Memorial Day 2013

Hi everyone...here on point for tonight and tomorrow...got in at about 2130 gatekeeper was a walk on and got on twice before line closing. I'll be in the park tomorrow so more details when I go through then. Also if anyone wants to meet up if you're going to be here just let me know on here or if you're on my Facebook.

So far so good thirty minutes in the park thus far haha. Have to say I can't believe I got a walk on on a Friday during a holiday weekend but ah well. Also holding the best helps a ton during the ride. Rode back left and front row right. I'll stick to left from now on

Might of played that one wrong yesterday. I was planning on going up to ride the Gatekeeper, but decided to take a crap shoot with the Memorial Day crowds instead due to the wind and chill yesterday.

How was the crowd today?

Crowd wasn't actually bad at all...never saw gatekeeper or any other major rides get full queues...full trip report ad soon as I get my pictures upload and wake up. Drove home last night and got back on wright patt at 0200

OK, so full trip report for my two days at the park. This will probably be length, good trip and lots of good information.

Day one we left wright patt at about 1800 or so and made great time and got to the park at 2140. I've already ridden gatekeeper but the my girlfriend hasn't, so we figured that night at least get one ride in if were in the queue by close we'll get at least a ride in after close. However, gatekeeper was practically a walk on that night. I really wished we would have left a lot sooner that day but delays didn't allow for that. If gatekeeper was that beautiful of a wait I don't even want to know how good the rest of the park was that day. Anyways we did get two rides in. First ride we rode the usual far back left. This time I rode inside seat. Outside seat is still the best ride in the park hands down. Girlfriend is a huge all the way in the front, etc person, so we had to ride front the second time. However queues have to be balanced for this ride so we were forced to ride on the right front seat. Honestly, front seat is a great view and fun experience, but not thrilling at least to me whatsoever. Anyways two good runs last thing of the night before leaving the park Friday night.

Saturday we were a few minutes late to ert and got in the resort gate at about 0915. We went straight to maverick and it was only station two train wait. We got three rides on it that morning, third of which we stayed on the train and they spun the turnstie two times. After that we made our way over to Millie we had about 15 minutes left of ert. The line as about a 25 minute wait. We got one ride on that and the park officially opened. First morning ride was iron dragon. Girlfriend wanted to compare flight deck to this, and a friend from my `11 crew is on dragons crew this year. That was only a ten minute wait. From there we grabbed lunch at the employee cafe. Nothing major changed here except from when I worked there pop was 1.60...its now .25! I got ripped off haha.

Afterwards starting with the afternoon we had went to all wheels extremes for its first show of the season was that afternoon, so we decided to watch that. there is a lot of new music this year for the show, so its actually quite entertaining. From there we went to check on gatekeeper, it was a 2 hour wait. Also girlfriend had her purse on her and totally forgot. So I figured we'd drop it off in the car and ride later. We went around by raptor and blue steak..bit of a hefty wait there. We took sky ride towards the back of the park and rode power tower, super Himalaya, and corkscrew. First, power tower drop is fantastic. The drop side charges up the primary tube a lot quicker and drops within a 5-7 interval depending on ride weight. Talked to my friend working it and they are apparently tweaking the ride a bit so far this season. Few extra seconds here and there means a few more people an hour, good on them. Corkscrew is somewhat a disappointment to me this year because of the crew. The leadership has never worked it before and its their first year on the ride, I already heard of a few problems at season start involving them, and the crew just doesn't work well together. Also I do feel bad because they're getting not with a lot of new rules and procedures that are ridiculous IMO and unneeded. They tried a few during my time there and either didn't implement it or backed down from the idea. If you plan on riding anytime soon, be prepared to tug the seatbelt in front of the ride ops. Along with this there's a few other procedures and policies that really hinder interval, like load having to only clear from the front. Also like I said this crew isn't full of luster like my year or last year. The spiel and crew attitude are terrible. There is one girl who just walked looking pedals and was must downright slow, ride, and no smile or anything. I'm willing to give her a chance because she may have had a bad day or something. If I see it next time though and no improvement, I'm going to be disappointed...you may not like your job where you work or what you're doing, but don't show it to the guests...I hated being sweep for a day but did I show it to them, no. Its all a giant show. After corkscrew we walked over, hit one ride on Gemini. We won, the other train got stopped on the lift for a camera...haha, that's what's you get :-) . After we decided to go to the petting zoo...she loves animals...then we went to maggie, great ride as per usual, and someone on the crew has the socks haha. Then we dropped off her bag and came back in the park. Gatekeeper was next. One and a half hour stated in the queue, only one hour and some change total for full wait plus front line. I did however track some information and get some for all of you coaster nerds like me. Full interval information :-)!!! Station wait minimum from stop in station to dispatch was 55sec, max was 1:34. Jog time from ready brakes from a stack was 15 seconds if interval was not hit properly. Full time for train dispatch to station stop per train varies from 2:23 to 2:55. Also my friend on the ride said their best dor pph hour was 1,569. Theoretical is 1710...that's moving people!! Gatekeeper ride this time was front left. I will say left is better than right for ride quality and thrill. Front is nice for the speed you get through the course. I almost can compare it to the speed and smoothness of Millie when moving through the track. The front does give you a great sensation and is a lot of fun, it the back left outside is still the best. Also holding the vest for the ride does negate any tightness or discomfort with the vests. I wish I didn't have to hold on and could throw my arms out, but I'll take what I can get.

That evening we went by and did dragster, only a one hour wait. Got probably my one and only run in. Almost lost my dog tags too, they ripped them from right out of my shirt and started flying behind me on the drop lol. After this my riding somewhat stopped.

We went back to stockade, grabbed some chili cheese fries as a quick evening snack and went outside the park. Some lines had good waits, maverick was almost two hours and after walk on three times in the morning, I said forget it. We went out to the car to grab a few things then walked to the beach and strolled for a bit. Also if you get a chance during the summer, go do it. You can get great shots of gatekeeper from here, hopefully later today I'll get some more uploaded and get an album set here for you all to look at it. I have them in Facebook now for those of you that are friends with me, however for some reason Facebook mobile doesn't upload them in the order they are put in..weird. anyways good time at the beach and lots of great photos. Also I was able to snag close up pictures of the gatekeeper ride evac system and a few other good views of things as well.

We came back in and walked around and checked some things out, got some pictures and enjoyed the nightlife of the park, then I got my corkscrew marathon going as per usual. After that we waited to see if they were doing a full text of luminosity or what was going on over there, nothing special. After that we decided to head back home for the weekend. Good trip, lots of fun, and way too many rides in on everything. Only two rides we didn't get in that we wanted was wicked twister and raptor. Other than have we got on just about everything good that we wanted.

Also I took a weird way home last night. If any of you live near wright part or around me, it had me take 13 south and then 71s, to 270w/s, then 70s to 444. Usually I take 75 up then 6 east go Sandusky. Still same drive time made it in 3 hr flat versus the 3:30 estimated. Still always better than taking route 4 all the way up and down

Ride and numbers

Maverick x3
Millie
Iron dragon
Power tower x1 drop
Super
Corkscrew x9,000 :-)
Witches wheel
Maggie
Dragster
Gemini red train
Gatekeeper x3
Sky ride

Not a bad visit if you want any more info or anything just ask. Hopefully pictures up here soon. Also sorry for typos...this was all typed up half asleep and on a tablet...

Correction wind seeker ride evac system lol

Ok I have two galleres to share for pictures so far

Memorial Day Weekend
http://db.tt/uUKU97fw

Cedar Point Opening Day
http://db.tt/o73PnDzl

I'll add my small trip report here. I went on Memorial Day. RAIN.

It didn't start raining until about 10:30. It was constant, but not enough to get the pavement wet under trees.

I was amazed at how many coaster's were still running in the rain.

Had to wait on the yellow train of MF on the brake run when the rain started so they could unload the red train. 5 to 10 minutes. They came out said there would be a delay, because it's company policy to remove the red train in the rain. Awesome that they said that, but was it our business to know anyways. :)

Raptor went down for rain for a while, but was running 2 trains. Blue streak kept running 1 train, I heard Iron dragon was not running in the rain. GateKeeper Kept running 2 trains in the rain. Wicked twister ran.

The last time I was there with it raining, everything shut down. I hope this is a new policy for this year, because I got on a lot of rides in the rain. It was great.

3x Raptor, 2x Gatekeeper, 3 Power Tower down. 2 Blue Streak. 1 Mantis, 1 Wicked twister, and lots of smaller rides for a total of 23 rides yesterday.

It was actually a really good day, considering the weather.

I was there yesterday (Memorial Day) as well, but unfortunately, I don't quite share your thumbs up review ...

I do agree that the rain, at its worst, was very light; however it was also intermittent. There were periods through out the day where the air was dry (which puzzled me as to why some of the coasters weren't up and running), but the on & off again misting, combined with the less than ideal temperature and oh so slight wind, did make the conditions just enough to be a nuisance.

Here are some of my observations according to CP and a personally gathered information stand point ...

Gatekeeper:
Ran all day; 2 hour wait; queue half full; 2 trains

Wicked Twister:
Ran all day; 15-20 minute wait; queue just beyond loading station; 1 train

Raptor:
Down over half of the day; 45 minute wait; queue 1/3 full; 2 trains

Blue Streak:
Ran all day; 30 minute wait; queue just beyond loading station; 1 train

Mantis:
Ran all day; 1 hour wait; queue 1/4 full; 2 trains

Iron Dragon:
Down all day

Millennium Force:
Ran all day; 1 and 1/2 hour wait; queue 1/3 full; 2 trains

Maverick:
Down over half the day; 2 hour wait; queue 3/4 full; unknown

Mean Streak:
Ran all day; 45 minute wait; queue just into tunnel; 1 train

Cedar Creek Mine Ride:
Ran most of the day; 30 minute wait; queue just beyond loading station; 1 train

Gemini:
Down all day

Magnum:
Down most of the day; 1 and 1/2 hour wait; queue 1/3 full; 1 train

Dragster:
Down all day

Corkscrew:
Down most of the day; 45 minute wait; queue 1/3 full; 1 train

The fact you got 23 rides in is pretty impressive considering the limited selection, and also taking into account my whopping total of 2. That's right, 2 !! Of course most of that had to do with the crew I was with plus several other factors that didn't bode well from a power riding perspective - but that's a story for another day.

A couple of things that bugged me and I seeked out an explanation on, was the what seemed to be inconsistent enforcement policy (which by no means am I an expert on) of the coasters - along with the "less than urgent" type of a vibe the place was giving off about getting their attractions up and running. As mentioned above, some of the coasters were down all day, others opened late, and some ran the entire day - all be it a far cry from capacity. What I couldn't wrap my head around and figure out was how/why some of them could be running in the rain while others couldn't - and why the ones that were, were only running 1 or 2 trains ???

Answer: The computers and the cold weather. (DUH)

I guess some of the computers are more sensitive to the elements than others (go figure); therefore, since the computers run the coasters, certain coasters can run in the rain and others can't ... Now why didn't I figure that one out ??

As far as them not running 3 trains ?? Well supposedly the cold weather was preventing the trains from going "fast enough" to run 3 at a time .. Huh ?? Someone can feel free to fill me in on that one ..

A ride op did mention that it had something to do with block brakes, sensors and hitting interval ... But why should speed matter if the aforementioned prevents trains from occupying the same track space at any one time ??

Anyhow, I had entertained the ridiculous notion that CP has caught onto our little secret: that being we, as regulars, know pretty much when to visit so we can avoid big crowds and enjoy little to no waits on the rides - so to counter this, they (CP) are purposely throwing a monkey in the wrench with a calculated decision to thwart our good fortune by simply taking a train and letting it sit all day on the transfer track. .. But like I said, that idea is crazy, right ??

Oh, I concur. Those people will stop at nothing to guarantee we enthusiasts have a miserable time. Why, at the media preview day a few weeks ago, I was personally thwarted with free entrance, free meals, free goodies, free ERT on Gatekeeper all day, free bonus ERT on MF and Raptor...

I'm disgusted at the amount of thwartment going on.

Thanks for the cute clarification, man, however I think you missed the first line of the last paragraph where I stated the idea of all of that was RIDICULOUS ! I suppose I should have actually added a winkie or a big old LOL at the very end of my post instead of assuming there wouldn't be anyone naive enough to buy into the fact that I really believe they have it out for us, and are just hosing the "enthusiasts."

Then again, I'm now leaning towards a conspiracy theory that suggests CP sabotaged me personally and my trip ! LOL ;) :) HAHA

Rides are downed at CP depending on various variables. With rain it depends on how wet the track is that the wheels are running on, the brakes being soaked and saturated, and the sensors on the track (specifically photo eyes are affected the most). With this heavy rain can cause the wheels to slide on the track more, and counter this with wet brakes, the train is not as easily stopped. For corkscrew it was somewhat evident when you would see the ready brake open to bump the train up to the closest spot and it would somewhat slide for a quick second then stop. The ride is safe as those brakes are hella strong, however, to promote redundancy the ride would better run one or two units depending on the ride and manufacturer recommended SOP. Photo eyes are affected by really heavy rain and sometimes (very rarely) light rain. It's basically a laser light that's angled over the track to determine if a train or object is passing through it. If the sensor is blocked it throws a discrepancy and sets up the rides block system, thus stopping the ride

Super Stew said:

The fact you got 23 rides in is pretty impressive considering the limited selection, and also taking into account my whopping total of 2. That's right, 2 !!

HA!!! I thought I did bad that day. I was there 6 hours. Rode 3 (THREE) rides the whole time. I could of done more I suppose. I walked around alot. The rain caught me off guard. Last I looked at the forecast was about 5pm the sunday before and according to the weather channel, NWS, and Accuweather it looked fine. Sunny in the morning. 30% chance of t-storms in the afternoon. That's not what panned out. Anyway, one of my worse trip weather-wise to the park. Guess I've done pretty well, because the last really bad rain day I had there was in 1983. Oh well, having a season pass takes the sting out of things.