28/08/2012 Quick review of this season's changes

So aside from the off season tour in February, today was my first trip to the park in 2012. This is also the first year I haven't had a season pass since 2007. I just want to review a few things that I personally witnessed after hearing about them on here for the last few months.

Mean Streak. I've never been a hater of the ride but I know what it is and what to expect. The work they've done has improved it but it still isn't a great ride.

Luminosity stage/Wildcat removal. I don't know if it's because Luminosity is done and they are working on the Halloweekends show, but I really didn't like the area around the stage. I was expecting much more. The view of Millennium without the screen is great, but all of the curvy benches and huge circles that they use for the show just seem like clutter to me. I'm hoping this off season they do a little more work on that area. The area where Wildcat sat seems really underutilized to me. I realize that they were rushed this year so hopefully they put in the rest of the time required to transform that area into a really great area.

Free water and fresh cut fries. I considered today to be very successful because I didn't even see one plastic 4oz dart cup. Everytime I got water from a food stand it came in a standard Cedar Fair/Pepsi large cup. I saw lots of people taking advantage of it as well. And the fresh cut fries are awesome! I got some around dinner time from Hot Potato and really enjoyed them.

Dinosaurs Alive. Didn't plan on doing this, but later on in the day the friend I was with needed a break from riding so we decided to check out the dinos. I was really impressed with this attraction. What they did with the island looks great. The path and the vegetation really makes for a great atmosphere. It isn't something I would do again, but I enjoyed it to do it once. Great job CP!

Gatekeeper area. When I saw the progress they were making with the demolition last week I thought for sure that Disaster Transport would be history by the time I got to visit. But alas, today the 12E cube was still standing and I'm pretty darn glad it was. It looked pretty cool with just that last part standing there and everything around it gone. I got a pretty good view from Wicked Twister and maXair of the area. It also looks to me like Space Spiral has given its last ride. I wouldn't be surprised if that construction fence stays the way it is for the rest of the season. Maybe they would move it to open Troika Troika Troika up, but for the rest of what's back there doesn't seem worth it. I'll also add, Giant Wheel looks great with fresh paint and new lights.

FastLane. We did not use FastLane. We got to the park right at 11 and entered through the resort gate. We started with Magnum then headed towards the back hitting almost everything we passed. All lines were pretty normal and didn't see any difference with FastPass (people were clearly using it, but it barely affected our wait). When we got off Mean Streak we grabbed lunch and then got in line. The sign said 1 1/4 hour. The queue house was 3/4 full (with the section beside the stairs closed off) and the queue outside was also 3/4 (roughly 4 rows, or to the side closest to the midway just past the vending machines.) We got in line at 2:20 and got off the ride at 4:25. There were no break downs or interruptions. In what world is that normal? I've ridden Maverick probably 50 times and under any normal circumstances in years past that wait should have been 1 - 1 1/4 hour. The only difference between past years and this year is FastLane. People were constantly entering using FastLane the whole time we were in line. The regular queue line would stand still for 10 minutes at a time. I've never seen a line move so slow before. Lots of people around us noticed it too. Later in the day we passed by Millennium Force and Dragster, both with a posted one hour wait time and passed on by because we didn't want to risk being in line for over two hours like we were with Maverick. All of the other lines at the park today were normal but the Maverick experience really left a sour taste in my mouth.

In summary, it was a good day at the park. From 2005-2010 I was averaging 10 days in the park per season. Last year I only went 2 times. This year I've only been once and am on the fence of whether to plan a Halloweekends trip. After seeing what FastLane can do to the wait times I'm terrified to see what can happen during busy Halloweekends, especially if they're going to offer it for the Halloweekends attractions. I 100% agree with Cedar Point offering a skip the line system like this. Seeing how many people were using it today during a typically slower part of the season is great for the park. They must be raking in the cash with FastLane. But I've come to realize Cedar Point for me isn't what it used to be. It's been hard to come by days in the park where crowds are as small as they used to be this time in August, or early May. It's hard to get friends together to go to the park because people are growing up and have jobs and other things to do. I'll always love Cedar Point and can't wait to go back next year and ride GateKeeper, but I don't see myself ever buying a season pass again or going 10 times a year.

Great trip report I was also there on the 28th, weather was much better than the 27th. We rode Mean Streak about mid-day and rode in the front seat, that seemed to be the only seat you can ride with out getting beat up. The Giant wheel was very impressive at night with all the new lights, I remember walking by Maverick and seeing the line next to the pop machines and past on that. Millennium seemed to have it's line around it's pop machines to.