I hadn’t planned on coming up to Ohio so early in the season, but I was steadily approaching my 100th coaster. I had originally planned on making Wild Adventures’ Cheetah my 100th coaster at a Florida Coaster Club event during September 2002. I was at 88 coasters back then. What better way to celebrate my 100th than with other coaster crazy people? That plan was sidetracked when my grandmother became ill and eventually passed away. Some things are more important than coasters.
I rode a few more coasters since September and I was at 92 coasters. I was planning on making Cedar Point’s Top Thrill Dragster my 100th. What better way to mark a momentous event than riding the world’s tallest roller coaster? Then I heard about the Red Cross VIP ride auction for Top Thrill Dragster. Now here’s a way to make it more special. I get to feel like a special guest during my special occasion.
A few people from the DIS Boards (www.disboards.com) donated some money each: $20 here, $10 there. I even went in to donate plasma, but I was rejected as a donor. I eventually got up to $355. I ended up #25 on the list. I could have been #1, but the highest bid was $1,504. There was no way I could scrape up that much money!
So I planned the shortest out of state trip I’ve ever been on. I was planning on May 2 to May 5 as my trip dates, but I couldn’t get May 2 off. Instead, I had to plan for May 3 to May 5. The cheapest tickets I could find were into Columbus at $221. I had rented a compact car for around $16 a day. I had booked the Rodeway Inn on Cleveland Avenue in Sandusky for $90 for two days. I was ready…at least partially…
I had to get seven more credits to hit 99. Then I could safely say my 100th coaster was Top Thrill Dragster. But where would I go? If I had gotten May 2 off, I would have hit Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom and Holiday World. I had a Six Flags season pass already, so I might as well use it. But I had only a part of a day to get my credits. I had already been to Six Flags Worlds of Adventure, so the closest park to Columbus was Paramount’s Kings Island. I got 50% off with my ACE card, so I might as well do it.
My plane departed Florida at around 9:30 and it was turbulence pretty much all the way. You know how coaster crazy you are when you try to loosen up the seatbelt on the plane! I ended up playing Puyo Pop on the Game Boy pretty much during the entire flight. You can’t have enough Puyo Pop!
My plane landed around 11:30 and I got my rental car. I had to upgrade to a Premium car for an additional $9 a day since they were out of Compacts. Apparently, people hadn’t returned them in time. I’ve never had this problem with Budget or even Avis. I could have done the rental car shuffle and went to someplace else, but I took the Premium. I had more legroom, but I could have done just as well with a compact.
The drive from Columbus to Paramount’s Kings Island was around 90 minutes. I stopped to eat and use the bathroom. I arrived at the park around 2:15 pm and paid $9 to park (ouch!). I almost ran over some kids in the parking lot. They didn’t look before crossing, which their mother loudly reminded them to do next time. I got my ticket ($21 with my ACE discount) and headed into the park for my credit run. I had seven credits to get before the park closed at 10 pm. I would do the roller coasters first and then do some flat rides if I had the time. Would I be able to get my credits?
I did! I rode the Forwards and Backwards Racer, Adventure Express, Top Gun, Flight of Fear, The Beast, and Son of Beast. I was up to 99 coasters and was ready for my 100th at Cedar Point. I left around 8:30 pm. PKI was a nice and very clean park. I wish I had some more time to enjoy it. The park was really a credit hunt for me, but I think I need to return to enjoy PKI to the fullest. Maybe I should have given The Beast a second chance. After all, I didn’t like Millennium Force until my second ride. Six hours wasn’t enough to enjoy the park, even if I didn’t ride any coasters.
I left the park and headed to Sandusky. I thought it would take me 4 hours to get there, but it turned to be a longer trip. My directions from Microsoft Streets and Trips took me up I-71 and then up US-250. US-250 had some construction and I kept on getting detoured all over the place. I was getting a little mad at this point. I had arrived at the hotel around 1:30 am. I was staying at the Rodeway Inn on Cleveland Avenue, which was really close to the Cedar Point Causeway. I thought the hotel was OK. The rooms were fine, but nothing really to write home about. The room was pretty small. It did have an indoor pool, which I didn’t use. Sometimes in the bathroom, you could hear the conversations from the next room. Bring your own alarm clock because the room doesn’t have one.
I had a few hours of sleep before I had to arrive at the park around 7 am for my VIP ride on Cedar Point’s Top Thrill Dragster. I thought I would have trouble sleeping since I would be excited, but I was tired and fell asleep.
I woke up at around 6 am and headed to the parks. I felt a little scared to ride Top Thrill Dragster that morning. Some things scare me – Skycoaster, Slingshot, some of my friends singing karaoke – and I can honestly say I was a little fearful to ride Cedar Point’s new coaster. The fear was overcome a bit because I was excited to ride my 100th roller coaster. As I headed down the causeway, I saw the familiar skyline of Cedar Point – there’s Millennium Force and Wicked Twister. What’s this red thing? It’s Top Thrill Dragster, of course! It shadowed over everything in the park, even the almighty Millennium Force.
I arrived before 7 am and paid my $8 parking free. The American Red Cross refunded the parking fee to me later. I waited in a lineup of cars. I was pretty worried that I wouldn’t make it in time, but the traffic employees started to let people in around 7 am. I checked in at the American Red Cross table, headed into the park, and went to the Midway Market for the continental breakfast buffet. The front of the market had a sign that said “Welcome Red Cross VIP riders.” We had a breakfast of Krispy Kreme doughnuts. It was a cop’s dream and a diabetic’s nightmare! I met up with two other Florida Coaster Club members, Marc and Bill. I think we were the only ones from Florida that day! Park officials made a short speech. Then they began to call the riders up in the order of their bids. Every time a rider’s name and their bid amount were mentioned, people applauded. The biggest applause went to the highest bidder of $1,504. The applause died down, but even the lowly 96th bidder was applauded! Of course, they didn’t know that this was my 100th coaster (even though I tried to let the park and ACE know), but it seemed like they were applauding my 100th roller coaster ride when they called my name and bid amount.
We were able to choose which seat on the coaster to sit in. The first train had a seat left in the next to the last row. The second train had a seat in the last row. Since I heard the Xccelerator at Knott’s Berry Farm (a similar type of ride to Top Thrill Dragster, but much slower and smaller) has some great airtime in the back, I chose the back seat on the second train. I was sitting next to Marc. It would be good to celebrate an accomplishment with someone you know. I think Bill had the next to the last row in the first train.
We were then assembled according to our seating in the train, but this didn’t work out too well because some people had already headed over to Top Thrill Dragster. We all headed over to the coaster and stood in line, where we were again assembled according to our seating arrangement. We chatted a bit in line. Marc prayed for a rollback before we hit the top of the coaster. He wanted to go backwards at 120 mph. I think he would die happy if that happened. Bill was saying that he placed a bid for $1,505 over the phone to be the top bidder, but the person misunderstood him and thought he said $505! There seemed to be people from all over. I met some people from Illinois and Pennslyvania. Snoopy, in Top Thrill Dragster gear, kept people entertained in line.
Guests of the VIP riders waited in the grandstands. I could have had friends cheer me on? Darn! I don’t think they’re crazy enough to wake up at 7 am, though. A reporter from the Sandusky Register was interviewing people in line. She interviewed the people behind us, who were from Illinois. I wonder why we weren’t picked. Surely our t-shirts said Florida Coaster Club and we came all the way from Florida for this celebration. Surely we would have been newsworthy!
We waited about 30 minutes until the Cedar Point officials, head of the American Red Cross Firelands Chapter, and the Ohio state auditor made a short speech. During the speeches, a Top Thrill Dragster train launched as a test and people applauded loudly. The head of the American Red Cross said that there were people as far away from Louisiana and Florida here today. Only coaster crazy people would fly from Florida to ride such a beast!
Finally, we were let in. The signage in the queue tells how fast the coaster goes and some other technical information. One sign said that occasionally a train will not make it over and will safely roll back. Now that is a sign for Marc!
The loading arrangement for the trains is pretty neat. There are two load areas so the ride ops can load two trains at once. The first two trains were loaded in. Dick Kinzel, head of Cedar Point, was shaking hands of the riders in the first train. I hoped to shake his hand and say, “Mr. Kinzel, this is my 100th roller coaster,” but he went to someplace else before our train was loaded. I was loaded into the green train. Funny, hunter green is my favorite color, but this train was more of a lime green. We were all stapled into the coaster! I hoped to get some airtime at the top, but I suppose this one time it’s good to be stapled. I don’t want to see what it’s like to fall 420 feet down without the assistance of a train.
The trains then rolled out. The first train rolled into position. After a little wait, it was launched and cheers came from our train. Then our train rolled into position. “Arms down, head back, hold on” is what I heard. After a little wait, we were launched. As the train was launched, I yelled out, “100!” It was just like the commercial on Cedar Point’s website said – launch and hit 0 to 120 mph in 4 seconds. Whoosh! The train then raced up and did a slight twist as we hit the top – 420 feet from terra firma. It was so intense that I yelled, “Oh s---!” I didn’t feel much airtime, but it was such a rush I didn’t really care.
It was time to come back down. The train began its journey downwards. All I could see was green grass. We were twisted 270 degrees. The twist down happened so fast that it was all a blur to me. I yelled out, “Whoa, whoa!” during the twist. Finally, we hit the break run and rolled back into the station. As we entered the station, I looked down in the queue and it was full. The queue was full of the 96 VIP riders and 500 who won a Pepsi contest. I saw one guy in the queue that had his arms up and were cheering us on. I’m sure he didn’t know, but it seemed like he was cheering my 100th roller coaster. The ride op at the end said the signature “How was your ride?” and everyone cheered loudly! I bought the on-ride photo to remember my accomplishment and I was smiling during the ride. By the time I exited the ride around 9:15, the line was out the door. The bulls were pretty much heading to Top Thrill Dragster.
A lot of people say that the coaster is a one trick pony. But it’s one heck of a trip. It was one of the most thrilling, intense ride experiences of my life. If I combined my first 99 roller coasters into one, they wouldn’t even come close to the thrill I experienced on Top Thrill Dragster. I kept on repeating the ride in my head all day long. I had hoped to ride it again, but the wait never dropped below 4 hours and Freeway wasn’t available. I’m sure as we get into the season, waits will drop to more reasonable times. The ride ops are new, they only have 12 seats instead of 16 in the coaster, and they haven’t certified some of the trains for service. People were saying Millennium Force had 6-7 hour waits during opening and they’ve dropped significantly since then.
After riding Top Thrill Dragster, do all other coasters seem tame? Not really. Like I tell people, I can ride pretty much anything that says “roller coaster” on it. I’m not ashamed to admit that I ride kiddie coasters for credit! That is, I don’t ride Dragon Wagons anymore. I usually can’t ride it alone and the only dragon-themed ride I want to go on is Dueling Dragons!
Marc, Bill, and I split up on our separate ways.
Here’s how I spent the rest of my day at Cedar Point…
MILLENNIUM FORCE
After Top Thrill Dragster, I headed to Millennium Force. The line was nearly non-existent, but the wait was about 15 minutes. They were running only one train. They were testing out the other train with a bunch of water jugs. The best thing wasn’t the short wait (relative to Millennium Force’s usual wait). It was that the Millennium Force lady and the funky Millennium Force theme were back! It wasn’t boring guy anymore like last season. Now I could enjoy my “record-breaking ride” on Millennium Force. The ride was pretty good, but it seemed to pale with Top Thrill Dragster. The excitement from the Top Thrill Dragster ride still hadn’t diminished. I still like to lean forward in Millennium Force’s first drop. It almost feels like you’re going to fly out of the seat!
The wait got a little longer (about 20 minutes), but I decided to wait until later to ride. I wished I hadn’t. The wait in the middle of the afternoon was 1 hour and 45 minutes. Near closing, it was about 1 hour. So that was my one and only Millennium Force ride this trip. I was checking on the Top Thrill Dragster line and it was too long. Power Tower looked short, so I decided to try that.
POWER TOWER
I waited about 5 minutes for this one. I rode on the red side where you’re launched up rather than dropped. I like the sensation of being launched. I don’t think others agreed because the line for the other side was pretty long. In this line, I met two people who tried to wait for Dragster, but they said the queue was over 4 hours long. They lived down the street, so they were always around. I wanted to check out the waits at the front of the park. Raptor had a 30-minute wait, so I decided to check Wicked Twister.
WICKED TWISTER
I rode this two times without a wait in the morning. There was no line! I rode once in the front and once in the back. I have to say that the back is a lot better. The twist as you go backward into the spike is very intense. I was going to ride it a few more times, but Wicked Twister wiped me out. I came back later in the mid-afternoon and waited about 20 minutes. The queue was the coldest queue in the park! The breeze from Lake Erie was strong and cold. The ride ops were bundled up pretty well. I headed towards the back to check out Gemini and Corkscrew.
CORKSCREW
I rode this once without a wait in the morning. I think Top Thrill Dragster became a giant queue sucker in the morning. While everyone ran to Top Thrill Dragster, the other rides became barren. Corkscrew became a head banger, but I rode it anyway. It wasn’t any better than Python at Busch Gardens Tampa. Magnum XL-200 had a few minutes wait, so I decided to ride it next.
MAGNUM XL-200
I’ve had past bad experiences on this ride. The last few airtime moments bruised my thighs. This ride wasn’t too bad. There was little banging on the last part of the ride. I think I finally had a smooth Magnum ride! I wanted to ride Gemini and Mean Streak, but they weren’t open yet. The next closest was the Cedar Creek Mine Ride.
CEDAR CREEK MINE RIDE
I waited about 5 minutes for this one. I know a lot of people who ride the Cedar Creek Mine Ride rag on it. I’ve even heard some ride ops make jokes about it, like “Cedar Point has some world-class roller coasters. The Cedar Creek Mine Ride isn’t one of them.” This ride was much different. Some teenage girls sat behind me and they were screaming a lot. Then about halfway through, they started singing Sk8tr Boi.” Hey, we aren’t at Paramount’s Carowinds (see Robb Alvey’s coaster videos for this reference)! They broke into “Sweet Home Alabama” at the end of the ride. I wish I could have filmed this ride, but I would have probably gotten kicked out. Should I have risked it? Even though I was still carrying my Six Flags season pass and could have gone to Six Flags Worlds of Adventure, I better follow the rules.
Gemini was open, so that was next.
GEMINI
They were only running the red side of Gemini. Even though two trains were running, the wait was about 15 minutes. I like this ride. It has some nice airtime. I wish blue was running. Gemini doesn’t feel like Gemini unless both sides are going.
Mean Streak had an hour wait, so I would save it for later. Queues were getting pretty long. Mantis and Raptor had hour waits, Millennium Force had a 1 hour, 45 minute wait. Top Thrill Dragster line was still around 4-5 hours. All of Millennium Force’s Freeway passes were out. I did some shopping first and bought two t-shirts, one of which was a Top Thrill Dragster t-shirt. I stored them in a locker by Wicked Twister.
I got a Freeway pass for Raptor and my return time as 5:00 to 6:00. I decided to go to lunch at the Midway Market buffet. I think it’s a good deal for $10. You can spend that alone at other places on a burger, fries, and a drink. Why not do all you can eat? The buffet was pretty good, although I dropped a fried chicken into the corn on the cob. I felt so embarrassed that I fished the chicken out. A fried and buttery chicken – delicious! I rode Wicked Twister once and then I had forgotten about good old Blue Streak! It’s hidden away and it slipped my mind to ride it.
BLUE STREAK
I rode this one twice without a wait. I think Blue Streak is Cedar Point’s hidden gem. It’s a little rough, but nothing too unbearable. It gives some great airtime. Best of all, I’ve rarely seen a long line on it. I think the longest line I’ve ever seen on Blue Streak was (believe it or not) during ERT of Coastermania 2001.
A ride op here was having a good time. On my first ride, he said, “Everyone moo!” On the second ride, he said, “Do you know what ride you’re on? The Blllllluuuueeee Streak!” Here’s a guy who must really like his job!
I then rested on the grandstands of Top Thrill Dragster. I think the grandstands are a good idea. It’s a nice place to rest and you could get a good view of the coaster in action.
Next up was Iron Dragon.
IRON DRAGON
I waited about 20 minutes for this one. I think this was the shortest wait of all the rides in the afternoon. This is actually a pretty good suspended roller coaster. The last part after the second lift hill really picks up speed.
I then took the train to Mean Streak.
MEAN STREAK
In the past, Mean Streak was really rough. It was almost painful to ride. I almost skipped it, but I wanted to try a trick a friend told me to avoid pain on Mean Streak. The wait was about 30 minutes.
As I rode Mean Streak, I did the trick and leaned forward a bit. That relived a lot of the roughness. I sat back in a few spots and I felt the roughness pretty bad. All in all though, Mean Streak still isn’t my favorite woodie.
I hadn’t rode Raptor yet, so I took the train back to Millennium Force and rode it.
RAPTOR
I still had my Freeway pass, but the line was short enough to wait. I waited about 20 minutes. Raptor is a good ride, but it’s not as good as Islands of Adventure’s Dueling Dragons or Busch Gardens Tampa’s Montu. I didn’t use my Freeway pass because I wanted to ride Mantis.
MANTIS
Mantis had about a 20-minute wait. I usually try to avoid this stand-up coaster because it hurts my knees. This time, I kept my legs at an angle and there was no pain! I thought the ride ops would tell me to stand up straight, but no one bothered me. The only bad part on this ride is the tiny bicycle seat. I was almost afraid I wouldn’t be able to have kids after the ride!
I avoided Wildcat because I don’t like the end breaks. They’re too hard! Wildcat did have a funky color scheme of green and purple. I thought I was looking at the Joker’s Jinx!
I left the park around 7 pm. I felt I had a full day at Cedar Point, even though I did miss out on a second ride on Top Thrill Dragster. I may come back in a year or two to see if it has improved or not. Surely it must as ride ops and things are broken in.
My flight was going to depart on 6:05 on May 5. I was unsure what to do since the parks were closed then and there didn’t seem much else to do in Sandusky. I did go to the Sandusky Mall, which seemed like a generic mall. I hung a little around Columbus waiting for my flight to depart. I was looking for a new game for my Game Boy. I found a few cheap ones, but I ended up playing Puyo Pop on the plane again. There is no such thing as too much Puyo Pop. I wish I had taken my Game Boy along to play in the queue lines. It would have made things a lot easier to bear.
So after my 100th roller coaster, what shall I do now? Start heading towards 200, of course! It may take a few seasons for me to get there, but surely Cedar Point will have something new then. It’ll be time again for another American Red Cross VIP auction.
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The Point of Cedars
Pointing you in the right direction!
http://www.thepointofcedars.tk
Did the VIP rides start at 9:00, when the park opened?
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The Point of Cedars
Pointing you in the right direction!
http://www.thepointofcedars.tk
*** This post was edited by Top Thrill Dragster 5/15/2003 2:56:05 PM ***
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