Cedar Point (CP) Discussion Thread

[tndank]

They have now combined resort guests, gold and platinum pass holders and all can get full early entry at 9. 

 

[Zand]

Didn't end up riding much today but had a nice afternoon. After Magnum I tried to ride the smooth Arrow next door, but it went down so I moved along. Got over to Frontier Town and Maverick and Steel Vengeance were also down, not that I would've waited in a long line today anyway. We ended up buying some tickets for Frontier Festival and had some different beers. Hung around over there for a couple hours enjoying the atmosphere. Always loved Frontier Town and the added entertainment was nice. I did try to hit Maverick when it reopened but the whole queue house was still full so decided not to bother.

Finally at 6 we started walking up Frontier Trail towards the front. MF had a good line still. Rougarou probably had no line but it blows so I kept walking. Lots of people waiting to drag iron so walked past that. Finally ended up over on the Twister midway and that was deserted.

Rode the CP Windseeker for the first time, which against all odds was operating in a slight breeze. Nice ride, kinda disgusting view of all the dead fish on the beach from the storm. Could smell them from the line.

Wicked Twister was a one train wait and rode in back. I love this stupid thing. It never has a line, the launches are fun, it's smooth and the weightless feeling on the spikes is pretty cool. I know it's totally overshadowed by almost everything else in the park but I'd be sad to not have it to fall back to on busy days.

Gatekeeper next...maybe 10 minute wait and rode right side near the back. Never been much of a fan of this, but always worth stopping by if the line is short. The bouncing kinda makes me nauseous and I never have that happen to me on any other coaster.

Went to hit Raptor, but it was down so went over to Blue Streak. 4 train wait or so (and kinda slow ops) but always a solid ride with decent airtime. Best ridden after a few beers at Chickies and Petes! Better news that that Raptor reopened while I was in line and it was 7:45, so that's where I finished up the night. Front row ride and the bugs were coming out. Raptor just has a batsh*t pace start to finish and IMO is the best B&M invert (disclaimer: I havent ridden Montu). I know Alpie has an awesome half, but for the total package Raptor has it all the way to the brake run.

Glad to get the front of the park taken care of tonight, so I can use FP+ to focus on Steel Vengeance, MF, TTD, and Maverick tomorrow.

Does anyone know if Steel Vengeance will be open at early entry tomorrow? I know its a Monday but not sure if the holiday makes a difference. If not I'd rather just stay up front and hit Valravn a few times.

[AmyUD06]

7 hours ago, Zand said:

Does anyone know if Steel Vengeance will be open at early entry tomorrow? I know its a Monday but not sure if the holiday makes a difference. If not I'd rather just stay up front and hit Valravn a few times.

That sucks that rides kept going down as you were arriving at them.  Aside from a little 5 minute breakdown at Dragster while I was in the station, I didn't encounter any maintenance issues all day.

I would be absolutely blown away if SV was open for early entry today.  They were holding strong to their "lines close early" policy on Maverick and Millie yesterday, so I see no reason why they will differ from what they've said regarding SV.

My plan for the day is getting my second ride of the trip on Raptor, then hitting Valravn, Iron Dragon (both of which I missed yesterday), a second ride on Millennium Force, and then the Boat, then going over to the waterpark for the rest of the day.

Hope you have a better day today.

8 hours ago, tndank said:

They have now combined resort guests, gold and platinum pass holders and all can get full early entry at 9. 

Yeah I saw this on the website too.  I guess this means they need less people policing where people are allowed to go in the park.  Glad they dedicated these extra bodies to the stupid locker program at SV and having dedicated spielers at many coasters LOL.  Note that for Early Entry rides, the greeter at the entrance to the queue is checking your pass/hotel key, so that the plebs wouldn't be allowed in line, since everyone is allowed into the park at 9.

[AmyUD06]

Hey @KIEnthusiast, I'm in line for the boat now, so on about an hour I'll have all of the answers to the most important questions of your life LOL. Watch this post. 

Edit: The boat was entertaining.if the queue is at the start of the building, it'll be about 45 minutes. The boat ride itself takes 18. Great for families, but thrill enthusiasts would better spend that hour elsewhere. So basically, exactly what we expected. Tools ton of photos and will post them sometime later.

[anonymouscactus]

16 hours ago, Mike240SX said:

What? Magnum's merge is well before the stairs. Filling the station would have no effect on the amount of FL people let in in relation to the general queue.

If there is a 5 train wait in the station then the total distance of waiting in FL would be the staircase and then 5 trains. If there is a grouper at the top of the stairs, the total distance of waiting is the staircase + 1 train wait. More of the standby queue would be downstairs before the merge point instead of after the merge point and cramming people in the station.

[AmyUD06]

9 minutes ago, anonymouscactus said:

If there is a 5 train wait in the station then the total distance of waiting in FL would be the staircase and then 5 trains. If there is a grouper at the top of the stairs, the total distance of waiting is the staircase + 1 train wait. More of the standby queue would be downstairs before the merge point instead of after the merge point and cramming people in the station.

But since the FL merge point and the person who allocates who proceeds is before the stairs, there would be the same extra number of FL people in the station too. Yes, there would be more standby, but there would be more FL people too, and assuming the person doing the allocation doesn't change the ratio of FL to standby, the waits should be nearly identical to the current system of operation.

[AmyUD06]

Cedar Point Shores water park update: a lot is closed (2 out of 4 tube slide towers, both lazy rivers, and the swim up bar), mostly due to Friday's storm. Alcohol prices up $3 from my trip in 2017. Not very packed. 

Edit: One of the lazy rivers opened up, but WOW is that water cold.

 

[Zand]

Doing pretty good with FL+ today. MF and Steel Vengeance have merge points pretty far back but didnt wait more than 20 mins (other than deciding to wait for the front on MF and getting caught in a 20 min breakdown). Valravn had a super long Fastlane line this morning (onto the midway) and just came back and rode it with a 30 min wait. Hit Maverick twice, TTD twice, and Gemini as well. Grabbing some crabfries right now then probably back to Frontier Town.

[DoinItForTheFame]

58 minutes ago, Mike240SX said:

Edit: One of the lazy rivers opened up, but WOW is that water cold.

 

It’s early, very early, in the season.... Water at most water parks is insanely cold right now. There hasn’t been enough warm days to warm the water up. 

[AmyUD06]

@DoinItForTheFame, to be honest, most of the water (slides, wave pool) was of adequate temperature...the lazy river was just extra cold.

Anyway, this about brings my CP trip to a close.  Despite loosing both Friday and Saturday at the park, between Sunday and Monday I was able to get:  three rides on Dragster, two each on Millie, Raptor, and Maverick, and one ride each on Magnum, CCMR, Iron Dragon, Rougarou, Gatekeeper, Valravn, Blue Streak, Gemini, Wicked Twister, and SV (skipped Corkscrew voluntarily because it's Corkscrew and can go die in a fire).  Plus, got about 3 hours at the water park.

A full report is coming, including a detailed report on Snake River Expeditions (I am fully in favor of just calling this "boat" moving forward) with a ton of pictures, and the new SV locker procedure, but maybe not until this coming weekend or Monday or Tuesday.

Tomorrow, it's off to Kings Island for some rides on Mystic, the Beast, Banshee, and some time in their water park, before it's time for the long drive back home on Wednesday.

[Zand]

Few more points from the rest of today, where I got to experience the best and worst of the CP 2021 experience.

After lunch I hit Raptor while I was there, grabbed front row after a quick FP line (regular line looked pretty short anyway). Skyride was closed today so walked up and randomly walked into Matterhorn as it was loading while I walked by. Definitely not a ride I expected to hit today, but what the hell!

Waited about 15 minutes to do some Iron Draggin'. Always gotta hit it once even if it's kind of a lousy ride. Followed that up with another MF front row ride as there were only 2 groups lined up for it.

Headed back to Frontier Town for a walk on ride on the excellent Skyhawk followed by a not so excellent walk on of the Mine Train. Those restraints are brutal and the ride isn't anything to write home about. Might add it to the list with Rougarou and Corkscrew of coasters that I wouldn't be sad if I missed each trip.

Here comes the "worst of CP" I mentioned at the beginning of the post. Got to Steel Vengeance at around 6:45. Wife didn't want to ride so she sat outside and waited. I went into the FP line to find that the standby line was also empty. Put my stuff in the lockers, then was directed to the line on the right. They were doing such an awful job at pulsing the line that two guys that were in front of me in the tunnel got sent to the left side and got on the ride FIVE trains before I did. I had to bite my tongue to not ask the girl working the top of the stairs if she knows how to count. But, I did ask her if I could get in line for the back (since, you know, that and the front have dedicated lines built for that reason) and she coldly said "actually, you can go to row 3". While I was waiting for row 3, she let the people behind me line up for the front. I kept my mouth shut and enjoyed the ride, but good god lady. Finally got off at 7:40 (yes, it took 45 f*cking minutes to get on the ride from the lockers because someone can't count) and saw the line was already closed and some guy with a pony tail and tye dye Kings Island shirt was SCREAMING at the guy working the entrance. My wife said they closed the line at 7:20 and had turned away a few hundred people. She also noted people who got in the regular line 20 minutes after I got in the FP line got off before me, and I was like yup. While most of the rest of the park seems to be back in typical CP shape (which is generally good), Steel Vengeance is still a clusterf*ck of epic proportions.

Got on the train to head through Boneville to the front of the park (unfortunately with the tye dye douchebag right behind us) and saw the MF line was still open as we pulled up. I made it in at 7:57 and they kept it open till 8:05. Against all odds, the grouper let me get in line for the back, and then upon return they popped open the magic gate and told everyone to go ride again so they could let the front row line finish up without moving them to other parts of the train. I can't believe I was still in the same park as I was at Steel Vengeance. Total ineptitude at one end, and thankfully ending on a great note at the other.

Simply put, that left side line at Steel Vengeance after the lockers needs to be FP only. And if you're going to use both sides as the regular line, for the love of god put someone up there that can count to f*cking twelve. And let people line up for the front and back like every other coaster in the park. Maybe just move Millennium's crew over there for a day and show them how it's done.

Other than Steel Vengeance it was a great day. Rode everything I wanted to, multiple times for most. Still a bit of stacking going on but things seem to be smoothing out. Hell, I think TTD ran nonstop in the combined 14 hours I spent in the park. After a rocky start, I'd say CP is finally getting it together. Now just need to get those old hours back.

Heading down to KI tomorrow and Wednesday. Wed looks like a washout, but maybe it'll stay light and I can have the place to myself. Will take what comes with the weather, but will be sure to ride what I can tomorrow in case I'm shut out Wednesday.

[JJLehto]

7 hours ago, Mike240SX said:

@DoinItForTheFame, to be honest, most of the water (slides, wave pool) was of adequate temperature...the lazy river was just extra cold.

Anyway, this about brings my CP trip to a close.  Despite loosing both Friday and Saturday at the park, between Sunday and Monday I was able to get:  three rides on Dragster, two each on Millie, Raptor, and Maverick, and one ride each on Magnum, CCMR, Iron Dragon, Rougarou, Gatekeeper, Valravn, Blue Streak, Gemini, Wicked Twister, and SV (skipped Corkscrew voluntarily because it's Corkscrew and can go die in a fire).  Plus, got about 3 hours at the water park.

A full report is coming, including a detailed report on Snake River Expeditions (I am fully in favor of just calling this "boat" moving forward) with a ton of pictures, and the new SV locker procedure, but maybe not until this coming weekend or Monday or Tuesday.

Tomorrow, it's off to Kings Island for some rides on Mystic, the Beast, Banshee, and some time in their water park, before it's time for the long drive back home on Wednesday.

Glad you managed to salvage a pretty good trip still! Won't dwell on the negative, still sorry to hear but turned out not too bad! Good luck at KI! Weather seems to have finally turned good. 

 

Speaking of, still too far away but seems its still sub 80, partly cloudy, low chance of rain for Coastermania. Praying it holds. Also if anyone knows what is this current SV locker procedure I am all ears. Last I went (this was 2019) it was no longer necessary and you could use that zipper bag on the ride. Was kind of a mess I felt but I did like not needing the pay for storage. What's the situation now?

[BRTeller]

1 hour ago, Zand said:

Here comes the "worst of CP" I mentioned at the beginning of the post. Got to Steel Vengeance at around 6:45. Wife didn't want to ride so she sat outside and waited. I went into the FP line to find that the standby line was also empty. Put my stuff in the lockers, then was directed to the line on the right. They were doing such an awful job at pulsing the line that two guys that were in front of me in the tunnel got sent to the left side and got on the ride FIVE trains before I did. I had to bite my tongue to not ask the girl working the top of the stairs if she knows how to count. But, I did ask her if I could get in line for the back (since, you know, that and the front have dedicated lines built for that reason) and she coldly said "actually, you can go to row 3". While I was waiting for row 3, she let the people behind me line up for the front. I kept my mouth shut and enjoyed the ride, but good god lady. Finally got off at 7:40 (yes, it took 45 f*cking minutes to get on the ride from the lockers because someone can't count) and saw the line was already closed and some guy with a pony tail and tye dye Kings Island shirt was SCREAMING at the guy working the entrance. My wife said they closed the line at 7:20 and had turned away a few hundred people. She also noted people who got in the regular line 20 minutes after I got in the FP line got off before me, and I was like yup. While most of the rest of the park seems to be back in typical CP shape (which is generally good), Steel Vengeance is still a clusterf*ck of epic proportions.

Wow, they actually pulled off making the situation WORSE than opening day/weekend. So they were separating the lines after the lockers and the FL line was typically shorter opening weekend. Still highly inefficient, but not as bad as what you described.

I saw many many people screaming at the ops when we were there. I just truly don't understand why CP is putting their employees in this situation. Employees lie and say the lines are "2 hours standby" when they're actually 20 to 30 minutes and it just creates this distrust. I hope they go back to just closing the lines with the park. I do get why so many are upset, people wait an hour for a corn dog so they don't pass out then get turned down 2 hours early for two of the most popular attractions next door on already reduced days and hours. If the park closes at 6 or 7, just close the park then.

My favorite quote I heard from a SV employee was "don't put your bags behind the railings, this isn't six flags". Well SFGAdv and SFSTL both had awesome operations, staff, cleanliness and so on. We put off using our season long fast pass at any Cedar Fair park because it's still miserable compared to Universal, Herschend, Six Flags and every other park we've gone too this year and last year.

 

[TopThrill182]

I realize there are bigger problems in the world, but as a Fast Lane Plus user, I also have to voice my annoyance with SV’s new queue setup!

My opening day FL experience was decent: I merged into the pre-locker tunnel, which wasn’t very full. After putting my phone in a locker, I was sent to the left FL staircase, which was mostly empty. I didn’t time it, but I felt like I got on the ride pretty quickly.

Today, however, the merged tunnel was much more full, and I was sent to a jam packed right standby staircase, which I realized is significantly longer (in distance) than the left one!

I waited a full 45 minutes to ride, 30 after the merge point. That’s without using the lockers, since I stored my phone prior to riding, and on a day when the park was not overly crowded.

The party in front of me in the pre-locker tunnel was sent to the left staircase, and they got on the ride almost 10 minutes before me. (They even took time to use the lockers.) I thought maybe I was being too sensitive, but I overheard a non-FL party behind me in the right staircase complaining about the same thing.

There also seemed to be more guest confusion today leading up to the lockers. Some guests thought they needed to “cut” the merged line to get to the lockers and then double back. Some large parties didn’t understand why employees were forcing the entire party to go to the lockers, rather than just one person.

Finally, and I’m not sure what caused this, but the FL line today was barely shorter than the standby line for my first ride, and exactly equal with the standby line for my second ride.

The end result is a quick FL ride on SV seems to be a thing of the past. The merge point is now so far back from the station, it’s hard to see how the FL line will ever be less than ~30 minutes. That’s not too impactful on very crowded days, but on uncrowded days, or at times with few FL users, the FL value for this ride has diminished significantly.

TL;DR: My main suggestion at this point is to fill less of the merged tunnel before the lockers and/or use one staircase only (for everyone). I realize the park wants to ensure a constant flow of guests to the station, but I think the park can accomplish that by frequently sending small groups of riders to the lockers from the merge point, thereby still providing a meaningful FL experience.

I’m sorry for my rant! I really do appreciate the park finding a way to allow guests to keep their phones in line without compromising safety or the ride’s capacity. I just wish it didn’t come so much at the expense of FL users. Lol

[JJLehto]

What on Earth? This is sounding like an epic s**t show. Well guess the on ride zipper bags are gone.... yeesh idk why can't they just go back to the first way then? Just have lockers before, no one w phones and stuff on line. Like no doubt people were griping but this seems a total mess, and I guess the guests won't care (quite the opposite) but kinda brutal it seems FL is the one getting the butt end on this, if its resulting in not much different wait times....what is the point? Deff gunna get complaints and rightfully so. It's valid to be miffed, FL is not cheap and you are paying for a service and let's be real its most potent for SV. If they are using a system that currently makes little difference in wait times, that FL+ $ is not being put to use. I'd be pretty steamed myself. 

lol one made a Six Flags jab. I won't lie, I tend to crap on Six Flags parks but for once, gotta say no SV employee has a right to really make that joke, they seem to be flubbing this hard lol Esp with this poorly done closing lines early. Not that it's there fault they are following the park orders, as someone said the employees are being put in terrible situations but wow CP get it together! 

I did think the Twisted Timbers locker system was weird as well, it too had lockers near the staircase and it seemed to muck things up overall. The line was just so slow and it seemed to revolve around those lockers. I remember thinking really wish they just made us get one at the start. This whole mid line locker thing seems to not be the best way.  

 

[WolfBobs]

15 hours ago, DoinItForTheFame said:

It’s early, very early, in the season.... Water at most water parks is insanely cold right now. There hasn’t been enough warm days to warm the water up. 

The older of the two lazy rivers is not heated.  So it is always cold.  Helps make it feel more like being in Lake Erie for reals.  lol 

[Zand]

Based on what I read from opening weekend, it seems like the SV situation is a easy fix because it's a fix they already had in place! Partially fill the tunnel with both FL and standby, let people do the locker thing, then FL goes left and standby goes right. I don't understand why they got away from doing that.

When I took my last ride, the sign for standby said 60 minutes and FL said 30 minutes when there was literally no standby line before the merge. And the line ended up being opposite if you got put in the wrong line. Honestly the two lines dont look that much different in length. But if you have someone at the station who has no idea how to do their (rather simple) job, it makes a bad situation worse.

They were filling the ramp on MF which ticked me off too as that further devalues FL+. 2 out of 4 rides that you have to pay extra for both shove you into 20-30 minutes of the standby line which is plain wrong when you are spending $115+ on the service. I know 3 years ago on MF they weren't filling the ramp. Again, why did they go away from that? It only makes the greeters job harder because then they have to deal with getting yelled at by old people in tye dye shirts.

[coasternut]

I'm confused about SV. Are the pouches gone now from the trains? That's where I'd put my phone & keys. This locker thing seems to be a nightmare....

[Zand]

12 minutes ago, coasternut said:

I'm confused about SV. Are the pouches gone now from the trains? That's where I'd put my phone & keys. This locker thing seems to be a nightmare....

Pouches are gone. Honestly the locker thing would be fine if they did it right. They're free, easy to use and easy to get to.

[JJLehto]

I'm kinda glad the pouches are gone, I mean I liked it bc didn't need to pay for locker and I was aware of em/did it quick BUT honestly it did seem a bit of a mess. I felt it was slowing things down, and seems to be the case as ops were slower than the year before. I'm glad the lockers are now free (as it should be, I thought it was BS to force you get one, and make ya pay (and when people said well Six Flags does...I never thought that was exactly a good thing lol)) BUT clearly they are messing it up. Agreed, it doesn't need to be a problem they just need to do it right and seems they used to/get it. Really hope they go back to it.... bc yeah its devaluing the (not cheap) cost of FL+ and for real, poor employees can't help it they are doing what they're told, and I know they get a lot of grief. 

Reminds me of the guy at KD that said he was getting yelled at just for I305 for being down... and oof when there was a locker situation coming off Twisted Timbers some people were giving this poor worker a real s***ty time. At CP I can only imagine how bad they get it...

[TopThrill182]

9 hours ago, Zand said:

They were filling the ramp on MF which ticked me off too as that further devalues FL+. 2 out of 4 rides that you have to pay extra for both shove you into 20-30 minutes of the standby line which is plain wrong when you are spending $115+ on the service.

I totally agree! I've never understood why the park seems so insistent on keeping the entire MF ramp filled at all times. The seemingly simple change of telling the merge attendant to only partially fill the ramp (e.g. up to a certain visual landmark, like the rear of the unload station) would vastly improve the ride's FL value at times throughout the day/season. It would also allow standby guests to spend more time waiting under the shade canopies in the main queue. 

Similarly, I think the best solution to SV's queue at this point is as follows.

• Utilize the right station pathway/staircase exclusively, for everyone. Aim to fill all the space after the metal detector. It seems to hold at least two trains worth of people, not counting the one train worth typically waiting in the station, so not having enough people to fill each train shouldn't be an issue.
• As space allows, send ~24 people from the merged tunnel to the lockers, and then through the metal detector onto the right pathway/staircase.
• As space allows, send an additional ~24 people (~12 FL and ~12 standby) to the merged tunnel to wait to proceed to the lockers. Aim to not let the tunnel line go past a certain point.

This way, FL users would only wait ~4 trains to ride after the merge point. While I would welcome a FL exclusive staircase, this strategy would allow the park to avoid the potential hassle of having to re-split FL and standby guests (which, I admit, worked on opening day but did seem a bit clunky), while making the one remaining pathway to the station flow more evenly and quickly. The park could also eliminate the second metal detector staff position.

As has been said, the lockers themselves seem good. They're free, easy to use, and occupy an attractive mini plaza. I think adjusting the flow of guests through the locker area is what needs to be improved.

[prozach626]

It seems like Cedar Point has had a bad combination of bad luck and shitty execution when it comes to Steel Vengeance. 

[ytterbiumanalyst]

It's still better than Mean Streak.

[i305isdaddy]

Honestly SV could have a million more issues and it wouldn't prevent it from still being the #1 coaster in the world, it's just so insane when you get a lap where the MCBR doesn't trim you at all. Especially at night.

That said, I would be furious if a FL+ line, at that cost, took over 15-20 minutes. They should fix the easily fixable problem and manage the lines.

Seems like this is going to be another crappy year for the park operations wise.

[WolfBobs]

Fastlane has always been advertised as "wait less, ride more."  

Regardless of how much you pay for it, as long as your wait is less than the stand-by wait you're getting what you paid for.  It's the risk you take.  Especially this season with how awful staffing will be.  I know it sucks.  It sucks to have to wait 30-45 mins in Fastlane but that's a hecking lot better than waiting 2+ hours in stand-by.