Thursday, October 23, 2008

PTR Cedar Point Halloweekends


This past weekend I got the chance to visit Cedar Point during its annual Halloweekends event, it was a lot of fun.

My weekend at the point began on Friday Night entering the park at about 8:30 to find very light crowds, which was just what I needed after a four hour drive following a eight hour work day. I have never been to the park on a Halloweekends Friday, they run a skeleton lineup of attractions featuring only the headliners. None of the rides had long waits besides Maverick, which even with the light crowds still was about an hour. I got some great night rides on Millenium Force & Top Thrill Dragster. Friday night was also when I got my ride on MaxAir, this is the first time in my last three trips to CP that MaxAir was open and it is a really fun ride. I love both MaxAir & Skyhawk, does any other park have a better 1-2 punch the Cedar Point?? The crowd on Friday was a lot more adults and teens then kids. I grabbed some Mcdonalds on the way back to the hotel.

I got to the point early on Saturday, because Platinum Passholders get in an hour early. I parked at the Soak City gate, because I knew that early entry was the only time of the weekend I would probably be able to get on Maverick. The crowd at rope drop was pretty large, this was my first sign that it would be a busy day. I was part of the 'mad dash' to Maverick and was in the front row one of the first trains out of the day. Maverick I find to be a highly overrated ride, I don't know if it is the CP Fanboys in denial, but thats a rough ride. The stupid over the shoulder restraints that do nothing as far as securing the rider, I slam my head into them on all of the sharp twists and turns. By the time I got off and looked at the line it was over an hour......... this was going to be a busy day.

I hit up Dragster for the first ride of the day and it was much fun. I really didn't ride too much on Saturday as the crowds were insane, for example even some of the points lesser rides (Mantis & Demon Drop) had full queue's. I don't know anyone who would wait 1.5-2 hours for those.

I rode the train, for what I think must of been for the first time ever, because I never knew the very cool BoneVille display existed. On the part of the ride from the back of the park to the front they have a whole bunch of neat old west displays with animated skelton figures in different scenes.

I also ate at Cedar Points buffet the Midway Market or 'Mid-Evil Market' during Halloweekends and I really liked it. The price was high but not awful at $17, but lets face it at a Cedar Fair park you can't get a burger/fries/coke for less then $12 so this is a value by comparison. The buffet which included drinks had a very large variety of food (ham, tater tots, chicken nuggets, pasta meatballs, nacho/taco bar, large selection of desserts, mashed potatoes, stuffing, fried chicken). I completely recommend this to someone visiting the park, it also provides a nice relaxing break mid-day.

Since it was so busy on Saturday I saw many of CP's Halloweekends shows, here are my thoughts on each of them:

Monster Midway Invasion Celebration Parade
This was a pretty good parade for a non-disney park. Not many parks outside the mouse house do parades, so thats always is nice to see. They have a decent number of floats and a lot of cool costumes. Some of the floats are falloons, which some are animatronics (one of which is the rockman that can be seen in the awesomely bad Wisconsin Dells tourist trap Top Secret).

Chris Linn's MagiComedy
This was in the small indoor theater near the parks entrance. The comedy was good, the magic....... not so much.

Night Of Darkness
Nothing really halloween related about this one, just a large band of dressed up people playing rock music. This actually was my favorite show because the band was good, the crowd got into it and this show was in the saloon, so there was BEER!!

Graveyard Shift With The Goodtime Ghouls
This is your average people dressed up as zombies dance around to monster mash and thriller theme park halloween show. This was in the large indoor theater and really wasn't very good. The only redeming factor was some of the chicks were hot and in skimpy outfits often throughout the show.

A Trio Of Terror
This was a dramatic reading of Edgar Allen Poe poems in the small theater near Mean Streak. A very simple show, and well done.

During the day I also spent a good amount of time in the giant arcade Cedar Point has, this thing is awesome. You can win some good prizes and not spend to much cash on games.

Normally I am a huge wuss when it comes to haunted houses/scare zones, but I was really interested in seeing some of them. So I did just what Pat McCabe would do and that is hit the bar, pound some beers and build up the liquid courage I needed!! I made it through all 5 scare zone (I didn't feel like waiting in line for the houses). Here are my thoughts on the scare zones:

The Fright Zone
The simplest of all the scare zones, just a looooooooong dark pathway with a lot of scareactors. It had one really cool costume, a guy dressed up like a bird.

Carn Evil
The clown themed scare zone. My favorite part about this one was before you would enter the scare zone there was a scareactor playing the role of an old fashioned carnival barker. He would say some funny things, usher everyone inside to see the freaks and most importantly set the mood.

Fear Faire
The midevel themed haunt. This one was pretty long and had some cool set pieces, my personal favorite being the 'bring out your dead' cart with the actor on it.

Terror Island
This was one of the two new scare zones. It was pirate themed and took place on Millenium Force Island. You got onto the island via a bridge throught the paddelwheel excursion area. This one was pretty neat, some cool set pieces (giant ship masts and smoking ships) and one cool scareactor that would use a bungee system to scare guests.

CornStalkers
This was the other new scare zone, and really is more like an outdoor haunted house because you need to wait in a long line as they pulse the line for higher scares. This one was BY FAR the scariest of the group and had me jumping quite a few times.

Sunday, the crowds weren't at the point once again and I was able to have a very enjoyable morning til early afternoon.

Heres a few pics:


The large crowd Saturday at rope drop.


This ride really sucks, I got off an my back was in pain...... and I'm in good shape.



You get some cool views from the train.


Monsters dancing on the midway.


The used ride graveyard, a very cool thing on a coaster-nerd level. (I loved it!!)


Thumbs Up!!


My favorite halloween decoration in the park this year.


They were selling these in the main gift shop, neat. BOILER UP


Some neat halloweekends shirts.


My cool souvenir mug & BEER!!


I like that CP still has the Demon Drop. Its a cool little ride and takes up almost no room.


Big ups to fellow bloggers


RIDE COUNT
Terror Island
CornStalkers
Fear Faire
The Fright Zone (2x)
CarnEvil
The Magic House On Boo Hill
Mid-Evil Markey
Monster Midway Invasion Celebration
Chris Linn's MagiComedy
Graveyard Shift With The Goodtime Ghouls
Night Of Darkness
A Trio Of Terror
Skyride (2x)
Demon Drop
Raptor
Blue Streak
MaxAir
Space Spiral
Disaster Transport (2x)
Wicked Twister (2x One Front Row)
Chaos
Ocean Motion
Iron Dragon (2x One Front Row 'Zen' Ride)
Millenium Force (3x)
Power Tower
Corkscrew
Top Thrill Dragster (3x)
Magnum XL-200
Gemini (Front Row)
Mean Streak
SkyHawk (2x)
Maverick (Front Row)

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