Cedar Point and the Eclipse

Out of curiosity, anyone at Cedar Point or Kings Island for their Eclipse festivities? Curious how the day went at Cedar Point, as they were literally in one of the best paths.

Akron Beacon Journal had an article:

https://www.beaconjournal.c...249047007/

Discussion on PB:

https://forums.pointbuzz.co...se-event/3

Sounds like it went well. Weather worked out well (pleasant surprise for northeast Ohio in early April --though we have had a lot of very sunny days recently, last week would have been a bust). Sounds like park did well too (in terms of crowd size, rides running, food, etc).

We live on Lake Erie, pretty much directly under the centerline of totality and it was great! Nothing more than thin wispy clouds. As of even a few days out it was predicted to be overcast, but hey, you can't show a sign of the impending global apocalypse to the good folks of Lorain if you cover the sky in clouds, now can you?

I was surprised at how dark it got, how cool it looked to the naked eye, (once it hit totality) and it was cool to see all the gulls and ducks on Lake Erie take off to go to their roost for bed only to return again about 5 minutes after it got light.

I considered doing the CP thing, but would have liked to do the "Top Of Valravn" package. I very much want to do that tour, but I cannot get up early enough, and this would have been the way, but it was sold out by the time I heard about it.

It would have been neat to get a coaster credit under totality but I read that the rides were shut down 3-3:30.

I grew up in Lorain. I thought the city itself was a sign of the pending global apocalypse. :)

Here's a video that captures the moment.

Don't stare directly at the screen.

GoBucks89:

I grew up in Lorain. I thought the city itself was a sign of the pending global apocalypse. :)

Oh, the majority of it absolutely is. But west of Rt 58 it starts to get nicer. We're far enough west, and tucked away in a very small private lake community, that it's fine. Our same lakefront property in most other cities would probably cost hundreds of thousands more, so it's a compromise.

I didn't go to Cedar Point for the eclipse but we did go to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. I had a very similar experience to Tommy. It was pretty special to be on the track and experience totality with 40,000 complete strangers. Definitely a top five experience. The drive home, however, was a bottom five experience.

Did you run into Lester Holt?

I was there at the Total Eclipse of the Point event. It was very well ran, and I had a great time. Every ride was basically a walk on, minus Wild Mouse because it kept having some mechanical issues. Funpix worked on Gatekeeper and there is a special Funpix backdrop for the event. Merch discounts worked but not food discounts (not sure why there was a difference) but I didn't mind since I ate a good brunch before I got to the park. later in the day I even got to see TT2 test, and it looks awesome. Lastly, totality was super cool, especially with the DJ playing some good music leading up to it, and seeing the 360 dusk at the park was beautiful. In conclusion, I had a wonderful time and thought it was worth every penny.

Light during the few minutes before and after totality is very surreal. I think it would have been interesting to see the vibrant colors of Cedar Point in that surreal light. Just seeing my backyard and the houses in the neighborhood which I see every day in that light was fun.

I agree. It's a different kind of dark than what you get at dawn or dusk.

The cool part was seeing the lights on some of the rides kick on, like raptor, valravn and the giant wheel.

Jeff:

Did you run into Lester Holt?

I did not. Didn't realize he was there until the next day. It turns out we were probably 100 feet away from the broadcast area. I was there for Mother Nature's show. She did not disappoint.