Opening Day 2009 - Some Cedar Point "Firsts"

First off, I was thrilled to be able to make an opening day trip. This was my first visit on opening day, and despite the grim weather outlook I was pretty excited to be going. The day certainly had its "ups," but there were also quite a few "downs." Overall, though, I was so happy to be back at the park I was still able to have a great time. I tried to make this TR detail filled (for those who weren't fortunate enough to get to opening day), but tried to organize it by sections so you can skip to whatever interests you.

Weather:

Most weather forecasts I checked the day before indicated that the rain / thunderstorms would stop by noon. We arrived at the park around 1pm only to find it raining somewhat heavily. The heavy rain continued until about 4pm, at which point it stopped for the rest of the day. The rain did close quite a few attractions (Iron Dragon, WildCat, Raptor, etc), but others (Millennium Force, maXair) remained open. So there were still a few thrills to be had during the rain. There was a great deal of wind throughout the day, but I'm not sure it was really all that much windier than it is any other day by the lake. After about 5:30pm the sun came out until dusk, which was nice. Temperatures were in the 60's.

First Observations:

Upon entering the parking lot I noticed that it wasn't all that crowded (We were able to park on the side in 23). We then proceeded to get our season passes. The season pass line was incredibly long (as to be expected), but they kept it moving efficiently, and it was extremely well organized, so it wasn't really a problem. Again, all of the employees here were very friendly.

The New Stuff:

There were definitely improvements / changes throughout the park. Some highlights included:

- Entrance Area Remodeling: Overall the entrance area had some nice touch-ups. The brick pavers between the ticket booths and the entrance really added a lot (I hope they continue to expand their use of brick pavers through other areas of the park). It really breaks up the concrete and gives the entrance a more decorative feel. More colorful banners were added, which was also nice. When you come to the entrance there is one large LCD screen in the middle of the structure, and four smaller LCD screens hanging over the turnstiles. One of the LCD's wasn't working, but the others had advertisements from sponsors, as well as pictures from the park, advertisements for Magnum's birthday, etc. Overall some nice touches.

- Interactive Fountain: I can't really make up my mind on this one. The new fountain is definitely more colorful, and even with the cooler temperatures kids and adults were having fun running through it. In the center there are maybe 16 water jets. Surrounding the jets are quite a few bright yellow benches, along with large poles having colorful lighting similar to that found in the revamped maXair area. So the fountain does spice up the area, but overall seems much smaller in scale than the previous fountain. There really isn't too much "fountain" to look at (I think they should have made this bigger), but the surrounding area looks much nicer.

- Raptor fans: They seemed to have added misting fans (maybe 5 of them) in Raptor's queue.

- Wicked Twister queue changes: They have removed and blocked off the section of queue directly behind the old Aquatic Stadium. They currently have some of the Antique / Cadillac cars parked back there for storage. Don't worry, this was done tastefully and in an un-Six Flags manner (they did actually remove the railings back there and put up a new wall matching the current wooden wall surrounding Wicked Twister's queue). This change really makes sense to me, as I've never seen all of Wicked Twister's queue being utilized.

- Top Thrill Dragster railing: They seem to have added a silver railing along the catwalk running along the launch track. The railing is only in the middle section (starts after the track is raised significantly off the ground and ends at the concrete barrier at the entrance). Maybe I'm picky, but I really hated this change. It looks hideous and sort of stands out in my opinion. Obviously minor, but this bugged me.

- Frontier Town sign: A sign has been added (saying "Frontier Town") on the side by Snake River Falls.

- Haystack Dryer: Called "Family Dryer." This was surprisingly popular. I saw a rather lengthy line to use it. Can't really comment on how effective it is, but looks handy.

- Starlight Experience: There are TONS of lights wrapped around almost every single tree on the Frontier Town Trail. There also seem to be other floodlights in certain areas and perhaps other effects. While I am disappointed this secluded area won't be so peaceful at night, it does look like this will be a really cool addition. They turned on a few lights at night (which again looked great), but the whole system won't be on until next weekend it looks like. I have high hopes for this based on seeing how much is back there. And the nice thing is this was all done discreetly. In the day, it still looks just as woodsy and you can't really tell they have messed with things.

- Disaster Transport: Disaster Transport's queue has been permanently moved to its Halloweekends location. I didn't actually go in it, so I'm not sure if things have changed inside, but the outside of the queue looks a bit nicer (they have a large sign pointing you to the entrance that looks sort of cool). The old entrance was nicely blocked off, and again, this looks to be permanent. Perhaps this will allow them to put up more permanent props in the first few rooms for an even better Halloweekends haunted house?

- Magnum's sign: Wow! Looks great! And it's about time too... You really have to see it in person though, it looks cool and is a nice, large size.

Rides:

First let me make a comment on ride uptime. First, just with the weather during the first part of the day, the majority of the rides were closed. There were a few open, but the novice crews seemed somewhat slow in reopening the rides, and by the time they did, the rain would start again. There were also a lot of maintenance issues. I haven't been on previous opening days, but in comparison to a mid-summer day this one was pretty bad. Millennium Force was up and down probably 5 times throughout the day, with some sort of problem resulting in an evacuation with a train near the top of the lift hill (yellow train) at about 8pm. The ride, to my knowledge, did not reopen for the rest of the evening. While waiting in line for Magnum, it broke down for about half an hour. Maverick was apparently up and down throughout the day as well.

Top Thrill Dragster was closed for most of the day due to mechanical issues and weather, but towards mid-afternoon they tried to open it up. They only loaded the front two, sometimes three rows, and I would estimate that only one out of every five trains would make it over the hill (no this is not an exaggeration). The ride did appear to be open, but very few people were waiting for it, because considering that they were only loading the front two rows (combined with the fact that only one in five trains actually made it over) it apparently took hours to get on, if at all. While it was chilly, it was still in the 60's when the ride was having most of its problems, and the wind at that point wasn't too bad, so it would seem that the ride was having some mechanical problems which were probably compounded by the poor weather. I'd love to hear from anyone who has more details on just what exactly was going on.

Some rides were not open at all. Cadillac Cars is an example, and I believe that Mean Streak was also closed for the day (or so I was told by an employee blocking the path to the ride mid-afternoon). To Cedar Point's credit, Thunder Canyon and Snake River Falls were open.

The rides I went on:

- Magnum XL 200: Great ride. It was incredibly smooth, had tons of airtime, and even in the cold air it felt like it was running pretty fast. No complaints here. Oh and happy birthday by the way! I missed the cake but apparently birthday celebrations were in the morning.

- Gemini: Once again, no complaints about this coaster. It was running really well. It was smooth, had lots of airtime, and they always seemed to be racing it.

- Wicked Twister: Love this ride! Felt incredibly fast, and I'm glad to see that some of the vibrations I felt in parts of last season were not there today. Really a great ride.

- Skyhawk: Disappointing the ride cycle remains so short, but it is still a great little ride. They still don't let you pull down your own lap bars.

- maXair: Fun! Such a long ride cycle, and the spinning felt especially intense today.

- Iron Dragon: Nice ride at night. They had the mist in the pond going at full force. Crew was quite good.

- Raptor: Wow. This ride continues to surprise me. I really enjoy it more and more each time. Especially at night, it is just such a great ride! I was also surprised how smooth it was, as my head didn't hit the restraint once.

Note about Raptor: Here is where some Cedar Point "firsts" come into play. I never thought this would happen, but I got a re-ride at Cedar Point! We got on one of the last trains of the night, had a great ride, and came back into the station. They announced that this would be the last train of the night, but since there were only 8 people in the station (front row and back row), they announced that anyone who was sitting in an unoccupied row could ride again! I originally thought they were just being nice, but they quickly revealed that they couldn't send out an empty train at night (and I'm sure the cold was a factor here). After another great ride, we come the the brake run, where we sit for about ten minutes, before being greeted by employees telling us that again, due to their fear about sending out an empty train from the station, we would have to exit the train on the brake run. They brought around the cool step-stool cart thing, manually released the restraints, and we were escorted down the brake run to the exit. This was pretty exciting for me, simply because A) I have never succeeded in getting a re-ride at Cedar Point, and B) I got to take place in an "evacuation" (no matter how minor it was).

Due to maintenance issues I was unable to get on any one of the big three, but I still got to get on some nice rides.

Employees:

Employees were GREAT. Now, I realize it was their first real day on the job, and things may change as the season wears them down, but everyone was very enthusiastic on the first day! From the parking attendant to our waitress at Famous Daves, everyone was being extraordinarily friendly, courteous, and professional. All the employees really seemed to have a huge amount of energy and enthusiasm (we'll see how long this lasts- hopefully a while). Some ride crews still seem to be learning the ropes, but that's to be expected. Keep up the great work guys!

Overall Impressions:

Landscaping was certainly lacking, but it's Ohio and the leaves are barely on the trees... So we'll have to see how the summer landscaping turns out later. And did anyone see the trees at Magnum's exit? I thought at first it was an advertisement for Halloweekends (If you haven't seen it the pine trees have been cut so that there are no leaves on it and it is just the bare trunks and branches). I found this sort of amusing...

Glad to see the travel place booted out of their booth by Gemini. The new energy concession stand seems like a much more fitting idea.

Lighting was one disappointment. Millennium Force's lights still looked to be as weak as they were last year. Power Tower seemed to have one or two of its lights at the top fixed, but overall it still looks pretty bad. The Ferris Wheel still looks horrible at night. Top Thrill Dragster's lighting looked good. Again, I know this is picky, but their lighting look so great when its working, I hate to see it in a state of disrepair. Hopefully after the recession passes they will have more to spend on these things.

Merchandise selection in the stores seemed to be the same as it was last year. The new LCD screens, while not all functioning, were a nice addition, and the new brick pavers and fountain area was quite nice as well.

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So that was my opening day experience. Thanks for reading. Overall I'd give my visit a B-, but considering the weather, and the fact that it was opening day, that's to be expected to a certain degree I guess. Still, I'm thrilled that the season has begun, and I'm really excited to visit Cedar Point in the coming months!

Eh, usually on opening day DT still has the Halloweekend entrance still there. I'm sure the old entrance will be back soon.

Mean Streek was not closed the enitre day. It was open till at least noon, and was open later in the evening.

Top Thrill 182, very nice detailed trip report. I bet it did fell like a disappointment with the rain and the mechanical issues. You are a lucky man getting a re-ride on the Bird of Prey. :)

^^Mean Streak was open most of the morning then closed for weather around 12:30 then reopened only to go down again for mechanical reasons. It then reopened around seven only to go down on and off the rest of the night! I got two rides both were not so good! Lots of shuffling and rough, I did see they added wood down the center on most of ride. I don't know what this did for the ride but it wasn't making it any better. And getting stuck on that brake run for twenty minutes while they fix it is not fun.

Dragster was in manual mode during its few hours of operation!

Magnum's cake line was longer than the line for the actual ride. So I didn't wait.

WT went down due to someones shoe blowing from the platform into the sensor, but was running again within fifteen minutes!

DT brokedown due to electrical reasons (I heard over a Mechanic's radio)

CPboy77 said:
Eh, usually on opening day DT still has the Halloweekend entrance still there. I'm sure the old entrance will be back soon.

The "new" entrance has a large new sign that has been anchored into the cement. I doubt the old entrance will be used again for anything other than Halloweekends.

Great trip report.
Does anyone know if TTD and MF are still having problems as of today? How was Maverick anyways?

I want to go on a trip this week, but I don't want to go if those three aren't working.

Well it may be a little late pjp593, but when we were there yesterday both MF and TTD were running. However I'd say about 1 out of every 15 TTD trains were rolling back, and the ride would go 'down for maintenance' at least 3-4 times an hour.

The park was also quite crowded for this time of year, seemed to be a lot of high school students there, maybe for physics week or whatever. Most of the day the waits for the big rides (MF, TTD, Maverick, etc) were well over 1-1 1/2 hours.

Have fun!

0 rollbacks durring my all day dragster marathon yesterday

They dont let you pull down your lapbars on skyhawk, but i always forget.

I wanna go for opening day one day. just because i want to get a rollback. XD