Cedar Point (CP) Discussion Thread

[Philrad71]

^ Unfortunately only got to ride SV, MF and Valravn this visit, but we will be back!!!

 

 

 

I mentioned earlier a cool CP story that I was going to share, so here goes...this will be a bit lengthy, so you might want to grab a beer (or a non-adult beverage if you are underage) for this one!

 

 

 

Okay - So Michael and I had planned a trip to Lincoln's tomb, Branson & SDC and planned on stopping at CP on the way home so that I would be able to ride Steel Vengeance. The trip length was set for 10 days.

 

For those that may not know, Michael was diagnosed with bile duct cancer in July of 2016 and after a grueling six months in the hospital where he almost bled out three different times, I can say that today he is cancer free (YAY!) - although still not at what one might consider 100% recovered.

 

Since we went to Florida in December, we had been wanting to do a trip featuring stuff that he would like to see (Lincoln, Branson/shows) as well as hit a couple of theme parks for good measure. Even though Michael can't ride coasters like he used to, he loves people watching and has no problem doing that while I ride coasters and rides. This has proven to be good therapy for us both.

 

 

 

We booked tickets to SDC and CP in advance which we both knew might be a crap shoot as weather in May can be unpredictable in any area of the country. For reassurance however, I booked ECV's for Michael for both days at SDC and for Saturday at CP. I just didn't want to take a chance that the ECV's and FL+'s would sell out before we got to the park (neither of us are early risers and the early entry isn't really our cup of tea).

 

We also managed to hit up SfStL at the last minute because the weather was warm and Michael was feeling great. I also got a nice workout pushing him around the park in his wheelchair!

 

 

Branson weather couldn't have been better with sun, low humidity and temps in the mid-80's. Sandusky in turn was cold, cold cold...with rain and temps in the upper 40's.

 

 

When we arrived at CP/Hotel Breakers on Friday afternoon, I looked at the forecast and it didn't look good at all. Cold with rain showers and high winds forecast for Saturday. While it was cold when we arrived at CP, it wasn't raining, so I asked Michael if he minded if I bought a Twilight pass to see if I could get on SV versus trying to riding it Saturday, when despite the weather, it was likely to be busier than a weeknight.

 

He said to go for it and he would be in the hotel room with the thermostat cranked to 77, in bed reading his Kindle. Since his surgery, he has gone from someone that never liked the heat, to always being cold (losing 85 lbs will do that to you).

 

As mentioned in an earlier post, I was able to get on SV with just under a two hour wait. In terms of ranking this coaster, I would like to ride it a couple more times in various seats to get a better feel, because for that first ride, it just felt like a blur - plus I wasn't wearing my glasses because I didn't have a strap (I would buy one in the gift shop later that night). But that one ride...oh man...SO UNBELIEVABLY AWESOME!!!

 

After getting exhilarating, face-numbing rides on MF and Valravn, I packed it in at 9:00 and crossed my fingers that somehow, someway, that there might be warmer weather on Saturday.

 

 

 

Michael ended up having some abdominal issues on Friday night (fairly common after a Whipple Procedure), but when Saturday morning arrived, he said that he was feeling better. We walked down to Perkins for breakfast and assessed the weather by looking at what were 2-3 foot waves on Lake Erie - not good.

 

We stepped outside after breakfast and the wind gust almost knocked Michael to the ground - also not good. I asked him what he thought about going into the park, and while I was sure that I already knew the answer, he said he didn't think it was going to work. Even though we had an ECV rented and I had FL+ reserved, after much deliberation, we decided that it would be better to just take one in the gut, sacrifice everything that we had reserved and head for home so that he could rest...he was just cooked after Day 9 and the ailments of the night before.

 

So before we left the Breakers, I decided that it would be the right thing to do to call and cancel the ECV rental so that if someone else needed it, our rental would be available. I also wanted to see for the heck of it if we could get the FL+ pass reimbursed (knowing about the SV incident).

 

When I spoke with the woman at the wheelchair rental, she was very friendly and helpful and was sorry to hear that we weren't going to be able to come into the park today. She put me on hold for a bit and then came back and said that they could refund the ECV cost! She then transferred me to Guest Relations and after speaking with someone there and explaining the situation, they said that if I came to Guest Relations that they would refund the cost of the FL+ as well!!

 

I didn't use the excuse of not being able to use FL+ for SV - I was honest and told them that we had been on a 9 day excursion and that my partner was just exhausted & cold and just wanted to go home. They were completely awesome and said "Not a problem, we understand and will issue a full credit to your account". WOW!

 

 

 

After that call, we went to the hotel lobby and told them that we were checking out. Obviously they referenced the early check-out and asked if everything was okay - we explained that our stay at the hotel was great, but after our vacation, Michael was cold, not feeling particularly well and just wanted to go home. I mentioned that I understood the cancellation agreement and that it wasn't a problem that we were losing the cost of our Saturday night stay.

 

To our surprise, the employee (I think his name was Brandon) said, "Let's see what we can do to recoup some of your loss, guys". He went back and spoke to his manager and came back to say, "We are going to credit the cost of your room for tonight and your tickets back to your card & this will be filed as an extenuating circumstance - we understand that these types of things happen."

 

Say what???

 

Needless to say, we were both blown away. We NEVER expected, asked or or pleaded for any type of refund for anything that we had booked, other than the FL+ that we had pre-purchased. We fully understood the policies and despite the fact that we well understood that we would lose close to $400 by heading for home, the fine folks at CP made sure that that didn't happen.

 

I literally had watery eyes as I shook his hand, thanked him and walked out of the hotel. This was such a heart-felt, thoughtful gesture where they could have easily just taken our room cards and said, "Thanks for choosing Cedar Point, we're sorry that you can't stay with us tonight." They didn't - they showed actual empathy for us versus following the "rule book" - it was unbelievable.

 

Cedar Point has been a mainstay in my heart since I was a kid. I have always known their superior customer service to be on par with Disney...but I was not expecting treatment like this at all!

 

 

 

Tony Clark - if you are reading this, I can't say enough good things about the park & the employees. The ride-ops and greeters always kill it with their hustle and great attitude, but the folks at Guest Relations and at the Breakers deserve HUGE kudos for what they did for us. This will certainly not be forgotten!

 

From the bottom of our hearts....thank you so much, Cedar Point! We WILL be back again and have vowed that the reimbursed funds will be used for a future visit, when Michael is stronger, the weather is warmer, and we can put that FL+ to good use!

 

THANKS AGAIN!!!!!

 

 

 

Lesson learned for us - from here on out, we talked and agreed that we are now going to limit our vacations to 7 days or less so that Michael doesn't get too burned out. We both feel that 3-4 day weekend excursions would be best for us moving forward.

 

Our plan will be for me to take a day or two off from work and go back to CP during the week for two nights/days when we know the weather will be warmer.

 

We are already looking forward to it!

Edited May 13, 2018 by Philrad71

[Cj1990]

Going tomorrow. Weather in the morning and evening calling for thunder storms. Hoping that keeps people away. Thinking we will have a pretty decent day tomorrow! I’ll post some photos throughout the day for you guys and keep you all updated on crowds and operations.

[SteVeUrkle]

I give up. Between the three HD webcams and that site I don’t know what more you need.

 

I understand your frustration coasterbill but with all honesty, I had NEVER seen that queue time website till you posted it, so if I didn't follow the thread and didn't go back 15-20 pages like I am to do, I'd have no clue it even existed, and I'd be asking the same (well, at this point because I know about it) dumb questions, I suppose. And I've been following coasters for over 20 years now.

 

That link should just be a sticky at the top of the thread, because people are ALWAYS asking about wait times, park capacity, ride closures. But the truth of the matter is, it's all a crap-shoot. For us trying to guess, and even the park trying to guess, depending on what happens with the ride or the unpredictability of unforseen circumstances, literally nobody knows.

 

With a park like Disney that has essentially unlimited resources on fairly mundayne rides, sure, you'll have consistency and predictability. But when it comes to Six Flags or Cedar Fair, you're roaming into pushing the limit territory, and with that come unforseen events that effect reliability.

 

It's what happens when you have rides going 200, 300, 400+ feet in the air and are going over 100 miles per hour.

 

FOLLOW LOOK AND UPDATE THE WEBSITE FOLKS!

 

The web cames are good at telling you that a ride is operating or at least testing. The problem with the web cam is that it really doesn't give you any idea about the queues for most of the big rides. You have no idea about SV, Maverick, TTD, or Gatekepper. You can see Valravn and MF's queues I believe. The other 4 you don't. If you really want to cover more then replace camera 2 with something back by Maverick and SV. A shot of the midway really isn't showing much.

 

Live Cedar Point queue times: https://queue-times.com/parks/50/queue_times

 

Click it. Learn it. Love it.

 

By the way there's no reason anyone who's on TPR,who's looking for information and asking questions about Cedar Point, and is visiting the park, there's no reason they shouldn't be contributing info to this site. You're waiting in line and you're on your phone anyway, it takes what...1 minute? Let's help make this site better by giving it up-to-date info. I for one really appreciate that this kind of thing is around when really, there seems to be nothing else! Webcams are nice but, really, the people at the park telling us what's going on is pretty awesome.

[hendrixmarshalljames]

I get all of the hubbub about wait times, etc. But, when it's time to ride I personally have zero time for phones, apps, and glasses; I even ditch my wallet so I can walk faster.

 

2 more weeks and I'll be Screaming for Steel Vengeance...

[AndrewA86]

Yeah it’s been a classic Mother’s Day at CP. 8 rides and counting on SV.

 

For whatever reason no Rougarou at all, MF only running 1 train since 4ish, and Wicked Twister only running 1 train as well........

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Nrthwnd]

....and Wicked Twister only running 1 train as well........

 

Good one.

[Canobie Coaster]

As mentioned in an earlier post, I was able to get on SV with just under a two hour wait. In terms of ranking this coaster, I would like to ride it a couple more times in various seats to get a better feel, because for that first ride, it just felt like a blur - plus I wasn't wearing my glasses because I didn't have a strap (I would buy one in the gift shop later that night). But that one ride...oh man...SO UNBELIEVABLY AWESOME!!!

 

 

 

Tony Clark - if you are reading this, I can't say enough good things about the park & the employees. The ride-ops and greeters always kill it with their hustle and great attitude, but the folks at Guest Relations and at the Breakers deserve HUGE kudos for what they did for us. This will certainly not be forgotten!

 

Glad you made it on Steel Vengeance and loved it!

 

Wow that's incredible guest service by Cedar Point.

[Philrad71]

^ It really was amazing customer service. I am still in disbelief.

 

We had an opposite incident when Michael's diagnosis came in after we had booked four nights at the Crown Plaza in Portland, Oregon to attend a good friends wedding celebration.

 

I called them two weeks before our reservation to cancel and explained the situation and they still wouldn't refund the money because I had unknowingly booked a non-refundable room.

 

That one hurt, but another life lesson learned to always read the fine print!

 

In this instance, we expected to lose it all, but CP just completely blew our minds and went above and beyond!

[bert425]

Phil -

 

Yay for Michael being full remission/cancer free!

Yay for CP allowing you to cancel the cart, and for refunding the FL+ cost

Yay to the incredible staff at Breakers (they were fantastic to me too when Bill and I were there, but they just drew me a map to CVS to buy snacks in Sandusky. . not as great as the service y'all got ).. they are great folks that work at CP.

 

boo to having to leave, but yay for you loving your hubby enough to understand, and doing the right thing and going with him.

 

and YAY that you got a ride on SV, and that he was feeling better on Sat, even if y'all decided it was time to go home.

 

hugs to you both!

 

bert

[teacherkim]

So I will give a quick summary in addition to the updates I posted while at the park.

 

The Good:

* Park had light attendance due to it being so early in the season and not great weather. Lines not bad and walk ons with FL

* Service was very good. Ride ops were moving fast and staff in the hotel were bending over backwards. Waitress at Friday's gave us free chips and salsa in honor of being her first table of the season. It was a little thing but nice after a long car ride.

*Due to our extra early entry and then some clear out when the rain hit we got on SV a couple of times (My son got 4 rides in)

 

The Bad:

*There was some staggering of ride open times. You could tell they are not fully staffed yet and just couldn't operate all the rides at once. But, hey it is very early in the season and with lighter than normal crowds; that is a pretty livable "bad"

*Getting SV ert replace with MF ert due to the one train operations. Again, not the end of the world

 

The Ugly:

*The weather. Now I'm not blaming CP for this of course but holy crap it was cold this weekend. I literally felt like I had frostbite on my hands and face a few times. Rode Valravn in the rain and got face pelted by cold stinging raindrops. I'm guessing the windchill on the coasters was below freezing. We stopped for gas in Dayton, it was 84 and we had been using the air in the car. By the time we turned off of I-75 it was 50, drizzling, and we had the heat on. Same thing in reverse coming home today. This morning when we pulled out at 6:45 am it was 47 and pouring rain. Yikes. Out of 222 people at the ACE event only 20 made it to MF for the ert at 10 pm according to my son. Where were mom and dad...in the room with the heat cranked up. Happy birthday kid, I did it for you!

*Better luck to those of you going in the next few weeks.

 

Best of all:

 

*We beat the Mayflies this time around. Two years ago when were there at the end of June, EVERYTHING, was covered in Mayflies. Couldn't walk to the car without crunching multitudes as you walked. Brushing dead Mayflies out of your hair is. totally. disgusting. Won't even talk about what happens when you dare open your mouth on a coaster. Gross.

 

Anyway, I'm way too lazy to post pictures, sorry. But, happy to answer any questions on anything I might have forgotten about! Happy riding everyone!

[WolfBobs]

Don't usually bother with trip reports but I'll give a brief rundown for today.

 

Made it to the park around 10am to avoid the storms, made the right choice in going today spur of the moment. Lines were non-existent at most rides and other than SV most were maxing out around 10 mins tops. MF was even allowing you to re-enter the line at the gate located on the exit platform as the line was a 1 train wait for most of the day while I was there.

 

SV was approximately a 1 hour and 15 minute wait when we entered the line. I felt it moved fairly quickly even with one train. When we got off the line was even shorter and I would estimate it was about 30-45 minute wait. Light crowds today so no TTR tickets. Seems to be reserved for heavier crowd days when lines get over 2 hours.

 

(this may have been discussed in some detail already) But, the interesting thing I noticed was the work going on at the old AWE stadium site. About 20 stakes are in the ground and quite a few trenches dug with electrical conduit being laid in them. The trenches spread out in a fork pattern and looked like they were leading out to where concrete pads for flats could be located. The stakes on the other hand looked unrelated to the trenches and conduit and felt like they could be for future footers. At this point it could be for anything and the enthusiast in me wants a Wild Mouse or a Family Invert. Will be fun to keep an eye on this area this season and see how it progresses! Sorry for no pics, the best view is from the top of WindSeeker.

[DarienPoint]

^ A family invert like Freedom Flyer or Kvasten would be awesome, they could promote it as a Planet Snoopy expansion then.

[Nrthwnd]

^

 

Grandfathers could ride this, too.

[Philrad71]

Phil -

 

Yay for Michael being full remission/cancer free!

Yay for CP allowing you to cancel the cart, and for refunding the FL+ cost

Yay to the incredible staff at Breakers (they were fantastic to me too when Bill and I were there, but they just drew me a map to CVS to buy snacks in Sandusky. . not as great as the service y'all got ).. they are great folks that work at CP.

 

boo to having to leave, but yay for you loving your hubby enough to understand, and doing the right thing and going with him.

 

and YAY that you got a ride on SV, and that he was feeling better on Sat, even if y'all decided it was time to go home.

 

hugs to you both!

 

bert

 

Thanks Bert!

 

It certainly was a great experience despite the disappointment of having to leave the park. Versus feeling like whipped puppies, we left for home feeling very grateful for what CP did as well as feeling like this was one of our greatest vacations ever!

 

Michel has spent most of the day chilling out on the couch and I admit that I was pretty exhausted from the trip as well.

 

Glad to hear that other visitors were able to have a great time with low crowds despite the raw weather...teacherkim, you are a trooper. Thanks for the update!

[coasterlvr]

i saw a couple pics of the on ride photo that was this weekend. looks like they fixed the angle so it's not so much a side shot. you now get full view of both riders in the row.

[ProudCarlLummer]

Has Chick-fil-A opened yet? This is lowkey more exciting than Steel Vengeance for me

[Arthur_Seaton]

Great to hear that story, Phil! And I'm glad to hear people have been able to get at least a ride or two on SV. It seems like this has been an especially stressful few weeks for the park.

[Robdrop]

How will crowds be, based off of previous years, for next Friday, May 25th? It's the holiday weekend and was curious if I should invest in a Fastlane.

[JG-77]

It's the holiday weekend

I think you answered your own question.

 

As a serious answer, I think it will most likely be very crowded. Now whether or not to invest in Fastlane is something I can't tell you, but based on my experiences with memorial day weekend crowds, I'd assume Cedar Point will be packed.

 

Also 100th post!

Edited May 14, 2018 by JG-77

[AmyUD06]

How will crowds be, based off of previous years, for next Friday, May 25th? It's the holiday weekend and was curious if I should invest in a Fastlane.

 

As everyone else, including me, has said in this thread numerous times - do not buy Fast Lane in advance. There is no advantage to it. When you get to the park, judge crowds/weather, and buy it if needed. They will not sell out.

[prozach626]

^When SV gets FL+ back it will have it's benefits likely every day of this operating year. I agree buying ahead of time on most days is a bad idea, but using the term worthless isn't 100% accurate. I like how Kim said if anyone had FL+ on the day she went all rides were pretty much walk-on. That's still pretty cool for 100 bones, for some of us at least. I'd take that over a more costly VIP tour any day.

 

 

I mentioned earlier a cool CP story that I was going to share, so here goes...this will be a bit lengthy, so you might want to grab a beer (or a non-adult beverage if you are underage) for this one!

 

I hope my coffee was acceptable for the story.

 

It sounds like you still enjoyed your trip. Despite the hardships you guys faced, I'm glad there was a silver lining. I'm sorry to hear about Michael. A long trip like yours seems like it would be taxing for anyone, so it sounds like you guys really champed it out despite the obstacles.

 

I don't really talk about it much, but I have a couple health issues that provide me with often significant inconveniences throughout my daily life which are even more inconvenient during activities like park visits. I couldn't imagine being in his spot. I hope for a full recovery and I'll say a prayer.

 

I get all of the hubbub about wait times, etc. But, when it's time to ride I personally have zero time for phones, apps, and glasses; I even ditch my wallet so I can walk faster.

 

Wow.

[jonskinny12]

I've seen a few posts over the last couple weeks about Maxair being "obviously" closed. What did I miss? Did something happen with it during the offseason?

[FeelTheFORCE]

Maxair was swinging a bit yesterday, but not rotating.

[DoinItForTheFame]

Maxair was swinging a bit yesterday, but not rotating.

 

It was just a windy day at the park.

[CP Maverick]

I get all of the hubbub about wait times, etc. But, when it's time to ride I personally have zero time for phones, apps, and glasses; I even ditch my wallet so I can walk faster.

 

Wow.

I was hoping that guy was being sarcastic. So you can walk faster? Really?