Opening Day 2013

Okay so I am new to PointBuzz and I am sorry if this has already been posted and addressed but I couldn't seem to find anything that quite answered what I needed.

I have been to Cedar Point many times in the past but I have never been to opening day. My friends and I have Platinum Season passes and I know that the hour early is available on opening day. However, I was wondering what time would be a good time to arrive at the park? We all have renewed our passes online so we don't have to worry about stopping at the season pass center. And there is also the opening of Gatekeeper to keep in mind I know as well. Any suggestions as to what time we should plan to arrive at the park on opening day??

Any help or input is greatly appreciated!!

Thanks,
Ashley

Expect huge crowds on opening day due to Gatekeeper. That being said, it all depends on what you plan on doing. For instance, if you wanted to be on the first train of ________, you might want to get to the gate closest to that ride as early as possible. Some of the die hards start showing up before 7 and that could be earlier with Gatekeeper opening.

However, getting there early doesn't guarantee anything. You will also have to deal with the ever dangerous running of the bulls and the ever annoying single riders. :P

I would say a healthy time to get there would be 7:30. Expect a few people ahead of you though. Good luck! :)

How long do you guys expect the line for Gatekeeper to be during early entry?

I don't expect it to be open at all for early entry on Opening Day.

Especially with opening ceremonies and the red cross riders (or whatever they choose to do for first riders).

It's been a while since a new coaster opened on opening day, but I recall with Dragster I was right behind the last of the Red Cross auction riders. I just don't remember if early entry was a thing back then, or if I was going in at normal park opening time.

If you plan on going opening day, plan on waiting a long... long time for Gatekeeper. First day of a new ride, it's going to have a long wait. If I make it to opening day, I plan on ONLY riding Gatekeeper, and anything else is bonus.

That's exactly what I'm doing. I'd say it was a successful day if I was waiting in line for it, and only it all day

You could always purchase a Fast Lane, and wait much less.

Maybe I'll just wait till another day to ride it then.. I'm going to the park again the first Wednesday after opening day. Lots of people are still in school so hopefully it will be a lot shorter then :)

^^ Or donate enough to the first ride auction to snag a seat, assuming they do the auction again this year. :)

I plan to go opening weekend. I plan on hitting another ride first though because everybody will be at Gatekeeper. I don't care about being the first one to ride it, I just want to ride it. Also question for Adam on here, are you going to Top Thrill Dragster first in 2013?

We shall see........;)

It'll be interesting to see just how long the waits get for GateKeeper this year. I guess because CP is so well known for its coasters, the debuts seem to draw significantly more interest than other parks.

I was too busy and didn't get to follow Maverick much its opening year. What were the longest lines you guys saw for Maverick, and what was about the norm throughout its opening weeks?

I know Millenium and Dragster had crazy lines for a very long time. I'll never forget walking into CP near Millenium's debut and seeing a thick MF line right at the park's front entrance, with an entrance host guessing "At least 7 hours."

In comparison though, there was no to low wait all day for Diamondback in May of its opening year when I went. I had a 5-minute wait (the entire day) in May for Leviathan, and 5-10 minutes (entire day) for Intimidator 305.

If you go straight to GK after the gates open for Platinum Pass (on a May weekday), I don't think there could be much of a wait, but it should be fun to see what the line quickly ramps up to, especially being so close to the main entrance.

I'm beginning to think that the Soak City entrance will be more useful than ever this year. If the "Raptor Effect" still creates an uneven distribution of guests in the park (at least in the morning) almost twenty years after its namesake was built, that effect should be greatly magnified by Gatekeeper. The first half of the day might be very kind to the back half of the park.

I've nearly given up trying to guess what crowds will do.

All I know is that another major coaster will help dilute the crowds at all the other rides. That is, unless crowd levels increase enough to offset the impact of GK.

I expect to like GK, but I don't see it as a ride that I'll want to marathon over and over again, like MF, TTD, or Diamondback. I don't expect it to deliver new thrills every time I ride it, like the aforementioned coasters do. I quickly tired of X-flight last summer once the novelty wore off. There is nothing special about it once the thrill of being outside the track wears off, and you've experienced seats close to the front, and better, the rear of the train.

Wouldn't the beach entrance be the best?

Best for Gatekeeper, probably, but the reference was Soak City gate being good for access to the less crowded back of the park.

Are you able to park by Soak City with a Season Pass? We have the pass that allows you into the waterpark but I wasn't sure if you had to prove you were going to the waterpark somehow? How do you move past regular parking?

Thanks! :)

Just stay to the left and drive around Perimeter Road. Make sure you enter via the left-most open toll booth.