Cedar Point

Visited: August 10, 2018

Attending: Just Brian

On the way back from Wisconsin, I knew I’d be passing close to Six Flags Great America and Cedar Point. After consultation with Carole, we decided that it was only appropriate to do one. I procrastinated on buying the tickets right up until Thursday morning, because I wasn’t sure if the weather would hold, and I actually hadn’t had a great time at Mt. Olympus by myself. But Cedar Point has so many world-class coasters, I wouldn’t forgive myself if I didn’t take the chance. Besides, I’d been to Sandusky, Ohio three times in the past for conferences, all in January, and it was annoying to get that close but not go to the park.

I arrived at 9:15, earlier than I’d planned, but I wasn’t worried. I was surprised that visitors could enter the park at that time, but only guests at the hotels or platinum pass-holders could get past the beginning of the midway. That didn’t bother me too much; I spent my time taking pictures of Gatekeeper and Raptor. The weather was humid, especially early, and off-and-on overcast, but not too warm. I had planned to wear an exercise shirt, but after seeing the forecast high of 79, I switched for a black cotton shirt, which was a mistake, because it’s a very large park, and I had to walk a lot. I ended up spending the whole day there, and for most of it, I really enjoyed myself. It would’ve been more fun with a friend, but I accomplished almost everything I wanted to.

Steel Vengeance

This was the main attraction for me, and the best argument in favor of going to Cedar Point. It’s the big new coaster of 2018, and many of the enthusiasts I follow christened it their top all-time coaster, after just a couple of rides. Given how high, long, and intense it is, I was actually a bit nervous about riding it.

As soon as we were allowed past the gate, I hiked (and hiked, and hiked) all the way to the back of the park to find it, then bought a day pass for the lockers and dutifully emptied everything out of my pockets, as we were told. Being without my phone would be dull, especially riding solo, but them’s the rules. Fortunately, I made friends with a family from Chicago in line, which was good, because the wait was 90 minutes long. I sat with my new family, about three-quarters of the way back in the train. I expected the ankle-hugging RMC trains, but was pleased to see that this version had the knee-level handles, like Lightning Rod. As it turned out, I didn’t need them. Once we started the initial drop, I threw my hands up and kept them there. That’s bolder than I normally ride, and I’m not sure what came over me. I guess it was a desire for air time combined with new confidence in these restraints.

And wow, there’s really a lot of air time. There’s really nothing else like this coaster. It’s so fast, and so long, with so many air-time moments, and so many amazing elements, that it’s almost unfair to compare it to anything else. The outside-banked turns were a particular notable element, and I’m glad I wasn’t holding on for those, because the air was amazing at that angle. I don’t know if I’m entirely ready to call it my favorite coaster ever, but it’s awfully close.

I knew the lines would be long all day, and I wanted to do a night ride, but it broke down in the afternoon, so I wasn’t able to. Once isn’t enough for this coaster, but it’s what I’ve got.

Millennium Force

After spending a 90 minutes in line for Steel Vengeance, I knew the park would be filling up, but I decided that riding Millennium Force next was the smart play. Unfortunately, I didn’t realize just how far away the entrance was. The ride is huge, and you can see it from anywhere in that part of the park, so it was tricky to guess where I was supposed to go. If I’d known, I probably would’ve ridden Maverick next instead.

Regardless, I dutifully moved my all-day locker, dumped everything in it, and got in what I thought was an hour-long line. I realized pretty quickly that I hadn’t needed to leave my phone in the locker, but I figured it was no big deal. Then I started hearing distant thunder from over the lake, or so I thought. It was very cloudy over there, but I couldn’t see any lightning. The line still seemed to be moving, but eventually I realized that no trains were running. Now I really wanted my phone, so I could check the weather and the Cedar Point app. The couple in front of me was nice enough to check, and they confirmed that all the major rides were closed. With nowhere else to go, though, we all just stuck it out, and eventually the ride reopened.

I was able to snag a seat near the back, although not at the very back, but that was fine. I was slightly worried about the hill, as I’ve been nervous a few times on very tall hills, but it didn’t bother me this time, and the view of the lake was great. I threw my hands up on the first drop once again, which is kind of unlike me, but I guess I was really enjoying the restraints. I’m more a fan of B&M’s hyper airtime machines than I am of Intamin’s fast, twisty models, but Millennium Force has some of both, so that was pretty cool. It’s very long, which is also a positive. I wasn’t too thrilled about the tunnels; I don’t know why people like tunnels on coasters. It’s not my first giga, and I think I like Fury 325 better, but it’s definitely a quality ride.

Maverick

Having accomplished my two highest priorities, I started thinking strategically, and Maverick was next, being both a quality coaster and relatively nearby. It was mid-afternoon by now, and the line for Maverick was an hour, but I decided to just skip lunch and stick to the coasters. I kept my phone with me this time so I could update Twitter, so that people wouldn’t think I’d died. I was slightly embarrassed that I couldn’t really remember anything about Maverick, except that it was fast and twisty, and you can’t see the structure from the line, or anywhere except the ride itself, really.

I was wondering whether I could keep my glasses on, so I asked people around me in line if they’d ridden it before, and eventually found another enthusiast. It was pretty clear that I shouldn’t wear my glasses, which wasn’t really a problem, as I had cargo shorts for a reason. But the enthusiast reminded me that something happens halfway through the ride, so I had a bit of an idea of what was coming.

The launch up the lift hill was a little odd, but I’ve encountered it on Lightning Rod, so wasn’t too alarming. The first drop is more than 90 degrees, but it’s not a very long drop, so you barely notice. The first couple of elements are pretty cool, but nothing terribly special for an Intamin. But -- spoiler -- after the first half, the train goes underneath the station, where there’s a second, much faster launch, and after that, the ride is quite intense. It whips around quite a bit and has some unexpected inversions, all of which were pretty cool. I think this is another one that would benefit from re-riding.

Cedar Creek Mine Ride

I’d gotten my priorities out of the way, and now it was mid-afternoon, so I started thinking more strategically about how I was going to get the rest of my credits in before the park closed. Cedar Creek Mine Ride was right near Maverick, so I figured I could hop on that quickly and grab the credit. Well, at mid-afternoon on a Friday, I still had to wait a little bit, but not too long. It’s a mine train, so was fine, nothing particularly special. It’s got a nice helix at the end, as mine trains often do, so that’s something.

Gemini

I was heading over to Magnum at this point when I passed the entrance to Gemini. The Cedar Point app had listed it as being closed earlier in the day, which didn’t bug me too much, but it was clearly running now, so I decided to ride it right then. Gemini is fairly old, with steel rails on a wood structure, which I guess makes it a cousin to Steel Vengeance. It’s also a two-tracked “racing” coaster, which is fun for the riders. The restraints are pretty loose, so even though the layout is pretty tame, you can get some air on the drops. They’re loose enough, in fact, that if you lean out, you can touch hands with the people on the other train, which is what the folks riding in front of me chose to do. I found that kind of alarming, but no harm was done. There were also a number of people holding phones to record the ride, which I wished they wouldn’t do.

Magnum XL-200

After a couple of fairly tame rides, it was time for another record-breaker. Magnum XL-200 was right nearby, and didn’t have much of a line. That’s kind of a shame, because while there are a number of tall rides at the park, a hypercoaster is never anything to sneeze at. It’s from Arrow, and I’ve never ridden an Arrow hyper before, but I expected the experience to be similar to Steel Force at Dorney Park. (Steel Force is from Morgan, but the two rides are often compared, as they have a similar layout.) It’s nice and tall, and has a standard out-and-back layout that you’d expect from a hyper. Unfortunately, the trains are old, with old-fashioned restraints, and the track is very rough. The airtime feels jerky, rather than enjoyable. I wasn’t in the very back, but I was toward the rear, and that may have made the experience worse. The tunnels didn’t really do anything for me, and I found their placement awkward, but people seem to like tunnels. I guess this was my biggest disappointment of the day in terms of the gap between what I expected and what I got, but it still wasn’t terrible.

Top Thrill Dragster

My route had brought me back to the middle of the park at this point, and also knew that my lifetime coaster credits now stood at 99, so I figured Top Thrill Dragster would make a suitably impressive number 100. I’ve ridden Kingda Ka at Great Adventure, so I pretty much knew what to expect. I wasn’t overly impressed with Ka, and didn’t expect to be with Dragster either. Unfortunately, at this point in the day, the line was about an hour long, and I’d decided to be a good person and stow my phone in a locker, even though it wasn’t required. Also, my phone was dying, so there wouldn’t have been much point in holding onto it in line. I’ll say this for Dragster’s queue; it gives you a nice view of the ride, and you’ll probably be in it long enough to watch many cycles. This was the only time on that day that being a single rider paid off for me, as I got to skip the last 10 minutes or so of line.

Unfortunately, being a single rider meant I couldn’t choose my seat, and I ended up in the very back row, which wouldn’t have been my choice. The folks I was with were friendly, although we didn’t get much time to talk. Just as with Ka, after having your face peeled off by the launch, it just goes up and comes back down. I didn’t even get the feel of a possible rollback from the last row, which I halfway expected. I tried to take a look around from the crest (which I didn’t, last time I rode Ka), but the view was more or less the same as from the top of Millennium Force. I didn’t put my hands up for the drop, not out of any sense of fear, but because it didn’t seem worth it. The corkscrew on the drop, like Ka’s, takes a lot of the fear out of the fall, and then you’re done. I don’t have much positive to say about the useless second hill on Ka, but at least it’s something better than just a brake run. I mostly rode it just to say I did, and now I can check that off the list.

My plan was to ride everything in the back of the park, make my way back to Dragster, then head back out to my car to get the battery charger for my phone, and then get some food. That all worked fine, except that it’s a longer walk from the gate to Dragster than I thought, and the lines meant I was doing all this at 5:00 rather than 4:00 as I’d planned. Since I skipped lunch, I was awfully hungry. On the way back in, I decided to eat at the Midway Market, mostly because it seemed empty. Turns out it’s a fixed-price, all-you-can-eat buffet. The price was $18, which is a bit steep, but really not much more than I’d paid for amusement park food elsewhere, and since I was only eating one meal in the park, I figured it was justified. There are lots of choices at this place, rather unusual for an amusement park -- I could’ve had meat and potatoes, or pasta, or Mexican. I knew better than to stuff myself before going on rides, though, so I opted for Chinese. I had a nice rest, caught up on Twitter, charged my phone pretty well, and headed back out for part 2.

Gatekeeper

The plan at this point was to ride the coasters at the front of the park, which are mostly B&Ms. I’m a fan of B&Ms in general, but aside from their hypers, most B&M rides are relatively less extreme than Intamins. I felt like I’d done the extreme stuff already, and could relax with the rest. Of course, calling Gatekeeper relaxed is probably an enthusiast’s viewpoint, but I’m sticking with it.

I think that B&M wing coasters look spectacular, and Gatekeeper is no exception. I’ve heard from enthusiasts that they’re kind of unimpressive, and that Gatekeeper isn’t a particularly good example of the breed. The only one I’d ridden before, though, was Wild Eagle at Dollywood, which is also visually impressive, but has a lackluster ride (it has no near-miss elements, which are what wing coasters do best). As with Wild Eagle, I thought the area around the ride looked great, the station looked great, and the queue had a nice breeze off the lake in the evening. It was only a 45-minute wait, and there were a couple of enthusiasts in line behind me who were very happy to chat. I rode from the left side, so that I’d go over the top on the first drop, rather than under. There was a little air, and the keyhole elements were pretty cool, although sitting near the back of the train as I was, I didn’t really fear a collision. Many enthusiasts hate the vest restraint, and I’m generally more tolerant, but I didn’t feel much sense of danger from this ride. When I was done, one of my friends from the queue described it as “pleasant,” and I think I’d have to agree, but that may not have been what Cedar Point was going for. I wanted to ride it again from the other side, or maybe from the front, but the queue had gotten longer while I was riding, and I had other rides to get to. From a logistical standpoint, that was probably the right call, but aside from Steel Vengeance, Gatekeeper was the ride I most wanted to repeat that day.

Wicked Twister

I went on Wicked Twister because it’s right next to Gatekeeper’s entrance, I was already using the lockers that are halfway between them, and I figured it would be a walk-on. I’d say these Intamin impulse coasters are probably my least favorite kind, and barely qualify for “is it a coaster” in my mind. I’ve ridden Possessed at Dorney, and Wicked Twister didn’t change my opinion any. I thought having two twisted spikes instead of one straight one might be a slight difference, but it didn’t much matter. The trains didn’t seem to be getting very high on the spikes, so that was kind of disappointing. I did it, I got the credit, end of story. And my phone got back to fully charged while it was sitting in the locker, so that’s good.

Raptor

I was looking forward to Raptor, because I like B&M inverts, and Raptor looks impressive from its spot over the midway. I’ve ridden several variations of “Batman: The Ride,” and I’ve found them pretty intense because of their compact layout, but I’ve also ridden Talon at Dorney and Great Bear at Hershey, and I like those better. After being unimpressed with Afterburn last summer, I decided to spend some extra time and wait for a front-row ride, which didn’t take much longer. I think that Raptor is probably more intense than Talon, but it didn’t seem to be as smooth. It has a lot of interesting elements, but the head-banging was rougher than I would prefer. According to Taylor at Coaster Studios, I rode it wrong, which is possible. The double helix at the end is very intense, and probably would be enjoyable under other circumstances. I’m going to say I didn’t really like this one, but I’m willing to revise my opinion.

Blue Streak

Blue Streak was up next, mostly because it was right there. It’s an old-fashioned woodie, without much to recommend it. I rode in the back seat, which probably would’ve been fine under other circumstances, but I had a bit of a headache from Raptor, and Blue Streak didn’t help that at all.

Valravn

I was kind of curious about Valravn. I’d never ridden a dive coaster before, and from all the POV videos I’ve seen, America mostly does them entirely wrong. The point of a dive coaster, in my opinion, is to drop into or under something, which most US dive coasters don’t, and Valravn certainly doesn’t. They seemed a bit boring to me, but I was willing to have my mind changed. Unfortunately, the public seems to think this coaster is awesome, because I stood in line for an hour, even though most of the queue was empty.

I figured I might as well make the most of the extra-wide train, and sat on the far left seat, although in the second row of three. 200 feet up is pretty high, and dusk was coming on, so the view should’ve been great, but given all the other tall things I’d ridden that day, it didn’t seem too intimidating. Creeping out over the first drop didn’t seem much of a big deal, but it crept for a few seconds more, and I was just starting to feel a bit of fear when it let go and dropped. The vest restraint, again, may have contributed to the lack of fear in this case. The few elements after the first drop were fine...except I went right through a cloud of the infamous Cedar Point bugs on one of them. I didn’t get any in my mouth, but they were plastered all over my face and in my eyes. It was unpleasant enough that I exclaimed about them on the mid-course brake run, and the fellow in the next seat commented on it too. The rest of the ride was probably OK, but I was too busy trying to clear my eyes to notice.

A word about those bugs: They don’t bite, so they’re really just annoying, but they’re everywhere. Massive swarms of them hang in clouds all over the midway, and they’re seemingly unavoidable. Park guests look like spastic mimes as they walk around flailing. I’d heard it could get buggy there, but I didn’t realize just how bad it could get. I had to go to the bathroom right after Valravn so I could wash them off my face, and I discovered them plastered all over my shirt, my shorts, and any exposed skin. (The vest restraints may have saved me from getting even more coated.) It was bad enough that I considered just giving up and leaving, but I learned a couple of things: First, they hover around 4-8 feet off the ground, so if you’re at coaster height, you’re probably OK unless the ride swoops down at high speed, in which case you’re in trouble. Second, once full darkness falls, they’re mostly attracted to the lights, so it becomes safe to walk around again. But for that hour or so, they’re really unpleasant.

Corkscrew

By this point I was getting really annoyed with the bugs, but I was pretty much just pressing on to get all the credits before I left. Steel Vengeance and Millennium Force were both down, and I believed they would be for the rest of the day, so that was making for longer queues on the other rides. I rode Corkscrew with my glasses on, which I almost never do, but I wanted any possible protection against another faceful of bugs. I don’t really remember a lot about it; it’s a standard aging Arrow looper, and not particularly tall. I tried to note the point where we went over the midway, as that seemed rather low. Somehow I got disoriented and missed the turnaround, so I was surprised when we approached the station again. I think this is one ride that may have worked better during the day.

Iron Dragon

I had almost forgotten about Iron Dragon. I haven’t ridden many Arrow suspended coasters; I think the only one I’ve ridden so far is Ninja at Magic Mountain. I knew this one was over the pond, and I thought that might be appealing at night. I was very surprised when I got in line and discovered that the wait was about an hour. Turns out Cedar Point has installed VR on this ride, and I had no idea. I didn’t want to ride with VR, and I didn’t really want to wait, but I was determined to get all the credits, so I waited. Even with a relatively short line and two trains running, the increased loading time from the VR is what caused the massive wait. I skipped the VR, because I’d never ridden this one before, and I wanted to see it. I really didn’t miss much. Like most suspended coasters, it’s pretty tame, with just a couple of swoops to give a thrill. In the dark the swoops were a little scarier, but not much. It probably wasn’t worth the wait. However, the long wait allowed for full darkness to fall, and the bugs were much less of an issue after that.

Rougarou

Rougarou is the former stand-up B&M that was converted to a floorless. I’m not a big fan of B&M stand-ups, although I’ve ridden all the remaining ones in the U.S. I like a B&M floorless, though. This ride was pretty much abandoned when I got there, even though it’s right on the midway. I walked on -- my only true walk-on of the day -- and there were three people in the front row, and an otherwise empty train. I opted for the back for the intensity. Sadly, the B&M restraints still induce a bit of head-banging, and changing from standing to floorless didn’t alter that much. Amusingly, I could remember and recognize the standard stand-up layout from my experiences last year -- the inclined loop, the corkscrew turnaround -- just slightly larger than usual. I wish I could say that the experience was vastly different sitting down, but it really wasn’t. The headbanging wasn’t too bad, but I was still feeling the effects from Raptor, so it wasn’t as enjoyable as I would have liked. I’d be willing to ride it again a different time.

By that point, it was after 10:30. Rougarou is right next to Millennium Force, and I could see that was running again. I thought about giving it a night ride, but decided that I was too tired, I had a half-hour drive to my hotel, and I wasn’t entirely convinced that the bugs were gone. If I’d known that Steel Vengeance was running again, I might have summoned the will to do that; I don’t know. I never thought to look at the app. On my way out, I was a little tempted by Gatekeeper, but I’d been there for over 12 hours, with only one meal, and I guess I’m not as hard-core as I thought, so I called it a night. On the whole, that was 15 new credits, each ridden once. I racked up several record-breakers, got my 100th credit, rode my first RMC conversion, my first dive coaster, my first Intamin giga, and now I can say I’ve ridden all the strata coasters in the world. Cedar Point is all about breaking records, so it seems appropriate that I broke several personal ones. The early part of the day was better than the ending, but on the whole, it was pretty good. I’ll happily go back to Cedar Point, but I really should take a friend next time.