We stayed in Cleveland because we were using Marriott points and the only Marriott property in Sandusky (Fairfield Inn) was full. We certainly didn't mind the drive in the morning, and arrived right at 10:00. I swear, the people at the gate welcomed us like long-awaited family members. Frank encouraged us to head right over to Dragster and get in line. We followed his suggestion, but by 10:10 a.m. the line was already 4 hours long, and we found out later that the wait from that point was actually six hours! We decided to go and ride some other rides and wait and see if the line calmed down later. I know--that was a dream. . .
Our first ride on Raptor really got our coaster adrenaline pumping, since it was the first ride of the season. I don't think humans are designed to go 7 months without riding roller coasters! We waited about an hour and fifteen minutes for Millennium Force, after having our hands stamped for another ride between 7 and 8. Worth every minute of waiting, of course. My 16-year-old was pulled out of line by a police officer, but only to be asked to put her little backpack in a locker, and then she was let right back in line.
We had checked the weather before we left Minneapolis, so we were dressed for 68-degrees and sun. The sun was definitely there, but we learned that 68-degrees in Sandusky doesn't mean 68-degrees on the point. We froze until we bought nice, heavy Cedar Point sweatshirts (which both girls have worn every day since).
Gemini was only operating one twin, but we rode anyway. I actually liked concentrating on the ride itself, instead of being distracted by the other train.
Wicked Twister went down just as we were getting in line to ride it. We watched for a few minutes while guys climbed around on the track to fix it, but we decided not to wait around since Valleyfair is opening a similar ride next weekend, and we plan to ride that thing all summer long. We were a little frantic to pack as much into our one day as possible, because we won't be back until August.
We spent some time watching the faces of the riders on Dragster, enjoying the apprehension and fear turn to sheer terror as they launched. We kept watching "just one more" over and over again. It's very addictive!
After checking the line all day long, we finally gave up hope of riding Dragster on this trip. Although they were promising to let everyone who was in line by 8:00 ride, we were just too cold to stand out there until 2 a.m. So, we came all the way from Minnesota and didn't get to ride, and froze to death, too. You'd think we'd be mad and disappointed, but that's just impossible at Cedar Point. Every single person who works there--the front gate people, the ride ops, the gift shop people, the foodservice people--were so interested in making sure we were having fun, that we were only mildly disappointed, and only for a split second. We packed as much as we could into our one day, including massive numbers of those incredible french fries. When we come back later in the summer, we'll spend two or three days and be very, very sure to ride Dragster then, but until that time, we'll savor the memories!
Thanks for reading, if anybody got this far. I never post here, but I just had to tell somebody about this great trip, and nobody in real life suburbia cares!
Suzi
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