Saturday 08/21 - Good Early-Day Visit

My daughter and I hit the park through the Soak City entrance just as Magnum rattled to life at about 9:45am. Got in 3 quick, walk-on, back-car, no-trim rides. They have some Ride Pride folks in the park now. The one at the Magnum entrance was using that striped pole like a gate to stop people who were carrying anything in their hands. She wasn't very polite about telling people they couldn't bring this or that on the ride. I thought she could have been a bit less harsh. Also, she wasn't moving people to the side when explaining these things, so, whenever it happened, a big knot of people would form until the issue was resolved.

After Maggie, we headed toward Frontier Town. Gemini was down for some reason, running empty trains, and had a huge waiting line, which stretched almost to the Frog Hopper. Can't figure why people would stand in a line, for a closed ride, when Magnum was a complete walk-on?!

Hit White Water Landing, which we had to ourselves, then a quick walk up the Trail (My 1st time this year!) to the Midway. Iron Dragon had a short line, then over to Wildcat, where we waited maybe a maximum of 15 minutes. I was very disappointed to hear an auto-spiel at Wildcat! It was one of the last great places to hear a good, human spiel! As we got off, I noticed they had opened the cattle pens on Iron Dragon. Went down to the Dodgems, where we waited 1 cycle to get on. Surprisingly, the ride-op was very clear, and easy to understand. Also, for some reason, however, he was welcoming people to Dodgem II!

It was about noon when we finished at Dodgem, and noticed Skyride was down. Wind, probably, although I didn't think it was that bad. Katie hit the arcade, and I headed toward the Corkscrew, which was closed, but dispatching full trains. No way to explain that. Since Corkscrew was out, I went down and picked up a quick single-rider pass on the Magnum, and headed back to the arcade for my kid. Took a quick tour of the arcade, spent a couple of dollars trying to get a Goliath to go with my Davey. Checked the "dead zone", just for the heck of it. Yeah, all my old faves are still there, and still just as dead as they were opening weekend.

After the arcade, we headed out, grabbing a pretzel for the walk. The lines were starting to get pretty long, so there was no reason to stay. Magnum was into the cattle pens and well out on the Midway when we walked past at about 12:45pm. Leaving the park, we noticed that they were parking people in the last two rows by the road, and the lot between the road and the bay was almost 2/3 full, also. Traffic was backed up 3 lanes down almost to the island on the causeway. We figured that we got out in the nick of time! Over all, a good solid couple of hours in the park, with good ride time, and a timely escape from the maddening crowd. Wore my PointBuzz T-Shirt proudly, and noticed a lot of people doing double takes at the "magnum is sinking" line on the front. :)

That would be a horrible trip. You didn't ride on anything good, except Magnum.
Dragster? Millennium Force? Raptor? Wicked Twister?

True.. I would feel like something is missing if that was all I did in a day, but it would be cool to just spend a morning there sometime.
Whoa.. you drove 2 1/2 hours though? In that case I would want to stay the day. I haven't been on a Saturday since May though, and it sounds like it was getting pretty bad.

Sounds awesome about your tee shirt though.
I need to get one of those.

I live 3 hours from CP, I would gladly drive up there for a few Maggie rides and maybe a TTD ride!

My wife's parents live in Marblehead, so we stay at their place a lot. It's 2.5 hr from our front door to theirs. Actually only 2.0 hr to Cedar Point. We have developed a pretty sweet strategy. We usually come up on Friday evenings, and hit the park from about 6pm till closing. My wife likes the Midway under the lights. We ride a lot of her favorite flat rides, and, of course, coasters. Gotta love that laser show. No better way to empty out the queues for the real riders!

On Saturday mornings, Katie & I usually Joe Cool it so she can ride the Force or the Dragster, and I can be at Magnum when it opens. We spend a couple of hours at the park, and then bail out when the crowds thicken up, usually about 1pm. I figure it's better to let the tourists sweat in the long lines. We have become quite accustomed to not waiting more than 1 or 2 dispatches for coaster rides. :) Sometimes we go back in the evening for some night riding. Some weekends we stay an extra day and repeat the strategy on Sunday mornings, also.

Unfortunately, I cannot fit into the newer molded seats on rides like the Dragster, Raptor, Wicked Twister and so on. My hip bones are just too wide, and the seat digs into them. Magnum, Gemini and Corkscrew are the biggest coasters I can ride. I can squeeze into the Blue Streak & the CCMR, but it is a very tight fit, so I usually don't. I have not tried the Mean Streak, but I suspect it would be the same as the Blue Streak, as the seats & restraints appear to be of the same type.

So, we go to CP a lot, although we may not stay more than a few hours at a time. But when we are there, we are getting very high quality ride time, and extremely short lines. We feel very fortunate to be able to do this.

If I lived half as close to Cedar Point than most other people on this site, I would go almost every day! (provided I can drive, but only two years left for that...) :)

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Tank said:
Unfortunately, I cannot fit into the newer molded seats on rides like the Dragster, Raptor, Wicked Twister and so on. My hip bones are just too wide, and the seat digs into them. Magnum, Gemini and Corkscrew are the biggest coasters I can ride. I can squeeze into the Blue Streak & the CCMR, but it is a very tight fit, so I usually don't. I have not tried the Mean Streak, but I suspect it would be the same as the Blue Streak, as the seats & restraints appear to be of the same type.

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Hold up! They remolded the Raptor seats!?!

I went to CP back in 2000 when Millennium Force opened. Then didn't go in 2001 and 2002. Then in 2003 I came back and got to ride TTD and WT. So, when did they remold the Raptor seats, it didn't feel too different.

So, when did they remold the Raptor seats, it didn't feel too different.

Perhaps I expressed myself poorly. I do not fit in any of the molded seats on the "newer" coasters, such as Raptor, etc. I just started riding coasters late last season, after losing a dramatic amount of weight. Previously, I did not fit in any of the coasters, or other rides, for that matter. I last rode Blue Streak in the early 1980's, and at that time, it had simple bench-type seats. Now it has the plastic insert, with the wall between the riders. That reduced the seating space to a hip-cruncher, at least for me. The curved arms on the Raptor test seat dig into my hip bones, very painfully. I fit fine in the test seat for the Force, and had lost enough weight for last year's belt to fit. Unfortunately, the new rules and belt positions leave me out again. :(