Ride ON! Cedar Point 5/17/08

The lady and I went to Cedar Point on Saturday, first time I've been there in a bout three years. The weather forecast wasn't promising but it turned out to be a pretty decent day, a little chilly and windy. We rode all the major coasters. The only major rides I had never been on before were Maverick and Skyhawk and we got on both. Dragster had the longest wait of the day only because it wasn't running consistently, although neither was Maverick, and Raptor was closed most of the day due to high winds.

Ride ops were really good, the one on Maverick was asking everyone if this was their first time and my girlfriend and I raised our hands. The op responded "the couple in the back, aww!" It was just little things like that which make the day more enjoyable.

Only real complaint was the outrageous food prices and poor quality. $10 for a 22oz soft drink that was all ice and cheese fries that were bad. The counter service was slow. We ordered TWO things and the dude forgot our drink.

Also, has anyone noticed a different in Power Tower launching up side? To me it felt really weak, no where near as intense as say Indiana Beach's shot tower.

Here is a video I made of our day:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yLmTusDj4CY

Nice video! Typical CP: Great ride ops, so so food service! The food service has been declining over the past couple years!

Yea, we've beat that horse to death on this site.

When will the absurd prices and horrendous food quality be too much of a negative to start cancelling out all of the "little things" that indeed CP can also do so very, very well??

I have to think that day is not far off at this point!! I mean, CP should just start charging people to bring in their own picnic basket!! They'd make money, save money by not spending what little pittance they do on food (and operations), and at least the quality might be somewhat better!! Of course, they do allow re-entry into both the park and parking lot, but CP's not the same as say Kings Island where you're virtually within walking distance to McDonald's or Skyline Chili!!

Not sure if it is against the rules or not but I usually stuff my pockets with snacks like crackers and granola bars so I can go as long as I can without having to buy any of the food.

Also, I forgot to mention, we were going to buy some of the frozen lemon treats but they were all out of spoons! A place that serves ice cream and slushies is out of spoons! They lost my business and a number of other people as well. The server didn't help and point us in the direction of a place that may have spoons or other places to get the same food either.

I am in the camp of jack up the admission price and give me some perks like *free* parking, sunscreen, unlimited drinks, etc.

Bottom line: They have the best assortment of coasters so I will stll keep on going there, and leaving the park to eat.

I have a few questions:

-I noticed at the park how much more quiet the Intamins are compared to the B&Ms. Are Raptor and Mantis' supports not filled with sand? Or is there another reason for the "roar" sound?

-Has anyone else noticed the little mudflap looking thing behind Maverick's wheels? What are they and what is there purpose? Does it have something to do with grounding the train to the track because of the LSMs?

Nope, no sand in the supports. I believe only a rare few actually have that done, mostly to coincide with noise ordinances and such. Dueling Dragons may be an exception.

I always thought the reason for the B&M 'roar" was the big box-spine the track uses.

I was there on Saturday as well...got there after 5 and stayed all day Sunday. Decided to make a trip earlier in the season this year after an unbearable trip in August last year with huge crowds and bad weather.

We stayed at Breakers this year for the first time. Decent hotel but I didnt find the rooms much nicer than the Breakers Express to make up for the price difference.

I do have a suggestion for food alternatives without having to get in your car and leave the park. Go to TGIFriday's at Breakers. The prices are typical Fridays prices and the food is much better than what you will get in the park for almost the same price. There is also a Famous Daves over by the Marina.

On Power Tower, I find the taller shot towers much less intense than the shorter ones such as Detonator at Worlds of Fun, which in my opinion provides a much better ride.

As far as my trip, had a great time and overall a much better experience than hitting the park in peak season, despite the cooler temps and intermittent showers on Sunday. But, thanks to the rain we were next up on Dragster after about a 15 minute rain delay and were treated to a rollback...woohoo! There seemed to be a lot of rollbacks over the weekend with the windy cool temps...also managed to get to ride Maverick 4 times, MF 4 times, and pretty much every other coaster in the park at least once or twice...turned out to be a great weekend. Maxair was down for pretty much the entire time although I think I did see it up briefly on Saturday. Surprise of the weekend was Maverick and Magnum. First ride on Magnum was out of control with no trims before the pretzel. This ride is awesome and for me still one of the best in the park. I had ridden Maverick once last summer after alot of downtime...not sure if it was the frustration with all the waiting last year or what...plus all of the neck chopping by the OTSR...but I did not have a good impression of the ride. This year was much different. With a little defensive riding this turned out to be one of my favorites...great ride.

Well...this is getting long so I will end on that note.

Dave

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Amnesiac said:
-Has anyone else noticed the little mudflap looking thing behind Maverick's wheels? What are they and what is there purpose? Does it have something to do with grounding the train to the track because of the LSMs?

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Those are static strips. They are on a few coasters, including Maverick and Wicked Twister. They simple help 'absorb' the static electricity caused by the wheels speeding along the track.

I beleive Talon at Dorney park has sand in their supports for noise control. This is a very quiet ride compred to Raptor which does have a roar sound.

Way to take advantage of the fact that goats are hilarious.

Funny video. Hopefully I'll get a chance to make it up to Cedar Point sometime in the next couple years.

^Yeah they are.

"Down is the new up" Radiohead fan?

Of course.

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