June 3 - The Girlfriend, The Thunderstorms, The Empty Park.

I headed to the park today, to introduce my girlfriend Kelly to Cedar Point. She had been there once before, but she only rode Raptor, Corkscrew, and Wildcat... Mostly because of weather... She was hoping for a nice day at the Point today. Unfortunately, the weather was not on our side, but she did get to experience some of the "big boy" coasters.

Kelly and I arrived to the park around 10:20. We had been checking the radar on the way to the park and knew that we only had an hour or so before a nice band of rain hit so we made a quick decision and decided to bypass our warm-up coasters and go straight for Magnum. Kelly was nervous about this, since she was the one who wanted the "warm-up" rides, but she knew time was not on our side. The ride was running two trains today, and that was plenty for the low crowds. It was time to ride, and I held my breath as we descended down the first drop hoping to hear a shriek of joy, as opposed to screams of horror. Lucky for me, as we crested the second hill I heard her begin to laugh. As we hit the final brakes the first thing she said was "Let's do this again!"... My heart grew two sizes for her in that very moment.

We rode it one more time, and then headed back to Frontiertown. I asked her if she would rather do Maverick or Skyhawk, and she chose Maverick. On the way back I saw Mark Small and Josh (exit english). The line was only in the queue house, which meant a 30 minute wait... in dry weather. About half way though the sprinkles began to fall and the ride went down for weather. Less than 5 minutes later it began to pour, along with some thunder and lightning. Lucky for Josh and I, we both had our trusty cell phones to monitor the weather with and keep the crowd informed ;) The storm lasted till nearly 1:00, and even after the rain had completely stopped, they cycled trains for nearly 20 minutes before opening the ride. It's clear this is in response to the Magnum incident. It appears that no coasters are running in the rain, and once the rain has cleared they run empty trains for much longer than they have in the past. I noticed the exact same thing being done on Mean Streak while we were waiting for Maverick to re-open.

Finally, trains were loaded again, and we got our seat. Kelly again got very nervous, but seemed to really enjoy the first half of the ride. The second half I noticed she started making various "oofs" and "ouch" noises. She said that she loved the first half, but the second half beat her up too much.... Hmm... Thats what I LIKE about the second half. Oh well... She liked it enough to ask me to buy her a Maverick T-Shirt. I gave in ;) A couple of quick notes on the ride: The fire hose has again been turned off, and the water bombs were running fine. I wish they would go off a bit earlier, as you don't even see them unless you are in the very back of the train. Finally, there was still no mist in the tunnel.

After the ride, we grabbed a quick bite to eat from Los Gatos and then I asked her for a ride on Skyhawk. She denied my request, stating that ride looked terrifying. I took a quick solo lap (it was a walk on), and we headed for Millennium. The line was halfway up the ramp, so we got on quickly. Kelly was again terrified, but ended up loving it and wanting to do it again... so we did of course! After Millie, we took a breather on Iron Dragon. While on ID I noticed that Dragster's line was halfway up the ramp. I pleaded with her to ride, but sadly, she denied my request. Instead we took two more laps on Magnum, and then a quick walk-on of Gemini (they only ran one side all day).

By this time, we saw another storm cell on the radar and knew we had to get a few more rides in. We did Maverick again, and this time Kelly liked it even more. After the ride we were quite hungry, so we decided to hit up the Gristmill Refreshments for a Cheeseburger Basket and an Italian Hoagie Basket. This was one of the brighter points of the day. Yes, you heard me right... CP Food Services offered me one of the brighter moments of my day. A blue tag at the stand named Richard came up to me to inform me that the Italian Hoagies were cooked fresh, and it may take a few minutes. I told him that was fine, and he asked me what toppings I would like on the sandwich and he would bring them, along with the sandwich out to my table when the food was ready (this is a walk-up establishment remind you). When my sandwich was ready, he brought it out and apologized for the delay (only 3-5 minutes), and asked how Kelly's food was, and if everything tasted ok. I was blown away. Sure the prices were still outrageous, but the service was fantastic!

The skies were turning dark again as we got to MF around 5:30. By this time MF was actually a walk-on. There were actually empty seats on the trains. We got in two quick laps, and as we saw lightning on our second lap we knew it was going down. Sure enough, we were the last train out before the weather closure. We headed to the Red Garter to get out of the storm, and catch the 6:00 show of Rock N' Country. I hadn't yet seen this show this year, and was completely blown away by the talent. The male vocalists and the saxophone player were both standouts, but I must say one thing. I was utterly appalled at the costumes. They were plain hideous!

After the show, we saw it was still raining heavily, and the trusty cell-phone radar didn't offer much hope. We began walking towards the car, and stopped to dry off for a moment at the Dragons Inn as a bolt of lightning knocked the power out to the whole park for a few seconds. It was quite crazy to see the whole park go black for a few moments. We finally got to the car, soaked and tired. We rested in the car for about 20 minutes before finally deciding that the weather probably wouldn't clear in time to make it worthwhile for us to stay around. Besides, the 3 hour drive back to South Bend, and heading back to work in the morning also helped sway the decision.

The day was so bittersweet. Seeing my girlfriend really start to love the coasters at the park was just fantastic. In addition, the extremely low crowds made for a great day line-wise. However, Mother Nature's two angry fits of weather really cut down on what could have been a ride-filled day. Luckily, Kelly wants to go back a few more times this season, and I can't wait!

Ride Counts:
Maverick - 2
Millennium Force - 4
Magnum - 4
Iron Dragon - 1
Gemini - 1
Skyhawk - 1

Total Hours in Park: 9
Total (Rideable) Hours in Park: 5.5

*** Edited 6/4/2007 4:38:29 AM UTC by Josh M.***

I was lucky enough to make it to my car just as the last storm rolled in.
We sat in the car in the Soak City parking lot for about 20 minutes... then we decided to head up to the main lot and see what was going on.
It was flooded like crazy!
There were cars parallel parked on the edge of the parking lot that had water up above the bottoms of their doors. I know there had to be some cars that got ruined.
We then went out to the middle of the parking lot where it wasn't flooded.
We parked and watched everyone run around all crazy like, and then we saw lightning hit a transformer or something similar in the parking lot and it exploded. it looked like a big firework.

That sounds like a pretty good storm! But That is a great trip report!

Nice to see you again yesterday Josh, and meet Kelly. It was a pretty good day despite the rain. Josh (exit english) and I left around 6pm before that storm hit. I'm glad I did. We were waiting in line for Maverick when they announce it was going down for weather, and that was our signal it was time to leave.

I have been at CP twice during a heavy rain storm. I love watching the employees franticly squeegee water out of SpeedZone. Nice TR, to bad the rain roiled a riders dream, but I would have ridden only Maverivk and MF all day if those lines were so shot. Thats one positive to being a single rider most of the time :) Glad to hear you girlfriend enjoyed the "big boy" coasters! Make it you goal to get her on TTD and Skyhawk by seasons end.

I was there yesterday as well and though the rain kind of put a damper on things, the day as a whole was pretty good. After the first rain storm it was nice and calm for 4 or 5 hours. I had good timing in that I got in line for Maverick just before the rain hit so my niece and I were able to stick out the rain in the queue house. We were some of the first back on after the rain, unfortunately we also ended up stuck at the end as it went down for mechanical difficulties again. I can't really tell if this is my favorite ride or not. I need to ride it a few more times. I also thought the water bombs were a little late. We rode the front seat and didn't even notice them.

Apart from Maverick, the longest wait we had was about 20 minutes for TTD. The rest of the day were walk-ons (minus front-seat Millie). We must have been following you for a good part of the day because we were in the second last train on Millile before the storm. I have to admit it was a bit eerie (no pun intended) to look out over the lake and bay on the lift and see the dark clouds and the mist/fog rolling in over the lake. We decided to make a run for the front before the storm came, knowing they were probably expecting a big one since what seemed like every ride was shutting down. We waited it out in the car for about 45 minutes hoping it would stop and we could go back in for more walk-ons but that didn't happen.

Still, awesome day! You really do need to get your girlfriend on TTD before the summer's over. I've found that forcing people on rides (though cruel) can sometimes be good. Yesterday was my niece's first TTD ride and she was very nervous. As soon as we stopped she said "let's do that again".

Sounds like a good day for the most park ( except for the rain) ;)

Haha I loved reading your report... It brought back memories of when I took my boyfriend (now husband) to the park. He is terrified of heights, and our first ride of the day was Magnum... I looked over at him on the first hill and I really truly believed he was going to die right there beside me before we got back into the station... Fortunately, knees knocking, he got off the coaster on his own power... and of course, like a loving, understanding girlfriend, I drug him back to the entrance and put him on it again.... And to think, he still married me.

Josh M. that was you at Dragon's Inn? I was there too when the power went out, wearing the redish Hollister shirt. I was with another guy and 2 girls.

That was me wearing the Maverick shirt with my beautiful, yet slightly wet (from the rain...), girlfriend :)

Edit: For Loopy's dirty mind

*** Edited 6/5/2007 2:43:37 AM UTC by Josh M.***

Great TR, and lmao at the Loopy edit. You really have to watch him sometimes...

I think I saw you too Josh, was it the first rider t-shirt? My niece and I were jealous because we wanted shirts like that but didn't make it last weekend!

Yeah, that was me... Where did you see me at?

We were waiting out the rain in the queue house for Maverick. We sat near and on the steps the whole time.

Good report.. I was there yesterday with my girlfriend and it rained (quite heavily) several times in the afternoon, which definitely slowed down things a bit. We still managed to get three rides on MF, two on TTD, three on Magnum, three on Maverick, and many other rides throughout the day. The most interesting ride was getting the last train on MF just as it started absolutely POURING as the train was going up the lift hill. Ride ops could see the rain coming across the lake but they let our train go anyway. I knew it would be painful--we were in the second row, which still gives you a pretty clear shot to get walloped in the face by rain. I had to keep my eyes closed most of the time. :) We were pretty much soaked when we got back to the station.

Also managed to get the last ride on Power Tower just as it started raining another time. We had a great view of heavy downpours right at the edge of the park.. We got off the ride and within 15 seconds or so it just opened right up and we ran for the bathrooms across from the north Sky Ride terminal.

My girlfriend's favorite rides, in order, are Millennium Force, Top Thrill Dragster, and Maverick.

..Al

Was she wet too? ;)

Loopy... what would Jess think of your filthy mind? ;)

By the way... Here are just a few pics from my trip:
Kelly after conquering Maverick
Kelly after conquering Millennium Force
Kelly and I before our second trip on Maverick

Glad to read that she liked the "big" rides too. You know, the foodservice part really reminded me more of Disney.

^^
She knows I'm a sick person. :)

Josh shes kind of cute.. what's she doing hanging out with you? ;)

Jess just loves the punishment of staying with Loopy ;)