Raptor and Maverick and HAIL! Oh My!

Hey there coaster fans! I was just at Cedar Point yesterday (July 23) with my friend's youth group. It was a blast! But you're probably wondering about my title ^.^ Well....

Ok so we got to the park, and headed straight back to Maverick. We were in line for that for about...1 hour and 10 minutes? possibly longer? But it was a great ride, as always. Then most of our group stopped to get a snack at Chick-fil-a. After that we headed over to Millennium, and that's where the fun began.

We got in line (after spending about 10 minutes trying to calm my friend down enough to actually get in line) and slowly wound our way over to the ramp. As soon as we got on the ramp, it started sprinkling. The crews were still running trains at that point, so we kept moving up the ramp till we were pretty close to the station. Then they stopped running trains because the rain started to fall a bit harder. That quickly stopped so they ran 2 test trains and one or two full trains, which meant that we got up to the station. This was a good thing because it started to pour a few minutes later. Then it started to thunder. We realized we would be there for a bit...but we had no idea.... After a few minutes of thunder, we started to hear something louder hitting the roof...it was HAILING! the ride opps had every one crowding into the station so all of the people on the ramp could get under cover. Just then we started to hear a bunch of shouting, and they started ushering people down the emergency exit steps to the employees only area under the station. Turns out, we were in the middle of a tornado warning!! They had to squish everyone on the platform into this rather cramped room, so we somewhat resembled sardines. We waited down there for about...20 minutes? Then they let us go back up onto the platform because the warning was over and the ride would be back up soon. Most of our group stuck it out and got on the ride, but a few left because they felt sick. My boyfriend and I were on the third train out of the station after it started running again. It was his first ride, and my second, and we both thought it was AMAZING. This is easily one of my favorite rides. This whole thing took about 3 hours, but it was SO worth it.

After that ordeal was over, our group split. Some of us went to Magnum, and some went to Wildcat. I went to Magnum, which was about a 25 minute wait. My 4 friends, my boyfriend and I rode in the last car...which is an awesome experience. We were talking on the way up the hill, and didn't realize how close we were to the top, and all of a sudden we were yanked over the edge! It was awesome. The bunny hills on the way back however...extremely painful!!!

Then our group split off again, with 2 people going with some other friends to Dragster, and the four remaining going to Gemini. Gemini was about a 1/2 hour wait because we wanted to race eachother sitting in the front seats. It was a great ride, and Red won! (well...sort of...)

Then we ended up dragging my boyfriend over to Raptor, which was about a 45 minute wait because we wanted to sit in the front. This was an another amazing ride. If you've never ridden in the front on Raptor, try it. Its the BEST place to ride. You feel like you are flying. SO COOL!

Then we met up with some other people and we were going to ride Millennium again, but the line looked extremely long, and we ended up splitting again. 4 of us went to Iron Dragon, which was as relaxing as always. Nice views though. It had about a 15 minute wait because we were trying to match up with 2 other people so we could ride behind them.

After this, we had dinner at Panda Express, which was pretty good. Expensive, but good.

Then we went over to Gemini one last time, and raced eachother, and this time the blue car won hands down.

We hightailed it back to the bus, and were on our way home.

Ride Count:

Maverick: 1
Millennium: 1
Magnum: 1
Gemini: 2
Raptor: 1
Iron Dragon: 1

It was an awesome trip, even with the hail storm, and I can't wait to go back next year.

There wasn't a tornado warning for Erie County (Or anywhere in the CLE CWA for that matter) yesterday...

hmm...that's what they told us..or that's what i heard....Maybe I misheard someone...it was so loud in that room!! But i can't think of any other reason they would have everyone on the platform go into the employees only area under the ride...

I can imagine that telling everyone there is a tornado warning and causing mass panic would be almost as bad as not telling people there was one.

Your absolutely right about the front seat on Raptor, it's worth the wait (if your able to squeeze into the front row without CP staff telling you that the line is full). I only rode the front once, but it's a great experience, I like seeing where I'm going on that coaster.

It is interesting that they put guests in the electrical room. We had a Tornado Warning in Erie county when I worked at the park in '04, and we simply let people fill in the load and unload stations, and then the majority of the crew went down into the electrical room.

And like Ben said... there wasn't even a Tornado Warning, only a Severe Thunderstorm Warning for Western Erie County. I know the park has a radio signal for a particularly severe storm, which is when they advise guests to take cover. I'm guessing this was the case, and it was misinterpreted somehow as a Tornado Warning... but I still don't understand why they would cram so many guests into the electrical room....

I am baffled too. I think the code is 30S (Seek Shelter?)

Either way, the cell wasn't bad. There was a SVR issued and that didn't even verify.

That TOR warning in 04 was for Wood County, spotted by Law Enforcement or a "Sheriffnado". They made us staff 'take cover' under Gemini.

I honestly don't know what kind of warning there actually was. We HEARD it was a tornado warning...but then again, like i said before, it was so loud in that room that no one could hear anything. Some one might have said it was a severe storm on one side of the room and it turned into a very bad game of Telephone where the information we got was totally different.

Sorry about the confusion!

Regardless of the warning, the thing that is still a mystery is why they put guests in the electrical room? That is not a big room at all...

However if you were "crammed" in the right part of the room there is some fun stuff in there. Including a plastic toolbox with the name "Sandor" on it, and the blueprint/schematics of MF on the wall with block/prox switch locations and such on it...

^ - not any more. ;)

Holy crap, if I heard tornado warning and I was outside with no cover I'd probably poop my pants. lol. Sounds like you had a great day though. I have always wanted to ride Raptor fronte seat. I think I am going to next time I'm at CP. :)

^ I was thinking the same thing. If there was a tornado warning while I was in line I would start running....mainly in circles, but there's no way I would stay still enough to be in a ride line. Do the structures for rides go way underground? If your main fear was being picked up by a twister, and taken to oz, could you strap yourself to a coaster to keep safe?

^ You may not be picked up, but you will most likely die of something flying at you.. and you are all strapped in so you can't move.. not a good spot to sit during a tornado!

Wind doesn't kill people. Trauma from large objects flying through the air at 150+ mph and hitting you in the head will kill you though.

The best place to be in a Tornado is underground or in a sturdy structure as far away from an exterior wall as possible (ie: bathrooms) and under a sturdy object.

^ - which makes the end of Twister all the more interesting. After all the stuff that tornado picked up, it should have been like a solid object.

I would have to agree with you John. Twister was a great movie, but the ending was kind of unrealistic. Tying themselves to that pipe would not have held them there. And even if it did, they would most likely have been hit by something.

The fact they outran an F5 tornado on foot was great, especially when the other dude couldn't outdrive it in a car.

And any winds that fast would have had enough power to make anyprojectile fatal. The 'tying oneself to a pipe' would be asking forinstant death. There's a reason that on 5/3/99 the meteorologists/onair people were telling folks that they would die if they were aboveground - Because it was true! Even dirt/clay became projectiles on5/3/99 and killed folks

Here's a chilling image from that Tornado:
http://www.srh.noaa.gov/oun/papers/overpass/slide07.html
Look at how you can see in the top left images the Silhouettes of where people were standing when the tornado hit.

Now that I've ranted, I really think the movie Twister should be filed under "Comedy" because it is. There's funny lines in that movie that are fun to repeat. "Finger of God." is great. The whole fork dropping "Is there an F5?" line rocks.

Although I love the movie Twister, I would have to agree with you that there is some cheesy stuff in there. I thought the same thing when she asked if there were an f5 tornado. I am pretty sure that they are a lot more common than they made it out to be.

But a lot of movies stretch the truth like that. For example: Jaws. No explanation needed there. lol. Even how they killed the shark was false. They proved it on Mythbusters. ;)

Also any movie where every single car that flips over blows up. That's just exaggerated too. You would have to blow up the gas tank for that to happen. Just because you flip your car, doesn't mean you will automatically catch on fire.

I liked Twister though. That cast was great and it was cool to see all of the "tornadoes".

Here's your real life EF-5... and another from the same tornado...

I didn't see any cows though....

Actually, F5 (Now EF-5's) are not very common. Parkersburg, Iowa was rated an EF-5 this year (Still kicking myself for chasing in Kansas that day) and Greensburg, KS was rated an EF-5 last year. Previous to those 2 tornadoes, the last US F5 was the Moore/Bridge Creek, OK tornado of May 3, 1999.

Here is a more or less accurate list of F5's.