Photo TR : Cedar Point and SFGAm

[booink]

Hey everyone !

This is my very first trip report here at TPR, so I hope you'll enjoy it . So here's the story : my family and I were originally thinking about doing a road trip, first to Niagara Falls, to visit our old neighbors who moved last year, and also to visit The Great Wolf Lodge out there. Then, we would visit Cedar Point, as it was "relatively" close to Niagara Falls, and finally come back by Darien Lake and The Great Escape. However, for several reasons that I won't detail here, we changed our mind and decided to go directly to Cedar Point by plane, and visit Six Flags Great America instead of Darien Lake. I think that was a great choice !

 

Overall, I really loved Cedar Point and it became my favorite park ! The park is clean, there's a lot of roller coasters and flat rides, and most of them are more than excellent, and the employees are dynamic and a lot more efficient than what I've seen in some other parks.

 

Enough talking, here are the photos :

 

Next stop is a visit to Chicago and then... Six Flags Great America !

 

Just a side note, if Robb comes by this trip report, I just want to say that I used the new multi-uploader and it worked perfectly, and what a time saver it was !

So this is where we are going !

Getting in the parking lot to Hotel Breakers is awesome, you get an overview of all of the coasters, very impressive !

Sadly, we did not went to the park the first day, as we had to pay our tickets and it was pretty expensive. We stayed at the hotel pool, but our first CP visit was the following morning !

The next day, the first coaster we went on was Maverick, during the early ride time. I had high expectations about it, and I wasn't disappointed at all ! It actually became my favorite coaster !

The only thing I disliked about Maverick was the restraints, which were pretty painful. But that wasn't enough to kill it's awesomeness !

The next coaster on our ride list was Millenium Force, as we followed the tips of a local for the order we should ride. This was also a crazy, crazy coaster, filled with airtime and with a dynamic layout !

However, Mantis wasn't so great. I highly prefer it's two neighbors, MF and Iron Dragon !

I would definitely have been on Skyhawk if it was open. Sadly, it wasn't...

The Cedar Creek Mine Ride was a totally decent mine train, and I enjoyed it ! (Ok, I have not been on a lot of mine trains... But it was still good !)

The Gemini was a cool credit with very violent airtime ! I had to hold on to my lap bar, else it would kill my legs during the hills. Too bad it wasn't racing (only red side was open), I'm sure it would have highly improved the ride experience.

It's impressive to think that this was once the tallest coaster in the world !

Then, it was time for a little bit of credit whoring ! Easily one of the best Vekoma I've been on. However, I did not paid a kid to credit whore on Jr. Gemini like TPR sometimes do in the trips. (Although it would have been funny !)

Later that day, after Magnum XL-200 (which was just like Gemini in my mind, just taller) and a good lunch, it was time to keep the gates and go "Keyhole-ing".

I have not been on DT, but I have ridden a clone at The Great Escape, and this is a very good replacement. However, I found it a little rougher on the outside seats and it wasn't hot enough to win a place in my top ten list. Even with these downs, it's worth a ride !

I think that Top Thrill Dragster was better than it's bigger brother, Kingda Ka, due to the lap bars only instead of the OTSR. The ride experience is pretty similar : a very intense and shaky adrenaline rush !

And our 70th credit isssssssssssss.... Blue Streak ! And what a great woodie it was ! My 3rd best woodie, just behind El Toro and The Great Escape's Comet (but not by much !)

Raptor was also a great B&M, the best inverted I've ridden ! However, I don't have a big point of comparison as I've only been on two Batman clones and one SLC. :o

Maxxair was one of the greatest flats I've been on ! It's up to Cedar Point's reputation to making the biggest and best rides.

On the first day, there was about half an hour of wait on Gatekeeper. On the second, the wait was at half the stairs leading to the station ! Ohio's students are obviously back to school. EDIT : just noticed this is the line for Millenium Force, on my laptop screen it was so small I could hardly see the difference. The previous facts are still true.)

On the second day I was at the park, I took the Fast Lane wristband, and it totally saved the day !

It's hard to see on that picture, but there's about 45 minutes of wait at Maverick.

My brother shows you the good way of riding it ! With Fast Lane, we were able to ride it 5 times in the day ! That's without talking about our three rides on Millenium Force, our two rides on Maxxair (which had a long wait) and many others ! "Sadly", many rides were walk-ins, so if it wasn't for the three rides above, FL would have been useless.

Nerd shot !

That's the whole wait on Gatekeeper on the second day... It goes down the stairs, but that's it ! Good thing I did not take Fast Lane Plus !

Edited August 25, 2013 by booink

[TheMaxster]

Didn't know you were here Booink! And you went to SFGAm without inviting me? I'm only 45 minutes away.

Anyways, that was a great trip report. I'm surprised that you were able to get that many rides in at a park as crowded as Cedar Point. You got some nice photos and I can't wait for part two.

[booink]

^Thanks for the comment ! I've not been to Great America yet, the road trip is tommorow . I was also surprised at how light the crowds were, I think most Ohio schools were open, so probably the only guests there were tourists like me. During weekdays, crowds are lighter too, generally. Getting that much rides was awesome ! I will definitely go back to Cedar Point again someday !

[booink]

Time for part two of the TR ! So after our third night at Hotel Breakers, which was a pretty old-looking, but nice hotel, we took the 5 hours drive to the Chicago Area. The first day, we decided to visit a little bit the city, so we went to Navy Pier, where there is a Vekoma version of the very first Ferris Wheel, a mini-putt and 3 rides, and also a huge shopping mall. Sadly, it was raining so it's not photo-worthy . The second day, we went to Six Flags Great America, we took Flash Pass Gold and did not regret, the park was packed ! We got all the credits we could except X-Flight and Little Dipper (impressions about them are coming !). We rode these two the second day, because we did not want to wait the day where we had Flash Pass (for those who don't know, X-flight is Platinum only).

 

Great America was a pretty nice park, very clean; after all, it advertises as the cleanest park in the world ! The coasters are average, but the theming is great all over the park and the flats are nice ! Worth a visit !

 

I had a really nice trip, and I hope you liked this Trip Report !

Helloooooo Six Flags Great America ! Ready for an awesome day ?

Our first coaster with the Flash Pass was a classic... The Whizzer ! Also, it was my first Schwarzkopf ever, and it was very fun !

Of course we don't visit a park like that without getting a Flash Pass ! And it totally SAVED the day !

I think the Whizzer is great because it's a classic Schwarzkopf, and it has a cool layout hidden in the woods. The trees makes the train appear to go even faster ! I can't believe such a ride came close to getting destroyed.

Superman Ultimate Flight pursues Six Flags' tradition to copy coasters all over their parks. As I had already been on its Great Adventure cousin, I enjoyed the coaster, but the surprise element was 100 % absent. It's still a lot of fun, tough !

We then reserved for Superman Ultimate Flight, buuuuuuut there was a 20 minutes wait even with the gold. So we decided to ride Ragin Cajun during that time ! And it spinned like HELL ! My last Reverchon spinning dated back to 2009 at Animal Kingdom, so I was amazed at how cool this family coaster was ! (Rumor has it... Ride it while you can !)

We only tried the Little Dipper on our second day. A classic worth preservation, and a great family woodie, but for the ride itself, it's nothing mind-blowing (of course... It's a kiddie/family).

My 80th credit was the original Batman the Ride ! I'm always disoriented when I go on an original Batman, because I'm used to La Ronde's Vampire which is a mirror image of most Batmans.

After lunch, we hitted Raging Bull ! A great Hyper; however I have to say it's my least favorite B&M hyper of the ones I've been on; the trims kill all the airtime, and it isn't forcceful at all. However, it was still a lot of fun : the locals seemed to enjoy it quite a lot by the screams !

My favorite coaster at the park was Viper (it was still running backward, but I think it would still be my favorite even in the good direction). It had everything I love in woodies : airtime, smoothness, a good mix of twists and turns. It also initiates me to the Coney Island Cyclone, which I have not ridden yet !

Here are a few seconds of Viper's 1:30 or so ride !

I so badly wanted to ride Iron Wolf, but sadly it was closed, don't understand why.

Even with the sun behind it, Demon is not a brillant coaster. Like most Arrow loopers, it's rough and shaky, and the layout is pretty boring.

I did not like American Eagles at all, especially the red side. The blue was tolerable, however the red was very rough, especially in the huge helix. It's just behind the three woodies at Canada's Wonderland and Rolling Thnuder in my list of worst woodies.

Of course, since we love B&M hypers, we could not resist to ride it once again ! We also re-rode Viper, my favorite.

On the second day, without the flash pass, we went on X-Flight. When we arrived, it was closed, an employee telling us there was a "technical problem". It was testing, so we waited; 5 minutes later it opened and we did not wait at all to ride it ! It was much better than Gatekeeper, smoother and with a very cool layout too. I like Gatekeeper, but it was one of the shakiest B&M's I've been on, making it less enjoyable than its Illinois cousin.

My last credit was Little Dipper at night ! My mother's favorite. Also, we are french canadians, and my yonguest brother doesn't speak english very well, so he was pronouncing "Little Diaper". That would not be a very good coaster, wouldn't it be ?

[TheMaxster]

Did you get a chance to ride Vertical Velocity? Sounds like you had a good time at the park. Don't worry about the lack of thrills at Great America, we are getting a giant RMC next year.

[NAMTABSFGAm]

The reason Iron Wolf was closed was because it was removed after the 2011 season and sent to Six Flags America where it operates as Apocalypse. Next year, an amazing wooden roller coaster will be in that spot.

[KI Kidd]

^Its pretty clear that he was being sarcastic...

[booink]

The reason Iron Wolf was closed was because it was removed after the 2011 season and sent to Six Flags America where it operates as Apocalypse. Next year, an amazing wooden roller coaster will be in that spot.

 

Of course I knew that, it was pretty obvious the coaster was gone . Also,

Did you get a chance to ride Vertical Velocity? Sounds like you had a good time at the park. Don't worry about the lack of thrills at Great America, we are getting a giant RMC next year.

Yes I've been on V2, and it was better than at cedar point ! I think I may not have expressed myself correctly; compared to some other parks I've been to, Great America has a nice selection of thrills, they are not as insane as some others (especially Raging Bull), but definitely worth the trip even for hardcore thrillseekers ! Viper was excellent, as I said, it's even in my top 5 woodies. And, oh, pretty sad I'll miss that RMC .

[Coasterguy21]

^I think I prefer Wicked Twister to V2, but it's really hard to say. I like the double twisting on WT but I also love just the straight spire on V2 (definitely gives a different sensation).

 

I get what you mean about Great America though. My favorite park is Cedar Point, but with Great America being a bit shorter drive a way, I always want to go out there. It may not have all the "World's Best blah blahs" but it has a great selection of coasters and flats in my opinion. Also, when I go (late August usually) the waits are usually short.

 

Both parks are very enjoyable to me and I'm glad you got to do the trip.

[TheMaxster]

Viper is my favorite wooden coaster in the park right now too. Much better than American Eagle that makes a sound like a thousand bullets are hitting you because the first drop is so rough.