Last weekend, Cedar Point hosted their first ever Roller Coaster Appreciation Night. From 7-11 pm they opened their gates for only the coasters, providing hours of ERT!
As we started our journey to Sandusky Friday evening the weather was great and hopes were high. After a brief stop for dinner the skies opened up and unfortunately stayed that way the remainder of the night (apparently mother nature does not appreciate coasters as much as we do).
We arrived at the park around 7:30, put our hoodies on and were on our way. Since the weather was so bad, we were very worried that nothing would be open, but then we saw GateKeeper proudly running and my nerves were settled (at least I was going to get to ride one coaster tonight).
After a few rides on GateKeeper, my wife spotted a train on Millennium Force going up the lift hill and we booked it over there in case it would close later on. It turned out that not only was Millennium open, but Rougarou, Iron Dragon and Maverick were too!
Standing in the queue for Millennium now, the rain started to slow, showing signs of a not so painful ride up ahead. As we boarded the train however, the skies opened up again and drenched us as we climbed the lift. I don’t think anything can ruin a ride on the best steel coaster in the world though, so we rode again.
Subject to the rain at this point, we decided to hit up the remaining open rides and then head back to the hotel to dry off. A couple of rides on Maverick were in order and then a couple on Rougarou. Before heading back towards the front of the park, of course I had to get one last ride on my favorite coaster, Millennium Force.
On the way back to the front, we stopped at Iron Dragon and by the time we were at GateKeeper the rain slowed again, so we got two more rides in on it.
Despite the rain and having to wear my hood over my face every ride, the fact still remained that I had gotten to ride coasters without any lines for 3 hours straight. Not a bad night in my book. I hope Cedar Point keeps this going as an annual event. It was a great opportunity to get a lot of rides in at a generously reduced price ($18) and they even gave us a sweet Valravn poster as we exited!
Was anybody else at Coaster Appreciation Night? How was your experience?
Yea I was there! I got a group to drive up after classes at ONU. It was a very wet day but we had a blast. We rode every large coaster that was open and had a great time. Also, 18 dollars to go to Cedar Point and no lines! I would be back in a heart beat if they had an event like this again.