Carowinds Connection (2024)

Day 4, Part 1

Ugh. This is not a review I ever wanted nor expected to write.

When planning this trip, I pushed hard for two days at Cedar Point. I have been three times prior and each time I never found one day to be near enough time to enjoy the park in its fullest. Nowhere on Earth is there a place with a coaster collection that even compares to that of Cedar Point’s. That’s without even going into the flat rides, museum, Cedar Point Shores, and now Forbidden Frontier. Given that this would be my friends’ first visit to the park, I knew we would need two full days to take it all in. Little did I know just how much of a good call this would be.

We rolled up to the causeway at 10:30, a good half hour before the park opened. I flashed my platinum pass and parked near the front of the park, hoping we had arrived early enough. We had not, though this had not yet become apparent to us. We sprayed on some sunscreen and walked into Cedar Point’s version of a FEMA tent to get our temperatures taken.

Before I dive into a lot of negatives, I do want to give Cedar Point credit for how well they executed this aspect of prevention measures. The temperature check was incredibly fast and easy. Rather than stopping every single person one at a time to take their temperature, you walk past a thermal camera which keeps the line moving at a steady pace. In no time at all we were done and heading into the park.

I had already briefed my friends that even though Steel Vengeance was a literal mile away from the front gate, it would be our first ride of the day and we would need to move fast. Not only is it the greatest coaster on Earth, it is one of four coasters at Cedar Point which required an access pass to ride. The access pass confused me a lot when they were first announced and it wasn’t until I got to Cedar Point that I finally figured out how they worked. For Steel Vengeance, Maverick, Millennium Force, and Top Thrill Dragster, you must wait in line for a slip of paper which gives you a time to come back and hop in the actual line for the ride itself. This is all to make sure queue lines do not become overcrowded and to encourage social distancing. Unfortunately, this would almost always be a mess.

After all passes have been handed out for the morning, no more are given out until 3:30 in the afternoon. When you hop in line for an access pass there is no promise that you’ll get one and while this never happened to us, it quickly became apparent later in the day that Cedar Point did not anticipate as many people to show up to the park that did. All this said, there is one way to avoid having to get an access pass, get to the park very, very early. The first 250 people who arrive to any of the four rides mentioned earlier can hop right on and ride as much as they please for the first hour after opening.

Switching between light jogging and full sprints, we hurried to Frontier Town in hopes of being one of the lucky 250 or even just make the access pass line. Prior to our visit, Cedar Point had abandoned the reservation system required for park entry, a decision that was clearly made with very little foresight. More on that later. For the time being, we knew there would be more people in the park than we anticipated so we had to be fast. We closed in on the coaster’s entrance and… it was down. No access passes. No idea when or if the coaster would reopen that day. Nothing. It did not open at all for the entire day.

Very disappointed, we hopped in line for an access pass for Maverick, the back of which was not easy to find. Stretching far back past Maverick’s entrance, past the six foot markers on the ground, we waited for the park to open. Somehow, we were lucky enough to score a pass on the ride which would be valid at noon. Until then, we walked around looking for a coaster to ride.

Not long after opening it became clear why cancelling reservations was not a good idea. I understand from a financial standpoint why this decision was made, but from a guest experience standpoint, it was a recipe for disaster. The crowd at the park on this day would have been considered busy on a normal day during any other year. So when you take this, bar most of them from riding the most popular coasters and only operate rides at half capacity, you end up with massive wait times. 30 minutes for Cedar Creek Mine Ride. 30 Minutes for Gemini. 75 Minutes for Valravn. 120 Minutes for Raptor. You get the point. Unless you bought a fast lane months in advance before COVID-19 came to the states, you’re not getting your hands on one, so buckle up and choose your rides wisely. Social distancing at a theme park can only work if you reduce capacity. You cannot have your cake and eat it too. Like I said earlier, you assume all risks when entering a park, but if said park truly cares about preventing the spread, you keep your capacity down. The walkways were so busy with people the only way to keep six feet between yourself and others was to jump into the lake. Rant over, ride time.

One of the few coasters without a ridiculous wait time, we hopped on so my friends could snatch the credit. Not too bad, though nothing to brag about. I rode with a small grasshopper chilling on the restraint next to me so that was neat I suppose. After getting off we grabbed an access pass for Dragster and gave Gemini a ride before heading back to Maverick to use our first access pass of the day.

A one of a kind coaster that still delivers an incredible ride. I know it’s been four years but I’m so happy they gave the trains new restraints because it’s an infinitely better ride with them. My friends were blown away by the raw power and intensity of the ride and I still felt the same gleeful excitement that I did when I first rode it many years ago.

With 45 minutes left until we could use our access passes for Dragster, we saw that Rougarou only had a 30 minute wait and decided to go ahead and knock it out. Well, that 30 minute wait turned into a 75 minute one due to some of the worst operations I have ever seen. You would think that having to check half the amount of riders would cut dispatch times in half, but in Rougarou’s case, it doubled them. Average dispatch was around two minutes for a train of sixteen people and that’s without having to wait for the crew to clean the trains every half hour.

Eventually we made it up the stairs and into the station, only to find out that the bins (which had always been available for loose articles every other year that I have been) were now only for shoes. What if you didn’t know this? Well then it sucks to be you I guess. I know that I love Rougarou, but it was hard for me to enjoy this ride in particular as I was too concerned about my car keys from falling out of my pocket.