Cedar Point 7/15

From 1994-2003, we traveled to CP every year. Got caught up in personal things and didn't get a chance to go in 2003 and 2005, so I was looking forward to this little weekend trip away from Western PA.

It was hot and humid, plain and simple. Most of the day I just felt, all hot and sweaty. I probably should've spent more time back in the Frontier area. Oh well, its the middle of July. I next year I will plan a May trip.

We got in the gates around 11:15AM. Our first ride was Maggie. MF is my favorite ride in the park and I have never rode Dragster yet, but I still chose Maggie as my first ride of the day. Call it a hunch. That went great, as usual.

Next was Gemini for a fun ride followed by a terrific front seat ride on MF. I was kind of surprised by the 45 min wait up to the station. I thought it would be longer. While waiting, MF had about five minutes of downtime because I assume they had no audio. None of the microphones and music worked. Once they tested that out, the ride opened back up. Could the lack of audio cause them to not run the ride?

After that was a Cheese On a Stick break followed by Disaster Transport to cool down. Next was perhaps our only mistake of the day: It was about 3PM, nice and hot, and we decided to wait an hour for Raptor. I love the ride, but I hate the queue. Ugh, those sections that are closest to the Blue Streak need some nice tent covers. I probably got burned up the most there.

Finally, it was time for Dragster. Like I said earlier, I didn't go in '03 when TTD opened. In '04, it was closed the day we were there. And of course last year I didn't go as well. Basically, I've been waiting three years to ride it. The line was back to the pop machines. I was in line for about five minutes when a train launches and only gets 1/3 of the way up the tower. It slowly rolls back and the op says that Dragster will be down.

Cue mass exodus. I was staying in line short of them saying it would be closed the rest of the day. With each passing minute, I slowly but surely inched closer. A funny moment during this downtime was when someone noticed Maggie was stopped about ten feet from the top of the lift and that said person remarked that nothing was working today.

Eventually an hour later a little after 6PM, there is only about 30 of us left as we hung out on the station platform. Suddenly they call the crew back to their positions back and start resetting the trains, whoo! We watch anxiously as they launch the first train (I thought they would do a test launch, but they went ahead to straight to loading)and it makes it over. Everyone clap and things start up.

We pull up to the launch area and it seems like we are there for minutes. Then off we go! Wow, what a blur! Next thing I know I'm staring right at the crystal clear sky. We come to the top for a too quick stay and I feel some small airtime. Then the disorienting twist and descending at a blur too. I was glad I stuck around through the delay for my first ride. I thought it was worth it and a great thrill. However, for the overall package, I would rather choose MF and Maggie. TTD is tall, fast, and intense and stands on its own merit, I enjoyed it.

Now it was finally time for dinner and then a nice ride on Iron Dragon. I always though this was an interesting ride, I think it does pretty well with the "out of control" sense (for a suspended coaster at least), especially around the lagoon. I noticed a few times they have to send out an empty train, I assume to keep with interval? I noticed this happened the train after the trainload took too long to enter.

Next was only a 20 minute wait for Wicked Twister. We had stopped over to ride this earlier, but it had just went down for some reason. We finished out the night with back-to-back awesome night rides on MF. We got in line for the first ride around 9:40 and got off the second ride about 11:10. It was just too good of an offer to pass up :)

All in all, we got to ride all the big thins we wanted to. We just had to do it baking in the sun and feeling all gross, it was worth it though. Looks like my girlfriend and I will finally make it out to check out Halloweekends for the first time, so I'm looking forward to going back in two months (wow, doesn't seem too far away) Another great trip at CP for me.

EDIT: I forgot to mention that I passed up riding Skyhawk. I saw it had a pretty decent line and one side going. That, plus I have already rode Kennywood's version this year. I wanted to move on to coasters. *** Edited 7/17/2006 3:03:28 AM UTC by beeman65***

I really hope TTD is working Friday, I am in a similar situation that you were, between the ride being down and not visiting the park in 2 years. Glad to see the park wasn't too crowded for you, see my MI Adventure TR from the same day.

One question, how many people do they allow to queue for MF front seat at a time? That is the one front seat at CP that has gotten away without me ridding it yet.

When we rode around 1ish, the ride op at the turnstial was basically assigning where to go, making sure all rows were filled and that any seat other than the front didn't have more than two train loads waiting for it.

He asked how many we had (2) and asked if we could wait for the front and he said it was fine. A few groups waited behind us, but nothing long. I don't know if no one wanted to ride the front or just saw the assigned seating and figured it wasn't an option.

Also, I assume the TTD downtime was a common issue. I remember reading reports of the catch car having to be cooled with water. I noticed after I got my ride on it after the shutdown, I noticed the whole catch car line area got a nice bath. I hadn't noticed that earlier in the day. I'm not sure if it got too hot or not.

Enjoy your trip Friday.

I'm so with you guys on this one. I have only been to Cedar Point once in my whole life and that was when the force unleashed itself in 2000. It is now six years later and driving seven hours to the park for me and TTD is down will be a huge bummer.

Keep on rockin in the roller world!

I'm going to the Point for the first time a couple Sundays from now (I'm too old for Saturday at an amusement park, at the ripe old age of 25), and I'll be bummed severely if I miss Milly and Dragster. Especially since I'm coming from South Carolina. I'll still probably have a good day - Sunday can't be that bad, from 10am-2pm at least before the crowds get bad - but that would be a damper.

You guys should be ok. Seems like MF was running fine all day except that first time I was in line, and that was only for about ten minutes.

And it seems like the Dragster downtime was pretty normal judging by things I've read the past three years. TTD's downtime happened around ish, opened after 6 and ran the rest of the night.

More than likely, both of them should be running fine when/if you guys go.

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coasterb said:
One question, how many people do they allow to queue for MF front seat at a time?

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A lot. It's usually about 30 minutes to ride the front once you enter the station.

I must be lucky, for the the 2 days I was there, no mechanical problems ocurred. It seemed like there was a train cresting the hill every time I looked. For the one time I rode it, it was enough. If I go back and the ride is down, it won't bother me. The ride is more of a been there and done that. If MF is closed when I'm there, then there is a problem. *** Edited 7/18/2006 12:47:25 AM UTC by AJFelice***

"TTD's downtime happened around ish, opened after 6"

What ish? lol

also, anyone know if some people are still having trouble fitting on TTD or MF? I haven't been there since they started enforcing the seatbelt rule, and wondered if they had stopped/redesigned the restraint, or something else.

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coasterb said:
"TTD's downtime happened around ish, opened after 6"

What ish? lol

also, anyone know if some people are still having trouble fitting on TTD or MF? I haven't been there since they started enforcing the seatbelt rule, and wondered if they had stopped/redesigned the restraint, or something else.

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whoops, guess I forgot to hit the '5' key!

I didn't see anyone get kicked off of MF or TTD for not fitting. I think I remember reading they modified the belts during the offseason, but I'm not sure.