Holy crap was that crowded!

Touchdown said:
Sorry, if they are going to extend the season it needs to be on the front end (April) not the back end. While in October, you have a slight risk of <50 highs, <30 lows and snow, Nov/Dec you are nearly guaranteed it. Ive done CP once when it was high of 42, low of 15 and have no desire to experience that again, and I'm an enthusiast.

I love the cool temps of Nov/Dec and would enjoy a coaster ride then as much as I did last year in October when it snowed.

Hey Touchdown, that's OK that you don't like the cold, that's fine. But many either don't care are not bothered. Why do so many flock to the freezing ski slopes to slide down a hill as fast as Gemini in the freezing cold and go right back up the lift for more. Then again, many ski slopes are not doing so well with these warmer winters we have been having lately.

It's a mute point anyhow, 'cause nothing is going to change soon until global warming puts fall until xmas. Then CP will have a winterfest as fun and popular as halloweekends. :)

^I do like the cold temps by the way (Im from Wisconsin, I know cold) just not on the shore of a Great Lake riding roller coasters. Skiing is also an incorrect analogy, because unlike roller coasters skiing is an active event where you are exerting yourself which means you are creating heat (muscle movement.) The closest analogy I can think of is snowmobiling, but you dont go 120 mph in a snowmobile and said snowmobile also creates a whole lot of heat to keep you warm so it doesnt really work either.

Im also 99% sure that Im in the majority here and you the minority. Besides that its also not just the patrons that will suffer, there are the employees (who will need an entirely different wardrobe) and the rides. The grease so essential to proper ride operations is designed and chosen to run optimally during the summer, you'll have to worry about freezing, roll backs and all around more friction trying to get those things running in the cold.

Now that you mention the wheels, grease, etc.; I'm wondering if the graph-coat we use on the wooden coasters as wheel/track lubricant would have a tendency to freeze upon application to the track? I know that without ample graph-coat on our track (Blue Streak) the trains are extremely prone to valley pre-lift (yes, it can, and has, happened, on several occasions). Not to mention the awful noise that will make your ears feel like they're about to start bleeding (don't believe me, sit in controls a mere 2-3 feet away from the train rolling past making a sound far worse and far louder than scratching a chalk board). For those that don't know what I'm talking about when I mention graph-coat, I am talking about what is basically a liquid graphite mixture that is put onto the tracks to act as a lubricant. I can imagine frozen, or slushy graph-coat causing quite a few problems.

When we pulled up around 3PM they were parking people in the grass next to the Causeway toll booths. It was insane.

I wish they would bring the Freeway system back, if only for times with capacity crowds, then at least there'd be 2 good rides without all the waiting.

Not really. The problem is that with capacity crowds you might be lucky to get one stamp before they all run out for the day. There is very very little chance of being able to make it to two freeway stands before they run out.

I remember seeing lines 100 people long at some of the freeway stands. You had to wait in a line to be able to skip another line.

It almost became a self defeating system, and the park did not profit from it. It was basically a luxury they were paying to staff, but "pleased" so few people it was not even noticed.

And then there was all the complaints from those who were not able to get stamps or did not know about the program.

Anyway, that is best left to a thread from 2 years ago.

Back to the Current topic.

I truly hope that a lot of the people who planned on visiting in October did so already. It would be nice to have BooBuzz be slightly less busy then this.

I was at CP last year 1 week earlier and it was 70 for the highs and 55 at night. It was perfect and the max time we waited in line was for TTD 45 mins. Forgetting that us Canadians here were having our Thanksgiving the weekend of the 7th and 8th i figured it was a good weekend to go but i also forgot it was Columbus Day in the States. That combined with the smokin hot weather of almost 90 and humidity ontop of that made for some long waits in line. Average time for the big big rides was over 1 1/2 hours. We waited 2 hours and 20 mins for Maverick on the saturday night. I loved every minute of it waiting or not CP is still the best... now im waiting on next year when Canada's Wonderland near Toronto Ontario gets its new coaster BEHEMUTH ...oh and this park is now owned by Cedar Fairs so get your seasons plat pass and come see us up here next year.

I just don't understand why some people have a good time when the park is almost filled to capacity.......

I don't understand why people have a good time consuming alcohol.

Miss_Maverick07 said:
I just don't understand why some people have a good time when the park is almost filled to capacity.......

Because there are a lot of other things to do than ride the rides. When the park is crowded, I hardly ever wait in a line for anything interesting, because the only interesting things that have lines are the rides. All of the other interesting things people don't seem to care about, which is fine with me. I love sitting in Town Hall looking at the pictures of Cedar Point from years past and imagining what it may have been like. I think I spend more time looking over the lists of the big bands that played in the Coliseum and the picture of the ballroom than I do in lines for rides on busy days.

It must be nice to go to CP so much that riding rides becomes secondary when the lines are really long... *sigh*

Miss_Maverick07 said:
I just don't understand why some people have a good time when the park is almost filled to capacity.......

Its easy, you choose not to wait in long lines :). I only waited in one 2+ hour line for Maverick, bu I still got to experience TTD, and two haunted houses (ie things that had a 2+ hour line most of the day.) I did this by being at the park before opening, and entering at the Magnum Entrance (TTD) and watching my clock and prequeuing 10 mins before 3 at Vampire (second group through the house,) and then going directly to Pharaoh's Secret (30 min wait.) In addition I rode the Train, Gemini twice, Tilt a Whirl, Calypso, Cedar Downs, Frontier Cars, Troika, Magnum twice, Blue Streak, Fright Zone twice, Fear Faire, and CarnEvil. That would be 19 attractions I did which is pretty darn fantastic if you ask me.

Was it unfortunate that I had to skip Raptor, and MF: yes, but my party choose to do Cedar Downs, Fright Zone again, Calypso, Blue Streak, Gemini (again) and Magnum (twice) during our last 4 hours in the park instead of those two rides. Thats how you have fun, keep riding, CP has plenty of rides that are fun not named MF, TTD, Maverick and Raptor. I mean those rides are great, but if I spent all day waiting in long rides for those attractions I would feel cheated out of a day at CP and grumpy, however I have no problem on crowded days not riding all of those rides because I know that Ill be back next year (yup thats right that Sat was my last visit.)

Dvo said:
It must be nice to go to CP so much that riding rides becomes secondary when the lines are really long... *sigh*

It is nice. That's something I've come to appreciate this year with a season pass.

Having a season pass is one of my best decisions I made this year. I used to go to the park 2 or 3 times a year and rush rush rush during every trip to ride as much as I could. This year I can go whenever I have a day off and feel like going. I've enjoyed so much more at the park that I wouldn't even consider a couple of years ago.

Touchdown said:
The closest analogy I can think of is snowmobiling, but you dont go 120 mph in a snowmobile
Now who said you can't go 120 mph on a snowmobile?.lol.

Well they were parking cars in the grass and along the side of Blue Streak last Saturday Oct 20, 2007. Soak City lot was almost full. That's where I parked at about 4pm. Overflow lot was full. Camper Village, LHP were full. (The swimming pools were open). Sandcastle Suites parking lot was almost full. There was a line of cars backed up on the Chausee at about 9pm. Lots of horns blowing like NYC. I took some video of the crowds, lines and lots I'll put up later for those who wonder what a crowd that size looks like as well as the view by the cars parked in the grass behind the toll booths. Let's put it this way, Corkscrew had a 1 hour wait and full line queue ; ) TTD's line was back outside its lauch. Maverick's was back past the Guessing Game. *** Edited 10/23/2007 1:17:13 AM UTC by HalloWeekends!***

I was going to meet some friends from out of state on Saturday evening- took one look at the webcam on Sat afternoon, called my friends and said "have a good time". I did go on Sunday, with a friend who was a first timer, and it was much busier than I expected. The lines for the big stuff were 1 1/2 to 2 hours, the shortest being Magnum at 30-45. But we got 10 rides in between noon and about 6:30 or so, and my friend had a blast.

I'm with Heather about the season pass. I've been to CP probably 20 times this season, and Sunday was the most crowded day I've had to endure. I'm so lucky (spoiled) to be able to plan my days off and vacation time around the days that CP will be least busy. I've had friends say to me "hey, you've got a season pass- we're going to CP on Saturday, wanna come along?" And I usually say "ummmm... no thanks...I prefer to go on less busy days" !

Spoiled, I say.

You all say there is so much more to do at Cedar Point, but really there isn't. Yes, there are some things, but this is an amusement park, not a theme park. You want a lot of stuff to do other than rides head down south to Florida..

Cedar Point is mostly rides.. and I love it for that. I'm not about shows, parades, ect. I'll save all of that for when my back aches.

This probably isn't directly related to this discussion thread, but I didn't feel it warranted a new topic; it does touch on the folks in this thread who have wondered about November weekends.

Looking at the "2008 Auditions" section of the Cedar Point web site, I see the following under "Show Dates" (http://www.cedarpoint.com/public/jobs/applying/auditions/dates.cfm):

Bonus Weekends and Halloweekends ®

* Red Garter Saloon
Opens September 5 and runs through November 2
* Camp Snoopy Theatre
Opens September 6 and runs through November 2

Now, I haven't done the calendar math to see whether or not it is still just "7 weekends" next year, but I do know that Halloween is on Friday, October 31 in 2008.

Hmm...could it be???!!!

Actually next year is a very weird year calendar wise. Labor day is the earliest it could be (Mon Sept. 1st) and Halloween falls on a Friday (and thanks to the link provided CP looks to be staying open that weekend.) Therefore there are 9 weekends post labor day the park will be open, weither this means 8 Halloweekends and only one Bonus Weekend, or 7 Halloweekends and the traditional 2 Bonus Weekends is anybody's guess.

7 weekends still went by way too fast this year, I say bring on the 8th. I've always wanted to be working in the Fright Zone on Halloween. I can't think of anything more fitting.