Cedar Point (CP) Discussion Thread

[clem2754]

Any updates today on how the crowds were for the big rides?

[KPfan]

Any updates today on how the crowds were for the big rides?

Short compared to normal. Temps are upper 40s with spotty rain. Most lines are under 30 min. SV has been down for a good 2hrs now.

[KPfan]

Just rode SV after a 20min wait. Did not disappoint. [emoji106]

[teacherkim]

Yep! No waits over 30 min today for the most part. And anyone using fastlane pretty much had a walk on.

 

There was some staggering of rides due to what I assume were staffing issues. Some technical closures but I think they were mostly temporary.

 

The temps dropped a bit in the afternoon and when it started to rain some, the park emptied out even more. Even SV dropped to about a 30-40 min wait. They never resorted to the boarding passes that I'm aware of. As mentioned SV did go down for a while.

 

It was pretty frigid on most of the rides in the afternoon

and evening and I'm sure that helped keep crowds light today as much as the rain forecast. Thankfully even though there was some rain, no lightning. It didn't appear any rides shut down due to weather.

 

We were supposed to have an hour of ert on SV at closing but it was switched to MF due to anticipated long lines with the one train ops. My son is still in the park so he will let me know how that ended up working out. It was pretty damn cold when I rode it at 7:30

[coasterbill]

Are people still asking about the queue times? God, you can lead a horse to water...

[inlina]

Are people still posting about the queue times? God, you can lead a horse to water...

 

Such luddites.

[qwimjim]

is queue-times.com accurate? it's saying raptor, rougarou, gatekeeper, gemini are all closed today and a whole bunch of other lower tier rides. is that normal second weekend of the season, still not opening all coasters, etc?

[clem2754]

The reason why people should ask for people to report back is because they can accurately account for how long they waited for a ride, unlike the apps which have proven time and time again to be not accurate. I think that has been covered over and over again in these forums.

[prozach626]

Yep! No waits over 30 min today for the most part. And anyone using fastlane pretty much had a walk on.

Good to hear. That's what I'm looking for!

 

 

We were supposed to have an hour of ert on SV at closing but it was switched to MF due to anticipated long lines with the one train ops. My son is still in the park so he will let me know how that ended up working out. It was pretty damn cold when I rode it at 7:30

That's exactly what I hope happens at Coaster Campout. Valravn is supposed to be our morning ERT, so I hope the night ERT is switched to MF or Maverick.

[coasterbill]

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

[AndrewA86]

is queue-times.com accurate? it's saying raptor, rougarou, gatekeeper, gemini are all closed today and a whole bunch of other lower tier rides. is that normal second weekend of the season, still not opening all coasters, etc?

 

So far that’s true. Gemini is testing both sides. I can’t complain though, so far 2x on SV, 2x Maverick, 2x TTD and about to hit Valravn

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[clem2754]

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

Web cams are more useful to tell you what is open, but you don't see queue lines. Also foot traffic can be different depending on when you are looking. Reports from people are the most accurate.

[coasterbill]

is queue-times.com accurate? it's saying raptor, rougarou, gatekeeper, gemini are all closed today and a whole bunch of other lower tier rides. is that normal second weekend of the season, still not opening all coasters, etc?

 

So far that’s true. Gemini is testing both sides. I can’t complain though, so far 2x on SV, 2x Maverick, 2x TTD and about to hit Valravn

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Yup. And as I’ve mentioned multiple times on the last few pages the park hasn’t been updating Gatekeeper and Iron Dragon yet this year. If you go to the website and click on a ride it shows you all of its queue time history for the past week. If it’s been “0” the whole time then it clearly hasn’t been updated (except for obviously Maxair). If people apply basic common sense they can get a feel for how busy the park is.

 

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

Web cams are more useful to tell you what is open, but you don't see queue lines. Also foot traffic can be different depending on when you are looking. Reports from people are the most accurate.

 

“People” are updating the app too and plenty of queue lines are on the webcam and can be used to gauge crowd levels with some common sense. I’m just trying to help, if you need to post something and wait a few hours for someone to let you know that they waited 57 minutes for Millennium Force and not the posted 45 (or whatever) even though it probably changed by the time they got to the front of the line anyway then more power to you.

[bert425]

is queue-times.com accurate? it's saying raptor, rougarou, gatekeeper, gemini are all closed today and a whole bunch of other lower tier rides. is that normal second weekend of the season, still not opening all coasters, etc?

 

So far that’s true. Gemini is testing both sides. I can’t complain though, so far 2x on SV, 2x Maverick, 2x TTD and about to hit Valravn

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Impressed as all hell that not only is TTD running (and well enough you got on it twice in a row), but Maverick too!

[AndrewA86]

^ Yeah ditto. Don’t want to jinx it but virtually no wind today and it’s deader than dead. I’ve already hit everything that’s open and back in line for SV which is about an hour long right now.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Philrad71]

I'm glad to hear Phil and Kim are having/had a great time. How's about posting some pictures after it's all said and done? How are the FL+ plus passes working out?

 

Sorry I missed you at SFSTL, Phil. I know you mentioned going prior to your visit. It would have been nice for Emily and I to grab a beer with you and your partner. It was my father-in-law's birthday, so even if we did try to make it a thing, we wouldn't have been able to make it. Seems like you're enjoying your spring.

 

That would have been great, Zach, but I understand that it's family first!

 

Plus I remember how brutal you said that your schedule was leading up to your coaster trip - hope that isn't wearing you out too much beforehand!

 

We did have a great time, although we had to cut our trip short and head home yesterday - not so much because of the weather, but Michael was just worn out from the duration of the trip. He wanted me to go into the park without him, but I wasn't going to leave him at Breakers all day while I went out and had fun.

 

I have a pretty cool story to tell about CP and once I get my pics uploaded onto the computer, I will be sure to post some!

[FeelTheFORCE]

I'm at the park as well, and a few rides had some minor mechanical hiccups, but everything is just about a walk-on for the most part. They even had the gate on MF open to go back right into the station. SV had about a 30 minute hiccup this morning, but the wait has been about 60-90 min. That crew is definitely flying, kudos to them. The only major ride I haven't seen run at all is Rougarou.

[SteVeUrkle]

*sorry double post*

[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!

[clem2754]

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.

[Philrad71]

Here are a couple of shots from Friday night at the park...full report of CP and our Branson adventure coming soon!

Yay - I made it!

Signage

More signage

Going up...

and going down...like really freaking fast!

Evac on Corkscrew. An employee at the Breakers said that this is the third time this has happened this season...wonder what's up with the ride this year? Early season jitters perhaps?

[CP Maverick]

Nice pics Phil. I like how MF, even from that angle so close to Corkscrew, still ends up taller.

[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.