Cedar Point Opening Day is Three Weeks Away!

The long wait is getting shorter as we’re finally just 21 days away from Cedar Point’s Opening Day! Three. More. Weeks. We’ve seen the finishing touches put on Rougarou and have heard from GM Jason on how exciting Rougarou will be once it opens on that faithful May 9th date. Some of the movements and removals that have been going on around the park will be fantastic sites to conspire about what’s to come for The Point. As we reported to you in February, Cedar Point has been busy clearing the Good Times Theatre and Turnpike Cars sites, Maverick getting better seat restraints and The Gazebo Food Stand is going out but Sweet Spot is Coming In.

Cedar Point’s Opening is apart of an exciting first two weeks in May. On May 1st: Avengers: Age of Ultron opens in theaters, May 2nd: Day 3 of NFL Draft/NBA Playoffs continue/Red Sox-Yankees rivalry/Mayweather-Pacquiao fight [FINALLY] all happens in one day and May 9th: Cedar Point Opens with a BEAST ready to attack. There will be a buzz through the entire month of May & it’s only fitting that Cedar Point is right in the thick of it. It’s brother park Kings Island is had an exciting Opening Day, which is a nice kick-off to Theme Park season in Ohio. To help pass by those long winding 21 days until The Big Day, we’re counting down the last three Saturdays until May 9th by looking back at the last 3 coasters that opened at America’s Roller Coast!!

It’s another Cedar Point gift that’ll keep on giving. GateKeeper has been able to make new friends easily since his 2013 debut and has also granted a lot of rides since first hatching at C.P. We told you a couple months ago over 1.8 Million rides swooped over the Main Entrance to Cedar Point in 2014 alone and we have a good hunch that the number could climb even with the Rougarou debut [that rhymed] coming this season. This Bolliger & Mabillard bully is certainly a welcomed addition to Coaster Crazies’ schedule of rides each season. There’s always something good about a coaster that breaks 7 world records, goes up to 67 MPH and has a 164 foot drop; Winged coasters are soaring into parks giving thrills with feet dangling and a unique coaster train design of being along side the track. Dollywood in Great Smokey Mountain, TN was the first in America to have a Winged Coaster when Wild Eagle opened in 2012. That type of rarity was certainly intricate to Cedar Fair to get in on something that has already been successful and would allow them to be one of the first on the planet to have their own. This is cause to recall what was there before GateKeeper and then we remember the Good Ole Space Spiral and the aged Disaster Transport. Those can give a warm feeling in your tummy when you reminisce but a Scream Machine with a License To Thrill [& Shrill] is what we love best about Cedar Point!! With 2.1 Million rides in 2013 and nearly 2 Million rides given in 2014, It’s certainly a smash hit. Those numbers are like Beyonce’s album sales in a year! With 4 Gs, 3 minutes of ride time and sick & twisted inversions, we’re salivating for it right now. One thing that’s always Great about new coasters being built are the cool webcams you can monitor daily from their website! As a side note, there’s something that’s convincingly daring about riding a coaster that’s themed after a vicious bird. Cedar Point did good by giving Raptor a new nest mate after 20 seasons of Ruling The Sky. To give you a peek of your destiny on May 9th, here’s the GateKeeper in action!:

Hey Ya’ll, Let’s “Ride The Maverick!” [Point, Wink, Shoot]. The 17th coaster in Cedar Point’s collection was opened in 2007 and cost a stellar $21 Million to build; By comparison, the Mantis cost $12 Million to build over ten years prior in 1996. The new restraints being added to the ride this year is another reason to run into Cedar Point like crazy on May 9th! It’s nice to mosey on through Frontiertown and see the base of Millennium Force and the shops that make handcrafts and then see how “The Old West Was Never This Wild”! It’s a coaster that’s got a lot going for it and keeps pleasing it’s loyal fans; With Maverick giving over 1.1 Million rides last year, that is respectable for the 9 seasons old coaster. This is a Wild Ride, Cowboy; but it’s also a lot of fun as well with the western music playing and the trains each having a name: Bart [silver], Beau [gold], Sam [copper], Ben [Iron], Brett [brass] and Brent [gunmetal]. For those who may have noticed, those are some of the character names from the 1950’s & 60’s TV show, “Maverick”; it all connects together!! Going 70 MPH and having that wild twisted horseshoe roll and having a tunnel as part of the rodeo ride is a great reason to keep going back for seconds of the Wild West. The Intamin coaster has 4,450 feet of track that it boasts and will certainly keep entertaining for years to come; we’ll always have the memories of White Water Landing and the Swan Boats that Maverick replaced. Let’s look at it as Good Times replaced with Wild Times; it can be a win-win situation!!

There are some roller coasters that capture the attention of the entire theme park industry and the mainstream world in a special way. When Top Thrill Dragster [affectionately known to many as “Draggy”] opened in 2003, that helped to keep significant excitement with The Point at the early part of the 2000’s. Just a few years removed from Millennium Force opening in 2000 to much fanfare, the Intamin constructed world-record breaking strata-coaster was over the top in many ways [including over the top of the world]. With Draggy being 420 feet tall, it was the tallest coaster in the world before being supplanted by Six Flags Great Adventures’ Kingda Ka in 2005. Another one for the record books is how much came from the pocket books–the cost to build the daredevil machine was a whopping $25 million, which tied the cost to build Millennium Force. Now that’s a lot of bucks to get to scream your lungs out and repent for your sins while going around the top of the loop–and it’s so worth it!!! While the good ole fella will face downtime for mechanical attention because of it’s unique technology and construction, it stays a crowd pleaser for anyone feeling “Fast & Furious”…….and not wanting to get a speeding ticket. 120 MPH, only 17 seconds ride duration and sometimes getting that surprising roll back before going over the loop is what makes this a nice day at the park. Coaster enthusiasts still give props and favor to TTD for it’s appeal for thrill despite being beat out by Kingda Ka in stats; it proves that the original is best! Have a look below at the sweet brochure placement that Cedar Point had for Dragster when it first opened. America’s Roller Coast keeps upping the ante and you can’t stop them nor contain them:

As for the star of our 2015 show, Rougarou updates have been coming through from park officials. There was a cool Vine video tweeted this week by Tony Clark, Director of Communications at Cedar Point with the caption:

There goes the floor – you’re out the door! #Rougarou #CedarPoint

We also got treated [and tweeted] to a photo of the Rougarou station with print designs on the exterior and with a view of the coaster track from Tony C.!

Well this is neat… #Rougarou

Oh….& Another thing you’ll need to keep in mind. When you pass by the Snoopy Boutique, you’ll wanna stop. Seriously. The deliciousness of homemade candies and fudges will captivate you. Tony is already causing us to drool with the photo he snapped of the building’s progress!!

The new Sweet Spot is lookin’ tasty! #NewIn2015

Welp, we gotta get a new keyboard because of all the drooling going on over the coaster anticipation and homemade candies we’ll be devouring. But as you know, keep it locked here and on our social medias for Cedar Point Goodness & Updates!

For tickets and more information about Cedar Point, visit the official website here!

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