"Summertime Begins Here"
Cedar Point opened for the season on May 10 this year, but a look around the park on June 5 makes it pretty clear that the daily operation to this point has really been no more than an extended dress-rehearsal for the summer season. Saturday, June 6, for instance, is the day the live shows start, as evidenced by the workmen installing the colorful signs on either end of the Centennial Theatre marquee early on the morning of the 5th. But let me back up a bit...
On Thursday night, June 4, I picked up my brother (his name is Chris, and he isn't a coaster nut like me.) and we headed for Cedar Point. We got there at about 9:00pm. Now, I have a season pass, while Chris does not. By mutual agreement, I parked behind Gemini so that he would have access to the resort while I tried to squeeze in a few coaster rides. Within moments, I realized that something was seriously wrong. Something was missing. But what? I thought hard, then noticed it was quiet. CP's back entrance is never quiet; there is always the noisy clatter of a couple of Arrow anti-rollbacks on the......OMIGOD! Magnum ISN'T RUNNING! I had hoped to get in a ride or two tonight, but it just wasn't going to happen.
Naturally, my first stop once inside was the Magnum entrance to see if I could extract any information. Alas, all I got was the usual big-park runaround. And a queue-host who wanted to talk coasters when I really wanted to ride coasters. I finally got loose and headed for Blue Streak. There, I grabbed a seat at random and got a bad ride (Stops and return springs would be really nice, folks!). I forgot my own rule: sit only in seats #1, #4, #7, and #10. Grumble, grumble, grumble.
I proceeded to head back towards the back of the park, but took the wrong path, and failed to get another coaster ride before the park closed down. Oh, well, I guess there is always tomorrow...
Although inexpensive motel rooms were available in Sandusky, I had already booked a room a few miles down US-250 in Norwalk. It's a fairly easy drive from Cedar Point; about 20 minutes. The next morning, we woke early and headed for the morning ERT session on Raptor. I didn't count rides, but I did notice that Raptor was noticeably smoother than it was on my last visit a few weeks ago. Interesting; we kept heading for the shortest line near the back of the train and kept ending up in Row #6. Nothing odd about that...but with all three trains running, how come we always got Train #3?
Raptor ERT was scheduled for two hours from 7am-9am, and was wondefully uncrowded...unusual for CoasterMania. Nothing like the wild conditions of ERTs of old, but still we were able to get something like seven rides in about 75 minutes without even trying very hard...stopping on the midway between rides for conversation and such. Once the civilians were permitted into the queue, we headed for Blue Streak.
Blue Streak was running fast and smooth. Man, those trains are UGLY! By limiting myself to front seats, particulrly #4, I managed to get some decent rides in spite of the uncomfortably unpadded seats. In half an hour, we got half a dozen rides. Then, the Earthlings were admitted to the Blue Streak, and we moved on to the Power Tower. At this point, the towers had lines which were long, but not outrageous (that wouldn't happen until later, I guess). We took seats on the Space Shot side.
I thought I knew what to expect. Out of nowhere, with a blast of compressed air, we were hurtled rapidly skyward. It really is a long way up there. The initial acceleration and subsequent free-fall are pretty amazing. But I hadn't given much thought to what happens at the top of the tower. I was thinking in terms of Superman: The Escape (which I still haven't ridden) where the vehicle runs out of energy and coasts to a stop. In retrospect, I really should have known better. I've come up with two models for what happens at the top of the tower. I'm not sure which is right; actually, I think it is a combination of both. It seems the initial thrust is stronger than is required to blast the riders to the top of the tower, so as the gondola approaches the top, a valve opens and vents the firing cylinder. That, or a reverse thrust is applied to the piston, or a combination of both. In any case, the seat stops short of its ballistic high point, meaning that the rider literally falls straight up out of his seat. I was not expecting this burst of extreme airtime from the Space Shot. Wheee!
As the day progressed, it got colder. I went back to the car for more clothing, and while I was at it, I drove back to the Challenge Park parking lot behind the Skycoaster. On my way back into the park, I 'examined' the Magnum XL-200 and noted that the chain tensioner had been released, the lift chain was slack, and the lift motor was missing. I headed for the entrance, thinking I might have a little fun.
"Magnum is down mechanical--" said the attendant as I approached.
"I know," I interrupted. "The lift motor is missing."
"DON'T SAY THAT!!!" she yelled at me.
"Why not? Anyone can walk right past and see that there is no lift motor attached to that ride..."
"But our--" She broke off momentarly to give the Approved Spiel to more customers, then turned back to me. "But our guests don't want to hear that..."
"What...," I responded, "You prefer to have your customers making up wild stories of death and destruction on your clearly-unsafe ride rather than knowing for certain that it was just a bit of routine maintenance sidelined by a parts procurement gliitch?" Of course, she quit listening after the seventh word.
"GUESTS." she corrected.
"CUSTOMERS." I shot back, and the "Duck Season/Rabbit Season" argument over whether park visitors are "customers" or "guests" went on for a few rounds. She had nothing better to do, and I am certain we could probably have kept up the good-natured confrontation for hours. But we didn't. Having mostly achieved my primary goal (to determine Magnum's prognosis for the day), I moved on to other rides.
Unfortunately, it was more or less at this point that the rain started. This shut down Corkscrew (optical detectors), Gemini (optical detectors), Mantis (advancing tires), Wildcat (advancing tires), and Mean Streak (???). The practical upshot of this is that suddenly the Cedar Creek Mine Ride, which was running only two trains, suddenly had the longest line in the park. There are times when this coaster really needs to have its third train back. I've heard rumors that Mine Ride would run three trains again this season, but I haven't seen it happen yet. This would have been a good time for it. We took shelter in the Town Hall Museum, where we noticed that the model of Mean Streak has not received the brakes and reprofiling of the real thing. We decided we were hungry, so we took the train back to the main midway, then hiked over to Macaroni's. I haven't eaten there since back when it was still the Swiss Chalet. It must be good, though, as people were lined up all the way down to the administration building. I had a sudden brainstorm. From the descriptions given in the park guide, Macaroni's sounds like it has the same menu as Dominic's in the Hotel Breakers. So this Cedar Point veteran grabbed his brother and opted to outsmart the soggy crowd by heading for Dominic's.
When am I going to remember that Dominic's doesn't open until 4:00pm? We ended up instead at the Breakers coffee shop for lunch. The service was of good quality, but very slow...I suspect the kitchen was severely understaffed. I thought the food was quite good once it finally arrived, and reasonably priced. My brother, on the other hand, was not at all impressed as he is a vegetarian, and there was only one suitable item on the menu.
By the time we finished, the rain had stopped...and what's this? Magnum was cycling with two empty trains. Things were looking up indeed. I harassed the Magnum gate attendant some more, then proceeded to Gemini. Gemini was running only four trains, and had built up a half-hour wait. They would have bumped it up to six trains, except that would effectively require shutting the ride down for a while to warm up the added trains, because in the cold weather, they would have to be fully sandbagged for a couple of runs, then unloaded, then they'd have to run a new block check. I suggested that they should just round up sixty CoasterManiacs to serve as sandbag stand-ins. 8-)
For what it's worth, the blue side was running completely brakeless all day. There are two sets of trims on Gemini. First there are the block brakes on the high turnaround opposite Magnum. I can now say conclusively that those brakes are high enough and light enough that, as I suspected, they really don't have a huge effect on the ride. But there is another trim brake...and I think it is strictly a trim...on the track leading into the helix. Having that brake off makes a huge difference as the train careens into the upward spiral. Without that brake, the helix is almost too fast for comfort...I mean, it is a wild helix to begin with (or should I say "to end with" since that is what the ride does...), because it is so tight, so steep, and so fast...now increase the speed about 20%. Amazing!
We got more riding done; we rode Corkscrew, Iron Dragon, and Wildcat; we even tried to ride Disaster Transport, which was cycling empty because the storms had breached the leaky roof and left the track wet. I'd thought that one of the reasons for enclosing the ride was to keep this from happening.
We had skipped Mean Streak right after lunch as we didn't want to wait in a 45:00 queue for that thing, particularly since I knew that later it would be a walk-on. Naturally, I was right. We returned to Mean Streak in the early evening, and people were lined up as far as the landing on the stairway. Two trains were running full, so we headed for a spot near the back. I carefully explained the necessary riding technique to Chris...how it is necessary to keep one's back completely clear of the seat back. We took our seats in the green train. We headed up the lift. At the top, we grabbed the assist bars. The train started down the first drop.
Then it stopped completely.
Then it started down again.
Then it stopped almost completely.
Then it started again.
Then it stopped incompletely.
Then it started again.
I began to wonder if we would ever make it down the drop. The violence going over that hill peak shook the train and our bodies as the train, aided by mass and gravity, forced its way through those calipers. I felt a sharp pain in my shoulder. Damn! That HURT! Finally we were free of the accursed drop trims and cruising smoothly down the drop. Yes, smoothly. The train doesn't start shaking until it hits the high-banked curve, and I am more and more convinced that the shaking is because PTC trains can't handle a banked turn. But so long as we kept clear of the seat backs, we got an almost decent ride. Even better, the green train runs pretty fast, so the ride didn't wimp out completely at the end of the ride, and Chris even suggested a re-ride. So we rode again. This time, we got the gold train, and we both got off swearing that the ride sucked. Much, much, much too slow, particularly after the mid-course block brake. Except for being loud and bumpy, the ride has almost nothing to offer.
We talked about possibly riding Mantis during the laser show, but we got our timing wrong, and Chris was less than enthusiastic about that one anyway, so we finished up the night with three or four rides on the Shivering Timbers of steel coasters, the Magnum XL-200. It was running, and it was running fast. No, like last year, it was NOT running brakeless for CoasterMania. But it was fully tuned up and flying. Lots and lots and lots and lots of airtime as it flew through the course. Magnum turned in a performance that was stunning as usual. We rode and rode. The park closed for the night and I chatted with lots of coaster nuts while we waited for the ride time to start. Then for ERT, Magnum was even better. Still not brakeless, but so long as it was giving rides like these, who cares? WHEEE!
I didn't actually last through the whole ride time, but I came close. It had been a long, wild day, and I had a long drive home. Many thanks to Robin, Stephen, and Janice (and all those folks I don't know about) of Cedar Point for showing that yes, Cedar Point does know how to throw a party. Thanks as well to the Raptor, Blue Streak, and Magnum crews who put in the overtime and had some fun with us. And of course, many thanks to my fellow coaster nuts who always make CoasterMania such a good time.
--Dave Althoff, Jr.
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