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Cedar Point (CP) Discussion Thread

p. 2030 - Top Thrill 2 announced!

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Heck, the people in Galesburg can't even visit their last remaining bowling alley to save it from going under.

 

It really is a small world. I grew up in Orion and my grandpa lives down in Galesburg still. (Pretty much all my family lives in the Midwest.) I'm shocked to hear about the bowling alley as that place always was busy in the evening. I remember when half the thing burnt down a while back. (Well mainly the attached restaurant.) Galesburg is certainly a slow place minus railroad days and the Stearman fly-in.

 

Back on topic, that is certainly a shame. Do you live in Galesburg or nearby? Do you mind going to parks by yourself and transportation is what's hold you back?

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Heck, the people in Galesburg can't even visit their last remaining bowling alley to save it from going under.

It really is a small world. I grew up in Orion and my grandpa lives down in Galesburg still. (Pretty much all my family lives in the Midwest.) I'm shocked to hear about the bowling alley as that place always was busy in the evening. I remember when half the thing burnt down a while back. (Well mainly the attached restaurant.) Galesburg is certainly a slow place minus railroad days and the Stearman fly-in.

 

Back on topic, that is certainly a shame. Do you live in Galesburg or nearby? Do you mind going to parks by yourself and transportation is what's hold you back?

It is a small world after all! It's nice to see somebody on this thread who was actually from around here. I live in East Galesburg, along Lake Rice to be exact. Around 2012, I officially moved here from rural Glasford, (Glasford is a small village of 1,000 located on the southern tip of Peoria county.)

 

The bowling alley caught fire in 2010 and the insurance screwed us over. To make along story short, we have struggled ever since. It does okay in the winter with some loss each year, but the dead summers are what are really killing us. I have done Railroad Days and the Stearmen show. They are fun, but this city used to have a lot more going for it at one time. "Art in the Park", "Cafe in the Park", the Threshwood's cookouts, and the bicycling events have all come to an end.

 

I don't mind going by myself. Sometimes that would be best anyway because some people in a group don't want to wait in line, and some just want to hit all the overpriced food places, or blow their money on the games. And some just chicken out and refuse to ride some of the rides. I'm all about running from coaster to coaster! But yeah, transportation has been my main sticking point and I don't mind going by myself.

 

Amtrak runs from Galesburg to Sandusky! From your direction it arrives and departs Sandusky in the middle of the night, but it's something! The trains I checked were about $130-150 round trip in coach for various dates in July and August.

 

Yeah I'm familiar with that option, especially for Cedar Point. It is just a matter of getting over my jitters and doing it. I have never rode a train before. But I may very well do this soon for Cedar Point. I chickened out last year though.

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^ Take the train. It's easy and relaxing. More leg room than an airplane. The train has wi-fi, outlets at each seat to charge your devices, a super generous carry on bag and luggage policy, plus Cafe car with bar or some have a full formal dining car. Another plus, is you can bring your own food and drinks in a cooler and put them in the overhead above you. You can move about the train at anytime, from car to car and they even let you know when there is a stop coming up for a smoking break where you can get off and walk around outside for a bit. We don't smoke, but enjoyed hopping off and stretching our legs for about 15 minutes. I have recently started travelling by train from Wash DC to Tampa Fla and love it, and that's an overnighter taking about 20 hours.

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^ I agree with everything Mark said here. The main difference between the trains for you is going to be the the diner. First-class accommodations also vary, but it sounds like price is an issue and coach is really good on Amtrak already.

 

Your two trains to Chicago are the Illinois Zephyr and the Southwest Chief. The Zephyr only has a cafe car, which has microwaved meals. It's not good. The Southwest Chief has a full diner and it's really great. I would highly recommend taking the Southwest Chief (leaves around 11:25 from Galesburg) and get lunch along the trip to Chicago.

 

Transferring is easy in Union Station, and keep in mind that you can leave the station and re-enter any time. They do have metal detectors, but it's super easy to get through security and you'll only need to be back at Union Station about 30 minutes before departure. Plus, the Southwest Chief has checked baggage (Illinois Zephyr doesn't), so if you've taken that train, you won't need to worry about having bags in Chicago.

 

The two trains east of Chicago are virtually identical, so schedule is the biggest difference. The Capitol Limited departs earlier and gets you into Sandusky around 12:40 AM. The Lake Shore Limited departs later and gets into Sandusky around 4 AM. Both have a diner-lite, which is better than the cafe car, but the quality of food is more like airplane food. I'd eat dinner in Chicago.

 

Also, Amtrak has a reputation for being late, but in all my train trips, I've only had a late train once, and that by 2 hours. I had a flight delay of 6 hours once, so you know, stuff happens when you're travelling. Still, you'll want to use Amtrak's train tracker so you'll know where your train is:

https://www.amtrak.com/track-your-train.html?stop_mobi=yes&ref=stop_mobile

 

Hope that helps; having more information always makes me less nervous.

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I'll also give a vote of support for taking the train, for the reasons stated above. I took Amtrak to Chicago and back for a Hawks game and had a great experience. Heck I might take it to Buffalo to check out Darien Lake in a few weeks.

 

The only word of caution I'd give is about transportation around Sandusky. It really is the middle of nowhere and while there are Uber drivers, my experience has been it is spotty late at night. There are also a few small cab companies, but it might be best to call them and arrange something in advance.

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Made my first visit this season on Sunday… Probably won’t break even on my Platinum Pass at this rate, haha, but what can you do. Thankfully my first visit of the year was absolutely beautiful.

 

My goal was simply to get a ride on Raptor and MF if nothing else. Weather was beautiful, so expected some hefty crowds. Arrived for early entry at 9am and the park was a ghost town practically until the time I left around 1pm. Hit up Maverick, Millennium Force, Valravn during early entry all walk-on and got to Raptor at 10am. Used to do early entry all the time and don’t even remember it so dead in the morning. So that was a pleasant surprise.

 

Raptor had the only wait all day (10min?) as the park just opened before we got there. Then Gatekeeper followed by Dragster, also both walk-on. Waited the 4 trains or so for front seat on Dragster, which is always a treat. Took a spin on Magnum and checked out Forbidden Frontier, Petting Zoo and some shops with a closing ride on the cable cars. By the time I left it was slightly more busy, but still wasn’t bad at all. Lot was maybe ½ full?

 

Steel Vengeance had about a 30 minute wait when I checked on it during early entry, but didn’t really care to ride it. Not sure how busy it got later on.

 

Park looked great though. Forbidden Frontier is nicely done but think the park needs some workers/actors to explain to those coming in what is going on, how to interact, etc… Also, wish it connected from the Gemini Midway to Frontier, versus being one way in/out of the area from Frontier Trail. Would be awesome to have that cut through the middle of the park.

 

One of those nice days though where you could have done every major coaster within a few hours if you so desired. Great visit.

 

 

I can assure you it didn't stay that light of a crowd on Sunday. All afternoon most big coasters were running 45 min + waits and SV was over an hour. Not sure at what point during early entry you checked on SV but my son and I were in line before the early entry people (we were in at 8 for an ACE event) and by the time they opened the line at 9 there was quite a crowd behind the 60 or so people that were let in at 8.

 

I do agree with you on FF. Definitely needs way more explanation.

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Wow, lucked out on timing I suppose! Like I said, we used to go nearly every weekend for early entry and it was common for it to be busy quickly, especially by the time early entry ended. I guess SV just draws the masses, which is good for everything else!

 

We checked SV right at 9am or so, first ride we walked to and were in front of the masses. I wondered why it was so busy already at that ride, given we were there almost right away, but then found out about the ACE event. At that time, ride wasn't even cycling trains so we bounced to Maverick. I didn't want to waste all the early entry time on SV.

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SV definitely pulls almost all the early entry crowd. My Dad and I dubbed it the "running of the the SV bulls", lol. If you aren't that interested in it you can for sure take advantage to walk on the other early entry rides.

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]It's because it's technically beyond straight down for part of the first drop. Difficult to explain but there's a few feet of track that are inward from 90 degrees. Kind of a silly claim but it is what it is.

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.[attachment=0]omg.gif[/attachment]

 

Someone like me who constantly is revising, proofing and correcting documents, brochures, programs, posters and online marketing for a living. Thought some others may find it amusing.

 

sorry to be a bore *sarcasm*

 

If we're gonna get really pedantic, and apparently we are, incline only means there is some slope. It does not imply a direction. So the shirt is grammatically correct, even if awkwardly phrased.

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And out of all the other people I know, people are just not interested. I don't know if it is part of the downstate Illinois mentality or what. My step-mother berated me this spring and flat out said we were too old for roller coasters, which is funny because some of the people I have went with aren't even 30 yet. I've also heard others say we're too old. Maybe we are.

 

I live 20-30 minutes from St. Louis, but we're in Illinois. Technically you could call that central Illinois, despite being in the St. Louis Metropolitan area. I'll play devil's advocate here.

 

Most adults won't go out of their way to visit amusement parks and I really can't say I blame them after our last trip to SFGadv. I mostly saw two categories of people consisting of teenagers and families with young children. It's just starting to feel weird being in my mid 30's with no kids surrounded by these two groups. There's no doubt that we definitely don't fit in and I can really feel my wife losing interest in all this stuff. When we hit SFGadv and Canada's Wonderland last week we did so on a trip including Philadelphia, New York, and Toronto. Where as parks used to be the main focus of our trips, they're our secondary focus, anymore. Our more exciting personal interests have shifted toward local culture and sight seeing outside of parks. We get more out of it.

 

I do think that there is a difference between Six Flags parks and Cedar Fair parks. I feel less out of place at CF parks, since their atmosphere and appearance are generally much nicer. Adults don't want to spend their time surrounded faded paint and poorly maintained areas, which is why we see more people like us at SF parks. CF parks also usually include patios and other places to relax or enjoy a drink while taking in the scenery and people watching. CF parks seem to focus more on the atmosphere and less on the rides. It's a turnoff for me to queue up in a comic book themed ride while the park blares teen pop music. Aside from just throwing more bars into the mix, SF seems to do a lot less to appeal to adults. There's nothing wrong with their strategy. It works. It just doesn't really fit into our interests, anymore.

 

Most of my peers 'like' roller coasters. But, being so close to SFStl they don't know what a good park is. Also, our most modern ride is 20 years old. More than that, the focus of our peers is elsewhere. My friends are raising families and they don't have much spare time. Going to a place filled with rowdy teens and large crowds isn't appealing to them. Even the people our age without kids would much rather spend a relaxing evening having a couple drinks on their patios, going out somewhere nice for dinner, or if they're feeling adventurous, going to a baseball or hockey game.

 

Doing what you're familiar with is relaxing, because you know what to expect. When our peers travel, they go to the beach where it's much more relaxing. All inclusive resort's are very popular destinations around here. Why? Because occupations and other obligations consume our lives to where when we have free time a lot of us need relief, not an adventure.

 

Emily and I will still visit parks, but aside from spending a couple hours during the evening every once in a while at SFStl, or making a half day trip to SFGam with our favorite pizza and lounging at the hotel being 50% of our priority, we're going to kind of distancing ourselves SF parks after SFGadv. Parks like CP are different, but the majority of their advertisements still place emphasis on families with young children. That's their focus. Mid 30 years olds are not their market. My wife and I at the turning point now, where we're ready to start taking the steps to make that our focus, too. Her and I visiting parks alone is starting to get redundant, even when we visit new parks.

 

There's nothing wrong with visiting parks as an adult. But, don't expect any more than a few exceptions of mature adults to share the same enthusiasm. We're hobbyists and this is a specific interest.

 

Think of it as model building. MORE kids are into model building than adults. It doesn't make it unacceptable for adults to be into the hobby. But, don't expect more adults to want to build models with you. They've outgrown it.

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^^Well said. I have a couple friends who are willing to go with me to parks out of town, but almost always as part of a trip where theres at least something else going on. I'll often package a park and a concert together. People in their 30s, for the most part, aren't interested in driving 3 hours or more just to ride coasters. CP is the one exception I've gotten people to make just for a park. If I try and get someone to just go to Kentucky Kingdom or something...it probably just isnt going to happen.

 

Fortunately one if my good childhood friends married a girl with a 12 year old daughter and 6 year old son and they have gotten into going to parks, so I've hit a couple parks with them. But as an adult, it can be an uphill battle, and you have to play to your audience if you're going to expect someone to drive for hours to go to a park. At least include other stuff in the trip, and if you can find a significant other that doesnt mind going with you to parks, that's the best option...you do their stuff and they do yours. It doesnt have to be their favorite thing in the world, but if they are happy to share it with you, that's enough for them to go out of their way with you to have a good time together.

 

-a single 36 year old semi enthusiast

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You seem to be the only one upset, dude. This site might not be for you if you’re so sensitive.

 

If a guy is kicking the back of your airplane seat, you don't get kicked off the plane for being "so sensitive" and "the only one upset."

 

Instead of suggesting that people leave and have weak character for wanting to get nerdy on a nerdy site, a better alternative is that people could tone down the "who cares?" routine and simply engage in the posts that interest them while leaving other ones alone. A sense of humor isn't about shutting someone down when we're all big ol' nerds.

 

We've got posts about Skycoaster operations, rattles, wheel gaps, bad transitions, Corkscrew running three trains, park beer, how to take bullet trains to parks, and g-force apps -- so who cares if someone wants to talk about a t-shirt or anything else? No one has room to be too cool for school here.

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