American Portrait

I don't understand why they don't just take down the big ugly screen and at 10 every night shoot off a 5 minute firework display over the beach by Wicked Twister. Marathon sponsors King's Island's nightly firework show so I don't see there being a problem at CP. Play some modern music and thats it. Not everything has to be patriotic either. CP does know they have guests who are Canadian, right?

Your mom is to fat to ride TTD. said:
I was gonna do the same thing DJ. Its not really comparable when a baseball team plays 160 some games and a football team plays 15+.

Exactly. 160 games compared to 16... hmm.. I'd hope there's a large margin between the two.

Pete said:
More people in more cities watch MLB than any other sport. The NFL happens to be last. I think it is certainly justified to call baseball America's pastime.

Tell that to the Marlins and Rays fans. They're easy to find. The only 500 people in the stadium at each game.

I don't understand why they don't just take down the big ugly screen and at 10 every night shoot off a 5 minute firework display over the beach by Wicked Twister.

F'in Amen. The big screen and Distaster Transport are two of the ugliest things at the park.

Saw the show last night and I thought it was overall pretty awful. It is pretty much like the last 5 minutes of the previous years' shows, but for 15 minutes. There is almost nothing high energy about it and even some of the history is a bit sad/emotional. Not exactly a great end to the day in my opinion.

The graphics were not very attractive, especially when they show like a random cut-out of Lincoln going across the screen, among others. The Lee Greenwood portion is the same as before and then of course, the usual Kate Smith ending.

There were a couple of positive things about the show. First, the fireworks are much better and actually include some larger ones shot off from a couple of locations further behind the screen. Secondly, at least the show has a theme and the weird and random shadow animation scenes/windows media player-like animations from last year are gone. However, I would much rather prefer the review-of-your-day style show with all of the ride footage, pictures of guests, and more high-energy music, etc.

Honestly, never seeing a Cedar Point show before (due to lack of visits that were short) watching this show on Saturday night, I thought it was pretty good.

I was at the park for Coastermania and Friday I was heading to TTD for ERT when we saw the fireworks going off. That intrigued me to begin with and hearing some music from a little distance. We decided that the next night we'd go see the show.

I found that the area for the show was pretty sweet, didn't mind sitting on the ground to watch the show, not to mention people watching was fun. The environment was pretty cool as well seeing WildCat to my left and Iron Dragon to the right. One of the coolest things about the area was the pre-lighting. Mind you, I'm a technical theater guy, so lighting effects kind of excite me! I thought the pre-show was pretty cool too, especially since kids these days don't know the armed forces songs.

While the video can be seen as cheesy I thought it was great! The only complaint I had was, that the show was oddly paced.

For some "Proud To Be An American" by Lee Greenwood gets kind of tiring, but for me in this show it was a reminder and is a reminder any time I hear it of a friend and a classmate that was killed in Afghanistan. I cried and the song served its purpose in the show, for reflection.

The fireworks were pretty cool and simple.

I just wish there could have been some actual people singing instead of the movie audio.

three7five said:
It is pretty much like the last 5 minutes of the previous years' shows, but for 15 minutes. There is almost nothing high energy about it and even some of the history is a bit sad/emotional.

Pretty much sums up my thoughts, the whole show is an extension of the last 5 minutes of last year's show. The pacing seems really slow overall. It's very patriotic, which may or may not be your thing. They definitely increased the fireworks budget though, so that was a big plus.

If the sports part is generic now, thats sad. It was fun to hear the cheers and boos from the crowd. Its also sad to hear the fire water is gone, i always heard a positive reaction from the crowd, the heat felt when those went off was crazy!

Your mom is to fat to ride TTD. said:
I was gonna do the same thing DJ. Its not really comparable when a baseball team plays 160 some games and a football team plays 15+.

At the same time, it is impressive that MLB games are able to pull in an average of 30,000 people per game, for 162 games a season. I doubt NFL fans would have the energy (read: beer money) to sustain that level of attendance over such a duration.

I would say see it once.... I mean i wasnt expecting much and it was WAY better than last year.

Please tell me if you tired of "Proud to be an American" you have forgotten about 9/11 or MAY 1 2011 when we killed Bin Launden.... but i can undersand you're not pound. I guess it the fact that I serve OUR county.... People that say that sound is tireing is why other counties dont like us.

I dont think I have much praising at all of cp here just ALOT of complaining. And for what this site is all about that REALLY makes me sad :(

Umm... what?

I've seen HSL at least 20 times, so I am excited to see American Portrait. I like the idea of CP is taking a patriotic approach to it.
One thing that I really learned to appreciate while working at CP last season was how patriotic the park is. I liked hearing patriotic music all the time and starting the day on a patriotic note.
But no more fire water?!? Aw man!!!

I'm sure the many Canadians visiting the park must be thrilled.

They're in America. Expect it.

I don't know if I should be saying this but I think american portrait compared to hot summer lights is terrible! The loss of the fire water effect is such a dissappointment. The ONLY thing I liked was the God Bless America part where at the end he says "and I gladly stand up" and when the drum hits the fireworks came out. Other than that, Hot summer Lights was sooooo much better. Not impressed at all with the show this year. And honestly, after watching it 4 times so far, I haven't seen more fireworks compared to HSL. Quite frankly, I think there are less!

For the whole setting off fireworks over by WT and DT, I don't think they want more holes in DTs roof so I think they are going to refrain from that. I do agree that the big screen is an eyesore, but it is in the middle of the park and I can't think of a better place to have a night show at to tell you the truth.

I'm sure the many Canadians visiting the park must be thrilled.

Except Scott. He's such a dick.

TwistedWicker77 said:
The ONLY thing I liked was the God Bless America part where at the end he says "and I gladly stand up" and when the drum hits the fireworks came out.

That part is exactly the same as it was in the old show, except the quantity of fireworks may have increased.

I finally got a chance to see the show today and I was impressed. I thought it was very nicely done. The only thing I found odd was in 2 different occasions they have a couple kids running in a wheat field. Than a third with the giant tractor cutting down the wheat field. I was wondering if the kids got away?

Children of the Wheat?

I laughed my butt off at the combine going through the field after seeing the kids running through it, but I'm sadistic like that. :)