13 replies to this topic

[Outerlimits659]

This is my first TR. I haven't ever thought about making one, but this trip was so amazing that I felt I just had to write a TR for it, lol. I had spent around a month anticipating this, and finding out all I could about the park. Before I begin with my uber-long TR however, I'd like you to note a couple things:

1. Rollerdude, I was planning on using your strategy but seeing as I had my younger sister with us, we had to balance the big and small rides.

2. Corkscrew was open, but it had no interest in riding it. Plus, I have had bad experiences with my past Arrow looper *cough, Anaconda*. Anyways, here goes...

We (my Dad, younger brother, younger sister and I) started our drive early in the morning so we could get to Breakers Express at a decent time. It was a long drive, and we passed through Maryland, Pennsylvania and West Virginia on the way. However, the first sight of CP made up for the drive. We arrived in Sandusky at around 5:00 PM and decided to take a drive around the park to see what we were in for. The weather was beautiful by the way, mostly sunny and highs around 80 for both days. And let me just say, that as far as first impressions go, Cedar Point gets a near perfect score. The location is simply awesome and gazing across the lake at America's Roller Coast (or whatever it's called) was breathtaking. We got up close with MF, Mean Streak, Blue Streak and Magnum that evening and it got me extremely pumped for the next couple days. After a dinner at the East of Chicago buffet, we headed to our hotel room. By the way, here's a weird coincidence-remember the 1 to 3172 game?? Well, that was my hotel room number-3172!! Enough of the pre-trip report though, I'll skip up to the next day.

Wendnesday-day #1 at CP

Half #1

We arrived at the park at around 8:40 and got right in line, tickets ready. Our early entrance paid off as we entered at 9:00, and we managed to get ahead of the general crowd to get right to Maverick. Unfortunately, it broke down right as we got there, with two trains stuck on the brake runs. :sdd We waited it out though, and at around 9:45 Maverick was up and running. We were at the head of the line, so we dashed right through the queue and were on the ride in a matter on minutes.

Maverick: 9/10
This ride was awesome and well worth the wait. The ejector airtime, quick elements and snappy pacing was better than almost any coaster that small. TBH, I did not expect it to be that forceful and thrilling. A definite must-ride for anyone going to CP. Along with all this, Maverick was my first coaster of 2009!!

After Maverick, I debated about Skyhawk but decided against it. My sister wanted to ride the swings, so while she was there, I went over to get my Mean Streak credit (crowds were still pretty low around Frontiertown).

Mean Streak: 5/10
Not that great of a ride. It was quite an impressing structure of wood and I thought that perhaps it would be a pretty good ride-after all, I do like twister woodies. It was a near walk-on, which is always a good thing but there was a reason for it's low ridership. The trims on the drop sort of ruin the speed, and it spent most of the time just coasting around and rattling from side-to-side. However, it wasn't unbearably rough. There were just some rough spots and trims that made it a so-so and shaky woodie.

Now that most of the bigger coasters in the area were ridden, I went back over to the swings to meet up with the rest of my group. I was longing for something smooth at the moment, so I decided on Skyhawk. A slightly intimidating ride to me, but I'm very glad I got on.

Skyhawk: 7/10
This S&S power swing ride was a lot of fun, with short lines for most of the day. The lap bars gave a good sense of freedom, and there were some good moments of airtime at the top of each swing and g-forces at the bottom of each swing. My only complaint would be the short ride cycle-it seemed as though they could fit in a couple more of the biggest swings. It was a great way to cool off and get rid of my slight headache though.

Crowds were starting to pick up, so we figured it was time for the big one-Millennium Force. This ride totally dominates frontier trail. Pictures cannot do it justice. I was extremely nervous while waiting in line, and the heat, loud music blasting in my ears, crowds etc did not help (oh, and I didn't really like the high-pitched Phantom of the opera remix)

Millennium Force: 10/10
Amazing. That's pretty much all I can say. there were some long lines, but they moved fast, and were well worth it (sound familiar?) This has to have the greatest first drop on any coaster ever made. The views from the top was beautiful, the speed was great and the trains were very, very comfortable. I can't rave enough about the smoothness either. Even the very last part of the ride had some good speed. True, it didn't have insane ejector air like Maverick but the floater air seemed to fit this ride well.

It was lunchtime after MF, so we headed out toward the front of the park. My sister wanted to ride the Super Himalaya on the way so I hopped on with her.

Super Himilaya: 5/10
A pretty boring ride, and I didn't like being slammed into the side of my seat at the bottom of every circle. It was like going around a high speed turn with no banking whatsoever. According to my sister, Matterhorn was a lot better.

Okay well at the rate I'm going to be typing for a looong time. And I do not want to type for a looong time. So I'll just stop here, and post half number two of day #1 later today...maybe. Pics will come at the end, and trust me, there will be a lot. Until then, any comments are appreciated!!!

-OL659-

[KCB Designs]

Do you have any pictures?

[Outerlimits659]

^Yeah, I'll post them after I've done the writing part.

Wendnesday-day #1 at CP
Half #2

After coming in from lunch, our group headed straight for Blue Streak. My younger sister was pretty nervous on this-it would be one of the tallest coasters she had ever ridden. She ended up liking it though, as did I.

Blue Streak: 7.9/10
This was a pleasant suprise for being so small, and I even liked it better than its older brother Mean Streak. The first drop wasn't too bad, and there were some good moments of air. I don't think that the huge headrests are totally neccessary though. Still a good ride, I wouldn't advise skipping it.

After Blue Streak, we decided to skip Raptor for now-the lines were pretty big at that time. So instead, we headed towards the middle of the park to ride Mantis. I wasn't quite sure what to expect from this, seeing as my only standup experience had been on Shockwave at KD. One of the first things I noticed though, was the large amount of noise that this thing makes.

Mantis: 4/10
I honestly didn't really like this at all. I love B&M, but this was a lot different than I expected. The tingling in my feet as we went through the elements wasn't a pleasant sensation for me, and the turn into the MCBR was quite rough-as was the twister section. Maybe standups just aren't for me...

By now, my legs were pretty sore so I took an aspirin and decided to take a ride on Wildcat, seeing as it was right next door to Mantis. My younger brother and sister went with me.

Wildcat: 7.5/10
This was a cool little coaster. The layout was nice, and the location fit nicely. The drops gave some bits of airtime and the helices were fun as well. I was also suprised at its smoothness. My only complaint would be the sudden stop at the brake run. Nonetheless, it's still a re-rideable coaster.

Up next on our list was a walk to the back of the park for a ride on Magnum to celebrate the twentieth anniversary of the first hypercoaster ever. I liked how this was tucked away in a corner of the park (the new entrance sign is awesome BTW).

Magnum XL 200: 8/10
I have several different opinions on this, but I think that overall it deserves an 8. The trains were pretty comfortable and the first drop was a lot of fun. The negative sides would be the return hills that are parallell to the lift. They're pretty jerky and I had a sore spot where my lap bar was when I was done riding. However, it's the kind of jerkiness that I could come back for more of-after all, the airtime was really nice.

Our first day was coming to a close and we figured we could fit a couple more rides in before we had to leave. So we walked back to Frontiertown to ride CCMR (it had been closed when we went to Frontiertown in the morning).

Cedar Creek Mine Ride: 6/10
Not too good of a ride. The location was pretty, and the track over the water was neat, but it just pretty boring. Plus there were some jerky spots that took away from some of the ride. I don't know why the straight section over the water was banked either. Yes, the theming was decent, but it isn't quite enough to raise my rating for this ride. So, it's rerideable-but pretty dull.

Now that we had covered most of the back area of the park, we decided to go to the front. I liked watching TTD launch while we walked past it. Which of course, brings up the question "why hadn't I ridden TTD yet?" Quite simply because I was intimidated. I'm sure most of you could understand that.
For our last area of the day, we went over to Raptor to ride Calypso. I don't feel like writing a whole review for it but, to sum up, Calypso was lots of fun. Since we still had a bit of time left, we decided yo brave the line for Raptor. Which actually moved suprisingly fast (I guess running three trains helps a lot with that).

Raptor: 8.6/10
Awesome ride and IMO, this was even a bit better than Alpengeist. The zero-g was one of my favorite elements and the last helix was pretty darn strong. One thing that keeps this away from a 9 is the rough turn into the brakes. Still, I loved doing a flatspin right above the midway. It's a close race between this and Dominator for two of my favorite B&Ms.

Raptor was the last ride of the day, and my dad even considered it right up with MF. Anyways, here's our wendnesday ride count:

Maverick x1

Mean Streak x1

Skyhawk x2 (I rode it for the second time while we were at CCMR).

Millennium Force x1

Super Himalaya x1

Blue Streak x1

Mantis x1

Wildcat x1

Magnum x1

CCMR x1

Calypso x1

Raptor x1

Comments appreciated!!!

-OL659-

[spooffa]

I use to live in Lorain, which is about 20 minutes away from CP, and it was awesome. We would go every 2 weeks or so. The bad thing was I was only 5 and 6. So not only could I not ride most of the rides there, but there was only like 15 rollercoasters there at the time. Now, I go about once a year and I have been on everything there EXCEPT Mantis. So when I go in a month, nothing is stopping me from going on it. BTW, Mean Streak is freaking awesome. Yes it is very bumpy, but it is a land mark almost. Its more than 15 years old and it is one of the biggest woodies around.

[Maverix]

^Mean Streak wouldn't be a good ride even if it wasn't bumpy. And 15 years is not a long time at all. Coasters gennerally don't become landmarks untill they're at least 50 years old(woodies at least) and they have to be consiedered good rides.

OL56-I'm surprsied that your dad thinks that Raptor is almost as good as Millennium Force lol, in most peoples eyes they're not even close, I guess he must just love smooth rides. I'm also surprised that you didn't like Mantis, all those forces on your legs are what stand-ups are ment to do, and it's funny when you can't walk for 5 minutes after wards And with Magnum, you probably had you lap bar to tight, just try to keep it lose when they come to check and then the ride's much better.

Sound's like you had fun though, which is good. But you need to get on Dragster to have a complete trip.

[Antinos]

It sounds like you had a great day at CP. You got a lot of rides in and experienced a lot.

Mean Streak is running a bit better this year than last year, but it still sucks so much it isn't even worth it. Also, don't get me started about the stand up design. It's such a great potential, but B&M failed miserably with designing them.

[Outerlimits659]

^^I guess he just likes inversions and inverted coasters lol. And now that I look back, I probably should have had my lap bar more loose like you said..the airtime is still insane though.

^If this year was considered a 'better' year, then I would not have wanted to experience a 'bad year', haha.

Only two more sections to write before the pics, so hang in there!!

Thursday-day #2 at CP
Half #1

We got to the park nice an early again, and were one of the first groups in the park. My Dad had been unable to ride MF yesterday (he had stayed with my younger sister while my brother and I rode) so that was where we headed first. And let me just say that I love MF walk-ons.

Millennium Force: 10/10 as usual, no review necessary.

After MF, I was getting more and more pumped for today. We headed down to Frontiertown for our now-mandatory morning Maverick ride. And guess what? It...broke down right when we got there. Deja vu. We waited it out while wondering if Maverick hated us that much, and before too long, the ride opened up and we near the very front of the line!! We took the second row in the gold (I think) train.

Maverick: 9/10 again. This time I will note that the only thing that keeps this from a 10 is the fact that I got slightly jerked around on some parts. Still, it's an epic coaster and fits perfectly with the area.

My younger brother, now wanted to ride Mean Streak (he hadn't ridden yesterday). So we headed down through the empty queue and into the almost completely empty station (again I must say that there is a reason for that).

Mean Streak: 4.5/10. It felt slightly bumpier today and I got off dissapointed again. These two kids got off the train and said that it needed to be torn down. Still, what kind of ride did they expect in the very backseat of an old woodie??

A ride on Skyhawk was next on my agenda, and it did a good job of easing my Mean Streak headache. A good 7/10 again. Some crowds were leaking into Frontiertown now, and since we had covered most of the area, we decided to move out towards Gemini. I wasn't quite sure what this would be like, and was slightly disappointed to see that only one side (red) was running.

Gemini: 7/10.
Not too bad of a ride. There were some good airtime moments on the drops and it was pretty darn smooth. The last helix, however was very jerky and a couple spots in the ride felt a bit bumpy as well.I would ride it again though.

After Gemini, my younger brother and sister wanted to ride Monster. I waited on a bench and got some good pics of TTD while waiting for them. It was around then that I decided that I should just stop thinking about it and ride TTD. Heck it was an 8 hour drive here, so why not make it worth it?? Plus, I was slightly less intimidated by it by now (only slightly though ). We stored our stuff in the lockers and my dad told the younger kids that we would be awhile-the line was looking pretty long, and we knew that it would only get worse.

I really liked how the line went right on front of Dragster so that you could always look behind you and see how big this thing really is. Yeah, it made me very nervous to think that I would be on top of that monster but that's what it's meant to do, right?? When we were about 1/3 of the way through the line, the ride broke down (big suprise). That made the third time we had experienced a broken down ride while waiting in line (and it wasn't the last time either). Several people were starting to leave the line, but suddenly-after about 20-30 minutes of it being broken-Dragster launched a train full of people!! Only the back row was chained off, to prevent rollbacks I think. The train almost stalled at the top and everybody was anticipating a rollback. None ever came though, and after a total of about 1 hour 20 minutes in line, we were on!!!

Top Thrill Dragster: 10.5/10
This may start some controversy, but Top Thrill Dragster is my favorite coaster ever, period. The launch was beyond anything I had experienced before, and the view from the top was unbelievable. Yes, it's only several seconds long, but wow what a ride. Not to mention those stylish and comfortable trains. :tmbs Trust me, I could go on and on. In short, TTD was pure epicness.

We still hadn't covered the Wicked Twister midway at all, so we chose to go there after lunch. The second half of day #2 may come later today if I feel up to typing it. Comments are appreciated!!!

-OL659-

[DDRman732865]

I'm glad someone agrees with me on my opinion of TTD. Short and sweet, with a launch like sex. (chubs, don't even try... :lolo)

[Maverix]

I Don't blame you for liking TTD the best. It was my favorite until,

a) Maverick
Rode Millennium Force in the front for the first time

But yeah that launch is insane, you defiantly don't expect it to be that strong when you first ride it.

[Antinos]

Top Thrill Dragster is worth a ride. The launch is absolutely incredible, and it's really nice when you go on a dead day. This way you can ride it two or three times in a row.

[Outerlimits659]

Thursday-day #2 at CP
Half #2

After lunch, we headed right for the Wicked Twister Midway. We were planning on riding Wicked Twister right away-while having lunch we had seen it running. However, when we arrived, we found that it had closed down and wouldn't open up again until around 3:00. So that made four coasters that had broken down on us. While awaiting the opening of WT, I figured I might as well ride Chaos.

Chaos: 8/10.
This was an awesome little ride. It didn't seem like too much when I saw how small it was, but it was actually pretty disorienting at some parts. I liked how, at one point, I flipped over and was suddenly staring right at the ground. It seemed like you missed the pavement by inches, lol. It had it's moments of good g-forces too. I felt a little too constrained by the weird restraints though.

WT was still down, so my brother and sister took a ride on Troika (I declined-Chaos was all the disorientation I needed ATM). After they were done, my brother and I took a ride on Disaster Transport.

Disaster Transport: 7/10.
I had heard some bad reviews on this coaster, but I still was interested on what it was like. As it turned out, I really liked the theming in the queue line. Sorta reminded me of FOF. The blacklight room was cool as well, but I didn't get what the logo meant (find a pic to see for yourself). And even though the theming was really cool, what with the strobe lights, moving robots, etc, I didn't understand what it was themed to. I saw a sign that said 'Repair Bay' or something like that, but I still was sort of lost in the idea. If anyone knows, then do tell. The ride itself was very nice. Very smooth, and it felt faster than it really was in the darkness.

By now, I still had enough time for one or two more rides before WT would open, so I headed to MaXair while the rest of the group went over to ride Wildcat again.

MaXair: 8.9/10.
This was one of my favorite flat rides of the trip. It was smooth and fast, with some intensity at the bottom of the swings. I also got some good sideways views of the main midway. The fact that it holds 50 people per ride cycle helped move the line along at a good pace, and I love the location.

WT was still down, so while I was waiting for my group, I took another ride on Chaos. Lines were still short on this particular ride, which is always a bonus. After Chaos, my dad, brother and sister arrived, and since we had ridden all that we wanted to ride in the WT area (except for WT itself) we decided to go right across the midway to Raptor. Lines were pretty long....but then again, lines were long in a lot of places.

Raptor: another 8.6/10. What an awesome ride. I can see why you like it so much DDRman. And here's a suprise....the ride got stuck on the lift while were in line!! Z0MG!! It wasn't too long of a breakdown though. Plus, when we were almost at the station, I saw Wicked Twister running with a full train.

You can guess where we were headed next of course. WT's location is really pretty, and I love looking straight up at the twisted back spike. However, does anybody know why they use the rule that states: "only two people at a time can go into one station gate"?? It seems sorta weird to me.

Wicked Twister: 7/10
This was a pretty interesting coaster. I had never ridden Impulses before, so it wasa brand-new experience. I rode near the front BTW. The launch was pretty good, although not that forceful and falling backwards while twisting is a lot of fun. However, whenever the train passed through the station I would experience a ton of vibrating which made it a bit less fun to ride. Overall, a re-rideable coaster, but a little less than I expected.

Now that our Wicked Twister Midway credits were done, we headed down to Iron Dragon, something that my sister had been wanting to ride. She was a bit nervous, but ended up liking it a lot.

Iron Dragon: 6/10.
Although not as good as Big Bad Wolf, this suspended swinging coaster was pretty fun. It was a little boring at several parts, but the finale wasn't too bad. It's nothing special, but a good way to relax and get cooled off slightly by the misters.

At this time, we decided that we should head to the final parts of the park to get our last rides in. My brother and dad went down to Frontiertown to ride Maverick, while I stayed with my sister to ride Iron Dragon again, and to check the line for MF to see if it was worth waiting in. Turns out that it was backed up to the very entrance. So I decided to skip it, and go down to Frontiertown to get some rides done while waiting for my dad and brother. Maverick's line was huge, and I knew that they would be a while so I grabbed another ride on Skyhawk-another 7/10 ride. My sister wanted to ride the antique cars and CCMR so we got those done (pretty quickly too). Oh, and no I didn't ride the cars. They were just too thrilling for me. CCMR was a 6/10 again. Finally, after much more waiting, my dad and brother came out of Maverick's exit. They had apparently waited a little more than an hour.

I knew that our trip was coming to a close, so when my dad told me that I could ride one more coaster before we left, I decided on TTD. It couldn't have been a better way to end the trip either. The line only came a little ways out of the station and before long I was in the black-cherry train(that's what the ride ops called it) and ready for my last ride of the trip.

Top Thrill Dragster: 11/10.
It gets an extra half point for having a short line. Still an unbelievable ride. 0-120 mph in four seconds is pure bliss, and that vertical twist is so fast. :lov What a way to end the trip.

Here's our Thursday ride count:

Millennium Force x1

Maverick x1

Mean Streak x1

Skyhawk x2

Gemini x1

TTD x2

Chaos x2

Disaster Transport x1

MaXair x1

Wicked twister x1

Iron Dragon x2

CCMR x1

One of the best vacations ever. Pics will be up soon, maybe even today...comments appreciated!!

-OL659-

[Outerlimits659]

Teh pics be here!! OMG!! Here's the first load.

Ignore all our lovely windshield splatters.

http://img42.imagesh...?image=339y.jpg

Raptor is so photogenic...

http://img42.imagesh...?image=342q.jpg

Maverick broken down..

More to come!! In the meantime, comments are appreciated!!!

-OL659-

[SwimZONE]

Nice pics/TR. Great MF pic!

[Outerlimits659]

OMG, more pics!!

We could always use some more Raptor pics...:tmbs

http://img42.imagesh...?image=363g.jpg

Darn lamp..

What would you rather ride?

Empty midways + TTD = FTW.

More to come!!

-OL659-