CoasterMania 2022

I’ve never been to these events. Lots of neat things to do during the day it seems, except for perhaps the ert. Paying to wait for that long and some people didn’t even get to ride. Seems like your better off just going to the park on a midweek day and riding everything with fewer people around. Reminds me of the SV pass holder event. While it was fun to get the free food and ride the coaster early, we waited longer for that night that almost any other time we’ve been on it.

Bluestreaker said:

If you complainers don't like the way things have been going then stay away. Make room for those who want to be there.

Well done Tony and crew!

I love terrible takes like this. Reminds me of a little kid throwing a tantrum. As if your opinion suddenly represents the only and correct opinion and anyone who voices a different opinion or, I don’t know, doesn’t have the same experience as you is suddenly a complainer and should just “stay away”.

I would venture to say quite a few, as you call them, “complainers” experienced a vastly different and mediocre version of Coastermania which seems to be the running theme for this years event. If you truly enjoyed it then good for you; many did not. Doesn’t make them complainers. It makes them people with a valid opinion about a terrible experience.

I will post a more thorough trip report at some point, but overall I was disappointed with CoasterMania. It was my first time going. I would call myself a casual enthusiast, in that I don’t belong to a club and I only go once a year because I love far enough away. This was my first time at CP since 2019. I wanted to come to CM solely for the ERT, and it was the sole reason why the entire event was a letdown. Perhaps my expectations were unrealistically high, but CM veterans seemed to agree that it was not what it used to be.

Meanwhile, down in Santa Claus…

How did evening ERT go? Much better, I hope!!

Evening ERT wasn’t bad. MaXair, WindSeeker, GateKeeper were walk-ons. Valravn was about a 15 minute wait.

At about 9:45 we went over to MF, the line appeared to be about 30 minutes. When we got up to the exit station, someone vomited in the Yellow train. That created a delay, immediately after that the next train of people got stuck on the lift.

It’s been a bit since I’ve seen this process on MF, but it was interesting. It was about 20 minutes before maintenance and a supervisor went up the bucket lift. 15 minutes later they came back down reset the ride, and off they went.

A few minutes after they got off the train, a supervisor came over and informed everyone that the ride would not be opening again tonight and that the were no other rides open to go to. We were okay with this, but some pointed out the fact that there was a private event going on and the idea that everything was closed wasn’t true. At this point we were just people watching for the entertainment, eventually after making a few calls, the supervisor handed out exit passes to everyone left in line. It seemed like CM was just an inconvenience to staff (supervisors included), maybe they were just tired, but it was hardly a “best day” experience.

I'd gone to every Coastermania since 1996, and CO since 1971, but since this one sounded like it was going to be a cluster****, we passed on it. What was once the World's Best Amusement Park has now become Medeocrity At It's Finest. Sad.

So here is my report.

Disappointed. I will rate every part, but my words for the day, Hurry up and WAIT.

1. Maverick ERT - Was good, only got one ride in because they decided to split up SV and Maverick so EVERYONE was at Maverick, so no different than during a normal day wait time. So let's just create a line!
2. SV ERT - Cedar Point should be ashamed. They had an event planned for months now, changed the time to 10am so let's start testing right at 10 am, make the CM peeps loose 30 minutes of ERT then open up the ride. Seriously? Again let's create a line!
3. Lunch - This was FANTASTIC!! I will give CP some props for this, the food was incredible. The shirt line ridiculous. They know how many people are coming so let's have one (1) person, Tony (Who was great to see BTW) checking everyone's shirt size. So once again let's create a line! Shirts and pins were awesome, so much better than previous years when they would give us too much which I didn't mind but was kind of a pain to carry through the park to the car.
4. Cruise - FANTASTIC. I had never done this before and it was incredible. Such a nice touch and awesome way to see the point!
5. MF and Valravn ERT. Terrible and not really CP's fault. My issue who in what right mind signs up for Coaster Mania and pukes on BOTH rides and screws up ERT for EVERYONE? If you can' handle coasters then why are you at Coastermania? Yeah the rides went down but I blame the puker for MF. It had right before the ERT the coaster get stuck on the lift hill. Then got her running nice again and once the puker hit again she got stuck again!

I honestly think CP needs to rebrand themselves, from Ride On to Wait On, even at a special event all we did was wait, it was no different than just a normal day at the park. Years ago it was easy to get multiple rides on the great coasters. My first CM I got 13 straight on Millenium Force. Couldn't even dream of that these days. And yet again on other rides like Magnum, it's designed for 3-train operation and yet on a busy day with CM and another event, let's just run two (2). Why? They are not in my mind about making it enjoyable for the Coaster Maniacs, it's about taking your money and saying "who cares we got your money , why do we care".

Also, got there at 7:15 and the line to get our tickets was ridiculous. Seems like they were unprepared yet again, and they knew how many people were coming! Reminded me of wal-mart, let's build 40 registers and only open four (4). Come on. Make us wait so we miss key ERT and events. Which also leads me to why would they offer Maverick infield tours AND cruises at the SAME TIME? Can't do both. They should have done two (2) Maverick infield tours so the ones like myself who got 3pm ferry tickets could enjoy both events!

Last, why schedule two (2) major events on the SAME DAY??? Oh yeah about making $$$$ and having the I don't care attitude, we got your money.

If I had to give a grade for this years CM, D+ at best.

That's my take and I am sure I am going to get lite up by all you!

Ride one....errrr Wait On!!

I should say this, compared to previous Coaster Mania events where it's all about ride, ride, ride it was disappointing. Times have changed, yeah we paid $45 but got one hell of a meal out of it and awesome cruise AND got in early. For that I am thankful, it was just different from past and I really wanted to ride, ride, ride!! That's all. Food was great, atmosphere was great, people were great. All in all it was a good day, accomplished something I never did before and that was to ride every coaster (with exception kiddie coasters and TTD) at least once in the same day. Once we saw that we could not do what I love to do, made a change in plans. And accomplished it. Weather was fantastic.

So let me re-phrase the above. If I am comparing to past events, D+. If I am looking at changes and moving forward, I'll give it a solid B+. Needs a few improvements, that's all.

Obviously we can't fault the park for rides unexpectedly breaking down, but I think part of the problem with the morning ERT was simply the geography of the park and the staggered start times. I have no idea what the attendance limit was for the event, but it certainly felt like it should have been less.

We had to enter through the front gate, but the first ERT was back at Magnum and Corkscrew. Once we did that (including a Magnum breakdown), we either had to return to the front of the park for Blue Streak/Raptor, or go over to Camp Snoopy for Woodstock/Wilderness Run, or continue back to Frontiertown for Maverick. Gemini/Mine Ride were an hour later. I suppose the thinking was that Magnum would be central to all those options, but in practice it just meant you were guaranteed to miss out on something.

I thought the lunch was fine, although nothing to get excited about. Which is OK -- I don't usually expect anything fancy when they have to feed so many people at once. But the itinerary (only accessible via QR code on our wristbands) said there would be selections from Farmhouse Kitchen & Grill, which there were not. The potatoes were awesome though, and the highlight of the lunch!

I enjoyed the Maverick Infield Tour (got some nice Live Photos), and the cruise.

Evening ERT started out much better than the morning. Especially the MaxAir crew, who seemed to get into the spirit and even thanked us for coming to CoasterMania! The only hitch was the Millennium Force incident already described by others here. Once we saw the carriage go up the lift, we thought they were going to be unboarding passengers and decided to split.

Normally I opt for HoliWood Nights over CoasterMania anyhow, but Holiday World had a lottery system for registration this year, so there was no way to coordinate a group of more than 2 people. Plus it was significantly more expensive than before, because Friday park entry is now included. So I'm guessing next year, my calendar will be free and clear the weekend after Memorial Day. Which is sad, because I always looked forward to kicking off the summer with one of these events.

The potatoes were the selection from Farmhouse

We had a 3 o’clock cruise and still made it to the Maverick tour. They needed to communicate more clearly that this was a come whenever and walk on your own thing, not a guided tour where you had to show up right at 3 to be able to do it.

Pisses me off to learn that some people ended up getting exit passes at MF last night. My wife and I waited in line the entire time it was stuck until they told us they were shutting it down, and they literally said they didn’t have enough passes to give out to everybody there after they’d given them to the people who were stuck on the loft. It was a very sour note to end the already disappointing day on.

We were told that you had to be at the Maverick tour at 3, was not a self guided tour. Agree needed better communication.

Oh well....

I attended both Coastermania and Wild Frontier Nights on Friday...

(1) This was my 10th Coastermania. It's just not quite what it was "back in the day", at least not this year, rosy retrospection considered. At the Q&A, they seemed to recognize some of the issues - almost like a "growing pains" sort of thing with this being the first year it was not limited to coaster club members. Either too many people, too many staggered ERT times, or both. Not having a lanyard with the itinerary card made it a bit more difficult to know what was open at what time. Yes, I know it's on the website, but the website isn't on a card around my neck, it's on my phone, which I try to keep safely zipped up in my pocket as much as possible. It was almost like the park was just going through the motions with it this year.

(2) Wild Frontier Nights was very good, if anything, because compared to Coastermania, it was a ghost town as far as the rides. I was able to re-ride Steel Vengeance and Maverick without leaving my seat. My longest wait was the 10-minute wait to try the axe-throwing. I don't drink, but the drinks looked good, food looked good etc. I just think the price point was set too high, otherwise it would have the attendance the park was probably hoping for. I saw all of the top brass there Friday night checking it out, I have a feeling they were hoping for a better crowd.

Oh, and they did give out lanyards for Wild Frontier Nights (shrug). After doing both I believe that Wild Frontier Nights just received significantly more time and attention in its preparation, and it showed. Unfortunately, it was not the event with thousands of attendees.

Coastermania was a disappointment for my group as well. Lot of walking / waiting as the itinerary being so spaced out stunk.

Missed out on front of park rides due to the separation. Used to be able to ride everything during ERT at least once, hate having to choose.

Glad we hit Millennium for early entry hour which had no wait, as said above the ERT later for this ride sucked.

Our Cruise Ticket was same time as lunch, so that was a waste.

Some good things: Got in Steel Vengeance at 11, was a 35 min wait. After the ride, the ERT was still going as they kept it open up to Noon due to earlier issues. So early lunch group missed out on 10 min wait SV.

Lunch was decent, but the Shirt line was long (yet not longest of the day).

Getting in Mavericks line at 7pm when it closed the line resulted in a reride for the last 6 trains. Was out with 2 rides in half hour vs ERT 45 min for 1.

Overall, it felt like paying for extra season pass ERT than an Event. Frontier Festival seemed more like an event even with only 30 some people paying for it....

Another item of note, which really doesn't matter to me, but is just... interesting: This year's shirt was the same as last year's, only a lighter blue and with a less colorful logo. I don't know if they ran out of time to come up with a new design, or if that's just going to be the theme now.

Regarding coaster clubs vs. general public, I don't think it makes a difference what segment of the population is allowed to buy tickets, but rather the number of tickets sold. Or, maybe the attendance figure was the same as previous years, and it was just the ERT times that made the difference. Or both. Or Maverick.

I will say though, I liked that the event didn't start as early or go as late. I realize that was partly a consequence of their current operating schedule, but I appreciated the extra hour of sleep.

The lunch thing overlapping with cruise times is another thing that was poorly communicated. You didn’t have to be at lunch right at the start time, so you could’ve had an 11 am cruise time and still made lunch by 12 or shortly after. It wouldn’t be that difficult to add more detail to some of these itinerary items to save themselves a lot of questions and/or complaints.

It also didn't seem they were checking what time your lunch ticket was for so you likely could have gone to either one.

Mine was for 12:30-2:00, they sent me in at noon.