Cedar Point - the roller coast . . . Ride on!!!

Up and at'tem early . . . We had to get up early, get some breakfast and then pack everything up so we could spend the day at Cedar Point Amusement Park and then head towards Chicago. Everything was going great. We got to enter the park an hour early and ride a couple of the more popular rides before the general public entered. We started in line to a really cool looking ride and realized it wasn't even open yet. Well that was silly so we headed towards the ones that were open. After a couple rides, we were heading to another one when we found the snake river . . . Funny I thought that was in the west?!?!? It was a fun and very wet ride. We were drenched, which was fine as it was pretty humid already so early in the day. We continued and a couple more rides were enjoyed before we took a lunch break.


After lunch and finally starting to dry out a little from the snake river ride, we went towards the really cool ride I mentioned earlier. It is called the Top Thrill Dragster. It is based off the idea of drag cars. It jets you straight out 120 miles and hour and then up 90 degrees and 420 feet high with a twist in the track when it reaches the summit of the ride you head back down looking straight down at the ground before it levels out and brings you to a screeching halt. It lasts about 30 seconds and you stand in line for at least an hour or more. Go figure?!?! So there we are standing in line and at is point Ksenia is still planning on going. It's hot and humid and we are feet away from the covered area and the gates when the skies start to darken and the park goes quiet. Everything stops . . . literally. There are no roller coasters going anywhere in the park. It is kind of weird. They shut everything down. Apparently this is normal. The guy announces we can wait or leave it is up to us. People start leaving which puts us closer to the gate, but not inside the gate and the rain starts pouring and I mead POURING. Now from Oregon this is not really a big deal, except we just got basically dry and we were drenched again and the guy wouldn't let us in the covered area. He about had a riot on his hands from the natives, until people finally just walked through the gates to get out of the rain, which we did. We waited and once the storm passed, which was rather quick we heard rides start up again, except ours. It had mechanical failure. We waited a little longer but then gave up and headed out to enjoy some more rides in our very wet clothes, which did eventually dry. Being the dragster was the tallest ride in the park, we kept an eye out to see if it was starting up again.

Around 5 o'clock the rides stopped again. This time as we were near dry again, I told Mark I didn't want to get wet again so we found a place to hang out and wait. It wasn't near as bad as earlier, but it was a nice break from the sun and walking and a lot less rain. After a little bit we strategically made it through the rain drops keeping fairly dry and to a new section of the park to some more rides. By the way, Cedar Point is themed around the Peanuts and Snoopy. We found a couple fun statues of snoopy and of course we had to take a couple photo ops. At this time we were nearing the end and we were getting tired, plus we already spent a fortune on concessions. We planned out the last few rides and we did notice the dragster was now up and running. We finally headed to the dragster and as Mark, Kaleb and Chelsea were a bit ahead of Ksenia and myself, we got stopped and they weren't going to let me enter with the souvenir cup I had in my hand. Ksenia already had decided she didn't want to go on the ride so she was going to be a "non-rider" but that still didn't matter to this gal. She wasn't going to let us in. Frustrated, but otherwise not necessarily looking forward to standing in line for an hour and a half as I had a huge (for a little toe anyway) blister on my toe from walking around all day with wet socks and tennis shoes - the only thing that never dried out from the snake river and the downpour. As Mark and the kids stood in line, Ksenia and I were able to ride three more rides and had a lot of fun.

We went back to get Mark, Kaleb and Chelsea and hopefully see them on the ride but we missed them. We gathered everyone together and headed to the last ride that was near the enterance gate and stood in a very short line . . . Thank goodness. We all agreed it was a great day regardless of the rain and the huge blister.

It ended up to be another one of those late night dinners and we headed to our campsite for the night. It was a two hour drive and we ended in Indiana. Quickly set up the trailer and after I accidentally set off the car alarm in the middle of the night, we killed a few thousand mosquitos and Mark took a pathetic shower we all crashed dead tired.

Overall it was a good day. My biased opinion . . . and soapbox - Cedar Point is a highly recommended amusement park and I don't deny the roller coasters are pretty cool. However if Disneyland is your standard for overall esthetics and atmosphere of a park, then it doesn't compare. As far as the rides are concerned, yes there are definitely more and they are bigger and faster than Disneyland but having recently been to Six Flags Magic Mountain I'm not sure they are that much better. If the only reason one (from the west coast that is) is going to Ohio is for Cedar Point then I don't think it is worth the trip. If it is a stop on a bigger trip, then yes it is probably worth it.

Location:Sandusky, Ohio