I only visited Cedar Point for the first time in 2019, but I was grateful to return this year to what's one
of my favorite amusement parks. Opened in 1870, Cedar Point is the third-oldest amusement park in America and had its 150th anniversary in 2020. However, the 150th anniversary celebration - planned to include a parade, new boat ride, and updated park museum - was pushed off until next year. It's nice to see a park that has been notoriously ruthless in getting rid of the old paying some tribute to its history.
One of the best parts of Cedar Point is Boneville, the skeleton-filled town you pass through on the train.
The structures in these scenes are from the late 60s, but Cedar Point does a great job at maintaining all of the animations and effects in them.
I can't help but have a smile on my face when I see something like this...
There are real flames and water in the firefighting scene!
The main reason I wanted to visit Cedar Point again this year was to ride Top Thrill Dragster, which was closed on my 2019 visit. Traveling 400 feet high and reaching 120 miles per hour, Top Thrill Dragster is the second-tallest and third-fastest roller coaster in the world.
I have an embarrassing but memorable story from my first ever ride on this coaster. I'd only experienced launches of at most 70 mph, so I really had no clue what 120 was going to feel like. I was in line when the ride went down (as it often does), so I sat in the hot sun wishing I had something to drink for 30 minutes. By the time I was getting into the train, I was not my most alert self and wasn't really thinking about the speed I was going to reach. After all, Top Thrill Dragster is just one hill, so how intense can it really be?
Well, as soon as we blasted off I realized that this was unlike any coaster I had ever been on before. Of course, I was too thirsty to think about holding my mask - which wasn't tightened enough - to my face, so uh... yeah. Luckily, I had an extra in my pocket, so I left the ride without missing a beat. They probably deleted my photo for not following the rules, though. (Cedar Point was actually doing that!) A search around the launch area for my missing mask was not successful. :-)
Until the novelty wears off for me, Top Thrill Dragster is my second favorite ride in the park... but we can't forget about good old Corkscrew!
That does it for Cedar Point! I felt safer there than I have at the grocery store, even better, people actually followed the ground markings in the queue lines. ;-) My season pass is still valid, so I'm sure that I'll be back at least once next year.
8 comments:
Andrew, nice post.
120 MPH is more than I plan to do without a car, or with a car for that matter.
How fast does the DCA coaster go on takeoff? That's the fastest I can recall going on a coaster, unless the big one at Santa Cruz is faster.
JG
It looks like the Corkscrew conveniently shakes the money out of the riders' pockets, for the "pedestrians"! Though kids now-a-days don't carry cash, do they?? Maybe an occasional cell phone clunks someone on the head...
Andrew, that's great you were able to go to Cedar Point, too, this year - it sure looks like a fun place!
Thanks for sharing, Andrew!
Sue
Andrew, I'm glad to hear that you still got to go to a couple amusement parks this year, even though your CA trip was canceled.
Yikes! 125 mph? I don't know about that. Does it pull the skin on your face back, super tight? I wonder how many other people lose their masks on the launch, each day?
Seeing those Corkscrew pis, makes me miss the old "Corkscrew" at Knott's. Theirs was also iconic....AND historic. It was the first "modern" looping coaster in the country. That didn't stop them from getting rid of it.
I'm happy to see that Cedar Point still has something vintage. That little western town looks like a hoot! And bonus points to them, for having animation, fire, and water in the scenes!
I'm just curious, how old is that "bottle house"?
Thanks for sharing more of your amusement park trips with us, Andrew!
JG, the Giant Dipper and California Screamin'/Incredicoaster both go 55 mph. But to people that only go to Disneyland, that's the most intense roller coaster in the world! Top Thrill Dragster was honestly the first time I had been a bit nervous about riding a coaster in a while.
Sue, I'm glad they haven't ruined the photo-op of the Corkscrew with an ugly net... yet, at least. I've read stories of ride operators who would actually make some good money collecting lost loose change! On Steel Vengeance, you can't even bring your cell phone in the queue line, and you have to go through a metal detector. Of course, if no one is waiting for you off-ride, that means you have no choice but to pay for a locker...
TokyoMagic!, yes, that "skin pulled back" feeling is quite the sensation, but I didn't get the effect with my tongue because of the mask. Hopefully, too many people don't lose their mask - I've been impressed by how the people that go to Cedar Point seem to know how to follow the rules. It might just be worth it to pay for a locker if it means the trains are sent out faster. Fun fact: Cedar Point's Corkscrew was the first coaster to have three inversions. The bottle house is not genuine and is likely from 1971, the year Frontier Trail opened. Thanks for the nice comment!
Sorry I'm late! So glad you got to got this year, Andrew.
Top Thrill Dragster isn't on my list of things I'm excited to try. I drove 120 mph on the Autobahn and that was enough for me.
I remember the first time I saw it in 2005, and my dad and I were looking up at it as a train of screaming riders went up and over the top. We looked at each other, and my dad - the retired Air Force pilot with combat and acrobatic experience - turned to me and said "there is no way I'm getting on that."
I have loved Boneville since my first visit as a 4-year-old in 1973. The humor and silliness is fun for the whole family. There is, however, one particular vignette of a fiddling skeleton musician that started giving me the heebie jeebies when I was in college and still creeps me out today. The animation is just a bit too real for my taste. It's probably falling into "uncanny valley" territory for me. A buddy of mine will mime the motion the animatronic makes when he wants to mess with me.
Andrew & TM!, yes, the bottle house is from 1971, although it is made from genuine bottles. :-) There are some bona-fide historic structures on the Frontier Trail, though. I miss the days when the mill was actually operating and you could buy flour ground on site.
No problem, Chuck. I was hoping that you would see this post!
Honestly, driving 120 mph on the Autobahn is way cooler than riding Top Thrill Dragster. I definitely know the bouncing skeletons you're talking about. That's my favorite diorama, although I see where you're coming from with the "uncanny valley" stuff. You probably know that the mill wheel is still spinning, and you can walk in and observe the machinery while listening to some narration, but you can't buy flour anymore. :-(
BTW, my screen background just changed to the J.W. Addington Mill!
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