Cedar Point trip/observations

[Bob O]

I just got back from spending 2 days at Cedar Point on Aug 8/9, and it was busy IMHO, with the mid-day waits for the big coasters being around 1- 1 1/2 hours. I will just list some of my thoughts/comments with a few comparsions to my home park SFGAM.
I rode Mil-Force,Maverick/Top Thrill Dragster/Wicked Twister amd Disaster Transport all for the first time this trip and the last time I visited the park was the year before they built Mil-Force. I thought Mil-Force/Top thrill Dragster/Maverick were great coasters and would list Maverick as the best of the 3. The first time I rode it was at night and wasnt expecting the mid ride launch, and it was great!!!!! Wicked Twister was OK, but I think I liked V2 better as I like being stopped at the top, then being released as compared to twisted spirals on both ends. Disaster Transport was just a WEIRD ride.
On Fri night I was in line for Top Thrill Dragster and the ride broke down around 9:20pm, but they did get the ride working just before 10:00pm and let every one in line ride which took till 10:50pm which was nice, also they didnt shut down the lines till just after 10:00 pm as I got into line at 10:00pm for another ride on Maverick and saw people getting into the line till 10:10 pm with the ride operating till 11:00pm.
I rode Raptor twice and while I liked it in some ways I like BTR better. BTR is shorter, but the ride elements IMHO were sharper/faster which makes up for its shortness. I also thought Magnum was rougher than last time I rode it, with less air time(though riding Raging Bull which is SO smooth may have impaired my judgement in this matter)
I thought the ride operations were EXCELLANT, with all the rides I rode being staffed fully(much better than SFGAM which for example often only has 2 ride-ops on Viper while Blue Streak had 5 both days I rode it.
It was also nice to have no pay to skip scam as the lines pretty much kept moving which made the wait better, and I also liked no TV monitors in the lines so you didn't have to see the same stupid commercials numerous times!! ALso nice to see employees wearing uniforms that arent a neon color with dumb comments on the back!!! Nice to only have to pay $10 to park compared to the $15/25 at SFGAM.

About the only negatives I saw was no enforcement of no smoking policies, I even saw people smoking while in lines, besides all over the park. And in gift shops or on rides you shouldnt have people who can barely speak english giving out ride instructions or trying to answer question's in the gift stores. We ate twice at the park Game Day Grille/Coasters and the food was OK, but as usual too expensive which is standard fare at most theme parks. I did like very much the home made chocolate chip cookies at the park and the other bakery that was made on site looked very good, again something SFGAM could learn from!! And I was impressed with the large amounts of design's for the coaster shirts, again something SFGAM should learn from. For maverick they must have had 10 different designs to choose from where with SFGAM they only have 1 shirt for TDK while selling many more shirts designs for the Dark Knight movie. And other top coasters had many shirts too choose from.
While the park was busier than I like, it was a very good 2 days at the park and I was impressed with the park itself and how it was operated. I wish it was closer to home so I could visit more often.

[wishman35]

glad to hear you enjoyed the trip.

you experienced several things i felt and sort of got criticized for saying. The ride operation really is better than SFGam along with the workers wearing normal colors. The neon green is just awful, especially in Hurricane Harbor. Nothing says beach like the sweatshop uniform neon green employees wear. Good music over the lame TV's as well make it great. I love the extra time to get in line, a great perk.

[Bob O]

I was suprised that on Raptor/Mil-Force they gad DJ's playing music and taking requests and on Maverick they were playing music that matched the western theme)which SF used to do in SWT) which I thought was a nice touch.
So i was impressed with the park operations in that they didnt save money by having less employee's working rides which increased capacity, all rides opened on time.The park was clean even though it was busy, and I LOVE having paper towles in bathrooms ratyher than dryers which dont do the job.
Little things like the ones I mentioned make for a more enjoyable visit, and I might add I spent more money on snacks/souvenirs than what I wopuld ever spend at SFGAM becausae the experience was very enjoyable in spite of long lines.

SFGAM has good employees that do a good job, just not enough of them, but of course they will sacrifice ride capacity/ride-ops but never decrease there pay to skip program!!!

[wishman35]

I was suprised that on Raptor/Mil-Force they gad DJ's playing music and taking requests and on Maverick they were playing music that matched the western theme)which SF used to do in SWT) which I thought was a nice touch.
So i was impressed with the park operations in that they didnt save money by having less employee's working rides which increased capacity, all rides opened on time.The park was clean even though it was busy, and I LOVE having paper towles in bathrooms ratyher than dryers which dont do the job.
Little things like the ones I mentioned make for a more enjoyable visit, and I might add I spent more money on snacks/souvenirs than what I wopuld ever spend at SFGAM becausae the experience was very enjoyable in spite of long lines.

SFGAM has good employees that do a good job, just not enough of them, but of course they will sacrifice ride capacity/ride-ops but never decrease there pay to skip program!!!

yah for me the DJ's were such a nice touch, and little things like that make my day that much better. If i have to listen to Rascal Flatts in line for Bull one more time, the speakers will be bashed in.

[Bob O]

I think hearing Alicia Keyes is even worse!!!