A first timer's first two days at the Point

So I travelled from Toronto to Geauga Lake on Monday morning. Had a bad time, and was thoroughly prepared for it to be washed out of my memory with a couple of great days at CP on Tuesday and Wednesday.

DAY ONE

Got there at 9'45" to find everything already up and running, oops.

Millenium F'n Force - Amazing, amazing ride. Waited 30 minutes. Easily the best ride I've ever been on. Unfortunately, riding it first meant that everything else would be a let down.

Mantis - walk-on, but waited a ride for the front. Decent, little bits of banging, nothing too bad. Good ride, but hard to follow M F'n F.

Cedar Creek Mine Ride - walk on for the front. I love the big drop over the lake. Otherwise, nothing too special.

Mean Streak - looks awe-inspiring. Unfortunately, rides like ass. Waited a ride for the front, and was soundly disappointed. I expected some good air, decent laterals, but just got jerked around.

Gemini - walk-on. Both my friend and I were crushed when we realized that only the red side was running. Took a spin, wasn't impressed, and was let down at no racing. Fortunately, about 10 minutes later, blue was up and running, and so we raced. Lots of trash talking, but we only ended up in a draw [our side lead the entire race, but the brakes before the helix were on so hard that Blue took the final win - we called it a draw].

Magnum XL-200 - waited five minutes for the front. Second most looked-forward-to coaster on the trip [next to MF]. It delivered! Crazy air, PAINFUL thigh-bashing air on the bunny-hops. Took six spins on it throughout the day. The brakes before the pretzel turn were on very, very hard, though.

Corkscrew - walk-on. Good visual over the midway. Otherwise, nothing.

Iron Dragon - waited 10 minutes for the front. Expected nothing, got a relaxing ride through the trees, with a good view of TTD's queue line [and the two hour wait]. Like the finale over the water, otherwise not much. No banging, though.

Wildcat - 10 minute wait. Lots of fun on this ride, even though it looks like a little wuss coaster. I enjoyed it.

Took the SkyRide up to the front of the park to hit the coasters up there.

Raptor - waited ZERO MINUTES for a front seat ride. Amazing coaster, I loved this thing!!! Intense as hell, especially the helix, which had me seeing stars. Ended up with three flights before moving on.

Blue Streak - walk-on. Lots of fun on this, although it's no Big Dipper. Rode a couple of times.

Disaster Transport - 15 minute wait. I didn't mind the wait, being that it was 85 and humid outside, and cold as hell inside. The ride itself was nothing special, but over the course of preparing for the trip, my friend had become obsessed with bobsled coasters, and was STOKED for this.

Wicked Twister - 5 minute wait for the front. I liked Superman at Geauga Lake better than this, but this was still a fun and enjoyable coaster.

After that, we went on Chaos, which was pretty lame [we only flipped twice, although we didn't catch on to flipping ourselves over until the end of the ride], the Space Spiral, and the Pirate [which continues my trek to ride one at every park I go to].

We walked back around and decided to wait for TTD.

TTD - waited an hour for a front seat ride. Luckily we only waited an hour! Woo! Anyway, I decided to put my glasses in my pocket for this trip, and that turned out to be a mistake. No, I didn't lose them, but as we launched, I felt them slipping, so I looked down, and put my energy into holding them in place. Unfortunately, I missed the entire ride due to this. Oops.

After that, we went around and did some re-rides. Thorougly happy, we left at around 7 to head to East of Chicago's, which was a BAD ASS place to eat pizza.

DAY TWO

Got there at 9'30", and headed right for MF.

MILLENIUM F'N FORCE - two rides, waited for less than an hour. Yeah, I was STOKED with that one!

Iron Dragon - walk-on for the front.

Wildcat - waited for five minutes.

Blue Streak - walk-on for the front. We walked to Raptor first, and noticed the long, LONG, 45 minute line for it, and decided to skip it. Went on this a couple of times, and noticed that Raptor's line was short - so we headed to that.

Raptor - walk-on! Five rides, all awesome. Got a bit tired of it at the end, after suffering some headbanging, but still love this ride.

Wicked Twister - Got stuck cresting the front hill on the third swing, and after 20 minutes, got an exit pass. SCORE.

Walked around a bit, found out that Disaster Transport was closed, and rode the Calypso, before heading back to MF.

M F'n F - Used our exit pass, realized that we weren't granted a choice of seating and were dumped into the front of the line as opposed to right onto the ride. Decided to wait 20 minutes for the front. Unfortunately, the crew was S-L-O-W, and took FOREVER to load/unload. THEN, the ride before we went on, the train hit a hawk on the path, and dragged it along the track with it. Unfortunately for the hawk, it was still alive - pinned by it's wing under the train. After 25 minutes of downtime, they FINALLY got it free, and walked it by us. So sad, cute, and bloody. Quite a sad scene. Fortunately, the line died down consideribly during the downtime, and we got our front seat ride + another ride [which cost us a 15 minute wait] in an hour and a half, which isn't bad for peak time of day line waits.

Decided to ditch the glasses/camera, and go on a ride on TTD again, with my full attention being paid this time.

TTD - a 45 minute wait, front seat ride. AMAZING ride, even though it's far too short. Great, great visuals. No MILLENIUM F'N FORCE, but still really good. Worth the wait.

Mantis - waited 10 minutes for the front, only because they transferred a train off during our wait. Not as good as the first time, and even though it was empty, passed up a re-ride. Instead, we headed BACK over to MF, whose queue was rapidly decreasing.

M F'n F - two more rides, once in the front, once in the back. Waited 45 minutes combined for the two. Six rides today, eight in total - a beautiful pair of days.

Gemini - decided to continue our duels from the previous day. My friend beat me on our first race, despite all of my trash-talking. Second race, I won, but was disqualified because her train's brakes were on. I don't like this DQ, though, because again, my train was leading for the whole race, and would've won regardless of the brakes. Oh well! Still great fun, even if the ride itself lacks.

Magnum - went on six times to end the day. A great way to end the trip at CP, especially considering the last ride was completely brakeless, and FLYING around the circuit. Beautiful.

All in all, except for slow as hell dispatch times on MF [you'd think you'd have your best crews on your most popular coasters], it was a beautiful, beautiful two days in the park. Crowds were fairly low [which surprised the hell out of me], rides were really good, and the atmosphere was also pretty upbeat - which is way, way, way more than I can say for Geauga Lake [which we visited on Monday/Thursday].

All in all, I give Cedar Point my magic rating..

FIVE STARS!

I'm glad to see Natural Selection is still working, sucks that it was a hawk though and not a flying rat.

You didn't ride any flats or Power Tower?

Sounds like you had a load of fun. Very nice to hear a first timer's trip. I wish I had gone that same day, when I went it was crowded and lines were miserable. Still fun. Also nice to hear from a first-time that the atmosphere is great, that's always my fondest memory and why I go back.

-Eagle-

I don't ride Power Tower all to often myself, I'm usually at CP for the roller-coasters. If I want a freefall or a high drop, I hit Drop Zone at PKI. Which is much closer to me.

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Sean_N said:
You didn't ride any flats or Power Tower?

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Actually, we hit the Ocean Motion, Chaos, Space Spiral, Calypso, and the Power Tower [Upward Launch].

I go on a pirate at every park, so CP was no different. Chaos was decent but we didn't figure out how to spin our cars until the very end of the ride, and my friend didn't want to re-rise. Space Spiral had great views. Calypso was what is was.

Power Tower, however, sucked. The launch was neat, but really, there was nothing to it. Luckily, it was a walk-on [as was pretty much everything else].

How was Steel Venom better than Wicked Twister? WT is the exact same thing, only taller, faster, and both towers twist (not to mention its location on the beach). I don't see how there's room for anything else, an impulse is an impulse. Could you explain that? *** Edited 8/29/2004 12:13:44 AM UTC by Erikjc***

Yeah, I can't see SV being better than WT, but I can see WT being better than SV.

-Eagle-

Yeah, I didn't get it, either.

Steel Venom's "pause" before the final drop is what did it, I think. I didn't like the twisting both times so much on WT, either. But being suspended vertical for that split second was pretty damn awesome.

Wicked Twister's location was a lot better, though - even though I got sand blown in my face a couple of times. The wind was blowing in towards the station on the first day, which provided a LOT of relief from the blistering heat.

I prefer Steel Venom over Wicket Twister. The straight vertical spike on SV just rules, pause or not. On WT you are too busy being rocked by all the twisting to really look around and notice how damn high you are. Wicked Twister's location is incredible however.

Sounds like you had some good times!

I was also there on Tuesday and it was great because even at midday, the crowds were basically non existant. No line was ever longer than an hour, including TTD.
The thing about Wicket Twister is you have got to get in the very very back. That is how you get the best ride, and and the best view. I think it's awesome.
And yes, Magnum is the very best way to end a good day. Next time you ride Power Tower, you need to go down. Much more fun. And do Demon Drop too.