Cedar Point: Closing Day (First Time!) - Part 3

...continued from "Cedar Point - Closing Day (First Time!) - Part 2"

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…To my surprise, right when I started fumbling with it, the employee came over to help me with it. He was actually talking to someone else but stopped to help me get the seat belt on. Now I had at least two inches to go with this belt. The seat belt was NOT fitting. Nonetheless this employee did WHATEVER he could to try to get it on. He told me to lift up my shirt so the seatbelt won't be going over it and everything. After struggling for a little while I had already given up. He eventually said, "I'm sorry but the way these restraints work you won't be able to ride." Of course I was upset. This is Millennium Force I couldn't get on! However, I expected it. ALSO, this ride op was awesome. I mean he was really helping me out and WANTED to get me on the ride. He was really nice about it to. He wasn't pushy at all. He took his time and tried his best. This whole experience would have completely put me in a lull but because of the employee, I walked away happy. Mad props to him for doing what he did. He may not think he did much but he really brightened my day. I was thinking about writing a letter to Cedar Point commending this guy. I wish I looked at his name tag (if he had one).

Well I'm not going to review Millennium Force because I didn't get on it. This was certainly a sad moment for me. I had only been turned away from one coaster and that was The Chiller at SFGAdv. With that though, it turns out that my foot was on the orange section of the restraint. This prevented me from getting the lap bar down. When I returned to the park one month later the same size, I got on with plenty of room to spare. So in essence, Millennium Force was the first coaster I truly could not ride.

I expect to go back to Cedar Point one day to ride Millennium Force. There is no doubt of that in my mind. Until then I don't really know how I feel about the seatbelt issue. Sure I wasn't able to ride, but I'm not so small. It would be IDEAL for Cedar Point to install TTD seats (minus the head rests) on this ride. I really had no trouble with that restraint.

Once again, thanks to that Cedar Point Employee. You did what you could. ;)

I really wanted Alicia to go on Millennium Force but she didn't want to. There really wasn't a line for the ride at all. I told her to go and tell me how it was. She said if she went on, she wouldn't have a reason to come back to the park again. This was kind of a threat seeing as how SHE would be the one to take me in the future.

So we made our next stop Mantis. This coaster, like almost ALL B&M rides, was so good looking. This was even better looking than Raptor. I love how the trains are wider than the track. They maneuver the course with such grace.

This too was a walk on. I figured it would have somewhat of a line considering it's RIGHT next to Millennium Force. Nope. No line at all.

We figured since there wasn't a line, we would just wait for the front. That was only a one train wait. The restraints on B&M Stand-ups are downright wrong. They are so uncomfortable and you can never position them the way that you want. You could see from my on ride photo that I was being severely violated from the restraint. For those who have ridden and are MEN, well… you know what I mean.

Mantis:

This ride is one of those that ARE a lot bigger than it looks in pictures. I really like the banked turn around at the top. I saw the trim brake but I don't remember if it was on or not. I would have to say no considering we FLEW threw the vertical loop. So there you have it, I just explained the GOOD parts of the ride. The lift hill, drop and vertical loop were good. The diving loop was pretty neat too but after that, it all went down hill (no pun intended).

I don't even remember the turnaround. I just remember this is the point where it got rough. The Oblique loop was interesting. I still don't understand how it's considered an inversion. I really like the quick bunny hill before the MCBR. B&M really knows how to do transitions. The quick turn is cool. However, throughout all of this I couldn't help but be disappointed with the roughness. Sure the transitions were good, but it's as if I was riding a Vekoma. It's like all of the wheels weren't touching the track at the same time.

Okay so maybe I'm just b*tching. It was rough the first half but not downright horrible. What about the second half? Well in that case my friend, it would NOT be considered b*tching.

Wow that second half sucks. If I were to take over that coaster, I would replace everything after the brake run with a slow, gentle slope to the final brake run. The ear bashing is just way too much during and after the corkscrew. I never met a B&M I didn't like until now. Keep in mind I've ridden PGA's Vortex and really liked it.

Ride Rating: 5

We were right next to Iron Dragon so we decided to take a spin on that next. I’ve only been on one other suspended coaster before and that was Top Gun at PKI. That ride was PRETTY good.

Iron Dragon was a walk on. I really like how the station is practically OVER the water. The new colors on this thing are just wrong. There’s something about the yellow they used that doesn’t look right. I guess since this was the first time I had seen Iron Dragon in person I couldn’t relate to the old colors. However, from pictures it definitely seemed nicer the old way.

We walked right on to the second to last car. These cars are HUGE. They are very roomy and very comfortable. Before we knew it we were off.

Iron Dragon:

The first half of the ride is just bad. It is so boring. Isn’t the point of a suspended coaster to swing you? It really didn’t swing at all. Another thing that I didn’t like was how awkward the trains were on the track. The cars “push and shove” each other so to speak. It also seems like the wheels are going to break right off! It just doesn’t flow.

The second half of the ride was a LITTLE better. Going into the pretzel is the coolest part. The actual pretzel element didn’t impress me much. The fact that it’s over the water wins it points though. The fountain and misters were on, which was cold but nice.

Ride Rating: 6

By this time I was getting hungry. We decided we should get some lunch but on the way I wanted to hit some stuff at the front of the park. We meandered through Kiddy Kingdom on our way to Wicked Twister and Disaster Transport. It’s a charming little children’s area. It’s not NEARLY as nice at Camp Snoopy but it’s still ok. Their miniature rapids ride was so cool. I didn’t know they made those for kids!

It was time for my third “questionable restraint” ride. Like I said before, Top Thrill Dragster, Millennium Force, and Wicked Twister were the three rides I was worried about. I thought MAYBE I would be okay on Dragster (which I was) but was pretty sure MF and WT would be a no go. I walked up to the test seat and had to do all but JUMP in. It’s very high off the ground. I pulled down the restraint, looked to my side and… “Hugh?!” I was there! I couldn’t believe it. Granted it wasn’t “loose” fitting but I was certainly in. I couldn’t believe it! It was the biggest surprise of the day. It was a bigger surprise than getting on Dragster and not getting on Millennium Force. I was so stoked.

We entered the queue for this ride and walked right on through. There was no line at all. We took our first ride near the front of the train. One thing that surprised me about this coaster was the floor. I’ve never been on an Intamin Invert but I know on both B&M and Vekoma, the floor goes down. I would have assumed that this ride did the same. However, it did not. By not having a retractable floor the seats had to be higher. Sure enough I had to climb up into my seat. The floor was made out of some kind of squishy material. It was pretty neat.

Wicked Twister (Front):

Loading was very fast. The ride ops at CP are really great with that. In no time we heard, “Launching in 3…2…1…”

BLAST! We were off! This launch was much more powerful than I had anticipated. Even after riding Top Thrill Dragster this launch was still pretty good. Up the first spike we made a slight turn to the right. We then fell backwards and launched in the opposite direction. The feeling of being launched backwards is great. It was better than I expected. I think on our first trip backwards we didn’t even go vertical. This is because we were in the front of the train though. We traveled again through the station for our third launch. The train was really booking at this point. We were thrown up into the front vertical spike with much more power than the first launch. We were REALLY close to the top! There is a great feeling of negative G’s also. We then launched backwards through the station again and hit our max speed. We got a little twisting on the back spike which was cool. After that we fell down and through the station and just coasted to the first spike again. We didn’t go up too high the last time. After that we hit the brakes.

PURE BLISS.

I know have a new favorite coaster people. It’s not Top Thrill Dragster. It’s not S:ROS at SFNE, it’s… Wicked Twister?!

I can’t explain why I liked it so much. I just did. Maybe it’s because I didn’t expect much. I didn’t expect to get on and I didn’t expect it to be so powerful. It was also a walk on. No wait for such an awesome ride?!

Ride Rating: 9.5

With the ride being a walk-on and SO awesome, we HAD to go again. This time we opted for the back.

We were in line for the third to last car when the gates opened. I don’t know what happened but the train didn’t line up with the car right. This caused mass confusion and as a result, everyone just scattered around the train. By the time everyone was seated, Alicia and I had ended up in the 5th to last seat. It was weird.

Wicked Twister (Back):

This ride was BETTER than our first. We didn’t get launched up the front spike as much but the back?! That was amazing! The feeling of going backwards, 90 degrees up while twisting is something I can’t even explain. It was too cool. Like I said before, we were SO close to the top.

Ride Rating: 10

After getting off the ride I was just so happy. I wanted to stop for a minute and watch it. The ride was definitely getting very close to the top. I don’t know how it’s been affected by the power decrease but I will tell you this, it couldn’t have been by much. Someone said earlier that they thought it had been down earlier in the month so that it could go back to its full potential. Of course I don’t know if this is true. I’m just telling you how it was. It certainly was going high.

Next we took a ride on Troika. It’s a nice flat ride. I had ridden this same ride at PGA before (I think theirs is called Triple Play or something).

On our way to Disaster Transport we stumbled upon a Halloween attraction. It had a mummy / tomb theme. I wasn’t sure if this was the Disaster Transport entrance or not so we walked in. This turned out to be a haunted house type attraction. It’s similar to Brutal Planet at SFDL such that people pop out and scare you. The only difference with this is that it was free. Certainly a step up from the $3 one at SFDL.

After that haunted tomb attraction headed to the Disaster Transport entrance. Was the entrance moved to make room for the Halloween attraction? I thought maybe that was the case since the entrance to Disaster Transport was kind of tucked away. The queue for this ride was empty. We walked right up the stairs to the station and right onto the front seat of one of the bobsleds.

Disaster Transport:

I THOUGHT I had this ride figured out. By looking at past pictures of the ride when it was outdoors, I thought it was a clone of the Alpine Bobsled at The Great Escape. Well the first 1/4th of it was identical. The only difference there is that it wasn’t nearly as painful as the Alpine Bobsled.

The rest I cannot totally remember. It was a fun ride and the strobe lights were good. The themed elements were a little outdated. It was merely “OK”.

Ride Rating: 4

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Did we hit up the rest of the coasters after lunch? Stay tuned for Part 4!...

Edited to change "breaks" to "brakes". ;)

*** Edited 11/20/2004 2:02:11 AM UTC by rentzy17***

Just wanted to let you know that I really enjoyed reading all three parts of your TR. It's rare to see something so thorough and well written these days. Also, it was nice of you to give a shout out to that guy at Millennium. They had a tough time this year with the seatbelts and probably took a lot of unfair crap from a lot of people, but it's not their fault. Thanks for being understanding about the issue. I hope sometime in the future you will be able to ride.

As for your question about the park queues - Magnum's used to all fill up on a fairly regular basis up until a couple years ago. Closing day was very light as far as crowds go. We had a couple days this summer where they the queues were completely full though. The nice thing is that even when they are full, the wait is under an hour! :) Here's a pic...

http://www.thepointol.com/cponle/postcards/mag2.jpg

That's because the CP workers actually try and there are like 15 crew members to one ride. Gotta love it.

That's to bad about MF, I think it's the best coaster in the world but at least you rode TTD. Next time make sure you get on it.

Why thank you MDOmnis. These trips are very important to me and I want to be able to look back on them. That's the reason I put so much effort into the TR. I'm glad you like that fact. ;)

That is a crazy picture of Magnum by the way. As I was walking through that empty queue I was thinking how it would look full. I can see why it would be full though. It certainly is a world class ride.

Ride of Steel: That's how I felt too. At least I got to ride TTD. Like I said, I went into CP thinking I wouldn't get on TTD, MF or WT. Being able to get on two of those three really made my day.

My advice to everyone is go to an amusment park expecting the worst. It make your day THAT much better in the end.