1997 Trip Report index
Dave's Adventures
Back to Dave's page
"This place is just polluted with coaster nuts!"
For about the fifth consecutive week (even I can't keep track anymore) I spent a day at Cedar Point. This summer, the weather has been just gorgeous on the days I have been at the Po!nt, and today was no exception. It was a bit cold, though, and very large puddles around the Mean Squeak (parts of the 'big' queue were innundated!) show that the region did indeed get a bunch of rain yesterday. At home, I only got about a half-inch. I don't know what the weather report called for, but it was perfectly clear with cloudless blue skies and an air temperature in the lower 60's. Any colder and I would have wanted my jacket.
I arrived around 1:00, and began by riding the Sky Ride down the midway. This deposited me almost at the base of the still-growing Power Tower. The one tower looks like it is nearly to full height. Man, that thing is tall! I headed for the relative safety of Iron Dragon. Last Sunday, I met one of the Iron Dragon crew members at a Meijer [Footnote 1] store...just my luck, she was going on break as I approached the entrance. But at the same time, our friend Sean Flaharty and his entourage (sorry, their names escape me at this moment) were milling about the entrance as if trying to decide whether or not to ride. The four of us proceeded through the queue and directly onto the train for one of the better Iron Dragon rides I have had this season...I think this ride likes the cold. Well, at least it was a decent ride until we reached the second lift, then we suffered a case of Coasterus Interruptus as the train stopped on the second lift. Now, while this may be a regular occurrance on the Beast, at Cedar Point, this is a noteworthy occurrance. I mean, it is unusual for the coaster to leave us hanging like that. Fortunately, within just a couple of minutes, we were chugging up the lift again. It was certainly the longest Iron Dragon ride I have ever taken!
We endured a brief wait for Mantis: The Coaster Formerly Known as Banshee, which turned in a somewhat substandard performance. It was fast, but I think the wheels under my back-row perch were nearly worn out. B&M build good rides, and M:TCFKAB is arguably their best coaster among the four I have ridden (Raptor, Kumba. and Chang are the other three). But steps must be taken to ensure that these rides get lots of attention. Once the wheels start to go, they fail to stand up to B&M's reputation for smoothness. That ride was downright ROUGH. Doesn't mean it was a bad ride, merely that it could stand a little work. But, hey...what do you expect this late in the season.
Okay, by this time I'm in a group of four. Which was just perfect for hiking across the midway to wait in a small line for a small coaster. Caution: the late season platform attendant seems to believe the lap bar resembles a staple. Pointing out that I was wearing a "Wildcat" shirt didn't help...he noticed that it also said "Hersheypark." What did help is that I am just (barely) big enough to keep the bar from locking in the third notch. From the station, we took a little trip on this knock-down-drag-out-kick-butt coaster. Okay, I'll try not to get carried away here. But it is the only coaster in the park that goes from airtime to crushing +G's in literally no time flat. Speaking of flat, Wildcat's seat cushions are high-density foam, which doesn't compress very easily. But going through the valleys and spirals, I could feel it flatten beneath me. It's a small coaster, but not a ride for beginners!
From Wildcat, we headed down the midway towards Magnum, detouring down a little-traveled midway section. It's the long way around the Corkscrew, but it goes right past the fence adjacent to the Power Tower construction site. Like schoolboys at a ballfield, we all peered over the fence to see what was going on. Two towers are rising from the remains of the jungle; one appears to be nearing full height. A red construction crane towers over the Corkscrew, but barely reaches the top of the taller tower. A legend scrawled onto a plywood cover suggests that the green towers (the ones presently under construction) are probably the Turbo-Drop towers.
Having dropped in on the new ride construction, it was time for us to power on down the midway and take a spin on Corkscrew, just to take a closer look. We braved the two-train wait for a front-seat ride. So what if it is 21 years old? Corkscrew delivers a decent ride even today. Anyone unwilling to admit that much clearly has his priorities upside-down. But like M:TCFKAB, Corkscrew: The Coaster Formerly Known as the Great Lake Erie Roller is suffering a little in the late season. The train shuffled noticeably on the final brake run, and I could hear the dogs banging against the brake calipers. Nothing serious, just a little late-season sloppiness in the train. It left us a little loopy, I'll admit. But Corkscrew is a lot of fun.
Of course, Corkscrew is just steps from one of the most excellent coasters on the planet, the Magnum XL-200. It is a long walk from the entrance to the tallloading platform. Not ten minutes later, I was sitting in the third row of the red train, heading up that huge lift. Once over that huge hill, Magnum had a few surprises. Brakeless? Not today. Fast? Wild? Absolutely! I am familiar with Magnum; I thought I knew how that third drop worked. A smooth, weightless track of about 90 feet into the trim brakes, right? Wrong. Halfway down that drop, I'm already floating, when I feel the train yanked out from under me. Wow! Nothing on the ride has changed, but I never felt that effect before. Through the turnaround knot, and then the high-speed flight down the return track. There are more than 200 coasters running in the US, and without a doubt, Magnum is one of the best. Truly an excellent ride.
We paired up and wandered down the midway at the back of the park. You know the rules: Never walk past Gemini. At this point in the day, they were still racing four trains (two on each side), which means double the fun. Sean and I sat in the last occupied seat, with two empty cars behind us. The problem with that is that leaving the last two cars empty means those cars can bounce around (they weigh half as much as the other cars) and the result is an unusually rough ride.
But then, that is "rough" by Gemini's standards. Remember, Gemini is one of the smoothest running coasters around. From Gemini, we headed for...uh...the space between Gemini's exit and the nearest restroom building. You see, as we were boarding Gemini, Sean spotted Bill Linkenheimer and his entourage. I believe there were six people in his group, and at this point, the combined groups reached critical mass. The conversation started, and like any group of coaster nuts, we stood there in the middle of the midway, within spitting distance of two coasters and earshot of two more, socializing and talking coasters. I guess it never fails. Fortunately, we eventually realized our folly, and began hiking down to Mean Squeak.
Well, I mentioned that Gemini was running rough. Rest assured that it was nothing like Mean Streak. But believe it or not, Mean Streak was running better than usual. For starters, the drop trims were OFF for a change, which made it possible for the ride to fly through the first half of the course. It does still slow down too much in the mid-course trims, but I wood rather slow too much there than on the first drop. And on the lesser-banked turns, the train was screaming for track grease. Cedar Point does graphite the ride, but I think that isn't always as effective as Mean Streak really needs. With a dozen coasters lining its sandy beeches, you wood think that Cedar Point wood be the experts in coaster care. And for the steel coasters at least, that seems to be true. But when we got off of Mean Streak, the various coaster nuts in our crowd logged numerous problems with the ride. That said, Mean Streak was giving some of the best rides of the whole season. So it wasn't all bad, by any means.
We gathered together, then headed across the midway to the Cedar Creek Mine Ride. Always a favorite, even though with only a 50' lift and 50" drop (no, that wasn't a typo...) many people consider this only a minor coaster. Well, that is OK, I suppose, when all those people run away from CCMR to indulge in the bigger coasters, it means I have a shorter wait. The biggest problem is that with the back cars roped off, it can be a prescription for chiropractic care if you sit in the back, just like Gemini.
While Sean and Bill and friends stopped off at the Frontier Inn for pizza and some gawking at the Carousel-Pavilion-turned-Haunted Mansion, I walked down the Frontier Trail and headed for the Midway Market. There, I joined r.r-c lurker Mike Schulte and we ate all we could. The place was not busy, the food was pretty good, and the server was almost too attentive. One suggestion for Midway Market, though...some of us would be more interested in the soup if it weren't Cream of %^&!ing Broccoli.
After consuming not-unreasonable quantities of food and drink (I don't exactly
eat like a bird...), it was off to Raptor. As you might expect,
it was flying, and like everything else, running a little rough. Yes,
I said rough. B&M wheels wear more evenly than Arrow wheels, and they may
wear more slowly than Arrow wheels, but they still wear. And when they do, the
ride starts to bounce around a little. But even at that, Raptor was flying
as usual, with a small crowd of riders. The neat thing about Raptor is
that it goes by so quickly. In spite of what the spiel says, Raptor is
nominally 2:42 from floor-down to floor-up, just like nearly every other coaster
at Cedar Point. And it wastes no time going up the lift hill. So why does it
feel like such a short ride? Probably because once it starts, it doesn't let
up. It doesn't slow down, it doesn't stop for a breather...it just keeps right
on going from the top of the lift to the uptrack end of the runway.
Hey, I never said I didn't like Raptor; merely that it isn't my favorite.
It is a very good ride.
We began to ride coasters in a systematic fashion, starting with Blue Streak.
Ahem, starting with Blue Streak.
I said, "WE BEGAN TO RIDE COASTERS IN A SYSTEMATIC FASHION, STARTING WITH BLUE STREAK."
(Dave, we heard you the first time!)
Yeah? Then why am I not riding Blue Streak? It says right here in the
script, "Dave rides the Blue Streak."
(uhh...It's down mechanical. Come back later.)
Down mechanical? What is this, a habit with that ride? This almost never happened before they installed the !$%@ computer. And it didn't happen very often when Jason and Brian were on the job...Oh, well, I guess we're off to Corkscrew, Magnum, Gemini, Mean Streak, Mine Ride, M:TCFKAB. With less than a half hour to go, we arrived at Iron Dragon and boarded a half-empty train. When we returned to the station, we were offered an unexpected courtesy, but due to time constraints and a desire to ride Blue Sreak and Magnum again, we declined.
Blue Streak was actually running when we returned to it. Rumor has it that the computer has been reprogrammed in exactly the fashion that Jason and I disussed privately along about February. I didn't get to confirm the rumor, as they were only running one train (and begging for people to fill it). Rumor has it that the computer will now allow the second train to begin rolling from the ready brake when the first train clears the platform instead of waiting for the first train to get halfway up the lift. If true, that should make it easier for the crew to make interval, and should improve that ride's throughput. Now if we could get them to fix the lap bars, the ride would be in good shape.
Blue Streak is flying these days; I think it has found a groove that it likes. And as long as I sit in the front seat of any car, I can generally avoid the Lap Bar Ratchets from Hell. The seat divider is still a problem, though. Also, Jason and Brian...if you are reading...they need you guys on that ride. The current crew isn't bad...they're just not particularly good, either. But this late in the season, with late-season replacement crews, it isn't something worth complaining about.
By this time it was getting late. Well, not late in the usual sense, but late in that the park was preparing to close. We had just enough time for a quick spin on Corkscrew, then off to Magnum. Before long, I was sitting in the third row, riding the undisputed champion steel coaster for the last ride of the night. It had been a fantastic day. Only one thing was wrong, I thought as I hiked down the exit ramp. I hadn't seen CP all---
Why, there she is, along with the group I had abandoned earlier. It had been a great day at the Point. Now we really need to make an event out of it! Only three more weekends left in the season!
Footnote 1: Meijer: Wal-Mart price + K-mart product + groceries + Denny's operating hours. [Return to text]
Next trip: Cedar Point (#5)
1997 Trip Report index
Dave's Adventures
Back to Dave's page
--Dave Althoff, Jr.