Sunday, Halloweekends, Best time to visit Cedar Point

Yesterday my father and myself took one of our random road trips upto Cedar Point. He's been working some pretty weird hours and I didn'tknow if I would even be going back up to Cedar Point this season.

We left Cleveland (Chesterland) area around 11:20ish, and arrived upin Sandusky around 1:20ish. Ended up doing a bit of a hike throughNorth Olmstead/Westlake area to get on I-90 from I-480.

In the parking lot, it seemed like there was quite a few peoplethere, but it didn't look "busy" by far. I told my dad that I could gethim a spot close to the front entrance, and he said if I did, then hewould buy me a beer.

After we parked and headed in, we choose our rides carefully as wewere originally running on a very tight schedule and wanted to all therides we liked in. We were hoping to leave by 5, 5:30pm at the latest,but that of course didn't happen. When you visit Cedar Point, never runon a planned course of action, because anything can happen.

MaXair-1 Ride Cycle Wait:
First stop of the day. Originally it appeared to not be running, butfound out that there was just an unusually short line. This ride reallydelivers and I am extremely happy that Cedar Fair fixed it! I believeit is running a longer ride cycle and seems to have more full swings.10/10

Wicked Twister: Back Seat---2 Train Wait
The day was looking very promising, and the lines were looking evenbetter. Wicked Twister was about a 10 minute wait for the very backseat. Also it seemed to be running extremely fast as the train went allthe way up the back spike. I'm sure the front did as well, I just knowmy dad and I looked up at the back and saw nothing but blue sky, noyellow track in the way. Pretty sweet to have that happen. 10/10

Walked past Planet Snoopy and came to the great fork in the road.Either way you choose leads to the back of the park and either way youhave awesome coasters. So the big question was: "Do we go to the leftcatching WildCat, Mantis, Iron Dragon and Millennium Force, or to theRight catching, Top Thrill Dragster, Corkscrew, Magnum, and Gemini?" We chose the left path, and decided to chance not getting any of theother 4.

WildCat: 10 Min. Wait.
This is a classic coaster in my book. Very fun, and just somethingthat no matter how old you are, it's a great ride. I love the drops andespecially love the helixes. In my book a Cedar Point trip isn'tcomplete without a ride on WildCat. 10/10

Iron Dragon had about a 20 minute line which was really surprisingconsidering the next two rides we rode. We decided to skip the Draggin'Iron and headed over to the Nut Cracker a.k.a. Mantis. (My dad says CPshould take out Mantis, take it to Holiday World, where it would fit inbeing called Nut Cracker.)

Mantis: Front Seat, 10 minute wait:
I absolutely LOATH this ride. People say you have to learn how toride with the coaster, but I disagree. I have been on several otherStand-Ups, but none of them have put me in as much pain or discomfortas Mantis. I guess though it was my stupidity for taking the OutsideFront, because when in the middle I have discomfort, but not intensepain. I almost couldn't walk after riding...too much pressure is put onmy inner thighs because of this coaster. It would be a nice floorlessif Cedar Point would consider converting it, but as it is, in my book awaste of time. 2/10

Millennium Force: Front Seat, 15 minutes.
When I glanced at the Millennium line, my mouth dropped. I expectedto be in line for 1/2 hour at the LEAST. We walked into the line,through all the ques and halfway up the ramp. The only other time,besides employee events, that I have seen the line this short was atthe Platinum Pass ERT night, and even then the line was down to thebottom of the ramp. Waiting about 5 minutes to get into the station, mydad and I decided to wait the extra 10 to go in the front seat. We rodethe blue train, and as always Millennium delivered some seriousthrills.

Walking back into Frontier, we stopped at the Red Garter, and myfather bought me the beer he owed me. He also bought one for himself.We tried the Jack's Pumpkin Spice Ale, but I don't think it was allthat great. Didn't really taste any different than a regular Bud Light.

We sat down by the benches in front of Town Hall to enjoy our beers. And headed toward the Maverick.

Maverick-1 hour wait, back seat.
I suppose it is a good thing sometimes that beer takes so long tokick in, but then others it's not. About 3/4 of the wait I startedfeeling a bit buzzed, and by the time we boarded I had the full effectset upon me. We chose row six, they actually were not assigning peopleto rows, just let them choose, and waited for 1 train. We were on theright side of the station, so 2nd to be launched up the lift. Asalways the Maverick delivered an awesome ride, but at the end, ourtrain as well as 3 others were stuck for about 20 minutes. I guessthere was something wrong with the timing of trains, they were runningall 6, and had to remove one train. No one ever told us what was goingon, and I think it had something to do with the fact we were at theisolated braking pad. Anyhow this made us late for the 5:30 leave timewe planned. 10/10

After the Maverick wait, we decided to try and head toward the frontby 6pm, but near the Gemini, I ran into my old buddy, Lance. We chattedit up for probably a 1/2 hour. So my dad, realizing we weren't going tobe making our 7pm deadline to have been back home and somewhere else,decided to hit up some more coasters. We skipped Gemini and headedtoward Magnum.

Magnum: Back Seat, 2 train wait.
The ride op doing the spiels for Maggie was amazing and extremelyfunny. It made the wait go by even faster. Maggie went up the liftpretty slow, but the ride seemed to get a major boost of speed comingout of the pretzel turn. As always great amounts of airtime and just asmooth ride. 10/10

Next up was Top Thrill Dragster, and NOTHING could have prepared me for what I saw there....

TTD: 10-15 minute wait, 20 for front seat:
We WALKED UP into the STATION, not just the ramps outside thestation, we actually walked into the station. Front Seat was of coursea longer wait, but still I've NEVER seen TTD have that short of a line.It was a bad mistake taking the front seat at dusk however. My dad andI ended up getting off covered in bug guts... but oh well it was soworth it. TTD is a great ride, and seemed to be running fasteryesterday as well. 10/10

The final ride of the evening was Raptor.

Raptor-Walk on
We just choose a seat and rode. Raptor is a good ride,it's just thebraking that needs fixing. After hitting the brakes, my father and Ihad some serious headaches. I love Raptor, just wish they could smoothit out a little bit. 8/10

Overall I had probably one of the best times at Cedar Point I haveever had, and I really miss working there. Heck I missed visitingthere, I felt like I was being deprived and am happy we went. Also thisupcoming weekend I'm trying to convince a group of my friends to gowith me. 90/100