From there it was off to the season pass center. This is one of the few gripes I have about Cedar Point. The process took about 45 minutes even though there was barely anyone there. Of course its worth it though :).
Next we had to find a place to stay. The EconoLodge was nearby so we went with that. It'll be the last time though as the room was pretty tore up and didn't seem the cleanest. I don't recommend staying here. Last year I stayed at the Best Western and it was much nicer.
Onto the big day! I awoke at 6 am only to hear the distinct sound of rain. Pouring rain :(. I quickly turned on the tv and switched it to the weather channel. To my dismay the radar screen showed the horrible mass of rain in northern Ohio. I thought my day may be ruined when the weather person said the front was fast moving. I decided to go back to bed and set the alarm for 9 o'clock. Next thing I know its 9 and I jump up and goto the window to see the rain has stopped. I turn on the weather channel and all the rain has already passed! I woke my brother up, we got ready as fast as possible and away we went.
We decided to park back by Gemini and enter thru the magnum gates. We ran to Dragster and to my surprise the line wasn't bad at all, even though we got there later than I wanted to. We waited about 2 1/2 hours because they didn't start testing until well after 10 and they tested for quite awhile. Then we were up on the platform waiting for the front car when I noticed Sandor Kernacs was on the other side of the track. Next thing I know he was on the unload platform with some device (looked like a radar gun) scanning something in or next to the trains. I'm not sure what, I didn't have a very good view. We were one train away from our ride when the people in front of us were told not to board the next train. It seems there were a couple VIP's that were going to get a ride (they looked like they were probably Intamin people). After they boarded the train something must have went wrong because the train never left the station. The train was unloaded and a maintanance worker walked down the track. After about 20 minutes the ride was back and running (although the 2 guys didn't board the train again). Well it was finally our turn, we hop in are told to put our hats down our shirt, and are rolled forward to the launch lights (although the lights weren't working today). My chest started thumping and the adrenaline started pumping! It was about to happen, the ride I've been looking forward to all winter. The sled engaged, the brake fins dropped, the train rolled back just a bit.....Then we were off, and off in a hurry! I've never felt a launch like this. It just kept pulling and pulling! After the launch everything happened so quick I'm not sure I knew what was happening. During testing the trains sure appeared to creep over the top, but it seemed to go over quite quickly while onboard. I'm sure the tophat would give good air but the ride ops really staple on this ride. I saw a few people grunt in pain while being stapled.
Well this is getting prettly long winded so I'm just gonna rate the rides and write a few things I noticed.
Magnum - This was both my brother and my favorite coaster last year. I've read alot of people complain about this coasters roughness and never understood it. I have never noticed it until this trip. I'm not sure if we're both getting old or what, but we both definately noticed the roughness. The pretzel turnaround was especially rough. The ride was a walk on all day but we only went on twice because of this.
Gemini - Still an excellent ride. Gotta love the head chopper on the first drop! This one was a walk on all day also (even though they were only running 2 trains. Unfortunately they weren't racing it because that adds so much to the fun. Still great though.
Cedar Creek Mine Ride - This one was running in the morning. I didn't notice it running until around 5 pm. It was its usual self. Nothing too exciting but fun none the less. They were only running one train and it was a walk on all day that it was running. I read that people didn't like the new padding but I didn't really notice it too much. The cars were cramped but I always remembered this being a problem.
Woodstock Express - This was my first ride on Woodstock Express. I made my brother ride up in the locomotive car while I was in the second car. While the ride op was checking seatbelts my brother rang the bell on the front. It was funny, had to see the ops face lol. I thought it was a real fun kiddie coaster actually! Also a walk on all day.
Disaster Transport - It seemed like they fixed quite a bit of theming since the last time I was there. Last time I was there I just noticed the star room, but there were a couple other things going this time. Also this was the first time I noticed them selling 3d glasses ( I've read they do but never actually seen them on my trips). I know most don't like this one but I kind of enjoy it.
Blue Streak - A great classic woodie. We both enjoyed this one as always. We rode it twice. Walk on both times. The last time was the last train of the day. We ran over and they had already closed the queue. I saw one girl on the platform so I asked the ride ops if we could get on the last train and he let us in thru the exit happily. Another thing I love about the point is the employees! They're great!
Mantis - We both enjoy this one every time we go. Unfortunately it was closed when we were near it. I was looking along the track to see if maintainance was around and sure enough they were working on the mid course brakes. Then later we were coming off Millennium Force and saw a train running. We ran over and got in line. The wait was about a half hour already! They were only running one train from the time they got it opened until close :(. The line grew quickly. Only got one ride. My brother mentioned he had more headbanging on it than usual. I had a little headbanging but not too bad. Still alot of fun I thought! Oh the paint looks great I think. Looks like they still have to do some of the tops of the supports though.
Mean Streak - Well my first trip last year I had a nice smooth ride on it believe it or not. My last trip of last year I had the worst ride ever! I may as well have been getting beat on by kids with a bat. After that ride I vowed never to ride again. However I read the first three hills were retracked and my brother begged me to give it another try. Well it was somewhere in between my other two rides. It was rough but not painfully rough this time. I had to lean forward and not let my back touch the car or else it was painful though. I'm not planning on riding this one again.
Corkscrew - I've never enjoyed this one too much. The ride is short and its not that exciting. Plus, last year my brother hurt his shoulder on it so we decided to skip it this time.
Iron Dragon - I wanted to hit this up just because it'd at least give a good view of Dragster. It's usually pretty fun going thru the trees too. We were getting hungry when we were by it so we skipped it unfortunately :(. Although I did notice one thing, the misters seemed alot more powerful than last year. Anyone else notice this or is it my imagination?
Millennium Force - Wow. Seemed even more fun to me than last year. Maybe because Magnum was a bit of a letdown to me though. I rode three times, first time wait was a half hour. The other two times the line was barely out of the station! It was during the night time Joe Cool ERT and the ops let us go out the employee gate in the unload station and get in line because the line was so short! One little side note. On our last ride there was a teenage girl in front of us. She apparently had a walkie talkie in her hand and the ride op nicely asked her to secure it in her pocket. She refused, then the op said she can't let her ride with it in her hand. She was complaining that she rode last time with it in her hand and she told the op that on the hill she was going to pull it out of her pocket. Well after getting off that ride we were heading over to TTD when who did we come across? The same girl sitting on the curb getting sick LOL. I may sound evil but I really enjoyed that after the problems she gave to the crew before. Oh, by the way they were only running 2 trains.
Raptor - I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw the line was barely out of the station. I have never seen this line under an hour on my trips. It was just down a few steps out of the station both times I rode today. I also got my first front seat ride on this one and it was awesome. I gotta give props to the ride ops also, they were moving the line really fast even though there were barely any people in line. They get the best crew of the day award! I wasn't really paying attention but I think they were running all three trains.
Wicked Twister - I didn't see it testing all morning. While passing it we saw a maintainance guy on a ladder doing something inside the track just forward of the station. When we got off of DT we saw a test run so we ran to the queue real quick. We got in line, saw another test run then saw the mechanic grab the ladder again so we decided to move on. Saw it running at close from the raptor but didn't see if people were on it or not. Not sure if anyone got a ride on it for the day. I was really looking forward to seeing if they cranked the speed up since adding the supports :(
Wildcat - Didn't go on it but the line was short all day. I think its paint looks pretty good. Anythings better than the old white/rust :P
White Water Landing - I enjoy this one alot. Its nice and relaxing then it has a good drop at the end. I just put this on here because we rode it and it sure seemed like the water was running faster than usual. Could just be in our head though. Can anyone confirm?
A few closing notes : I wasn't looking for trash but since some people were complaining on opening day about it I thought I'd write that I didn't notice any trash at all. Also we ate at Johnny Rockets and I thought it was really good. Someone else said it was expensive on their trip report but I thought it was quite reasonable compared to some food stands. You get to sit down inside, the food is better and I thought it was alot of fun when they started dancing to some of the tunes. One last thing I noticed was the Sky Ride was running all day. There were times when it was kinda windy and I was surprised it was up all day. I think this is the first time I've been there it wasn't down at least part of the time.
Welp, thats it, sorry it was soooo long.
Edit : Fixed a few errors
*** This post was edited by Jobu 5/11/2003 4:45:06 AM ***
The trash problem was only in the Dragster line because the line was moving so slow. I bet the line moves faster now with 5 train 5 car operation.
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Eric Morrison (Coast)
Drag Races: 6
Point Hype
http://www.pointhype.com
It just pumps me up for my trip coming up in June.
Man I can't wait....
Later
Wicked Twister was up and running around 5 or so, I finally got my first ride in on it, and wow was it intense. Never was I so afraid of getting my legs chopped off on a roller coaster before.
*** This post was edited by CoasterKaiser 5/11/2003 3:40:10 PM ***
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