Cedar Point - Weekend of fun in the Sun

Saturday morning we took our new boat up to the Marina to do something we have never done at Cedar Point in 12 years...spend the night!

We got our slip at the marina around 9:30am and got into the park by 10.


We started our year at CP by riding Millennium Force: Back seat. Of course, a great ride but doesnt do as much for me as other rides. Ive been spoiled by traveling these last 12 months so things have changed some. The trains however seem to have been rehabbed. They dont shimmy or shake nearly as much and its evident by how quiet they are rolling around the last turn.

Secondly we made a mad dash for MaXair. I knew going in these things were 2 things: Huge and awesome. The huge thing yes, the awesome thing, no. It was AMAZING. These Giant Frisbees are wicked. No matter where you sat (we rode 3 times on Saturday) you get at least 2 swings where you are facing up at full swing and 2 while down. So far the only place I havent sat is seats faving the games on opposite side of the loading platform but I have ridden right next to platform and on the left and right ends. I cant say enough about these flat rides. IMO its some of the most fun in the park, period. Its just one of those rides that gives you a unique experience and you laugh the whole way through. Not to mention it does live up to the name, Max Air.

Next we rode Raptor. Great favourite of mine, but doesnt compare to Dueling Dragons Fire. Ran very good as most of the rides seem to have gotten quite a good checkup over the winter unlike winters ago.

Saturday pretty much ended there with riding. We did go back and ride MaXair two more times and Magnum before the day was done.

I parked myself by MaXair near 9:30 and had a host of photographers come over next to me to take pictures of MaXair and the fire works at night. Speaking of which, one of the most impressive fireworks shows Ive ever seen Cedar Point put out, period.


Sunday was more of the same, except started slower. We rushed to Dragsters line and were 3-5th people in line. The ride was down for about 2 hours as they were having trouble getting the ride up to full speed. A few earlier test runs proved it just wasnt getting full power. At around 11:45 however we got our first tests and not only was it working, but this thing was launching at 125mph consistantly. It was hitting 125 all day rest of the day in what seemed like attempts to keep it from rolling back.

Well, the 2 people in front of us got out of line and our friend had to leave so we were #1 and #2 in line for the day. We jumped in front seat of the first train that day and got the honor of riding the first ride of the second day of the season. We desperatly hoped for a roll back but didnt get one. Sucks.


After that it was back to more MaXair and taking the rest of my pictures. Im planning on going up here in a little bit to finish out my picture taking and probably ride MaXair and the usual suspects.

Pictures will be up in 40 minutes at www.real-coasters.com/gallery/

thanks for the pics, they look really good. love that night time one you have of raptor, that has 5 foot poster writen all over it.

i love all of your pics real. Are you a photographer, you should set up a business selling your pics as posters. They are really beautiful. Especially this one http://www.real-coasters.com/gallery/Ce ... _1334.html and a couple of others. I would really buy them in poster form.

[Dirk_Ermen]

It's always great to hear other peoples opinion about those awesome giant frisbees. [:)] I've been several times on the one in bobbejaanland. It rulez!!! [8D] Also it sounds like you had a pretty awesome weekend there. And those pics are looking really good.

[gouldy]

jpecool is right, some of those pictures are stunning. If you aren't already doing so, I would consider doing some professional photography if I were you.

Originally posted by jpecool

i love all of your pics real. Are you a photographer, you should set up a business selling your pics as posters. They are really beautiful. Especially this one http://www.real-coasters.com/gallery/Ce ... _1334.html and a couple of others. I would really buy them in poster form.

Strange you should point that one out. At first, I took it somewhat at random. I try to be different from everything else. But after looking at it I realized its dynamic value. Mostly because you see human feet, but no faces. This lends itself to a very mysterious feel where it makes you wonder what their faces look like.


Nope, I do nothing for profit. I just ordered my first poster of this:
http://www.real-coasters.com/gallery/Is ... _1019.html

So well see how this company prints out. If it turns out well I may start up an eBay story or something.


Thanks for the great comments.

Actually, this is pretty excellent photography though ... just the appearance and delivery of it is very professional. Some pictures quite naturally come off with an "amateurish" style (as I am sure all photgraphers experience ... take 100 shots, 3 are useable pics) -- but some of yours are really capturing the essence of the ride.

Looking forward to finding out how it came out. I might buy one if you do sell them on ebay. lol. I must have missed that one of DD: Ice, cos its a great pic, although my fave is the long one of shivering timbers.

Some really nice pics you have here, want me to post a link to the MaXair pics (as its new) on the main page Real? I assume your server would be able to handle it?

My server should be able to handle it. As it is I have like 10gb and I barely use any of it. Any addvertising is well appriciated

[Brtnboarder495]

Wowza nice pics! I am so jealous though, I went to CP last year and 4 days was not enough. I am trying to convince my dad to take our family again, but he does not like theme rides or even parks for that matter. I may be able to hit up SFGA this summer ... I hope.

But really like others have said, some of those pics are nice! I could imagine buying a poster of one. I would love more of TTD, seems that you missed out on either taking some of those pictures or uploading em.

I just didnt get around to it. Being a Pass Holder, I wasnt rushing myself to get everything in 2 days.

didnt you have around a thousand pics of TTD? or did those get lost when your computer died?

btw, if you do that ebay thing, i will out bid anyone for this picture http://www.real-coasters.com/gallery/Ce ... night.html depending on how big it is.

if it has a height or width of 6 foot, i'll bid like crazy for it. i love that picture.

[coolbeans326]

is MaxAir anything special, or not really?

[Brtnboarder495]

Secondly we made a mad dash for MaXair. I knew going in these things were 2 things: Huge and awesome. The huge thing yes, the awesome thing, no. It was AMAZING. These Giant Frisbees are wicked. No matter where you sat (we rode 3 times on Saturday) you get at least 2 swings where you are facing up at full swing and 2 while down. So far the only place I havent sat is seats faving the games on opposite side of the loading platform but I have ridden right next to platform and on the left and right ends. I cant say enough about these flat rides. IMO its some of the most fun in the park, period. Its just one of those rides that gives you a unique experience and you laugh the whole way through. Not to mention it does live up to the name, Max Air.

[hello]

LOL @ Ragan. Actually, it would probably go for around 30 bucks for the largest print which would be a 30in wide by 20in tall. Infact, thats an old picture taken with real film, so its a bit grainy - dirty and pixelated.

I plan on retaking that shot among others. I just need a really dark night. But they will be ultra huge resolution and massive quality.

It would be a gallery too, not an auction. I would set a Buy It Now price thats reasonable and you could just do that.

i knew you used film for that to get the blurred affects, that is why i love that picture.

and no 6 foot posters? dammit i would of loved that in my living room, or the bathroom [:(]

for the ebay thing, id still out bid anyone for that picture. [:p]

6ft poster?! LOL

I could do it, though I cant guarentee it would look any good THAT blown up. Trust me, I have a 30x20 (which is almost 3ft by 2ft) and it looks perfect. Though its a real poster from CP that I bought.

We could see...but that would be massive and it would cost a whole heck of alot more. That price of 30-40 bucks only nets me a couple dollar profit so my real goal isnt so much to make money but get people some pictures that makes em happy and they enjoy to look at as much as I do.

speaking of huge posters, my uncle has a poster of this actress in his living room. it's 10 feet high, and 6 feet wide! it takes up everything on that side of the wall. and the only way it fits is b/c the house came with a 12 foot ceiling, it barely fits.

a 3X2 foot poster isnt that bad sized either. id surely buy that poster. anything that is coaster related, and is on my wall is a winner in my heart. you dont have to do that 6 footer for me, though id surely be interested if it looked really good. i mean really good. with clearity as good as a 3X2 one, or is that impossible to do?

Probably impossible. That would require a Medium or Large format camera which I dont have. Those take double and triple the resolution of normal cameras.

But the clarity on the 3x2 is very clear and I can probably push it a bit farther.

Infact, the poster Im having sent to me was a MEDIUM - FINE setting picture pushed to the limits of a default HIGH - FINE picture. I forgot to change it because they eat up so much memory and I wanted both quantity and quality since I only had 2 days at IOA and no computer - everything had to fit on the card.

oh, thats cool then, thanks anyways real.
sorry bout IOA, real shame you didnt have another memory card, or a laptop with you.

Just wondering, if you were to make a 6ft poster, or even a 3ft poster...where on earth would you get it printed?
I'm actually really curious, because my other hobby (I might even say I enjoy it more than roller coasters ) are automobiles and my dad works at a custom car place and he has let me borrow his works cameras which can take pictures with an insane amount of resolution. I have this one picture of a shelby cobra that is like 10000x8000 pixels..or some crazy crap like that and many more pictures of exotic cars that big. They would really look good on my walls but I don't know of any places that have the capability to do prints that size without fragmenting them onto smaller pages.

There are plenty of print shops on the net that can do stuff like that, however that would be quite costly.

A 6' x 4' poster would cost in the neighborhood of 100 bucks, which is cheap but thats a costly poster.

Where as a 3'x 2' is something like 27 bucks. Half the size but 1/3 the cost. Once you start getting over that you start seeing some price jumps because of the printer and ink being used. Plus paper isnt cheap that large.

Plus those prices are based off of using Photo Gloss or Photo Matte. Bright White is 10-15 off those prices but youd be stupid to do anything other than photo paper for a quality poster print.

At school we have a printer that print large posters. Haven't used it myself, but it's realy cool. Not sure how big it print, but it's pretty big.