RCCGB FORUM

coastergraham

Hello to everyone on here after what was the best week of my life last week at the best amusement park with the best collcection of rides I have ever been on. It was a very long and very tiring week as the park was open 13 hours each day we were there and we did every single minute we could in the park, we have the blisters to prove it as well!!!

I am going to do a section on each element of the trip to try and keep it easier to read.

BEFORE GOING

To make life a bit more relaxing on the morning of the flight we spent the night at the Radisson SAS hotel at Manchester Airport, we had a top floor room with a runway view which was superb.

THE JOURNEY

After a good nights sleep considering how excited we both were we went to Terminal 3 to check in, we were near the front of the queue so we got bulk head seats with extra legroom which was great. The flight (American Airlines) to Chicago left bang on time and actually took 40 mins less than normal due to little jet stream. We got a fast approach into O'Hare as well and were walking off the plane about 45 mins early whihc was great considering we wanted to spend a couple of hours in the park that night. After getting through immigration and customs in record time we went out of the terminal and a bus was waiting to take us to the hire car depot. Due to there not being enough compact cars on site we got bumped up two grades.
At this moment in time you may be thinking that we were getting good luck, well we were and it stayed with us all the way through the holiday where we wanted it.
After 6 long hours of driving from Chicago we were finally at Sandusky, but where was Cedar Point!!

BREAKERS EXPRESS

We went to the hotel first to check in and dump our bags before settiong off to the park. The hotel was in truth a huge let down as it was not the cleanest hotel by a long way and it was very noisy at night as it seemed people cared not that others were asleep.

CEDAR POINT

It was approaching 8.45pm when we set out to Cedar Point for the last couple of hours of the day. You may have noticed before that I said where was Cedar Point, well the reason for that was that it is not until you get on the causeway to Cedar Point that you finally see the park, which considering how huge the rides are was a bit weird, but when you first see Cedar Point it really sets a shiver down your spine, from the causeway it is a beautifull site.

We went to the season pass centre and got our Platinum passes which took a while as there were about 10 people in there already. We started off heading to Millenium Force but had a go on Mantis first, then Millenium Force and Top Thrill Dragster.

After that it was time for bed and a recharge for the week ahead

SUNDAY 15TH

We arrived at the park around 8:40 which was something that we were to do for the whole week.
We went in by a side gate which saved a bit of time instead of going in the main gate as we were halfway nearer to the rides by doing that.Platinum pass holders and hotel guests get in the park an hour early at Cedar Point, which is well worth doing if you ever make the trip.
We headed straight to Maverick and had a few rides on that before getting a feel for the rest of the park.

Maverick - 3
MF - 2
Corkscrew - 1
Power Tower - 2
Magnum - 3
Gemini - 2
Skyhawk - 2
Mean Steak - 3
Skyride - 1
Cedar Downs - 1
Wicked Twister - 3
Mine train - 1
Disaster transport - 1
Blue Streak - 3
Demon Drop - 1
MaXair - 1
Raptor - 3
Mantis - 1
TTD - 1
TOTAL RIDES = 35

MONDAY 16TH

MF - 5
TTD - 1
Iron Dragon - 1
Matterhorn - 1
Skyride - 1
Magnum - 12
Gemini - 2
Mean Streak - 3
Skyhawk - 1
Wicked Twister - 6
Blue Streak - 2
Raptor - 2
Maverick - 1
Demon Drop - 1
TOTAL RIDES = 39

TUESDAY 17TH

Maverick - 1
Skyhawk - 1
Mean Streak - 6
Gemini - 2
Magnum - 6
Corkscrew - 1
Power Tower - 2
Demon Drop - 1
Raptor - 1
Blue Streak - 3
MaXair - 1
Wicked Twister - 2
MF - 1
TTD - 5
TOTAL RIDES = 33

WEDNESDAY 18TH

MF - 2
Maverick - 1
Skyhawk - 2
Meanstreak - 3
Magnum - 20
Demon Drop - 1
Raptor - 1
Blue Streak - 3
Wicked Twister - 4
Mantis - 1
Power Tower - 1
Corkscrew - 1
TOTAL RIDES = 40

THURSDAY 19TH

Maverick - 2
Skyhawk - 1
Mine Train - 1
Mean streak - 3
Gemini - 1
Magnum - 11
Blue Streak - 5
Space Spiral - 1
MaXair - 1
Raptor - 2
Wicked Twister - 8
Iron Dragon - 1
MF - 1
Power Tower - 1
TTD - 4
TOTAL RIDES = 43

Friday 20th

MF - 3
Skyhawk - 1
Meanstreak - 5
Magnum - 27
Wicked Twister - 7
Blue Streak - 6
Raptor - 6
Space Spiral - 1
TOTAL RIDES = 57

TOTAL RIDES FOR THE WEEK = 250!!!!

So as you can see we got plenty of rides in as even though the park seemed busy away from the major rides queues were very minimal, a lot of the time other than Tuesday they were near walk ons which I would never have expected in my wildest dreams. The longest we waited for the rides was an hour for the likes of TTD, MF and Maverick.
So now it is time for me to share my ride ratings with you all, I am going to do a top 5 then rate the other major rides after that, the list may suprise you as much as it has me as I really did not expect it to look like this, but here goes.

1 - Magnum XL 200 10/10, If you would have said to me before going to Cedar that this would be my favourite and Carolines favourite ride I would have laughed.I am not a huge fan of the Big One at BPB as I do find it can be boring a bit, so I maybe based my judgement before hand on this. But Magnum blew our minds away, ok not the biggest ride there any more but what a totally amazing ride it was. A superb first drop then a swoop into a tunnel before the most amazing 3 seconds of float time going into the pretzel element. After that it is a series of airtime filled hills before the final brakes. A totally amazing ride and even better the fact that we only waited 10 minutes at worst to go on it, a lot of the time it was about 3 minutes. This was helped by running 3 trains and running the ride well, which is something Cedar excel in. We did a total of 79 rides on this amazing ride over a week. How on earth could a company that bulit something so amazing like this end up the way it did, staggering really.
2 - Wicked Twister 10/10, So intense and such great fun. The back seat is simply mind blowing going backwards into the spiral. Such an amazing ride and I can only hope we see one like it over here in the UK some day.
3 - Top Thrill Dragster 10/10, Mind blowing is the only word for this ride, you will never know what 120mph feels like until you do it. The spiral coming back down is superb as due to only having lapbars it does feel like you are going to roll out of the train. For the most insane 17 seconds of your life do the front, trust me you will never have experienced anything like it. You can feel your cheeks being pushed inwards with the force of the ride.
4 - Millenium Force 10/10, Possibly the best first drop of any rollercoaster I have ever known, you are out of your seat pretty much all the way down the 300ft drop, the swoops and overbanked turns are such great fun. Front seat is superb as well on MF as again like on TTD on the front you can feel your cheeks going inwards with the force. A totally amazing ride.
5 - Mean Streak 9/10, this will suprise a lot of people as well but Mean Steak is what it says, MEAN!!!. It is a ride that will bach you into next week with all the jolting around. The ride ops on there are imo the best in the park as they inject humour into what they say, quotes such as
"This ride is so mean it will steal your dinner money and laugh at you"
"Are you ready for a beat down?"
"This ride is so mean that it will get a speeding ticket for going above Ohio speed limit and make you pay for it"
There were many other quotes, especially from a guy called Brad who had such a wicked sense of humor. A truly superb ride for those who like spine banging rides.

Raptor 9/10, not as good as Montu but better than Nemesis, a very intense ride with an extremely intense spiral helix at the end. Not quite sure why the run into the final brake run has to be so violent though.
Blue Streak 8/10, a gem of a ride filled with loads of airtime.
Gemini 7/10, great fun and a pretty good ride as well.
MaXair 8/10, such a great ride and so much better than Maelstrom at Drayton Manor.
Skyhawk 7/10, superb ride but way to short a cycle it runs on.
Maverick - 7/10, this will suprise a lot of you again, it is a really good ride but tbh I find it very overated. Not as intense as I thought it would be at all. The stengel dive and horseshoe roll are superb, but not enough to lift this ride into one of my favourites.
Mantis - 4/10, this ride would win the golden turkey award from me. It is very rough with loads of head bangs and not a very good ride at all imo.

PARK IMPRESSIONS

Some people I know call Cedar Point by the name cement park due to the fact it is not themed as such, but the park does look lovely and has plenty of greenery around it, I would much sooner have a better quality ride than theming anyday.
There are some things that Cedar are totally amazing on, like the quality of the rides, the ride ops who are simply the best I have seen. They ensure such a high throughput can happen.
However there are some things that we do better in the UK like keeping the restrooms clean, the ones at Cedar were a disgrace in all honesty. Another thing that was appalling was the price of food and drink in the park, it makes Universal look cheap!!! The food is nice but the price is obscene.

HIGHLIGHTS

- Such an amazing week
- An unbelievable ride count, never in my wildest dreams did I expect this.
- Insane rollercoasters
- Amazing ride operation.
- Very lucky with the weather, in the whole week it only rained for 20 mins.

LOWLIGHTS

- TTD broke down quite a lot so we got a few less rides on it than we would have liked
- People spitting, not sure what all that was about but if there was water in a queue people were spitting in it, after a ride people were spitting from the train. It was disgusting and not needed at all.
- Leaving Cedar Point

So finally if you did make it down here and you love rollercoaster all I can say is do whatever you need to so you can go and have the experience of your life.
Both of us can not wait until we are able to go and experience it all again.
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frosty · Posted: Sun Jun 22, 2008 7:18 pm Post subject:

Glad you both had a great time. Wow, a whole week in a park! One day for the club visit was definitely not enough.

I can't remember the name of the place, but around 12 or us had a late evening meal in a barbeque/rib 'eatery' alongside the mariner, just outside the main park. That was quite nice and reasonable. It's a shame about the spitting - I never saw that behaviour when I was there.

For me,

CP highlight - everything - only one visit, only one day, but I really liked it

CP lowlight - about 4000 miles away from me
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Steve
Member of 'non rollback' Stratacoaster club 06/08

Nimmykins · Posted: Sun Jun 22, 2008 7:21 pm Post subject:

Blimey, you did it to death!

Do they still have the Monster at Cedar Point?
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Sarah
RCCGB member - 2132

Plus four travelling coasters including Olympia Looping and Eurostar.

coastergraham · Posted: Sun Jun 22, 2008 7:55 pm Post subject:

Yes Sarah they do still have the Monster at Cedar, pretty much next to Gemini.

Cedar is just simply the most amazing place on earth.

If you would like to see some photos click the link and scroll down a bit.

http://www.tbppbguideforums.info/bpb/viewtopic.php?t=7249
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frosty · Posted: Sun Jun 22, 2008 9:16 pm Post subject:

Nice pics - Wicked Twister almost reached the end of the track!
_________________
Steve
Member of 'non rollback' Stratacoaster club 06/08