Cedar Point day 1

Breakfast was included at the hotel, so after our fill of sausages, omelette, make your own waffles including blueberry flavoured waffle mix, we loaded the car and set off for Sandusky, home of Cedar Point, Roller coaster capital of USA.

The drive up was mainly interstate but about an hr from our destination we turned of onto smaller on roads.  We drove through lots of farming areas, mostly corn and we think soybeans.  We also passed through some small towns.  Really interesting.

Loved looking at and comparing alll the houses we passed!

 

some of the smaller towns we passed through

 

I just love the barns!

and some of the longest trains I have ever seen!

We stopped of in Sandusky itself for a walk round a mall, Sarah bought a Pittsburgh Steelers NFL shirt.  We decided to stop for lunch before heading to the park so pulled into Dennys.  After filling up on milkshakes - Denny's do some of the best milkshakes - and some toasted sandwiches and fries we were finally on our way to cedar point.

The park is situated on a small peninsula on Lake Erie.  We are staying in the Breakers Hotel, owned by the park and right on the edge of the lake with its own beach. As we drove round the edge of the park Stephen was quite excited, spotting all the coasters and thinking about what to ride first.

view of the park as we approached over the causeway

 

We had booked  a lake view suite and we're allocated one on the 1st floor (or 2nd in America! ) overlooking the kiddie pool, towards the centre of the hotel complex.   Although the rooms weren't huge the were adequate, very clean and comfortable with a small netted balcony.

Hotel from the beach

view over lake and pool from our room

walkway along the beach to one of the park entrances

 

The sofa converted to a bed

We dropped our cases, changed clothes and headed for the park.  We stopped just inside the park at a Fun pass booth to exchange our previous ordered photo pass to get all our ride photos digitally.  Onto the rides and we were thrilled to find everything open and very small queues.  Some rides were walk on.  I decided to be bag lady and photographer for the evening.  The others all managed quite a few rides before the park closed at 8pm, including Magnum xl200, Rougarou and Millennium Force, I also joined them on Iron Dragon and Raptor.

As the park was nearly closing the boys headed back to the hotel while Sarah and I walked round the park taking some photos so I could come in empty handed tomorrow.

Back at the hotel, we freshened up and thought we'd try one of the on site restaurants for a light snacks as we had eaten earlier.  Unfortunately Perkins closed at 8, the same time as the park, hmm seems a bit strange to have a resort restaurant close that early, surely all the guests are in your park til then!   TGI Fridays was, obviously, packed with loads of people waiting, so we ended up in the car heading off the resort and ended up in mcdonalds! Not exactly what we planned but filled a hole. Very disappointed in the food arrangements here, couldn't even get a hot drink as Starbucks closes at 9.  That appears to leave only the bar and nowhere else in the hotel to get a hot drink as that would  be stepping on Starbucks toes!  Seriously!!

An early night was needed to get ready for a busy coaster day.

Kings Island

An early alarm was supposed to get us on the road by 8 this morning, but free hot breakfast at the hotel delayed us a bit - obviously!

We had just over a 2 hr drive to Mason, Ohio.  We pulled into the car park for kings island at half past 10.  There looked like quite a lot of cars so we quickly made the decision to buy fast passes, we had thought about ordering them from home but decided to wait and see.

The sun was already very warm but pleasantly so.  We covered ourselves in sun cream and headed for the rides.

The park entrance is very similar to Kings Dominion, which we visited last summer, with an central fountain area leading towards a replica eiffel Tower.

Invertigo was the first of our coaster today, a suspended Boomerang with seats set facing each other. I'm not great with backwards riding so sat that one out.

Invertigo

Next up was a drop Tower ride, very exhilarating with a claimed drop speed of 65 mph!  We followed this with Banshee.  You are not allowed any loose articles on this ride and the park insists on you using the lockers.  Having inserted my dollars and chosen my 4 digit code the system decided to freeze.  They were obviously having issues as there were members of staff already sorting out problems.  Eventually a staff member sorted it on another machine and we went off to ride Banshee.

 

We also rode The Bat, a hanging ride much like vampire at Thorpe Park used to be years ago, with a hanging car rather than individual seats.  

We returned to the lockers to fetch our bags.  That's when we ran into trouble!  We tapped in the 4 digit code we had selected but it wouldn't open.  We were soon approached by a couple of staff members who I think had been looking out for us.  It appeared the earlier problems had meant that code we had entered wasn't recognised.  So I had to provide details of what was inside and whether I had any photo ID in there.  Luckily had my driving licence as I had taken the passports out incase we went on any water rides.  They then got an override code  unfortunately that didn't work either, and after a couple more attempts they said they would need to get a manager with a key!  The others went off to ride Delirium, a swinging disc ride, while I waited at the lockers.  Eventually the manager arrived and opened the lockers.  Very relieved to see our stuff inside as was worried it might have been opened and reused by someone else!   Whilst the locker staff were very apologetic, the manager just shrugged and said "have a nice day!".  Ah well at least it was sorted.

The powered mine train, Adventure Express was next, we doubted the extreme rating to start with but soon understood!  Fast with some sharp turns.  Good fun.  The Racer was next, a wooden, racing - obviously - coaster.  A nice out and back design meant no violent turns but there was quite a bit of track/car vibration which Stephen didn't like but the rest of us didn't think too bad. 

Whilst the others rode Vortex, a corkscrew ride, I got a large drink and some blue ice-cream to share!  I had seen someone else order the ice cream and asked the server what flavour , the answer - "oh that's our blue ice-cream"  !!  Really, I'd never have guessed.  I will look it up sometime but we think it had a raspberry flavour.

Back to the coasters, the Backlot Stunt Coaster was next on our route, a launched ride where you sit in a mini.  Another tight twisty track, which pauses for a shoot scene featuring a helicopter and flames! A variation on Orlando Backlot tours!

Then we were onto the ride we had been really looking forward to - Diamondback!  A B&M  hyper coaster similar to Fury325 which we did last year.  We do love these rides.

After 2 rides on here we decided that the heat was getting a but too much and we decided to head out and check into our hotel for a break.  As we were worried the heat might cause storms later and disrupt later afternoon coaster riding, Keith and Stephen decided to ride a coaster we had missed earlier, Firehawk,  whilst Sarah and I headed for the air conditioned shops.  A t-shirt, towel and fridge magnets and we were done.   We met up with the boys and shared a funnel cake in the shade under some trees near the entrance fountains before heading out to the car.

The heat was really intense now, the car was showing 96°f.  The forecast online was 33°c, feels like 43°!  No wonder we were struggling.

We found our hotel quickly, just across the road from  the parks car park entrance.  We had lovely large rooms, 2 doubles in each plus a large sofa and interconnecting doors.

Changed and rested we were back in the park feeling refreshed by half past 5.  Rerides on Invertigo, and Banshee followed.  Looking at the gathering dark clouds we made our way to Diamondback.  Keith and Stephen went for an extra ride and ended up on the last ride of the day as a park announcement told us that due to inclement weather in the local area some rides would be temporarily closed. 

Stephen wanted to do The Beast again so we went to see if it was still running.  He managed to ride again just as the lightening became visible in the distance.    Worried that the park would close all their rides we headed back to Flight of Fear, which luckily was an indoor ride so unaffected by yhe weather.  Keith and I sat in the shade to wait while Sarah and Stephen rode but the wind started to pick up and we could feel the rain starting.  When  they had finished, we headed back to the park exit as the storm hit the park.  The boys headed straight for the car, while Sarah and I stopped to get a squashed penny Souvenir, possibly not a great decision, as the heavens opened on our way to the car, we got soaked!

Back to the hotel for another change of clothes and we had to choose between Outback Steakhouse on one side of the hotel or Ruby Tuesday on the other! Hmm decisions, decisions. 

Ruby Tuesday won!  Great choice, we all thoroughly enjoyed our meals.  A sampler platter appetiser, with mozzarella sticks, Thai pancakes, Buffalo wings, and chicken dippers.  For mains I had hickory bourbon salmon, Stephen had hickory bourbon chicken,  Keith had double decker chicken, we all cleared out plates absolute delicious.  Sarah had triple play, a rack of ribs, chicken dippers and crispy coated shrimp - gorgeous but massive - she couldn't eat it all.
We had unlimited flavoured lemonade  (mango, strawberry and wild berry) which were replenished frequently.  Keith had a 24oz Miller Lite.

The storm had really intensified during the evening with lightening almost constantly lighting up the sky!  The American servers seemed quite nervous of the storm!

We walked back to the hotel, full and exhausted headed for bed.

A great day, a long, long way to go, but we all loved it and are really pleased we have been to Kings Island.  Loving Cedar Fair parks, 2 more to go this trip!

Darien Lake and the drive West

Our hotel was just behind a Tim Hortons so it seemed rude not to go there for breakfast this morning.  Tim Hortons, we have learned, are on every street corner here and across the border in canada.  But I'm not complaining, we are loving their breakfast wraps and English muffins.

With the car loaded we set of for our first coaster fix of the trip.  Darien lakes is just to the east of buffalo and a half hr drive through small towns and countryside brought us to the park before opening time.  We parked up in an almost deserted car park and purchase tickets.  We hadn't really expect much from this park, it used to be a six flags park, and after our experiences last year had nearly not bothered with visiting.  But so glad we did.  Park was very clean, gardens and borders kept beautifully and staff were friendly.  We didn't have long here as we had a long drive ahead of us later.  When the park opened we quickly made our way to Ride of Steel.  Great start, sat in the back 2 rows, the ride was smooth and exciting, with some good airtime on the return hills.  The wood coaster, Predator, nearby  was still closed  so we headed on round the park.  We rode Blast Off, a 185ft Tower sling shot ride before another coaster, this time Boomerang.  I will check out the stats for so easy of these rides, but despite the fact some of their coasters must be quite old, they all ran well and smoother than expected, including Boomerang.   The initial lift, backwards was very slow but the rest was great, although I couldn't get my over shoulder restraints undone and Stephen had to help Me!

The motocoaster was temporarily down, so Keith, Sarah and Stephen went on the corkscrew "viper".  My head still a bit disorientated from boomerangs backwards ride so I got myself a frozen lemonade (yummy!) and found some shade to wait for them.  They claimed this was probably the smoothest corkscrew they had ever ridden!

We could see across the park that the motocoaster coaster was running again so we headed over to join the short queue.  Once into the station we were strapped onto one of the twelve , 2 abreast motorbikes and rolled out to the launch section.  The ride occupies a very small footprint so the launch was quick and we were rounding the corners of the tight twisty track. 

Stephen and I queued for the wood coaster Pandemonium, but before we could get to the station, a girl passing out on the station steps closed the ride while the medical team attended.   We rejoined Keith  and Sarah, who were sharing and enormous mint chocolate ice cream, and decide it was probably time to leave as we had at least a 4hr drive ahead of us and it was approaching 2pm.  This was a park I hadn't expected much from but could happily have spent more time at.

After a quick stop to buy a couple of fleeces in the park shops, we were back in the car  with the sat nav was saying 7pm arrival.  Hmm bit longer than anticipated.   It was not until an hr later I realised I had turned off toll roads while we were in Toronto and we were going a long way round.  By the time we rectified it, it didn't make a difference to the arrival time.  Still we got to see some lovely small American towns, and field after field of Corn!   Actually quite pleased we went that way as the motorway scenery was quite dull.  

We stopped mid way for fuel, a stretch, and some snacks and eventually reach our Best Western hotel in Mansfield, Ohio at 7.30.   We checked in, had a quick refresh and went for dinner at Applebee's just round the corner.  No food photos taken unfortunately, but we had nachos and mozzarella sticks for appetiser then Stephen had a breakfast burger, Sarah pasta and chicken with honey sauce, one of her favourites from a previous trip, Keith and I had bourbon chicken and shrimp, plus unlimited hot tea and raspberry lemonade.  All as good as we remembered.

We called in  to Walmart on the way back to the hotel to grab some antiseptic cream, the skin under my eyes became sore due to the heat under the edge of my glasses. We also got some tea bags and clip on sunglasses as Keith has left his sunnies at home :(

Off to bed ready for an early start.

Darien Lake and the drive West

Our hotel was just behind a Tim Hortons so it seemed rude not to go there for breakfast this morning.  Tim Hortons, we have learned, are on every street corner here and across the border in canada.  But I'm not complaining, we are loving their breakfast wraps and English muffins.

With the car loaded we set of for our first coaster fix of the trip.  Darien lakes is just to the east of buffalo and a half hr drive through small towns and countryside brought us to the park before opening time.  We parked up in an almost deserted car park and purchase tickets.  We hadn't really expect much from this park, it used to be a six flags park, and after our experiences last year had nearly not bothered with visiting.  But so glad we did.  Park was very clean, gardens and borders kept beautifully and staff were friendly.  We didn't have long here as we had a long drive ahead of us later.  When the park opened we quickly made our way to Ride of Steel.  Great start, sat in the back 2 rows, the ride was smooth and exciting, with some good airtime on the return hills.  The wood coaster, Predator, nearby  was still closed  so we headed on round the park.  We rode Blast Off, a 185ft Tower sling shot ride before another coaster, this time Boomerang.  I will check out the stats for so easy of these rides, but despite the fact some of their coasters must be quite old, they all ran well and smoother than expected, including Boomerang.   The initial lift, backwards was very slow but the rest was great, although I couldn't get my over shoulder restraints undone and Stephen had to help Me!

The motocoaster was temporarily down, so Keith, Sarah and Stephen went on the corkscrew "viper".  My head still a bit disorientated from boomerangs backwards ride so I got myself a frozen lemonade (yummy!) and found dead some shade to wait for them.  They claimed thus was probably ably the smoothest corkscrew they had ever ridden!

The motocoaster was once again operating so we went back to Ride it.  The park was still quite quiet, with queues around 20muns.  The motocoaster was fun, a launched motorbike style ride with a launched start on a very small footprint.

More to follow, got to get some sleep.

Toronto, the CN Tower

After a fairly good nights sleep Sarah and I were awake by 6ish and the boys around 7.  We weren't in a great hurry as we knew the CN Tower didn't open til 10.  So, after getting up and sorted we took our cases down to the car that we had parked in the hotels underground car park and walked round the corner to St George's metro station.  We purchased tokens for Keith and I, Sarah and Stephen had reduced student prices.  The metro was fairly simple to use, basically one line north/south in a u shape, crossed by an East/West line.

We got of the metro at Union Street and got our first proper look at the Tower.  The weather this morning was hot and sunny but with a slight cooling breeze.

We found signs to a food court and followed the arrows to an underground central area surrounded by a dozen food outlets, most of which were open selling breakfast.  After a quick browse we decided on Tim Hortons, of which there are many in and around Toronto and on to Buffalo!  We had breakfast wraps and baps, similar to maccy d's.  A major bonus was they served hot tea and it was just like a proper English cup of Tea!

Now ready to start our day we headed past glass panelled skyscrapers for the entrance of the CN Tower.  There wasn't much queue and we were soon headed for the elevators which sped smoothly up to the observation deck.  The glass elevator panels gave us a view of the North of the city as we rose, but it still takes your breath away as you step out to the observation deck and Toronto and its surrounding countryside is stretched out all around you.  We admired the views from here for a while before heading to the lower deck to see the glass floor.  Only Keith and I were brave enough to stand on it.  The view down was quite unnerving.  We walked around the outside viewing platform before leaving Stephen with some WiFi access while the rest of us headed into another lift to the Skypod, some 447m (1,467ft), 147 floors above ground.  Being so far above all the skyscrapers we had seen before and looking down on the, was amazing.  We could also see a group doing the rim walk below us off the main observation deck. Truly spectacular!

 

We met up with Stephen and had a last look at the views before returning to ground level and browsing get the Tower gift shop.   Glad we went in early as there were now queues for the elevators  and also for the ticket office.

We wandered down to the water front area and enjoyed the lovely weather and scenery.  Gorgeous views across to the islands and the turn around to the skyscrapers and glass of the city.  

With the temperature rising and guessing what the traffic might be like leaving the city, we decided not to do the city bus tour and head back to the hotel to get the car on the metro.  Sarah and Stephen had a couple of hot dogs from a street cart, and we stopped at a local grocery store across from the hotel to grab some snacks and drinks for the journey.

The sat nav took us straight back through the city where we had just come from, to union station,  before heading West which was where we found all the traffic.  I would say that most of Toronto was trying get to leave the city, but the other side getting into it was no better.  After a stop/start journey, passing loads of vineyards we eventually made it to the Peace Bridge crossing, south of Niagara.   Was pleased I had read up in the border crossing beforehand otherwise I'd have been worried.  All the other cars were stopping for a few mins then wave through, we stopped, we're asked some questions, then our passports were put in a bag/wallet and we were told we needed our passports stamped, to put on our hazard flashers.  The officer radioed a colleague and told him to look for our car, then told us to proceed towards the building on the right.  We parked up and we're instructed to door 2.  Inside was a waiting room with a few other groups waiting to be called to the desks for processing.   It didn’t take too long, approx 15 mins, before we were called, asked more questions, fingerprinted, photographed and charged $6 each for the privilege!  Why do you always feel like a criminal even when you know it's all normal procedure!

There were toilets there so Stephen and I had a quick stop but security was unimpressed when I paused to wait for him and were equally unimpressed with Sarah and Keith loitering by the car waiting for us.  If doing this again I would suggest just getting out and finding some toilets elsewhere! ;)


Back on the road, it took only about 10 mins to find our hotel, the Oak Tree Inn.  We took some time to relax before heading out to Walmart, finding a polystyrene cool back, and stocking up on drinks and snacks.  

Having discussed dinner, the choice was Longhorn or Cheesecake Factory.  As research showed this was probably the only Cheesecake Factory on our planned journey, CF won!  It was in a mall about 5 mins from our hotel.  As with a lot of American malls, the car park surrounds the mall.  Sods law says we eventually parked at the complete opposite end to CF.  We resisted the urge to stop at the shops and signed in at the desk and got a pager, 15 minute wait was not a problem.  

We started with a shared appetiser of buffalo blasts, then Stephen had BBQ burger, Sarah had spicy crispy chicken sandwich, Keith had chicken and shrimp jambo, and I had Jamaican blackened shrimp.  Completely stuffed, Sarah was the only one to order a cheesecake to go - chocolate chips cookie dough cheesecake with walnuts!  We might have to stop for cheesecake on our way back through to Niagara at the end of the week!