CP 09/14/2013

Arrived in Sandusky at 9:10am and after having a quick bite to eat stopped at Breakers Express to purchase our tickets for the day. This was my second time staying here and just as the first time the staff was friendly and there was no wait at all at the front desk. The clerk was able to check us into our rooms and get our tickets (7 in total) all in around 10min. I inquired at the desk if the parking fee was waived for CP resort guests and was pleased when the clerk gave us 2 parking passes one for each of our vehicles. The early check in time was a plus as well since the wait to check in on my last visit was nearly 40min! This was done after the park had closed and everyone was completely exhausted.

Got into the park at 10:05am and got a walk on to Raptor. This ride does not show its age at all and still delivers as great of a ride as it did it first year in my opinion. From Raptor we headed back to ride MF. At the entrance we where told the ride was down mechanical and they had no estimate on a reopen time. Trains where running but not consistently enough for me to justify waiting so we headed to Maverick. Maverick had a 15 min wait! I was really liking the ERT by this point!

MF looked to be getting trains dispatched on a more regular basis so we backtracked to give it look. The lady at the entrance informed us that she was told to expect an opening around noon. I was cussing myself by this point since the lines where so short but it seemed like all we where getting done was walking around. I figure next time I go the park I might start the day the same but just stall at Maverick and repeat ride until the general public packs the line.

From MF we headed over to dragster to get in line before the 11am opening. We stopped and waited about 5 min to ride the drop side of Power Tower. Not much gets my pulse racing anymore but there is something about drop rides that still gives me the "Ohh crap what am I doing feeling" that I love.

At Dragster we waited 20min. I love the launch on this ride! After riding I found myself thinking that I would only wait 45min max to ride this ride. I have no idea when I started placing wait restrictions on rides. I guess it must be a side effect of getting older.

Half our party was hungry by this point and went to eat. I took a quick, no wait, ride on the shot side of Power Tower. Once we regrouped we headed over to MF.

MF had a posted wait time of 1hr 30min. I expected this and took my place in line for the long haul. MF is a ride that I am quite familiar with and upon looking at the line I thought that the sign might have been wrong and we might luck out and get on in an hour or so. I was dead wrong about this. The addition of the Fast Pass line really put the breaks on the movement of the standby line. The line I thought might take an hour took us 2hrs and 15min!

I have no absolute stance on the whole "Fast Pass" debate but its effects where definitely noticeable on this line in a very negative way for me. The ride itself gave me a good shock. It was smooth as always but seemed to provide some really intense floater air time over the hills that it didn't seem to do in the last few previous years I have rode it.

After MF I decided to bite the bullet and go for Gatekeeper. We got to the entrance at just after 4pm and the sign showed only a 1hr 15min wait. I was pleasantly surprised by this and happily took my place. The actual wait was just under an hour for us and the time in line seemed to pass by very quickly. I am unsure if it was because of the unusual layout of the queue line which had the line kind of wrap in and around itself or something else but it was a pleasant surprise.

Gatekeeper while a nice ride really didn't do it for me. Something was missing to the ride but I can't exactly place my finger on what exactly it might be. This coaster took its place in my ranking of CP coasters under MF, Maverick, Raptor, and Magnum. In no particular order.

After Gatekeeper we rode Wicked Twister with a 15min wait. We all took off after Wicked Twister to do some shopping and to get a spot at Famous Dave's for Dinner.

This was my first time eating at Famous Dave's and I have to say I really enjoyed the whole experience. We had about a 45min wait which we used to just sit with our legs hanging over the dock resting our legs and shooting the breeze. Once we where seated we ordered some big $70 feast meal that more than fed everyone in our party. The food was really great and we had an amazing waitress. I see myself doing this for dinner more often.

The park was just getting dark when we reentered. Once inside we headed over to Mantis which had about a 15min wait. The haunted houses where open by this point! We headed to the front of the park and waited about 30min to walk through the new Zombie High attraction. I was a little let down by this new addition not nearly as scary and the few haunted attractions that I have done in years past.

I headed toward Magnum after Zombie High. I love night rides on Magnum and once we got back to her we where greeted with a wait of about 10min. The ride ran great, awesome ejector air on the bunny hills! We got off Magnum and headed over to get another ride in on MF. MF still had a wait time of 1hr 30min and seeing as it was already 11:27pm we decided to skip a second ride here and headed toward Windseeker.

I had never ridden Windseeker in my one visit since it was built and was looking forward to my first ride. When we got to the ride we where greeted with no one waiting. This should have been my first tip to abandon ship but I wanted to try it out.

In my opinion Windseeker was not a good investment for the park. For being 300 feet in the air it felt as though you where hardly off the ground, it was super quite at the top except for the music being piped up to you. The whole ride I just kept thinking how I would like for it to stop so I could try to ride a real ride. The guy behind me put it best when the ride op asked us how our ride was and he shouted "Mediocre!!". Couldn't have put it better myself.

After getting off Windseeker we high tailed it over to Raptor and walked straight up to the platform. This finished our day at the park and as always I had a blast!

I agree with the comment that Windseeker is "Mediocre." Why Cedar fair felt the need to build so many of these is beyond me. What they could do to make it better, is to take out every other car, so that there is more room between them, and do a modification so that the cars can freely turn in various directions in the breeze, so that maybe at some points during the ride you could be riding backwards, or sideways. But nothing jerky.

As I've made clear numerous times in the past, I'm in the other camp. They're high-capacity rides with great views, and the lighting packages make them some of the most visually interesting landmarks at their various parks. The reasons why Cedar Fair built them may indeed be beyond you, but from what I've read in reviews and seen during my travels, they seem to be very well-received.

I agree that Windseeker is a good looking ride, and it's night time light show is pretty cool, but, as a ride, it doesn't live up to it's supposed thrill factor. It also lacks the "I want to ride that again! It was awesome!" factor. As more, I rode it and I'm good. Even with a one cycle wait for a return trip, I would not jump in line to ride it again.

Though I am also not a fan of Max Air. It's just a big bulky ride, that is not comfortable to ride, and kills your stomach with the restraint. I enjoy the carnival fireball much more. Big and high doesn't always equal fun. I have also been on carnival flyers, which are similar to Windseeker, but much more fun. It also lacks the dry mouth and watery eyes you get after a ride on Windseeker, as the wind really beats your face up there. Should have called it Windburn.

Aaaaand the griping continues.

Windseeker is the ride I love to hate, and I ride it each and every time I go. I find flyer rides of any kind to be on the scary side, something about being 300 feet in the air with nothing below my ass is unsettling to me. But Windseeker is fun for what it is and I wouldn't trade it.

maXair is the best ride of its kind, what's the matter with you? Big and bulky is fine with me, [proof- just look at the men I've ever dated :-) ] and I can just hear the crying had Cedar Point installed a carnival Fireball. Knott's has the smaller claw ride by Chance, I believe, and while ok, just isn't as cool or as fun. (Doesn't Dorney have one too?) Leave those for the fair, please.

WindSeekers are my favorite non-coaster rides, hands-down. Genuinely terrifying and exhilarating all at the same time. Worlds of Fun's will be the only remaining example stateside that I need to get.

I think Carowinds has the most terrifying example, though. You are WAY up there all by yourself, and there's something very unnerving about the low-flying aircraft arriving into Douglas International zipping by on either side of the park. It feels almost as if you're at eye level.

RCMAC said:

Knott's has the smaller claw ride by Chance, I believe, and while ok, just isn't as cool or as fun. (Doesn't Dorney have one too?) Leave those for the fair, please.

Yes Dorney has one and Hersheypark does as well.

Actually RCMAC a lot of parks are installing theme park versions of the fireball carnival ride at their parks. La Ronde recently installed one, and other parks have different versions of it as well. I also noticed that Knoebels has a carnival version of the max air ride.

And, no, I would not complain if Cedar Point had a carnival fireball, in fact, I would probably be more likely to ride it, and enjoy it more than either Max Air, or Wind Seeker, and I would probably be likely to ride it over and over, if it had a short line. But, being at Cedar Point, i'm sure it would be very popular.

I was also a fan of their Chaos ride.