Cedar Point (CP) Discussion Thread

[AndrewA86]

It’s amazing what the lines in the rest of the park have been like so far this year. I normally avoid the park like the plague between Memorial Day and August without fast lane, but I’ve been at least once a week since opening day and I only go on weekdays so I can’t say if it’s the same on weekends, but the lines for everything not in frontiertown have been very favorable.

 

I start every day by entering at the resort entrance and walking to SV at the rope drop. Since the two train operation I’ve been on in 20 minutes. then I make my way over to Maverick because by now SV is at least an hour wait, and it’s usually a 5 min wait at Maverick so I get 2 rides before 10. Sometimes 3 depending if the wait is less than 10 min.

 

Now from this point on I estimate that at any given time about 40% of the parks guests are either in line for Vengeance or Maverick. Because every other ride (except raptor early Because it’s in the front) is less than a 15 minute wait unless it’s not running at full capacity or something.

 

The dragster line has been ridiculously short. In fact the last time I was there was Wednesday and it was basically walk on the entire day.

 

ValRavn can sometimes be 15 or less too. And sometimes it’s over an hour.

 

The rest are 15 or less. GateKeeper has been a walk on all season. Millie (world’s best family giga) is a walk on if they are running all 3 trains. The blue train has been down a lot on the days I’ve gone. I don’t know if it’s a coincidence that it just does when I’m there or if it’s been a problem all season or not, but point is, the lines for that and the rest of the park are non existent. It’s been great! And if it keeps up like this I might visit the park 60 times this year instead of my usual 30.

 

 

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Nice! See this is what I was hoping for, esp in late August, and yes I'll be there on a Friday. Only thing is, I want multiple rides on SV. I imagine lines have been ridiculous. So Im in a bit of a pickle, fork out the near $100 and risk that for most of the park it will be a waste, or dont but then I may get what 2 rides on SV? And that would likely be during early access hotel hours.

I suppose could wait till near then and see what crowds are like BUT I hear fast pass also can sell out and dont want to get shut out. Ugh idk!

 

Yeah don’t worry about fast lane selling out. You will need it though if you don’t want to wait the 2 hours for SV. With early entry you will most likely get 1 ride with a minimal wait. By 9:30 the line is usually an hour at the least.

 

 

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[DILinator]

GateKeeper - This is where our personal tastes vectored significantly from the TPR poll. Kevin and I loved this ride, in fact we probably had more laps on GateKeeper than on any other coaster in the park. We both loved how each seat gave such a radically different ride, the park side has a more intense first drop where the lake side had a couple of really fun disorienting moments. Inside seats offered a floaty feeling of flying, outer seats really messed with my fear of heights and had those great “close calls” with the gates. And it’s just so very pretty. Admittedly things felt a bit skimpy after the mcbr, but not enough to ruin the rest of the ride for us and I give it extra points for ride cars that look like freaking Romulan warbirds. Ride ops were blazing fast.

 

16. Magnum XL-200 - Ow, ow, ow, what the F! was that. Ow, ow, ow, brake run.

 

Yes! Yes! This gal gets it, on both counts! (And don't start with that "trick" talk when it comes to Magnum... It only makes it marginally better, and if you need a "trick" to enjoy a coaster ride, it's not a very good coaster! But YAY for nostalgia I guess! )

 

And yes, CP bathrooms are definitely among the low-lights of the park experience. I would love to see them them somehow consistently keep them cleaner, and brighter. But then again, they are bathrooms, so they'll never be TOO glamorous!

[boldikus]

Quick Bios:

Me - Big-Fat-card-carrying AARP member and thrill junkie up for any coaster or flat. Oregonian, not the Portlandia kind, I’m from the dry-and-lonely side of the state. Extreme vacation planner (I have spreadsheets and I’m not afraid to use them). Avid motorcycle rider (no I don’t have a Harley). Retired as tech support and web design wench for a motorcycle performance firm a few years ago. Married to a retired UPS guy who is a fiend on two wheels but turns green on anything wilder than Big Thunder Mountain RR. I’ve been to all the major California and Florida parks, that’s about it. My ride list is pathetic, but I plan to work on that over the next few years and I do have the rare and coveted Washington State Fair Classic Coaster cred.

 

Really great report. My only gripe is you should have posted such a good report in its own thread, as its only going to get buried in the CP thread. Oh well, there's always next trip.

 

^ What I find funny about the Magnum hate is we rode it only a handful of times during my one and only visit to the park a few years ago, with no prior knowledge of the seatbelt trick, and loved the thing. Even accidentally sat in the ejector seat. No pain, no thigh crushing, just awesome air and a hell of a classic ride with some incredible views. So it's not nostalgia, and the ride wasn't great thanks to some trick. I think back to it as one of the huge surprises of that trip, and still rank it very high based on just those handful of rides. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[DILinator]

^I don't know what to say man, but it's given me some terrible rides this year, and increasingly so in the years prior to this. And most non-enthusiasts I know can't stand it anymore. Every so often I get an enjoyable ride on it, but they're outnumbered by the bad ones these days. I don't know how to do that shrugging thing, but yeah... lol

[Ape]

The wife and I love Magnum and Gatekeeper. Though with Gatekeeper we only ride one spot every time and thats the last row of the left side. It has become a favorite.

[grsupercity]

Tony I know you read these forums. Put B&M trains on Magnum like they did with Steel Dragon and it will fix alot of issues with the ride.

[AndrewA86]

I’ve said it before on here, Magnum in the past has been up and down for me. At the end of last season it was running very well. It didn’t matter what seat, and I didn’t need any seatbelt trick, it was just a good ride on it’s own.

 

But this year so far it’s been terrible. I’ve only been to the park 12 times with 30 different people and nobody liked it so far. so maybe it’s coincidence that it’s running bad just when I’m there, who knows, but I doubt it.

[coasterbill]

We rode it earlier this year and loved it.

 

Well... I loved it. Brit had always hated it and still does

[PKI Jizzman]

Seat belt extra tightened doesn't fix old clunky Arrow mine train lapbars slamming into thighs.

 

Yet I love Gemini and have no complaints about it...

 

So I guess for me it's the degree of ejection into the old clunky lap bar.

 

I do enjoy the nostalgia of Magnum - the trains, track style, lift sounds, etc but I think there's a great opportunity to improve the ride with, yeah, new trains. Anything more open to give you more freedom with that unmatched position on the lake would do wonders. It's a tired suggestion but every visit to CP I feel better equipped to enjoy Magnum but come off wondering if the magic seats/tricks are just a joke

Edited June 25, 2018 by PKI Jizzman

[pfalcioni]

I will definitely give Magnum another try next time we're there, it's always amazing to hear how radically different some coasters run at different times of the day/year.

[jonskinny12]

Great report! I enjoyed reading all of your impressions and I love the park for a lot of the same reasons.

 

I love Magnum, went a few weeks ago and thought it was running just fine. It has a great setting for a coaster and I really enjoy the first half for that, but when the seatbelt is tightened the final run of small hills is a blast. To each their own, though. I understand why some people don't like the ride. Almost everyone has a great time at Cedar Point for their own reason and that's perfectly fine.

[Aceattack52]

I’m in the park today it doesn’t look like Steel Vengeance hasn’t ran yet. Does anyone know whats going on?

[bert425]

I will definitely give Magnum another try next time we're there, it's always amazing to hear how radically different some coasters run at different times of the day/year.

 

yep.

 

my one prior visit, we HATED (and I mean: Burn it with fire, HATED) Blue Streak.

 

the smoothest part of the ride was sitting down into the train and clicking the lap bar down.

 

I've been told we must have caught it on a bad day. . but wow was it awful.

[coasterbill]

Blue Streak sucks lately (even in non wheel seats). I'd rather ride Corkscrew.

[bert425]

Blue Streak sucks lately (even in non wheel seats). I'd rather ride Corkscrew.

 

hah.. .

 

Blue Streak, Corkscrew, and Rougarou were all 1 and done for us. . everything else got multiple rides during a 3 day visit

[DirkFunk]

LOL I rode Blue Streak 5 times during the power outage with almost no wait. Nothing but great rides front and back. I thoroughly disagree - yeah I hate the ratcheting bars and the hard foam padding, but that thing is running really well IMO. I can also ride the hell out of Magnum in 1.3 and Rougarou in middle seats. Y'all are crazy to me.

[bert425]

LOL I rode Blue Streak 5 times during the power outage with almost no wait. Nothing but great rides front and back. I thoroughly disagree - yeah I hate the ratcheting bars and the hard foam padding, but that thing is running really well IMO. I can also ride the hell out of Magnum in 1.3 and Rougarou in middle seats. Y'all are crazy to me.

 

i'm gonna give them all another try, when I get to go back in about a month. . so looking forwards to seeing if I just caught a bad ride on a good coaster.

[pfalcioni]

And we thought Blue Streak was rough fun (rode it 4x on 3 different days, admittedly all in the middle of the coaster though once in a wheel seat) where Magnum was rough pain. It really is weird, I know some of it can just be the coaster having a bad day or rider choosing a bad seat (or not knowing a trick like tight seatbelt/loose lapbar), but it's pretty apparent that people feel forces differently.

[pfalcioni]

 

Really great report. My only gripe is you should have posted such a good report in its own thread, as its only going to get buried in the CP thread. Oh well, there's always next trip.

 

Thank you! I didn't think it was worthy of its own thread since I only had one post and I'm a newbie here so didn't know how it would be received.

[ytterbiumanalyst]

Yeah around here the CP thread is really just used for complaining about Cedar Point and/or saying stupid things that get you banned. If you want to say what an awesome time you had at Cedar Point, you need a trip report thread.

[boldikus]

Agreed. Andrew got what I was saying - the CP thread moves fast so your stellar report is already buried 5 or so pages back. I was also thinking that in your intro to your report you stated you'd planned on hitting more parks. A few of us regulars have started threads of just our reports (see my signature, etc). I'm stoked to see more reports from you.

 

Hopefully we won't scare you off.

[DavidB]

I don't mind some roughness on a coaster whatsoever and thoroughly enjoy wood coasters. Maybe I've gotten bad rides or sat in the wrong seat, but I'm pretty sure I at least got a middle row on Blue Streak last time I went to CP. Both of the previous times I went in 2016 and 2013 Blue Streak was a one and done for me. It has that whole punching you in the back thing going on...not a fan. Not nearly the roughest ride I've ever been on or anything, but that jackhammering sort of feeling sucks. It's not exciting enough to be worth the discomfort. Hopefully next time I get a good ride and want to go back for rerides.

 

I do love Magnum though, and have zero complaints at all about Rougarou(or Mantis for that matter). Different rides on different days or seats? Different preferences? I don't know, but that's been my experience the last couple times I went to CP.

[pfalcioni]

Agreed. Andrew got what I was saying - the CP thread moves fast so your stellar report is already buried 5 or so pages back. I was also thinking that in your intro to your report you stated you'd planned on hitting more parks. A few of us regulars have started threads of just our reports (see my signature, etc). I'm stoked to see more reports from you.

 

Hopefully we won't scare you off.

 

I've lurked here for years, so I hope -fingers crossed- I have enough sense of forum courtesy to not say anything that will make you all scare me off!

 

I could start a thread and include our 2-month road trip to Florida that we did in January/February along with this trip and future trips. Our Florida trip included all the typical parks, but it is somewhat different because we travel with our cat (she's an awesome road trip companion, she's been all the way up to Prudhoe Bay AK in our truck and camper last summer).

[bert425]

Agreed. Andrew got what I was saying - the CP thread moves fast so your stellar report is already buried 5 or so pages back. I was also thinking that in your intro to your report you stated you'd planned on hitting more parks. A few of us regulars have started threads of just our reports (see my signature, etc). I'm stoked to see more reports from you.

 

Hopefully we won't scare you off.

 

I've lurked here for years, so I hope -fingers crossed- I have enough sense of forum courtesy to not say anything that will make you all scare me off!

 

I could start a thread and include our 2-month road trip to Florida that we did in January/February along with this trip and future trips. Our Florida trip included all the typical parks, but it is somewhat different because we travel with our cat (she's an awesome road trip companion, she's been all the way up to Prudhoe Bay AK in our truck and camper last summer).

 

that would be interesting to read about I think.

 

I tend to post a LOT of details, so I do a separate TR for most cases. . but whatever works for you.

 

tho I agree that in the main Park thread, it's gonna get buried rather quickly .

[pfalcioni]

I'm obviously a detail freak too, I loved your Niagra Falls TR, Marineland looks so weirdly cool I'd love to visit. Actually, the entire area seems weirdly cool to me.