7/21/18: Suspiciously low crowds, even for a Saturday.

Well, this has been a fun one for sure.

So my trip starts off with me getting in my car and driving there, and getting in the parking lot. Sounds like any normal trip. Next thing you know, while I'm getting out of my car, I lock my keys and wallet in my car, and then I start to panic and call my dad. I then talk to Cedar Point security, I give them the make/model/location of my car, and I'm told to wait by my vehicle. After that, I flag down the maintenance truck, and they have to use an air jack and slim jim(as my dad calls it) to unlock the door in the passenger side of my 2 door focus SE.

After what feels like an hour of me feeling like an idiot(really it was probably 5 minutes), I finally get into the park. Let me just say this: for a Saturday, the park wasn't too crowded. My best guess was probably the high precipitation chance. My first ride sees me heading towards Raptor, and it's not even a 5 minute wait. I take my spot in row 8 on the very right side. Then another ride in the front row, same side. Another thing, I had one of my cartilage studs in, and it was rather annoying. These are my studs, I was wearing the one to the very left, the dream catcher looking one.

Basically the whole thing started flipping up, or it would go into my ear somewhat, so after the ride I'd have to straighten it out. All I can say is that I'm glad I didn't ride corkscrew with it in. I will never do that again.

Blue Streak was next on my list, so I headed over there, but not before getting a drink at the freestyle machine. Of course, the streak was fun and as always a bit rough. But it's a pleasant kind of rough. After that classic, I headed to MaXair. I enjoy that ride(but it's not above Skyhawk) and I rarely get sick, but this time I found myself feeling small spikes of nausea when I got off. Next up was Gatekeeper, and again, it was really not that crowded. Even for someone of my weight, they were able to get me in the back row. I am not 100% a fan of the new B&M vest restraints, but they don't squeeze your chest like the hard ones do.

Now my watch is showing it's around 5 or so pm, and I try to head to Snake River Falls. I end up getting caught by Millennium Force. Of course I instead head to Skyhawk. After that I just put all my stuff into a locker, then head to Snake River falls fully clothed. Okay, I was wearing a swimsuit under my sailing shorts and my shirt, and I went twice. That's not including me standing on the bridge, wanting to really get soaked. After that, it was back on Skyhawk. I do this every time I go; get soaked on snake, dried on Skyhawk.

So, I check the app, and it says a 5 minute wait for Maverick. I get there, and it turns out the app is a dirty f**king liar. It was off by 40 minutes. One thing I like about this park is that even if a long wait is predicted for a line, it moves by rather quickly. After a ride on Maverick, I head over to Steel Vengeance, which the app predicts a 1hr and 30min wait. Wow, not even close. The wait was only a half hour or less. Yep, Pointbuzz was right. The no cell phones thing meant a shorter line. Only problem is that the ride broke down while I was waiting for it.

I then start making my way back to the front of the park, but not before riding Magnum XL-200 twice along with Top Thrill Dragster and Power Tower. While I do miss Lumionsity, Fire and Ice was a nice replacement for it. Kind of like Luminosity, but both relaxing and energizing. It was a little hard to get into at first because they were playing songs I didn't really know too much(and I wasn't born before the 2000s like a lot of pointbuzzers on here). Honestly, my favorite song played was 'Confident', by Demi Lovato. A lot of the songs were integrated flawlessly into the show and it was quite relaxing to watch. I then stop for some skewered pork belly and head to the railroad.

I still have time for riding something other than Steel Vengeance, so I make a beeline for Skyhawk again. I got in two rides. One ride was with a bunch of people, the other one was another solo ride, this time in the dark. Let me say this: it was AWESOME. It feels like you're swinging into absolute nothingness. I talk a little with the ride hosts after the ride, and one of them I know a little bit. We met after I had taken my first solo ride on Skyhawk.

So...How can this night get any better? A night ride on Steel Vengeance of course! I get in line with a short wait and just start milling around in my thoughts. One thought I had was about a CP dream I had last night. Basically I meet several of you in person in said dream.

I then take my night ride on Steel Vengeance, and I take it in the front row. Of course, I saw another guy that looked like a single rider. Turns out he wasn't, and he was waiting for his girlfriend. I let him go ahead of me, and I get on Chess' train. Is it just me, or does her spiel sound like it was given by Sandy Cheeks from Spongebob Squarepants? During my ride in the front row I think I killed a few bugs. The worst part was I got one in my eye. It hit right by my contact lens and I was in for major pain/irritation. My left eye was tearing up from that stupid bug. XD

To make a long story short:

1. Not much of a crowd.
2. Another solo ride on Skyhawk.
3. Mulling over thoughts.
4. Fire and Ice was awesome.
5. Nothing is more painful than a bug in your eye with contacts in.

Monday was shockingly slow, walking to the platforms for everything except Maverick and SV. We were there Monday until Friday morning and the park Did not feel busy until
Thursday and even then Queues were not bad at all. Shores was okay busy, beach was pretty busy.
Bar staff at Surf lounge, Friday’s, sand bar, bubbles are all pretty bummed at business this year compared to last.

Yesterday was another case of bad weather luck on a Saturday. The forecasts for most of Michigan have been "rain all weekend" for several days and it's been fairly accurate I think. I looked at the webcams yesterday in the morning and it was wet at CP too. Not sure what the rest of the day turned out like.

I felt like attendance was low last year (I was thinking high single digit or low double digit decline was in order based on my visits) and supposedly it was pretty flat from 2016 which was close to a record year I think. There are definitely more people back in Frontiertown early in the morning and later into the evening than there have been in a while so it has made the rest of the park feel less busy. Same with the beach and waterpark. They're both drawing more people these days. At least I hope that's the case and they're not having a really bad year despite the best new coaster addition in more than a decade. If the park is hitting their numbers, or coming even close, and the waits are as manageable as they've been this summer, it's a great thing for guests!

Gets me to wondering a bit about the marketing plan for Steel Vengeance or lack thereof. The hype among enthusiasts seems to be unmatched to me - probably the biggest ride debut in terms of hype since Millennium Force. But I'm wondering if the GP feels like this is another Rougarou situation and just aren't that excited to make it a priority. Did they do enough to highlight the fact that this is a completely new experience despite some of the structure being the same? There was a pretty long period during the winter where we didn't hear a whole lot of anything. The hype machine with coaster nerds was still active, but that's probably a bit of an echo chamber. Then I was seeing commercials early on in May, but not so much recently (Grand Rapids Michigan market). Searching "Steel Vengeance" on Twitter yields an amazing response of good reviews. Literally I think i've seen like two people say something negative and thousands saying the ride is amazing. The response has been overwhelmingly positive, but is that social media chatter resulting in turnstile clicks? Maybe not like they had hoped.

Edit: Well, now the Twitterferse is outraged about the no cell phone policy so there goes that.