at Playland, where he ended up riding with an autistic boy and had a great time. . LOL). So Bill started to get annoyed. . he just wanted to ride, and I was trying to be nice about it, and the older brother basically said “no thanks” and tried to leave the ride. But the littler brother stood on the ride platform for Troika and stomped his feet and refused to move. The Brother just gave up and went out the exit leaving the little kid standing there on the ride, Bill annoyed, and the ride operator completely flummoxed. So I figured I’d take my karma points, and told the operator I’d ride with him, and I asked him if he’d like to ride with me. he enthusiastically shook his head yes, and we climbed into a car together, and got bucked in. He was absolutely adorable, but I had a hard time understanding him – he chatted to me the whole time about how he loves flying and he has a secret. . and when I didn’t respond correctly he prodded me “don’t you want to know my secret???” LOL.. . but I couldn’t understand him, really. .it was a combination mumbling/baby talk, so I just smiled and told him that was cool. The ride started up and he started grinning from ear to ear. . a smile he kept the whole ride. Meanwhile I was looking for his family, and finally spotted his Brother, along with a lady with a stroller sitting on a bench over by MaxAir. If you haven’t ridden the one at CP, it’s a damn good Troika. It really gets some good lift, and I was pretty surprised how high it actually got. It suffered with the shorter ride cycle that some of the flats at CP run, but I still enjoyed it very much, made even better that I was able to let this little boy ride it too, and he was saying (I think) it’s his favorite, even tho he’d never been on it. The cycle ended, the little boy hopped out and ran to the gate looking for his brother, who came back to get him, and off they went. no “thank you” from the brother, and never even SAW the Mother. What kind of woman, when your son comes back and says “he was too short to ride with just me, so I left him to ride it with an old guy”, doesn’t even WALK UP TO THE RIDE to see who the hell your child is riding with? I was tempted to go hunt her down and ask what the hell is wrong with her?? (at the least, she should have come over and thanked me for helping her son ride, and made sure I wasn’t a threat). . .but oh well, I let it go, and know I did my good deed for the day. It was coming up on 6:30 or so, and TTD was still running, as it had been from just before we left to go to the room, so we saw the line was only showing ~25 minutes and got in line. .and we made it up to the “back and forths” before the ramp to the station. . when the ride went down. We waited about 15 minutes, but I guess it had been a really long day, and Bill just didn’t want to wait anymore, so after waiting another 5 minutes, we decided to get out of line and go see if Tilt-a-Whirl was running. We got to Camp Snoopy, and it finally was running (yay), albeit with 7 cars – one car was blocked off as out of service. .and of course, we would have been in the 8th car. . . so we had to wait a cycle (but at least it was running a normal one). . I chatted with the operator and she said she had seen us come by a few times, and she knew we wanted to ride, and was glad we got to. We got a car that spun quite a bit, and had a wonderful ride. . . again, not sure why this is hidden in Camp Snoopy, but to me, it was worth the effort to get a ride in on it. After we finally got Tilt-a-Whirl out of my system, Bill really was done with the park. I asked did he want to get something to eat (not that I was hungry either, but I really wanted to get the most out of the dining plan) and he didn’t. To be fair, I guess we did get a good “deal”. .we ate 3 times with the plan, and so he did get the money’s worth.. . but if I had been doing it alone, you bet I’d be getting the food every time available, and just bring leftovers back to the room. anyways, Bill just wanted to go back to the room (I had been talking about wanting to pack tonight, so I wouldn’t have to deal with it tomorrow, but I wanted to stay until the end of the night, since they closed at 8). He wanted to be sure I wouldn’t be upset if he left – I wasn’t – and I told him if he’s going to go down to the pool, bar, or beach, just leave me a note in the room. So Bill headed off to the Resort gate (as TTD started running again, of course. . LOL). I considered going back to TTD, but decided I’d much rather go ride Maverick again, so I headed that way and saw it was a 40 minute wait posted. But it was my last night, and what else was I gonna do? So I got in line. And after about 25 minutes, and chatting with the folks around me.. .Maverick goes down. yeah. We were in line for TTD and it went down.. Then I got in line for Maverick and it went down. I hung out for 20 minutes to see if maybe they would get it back up, and then said screw it, and decided to head to Millennium Force .. what are the odds that 3 for 3 would go down. (but I stopped and drove the antique cars first. . . I tell you, without the low bridge the other cars have? This one is pretty boring, even tho you get to look at Skyhawk while you’re driving). I power-walked up Frontier trail, as it was getting close to 8, and when I got to MF entrance it wasn’t even a 5 minute wait, so I was on (2nd row from back, bay side. . as TBpony calls it..the sweet spot), and off really quickly. I headed towards the midway, and hopped on Scrambler, since I hadn’t ridden that yet (and again it was running a super short cycle..but it has some good forces on it), and tho I was ready to go back to the hotel - it had been a long day – I decided that I really wanted to end my day on MF, especially since the lines were so short. So I got back to MF about 8 minutes to 8, and basically walked right up to the back seat and got what I thought was going to be my final ride in, but when passing the entrance, they had not chained the gate yet, so I got in just before they closed it off for the night, and got one final ride, back seat again. So yeah, even tho TTD and Maverick refused to cooperate and give me last rides, I did get 3 rides at the end of the night on Millennium Force. As I headed towards the Windseeker gate, I realized I had never ridden the Carousel in the front (and I LOVE Carousels (sad face)). We just never made it all the way up to that front part of the park, other than on Coastermania! day. . oh well, I guess I got enough rides on Cedar Downs to make up for it. I had an absolutely fantastic time at Cedar Point and I rode almost everything (and other than the Carousel, I actually did ride everything I wanted), at least once, and many things multiple times. things I purposely skipped: -- Pipe Scream (have never been on a DiscO type ride, and just looking at them make me ill. . so no thank you, not even if they call it a “coaster”) -- Super Himalaya (I rode the Matterhorn at CP, which I like, but never have been a fan of Himalaya type rides, not even at the fair) -- Power Tower (wouldn’t have minded riding, but there were so many other choices, it didn’t make sense to bother with a type of ride I’m “eh” about) They were setting up to run thru “Luminosity” and folks were hanging around to watch it. . but as I had seen it the other night, and I really wanted to get back to the room to do a bit of packing, I just said my goodbyes to the wonder that is Cedar Point, and headed up the boardwalk to Breakers, chatting with some folks who said they would “see me in the bar” later. Not much else to talk about this last night. . I went by the bar to see if Bill was there (he was, along with Gina and her hubby), and then went to the room, packed as much as I could so wouldn’t have to worry about it in the morning, and came back down. It was actually getting a bit breezy and chilly this night, so we mostly hung out by the firepits, and I got a bit buzzed and very quiet and just didn’t want to interact much with anyone (the lack of sleep the prior night certainly didn’t help), so I didn’t stay out too late, tho I think I went up to the room around midnight. Bill either went up just before me, or just after. .can’t really recall..we had some friction because I just wanted to sit alone and enjoy my buzz, and he was concerned and kept asking me if everything was ok.. LOL..which just made me more crabby. Regardless, in the morning we were buddies again. . gotta love buzzed folks. . . LOL Next: the end: on the way back to Austin. The fog, moves in, on little cat feet OMG. .it's eating Millennium Force!!!! sob. . it's gone! and there goes Top Thrill Dragster.. going, going. . . gone we're actually in the park right now, and we just got off this. . . yes, they are running rides in the fog! the closest we got to Dinosaurs Alive! (for free at least) nope. . TTD is not open yet. but Witche's Wheel is testing! I'll just wait around here for a bit, to see if it opens. it's so overcast and murky, some rides have the lights on. . .it's like an apocalypse film here. . or a stetting for an end of the world movie. from over in Camp Snoopy by Dinosaurs Alive!. .still pretty foggy. Tilt-a-Whirl isn't open yet . . maybe I need some help? the Maverick Station pic i texted to TBpony (Liz). . . yeah. . . Maverick station from the re-ride then we walked back to Magnum.. . yep. .it is DEAD here this morning. after our ride, looking across at how many folks were waiting to ride. Not many. and not just because it's Magnum Taking the train, to go around to MF, which we saw was running at this point. yeah, that "Mean Streak photo express" sign is not long for this location. .it will be on the wall in "Melt" soon enough Yay Twisty! MORE Twisty! and they are even working in the misty morning dew Skeleton folks from the train. hmm. . can a skeleton take a dump without a bowel? What exactly was he doing in there?? yeah, this side of the train ride has great themeing! Firefighter skeletons! the fog is burning off. not the best ride in the park, but from the train, Rougarou is hella photographic! look. .we actually went into Pinks for lunch. Not super busy, but still took a while. the Wonder Woman vs Cheetah coin pusher machine that took lots of my money, but I had fun playing it! still no working Tilt-a-Whirl. . but I got to meet Franklin! I loved this place, and so glad we finally got to go in. Highly recommended to stop in, on your trip to CP! you can get your own "on ride" pic! ok.. not really.. but still. .. . some great artifacts from Cedar Point's past including a small model of Mean Streak! Happy Birthday, Gemini! classic "arcade" games close up Historical Carousel horses! what DOES Grandma say???? TELL ME!!!! really liked this map on the inside of the door in the Town Hall Museum Still shows Mean Streak and Shoot the Rapids too and the curator gave me this neat pin! back in the hotel room, for a brief break, and caught this wonderful cloudbank rolling away. absolutely nothing but beautiful blue sky out the other side of the hotel. Selfie! Selfie! Selfie! the line for TTD, when we got back in the park. It had been down all day, and had just come up (for about an hour at least). . but would break down before we got on it. oh well. . still got to ride it 3 times over the days we were there. MF was a walk on. . .but it was getting close to closing time. .the moon is up in the sky there already. Yellow Train! Valravn with the moon in the loop. oooo.. pretty. I don't wanna leave Stupid cloud, blocking the moon and messing up my picture! back at Breakers, mostly packed for the morning, drink in hand, and out at the firepits. with Gina, by the firepits. . .starting to get buzzed, but still sort of coherent (tho i'm looking a bit tired and puffy) oooo.. carousel horses on the firepits. pretty!

and it replaced my all time favorite SFoT ride, Air Race it was so awesome, and it looked so lame.. but when you got up to the top of the tower, the open air planes were scary as hell. I still mourn it's loss.

oh. and I wanna play the "compare to a coaster" game too. hmmm. . . . ok: My Husband is like Cedar Creek Mine Ride: old, but reliable, if a bit jerky as it ages. . and it provides a nice, long ride. . .

I'm not a huge BBQ fan either -- I KNOW. .and I"m a Texan!!! but I'd eat again at Famous Dave's. .I liked the sauces that much. Wish we had that chain here.

no worries. . not sure why it flipped when I loaded it. (it's correct on my desktop). working on Monday. . likely will have it up in the next 48 hours.

if you go today. . I wanna see pictures please!

aw man. . . Stephen Furst yet another cast member from Babylon 5 gone way too soon. . . he was a wonderful guy too: here we are in 2001 at Dragon*con. He also was known for playing Flounder from Animal House, and Dr. Elliott Axlerod from St. Elsewhere

I like GateKeeper a lot, but I'm glad my woman is definitely a Maverick, if we're comparing to coasters here! (Which is also a beautiful coaster to look at, but additionally is... well... you know...) breaks down a lot, and occasionally someone pukes on her??

the one from the kitchen had a person's name. . like "Willies" or something. but yeah, the Brews & BBQ could use a bit more selection on the BBQ side, and why the heck isn't Famous Dave's represented (or at least some of their sauces there?? it's right across the street). But lots of options for the "Brew" portion. . no complaints at ALL there

thanks LOL

Since we were talking about the Shuttle from Breakers. . here's the pamphlet from when we checked in, that shows the map of the hotel, and also the shuttle stops:

Woodstock Express is one of the best coasters at Dorney. great Jr. Coaster, with tons of airtime.

so glad you got a pic of this! I totally forgot you took it. (and that little side of sauce?. .that's the super hot one she brought out of the kitchen for me, that I stuck with and put on everything!).

too bad you didn't get to ride Ninja. .if it's anything like Anaconda (at King's Dominion) it's really not as bad as it's reputation. nice pics, and glad you had mostly good weather, and no lines!

that is just a gorgeous park. . tho some areas seemed to have quite a few elderly folks sitting in your pics. is that just the particular pics? or is the age range for Dollywood skewing older? (I would think with the coasters, they would be getting more of a mixed to younger crowd. . so I'm curious). LOVED that museum, thank you so much for the pics.. the big bOOb mannequins for displaying the costumes amused me greatly, but the one with Dolly's head (with the white rhinestones) was a bit creepy.. that would give me nightmares! Edit: this one but overall?. . yeah a park I really, really want to get to some day.

how is it misleading to be telling our honest opinion of it? I rode MaxAir once. I rode Skyhawk once. I rode Cedar Downs minimum 8 times. not hard to tell which one I liked best.

yep, sounds like we agree. there were some things at Brew & BBQ I thought were very good, but Famous Dave's was much better BBQ for my tastes. then again, the Brews & BBQ is mainly to focus on the "Brews" part.. so not to take *anything* away from it. . I enjoyed it for what it was.. just the BBQ was more to my liking the next day.

thanks, glad you're enjoying. As I've said in the past, I enjoy typing them up . . they really help me remember the trips, and I love getting the feelings back when talking about them. as to why not use the phone? Bill doesn't even have a cell phone, and I've only had an iPhone for a couple of years (after only carrying a flip phone prior due to my spouse making me have one in case of emergencies). I have zero "apps" that I use on my phone, and really only use it for calls, and for a camera. . tho someone did show me how to use the flashlight feature - Nick says not to use it because it quickly drains the battery. so yeah, tho i likely could figure it out, it wasn't worth the time to try and figure out HOW to set the alarm on the phone (and during night, I just activated it if I wanted to check the time). a hotel wake up call is a very basic thing, and I wanted to be able to trust them on it.

yeah, there are several shuttle stops between Breakers and the front gate. . somewhere i have the Breakers pamphlet info that lists the shuttle stop. They don't run regularly tho.. you have to call to get it to come (or ask at the front desk). . .maybe that's just prior to full summer season tho, as I'd imagine they'd start running them regularly as they get really crowded. you used to work at Famous Dave's? is that 'initials in the sauce on the plate' a signature move? or did we just get a fun waitress?

thanks! and agreed on the info stuff. . it was a bit frustrating. . but like i said, "1st world problems" right. oh. .and it SHOULD be: "multiple refills of Sex on the Beach" (hehe. i'm an English Minor. . . LOL)

sorry you weren't feeling well, if you aren't used to that kind of heat, yeah it could get to you. (and to be fair.. it most likely could have been the Waffle House, not the heat ). glad you're feeling better tho!

Wow. . what a great trip! and you always get the most awesome pictures. . . so jealous you got to do my favorite thing in Manhattan (MOMA). . too bad you didn't hit the Gugenheim. . I just cant go to Manhattan myself without a pic from the top looking down into the lobby. and the Bronx Zoo . . wow that brings back some great memories. Love that you got to go see two of my top 5 favorite shows (Miss Saigon & Avenue Q), and I would have gladly sat thru Kinky Boots again, as it's so much fun. really want to see Anastasia, but not sure when I'll get back to NY. . . .you should to a TPR trip just for shows! who needs Coney Island? sign me up to spend a week with y'all doing Broadway. I wonder if the puppets in Avenue Q don't bother you so much because the performers are on stage holding them in plain sight? that's something I remember first being "mainstreamed" with Lion King. . it makes the puppets so less freaky looks like a wonderful trip, and glad y'all had a great time. edit: my other shows in my top 5: Rent, Wicked, Into the Woods

heh.. might have to plan a trip for Derby Racers. . the dark rides look like good, cheesy fun tho. (yeah, I looked it up on the TPR Park Index to see what else they offer.. it's under "Playland Park")