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"They did it again!"
As the crowds get larger, CoasterMania is becoming less and less about riding the coasters at Cedar Point and more about all the other stuff that goes on. I have a bit of a tradition here of videotaping the keynote or question-and-answer session, and then posting a transcript in this space. This year I was so amazingly late to the event that I arrived at the Q&A session about ten minutes before it ended. So I don't have a transcript for you. I can report that on Friday morning, Millennium Force was still down for whatever problem had it out of service for my last visit. I guesss the park substituted Raptor for morning ERT.
In the grand tradition of CoasterMania, I am pleased to report that by late afternoon, Millennium Force was running again, and was able to please the crowds for the late-night ERT. Late in the day I took a ride on the train shortly after Millennium Force came back up. Back in the service area were several trucks, Monty Jasper and John Hildebrandt themselves, and a bunch of very pleased-looking maintenance men. One guy was stretched out on the hood of a truck with an ear-to-ear grin that was probably visible from the coal docks across Sandusky Bay. I don't know what was wrong with the ride, but whatever it was, the crew got it fixed, just in time for CoasterMania. This one ranks with the time (1998) when they had to change out the lift motor and gearbox on Magnum XL-200 during the day and got the ride up in time for night ERT, possibly at the expense of Disaster Transport. I still don't know if that story is true, but I can verify the timeline.
Apart from all the drama surrounding Millennium Force, it was a good day in the park, a little crowded with a whole lot of buses in the parking lot. Lunch was a nice spread, and while there were no cotton candy carts out on the midway, there were two in the picnic shelter for the CoasterMania lunch. For the late ERT, I naturally spent most of my time on Magnum XL-200 although Gemini was also available, and since the park generously gave us additional ride time on Millennium Force I actually finished my evening on that ride for a change.
--Dave Althoff, Jr.
Next: Geauga Lake (#1/CoasterEXT)
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