ACE Holiday Party - Saturday December 1st, 2012

Yesterday the local ACE region held their annual holiday party. Although I'm not going to do a full event report, I will discuss things pertinent to Cedar Point. In addition, it's very likely that I will forget a few things. Anyone feel free to add to this or ask me any questions.

We started the day with a tour of GateKeeper. Because there were over 120 people there, we couldn't get the extra special hard hat tour. However, we did get pretty close to the site. We started off by Blue Streak's turn around moved toward the entrance, then doubled back and entered the park through the maintenance entrance under Blue Streak. We then went to the main gate where we could see that the ticket booths were completely gone and all the pavers had been removed. We asked Bryan when the main entrance would be torn down. He thought it was staying. So, there is a possibility plans have changed.

Next, we walked back past Ocean Motion and 3-Point Challenge to the parade/maintenance gate taking you behind the shops and games area. This got us right next to the action. Although there was a fence, everyone got a chance for some great photos. While we were there, supportsand track for the bottom of the Immelman loop were being installed. According to Bryan, they skipped ahead to the bottom piece of the loop yesterday because the surveyor doesn't work on Saturdays. This allowed the workers to keep moving while he wasn't there.

Moving along, we entered the park by maXair and got a group photo with the GateKeeper lift in the background. Bryan said one of the pine trees to the right of Troika would be decorated for the holidays. He will eventually get webcam over there somewhere with the trees and GateKeeper both in the shot. We then finished up the tour going out on the beach for our final angle of the construction. Afterward, everyone headed over to Kalahari for the rest of the party.

There were plenty of guest speakers from various parks. A video from ken Simmons and a presentation by the NRCMA. Lots of great door prizes, and an excellent buffet lunch with an amazing selection of desserts. But, the final presentation is one many had been waiting for. Bryan Edwards got up to give us what was sure to be the most elaborate presentation of the day. Instead he started off by saying that he had nothing prepared. We were shocked. He continues by explaining that with Becca leaving a few weeks ago and finding out on his last day before the Thanksgiving weekend that the only other digital marketing person was quitting effective immediately, he has had his hands full.

All at the same time, Bryan found out the same day that GateKeeper was going to be topped the following week. He had to scramble to make sure this was being covered properly. Keep in mind that with no digital marketing team in place, Bryan is handling everything. Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, the webcams and all of that is on top of his regular duties. His presentation mostly consisted of an extended Q&A session.

Some of the things I remember him talking about include: there will be improvements to Luminosity; eventual fixing and relocation of webcams; an additional scene in Dinosaurs Alive, a possible single rider line for GateKeeper. I am still a bit groggy from last night. But, if you ask questions I see if I can answer them for you.

Will we get the same construction tour on the 8th for GOCC?

Yes, it will likely follow that same route.

What about the Pointbuzz tour? ;)

TTD 120mph said:
What about the Pointbuzz tour? ;)

I'm wondering the same thing, ha

I thought both entrances already were torn down?

Well, considering Bryan has a LOT on his hands at the moment, I don't think Walt or Jeff would want to push for anything soon. Let the man get things in line and figure out a time frame that's easiest for him. Plus, a tour of the site that's farther along seems more appealing than what's up at the moment. But that's just my 2 cents.

Our plan is to have a 2013 season preview event. No date yet, but probably in March or maybe early April. It will be more epic than last year.

Oh boy, "epic" is quite the word to assert for the event. :)

An epic of epic epicnous?

Well crap, if it's going to be epic I better plan on being there.

Poor Bryan. The park has been doing better as of late with digital media, but they really need to hire the staff to keep all of that up. It should easily pay for itself.

Well, let's not get carried away. :) Last year's event was epic. I hope the years is better. :)

Any specifics on the Luminosity improvements? Was there any mention of what is happening at the Chick-fil-A building?

I love doing front low zone walks on Wicked Twister every morning and night. The fact that the Pointbuzz tour gave a front low zone walk AND a tour of the inside of Disaster Transport seemed pretty epic as well, if I do say so myself :)

I would love to do an off season tour of the park to get some closeups of GateKeeper as well.

I hope whatever you decide to do that it will include walking under and around some of the coasters. After looking at last year's pictures, it seems like that would be lots of fun.

Don't get your hopes up of walking anywhere under GK if the area is still an active work site. The only thing that (I can think of) to get past that is to have a hard hat tour and permission from whoever is in charge of site safety. But that's something that's left to Bryan (or whoever is our guide) to determine and Walt/Jeff to ultimately decide on. Other than that, we should be fine to walk under anywhere else in the park.

Maybe they'll let us tour other roller coasters that are close to being tested in the spring. For Instance last year in March, Millennium Force had 1 of 3 trains on the transfer track. I've seen so far the off-season tour of Top Thrill Dragster, Magnum XL 200, and Windseeker, but that's it so far so seeing other rides before they open would be Awesome.

The hard hat tours are for small groups. Probably half a dozen or less. How about this for an idea: A charity auction for a hard hat tour benefiting Give Kids the World.

No specifics on Luminosity, Bryan hasn't heard Chick-fil-a is leaving. But, who knows.

When is the pointbuzz tour going to be i want to go to the tour next year it looks so much FUN =D

That sounds GREAT Walt. I went to both events last year, they were both epic and amazing. Can't wait for this year.