Article: Coaster Wars II: Magic Mountain vs. Cedar Point

[ginzo]

I'd say with a decent woodie and a steel hyper designed solely for airtime,

 

So, basically what Great Adventure has right now?

[RIP Psyclone]

^Then we could all fight over which park is best.

[Philrad71]

When I visited MM a couple of years ago, I walked away feeling somewhat disappointed. Superman was down all day, Deja Vu was down all day, X was a four hour wait, Freefall was closed, Tatsu was a brutally hot two and a half hour wait, and Scream! was an hour and a half wait.

 

Because of this, I still would not say that CP is the better park. I think that we just happened to hit MM on a bad day where the lines were long, a lot of rides were closed, and the employees were not at their friendliest.

 

That could happen at almost any theme park visit. Even though I did not have the greatest of visits, I would surely like to go back someday and ride the coasters that I missed.

 

I definitely enjoyed my ride on Tatsu (even though it bothered my GERD) and the other coasters. I actually thought that the best ride was Riddler's Revenge in the front seat!

 

I love Cedar Point because I consider it as my "home park" (being three hours away). There are more parks that are closer, but I have been going there almost yearly since 1983 and it does hold a lot of memories of my childhood. I still remember being absolutely terrified the first time that I rode Demon Drop and Gemini!!!

 

So considering everything, I enjoyed both parks even with the somewhat disappointing day that I had at MM. The whole point is going to have fun and I do just that at any theme/amusement park. I think that they are both great parks and both deserve respect.

 

I think that there are great coasters and horrible coasters at both parks. Also, any theme park can have it's fair share of slackers as employees!!!! I have been wowed and thoroughly disgusted by employees at a lot of parks during the same visit! That would include CP, MM, Hershey, and La Ronde, and SFGA.

[CoasterComet]

Hmmm... I'm SO glad I'm close to Six Flags Great America and Indiana Beach! A few years ago (like early 90's) I would say I was in a boring coaster ho-hum part of the country. Now, I think I have some of the best coasters and parks right by me!

 

We have Whizzer - a top 10 steelie for me. It's NOT at every park (only speed racer in the country) and is consistently a great fun ride. Demon is pretty much as good as you get for an Arrow looper. I mean, a kick your ass first drop, loops, tunnels.

 

We have all the ooh-aaahh big impressive B&M machines. Not my favorite thing by a long shot, but people love them, they're dependable and eat crowds (most of the time).

 

We also have American Eagle. For all the 'big woodies' I think it's the best out there. After the steel tracks were put in (well, not totally a woodie in some books) it's a pretty damn good ride. I'd rather ride the Eagle than El Toro.

 

And Viper. A very underrated top 10 woodie. Fast as hell at night, smooth as new and airtime on every freaking hill!

 

Something that is especially nice about these 2 woodies that no one seems to notice is that they have ratchet lap bars that DO NOT fall down. Only PTC trains I know of that are like that (Viper has specially fitted reverse-shocks and I think the Eagle's were done in-house in the mid'80's)

 

Indiana Beach is a coaster geeks dream come true. Free (sometimes front-row!) parking. Cheap, good food. Admission is cheap and you can always find discounts. Cornball is a wild, well maintained top 10 woodie in my book. The atmosphere riding Hoosier Hurricane is hard to beat. Lost coaster went through some TLC makeover and is now a great wild ride.

 

Put on top of that a great (and super-ly located) Tig'ger. No seatbelts to beat And the Galaxy - all built under and on top of other rides.

 

These 2 parks beat the hell out of Cedar Point. I Haven't been to Magic Mountain since 1999 but the place has amazing potential. MM sinned when they screwed up Revolution. CP sinned via the Blue Streak. I can see MM getting much better, especially with Jay Thomas out there (I worked under him at SFOT in 1995, great guy!)

 

I'd much rather go to a place like Lake Winne, Holidayworld or Kennywood. Those places are just more 'all around fun'. They don't have the numbers, but the tired old saying 'bigger doesn't mean better' is especially true when it comes to parks/coasters. As far as BIG PARKS, I'm glad I have Great America.

 

For the life of me, Great Adventure is the worst experience I have ever had. Every time I've been there (except 1 single time) I just wanted to leave. And I did leave, once after only 2 hours.

[jpdupuis]

Hi!

 

I'm reading this article and there is something i don't understand. WHAT IS CP'S FAMOUS RAIN POLICY??? Can somebody explains it to me??

 

Seconly...It is normal that I'm starting to regret my trip to CP next summer... fore me, it seems to be the best park...but...some says that it is REALLY not...

 

So?

Can somebody answer me please??

 

Thanks

 

Jpdupuis

[FeelTheFORCE]

When there is even the slightest drizzle, Cedar Point will shut down most of it's rides and won't reopen them again until extensive testing is complete and it has stopped raining for a certain period of time. Their policy was always somewhat questionable, in my opinion, but you can thank Magnum's accident last year for making it worse. With all the lawsuits these days, though, I don't blame them one bit. They are only trying to protect themselves and their guests.

[silverstreak]

i've been to SFMM several times & i enjoyed it every trip. I never went to Cedar point yet. (that rain policy kinda suck) I cant see planning a trip, then getting excited to ride coasters. Only to be disappointed because they shut down the rides because of the rain.

Going back on topic. I think both parks should share the title of being #1.

[ghost007jas]

Then plan your trip on days it isn't supposed to rain. Even with the rain policy, the park is worth a visit.. note "a" visit.

[silverstreak]

Then plan your trip on days it isn't supposed to rain. Even with the rain policy, the park is worth a visit.. note "a" visit.

is this possible? i dont even think the weather channel is that accurate. also for me i have to plan a trip to Cedar Point or any where else.

Cedar Point is a 8-9 hr plane ride for me.

[carolinacaniac]

I havn't been to SFMM, but from the looks of it, I would definatly say that it looks like the two parks are going in opposite directions.

 

My own recent experiences from working there in 2004 and 2005, I saw that there was a different attitude of people that worked there. The amount of staffing was lower as well, so there were a lot of longer shifts. I think it was mentioned before about the increase of international employees, which I noticed too between the two years I worked there.

 

During our visit in July last summer, I noticed that there were hardly any sweeps around the park, and that there was a lot of trash sitting here and there, where as from others' reports, SFMM is improving in this aspect.

 

While I would never be one to turn down a day at Cedar Point (Raptor is my favorite coaster after all), I can say that it isn't what it used to be.

[coolhandluke]

I believe I already offered my input, but I'll just add that if everyone is viewing Six Flags and Cedar Fair moving in opposite directions, then I'd definitely go to Cedar Point now. If the two parks are seen as equal now (I'm biased, so I won't verify either way), then I'd certainly go to the park that is "on the decline" now, to cut your losses, so to speak. Go while it is still a lot of fun and is still seen as an elite park. Then a couple years later Six Flags will have improved even more so (in theory), so you'd be going to both (or all three) parks at the best time for each.