Starlight June 11th, Full day June 12th (with photos!)

Also check out part 2, Geagua Lake, HERE.

I made my annual Cedar Point trip earlier this year, hoping for smaller crowds. Unlike last year, this year was once again a family trip. We began the 400 mile journey from Central Illinois to Sandusky at 7am, losing an hour on the way, we arrived at Hotel Breakers at 4PM. I of course noticed the track in the field, should be interesting to see what ends up getting put in. This was my frist stay at Hotel Breakers, and I was for the most part impressed. Got what I thought was a really good package deal with 2 full day tickets and 2 starlight tickets. Then with the coupon book for buy one starlight get one free, things were really getting cheap. Anyways the room seemed fine, basically your normal hotel room, not complaints. I was suprised to learn that we got a parking pass to park for free at CP during our stay! I thought Breakers guests didnt get this perk and still had to pay the 9 bucks? Anyways, that was a pleasnt suprise.

After a short stop at the little shop across from the main causeway entrance that sold mostly crappy womens clothes (we had a little time to kill before 5 and my mom wanted to stop there for some reason), we went to the park. First thing I noticed was how empty the parking lot was compared to my visit last year in early July. We found an awsome parking spot very close to the entrance. First ride was Demon Drop which was a walk on.

The rest of this trip report wont be in order, I will just state noteworthy things as I remember them. Raptor was another walk on at around 6 Sunday. I was begining to realise how empty the park was, compared to how it usually is when I visit. Disaster Transport was 10 mins, Maxair was 10, all great rides. Blue Streak was another walk on. Ate supper at Johnny Rockets. Decent, nothing amazing. MF was a 20 minute wait, and I was really impressed with how well the ops are running it this year. They often times would actually hit interval, which I dont believe I ever saw happen on my visit last year. It was really nice to see. Wicked Twister was another short wait, 10 minutes. I love the view of Lake Erie when your waiting in line. I finally decided to ride Wildcat for my first time, despite visiting the park nearly every year since 1999. About what I expected, a fun little ride actually. We eventually made our way to the back of the park and got my first ride in on Skyhawk with a 10 minute wait. I was pretty impressed with it actually, I mean yea as people were saying the ride time is a little too short, but the feeling of weightlessness is really great when it finally hits its apex, shame it slows down right as it really starts to get going. And they were running both arms, which was good to see considering id heard one was not working. Got in a couple of awsome Magnum laps with 5-10 minute waits. Later that night at probably around 9PM Magnum was a walk on. With only 2 trains running. This really amazed me, ive never seen the crowds this light. Dragster was probably a 30-40 minute wait, and running really well. It was nice to see them doing crowd control in the station here, as well as on MF and Magnum especially. That station was a mess last year when they packed it. Mean Streak and Iron Dragon were 2 more walk ons, and Mean Streak didnt even seem as rough as it was last year. Ended the night with a night ride on Dragster, which was great. Anyways thats about it for Sunday night, I was really amazed by how empty the park was. That was new to me, im used to hour and a half waits for MF and long waits for Raptor and others. It was really a nice change.

The next day my parents decided they would take a boat out to the Islands while my brother and I went back to the park. My dad got this nice shot of the park on the boat ride. Anyways I was excited to use my morning ERT. As I was driving in to the park, there was a guy in front of us driving on the causeway hollering out his window and shaking his fists. Strange I thought, this guy must be really pumped about going to CP today. Shortly later after I saw this guy at the main gate waiting for the park to open I realised he was that guy that ive heard mentioned around here. Absolutley halarious. For those that dont know, this guys is obviously a regular, he listens to some kind of christian music on head phones while occasionly singing out along with the sound, pumping his fists and hitting things. When the gates opened he immediatley ran to MF. More halarity ensued as the ops obviously knew him, and many people would play along with him by also yelling at him. Got in 2 quick morning rides, and another front seat ride later in the day. My first ever front seat ride on MF, pretty amazing, really a whole new sense of speed riding up front. Are the bugs always that bad or is it just the right time of year? Anyways, got hit pretty hard with bugs, and noticed they bugs were fairly bad throught the park. There were swarms of them around the Maxair line. Anyways, Monday was obviously a lot more crowded than Sunday, with 45 minute waits on Raptor, 15 or 20 on Magnum and just longer waits on basically everything than was on Sunday. Ended day 2 with a night ride on MF. A guy in front of me was riding with with both hands rested behind his head, elbows pointed out, almost in a relaxing position. I tried it and was suprised at how comfortable it is. I think I will try it that positon more often from now on as a break from the traditional hands up. To conclude, It was almost the perfect trip. Weather was basically perfect, it got a little chilly at night forcing me to wear my sweatshirt, but nothing too terrible. The park seemed as clean and well run as ever, employees seemed upbeat and doing a great job. Didnt have really one bad experience in that regard. My only real complaint on the whole trip was that Gemini was only running one train while I was there on Sunday, and ran only one for much of the day on Monday as well. This just kills the ride IMO, its so much more fun when its racing. Props again to the Gemini crew though, really a fun bunch. To Conclude, I had a great trip and I cant wait to see what gets put in for 2007. Look for part 2 of my trip, which was a day a Geagua Lake, coming as soon as possible. Thanks for reading!
*** Edited 6/17/2006 4:17:13 PM UTC by stljason1***

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stljason1 said:

I was suprised to learn that we got a parking pass to park for free at CP during our stay! I thought Breakers guests didnt get this perk and still had to pay the 9 bucks? Anyways, that was a pleasnt suprise.

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I'm assuming you are referring to Breakers Express then? Not Hotel Breakers. Breakers Express is at the end of the causeway, Hotel Breakers is directly adjacent to the CP property. I was unaware that you got a parking pass for Breakers Express either.

Great TR by the way!

Tom *** Edited 6/16/2006 8:17:48 PM UTC by LdScotsman***

Yea, I meant Breakers Express sorry about that. Anyways, it was strange, let me elaborate a bit. When my dad checked into the hotel we got the whole spiel from the front desk about what all our package included, where our room was, ect. We got a parking pass that I just assumed was for the Hotel parking lot, not the park itself. And I dont recall the lady at the desk saying it was for the park. Anyways, that first night we actually did pay the 9 bucks. The second morning, we were going to ask about just dropping someone off, and the girl working the toll booth noticed the parking pass on our dashboard and said its free to park if we have that. So yea, I was kinda suprised because from what Id heard breakers express guests still had to pay for parking.

I was there on Monday. It was my first time back in two years and I had a great time. The bugs were rather bad. I noticed that everyone in the front seat on MF and TTD was coming back COVERED with bugs, especially in the evening. I think they were "mayflies" and they only are around for two or three days normally.

Yea, people in the Maxair line were literally squirming and screaming because there were so many of them. They do get somewhat annoying.