TR: Ohio part 2: SFWoA & return to CP
Paul Asente
checking Cedar Point's web page and calling the special TTD number. I
had two Freeway passes that were just waiting to be used (Rich gave me
his since he didn't expect to be back at the park this year). Sunday,
my first hoped-for revisit day. Nope. Monday. Nope. Wednesday.
Nope. I decided that Wednesday was perfect park weather (overcast,
occasional drizzles) so I headed over to Six Flags Worlds of Adventure
for a couple hours in the afternoon.
(Each time I go there I try a different route from my uncle's house in
Cuyahoga Falls, but each time I'm disappointed. It isn't that
far...there has *got* to be a good route. Someday I'll find one.)
The park was, as expected, rather uncrowded. Unfortunately it was a
disappointing day.
I started out with a ride on Big Dipper, one of my favorite classic
woodies. I was expecting great things because of the drizzles, but they
didn't materialize. The ride wasn't bad, but it was far from being the
best ride I've had on it.
Next was the big question: could putting terrible trains (Gerstlauers)
on a terribly-tracked coaster (Raging Wolf Bobs) somehow make a better
ride? And the surprising answer is...no. It's true that there's a lot
less side-to-side shuffling than there used to be. But now there was
the characteristic Gerstlauer up-and-down jackhammering, especially in
the second turnaround. It was awful. The new trains moved this coaster
from its previous category (rough but with enough redeeming features
that I still enjoyed it) into the basement of my ratings. I might even
like it less than PGA's Grizzly now.
I took a couple rides on Batman Knight Flight next. I don't quite
understand why I don't like this coaster more than I do. It has a
really interesting, twisted layout, with lots of head-choppers and close
encounters with the queue, but somehow it always leaves me wanting more
compared to the other B&M sit-down loopers I've ridden (the Medusas,
Kraken, Kumba, Hulk). It's not a bad ride, but it's not a great ride.
Maybe it's the lack of an inline twist and a dive loop. At least it was
running two trains and had an efficient crew.
Alas, the latter could not be said for The Villain. Only one train and
over a 1/2 hour wait even with a near-empty park. This is another
coaster that just sits solidly in the middle of the pack for me. It has
great potential, with good speed and a nice layout, but every time I've
ridden it the bouncing of the Gerstlauer trains has kept me from having
a great ride.
I finished off the day with a ride on X-Flight. Again, one train and
slow operations made the wait much longer than it should have been.
Oddly, the ride operator wouldn't let me ride it with my pull-over
windbreaker; I had to leave it on the platform. Huh? I do like this
ride, and I think the ending helix gives it a punch that PGA's Stealth
is lacking.
Superman wasn't operating, so I ended the day with another ride on the
Big Dipper...again, sadly, not up to par.
I've had some really nice visits at this park, going back to the Geauga
Lake days, but, alas, this was not one of them. But a couple of good
things I want to mention: the kid's area looks really great, and I
still like the theming in the Rockville section. Especially the El
Dorado Drive-In, which remains the best-themed flat ride ever. Turning
the Magic Carpet ride into a giant Caddy convertible was a stroke of
genius.
Thursday and Friday were insane days because the Kentucky Supreme Court
finally issued a ruling in my nephew's adoption case. Still nothing is
resolved, but it was a media circus. Fortunately I was there to help
take care of the kids while my brother and sister-in-law dealt with
everything else. See http://www.cboss.com/justin/ if you're interested
in the details.
Saturday morning, another call to Cedar Point. Still no TTD. I headed
over to my cousin's wedding party. Round about 6:00 someone arriving at
the party mentioned to me that they'd heard on the news that TTD was
running (yes, the ride status was constantly on all the news channels in
Cleveland!) So I called the park, and it was true. I made hasty
goodbyes, drove across Akron to my uncle's house to get my Freeway
passes, then jumped on the turnpike to Sandusky. (Why hadn't I brought
the passes with me? I could have saved an hour had I not had to go
back...)
Just before 9:00 I parked in the back lot to the wonderful sound of a
TTD launch. I got in the Freeway line, and went to the merge point.
But uh-oh, no more launches. Waited a bit. One launch, with cheering
riders coming into the brakes. Then nothing again. The attendant at
the merge point said it had been up since early afternoon, and had been
down a couple times during the day but just for 15-30 minutes.
Then the dreaded PA announcement: "Top Thrill Dragster is not
operating. We don't know when it will be back up. You may wait in line
or leave, but if you leave you lose your place in line." Well, I wasn't
about to leave, so I waited. And waited. And waited. My hopes went
from "please come up soon enough for me to get three rides in" (2
Freeway, and one waiting as the park closed) to "please come up soon
enough for me to get my 2 Freeway rides in" to "please come up so I can
get just ONE ride". But alas, it was not to be. At 11:15 they closed
the line, giving everyone who waited a Freeway pass for TTD and an exit
pass for any other ride. Even though the park had closed, they told us
we could use our exit passes on Millennium Force. Again, the park
really did their best in a bad situation.
Alas, I had to leave the next morning for my trip back to California, so
the TTD pass wouldn't help me (only good for one year). On the way out
of the TTD queue, I had a little chat with Mike, one of the managers; I
told him how I appreciated all the efforts the park was going through
but that I was disappointed that after 3 visits I *still* hadn't gotten
to ride, that I had to leave the next day to get back to California, and
that I wouldn't be able to return this year. In a surprising but very
kind gesture, he gave me his direct phone number and told me to call him
whenever my next visit was, and he would ensure that I got right on.
I went and took my MF ride (great, and made up for the nighttime ride
I'd missed the week before). On the way back out to the car I noticed
that they'd loaded the TTD trains with water dummies and were moving
them around on the track.
On the way home, it occurred to me that since I was travelling on a
Southwest free ticket, I could change my reservation without any fee.
So when I got back to my uncle's house, I called Southwest. There was
*one* seat available on another flight. Yes! A ray of hope!
So, Sunday morning, I found myself making the drive from Akron to
Sandusky again. The signs on the ticket booth were at least promising,
they expected TTD to start operations later in the day. The ops at the
ride suggested coming back around 1:00.
I wandered around a bit, getting a couple Magnum rides in. Since I
wouldn't be around long enough to hit Raptor's late-afternoon line slump
I decided to head over and get a Freeway stamp. Just as I was departing
the skyride station near Corkscrew, I heard TTD launch. Got off at the
other end, got my Raptor stamp (no line), and jumped back on the
skyride. TTD was running with people! Hooray!
Unfortunately, when I got to the queue, it was closed. They were
letting the people in the queue ride, but then it was going down for
about 4-5 hours. (I'm still not sure what kind of problem would require
that kind of action; something severe enough that it required the ride
to be taken down, but not severe enough to require an immediate closure.
A mystery.) There was no way that I could stay long enough to make the
projected evening reopening. Argh!!!!
Then I remembered that I had the phone number from the night before. I
called operations; Mike wasn't in, but I explained the situation and
asked if there was any way that I could be allowed into the queue.
After being passed around a few times I finally got transfered to the
ride op director, who told me to meet him at the ride. We had a nice
little chat and then much to my surprise, he didn't put me in the queue;
he put me directly on a train in the front seat!
(In a vain effort to try to forestall any A-list theories beforehand,
I'm going to say that first of all, there's no way in the world that I
could remotely be considered to be part of any A-list. Further, nobody
I talked with at the park had any idea who I am; no one showed any sign
of recognizing my name when I introduced myself; I'd never talked to any
of them before this visit; and I never mentioned being an ACE member or
anything. Nobody knew me from Adam, and even if they did, there's no
reason in the world that I should get any special treatment. I was just
polite and friendly in all my inquiries. I didn't ask Mike for his
phone number, he just gave it to me, and I didn't ask for a direct
boarding, I just asked if I could be allowed into the queue. Everything
the park did was spontaneously offered. They are great people there and
a stellar example of how to treat their guests.)
How was the ride? Amazing! The launch is beyond belief and easily
beats the launch on Xcelerator. (I'm not sure why, because Xcelerator
has a higher acceleration, needing to get to top speed in a much shorter
distance. I guess you just can't argue with 120 MPH.) There was a
lovely bit of floating airtime over the top. The trip back down was
kind of a blur, I remember seeing all the supports around the track but
not much else. Even with my sunglasses on I had trouble keeping my eyes
open on the drop; maybe the glasses were creating turbulence or
something.
Which do I like better, Dragster or Xcelerator? It's really hard to
say, and it's not fair to compare a single ride on Dragster with the
many rides I've had on Xcelerator. I definitely like Dragster's launch
more. I think I prefer the wide-open, single twist drop on Xcelerator
to the 270-twist drop on Dragster, but as I said the drop was such a
blur that I can't really judge. The figure-8 on Xcelerator is a bit
anticlimactic after the tophat, but it makes the ride feel more
complete. Right now I'm calling it a tie. Perhaps after I've
experienced Dragster's drop a few more times I'll be able to say for
sure.
The day would have been complete, but I did have my Raptor stamp and a
little time before I had to leave, so I took my ride there, then did a
mini-marathon on Blue Streak for about 45 minutes. It continued to give
the same great rides it had given the week before (as did Raptor). I
noticed from the lift of Blue Streak that Raptor had entered its
mid-afternoon queue slump earlier than usual (it was around 1:30) so I
took another quick ride on it before I headed off.
So there you have it. My family is now completely convinced that I am
insane, but it was worth it. It's a cliche to say that people went
beyond expectations, but in this case it's completely true: the Cedar
Point staff is fantastic!!!!
-- paul asente
To reply, make the host be the same as my last name
Airtime247
that freeeeezing morning the day before CoasterMania. I'm also glad to hear
you (finally) got your TTD ride in.
It sounds like you had a much better encounter with the staff than I
unfortunately did. I was blown away by everyone's kindness during my first
trip there in 2000 but it seemed like almost everyone I interacted with in
food service and the gift shops were a little rude this time. Maybe not
rude-rude but just Six Flags-rude! :) The ride-ops and guest relations
were great though.
Take care and I hope to see you at a Bay Area event in the near future!
-steve
"Paul Asente" <use...@not-asente.com> wrote in message
news:usenet-577FA2....@archive.mv.meer.net...
Sue Barry
>on a terribly-tracked coaster (Raging Wolf Bobs) somehow make a better
>ride? And the surprising answer is...no. It's true that there's a lot
>less side-to-side shuffling than there used to be. But now there was
>the characteristic Gerstlauer up-and-down jackhammering, especially in
>the second turnaround. It was awful. The new trains moved this coaster
>from its previous category (rough but with enough redeeming features
>that I still enjoyed it) into the basement of my ratings. I might even
>like it less than PGA's Grizzly now.
>
RWB. After riding it with Gerstlauers, I don't think I'll ever ride it again.
I had a huge bruise on my leg from that awful train that lasted 2 weeks!
Sue Barry
Coast...@aol.com