Monday, September 6th (Labor Day) - Day Trip

I found out that some friends were going to CP toward the end of last week, and I decided to tag along. We left from Northern Indiana at about 5:30am and got to the park at 10:40am after a few stops and detours. First, we went on Magnum with maybe a 5 minute wait (after walking all the way from the front and passing on Raptor which had a 1 hour wait posted). Not my favorite Magnum ride, but one of the better ones. I was sitting near the middle of the train in the middle row. Then we did Maverick. The wait was about 45 minutes from near the vending machines (the sign said 1 1/4 hours). I sat in the second to back row (3-1) and it was a great ride. The first drop is phenomenal! Then the rest of the group didn't want to go on Skyhawk, even though it was a 1 cycle wait :(. Then we got in line for Millennium with a 1 hour wait posted, but it broke down and we got out of line after waiting 40 minutes when a train got stuck on the lift with people in it. Then we rode mantis with about a 10 minute wait for the very front. After that Millennium was back up and running but it was almost 3pm and we were hungry so we went back to the cars for lunch. (Looking back it would have saved us some time & walking to park in the Soak City lot.)

After lunch we went on Raptor (about a 10-15 minute wait). Then we went to Dragster (walking all the way from the front again) with a farily short 45 minute wait with no breakdowns or rollbacks. This was the highlight of the day for me. I last visited the park in May 2010 and waited 2 hours to ride Dragster only to have it break down for the day 3 trains before I got on, so I was very glad to get a ride in this year. The last time I had been on it was in 2007. I was in the second to last row and got some massive airtime at the top. And of course the launch with hands up is amazing as usual. Then we did Millennium (45 minute wait) and that was a great way to end the day. I rode in 3-1 and it was better than my ride in May (which was a huge dissapointment with practically zero airtime), but there still wasn't as much airtime as I got on my 2007 trip. I think the temperature has a lot to do with it because it was in the 60's in May when I had a ride with little airtime, it was in the upper 70's for this trip and I got a decent amount of airtime, and in 2007 it was in the lower 90's and I got a ton of airtime. At this point it was 6:45 and we had a 5+ hour drive ahead of us, so the group wanted to go home. Sadly, they passed up another ride on Raptor (walk-on) and Maxair (walk on or a 1 cycle wait). I would have stayed until close if I was the one driving back, but everyone else wanted to get going, so we did. Even though we didn't get to ride a whole lot of rides, it was still a great day at CP and we hit the major coasters. This was the first time I had been to the park more than once in a year so I wasn't even expecting to be back again this year. I envy those of you who live right near the park.

Observations:
The park was fairly busy, but being a holiday with good weather I didn't expect it to be empty. It could have been much worse. Soak City was EMPTY. I didn't even count 10 people from the Magnum lift (although it had just opened recently at that time). It was cloudy with no direct sun until about 2:30pm, then it was sunny for the rest of the day. The forecast was mid to upper 70's, which seemed accurate. It was also windy the whole day and I noticed they weren't running Sky Ride until the afternoon (not sure if it was related to the wind or not). I didn't see Dragster roll back at all, which was a first for me. I also noticed they had Dragster's speed board working (didn't they take that down a few years ago?). The landscaping looked good and the park was clean, as usual. Millennium needs a paint job, and Dragster will within a few more years. A few of the employees seemed under-enthusiastic, but I imagine it was the last day of a long summer for many of them, so I understand. I wish the people I go to CP with would stay long enough for me to get more night rides! The only major ride I have been on at night was Magnum, and it was definitely better than it is during the day.

Thanks to everyone else who has posted trip reports this year. I have enjoyed reading them! Sorry mine aren't as concise as most of them.

And here are a few quick ride pictures that I took while in line:

Ride count: 6
Magnum, Maverick, Mantis, Raptor, Dragster, Millennium

I still have a nearly complete trip report from May that I might get around to posting eventually. :)

Last edited by cdrptrks,

Four discount funday tickets to Cedar Point: $130.96
Overnight stay at Breakers Express: $70
Riding rides the size of skyscrapers while "legally" breaking the local speed limit: Priceless

Great pics!

I was there on Labor Day as well. I think it's cool that there's a trip report on it, as at least now the search engine will bring up what trends you could expect to see on this day in the future.

I went with my friend Leanne, who flew in from NYC to get her CP fix with me. Last year, we did the same thing, but a rapid combination of intense rides ended the day early for her. So this time, we were determined to take it easier, and avoid some of the more twisted tracks.*

Basically, only the largest attractions had significant lines, with most of the small to mid-sized attractions having a wait of only a few trains/cycles. We waited 30 minutes early in the day for MF, and maybe 40 minutes later in the afternoon. Dragster was about 25 minutes when we rode it, but the length of that line varied greatly during the day. Blue Streak was a walk-on, as was Gemini. Our last ride was Raptor, and Leanne agreed that she probably wouldn't have wanted to go on anything after that anyway, given its inversion-happy course. That line started on the last segment of steps, and was an easy wait for the front. A fine end to a lazy day.

One sickening incident we saw while waiting in line for Magnum was a mother, who was with a larger family group, force her very tiny and unwilling daughter to go on the ride. It was clear even before we reached the platform that this girl was in duress just thinking about the coaster. When the train pulled up for these two to board, the little girl apparently regarded the waiting seat as a torture device and vomited out of sheer fear as the gate opened. Instead of comforting her daughter, the mother abandoned the girl on the platform while she rode with the rest of her party. Piss-poor parenting indeed.

All in all, it was fine day to go, and no one line was excruciatingly long or anything, but it certainly wasn't walk-on heaven or anything like that. I'd compare it to maybe a late-June weekday, if that helps.

*Maverick did her in last year, and that was the only truly unfortunate omission from this trip.

The path you tread is narrow, and the drop is sheer and very high.

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