After 40 (something) years I finally made my way to Cedar Point. Well, to be fair it's probably been 25 or so since I've been acutely aware of the park, and 20 since I've been itching to get there and made multiple plans to visit that never came to be. But this time, seeing as our final destination on our cross-country road trip was just on the other side of the great lakes, we definitely made a slight detour to spend a few days at Cedar Point. Our original plan was to do 3 days at Cedar Point followed by 2 days at Kings Island. After an exhausting 2000+ miles, and our day 1 at a very empty Cedar Point, we decided we didn't really need 3 days, and that we'd cut our trip short and head up to Canada after 2 days at the park. And we are definitely happy with that decision. So let's head in, I'll give you my thoughts on Ohio's Roller Coast.
Definitely been waiting to see this sign for a LONG time
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We had 3 days at Cedar Point's Express Hotel, which was perfect for us. A quick drive to the park. And you get awesome pics in the room. One thing I will say is I wish there were more food options around the hotel.
Day 1, we got front row parking (we did on day 2 as well)
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It was a bit sprinkly the first morning, but not for long. In fact, both of our days were very pleasant weather wise.
It's actually real!!!
I like that they're still celebrating their 150th since it got kind of overshadowed in 2020
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Our first stop of course. It was still a bit sprinkly when we got back here, but our first ride in the front row as magic.
After 3 rides on MF, we headed over to Valravn, which is a very fun dive coaster
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Remember, "as you know it".
We headed to Steel Vengeance for the 10:00 opening, and learned after our first ride to just put EVERYTHING in our locker. LOL!
I have to be honest, even though SV is listed as my #1 coaster now, it's almost a bit too long. It's actually exhausting. But in a good way.
I had heard how good this was, and of course had watched POV's, but I have TBH, we were blown away by Maverick. There are definitely a top 3 coasters at Cedar Point.
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On day one of the park we obviously made sure we got all of our "credits". Which was easy to do as the park was absolutely deserted both days.
Really loved Magnum and we rode multiple times over the two days in pretty much every seat. It's a classic!
Speaking of classics. This was a one-and-done for us on day one, but glad we did it.
We are huge fans of flat rides, so we took time to ride a lot of them over the two days.
Halloweekends is coming!
For the first time in 2500 miles, I let somebody else drive (I'm a terrible passenger)
Super fun cars ride
Speaking of super fun, this is probably our favorite flat ride at the park. So unique and fun. And something that would NEVER fly in California. Which makes it that much more fun.
Another classic. We got front and back seat rides during our trip.
Does any park have as many ACE landmarks?
Super fun inverted, reminded me of the best parts of the Batman clones and Silver Bullet at Knott's. Definitely in the top tier of Inverted coasters, but I still prefer Montu.
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Iron Dragon is a super fun suspended coaster but was running 1 train on both days, so sadly we only got 1 ride on it. Rougarou was decent but was definitely the better of the two stand-up to floorless conversions I've ridden.
After riding Iron Dragon and Rougarou, MF was literally right there. LOL!
So many unexpected areas of the park, like this one.
Using the rapids ride as a Halloween walk-through? Brilliant!
Oh, hi Maverick. Don't mind if we do.
Maverick was probably the most consistently long line over the 2 days, but we never waited more than 25 minutes for it due to the awesome operations.
I had heard that my legs may have been too long to fit on the mine train.
Glad to say that while it was a tight fit, I was able to ride!!
Talk about a classic!!
After day 1 we headed over to the Lube restaurant, it was within walking distance. Had a nice view and a decent meal. We slept amazing that night!!
Let's head in for day 2!! EVERY theme park should have self-service parking lanes. This is brilliant!!
It was a beautiful day 2, and the weather was very pleasant. Sadly the wind prevented us from riding a few things like the Sky Ride.
Iconic shot!
Unlike day 1, we started early entry at the front of the park and worked our way back.
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A couple of B&M's in the morning!
After our morning of Gatekeeper, Valravn and MF early entry, we of course made our way back to Steel Vengeance.
We decided after this ride that it's both our #1 coasters!
As we had all of our "credits", we spent day 2 taking it more easy, riding our favorites many more times, and taking in some other attractions, like the train. Slide show of the train ride is below.
All local'ish teams, except one. LOL!
Did I mention we loved their collection of classic flat rides?
Obviously for our first ever visit, we weren't looking to do construction updates, but here's a few pics of the boardwalk area as it looked last week.
I actually think the mouse will be a great addition to the park.
HalloWeekends is coming!
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In the early afternoon we decided to head back to the hotel for a bit, a quick nap and then back to the park about 5:00 to re-ride our favorites before the park closed. We definitely were going against traffic as we made our way to the back of the park.
Is MF the only coaster where EVERYBODY on EVERY train has their hands up the entire time?
We had planned on getting Panda Express and taking it back to the hotel, but it closed early, we opted for ice cream instead. It was a perfect end to 2 perfect days.
Some final thoughts on Cedar Point. Six Flags Magic Mountain has been my home park for my entire life. I've visited the park more than any other park, and it's probably not even close. I love Magic Mountain. That said, I feel that Cedar Point is the better "coaster park". Sure, Magic Mountain may have more coasters, and probably more "top tier" coasters for most enthusiasts, but for me there is not a coaster I can just sit on all day like I can with something like Millennium Force. And while I don't think I could ride Steel Vengeance more than once or twice in a row, it's just simply amazing. And IMO, Maverick is better than any of the launched coasters at SFMM, as much as I love both Full Throttle and West Coast Racers. But more than just the coasters, operationally, thematically, etc, I think CP takes the crown here too. They have an amazing collection of flat rides, both new and old, two kids areas, multiple sit-down indoor restaurants and coke freestyle EVERYWHERE. Now, I will say that CP has an inherent advantage due to the way they staff their park, and you definitely have to take that into consideration. But the fact that Maverick was running 6 trains on both of our days (a Tuesday/Wednesday at the end of the summer season) says a lot about the park. On the flip side, we definitely did notice some 1-train operations on a few coasters we would have liked to have ridden more like Raptor, but even with 1-train, dispatches were relatively quick. Overall we had an amazing 2 days at the park. It was everything we could have hoped for and more. I was honestly surprised that the hype for the park and a few of the rides wasn't overshadowed by our anticipation of them.
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