thrillseeker4552

I LOVE the colors! I was thrilled when Twisted Colossus went with blue and green, and now I feel the same way with Twisted Cyclone. It sure does look like one of the weaker RMCs, but there is no doubt it will be a great ride. 2018 is STACKED with great coasters. Steel Vengeance, Twisted Timbers, Twisted Cyclone, HangTime, Railblazer, both Wonder Women, Time Traveler...WOW.

As much as I dislike the name, this is a FANTASTIC addition to the park. Two big thumbs up from me.

I'm highly skeptical of an RMC Roar for 2018, but of course I would love to be wrong. That would definitely be the "surprise" addition if it turned out true.

Interesting you've had bad luck with Air Race. It has operated perfectly based on my visits. I'll be back this weekend. Cliffhanger looks like a ton of fun (I love top spins), but I just don't wanna get wet so I avoid it. Samurai is awesome, but apparently it hasn't been operating all season. I'd love to see Lagoon get a star flyer. That would top off their flat collection, IMO.

What's even more laughable than somebody posting a half-a$$ed announcement is somebody else QUOTING it and telling them they are going to get banned! I lost my sh*t when that happened with the Cedar Fair announcements. I'm really excited to see what the chain adds next year. Other parks have already set the bar pretty high!

Thank you for the nice words, everyone. I really appreciate it! It was actually a lot of fun to write up these reports. I definitely think I'll start doing them more often, whenever my next "new" park is.

Even though my new home park is technically Lagoon, Knott's will always hold that special place in my heart since I grew up with it. I hardly ever rode Pony Express. I kinda just forget it even exists, because the line is always crazy long, and the ride is super short. I also never really rode Boomerang either, but now I never have to again!

I completely agree. Kingda Ka in the front row kicks serious a$$. I don't think I've ever ridden a coaster where the front row makes all the difference, but it does. My first time riding it in the front row, it about made one of my contacts fall out.

I would really like to see a family attraction come to the park, but if it indeed is a Free Spin, at least we know it won't be themed to the Joker! To be honest, I'm fine with Six Flags cloning those rides (they are a lot of fun), but I'd love to see them get more creative with the theme (but this is Six Flags we're talking about, so I should be realistic with my expectations). Being that SFDK doesn't have a Batman attraction, if they receive a Free Spin next year, I could definitely see them go with a Batman theme. We'll find out Thursday!

I for one enjoy Rapids Rides, but I do not enjoy being on them. I think they're as good for the general atmosphere as they are at pleasing some riders. I love to be around the water or hear it rushing. I also love the clean smell of chlorine it gives the area. Water is life. It's just nice to be around, as quirky as it may sound. Like much of what I enjoy about parks, these water rides are nice to look at and be around, despite having no desire to ride. I completely agree. I hardly ever ride Bigfoot Rapids at Knott's, but I love the atmosphere it gives that area of the park. Even if they weren't rides, I'd love if more parks had streams or rivers running through them. That's one of the reasons I love Frontier Town at Cedar Point. Even though it's not necessarily a stream, there is lots of water in that area with Maverick, Snake River Falls, and the Rapids.

Even after riding Fury 325, Intimidator 305, Maverick, and several other awesome coasters this summer, I still think Skyrush is my all-time favorite roller coaster. I love coasters that throw me around like a rag doll and make me grip for dear life, and Skyrush does all that plus more. It's such a masterpiece of a coaster. I don't (well, more like *can't*) keep a Top 10 list, but for the time being, Skyrush is going to sit at the top of that list for a while.

The Slinky Dog Coaster has me very intrigued. I love all those back-to-back airtime hills! Anyone know what type of train will be on this ride? I can't imagine it being the Mack mega/launch coaster trains, since Disney is so big on carrying loose articles with you, and those trains are very open and exposed. Can't wait to see all the theming!

Cannibal at Lagoon. Great ride!

If it makes you feel any better, I got 36/100. If this were "USA-only," I'm sure I would get quite a bit more.

Alright! I am back. I recently moved off to college, so I have been busy getting organized here in my dorm room for the past week, so I had to put this report on hold. But here I am ready to go. Here is the fourth and final part of my Cedar Fair trip: the one and only CEDAR POINT! Part IV - America's Rockin' Roller Coast I definitely have quite a few stories to tell about our visit to this park. Lots of crazy things happened (mostly with weather), so this will be the most "eventful" couple days when compared to the three previous parks on this trip. On Wednesday the 2nd, as you saw from the Kings Island report, we spent the morning at that park for Mystic Timbers ERT and some last ride, then we booked it and drove the 3.5 hours to Cedar Point and spent the rest of the afternoon and evening there. The next day, Thursday, was our full ERT-to-close day at the park, and we spent a few more hours at the park the morning after (Friday) before catching our flight home that evening. I have been to Cedar Point two times before: in 2014 and 2012. So GateKeeper was not new to me, however Rougarou and Valravn were. More on those two rides later. I really love this park a lot. They already have an unmatched coaster collection, and once Steel Vengeance gets added to the mix, no other park can come close to Cedar Point in terms of quality AND quantity. As expected, here are my brief reviews for every coaster in the park. Even though I had visited the park two times before, these reviews are based on my 2017 visit, just like with Kings Island. Blue Streak: This is a great little classic wooden coaster. Like most of these older three-bench woodies, as long as you ride in a front or middle row, it isn't too rough. It has some solid airtime and was quite enjoyable. It's unfortunate that this is the only woodie left in the park though. Cedar Creek Mine Ride: It's just another mine train. I would consider it one of the more violent ones I've ridden, but it's nice to see it popular with families after so many years. Corkscrew: If you read about my thoughts on Carolina Cyclone, Anaconda, and Vortex (KI), then you can likely predict my thoughts on this ride. It's a jerky old Arrow, but I was able to enjoy it more than others due to my body shape and height. GateKeeper: I only rode this once (in the back row), and I don't understand the complaints that this ride is "bouncy" or uncomfortable. I don't have an issue with the restraints, and the ride was perfectly smooth. In fact, it was probably *too* comfortable and smooth. I hardly ever get naucious from rides, but something as smooth, comfortable, and long as GateKeeper almost did it for me. The first drop is fantastic (especially in the back row!), but the rest of the ride just floats and twists around. It does what it does well, but it just doesn't carry that thrill factor that I prefer in rides. Gemini: I think this coaster(s) is one of the "hidden gems" of the park. It is very smooth, has some solid airtime in some places, and racing makes it all the more fun. I hope this ride stays around for a while, with all the rumors of Excalibur leaving. Iron Dragon: Or as I prefer to call it, Draggin' Iron, because that is exactly what it does. It's a nice family coaster, but in terms of Arrow suspended rides, it is in the bottom tier. Ninja is better, and Bat is even better. Magnum XL-200: LOVE THIS RIDE! During my visits in 2012 and 2014, I didn't understand why so many people like this ride. I found it rough and painful, and with Millennium in the same park, it was no comparison for me. However, for some reason, I love this thing to death now. I rode it a couple times in different seats, and every ride I had was great. I almost didn't ride this ride at all, but I am so glad I did. Maverick: This was my first time riding Maverick with the new vest restraints, and WOW do they make a difference. Those hard restraints were the one factor preventing this essentially-perfect coaster from becoming my favorite ride of all time. However, I have ridden lots of great coasters since 2014, so Maverick doesn't quite make it up to the top now, but those restraints are 1000x better. Cedar Point made a great move with those. Otherwise, there's nothing I can say about this coaster that hasn't already been said. It has almost everything, and it is probably the most well-rounded and "complete" coaster I've ridden. With Steel Vengeance next door, who would every want to leave Frontier Town? Millennium Force: One major reason I was so excited about this entire trip was that I would be riding all three American giga coasters within 10 days of each other, so I could have a fresh opinion on each one. Millennium Force, as expected, is my least favorite of the three gigas. It's still a fantastic ride, but it just isn't quite on the level that Fury 325 and I305 are. However, I do think this is the most re-rideable coaster of all time. I wouldn't be able to re-ride Fury or I305 all day, but I could sit in any seat on Millennium Force for 24 hours straight and never get tired of it. Oh, and the lift hill and drop is freakin' awesome. It's not my favorite giga in terms of layout and intensity, but is by far the most re-rideable and "throw your hands up and have fun" coaster I've ridden. Raptor: I had forgotten how good this coaster was. I think I still prefer Banshee and Afterburn, but I can't help but appreciate Raptor's length and variety of elements. Rougarou: I had ridden Mantis, both in 2012 and 2014, and all I can say is that Rougarou is a HUGE improvement. In terms of Floorless coasters, I think I would put it right behind Dominator and Bizarro, but compared to the pile of crap this ride used to be, Rougarou gets a thumbs up in my book. Top Thrill Dragster: Unpopular opinion coming through. I love this ride, but for some reason I can't explain, I still prefer Kingda Ka. Maybe I can notice the extra height, speed, and length, but every single time I ride TTD, I am always a bit underwhelmed at how short it is. Obviously I wasn't expecting a long ride, but it just doesn't feel as complete as its Six Flags counterpart. TTD has better restraints, a better theme, and a WAY better capacity, but Kingda Ka just feels more "intense" in my opinion. I probably sound like a complete idiot, but maybe someone else feels the same way? Here is how I look at it: if I had an open front row seat on TTD and an open front row seat on KK right in front of me, I would take Kingda Ka in a heart beat. TTD is a great ride, and is definitely in the top 5 of the park, but for some reason I can't explain, I just like Kingda Ka more. That's the best way for me to review this ride. Valravn: This ride actually surprised me quite a bit. My very first ride was in the back row, and even with pretty low expectations, I was a bit underwhelmed, but the front row is WAY better. The drops are good, and the inline twist dive around zero-g thingy is great, but like most people, the biggest drawback about this ride for me is the restraints. I like them on Banshee and GateKeeper, where the ride has moments of positive g-force or accentuated elements that may require them, but on a ride like Valravn where the drops are the key elements of the ride, stapling your entire body down doesn't exactly make those drops better. Wicked Twister: I think this is another "hidden gem" in the park. It's a very fun ride and is definitely a step up from the standard Impulse coasters. Woodstock Express: A Vekoma family coaster with a terrible color scheme. That's about it. Phew. Cedar Point sure does have a lot of coasters. Now on to the photos. Like I said, we spent Wednesday afternoon, all day Thursday, and Friday morning at the park. Here we are! Let's go! Crossing my fingers for good weather these next couple days. Thanks to Valravn, we can now get some new angles of Raptor! Valravn had quite a line, so we decided to wait and ride it tomorrow with Fast Lane. Our first ride of the day (evening) was Maverick, and we caught a glimpse of Steel Vengeance. We wanted to ride Dragster next, but it also had a line. We didn't ride much the first evening since we knew we were getting Fast Lane the next day. We decided to just leave since we were tired from Kings Island and driving, and we wanted to get some sleep before our big, eventful day tomorrow. That concluded out few short hours the afternoon/evening before our full day at the park. Here we go... And here we are, up bright and early for our big day at the park with Fast Lane. ERT time! We were going to do Valravn during ERT, but apparently a LOT of people have Platinum Passes, and they weren't taking Fast Lane until park opening, so we waited again. Instead we went to Millennium Force! I love the way this ride loads and unloads. It puts through tons of people with all three trains running. Peeking above the trees. Maverick was waiting for us! LOVE this ride so much. We then finally got around to riding Valravn. Good ride, but not AMAZING! We then had to give GateKeeper some attention. At this point in the day, the park just opened, so we were going ride to ride, so some of my pictures were a little rushed. We then took a ride on the Sky Ride, because we had to! I love Wicked Twister's placement! We then, finally, were able to ride Dragster! Just a small wait with Fast Lane. Lookin' good with its new paint job. I spy with my little eye... a massive kicka$$ RMC. SO GLAD I rode this. The Tower of Power. The only four-legged S&S tower. Rougarou was next! Artsy. An improvement over Mantis, but not the best Floorless. First half was good, but the second half had some ear-bashing. We then went over to go on the park's other '90s B&M, also rocking a fresh paint job. MaXair was next! It had a much longer cycle than Delirium at KI. The BEST Windseeker! The weather started to go a little downhill, so we headed back to Millie since I had only ridden it once by this point. Artsy 2.0. We then headed to Maverick. STORY TIME! OK. So we got in line for the front row of Maverick. They then ceased operations. We checked our weather radar, and it said there was a huge storm coming. So we thought "Oh great, we might as well leave." Turns out, they didn't cease operations because of weather, rather it was because of them transferring off a train. I thought "Oh wow, they're gonna run this thing in the rain." At that point, we saw lightning in the distance, thinking they would immediately close the ride. They didn't. We were next in line and boarded into the front row. We SAW lightning and heard thunder, yet they were still gonna send us through. We went through the ride, and when we reached the brakes, we could literally see the storm start to loom over us. I was 99% sure I was going to be struck by lightning. As it turns out, our "pair" of trains (since they send them out in pairs) were the only two trains to cycle. They then announced inclement weather and ceased operations... but we were still on the brake run, so unless they wanted to evacuate us, they had to send out all the trains in front of us in order to get us back in the station... in full on lightning and thunder. It was starting to rain and hail too. So we were sitting there on the brake run, with 4-5 trains in front of us, watching the dark clouds cover our heads, starting to get really sketchy. We then proceeded into the station and exited the ride, and as soon as we left the gift shop, it started POURING! I'm from California, so I'm not super familiar with the severity of storms Cedar Point gets, but to us, it was HUGE. I unfortunately don't have too many photos of it as its worst, rather I took a video, but I took some right before and after when it was at its worst. That 30 minutes of waiting, riding, and exiting Maverick in the lightning, thunder, and rain was probably the most memorable part of this entire trip. It was terrifyingly awesome. It really was scary. The weather got a little crazy after that. At this point, it was a little before 9:00, and with the park closing at 11:00 and weather not clearing up too much, we weren't sure if we were done for the day or not. We were wandering the park trying to find SOMETHING operating. We were running out of luck... CEDAR DOWNS WAS OPERATING! I was told this ride is really good, and honestly, if we hadn't had such a crappy storm roll through, I don't think I would have ever ridden it, but because it was the only thing open, I had little choice. And it was awesome! NO SEATBELTS?! We then heard TTD test a little bit as the weather started to clear, but it rolled back twice in a row. We figured we were outta luck at this point... But then Magnum opened up! And so did Valravn! We then headed out of the park since it was about to close at this point. I tried to get a good fireworks shot, but none of them turned out really well. That concluded our big, eventful day at the park. We were crossing ou fingers for better weather the next morning. And it was... for a little bit. We were back the next morning for a few rides before our flight this afternoon! We got our last rides on Valravn! And then it started to RAIN (and hail) AGAIN! We headed bank to the front to see if Raptor was running. It wasn't, so we headed out. I was a little bummed we had to leave the park and end the trip on a sad note, but it was still lots of fun, and we rode everything we wanted to. Lots of new memories! Thank you everyone for reading. I had lots of fun writing up these four reports, so let me know if you enjoyed them. Please post comments!

I know this is a three-year bump, but I hope everyone near this park, and Texas/Louisiana in general, stays safe during Hurricane Harvey. Apparently it is going to hit Galveston VERY hard, and I don't even know how I would react if Iron Shark ended up in the ocean. I'm sure the park has taken necessary precautions, but it was just a thought that crossed my mind.

Great video! This thing looks great! In my opinion, it seems better than the other Chinese GCI that opened this year. This one seems to keep its speed much better and have lots more airtime and twisties. Both look great though, and it's nice to see modern, but classic, wooden coasters continue to open with all the new RMC hotness coming out.

Aggie or Ute? Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk Aggie! I got a season pass and went to the park yesterday. I've been to the park before, but it was a while ago, and today was my first time on Cannibal. Just a few notes about this park. -I LOVE that basically none of the rides have redundant seatbelts. Even the PTC trains on Roller Coaster have JUST the lap bar. It makes dispatches go so much faster. Fire Dragon runs one train and still eats through people because it takes about 20 seconds to send a train (especially since the lap bars don't need to be lowered for the train to dispatch, so it will go through the ride with several open seats.). The only coaster in the entire park that has a redundant belt is the Bat (Vekoma SFC). -Everything felt really well-maintained. Fire Dragon was GLASS smooth (like seriously, SUPER smooth) and looked freshly painted too. Even the almost-100-year-old Roller Coaster was super comfortable and enjoyable (then again, I avoided any wheel seats). Every coaster they have is very enjoyable, except the Bat. Those Vekoma SFCs just aren't good. Seriously though. The Maurer Spinner, the Wild Mouse, the two Schwarzkopfs, the in-house coasters, Wicked...they are all great. I'm proud to call this park my new home park. -However, one complaint I have of the park is the ridiculous single rider policy. They have single rider lines and they operate them well; that isn't the issue. The issue is they don't let single riders ride in the front or back seats alone. I waited for front row on Fire Dragon only to be moved to the 2nd row because I was alone. I don't understand this policy at all, but I of course respected it, because the operators are just doing their job. -Also, Samurai was closed. Sorta bummed. Hopefully they get it open soon. I love Top Scans so much. Overall love this park. Can't wait to visit again before the season ends.

Excellent video! This definitely feels a little more "CCI" and less "GCI." It doesnt quite have all the little pops and twisties that they are known for. But it's a nice change of pace, and it looks like a great ride regardless. Can't wait to see the B&M Dive completed.

I see this as good news and bad news. Obviously, an awesome park like SFMM being open year-round is GREAT, and staffing may even be easier as others have mentioned. However, I hope their maintenance doesn't go downhill. The park BARELY keeps up on maintaining their plethora of rides during the off-season, so I hope they work like Disney or Knott's and establish a maintenance schedule and post it online rather than half-a$$ing everything and being hush-hush about ride closures. I really hope this works out for them, but like others, I'm skeptical about a few logistics.

I thought it was cool to experience, but I agree that it got way overhyped (isn't that what social media does these days?). I was in the 96% zone, and the best way for me to describe it was as if I was looking through a pair of sunglasses. It was darker and a little cooler, but nothing SPECTACULAR. Although I did hear that there was quite a difference between 99% and 100%, because the sun has THAT much power, but either way, it just became so overrated that people were setting their expectations ridiculously high. Assuming the same interval, I'll see it again when I'm 56, and maybe even again at 94. Good enough for me.

I am going to separate mine into B&M, Intamin, and Other, because I think they each do something different and deserve to be ranked separately. Intamin: 1. Skyrush -gap- 2. Superman the Ride 3. Superman: Ride of Steel B&M: 1. Nitro 2. Intimidator 3. Diamondback Other: 1. Magnum XL-200 2. Steel Force 3. Goliath (SFMM) 4. Desparado I think I may be missing some, but oh well. I left out rides like Cannibal and Xcelerator, and the gigas.

Roller Coaster at Lagoon. What a great classic woodie!

I think a star flyer would be an awesome addition to the park, especially positioned on top of the hill. Maybe 500 feet?

Lagoon tomorrow! I'll be there alone, if anybody in the area wants to meet up. I'll be wearing a Valravn hat! Can't wait to FINALLY get on Cannibal after waiting 2 years.