Anyone Else Obsessed With CP?

Okay so I love Cedar Point a lot. I talk and think about it a lot and it wasn't until my dad started to get annoyed that I realized I probably talked about it a little too much. Let me tell you my back story so it makes more sense.

I started going to Cedar Point in 2009, I was 10 years old then. My mom is equally obsessed with CP as I am. Her and her brother used to go a lot in the past. They decided to start going again and bought season passes that year and decided to bring me one day. They live only 1 hour from the park.

As for me, I didn't really have any friends when I was 10 so I spent the summers at my dad's work (family company) all day, nearly every day. (My parents were divorced and I only saw my mom every other weekend as she lived an hour away). So I now had something to really look forward to during the summer. I was just tall enough for all the coasters when I started going. The whole park was so fascinating to me, it still is. My first coaster was Raptor <3. It also definitely helped to go with someone who is very enthusiastic about the place. My mom and I have been going to Cedar Point every year since then, and we usually go 15-20 times. So understand this when I refer to Cedar Point as home, lol. Cedar Point is so familiar and I have made so many memories there that I will never, ever forget. Call me spoiled, selfish, stupid, whatever, but the first thing I think about when I imagine what would happen during a zombie apocalypse is Cedar Point (thanks Zombieland). I couldn't bear the thought of never being able to go there again.

Now here is where it starts to get weird, well, continues to be weird. I literally dream of Cedar Point. I only do during the off-season, and the dreams get more frequent leading up to opening day. They are usually about normal trips to CP, usually very realistic, as in I can FEEL the wind when on a roller coaster. Sometimes though they are really strange, like the layout changed or something is missing. I still remember one of those dreams, that the Raptor and Mantis switched locations and whenever I'd ask someone what the heck was going on, they got confused and acted like those rides were always that way, and it was very frustrating.

So please, someone tell me I'm not alone. I am completely aware that this is not normal. I do have many other interests/hobbies/whatever, but Cedar Point beats most of them. I just want to know if I'm not the only one, as it would make me feel less bad about it.

Some may be like you, for me it's just a hobby and simple vacation spot during the summer. I don't live to be a ride warrior like some. I go to the park, I ride rides, I enjoy the industry and some of the cool fun things it has brought us, that's about it.

If you're so obsessed with Cedar Point, how is it only now you are joining PointBuzz?

For me personally, its part of our summer entertainment. Now that we have a boat in the marina, we are there frequently and we experience the entire resort from the park, beach, water park and hanging out at Famous Dave's and Bay Harbor.

We have a summer house that looks right at CP. I sometimes like to say that CP is my backyard. I go roughly 10-15 times per year, and yes I feel like I annoy people when I talk about it all the time too. But, I also consider the park as a home to me. If I'm bored, I'll sometimes go in, even if it's packed crazy, just to sit down and enjoy the atmosphere.

Having dreams about CP isn't all that weird, unless they get messy...

I love Cedar Point. I could talk about it for hours. A buddy of mine went to CoasterMania! with me last year, it was his first trip to the park. He told me he thought I was kinda nuts how much I would talk about Cedar Point, but after a couple days in the park, he gets it. My counselor told me once that my demeanor totally changes when I talk about Cedar Point.

Are you so obsessed as to start a MS Twitter account, bypass security protocols taking pictures, and posting said pictures for public viewing?

That's dedication to an obsession.

thedevariouseffect said:

Some may be like you, for me it's just a hobby and simple vacation spot during the summer. I don't live to be a ride warrior like some. I go to the park, I ride rides, I enjoy the industry and some of the cool fun things it has brought us, that's about it.

Basically sums up the boat I'm in. I'd venture to say that I enjoy the experience with the people I go with who are also into riding the coasters more than the coasters themselves.

There is a great thread on dreams about CP floating around here. Needless to say you aren't alone. I don't think anyone on here would deny that CP has a special place in their heart and can in some way relate to you're post. For me as the years have gone by it really has become more about just being there. It's my happy place above all others.

As someone who went for the first time when I was 12, it's important to disclose that this passion will end up costing you alot of money down the road ;). So build up that credit rating now!

Here's a link to the dreams thread. Having worked at the park for two summers, and preparing for a third year, I have dreams about it fairly frequently, although they're not too interesting to someone who's never worked there.

Welcome to Pointbuzz.

First of all, I would suggest lightening up on feeling "bad" about your excitement and interest in the park. Cedar Point is a deeply meaningful place for me, and that is nothing to be ashamed of. Many people that walk this planet with you have connections to places for different reasons, and if that place happens to be Cedar Point, well...I would say you should feel lucky to have such an amazing destination as your happy place in life.

If you stick around here long enough, you'll meet Adam. He can tell everything that is right with having an obsession with something Cedar Point related. Right, Adam? :)

How cool is it that you have a mom that shares the same kick-ass excitement about Cedar Point as you do?

And as you can see, there is a whole thread dedicated to "Cedar Point Dreams". I would think that tells you all you need to know.

:)

Nope. No one here...

^^Well, I can try. :P
Cedar Point is an obsession for many people but not everyone will express it in the same way. There's a variety of aspects about the park that appeal to different people. When I first started out as a CP nerd, I was obsessed with Dragster. It was the ride that drew me to want to be a coaster enthusiast and it's the ride that I can attribute to the lifestyle I live today. All of my friends and memories can be traced back to that fateful first ride on May 29th, 2003.

And while I still love the ride a great deal, I'm far from the marathoning teenager I once was. I've stopped caring about making it painstakingly clear how much I love the ride and I've stopped counting my rides. I've grown to find the whole ride count thing to be pointless (pun intended). In the past 8 years, I've grown to appreciate many other aspects of the park. Watching the park evolve under Ouimet have been some of the most rewarding years as a fan. The park has a different feel and I'm finding myself having more fun simply being at the park.

Now, not everyone will agree with me but that's the beauty of Cedar Point. Everyone will have a different viewpoint but we are all bound by our love for the park and coasters in general. We don't always have to agree about small things to acknowledge our shared interests.

So, welcome to PointBuzz ValravnCP. You are definitely among friends. And be sure to reach out and talk to your fellow enthusiast if you're ever at an enthusiast event (CoasterMania is a must if you haven't already gone). The kinds of friendship that can blossom from just striking up a conversation can and will last you a lifetime.

10 in 2009.... I'll be right back, I need to use my walker to get to the Geritol, and look, those damn kids are on my lawn again!

When asked what my favorite park is, I say "Cedar Point, the happiest place on earth, regardless of what that joint out in Anaheim claims." :-)

I have many, many wonderful memories of the park. Going to the park as a child (I was so excited the year I was tall enough to to ride Jumbo Jet). Later, trips to the park with friends. Working there for a summer. Enthusiast events.

Seeing the Corkscrew crew, after the park had closed (my mother and I usually dawdled at closing time...), skipping down the Midway singing "We are the 'screw crew, we do it all for you." Sitting with my parents, on the last trip they would take to the park (age and health issues), under the Sky Ride eating french fries. Sitting with friends near the Marblehead Lighthouse gazing at the park across the bay. The sweet old ladies sitting at the end of each hallway in the Breakers, collecting your room key when you left (yes, I'm that old).

I remember in like, 1978, getting on Corkscrew about 30m before the park closed and just riding till they closed(at like 2am methinks...?) ride, jump out, run as fast as humanly possible around the building get on and go again. I think we got like 21 or 22 rides in. It was right after the wheelbase change if my synapses are firing in order, so maybe 1977... When I was a yute, I too dreamed of rollercoasters at CP (and other places). I filled notebooks with little cross-section drawings of my super-secret coaster car designs and impossible track layouts. Theming and lighting and everything. Then promptly had a long career in theater and motion picture production... Now I work at CP and it is a really great place to have a job!

I'm obsessed with roller coasters. So since CP puts a big emphasis on them I'm obsessed with CP. No park will ever compare IMO. I travel elsewhere to ride amazing coasters (going to Silver Dollar City tomorrow and SFSL the day after in fact), but I'll never tire of CP. Everytime I see that skyline I fall in love all over again.

It's an obsession for me that was borne out of my parents love of the amusement park. It's a bit of a family tradition, and I can't remember the last year I didn't take at least one of my family members to the park.

There has been maybe a few years in my life where I haven't spent at least one day at the park, and those years I missed it a ton. We'd save money and make the much shorter drive up to Michigan's Adventure. While that's fine and all, my true happiest place on Earth is located in Sandusky, as noggin put it.

I was obsessed with coasters as a teenager. Anything that went fast and high and maybe had some inversions was something I needed to be riding and couldn't wait for the announcements to dissect every ride they put in.

But in my 20s, I've grown to appreciate the park as a whole. I worked there 7 years ago (holy crap time flies) and that started an appreciation for the "little" rides that go largely unnoticed by the thrill thirsty people in the park. I enjoy the renewed sense of ambiance in the park now under Ouimet. It was something that I remember loving about the park in the 90s as a kid, but as an adult, it is still love seeing the park light up at night.

For me, the absolute best part of being at the park is being with other people who are discovering it for the first time, or haven't been in a while. Like when I took my father-in-law last summer and Maverick was his first ride. He had zero idea what it could do. He just knew that the first hill wasn't very tall. And it was a blast talking about it afterward.

With that, welcome to PointBuzz. It's an interesting bunch, but we do all love this park.

What a great forum to reflect on our obsession with the park in Sandusky. Obviously, we are all obsessed otherwise we wouldn't be a part of this forum. I have enjoyed reading everyone's reflections, here's my own....

I remember as a kid in the early 90's my grandparents taking all of us (aunts, uncles, cousins) to Cedar Point. We would pack our lunch and store it in the pavilion. I would walk away from the group during lunch and watch The Demon Drop for what seemed like hours. I was fascinated with this ride first; the mechanics, the concept- to me you can't show me a ride more interesting and fun to watch than an Intamin first-generation freefall. My first big coaster was the Gemini, and I remember learning the spiel and reciting it for family and friends... they got a kick out of that. (I eventually worked at Geauga Lake where I was able to put my spieling to good use...)

As the years went by, and I got older, the family trips stopped, but I continued to go. I spent my winters following this site and the webcams, enjoying the speculation of new rides and talking to friends about what would be new the following year. I was the only one in my family to have a season pass, but friends and relatives would always take me with them because they knew I would ensure they had the best time possible. When I get my driver's license my trips increased.

One of my greatest memories was that of a trip with my grandfather. He never rode any of the rides, just watched us enjoy the park. When Top Thrill Dragster opened we headed there first to ride. He shocked all of us when he got in line with and declared he was going to ride Dragster because he always liked watching drag races when he was younger. He had heart issues and other family members were concerned he shouldn't ride. He didn't hesitate. It is the only roller coaster I ever remember him riding, I still have the photo and it is priceless to me. He passed in 2010.

In 2007 I moved to Orlando, met my wife and settled down. We have passes to all of the Orlando parks and have been more than I can count. The interesting thing for me is that my obsession with Cedar Point has never waned. You would think I would join Disney fan sites and obsess over the Orlando parks, but for me there's something special about Cedar Point. My wife says sometimes in the evening when I am surfing my coaster sites: "are you looking at your roller coaster porn again?" It really is a strange obsession that people don't understand.

I've tried to psych-analyze why I am the way I am (haha) but I have come to the conclusion that its not Cedar Point the place that's special, but the memories I have about who I was there with. I could go to an amusement park by myself and certainly enjoy myself, but if we're all honest life can be tough at times. A place like Cedar Point provides that escape. We temporarily leave our own lives behind and are able to be together with family and friends and just enjoy being together without the stress of deadlines, meetings, financial demands, etc.

Its why I really love that tag line "thrills connect".

I have started a new tradition with my family. We stay in the Breakers every summer, and will continue to make new memories for them. Taking my daughter on Millennium Force was a great moment for me, especially because I remember that being the first coaster I followed construction closely (I believe it was the first coaster the park documented extensively via the web).

It's great to find other folks here who understand the deep love and passion for Cedar Point. Ride On!

My start with Cedar Point came as a young kid when my parents took trips to Hotel Breakers, primarily to relax on the beach, but also enjoyed the park in the evenings. I was thrilled to see the removal of the beach lifeguards last year which turned the beach into a true swimming beach again, just like I remember from my younger years when you could go in the deep water. The beach now is better than ever and​ is a great way to spend the day.

CP is a special place because of its ambiance and location plus the memories from my long history there. While I enjoy all amusement parks, the most spectacular and fun to me is CP, the entire resort, not just the coasters. Other parks are just not as good, even the Orlando parks which are saturated with theming but don't have the soul of Cedar Point. I remember speaking with a lady at Breakers who gave her kids the choice of five days at WDW or CP, her kids chose CP. So, apparently I'm not the only one who feels that way.

My husband and I did a large amount of our dating at Cedar Point and we were there on our wedding day. We got old time photos taken still dressed from the wedding and while we waited for them to develop we walked around the park and after we got bored of just walking we decided to ride Gemini. I guess if you've been on a coaster in your wedding dress that counts as obsessed on some level doesn't it?

CP has been my happy place since I was a little girl in the 80's. I remember car rides, my nose glued to the window and my eyes wide the SECOND road signs reading 'Cedar Point' started showing up. (I also distinctly remember driving by Goofy Golf on our route- the first major landmark saying we were getting REALLY close in my childhood mind- and hoping me and my family could play there some trip. Never happened. Is that place even still open?)

I remember the big sign right before the causeway. No, not the one now, the OLD one, with multicolored triangles for arrows and 'circus' style font. I miss that sign. :C

Every summer we went. I remember seeing the then brand-new Magnum and being far too scared to ride it even though I was JUST tall enough then. Then it turned into every few summers, until it was years since I'd gone. My return to my happy place was marked by a lucky win in a radio contest (a set of six tickets, two of which I kept, two I gave to my brother, and two I sold for extra trip money) followed by a not so great trip. I learned my boyfriend did NOT care for rollercoasters. We left only a few hours after we got there (but I DID get to experience Maverick for the first time, so there was that.)

But despite the failure of that trip, it did connect me to something while I was planning- other people who loved CP as much as I did. I started out at the now-dead Point Online and eventually found my way here, learning the nuances of my favorite place that I never even thought about. I still only get to come to the park once a year, but the excitement that gets built up in me through discussion here keeps me going for the rest of it.

So yeah, I'm an obsessed coaster geek. And I couldn't be happier I found this place. We may run the gamut in every possible arena from politics to gender to whether or not Pipe Scream is a coaster (absolutely!), but we all share a love of this one place, this one little spit of land jutting out into Lake Erie covered in concrete and twisted steel and either too many or not enough trees depending on who you ask.

I'm glad I found this place. Thanks for giving me a place to share my obsession. And welcome to the group, ValravnCP. :)