Saturday 6/15/13, Fun and relaxed day

Usually I hate going to the park on on a saturday if it's at all avoidable, but this time I didn't have a choice. Originally I was going to meet with a group of friends (the same ones I went with on this date last year) but none of them were able to go. I tried to find other people to go but it didn't work out. And apparently my mom and one of her friends had planned on going this day, so I just tagged along with them and it actually turned out to be a fun day.

We planned on meeting my mom's friend at 10:30, and once we did the first thing we went on was GateKeeper. By now, the coaster enthusiast part of my was also boiling over 3 times. First I couldn't believe I was going to the park on a saturday, then I couldn't believe we were getting to the park at 10:30 and not sooner, and we were heading to one of the closest rides to the front gate when there would be a long line. But it was my mom's friend's first time to the park in 30 years so we let her do whatever she wanted to do, and she really wanted to go on GK right away.

Coaster enthusiast peeve #4: my mom's friend brought a big strapped purse thing. I tried not to say anything and to stay calm, but we had only been to the park for fifteen minutes and there were already 4 things that were driving me crazy. So she bought a locker, and we got in line. It ended up being about an hour and 45 minute line. Could've been shorter if we'd have waited a few hours...Oh well, the line seemed like it went by pretty fast. My only complaint is that I think they need to add more shade coverings in the queue. There is a good part of it that's out in the open with sun shining down, and it got pretty hot.

Rode the left side toward the back, and we all loved it. Next we went to Millennium, and it was an hour wait. After about 20 minutes in line the DJ got there and started playing music. It was a great ride as usual.

Then we headed back along Frontier Trail. I noticed that SkyHawk wasn't testing or running, so hopefully it will be soon. By this time my mom's friend was getting hungry, so we decided to stop for pizza in the restaurant next to the saloon (I forget what it's called). Now here's my first complaint that doesn't relate to being a coaster enthusiast, and it's a complaint my family and I have had for a long time. We think that food service employees need to be worked on both with customer service and being prepared. There are some nice people who work in food stands and restaurants, but some of them are just plain rude and don't care about their job or the people they're serving. In the restaurant we were at, you could tell the employees seemed bored, but at least they weren't rude, but they were NOT prepared. The restaurant wasn't even busy; there was hardly anyone in it, but they had no pizza. They said they had to make some more. I understand food runs out, but they could have at least started making more when they noticed they were running low. Since it wasn't busy, this could have easily been done. We could have gone somewhere else, but we decided to wait since we all wanted to sit down and relax for a little bit. When we finally got our pizza, it was pretty good and then we went over to Maverick.

It wasn't a full queue, but filled up the covered waiting area, went along the path over the pond, and filled up a few rows in the 1st queue area. Not terrible but not the best. After a little bit the ride shut down, but it thankfully got running again. And while we were waiting in the 2nd queue area, the building, the ride shut down again, this time due to weather. It had started to rain a little. All of a sudden someone inflated a beach ball and started tossing it around. And pretty soon there were 2 other beach balls flying around. So during and even after the rain closure everyone had fun tossing around 3 beach balls. It was so much fun! People should do this more often.

Maverick was also great as always. From here my mom's friend wanted to go on Gemini, but it was closed for rain even though it was barely sprinkling. Then we checked Magnum and it was closed too. But it looked like it was clearing up and since there were only a few people in front of us, we waited in the line that had started to form outside the entrance. It took about a half hour but finally it opened back up, along with most of the other rides that had been closed. Had a ride on Magnum after walking right on when it opened (didn't seem as rough as I remember it) and then rode the blue train on Gemini after a 5 minute wait. This ride is getting really rough, but at least I won. But when I was waiting in the station, the blue train ahead of mine got stopped part way up the lift, and a ride op went sprinting out of the station and ran all the way up the lift to the train. I saw him grab a phone from someone who was probably taking a video. Stupid. So then they really stressed that you can't have any object with you, or you'll lose the race like the last blue train and everyone will be mad at you.

From here we headed toward the front of the park and rode Blue Streak. I still love this ride and really wish more people would go on it. It was a walk on, but I would love the day it has a substantial wait. And I really do hope this area of the park is the next to get redone and revitalized. It needs it badly. Next we went on the Cadillac Cars and it was about 8:30. My mom's friends decided to go home, and once she left my mom and I went back to Millennium to ride it again. We decided not to since it was 9 by the time we got there and we were hoping to check out Luminosity, and Millennium had 1 1/4 wait. So instead we got an ice cream (and another instance of employees who don't care) and watched Luminosity. I was really impressed. The talent was excellent, and it was high paced and high energy throughout. Plus I loved the DJ and dance party afterward. It was a great way to end the day.

Despite being a saturday, it really wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. We didn't try to cram tons of stuff in, and just enjoyed having fun and starting off my summer vacation on a great note. Can't wait to get back again!

It was also the PointGuru's first trip to the park. Made a spur of the moment trip to take advantage of the last day of the early season discount for twilight admission. The weather was gorgeous all day. Checked the weather forecast and it called for only a 6% chance of rain. Driving down the causeway it started to rain (sort of). By that I mean a few drops of water hit the windshield but had dried off (without using the wipers) by the time I parked. That was it for the rain. Unbelievably, this spritzing of moisture caused havoc with the majority of the rides in the park for hours. On the good side Gatekeeper, MF, and Raptor kept running. Every other coaster was shut down and it wasn't until about 8:00 PM the rest were running again.

As Ride On mentioned, the park was not terribly packed for a Saturday but it was still pretty busy. One thing that is unfortunately obvious is the park is intentionally increasing the wait on many of the older rides to increase Fast Lane sales. The park is running rides at less than capacity to increase waits for the regular lines. Single trains on Blue Streak, CCMR, and Corkscrew or blocking off seats on the trains. Even rides like antiques cars would only be running 5 or 6 cars with 10 cars pulled of the ride sitting idle as the wait in line exceeded 30 minutes.

It is truly despicable how the park is continually deceasing the value of the admission to the park. Management needs to be ashamed of itself.

The PointGuru said:
It is truly despicable how the park is continually deceasing the value of the admission to the park. Management needs to be ashamed of itself.

I just cant figure out how Cedar Point gets voted best Amusement Park year after year with all of these problems.......

At this point in the season they are still running single trains on CCMR and such? Hopefully when I go on Saturday that's changed. Nothing worse than single train operations...

Actually, CCMR runs 3 trains on Saturdays. Just saying..

The PointGuru said:
It was also the PointGuru's first trip to the park

Wow but you are a point guru?? Lol

Anyways, rain shuts some rides down completely, others can run in certain conditions. If corkscrew was running one train its due to a safety redundancy. During weather we can transfer one train off and go back up with one until weather clears completely and supervision gives us the OK to go back up with two. Same with some other rides as well. Some coasters have to go down completely. As for Gemini, its because the ride is completely photo eye driven for the plc. With that being said rain causes an automatic shutdown as to not also cause a safety issue by adding redundancy.

Also as for running like this due to increasing fast lane passes...please. I'd love to just see the logic behind that. Did it ever occur to you they shut off certain rows to keep weight in certain parts of the train that are vital, or ridership is slightly low and doesn't fill all seats so its less seats to completely check and lock each dispatch, or maybe they're down mechanical?

Thought of ban hammer, real good

thedevariouseffect said:

Also as for running like this due to increasing fast lane passes...please. I'd love to just see the logic behind that. Did it ever occur to you they shut off certain rows to keep weight in certain parts of the train that are vital, or ridership is slightly low and doesn't fill all seats so its less seats to completely check and lock each dispatch, or maybe they're down mechanical?

You really need to start using your own brain. I respect you are serving our country. Maybe being in the military you have been conditioned to believe every word your boss has told you, I don't know. The only reason for FL, is the park figured correctly that people would pay more money to cut in line. The park sells the most FL passes on busy days because lines are long. In order to sell more passes on slower days, the park just makes the lines longer by decreasing capacity of rides. You have to stop believing every stupid made up excuse someone ever told you just because they had a blue name tag or a tie on. It is insulting to any reasonable person when the park closes rides or reduce their capacity for no justifiable reason other than to make more money. If you don't think management does this on a regular basis, then I have some ocean front property I would like to sell you in Arizona.

The PointGuru said:
Even rides like antiques cars would only be running 5 or 6 cars with 10 cars pulled of the ride sitting idle as the wait in line exceeded 30 minutes.

If there isn't much of a line that day and they have 10+ cars running but not enough riders to keep up with the cycle, it is much harder to move cars that are empty. Antique/Cadillac Cars can't be sent out empty so the employees have to physically move the cars off the tracks. At certain times, they do add cars/take some away, but for a busy "spurt" it may not be worth the hassle to mess with loading/unloading cars on the track.....

pointguru
Why do you go to cedar point if you hate it so much?

novak72 said:
pointguru
Why do you go to cedar point if you hate it so much?

It seems he has left the room...Hope he got some coffee and cake on his way out! :-)