In line for dragster. Its been nice guys

I'm pretty sure you won't die. Like 80%

Omfg awesome

Dragster!

Wooooooot. I'm so goddamn jealous

Long day still going. Will post findings and picks late tonight

Well what a ****ing day. Next post has order of events, post after that will have breakdown of all the rides

So Stuck, how many coasters did you go on?

Arrived on Sunday at around 3. Checked in, did a walk around the hotel and beach. Drove back around the park to the Marina, walked around got some pics. Noted that the indoor and outdoor pools were all open till 11pm so decided on just sightseeing in the afternoon and swim after dinner. Ate at TGI Fridays which was pretty good. Hot tub & pool in the evening, sat by their fire pits. Watched the Hockey game in the room with some beer we brought in for the rest of the night. Pics of all this above, including view from the room. Rides were all lit up at night. Was cool

Next morning got up just before 7. Plan was to drive over to Sandcastle Suites and eat at Breakwater Cafe buffet which I had confirmed the night before opens at 7:30. Well sure enough we're there at 7:32 and not open. Nobody inside, lights out. Wait 5 more minutes, still nothing and bounce. Ate at Perkins in Breakers which was solid and saved us a bit of time since we were just below our room and entrance was right there.

The only regret of the whole trip was the following rookie mistake: we got to the gate at 9am just like we planned (used the beachfront boardwalk entrance), but we didn't count on everyone else doing the same. That burned about 20 minutes waiting in line to get in.

We hustled right to Valravn and saw the lineup was already 30 mins. Still shorter than everything we had observed from our app the day before but presented us with a choice: do we burn the rest of the free hour we have doing it or do we try and knock of some others with hopes of returning to it? We chose to head more to the back of the park instead. Good choice I think in the end, I was able to hit up both Millennium Force and Maverick before 10 and didn't wait more than 10 mins for either.

View from Millennium line


Getting On:


Comforting sign in Maverick's line:


About to be launched up:


Pulling back into the station:


After that the plan was to head back towards the front. Lot of stuff was still closed at that point, but Dragster had just opened, so I YOLO'd it. I literally walked right on. 5 mins. Hardly had enough time to post ITT from the line yesterday.

Gulp:


Here I go:


Well I did it:


Next up was Gatekeeper.

Station view:


View from behind:


Next up took the skyride back towards the middle of the park, got some cool pics.



After we landed I hit up Rougarou. Had also just opened so little wait:

View from line:


Magnum was next which again had 5 min wait as it had just opened:



Hit up Gemini and Mean Streak back-to-back. The wooden coasters had no lines so thought might as well



At this point I had been making good progress but was concerned because I hadn't yet done Raptor and Valravn and the app was saying 75 and 105 mins respectively pretty much since open. I was willing to do a long wait for one, but not both. But then we checked and Raptor said 30 mins so we hustled to. It was really only about 20 mins so I was able to knock that one off pretty quickly.

View from the line:


View of the coaster from the sky ride:



After that there wasn't much left to do. Hit up Corkscrew in the meantime and decided since I had already done Dragster to just YOLO wicked Twister, which had <5 min waits all day.

Welp:




Rocked some Cedar Creek Mine Ride next:


I hit up Blue Streak just for the hell of it. Think it was about here

Was getting late and we hit up Iron Dragon:



Finally we made the decision to wait for Valryn at this point. Line only said an hour, so we could be in and out and leave by 7pm (wanted to leave time to eat before hitting the road home). Pretty much right at 7 I was literally a train or two from the top and it went down for some maintenance for ~20 mins. Lots of people left the line and were getting frustrated. Finally it came back and I got on.

Views of it from the sky ride:




Sunset views from the sky ride:



Also, spotted a snake from Iron Dragon slithering along in the water so raced back into line to snap a pic. Didn't think I'd be herping on this trip:

Awesome

You may have given me a reason to actually visit Ohio one day

Reviews (in order of lowest to highest rating)

Ranked each coaster in Fun, Intensity and Comfort out of 5 to give it a total score out of 15.

Blue Streak: (2, 2.5, 3 = 7.5)
Park's oldest coaster. Looks cool but is dwarfed by other coasters in the area Valravn, Raptor and Rougarou. Drop is tame and as it's a wooden coaster it's not too comfortable. Would recommend to any timid coaster riders. Line was <10 mins for most of the day

Meanstreak (2.5, 4, 1 = 7.5)
Could have listened to advice here. Very skipable. It rattled me around so much I thought I had cracked a rib mid-ride. I had to try and sit up straight and hold my core tight for most of the ride and couldn't enjoy it. Fwiw, if that hadn't happened it would have been very fun. Lots of exciting turns and drops but the comfort level just kills it for me. Be careful if you're going on this. Lines were <15 mins for most of the day.

Cedar Creek Mine Ride: (3, 2 3 = 8)
Pretty tame, no big drops and kind of rickety. Zero line, and a wife-favored ride helped this score a little higher though.

Gemini (3, 3, 4 = 10)
As far as wooden coasters go this was very smooth because I think the track rail itself is steel. This is a unique coaster because it's a dual track and two trains 'race' each other. However the Blue train was down when I went which made it a bit less fun. Still a short line even with one train running.

Corckscrew (3, 3, 4 = 10)
One decent drop, one loop and two corkscrews. Nuff said. There's a very similar coaster at Canada's Wonderland (Dragonfire) that is virtually the same thing with an extra loop, and it's widely considered the most beginner coaster in the park. Would recommend for riders looking for their first 'high intensity' coaster.

Iron Dragon (3, 3, 5 = 11)
Suspended coaster with a couple of small drops and runs through the trees. Some quick turns which is fun but nothing to write home about. Suspended coasters are fun but they're limited in their design.

The rest of the coasters all scored 13/15 or better and are very similarly scored. They all have different strengths which I'll try and detail but for the most part they're all very solid.

Raptor (4, 4, 5 = 13)
Managed to get on this with only a 20 min wait. Excellent drop and awesome loops and twists. I was very slightly underwhelmed because as it compares to Wonderland's equivalent (Flight Deck, formerly Top Gun) it's slightly less intense. But still a solid ride.

Magnum (4.5, 4.5, 4 = 13)
Magnum's drop was really fun. After that you loop around and have a lot of short and quick 'up & downs' which really jerk you out of the seat. Some may call that part uncomfortable but I really enjoyed it. Probably one of the most fun underrated rides since it looks like its line was always <20 mins

Rougarou (4, 4.5, 5 = 13.5)
Fun drop that kisses a fountain rising up from the water. Tight loops and twists take you around the queue. Very solid all around.

Gatekeeper (4.5, 4, 5 = 13.5)
Very unique style of coaster and one I was looking most forward to. No track above or below you, adds to the excitement. A tall drop that immediately flips you upside down as you go down. I sat in the back which was awesome since you could see the train twisting in front of you. Lots of sweet twists.

Wicked Twister (4, 5, 5 = 14)
This was intense. They really ****ing blast you out of there. You go up and backwards 4 or 5 times. It's really tough looking up and seeing no track or going backwards and not knowing when you're going to stop. Very fun. Short lines.

Valravn (4, 5, 5 = 14)
That drop was no joke. They point you down, hold you for 5 seconds (which don't seem to take long at all). I couldn't pass up the opportunity to yell in my best Arnold voice: "Come on, do it already!". After the drop and the loop there's a second almost as sweet drop but it's basically over after that. Was kind of disappointed with the rest of it, but I guess that's the whole point of the new gimmick. All in all I wouldn't recommend waiting more than an hour for it unless it's the last thing you're doing for the day.

Millennium Force (4, 5, 5)
Very solid drop. Wonderland has two very similar Giga coasters but this one is 15 years older and still competes with them. Did not disappoint from the hype. Very smooth ride and sick zero-g drops. Awesome view of the park and peninsula upon ascent. Got in in under 10 mins and the line was 60+ for the rest of the day.

Maverick (5, 5, 5)
This was the underdog winner of the day. They pull you up the hill incredibly fast and just throw you right over that hill. The drop is 95 degrees (for a small portion) which beats out even Valravn. Lots of sick twists and turns and enters a dark barn midway. When you think it's over, it launches you back out of the darkness at 100+ mph and you go for more twists and turns. Being at the back of the park, I got in right after MF in like 5 mins so this would be my recommendation to hit first or second to anyone entering the park first.

Top Thrill Dragster (5, 5, 5)
Not much to say here. You get launched, you go up, you come down. There's really not much thinking going on as you go up and down. The most intense part is the launch imo. But it was thrilling nonetheless. Super solid and recommend for all!

Other thoughts/General advice

After observing the rides over two days it's clear that many of them undergo either routine maintenance or close down for problems over the course of a day. Given that usually lines either stay closed for an extended period of time or lines get shorter due to people leaving. Stay on top of the app and when rides reopen, hit them up right away. You can save a lot of line time.

Be prepared to spend $20-$30 for lunch. We were, but we weren't expecting quality to be so poor. Ordered two slices and a drink. My pepperoni slice had literally one pepperoni, and it was two halves on the edge of each cut lol. Very small piece too.

Sunscreen sunscreen sunscreen. I burn very easily but walked away unscathed because I applied SPF 85 three times lol

Glad you had fun!

The wicked twister is there only coaster that's ever made me nachos

really? it only made me poutine

damn

Doing this same trip again for May 2-4 weekend.

Also doing NYC on July 1 weekend and may do Darien Lake on the way back, anyone been there?

I went to Darien Lake about 15 years ago. I thought it was fantastic and underrated. I went when school was still in session. Never had to wait more than 5 minutes for a ride. The one Superman roller coaster was legit.

Dragster + Force + That newer one whose name I forget = good day.

Haha just killing time at work and see a Darien Lake post. I live about 2 hours south of Darien Lake and have been there about 10 times both for the day and weekend stays in their campgrounds. It is nice for the day, but it is not anywhere comparable to Cedar Point. And as posted above, 15 years ago it was amazing but, it was Six Flags, it is no longer such. I recall a sweet Batman show (no longer there) that would show every 2 hours or so. It had A/C so if I was camping there I would make an effort to go to cool down lol.
There are about 3 rides I really enjoy there. The Viper, The Mind Eraser, and The Superman (no idea what its called now that Six Flags pulled out). But all in all it is a good time.
Check out what concerts they have going on during the time you will be by there. They always seem to have some good shows going on.
EDIT: forgot to add that there are 2 (maybe 3) other coasters. A wooden one I dubbed the chiropractor (rode it 2 times and never again) and the Boomer rang. That one has been broken down everytime I went there except 1 time. It runs the same track going forward and backwards. It was fun, but again seemed to ALWAYS be down.

I'd love to hit it up as it's pretty much exactly on our way home from NYC but I'm not sure we can justify cost. For example Cedar Point had $30 tickets online last year and Darien Lake looks like $65. Can't really justify over $200 CAD for a day pass lol. It's also dirt cheap to stay at CP ($130 right on site) and it doesn't seem that way for DL.

Am I missing anything? Any cost saver tips?

The only thing I can think of is that I remember up to maybe 2-3 years ago they did like half off a day pass if you brought in an empty can of Pepsi, yea LOL. That is a real thing though they did for a long time. I would honestly just check their site to see if they are offering any kind of promo/discount.
It has been a while since I have been there so idk what they run now. But $65 is high, it was that high when it was six flags, granted its the same everything minus the trademarks that had to go, but all the rides are the same.

gate opener sale just started, got my tickets! going again same weekend

Year #2 happening in 3 days w00t! Going with another couple this time so I'll have a partner or two to ride with when the wifey is not interested