nicksvideo

So this is my first trip report. Hopefully my writing isn't boring. This is probably going to end up being spread over three posts and fairly long, so apologies if it sucks. I brought my camera, but sadly didn't take nearly as many pictures as I'd hoped. Cedar Point is just too damn enticing. But I'll include photos in pretty much every part of this TR. So, here we go... My friends Lars, Meaghan and I left from Orlando at around 8:30pm on Friday the 15th for an epic 17 hour drive. Driving at night was pretty much smooth sailing, with the exception of South Carolina being pretty much pitch black thanks to a lack of highway lighting. Aside from the darkness, the only other scary part of the drive were all the deer crossing signs which Lars, who was the driver for the entire trip, was afraid of. Meaghan and I didn't really understand why he was so terrified of deer until we were driving though West Virginia at around 7:30am. More on that after these photos: "Driving for the next 16 hours is going to suck" "I guess it's comfortable back here. At least I have cookies and a cooler" We really needed gas, so we had to stop at this spooky dark Shell station in Georgia. "Holy crap, Virginia is foggy!" Anyway, about those deer. We had just left a toll plaza and were accelerating back to speed when Lars spotted one hopping along in the median. "You motherf@#%^$." he threatened, hoping his fierce language would prevent it from attempting to cross the road. Nope. Slamming on our brakes as it pranced into the highway, we must have come within 30 feet of hitting it. The car in the lane next to us, however, wasn't so lucky. They had to have hit it doing at least 50mph. Deer and car pieces flew through the air. It was quite a horrific sight. With that terrifying ordeal over, we were on our way again, finally arriving in Sandusky at around 1:30pm on the 16th. After the extensive drive, we checked into Breakers Express for a quick nap before hitting the park for a few hours. Day 1 - Opening Day After waiting for about 10mins to process our Season Passes, we were in the park. Lars and Meaghan had never been to Cedar Point before, so our first ride was their choice. They chose Millennium Force, and after about a 45 minute wait, we jumped on car 8. It's been 5 years since I'd last been up to Cedar Point, and being stuck in the B&M swamp that is Florida, it was nice to finally get on an Intamin again. That first drop still amazes me, and the rest of the ride is fun and fast. Lars and Meaghan were both blown away by it, but the trip was only just beginning. Our next ride was Maverick. I was immensely anticipating this ride, and it surely didn't disappoint. We rode the back row the first time. The speed of launched lift caught me off guard, and that first drop was terrifying and exhilarating. The launch was also surprisingly intense. But by far my favorite parts of the ride are the 92 degree banked turn under the lift/drop, and the crazy almost a corkscrew element immediately following that. This instantly became Lars and Meaghan's favorite attraction, and stayed that way throughout the duration of the trip. It was now around 8pm, and we were faced with a decision. Top Thrill Dragster was running with limited capacity, only loading four riders per train, due to the weather. It was also rolling back just about on every launch. Sometimes a train took two or three tries to finally make it over. I've always wanted a rollback on Dragster, and this seemed like a guaranteed opportunity to get one. Besides, we still had 3 more days to play in the park, so we figured we'd go for it. The greeter had the wait set to two hours, but warned that it was probably going to be more of a wait than that, and that they could suspend operation at anytime, but we decided it was worth it. Almost three hours passed, and after watching rollback after rollback we were finally at the turnstiles about to enter the station. I believe only three trains made it over on their first launch during our wait. We were watching the green train making its third launch when it nearly stalled at the top, looking very much like it was not going to make it or get stuck altogether, but it made it over. Unfortunately, after that train, they made the announcement that the ride was being closed due to weather conditions. There were still a good 100 or so people in line, and Dragster staff kindly took down everyone's name and zip code and told us that we could come back any time this season and get a ride with a very limited wait. So kudos to Cedar Point for doing that. So that's pretty much it for Day 1. Day 2 and 3 will come in the next post in the very near future.

Some shots I took at today's media event: One of the first queue rooms. Awesome ray room. The overhead aquarium. Pup-up aquarium. Octopus and starfish habitat. Splash area panorama. Lots more here: http://ioacentral.com/resort_updates/may_05_2009/index.htm

Tonight's event was definitely a lot of fun. Riding in the dark was amazing. We also took some time to look around and explore the queue trying to find hidden mantas. In all we found six mantas, a shamu, and a dolphin, but apparently there are quite a few more things hiding in the rock work. 'Hidden' manta in the queue. And as for the splash getting you wet, today we barely got wet at all riding on the very right side of any row, as it seemed the splash wasn't on as 'big' as it was the day before. It was more on par with the first day of public operation's splash, but still a tad ahead of the zero car.

Yeah, like I said in my previous post, it seemed they were running the splash effect quite a bit faster today. It actually got us wet in the front row, whereas yesterday it wasn't fast enough to get us wet there. It also seemed to be a bit bigger today. I assume they're still testing it at various speeds and heights to see what looks best for riders and spectators. And jedimaster, my friends and I are totally in a few of your photos. I thought you looked familiar, and almost said something to you, but bringing up an internet message board to a complete stranger is always a bit awkward, so I decided against it. Also, here's another rather poorly thrown together video from today:

Here's a short video I shot today with a few different angles of the water splash: They were running it quite a bit faster than they were yesterday. Today it seemed to move faster than the train, whereas yesterday, it was a tad behind the zero car. We actually got wet in the front row today. Yesterday, in the front row, it wasn't close enough to us to get us wet.

My apologies. I didn't realized I'd uploaded the photoshopped version of that photo. I've replaced it with the non-photoshopped version. And even though the trains weren't running that close together, I must say, dispatch times were pretty impressive given this was the crew's first go at having an actual queue for the attraction. I think they did a great job keeping the line moving. Plus, the wait went by quite quickly as there was always something to look at in the queue, and the aquariums aren't even fully filled yet! No problem, I've uploaded widescreen wallpaper sized images of several of my photos here: http://nicksvideo.com/manta/wallpaper/ Note: Photos with an 'a' are photoshopped to include multiple trains. I've also included the originals for those who may not like the multiple trains.

Here are some shots from today: I thoroughly enjoyed this attraction. Definitely a welcome addition to SeaWorld!

The first video was posted on RealShamu's twitter with this message: "We taped a camera to an employee's head and made him ride Manta. Truly. http://bit.ly/ayFvC" Following him is quite a riot:

Jurassic Park Discovery Center, Islands of Adventure Jaws, Universal Studios Florida MC Hammer, Universal Studios Florida Manta, Sea World Orlando Manta, Sea World Orlando Kraken, Sea World Orlando

Manta sign looks sexy: A little bit of fun with Photoshop:

Here's another video of Manta testing I made this evening: Higher quality: http://www.nicksvideo.com/manta.html In all we caught 8 cycles between getting there at 5ish and leaving a little after 7. It's looking pretty fantastic!