Interesting Observation

I enjoy Gemini but I have never understood the love for it. Though I want it to stay, unless it were to be replaced with something better. If it were to ever leave I would not shed a tear. I feel the same about Corkscrew and CCMR. I would be more upset if Iron Dragon were to leave.

Personally the bigger, faster roller coaster the better, but the older coaster are family oriented and solid starters to introduce kids into riding. The first time I took my niece when she was 10, Gemini was her favorite, now at 16 she loves the bigger rides. There is a place for "family" fun coasters even though I find them boring.

I will ride Mean Streak and have found that as long as I ride the first seat, I get a solid ride, not too jarring ride.

^ you say bigger and faster is better, yet Dragster isn't top shelf, but Maverick most certainly is. Maverick is 1/4 the height and nearly 1/2 the speed. Also, Gemini is marginally slower and shorter than Mean Streak. Like 5 MPH and 40 feet shorter, as well as the fact Mean Streak is straight up boring, and Gemini has some good airtime.

TEN interesting observation(s) after a visit today to the Point:

1. The area between Pink's and Ocean Motion is now permanently closed off for the first time that I can ever remember. This includes the Lotsapalooza gift shop now being closed. Would certainly make a nice area for a future flat ride (maybe a disk-o) like a Cosmic Chaos?

2. The placement of the new water tower being constructed, and the old one being torn down, would certainly open up a nice area of the park with some prime real estate. Only the Wardrobe dept. and Matterhorn would have to be moved.

3. Yes, parking prices are fluctuating throughout the year as noted elsewhere. The parking booth stated $18 opening day, this visit $15. Sunday lower demand?

4. No security wands at the front gate for crowded opening day; yet they were present today for a 1/2 as crowded Sunday? Weird.

5. Most of Shoot the Rapids, including stations and tunnels, still stands except for track pieces and hills. This has gotta be a re-use for the future.

6. The Blue Streak midway has the ONLY Dippin Dots stand in the park with the new Valravn flavor.

7. God, Wicked Twister, especially the left supports close to the AWE stadium really needs repainted.

8. The Castle Wall of Valravn (behind the Brat stand) is now growing petunias all over it, very nice looking!

9. The load/unload times for Dodgem are much, much better because of the new sleek looking Ninja cars that were added this year! NO seat belts, just a drop down bar, nice improvement, CP!!

10. Toft's new Valravn ice cream (Salted Caramel Fudge Truffle) is an evil addiction!! Damn you Toft's!! :)

Honorable mentions: Valravn suffering an awful lot of downtime in its debut year, gotta get the kinks out. Also: the old seating area behind the pizza/corral/walking taco Main midway stands is now extinct. There goes my nice secluded eating area along with the people watching of Cedar Downs. Oh well.....

Great observations mostly. I was surprised no one else mentioned the cut off of the walkway near Ocean Motion , a small yet noticeable change.

Lots of space being prepped in all areas of the park, though most likely we will not see the final results all at once. Or it could mean nothing. ;)

CPfan1976 said:

10. Toft's new Valravn ice cream (Salted Caramel Fudge Truffle) is an evil addiction!! Damn you Toft's!! :)

This. I'm trying not to eat dairy, and that ice cream is ruining my good intentions. And I too am missing the secluded eating area by Cedar Downs. :(

CPfan1976 said:

5. Most of Shoot the Rapids, including stations and tunnels, still stands except for track pieces and hills. This has gotta be a re-use for the future.

Also: the old seating area behind the pizza/corral/walking taco Main midway stands is now extinct.

First off, I hope you're right about re-using some of the theme from Shoot the Rapids. One of my friends that works Rougarou said they're supposed to do more leveling in the area so hopefully that doesn't mean all of it. Just an FYI, I'm still a Rougarou fanatic!

Also maybe they got rid of that area because of what happened last year with Raptor. Just a thought.

I doubt that Shawn. I'm betting it has to do with traffic flow around Valravn and the new midway.

not sure if this has been mentioned before, but while I was at cedar point yesterday, I noticed a marking by one of the footers visible from the left of mean streak's station that looks like two parallel lines, one of which has a squiggle through it, and the other which is a line with two smaller lines coming out of the ends at a 10 degree angle, one facing up, the other facing down. I would post a picture of it, but I have no idea how.

Edit: I also noticed that the support beams were numbered, and that there were two other markers by footers like a mentioned before, except that they were only plain lines

CPNostalgia said:

I would post a picture of it, but I have no idea how.

Post the picture anywhere else on the internet, click on the button at the top right of the text box and paste the link to the photo there.

Those markings you saw by Mean Streak with the squiggle lines through it are Electrical markings. They are tracing the power lines back to a transformer. Those same markings can be seen at Soak City as well. If you are up on Zoom flume and look down underneath the hill you will see those markings go from one transformer to another.

An expansion of Soak City has always seemed the most likely project for 2017 with the removal of the go-carts and Skyscraper. I am not familiar with how the electrical feeders are installed at Cedar Point but I have seen several pads around Mean Streak. Perhaps some of the markings around MS are to bring additional feeders from that area over to Soak City for whatever is planned.

This wouldn't explain all the footer markings at MS, but they could be completely unrelated from the other site survey markings in the area. Either way, we will all know soon enough what the real plan is for 2017... The bad part about that is it means we need to enjoy what's left of 2016, it's been going by too fast already.

With Tony denying the rumors about Mean Streak, maybe this just means we're just getting a Soak City expansion next year. I know that's an obvious statement, but I'm sure expanding the water park will cost $10 million alone.

As much as I would like a Mean Streak renovation, a Soak City expansion seems to be the most likely scenario. I do think it will be great for the park, even though I have never been to Soak City and have no plans to do so. I am excited about the idea of getting Knott's Berry Farm's funnel slide, that would be very welcomed.

Soak City was welcomed for me on a 97 degree day today and the lines weren't too bad. It was my first visit since SC opened in 1988, I know hard to believe. Also, the $164 we saved (for a group of 4) with our Platinum passes (including $20 parking) was awesome also. I thoroughly enjoyed it even though it was VERY tough to find an empty chair this afternoon.

Now for my observation, if the park expands its current ride area, the old go-karts and skyscraper area (w/ the removal of Ripcord) could even be used for future expanded Soak City parking. If not, I could even see a funnel slide and/or a water coaster being installed; both of which SC currently doesn't have and is needed.

If you've never tried SC and have currently own a Platinum pass, check it out on a hot day like today, totally worth it.

Cedar Point was closed one day a few years ago due to a water main break. Is the new (bigger) water tower a result of that possibly?

I would guess that has something to do with that.

Pete said:

I would guess that has something to do with that.

This was brought up at Coastermania and they said the 2014 event triggered them to install it.