Cedar Point

Visited: August 10, 2019

Attending: Just Brian

After spending the night in a hotel in Toledo, I drove 90 minutes to Cedar Point, exactly one year since my first visit. In contrast to the previous day, I had much more of a plan this time. I’d purchased a Cedar Fair season pass a couple of days prior, so I arrived around 8:30, with very little traffic, didn’t pay for parking, and got my shiny platinum card from the ticket booth with plenty of time to spare. Inside, I waited for the passholder admission at 9:00, and headed straight for Steel Vengeance...with everybody else. It seemed there were an awful lot of hotel guests and Platinum Passholders there to enjoy early entry on a gorgeous summer day.

Steel Vengeance

When I arrived, there was plenty of line already for Steel Vengeance, and I made the mistake of assuming the rules from last year still applied, so I paid for a locker to put my phone in, which I totally didn’t need to do. The line was about 90 minutes when I got in it, which was almost exactly the amount of time I waited a year ago. I couldn’t choose my seat, and I ended up riding closer to the front than I had before. Steel Vengeance is still awesome, and knowing what was coming didn’t change the experience, except there was maybe a bit less fear. It still seemed to go on forever, and it’s still one of the best coaster experiences I’ve had. If anything, it may have been running a little faster than last year, but it’s hard to tell. I stuck around afterward to take some photos and video.

Maverick

I didn’t repeat my mistake from last year, and went straight to Maverick from Steel Vengeance. I sat in the front row of the last car this time, and I think that was a better experience. I thoroughly enjoyed the ride this time, and again, it seemed a little faster than last year, if that’s possible. I hung around for quite a bit on the exit ramp, because the best views are found there.

Millennium Force

I figured I’d walk slowly over toward Millennium Force, because I know it’s something of a hike. Along the way this time, I paid more attention to the Frontier Town trappings, and I stopped to check out the glassblowers and the candle-makers, taking some pictures and video. Even though the park had been open to the public for a while at this point, the sign at Millennium’s entrance said the wait was 45 minutes...which was a total lie. It ended up being more like 90, if not more, and much of it was in the sun. I got a back-car ride here as well, and again, I think I enjoyed it a bit more than the previous year, almost certainly because I knew what was coming. Millennium doesn’t have a lot of surprises, so I was able to anticipate the airtime hills and tunnels, and I was ready for them.

While I was in line for Millennium, I learned that Top Thrill Dragster was down for the day, and would be down for the foreseeable future, so I didn’t have to worry about riding that. It was mid-afternoon by this point, and although I was fairly hungry, I spent quite a while wandering around the Adventure Island area. This is the island in the lake where Millennium’s turnaround lives. It used to be accessible only if you paid extra for the Dinosaurs Alive attraction, but now that’s been replaced with some western-themed interactive event, with lots of paths and actors. I ignored most of the actors, and they mostly ignored me, so I took lots of footage of Millennium that I wouldn’t have been able to get before. In fact, I spent quite a long time just wandering around and not riding anything. Eventually I went for a sandwich at Chickie’s & Pete’s near the front of the park, knowing that they’d have cheese steaks, and a seat in air conditioning for the hottest part of the day.

Gatekeeper

It was after 4:00 by the time I was ready to ride again. I knew I wouldn’t be riding all the credits that day, so I didn’t mind wasting time. I went to the front of the park, taking some footage along the way, and saw that Gatekeeper had a relatively short line. Keeping in mind my experience with X-Flight the previous day, I decided to wait for a front-row ride, left side, and I had the row to myself. I think that the front row was definitely better than the back-row ride I did last year, if only for the views. There seemed to be a bit better airtime than I remembered, which was nice. I hoped that the keyhole elements would be more dramatic from the front row, and they were, a bit, but not nearly as much as X-Flight’s. I’m going to stick to my opinion that Gatekeeper, while large, is a middle-of-the-pack wing coaster.

Next, I did something I didn’t do in previous years, and I went over to Windseeker, the giant swing that’s near to Wicked Twister. I hadn’t done a Windseeker before, and I wanted to see what it was like. The sturdy seats made for a less scary ride than the star-flyers at other parks, and the views were impressive. Then I did something else I haven’t done at a park recently, and went shopping. I have a strap to hold my sunglasses on, but it doesn’t fit my regular glasses, and since the sun was going down, I either needed a better solution, or just skip my glasses altogether for the evening. So I bought a Cedar Point-branded strap that fits my glasses OK, for a few bucks. I know, I’m a big spender. Then I went out to the car, swapped my glasses, and dropped off my backup battery, trusting my phone to last the rest of the night (which it did).

Raptor

After coming back in, it seemed like the lines were long everywhere, so I figured one line was much like another, and queued up for Raptor. An hour is really too long to wait for Raptor, but I did it anyway. I didn’t wait for the front row this time, but I did ride a bit more “defensively,” keeping my head forward a bit, and I didn’t suffer nearly as much head-banging as last year. As a result, I liked the ride better, and it’ll probably go up a bit in my estimation. It’s still just an extra-long B&M invert, but the helix at the end is nicely intense, and there are more inversions than most.

The sun mostly went down while I was in line for Raptor, and I braced myself for the invasion of bugs that I experienced last year, but there weren’t any, or at least, few enough that I didn’t notice them. I did see dead ones plastered all over the lights in some areas, so I guess the swarms still happen, just not that night. I’m not really sure what the difference is, but I guess that’s why nobody told me about them before last year -- they don’t happen all the time.

Magnum XL200

Magnum was the last major ride left that I hadn’t ridden, with the possible exception of Valravn. (I don’t find Valravn particularly interesting, and given the crazy wait time from the previous year, I didn’t need much convincing to skip it.) Magnum’s line was reasonably short, maybe 20-30 minutes, so I jumped in. I snagged the front row of the last car, possibly where I sat last year, but this time I enjoyed it much more. The ride seemed smoother overall, with much less rattle. Maybe I kept myself looser than last time; I don’t know. And the tunnels, some of which have lights at night, seemed less randomly placed when riding in the dark. On the whole, I liked it a lot better than previously. It still wasn’t better than a B&M or Intamin hyper, but it holds its own with the Morgans, I think.

Rougarou

After that, I spent rather a lot of time walking around. I checked the lines on Steel Vengeance and Maverick, but they were both over two hours. It was after 9:00 at this point, and my feet were reminding me that I’d spent most of the previous day at a park, and most of the previous week standing up at a conference, not to mention my morning runs. I was starting to get a little disillusioned. I walked back down toward Millennium, which also had a fairly long line, and I figured I’d ride Rougarou and see how I felt after that. Much like last year, it was nearly a walk-on, but since there weren’t any bugs this time, I decided to ride from the front row. However, I let a couple of parties of four go ahead of me, mostly just to waste time. When I got my turn, I rode defensively again, and enjoyed it. The loops on Rougarou really are larger than its siblings, and riding from the front, at night, increased the sense of free-flying. Again, I enjoyed it more than last year’s ride.

After, I went back over to Millennium and chatted with the operators at the head of the queue. There was still quite a line everywhere, but they told me that as long as I was in line when the park closed, I’d get to ride. They very strongly advised me to go for Steel Vengeance as my last ride of the night, so I let myself be convinced.

Steel Vengeance

SteVe still had a two-hour line when I got in it, and the folks near me in line weren’t as chatty as previous...or I was just more tired. I stayed pretty much out of determination, as I was quite worn out. But for the ride itself, I ended up toward the rear, and that was pretty awesome. Much like Twisted Timbers, the darkness really enhanced the ride, and I suspect they really do run faster at night. It was pretty much disorienting chaos from start to finish, and I felt a little breathless after. The adrenaline burned away any tiredness, and I was glad I’d stayed.

However, it was near midnight at this point, and I was ready to go. When I passed Maverick, it wasn’t quite midnight yet, and I thought about sneaking in a ride, but I really felt done, and I wasn’t sure how long the wait would be. Even Millennium, several minutes later, was still letting people get in line, but I chose not to. On the whole, with fewer rides ridden, but much more deliberate choices on my part, I felt better about my experience. Even the individual rides seemed more fun this year than last. I hope this isn’t my last visit to Cedar Point, but I would like to go some time when it’s not so crowded.