This was my family's (husband and 2 boys - ages 4 & 7) 3rd trip to Cedar Point this year. This was a special one though as my sister and her family (husband and 3 girls - ages 8, 10, 12) from Minnesota were with us. They live 20 minutes from Valleyfair - a Cedar Fair park - so they were real interested in the season passes.
We find the TOPS store, go right to "Customer Service" and find a hand written sign that says, "We are sorry we are temporarily out of the $49.00 Cedar Point Season Passes…" Whoa, not good. I will skip the long story. The short story includes phone calls to CP from the Customer Service Employee, Store Manager, and us (also included were tears from my son - age 7 - who loves MF). A Cedar Point employee in marketing made the right decision to drive some more season passes over to the TOPS store Sunday night. We got our season pass vouchers at 8:30pm and our faith was restored in Cedar Point doing the right thing for the customer.
MONDAY - August 5th
All 9 of us are packed into 1 vehicle for the drive down the causeway. There were screams of excitement as the coasters came into view. I love that part. We arrive at the Season Pass Center at 8:45am to get our official season passes. We are all thrilled except my 4 year old - who we didn't get a season pass for. (He's under 48" and we had gotten some free (!) passes from a friend that we would use for him.) He REALLY wanted to get his picture taken. He got over it.
We made our way to the Marina Gate. My sister's 12 year old was not too sure about hitting MF first thing - but she knew that would be our only chance that day. My sister's 10 year old knew she wasn't going on it, so she would wait with my 4 year old while the rest of us would ride. That first "Running of the Bulls" was the best. My 4 year old was belted in the umbrella stroller, and I told him to hang on. (I'm a runner, and have a running stroller with 16" wheels - I was wishing I had that with me!) We took off and everyone loved the race. We were huffing and puffing as we walked through the queues, the smiles and laughs were abundant. (With the exception of the 12 year old who was stressed about the whole thing.) We made the 3rd car, had an AWESOME ride, and EVERYONE (including the 12 year old) loved it!! I warned them about experiencing "The Force" first.
Some highlights/info from Day 1:
* Temps were in the high 90s
* First time for DT - it's hot in there, 7 & 8 year olds loved it
* Thank goodness for the Parent Swap policy - otherwise we wouldn't have gotten on so many rides. (We've been going to CP since my youngest was 1 - and the Parent Swap is the only thing that's saved us!)
* First time to utilize the Picnic Shelter. We got $2.00 Styrofoam coolers at TOPS, headed to Subway for sandwiches and we had a cheap lunch. At 11:45 it wasn't crowded at all.
* Iron Dragon was down all day. In the morning the lift chain was apart. Later in the afternoon we saw one train go - but that was it.
* Mean Streak was handing out great rides. The best ever. Not near as shaky or painful as usual. We rode that late, so could get off and right back on for a second trip.
* Chaos was up and running - no takers from our group.
* Hadn't been on Mantis in over a year, I forgot how dizzy that makes a person.
* Gnats, little bugs - whatever they are - were awful at dusk. My family had neon green T-shirts on, and the bugs liked the neon colors. We were totally covered in them. It was pretty gross for awhile.
At 10:00 my 4-year old couldn't go on, so we headed out.
Day 2: August 7th
At the Marina Gate - at 9:15am there was a line forming at the turn-styles, they weren't letting people through. Some had already gone through, but they were corralled off to the side by the cinema. They were going to have to go through a second set of turn-styles. Thankfully were at the front of the "Season Pass" line. It made things a bit more difficult as I had to keep the stroller folded until we got through the line, THEN flip the thing open and get my son (safely!) in. My son loved it as he got to "Run with the Bulls" (holding on to my husbands hand) for a little ways. He was soon tired of that and away we went again. They started loading the cars with riders at 9:50am (just like the day before) and we were the 3rd car - again. Just an awesome ride…well worth the hassle to get everyone there early!!
Highlights/info from Day 2:
* Hit the Magnum 2 times in a row - always a great ride. Love the sensation of falling out of the car at the turn-around.
* WildCat was more fun than I remembered, and for the first time, that ride wasn't down at any point while we were there.
* No waiting at Blue Streak or the TurnPike cars - we hit those over and over.
* Thank goodness for MidWay Market - that was the perfect spot for a late lunch. We needed to cool off and get some good food.
* How can there be a shorter line for Power Tower than the DT? I guess I'm just not a DT fan.
* No Iron Dragon today either!! Have never seen a ride down 2 days in a row.
* The kiddie coasters take a painfully long time to load and unload.
* It's nice that the ride op on the carousel (at the Main Gate) warns parents that not all horses go up and down.
* Big bummer to me that we weren't able to fit in Raptor either day. Nobody else seemed to care. I don't understand that. (My 7 year wants to ride it, but he's not tall enough yet.)
At 6:00pm we had to head out for a 4 hour drive home. My husband and I had to work on Wednesday, the 8th. The Breakers Express hotel had a temp. of 98 degrees. It would have been OK for my husband (who's not an addict like me) NOT to have known that. I must say, he was a trooper through it all. The crowds were lighter than I expected (considering it's August) and I'm sure that was "thanks" to the heat.
As we were loading into the Suburban to head out, I asked my 7-year old if he had a good time. He said, "Mom, it was SWEEEEEEEET." My 4-year old added, "You know Mom, that's even better than 'awesome'." I would have to agree.
Today I'm wondering how to convince my husband to make one more trip this season…
16 days and counting!
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Next trip to CP on August 25th - 26th!
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