Trip July 22-23: Questions

Hello all! I am new here. I have been reading PointBuzz for a couple of years now, I just have never posted anything. Anyway, me and my friend will be making a trip to Cedar Point on July 22 and 23rd, which is a Sunday and a Monday. We will be arriving there at about 5:00pm, and that is when we will go in on Sunday. On Monday, we will be in the park all day, and since we are staying in Hotel Breakers, we will be able to take advantage of early entry. With all of that said, I have a few questions:

1. What is a good game plan for Sunday when we arrive at the park at 5:00pm?

2. What ride should we sprint to during early entry?

3. How crowded do you think it will be for both days and what do you think the wait times will be for the Big Three?

4. When do the weather forecasts become accurate? The forecast has been switching between scattered thunderstorms and partly cloudy for days now.

Sorry for all of the questions. I also apologize if these questions have been answered before, but like I said, I am new here (to the forums, at least). Any help is appreciated and thank you in advance!

Morning ERT...maverick first, millennium next, then get in line for Dragster.

Any chance of buying Fast Lane?

I think at this point in the season the big 3 will be 45min to an hour+ at any given point of the day, so knock them out with ERT!

The weather is a crapshoot. If it does rain, it rarely is a complete wash out. I would start getting a feel for what it is going to do starting Tuesday, and keep checking of course!

As for Sunday, I would play the short line game and jump on as many rides as you can in the short time span.

JW Addington said:
Morning ERT...maverick first, millennium next, then get in line for Dragster.

Any chance of buying Fast Lane?

I think at this point in the season the big 3 will be 45min to an hour+ at any given point of the day, so knock them out with ERT!

The weather is a crapshoot. If it does rain, it rarely is a complete wash out. I would start getting a feel for what it is going to do starting Tuesday, and keep checking of course!

As for Sunday, I would play the short line game and jump on as many rides as you can in the short time span.

Thanks! You can buy Fast Lane Inside the park in some of the stores, right? If that's the case, I could just wait until we get in there to see what the wait times/crowds are like, and then purchase them if needed.

Also, I have one more question: What do you think wait times will be for some other coasters? The reason that I am asking so many questions is that we usually go in late August, and we couldn't make it this year, so we have to go in July. The weather forecast now says that it will be 88 and partly cloudy, and another one says sunny and 82. I hope that it's not that hot, but I guess that I should have expected this going in July. Thanks for your help!

Yes, there are a bunch of places to purchase Fast Lane in the park.

Depending on the time of day and crowd, the other coasters could range from a 5-15min wait to a 45min wait. It's hard to predict the wait times, but that's a good guess. The weather plays a role as well.

If you don't get Fast Lane, ride Raptor later in the day, much shorter wait then the hour plus wait at opening.

JW Addington said:
Yes, there are a bunch of places to purchase Fast Lane in the park.

Depending on the time of day and crowd, the other coasters could range from a 5-15min wait to a 45min wait. It's hard to predict the wait times, but that's a good guess. The weather plays a role as well.

If you don't get Fast Lane, ride Raptor later in the day, much shorter wait then the hour plus wait at opening.

"Ride Raptor later in the day, much shorter wait then the hour plus wait at opening."

By that, do you mean like the evening (6-8pm) or the afternoon (1-4)?

Thanks.

After 8PM is a good bet for a short line on Raptor. The later the shorter the line. Blue Streak is also very short in the evening. After 5 on Sunday the only rides with any waits over 30 minutes would be TTD, MF and Maverick.

As for Monday, do as JW says. After TTD go towards the back of the park for the shortest lines in the morning. The front is always busy the first few hours of the day as people enter the park.

Do you guys think that I will be able to ride both Maverick and Millennium Force in the first hour ( Early Entry ) and be able to get in line for Top Thrill Dragster before the general public is let in the main gates? Thanks.

If you run to Maverick, and immediately run to Millennium Force, yes. However, Maverick always has a long line for morning ERT.

I guess that I'll just have to get to Maverick fast!

IF....they are ready to go when you get to the entrance! I jog to Maverick, then speed walk to MF, and I am in line for Dragster or getting on it (if it opens early) just as the park officially opens. As long as the other 2 coasters are ready to roll at 9am you should be good! You should run though! :)

What I have done before is skip Maverick and go straight to Millennium Force during Early Entry. NOT a good idea. Maverick line was enormous!

Yeah, Maverick always has a long line. If I don't ride it right away, I usually don't ride it that day unless I get in line right before closing.

Well, here's what I have came up with based upon what you guys have told me here. Tell me what you think:

Sunday: Hop on the short wait time rides and ride as many as possible. Then, about 9:45ish, get in line for Millennium Force. Not sure when to ride Top Thrill Dragster on Sunday. Any suggestions?

Monday: Run straight to Maverick and hope that it's working and ready to go.Maybe if I get there fast enough it will only be about a 15 minute wait:-) Then, run to Millennium Force and hope that it's ready to ride. I'm expecting this to be about 30-45 minutes, right? Then go get in line for Top Thrill Dragster a little before the park opens to the general public (hopefully). After that, I think we will head back to Mean Streak and ride. Probably not much wait time there (for a good reason,too:-) Then we've got free time for a whileafter that. Then we head towards the front of the park while everyone else heads to the back. While in the front, we'll get our final ride on Disaster Transport:-( Then ride Blue Streak. After that, well, we'll see when we get there!

What do you guys think? Any suggestions to improve this? Just tell me Thank you!

If you run all the way, you should be able to walk right into the station and possibly grab an empty row. If that scenario works out, that makes your chances of MF's line to be about 10 minutes or so. Just guessing of course so don't come hunting me down ;). Just basing this off of my summer (non-saturday) experiences.

This can all be thrown out of whack if Maverick isn't ready to go. It usually was ready when I went, but was held up a few times. Then you need to make a judgement call if you are going to wait it out or not.

I've had times where Maverick was ready, then get all the way to MF and it was down with the line stretched back over by the red garter saloon. Who knows what will happen! That's about all I plan out for my day, the rest of the time I just "wing" it!

I think Mean Streak and Mine Ride open at 11. So after Dragster maybe hit Power Tower, Corkscrew if that opens at 10 (I forget), Magnum, Gemini basically work your way back to Mean Streak and the rest of Frontier Town which will still have short lines. Mean Streak never has much of a line.

Thanks everybody! I will probably post a trip report when we get back.

I have read on here somewhere that Fastlane isn't active during ERT times. From what I have read on here some of the longest waits of the day could be during ERT times (if using a fast pass). My question is: I will be using fastlane this saturday, would it be worth going to ERT if I have to wait the entire hour for one ride when I can use fastlane for a much shorter wait time later in the morning?

^ Not understanding what you mean here.....You can still get in line (regular line) and ride a morning ERT ride, just not being able to skip ahead of everyone until 10am.

You are there, might as well get in line and ride.

My bad...that didn't make much sense did it. I meant to put in somewhere that I could relax and take my time getting into the park if I was going to waste that early entry hour anyway waiting in line. Maybe catch up on that hour of sleep that I will lose switching time zones. Probably a moot point anyway...my wife is kinda slow in the mornings, probably won't make it into the park until 9:30 anyway.

How many Fast Lane tickets do you think that Cedar Point sells in one day? It is now forecasted to be 89 and humid for Sandusky, and we are now thinking about buying Fast Lane, because waiting in line will be HOT. Do you think that they have any left? Thanks.