Cedar Point (CP) Discussion Thread

[SimpsonTide985]

On 6/14/2021 at 8:27 AM, MrFurious said:

I think that if you use FL+, you should experience lower waits on SV... depending on time of day.

In what I've seen in the last 3 times I've been to CP, it's very random and hard to predict the best time you'll want to get onto SV, regardless of if you have FL+ or not. For me, if you don't have Early Entry or FL+, you absolutely need to go as early as you can in the morning, preferably in the Magnum gate entrance.  OR you'll want to go early in the afternoon--maybe around lunch time 12-2pm. If you can get in line early enough in the day, you might be able to get a 20 min wait as long as you put your stuff in the $2 lockers BEFORE you get in the line and if the folks in front of you are moving fast enough in the regular line. 

Otherwise, it's completely unpredictable as you never know how many FL+ park riders are going to flood into Steel Vengeance all at once.  I'd say 80% of all FL+ riders will only use it for Steel Vengeance and Maverick so there's always a chance that the FL+ lines are going to still be incredibly long, especially during midday peak (2pm-4pm).

[SimpsonTide985]

57 minutes ago, anonymouscactus said:

Sounds like a lot of work. Or, you know, go at 1:00p with fast lane.

... but no there are some good tips in there for those without FL.

Having stuff for the free lockers can potentially slow you down a bit, as you said, if you go with empty pockets you bypass everyone getting the lockers. At least when I was there... but we were super quick getting the lockers so it didn't matter.

It's not a lot of work. I just like writing out the details.

 

Also I will partially disagree in that saying "1pm with Fast Lane" isn't really reliable enough day-to-day. Sometimes you might get lucky but it's hard to really account for some abnormalities that could occur throughout that lunch period. There could always be a random flood of FL+ people choking up the line at any moment.

I do agree that 1pm is still a decent time since most people will start looking to get lunch.

I only recommended the $2 lockers first only because there seems to be no consistency in terms of how the line operators will merge you back into the best line and at the right time and I can't guess that everyone will be as fast through the inside lockers as you or I might be.

[bert425]

56 minutes ago, SimpsonTide985 said:

If you're curious, I got on the first train of the day on Steel Vengeance on this past Sunday WITHOUT even using Fast Lane. It's the only way I know of getting onto the ride, particularly on the first train, without Fast Lane and in well under an hour, specifically on a weekend.

Protips on how to do this:
1. You MUST have Gold/Platinum/Early Entry AND you must enter in through the Main Gate. This is the only way you can get in at the earliest times. They usually open the main gate around 8:45am so you want to already parked and be in the security line by 8:30am-ish.

2. Also, obviously, you have to go straight back to Steel Vengeance right away using the Gemini Midway. I DO recommend using the restrooms near Top Thrill or the ones near Gemini on the way to the back unless you're in a group. You might have a little bit of time to hop on Magnum XL-200 on the way since it usually opens at 9am sharp, but you can skip it. By the time you get to Steel Vengeance, there should be less than a dozen people sitting around waiting if you've been a fast walker.
NOTE: If you're NOT a season passholder, I recommend going in through the Park's Magnum entrance (via the Resort Drive) on the northeast end of the park and get in that gate's line by 9:15am. They usually will open the Magnum gate at around 9:45am-ish. You obviously won't get the first Steel Vengeance train, and there'll probably still be about 150+ people already in the line before you get there, BUT it'll be better using this entrance versus the Main Entrance that the majority of the people will use at 10am.

3. Now, the trick is, knowing that the Fast Lane Plus lanes and the Steel Vengeance ride itself doesn't even open until 10am (actually more like 10:15am due to the early testing runs). So, you really want to stay right there in line as soon as you can, no matter if some rides like Maverick, Raptor, Magnum, and Valravn are running early as early as 9am. This is because the big line for Steel Vengeance will start around 9:30am and if you don't get in line right then, there will easily be 400+ people in line by 10:15am when they start letting everyone in. So, even if you have to wait at the Steel Vengeance entrance at 9:15am, a 45 min wait is worth it versus the 2 hour wait if you leave to ride something else first and come back later after 10am.

4. Also, they will open both the general line AND the Fast Lane Plus line at the same time as well. At a certain point inside the queue, these two lines merge into one. However, the general line has a much longer walk path before it gets to the merged line, so I'd recommend running not walking through the general line path. If you're quick enough, you can actually BEAT the Fast Lane Plus crowd to the front of the train line!

5. Also, if you get there early enough at 9am, you'll be able to sit down and wait on the raised concrete just to the side of the entrance. No having to stand up for hours waiting!

6. Lastly, USE-THE-OUTSIDE-LOCKERS. At around 9:45am, while you're waiting for Steel Vengeance to open, have someone save your spot in line and go use the $2 lockers across from the entrance and put everything in your pockets inside (including glasses, hats, etc.). Trust me, 8 or 9 times out of 10, you WILL lose your spot in line if you use the free lockers inside.

Enjoy!

so what you're saying is you DIDN'T get on it in 10 minutes.

based on your hints, you would have waited 1 hour and 20 minutes (minimum) to get your ride, since you got there right at 9, and basically stood in line waiting for Steel Vengeance to open - instead of riding other things open during early morning hours.  Actually, you would have stood around doing nothing for ~2 hours, since you recommend getting there at 8:30 parked.

my time is worth more than the cost of FL+, so it's foolish not to buy it, and just do it that way (and also enjoying any other early entry rides that are open, if you're a hotel guest/pass holder)

[MrFurious]

On 6/15/2021 at 6:43 AM, prozach626 said:

I'm willing to bet after a crowded day at Cedar Point, your experience at Kings Island will be a breath of fresh air. Maybe... just maybe your group will decide after waiting so long in lines at Cedar Point they'll want to do a cheaper (selling point) FL+ option. You'll get a true FL+ experience that way.

Regardless, I'm sure you'll have fun. Enjoy!

(no biting wit)

To conclude (in brief), as this really belongs in a K.I. post... but as we had early entry to K.I. and they didn't... and the crap show that was Monday at CP...I took a picture of the parking lines and sent to to them (they hadn't left the hotel yet)... and they responded with "we should buy FL+".

 

DONE!

So... first trip to K.I. was freaking amazing. 26 total rides, 24 coasters, leisure clockwise approach, good beer and food, MAGIC. Changed every future visit to a park. 

Also, CP has such a maintenence issue with their coasters (and/or wind), and K.I.'s were SUPER reliable. My daughter is firmly off the mind that K.I. is better... even though her favorite two coasters are at CP.

NOW... to plan a trip through Virginia and Pennsylvania.  We'll try and save money through airbnb's and buck up on the fast passes. 

Thanks for all the advice!!!

[SimpsonTide985]

16 hours ago, bert425 said:

so what you're saying is you DIDN'T get on it in 10 minutes.

based on your hints, you would have waited 1 hour and 20 minutes (minimum) to get your ride, since you got there right at 9, and basically stood in line waiting for Steel Vengeance to open - instead of riding other things open during early morning hours.  Actually, you would have stood around doing nothing for ~2 hours, since you recommend getting there at 8:30 parked.
 

I think you're misunderstanding my point. My point was never about getting on Steel Vengeance in 10 minutes. I made that clear right off the bat. I also talked about how uncommon and hard to predict that can be.  My post was specifically about getting on the first train without having Fast Lane.

Let me make it more clear.

First off, there are only a handful of rides (specifically coasters) that open at 9am during certain days: Maverick, Millennium Force, Valravn, Raptor, and Magnum XL-200.  I think sometimes Top Thrill Dragster and Gatekeeper runs early but I've never seen those two operating at any point earlier than 11am due to the many test trains. Those are the ONLY rides (coasters) you can get on during the 9am-10am period, so you're exaggerating the "riding other things open during early morning hours".  

Also, in my experience, what usually happens is that around 9am during park opening, the only ride(s) that will be successfully or continuously operating throughout the 9am-10am early entry period will be Magnum XL-200 and/or Valravn. Most often, Raptor and Millennium Force will always be down early in the morning. Maverick tends to run a few loaded trains early too but they've been prone to go down a lot early in the morning. I think you might be able to ride two of these and get off by 9:15am if you're moving fast enough.

Here's the trade-off that you're completely missing, which is the point I was trying to make:

Fast Lanes don't even go into effect until after 10am.
If you try to spend too much time on ANY of the early entry rides aside from MAYBE Magnum XL-200, what will happen is that while you're getting onto other rides, ostensibly while waiting for Steel Vengeance to open, that by the time you DO get into the Steel Vengeance line(s), the line would have exponentially grown anyway. If you don't have FL+ and you eventually get back to Steel Vengeance later after 10am, the line would've grown much more longer than at any point if you weren't already in line.   .

Here's what you'll like and probably the only point of yours that I partially agree on: is that if you're quick enough, when the park opens at 9am, you may have enough time to get on TWO early entry rides such as Valravn and Magnum XL-200, which usually don't have too terrible of lines at 9am and STILL make it to the first or second Steel Vengeance train of the day in the general entry line on a busy weekend. However, if you're interested in getting on Maverick early as well, the Maverick line between 9am-10am I've seen can easily grow to around 200 people deep before 9:30am. So, you're still going to pay for that whenever you've tried to go back to Steel Vengeance at any other point in the day.  
 

I get it. Everyone is gonna value their Early Entry, Fast Lane, their time, and prioritize riding certain rides differently.

My example and tips were for a very specific objective and probably won't apply to a lot of people.

[bert425]

I get your clarification, tho I'm still at a loss as to why you would WANT to be on the 1st or 2nd train.

Coasters tend to run better/faster once they "warm up" and have been going for a while.     the first train of the day (to me) is gonna be underwhelming and you'll get a much better ride later in the day on most coasters (not all, but most), and I include RMCs in that judgement.

but hey to each their own. . I won't do CP without FL+ on at least 1 of the days I'm there.

[CenturyFlyer]

It was insanely crowded yesterday, but I still had fun. Believe it or not, I survived by riding Maverick before Steel Vengeance during Early Entry, without Fastlane. I even took a walk down Frontier Trail in the morning. The SV ride was pretty great because we got the back seat and had steam train smoke in our faces. I then got in line for Top Thrill Dragster as it was testing after being down. Once it opened, I waited an hour in line and had it break down again when I was two trains away. After they backed all the trains up to unload the stranded train, they launched one train successfully and dispatched ours with it, but we failed to advance and were stuck in the brake just before the light tree for about 20 minutes until we were backed up and unloaded. 20 minutes later and two hours into this debacle, we finally got our ride! Looking at the stats now, TTD didn't run for a full hour all day (not surprising)!

For the rest of the day, I focused more on the smaller rides I enjoy. I appreciate the consistency, but I was surprised that Cedar Fair doesn't let you take pictures once you've stepped on to a carousel platform, even if the ride hasn't started yet. The crowds were preventative to riding other coasters - Corkscrew and Gemini had 45 min waits all day, for instance - but I was able to entertain myself until it was time to drive home taking pictures and riding flat rides. One thing that was slightly frustrating is how seemingly slow the operations were on smaller coasters, namely Blue Streak and Corkscrew.

[BRTeller]

On 6/16/2021 at 3:33 PM, bert425 said:

so what you're saying is you DIDN'T get on it in 10 minutes.

based on your hints, you would have waited 1 hour and 20 minutes (minimum) to get your ride, since you got there right at 9, and basically stood in line waiting for Steel Vengeance to open - instead of riding other things open during early morning hours.  Actually, you would have stood around doing nothing for ~2 hours, since you recommend getting there at 8:30 parked.

my time is worth more than the cost of FL+, so it's foolish not to buy it, and just do it that way (and also enjoying any other early entry rides that are open, if you're a hotel guest/pass holder)

Yeah, this is not advice I'd give to someone with or without FL. Hopefully people are weary of listening to going to SV first and we're not just outliers. 

Get there early, absolutely! Use this time wisely though, SV as you stated doesn't open until 10:15, with crowds flocking to it. Completely skip it during early entry, it's a waste of time. Instead, get on Raptor, Magnum or MF (You decide which) and Maverick (in that order). You should be done around 11 or 11:30, maybe get a few rides on SkyHawk and CCMR while no one's bothering with them yet. Then head to SV around noon to 1pm when all those early riders have gotten their ride and the line will likely be about half of whatever it was earlier.

Or stand around waiting and miss out on rides to be the first on. Which if that's important to you, go right ahead, haha. For anyone reading this though looking to get more than a couple of rides in a day and the ability to ride everything at some point, this works with the current schedule very well.

Also, never listen to the parks estimated waits for SV! I've seen it at most 2 and half hours opening weekend. It absolutely gets busy, but I've seen 45 minute waits listed as 2 hours more often than not.

[CenturyFlyer]

As soon as Cedar Fair realized they wouldn't be able to have four workers for the Forbidden Frontier rafts at all hours of the day, they realized that they needed to close CP two days a week.

[FeelTheFORCE]

Had a pretty decent day at the park yesterday overall, despite the heat.  Regular lines were fairly long, but FL+ came in clutch yet again, and I never waited more than 15 minutes for anything.  More parks should also implement the "scan yourself and go through" parking booths like Cedar Point has.  It's a super quick and easy system, and they can still have all the booths open to keep traffic moving, despite the staffing issues.  The SV crew was also really hustling yesterday to keep capacity up and the line moving, so major props to them.  It seems like they've also refined that whole locker and line system pretty well now.  A minor note is that you can also tell that some ride ops are still newer, and it will still take some time for the more inexperienced ones to get up to speed and in a quicker rhythm.  They are definitely on the right track though, and I didn't feel like there were many rides or stands closed at all.

Also, I know enthusiasts have been saying this for years, but I do hope Cedar Point re-evaluates their rain policy some day.  A week ago at Dollywood I rode Thunderhead in an absolute monsoon, but anything more than 30 seconds of rain yesterday (sometimes mixed in with sun at the same time) shut down 90%+ of the park.  This happened a few times, and there was even one instance where they were still in the process of shutting down when the rain had stopped and the sun was shining, yet they proceeded to continue and stand around waiting in the sun for however many minutes the SOP says until resuming again.

[anonymouscactus]

2 hours ago, FeelTheFORCE said:

. More parks should also implement the "scan yourself and go through" parking booths like Cedar Point has.  It's a super quick and easy system, and they can still have all the booths open to keep traffic moving, despite the staffing issues. 

Interesting, the equipment has been there since the start of the season but I have yet to see them uncovered or in use at CP yet. Glad they finally got these up and running! Typically there would be like 4 lanes open even at opening, so getting them all going will be a great help. They have had them at Kings Island for a few years now.

[SimpsonTide985]

Random question: Does anyone have any advice on best places to go to use the restroom BEFORE you get to Cedar Point? Like, in the Sandusky area?

 The last time I tried a local gas station, the restrooms were suspiciously closed...

[AmyUD06]

11 minutes ago, SimpsonTide985 said:

Random question: Does anyone have any advice on best places to go to use the restroom BEFORE you get to Cedar Point? Like, in the Sandusky area?

 The last time I tried a local gas station, the restrooms were suspiciously closed...

Your best bet is probably the Shell station at the corner of Rye Beach Road and W Cleveland Road (you'll be passing by this on your way from Buffalo).  You may need to ask the clerk for a bathroom key; I noticed this as a trend in Ohio.

[tndank]

McDs at the entrance an option?

[KIEnthusiast]

https://www.cedarpoint.com/blog/media-center/the-party-fit-for-a-sesquicentennial-is-here

[bert425]

2 hours ago, SimpsonTide985 said:

Random question: Does anyone have any advice on best places to go to use the restroom BEFORE you get to Cedar Point? Like, in the Sandusky area?

 The last time I tried a local gas station, the restrooms were suspiciously closed...

not what you asked, but passing along what I learned from the actual park:

if you're not staying at Breakers - so no option to go back to your own room -  and you need a "stall" (to put it politely). . the ONLY decent option in CP proper:

the Restrooms right next to the Police Station.

those seem to be the only ones that are regularly maintained very well, and are the most semi-private due to the design (at least in the men's room - can't speak to the women's).

the only other option I can think of might be to go out the Valravn gate over to the Marina, to make use of Famous Daves (the Marina has public restrooms right there across from the Valravn gate. . but they're pretty "interstate rest-stop" level )_

[BitterOldHag]

2 hours ago, SimpsonTide985 said:

Random question: Does anyone have any advice on best places to go to use the restroom BEFORE you get to Cedar Point? Like, in the Sandusky area?

 The last time I tried a local gas station, the restrooms were suspiciously closed...

If you come up US 250 from the Turnpike, there are tons of places.  There's a Culver's and Chick-Fil-A that are both very new, there's a BP station called "Mickey Mart" across from those 2 restaurants that have had clean restrooms, and there is a Meijer as well.  If you're coming on Rte 2 from the East, there's a rest area, so there are plenty of options.  I know I'm getting old as I only have an 80 minute drive to CP and I end up stopping somewhere along the way for a bathroom break!

[southpuddle]

8 hours ago, SimpsonTide985 said:

Random question: Does anyone have any advice on best places to go to use the restroom BEFORE you get to Cedar Point? Like, in the Sandusky area?

 The last time I tried a local gas station, the restrooms were suspiciously closed...

They were probably suspiciously closed “due to covid” - a lot of businesses used that as an excuse to close their bathrooms when there was zero reason or mandate. You may have luck this time around, but for the next year I suspect businesses will use “staffing shortage” as their go-to for not providing service to customers. 

[CoasterGuy06]

13 hours ago, bert425 said:

if you're not staying at Breakers - so no option to go back to your own room -  and you need a "stall" (to put it politely). . the ONLY decent option in CP proper:

the Restrooms right next to the Police Station.

those seem to be the only ones that are regularly maintained very well, and are the most semi-private due to the design (at least in the men's room - can't speak to the women's).
 

I think it's Miss Keat's Smokehouse in Frontiertown that has bathrooms in the back of the dinning room which consists of a single toilet and the doors lock. They are around the corner inside, so I don't think many realize they are back there.

[prozach626]

Avoiding sitting on urine covered hot toilet stalls and fighting mud butt all day is just another reason to stay at Breakers. A brief sunrise jog around the peninsula, a double shot Starbucks Americano, do your dirty work, and a nice warm shower will help jump start your day, at a leisurely pace. We top it off with a light breakfast of over-easy eggs and fruit to complete the endorphin release, evacuation, cleanse, and fuel up process cycle. It's another part of our Cedar Point experience. It makes the late afternoon/evening beer drinking and garbage eating much more tolerable.

I went all in on the unpleasant facts. People poop. No shame. Courtesy flushes are mandatory in small hotel rooms.

[Zand]

While we're on this topic...I meant to say this in my TR a couple weeks ago but never did. CP (that weekend in particular, but previously as well) has the most disgusting bathrooms of any park I've been to in the past 3 or 4 years. That includes 3 different Six Flags parks. CP should've celebrated their 150th anniversary by updating the restrooms for the first time since 1962.

Meanwhile, KI (even on the real busy day) had some of the cleanest restrooms I've been in.

I know there's been plenty of debate over which park is better this year, but there should be no debate over which park has the cleaner Johns.

[VF15]

https://www.cedarpoint.com/blog/exciting-park-news?fbclid=IwAR16g7hQqKdY5KmT12BmBsIV2ny1WIcZdBsAA7z6rm13HuD8teX_wTGCsco

Reservations will no longer be required to visit Cedar Point effective July 1. Also the park will now be open daily through Labor Day (it was previously mid-August).

[coasterbill]

Wow... that's actually all good news. Slow clap for Cedar Point.

[tndank]

Word is they also stop cutting the lines early and are back to the old way. All good news for sure. 

[coasterbill]

1 hour ago, tndank said:

Word is they also stop cutting the lines early and are back to the old way. All good news for sure. 

I’d like to see more confirmation on this but if it’s true I might actually go there (once they fix Gatekeeper). Despite all of my shit talking lately I do love this park, which is why it’s a shame to see it run like crap.