Opening Weekend?

So, it is opening weekend but just some of the rides are operating?

I was there yesterday and everything seemed to be running aside from the water rides but that's typical this early in the year.

It was a great opening weekend! Sure, rides had downtime but nothing unexpected or out of the ordinary. Only rides I know of that did not open at all were Gemini and Windseeker which they are replacing the cables on. I thought maintenance and the ride crews did a good job keeping things running and the delays minimal.

Windseeker is down for wind 70% of the season. I can't remember it ever being open within the last 10 times I was there. They need to change its name to wind-avoider

I feel like this is the strongest opening weekend the park has had in a decade as far as ride availability, staffing levels and ride dispatch times. Crews on many rides seemed to be in midseason form by Sunday, and I can't remember the last time the park had rides up and ready right on time for Opening Day. Heck, rides like Blue Streak, Mine Ride and Corkscrew were regulary hitting interval - something I haven't seen in ages even in midseason.

The ridiculous "light rain sprinkles cause everything to shut down" policy still seems to be in place. But outside of that, I'm more optimistic about ride operations for this season than I have been in a long time.

I totally agree. I've avoided opening weekend like the plague for years but went this year primarily to see all my CP friends again. I was pleasantly surprised with how well everything was operating. It reminded of the Spehn years actually, when the park opened as if it just closed the day before. Nice job CP!

For sure. The only major ride that didn't open Saturday (or all weekend) was Gemini, which I heard was due to some late preseason maintenance that needed to happen.

I had a moment to say hello to GM Carrie and complimented her on how ready the park was. She gave credit to all of the departments for making the park look so good and said it was no fluke that they wanted the whole park to be in prime shape for TT2 opening weekend.

It was the opposite of the 2018 Steel Vengeance premiere weekend. Both in terms of the performance of the brand new ride and the full park readiness.

Yes, that was my last opening weekend and it was so bad I swore off them! Glad (again) to have been surprised this weekend.

Any reports about queuing for TT2? Watching a vlog they were saying the queue line was too small and there will always be a long line out into the midway. They also said there are not enough lockers there and it’s an awkward setup with the lockers. I’m trying to be prepared when I go later this summer.

On Opening Day proper they needed to extend the queue out onto the midway, but Sunday and Monday the regular queue that floated in the 60-90 minute range comfortably fit in the regular queue area. The extended queue area also works as a holding area for guests that come in for Early Entry that opt to line up for the 10am TT2 opening. TT2 also opened early at 9:45 on both Saturday and Sunday, and likely would have on Monday as well but everything was a bit delayed due to some strong early morning winds that delayed morning testing for nearly every ride by about a half hour.

I'm planning on going later this year so they can sort things out more. Hope TT2 gets lockers like SteVe.

Relatively common early in the season for the permanent queue to be inadequate for a new marquee ride. I queued up for Magnum somewhere not too far from where Troika was in '89, which, if I recall correctly, was around where Corkscrew's station is.

Whenever we walk by what is now the TT2 photo booth near Corkscrew (formerly Speed Freaks) I think about how the queue for Magnum was routed behind that little building.

I distinctly remember how impossibly huge Magnum looked seeing it for the first time from the midway, and how unbelievably long that opening year line could be.

^ I like hearing a positive comment about Magnum. In the past 30+ years everything is bigger, taller, faster.

We need to throw some respect to the OG Hypercoaster Magnum. When we saw that lift hill for the first time we were all...IN AWE! I do remember the lines spilling out to the midway. We waited hours for a ride...with a DJ playing music and the misters misting!

My kids struggle with the concept that I remember waiting in long lines for pretty much all of the big rides at Cedar Point. Blue Streak was regularly 90 minutes plus. Same with Mine Ride. Definitely remember 2+ hrs Magnum lines with the DJs and beach balls. Those were the big rides at the time and everyone wanted to ride them. I remember The Beast had long lines at Kings Island. They had a line painted on the midway marking where the line was as it wound through the park (with huge animal paws painted in it).

Common for rides to have long lines when new that they shorten as other rides are built. Some exceptions to that. MF and Maverick being two.

The park really doesn't want people in lines longer than 2 hours.

If you're in line; you're not spending money.

Also, if you spend a significant part of your day in line, you're probably not having a best day ever.

They need some sort of reservation system that won't hurt their fastlane sales.

Personally, I try not wait much longer than 1 hour for anything.

I'm lucky and can visit many times a season. If I was only going one time a season, I would buy fastlane.

Stacys:

We need to throw some respect to the OG Hypercoaster Magnum. When we saw that lift hill for the first time we were all...IN AWE! I do remember the lines spilling out to the midway. We waited hours for a ride...with a DJ playing music and the misters misting!

The Magnum station at night had such an amazing energy too with folks chanting and cheering as the trains rolled in and out. People really felt like there were conquering something epic and the feeling was contagious. Good times.

The concept of "if people are in line, they aren't spending money" applies less to parks like Cedar Point than it does to Disney. Cedar Point does not have the merchandising that Disney has. Or the dining structure. If many of the people at CP on a given day are not in line for one ride, they likely are in line for another ride.

Reality for a large number of CP visitors is spending a significant portion of their day waiting in lines.

Plus, with dining and drink plans, they're still providing revenue regardless of what they're doing while in the park. And it could even swing the other way, with guests in line having already paid for a dining/drink plan, but are unable to utilize it to the same extent they would if they were merely walking the midways all day.

Stacys:

We waited hours for a ride...with a DJ playing music and the misters misting!

While playing Mr. Mister

(hey, it was still the 80s)