prozach626

I would imagine that bringing more people near the park will bring more people into the park, even despite the circumstances. ALTHOUGH, supposedly KK is pretty dead during the derby, but KK is never really all that busy anyway.

^welcome back to the forums! Stay a while. The blue lights are really cool. I wish they'd regularly do more with lighting in reference to the ferris wheel. lol @ the golden arches. Kim, use coasterbill's seatbelt trick. Emily and I sat in the front car of a middle row. I ratcheted the seatbelt down as tight as I possibly could and the ride was actually really enjoyable. That was the first time I've ever had fun on it.

I understand with The Boss. It took me 18 years to like it. If the new turnaround beat you up a little, just be thankful you didn't experience the old helix.

Did you use my technique on The Boss? It helps with the laterals.

You actually don't have to pay for parking if you park along the roadway near the zoo. Glad you had a good time. Our zoo has a pretty good reputation.

^And you get good views of Magnum. I'm not to that extreme, but I understand where you're coming from. I could feel my heart pounding in the third period. Even when we were up 4-0 with less than ten minutes to go I was still nervous. I intentionally didn't take tonight off work, which I could have easily done, because I didn't want to go somewhere to watch the game and give it 100% of my focus. I still can't believe we won our first cup. I didn't think that was going to happen anytime soon. Seriously though, it really hasn't set in yet. I'm sure you could make wiser coaster design/purchasing decisions with your fifteen years of life experience.

Not sure what you're complaining about with the Blues fan crowds. I mean... there were only an estimated extra 40,000 people in our small downtown area... I'm looking forward to an outsider's perspective. With our park not being a large draw, it's rare to hear about an outsider's detailed perspective.

^I think tonight's game will be a coin toss. I don't think Boston expected this series to be close. No matter what, it's been great. This is our first trip to the Finals in 50 years and these are our first ever three Cup Finals wins. It's been one hell of a ride from dead last place in January. Who would have seen this coming? No one supporting the blue note has any right to be angry if this doesn't go our way tonight.

^ hahaha @ Blues/Blackhawks. It's one hell of a rivalry to watch. If Detroit wasn't knocking us out of the playoffs when I was younger, it was you guys. I'm glad you're having good weather. I sat on our balcony yesterday morning while everyone else got ready. It was a beautiful morning. All I could do was chuckle. The one cool thing about the weather on Monday was that it was so chilly and windy that it actually made it feel like Haunt season. It was bizarre for that kind of weather this time of June.

I tried not to make this too much about myself and attempted to lean more toward some general experiences, thoughts, and to offer some small considerations for first time visitors. We took the eight hour drive from St. Louis to Sandusky and went to CP on Sunday and Monday. I went with Emily, her sister, and her sister's husband, who happens to be my long time best friend. It was their first time at the park and within the past couple years we've dragged them to KI and SFGam. I'll share a few things in no particular order of importance. We stayed in a double queen lake view suite. We originally booked a standard double queen, but we got an email earlier in the week allowing us to upgrade to the suite for $60. It turned out being really well worth it. It was small, like the rest of Breakers' rooms, but without the extension of the suite it would have been tiny. The new'ish beach bar is nice and the grounds looked great. For us, we'd never have CP any other way than with Breakers. The rooms are nothing more than standard, but the location and convenience absolutely make the experience top notch. Get the suite if you get any kind of offer similar to this. It's better than sleeping in the usual closet room, which is still worth it. Sunday was decently crowded and the weather was mostly cloudy. We were at the gates right at 10am opening and we snagged our FL+ passes, which paid off. FL+ passes paid off. FL+ passes almost always pay off. FL+ passes are what you should get. Get FL+. Seriously, I won't visit without it. I made sure to hit MF, Dragster, SV, and Maverick first thing, just in case they went down for the rest of the trip. Despite all of the crying on here, by the time we got to SV at 11, it was already operating with three trains. FL+ was about 15 minutes. It ran great. I can appreciate it's relentlessness, but it's a bit too much for me. I'm a rare breed when I say that it's not one of my favorites. I was really surprised to find Gate Keeper running 1 train. We waited about 30 minutes for it. One and done this trip for that reason. I couldn't tell you how many trains it was running on day 2, but I saw it climbing the lift frequently. No, it doesn't blow your socks off, but I still enjoy the hell out of it. A bit of miscommunication left us in an hour long line for the Monster truck attraction. We thought the ladies wanted to ride and they thought we wanted to ride. Turns out, none of us cared. Take caution that the line wasn't even to the first switchback and we still had to wait a long time. The loading/unloading one 10 passenger truck at a time was brutal and it took forever. The ride itself was really tame, but kind of fun. There were seagulls laying and nesting inches from the track all over the place and they didn't even pay attention to the loud monster trucks, which was kind of funny. Emily was pretty proud of herself, because she was sitting up front next to the driver and she was bragging about him buckling her in and hitting on her through the course. lol. Had I known it was happening, I still wouldn't have cared... She did ask the driver about the gulls and he said they never get hit and that they know the course so well that if they're on the track they will casually walk out of the way before the trucks ever get close. I actually really enjoyed Magnum this time around. We sat in the middle of the train to get the most tame ride and I had everyone do CoasterBill's seat belt trick. It really worked for us and we all liked it. On the other hand, Gemini was looking pretty sad. There was no energy in the station and it was only running red train. I liked this ride a lot last season, but maybe it really has run it course. We did hit a rough transition on the helix and I experienced what felt like a painful punch to my shoulder. Sucked for me, but sucked way worse for Emily, since that transition whipped her round so much she accidentally smoked my shoulder with her left cheek. Ouch. Luckily she didn't get the black eye she thought she was going to get. We ended up heading to Melt for dinner. Anyone who complains about this place isn't eating at any other parks outside of Disney or Knoebels. Our sandwiches were all really good and the fries were perfect. One reason we went there was to watch the St. Louis Blues game. But, even our good food and cold beer couldn't keep us from being pissed off when we started losing game 6 bad enough to ditch it for a night ride on Millennium Force. I think MF rivals The Beast in my book as far as night rides go. I'll mention that we sat in our favorite seat, as we always do, which is the 2nd to last row. It doesn't get the longer line tat the very last row gets and it has less of a rattle being a lower seat. Usually by about 20 minutes until closing time they'll let you talk the shortcut from the exit ramp to the station for what is usually a walk-on ride. We took advantage of that once. The next morning we found out the fitness center was a joke at Breakers. The equipment was straight out of the 90's and we were only able to find one treadmill and one elliptical that worked. Tip: Go for a run outside like we did. The weather turned to crap and rain coats failed us. We took hundreds of needles to the face on Valravn in the rain. I have no idea how people enjoy fast coasters in the rain. Cedar Downs was dry and fun. The antique cars were not. Our plan of staying on the train once the steady rain came in only lasted for one lap, before the train closed for weather. I say again... the train closed for weather. It was freaking pouring and we had to make a run for it back to our room. The hot tub was a good way to stay dry during the rain... The other members of my party decided to start in on some beers, while I instead chose to put my head back and fall in and out of sleep, and I enjoyed the hell out of resting. There's nothing like boiling below the shoulders while feeling cool rain on your face, I guess? It was even more awesome to go in and out of consciousness while eavesdropping on two complete strangers. One was very liberal and one was very conservative whoa were clearly complete strangers. It was entertaining AF. I'd rather talk about my favorite color than discuss bullshit social/political issue during a get-away. The rain finally let up and we enjoyed the rest of our day. Pro tip: ALWAYS bring an extra pair of shoes and plenty of socks. I was the only one not bumming. I found out that I like Valravn more with each ride. This means I like coaster enthusiasts less with each ride. It's a win-win. On the same note, MF is still awesome. And if I haven't deterred enough people wearing cheesy roller coaster tee shirts, fanny packs, and glasses straps from talking to me, I'll come out and say that MF, Maverick, and Valravn are far more fun for me than SV. You can take all three of your dorky themed SV characters and drive them in your fanboy bus to Camp Snoopy where they belong, because I personally think that Maverick may be one of the funnest rides I've ever been on. Other random thoughts of insignificance: *I don't like Dragster as much in the front, because I don't like the feeling of my eyelids slapping my eyes and my cheeks touching my ears. *Happy hour at Chickies: 1 domestic beer and your choice between nachos or fries was $10. Win. Beer without apps: $8. Do the right thing. *Vaping. Everywhere. 2019, you're hilarious. And gross. *The world needs less tattoos. *Rougarou never has a line. Rougarous slaps you in the face. Rougarou is never as fun as I want it to be. Rougarou sounds sinister when it runs. *I always wondered how a bug would feel if it hit you in the eye on a coaster. (Surprisingly it didn't really hurt.) *Why does Raptor do almost nothing for me, but Gatekeeper keeps getting more and more fun?? *I always want Cedar Creek Mine Train to be pleasing. I always wish I hadn't wasted my time. *Skyhawk isn't 'as' fun after my last trip to BGW. *I could watch Maverick's high speed dive and water cannons for days. *Amusement park bar-tending at Beach Front Bar: Order two of the same drinks. The drinks come out as two different colors. Not a strong enough deterrent. *Seagull sh*t on every rooftop. No good solution to fix this problem. Release more flies? *I think we made it a few days before mufflehead season went into full swing. *done Cheers:

lmfao! It's so massive that it takes forever to reach top speed! Looks awesome.

^I thought the same thing last year. When they were running one train at the beginning of the season we had walk-on ERT. After a couple rides and our ride earlier in the day we were done for our two day visit. It's a great ride and I enjoyed my first couple rides, but it's just not my favorite flavor.

I’m crossing my fingers that most of the coasterstock crowd is gone by Sunday, but the race is also this weekend. I won’t be super stoked to wait in 30 min FL+ lines.

I'm glad you liked Fury. When you watch it from the entrance it doesn't seem real, with how fast it's going. I couldn't get over that.

Sun glasses straps are the gateway drug to fanny packs. I'd rather squint all day. I may just try out the all day lckker thing and see how it works out. There will be four of us. You can basically move your stuff around to all the individual lckker stations, right? I'm not sure how it works. Do you get a pin or card to scan? Is it a pain in the ass? I can't remember for sure, but doesn't Melt have televisions? I'm pretty sure the bar at Breakers did.

^Doesn't it rotate?

I think it's been mentioned 100 times, but how did they deal with sun glasses? I really don't want to put them in my cargo pockets, although they're getting close to the end of their life cycle. If we have to get a lckker, whatever. It will probably be less of a pain that way. Sunday weather is looking pretty good, except we're definitely going to have to find a TV for the past few hours to watch our St. Louis Blues have a chance at winning the Stanley Cup. Bad timing. Monday has 100% chance of rain. Worse timing. As ridiculous as it may sound to many, I just hope the lines are long enough to justify a FL+, unless they're walk-on.

Sometimes I can't tell if you're serious or not. Love them or hate them, large scale B&M coasters are established as problem free high capacity crowd pleasers. Kings Island signs off on the additions because they offer great return on investment. Case in point: Fury 325 and Leviathan. The parks are out to please the majority of guests and they care much much less about enthusiasts who stick their noses up at anything other than RMC or coasters that offer blackout forces. Face it, dude. You're a coaster snob. You hate on anything that doesn't meet your stamp of approval. It must be exhausting. I'm sure people love having conversations with you in queues...

Is the park usually pretty dead for a couple days after Coastermania? I know this weekend is the race and Coastermania. I don't know what to expect for our visit on Sunday and Monday. Counting on FL+ for both days, regardless.

It makes no sense to you, because you have no real information about Cedar Point's operations other than what you see from a guest's standpoint and what you think you know. Basically, you don't know shit, but you're assuming that one of the most successful parks in the industry doesn't know what they're doing. Who let all the Facebook users in?

How the Hell did we get to the point where a park builds a massive new roller coaster and before it's even broken in some people are already holding their hands out for another one within a few years??? Is it really already time to start kicking around ideas for what's coming next? Great first post. I can't wait for more.

Not for me. I'd rather have the ability to walk around the park, watch all of the rides run, grab a snack, etc. I can talk to my wife whether I'm standing in a queue surrounded by teenagers bumping into me with hormones and adolescent behavior going full bore, or I can talk to her while walking through the park. That, and I don't have to talk to other enthusiasts. Also, as I was thinking about it, one park that does frequently give station waits throughout the park is KK.

I've never had that experience on a summer day at SFGam or most other parks, including my home park SFStl. The only time I can really remember that happening was at SFFT when it was 100 degrees, over ten years ago.

Sounds exhausting, but if it's his thing then whatever.

Boss Batt Beast Ninja Mamba Raptor Patriot Magnum Valrvn Banshee I actually don't have a top ten list, but I wanted to see how many less characters I could make it than the post below.