Cedar Point opens for its 157th season May 9

At least you know before you go. Now it's been a minute since the last time we were able to go on opening weekend, but we used to be regulars, and this is nothing out of the realm of normal. I'm actually more impressed that Top Trill 2, SV, and Sirens Curse aren't on that list. It seems like the park did a good job of prioritizing which rides to open first. Sucks if one of your favorites is on the list of course, but "back in the day" lower-tier rides were typically hit or miss until late May. I would personally be bummed about Skyhawk over anything else on that list.

I miss opening day before Facebook.

There was active work on Magnum's structure all weekend. I believe it's a case of "we discovered something as we were prepping to open"

jimmyburke:

I'll tell you what an accident waiting to happen is. The re-done bridge on the Causeway is smooth as silk, it seems more steep as you approach it though. Two lanes inbound, two lanes outbound with a dividing rail in the middle. Upon exiting today I noticed that the lanes seem quite narrow at the bridge, could be a bit nerve wracking when next to a wide vehicle. I think it's a matter of time until someone seeking "airtime" careens up there and due to the narrow lanes someone is bound to strike the middle abutment.

I used to get a little air off the hump on the old bridge. While the new bridge definitely feels steeper, I haven’t caught any air yet. I’ll put a little more effort into it tonight if the lanes are clear. I’m on an XL750, so there’s not much risk.

The thing that puzzles me is that I heard they were widening the causeway to add a bike/walking lane, but the new bridge doesn’t seem designed to accommodate that.

My understanding is that those bridges are temporary. They look like they were prefabbed and put in place. The widening of the causeway is occurring this upcoming offseason. All I can find is reddit, but I know I've read somewhere that this was the plan.

What has happened to this site? Opening day used to have all sorts of posts and I could somewhat sort of kid myself that by reading them I was living the opening day experience. This year there are more posts about the roundabout and the getting airtime on a bridge.

^

The landscape of forums has definitely shifted over the years however this season there really isn't anything new to discuss. I think I posted quite a bit on opening weekend last year but there was Sirens Curse construction going on as well as TT2 running with the updated trains. That even included them running TT2 on Friday evening as they had an employee ride night for it.

This year there wasn't really much to post about, yeah the causeway bridge was re-done and wouldn't ya know it the roundabout did not kill 487 people an hour with cars backed up to Chicago, Buffalo and Lexington just waiting to get in.

I guess Magnum is the biggest news as the pathway from Breakers to Lighthouse Point was closed Friday evening due to overhead work on Magnum.

I wondered why that was closed. Great to meet you this weekend by the way!

Same here buddy, glad I happened to stumble across the group Friday evening by the Breakers fire pits!

It was a great weekend at the park after a long six month hiatus, looking forward to many more enjoyable days this season as well. With another vacation planned and work getting in the way of fun I doubt I'll make it back before June so I will have some major catching up to do in June / July this year!

Shades:

What has happened to this site? Opening day used to have all sorts of posts and I could somewhat sort of kid myself that by reading them I was living the opening day experience.

I think we're all older. For myself, our opening day years ended long ago when it became impossible because kids. There is no realistic way of us visiting the park before mid-June simply because of how active our kids are in various things.

That said, as mentioned above if there was something awesome happening at the park I think it would be different. There's literally nothing to be excited about going into this season. It's just a rinse and repeat of last year, and hope/pray for the best giving the not-so-great restructuring going on.

Life happens. I was in the area on Saturday. The original plan was to go to the park as a family with my mom, but she wasn't feeling up to it. So we visited at home instead.

I'm really looking forward to the causeway upgrade project, especially the proposed pedestrian path addition. Would be neat to take an early morning run to the park and back if staying at a hotel on Rt. 6.

As for my opening day experience, I was only in the park for the first 3 hours because I had something going on later that afternoon. Some key takeaways I noticed:

• It is amazing how much more reliable TT2 is compared to its predecessor.
• The new dampeners on TT2’s back tower look strange, but if it works, it works.
• The black train for TT2 wasn’t on. It wasn’t even on the storage track.
• The red start lights on the tower weren’t working either. I see they’re working as if this morning though, via webcam.
• The landscaping throughout the park looked beautiful.
• You know it’s a good day when SkyRide is open.
• Entitlement warning: If you’re going to advertise early entry for prestige pass holders or hotel guests, then have a dedicated security line for them during early entry. The line was long to get through security, and a lot of those people in line were not entitled to early entry.
• Same goes for the entrance. There were no signs or announcements saying guests without a prestige pass or hotel guests cannot enter until 10am. This resulted in a ton of people being turned away. Granted, this is the first time I’ve entered through the main gate in a very long time, so maybe it’s always like that.
• Reliability across the board was as typical as it has been the past few years….not good.
• Why did CP spend so much time to introduce so many new food offerings, just to revert back to lower quality?
• A lot of advertised early entry rides were not ready at opening (Millennium and Gatekeeper, most notably).
• A lot of pathways and ride areas need a good cleaning/ pressure washing. What happened to employees using gum freeze and scrapers?
• I didn’t make it to Grand Pavilion or Hotel Breakers, but last year, both buildings were grimy and had a ton of cobwebs/ dead bugs on them. I get it, we’re by the lake. But you don’t just stop taking pride or care in the appearance. I truly don’t think it would be hard to have someone dedicated to keep the GP balcony cobweb free.

It was great to be back at the park. I was just reminded how much more enjoyable CP has become in early June through late August when things are in full swing and staffing is higher.

I honestly don't know why Early Entry is even an offering before Memorial Day weekend. Between cold/windy conditions in the morning and the general new season challenges, I think it would be easier to introduce Early Entry the Friday or Saturday of Memorial Day weekend. There have been plenty of Opening Days in the past where even with decent weather there was not a single ride ready until well past 9am.

I'd even take it a step further and have the hours shift to an 11am open the first weekend or two, but still bring all the ride crews in the same time you would for a regular 10am open.

Kevinj:

I think we're all older.

Agreed. But it seems like the younger, more energetic crowd has not backfilled the spots left by us old farts.

Cartwright:

I honestly don't know why Early Entry is even an offering before Memorial Day weekend. Between cold/windy conditions in the morning and the general new season challenges, I think it would be easier to introduce Early Entry the Friday or Saturday of Memorial Day weekend. There have been plenty of Opening Days in the past where even with decent weather there was not a single ride ready until well past 9am.

I'd even take it a step further and have the hours shift to an 11am open the first weekend or two, but still bring all the ride crews in the same time you would for a regular 10am open.

I honestly do not disagree with you whatsoever on this take. An 11am opening while bringing crews in at normal time seems fair to me.

I say we do noon to midnight. And let's end DST while we're at it! I don't need to see the sunshine at 9 p.m., and I hate that the park closes while the sun is still out. The park is so beautiful at night—I want lights, cooler temps, and night rides all season.

Breaking news, this just in from the Morning Rush newsroom: The public outcry has resulted in changes being made! Yes, Cedar Downs is now using once again the terrific Belmont Stakes call as it's audio track. Yes, War Emblem is still toiling as they turn for home. Siraba has come on strong to take the lead and War Emblem has given way!