8/22/14: First trip for daughter, first time in a long time for me

Hi everyone,

My daughter and I went to Cedar Point Thursday, Aug. 21. We live in western Canada, and my daughter had never been to an amusement park like Cedar Point, only little ones. I grew up in Ohio, but hadn't been here in 11 years. The weather report for Sandusky that morning said it would be cloudy with thunderstorms starting at about 2pm at 75%.

At about 9am, there was not a cloud in the sky. We parked at the back, got in at 10 am, and made our way to Maverick. When we got there, there were only 3 pairs of people in front of us for the front seat, so we got in line. Fantastic ride, so fun, so smooth, such personality! I would have love to get on it again, but my daughter found it a bit too much. She doesn't really show fear. She was very calm on the ride. She just said she'd like to go on something not so fast - though she did say she liked the "upside down parts".

So instead we headed for the Mine Ride. It was closed. Then the Mean Streak was closed. Then we tried the Skyhawk and was told it would open at 11:00. So we went to Shoot the Rapids, and got a boat to ourselves. It was fun. We got wet but would dry off quickly.

By this time Skyhawk was open. We got right on it. Looks can be so deceiving. It was scarier than it looked! I got some nice screaming out of it. My daughter, calm as usual, was equally scared.

Now finally the Mine Ride, 10 minute wait. Then walked right on the Antique Cars, which my daughter was worried about driving, but then found that it was fun. Then the old Jr Gemini, boring for us both. Woodstock Express - we actually stayed on the train for 2 runs. Then we were at the flying scooter ride, Lake Erie eagles. We rode that twice. DD wanted to ride Monster, so she rode it alone. (I can't do rides that spin and rotate.)

Then we went to the back of the park again, and got on Thunder Canyon. We stayed in our boat for 3 runs. On the first run we were totally drenched by the first waterfall. However, after that we had mostly only side spashes. Lots of fun though. Then we went to Shoot the Rapids again. Then back to the car (detouring at Lake Erie Eagles since it was “walk on”) to change into dry clothes and get some lunch. By now clouds had rolled in, and it became overcast.

We drove to Famous Daves, and used the Marina entrance. We got on the bumpercars, and then went to Iron Dragon, but it was shut down due to mechanical failure. They kept running cars throughout the day, but never opened again. Too bad, I think my daughter would have liked it. After some Dippin Dots, we went to Cedar Downs. I don’t like the music they play for that. I want the old horseracing soundtrack back. Then we went to Snoopy on ice, which was really good. They have really good skaters! They do real jumps and stuff!

After that, my daughter wanted to try Scrambler, and Matterhorn, which she did alone as it would have made me too sick. Then we made our way through Planet Snoopy (stopping at the Balloon Ride), and went to Windseeker. We got our seating assignment, but when the previous ride returned to the ground, they closed it due to high winds, and we didn’t get to ride it. We made our way past Gatekeeper, and the worker at the front told us it was a 10 minute wait. So we went up and my daughter didn’t want to try it, so she waited in the exit area. Again the front seat only had 3 pairs of people in front of us, so I got in the front row. It was nice, but I like other coasters better. My daughter made the right call, I don’t think she would have liked it. Too fast.

Then we walked straight on the Blue Streak. My daughter liked it but the most remarkable thing about it was being ejected out of her seat. When I was her age, I went on the Big Dipper with my dad. No seat belts, only a single lap bar shared by 2 people. When I flew out, my dad grabbed me and pulled me back in. For my daughter, both the seat belt and the lap bar had a lot of give at the tightest setting, so she got about 4 inches of hang time!

After that we did the Turnpike cars, and she did the Calypso alone, and we did Cedar Downs again. We then saw Windseeker was working. So we went on. She loved it. The “How to Train Your Dragon” music really appealed to her. We waved hello to Canada on one side, and Sandusky on the other side. She held her hands high in the air. I gripped my restraint tightly and wondered if it was this windy, how windy must it be to shut it down! And what would happen if they didn’t balance the riders with that seating chart. And what about that video on the internet of someone falling to their death on this ride at Six Flags. Eventually, I figured if I look across instead of directly down, I’m less afraid of the height. After this, we started to walk down to the beach, but my daughter had to go to the rest rooms, and since this moved us inland so much, we just decided to go to dinner.

We had a great dinner at Famous Daves, left the leftovers in our car, and went back in. The lights were just starting to come on, so we had to ride the prettiest rides. My daughter took one more turn on Scrambler and Matterhorn. Iron Dragon still closed. The wait for MF was only 10 minutes! My daughter waited at the exit, and I went on. Love that ride, so smooth and powerful, the whole train had arms up including me… though you could feel the bugs hitting your arms…

We walked around and saw the colored lights on the trees in Frontierland, got an Elephant Ear and some Cotton Candy. At this point, 9pm, I felt a few drops of rain, but no more. We went all the way to the Gemini midway where she fell in love with the lights on Monster, and found another single girl to ride it with. Then we ate some of our elephant ear, threw the rest away, and went on Pipe Scream. This is a ride I could ride probably once and that’s it. Then we walked past dragster in awe of its acceleration. We saw Himalaya, which we could have ridden together probably, but by this time it was 9:45, so we had to choose one last ride…. We chose Windseeker, a beautiful way to end the day.

My daughter slept the 2 hour-drive home. About 1 hour into the drive, it finally started raining… but there were no storms. She’ll savor her cotton candy tomorrow. You couldn’t have asked for better conditions on a day to Cedar Point. Practically no lines on any ride, warm but not sweltering, really nice crowd, lots to take in and see and do. This may become an annual tradition with trips to grandma’s house now.

Eventually she'll do the coasters !!! Maverick isn't fast,just wild. Gatekeeper is SLOW,watching it from the ground,it looks in slow motion. Woodstock Express is,suprisingly,a good ride.
What did she think,overall,of CP ?

Thanks for the great report. Sounds like a CP Best Day to me! What great memories the two of you will always have of this special time at the park. Have fun planning your trip back next year!

Speed is relative. If you've never been on a coaster before, coasters that seem slow to others, may seem fast to you.

I asked her how she liked it. My daughter said Cedar Point was really great. She liked how it was bigger than our little home amusement park. She liked the variety of rides, the water rides, Famous Daves, the ice show, all the different things to do there. Her favorite ride was Windseeker. We felt bad she missed Iron Dragon as that would have been a great ride for her. Next year, she said she wants to go on the Skyhawk again "even though that ride terrified me this year".

When we got back to Calgary, she was invited twice to go to our little amusement park with her friends, after having been at Cedar Point, she fearlessly went on everything there, including the little roller coaster. Although she was definitely intimidated by the speed and height of the CP coasters, going on just some of them gave her bragging rights with her friends here in Alberta.