It's great having friends in different places. What was expected to be a normal, laid back Mother's Day turned into an impromptu trip to Cedar Point when my roommate and I realized we had a few hours of wiggle room in our scheduling. (Also forgive poor photo quality - was trying to keep pace while snapping with the iPhone.)
So with 3 hours in hand, we set off into the park to see what all we could hit.
First up was Rougarou. You can read my review over in the Construction Forum. But in a word, much more comfortable riding position, with the same positive-g heavy layout. You can now file this B&M under "Ride Your Friends Will Actually Want to Ride".
Rougarou apparently experienced some technical difficulties during Opening Day on Saturday, and for our visit the drop floors in the station caused a 15 minute delay. Otherwise, ride ran great, including the new magnetic brakes added to the final brake run.
After Rougarou, we quickly shifted over to Millennium Force, for which we waited around 20 minutes. MF was a weird bag however, as it was conducting one train operation, with one train on the transfer and the third train not on the track at all. I have never seen one train operation for MF, which did cause for a lag with loading; but when the line is on the ramp, it still makes for very short wait times.
After MF we headed to the back of the park with Maverick, which also had around a 20 minute wait. This wait was unfortunately compounded by some error with the ride restraints, which caused Maverick to go down and have to cycle the trains numerous times. Typically, you'll see a ride cycle for 1 rotation to ensure everything is operating properly. But to have everything run continuously into 3 full ride cycles was a bit bizarre. Nevertheless, we were able to ride within 40 minutes.
New for 2015 are modified Maverick restraints. Gone are the harder, polyurethane restraints, which have given way to a softer, fabric restraint. Truth be told, I never had issue with the old restraints, but the new ones were certainly comfy, and are much more forgiving for headbashing on those tight Maverick turns (The West Was Never This Wild!), same as we have seen on I305. New shoulder restraints sit snug to the body, but not in a B&M flyer restraint type of way - should be perfectly comfortable for typical riders.
From Maverick, we swung around to Magnum, which was walk on. Magnum had some lift hill troubles earlier in the day, but all was resolved once we hopped on it. Who doesn't like some 1989 Arrow airtime goodness?
And as time became pressing, our last ride was on TTD, which ironically did not have any operational issues whatsoever. I'll let the following picture speak for itself in terms of wait.
On our way out, we swung by the new Wicked Twister Midway relocations. This includes the old Calypso ride, rebranded to Tiki Twirl (a former ride namesake), the Dodgems, and the kiddie Dodgems (which were bumped towards Planet Snoopy). Overall, things look good on the midway, with no real awkward placements. This midway has historically been a dumping ground for attractions, having first received the Giant Wheel in 1999 for MF construction. For TTD, Troika and Chaos were added to the midway (Super Himalaya and the old Gemini Dodgems were also relocated). The current relocations are a result of new land clearing going on around the old Good Time Theatre location, which is for a hopeful new attraction in 2016.
While over here, we also snapped a shot of Wicked Twister, which is still being mounted onto the track. Neat rare site of the process used for loading trains.
Overall it was a great trip, though Cedar Point was plagued with the same ride opening issues experienced last year during OSU Day/Opening Day. In the state of Ohio, as in many other U.S. states, rides are required to operate for a certain amount of hours to ensure safety. Cedar Point simply did not hit that mark in time, requiring them to cycle trains to grind out the requirement.
While I tried to give the benefit of a doubt to CP last year because of operational delays caused by the Polar Vortex, it's hard to cut slack the second time around.
So with 3 hours in hand, we set off into the park to see what all we could hit.
First up was Rougarou. You can read my review over in the Construction Forum. But in a word, much more comfortable riding position, with the same positive-g heavy layout. You can now file this B&M under "Ride Your Friends Will Actually Want to Ride".
Rougarou apparently experienced some technical difficulties during Opening Day on Saturday, and for our visit the drop floors in the station caused a 15 minute delay. Otherwise, ride ran great, including the new magnetic brakes added to the final brake run.
After Rougarou, we quickly shifted over to Millennium Force, for which we waited around 20 minutes. MF was a weird bag however, as it was conducting one train operation, with one train on the transfer and the third train not on the track at all. I have never seen one train operation for MF, which did cause for a lag with loading; but when the line is on the ramp, it still makes for very short wait times.
After MF we headed to the back of the park with Maverick, which also had around a 20 minute wait. This wait was unfortunately compounded by some error with the ride restraints, which caused Maverick to go down and have to cycle the trains numerous times. Typically, you'll see a ride cycle for 1 rotation to ensure everything is operating properly. But to have everything run continuously into 3 full ride cycles was a bit bizarre. Nevertheless, we were able to ride within 40 minutes.
New for 2015 are modified Maverick restraints. Gone are the harder, polyurethane restraints, which have given way to a softer, fabric restraint. Truth be told, I never had issue with the old restraints, but the new ones were certainly comfy, and are much more forgiving for headbashing on those tight Maverick turns (The West Was Never This Wild!), same as we have seen on I305. New shoulder restraints sit snug to the body, but not in a B&M flyer restraint type of way - should be perfectly comfortable for typical riders.
From Maverick, we swung around to Magnum, which was walk on. Magnum had some lift hill troubles earlier in the day, but all was resolved once we hopped on it. Who doesn't like some 1989 Arrow airtime goodness?
And as time became pressing, our last ride was on TTD, which ironically did not have any operational issues whatsoever. I'll let the following picture speak for itself in terms of wait.
On our way out, we swung by the new Wicked Twister Midway relocations. This includes the old Calypso ride, rebranded to Tiki Twirl (a former ride namesake), the Dodgems, and the kiddie Dodgems (which were bumped towards Planet Snoopy). Overall, things look good on the midway, with no real awkward placements. This midway has historically been a dumping ground for attractions, having first received the Giant Wheel in 1999 for MF construction. For TTD, Troika and Chaos were added to the midway (Super Himalaya and the old Gemini Dodgems were also relocated). The current relocations are a result of new land clearing going on around the old Good Time Theatre location, which is for a hopeful new attraction in 2016.
While over here, we also snapped a shot of Wicked Twister, which is still being mounted onto the track. Neat rare site of the process used for loading trains.
Overall it was a great trip, though Cedar Point was plagued with the same ride opening issues experienced last year during OSU Day/Opening Day. In the state of Ohio, as in many other U.S. states, rides are required to operate for a certain amount of hours to ensure safety. Cedar Point simply did not hit that mark in time, requiring them to cycle trains to grind out the requirement.
While I tried to give the benefit of a doubt to CP last year because of operational delays caused by the Polar Vortex, it's hard to cut slack the second time around.