Song used on Cedar Downs

That's cool.

I heard that corny song being played at one of those basketball games last week.

Championship Season was my favorite part of that ride!

Oh I can't wait to hear this now. I have wished for the announcer to come back for so long.

Same. I'm pretty sure I complained about it in another thread here or on CoasterBuzz. :D That music always seemed so out of place on such an old ride.

It is nice that Cedar Downs is early entry available, gives me another option to ride with my son. However, I am disappointed that a coaster such as Iron Dragon or Blue Streak is not open early for the younger riders. I heard the "Race Announcer" on CD for the first time and enjoy the "call". As the ride slows and you have to wait until it "comes to a complete and final stop" the race announcer is still at a fever pitch as the horses come to the wire. It just sounds funny as you are creeping so slowly but I like it better than the other song.

^ well, both of those coasters you mentioned have the same height requirement as Millennium and Magnum, both of which are early entry rides...

Just being tall enough to get on doesn't make a child ready for the big ones.

That depends on the child, I know a lot of adults that won't ride the big ones. Overall, they please the largest amount of guests by having the most popular coasters open.

^^^ Go Intamin, yeah he is tall enough for Millenium & Magnum but Ethan is high function "autism" and wants nothing to do with those two coasters as well as Gatekeeper, Mean Streak, & Corkscrew. He says they are scary and he will die, so I am not about to push him to ride. I think the height and the loops intimidate him.

He has said that he wants to try Power Tower, but he has to grow about an inch more by the end of summer. I would probably start him on the push-up side as a starting point.

As I mentioned, I am just a little disappointed that the ones that he will ride are not open early but we will survive. We have come early about 4 times this year and have noticed hardly any riders on Cedar Downs, Cadillac Cars, Tiki-Twirl, Dodgem. Perhaps when more schools are out and more younger children will be in the park it will increase.

He also loves Gemini & Mine Ride but I have noticed that they have not opened each of them until 11:00am.

Oh, I wasn't aware of Ethan's circumstances, so I can see how it's unfortunate, however it is great that they are sunning some rides early that he will ride. And you're totally right on not trying to push him in, that's one of the worst things to do for someone that isn't ready.

jimmyburke, I share your sentiment on not forcing a child to ride. My son Alex (7yrs old & 51") is also on the spectrum and he's slowly now getting to the big rides and I think it can be attributed to slowly working his way up. We had some mistakes last year where he wanted to ride something that ended up being too big for him (Gemini & The Beast) and he was able to dial it back down to his comfort level, which was pretty much CCMR, Corkscrew, and Iron Dragon.

Of course this frustrated his older brother because he wanted a riding partner for the bigger rides. Alex felt ready a couple of weeks ago on Season Pass Preview night to ride Magnum. Coasting down the second hill he declared it 'The Greatest Ride Ever.' He wants a few more rides under his belt on Magnum before trying MF. So definitely do what you are doing. If you guys ever want to meet up at the park with another Autism Parent shoot me a message!

~Rob

Thanks Rob & Intamin, and I apologize to the Forum for this becoming "Autism Awareness" topic. I rode Corkscrew with him once last year and we waved at mom & his older brother who were in line at Power Tower. She looked at us with that Autism Parent look because she knew he probably wouldn't like it. He loves going to CP, the Blue Streak & CCMR crews sang happy birthday (10) to him last Sunday!

What a cool thing to do for your son by the crews. Another example of why CP is a great place!

Also another reason why I still think the Blue Streak crew is the friendliest I have ever seen.

You know what's weird...my friend whose son who is very high functioning Asperger's actually does better than her other son in regards to thrill rides. That's the thing about the spectrum; parents know their child best & adjust to make it the best experience it can be for them. Great job Jimmy & Rob :)

And BTW I think we need FAR more Autism Awareness.

One of the students I work with daily is on the spectrum and was recently hurt during a school field trip. All the teachers agree had it been any other kid on the trip they would not have handled his particular injury as well as he did. He was very matter of fact about it and looked relatively unfazed as he was loaded into the ambulance. Came back to school two days later talking about how as a superhero he regenerates when he's injured. I bet he'd be up for anything at an amusement park too.

I'm on the spectrum and handle all rides quite well. But patience is a weakness for me.

I was pretty disappointed to find out they got rid of the old song that was always played before. I got a kick out of how corny it was. Seriously, why change something like that?

The corny song was actually a change from what was previously played. I always hated that they changed TO the corny song. I'm looking forward to not hearing it.

I just wonder when they started running the Belmont Stakes at Cedar Downs.

The old recording sounded like a race announcer, but was pretty much unintelligible. I don't know how much of that was intentional and how much was just because it was an ancient recording on million-year-old tape played on an ancient sound system.

The new recording is crystal clear and is an actual recording of an announcement of the Belmont Stakes. I don't know horse racing well enough to tell you what year it was.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.