Preview: Cedar Point Spring/Summer 2015

Entrance to Cedar Point

RB will be headed to Cedar Point for the annual middle school orchestra trip, daughter of RB being a violinist in the orchestra.  But earlier this summer, it was son of RB who spent the day at Cedar Point.  Not being a fan of amusement parks in general these days, he nevertheless was pleasantly surprised and enjoyed his day immensely.

An annual tradition at his high school, the Physics Students outing is actually a required lab.  Having your scientific calculator is as indispensable as sunscreen and water.  The young man thought long and hard about skipping the outing.  Ultimately he decided he would rather go since opting out would have involved an alternate lab assignment, and there were no other students interested in the alternate assignment.

31210 CEDAR OOFGG-09

The Gemini coaster, pictured above, featured prominently in one of the lab exercises.  They had to calculate the height of the coaster using similar triangles and the speed based on the height and conservation of energy. Something like that.  It was difficult to get even this much detail.  Long wordy recaps of the day with his mother have also sadly ceased to become a priority.  I mean, the kid doesn’t lack for verbal ability.  All AP classes and I’m lucky to get a complete sentence.  But I digress.

Top_Thrill_Dragster

This is the fearsome tower of racetrack known as the Dragster that goes straight up at 120 mph and then down.  Son was mildly intrigued and said there was no way “he was going on that thing.”   Reportedly no one in the group did.  He sampled other coasters that he termed as “mid level”  such as the Iron Dragon, Blue Streak, and the Mine Ride, and enjoyed them.  (This was a major statement).  The park was crowded, and the lines became longer as the day went on, especially for the more “intense” rides.

Giant Wheel

For whatever reason, the Ferris wheel was inoperative for much of the day.  I’m hoping it’s a short term problem as I actually love riding them.

Food and beverage options were on the level expected for cost and quality, and there is apparently a sit down restaurant that RB didn’t know about last year, which of course, son doesn’t remember the name of the place but did advise that a burger, fries and lemonade came to 16$.  He was also able to find working fountains to refill his water bottle, so that was encouraging to hear.

Rougarou

Rougarou is a brand new “floorless” coaster at Cedar Point.  You can bet your house I won’t be on that.  No floor?  Why is this a selling point with roller coaster enthusiasts?  And from the picture it looks like it doesn’t have sides either?  Yikes.  This is all the thrill I need in the above photo.   I don’t know what a “Rougarou” is but it sounds like it was named after some French approximation of the Loch Ness monster.

Looking forward now to this year’s outing, and having learned from last year’s mistakes, will be sure to have sunscreen and some type of cap or visor.

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lebeau
Admin
8 years ago
Reply to  RB

Yeah the original pictures weren’t showing up. I went out and grabbed what I could find to match the text, but I had no idea what the original picture looked like. Hopefully the finished product is acceptable.

Definitely looking forward to hearing about your excursion.

lebeau
Admin
8 years ago
Reply to  RB

Send whatever you like. You know where to reach me.

Carl
Carl
8 years ago

Nice writeup! I look forward to hearing how your in person visit goes.

I thought it a little odd at first to see Snoopy welcoming people to the park in the photo. Out where I am the Peanuts characters are the symbols of Knott’s Berry Farm. So I looked it up and sure enough they are owned by the same company (along with a bunch of other amusement parks). Seems like most of the theme parks in the US are now held between this company, Disney, Six Flags, and Sea World.

lebeau
Admin
8 years ago
Reply to  RB

That’s correct. Once you get past the Disneys and Universals, Cedar Fair and Busch Gardens own many of the nicest amusement parks in the country. Six Flags and Sea World (which I will never visit again after watching Black Fish) are the other giants in the industry. Then you’ve one-offs like Dollywood and countless other little parks like Kennywood or Holiday World.

If you see the Peanuts, it’s a Cedar Fair park. Cedar Point is their flagship park.

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