Cedar Point opening day!

Stu and I attempted to get our season passes last week, not realizing the office was closed on Tuesday. However, we did eat dinner at our new favorite Sandusky joint, The Thirsty Pony, which has awesome teriyaki wings and barbecue sauce. Unfortunately, this meant we had to wait until today to get our new passes, and we waited in line nearly two hours to do so. That's fine; it was both our faults for not double-checking whether the season pass office was open on Tuesdays, and I'll concede that Stu being home with his new baby during a busy week (we'd originally planned to do this a few weeks ago) is more important than our two hours in line. We'll be more organized next year.

Unfortunately, in a span of seven days ahead and back, this was the coldest day, at a Lake-Erie-wind average of about 55 degrees. It wasn't too bad in the sun, but it was rather chilly in the shade. As it had been just over six months since I'd had a hot-dog-on-a-stick, I didn't much care. Using my new camera phone, I had my picture taken with the Snoopy statue in the Snoopy Boutique.

Raptor had a long line, and MaxAir had apparently lost its brakes, so we went for Wicked Twister first. I allowed myself to ride Power Tower again, and this time I actually enjoyed it. The newest ride, Skyhawk, was pretty cool. It's similar to MaxAir, in that it swings you back and forth several times, but with a few key differences: MaxAir turns the seating area, so you get a different view throughout the ride, and Skyhawk swings much faster and goes beyond a 180-degree arc. In truth, I don't think Cedar Point needs both of these rides, fun as they are. However, it's nice to have something over in the Frontier Town area of the park, which is normally pretty dull for those of us between the ages of 10 and 50.

Nearby are the remnants of White Water Landing, the old log flume ride, where Project "Maverick" is rumored to be taking place. The park is being very hush-hush about it, and some think a "family-oriented" (read: fairly tame, water-based) "coaster" is going in. Others are hoping for "dueling flyers": think Gemini, but suspended prostrate facing the ground. There are also rumors of a "four-dimensional" coaster, of which there is only one other in the world (Valencia, CA), with another under construction in Japan. It's like a normal coaster, but the seats can rotate in a controlled spin (so it's not just a vomit-inducing free-spin). I'd love to see either of the latter two. In 2007, it will have been four years since Cedar Point's last coaster, Top Thrill Dragster, and even that was a two-trick pony, so I'm hoping for something more substantial this time. They could also do everyone a favor and burn the Mean Streak ("the mean squeak"). What a waste of space that thing is.

We took the train over to Millennium Force, but it closed not long after we got in line. We did Wild Cat and Raptor before heading home. We both remarked that these were some of the smoothest rides we'd ever had on these coasters. If we hadn't been at the front of the park, we might have taken Magnum for a spin as well, just to see if the trend continued (we tend to avoid Magnum these days because it's so rough). It was also neat to go on opening day and see everything so clean and freshly painted.

As far as I'm concerned, summer has begun!