Opening Weekend '08 (Friday-Sunday) Fairly Long

First Trip Report so bear with me here...!

Friday:

The Fiance and I arrive at Breakers at 4:45 and check into our room after a long drive and round of golf (I have US Open Qualifying Monday). Get to our room, nice and clean no problems! Nice! We take a little nap and decided to go over to Challenge Park around 6:30pm. When we walk over there, we were mildly suprised to find that there was hardly anyone there! So we decided to play a round of golf, then do ripcord, go carts then play one final round of putt-putt before heading over to Fridays for dinner. Around 7ish that night it seemed as if the park just came alive and all the coasters started testing. Very neat to see and made us even more excited for opening weekend!

Saturday: (Opening Day!!!)

We arrive at the Marina entrance at 8:20am and wait in line (about 10-15 people back) and ran to Millennium Force first thing! She ended up dying around the rr tracks, so we had to settle for the 6th train of the season.

1) Millennium Force (15 min wait) Front Row! I love this ride and being her favorite makes it even more fun! I really missed that anticipation going up that hill, the slight hang time then the rush!

2) Maverick (45 min wait by the sign, 1.5 hour reality!) We decided to get over to Maverick before the gates opened so get in line at about 9:40 to find the wait at 45 min, not too bad. The line was moving fairly steady and when we get about halfway through the line, "Attention Riders, Maverick is currently down... (you know the rest)" We decided to wait it out just like everyone else and within 15 min its up and running again. Followed by another 15 min breakdown when we are on the stairs. Gets up and running again and we request front row, get the 2nd train in the station. We are next to get into the car when the incoming train stops suddenly. Phones ringing and ops telling us its down again. From the looks of things, it's a blocking issue with Maverick. We wait it out again and after a few test cycles we hear "Release harnesses, load riders!" Everyone cheers and we board! We leave the station and as we're watching the train ahead of us climb the hill, it rolls back!! So we're stuck in the ready position for about 15 min before it goes, and makes it! Yes! We go through the course shoot right out of the tunnel and get stuck in the breaks for close to 30 min. A great ride but I hope they get the bugs fixed!

3) Mean Streak (15 min) Not as rough as I remember it, seems as if we beat the rush of people coming from our broken neighbor Maverick. Head towards the front of the park to grab a bite to eat and check on Dragster. Dragster had a 2.25 wait so we decided on:

4) Wicked Twister (25 min) I have to offer my congrats to the crew on this one! Very fast and efficent! Way to go! What a ride as well!

5) Raptor (1 hour) Again, halfway through the line I look up, see a train in the station, and the other two in the breaks just behind it. Great, we're starting to think that we're cursed! The ride op announces that the ride is currently down, they suggest waiting, but youre free to go if you want. Lucky us half of the line left and we got to the stairs! Nice! After about a 15 min delay its up and running and we're on the front seat 20 min after that! Great ride, still my favorite in the park!

6) Wicked Twister (10 min wait!) Had to ride it again! Dragster still has a long line 1 3/4 hour so we headed over to...

7) Mantis (1 hour) Not a bad ride, a ride op from the station called out a line jumper! haha No breakdowns here!

8) Iron Dragon (15 min wait) A nice peaceful journey though the trees and notice not many people in the line for Dragster... so...

9) Dragster (1 hour wait) Line was moving very steadly until of course, we get into the station. We were 3 groups back waiting for the front when they had to shut down and do a complete reset of all the trains. It was pretty cool watching them move all the cars backwards, but we really thought we were being cursed for having to wait again! haha After a 10 min delay they launched trains and we got on! What a ride. One thing I did notice is that they just want to make sure you have to buckle the belt, no more 1/2" inch rule from what I saw. There were people I saw that I didn't think would make it and they did, so thats a good thing!

10) After dinner we had to go hit up Magnum for our Dusk ride! I love this ride and going up as the lights of the park just start going on makes it even more wonderful! Gotta love the bunny hills at the end, but not sure why half the train was roped off...

11) Last ride of the night, Millennium Force! Another great ride, even better in the dark!

Sunday:

We saw the forcast of rain so we decided to sleep in and left the hotel at 10:45, into the park at 11:15 with all of the rain coming at us. Since we came in through the front gates, we hit up Wicked Twister and that was very fun with the wind and rain, expecially in the very front. From there we sat that Millennium Force was running so we headed over there and waited about 20 min. Now mind you it wasnt raining hard until we hit the top of the hill, then travling at 93mph with the rain in your face hurt. I had to buy our onride photo because the people behind us had their hoods over their face and my fiance covering hers with her hands. Priceless! Then we rode the train back to see if Maverick was up, it wasnt, so we hopped onto Mean Streak for a 10 min wait. Now we were soaked (as was everyone else) and she wasn't having fun anymore so we decided to head home, but it was still a great weekend.

Overall thoughts:

A little dissappointed in the lack of "readiness" so to speak. Lots of flower beds empty, the breakdowns, prices of food, ect. Give them a few weeks and everything will probably be up and running but I think next year, we'll wait until the week after opening weekend to go. It was Cedar Point though, so you're not going to hear me complain!

Sorry for the long trip report! Have a good one!

Great trip report! :) Now I am even more excited to go!!

Oh if you would have just stayed until it stopped raining on saturday!

Everything was a walk on, seriously, even Maverick's line was within 20 minutes. oh ya we saw a few trains on MF run while we were riding skyhawk, and we could see everyone putting their hands over their faces haha, but saturday was terrible until it stopped raining, then it was the best trip i have ever had.

There was no rain on Saturday, it was a beautiful sunny day. You must be talking about Sunday.

My girlfriend and I felt the same way. The park was way unprepared. Flower Beds especially.....

For the most part, flower beds are never planted by opening day. Exceptions are sometimes made around new attractions. The time from mid-March through opening day is spent cleaning up and mulching. The flower work beings after opening day and lasts until June. July and August are primarily spent on watering and maintenance. It's been that way at least since I worked there 15 years ago.

And the biggest reason for not planting until later May is frost. Heck, just last week (Wednesday or Thursday, I don't remember which) I woke up to a frost covered car. That would have been a lot of wasted money if the plants were in the ground and they got an over-night frost to kill all of them.

That's a factor, but I think the bigger reason is time. It takes every minute before opening day to get things cleaned and mulched, even with help from outside contractors. While there's a risk of frost after the last week in April along the lake shore, it's small enough not to worry about.

I guess they are running the roller coasters in the rain this year?

Yup.

Mantis, Magnum, Power Tower, Corkscrew, and even MF.

I think....depending on the weather...TTD was the only ride to operate in no rain at all. My girlfriend and I thought well maybe any ride that exceeds 70mph is a no go (for comfort reasons). Anyways we saw Millennium Force going so....

I remember riding Millennium in the rain, a year or two ago. It heart, felt like little hard beeds hitting your face, think the temp was around 50 or so.