6/03 and 6-04 – Two amazing days at Cedar Point

On 6/02, my dad and I left at 7:00 am to make the 10-hour drive from Nashville, TN to Sandusky, Ohio for two days of roller coaster heaven. At around 6:00 local time we arrived and checked in at the Breakers Express. After staying at the Hotel Breakers on two previous trips, we weren’t expecting this value priced resort to be as nice as it was. Our rate was only $59.00 per night, and the room had comfortable queen beds. After unpacking, we decided to head to Friday’s on the beach to get a great view of the park. When we went to the front desk to ask about the parking charges, we realized for the first time how uninformed and clueless some of the employees are. They told us that at Friday’s we just paid at the gate and to take our parking ticket to the restaurant and they would give us the $8.00 towards our meal. When we arrived at the park, the parking attendant said Friday’s would NOT refund our money, but Breakers Express would – and all we had to do was take the tag to them. We had our meal, which was a little on the cold side, and then went outside for the main reason we chose to eat there, a walk on the boardwalk. We also watched Dragster for a good 20 minutes, building anticipation and excitement for tomorrow. Pictures and videos can not capture the essence of the ride; it is truly massive. We went back to the hotel and gave them our parking pass, and they looked at us like we were from Mars – "we do not refund parking". We didn’t mind paying to park, we just wish we would have been given a straight answer on the policy rather than sent on a wild goose chase for a refund.

Armed with our $59.00 ride and slide tickets, we anxiously woke up at 7:30 on 6/03 to head to the park for hotel/Joe cool ERT. Millenium Force and Magnum opened early, and we decided to hit Millenium Force first. After about a 15 minute wait, we boarded the first of many front seat rides. Wow, I forgot how much fun this ride really is. The first drop is outstanding. While I wish it had more hills for airtime, the pure speed and smoothness of the whole coaster is truly amazing. Next it was on to Magnum for a front seat walk-on. A surprise, Magnum was running better than I ever remembered it. I was out of my seat on every hill. We got another ride on Magnum. Top Thrill Dragster was closed, so we decided to head to the front of the park to ride Raptor. Because it was around noon, we waited 20 minutes and sat in the front. Without the midcourse brakes, Raptor was running outstandingly – fast, smooth, and very fun. After this we headed over towards Wicked Twister, and I walked onto the front seat. Wow, this was another surprise. I enjoyed it a lot, but I wish I could have experienced it at full power. After this, we saw Top Thrill Dragster had opened, so we headed over.

The posted wait time was 1½ hours with six-train operation, so we got in line. After following the ride’s progress for so long, it was an amazing thing even standing in line. About 30 minutes into the line, the ride shut down for around 45 minutes. We entered the station after waiting a little over 1¾ hours and headed for the front seat line. Finally, after 2 hours and 15 minutes, we were sitting in the front seat waiting to launch. Anxiously sitting in the trains listening to the tire noise waiting for the countdown lights builds so much excitement. The countdown lights light off, and we shot out at 120 miles per hour on the best ride of my life. The first time seemed like kind of a blur; it was over so fast. The ride was so smooth, even more so than Millenium Force. I’ve never felt speed like that in my life – amazing, absolutely amazing!

After this, we decided to ride Power Tower. Both up and down had no waits. Down was fun, but I still prefer up. After this, we headed back towards the front seat of Raptor, which was now a walk-on. Great as always. After this, we headed to Blue Streak, for a walk on to the front seat and another walk on to the back seat. It was running very well, with more airtime than I remembered. Next was another front walk-on at Wicked Twister. After this, we waited 5 minutes for Disaster Transport. I really enjoyed the ride, and the new themeing makes it look much better, but it still makes no sense - Alaska?!

At this time it was around 5:00, and we decided to have dinner at the Boathouse, which was horrific. The calamari tasted like it was from a box, and it was not even warm. The shrimp bisque soup wasn’t much better. I had the shrimp for dinner, which was decent, but extremely overpriced at $16.00. After that awful meal, we headed back to Millenium Force for another ride. We waited about 45 minutes for the front seat, and it was even better than this morning. Next we hopped on the train and rode back to Mean Streak. I read this was running really rough, and I have to disagree. Maybe it was because I sat in the front seat, but the ride was smooth. However, this was the only thing going for it. It seemed somewhat slow, and there was little if no airtime. At least it was a walk-on. We skipped over the Cedar Creek Mine Ride and headed to Gemini. We walked on to the back seat, and it was not racing. I remembered this ride being better.

Anxious to "Race for the Sky" again, we hopped into the line for TTD - posted wait time was 1 hour. The first ride was such a blur, and we were anxious to get on again and experience it once again. With 6-train operation, we boarded the front seat in less than an hour – an accomplishment. The second time was even better than the first, and I got a great view of the height this time.

Next we went on Power Tower again (up) again, and then headed to Millenium Force for a ride. It was great at night, and we waited less than a ½ hour. We wanted to try to get on TTD one more time for the night, so we headed back over there. It was about 9:45, and the line was 15 minutes long (half way up the ramps). We got into the front seat like at about 10:10, and the ride broke down. There was only about five trains left for the night, and instead of giving us passes to come back they decided to fix the ride. We all sat in the station, and it was finally fixed at about 11:15. It was great at night, but I prefer day because it is easier to see more at the top.

6/03 ride summary

TTD – 3, Millenium Force – 3, WT – 2, Raptor – 2, Mean Streak – 1, Magnum – 2, Power Tower – 2, Disaster Transport – 1, Gemini – 1, Blue Streak – 2, CP/LE Railroad – 1

6/04

Again threatening rain, we woke up and got ready for early entry. This was where we got another of many tastes of uniformed employees. We needed to wash some clothes, so we asked an employee at the Breakers Express if they had laundry facilities. She did not know, and she said hold on a second. Then, she went and asked another employee of the hotel and they also did not know if they had laundry facilities. She had to ask a third person, who finally did know that there are two places where guests can do laundry.

At 9:00 the gates open, and we took a brisk morning run to Millenium Force. They hadn’t done the morning testing on time, and the delay was aggravating. They also only ran one train for a few cycles until they took the water dummies out and added the blue train. We rode the first train out of the day in the front seat. We only got in one ride during ERT time, when we should have gotten two or three. At about 9:30 we hopped onto Millenium Force again, and boarded the front seat around 10:00. Great again. I saw Dragster testing, so we headed over for an update. Shortly after, the ride opened for the day. We entered the 1 and ½ hour line. One thing I noticed, I don’t think there is near enough queue space for the ride. It was almost filled today, and it is a Wednesday early in the season. As the season continues on and crowds grow, there will probably be many days with a line well out into the midway. This time we had about 2 hours of downtime, and boarded the front seat after a 3-hour total wait. It was well worth it, and the launch felt even faster than yesterday. This ended up being our last ride on the trip – it closed down at about 1:00 and never reopened. Hey, 4 rides on TTD certainly isn’t bad. Since this TR is already turning into a novel, I’ll just list the rest of the rides we went on:

MF – 4 times (all front seat), WT – 2 times (front seat both), Raptor – 2 times (front seat), Mantis – 1 (trim brakes on hill were still on, ride was only ok), Magnum – 7 times , Power Tower – 1 (up), Sky Ride – 1

All in all it was an outstanding trip to the Point, and we can not wait to go back.