COASTERMANIA, CEDAR POINT JULY 13, 2012

I sort of blew this one. The day began promisingly enough, with exclusive ride time on Millennium Force. And it was certainly a pleasure to be able to get in two rides in record time, considering that the last time I went to Cedar Point I had to stand in line for 2 1/2 hours to get on this coaster. It was also gratifying to discover that, contrary to popular belief, there are actually other coaster enthusiasts in my age range (60's). From that point, things sort of went downhill, no pun intended. The next stop was Maverick, which I had never ridden before, and this turned out to be a disaster. The launch system failed just after the train took off, sending the train to the lower part of the lift hill. (I gather that rollbacks on this coaster are not unprecedented.) I wanted to get off but was not permitted to do so, so I sat there, harnessed in on the lift hill, for a good 40 minutes, baking in the hot sun. It was a hot day at Cedar Point and a bad time to get stuck on the lift hill, not that there's any good time to get stuck. Finally, the ride operators were given a green light to assist the riders in getting off. At least we compensated by getting to go on Dragster and Millennium without having to wait, and to get back on Maverick without a wait once it was up and running. I did finally get to ride Maverick, after a ride on Dragster. One of the ride operators remembered me from before and said that he was sure I'd enjoy going over the lift hill a lot more than being stuck on it. That is a fact! I did enjoy it and rode it twice. Unfortunately, with all that was going on, I completely missed the catered lunch, during which people got T-shirts and Coastermania tags. Missing the lunch sort of defeated the whole purpose of going there, as I was hoping to meet other coaster enthusiasts. Anyway, I decided to take another ride on Dragster and suffered dire consequences as a result. My camcorder sunglasses, tied to my head with a cord, had survived the first ride on Dragster but on the second flew off into space near the top, never to be seen again. This was very upsetting, as I had gotten front seat rides on Millennium and Maverick on video and now the videos were irretrievably lost. After spending the money to fly from Philadelphia to Cleveland, rent a car and stay in a motel, I wanted very much to get something recorded. After a couple more rides on Millennium, I thought about riding Mantis, just to get more material for my blog. I actually got to the loading station and suddenly decided that I couldn't do it. I don't handle being shot through vertical loops at all well, especially when standing up, and because I was already feeling nauseated from being stuck on Maverick and walking around Cedar Point all day in the blistering heat, I thought that if I rode Mantis I might very well throw up, so I didn't. I did at least befriend one other coaster enthusiast on my way out of the park and got some good pictures, so I'm glad I went, but things could have gone better. Two after the fact, I still have a severe sunburn from being stuck on Maverick's lift hill.

SUNSCREEN man, SUNSCREEN. Oh the humanity. I was on the train in front of you so we were stuck at the end of the line of trains during your shenanigans on the lift hill. We were entertained by a very nice CP employee. I think it was only 20 minutes though. I still got 8 MF and 7 Maverick rides in during ERT.

Overall, I think CP did a fantastic job with Coastermania this year. The shirts and backpacks are very cool (sorry you missed out, but they appeared to have lots of extras - I would contact guest relations and see if you can still get one). I like the old format (Friday evening and then Saturday all day) better, but this was never the less a great event. Thanks to all CP employees for putting up with us.

Night time ERT was great. 23 straight Magnum rides without getting off the RED train. The best coaster EVER!!!

^ Was your breakdown during the ERT, or the one that happened later? If it was during ERT, I think you and I were on the same train, because we were also at the end of the stack.

We were also on the first Magnum train of the day (a little after 11 a.m.) and were on the brake run when we saw the next train stopped on the lift. This time we had to get out on the catwalk and give our names and ZIP codes to an employee.

There was talk of some power outage issues, but I don't know if that's accurate. Maverick, Mean Streak, Gemini, Magnum, and Wicked Twister were all down at the same time -- it became a joke as we walked around the park to see what other rides we could shut down. :) Other rides in those areas were operating, so maybe it was just coincidence. But as a result, Disaster Transport had an hour wait (and this was before lunch, when they announced its impending removal).

I was on the same Magnum train with you that was stuck on the brake run. First time I have ever evacuated a roller coaster outside the station.

My nephew and one of his friends were on the train that got stuck on the top of the first hill. They got the front of line access to MF and TTD but it was totally unnecessary as they were in their glory up there.

I was on Magnum for the ERT with my son. We stayed on for 3 laps. The couple in the row in front of us got off after 22 consecutive rides. And I had no idea that Magnum had different color trains. They all look white to me. LOL

What I had heard was that they had power/transformer issues in that part of the park in the morning. All of the kiddie rides across from Gemini were closed. The Snoopy jump house was deflated. I was joking with my nephew that he was the bad luck charm because he was picking our next rides and we kept going to ones that were not working. I told him I wanted to get a ride first before he closed it down.

The breakdown was after the ERT because when I looked at my watch it was just after 10:30am. By the time we were finally allowed to get off the train, it was close to 11:15.

Lord, 23 rides on Magnum? You must be a glutton for punishment. I decided to skip this ride entirely because I rode it last year and found it extremely uncomfortable, much too rough. Kept getting whacked on the legs by the lap bar and that was not fun. There are limits as to what extent I will allow myself to be beaten up by a roller coaster.

Which train is the best on Magnum in your guys opinion? I feel Blue is the best and black is deffently the worst.

I haven't noticed a difference between trains, but I *always* sit in the middle row of any car, my favorite being the last car. Also, I've taken Mr. Althoff's advice of pulling the seatbelt as tight as possible -- it's amazing what a difference this makes in comfort, particularly on the last 4 drops, which can be thigh killers if you're allowed to freely fly into the lapbar.

^ That has the opposite effect on me. When the seatbelt is too tight, it feels like it is cutting me in half. As they were opening weekend when they were extremely short!

Bobbie1951 said:
Lord, 23 rides on Magnum? You must be a glutton for punishment. I decided to skip this ride entirely because I rode it last year and found it extremely uncomfortable, much too rough. Kept getting whacked on the legs by the lap bar and that was not fun. There are limits as to what extent I will allow myself to be beaten up by a roller coaster.

This ride definitely depends on good lapbar and seatbelt positioning, and it also depends on where you sit. Still doesn't crack my top 10 after a good ride, but it was in my bottom ten or so when I had a bad ride. I hated it. Thank god I gave it another chance, but I'm one of the few people that probably is quite indifferent to it at this time.

Camcorder sunglasses? Are you from the future? :)

He is and he came back with the sole purpose of getting POV footage on coasters.

So does that mean the Cedar Point coasters do not exist in the future?

And when he appeared at Coastermania, was he sans clothing? Terminator style?

Or did he arrive in a DeLorean?

You'd have to ask her.

Oh, so we are talking Terminator 3 then? Though how did the camcorder sunglasses make it through the time machine?