Coasting through Ohio pt.1: Coastermania! [*long*]
Associated parks:
None
Side Note: First, let me start off by saying this is probably the Longest Trip Report Of All Time. It is going to take you a while, so pull up the chair, heat up some popcorn, and enjoy the read! I rarely write Trip Reports so when I do, I get *very* detailed and it ends up novel length.
Ok so let me start from the beginning. For over three months I have been planning a trip to CP/SFWoA/PKI for Coastermania weekend. The first plan was to travel with five people from Atlanta to Sandusky, OH. We were to hit CP and SFWoA in the same day (Friday) and then PKI on Saturday and that would be that. However, knowing that I'd be traveling with four others who had never been to any of these parks, I decided to give a day at each park, turning this into a three day trip.
Something came up about a week before this trip where one person couldn't travel with us, but was going to meet up with us at CP anyway. This meant I would be the only driver in the car from Atlanta to CP, SFWoA, PKI, and back home. Oh well, I still couldn't cancel the trip, I needed some CP!
Set your calendars to June 4, 2002. I had just gotten back from my 3 day SRM trip and was talking with Keith McVeen (badnitrus) about my upcoming trip. He jokingly said to pick him up in Lafayette, IN. Um, no, sorry Keith, that's kinda out of the way. I mentioned if he could meet us in Cincinnati it'd be possible. Little did I know he was being serious and a few minutes later he had said he would meet us and would be bringing along his roommate, Ryan, who is into parks and stuff but not a coaster nut like the rest of us. Well cool, now we're going to have six people on the trip! Or so I thought.
After we had confirmation of meeting up with Keith and Ryan we started talking about the trip more. Out of nowhere Keith says "I should go to Kennywood." My response to that was, "Don't even tempt me!" See, I am running low on funds right now and as much as I love KW there is no way I could afford it on this trip. Still, in the back of my mind I knew it was only 1.75hrs away and I was *craving* some Potato Patch fries...not to mention riding that big green and black coaster they have.
So anyway, Keith had a contact at KW he said who might be able to comp us into the park. As soon as he said that I was all ears. If we could get comped in then hell, why not go! So I told him to talk to his contact and sure enough, the day of the trip, I get a call saying that we'll get in for the price of $4.50 per person! HELL YEAH WE'RE GOING TO KENNYWOOD! :) More on that later, though, this here TR is about CP and Coastermania!
We left Atlanta (after meeting up with Chris Ward [duelingdragonsrok], Chris Hayes, and Kyle Johnston at SFoG) at 2pm. We had a pretty good drive up, listening to some awesome DDR music that Kyle absolutely loved, and played more of that game everyone loves, Coaster Trivia. Chris Ward had made up over 125 different questions for this trip! Needless to say, I wasted the competition. :) In fact, I was the only one with a positive score. Better luck next time Chris and Kyle, lol.
We had arranged to meet up with Sean Flaharty (Sean F.) at his house in Grove City, OH as well as Kevin Smallhorn (Scorcherboy). Kevin was to fly from Atlanta.
We arrived at Sean's house [aka Casa de Phyllis] at 11:00pm. We were the first [of three] groups to make it there. Since we weren't really all that tired we decided to play some DDR Konamix and watch some of the Fiesta Fest trip footage Sean had shot two weeks prior. Needless to say it was a great time. But I had been up since 9am Thursday morning, and haven't slept a wink, and we have to be at CP at 6am...it's a 2.5hr drive from Sean's house.
"Where the hell are Keith, Ryan, and Kevin?"
Turns out Keith's roommate, Ryan, decided to make T-shirts (WHO MAKES T-SHIRTS AT 8PM BEFORE A THREE HOUR DRIVE?!) for the weekends festivities and hadn't left until almost 10pm. Not to mention Kevin's flight was delayed because of bad weather in Atlanta and he didn't leave until over and hour and a half later than scheduled. We're starting to think this trip isn't gonna happen because no one is going to show up!
Well Kevin FINALLY makes it to Grove City, OH and to Sean's house at around 12:30am. Then Sean gets a call from Keith saying they're lost (like 15mi in the wrong direction) but they finally made it at 1am. They hadn't eaten yet so off they go to Waffle House at 1am to eat...Uh we have to leave at 3am and they still hadn't showered! This should be fun...
Finally they get back and Ryan takes the worlds longest shower and we're packing up the two cars at 3am. Keith had made some muffins so that is what I had for "breakfast" on the way up. The [insanely boring and monotonous] drive went quick thanks to discussion of Mike Tyson's antics with news reporters and some good music.
We arrived at CP at 6:15am and registration went extremely easy. To my surprise there really wasn't all that many people there. Well, give it about 45min and my God, are you kidding me?! The crowds definitely found there way in! Oh well, I certainly wasn't going to let that bother me, I was at CP, woohoo!
Side Note: Muffleheads SUCK!
At 7:30am we were let in the front gate and I believe it was Robin Innes who told us about the days itinerary. I heard something about Wicked Twister being closed all day but hopefully open for ERT, and if not, Mean Streak would replace it. After he said that like, all of five people clapped. Yeah, go Mean Streak...
A little disappointed we headed toward Raptor. Well, so did all 15,000 other attendees! So Keith, Ryan, and I decided to nonchalantly head past Raptor to Blue Streak. The rest of our group (for those of you keeping track at home, we have eight people now) saw us and followed. Yes, score a point for us! :) It turned out to be a great decision on our part as there were all of 50 people waiting for Blue Streak [read: one train wait]. We queued up for row 1.3 on the Blue Streak.
BLUE STREAK 3.5/5
Whoa Nelly! The hype surrounding BS this year was right, whatever they did to this coaster, keep it up! There was air where there never was air before and it was as smooth as a babies behind. There was some squeal to it around the turn but I can handle that if it runs as well as it was. After meeting up with everyone again we headed toward the middle of the [gigantic] park for a spin on Power Tower.
POWER TOWER Space Shot side only: 2/5
They only had one tower running for each experience which made the line about 10mins. These S&S's are the most temperamental that I've ridden. Sometimes they can be awesome but others they can really bite the big one. This ride in particular though was pretty mediocre...not the best but not the worst. A little air at the top and a great view, but nothing else really.
Side Note: For some fun times, while waiting in line for Power Tower on the space shot side, select a rider who looks very nervous. Next, make sure they have a watch. Then, right before the operator says "Clear!" over the mic ask them what time it is. What happens after that is sure to be a crowd pleaser!
After departing PT we walked toward the big bad bug, Mantis [or as some call it, Mannis].
MANTIS 3/5
The first thing I noticed on Mantis was how fast the lift hill is. Holy crap, it *hauls* up there! It was so strange watching a B&M go up that fast; looked very Intamin.
The ride experience was typical for Mantis. I rode in the seventh row. The drop trim was on just like always and provided some really awesome hangtime in the vertical and diving loops. For some reason, the block brake didn't even touch the train on this ride and the ending was spectacular I thought. Sure it has some headbanging (especially the jolt right after the flatspin, right Keith?) but overall the intensity of the ending and the hangtime in the beginning make me come back for more. Unfortunately, I think I was the only one who enjoyed it. Keith bashed his earring on "the jolt" so he hated it, Ryan was pretty indifferent to it, Kevin I don't think enjoyed it at all, and the Chris' were pretty much "meh" about it. Oh well, I still like ya Mantis!
I decided to ride Mantis one more time since the others were waiting for the front and my experience in row 2 was just as good. Hooray for fast lift hills!
After Mantis we trekked over to the Bird of Prey for some good ol' fashioned inverted action. Upon our arrival we noticed the line was really short...What were you saying about it being 1.5hrs Sean? Yeah, that's what I thought. ;)
RAPTOR 4.5/5
HOLY CRAP. Raptor was impressing me on *all* levels. Our first ride brought half of us to row 8 and the other half to row 1. My ride in row 8...unrealistic! I couldn't believe how incredibly smooth it was running! I literally didn't tap my head ONCE the entire way out to the cobra roll. Um, did someone say fast? Yeah, it looked like someone pressed the fast forward button in the heartline! What's this, midcourse brakes? Hmmm, barely even TOUCHING the train! How about that crew? Well, if not stacking a single train the entire time I was watching them is good, then this crew was GREAT. This was the best I had ever seen them. So let's see, we have incredibly smooth, incredibly fast, no real mid course brake, lightning quick ride ops...this was definitely the surprise of the day.
Our groups switched rows, meaning those of us who rode in back now rode front and vice-versa. Again, my front row ride was just out of this world. For some reason though, everyone except me and Chris preferred the back. I still think the front is the money row, but back ain't a slouch either. What a horrible thing to have -- two amazing rows.
After being impressed as "all get-out" from Raptor it was almost time for the Joe Cool ERT and Resort Guests to ride Millennium Force. We made our way back to the entrance to see if they would open early. Well, they did. They let JCC and hotel people in one line and then later let us peons in. In the other line I saw Lori (loriu) and her husband Steve, Greg (GregLeg), and their gang who were proudly waving their hotel room keys. Yeah, yeah you show offs, you get to ride MF before me. ;)
MILLENNIUM FORCE 5/5
The line wasn't all that long, I'd say about 45mins to the station (even though Kyle and Chris say it was 25mins...it so totally wasn't!) but since I was with so many first timers we decided to wait it out for the front. Well, all of us except Ryan and Keith, they had been on it before and were hungry (awww you haven't eaten in 3hrs?) so they rode middle of the train and then headed out to get some grub. The rest of us had about a 50min wait for the front row and had some good discussion in that time about future installations for parks, etc. During the wait I had noticed how incredibly quiet MF was. It was kind of sad because that loud noise it had commanded your attention and brought up that fear factor. It also seemed to be running a tad slower than before with the nylon wheels. Well, seemed was the key word there.
I was to ride with Kevin for his first ride. We strapped into the front row of the red train [I believe] and the anticipation was there. Kyle had mentioned that he wasn't nervous at all, but even I had some butterflies going. Kevin seemed to be okay, and off we went up the 310 ft lift at approx 14mph. I pointed out some of the [much smaller] rides to Kevin as we made our way to the top. Once there, I reiterated the fact that we were 310ft in the air...sure hope that didn't scare ya Kevin. :) Down, down, down we went, oh yeah, I was back on MF! That drop is still the greatest drop I've experienced! The speed is so overwhelming in the front row to me. It's almost like it's not real. It carried us over the lagoon hills with great ease and fantastic airtime...and it was only about 12:30pm now! I had forgotten to tell Kevin about how cool it is to kinda hang out of the trains in the overbanks so on the first one I yelled "Lean out!" and gave him a little push. By the final overbank he had it down. What a ride, and what a rush! Still my #2 coaster.
We bid adieu to MF and were off to Cedar Creek Mine Ride in the back of the park.
CEDAR CREEK MINE RIDE 2/5
Mine rides are typically tame but this one is even tamer than that. I like the ending helix and the dive toward the water but other than that it's pretty meh. Works for the kiddies though! We gathered the group after the ride and headed for...
MEAN STREAK 2/5
It's the coaster everyone loves to hate. It's so striking at night to look at, but riding it is another story. Now, I don't hate Mean Streak. It's not rough. It just doesn't do anything. It was however, quite entertaining to have a stare down with Kyle who was waiting for us on the midway in front of the ride, pose in a most hilarious manner for the on ride camera, and receive incredible "fake airtime." See, Mean Streak isn't that bad, you just have to know how to have fun on it. And who doesn't love the trims on the first drop? It's as close as the Toothchipper from the Simpsons as I'll ever get.
With our Mean Streak ride behind us, I called Keith so we could set up a meeting point. We were going to meet in about 15mins in front of Magnum. In the meantime, the other 6 of us decided to ride the Log Flume which seemed to be themed to diarrhea. We split up three and three and I rode with Kevin and Sean. The ride is pretty mild but it takes you on a long and winding journey. One sad thing about it is the loss of the tunnel that has been there forever. Why would they take it out? Sean and I were so shocked when we went over the second lift and it was gone. Pretty random, I thought!
After getting splashed with diarrhea water we made our way to the meeting place...we met up in front of Gemini and decided to have a race. But first we headed for Woodstock's Express for some cha-ching action.
WOODSTOCK'S EXPRESS 2/5
After a little girl left the line with a nice nose bleed (don't mess with me! ;)) we hopped aboard the train. It's actually pretty roomy and you can fit two adults in there without much hassle. Keith commented how he thought the paint job was nice, to which I replied "Yeah, they themed it to dirt." You think they'd have painted it something eye catching! Oh well, the ride is fun as hell so everything in the world is okay.
Side Note: When you see the time boards in front of the queues at CP read "1/4 hr" make sure you ask the ride host "is it really a twenty-five minute wait?" After the host explains that 1/4hr equals 15mins argue that 1/4 dollar is twenty five cents.
We walked in the queue for Gemini and notice that it is full. Completely full. Um, what the hell is going on here? I have *never* seen it this long and I have been to CP on Saturdays in August! They had four trains going, that might have had something to do with it. Still, the line was maybe 20mins max, and we decided to split up our group. Four of us rode in the back of red and then four in the back of blue.
GEMINI 3.5/5
Gemini is SERIOUSLY fun when racing friends. Watching people go down the first drop is pretty damn cool! Hand slapping began (and someone flipped me off in the back row, that was uncalled for!) and it was a great race. We were neck and neck the entire time and entering the final helix it turns out that blue squeaked by in the end. Oh well, we came in second place! Not to mention we beat them out the exit, so we technically won. ;)
Since it was now nearing the 2pm scheduled lunch time we high tailed it over to the picnic pavilion for some lunch. I was shocked again to see just how crowded the place was. No problem though, in typical Cedar Point fashion, the food line moved pretty darn quick, and before you know it, I was moving outta there with a plate full of chicken, beans, hot dogs, potato salad, ice cream, and a Pepsi. *I* personally thought the food was pretty good -- typical picnic type stuff. Keith had decided that EVERYTHING was "dry." Even the ice cream. How can ice cream be dry?! I guess he just needed something to complain about.
We sat next to Bill L. and Sean got his chat on about various topics such as X, and how amazing the ride experience is. Ahem. Bryan Edwards announced the photo winners and soon after we left the pavilion, and all its [dry] food, and headed out for more of them awesome rides!
Next stop took us to the Demon Drop queue, and another great opportunity for the "is the line really twenty-five minutes" joke. This ride op was rather intent on me knowing that 1/4hrs is really only 15 minutes! I love adding to all the dumb things they have to hear all day long.
Since it was getting a bit cold out, Sean and Kevin went out to the car for jackets, while the rest of us suckers stayed in the park and froze. Damn that lake breeze! Anyway, the line was all of 10 minutes long and we split our group of six up three and three. In my car was Keith and Ryan, and the other car contained Chris, Chris, and Kyle. Not sure how they liked it, but our ride was hysterical. Going up the lift I commented to Keith on how "this is where those kids DIED on the Edge!" Completely opposite of what I was expecting, Keith freaked out. "Shut up, don't say that!" As soon as he finished that sentence we got that awesome pop of air at the top of Demon Drop and he yelled like a little girl. Needless to say the drop caught me by surprise because I was laughing so damn hard.
Side Note: Saying things to scare people on rides is hysterical.
We departed ways with Demon Drop (smoothest Intamin first gen ever) and walked back to the area of the park I call "Intamin Aisle." Wicked Twister was still down and maintenance was hard at work on something. So sad that half of the group hadn't been on it and wouldn't get to ride it this trip. Oh well, at least they were working on it.
We queued up for Disaster Transport after a quick bathroom break. We had to let 100 people go ahead of us so as to not have Kyle linejump up to us since he couldn't live without his precious Pepsi. :)
The line for Disaster Transport was extremely entertaining. I had a dollar burning a hole in my pocket so I purchased the 3-D glasses they had for sale inside the queue. I gotta say it was pretty cool with all the blacklight stuff. The funny part didn't come til halfway through the line when some 12 year old girl decided she was just going to cut in front of our group. Now, she had been behind us the ENTIRE time and out of nowhere just cuts us! Then she calls back to her friend to come up...uh, don't think so. Her friend tries to cut under some queue rails up to meet up with her and Keith blocks one side, and I block the other. Well, now she's stuck and we're not moving. The other girl is just waving at her "Come on up here!" and her friend is blocked. We couldn't figure out for the life of us why she cut! After about 10 minutes of the two little girls being split up, she finally moved back behind our group with her friend. The rest of the line though, Chris could overhear them planning on how to get in front of us.
Side Note: When in the last room for Disaster Transport, tell your friend (or a complete stranger) that their name is flashing up on the wall and point to the sign that reads "REJECT." Just don't blame me if you get a black eye.
After our twenty five minute wait [or 1/4hr, lol], we were on Disaster Transport. I rode with Chris and made him think that there was a launch to start off the ride. Well, I think he was mildly disappointed when that didn't happen. The rest of the ride was cool though, I LOVE how dark it gets in there! And the 3-D glasses made for some interesting effects. When the ride ended, I got a kick out of Kyle and Chris saying "That's it?" What the hell did you expect! LMAO, gotta love anticipointment. I, for one, enjoy the ride for what it is and give it...
DISASTER TRANSPORT 3/5
Making our [extremely quick] journey back from Alaska to Sandusky, OH we started our flat ride tour. The first one up was Porn: The Ride or as it's named by CP, Schwabinchen (I think I misspelled that). These usually are pretty good, but this particular one was a 10 on the Lame-o-Meter. Slow and no air like on the newer versions. Oh well, onto the next flat which was Derby Downs. I love this little ride, it's such a classic and I try to ride it every time I visit CP. Of course the ride was extremely funny with John Blakemore trying to blindfold my horses eyes so he would win, or Kyle sticking drugs into his horse so he could be victorious. Or everyone slapping their horses ass for pleasure. Whoops, I mean to go faster.
The good times ended on Derby Downs and we were off to Calypso. I haven't been on this thing since 1996! I was starting to realize that when you ride a lot of flats along with the coasters your day feels more complete. At least to me it does.
Our group of 7 rode Calypso (minus Keith who was "saving up his nausea for Chaos") and the ride was great as ever. It's so fast! I love when you're at the end of the swing right in front of someone and you can do all sorts of goofy stuff like ask them what time it is [notice a trend here?]. By the time they look at their watch you're halfway across the ride! Ahhh, more good times.
Next up on our tour was Wildcat. About a 15min wait and we were in our car. It's so great watching riders engage in the chain lift and have their necks snap back.
WILDCAT 3/5
I really like this coaster. It's got...pep. The drops are surprisingly good and it's even better when you have another group of friends in another car saying random things the entire ride. And who can forget the amazing ending! Hitting the brakes and stopping in like five feet is too much fun, especially when you don't hold on like the ride op instructs you to do.
A quick walk across the midway brought us to Iron Dragon. The line was hellalong earlier in the day but it was now in the station. Bonus. We queued up for the front of the back car, where Sean and I always comment on how we get "that stomach feeling." It's something to do with the 45ยบ angle, I swear. I get it on Blue Streak, Corkscrew, and Iron Dragon all the time.
IRON DRAGON 2/5
The first drop is awesome, but the rest of the first half is blah. The second half over the water is pretty cool though, I love the changes of direction. I also noticed that CP has added a chain link fence on the low section of the second half this year. Pretty darn ugly.
We continued on our Arrow journey and headed to what I call Arrow Alley. We hit Corkscrew next with a minimal wait for the back row.
CORKSCREW 2.5/5
Ya gotta love CP. They run three trains on a coaster that lasts like twenty seconds! Most of our group headed for the back, with Sean and Kevin being the oddballs going toward the front. I'm glad to see Arrow has learned that people are over 4'11" tall now...These trains are so unbelievably small. And the posture is all wrong. But whatever, now I'm just being a damn analytical geek. The ride is actually pretty good, IMO. The first drop again gives me the "stomachies" [pronounced STOW - MA - CHEESE)and the bunny hill offers some great ejector air. Then the vertical loop never fails to grey me out. A quick trip through the corkscrews over the midway and back to the station. It's a damn quick ride, but with no line, I usually always ride this.
We split up the Arrows with a ride on Troika and Chaos. Chaos is a pretty fun flat ride when you know how to spin it. You have to lean and contort your body somewhat, but in the end it's worth it for the dizzying ride you get. I especially love the face first plunge toward the ground!
The next Arrow we hit was none other than the "historic" Magnum XL-200. Sean and Kevin went for the ejector seat while the rest of us headed for the last car. Kyle and I rode 6.1. I love the front of the trains because you get so much leg room! The lap bars still suck, but the extra leg room is great. I let Kyle sit on the left side of the train because when you head out of the third hill and into the pretzel loop you feel as though you'll fall out of the train. I pushed Kyle to make it feel MORE realistic, but I don't think he appreciated that. Oh well, try it with your first time Magnum rider friends. It usually works and provides a great scare.
MAGNUM XL-200 3.5/5
Magnum was running *very* smoothly! You absolutely cannot beat the location with a stick and now you get a great view of Area 51 from the lift. The bunnies, although triangles and easy to make fun of, do provide some really awesome airtime. My favorite is the on ride picture hill; there's some serious ejector air there.
Side Note: Area 51 has very large footers in it. I wonder what they could be for.
I think everyone liked the ride (Sean and Kevin even got stuck on the lift hill for a minute because of a set up I believe) and we checked up on the Mine Ride once again so the others could get their credit. No line for this one and again a pretty lackluster ride overall. Something really strange happened though after we exited.
I smelled something in the air that definitely wasn't cigarette smoke. The next thing I know Sean is yelling "Dude those kids are smoking pot!" I looked and there was a group of about six kids (and I mean kids, they were no more than 11 years old TOPS) puffin away right in the middle of the midway! I was so damn shocked I couldn't say anything. How sad is that when kids that young are tokin' away in plain view of everyone. It was pretty damn disgusting if you ask me.
After that wonderful display we wanted to check out MF's line. The sign said 2hrs but it was by the pop machines. That should be no more than 1hr. I even questioned the op at the entrance as to why it said that and she was rather insistent that it was 2hrs. It wasn't, but it was too long for us to wait in so we headed elsewhere.
We walked all the way back up to Blue Streak and took a ride toward the back this time. Going up the lift almost killed me because of ALL THE DAMN MUFFLEHEADS! I mean there was a literal cloud of them swarming on the lift and every single person was swatting them away. The ride was no different, in fact, I swallowed three of them! Damn those muffleheads! The ride however was so good we went back for another ride.
Side Note: When riding Blue Streak, on the bunny hill right in front of Raptors station, make the weirdest/scariest face you can possibly make to the people in the front row. The reactions are priceless. :)
It was about getting to about 9pm now and Keith and Ryan were hungry AGAIN [how they don't weigh 300lbs is beyond me] so they split up and headed toward Macaroni's while the rest of us went on Raptor. It was getting darker and Raptor was just nuts. I mean I have never ever in my seven years visiting CP seen it run better. Every train going through the heartline would get a "NO WAY LOOK HOW FAST IT IS" from me. The line was like twenty minutes and dying quickly so we rode at least four or five times! For the last two rides we rode in row 8 and took out our 3-D glasses from Disaster Transport.
WOW. That was the coolest visuals EVER on a coaster! It's what I imagine an acid trip would feel like. The lights were all blurry and the strobes in the cobra roll messed me up. I loved it! The helix pulled so many G's and BOOM into the brakes you get that amazing rattle/shake/whatever where you hear everyone go "OW!" Such an awesome ending. :)
The park finally closed and we met up with the other two so our group was back to eight again. We strolled to Magnum for the night ERT. "WHY IS THE LINE BACK TO TROIKA?!" I didn't know they weren't letting people in yet, but my GOD the line. It was so far back I did a double take. However, once they let people in it went by extremely quick. For this ride I rode in 2.1 while Kyle and Chris rode the Ejector Seat. Again, a very smooth night ride on Magnum was had, and left a big smile on my face. But the whole time I was in line for Magnum I was just ITCHING to run over to MF. I almost did until last second they opened the queue. But with my Magnum ride out of the way I walked [well, jogged, lol] to MF. On the way I saw Coasterbuzzer Grant (from the UK) on his way to Magnum. He said he just got the last ride for the GP on MF and said the island lights were off. I couldn't wait to get over there. Then I saw the damn line. It went all the way back to the tunnel almost. LMAO, only at CP! Again, though, once they started filling up the queues the line was about two queue blocks full, meaning about a 40min wait. It was about 11:35pm by this time as Keith and I got into the blue train in row 9.2. By this time MF was lightning quick. It started bringing back flashbacks of August 01. It had the, what I dubbed, "Intamin What Hill?" syndrome going on; meaning it goes so fast over the hills it's like they're not even there. Tears in my eyes from the wind, drool on my cheek, and bugs in my mouth, we exited the electric MF unload station and Keith and Ryan headed out to the car to get some sleep before the drive. Sean and Kevin took their ride and also headed out to the Breakers Express. Chris, Chris, Kyle and I opted to get the most out of the "E"RT and rode again. I took two more rides on MF...one in the second row (where I saw God) and one in 2.2. I rode with Keith S. from Gurnee, IL, a friend of mine from my SFGAm days. I was on such a high from MF that it didn't matter I hadn't slept since 9am Thursday morning (for the two people still reading, that means I had been up for 40hrs straight without one wink of sleep). With the last ride at 1am, the four of us left the park and headed for the SUV. Keith and Ryan were sleeping in the car and Ryan couldn't open the door locks if his life depended on it. Sleep deprivation rocks! LOL.
Overall, it was a freakin fantastic day at my second favorite park on Earth. I hadn't ridden so much at that place in all my life, and I'm glad I went with the people I did because everyone seemed to have a great day and they all wanted to ride everything. As crowded as it was, I wouldn't mind making Coastermania an annual tradition at all!
Disappointments:
*Wicked Twister being inoperable.
*Muffleheads for dinner.
*Not having Millennium Force in my backyard.
I'd like to thank the people I saw at CP including, but not limited to: STChick, Arrow Guy, MooreOn (now *that's* a great name ;)), loriu and Steve, GregLeg, Neil Rupp, Larry Scott, Keith S. from IL and his daughters, Janice Witherow (even though she didn't give me a hug!), Bryan Edwards, and Robin Innes. You guys are all awesome and I can't wait to see ya's in the near future!
Thanks for reading my newest novel and be ready for part 2 coming soon...The drive to Grandma McVeen's, heart-shaped waffles, SFWoA, KW, and the loss of something dear to me.
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"Hey, what were the 80's like, were they cool?"
Great Trip Report!!
It just makes me alot more hyper to go to Cedar Point. (I'm going like the last week in July, my first time).
Thanks for the GREAT Trip Report.
PS:: I have been reading everything on this site, but I still don't know what the "ejector seat" is so I can know when I go to Cedar Point!
Thanks
I spoted you on the main midway, I was int he big group with Arrow Guy and ST chick.:)
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Proud supporter of Agressive Negotiations.
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Area 51:
The Writing's On the Wall!
"Cedar Point is building for the future! More news later this season!"
*** This post was edited by MooreOn on 6/12/2002. ***
Great TR!! I Love how you even included the pot smoking kids ~ Funny to read about because I heard about it, but at the same time it is just plain old sad.
Looking forward to part 2!! :)
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Proud supporter of Agressive Negotiations.
*** This post was edited by joey isch on 6/12/2002. ***
You are such a dork, Joe. A big dork. If I were a ride op at CP still and you pulled that 25 minute crap, I'd eat your soul.
-Natalie
You better be at PPP, OR ELSE.....
At first glance, our names appeared to be listed under "disappointments"! LMAO....thank God for that extra sentence! Great TR.....certainly the longest I have seen. Remind me NOT to ride the Log Flume!
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Brad Sherman
BuzzCon Frequent Flyer, helping to train new ride ops properly!
Model coasters and rides
So what did I think of this TR?
Blah.............mediocre....meh.........and all the other 'fantastic' words Joe used to describe the rides at CP.
Seriously though, thanks for the TR dude. It was great hanging out with you once again (what is this, like, 6 or so weekends in a row?).
Seeing those little dweebs passing around that blunt really was messed up. I still can't believe we saw that. Going to my home parks with people that have never been to them before provides me with a first-time feeling also. Even though you and I have hung out at CP many times before, those last few rides on Raptor at night were just like it was in 1997.......or was it '98?
-Sean (who did see that Raptor did have a 1.5 hour wait later in the day...........so...........meh) F.
Great TR! Good enough to make this the third day straight of getting less than 4 hours of sleep! I must find a way to get back to Cedar Point.. Somehow, someway.
Thanks everyone for the nice comments! It took a while to write that so it's nice to know y'all read it.
Nat, if I get start makin' some money I will be at PPP.
Joey isch, nope, no ergonomic keyboard for me. I wish!
Arrow Guy, lol, the water seriously was that gross. And no, meeting you guys wasn't a disappointment! :)
Sean F., you like my terms, eh? Thought you would. LOL. Yeah, we have been hanging out a lot lately, too bad no more until Europe. :( I really wish I could go to TimbersFest with y'all! Ride it a bunch for me. And yeah, that was seriously messed up about those kids. What's the world coming to.
Thanks again for the comments and I'm still working on pt 2. Should be done later today!
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Whoa that was pretty cool." -- Reaction to first flip over on X-Flight
Great Trip Report. I know eactly what you mean with the muffleheads. When I went in August 01 it was so bad. I fyou looked anywhere you would just see them every inch literally. It was so disgusting. I just have a few questions.
When did CP close that day?
What does the abbreviation LMAO mean?
How do you stay up for 40 hours without sleep?
Great Trip Report!
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-Sean Newman
83 coasters and soon to be more
Life is a roller coaster Ride It!
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My place
http://pages.prodigy.net/dominguezgarage
SFGadvMAN:
Yes, Muffleheads are disgusting.
CP closed at 10pm to the general public and stayed open til 1am for Coastermania attendees.
The abbreviation LMAO means Laughing My (naughty word) Off.
I dunno about the sleep thing. That is like the third time I've done over 40hrs straight. Just being at the park and the whole anticipation thing of trips makes me stay awake.
Thanks again for the comments!
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Whoa that was pretty cool." -- Reaction to first flip over on X-Flight
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