Cedar Point 80s/90s plus employee stuff 91-93

Finally got around to scanning in some old Cedar Point stuff. Most of this first batch is employee related; the old Silver Dollar Cafe menu, etc. I figured the more devout CP fans may appreciate it:

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.181195212006119.37311.178...363&type=1

Very cool! Check out those prices on the SDC menu, especially the drinks!

I'd forgotten about Slice.

Thanks for sharing that, Billy!

Great stuff!

I have to say I am one who thinks the old Cedar Point font was much more attractive than the current, as well as the tag line "The Amazement Park." I truly believe CP was at it's height in the late 70's/80's/early 90's.

Thanks guys, I'm glad you like them. My motivation was the employee "ride night" flyers. Once I found those, I started finding other stuff as well. I still have a bit more to put up.

Yeah, thanks Billy! I especially liked the Mean Streak construction pic. I haven't seen too many of those.

It's a little sad looking back at Mean Streak and Iron Dragon and thinking of then vs. now. What I once liked so much about Iron Dragon was its scenic, tree-covered journey and pitch-black night rides. Now today, it's mangled with Mantis, stripped of its trees along TTD, and this year, Luminosity has made the ride feel like it's in a junky, metal scrapyard out front.

As for Mean Streak, following Magnum, I can just feel the excitement for it being the Magnum of wooden coasters in some of those flyers. A couple decades later, it's widely one of the most-hated wooden coasters.

Side note: Mean Streak is running as smooth as I ever remember this year. If they backed off the first drop and mid-course trims, it might be a very good ride.

I doubt it. I've had smooth, fast rides, and it only reveals how uninteresting the layout is.

I was ridiculously excited for Mean Streak opening season. There was a channel that would run promos for a contest that featured footage of the ride and I recorded all of them on VHS and watched them over and over. I waited in the infield queue and everything. It was never a great ride, but it was at least good until the midcourse.

Jeff, stop trying to earn more +1's. ;)

I'll give you that the layout isn't that great, but I remember loving Mean Streak opening year. Maybe it's that rides like The Voyage and El Toro have come along and simply erased any of Mean Streak's credit?

There's something about Mean Streak's lake view right there that charms me, along with the beauty of its overall structure. I even like the wooden tunnels part; I just wish the train was blazing through them.

Mean Streak may not be a good ride, but it's one of the best looking coasters anywhere.

I managed an accidental trim less ride when I was there last week, and I was impressed. Not the mean streak I remembered from years gone by.

For the first few weeks of 1991, the ride flew. It was smooth as glass. The *awesome* run from the 3rd drop until the mid course brake was easily top 10 material. That third drop was very intimidating, and really jerked you out at the back of the train. The S-run up the next hill, aggressive swooping turn, subsequent drop-turn-drop, and even the perfectly shaped uphill curve into the brakes was the stuff coaster dreams are made of. That whole area had a "magic carpet" feel to it. It was aggressive, but still smooth and exhilarating. After the brake, the rest of the ride wasn't too exciting. But you still managed to get airtime on the remaining apexes.

That first year, I watched it slowly get rougher and rougher. The cars started to really bounce at the bottoms of the first and third drops. Then, the first drop received one trim brake (not sure how many are there now). Next, the 3rd drop was completely neutered. The break-over/apex was smoothed out and the new drop was more of a 'ramp'. The trains were also shortened from 7 to 6 cars. It was all down hill after that, and you now have the Mean Streak everyone knows and *loves*.

Are the trains really 6 cars? I can't find any pictures with 6 cars at all. Not that I don't believe you, I've just never paid attention.

^I can't find any pics of MS with 6 cars, either, Josh. Must have been a temporary thing sometime around 92-93.

I've had some fantastic rides on Mean Streak, but it had nothing to do with how fun or not fun the ride was. It had plenty to do with the people I rode it with.

One of my best friends and Cedar Point coworker Eric spent the summer getting over his fear of riding coasters in 2001. Mean Streak was one of his first coasters. He would get so mad at that ride, screaming at it after the drops. "Is that all you've got, firetrap?" Maybe you just had to be there to understand how hilarious it was...

In 2006, a different friend and coworker of mine had an intimate moment on the ride that I will never forget. It was really sweet. My only kiss on a roller coaster.

Over the years, employee ride nights that included Mean Streak were just so much fun, all I have is love for the ride. I'll agree that it's a piece of crap, but it's a beautiful, towering, piece of crap that I have many fond memories of..

Thank you, Travis. While I don't agree that MS is a piece of crap, I'm glad someone else is willing to admit their emotional attachment to rides. Fun people and fond memories can make mediocre rides great.

Sure Paddlewheel Excursions (Or as we referred to it, "The Joke Boat") wasn't some sensational ride experience, but I managed to have fun on that every year with my friends. Ah, the memories of having a joke-off with the captain or saying the answers to all the jokes in sync, and him trying so hard to change the responses to ones we didn't know... lol I believe one year when parking in the Magnum lot we even hit up Paddlewheel as the first ride of the year in jest.

CoasterDemon said:

^I can't find any pics of MS with 6 cars, either, Josh. Must have been a temporary thing sometime around 92-93.

Mean Streak went down to 6 car trains in late June/early July of 1994. It was also the summer that the brake was added on the first drop and the watering system was installed. The ride had never ridden better for guests, it was completely wild and out-of-control, as it should be. Unfortunately it was tearing itself apart and I think we were all shocked as to what was happening when it closed for a few weeks in the middle of the summer. Once it re-opened, it was clear Mean Streak would never again come close to its potential.

Awesome Jeph. You just made me realize one of the reasons I liked Paddlewheel so much... Emotional attachment. Thanks.

This is a close to a Mean Streak love thread as I'm going to get.