Opening Day at Cedar Point (5/4/24)

Preamble:

This is the second time I've ventured up to Cedar Point for their opening day and it was about what you'd expect. Slow operations, large crowds despite the rain, and a lot park employees nervous about the day. But the excitement surrounding Top Thrill 2 was inescapable. I would have thought Cedar Point had been giving away free TT2 shirts, hoodies, and jackets because everyone seemed to be wearing one. And while it wasn't running when we arrived at the park around 10:45am, likely due to rain, when I saw it fire up the spike for the first time, my hype-o-meter went through the roof. This will likely be the last time I go opening day, but I'm so glad I did.

The Park:

While I've been visiting Cedar Point since the very early 90s, I've not frequented enough to know every minute detail of what's changed in the park from last year to this year. But I will say that park feels complete again. It's been sad seeing such a mammoth coaster sit absolutely dormant for the last two years. But returning to the park and seeing this elevated version of it made the park feel whole. Cedar Point can't compare to the likes of Dollywood or Busch Gardens Williamsburg in terms of beauty, but I thought everything looked great.

The Staff:

Again, pretty much what you'd expect. TT2's crew looked like they had been working the ride for years. Once the rain stopped, they were dispatching cars left and right with efficiency and speed. On other rides, you could tell people were still learning the process, but very focused on getting it right. This is in contrast to some parks where employees barely seem to care. Of course, we'll see how that plays out over the season.

The Food:

For whatever reason, I always find myself eating at BBQ places when I visit parks (Kings Island and Busch Gardens Tampa were the other two this year). Similar to Coney BBQ at Kings Island, BackBeatQue had pretty quick service and really tasty food. I got their pulled pork and potato wedges and was shocked that the wedges were so damn good. My buddy got the chicken tenders and I was so, so jealous. They were pretty big, tender, and flavorful. Jeff commented on them in his review of Media Day and I definitely agree with his assessment. Also, the Mac and Cheese is so damn good here and at Kings Island.

The Rides:

Quick note: I noticed there were a great deal of people lined up at the exit of the ride to skip the line. I believe this is the $500 VIP tours. Opening day usually has slow operations, but this is likely what made progress in the regular and FL+ feel like it was slower than it should be. The exit line for TT2 was pretty damn long. Same for Steel Vengeance. There didn't seem to be one for Maverick though.

• Top Thrill 2: Believe the hype. TT2 may not have the acceleration that TTD had, but overall it's just as intense and far more enjoyable. The initial launch is nowhere near as forceful as TTD, but it's still exciting. Plus you get some nice floater airtime on the lead-up to the top hat. But it's the backwards acceleration that really supercharges the ride. It just feels so alien to be moving backwards so rapidly, only for the LSMs to kick in and launch you even faster. Before I knew it, we were going up the backwards spike. Looking to my right, I could see Power Tower BELOW me. Having looked up at it for decades, being above it felt exhilarating. To add to that, looking down from that height and feeling that sense of weightlessness was mind-blowing. It felt like I was floating for minutes, even though it was only a matter of seconds. That spike is one of my favorite elements on TT2. And then we have the grand finale. With my hype level going off the charts, we hit the LSMs for the final time and you can, again, feel the train picking up even more speed. We launched into the top hat with more force than I remember from TTD. Since we were dead in the center of the train, I didn't get the push or pull of the front or back, but it was still pretty gnarly. But it was the spiral down that did me in. I've always made it a habit not to raise my hands on TTD, but that didn't carry over to TT2. We hit the spiral with such force that by the end, I was comically stuck leaned over to my right until I could pull myself upright. My buddy made fun of me later on. Some have said the forces are increased because you're sitting higher than the original trains, but I don't know if this is true. Still, once we hit the brakes, I was in awe. Was there a shimmy? Yes, but I'm not sure I would have noticed had others not commented on it. There is just so much going on during that ride that it's hard to pay attention to it all at once. There are forces pushing and pulling you everywhere.
  • A few other things...the crew was absolutely killing it. We rode around 12:30pm and FL was about 20 minutes. Regular line was 90. Later in the day, FL was 30 minutes and the regular line was 2 hours.
  • It did seem like you could request front or back, but I was just so excited to ride that I didn't think to ask.
  • TT2 doesn't have seatbelts, which made dispatching far easier for the crew. I pulled down my lap bar and they checked to be sure it was secure, easy peasy lemon squeezy. Can we remove them from other rides now?
  • While I do have all season FL+, my buddy only had it for the day. I knew about the restriction going into the trip, but I wanted to see if we could scan again. It did not. My buddy even tried to play ignorant to see if a nice ride operator would let her by. Nope. Worth a shot.
  • Yes, I'm still annoyed by the locker, but the attendant working it was so helpful. Generally really impressed with the entire staff experience.
• Millennium Force: Still an exceptional coaster, but after riding so many new coasters in 2023 and part of 2024, it's becoming very obvious that one of my top favorite coasters is 24 years old. Sure, it was arguably the best coaster on the planet for over a decade, but it pales in comparison of VelociCoaster, Steel Vengeance, Iron Gwazi and Fury 325. But while it isn't the best coaster, it's still one of my favorites. The crew didn't seem to be assigning seats, so when we were let in, we headed to the back. It's still one of the best places to sit. Millennium Force is still fast, smooth, graceful, and fun.
• Magnum XL-200: Magnum rode incredibly well this year. We got trimmed quite a bit, but it made the airtime hills on the way back fun instead of painful. We did get the train that was recently painted, so we rode in style. Shoutout to the woman riding behind us. She cursed the entire way back to the station and instead of enjoying the ride, I was laughing my ass off at her saying, "I didn't sign up for this ****!" I wanted to spend the rest of my day riding with her.
• Steel Vengeance: Much has been said about Steel Vengeance vs. Iron Gwazi in the last few years and having rode IG back in January, I was eager to do a more recent comparison of the two. But the thing is...they are just two very different coasters. SV cares a lot about airtime and it gives it to you in abundance. I used to be annoyed by the final quarter of the ride because it just felt like too damn much, but in my last few rides, I've enjoyed those pops of airtime a lot. I still love the top hat and outer back turn. I will say, FL+ wasn't much faster than the regular line and the crew was much slower than last year's opening day crew.
• Maverick: Of course was down when we first tried to ride it, but it was back within an hour. Maverick is still so damn fun and I'll never not love it.
• Gatekeeper: You know...it's Gatekeeper. It's fun, but it lumbers out and back again. Wing coasters are fine, but I'd never call them thrilling.

We also got to ride Skyhawk and MaxAir. My Dramamine ran out on MaxAir, but luckily, it turns so slowly that it didn't matter too much.

I'll likely visit Cedar Point solo next Monday to get a bunch of rides in. I want to try TT2 in different spots and ride the coasters I missed this trip. I'm also excited to just frequent Cedar Point more often. I still consider it my home park even though Kings Island is about an hour further from my home. Who knows what I'll discover after all these years.

I popped by Monday as well but only took 1 ride on TT2. But I only have the Prestige Pass (1 single use FL+ per visit) this year because I had all season FL+ last year and didn't feel I got my money's worth. (Disney money for the Cedar Fair experience.)

At around 5pm the FL was less than 10 minutes while the regular line looked incredibly long. Neither was moving very quickly and it didn't appear that the trains were dispatching all that quick either. Make the "capacity" joke all you want, but I just don't see how 20 seat trains over a much longer ride cycle can be that efficient.

That being said, this was my second ever ride and I waited for the back (they let me) just as I did on my first ride. It's definitely the place to be, although your TR makes me want to try a middle seat next. Definitely a shimmy to the train, to me it's very noticeable, could be because last row. And it absolutely goes over the tophat faster. I think Tony Clark, or one of the interviews I heard, confirmed that. As for seat height, I have no idea.

I love this ride, I hope to return many more times this year for my single use Fastlane, because I don't see the lines getting any shorter.

Tommytheduck:

Make the "capacity" joke all you want, but I just don't see how 20 seat trains over a much longer ride cycle can be that efficient.

Just a note on this: if you consider the “recharge” time on the original ride, it technically was a much longer cycle than it seems. I suspect TT2 may still be longer, but if you were in the second train dispatched from the station on the original, it was probably over a minute long of a cycle.

One thing I do want to correct is what I thought was the VIP tour line was actually the ADA line...at least according to a YouTuber that was also there. I'm not quite sure how it works for them, but that line was pretty long and likely led to a slower regular line and FL+ line. I know Cedar Fair is pretty lax with ADA passes and there are those who take advantage of it. I don't know how rampant that issue is though.

The "ADA" line at Cedar Point is historically known as being horribly abused. For example:

Jeremy, an Admin (let's use that term loosely) for a FB page, openly brags about abusing the system. This is nothing new.

Over the years on nearly every visit you hear the laughter/comments from groups of assholes who are openly abusing Cedar Point's extremely lax system, but I'm not sure what can be done about it.

That's kind of nuts that this is allowed. It's not exactly the same, but I lead HR and if an employee needs accommodations, they have to provide evidence of how it affects their work and the accommodation has to be reasonable. I don't think it's uncalled for to ask for evidence on how a disability affects someone's ability to stand in line. Then again, I only see ADA accommodation requests every so often and there is paperwork involved. I'm sure parks don't want to get into the details. I do wonder how other parks handle this.

It's pretty stupid to abuse the system and brag about it with your real name.

Disney now requires doing a video call to get disability access, and if the agent is skeptical, they escalate to a doctor. We haven't done it yet, but we use it to a limited degree because Simon can't deal with the sound in certain queues. (To be fair, I can't either, but I've had decades to develop coping mechanisms.)

I don't know how the park's ADA access works beyond seeing people with pink sheets of paper.

Does that pink paper get you immediate access and can it be used immediately again if you want to ride again? Or is there some procedure that has to be followed to ride?

It's super easy to get a pass the few times we’ve had a legitimate need. You go to guest services and state the reason why someone in your party can’t wait in line. Can be any reason, they won’t question it or ask for proof. The only question beyond that is if you have any issues that would physically prevent you from riding certain rides (prosthetics, cast, etc.), and they cross those off the sheet.

You get the pink slip and go up the exit to any ride of your choice for immediate boarding. The ride host notes the current time and adds the current length of the regular queue and adds that do your slip. That is the time you can ride for immediate boarding for your next ride. Previously it worked the opposite way where you go to the entrance and they tell you what time to come back, but now they basically add a cooldown period for your next ride based on the current line.

Honestly it’s a great system for those in need, but ripe for abuse. Years ago you might have an alternate access every 3-4 trains for a major ride, but now lineups are super common. Last year at one point Millennium had an alt access all the way down the exit “ramp” side to the point they want even let people exit on that side. Steel Vengeance was common to see a lineup 40 people deep for the little stand.

It’s usually 4 a group, so on TT2 we’re talking 20% of the ride’s capacity will be dedicated to alternate access probably every train, especially since you can get immediate boarding without waiting if it’s your initial ride. The growth of the use of it has been exponential so it’s obvious something is going on. It hurts the people who need it, as some of the alt access lines can be over 30 minutes now.

Six flags has a system in place which basically requires an electronic doctors note, so I wonder if the Legacy Cedar Fair parks will go this route. I doubt it since it probably cost some $$ on the parks end and they are all about the penny pinching nowadays. What might make them change minds is fast lane sales, this is free and honestly better most of the times especially they way they run Fast Lane on some rides (MF/ SV).

My guess is the prevalence if internet “hacks” you see on social media promotes this abuse. It’s not limited to one industry. Board a Southwest Flight recently and there might be 20 people who board on a wheelchair to get prime seats, but come time to exit nobody needs a wheelchair. Jetway Jesus heals all.

Joe E.:

Jetway Jesus heals all.

I snort laughed at that. Thank you.