Even though Cedar Point is only 2 hours from our home in Michigan, we were waiting until our daughter was tall enough for most of the roller coasters since it is the self-proclaimed Roller Coaster Capital. After a successful spring break trip to Orlando where she rode Rock 'n' Roller Coaster and loved it, we knew she was ready for a trip to Cedar Point. At just over 50", she was tall enough for all of the 48" coasters and, with her tallest sneakers, about 1/2" too short for the 52" rides.
Along with our tickets, we had purchased Fast Lane which allowed us to skip the regular line on more than 20 rides and attractions. As Disney World regulars, we are used to their Fast Pass system and had utilized Universal Express at Universal Studios Orlando and Islands of Adventure over Spring Break. We liked the convenience of
When we arrived, my husband and I tried to steer our daughter to the roller coasters, but she started pointing out smaller rides. We started small with Ocean Motion, a pirate ship ride. She really wanted to ride MaXair since she had been on a similar ride in June at Knoebel's. Unfortunately MaXair had a 52" height limit that she just missed. So, we dragged her off to start the roller coaster adventures.
Our first coaster of the day was Corkscrew. Our Fast Lane allowed us to board in a matter of minutes. Corkscrew features 3 inversions including one over the midway - the first coaster to invert over a midway. Rock 'n' Roller Coaster was the only other upside-down coaster that my daughter had ridden and it was in the dark, so we weren't sure how she would feel about Corkscrew. Of course she loved the ride and was ready to dash off to more coasters as soon as it was over. Personally, I found the ride a bit jerky and left with a slight headache. We returned to ride it again after lunch and a third time as our last ride of the night. I skipped the third ride with the excuse of capturing a picture or video from the midway as she crossed it.
After Corkscrew we headed for Iron Dragon, a suspended coaster that sweeps over the Lagoon. Unfortunately this was not on the Fast Lane, so we had to wait for it - only about 20 minutes. The ride was not as fast and had no inversions, but my daughter still liked it. I also found it a lot smoother of a ride than Corkscrew.
Our next mission was to get her on Millennium Force. While it does not have a complete inversion, it is far from a mild ride. When it opened in 2000, it broke records at 310' and 93 MPH. The 310' climb is hastened with the use of an elevator cable lift system instead of they typical roller coaster chain climb. You also have a great view of Lake Erie as you climb the first hill - a great distraction from the upcoming 80º drop. While it does not complete an inversion, there are several overbanked turns where you are just past 90º rotation. Despite the quickened climb and high speeds, Millennium Force is a long ride at 2 min 20 seconds. It features tunnels to and from the parks Adventure Island where we caught quick glimpses of the Dinosaurs Alive exhibit. I enjoyed Millennium Force more than Corkscrew as I felt that it was a smoother ride. Unlike the other coasters that we rode at Cedar Point, you had to place your bags in a locker since it utilizes different loading and unloading zones.
Since it was not a very hot day, we decided to bypass the water rides. In the future if we were staying overnight and also visiting the Soak City water park, I might do the water rides on a day we are planning to visit Soak City and have swimsuits on under our clothes.
We continued our thrill ride exploration before lunch with SkyHawk. SkyHawk is an awesome giant swing ride. It seats 10 people on either side of one of two giant swings that move at speeds up to 60 mph. The day we were there, only one side was operational, but when both sides are operational they move in opposing directions producing a scissor motion. You have the feeling of weightless at the highest points of your arc as you stare down at the ground, almost 125' below. As we waited in line, I captured the video below to give a perspective of the ride.
Again, we all enjoyed it and rode it two different times.
Before lunch we also rode the Cedar Creek Mine Ride which is a mild roller coaster and is the second oldest coaster in the park. It features a helix at the end of the ride. The ride would be a good introduction to thrill coasters.
On Magnum XL-200, we enjoyed a great view of Soak City as the ride travels beyond the bounds of Cedar Point into the area occupied by Soak City. The ride features a 195' drop and a series of camel-back hills. As the first hypercoaster (over 200' in height, complete circuit), it ignited the roller coaster wars with its debut in 1989. We enjoyed this ride, but it was no Millennium Force.
Our next mission was to ride Gemini. We paused to ride Monster which sits below Gemini. While we waited, we noticed that the Gemini train was stopped and witnessed a park employee climb up the stairs to the train. Later I overheard someone say that they had to climb down from the ride. I was afraid that we were going to be out of luck on riding Gemini which upset my daughter because one of her friends had told her all about it.
My daughter really wanted to ride the Kids Bumper Boats and Frog Hopper. She enjoyed it, but she is really outgrowing them as you can see from this bumper boats picture.
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| Outgrowing Kiddie Rides |
By this time, Gemini was operational so we decided to give it a try. As indicated by the Gemini name, it is a twin track coaster. Since the Fast Lane entrance was at the front of the load platform, we were able to secure seats in the first row in opposite trains (my daughter and I in the train on the right and my husband in the train on the left). The row behind us was similarly split across the trains, so there was some "trash-talk" between the trains going on. As we waited, when the trains departed, they were pulling out of the station, coming to a stop and then proceeding together. When we left, our train stopped and my husband's kept going. My daughter was so upset that they were "cheating" and were going to beat us. We had the (tentative) last laugh though, because they stopped as the first few cars started ascending the lift hill. We came around the corner and just kept going all the way through the ride. We were probably 75% done with the ride before my husband's train started moving again. I was beginning to think the ride had broken down again. Fortunately, all was well and we had the last laugh as victors even though they tried to cheat as my daughter said.
We rode Mean Streak which is a wooden coaster. I am not usually a fan of wooden coaster because they are so rough. While Mean Streak had a lot of vibration to it from the wooden coaster, I was surprised that it was not an overly negative experience.
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| Winning K'nex Roller Coaster |
We ran out of time to ride Blue Streak and a few of the other smaller rides. We also skipped the rides with 52" or 54" height requirements since my daughter could not ride them with us. She was close to the 52", so hopefully next summer she'll be tall enough for the 54" rides. As we left, she insisted on the picture below:
I foresee many years of visiting Cedar Point and also incorporating amusement parks into our vacation plans for my roller coaster fanatic.
