It all started back in May when I went to Cedar Point with my parents. May 17th and 18th to be exact. Every year for the past 4 or 5 years, we have been going in early May to take advantage of the package deal they offer for the early season travelers like ourselves. It’s great going in May because they crowds are very low at that point, and it isn’t hot at all. My trip is coming up, and about a week before we went, Cedar Point said that the opening of Maverick was going to be delayed until early June. After hearing this, I was very disappointed, but wasn’t too much so, because they still have 16 awesome coasters, nonetheless. To make matters worse, it was science and physics day those two days, had I known this when we booked it, we probably wouldn’t have went. It was very crowded for May, and every ride had a decent line to wait in. I still had a fun time, though, sans Maverick and the usual empty May crowds.
When I got home, I knew I had to ride Maverick before the summer was over. There was no way I could make it a whole year without riding it. I would get too anxious and impatient. My one friend who has never been there before, also wanted to go sometime. This was a great opportunity, I have had my license for over a year and have my own car, I can take a drive there for a day and come home. Sounded great at the time, but, the thing was, I had never driven for more than an hour, and that was with one of my parents, we’re talking about a 3 hour drive to Cedar Point in the morning, then again coming home at night time after a long day of walking. I just kept telling myself that I could do it, and that it would be no big deal. Maverick finally opened on May 26th, memorial weekend.
We had finally set a date, it would be June 13th that I would return and finally be able to ride Maverick. I was really pumped and excited the night before and leading up to our trip. We were going to leave at 6:00 am so that we would get there an hour before opening at 9:00 am to have plenty of time to buy out tickets and get in line to get into the park. I still don’t see why I was so nervous about driving, that was probably one of the easiest drives I have ever done. It was just straight up the Ohio Turnpike, basically.
Once we got there, I read about a little trick some of the locals do to avoid the front gate traffic and crowds. What you do, instead of going to the main parking lot, you park in the water park’s lot, not too many people know about this. I wasn’t going to do it at first, but a few days before we had left, I emailed them asking if it were alright for me to park in that lot. They said that I could. Not only does this little trick beat the crowds at the front gate, but it cuts the walk time to Maverick in half. Maverick is located at the very back of the park, and if you went in the font gate, you have to walk the length of the park to get there. The entrance we went in was right near Maverick.
We get our tickets and go in and walk as fast as we can to Maverick. There was no one back there when we got there, we had beaten all of the general public at the front gate by a long shot. We get in line and it’s about a 30 minute wait already from the resort guests and season pass holders who got in at 9:00 because of special exclusive ride time. That’s alright, though, because the line moved very fast, probably the fastest line I have ever been in. We never stood still for more than 30 seconds. I was starting to get really anxious knowing that what I have been waiting a year for will finally come in a matter of a few minutes.
Once we got to the loading station, I had asked to get the front seat because I had heard that it was well worth the extra wait. It wasn’t even that long of a wait, only a few more trains than the other seats. Before we had gotten into the line for the front seat, though, someone had thrown up on the very back seat of the black train. That held us up an extra 15 minutes. I give the crew credit, though, they worked their hardest to clean up the mess and move as fast and safely as possible.
They got that all cleaned up and we were finally on. This was it. We rolled out of the station after getting our restraints double checked and the thumbs up by the ride operators. The lift hill is a launch, it went way faster than I had expected! We got to the top and started to crest the 95 degree drop. You could definitely tell it was more than straight down! We then whipped to the right in a series of turns that had very quick transitions, the quickest of any coaster I have been on, and I have been on quite a few. After the turns, we were launched over an airtime hill getting violently ejected out of our seats, experiencing great air-time. We then went into two corkscrews that made up the “twisted horseshoe roll”. After them, we went into a pitch black tunnel where we were slowed down by magnets to a near crawl. All of a sudden, we were launched at a speed in excess of 70 miles per hour while blue chaser lights followed us along side. We, then, exited the tunnel in a sudden turn, were launched over another slight air-time hill, and turned and dove over the pond past onlookers on the bridge. We went through a canyon, went under the lift hill in an over-banked diving turn, then went into another, more over-banked turn. After that we went over the final air-time “bunny hill” and turned into the final brake run.
I had finally ridden this great, one-of-a-kind ride. This coaster is so great, I would definitely wait in a very long line for it. We did end up riding it again that day, right before we left. It took over as my new number one coaster.
