Cedar Point 8/31/14: Dollar Days, Mantis, and Regular Season Wrap-Up

My mom and I had talked about the idea of heading to the park sometime Labor Day weekend for one last trip before Halloweekends. Sunday really would be the only day that would work for us, but they were calling for an 80% chance of storms at the park almost all day. At first we were skeptical of going, but a rainy day at the Point is better than no day at the Point. Plus, we figured the threat of bad weather would hold off the crowds.

Well, this trip goes to show how the weather in Ohio can change just like that. So much for the 80% chance of storms. When we left out house in the morning, it was cloudy and lightly sprinkling, but once at the park it was great. Still overcast, but dry. It ended up not even raining one drop all day and even got hot and sunny. In result to the dry weather, crowds built throughout the day, but it still wasn't terrible. It was fairly crowded but wasn't too bad.

We arrived at 9:30 and went to Maverick for Early Entry. We were surprised how long the line was...it was down the steps and took up the first couple switchbacks in the queue house. This was the busiest it had ever been for Early Entry when we were there, and we hoped this wouldn't be a sign that the day would be mobbed. We encountered a really fun ride op, Garrett. He was very enthusiastic and funny, and he got everyone excited for the ride. He was doing fun stuff like "If you want to ride the Maverick, clap your hands!" He made lots of guests laugh and smile. We then rode Maverick again, this time in the front. We had 2 great ride on it.

Next we headed over to Mean Streak and waited in the short line forming outside its entrance until it opened at 11. A few trains ahead of us, the train pulled out and stopped when it had barely exited the station. A lady had pulled out a camera. I can't stand idiots who think they can try to do this kind of stuff and get away with it. Thankfully the issue was resolved, and the ride was back in action within a few minutes. We rode in the front and I had one of the smoothest and most fun rides I've ever had on it. I even got a little pop of light floater air on one of the hills!

Next was Skyhawk (only waited 1 cycle) before riding Mine Ride in the front after waiting only 1 or 2 trains. After this was Gemini. I sat in the 2nd to back on the red train and raced my mom, who went on the blue train. Red lost, but it was still fun. However, nobody else besides my mom and I were giving high fives during the ride. We continued along to Magnum and waited a couple minutes for the 2nd to back row. Had a fun, fairly smooth, and airtime filled ride. We decided to do Power Tower both launch and drop next. Launch was walk-on and drop only had about a 5/10 minute wait.

I got a text from one of my friends asking if I was in the park. He had probably seen my tweet about it. He, his family, and one of my other friends were at the park too so we wanted to meet up at some point during the day. So my mom and I got Dollar Day hot dogs from SkyRide Refreshments while my friends got dollar pretzels from the stand near Magnum (and we got hot dogs for them and they got pretzels for us), and then we met up near Magnum. After our snack, my friends and I went on Magnum and waited about 15 minutes. To be able to sit near my friends, I ended up on a wheel seat in the middle of the train. It was really rough, but still fun. Then we all went on Dragster toward the back, and we waited about 30/45 minutes. It was one of my friends' first time on it, and he was a little nervous. He ended up loving it.

Then we split up and my mom and I headed to ride Millennium while they went off to do Maverick. On the way to Millennium, we decided to ride Dodgem. Believe it or not, this was my 7th time to the park this year and I hadn't been on it yet. We waited about 20/30 minutes but had an enjoyable time. Then it was time for Millennium, and in total we waited an hour and a half for the front seat. We then met back up with my friends and my one friend's family at Gemini. We went on it twice. First I rode 2nd to back on the blue train and won, and then I rode in the front on the blue train and just barely lost. It was almost a tie. Then my friends and I went back to Mean Streak. I saw Mean Streak Henry as well as Segway Guy. I always love seeing these famed park goers. Since I was riding with a group, this time I didn't get to ride in the front seat. So we figured we'd sit in the 2nd car, it shouldn't be too bad, right? Well, I was so wrong. I had the most painful, uncomfortable, and jarring ride ever. Even after the overbank following the first drop, I was already dreading the rest of the ride. I actually was thinking to myself all throughout the remainder of it, "Get me off!" I exited with a headache. I do sort of enjoy this coaster in the front seat, but I will refuse to ride it again anywhere else. It was such a horrible experience.

Next, my friends wanted to ride Mantis. I was hesitant at first since I had bad memories of it, but decided to try it again. This was before the announcement that it will officially be closing, but I had a hunch it might, so I decided to ride it just in case it would be my last ride on it. We saw that Millennium had an hour wait and Mantis had...no wait at all. It was basically a walk-on, and we just waited 5 minutes for the front. it's definitely a high-g machine, and it hurt my legs (just like I remembered). It wasn't terrible, but it isn't a ride I enjoy. I can't wait to see what the park does to it.

Then we headed to Raptor and waited about 20 minutes for the front row. Them my mom and my friend's mom met back up with us and they wanted to ride it too, so we went on it again in the front row. During the first ride there wasn't a single bug...during the 2nd ride (only 15 minutes later), during the whole ride we were getting plastered with them (and getting them in our mouth. My mom's on-ride pic shows her in the process of pulling a bug out of her mouth.) It was gross, and it was crazy how quickly they came out.

Following this was a half hour wait on GateKeeper for the back left. It had just gotten dark so we had a fun night ride on it. It's been a while since I've gone on it at night and it was really fun. Up next was Wicked Twister and we walked right on. To finish the night (at least for my friends) we did WindSeeker. I love riding it at night. It's relaxing and the view is incredible.

After I said bye to my friends, my mom and I grabbed a quick bite to eat by getting the Platinum fries deal at Hot Potato. Then around 10:20 we headed back to Millennium for ERT. The ERT hadn't started yet and the line went all the way back to Panda Express. The line opened up around 10:45 and it started off with a 15 minute wait. In total, we rode 4 times, including the back and front, as our last ride. Each time, the line got shorter, and eventually they started letting people go right through the access gate back into the station. It was a great way to end the day.

I ended up with an impressive 26 rides throughout the day.

Regular Season Wrap-Up:
Since this was likely my last visit to the park before Halloweekends, I'll end this report with a quick recap of my thoughts on the park this year from my 7 regular season trips.

-Atmosphere: The Gemini Midway refresh added so many points to this aspect of the park. Every year, especially after last year, more and more areas of the park are improving. It's great to have modern, updated midways and structures. This provides a more welcoming, happy environment for guests. The Blue Streak midway is still my least favorite location in the whole park, but hopefully this will be changed soon. But between the skyline, layout, and visual appeal of the park, CP still has the best atmosphere out of any park I've been to, even outranking Disney and Universal. I'm looking for the whole package, and the Point has it.

-Cleanliness: It will never be to a Disney level of cleanliness, but for an amusement park like CP, it's definitely one of the best. Bathrooms are still the weakest point, but they've never been absolutely horrible. Sometimes it's also hard to stop guests from destroying and damaging property, such as ripping out flowers, etching things into walls/railings, and littering (especially in the parking lot.) But the park itself does a great job at trying to keep the park as clean as possible, and this in result adds to the wonderful atmosphere I already commented on.

-Food: The Platinum Pass deals and discounts made me love the food so much this year. I took advantage of the fries deal almost every time we went. Amazing quality hand cut fries and chili sauce, plus it was so cheap. I love the Chickie's and Pete's addition to (Crab Fries!!!). The 10% discount everywhere was a nice little perk too. Every year the park's food offerings seem to get better, and this has been the best year yet.

-Rides: I have seen the best operations with rides this year. The biggest issue was when Dragster was closed for a while (including for CoasterMania), but thankfully it had always been running really well on all of my visits. Maverick has still had a few downtime issues, but it's Maverick. It's expected. And at least when I've been at the park, it hasn't been down as much as it has sometimes in the past. Rarely ever was there a ride down when I wanted to go on it, and if it went down when I was in line most of the time it went back up fairly quickly. And despite the Skyhawk accident, I was amazed how quickly it reopened. Kudos to the park staff for having an amazing season when it comes to ride operations. I've been really impressed so far.

-Staff: CP will never have perfect staff. There will always be some employees who view what they are doing as "just a job," however there were some that really stood out. My favorite ride ops this year were Ashli on Dragster, Jasper on Maverick, and an honorable mention to Garrett on Maverick, and I believe there was a Maverick ride op named Noah that was really good too. By far, Maverick was my favorite ride crew. They were almost always having fun and joking around. As a whole, the park's staff have really improved over previous years. I notice this especially with food service. This year (especially toward the start of the season), there were some very friendly food service workers and I was blown away. Way better customer service than in the past. Again, not all staff is perfect, but this year I have noticed a higher amount of fun, happy employees than I have before. Hopefully every year will keep getting better.

-Overall thoughts: 2014 has been an amazing year. I hardly have any complaints, and I have tons of positive things to say. Plus I experienced my first CoasterMania, which is still my favorite day at any amusement park. Now it's time to look forward to the park's transformation into Halloweekends!