Red Cross Skyhawk Ride and Opening Day

I'm not one for trip reports usualy, but I had such a great day at the point, I decided to put it into words.

I was one of the winning bidders for the Skyhawk Auction and as I have a season pass, I was able to use the complimentary admission for my friend Ray.

As we were approaching CP, we took a brief look at the "blue tarp." Didn't see anything already shown in all the other pictures. We arrived at the park at about 7:30 and got one of the closest parking spots that I can remember. Registration for the Skyhawk was at the Soak City entrance and went smooth. There were quite a few people already waiting to get into the park. I was kind of suprised considering that they had over an hour to wait still.

After entering the park we decided to skip the shuttle ride and just walk to Skyhawk. It was pretty neat being in the park that early. Noone around except a few employees here and there.

We approached Skyhawk from the Mine Ride side and was a little suprised at how tall it was. Pictures just don't seem to do it justice. We took a quick restroom break before heading to Frontier Inn for the complimentary breakfast and were very pleased to see the renovations to the Frontier Lift bathrooms. They were completely redone and now include the Jet Powered Hand Dryers. J/K Those Xcelerators are pretty powerfull though. As it was prety cold, I saw a few people using them just to warm thier hands up.

Once we got to Frontier Inn, we were personaly greeted by Dick Kinzel and many of the Peanuts Gang too. They had just about every possible breatfast pastry you could imagine. I tried keeping it to just one cinnamon roll and an orange juice. But temptation got the better of me and I ended up having a apple danish and another orange juice.

Soon, it was time for everyone to pick thier seats. They announced the names one after another along with thier winning bid ammount. Everyone picked thier seat and we headed over to Skyhawk. I got Red-14 on the first ride. Which as your facing the ride is on the Left Arm, Front Side, 4th seat from the left. I as the 33rd pick but was luckily enough to get the last of the 20 front seats.

Before everything got started, they did one test run for us. The first time you hear the ride in person, it is something to behold. From seeing the videos, it seems like it would be a bad sound, but I think it kind-of fits the ride. Just like Mantis has it's unique sound. We were then organized into 2 lines, front and back, or red and blue respectivly. They led us into the lines and we began our wait.

They seemed to be having problems as we waited about 5-10 minutes. They then told us it was going to be about 15 minutes and that if we wanted to get out of line, that we could. Many people (myself included) took the opportunity to "freshen up."

Once we got back, they had done a couple test runs, including at least one with an employee or 2 on it. By the time we got to ride it, many of the resort guests and Joe Cool pass holders had arrived and formed a line that wrapped around the Town hall. So suffice it to say we had a decent audience. Walt was there of course spapping away with the camera.

I must tell you that, although the ride is a little shorter than I had hoped, it was Amazing. I wish I had remembered my glasses strap from the car so I could have appretiated the view from there. Once off the ride, they had "sneek peaks" people there taking pictures. They got a group photo of the first 40 riders. I hope someone bought it and plans to post it. :)

After the second Red Cross Flight, they had the official opening ceremony where we had a couple different speakes including Dick Kinzel. Plus several distinguished guests including Miss Teen USA :) Following the podium talk, they had a ribbon cutting and viola, a Brand New Ride for Everyone to Enjoy.

Lucily Ray got in line for the ride very early, as Miss Teen was allowed to cut ahead and take several friends with her for the first non-auction ride. Despite this, Ray got on the same flight as her. He also was pleased with the ride. And he is not big on the rides that you experience free fall on.

We then spent the rest of the day trying to get on as many of the coasters as possible. We first headed for Millennium and got a front row seat after waiting about 1.5 hours including brief downtime. There were people stuck on the hill for a little while. Next we headed over the tracks and passed Mantis, as it had alreday been experienceing a lot of problems. It was running empty trains nearly the entire time we were in line for MF, and still was when we passed it by. We decided to go on Wildcat and came to find that the rear seatbelts were shortened in the offseason and it is unlikely to get to adults in the back. We had to wait one more car to get a front seat.

After leaving WC, we rode Iron Dragon. It was about a 5 minute wait for the front seat. We then decided to head toward the front of the park. We stopped by coasters to take a look at the cars. Next we headed for Blue Streak and took a nice morning ride in the rear seat. On the way to raptor, we stopped for a second to remanise about Pirate Ride and both decided it would be cool to have it back again.

We then got inline for Raptor. It was about a 40 minute wait for the front car. The music they were playing is some of the better selection that I can remember in a long time. I didn't hear Love Shack once. ;)

After a Great Front Seat Flight on raptor, we headed for maXair. It was not currently running, but one of the Ops said it was running earlier. We had a short hop to Disastor Transport. We got inline and were very suprised to be stading in about a 45 minute line. Must have been all the disapointed maXairians. :)

Afterwards, maXair was getting ready to go. We hopped in line and after filling one cycle of riders, we knew we would be next to ride. And then it happened. The never-ending pendulm known as maXair. It was down again. We headed for Wicked Twister and just in time. I think everone else had the same idea. W had a bout a 15 minute wait for the Rear Seats, but it could easily have been 30 minutes ans the line quickly filled up behind us.

Afterwards, we rode Chaos. Still one of my favorite Flats at the Po!nt. It was nearing 3:30 and we were getting very hungry. We walked by maXair once again on our way to the Midway Market and it was still down. This was only the secont time I've eaten there but I was very impressed again. I had nearly everything there. about 2-1/2 plates full and 2 desserts. Ray had 3-1/2 plates plus dessert.

Suffice it to say we needed a break from thrill rides. We took a very liesurly stroll to the Sky Ride. From there we headed to CP&LE R.R. It was about a 10 minute wait, but we didn't really mind. I was suprised to see the approaching train was packed. And by the time we rolled obut of the station, ours was too. We got a wonderful look at the construction going on.

After arriving in Frontier Town, we spent some time taking in the construction site and getting some pictures. As Ray had not been there since 2003, I was giving him a general overview of where different parts of Whit Water Landing used to be.

By this time we decided that a ride on Mean Streak could be attempted. Ray was happy to see somewhat of a line as he was still recovering from lunch. After about a 20 minute wait for the Rear seat, we had a successful ride on one of our Favorite Wood Coasters.

Next was the Mine Ride. despite several seats being deemed unridable, we only had about a 10 minute wait for the Front Seat. Upon exiting, we were happy to see that Skyhawk was being well recieved with a full queue. We decided to pass on a second Skyhawk Ride and headed for Gemini.

We rode the front seat of Blue Train and Lost after leading the whole way until the final turnaround and helix. From there we went to Magnum. The fresh coat of paint looked great. We had about a 30 minute wait for the Front Seat. From there we headed out to my car in the Soak City lot to get my glasses band that I forgot. I refuse to ride TTD without my glasses.

We then headed back in and for TTD. It was currently down so we decided to get a quick ride on Corkscrew and then we would wait for it to open back up. By the time we reached the station platform for Corckscrew, a TTD train went buzzing by. :) after a 5 minuted for the Front Seat on Corkscrew, we headed to TTD. This was a 1.5 hour line that took 3 hours to navigate. Despite this, we got to watch the entire fireworks show from the Ride Platform and shortly thereafter got out Front Seat Ride to cap off this wonderful opening day. I'm disapointed to say that I missed my first rollback by 1 train. The train just before us rolled back. 2 girls decided to get off before the relaunch and were sent off with a hail of Boo's from the restless and weary croud. Perhaps because of the failed first launch, we seemed to crest crest the top hat faster than I can ever remember doing so. So that was a thrill in itself.

All in all, this was a great day at Cedar Point.

Hopefuly next time I can find one of those (seemingly elusive to me) Cotton Candy Concessioniers.

I realize this was long, but I hope you all enjoyed it. See you at the Park. :)

Hey Jason I was next to you and nice picture of you!

Ditto. :) How was the rest of your day?