Photo TR: A Summer at Cedar Point

[BigDipper 80]

^I was trying to time my shot with the on-ride photo, but I had no idea that it would turn out like that. I was pleasantly surprised with it. If you look closely, you'll notice that each car has the exact same riders in it! It was a very weird, happy accident.

[imawesome1124]

This park looks incredible at night. I've never seen a park put lights like that on every ride.

 

Also, am I the only one who thinks Frontierland (ignoring the Halloween stuff) looks a little creepy at night? Just based on the pictures of course since I've never been there.

[triggernel]

Also, am I the only one who thinks Frontierland (ignoring the Halloween stuff) looks a little creepy at night? Just based on the pictures of course since I've never been there.

 

I wouldn't say creepy just because there are a lot of lights for Starlight Spectacular, but it definitely looks like a place that would house a great scare zone. It's very atmospheric and there are a lot of props that could be used in a Ghost Town or Phantoms of the Frontier style zone. It doesn't hurt that at night the area seems almost deserted.

[BigDipper 80]

Now that we're in Frontiertown, let's take a look around the area:

I absolutely love Maverick.

It's such a completely unique experience compared to the other coasters in the park.

Because of Maverick's location at the end of the peninsula, it's a fairly hard ride to get photos of.

A nice sign in Maverick's queue.

I think it was someone in the CP thread who mentioned that Maverick was built for sunsets, and it really was.

It's hard to believe that when the Mine Ride opened, it had 2-hour waits.

At least its station is nice.

This shot was a bit of a "happy accident", but I love how all but the first two kids are motion-blurred.

[yankees15]

That first picture of Maverick's drop

 

Great photos so far, I'm really enjoying your report!

[Geauga Dog]

Another set of awesome photos. I could just feel the airtime just by looking at your photos of Maverick.

 

That "happy accident" shot of Mine Ride is really cool.

[DougMJr]

As a amateur photographer (Pentax K-x), I love those "happy accident" shots. I know that feeling.

[BigDipper 80]

Some more Frontiertown pics:

Mean Streak has such an impressive structure, even during the daytime.

These photos were taken from Lighthouse Point.

Another shot of Boneville during the day. Boneville is my favorite thing in the entire park, and to miss out on it is a shame.

None of these shots are particularly "artsy", but they do a good job at showing off the sets.

Each of the scenes has quite a bit of slightly politically incorrect, Marc Davis-quality humor in them. The big jug of moonshine is labelled "Granny's Good-Natured Alcohol"!

Notice how the skeleton firefighters are completely missing the fire, as well as the saloon girl at the top of the stairs. Lots of fun visual gags abound.

Before Frontier Trail opened in 1971, the only way to get back to Frontiertown (and the Mine Ride!) was by riding the train or taking the Frontier Lift.

If you know what this building used to be used for, you'll win... absolutely nothing. Sorry.

Frontiertown is really well-done. Cedar Point really did some nice theming back in the 60s.

I'll leave with a photo of Cedar Point's infamous "haunted carousel horse". Supposedly, the old Frontiertown carousel would spin backwards at nighttime, thanks to this haunted horse.

 

We're about halfway there now! Still to come: Mantis, Raptor, the main midway, and a few parting shots of Disaster Transport.

[1badgmc]

"If you know what this building used to be used for, you'll win... absolutely nothing. Sorry."

 

Frontier Lift Station.

 

Thank you. I'll take my prize in one lump sum.

[BigDipper 80]

^PM me your address and I'll send you one empty envelope .

Moving right along- let's take a quick look at Cedar Point's two Beemers, who will be joined by their little sister next year (CP fanboys, please don't call it Gatey...):

I'm not a huge fan of cobra rolls. The snap in the middle of the corkscrew bit is always a bit uncomfortable, and I just feel that the element doesn't "flow" very well.

Too bad there wasn't a train going through the loop when I shot this...

I love this helix. Raptor is truly a forceful old-school B&M.

And now for a handful of shots of Mantis, my home this past summer (and the best ride in the park )

Despite the hours and hours I spent at this ride, I only have five decent shots of her. Unfortunate.

A parting shot of the big bad bug. Next up is the Main Midway!

Edited September 30, 2012 by BigDipper 80

[Anything]

Great pictures, blue skies always help

[BigDipper 80]

It's time for some more photos, this time of the main midway!

The updated location for Ocean Motion really looks fantastic. I'm glad CP decided to keep the ride when they put in Windseeker, and it really compliments the nautical theme of Hurricane Hanna's across the way.

It's quite some view looking down the peninsula.

The flowers under the Sky Ride are always beautiful. And speaking of Sky Ride, it's great that CP still has one of these classic rides. Along with Cedar Downs and the train, it's one of those rides that helps make Cedar Point Cedar Point. The true gems left over from the park's storied past.

The Colosseum is an impressive building.

Probably the best carousel in the world. Actually, it's one of my favorite rides anywhere.

If there's one park that's gone now that I wish I could have gone to, it's Euclid Beach. It was an amazing place in its heyday, and it's a shame that Cleveland lost a true amusement park gem. At least Cedar Downs survived!

Cedar Downs is such a unique ride, and it really stands out amongst all the "generic-ness" of CP. I'll never stop singing its praises, and I'm glad that the park has the good sense to take care of it.

I wish the park had more shady spots like this one, near the marina gate. It has a very "classic" feel.

Unlike parks like Kennywood, which kept much of its traditional infrastructure over the years and added on from there, Cedar Point went through phases where infrastructure would be completely updated and wipe out many of the older outdated buildings, so it's hard to find lots of "older" architecture throughout the park. That being said, both of these buildings escaped the march of progress and are some of the oldest buildings on the property, most likely over a century old.

I actually like the funky 1970s architecture that is scattered throughout the park, but it's a shame that it gets swallowed up by the seas of concrete.

Cedar Point has three Arrow car rides. Each with different cars. This is one of them. That's something else.

Iron Dragon got a very nice new sign along with its reconfigured queue this year.

As boring as Iron Dragon is, it's pretzel turn over the water is gorgeous.

ID's pretzel turn and Corkscrew's corkscrews are just a brilliant, creative, kinetic use of space, and it's borderline "artsy", in terms of ride design and landscape architecture. Pure genius on Arrow and CP's part.

One parting shot of ID's two lift hills. I give major props to ID's crew this year- it's not easy to dispatch a train every thirty seconds without stopping a train out on the second lift, but they're good at it.

 

Only two more batches of photos before this TR comes to an end! I hope you all have been enjoying this tour!

[thrillrideseeker]

Loving this!! So many great shots!! I can not wait to see more!!! Thanks for sharing!

~Matt

[BigDipper 80]

^Thanks! I only have a few more updates to go, and I'm glad you've enjoyed what I've put up so far.

[Geauga Dog]

Each time I see Ocean Motion at the front of the park just looks odd and out of place yet I'm glad to see its ridership is up, or at least appears to be up. I really like the new sign.

 

I think my favorite building on the Main Midway is the Pagoda Gift Shop. It really stands out from the other structures.

 

The photo of the flowers under the Sky Ride with Raptor in the background is beautiful.

[Voxelmatic]

I love these pictures! It makes Cedar Point look even better than it does now! Keep it up!

[BigDipper 80]

^Thanks! From the right angle, CP can actually be a pretty good-looking place, despite all of the corporate-ness that has invaded in the past decades.

 

^^Ocean Motion would have probably been better near the lake, being nautical and whatnot, but it does create some dialogue with Hurricane Hannah's, so I won't complain too much. The fact that it was saved at all is a plus, and I completely agree with you about the sign.

[disneyfan1313]

^ I have to agree. I never really have thought of Cedar Point as a beautiful park, but you have captured some great angles which make me reconsider my opinion!

[larrygator]

I finally had a chance to review this last night. I added this whole report to the Park Index along with certain rides photos.

[BigDipper 80]

^That's awesome to hear! I'm glad I was able to help out the park index .

 

We are down to the final two updates- today, we'll take a look at an unlikely pair: Thrill Dragster and Blue Streak.

Everyone has this shot.

There are times like these when I wish I had a camera with better zoom...

Nerd shot.

Just milliseconds after launch. Still one of the most intense moments of any thrill ride.

BOOM! Now it's night.

Dragster has a very nice station. I've always been a fan of it.

It's nowhere near the best coaster, but it's a heck of a rush.

Who turned the lights back on?

Would have been better with a train.

Let's jump on over to Blue Streak.

If you what the building in the foreground used to be, you win...

 

Absolutely nothing.

Not Blue Streak, but I needed to sneak Calypso in somewhere.

A final shot of Blue Streak as taken from Perimeter Road.

 

There's only one more update of the Oceana Midway! This giant TR is almost drawing to a close, and I hope you'll come back just one more time!

Edited November 5, 2012 by BigDipper 80

[Yamez]

Oh pirate ride, how I miss you. Maybe one day Cedar Point will get a decent dark ride...

 

Love the TR!

[jray21]

Great photos and report! I love all the in-depth photos of each area!

[BigDipper 80]

Oh pirate ride, how I miss you. Maybe one day Cedar Point will get a decent dark ride...

 

Love the TR!

 

We can only hope. I honestly think that the Boo Blasters at the other parks aren't too bad, but with a lot of CP's recent additions referencing the past (StR, Eden Musee), I wouldnt mind seeing a new Earthquake or Pirate Ride.

[Christopoll]

Last night I dreamt of riding TTD. Pretty cool dream .

 

I like the pictures, the lights look great.

[BigDipper 80]

Well, this is it. The final update. I hope everyone has enjoyed this TR as much as I had making it. Spending so much at Cedar Point this past summer was a blast, and I think I managed to hone my skills as well as take a few decent shots . I wish I had been able to cover even more of the park, as you'll notice that I'm lacking in photos from the kid's areas and the Gemini midway in particular, but I simply ran out of time to get every single shot and every single angle that I wanted to get. Alas. Maybe I'll be able to fill in some of those gaps in the future! But enough rambling. Let's finish this up! This last update will take a look at the oft-forgotten Wicked Twister Midway, which will probably be getting quite a bit of new traffic in 2013 with the opening of Gatekeeper!

Two things in this photo no longer exist.

I'm excited for Gatekeeper, but I would be lying if I said that I won't miss Disaster Transport.

Nice plaque.

Maxair is a great ride. Though I can only ride it at night, because I squint in the sunlight during the day, which makes me nauseous.

The sign that was near DT's entrance before it closed forever. I believe these photos were only taken a day or two before it gave its' final rides.

A closeup of each blurb on the sign:

Let's pop inside DT's queue one final time.

CP fanboys! Figure out what these numbers mean!

Outer Space, as imagined by a 5-year-old with a fresh box of crayons.

"REPAR BA"

For the uninitiated, this room used to be one of the later stretches of queue. However, the first few rooms had been sealed off for a number of years, as Happy Jack's Toy Factory used that end of the building during Halloweekends, so it became easier to simply remove the old first half of the queue.

I wish I could have seen this ride in 1990. I've tried to unearth footage or photographs of the ride from it's opening year, but I've come across absolutely nothing. It had robots!

Popping back outside to check out the rear of DT.

Wicked Twister's the real star, though, what with the midway being the "Wicked Twister Midway" and all. In all honesty, it's a pretty decent ride.

Nice sign.

The WT midway used to be called the Oceana Midway back when the Extreme Sports Stadium still had dolphins.

I found a few more shots of the Ferris wheel... this one probably turned out the most interestingly of the three of them.

I had hoped to do some long-exposure in the vein of Windseeker, but due to the long load times and the fact that you have enough time to maybe get one long-exposure shot set up and photographed while the ride is actually cycling, it was incredibly difficult to achieve any effect similar to Windseeker within a reasonable timeframe.

Let's take a final ride on Space Spiral.

When you combine the dirtiness of Space Spiral's windows with its constant rotation and my camera's inability to focus under such circumstances, you get a blurry photo. Even so, you still get a decent idea of how colorful CP is at night now.

Here it is. The final photo in this incredibly protracted effort to document the Queen of American Watering Places. Cedar Point's phenomenal nighttime skyline. I don't feel like this picture does it justice. Love her or hate her, it's hard to deny that she's in a phenomenal location with quite possibly the best skyline of any park in the world. And she's absolutely beautiful at night.

 

And with that, this trip report comes to a close. Thank you all for reading, and I hope you enjoyed!

 

 

Thank you CP, for the countless memories this past summer. Until next time.