Do you realize that Cedar Point alone has more coasters than the three main Missouri parks put together (not counting kiddie coasters or Vekoma Boomerangs, of course). Man, we are deprived here!
I went to the Magnum celebration first. The Ohio State Spring Athletic Band played several songs surrounding the podium. Then, several important people spoke about how Magnum changed coasters for the better, and started all the coaster wars as the first Hypercoaster. I didn't write down everyone's names, but I know that Richard Kinzel, Chairman and CEO of Cedar Fairs, and John Hildebrant, Vice President and general manager of Cedar Point both spoke, as well as Brian Andrews, whose title escaped me. :) Also, an Ohio Senator, whose name I can't remember, and someone that is a roller coaster historian spoke, too. After all the speeches, they oepened the ride up to the first riders auction winners, who raised over $6500 for the local chapter of the Red Cross.
I went over to the line for the Magnum then, and probably waited about 20 min, which is fairly standard as it just opened for the day. I also waited in line to get the free cake and ice cream they served for Maggie's birthday. Yum! :)
After that, I went over the Millennium, and waited about an hour and 10 minutes, starting at 10:45. A great ride, as always. Since it was cloudy and windy, it was a bit chilly at the top of the 300 foot hill! But still as smooth as ever. The wait, however, was made even worse by two younger teenage kids (probably not even 16) being completely obnoxious behind me. See, on opening day, Cedar Point has a music competition called "Music in the Parks", so the park with filld with kids of all ages who had competed and then had free reign of the park. So.. I pretty much only rode those two rides, as all other rides had an hour or more wait as well!
One note - Top Thrill Dragster was running off and on, and I witnessed it not make it over the top at least 4 times as I walked by. They only had the first two rows of each car filled, so I imagine the wait was tremendous, not that I really checked! :)
At about noon, the rain started coming down, sprinkles at first, then more steady so that the rides had to shut down. They'd get them started again, only to have the rain start harder again.. went until about 2:30 or so, then the rain cleared again. By that time, the rest of my family showed up, and I was back to riding the monsters like Iron Dragon (and a 30 minute wait even for that!), Woodstock's Express, and Junior Gemini. :D
I did watch the one live show they had going and actually came away disappointed. While the singers were wonderful as always, they were using canned music instead of live instruments as they always have in the past, and the costumes were not as great as usual. Cedar Point also cut down on the amount of shows, and removed one they usually have as a live show to have a piano bar, and some guy playing piano music all day.
A few new additions to the park were the family dryer, so that after you ride the water rides, you can pay money to shove your family in a big huge air dryer. They also have a new lighted area at night that you can walk through and see all the trees and building draped in LED lights. They weren't done with it yet, and I didn't stay to walk through it lit with what they had, but could see all the trees wrapped up with the lights off during the day. We'll see if I see it next time I go! :)
So all in all, I didn't really accomplish much, but still had a good time with my family. Sorry if this is too long, but its the first write up I've done, so... :)
Keep us updated as the season progresses, and "Ride On!"
When you say there was no band, are you talking about the show at the Red Garter Saloon? Can't say I'm surprised if it is. I would prefer a live band, but they usually pay musicians pretty well, and canned tracks are a lot less expensive to use and don't require a lot of time or effort to mix live. With this economy, CP needs every cent they can get, and it's better to make a few changes like that than to raise prices. Hopefully cuts like that are only a temporary thing, because it does lower the production value of the show.
I'm excited a little more than usual about this season. Hoping to revisit a few closeby haunts this year.
