SFMM or CP

I would say it depends on your trip itinerary. I went to California and I skipped around like crazy. I never spent more than 6 hours at SFMM in a day, but due to my season pass, I was there 4 out of the 7 days I was in Cali (my hotel was also 10 min. away). In small doses, it was a great park, but if it was a one-shot deal, I had one day, I think your chances for frustration are much less at Cedar Point.

I also prefer CP's rides more, but I enjoy launched rides and floater air more than loops, and that's the main difference between the coaster collections.

Here's my opinion, keep in mind I've only been to CP.

In my opinion there are 3 coasters that stand out at CP, Magnum, Millineum Force, and Blue Streak(I know I'm weird). The rest were ok to mediocre, all were fun of course. I really didn't care for TTD at all, and Impulses tend to hurt me.

Now at Magicmountain, the have a B:TR clone, which happens to be my favoriate invert. They also have a GIB which offers a fun ride, but really isn't anything special. Scram! is also a clone, and I've never been on eitehr, so I can't offer my opinion, but all the rest are pretty unique to that park, especially X.

From everything I've heard, Magic Mountain isn't especially known for their customer service, or their ability to have all the coasters open on a given day. On the other hand CP is renound for its service, although I have been there and occasional gotten pretty lousy service. Plus most of the time They have every rollercoaster running. The only one I've ever seen down for the whole day while I was there is TTD.

Cedar Point Has a very unique collection of rollercoasters, that you won't find anywhere else, where as magic mountain has a couple clones that you may have been on.

Given SFMM's reputation, the odds are that you'll have a better trip to CP. Since you've not been to either of them, I'd probably recomned it. Later, once you've done CP, give MM a shot.

Yup, a disguised vs. thread! :)

Moosh got it spot on. We're pretty lucky around here to have Knott's.

By the way, I think Knott's should buy Magic Mountain's monorail. Having that thing down when I visit bums me out more than having Superman down (but not as much as Ninja).

LOL Eric!

I love how people who are trying to choose between Cleveland or Los Angeles always think its only a choice between CP and SFMM. With all due respects to the SFMM fans -- and I admit that one can have fun at the park -- there are better-run parks in the Los Angeles area: Disneyland, DCA, and Knotts.

When I was younger I'd always choose quantity over quality: I wanted to ride the biggest, baddest coasters I could find and parks with 10+ coasters would win over a park with 2 or 3.

Now that I've travelled a lot and have experienced what both large and small parks can offer I always choose QUALITY over quantity. And my trips are more pleasureable and I feel like my money is being well-spent.

--end of rant--

Don't forget Adventure City, another area park better run than MM....and way friendlier...:)

Yea, but Moosh (and others - and I'm not trying to rail you all here) not everyone is so "mature" in their travels. This guy (if the story's true and he's not just trying to get a CP vs. MM debate in "under the rules") is from North Dakota, he's not looking for quality, he is looking for quantity. I think a lot of you guys who choose the quality have perfectly valid reasons, but when you give trip advice, you're not looking at it from the perspective of someone who's not as lucky to have travelled as much as you, and have experienced as much.

No matter what the age, if someone's never been to California, SFMM is the more enticing park. Flying that far, paying for hotels and rental cars and fast food just to ride the 4 or 5 coasters at Knott's isn't money well-spent, unless you've already been there done that for just about everything. If you've already been all over the country or even the world, ridden just about everything there is to ride, then yea, Knott's or DCA are probably a better park than SFMM (heck I have a free ticket sitting right now and Cali probably isn't in the cards because I don't really feel the need to return to SFMM, but Knott's doesn't have enough to get me to spend all that money). But when you're just looking for the most coastering for your buck, the mega-parks are the place to go.

Also, a lot depends on your ability to re-ride. If you don't mind riding a coaster 10 or 20 times in a day, then a park with only a couple of high-quality coasters and great customer service might be perfect for you, but if you're like me and after 5 times you're bored with it, except in rare occasions, then a day at Knott's ends mid-day and I'm sitting there going "hmm, I spent all that money and flew all the way out here, for that?" no matter how good the experience was.

I think it comes off a little "high and mighty" when you speak of the quality service and fewer coasters angle over the quantity of coasters regardless of any other factor when you're talking to someone who's only got one shot at this ...

Look at my track record. I'd say I haven't ridden just about everything there is to ride. I still think he'd enjoy Knott's' coasters better.

Besides, it is pretty likely he'd be able to ride more coasters at Knott's given a typical operating day at SFMM.

Brett - I didn't intend to come off as "high and mighty." There is absolutley nothing wrong with choosing a park because it has a ton of coasters. I'm sure he'll have a good time no matter what he chooses.

I know that, it was more of a warning than an accusation :) If I came here looking for travel advice though, I might take it that way.

Jan, good point on operations! Hence why I recommended CP unless you can go 4 out of 7 days like I did ;)

Or you could skip SoCal and hit Ohio and CP, which has both quantity (largest collection in the world) and quality (Magnum, Raptor, MF, TTD) ;)

I agree that quality is more important than quantity...what I don't get is thinking that CP does not have both. MF is an incredible ride. If you don't get it on a hot day, you might miss some air, but it is still a great ride. Raptor is incredible. If you rode it back when the trims were still on, go back! Please go back! You don't know what you are missing. The first half of the ride is great, and the second half is even better. TTD...sit front left. The whip on the twist is one of the best coaster forces I have ever experienced. Magnum has as much air as you will find anywhere. BS has good air too. Sit in the front on that. Wildcat has awesome forces and is often overlooked. MS is a pretty bad woodie, but is has its moments. Riding inside the structure is pretty cool. WT...sit second to last seat on the right and get a view you won't find anywhere else. ID has amazing pacing in the second half of the ride. Ride the back of Gemini for one of the most amazing first hill airtime moments anywhere. On top of that, CP not only has the most coasters, but they also have the most rides. You might not like their ride selection, but to say they have no flats is just not true. This season CP is taking the record for most rides in a park, and that includes a very high quality new one. Choosing to go to CP is not just a choice for quantity.

Who said CP doesn't have quality and quantity?

What Brett said.

Besides, KBF on a packed day sucks like any park does on a packed day. I caught KBF on a busy Saturday and SFMM on a much quieter Sunday. I had a much better time at the Mountain.

(NOTE: Monte was closed and both SB and Riptide were nothing but holes in the ground. Your mileage may vary.)

As for SFMM or CP? Tough to say. I've been doing CP forever and SFMM was the new park. ANY time you visit a place with 16 coasters you've never boarded...that's a rush. Comparing coasters to coasters alone is a toughie. Both have their strong suits, both have their duds. I doubt either park decided, Hey, let's lay an egg.

If SFMM minded capacity like their CP brethen, I might have to give it to Da Mountain on coasters alone. I like the presentation--the large stations, the theming, the overall showmanship. It seemed to have more tree-lined paths throughout the park too, or maybe that's just me.

But I'd have to give the overall nod to CP for mixing the coasters with flats and enough unique experiences to be something for everyone.

Ka-ching. Two cents.

-'Playa

I'm what many here call a CP fanboy, and I don't care. But I'll try to make this sound like a fair and somewhat two sided reply:

SFMM - Pros - First and for most is, X. It is the one coaster that would right away catch my attention about this park. Riddler's Revenge is known as one of the best stand-ups. Deja Vu is a very unique boomerang type ride. Viper is one of the great Arrow loopers. S:TE offers a whole 6 seconds of airtime, WOW! Goliath looks to be a very high quality hyper coaster with lots of positive and negative g's alike. Finally, SFMM is California, a state that has more than just an amusement park.

Cons - This is where this gets easy. The park is known to be kind of trashy and not very well operated. The park has coasters and that's about it. From what I read X, Deja Vu, S:TE, and Flashback don't run very many days out of the year. Flashback is actually closed during the summer. If you come to the park to ride X only, then you may be going there for no reason. SFMM invented what is called "one train operation", most to almost all of their coasters run one train making waits very long. Lodging also isn't part of SFMM.

CP-Pros-First CP is known as the best amusement park in the world and has 4 of the top 10 steel coasters in the world. (according to Amusement Today) Atmosphere at this park is unlike no other. You have a good mix of family attractions along with the great thrill rides. Though it is expensive their on property lodging is well worth the cost. At America's Roller Coast, roller coasters are clearly the name of the game. With very well known rides like MF, Magnum, Raptor, TTD, and Gemini, CP has some very well known very high quality thrill rides. Other coaster fun coasters are WT, Mantis, Blue Streak, WildCat, and Mean Streak. Flat rides are hard to find here, but they are scattered throughout the park. New for 2005 there's maXair, Power Tower, Demon Drop, and Chaos, to name the major ones. Food selection is good. Their Freeway system works well to skip the lines. Location in Lake Erie is great too.

Cons-The cons I can think of are the chance of a windy day. If it is windy TTD, Raptor, and many other rides may shut down. There's not much to do outside of Sandusky. The park can become very crowded in the summer, resulting in 2+ hour lines for MF, TTD, and Raptor. Weather doesn't always agree with the rides that much.

I hope this doesn't seem totally one sided, I really tried hard to make SFMM have a chance.

SFMM or CP. That's the name of the thread so what's with all the KBF talk? ;)

I got two words for you Corkscrewy: Wally World

You can ride the infamous roller coaster that the Grizwolds rode back in NL Vacation, although Marty Moose isn't there (damn them SFMM, should have bought him from the movie)

Then when you have kids you can pop the DVD in and say "kids, I actually rode that coaster back in 2005"

I have been to both parks and honestly I can't pick a favorite, either one will have decent lines to wait in but then you can buy a Fast Lane pass at SFMM or get a hand stamp at CP (only 2 per day though) where the FP can get you 4 rides if your a single rider.

It depends on what you want to ride, you have a floorless at SFMM but no rocket, you have a rocket at CP but not a floorless.

Plus like other's have said, you do have X at SFMM, and that is one of a kind for right now (until the other one is built)

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Lord Gonchar said:

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Grant said:
Oh, another brainwash thread...but I'm sure these threads are started deliberately to make SFMM look like the worst park in the world and Cedar Point look like the best.

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By whom and to serve what agenda?

Could it be, just even a little, that the enthusiasts who frequent this board prefer CP to SFMM based on nothing other than personal preference.

Brainwashing? Deliberate attempts to belittle one park and boost another?

"They're all gonna laugh at you. They're all gonna laugh at you."

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Well let them laugh.

No doubt the majority of people who post on this board do prefer CP to SFMM, it's hardly surprising since Coasterbuzz arose out of Guide to the Point/Pointbuzz - a site dedicated to Cedar Point. Coasterbuzz even runs adverts for Cedar Point.

My point is that people who read these boards and have visited neither park are going to believe that SFMM is a terrible park without even experiencing it for themself. Unless of course you believe that media/publicity/web sites, etc have no influence on peoples opinions.

I've been to SFMM about 10 times, and I live in the UK, so it's not like I'm defending my home park or anything. I always had a good time and never found any reason to complain. Sure, several times I visited they've had 1 train on, but the park was dead and KBF had 1 train on too.

On the other hand, I have visited Cedar Point 5 times, and only on one occasion did the park even come close to living up to its reputation, in fact, two of those visits represent the worst visit to a theme park EVER.

My psychologist thinks I am riding too many rollercoasters and I am going crazy. I said that I have to ride some next year, and he said I can only ride 10. I said I like wood and steel coasters, so he said I could ride 10 of each, but no more. Which 10 steel and which 10 wood would you all suggest I ride next year? Should this be a new thread? *** Edited 2/3/2005 9:19:34 PM UTC by RavenTTD***

go by how you feel man, you definately won't go wrong with either pick, and have fun!

Please tell me that's a joke!