First and Amazing CP Trip... 6/23-6/25 (long!)

Hey guys! I made my first trip to Cedar Point last week and wanted to share my experiences! It is pretty insanely long report, but I had a lot of (nice) things to say…

For some background… We had a group of four and we flew up from Florida and spent 3 full days in Sandusky. It was the first trip to Ohio for all of us. We all love theme parks, but this trip was sort of my baby. I am a major theme park and roller coaster addict (have been that way practically since I was born), and I’d been wanting to go to Cedar Point ever since I first heard of it a loooong time ago… I decided last summer that I definitely wanted to make the trip this year. So in a lot of ways it was a dream vacation for me, and I’m happy to say it didn’t disappoint!

Before I get to the details/opinions on the rides… I just want to say that our overall impression of Cedar Point is that it is AMAZING. I had my doubts, but I understand why it is considered the best amusement park in the world. Not just the ride selection, but the atmosphere is wonderful as well. We were so pleased with the way the park is run… the ride ops are so friendly, they really seem to care what people are up to. I’ve never been to a theme park where they just seem to be having so much fun, like they are really enjoying running these rides instead of just standing there collecting a paycheck. I enjoyed being asked if it was my first ride on the coaster, or where I was from. They seemed to have a great sense of humor as well.

Somewhat related… the lines move incredibly fast! For most of the rides at least, it seemed like you were never really standing still too long… lines that looked like they would take hours to get through took maybe 30 minutes. I was definitely pleasantly surprised by this. CP is very efficient.

Another awesome thing about the park was that it was very clean. I don’t think I saw any litter the entire time we were there… also, the rides seem very well maintained. So, total props to Cedar Point employees… they do an amazing job.

The layout of the park is good… it seemed very open and spacious, although because of how sunny it was when we were there I think we really wished that there had been more shade. Also more fans in the queue lines (I know they have some, but it never seemed to be enough. Dragster’s queue line was especially miserable). Other than the heat, absolutely no complaints.

As for the rides themselves… it’s hard for me to imagine that there is a better collection anywhere in the world. We’ve pretty much decided that it is worth the trip from Florida to visit, and can’t wait to go back. We were all totally impressed. I’m planning to try to make it to CP at least once a season… I’ve read so many good things about Coastermania… maybe next year I will join in on the fun, heheh. It was a good trip, but we did a lot of first-time visitor stuff… I’d like to go back and just take in the park.

Anyway…. for the more detailed report…

6/22
We flew in from Tampa and landed in Cleveland. Collected rental car and decided to explore the city a little bit before heading to Sandusky. We visited the downtown area and walked around. The area we were in was quite pretty (near the Browns stadium… I enjoyed seeing this too as I’m a huge NFL fan) Also visited Tower City (I think that’s what it was called… it was something to do). After a while we drove about an hour to reach our hotel… had some dinner and then decided to drive over to the park to just see what it looked like. It was about a 3 minute drive from our hotel.

When we turned onto the bridge and we could see the whole CP skyline… wow…. I’d seen so many pictures, but I had no idea what it would be like to actually see it all right there in front of us… I’m pretty sure I squealed. We were very sorry we couldn’t go in for a few rides that evening but we only had a two-day ticket.

We got lost on the way back to the hotel (totally drove into a sand pit and then back down the wrong lane towards oncoming traffic… what can I say, I was being a tourist..) finally made it back and went to bed early so we’d be rested for the park.

6/23 – First day at the park
We got to the park around 9:30 and had about half an hour to kill before we could start riding stuff. Unfortunately it was already sweltering hot! I have to say… we had planned on it actually being cooler in Ohio than it usually is in Florida… we were wearing pants and stuff, even thought about bringing jackets. Ha. Ha. We were already pretty sweaty before we even got in…

1. Millennium Force #1– First ride of the day! We decided to run here once they finally let us in. Wait wasn’t too bad, around half an hour probably. Millie was probably the coaster I was looking forward to most, so I was pretty excited. I have to say… I was a little underwhelmed with my first ride. I think it was because I didn’t bother to put my hands up. (my opinion changed drastically later!)

2. Mean Streak – So we walked all the way to the back of the park, hoping to get a ride in on Maverick. Unfortunately it was stuck, and the line was ridiculous (I have to say, from our visit, it seems like this is the norm…) so we decided to pass on it for the moment. One of my friends wanted to ride Mean Streak… I’m normally not the biggest fan of wooden coasters, and I’d heard nothing but bad things about this one… but I had to go just to see for myself if everyone was right… It was a walk-on (thankfully). Yeah… whoever said MS would be better off scrapped for firewood was absolutely right. I have to say, it wasn’t the worst wooden coaster I’ve ever been on (that honor belongs to GASM at SFOG), but it was a completely pointless ride. How slow does the thing move? It was like driving up and down a road full of potholes. Thankfully it didn’t bang me around too much, but my friend said it was painful for her. Needless to say that was the last time we ever went near it.

3. Magnum #1 - After MS we kept looping through the park. We passed Gemini because my friends refused to ride another wooden coaster, so we kept going until we hit Magnum. Wait was around 5-10 minutes. First half of the coaster, I thought it was better than MF… Unfortunately during the second half when we hit the bunny hills, it became painful. I like airtime, but I didn’t like flying out of my seat and having my thighs slam into the lap bar over and over again.

4. Top Thrill Dragster #1– After we got off of Magnum, I looked up to see a train running on Dragster… I was so freakin excited! I knew it had been down a lot in the days before, and hadn’t seen it running since we’d been at the park. I was kind of afraid we might not get to ride it, so when I saw it running I pretty much charged over there. Wait was around 40 minutes. The queue was long and extremely hot. :-/ But it was totally worth it. After we got off, we were totally in love. This ride is AMAZING! My whole group loved it! I really can’t believe how fast you go, and the views at the top are incredible. We definitely made plans to return for more rides later.

5. Disaster Transport – We walked back to the front of the park… decided to go for DT because it was inside, and we were about dying of the heat. Wait was about 10-15 minutes. My thoughts… it wasn’t as bad as I was expecting, but far too short. If it lasted a little longer, I really wouldn’t have any problems with it, nice family coaster. The scenery is completely pathetic. (Incidently, Florida parks have CP way beat on scenery and theming, but I guess I’d rather have better rides)… But would it be that hard to add more/maintain it? It would make for a much better experience. On the whole, I’d say DT is worth doing once but is not a re-ride type of thing.

6. Maxair #1 – WOW! I’m a sucker for powerful flat rides as well as roller coasters, and this ride is pretty amazing. It looked a little smaller in person than I was expecting, but didn’t disappoint. I love the views you get from this ride, and it was a lot of fun. I’d say better than quite a few of the coasters.

7. Raptor – Eh. Waited about 50 minutes for this in the hot sun (the fans in the queue are nice though). Being from Florida I’m pretty used to B&M coasters… Raptor is good, but isn’t the best. We enjoyed our ride, but figured we wouldn’t bother re-riding it because it is very similar to a lot of coasters closer to home. Don’t hate me for this, but Montu at Busch Gardens is a much better ride.

8. Lunch at Johnny Rockets – By this time it was about 2 or so in the afternoon… the heat was kicking our butts, so we decided to take a break from rides and rest up so that we could make it through the rest of the day. Not so impressed with the restaurant… prices are ridiculous, though they are ridiculous everywhere at theme parks so I can’t complain too much (at least it wasn’t the $15 Subway!). Service was very slow. But it was air conditioned, which is the main reason why we went there.

9. Iron Dragon – After lunch we had wanted to catch the Snoopy on Ice show (more air conditioning!), but when we got over there, the next show wasn’t for over an hour, so we decided to go ahead and get a couple more rides in. Started with Iron Dragon. Not much to say about it. Short wait, boring coaster.

10. Mantis – Waited maybe 20 minutes. I had read some pretty negative things about this coaster… I have to say, we all agreed that it wasn’t so bad. I actually enjoyed it a lot. The end of the ride is a little bit of a head banger, but it didn’t really bother me and it was a good ride otherwise. Not worth doing more than once however.

11. Snoopy on Ice show – I’m not a show person at all, usually won’t bother with them, but this was very cute. I’m very glad we took the time to see it, and it was a great break from the heat.

12. Dragster #2 – Decided to hit this again before moving to the back of the park… 30-40 minute wait this time. Still hot. Still amazing.

13. Maverick – After TTD we decided to head back to the back of the park to see what Maverick was up to. Pleasantly surprised to see the trains actually moving on the track this time. The posted wait was 1 hour. The line looked fairly long. We decided to tackle it. After about 5 minutes of being in line, the coaster broke down again. I’m going to assume that this is due to it’s still being a fairly new ride. A fair amount of people left the queue. We decided to give it 10 or so minutes and then leave. It ended up taking maybe 20 minutes, but we stuck it out. Once the trains started moving the lines moved very quickly (I have to say, that was impressive… what looked like a 2 hour line for sure was really only half an hour).

As for the ride itself… ehhhh. I was very disappointed. This ride looked so fun, from everything I’d seen and read about it. I didn’t particularly care for it. Almost banged me around more than Mean Streak and Mantis put together. I love coasters with launching elements too… :( My impression of the ride is that it moves too fast for the track. Like maybe if it went slower, it would be smoother and not as painful. Of course, I probably didn’t have the riding technique down. I would have been willing give it another chance and try again except for two things… 1) the line for it was never under an hour, usually an hour and half… plus the unexpected breakdown time, and 2) it’s at the back of the park, and most of the time I didn’t feel like bothering to walk over there. I will say though, I’m definitely looking forward to my next trip to CP so I can try Maverick again. I feel bad that I thought it sucked so much… I refuse to believe it really does.

13. Cedar Creek Mine Ride – I love it. Ok, no, it’s not an impressive coaster, but it was sweet. It had a very nostalgic feeling to it, and seems like a great family ride. When we rode, there were two little boys in the car ahead of us, screaming and laughing and talking about how exciting it was… I could tell they really got a kick out of it, made the ride so much better. CP needs family coasters too. Not a lot of re-ride value for us though, but glad we stopped by…

14. Skyhawk #1– WOW. This ride did not look the slightest bit impressive to me before coming to the park, and I couldn’t understand why people liked it so much… Almost skipped it, so glad we didn’t. I really love this ride. The views are incredible, and the airtime is fabulous (I actually thought I might fall right out of my seat… awesome…) I could ride this thing all day.

15. Wicked Twister #1 – As we walked up to the front of the park, we noticed WT running for the first time all day (this was around 7:30) and decided to get a ride in. This coaster was a pleasant surprise. The view of the beach and the lake is awesome, and the ride is so fun. The ride op was hilarious, I love how they change up what they say right before they launch each train. What a great experience! I love launching coasters, no disappointments here.

16. Maxair #2 – Decided to re-ride a couple of things before heading home for the day. Maxair first. Still great.

17. Millenium #2 – By this time, the sun was finally starting to set. A couple of my friends were ready to pack it in and head back to the hotel, but I wanted to get another ride in so we split up and I ran over to MF. I really wanted to give it another chance after my experience in the morning. Waited about a half an hour. The view over the lake was so beautiful. Actually, the whole park is beautiful at sunset. And the second ride on Millie was much better than the first. The first drop is incredible… the whole ride is so smooth, and the airtime is fabulous. I now totally understand why this roller coaster is ranked as highly as it is.

After that, it was almost closing time and we finally left the park. Took half an hour I swear to God to find our car in the parking lot (probably should’ve looked where we parked… oops). Finally got out of the parking lot and went to have dinner. We were all completely wiped out after spending over 12 hours in the park. Very sore, sunburned… but still very pleased with our experience so far.

6/24 – Second day in the park

We slept in a little to get rested up to return to the park… Didn’t make it over until around 1:30. Overall it felt like the crowds were down a little from Tuesday and the weather was a little less unbearable, both very good things…

18. Demon Drop – After the first day we made a list of the things we hadn’t done yet that we still wanted to do, this was on it. This was sort of the opposite of Skyhawk for me, something that looked like a lot of fun that no one ever said anything about. It was a walk-on. Yeah… It kinda sucks. From the noises it makes it sounds like the thing is about to fall apart on the spot. Overall I’m going to say that this is a ride I will never feel compelled to ride again.

19. Blue Streak – Took a while to find how to get back to this. It was worth it… this is a fun little coaster, lots of airtime. We all liked it. Restores my interest in wooden coasters somewhat.

20. Corkscrew – I honestly expected to get my head banged around quite a bit on this, because that’s usually the case with this type… I was surprised, it wasn’t as bad as I was expecting. It was alright, nothing too special, but I realize it is old and won’t be too harsh…

21. Power Tower – Ok, so I’m maybe just the tiniest bit of a chicken when it comes to huge drop towers, so I really didn’t care to ride the green side. Plus it had a wait, whereas the red side was a walk-on. We rode the red side… wasn’t as scary as I was expecting. Good ride.

22. Dragster #3 – I think we were all itching to get back on this one. Unfortunately the wait was long, about 45-50 minutes, and the sun was unbearable. What is wrong with this queue line? It must be in the worst possible place, as none of the others ever seemed this bad. This was about 2:30-3 in the afternoon… Thought we were going to die. My friend was trying to use the map to get any kind of shade… The fans are pretty useless as well. Finally got on the ride, which made up for the wait.

23. Magnum #2 – I wasn’t totally happy with the ride on this the day before, but after getting some advice from ya’ll about how to ride it better I was able to enjoy the whole ride this time instead of just the beginning. Grabbing the bar with my hands worked well… no hurting my thighs this time. Also the on-ride photo for this one was cute of the whole group, so I bought it for a souvenir.

24. Gemini – Total walk-on, we rode the red side. I really liked it, would’ve been willing to try the other side too but the group wanted to move on. I never heard, but are the two sides any different?

25. Skyhawk #2 – We walked around to the back of the park to check out the line for Maverick… I wasn’t really thrilled with the idea of spending much time in line for it, and the posted wait time was an hour and a half… we bagged the idea and went for Skyhawk instead. I love this ride! I really did feel like I was going to fall out of my seat though… really freaked me out, but still awesome.

26. Millennium #3 – I really couldn’t wait to get back on MF so we walked down Frontier Trail and got in line… posted wait half an hour. Unfortunately, they were only running two trains and the ride broke down while we were in line. :-/ We were standing on the little bridge when it happened, shortly after you come out of the tents. We decided to give it 10-15 minutes before leaving. Also during this time we saw EMS come out and deal with someone who passed out from the heat… I’m honestly surprised we didn’t see more of this throughout the day. I think it took about 20 minutes but it did start running again… only one train though. I was a little distressed, thinking it would take all day to get through the line with only one train, especially when we’re already spent probably 40 minutes in line. They did add a second train though, and from there it was a short wait. Totally amazing ride.

27. Dragster #4 – Kind of knew this would be our final ride on this… I was pretty tired, and standing in the queue from hell again was not fun, but as soon as we got started riding it was all worth it. I never thought this one would end up being my favorite coaster…. I think it worked out that way though :)

28. WildCat – I really wanted to check out this coaster before leaving… it was the last of the non-kiddie coasters that we hadn’t ridden. This may sound ridiculous, but I was impressed. This thing packs a punch! I was sliding all over the seat having a really good time. (I liked this better than Maverick… *steps in front of firing squad*) heheh…. I would have ridden it again but didn't feel like standing in the 20 minute line for it.

29. Millennium #4 – Talked my friends into another Millie ride… Since the sun was finally setting it wasn’t so hot, and no breakdowns. :) This coaster is amazing, I definitely love it.

30. Wicked Twister #2 – This was another one we wanted to get a final ride on. Still a great experience. We kind of decided that Dragster was our favorite, then Millie, then WT. After riding we got a great picture in front of the ferris wheel, the lighting was perfect at sunset. I didn’t want to bother riding the ferris wheel but it sure was pretty…

31. Chaos – I actually remember from waaaay back a long time ago hearing about this ride when it first opened.. kind of crazy… It didn’t look impressive, but since it had been on my radar for so long I definitely wanted to ride it once. No wait. It was pretty fun. I would say worth riding with no wait, not so much otherwise.

32 Maxair #3 – Wanted another ride on this before we left. I would so be addicted to this ride… Good thing I don’t have a season pass… :P

33. Space Spiral – I wanted to go up and hopefully get some pictures of the whole park. Um, this thing is kind of useless… The windows were too dirty to take good pictures out of… I thought it went too fast as well.

34. Wicked Twister #3 – I sort of thought we were done riding rides at this point… a couple of my friends went souvenir shopping, my other friend and I went wandering through the park taking a last few pictures before we left… Then she decided she wanted to ride WT again and I was definitely up for it. So this was our final ride at CP….. A great one to end with, I think. We loved it.

After that we did some souvenir shopping, which took a while… we ended heading out of the park well after close.

So… over two days, we got all 15 coasters in, plus a few of the flat rides.

Final ride count:
4 each – TTD, Millennium
3 each – WT, Maxair
2 each – Magnum, Skyhawk
1 each – Raptor, Maverick, Mantis, Iron Dragon, DT, Wildcat, Corkscrew, Blue Streak, Mean Streak, Chaos, Gemini, Power Tower, Demon Drop, Space Spiral

I would go on and describe our last day (we visited Challenge Park and did a couple other things in the area) but considering that this TR is like already almost novel length, I think I’ll skip it unless someone is curious. We had fun though :)

So I will end by saying once again that Cedar Point blew us away. If it’s possible to fall in love with a place, then I did. I’ll be back, guaranteed :) Can’t wait for my next trip!

And finally… here are a couple pictures from the trip… First is me with my favorite coaster, second is the whole group in front of the ferris wheel, third is my favorite picture of Millennium Force at sunset…. I hope ya’ll enjoyed my report even in spite of it’s insane length…

http://i794.photobucket.com/albums/yy227/set88/CPDragster.jpg

http://i794.photobucket.com/albums/yy227/set88/CPGroupWheel.jpg

http://i794.photobucket.com/albums/yy227/set88/CPMillie.jpg

Just so you know, Gemini is a steel coaster.:)

People make that mistake all the time.

Don't worry. Not knowing is a good thing. It means you're not a nerd. :)

Sounds like you had a fantastic trip.

Great Trip Report. I really enjoy reading reports from people who have never been to the park before. It really gives some of us nerds... i mean regulars... some perspective as to what a new guest sees when they enter the park.

I am sad you didn't enjoy Maverick more, but I have heard your complaints before. It seems people either really enjoy it, or don't like it at all. You are not alone with your criticisms.

CP really is a great park for as much grief as we give it sometimes. I went to Six Flags Great America for the first time yesterday, and other than trying out some new coasters, I would have much rather spent the day at CP.

I read through your TR, and I want to hear about Day 3! Did you go on Skyscraper?

It's too bad I missed that thread of yours in May (very busy with work and travel that month!) where you were asking for advice, b/c I definitely think I could've improved things!

It's also too bad you couldn't get Early Entry for CP (as a non-pass holder, you should've stay at Breakers Express!!), since usually I start my CP day going to Maverick for EE and then re-ride Maverick until the line gets long or, if the park is not busy, I've ridden enough. Usually from 9 am to 11:30-ish I can easily get in 4 or 5 Maverick rides on your average, moderate crowds day.

I definitely have a good riding technique for Maverick too that should make it ride better...but more than anything I just think riding it a few times makes you more used to it, which would help a lot!

I'm also with you on Skyhawk...I love it! I could seriously re-ride for hours, but after a few times I sort of feel the crew has seen enough of me so I stop.

Lastly, you should've parked in the Soak City parking lot where it's a lot harder to get lost finding your car!! Plus, entering CP at the beginning of the day at the front of the park is seriously a pain so if you enter at Magnum you're already in the heart of CP! But you've already learned a lot from your first visit! Good TR and I'll post more later.

Walt said:
Don't worry. Not knowing is a good thing. It means you're not a nerd. :)

Sounds like you had a fantastic trip.

Thank you... :)

It sounds like you had a great trip! It was fun reading a new CP goers take on the park! I was looking at the photos and I think you may have rode next to me on Skyhawk on Wednesday. :-)

FloridaGirl did you check out any of the other things in the area? I think you asked about Put-in-Bay and the Ghostly Manor, unless I'm imagining things? But if you did go how was it?

Josh M. said:
Great Trip Report. I really enjoy reading reports from people who have never been to the park before. It really gives some of us nerds... i mean regulars... some perspective as to what a new guest sees when they enter the park.

I am sad you didn't enjoy Maverick more, but I have heard your complaints before. It seems people either really enjoy it, or don't like it at all. You are not alone with your criticisms.

CP really is a great park for as much grief as we give it sometimes. I went to Six Flags Great America for the first time yesterday, and other than trying out some new coasters, I would have much rather spent the day at CP.

Aw, I'm glad you liked it. :)

When I was reading this forum before the trip I kind of wished there were more trip reports from first-timers... it would've given me a better feeling of what to expect than the regular's trip reports....

As for Maverick, I got the feeling I was missing something... but it's good to know other people have similar issues.

Yeah, I would think most amusement parks would be somewhat of a disappointment after being a CP regular... You guys are so lucky to live so near it! I imagine you'd get tired of it after a while though...

pointperson said:
It sounds like you had a great trip! It was fun reading a new CP goers take on the park! I was looking at the photos and I think you may have rode next to me on Skyhawk on Wednesday. :-)

FloridaGirl did you check out any of the other things in the area? I think you asked about Put-in-Bay and the Ghostly Manor, unless I'm imagining things? But if you did go how was it?

That's awesome :) Thanks for reading, I'm glad you enjoyed it. BTW also thanks for all your advice, I really appreciated it ... (definitely helped sway me to go on that Wednesday as I recall)

Anyway, we never made it to Put-in-Bay... I hate to admit it but we didn't want to bother riding a ferry, also we were pretty tired and slow-moving after two full days in the park. Maybe next trip if we stay longer.

We actually did go to Ghostly Manor as it was directly across the street from our hotel... It was a good experience, worth about what we paid for it, but not something I'd do again. It was pretty much just like the haunted house stuff they do at theme parks (at least the ones around here), except we were the only people there instead of being herded through a line, which was a unique experience. The guy that was running it was very nice as well. But I most likely wouldn't go back.

You're welcome :-)

Wednesday was a beautiful day other than the heat. I think Thursday had some pretty bad storms up in Sandusky so Wednesday was the better day.

I might try Ghostly Manor one day. The thing is that I live in the Cleveland Area and just make day trips to CP/Sandusky so I really don't have time for anything other than CP (open to close). I think I will try it out when we stay at Kalahari this winter???

Hope you visit CP again next year!

tigellinus said:
I read through your TR, and I want to hear about Day 3! Did you go on Skyscraper?

It's too bad I missed that thread of yours in May (very busy with work and travel that month!) where you were asking for advice, b/c I definitely think I could've improved things!

It's also too bad you couldn't get Early Entry for CP (as a non-pass holder, you should've stay at Breakers Express!!), since usually I start my CP day going to Maverick for EE and then re-ride Maverick until the line gets long or, if the park is not busy, I've ridden enough. Usually from 9 am to 11:30-ish I can easily get in 4 or 5 Maverick rides on your average, moderate crowds day.

I definitely have a good riding technique for Maverick too that should make it ride better...but more than anything I just think riding it a few times makes you more used to it, which would help a lot!

I'm also with you on Skyhawk...I love it! I could seriously re-ride for hours, but after a few times I sort of feel the crew has seen enough of me so I stop.

Lastly, you should've parked in the Soak City parking lot where it's a lot harder to get lost finding your car!! Plus, entering CP at the beginning of the day at the front of the park is seriously a pain so if you enter at Magnum you're already in the heart of CP! But you've already learned a lot from your first visit! Good TR and I'll post more later.

Alrighty then, I will write up something about Day 3....

I really didn't want to stay at a CP hotel because I figured it would be really expensive, although I admit I didn't look into it. I think we paid around $60-70 a night for where we stayed (decent price, decent hotel). It would've been nice to cut down the line for Maverick but I won't cry over it. I'll ride it again next time I visit... maybe get some techniques first. I was pretty disappointed in it, but there's still plenty of other things that I liked about CP.

I did hear about parking in the Soak City lot but I thought it would be too confusing... when we went to Challenge Park I saw that it wasn't so bad, but I'm not sorry we used the main entrance. Really, I didn't mind playing tourist for once, next time I'll do things differently though.

And if you don't mind I'd probably like to have a chat with you before my next trip, since I really appreciate your advice...(and the random comments about other amusement parks... :) )

Glad you enjoyed skyhawk, we do our best to make you guests happy and keep coming back!!

Fantastic trip report!

TTD's queue is pretty awful in terms of exposure to the elements. I think that is partly why I tend to avoid the ride on most visits. I also dig how your group liked Wicked Twister since I feel it is one of the unsung heroes of the park (both with its location and the ride experience itself). If you come up to CP again, you should also check out the Starlight Experience on the Frontier Trail; simply beautiful at night. Once again, great TR!

CJ said:
Glad you enjoyed skyhawk, we do our best to make you guests happy and keep coming back!!

Except when only one side is operating! j/k and hopefully you don't mind people trying to get a seat on the "good side" either! ;)

arw84 said:
Fantastic trip report!

TTD's queue is pretty awful in terms of exposure to the elements. I think that is partly why I tend to avoid the ride on most visits. I also dig how your group liked Wicked Twister since I feel it is one of the unsung heroes of the park (both with its location and the ride experience itself). If you come up to CP again, you should also check out the Starlight Experience on the Frontier Trail; simply beautiful at night. Once again, great TR!

Thanks so much!! that makes me happy :) And I'm glad someone else noticed how awful that queue is... If I hadn't loved the ride so much there's no way I would've stood in that line. WT is definitely sweet as well, we were kind of amazed how it's right on the beach. I'm sorry we never did the Starlight Experience... although I feel like the sun never sets in Ohio anyhow! (I know it's like that up north though) We were always too tired to walk back by the end of the day when it finally set... but next time I will definitely check it out :)

FloridaGirl said:
Alrighty then, I will write up something about Day 3....

I really didn't want to stay at a CP hotel because I figured it would be really expensive, although I admit I didn't look into it. I think we paid around $60-70 a night for where we stayed (decent price, decent hotel). It would've been nice to cut down the line for Maverick but I won't cry over it. I'll ride it again next time I visit... maybe get some techniques first. I was pretty disappointed in it, but there's still plenty of other things that I liked about CP.

I did hear about parking in the Soak City lot but I thought it would be too confusing... when we went to Challenge Park I saw that it wasn't so bad, but I'm not sorry we used the main entrance. Really, I didn't mind playing tourist for once, next time I'll do things differently though.

And if you don't mind I'd probably like to have a chat with you before my next trip, since I really appreciate your advice...(and the random comments about other amusement parks... :) )

Definitely! However, going as a "tourist" is a good way to see the park, especially for a first time visit. I know most people I go with want to take a leisurely approach, while I try to minimize waits and maximize riding...standing in the queue has never seemed "part of the fun" to me. Of course, I do like some sun in the queue since it's the main place I can really get a tan!

But I mentioned Breakers Express mainly since there was a group of you, so the rate can be divided up even more. My sister lives near Sandusky so I usually don't stay at hotels for CP, but when I do (i.e. Coastermania) I usually stay there since it's not a whole lot more than the other places around.

It's funny what you said about MF since for a long time I felt the same way, but then last year I started riding it more and started riding with the lapbar very high up (i.e. loose, but that's not the way it is) and the seatbelt loose and once I did that I started getting really good floating on the 2 hills and bunny hop! It wasn't ejector air by any means (except for the first drop), but it was solid and made me like MF a lot more! (still doesn't compare to the other Intamin Superman's that have the ejector air!)

Also, your comment about Montu was definitely on, but Raptor is sort of old so it's hard to compare and at least it's not the Batman trainwreck at the SF parks...way too much G forces on those for me.

But you pretty much were right on about all your observations...well, maybe except Mantis, but I think being a tall guy is my hindrance. I'm really glad overall your trip seemed to work out and go very well!! CP is probably the best park (for thrills) out there, so it's probably all down hill from here though.

Oh yeah, of course CP is going to be clean when there's a billion trash cans you run over every 5 feet! ;)

^^ I totally agree with you on the queue thing, but when it's a park I know well. I don't find much enjoyment standing in line, I'd rather get as many rides in as I can... Are you the one leading your group around and pushing them to go faster? (because I'll do that sometimes, haha) But it does make a difference when you have more than one day. Less pressure to do everything at once...

I think I somewhat prefer the floating airtime... without it Millennium isn't really anything special IMO, but with it is a great ride. For me I think it was a difference of not holding on to the lapbar. I'm looking forward to someday trying the Superman ride (is there more than one? I thought it was just the one in NE).

You mean you don't like the baby Batmans? (I call them that because they seem so much smaller/shorter to me). Haha, they are a little intense, not masterpieces but I don't dislike them.

Thanks, it was a good trip. And I would hope not every other theme park will be downhill, but it depends what you're looking for. If I didn't throw it into my trip report (I meant to), I did think that CP needs more inside rides. Especially in the damn heat, but even otherwise. That was an experience that I definitely felt was missing from this park. It's something I like even if the ride isn't necessarily thrilling (and even better if it is).

Oh, and since you asked earlier about our experience at Challenge Park, I'll mention it now. We did the skycoaster and Skyscraper. It was my first time riding a skycoaster (I figured it was as good a chance as any). I liked it... not sure that it's worth $15 however, but it was an experience. Actually, it's funny because that was the first time I screamed on anything, after two full days at the park. It's slightly terrifying, expecially the freefall. Also we thought it was too short. Overall I'd do it again, if someone else wanted to.... Otherwise I'm not sure I'd push to do it, mostly since it's not free.

Skyscraper however was amazing (I'll glad we didn't miss that one). So they strapped us in and said don't touch anything red, and I figured no big deal... until we started going up and I realized I desperately wanted to grab onto something and then I started freaking out. Haha! I actually went all the way through the first cycle before I let go of the straps, which kinda sucked because I realize now that you have to have your hands out to really flip over much. When I started to do it I realized just how awesome this ride is. I love how it moves pretty slowly, and the sensations are amazing. I would absolutely love to try this again since I wouldn't be scared and it would be an even better experience. TOTALLY worth the price too.

Glad you had a great time. :) Cute pics too! I love when people post pictures to go alone with their trip report. It's funny, because I took the exact same picture of Millenium Force. For your second ride on Magnum, did you ride in the middle?

Jesz said:
Glad you had a great time. :) Cute pics too! I love when people post pictures to go alone with their trip report. It's funny, because I took the exact same picture of Millenium Force. For your second ride on Magnum, did you ride in the middle?

Aw, thanks... I'm glad you like the pictures (and it is a very neat picture to take of MF...) And yes, I did make sure we got the middle on our second Magnum ride, thanks for the tip :) . It was a much better ride the second time, definitely one of my favorites....

Since you're from Florida you should check out the 300 ft. Skycoaster in Kissimmee sometime. It's pretty expensive (unless you're a site controller, then it's free :)) but take the free fall sensation you get on Ripcord and multiply it by 10, and that's what the 300 foot one is like.

Glad you liked Skyscraper. If you get to try it again, next time try putting your legs straight out in front of you in addition to putting your arms up if you're looking for some good flippage. ;)