Cedar Point (CP) Discussion Thread

[23savannah]

I doubt that CP would ever do this, but when Corkscrew breaks down permanently, they should at least keep the corkscrew section sprawling over the midway; seriously, that section of the park is my favorite. I love seeing the train whoosh right over your head.

[DougMJr]

I doubt that CP would ever do this, but when Corkscrew breaks down permanently, they should at least keep the corkscrew section sprawling over the midway; seriously, that section of the park is my favorite. I love seeing the train whoosh right over your head.

 

It is not a matter of breaking down permanently, because pretty much anything can be fixed. It is more of a matter of not being worth the coast to maintain it. Corkscrew is pretty small and takes up a narrow strip of land. I'm not really sure if anything substantial could go in its place. I think the corkscrews going over the midway is what is really saving it from being turned into scrap.

[Zcev5454]

I love those cornbread muffins and ribs from Famous Dave's! That was well worth the $60 something to get the feast!

[kidcoaster 2]

What's with the little whiteboards in almost every queue line?

 

The fans?

[thefreak]

^^ Well done TR 2012jarrett. Love the details and the photos. Perfectly done. Sucks about the wind at Cedar Point. Wind and rain can really bring the park to its knees for some reason. The park is huge on safety first. I guess that's a good thing. I can't believe Millie valleyed. It must have been pretty cold and windy!

[GayCoasterGuy]

I've thought about Corkscrew as well. It's so iconic - and has its fare share of fans. A brand new Corkscrew - similar to the one that's there now, could be built in the future. Imagine a nice version built by Gerstlauer (lap bars!). It would be as close we could get to going back in time and Cedar Point giving the deal to Schwarzkopf instead of Arrow. Why not? The park needs a small looper for the kids They love it!

[Vonni]

I've always thought that about Corkskrew too. I think the corkskrews should be left if it must be taken out one day. Another theme park actually did that, but I cant remember which one off the top of my head. And as far as what could be added in the space, I think a Eurofighter would do just fine there.

[Garet]

I've always thought that about Corkskrew too. I think the corkskrews should be left if it must be taken out one day. Another theme park actually did that, but I cant remember which one off the top of my head. And as far as what could be added in the space, I think a Eurofighter would do just fine there.

 

Alton towers kept theirs but they moved them from the original location, to just outside the park entrance.

[cfc]

I've always thought that about Corkskrew too. I think the corkskrews should be left if it must be taken out one day. Another theme park actually did that, but I cant remember which one off the top of my head.

 

I believe that was Alton Towers, who took some of the track of their old Vekoma Corkscrew and made it part of their main entrance.

[A.J.]

Thorpe Park uses what looks like Intamin track at the entrance to their car park.

 

[coasternut]

Matt Ouimet (CEO & President of Cedar Fair) was on CNBC - Mad Money yesterday. He replaced (you know) Big Dick Kinzel. Matt Ouimet had a live interview with Jim Cramer yesterday on Mad Money. He was there live, and sporting a tan??? I'm sure that's not a Sandusky tan. I know he had a place (maybe still) in LA.

He said in spite of the bad weather for opening day at CP, they had their best opening weekend ever! I guess Gatekeeper has done the trick.

I'm a shareholder in Cedar Fair (FUN), and it pays a great dividend and continues to climb in value. He also said their first quarter (winter) was good because of Knotts Berry Farm. That's their only park open during the winter. He also reference Knotts as being the first of their parks to extend the season beyond Labor Day with special Halloween events which have migrated to most of their parks. This is very profitable for the company. He was very upbeat on the park and the company. Jim Cramer agreed. One a separate note, Big Dick Kinzel is retiring from the board.

[Wingwright]

Blue Streak's old but it definitely packs a punch, and honestly, it's better than a Vekoma boomerang.

 

The ride home from work in rush hour is better than a Vekoma boomerang!

[Koasterking48]

I know people hate these, but trip question! What are crowds like the days after Memorial Day (Tuesday and Wednesday)?

[Randomman295]

I've thought about Corkscrew as well. It's so iconic - and has its fare share of fans. A brand new Corkscrew - similar to the one that's there now, could be built in the future. Imagine a nice version built by Gerstlauer (lap bars!). It would be as close we could get to going back in time and Cedar Point giving the deal to Schwarzkopf instead of Arrow. Why not? The park needs a small looper for the kids They love it!

The track is wider along the corkscrews than the rest of the track to provide room for the trains to move, so if a new modern conforming wheel base were to be put on Corkscrew, the only benefit it would have would be having lap bars. It's probably only happened on Schwarzkopfs because the track-to-wheel base spacing is much tighter on Schwarzkopfs than on Arrows. As much as I'd like it to happen, it's not really worth the trouble it would generate. Besides, Corkscrew has been running great recently and it looks great as is.

[B&MBoy1982]

Thorpe Park uses what looks like Intamin track at the entrance to their car park.

 

 

SFGAdv has a GASM loop stuck in the ground in the baboon inclosure. Can be seen from the top of El Toro.

[coasterfreak101]

^That's not a GASM loop. It's from the old Lightning Loops.

[GayCoasterGuy]

The track is wider along the corkscrews than the rest of the track to provide room for the trains to move, so if a new modern conforming wheel base were to be put on Corkscrew, the only benefit it would have would be having lap bars. It's probably only happened on Schwarzkopfs because the track-to-wheel base spacing is much tighter on Schwarzkopfs than on Arrows. As much as I'd like it to happen, it's not really worth the trouble it would generate. Besides, Corkscrew has been running great recently and it looks great as is.

 

I meant an entirely new ride, eventually. Not a re-fit or redesign of the current structure. Mack could do a great job, too. The ride is fine for now, but it's nearing 40 years old.

 

Same thing goes if they ever wanted to bring back Wildcat. Yes, the ride was falling apart and had to go. But I was surprised to hear die-hard CP fanboys calling it a "carnival ride." To a few, it was the most fun available on any coaster in the park. And it always ALWAYS had a line. Gerstlauer operates out of the former Schwarzkopf factory. They have access to all the old prints, etc. Keep the original Wildcat track and structure design, but give it a modern system, brakes, etc. Would be great! Wouldn't generate the popularity of something like Gatekeeper, but the investment would also be a fraction.

 

It's gonna suck when we get to a day when everything is either an Intamin or yet another same-y B&M.

 

^That's not a GASM loop. It's from the old Lightning Loops.

I'm pretty sure the Lightnin' Loops went to 2 different parks: one is still at Frontier City and the other went to Six Flags America.

[Skycoastin Steve]

^That's not a GASM loop. It's from the old Lightning Loops.

Definitely the top of one of the original GASM loops. They didn't have enough cross-bracing on the top of the loops when it opened, and it was causing cracks in the track, so they replaced the tops of each loop with stronger track. You can see the stronger track in these pics:

 

 

[GayCoasterGuy]

^Shockwave at Great America and Viper at Magic Mountain had the same new loop tops put in. Makes me think how big those loops could have been originally, with that speed generating enough force to cause all those cracks... Either way, I still miss Shockwave And glad I can still ride Viper, Corkscrew and some other Arrows. They always felt like budget coasters, but can still be fun.

[thepoint4life23]

I most say Thank you to Cedar point for letting us go to media day, they did way more then what they needed to. For that i keep telling everyone i know to go to the park and ride gatekeeper. The ride is going to be a hit. It really is not as painful as people make it out to be. i am bigger then most sure i have a little pain but i will take it.

[FeelTheFORCE]

What's with the little whiteboards in almost every queue line?

 

The fans?

 

Like a board you write on. They are in seemingly every queue at some point along the line. On WT there is one right before you go in the tunnel under the spike, Mantis has one before the bridge, and Maverick has one at the bottom of the stairs on the wall. There are no markers or erasers with them, and they are mostly blank (except for a little GP graffiti on some). I wish I got a picture, but they look like this.

 

[christianscoasters]

I rode Wicked Twister yesterday and I noticed what you're talking about, but it wasn't a white board. Yes, it was white, but it was kind of a cardboard material. It's used for posters for halloweekends and things like that, there's just nothing on them yet. Therefore, a blank, white, board.

[coasterlover420]

^...with profane writing on it

[firewalk13]

My Trip report from Media Day and Opening Day @ the point!

 

So I arrived at Cedar Point right at 6am Thursday Morning. After a very brief check in at guest services I headed over to GateKeeper and grabbed a fuzzy bunny. Next I headed straight to the test seat because I had a feeling it would be close and..... a no go. I could not get the darned thing buckled. I queued for about 5 minutes and went up to try the 4th row which has the slightly longer seat belts and ended up doing the walk of shame. So I was pretty bummed but I wasn't completely surprised as I'm a big guy. I was very excited to just see the darned thing anyways and had a great time meeting TPR members and taking pics. Cedar Point was very generous and provided food and drink for all. They were also so nice as to warm up and open Raptor and Millennium Force for a few hours each in the afternoon. Sadly, my gut wasn't fitting on those guys either. MF didn't have a seat belt on its test seat so I had to do the walk of shame there too (maybe an inch more and I would have made it!) So who needs a diet? This guy!! Anyways, I stuck around the park all day and enjoyed the laid back attitude the park had with fans and media wondering around and taking it all in meanwhile there employees were very busy getting the park ready for opening (and Ohio State day the next day). GateKeeper and the front entrance really make a statement and it was still enjoyable to watch it cruise endlessly through its track. Had I been able to fit I could have gotten 20+ rides easy but it was not to be.

 

The next day was Ohio State Day and I am an Ohio University grad so I had to stick that one out. I opted for sleeping in late at the motel and hanging out in Sandusky that day. My plan was to get to bed early and not to drink too many beers from the cooler. I found a nice family restaurant in town for a late lunch, early dinner (dunch/linner??) and then had several porch beers at the motel, watching the trains mostly.

 

Next morning, I arrived in time for the Opening Ceremony and GateKeeper ribbon-cutting. Attending as a representative for an elected official, I was wearing my suit coat and tie. Once the ceremony was over I was free to roam the park and ride whatever. Still wearing my work clothes, people kept asking me questions as if I worked there. I helped them if I could but it was mostly, which way's Iron Dragon? & Where's the entrance for GateKeeper? Any real question I would've referred them to an actual employee. In my formal clothes I rode the sky ride several times, Witches Wheel, Ocean Motion twice, and Cedar Downs Racing Derby which was a laugh. People also kept telling me I needed to ride GateKeeper while dressed up. I stayed in those duds until after lunch, changed, and went straight to the coasters. My mission was to determine what exactly I could ride, then ride the F out of them. That's exactly what I did. I'd checked the test seats on MaxAir (ok not a coaster) Dragster, and Mantis on Media Day so I knew those were out and wasted no time there. Being rather piggish and wanting to take advantage of my ride time as best I could, I'd purchased Fast Lane and skipped Corkscrew and Iron Dragon (though they've been favorites of mine since I was a kid) and hung out by Gemini which was still testing though seemingly about to open. I observed them pushing the red & blue trains out of the station several times as they did not have enough weight along with the slight incline of the station to get them going. They announced shortly after that it wasn't opening for another 30 minutes or so. Wanting to ride Maverick (and not having been able to try the test seat on Media Day) I kept heading towards Frontier Town.

 

So, what was my first coaster of the season? Mine Ride (insert slightly sad trumpet noise). It was along the way to Maverick with only a 15 minute wait so I figure'd why not. It was ok as I remembered it but really not fat guy friendly at all. I think riding it more than once might have resulted in death (damn that thing is jerky and the lap bar felt fused to my pelvis). The little drop over the water is still fun though and I'm happy it's still giving tons of rides to folks. I walked past Shoot the Rapids which had one person on it who'd been reportedly marathoning it by himself for quite a while and looked quite sodden. Snake River Falls wasn't open yet nor was Thunder Canyon not surprisingly. I stopped at SkyHawk to try the test seat and it was a fit! Another score for the fat guy friendly rides! Sadly, the ride was down all day and until closing. At this time Maverick had broken down but I stopped at the test seat and it was a go! So I decided to wait it out by getting a few rides on Mean Streak. Mean Streak was a squeeze which made it extra brutal but I enjoyed my first ride in the very back best. Somehow, the shuffling, slamming against the seat-back, and being rag-dolled around actually seemed to help provide a better experience in the rear than up front where my knees took a punshing. After 3 rides in succession I had to stop and get a beer. Right after I got my beer Maverick was up again and so after finishing I headed straight for the Fast Lane entrance. Honestly, the fast lane + maverick alone made it worth the extra $. That was my longest wait of the day for Maverick at 15 minutes. I was hooked, it's like crack. My favorite parts are the first drop, both zero G rolls, and the 2nd airtime hill. I'm not so much of a fan of the twists due to my shoulders hitting the restraints (more on that later). After 3 rides on Maverick I was ready for a break and another beer. Next I was off to Gemini and Magnum. Gemini was running great by this time and I enjoyed several races and the friendly combativeness between the red & blue train. I had such a good time I ended up riding both sides 4 and 3 times each. I was thinking about heading back to Maverick rather than Magnum but I'd seen it was down again on my last run on the blue train so Magnum it was. Fast lane was awesome here too as it made Magnum a walk on. I went straight for the first train's 3rd row seat which is my favorite. It was running great and I got lots of airtime, even some floatiness at the peak of the second hill which I didn't remember. The turn-around trims were on so that was a bummer but not surprising. At this point I needed to hit up the fuzzy bunny I'd rented to ditch my camera because I was too busy riding to use it. From there I stopped by Blue Streak which was wonderful as always. I couldn't spot the damage at all and it certainly was running great. Again, fast lane allowed me to get several rides quickly and it was glorious. After beer number 3 & 4 and a just ok brat, I was eager to get back to Maverick. As it was getting colder and later in the day with clouds moving in, a lot of people had begun to leave so lines were getting much shorter. After one more fantastic ride on Maverick, it started pouring while I was up in the station. About 10 minutes went by and they announced they were taking 2 of the trains off and it wasn't too long before they were running it again, this time in the rain. Holy hell, I am glad I wear glasses because it was wicked, and exfoliating. I could not stop riding it though and got rides in the 2nd row and back rows, left & right, and many in the middle. I must've ridden it 8 more times at which point the park was near closing and my inner arms & shoulders were killing me. Being a fat guy with a lot of inertia really added to that I'm sure. This is also to why I wasn't so much a fan of the s-bends and the overbanks. It was now 20 minutes till closing so I headed to Magnum for my last few rides of the night. It must've been 20 years since I had a night ride on it and they were fantastic! The trims before the turn-around were off so it was giving an extra speedy ride back. I got to ride twice in a row without getting off then my last ride of the night was back in the ejector seat (1/3) and it was a beaut. They were raging rides and the airtime through the pitch blackness of the tunnels was fantastic. The park was now closed so I made my way out to my car at the front entrance and had plenty of time to reflect on a great visit and mini-vacation. Several moments stuck with me such as my first ride of the day while still wearing a tie (on the Witches Wheel), watching dragster roll back 3 times in a row then finally making it with a huge applause from the crowd, and hearing several lovely GP stories about someone being scalped on Gemini, and dumb rumors about its sadly NOT lit up “Trims Brakes Open” signs in the station. Best of all, FINALLY getting to ride Maverick (including the rainy/exfoliating runs) made me so happy.

 

Now for some pictures. I apologize for their crappiness and for the lack of them from Opening Day, but I hope you’ll enjoy them nonetheless. Cheers!

 

PS This is my first trip report so I apologize if I should've put this elsewhere!

 

The first glimpse!

Mmm, blurry lighting package...

My favorite visual element of GK.

Yay!!!

need better camera...

I love the sound GK made going up the hill, quiet but distinct.

Not much of a line.

Some media tent action

I thought the station looked nice, bit of a throwback design if you ask me.

Bonus coaster!

The evil insect testing

This station could use some some love. A little roofing work and some paint and it'll look good again.

more GateKeeper! (and reported non-floatiness)

head to the wingover!

or the helix...

crappy shot looks like a close call

time for some motion in your ocean...

Headed over to Millennium Force, they were still installing the lockers. I really have to give Matt Ouimet and Cedar Point credit, they were very patient and welcoming to have so many people in there park while they were still getting ready to open officially. They even threw in a 300 foot tall Intamin a bird of prey for the fans and media!

Everyone knows that the fuzzy fuzzy bunnies run on and are stuffed, with lemonade!

mmm, millennial testing

Evil insect testing. I think this was right around the time Iron Dragon sadly ground to a halt (though it was running endlessly opening day).

Meine Liebe

don't touch!

Yeah, that's not much of a wait!

Mmm, ice sculpture.

Now a few opening day shots.

Who wants to ride the first Intamin roller coaster?

and I leave ya with a nice large gull.

GateKeeper opening day line, oy...

I see a couple of volunteers

there's going to be sooo many pictures of the new front gate...

Edited May 15, 2013 by firewalk13

[GayCoasterGuy]

Great pictures; haven't seen some of those angles/locations yet. The new front gate looks so clean and welcoming. Don't sweat Mine Ride being your first coaster of the year, plenty of folks love that ride! I bet you could even find some that prefer it over Gatekeeper