How was your ride?

Coming late to the party, but here's my take from Saturday's opening as part of a family of Platinum Passholders. This will include a "review" of the time leading up to our ride.

Arrived at the part at about 8:20 to find a line of fellow passholders out into the parking lot so we added ourselves to the back of the line. 8:30 arrives and suddenly the line explodes into chaos since no one seemed to be in charge of keeping things orderly. Not a good start; strike 1. Took us until about 8:50 to actually get past the gates while staff allowed daily ticket holders in along with the passholders; strike 2. Found the end of the line that now wound from the entry to Gatekeeper along the games, up the midway past (and around) the carousel back down past Raptor. Fireworks at 9:00 to announce the opening and the line began to move as they opened the queues. Wound around the midway down to the ride for the next 30 minutes or so and found the Fastlane Plus line had already formed... funny... thought only Plat holders were allowed into the park before 10:00. Wound through the queues and found ourselves suddenly behind those who were willing to shell out for Fastlane, even though we had an hour head start on them. Strike 3. Stuck it out for a total of 2 3/4 hours only to have my wife forced off the ride because the safety harness wouldn't secure... no mention of "big boy" seats, just "sorry, you can't ride." I was already locked into a seat with my daughter so couldn't protest for her. Strike 4.

The ride itself was fun, though I was somewhat distracted by the fact that my wife (and subsequently 9 year old son who wouldn't ride without her next to him) wasted nearly 3 hours waiting on the ride that she, ultimately, didn't get to go on. Yes, we should have checked the sample seat, but when doing so means getting out of a line that's rapidly chugging into the queues... the thought doesn't necessarily cross your mind. I do think that the employee working her row was too eager to say no, though. According to her, she had barely gotten herself into the seat (she's 5' 2" and had to jump into the seat) and was in a slightly awkward position when the harness was lowered and the employee made no effort to see if she could be accommodated, probably for the sake of moving the line faster. We saw larger people who rode, so it's either a quirk of her body shape, lack of proper positioning or the lack of offering up the big boy seats that was the difference.

Overall, I felt the whole opening was mishandled and that greatly diminished our enjoyment of the ride. We'll try it again on a day with less chaos and see if we can make it work for all of us.

Not just PP holder's in an hour early. Also, resort guests.

In retrospect we should have bypassed the front gates and entered through the marina gate, that would have at least eliminated the free-for-all that ensued when the gates opened.

I'm sorry to hear about that. Hopefully your wife will get to ride the ride on another trip to the park when it's not quite so busy.

We rode 20x on Media Day and 2x yesterday. We experienced the same things that others here have complained about with the vest restraints. Anything from snug and OK to painfully tight on the collar bone as well as the sense that I can't take a normal breath due to how tight they are. This isn't a horrible pain, more like a mild torture routine and the longer you are stuck on the block the worse it becomes. We got stuck on the block brakes for 10-15 minutes 2x and I thought that I was going to lose my mind if they didn't let me out of that thing. Everyone else I know and several that I spoke with on media day had the same experience with the vests.

Yesterday I leaned forward while in the station and when the train moved and the vest locked, I kept my hands in the space I created so when the train finally stopped I had some wiggle room between my shoulder and the vest. Why don't they just unlock them when you return to the block break so you don't have to sit pinned down and often in pain? Or like Pete suggested earlier, have it lock in place and allow wiggle room throughout the ride. There is no way I would be able to fall out even with space between me and the vest.

I do love the ride and enjoyed all 22 of my rides except for the restraint vests. I would give it an 8.5/10 and a 9.5/10 if they fix the pain in the restraint system. You should not have to figure out how to ride a ride without being in pain, this should be fixed.

ah man, is this the first time that has happened?

I joined the mess on opening day. I anticipated a busy day so I bit the bullet and bought a fast lane plus. That said I didn't have to wait the 3+ hours a lot of people did to ride Gatekeeper. I'm shocked to say, it was money well spent, as I would have been even more disappointed if I had to wait 3+ hours to ride that ride. I was first in right side 5 row on the inside...it is like getting an inside seat on Raptor or Mantis, looking at the back of a train car (whoo-hoo...boring). Wasn't impressed, moved on to Magnum/Millenium/Dragster. Wandered back to Gatekeeper (tried to get that extra $15 worth of the pass), 2nd row, outside seat....I had a view, but it was still boring. The first 2 rows give you a view of the key holes, etc, but the front of train chug sensation was way to noticeable, slowing...then a push. Getting a bit of a view of the keyholes, but knowing there is plenty of clearance gave no excitement...maybe if it was faster. So after a second disappointing ride, I went over the Mean Streak(which gave a great ride)/Gemini/Magnum a few more times. Then for the third ride of Gatekeeper (as the fast lane line was short)...second row, left side, inside seat...yup, still boring. I followed that with Blue Streak. How can a 49 year old wooden coaster provide a bigger thrill than a shiny, new, high tech coaster? Perhaps, Blue Streak can still provide you with a sense of danger...a sense (if you keep your seat belt loose enough and you lap bar high enough) that you will fall out. I love airtime, Cedar Point needs another good coaster with NO inversions. Stop flipping people and using horrible shoulder restraints (Maverick's suck, and Gatekeeper's squeezes you during the ride).

Yep, first time either of us hasn't been able to ride something... I got to experience it at Wicked Twister when another employee made half-hearted effort to lock me in. Thought I was going to have the same issue on Mantis, but I got a seasoned employee who knew how to get me in. And, I was smart enough to double-check MF's sample seat... no go with that seatbelt. Sigh. Time to dump some of this "stress weight" I've put on over the past year or two.

I was getting close to not fitting on MF and WT last fall. Lost 20 lbs since January and now have 2 more inches of slack on the MF belt, wahoo! Count your calories like you do your budget and take an hour long brisk walk and the pounds will start to melt and you'll be ridin Millie before long. Good luck!

I went for a few hours after school today for my first time of the year (love the Platinum Pass).

It was about 6:30 when I saw that the ride was finally back up since wind had it going up and down all day. The park closed in about an hour and a half, and the line was every bit of that and I wanted to beat traffic.

Then I saw this Plinko game near the line that people had been failing at for a long time. Two of the things were an instant front of the line, so I had to take a shot.

Nailed it on my second try. Bypassed the huge line. It was hilarious waving at everyone below while I was walking up the exit.

Of course, as soon as I got up there, wind shut the ride down for another ten minutes, but then I finally got to ride.

First off, I didn't experience this vest problem like many of you are complaining about, but I also did try to combat it from happening at the start since I had read about it on here.

The ride was pretty good, and I absolutely LOVED the first drop and the keyholes. Very smooth, but when you come back around and hit that set of brakes about a little more than halfway through, the ride is pretty much over.

You really do get up pretty high as well, pretty sure it's only about thirty feet shorter than Magnum.

However, I don't really think I can ever envision myself waiting two and a half hours on a busy day for it like I would for Maverick or Millennium. It's a very, very good ride, but I think it falls just a bit short at taking that top spot from Millennium.

Still though... not a bad addition to our already legendary coaster lineup. Can't wait to actually get a full day out at the park.

As good as it would be to lock the vests and not in place, I do not think it is a safe idea.
Yes, I am sure the chances of this happening are slim, but on the second pass over the main gate you tend to stay upside down and actually feel yourself start dropping toward the ground (one of my favorite parts of the ride by the way). Yes I could never see this happening but I am sure it is not a risk anyone would want to take.

On a side note, Tony does not seem to have posted in a while, I wonder if he is reading any of our comments?

Now that the park is open, I assume The PointGuru is training Tony to do "light maintenance."

I have to chime in about the harness. I only found it starting to get uncomfortable after multiple rides. Really no different than Wicked Twister after several rides. Mostly on my shoulders. Would that keep me from marathoning? Nope. (is that even a word)?
My favorite parts of the ride are obviously, the first loop, and the 2nd pass by the keyholes. I loved the -almost slow motion- feeling of passing over the gate.

Gatekeeper2013 said:
On a side note, Tony does not seem to have posted in a while, I wonder if he is reading any of our comments?

http://imgur.com/3mqg6sI

I love the new look of the front gate and the entry plaza. The ride on the other hand was really just okay for me. It was very smooth and the first drop was great but after that it sort of left me wanting more.

I haven't heard this complaint from anyone else but there were a few employees working Gatekeeper that were very rude. First at the bottom of the stairs there was an employee choosing which side you were going to go on for you. When I asked if my girlfriend and I could go to the left because we had already ridden on the right, she said no and gave me no reason and just kept her hand pointing to the right. Then at the top of the stairs I kindly asked if we could sit in the front row and the lady looked at me as if I was crazy and said "No, that wait is too long, you have to sit in row three." Now I would understand this had there not been a line for the front row on the left side of the station that they were allowing to go down the stairs under the station. Whereas there were only about 10 people in line for the front on the right. The line for the ride at this time was only about an hour.

Captain Hawkeye, wish I'd thought of that.

+5

^^Is this true? Anyone else have the experience of not being able to pick left or right? That will be a bummer if this really is a statement of fact. I'll finally get my rides in over the next two days and I'm hoping to be able to experience the side of my choice.

No. They were making sure that 1) the line kept moving, and 2) each side was balanced; in other words, roughly equal amounts of guests on each side. They wouldn't just pick a side for you with no reason.

The front seat issue is nothing new. For instance, on Raptor there is an expectation that if the front seat queue is full, please choose another option...it's the same here, I would think mainly for keeping the station not clogged and overly messy.

I for one applaud the perceived strictness. I wish someone would regulate Magnum one of these seasons.

"No," you didn't have that experience, or "no," they didn't allow you to pick your side?

The front seat I understand. You can't have a whole station full of people waiting for it.

They allowed us to pick whatever side we wanted each time we rode.

I think we all need to bear in mind that this is week 2 of this ride being functional. There is gong to be some kinks, some disparity in experiences, etc...all in all, I was very impressed with how fluid everything seemed so early on in the life of the ride. Whoever was responsible for prepping the team did an excellent job.