I know it's late, but, Opening day 2009

I know this is extremely late, but I just joined this site so don't hate!

19 at the time, I had always seen these shows in travel channel about Cedar Point and always wanted to go as I love coasters. A friend of mine, who has been to CP a few times, told me a few weeks before opening day that he was trying to plan an opening day trip. I jumped at the opportunity, got off work, and started packing. As the day came around to leave, my friend Drew(experienced CP vet.), other friend Paul(also first timer), and myself set out on the dreadful 11.5 hour drive from Atlanta. The entire drive, Drew talked about how sweet TTD is, and about how he would love to get a rollback. We had seen videos and were also equally excited.
We arrived later that day, staying at the fairfield inn in sandusky about 15min away from the park. Unfortunately, weather was a bit of an issue and was making us nervous as we had just drove 11 hours and the thought of the park's rides being shut down made us all sick.
We woke up the next day at the ass crack of dawn, got to the ticket window and were the first ones there, and were the first ones in line at the gate. We soon learned that being the first ones at the gate if you just buy a one day day pass (not from a resort) does not get you in an hour early. As the gates opened at 9, we ran fast making a break for MF, but were then quickly stopped by the dreaded blue barricades stopping us from going further. We were very angry as we saw many hundreds of people(including the guy who sings in line at MF HA) running by us with excitement for the rides. After an hour later, we were then able to get in a brief line for MF. We waited for front row, as the clouds continued to build up and the ride was beyond amazing. We then continued to hit a few other rides while they were testing TTD. Around noon, we decided to get in the line for TTD outside of the main ques for it, and about 20 minutes later they started letting riders in the main que. Because of the high winds we assumed and possibly other factors, they wer only letting 4-6 riders at a time on the first 3 rows of the trains. As we were waiting and watching the ride launch riders 420 feet high, about 90% of the trains were getting rollbacks. We found this unbelievable as we had been talking about this the entire way up here. We thought it was too good to be true. We then decided that we would wait in line for TTD at the thought of possible getting multiple launches.
As we anxiously waited, more and more people in front of us began growing impatient and leaving the line, and the ride was still producing rollback after rollback. About 2 hours in to waiting, almost half way to the station, it began to rain. hard. barely under cover and listening to some stupid bad songs on repeat. After the rain subsided and more people continued to leave, the ride began to launch people into more rollbacks. The ride would then get shut down for maintenance, more people would leave, rain, people leave ect for the next couple of hours. The guy standing behind us that we started talking to actually lived 10min away from CP and had a season pass but he had never gotten a rollback in his 5 years of riding so he decided to wait it out with us. Our persistence would soon pay off though. As we were next in line for front row, my friends Drew and Paul went before me. They got 3ROLLBACKS><><>< as did our friend behind us. As I sat down on front row, hoping to get at least one, it was achieved. I got 2 rollbacks and 3 launches making it completely worth the 11.5 hour drive, and the 8 hour wait.
After leaving the dragster, we got some much needed food, took an also much needed bathroom break, and then headed for the other rides we didnt get to ride yet with only 2 hours left before the park closed. We managed to ride gemini, raptor, and mean streak.. unfortunately not Maverick or MF again like we wanted =(..
We slept good that night, got up and enjoyed our free continental breakfast at the hotel, then begin our drive back to Atlanta. With a stop at a white castle in Cincinnati haha. It was defiantly one of the more memorable trips of my life and had some real fun. I will be going back with Paul and one other person this year for opening day weekend, and we will be staying the entire weekend.

Thanks for reading, i know it wasnt anything special, but a brief story of my trip there. See you all there opening day 2010 May 15th!

Cheers,
Mike

It also good to know that being on the first few trains out for the day helps to heighten your chance for a rollback.;) I'll be at the front of the line this year hoping to get first train out.....that is if a certain someone (who I dislike greatly) isn't there opening day. I'm really hoping he doesn't show up......cause that would make for a WONDERFUL opening day!!!

Glad to hear you guys powered through the bad weather, downtime and low capacity last year on opening day to get on Dragster. I was there from 9:00 till 11:45 before they even let us in. Then we went down as we we're about to launch so it wasnt till around 12 before we launched and got off. Thankfully it ended up in a rollback.:) And very glad to hear you got the rollbacks you were all hoping for. I'll be among the first at Dragster sat morning so if you want to say hi, you know where I'll be. :D

Yeah I think we'll be at the front of the line as well. I'll be wearing my 'Nothing too fancy' T shirt so if you see me say hello =)

Adam, if who you are referring to is going to be there, then I as well will be upset, but you cant avoid the devoted.

I will see you both at the Dragster line in the morning May 15th.

Who are you guys talking about? lol seems like some serious hatred haha..

http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/hs234.snc1/8120_1423687...5121_n.jpg

Man in the orange in the far bottom right. He wears that same shirt every day....which is apparently never washed since he's at the park almost EVERY day and always smells of garbage. Trust me, you can't miss him. He'll be the one acting like he works at the park and acting like he's popular. :)

And you're right about that coastmani. The only thing I can see preventing him from going would be something concerning his wife's condition. Apparently she has a bad form of cancer (not sure what kind....but it's the bad kind) and from what he told us (vaguely) she's in a very unstable condition. I'm not saying I "wish" something does happen or did. I just feel he should be spending his time more with the person he might not be with much longer than going to a park and acting like a complete ***hole.

Maybe he should ride STR and bring a bar of soap.

Wow he just looks like a dirtbag..maybe on opening day his shirt will be clean? ha I hope he isnt there either..

Can we start calling him "Deuce?" It'll be a nice play on Single Rider 2.. and his um... how do I say this.. aromatic qualities? :)

lmao deuce it is..

YES! From hence forth, he shall be dubbed "DEUCE"! Even Deuce Rider works. ;)

TTD 120mph said:
http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/hs234.snc1/8120_1423687...5121_n.jpg

Man in the orange in the far bottom right. He wears that same shirt every day....which is apparently never washed since he's at the park almost EVERY day and always smells of garbage. Trust me, you can't miss him. He'll be the one acting like he works at the park and acting like he's popular. :)

And you're right about that coastmani. The only thing I can see preventing him from going would be something concerning his wife's condition. Apparently she has a bad form of cancer (not sure what kind....but it's the bad kind) and from what he told us (vaguely) she's in a very unstable condition. I'm not saying I "wish" something does happen or did. I just feel he should be spending his time more with the person he might not be with much longer than going to a park and acting like a complete ***hole.

That's propbably the reason he's acting like he is apparently. He is most likely stressed out knowing what condition his wife is in. I'm not sure if I would want to make fun of someone who's wife is terminally ill. Then again, I never met the dude.

I would never make fun of him pertaining to his wife. If anything, I dont care for him because of how arrogent, obnoxious, and how much of an arsehole he is. The first time I found out about his wifes condition, was when he actually said "Yea, her doctor said she might make it to her next checkup. So I'm gonna take her to the zoo, then to her check up and then Im going to the point."

Yeah I understand how some people are just like that. Like I said, I've never really met him, though I might of saw him at CoasterMania last year at lunch.

I wouldn't have a problem with him if he wasn't such an arsehole. He rudely pushes people out of the way (including me a few times) to grab a single seat. He sits in the test seat all the time when he shouldn't be then acts like he's authorized to help people test the seatbelt and measure a child's height and interrupt a ride op mid sentence regarding why Dragster isn't open at 9:00. I can't tell how many times I've seen the ride op that would be at the entrance get the most peeved off look due to this man. So try to avoid talking to him cause it can only end bad and just fuel his "ego".

Him making up complete nonsense about the ride to a group of general public to get them to like him is one thing, but pushing a kid to the station floor and never saying "Excuse me" to people in line so he can get to a single seat is what burns my biscuits.

There's is no excuse for why he does what he does except perhaps a mental disability. And while it's truly unfortunate about his wife, I feel more sorry for her. I mean he's gone most, if not all, of the time. Which I dont understand why he can't just skip a day or week from the park and spend time with her seeing that she might not live much longer. That's a bit selfish if you ask me.

::sigh:: All I know is if he dares to continue what he's doing and pushes me again when I'm already making my way to take a single seat (having already been first in the station AND already have acknowledgment by the ride op that called for a single rider), I'm going to report him to upper management. And I WILL have people to back me up to confirm his behavior. I have no sympathy for this man.....only his wife.

Wow, did he really push a kid to the station floor? If he ever pushed me to the floor he would apologize and that's a guarentee!(Not intended to be a threat.)

Well he pushed this guy who had a younger kid in front of him I should say. But when he runs from the exit to the entrance, you better watch out cause he has 0 regard for other people on the midway.

Thanks for the advice, I will be sure to look out for him when I go. Just out of curiousity, how did you manage to get a photo of him.

It was during an event that he attended. The photo isn't actually mine, but I was at the event....just way farther up in the crowd.....away from him. The lady next to him is his wife. Not to sound mean towards her but she didn't smell to good either. Oh and I believe I remember seeing her smoke so that might explain the cancer.

Wow. If he ever lays one of his hands on me for any reason, I will drop him. Why does he think that he has such seniority at the point when he doesn't work there, just annoy people and ride ops? Did he ever work there? This guy is a douche! >:-|