Fall 2018 Theme Park Trip-Day 11

Last full day here in beautiful Sandusky Ohio.

Being a Sunday, I needed to do a longer run for my marathon training. Not being familiar with the area I did a run, but didn't do the total mileage that I wanted. Running along the causeway that leads out to the park, it gives you a different perspective than you would as you cruise along at 30 MPH getting ready to ride the coasters. At home, along my route I know there are places with restrooms in parks and water fountains. Not so with this run. So I ended up cutting it short. But, at least I got in something.

The weather today has been really warm. I have been using a long sleeve shirt and then I have a second layer of a short sleeve shirt that buttons down but I leave open. It got warm enough that I went into the restroom and took off the long sleeve and just used the short sleeve shirt.  To keep the ladies at bay, I made sure to button up the shirt.


With yesterday's purchase of the season pass, I was allowed into the park an hour early. Immediately head to the back of the park to take in Steel Vengeance. Hiking back there takes time and even with just the passholders in the park, the first ride took 1 hour to complete. But able to take in a few more coasters before the park really got going.

Nice thing about days like this is you have your goals done and you can just relax, walk around, take in some of the smaller details. Go over to the petting zoo and pet some of the llamas they have there. They had the indoor haunts open and I did a couple of them. They were good. The lighting was such that you could see the scenes and the actors which was so nice as compared to the outdoor mazes of the previous nights.

As I walked around the park and rode the rides, the staff seemed to be very efficient, but in terms of friendliness, they were focused. Let me get your your drink, food or up and running on the ride. The associates just did what they needed to do. For me, that meant that I was able to get on and off the rides quickly.  Except for the Giant Wheel. I waited in line and when I got to the front, was told they don't allow single riders. That was the first time that I've been rejected for the number in the party as compared to the weight/size of the rider.

Cedar Point has a long history and that includes a train so a train ride was necessary. They had some scenes set up to add to the experience, but there was something else that really caught my eye. There are so many coasters at the park and as you ride the train, it really becomes apparent. The excursion leads you next to so many parts of the track but more so the support structures. Up along the midway the area is designed so that you have lockers and booths and buildings. But there in the back you really get to see what is making up these rides. It was a fascinating look behind the scenes.

The one ride that I wanted to do a second time but wasn't able was Top Thrill Dragster. It had been marked in the app as being closed. There was staff on the platform and trains on the track, but there was nothing going on not even test runs of the vehicles. I was hoping to see some testing with a possible roll back, but...nothing.

While the park was open until 8pm, I decided to call it a day around 5pm. This is such a long trip and with limited clothing with me, I ended up back at the room and did laundry. At home I line dry my clothes so it was a change of pace to end up using a dryer for the first time in ages.

I thought about going to Chet and Matt's for dinner, as I've heard lots of good things about this location from other coaster enthusiasts but decided that the diet needs to keep some semblance of order so I decided to pass on this trip.

Laundry, packing and getting items lined up for Orlando's adventure that starts tomorrow.

Fall 2018 Theme Park Trip-Day 10

Today was day two at Cedar point.

The goal was to finish up the coasters that I didn't get yesterday. I didn't spend any time trying to repeat anything. I ran into two problems. The first was with Wicked Twister. It was listed as closed on the app. When I went over there, the sign said one hour, but the app still said closed and there was a sign saying closed but there were people in the station. The other was Wilderness Run. That is in Camp Snoopy. The problem is that if you are an adult over 54 inches you can't ride alone unless you had a small child with you. So on the latter, it was a no go. With the former, I was at Wicked Twister at the right time and got on without a wait when they reopened it.

So from opening until 6pm I was able to get the coasters and some of the flat rides. Mission accomplished!

One of the items that I think would be very helpful is if Cedar Point would standardize what you do at the coasters. Some of them have no bins, some have bins, some only have lockers, some have bins but the sign says leave in locker, some have bins that are only for loose footwear. It would be great if they could get the signage to match what is at the coaster at least.  With the lockers, they need to put up some barriers so that there is shading on the screens. There were several times when I had a real hard time trying to use the screen as it was washed out by the sun.

I also tried a couple of eating locations and couldn't find any place that had unsweetened iced tea. For those of us trying to avoid sugar, the only option was for water.

Lastly,  if I had paid for the Halloweekends event, I would have asked for my money back. I tried the event tonight. I went through another scare zone and then two outdoor mazes. To me the mazes were horrible and the scare zones weren't much better. The biggest issue is the way the lighting and the fake fog interact. The lighting blinded you so you can't see any detail in the sets they had set up. All the details were lost. The players, you couldn't see any details about them. They were backlit and their faces and the makeup or masks were obscured. There was confusion as to were areas began and how the lines were supposed to be lined up. The app didn't give much clarification on these items. again, it was a good thing that it was included and not a separate charge item.

I'm going to head to the park tomorrow. I had purchased a two day ticket. For a third day, I'd have to buy a new ticket. I'd also pay for parking. BUT, Knott's is a Cedar Fair park so I talked to customer service and made the decision to upgrade to a platinum pass. So I'm covered for two more park days and have the parking covered. Weird to be a pass holder for such a short time.

One aspect of the fall season is how the parks decorate outside of the Halloween theme. I really liked all the pumpkins, corn stalks and squash and bounty items scattered around. Due to the difference in the seasons in Hawaii, these sort of decoration really aren't used. It brings back a lot of memories growing up in Massachusetts.

Something I have to give Cedar Point a big thumbs up about is the mark parking spot portion of the app. When you park you can go into your profile and click the save parking location. It shows a google map image of the parking lot with a dot of where you are within the huge parking lot. When I left the park, it changed to Return to Car. I click on that it and showed the dot where my car was parked and another dot where I was. It was very helpful!

Tomorrow will an attempt to run and at the park repeat rides on a couple of coasters and then probably call it a short day so that I can get a bit of rest and updates processed before flying to Orlando on Monday.