May 7th... Where is everyone?!
Monday May 7, 2001
Weather: Overcast, temps in low 70's
Crowds.... WHAT crowds??
The offseason finally ends! Decided to skip out on opening day to avoid crowds and because of work, I wouldn't have gotten there until around 4 pm. The forecast was looking kinda scary just as we left, with a chance of rain all day. Drive down wasn't too eventful, no major construction between Lansing and Sandusky. It's good to see the construction on rt. 2 almost done (just needs lines now!) from last summer. Music for the drive down- Alice Deejay's "Who needs guitars anyway?" and lots of listening to 89X.
After 3 straight days of work with very little sleep, I was feeling downright exhausted before we even got to the park! Wish it wouldn't have been that way, might have gotten a lot more rides in! (more on that later) First stop was the season pass center to get my pass processed. The 2001 passes are snazzy compared to previous years, all done digitally and on a "credit card" like card instead of a laminated picture.
Now on to the fun stuff!
Park was EMPTY! Yeah, it was only 10:30 but it was deserted! The new entrance is gorgeous! Looks a bit smaller than it used to for some reason, but still much more visually pleasing than the old one. I wanted to head straight for MF, but I saw a very rare thing (well, not at all on this day!)- NO line for Raptor!
The paintjob did wonders for the ride... looks brand new! The painted rails look cool, and for some reason, I think make the ride LOUDER. (which, imo, gives it even more of a presence) It was now time to put an end to a long miserable winter (that's what happens when you live in the midwest, LONG miserable winters). Backseat, far right hand side. Absoultely ROCKED! Raptor is the most consistent ride I can think of... it's NEVER given me a bad ride! Just continues to impress over and over again. Now that i've broken out of the coasterless drought, it was time....
Millennium Force. 8 rides in 2000, average wait then was close to 1.25/1.5 hours. What I saw here was even more shocking than the nonexistent line for Raptor... it was a 15 min wait!!!! Still just as great as ever! Not to mention the 15 min wait was with only 2 trains running (blue stayed out of service all day partially covered with a tarp). Took my first ride of the year in the backseat, same obnoxious airtime on the drop and hills and same INSANE intensity everywhere else. What's not to love about it??? Got off, met up with Anne, and did it again!!
Time to head over to Magnum to get a few rides and say hi to Dan. He was busy trying for as many rides as possible in one day, mainly because there was NO line for Magnum at all! Why can't every day be this uncrowded??? Got a few rides in, ended up with 6 for the day. Two of the rides early in the day were perhaps the BEST I've had in a long time! Where'd the trims go? (they came back later :P)
"Feels good to be home!"
Things were sinking in now that I had a second to take a deep breath. Makes the offseason seem worth it when you have a place like CP to come back to every summer! Now it was time to hit one of my personal favorites (my namesake here!), Mantis!
"NO WAY! YOU HAVE TO BE KIDDING...."
Standing below the vertical loop I noticed something before heading to the entrance. I *thought* I was hearing things, but am I ever so happy I was wrong. Every other train, the trims on the drop were NOT GOING OFF!! I was beyond excited!! I noticed a pattern, it was only happening to train #2. So our first ride was in row 1, train 2 and OH MY!!! Why can't they ALWAYS run it like this?!?!! Mantis once again reminded me why I love it so much... all out sheer intensity. Absolutely incredible beyond belief!! And Anne, you know who's to blame for the trim, right? (Dan might be able to answer this one too)
From here it was time for pie. If anyone read my TR last July you'll immediaetly know what I'm talking about here. The food place right next to MF's exit has some pretty good apple pie. There's been an ongoing joke about how fast I could eat a slice... 55 seconds! Would have been shorter if it weren't for this INSANE bird that decided it was going to join me at the table for a snack! I could have picked it up and moved it! It wasn't going to leave unless *forced* off the table (thanks to Anne for encouraging it to stay with those crumbs :o)
After the pie we headed down frontier trail to meet up with my mom, sister and aunt over by Stockade. We decided it was time for my sister to try out Magnum! We have another fan! Managed a few more rides, then headed to get some food and get in a couple more rides on Raptor. Rode up front and in back again with no wait for any row but the front, two train operation. This was odd, i'd never seen CP run rides with two trains ever! Mantis even went down to one by the end of the day! It was seriously that empty! All this riding in such a short timespan was taking its toll on me. 3 days with a total of maybe 6 hours of sleep, DJing events that drained my energy every day/night and then going crazy at CP can do bad things to a person's body! But it's all worth it :)
From here it was back to Mantis for another trim free ride... breataking! I hope train 2 manages to do this ALL season! Back over to force for another few rides, my luckier than anything sister and Anne managed a frontseat ride (did I mention they're LUCKY!?)
Decided to finish the day off on Magnum then call it quits. Dan was STILL going, somewhere around 60 something trips! And Anne, next time I pass up an opportunity like I did (after my last ride) please
feel free to kick me!
The trip home was exciting, because in 17 years of CP trips, (going since age 2) taking nearly the same way every time, I have NEVER seen the I-280 Maumee river drawbridge go up EVER... until Monday! Was cool to see it, but it ended up
setting us back about 20 minutes because the boat going by was slower than molasses!
So here's to another AWESOME summer of Cedar Point... hoping to meet up with all you guys at some point in time this summer! Maybe I'll even be lucky enough to go again tomorrow, if not there's always next week (this is where having a
summer job that you only work weekends comes in handy! plenty of weekday CP trips this year!)
-Jeff
-------------
Jeff Tobe
tobejeff@pilot.msu.edu
http://mantomatic.virtualave.net/ *** This post was edited by Mantomatic on 5/8/2001. ***
Weather: Overcast, temps in low 70's
Crowds.... WHAT crowds??
The offseason finally ends! Decided to skip out on opening day to avoid crowds and because of work, I wouldn't have gotten there until around 4 pm. The forecast was looking kinda scary just as we left, with a chance of rain all day. Drive down wasn't too eventful, no major construction between Lansing and Sandusky. It's good to see the construction on rt. 2 almost done (just needs lines now!) from last summer. Music for the drive down- Alice Deejay's "Who needs guitars anyway?" and lots of listening to 89X.
After 3 straight days of work with very little sleep, I was feeling downright exhausted before we even got to the park! Wish it wouldn't have been that way, might have gotten a lot more rides in! (more on that later) First stop was the season pass center to get my pass processed. The 2001 passes are snazzy compared to previous years, all done digitally and on a "credit card" like card instead of a laminated picture.
Now on to the fun stuff!
Park was EMPTY! Yeah, it was only 10:30 but it was deserted! The new entrance is gorgeous! Looks a bit smaller than it used to for some reason, but still much more visually pleasing than the old one. I wanted to head straight for MF, but I saw a very rare thing (well, not at all on this day!)- NO line for Raptor!
The paintjob did wonders for the ride... looks brand new! The painted rails look cool, and for some reason, I think make the ride LOUDER. (which, imo, gives it even more of a presence) It was now time to put an end to a long miserable winter (that's what happens when you live in the midwest, LONG miserable winters). Backseat, far right hand side. Absoultely ROCKED! Raptor is the most consistent ride I can think of... it's NEVER given me a bad ride! Just continues to impress over and over again. Now that i've broken out of the coasterless drought, it was time....
Millennium Force. 8 rides in 2000, average wait then was close to 1.25/1.5 hours. What I saw here was even more shocking than the nonexistent line for Raptor... it was a 15 min wait!!!! Still just as great as ever! Not to mention the 15 min wait was with only 2 trains running (blue stayed out of service all day partially covered with a tarp). Took my first ride of the year in the backseat, same obnoxious airtime on the drop and hills and same INSANE intensity everywhere else. What's not to love about it??? Got off, met up with Anne, and did it again!!
Time to head over to Magnum to get a few rides and say hi to Dan. He was busy trying for as many rides as possible in one day, mainly because there was NO line for Magnum at all! Why can't every day be this uncrowded??? Got a few rides in, ended up with 6 for the day. Two of the rides early in the day were perhaps the BEST I've had in a long time! Where'd the trims go? (they came back later :P)
"Feels good to be home!"
Things were sinking in now that I had a second to take a deep breath. Makes the offseason seem worth it when you have a place like CP to come back to every summer! Now it was time to hit one of my personal favorites (my namesake here!), Mantis!
"NO WAY! YOU HAVE TO BE KIDDING...."
Standing below the vertical loop I noticed something before heading to the entrance. I *thought* I was hearing things, but am I ever so happy I was wrong. Every other train, the trims on the drop were NOT GOING OFF!! I was beyond excited!! I noticed a pattern, it was only happening to train #2. So our first ride was in row 1, train 2 and OH MY!!! Why can't they ALWAYS run it like this?!?!! Mantis once again reminded me why I love it so much... all out sheer intensity. Absolutely incredible beyond belief!! And Anne, you know who's to blame for the trim, right? (Dan might be able to answer this one too)
From here it was time for pie. If anyone read my TR last July you'll immediaetly know what I'm talking about here. The food place right next to MF's exit has some pretty good apple pie. There's been an ongoing joke about how fast I could eat a slice... 55 seconds! Would have been shorter if it weren't for this INSANE bird that decided it was going to join me at the table for a snack! I could have picked it up and moved it! It wasn't going to leave unless *forced* off the table (thanks to Anne for encouraging it to stay with those crumbs :o)
After the pie we headed down frontier trail to meet up with my mom, sister and aunt over by Stockade. We decided it was time for my sister to try out Magnum! We have another fan! Managed a few more rides, then headed to get some food and get in a couple more rides on Raptor. Rode up front and in back again with no wait for any row but the front, two train operation. This was odd, i'd never seen CP run rides with two trains ever! Mantis even went down to one by the end of the day! It was seriously that empty! All this riding in such a short timespan was taking its toll on me. 3 days with a total of maybe 6 hours of sleep, DJing events that drained my energy every day/night and then going crazy at CP can do bad things to a person's body! But it's all worth it :)
From here it was back to Mantis for another trim free ride... breataking! I hope train 2 manages to do this ALL season! Back over to force for another few rides, my luckier than anything sister and Anne managed a frontseat ride (did I mention they're LUCKY!?)
Decided to finish the day off on Magnum then call it quits. Dan was STILL going, somewhere around 60 something trips! And Anne, next time I pass up an opportunity like I did (after my last ride) please
feel free to kick me!
The trip home was exciting, because in 17 years of CP trips, (going since age 2) taking nearly the same way every time, I have NEVER seen the I-280 Maumee river drawbridge go up EVER... until Monday! Was cool to see it, but it ended up
setting us back about 20 minutes because the boat going by was slower than molasses!
So here's to another AWESOME summer of Cedar Point... hoping to meet up with all you guys at some point in time this summer! Maybe I'll even be lucky enough to go again tomorrow, if not there's always next week (this is where having a
summer job that you only work weekends comes in handy! plenty of weekday CP trips this year!)
-Jeff
-------------
Jeff Tobe
tobejeff@pilot.msu.edu
http://mantomatic.virtualave.net/ *** This post was edited by Mantomatic on 5/8/2001. ***
You're lucky the thing went down.. It has been stuck open 6 times in the last 2 weeks..
And at the rate their going, the new bridge is gonna take forever to build..
-------------
MF 2000 - 269 laps
MF 2001 - Double digits already.. and that's only the second day. :)
And at the rate their going, the new bridge is gonna take forever to build..
-------------
MF 2000 - 269 laps
MF 2001 - Double digits already.. and that's only the second day. :)
Hey Jeff I heard you got a little sick, any truth to this rumor. What about the chocolate milk? ;)
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magnumdan
Magnum Count: 1352
911 is not an option
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magnumdan
Magnum Count: 1352
911 is not an option
Oh man... not SICK, just not physically capable of riding anymore :P Working back to back night/morning (out of work 2:30 am, back at 8) the previous day took it's toll. That chocolate milk didn't help :o) I'll just blame any bad feeling at all yesterday on....
-------------
Jeff Tobe
tobejeff@pilot.msu.edu
CP 2k1 trips: 1
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Jeff Tobe
tobejeff@pilot.msu.edu
CP 2k1 trips: 1
Mantis + Waxestatic = Mantomatic..he he
Don't feel bad about pooping out Jeff..Dan's too much of a Freak....:)
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http://www.msu.edu/~armbrus9/cp.html
mf laps = 100! No More No Less!!
Don't feel bad about pooping out Jeff..Dan's too much of a Freak....:)
-------------
http://www.msu.edu/~armbrus9/cp.html
mf laps = 100! No More No Less!!
Woah! Jeffrey... you're the FIRST person to figure it out!!!
There should be a prize or something!
Yeah, I don't feel too bad about dying out... just hope I can hold my own when I attempt to spend a day on Mantis soon ;)
-------------
Jeff Tobe
tobejeff@pilot.msu.edu
http://mantomatic.virtualave.net/
MSU Hoops DJ #2 2000-2001
There should be a prize or something!
Yeah, I don't feel too bad about dying out... just hope I can hold my own when I attempt to spend a day on Mantis soon ;)
-------------
Jeff Tobe
tobejeff@pilot.msu.edu
http://mantomatic.virtualave.net/
MSU Hoops DJ #2 2000-2001
Having done that last MM days last year for abotu 45-min to an hour.. good luck.. I was actualyl in better shape than I usually am.. and it hurt like hell.. of course.. I had also done 50 something MF rides and a few Raptor flights...
That's probably the toughest coaster to do it on because you're not sitting..
-------------
MF 2000 - 269 laps
MF 2001 - Double digits already.. and that's only the second day. :)
That's probably the toughest coaster to do it on because you're not sitting..
-------------
MF 2000 - 269 laps
MF 2001 - Double digits already.. and that's only the second day. :)
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