Mac Daddy and the Mini Macs' Mega Trip Report '08

[KWood]

Great pictures! It was nice to see Silver Dollar City in a trip report. We have season passes there but since it's about 6 hours away we've only been once this year so far. We plan to go again in December when they have their holiday lights up.

Looking forward to the rest of your trip pictures.

[xalesa]

Hey MacDaddy; you were in my neck of the woods, literally! I live in Springdale which is just south of Bentonville. Hope you enjoyed your stay here, and especially Silver Dollar City. For a small park it's quite nice as you have so accurately displayed.

Nice job; I am enjoying your trip report!

[MickeyMaxx]

What a beautiful setting for a theme park! Thanks.

[All4dISNEY]

GR8 Pics! Love seeing "other" parks!

[xalesa]

This ball park is truly just down the street from where I live. Yeah, there is nothing out there but fields, then this stadium.

[Mac Daddy]

Mac Daddy Trip Reports and Photo Updates:

2008

10/5/08: A Wide Angle View of the Disneyland Resort

7/16/08: Mac Daddy and the Mini Macs' Mega Trip Report '08

6/6/08: Photo Update: Early June - Night Shots, TSMM (Exterior), Indy in Action, & more...

5/2/08: Infrared filter shots plus photo update for early May

4/4/08: Photo Update - Carousel is back, Spud is Skinned, Mill Refurb & More

3/21/08: Photo Update - Spring is here, so are the crowds, and more night shots

2/21/08: Disneyland - Color and Light

1/11/08: Transitions, Tink up front, New Railing on Dream Suite


2007

12/14/07: Photo Update 12/7, 12 &14 - December in the DLR

11/30/07: Photo Update - Rain, Rain, Rain and Candlelight set up

11/16/07: Photo Update - Christmas Parade, Castle Lights and Fireworks from afar

11/09/07 - Nightshots Part Deux: DCA and Remember Fireworks

11/01/07: LDF's (YesIStayedUntilTwoAMToGetThese) Night Shots

10/26/07: Photo Update - The Tree Is Here, GCH Construction And It's Still A Bit Ssssmokey

10/19/07: Photo Update - Disney Ambassadors, Can't Find The Tree, Indian Summer, and more

10/6/07: Craziness. Can you say "Cah-rowded?"

9/20/07: Photo Update 9/20 and 9/21: Halloweentime, Jack is Back, and more...

9/15/07: hoto Update - Early Signs of Halloween, Gallery Tarps Down, Soarin, and more...

9/7/07: Photo Update - I LOVE the off season!

7/17/07: LDF's Retro Trip Report: July 14, 1995 - My Best Day At Disneyland

6/21/07: Summer Is Here! Featuring Indy Evac, POTC Lights Out, LDF's Kids,Night Shots and more

6/13/07: Update 6/13: Nemo line gets shade but still long, Tarzan and Twain near completion

6/11/07: Update - Nemo insanity, Mark Twain Almost Ready, Treehouse Not, And CRRROWDS!!

6/8/07: Nemo Sneak Peak Preview Open Today!6-8

6/4/07: Update and Highlights From 5/25-6/4

5/23/07: Update - Pirates Lair Queue Up, Bleachers Down, CM training, and more...

5/20/07: Premiere take down (dang these guys are fast!) and more...

5/16/07: Premiere set up nears completion, sub walls stay down, and MORE refurbs?

5/13/07: Mother's Day at the DLR: Splash is back, Pirate Craziness, Aladdin and the Quadfecta

4/25/07: Main Street refurbs and....um...where did everybody go?

4/20/07: It's finally raining! Plus Splash testing, etc.

4/19/07: Splash is Splashing, TSI, Early Premiere set up? and more...

3/12/07: Refurbs and Construction in High Gear, Hot. Smokey, and Cah-rowded

3/8/07: Spring Has Sprung, Monorail is Back, Lagoon, and more TSI...

2/05/07: TSI update, Train refurb, a room with a view, & my best attempt at HM

1/26/07: The year of a million Swanerflys

1/17/07: Castle refurb, and DANG it's cold!

1/09/07: The official "I missed the meet and I'm a total loser" trip report
By LDF


2006

11/16/06: The real magic happens at Christmas time...

[Ginarella]

Awesome pictures so far. I can't wait to see the coasters in Cedar Point.

[Mac Daddy]

Part III - St. Louis and Cedar Point Ohio


Due to how our schedule worked out, we had to make the drive from St. Louis Missouri to Cedar Point Ohio in one day. Our GPS had it down as just under NINE HOURS of driving.

This is what the view looked like at 6:30 AM, just before we took off...



The clouds were already moving in and severe thunderstorms were predicted for the afternoon. I only had time for a couple of shots before we left town, and these were taken from the car. On the right of the shot below is the Stadium for the St. Louis Rams...




On the opposite side was the amazing archway...




As we crossed the Mississippi, the river was well over flood stage. We drove through the day with a few breaks, and as I drove, I kept peering up at the sky. I had just seen a tornado form live on Fox news a few days prior, so I was looking for Wall Clouds and funnels. By mid afternoon, the clouds began to arrive in earnest....




At one point, the sky got very creepy and I saw what I took to be the beginnings of a funnel cloud and we high tailed it off of the freeway and took shelter in a Burger King. The winds picked up, and it poured for about a half an hour, and for a time we had some good sized hail...but no tornado. We kept looking at the radar on the iphone and there were several warning boxes around our area.

So it was back on to the highway. But instead of driving out of the weather, it seemed to follow us off and on...






The weather finally died down and we ALMOST made it to Cedar Point. Not for the first time our GPS Nuvi sent us into a swamp. We pulled out the iphone again and looked at our position with the compass and google maps and found a way back to the main road and Sandusky Ohio.

For those of you who have never heard of Cedar Point, it's an amusement park that is built out onto a peninsula sticking out into Lake Erie. We finally pulled in to the Cedar Point parking lot just before Sunset...




The kids and I just stared at these monstrous coasters in front of us...




That yellow thing in the center looked exceptionally insane. Not to mention this one...





Or...if we wanted to have our fillings shaken out, one of these wooden ones...




I told my kids I would go on ANYTHING they wanted to go on, but...




Feeling more than a little bit of dread, we headed over the Sandcastle Suites, which was out on the end of the Penninsula. We arrived just in time to see the sun sink into Lake Erie...






We were up early the next day as we had early admission and wanted to be inside the park by 9AM. By the time we arrived, there was already a huge line, but it moved almost unbelievably fast. Suddenly we found ourselves in the middle of more coasters than we've ever seen before. Just as Silver Dollar City was buried in trees, Cedar Point is buried in Roller Coasters...







We went on pretty much every coaster in the park...with the exception of two. These two....were totally and completely insane. The MOST insane of these is a four hundred and twenty foot monster called "Top Thrill Dragster"...




So get this: You take off and hit 120 miles an hour in FOUR seconds, shoot straight up...








...hang precariously looking down from 420 feet in the air and then....








you come down. And the best part of all: All they give you is a lap bar.



No thank you.


The other behemoth that we just couldn't work up enough courage for was the Millenium Force. Built eight years ago, this guy leaves Goliath looking like a midget. It broke 10 world records when it opened. This 6,595-foot long coaster includes 310-foot, 169-foot and 182-foot tall hills, a 300-foot drop at a near vertical 80 degree angle, two dark tunnels and three overbanked turns. Tempting...but something about being perched that high in the air with nothing but Lake Erie below you made the kids say no. Otherwise, of COURSE I would have gone on it! :












So the boys and I settled instead for Magnum XL 200.




Now at the time, I would have sworn that this was taller than Goliath at Magic Mountain, but it's not quite as tall. I think maybe I thought it was because I've been on both, and this thing takes a bit longer to get to the top. I swear...it feels like you keep climbing for a half an hour. There are BIRDS flying below you. I'm surprised you don't need extra oxygen at that altitude....




The view was AMAZING! I wasn't able to snap any shots at 75 mph, but the view was really quite stunning. You're looking at water on three sides, and you can see across the entire park. In fact, all of the coasters with high drops had equally beautiful views....right before you plummet to the earth, seemingly to your death.


One of our favorites, and the longest line in the park, was called "Maverick" and it's the newest as it won the best coaster award for 2007. It may not look like much, but here's a quote from UltimateRollercoaster.com

Maverick will take Cedar Point guests on an adventurous journey by boarding steam-era-styled coaster trains with an ultra-sleek profile that will carry them along the 4,450-foot-long course. Linear synchronous motors will propel the train to the top of a 105-foot-tall first hill. From there, it's not straight down - it's more than straight down! Maverick will take its passengers down to Earth at an astonishing 95-degree angle at speeds of up to 57 mph to within five feet above the ground! From there, the train will hug the terrain as it twists and banks around hairpin turns with quick but smooth changes in direction. Throughout the 2-minute, 30-second ride, passengers will also experience eight "airtime-filled hills," three inversions and a second launch through a dark tunnel that will leave them in awe as they reach speeds of 70 mph!

It's that first 95 degree drop that sucks your guts out. Great ride, but we only got to ride it once. Here's some shots...






Just before the loading area with "Mean Streak" in the background:




The rest of the coasters were equally fun. I don't know if this was typical for a Monday in June, but there were hardly any lines at all. The big three had healthy lines, but we went on some of the others 10 times or more. Gemini was one of our favorites as it had a dual track and was constructed of wood, like Collosus, only it was on rails. We were able to stay on that one three times in a row at closing.

The Raptor was also amazing...








It was almost identical to Batman, which made it very sobering to hear a few days later that some poor kid in Six Flags Georgia was decapitated on a similar ride.


Later that evening, we tackled the Mean Streak, which lasted...at LEAST a half an hour. Longest wooden roller coaster....ever. It really wasn't as painful as I was expecting and it featured a very cool design where you crossed through the center in a forest of wooden timbers. No line for this one at all. It was very big in 1991, but now....not so much.








But I gotta tell you. One of my favorite moments of the day came on this...




I told the kids about the days, long ago, when you could board one of these in Disneyland.


It seems almost sacriligious to say this about a non-Disney park, but we had the PERFECT day, dare I say, almost the best day in any amusement park. Cool breezy 70 degree weather, and all of us enjoyed the coasters almost equally. It was high fives all around every time we got off and were still alive. The kids all want to go back again soon. We'll see. The park certainly was amazing and I'd give it five stars out of five. I know they don't currently hold any current record holding coasters as the competition is always overtaking them, but we thought they were all incredible. That last ride of the day, looking out over the lights reflected off Lake Erie on one side and fireworks going of on the other on our third trip around Gemini was perfect. We really can't wait to go back.


Click here for Part IV (Hershey, Bird In Hand, New York)

[Olympicnut]

Now this is a great TR. Awesome pictures. Great commentary.

[Maverick]

Very nice, keep them coming!

[Ride Warrior]

For what is a man, what has he got?
If not an areal view, then he has naught
To ride the rides he truly loves and not the crap devoid of thrills
The record shows I climbed aboard and did it sky way!

[Maverick]

Originally Posted by Mac Daddy

One of our favorites, and the longest line in the park, was called "Maverick" and it's the newest as it won the best coaster award for 2007. It may not look like much, but here's a quote from UltimateRollercoaster.com

[Ride Warrior]

Top thrill Dragster is one of the coolest coaster name ever. Too bad the ride is too extreme to be fun. Overall, the coasters at Cedar Point are clolorful, and appear to be great fun. Thanks for all of the crystal clear photos!

[goofygoof]

Now THIS brings back memories. When I lived and grew up in Tulsa, Oklahoma we'd go up to Eureka Springs, Hot Springs, Branson every summer!

Great pics! Fun times!

[Rex Dopey24]

great trip report thanks.