As soon as I read that Disaster Transport was leaving us at the end of July (Thanks Mike!), I started trying to round up some friends to get a final ride (it was closed my earlier visit this year). The day that finally worked out for us was Thursday, 7/19.
With an 80% chance of storms (and 60-70% chance for every hour through close), my friends were trying hard to bail, but I urged them to come, just throwing out some generic message that it'd all work out and be a fun day. (I really wasn't sure, but I wanted that last ride on DT! lol)
So, we took off at 7:30AM, and it was raining lightly. The whole way to Cedar Point, it rained harder, and it was thick gray clouds as far as the eye could see; it looked hopeless.
About 5 minutes from Cedar Point, it started pouring, and my friends wanted to either go back home or buy a day pass to Kalahari. I told them that they were thinking like everyone else, and we should just stick around and take the gamble. We stopped in at Dairy Queen and debated what to do, while the Platinum Bonus time was being eaten away. It went back to raining lightly, and I asked them if I could just see the park (again, a trick to get them to change mentalities of wanting to leave).
It was around 9:30AM, and there were maybe 2 rows of cars in the parking lot, which I hyped up and got them excited. As we drove past Millenium Force, it was running 1 train in the rain with people half way up the ramp, which kind of shocked me; MF didn't run in the rain on my visits last year.
We were all excited now, and I told them we could change into bathing suits, hit Millenium Force, Skyhawk, Shoot the Rapids, Thunder Canyon, and Snake River Falls, where we'd get wet anyway. We did this without issue.
It continued to rain, and we came up with the brilliant idea of hitting Soak City in the rain by 11:30AM or so (I hadn't been to Soak City in around 20 years). Oddly, no one else thought of this much. Soak City was empty, and we did all the slides without a wait and even a lap on the action river.
After doing the new Dragster H20, my friend gave me some scary news. He realized the zip lock bag, which contained my keys, credit card, our season passes, and our drivers licenses, had slipped out of his cargo pocket. We backtracked all the slides, and the lifeguard at Eerie Falls said he found it and gave it to his Team Leader. Thank you, Cedar Point employees! We found the Team Leader, and she happily gave us the bag. A disaster was avoided, and the rain stopped. +2 It was time for Cedar Point.
The park was not very crowded, but I could tell that the sheep herd had worked their way to the back of the park upon entering the Magnum gate. So, it was time for the very front of the park, where there was no one. We walked on all the coasters up there, some multiple times. While up on Windseeker, I could see that the parking lot was nearly half full. Pretty unbeatable for a July day.
Surprisingly, Disaster Transport was about the only wait for the day, where we waited from the bottom of the stairs. It worked out perfectly, and I got first choice of the seat, where I grabbed the front. I locked in this final memory, remembering every word of the sound effects from the early 90's..."Welcome aboard! I'm your in flight computer. I have been programmed to get you safely back to the voluntary receiving station. Stand clear the cargo loading port! Cargo loaded; Switching to automatic launch sequence." etc.
Sadly, nothing much was left working on DT, and CP poked fun at the ride by putting a giant stuffed animal in the final room before Alaska. Goodbye, Disaster Transport; I had the best possible final ride I could get, and I won't forget all my great childhood memories.
We continued through toward the back of the park, while people started working their way back to the front. We walked on all the coasters skipping Maverick (an hour wait) and TTD, which was down the entire day. We saw All Wheels Extreme, and then hit up Thirsty Pony for some great burgers and giant beers. After re-riding many of the coasters, we returned to Disaster Transport at around 9PM. To my surprise, the line was outside and over 30 minutes. Since I already said goodbye, I passed; were others also getting their final rides?
We hit Power tower and Dodgem, and then watched Luminosity at a table directly next to the VIP area (I posted our reviews in the Luminosity thread). After the show was done, we ran back to Maverick, our only ride left. We only had a 2-train wait! I forgot how awesome Maverick was at night. It just comes to life at night like the Beast. All the early ride time rides on Maverick over the years are just slaughtered by a night ride. It was the perfect way to end the very full day (with no Fast Lane needed)! This was such a great trip, and I'm so glad we stuck out that morning rain.
A few other memorable things from this trip:
--Capacity at Cedar Point has improved this year. Gemini was running all 4 trains, Iron Dragon and Mean Streak 3 trains, Power Tower all 4 towers, Skyhawk all sections open, etc. even with the lighter crowds. I never felt like CP was trying to make me wait like many of my trips last year.
--I tried Los Gatos for the first time, using the Platinum Pass deal: 2 free tacos when buying the Machos Nachos. I was expecting Taco Bell quality and size, and I was floored by what you got! The Machos Nachos was huge in a nice black container and loaded with all kinds of toppings. With the tacos, it filled all 3 of us for a good while.
--I had a great ride on Mean Streak in the front (posted my review in the 2012 Mean Streak thread.
--I forgot how much fun water parks are. I was surprised at how little Soak City had changed from 20 years ago though; some of the tubes even appeared to be the same. But, the new paint on the slides did freshen things up a bit.
--It's pretty clear that a building is being constructed in the center of Mean Streak, but it doesn't look large enough for a good haunt. It'll be interesting to see where that goes in the coming weeks.
--Giant Wheel looks phenomenal with its new lighting package. Once those lights turned on at night, the ride had a nearly full queue! I've never seen that many people in line for GW my entire life. Has it been like that many nights since the new lights, or was this just a coincidence?
Nice TR, Jeff, and you're welcome. Glad that your valuables turned up; that would have put a real dampener on the day, even more so than the rain.
Oh, and good job cajoling your GP friends into going...
My author website: mgrantroberts.com.
Hahaha silly GP's, bwa wa ha.
Actually, one is very GP and ignores my enthusiast rambling. But, I managed to shoehorn some enthusiast into the other. As we passed by the broken TTD, my one friend sighed and said, "Intamin." I laughed and did an enthusiast victory dance in my head:
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