Cedar Point 10/24/2020

My wife and I stayed at Hotel Breakers this weekend. We booked the hotel in August when they were offering a buy one get one on the room. Since then they decided to not operate on Friday nights and closed the outdoor pools and hot tubs so the offer was not as appealing as it was when we booked it but we decided to go anyhow. We were upgraded to a lake view room in the main building.

Someone checked our temperature when entering the building and gave us a wristband that was good for Friday/ Saturday. Why Saturday as well? Who knows. We got our temps checked Saturday morning for the heck of it and they gave us a new color that would be good for Sunday as well.

The park let resort guests inside at 11 am but didn’t start handing out ride access tickets until noon. Our plan was to grab the ticket for Maverick, then ride Steel Vengeance as many times as we could until the first slot opened at 1, then ride Maverick. Well it was obvious Maverick was cranky as we stood in line and low and behold an employee walked the line at 11:45 and let everyone know they wouldn’t be handing out tickets until the ride was open, at noon we cut our losses and went to Steal Vengeance which has been testing all morning.

Walked to the SV standby queue which was using the haunted house’s queue up until the metal detectors. SV ran one train with guests and broke down… An employee came by and gave the spiel. We waited. And waited. By 12:45 people were arriving for their 1pm timeslot and were placed into the queue behind us. By 1:15-1:30 the ride was running again and we had a short wait for a 3d row ride. It was sluggish but still great. In fact it was so sluggish that the remaining bunny hills that are normally just painful were actually enjoyable.

At this point my theme park IQ told me that there were more trains on Maverick’s brake run and that it would be running soon so we hit the bathroom and then entered the standby queue at the entrance behind 2 other groups. Low and behold the entrance employee announced it would open in 15-20 minutes and it did. We were on the second train front row. It was also running a little slow but I can’t help but think it was better for it. The normally violent 2-turns were perfect.

Given how busy the park has been, this was honestly our only goal for the day. I just wanted to ride those two rides and relax for the afternoon. We had no other expectations for the day.

We tried to buy an Elysian Nigh Owl from the beer vendor but they were out because why would you have the seasonal beer during the seasonal event on the second to last weekend of the year. We shared a Great Lakes Nosferatu and walked to Melt taking in the Halloween decorations.

I really have to say how happy I was to see the effort Cedar Point put into the Halloween decorations. The park looked great.

Melt was busy and wasn’t seating anyone outside. It still amazes me how care-free people are about Covid-19. Tables were more spaced out than normal, but it was awfully busy. There were people seated at the bar like a normal weekend. We ordered takeout and a couple beers from the bar and waited outside. We ended up just sitting on the patio despite them not wanting to serve us there and enjoying our meal.

The day went fast. By now it was almost time to grab a Millennium Force access ticket so we did that and got a return time of 6-7.

We rode the Cadillac Cars, did some browsing at the shops, had another beer. All the rides had waits that neither of us felt like waiting in but like I said, the day went by fast so it was about time for our Millennium Force return time.

Woof. The queue was pretty damn full. This is where I get into the Covid-19 critiques because I would rather ride the ride at full capacity than wait in that queue with that many people not social distancing, wearing their masks below their nose, etc. There were sections of the queue that just looked like a normal day. We kept our distance and people around us got the hint too but as we’re waiting on the ramp an employee asked us to move up to the next blue line. Well no friend, there’s a group of 6 up there taking up most of the space. If the employees don’t understand what social distancing is so how could anyone else be expected to. And why does it matter if I move up. I am still 6 cycles away from getting on the ride, there’s no reason to tell me to move up in that situation.

Here’s another odd thing and part of why the queue was so long. Employees were spraying down the entire train, even the rows not being used, with sanitizer in the exit station then wiping down the whole train before riders could enter.

I think we waited 1.5 hours which is longer than I’ve waited for MF since it’s first few years of operation. Managed to get the back row in the dark which is one of my favorite amusement park experiences. Why people continue to criticize this ride is beyond me but to each their own. I left the ride with a huge smile on my face despite the disaster queue.

We ended the night with a beer around the fire pit outside of Breakers.

It’s a weird time but Cedar Point did a pretty good job providing a normal experience. The waits were long, but would have been so much worse if they didn’t cap capacity. Wearing a face covering in this weather was actually nice because it kept my face warm. It was easy to breathe when compared to the heat of the summer. Despite this some people still didn’t wear them correctly and I never saw any enforcement. By and large though the majority of people wear them and wear them right, especially indoors.

We didn't bother with Sunday since they didn't open until noon and we had to pick up our dogs. We likely could have snagged a couple of rides but really didn't want to wait around in the morning only to have the same experience as Saturday.

I'm so glad they have found a way to open and to offer a modified experience that seems normal enough to give people something to do. I still can't say I'd recommend it for anyone looking for that once a year or once in a lifetime major Cedar Point vacation. But for passholders and enthusiasts that are happy to walk around and eat, drink, and ride a few favorite coasters, I'm glad they seem to have had the best possible year.

Edit: I can assume that a cold fall day is why Steel Vengeance and Maverick were sluggish. I had a very sluggish ride on SV on Closing Day last year and I remember it feeling almost like an entirely different ride. So much of the insane airtime was replaced by equally insane hangtime on the inversions and it was actually a pretty cool compare and contrast from hot summer rides.

It was 47 degrees so pretty cold.

And why does it matter if I move up. I am still 6 cycles away from getting on the ride, there’s no reason to tell me to move up in that situation.

This bothers me with or without covid. Why stand 3 inches from my ass in line EVER? There is a specific number of riders per train and you won't get on faster by breathing down my neck on an 85 degree day. 200 people is 200 people whether they take up 300 feet or 600 feet of queue.

I also did not understand the reason for cleaning unused rows/seats on rides when we were there in September. It's almost like they applied IROC rules for their cleaning policy.

What I found odd is that on Millennium Force, they'd spray them at unload then wipe them down at load, then load guests in to the train. At Maverick, Steel Vengeance, and TTD they'd spray them then just send them empty to dry off.

I think the second method would keep the line moving better, and at the very least people can see trains cycling.

Yeah who knows. Maybe they tried it both ways and landed on these procedures? I’d like to think that’s what happened.

My guess is that because of the cold temperatures, they did not want to be sending empty trains on MF. They'd probably do something similar at Dragster.

I went on an 85 degree day in July and the policy was the same.

MDOmnis said:

My guess is that because of the cold temperatures, they did not want to be sending empty trains on MF. They'd probably do something similar at Dragster.

Yeah, I'm not surprised. It was forecast to go below the 50s anyway.

The forecast for Closing Day tomorrow shows a feels like temp hovering in the 20s and sustained winds of 20+ mph most of the afternoon.

I've been to Winter Chill Out days with better weather than that.

I live about 45 miles away in the west Cleveland suburbs and it was in the 40's today with strong gusty winds, and it sleeted at least 3 separate times.

I doubt anything was open.

From what RavenPhile said, it was pretty much Corkscrew and flats.

Blue Streak was running for some of the time.

Ocean Motion ERT!