Crazy Lake Erie trip - W / CP / CW - PTR

[peep]

So back in May when I went to Madrid with Rach she decided to plant the idea in our heads that it'd be possible to do a quick and cheap trip over to the States just for Cedar Point. I called her crazy but we both knew that with the idea now growing in our heads that the potential for the trip to actually happen was very likely. Within a few weeks we had gained a Peter, booked time off work and booked flights and hotels. I say we, I mean Rach and Peter organised everything while I faffed with work, loads of other trips and going to a music festival.

I literally went to a music festival, got home on the Monday, went to work on the Tuesday then met Rach and Peter after work for food and to our first hotel of the trip near to Heathrow airport. Am I crazy? Yes.


Wednesday 19th June

We awoke at around 4am in our average Travelodge room tired from lack of sleep. In our tired state we turned on the TV which was one of those awful shopping moments, they just had the below ad (well, not sure if this is the exact one, but was similar) on repeat, to say it became the thing of the trip was an understatement...

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2t3WvtAovs[/youtube]

We got ourselves ready before going over to the bus stop and getting the bus to the airport. It didn't take very long to get there. We dropped our suitcases off before heading through security. Barely any faff occurred which was nice as we were tired and hungry. So food happened and it was good. Time passed quickly and before we knew it we were boarding our Air Canada flight to Toronto.

The flight was good, the on demand video stuff was glitchy but had a good amount of content. I managed to sleep as soon as I sat down for some undefined amount of time, that was nice. We were given food with the usual non-descript names for what was on offer. "eggs" turned out to be eggs with mystery meat and something else. "pancakes" turned out to be nice pancakes with two a red berry and another type of fruit compote, it was nom. There was another option but memory fails me. So food was decent even if the staff were miserable throughout the entire flight. I don't think I've ever seen an entire cabin crew looking like they'd rather be elsewhere before.

Shortly before landing (maybe an hour or so to go) they offered us more food. This time we had the choice between "vegetable" or "chicken", yeah, why everything has to be a mystery is beyond me. Turns out they were these microwaved to oblivion fajita things. They were so hot inside I felt like my mouth was going to melt from all the heat.

Hmm. Soon we landed and the weather was nice and sunny. We went to pick up our hire car for the trip. We upgraded at the desk at the concern we may not fit everything in the car. Then when we went outside to pick up said car there was none left and the amazing guy decided to let us have a brand new Dodge Charger. It was huge and really comfy. I felt like I was miles away from Peter and Rach when I was sitting in the back.

Our first destination was Niagra Falls.

First we had to find a parking spot and when we finally found a parking lot it cost a hefty $18. Eek. We walked over to the falls and wow. Photos just can't do this place justice, it's just beautiful to look at and the sheer scale of it is just insane. I was fascinated by how it was creating this temporary cloud which was just getting everybody soaked.

I feel like the below photo helps give a good sense of scale due to the very tiny people standing next to it...

Yeah, we know there's a drop tower in the back of that photo. Time was against us and we didn't have time to go grab those creds. REASON TO RETURN!

We grabbed some generic fast food which was meh and we laughed when a gust of wind basically created a tidal wave of rain. Watching everyone trying to run away and still getting drenched was amusing.

Sooo glad we got to stop off here because it is just stunning. It was then time to drive over one of the many bridges and cross over into America. Obviously bring British we had to go and get interviewed by border control. After lots of waiting we were finally seen by this rather stern lady. At one point it looked like she didn't believe our trip plans and her colleague just turned round and was like "you're just jealous" which amused all of us, she even made a comment about doing something similar in Europe. It took us an hour in total to get through the border but at least we didn't have any issues, just lots of faff.

So we went on our way to our first park of the trip. I forget what time we finally arrived at the park but it was defo after 5pm. What park did we stop at I hear you ask? Waldameer!

We purchased the cheap wristband and headed to our first cred of the trip, Comet. We were expecting the worst and got a really decent ride. It's one of those classic woodies that has managed to stay decent and was actually a fun ride. Not sure why we didn't re-ride it to be honest.

We opted to ride Ravine Flyer 3 next to get it out of the way. The ride op was fab and loved hearing about where we came from and that. The ride itself? Well it's a little kids cred, not much to say here. +1

We then walked over to Steel Dragon. On the way we caught a random country music show. I loved how a little park like this had live entertainment, they weren't great singers but it's the idea that it even exists that I love.

Steel Dragon had a little queue that moved slowly due to only 3 cars being out. Still the staff did well at keeping it moving. It's just a standard Maurer Söhne spinner, but it's always nice to experience one of these seeing as the one I've ridden the most is indoors so it provides a different experience.

We then went over to the cred that we've heard lots of good things about, Ravine Flyer II. Would it be another Boulder Dash where the experience is totally the opposite to all the hype? The answer is no. It's such a brilliant coaster, fun from start to finish. That first drop is brilliant and the tunnels add so much to the ride experience. It's definitely one of the best woodies I've been on. So much so that we just walked straight back round and on it again.

Someone decided to throw up in the exit line so one staff member basically got a hose (not a magic expandable one we noted) and just washed the sick away lol. Turns out this is normal for American parks as we saw it at Cedar Point too.

We decided to check out Whacky Shack which turned out to be... umm... whacky? It was a ghost house but it was just weird. Had some cool illusion ideas in there though.

Next was the drop tower which had a huge impact, just smashing back down as soon as it reaches the top, brilliant. Oh and the view of Lake Erie from the top was really nice.

We then went back for more Ravine Flyer II awesomeness. After that Peter and I decided to ride the Music Express. I've never ridden one before, jeez it goes quick. I spent most of it trying not to squish Peter to death.

Yeah, suffice to say I won't be riding another music express lol.

I quite liked Waldameer, which is odd because what I liked about it is what I hated about Knoebels. It's just a really nice friendly place with some good rides. Maybe not enough for a whole day but great for just a couple of hours of fun.

We got back in the Dodge and went off to find our first American hotel. It was ok, just off the Interstate and it was just average for America which means its brilliant compared to cheap European hotels. Big comfy beds and boy it definitely didn't take us long to get off to sleep.



Thanks for reading and thanks to Rach for most of the photos. I'm off to try and start editing the video and will write up part two soon.

 

[Rach]

Re: Crazy Erie trip - PTR

This needs some love! This trip was something else! I still can't believe we actually done it and all in such a short space of time! Nutters!
If it wasn't for the stamps in my passport, I wouldn't think we actually done it lol!

I'll add a little more here when I get a chance to!
But it was seriously awesome!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[peep]

Thursday 20th

We awoke early to continue our travels by automobile. This was going to be a very long day and we were prepared (kinda). Listening to local radio stations we cruised along the interstate until we reached our destination... CEDAR POINT. OMG, we were so excited as soon as we saw any sign regarding the park.

Literally couldn't think about anything apart from imminent CREDS. We spent the time between getting out of the car and walking to the park gates just taking loadsa photos and video footage.

So, we had a plan of action, the park had a decent amount of peeps roaming it so we decided to head to the back of the park and work our way forwards. The first cred we hit up was Blue Streak. It was ok but the entrance of the ride was in a silly place and everyone just kept walking up to the exit thinking it was the entrance because of the design. Silly park. PLUS ONE!

We decided to queue up for Millenium Force next. First there was locker faff for our bags and then there was probably a 30 min wait or so. It was ok, that first drop is good, the first turn is too intense for me (easily compared to Intimidator 305) and then it just sort of meanders over a couple of hills. So it was ok but nothing ground breaking or something I look for in a coaster.

As our bags were in the lockers we decided to go round to Mantis. We managed to walk straight on to back row, everyone was going for the front, was there something we didn't know? As all other stand up coasters the position is awkward and uncomfortable and ruins the whole ride experience. However it was weirdly intense, way too intense for the position you're in but still, crazy ride.

We grabbed our bags and went over to Corkscrew. This has such a RCT feel to it, just what is it doing? The loop and the corkscrews are fine but then it goes odd like someone panicked about how much momentum it'd have to get back to the station. Oh and the seat, I don't know if it's how I sat or if it was genuinely horrific but the whole way round I felt like my back was being raped to shreds by the back rest.

We then queued for Iron Dragon. It has a cool logo. I was also excited to ride my first arrow suspended with the old school trains (never rode Vampire before the makeover). It was alright, the first half sucked after the first drop and then the second half over the lake is really good. It feels like you're swinging less with the old trains in my opinion, I thought that was interesting.

It was really hot out and we had managed to stumble across Shoot the rapids. We dropped our stuff off in some lockers and walked straight on. The way you don't get wet on that first drop is odd, just skimming across the water like that is nuts. Then you meander for a bit, the left side gets wet from a single fountain and then the second drop happens. Smaller but you get absolutely drenched, brilliant.

We rode the main train cred next. It was a bit awful like all American mine train creds (except Disney ones l'obv). We then rode Mean Streak in the front. We were absolutely dreading it. Apart from the occasional jolt it was actually good, no where near as awful as we had anticipated.

We were getting hungry now so went in search of pulled pork. We stumbled when we learnt we couldn't understand the Cedar Point map (I blame all three of us being tired). We soon found what we were looking for though and it was good (you can't go wrong with pulled pork imo). It was expensive and what it came with was rancid but what else do you expect from park food?

It was in quite a nicely themed place too...

Well, if you ignore the general office ceiling. We caught a bit of the show next door (general show tunes) before heading over to Gemini. There was quite a queue and it was hot. We ended up on different sides which meant for better interaction while on ride. Shame I felt like my spine was being ground up at various random points along the ride. So interaction = good . ride experience = dreadful. We weren't too happy about having to go and ride the other side.

We decided to go do other things first. So the Woodstock express cred was ridden. Nothing much to say about this, just a standard family cred. We then went back to Gemini which had less queue this time round. The train Rach and Peter were on got stopped half way out of the station which meant the trains went around the track separately. This changed things a LOT. You could still feel the bumps but they weren't as vile as our previous ride. It made it rideable, still one of the worst I've been on but just not as dreadful as our first ride.

We then went over to Magnum. There was a longish queue and it was hot. I never wanted to move outside of the shade but we did and it was unpleasant. The ride experience? It was an Arrow hyper, I find them quite dull and poorly built, I like my spine and I would like it to stay the way it is, these try to change the situation and I disapprove of this.

We decided to go check out the rapids via some ice cream. We ended up getting some dippin' dots. Dippin' dots are odd but they were cold and cold was just what I wanted/needed right then. As we sat down to eat them the Beach Band started up, they're really good street entertainment and play a good mix of music, I approve of park street entertainment.

We then came across the museum which was quite interesting. I like looking at old park photos and that. We then made it to the rapids. My expectations were that we were going to get drenched because American rapids are quite good at delivering on that expectation. So I was prepared but not quite prepared for such a huge amount of water. We were quite thoroughly drenched and then the boat literally goes under the biggest waterfall on a ride I've ever seen, there was no escaping the madness. It easily joined the list of most ridiculous rapids which so far consists of the one at Bagatelle, River Quest at Phantasialand, the one at Busch Gardens Williamsburg and the one at Islands of Adventure. Sooooooo much water. Really wishing I took my gopro on this trip now.

After our drenching we sat and watched some glass products being made in the hope we may dry off to a level where it's comfortable to walk. It wasn't happening and after a while we gave up and just headed to the front area of the park. We pretty much walked straight on Raptor. It's got some quite forceful moments but there's loads of random straight bits which kill the pacing of the ride and the whole thing is a bit rough (not in a painful way but it detracts from the overall experience). So it got a massive MEH from us.

We then went over to Gatekeeper to find that we needed yet another locker to ride. Burdenous. We joined the queue which took a max of something like 30 minutes. It's a good ride but I think they missed the point of the wingrider coaster, it's not all about height, it's about interaction with the surroundings (which it does well with the entrance and that is it). It's too fast for it's own good which causes the restraints to press into you until you become squished like a bug under a shoe. I've personally never experienced this with Raptor or Swarm and was shocked to get this horrific uncomfortable experience.

Still I wanted to go again but needed time to recover so over to Wicked Twister first. I loved the one at Dorney so was excited to ride this and it didn't let me down. It's a very good coaster and something I could ride time and time again. Why does the UK not have one yet???

It was then back over to Gatekeeper for some more not-so-good wingrider based times. We then headed over to Top Thrill Dragster. We had a fair wait but the queue moves fast. This ride is a people mover, in fact, most of the rides at Cedar Point seem to have a really good throughput and I highly approve of this, the staff were just incredible at getting seats filled and trains despatched in a decent amount of time.

I also approve of Top Thrill Dragster playing 'Ready to go' before the trains leave the station. Not only is it a great song that amps up the excitement before riding a launch coaster but it also reminds me of Ian's video of my first Coasterforce meet back in 2005 *feeling old and sentimental*. So, back to the ride. Such a brilliant launch, really packs a punch and it just gets to the top so quick. The only thing I'm not a massive fan of is the plain straight track once it comes back down. Still, something minor and I absolutely love it.

Next up was the last coaster in the park (that we could ride), Maverick. There was a long queue and it was hot (just a massive cattlepen) but we had drinks and it kept moving so all was good. Well, didn't we leave the best till last? Really, really, really loved Maverick. I think I'm finding a way that works for me when riding these neckchopping trains because I was barely affected on this. I have a few issues with it like the way it brakes before the second launch and then pretty much brakes after the launch rending the second launch almost pointless. But still a coaster I really loved and could ride all day.

Peter and Rach wanted to ride Millenium Force again at the end of the day but I wanted to see the night show. So we split and arranged a meeting point for after the show. Luminosity 2013 was a decent show. The dancers weren't great, the singers could only really sing certain songs well but overall it was a fun show full of modern hits. They had fire, lasers, lots of lights and extremely well timed fireworks so I was happy with just that to be honest. It amused me that there was a section which was basically the songs used in Pitch Perfect (not complaining, Pitch Perfect is acca-mazing).

At the end a DJ rose up and they continued the light and music show with just him going "I'm a DJ, look at me".

I met back up with Peter and Rach and we exited the park taking millions of photos on our way.

The park was swamped with Mayflys which was weird, really felt like an invasion. Really was a crazy amount of them, you couldn't walk without killing like 3 of them.

We then drove for 5 minutes until we reached our hotel. It was yet another very nice standard US hotel. So Cedar Point is a really nice park, I was concerned it would be a park of creds and not a lot else but I was surprised by its green areas, the amount of flat rides and the amount of shows on offer. As previously mentioned, the staff are amazing at getting people on and off the rides and the park looks beautiful at night. Roll on Day 3 where we go back for more!!

Thanks for reading, I'm really busy at the moment but hopefully day 3 will be up at some point this year.

 

[Chris Coasters]

Awesome report! I'm going to Cedar Point in a couple weeks and this report was very helpful and I enjoyed reading it.

 

[furie]

Keep posting and I'll keep reading

 

[Gavin]

It feels like you're swinging less with the old trains in my opinion, I thought that was interesting.

No, it feels like you're swinging less because you are swinging less; Iron Dragon is a **** ing dreadful ride. It's a shame that it's still there when things like Big Bad Wolf and Eagle's Fortress have gone.

It's interesting to see how Gatekeeper has turned out - judging from quite a few reviews so far - to be a bit of an overall letdown. It promised a lot and looks really impressive.

 

[rtotheizzo17]

It feels like you're swinging less with the old trains in my opinion, I thought that was interesting.

No, it feels like you're swinging less because you are swinging less; Iron Dragon is a **** ing dreadful ride. It's a shame that it's still there when things like Big Bad Wolf and Eagle's Fortress have gone.

It's interesting to see how Gatekeeper has turned out - judging from quite a few reviews so far - to be a bit of an overall letdown. It promised a lot and looks really impressive.

Thats probably why it is still standing, less wear and tear on the track.

 

[Smithy]

Jealous.

 

[Peter]

Still seems strange that we actually went to this. 8 years or so of being an enthusiast and we finally made it to the rollercoaster mecca that is Cedar Point! Whilst the park was quite pleasant, unfortunately, besides one or two of the big coasters there, I thought most rides were pretty disapointing. The biggest surprise of the trip was clearly Ravine Flyer II which was amazing - much love for that ride! I think John has done a good summary of our views on each ride.

I agree that Iron Dragon was pretty poor, however I loved Vortex at Canadas Wonderland which i'm sure John will come onto shortly. That ride is how a suspended coaster should be done.

 

[kimahri]

I'm still trying to figure out how the hell you did this. Out of nowhere as well!

Also:

Still seems strange that we actually went to this. 8 years or so of being an enthusiast and we finally made it to the rollercoaster mecca that is Cedar Point! Whilst the part was quite pleasant, unfortunatly, besides one or two of the big coasters there, I thought most rides were pretty dissapointing.

I feel the same. It was so weird going there after hearing and seeing so much about it.

Also, seriously how did you pull this off?

 

[peep]

seriously how did you pull this off?

*shrugs* I just threw money at the situation and the next thing I know I'm in Canada.

 

[owentaylor121]

I now want a pocket hose

Great trip report btw.

 

[furie]

seriously how did you pull this off?

*shrugs* I just threw money at the situation and the next thing I know I'm in Canada.

Yeah. Disposable income, no ties (other than getting a few days off work) and a couple of people in a similar situation to egg you on - it's easy really.

 

[ECG]

Whilst the park was quite pleasant, unfortunately, besides one or two of the big coasters there, I thought most rides were pretty disapointing.

QFT! Nice report none the less.

 

[DelPiero]

Really enjoyable report to read, i like the personal aspect of fun things that happened and sounds like you had a great time.
Looking forward to day 3.

 

[peep]

Friday 21st

We got back to Cedar Point just before opening. While we waited we got to see hotel guests ride Gatekeeper, which is definitely very pretty to watch. Their beach band came out and played some tunes too which helped pass the time.

Our plan was to head straight to Top Thrill and wait for front row. On the way we somehow bumped into the beach band again, they move fast. The queue for Top Thrill was quite long already considering we walked at a decent pace over to the attraction. We had to wait even longer once we were in the station because they had to take a row out of action and it took them quite some time to tie on the out of use signs. Still, we finally got on to the front row and kudos to the staff member who had to keep talking and getting the station crowd to stay happy and excited. At one point he resorted to just calling out "Who's from *insert state here*!?" which helped keep the atmosphere going.

So front row, worth waiting a bit extra for? HELL YES!! I've never felt ride forces move my face about so much, it was insane, I loved every second.

As our favourite ride, Maverick just had to be the next ride of the day. We had a fair wait but we managed to make it pass fairly quickly with banter. We sat at the back, still absolutely amazing.

It felt even hotter than the day before and we already needed to cool ourselves down. We enjoyed the shoot the rapids so we headed over there. Just as we put our stuff in a locker it broke down. We decided to stick around as maintenance seemed to be on the case pretty quickly. We waited and waited and it still didn't reopen so we headed over to Snake River Falls instead. We quickly learnt that sandals are probably the best thing to have on you when doing this as we did it barefoot and the floor was like molten lava, unpleasant doesn't describe that walk well enough.

Anyway, to the ride experience. We knew we would get drenched, it's exactly what we wanted to happen. However due to the previous experience on the rapids it comes lower on the scale of wetness as we found dry patches! Still, it was exactly what we needed. We headed back over to Shoot the rapids (as that's where our belongings were) and shortly after we arrived it re-opened! So on we went. Still good fun and it was another portion of cooling down.

We decided to head over towards the front of the park where we proceeded to join the queue for Windseeker. One thing I like about windseekers is that they have the ability to play music throughout your ride, just a little something which I think helps add to the ride experience. The views from this Windseeker are amazing too, just shows how massive the park really is.

We put our bags in the locker near Gatekeeper and joined the queue. We were near the top of the stairs when a train came back which had been puked on so the staff had to stop operations so it could be cleaned. In the horrible heat a woman behind us feinted due to lack of water. A woman from down below tried to throw her water up to her but kept missing, third time she managed to get it to the people around the unconscious lady. Rach managed to get the ride attendants attention who proceeded to call the first aid team over while another came up the stairs to assist and make sure she was alright. It wasn't a very good place for the lady to collapse, she could have seriously hurt herself but luckily she was fine and after a little bit longer the ride was back open.

This was the final straw for me in terms of liking the ride or hating it and this time it really tried to stop me from breathing, I was so pinned in my seat I felt I was just going to squish into mush and fall out of the sides. Was so unpleasant and it only felt worse as I went round, the forces making it just feel more painful and by the end I just wanted off. Such a shame that an ok ride was ruined by the restraints.

We decided to cheer ourselves up and go on Wicked Twister next. It's still awesome. We caught 'All wheels extreme' which was just lots of standard half pipe stunts.

Due to the heat we opted to go over to the water park. We were there for about an hour or so before we headed back into the main park. We queued up for Magnum. I'm not sure why we did this as it's a horrible ride, but we did and we didn't enjoy it.

We were starting to run out of time and it was 'what do we really want to re-ride?'. The answer was obviously Top Thrill Dragster and Maverick. We managed to fit in back row rides on both and a quick ride on Power Tower before we had to leave. So at least we ended with a trio of great rides.

Once again, I really loved the park, some fantastic rides and some not so great ones. Operations are amazing and the park is very clean. We also had the refill cups which we made sure we used as much as poss, they may be a burden to carry about but it was better than being dehydrated.

We actually tried to find a spot where we could park up and goon over the awesome view of the park. It took a few tries but we finally found a spot. We had to semi go on someone's drive and a dog started barking so we quickly took our photos and footage and sped off lol.

Thanks for reading and all your comments! Will post the next part soon

 

[peep]

What I failed to mention at the end of that is that we had to leave the park early to drive 2 hours to Detroit (put your hands up) to get to our next hotel...

Saturday 22nd

We had a very early start as we wanted to get to the park for opening but we had a 4 hour drive! Peter used his amazing driving skills to get us there in good time, I have no idea how he stayed awake. The weather was warm but overcast. We had to wait a good 15 minutes before the gates opened and we were on our way into Canadas Wonderland.

It was awesome to watch Leviathan (or, the blue one as I liked to call it) fly around. B&M coasters are so satisfying to watch, but it would have been even more satisfying if we were sitting on it. Alas to try and repeat our Cedar Point strategy success we headed to the SLC first.

It had started to rain which was annoying. An SLC is bad enough but in the rain? Urgh. We had joined the queue so just had to wish it'd stop before we got on. Finally on and the rain had let up a little bit but as we were going round the wheels were just throwing loads of water on us which added to the general unpleasantness of being on an SLC. This one certainly wasn't the worst but it was nowhere near good or re-rideable.

Just as we got off the rain really started to chuck it down and it was a run for cover moment. Everyone had the same idea. After a while we decided to run around to a shop to find ponchos as it just didn't feel like it was going to stop. The shop was full of faff so by the time we had ponchos the rain stopped. Typical. Still, they came in handy throughout the day so it wasn't a waste.

Next up was our very first Volare, Time Warp. It took a while to open back up as it closed during the rain and they had to run it round a bit before letting people on. Still we were very near the front and we were on shortly after it re-opened. We all hear so many bad things about Volares so we expected the worst. Turns out we all enjoyed it. The inlines are amazing. There was a little bit of headbashing into the comfy protection mats but it wasn't awful. I was very happy to re-ride if we got a chance.

We opted to run over to Behemoth (the yellow one) next. It was a good choice as the queue wasn't too long. It's a good ride with plenty of short bursts of air time. I was intrigued by the blue one and to see if it would provide a different ride experience.

Next was Stunt Coaster. I wasn't a massive fan of the one at Kings Dominion and to be honest I wasn't overly impressed on this one either. I just feel like the cars go round the sharp banking in an awkward and unpleasant way.

It was then time for a woodie, The Canadian. After riding it we renamed it the spinebreaker. It was ok and then it decided it was time for a spine removal, urgh, too many woodies are like this.

Skyrider the stand up Togo was next on the agenda. I enjoyed the one at Kings Dominion. We managed to grab front row and I have to say I loved it. It's smooth and enjoyable. The loop is fun and the end doesn't go all horrible like the Dominion one.

We then went over to Vortex. Would this be as pants as Iron Dragon at Cedar Point? Turns out, no. We really enjoyed this one, we were sat near the back too and the swinging was insane. It has a really good layout and the first drop is awesome.

We joined the queue for Thunder Run next. It went on forever. One of the longest queues for a Mack powered cred I've ever joined. It was good going through the mountain and whatnot. One of the better ones out there, just a shame we had to queue for so long for it.

The fly also had a burdenous queue which we also joined. Not much to say about the fly as it's a fairly standard Mack wild mouse cred. Then we rode The Bat, a quite decent Vekoma boomerang. I like Boomerangs, I've only had two bad experiences so far and this wasn't one of them.

Next was Wild Beast which I have to be honest about, I can't remember much about now, must show how awesome it was :roll:

We then headed over to the Kidzville area where we proceeded to grab the Ghoster Coaster cred. It was alright but the queue was once again, very burdenous. It was hot and in the basic station full of people it just felt horrible.

Lol at the random kid waving to Rach

We caught the new Jungle Journey show in the snoopy area. It was a rather standard kids show but with a safari theme. We then walked round and got the Silver Streak cred. It was short and rather boring. Which is a shame as I was expecting a better ride experience from it. Also, we don't quite understand the theme of it, is it meant to be a bullet train?

We could have ridden the blue one next but we decided to leave that till last. So we rode Dragon Fire instead. We found it amusing that the ride's max height is about the same height as the end break run on the blue one.

The ride is actually decent, a fairly bog standard Arrow looper that had aged ok.

And then it was finally time, had we saved the best till last? Leviathan was calling us and we joined the back of the queue. It moved very quickly due to the three train operations. In the station they had a countdown and the seat lock check lights on the wall which we thought was very helpful when trying to quickly batch the ride. They had a guy on the mic who pretty much treated it like a gameshow, it added a whole new excitement and energy to getting on the ride. We managed to get front row.

That first drop is fantastic, especially in the front. The wind and forces managed to mess with my face throughout too, just showing how fast it must get towards the bottom of the drops. Apart from that it felt quite bland and no where near the awesomeness of Shambhalalalalalalaala at Port Aventura. Such a shame, I mean it's good fun but we all preferred Behemoth, really does beg the question why they decided to build two large B&Ms that pretty much do the same thing. I don't think Leviathan is too happy I said that...

Peter and I decided to make our last ride of the day Riptide, the unusual looking top spin. The fact the two rows are on separate gondolas really added to the ride experience. Every now and then you'd flip and see the other people not knowing if you were upside down or if they were, very confusing and awesome.

We then milled about, took photos and that and then waited for the premiere of the new evening show. I love their centerpeice mountain with waterfall, its very cool. The fact they used it to video map projections on to it is also very cool. The show was at times very nice but it needed something like fire or a firework finale or something. It also didn't really flow, it was just random tracks with the lights and fountains moving to it.

It was then back to the car and to our last hotel of the trip. We were staying near the airport in a very nice Mariott hotel. Rach did a grand job of finding and booking the hotels and she definitely saved the best till last. The room was massive and we also got breakfast included in the morning.

I really like Canadas Wonderland, a very nice park with some good rides, I was looking forward to going back the next day.

Thanks again for Rach for the photos and everyone for reading. I shall be posting the last instalment at some point soon

 

[AquaTrax]

"Other than the first drop Leviathan was rather bland"

I'm coming after you.

 

[tomahawk]

First time I have heard Leviathan is worse than Behemoth...

Great report though.

 

[peep]

Maybe bland was too much, but it really isn't as good as most of the B&M hypers I've ridden. It's all down to personal preference tbh, I'm more of an inversion guy rather than airtime machine fanboi.


Sunday 23rd

We couldn't believe it was already our last day of the trip. We woke up in our very nice hotel, went downstairs and had breakfast. They had a good choice of food but there were so many people and it was such a small area it was just chaos. Oh and most of the food was running out before you could get to it and the staff weren't exactly being quick about filling it back up. Oh well. We got our stuff together and drove back to Canadas Wonderland.

Leviathan does look amazing from the car park...

We got into the park after a short wait for it to open. We headed straight over to Time Warp as we really did enjoy that. We were like on the 4th car of the day to leave the station which was good. A little bit of a head bashing but it wasn't painful, still found it enjoyable.

We decided to rush round to Behemoth next which turned out to be an excellent plan as it was walk-on! We managed 3 rides in very quick succession and it was good. There's really decent amounts of airtime and I just found it to be a really fun ride, could literally sit on it all day.

As it had been having issues and there wasn't a queue Peter and I decided to ride Sledgehammer which is apparently the only one of this ride type in the World. This intrigued us even more. It's such an odd contraption, the spinning round just feels a bit weird because of the angle the arms are at and then when it moves up or down it's so violent that it just shoves you into the massive restraints which is a little unpleasant.

We rode Windseeker next. It was getting silly hot out and this was our plan to cool down a bit, ahhh, such a good plan. Once up there it was nice and cool with that wind, just didn't want it to end. Rach and I were really suffering from the heat so we then spent quite a lot of time faffing in the shade next to this huge patch of grass that overlooked the awesome Vortex. After we'd cooled down a bit we actually went over and joined the queue for Vortex. We all loved Vortex, it is just everything these coasters were designed to do and it does it well.

We then went over to the kids area as I wanted to ride Boo Blasters. Jeez this is one of the worst designed dark rides I've ever seen, who thought it'd be a great idea to only have like 4 2-seater cars going round the ride at like 1mph? It made what should have been a 10 minute queue more like an hour. Hideous design. The ride itself is just very average and really didn't justify the huge wait time in the sun. No shade <//////3

After that massive fail I think we grabbed a quick snack from the snoopy area (I noticed they had some Phineas and Ferb on the area music loop <3 ) before heading over to Liviathan. The queue wasn't that bad, annoying the park only had 4 or 5 music videos on loop in all the queuelines though, does grate a little after two days lol.

We decided to wait for back row this time because back row is usually where all the action is at. That's really not the case with Liviathan. It's still good but after already riding front row you just don't feel the immense speed as much which is one of the best things about it.

We decided to have a quick go on the drop tower next. It was a good drop tower. To help us cool down we went for some ice cream which was nom. We then sat down and watched the new British Invasion show. Good selection of songs but the cast couldn't really sing very well lol.

It was then back over to Liviathan for one last go. There was even less of a queue this time which was nice. It was a nice way to end our day. We then had to leave the park but before driving off we walked along the park border and took lots of photos/footage of Liviathan.

One hell of a drop

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ii9YUw9N14w[/youtube]


We then got in the very hot car and drove to the airport where we proceeded to mill about in the post-security area for ages. A bar had tablets on each table to I put CF on quite a few of them We then got on the plane and tried to sleep. Food wasn't that great this time either. Still not a fan of mystery meals.

It was a short and ridiculous trip but I'd do it again in a heartbeat (because I'm actually insane). Peter and Rach were awesome at booking everything and finding everything at decent prices. I still don't know how Peter managed to drive us about for the whole trip and didn't fall asleep at the wheel. I loved Waldameer (because Ravine Flyer II epicness), Cedar Point is just a fantastic place to go just with lots of mediocre creds and Canadas Wonderland is wonderful, really loved that park. I think it's because it felt quite British in the way it was landscaped and then had huge creds which were actually good fun.

Thanks for reading and I might have a full video up at some point in the distant future.