Cedar Point Trip Report (9-29-07)

Sorry that this trip report is a bit late, but I had very little time during the week.

The park was extremely crowded as were most Saturdays last year. While it was nice to see attendance wise for the park, it didn't make my ride count too impressive. As such this will mainly be a review on the Halloweekends stuff.

Maverick
The wait for Maverick was about 2 hours (no breakdown)

There were zero breakdowns, but the line stretched back to Antique Cars, and the line doesn't move all that fast. One question I have is, is it just me, or does the outdoor part of the queue move significantly slower than the indoor part? How could that be? Anyways I got the back car of the second train to be dispatched. Wow, still an amazing ride. I am still amazed every time I catapult over the first hill and am ejected out of my seat. That is one of the most incredible parts of the ride.

The rest of the ride was great, and through keeping my head back, I had a perfectly comfortable ride. The horseshoe roll is quite a nice zero-g-roll reminding element. I also came to a complete stop in the launch tunnel for the first time, and can say I actually think the ride is more intense when you don't stop. And CP, where is the fog? The tunnel with the lighting is nice now, but would be 100x better if the tunnel was actually dark, or had some fog just near the end. If they can run the ride with tons of fog coming in from Werewolf Canyon, why not add some in the tunnel?

Anyways Maverick gave me an outstanding ride despite the long wait. And interestingly enough, there was no vibration on my ride. My previous ride had tons of vibration, but not this time.

10/10

Wicked Twister

Wicked Twister had a 20 minute wait.

The entire back switchback section being used? For Wicked Twister? Wow, that was an interesting sight. I don't get up to the park at night much except for Halloweekends. I decided to get a night ride on Wicked Twister. Wow. I have always loved this ride, but found out tonight just how great it is. This is probably the best ride I've had on Wicked Twister in a while. I waited for the very back, which makes a huge difference when you are staring 200ft at the ground while twisting all around.

Plus, this ride had the best crew in the park. I've never seen trains dispatched so quickly. They were literally running to check restraints and were just great.

Wicked Twister has now taken a place in my top 10, beating out Magnum.

9.5/10

Mantis

Mantis was a walk on

When walking by the ride during the day, I was not surprised to see almost the entire queue full. When walking by it at 11:20 however, it looked as though queue was empty. Sure enough the ride was broken, and had been for over half an hour. Just as I turned away to move on though, I saw the ops go to their positions to give the all clear. I quickly went back to the entrance, and was first in line. They opened the ride just 3 trains later, and only had a 1 train wait to get on. Certainly the smallest line for Mantis I've ever seen!

It was also the best ride on Mantis I have ever had. The trim breaks were off which made a huge difference. The first drop was a lot more exciting, and I really forgot how cool the pre-drop is. The loop was exciting as the train went through it a little faster tonight. The rest of the ride was also great. I somehow never hit my head on the restraint, and got quite a bit of air-time. Mantis was actually quite fun tonight! There was also zero vibration throughout the ride. A lot of fun here.

8/10

Ride Notes:

MF, Maverick, and TTD had hour and a half - two hour waits throughout the day. Iron Dragon had over a half hour line. Wicked Twister had over a half hour line during the day, half hour at night. Skyhawk had a completely full queue. Mean Streak had an hour line and was utilizing much of the queue in the infield of the ride. I"m sure most other rides had similar lines.

All rides were running incredibly smoothly.

So onto the Halloweekends stuff:

Lair of the Vampire

This one has potential, but was poorly executed in my opinion. The line could use a bit more decoration, as it is basically some tombstones stuck in a picnic pavilion with black lights replacing the florescent lights above. A better themed queue may help get me into the mood more.

The entrance to the haunted house looks good, and is nicely decorated. I was disappointed when I went inside though. For starters, there was too much light inside. This helped expose just how cheap this haunted house was. It was a lot of plywood painted black, and there were fluorescent white exit signs placed throughout the walls. Character costumes weren't all that great.

I was startled by the characters a few times, but the fact that the whole thing just looked cheap, and constructed in a hurry and temporary fashion, made the haunted house just ok.

Again, this one has potential, I think they just need to work a little harder next year, and perhaps begin the project a bit sooner.

6/10

Pharaoh's Secret

I've always found this one quite lame but I decided to give it another try. I have to admit it was a bit better than years past, but there is still much CF could work on. Disaster Transport's theme is to Disaster Transport, as Pharaoh's Secret's theme is to Pharaoh's Secret. Anyways, I just think CF needs to choose a different theme for this haunted house.

The Egyptian Tomb theme is a nice idea, but it takes a lot of work to look good, and I don't think CF will put in that much work and money. Being in the queue room with the concrete floor, white ceiling panels overhead, and white plater walls, I just didn't feel like I was in an Egyptian tomb of any-sort.

Inside the haunted house was just really odd for lack of a better word. First you walked through the room with the hand prints. Then you walked through rooms with some Egyptian themeing. Then you went through some rooms with aliens, and then a room with other random props thrown in. The characters were quite good, but the themeing was just to incoherent and cheap to look good. I just don't understand why mummies and aliens were in the same room, but that's just me.

I think CF would do well by themeing this one to a museum. Then they could create a more diverse somewhat child friendly theme that didn't look horrible.

5.5/10

Carnevil

This one was excellent as usual. It seemed to be much more spaced out than last year, and there also seemed to be many more displays. The attention to detail here is excellent. They do need something over by the Aquatic Stadium though, now that there are no clowns floating in the water. I'm sure that will be solved next year though. Carnevil could have used some more screamsters, but I'm sure that will come with the crowds in October. The theme though is still excellent, and all the screamsters make it an enjoyable place to walk around. This is really great.

9.5/10

Feare Faire

This is an excellent concept, but I was a bit disappointed in its execution. Again, the issue is that the picnic pavilion just isn't a great setting for something like this. The space is much too wide. They did add a few more Medieval carts and such, which helped themeing wise, but there seemed to be a general lack of themeing in the actual picnic pavillion itself. If they spruced up the actual pavilion to make it look like a village or something, and thus allowing screamsters to pop out more, I think it would really be a great haunt area. At the moment, it is good, but I think they need to do more to make you feel like you aren't in the middle of an amusement park. I will say the screamsters were in great numbers, and the costumes were excellent.

7.5/10

Fright Zone

This has the most potential of any of the fright zones, but I thought this one was in a great need of more screamsters. The setting, lighting, amount of fog, was perfect, but without good screamsters the place isn't all that frightening. And of the screamsters that were in the place, none had any of the special props that most people had last year (noise making things, sticks and clubs, and the rollers that allowed them to roll along the midway). I'm sure some of this is due to inexperience since the thing had just opened the week before, so I'll bet it improves with the October weekends coming up. I have to say, walking along the dark midway and hearing the train sound its whistle in the distance was great.

8/10

Werewolf Canyon

This is still the best Halloween attraction here. The line itself moved quickly and was only about 40 minutes. There was hardly any light in the queue, except for a few red lights, and one green one. This really added to the effect. The proximity of Maverick to the line also made it really great. A werewolf running about by the line was not present, and I have to say this added to the experience in years past.

They were spacing this thing excellently despite the fast moving line. You would never run into a party from another group. There was the perfect amount of fog, and they had a ton of trees and such in there this year. There was also the perfect amount of werewolf that made it frightening. The Famous Dave's themed finale at the end was also excellent. Really great job on this CP.

10/10

Well that's my TR. I missed Undertaker U this trip, but generally that is another good one. A more family friendly haunted house is a good idea, but I think Pharaoh's Secret needs some work. I'd also like to see CP convert the Lair of the Vampire one so that it is housed in a permanent structure. I think the more permanent and realistic look of a building makes the whole experience better. I'd like to see CP add some themeing elements to Feare Faire next year, and leave alone the others.

I was unable to catch the parade, but I heard that it was very short yet good. The general atmosphere of the park was excellent. There were two detractions however that I think are noticeable. The cars at the "drive in" by Iron Dragon really looked good. Too bad they moved them. It was good for traffic flow, but I think they could have kept a few at least. They really need the headless greeter back at Fright Zone. That really helped get people pumped before going in. I noticed the "bone" quartet was missing in the train station, but thought the projection that replaced it was still good.

Other areas of the park looked better than in years past. Tombstones and such looked a lot better, and there seemed to be more of them. There seemed to be more shows and costumed people walking around, and the place just seemed livelier than before. I had a great time at CP, and can't wait to go back a few more times before the season is over. *** Edited 10/7/2007 3:41:57 AM UTC by Top Thrill 182***

I think you might be the first person who's ever given Werewolf Canyon a 10/10 :)

The sliders are still in Fright Zone. You must have just missed them when you went through. Saturdays can be hard for them to find room to slide as the crowds are usually pretty large.

I don't know if Fear Faire would benefit from having more stuff under the pavilion areas. Generally, the fog is so thick in there that adding more stuff that people could run into would ultimately just be a safety issue. Of course, the Saturday that you were there was an exception, and the amounts of fog were quite low that night.

I think it's fun when it's crowded in the scare zones, but then you get all these silly teenagers all over you, especially the giggly ones that if they tried hard enough, they could be screamsters and not have to wear costumes! :)

I have a quick comment about the fog in the maverick tunnel. Yes, it would be great, but we had to take it away because you were unable to see your pictures taken. I think if they had fog at the entrance to the tunnel that would be cool though.