Cedar Point (CP) Discussion Thread

[DILinator]

Today they were running 1 train on Magnum.

 

I've seen this on a couple trips before, it's not uncommon. It even happened on my last trip back in late May 2018.

 

Same here. I've seen it a bunch. But maybe that's because I typically only go when I know crowds are going to be light, so they are more likely to have on 1 train ops on many of the coasters. Seeing an actual duel on Gemini is rare for me anymore! But it's worth it, to have substantially less wait time than during the busy Summer season.

[SteVeUrkle]

Cedar Point generally won’t run their Arrows in the rain unless they take them down to one train. They probably figured that since crowd levels were low anyway it made sense to just take Magnum down to one and leave it there so they didn’t have to close it every time it started raining again.

 

With Magic Mountain as my original home park, I grew up dealing with 1 train operations my entire life. Deja Vu was pretty rough to wait for, but the biggest pain in theass was X/X2 with 1 train operations and about a 6+ minute ride cycle time with 24 guests per train. I would wait 3-4+ hours because friends/girlfriends wanted to ride. (Keep in mind the original X had a separate unload station, so you had to wait and watch the trains lower/unload guests/raise, dispatch to load, lower again, UGH!) So, when Magnum is 1 train operation and cycles are around 3 minutes with a 20 minute station wait, there's really no justification in my mind for complaining about that. To me, it's a walk in the park.

 

Indeed, the magic gate was a wonderful bonus to being at the park today.

 

Ah, yes. The Millennium Magic Gate.

 

Think we got 3 rides in, one including the front row, and it only took about 10-15 minutes total thanks to that gate the evening of the first day we got there. It's so surreal when you get to cycle rides over and over when typically during the day they would have a line that would take hours.

 

Also got to cycle Valravn 2 times in a row, in the front row, without even getting out of our seats. People even walked into the station as we were sitting there and the ride op was like "Oh well, you guys are going again anyway, they can wait!" LOL. I'm not the biggest fan of Valravn but still, it was pretty awesome to do that with friends and family.

[Zand]

Where is this magic gate you all speak of? Didn't even notice it yesterday...sounds like I could've saved some steps.

[ytterbiumanalyst]

It's under Valravn. From the parking lot, look at the front gate and go to your left around the fence. Down by the marina is a small entrance gate. Millennium Force is very close to Valravn, so it puts you right there.

[boldikus]

^ I'm pretty sure by "magic gate" they're referencing the gate that separates the loading/unloading areas of Millennium. When its dead, they open it so people don't have to walk around.

[ytterbiumanalyst]

Oh, haha.

[bert425]

^ I'm pretty sure by "magic gate" they're referencing the gate that separates the loading/unloading areas of Millennium. When its dead, they open it so people don't have to walk around.

 

yep. .that's what they are talking about.

 

so you can go direct from Unload, into the queue to load station

[SbSteveZ]

^ it’s also the thing I happened to share a photo of in my post

[LiftThrill]

The magic gate was open my very first night at CP.

Great times.

[skyrocket010]

I'm horrible at making decisions can someone please help me decide? I haven't been to a park all year and desperately would like to attend one tomorrow. I've decided to go alone since it's last minute. I live in Pittsburgh so Cedar Point/Hershey Park are about the same distances away. Here's what makes the decision tough. I've heard weekends at CP in August can be very brutal. I also have a 2 day trip to CP already planned for the first weekend of October with friends. Which has made me think about going with Hershey since I've only been there once about 4 years ago. But of course they're predicting thunderstorms tomorrow in Hershey. What would you pick?

[SteVeUrkle]

I'm horrible at making decisions can someone please help me decide? What would you pick?

 

I'd go with Hershey and risk the weather.

 

2 days at the beginning of October for Cedar Point will be PLENTY of time to do what you want.

[skyrocket010]

I'm horrible at making decisions can someone please help me decide? What would you pick?

 

I'd go with Hershey and risk the weather.

 

2 days at the beginning of October for Cedar Point will be PLENTY of time to do what you want.

 

Thanks for the feedback. I'm going to take your advice and do Hershey.

[rjr19]

Has anyone been to the park on Mondays recently? I’m going to CP for the first time in a few years next Sunday and Monday, and already have FL+ purchased for Sunday. Is it bad enough there on a Monday in late August for FL+ to be needed? I’m still on the fence of making that purchase.

[operative_me]

I'd say wait until Monday morning when you are at the park to decide. A lot of Ohio schools are already in session, so that may temper crowds. Also check and see what the weather forecast says. If it says scattered storms or something like that it will keep some people away.

 

On the flip side, you may have more visitors from Michigan than usual. Also factor in that the park is only open until 8pm.

 

But I think a big factor is also what you get to ride Sunday. If you ride everything you wanted on Sunday you probably can get re-rides on what you want pretty easily.

[RAWKIN_coaster38]

Has anyone been to the park on Mondays recently? I’m going to CP for the first time in a few years next Sunday and Monday, and already have FL+ purchased for Sunday. Is it bad enough there on a Monday in late August for FL+ to be needed? I’m still on the fence of making that purchase.

My friends were there the Monday before last (and I showed up later in the day), and absolutely FL+ was still needed unless you really want to wait 30-60 minutes for everything.

[rjr19]

Thanks for the advice. I am going to wait until Monday when I get to the park and see how it is before dropping all that money that in reality, I can’t easily afford at the moment.

[Sven20]

Has anyone been to the park on Mondays recently? I’m going to CP for the first time in a few years next Sunday and Monday, and already have FL+ purchased for Sunday. Is it bad enough there on a Monday in late August for FL+ to be needed? I’m still on the fence of making that purchase.

 

The last week of August is typically relatively light in the past ...15 min or less for everything, but Maverick back up to 30min midday rush. I go to the park this week every year. FL+ was not needed in the past. I will be using FL+ one day this time to utilize the free one for my 2019 platinum renewal. That will be a marathon of Steel Vengeance day, with a some Maverick and TTD on the side. If you're going to renew for 2019 do it now and use the free FL+ on this trip.

[rjr19]

Marathoning SteVen is the main reason for me looking into FL+ and trying it out. I’ve been to the park twice before, but didn’t quite see a need, even though I went the years GK and Valravn were new. It seems SV has a much longer line so I figured I’d try it out for the first time.

[rjr19]

On a different note, maybe I’ll need FL+ both days...WOW:

I’ve never seen it more than 15 minutes

[TurnOfTheCentury]

Has anyone been to the park on Mondays recently? I’m going to CP for the first time in a few years next Sunday and Monday, and already have FL+ purchased for Sunday. Is it bad enough there on a Monday in late August for FL+ to be needed? I’m still on the fence of making that purchase.

 

I was there last weekend and left on Monday by mid-day, but it was already looking (somewhat) surprisingly crowded relatively early on Monday. Like others have chimed in, I think each Monday decreases as we get closer to school getting back in.

 

(I am increasingly cranky with waiting in lines, so I buy a FastPass plus whenever I suspect lines in general will be longer than 30-ish minutes, which is almost all summer. Given that I am not local, it makes all the economic sense in the world (to me) to spend that money to maximize number of rides. Plus, Steel Vengeance is absolutely worth it on that basis alone.)

[TurnOfTheCentury]

Longtime lurker here ....

 

Just wanted to briefly chime in on the Steel Vengeance praises here. I finally got to ride it last weekend, and, holy crap, I thought it was an amazing ride. For me, almost a perfect blend of airtime and steep drops, coupled with twister type runs through the structure, with interesting inversions, and completely re-rideable and perfectly engineered(for me at least -- I got 8 rides on it in one day). It just sort of did it all for me. I'm not huge into ranking but it's up there with El Toro and Superman SFNE in terms "my kind" of rides. Outstanding. So cool to see big chains like Cedar Fair willing to put in something this aggressive -- and the crowds loved it.

 

Hard to pick a favorite moment, but it probably is that high first inversion coupled with the turnaround into the second inversion. That entire high-turnaround moment just feels insane in terms of speed and movement: at times at night it felt like the train was literally jumping into the right-hand turn out of that first inversion. You can really see the stress it puts on the track up there by watching the structure sway (which it is designed to do). Interestingly, I saw a crew welding something up there with cherry picker last Monday morning -- no big deal, but I'm sure they need to keep an eye on that section. Schilke really went for it!

[skyrocket010]

Apparently I’m too fat for steel vengeance lol my first ever walk of shame. I feel like I was nearly there and if I would’ve given it a little more effort I would’ve made it. But I didn’t want to be inconsiderate and hold people up since we had already waited an eternity. Any tips you larger guys could give that may work for when you come close to fitting on a ride?? I would like to try it one more time before I leave it’s the main reason I came.

[Stealth1]

If you're looking to take a break from the park while in Sandusky, take the ferry to Put-In-Bay. I had no idea it exsisted til I went a couple of weeks ago. It doesn't even feel like Ohio.

[rjr19]

I am too stupid to spell Steel Vengeance so I'll just write SteVen and pretend I'm being cool .

 

I was never aware there was a filter for the abbreviation of Steel Vengeance, that’s a new discovery for me

[SteVeUrkle]

Longtime lurker here ....

 

Just wanted to briefly chime in on the Steel Vengeance praises here. I finally got to ride it last weekend, and, holy crap, I thought it was an amazing ride.

 

I agree, the ride is phenomenal from start to finish and considering what Mean Streak used to be, it's such night and day regarding ride experience.

 

I am not a fan of some of the rides at Cedar Point, we skipped Rougaru and Raptor because I don't care for them anymore, we rode Gatekeeper which is a yawner, and Valravn is fine, but no doubt besides TTD's amazing launch with just lapbars and the quick experience, MF's just power and re-rideabilty, Maverick being just straight up fun, SteeVe is up there among the most amazing coasters I've ever ridden. It's almost overkill for how long it is but that doesn't matter, it's SO much fun. I remember saying during my first ride and with my family that the coaster just doesn't give up and every fricking inch has something thrilling.

 

It's definitely up there with X2 and Deja Vu/Goliath at SFNE in regards to intense ride experiences as far as I'm concerned. I like intensity and prefer it over being smooth, I like being scared out of my wits, and SteVe has done it remarkably well, even with how insane the ride cycle is, it rides like butter. It gets to a point where there's no rating rides like this, they're different on their own merit and it's great to have that kind of variance.

 

Any tips you larger guys could give that may work for when you come close to fitting on a ride?? I would like to try it one more time before I leave it’s the main reason I came.

 

Stop eating/drinking carbs and run a couple miles NOW! Sweat your balls off and drink lots of water. When you get in the train suck in that gut, get that seatbelt fastened, and tell those ride ops to push the lap bar in as hard as they can even if it takes 2 of them. I have faith in you!

 

I'm not even a big guy with a gut and had the biggest bitch at Wicked Twister, couldn't get the seatbelts locked so I had them push on my restraint till it happened.

Edited August 20, 2018 by SteVeUrkle