Bringing the Thrill-Averse: A Primer

Each year, we take a midsummer visit of several days, staying on Point, and living in the lap of luxury. This year, we convinced my wife’s family to join us on July 28th and 29th. Of the six of them (her parents, brother, SIL, 13 year old nephew, and 2 year old niece), precisely one is willing to try anything beyond CCMR (and that means no Woodstock, either!). Amazingly, this "thrill seeker" was not the teenaged boy, but rather his mother, and her limit was Gemini. (However, the two year old REALLY liked Jr. Gemini, so she may turn out to be a rider too. I guess every family has at least one black sheep.)

In light of this, I was not at all convinced that the in-laws were going to think Cedar Point was such hot stuff. Since I’m more or less responsible for my family’s coaster addiction, and I’m "that crazy guy that married my daughter/sister/aunt," I figured I’d be on the hook for dragging them out to middle-of-nowhere Ohio so they could sit around twiddling their thumbs. For two days. In the (oppressive) heat.

The short version: they had a great time, and barely got on a ride in the amusement park. They had so much fun, they are considering coming for a longer visit next year—my BIL even asked me how much season passes cost!

We bought each of them a Ride-n-Slide. Our general plan of attack was to spend mornings through lunch in Cedar Point, take a break, spend the afternoon in Soak City, and the evening back in Cedar Point. This turned out to be a winning plan—as we suspected, the water park was a big hit. Somewhat surprisingly, so was the amusement park, but not for reasons I would have imagined.

First, the water park. Everyone loves the wave pool and both lazy rivers. EVERYone. The toddler loved the toddler spaces (as do my six and four year olds for reasons I don’t completely understand.) Splash zone is also a big hit, though only the kids and I went on the slides there. The teenager liked hanging out, looking tan, and checking out the scantily-clad ladies (which were, of course, plentiful.) My six year old daughter and I tried a tube slide and Eerie Falls---the latter of which was a total hoot. We also tried the lily pad walk. I got about four pads before eating it, while my monkey of a daughter got almost halfway on her first try.

The high point of the water park was when my six year old, my wife, and her parents decided to try Zoom Flume. Now, my mother in law is moderately cautious, in the same way that the Universe is somewhat big. She couldn’t even bear to watch my wife get in line for Raptor. Needless to say, I was surprised that she agreed to try the Flume. And, as you may know, the heavier the raft, the higher up the walls one climbs on the way down—with three adults and a kid, that’s a pretty good-sized raft. Mom started out okay, but was slumped down into the middle of the raft, in mortal terror, by the time she got to the bottom! Good Times.

I knew that SC would work out, but wasn’t sure about CP. I needn’t have worried. We tend to take the atmosphere of the park for granted because we go so often, but just walking around is interesting if you are an infrequent visitor, because there is so much going on. Frankly, I think my father in law could have sat in the grandstands watching TTD launches all day and feel as though he got his money’s worth.

The family enjoyed the obvious candidates: Paddlewheel, CP&LE RR, the Sky Ride, Antique and Cadillac Cars, Cedar Downs, and the Carousels. There were also some surprises. Dad enjoyed CCMR. Camp Snoopy’s collection was a sleeper hit, particularly the samba (Balloon Race), Peanuts 500, and the Lolli Swings because Mom and Dad can ride those with their grandkids. They even took Thunder Canyon for a spin. They thought the new ice show (which I like) was very impressive, as was the laser show (meh.)

Looking back on it, I’m surprised with how much they DIDN’T get to, given that they were there for two full days. We probably covered most of the water park, but we didn’t hit any of the other shows, Space Spiral, Giant Wheel, the Frontier Trail, or any of another half-dozen things that I had in my list of things to show them. We could have spent a third day without running out of new things to try. It was a very different visit for me, but it was really interesting to see the park through the eyes of people who mostly insisted on keeping their feet firmly planted on the ground.

Of course, there were some concessions made to feed my family’s adrenaline addiction. I snuck in to ERT on the second morning to get two quick Force rides in before 9:30—I’m still the only one who will ride it in my clan, but my wife is starting to make noises about trying, and my daughter might this season too. The grandparents watched our kids so that my wife and I could ride Raptor together. This is a rare event for us. My wife’s only been on it once before because she won’t ride it alone, and the kids are both too short. That time she came off wobbly, but this time kept her eyes open and LOVED it. My daughter and I took a front-seat Mean Streak ride. Maybe my expectations for the ride are now sufficiently low, maybe I got lucky with time of day/condition of the track, maybe the front seat is better, or maybe it’s just better riding with your kids, but the ride was a lot of fun AND didn’t beat me up. Who knew?

We also parent-swapped a couple of Magnum rides with my daughter, who has fully conquered this ride. She’s been riding it all season, but up until last weekend was still freaked out by the first drop. She’d get about halfway up the lift before squeezing her eyes tight, scrunching down into a little ball, and white-knuckling the lap bar. Sure enough, she went into freak mode again, but just as we crested the hill, I turned to her and said "Erica, open your eyes." I watched her face the whole way down. She opened her eyes, which immediately got as big as coffee cups. Halfway down, she breaks into this uncontrollable grin. On the second trip with my wife, she kept her eyes open and her hands in the air the whole trip.

Crowds on Thursday and Friday (with the in-laws) weren’t horrible. The place was busy, but we didn’t have to wait too long for most of the things we rode. The afternoons in the amusement park were probably busier, but we were elsewhere then. Soak City had lots of people, but we mostly avoided the slides until early evening, and always seemed to be able to grab a tube in the wave pool. Saturday the 30th (with just our family) was another story entirely, but by sticking to either high-capacity or less-popular rides, getting in early, and leaving for home by mid-afternoon we still never waited more than a cycle for any of the flats we tried, and only about 20 minutes for coasters we rode. I have never seen a line for Raptor as long as it was around 11AM on Saturday. It’s a fun ride, but not that much fun.

Kudos go to the Magnum, Raptor, and Iron Dragon crews. They really move those trains. The Millennium crew is also much improved over earlier this season. This is partly due to the relaxed slack rule, but the hustle is back on the platform. Kudos also are due to Coasters, the one counter-service location in the park that can reliably handle big crowds quickly. An especially big cheer for Lisa, who was working Woodstock on Thursday night, and is faster opening those silly Plexiglas-covered seatbelts than should be humanly possible—despite the lawyers’ best attempt, capacity there was still good, and she earned herself a compliment card at Park Ops the next day. Jeers go to Breakwater Café—Worst Service Ever. I realize that a party of ten should take a bit longer to serve, but it shouldn’t take TWO HOURS, and the kids meals should come out early, not ten minutes after everyone else’s. Even with the Joe Cool discount, the fact that one usually doesn’t have to wait, and the convenient-to-Lighthouse Point location, that may be the last time we ever eat there.

That sounds like a great trip. In 4 weeks I'm going with my mom, sister, and aunt. My aunt is the one who introduced me to the Point and I love her for that! She likes the coaster, but draws the line at Dragster and Millennium Force. My mom hasn't been there for atleast 25 years and I think I can get her to go on most things, she just doesn't like the spinny rides. My sister has never been there, she's 13. My obsession of the park has made her very curious about the park. I think I will be able to get her to go on everything, but I'm not sure about Dragster. We have ride and slide passes so I think the three women will be drawn to Soak City much more than I will, I may just roam around the park on my own for a while. It sounds loserish, but I will be able to ride whatever I want, whenever I want.

It has been a long and agonizing 4 years since last I have been to Cedar Point. I grew up going there every year. Not long after I met my fiance I convinced him to take a trip up there. We went for 3 days and stayed at Hotel Breakers. I am convinced that the only way to go is to stay at a CP resort. Needless to say I have discovered to my utter delight that I will be spending the rest of my life with another coaster nut. We are planning to go back in 2 weeks time and I am counting every minute til we leave. Again we are staying at Hotel Breakers. The one thing that I have always noticed about CP is that once you get there you feel like you've never left and are back home, almost like the Park is whispering a welcome home in your ear. I look forward to that first ride of the day on MF. I look forward to ice cold drinks and getting my picture taken. And I definitely look forward to a couple of lazy afternoons at Soak City.

Virginia E. Ballenger said:
The one thing that I have always noticed about CP is that once you get there you feel like you've never left and are back home, almost like the Park is whispering a welcome home in your ear.

That's so true. I especially felt this way each time I got to the park to process in for the season. I actually said to myself that I was finally home again.

I took my Mom last year for her first trip in 15 years and her first coaster was my favorite Front seat on Dragster. Her face was the best she was a ghost white and the biggest eyes i have ever seen on her and all she said is what happened. it is fun to take people there who have not been for a while. My dads first ride on dragster was a roll back what luck for him 3 rides with 2 roll backs ohhhhh that sucks.

It's almost like if I concentrate hard enough I can hear the sounds of the people screaming and the coasters rolling. I can picture myself walking down FT through the shade and asking myself if I wasn't just here yesterday.

It's true. When I get to the park for the first time in the season and I'm walking down the Main Midway it feels like I've been there all along. It doesn't feel like I hadn't been there for a long time. Cedar Point: my natural home.

We also tried the lily pad walk. I got about four pads before eating it, while my monkey of a daughter got almost halfway on her first try

Those tricky pads dethroned me like two lilies in. All the little kids laughed at me when I fell, so I just kinda swam real fast to the steps. Anyway, when my family went this year, we were all surprised with Soak City, myself included. I thought it'd be just a few slides, a wavepool, and that's it. Guess not.

It's funny hearing you describe your father watching Dragster, because my pops was exactly the same way.

-S. Eagle

Ok, I'm offically getting soft. Virginia's posts actually teared me up.