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Hello Coaster Fans Who Are Trying To Carve Their Favorite Roller Coaster Into A Pumpkin,
As tradition goes, the average Ohioan knows NEVER to approach Cedar Point on a Saturday…well, nothing is average about this time of year so Shawna and headed up to Halloweekends. We arrived to Cedar Point at roughly 5:30pm after a 1 ½ hour drive. First sign we knew it would be busy was the perfect weather up in Sandusky. This time of year it can be either DEAD as can be or so busy you can’t see the midway (it all depends on this great Ohio weather.) The parking lot was pretty packed but I have seen worse. We ended up parking in the empty Soak City parking lot.
I first wanted to make a loop around the park to see all the decorations in daylight and then at nighttime. As anyone knows, those two things can be TOTALLY different in how they make the park feel and look. We headed through the unthemed tunnel by Magnum’s gate entrance. This is a bad sign...usually all the ticket and gate entrances are heavily themed giving you the first sign that it’s Halloween. We just saw some pumpkins and 3 cornstalks (yes 3.) We were headed up to the front of the park first so we just noticed lines. Magnum was ½ and hour. TTD was 2 hours; MF was also 1 hour and 45 min. and the que line was full for it. CP did something to one of their hearses this year…So that’s what REALLY happened to Top Thrill Dragster’s themeing! We arrived over on the Wicked Twister midway and noticed they moved the Skeleton Bus over by the Aquatic Stadium. They changed the flags over WT que area but that’s it…no other themeing I think I saw 4 more cornstalks. Before I go on with the corn stalk thing. Usually around here in Ohio when you put up cornstalks you put them up in bunches, CP for some reason put them up on things in groups of 3…sometimes 4. Which instead of giving the desire bunch look it made it look like there was a cornstalk shortage? We actually had to wait for Chaos and Troika this time (first time waiting for these two rides all year! I still love both these rides and I like Troika’s new location but I don’t like Chaos’ location.
Overall daytime decorations, almost the exact same as 2002 I think there might even be a little less than 2002. I didn’t see anything jump out as being bigger and better. Main gate midway looks good as always for Halloweekends. On to nighttime…
Our first nighttime activity was Aaron Radatz the magician (8pm showtime.) Now I do know magic and have performed A LOT of magic in my time, so I’ll try not to be too biased ;) Aaron IS worth seeing and for included with the park admission it’s good. He had two tricks which were good and 4 which were pretty old school. I think all of them were actually old school, but that doesn’t matter, it’s ALL in how the magician pulls them off and entertains. Now entertains, this guy can do, which is why I say he’s worth seeing. He also does the traditional straightjacket escape that he does over the audience. Everyone seemed to enjoy that. On a BAD note: he had this typical “I’m going to guess what you picked” trick before the actual performance (done a TV screen.) He picked my Roller Coaster of course. That’s not the problem; the problem is that they had every coaster to choose from BUT MForce!! How dare they! LOL
After the magic show we did some night riding with walk on rides on Blue Streak. It’s amazing the difference between the middle seats and 3rd row seats on this ride! But either way, the whole ride had some great airtime throughout its course. We were both hungry so we figured we try some of those fries across from the Aquatic Stadium. We bought some NEW garlic and cheddar fries. WOW these things were BAD!!! The fries were great, but that garlic stuff…YUCK!! It was like rotten mayonnaise with garlic flavor. I had to chug about 1 gallon of fresh apple cider from around the park to get rid of that fry taste. The apple cider was VERY good this year. We then headed over towards Fright Zone.
Before entering Fright Zone we grabbed two sliced apples with caramel on top of them for a very cheap price! They were awesome. We ate right next to the Fright Zone greeter. Speaking of which, they put him as usual in a really bad place. That area is already a bottleneck since they put Mforce there, and then to have everyone gawking at this guy in the bottleneck made it worse. None the less, on with Fright Zone. Fright Zone is CP’s BEST Halloweekends attraction! This is the way it should be done. Great lighting, effects, lots of fog, eerie sounds, etc. The key to this whole thing is 17 cents and a can. The monsters (who are hidden everywhere.) all have cans and then they sneak up on you and shake the can. It’s amazing what that can and change can do to a person! Another cool thing about Fright Zone is no matter how well you think you know Cedar Point this area all seems totally different this time of year and you hold on REALLY tight to who ever you are with. Cedar Point did an EXCELLENT job this year with all their make up jobs, they looked REALLY cool!
We soon emptied out right at Werewolf Canyon. The line was HUGE by this time. The whole Thunder Canyon line was filled and then out, up and onto the Snake River Falls bridge. I was told wait was around 1 ½ hours. I have heard rumors going around the park that it’s not worth the wait, and since I would definitely be coming up here a lot more times this year, I figured I hit it earlier next time. We ended up just doing some more shopping (we were on a mission for the last Mforce giant frosty mug in the park) I had to get my traditional cheese on a stick which as always was good. By this time it was around 10:30pm and we wanted to do TTD.
The line for TTD was 2 hours, BUT TTD was actually running AWESOME!! One train every minute!! Yes, one every minute!! Not five, 10 or even 30min, but one every minute!! WOW this line can actually move when it doesn’t brake down!! It was so cool we ended up getting on at Midnight, purple train, last seat (it was actually my first last seat ride of the year…most of the time I ride the front seat.) It’s amazing, that no matter how many times you ride this thing it’s always a surprise about the sheer speed and power of it! Still short, but one heck of a great thrill ride!
My overall thoughts on 2003 Halloweekends are it that it’s a GREAT atmosphere for the FAMILY. I do think they have underdone the Halloween decorations this year. There are SOOooo many things a park can do that don’t have to be scary, yet the park looks great. I do have to say though Kennywood’s Phantom Fright Nights have spoiled me though. Cedar Point’s haunted houses are GREAT however. They are a little short, but the effects are pretty neat in them, and the ghosts do a good job. Cedar Point also has WAYYyy too much white light for the event. In some parts of the park it seems like a normal summer night with some fog machines. Cedar Point needs to replace some more of those white lights along the midway with red, green, orange, etc. lights. It’s tough to say though if that would ruin the family atmosphere though. Another strange thing is, the park is TOO PERFECT. The grass is nicely trimmed the flowers look great, trees are trimmed back. There needs to be in a strange way some type of chaos around the park. A family can easily bring their kids to this Halloween event and have a great day together. Either way Halloweekends is definitely worth going to! It might not be that scary to some but none the less it’s a blast, as CP always is.
If you want to see pictures from this past weekend just click on the link below.
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"The Future of Roller Coasters"
-RollerCoasterGod
Haunted Ohio Parks...you've been warned!!
*** This post was edited by RollerCoasterGod 9/21/2003 11:30:44 PM ***
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tambo
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Frightzone Screamster 2002, 2003
June 11th, 2001 - Gemini 100
VertiGo Rides - 82
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Brett
Resident Launch Whore
By the way, I thought "car 13" under the skyride was better this year. It looked a little more painful.
I also thought Toxic Tunnel of Terror had more 3D paint effects this year.
PS= I forgot to mention...I thought Monsters Rock Live kicked a**. Of course, that may be because I'm 39 years old, and it was mostly hard rock songs. However the performers stayed in character VERY WELL, and the costumes look great.
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Goccvp1
*** This post was edited by Goccvp1 9/22/2003 1:50:39 PM ***
Sounds like the crowds was'nt too bad either, Hopefully I wont have the same problem as I have to go on a Friday and a Saturday(EEK) Hate going to parks on a Saturday unless I can help it but have no choice,GRRRRRR
Not sure I will bother with any hautned mazes, but I'm gonna see how the queues go with them, I am looking forward to my midnight ride on Dragster on the Saturday though ;)
MUUHAHAHA
I love my job...
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June 11th, 2001 - Gemini 100
VertiGo Rides - 82
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