10-21-06- Horrible Raptor Experience Yet a Great Trip

Sorry that this trip report is a little late, but I decided better late than never. The weather was quite nice on saturday- extremely cold but nice. We arrived at the park at 11:50 to find a very small amount of cars in the parking lot.

Millennium Force: 50 minute wait. This was the first ride of the day. The line was quite short, only in the block of queues before the ramp. Somehow the line moved incredoubly slowly and it took 50 minutes to get on. This was longer than it takes when I am much farther back in the line. Looking at the ride I could tell it was running extremely slowly (in terms of actual ride speed). The train would creep down the straight-away before the last turnaround. Also, the train would be creeping through half the brake run as it would be slowed down after only 15ft or so. Saw Tony running the ride and said hello. I had never actually seen him before. The ride was nice (second car), but it was definately slow. Airtime was in very short supply. On many of the hills it felt like the train could roll back. Nice ride but definately not my best ride recently.

Skyhawk: 30 minute wait. Only one side running but the park was empty so I tried it anyways. Even with one side running the queue was not very full. Pretty efficient I must say- one side operation wasn't all that bad. I got on sooner than I did for most of the summer. Amazing ride. I am always amazed by how high this thing goes. Absolutely amazing, and I'm very glad it was added this year.

Gemini: 30 minute wait. Now the park was jam-packed. More crowded than I have ever seen it. I had a wonderful ride on on Gemini. It was smooth and the airtime was great. Great ride.

Magnum: 50 minute wait. The queue was absolutely full and people were still pooring onto the midway. I have never seen this. They were grouping in the station which was extremely nice. I like how they did this monitoring this year. Got in the second row of the first car. Amazing ride. It was as smooth as glass and the airtime was in great surplus today. I hate to say it, but Magnum seemed better than MF today. The paint job also still looks nice.

Now it was quite clear that the park was unbelieveably crowded. Midways were packed, and queues for rides were completely full. We moved onto the haunted houses now.

Undertaker U: We got here 15 minutes before it was supposed to open, and managed to get into the haunted house in about 10 minutes (it opened early which was nice). Great haunted house, but it seemed much darker than the last time when I did it. I kept bumping into walls, and sometimes I didn't know where to go at all. Luckily they seemed to have a lot of staff through it that would turn me in the right direction. This is a great haunted house.

Had lunch at Famous Daves which was great as usual.

Pharoh's Secret: We waited 1 hour and 15 minutes. SLOW moving line. People were giving others their 3D glasses as they exited like the last time I visited which is nice. I thought this was extremely lame. I don't know what else to say about. CP needs to scrap this one in my opinion. It was basically walking through a lot of rooms with flourescent paint. Without the 3D glasses it would have been much worse too.

Wherewolf Canyon: 45 minute wait. The last time I did this I thought it was pretty bad. It was a 2 hour line, with not much fog in the canyon. Also there were so many people going through it, there was nothing scary as you could see all the wherewolves in front of you. We got to this at 7:30, and already the line was stretching way back to Undertaker U. Still, it moved incredoubly fast and we were permited into the canyon in under an hour. They weren't letting as many people through at once which made it much more scary, and the fog was unbelieveable. This is a GREAT attraction. It really was scary and very enjoyable. Really great. I was impressed. The "pig" ending was also a nice touch. It took nearly 10 minutes to get through this attraction so I felt it was definately worth the wait.

Fright Zone: We did this one twice. Once going to Wherewolf Canyon and once on our way back. It was extremely packed, but still very scary. The screamsters were out in great numbers. They actually opened it only a little after 7 which was a great move by CP. Not as many screamsters were rolling twoards people using their skateboards (or something they used last time to roll twoards people) which was probably due to the lack of space. This is a great fright zone. Every time I walk through I'm impressed and will get scared by someone.

CarnEvil: The last time I went through this we were the only ones going through which was quite an experience. This is probably my favorite fright zone. Really great themeing, and got startled by screamsters quite a few times. I just love CarnEvil. The fog was really thick too.

Feare Faire: I hadn't done this one on my last trip so I was anxious to go through it. It wasn't very impressive at first, but it was extremely long and it got better as you went along. The themeing at the beginning looked pretty chinsey, but by the end it looked superb. TONS of screamsters going through this one and I was startled by people left and right. This was a nice treat. The music was pretty cool too. Just great.

Raptor: 1 hour 40 minute wait. We were going to do Lair of the Vampire to end the night, but the line was long and I hadn't been on Raptor recently so we went to that instead. The sign said 2 hours, and the queue was completely full, literally. I have never seen so many people in one line. The crew was amazing. I don't think I've ever seen a ride being run more efficiently. If any Raptor ops are here, bravo! By this time it was freezing and we were all exausted. After waiting an hour and 25 minutes we were just about to go through the turnstile into the station. They then announced Raptor was down due to mechanical problems. Oh great. We were absolutely freezing as the wind was horribly fierce up on the ramp. 15 minutes later or so they finally reopened it. At this time of night after waiting well over an hour, 15 minutes was a long time especially with the wind. We boarded the last car after maybe 5 more minutes. I thought it was odd that the station was completely empty except for the front row. We leave the station and I had the best Raptor ride ever. The speed was amazing, and it was smooth and intense. This was my favorite ride of the night, and it was just unbelieveable. After returning to the brake run, I thought it was odd that all three trains were being stacked after such efficient operations earlier. After we get a little closer to the station, I got a little worried when I saw security running all over the place asking ops for flashlights. The station was again empty except for the front row line. I thought for sure there was an accident, but they kept loading the front row like nothing was happening. After we got off, we saw that someone had collapsed on the ramp leading up to the station. They had an IV in them already, and there were probably a dozen security/ paramedic people around. They then brought up a stretcher to the ramp. Quickly thereafter, floods of people that were about to go into the station used the emergency stairs and proceeded out of line. Not sure quite what happened, but whatever it was wasn't good at all.

So that was my Cedar Point trip. It was pretty great, and I was very impressed by Halloweekends. I visited Halloweekends twice this year, but before this year I hadn't been for quite a while. Some of the cuts this year were concerning (not open until 11 most nights in the summer, rides opening at 11). Still, I had a great season at CP, and can't wait to ride Maverick next year.

Notes:
-Maverick looks great and it should be fun
-Park was more crowded than I have ever seen it
-Queues for most rides were completely full (TTD for example)
-MF wasn't running very well, and it could definately use a paint job
-All halloween attractions were absolutely wonderful
-Park seemed very well staffed
-Even after touring many parks in Florida, CP still reigns supreme *** Edited 10/28/2006 1:41:36 AM UTC by Top Thrill 182***

Other than the unfortunate person who collapsed, what was so horrible about Raptor. You waited a hour and 40 minutes when the sign said 2 hours. You said it was cold, but it is the end of a rather cold October here in the midwest.

Top Thrill 182 said:

Feare Faire: I hadn't done this one on my last trip so I was anxious to go through it.

You didnt do that one before cuz its new just to let you know.:)

Well it wasn't really horrible, just unpleasent. Its easy to say "well its a cold october" but its slightly different when your standing out in it. I was more refering to the person that collapsed, which wasn't as bad for me as them.

And I had visited Halloweekends once this year already, sorry I made that unclear. I hadn't done Feare Faire on my trip a week or two ago. *** Edited 10/28/2006 1:39:27 AM UTC by Top Thrill 182***

I was there on Sunday, I know what the cold is like.

Horrible Raptor experience should be an unfortunate thing to see on Raptor's station ramp.

When I drive to work and I see a serious accident, I don't say that was a horrible drive. I feel bad, but what can I do.

Well then maybe its just me, but I didn't like standing out in the wind and the cold at 11:30 at night.

Yeah, I was trying to find a word to describe the unfortunate accident and the breakdown along with the cold. Horrible wasn't the perfect word, but maybe we could move off of that. I can't figure out how to change it anyways.

Did anyone else think MF was running slowly?

MF felt really slow on Sunday.

I layered up so I didn't really feel the cold. (MF's was a bit breezy though)

It felt like the train had no speed at the top of some of the hills, and the intensity just didn't seem to be there as much. Would the cool temperature make a ride run more slowly, the wind, or something else altogether?

The cold probably helped CP due to all of those sweatshirt sales.

Cold temperatures do slow down the ride.

No wonder my better rides have come on warmer days. After seeing the pics of Raptor valleyed I'm convinced that wind and cool temperatures have a large effect on rides. Out of curiosity, when MF rolled back where was it? I'm presuming before the final turn.

It happened once between the first overbank and third hill. The other time happened on the hill that comes back from the island. Both had to do with the cool morning temperatures and not enough weight being put on each train during testing.

Glad you had a good experience in the fright zone. In regards to the people on "skateboards"....There are actually only four of us in the fright zone and one in fear faire, so it can be hard to cover the whole thing at times, and yes, with as crowded as it was that evening,we had some safety concerns about it.

Oh thanks for the info. What are you on? I didn't actually know if you are using skateboards. The last time I was walking against the normal flow of people, so I saw the four people rolling towards people. It was a pretty cool effect. I really did love it.

Im really glad to hear that you liked it. We are pretty proud of what we do. As for the specific equipment, thats a trade secret, just know that we are called " sliders"

Sliders eh? Whatever you use it really was great. Nice job. Being at the park when it was so crowded made me wonder, on a tipical day, how many people are in the park?

The slider in Fear Fair knocked a girl down when he slid into her in October.

Sounded like a fun trip. Even though it can be freezing; it is still majorly worth being there. Hope that person was okay. Maybe a diabetic or something.