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Hello Coaster Fans Who Are Now Busy Building There Own Theme Park Version of Haunted House Through Their Living Rooms and Kitchens….now to only add that roller coaster around it…
The first have of Saturday morning I went to Geauga Lake in the rain. For those of you who read the first half probably noticed I went alone. Well, that’s because my wife has “morning sickness.” We just found out two months ago that she/we’re pregnant :) Needless to say my amusement park riding buddy has ditched me and lays in bed all day now (I’ll at least be able to tell our kid their first roller coaster was the Beast down at PKI :) ). So, I went up to GL by myself, and came home to wake her up and drag her around an amusement park for the rest of the night to see everything at Halloweekends…I’m a nice husband, what can I say! My sisters and one of their friends were already up there and the plan was for them to ride everything all morning and afternoon then my wife and I would meet up with them at night. The rain finally let up and the sun came out at 4pm…pretty cold, but nice weather.
Most of this trip report will be from an observer point of view since, unfortunately, I didn't get to ride anything but the Sky Ride.
After fighting to get out of my house (The President was speaking outside in my backyard on Sat…literally) we arrived at CP around 5:30. My wife and I parked at Soak City parking lot. For a Sat. the crowds weren’t too bad. But Top Thrill was down most of the day (it came up around 7pm or so) and Wicked Twister was down for the full day. Word in the park has it that Gemini was around 30min. with all trains running, and Mine Ride was even around a 30min wait, when my sisters waited for it. MF also hit 2 hours at it’s longest wait on Sat.
We went to meet up with my sisters at the Swings. The first thing I noticed on the way back from Magnum to the swings with the EXTREMELY lacking decorations. There was one spider on the East entrance, one Grim Reaper on Gemini, and some cornstalks (at least they finally got some more cornstalks this year.) Even by the Mine ride they didn’t have the usually Halloween displays, instead most things got replaced with a simple, Hay, pumpkins, and cornstalks displays here and there.
We meant them and decided to hit Undertaker U. Shawna (my wife) was a little bit squeamish of doing haunted houses, since you’re not suppose to do them if you are pregnant. We both made the decision though to do them, since CP’s haunted houses aren’t nearly as scary as my driving 90+on the way to CP…just kidding. We did it, and it wasn’t bad. They had a few “gags” that weren’t working, and the CP mechanics were trying to fix them with their flashlights lighting up the place. Nothing fancy. Shawna did get really sick in the “spinning barrel effect” that was funny in itself. There were some good dark maze parts also.
After that we headed up through Fright Zone in daylight…just a bunch of fog for now. The real fun is at night in this place. We also noticed that the Iron Dragon lost a lot of it’s theme. They went from Area 51 to Drive in monsters…to nothing. At night they did have some “old monster flicks” playing on the laser screen. Why they took away the drive in monster them that would have been cool watching it, I don’t know? The Area 51 UFO now crashes into Coasters (the food place…not roller coasters.)
They did however add more decorations at the front of the park this year. One worth mentioning is, defunct ride cemetery. This was pretty cool, since CP made A BUNCH of tombstones with the names of all the rides CP once had and are now no longer. The best one was Vertigo. It just said “2001” below it’s name. A lot of people were saying, “What’s Vertigo?” I had a good laugh. Another GREAT display was over by the midway games. The CP decorators had some good humor when creating some midway games and arcade stuff. The skeletons playing skeeball score’s display 666. One of the arcade machines read, “My Little Pony Vs. Care Bears…Total Carnage!” and the prizes are things like Elmo with 3 eyes and other funny things! At the front of the park they added a “Wizard” greeter which is much like PKI’s “Park Greeter” telling about what is going on at the park and what times shows start.
We we’re going to eat at Game Day Grill or Johnny Rockets, but both places were so understaffed, they couldn’t keep up with the nighttime rush, and waits become WAYYyy to unreasonable by any food standards. We opted out for some fries and a coke for now. Next we headed back to Were Wolf Canyon since it was almost 8. This attraction I recommend to anyone hitting first thing at 8, since the lines are always REALLY long for it. We got in line, before 8. The line soon opened and we then wrapped into the Thunder Canyon line. From there it was about a 45min wait roughly. Were Wolf Canyon is extended this year…not by much, but it is. This haunted attraction was much like last year, with trees placed around Thunder Canyon’s trough, and it had curtains here and there. The actors did do a good job at scaring the girls though. Pretty fun time watching them screaming. I also liked the ending this year of Were Wolf Canyon. The revenge of the little pigs in the Animal Farm was classic…nice song too!
We wanted to hit Tim Hill’s magic show at 9pm, but that wasn’t going to happen. The group decided to head through Fright Zone. Same as always, except this year, the actors didn’t seem into their roles as much when we went through. We headed over towards the new CarnEvil. For those who don’t know, CarnEvil now starts around Macaroni’s and ends around Chaos, it makes an “L” shape layout. This is MUCH like Fright Zone except with a carnival them of course. CarnEvil was Sooooo MUCH better than Fright Zone. The entrance has your typical ring leader (just like the Fright Zone greeter) but every actor in here was really into their roles, and clown actors were awesome. They actors in CarnEvil had GREAT crackling laughs, nice moves, good stalking, and they worked very well with each other to team up, surprise, and scare many people. On top of all that, they also had things to look at throughout the midway. I really liked the floating clowns in the water at the Aquatic stadium. There were also tents along the midway for clowns to hide in and around.
By then it was around 9:30 and we stopped and did some shopping then got in line for Chris Hill’s magic show. We got pretty good seats for the show, front and center. I have seen MANY magic shows, and do magic myself, so pretty picky with magicians. Magic is not just pulling a rabbit out of a hat; it’s how you entertain people when you pull the rabbit out of the hat. Last year Aaron Radatz was here, this year is this new guy…Tim Hill. Tim Hill was a 1000’s times better than Aaron. Some of his tricks were old ones, but they were entertaining, none the less, and Tim himself was very entertaining and the crowd definitely liked him. Great show, A LOT better than Chris Linn at the back of the park IMO.
After the show, Shawna was barely wobbling around and her “morning sickness” was kicking in so we headed back through the park and towards Magnum. The rest of the group was also tired since they had been there since before opening. In all it was a fun day and night. Halloweekends, could be a lot more, but as always we had a blast at Cedar Point. While Cedar Point did a better job this year with their haunted attractions and did an excellent job decorating the front half of the park, I wish they didn’t sell them selves short with the rest of the park, even as big as it is. On the way out we noticed one final touch. A singing Elvis skeleton was in one of the windows outside of Raptor. It’s small touches like that all around the park that just add to the Halloween atmosphere at any park. It’s a great time to visit a theme park this time of year.
As always, full pictorial coverage can be found at the link below! See you...scare you on the midways!
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