SFGAdv, CP, and SF:WOA

First, SFGAdv on Tues. 8/14 -

Nitro; didn't open 'til 11:30 AM and it's my understanding that this is often the case.  I don't see why they'd do that as it's pretty clear that a majority of the people are there for Nitro.

The ride is nice. . .I'm not sure if I liked it more or less than Superman: Ride of Steel at SFNE.  I was happy to see a ride of good length installed in the park.

SFGAdv probably has the nicest compliment of flat rides of all the parks I've been to.  Unfortunately, they don't seem to like to open them. 

CP - Ready for this?  I wasn't too impressed.  The park was very clean, the staff very friendly and the food good.  But, the rides were a bit lacking, and well...lackluster. 

MF was great fun, but I wouldn't routinely wait 2 hours for it (as I would for S:ROS) 

Magnum was good as well, with a lot of nice airtime on the trip back.

Surprisingly, I really enjoyed Disaster Transport. . .not too thrilling, but the wait was short and the ride was fun. 

Blue Streak was a great little wooden coaster, and I found it quite enjoyable as well.

All of the rest of the roller coasters weren't all that wonderful.  Gemini valleyed on Monday and was closed for much of the morning, Mantis, Wildcat and Iron Dragon were not very thrilling at all.  Raptor was nice, but I think I enjoyed Talon more.  Mean Streak is awful.

SF:WOA - After visiting CP for two days, it became clear just how efficiently CP is run, and how dreadfully inefficiently SF:WOA is. 

X-Flight - More fun than I expected.  The restraints are problematic, though.  They're very difficult to fasten and unfasten and they're uncomfortable, too.  Because of the restraints and a very inspired crew, they were dispatching a single X-Flight train about every 5 minutes.  This made for a 2 hour wait with just a few hundred people in line before me.

S:UE - Fun ride, but plagued with the same slow dispatch times.  The twisting spike is unique, and I think it's an element that ought to be incorporated into other, full-circuit coasters.

Serial Thriller - The smoothest SLC of the two I've ridden.  Otherwise, it was just an SLC.

Mind Eraser - Smoothest boomerang of several I've ridden.

Big Dipper - Another gem of a wooden coaster.

Raging Wolf Bobs - Awful, slow, and just generally painful.

The Villain - My first CCI; It was rougher than I had anticipated, but it was still quite awesome :)  Great laterrals and airtime and it's pretty long, too.

Batman: Knight Flight - It may be the longest floorless coaster, but the lack of the zero-g roll is really a negative aspect of this ride.  The ride doesn't allow for any sort of varying forces.  It's all positive g's :( 

Well...not the greatest trip report ever written, but it's just my observations for anyone who might care.

~ Michael ~

How could you NOT get neg. G's on Batman? You remember the drop off the midcourse break?!

Also, what about hang-time in the loop? You have to mention that!

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"Villain-Once You Drop, The Fun Don't Stop!"~SFWoA Rules In 2001~X Marks The Spot In 2001(SFWoA)~With SFWoA ANYTHING Is Possible!

I LOVE the hang time in the loop! It is the best (IMO)!

Well, you're right about the drop; I'd forgotten . . . though I didn't get too much of anything in the loop. I guess BKF wasn't completely devoid of negative G's, but it certainly doesn't have anything on Medusa.

~ Michael ~

How could you say that the rides at Cedar Point are lacking? I don't mean to sound harsh but I mean, IMO, Cedar Point is one of the greatest amusement parks on this earth. Cedar Point is not all about coasters, it's also about atmosphere. When somebody says that Cedar Point's rides are lackluster, I think that is greedy because some people haven't even got the chance to go to the point before! You should be lucky you even got a chance to ride to tallest rollercoaster in America!

*** This post was edited by cdrpointcrazy4 on 8/27/2001. ***

You know, Chernabog, cedar point did not make all there rides to be as thrilling as MF, or Magnum. Cedar Point is a Family park too you know. That's how cedar point has become so popular, old and young. The thing i mostly agree with you is that Mean Streak is pretty bad.;)

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-Matthew Couts
Rct Recreations (just e-mail me for these)
1.Cedar Point(voted best CP Recreation ever)
2.King's Island (only pki recreation)
3.coming soon... Idlewild

Well...here's the thing about Cedar Point.

The park, itself, was very nice. It was clean, well landscaped and maintained, and I found everyone to be quite friendly and competent at their job. The park itself is absolutely fine.

But, after spending two days there, I've formed the opinion that, though the grounds are aesthetically pleasing, the rides just aren't too much fun. Conversely, I absolutely love many of the flat rides at Great Adventure, but I am not at all comfortable with the atmosphere of that park. Honestly, I'm not sure which I'd take over the other.

But, in the end, Cedar Point just didn't wow me as much as I'd expected, nor as much as some other parks. In the future, I'll save my money and go to Walt Disney World, or Disneyland, or DisneySea...or even, on a lesser scale, Hersheypark. CP is nice, but I couldn't see myself visiting there for many more years, let alone more than once a season.

But then, that's just me. I'm not like most coaster enthusiasts to begin with, so it'd be silly to expect my opinion to be like-minded :)

~ Michael ~

>

I know that :) That's the thing, though. I'm really big into that idea. . .the ideas fostered by Disney insofar as people being able to enjoy a park together. I'd take Splash Mountain and Spaceship Earth and It's A Small World over a coaster any day of the week. I really enjoy riding roller coasters for reasons that I couldn't ever hope to express clearly in words, but I know that I'd much rather experience an immersive, story driven experience.

CP doesn't give me that alternative, with the exception of Disaster Transport. While I enjoyed DT quite a bit, it's still nothing more than a roller coaster, and it doesn't have the same charm for me as a dark ride might. As such, I'm forced to judge Cedar Point solely on it's ability to excite me, and it just didn't succeed.

Sorry. I mean, man, I hate to dislike everyone's favorite park and all, but I'm just being honest. I'm not greedy, or spoiled, or anything else that you could be thinking. I just have a different philosophy about these things.

~ Michael ~

Everyone's entitled to their opinions.  Yours is actually a reasonably well-thought out one.  Heck, I'll agree with you at least on the grounds that Cedar Point is NOT the mecca of roller coasters.  (That would be Knoebel's or possibly Holiday World for us woodie fans ;) )

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--Greg
My page  My other page  And my coaster page

to be honest I agree with Chernabog a lot. Except I probably liked BKF a little more but still it is no Medusa.  However,  I really liked Raging Wolf Bobs and thought it wasn't that bad.  I was impressed with SFWoA's coaster lineup however while they have a ton of good coasters, they'er still missing that one absolutely awesome coaster, while SFGadv I felt had about two or three awesome ones.  Anyway I feel the hyper next year will quickly make up for that and SFWoA will very soon have  a better collection of coasters than CP- I think they're already on there way but the atmosphere may never be there, but then again they do have the wildlife side which is very cool.

I loved SFGadv, I don't know which park is my favorite overall; SFGadv or BGW.  SFGadv doesn't have the most atmosphere in the world but it still has some and has  some pretty nice shows mind you.  Also, for pure thrills, I don't see many parks that are better than SFGadv.  All of their coasters are really unique and quite thrilling.  Also, their flat ride collection is simply awesome especially Jumping Jack Flash.

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sigh, SFNE goes "tiny" for 2001