CP Oct 21st-23rd / GL Oct 23rd

Since the season is over for me until April, here’s a long TR to keep you going:

A Little Intro:

There has been a tradition for the past three years that twice a year (Spring and Fall) that we gather up a group of our friends and make the 6 hour trek to Cedar Point. We rent one of the Lighthouse Point cottages and after being at the park all day, we play poker all night. It’s a great time all around, and we always hate having to go home. Being with a group of people at Cedar Point is fun, but it can also be a burden when it comes to picking rides, making sure everyone is together before entering a queue (huge pet peeve of mine!), or finding times and places to meet up once we split and do our own things. But this trip was to be different. This is the first time my husband and I have gone to Cedar Point on our own and also going there knowing in advance that Top Thrill Dragster would be down for the count.

Friday:

We got to the cottage around 2, which gave us plenty of time to eat, drink, and be merry prior to going to the park. We were prepared for tons of rain this weekend, which I typically like since the peeps tend to avoid it, and since we flew in this time, we could not readily change our plans. We get to the Marina entrance at 5 and hang out patiently for the gates to open at 5:30. Our plans were that my hubby would go to MF and I would head to MaxAir, so that we both could get in our fixes prior to the larger crowds. We actually planned on doing the same routine for the early admittance on Saturday and Sunday too.

Strike One:

The gates open and happily my hubby made it on the first MF train for the nite. I hoofed it over to MaxAir and was sad to see that I already missed the first run of it. I got in the short line for the second ride of the nite and was about 20 people back. The first ride ended, but unfortunately the floor did not come back up. They announced that the ride was broken and that we could wait or not. Mostly everyone left, and I decided to wait it out for the time being, moving up to 5th in line. Maintenance showed up in a few minutes and did some work, but still, the original riders were still stuck. After about 20 minutes two managers came and talked to the maintenance worker and then they came and talked to us. They told us that it was going to be a very long time to get it up and running again. Needless to say that I finally moved on.

Strike Two:

It was now 10 minutes to 6 and I moved over to Wicked Twister. A line had formed, but it was slightly raining, so I sat under the canopy for the lockers facing the line for WT to watch the progress. Sure enough at 6 they announce that WT will not open due to weather. Funny enough, the smurf (sorry if it offends anyone) but we call the workers smurfs because of their blue suits and it’s just simply funny) told the WT line waiters to go to MaxAir. I was a good egg and let him know that MaxAir was down for the time being.

Strikes Three and Four:

So I move on to Raptor. On my way past MaxAir, I notice that they have finally freed the stuck passengers from the ride (trapped on it for over 30 minutes). So is now about 10 after 6 and I have been in the park for 40 minutes and still have not been on a ride. The rain is subsiding, so things are looking a little better. I get to Raptor and they say it will open when the rain stops. I thought this was odd since I have been on Raptor many times in the rain, but I would be patient and wait to see what happens. I am about 5th in line when they move us into the queue line out side of the entrance. Well, it seemed like things could progress. After about 10 minutes my husband calls and asks for my status, and I fill him on the depressing details. He has gotten 3 rides on MF, and I was still at zero for three different rides. He tells me to get out of line and meet him outside MF. We decide during my walk to hit WildCat (which I totally love), but he tells me that it’s down due to rain as well. Bah-humbug!

Finally:

We finally make it back to Magnum, or Old Faithful. Of course Magnum is running and there’s no waiting. What a blast, as always. We did several runs in the front row of the back car, and it was great, cold and wet, but great. It was closing in on 7:15 by this time, and we wanted to move on. We knew that we would be coming back to Magnum later on. And it would still be working. We decided to walk to the back of the park and find Undertaker U. Neither my husband nor I are really fans of haunted houses, but this one has the great trippy spinning room that I can’t get enough of. It was about 7:45 and the line was about 30 minutes long, but I really didn’t care: I was in a line for something that was not broken. What can I say – they do a nice job, and the spinning room just really makes me happy. We then walked by Werewolf Canyon, and I was so surprised to see it looking like it was open, I had to ask the smurf if it really was. It was only 8:15 and there was only a 10 minute wait for it. The first time went through Werewolf Canyon was 2 years ago, and I waited well close to 2 hours for it. You can probably guess I was excited about WC mainly for the fog effects and not necessarily the werewolves that would jump out at you. Some areas were foggy, but just in parts. Because it was still early in the night, and it was raining, the fog effect just did not take as well as they had in the past. But my hubby and I had fun in there anyway.

We made our way back to the front of the park and nothing was happening at all up there. Raptor, WT, and MaxAir all still down (but lit up and such a tease!!!). We got some fries to warm us up and decided to go back to Magnum. I was getting tired and cold, and somewhat grumpy, so I was ready to call it a night pretty quickly. You know it’s time to leave when the “Guess Your ….” Game person yells out to you and you yell back “Can you guess what rides ARE open tonight”.

Back at Magnum we do several rides in the front of the back again and then we decide to do a front row. We only had to wait three trains – not too bad at all. I almost never ride in the front, and I forgot how incredible the air was. It was truly an amazingly fun experience and a great way to end the night. BUT … as we hit the break run before turning towards the station (next to the lift hill), we broke down. A smurf came up almost immediately (within 2 minutes); to apologize and let us know they were working on the problem. Sure enough, we were back in the station in less than 10 minutes. Our visiting smurf was there to greet us and apologize again. And not to sound like a CP fan-girl here, but how great that CP staff came up right away to let us know everything would be OK. At SFGam, I was stuck on the Demon for 15 minutes before anyone came up to talk to us. Anyway, cold and wet, Friday night ended for me around 10 pm. My hubby went back to the park around 10:45 and got in 3 more MFs and 4 Magnums.

Saturday:

Well, we slept in and made it over to the park around 12:30, noticing on the way in through the waterpark entrance, that there was a sign saying that MaxAir would not be open. Well, at least I got to see it run once this trip. Anyway, Saturday was a fun-filled day of rides, and long-ish lines. We started with 3 rides on Magnum (no line), hit Gemini (had to wait one train – and red won), and Mean Streak (which is still painful but it was a walk-on). We jumped on the CP train and heading to the middle of the park to go on WildCat. The line for WildCat was the longest I have ever seen. We actually waited 45 minutes for it. But it was so worth it. I laugh so hard whenever I am on the ride. I am not sure if anyone had noticed, but the average age on WildCat seems to increase. I saw so few kids in line, but tons of older teens to 30 somethings. We then went over to Raptor, which was the longest line I have ever waited in for it – the entire queue was snaked throughout and it probably took us 1 ½ hours to get through it, but it was a blast. Next we went to WT (back row), which had about a 30 minute wait. And of course, we hit Demon Drop just in case it goes bye-bye this season.

The kicker for the day was Disaster Transport. I always liked the ride for the cheesy factor, but I have truly seen the light now. During the 4th of July, we went to PKI and they were handing out 3-D glasses for the fireworks. We snagged several of the glasses and put them away for the next CP trip. I have got to tell you that wearing these glasses (which are more prismatic than 3D) took the ride to a whole new level. The lift hill in DT, that has the blinking lights, was the coolest part of the ride with those glasses on. I felt so bad – the entire ride my hubby and I kept saying “wow”. When the ride ended, the guy behind us told his girlfriend how much the ride sucked and we had to disagree. If you have never done DT with the glasses, just give it a try. It was really fun and I could never go on it again without them. Did a few more Magnum runs and finally headed back to the cottage around 8.

I went back over to the park at 11 to meet my hubby for our traditional end of night Magnum rides, but we also got in a walk-on Raptor and a serious walk-on for PowerTower (it was just us on the entire ride being dropped down).

Sunday at CP:

What can I say, we checked out of the cottage at 11, and went over to get a few last Magnum rides. The ride was super rough that morning, in both the front of the front and the front of the back. The combination of it being early in the day, cold, and pretty empty trains really kept the ride banging harshly.

Sunday at Geauga Lake:

We got to the park around 1:30 after the drive from CP. GL was the emptiest I have ever seen it. The only waiting for rides that we did was for the trains to return to the stations. We got quite a few runs on Dominator and X-Flight. I still do not like flying coasters (I have been on Stealth and the S:UFs, and they are not for me), but my hubby does so I only go once or twice per visit. I think he got in at least 10 rides on X-flight yesterday. We also rode Big Dipper, Villain, and Steel Venom (which was a disappointing ride without the pregnant pause). After a few more runs on the ides, we decided to head to the airport.

It’s not you (the parks), it’s me!

We have decided that after 6 trips to CP, and 3 to GL in 3 years, that the time has come to move on. We spend a great deal of time and money on the CP trip every year, and it would be great to go elsewhere. This summer we went to PKI again, and Kennywood (airfare was $58 RT), but we have been to both of those places just last summer. I know that there is quality out there in some of these parks, but we need to experience new and different. Hitting Idlewild, Strickers Grove and SFWL were great little bonuses to add on to the normal trips. I think we need more of these interesting parks. I really want to get to BGT, and finish off the PA parks this upcoming summer, not to mention some quality CA time too.

So, until CP adds at least a new coaster and gets TTD running consistently, and I’ve gotten in at least (let’s say) 50 new coasters elsewhere, I will not be heading back to CP anytime soon. . *** Edited 10/24/2005 5:37:27 PM UTC by ltlbat***

hey to each their own i guess. You were a trooper braving a tough weather weekend. I was supposed to go to the point saturday, but i decided against it because of weather. Well at least you did what you wanted at cedar point, besides maxair.

Good to see you made to geauga lake. Well i also found the same thing to be said true, of getting other parks under your belt, i did a few other ones this year, and have seen what they have had to offer compared to the goliath cedar point down the road, would i say its been worth it, yeah i would. Hey at least your out there having fun and getting in the different park atmostsphere too.

We only rode Chaos on Friday night...a real trip in the rain. Most of our time was spent doing the haunted stuff since that's generally what we miss out on by limiting our trips to Sundays. We left the park by 10 pm because 4 hours in the rain and cold is a bit much for me.

We were visiting friends during the day on the east side of Cleveland where it rained all day, but spent 8 pm - midnight at CP. It seems we were in the same areas at the same time both Friday and Saturday nights. In fact, I remember seeing only two people on PT and mentioning it to my coaster buddy.

Sunday was lovely, though. Very low crowds and lots of sunshine.

Too funny CP lady.

We got to PT a bit after midnite on Saturday and my husband said we should still try to get on even though it was late. Two other people got in before us, and then the attendant let us in too (bonus!). The two folks before us got on the last full PT ride, so they gave us one all to ourselves :)

I was there last weekend, sunday. The weather was great.
Too bad Max wasn't running. We were looking forward to that.

The longest we waited was for Millie, and that was only 10 mins or so. Awesome. Most of the rides were walk-ons. Gotta love CP in the fall.

We talked to a few workers about next year, they all pretty much said the same thing: a 500 foot flying coaster. ( i find this hard to believe, but the workers were at differant parts of the park with differant jobs.) Maybe yes, maybe no, we'll see.

I agree whole heartedly with your statements. It was the perfect Halloweekend to go. They were predicting a quarter inch of rain on saturday and we didn't feel one drop. Which was nice because we went in 530-midnight on friday and were soaked. Sunday was the best day I've ever had there. Everything was a walk-on. It is VERY dissapointing that TTD and MaxAir are both down. What are the odds? Pretty good apparantly.

The part I agree with the most is: it is time to move on to other parks. I usually go twice a year and yes, it is very expensive. Next year I will cut it to one or none and try out some new places like Holiday World and Dollywood. Yah Voyage and Thunderhead! I am SO tired of worrying about whether TTD is running or not. I literally lose sleep over it! Most of my trips its been down. And this year I specifically saved my MaxAir ride for this weekend and what do you know? Its down.

It seems to be a better deal financially to go to two smaller parks, especially if I've never been there and can try out some coasters that are "new" to me. Still a great park though and recommend it to everyone to try at least once.