CP 9/9/11 - I wait all year for this specific day!

Like the title states, this day has been *very* good to us in the past. We consider this day our riding day for the entire year. We may go a few times throughout the season, but usually ride very little. Friday did not disappoint!

Got to the park around 5:30... Dead. Literally, midways were nearly vacant. Started our day heading over to MF... Walkon near the back of the train. Handicap gate was open so after the ride was finished, just hop off and go board the loading train basically. Only real wait was for 1-1... Ride was running good, a bit of vibration though depending on seat. Our ride in 1-2 was pretty good though. Always a fun ride, but the only time I really get excited to ride this is at night during HW... Love the whole fog/light effects on the island.

After a few rides on MF, we headed over to Dragster. Again, walkon. Amazing ride as always. That launch just takes my breath away every time and even after all these years it still delivers. At the end of the ride, they let people walk right back to the enterance platform to re-board, as they required full trains. Took a few more laps (4-5?) and went on back to Maverick.

Maverick was walkon (surprise!) and decided to wait for 1-1... Excellent ride, intense as always. Only took one lap though today. Running smoother then it usually does by this time of the year, when vibrations and a need for wheel replacement usually make it near-unbearable.

Headed up toward the front of the park to take a lap on Raptor. Walkon to the front seat and it was running great. Sadly, Raptor has been slipping on my "invert" ranks, dropping below Great Bear and Dueling Dragons, errr, Dragon Challenge. :) Took a quick walk to Blue Streak for a quick lap. I have had better rides on it this year, but still was not too bad.

Took a ride on the Antique Cars and Dodgems and over to Windseeker. No wait for course and great rides.

By this time I was getting a bit worn from all the riding.. Decided to head back to Dragster and took two front seat night rides on it. Some of my best rides ever on it. A three train wait mixed with a nice cool night and amazing view up top (foggy, gave a surreal illusion of height). And it was FLYING over the top-hat faster then I ever remember the past few years. Ejector air, honestly. Still remains my #1 at CP. Wish we could of rode more, but at this time my headache was taking over.

Left the park around 9:30... Even though we only stayed four hours or so, we really got our fill in for the year. Come Halloweekends the crowds will be back and lines will be long, so we will just enjoy the seasonal festivities :)

I'm guessing you meant 9/9, not 9/12. :) Some of my friends went that night and gave a similar report. When does CP ever allow re-rides??

I went yesterday (Sunday), and it was very similar to Bonus Sunday last year. The park had just enough people to not seem deserted, but lines were still deliciously short and the spotty rainstorms avoided the peninsula completely (I even got a bit of sunburn because I wasn't expecting the sun to be out so long).

The line for MilF was actually shorter later in the day than it was during Extra-Early ERT, so the handicap gate was open. Although Dragster isn't normally part of Early Entry, yesterday it was running before the park opened, so it was a walk-on and we were able to get 3 laps there. Raptor had its usual ZOMG-They-Just-Opened-The-Gates rush, and yet the wait was still only 10 minutes. Our longest line of the day was Maverick at 15 minutes.

So not quite as epic as Friday night, but still a great day. I was glad my friends were finally able to have a coasterriffic day with nice weather without having to use Parent Swap! And one of them won a goodie bag of random CP merch from the twitter scavenger hunt.

I've been to Cedar Point for 9 total operating days over the past decade and have never experienced anything close to the crowd levels you described. Sounds like I need to plan my trips better.

I have been going to Cedar Point for 40+ years and I have never seen lines like Friday night. I would see reports from people saying everything was a walk up on this day or that day. I had just never seen that. But I typically go once or twice in July or August so there are big crowds just about every day. I talked to a few people during the night who said the weekend after Labor Day is the only weekend they will go to the park.

The ability to re-ride depended on the ride and ride-ops. I was able to re-ride Raptor. When I got into the station, if no one was waiting for my row, I asked the ride-op if I could stay there and she said yes. MF was essentially a re-ride. You got off of one train while another was loading, walked into the station and got back on the train you just exited. So in terms of number of rides, you were getting a re-ride. For most of the nite, you were getting better than a re-ride on Dragster because you were exiting trains and walking up to empty trains in the station. You were a couple of trains ahead of where you would be had you stayed in your train. And even if you missed a couple of trains, you were where you would have been had you stayed on at the exit.

I couldn't get a re-ride on Maverick (even when no one was waiting for my row) so I had to walk around. But you got on the next train so it was just like Saturday morning at Coastermania. The excuse was that people were coming up 15 seconds behind who would want my seat just people were just filling up empty rows. Wasn't like they wanted my seat. They could have just filled in the row in front or behind me. End they still were running with partially filled trains in any event. At least early in the evening.

Couldn't get a re-ride on Blue Streak though it made no sense at all. I was in the back row and when we got back into the station, no one was waiting for the entire back car much less the back row. Asked if I could stay on but was told I needed to exit. Do so and walked around. They were only running one train. When I got back to the station, I was the first one waiting for the back row and I had to unbuckle the seat belt and pull up the lapbar for the empty back row they I could have otherwise been in. Didn't make any sense but there was no point in fighting it.

Re-ride on Skyhawk cost me some time as the restraints got stuck on the second ride. I was the only one on the back side of the ride and there were 4-5 people on the front side. Had to wait until maintenance came around and used compressed air from the towers to release the restraints. Still like that ride especially with no wait. Was bummed that Maxair wasn't running.

Working there for three seasons, I noticed that just about every Halloweekend Friday night was pretty much like this, and the Friday Halloweekends earlier in the season were extremely slow. That's the very best time to visit the park. Saturday or Sunday early in the Halloweekends season is not too bad either, from my experiences.

This was the "bonus weekend" I believe. Halloweekends starts this weekend. I think Fridays in September are probably decently safe in terms of crowds, but October is just crazy. During BooBuzz last year it was crazy crowded on a Friday in October.

Last time I was there was a Thursday during the first week of operation. It was a similar situation, but still not this slow. I may have to try a September Friday next time.

The wife and I had our date night at the park on Friday night. Couldn't have picked a better day to go. Weatherwise, crowdwise, it was a nice night. Since we are usually toting around three kids it was a wierd change of pace for us as we were able to ride whatever we wanted. We could only stand to ride each ride twice and then move onto the next. I couldn't believe how sick and dizzy we were getting so we ended up taking our time between each ride.

We finally got to ride WindSeeker and I'm not sure which niche the park was trying to fill. It's not exactly a family ride and I didn't think it was a thrill ride either. It could have been a great observation/scenic ride if it didn't move so quick at the top. I liked the music during the ride, other than that I thought WindSeeker was a dud. Luckily there are a ton of awesome rides at CP to enjoy!!

~Rob

Halloweekend Fridays do seem to have gotten a bit more popular in the last couple of years. This past weekend though was the odd weekend between the end of the regular season and the start of Halloweekends. I think I rode more on Friday night than I did the whole rest of the summer combined (save for maybe Coaster Mania). I also caught the open rehearsal for the Halloweekends show at the Garter. It's the best show they've had there in years. Definitely worth checking out.

Edited to say 9/9/11... Not sure if it will show though! Thanks for the heads up.

It was a great night, for sure. Last year was very similar (same weekend). We always have great luck on this weekend in-between the end of the normal operation and the start of HW. Reminds me of the crowds during a stormy Millennium Mania when that event was still going. Last year was dead as well, but not quite as much.

These days are what make me spoiled with CP… I am at the point where if MF is down that ramp, the line is getting long for me. Sad, but true!