TR: Midwest Trip 2008

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From August 23 to August 28 I was on a trip to the midwestern part of the United States. During the trip, I spent a couple nights in Chicago, then went to Sandusky and spent a couple of nights there. We also spent a night at Niagara Falls. I went on this trip with my brother, sister, and dad.

 

I will be posting this in three parts. Part one is Chicago, part two is Sandusky, and part three is Niagara Falls.

 

Part 1-Chicago

 

Day 1: Saturday 8/23/2008

 

On Saturday we got up at five thirty in the morning to catch an 8:00 a.m. flight out of John Wayne Airport to O'Hare Airport in Chicago. The flight was about four hours and was delayed due to mechanical difficulties. We ended up landing at about 3:00 p.m. After getting our luggage, we went to the subway station to get on a train to our hotel. Unfortunately, due to construction a portion of the line was closed so we had to take a bus as well. We arrived at the hotel we were staying at, the Sheraton, at about 4:30 p.m.

 

After dropping off our bags we went to go walk around the loop (Chicago's downtown area). We had dinner at a Subway and then walked over to Sears Tower. We went up to the observation deck. Luckily it was clear so we had a pretty good view. Afterwards we went back down and took a train back to our hotel room. Since everyone was tired, we went to bed fairly early.

 

Day 2: Sunday 8/24/2008

 

Sunday was our big day to see Chicago. We got up at about 10 a.m. and decided what we wanted to do. My dad had already bought tickets for a Cubs game that afternoon, and we had bought city passes for the museums. We decided to go do those in the afternoon and to go to Navy Pier in the morning.

 

Navy Pier is what I would call a family entertainment center as opposed to an amusement park. It has a few standard rides, but also has mini-golf, a funhouse, and several other things to look at. We went and walked out to the end of the pier, where it was very windy. Afterwards, we went on the Ferris Wheel which is sponsered by Mcdonalds (for some weird reason). It gave a good view from the top but was a bit disappointing for the $6 it costs.

 

After Navy Pier we took the train to Wrigley Field for the baseball game. Since my brother hates baseball and since we had museums to do, we decided to stay for only 2 innings. Inning 1 was uneventful. So was the top half of inning 2. However, in the bottom of inning 2 the Cubs hit two home runs and scored a grand total of three runs, giving them a lead over the nationals. I was slightly disappointed that we had to leave when it was getting exciting but at least we had other stuff to do.

 

We took the train from Wrigley Field to the museum district of Chicago. Once there, we decided to visit the Alder Planetarium first. It was pretty interesting, and had several hands-on displays, but wasn't anything I hadn't seen before. They did have one very neat scale model of the solar system, however. The sun was big enough that it took up both floors.

 

After the planetarium, we went to the Shedd Aquarium. All of us were kinda disappointed by this as it seemed like a bunch of fish tanks. The only interesting thing was the dolphin show and the shows at Sea World are much better. We left after only about a half-hour.

 

We were planning on going to the Fields Museum that day as well, but when we got there it was already closed so we decided to come back tomorrow. We got on the train and took it to a pizza place we had heard about called Giordiano's. They had something called stuffed pizza where the cheese and toppings are inside the crust and it has sauce on top. It was pretty good but extremely cheesy. I think I prefer regular pizza, however. Aftereward we took the train back to the hotel and went to bed.

 

Day 3: Monday 8/25/2008

 

On Monday we got up at 8:30 a.m. to go get breakfast. We went to the hotel buffet which was overpriced and not that great. Afterwards, we packed while my dad went to go get the rental car. We left the hotel at 9:30 a.m. and headed back to the Fields Museum.

 

The Fields Museum is a museum of natural history. It has various exhibits and displays like dinosaur skeletons and Native American artifacts. It also had a pretty good Egyptian section. We didn't really see the rest of the museum since we didn't have a ton of time here.

 

Before leaving Chicago, we stopped at one more museum. This was the Museum of Science and Industry, and was probably the best one we went too. It had many displays of mechanical parts, as well as several other unique displays. One thing all of us liked alot was the coal mine. This is an attraction where you take a working coal mine elevator into a model mine and look at different pieces of mining machinery. It is all in working condition and the guides turn it on to display how it works. There is also a train to transport you around (kind of like a dark ride). The tour was fun but it also had a bit of a wait.

 

After leaving the museum we stopped at Mcdonalds for lunch and then drove to Sandusky, which will be posted either tonight or tomorrow.

[rcdude]

Now for the big amusement park section of the trip.

 

Part 2-Sandusky

 

Day 3 Continued

 

After a five hour drive including a stop at Dairy Queen for a snack, we arrived in Sandusky around 8:00 p.m. We stopped at Taco Bell for dinner then went to our hotel, Castaway Bay. We checked in, then went to the room, changed, and went to the waterpark. The waterpark's attractions are as follows.

 

Rendezvous Run-This was the best ride in the waterpark. It is a waterslide with hills that use water to shoot you up. The ride was fun, and is probably my second favorite type of waterslide (after the giant funnel). However, it was short and had the longest wait. We still managed to get on it four times during our stay.

Tropical Tube Slides-These three body slides are fully enclosed. They are all fairly short, but are still fun. I went on each one twice during the stay, since it rarely had a wait. There were a couple times when I was the only one other than the operator on the tower.

Lookout Lagoon Family Fun House-This was one of those water funhouses with the giant tipping bucket. It had four various slides, but two were for kids and one was closed so I only went on one.

Paradise Plunge-This was the slide in the water funhouse. It was short and fairly boring. I probably wouldn't have done it if there was much of a wait, but at least it was partially enclosed.

 

The park also had a wave pool, hot tub, and lilypad walk type thing. The hot tub was huge and was both indoor and outdoor, but the wave pool and lilypad walk were both pretty small. We were at the waterpark for about an hour and fifteen minutes and all of us had decided that we had done everything we wanted to, so we left. It was closing in a few minutes anyway. Once we got back to our room, we all showered and then went to bed to be ready for Cedar Point tomorrow.

 

Day 4: Tuesday 8/26/2008

 

We all got up in the morning at about 8:00 a.m. to head to Cedar Point. Since we were staying at a Cedar Point hotel, we got in at 9:00 a.m., an hour before the general public. Once we got to the Magnum entrance at about 8:30 or so, we saw a line of people backed up to where you buy tickets. My brother was complaining that we wouldn't get on more than ten rides and that it would be crowded, but this wasn't the case. I think he is just used to the way lineups are done in Southern California (a mob of people). We got into the park when they opened to hotel guestes, and what we did during the day follows.

 

Maverick-We went to this ride first thing in the morning. It was a good call, since the line was looking like about 55 minutes when we got off. I don't remember for sure how long we waited, but I think it was only about 10 minutes. This ended up being my favorite ride at the park, and it is also my favorite roller coaster. No one else liked it quite as much as I did, but they all thought it was pretty good.

Millennium Force-After Maverick, we went on this during the early entry period. We only had about a 20 minute wait. Later in the day, it looked like it got up to about 40 minutes. I really enjoyed this ride, and it is one of my top three favorites at the park, but I do not think it is the park's best ride. It may be because my favorite coasters are twisters, but I thought this ride just had too much straight, flat track to make it the best ride at the park. I know that is about all they can do at that speed, but it made the ride slightly boring towards the end. Everyone else I went with, however, said that this was the best ride in the park.

Top Thrill Dragster-Shortly after the park opened to the general public, we headed over to this ride. When we got there, it looked to be about an 80 minute wait. I was personally hoping for more like a 55 minute wait but we decided to do it anyway. As we found out, we should have come back later. They were only loading cars one through three when we got in line. About ten minutes later, they started loading car four. Another ten minutes later, they were fully loading the trains. It was a fairly windy day, so I don't know if that contributed, but once they were loading the trains to capacity they started to have problems. During what ended up being about a two hour wait we saw four loaded rollbacks. I don't think it usually rolls back this much, but I could be wrong. There was also a delay while they put a fifth train on the track, which then rolled back on its first launch. Luckily, at least for me, the ride ended up being worth the wait, and was my second favorite ride of the day. I think we should have waited until later as the wind died down and there weren't any rollbacks, but oh well. My brother, for some reason, was the only one who wasn't impressed and said that he preferred the Xcelerator at Knott's Berry Farm.

Disaster Transport-Since my brother really wanted to do this and we had spent so much time in line for Top Thrill Dragster, I agreed to do this next after we had lunch. We got to the ride and found only a 15 minute wait. Not bad at all based on what I have heard. The ride turned out to be good but not great. I am glad that I did it as I really didn't realize that it would be as good as it was. My brother is a little too excited by bobsled-type rides and said it was better than Space Mountain, which I think is way better than Disaster Transport.

Troika-We decided to do this ride simply because it looked different and had a 5 minute wait. It was a fun little spinning ride, but not one I would necessarily ride if the line was much longer.

Chaos-I didn't actually ride this, but my brother wanted to because he had never been on one and it had no wait. He got off feeling unimpressed and thought the Zipper was better.

Demon Drop-Unlike the late Freefall, this ride actually ran to capacity, cycling six cars with no delays. Only me and my brother went on this ride, and thought it was fun. I really hope they keep this as it is a classic drop ride and provides a completely different experience than the Power Tower.

We had practically a walk on so it wasn't a bad wait at all.

Raptor-When we got to this we found out that it had only been open for three minutes due to a recent breakdown. We got in line and only waited 15 minutes. I am very glad we didn't spend more than that in line. I was disappointed by Raptor, finding it to be too rough for a B&M inverted. I like Silver Bullet better, but even though Raptor is rough it is still my second favorite inverted coaster.

Blue Streak-This ride was a walk on, and our train was dispatched about half full. The ride was fun, but nothing special. I personally found the layout a tad boring, but at least it had good airtime.

Cedar Downs Racing Derby-This ride had no wait so we decided to ride it. It was fun and quite different from a normal merry-go-round. All of us thought it was worth taking the time to ride.

Iron Dragon-We waited about 15 minutes for this ride. I like Ninja at Six Flags Magic Mountain better, as Iron Dragon doesn't get you swinging at very many points during the ride. It is about twice as long as Ninja where you are actually coasting, but other than that it has no pluses.

Wildcat-My brother was reluctant to wait 25 minutes for what looked like a carnival coaster. He actually enjoyed the ride. I personally thought this was a bit too basic for anyone but families, but am glad that I tried it anyway. My dad said it looked just like the former Mountain Express, but said that it was smoother.

Mantis-Once again, we did this ride because my brother wouldn't let us do anything else until we rode it(standup twisters are one of his favorite types). After waiting about 30 minutes, we got on. I thought it was not as good as Riddler's Revenge but better than Vortex. I honestly liked Mantis better than Raptor, which is strange since I am not a big standup coaster fan.

Snake River Falls-This was a walk on, so we decided to get soaked. I liked the ride, but my brother said that it was too wet for him. He said the drop on Jurassic Park is pretty much the same but is drier and he would rather do that.

Skyhawk-This is a Screaming Swing. It was fun but nothing special, and not really worth much more than the 20 minutes we waited for it.

Cedar Creek Mine Ride-This ride had a 15 minute wait, so we almost decided to skip it. I wouldn't have minded, as it became my least favorite coaster of the day. There is only one good hill and the rest is all slow turns. In addition, I sat with my dad and we could barely fit in the car. I think Gold Rusher is a lot better.

Mean Streak-This was a 20 minute wait. I liked this ride, but it did have one major minus...the roughness. I thought this thing was rougher than Ghostrider. It was three minutes of getting thrown around. If it was smoother, it may have been my favorite wooden coaster, but the roughness killed it. At least it is better than the Blue Streak for length alone. By the way, the brake on the drop sucked. It didn't feel like you were accelerating at all.

Gemini-I forget how long we waited for this ride, but only one track was running. It was a fun and smooth ride, at least until the spiral. I probably would have liked it better if it was racing but it was still okay.

Corkscrew-I'm glad this was a walk-on as it was the worst custom looping coaster I have ever been on. The ride was rough and caused headbanging as well as surprise airtime, neither of which is good with a shoulder harness. At least it only lasted about 30 seconds. I'm guessing it was because of crowds but cars four and five were closed off.

Power Tower-Since there was almost no wait for the space shot and a bit of a wait for the turbo drop, we did the space shot. It was fun but not very thrilling. I think I like turbo drops better.

Wicked Twister-We walked all the way back over here because the ride was broken earlier. I forget how long the wait was, but the ride was worth it. I think this is probably the best shuttle coaster I have ever been on. It is thrilling, unique, and not very nauseating. I would have done it more if we had more time, but it was late by the time we got off.

Max Air-I was not impressed by Max Air. It looked great but felt slow when you were on it. Also, it spun fast enough to make me dizzy when combined with the swinging motion. I should have stayed off and watched the kiddie boat ride thingy next door.

Magnum XL-200-Finally, the last ride of the day. This was one I was looking forward to, and would have waited in the lines earlier that looked like 50 minutes for. Luckily, when we went on it was a station wait. This ride was a lot of fun, but I think it is seriously overrated. I like the Desperado better, but it might be because of my twister preference. Either way, the ride was good and was not really a disappointment.

 

We left the park after closing due to Magnum. I think Cedar Point is the best amusement park overall that I have been to, but for just roller coasters I would rather go to Six Flags Magic Mountain. Cedar Point only has about four roller coasters that really impressed me, and the rest I have been on something better elsewhere. However, Cedar Point is deserving of the title best amusement park in the world.

 

We went to T.G.I. Fridays for dinner, then returned to the hotel and went to bed. It was a long day, and we were all tired.

 

Day 5: Wednesday 8/27/2008

 

We all got up early and packed. We then left the hotel to drive to Niagara Falls, but stopped to get donuts before leaving town. On our way to Niagara Falls, we decided to stop at the Rock N Roll Hall of Fame. It was an interesting museum, but I had never heard of a lot of bands in there. After going to the museum, we went to Mcdonalds for lunch (because my brother refused to eat at the White Castle we saw) and continued on to Niagara Falls.

 

Niagara Falls will be covered in part 3, which will be up tomorrow sometime.

[rcdude]

Part 3-Niagara Falls

 

Day 5 Continued

 

After leaving the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, we arrived at the border around 6 p.m. It took about a half hour to get into Canada. Once there, we went to the hotel we were staying at (Howard Johnsons) and dropped off our luggage in the hotel room. We then went over to Clifton Hill, which my dad said was like Las Vegas. After looking in a couple of the arcades (we only played games in the Great Canadian Midway) we went down to the falls. We walked up and down the river until it got dark and they turned the lights on. Niagara falls looks more impressive during the daytime. After we left the falls, we got dinner at the Pizza Hut in our hotel and went back to our rooms.

 

Day 6: Thursday 8/28/2008

 

We got up in the morning and went to Denny's for breakfast. Afterwards, we packed up and left the hotel. We went down to the falls to do the Maid of the Mist tour. It was pretty good but you could hardly see anything once you got under the falls. It felt like a heavy downpour for the five minutes or so you are under the falls. After this, we went and did the behind the falls tour. It wasn't nearly as good as the Maid of the Mist. We then got in line to go back to the United States side.

 

Once back in the U.S., we stopped for lunch and then went out onto goat island. While here, we looked at the falls from the American side. My dad said that he liked the American side better. At around 2 p.m., we left to go to Buffalo Niagara Airport, since our flight left at 4 p.m.

 

When we got to the airport, there was a problem with trying to return the rental car. Once it was resolved, they decided to only charge my dad for one day. We then went to wait for our plane.

 

Once we got to Chicago, we went and got dinner in the airport, then waited for our 8 p.m. flight back to John Wayne Airport. When we got on the plane, everyone was tired. We landed at John Wayne Airport a little after 10 p.m. We took a shuttle back to the parking lot and drove home.

 

Well, that is the whole trip. I hope you enjoy it, and if you have any questions or comments feel free to reply.