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From working Millennium Force during the event in 2017, I didn't notice any difference in crowd levels than usual for that day. A weekend in mid/late May is usually a pretty good time to go if you're no overly concerned about everything being open and operated perfectly. I'd expect Steel Vengeance to be a little excessive, but everything else manageable in the regular queues and pretty laid back with Fast Lane on one of the days.

Random fun fact, that's Toro's theoretical capacity and max train count as well. And that's awesome you're the team leader of the ride! I'm actually looking into working at CP for Halloweekends. (Millennium would be my ride of choice.) I’ve heard that before actually! I’ve found it pretty interesting how Millennium operates three trains. The unload platform doesn’t actually increase capacity at all (contrary to popular belief), it just makes it easier to hit theoretical. So in a way it kind of makes sense El Toro and MF have the same theoretical with both having 36 seats. And I’d love to work with you, definitely keep me updated!

I've seen a few Millennium Force videos with myself in controls and checking seats. It's definitely a weird experience to see that from the other side.

Awesome! My family and I hope to see you work the crew May 19-20. Thank you! And you as well Bert. Millennium had the most riders in the park in 2017, but we’re hoping to up our numbers considerably this year (looking at Josh’s numbers from ‘15/‘16 ). Looking forward to this season!

There's a big difference between theoretical and actual, as we all know. In real life situations when both are running with a solid crew, Millennium will beat Dragster pretty easily. Millennium's theoretical is 1296, and it's actually attainable. Not easy at all, but 36 trains/hour is not uncommon to see with a good crew on the platform at Millennium Force. Oh, and on that note - I'm very excited to be back at Cedar Point in 2018 as the Team Leader of Millennium Force!

May is definitely the best time to give go for short lines. You’re running s slightly smaller risk of more downtime and crews still being trained, but overall I’d definitely recommend it. Working at MF last season I never saw more than 45 minutes outside of Saturday afternoons until June. Weekdays in May usually capped at 20-30.

Wow! That would really surprise me if this actually did end up being a massive dive coaster live Valravn. I thought for sure they wouldn't do that again.

Wow! I love the look of those trains! Very excited for this coaster and park!

It's less expensive to upgrade a daily ticket to a season pass in 2018 than it was in 1996. Pretty amazing.

I can second that all day

Even without downtime, Maverick still probably wouldn't be in the top 5. Sure it's very popular, but line length =/= ridership.

The lowercase "i" clearly stands for Intamin. (I mean if you're gonna get your hopes up, might as well get them all the way up) Oh trust me I wish

I have a hunch it will. Maybe not in the next couple of years, but I’m inclined to believe a B&M giga will come before too long.

I feel like it just completely depends on what people are looking for, so to throw out "Now it's the third best" seems pretty arbitrary. If people are more into atmosphere, short lines, and family rides, Kings Dominion is better than Cedar Point. It's all personal opinion.

My rides on El Toro in 2017 were noticebaly rougher than in 2015 and earlier. Not like Voyage rough or anything like that (even though I still like Voyage), but nowhere near what it was like when it was newer. Rougher on wheel seats and still smoother than the average wooden coaster, but definitely showing serious sign of either aging or less care than it used to get.

It's also really interesting to me that what seems like just a few years ago (before RMC really hit the ground-up coaster market), Intamin pre-fabs were considered the "best" quality, lowest maintenance wooden coasters available. There were threads titled something along the lines of "Why aren't there more Intamin pre-fabs?" and everyone seemed to pretty much agree it was due to upfront cost, *despite* the lower maintenance costs. And fast forward maybe five years or so, and we have El Toro running absolutely nothing it did in 2006 (it's still an incredible, reasonably smooth ride, but it used to feel like a new steel coaster) and the ride that inspired it most likely to be deconstructed after just 15 years. I'm really curious to see how the first RMC wood coasters age after 10, 12 years knowing what we do now about Intamin's model, seeing as they serve very similar purposes.

I got the same email from Dorney, which is what made me want to apply /tonight/ I've been mulling over the pros and cons of staying in my current job vs going and working another park for a while, finally sat down and wrote out a list and realized I'd be much happier working at a park than I am in my current 9-5, even though I'll be taking quite the pay cut. Money isn't everything maaaaaan Working at Cedar Point is one of my favorite things I've ever done. I'm in the application process for my second season and can't wait. I'd be happy to answer any questions if you have any! And yes, applications should open sometime in the next week in all likelihood. Will you be my reference, random internet stranger? I have 2 solid references, one from my current job, and one from my old team lead at Dorney But seriously, what else is there to do in Sandusky other than Cedar Point? I trust there's at /least/ one good dive bar. That's all I ask for really. Sure, there are a few places here and there. From my experience, given that the standard work week is six days, I'd usually spend my time off hanging out with friends (which you'll meet a ton of people, and probably half of them are enthusiasts), sleeping in, or on pre-planned or spontaneous trips. There honestly isn't a lot to do in Sandusky outside of the park, but I never really noticed. There's enough to go out to eat, go to the movies, etc. but I haven't really heard of anyone not having anything to do on off-days. It's more about the people than the location for me, and the people are why so many people return to the park year after year. It's seriously so much fun and you can make a decent chunk of money if you're accountable with where you spend it (and you can ask your Supervisor/Team Leader to give you longer shifts when possible). Blowing $20 after a 13 hour shift at Buffalo Wild Wings is probably the most common thing anyone does there lol.

I got the same email from Dorney, which is what made me want to apply /tonight/ I've been mulling over the pros and cons of staying in my current job vs going and working another park for a while, finally sat down and wrote out a list and realized I'd be much happier working at a park than I am in my current 9-5, even though I'll be taking quite the pay cut. Money isn't everything maaaaaan Working at Cedar Point is one of my favorite things I've ever done. I'm in the application process for my second season and can't wait. I'd be happy to answer any questions if you have any! And yes, applications should open sometime in the next week in all likelihood.

Awesome report so far! We have pretty much the same opinion of all the coasters and park in general - glad you also thought Mako was excellent. Looking forward to more!

Dulles is actually like 12 miles from my house so I can verify that the area is a disaster zone with no light at the end of the tunnel. Great report though, and I was also a fan of the random Millennium shot (and others shots ). Keep it up!

1. Skyrush ~big gap here~ [i-305] 2. Phantom's Revenge [Fury 325] 3. Magnum (trimless) [Millennium Force] 4. Mako 5. Nitro 6. Diamondback 7. Apollo's Chariot 8. Raging Bull 9. Superman (SFA) 10. Intimidator Pretty similar to what others have said before. Obviously a big fan of ultra-intense rides (and maybe a small bias towards Millennium Force given my signature), but I've been really fortunate to get on a lot of new amazing coasters in the last couple of years. And Fury 325 was really good, if not just a tad over-hyped.

Per the website: Since you mentioned Six Flags, for your convenience they've published their full, chain-wide weather policy (in extreme detail). The lyrics actually lend themselves perfectly into Six Flags "yolo send it" policy. +1 coasterbill

For many rides, such as Millennium Force and Top Thrill Dragster, this simply isn't possible due to the station configuration. For others, like Magnum and Valravn, having loose article bins on the platform slows down operations so much that it's detrimental to capacity. Especially at a park like Cedar Point where capacity is a selling point, the fewer bins, hiccups, and, especially, fewer opportunities for items to get lost or stolen (then blame the park or ride operators), the better. Even though it's convenient to have bins as a guest, from the perspective of someone who's operated a fast paced, popular ride, I'd be fully in favor of removing bins from every ride that has consistent lines at popular parks. It's not that big a deal to drop a bottle off with someone or in a storage unit, or just get the every 15 minute drink plan instead.

Keep in mind the weekday operating hours for both parks and how much you want night rides. Cedar Point closes at 8pm Monday-Thursday until the second week of June. That week, crowds are still very reasonable - there seems to be a tipping point sometime in mid/late June where weekday crowds at Cedar Point increase exponentially. That first week of 10pm closings is usually before that point though, and is a great time to visit if you want to ride Millennium Force, Maverick, or Steel Vengeance at night. https://www.cedarpoint.com/explore/cedar-point-calendar-and-hours

Not always. Knott's Berry Farm's operations are pretty abysmal; I'd even venture to say they're as bad as SFMM's, for example. Disney has stellar operations. I haven't visited Universal in forever, so I can't vouch for them. You make a good point. The X2 crew once offered to hold my drink cup when I was there by myself, so I wouldn't have to buy a fluffy, fluffy bunny filled with medicine and goo, so they could've made an exception for the last train of the night. Both parties were in the wrong here. The ride attendants should've offered to hold his bag, but he also shouldn't have thrown a tantrum over having to spend $1 on a fluffy, fluffy bunny filled with medicine and goo. As tempting as it is to say how easy it would've been to just make an exception for one time around, as a ride operator it's always best to just follow policy. There's inherent risk in holding on to anyone's items, and if you follow the park's listed policy you're never in the wrong. At Millennium Force this year a guest boarded the train holding a drink bottle in their hands, and while I disagree with the policy, I had to tell the guest we were unlocking their restraints so they could go and rent a 10cker, then come back up the exit and directly board the train with their party. They then started calling me all sorts of names despite me being incredibly apologetic, and asked me to just dispose of the cup (which was fine). When they exited the ride, they went straight to guest services to file a complaint against me. It's events like these that make it frustrating to follow policy, but even more frustrating when guests make a small thing into a huge deal. They held up the dispatch for almost two minutes.