Cedar Point: 7/27-7/29: Once In A Lifetime (Long)
Associated parks:
None
Note: This is my first trip report ever. It's long. It's boring. It's tiresome. It's for me.
The family trip began on Saturday, around 10:00am-ish. My mom had packed everything short of the kitchen sink. We even had a friggin microwave with us! No arguements from me once we got to the hotel though, nice hot food whenever I returned to the room
I enter the park around 3-4:00ish. After my initial "Wow, I'm here finally" reaction, I decide to head for Wicked Twister. From hearing about WT being toned down, and seeing pics of it at full power, I could clearly see that it was not at full power. I talked with a guy in line who had never seen it before, and he was pretty amazed by it (as was I). We shared the row and I was totally blown away. Our seat was somewhere in the middle, so I wasn't getting "screwed in the rear", but that initial launch was amazing.
My mission during "The Trip" was to ride all the coasters and major thrill rides. So I make my way up the midway to Corkscrew. My mind must've been somewhere else, because I accidentally got into the back row thinking it was the front. Oh well, stuff happens. My head wasn't banged around too badly, and I made it out allright.
Skipped Magnum at the time simply because of its long line. I head on over to Gemini, and hop into the red train, front seat (this time, signs guided you to the front seat ^_^). Kind of a rough ride, but it was pretty good. I didn't realize it at the time, but the trims were off, so perhaps that explains the slight roughness.
I hopped into line for Cedar Creek Mine Ride. This is the sole ride I have a grudge against. It's just... slow. And rough. And slow. Did I mention it's slow? But that's allright, it was different than any of the other coasters in the park. Probably because it goes so slow.
I walk back down the midway and hop into line for Magnum. Unfortunately, this was the longest wait of the day, probably half an hour if not a little bit more. (I need a watch). This was a great ride however. Wonderful airtime, just as the coaster is known for. Once again, I didn't notice at the time, but the trims were off.
After heading up to my room for dinner, I walk to the back of the park where I left off to get a ride on Mean Streak. That seemed like a little mistake, because after the ride I had a few bugs stuck to my glasses. Yup, trims were on the first drop, you could really feel them stick. Close to no airtime, but alot of laterals and head-choppers. The sensation of wood flying by you like that is great. That's the one good thing about this ride.
I head to the front of the park for a night ride on Raptor. After a short 5 minute walk through the queue, the ride shuts down due to lightning. I quickly realize that all the rides are now down due to lightning. So I pick up some Vinegar Fries from Mr. Potato, and catch the last half of the Summer Spectacular. Personally, I think the show was excellent, and very patriotic. I'm sure it brought tears to a few peoples eyes. It was very uplifting to hear people cheering for America, and not in a sarcastic type of way.
It was raining during the show lightly, and began to pick up after the show. For some stupid reason, I decided to run through Frontier Trail and Frontier Town to get back to the Magnum gate. On the way, I was completely soaked.
Day 2 - Sunday, July 28
Alarm goes off at 8:15, I wake up 8:30, but get into the park 9:30 instead of 9:00 because I didn't have the resort card. Nevertheless, I jump into a group of people waiting for Magnum to open. The ride opens, and I get into the first train of the day, in 1-3. That probably was the best ride I had on Magnum during the whole trip. I run around, and there is no line. I continue to ride in 1-3 an additional 9 times, buying a keychain on my 10th lap. I think I now have a "lap bar muscle" in my legs because of that ride.
I ran down the midway to Gemini, and got into the Blue train. They weren't racing, unfortunately. Very smooth, except for the helix of course.
It was time to get this mission moving. I ran to the front of the park and got into the front seat of Raptor. For some reason, this gave me a slight headache, and didn't help make the ride fun.
Ran over to Wicked Twister, but didn't feel like waiting for the back seat. I took the second to last seat, and it was just as fun.
After my lunch in my hotel room, I was walking to Millennium Force when I ran into Lisa, Jeff, Jerry, and my little sisters going for Magnum. I was kinda bored going at this alone the whole time, so I joined them on Magnum for the 11th lap of the day. We then headed for Millennium (my whole family and family friends called it only 'Millennium', dropping the 'Force' part. Go fig.) And just like my first time, it took my breath away. Probably a 90 minute wait to get on there, but of course it was worth it. MF is probably still one of the few rides that will get that adrenaline really pumping through my body.
Lisa left, so Jeff, Jerry, and myself were left to watch my sister and her two friends. I was dead beat after a long wait for MF, so I was ready to head to my room. Unfortunately, my sister and her friends had a different agenda. A lap on Draggin' Iron (bleh), Mine Ride (bleh), Gemini (headache-inducing), and another lap on Magnum (pretty fun, me and Jerry were talking about obscure subjects during the course of the ride).
The Extraordinary
Finally my sister and her friends were done, and we head to the hotel. Winds were picking up, and lightning could be seen around the Point. Jeff, Jerry, Lisa, and her whole family were leaving, and we say our goodbyes for now. Just 30 seconds after they say goodbye *ZAP*, the power in our room goes out, and it's pitch black. I take a peek outside our window to our park-view, and Power Tower, Millennium Force's first hill, Mantis, and Corkscrew are all down and blacked out.
I open the door and walk into the hallway, and the lights are on. Perhaps they're on emergency power? Who knows? Lisa's family, except Rob (her housband) are all outside the elevator. Rob was in the elevator, but he managed to wedge the doors open. While trying to figure out what happened, the fire alarms in Breakers go off, instructing everybody to get outside. We comply, and surprisingly, not the entire park is down. In fact, not even the whole hotel was out, the Breakers East (I think that's the section) was still up and fine.
Wicked Twister, Magnum, Space Spiral, and Gemini all had their lights up and shining. After some inquiring, my dad found out that a transformer on the mainland was struck by lightning, blacking out much of Sandusky, and part of Cedar Point. I headed into the dark and hot lobby and it was probably the freakiest experience I've ever had. I overheard a bellhop saying that he's worked at The Point for 7 seasons, and he's never seen anything like that happen.
Power came back on about an hour or so after, no big thing.
Day 3 - Monday, July 29
I get into the park around 9:30-ish, and there's an extremely long lineup for the not-yet-open Magnum. So much for adding another 13 laps to my record. So instead, I went to the middle of the park to try to complete my mission. I hop into the line for Mantis, which was about 20 or 30 minutes. I honestly like that ride more than Raptor. It's awesome, I love standing up to it!
Ran over to the 15 minute wait for the MF FreeWay. Got the 2-3 pass. In the meantime, I ran over to WildCat. Nice ride, keeps you moving.
I just had to do it again Wicked Twister called me, and this time full back-seat screwed in the rear style. Very nice, worth the short extra 5 minutes.
It was only around 1:00, so to kill time walked up to Demon Drop. Watching this ancient Intamin creation, I could kinda see the evolution of this into the Reverse-Freefall coaster (S:TE).
More time killed by going on Power Tower. This was probably the lone ride that I was truly scared of. The Space Shot was pretty exhilirating, but the Turbo Drop was the one that made me say "****." You just never know when they're gonna launch you/drop you.
My FreeWay time was finally up and I hop into line. 20 minutes later I'm in the station, and I get in the line for the front. Another 30 minutes or so later, I'm up there in the seat. That was the most exhilirating feeling I've ever had. 93 MPH square in my face, just felt amazing. Heh, to think I was afraid of losing my glasses, forget it, they were pressed into my face so hard.
That was just about all for thrill riding. Until next time...
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Tommy Penner - Variable X
"And that's why I'm a coaster enthusiast." -- Dude behind me on MF.
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-Sean
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Tommy Penner - Variable X
Millennium Force, Magnum, Raptor, Blue Streak, Shivering Timbers, MiA Corkscrew, GhostRider, Jaguar - 1 each
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Good Times!! Good Times!!
CCI Lives On!!!!
-Patrick
The park opened with FreeWay for just MF and WT. Then sometime around the end of June the system was implemented for Raptor as well. The delay came from having to pour the concrete and install the railings for a separate line.
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James Draeger
-Proud co-founder of the Coasterbuzz street team
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