Cedar Point - Maverick Mania - 5-28 (pictures)

After hearing the rumors that Maverick may be opening sooner than later, I began to make plans to meet up with my friend Rob at CP to try out this coaster I have watched since it's infancy. Luckily the rumors were true, and the plans were made to head out to the park on Memorial Day. After hearing about the fleece giveaway, I was finally swayed to give up the 15 dollars to upgrade to Joe Cool. I only go to the park 6-8 times a season, but the perks finally seemed worth it. Thus begins my trip...

The trip from South Bend to Sandusky is a fairly boring one. Despite being around 200 miles from CP, I make a total of about 4 turns the whole drive. 180 miles of the trip is down the Indiana Toll Road / Ohio Turnpike. This normally mundane drive was turned into quite the adventure Monday morning with the outrageous amounts of fog I encountered. When I left South Bend at around 4:20 AM, things were fine, with just some patchy fog here and there. However by the time I got near Toledo, the visibility was near zero, and I couldn't even read the exit signs till I was under them. Despite the conditions, I pressed on, and only lost about 20 minutes because of the fog. By the time I got to Sandusky the fog was clearing, and it was clear it was going to be a beautiful day! I arrived at the park at around 7:40 and met up with Rob and his family at the Season Pass Center to get our passes upgraded to Joe Cool. At 8:15, my friend who works at the SP center came out and upgraded our passes, and we hightailed it back to the Soak City gate.

As I got out of my car I saw Adam (TTD 120) and asked him how the line looked. He said it was pretty long already, and he was right. We found our place in line not far past the tunnel under Magnum, next to the Grand Prix track. Close to us in line were Adam, Dave (David Sagert), and a few other Pointbuzzers. Rob, his family, and the Pointbuzzers decided to stick together and make the dash to Maverick together. At around 8:45 the gates opened, and we were allowed to move down to a temporary gate under Magnum. The crowd became restless, and even before the National Anthem played, the horde was released. Now I have run the route from the SC gate to Dragster, as well as the Marina gate to Millennium, but this run was something else. It was quite a bit longer than I imagined (hoped for). By the time I was getting to the train tracks, I was completely out of steam. The fact that I had been sick the whole previous week didn't help this fact. Luckily my group supported one another, and we finished the run in pretty good position. Especially considering the line behind us.

The anticipation continued to build as we made our way through the queue house. I love what CP did with this queue. The music, although a bit loud, adds alot to the queue, and the line moves so quickly. Finally after about 15-20 minutes it was our turn. As we climbed the stairs, I was amazed with the great view from the station. As a former CP employee, I was envious of the location of this ride. What a view! I love how organized the station is as far as loading procedures go. If you ask the ride host, you will be allowed to wait for the front or the back seat, but otherwise you are assigned a row number as you enter the station. We wanted our first ride to be in the very back, as we had heard so much about it.

The seats were very comfortable, and it is clear that they are much more accomodating than the other Intamin coasters in the park. Anyway, it was time to ride, and WOW... what more can I say. It seems these threads have been full of praise for this ride, and I can only agree 100%. This ride is intense from start to finish. The transitions are beautiful, and the first drop simply takes your breath away. The only let down was the lack of fog/mist in the tunnel. There are so many great parts of this ride, it is impossible for me to pick my favorite. We pulled into the station and were blown away. I wasn't ready to decide for sure, but I had a feeling I had a new favorite on my hands.

Unfortunately, the joy and ecstasy of the ride was quickly swept away when we realized that Rob had lost his phone and his keys on the ride. They told us to come back at 12:15 to see if they had found it. At this point, we decided to hit some of the other rides, since everyone was at Maverick. We made a quick lap on Skyhawk, and then headed to Millennium Force. After waiting about 20 minutes for MF we climbed in for our ride. It was interesting... After riding Maverick, something about MF wasn't the same. It had lost some intensity for me. It was another sign that my favorite coaster could be changing.

We continued moving around the park hitting Iron Dragon (David loved it!), Power Tower Shot Side, and Witches Wheel. We checked out Magnum, but with the one train operation the line was over an hour, even with a very short line. We decided to pass. By this point, it was time to head to Chick-Fil-A to meet up with some other Pointbuzzers for lunch, and for Rob to check for his "lost articles". We stopped briefly to pick up our First Rider t-shirts and ran into Josh (exit english) and Mark (Mark Small). They joined us for lunch as well. I have always enjoyed Chick-Fil-A and their food, and the service was very fast, and very friendly. The price was obviously a bit steep. 10.34 for a Chicken Sandwich, Waffle Fries, and a drink. After eating, we met up with Rob and found out they hadn't found his stuff yet. He decided to break off and do some other things while the Pointbuzzers and I decided to head back to Maverick for another ride. We found a full queue, but just an hour and a half later we were on the stairs looking down on the great queue house (can you find Josh?), and ready to ride! While on the stairs we noticed what seemed to be a bit of a construction faux pas with the queue house... see if you agree. I again rode the back seat... this time with David and the ride was again incredible. After the ride we split up somewhat and did our own thing for a bit.

I met up with Rob and his family again and rode Gemini, and then headed to Wicked Twister. Unfortunately there was some issue with WT at the time, as the ride was E-Stopped and a loud, constant hissing sound was coming from the track in front of the riders. Maintenence was on the scene working on it, and I noticed a new hatch under the ride that I never knew was there. After watching maintenence for a bit, we decided to head up to get our fleece (2XL was all that was left), and then get a few rides on Blue Streak. I am really impressed with this ride this year, and neither ride dissapointed. Great floater airtime, and good laterals on the turnaround. It looks like they have some new signage as well. After this we went for a spin on maXair, and then took the train back to Maverick to check for Rob's phone and keys again. They had found them, but since they were in a low zone they could not get them out until later.

We decided to take another spin on Maverick after this, and ended up meeting back up with the PointBuzz folks for this ride. While in line I decided to fork over 3 bucks for a Pepsi. Unfortunately, when the machine took my 20 dollar bill, it decided to only give me 13 dollars back. That made it a 7.00 Pepsi... outrageous. I know I could have went up and complained and got my 4 dollars back, but I just didn't feel like making the walk all the way to the front for that. Once we got up to the station, Rob and I decided on the very front seat. Amazingly, we only had to wait 2 trains for it! There are things about both the front and the back that I love, and I honestly can't decide which I like better. Perhaps after a few hundred more rides I can decide . All i know is Maverick is one amazing ride. After our third ride on Maverick we headed to the Roundup for dinner. Again, the prices were outrageous. We tried the new "Western Melt", and although the flavor was decent, when I think of a melt, I expect the cheese to be melted. It was cold, and not melted at all. The food service woes continue...

After dinner, Rob tried again to get his Keys and Phone as he really could not afford to wait until after park closing to get them. The Maverick TL was gracious enough to stop dispatching trains for 5 minutes to go get his stuff. What great guest service, she will definitely get a guest compliment from Rob! Despite getting his phone back and in good shape, his keys were not so lucky. He uses an "Intelligent Key" for his car, since it is a push-button start, and unfortunately it was shattered. He wasn't sure if it would work or not, so we said our goodbyes to the PointBuzz gang, had one more ride on Skyhawk, and then called it a day. Unfortunately for Rob, the key did not work. He had to wait on his parents to drive up from Columbus to bring him the spare, and he didn't get home until 2 AM. It was a lesson learned. Secure your loose articles! I got back to South Bend around midnight and was completely worn out. But even in my state of utter exhaustion, all I could keep thinking about was how excited I was for my next ride on Maverick!

Ride Totals:
Maverick - 3
Skyhawk - 2
Millennium Force - 1
Iron Dragon - 1
Power Tower (Shot) - 1
Witches Wheel - 1
Gemini - 1
Blue Streak - 2
maXair - 1

Hours in Park: 11
Total Rides: 13

View all of the Photos from the Day

Make no mistake on that ride... if it isn't strapped to you in a secure fashion, it's going to come off of you on those airtime hills. Button the pockets, zip up your pants, and hold on!

Can you upgrade a Maxx Pass to Joe Cool, and how do you do that?

Also, for anyone who used their non-CP Maxx Pass, when you signed in, were you just as amazed as I was with how many people with Knott's and Carowinds passes were all the way at CP!?

Saw more than a few Carowinds and KD passes being used at GL as well.

Most amazing was that there is no system in place to verify the user of the pictureless passes. Just a simple sign-in. I wonder how long that will go on? It would be WAY to easy to hand over our passes to friends and family who wanted to visit CF parks for free.

You can upgrade a Maxx Pass to Joe Cool only if it is issued at Cedar Point. Non-CP Maxx Pass holders do get in at 9 AM for early entry, but do not get the other Joe Cool perks.

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Lord Gonchar said:
Most amazing was that there is no system in place to verify the user of the pictureless passes. Just a simple sign-in. I wonder how long that will go on? It would be WAY to easy to hand over our passes to friends and family who wanted to visit CF parks for free.

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Come to think of it....all we did was flash our passes to the guest services person, scribbled down our names, and got hand-stamps!! There was no checking at all...and there was also no security checking either, unlike at KI.

But thanks for the info Josh...early entry was all I cared about, and that makes sense as well since only KI Maxx Passer's can get the KI Gold Card perks!

Jeff, I totally agree.

By the end of the day on Monday they were walking to each train and stressing securing loose articles. When the TL was walking the ride area she said there were numerous cell phones after each of the airtime hills.

She never mentioned anything about zipping up pants though... Probably wise advice though.

I'm not sure how I feel about an op stopping a ride for five minutes to get some loose articles. I bet all the people in line didn't think it was too cool.

After I lost my girlfriends expensive car key on Phantom's Revenge I never go into a park without some way of securing all my loose articles, I almost always have cargo shorts, or something with zippers or buttons on them.

Apollo... When I worked at MF we would do this for critical items, such as medicine, or glass eyes (yes... it happened). Also in rare situations if it was critical that someone leave the park, we would also do it, but we would literally run to keep the downtime as short as possible. The reason my friend needed it, is his little brother was there and had school the next day, and getting him home at 2AM did not make his parents too happy.

Do I think they needed to stop the ride? No. Do I think it was an incredibly kind move on the Ops part. Absolutely.

the good news is CP will send him his mobile, and likely keys also, for free granted he calls once they have found them

If you read the whole trip report (I know its a novel), he did get the cell phone and the keys back, but the electronic key was demolished.

How was this key demolished, but the cell phone ok? Did it land on pavement/concrete or grass?? Because I drop my remote key all the time (not by choice, btw) and it's managed to remain very sturdy and hold up, and I would think landing on grass (or even sand) would be much more pillow-esque than a hard surface....

No idea. It was a flip phone, and it did open when it hit the ground, but it was fine. It wasn't one of the remote opener keys. The key was one of those intelligent key things that you have to stick into a port before you can use the push button ignition. It looks like a pod of some sort. It broke clean in two.

oooh my god i absolutely LOVE the maverick!!!

we went to cp yesterday, got there a couple min. before the park opened and went straight to it, we only waited like 30mins to get on it the first time, and no more than an hour the next four times we ran on.

its so nice going during the week, my boyfriend, his cousin and her friend and i hit the dragster atleast four times apiece, the millinium was only a ten minute wait all day...screw the magnum until the other two cars are back in service...the raptor was walk-on, no wait at all (even for front row), and i don't know how many times we ran around the gemini and skyhawk all day...

im so tired still, 12.5 hours running around that park will wear you out eventually...but i looove it!!

i admit, im a bit of a newbie because i've only ever been to cp as far as amusement parks go...i haven't had the means to travel much (gotta finish with college first -_-) but cp still rocks my socks, even if it is getting a bit rusty around the edges, the new rides kick ass...cept the power tower...i hate that thing...