Cedar Point (CP) Discussion Thread

[Physical]

We'd probably do 1 or 2 days at Cedar Point, then a day at Kings Island. Figure a day at CP to do the short/no wait rides, and use it as a gauge if we'd want fastlane for the 2nd day.

[boldikus]

This is where Bill and I finally disagree about something.

 

Sure you don't need fast lane. But after spending two days there Memorial Day 2015 (you've all seen my amazing report by now, yeah? ) I left feeling like we missed so much stuff. And we did - didn't do water park, skyride, flyers, the water rides in the dry park, Famous Daves, etc etc etc. And we had two whole days! 9am-10pm. Sure we had an amazing weekend, and re-rode the best stuff in the park, but being able to ride what we wanted usually without any wait made our trip relaxing, stress free, and I don't look back at that weekend feeling like we wasted any time waiting in line.

 

The way I see it - CP is basically the ultimate playground for enthusiasts. There's so many solid coasters and million things on top of that to see/do. If you can put a tiny little bit of money aside every week between now and your visit, you can be sure you'll get the most out of your weekend. I get that there's a way to strategically work any busy park and still get everything done without FL, but there is always a bit of stress involved in making sure you do things a certain way and that IMO sucks a little bit of the fun out of it. Not to mention that never goes completely as planned anyway. With FL+ you can go at your own pace and still get a ton of riding in.

 

I will never go to a park not named Great Adv, Moreys or Dorney without having some skip-the-line money set aside. And thats only because I have ridden everything at GreatAdv a million times and I can't imagine a universe where I'd need it at the other two.

[Physical]

I'll definitely set aside some money, but I'd prefer not to pick one up. We both have Gold passes for SF and CF so two trips isn't out of the question if the first one ends up being extremely busy.

[coasterbill]

This is where Bill and I finally disagree about something.

 

Hey, there's a lot we disagree on... like Windseekers, Center of the Universe Beer and If it's a good idea to take that 37th consecutive ride on I305.

 

I left feeling like we missed so much stuff. And we did - didn't do water park, skyride, flyers, the water rides in the dry park, Famous Daves

 

Missing the Sky Ride is unforgivable, but aside from that you didn't miss much...

 

Famous Daves

 

I like it, but the world won't end if you miss it

 

water park

 

Sh*t

 

water rides in the dry park

 

Such sh*t

 

flyers

 

Complete f*cking sh*t

 

Feel better?

[Physical]

flyers

 

Complete f*cking sh*t

 

Blasphemy! They can't be any worse than the Cedar Creek Flyers, and I still ride those every time I wander out to Dorney for an hour or two.

[coasterbill]

They're the same as the Cedar Creek Flyers, and the Cedar Creek Flyers are Complete f*cking sh*t. Guys, seriously... get it together.

[boldikus]

This is where Bill and I finally disagree about something.

 

Hey, there's a lot we disagree on... like Windseekers, Center of the Universe Beer and If it's a good idea to take that 37th consecutive ride on I305.

I'm happy we don't have to include Skyrush in this list anymore.

 

Feel better?

Actually,

[Physical]

So are Freedom Flyers at Hershey, but they run those on high speed for a longer cycle. I use CCF as a training platform so when we hike out to Knoebels a few times a year my flyer skills aren't dulled. (something something if you can snap CCF you can snap anything)

 

Either way, we're really looking forward to our trip out to Cedar Point. I appreciate the tips. Here's hoping New Mean Streak is operating by the time we make it out.

[JRice92]

it's a good idea to take that 37th consecutive ride on I305.

 

I think it's always a good Idea to take 37 consecutive rides on I305

 

On the FastLane conversation, I say if you want to hit the major rides once with one or two re-rides you're ok without fastlane. However you have to spend almost your whole day in line. If you want to relax, go at your own pace FastLane+ is a must. If I was only visiting once or twice a year I'd go for FastLane+

[Physical]

I figure with a park as large as Cedar Point, there's not many "dead days" where we shouldn't expect lines? We usually opt for smaller parks during odd weeks in early June when there's little to no crowds.

[coasterbill]

Weekdays in May and the week before Labor Day are dead at Cedar Point, but there are a few catches. Early in the season the park is a clusterf*ck with tons of downtime and occasionally a coaster that's not ready to open for the season yet. This happened the last 2 years. Never go to Cedar Point before Memorial Day weekend, seriously... just don't.

 

Also, they'll be short staffed so expect slow moving food lines, certain coasters not running at full capacity and non-racing Gemini rides. The park also closes early so don't expect night rides.

[WolfBobs]

Any day in May or June that the park closes at 8pm you can expect to be slow, especially weekdays due to school being in. These are the best times. I usually never see a wait over 30 mins.

[WolfBobs]

double post*

[Samuel]

I get that there's a way to strategically work any busy park and still get everything done without FL, but there is always a bit of stress involved in making sure you do things a certain way and that IMO sucks a little bit of the fun out of it. Not to mention that never goes completely as planned anyway. With FL+ you can go at your own pace and still get a ton of riding in.

 

I wholeheartedly agree. A lot of that "run here, then here, then there, and you should still have 10 minutes to get on that other thing if it's running three trains and is 67° outside" foolishly relies on maintaining a 12 year old's frenetic energy and having many uncontrollable factors bend to your plans. That's how you used to have to do it, & it may still be the case if you're short on time & visiting some faraway corner of the world, but I love how FL+ eliminates all of that stress.

 

I like to take a lap of the must-dos early in the day, relax through the afternoon, and then pick up the pace for evening/night rides. At a 10 p.m. closing, it used to be a big choice to decide what one or two coasters to experience at night. Last year with FL+, I got 3x each on Maverick and Millennium, and then took a quick lap on Raptor to top off the night in the last hour of operations. I'd never be able to do that without FL.

[storms555]

When me and my friend went this past Labor Day,the first two days we went on all the "biggest and best" rides. The third day we then went on all the other coasters/rides. I guess my style of ride picking is different then others. Like instead of going in order of how the park is set up I will want to go for the ride that catches my eye the most. Or at least what catches my eye the most in a particular area. Also it may be a lot of walking but heck i need the exercise anyways However we didnt have a change to go the waterpark though. Then again its not like its a waterpark that sticks out from the rest so im sure i didnt miss much. I can always go to the one at Great America if i wanted to. Also we didnt do the typical carnival flats(except Cedar Downs) and just the thrill flats (Power Tower,SkyHawk,Maxair) and did the Snake River Falls water ride.

[Donkeygoat]

The problem about fast pass for me is not that it isn't worth it when the lines are long, it's that usually when I go to theme parks the lines are pretty short and I don't wanna waste money. When I visit parks for several days it's usually not worth it since I'll have time for everything anyways, and if I visit for one day it's usually more expensive to buy in the park and I don't know beforehand if there's gonna be a lot of people or not. I'm pretty lucky so far when it comes to lines, since although I've seen lines over an hour and a half I've never actually stood in a line more than like 45 minutes.

[JonnyRCT3]

I only visit once or twice a year, and I always get the Admission & Fast Lane+ combo ticket. Worth every penny. I visited in mid-May, and the majority of rides were 15 minutes and below. Besides the obvious Valravn, Maverick, Millennium and Dragster which held 45 minutes+ waits. I was able to ride Maverick, Valravn, GateKeeper, Magnum & Raptor multiple times in a row, with only a 1 to 3 train wait each time! It was incredible, bypassing a full Maverick que 6 times in a row with only a 3-minute wait. Great investment no matter what the crowds.

Edited December 13, 2016 by JonnyRCT3

[ytterbiumanalyst]

Coastermania is cheaper than Fast Lane+. On one day I got to ride everything I wanted to. Now, granted, that was an 18-hour day, with 5 of those hours being ERT. But really, if there's a day to go, it's that one. It'll be June 2, 2017.

[MidwestThemeParks]

FastLane is definitely not necessary if you can go at the right time. We went for three days (Wednesday-Friday) in June. We thought about buying FL passes in advance, but didn't. That was definitely the right decision because Valravn was the only ride that we waited more than fifteen minutes to ride on Wednesday and Thursday. Friday was busier but we had already ridden everything at least once and didn't need to get many more rides in.

[Mossed]

I've yet to buy Fast Lane or Fast Lane Plus, but that is going to change once The New Mean Streak opens. A big group of us will head to the park, buy Fast Lane plus, ride TNMaS and Maverick 40 times, call it a day, and head to Knoebels for Phoenix.

[michaellynn4]

Famous Daves

 

If you really want Famous Dave's that bad, we can hit up the one on 70 in Cherry Hill. Hop over, I'll pick you up, and we'll plow through several racks of St Louis ribs!

 

I've only been fortunate enough to spend one day at the park back in 2013. If I didn't have Fastlane+ that day, it would've been a nightmare. That said, it all depends. If you're there for several days during a slower period, I can see going without, but it's best to save up funds now just in case. You can always use the funds for something else should you decide to not purchase them!

[coasterbill]

The food at Famous Dave's is really good, but it's not like it's the most amazing BBQ ever. I like it because it's a great place to sit (seriously if you sit inside, what are you doing?). If you sit outside you're in the shade, sitting right on the lake in the Marina with a great view of the marina, boats (shut up) and even Millennium Force. There's also a great little marina shop out there with some cool Cedar Point stuff, Lake Erie stuff and all of those limited edition Cedar Point beers from the last few years in bottles (Rougabrew, Valravn... that kind of stuff).

[boldikus]

Ive been to Famous Daves around here (we have one in S Philly a 10 minute drive from my office), but Bill never shuts up about it @ CP and it seems like a good place to avoid park food and admire the view from over there. As a fan of divey spots I'd also like to venture out to the Thirsty Pony. We had intentions of doing both last year during our visit but we were too tipsy most of the time to make it further than Chickies or the TGIF/Perkins/etc at Breakers.

[coasterbill]

I have to go against the grain here and say f**k the Thirsty Pony. After our last day at the park we headed out and stopped there around 11:30 and they told us they were closing. What kind of F**king bar closes at 11:30 on a god damn weekend when you're on the exit road of a major theme park that closed at 10:00 and had a passholder event until 11:30 and tons of cars still pulling up? The website says they close at 2 so what the hell?

[thrillrider]

What do you think of this idea? I love it as long as it does not make the lines any longer(and slower) than they already are.