I should be posting my next music-related post soon, but I thought I'd go ahead and post this in the meantime to explain why I didn't post last weekend. I do have interests other than music of course, and a big one is roller coasters. I read about them, I watch countless POV videos on youtube, I dream about them (all the time), and of course I ride them at every opportunity. So why not write about them a little?
Memorial day weekend I got to go to Cedar Point with my brother as a graduation gift. In this post I'll detail what we did and what I thought of all the rides, but let me start off by saying Cedar Point is probably the best classic amusement park in the world, at least for roller coasters. Other parks like Knoebels and Kennywood have it beat as far as atmosphere and charm (and shade), but that's not what Cedar Point is all about. Not only do they have a world-famous collection of excellent rides, but their operations are flawless, the staff was universally friendly, happy, and helpful, the lines for the coasters moved faster than any other park I've been to, it's clean, the food is great and priced fairly, they let you get in line for the bigger rides five minutes after closing, it's incredibly easy to navigate (the second day we didn't even have a map and we never got lost once), and come on... it's BEAUTIFUL there. The landscaping and theming may just be average, but you're surrounded by this big beautiful lake and beach. Another huge thing that puts this park ahead of places like Six Flags is it didn't feel like they were constantly trying to sell me things. It didn't feel too corporate. The park is gigantic and yet it still feels like it's run by real people.
Honestly, I know Cedar Fair the company has its share of detractors, and I wouldn't say I'm in love with their brand as a whole (they haven't been very good to my home park, Dorney Park), but Cedar Point the amusement park simply gave me a PERFECT weekend, one I'll never forget. I've never been so satisfied with a big trip like this in my life.
Now then, here's what we did.
We made the six-hour drive Friday night and stayed overnight at my cousin's house. Because we got there so late I wasn't going to worry about trying to get to the park when it opened. The next morning it was about another hour and a half to the park, we got there around two. It was my cousin's birthday, so he and his friend joined us for the day. It was very crowded, but we were expecting that, since it was a holiday weekend. This was really the only weekend we were going to get to go this summer, and I'm glad we sprang for it. You've just got to keep your expectations realistic on a weekend like that, and since we had two days we didn't have to worry about getting everything in on Saturday. Plus, as I said, the lines moved very quickly, and the weather was absolutely beautiful, long-sleeves temperature the entire time. Doing this trip on a weekend in June when it's 90 and humid would've been miserable (like I said, Cedar point has many great things, but shade is not one of them). So all the bigger rides were generally forty-five minutes to an hour wait.
Upon entering the park we made our first ride Raptor. It's definitely one of my favorite inverted coasters. There isn't anything about it particularly special, but it's big and spread-out, while staying fast and intense. I'm not sure if it unseated Talon at Dorney as my FAVORITE BM invert, since the two rides are extremely similar, and I think I prefer Talon's ultra-tight, compacted layout. But it easily bested Batman: The Ride and Great Bear which are both too short and Alpengeist which gave me a headache. (Talon, by the way, is extremely underrated in the coaster community.)
After that we did Blue Streak which was close by and had only about a ten minute wait (my cousin and his friend hated lines, so this wasn't going to be the kind of day where we just hopped from big line to big line). I was expecting a classic old coaster like the Comet at Hershey, nothing special, but boy, was I surprised. I'm pretty sure this is my favorite wooden coaster second only to the Phoenix at Knoebels (and El Toro, but that doesn't really count). It had excellent airtime throughout, much more than I was expecting, and ran pretty smoothly as well. It's the kind of ride I could've gone on again and again if we'd had time (although, most of the coasters at CP were like that). Also, the whole thing is painted bright blue, which is a strange combination of tacky and awesome.
Next came Power Tower, CP's 300 foot tall drop ride. Like the Dominator at Dorney, it has one side that shoots you up, and another that shoots you down. I love these rides, I have ever since I was very young, since they're one of the only kinds of rides that actually scares me. This one was fun enough, and the line was so very short, that it warranted us going on it three times, twice on the side that shoots you up and once on the side that shoots you down. It was EXTREMELY tall.
After that was Iron Dragon, CP's suspended swinging coaster. I liked it a lot more than the other one I've been on, Big Bad Wolf at Bush Gardens (now defunct). It's fun for a beginner's coaster, but I don't understand why they can't build them tall enough so they only need one lift hill (the second one really disrupts the flow of the ride), and why they make the turns banked so much that for most of the ride, you do almost no actual swinging.
Next up was Mantis, the stand-up coaster. Here finally was the first big bust of the weekend. I had heard the bicycle seat they stick you on is bad news if you have testicles, so at least I was expecting that, but what I hadn't heard was the bulky over-the-shoulder restraints form two tall walls for your head to knock against the entire time. First drop and loop were great, everything after that was just pain, pain, pain. Not to mention I was pushing against the floor with my feet as hard as possible the whole time so that by the end, my legs felt like I'd just jogged half a mile and my feet were tingling. Who thought this was a good idea? Why can't we just sit? Avoid at all costs.
I was itching to get on either Millennium Force or Maverick, but that wasn't going to happen today since they both had very long lines and my cousin and his friend just weren't willing to wait. As long as I was getting on coasters I didn't really mind. So next up was the Cedar Creek Mine Ride. The only other mine ride I have in recent memory to compare it to is Trail Blazer at Hershey, and this kicked the crud out of that. I actually enjoyed it much more than I would have expected, it has this awesome jerky quality to it, good lateral forces, a long layout, and a nice helix finale. And after Mantis, just getting to ride sitting down and not in pain was a treat.
After that we continued on the circle and rode Gemini. This was the other big surprise of the trip. The "racing" element is very strong since on every turn the train in second passes the one in first (at least if the operator dispatches the trains at the right time, which they did when we rode). It ran a little rough, which was fine by me, and included some great airtime, one of the best head-choppers in the park, and a surprisingly intense first drop.
Next up was finally one of the coasters I was extremely excited for, Magnum XL-200. The line for Magnum MOVES, and as for the ride, let me just say I can totally understand why it's consistently a top-ten coaster in the Golden Ticket Awards. It's pretty much my perfect coaster, and probably my favorite in the whole park. It has a crazy huge first drop, just the perfect amount of roughness, AND the entire back half is filled with some of the craziest ejector airtime I've ever experienced. It's not just the amount of forces involved, it's the pacing. You're flying out of your seat (and you actually are flying out of your seat, unlike on rides like El Toro where you're stapled in so hard your butt doesn't budge an inch the entire time) and before you have time to recover, you're flying out of your seat again, and again, and again. It just keeps coming. Take the pacing and airtime of the Phoenix, give it a two hundred foot drop, and you have Magnum. How could it get any better than that? The only thing about the ride I might change is that Steel Force, the closest comparison for the ride that I have, has for its turnaround a huge helix that's close to the ground and slowly builds in speed and excitement throughout. That does for me a little more than Magnum's pretzel turn which serves to give you a break and reflect on that awesome first drop, but not much else. Also, Magnum's lift hill doesn't provide as much of a view as it would if it were parallel to the park.
Magnum's finale is a thing of beauty unto itself. After all this awesome airtime you're suddenly plummeting through another tunnel. There have been two tunnels already, but this time the tunnel doesn't end when you think it will, you're racing up and over another bunny hop completely in darkness. It's a huge surprise the first time, and after that it's still scary and disorienting. It's a simple but extremely effective way to end the ride.
After that it was getting towards the end of the day. I decided to go ahead and ride Top Thrill Dragster by myself while the others rode maXair, a flat ride (more on that later). I'd already ridden Kingda Ka at Six Flags Great Adventure so I pretty much knew what to expect. I liked it for what it was. Unfortunately there were two comfort issues that kept me from fully enjoying it, one, the air rushing past made the collar of my shirt whip against my cheek which stung a lot more than you might think, and two, the ride attendant made me hang my glasses on the inside of my shirt, which meant I had to hold them with one hand on the way down since I felt them almost falling out. My brother suspects I had to take them off because they would've pressed into my face during the launch which might've been dangerous given the tiny, not-made-for-high-acceleration nose pads. That might be true. Despite these problems, the ride still doesn't have much to offer compared to the other coasters. You get the incredible acceleration, then you get the extremely brief sensation of being on TOP of Cedar Point, nothing higher than you are, staring down at the ground 400 feet below you, then a little bit of lateral force as you shoot back down the spiral, then you slam into the brakes which is actually more intense than the initial launch, then that's it, it's over. What's the big deal? Worth a ride if you go, but highly overrated in my opinion. Despite the negligible decrease in speed and height I liked this ride much more than Kingda Ka simply for its excellent placement right in the center of the midway, rather than KK which is basically a parking lot coaster.
Ironically I got through the line and finished with the ride before my compatriots were finished with maXair, apparently because somebody barfed right before they got on and they had to clean the ride, and then test it three times (which seems a little excessive). Anyway, after waiting for them to finish, my cousin and his friend decided to call it a night and head home, while my brother and I decided to make the new coaster, GateKeeper, our last ride for the day. Now don't get me wrong, it's a fun ride, certainly a worth addition to the park, but I found it disappointing for several reasons. First of all, the whole "wing" concept is kind of stupid; having the track next to you instead of above or below you doesn't really add to the sensation of flight at all, all it does is make the trains heavier and slower and add some unpleasant vibration for those on the outer seats. You know what really makes for a good sensation of flight? Not being stapled in with a heavy plastic vest that gets tighter and tighter as the ride progresses. The whole ride, it felt to me like somebody had placed a heavy weight on my chest. Waiting on the final break run to get back to the station, my collar bone hurt and I could only take short, shallow breaths.
Some online are saying these restraints are a problems, others are saying they didn't mind them at all. I will never understand this. Human beings are all basically shaped the same way, and it's not like the ride attendant maliciously shoved down on my restraint with all his weight before we departed. Maybe if you're a bigger person they don't tighten as much as the ride goes, but for me, they really took me out of the experience. That, and the seats are deep and angled upwards, which adds to the claustrophobic feeling and further removes from the sensation of flight. The ride isn't all bad, though. The first drop is pretty scary (not as scary as I had hoped, but not a total disappointment either), and flying through the keyholes is surreal and awesome as well. I'd need a couple more rides on it to know for sure. Also I was pretty tired by that point and it had gotten quite cold and windy, neither of which helped my first impression. But with so much else to do at CP my brother and I decided it wasn't worth the wait to get on it again the second day.
Saturday night we stayed at the Breakers Express which was very convenient, and also meant we got to enter the park an hour early the second day. This time, sans cousin and his friend, we headed straight for Millennium Force. What can I say? It's like no other ride I've ever been on. The time spent on the lift hill is the perfect length, long enough to enjoy the view, short enough to keep your adrenaline pulsing. The entire rest of the ride is simply pure euphoria. Smooth, and incredibly fast. Some enthusiasts complain about the lack of forces, but for me the ride is all about speed and feeling like you're taking an epic journey in fast-forward (which comes from the sheer amount of distance covered). Plus, three good pops of floaty airtime. It totally delivered everything I was expecting. It's hard to say if I like Magnum more; the line being so much shorter for Magnum gives it a big advantage, and I do love me some crazy airtime. For now I'll just say I like both coasters the same amount, for different reasons.
After our ride on MF we headed straight for Maverick. Now, Maverick I have very mixed feelings about. A lot of enthusiasts site this as their favorite coaster of all time, or at least in their top five. I usually trust the critical consensus on things whether it's movies or art or roller coasters, just because they're opinions from people better traveled and informed than myself. However, I'm also capable of thinking for myself, and I'm not sure I understand Maverick. It's a great ride, certainly, very intense, and I appreciate it for its uniqueness. Those two things alone make it probably my third favorite ride in the park. But there's a lot about it I don't get.
Usually on a roller coaster, turns are there just to point you in the direction you're going next. On Maverick it turns back and forth and back and forth, as if each turn is an element unto itself (like a loop or airtime hill). But I don't get why turning is so great. Each turn is very forceful and intense and kind of scary, I guess, but the tight snapping between them also comes with a certain amount of discomfort. I also don't understand why anybody ever talks about Maverick being a good airtime ride. Two bunny hops. That's it. Sure, both have some extreme upward forces, but there's only two of them. Overall the ride is much more about lateral forces, the twisting back and forth, back and forth.
Also, the placement of the trims during the second half of the ride is completely unforgivable to me. Even if they were part of the original design, I don't get the point of this big cool launch and then IMMEDIATELY hitting the breaks. It totally kills the effectiveness of the launch, for me. Why not just make the launch a little bit slower so the trims wouldn't be necessary? Finally, I don't understand those two elements during the second half, that sort of mirror the corkscrews from the first half, except they don't go upside-down. They almost do, then you twist back around the other way. "Stengel dives", I guess they're called. Seems a little pointless to me, especially when they could have been two more airtime hills, making for a much better finale to the ride.
But that uncertainty, how unsure I am of how much I really like it, gives it a sort of allure that makes me want to ride it again and again. I'll definitely be going on it plenty more before I really cast judgment. But it's definitely not like El Toro, where I was sure it was probably the best coaster I've ever been on from the first second I rode it.
Next up was the big one, Mean Streak. My brother sat this one out, he's not a fan of rough wooden coasters and this one in particular has a bone-rattling reputation. Honestly, it was not that rough at all. Maybe it was just that day, but it seemed to me to be in perfectly acceptable condition. That does not make it a good ride. I appreciated the height, and it really is extremely tall for a traditional wooden coaster, and the scale of it, because it is also incredibly long. But there's trims on the main drop! At least that's what I've read, and that's also exactly what it felt like. There could not possibly be a worse place to put brakes. And you want to talk about forceless rides… I kept seeing hills off to the side that I thought would provide some great airtime, but again and again I was disappointed. We were always going too slow for any hill to provide the slightest lift. The ride may not be that rough, but it certainly isn't smooth either, and the excruciating length means it quickly devolves into uncomfortable vibrating tedium. It feels a bit like running a marathon. I often love wooden coasters others hate, like Wildcat at Hershey, because I don't mind getting tossed around a little, and I was sincerely hoping to come away rooting for Mean Streak, but that is not the case. Tear that stupid thing down, and please let Intamin put an El Toro-style plug and play in its place (Blue Streak is all the classic wooden coaster that park needs).
After that we did a couple more re-rides, Cedar Creek Mine Ride and Gemini because the lines were both super-short, and Magnum, which was just as awesome as it was the day before. We got on the very last row both times because I love how the back of the train feels on a ride like that. I have yet to try the front, I'm sure it's good too. After that was lunch time. We walked all the way to the front of the park because I wanted to try the Midway Market, an all-you-can-eat buffet. $18 a person was a little rich for our blood though, so we decided to go for the nearby sliders stand instead. My brother got three little hamburgers and I got three little fish burgers. I'm noting this because usually fish would be a risky proposition at the average amusement park, but this fish was actually super fresh and delicious, a real cut of fish fried and breaded, not your normal reconstituted fish brick.
After lunch came another ride on Blue Streak, which pretty much solidified it as my second favorite wooden coaster of all time (it was running even smoother than it was yesterday, so my brother liked it better too). After that, my brother wanted to ride the sky ride, which offered a nice view as well as a moment for our stomaches to settle. We took it going towards the back of the park, then got off and walked towards the front again, stopping at CP's historic Derby Racer along the way. It's basically a merry-go-round except it goes about three times as fast, and the horses have this pleasant rocking sensation that actually feels a bit more like horse racing than the typically simple up-and-down motion (not a lot more, just a little bit). Also, they play this ridiculous music that sounds a little like an anime theme song without the words. I recommend it.
Then we headed back to maXair so I could get to ride it. Um, best flat ride ever? It might as well count as one of the coasters, I mean just look at the stats (140 feet in the air, top speed of 70 mph). It certainly has the intensity, progression, and changes in dynamics of any of the coasters. If you're in the park and consider skipping it, don't. Next, I insisted we ride Wicked Twister, against my brother's protestations. We'd both ridden this type of ride before, Possessed at Dorney Park, so we already knew basically what to expect. I like both versions equally, Wicked Twister being taller and faster, but Possessed having the breaks on the back tower that keep you suspended in the air for a moment. Definitely more reminiscent of an extreme flat ride than an actual coaster and I probably prefer maXair overall, but a fun ride nonetheless. My brother totally hated it, as he thought he would (feeling that it lacks substance, I think). After that we checked out WindSeeker, which for me was actually the scariest ride in the park. I'm not good with rides that hoist you way up in the air and hold you there, and I had no idea WindSeeker was as tall as it was. Even Power Tower didn't scare me as much, I think because having the tower right behind you is somewhat reassuring, even if you are about to shoot down it at faster-than-free-fall speeds. On WindSeeker you're completely exposed.
After that we had to stop by the locker we'd purchased near the entrance to Millennium Force, I don't quite remember why. We briefly considered re-riding MF, but the line was a little too long, so instead we hopped on the train ride. It has two stations, one right by Millennium Force, one right by Maverick, which was very convenient later on. We rode the full circuit back to Millennium Force. It has some really great theming through the "Old West" part of the park. I believe that was the point at which we had to retrieve our coats from our lockers. Then we opted for a third ride on Magnum. We were more towards the middle of the train this time, but it didn't make much difference, the ride was still awesome. The only noticeable difference was that it didn't quite feel like you were getting pulled over the top of the lift hill as much.
After that I realized I wanted to be able to say I went on every coaster at Cedar Point, so we begrudgingly made our way to Corkscrew. The best I can say for it is it wasn't quite as bad as I was anticipating. Whoever designed the trains had some kind of mental issue, we're both of average height and had almost no leg room, not to mention the heavy bulky restraints that came down at a very awkward angle. Previously I'd looked at the ride from the lift hill of Magnum and spotted an airtime hill right after the main drop that I had high hopes for. Unfortunately that hill was the most painful part of the ride; it wrenched both our necks badly. I'm not sure why this ride still exists.
Our planned re-ride of Maverick was delayed due to it being broken down (apparently not uncommon), so we hopped back on the train and rode it to Millennium Force, knowing if we wanted a second ride it was pretty much now or never. The wait was just about the longest we waited for any ride, but of course it was worth it. The only notable difference between this ride and the one in the morning was that at sundown the bugs at Cedar Point form a thick cloud in the sky of almost Biblical proportions. Not the nasty, biting kind, just the tiny little ones that leave brown splatters on your hands if you make the mistake of holding them in the air when you go down the first hill on MF, as if you're a human windshield. Oh yeah, and keep your mouth closed. The coaster still rocked. It maintains an incredible amount of speed throughout the entire course.
After looking futilely for a place to eat (everything was shut down by nine), it was sadly time for our last ride of the night. Luckily we hopped back on the train and lo and behold, Maverick was running once again. In the queue line which was still surprisingly long, the crowd was positively jovial. At one point the entire line joined in a chorus of "happy birthday" to, well, somebody, and at another point someone brought out a beach ball which got batted around the switchbacks until an employee came out and confiscated it. I'd like to think this was the result of the kind of atmosphere promoted at an excellent park that cares about providing a quality experience. What other park has as large and active a fan base as Cedar Point? The main ride operator for Maverick was also the funniest, carrying a certain GLaDOS brand or sarcasm; another great thing about CP is every coaster has a real person reading out the greeting and instructions, no prerecorded tapes.
I was hoping to fall desperately in love with Maverick the second time around, but my mixed feelings remained. I was certainly better prepared for the intensity and twisty-ness (gotta lean into those curves), and the second half being in almost total darkness added to the crazy factor (and the pain factor, since you couldn't anticipate which way you were going next). Keep in mind though that this is NOT a painful ride like Mantis or Corkscrew, as the over-the-shoulder-restraints hit you at your neck (as long as you're sitting up straight), which is much softer than your skull. The experience of being whipped around turns faster than you're prepared for could be mentally translated as "pain", but it's really more "discomfort" than anything, you almost think it hurts more than it actually does. Again, the more I ride it and get familiar with the layout, the more I think I'll be able to enjoy it. But I don't think it'll ever unseat MF or Magnum, for me.
The park was surprisingly cleared out by the time we disembarked, and walking through the park with hardly anybody around was a little creepy, the long trek back to the main gates emphasizing the sheer enormity of the park which is easy to miss when you're just walking from ride to ride.
So in all, I had pretty much the best amusement park trip I've ever had in my life. Pretty much everything went perfectly. No headaches, no stomachaches, the only unfortunate thing was my lips. Now this is weird. On Saturday my lips began to get irritated, and by Sunday they were red and puffy and hurt very badly. It wasn't allergies, my nose and eyes were fine, and I could breath fine, it was just my lips. I hadn't gotten sunburned and I wasn't dehydrated. There is no explanation I've come up with. By Monday the skin began to peel like they'd just gotten incredibly chapped, and now they're almost healed. It was easy to ignore while we were in the park, but Sunday night at the McDonald's all I could think about was getting some ice cream to slurp on to try and relieve some of the intense burning. Really, it's far and away the strangest and most mysterious ailment I've ever had.
If you're thinking of making this trip, all I can say is DO IT. And bring the entire family, there's plenty to do besides the big coasters. And plan on staying more than one day, you'll feel much more relaxed. It also makes for an excellent graduation gift.
_Gaius J.
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