Thoughts about 2012
IMO, I would be willing to pay more money if they added in more rides. As I think Fast Lane price point was right. If you make it too cheap then it defeats the purpose.
It's a tricky price point situation. But considering who now is running the chain as he has plenty of experience with this type of system down in Disney.
Yes there can be some tweaks to the system and set-up of the lines but overall I think it work out much better. Especially much better than the Hand Stamp nonsense.
2012:
Reliability & Crews-This is the first year I've never been held up in Maverick's or Millennium's lines for breakdowns. The crews were fast for the most part and most were friendly.
Luminosity-I never got to see the show, (I went Memorial Day and over Halloweekends) however Celebration Plaza alone is a VAST improvement over the Wildcat Midway last year.
Ride Removals-
Wildcat's removal was sad. We always rode it if it had a short line. However, it had 2 newsworthy incidents in 3 years, so its removal was inevitable.
Space Spiral was another ride that we would ride if the line was short, but, again, if seen the ride running once in two years, so it probably wouldn't be very long till it was taken down.
Disaster Transport-Taer it down!!! But, seriously, this needed to come down. It wasn't a great ride and it was a hidious building.
Dinosaurs Alive!- I never went through but I saw someone near the ticket kiosks every time I passed.
Now the big debate
Fast Lane- Over a few years I've gotten Maverick's and Millenium's lines memorized to within 5-10 minutes. I can honestly say Fast Lane added about ten minutes to Maverick's normally hour long line. So does it affect lines: Yes. Is it enough to complain about: No.
2012: The best year at the park that I can remember (I'm 15 and have been coming for long time.) Bring on 2013.
::Good::
What I really enjoyed about this year was the fact that riding Mean Streak was a much smoother experience than past years. I know most people would debate me on this, but I thought it was a big improvement.
Dinosaurs Alive - I went through opening weekend just to see what it was like. Even though I'd rather have Paddle wheel Excursions, I understand Cedar Point trying to bring in more families.
Luminosity - I went to see it during Coaster Mania and loved it! My only regret is that I couldn't get my friends to see it. Then again, the only people that I can really share my passion for roller coasters with is the people that I know from here on Pointbuzz.
::Bad::
Something has to be done about Fast Lane for next season. Yes I can understand if it's busy than it's great to have it. However, on days where you can walk on a ride, it's unnecessary. I also don't think they should have Fast Lane for the smaller rides such as Cadillac Cars or Dodgems. That's stupid in my opinion.
I was also saddened to find out that Windseeker was grounded. Hopefully Cedar Fair gets the bugs out of these and it opens in 2013. They're already talking on KI Central about them being dismantled. I hope that's not true because I really enjoy Windseeker!
Also, I know Cedar Point lost 3 family rides this season. I'm excited for Gatekeeper, but I'm hoping Cedar Point brings in more family rides after 2013 to replace the ones that were removed.
I also want to add that this will be my last visit for 2012 after today. Looking forward to 2013! :)
This was a really fun coaster season for me! I was blessed to have my two sons and my husband with me and my coaster family is now over 20 that come along with us! I will miss Disaster Transport, the Space Spiral and Wild Cat. I am so looking forward to THe Gate Keeper and Coke being in my happy place! I am so blessed to have a beautiful place like Cedar Point and my parks to call my " happy place!!!!"
Life is like a rollercoaster! It is full of ups and downs
The Good
Soak City face-lift: The slides look amazing and feel a bit smoother. Dragster H2O is a great addition. Even though it isn't that thrilling, but the raised platform at the top makes it very easy to get on to and gain speed through the helix.
Luminosity: I thought the show was great. I wish there were a few less dancers and more singers. The area looks great in the evening too.
FastLane: It is a slightly annoying to the general public, but the system is done very well. I appreciate the fact that FastLane users have to wait a bit for Millennium and Maverick.
Park Music: The music around the park was a good mix this year. I was kind of mad not to hear Love Shack 3 times in one day though ;)
Food: The food quality was very good this year. I hope CP will get a Coca-Cola Marketplace with healthy food offerings in 2013.
Upkeep of Lights: Power Tower, Millennium, and Giant Wheel looked great this year.
The Bad
Celebration Plaza: The area looked like a mess during the daytime.
Summer Daze: Was a poor replacement for Island Heat, Tropical Beat.
Red Garter Saloon: Almost every time I sat on the balcony level of the saloon there was Popcorn everywhere.
Employees: Most of the time, the staff is very professional at Cedar Fair. However, I witnessed or was the victim of employee rudeness and carelessness more than ever this year. I also saw PDA with two employees for the first time ever at any Cedar Fair park.
Took 22 trips to the park this year :) Never get bored. There are times when it's just so hot and I don't want to stand in a 1.5 hour line, so my girlfriend and I will go wander around the park and I'll take pictures/videos.
I enjoyed Dino's Alive! and thought the Soak City paint job really made that area look a lot nicer.
I attended CoasterMania for the first time this year. It was a lot of fun and I do plan on going again in 2013. Hopefully, this time, it will be a two day event like I have read about in the past years.
I'm also on the young end, 17, but I do agree that the atmosphere seemed to have a lighter feel to it this year than past. I remember when I found out about Fast Lane, I was mad about it, saying that Cedar Point is not Disney. After going to the park several times this year, I realized it's a good edition, worth the money if you are willing to pay it. My only complaint is that my HalloWeekends visit was an off day for the haunted houses and walk-throughs. I think the theming was great, but I saw nearly every screamster coming, and was only genuinely scared twice. But that is definitely not as big a deal as other things could have been.
The removal of the screen in front of Millennium Force/CPLE was, at least to me, the greatest visual change this year. Rounding the corner, and seeing the best coaster in the world... coastergasm! The platinum deals on food: Yes! In the 13 visits this year, we never packed a cooler.
Top Thrill Dragster seemed to be running better than I have ever seen it. Never broke down on us, and unfortunately, we never got a rollback.
I never understood the thinking of those that paid for premium parking. Park closer to have a shorter walk to the entrance, to do what? Walk all day in the park.
Fastlane- I think most of the bugs were worked out by the summer season. Maverick still needs some tweaking though. It seems that queue took the biggest hit, as far as wait times. I never used it at CP, mainly because of my jewel of a Platinum Pass.
I will miss Disaster Transport and Space Spiral, mostly because those were the rides we went on after lunch, to ease us into the afternoon. But GateKeeper is an awesome tradeoff.
Food was hit or miss all season. We had great and not so great experiences at Midway Market and Coasters.
Is is May 11 yet?
Another thing I forgot to add is the deal where you pay $5 and you get refills all day on your Cedar Point cup. Saves a lot of money when you don't have to keep buying $3.50 bottles of pop.
I hope they will still have that deal with the switch to Coke.
Almost forgot about the discontinue use of the Kinzel Dixie Cup for water. Towards the lat half of the season they were given out around a 16 oz cup of water. As I made a comment and the person said that they are switching over to this size.
I thought 2012 was a great year, but I've thought every other year was great as well. There were lots of little positive changes, and some big negative changes for me.
I thought ride operations were improved over 2011. The extra train on Iron Dragon and Mean Streak was noticed. Mean Streak was delivering some of its best rides in years. On the low attendance days, there seemed to be less of the awful 1-train operation that I had seen in 2011. The Intamin's were running very well during all of my trips. Corkscrew was missing that 3rd train though; I noticed bizarrely long lines for it several times.
The music throughout the park was improved. It felt much more relevant for the target audience, and the sound quality was improved up front. They definitely need to update the sound systems in other areas of the park though.
I'm a huge fan of night lighting at amusement parks, and CP delivered this year. Giant Wheel really brought the park to life at night, and the fixed lighting on Power Tower and Millenium Force was very satisfying. The projections and lights along the midway were nice touches as well.
The Platinum Pass food deals were awesome. I was always looking for opportunities to use them. It was fun getting 2 soft drinks and 2 orders of fresh cut fries for around $7 after hearing friends complain about what a rip off everything at CP was.
Soak City looked nicely freshened, and the removal of the big screen was a huge positive change.
I felt no ill effects from Fast Lane. I went on most of the same low attendance days this year as in the past, and there were still no to low waits with very few Fast Laners.
Dinosaurs Alive and Luminosity get a meh from me. I didn't think DA was very special at Kings Island, and I skipped it altogether at CP. While I was impressed with Luminosity's lighting and stage at night, I hated that whole area during the day...possibly more junky than the big screen. The music and singing just didn't work very well together, and the sound was muffled from where I was sitting.
The loss of Wildcat, Paddlewheel Excursions, and Disaster Transport was really noticed. There were several times where I just felt like something was missing after lapping the park. I know many here skipped all 3 of these rides regularly, but they really added a feeling of variety to my day.
I'm really looking forward to GateKeeper though, and I think it will help patch up that off feeling.
I miss Paddlewheel Excursions a lot as well. I wish they could have kept it, while making the bridge to DA a draw bridge type deal in order to keep PWE alive.
Alternatively, build two docks on the island - one each on the west and east sides. In order to experience DA, you board the boat, travel to the first dock, then disembark to walk through DA. Once on the other side of the island (and having completed DA), you re-board and travel back to "the mainland".
Seems as though that may have accomplished a few things - keeping intact some semblance of PWE, and enhanced the DA experience.
Brandon
djDaemon said:
Seems as though that may have accomplished a few things - keeping intact some semblance of PWE, and enhanced the DA experience.
And then we would have people getting irate that the park gutted PWE and complaining about how it was just a shell of its former self that was already a shell of it former self.
Why do people have such a hard time letting go of PWE?
True, but people complain when the park adds multi-million dollar attractions, so I wouldn't pay them much mind.
Shades said:
Why do people have such a hard time letting go of PWE?
Probably because PWE was a rare breed - a true family attraction.
Brandon
Ffej said:
Corkscrew was missing that 3rd train though; I noticed bizarrely long lines for it several times.
This is the second year in a row now that Corkscrew hasn't been running all three trains. In 2011 the red train was not in operation, and in 2012 the blue train was not in operation. If the pattern continues, it's likely that they will not run the white train next year. I did find it interesting how the unused train could be seen in Mean Streak's infield, with the rest of the old cars rotting away.
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