Theme Park Discussion / Cedar Point Review 2013

So, just got back from my 2 day visit to Cedar Point, and here is my general review of the coasters i rode. I'll start by noting that the weather was gorgeous, sunny but cool both days. As well, i would probably list the crowds as the biggest i've ever dealt with. Even the older coasters had waits of between 45mins to an hour. None-the-less, with some of my best friends we managed to get everything we wanted done over the 2 days. Here are my coaster reviews in no particular order

Millennium Force
Millennium Force remains my favorite coaster at Cedar Point, and my second favorite overall, though it gave El Toro a run for its money this week. The lines were pretty bad, but worth it, and first drop is almost unparalleled, and the speed and airtime of the coaster are just incredible. It did break down while we were there (every Intamin coaster in the park broke down the first day we were there), but we managed to ride it once in the morning and once around 10:30 at night. The night ride i believe might be the best ride i have ever had on a coaster. Somehow the darkness makes it seem even faster, crazier, and just such an amazingly surreal experience. El Toro will remain my favorite coaster, but not by much. The first hill is just a colossal element in the Roller Coaster world.

Top Thrill Dragster
If we are talking layouts and unique elements, Dragster is pretty lame, but if we are talking a pure adrenaline rush, Dragster is at the top. No matter how prepared you feel, Dragster gets you everytime, and watching other people ride it and freak out is highly enjoyable. I just wish there was some way to economically make these coasters longer, but somehow i'm never really dissapointed by the 30 second run time. We also managed to sneak a night ride in on this, super worth it. We felt like we were launching into space, we could see all the starts, and again, somehow riding at night feels so much faster.

Gatekeeper
The coaster i was most excited to ride, and to be honest, i was underwhelmed. The design is wonderful, and as far as a wingrider, its just a fun, unique experience, but after all the hype over it, it just didn't live up to my expectations. I should preface that i'm dominantly a airtime lover. While i love G based coasters like Raptor, i really prefer fast, tall, and lots of airtime hills. Gatekeeper just didn't drop out my stomach at all, and while it was very fun, i wanted more moments that capitalized on the idea of riding the wings of a bird. The elements just didn't seem to utilize the idea of flying or soaring at all, but rather were just massive traditional B&M elements with a new coaster train. In essence, you could take this layout and replace it with a regular twister train, with the exception of the eye-threading. I don't want to come off as hating on it, as i really did enjoy the ride, but after the extreme-ness of Dragster and Millennium, this coaster just didn't WoW me like i expected. I would add though that Gatekeeper was a brilliant choice for the park. The entire southeast section of the park just filled with so much more life and energy then when i last came. A fantastic decision to enliven a slow area of their park. I should also note that Gatekeeper was indeed massive for a wingrider....

Blue Streak
So old and cute, but a surprising amount of airtime. A bit rough, but that's to be expected with older woodies. The only unfortunate things about this ride, along with Iron Dragon (which we didn't ride) was that they get long lines as kiddie rides. Essentially, its too old to get high popularity, but not imposing enough to ward of kids.

Raptor
One of our longer waits, as this coaster suffers from being one of the first people see on their way into the park. A great Inverter, i would place this above a Batman clone, but below my beloved Aplengeist. Great elements, wound together so well, enough forced G's to excite but not enough to give me a headache. I also love how this coaster is a color catastrophe. Green and Blue track with a yellow and pink station and purple cars. lol

Maverick
So, i was eager to give Mav a second chance, as the first time i rode it i waited almost 2 hours and had my neck destroyed. On one hand, this coaster remains the killer of necks for taller riders, on the other hand, this coaster has a gorgeous layout. The second launch is fantastic, and the first drop and giant airtime hill are brilliant. Overall, i just find maverick really frustrating, as its a wonderful ride with terrible trains. If they were to just redesign those pain-mobiles this coaster could be one of my top rides ever. However, presently i can only make it by covering the restrains with my fists and riding in a weigh-champion stance. Winning

Mean Streak
First time i rode this i got destroyed by its painful roughness. This time was surprisingly better, which i'm attributing to my older age. A fun beast of a ride, but its old and very rough (lol, i called it old, then realized its as old as me...) Be warned, this part of the park is pretty buggy, thank you stagnant pools of water around Maverick....

Mantis
We managed to sneak on to Mantis when there was no line and wait a few trains for a front seat night ride. It was crazy. I mean, i rode Mantis last trip and wasn't that impressed, but somehow riding a night in the front seat seemed ridiculously fast. I had also forgotten about all the little turns and switches it does in the second half of its layout. I was massively surprised by how much i enjoyed that ride. (I think i just really love riding coasters at night...)

Gemini
A shorter line, a fun time, a surprising amount of airtime and fun little hills, but it was also rough as every bit of airtime is met with the car slamming down back onto the tracks and breaking your whole body.

Magnum
My first visit to Cedar Point i really liked Magnum, this time i really really liked it. This coaster is an airtime machine. I mean, it has like 10 airtime hills on the way back from its layout. A bit rough on the knees, but so worth it for all the crazy airtime you get. An oldie but a goodie.

MaxAir
I know, not a coaster, its a giant frisbee, but this thing deserves a mention. I hadn't ever ridden a frisbee before, and this thing is massive. Somehow being like 100 feet above ground on this seemed higher than anything else all day (except maybe dragster) and the view of the park with the horizon titled was freaky and wonderful. My biggest surprise of the day.

So, overall a fantastic and exhausting trip, but some epic coaster riding. Millennium remains my favorite at the park, probably followed by Dragster. My tip of the trip would be to stay left when driving into the park and ask if you can park at Soak City (there waterpark at the back). This let us skip crowds getting into the park and put us closer to most of the biggest rides.

FK

Nice review! I had ERT on TTD the other week(because I'm a Plat. Pass holder) and loved it at night, highly recommended. Millenium is definitely the best there. Did your shoulders get killed on Gatekeeper? Mine the the 2nd and 3rd times I rode it. Blue Streak is airtime heaven, as well as Gemini. My body doesn't hurt after Gemini, except for the final helix. I'm always pleasantly surprised and enjoy the ride. MaxAir is immense, as wel as Skyhawk, but not sure that was open for you. It's been having some problems, and I haven't even been able to ride it this season yet.

Great read, thanks a lot FK!

Gemini wasn't terrible, it was just rough on the landings, lol. Made better by the fact my friends and i had decided to continue playing our Movie Game on the rides, thus we were yelling names of movie's and actors back and forth across the cards.

Skyhawk was down, as well as Shoot the Rapids, cause of the incident where a car rolled back down a hill and 7 people got injured. I was amazed though, i was blabbing roller coaster info to my friends, telling them the main differences between B&M and Intamin, low and behold every Intamin coaster at the park breaks down. lol, fantastic rides, but not reliable.

Also, yes, gatekeeper was very harsh on my collar bone, though my friends (she is pretty fragile generally) hated it, said she was in pain the whole time (again, she is like a china set fragile....)

FK

You hit the nail on the head with Maverick, great ride, terrible trains. I'm fortunate enough that when my arms go up I get wedged into the harness and there's no neck-chopping, but it needs new restraints.

Also I'm curious, in what seat(s)/side(s) did you ride Gatekeeper? I'm always curious as the ride is very different depending on where you sit.

here's my cedar point review:

they got rid of disaster transport 0/10 fuck this park

What ticks me off about Maverick is that now matter what, most likely, the trains are going to have over the shoulder restraints. And FK, as said by Mav, you hit the nail on the head with your review of it. The 2 times I've ridden it I've just been disappointed how the restraints take so much away from the ride. Without them being so painful the ride would absolutely incredible. We can only hope.

Mav, for Gatekeeper i was on the left side (if you are sitting on the train) maybe 2 or 3 cars from the back. I did consider the difference between the left and right sides, as X-Flight at Six Flags Great America works that way. Simply the difference between being high on a turn versus low. Unfortunately the lines were just too substantial this trip to give it a number of goes, and we had a bunch of other things we still wanted to do in the park.

I can say my favorite parts of the ride were really those capitalizing on the wingrider nature. 1, the beginning dive loop, which was just massive, and 2, the final turn right after the break run where you really felt like you were gliding. On the left side there was also a really low to the ground dip in the turn which was great. Ya, threading the needle is fun, but its mostly just gimmicky for first time riders, and really if you took away the towers it would just be two barrel rolls. I feel they forwent some of the better experiences of a wingrider in favor of a massive layout. All my harsh sounding criticism being said, i must reiterate its still a great ride, and a superb re imagining of that area of Cedar Point.

FK

Maverick:"Killer of Necks for taller riders" lol yeah spot on; I rode this once and my neck was screwed up on the first turn

Also disappointed to see Disaster Transport go, but Gatekeeper looks gorgeous (Shame I won't be getting over there to ride it) In terms of reliability, you can't beat B&M (except Hydra at dorney, go figure)

Millenium Force is definitely my favorite there, such a wonderful ride.

Magnum: well my problem with Magnum is that, compared to my own favorite hyper, Steel Force, it's really rough. I was expecting the two to be similar, but Magnum jostled me a lot more (it's a bit older so I'll give it some slack, but still)

Mean Streak: RMC on this would be beautiful, but it's still a fun woodie in the mean time, pretty rough though but huge and hard to maintain, so gotta give them credit on that.

I liked Gemini when I rode it, but definitely buggy over there as well.

Good review, makes me want to go back there

edit- totally posted in the wrong thread lol