I just got back from my coaster trip to northern Ohio. I am just going to give a brief overview of the days we spent.
The trip started out with a 2-day trip to Cedar Point (Tuesday July 10 and Wednesday July 11). This was my second trip to the point (the first being last year). The park was a little busy, but we managed to have a great time with some great rides.
Magnum XL-200 (4 laps including one front seat)
Last year I was not too impressed with this coaster. However this year is a different story. Magnum quickly rose to be one of my top 5 after my first ride this trip. We got airtime on almost every hill. Another thing that made me enjoy it more was the smaller wait. Last year we waited over an hour. The longest wait this time was 30 minutes and that was for front seat.
Millennium Force (3 laps one front seat ride.)
This continues to be my favorite coaster. I had told my group that we were going to wait for front seat, because they got to ride it last year and loved it. If you have the extra time , I suggest you wait for the fornt seat. It is a much better ride up there, I just loved going down the first hill and seeeing it continue to slope more and more. The longest wait for the Force: 1:15 minutes for front seat.
Raptor (3 laps including one front seat and one back seat)
The new paint looks nice. The only complaint I have is I never really felt the 0-g roll. Oh well this is still one great ride.
Gemini 2 laps (one blue, one red)
This ride was fun last year and even better this year. One of my friends is rather loud and made this so much fun. He named the cars Ricky Rudd(sp?)(the blue) and Jeff Gordon (the red). As we went around the track he would keep yelling stupid stuff such as, "Slow down Ricky Rudd, speed up Jeff Gordon." And he did it all in a redneck voice. He had the whole car laughing at one point.
I am not going to go into detail with the other rides, so here is a list and the number of laps.
Power Tower 2 rides (one on each side)
Mantis 2 laps (one front row, one back row)
Iron Dragon 2 laps
Mean Streak 1 lap
Blue Streak 1 lap
Disaster Transport 1 lap
Cedar Creak Mine Ride 1 lap
Woodstock Express 1 lap
Corkscrew 1 lap
Wildcat 1 lap
Cedar Downs 1 lap
Space Spiral 1 lap
White Water Landing 1 lap
Thunder Canyon 1 lap
Two rides on the train
Countless number of times on the Sky Ride
We also watched the Michael Jordan Show, The Summer Beat Show, and the Summer Spectacular.
The trip to Cedar Point was everything I expected. We had a blast. And if it hasn't been said enough yet, I love CP's ride-ops. The were very quick and made for a much enjoyable time, so if anyone reading this is one of those people I just want to say thanks. On a side note, if you are going to Cedar Point make sure you eat at the Midway Market. They have a great buffet for only $10. I am going to try to convince my dad to take me back up there for Halloweekends.
Thursday July 12 SFWoA.
We pulled into the lot and saw our first ride of the day X-Flight. Upon entering the park me and two of my friends purchased to fastlane pass. I know it is wrong and everything, but my opinion is, if everyone has the same opportunity to buy them more power to the ones that do.
Next we headed towards a mob of people at about 10:30. At 11 they dropped the ropes and we headed to X-Flight. They did not open it until 11:30 and we ended up waiting it out. We were near the front of the group so did not use our fastlane pass. We ended up on station 2 and waited about 20 minutes. All I can say is WOW!!!! That was one awesome ride. We quickly walked back the entrance and this time used our fastland pass. We waited about ten minutes and were then on the last row in station one. This ride was just as awesome as the first. I thought my face was going to be ripped off in the loop.
Batman Knight Flight
We rode front seat and this ride was everything I expected. Here is where the day started to go downhill. They were only running 2 trains, yet each time one would wait on the brakes for a minute before the other train was dispatched. The horrible loading times I had heard of seemed to be true. I guess one problem for me was I had been at CP the last two days where the rarely have train sitting on the brakes and they run 3 trains. The wait was only 30 minutes so it wasn't that bad.
Superman: Ultimate Escape
We used our second fastlane pass on this ride. I was a little disappointed. I was expecting this to be the highlight of the trip and what I found was a good ride. The launch on FoF seems more impressive. I am not saying this was a bad ride, it just seemed a little overhyped, but I still liked it.
We ended up riding all the other coasters in the park except Raging Wolf Bobs (it was not open). None of the others impressed my too much. We ended up leaving the park at 4:30, and spent the rest of the day in Cleveland. SFWoA was not as bad as some make it out to be, but it was not very good. Unless they get something really good for next year I doubt I will be heading back. (I am not meaning to bash the park, only state my opinion.)
Overall I had an excellent trip with CP and X-Flight (this ride was worth the drive, but I am not sure if the rest of the park was).
*** This post was edited by Shorty131 on 7/13/2001. ***
Great TR. I enjoyed reading it because in a few weeks I will be doing the same thing(with the addition of Kennywood, and eventually SFGAdv). I am really looking forward to X-Flight, and just pray that it is not broken down on the one day I am there.
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I'd Rather Be Riding Rollercoasters
www.mycoasters.homestead.com/mycoasters.html
I am suprised of your comment with the stacking and horrible loading times on BKF, when I went beginning on June, I was lucky enough to witness the crew run 3 Trains and they were absolute Superb, this meant that Stacking was still going on, but the train(s) waiting on the end breakes was never there for long.
To give you an example of how fast they were that day, when one train left the station, The next one coming in was Ready and left the station when the train that had just left went round the Turn after the loop, Talk about Fast, Its a shame they dont do it more often really.
Also, I thought SUE was superb(but thats my opinion of course) Its definatly advisable to give it a ride in the Front as well as the back, The Front was absoluty Amazing, Some Ride Op was telling me the best way to ride, He said Queue up for the Front, and Stretch your Legs and Arms Out, Not Bad at all.
Paul D, maybe when you went the ride-ops were on the ball. However the ride-ops were busy talking to each other and seemed to pay more attention to the conversation than quick dispatch times. That did seem like the only ride with slow loading times, besides X-Flight (but the ops have a lot of stuff to do so I don't mind that). For anyone else who reads this post, do not let anything I said discourage you from going to the park. It is worth the trip, it can just use some work.
*** This post was edited by Shorty131 on 7/13/2001. ***
It ssems like S:UE's launch has been a little slower since it was down for a few days last week. Or maybe its just me.
I have seen both S:UE's and BKF's crews range from incredibly fast and courteous to unbeleivably slow and apathetic.
Shorty did you get to ride the Villain? I love that ride even more than Xflight, yet you didn't mention it? Were you unimpressed?
I forgot about the Villain. It wasn't a bad coaster, yet not a personal favorite. It was a little rough, and the air was moderate. This was a decent ride, but for me it doesn't rank up there with SOB (I know it is a lot rougher), Beast, and Gwazi (I loved this one).
Does anyone know how fast the first launch of SUE gets you going. I know you end up going 70 after the second launch, but is the first one only like 45 or 50?
I didn't really care much for the Villian either. I was there the same day you guys were and was ticked with the stupid ride ops.
Villain was not one of my all-time favorite coasters, but it was better than most of the other rides in the park (just my opinion, of course).
On Tuesday last week, the ops on S:UE were carrying on a conversation across the train as they checked seats. I couldn't believe it. It was like a stoll on the beach for them. I like WoA but it needs to crack down on employees not being professional. Are other SF parks like this?
CPointer said:
"On Tuesday last week, the ops on S:UE were carrying on a conversation across the train as they checked seats. I couldn't believe it. It was like a stoll on the beach for them. I like WoA but it needs to crack down on employees not being professional. Are other SF parks like this?"
I have only been to one other Six Flags park, Kentucky Kingdom. SFKK is one of the worst parks I have been to. They have a small number of rides, slow operators, and they don't know how to increase capacity. When I was there they only had one train running for every coaster lines were horrible.
