PhotoTR: Gatekeeper Media day/Coastermania Sandwich

[Midgetman82]

I haven't posted a Photo TR in quite a while, and felt like brushing up on my skills (whatever skills that might be) and posting one. This trip report is going to be a mix of two seperate visits to the same park, Cedar Point. Once for Gatekeeper Media Day (May 9th), and the second being the annual Coastermania event (June 7th). Very large gap between both, but oh well.

 

So, I should first start by saying that the Gatekeeper Media day event was literally my first time ever visiting Cedar Point in Ohio. For a park that's touted as the roller coaster enthusiast's wonderland (or whatever they call it), I've always wanted to go. Knowing the thought of visiting Cedar Point again later in the summer was not going to be guaranteed, I took my chances on going, even if I knew it was going to be on just one roller coaster. In fact, it was going to be on the park's newest roller coaster. Also, it was going to be my first time on a B&M Wing Rider!

 

My dad suggested we did a one day round trip flight there and back home the same day to save money, and I went with it due to it working perfectly for a trip to the Mall of America once. Unfortunately, we missed two morning flights out of Louisville that morning due to personal reasons, and ended up missing 12 out of the 15 hours the event lasted.

 

No need to fret though, because I still got to go and ride it AND Millenium Force multiple times that day!

Yay!

As they say, the light are on, but very few people are home.

Pulling up to the park alone was exciting to see, but pulling up to this was even more exciting!

Hmm, seems I'm a bit late to the party... 12 hours late to be exact.

First time at a media day event as well, this is gonna stick with me for a while.

Ah! Good ol' B&M! Went straight into the park and lapped this coaster twice in a row.

I tried to squeeze in picture-taking as well, so I could get the most out of the 2 1/2 hours I had there before I had to catch the flight home.

Ooh!

Bucket seats. Gotta love them! The restraints didn't give me any problems, though my collar bones did feel mildly sore when I rubbed them. No complaints from me.

You dummy

Wee!

Probably one of the coolest trains I've ever seen.

World's tallest inversion. How's it going Yolocoaster?

I also liked that they were testing the rides while we were there. A bit of a tease since we couldn't ride any of them, but I could wait until a month from now!

When I arrived at the event, I was very surprised to hear that ERT was also being held on Millenium Force. I got to lap this 3 times on the middle, front, and back seats. Great coaster, very smooth and "open", and the constant speed felt beautiful.

Ohai there

What was the name of the new ride? Some sort of fence coaster, right?

Anyways, Gatekeeper was an overall fun coaster. Nothing brilliantly amazing to me, nor would it be in my top ten favorites. But I sure did like it!

I'll be back for this coaster and more!

 

Also, I was sorta in a rush getting back in the car where my dad was waiting, so I couldn't catch when the sign would say ClubTPR. That would've been cool!

Coastercount for the day:

Gatekeeper: 4

Millenium Force: 3

 

Part Two, Coastermania, coming your way soon-ish.

Edited July 6, 2013 by Midgetman82

[kailisun98]

Man, Gate Keeper seems awesome. Wish I could ride it this summer.

[Midgetman82]

Part Two: Coastermania (June 7th)

 

Skip a month ahead, and I'm back at the same park. This time, all the rides were operating and ready for the many people that were at the event. Compared to the last visit, my mom and my brother came with me to Sandusky, my brother coming with me into the park. We spent two nights in the area so we could have as much time in the park as possible.

 

The morning started with me waking up an hour after the event had started, but it's alright, they had ERT on the rides I already went on, and get to ride when got into the park.

 

As always with my TR's, prepare for a lot of pictures...

We did take up the advantage of being roughly 10 minutes early into the park, even though the event started a while before. First ride we hit was Gatekeeper knowing the line for it was going to soar to long lengths later in the day.

Still a good coaster!

The seagulls still tried to claim the coaster to themselves. =-/

The seagulls weren't the biggest problem this day though. It was the bugs... they were EVERYWHERE!

AAH!

Finally beginning to rack up more new credits, we hit Wicked Twister second. This coaster... blew me away, and landed as my favorite out of all the coasters at Cedar Point!

We then quick-paced-walked our ways towards the park's NASA space shuttle program.

Front seat ride. Aww Yis!

Then we fell out of the sky.

I see you Millenium Force!

Being my first S&S drop tower, it didn't impress me too much. It did provide some very weird butterflies in my stomach though!

Weee! My brother and I then took a quick ride on Millenium Force. No photos there since we spent most of the time waiting to get on.

Then came lunchtime. My brother ditched me to eat outside of the park and take a nap, so i had the benefit of eating here.

Two birds

The wait for the food was worth it though, because at the end of the really long line was where they gave every single attendee a free jacket to take home with them. Later, they let people go in a free-for-all grabbing another VIP fleece, which I very luckily got my hands on one in my size. Best park souvenirs ever!

After lunch, I got a little airtime.

This one turned out to be much more fun than Kings Island's Delirium.

Then I got back in line for this crazy machine again!

Notice the bugs...

My second Windseeker, and still a very gentle ride, once you get over your anxiety from floating 300 feet in the air. The guy sitting next to me wasn't too happy or comfortable about it either!

Weeeeee!

All the way back seat on Magnum-XL 200 was very interesting. My first Arrow (Not Morgan ) hypercoaster, and it sure did deliver! The bunny hills coming back were a tad brutal, but it was alright overall.

A park known more for its coasters than its theming, I can understand the continuity between dinosaurs and dragsters.

Unfortunately, I could tell the operator on Witch's Wheel wasn't having a very good day dealing with people as he had to send people out of the line for line jumping, and denied a kid from riding due to his height and having to face an angry father.

A hop from Gemini, a jump from the closed for maintenance Screamin' Swing, and a skip from an expensive pizza place, I hit the wildest coaster I have ever ridden; hands down.

Waited an hour for it, and it was quite a rush! I liked it, but it's not one of my top coasters unfortunately.

Oh, hello random chicken walking the sidewalk outside the nearby petting zoo!

Back to the front, I meet up with my brother for a Ride on Raptor as the night began.

We worked our way towards the same route we took in the morning, but stopped to ride MaXair on the way. We then got a backseat ride on Wicked Twister.

Very close to park closing time, we made it to Mantis with absolutely no lines!

We got in line for the front. It felt pretty good to get back on a stand-up coater, but this coaster turned out to be a really bad decision for me due to the pain it caused my feet.

 

One thing I won't forget about this coaster though was the view from the top of the lift, and seeing the entire front-half of the park glowing. Beautiful!

Illuminocity was performing, so we stopped to see a bit of that. Very good show, and lots of lights and pyrotechnics!

After the park closed, we made our way to the back of the park to take part in the first portion of the nighttime ERT.

We rode this twice that night, but had Mean Streak in between each ride. After the second ride, we were done with Maverick!

Mean Streak wasn't as bad as I had expected it to be. It was a very mild and in-control ride, but it didn't hurt.

We ended the day with a few re-rides to the moon and back.

Good coaster. Just short, tis' all.

I'm in love with the color-changing for Power Tower!

Heading out.

Thanks Cedar Point for a great event!

I ended the day with new credits, and at least $30 munched off of me from locker-use alone.

Gatekeeper: 1

Wicked Twister: 3

Top Thrill Dragster: 5

Millenium Force: 1

Magnum-XL 200: 1

Gemini: 1

Maverick: 3

Raptor: 1

Mantis: 1

Mean Streak: 1

Edited July 6, 2013 by Midgetman82

[Defcon62]

Great pics, hate to split hairs but Magnum is a Arrow Dynamics coaster. Easy mistake to make, the designs are very similar.

[Midgetman82]

Gotcha. Thanks.

[singemfrc]

^^ I didnt realize that was an Arrow either..the layout didn't strike me as Arrow, but now that you mention it the track sure is Arrow. Looking even more forward to riding this in September now (I'm one of those weirdo Arrow fans)

[PKI Jizzman]

Those bugs are so gross. Thankfully with my trips up there I've never seen them like that. I've seen a few, but holy crap!

[Kyle Coleman]

I hardly saw any bugs when I was there in late may. Must be a seasonal thing.

[djcoastermark]

for those that grew up in the area and know, and those that didn't, we called them muffleheads. Dont know why the name , but you knew to keep your mouth closed at night. Especially on the flats with lots of lighting!

[BigDipper 80]

Mantis has the best top-of-the-lift view in the whole park, as it's right in the center of everything. I haven't been out to Cedar Point all season, which has been heartbreaking, but I've been living vicariously through everyone's trip reports. Nice job!