Trip Report--Winter Chill Out

So, time for a PTR & all that jazz..So as most of you know Cedar Point & Pointbuzz hosted a meetup this year. It was a paid event with all the money going towards Give Kids the World, it's an awesome group. If you have no clue what it is, go look it up, it's incredible and very important.

Anyways, first off, my phone makes these little video highlights for galleries I make, this is what it came up with, pretty nifty

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZ_Uyt05-iM

Now onto yesterday. First off we decided to leave early in the morning to avoid two hotel stays and plus, I didn't feel like driving at 0100 when Lindz got off of work to head up to the point. So after waking up, packing, etc. we hit the road from the base up to CP. I made it in record time, even with construction, stupid drivers, and some traffic around 0900. I usually will take 70W to 75N then RT-6 E all the way to Sandusky. The suggested route is to take Rt-4 N all the way up to Sandusky, but to me it's a death trap waiting to happen. It's a huge long boring straight that takes forever. I'll fork out the extra mileage and a bit of gas possibly to avoid that road. Anyways the drive is listed as three hours & 5 minutes, but i made the drive right on two hours forty minutes, not bad. Held 80-82mph or so on 75 except with traffic/construction and about 60-70 at times on RT 6.

Anyways once we got there we headed by the dorms and got a peek on the new dorm complex being built. Not too many details about them. I honestly believe the new dorms will be all female dorms to replace Golds which was recently just torn down and turned into a parking lot, and I believe 1300's which was the off site girls only dorms, and I think it's still condemned as it was my season, not too sure..

Once we got off of the causeway we headed down 250 to Sonic for breakfast. Their ultimate burrito is very very good btw! Once breakfast was done it was about 1030-1040 or so, and we figured head over to Castaway Bay to get their early, register, and talk. Once we registered we headed up to the marina gate, parked, and got ready for the tour. Here's some shots of the tour, everything is self explanatory really. Nothing too crazy to talk about during the tour, just a nice casual stroll down the midways and some behind the scenes areas taking pictures, talking, and having fun.

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So that was the tour, any questions or anything just ask. I omitted a few photos/duplicates but there are many more.

Anyways, back to Castaway Bay for Q&A..hey I rhymed, awesome

So we grabbed our food, which was all provided by Famous Daves, good stuff. Had a bacon cheeseburger, fries, brownie, and Mellow Yellow, good stuff. Once we sat down and ate a bit Tony and the rest of the CP crew came in to talk to us. Some things I can't talk about, we got some exclusives as a perk for donating our money (over 13 thousand) to GKTW. What I can talk about is this, I'm ganna just jot them down as bullets:

Surf Dog is classified as a coaster as expected, parts are here, it will take a day to install
Lake Erie Eagles will get here later, it will take a day to install
A Coke Freestyle and Yogurt stand like at GK plaza will be placed next to Joe Cools
GK gave 2.3 million (may be wrong correct me if so) rides it's first season. Raptor is still the winner. GK gave most rides this season
Starbucks is coming to Donut Time
New tweetup coin will feature Blue Streak being it's anniversary year, only 500 every year
Blue Streak, Raptor, and I forget the last one are celebrating anniversaries this year
Talked about the events (Campout, Walk-Backs, etc.)
Iron Dragon's height requirement is going up to 48 inches
Slingshot is being installed, it will be the second highest point on the peninsula at 360 feet. It is a paid attraction
Camper Village is totally changing, the building currently demolished, no updates yet
We raised 13 thousand in donations, I can't stress this enough
And many more :)
So we ended with a Q&A with the Jason McClure, the current VP/GM of CF. You all might know him from his PKI & Carrowinds days as VP of Finance, and his last assignment as VP/GM of Dorney. Very cool guy, glad to have him on board, he will have big shoes to fill, but he is a good pick for the park, no doubt.

After the quick Q&A going over a few comments, which sadly weren't that great of questions aside from painting TTD (literally a painter with a roller will rappel down the tower and roll paint on the ride), someone even practically I bet ended the Q&A by asking a question about Geauga Lake..stupid stupid person. Whoever you are, you're stupid.

Anyways as a parting gift for raising this much money, doubling what we had last year, we got some parting gifts aside from some exclusive knowledge. In a packet, we received a Cedar Point 2014 calendar, it's pretty neat. I needed a calendar so this solved that. Lots of cool pictures, and has some CP events listed already in it, cool stuff. I also forgot to mention we got a CP Beanie, and CP gloves before the tour, they are going to mail our T Shirts to us as well. Also, and you guys that didn't go are ganna hate this :) We got one line pass per person. Just walk up the exit, anytime during the season, present the pass, ride the ride. No wait. Also as a final token, McClure put in a free pass to ride the new Slingshot for free valid anytime this season. Again, just walk up, present the coupon, and ride the ride. O

So all in all, paid 40 bucks per ticket, got a look at some behind the scenes stuff, got to see the park with some snow on the ground and no people, just us, snow, wind, and seagulls. Awesome food, Q&A, and some exclusive freebies. Plus the feelgood of donating money to an awesome charity. So for those that don't sign up for these things because you think, oh it's not worth the money, or oh it's expensive, or oh I bought a platinum pass why do I need to pay to do this, etc. Stop your whining, you get what it's worth being honest, and plus I'd bet the majority of the times we pay for an event, the money goes to a charity such as GKTW. As you see above, it's awesome to be apart of these events. There are things you guys don't even know about yet hehe

After the event, met with a few friends of ours and talked for a bit. Their group ate first so they decided to go grab dinner together while me and Lindz headed to get our hotel. We decided to stay at the Motel 6 off of RT 6 and RT 2. It's a great small place and good for a budget. This visit was my first in five times we've stayed here that I've been disappointed with them. The room was terribly messy and unclean. No reason to delve here, I got a partial refund and just sent the GM an email and pictures relating to the room. I will even after this recommend them. Staying five random times in five different rooms, being honest I'm willing to give them a second chance. The rooms are all modern, great amenities, and very cozy. Plus the beds are fantastic here. Great for a coaster trip, always have been.

Anyways while my friends ate, we went to Walmart and bout swimsuits, because we were going to try and do Kalahari day passes. However, after getting swimsuits and driving up the road to them, day passes were sold out unfortunately. Same with Maui Sands up the street, and Castaway Bay. Basically apparently Canadians/NY have a mid winter break and Sandusky was very popular this weekend, sadly. After seeing from the windows how enormous and amazing Kalahari is I will be back at some point. The water coaster alone is enough of a draw to go there for me. But the place is HUGE. I mean HUGE. Kalahari is 215,000 square feet, wheras that GWL is 79,000 square feet. Let that sink in. This doesn't even include the size of the hotel/resort attached to it, just..MASSIVE

Anyways after no luck for waterparks, we sat around and talked for a bit about coasters/meetups/etc. we hadn't caught up for awhile. After parting our ways we headed to our room where we spent the rest of the night. We were going to go to Crowbar, a gay bar downtown that is fantastic, however the party wasn't for us, as a couple it seems weird, and we were both exhausted, especially me. Was up at 0600 for work Friday, worked, came home, and stayed up till 0100. Then woke up at 0600, drove, and did all the CP stuff. So by 2200 I was shot.

After getting a great bit of rest, we wokeup, and got ready to leave. After leaving the disappointing room, we headed to one of my favorite places to eat in Sandusky. For those who may travel with me up to the point for events this year, I will take you there. But for now Dirty Dees is one of my favorite little secrets, for some reason it never caught on. For those that are enthusiasts and know what I'm talking about, it's the best place to get away from all the tourism, hectic, and crazy bit of the on season life that happens in Sandusky. After breakfast we headed over into Downtown Sandusky and stopped at one of the piers to climb rocks and go to the edge of them to take pictures of the point and look at the frozen lake. There wasn't anything really that wasn't frozen. It's so quiet and calm up there in the off season. Take that and remove the waves/water/boats, even more quiet. The only thing you heard was wind, seagulls, and us. Speaking of ice, the ice is so thick and solid I took a boulder and chucked it straight at the ice, threw another straight up, and nothing, barely a dent. It just hit, slid, and bounced. Also got to see another cool thing. Between two of the piers, there was an ice quake. There was a straight but somewhat jagged line down the middle of the two piers where the ice split and broke with a little water between them, very cool stuff.

Once we got off the rocks, the pier, and back to the car, it was time for the long drive back to Wright Patt. Passed up good olf Davis Besse, Flag City, and Piqua (Tra La La..see who read the books), and then on home. We left about 1230 and got back at 1510. So again, saved twenty minutes off of my drive. I'll take it.

Well, that's all folks, nothing else to report or upload. Just ganna sit here, relax, enjoy the night and prepare for work tomorrow. FUN weekend even if six ish hours were spent in a car listening to music, girlfriend, or nothing. Glad I got time to go up there and do this..

Until next time..btw...pretty soon..this Trip Report section will be filling up, are you excited yet?

75 days left till CP opens, even less for KI

A couple clarifications...

Surf Dog = Pipe Scream, and he said a week to install

Starbucks isn't coming to Donut Time, it's replacing Donut Time (no more donuts).

Oh quick typo..I'll fix those..Wrote this quick to get it out on a few sites

And lol I put Surf Dog lmao...You can tell my mind was focused on KI :D

Did anyone else hear them mention 3 huge attractions in 3 years? It is being reported that was said during the Q&A.

That wasn't said at all. I really think people look WAAYYY too much into things. "D-N-A!? It must be 3 big attractions coming!". Tony didn't say this at all, nor would he spoil the next 3 attractions like that.

thedevariouseffect, I agree with you that some of the questions asked during the Q&A were pretty dull. I wish there was more time for more questions.

Well that and the one girl in my group asking about GL, especially asking in the rude way she did..I mean common, you're at a CP event w/ the CP VP/GM, ask those questions, not about GL, and just again..rude

That'd be like going to an B&M Q&A and asking about arrow looper restraints or something..

Just..stupid

The pure ignorance of people always amuses me. What a waste of a question, when other ones could have been answered.

Did she have a tin foil hat on when she asked the question about GL?

Darn, wish I would of went. I could of asked about Chippewa Lake Park.

Tony and Jason were both quite available afterwards (at least in group B) for questions (well, not so much Jason, oh poor, poor Jason getting swamped by that woman). Anyone who had a question they wanted asked but didn't try beyond raising their hand, can't really complain.

That said, the Q&A sessions could have been a bit longer.

Oh one more small thing, there was a question about Thunder Canyon's observation deck, as in will it reopen. Jason said he has been on it, he wasn't aware it was and he will look into it.

Please contain your excitement.

Red Garter Rob said:
Did she have a tin foil hat on when she asked the question about GL?

I was too busy rolling my eyes in disgust to look back and see