Cedar Point (CP) Discussion Thread

[coasternut]

New track arriving for "Dragster 2.0" yesterday. It's in the normal storage area near Breakers Express.

[thepoint4life23]

Looks like a lot of work is going on. Lots of people have been seen on the tower. Not sure what they have them doing but its progress! 

[abovethesink]

Hey all. Is heading directly to the Wild Mouse at rope drop the best strategy to get all the coasters in on a very busy day but with Fast Lane Plus? I would assume that is the case given the capacity of those things. I am looking at the list and it looks like the other coasters not on Fast Lane Plus are the mine train, Iron Dragon, Woodstock Express, and the kiddie coaster. I can't imagine the mine train or old arrow suspended coaster get big lines and the kiddie coaster is off the table for us, so I guess the other candidate would be Woodstock Express unless I am dead wrong about the other two. I am trying to get all the credits for my 12 year old son as it will be his first time in the park.

[BitterOldHag]

1 hour ago, abovethesink said:

I can't imagine the mine train or old arrow suspended coaster get big lines…

You’d be surprised.  . Iron Dragon had a 45 minute wait (2 train op, which I believe is all they have now) on Memorial Day.  Mine Ride usually isn’t too bad.  Most I’ve seen that line in the past few seasons is about 20-25 minutes. 

And yes, if you have early entry, go directly to Wild Mouse at opening.  When running, the line does move pretty quickly thanks to the cars moving through the loading area.  

As for the FL lines, Blue Streak, GateKeeper, Raptor, Magnum, Pipe Scream and Gemini are all usually 15 minutes or less.  Steel Vengeance, Valravn, and Millennium Force can sometimes reach an hour, but are more often than not 15-30 minutes.  Maverick is the one I can never figure out.  Sometimes the standby line is 2 hours and the FL+ line is 5-10 minutes.  Other times, FL+ is an hour or more.  So if the line is long when you get to the ride’s entrance, maybe ride something else in the area (or have a bite to eat at the Farmhouse) and then come back and see if the wait time has gone down any.

Hope you guys have a great time!  

[tndank]

Attack of the single use fast lane coming to CP. Carts were spotted today.

[MartinU]

So, I'm excited as the next guy about TTD 2.0 or whatever #PHP means... And I love seeing pictures coming in. One question I have, HOW IN THE WORLD are there so many drone pictures/videos out there?

From CP's FAQ page https://www.cedarpoint.com/frequently-asked-questions about drones

Quote

All drones (Unmanned Aerial Systems) are prohibited at (in) all Cedar Fair parks, including Cedar Point, and any unauthorized drone(s) observed over Cedar Point will be reported to the FAA and local law enforcement, regardless of its point of origin or operation. Drones may pose a potential safety risk and may violate Federal Aviation Administration guidelines.

During Steel Vengeance construction they seemed more strict about drones and photos, and TPR even prohibited pictures that were not from CP official channels. I know people are not reposting here, but does anyone know why CP has seemed to turn a public blind eye? (Maybe they are doing stuff behind the scenes that the GP are not privy to)

With all that being said... When do you think something more than Tony Clark's Twitter will be released about the ride? They usually do their "Next-Year" announcements in August/September, right? What a great way to promote their Gold and Platinum passes, "Be the first to ride the new.... in 2024!"

[thepoint4life23]

I am pretty sure its ban to fly on to the property, but from the videos I have seen looks like its launched from a boat and filmed over the water with just a good zoom. Well that is what they said in a video . I have also been waiting for that channel to get shut down and Cedar point to take action but nothing yet 

[ilrider]

Gatekeeper being inspected now? Anyone have any info? Seeing photos of workers in a cherry picker looking at a support online. 

 

[anonymouscactus]

I saw a photo of a support online but they didn't know if it was paint chipping or a crack. Who knows. I don't know where in the ride it was. Seems like everyone is on the lookout now. 

[Haymaker]

7 hours ago, anonymouscactus said:

I saw a photo of a support online but they didn't know if it was paint chipping or a crack. Who knows. I don't know where in the ride it was. Seems like everyone is on the lookout now. 

Maybe it has a similar turn to Fury that theyre looking at 

[tndank]

18 minutes ago, Haymaker said:

Maybe it has a similar turn to Fury that theyre looking at 

I believe they were inspecting a questionable looking support seen by guests.  Appears the ride was opened again after inspection.

 

[abovethesink]

I took my first trip to Cedar Point since way back on Maverick's opening day. It was my almost 13 year old son's first time. We were there on good ol' July 4th.

On the whole, I really only have good things to say. The crowds were much lighter than expected given the holiday and sunny blue skies. Maybe they were all in the water park given that it was in the 90s. We had Fast Lane+ which proved vital to getting all the coasters in, but only because of the sheer volume of them. The less popular rides had 10-15 minutes wait for the most part. It was only the likes of say Steel Vengeance, Maverick, or Millennium Force where we were skipping 45-90 min lines. The rides were all run well and efficiently. Everything was up and running with a few breakdowns that were either resolved before closing or happened really late in the night. The park closed at 11 PM which was a nice surprise because I had it in my head that it was closing at 10.

If I had one complaint, it was the lack of drinks being included on All-Day Dining. Obviously the lack of research there was on me, but I swear these were included at Carowinds and King's Island the last two years. Maybe not. Maybe my memory is failing me here. Either way, it was annoying to drop $10-$12 every time we ate a meal when I went into the day thinking that was paid for already. Oh well.

Onto the coasters!

We opened by rope dropping Wild Mouse. Those things are not for me. I don't love laterals or spinning. Also, when we returned to the area later in the day, the thing had a long, long line running way out of its queue so I would say rope dropping the strange, low capacity choice of an addition was the right move. Next we backtracked to redeem our Fast Lane+ purchase before heading to the back of the park. On the way to the back I let my son grab the Corkscrew credit midway. No thanks on that one. Corkscrew is the only coaster I skipped and he hit them all.

We tried to hit Magnum next, but it was broken down. Onto Gemini we went and we grabbed a ride on the blue train. The ride was racing and as much janky fun as I remembered with one big catch. The turn around back into the station at the very end of the ride was downright violent and really hurt my back in the moment. I was not expecting that and for a little while it had me worried that my back wouldn't hold up to a long day of coasters afterward.  Thankfully the pain faded quickly. Other than that, Gemini held up to my strong memories.

When we got back to Frontier Land or whatever it is called back there, we tried to hit up Maverick but it too was broken down. This wasn't a great start with it and Magnum down, but SteVe swooped in to save the day. What a ride. I had ridden Iron Gwazi and Velocicoaster just two months prior so I was expecting something on their very high level, but Steel Vengeance blew them away for me. It is my new #1 and the gap is big between it and Gwazi which was briefly my #1. What an unrelenting spring of non-stop airtime. That is my kind of machine. We also took a ride on the Mine Train while we were back there which was the expected pleasant meander around not doing much. There was a decent helix in there. It is a good family ride for those not ready for the big coasters.

SteVe did come with our longest wait of the day which didn't come as a surprise, but at this point we were around midday. I decided an afternoon nap back at the hotel in the AC was in order with the promise that we would hit more of the lineup on our way back up front. I dreaded it a bit after the surprise pain last time, but the Gemini red train was first up. This was a longer wait than expected because of what I hadn't noticed the first time. While two blue trains were on the track, red only had one. Once we got on, the ride itself was very different than the blue side. A lot of the janky speed and airtime was missing. Thankfully, however, there was a trim that hit before the turn around at the end and we didn't fly through it as aggressively. We also had a group of maybe eight people together leading a chant and pretending to paddle in unison on the lift or whenever we needed to catch the blue train which made the ride a lot of fun even though it wasn't as good as the ride the blue side had given us. 

Magnum had opened when we got back to that spot and I gladly hopped on. I still love that thing. It is exactly as I remembered. So much violent airtime. So much pain. My boy had mixed feelings on it as I imagine so many do, but for me it was still awesome. Don't ask me to marathon it, but as a one off I still love Magnum.

After Magnum, we made up some ground towards the exit and I took him over to ride Blue Streak only to find it broken down and some poor riders stuck on the lift hill absolutely baking in the sun. I did not know Valravn's entrance was right there, but we gladly hopped on when it presented itself. This is my new favorite dive. I think I only have ridden Yukon Striker, Griffon, and Sheikra, but of those four I will take Valravn now with only really Yukon Striker being all that close. I especially liked how we kept a little momentum going into the second, usually pointless dive which provided some big air time. I don't know if that was a fluke or if it is how it normally runs, but I expected it to basically stop us and hang us over the edge like on the other dives and Valravn most certainly did not do that. When we exited, Blue Streak was back up and running so we hit that next. Still a good old woodie. Lots of air in the first half of the ride and it wasn't particularly rough.

We grabbed lunch at the pizza place near the entrance across from Raptor which ended our first half of the day in the park. We returned to our hotel down the road and took a short two hour rest before returning.

Raptor then GateKeeper were up first. I didn't have strong memories of Raptor before. I certainly do now. That thing was hauling with great force. It might have been the best ride I have gotten on a B&M invert not named Montu. Banshee didn't deliver like that, for example. The extremely hot day probably had it moving at peak speed. GateKeeper was the opposite for me. It was smooth and graceful and just a little boring. That has been my experience with most of the wing coasters that I have been on too.

From there my son decided we absolutely had to check on Maverick, so we embarked on a super inefficient journey back to the back of the park. This time it was running and, a running theme here, it was everything I remembered. I absolutely love Maverick. Everything about it. The second launch, the inversions, the airtime, the overbanks. It is near perfection. It took all these years for Intamin to finally top it with VelociCoaster. On the way back there I tried to re-direct my son to get on the family coaster in Planet Snoopy, but my son would hear nothing other than Maverick. After we rode that great ride we then further inefficiently tracked back to the family coaster and got that credit for him after what was sadly probably our second longest wait of the day.  Then we took a just as awkward route back to Frontier Trail and up to Millennium Force.

Millie was also as I remembered it, but that isn't high praise like it is with most of the other rides. Don't get me wrong, Millie is a very good ride with some great moments. It just needs more. All the low, speedy turns don't do anything for me so it is only the first drop and those couple airtime hills that I really like. 

It was starting to get dark at this point and we needed Rougarou and Iron Dragon. Unfortunately, Iron Dragon was broken down and stuck on its lift hill. It looked like it had been evacuated there too because the train was empty. Prospects didn't look good there. We got on Rougaroo and I guess it was a little better than I expected. My expectations were low based on what I had read so that isn't super high praise, but it was fine. It was at least better than I remembered Mantis being. Side note -- What is the consensus on these conversions, if there is one? New credit or nay?

From there, 12 year old legs once again decided what we needed was to be all the way in the back of the park for a SteVe night ride. I followed on the long walk only to find it had broken down. I don't believe it ever opened back up either. Maverick was roaring next door, thankfully, so we took that instead and were not disappointed. The fireworks also started while we were in line and went on for a long time so we got to ride while they were banging away which was fun. After a disappointing check back in on SteVe, I informed my son that we were done. We just needed to grab a couple t-shirts on our way out which we did while the fireworks went on and on.

It was well after 10 at this point. Since that is when I thought the park closed, I was confused to see so much seemingly still open but happy to have one last spot to use our All-Day Dining at before we left when we noticed a BBQ place still open. After we ate, we began marching to the car. To our surprise, a running Iron Dragon caught our attention on the way out and we headed over to grab the last credit available to my son. Iron Dragon is a tame ride which I was fine with at the end of the long, hot day. The cooling, night air felt absolutely brilliant after a hot day at the park too. I also can't praise the park enough for even re-opening the thing at all. It was broken down still well after 9 PM. I can't imagine too many other parks are bothering with a low popularity ride like Iron Dragon until the next day, but not Cedar Point apparently. They got it running and off it went for the last hour.

With that, we left. Or we tried to. It was well past midnight when we finally got out of the parking lot. That was a madhouse. But what can you do with so many people leaving at once, I guess?

All in all it was a great day. There was very little to complain about other than the heat. And maybe that too was actually a good thing with how sparse the crowds ended up being. 

 

 

 

[MidwestThemeParks]

Quote

With that, we left. Or we tried to. It was well past midnight when we finally got out of the parking lot. That was a madhouse. But what can you do with so many people leaving at once, I guess?

I was also in the park for the first time since 2016 on the 3rd and 4th and left during the fireworks just to avoid that mess. However, I do agree that crowds seemed lower than I expected.

[anonymouscactus]

7 hours ago, abovethesink said:

If I had one complaint, it was the lack of drinks being included on All-Day Dining. Obviously the lack of research there was on me, but I swear these were included at Carowinds and King's Island the last two years. Maybe not. Maybe my memory is failing me here. Either way, it was annoying to drop $10-$12 every time we ate a meal when I went into the day thinking that was paid for already. Oh well.

Great report! Glad you had a fun time. Unfortunately the breaking down of rides seems to be a theme this year, way moreso than usual. 

In regard to the drinks, they have a "premium" all day dining which allows snacks (instead of a meal, not in addition to) and drinks attached to the wristband. Unfortunately it MUST be bought online. Alternatively, you could have bought a separate drink wristband for the day ($18.99) but it would have cost a bit more then the premium that way.

See screenshot:

Edited July 8, 2023 by anonymouscactus

[PhilNotPhil]

What are CP crowds like at mid-week in the middle of summer? My typical park day is one of those at a midsize Six Flags like Texas, Georgia, or Fiesta. The last CF park I went to was WOF on a weekday. Those are mostly walk-on, re-ride, headache-free experiences. I don't stop to eat park food, I don't see shows, I ride, and mostly coasters at that. I can't remember the last time I waited more than maybe 10-15 minutes for anything, and I don't know if I can go back to feeling like so much of my time at a park is just wasted. Does CP ever have days like that, or is a certain amount of waiting par for the course? If I made the special trip that's been in the back of my mind for years and timed it right, could I live the walk-on dream?

I'd love to see the park and get all those legendary credits, but if it's always crowded, it's kind of like getting a standard room at the Ritz Carlton when the ol' Dallas Hilton always gives me the penthouse suite and free room service. I've been spoiled out here in the provinces.

[prozach626]

no

[AmyUD06]

7 hours ago, PhilNotPhil said:

What are CP crowds like at mid-week in the middle of summer? My typical park day is one of those at a midsize Six Flags like Texas, Georgia, or Fiesta. The last CF park I went to was WOF on a weekday. Those are mostly walk-on, re-ride, headache-free experiences. I don't stop to eat park food, I don't see shows, I ride, and mostly coasters at that. I can't remember the last time I waited more than maybe 10-15 minutes for anything, and I don't know if I can go back to feeling like so much of my time at a park is just wasted. Does CP ever have days like that, or is a certain amount of waiting par for the course? If I made the special trip that's been in the back of my mind for years and timed it right, could I live the walk-on dream?

I'd love to see the park and get all those legendary credits, but if it's always crowded, it's kind of like getting a standard room at the Ritz Carlton when the ol' Dallas Hilton always gives me the penthouse suite and free room service. I've been spoiled out here in the provinces.

The only way you're getting walk-ons all day at Cedar Point are if the forecast calls for severe thunderstorms all day, but they never materialize but it stays overcast like they just might.  And that's a maybe, since CP is a tourist park, most of the people are attending are in the area for the purposes of attending the park, regardless of the weather.

Just pony up the money for FL+ and be done with it.

[Haymaker]

We went Friday, June 23rd and had walk-ons all day because it was low 70's and overcast. And that was with multiple tournaments going on at the sports park.

[AmyUD06]

6 hours ago, Haymaker said:

We went Friday, June 23rd and had walk-ons all day because it was low 70's and overcast. And that was with multiple tournaments going on at the sports park.

The multiple tournaments going on at the sports park probably drew crowds away from the park.

[PhilNotPhil]

Eh. Life's too short to spend waiting and not riding, or paying 2x admission to wait "less". Maybe I'll try KI or Carowinds or SFMM. Or I might just keep hitting the parks where I can ride 10 times in an hour, not 10 times in a day. Rides > credits.

[thepoint4life23]

From what i know you might get lucky with KIngs island but its just as Busy as cedar point. 

 

The weekend of September 8 and 9th is normal a non Halloweekends weekend that brings less crowds 

[prozach626]

10 hours ago, PhilNotPhil said:

Eh. Life's too short to spend waiting and not riding, or paying 2x admission to wait "less". Maybe I'll try KI or Carowinds or SFMM. Or I might just keep hitting the parks where I can ride 10 times in an hour, not 10 times in a day. Rides > credits.

Some of us pay twice the admission to ride only 10 times a day and spend the rest of the time relaxing, while not waiting in line. Worth it.

[coasternut]

Strike my Valrvn closure comment. It's open now.

Edited July 11, 2023 by coasternut

[PhilNotPhil]

14 hours ago, prozach626 said:

Some of us pay twice the admission to ride only 10 times a day and spend the rest of the time relaxing, while not waiting in line. Worth it.

I guess I'd rather take that $100+ per person and spend the other half of my day eating better food and seeing better shows than I could at a theme park. I don't go to theme parks to relax. Different strokes.

[coasterbill]

7 hours ago, PhilNotPhil said:

I guess I'd rather take that $100+ per person and spend the other half of my day eating better food and seeing better shows than I could at a theme park. I don't go to theme parks to relax. Different strokes.

... or, why not just skip the line for free by being a duck!

]

Source: Reddit

PS: I have no additional context right now, but it looks like a duck rode Millennium Force. This might be my favorite theme park story since the Orlando Eye semi-exploded on New Year's Eve.