Hey everyone, it's halloweekends time again, which means my mom and I were planning our trip to Cedar Point. We aren't fans of the scary (even though we were stuck there once), but halloweekends is great because the temperature is great. This was going to be a great trip since Cedar Point had just opened 2 new rides; Top Thrill 2 and Sirens Curse, which means that all the other rides would be pretty open. Mom and I looked at the different available weekends, and we decided September 12th would be a good day. I bought our tickets, parking, and all day dining tickets some weeks prior, and mom got our hotel. We wanted to get there around opening at 11AM, which meant mom would get to the condo around 9AM. The drive there was pretty simple, and we got there around exactly 11AM. The first thing we did was go to Hugo's Italian Kitchen to start the all day dining, and we split a slice of peperoni pizza and Caesar salad.
First ride was Raptor, a roller coaster that's right close to Hugo's, always a fun start to the day. We kind of normally start with Ocean Motion/Potion since it's the first ride at the main entrance (that isn't the carousel) but we decided to kind of try to move in quickly before scary time. We went over to the boardwalk to do some of those rides and get close to The Pavilion (the big premium food place). We road Maxx Air, a big swinging arm ride that swings you and spins you, another great ride that . After that we road Gatekeepers, a roller coaster that's right on the Lake Erie shore. Here's a funny thing, mom didn't walk through the gate fast enough so I'm like "hey can we get the gate to reopen" and the ride controller was all "no, we'll get you on the next train." After Gatekeepers we saw that Windseekers was working, and after we missed it the one year we went there immediately since we didn't want the winds to pick up and then say "sorry, no rides now." Windseekers is a great ride, it's like amusement park swings, but takes you up like 300 feet and swings you around. You don't really know the thrill until you ride it. While we were in line we started talking with 2 older ladies who were riding everything, and they told us that Top Thrill 2 and Sirens Curse are really smooth (which is my mom's big thing, can't ride the rough rides anymore). After Windseekers we went to The Pavilion and got our steak and lobster bisque. Normally it's a pretty good size portion of steak, but it was pretty small this time, which was kind of lame and definitely not worth the $21 they otherwise charge (but "all day dining" so not too upset). After that meal we road wild mouse, a free spinning roller coaster that's a pretty slow loader and we typically skip, but because the lines weren't long we road it. Mom remembered it from when she was a kid, and it was pretty fun except for one spin that like made my right lung hit my rib cage. I think this was also the time we rode the dodgem bumper cars. I did a lot of bumping and don't remember getting bumped much.
After bumper cars we decided it would be a good idea to make our way to the back to do scary land before it gets scary. We walked through Planet Snoopy and reminisced on how it used to be Berenstain Bear Land. We also walked by Corkscrew, and decided not to since it was pretty rough. We walked by Top Thrill 2 and it looked pretty cool. Mom tested the seat to make sure she could ride it in case we decided to do it later (it was a 2 hour wait at the time, so it wasn't going to be now). The first ride we road was Super Himalaya, a ride that kind of spins you around on a hill. Since the ride rocks back and forth, mom needed some help getting out of it. After that I rode Magnum XL-200, but not mom. It's an older wooden roller coaster, which means it's a bit rough. It was a walk on, which was great. It is a little rough, but it goes right up against the lake which has a cool humidity thing. It's also a really high drop, which gives a good view of the park, and is kind of "fear of heights." I almost lost my phone though (left on the seat), which was bad but the employee noticed and called out "did anyone lose a phone?" After Magnum we went to Backbeat Queue, a barbecue place where we had brisket and baked beans. That was really good.
This was on the boarder of scary land, so that was our time to do that. We went to Camp Snoopy since that was in scary land, no real rides for us but we wanted to remember the old times. Well, there were 2 actually, the tilt-a-whirl (Linus's Beetle Adventure) and The Woodstock Express, a kiddie coaster. As we were looking around we saw Peppermint Patty and Woodstock meet and greet in their Halloween costumes (Patty as a mummy and Woodstock as a pirate). I told Peppermint Patty "that's a good costume sir" in my best Marcy impression, and the character gave a laugh gesture. I also did a Woodstock voice for Woodstock. After the meet and greet my mom rode the tilt-a-whirl by herself since I don't really like it (the spinning is too unpredictable for me). After that we went to the Woodstock Express. We saw adults riding it with their kids, and the line wasn't long, so we decided it was OK to ride it. Well, mom wasn't able to fit in the seat so it was just me. It was a pretty good ride, like one of the drops or turns was "real coaster" fast. That was it for Camp Snoopy, after that area we went to the main walk and rode Pipe Scream, a wave ride that goes up quarter pipes and hills. It's a really fun ride, but has 2 different height requirements; 1 to ride with an adult and 1 to ride alone. There was a group of kids that were riding alone, and the boy was too short to ride alone. The ride operator was in the process of denying him and escorting him to the exit, and my mom and I stood up and said "he can ride with us, we'll be his adults," and the man that was sitting next to us said "if you didn't do that I would have, I was a ride operator and know that the rules can't be bent." Now, "ride with us" isn't "have him sit in our own private car," it was "sit between us in the row with everyone" and right behind his sisters. The mom thanked us from the side of the ride, and he was a bit nervous but all went well. After the pipe scream we road Lake Erie Eagles, another swing ride that you control with the rudders. I've figured out how to do maximum swinging, and was doing that initially, but then I started feeling the food and I'm like "OK bad idea, tone it down." After that I rode the Gemini, a roller coaster that has 2 trains that basically race each other. It's another older wooden coaster so mom sat it out, and it was a walk on (like was basically all of them). Unfortunately they were only running 1 train, so it's kind of like "what's the point," but it was still fun.
After this we went to Frontier Land. There aren't a ton of rides in this section, but they do have some. The first ride was Skyhawk, a giant swing arm ride. This was funny, there were some guys in line with us, I wouldn't say "tough looking," but definitely not "wimpy," and one of the guys was freaking out a little because he didn't like heights and this was a big swing heights ride. It was kind of funny, but he enjoyed himself. After that we rode the Wave Swinger (amusement park swings), and that's always a fun time. After that we rode the train, my brother's favorite ride as a kid, and it's a real coal fired steam engine. We had just missed the train and waited for the next one. This is a fun thing, where they have a little skeleton show thing with different western town settings. It's kind of funny. We rode the whole loop and made it back to frontier land, where we then went to Farmhouse Kitchen where we had barbecue steak and Brussel sprouts. After the meal we went to Maverick, the big new roller coaster from back when I was in highschool, with the 95 degree inverted drop, and a super accelerator. Really fun ride, and like the first time we actually had to wait in line (all others were "wait for the current ride to be over"). After that we walked back to the front, going through the farm area. We stumbled onto a glass blowing show and decided to watch. It was really cool, we saw someone make a pumpkin, and then another person warm up with a flower and then make a ghost. We watched some and then moved on. We went to the petting zoo and I saw a goat that wanted to be friends. After the zoo we went to Panda Express where we got lo mien noodles and beef and broccoli. Good stuff, and now we're out of scary land at like 7PM.
We're now at the location with Millennium Force, Rougaru, and Iron Dragon. We rode Rougaru first, which is a fun ride even if a little jerky in places. Iron Dragon was next, and is a great calm ride. This one is a suspended coaster with a hanging car, and is a fun little thing. I then road Millennium Force, and mom would have rode with me but unfortunately the seat belt was too short on her, so she sat in the Millennium VIP Lounge (which she probably shouldn't have technically been in, but she didn't draw attention to herself so all was OK). It's a really fun ride, really fast, really tall. Normally it's kind of a line, but basically all rides had been walk on and this was no different. We were close to Siren's Curse, but it had a 45 minute wait and mom didn't want to do it and I didn't want to have her wait for me. At this point we said "hey, let's see what the line is like for Top Thrill 2 and if Power Tower is working now" (it wasn't earlier). Power Tower was working, so we rode both drop and shoot, which were walk-ons, and mom commented on how the ride queue used to be full when she was a teen, for this very simple ride. After Power Tower we went to Coasters and got a cheese burger and frings (fries and onion rings). Mmmmm, good amusement park cheese burger.
Now's the question, what about Top Thrill 2? We looked at Top Thrill 2 and it was a 55 minute wait, so we decided to do it. Why is it Top Thrill 2? Because this is the sequel to Top Thrill Dragster, the roller coaster with the highest hill in history that is all about shooting you up the hill (unaided, just kinetic energy going into potential energy), and was a really big deal when I was a kid. We had never ridden it since it was always a long line and prone to breaking down, but this wasn't that long and it was new. Top Thrill 2 is pretty similar to Top Thrill Dragster with "go over the giant hill," but now it shoots you forward some, shoots you back up a hill, and then shoots you over the hill. This is probably better all things considered, instead of "just kinetic turned into potential," this is "kinetic to potential, potential to kinetic with added kinetic, that kinetic into potential, that potential turned into kinetic with added kinetic, all to get you over the giant hill." It was really great. It is one of those "you need to empty your pockets ride and put everything in a locker" rides, so we got a free locker and put all our stuff in there. Afterwards I had some trouble canceling the locker, but then I figured it out so someone else could use it. The next ride was Valraven, a pretty new roller coaster that has a 90 degree drop. Last year it was kind of a long wait, but once again, basically a walk on; I think we had to wait like 4 rides before we could get on. Now for some shows. We watched the Ska-letons, a ska band that plays Halloween music. It was fun, I like ska like most millennials, and after watching the show I was wondering why we never played ska in jazz band in highschool since we'd play band covers of rock songs, but ska is "naturally school band instruments" and not "transcribed versions of rock band instruments to school band instruments." After the band we went to get the fancy nachos at The Pavilion; nacho cheese Doritos, taco meat, lettuce, cheese, and salsa and jalapenos on my side. We then watched the skeleton trampoline show while we ate our nachos. We weren't able to watch all of it, but we saw a lot. Afterwards I told some of the performers how great a job they did and one of them complemented me on my hat (a trilby fedora with some cancer memorial pins and a hand made hair clip with pikachu and gromit). Good stuff.
Time to finish up the day with some of the stuff we missed out earlier. We walked to the front and rode Ocean Motion/Potion. It's a fun "swinging ship" ride that goes back and forth. After that we rode the gondola ride to the center of the park so we could get closer to the midway rides we haven't done yet. First we rode Atomic Scrambler, one of those rides that spins you in one way around a minor axis and then spins you another way around a major axis, and is a good date ride since it throws the girl into your side. Funny story, when mskate and I were just friends we went to Cedar Point for a class trip and she wanted to ride it not really knowing it was a "date ride." She originally wanted to sit on the outside but I said "no I need to sit on the outside, you'll see why soon enough," and it was a bit awkward since she kept getting pushed into my side and "we don't like each other like that." Just a funny memory of our "awkward times." Mom and I each rode our own vehicle, don't need to be pushed against each other and likely hurting the one on the outside. Next we rode Calypso, another spinning ride. Nothing big there, but there was a boy that was in his own car that was having trouble unlocking his car, and we helped him since the ride operator wasn't helping. Third ride was Trokia, another spinning ride. We finished the night with the derby horses, a carousel that moves very fast and is themed after race horses. They kind of got rid of that "show" though, now it was like dance music. Oh well, still fun. I remember when I was a kid and teen this was fun but not exactly thrilling, but now that I'm an adult it's thrilling. I don't know how fast the horses are going exactly, but it's like at least 15 miles per hour in a circle and the only thing keeping you on the horse is your hand grip on the reigns, which when you're a 90 pound kid is not that big of a thing but when you're a 180 pound middle age adult that really is felt. I had to help guide my mom off her horse, which was not exactly easy because she couldn't see where she had to put her feet and she was pretty far off the ground. We finished the night with getting chicken fingers at The Coral Platter, at like 10 minutes before park closing.
After this we went to our hotel. It was a quality inn that was pretty far away from the park. Mom thought it was the quality inn we stayed at before that was pretty close, but it wasn't. No big deal though, just a longer drive at midnight and it ended up being closer to the highway to go home. The drive home was pretty plain, no big story.
In total, we got $160 worth of amusement park food (for $38 with the all day dining), rode 30 rides (including a new one), and saw 3 shows. I think in the future we might try to do this time again since there weren't any crowds. This has been Pokematic, signing off, and bu-bye.
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