Cedar Point

Visited: July 28, 2022

Attending: Brian and Doug

Our rain-out at Kennywood meant that basically our whole trip moved up by half a day. We left Kennywood around 2:00, so we got to Cedar Point around dinnertime, with plenty of daylight left to spare. As Doug had bought himself a Platinum Pass, we didn’t have to worry about paying for two consecutive days. So we were able to start at the Rockin’ Roller Coast rather earlier than planned.

Gatekeeper

Steel Vengeance would have been the optimum first coaster, but the Cedar Point app said it was down. However, the app also said that Gatekeeper was a 15-minute wait, so yay for weekdays, I guess. I convinced Doug to do a front-row ride, which he normally doesn’t prefer, and we went left side, so we could roll over the top on the first drop. Which was really rather cool. I’ve been lukewarm on Gatekeeper in the past, but the view from the front is rather impressive. And it had some air and some other forces that weren’t too bad. I’ve decided I prefer the vest restraint to the hard B&M restraints, even though they are kinda snug, but I was still able to get some room.

After Gatekeeper, we went over to Raptor, since it also had a short line. Unfortunately, it closed when we were nearly at the platform; high winds were cited as the reason. We stuck it out for a while, but then decided to leave it for tomorrow. Unfortunately, that took up a chunk of our time.

Iron Dragon

At this point, it was pretty clear that any plan we’d had just wasn’t going to happen. So we were just kind of heading generally toward the back of the park, to see what there is to see. Iron Dragon isn’t a high priority for me; I’d only ridden it once before. But it was open, and didn’t have much line, so we decided to snag that while we were nearby. Last time, the line was absurdly long because the optional VR headsets added a huge delay to the loading process. Fortunately, the VR fad is gone now, so we didn’t have to wait too long. I much preferred this ride to my last one in the dark. Iron Dragon doesn’t have huge forces, just kind of pleasant swinging, so being able to see what you’re doing instead of pitch darkness works quite nicely. Doug wasn’t real thrilled about the cramped seats, but he thought it was all right.

Rougarou

Rougarou is right next to Iron Dragon, and it was running, for some reason. I don’t know why Rougarou can run in high winds while Raptor can’t, but I’m not in charge of operations. With most of the big thrill rides not running, the line was longer than expected, but we didn’t have anything better to do. They were running three trains, which is the first time I’ve seen that, but the operations were still a bit pokey. We got the last row, and there’s not much to say about this I haven’t said before. It feels a bit strange, because it used to be a stand-up, but there’s nothing actively wrong with it. It’s mostly just fine. I’ll note that with three trains, when you stack at the brakes, the last couple of rows are still at an angle, so that was kind of an odd sensation.

Millennium Force

By the time we got off of Rougarou, Millennium Force was back running again. Unfortunately, it had something of a line, but we decided to just deal with it. I’ve ridden Millie before, but it was Doug’s first time, which also made it his first giga. He’s ridden Kingda Ka before, but a launch isn’t the same as a 300-foot lift hill. Having the ride right at sunset made for a fairly cool experience on the lift hill, but I do like being able to see where I’m going. As I’ve noted before, Millie isn’t my favorite giga, but I can’t fault it, given when it was made. It’s designed to provide speed and more speed, and pretty much nothing else. I did notice that when sitting in the back, the length of the train provides an odd feeling of acceleration during the turnarounds out on the island.

Steel Vengeance

The sun was starting to go down, and the app said Steel Vengeance was running, so we decided that was the best thing to do next. The line was about 30 minutes, which was the best we were likely to get, so we hopped in. I hadn’t experienced the new mini-locker system on this ride yet, but it wasn’t too terrible, although it did add a bit of a delay. We managed to snag the back row, much to my surprise, and it was everything I remembered from a back-of-the-train night ride. In fact, it may have even been a little more than I remembered. A couple of times, coming out of an inversion, I didn’t know which way was up for a second. (In fairness, I skipped dinner, so I was possibly lightheaded.) As for Doug, I think he had his life changed. He was really impressed with the speed, but especially the way the zero-g rolls worked. Admittedly, they are wonderfully positioned within the structure. Although the outer-banked turn is still my favorite, I don’t think he liked that as much as I do. However, we turned right around and got back in line, as it was getting close to closing, and the line wasn’t very long anymore. We went back-row again, and swapped seats this time. I think the outer bank isn’t as intense from the left side of the train, as you’re on the “lower” side of the bank, but in many other ways, being on the “outside” of the circuit is impressive, especially at night. As a bonus, we got to see Creech from Buzzed Bars, as he was working as a safety checker that night.

After that, we decided to call it a night and headed out to our nearby hotel, secure in the knowledge that we’d have plenty of time to get all the credits on Friday.