Trip report: Opening Weekend 2011 - Sunday May 15th

This is a Cedar Point Trip Report for Opening Weekend on Sunday, May 2011 from the perspective of a newbie with young kids, one of whom is not a thrill rider.

I went with:

dh (not a thrill rider - gets dizzy easily)
myself (I like rides and used to be a daredevil - now I just go on whatever my dd drags me on)
dd(almost 10 and a budding thrill rider. Has just started doing inversions)
ds (8 and not a thrill rider. Bigger rides make him uncomfortable. Rides like Big Thunder Mountain Railroad are his perfect speed)

This will be our 2nd trip to CP. We went in October for Halloweekends and it was crazy busy and we only got on a handful of rides. We had an awesome day though and really enjoyed ourselves. So we were excited about going back this year.

It was calling for rain all day but based on reports from here that days with light rain are great days to go, we armed ourselves with hats and ponchos and drove the 2 hours to CP. We got in about 10ish after processing our brand new Platinum Passes (a quick and easy process with no lines).

We headed straight to Wildcat from the front of the park. I was excited because both dh and ds agreed to ride it (they wouldn't ride it last yr). BUT when we got there...the sign said it wouldn't open until 11am. (Last October I remember it was open at 10am).

I shrugged it off and we took the train down to the Cedar Creek Mine Ride. But, we saw another dreaded sign..it was closed, probably for repairs. We checked out Maverick as DD and I were going to ride it and saw long lines...but the ride was down. We then headed to Woodstock Express. I was determined to get my ds on a coaster since he was feeling brave. There was a light drizzle and the ride host told me they could not run the ride with even a drop of rain. *sigh* 4 attempts and 4 fails.

Then we finally had our first ride - on the Tilt A Whirl! It was cute and fun and DS giggled his way through the ride.

We then headed to Jr Gemini. But my dd is now too tall to ride it so dh and ds took a ride. They said it was OK but slow. We were pretty disappointed that they have maximum heights when they allow adults on. I kinda get why they do it though - I suppose to reduce lineups and wait times.

We then checked out Monster as it was DS' favorite ride last yr - but it went down right as we got there.

My dd and I saw Corkscrew was working so I convinced her to give it a shot. We waited half an hour (the board said 15 mins) and just as we got to the end of the line, the ride broke down :( We waited another 10 mins and then gave up as it was 11:30 and we were all hungry.

DH and DS were walking aimlessly around the arcade waiting for us. We joined up, took a quick ride on the Cedar Downs Derby (love this one for kiddy fun!) and left the park for lunch at Cici's Pizza - rather disappointed as all morning, we had only done 3 rides between all of us.

We got back about 1pm. My sleepyhead DH decided he needed a snooze in the van so the kids and I went off hunting for rides. I decided to change my strategy from focusing on a touring plan to just riding whatever we saw.

We went to Disaster Transport first as DS said he was willing to give it a shot. But, it was down. Maxair was also closed. DD wanted to ride Ocean Motion, but it's not ready for opening yet.

So we rode Troika, then Scrambler and Super Himalaya and they were all fun although I sure got dizzy by the time we did all 3. After that, we saw Corkscrew was running again so we ran over. Because DH wasn't around to take care of DS, I managed to convince him to ride Corkscrew with us after bribing him with some ice cream. After a 15 minute wait, we were on Corkscrew getting twisted round and round and round. What a rush! Poor ds did great but said he would prefer never to ride it again as it made him feel a little sick.

DH finally woke up from his nap and took DS to the antique cars and bumper cars while DD and I rode Iron Dragon. Wildcat was still down - and had been down all day as far as we could tell. I found ID rough - it really shakes you up and I can see why DH and DS won't ride it despite it's classification as an intermediate coaster.

Mantis was running - but DD refused to ride it even though I did my best to convince her. So while waiting for the boys to rejoin us, we kept on walking. We soon found ourselves in the Red Garter Saloon where the Island Beat band were shaking it up. I was glad to find it as I missed it on our last trip. We walked past Millenium Force - but dd completely refused it when she saw the huge hill (and to be perfectly honest, I was haking at the sight myself!!) Plus it was down anyway - which was fine by us! :)

We then took a stroll down Frontier Trail, a really prettily landscaped section of the park. I'm really looking forward to the Starlight Experience in the summer.

The traile took us past the 3 water rides - but all of them were down. It was too bad as since we were already damp, we were actually prepared to do the water rides!

At the end of the trail, we found Maverick was running! We got in the 15 minute line. Loading was very quick and efficient and the line moved fast. Before we knew it, we were on the train and we were off sitting in the back row. It was amazing! (and amazingly scary!!) The ride was very smooth and I loved the twists and turns. I freaked out during the big drops. Interestingly enough, dd was fine on the drops but said the twists scared her. So we both conquered our biggest ride of the day!!

After the rush of Maverick, we opted for a relaxing car ride on the antique cars (which dd loved!). Then, it was on to the Cedar Creek Mine ride, which was finally running again. We called dh to bring ds over, but they were having too much fun chillling in the arcade to walk across half the park to do one ride. later, ds was bummed about missing the Mine Ride. After 2 trips, he still has not made it on the Mine Ride. I was even more bummed because he was all set to ride it (after chickening out last trip) but it was down when we tried it early in the day. The Mine Ride was fun as always but definitely low thrill especially after Maverick.

It was getting pretty late by now. We rejoined the boys and I checked out Disaster Transport. I was amazed it was actually running - but it had a 1/2 hr wait and I decided it was too late for that as we had to leave soon. We wrapped up the day with the antique cars and the bumper cars.

Leaving Cedar Point we decided to try out Steak and Shake after hearing so many people talk about it. Our waitress was terrible - completely uncommunicative and disinterested. It took us much longer than we had hoped to get out of there. Almost an hour.

All in all, we had a good day at the Point. Sadly, it wasn't the great day I had hoped for and my kids were a little disappointed at the end of it.

Through the whole day, we saw THIRTEEN rides down (14 if you include windseeker as its opening is delayed). I did read on these boards that some of those rides were operating at various times of the day. Keep in mind the count of 13 is really only for rides we were interested in. Thinking about it, TTD was also down for most of the day - we never saw it operating. I also never saw Gemini running. We also saw Magnum down and Blue Streak down when we went by. We saw Skyhawk working, then not working. Raptor and Wicked Twister were also down at various times. Oh yeah, Wave Swinger was also down (My DD was NOT happy about this!)

I just think that many rides down in the course of a day is pretty unacceptable. Based on what I saw, the vast majority of rides were down at various points throughout the day. I do know CP is offering a cheaper price for May tickets so I suppose it's OK - at least there was a discount. But if I was someone coming and paying full price, I'd be pretty mad. As it is, even though I have Platinum, the cost of my gas and my time is already annoying. I read lots of opening weekend TRs so I was prepared for rides to be down at various times, but never imagined this many rides would be down. We kept a positive attitude, but at the end of the day, if I had realised it would be like this, I would have skipped opening weekend and gone another time.

I was particularly upset because DS was prepared to try a few coasters but most of the ones he would enjoy were all down when we tried to ride them. So he really didn't do a whole lot all day - a few flats, etc and spent most of the day wandering around the arcade.

Still, we're looking forward to future visits with our Platinum Passes. I plan to give those Passes a workout this summer and between Canada's Wonderland, Cedar Point, and King's Island, I already have 7 or 8 trips planned. Hopefully this was just an opening weekend snafu. I was thinking of going back to CP next Sunday but now I'll wait till our CW trip at the beginning of June. Our next trip to CP is planned for late June and I'm hopeful it will be MUCH better!

I know you're disappointed about the rides being down but unfortunately the weather had a lot to do with it.

You should come by Wildcat on your next visit after we get up and running for the day. We'd be happy to have you ride!

I'm excited about Wildcat! DD and I did that in October and it was so much fun! DS and DH watched the ride video and are both psyched to ride it. I think it's a perfect coaster for their speed. DH won't even do mine rides because he doesn't like getting banged up. Wildcat was a fair bit smoother. there's spinning, but not overly intense which is good for DH because he doesn't do spinning either.

Well my name is Ryan and I'll be there weekends until June when I go full time. So, as long as you don't come on one of my days off I'm sure I'll see you guys! Hopefully you guys will like it enough to keep coming back. :D

The weather on saturday was fine. Just foggy. Sunday was awful when it came to weather.

There were wayyyy too many rides closed on opening day.

I wonder what it will be like this coming Sunday? Some friends and I were tossing around the idea of heading over. We all do have Platinum Passes and likely won't be able to come again until mid to late June. The only prob is I'm nervous it will be like this last Sunday. If it's like that again, we would really regret coming. Is a week long enough to iron out problems or am I being too optimistic?

I do get that weather will be a factor and we will take that into account.

Assuming the weather is better, there shouldn't be much to worry about. All the major rides were open on opening day and most seemed to be running fairly smoothly. The large amount of downtime on Sunday was mostly due to how dang windy it was. On Sunday I walked in, rode Power Tower, and then left because there wasn't really anything else to do.

Sorry that you had such bad luck. :( I know it's hard to explain to a kid when something is down, that they were looking forward to riding. At least your day picked up a bit at the end.

As for Millenium Force, you have got to try it. If you can handle Maverick you can definitely handle MF. The first drop is intimidating, but it is over with in a few seconds..and then the rest of the ride is very smooth and nice.

Ralph Wiggum said:
Assuming the weather is better, there shouldn't be much to worry about. All the major rides were open on opening day and most seemed to be running fairly smoothly. The large amount of downtime on Sunday was mostly due to how dang windy it was. On Sunday I walked in, rode Power Tower, and then left because there wasn't really anything else to do.

Thanks so much for your feedback - this way I know to watch out for wind. That gives me something more specific to look out for. i'll also watch out for the dreaded combo of cold, wet, and windy. From what people are saying, wet and hot is OK, wet and no wind is OK, just don't put the whole combo together.

Sorry that you had such bad luck. :( I know it's hard to explain to a kid when something is down, that they were looking forward to riding. At least your day picked up a bit at the end.

As for Millenium Force, you have got to try it. If you can handle Maverick you can definitely handle MF. The first drop is intimidating, but it is over with in a few seconds..and then the rest of the ride is very smooth and nice.

Thanks - that is super helpful. It really encourages me to work up the courage to give MF a shot. Maybe after a ride (or two or three) on Maverick I'll work up the nerve!