Well, I guess you can't really call it an invasion since it was just my wife and I. :)
I hadn't been to CP since 2002 and have been suffering major withdrawals. My wife has never been. Her only experience with amusement parks has been 3 Six Flags Parks (Over Texas: our home park, St. Louis and Great America) and Indiana Beach that we hit 2 days before CP. So, needless to say, she's used to less than happy staff, somewhat unclean parks and rides being run well under capacity. CP was a surprise to her.
We left my grandparents' place in NE Indiana and made the 3 hour drive on Tuesday morning. We arrived around 8:30 and checked in to Breakers and they already had our room ready. We hauled our stuff up and headed to the park for the ERT at 9. It was about 63 degrees and cloudy. I just prayed that we wouldn't get rained out.
We headed for Maverick first since neither of us has ridden it before. I really liked how they incorporated the old White Water Landing station into the queue/gift shop. I miss that ride, but Maverick is definitely a worthy replacement. Awesome ride that did not disappoint and started our CP adventure with 2 big grins. I was surprised by the sunglasses policy. I had to ride my first 3 coasters of the day with my glasses in my pocket until I could find a gift shop to break a $100 for me to buy a strap.
Next stop: Millennium Force. After 7 years it's too easy to forget just how amazing this ride is. So big. So fast. So smooth. So awesome. It's still my #1. The wife came off with a giant grin too.
I've only ever ridden Mantis once before. I'll just say I'm not a fan of stand-ups, but I wanted my wife to experience it. I was able to get the seat situated so as to not kill my manhood. It was more fun this time because of that, but I still wish they'd just put some sit-down trains on it instead. My wife agreed.
I've always liked Iron Dragon. It's not huge or fast or extreme, but I've always had fun on it. Swinging through the trees and diving through the misty pretzel...It's just fun. The wife really enjoyed it too.
We did Wildcat next before the line got too long. I love a good Schwarzkopf. It surprised the heck out of my wife too.
We hit Cedar Downs next. The coolest carousel in the world in my book. My wife didn't understand the seemingly high height restriction for it until we rode it. Just as fun as always.
Blue Streak is always a good little surprise. It packs way more punch than its size suggests. It compares to the Judge Roy Scream at SFoT...only better.
Raptor, and the longest wait of our visit, was next. The Batman rides at the 3 Six Flags parks are her only experience with inverteds, so she was in for a surprise. It was as good as always and she loved it too.
Our stomachs were rumbling, so we headed to Midway Market for lunch and stuffed ourselves and then rode Giant Wheel while the food settled.
We headed for Maxxair next. The wait was a little longer than it should have been due to a small protein spill they had to clean up. Yum. Aside from the stinging legs, arms and face due to the rain the started right as our ride began, it was a really fun ride. With the spinning and swinging, and especially after the recent cleanup, I expected to feel a little nauseous, but it didn't bother me at all.
Since it was still raning, we ran over to Disaster Transport. This may be an unloved ride, but again, I've always enjoyed it. I liked it way back when it opened as Avalanche Run too.
We skipped Wicked Twister for now since lunch was still weighing heavily in our stomachs.
We headed back down the midway for Corkscrew. So pretty to look at, yet so harsh on the head. Once was enough.
Next we hopped in line for Dragster. Unfortunately it started to rain pretty good and they shut it down while we were in line. We waited for a while, but gave up since someone (not me) needed to see the little girls' room anyhow.
We hung out, checked out some shops and got some drinks and then the rain stopped so we headed for Magnum and the ejector seat. My #2 did not disappoint, but my wife wasn't too happy with me over the beating the lap bar gave the tops of her legs. lol
Then we headed back to Dragster and got our ride. WOW! The acceleration was insane! I LOVED it! The one trick pony aspect of it pretty much keeps it from being at the top of my favorites, but that is an awesome ride. I could sit on that and go around all day long just to feel the force of the launch. Wonderful!
Gemini was next. It was great to watch a newbie freak out over the great headchoppers! Good times! I will always love this ride.
Next up was the brain basher known as Mean Streak. Long and painful. As with Mantis, I wouldn't have bothered other than to let my wife experience it.
CCMR was next. I'm always up for a nice mine ride.
We went over to Skyhawk after that. I was very impressed. That's probably one of the best non-coaster rides I've ever been on. Loved it!
We were both exhausted, so we headed back to the room for a break. We came back and walked through the starlight experience on our way to MF. It was almost totally dark when we got our ride. Awesome! We walked back through the Frontier Trail and grabbed another ride on Skyhawk on our way out.
Day 2 started the same way with Maverick and MF starting our day off in our ERT hour. Unfortunately, that was the highlight of our rather short day. We took the sky ride up front and checked out a few shops before grabbing a couple of pretzels and sitting down for a snack. My wife got cheese with her pretzel. That's where the day went wrong. Something in the cheese did not agree with her. After a few trips to the bathroom to get sick, we had to give up on the day and cut it short. :( It's one of the hardest things in the world for me to have to walk away from Cedar Point like that, but it had to be done.
Aside from the day 2 issues, it was still a good trip. I was just happy to be able to get there at all after 7 years. The weather cooperated for the most part and the cool temperatures were great. I'm sure the weather played a major part in the very light crowds as well. We waited maybe 45 minutes for Raptor and probably about the same for Dragster. Other than that, 15-20 minutes was the longest we waited for anything.
I don't plan on letting another 7 years go by before I get back. I hope we can make it back next summer. My oldest son should reach the magical 54" mark so he can come along and do it all with us as well.
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