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p. 2030 - Top Thrill 2 announced!

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Yesterday at CP, my friend and I met Mean Streak Henry and rode on the same train as him for his 11,692nd ride. He has one of those stopwatch clicker counters or whatever they're called.

Does he have a spine?

 

Seems so

 

cpblog0058.jpg

courtesy of cederpoint.com

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Looks like today CP is completely full. Full lot, parking in the grass down the causeway. Traffic was backed up in Sandusky (downtown). Insane. How you can even begin to have an enjoyable day there today is beyond me. I can't imagine leaving that park at close. Best to probably sleep in the car two hours before even trying.

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It' s now 3am, and we just got to our hotel that is only 3 miles from the park. The crowds were ridiculous today. I have not ever seen the park this buisy. It was not even enjoyable today. Got in a total of 4 rides and one haunted house.

 

Time for bed.

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I'm wondering how much brain damage he's suffered from that beast.

 

He's actually only ridden it 20 times.

LOL..yeah, I rode it once and it felt like a few thousand. Sure scrambled my brains! The thought of riding that coaster hundreds, let alone thousands of times is unfathomable to me.

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It was ridiculous how busy the park was. I was glad I bought a fast pass a week in advance, but even then it still had hour plus waits on Maverick.

Never again going on a Saturday Halloweekend

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It' s now 3am, and we just got to our hotel that is only 3 miles from the park. The crowds were ridiculous today. I have not ever seen the park this buisy. It was not even enjoyable today. Got in a total of 4 rides and one haunted house.

 

Time for bed.

 

 

Sorry, but had to repost my post from a few pages back.

 

I know some people can only go on a Saturday because of work, but if the weather is nice, every Saturday during Halloweekends (with nice weather) is going to be like this.

 

As PVA62 said, even with the Fast Lane you can expect to do more waiting that on any other standard day at CP. While I'm glad to see that the event is a huge success, as a theme park enthusiast I know better than to try to do the park on a Saturday anymore.

 

Way better to go on a Friday or Sunday if you can make it work.

 

 

Definitely, definitely buy the Fast Lane Plus if you want to ride all of the coasters without waiting in hellacious lines...this is a no-brainer for a Saturday!!!

 

We have gotten in the habit of just skipping the park altogether on Saturday's when we go now. During the past couple of years, we have either gone golfing or taken the ferry to Put-In Bay and just gone to the park on Friday night (and sometimes Sunday for a few hours if we feel up to it). Then again, we have been to the park a lot and are within four hours so it is no big deal for us to skip the park on it's most crowded days.

 

Every time we have stayed at Camper Village or the Breakers for Halloweekends, the parking lot has been completely full on Saturday, with this year being no exception.

 

Below is a photo I took from the Space Spiral back in '09 on one of the last times we ever paid to enter the park on a Saturday during Halloweekends. I think the Space Spiral was one of about five rides we rode the entire day because of the long lines.

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I personally like to use Mean Streak to waste time or just ride because Maverick has a huge line. Not to say that I don't want Iron Streak - I love the idea! Anyways, MS isn't that bad although some of the fast parts (notably sometimes the bottom of the first drop and drop off of the second elevated turn) are bumpy. It's more boring than bumpy. If they really don't want to go all-out on Iron Streak, they should topper track it, remove the trims, and speed up the MCBR.

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My impression is that Mean Streak is one of those rides that was great when it first opened, but gradually got worse as the years rolled on. Or was it bad on day 1?

 

It was untrimmed on day one. IDK about the MCBR.

 

By the way,

 

http://www.newsnet5.com/dpp/news/local_news/oh_erie/hundreds-of-people-were-stuck-in-the-cedar-point-parking-lot-saturday-night-after-halloweekends

Edited by GigaG
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^^You are correct, Chuck...

 

MS was a lot of fun when it first opened and has gotten worse over the years.

 

When it opened in '91, it seemed very fast and had that out of control pacing (especially around the sharper turns) before they added the trims to keep the ride from tearing itself apart. Certainly not an airtime machine, but it was just a fun coaster to ride during it's first few years.

 

I remember not being able to catch your breath until that final moment when that sudden brake at the end would hit and people would be making the "Oh my God, that was insane" comments. At that time, Magnum and Mean Streak were easily the biggest, most fun & outrageous coasters that the I had ever ridden.

 

Compared to other woodies, I can't say that this coaster ranks at the top as one of the roughest for me, but it just isn't much fun because of all of the trims which made it into a mostly boring, uneventful ride. It has been a couple of years since I last rode it on a Friday night during Halloweekends when the front seat was a walk-on. Actually, I thought it was kind of fun on that night, but perhaps I just caught it on a "good night".

 

To throw some semi-rough transitions into the overall slowness are the main reasons why this coaster has lost a lot of ridership and seems to rank low on the Mitch Hawker poll amongst the enthusiast crowd in past years. And judging by the short waits (save for Halloweekends and summer weekends), the GP doesn't seem to particularly care too much for it anymore either, which is a shame really because (like SoB) it is a very impressive, beautiful looking structure.

 

It really would be nice for them to do something to restore it to it's former glory because they really need some other thrills besides Maverick and Skyhawk to draw people to one of the nicer themed areas of the park.

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^^ Well they are parking in the middle of thousands of people packed onto a peninsula who are all leaving at once..you probably should have known that was going to happen. I did a Fright Fest Saturday night at one of the smallest parks in the country last night (Six Flags Discovery Kingdom in Vallejo, CA) and their parking lot was completely full. We were all the way in the back and left after the park closed and even with their parking lot being I dunno a 5th the size of CP's it took us 45 minutes to get out from when we got in the car. Also, $100 for a room in Sandusky? They probably could have done better than that, but I realize they were worried and probably trying to get the first room they saw.

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Regardless of whether or not the park is really at fault here, articles like this one, not to mention the hundreds of negative comments plastered to CP's Facebook page, show that the current parking situation can bad for business on days with extreme crowds.

 

I, too, have experienced gridlock in trying to exit CP's parking lot at closing time on especially crowded days; it stinks. And at midnight, when guests are tired and likely facing a long drive home, it's little wonder tensions flare so quickly.

 

While I understand some congestion in inherent to large crowds all trying to leave at once, I think the park needs to take a serious look at their parking / traffic management and devise a better solution for days like this. It's unfortunate, in my opinion, that yesterday's guests will likely remember this parking fiasco over any other positive aspect(s) of their visit. And I think the park should be concerned that it's made such a negative impression on guests.

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You have to wonder if the management of CP security and traffic control is really at fault here, or was it morons trying to force their way out of the park and not heeding traffic control? This article smelled of onion to me.

 

How many times have you seen gridlock on the interstate because of douchebags that try to cut in at the last minute despite the fact that one lane merge warning signs were posted two miles prior?

 

In looking at one woman's comment, I find it really hard to believe that they would have had only one exit lane open when leaving the causeway at the end of the night. Unless there was an accident or total communication breakdown with traffic control, they always have at least three lanes going out of the park at closing time.

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Regardless of whether or not the park is really at fault here, articles like this one, not to mention the hundreds of negative comments plastered to CP's Facebook page, show that the current parking situation can bad for business on days with extreme crowds.

 

I, too, have experienced gridlock in trying to exit CP's parking lot at closing time on especially crowded days; it stinks. And at midnight, when guests are tired and likely facing a long drive home, it's little wonder tensions flare so quickly.

 

While I understand some congestion in inherent to large crowds all trying to leave at once, I think the park needs to take a serious look at their parking / traffic management and devise a better solution for days like this. It's unfortunate, in my opinion, that yesterday's guests will likely remember this parking fiasco over any other positive aspect(s) of their visit. And I think the park should be concerned that it's made such a negative impression on guests.

I'd like to hear your ideas to ease parking congestion on extremely busy days. What else can they do?

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I think of method they could use is preventing the right side of the lot (facing the entrance parking gates from GK) from exiting to the center via cones and some traffic control people. Let the left side/preferred be the only ones allowed to exit to the center lane out. Give them the option to exit left in the back there (the back road) or right and maintain their own lane all the way out of the park. The right/main side (again, facing the gates from GK) would exit to the side only. Heavy staffing of every other lane or so would direct flow either to the front area to exit or the middle/rear region of the lot. Give that section of the lot the entire 2nd lane (passing lane) exiting that main roadway. The soak city lot and the employee/overflow lot to the far right would exit in the far right most lane. So they would have 3 lanes out into the causeway (minimize incoming traffic to just one lane into the park, and restricting access in to prioritize the exiting guests). Of course, once certain zones clear out, they could unblock the other exits to clear out the remainder of the lot.

 

This is one idea I had though when getting caught in the 4th of July traffic. There was nobody directing traffic except a few in the very back. It was basically every person for themselves, which is a bad thing. If you were in the front of the parking lot, you had to wait for allllll the other rows to exit before you. You did not move at all. I think with some organization preventing people from cutting into traffic, blocking traffic, etc... You would prevent such a bad blockage out of the park.

 

I know you cannot eliminate it, but they really need to bring staffing in with a plan for traffic flow. Not just at intersections, either. I know though, much easier said then done.

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One thing to keep in mind is all of the traffic lights in town. They can't all stay green to let traffic flow freely down 250 towards the turnpike. Every time a light turns red....traffic stops, thus causing the back-ups and delays. Once you re off of park property, they have no control over what happens to the flow. Like somewhere I read a bit ago, it is kinda like a concert or sporting event. If you ain't in a hurry, hang out and wait a while....or stay on site and you don't have to deal with it.

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I think one of the issues is that as CP has grown the causway hasn't been upgraded to support the kind of traffic the park gets on some days. Unfortunately it would be a very expensive fix to try to widen the road. The only logical thing that could be done is to take the incoming lanes leading to the peninsula to one lane at closing time thus making the road a three lane outbound all the way to Route 6.

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I think one of the issues is that as CP has grown the causway hasn't been upgraded to support the kind of traffic the park gets on some days. Unfortunately it would be a very expensive fix to try to widen the road. The only logical thing that could be done is to take the incoming lanes leading to the peninsula to one lane at closing time thus making the road a three lane outbound all the way to Route 6.

 

If I remember from past employment, they already do this. Plus I don't think alot of people know about the "back" way in and out.....

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^You are right...they already do open three lanes at closing and no, a lot of people don't know about the back way to get in and out of CP. The speed limit is a little slower going that way, but if you are going into the park during the morning/daylight hours, the houses on that stretch are AMAZING!

 

On another note, I found a video with a POV of Mean Streak from 1995. I actually have (or used to have) that same coaster video on VHS.

 

Although the quality isn't today's hi-def, it does give some idea of the speed of the coaster as compared to now. There is no trim on the first drop and although there is a mid-course brake run, you can tell it doesn't lose too much speed during the final moments of the ride.

 

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